Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's Journal'The most dangerous man in Congress': how Paul Gosar became a darling of the far right
The Arizona Republican congressman Paul Gosar had a simple message for the crowd when he recently addressed a packed Donald Trump rally in his home state – a gathering that had focused on promoting the baseless lie that Trump had been cheated out of a second term as president.
“This is where it all began,” Gosar said in a speech before Trump came on stage. “This is where we questioned: ‘Was there fraud? Absolutely. Was it enough to overturn the election? Absolutely.’”
The far-right congressman is one of Trump’s most loyal backers in Congress, earning him one of more than 90 endorsements made so far by the former US president ahead of this year’s crucial midterm elections. Gosar is the kind of politician that Trump – who is embarking on a series of rallies to try to cement his allies’ power in the Republican party – is increasingly seeking to support.
But Gosar has extensive links to white nationalists and Capitol rioters and, many observers say, represents a dangerous new breed of Republican politician, who would have once been considered fringe, but whom Trump is increasingly making central to Republican party politics.
“I’m considered the most dangerous man in Congress,” Gosar told the crowd, briefly touching on popular rightwing talking points – critical race theory in schools, disrespect for the military, and “empty shelves” in stores – before focusing on the central theme of the rally: elections.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/26/paul-gosar-far-right-republicans
Grown Man Accused of Spitting on Kids for Wearing Masks
A middle-age Southern California man is accused of lying in wait outside local schools for children wearing masks—and then following them around so he can cough at them, spit on them, and taunt them for being “stupid” enough to don the face coverings.
The man, captured on video wearing a “Your mask makes you look stupid” T-shirt, has allegedly been continuing his anti-mask harassment campaign for a month in suburban La Crescenta, with a string of alleged incidents under his belt. Fed-up parents finally had enough this week and gathered at the Crescenta Valley Station to demand police take action.
“[The kids] were obviously getting scared. He was getting three to five inches away and coughing in their faces,” one parent who witnessed the alleged harassment, identified only as Ned, told CBS Los Angeles.
The Crescenta Valley Station, part of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, issued a statement Monday promising a “thorough investigation” into the man after one incident was captured on camera.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cops-investigate-grown-man-who-allegedly-spit-on-kids-for-wearing-masks?ref=home
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Anyone does this to my grandkids and they are facing one enormous civil lawsuit in addition to being charged with assault on a minor. I would see to that.
The Untold Racist History of One of Medicine's Biggest Tools
On the morning of June 19, 2020—Juneteenth, now a federal holiday—students in the Internal Medicine Residency Program at the University of California, Davis gathered for weekly rounds. Rachael Lucatorto, the associate program director, opened the session by playing a recording of the Emancipation Proclamation. She then jumpstarted a discussion about racism in medicine.
For Bisrat Woldemichael, then a fourth year medical student at UC Davis and now a resident at Emory University, it was a chance to speak about racism in kidney care, or nephrology. Black Americans experience kidney failure nearly four times as often as White Americans. And yet they are less likely to receive timely referrals to a specialist.
One big problem, Woldemichael remembers pointing out that June morning, was that a common tool for measuring kidney health factored in race. “Racism is very obviously present in a lot of ‘objective’ data in medicine,” she says. Many equations and guidelines adjust for race, and while it is sometimes a convenient proxy, critics say doing so reinforces stereotypes and that alternatives could yield more precise results. For kidney health, the practice could lead to great harm, she says, including death.
Most people have two kidneys—bean-shaped organs about the size of a fist—which, among other things, clean the blood, balance electrolytes, and help form red blood cells. To estimate kidney function, doctors use a standard equation called the eGFR, or estimated glomerular filtration rate. The equation uses the kidneys’ ability to filter a waste product called creatinine to help estimate their health. Plugging the creatinine level into a calculator helps to gauge kidney function, just as a cuff around an upper arm offers an estimate of blood pressure. As kidney function declines, creatinine blood levels rise.
