FirstCircle

Michael Clancy, better known to friends on and off social media as Rabbi, received a notice last month from X, formerly known as Twitter, alerting him to the fact that the NYPD had sent X a subpoena requesting "all records consisting but not limited to all subscriber name(s), Email address(s), Phone number(s), account creation date, IP logs with timestamps (IP address of account logins and logouts), all logs of previous messages sent and received." The subpoena also requested "all videos sent and received, including but not limited to meta-data. exit data about the messages and videos” for the account.

The notification included a copy of the subpoena, which warned X not to tell Clancy of its existence. "You are not to disclose or notify any customer or third party of the existence of this subpoena or that records were provided pursuant to this subpoena," the document read.

But X, following its own corporate policy, told Clancy anyway, and suggested he might want to get some legal representation to fight the subpoena, recommending the American Civil Liberties Union. Clancy did just that, and Kathryn Sachs of the New York Civil Liberties Union took up his case. Last Wednesday, Sachs wrote to the NYPD to challenge the administrative subpoena, which the NYPD had sent on its own authority, without any warrant or judicial approval. If the NYPD did not withdraw the subpoena, Sachs told the NYPD, Clancy would go to court with a motion to quash it. Rather than go to court to explain to a judge why the subpoena was necessary, the NYPD wrote back the same afternoon to say that it was withdrawing the subpoena altogether.

"This kind of administrative subpoena is not overseen by any court, and is not meant to target people like our client," Sachs told Hell Gate. "If it's left unchecked, it would chill speech from potentially anyone that the NYPD decided to subpoena information about."

"We don't give that kind of power to police departments without judicial review," said Marty Stolar, a lawyer who has worked on similar cases in the past. "It's got to be a process that's connected to a court if you're going to apply it to the general population. Here, the NYPD is misusing the power of subpoena to compel the production of documents as if they had the right to demand that information from any citizen. And they don't have that right. We have never given it to them."

Of course they're going to say that. But as an extraterrestrial myself, I can tell you that I'm not going to be flying my saucer around here much longer, not with the air full of Boeing parts ... doors and tires and whatnot. Saucer insurance rates are out of this world.

"AARO has found no evidence that any U.S. government investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology," Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement Friday.

"To date, AARO has found no verifiable evidence for claims that the U.S. government and private companies have access to or have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology," Ryder said in the statement.

See TFA for the Infuriating details.

Scientific research shows that chlorpyrifos, a widely used insecticide, is strongly linked to brain damage in children. These and other health concerns led several countries and some U.S. states to ban chlorpyrifos years ago, but the chemical was still allowed for use by farmers in the U.S. after successful lobbying by its manufacturer.

In August 2021, the Biden Administration acknowledged the danger to children and announced it would ban chlorpyrifos from agricultural use. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revoked all tolerances for the chemical, which effectively stopped its use on all food and animal feed. That decision came a few months after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals directed the EPA to ban farm use unless safety for the chemical could be proven. However, in November 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit overturned the EPA’s ban, and directed the agency to evaluate whether chlorpyrifos can be safely used on some foods.

Despite trying to ban chlorpyrifos here, the U.S. EPA has interfered with efforts to reduce exposures to the neurotoxic insecticide globally, according to reporting by Sharon Lerner in ProPublica.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, which represents more than 66,000 pediatricians and pediatric surgeons, has warned that continued use of chlorpyrifos puts developing fetuses, infants, children and pregnant women at great risk.

Scientists have found that prenatal exposures to chlorpyrifos are associated with lower birth weight, reduced IQ, the loss of working memory, attention disorders, and delayed motor development.

Chlorpyrifos is also linked to acute pesticide poisoning and can cause convulsions, respiratory paralysis, and sometimes, death.

Say you’re on a yacht with your principal and they had a few tequilas, and then they’re like, “Oh, come on. Join us.” Ultimately, you have to remember that you are there because they’re paying you. It’s a job. They’re not your friend. Obviously, you need to share compassion and empathy. Sometimes your boss needs you to be a shoulder to cry on.

the CFPB has done its share of policing mortgage brokers, student loan companies, and banks. But as the U.S. health care system turns tens of millions of Americans into debtors, this financial watchdog is increasingly working to protect beleaguered patients, adding hospitals, nursing homes, and patient financing companies to the list of institutions that regulators are probing.

In the past two years, the CFPB has penalized medical debt collectors, issued stern warnings to health care providers and lenders that target patients, and published reams of reports on how the health care system is undermining the financial security of Americans.

In its most ambitious move to date, the agency is developing rules to bar medical debt from consumer credit reports, a sweeping change that could make it easier for Americans burdened by medical debt to rent a home, buy a car, even get a job. Those rules are expected to be unveiled later this year.

The CFPB's turn toward medical debt has stirred opposition from collection industry officials, who say the agency's efforts are misguided. "There's some concern with a financial regulator coming in and saying, 'Oh, we're going to sweep this problem under the rug so that people can't see that there's this medical debt out there,'" said Jack Brown III, a longtime collector and member of the industry trade group ACA International.

