December 17, 2022

'Surreal spectacle': US botched 35% of execution attempts this year

(Guardian UK) As 2022 draws to a close, a new grim distinction can be attached to it: in America it was the year of the botched execution.

In its annual review of US capital punishment, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reveals the astonishing statistic that 35% of the 20 execution attempts carried out this year were visibly problematic.

Several were agonisingly drawn out as officials tried to secure a vein through which to inject lethal drugs, leading lawyers to describe the process as a form of torture. Others were carried out in violation of state protocols. Some went ahead even though there were defects in those protocols themselves.

As a result of these severe hitches, seven execution attempts could be construed as having been botched. Such a high proportion of problematic executions points to a gathering storm over the practice of lethal injections, the dominant method of judicial killings in the US which this month mark its 40th anniversary. .............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/15/us-death-penalty-data-execution-attempts-botched

December 17, 2022

After Hurricane Maria, many Puerto Ricans fled to Florida. Then Ian happened

After Hurricane Maria, many Puerto Ricans fled to Florida. Then Ian happened
The state's affordable housing crisis has made it almost impossible for storm victims to get back on their feet

By BRETT MARSH
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 16, 2022 5:30PM (EST)


When Hurricane Ian hit Central Florida last fall, Milly Santiago already knew what it was like to lose everything to a hurricane, to leave your home, to start over.

For her, that was the outcome of Hurricane Maria, which struck her native Puerto Rico in September 2017, killing thousands of residents and leaving the main island without power for nearly a year.

So in September 2022, nearly five years to the day when Maria tossed her life apart, Santiago was in suburban Orlando, visiting a friend. As torrents of heavy rain battered the roof of her friend's home, and muddy waters flooded the streets, she realized they were trapped.

And that her life was going to change, again.

....(snip)....

"There are people who feel like, 'Man, I just came here from Puerto Rico and here I am in this situation again,'" said Jose Nieves, a pastor at the First United Methodist Church in Kissimmee, a suburb of Orlando. Nieves' work in recent years has extended to supporting immigrant families affected by natural disaster displacement in Central Florida.

Central Florida is home to large Latin American and Caribbean communities. Many members work in low-wage and low-skilled jobs in the area's robust tourism industry, which is nonetheless vulnerable to the economic fallout from natural disasters like Ian. Puerto Ricans and other Latin Americans are also among the millions of Florida residents who live in homes without flood insurance. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/12/16/after-hurricane-maria-many-puerto-ricans-fled-to-florida-then-ian-happened_partner/

December 15, 2022

Louie Gohmert, low IQ seditionist

Newly revealed text messages from former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows' phone show that former Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, was a true believer in the false conspiracy theory that Antifa was really behind the January 6th Capitol riots.

As reported by Talking Points Memo, Gohmert sent Meadows a text message on January 8th, two days after the assault on the Capitol, pushing the Trump chief of staff to get the Department of Justice involved in an investigation to uncover the purported truth about the riots.

"Constitutional loyal DOJ personnel have 11 days to prove the truth: Antifa led the breach of the Capitol," Gohmert wrote to Meadows. "If the evidence is not shown to the public in 11 days, then it will be subverted & the false narrative will likely be the Trump legacy that DT & his loyal supporters under his urging attacked the Capitol. It was a brilliant leftist op, but it's got to be exposed by DOJ quick." ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/12/15/leaked-text-louie-gohmert-urged-to-use-loyal-doj-personnel-to-prove-antifa-did-jan-6_partner/

December 13, 2022

Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested. What happens next to the FTX founder?

(Guardian UK) FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas following the bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency exchange, which left over a million investors owed billions of dollars. So what happens next?

Why was Bankman-Fried arrested and what was he charged with?

The Southern District of New York (SDNY) said on Monday night that he was arrested based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY. “We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,” it added.

The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) subsequently said it had “authorized separate charges relating to [Bankman-Fried’s alleged] violation of securities laws, to be filed publicly tomorrow [Tuesday] in SDNY.”

That will give us an insight into what Bankman-Fried will be facing if and when he is extradited to the United States.

According to reports, Bankman-Fried complied with police during the arrest. ..........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/13/sam-bankman-fried-arrest-ftx-cryptocurrency-exchange-what-happens-next

December 13, 2022

Republicans have a plan -- to hold America hostage over the debt ceiling yet again

Republicans have a plan — to hold America hostage over the debt ceiling yet again
GOP readies another round of legislative terrorism in search of spending cuts. Biden needs to fight back hard

By MIKE LOFGREN
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 13, 2022 5:45AM (EST)


(Salon) Sometime during the next session of Congress, Republicans will check the box on one of their perennial agenda items whenever a Democrat is president: Threatening to crash the entire U.S. economy if the president doesn't submit to their demand to slash the safety net of senior citizens.

