Doesn’t the state holiday prove its systemic?

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Yep, today in Alabama is Confederate Memorial Day. It’s recognized tomorrow in Florida. Mississippi and South Carolina also have official state holidays for it (maybe on different days), while it’s commemorated in Kentucky, Texas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

In Alabama, several state agencies will be closed today for the holiday. Schools will be open, though, so they could still teach why it’s celebrated and address why that might affect Black people living in the state. Except Alabama has just signed a bill against teaching any “divisive topics” in K-12 schools, yet another vaguely defined bill that will punish teachers found in violation of loose and subjective legal language. So, unlikely most teachers would try to address it.

Maybe it’s just me, but a holiday celebrating a failed, armed rebellion driven largely by the desire to keep people enslaved seems pretty divisive.

Mainlining Q

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One of the more disheartening political realities is the mainstreaming of Q Anon into one of the two major political parties of the US. Yes, the lines about pedophiles go back further to antisemitic and homophonic movements. But the recent surge of legislation is rooted in the Q Anon conspiracies about child trafficking and such that led to false stories like Pizzagate.

Each time you hear a politician pumping talking points about groomers and pedophiles you can hear them mainlining the repeatedly debunked conspiracies from Q Anon.

It’s scary.

Everybody Hates Ted

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Whether it’s inane questioning at a confirmation hearing, checking his Twitter feed while someone responds to his question, jetting off to Cancun to escape a winter storm, or just his general levels of being a jerk, does anyone actually like Ted Cruz?

This week he implied that someone who chooses to be a public defender must like criminals, ignoring that the US has a Constitutional right to a defense attorney.

I have to imagine, after kowtowing to Trump even after Trump insulted his wife and father, that everyone sees through him.

Everybody must hate Ted.

Lies and The Big Lie

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Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) said on a podcast that some older lawmakers had invited him to participate in orgies while others had done "key bumps of cocaine" in front of him.

So now he’s in trouble with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and has admitted his statements were exaggerations or untrue. 

Cuz, the GOP is apparently against these lies but not The Big Lie that many of their members perpetuate. 

Trust the Science

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We’ve seen how poor scientific literacy can negatively affect our ability to combat climate change and the pandemic. But let’s also recognize the other bunk science claims to which we fall prey.

Multivitamins and supplements are loosely regulated. Many don’t contain what the labels say. And few people really need that daily megadose. Targeted vitamins for targeted use can be good, but most of those megadose multivitamins are just coming out in your urine.

GMOs are targeted and well known what’s in them. There’s no significant body of evidence that they harm human health. But companies can put “No GMOs” on their label (again, mostly unregulated) and get people to pay more for the same food they’ve always gotten.

There is no such thing as a super food.

There’s more, of course. But in the end most of it is just fancy marketing.

If we say we Trust the Science, let’s look at the places where many of us are not doing that.