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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Chicago’s Unlikeliest Mayor, Brandon Johnson</strong> - The former union organizer makes the leap from protest to politics. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/chicagos-unlikeliest-mayor-brandon-johnson">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Vanishing Acts of Vladimir Putin</strong> - One of the seeming paradoxes of the Russian President is the degree to which he is at once a unitary micromanager and an absent, aloof, and often indecisive leader. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-vanishing-acts-of-vladimir-putin">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What Bluesky Tells Us About the Future of Social Media</strong> - The new platform aims to be a decentralized alternative to Twitter. The vibe there is mostly like that of a Portland coffee shop. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-bluesky-tells-us-about-the-future-of-social-media">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Don’t Believe Donald Trump: A Failure to Raise the Debt Ceiling Would Be Disastrous</strong> - The ex-President’s intervention has made a fraught situation even more complicated. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/dont-believe-donald-trump-a-failure-to-raise-the-debt-ceiling-would-be-disastrous">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>W.G.A. Strike: Why Your Favorite Shows Could Go Dark</strong> - Michael Schulman talks with Laura Jacqmin, a veteran TV writer and a Writers Guild strike captain. Plus, the comedian and essayist Samantha Irby in conversation with Doreen St. Félix. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/wga-strike-why-your-favorite-shows-could-go-dark">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<li><strong>How companies sell you on the promise of “community”</strong> -
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<img alt="Illustration of isolated groups of people connected by glowing lines." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7O4hIAlS4hb9DXD7bn8MHqlfgmk=/119x0:2004x1414/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72287667/GettyImages_1290986638.0.jpg"/>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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American life is hostile to community building, but we’re more desperate for it than ever.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CAElxM">
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In early May, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/05/03/new-surgeon-general-advisory-raises-alarm-about-devastating-impact-epidemic-loneliness-isolation-united-states.html">announced</a> an advisory for the public health crisis of loneliness and social isolation in the US. For the past three years, it’s been one of the defining experiences of American life: Shut inside during the pandemic, we’ve emerged into an even more antisocial society, one in which health care is still only <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/4/10/21207520/coronavirus-deaths-economy-layoffs-inequality-covid-pandemic">afforded to the rich</a>, one where working mothers are <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22605612/working-mothers-pandemic-childcare-ideal-parent-worker-remote">under ever-greater pressure</a>, where <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/23700519/writers-strike-ai-2023-wga">non-sentient technology is prioritized</a> over the human labor it depends on.
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When people ask how to get involved in their communities or make new friends, the typical response is something like this: Join a club! Take a class! Hang out at cafes or bars and strike up conversations! The problem with that advice isn’t that it doesn’t work, it’s that the idea of “community” in modern life is usually tied to something that costs money — a lot of it. In an age of declining religious affiliation, more <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/10/17801164/crossfit-soulcycle-religion-church-millennials-casper-ter-kuile">people are turning to, say, pricey fitness classes</a> as a means of fostering relationships, leading to what one researcher refers to as the “privatization of community.”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cUbTQi">
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Harvard Kennedy School Fellow Sam Pressler studies the ways in which financial, geographic, and cultural shifts have replaced previously accessible spaces and institutions with inaccessible, expensive ones. In neighborhoods full of college-educated people with disposable income, this leads to lots of pay-to-play activities that offer the promise of community for a price, like SoulCycle, pottery studios, and pricey cafés and bars. Poor neighborhoods tend not to have such amenities, nor do they have affordable, accessible “third places,” leading to stark divides in the social connectedness of the rich and the isolation of the poor.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hExT8C">
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In our interview, we discuss how issues like loneliness and civil participation actually begin at birth, why there’s such a decline in third places, and the smartphones of it all.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iwFYDP">
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<strong>How did you first become interested in the privatization of communities?</strong>
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I’m not a traditional academic: I spent my six years after undergrad building a nonprofit called the Armed Services Arts Partnership, or ASAP. We work with veterans and the military community and reconnect them to a sense of belonging, purpose, and translatable skills in civilian life through community-based arts, programming classes, workshops, performances. The veteran space gets a lot of funding to meet the needs of purpose and belonging because we [view] veterans as a class of citizens deserving of that investment.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xDnUkm">
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But all these issues are not just veterans’ issues. They may be a little bit more acute because of the abruptness of the military transition, but these are very much human issues that other people in American life are experiencing. So after I handed that organization off, I took a graduate fellowship at Harvard, where I researched this topic.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VpVd7u">
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<strong>What are some of the structural reasons we have so many more privatized communities than we used to?</strong>
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One is the decline of institutions that provide meaning and relationships in life: religion, secular civil society, unions. People who live in more distressed places tend to have weaker institutions, and a lot of the accessible institutions and experiences of American life have been replaced by those that have higher barriers to entry, whether that’s geographically, culturally, or financially. You can apply that to every stage of life.
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The kind of associational life of the mid-20th century had its flaws, but <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community/dp/0743203046">Robert Putnam’s research</a> seems to indicate that organizations like the Lion’s Club, 4H, or YMCA were fairly cross-class communities. <a href="https://prospect.org/special-report/narrowing-civic-life/">Theda Skocpol in particular</a> describes the process of how the highest-socioeconomic status people began pulling away from those institutions in the latter half of the 20th century as we begin to live in increasingly sorted regions and neighborhoods. Over the past half-century, the <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/sites/all/files/logan/logan_diversity_chapter7.pdf">proportion of families</a> living in poor or affluent neighborhoods doubled while the proportion living in middle-income neighborhoods declined by more than one-third. This increasing geographic isolation of the well-off means that a growing proportion of society’s resources are concentrated in a shrinking proportion of its neighborhoods.
