Good morning!
Welcome to Issue 30.2 of Digestable, your daily mouthful of real things happening in the world, minus alarmist pandemic news.
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Today’s news, fermented:
I suppose if we all expected to wake up to a science-fearing, mask-wearing president, educated by his (still inconclusive) brush with death, we’d have learned nothing in the past four years.
The Media has done a variable job of covering the president’s doings with enough context to really shed light on his terrible choice-making, but this one does it for me: Contagious Trump removes mask for photos upon return from hospital. Yes, that is exactly what is happening. A large, sickly, and vain toddler run amok.
Anyway, out here in the real world where the rest of us live, people are grappling with the undeniable consequences of this moment (which has been going on long enough to be an era, I’d say?).
In Louisville, protests demanding justice for Breonna Taylor continue, drawing on the city’s legacy of civil rights struggle. Although the Louisville Metro Council passed Breonna’s Law, which bans no-knock warrants in the city, there is still lots to be desired in the aftermath of this murder. After significant pressure, the grand jury recordings of the case were released, and now Breonna Taylor’s family is calling for the case to be reopened, and for Kentucky AG Cameron, who has continued to screw this up, to recuse himself.
In Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, some of the most pivotal purple states, new rulings have relaxed restrictions on mail-in ballots, and will now allow ballots to be counted even if they arrive after election day. This is good news, and a big deal; mail-in ballots tend progressive, and also could be enough to tip the scales in those states. However, Republicans are doing their best to intervene in state and federal courts to overturn the new rules.
The president has emphasized the ‘importance’ of knowing the election results on election night. I won’t even go into the idiocy of this, but want to acknowledge that rabble-rousing about the problems of not knowing results immediately sounds like laying the foundation (see: sowing doubt about viability of elections) for whatever it is that you call a coup when the person taking power has already been in that position. (Anyone? Email me, would love to know.)
Which brings us to Kyrgyzstan, where election results were declared invalid after massive numbers of people took to the streets. The head of the election commission determined it would be a better idea to not certify the election to “avoid tension,” which is cool, cause for hope, and definitely good for the people of Kyrgyzstan.
Are we watching? Learning from this, and making a plan for the fateful third day of November? It’s good to see mass protest working; it’s also an interesting…thought exercise to imagine election officials in the US doing a similar thing.
If you’re interested in being in the thick of it on Election day (or the days leading up), you can learn how to be an election defender here. I’m watching tonight, and will report back tomorrow.
Here’s a beaver (?) eating a pumpkin. You’re welcome.
*Hot Goss*
Brought to you by the superb Latifah Azlan.
As we all know, the ~*Hot Goss*~ cycle took a turn for the absolute worse at the end of last week due to D*nald Tr*mp's positive coronavirus diagnosis. Since then, a cluster of Republican lawmakers have also tested positive for the 'rona, creating a covid cluster that has more infected people in it than the sum total of positive coronavirus cases of Taiwan, New Zealand, and Vietnam. Making America "great" again, as always.
The insanity, of course, has merely continued. Tr*mp was discharged from Walter Reed Hospital and returned to the White House yesterday evening, where he promptly stood on the balcony of his assigned public housing and took off his mask for his triumphant photo-op that really just emphasized how he was struggling to breathe. That was after he threw himself a little parade by circling the block on which Walter Reed is located, waving to his supporters as he sat cushily in the back of an SUV with his driver and bodyguards surrounding him. Wise choices being made all around here.
But while his administration continues to paint a rosy picture of his recovery, a rogue insider is publicly disputing official accounts by claiming that Tr*mp is doing worse than he portrays himself to be. Enter our favorite 15-year-old, Claudia Conway, who you may remember is the daughter of Tr*mp aide Kellyanne Conway. Last time we heard from Claudia, she was planning on filing for emancipation from her parents after allegedly having been abused by them for years. She laid low for a bit on her social media channels after gaining attention for her outspoken Tik Toks, but resurfaced recently to announce that she had tested positive for coronavirus, following which Kellyanne herself announced her positive diagnosis.
Claudia also dropped these gems:
Judging by the responses on Twitter, many people seem to be more inclined to believe a 15-year-old girl than the unverifiable 'truths' that have been coming out of the White House when it comes to the coronavirus. And could you blame them? After all of the disinformation that Tr*mp and his administration have spread about this virus, it's completely unsurprising to me that folks are taking Claudia more seriously than Tr*mp's doctors. Does the Whistleblower Protection Act apply in this situation? Because we need to protect this child at all costs.