Why do Chinese politicians keep disappearing?
Chas Newkey-Burden
Fri, September 15, 2023 

Illustration of Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu

Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu has been stripped of his responsibilities and placed under investigation, US officials believe.

Li, who has not been seen in public for two weeks, was "taken away last week by authorities for questioning", a source "close to decision making in Beijing" told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The "mystery" around Li and other vanished officials has "prompted new questions about China's governance," which has "doubled down on secrecy", it added. It has also heightened speculation that a corruption purge is underway in Beijing.

What did the papers say?

Li's unexplained absence "mirrors" the disappearances of other senior officials recently, said the WSJ. In July, Beijing "abruptly removed" Qin Gang as foreign minister after he "vanished without explanation", and within days President Xi Jinping named a new commander for China's strategic missile force, "ousting a general who hadn't been seen in public for months".

Vietnamese officials said that Li abruptly cancelled a meeting last week because of a "health condition", reported Reuters. But there's scepticism about this claim because in the run-up to Qin's ousting, the Chinese foreign ministry explained his absence from official events as being health-related.

"Speculation of a military corruption purge first began to mount online in early August," said the BBC. Two generals in China's rocket forces, which "control land-based missiles", were replaced and the president of the army's military court was also removed, just "months after his appointment".

A US official told the WSJ that the "trouble" surrounding Li pointed to "deep-seated issues" that Beijing "continues to grapple with" years into Xi’s campaign to shake up China's military, with "anticorruption purges and structural reforms". The disappearance "could be the latest sign of turmoil" in Xi's government, agreed The Japan Times.

Therefore, the investigation into Li "raises questions about the effectiveness of the anti-corruption campaign" that Xi, who serves as chair of China's Central Military Commission, had "pursued against the armed forces", said the Financial Times.

Dennis Wilder, a former CIA expert on China's military, told the paper that the removals suggest that Xi's "vetting process for selecting top officials" is "deeply flawed" and "suggests corruption is commonplace within the system despite Xi's decade-long campaign against it".

Xi has the "HR problem from hell", said Bloomberg after Qin was removed from his post in July, as that exit showed the "tough challenge the Chinese strongman faces in finding reliable younger leaders".

Rahm Emanuel, the US envoy to Japan who is known for attention-grabbing tweets, wrote on X  that the "unemployment rate" in the Chinese government was very high. He also compared the absence to an Agatha Christie mystery "And Then There Were None", noted the BBC. "As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,'" he said.

What next?

There are mixed predictions on whether Li's removal will help or hinder US-China military relations. It will boost the ties, said the Financial Times, by "removing the obstacle" that Beijing insisted would prevent any meeting with US defence secretary Lloyd Austin.

Any purge of Li could improve the two nations' "military ties", agreed The Japan Times, because the Chinese defence chief has been "subject to sanctions by Washington since 2018 in connection with China's purchase of Russian weapons".

However, the BBC pointed out that Emanuel's tweets "would be seen as unusual" for a high-level US diplomat, "especially one who is ambassador to a major US ally, Japan, which has a fraught relationship with China".

Ian Chong, a non-resident scholar with Carnegie China, told the broadcaster: "It is possible that Mr Emanuel is trying to elicit some response from China regarding the disappearance."

There are also predictions of further ministerial casualties after the second exit in three months. "It could be even worse than that," a US official told The Washington Post in a separate report on Li, alluding to the potential for further purges.

Meanwhile, it could take a while for Li's fate to become officially known, said the paper. Chinese military websites still list him as minister of defence and "traditionally, when Chinese officials are ousted for corruption or other disciplinary crimes", Beijing "refrains from citing a reason, and confirmation can take months or even years", it said.

THE REVANCHIST WAR ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Two California School Districts Are Banning Pride Flags on Campus

Samantha Riedel
Fri, September 15, 2023


Two California school boards banned Pride flags from buildings in their districts during separate meetings on Tuesday, the latest development in a conservative campaign against such flags in the Golden State.

The Temecula Valley Unified School District board voted on Tuesday to ban the display of any non-government or military flags on school campuses. Although Pride flags are not singled out in the the new rules, they were a major focus of public comment, according to KABC; some conservative parents said that seeing a rainbow flag in their child’s school made them “so upset” and alleged that seeing Pride iconography would make children “get curious” and “want to try it out,” insinuating that such symbols would groom kids into gay sex.

The Temecula board rejected another resolution that would have affirmed the district prohibits bullying and harassment based on sexual or gender identity. Conservatives prevailed 3-2 in voting down the resolution, with board member Jen Wiersma objecting that she was “not here to be socially justice warrior-ed all the time.”

