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Well this is scary… Dairy farmers are hiding likely bird flu cases from government officials, coping with the virus’s symptoms in their herds while avoiding testing, one dairy industry representative told NOTUS. Already distrustful of government, worried about economic and reputational damage and increasingly skeptical of public health officials following the COVID-19 pandemic, many farmers see no reason to test their cattle or engage with federal officials, Rick Naerebout, the CEO of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, said. “Nationwide, the vast majority of cases are not reported,” Naerebout said. “Dairymen understand they have it based on the symptoms, but they don’t get a confirmation. They’re just managing through the disease.” Cattle have tested positive in 42 herds as of May 10, but the actual number of affected herds is unknown. The USDA now requires a negative test for cattle to move across state lines, but no federal agency can mandate testing on the farms or go onto the farms without permission from the owners. Government requests to test farmers’ cows have mostly been ignored.
We have has the rather stomach churning experience of watching stars of the GOP establishment descend on Donald Trump’s criminal trial this week to defy a judge’s order and claim that the justice system is corrupt because it deigns to hold their Dear leader to account for his crimes. If you want to see how this degradation of the rule of law is playing out in everyday life, witness this shocking move in Texas. You may recall the case of Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran who was attending a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 and was, as is legal in Texas openly carrying a rifle. A man named Daniel Perry drove his car into the protesters and Foster (who was white) confronted him without raising his gun, Perry shot him five times. As JV Last points out in his piece on this at The Bulwark: The case had everything Republicans love: A peaceful protest with people exercising their First Amendment rights. A veteran lawfully exercising his Second Amendment right. And before the murder the killer had been searching the internet for young girls and sending sexually explicit texts to a minor. The only problem was the protest itself: It was a Black Lives Matter protest.
Baby Snow Leopards! The forecast was right: we have snow in May! Your Guardians of Wild are proud to share that overnight on Monday May 13th, three-year old snow leopard Jita gave birth to two cubs after a 97-day pregnancy. Jita and her new cubs are NOT currently visible to guests visiting the Toronto Zoo, but updates will be shared in the days and weeks to come about how and when guests will be able to view these little snowballs. Jita’s cubs, sired by nine-year-old Pemba, came into the world following a few hours of labour. Wildlife Care, watching on remote cameras, observed her laboured breathing as well as circling and rolling (signs of impending birth) around 7:30pm. The first cub was born at 7:45pm, followed by the arrival of her second cub in the early hours of Tuesday, May 14th. Jita is doing very well as a first-time mother and is diligently nursing, grooming, and cuddling her “snowballs.” Her Wildlife Care team is monitoring the new family closely via CCTV cameras to minimize any disturbance, and will be closely observing the development of the cubs. More information will be shared as it becomes available.
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Poisoning the well for profit and cruelty Among would-be Rambos who fancy themselves patriots, artifacts from the American Revolution serve to justify, well, whatever antisocial, anti-American behavior needs justifying. Sacking the U.S. Capitol comes to mind. They’ll wave Gadsden flags and sport tee shirts citing Thomas Jefferson’s “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Etc. But when they’re not sacking capitols and bear-spraying police, and when their crooked lawyers are not working to overturn elections that don’t go their way, these miscreants employ a more ancient tradition: poisoning the well. Smithsonian Magazine provides a thumbnail history of “an early form of biological warfare,” the practice of belligerents as ancient as the Sumerians and as recent as the Israeli Army and ISIS iterally poisoning wells to inflict suffering on civilians.
Trump has been taunting Biden to debate repeatedly saying, “anytime, anywhere.” Now his minions and mouthpieces are having a little meltdown because Biden accepted: The first debate is set for next month on CNN, while the second is planned for September on ABC. Though the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee has also pushed for a Fox News debate, the Democratic incumbent hasn’t agreed to that ― and the network’s hosts are in meltdown mode as a result. Sean Hannity criticized CNN’s Jake Tapper, who is set to be one of the debate moderators, by calling him a “radical left-wing partisan.” Hannity demanded that moderators’ mics get cut off after asking Trump questions, and he also launched into some wild conspiracy theories about Biden. He claimed that Biden will take a “heavy dose” of “whatever he took before the State of the Union” address to win the debates. He further suggested that Biden is “secretly” trying to get out of the debates.
2023: Now: India: Milan, Italy Laurie Garret writes: Why are we seeing flooding all over the world now? Boil some soup. Pour into a bowl. Wrap bowl in Saran. Watch condensation form, & drip down. Welcome to our CO2-filled atmosphere. Kids, there is nothing on this earth more important than doing everything possible to get the governments around the world to take action on climate change. I’m old and I’ll be dead before too long. But this is going to change everything for the worse in the world you are going to be living in. This is literally an existential threat to life on earth.
And yes, I realize that the stock market isn’t the economy. But the economy is doing well too: Four years ago, this was what Trump told people. He says the same thing today and is never quizzed by anyone about how he justifies saying it considering how wrong he was. The one rationalization he gives is that the markets are up in anticipation of his win and that he hopes they crash before he becomes president again because he doesn’t want to be Herbert Hoover.
Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum It’s party over public health now in North Carolina: The North Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee approved an amended version of House Bill 237 on Tuesday morning that would prohibit the wearing of masks in public. The controversial bill, which would also increase criminal penalties for those who commit crimes while wearing a mask in public, comes in the wake of protests that have erupted on college campuses across the country in response to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Gotta nip that in the bud, as Deputy Fife would say up the road in Mayberry. Laws dating back to the 1950s that were enacted, at least in part, as responses to groups like the Ku Klux Klan, prohibit wearing a mask in public in North Carolina, with exceptions. Those exceptions were expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic to include people wearing masks for health reasons. Newton’s bill would remove that specific exception. They’re just rolling back the law to what it was before COVID, dontcha know.