Stay away from hospitals

We’re in Banned Books Week. The American Library Association wants us to think about books that are challenged for removal from their shelves. This year they are using the slogan “Books Unite Us, Censorship Divides Us.” The top ten most challenged books in 2020 are: George, Alex Gino Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds All American Boys, Jason Reylonds and Brendan Kiely Speak, Laurise Halse Anderson The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie Something Happened in Our Town, Celano, Collins, Hazzard, and Zivoin To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck The Bluest Eye, Tony Morrison The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas Something different from previous times I’ve written about banned books: This time there is only one LGBT book in the list. That’s the first one, which is about a transgender girl. I think this is progress. All the rest were challenged for the other usual reasons: use of profanity, too sexually explicit or depicts sexual misconduct, or uses racial slurs (though I think the real reason is it doesn’t portray racism in a positive light). New this year is a reason I hadn’t seen before: the claim that the book promotes anti-police views. There is also the old and silly claim: libraries should not give books to children that require discussion. Sheesh, those sound like the best kinds of books. On the same webpage is the lists for several prior years. The top ten list for 2019 includes eight books challenged for LGBT content. Last week I wrote about a plan by John Eastman to overturn the Electoral College vote last January 6. That plan called for the vice nasty to declare the EC votes of several states were in dispute (they were not) and using the counts of the remaining states to declare the nasty guy won. Chitown Kev, in a pundit roundup for Daily Kos, quoted Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times who wrote the plan would not have worked. The joint session of Congress, in which the EC counts are counted, depends on the consent of both chambers. Once the vice nasty started to seize control of the process there would have been more than howls of protest from the Democrats. Pelosi would have suspended the session, stopping the count and certification. On January 20, Pelosi would have become acting president, the vice nasty would have been out of power, and the counting session would have resumed. In addition, there would howls of protest from the 81 million people who voted for Biden. The nasty guy supporters demonstrated they could have prevailed against mass protests. But Gen. Mark Milley has demonstrated what side the military would have been on. This is an escalation. In another pundit roundup on Kos, Greg Dworkin quoted Ben Collins of NBC.

Anti-vaccine Facebook groups have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units. Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with Covid-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks.

David Neiwert of Kos discussed a study by the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. The report says essentially that Facebook is the biggest source of disinformation. Though Facebook says it is cracking down on disinformation it isn’t doing nearly enough. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted late night commentary. Here’s one of them:

Right now Democrats control the Senate by the thinnest of margins, and naturally Republicans want to take it back. But as they fight to make gains, they'll also have to defend 20 seats of their own. So far, five Republican senators have announced they're retiring. And to honor their service, they'll each get a commemorative watch that, just like them, stopped working at the time of the Capitol insurrection. —Samantha Bee