Meanwhile, in the small Bay Area school district of Sunol Glen Unified, Tuesday’s meeting descended into chaos as the board voted 2-1 to allow only the U.S. and California flags to fly in its single school. Members of the public repeatedly got into shouting matches, and board president Ryan Jergensen argued openly with school superintendent Molleen Barnes, who called the vote “disheartening” and said she and the rest of the school’s staff felt “very disrespected.”

Sunol board member Linda Hurley, who voted for the resolution, told KUTV that she voted to ban Pride flags because flying them could open the district to a lawsuit, which “could bring this school down.”

But parent and activist Diana Rohini LaVigne told the station that residents had hung Pride flags on school fences during June for years without issue, and that the controversy only arose after this summer’s flags were stolen. “So the staff put it up on the pole, as code permits,” she said, which “suddenly started the conservative board members to drum up a resolution to prevent that. We were willing to restrict Pride flags to off the flagpole but even that compromise wasn't acceptable.”

Two California School Districts Will Now Require Teachers to Out Trans Kids

The state's Attorney General has said that such policies could infringe on California law.

Although conservative groups have been lobbying against Pride flags for several years, California has experienced an uptick in such anti-LGBTQ+ activism this year, as right-wingers across the state rally against affirming policies in schools and local government. This week’s Temecula and Sunol resolutions follow a similar vote in June by the Chino Valley Unified school district, which voted 4-1 to ban Pride flags. Chino Valley now also requires teachers to out transgender students to their families, as does the Murrieta Valley Unified district. Conservative groups have protested other school board meetings, including in Los Angeles, sometimes with violent results. And it’s not limited to schools; the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to ban Pride flags from being flown on government flagpoles this past June as well.

Amid the furor, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign new legislation into law that blocks state schools from banning LGBTQ+ books. Newsom’s administration fined the Temecula school district $1.5 million earlier this year for rejecting a history textbook that mentioned gay rights activist Harvey Milk.

“All students deserve the freedom to read and learn about the truth, the world, and themselves,” Newsom said in a press release this week.

Foxconn Reportedly Paying Huawei Workers More than iPhone Builders

Andrew E. Freedman
Fri, September 15, 2023 

Backs of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro in green and white

Huawei surprised the world when it released the Mate 60 Pro, its new flagship smartphone running on the Kirin 9000S system-on-a-chip. That chip is rumored to be made by China-based SMIC using a 7nm-class fabrication process, putting it into competition with Western chipmakers and phone creators despite US sanctions on Chinese companies.

Now, it seems that Foxconn, a supplier and assembler for Apple and other tech companies, is reportedly paying workers more to work on Huawei's handset in its Shenzhen-based plant than it does working on Apple's iPhones, according to a report from the South China Morning Post.

"The new hires will know what phone they are making after the factory allocates them to different teams based on current demand, but these days they have a higher chance of making handsets for Huawei," a recruiter for Foxconn named only by their surname, Xu, told the publication.

Apple's iPhones are made by Foxconn's integrated digital product business group, or iDPBG. In contrast, Huawei's phones are made as part of the FIH group, which the SCMP explains works "under a subsidiary previously known as Foxconn International Holdings." The SCMP reports that FIH was offering 26 yuan (about $3.60) per hour, according to two recruiters, while the iDBPG was offering 21 yuan per hour (about $2.89).

It's unclear if all of the differences are simply due to the popularity of the Mate 60 Pro in China. Xu told the SCMP that FIH employees are often paid higher but that the group that makes iPhones "typically offers better welfare programmes for workers than others," suggesting better benefits.

Either way, a spring of new smartphones is entering the Chinese market, the biggest in the world. Huawei's Mate 60 Pro hit stores earlier this month, with Digitimes reporting that the company's orders for the phone have hit 15 - 17 million units.

The Mate 60 Pro, running on a homegrown chip and Huawei's own HarmonyOS, has seemingly ignited a bit of patriotism in China, with images on local social media of massive lines outside stores selling the phone. In the meantime, China has reportedly repressed the use of iPhones for government work, though the foreign ministry suggested that China had not issued any policy or law to ban the use of phones from "foreign brands" such as Apple.

Meanwhile, Apple announced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lines earlier this week, with pre-orders opening earlier today. The two phones hitting so close together has created a competitive storm and requires plenty of workers to assemble them.

Apple, like many firms, has been slowly diversifying its supply chain. For the first time, iPhones made in India will launch on the same day as iPhones assembled in China. Those Indian iPhone factories are also owned by, you guessed it, Foxconn. Apple's diversification comes in the face of geopolitical tension but also helps the company sell more phones in India without paying tariffs on the phones going into that country.

Apple will undoubtedly sell its fair share of the iPhone 15 in China, but it's facing a homegrown challenger surfing a wave of technological nationalism. And for now, it seems that Huawei and Foxconn are willing to pay to make sure there's enough to put a Mate 60 Pro in every hand that wants one.

