DL Open Thread: Saturday, July 22, 2023

‘Bama Rethugs Defy Supreme Court.  Refuse to create court-mandated second Black Congressional district:

Republicans, long resistant to creating a second Democratic-leaning district, proposed a map that would increase the percentage of Black voters in the 2nd Congressional District from about 30% to nearly 42.5%, wagering that would satisfy the court — or that the state will prevail in a second round of appeals.

The National Redistricting Foundation, one of the groups that backed challenges to the Alabama map, called the proposal “shameful” and said it would be challenged.

“It is clear that Alabama Republicans are not serious about doing their job and passing a compliant map, even in light of a landmark Supreme Court decision,” said Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation.

She called that a pattern seen throughout the state’s history “where a predominately white and Republican legislature has never done the right thing on its own, but rather has had to be forced to do so by a court.”

But, hey, who needed that pesky Voting Rights Act, anyway?

Display Signs Of Heatstroke, Get Accused Of Being On Drugs, Die.  Just another workday in Gov. Abbott’s Texas, with yet another expendable victim:

The mother of a 24-year-old worker who died from heatstroke while working for a construction firm in San Antonio, Texas, has filed a lawsuit against his employer.

The lawsuit comes after Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, signed a controversial bill into law on June 14 that prohibits local municipalities from enacting heat protection standards for construction workers. The bill nullifies ordinances previously passed in Austin and Dallas that mandated 10-minute breaks for workers every four hours. A similar ordinance was being considered in San Antonio before the state bill was passed.

According to the lawsuit, Infante began exhibiting heatstroke symptoms, including confusion, altered mental state, dizziness and loss of consciousness. His friend and co-worker Joshua Espinoza began pouring cold water over him, trying to cool him down. A foreman insisted Espinoza call the police, claiming Infante’s bizarre behavior was due to drugs, and the foreman pushed for a drug test when emergency medical services arrived.

On the day of the incident, temperatures in San Antonio reached in excess of 100F, with humidity levels reaching as high as 75 percent, noted the lawsuit.

Infante later died in a hospital from severe heatstroke and had a recorded internal temperature of 109.8 F. The Centers for Disease Control states that a body temperature of 103 F or higher is a main symptom of heatstroke.

He was a shirker, got what he deserved.  Just ask the Governor.

The ‘Zen Of Cat’.  You know it’s true, just don’t want to to admit it.  Give in to Japanese Feline Philosophy:

Cats populate social media and pop culture in Japan: say, Doraemon, a cartoon cat, robotic and earless, who travels back in time from the 22nd century; or Maru, the internet celebrity cat, who has been viewed on YouTube more than 535m times.

Cat cafes are sprinkled through Japanese cities. There, people who can’t keep pets in their apartments can hang out with the animals. Francis likes one in Tokyo’s Asakusa district, which is several stories up in a nondescript building which keeps cats rescued from near the Fukushima nuclear zone.

When she catches herself catastrophising or thinking negatively, she now knows to pause, look at her cats and interrogate herself. She asks herself what evidence she has that things might be worse than she thinks. “And the past has gone, finished. Let it go.” Cats don’t waste time thinking about the past.

Our two cats (and one dog) sleep with us.  I’m telling you, I think they lower my blood pressure and heart rate.  Leave me in a catatonic state.

Solidarity With Bud Light Ignores The Obvious: It Sucks, Always Has:

The boycott’s success was stunning. Bud Light had been so popular, for so long, that its sudden decline seemed unthinkable. The truth, however, is that its dominance was never as secure as it appeared, and the boycott merely accelerated an existing trend. America no longer shares a united taste for beer. There are more than 9,500 craft breweries in the country turning out flavorful IPAs and fruited sour ales—the antithesis of light lager—and beer faces ever-stiffer competition from cocktails, wine, spirits, and seltzers. Grabbing a light lager is hardly today’s drinking default. Even when it is, no law of nature requires Americans to prefer Bud Light over similarly bland competitors.

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about light beer–if you wanted to know anything about light beer.  They all suck.

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