Covid-stricken Alabama had more deaths than births last year, a first in its recorded history.

“Our state literally shrunk in 2020." There were 64,714 total deaths in the state last year, compared to 57,641 births, Dr. Harris said.

A nurse tending to a Covid-19 patient in the intensive care unit at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, Ala., last December.

Credit...Julie Bennett/Associated Press

By Eduardo Medina
Sept. 18, 2021

For the first time in Alabama’s known history, the state had more deaths than births in 2020 — a grim milestone that underscores the pandemic’s calamitous toll.

“Our state literally shrunk in 2020,” Dr. Scott Harris, Alabama’s state health officer, said at a news conference on Friday. There were 64,714 total deaths in the state last year, compared to 57,641 births, Dr. Harris said.

Such a gap had never been recorded, not even during World War I, World War II and the flu pandemic of 1918, Dr. Harris said. Going back to the earliest available records, in 1900, “We’ve never had a time when deaths exceeded births,” he said.

Nationally, the birthrate declined for the sixth straight year in 2020, and some experts say the pandemic may be accelerating that trend. A study from the University of New Hampshire found that half of the 50 U.S. states had more deaths than births in 2020, compared with only five states with more deaths than births in 2019.

In Alabama last year, 7,182 deaths were officially attributed to Covid, according to data from the Alabama Department of Public Health.

On Wednesday, in a town hall discussion with Al.com, Alabama’s largest digital news site, Dr. Harris dismissed arguments that Covid deaths were being misrepresented.

“We get skeptical people who go, ‘Oh well, those were just older people who were going to die anyway, and you’re just attributing their deaths to Covid,’” he said. “That is not the case.”

Alabama has recently averaged about 60 deaths a day, according to a New York Times database, and only 41 percent of the state’s eligible population is fully vaccinated.


Alabama Coronavirus Map and Case Count

See the latest charts and maps of coronavirus cases, deaths, hospitalizations and vaccinations in Alabama.


Alabama’s rate of full vaccination is on a par with Idaho’s, tied as the third-lowest rate in the country. The two that rank lower are Wyoming and West Virginia.

Alabama’s governor, Kay Ivey, has urged the people of her state to get Covid vaccinations, but like many other Republicans, she objected when President Biden recently announced vaccine mandates, calling them “outrageous” and “overreaching.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp keeps mentioning failed AIDS vaccine mandates — but there is no AIDS vaccine

AND THERE WERE NO MANDATES UNDER REAGAN

Brett Bachman, Salon
September 18, 2021

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (Facebook)

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, keeps mentioning the failed campaign to vaccinate Americans against the AIDS virus as an example of the pitfalls of healthcare mandates.

Except the AIDS vaccine doesn't exist. And there sure wasn't a failed campaign to mandate it.

He made the comments most recently on an episode of the right-wing commentator Erick Erickson's podcast, emphasizing that as a result of his knowledge of the nonexistent AIDS vaccine, he believes that education is a more effective tool than mandates.

"That is basically how the AIDS vaccine worked. People wouldn't take it early on because it was mandated, they started educating people and now it is doing a lot of good out there," Kemp told Erickson. "Same scenario, different year that we are dealing with right now."

A fact check from Atlanta TV station 11 Alive rated Kemp's claims "false" — and noted that the governor has made similar comments about AIDS vaccines at least two other times over the past year.

When reached for comment by the station, Kemp's office said he meant to mention the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine. But even this statement raises eyebrows — the HPV vaccine is also mandated in a number of states to attend public schools (among other inoculations), a campaign that has been largely effective in getting school-age children vaccinated, 11 Alive reported.

The governor has been a vocal opponent of recent public health efforts to tamp down on the spread of COVID-19. Kemp has repeatedly said that he will never sign off on mask or vaccine mandates while in office, drawing the criticism of public health experts.

In fact, the state's public health commissioner, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, even had her lawyer write up a formal letter last year stating that she thought the governor's plans to reopen live entertainment venues was a bad idea, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It ultimately did not stop Kemp from doing so.

"It's one thing to say you're following the science; it's another thing to shoehorn the science into what you want it to be," Amber Schmidtke, a public health researcher who taught at Mercer University's medical school in Macon, Georgia, told the paper. "A lot of people were hurt, and a lot of people died when they didn't need to."

Kemp acknowledged the difficulty of his decisions in a press conference during the brouhaha, saying: "We had to make some very tough choices during extraordinary times, and there is no playbook for this."

"Looking back one year, every day is a reminder of the things that we went through, the tough decisions that we made."

He's also been a supporter of former President Donald Trump — but earned a very public bout of anger from the ex-commander-in-chief when he resisted Trump's attempts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results.

Since then, however, Kemp has pushed voting laws that not only restrict access to the ballot for many Georgians but also allow state officials to stage hostile takeovers of local election boards — raising concerns about Republican efforts to subvert future elections.

Architect of Texas abortion ban takes aim at LGBTQ+ rights while urging reversal of Roe v Wade
Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams
September 18, 2021

Gay rights advocates celebrate outside the Supreme Court in 2015 after judges ruled in favor of same-sex marriage: new rulings on sexual minorities' rights in the workplace may face a rockier passage GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP / ALEX WONG


Advocates for reproductive freedom and LGTBQ+ equality on Saturday pointed to a legal brief filed in a U.S. Supreme Court case that could soon overturn Roe v. Wade as a crucial example of the broader goals of those fighting to end abortion rights across the United States.

"It's never just been about fetuses. It's about controlling sex," tweeted Muhlenberg College assistant professor Jacqueline Antonovich, a historian of health and medicine.

Both Antonovich and Elie Mystal, The Nation's justice correspondent, responded to a portion of the brief flagged by New York University School of Law professor Melissa Murray that challenges previous rulings from the country's highest court on not only abortion but also LGBTQ+ rights.

