Lurker > Antifar

The monthly child poverty rate increased from 12.1 percent in December 2021 to 17 percent in January 2022, the highest rate since the end of 2020. The 4.9 percentage point (41 percent) increase in poverty represents 3.7 million more children in poverty due to the expiration of the monthly Child Tax Credit payments. Latino and Black children experienced the largest percentage-point increases in poverty (7.1 percentage points and 5.9 percentage points, respectively).

Between July and December 2021, the Internal Revenue Service paid out six months of advance Child Tax Credit payments worth up to $250 per child aged 6 to 17 and up to $300 per child aged under 6, reaching over 61 million children in over 36 million households. By December, it was keeping 3.7 million children from poverty and reducing monthly child poverty by 30 percent. A roundup of the available research reveals that, while in place, the monthly Child Tax Credit payments buffered family finances amidst the continuing pandemic, increased families abilities to meet their basic needs, reduced child poverty and food insufficiency, and had no discernable negative effects on parental employment.

In past work, we found that the Child Tax Credit payment kept millions of children out of poverty in 2021 (3 million children in July; 3.5 million children in August; 3.4 million children in September; 3.6 million children in October; 3.8 million children in November; and 3.7 million children in December).

https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/news-internal/monthly-poverty-january-2022

I was at my first job for nearly 6 years.

That's either Iraq or balls

*Beavis and Butthead laugh*

Let it out

At the risk of justifying the silly thing said by the guy who gets paid to say silly things with a serious response: Nazis actually reduced vaccine mandates when they were in power.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/09/vaccine-mandates-covid-pandemic-german-nazi-inoculation-policy

Theres only one problem: the Nazis didnt actually issue a vaccine mandate. In fact, Republicans would have found much to like in the Third Reichs vaccine policy, which was very much in line with their current recommendations: above all, it relaxed requirements for compulsory vaccination that had been in place in Germany for decades at that point, and went with a voluntary approach instead. We even have records of private discussions of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi colleagues clearly showing that, far from viewing vaccine mandates as key to their genocidal goals, the opposite was the case: they knew that withholding compulsory vaccination and other German public-health innovations would help kill more of the undesirable and inferior people who they wanted to rid from the world.

Bobby Kotick, CEO of video game maker Activision, has another secret company that he used to donate big money to Republican campaigns.

The company, Norgate LLC, contributed $500,000 through two separate checks to the Senate Leadership Fund during the 2020 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission filings reviewed by CNBC. That political action committee is run by allies of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and was created to support Republicans running for the Senate.

CNBC had reported Tuesday about another secret Kotick company, called 807080A LLC, which had given big donations to Republican causes.

On one of its two FEC filings, Norgate lists an identical California address to 807080A LLC. The latter firm has contributed at least $100,000 funding Republican efforts, including a super PAC backing former Bridgewater CEO Dave McCormick, who is running for Pennsylvanias Senate seat in a GOP primary.

The second Norgate FEC filing shows an address that is an approximately one minute walk from the other location, according to Google Maps.

CNBC first reported on 807080A and their donation to the pro-McCormick outside group. Both private companies have matching addresses to two of Koticks foundations. The contribution to the Senate Leadership Fund marks the biggest known donation the Activision CEO has made to a political organization.

Donors often use LLCs to conceal their identity and avoid scrutiny as they finance their preferred candidates for office. Real estate executive Stephen Rosenberg used a shell company to back then President Donald Trump after years of supporting Democrats.

While Democrats won a slight edge in the Senate during the 2020 election, Republicans fended off numerous challengers across the country. The Senate Leadership Fund that cycle spent over $270 million against Democrats running for Senate seats that cycle, according to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Outside of the Democratic victories in Georgia, data shows the super PAC helped Republicans win in North Carolina, Iowa, Montana and South Carolina, among others.

The watchdog Campaign Legal Center flagged the Norgate donations to CNBC. The group said its researchers confirmed that the personal mailbox PMB K, which is listed on one of the Norgate FEC filings, corresponds to a single registration known as personal mailbox K. The watchdog said its research showed that the names of a Kotick foundation, Norgate and Kotick himself are registered to that mailbox.

Mark Herr, a spokesman for Kotick, told CNBC in an emailed statement on Thursday that the video game executive has given almost the same amount to Democrats and Republicans over the past five years. He also pointed out the work of a Kotick-led foundation. The statement does not give further details on Norgate LLC.

Over the past five years, Mr. Kotick has contributed roughly the same amount to Democrats and Republicans. His contributions are focused on candidates and causes primarily in support of veterans issues and specifically veterans employment, Herr said. His giving and that of the Call of Duty Foundation, which he co-chairs, is with the goal of ensuring all veterans have employment opportunities that reflect the sacrifices they make through their service.
That representative previously told CNBC that 807080A LLC was used to manage some of Koticks investments. Though Kotick has given to both major political parties, records show that his his bigger individual checks have mainly gone to Republicans.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/17/activision-ceo-bobby-kotick-has-second-secret-company-that-donated-to-gop-campaigns.html?