BAT SHIT CRAZY TOO
Americans broadly support military strikes in Mexico, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

WAR BY ANY OTHER NAME

Gram Slattery
Thu, September 14, 2023

: El Chapo’s sons: how narco princelings built fentanyl empire poisoning America

By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About half of Americans support sending U.S. military personnel into Mexico to fight drug cartels, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, though there is less backing for sending troops without Mexico's approval.

The findings show broad public support for calls by most major candidates in the 2024 Republican presidential nomination contest to send special forces into Mexico, the U.S.'s biggest trading partner, or conducting missile or drone strikes there. Some of the candidates have said they would be prepared to send military forces without first receiving permission from the Mexican government.

With the United States experiencing a dramatic rise in overdose deaths related to the synthetic opioid fentanyl, tamping down the flow of narcotics from Mexico has become a major theme among Republicans. Almost 80,000 Americans died from opioid-related overdoses in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, with fentanyl being the primary culprit.

According to the seven-day Reuters/Ipsos poll, which closed on Thursday, 52% of respondents said they supported "sending U.S. military personnel to Mexico to fight against drug cartels," while 26% were opposed and the remainder were unsure. Republicans were supportive by a 64% to 28% margin; Democrats were narrowly opposed, 47% to 44%.

When asked if the United States should do so without the permission of the Mexican government, however, the numbers changed dramatically. Some 59% of poll respondents opposed unilateral action, while 29% were supportive. Fifty-one percent of Republicans opposed unilateral action, compared to 40% who supported it.

Terry Sullivan, who managed Republican Senator Marco Rubio's unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016, said Americans were likely open to sending the military to Mexico because the fentanyl overdose epidemic is affecting many communities across the country. Topics such as the Ukraine war do not have the same impact on Americans' daily lives, he said.

In a policy video released earlier this year, former President Donald Trump said he would direct the Department of Defense "to make appropriate use of special forces, cyber warfare, and other overt and covert actions to inflict maximum damager on cartel leadership, infrastructure and operations."

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said he would send troops to Mexico on "day one" of his administration, and he has not ruled out cross-border missile strikes.

Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and South Carolina Tim Scott have also signaled a similar openness to a military confrontation with Mexican drug cartels.

Haley told Reuters in an interview last week she would send special operations forces over the border with or without Mexico's permission, a policy that does not appear to have broad support among Republicans.

Only former Vice President Mike Pence, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie have stopped short of saying they support sending U.S. military personnel into Mexico.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, for his part, has repeatedly made clear that Mexico would not tolerate U.S. military action within its borders and has derided the calls as "irresponsible" and "pure publicity."

He has urged Mexican-Americans in the U.S. to vote against Republicans pushing such ideas and said that Mexico would react to any incursion, without giving details. Mostly he has dismissed the threats as electioneering.

"As we are in election season, they talk about intervening in Mexican affairs, about not respecting our sovereignty; They insult us, but one shouldn't take them too seriously," he said last month in one of his regular press conferences.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online and nationwide between Sept. 8 and Sept. 14, gathering responses from 4,413 U.S. adults. It had a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 2 percentage points.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Additional reporting by Jason Lange in Washington and Stephen Eisenhammer in Mexico City, editing by Ross Colvin and Grant McCool)

MORE BAT SHIT CRAZINESS

Opinion

Republican lawmakers call UA nurses ‘groomers’ … ah, wrong

EJ Montini, Arizona Republic
Fri, September 15, 2023 

University of Arizona in Tucson.

If you spend time online (and who doesn’t) you know there are entire websites dedicated to taking out of context any small nugget of information and twisting it into something gullible readers will be outraged over.

That’s disturbing enough.

Even worse is that among those gullible readers are members of the Arizona Legislature.

It happened this week when the Libs of TikTok, a far-right anti-LGBTQ account, posted a photo of a slide that involved talking with kids about their gender identities shown at a University of Arizona College of Nursing class.

The slide said, in part, when speaking to children about gender identity one might ask things like, “Some kids feel like a girl on the inside, some kids feel like a boy on the inside, and some kids feel like neither, both, or someone else. What about you? How do you feel on the inside? There’s no right or wrong answer.”
Flipping their lids, but not in order to find the truth

Almost immediately pearls were clutched. Heat permeated from under collars. Lids were flipped, fuses blown.


There were reports of people being driven up walls, bending out of shape and – as happens in cases like this – crying out loud.

And it came from Arizona Republican lawmakers.

Like state Sen. Justine Wadsack, who said, “This is a disgusting use of your taxpayer dollars. Every single parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or anyone with a heart for children should be infuriated that this is happening at one of our prestigious universities.”