"Of course" the so-called "right to life" movement is also coming after cases that established key LGBTQ+ protections, said Mystal, "because it's never about 'life' and always about 'Christian fundamentalism.'"

The amicus brief (pdf) that Murray highlighted—co-authored by the architect of a new abortion ban in Texas—urges reversing Roe, the landmark 1973 ruling that affirmed the constitutional right to pre-viability abortions, and the related 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The brief also takes aim at Lawrence v. Texas, a 2003 case that overturned homophobic state sodomy laws, and the 2015 equal marriage case Obergefell v. Hodges, suggesting that the court should not "hesitate to write an opinion that leaves those decisions hanging by a thread. Lawrence and Obergefell, while far less hazardous to human life, are just as lawless as Roe."

Zack Ford of the progressive group Alliance for Justice said Saturday that "this is hardly surprising. Conservatives know they've got the Supreme Court in the palm of their hands and they'll ask for anything and everything, including the return of sodomy laws. Remember, ALL anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice views stem from the same desire to control bodies."

The alarm over the brief—submitted for Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case about a Mississippi abortion ban that the high court is set to hear this term—came exactly one year after the death of liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

In the wake of Ginsburg's death, then-President Donald Trump nominated and the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate swiftly confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's third appointee to the court—creating a supermajority of six right-wing justices.

The high court's majority sparked concerns about how justices will rule in the Mississippi case by letting a contested Texas law take effect earlier this month. Just one piece of a historic GOP assault on reproductive rights this year, Texas' Senate Bill 8 not only bans abortion at six weeks but also empowers anti-choice vigilantes to enforce it—which, as the U.S. Justice Department explained in its lawsuit challenging the measure, is an "unprecedented scheme" intended to make it harder to strike down in court.

The legal mind behind S.B. 8, Jonathan Mitchell, "has spent the last seven years honing a largely below-the-radar strategy of writing laws deliberately devised to make it much more difficult for the judicial system—particularly the Supreme Court—to thwart them," according to The New York Times.

A former Texas solicitor general and clerk to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Mitchell also co-authored the legal brief attacking Lawrence and Obergefell. His brief for the group Texas Right to Life—just one of several anti-choice filings submitted to the high court in late July—also states that "women can 'control their reproductive lives' without access to abortion; they can do so by refraining from sexual intercourse.'"

As The Guardian reports, the brief adds that "one can imagine a scenario in which a woman has chosen to engage in unprotected (or insufficiently protected) sexual intercourse on the assumption that an abortion will be available to her later. But when this court announces the overruling of Roe, that individual can simply change their behavior in response to the court's decision if she no longer wants to take the risk of an unwanted pregnancy."

While the Biden administration is taking on S.B. 8 in court and on Friday announced another series of actions intended to assist abortion seekers and providers in Texas, both the new ban and mounting concerns about the Mississippi case have provoked calls for the Democrat-controlled Congress to immediately expand the U.S. Supreme Court and codifying Roe.

Although congressional progressives in April introduced the Judiciary Act of 2021 (H.R. 2584/S. 1141), which would add four more justices to the Supreme Court, the measure has not advanced and its low co-sponsor numbers suggest that will not change during this session.

As for lawmakers reaffirming abortion rights nationwide, the U.S. House is set to vote on the Women's Health Protection Act (H.R. 3755/S. 1975) later this month. However, unless the evenly divided Senate abolishes the filibuster, it is unlikely to reach President Joe Biden.

New discoveries chip away at myths about Viking shipbuilding

History News Network
September 18, 2021

The "Viking," a replica of the recently excavated Gokstad ship is displayed at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Recent archaeology has deepened understanding of other ship designs made for coastal sailing and frequent portaging.

In the midst of World War II, with the Nazis extolling their Viking heritage, the Swedish writer Frans G. Bengtsson began writing "a story that people could enjoy reading, like The Three Musketeers or the Odyssey."

Bengtsson had made his literary reputation with the biography of an 18th-century king. But for this story he tried a new genre, the historical novel, and a new period of time. His Vikings are common men, smart, witty, and open-minded. "When encountering a Jew who allies with the Vikings and leads them to treasure beyond their dreams, they are duly grateful," notes one critic. "Bengtsson in effect throws the Viking heritage back in the Nazis' face."

His effect on that Viking heritage, however, was not benign. His story, Rode Orm, is one of the most-read and most-loved books in Swedish, and has been translated into over twenty languages; in English it's The Long Ships.

Part of the story takes place on the East Way, which the red-haired Orm travels in a lapstrake ship with 24 pairs of oars. Based on the Oseberg ship's 15 pairs of oars or the Gokstad ship's 16, such a mighty vessel would stretch nearly 100 feet long and weigh 16 to 18 tons, empty. To cross the many portages between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, Red Orm's "cheerful crew" threw great logs in front of the prow and hauled the boat along these rollers "in exchange for swigs of 'dragging beer,'" Bengtsson wrote.

This, say experimental archaeologists, is "unproven," "improbable," and—after several tries with replica ships—"not possible."

But Bengtsson's fiction burned itself into popular memory. Early scholars were convinced, too: A drawing of dozens of men attempting to roll a mighty ship on loose logs illustrates the eastern voyages in the classic compendium The Viking from 1966.

"Seldom has anything been surrounded by so much myth and fantasy" as the Viking ship, notes Gunilla Larsson whose 2007 Ph.D. thesis, Ship and Society: Maritime Ideology in Late Iron Age Sweden, has completely changed our understanding of the Vikings' eastern voyages.

Like the myth of the Viking housewife with her keys, the myth of the mighty Viking ship is so common it's taken to be true. But the facts do not back it up.