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<aside id="JB1WNQ">
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<q>A growing proportion of society’s resources are concentrated in a shrinking proportion of its neighborhoods</q>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NS036H">
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<strong>Where does that leave us? How are these shifts affecting us on a societal level?</strong>
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</p>
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There is a cumulative and compounding disadvantage that occurs among people with lower socioeconomic status and the children of people without degrees. In childhood, we have the residential sorting of our schools (if you go to school in Palo Alto, you basically have to afford a $3 million or $4 million home). Schools in our sorted, high-income neighborhoods have become exclusive, but then school activities have become pay-to-play. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Our-Kids-American-Dream-Crisis/dp/1476769907">Robert Putnam has</a> great research on when activities become pay-to-play — like travel sports teams and extracurriculars — it’s lower socioeconomic status people who stopped participating in those activities. One study he cites found that, prior to the institution of fees for sports, roughly half of all kids were playing sports. When fees were introduced, one in three athletes from homes with annual incomes of $60,000 or less dropped out due to the increased cost, compared to one in 10 athletes from families with incomes of over $60,000. You’re cultivating habits of social connection, and if there’s not easy access to a Boys and Girls Club or whatever it may be, they’re losing that attachment to institutions and also the social connections that come with it.
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The adult transition is really interesting. In American life, it really started after World War II when all these young men were called to serve and were having a shared experience across class and connected to an institution. By 1960, 40 percent of men over age 18, and <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/demo/acs-43.pdf.">the vast majority of men</a> in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, had military experience. We created the GI Bill after World War II as a means of broadening access to college beyond just the aristocratic. </p>
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But in a kind of perverse way, college has now become the replacement for that adult transition experience. College, particularly, is reserved for mostly selective four-year schools, and it’s mostly for the top 20 percent of earners’ children. <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/dream-hoarders/">Approximately 50 percent</a> of students at the most selective colleges (480 schools) come from the top quintile of earning families, and among “Ivy-plus” colleges, <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w23618/w23618.pdf">more students come from families</a> in the top 1 percent of the income distribution (14.5 percent) than the bottom half of the income distribution (13.5 percent). We took this cross-class experience for men and replaced it with one that is pretty sorted by class and mostly reserved for the most well-off kids. In college, you build your social networks, you foster habits of attachment, and it follows you afterward. We don’t have an alternative pathway in American life for people who don’t go to college, so if you just enter the workforce, you don’t have that institutional [backing].
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When we get to adulthood, this is where we see neighborhoods that are sorted by class, where the “third places” are maybe a nice coffee shop or maybe it’s Soho House, where you have to pay $200 a month to be a member. A lot of adult activities have become very much tied to your socioeconomic status. Going to CrossFit could cost $250 a month, or SoulCycle founded this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/07/style/self-care/soulcycle-peoplehood.html">idea of “peoplehood”</a> and making friends while using the SoulCycle revenue model. You get to the point in adulthood where all these things are compounded, and <a href="https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/the-college-connection-the-education-divide-in-american-social-and-community-life/">folks without college degrees or of lower socioeconomic status</a> generally are not participating in community as much. They have much <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/02/22/americans-with-higher-education-and-income-are-more-likely-to-be-involved-in-community-groups/">lower levels of friendships</a> and social connections than those with degrees.
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<strong>Third places are so much more difficult to find now, and the ones that do exist, as pointed out in </strong><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/04/third-places-meet-new-people-pandemic/629468/"><strong>this piece in the Atlantic</strong></a><strong>, are often “either too expensive for the average American or apparently designed to disincentivize lingering.” The examples the author gives are like, faux dive bars that are secretly really expensive or corporatized public spaces like the High Line where you’re encouraged to move quickly through them. How are these kinds of not-really third places affecting communities?</strong>
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There’s good research from this guy named Dan Cox at the Survey Center on American Life that shows that people who actively go to a third place, whether that’s a public third place like a park or a more private third place like a coffee shop, tend to have higher levels of social connectedness and lower levels of loneliness.
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<aside id="lieL3M">
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<q>A lot of adult activities have have become tied to your socioeconomic status</q>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KPOamQ">
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From a very clear social interaction perspective, [third places] are super important. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/557044/palaces-for-the-people-by-eric-klinenberg/">Eric Klinenberg’s book <em>Palaces for the People</em></a> talks about the role of parks and libraries that are open to everyone and have the incentive of serving the public. A lot of the cool third places that I’ve seen oftentimes are tied to religious groups, like coffee shops that are open to all but tied to a church. Homeboy Industries is a good example in LA of a third place run by former gang members and meant to be a community hub. There’s an interesting opportunity from the public perspective of, like, libraries doing yoga programs, workforce development programs. There are definitely examples out there, but to run a coffee shop in Palo Alto, California, which is where I am right now, it’s like, your real estate costs are so expensive that the type of people who are gonna go there are only young people who have the disposable income to spend $6 on that drink.
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<strong>From what you’ve said, it seems like those people are the least in need of this kind of community.</strong>
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In these places, there’s a number of fitness classes you can participate in, there’s a number of arts programs, like improv class, you could pay $250 for it. You have this clustering of opportunities for participation in some places, and then in others, you have civil society deserts.
