April 30, 2021

Can Democrats Avoid a Wipeout in 2022?

Biden’s plan: Go big or go home.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/04/biden-address-can-democrats-avoid-2022-wipeout/618746/



The good news for Democrats who watched Joe Biden unveil a historically ambitious agenda last night is that newly elected presidents have almost always passed some version of their core economic plan—particularly when their party controls both congressional chambers, as Biden’s does now. The bad news: Voters have almost always punished the president’s party in the next midterm election anyway. The last two times Democrats had unified control—with Bill Clinton in 1993–94 and Barack Obama in 2009–10—they endured especially resounding repudiations in the midterms, which cost Clinton his majority in both chambers and Obama the loss of the House. The scale of the agenda Biden laid out last night underscores Democrats’ conviction that their best chance to avoid that fate again in 2022 is to go big with their proposals. Counting the coronavirus stimulus plan approved earlier this year, Biden has now proposed more than $5 trillion in new spending initiatives over the next decade—far more than Clinton or Obama ever offered—to be partially paid for by tax increases on corporations and affluent families.

On cultural and social issues, Democrats are likewise pursuing a much more ambitious lineup than Clinton or Obama did; Biden is endorsing measures related to a panoramic array of liberal priorities, including election reform; police accountability; citizenship for young undocumented immigrants; statehood for Washington, D.C.; LGBTQ rights; and gun control. “There’s a very different strategy this time,” David Price, a Democratic representative from North Carolina and a former political scientist, told me. “There’s an openness now to the sense that a bolder plan, ironically, might have greater appeal for independents and others we need to attract than trying to trim and split the difference” with Republicans. That “bolder plan” from Biden and congressional Democrats is so all-encompassing that historians are legitimately comparing it to the two titanic 20th-century programs that transformed government’s role in American society: the New Deal under Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and the Great Society under Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s. “This is definitely FDR and Johnson territory, especially in the current age of polarization, where so little gets done,” Julian Zelizer, a Princeton historian, told me.

What makes Biden’s approach especially striking is that he’s pursuing these goals with a tiny House majority and a Senate split exactly 50–50 between the parties. (By comparison, Democratic senators had a 23-seat advantage during Roosevelt’s presidency and a 36-seat advantage during Johnson’s.) Biden’s job-approval rating stands only slightly above 50 percent; most surveys suggest that his base of support hasn’t changed much since the November election, despite a recovering economy and his success at accelerating the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations. Republicans believe the magnitude of Biden’s plans will inspire significant backlash from GOP voters in 2022. “Democrats get in trouble when they overreach on spending, taxes, regulating guns, and when the border is a mess,” Bill McInturff, a longtime Republican pollster, told me. “You can see the possibility already [that] all of this could come together in 2022 and create a difficult cycle for President Biden and the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.” Democrats, for their part, are hoping that they “will be rewarded for solving big problems and … Republicans will be punished for sitting on the sidelines and just driving political rhetoric,” John Anzalone, one of Biden’s lead pollsters during the election, told me.

Yet Democrats’ fear of failure may be fuelling the ambitions on vivid display last night just as much as their hope of success is. While most Democrats believe that going big offers them their best chance of maintaining at least one of their majorities next year, many quietly acknowledge that, no matter what they achieve, they face long odds of holding the House in the first midterm election after the decennial redistricting process spurred by the census. And given the difficulty of reaching consensus with Republicans, many Democrats think that their window for significant legislative accomplishments will slam shut if the GOP wins either chamber in 2022. “There is this recognition of this moment and how fleeting it is, and an evaluation that, absent the trifecta of control, it is very hard to move big policy,” said a senior official at one of the party’s leading outside advocacy groups, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategizing. “So you have to take your shot. I think that’s part of what undergirds ‘Go big.’”

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April 29, 2021

Malta Will Pay for Part of Your Trip This Summer

Get a discount for spending time on a Mediterranean island.

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/malta-discounted-trip-summer-2021



The gorgeous Mediterranean island of Malta is looking to welcome travellers again this summer by offering perks to anyone looking to enjoy its ancient temples, beautiful beaches, and the narrow, alluring streets of Valletta. The Malta Tourism Authority wants to bring 35,000 visitors to the islands with the added motivation through its new "Incentives for Free Independent Travellers" program. The Authority has put $4.2 million (€3.5m) toward chipping in on the costs travellers face. You can get up to about $120 per person when you're staying for a minimum of three nights starting in June.