And Sen. Ken Bennett, who called it an “extremist agenda that continues to target minors in a predatory fashion.”Adding, “I’m looking forward to seeing what action President (Robert) Robbins takes to ensure that this immoral curriculum being taught, with the use of state funding, never reaches another classroom again.”
Questions not part of training or curriculum of UA college

And Sen. T.J. Shope, who promised that “Senate Republicans will weigh all options to make certain tax dollars are no longer used in such an egregious fashion.”

Within a short time, the dedicated professionals at the UA nursing school were getting all manner of nasty comments and threats.

All before anyone bothered to ask about … context.

Pam Scott, a spokeswoman for the university, told the Arizona Mirror that the College of Nursing does not recommend that practitioners ask young children gender-related questions during wellness checks.
Seminar was for doctorial candidates, not nursing students

She added, “The college does not have a policy or position on this issue and does not integrate this type of training or education into its curriculum. The college teaches that practitioners should always work with the parents and guardians and with their permission, within their scope of the practice, and in alignment with the employing organization’s guidance when treating pediatric patients.”

In addition, Scott pointed out that the slide shown online wasn’t for a class of nursing students but part of a seminar for 31 doctor of nursing practices students. These are professional nurses in the final semester of their doctoral program.

Scott said. “The sessions are designed to give students the opportunity to engage with professionals on a wide variety of topics they may encounter in the field.”
GOP strives for white noise instead of common sense

In other words, let’s say a nurse is approached by parents who say their child is displaying gender dysphoria, which means expressing a conflict between the sex assigned at birth and the gender with which they identify.

Would not it be reasonable, even vital, for a health professional to ask the questions like those presented at the seminar?

That’s not how it works in the virtual world, however. Or even in the real world, these days.

We don’t look to take something we hear out of context and try to make sense of it. We would rather take what we hear and make nonsense out of it.

In another era, elected officials would fight that tendency. These days, they promote it. We get examples every day.

In Arizona, and nationally, what had been a Grand Old Party is now a collection of crybabies, enormous chips on their shoulders, entire hives of bees under their bonnets, ceaselessly seeking the next grievance.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic

BAT SHIT CRAZY

Opponents of COVID restrictions took over a Michigan county. They want deep cuts to health funding

JOEY CAPPELLETTI

Thu, September 14, 2023 

HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) — The fastest growing county in Michigan has seen its local government transformed in the wake of backlash to pandemic restrictions, and the new commissioners — claiming COVID is over — are threatening to cut millions of dollars from the county’s health department.

Local public health officials say the potential loss of funding could severely impact several essential services, including vaccines, cancer screening and testing for sexually transmitted infections. These proposed cuts also come after the board attempted to replace the county’s top health official, sparking a monthslong legal battle.

A national public health expert said the situation is unique in the U.S. and a threat to the entire public health field — especially going into an election year when health officials and their department could again become political targets.

“Of the hundreds, maybe thousands of public health officials who were fired during the pandemic, I’m trying to find a single example where they’ve retaliated against the entire department like this,” said Lori Freeman, the executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. “I’m hoping this isn’t the start of a new trend of retroactive punishment against public health departments.”

More than than 300,000 people live in Ottawa County, making it Michigan's seventh largest county. Millions visit its miles of sandy beaches along Lake Michigan and the renowned tulip and coast guard festivals. The county is also home to furniture maker Herman Miller.

The political battle here began in fall 2021, when the group Ottawa Impact, founded by Joe Moss and Sylvia Rhodea, supported an unsuccessful lawsuit against the county over a mask mandate. Then the group ran a slate of candidates against Republican incumbents and won eight of 11 seats on the county board of commissioners — Moss and Rhodea included.

At the new board’s first meeting, they voted to close the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office and change the county's motto to “Where Freedom Rings.” They fired the county administrator and appointed John Gibbs, a former far-right congressional candidate who has since repeatedly declared that “COVID is over.”

The new majority also voted to replace administrative health officer Adeline Hambley, who oversees the public health department, with a candidate who had no previous public health experience.

“It’s pretty clear now that they were always hyper-focused on really going after the health department,” said Ottawa County Commissioner Jacob Bonnema, who was elected as part of Ottawa Impact but has since distanced himself. He added that he's OK with reducing funding for departments when it's not “completely indiscriminate”

While some county officials quietly left their positions under the new regime, Hambley stayed — and sued the new commissioners for “termination in violation of public policy.” A judge temporarily blocked the commissioners from removing Hambley, saying she can't be fired without “just cause."

Then late last month, with the legal battle as a backdrop, Hambley said she was given 48 hours to propose a budget that would cut the county’s general contribution for the next year in half — $6.4 million to $2.5 million. She took to social media, saying the cuts could effectively shutter the department.