In the 1990s, archaeologists attempted several times to take replica Viking ships between rivers or across isthmuses using the log-rolling method. They failed. They scaled down their ships. They still failed. Their ships were a half to a third the length of Red Orm's mighty ship. They weighed only one to two tons, not 16 tons. Yet they could not be cheerfully hauled by their crews, no matter how much beer was provided. The task was inefficient even when horses—or wheels or winches or wagons—were added.

We think bigger is better, but it's not.

The beautiful Oseberg ship with its spiral prow and the sleek Gokstad ship, praised as an "ideal form" and "a poem carved in wood," have been considered the classic Viking ships from the time they were first unearthed. Images of these Norwegian ships grace uncountable books on Viking Age history, uncountable museum exhibitions, uncountable souvenirs in Scandinavian gift shops.

But a third ship of equal importance for understanding the Viking Age was discovered in 1898, after Gokstad (1880) and before Oseberg (1903), by a Swedish farmer digging a ditch to dry out a boggy meadow. He axed through the wreck and laid his drain pipes. The landowner, a bit of an antiquarian, decided to rescue the boat and pulled the pieces of old wood out of the ground. His collection founded a local museum, but the boat pieces lay ignored in the attic—unmarked, unnumbered, with no drawings to say how they had lain in the earth when found—until 1980, when a radiocarbon survey of the museum's contents dated them to the 11th century. Their great age was confirmed by tree-ring data, which found the wood for the boat had been cut before 1070.

In the 1990s, archaeologist Gunilla Larsson took on the task of puzzling the pieces back into a boat. She had bits of much of the hull: of the keel, the stem and stern and five wide strakes, even some of the wooden rail attached to the gunwale. She had most of the frames, one bite, and two knees. About 2 feet in the middle of the boat was missing: where the ditch went through. The iron rivets had rusted away, but the rivet holes in the wood were easy to see and, since the distance between them varied, the parts could only go together one way. The wood itself had been flattened by time, but it was still sturdy enough to be soaked in hot water and bent into shape—the same technique the original boatbuilder had used.

When she had solved this 3D jigsaw puzzle, she engaged the National Maritime Museum in Stockholm to help her mount the pieces on an iron frame; the Viks Boat went on display in 1996. Then she created a replica, Talja, and tested it by sailing, rowing, and portaging around Lake Malaren. Talja glided up shallow streams, its pliable planks bending and sliding over rocks. With only the power of its crew, it was easily portaged from one watershed to the next, from Lake Malaren to Lake Vanern in the west, itself draining into the Kattegat.

A second Viks Boat replica, Fornkare, was built in 2012 and taken on the Vikings' East Way from Lake Malaren to Novgorod the first year, then south, by rivers and lakes, some 250 miles through Russia the second year. Concludes Fornkare's builder and captain, Lennart Widerberg, "The vessel proved itself capable of traveling this ancient route" from Birka to Byzantium.

The Viks Boat is 31 feet long—longer than two earlier replicas that failed the East Way portage test—and about 7 feet wide, comfortable for a crew of 8 to 10. Its replicas passed the portage test for two reasons. First, they were built, like the original, with strakes that were radially split, not sawn. The resulting board is easy to bend and hard to break—at less than half an inch thick. The resulting boat is equally seaworthy at almost half the weight of the same size boat built with the same lapstrake technique, but using sawn boards. Empty, the Viks Boat replicas weigh only half a ton—about as much as a horse.

The second reason the Viks Boat replicas proved adequate for the East Way was that archaeologists had set aside Frans Bengtsson's fantastical log-rolling technique for crossing from stream to stream.

By studying the ways the Sami had portaged their dugout canoes through the waterways of Sweden and Finland throughout history, the archaeologists began to see signs of similar portage-ways around Lake Malaren. They built some themselves and had teams race replica ships through an obstacle course of portage types: smooth grassy paths, log-lined roads or ditches (with the logs aligned in the direction of travel), and bogs layered with branches. A team of two adults and seven 17-year-olds finished a winding, half-mile course with Talja in an hour. When the portage was straight over 4-inch-thick logs sunk into the mud so they didn't shift, the boat raced at 150 feet a minute.

The beauty of the Gokstad ship, its poetic quality, comes from its curves, the hull swelling out from the gunwale then tightly back in, making a distinctive V-shape down to the deep, straight keel. These concave curves improve the ship's sailing ability at sea. But the keel cuts too deep to float a shallow, stony stream like those that connect the Baltic to the Black Sea.

Over a portage, even the minimal keel of the Viks Boat replicas needed to be protected with an easily replaceable covering of birch, as had been found on the original. The Old Norse name for this false keel was drag. To "set a drag under someone's pride" was to encourage arrogance.

Historians and archaeologists of the Viking Age have long benefited from an ideological false keel. With the Viks Boat taking its rightful place as an exemplar of the Viking ship, it's time to knock off that damaged drag and replace it. Says Larsson, "We should get used to a completely different picture of the Scandinavian traveling eastward in the Viking Age, one that is far from the traditional image of the male Viking warrior in the prow of a big warship."

Nancy Marie Brown is the author of The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women.

Many faith leaders say no to endorsing vaccine exemptions
By PETER SMITH

 - In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America throws a cross into Spring Bayou during the 115th year of the annual Epiphany celebration in Tarpon Springs, Fla. Leaders of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America said Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021, that while some people may have medical conditions for not receiving the vaccine, “there is no exemption in the Orthodox Church for Her faithful from any vaccination for religious reasons.” Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros added: “No clergy are to issue such religious exemption letters,” and any such letter “is not valid.” 

(Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)


As significant numbers of Americans seek religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine mandates, many faith leaders are saying: Not with our endorsement.

Leaders of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America said Thursday that while some people may have medical reasons for not receiving the vaccine, “there is no exemption in the Orthodox Church for Her faithful from any vaccination for religious reasons.”