To get the perks, you'll have to apply and you're going to have to stay in a five-, four-, or three-star hotel. The Malta Tourism Authority's website says it will offer about $120 (€100) per person if you're staying at a five-star hotel. That drops to about $90 (€75) per person, and about $60 (€50) if you're staying at a participating three-star hotel. The hotels that are part of the program are expected to match what the Authority is providing each tourist, allowing the traveller to spend that on accommodations, food, or other services at the hotel.

You'll find a lot of travellers staying in Valletta and Sliema, but if you travel to the smaller island of Gozo (you need to take a ferry to get there), tourists will get an extra 10% added onto the incentive. However, a representative from the Malta Tourism Authority tells Thrillist that each hotel will have its own terms and conditions for travellers to get the money, which essentially amounts to a discount on their hotel room (cash is not distributed). Those terms and conditions could include a minimum number of nights you have to stay, according to the representative.

Malta is not open to all foreign travellers right now. However, the country's current plan for "exit from partial lockdown" includes opening up to tourism by June 1. This program will start on that date and run until the Authority has used up the program's budget. The representative tells Thrillist that at that time, you'll be able to get the perk by booking directly through hotels that are part of the program. It won't apply if you book through a third-party booking company. The representative also said that a list of hotels is expected to be available through the Authority's website starting on May 15. It's certainly not a free trip, but it's going to make it a lot more alluring to splurge on a hotel, especially along the beaches of Gozo.

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April 29, 2021

This Company Will Pay You $42,000 a Year to Smoke Weed

It's a real job. You'll have to work. But it does have its perks.

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/weed-reviewer-job-april-2021



We're well beyond—or should be, at least—the point where cannabis is taboo. We are not, maybe, past the point where it's novel to see jobs that involve getting paid to get high.

As the industry expands and legalization spreads to more and more states in the US, jobs in the industry are likely to become more plentiful. That includes jobs like this one from Vaped.com. The company is looking to hire a full-time remote vaporizer tester, offering $42,000 a year and three weeks of vacation. There's also a $250 a month expense account to procure products to put in the vaporizers being reviewed. You'll also be getting a lot of vaporizers.

“I need someone who is confident to take over reviews, someone who knows the difference between a Volcano and an Xmax Starry. Who understands what each customer is looking for," Founder Christian Sculthorp said.

The company says the expense account can be used on cannabis, but if you don't live in a state where it's legal, you can still apply. You can use the expense account to get something else to put in the vaporizer. A representative tells Thrillist that they'll be taking applications through the end of April. So, you've still got a little time to pull everything together and throw your hat in the smoke ring.

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April 29, 2021

'Crazy Times Carnival' to take place on same grounds as Maricopa County election audit

https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2021/04/28/crazy-times-carnival-take-place-same-grounds-election-audit/4876686001/



The Arizona State Fairgrounds announced Monday that a new carnival will kick off Thursday on the same grounds where a Maricopa County election audit is taking place.

The "Crazy Times Carnival" is scheduled to run 11 nights outside the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, where auditors are hand counting nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in the November 2020 general election.

Maintaining security at the coliseum has been a key concern during the audit. Jen Yee, a spokesperson for the fairgrounds, said the carnival will be fenced off, with the north lot set aside for audit parking.

The fairgrounds marketing team brainstormed names for possible live events early in the pandemic "when the world first imploded," Yee said. They came up with "Crazy Times Carnival" well before the Nov. 3 election or before anyone imagined a ballot recount happening inside the coliseum.

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April 29, 2021

Manuel Herz Architects creates synagogue that opens like a pop-up book

Swiss studio Manuel Herz Architects has created a pop-up synagogue at Babyn Yar in Ukraine to mark the 80th anniversary of a massacre that took place during the Holocaust.

https://www.dezeen.com/2021/04/23/pop-up-synagogue-babyn-yar-manuel-herz-architects-pop-up-book/

Named the Babyn Yar Synagogue, the place of worship consists of two large walls that can be manually opened and closed like a pop-up book. The synagogue was built near Kyiv at the site of the Babyn Yar massacre, where around 34,000 Jews from the city were killed by the Nazi party over two days in 1941 – one of the largest mass killings during the Holocaust. Manuel Herz Architects founder Manuel Herz designed the building to mark the 80th anniversary of the massacre. However, he did not want to create a sombre memorial. "One might think that the appropriate response to this almost unbelievably inhumane massacre should be an architecture that is sombre, minimalist, and monumental," Herz told Dezeen. "The architectural history of holocaust memorials is full of these. But I wanted to approach the project in a very different way."

