August 7, 2023

8-year-old Chicago girl fatally shot by man upset with kids making noise, witnesses say

An 8-year-old Chicago girl riding a scooter was fatally shot in the head by a man who was upset over noise, witnesses said.

"It just didn’t make sense. None of it made sense,” a neighbor, Megan Kelley, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Everybody in the community would just tell him they are just kids having fun playing. Just let them be.”

The shooting happened Saturday night in Chicago's Portage Park neighborhood. Police were at the suspect's apartment building Sunday, interviewing people and collecting evidence, hours after the death of Sarabi Medina.

"Before he shot her, he had said something about them being too loud,” Kelley said.

After the shooting, the gunman was tackled by Sarabi's father and shot during a struggle, according to a police report. He was taken to a hospital.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/8-year-chicago-girl-fatally-shot-man-upset-102070356

He's lucky the neighbors didn't beat him to death. When will enough be enough?

August 7, 2023

Where did 20,000 Jews hide from the Holocaust? In Shanghai

In the late 1930s, as the Nazis stepped up their persecution of German and Austrian Jews, many countries in the West severely limited the number of visas they granted to refugees.

But there was one place refugees could go without even obtaining a visa: Shanghai.

Long known as an "open city," the Chinese port was tolerant of immigrants. Much of it was controlled not by the nationalist government, but by foreign powers – including France, Britain and the United States – that had demanded their own autonomous districts. Jewish people had been moving there since the mid-1800s, and as long as people could reach it – at the time, most likely by boat – they could live there.

Shanghai would go on to harbor nearly 20,000 Jewish evacuees from Europe before and during World War II. But life there was not always pretty. Japan had invaded China earlier in the decade and eventually seized control of the entire city. The Japanese army forced Jewish refugees into one working-class district, Hongkou, leading to crowded, unsanitary conditions in which disease spread rapidly.

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/06/1192118339/jewish-refugees-shanghai-world-war-ii

My Israeli friend was born there in 1946. His mother's family had been there since 1905; his father was a teenage refugee from the Russian Revolution, riding the rails to get there (I never heard the whole story). Attorney Laurence Tribe was also born there.

August 7, 2023

Colorado wants more electric cars on the roads. So it's offering up to $26,500 in discounts

Here’s one way to quantify the magnitude of Colorado’s bet on electric vehicles: It will soon be possible to qualify for discounts worth $21,000.

Add an additional rebate from Colorado’s largest power provider, a resident buying a new plug-in car could soon save a head-spinning $26,500.

That’s not a typo.

Colorado’s current $5,000 tax credit is already the most generous state-level incentive available to all residents. With additional programs set to go live in the next few months, the state is now poised to test the full power of EV discounts — a pillar of the statewide plan to reduce carbon emissions. Gov. Jared Polis is betting the strategy can help reach a goal of putting nearly a million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2030.

https://www.cpr.org/2023/08/04/colorado-electric-vehicle-discounts-guide/

Almost makes me want to move there. Almost.

August 7, 2023

Something bad, then VERY interesting happened where my grandson was working

My grandson was working at a place in Sevier County, TN, called Jayell Ranch, because he likes being outdoors. It offers horseback riding, ziplining, and other adventurous things. When I was visiting a couple of weeks ago, he told us that the horses there were mostly in pretty bad shape--underfed, some with sores, left outside in all weathers, etc.--and that Animal Control had been called on several occasions. He didn't work with them, though' he worked on the ziplines, being a big, strong kid. Apparently several people quit, but not before posting pictures of the hoses on Facebook. Well, on Friday, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture showed up. Apparently the owner must have been tipped off beforehand (Sevier County is a bit, shall we say, corrupt) and had bought a bunch of new horses to add to the herd, but he didn't get rid of the old ones either. On Saturday, the owner tried to get the employees to sign NDAs...and they all, my grandson among them, WALKED OUT. Quit on the spot.

https://www.wvlt.tv/2023/08/04/animal-control-called-out-jayell-ranch-multiple-times-complaints/

https://www.wvlt.tv/2023/08/04/most-them-needed-be-euthanized-former-barn-manager-describes-experience-jayell-ranch/

https://www.wvlt.tv/2023/08/04/jayell-ranch-employees-slapped-with-nda-walk-out/

Needless to say, I am very proud of my grandson. Even though he didn't work with the horses, he knows better than to sign an NDA.

