In Republican-controlled states I am seeing an increasing attempt to pass state legislation to persecute women who go out of state to obtain an abortion, or who buy medications from out of state that induce abortion. I also see increasing violence arising over this and other issues Republicans do not like. This is significantly increasing The Great Schism Trend, and by the 2024 election, I am afraid violence will become a major element in American elections. The Republican drive to subordinate women has become a major element in that party's gestalt. Here is the latest from Red state Oklahoma.
Dr. Franz Theard prepares doses of Mifepristone, the abortion pill, in his clinic in Santa Teresa, New Mexico on May 7, 2022. Credit: Paul Ratje / The Washington Post / Getty
As state lawmakers weigh new restrictions on abortion, some Republicans are revisiting a longstanding taboo of not prosecuting pregnant people for seeking abortions in places where the procedure is banned, though the topic remains divisive among anti-abortion advocates.
State restrictions have so far fallen just shy of imposing criminal penalties on people who seek abortions, instead targeting physicians, health care providers and anyone else who might help someone get an abortion.
But that may be changing. A bill introduced Thursday in Oklahoma’s Senate would amend the state’s abortion restrictions, eliminating language that clarifies pregnant people are protected from prosecution. Under that bill, which has not yet been assigned to a legislative committee and has no co-sponsors yet, pregnant people could face felony charges if they induce an abortion. The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Warren Hamilton, did not respond to a request for comment.
Robert Reich, Carmel P. Friesen Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. - Reader Supported News / The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
Here is some more good news from the Biden administration. This is the sort of thing Biden is doing using the regulatory agencies of the Executive Branch. The media doesn't really cover this sort of thing, but it changes the lives of millions of men and women in America for the better. These kinds of almost unnoticed changes fostering wellbeing have become the hallmark of Biden's presidency. Yet what the media and the Republicans want to talk about is Hunter Biden's laptop.
Under its Biden-appointed chair, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule banning non-compete agreements. Credit: Alex Edelman / Press Pool
Have you ever been forced to sign a non-compete agreement when you started a job?
About 30 million Americans are trapped by contracts that say if they leave their current job, they can’t take a job with a rival company or start a new business of their own.
These clauses deprive workers of higher wages and better working conditions. In effect, they’re a form of involuntary servitude.
Last week, while America was fixated on Kevin McCarthy’s travails, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a sweeping new rule that would ban these non-compete agreements.
This is a big deal. The FTC estimates that such a ban could increase wages by nearly $300bn a year (about $2,000 a worker, on average) by allowing workers to pursue better job opportunities.
Non-competes also harm the economy, depriving growing businesses of talent and experience they need to build and expand. California’s ban on non-competes has been a major reason for Silicon Valley’s success.
Princeton University School of Engineering, - Sci Tech Daily
Stephan:
Here is some potentially excellent good news about the massive problem of microplastics in the oceans and seas.
Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic that are smaller than 5mm in size and are found in the environment, including in water sources. These particles can come from a variety of sources, including the breakdown of larger plastic items, the use of microbeads in personal care products, and the release of plastic fibers during the washing of synthetic clothing. Microplastics have been found in tap water, bottled water, and even in the oceans, and their presence in the environment is a cause for concern as they can be ingested by marine life and potentially enter the food chain.
Princeton Engineering researchers have developed a cost-effective way to use breakfast foods to create a material that can remove salt and microplastics from seawater.
The researchers used egg whites to create an aerogel, a versatile material known for its light weight and porosity. It has a range of uses, including water filtration, energy storage, and sound and thermal insulation. Craig Arnold, the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and vice dean of innovation at Princeton, […]
Here is some very interesting and, in my opinion, fact-based positive good news about Gen Z. It look like they are going to be much much better Americans than their parents are and were.
Roberta Katz, Senior Research Scholar at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences Credit: Charles Katz
Generation Z – also known as Gen Z, iGen or postmillennial – are a highly collaborative cohort that cares deeply about others and have a pragmatic attitude about how to address a set of inherited issues like climate change, according to research by Roberta Katz, a senior research scholar at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS).
Since 2017, Katz, along with her co-authors, Sarah Ogilvie, a linguist at the University of Oxford and formerly at Stanford; Jane Shaw, a historian who is the principal of Harris Manchester College at Oxford and was previously dean for Religious Life at Stanford; and Linda Woodhead, a sociologist at King’s College London, collaborated as part of a multi-year CASBS research project to better understand a generation who, born between the mid-1990s to around 2010, grew up with digital tools always at their fingertips.
Their findings are based on some 120 interviews gathered on three college campuses – Stanford University; Foothill […]
So this is what the Republican Party in the House is interested in. First, they gutted the ethics office so no one would call out their criminality and corruption. Next, they removed the metal detectors members had to pass through in order to go out onto the floor of the House so that the MAGAt members could carry their concealed weapons onto the floor. Now, this. In less than a week the MAGAt Republicans have given us their measure, and it is obvious who they are, their priorities, and their utter lack of interest in fostering wellbeing or ethical public service. It also tells us something very sad about America and the people who voted these cretins into office.
Last Tuesday, Reuters congressional reporter Patricia Zengerle informed the American public that the new Republican majority in the United States House of Representatives eliminated a fifteen-year-old ban on smoking inside the Capitol.
“So there’s indoor smoking on the House side of the Capitol now that the Republicans have taken control,” Zengerle tweeted.
“Washington, D.C., law bans smoking in all indoor spaces, but it does not apply to the private offices of members of Congress, never has,” she explained. “So when you have a change in party control, and they move offices like they just did, if the member who moves into the office is – as in this case – a cigar smoker – you have smoke.”
Three days later, on Friday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson dedicated a segment of his show to promoting tobacco use and sharing misinformation about President Joe Biden’s public health initiatives.
Carlson:
So what is interesting is that for the past two years, the Biden Administration has been actively encouraging drug use among Americans. Not just weed. There […]