“It’s hard to believe that the budget cut isn't retaliatory both for frustration at COVID actions that they don’t agree with and not being able to remove me for a political appointee,” Hambley told The Associated Press.

Hundreds of people rallied outside of the health department in support of Hambley after the warnings, which Gibbs and Moss have called “media theatrics.”

On Sept. 5, the commission released a new budget proposal with $4.3 million from the general fund — still about $2 million less than Hambley had asked for — and requested the department decline all grant funding related to COVID-19.

Under the current proposal, a family planning program that also provides things like cancer screenings for those without insurance would see its budget reduced by 40%. Money that goes toward STI testing would be cut by 44%, and a mobile dental health clinic that goes to places like schools and jails would lose nearly 20% of its funding.

Moss told the AP in an email that no other department saw similar cost increases in the past several years, “nor did they respond to the pandemic in the same way the health department did.” He added he supports “public health efforts that respect constitutional freedoms and parental rights.”

The final vote on the health department’s budget is scheduled for Sept. 26 — and it has the public's attention. More than 100 community members turned out for Tuesday's public hearing on the health budget, with many speakers criticizing the commissioners' actions towards Hambley and the department.

“You were all elected with a moral obligation and duty to serve all the people of the county, including those with the greatest needs,” a Grand Haven resident said. “You should not be at war with your health providers.”

The Network for Public Health Law and the National Association of County and City Health Officials filed amicus briefs in support of Hambley’s lawsuit last month. NAACHO typically reserves that for legal action with national implications.

And Freeman said her organization is keeping a close eye on Ottawa County: “This isn't something we want on the books for other county commissioners to consider in the future."

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content

Michigan Public Health Fight

Adeline Hambley, Ottawa County, Mich., health officer, poses for a portrait outside of the county administration building, Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, in West Olive, Mich. Hambley, who is embroiled in a wrongful termination lawsuit with county officials, says cuts to the health department’s funding would severely inhibit many essential services, including immunizations, cancer screenings and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. (AP Photo/Kristen Norman)

Terror of long COVID remains common even as pandemic eases, data show

Rong-Gong Lin II
Sat, September 16, 2023 

Courtney Gavin, who contracted COVID-19 in 2020 and developed long COVID, takes a break after using a chairlift in February. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Long COVID remains common after coronavirus infection, even as cases of the syndrome have decreased since the start of the pandemic, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, data increasingly suggest that getting vaccinated reduces the risk of long COVID among children and adults — a factor health officials have cited as part of the rationale behind recommending virtually all Americans get a newly formulated vaccine this year.

"Those who do not get a COVID-19 vaccine have an increased likelihood of developing long COVID," CDC epidemiologist Sharon Saydah said during a recent meeting of the agency's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Read more: More COVID shots are coming. Will a weary public be more interested this year?

Long COVID refers to a wide range of physical and mental health problems that persist four or more weeks after a coronavirus infection. While research has hinted at a possible correlation between the severity of initial infection and likelihood of developing long COVID, the syndrome can afflict even those who had only mild symptoms — or none at all.

According to data from the 2022 federal National Health Interview Survey, 9% of U.S. adults age 35 to 49 reported having long COVID-19 at some point, with 4.7% saying they currently had long COVID at the time they were surveyed, Saydah said. That age range was the most affected by long COVID.

Among those age 50 to 64, 7.4% reported ever having long COVID, while 3.8% said they currently had the syndrome. For those age 65 and older, 4.2% said they had long COVID at some point, while 2.3% said they currently had it.

Among the youngest adults, up to age 34, 6.8% described ever having long COVID, while 2.7% said they currently had it.

"Post-COVID conditions are common following SARS-CoV-2 infection," said Megan Wallace, another CDC epidemiologist.

Read more: Long COVID takes heavy toll on health even as pandemic fades, study shows

The prevalence of long COVID decreased from June 2022 to January 2023 but remained steady through the first half of this year, according to survey data.

"However, approximately one in four adults who currently report having long COVID report that it includes significant activity limitations. And this proportion has not changed in the past year," Saydah said.

Those findings were detailed in a study published by the CDC in August and, researchers wrote, "highlight the importance of COVID prevention, including staying up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccination, and could inform health care service needs planning, disability policy, and other support services for persons experiencing severe activity limitation from long COVID."

One of the more curious aspects of long COVID is the sheer range of symptoms linked to the syndrome. Among them are postexertional malaise (in which a person feels worse after even minor physical or mental exertion); moderate or severe fatigue; dizziness; brain fog; gastrointestinal symptoms; heart palpitations; changes in desire for or capacity for sex; loss of smell or taste; excessive thirst; chronic cough; chest pain; and abnormal movements.