August 7, 2023

Therapy is health care. So why won't your health insurance pay for it?

At a time when it seems Americans don’t agree on much, we agree on this: The US is in the throes of a mental health crisis, one that predates the pandemic but which the pandemic made impossible to ignore.

Yet finding a mental health provider and, crucially, getting health insurance to cover their services continues to be a struggle.

Longstanding federal laws are supposed to ensure that health insurers cover mental health care just as they do physical treatments. But 15 years after Congress passed a policy that was supposed to achieve “parity” for mental health care, we still don’t have it. It seems to be much easier to get insurers to pay for a broken bone or high blood pressure medication than it is to get addiction treatment or find a therapist.

A recent survey of nearly 2,800 US patients found that 40 percent of patients who had sought in-network mental health care had to make four or more calls to find a provider who would see them — compared to just 14 percent for physical health care. More than half of patients said they had had a claim for mental health care denied three or more times, compared to about one-third who had the same experience with physical services

Now the Biden administration is taking new steps to hold health insurers accountable and, they hope, make it easier for Americans to get mental and behavioral health care.

But those are promises that have been made before. Experts sound cautiously optimistic about Biden’s proposal, but it’s too early to say if this time it’s different.

https://www.vox.com/2023/8/4/23815827/mental-health-therapy-services-health-insurance

August 6, 2023

Mother who was accused by Southwest of trafficking her biracial daughter files federal discriminatio

Mother who was accused by Southwest of trafficking her biracial daughter files federal discrimination suit

A white mother who was suspected of trafficking her biracial daughter in October 2021 by Southwest Airlines employees has filed a racial discrimination suit against the company.

Mary MacCarthy was traveling to Denver from Los Angeles with her 10-year-old daughter to attend her brother's funeral, she told NBC News nearly two years ago. Upon landing in Denver, MacCarthy and her daughter were confronted by police officers because a flight attendant suspected her of potential human trafficking.

A federal lawsuit filed Thursday in the District Court of Colorado accused Southwest Airlines of racial discrimination. MacCarthy accused the airline staff of flagging her as suspicious "based on a racist assumption about a mixed‐race family."

"The officers began questioning Ms. MacCarthy and made it clear that they were given the racially charged information that Ms. MacCarthy’s daughter was possibly being trafficked by her simply because Ms. MacCarthy is White and her daughter is Black," the lawsuit said.

David Lane, the attorney representing MacCarthy, said that the suit is designed to bring accountability and to have the airline re-examine its own training. He said that the use of racial profiling in this case has attempted to address a serious crime with a "stereotypical, easy formula."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mother-was-accused-southwest-trafficking-biracial-daughter-files-feder-rcna98414

The flight attendant's "reasoning" was racist in the extreme. My daughter has a bunch of multiracial kids (Puerto Rican Family) and we would be outraged if this happened to them.

August 5, 2023

This Man Has The Ear Of Billionaires -- And A White Supremacist Past He Kept A Secret

A prominent conservative writer, lionized by Silicon Valley billionaires and a U.S. senator, used a pen name for years to write for white supremacist publications and was a formative voice during the rise of the racist “alt-right,” according to a new HuffPost investigation.

Richard Hanania, a visiting scholar at the University of Texas, used the pen name “Richard Hoste” in the early 2010s to write articles where he identified himself as a “race realist.” He expressed support for eugenics and the forced sterilization of “low IQ” people, who he argued were most often Black. He opposed “miscegenation” and “race-mixing.” And once, while arguing that Black people cannot govern themselves, he cited the neo-Nazi author of “The Turner Diaries,” the infamous novel that celebrates a future race war.

A decade later, writing under his real name, Hanania has ensconced himself in the national mainstream media, writing op-eds in the country’s biggest papers, bending the ears of some of the world’s wealthiest men and lecturing at prestigious universities, all while keeping his past white supremacist writings under wraps.

HuffPost connected Hanania to his “Richard Hoste” persona by analyzing leaked data from an online comment-hosting service that showed him using three of his email addresses to create usernames on white supremacist sites. A racist blog maintained by Hoste was also registered to an address in Hanania’s hometown. And HuffPost found biographical information shared by Hoste that aligned with Hanania’s own life.