The Holy Eparchial Synod of the nationwide archdiocese, representing the largest share of Eastern Orthodox people in the United States, urged members to “pay heed to competent medical authorities, and to avoid the false narratives utterly unfounded in science.”

“No clergy are to issue such religious exemption letters,” Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros said, and any such letter “is not valid.”

Similarly, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America issued a recent statement encouraging vaccine use and saying that “there is no evident basis for religious exemption” in its own or the wider Lutheran tradition.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York laid out its own stance during the summer, saying that any priest issuing an exemption letter would be “acting in contradiction” to statements from Pope Francis that receiving the vaccine is morally acceptable and responsible.

Both the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have said Catholics can receive the vaccines in good conscience given the lack of alternatives and the goal of alleviating suffering — even while objecting to research with even a remote connection to abortion.

A number of dioceses have adopted policies similar to New York’s, and bishops in El Paso, Texas, and Lexington, Kentucky, have mandated vaccines for employees.

But other Catholic jurisdictions are more accommodating of exemptions. The Colorado Catholic Conference, the policy arm of the state’s bishops, has posted online a template for a letter that priests can sign saying an individual parishioner may draw on Catholic values to object to the vaccines. South Dakota’s bishops have also taken that stance.

At issue for many Catholics and other abortion opponents is that the most widely used COVID-19 vaccines were tested on fetal cell lines developed over decades in laboratories, though the vaccines themselves do not contain any such material.

The issue is becoming more heated as public- and private-sector employers increasingly impose mandates.

In this Saturday, July 11, 2020 file photo, mourners attend the blessing of ashes of Mexicans who died from COVID-19 during a payer a service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, before they were repatriated to Mexico. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York issued a statement in the summer of 2021, saying that any priest issuing an exemption letter would be “acting in contradiction” to statements from Pope Francis that receiving the vaccine is morally acceptable and responsible. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

A clerical letter wouldn’t necessarily be needed for someone to be granted an exemption — federal law requires employers make reasonable accommodations for “sincerely held” religious beliefs — though a clergy endorsement could help bolster a person’s claim.

The Rev. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas, a Southern Baptist megachurch, said he and his staff “are neither offering nor encouraging members to seek religious exemptions from the vaccine mandates.”

“There is no credible religious argument against the vaccines,” he said via email. “Christians who are troubled by the use of a fetal cell line for the testing of the vaccines would also have to abstain from the use of Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Ibuprofen, and other products that used the same cell line if they are sincere in their objection.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not provide religious exemptions for vaccines for members, according to church spokesman Eric Hawkins. Leaders of the Utah-based faith have made pleas for members to get vaccinated even as doctrine acknowledges it’s up to individual choice.

The church’s Brigham Young University has asked students to report their vaccination status but is not requiring vaccinations, and the church is also requiring U.S. missionaries serving in foreign countries to be vaccinated.

Some other religious groups, such as the Orthodox Union, an umbrella organization for Orthodox Judaism, and the United Methodist Church, have encouraged people to get vaccines but have not issued policy statements on exemptions.

The Fiqh Council of North America, made up of Islamic scholars, has advised Muslims to receive the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and to debunk “baseless rumors and myths” about them.

___

Associated Press writers Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City and David Crary in New York contributed to this report.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

There's a big problem with religious exemptions from vaccines

Terry H. Schwadron, DC Report
September 18, 2021

Republican and vaccine skeptic Todd Engle in front of his home in Martinsburg, West Virginia, on March 18, 2021; he is one of many Republicans around the country who voice concerns about the vaccine(AFP)

The anti-vaxx protest government mandates is in full swing, fueled, and amped by non-stop support from right-leaning commentators and celebrities, various evangelical ministers and what look to be lawsuits by the basketful.

Curiously, the goals of protest seem aimed both at allowing for individual "choice" over mandates, and, well, mandating that the executive orders themselves be declared unconstitutional. Choice for me, no choice for Joe Biden.

Despite thousands of covid-positive tests and 10 departmental death, some 3,000 Los Angeles Police Department employees are planning to seek exemptions from getting the covid vaccine, and a group of police has filed a federal lawsuit against the city's vaccine and mandates, The Los Angeles Times reports. That is being echoed by police groups in San Diego, Chicago and New York in public service jobs, private businesses and even hospitals, says The Washington Post.

The message: I'd rather quit than be told what to do about covid, a political mindset.

There are still some who argue on medical grounds, disabilities, or over misinformation about vaccine safety, but the tool of choice emerging seems to be a claim of religious incongruity.

Though there are variations in the mandates, claiming religious belief can exempt individuals from most mandates. The question is what does that mean?

Religion, The New Legal Battlefield

As CBS News has explored, claims for earnest religious exemption "is new territory for many employers navigating the issue, given how risky a proposition it is to allow unvaccinated employees to mingle with, and possibly infect, colleagues in the workplace."

The big question here: What makes for a vaccine waiver based on religion. In effect, it has become the emerging legal battlefield.

None of the major religions oppose vaccines. Pope Francis has blessed the vaccines, calling getting vaccinated as "an act of love" for one's neighbors. Leaders of all religions in this country and internationally have pleaded for vaccinations in this country and internationally. The Rev. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas, an ardent Trump supporter, told the Associated Press this week that that "there is no credible religious argument" against receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and that he is not offering nor encouraging religious exemptions.

Still, some local congregational leaders have done the opposite, decrying vaccines along with mandates. The Freedom Church in Charlotte, N.C. declared "It is despicable for a business or government agency to force someone to take a vaccine that is unproven, dangerous and not fully tested." Of course, the FDA has reviewed extensive testing and approved the vaccine as safe.

