The News Not Noise Letter: Yes, You Should Watch The Debate
The general election really begins this Thursday. Plus: two years without Roe, and have we found signs of alien intelligence?
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This Week’s Debate: The first presidential debate is this Thursday at 9pm Eastern / 6pm Pacific on CNN, moderated by Dana Bash and Jake Tapper. The debate will last for 90 minutes and there will be no live audience. Expect it to be combative. To minimize the chances it devolves into an ugly free-for-all, the campaigns agreed to these rules: Each candidate will be allowed two minutes to answer a question, one minute for a rebuttal, and one minute to respond to the rebuttal. CNN will cut candidate microphones when their time is up to try to keep the conversation moving forward and prevent candidates from over-talking one another. (Our heart goes out to the CNN control room staff responsible for riding the mics. Godspeed!) This is an unusually early debate, and it’s an opportunity to reset campaign narratives, draw a contrast, and remind voters what’s at stake. Each candidate will have to hit the classic debate notes – defend his own presidential record, promote his agenda for the future while fact-checking the other guy in real time. But in this setting, vibes count most. Put plainly, will President Biden’s performance undercut the Trump campaign’s claims he’s too old for the job? Can former President Trump’s counter claims he’s too crazy for the job? It all depends on… “moments.” Millions of viewers are expected to tune in, but far more will see only select clips on social media, so “moments” matter. This includes cringeworthy gaffes and memorable clapbacks or promises. Already the Trump campaign is trying to work the refs. Speaking on CNN today a Trump campaign spokesperson attacked the hosts as “biased” before CNN’s Kasie Hunt corrected that they’re “professional” and cut the interview short. For the record, the Biden and Trump campaigns both chose CNN to host this debate, and agreed to the anchors and rules in advance.
Here at NNN we’ll be hosting a live chat for paid subscribers on debate night. Find instructions for how to access the live chat at the end of this newsletter below the paywall.
Two Years Since Roe Fell: Today marks the second anniversary of the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Over the past 2 years:
14 states have implemented near-total abortion bans, and many more have imposed significant restrictions.
Vast stretches of the US are now “abortion deserts” where women have to travel over 250 miles to get to the nearest abortion clinic.
Women’s lives have been endangered in abortion-hostile states where hospitals are reluctant to provide emergency care to pregnant women.
The Guttmacher Institute found 1 in 5 OB/GYNs say they feel their ability to manage pregnancy complications and miscarriages has been constrained.
The fetal personhood movement isn’t stopping there. Courts and lawmakers in several states have tried to restrict IVF on the grounds that frozen embryos are “children.”
So far this year, eight states have attempted to pass legislation restricting access to some forms of birth control.
One Bright Spot: This month the Supreme Court unanimously rejected a suit seeking to roll back FDA approval for the abortion pill mifepristone. Medication abortions make up a lion’s share of abortions in the US.
Centering Pregnancy: New polls show two meaningful shifts in voter sentiment. For huge blocks of Americans, abortion is now the issue that most decides their vote. This is increasingly true of Black Americans, women, Democrats, and voters ages 18-29. Also, a growing number of Americans who previously didn’t consider reproductive rights an important issue, now say it matters to them as they learn more about how the fall of Roe impacts the health and lives of women (Amazingly, many are for the first time learning facts about how menstruation, conception, fetal development work! Maybe they can teach the politicians…) Currently, nearly 1 in 3 registered voters say they will only vote for a candidate who shares their views on abortion – and about 23% of registered voters say they’ll only vote for pro-choice candidates. This is a record high.
What’s Next? A group of reproductive rights advocacy groups that includes Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights has formed a coalition called Abortion Access Now. They are pledging to spend $100 million over the next 10 years to get pro-choice policies back on the books.
Extreme Weather: Over 1,000 heat records shattered this past week as a heat wave baked the Northern Hemisphere, killing 1,300 people in Mecca alone. Stifling temperatures are expected to continue in much of the US this week, as well as other extreme weather. Intense flooding in the Midwest caused a railroad bridge between Iowa and South Dakota to collapse. Wildfires continue to rage in New Mexico (and new data shows extreme wildfires have been on the rise for years thanks to climate change).
LA Protests Get Violent: On Sunday, pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the entrance to a synagogue in a Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles. We don’t have all the details but we know that violence broke out, and we’ve seen social media footage showing protesters beating a Jewish woman on the ground. Some of the protesters had their faces covered, and the LAPD, armed in riot gear, arrested two people on battery charges and another for carrying a spiked post. The New York Times and CNN reported that the protest and assault have been “condemned as” or “criticized as” antisemitic by others. Huh? It’s disturbing that these major media outlets cannot themselves name antisemitism. In the US we have a proud tradition of protest. If you want to protest the actions of the Israeli government, the appropriate venue to do so is at an Israeli consulate — not a synagogue — no matter the issue. (Ironically, this violence happened not far from the Museum of Tolerance in LA.) President Biden tweeted, “Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American.” Gov. Gavin Newsom said “antisemitic hatred has no place in California,” and Mayor Karen Bass called the violence “abhorrent.”
Prosecutors Urge Boeing Charges: After an investigation, federal prosecutors are recommending the DOJ bring criminal charges against Boeing, the embattled aerospace manufacturer that’s had a string of high-profile safety failures – not to mention PR nightmares – since January. In 2021, Boeing settled a suit with the families of victims of two fatal plane crashes, agreeing to a $2.5 billion payout and strict safety and compliance standards in exchange for criminal charges to be dropped after three years. The recent investigation found Boeing didn’t comply with the terms of the agreement.
Here’s some news that doesn’t suck:
Alien Intelligence? A new study suggests seven stars in the Milky Way might show signs of intelligent alien technology. Using data from multiple telescopes that detect infrared light, astronomers looked at 5 million stars and identified a handful that have an unusual infrared glow. This is a potential indication of a “Dyson sphere,” which would indicate super-intelligent alien life. If you’re not familiar with the concept, think of a Dyson sphere as a shell (or more likely, a swarm) of mirrors or solar panels large enough to surround an entire star. Scientists – and science fiction writers – here on Earth theorize that an advanced alien civilization could build a Dyson sphere around their own sun and use it to harness all that energy. That would generate an extraordinary amount of power that could even enable interstellar travel. But before you put on your tin foil hats, be warned – some scientists have a less-exciting explanation. They theorize that the infrared glow around the stars might just be caused by Hot DOGs (that is, Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies) instead. Basically, the infrared glow around these stars might be a false alarm caused by dense dust clouds shrouding their entire galaxies. This sort of dust interferes with the transmission of starlight, emitting the same sort of infrared signature you might expect from a Dyson sphere – but with a far less exciting cause. Whether it’s alien life or hot dogs, we’re not seeing a downside.
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