Hanania did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story, made via phone, email and direct messages on social media.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/richard-hanania-white-supremacist-pseudonym-richard-hoste_n_64c93928e4b021e2f295e817

Verrry interesting--and more than a bit shady.

August 5, 2023

Wagner Men Exiled by Putin Threaten New Firestorm in Europe

Poland is deploying combat helicopters and increasing troop levels at its border with Belarus in response to what Warsaw claims was a violation of its airspace this week.

Poland’s Ministry of Defense said that two Belarusian helicopters training near the border violated Polish airspace in the eastern Bialowieza region. The U.S. Department of Defense characterized the incident as an “incursion into Polish airspace by Belarusian aircraft” in a statement Friday.

Polish troops are getting redeployed from the west to the eastern border, Poland’s Defense Minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, said. Helicopters from the 1st Aviation Brigade of the Land Forces and the 25th Air Cavalry Brigade are now headed towards the border with Belarus, according to Gen. Marek Sokolowski, a training inspector at the Armed Forces General Command. And they won’t hesitate to respond with arms.

“The helicopters are armed and ready for combat. There are some very experienced pilots with full flight authorizations, there are pilots here who used onboard armament and missiles in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Sokolowski said, according to TVP. “If there is anything of concern, they will not hesitate to use armaments.”

The flare up and rapid buildup on the border is the latest sign that Russia’s war in Ukraine and its cascading geopolitical consequences are creating yet another possible military flashpoint.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-wagner-fighters-threaten-armed-chaos-on-polish-border-with-belarus

These guys can and should be shot on sight.

August 5, 2023

Anti-Wokeism Is Kind of a Big Problem for Black Republicans

Sensible Black Republicans were once thought to be a potential firewall for the party to prevent it from descending into MAGA paranoia, anti-woke hysteria, and conspiracy theory madness. They’ve often demonstrated an ability to look away from the action that would make Magic Johnson envious.

Many of them stared in the opposite direction as the fight over “Critical Race Theory” was happening and states attempted to ban it, even from higher education. They were mostly silent as Black professors, teachers, and librarians looked for allies to help protect their academic freedoms.

However, when the Florida Board of Education released its K-12 social studies curriculum, which includes an “African American History Strand,” some prominent Black Republicans finally found a voice. The Florida curriculum states that “slaves developed skills, which in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), a GOP presidential candidate whose personal story is about how his family went from “cotton to Congress,” told an audience that slavery had “no silver lining” while discussing the brutality of the institution in more detail. Scott then stated that he hoped a presidential candidate “could appreciate that,” taking a light jab at his GOP primary rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Former Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX), another GOP presidential candidate, was even more forceful in his rebuke when he stated, “slavery was not a jobs program” and that “anyone implying that there was an upside to slavery is insane.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-wokeism-is-kind-of-a-big-problem-for-black-republicans

August 5, 2023

Some people just suck SO bad....

that I have to rant. SOMEONE whose name is unknown because they were too cowardly to walk in and surrender her left a very nice tortoiseshell cat in her carrier on the Humane Society property, I think (but am not sure) right by the door where she would be found. Which is bad enough, but here's the rest. The cat is declawed and very overweight...she weighs 20 lbs, when a more proper weight for her would be something in the neighborhood of just under half that. I didn't look, but I suspect she may also have some dental problems. We are unsure of her age and have no idea of her medical history. She's really a very nice kitty, although I got into a shoving match with her today because she didn't want to remain in her kennel (well, who can blame her?) while I cleaned around her. I would have let her walk around, but I was afraid she might decide to go under the kennels where she is and get stuck, and fishing her out would be difficult!

What the hell is wrong with people, anyway? If they were tired of her, or couldn't keep her, all they had to do was walk in and fill out some relatively simple paperwork. Tell us a little bit about her. At least give us her NAME, FFS! And to let her get in that condition and then dump her...GRRR. The poor thing is no doubt shocked, bewildered, who knows what? I have words for people like that, but they might scorch the screen. They start with fucking coward and go on from there. It's time we had surveillance cameras for crap like that. My husband was so outraged that he even offered to donate one! I'd donate another.

Okay, rant mode off.