What I don't want to hear is that they care about crime

It’s been three weeks since I’ve looked at Michigan’s COVID data, which I get here. The Michigan health department still updates the spreadsheet I use as input for my charting program. But now this webpage has a notice. Due to the official end of the pandemic Public Health Emergency they will no collect negative test results. That data has been inaccurate since the availability of home testing. Positive tests (though I suspect not from home tests) and deaths will still be reported. The data was updated two days ago, on May 16. Over the last four weeks the peaks in the number of new cases per day has been holding steady at the low level of 393, 428, 424, and 354. For the last three weeks the deaths per day has been in the single digits. All of this is good news! An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reports that publisher Penguin Random House sued the Escambia County School District in Florida over its removal of books about race and LGBTQ people. The removals were because one language arts teacher objected. That teacher appears to have not read the books, but worked from a website that lists which books it finds objectionable. The school board voted for removal over the recommendations of a review committee that declared the books as educationally suitable. From the article:

“Books have the capacity to change lives for the better, and students in particular deserve equitable access to a wide range of perspectives. Censorship, in the form of book bans like those enacted by Escambia County, are a direct threat to democracy and our Constitutional rights,” Nihar Malaviya, CEO of Penguin Random House, said in a statement.

Rep. George Santos from New York lied about everything leading up to his election to Congress last November. Shortly after the election his lies made the news and other shady dealings came to light. Recently, Santos was indicted on 13 criminal counts. He remains in Congress. Denise Oliver Velez of Kos reported that as part of a Congressional hearing in which Republicans tried to roast DC Mayor Murial Bowser, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a black Democrat from Texas, had a few things to say.

My Republican colleagues want to talk about keeping D.C. streets crime-free. They can't even keep the halls of Congress crime-free. ... My freshman colleague has just been indicted on 13 counts — 13 felony counts, right? But have [Republican representatives] exhibited any courage to say, 'You know what, we will disallow this in our body. We will make sure that we expel this individual'? They have not. So what I don't want to hear is that they care about crime, because if they did they would start by cleaning up our own House and mind our own business instead of coming after D.C., so thank you so much for your time.

Kos of Kos wrote about a video of a Ukrainian drone operator rescuing a Russian soldier. Over and over Kos described the Russians as not caring about their soldiers. Their guys are told if they retreat they would be shot, that if Ukrainians have a chance Ukrainians would kill Russians. So don’t surrender. This is a story of a Russian soldier who comes to understand that surrendering had a greater chance of survival than retreat or just staying in his trench. He had to trust that Ukraine would rather he lived. The simple explanation is that a Russian POW can be exchanged for a Ukrainian POW. The more complete answer is that Ukraine is a nice country. It doesn’t want to and doesn’t need to kill when it doesn’t have to. Andrew Wortman, a Democratic Activist, tweeted about the corruption of Clarence Thomas.

Shelby County v. Holder (2013)—which killed preclearance requirements for racist voting laws—was decided by A SINGLE VOTE in a 5-4 decision. We now know that Leonard Leo BOUGHT Clarence Thomas’ vote in this case, without which the majority would have voted AGAINST it. My god. I can’t even imagine how much damage this one decision has inflicted upon this country. Without it, we likely wouldn’t have had Trump in office and in the position to appoint HALF of the illegitimate six that struck down Roe. We certainly wouldn’t have a GOP House majority again.

Wortman includes links to previous threads that explain how critical this case has been to the country. Leonard Leo is the guy who started the Federalist Society with the goal of remaking the federal courts into a tool of corporations. Last week Joan McCarter of Kos explained a bit more of who Leo is – and how he’s been making money off his efforts. A couple weeks ago McCarter reported on a move by the House Administration Committee. This committee handles such things as printing the Congressional Record, who gets which office, managing the IT systems, and parking. It also has a Subcommittee on Elections, which oversees federal elections, including “campaign finance, voting rights, election administration, and election security.” And Republicans are now in charge of it. They recently hired Thomas Lane as Elections Counsel and Director of Election Coalitions. He’s a guy subpoenaed by the Justice Department to get his role in the Arizona fake elector scheme in Arizona. His job is to arrange hearings on such things as “State Tools to Promote Voter Confidence.” Yeah, that’s code for voter suppression. And Lane will have some like-minded colleagues to help him out. McCarter concluded:

The Republicans have succeeded in putting a who’s who of voter suppressors and election deniers in charge of “election integrity” to further their plans for stealing the next election and they aren’t even trying to hide it.

Last week Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported that Liz Cheney plans to haunt the nasty guy through this presidential campaign. Cheney is a stalwart conservative that defied the Republican Party to serve on the January 6 Committee. For that she lost her reelection primary. Her first bit of haunting was a 60 second ad, aired during that disastrous CNN Town Hall, that closely ties him with the Capitol attack and reminds viewers he lost the election and knew it. Therefore he is unfit for office. Will Cheney run for president? Only if that is the best way to destroy the nasty guy. That is her only goal. Capital and Main of the Kos community reported how extreme the climate is likely to be by the time today’s teens get to their mid thirties. These kids are not meekly taking climate news. They’re going to court to take aim at state government policies that are harming their futures. In Montana a group of kids say the state failed to protect them from the environmental degradation of climate change. Lead plaintiff Rikki Held, now 22, lives with her parents on a ranch in southeastern Montana. They rely on a river to water their crops. It dried up one year and flooded the next. They hunt elk and deer, but they have migrated away from their property. They see more viral infestations of their animals from midges who used to be killed off during winter. They’ve experienced several wildfires. Montana has known about climate disruptions for decades, yet continues to act in ways that disrupts her family and infringes on her future. The kids claim an inalienable right to “a clean and healthful environment” for the present and their future. They have seasoned environmental lawyers on their side. The trial is scheduled for June. In Hawaii the teens are suing the state’s Department of Transportation for promoting highways over mass transit and for not converting the state’s cars and trucks to greener models. Transportation will account for 60% of Hawaii’s emissions by 2030. One plaintiff in this suit is Kalā Winter. Her family runs a fishery. They’ve been hit by floods that inundated their ponds with salt water. Rising temps have depleted the seaweed and other marine plants that the fish rely on for food. She says, “Climate change is super close and scary.” Which means climate change also affects their mental health. Amazing Maps tweeted one of the world according to Google Street View. This service in Google Maps will color a street blue if its cameras have been down it. Now back out the view until the whole world is visible and turn off the actual maps. The US is quite blue as is most of Europe – with the exception of Germany (privacy issues?) and Belarus. The lower portions of Canada are visible, as is much of South America, but not the Amazon rainforest. Africa is a blank except for South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria and a few other small spots. In Asia there is India, Thailand, and tendrils across Siberia, the rest is blank (likely China has its own product). Australia has a blank middle.