Tuesday News & Notes
OCTOBER 12, 2021 -- THEODORE ROOSEVELT OFFICIALLY CHANGES NAME OF EXECUTIVE MANSION TO THE WHITE HOUSE, 1901
•Members of the House of Representatives return to the Capitol to approve the $480-billion hike in the debt limit ceiling, which the Senate approved 50-49 last week in order to keep the federal government’s lights on through December 3. President Biden is expected to sign the bill this week, the Associated Press says. Next Monday marks the day Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin says the government would begin defaulting on payment for programs approved in the past, without the extension.
•Read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay column on Sen. Chuck Grassley’s fealty to Donald J. Trump at Sunday’s MAGA rally in “Iowa: Maybe Not What You Think.”
Believe Science Now? – At least 85% of the world’s population have experienced weather events made worse by climate change, a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change reports. The study used machine learning to analyze and map more than 100,000 studies of events, according to The Washington Post, paired with a well-established data set of population shifts caused by fossil fuel use and other carbon emission sources.
“We have a huge evidence base now that documents how climate change is affecting our societies and ecosystems,” said lead author Max Callaghan of Germany’s Mercator Institute of Global Commerce and Climate Change.
Note: All too obviously, this study comes as moderate and progressive Democrats argue over the large components in President Biden’s $3.5 trillion Bring Back Better budget reconciliation bill that attempt to address climate change and heading toward a carbon neutral fossil fuel use. Sen. Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, has proposed $100 billion in cuts to the bill’s environmental provisions, while Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, of course is trying to protect his state’s already dwindling coal economy.
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North Korea Creating First-Strike Capability — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while reviewing a parade of missiles that are said to be capable of reaching the U.S. mainland with nuclear warheads, said; “The U.S. has frequently signaled it’s not hostile to our state, but there is no action-based evidence to make us believe that they are not hostile,” and “The U.S. is continuing to create tensions in the region with its wrong judgments and actions,” according to the Associated Press, citing the official Korean Central News Agency. Kim is also quoted as saying they are working to develop an “invincible military capability.”
Note: According to the CIA World Factbook, commodity exports of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are watch components, fake hair, iron alloys, instructional models, tungsten.
If a nuclear power that makes those exports isn’t frightening, we don’t know what is.
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Texas Governor Bans Vaccine Mandates – Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has signed an executive order banning any entity in Texas from mandating coronavirus vaccines for workers or customers, The Washington Post reports. His action expands prior executive orders that placed such restrictions on state government office from imposing similar requirements.
Abbott also has asked the Texas legislature to enact his ban into law, Texas Public Radio reports.
Note: At this point, Abbott’s actions appear to be an attempt to pile on beleaguered President Biden’s failed promise to bring COVID-19 under control, which was partially undermined by last summer’s Delta variant, vaccine deniers and people like Abbott, who previously banned mask requirements. It is worth noting that the governor’s actions run counter to traditional Republican values of hands-off attitude toward private business -- apparently, these values belong to the “RINO” arm of the GOP.
Also note: WaPo reports in a separate story that two Wisconsin mothers are suing their children’s elementary schools after their sons contracted COVID-19. The children were required to wear masks when they returned to class during the last school year but were not required to do so when classes resumed this fall. The mothers, Shannon Jensen and Gina Kildahl, required their sons to wear masks to a Waukesha and a Fall Creek school, respectively anyway, but that did not prevent them from contracting the virus. Lawsuits filed in two Wisconsin federal courts blame the schools for lax attitude toward masks, quarantining and social distancing.
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Prison Labels Russian Dissident ‘Terrorist’ – Alexei Navalny says the prison that has held him since he returned to Russia in January after treatment for a nerve agent has changed his designation from “escape risk” to “extremist” and “terrorist,” Politico EU reports. Navalny is serving two years, eight months for alleged parole violations, and in June, a Russian court banned his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) from operating, labeling it “extremist.” In an Instagram post, Navalny said the new designation requires him to confirm his presence in the prison via video recording every two hours.
Note: One assumes that prison authorities know precisely where Navalny is and what he is doing every moment. The check-in requirement is undoubtedly just another way to keep the prisoner in line.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash