As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
The UN's International Panel on Climate Change has their starkest warning yet on irreversible climate change approaching (how many more hundreds of stark warnings do we need at this point for meaningful climate action?):
Be mindful of the rotted out party and politicians in this country that would have you believe there's nothing to see here, and who want to create a cynical, false tradeoff between jobs and climate action.Human activity is changing the Earth’s climate in ways “unprecedented” in thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, with some of the changes now inevitable and “irreversible”, climate scientists have warned.
Within the next two decades, temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, breaching the ambition of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and bringing widespread devastation and extreme weather.
Only rapid and drastic reductions in greenhouse gases in this decade can prevent such climate breakdown, with every fraction of a degree of further heating likely to compound the accelerating effects, according to the International Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on climate science.
As the pandemic of the unvaccinated surges, public health experts want actions taken at the local level to mitigate the growing disaster:
Fauci also said he hoped the Food and Drug Administration would grant full approval of the coronavirus vaccines — now under emergency use authorizations — within the next month, though he emphasized that FDA officials were operating independently. Once that happens, Fauci said he thinks businesses, colleges and universities, and other local entities would feel “empowerment” to enact more of their own mandates.
Meanwhile, Floriduh Gov. Ron "One Glove" DeSantis continues his furious battle against that same public health advice and common sense, but the push-back is getting stronger:
The battle waged by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) against mask and vaccine mandates is facing challenges on multiple fronts.
His ban on vaccine passports was temporarily blocked by a federal judge late Sunday: Norwegian Cruise Line was cleared to require coronavirus vaccines for guests and crew members after U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams granted the company a preliminary injunction, blocking a Florida law championed by DeSantis that would have fined the cruise company for requiring vaccines.
Coronavirus protocols in schools are also in the spotlight as the head of the country’s second-largest teachers union on Sunday shifted course to signal support for vaccine mandates for teachers to protect students, especially those under 12 who are not old enough to be inoculated.
And a group of parents of disabled children in Florida sued Friday to block the state’s ban on mask mandates in schools. Florida education officials moved the same day to give students access to a state voucher program that helps pay for private tuition if their public schools require masks — an acknowledgment that some schools in the state are moving ahead with mask mandates despite the law.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 23,903 new coronavirus cases in Florida on Friday, the state's highest single-day total since the start of the pandemic.
Two days later, numbers from hospitals reporting to the Department of Health and Human Services showed Florida's inpatient beds at more than 83% occupancy. As of Sunday, 13,793 coronavirus patients accounted for 24% of the state's inpatient beds.
Florida has become the new epicenter of the country's coronavirus pandemic, as the highly contagious delta variant triggers a surge in cases nationwide.
COVID-19 patients currently occupy 19% of ICU beds in the U.S.; in Florida, it's almost 44%. And only about 11% of the state's ICU beds are available, for the time being, compared to 26% nationwide.
This ambitious, nihilist sociopath Governor has the same feral instincts as the malignant former guy, but more brains. He's a danger to his state; at some point, unless he's defeated, he might be a danger to us all someday.
Aaron Rupar gives us a heads- up on the soon- to- wrap- up (?) Arizona Republican fraudit:
Cyber Ninjas — the company running the GOP’s so-called “audit” of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County, Arizona — is expected to finally release a report summarizing its findings sometime in the next few weeks. But if past is precedent, the document will likely leave people in a fog of confusion.
That’s because the “audit,” which began in April at the behest of the state’s GOP-controlled Senate and is being paid for by a variety of far-right, pro-Trump sources, was never intended to be a good-faith investigation of election practices. On the contrary, it’s always been about bolstering Donald Trump’s lies about the election with false and misleading claims, then using them as a pretext to impose new voting restrictions aimed at giving Republicans an edge in future elections, including a possible Trump 2024 presidential run.
Inevitably, that means Cyber Ninjas will make claims just plausible enough to get credulous coverage from pro-Trump media, even if the claims can’t withstand scrutiny from impartial fact-checkers. Those claims can then be amplified by elected Republicans who won’t let facts get in the way of their narrative. Consider the dynamic at work in Tucker Carlson’s recent attempts to blame the FBI for the January 6 insurrection — a claim that was quickly debunked but was nonetheless touted by members of Congress like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.
Finally, we conclude by recommending a visit to Infidel 753's link round-up for the best, most comprehensive collection of links to blog posts you're likely to find anywhere. Be prepared to be enlightened, amused, and possibly enraged (but mostly enlightened).
