"Deaths from drug overdoses soared to more than 93,000 last year... The death toll jumped by more than 21,000, or nearly 30 percent, from 2019..."

"The increase came as no surprise to addiction specialists, drug counselors and policy experts who have watched the steady rise in deaths throughout the pandemic.... ... 2020 brought the added complications of a worldwide viral pandemic. Health care resources were stretched and redirected toward the emergency. Anti-addiction medication was more difficult to obtain. Stress increased dramatically."

WaPo reports.

ADDED: From the NYT article on the subject: 

The death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 375,000 last year, the largest American mortality event in a century, but drug deaths were experienced disproportionately among the young. In total, the 93,000 deaths cost Americans about 3.5 million years of life, according to a New York Times analysis. By comparison, coronavirus deaths in 2020 were responsible for about 5.5 million years of life.

"The Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been admitted to hospital... after being struck down by an unremitting bout of the hiccups which has lasted for more than 10 days...."

"In a recent social media broadcast, Bolsonaro said his hiccups problem had started after he underwent dental surgery on 3 June, and blamed it on drugs he had been prescribed. The Folha said Bolsonaro had undergone a series of surgical procedures since his election-trail stabbing, an event many believe helped propel him to the presidency. Less than two months later he won a landslide election victory against his leftwing rival, Fernando Haddad."

The Guardian reports.

"'Don’t Fauci My Florida,' read drink koozies and T-shirts that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign team rolled out just as his state sees some of the highest coronavirus hospitalizations..."

"... new infections and deaths per capita in the country. It’s the latest example of Republicans running on their opposition to virus-fueled shutdowns and mask mandates. A pandemic hero to some and villain to others, Fauci has become a high-profile target.... While discussing the Florida budget this summer, DeSantis said his state’s rosy financial outlook would not have been possible 'if we had followed Fauci.' 'Instead we followed freedom,' he said. His campaign’s 'Team DeSantis' Twitter account announced the new merchandise Monday. The Fauci items are listed alongside 'Keep Florida Free' hats and red koozies that take aim at face coverings with a DeSantis quote: 'How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?'"

From "DeSantis sells ‘Don’t Fauci My Florida’ merch as new coronavirus cases near highest in nation" (WaPo).

This campaign merchandise is viral — viral 2 ways. 1. It's about coronavirus, 2. It gets DeSantis haters to carry his message for him. Those haters may think they're attacking him, but try as they might, they're helping him more than they're hurting him.

As for beer koozies, I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've drunk anything straight from a can in my entire life. I'll drink from a bottle, but not a can. I follow freedom, and I choose not to challenge my face with sharp edges of aluminum. I'll put a mask on my face if it's genuinely necessary, but I expect care to be taken in dictating when that is. 

Anyway, I'm not the market for any koozie, let alone a beer-specific koozie with a political slogan. I don't drink from cans, I almost never drink beer, I never wear or wield items emblazoned with politicized writing, and I would never casually expose the general public — which includes children — to aggressive words like "How the hell...?" 

But I did get a little interested in the word "koozie," which to my ear sounds dirty or insulting. Is it some combination of "cool" and "cozy"? I was interested in the etymology! Now, I'm reading Wikipedia. But it doesn't give the origin of the word, so I will maintain my belief — graphically stated at Urban Dictionary (definition #3) — that it started with a vagina metaphor.

"The Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives... said they had no other recourse, and they admitted that they have no endgame..."

"... as [Republican Governor Greg ] Abbott promised to keep calling special sessions, over and over, until the election legislation has its day. But they chose Washington, a hideout in full view, for a reason: to garner national attention and escalate the stakes in a long-running effort to pressure Congress and President Biden to approve federal voting-rights protections that would outlaw the kinds of restrictions Texas Republicans — and dozens of other legislatures across the country — are trying to enact.... 'The endgame is, we need Congress to act,' said state Rep. John Bucy III, who with his wife, Molly, decided to drive to Washington rather than fly, because their 17-month-old daughter, Bradley, has not received a coronavirus vaccine and is too young to wear a mask on a plane.... Republicans accused Democrats of abrogating their legislative duties in the Texas Capitol for a junket to Washington on private jets. They pounced on Democrats’ social media posts showing smile-filled selfies on the coach and in the planes. They even homed in on what appeared to be a case of Miller Lite sitting on one of the seats in the coach they took to the Austin airport...."