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<strong>Something that I think a lot about, which feels somewhat related, is how young people are </strong><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/04/american-teens-sadness-depression-anxiety/629524/"><strong>more depressed</strong></a><strong> and </strong><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3n5aj/loneliness-epidemic-young-people"><strong>lonelier than ever</strong></a><strong>, and how much of it </strong><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/teens-loneliness-smart-phones/2021/07/20/cde8c866-e84e-11eb-8950-d73b3e93ff7f_story.html"><strong>has to do with smartphones</strong></a><strong>. I tend to believe that when you have a facsimile of community on your phone, you’re less likely to seek it out in public spaces, or rather, it gives you an excuse to stay home and not participate in society. Is there a link between that and socioeconomic class as well?</strong>
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<a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-10-367.">There</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-88.">is</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2020.106357.">really</a> <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/research/report/2019-census-8-to-18-full-report-updated.pdf.">good</a> data on screen time spent across different devices between lower socioeconomic status kids and higher socioeconomic status kids. What you see are the lower socioeconomic status kids who are not participating in real-life community or extracurriculars as much are spending way more time in front of screens. That’s research that’s been going on for decades — it used to be TV, now it’s phones and video games. But that has held as technology has changed. The more recent research that’s coming out around the issue of social media is with the comparisons. And then if you’re not on social media, then you feel left out, so it’s a double-edged sword.
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The key point that comes across from the research I’ve done is really thinking about this as a life course issue. Not just a one-phase-of-life issue, which I think is oftentimes how it’s framed. But really, there are compounding cumulative disadvantages that happen at each stage of life, and your disadvantage in childhood makes you less likely to be able to have the attachments and the social connections after your transition, which then makes you less likely to have the attachments and social connections in adulthood. There are a lot of contributing factors to isolation and loneliness, but social isolation looks largely to be by class lines. This is a big issue and there is no one right answer to address it, but part of it is nudging our culture away from individualism and toward collectivism. I’m not saying full collectivism — there are huge dangers in collectivism — but nudging a little bit toward collectivism, and fostering this type of cross-class engagement. We all lose something when we’re not engaging across differences, be it racial difference or class difference.
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<strong>Have you been finding any cool ways that people are developing cross-class sections of community?</strong>
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<a href="https://www.pcsquash.com/.">There’s a great guy in Portland, Maine </a>who used squash as a hook to intentionally build a cross-class community, starting with squash programming as an accessible extracurricular activity for youth, then building adult programming around it. We can look at what the veteran community has done over the last 20 years, where a lot of the post-9/11 veterans said that instead of going to the VFW and sitting around drinking, they want to be active and involved in their community, be it service through groups like The Mission Continues or physical activity through groups like Team Red, White, and Blue. The military is one of the few cross-class institutions left in American life.
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<q>We all lose something when we’re not engaging across differences, be it racial difference or class difference</q>
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What makes me most hopeful is that I think the conversation has meaningfully shifted in elite circles and national media. I think that’s been a result of the pandemic: You had people who typically were very active in their community and had a lot of connections not being able to do that and realizing how that feels. I also think there’s the role played by Trump’s election. If we have large parts of the country where people are disconnected from community and from other people, that could be fertile ground for more authoritarian impulses.
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As a result, you’re seeing things like the Surgeon General’s advisory on loneliness and social isolation, which I think is really meaningfully advancing the conversation. You’re seeing more philanthropic groups focused on this issue. There may never be enough, but people are taking it seriously as an issue. When I was first starting my organization, people would say, “You either need to do direct mental health services or direct employment.” We have to understand that community is the connective tissue between those things and your mental health and your ability to retain a job. If you don’t have a supportive set of social connections in a supportive community outside of that job or outside your home, you’re going to be worse off. Now it seems like there’s a collective recognition of that, from a policy perspective, from a philanthropic perspective, even from a media perspective. That feels to be a step in the right direction.
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<em>This column was first published in the Vox Culture newsletter. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/pages/newsletters"><em>Sign up here</em></a><em> so you don’t miss the next one, plus get newsletter exclusives. </em>
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</p></li>
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<li><strong>What happened to the GOP’s promises to support women and families after Roe?</strong> -
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<img alt="A protester in a crowd holds up a sign that reads “Abortion is healthcare.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/H977DWtG_ybzTPin7BkUhgCV4VQ=/316x0:3836x2640/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72287619/GettyImages_1241511672.0.jpg"/>
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North Carolina’s new abortion ban exposes the GOP’s failures to shore up government assistance for parents and children.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wm0Mmr">
|
||
Last summer, after the Supreme Court’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/6/24/23181720/supreme-court-dobbs-jackson-womens-health-samuel-alito-roe-wade-abortion-marriage-contraception"><em>Dobbs</em> decision</a> overturned the federal right to have an abortion, much <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/05/roe-v-wade-abortion-republicans-social-safety-net">ink</a> was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/13/1111244809/many-states-have-anti-abortion-laws-will-they-provide-a-social-safety-net-for-mo">spilled</a> on the <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/09/texas-republicans-roe-wade-abortion-adoptions/">possibility</a> that Republicans, eager to pass a new round of abortion bans, would feel compelled at the same time to improve the social safety net to help the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23057032/supreme-court-abortion-rights-roe-v-wade-state-aid">women and children</a> their new laws would affect.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yg6DjE">
|
||
But that spending has largely not materialized. Though nearly 20 states have banned abortion over the past year, experts say few have put meaningful dollars into supporting children and families.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mlyJiz">
|
||
In recent weeks, it might have seemed as though that was changing. In Florida, which passed a six-week abortion ban last month, state legislators <a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/609864-florida-kidcare-expansion-clears-legislature-with-unanimous-support/">voted</a> to expand children’s health insurance and put real money behind those plans. In <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/5/16/23725346/north-carolina-abortion-ban-republicans-roy-cooper">North Carolina</a>, a 12-week abortion ban includes some additional support for children and families — but the provisions are not as generous as they might first appear.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="WEtrVu">
|
||
The two states’ approaches reveal a party struggling to figure out how to tamp down the political backlash that has followed the end of <em>Roe</em>: Are symbolic gestures enough? Or do Republicans really have to get serious about shoring up government assistance for children and families?
