Mark Meadows In Contempt of Congress & With No Viable Executive Privilege, It’s Indictment Time
The Lincoln Project – Protect America
politicsrus – Protect Democracy HD
Rebel HQ – NDLB’s 2022 lineup is ready to send the GQP packing!
This Scene From The Titus Show Stuck with Trae Crowder Ever Since it Aired
Really American – Republicans COWER in Fear of Trump
Beau – Let’s talk about altering the Supreme Court…
Yesterday,I did the lst odds and ends of preparing for the drive.I sllao colected little advance material. Then I got to bed early. I will definitely pass greetings to Virgil today, I will drive carefully, and I will let you know I got home safe – it may not be the instant I get in the door as I’ll be eager to change clothes, but as soon as I get to the computer.
Cartoon –
Short Takes
Wonkette – When Will We Finally Accept That Trumpism Was Never About Economic Anxiety?
Quote – The Tea Party was a white, middle-class movement, and while not overtly violent, it was the product of racist backlash to Obama’s election. Republicans exploited the backlash, tip-toeing around the racism, for their immediate political gain. They cocked the weapon and handed it over to Trump, but we give him too much credit when we assume that if he hadn’t won in 2016, the problem would have gone away. (We can only imagine the violent backlash against Hillary Clinton.) A reported six out of every seven January 6 insurrectionists charged with crimes had no previous affiliations with extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, or the Three Percenters militia. This wasn’t a surprise to University of Chicago historian Kathleen Belew, who told Gellman: “January 6 wasn’t designed as a mass-casualty attack, but rather as a recruitment action.”
Click through for more. I’ve often thought that, had Hillary won, her Presidency would have been much like Obama’s, only with more backlash, because misgyny is deeper and stronger than racism. That doesn’t mean I don’t wish she had won – I do wish that, with all my heart. But it would not have derailed Trump**.
Crooks and Liars – Kelloggs To Permanently Replace 1400 Striking Workers
Quote – The decision follows months of bitter disagreement between the company and the union. The rejected offer would have provided cost of living adjustments in the later years of the deal and preserved the workers’ current healthcare benefits. But workers say they deserve significant raises because they routinely work more than 80 hours a week, and they kept the plants running throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Click through. I don’t knowingly cross a picket line. Thankfully, one of the comments included a link to an article of everything they own.
Mother Jones – Baristas in Buffalo Just Formed the First Starbucks Union in the United States
Quote – In a watershed moment for the recent wave of pandemic-inspired labor organizing, workers at a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, voted [December 9] to form the coffee chain’s first union in the United States. Despite months of opposition from party leadership, 19 workers at the Elmwood location in Buffalo voted in favor of unionizing in the election, conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. Only eight opposed.
Click through for story – If I had had to guess way in advance where this wou;d happen … Buffalo would not have been my first guess. But whatever. More power to them!
Food for Thought –
Yesterday also quiet. Not that I got a whole lot done. I was trying to rest, and more or less did.
Cartoon –
Short Takes
Daily Kos (David Neiwert) – Right-wing so-called ‘journalists’ exploit Waukesha tragedy, drawing neo-Nazis there to protest
Quote – Ngo also disingenuously proffered as evidence a post by Brooks he described as “about how to get away with running people over on the street”—even though the post in question was actually written by an ex-Minneapolis police officer who encouraged drivers to run down BLM protesters, and Brooks had posted it as evidence of violent police attitudes. Of course, there is still zero evidence that Brooks ever participated in any BLM march or engaged in any protest organizing.
Click through for details. I am honestly more sick of fake journalists than I am of fake news itself. And don’t think there aren’t any on the left. We have to be responsible for moderating our confirmation bias … because RWNJs certainly will not moderate theirs.
The Nib – Why Are Everyone’s Catalytic Converters Being Stolen?
Quote – But catalytic converters have been round for nearly 50 years. So why is this happening now? The economic downturn caused by the pandemic might be one factor. Another is the soaring price of the precious metals that put the catalyst in catalytic.
Click through. Yes, this is what you might call a “graphic article.” But try to find a non-graphic one which lays out this information so clearly.
The 19th Explains: Women may soon qualify for the draft. Here’s what you need to know.
Quote – Kara Dixon Vuic, who studies gender and the U.S. military at Texas Christian University, said the passage of this amendment would be “huge, though largely symbolic” when it comes to the fight for women’s rights and gender equity in the military. “Right now, the only legal difference between what men and women do as civilians is men sign up for selective service,” said Vuic, who is currently writing a book on the history of military draft eligibility in the country. “It’s not that women don’t have to; it’s that they can’t.”
Click through for the scoop. I have always felt that if one really wants to be treated equally, then one must accept being treated equally. As obvious as that soounds, it seems to be a difficult concept when it comes to feminism. Perhaps that at least partially explains why misogyny is more powerful than racism (as the 2016 election proved.)
