https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/poverty-america-2021-covid-pandemic/?utm_campaign=frontline&utm_content=1640190846&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

When it comes to tracking how poverty impacts American families, and especially children, estimates for 2021 reveal something noteworthy.

Pandemic-era benefits may have helped drive poverty in 2021 lower than in 2020, according to researchers at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty & Social Policy and at the nonprofit Urban Institute. By one measure, last year was already a notable low, with the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 supplemental poverty rate — which factors in families’ expenses, as well as government assistance like stimulus checks — falling to its lowest since the estimate was first published, in 2009.

FRONTLINE has been documenting how poverty impacts families — and especially children — for several years, including in the documentaries Poor Kids (2017) and Growing Up Poor in America (2020).

The Census Bureau’s annual poverty figures for 2021 won’t be available until well into next year. While researchers estimated that poverty declined in 2021, they cautioned that the trend could be temporary, with many pandemic-era benefits ending. So where does that leave American families now?

https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-qanon-cult-members-are-drinking-toxic-chemicals-en-masse-13038506

The family of a Dallas' QAnon cult member is sounding the alarm.

Multiple members of the Leek family confirmed that their relative, who left her husband and children behind in Delaware to follow a fringe QAnon cult leader to Dallas last month, has been drinking a chemical cocktail containing chlorine dioxide, an industrial disinfectant, among other substances.

Their relative has been drinking this cocktail alongside her fellow cult members and has been the one to mix it up and distribute it amongst the group as well, says family, who have declined to reveal the name of their relative in the group.

"She was proud to tell us that she was the one mixing it up and giving it to everybody," a family member said.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/279903/garlic-brown-sugar-chicken-thighs/

8 each bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 pinch salt and ground black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
4 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried basil


Step 1
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, skin-side down, and sear until brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove chicken to a plate.

Melt remaining butter in the skillet. Add garlic; cook and stir until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in brown sugar, honey, oregano, thyme, and basil until well combined. Return chicken to the skillet.

Bake in the preheated oven until chicken is no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear, 25 to 30 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted near the bone should read 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/january-6-insurrection-trump-coup-2024-election/620843/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Technically, the next attempt to overthrow a national election may not qualify as a coup. It will rely on subversion more than violence, although each will have its place. If the plot succeeds, the ballots cast by American voters will not decide the presidency in 2024. Thousands of votes will be thrown away, or millions, to produce the required effect. The winner will be declared the loser. The loser will be certified president-elect.

The prospect of this democratic collapse is not remote. People with the motive to make it happen are manufacturing the means. Given the opportunity, they will act. They are acting already.

Who or what will safeguard our constitutional order is not apparent today. It is not even apparent who will try. Democrats, big and small D, are not behaving as if they believe the threat is real. Some of them, including President Joe Biden, have taken passing rhetorical notice, but their attention wanders. They are making a grievous mistake.


“The democratic emergency is already here,” Richard L. Hasen, a professor of law and political science at UC Irvine, told me in late October. Hasen prides himself on a judicious temperament. Only a year ago he was cautioning me against hyperbole. Now he speaks matter-of-factly about the death of our body politic. “We face a serious risk that American democracy as we know it will come to an end in 2024,” he said, “but urgent action is not happening.”