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ahWopg">
|
||
North Carolina recently has been the most prominent battleground over abortion rights in America. The state legislature passed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/04/north-carolina-abortion-ban/?utm_campaign=wp_the_health_202&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_health202">a 12-week abortion ban</a>, which was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. Republicans possessed enough seats in the legislature to override Cooper’s veto on Tuesday.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PFThtV">
|
||
In addition to banning abortion after 12 weeks, with some exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the mother, the North Carolina law requires multiple in-person appointments before a person could be prescribed medication for an abortion. It also introduces intrusive reporting requirements, such as mandating that doctors report a patient’s fertility history to the state government after an abortion, including information such as their number of live pregnancies, previous pregnancies, and previous abortions.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3wqtla">
|
||
The law does include some provisions that Republicans say will provide additional support for children and families, including a new paid parental leave policy and increased child care subsidies. These are the kinds of policies that some prognosticators expected post-<em>Dobbs</em>. But both programs have significant holes.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rI4aaq">
|
||
Paid parental leave applies only to state employees, not the private sector. Increasing the state’s child care subsidies for families already receiving them would not alleviate the main problem with accessing child care in North Carolina, as there are already 30,000 children in the state on a waitlist for financial assistance. The law does not do anything to get people off of that waitlist, such as by increasing the number of subsidies available.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iSHW3b">
|
||
“This bill would ban abortion and heavily restrict abortions for North Carolinians and would do very little to advance maternal and child health,” said Rebecca Kreitzer, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina who is following abortion legislation across the country.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eivWQ1">
|
||
The legislation also extends the period in which new parents can give up an unwanted child confidentially and without fear of prosecution — known as a safe surrender law — keeping with a trend of conservative states shoring up support for adoption in lieu of expanding the welfare state.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tSZG1o">
|
||
That follows the pattern in the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/06/25/abortion-illegal-7-states-more-bans-coming">nearly 20 states</a> that have moved to ban or heavily restrict abortion since the <em>Dobbs</em> decision. States have either skipped any expansion of the safety net while advancing those bills or they have only made symbolic gestures, Kreitzer said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kuVyCu">
|
||
In some states, legislators have stuck to policies more traditionally favored by conservatives, such as tax credits for donations to crisis pregnancy centers or additional funding for adoption agencies. Some states, including Wyoming, have <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gop-legislators-trying-pro-life-not-just-anti-abortion/">extended their postpartum Medicaid benefits</a>, but those efforts have <a href="https://www.kpcw.org/local-news/2021-03-04/utah-bill-that-would-have-expanded-medicaid-for-new-mothers-falls-short">failed</a> in other states like Utah, and some, such as Missouri, have put <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/03/03/postpartum-medicaid-extension-clears-missouri-senate-with-anti-abortion-amendment/">restrictions</a> on who qualifies for the additional support.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KySxHj">
|
||
The bottom line is, there has decidedly not been an extensive expansion of social welfare programs in states where abortion is now largely illegal, and North Carolina — despite gesturing in that direction — is following the same pattern.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LxuA5I">
|
||
“These bills being introduced and passed are symbolically doing things to advance women’s and children’s health but are not going to substantively have an impact,” Kreitzer said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="m0iS76">
|
||
Florida actually has expanded its welfare state
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VxnQSJ">
|
||
There may be one exception to this: Florida’s recent expansion of its children’s health insurance program. That bill, which passed last week, less than a month after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban, is perhaps the most substantial expansion of the welfare state that passed soon after new restrictions on abortion went into effect.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7cy3f9">
|
||
The legislation, which is now heading to DeSantis’s desk, would extend eligibility for low-cost health insurance from 200 percent of the federal poverty level to 300 percent (about $69,000 for a family of three). It was the first expansion of the program, called KidCare, in 25 years. It passed through the state legislature unanimously.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yZwYT9">
|
||
The bill also set aside about $100 million to initially fund the expansion and to increase reimbursement rates to doctors and other medical providers so they would be more likely to accept the program’s coverage at their practices.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jQw8Pv">
|
||
There have been some concerns about the premiums that families will be required to pay; the state will set those rates at a later date. But “in general, it’s a good thing,” Joan Alker at the Georgetown Center for Children and Families told me.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TQnkZQ">
|
||
Unlike the North Carolina bill, the expansion of KidCare was not explicitly linked to the abortion ban. But they were moving in tandem through the state legislature; one House committee considered the abortion ban and the health insurance legislation <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/florida-republicans-abortion-ban-1234706628/">back to back</a>. House leaders also <a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/603290-legislatures-passage-of-6-week-abortion-ban-celebrated-slammed/">touted</a> their plans to expand government support for new mothers as they celebrated the passage of the six-week abortion ban.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iLb8Ip">
|
||
DeSantis is expected to be the most viable challenger to former president Donald Trump in the Republican primary and, in general, he is <a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/7456/Who-will-win-the-2024-US-presidential-election">regarded</a> as the elected official with the next-best odds of being the next president, behind Trump and President Joe Biden.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GxNlXG">
|
||
But to get elected, he’ll need to court social conservatives, which the six-week abortion ban helps to do, without alienating more moderate voters who will be critical to the general election. An expansion of health insurance for kids would be one way for DeSantis to make that case.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VfMlTa">
|
||
It remains to be seen whether that calculus works out for DeSantis; polling <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/13/florida-house-passes-six-week-abortion-ban-backed-by-desantis.html">suggests</a> Florida’s six-week ban is not popular in the state. But pairing stricter abortion rules with a more meaningful expansion of the welfare state could, in theory, provide a path through the <em>Dobbs</em> backlash, which has already contributed to the party’s poor showing in the 2022 midterm elections.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CnG2wq">
