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Now let’s get into the news!
- For our first story today, Amy Coney Barrett’s Senate confirmation hearings began today on Capitol Hill
Just as a little reminder, the point of these hearings, is kinda two fold:
- First off, it is a form of checks and balances – remember back to civics class? We can’t let ANY ONE BRANCH have total control… Cuz that’s when stuff can get out of control and tyrants can runamuck. We have branches that CHECK each other and this is an example of that. The President (the executive branch) nominated to the Supreme Court (another branch) but the Senate has to sign off on it (the branch checking the other two). This gives opponents to make a case that this person might not be a good fit for the job, review their qualifications, and point out any skeletons in the person’s closet and any reasons why they should NOT be appointed to the rule in highest court in the land.
- Secondly, helps THE PEOPLE get to know her, and make sure she’s really Supreme Court material. Even though it doesn’t feel like we have a super ACTIVE role in this, we certainly can! If you LOVE her and want her to be confirmed or you HATE HER and think she won’t do right by you, CALL YOUR SENATORS! Remember, they work for YOU. As someone who worked in a Senate office as an intern, I KNOW they keep track of every phone call or email they get FOR and AGAINST things. They take note of what their people want. Taking 2 minutes to call can actually make a difference if it is something important to you.
It’s kind of like a job interview in the sense that they go over her resume, check her references (live in front of the country!), and ask her questions about how she would perform in the role. They started off today with the traditional opening statement from the nominee, Judge Barrett herself.
Democrats pressed her on the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, as Judge Barrett HAS made comments in the past about striking the legislation down in the courts. They were pretty focused on that issue though, not as much on abortion or women’s rights, as they were expected to.
She remarked, humorously, that she is used to being one of 9 – meaning her family, as she and her husband share 7 children. She would a historic choice for the position as we should be the first female Supreme Court Justice with school-age children.
Judge Barrett also gave a closing statement. Here’s a little clip from her:
*PLAY audioclip*
As I have said before on here, you can always watch these hearings LIVE as they are occurring to hear how your Senators are doing and what questions they are asking. It’s pretty easy to find online, simply google something like “Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court Hearings Live” – I know USA Today has a live stream on Youtube. Hope some of you will tune in!
- Queen of the ocean
A 3,500 pound Great White Shark named Nukumi or “Queen of the Ocean,” was spotted off the cost of Nova Scotia. A group that is studying Great Whites called Ocearch was able to actually tag the shark so that they can see where she travels to, when she mates, feeds, gives birth, and more – hopefully helping us to better understand this creature. Nukumi is estimated to be about 50 years old and is said to have scars all over her body. They expect that she has had up to 100 babies as she has reproduced 15 times in her life. Ocearch refers to her as a “grandmother of sharks” or “a matriarch of the ocean,” because many of her babies are likely already mature enough to have babies of their own.
Here’s what the Expedition Leader from the Ocearch team had to say about it.
*PLAY audio clip*
Sharks are one of the most ancient and original creatures we have left on the earth. Thank you to Nukumi for teaching us more about our planet.
- Sweeden does a flip flop
SO, you may or may not already know, Sweeden went rogue in regards to COVID. They just decided not to do anything about it. They went laissez fare or “let them do as they will.” OK they DID do a few things – they closed school for ages 16 and up and they did ban large gatherings. But that was kinda it. Beyond that, they allowed for their people to do what they wanted. And, it realllllly backfired.
Now, Sweeden has actually made it a CRIME to have more than 50 people gathered together and you can serve up to six months in prison for such a violation. Sweeden is now JUST below ITALY in terms of COVID deaths and it’s numbers seem to be going up. TOTALLY a cautionary tale in terms of living in fantasy land… A
- A few domestic COVID updates
Here in Oklahoma today, we broke 100 thousand cases in our state. I remember a time where people said it would never come here at all and now we have had over 100 thousand cases total and about 14 thousand of those are currently active.
Nationwide, our worst day in the PEAK of Coronavirus was about 74 thousand new cases reported. On Friday, we had almost 60 thousand. We are back up towards those really bad numbers. And unless something changes, hospitals WILL become overrun and lack of resources will take its toll.
And that’s the News Du Jour!
Today, I want to leave you with the quote:
“You have a 100% success rate of surviving. You have survived ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of what life has thrown at you, 100% of the days life has brought you. You can do this”