Stephan: Just how credulous are the QAnon MAGAts? Read and weep for America.
Many MAGAts apparently thought the speaker on the podium was John F. Kennedy morphed somehow into Trump. Credit: Business Insider
Apparently, there is no conspiracy theory too wild for some QAnon followers.
Case in point: Members of a QAnon group based in Dallas have floated the theory that John F. Kennedy is not only alive, but disguised himself as former President Donald Trump over the weekend to attend a rally in Florence, Arizona.
As evidence, the group’s leader, Michael Protzman, claims Trump appeared to be shorter than he should have been, Vice News reported.
“You could tell it wasn’t Trump,” Protzman said in a live chat excerpted below, referring to a moment where the former president invited Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to the stage.
Stephan: This is a very good exegetic essay on the Great Schism Trend and what is behind it. It explains so much about what is tearing America apart, and how none of our public institutions, political or media, seem to understand what is happening. I urge you to read it.
Empty strip-mall parking lot Credit: kevinjeon00 / Getty
This is a story about America, an America that, even today, exists largely beyond the serious attention of mainstream politics and news media. Rather, these institutions ignore or marginalize the story’s deeper significance, at a great cost to the country. In other words, the story is not about the usual things that are said to have caused the crisis in American democracy: policy gridlock, electoral fraud, political corruption, even insurrection. Nor is it about the competition between the ideologies of capitalism and socialism, nor the various threats to democracy, such as autocracy, plutocracy and kleptocracy.
The story offers a different perspective on politics, based on different evidence, from that offered by most political analysis. It draws on people’s profound disquiet about life in America, and on the existential challenges America faces, both physical and social. This condition is also true, to differing degrees, of other liberal democracies and beyond.
In 2013 I collaborated in a survey that investigated the perceived probability of future threats to humanity in […]
Damian Carrington , Environment Editor - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Yet another unanticipated negative consequence of climate change, and I am sure this is not the last one that will manifest.
Researchers found women in the hottest 5% of places in New South Wales in the week before birth had a 16% higher risk of premature birth. Credit: Jenny Evans/Getty
The climate crisis is damaging the health of foetuses, babies and infants across the world, six new studies have found.
Scientists discovered increased heat was linked to fast weight gain in babies, which increases the risk of obesity in later life. Higher temperatures were also linked to premature birth, which can have lifelong health effects, and to increased hospital admissions of young children.
Other studies found exposure to smoke from wildfires doubled the risk of a severe birth defects, while reduced fertility was linked to air pollution from fossil fuel burning, even at low levels. The studies, published in a special issue of the journal Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, spanned the globe from the US to Denmark, Israel and Australia.
“From the very beginning, from preconception, through early childhood into adolescence, we’re starting to see important impacts of climate hazards on health,” said Prof Gregory Wellenius, who edited […]
Stephan: When you stress a system, any system, it's weaknesses become apparent. The investigation of the January 6th Insurrection has revealed example after example of how law enforcement, and military units are infiltrated by MAGAts who supported the insurrection. Here is the latest, but I doubt the last. It raises a real question about the loyalty of police, sheriffs, and people in the military to protect democracy.
Police fire projectiles at counter-protesters during a rally by the Patriot Prayer group in Portland, Oregon, U.S. August 4, 2018. Credit: Bob Strong / Reuters
There were many points at which if the government had acted the Jan. 6 insurrection might never have happened.
Leading up to the failed coup every alarm was ringing. Capitol Police knew a violent invasion was in the works, the Department of Homeland Security knew, the FBI knew, warning of “war at the Capitol.” Hundreds of security officials at 80 Fusion Centers set up after 9/11 to combat domestic terrorism knew. They shared “an avalanche” of warnings about violence beginning at “1 p.m., U.S. Capitol, Jan 6.” Nonetheless, the police allowed the invasion to happen.
If armed right-wing mobs who invaded state capitols in Idaho, Michigan, and Oregon before Jan. 6 were held accountable, support for the coup might have been squelched. Instead, ProPublica reported, Trump supporters learned “it was possible — […]
Stephan: Virginians made a bad mistake in their last election, and I present this article as another example of the difference between Democratic and Republican governance. They elected Glenn Youngkin as governor and Jason Miyares as Attorney General, both Republicans. Within 24 hours of taking office they set back a whole range of policies, most notably imposing anti-vaxxer anti-mask policies, demonstrating once again, that on the basis of social outcome data not partisanship Republicans, because of their worldview and who they are obligated to, always produce inferior governance that causes degraded wellbeing.
Virginia students will no longer be required to wear masks in school increasing their chance of contracting Covid Credit: WAVY-TV
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed 11 executive actions on his Inauguration Day, including ones banning critical race theory in public education, appointing an entirely new parole board, ending mandates on masks in schools and COVID-19 vaccines for state employees.
“It’s Day One, and we are going to work just like we promised,” said Governor Youngkin. “The important steps we are taking today begins the work of restoring excellence in education, making our communities safer, opening Virginia for business and reinvigorating job growth, and making government work for the people, and not the other way around.”
But questions remain on whether the new governor has the authority to implement such changes with executive orders, specifically the ban on critical race theory. The new governor’s orders could also face legal challenges that prevent Youngkin from moving forward.
A release from Youngkin’s office lays out the first 11 executive actions he signed after being […]