Read more: Fatigue, cough and brain fog. For many in L.A. County, long COVID limited daily life

The root cause of long COVID has not been definitively established, though researchers are examining several possible explanations.

"We have not figured out who gets long COVID and who doesn't. And we have not figured out necessarily who, for sure, isn't going to experience some severe illness," said Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.

That's why it's so important that people continue to get updated COVID-19 vaccinations, doctors say.

"We now have even more data showing that vaccines can also lessen the risk of getting post-COVID conditions, including long COVID," said Dr. Nava Yeganeh, medical director of L.A. County's Vaccine Preventable Disease Control Program.

Read more: $62,000 and three years later: Long COVID continues to upend this California couple’s lives

Researchers have uncovered specific long-term conditions that are associated with coronavirus infections among children and adults, Saydah added.

Among children and adolescents, coronavirus infection was associated with an increased risk of heart conditions, kidney failure, blood clots, diabetes, fatigue, smell and taste disorders and neurological conditions.

Among adults who had COVID-19, 1 in 5 reported a health condition that might've been related to their COVID-19 illness, including neurological or mental health conditions; kidney failure; blood clots; and musculoskeletal, cardiovascular or respiratory conditions.

"The symptoms and conditions of long COVID can persist for months or years after acute infection, and they also emerge or reemerge over time," Saydah said.

Read more: Scientists hope viruses hiding out in patients hold answers to long COVID

In a prospective study of adults who had acute COVID-19-like illness — whether or not they tested positive for a coronavirus infection — "we found that ongoing symptoms decreased after three months, but approximately 16% continued to experience ongoing symptoms at 12 months," Saydah said.

Among military veterans, researchers found that long COVID conditions decreased 90 days after the acute coronavirus infection, but that there was an increased risk of new conditions continuing for up to two years after the acute COVID-19 illness, Saydah added.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

SOLIDARITY'S STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

Santos says UAW has absolute right ‘to give everyone hell’

Elizabeth Crisp

THE HILL
Fri, September 15, 2023 

Auto workers who launched a massive strike on Friday have found an unexpected, but passionate ally in embattled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y), who was infamously exposed for a series of lies about his background and finances after he was elected in 2022.

“The UAW has the absolute (right) to give everyone hell!” Santos posted on the X social media platform Friday, just hours into the ongoing strike. “I stand by the hard working folks that get shafted by the ivory tower elites.

“Pay the workers a f***g fair wage you greedy tax evading corporations!” he added, though he didn’t censor the expletive in his message.

Thousands of autoworkers are striking against the “Big Three” manufacturers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — after the United Auto Workers and the companies couldn’t hash out an agreement to address workers’ demands for higher wages, better retirement benefits and shorter work weeks. The companies have argued that the demands would cost too much, despite ballooning profits and executive pay.

“We are committed to winning an agreement with the Big Three that reflects the incredible sacrifice and contributions UAW members have made to these companies,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a public address Thursday.

Santos, 35, has announced plans to seek a second term next year, despite facing multiple criminal charges, including wire fraud. He’s pled not guilty. He’s also faced ethics complaints from his colleagues.

It’s not the first time Santos has come down on the side of unions. Earlier this year, he posted a video online with a message to “national right to work folks.”

“I didn’t sign up for your garbage newsletters, so stop sending them to me,” he says to the camera before ripping a document in half.

US Supreme Court's Jackson urges nation's history of racism to be taught

Fri, September 15, 2023 

Associate Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson participates in investiture ceremony at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington

By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday called for a commitment to remember and teach the history of racism and violence in the United States as she commemorated the deaths of four Black girls killed by white supremacists in a Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing.

Jackson delivered the keynote address at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, where members of the Ku Klux Klan carried out the bombing 60 years ago on Sept. 15, 1963.

"I know that atrocities like the one we are memorializing today are difficult to remember and relive, but I also know that it is dangerous to forget them," said Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nine-member court, who completed her first full term in June.

Jackson used part of her speech as a warning against "complacency and ignorance."

"Learning about our country's history can be painful, but history is also our best teacher," she said. "Our past is filled with too much violence, too much hatred, too much prejudice, but can we really say that we are not confronting those same evils now? We have to own even the darkest parts of our past, understand them, and vow never to repeat them."

The 1963 dynamite bombing killed 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, and 11-year-old Denise McNair. The girls' deaths shocked the nation and were instrumental to the passage of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Jackson's speech comes at a time of conflict in several states over the teaching of history in schools, especially in Florida, which has restricted some educational efforts regarding racism, slavery and LGBTQ rights.

