More Right-Wing Threats of Violence; Independent HQ’s Email Is a Mess-Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Dec. 5, 2022

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• From the right-wing hate beat comes this horrifying piece, from NBC News: “The hosts of a ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’-style occasion for kids in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday pulled the plug as a result of of what they described because the intimidating presence of right-wing demonstrators. The scheduled vacation themed ‘Holi-Drag Storytime’ on the First Unitarian Church of Columbus, which runs the Okay-5 establishment behind the occasion, Red Oak Community School, was canceled on the last-minute Saturday morning following inner discussions, organizers stated. Members of Ohio’s Proud Boys group and different right-wing teams made good on guarantees to make waves outdoors the venue Saturday. More than 50 demonstrators, together with members of the Proud Boys, gathered close to the church Saturday morning and shouted, chanted and held up indicators. Some had been armed with lengthy weapons.” Just a reminder: This is the United States, in 2022, and that is taking place.

• Related, probably tangentially but possibly more than tangentially, from The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.): “Widespread energy outages triggered (round 7 p.m. Saturday) by vandalism of electrical substations in Moore County continued on Monday, with electrical energy shut off to 1000’s of residences and companies, and estimates for restoration of energy stretching presumably into Thursday, officers say. … (Moore County Sheriff Ronnie) Fields stated they haven’t been in a position to make a connection to a Saturday evening drag queen present at Sunrise Theater in downtown Southern Pines after state and federal investigators appeared into the rumor that began on-line. Earlier within the day Saturday, protesters had gathered outdoors the theater, upset about a drag present deliberate for the small venue later that evening. The drag present began at 7 p.m. and was underway when the ability went out. Emily Grace Rainey, an outspoken opponent of the drag present, posted an invite on her Facebook web page to the protest on the theater. After the lights went out, Rainey … posted on Facebook that, ‘The energy is out in Moore County and I do know why.’ Without naming her, Fields indicated in Sunday’s press convention that the knowledge Rainey posted on-line was ‘false.’ He stated officers ‘needed to go and interview this younger woman and have a phrase of prayer along with her, but it surely turned out to be nothing.’” Some 32,307 properties and companies remained with out energy as of this afternoon, in accordance with Duke Energy.

• While final week’s outcomes of Palm Springs wastewater testing for SARS-CoV-2 haven’t but been posted as of this writing, The Los Angeles Times offers up two stories showing how serious the season of sickness is getting in the state. First, from today, about COVID-19: “There has been a troubling spike in coronavirus-positive hospital admissions amongst seniors in California, rising to ranges not seen for the reason that summer season Omicron surge. Hospitalizations have roughly tripled for Californians of most age teams for the reason that autumn low. But the bounce in seniors in want of hospital care has been significantly dramatic. Officials in Los Angeles County have stated will increase in hospitalizations may result in an indoor masks order, presumably in early January. Still, there’s optimism that any winter surge won’t be as unhealthy as these of the final two years. … Only 35% of California’s vaccinated seniors age 65 and up have acquired the up to date booster because it grew to become out there in September.”

• Second is a Los Angeles Times story from Saturday about influenza: “The (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) makes use of 5 total ranges, from minimal to very excessive, to measure influenza-like diseases throughout the U.S. and its territories. On Friday, the company’s color-coded map confirmed California and 10 different states, together with New York City, shaded purple, the worst of the three shades within the very excessive flu degree. … The California Department of Public Health classifies all of Southern California as having excessive flu ranges, whereas Central and Northern California are rated average. Flu is the explanation for almost 4% of hospitalizations every week at Kaiser’s Northern California amenities, the very best in any of the prior 4 flu seasons. … The flu positivity fee in L.A. County has reached 25%, a degree not seen right now of yr within the final 4 years. ‘Clearly, we’re … off the charts,’ (L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara) Ferrer stated.”

• Gay men, take note: The New York Times published a terrifying story this weekend headlined “Druggings, Deaths and Robberies Put New York’s Gay Community on Edge.” The lede: “Julio Ramirez died within the again seat of a taxi in April after he left a widespread homosexual bar in Manhattan with a group of males. They stole his pockets, telephone and ID earlier than they deserted his physique within the automobile with a distressed cabdriver. One month later, John Umberger was discovered useless in an Upper East Side townhouse after he and a group of males left one other widespread homosexual bar simply three blocks from the final place Mr. Ramirez was seen alive. Surveillance footage confirmed Mr. Umberger sandwiched between the lads as they guided him into a automobile. The Police Department and lots of within the LGBTQ group at first regarded the deaths as remoted drug overdoses: males who partied too arduous, quotidian tragedies in a homosexual nightlife scene that has roared again to life because the coronavirus pandemic has waned. But the lads’s households quickly found one thing extra sinister: Credit playing cards within the males’s names had been maxed out and their financial institution accounts drained of tens of 1000’s of {dollars}. Now, their deaths are being investigated by the Police Department’s murder unit.”

• Uh, hey, did you hear about a former U.S. president saying he wanted to “terminate” the Constitution, and then denying it, even though the social-media post in which he said it remained online? Politico has the details: “Former President Donald Trump on Monday denied he wished to ‘terminate’ the Constitution, two days after suggesting ‘the termination of all guidelines … even these discovered within the Constitution.’ ‘The Fake News is definitely making an attempt to persuade the American People that I stated I wished to “terminate” the Constitution. This is just extra DISINFORMATION & LIES,’ Trump stated on Monday on his personal social media platform, Truth Social. The put up appeared to be a full denial of his put up from Saturday, which remained on-line as of Monday afternoon: ‘A Massive Fraud of this kind and magnitude permits for the termination of all guidelines, rules, and articles, even these discovered within the Constitution,’ Trump wrote over the weekend, as soon as once more falsely asserting that there was widespread fraud within the 2020 election. Several of Trump’s fellow Republicans had been crucial of the put up, however few condemned Trump himself or stated it might be disqualifying for him to earn their vote—a lack of repudiation that has drawn criticism from Democrats.”

• And lastly … we’ve linked to more than a few articles in this space about the complete disaster that was California’s unemployment system during the pandemic. Well … is the system ready to handle a possible recession? Our partners at CalMatters report: “If extra individuals are laid off, extra Californians will flip to unemployment advantages to assist them afford the fundamentals whereas they search for a new job. It’s a course of that buckled beneath the pressures of the pandemic. Residents generally waited months for advantages from the state’s Employment Development Department, dialing the division a whole lot of instances. On high of that was a string of fraud scandals. … The scenario has since improved. But how will the system maintain up if there’s a recession? Thanks to ‘the extent of testing that the pandemic put us by means of, we’re in such a sturdy place to climate a typical financial contraction,’ stated Gareth Lacy, communications advisor on the division. But not everyone seems to be satisfied. ‘There have been some main enhancements,’ stated Daniela Urban, government director of the Center for Workers’ Rights. ‘But I feel we’re not on the level the place if a main disaster hit the unemployment system once more, the system would have the ability to operate because it ought to.’”

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