Instead of creating a monumental building, Herz designed a structure that has movement and was informed by both historic wooden synagogues in Ukraine and pop-up books. "I strongly believe that a monumental, and static approach would be wrong," said Herz. "We will never match the monumental suffering of the massacre, through monumental architecture." "The conclusive, definitive and absolute message that a monumental and static building would suggest, stands at odds with the tens of thousands of distinctive voices that perished in Babyn Yar," he continued. "Hence, the idea was borne to design an architecture that has a performative and transformative quality, that creates a new collective ritual, that is commemorative, just as it also creates a feeling of wonder and awe."

The building consists of a pair of 11-metre-high and eight-metre wide walls that were constructed from steel and clad in oak. One of the walls is set on a track so that it can be moved using a manual winch. When folded the two walls are positioned together, but when unfolded a three-dimensional synagogue is created with a roof that pops up and a balcony and seating that folds down. "I believe no one can resist the temptation of opening up a pop-up book and seeing how a new world unfolds," said Herz. "We can get lost in this new world, which is exactly what happens, when we come together, to pray in a synagogue – we open a book together," he continued. "A world of stories, of histories, of morals, and of wisdom.

The pop-up book, when transformed into a building, with its transformative quality, and the collective ritual of opening and closing it, seemed to be the perfect leitmotiv for the Babyn Yar Synagogue." The synagogue stands on a wooden platform and has walls decorated with prayers and blessings. Its ceiling is painted with the star constellation that would have been visible over Kyiv, on the date of the massacre in 1941 along with symbols and iconography referencing interiors of the historic synagogues of Ukraine from the 17th and 18th century. The Babyn Yar Synagogue is the first of several buildings that are planned to commemorate the Babyn Yar massacre on the site, with a museum to commemorate the Holocaust, a memorial depicting the names of the victims and a spiritual centre set to be built.

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April 28, 2021

Trumpland: Inside the Church of Bleach Drinkers

FEVER DREAMS PODCAST

A scammy father-son duo have been peddling the dangerous substance as a “cure” for COVID-19 and other ills under the guise of religious freedom.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-church-of-bleach-drinkers







Anti-'stay-at-home' protestor drinks water from a bottle of bleach labelled 'COVID CURE'. AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

April 28, 2021

European parliament votes through Brexit deal with big majority

UK and EU senior figures hail moment as a ‘new chapter’ of friendly relations after four years of division

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/28/european-parliament-votes-through-brexit-deal-with-big-majority

The European parliament has given its overwhelming backing to the Brexit trade and security deal, prompting senior figures on both sides to speak of hope for a “new chapter” of friendly relations after four years of division.

Five MEPs voted against the deal, with 660 in favour and 32 abstentions, although in an accompanying resolution the chamber described the referendum result of 23 June 2016 as a “historic mistake”.

As the result was announced, Boris Johnson issued a statement that sought to define the vote as the end of the tortuous Brexit process that had cost two of his predecessors in Downing Street their jobs.

He said: “This week is the final step in a long journey, providing stability to our new relationship with the EU as vital trading partners, close allies and sovereign equals. Now is the time to look forward to the future and to building a more global Britain.”

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April 28, 2021

Swedish islanders warned to 'stay away from explosive whale'

A small town on the Swedish island of Öland has issued a stark warning to locals and visitors not to come too close to a nearby beached humpback whale for fear it might explode.

https://www.thelocal.se/20210428/swedish-islanders-warned-to-stay-away-from-explosive-whale/



On Wednesday morning, the municipality of Mörbylånga issued a public notice stating that it was “dangerous”, and that it was issuing a “strong warning not to under any circumstances approach the whale cadaver”.

“People are so interested that they are putting on waders and stomping around near the whale,” Staffan Åsén, the town’s environment chief, told Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT. He said that when local and national authorities are working with the whale, they wear helmets and other safety equipment.

“The whale is now filling up with gas as a result of putrefaction and could explode,” he said. “These are powerful forces you should not treat lightly.” The humpback whale caused a sensation after it was found dead and stranded just 40 metres from the shore on the beach outside the town on April 20th.

Poet and photographer Anders Johansson, who found the whale, told SVT that he suspected it was the same whale that had been spotted off the coast of Gotland earlier in the month.