Brown and others question whether the agency has gone too far on medical billing. ACA International has suggested collectors could go to court to fight any rules barring medical debt from credit reports.

At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a broader legal challenge to the agency's funding that some conservative critics and financial industry officials hope will lead to the dissolution of the agency.

Harper's Weekly Review 27-Feb-24

The United States cast the sole vote against a United Nations security council resolution that would have endorsed a ceasefire in Gaza; the dissension was sufficient to veto the action, and represented the third instance of the Biden Administration’s rejection of a cessation of hostilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his intent to order the ground invasion of Rafah, and said that even the return of the remaining hostages in Hamas captivity would not deter him. “We’ll do it anyway,” he said. The UN’s World Food Programme announced that it would halt all deliveries of food rations to northern Gaza; the UN said that the aid would have been “lifesaving,” as conditions there approach those of famine, but that widespread Israeli bombardment of the region forbade their safe approach. President Joe Biden requested that Israeli forces not target the members of the Gazan police force that escorts the aid trucks, and his administration restored a legal finding that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are inconsistent with international law; an Israeli campaign to build more than 3,000 homes on Palestinian land in the West Bank precipitated the White House revision. “We should kill ’em all,” said the Tennessee Republican congressman Andy Ogles of Palestinians in Gaza. “I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” said a member of the U.S. Air Force before self-immolating in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He succumbed to his injuries.

In a letter, members of Congress urged Biden to secure reparations for black Americans. A contender in the race for governor of North Carolina suggested that black people themselves owe reparations; the candidate, who currently serves as the state’s lieutenant governor, is black. During a South Carolina stump speech by Nikki Haley, black rallygoers revealed themselves to be protesters, interrupting Haley’s address to call her promotion of union busting “disgusting”; former President Donald Trump went on to secure that state’s primary in a landslide victory. “The black people are so much on my side now,” he said, attributing his supposed appeal among that demographic to his criminal indictments and the prevalence of his mug shot. “They have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as, I’m being discriminated against,” Trump continued. “This is connecting with black America because they love sneakers!” opined an anchor for Fox News of Trump’s recently announced line of footwear. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris hired a “Black media director,” who called Trump “an incompetent, anti-Black tyrant.” Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas hired a law clerk who is alleged to have written text messages stating “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. Like fuck them all … I hate blacks. End of story.” The late-night talk show host John Oliver said that he would award Thomas $1 million to resign from his post.

Vice Media announced plans to shutter its publication and slash hundreds of jobs. Biden told White House aides that the secret to a successful marriage is “good sex.” “Could it be that the world of Barbie is sheer hell?” asked the director Werner Herzog. Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl that escaped the Central Park Zoo just over a year ago, died after flying into a building on Manhattan’s West 89th Street, and a crew of scientists working on the TV show Pole to Pole: With Will Smith discovered a new species of snake while filming; they declined to name the anaconda variety after the actor. An unidentified flying object observed traversing the skies of Salt Lake City, Utah, turned out to be a balloon; a joint military command issued a fighter jet to intercept it. Two thousand nauseated passengers have been sequestered to their cruise ship off the coast of Mauritius until their mystery gastrointestinal illness passes. Monica Lewinsky partnered with the clothing retailer Reformation to raise voter turnout with a promotional line of dresses; Lewinsky modeled each dress herself and urged women to head to the polls if they “wanna complain for the next four years.” —Lake Micah

A clear majority of adults in the Seattle area — around 64% — never attend church or religious services, or go less than once a year. That pencils out to about 1.98 million people out of the total 3.1 million population aged 18 and older in our metro area, which includes King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.

The survey includes data from all 50 states plus the nation’s 15 largest metro areas, including Seattle. And among those 15, Seattle ranked the least religious, edging out San Francisco, where 63% never attend religious services, or go less than once a year. Boston was a distant third at 56%.

What may be surprising to folks in the Seattle area, though, is that the rest of Washington is nearly as nonreligious as Seattle. Statewide, 63% never or almost never attend religious services, just 1 percentage point lower than the number for the Seattle area.

Fascinating interview/podcast with ex-Fundie zealot Brad Onishi. (Terry Gross, NPR)

Christian nationalism, including an extreme version advocated by the group the New Apostolic Reformation, the NAR, has become influential in American government and parts of the judicial system. The NAR advocates for Christian dominion over government, religion, family, business, education, arts and entertainment, and the media. According to the NAR, some of its opponents are afflicted by demons, which must be cast out through exorcism. The NAR has aligned itself with Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the election. Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, has said he's been profoundly influenced by Dan Cummins, a Christian nationalist activist. A flag associated with the NAR hangs outside Johnson's office.

An Alabama Supreme Court decision just made it illegal to destroy frozen, fertilized embryos that are used in infertility treatments because those embryos are people. The chief justice of the court wrote a concurring opinion that says even before birth, all human beings have the image of God and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory. My guest, Brad Onishi, not only studies Christian nationalism. He used to be part of that movement. He left after studying theology at Oxford University. He's the author of the book "Preparing For War: The Extremist History Of White Christian Nationalism - And What Comes Next." He also co-hosts the podcast "Straight White American Jesus," which reports on and analyzes the impact of Christian nationalism on American democracy. He teaches at the University of California, San Francisco.

