"Jingle Bells" Just got "WOKED" out of Christmas !

 An Upstate New York school banned “Jingle Bells” due to the popular holiday song’s “questionable past.”  Council Rock Elementary in Brighton, N.Y., told the Rochester Beacon that the Christmas carol and several others have been replaced with different tunes that don’t have the “potential to be controversial or offensive.”  One factor in the decision was research published in 2017 by Boston University professor Kyna Hamill. Hamill found “Jingle Bells; or, The One Horse Open Sleigh,” was first performed in public at an 1857 minstrel show in Boston with white performers in blackface.

REFERENCE: https://www.syracuse.com/state/2021/12/upstate-ny-school-bans-jingle-bells-due-to-holiday-songs-questionable-past.html

Evidence that Omicron was NOT more threatening to children

 Doctors and researchers said they were not seeing evidence that Omicron was more threatening to children. Instead, much of the rise in pediatric admissions results from the sheer number of children who are becoming infected with both Delta and the more contagious Omicron variant,  as well as low vaccination rates among children over 5.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/29/world/omicron-covid-vaccine-tests#omicron-is-not-more-severe-for-children-despite-rising-hospitalizations

Desmond M. Tutu - RIP

Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu - the cleric who used his pulpit and spirited oratory to help bring down apartheid in South Africa and then became the leading advocate of peaceful reconciliation under Black majority rule, died on Sunday in Cape Town. Tutu preached that the policy of apartheid was as dehumanizing to the oppressors as it was to the oppressed. He was 90.

TEXAS to build "The WALL"

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced construction has started on the STATE FUNDED Wall that will take up $1billion in state money and $54 million from private sector gifts.  Abbott has aimed to crack down on migration through his Operation Lone Star Initiative, which utilizes Texas' National Guard and Department of Public Safety.   The initiative has already placed physical hurdles, like steel shipping containers, on borderlines to block migrants and awarded a $162 million contract to  Posillico Civil Inc., an engineering company. 

REFERENCE:  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10325533/Texas-Gov-Abbott-announces-work-started-1billion-state-donor-funded-border-wall.html

Manchin will NOT vote for climate and social spending bill

 Manchin announced on “Fox News Sunday” that he would not vote for PART 2 of BIDEN's "BUILD BACK BETTER Program:  the climate and social spending bill, confirming, “This is a no on this legislation.” He cited concerns with inflation, the $29 trillion federal debt and a surge in new infections caused by the omicron variant of COVID-19 as reasons for his position.

 REFERENCE:

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/586469-white-house-says-manchin-went-back-on-his-word?rnd=1639935550?userid=903556

TID-BITS Formula vs Algorithm

Every once in a while you run into a little "tid-bit" to share! 

A formula is a group of symbols that make a mathematical statement. An algorithm is a list of steps describing how to solve a problem.

JAN 6 - 'Stop the Steal' organizer's contacts with Republican lawmakers

 Ali Alexander, the conservative activist behind the "Stop the Steal" movement, told congressional investigators that he had communicated with several House Republican lawmakers ahead of the Jan. 6 rally and Capitol riot, along with at least one member of the Trump family's inner circle.

According to the complaint, Alexander testified to the committee on Dec. 9 that he "had a few phone conversations" with Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., potentially texted Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., and spoke in person to Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.  All three GOP lawmakers were involved in the efforts to challenge the electoral results on Jan. 6, and participated in meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill on the subject.

REFERENCE:   https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/stop-steal-organizer-ali-alexander-told-jan-committee/story?id=81837303

TRUMP 2024 - Advisor calls for "4,000 'shock troops" to STEER Government

Trump advisor Steve Bannon is calling for gathering 4,000 'shock troops' to steer the government in the event of a second  term TRUMP 2024 : ....'It's fresh and it's new. This is Trumpism in power. That's when we went to the 4,000 shock troops we have to have that's going to man the government. Get them ready now. Right?' Bannon said on his own 'War Room Pandemic' podcast.  He appeared with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and called for having the 'shock troops' ready to serve in a second Trump term. 

REFERENCE SOURCE & VIDEO HERE:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10298051/Matt-Gaetz-Steve-Bannon-Discuss-Raising-4-000-Shock-Troops-Trump-wins-2024.html?ito=facebook_share_article-facebook_preferred-top&fbclid=IwAR1LPkw2YUnYehJQUTprpUdr3fT6hebUvz9TTJ6Jmi-EtcrnmU--NWQpwSs

JAN 6 - Meadow's POWER POINT PRESENTATION: “an alarming blueprint for overturning a nationwide election.”

