October 20, 2021

Florida School Revises Covid Guidelines To Reflect Latest Misinformation

MIAMI—Promising to remain current on any recommendations that might gain traction on social media or receive a platform on right-wing news outlets, officials at Miami’s Centner Academy stated Tuesday that they always revised their Covid guidelines to reflect the latest misinformation.

“Rest assured, before we decide whether to permit students and faculty to wear masks or receive a vaccine, we follow dozens of links to random online forums and read plenty of tweets from people who have absolutely no background in immunology,” said Leila Centner, CEO and co-founder of the private school, noting that administrators were in the process of implementing a new program of contract-tracing to keep track of students who may have been in close physical proximity to a vaccinated person.

“Since the beginning of this pandemic, Centner’s Covid policies have been shaped with input from many sources, including disgraced and unaccredited physicians, this nurse in New Hampshire who has a pretty good following on Instagram, debunked theories I’ve heard about at parties, my aunt in Denver who’s always reading stuff, and really just whatever rises to the top of my Facebook feed at any given moment. Going forward, our protocols will continue to change to reflect up-to-the-minute hearsay about how this virus spreads and how it should be treated.”

At press time, reports confirmed Centner had again updated its policy to require students to stay at home for 30 days after driving by any CVS location that administers the Covid vaccine.

https://www.theonion.com/florida-school-revises-covid-guidelines-to-reflect-late-1847888404

October 20, 2021

The cowardice of Senate Republicans blocking a qualified Muslim's confirmation

Dilawar Syed, President Biden’s nominee to be deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration, embodies the American Dream. He came to this country 30 years ago from Pakistan in pursuit of education and opportunity and built a successful career as an entrepreneur, starting and running companies specializing in software, health care and artificial intelligence. If confirmed, he would be the highest-ranking Muslim in government.

But Republicans have frozen his nomination in a Senate committee, and some of his backers — including prominent human rights and faith-based groups — say it is precisely because of his background and religion. Mr. Syed was nominated to the SBA’s No. 2 post in March. The Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship held a hearing in April and on June 16 favorably voted his nomination out of committee by a voice vote. But the parliamentarian ruled a roll call was required, and Republicans have repeatedly refused to show up for votes, denying the evenly split committee the needed quorum. According to Mr. Syed’s backers, Republican Sens. Joni Ernst (Iowa) and Todd C. Young (Ind.) initially voted to advance Mr. Syed’s nomination, but when we asked their offices if this indeed was true, Mr. Young’s office responded with a joint statement from minority committee members that didn’t answer the question and Ms. Ernst’s office didn’t respond. Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) is the ranking Republican on the committee.

So what’s the problem? At first, Republicans said they wanted answers on covid-relief loans to Mr. Syed’s business. When that turned out to be a non-issue — the company was entitled to the SBA loans, and it paid off the debt rather than pushing for it to be forgiven as was allowed — they questioned Mr. Syed’s association with an advocacy group that has been critical of Israel. Religious groups, including prominent Jewish organizations, cried foul and raised alarms about an email circulated among Republican committee staff focusing on Mr. Syed’s religion and place of birth. Among those springing to Mr. Syed’s defense: the American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League, Bend the Arc. They signed on to a letter to Congress — along with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the NAACP — that voiced support for Mr. Syed and took aim at the anti-Muslim bias coming into play.

With so many Jewish organizations coming to Mr. Syed’s defense, Republicans switched tactics yet again and now claim their opposition is rooted in their objections to SBA covid-relief payments to Planned Parenthood entities. Republicans argue that Democrats, too, have blocked nominations for policy reasons unrelated to an individual nominee. That doesn’t make it right. The SBA’s deputy administrator is responsible for day-to-day operations, and the position has been vacant since April 2018 because of the Trump administration’s failure to put forward a nominee.

If Republicans believe Mr. Syed should not be confirmed, they should show up, vote against him and explain why they are doing so. Apparently, though, they don’t want to be on the record voting against the appointment of someone so eminently qualified, who has been endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Small Business Association. So they take the coward’s way out.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/19/cowardice-senate-republicans-blocking-qualified-muslims-confirmation/

October 20, 2021

The accused spy knew stealth was crucial from his work on submarines. He surfaced anyway.

For years, the aspiring spy had gone to remarkable lengths to protect his identity and evade detection.

With a cash-bought burner phone, he created an anonymous email account that could send encrypted messages, according to the FBI, then waited to use it.