Leading up to the midterm elections, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, did a lot of thinking out loud about entitlement "reform" (meaning cuts to Social Security and Medicare) that Republicans might undertake should the expected red wave bring them into the majority. Around the same time, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy began talking about the spending cuts a putative House majority would force by using the extension of the statutory debt limit as a bargaining chip, although he refused to be precise as to which programs would be slashed.

The red wave, of course, never reached the shore: Democrats retained the Senate, while McCarthy is presumed to become the speaker of a slim and nearly unmanageable Republican House majority. But Satan never sleeps, and neither do Republicans. Even though their political position is considerably weaker than they had hoped, they have pressed on with their policy intentions. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, a member of Senate Republican leadership, has explicitly linked social program cuts to an extension of the debt ceiling. He downplayed the risk of default, even though there is no point in linking the two issues unless the Republicans plausibly threaten to trigger such a credit crisis. To do otherwise would be like holding a rubber knife to a hostage's throat.

To date, President Biden's response has been mystifying. He insisted in October that he "would not yield" to Republican pressure, but also said he opposed either repealing the debt ceiling or raising the limit by such a large number as to pull the issue off the table for a long time to come, since such a bill might run into a Republican filibuster. Admittedly, neither approach would enjoy smooth legislative sailing, either in a lame-duck session or in the succeeding Congress (the debt limit could be reached as soon as the first quarter of 2023). But Biden's reactions so far have weakened any political leverage he might have had. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/12/13/have-a-plan--to-hold-america-hostage-over-the-debt-ceiling-yet-again/

December 12, 2022

Florida man upset over free pizza offer points gun at patrons, deputies say

A man accused of pointing a loaded gun at several patrons, threatening to kill them after they were offered free pizza at a Cuban restaurant faces multiple charges.

According to his arrest report the Lee County Sheriff's Office, Cristian Andrade-Banegas, 34, of Houston, Florida, on Wednesday pointed what witnesses called a "machine gun" at several patrons eating at a Cuban restaurant in the 5600 block of Bayshore Road, in North Fort Myers.

Andrade-Banegas became upset because those accepting the pizza from the restaurant had already eaten their food, the report says.

After the argument, Andrade-Banegas retrieved the firearm from his pickup and pointed it at six patrons as he threatened to kill them.

When deputies arrived, a patron who recorded the incident played that footage for authorities, the report says. .........(more)

https://news.yahoo.com/florida-man-upset-over-free-172840891.html

December 12, 2022

Ultraprocessed foods contribute to disease and early death. Why do we keep eating them?

Ultraprocessed foods contribute to disease and early death. Why do we keep eating them?
"In general, it would be preferred to purchase foods with five ingredients or less in them."

By MICHAEL LA CORTE
Columnist
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 12, 2022 3:00PM (EST)


(Salon) When thinking of processed foods, your thoughts may immediately go to candies, chips, sodas, "junk food," fast food, and the like. For many, there's an automatic sort of guilt that may unconsciously and pervasively be associated with these products, often attributed to weight, diet, societal pressures and general health. A recent study done in Brazil stated that "ultraprocessed foods have been associated with an increased risk of noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer as well as an all-cause mortality."

Beyond dietary and nutritional concerns, though, this new study published earlier this month in the JAMA Neurological publication actually even noted "a higher percentage of daily energy consumptions of ultraprocessed foods was associated with cognitive decline among adults from an ethnically diverse sample."

Clearly, ultraprocessed foods really are just as "bad" as we're often believed to think and apparently in multiple capacities. But what exactly is an "ultraprocessed" food? And what should we be especially steering clear of?

The aforementioned Brazil-based study was published in November of this year in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine and titled "Premature Deaths Attributable to the Consumption of Ultraprocessed Foods in Brazil." In it, ultraprocessed foods are characterized as such: "industrial formulations of substances derived from foods (oils, fats, sugars, starch, protein, isolates) that contain little to no whole food and are often added with flavors, colors, emulsifiers, and other additives for cosmetic purposes." In other words, this can range from anything from lollipops and microwavable noodle bowls to frozen dinners or cold cuts.

....(snip)....