|
||
Republicans across the country find themselves in uncomfortable political territory as they attempt to deliver on their decades-long promises to roll back abortion rights. In South Carolina, new proposed abortion restrictions have been tripped up <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/07/us/south-carolina-abortion-ban.html">by the objections of Republican women in the legislature</a>. Nebraska’s proposed abortion ban has likewise <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-transgender-ban-nebraska-filibuster-94f1e637e2d9034f608c793bf929e888">been stymied so far by a holdout Republican lawmaker</a>. In North Carolina, the legislature <a href="https://www.wral.com/story/nc-house-republicans-scrap-rule-on-veto-override-votes/20667372/">has altered</a> its rules so that veto overrides can be brought up for a vote without any notice — a parliamentary maneuver that, in Kreitzer’s eyes, reveals the leadership’s discomfort with a drawn-out debate.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sqeqNT">
|
||
“Republicans knew that if they took the time to really debate it, it might not pass,” she said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uRKGqa">
|
||
In general, conservatives seem to be operating with a sense of impending political doom, facing a stark reality that many voters aren’t as comfortable with going as far as Republicans had long promised they would.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Li46ZA">
|
||
But rather than lower their ambitions — or, with the exception of Florida, try to ameliorate the backlash by meaningfully expanding the social safety net — they seem intent on pushing new restrictions through while they have the chance.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AoPr24">
|
||
“The urgency to pass this, to pass drag bans, to pass these cultural war things, the writing on the wall is indicating that things are moving in the other direction,” Kreitzer said. “Future elections might not go their way.”
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>It’s not just climate disasters. “Normal” weather is getting weirder, too.</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="A parked SUV in water above its wheels. An airport and planes are in the background." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uXqH8ZkUpr7P8EvFYofj1K609JE=/0x0:4444x3333/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72287558/GettyImages_1252164021.0.jpeg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
The torrential rainfall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in April came amid the state’s hottest year on record. | Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Why you should keep tabs on the subtle changes in weather, not just extremes.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="foCA9a">
|
||
It’s been a strange few weeks for weather across the US.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jEQiVm">
|
||
A <a href="https://www.wsiltv.com/news/top-stories/seventh-and-final-victim-identified-in-72-vehicle-i-55-dust-storm-crash-in-illinois/article_fee0cdb8-f028-11ed-a661-3be2fdc30e97.html">dust storm in Illinois</a> earlier this month led to a 72-vehicle pileup that killed seven people. In April, more than 25 inches of rain — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/04/14/florida-fort-lauderdale-flooding/">88 billion gallons</a> — drenched Fort Lauderdale, Florida. <a href="https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/wisconsin-wildfires-red-flag-warning-extreme-fire-danger/89-2a35e6a8-d78b-4ac7-af26-a2cd3989769f">Wisconsin declared an emergency</a> as more than 80 wildfires ignited amid hot temperatures, low humidity, and high winds. A three-day storm caused floods and set <a href="https://kdvr.com/weather/wx-news/denver-rainfall-records-set-during-3-day-storm/">new rainfall records</a> in Denver, Colorado. Just this past weekend, a <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/05/15/pacific-northwest-heat-wave-seattle-oregon-canada-records">historic heat wave</a> baked the Pacific Northwest, more than a month before summer officially starts.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zbk6pi">
|
||
There is a lot of natural variability in weather, and oddly timed or extreme events have occurred in the past. However, average temperatures are rising around the world, altering the odds of mixing the right raw ingredients behind early heat waves, sudden downpours, and expanding fire seasons. In some cases, they will become more frequent or more extreme.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9QtR3M">
|
||
“Often these are happening on a background of a changing normal, a changing baseline,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/barb-mayes-boustead-3819b260/">Barbara Mayes Boustead</a>, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. “As that shifts, we may see events like these more often in the future, and things that might have once been very, very rare become less rare.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Bv2DiI">
|
||
The planet has already warmed by <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature">2 degrees Fahrenheit</a> (1.1 degrees Celsius) on average since the industrial revolution. That change is worsening events like coastal flooding, stemming from rising seas and more extreme rainfall — the kind of catastrophes that grab headlines. “When the average changes, the biggest impact we often see is actually in the extremes,” Boustead said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jeXaiK">
|
||
But the fact that the average itself has moved also has important implications. Climate change is often told as a story of record-breaking disasters that destroy homes, flood the land, and take lives. But outside of the extremes, the weather is undergoing more subtle transformations, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-length-growing-season">extending the length of seasons</a>, drying out some areas, and adding water to others.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uAC0XJ">
|
||
That moving baseline is now starting to change how we grow food, where certain animals live, and is having <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climateimpacts/climate-change-and-human-health">effects on our health</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="F6HDFk">
|
||
The climate is changing faster at local levels
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BlRJTm">
|
||
Extreme weather — severe heat, torrential rainfall, drought, and the like — is usually defined based on historical conditions in a given area, usually the top 10 percent of such events. That means the threshold for what counts as extreme is different based on where you are. A <a href="https://weather.com/news/climate/news/2021-05-25-100-degree-triple-digit-temperatures-average-most-us">100°F summer day in Phoenix, Arizona</a> is mundane, but <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48890556">90°F in Anchorage, Alaska</a> is one for the record books.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UZ1c7H">
|
||
Timing is important too. A sudden burst of rain in the dry season can trigger damaging <a href="https://www.weather.gov/pbz/floods">flash floods</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NF0EHG">
|
||
As global average temperatures rise, events that happened once a century may end up happening every generation or more. And disasters never seen before could recur as the dials get turned up around the world.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b5BoZ1">
|
||
“What feels extreme to us are often those things that don’t happen very often in our lifetime,” Boustead said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kNkZkO">
|
||