Some have asserted that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine burdens their personal believes because somewhere in its development the company used fetal cell lines developed from aborted fetuses – though that is not true for the far more widely used Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

In Tulsa, Sheridan Church pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, who also owns an real estate investment business, is offering his signature on religious exemption forms from covid vaccines to anyone donating even a dollar to his church for online membership, according to The Washington Post. Experts on religious freedom claims say that most people do not necessarily need a letter from clergy for a religious exemption, but Lahmeyer, who opposes both vaccines and mandates, says it is a way for him to bring the issue to the fore.

In Northern California, the pastor of a megachurch hands out religious exemption. A Texas-based evangelist offers exemption letters to anyone — for a suggested "donation" starting at $25.

No Standards

So, now cities, states, the federal government, and businesses with more than 100 employees are being told to mandate vaccines. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, they must offer exemptions to individuals with either a disability or "sincerely held" religious belief that prevents them from getting the vaccine.

But we don't know what that means. Declaring oneself a conscientious objector to war, for example, required a whole lot more backup than saying it's what I believe.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett without explanation recently struck down an attempt by students at the Indiana University to bypass a vaccine mandate on religious grounds.

Yet, it seems that the legal claim here is that an individual's "sincerely held" religious belief is enough to qualify for waiver. So, now we are to believe that 3,000 LAPD officers all hold the same religious belief?

By contrast, requests for exemption based on medical grounds usually come with a doctor's statement, in this case perhaps showing a known allergy to vaccine components. With belief, this is unclear. An employer must engage in a two-sided dialogue to determine if the worker's request can be met, but then what?

Interviews with experts indicate that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has not given the guidance on how to determine what a sincerely held religious belief is. Employers generally do not push back against employees to claim religious beliefs to skip work on a holy day, for example.

Covid is changing the rules, including the rules of protest. Simply saying, "I believe in God, I can't get vaccinated," won't fly either, one labor lawyer told CBS. United Airlines recently denied several employees' requests for religious exemptions from the airline's vaccine mandate, saying the employees will be placed on unpaid leave.

This waiver for religion makes it is unclear just how hard or soft Biden's requirement for companies is in reality. The government has precedent in ordering vaccines, but has placed enforcement in the hands of OSHA, the industrial safety arm of the Labor Department, rather than departments more directly responsible for health.

Alberta health-worker unions call on Kenney to request military help with COVID-19 crisis

By Phil Heidenreich Global News
Posted September 18, 2021 

A letter from the leaders of several unions that represent health-care workers in Alberta is calling on Premier Jason Kenney to request assistance from both the military and the Red Cross as the health-care system struggles to keep up with demands placed on it by the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.


“(We) urge you in the strongest possible terms to call on the federal government to immediately deploy the military, the Red Cross and all available medical staffing resources from other provinces to assist our province’s overwhelmed hospitals,” reads the letter, dated Sept. 18.

READ MORE: Surge of COVID-19 cases spurs City of Red Deer to declare state of local emergency

The document, signed by United Nurses of Alberta president Heather Smith, Health Sciences Association of Alberta president Mike Parker, CUPE Alberta president Rory Gill and Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan, underscores the dire situation facing the province’s health-care system.

“It is our assessment that Alberta’s health-care system is not just ‘on the verge’ of collapse — we believe it’s actually collapsing in front of our eyes,” the letter reads. “There are no more nurses in our province who can be deployed. There are no more paramedics. There are no more respiratory therapists. There are no more support staff. The tank is empty. The well is dry.

“Our members have been going above and beyond for 19 months, but they are worried that this wave of the pandemic is the one that will crush them.”

READ MORE: Alberta Children’s Hospital to temporarily close 75% of operating rooms by Monday

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Kenney announced his government would be implementing new COVID-19 measures, including a vaccine passport program, in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 and to keep the health system from being stretched beyond its capacity.

“We may run out of staff and intensive care beds within the next 10 days,” the premier said.

“Unless we slow (virus) transmission, particularly amongst unvaccinated Albertans, we simply will not be able to provide adequate care to everyone who gets sick.”

READ MORE: Alberta adds COVID-19 measures, vaccine passport in effort to prevent health-care system’s collapse

The number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and ICU admissions in Alberta has been rising dramatically in recent weeks. As of Friday afternoon, Alberta Health said the province had 19,201 active coronavirus cases and noted 911 people are in Alberta hospitals with COVID-19, 215 of which are in ICUs.

When asked to comment on the letter, Steve Buick, the press secretary for Health Minister Tyler Shandro’s office, said “the military and Red Cross would have limited ability to provide clinical resources.”

“So no requests have been made to them to date,” he wrote in an email. “If and when their assistance is needed, for example to provide equipment or logistical support such as patient transport, we’ll support requests as appropriate.”

READ MORE: Veteran Edmonton nurse on staffing shortages, skyrocketing COVID-19 patients: ‘It’s devastating’

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” McGowan told Global News on Saturday. “Heaven forbid that anybody gets in a car accident or has a heart attack.

“We decided to write this letter because, frankly, what we’ve been hearing from our own members who are on the front lines of the fourth wave. And what we’re hearing is that this is worse than we’ve ever seen in Alberta.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is currently campaigning for re-election, said this week that his government will offer support to Alberta during the crisis, including by sending ventilators to the province.

Alberta Health Services president and CEO Dr. Verna Yiu said this week that as hospitals are stretched thin, efforts to increase surge capacity are ongoing. She said she has reached out to counterparts in other provinces to see if they are able to accommodate Alberta patients or send staff to Alberta if the situation deteriorates to a point where such action is necessary.

Since Kenney’s news conference on Wednesday, British Columbia Premier John Horgan has said his province will do what it can to help Alberta, but stopped short of offering hospital beds or staff.

Premier Kelvin Goertzen said Manitoba will send pharmaceuticals to Alberta to help with the COVID-19 situation.