In July, the state sparked controversy by approving new guidelines on teaching Black history, including how enslaved people acquired skills for "personal benefit." Florida, led by Republican 2024 presidential candidate Governor Ron DeSantis, is one of several states that have banned the teaching "critical race theory," which studies racial bias in American laws and institutions.

Earlier this year, Florida barred the teaching of Advanced Placement class in African American Studies, prompting over 800 academics and administrators to condemn it as censorship and attack on academic freedom.

Jackson's speech echoed her dissent last June to the court's landmark ruling effectively ending college and university affirmative action policies in admissions.

Jackson portrayed that ruling, powered by the court's six conservative members, as "ostrich-like," and traced the history of racism that persisted from slavery to the present day, preventing Black Americans from gaining wealth and excluding them from opportunities in education and professional life.

"Knowledge emboldens people and it frees them," Jackson said on Friday. "The work of our time is maintaining that hard won freedom, and to do that we're going to need the truth, the whole truth about our past."

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

PragerU’s Right-Wing Playbook for Infiltrating Public Education Is Working

Nikki McCann Ramirez

ROLLING STONE
Fri, September 15, 2023 


In August, the Prager University Foundation, a right-wing media organization that describes itself as “the world’s leading conservative nonprofit that is focused on changing minds,” was designated as an official vendor to the Florida Department of Education, and approved for use in classrooms. The move alarmed many parents and educators given that PragerU, founded by radio host Dennis Prager, is an unaccredited, nonacademic institution dedicated to promoting conservative social and political views many feel are ahistorical and anti-scientific.

The group is now looking to repeat its triumph in Florida across the country. It’s already having some success.

On Thursday, the New Hampshire Board of Education voted unanimously to approve an online PragerU “Cash Course” for use in the state’s remote Learn Everywhere program. Students who take the course, which consists of 15 five-minute videos, would be able to earn graduation credit toward the state’s financial literacy education requirement.

The board’s vote came in the face of intense public opposition, with parents, teachers, school administrators, and even a pastor raising concerns during the hearing about the academic merits of the course, the lack of teacher involvement in the review process, and the risks of allowing PragerU to gain a foothold within the state.

They were dismissed by the conservative board, whose members were appointed by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. Board member Ryan Terrell described the opposition as an attack on “choice” by individuals “mobilized by political organizations” to demonize conservative ideology. Almost immediately after the hearing, Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut appeared in a video alongside PragerU CEO Marissa Streit, who called the vote a “victory for America,” and crowed that the partnership would mean “no more gaslighting” of parents about their child’s education. PragerU’s official Twitter account later trolled a New Hampshire lawmaker who expressed disappointment in the board’s decision.

So far, a public debate on PragerU’s approval has been an exception to their standard mode of operation, but the hearing in New Hampshire and the events leading up to it are still emblematic of PragerU’s expansion strategy. The organization has sought rubber stamps by courting members of conservative administrations who in turn work to push through approvals. Any authorization, however minimal, is then marketed as a sweeping endorsement of their content and mission, boosting their credibility.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, which has prioritized infusing schools with right-wing ideology, was certainly accommodating in Florida. The push in New Hampshire was backed by Edelblut and board chair Andrew Cline, who also serves as president of the Josiah Bartlett Center, a conservative free-market think tank. Earlier this month in Oklahoma, culture warring Republican superintendent Ryan Walters announced a “partnership” with PragerU, without subjecting the materials to a state curriculum review. In Texas, where school board members are elected, the organization has been making overtures to Republican members of the board and engaged in deceptive practices to suggest their materials have received state approval.

In each of these states, concerns have been raised — and often ignored — over PragerU’s content. “[They’re] notorious for having ultra-conservative and highly ideological views on everything from climate change, to racism, to slavery, [and] anti-LGBTQ stances,” Matt Wilhelm, the Democratic leader of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, tells Rolling Stone. “Obviously, we’ve got concerns about PragerU and their reputation threatening the integrity of public education in the state of New Hampshire.”

Lowlights of PragerU’s programming include comparing climate change denialism to the Polish opposition against the Nazis; a cartoon Booker T. Washington reassuring a pair of time-traveling cartoon children that slavery was “a reality everywhere in the world”; and a pair of videos titled “How to Embrace Your Masculinity” and “How to Embrace Your Femininity” that advise young men to seek financial independence, set career goals, and become critical thinkers, and young women to “make yourself pretty,” “embrace the idea of being a wife and a mother,” and “try smiling.”

In Oklahoma, school districts protested their superintendent’s approval of PragerU by forcefully declaring that the organization’s content does not align with their established educational standards. Various districts told OKC Fox25 that they had no plans to allow Prager’s content to actually be used in classrooms, as it had not undergone review in accordance with Oklahoma Academic Standards.