But that’s not the whole story. If you zoom into just about any part of the planet you can see that larger movements in average temperature, rainfall, humidity, and so on are already afoot. The Arctic, for instance, has been warming upward of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00498-3">four times as fast</a> as the Earth as a whole.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HRyfKg">
|
||
It’s these local averages that play the dominant role in the kind of weather that emerges. Florida is one of the fastest-warming states and just saw its hottest year to date. “In the last eight or 10 years, the state of Florida has seen a dramatic rise, in average, temperature of over 2 degrees Fahrenheit,” said <a href="https://www.coaps.fsu.edu/david-zierden">David Zierden</a>, Florida’s state climatologist and a researcher at the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies at Florida State University.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="A person rides in the back of a High Water Response vehicle (a pickup truck with very large, high wheels) through a flooded street." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GfyE9dLzn732RpCPadWKW6Xeb98=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24660174/GettyImages_1482217864.jpeg"/> <cite>Joe Raedle/Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Florida has already warmed by at least 2°F over the past decade.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RFpimD">
|
||
And for every 1.8°F increase in temperature, air can hold onto <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-signals/atmospheric-moisture-increase">7 percent more moisture</a>. As a result, hotter air allows storms to dish out more water. The Fort Lauderdale rainstorm fits this pattern.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AK96Lp">
|
||
“It’s very consistent with the theory and what modeling studies are showing us,” Zierden said.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="0yZEWH">
|
||
But part of what made the April downpour in Fort Lauderdale so stunning was that it didn’t spawn from a hurricane. “It was not associated with the tropical storm or tropical system so that made it an interesting event in and of itself,” he added. Nonetheless, it’s likely such events will become more common.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C1jwg1">
|
||
Researchers are also working to quantify just how much burning fossil fuels have made such events worse. It’s part of a new subfield of climate science called <a href="https://www.vox.com/22616968/ipcc-climate-change-report-attribution-extreme-weather-heat-fire">extreme weather attribution</a>. Using models and measurements, they can tease out humanity’s fingerprints on a weather disaster. For example, Hurricane Harvey in 2017 drenched Houston, Texas in a record deluge. Researchers calculated that <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aabb85">warming since 1980</a> added another 20 percent to rain gauges during the storm.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="w0dFuy">
|
||
It will take scientists more time to see how much climate change played a role in some of the recent extreme weather in the US, like the Fort Lauderdale flooding (the attribution study on Hurricane Harvey took eight months).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kmvkRZ">
|
||
The trickier problem is figuring out how much humans are altering the middle of the bell curve of weather events rather than the tails — the sort of weather we experience day in and day out. Here, the natural capriciousness and chaos of weather collide most with the underlying rise in temperatures, and it’s hard to tease out their respective roles in the less severe but still out of the ordinary weather we see.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="klSrbJ">
|
||
“We will always have the interplay of the variability of weather on the background of climate as it is changing,” Boustead said. “We may have a harder time separating it from the other signals that contribute to any given weather event.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="2OqMeH">
|
||
Pay attention to rising minimums
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Yw10Yx">
|
||
With average temperatures rising, the floor is also lifting at the bottom end of the temperature scale. Cold extreme temperatures are becoming less common, but again, outside of the extremes, there are other significant changes underway. Across the US, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/03/09/climate-change-warm-winters-us">winters in general are warming up faster</a> than summers.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="novweB">
|
||
These changes don’t have to trigger catastrophes to have consequences. With fewer days below freezing temperatures, for example, <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/12/20/18136006/climate-change-warmer-winters">more insects can survive into the spring</a>. Bark beetles, combined with an epic drought, have <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/topics/bark-beetles-and-climate-change-united-states">killed millions of trees</a> across the Western US, leaving ample fuel for wildfires. Their range and survival in the winter increased with climate change. The yellow fever mosquito <em>Aedes aegypti, </em>which also carries diseases like dengue and Zika, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9860750/">migrates farther north</a> in the United States as the country warms up. Lyme disease-carrying ticks are moving up to <a href="https://ncceh.ca/environmental-health-in-canada/health-agency-projects/ticks-changing-climate">34 miles north</a> per year into Canada due to warming, particularly in cooler times of the year.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IQrU01">
|
||
Warmer winters also give <a href="https://www.vox.com/22383707/allergies-2021-pollen-allergy-covid-19-climate-change-asthma">pollen-spewing plants a head-start</a>. That’s why allergy seasons get longer and more irritating every year. Higher winter temperatures also mean more precipitation falls as rain instead of snow, which can lead to flooding in the spring followed by drought in the summer rather than a slow release of water from a snowpack. Until this past winter, this trend helped fuel an early burst of vegetation in the Western US that dried out in the summer, contributing to wildfire risk. Even with the epic snowfall this winter in the <a href="https://water.ca.gov/News/News-Releases/2023/April-23/Snow-Survey-April-2023">Sierra Nevada</a>, there is worry that intense summer heat could <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/04/17/californias-historic-wet-winter-risks-making-wildfire-season-even-worse/">create more fuel for fires</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="H3R1jh">
|
||
Rising minimum temperatures can also significantly affect agriculture. <a href="https://environment.uw.edu/faculty/nicholas-bond/">Nicholas Bond</a>, the Washington state climatologist and a research scientist at the University of Washington, explained that nighttime temperatures are generally rising faster than in daylight hours, both in the winter and the summer. That can put stress on crops like corn, cotton, and peanuts, reducing their overall output. Rice, for example, can see a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1161030114001221?via%3Dihub">4.6 percent drop in yield</a> for every 1.8°F increase in nighttime minimum temperature.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<figure class="e-image">
|
||
<img alt="Cotton is seen in a field while farmers harvest the crop from a 140 acre field in Ellis County, near Waxahatchie, Texas, on September 19, 2022." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RrPYZcN8hGmmY4etT7wtcWyunxA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24660177/GettyImages_1243373077.jpeg"/> <cite>Andy Jacobsohn/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Cotton yields decline with rising temperatures, espeically at night.