Food for Thought –
Yesterday was the first day since the oandemic started that the Metropolitan Opera was able to do a live broadcast over the radio (Last season was all re-runs). It was a new opera, “Eurydice,” which tells (I can’t say re-tells because the story is very far out) the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in the 21st century, from the point of view of Eurydice. It’s very accessible (term of art for “easy to listen to, not a lot of dissonance”). Thatt’s a good thing as just following the plot is plenty challenging.
Cartoon – 05 MCel RTU
Short Takes
NPR – Parents of Michigan school shooting suspect are held on $500,000 bond after manhunt
Quote – “They sought multiple attempts to hide their location and were eventually tracked down after they parked their car somewhere a witness saw it,” said Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald. “These two individuals were found locked somewhere in a room, hiding. These are not people that we can be assured will return to court on their own.”
Click through for details. I thought this was an update we’d all want to see.
Democratic Underground (Eleanor R) – Heartbreaking (tissue alert)
Quote – McClaren Hospital where Oxford community is gathered to supportthe family of Justin Shillings, one of the four teens killed this week. Justin is an organ donor and the crowd is here so that when his body is moved for surgery his family can look down andsee the love and support.
Click through for picture … and comments. Don’t miss comment #15 by barbtries.
HuffPost – ‘Obscene’ GOP Blockade Stalls Dozens Of Biden Nominees
Quote – Republicans can’t actually block all of Biden’s nominees from being confirmed. But they can use the existing rules of the Senate to drastically slow down their appointments, dragging out the process of filling what have typically been uncontroversial jobs in lower-level positions across the federal government. With the GOP refusing to expedite many of Biden’s nominees, placing so-called “holds” on them at the committee level, Democrats must carry out multiple votes to confirm each one, eating up valuable floor time that could be spent on other legislative business.
Click through for story. Dirty tricks and more dirty tricks. All done to “own the libs,” but really all done to hurt the American people.
Food for Thought –
Glenn Kirschner – Bannon’s Grift, Mark Meadows’ Contempt of Congress & Trump’s Friends & Family Burner Phone Plan
Meidas Touch – Lauren Boebert CAUGHT ON TAPE comparing Ilhan Omar to suicide bomber in Islamophobic rant https://youtu.be/UIOi-XLQcp0
Ring of Fire – Biden Demands Investigation Into Oil Companies For Possible Price Gouging
Armageddon Update | Open Season
If People Who Sell Stuff Were Honest About Black FridayOld video. Still valid. Sigh.)
Wild Boar Who Couldn’t Move For A Week Demands Belly Rubs Now
Beau – Let’s talk about being hungry to vote….
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
Well. TFG, QAnon, and assorted Nazis just got a lot more to answer for. Not that it hasn’t been staring us in the face, but it’s only now that someone knowledgeable has put it into clear and simple language so we can see it.
================================================================
Andrew Kolodny, Brandeis University
For the past 20 years, I have been engaged in efforts to end the opioid epidemic, as a public health official, researcher and clinician. And for every one of those years I have looked on as the number of deaths from drug overdoses has set a new record high.
Yet even knowing that trend I was surprised by the latest tally from the CDC showing that for the first time ever, the number of Americans who fatally overdosed over the course of a year surpassed 100,000. In a 12-month period ending at the end of April 2021, some 100,306 died in the U.S., up 28.5% over the same period a year earlier.
The soaring death toll has been fueled by a much more dangerous black market opioid supply. Illicitly synthesized fentanyl – a potent and inexpensive opioid that has driven the rise in overdoses since it emerged in 2014 – is increasingly replacing heroin. Fentanyl and fentanyl analogs were responsible for almost two-thirds of the overdose deaths recorded in the 12 months period ending in April 2021.
It is especially tragic that these deaths are mainly occurring in people with a disease – opioid addiction – that is both preventable and treatable. Most heroin users want to avoid fentanyl. But increasingly, the heroin they seek is mixed with fentanyl or what they purchase is just fentanyl without any heroin in the mix.
While the spread of fentanyl is the primary cause of the spike in overdose deaths, the coronavirus pandemic also made the crisis worse.
The geographical distribution of opioid deaths makes it clear that there has been a change during the pandemic months.
Before the COVID-19 health crisis, the skyrocketing increase in fentanyl-related overdose deaths in America was mainly affecting the eastern half of the U.S., and hit especially hard in urban areas like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City. A possible reason behind this was that in the eastern half of the U.S., heroin has mainly been available in powder form rather than the black tar heroin more common in the West. It is easier to mix fentanyl with powdered heroin.