From "Inside the secret plan for the Texas Democratic exodus: A phone tree, a scramble to pack and a politically perilous trip" (WaPo).

They're fleeing but they're not hiding. They want to be seen.. In fact, it's not enough merely to get attention, they want to garner attention. 

By the way, I see we're naming little girls Bradley now.

"Judge Cronan's dismissal is the joke, and more than a bad joke at that."

Said Roy Moore's lawyer Larry Klayton, quoted in "Sacha Baron Cohen, Showtime win dismissal of Roy Moore defamation lawsuit." 

Moore fell for one of Baron Cohen's pranks and then sued Baron Cohen for $95 million, alleging defamation. 

The judge said it was "clearly a joke," and "It is simply inconceivable that the program's audience would have found a segment with Judge Moore activating a supposed pedophile-detecting wand to be grounded in any factual basis."

"Public opinion suggests there’s widespread bipartisan support for liberalizing cannabis laws, but that shift hasn’t translated to the Senate..."

"Schumer has several reluctant members within his own caucus and will have to scrounge up at least 10 Republican votes for the legislation during an already chaotic Senate calendar filled with Biden administration priorities on infrastructure, police accountability and education. Schumer would also need to corner President Joe Biden — who has supported decriminalizing marijuana but not legalizing it — to sign the bill.... The discussion draft of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act includes provisions that cater to both 'states rights' Republicans and progressive Democrats. While the proposal seeks to remove all federal penalties on weed, it would allow states to prohibit even the possession of cannabis — along with production and distribution — a nod to states’ rights.... Federal weed legalization is dicey at best, especially given the more pressing concerns of infrastructure spending and pandemic recovery." 

From "Schumer launches long-shot bid for legal weed/The majority leader backs marijuana legalization, but he still needs to convince his party, Republicans and even the president" (Politico).

It's a nice distraction from "the more pressing concerns of infrastructure spending and pandemic recovery." Schumer is cuing up a distinct accomplishment that can be grabbed if they choose. 

I'd like to see this pass if only to restore order. It's chaotic for various states to be operating as if marijuana is legal when it is outlawed at the federal level.

It was a 100% cloud cover sunrise, but the wildflowers were popping out nicely.

Random objects.

A collection of me turning into random objects. pic.twitter.com/ValPdPNJIj

— Kevin Parry (@kevinbparry) July 13, 2021

"I have 38D boobs and have been wearing a bra since fifth grade, so the thought of returning my boobs to any state of confinement has left me horrified."

"How could I go back to imprisoning my ladies after a wondrous year of letting them roam? In the words of Kate Lambert, 'I see women out and y’all are wearing bras again. I THOUGHT WE HAD AN AGREEMENT.'... Babe, I assure you, it is not about politics — it is about comfort. A few years back, a dear friend wrote about her bra-free path, saying that the decision to not wear a bra was not political, 'except insofar as everything a woman does with her body that isn’t letting someone else dictate what she ought to do with it is a political decision.' That sounds about right to me."

From "Free the Boob!" by Dayna Evans (NY Magazine).

After 37 years as a cable TV customer, I finally did it. I cancelled!

Don't even ask me how many months I continued to pay over $200 a month for TV service that I barely used at all. If I want to watch TV, I go to Netflix or Amazon Prime or YouTube, not the AT&T U-Verse that was costing so much. I knew I was throwing money away delaying calling, and it wasn't at all that I was clinging to it, thinking maybe I'd miss it. It was purely my resistance to the administrative work of making the phone call.

"South Dakota did not do any mandates. We trusted our people, gave them all the information and told them that personal responsibility was the best answer."

Tweeted South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, roughly quoting her recent CPAC speech and quoted in a Philip Bump WaPo column with the aggressive headline "Kristi Noem leans into her people-can-choose-to-die-if-they-want-to 2024 messaging."

Here's the text of the column that might support the headline: 

What’s fascinating about this argument is that it’s actually immune to a seemingly challenging response — um, but a lot of people died — using a straightforward rhetorical trick: pinning those deaths on the personal choices of the dead.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean people chose to die! People individually assessed risk and chose which precautions to take, but they were hoping not to die, I think we can presume. A lot of people died — it's true — but does Bump know how the deaths correlated to the choices people made? 

For example, I almost never wore a mask because I didn't like mask-wearing, but what I did instead was avoid going places where I was close enough to other people to need a mask. I kept my distance. That was an individual choice, and I won't say that's why I never got Covid (or never had any condition that caused me to get tested for Covid). I don't know!