Russomanno added that "the most highly-processed items are the ones that are most affordable. This is a problem within the food system itself as we provide subsidies to farmers who grow our three primary commodity crops – corn, soy, and wheat. One or all of these ingredients is found in 80% of foods that are on grocery store shelves today. We are systematically rewarding the production of the crops that are making people sick." .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/12/12/ultraprocessed-foods-contribute-to-disease-and-early-death-why-do-we-keep-eating-them/

December 11, 2022

Outdoor cats are an invasive species and a threat to themselves, scientists say

(Salon) Afree-roaming cat is not a happy cat. In fact, according to a new study in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, free-roaming domesticated cats are a downright menace to local wildlife — and this is the case largely due to the irresponsibility of their human owners. The new research contributes to an ever-growing body of literature on how humanity's love for cats is changing the natural world.

This particular study was conducted by American and Canadian researchers, who used a camera trap survey to examine the interactions of free-roaming domesticated cats in the Washington, D.C. area over a period of three years.

The scientists also analyzed the interactions of eight native mammal species, five of which are commonly preyed upon by cats and three of which are notorious vectors of disease. They found that where there are more humans, there are more likely to be cats — and where there are more cats, there are more likely to be cat interactions with disease-carrying mammals like raccoons and red foxes. Additionally, where there are more cats, there are white-footed mice and eastern cottontails being preyed upon by ferocious felines.

"Our research was driven by a desire to inform more effective and humane population management practices for outdoor cats to protect cats and wildlife alike," Daniel Joseph Herrera, a PhD student studying urban ecology at the University of Maryland–College Park, told Salon by email. Interestingly, the study also debunked certain myths about housecats, namely, the notion that they are nocturnal. Rather, researchers found that "instead of having peaks of activity at night (nocturnal) or day (diurnal), cats — as a species – maintained relatively constant activity throughout the 24-hour day. In other words, our analysis revealed that cats have no clear activity pattern and individual waking hours vary widely and overlap."

This means that, if humans begin to populate a community and allow their cats to roam freely, the odds are high that the cats will interact with the wildlife in that area — all of it. .....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/12/03/outdoor-cats-are-an-invasive-speciesand-a-to-themselves-scientists-say/

December 10, 2022

Macomb Township man pleads no contest in hawk killing

(Detroit Free Press) A Macomb Township man will pay a hefty fine and serve six months probation after three Cooper's hawks were killed this year.

Arthur Anderson, 65, pleaded no contest this month in Shelby Township District Court 41A after the birds were shot out of a tree, according to a Michigan Department of Natural Resources release.

Now, Anderson owes $4,500 which is $1,500 per bird, for reimbursement to the state and $475 in fines and costs. He also will be on probation for six months.

“The Michigan Department of Natural Resources greatly appreciates the court system’s support in this case,” said Chief Dave Shaw, DNR Law Enforcement Division in a written statement. “All birds of prey are protected at both the state and federal level and are an important and enjoyable part of Michigan’s natural environment.” .............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/macomb/2022/12/10/coopers-hawks-killing-arthur-anderson-macomb-township/69716581007/

December 10, 2022

What's the Precedent for Switching Parties in the Middle of a Senate Term?

(Slate) Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s announcement Friday that she’s becoming an independent shrinks the Democratic Party’s expected advantage ahead the start of the new term. There are plenty of questions left to answer, including if Sinema’s departure will mark a shift in her voting patterns (she claims it won’t). But despite the uproar, this is not the first time a sitting senator has changed parties mid-term, nor is it close to the most dramatic instance of such a swap.

If you include Sinema, 22 U.S. Senators have changed parties while in office. Some of these followed partisan shifts, such as South Carolina segregationist Strom Thurmond’s move to the Republican party in 1964, or Alabama’s Richard Shelby wrapping up the Southern exodus in 1994. Others were swept up by more historically bizarre political moments, such as Colorado’s Henry Teller’s defection to the Silver Republicans over the issue of silver monetization in 1896.

But in more modern history, the moves have usually been recognizable as political maneuvers. Several were for campaign-related reasons. In 1999, New Hampshire’s Bob Smith left the Republican Party, frustrated that his presidential campaign never took off. He briefly joined the “Taxpayer’s Party,” then became an independent, and then dropped his presidential ambitions altogether. He rejoined the GOP less than a year after he’d left it, when the Committee on Environment and Public Works chair opened up, claiming he’d technically never changed his registration.

In 2006, after Joe Lieberman lost his primary as a Democrat running for Senate in Connecticut, he ran in the general election as an independent and won. He was registered as an “Independent Democrat” and ultimately continued to caucus with the Democrats, though his relationship with the party grew more strained. ..............(more)

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/12/kyrsten-sinema-party-switch-precedent.html