Plastics. "When you add it up, the total amount of synthetic microfibres going into the wider environment as we wash our clothes is an astonishing number… US scientists estimate it to be 5.6 million tonnes since we first started wearing those polyester and nylon garments in a big way in the 1950s… Just over half this mass - 2.9 million tonnes - has likely ended up in our rivers and seas… That's the equivalent of seven billion fleece jackets, the researchers say."
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday reversed controversial coronavirus testing guidance, which previously said that people who didn’t have symptoms but were exposed to an infected person 'do not necessarily need a test.'… The new guidance said that people without symptoms who have been in close contact with an infected person 'need a test.'" And now the general public understands part of what healthcare workers have been going through for over 6 months now. The rules fucking change almost every day until we just don't care anymore.
"The UK could see 50,000 new coronavirus cases a day by mid-October without further action, the government's chief scientific adviser has warned… Sir Patrick Vallance said that would be expected to lead to about '200-plus deaths per day' a month after that."
"The death toll from the spread of coronavirus in the United States was approaching over 200,000 lives on Monday, more than double the number of fatalities in India, the country reporting the second-highest number of cases in the world."
"The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated guidance on its website to say coronavirus can commonly spread 'through respiratory droplets or small particles, such as those in aerosols,' which are produced even when a person breathes." Jazz hands.
"From empty pizza boxes to Amazon cartons, household trash cans are overflowing with the refuse of our new, stay-at-home era — and cities are struggling to keep up… Residential trash volume spiked as much as 25% this spring, according to the trade group Solid Waste Association of North America. It has shrunk a bit since then but remains well above pre-pandemic levels."
More guns make us safer… "At least 40 rounds were fired during a shooting that left two people dead and over a dozen others injured at a house party in upstate New York, authorities said… The party in Rochester started early Saturday as an invite-only event before it eventually grew in size after two nearby parties "infiltrated" the house. Three or four people had handguns, Capt. Frank Umbrino said."
"A White business owner charged with manslaughter for fatally shooting a Black man during protests in Nebraska has died by suicide days after his indictment, his attorney said Sunday… A grand jury on Tuesday charged Gardner, 38, with manslaughter in the death of James Scurlock, the Black man authorities say Gardner shot May 30 during a protest against police brutality and racial injustice outside Gardner's bar in Omaha, Nebraska. Gardner was also charged with attempted assault, making terroristic threats and using a gun to commit a felony."
"The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday effectively established a three-part test that must be met before it will raise interest rates: the economy must be at 'maximum employment,' inflation must have 'risen to 2 percent' and it must be 'on track to moderately exceed 2 percent for some time.'" This, IMHO, is Very Bad™.
"So, in the present moment of booming stock markets and child hunger, you might be feeling too inured to America’s grotesque levels of inequality to summon much interest in yet another report testifying to the one percent’s total victory in the 50 Years Class War… But a new study from the Rand Corporation, in partnership with the Fair Work Center, illustrates the impact of a half-century of upward redistribution in bracingly concrete terms: If income had been distributed as evenly over the past five decades as it was in 1975, the median full-time worker in the U.S. would enjoy annual earnings of roughly $92,000 a year. As is, that worker makes just $50,000."
"The Pentagon slammed the Chinese armed forces for threatening Taiwan with joint military moves as a senior U.S. official conducted a rare visit to the self-ruling island claimed by the mainland government in Beijing."
What if we threw a war and nobody came? "The Trump administration unilaterally declared Saturday that international sanctions on Iran, lifted as part of a 2015 nuclear accord, have been reimposed… There's one problem: Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia – the other signatories to the deal President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from – have no intention of enforcing those sanctions."
"President Donald Trump is trying to max out on his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran weeks before the election, setting up a messy diplomatic fight — and potential volatility in the Middle East — just as the president pitches himself as the region’s chief peacemaker." It's called "flailing" and it's never a pretty site.
"President Trump has given tentative approval to a deal that will keep TikTok alive in the U.S., resolving a months-long confrontation between a hit app popularized by lip-syncing teens and White House officials who viewed the service as a national security risk." So, somehow, with this sale, these applications are no longer a threat to US security? "That arrangement appears to satisfy the White House's concerns over the security of American user data, even though Chinese tech company ByteDance is expected to hold its majority-ownership position." I call bullshit.
"President Donald Trump is adamant that a tentative deal involving short-form video app TikTok will include a $5 billion fund to 'educate people' about the 'real history of our country.'… That appears to have taken TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance by surprise, and created even more confusion about how the finer points of an already complicated deal will work in practice." Double bullshit.
"Weeks before the Trump administration announced it was cutting the 2020 census schedule short, career officials at the Census Bureau attempted to send signal flares about how that last-minute decision would lead to 'fatal' data problems with the national head count and the perception of 'politically-manipulated results…' Internal emails and memos, which were released this weekend as part of a federal lawsuit in California, show career officials trying to hold the integrity of the once-a-decade count together in the last weeks of July amid mounting pressure from the administration to abandon the extended timeline it had previously approved in response to the coronavirus pandemic."
"It’s a tale of two feeds, because thanks to confirmation bias and powerful proprietary algorithms, social media platforms ensure we only get a single side of every story… Even though most Americans continue to describe themselves as holding balanced views, we still naturally gravitate toward certain content online. Over time, algorithms turn slight preferences into a polarized environment in which only the loudest voices and most extreme opinions on either side can break through the noise."
"U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said border restrictions between Canada and the United States because of the novel coronavirus pandemic would be lifted 'pretty soon', just hours after the two countries confirmed they would remain in place until at least Oct. 21." The president is lying.
"Weighing the president down in his reelection bid is his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and race relations, according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll… More than half of Americans — 56% — disapprove of the job President Trump has done handling the pandemic." It's only 56%? JFC people aren't you all paying attention? (I mean, I know you all are, but :: waves hand around indicating everything ::)
"The White House announced Friday nearly $13 billion in federal aid to help rebuild Puerto Rico's electrical grid system and the education system… The funding is a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), and the announcement comes as Puerto Rico continues to struggle to fully recover from the devastation of Hurricane Maria three years ago." Someone is worried about their reelection.
"'As a community social worker, I can tell you that Puerto Rico's recovery, if it can be called that, didn't come thanks to the government. It came from nonprofit associations, it came from the neighbors themselves. It came from foundations. It came from the hands of other people who supported the families that suffered the most,' Perez said in Spanish."
"A woman suspected of sending a package containing the poison ricin to the White House is expected to appear in a New York court Monday, following her arrest at the U.S.-Canada border, authorities said… The suspect was taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Peace Bridge border crossing near Buffalo on Sunday and is expected to face federal charges in connection with the package which was intercepted in the past week, a law enforcement official said."
"The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has raised the profile of a case that marks the latest existential threat to the Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case the week after the general election in November."
"President Donald Trump said Monday that he will probably announce his Supreme Court nominee to fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday or Saturday."
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed on Friday that whomever President Donald Trump nominates to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will get a vote on the Senate floor, signaling a historic fight in Congress over one of the most polarizing issues in American politics."
"Senate Democrats, lacking votes to stop President Donald Trump's pick to fill the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat, are weighing an array of tactics to battle back -- ranging from bringing the chamber to a screeching halt this year to pushing legislation to expand the court if they win the majority in the fall."
"Young Americans favor Joe Biden over President Trump, according to a new survey, but Trump's supporters appear more enthusiastic about that choice."
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