Yiu confirmed Thursday that Ontario has offered to help Alberta weather its public health storm as well.

‘It’s devastating’: Veteran Alberta nurse shares emotional toll 4th wave of COVID-19 is having on front-line workers‘It’s devastating’: Veteran Alberta nurse shares emotional toll 4th wave of COVID-19 is having on front-line workers

In their letter Saturday, the union leaders said they believe it is Kenney’s “constitutional role as premier” to formally request help from the federal government.

“They cannot act unless you ask them to act,” the letter reads.

“So please, on behalf of our beleaguered members on the front line of this crisis, and on behalf of all Albertans, we are officially asking you to request help from the federal government.”

Canada election: Liberal government will support Alberta, Saskatchewan on COVID-19 vaccine certification, Trudeau saysCanada election: Liberal government will support Alberta, Saskatchewan on COVID-19 vaccine certification, Trudeau says

The letter also notes that earlier this year, military medical units were deployed to hospitals in Ontario as they grappled to keep up with patients during the pandemic’s third wave.

“The hour is late and the situation is grim,” the union leaders’ letter reads. “By itself, federal deployment of resources will not be enough to see us through. But it will help.

“The bottom line is that we need more aggressive action from your government to reduce the viral transmission that is driving this crisis.”

READ MORE: Alberta sees spike in COVID-19 vaccinations, 2,020 new cases confirmed Friday

On Friday, Alberta Health reported that the province had identified 2,020 new cases of COVID-19 over the previous 24 hours. The government department said Alberta’s active case count was at 19,201 people Friday afternoon.

Of those, 911 were in hospital with COVID-19 and 215 were in intensive-care units because of the disease.

© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Drought tests centuries-old water traditions in New Mexico


ABIQUIU, N.M. (AP) — At the edge of a sandstone outcropping, Teresa Leger Fernández looks out on the Rio Chama. The river tracks a diverse landscape from the southern edge of the Rocky Mountains through rugged basalt hillsides, layers of volcanic tuff, and the red and yellow cliffs made famous by painter Georgia O’Keeffe.

Here marks the genesis of New Mexico’s centuries-old tradition of sharing water through irrigation systems known as acequias.

It’s also one of the many spots in the arid West facing more pressure as drought stretches into another decade and climate change piles on with warmer temperatures.

Once an acequia commissioner and now a U.S. congresswoman, Leger Fernández knows how hard it is to tell farmers they won't get all the water they need — or maybe none at all.

She talks about the annual limpia, or cleaning of acequias in preparation for planting season.

“There was always a sense of accomplishment but now what we’re witnessing is we can’t do it all the time anymore because we don’t have the water,” she said during a tour with acequia officials. “And what you all are facing is not of your making, right? But you are having to work through the struggle of making whatever water is available work for everybody in the community.”

Some earthen canals didn't get a drop of water this year, another example of parched Western conditions. Like many parts of the world, the region has become warmer and drier over the last 30 years, mainly due to rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases resulting from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas development and transportation.

Boat docks are high and dry at reservoirs around New Mexico, and Lake Powell along the Utah-Arizona line has hit a record low this year. A key Northern California reservoir that helps water a quarter of U.S. crops is shrinking.

For mayordomos — those who oversee acequias and ensure equitable water distribution — it has become a scramble.

Less snow falls, and warmer temperatures melt it sooner. Dry soil soaks up runoff before it reaches streams and rivers that feed acequias.

Paula Garcia, New Mexico Acequia Association executive director, shuns the phrase “new normal” because she said that implies stability in weather patterns the community's ditches rely on.

“We’re trying to be quick on our feet and adapt as much as we can, but it tests what we can really call resiliency," she said, standing in shade at Santa Cruz Farm and Greenhouses in Espanola, where rows of chile, corn and blackberries bake in the sun. “We think we’re resilient, but resilient to what point? We’re bumping up against what those tipping points are."

Federal water management policies have complicated matters as needs of cities and other users overshadow these Hispanic and Indigenous communities.

Their traditions are rooted in Moorish ingenuity first brought to Europe and then to North America via Spanish settlers. Those water-sharing ideas were blended with already sophisticated irrigation culture developed by Indigenous communities in what is now the southwestern U.S.

What developed were little slices of paradise, with gardens and orchards that have sustained communities for generations.

Roughly 640 New Mexico acequias still provide water to thousands of acres of farmland.

Darel Madrid, Rio Chama Acequia Association president, didn't grow a garden this year. He wanted to lead by example.

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” said Madrid, who would love nothing more than to grow watermelons again. “As long as we have reduced snowpacks and warmer springs, there’s going to be a certain point where we’re going to only be able to rely solely on rainwater and the monsoon season. That’s going to be bad.”

After back-to-back record dry summer rainy seasons, some Southwest areas enjoyed above average rain this year. But maps are still bleak, with nearly 99% of the West dealing with some form of drought.

Madrid said some parciantes — or acequia members — grow crops to supply regional farm-to-table programs and farmers markets. Others do it to subsidize income in a region where many live close to poverty.

When water-sharing compacts involving some of New Mexico's largest cities were first negotiated decades ago, Madrid said communities along Rio Chama were left out. Now, as supplies are scarce, acequias around Abiquiu have been forced to seek state funding to buy water from downstream users. If none is available, they go without.

As long as Rio Chama flows above 140 cubic feet per second, water can be diverted by acequias. The flow usually nosedives in May, and rationing starts when it drops below 50 cfs. Aside from isolated spikes from storm runoff, the flow is now less than half that.

Madrid said acequias would benefit from permanent water storage in an upstream reservoir, which would need federal approval.

“The bottom line is we want to be self-sufficient," he said. “We want to be able to take care of ourselves.”