To avoid suspicion at his job developing America’s most advanced submarines, he allegedly snuck sensitive documents out for years, a few pages at time.

The Navy veteran’s work for the U.S. government had taught him to spot the clues that betray insider threats, and, according to an FBI affidavit, he would later brag that “we made very sure not to display even a single one.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/10/20/toebbe-spy-couple-submarine-annapolis/

Traitor. Same for his wife.

October 20, 2021

Steve Bannon Just Might Be Accidentally Saving America

His contempt for Congress could be what finally forces Democratic lawmakers to stand up for themselves and reassert their powers.

The rusty gears driving our current constitutional crisis ratcheted another step forward on Tuesday night as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection finally cracked down on (one) GOP official flagrantly defying its demands for documents and testimony.

A bipartisan majority of committee lawmakers agreed that former Trump administration body-hider and World of Warcraft goldfarmer Steve Bannon was in contempt of his subpoena, a fact Bannon himself will gladly tell you. With a full vote in the House certain to pass, Attorney General Merrick Garland will soon be legally required to bring Bannon’s charges before a grand jury.

But referring Bannon for prosecution won’t solve the Jan. 6 committee’s struggle to compel testimony from powerful Republicans who reject both the committee’s legitimacy and, more broadly, Joe Biden’s. Restoring Congress’ role as a coequal branch of government will require reclaiming years of legal powers delegated to an ever more expansive presidency — and resulting in a president who felt powerful enough to stage a failed coup.

If Congress does rediscover the courage of its convictions and the Justice Department succeeds in convicting Bannon, the former Breitbart boss and self-described “Leninist” who’s raved against the “administrative state” and boasted about “flooding the zone with shit” just might end up being the unlikely, and accidental, hero who helps restore the balance of powers our democracy needs to sustain itself after an era of imperial presidencies.

It’s clear that Bannon—who wasn’t even an administration official, having already been fired by Trump—and defiant Trump officials merit prosecution for their contempt. What remains frustratingly unclear is whether Democrats, who have so far struggled this year to deliver victories on broadly popular issues, have the political courage to wade into prosecutions that will ignite the right and likely inflame an already divided nation.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-just-might-be-accidentally-saving-america

October 20, 2021

El Chapo Refuses to Share a Prison Cell with Steve Bannon

FLORENCE, COLORADO (The Borowitz Report)—Amid news that Steve Bannon could soon be jailed for criminal contempt, the convicted drug lord Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán said that “under no circumstances” would he agree to share a prison cell with the former Trump adviser.

The ex-kingpin said that, although he had not heard of any plans to house Bannon in his prison cell, he was speaking “out of an abundance of caution.”

“If the Department of Justice is looking for a place to lock Bannon up, don’t even think about putting him in with me,” El Chapo, who is being held at ADX Florence, a maximum-security penitentiary, said. “It’s not going to happen.”

“I’ve tunnelled out of prison before, and I can do it again,” he warned.

El Chapo’s sentiments have been echoed by the nation’s prison population, two million of whom have signed a petition refusing to share their cells with Bannon.

Speaking at the D.O.J., the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, commented on El Chapo’s recoiling at the prospect of sharing a small space with Bannon. “I can’t say I blame him,” Garland said.

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/el-chapo-refuses-to-share-a-prison-cell-with-steve-bannon

October 19, 2021

Judge refuses to suppress video evidence in Josh Duggar case

A federal judge has denied motions to suppress video evidence found on electronic devices seized from former reality TV star Josh Duggar, who is facing child pornography charges

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- A federal judge has denied motions to suppress video evidence found on electronic devices that were seized from former reality TV star Josh Duggar, who is facing child pornography charges.

U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks also said Monday that a hearing on the motions isn't warranted, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Duggar, who appeared in TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” was charged in April with two counts of downloading and possessing child pornography.

Duggar’s attorneys argued that evidence in the case had become “stale” because so much time elapsed between federal agents downloading files from the seized devices and the issuance of a search warrant.

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/judge-refuses-suppress-video-evidence-josh-duggar-case-80667380

I never knew that "stale evidence" could be a thing...

October 19, 2021

Florida kids still lead all ages in positivity as COVID cases fall

Source: Tampa Bay Times

Even as the delta variant wave recedes, children 11 and under still can’t get vaccinated and remain at risk of infection.

The delta variant wave of COVID-19 cases has significantly receded for all the state’s age groups. But a worrisome trend that started this summer continues into the fall:

Florida children 11 and under remain the highest-risk and least-protected age group from infection.

Case positivity for the youngest Floridians was 5.3 percent, according to the latest state data released last week. That is down from the peak positivity rate of 23 percent on Aug. 19, but it’s still higher than the current positivity rate of any other age group.

But the majority of every other age group has been vaccinated, while no vaccine has been approved for children 11 and under.

Nearly 3,000 children in that age range tested positive for COVID over a seven-day period from Oct. 8-14, according to the Florida Department of Health. That’s almost 90 percent lower than the peak weekly cases of 26,475 over the seven-day period reported Aug. 27.

Read more: https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2021/10/19/florida-children-lead-all-ages-in-positivity-despite-drop-in-covid-cases/

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October 19, 2021

As Evergrande Teeters, Chinese Media Walks a Fine Line

Officials want to avert public panic about the property developer’s financial woes. But they also want to send a message to spendthrift corporations.

As China Evergrande Group teeters on the edge of collapse, videos of protesting home buyers have flooded social media. Online government message boards teem with complaints and pleas for intervention to save the huge property developer. The hashtag “What does Evergrande mean for the real estate market?” has been viewed more than 160 million times on one platform.

But if trouble threatens for China’s economy, you wouldn’t know it from reading the country’s front pages.

The name “Evergrande” has barely been mentioned by top state-run news outlets in recent weeks, even as the company’s uncertain fate has rattled global financial markets. Coverage of its recent troubles has been concentrated in a handful of business publications.

Only on Friday did the country’s central bank comment on the company by name, more than a month after anxiety about its debt crisis began lighting up the Chinese internet — and then only to say the situation was under control.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/business/evergrande-media-china.html

October 19, 2021

Exxon tells Texas refinery workers lockout will end if contract approved or union removed

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp on Sunday told workers at its Beaumont, Texas, refinery their six-month lockout will end if they ratify the company's contract offer or remove the United Steelworkers union (USW) as their representative.

"As we have told the Union, the conditions which would end the lockout remain the same: the company will end the lockout when we have a signed, ratified agreement," Exxon said in a message posted on-line.

"This has not changed, and anything said to the contrary is untrue. Additionally, if employees were to decertify, the company would return employees to work."

Decertification is the process to remove a union from representing employees at a given location. The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is reviewing a petition signed by at least 30% of the locked-out workers that could lead to a vote to decertify USW Local 13-243 in Beaumont as their representative. No date for a vote has been set.

https://news.yahoo.com/exxon-tells-texas-refinery-workers-041513972.html

October 19, 2021

Writing "Eleanor Rigby"

How one of the Beatles’ greatest songs came to be.

My mum’s favorite cold cream was Nivea, and I love it to this day. That’s the cold cream I was thinking of in the description of the face Eleanor keeps “in a jar by the door.” I was always a little scared by how often women used cold cream.

Growing up, I knew a lot of old ladies—partly through what was called Bob-a-Job Week, when Scouts did chores for a shilling. You’d get a shilling for cleaning out a shed or mowing a lawn. I wanted to write a song that would sum them up. Eleanor Rigby is based on an old lady that I got on with very well. I don’t even know how I first met “Eleanor Rigby,” but I would go around to her house, and not just once or twice. I found out that she lived on her own, so I would go around there and just chat, which is sort of crazy if you think about me being some young Liverpool guy. Later, I would offer to go and get her shopping. She’d give me a list and I’d bring the stuff back, and we’d sit in her kitchen. I still vividly remember the kitchen, because she had a little crystal-radio set. That’s not a brand name; it actually had a crystal inside it. Crystal radios were quite popular in the nineteen-twenties and thirties. So I would visit, and just hearing her stories enriched my soul and influenced the songs I would later write.

Eleanor Rigby may actually have started with a quite different name. Daisy Hawkins, was it? I can see that “Hawkins” is quite nice, but it wasn’t right. Jack Hawkins had played Quintus Arrius in “Ben-Hur.” Then, there was Jim Hawkins, from one of my favorite books, “Treasure Island.” But it wasn’t right. This is the trouble with history, though. Even if you were there, which I obviously was, it’s sometimes very difficult to pin down.

It’s like the story of the name Eleanor Rigby on a marker in the graveyard at St. Peter’s Church in Woolton, which John and I certainly wandered around, endlessly talking about our future. I don’t remember seeing the grave there, but I suppose I might have registered it subliminally.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/25/paul-mccartney-writing-eleanor-rigby-beatles