Firebombing over Supreme Court Leak, Opioid Overdose Deaths Reach COVID Levels, Women in Afghanistan Under House Arrest (The Five for 05/11/22)
Hey,
Welcome to The Five.
Apologies, this one is a day late.
Check back Friday for Culture & Commentary…and now let’s dive into the news.
[one]
Protests at the homes of Supreme Court Justices contineu
While protests around the country have largely peaceful, law enforcement officials in the nation’s capital have been bracing for potential security risks. Last week, an 8-foot-tall, non-scalable fence was installed around parts of the Supreme Court building, and crews set up concrete Jersey barriers blocking the street in front of the court – a sign that officials are worried that protests, which have so far been peaceful, could turn less so.
Law enforcement officials from the National Fusion Center Association hosted a call Wednesday last with roughly 150 participants to alert state and local partners about demonstrations nationwide that have resulted in some physical confrontations, other possible demonstrations and the uptick of social media chatter, according to sources familiar with the call.
The office of a conservative political organization that lobbies against abortion rights was vandalized and damaged by fire on Sunday morning in Madison, Wisconsin, in what police are investigating as arson.
As a way to gauge the national temperature, a journalist for Rewire News Group seemingly approved the fire bombing in Madison, WI and called for more domestic terrorism.
After the unrest in 2020, which left at at least 25 civilians dead and caused $1 billion in damages, it’s easy to become desensitized to statements like this…but make no mistake, calls for violence from a national outlet reporter and “blue check” on Twitter are new ground here.
I had the same conversation with people on the political right who were kinda-sorta supportive of the January 6th riots, and now the political left needs to hear it too.
Do not call for political violence unless you’re so committed to the cause that you’re willing to see your own spouse/child/best friend/sibling laying dead on the street.
Remember, the last major incident where someone used a bomb to communicate a political idea as in Oklahoma City in 1995, when Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols killed 168 innocent civilians, including 19 children.
If anyone in your life is calling for violence rather than democracy as a means of problem solving…I suggest you show them this photo from the Oklahoma City bombing and ask if they’re that committed to the cause.
[two]
Government action to increase the domestic supply of baby formula could be on the way, as pressure on the Biden Administration is increasing as parents of newborns and babies desperately search for the short supply of available formula.
A national shortage of baby formula is the latest challenge facing President Biden.
The White House is already managing the highest inflation rate in decades, a war in Ukraine triggered by Russia’s invasion, a lingering pandemic and sky-high gas prices. There’s also the likelihood that the Supreme Court this summer will strike down the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
Now it can deal with panic over the baby formula shortage, which is causing consternation from coast to coast. The Food and Drug Administration is working to fix it.
“Like we didn’t have enough problems,” one Biden ally quipped in an interview on Tuesday. “Sure, throw in baby formula.”
Biden has had his hands full with short-term, medium-term and long-term problems, many of them related.
The baby formula shortage is being exacerbated by supply chain problems that also have caused inflation to rise. Biden in a White House speech on Tuesday identified inflation, which is making the midterm landscape for Democrats bleaker by the day, as his top issue.
[three]
The new Taliban government, which seized control of the country within hours of the U.S. troop withdrawal, is now essentially imprisoning women in their homes, and demanding head-to-toe coverings be worn in public.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on May 7 ordered all Afghan women to wear head-to-toe clothing in public — a sharp, hard-line pivot that confirmed the worst fears of rights activists and was bound to further complicate Taliban dealings with an already distrustful international community.
The decree says that women should leave the home only when necessary and that male relatives would face punishment — starting with a summons and escalating up to court hearings and jail time — for women's dress code violations.
[four]
Drug overdoses are at an all time high, due in large part to a bootlegged version of the powerful opioid Fentanyl.
The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics figures released Wednesday show a record 107,622 drug overdose deaths in 2021, a 14.9% increase from 93,655 overdose deaths the year before.
Though the numbers are subject to change as medical examiners finish death investigations and report all cases nationwide, experts say the figures underscore the powerful and dangerous reach of predominately illicit drugs and drug combinations.
While prescription painkillers and heroin drove the nation's overdose epidemic last decade, the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl is now responsible for most overdose deaths. Overdose deaths from fentanyl climbed to 71,238 last year from 57,834 in 2020, according to the CDC.
Illicit versions of fentanyl have increasingly been manufactured in clandestine labs overseas, sold on the black market and mixed with other street drugs. The street version is different from legal fentanyl, a powerful pain medicine vetted by the Food and Drug Administration and prescribed in medical settings to treat intense pain in cancer patients.
Drug overdose deaths since 1999 are roughly equal to COVID deaths, which are have been rapidly dropping in 2022.
However, the overdose epidemic has received substantially less attention and funding for treatment, recovery and prevention.
[five]
Part of Western Europe is experiencing power interruptions, after Ukraine cut off a natural gas pipeline.
Ukraine shut down a pipeline Wednesday that carries Russian natural gas to homes and industries in Western Europe, while a Kremlin-installed official in a southern region seized by Russian troops said the area will ask Moscow to annex it.
The immediate effect of the energy cutoff is likely to be limited, in part because Russia can divert the gas to another pipeline and because Europe relies on a variety of suppliers. But it marked the first time since the start of the war that Ukraine disrupted the flow westward of one of Moscow’s most lucrative exports.
Meanwhile, the talk of annexation in Kherson — and Russia’s apparent willingness to consider such a request — raised the possibility that the Kremlin will seek to break off another piece of Ukraine as it tries to salvage an invasion gone awry. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
With the exception of accepting refugees, most of Western Europe has been untouched by the war in Eastern Europe, so it’s possible the power shutoff could change the dynamics in international relations.
Until the next one,
-sth