[guest post by Dana]

Here are a few news items to discuss. Feel free to share anything you might think would be of interest to readers. Please include links.

First news item

What a difference a surge makes:

“I don’t like to be authoritarian from the federal government, but at the local level, if governors and others essentially mandate the use of masks when you have an outbreak, I think that would be very important,” Fauci told Alabama Sen. Doug Jones during a Facebook live event in July.

Until now.

“Well, if people are not wearing masks, then maybe we should be mandating it,” Fauci told CNN’s Erin Burnett Friday…Covid-19 has been worsening across the United States, with cases rising in 32 states Friday and holding steady in 17 more. The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said the country was entering a winter surge as new infections passed 75,000 in a single day on Friday and more than 800 deaths were reported.

Mask mandates may be tricky to enforce, but it might be time to call for them, Fauci said.
“There’s going to be a difficulty enforcing it, but if everyone agrees that this is something that’s important and they mandate it and everybody pulls together and says, you know, we’re going to mandate it but let’s just do it, I think that would be a great idea to have everybody do it uniformly,” he said.

Related:

The Fake News is talking about CASES, CASES, CASES. This includes many low risk people. Media is doing everything possible to create fear prior to November 3rd. The Cases are up because TESTING is way up, by far the most, and best, in the world. Mortality rate is DOWN 85% plus!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2020

Second news item

This is terrible and wrong. Always, always more speech:

While free speech is a worthy cause, this isn’t an issue for its defense because this was not an attack on free speech. Instead, it is an act of intolerance.

Let’s not make excuses: The magazine had to have known that there would be a response to their illustrations. Everybody knows that you will get bitten if you poke the bear. The editorial staff at Charlie Hebdo fancied themselves iconoclasts looking to provoke, not to criticize.

We have to acknowledge that this was defamatory action. We should condemn brutality while also condemning the activities that caused it.

It is not okay to be intolerant. We cannot correct two wrongs with another wrong…

Free speech is a right that Charlie Hebdo abused. Violence is never the answer, and you don’t take a pen to a gunfight, but you also don’t spit in the face of a revered figure, no matter your beliefs.

Breaking the will of the terrorists:

Cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad were projected onto government buildings in France as part of a tribute to history teacher Samuel Paty, who was murdered by an Islamist terrorist last week.

The controversial depictions from the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were displayed onto town halls in Montpellier and Toulouse for several hours on Wednesday evening, following an official memorial attended by Paty’s family and President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

Paty was beheaded while walking home on Friday evening, just days after he showed Charlie Hebdo’s caricatures of Mohammad to pupils in a class about freedom of expression…“Samuel Paty on Friday became the face of the Republic, of our desire to break the will of the terrorists… and to live as a community of free citizens in our country.”

Third news item

Trying to expand their customer base, I guess:

Fact: Not all women have periods. Also a fact: Not all people with periods are women. Let's celebrate the diversity of all people who bleed! 💙🎨: @gobeeharris #mythbusting #periodtruths #transisbeautiful pic.twitter.com/5s1416cZBw

— Tampax (@Tampax) September 15, 2020

Fourth news item

No matter where one stands on immigration, this is just cruel and heartbreaking:

The parents of 545 migrant children who were separated under US border policy cannot be located, a court filing and US rights group revealed Tuesday.

The separations were carried out in relation to US President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy toward migrants who illegally crossed the border.

“Through our litigation, we just reported to the court that the parents of 545 kids — forcibly separated by the Trump administration’s cruel family separation practice — still cannot be found,” the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted.

Fifth news item

Here we go:

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump threatened to sue the Lincoln Project over billboards the anti-Trump Republican PAC put up in Times Square criticizing the couple’s response to the coronavirus.

In a letter, Trump family lawyer Marc Kasowitz rebuked the group for putting up a billboard of Ivanka Trump smiling and gesturing toward the coronavirus death tolls for New Yorkers and Americans — 33,000 and 221,000, respectively. The letter also mentioned a billboard of Kushner, featured next to the Trump display, in which he appears next to a quote saying, “[New Yorkers] are going to suffer and that’s their problem.”

Nuts! pic.twitter.com/XxxkG43z3W

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 24, 2020

Sixth news item

They’re coming out of the woodwork now:

Police in western Ohio have reportedly caught wind of a plan among an unspecified group of people to go to Gov. Mike DeWine’s home to arrest him for “tyranny.” Local news station WTOL reports that the Piqua Police Department received a report on Oct. 16 from a man who said he got a phone call from another man seeking to recruit him to arrest DeWine. The plan, which resembles an alleged kidnapping plot against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer earlier this month, apparently hit a wall after the man who received the call refused to join in and went to the police instead.

Seventh news item

Because not everyone thinks alike, even if they have similar skin tones:

Due to the power of identity politics, this critique is viewed as more credible and authentic coming from a person who is not white. But I do not speak for black people. Among those who believe in universal humanism, on the left and the right, none of us should be playing this identitarian game of claiming to speak on behalf of this or that racial group. Everyone, regardless of their racial or ethnic background, should be able to say what they believe to be true and challenge those they believe are wrong in a free and open way.

One of the central flaws of so-called anti-racist activism today is its prioritisation of what is termed ‘lived experience’ over empirical evidence. Lived experience, as it is understood by left identitarians, is not merely a retelling of events. It is the suggestion that your ‘positionality’ (where you stand in relation to dynamics of power and privilege) determines the authenticity and importance of your interpretation of a given situation. This shift has not led to better dialogue and understanding about race, gender and sexuality. It has led, rather, to the creation of new hierarchies determining who can and cannot speak on certain subjects, and whose voice is worthy of being heard.

Eighth news item

Eh, I think it’s called a lie:

Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed that he “never said I oppose fracking” when pressed by President Donald Trump on the issue during Thursday night’s presidential debate.

“You said it on tape,” Trump replied.

Facts First: It’s false that Biden never said he opposed fracking. In two Democratic primary debates, Biden made confusing remarks over fracking that his campaign had to clarify. In 2019, Biden said “we would make sure it’s eliminated” when asked about the future of coal and fracking; in 2020 he said he opposed “new fracking.

Just 10 days until the election.

Have a great weekend.

–Dana