COVID-19 resulted in less cross-national traffic, which made it harder to smuggle illegal drugs across borders. Border restrictions make it harder to move bulkier drugs, resulting in smugglers’ increased reliance on fentanyl – which is more potent and easier to transport in small quantities and as pills, making it easier to traffic by mail. This may have helped fentanyl spread to areas that escaped the earlier surge in fentanyl deaths.
Opioid-addicted individuals seeking prescription opioids instead of heroin have also been affected, because counterfeit pills made with fentanyl have become more common. This may explain why public health officials in Seattle and elsewhere are reporting many fatalities resulting from use of counterfeit pills.
Another factor that may have contributed to the soaring death toll is that the pandemic made it harder for those dependent on opioids to get in-person treatment.
More than anything else, what drives opioid-addicted individuals to continue using is that without opioids they will experience severe symptoms of withdrawal. Treatment, especially with buprenorphine and methadone, has to be easy to access or addicted individuals will continue using heroin, prescription opioids or illict fentanyl to stave off withdrawal. Some treatment centers innovated in the face of lockdowns, for example, by allowing more patients to take methadone unsupervised at home, but this may not have been enough to offset the disruption to treatment services.
And maintaining access to treatment is crucial to avoid relapse, especially during the pandemic. Research has shown that social isolation and stress – which became more common during the pandemic – increase the chances of a relapse in someone in recovery.
In the past, one slip might not be the end of the world for someone in recovery. But given the extraordinarily dangerous black market opioid supply, any slip can result in death.
[You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter.]
Andrew Kolodny, Co-Director of Opioid Policy Research, Brandeis University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
================================================================
Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, pharma CEOs pricing addicts out of treatment (and failing to make it widely avaiable) are Republicans. The people standing in the way of our having a public health system which works for everyone are Reublicans. So are the voters who believe Democrats are a cabal of cannibalistic pedophiles. It’s not like we haven’t seen this movie before – in real life – long before movies even existed. It has been Jews libeled, it has been Knights Templar libeled, and now it;s Democrats. And people are dying in large numbers. I wouldn’t call the number of overdoses last year alone and the number of people who subscribe to The Conversation’s newsletters (140,000) “close” exactly, but they are definitely in the same order of magnirude.
The Furies and I will be back.
Glenn Kirschner – Congress Subpoenas Roger Stone; Stone Reacts by Throwing Trump Aide Katrina Pierson Under the Bus
Meidas Touch – Exclusive: Kevin McCarthy’s UNHINGED meltdown translated!
Robert Reich – How Unaccountable Institutions Are Shaping Your Life
RHQ – Republicans Can’t Hide This Horrific Secret Anymore!
Thom Hartmann – Are CNN’s Heart Warming News Really Capitalist Horror Stories? Yes. And I featured one of them recently – and more or less noted that. Here’s the link to the article he quotes.
Abandoned Cat Who Was Found In Parking Lot Loves To Cuddle With His Dad Now
Beau – Let’s talk about Ahmaud Arbery and the system functioning….
Yesterday, another quiet day.I love quiet days, but it makes it difficult to find much if anything to say about them. I guess that’s all right, though.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
AP News – Native American confirmed as head of National Park Service
Quote – Sams is Cayuse and Walla Walla and lives on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon. There, he gained a reputation for being unflappable. He has worked in state and tribal governments and the nonprofit natural resource and conservation management fields for over 25 years. “He is known for being steady at the helm and taking challenges in stride,” said Bobbie Conner, director of the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute on the 270-square-mile (700-square-kilometer) reservation.
Click through for more details. It took way too lokg to confirm him – but it’s done now.
Daily Kos (Tevye) – Dead Man On The Ground. Bullets Flying. Others Running For Safety. He Ran Straight Towards A Madman.
Quote – As a young man, Anthony struggled with mental health issues and drug dependency. And seven years ago, he quit cold turkey and never relapsed. He went to counseling for a few years, but he regarded two things as his savior…..his skateboarding community and his activism.Any marginalized group in his community, be it those of color, those from the LGBTQ+ community, Jews ( he was Jewish himself ), Muslims, First Nations peoples….. if you were oppressed, you had a friend, advocate and defender in Anthony. He was there for you.
Click through. Hanky alert. I can tell Tevye is angty, but he knows, none better, how to transform that anger into gried, and then into resolution.
Smithsonian – What Kind of Turkey are you?
Quote – More than just a traditional holiday trimming, the
turkey is an American icon. Native to our continent, turkeys were domesticated by the ancient Maya, called a respectable “Bird of Courage” by Benjamin Franklin, and have been officially pardoned by Presidents since 1989. The Smithsonian has over 155 million objects in its collections—including a fair number of turkeys. This Thanksgiving, find your inner Smithsonian turkey by taking our short quiz!
Click through to take the quiz. I took it ans was told I am “The Dignified Turkey.” That may be the first time anyone every called me dignified – and it may also be the last!
Food for Thought –
