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Hostile to our Democracy: Why the authoritarian attacks on Voting Rights are racially motivated

The Republican Party’s assault on constitutional democracy continues unabated. Over 20 restrictive voting laws have already been enacted this year (the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights Roundup is an indispensable resource for monitoring ongoing developments). And in the past two weeks two further Republican body blows were delivered to democratic equality. First, on June 22 Senate Republicans exploited archaic Senate filibuster rules to obstruct the For the People Act from even being discussed on the Senate floor. Then on July 1 the Supreme Court’s six conservative Justices ruled in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee et al to uphold recently-passed Arizona...

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Pandemic of the Unvaccinated: America grapples with skyrocketing deaths after spread of misinformation

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, told reporters on July 16 that the seven-day average of COVID-19 cases has jumped almost 70 percent in the prior week. The United States reported more than 33,000 new cases on July 16. Hospital admissions have jumped about 36% over the same period, to about 2,790 a day. And, after dropping for weeks, the seven-day average of deaths per day has also increased, rising 26% to 211 deaths per day. Walensky called it “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Fully vaccinated individuals can still get Covid-19, but...

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What the Future will bring: America faces the most significant test of its democracy since the Civil War

“Are you on the side of truth or lies; fact or fiction; justice or injustice; democracy or autocracy?” – President Joe Biden In a speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on July 13, President Joe Biden asked his audience to take a stand as he called defending the right to vote in America, “a test of our time.” Biden explained that the 2020 election has been examined and reexamined and that “no other election has ever been held under such scrutiny and such high standards.” The Big Lie that Trump won is just that, he said: a...

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Trump’s Big Lie: Research shows the corrosive power of his unsubstantiated stolen election claims

Republicans across the country have embraced a similar refrain as they push for new restrictions on voting. A significant chunk of the American electorate doesn’t have confidence in the results of the 2020 election, they argue, so new laws to restore “integrity” to elections are needed. There is no evidence of widespread fraud or other irregularities in the November 2020 election, which officials said was the “most secure” in American history. Nonetheless, public opinion polls regarding the integrity of the 2020 vote are alarming. Nearly a third of Americans believe Joe Biden won the presidency due to voter fraud,...

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Two Americas: Why the national division has shifted to the Vaccinated and Unvaccinated

News broke on July 13 that, under pressure from Republican leaders, Republican-dominated Tennessee will no longer conduct vaccine outreach for minors. Only 38% of people in Tennessee are vaccinated, and yet the state Department of Health will no longer reach out to urge minors to get vaccinated. The change affects not only vaccines for the coronavirus, but also all other routine vaccines. On July 12, Tennessee’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tim Jones sent an email to staff saying there should be “no proactive outreach regarding routine vaccines” and “no outreach whatsoever regarding the HPV vaccine.” The HPV vaccine protects...

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HHS awards Milwaukee $4M to fight COVID-19 and improve health literacy among minority communities

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) awarded $4 million to the City of Milwaukee’s Office of African American Affairs. The funding is a part of a $250 million two-year initiative to identify and implement best practices for improving health literacy to enhance COVID-19 vaccination and other mitigation practices among underserved populations. The Advancing Health Literacy (AHL) to Enhance Equitable Community Responses to COVID-19 initiative is part of the Biden/Harris Administration’s National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness. “The Advancing Health Literacy initiative is a vital part of the HHS...

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