wepon | Link Roundup March 2022

Trump officials interfered with the 2020 census beyond cutting it short, email shows

Trump officials — including Wilbur Ross, who served as commerce secretary — however, "expressed interest" in many technical areas, including exactly how the bureau could produce a state-by-state count of unauthorized immigrants and citizenship data that could have politically benefited Republicans when voting districts are redrawn.

The 2020 census had big undercounts of Black people, Latinos and Native Americans

The bureau said previously that it believes the census results are "fit to use" for reallocating each state's share of congressional seats and Electoral College votes, as well as redrawing voting districts. Census numbers are also used to guide the distribution of an estimated $1.5 trillion each year in federal money to communities for health care, education, transportation and other public services. Some tribal, state and local officials are considering ways of challenging the results for potential corrections that would be factored into future funding decisions.

US Police Have So Much Extra Gear They’re Sending It to Ukraine

Police departments around the U.S. are donating tactical gear to Ukraine, whose annual defense budget is smaller than the NYPD’s.

United House OKs $13.6B for Ukraine in huge spending bill

The House approved a massive spending bill Wednesday night that would rush $13.6 billion in U.S. aid to battered Ukraine and its European allies, after top Democrats were forced to abruptly drop their plan to include fresh funds to battle COVID-19.

Disney Censors Same-Sex Affection in Pixar Films, According to Letter From Employees

The employee letter also demands Disney withdraw financial support of all legislatures who supported the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and “take a decisive public stand” against the legislation and bills like it elsewhere in the country.

How Did This Many Deaths Become Normal?

The United States reported more deaths from COVID-19 last Friday than deaths from Hurricane Katrina, more on any two recent weekdays than deaths during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, more last month than deaths from flu in a bad season, and more in two years than deaths from HIV during the four decades of the AIDS epidemic. At least 953,000 Americans have died from COVID, and the true toll is likely even higher because many deaths went uncounted. COVID is now the third leading cause of death in the U.S., after only heart disease and cancer, which are both catchall terms for many distinct diseases.

A worker objected to Google’s Israel military contract. Google told her to move to Brazil

In early November, Koren said, she logged into a videoconference call for what she expected to be a routine weekly check-in with her manager. Instead, she said, her boss presented her with an ultimatum: move to Brazil or lose her position. In the meeting, Koren said, the manager told her the team’s Brazil business had been growing, her role was being relocated to Sao Paulo, and she had 17 business days to commit to the move.

Black, Latino queer students say they are on edge in the wake of 'Don't Say Gay' bill

This proposed legislation passed both chambers of the Florida Legislature shortly before passing of the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, or the Stop WOKE Act, which is also expected to be signed by DeSantis. This measure would prohibit the teaching of critical race theory — a decades-old academic framework that recognizes how racism is upheld in America’s institutions and policies — in grades K-12.

Vimeo is telling creators to suddenly pay thousands of dollars — or leave the platform

“I was already paying $200 a year, which I think is pretty expensive,” van Baarle says. “But I thought, well, it’s a quality platform.” She’s uploaded 117 subscriber-only videos so far, and each one only gets around 150 views on average, van Baarle says. Her most viewed video has around 815 views. So the notice Vimeo sent van Baarle on March 11th shocked her. Her bandwidth usage was within the top 1 percent of Vimeo users, the company said, and if she wanted to keep hosting her content on the site, she’d need to upgrade to a custom plan. Her quoted price: $3,500 a year. She was given a week to upgrade her content, decrease her bandwidth usage, or leave Vimeo.

Vaccine Delivery Canceled to Country That Did Not Condemn Russia

Bangladesh, located to the east of India, is the eighth-most populous country in the world with around 163 million residents. At only 148,000 square kilometers in size, it is also the most densely populated country on the planet. Since the start of the pandemic, it has reported just shy of 2 million COVID-19 cases and just over 29,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The House passes the CROWN Act, a bill banning discrimination on race-based hairdos

The CROWN Act, which stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act, passed along party lines with a vote of 235-189. The bill now heads to the Senate for a vote.

America Is Zooming Through the Pandemic Panic-Neglect Cycle

This week, Congress nixed $15 billion in coronavirus funding from a $1.5 trillion spending bill, which President Joe Biden then signed on Tuesday. The decision is catastrophic, and as the White House has noted, its consequences will unfurl quickly. Next week, the government will have to cut shipments of monoclonal-antibody treatments by a third. In April, it will no longer be able to reimburse health-care providers for testing, vaccinating, or treating millions of uninsured Americans, who are disproportionately likely to be unvaccinated and infected. Come June, it won’t be able to support domestic testing manufacturers. It can’t buy extra doses of antiviral pills or infection-preventing treatments that immunocompromised people are banking on but were already struggling to get. It will need to scale back its efforts to improve vaccination rates in poor countries, which increases the odds that dangerous new variants will arise. If such variants arise, they’ll likely catch the U.S. off guard, because surveillance networks will have to be scaled back too. Should people need further booster shots, the government won’t have enough for everyone.

