Monday Reading

 

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Another day, another deeply disturbed christofascist Republican acts out:

Kansas state Rep. Mark Samsel was arrested on charges of misdemeanor battery on Thursday after getting into a physical altercation with a student while substitute teaching in Wellsville. [snip]

On Wednesday, Samsel, R-Wellsville, was substitute teaching at the Wellsville school district’s secondary school. Throughout the day, high school students began recording videos of the lawmaker talking about suicide, sex, masturbation, God and the Bible.

In one video shared with The Star, Samsel tells students about “a sophomore who’s tried killing himself three times,” adding that it was because “he has two parents and they’re both females.”  [snip]

In another video, Samsel is recorded telling students, “make babies. Who likes making babies? That feels good, doesn’t it? Procreate ... You haven’t masturbated? Don’t answer that question. ... God already knows.” 

Videos shared with The Star — by parents of students in the class — show Samsel focusing most of his attention on one male student. Both Samsel and the student paced around the classroom, talking back and forth. Samsel is shown following the student around and grabbing him. In one video, he puts his arms around the student and says that he was being hard on him.

At one point, Samsel tells the student, “You’re about ready to anger me and get the wrath of God. Do you believe me when I tell you that God has been speaking to me?” He then pushes him, and the student runs to the other side of the classroom.

“You should run and scream.” 

In another video, he tells students, “Class, you have permission to kick him in the balls.”

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article251069219.html#storylink=cpy

Thank goodness for cell phone cameras. 

The vaccine- hesitant, MAGAts and anti- vaxxers combine to likely keep America from reaching "herd immunity":

Early in the pandemic, when vaccines for the coronavirus were still just a glimmer on the horizon, the term “herd immunity” came to signify the endgame: the point when enough Americans would be protected from the virus so we could be rid of the pathogen and reclaim our lives.

Now, more than half of adults in the United States have been inoculated with at least one dose of a vaccine. But daily vaccination rates are slipping, and there is widespread consensus among scientists and public health experts that the herd immunity threshold is not attainable — at least not in the foreseeable future, and perhaps not ever.

Instead, they are coming to the conclusion that rather than making a long-promised exit, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers.

Even at a lower rate, this is causing unnecessary death.  It's selfish and immoral, period.

At least one media outlet isn't letting local seditious Republicans escape down the memory hole:

 m
Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article251069219.html#storylink=cpy In another video, he tells students, “Class, you have permission to kick him in the balls.”

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article251069219.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article251069219.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article251069219.html#storylink=cpyIn another video, Samsel is recorded telling students, “make babies. Who likes making babies? That feels good, doesn’t it? Procreate ... You haven’t masturbated? Don’t answer that question. ... God already knows.”

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article251069219.html#storylink=cpy

In another video, Samsel is recorded telling students, “make babies. Who likes making babies? That feels good, doesn’t it? Procreate ... You haven’t masturbated? Don’t answer that question. ... God already knows.”

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article251069219.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article251069219.html#storylink=cpyAt least one media outlet isn't letting the actions of local Republicans trying to steal the election disappear down a memory hole:

The journalists at WITF, an all-news public radio station in Harrisburg, Pa., made a perfectly reasonable decision a few months ago.

They decided they wouldn’t shrug off the damaging lies of election denialism.

They wouldn’t do what too many in Big Journalism have done in recent months: shove into the memory hole the undemocratic efforts by some Republican elected officials to delegitimize or overturn the 2020 presidential election. [snip]

The deadly culmination of that anti-democratic lie, the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, solidified their thinking. In late January, the station — whose newsroom includes six reporters and two editors — posted an explanatory story stating that they would be regularly reminding their audience that some state legislators signed a letter urging Congress to vote against certifying the Pennsylvania election results, and that some members of Congress had voted against certifying the state’s election results for President Biden, despite no evidence to support their election-fraud claims.

These elected officials, WITF reminded its audience, either knowingly spread disinformation or flat-out lied in an effort to keep Trump in office.

A small, all- news public radio station practices ethical journalism and good public citizenship;  wouldn't it be grand if big corporate media had followed suit (CNN's "State of the Union" is the exception to the rule, as the article notes)?

If you're squeamish, you may want to skip this one about the plague of mice in Australia, another likely outcome of global climate change:

Australia, right now, feels a little biblical. There was a terrible drought, then the worst bush fires ever recorded. A flood came next. Now it’s the turn of the mice.

The scale of the mouse plague is hard to comprehend. In the western districts of New South Wales (NSW), the country’s most populous state, millions of mice are now on the march. There are also serious infestations in southern Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.

On social media, farmers post videos showing the swarm in action, while farming organizations say the cost is already in the millions.

When presenting reports of the mouse plague on Sydney radio, I issue a warning about “material that may disturb some listeners.” The details are disgusting. Consider yourself warned.

Bradley Wilshire, a farmer near Dubbo, captured more than 500 in one night and then shared details of how to build the bucket trap in which he caught them.

According to the Country Women’s Association, farmers have been bitten in their beds, with some protecting themselves from incursions by placing each leg of their bed or child’s cot in a bucket of sand or water.

Need a palate cleanser after that?  There's plenty to distract you over at Infidel 753's link round-up. It's a kaleidoscopic collection of links to posts that he's taken the time to curate just for you!