Heather Cox Richardson, History Professor and Columnist - Letters from America
Stephan: Helen Cox Richardson is a very sensible person, and I think she places the Republican criminality in the right context.
Professor Helen Cox Richardson
“I don’t recall.” “I don’t remember.”
Georgia Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene today took the stand before an administrative law judge in Atlanta to defend her right to be on the ballot in Georgia after five voters challenged her inclusion on the grounds she had violated the third section of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits anyone from holding office who has taken an oath to support the Constitution and then participates in an insurrection or rebellion or gives aid and comfort to someone who does.
After being caught out when her examiner provided a video in which she called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a traitor just after Greene denied ever saying such a thing, Greene did not try to defend her inflammatory past statements. She simply said she didn’t remember anything about the events surrounding the January 6 insurrection. Even when asked “Did you advocate to President Trump to impose martial law as a way to remain in power?” she did not answer no, but rather said: “I do not recall.” “So you’re not denying […]
Stephan: It amazes me how little coverage the earth changes are getting from most of the media. They get reported individually, but not as a comprehensive whole. Here is an exception, credit to The Washington Post. While all the usual human stupidities are going on, the earth itself is being changed by those stupidities. It has begun to seem to me to be a horserace. Do we continue the stupidities and reduce or, possibly even, destroy ourselves? Or do we awaken to the reality that universal wellbeing is the path to take and prosper in this new way? The answer depends on each of us.
Credit: IStock/Washington Post illustration
At The Washington Post, we’re dedicated to covering the impacts of climate change and a warming world — both in the United States and around the world.
We’re dedicated to covering solutions, too. But we don’t believe in shying away from the extent of the problem and the impact warming temperatures are already having on our planet. Climate change is and will continue to touch almost everything around us, from our septic tanks to your seasonal allergies and the turbulence you experience on your next flight.
Stephan: Ninety percent of the people hospitalized for Covid are unvaccinated and part of the mostly MAGAt death cult. But as this research lays out, even those that don't die in hospital are far from out of the woods.
Health workers monitor a patient at the intensive care unit for patients infected with COVID-19 at a hospital in Neuchatel, western Switzerland, on Dec 21, 2021. Credit: AFP / Fabrice Coffrini
PARIS: Not even one in three people have completely recovered from COVID-19 a full year after being hospitalised with the disease, a United Kingdom study indicated on Sunday (Apr 24), warning that long COVID could become a common condition.
The study involving more than 2,300 people also found that women were 33 per cent less likely to fully recover than men.
It also found that obese people were half as likely to fully recover, while those who needed mechanical ventilation were 58 per cent less likely.
The study looked at the health of people who were discharged from 39 British hospitals with COVID-19 between March 2020 and April 2021, then assessed the recovery of 807 of them five months and one year later.
Just 26 per cent reported a full recovery after five months, and that number rose only slightly to 28.9 per cent after a year, according to the study published in […]
Stephan: This report and the one that follows both illustrate something very important that every voter should comprehend. On the basis of objectively verifiable data, both demonstrate that Republicans are not governing on the basis of societal wellbeing. They are demonstrating authoritarian power and voters and their families should just suck it up. You vote Republican to your own damage. Another manifestation of the kind of thinking that caused hundreds of thousands to support the MAGAt death cult and give up their lives by not getting vaccinated or wearing a mask.
A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper directs commercial trucks near the Pharr-Reynosa International bridge on April 13, 2022 in Pharr, Texas. Credit: Michael Gonzalez/Getty
Gov. Greg Abbott increasing inspections of commercial trucks entering from Mexico in the hopes of staunching illegal smuggling activity resulted in zero migrants detentions or illegal drug seizures, despite allegedly costing the Lone Star State billions of dollars.
Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller stated in an email to supporters this week that the enhanced truck inspections cost Texas consumers and businesses an estimated $4.3 billion “despite not catching a single illegal alien or confiscating a single gram of illegal drugs.”
“However, Governor Abbott successfully persuaded Mexico states to enhance security on their side of the border,” Miller added. “Both of these things are true at the same time.”
The Texas Tribune reports that over an eight-day period beginning on April 8, troopers conducted more than 1,400 truck inspections. Despite no drugs being discovered, troopers managed to take 850 trucks off the road for various equipment violations, including under-inflated tires, broken turn signals and oil leaks.
Stephan: Here is a second example of the inferiority of Republican governance. I know that some readers will take this as a partisan position; it is not. I am an experimentalist, what I care about are objectively verifiable social outcome data, and they are very clear. If you live in Florida, next summer when this kicks in, your property tax is going to go up by $2,000 to $2,800. If you voted Republican, you voted for it.
The Florida legislature on Thursday cleared a bill that would dissolve Disney’s special improvement district, effective June 2023.
If the special district is eliminated, Orange and Osceola counties would have to provide the local services currently provided by the special district.
Legislators and tax experts warn the bill creates an even larger potential problem for taxpayers in the form of bonds totaling more than $1 billion.
A repeal of Disney’s self-government status in Florida could leave local taxpayers with more than $1 billion in bond debt, according to tax officials and legislators.
The Florida House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill that would dissolve Disney’s special improvement district, escalating Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attack on the company over its opposition to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed by critics the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The state Senate passed the bill Wednesday, after it was first introduced Tuesday. It will now go to the governor for his signature.
Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District was created in 1967 and gives the Walt Disney Company full regulatory control over Disney World […]