Since 2017, more than $5.3 million has been funneled to dozens of community irrigation projects through New Mexico's Interstate Stream Commission. Another $15 million in state capital funds have been earmarked for acequia projects since 2018.

Madrid said state and federal officials are starting to take notice as more acequias organize and speak out.

Leger Fernández noted that acequias represent some of the earliest forms of government that predate the U.S.

“What we’re trying to do now is preserve something that the parciantes and the mayordomos and commissioners have been able to do for 400 years,” she told the group gathered along Rio Chama.

Part of that means reimagining acequias without giving up the sense of community they command.

At Santa Cruz Farm, owner Don Bustos is growing crops in greenhouses in fall and winter when less water is needed and evaporation is reduced, he said.

In Taos, acequia leaders have bumped up annual cleaning to the fall so they don't miss out on early runoff.

Madrid recalls a futuristic comic book storyline where an elaborate system of pipes and ration cards are used to control water. He's hopeful that will never come to pass, but he and others acknowledged that acequias need upgrades to last another 400 years.

Garcia said she believes farmers, masters of soil health and seed savers always will be in New Mexico's rural valley, they'll just have to innovate.

“There’s still a lot of adaptations that we haven’t touched yet. We’re just barely seeing the beginning of it now,” she said. “We’re dealing with centuries-old ditches and in another century they might look very different, but I do think we’re still going to be here.”

Acequias have overcome periodic environmental crises, rivalries among water users and profound historical changes, Spanish historian and anthropologist Luis Pablo Martínez Sanmartín noted in a 2020 research report. He said survival has hinged on a common-good design based on cooperation, respect, equity, transparency and negotiation.

Leger Fernández kept coming back to ideas of community and mutual respect as she walked through rows of blackberries at Bustos' farm, never missing a chance to pick another berry. She also talked about gathering capulin — or chokecherries — and roasting blue corn to make atole — a traditional beverage — to share during the holidays.

“To me, acequias are the most perfect symbol of what we should be about: a community,” she said.

Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated Press

'TRUMP'S ARMY LOOKS LIKE LOSERS' 

'Justice for J6' rally 

 

'Trump's army look like losers': National security expert blows up rally organizer's boast about success - 

Insurrection supporters blame Trump after 'Justice for J6' rally flopped

Bob Brigham
September 18, 2021

Screengrab.

Attendance was sparce at Saturday's rally in Washington, DC backing the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6th in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, which was won by Joe Biden.

Capitol Police estimated turnout was only 400 to 450 people.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz reported live from the scene.

"Some were upset at the former president because they felt that he, by coming out and saying people shouldn't come or they felt he wasn't strong enough in support," he reported. "I did hear from some of those folks who took issue with it, but I didn't hear them changing their opinions or their support of the former president."

"And as much as i just want to make one other point, as much as the organizers said, well, this wasn't political, this wasn't about politics, it really was, in the end. Everywhere you went here, you hear, you see signs about the former president," he added.

Trump was scheduled to spend his day attending a golf tournament in New Jersey.

Watch:

Trump supporter wearing dead animal refuses to believe Jan 6 was violent — even after CNN showed him video

Bob Brigham
September 18, 2021

Screengrab.

One of the 400 to 450 people who rallied in DC in support of those who stormed the Capitol on January 6th refused to believe that the Trump supporters who sought to overturn the election were violent.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz interviewed a Trump supporter wearing an animal hat who was clearly misinformed about the events on January 6th.

"It's a public building. I mean people have been held all this time, I think the most severe charge that any of them have is trespassing," the man falsely claimed.

"But there are some who were charged with assaulting officers," Prokupecz noted.

"Those are lies," the fur-clad Trump supporter argued.

"So you don't believe the video?" Prokupecz asked.

The man claimed he had seen no such video. So CNN showed him video — and he still didn't believe it.

Video of the man singing a song about Ashli Babbitt was captured by HuffPost reporter Ryan J. Reilly.

Prokupecz offered his analysis to CNN anchor Jim Acosta.

"It just seems, Jim, that it would take almost a miracle to convince some of the people who were here that this was a very serious situation. They all have downplayed it. In this instance, this video blaming the police for what happened and they should have gotten out of the way," he said.

"They're in a state of denial, is what it is," Acosta replied. "I mean, that's just extraordinary to meet somebody who says show me the video and then you show them the video — and they're still not convinced. It just shows you how sinister this world of disinformation is that we're all living in right now."

  

Why has Republican rhetoric gotten so unhinged?

BECAUSE THEY ARE

Kirk Swearingen, Salon
September 18, 2021

Marjorie Taylor Green (Erin Scott/Pool/AFP)

Some Republicans have dialed up the hyperbole to express their indignation about President Biden's vaccine mandates. Here are two tweets from South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster:

The American Dream has turned into a nightmare under President Biden and the radical Democrats. They have declared war against capitalism, thumbed their noses at the Constitution, and empowered our enemies abroad.

Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian."

Hearing Republican politicians speak about the American dream while voting against a livable minimum wage and undermining unions and consumer protection, is always, well, a little rich.

In this little tirade, McMaster was merely piling on while reacting to the supposed tyranny of Biden's recently announced mandates for vaccinations or testing in the workplace and in school.

So: You will fight sensible policies in an ongoing global health crisis — one that has already taken at least 660,000 lives of your own countrymen — to the gates of hell? Beyond the obvious morbid jokes that statement naturally elicits (e.g., Trevor Noah: "Normally, that statement is hyperbole, but with COVID you might actually get the chance."), where can McMaster now go if he wants to further ratchet up this rhetoric?

Before I listen to you, you'll see me do-si-do with Satan himself!

Do so, and you'll be up the River Styx without a paddle, pardner!

I'd rather traverse down all nine levels of Dante's Inferno, with a poet, than be bipartisan with the likes of you!

