Bits n’ pieces from east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

U.S. overdose deaths, especially from fentanyl, have fallen significantly according to the CDC. The Biden-Harris administration has prioritized the disruption of the fentanyl supply. As well, NPR says the administration has made Naloxone, which is used to treat overdoses available over-the-counter.

Texas’s infant death rate increased 8% after their abortion law was enacted in 2021: US News.

Microsoft says Russia is behind a fake story about presidential candidate Kamala Harris being involved in a hit-and-run accident in 2011. The story used a paid actor and a fake news outlet.

California has enacted a series of bills to curtail the spread of “deepfakes” ahead of the 2024 elections, Newsweek wrote. Supporters say the bills preserve freedom of speech by not targeting satire or parody and instead focus on deceptive materials that lack clear labeling that AI was involved.

Donald Trump wants a shut down of the federal government if the Safeguard American Eligibility (SAVE) Act is not part of must-pass Congressional legislation, numerous media reported. The SAVE Act is touted as stopping immigrants from illegally voting. It’s already a felony to do so.

So why Trump’s insistence on SAVE? Historian and columnist Thom Hartmann points out that SAVE could easily disenfranchise women voters, who are less inclined to vote for Trump: if passed, SAVE requires those without a passport or other proof of citizenship containing their married name to produce a non-copied birth certificate and a current form of identification -- both with the exact same name. 

Women’s birth certificates often don’t have last names that match their current last name, and Hartmann says that could challenge 90% of all married women who plan to vote, since most start using their married name without going through legal name-change formalities.

Triggering a government shutdown to please Trump is opposed by Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, who calls it “politically beyond stupid,” Newsweek reported. The House has proposed a three-month stop-gap funding bill that excluded Trump’s coveted SAVE Act, US News said.

CBS: In a letter to Postmaster General Luis DeJoy, a Trump appointee, elections officials questioned USPS’s ability to deliver election mail on time and accurately. USPS advises mailing ballots at least one week before a state’s election deadline.

The price of olive oil: Last year the olive harvest season was cut short in the West Bank. Palestinian farmers were blocked from accessing their lands and olive harvests were interrupted by Israeli settlers who poisoned, cut down and set fire to centuries-old olive trees, according to the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights. The USCPR, in partnership with The Palestine Fair Trade Association, has been planting olive tree saplings at Palestinian farms in 40 villages.

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates and indicated more cuts are likely, since they say there’s no longer a pressing need to fight inflation. CBS said the cut is expected to lower costs on “everything,” from mortgages to credit cards. 

While few believed her, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had maintained there could be a “soft landing” rather than a recession by slowing inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell was appointed by Trump who now says, if re-elected, he would not re-appoint Powell and would personally want more say in monetary policy. 

According to Powell an independent central bank, isolated from direct control by political authorities, avoids monetary policies favoring office-holders. That independence, he says, puts the focus on maximum employment and price stability “for all Americans.”

A Haitian non-profit filed criminal charges against candidates Trump and Vance for “an orchestrated…campaign of lies” about Springfield, Ohio’s Haitian immigrants, The Guardian wrote. The charges include disruption of public services, false alarms, telecommunications harassment, aggravated menacing and complicity. The candidates’ statements, such as Haitians are eating people’s pets, led to 30 bomb threats and violence against the city’s Haitians. The filing seeks the arrest of Trump and Vance.

The New York Times says over 100 former national security officials and former Republican Congress members recently endorsed Harris. They did so because Trump has demonstrated “dangerous qualities,” such as an “unusual affinity” for dictators and “contempt for the norms of decent, ethical and lawful behavior.” 

Then on Sunday 741 national security leaders also endorsed Harris, Newsweek said. Those signers said the choice is between “democracy and authoritarianism,” and Trump is ill-informed, impulsive and “unfit” for the job.” In contrast they said Harris is “prepared and strategic.”

Blast from the past: “We are not what we know, but what we are willing to learn.” Mary Catherine Bateson, 1939-2021, American writer and cultural anthropologist.