Bump acknowledges that Noem's position is "a natural extension of a conservative small-government philosophy: If people want to put themselves at risk from the virus, who are we to stop them?" It's not that people want risk. It's that people are balancing risk against freedom. The question is just whether to let people do their own balancing. Noem's "leaning" is just the conventional conservative preference for individual choice. Bump leans in the conventional progressive direction, allocating more choices to government. 

You probably know which way you lean, so it's an old topic, perhaps too dull to write a column about. To disguise the dullness, they cobbled together the adjective "people-can-choose-to-die-if-they-want-to."

"We’re a comedy show and there are obviously a lot of words we’ve been careful to weed out. We’ve used words like ‘unhinged’ or ‘intense’ to replace ‘crazy.’ Are there words you would suggest using?"

Said Jennifer Flanz, executive producer and showrunner of “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah,” quoted in "In closed-door meetings at MTV, creators are grappling with how to make entertainment more responsible/An inside look at an ambitious plan that has writers working with mental-health professionals" (WaPo).

Would calling someone “crazy” or “unhinged” contribute to the kind of stigmas that makes people afraid to seek help?...

“It’s definitely OK to find humor in the challenging experiences people face,” [said Meredith Goldberg-Morse, senior manager of social impact at MTV Entertainment Group]. “But when you’re doing that, it’s important to be mindful of not sending the message that the person managing the condition is the punchline of the joke.”

Notice that there are 2 different phenomena under discussion here: 1. Actual mental health conditions, and 2. The use of mental-health language to insult or mock. These 2 things are interrelated, because caring about people with actual mental health conditions seems to be the main reason to think you ought to refrain from using mental-health language to insult or mock. 

I can think of some other reasons: 1. It's stale and unimaginative to just call the people you don't agree with "crazy." 2. It's inaccurate (you're not diagnosing a disorder). 3. It's a way to avoid making specific and substantive arguments. 4. It's hypocritical (because you yourself sound crazy when you endlessly call other people crazy). 5. It's part of the problem of winding people up about everything (which is why I stopped watching "The Daily Show" years ago).

"We will choose an identity that unequivocally departs from any use of or approximate linkage to Native American imagery."

Said Jason Wright, president of the Washington Football Team (the erstwhile "Redskins"), quoted in "WFT’s new name won’t be ‘Warriors’ or include any Native American imagery, Jason Wright says" (WaPo).

“One might look at this name [Warriors] as a natural, and even harmless transition considering that it does not necessarily or specifically carry a negative connotation,” Wright wrote on the team’s website. “But as we learned through our research and engagement with various groups, ‘context matters’ and that makes it a ‘slippery slope.’ ”...

“We recognize that not everyone is in favor of this change,” he added. “And even the Native American community offers a range of opinions about both our past and path forward. But in these moments, it is important to prioritize the views of those who have been hurt by our historical use of Native American language, iconography and imagery."...

The team has been working with Code and Theory, a creative agency, to pore over 40,000 fan submissions, hold focus groups, send out fan surveys and talk with local and national leaders to narrow the list....

How would you like to work at Code and Theory, the creative agency? Here's their page discussing their work with the Washington Football team. Sample text:

"Louis C.K. tickets sell out in Madison despite comedian's sexual misconduct."

 The Wisconsin State Journal reports.

Four of C.K.'s Madison show were sold out by Monday afternoon, shortly after a Wisconsin State Journal story was posted online. A fifth show was listed as "tickets currently not available." Tickets were $30 before fees.

That's in Madison, so I infer that Louis C.K. can do his show anywhere in America. I'd say he's been punished enough. He's a comic genius and plenty of people obviously want him back. 

Here's the discussion at the subreddit r/madisonwi. Sample chitchat:

Don’t like him? Don’t go. I don’t care for him but it’s a free country and if he wants to do a show and people want to pay for it that’s their business as consenting adults. Quit being the hall monitor. Adults can do as they wish. 

Did you just ask Madison, Wisconsin to actually let people live their lives?

Sunrise sequence: 5:32, 5:34:25, 5:34:40, 5:37:13, 5:37:52.

"We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom and relief from the tragic grip of the pandemic and from the decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime."

"The Cuban people are bravely asserting fundamental and universal rights. Those rights, including the right of peaceful protest and the right to freely determine their own future, must be respected. The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves."

That is, in full, the Statement by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on Protests in Cuba."