America’s legal system today

I want to practice law:
—You need a 4 year Bachelors, take the LSAT, then a 3 year JD, then pass the BAR, buy malpractice insurance, & total cost is ~$300K

I want to enforce the law:
—Here’s paid 13-week training & a gun

I want to write the law:
—No qualifications needed and a billionaire can buy you a seat

NEW: Moms For Liberty, a right-wing parents’ rights group trying to take over school boards across the country and reshape curricula, purports to be “real grassroots.”

Tax records reveal much of its revenue came from just five donations; one for $100K.

https://importantcontext.substack.com/p/grassroots-parents-rights-group-gets

"In essence what Gov. DeSantis and conservative groups like Moms for Liberty are saying is this: The problem is not that white America has been abusing Black America throughout our history and into the present, but that Black Americans keep remembering this history and telling it to white people—which somehow victimizes white people. My verb choice here is deliberate: This is the psychology of the abuser."

https://www.salon.com/2023/02/15/ron-desantis-hypocrisy-is-his-secret-weapon/

NEW: The so-called Norfolk Group, which released an 80-page “blueprint” for congressional inquiry into the pandemic response this month, has ties to right-wing dark money.

https://importantcontext.substack.com/p/new-scientist-group-calling-for-pandemic

Catastrophic (and to be frank - hugely depressing)

This new research in @PNASNews suggests earth will cross the 1.5 degrees C temperature increase threshold in the next decade (within just 10 to 15 years) and is likely to exceed 2 degrees C by around 2060.

This should be THE lead story on the news today (and onwards) and the lead action point for our governments. It should trigger a massive call for real global action to combat the #climateemergency - sadly though I fear this news will barely register.

We have to stop believing the siren calls of future technology solutions and #carbonoffsets - the immediate need is a rapid end to the use of #fossilfuels and a massive rollout of #renewableenergy

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2207183120

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

Hey did an AI steal your art

Did an AI steal your buddy's art

Saddle up, first class-action suit i've seen

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/class-action-filed-against-stability-ai-midjourney-and-deviantart-for-dmca-violations-right-of-publicity-violations-unlawful-competition-breach-of-tos-301721869.html

As a relatively unknown artist, I naively thought I'd be immune to AI scraping. HAHA, NOPE. GUESS WHAT.

If you have a #webcomic and are concerned about this check: http://haveibeentrained.com.

The CDC reported 3.9K weekly U.S. COVID deaths on Jan 11.

Note: My previous post incorrectly said 3.7K (the previous total was 2.7K so I mixed them up — apologies).

This week’s number represents a 1.2K increase from the previous weekly report on Jan 4.

Not good.