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fKiRkH">
|
||
The last US <a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/10/">National Climate Assessment</a>, a government report that examines the effects of climate change across the country, warned that “yields from major US commodity crops are expected to decline as a consequence of higher temperatures, especially when these higher temperatures occur during critical periods of reproductive development.” (The next version of the report is due out later this year.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9BhLM8">
|
||
A study last year from the <a href="https://www.edf.org/climate-change-will-slow-us-crop-yield-growth-2030">Environmental Defense Fund</a> found that almost all of Iowa would see corn yields decline by at least 5 percent by 2030. In Minnesota, half the counties in the state would experience soybean declines of at least 5 percent.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YVAc46">
|
||
Higher nighttime temperatures can even reduce the quality of Washington’s prized grapes. “Quality wines need cool nights for the development of acids to give the grapes their flavor and so forth. And so if the nights get too hot — and they’re not there yet — but if they get too hot, then conceivably the quality of those wines go down,” Bond said. “There are no great cabernets that are coming out of Mississippi.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="I7UwUk">
|
||
The most important consequences of these shifts play out for human health. Longer warm seasons increase the chances of severe heat waves occurring earlier. Heat waves that unfold in the early summer or spring <a href="https://www.vox.com/climate/2023/4/14/23677907/spring-summer-heat-climate-change-india-bangladesh-thailand">tend to be deadlier</a> because people aren’t as acclimated to the higher temperatures at that point. Similarly, people living in cooler climates tend to suffer more under unusual heat. A 2021 heat wave across Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/31/pacific-northwest-heat-wave-deaths/10195963002/">killed at least 800 people</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dfP3vq">
|
||
And higher minimum temperatures, especially at night, <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/7/19/20700662/heat-wave-2019-health-new-york-washington">worsen these effects</a>. Without evenings to cool off, people face higher aggregate stress from heat, which can disrupt sleep and worsen underlying heart and lung problems. <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(22)00139-5/fulltext">One study</a> found that a hot night following a hot day could push mortality risk up to 50 percent higher compared to a hot day followed by a cooler night. Rising minimum temperatures also worsen the effects of conditions like <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/2/15/18213988/chronic-kidney-disease-climate-change">kidney stones</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8199586/">multiple sclerosis</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hs2iC6">
|
||
It’s clear then that these slower, less-visible changes in the climate still add up to major disruptions. The consequences are already manifesting now, but the future will grow even warmer and weirder.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EZvZ45">
|
||
The good news is that we can see where these trends are going and take steps to dampen their blows. Better ecological management and restoring natural predators can slow the spread of some invasive species. <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/23553924/california-rain-atmospheric-river-drought-aquifer-reservoir">Improving infrastructure and sound water regulations</a> can help ensure that rags-and-riches rainfall patterns get smoothed out so that enough water is available to everyone throughout the year. <a href="https://www.vox.com/22557563/how-to-redesign-cities-for-heat-waves-climate-change">White roofs and greenspaces</a> can offset some of the warming underway in urban areas. New crop varieties that can withstand drought and resist heat can help bolster the food supply. Greater awareness of the health impacts of heat and <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/23067049/heat-wave-air-conditioning-cooling-india-climate-change">more access to cooling</a> can save lives.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FoUSNQ">
|
||
We also haven’t seen the full extent of warming from the greenhouse gases humanity has already emitted, and temperatures will continue to coast upward for a period even if carbon dioxide pollution suddenly stopped. But unless humanity zeroes out these emissions, the ratchet will continue to tighten in the direction of more warming indefinitely.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nBm6R4">
|
||
So while we may be able to endure and adapt to many of the shifts we can’t avoid, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22951182/climate-change-report-ipcc-un-adaptation-warming">there are limits</a>, so it’s critical to halt humanity’s contributions to warming overall.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qdXu13">
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nn8uQ0">
|
||
</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sudirman Cup badminton tournament | India end campaign with 4-1 win over Australia</strong> - Placed in the ‘group of death’, India had lost 1-4 to Chinese Taipei and 0-5 against Malaysia — two heavyweights of the game — to crash out of the mixed team championship</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IPL 2023: How DJ Zen created magical moments for MS Dhoni with Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan hits</strong> - Chennai Super Kings’ captain Dhoni and his ‘intro’ numbers have been viral hits in IPL 2023</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IPL 2023, RCB vs SRH | Kohli in focus as Bangalore play Hyderabad in must-win game</strong> - RCB are currently in the fifth spot with 12 points from as many games and face two must-win matches to guarantee their play-off spot</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Reigning champs China off to stellar start at Sudirman Cup</strong> - After winning the mixed doubles and men’s singles, hosts China sealed the showdown in the women’s singles where He Bingjiao beat Yeo Jia Min 22-20, 21-15</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Daily Quiz | On La Liga</strong> - FC Barcelona are the 2022-23 Spanish La Liga champions for the 27th time after taking an insurmountable lead on Sunday. Here’s a quiz on La Liga history</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Unchecked pilgrimage, construction in Uttarakhand spell disaster for fragile Himalayas, warn experts</strong> - “On May 4, a mountain crumbled in Helang on the way to Joshimath while road widening was taking place.”</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Man with multiple myeloma treated in a city hospital</strong> - He underwent autologous bone marrow transplant</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Andhra Pradesh CM participates in ‘Poornahuti’ of Mahalakshmi Yagnam</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Tamil Nadu increases dearness allowance for government employees to 42%</strong> -</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>CUET-UG not to make board exams redundant, says UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar</strong> - UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar emphasises that board exams are not likely to be made irrelevant in light of the decline in pass percentage in CBSE class 12 exams this year</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nicolas Sarkozy to wear tag after losing corruption appeal</strong> - France’s former president was sentenced to three years in 2021 for trying to influence a judge.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Italy: F1 race cancelled as deadly floods spark evacuations in Emilia-Romagna area</strong> - About 5,000 people flee their homes in Emilia-Romagna, with five confirmed deaths across the region.