Being the Helpers: Whatever it is, I’m for it. Especially whatever The Usual Suspects scream about. The opposite of Groucho Marx as Prof. Quincy Adams Wagstaff in Horse Feathers. And the opposite of the entire Republican ultra-MAGA movement.
GOTV, of course. House Trumpistas are Hell-bent on becoming far worse than ever, far worse than you know, far worse than even regular MAGA supporters want. This is ultra-hyper-MAGA. They are throwing the ultra-Conservative Federalist Society under the bus as Deep State squishes.
PBS: Helping Hands: Honoring the Community Helpers
Everyone can be a helper! Honor the community helpers in your neighborhood and family by extending gratitude and then exploring how your child can be a helper at home, too! Talk about the characteristics found in the helpers you know and brainstorm different roles in your community and list how these helpers make a difference in your lives. Then, together, list different roles or responsibilities your child can take on to be a helper in your family.
- Call Congress to support ceasefire
Help bring attention to what's happening in Gaza
Learn more about Gaza and lift up Palestinian voices
Hold corporations accountable for their role in violating the rights of Palestinians in Gaza
Make a gift
[This is] a wonderful opportunity to help young Ukrainians (9 to 35 yrs old) learn or strengthen their English skills. It’s called ENGin, and involves pairing up volunteers with Ukrainian learners for weekly one-hour chats.
After a short interview and two one-hour training sessions, I was paired up with three fascinating young (30-ish) women, at intermediate/advanced English levels.
But they need volunteers!
Good News for Us
As ever,
Biden on getting more than a thousand people out of Gaza:
I think we need a pause.
President Biden
UAW: Reaching tentative agreements with the Big Three "better unite our union"
Also, Toyota's nonunion workers get a boost from UAW wins.
CNN reports that at least 361 foreigners have left Gaza today, and many more are expected to cross soon.
Wounded Palestinians are not being admitted from Gaza to Egypt proper, but to a fully-equipped and fully-staffed field hospital on Egyptian territory, where the wounded can get emergency surgery not available inside Gaza.
Hamas says that 55 aid trucks were able to enter Gaza on Wednesday. This is of course far less than the absolute minimum needed.
Note: Numbers in headlines are often larger than they appear.
Chuck Schumer ready to circumvent Sen. Tuberville’s military promotions holds
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Tuesday that he will bring a resolution to the Senate floor to bypass Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blockade of military promotions and nominations.
The resolution Schumer is going to bring up comes from Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, and independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
It’s nice that Sinema isn’t totally useless.
Meanwhile, Tuberville remains stubborn—and bone-headed—in his obstruction.
Bad News for Them
Continuing that thought,
Here Tuberville is on Fox News, admitting that “our military is struggling to actually put a group together,” as if he weren’t single-handedly creating that struggle.
The Hill: Senate GOP launches offensive to overcome Tuberville military holds
Senate Republicans called out Tuberville today, proposing individual votes on a hundred military promotions. Tuberville objected to each and every one of them.
Judge cannon delays trump trial
AP: Judge [Aileen“Loose” Cannon] indicates she may delay Trump trial on charges he hid classified documents at Mar-a-Lago
maybe to June 2024. The Thing’s lawyers had moved to delay the trial to Nov. 2024, after the elections.
On C-SPAN: House voted to table motion to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, 222-186. So that’s dead.
House vote on H Res 773, expelling Wossname Santos. A two-thirds majority is required.
On C-SPAN: House voted
| Yea | nAY | pRES | nv | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| REPUBLICAN | 24 | 182 | 4 | 11 |
| DEMOCRATIC | 155 | 31 | 13 | 11 |
| INDEPENDENT | ||||
| TOTALS | 179 | 213 | 19 | 22 |
So, not even a majority for expulsion, even though he has been indicted on 23 charges. But we held the vote!
James Comer discovers another smoking water pistol
On Wednesday morning, Rep. James Comer announced that he had found proof that President Joe Biden had taken $40,000 in “laundered China money.” He accompanied this latest addition to his arsenal of smoking guns with charts and incendiary language about “blackmail” and “shady business.”
What Comer didn’t find was any evidence of an actual crime by Biden or anyone else. Instead, as his own diagrams show, these appear to be normal business transactions made among six different individuals and business entities at a time when Biden and everyone else in his family did not hold any public office.
Donald Trump Jr. takes the witness stand in New York trial of fraud suit against his father
Question: Has he opened himself up to criminal charges yet?
Republicans supposedly want to aid Israel, but only if megarich tax cheats can keep cheating
The price for aid to Israel has been set at defunding IRS enforcement, thus INCREASING the deficit.
The New York Times publishes its most cowardly piece yet on the Republican march to fascism
The New York Times has a long piece describing a new schism between coup plotter Donald Trump's remaining allies and the Federalist Society, the group that has successfully dominated Republican legal theories and judicial nominations through multiple presidencies.
There may be no other recent Times article that so cleanly demonstrates the Times' failure to comprehend or contextualize a Republican Party that very nearly succeeded in overturning a U.S. presidential election rather than admitting defeat. This may be the most dodging, deflection-riddled, and cowardly political piece the Times has published in the last decade. It is misleading to the point of being propaganda itself. It will only be luck if the Times' continued editorial gutlessness in painting all the markers of a war on American democracy as mere tittering partisanship does not once again lead to bloodshed.
Science! Animals! Weirdness!
I’m getting malaria to help eradicate it (and you can too)
The World Health Organization has been running a pilot over the past few years involving the malaria vaccine RTS,S, or Mosquirix, made by GlaxoSmithKline. Public health experts have to date been excited about the vaccine, but cautiously so, with clinical trials suggesting efficacy of around 36.3 percent in preventing infection in toddlers. (By contrast, the Pfizer vaccine is about 92.4 percent effective at preventing symptomatic Covid.)
That makes the results of the pilot all the more striking: The vaccine appeared to have reduced deaths of young children by 13 percent. That’s all deaths, not just deaths from malaria.
Wednesday Woozles: A Few Cute Memes
Universal Health Coverage, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases Cluster,
WHO Regional Office for AfricaProgress in eliminating and eradicating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is one of Africa’s greatest achievements. Nineteen countries in Africa have eliminated at least one NTD and there are currently 18 million fewer people requiring interventions against NTDs. Togo achieved a world first byeliminating four NTDs. Guinea worm disease(dracunculiasis) is on the verge of eradication; sleeping sickness (T. b. gambiensehuman Africantrypanosomiasis) has been eliminated as a public health problem in seven countries; and the numberof reported Buruli ulcer cases decreased by 71%between 2010 and 2021. These substantial gains, many of which have been realized over the pastdecade, are built on over 70 years of shared experiences in NTD prevention, control, elimination, and eradication efforts.
Diabetes: Drinking from the Firehose
In recent years scientists have developed an alternative form of insulin that only needs to be administered once a week
Funny or Fuggedaboudit
Support the striking actors, and rejoice with those whose strikes were successful, and with the country that benefits from their progress.
Halloween comics first.
This one isn’t funny at all. It’s just true. We get a lot of that these days.