Nation's Trans Kids Would Be Offered 'Place of Refuge' in California With New Bill

State Sen. Scott Wiener, who co-sponsored the legislation, said it would prohibit California courts from honoring court judgments separating parents from their children due to parents supporting their kids' access to gender-affirming health care, such as hormone therapy or gender-affirmation surgery. It also would bar California from complying with out-of-state subpoenas seeking health-related information about people who come to California to receive gender-affirming care. To be blocked, such a subpoena would have to be related to attempts to file criminal charges or remove children from their homes for receiving gender-affirming care.

Chicagoans Arrested For Marijuana Possession Are Getting Crash Course In The Legal Weed Business

Participants in the nine-month scholarship program, called Still I Rise, are getting a formal education and career training in cannabis studies at Olive-Harvey College in Pullman. Participants, who have a past arrest related to marijuana, get free tuition, a $1,000 monthly stipend, academic support and help with child care, transportation and case management as part of the program.

Jamaicans shun Prince William and Duchess Kate visit, demand slavery reparations

The weeklong royal tour of Central America and the Caribbean that began on Saturday was taken at the behest of the queen, who is William's grandmother. The trip aims to strengthen Britain's ties with Commonwealth countries, but it's off to a rocky start and comes as some countries consider cutting ties to the monarchy like the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados did in November.

Italian study shows ventilation can cut school COVID cases by 82%

An Italian study published on Tuesday suggests that efficient ventilation systems can reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in schools by more than 80%.

Etsy sellers will go on strike in April and want customers to boycott

In February, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman had good news to share with investors: sales and revenue were at an all-time high, sending Etsy stock soaring. At the same time, Silverman had less welcome news for sellers, delivered via email: transaction fees were going up, from 5 percent to 6.5 percent, or a 30 percent increase, beginning April 11th.

‘I promised Brando I would not touch his Oscar’: the secret life of Sacheen Littlefeather

However valid Brando’s charge of the way Hollywood stereotyped Native Americans, it did not go down well that night. John Wayne, serial slaughterer of Native Americans on-screen and self-professed white supremacist off it, just happened to be in the wings during Littlefeather’s speech. “During my presentation, he was coming towards me to forcibly take me off the stage, and he had to be restrained by six security men to prevent him from doing so.” Presenting best picture soon after (also for The Godfather), Clint Eastwood quipped: “I don’t know if I should present this award on behalf of all the cowboys shot in all the John Ford westerns over the years.” When Littlefeather got backstage, she says, there were people making stereotypical Native American war cries at her and miming chopping with a tomahawk. After talking to the press, she went straight back to Brando’s house where they sat together and watched the reactions to the event on television.

Professionalism as a Racial Construct

Professionalism was based on the notion that one withstood microaggressions and bias with grace and lightheartedness. The higher the threshold one had to tolerate bias, the more polished the attorney or paralegal appeared. This was particularly the case for women,[9] people of color, LGBTQIA people, and people with disabilities. Professionalism as a racial construct manifests itself in two ways. First, that professionalism is measured by how well a person adapts to a hostile work environment is in of itself a racial construct because that system is built for people of color to fail. Second, that professionalism incorporates the ideology to have a thick skin manifests as a racial construct because even the definition of thick skin aligns with who holds the most power. For example, if attorneys on the receiving end of microaggressions, bias, and racism are considered sensitive for not laughing along, why are the attorneys who engage in harmful behavior not also considered sensitive for their inability to handle criticism about their conduct? Thus, even in defining tolerance, whose feelings are prioritized and validated and whose are minimized within the context of professionalism shapes the narrative that people of color—not their white peers—need to develop thicker skin.

Evaluation of science advice during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden

The Swedish Strategy was also influential abroad, and became an argument in other countries including, among others, the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Australia, to loosen restrictions (Orlowski and Goldsmith, 2020; Jung et al., 2020). Supporters of the natural herd-immunity strategy promoted a widespread “controlled” spread in society, to obtain herd-immunity without vaccination (although there was never sufficient evidence for lasting immunity against re-infection) (Jung et al., 2020; Iacobucci, 2020). Sweden, however, did not officially admit that natural herd-immunity was an underlying goal, but the authorities stated that it would be a welcome side-effect or consequence. A large body of internal documents and public statements from various officials during 2020 verify that attainment of herd-immunity was in fact a significant consideration (Lindström, 2021; Nygren and Olofsson, 2021; Orlowski and Goldsmith, 2020; Habib, 2020; Giesecke, 2020; Sörensen, 2020, 2020e; Vogel, 2020; Larsson, 2021). Email conversations and statements from the State Epidemiologist and others show that they at least speculated on the use of children to acquire herd-immunity, while at the same time publicly claiming children played a negligible role in transmission and did not become ill (Vogel, 2020; Bjorklund and Ewing, 2020; Brusselaers et al., 2020).

Link Roundup March 2022

no subject

no subject