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Albanian prisoners paid by UK government to return home</strong> - The BBC hears from offenders offered £1,500 each to end their UK sentences early and be deported.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ukraine war: Kyiv says it shot down Russian hypersonic missiles</strong> - Russia denies its Kinzhal missiles were hit and says one destroyed a Patriot air defence system.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Brigitte Macron’s great-nephew beaten in apparently politically motivated assault</strong> - Eight people are arrested over the attack which came after a TV interview by President Macron on Monday.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Malware turns home routers into proxies for Chinese state-sponsored hackers</strong> - Following in the footsteps of VPNFilter, new firmware obscures hackers’ endpoints. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939749">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Long-sought universal flu vaccine: mRNA-based candidate enters clinical trial</strong> - The phase I trial will test safety and efficacy in a small number of people. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939739">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Twitter sued over Saudi spying that allegedly landed popular user in prison</strong> - Saudi Arabia became a top shareholder while its spies infiltrated Twitter. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939716">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>French painters inspire new insights into the physics of soap bubbles</strong> - It’s one step closer to better control of bubble size, shape for practical applications. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939471">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple details upcoming AI-driven iOS 17 accessibility features</strong> - You’ll be able to create an AI voice for yourself and more. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1939610">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Pope dies and stands before the Gates of Heaven.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He knocks and St. Peter opens the Gate.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
St.Peter:“Yes?? How can i help you??”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Pope:“I wanna speak with God.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
St.Peter:“And you are ???”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Pope frustrated:“Im the Pope!!!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
St. Peter:“Doesnt ring a bell.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Pope very angry:“I DEMAND TO SPEAK WITH GOD!!!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
St.Peter closes the Gate and goes to God.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
St.Peter:“My Lord there is someone who wants to talk with you.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
God:“Who?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
St.Peter:“He calls himself the Pope.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
God:“Who is that supposed to be?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
St.Peter:" I dont know, what should we do with him??"
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
God:“Let Jesus talk with him, he spent some time down there.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Jesus goes to the Pope.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
A few Minutes later Jesus returns Laughing like there is no Tomorrow.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
God:“Whats so funny Jesus??”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Jesus:“Father you wont believe this, that Fishing Club i founded 2000 years ago still exists!!!”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Wolfguard087"> /u/Wolfguard087 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13jwc1u/the_pope_dies_and_stands_before_the_gates_of/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13jwc1u/the_pope_dies_and_stands_before_the_gates_of/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>There was once a very successful farmer from Texas…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
There was once a very successful farmer from Texas who started gaining interest in his ancestry. After doing some digging, he traced his lineage back to a small town in Ireland. And lo and behold, they were a family of farmers. So he packed his bags and took a trip to Ireland to visit the small town to see if he could track down some of his kin.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
After landing in Dublin, and driving an hour outside of the city, he stopped in a pub to grab a drink and start asking around about his family.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The Texan sat down, ordered a pint, and started talking to the Irishman sitting at the bar. After explaining his story and the purpose of the trip, the Irishman responded, “You don’t say! I’ve never heard of your family, but I’m a farmer as well. Tell me, what’s it like farming in Texas?”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Gladly,” the Texan said, “farming in Texas has been quite lucrative for me. If you started out in the morning, and drove west, you could drive all day before you reached the end of my property. And if you started the next day and drove East all day, you wouldn’t reach the end of my property. Same thing North and South, you could drive either direction all day and you wouldn’t reach the end of my farmland.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Ahh, I know what you mean,” said the Irishman, “I’ve got a tractor like that as well.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/TioBaldicia"> /u/TioBaldicia </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13jnxzu/there_was_once_a_very_successful_farmer_from_texas/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13jnxzu/there_was_once_a_very_successful_farmer_from_texas/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Set your wifi password to 2444666668888888</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
So when someone asks you, tell them it’s 12345678
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/HelpingHandsUs"> /u/HelpingHandsUs </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13j87na/set_your_wifi_password_to_2444666668888888/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13j87na/set_your_wifi_password_to_2444666668888888/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Would anyone like to buy a broken barometer.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
No pressure.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/heyandy1"> /u/heyandy1 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13jtexh/would_anyone_like_to_buy_a_broken_barometer/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13jtexh/would_anyone_like_to_buy_a_broken_barometer/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My wife asked me “do I look fat in these jeans?”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
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<div class="md">
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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I said “promise not to be mad whatever I say?”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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She replied “yes of course!”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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I said “I banged your sister”.
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/SionGest"> /u/SionGest </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13jwliv/my_wife_asked_me_do_i_look_fat_in_these_jeans/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/13jwliv/my_wife_asked_me_do_i_look_fat_in_these_jeans/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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</ul>
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