At the time of the UC Davis meeting, the calculator accounted for higher creatinine levels for Black people than other ethnicities. That could have made some Black people’s kidneys appear healthier than they were, delaying life-saving transplants.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-campaign-to-purge-racial-bias-from-a-decades-old-medical-tool-used-to-assess-kidney-health?ref=home
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Fascinating. Please read the whole thing before commenting. Thanks.
10 Things That Aren't In Your Bible
(I posted this here for those of you who don't read in the Religion section. Thought you might find it interesting.)
There are many things Christians think are in the Bible, but aren’t. Here’s a list of 10, in case you are interested.
I. The Rapture
There are a bunch of American Christians who think that the Rapture is taught in the Bible. It’s not. That doctrine was not developed until 1830, by a guy named John Nelson Darby. He based his entire theological system off a girl’s vivid dreams, and read his interpretation into the texts.
II. LGBTQ Clobber Passages
There are 6 or 7 so-called clobber passages that many Christians think condemn the LGBTQ community. They are incorrect. There is nothing in the Bible that condemns us. There are passages that condemn certain practices that involve coercion, but nothing that condemns same-gendered love. To read a condemnation of the LGBTQ community into the Bible is to engage in a gross anachronism.
III. Violent Jesus
Many Christians love themselves a violent Jesus, one who is gonna come back to kick ass and take names. The problem is that that Jesus never existed. Sure, a Jesus who flipped tables and got angry existed, but not one who endorsed actual violence. To see a violent Jesus in the text is to eisegete rather than exegete.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/allsetfree/2022/01/10-things-that-arent-in-your-bible/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=FBCP-TCL&fbclid=IwAR2lou0qFMBEJ3NRb2U1x2IbTz5JaTqFYuojO76H3Ejk9pscnAZfP_XSUKI
10 Things That Aren't In Your Bible
There are many things Christians think are in the Bible, but aren’t. Here’s a list of 10, in case you are interested.
I. The Rapture
There are a bunch of American Christians who think that the Rapture is taught in the Bible. It’s not. That doctrine was not developed until 1830, by a guy named John Nelson Darby. He based his entire theological system off a girl’s vivid dreams, and read his interpretation into the texts.
II. LGBTQ Clobber Passages
There are 6 or 7 so-called clobber passages that many Christians think condemn the LGBTQ community. They are incorrect. There is nothing in the Bible that condemns us. There are passages that condemn certain practices that involve coercion, but nothing that condemns same-gendered love. To read a condemnation of the LGBTQ community into the Bible is to engage in a gross anachronism.
III. Violent Jesus
Many Christians love themselves a violent Jesus, one who is gonna come back to kick ass and take names. The problem is that that Jesus never existed. Sure, a Jesus who flipped tables and got angry existed, but not one who endorsed actual violence. To see a violent Jesus in the text is to eisegete rather than exegete.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/allsetfree/2022/01/10-things-that-arent-in-your-bible/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=FBCP-TCL&fbclid=IwAR2lou0qFMBEJ3NRb2U1x2IbTz5JaTqFYuojO76H3Ejk9pscnAZfP_XSUKI
How to Get Busted for Trafficking Guns to Cartels: Brag About It on Facebook
A family-run arms trafficking ring was busted by U.S. authorities after the son allegedly bragged in Facebook messages about working with a powerful Mexican drug cartel, then sent videos of guns and cash.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the charges Monday, alleging that the group smuggled guns, ammunition, and weapons accessories bought in Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and Nebraska into Mexico to be sold to the hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG for its Spanish acronym).
The alleged leader of the trafficking organization, Marco Santillan Sr., and his son, Marco Santillan Jr., were arrested along with two other co-conspirators, Michael Diaz and Luis De Arcos. A fifth member of the organization, named Anthony Marmolejo, was already in state custody on separate charges in North Carolina. A sixth man—Rafael Magallon Castillo—remains at large and is believed to be in Mexico, according to prosecutors.
The indictment against the six alleged arms traffickers painted a damning portrait of the organization’s activities since March 2020. Authorities alleged that they trafficked assault rifles, hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, rifle scopes, and kits to assemble six-barrel rotary machine guns that can fire up to 6,000 rounds per minute.