Imagine if they DID "have the facilities" to kill him by firing squad. They'd spend 45 minutes trying to figure out how to load their rifles, kill a few members of the squad by mistake, then proceed to graze this guy a half dozen times if they were lucky. Idaho. Famous potato-heads.

The execution of Thomas Creech scheduled for Wednesday morning was canceled at 11 a.m. Idaho Department of Correction director Josh Tewalt determined the execution could not happen because the medical team could not establish an IV line.

In a news conference, Tewalt said the medical team did a physical assessment of Creech this morning and believed they would be able to establish IV access. When Creech was in the execution room, Tewalt said the team tried eight times through multiple limbs and appendages to establish that access.

Witnesses from news media said the medical team began trying to get IV access at 10:13 a.m. and it went on for around 45 minutes.

Idaho law allows for execution by lethal injection and firing squad, but Tewalt said the state does not have the facilities to carry out a firing squad style execution at this time.

Creech has been returned to his cell in the F block. Tewalt said that they will allow the death warrant to expire and there is currently no idea for a time frame or next steps moving forward in regards to the execution and death warrant, but that will be discussed in the days ahead.

Marc Benioff

He's the CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Salesforce, one of the world's largest software companies, which owns the popular messaging service Slack and is worth nearly $300 billion. He also owns Time magazine.

When I ask Benioff about the properties in the anonymous LLCs, things seem to take a turn. He starts speaking more quickly and fidgets with a piece of paper in his hand. He's reluctant to go through the holdings, and his adviser on the Zoom call jumps in to say we can discuss later.

A couple of days before the interview, Benioff texted the same NPR colleague again, asking for intel on my story. Then he called me and demanded to know the title of this piece. During that call, he also mentioned he knew the exact area where I was staying. Unnerved, I asked how he knew, and he said, "It's my job. You have a job and I have a job." During the interview, he brings up more personal details about me and my family.

I leave the meeting disconcerted and still unclear about what exactly is happening with his land in Waimea.

The following day, I drive around with a photographer to take pictures of the town and Benioff's projects. We go to the property he described as a community center and are confronted by one of his employees. The photographer explains we're there to take photos of the outside of the building. Shortly afterward, I get a text from Benioff. His employee seemed to think we were "snooping," and he says he's escalating the incident to NPR CEO John Lansing. Lansing confirmed he spoke with Benioff, without going into detail — the NPR newsroom operates independently, and the CEO is not involved in editorial decision-making. Benioff didn't respond to my question about the purpose of this call.

Tom Parker, a Republican who joined the court in 2005, wrote a concurring opinion that quoted at length from sources such as the Book of Genesis, the Ten Commandments and Christian thinkers of centuries ago, such as Thomas Aquinas. But comments he has made in other media have raised questions about his seeming espousal of "Seven Mountains" theology, a concept that some experts consider to be Christian extremism.

"God created government. And the fact that we have let it go into the possession of others, it's heartbreaking for those of us who understand. And we know it is for Him," Parker said on a recent podcast hosted by Christian activist Johnny Enlow. "And that's why He is calling and equipping people to step back into these mountains right now."

The Seven Mountains Mandate urges adherents to establish what they consider to be God's kingdom on Earth by taking control of seven areas of society: family, religion, government, education, arts and entertainment, commerce and media. Once relegated to a fringe of the Christian conservative movement, it has gained followers in recent years as the ranks of nondenominational, neo-charismatic Christians have grown in the U.S. It also has earned greater media attention since House Speaker Mike Johnson assumed his elevated role, due to his connections with leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement that espouses Seven Mountain theology.

"The Seven Mountains is a structured outline for Christian supremacy," said Matthew Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore. "The idea is that Christians are supposed to take power over society and that influence flows down from the top of each mountain."

Parker's close involvement with the NAR network was evident in the weeks after January 6th, when he joined its massive prayer phone call for Alabama in March of 2022. On that call, he spoke about his desire to influence judges in that state to accept his interpretation of Christianity.

"When the judges are restored, revival can flow, so that righteousness and faithfulness are the products," he said. "But at least, as chief justice, I can help prepare the soil of the hearts, exposing the judges around the state to the things of God."

Parker did not respond to NPR's request for interview.

"It is a real Christian Nationalist threat to our judicial system to have Supreme Court justices who understand theologically and think of themselves theologically as above precedent and the rule of law," said Taylor. "If they think that their allegiance is to a higher power and their allegiance is to the Bible primarily before the Constitution, if they are invoking modern prophecies as the rationale for the work that they do, that should really raise questions about the separation of religion and state and the ways that Christianity and Christian nationalism is getting infused into the very structures of how our legal system is working."

From the output of Google Voice's speech-to-text software. This was part of a routine appointment reminder voicemail.

You are currently taking patience and visitors experience within our facilities regardless of vaccination status.

Well, that's very kind of them to put up with me I guess.

If you have any questions concerning disappointment, please call our office 6650. Thank you.

Yes, I do have such questions, many of them in fact, a whole lifetime's worth....