Linkee-poo Thursday Oct 28

Mort Sahl, and so it goes.

"A nor'easter that strengthened into a 'bomb cyclone' left hundreds of thousands without electricity in New England by Wednesday morning, and strong winds and heavy rains will continue in places until the storm moves into the Atlantic later in the day."

"In April, President Biden unveiled the United States' most ambitious plan ever to cut emissions that drive climate change, and he urged other nations to follow. Now, days before Biden prepares for a pivotal climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, the White House's keystone legislative plan to tackle climate disruption appears to be dead, sunk by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin."

"The Department of Defense says climate change is already challenging U.S. national security in concrete ways… For example, recent extreme weather has cost billions in damages to U.S. military installations, including Tyndall Air Force Base and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Also, the military has bases on Guam and the Marshall Islands that are vulnerable to rising seas. And China may be able to take advantage of U.S. susceptibility, the Pentagon says."

"As Halloween approaches this weekend, several state attorneys general have issued warnings to parents to be on the lookout for marijuana edibles that can easily pass as regular candies and snacks… Attorneys general in Ohio, New York, Illinois, Connecticut and Arkansas all released statements Tuesday, a part of a coordinated effort to advise parents about the dangers of marijuana edibles." Dear everybody, and NPR (seriously, peoples?), I give out a lot of candy for Halloween. No, really, we get 400-600 trick or treaters every damn year and I hand out the roughly $100+ of candy quite liberally, so I think I have some expertise here. Nobody, absolutely no one, is going to give out candy that costs roughly $30 for one little bag. Nobody is going to accidentally "mix" these things. This is a hysteria akin to the "razor blades in apple" which actually happened once (IIRC) and that was a psychopath family member that intentionally injured their siblings.

"The Biden administration is rolling out a new coordinated strategy it hopes will slow the menacing rise in drug overdose deaths… According to the latest preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 100,000 people in the U.S. died from overdoses over a 12-month period, a massive surge from a year earlier."

"Pfizer's request to roll out COVID-19 vaccines for Americans as young as 5 years old cleared a key regulatory hurdle Tuesday, after a panel of the Food and Drug Administration's outside vaccine advisers voted by a majority to back Pfizer's request."

"Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto has battled multiple health challenges over the years, including stage 4 cancer, open heart surgery, multiple sclerosis and, currently, COVID-19. Now some of his viewers are sending him death threats — because he encouraged them to get vaccinated for their own safety."

"New York City firefighters plan to take their protests over the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandates to the residence of Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday… The mayor approved a vaccine mandate that forces all public employees in the city to get a coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 1, or risk losing their jobs." Actually, mandates are essential and we've had vaccine mandates for my entire lifetime.

"From boosters to breakthrough infections, pandemic vocabulary is still all over the news. On this week’s On the Media, why the terms we use to talk about the virus obscure as much as they reveal. And, why the history of medical progress is filled with so many twists and turns. Plus, why a preference for simple stories has made it so hard to keep track of the pandemic." Highly recommended, especially for the second segment, "Dr. Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, on why medical progress always carries risk."

"The firing of Tennessee's former vaccination director caught the state's top health leaders off guard and sent them scrambling for answers as the health commissioner fumed over the praise coworkers heaped on the ousted employee, documents show."

"On the Fourth of July, the U.S. economy looked ready to skyrocket… By Labor Day, however, the economy looked more like a dud, its midsummer sparkle smothered by a wave of delta variant infections and persistent supply chain problems."

"The United States has issued its first passport with an “X” gender designation, marking a milestone in the recognition of the rights of people who do not identify as male or female, and expects to be able to offer the option more broadly next year, the State Department said Wednesday."

"Jacob Brown is the son of Bob Brown, then part of the state police’s top brass who would rise to second in command despite being reprimanded years earlier for calling Black colleagues the n-word and hanging a Confederate flag in his office. And the son would not only become a “legacy hire” but prove his instructors prophetic by becoming one of the most violent troopers in the state, reserving most of his punches, flashlight strikes and kicks for the Black drivers he pulled over along the soybean and cotton fields near where he grew up." Ah, this must be the culture and heritage I've heard so much about.

"For Escamillio Jones, one of the hardest things about being a funeral director (in Philadelphia) right now is that he’s starting to see the same faces at services because people are losing multiple family members and friends to gun violence."

"The only bidder for management of Georgia’s Confederate-themed, state-owned Stone Mountain Park is a new firm created by an official of the company that’s pulling out, the park’s governing board said Monday."

"The men shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in August 2020 can potentially be referred to at his trial as 'rioters' or 'looters,' a Wisconsin judge said Monday while reiterating his long-held view that attorneys should not use the word 'victim.'" How about "the person he killed" and "the person he wounded"? Does that work?

"A grand jury on Tuesday returned an eight-count indictment against two law enforcement officers in connection with the 2016 killing of a man shot 76 times during an attempted fugitive arrest in the Atlanta area."

"For months, conspiracies about the 2020 election being stolen from Donald Trump have fueled Republican efforts nationwide to rewrite election laws. But now, some GOP operatives and Trumpworld luminaries are worried that the truly wild conspiracists may be mucking it all up." Gee, that's really too bad. You know, now that they've rigged the system their way that they want to say, "No, it's not all that bad." I guess you all should have thought of that when you started down this road.

"John Oliver discusses how misinformation spreads among immigrant diaspora communities, how little some platforms have done to stop it, and, most importantly, how to have a very good morning."

"Of the more than 650 cases stemming from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, at least five defendants have decided to go down that complicated path. And though legal experts told NPR that representing oneself in court can be exceptionally risky, they acknowledged that politically motivated defendants might logically take that option, which is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution."

"President Biden on Thursday travelled to Capitol hill to convince House Democrats to back a $1.75 trillion framework of social and climate spending and end a weeks-long stalemate over the passage of a separate bipartisan infrastructure bill."

"The proposed tax would hit the gains of those with more than $1bn in assets or incomes of more than $100m a year, and it could begin to shore up the big social services and climate change plan Biden is racing to finish before departing this week for the global climate summit, Cop26, in Scotland… Democrats behind the proposal say that about 700 of America’s super-rich taxpayers will be affected by the new tax proposal."

"Elon Musk is tweeting again, despite multiple court orders meant to keep him in check. This time he’s talking fiscal policy, focused around a proposal that would tax unrealized capital gains for people like him. The rule change could stick Elon with a $10 billion annual tax bill, and he’s none too happy about it." With a little bit about just how much Musk has earned by taking government money (and we're not talking about talking about the actual contracts he has with government, but subsidies and tax credits).

Tweet of my heart: @JasonKander Elon Musk: Beware! If they can tax a billionaire like me, they can tax you regular people too!… Regular People: We've been paying our taxes this whole time, bro. (Grokked from Lisa Morton)