In a statement to Rolling Stone, Oklahoma City Public Schools, which serves over 30,000 students in the Oklahoma City area, wrote that “the endorsement of PragerU by our State Superintendent doesn’t change anything we are doing in the classroom. We trust our teachers to do everything they can to help our students grow. Our instructional staff uses the Oklahoma Academic Standards and we believe that our teachers are the experts. We also trust that they will use both curriculum resources provided to them by our district and any other appropriate supplemental materials needed to support student growth.”

Opponents in New Hampshire went so far as to argue that PragerU’s branding as a “university” constitutes a violation of consumer protection laws. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cinde Warmington called for the state’s Republican Attorney General John Formella to review if PragerU violated New Hampshire laws prohibiting the use of the terms “‘junior college’ or ‘college’ or ‘university’ […] or descriptive matter tending to designate that it is an institution of higher learning,” by organizations if they are not accredited as such.

Formella found that since PragerU was not incorporated in New Hampshire, the statute did not apply to them. “That just completely avoids the question of [PragerU changing] from being just this online presence in our state, a presence out there on the internet to something that is approved by our board of education,” Warmington tells Rolling Stone. “PragerU truly just has no place in our schools. That’s really what I’m hearing all across the district.”

PragerU has taken advantage of conservatives occupying key roles in state administrations, while further pushing its agenda through deceptive marketing practices. This is particularly true in Texas.

Last month, Marrisa Streit, PragerU’s CEO, posted a video on Twitter featuring Republican Texas school board member Julie Pickren. The video was captioned “Texas is the latest state to welcome our PragerU Kids educational initiative into their schools,” and in it Pickren gleefully affirms that “we are definitely ready to welcome PragerU into the great state of Texas.” Streit adds that the team at PragerU had been “working closely with all of you out there in Texas” on supplementary material for the state’s new curriculum guidelines.

The video drew immediate backlash because — according to the Texas Education Agency and the state’s school board — no materials from PragerU have been presented, reviewed, or approved for classroom use. The state comptroller’s office explained to The Dallas Morning News the following day that the organization had “merely registered on the Centralized Master Bidders List,” a process that requires no more approval than paying a $70 registration fee.

“No one from PragerU has presented to the state board of education or has contacted me, as chair of the state board of education, to discuss any working relationship,” school board chair Keven Ellis, a Republican, told The Dallas Morning News. “The SBOE has not received any request from PragerU to be approved as an education vendor.”

Nevertheless, the organization’s website boldly declares that “PragerU is Now in Texas!” (PragerU did not immediately respond to an email about their practices in Texas.)

Staci Childs, a Democratic member of the board representing the Houston area, tells Rolling Stone that Pickren had undermined the board of education’s processes when she said the state was ready to approve PragerU despite failing to converse with other members of the board. “I think even some of her other conservative members weren’t on board with that,” Childs says.

“I get emails every day from people that vehemently oppose this curriculum coming to Texas,” Childs adds. “When [the video of Pickren] went viral, everyone was like, ‘Wait, wait, wait, is this actually happening?’ And I was like, ‘Hold on, hold on, this hasn’t even been brought before to vote on yet.’ But parents are outraged over this.”

Childs, who is Black, has repeatedly raised concerns about the misrepresentations regarding slavery featured in various PragerU videos. In her view, states that have approved their materials for classroom use have not engaged in “serious vetting” of the content.

“There is truth about history,” she says. “While it may be uncomfortable, and in some instances, painful, it helps all students, no matter their creed … When I grew up, I felt like I learned a good bit about history. It wasn’t necessarily whitewashed and it wasn’t necessarily sugarcoated, and it was sometimes painful and hurtful. But when I saw from what we’ve come, and what my ancestors have accomplished, Black Americans, it made me that much more resilient, and it made me want to be a part of the civic process even more. This is actually, when I say this, I mean learning the truth about history, not PragerU.”

As a result of her opposition to PragerU’s content, Childs, who produces music and raps as a hobby, was attacked online by one of the organization’s hosts, CJ Pearson. Pearson accused Childs of hypocrisy in deeming PragerU’s learning materials “inappropriate.”

However, Childs, unlike PragerU, is not actively working to have her entertainment content approved for use in classrooms.

PragerU’s efforts in Texas — which has the second-largest K-12 student population in the country behind California — is a reminder of the scope of its crusade to overhaul America’s education system in its image. The fact that it was able to score a win in relatively Democratic New Hampshire despite a fierce and variegated opposition from inside and outside of government is a reminder that this crusade should be taken seriously.

“The state of New Hampshire partnering with PragerU, pushing out and normalizing content with the Prager brand, just opens up a Pandora’s box,” said Wilhelm, the state’s Democratic leader. “It provides a gateway to ideological indoctrinating right-wing content, masquerading as education.”