The special House committee investigating Jan. 6 revealed the existence of a 38 page Powerpoint presentation: titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN.”  that laid out strategies for keeping Trump in power, including having him declare a national security emergency and have then-Vice President Pence halt Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s victory. .."It’s a document Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman panel, this week called “an alarming blueprint for overturning a nationwide election.” 

Phil Waldron, a retired U.S. Army colonel a helped distribute a Powerpoint on plans for Jan. 6 and briefed lawmakers on the plans for the day.   Waldron, was among those present at the Willard Hotel “war room” for the Trump campaign and appeared to play a key role in pushing forward the strategy to contest the election.  This information was among the details released in the committee’s contempt report for Meadows is a reference to a Jan. 5 email regarding a 38-page powerpoint. 

REFERENCE:  https://thehill.com/homenews/house/586389-what-weve-learned-from-the-meadows-documents

Trump's Energy Secretary Rick Perry texted Mark Meadows trying to overturn Biden's win

Former Energy Sec. and Former Texas Governor, Rick Perry texted Mark Meadows with an 'aggressive' plan to have GOP-controlled state legislatures overturn election.  CNN reported Perry wrote this text: 'HERE's an AGRESSIVE (sic) STRATEGY: Why can t (sic) the states of GA NC PENN and other R controlled state houses declare this is BS (where conflicts and election not called that night) and just send their own electors to vote and have it go to the SCOTUS'.  REFERENCE: 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10322637/Rick-Perry-texted-Mark-Meadows-trying-overturn-Bidens-win.html

R.N.C. to Pay Up to $1.6 Million of Trump’s Personal Legal Bills

Under an unusual arrangement, The Republican National Committee has agreed to cover up to $1.6 million of Donald J. Trump’s personal legal bills to defend the former president from ongoing investigations that focus on his private business practices.  REFERENCE:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/us/politics/rnc-trump-investigations.html

Judge Overturns Purdue Pharma’s Opioid Settlement

 A federal judge on Thursday evening unraveled a painstakingly negotiated settlement between Purdue Pharma and thousands of state, local and tribal governments who had sued the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin for its role in the ongoing opioid epidemic, saying that the plan was flawed in one critical area: because it released the company’s owners, members of the billionaire Sackler family, from liability in civil opioids cases. The bankruptcy code does not explicitly permit a judge to grant such releases. “The great unsettled question in this case is whether the bankruptcy court — or any court — is statutorily authorized to grant such releases,” she wrote.  REFERENCE https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/health/purdue-pharma-opioid-settlement.html

MADISON COUNTY BOARD - Dems Pushback on GOP Becker - MASKS Heating up in Wampsville

UPDATE  12-17-21 COMPROMISE has been reached. Thursday , the Board unanimously came to a consensus to support the wearing of face masks in public, while leaving enforcement to the New York state Department of Health.

Two Democratic members of the Madison County Board of Supervisors plan to introduce a bill asking other members to publicly support  Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul’s mask or vaccine proof requirement at indoor public places.  Cazenovia Town Supervisor Bill Zupan and Hamilton Town Supervisor Eve Ann Shwartz, both Democratic members of the Madison County Board of Supervisors, will introduce a resolution and call for a vote that Madison County publicly supports the state’s order.The planned vote is contrary to Republican Board Chairman John Becker’s quick refusal Friday to endorse the mandate, within 90 minutes of learning about it from state leaders.  REFERENCE:

https://www.localsyr.com/health/coronavirus/madison-county-supervisors-plan-to-vote-on-supporting-states-mask-rule-despite-chairmans-quick-objection/

Congressman Jordan Admits he sent White House chief of staff Meadows a memo: How to overturn the election

DAILY MAIL: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10315149/Congressman-Jim-Jordan-confirms-sent-text-Mark-Meadows-overturning-election-certification.html

"A spokesman for Jim Jordan, the Republican congressman for Ohio, confirmed that Jordan sent a text message to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's chief of staff re: how Mike Pence could legally avoid certifying the 2020 election:  Pence "should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all." the text .  Jordan's message was the forwarding of a three-paragraph legal summary from attorney Joseph Schmitz, hypothesizing about what Pence could do to avoid certifying the 2020 election: