Rye Would You Do This?
June 21, 2022
Some Good News
- Greece to subsidise new fridges, air conditioners to cut energy bill (Reuters)
- Native American tribes will now co-manage Bears Ears National Monument (Axios)
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Everything’s Bigger (But Not Better) In Texas
There are over 17.1 million registered voters in Texas. But roughly 5,100 attendees at the Republican Party Convention in Houston voted Saturday for a party platform that adopts the Big Lie and other such nonsensical positions that it’s basically just a far-right Wish List. A resolution rejecting “the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election” and claiming President Biden was “not legitimately elected ” was adopted. Another resolution passed rebuking John Cornyn, the state’s senior U.S. senator, for taking part in bipartisan gun talks. On Friday, the 20-year Senate veteran tried explaining the bipartisan legislation, which stopped short of outlawing assault rifles or raising the age to buy them from 18 to 21. But he was roundly booed by an audience that would argue those under 21 are “most likely to need to defend themselves” by buying guns quickly “in emergencies such as riots,” and that red flag laws violate due process rights of people without a criminal record. Conspiracy theories flourished – a middle-aged nurse-practitioner in The Woodlands said she believed the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde was “a ploy by the government.”
Cultural issues delegates railed against the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender individuals. They gathered in sessions with titles like “Defeat Critical Theory, Marxism and the Sexualization of Our Children.” The platform labels homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice,” opposes “all efforts to validate transgender identity,” and describes gender dysphoria as a “rare mental illness.” It says life begins at fertilization, and school children should be taught “the humanity of the preborn child.” Texas ranks #1 for teens giving birth multiple times and for uninsured children, yet the platform calls for prohibiting sex education and all reproductive healthcare services in public schools, “reforming or replacing Child Protective Services,” abolishing the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium, “abolishing all federal welfare programs,” denying any further expansion of Medicaid, and supporting the “immediate repeal” of Obamacare.
Among other things, Texas’ GOP want to repeal the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Firearms Act of 1934, and the Gun Control Act of 1968. They also hope to abolish the EPA, the Department of Education, and the IRS, and to privatize Social Security. And pointedly, the platform reiterates that Texas retains the right to secede from America. (Dallas Morning News, texasgop.org., WaPo ($), Texas Tribune, txchildren.org)
A Break With Protocol
- Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Monday that the Geneva Conventions – a series of agreements on, among other things, international standards for the treatment of people captured during war – wouldn’t apply to the two captured Americans fighting alongside Ukraine’s military. Peskov said Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, are considered to be “soldiers of fortune” who were not enlisted in the Ukrainian army, meaning Russia doesn’t believe they’re protected under the Geneva Conventions.
- Instead, Russia is calling the men “mercenaries” who were involved in “illegal activity,” including firing on and shelling members of Russia’s military. When pressed on whether Russia knows for sure that the men were not members of the Ukrainian military, Peskov said the matter will be “investigated in due course.”
- Earlier this month, Russian forces captured a Moroccan and two Britons who were sentenced to death by firing squad for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. When asked if he could promise that Huynh and Drueke wouldn’t face the same sentence, Peskov said he “cannot guarantee anything. It depends on the investigation.” (CBS News)
Eat, Drink, But Don’t Marry
- Three same-sex Japanese couples had their hopes dashed Monday when a District Court in Osaka ruled that a ban on same-sex marriage was not unconstitutional. Japan is the only Group of Seven nation that doesn’t allow people of the same gender to marry.
- The couples’ case was the second to be heard on the issue in the country. The first was a case in the city of Sapporo in March 2021, in which judges decided in favor of a claim that not allowing same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
- Afterward, LGBTQ+ rights activists had hopes of raising pressure on the central government to address the issue, but Monday’s ruling was a huge setback. And besides rejecting their claim of unconstitutionality, the court threw out the demand for 1 million yen ($7,400) in damages for each couple. (Reuters)
Additional World News
- Germany to fire up coal stations as Russia squeezes gas supply (CNN)
- Ethiopia: more than 200 Amhara people killed in attack blamed on rebels (Guardian)
- Bangladesh military scrambles to reach millions marooned after deadly flooding (Reuters)
- IS claims attack on Sikh temple in Afghan capital of Kabul (ABC)
- Brazil police identify five more people linked to killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira (Guardian)
- Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter takes oath as Philippine vice president (NPR)
- Julian Assange: what is Australia’s position on his extradition, and what options does it have? (Guardian)
- Every 24 hours, *27,000 trees* are cut down… just to create toilet paper. Honeycomb is changing that with 3-ply luxury toilet paper that feels just like regular high-end TP, but doesn’t harm trees.