And how about that use of "thumbing their noses"? With that aged locution, the good governor is, without doubt, speaking directly to his demographic.

If one wanted to use old-fashioned phrases or words, one might ask: What is it with this ceaseless perfidiousness from the right? Merriam-Webster defines "perfidious" as "untrue to what should command one's fidelity or allegiance." Synonyms include faithless, false, disloyal, treacherous and traitorous.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

One need only consider the Republican votes during the two impeachment trials of Donald Trump, or their Trumpian adherence to the Big Lie about the 2020 election, or their whitewashing of the deadly insurrection at the Capitol, to understand the word. It might be a fun game to connect the most apt synonym with specific members of the House or Senate.

For decades the Republican game has been to claim that liberals and progressives are out to ruin the country with their unholy desire to see a bit more sharing of wealth and resources. But the rhetoric they're employing lately seems truly biblical, end-times unhinged, of the "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore" variety. And it all seems to be a psychological projection of their own desire to bring the American experiment as a democratic republic to an end.

The left now understands (let us hope) that like the British aristocracy of the 18th century, the GOP is going to war to retain power by any means. We need a modern-day Paul Revere (and a William Dawes, who didn't get a mention in the famous Longfellow poem) to raise the alarm. Their signals in the Old North Church today might be: "One if by gerrymandered land, and two if by voters put out to sea."

Our modern-day Revere, Stacey Abrams, can see those three lanterns glowing, day and night. Even with her eyes shut.

Have you heard the one about the Irishwoman who tried to shoot Benito Mussolini?


IS THAT TERENCE STAMP IN DRAG?

September 17 2021

Next week, TG4 will broadcast a gripping documentary about Irishwoman Violet Gibson, the woman who tried to shoot Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

Violet Gibson: An tÉireannach Mná a Lámhach Mussolini explores the moment Violet pushed her way through an adoring crowd in Rome on 7 April 1926 and shot one of the 20 century’s most infamous dictators at point-blank range.

She came the closest to success of the four assassination attempts on Mussolini. Yet, among the many acts of individual bravery against fascism in Europe back in the 20 century, Violet’s has been largely lost to history.

Violet Gibson: An tÉireannach Mná a Lámhach Mussolini is scheduled to be shown on TG4 at 9:30pm on Wednesday 22 September. It is a must-watch for all, but particularly documentary and history lovers.

Ahead of its showing, we take a closer look at this historic event and the questions it raised

Who was Violet Gibson?

Violet Gibson was born in Dublin on 31 August 1876 to Frances Colles and Edward Gibson, who was an Irish lawyer and politician. Edward served as Lord High Chancellor of Ireland from 1885–1905.

Violet was the second youngest of eight children: four boys and four girls, and was educated at home. The family lived between Dublin and London, and had a privileged Anglo-Irish background. Violet had been a debutante in the court of Queen Victoria, during her reign, and even appeared in the social columns of newspapers. She was a serious young woman, with an interest in religion and philosophy. After an attempt to engage with her mother’s religion of choice, Christian Science, she soon converted to Catholicism.

 
Who was Benito Mussolini?

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, also known as ‘Il Duce’ or ‘the leader’ was an Italian politician and journalist, who founded and led the National Fascist Party. As dictator of Italy and founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired and supported the international spread of fascist movements between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second World War, also known as the interwar period.

Mussolini coined the term ‘fascism’ in 1919. While it is a complex term, Robert Paxton - a professor emeritus of social science at Columbia University in New York, who is widely considered the father of fascism studies - told Live Science that fascism uses propaganda to promote:

anti-liberalism, rejecting individual rights, civil liberties, free enterprise and democracy
anti-socialism, rejecting economic principles based on socialist frameworks exclusion of certain groups, often through violence nationalism that seeks to expand the nation's influence and power

Mussolini believed a larger Italian population was necessary for the nation to function as a world-class military power. He also regarded Africans and Asians as inferior. And it is estimated that at least three million deaths can be directly attributed to Mussolini's rules, policies, and warmongering.
Why was Violet in Italy before the shooting of Mussolini?

Gibson was often ill as a child, and it was said she had lifelong difficulties with her mental health. In November 1924, she went to Rome accompanied by an Irish nurse companion, Mary McGrath and took up residence in Our Lady of Lourdes convent.




What drove Violet to this fateful act?

It was said that Violet was convinced that God wanted her to kill someone as a sacrifice. In February 1925, Gibson got hold of a gun and shot herself in the chest. Miraculously, she survived. In March 1926, her mother passed away. By April of that year, her goal to kill someone had refocused and was now trained on Mussolini.

It is worth noting that Violet was a committed anti-fascist. It is believed that she spotted the dangers of fascism, at a time when many in the Anglo elite were either supportive of fascist ideas or believed in appeasement. Violet rejected her Anglo-Irish upbringing in a well-connected, political class to become a bold freethinker committed to social justice, anti-war activism, and opposition to fascism.
What happened to Violet after she shot at Mussolini?

When Violet fired on Mussolini, it almost altered the course of history forever. But what happened next was beyond belief.

95 years after the assassination attempt, Dublin City Council’s decision to erect a commemorative plaque honouring Violet Gibson has generated worldwide interest in this truly captivating story of Violet Gibson: The Irish Woman Who Shot Mussolini.

This is the story of why one woman attempted such a daring assassination and how the world conspired to bury her in the aftermath.

To find out what prevented Violet from succeeding and what happened to her after this significant event, tune in to Violet Gibson: An tÉireannach Mná a Lámhach Mussolini on TG4 at 9:30pm on Wednesday 22 September.

Watch Violet Gibson: An tÉireannach Mná a Lámhach Mussolini on TG4 at 9:30pm on Wednesday 22 September