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Öland

April 27, 2021

The right seems increasingly detached from reality, but it is a detachment with a purpose.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/

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Right-wing pundits are fantasizing about being afraid of the left. After the guilty verdict in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on George Floyd’s neck until he died, Fox News personality Tucker Carlson and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) both implied that the nation’s cities are boarded up and people are cowering in fear from protesters against police brutality. They seem to be saying that imagined excesses of the left justify extreme behavior from the right. That is, in their telling, left-wing protesters are so out of control, their actions justify any sort of a crackdown they bring upon themselves.

On Twitter, lawyer and political writer Teri Kanefield did a deeper dive on the way lies serve the authoritarian government of fascism. Stories like that about meat, or about the inhabitants of the nation’s capital being afraid to go outside, or the idea that the January 6 insurrectionists were Biden supporters are not true, and those who tell them know it. But those lies illuminate what those who tell them see as a higher truth, doing so in a way that ordinary people can understand. People challenging the lie prove they do not accept the higher truth, and thus are enemies.

History suggests we’re in dangerous territory. Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law the “Combatting Public Disorder Act,” designed, as he said, to “stand for the rule of law and public safety.” Recalling the summer’s protests, he said, “We are holding those who incite violence in our communities accountable, supporting our law enforcement officers who risk their lives every day to keep us safe and protecting Floridians from the chaos of mob violence. We’re also putting an end to the bullying and intimidation tactics of the radical left by criminalizing doxing and requiring restitution for damaging memorials and monuments by rioters.”

The new law lowers a “riot” to three people and dramatically increases punishments for “rioting,” including the loss of the right to vote. It also makes local governments financially liable if they do not respond aggressively enough to “unlawful assembly,” and it protects people who happen to injure or kill a protester during a riot, including by driving a car into them. But a study by The Guardian, released earlier this month, suggests that the summer’s mass arrests were an attempt to control crowds, silence protests, and turn observers against the protesters by portraying them as violent and lawbreaking. Law enforcement dropped, dismissed, or never filed the vast majority of citations and charges it issued to Black Lives Matter protesters.

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April 26, 2021

Archbishop' of Sham Church Behind Deadly Coronavirus Cure Grift Hit With New Indictment: DOJ

https://www.thedailybeast.com/archbishop-of-sham-church-mark-grenon-behind-deadly-coronavirus-cure-grift-hit-with-new-indictment



A Florida family that has for years allegedly used a sham church to peddle a toxic cleaning solution as a miracle cure for everything from cancer to COVID-19 has been indicted on fraud and criminal contempt charges in addition to the ones levied against them last year. Mark Grenon and his three sons—Jonathan, Jordan, and Joseph—face up to life behind bars after a federal grand jury indicted them on Friday for the years-long scam that prosecutors say they have been running out of a “non-religious church” established solely to evade oversight and regulations.

They were first hit with related fraud charges in July 2020, landing two of them in custody and prompting two others—Mark Grenon, the church’s so-called “archbishop,” and Joseph—to flee to Colombia, where prosecutors say they remain on the lam. The latest indictment ups the maximum sentence they may face on conviction. The two who did not manage to escape the country, Jonathan and Jordan, are due to be arraigned on Monday in federal magistrate court in Miami.



At the center of the grift, prosecutors say, is the “Miracle Mineral Solution” the family has dubbed a “sacrament” of the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing. The Grenon family allegedly pushed the toxic liquid on vulnerable groups, telling the parents of autistic children and women with breast cancer that the solution—a dangerous industrial cleaning solution—would heal them. According to the Department of Justice, the Grenons have sold “tens of thousands of bottles” of the Miracle Mineral Solution to people nationwide. Prosecutors say a search of Jonathan Grenon’s home at the time of his arrest last year revealed that “MMS” was being manufactured in a backyard shed. Almost 10,000 pounds of sodium chlorite powder was found on the premises, along with several loaded firearms, including a pump-action shotgun hidden inside a violin case, the DOJ said.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, drinking MMS is no different than swigging bleach. The FDA, which had issued a warning against ingesting the chemical, “received reports of people requiring hospitalizations, developing life-threatening conditions, and even dying after drinking MMS,” federal prosecutors said. The Genesis II Church that the Grenons used to sell the solution for mandatory donations was nothing more than a way for them to dodge federal regulations, prosecutors say. Mark Grenon, the church’s so-called “archbishop,” is said to have admitted as much in a 2020 interview with a federal investigator as part of a related case.

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