But while the gang was ambitious, they didn't seem to be very good at keeping a low profile—especially 29-year-old Santillan Jr.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgmdpg/how-to-get-busted-for-trafficking-guns-to-cartels-brag-about-it-on-facebook
'I grew up in care alone - why did no-one tell me I had siblings?'
Note: This story is from the UK, but the same thing happens in the US. It should be stopped!
Ashley John-Baptiste grew up in care believing he was an only child. Then, out of the blue, he received a message from a brother he never knew he had. He set out to explore what being split from siblings means to those who have been in the care system.
As a toddler, I was placed in the care system. By 18, I had been moved between four foster families and a residential care home in south-east London.
It's really hard to describe what it was like growing up in so many different homes. It felt like being under a cloud of rejection - no sense of family, no sense of belonging. I did meet my birth mum when I was 10, but never met my dad. I always wondered why I wasn't adopted - was it ever a possibility?
Living in that residential home with other children gave me my first taste of brotherhood, but we had no control over our relationships in the long term. We would be moved, and disappear from each other's lives.
Children who are placed in care are given "life story" sessions by their local authority - this is where a social worker tells a child what they know about their family background and history. I was around seven when I had mine, and I was told I was an only child.
So it was a huge shock when, in my mid-20s, a man messaged me on Facebook to tell me he was my older brother. I can still remember the visceral sense of confusion I felt when I first saw his message. I had to re-read it several times.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-60075421
It Sure Looks Like This Arizona Republican Used Campaign Cash To Attend Jan. 6 Riot
It’s no secret that Anthony Kern, who is running for state Senate in Arizona, went to Washington for the infamous “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021. He even posted an image of his flight on Facebook.
But according to new campaign finance data, it appears that he also used campaign money to fund the trip.
Last week, Kern — a former GOP state representative who lost reelection in 2020 — submitted campaign finance data to the Arizona Board of Elections that raises additional questions about his conduct leading up to the U.S. Capitol riot.
The campaign finance disclosure form, which lists Kern’s expenditures and the contributions he received in 2021, shows that his campaign paid for three unusual travel and lodging-related expenses shortly before and after Jan. 6, 2021.
First, on Jan. 4, the day that Kern posted a photo of himself flying to Washington, his campaign paid him $980.96 for an expense described as “Travel - Lodging.”
The next day, Kern’s campaign paid him $478 for an “airline ticket.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anthony-kern-capitol-riot-campaign-funds_n_61f038b4e4b067cbfa14bc42
Federal court orders Alabama redraw Congressional map
Federal judges on Monday blocked Alabama's Congressional map and ordered the Republican-majority legislature to redraw a new map that matches the state's demographics, and has two Congressional districts with a substantial amount of Black voters.
The three-judge panel, including two judges appointed by former President Trump and one circuit judge appointed by former President Clinton, said the latest Congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act by drawing only one seat where Black voters make up a majority or plurality of the district.
"Black voters have less opportunity than other Albamians to elect candidates of their choice to Congress," the judges wrote. "Any remedial plan will need to include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it."
Alabama's Black residents currently make up 26.8% of the state's population, and account for 34% of the state's entire population increase last decade. The majority were drawn into Alabama's 7th district, which has a Black voting age population of over 54%, according to the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alabama-redistricting-map-congress-majority-black-district/
Pencils down: College Board announces the SAT is going digital
The SAT, once viewed as a critical step to getting into college, will be shorter and administered online amid a major shift in its format brought on by the pandemic and the test's growing irrelevance.
The paper test currently takes roughly three hours to complete, but the digital version will be cut down to about two hours with more time given in between questions, the College Board announced Tuesday.
“The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant,” Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of College Readiness Assessments at the College Board, said in a news release.
The test will start online in the U.S. in 2024, and internationally in 2023.
The College Board, which administers the SAT, PSAT and other college-entrance exams, announced a number of other changes to the test.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sat-will-shorter-going-digital-college-board-announces-rcna13451
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