- How? Honeycomb found a way to make TP from bamboo. It’s gentle on the earth and grows over 80 times faster than a standard tree – meaning we can leave the trees to do what they do best, without giving up comfort or convenience.
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A Bad Ad-ple
- There are limitations on what is considered protected speech and what isn’t – and it looks like one campaign ad wants to test those limits. Eric Greitens, the embattled Republican former governor-turned-senate-hopeful from Missouri, released a campaign ad Monday in which he and a group of armed men in SWAT gear are on the hunt for “RINOs” – Republicans in name only.
- “We’re going RINO hunting,” a shotgun-toting Greitens, with a handgun holstered at his side, says before he bursts into a house with the men, one of whom throws a flash-bang grenade. “Join the MAGA crew,” Mr. Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, declares in the ad. “Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn’t expire until we save our country,” he says at the end of the video.
- Donors are then encouraged to pay $25 for a “RINO hunting” sticker. By Monday afternoon, Twitter had hidden Greitens’ new ad behind a warning saying it violated rules about “abusive behavior,” and Facebook removed the ad altogether. (NBC News, NYT ($))
A Hen In The Foxhouse
- In 2020, Melissa Francis, a longtime business-news reporter who had been with Fox News Media since 2012, researched what her male peers were being paid, then approached the company with claims of pay disparity based on gender discrimination. She was taken off the air in early October 2020 and filed a complaint with the New York State Department of Labor claiming that Fox retaliated against her after she pointed out those pay disparities at the network.
- After a year and a half, Fox agreed to a roughly $15 million settlement. The amount paid to Francis is on a scale with the blockbuster settlements the network offered a number of female employees who leveled claims of sexual misconduct and harassment against Roger Ailes, the co-founder of Fox News, and former prime-time star Bill O’Reilly. Francis’ attorney said that despite Fox News pledges of improving its climate since those allegations were settled, “what happened to Melissa shows that sexism and retaliation remain standard practice at the company.” (Variety, WaPo ($))
Additional USA News
- Philippine government attorney shot and killed while taking Uber to airport with his mother in Philadelphia (CBS)
- Woman charged with hate crimes after anti-Asian attack, authorities say (WaPo, $)
- Arizona: Contreras Fire grows to more than 20,000 acres, prompts possible evacuations (CNN)
- Elise Stefanik’s defense of Trump around Jan. 6 clouds her pro-democracy work abroad (NPR)
- Wharton State Forest fire: Winds fan wildfire to more than 2,000 acres in southern New Jersey (CNN)
- Utah fire from May reignites and spreads rapidly amid heat, wind and lightning (NBC)
- Republican states trying to ban abortion expand health benefits for new mothers (Guardian)
Rye Would You Do This?
- Having the crabs in New Hampshire has taken on a whole new meaning. Tamworth Distilling teamed up with the University of New Hampshire’s NH Green Crab Project to develop House of Tamworth Crab Trapper, a new whiskey with a special key ingredient – invasive green crabs.
- Steven Grasse, owner of the distillery, said the developers boiled more than 90 pounds of the tiny crabs into a crab stock, then fortified it with Tamworth-made neutral grain spirits and distilled it on a rotary vacuum. Grasse said the taste is like “a briny and better Fireball.” A trapper in Seabrook, N.H. rounded up the crabs used for the liquor, and a 750-milliliter bottle of House of Tamworth Crab Trapper will set you back $65.
- Green crabs are native to Europe and considered an invasive threat to the New England ecosystem. “We are raising awareness of the problem in a way that is fun and interesting, but it also shows that through creativity and gumption, we can turn these pesky critters into a tasty treat,” Grasse exclaims. “We want more brave souls in the culinary arts to rise to the challenge: Defeat the enemy by eating them!” (upi.com)
Additional Reads
- Chaka Khan, Khalid, Ne-Yo and more light up the stage at CNN’s ‘Juneteenth: A Global Celebration of Freedom’ (CNN)
- Held at gunpoint behind the wheel, a driver sped to alert officers (WaPo, $)
- Slain Congolese icon’s tooth returned to family decades after killing (NBC)
- Monkey in “bullet-proof” vest found dead after bloody cartel shootout in Mexico (CBS)
- Sexualized Pride ads stir debate about ‘problematic’ undertones in LGBTQ marketing campaigns (NBC)
- New analysis sheds light on mysterious source of Black Death (CNN)