Jiek_Fafn posted...

I'm iffy about untested unions, but the fact that Amazon is so against them makes me more comfortable. Is anything happening to Amazon for these violations though?

That's up to the NLRB, which previously made Amazon re-do a union election in Alabama

https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1494322064613728258

Hip hop, but that's my taste showing through. Grunge is pretty definitive in that it didn't really exist before or after the 90s.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgmbvg/leaked-audio-amazon-union-buster-warns-workers-things-could-become-worse

An Amazon union avoidance official told employees at JFK8, Amazons largest New York City warehouse, that if they unionize, certain workers could see their salaries reduced to minimum wage, or that negotiations could start with minimum wage as a baseline, according to leaked audio from the mandatory anti-union meeting that took place Wednesday and was obtained by Motherboard.

When describing the collective bargaining process, the union buster explains to workers that The negotiation phase of the process is called collective bargaining, and in the negotiation, there are no guarantees you can end up with better, the same, or worse than you already have.

An employee interrupts and asks, So wait, youre saying we could end up with worse. What does that mean?

There are no guarantees as to what would happen, right? We cant make any promises things will get better or stay the same. They could get worse. We cant promise whats going to happen. Amazon cant promise you that theyre going to walk into negotiations and that the negotiations will start from the same [pay and benefits workers have already], the union avoidance official says. They could start from minimum wage, for instance. I dont think that will happen, but its a possibility.

So youre saying that Amazons gonna say the worker responds.

I just said Im not saying that, the Amazon official said.

So why put that out there? the worker says.

Three takeaways you can reflect upon, she says, changing the subject.

Much of the tenor of the 14-minute meeting, held at Amazons Staten Island warehouse that is currently trying to unionize, was like this, with Amazons representative stressing that the election has significant and binding consequences not just for yourselves but for future associates, your coworkers, and potentially for your family." The subtext of the entire speech was that things could very possibly become worse for workers if they unionize, and that they should think very, very hard before voting to do so.

You will be liable to pay union dues or another representation fee. Everyone is liable to pay those union fees. You cant opt out, and everyone will have to follow whats negotiated even if you dont like whats in it. So, electing a union is not like trying out a Netflix subscription for 30 days, she said. Its very difficult to unelect a union once youve elected them.

The [union avoidance consultant] makes the threat and tries to walk it back, but once youve poisoned the well, you cant take it back, said Frank Kearl, an attorney representing worker activists at JFK8, referring to the consultants suggestion that workers could see their wages decline if they unionize. Even though she realized she made a mistake in making the threat, it doesnt mean the threat wasnt made and heard by all the workers who were forced to sit in on that session. It's against the law and an unfair labor practice to make a threat of reprisal.
Under the National Labor Relations Act, it is illegal for employers to prevent, interfere with, or retaliate against workers who organize to form unions. According to the Economic Policy Institute, unionized workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement earn 10.2 percent more than non-unionized workers in the same sectors.

On Wednesday, Amazon and the Amazon Labor Union reached a tentative stipulated agreement for the terms of a union election that will be held at JFK8. According to a text message sent to all workers at the facility on Wednesday and obtained by Motherboard, the election will be held in-person at JFK8 on March 25 through March 30. It will be the first election at an Amazon warehouse in the state of New York, and the second election at an Amazon warehouse in U.S. history.

Amazon Labor Union is an independent union that was formed last year at Amazons facilities in Staten Island after the defeat of a union in an election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. The union is led by fired worker activist Chris Smalls and other warehouse workers at JFK8, which employs roughly 9,000 workers, according to a roster obtained by Motherboard in January. In January, the union collected enough signatures to qualify for a NLRB union election. ALU also petitioned last month for an election at a second neighboring warehouse, known as LBJ5.

In addition to holding weekly mandatory anti-union meetings, Amazon representatives at JFK8 have pulled workers aside to interrogate them about their union activities, surveilled them, barred them from distributing union literature, confiscated literature, and referred to union organizers as thugs, according to a federal complaint filed in late January.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-crime-biden-judge-nina-morrison_n_620d3e4ae4b012513085db5a?qtc

In a hearing on Wednesday that was as performative as it was embarrassingly ill-informed, Senate Republicans tried to blame one of President Joe Bidens judicial nominees Nina Morrison, an attorney with the Innocence Project who has freed dozens of innocent people from prison for driving up violent crime across America.

Morrison, 52, is up for a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District Of New York. She is the senior litigation counsel at the New York-based Innocence Project, an organization focused on exonerating wrongly convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

She has been lead or co-counsel on cases that have freed more than 30 innocent people from prison and death row.

But Republicans in the Judiciary Committee went after Morrison as if she had committed the crimes that her clients were convicted of that they didnt actually commit, either. They tried to blame her for recent spikes in violent crimes in cities, and pressed her on whether she felt guilty about freeing people from prison who had been convicted of violent crimes, glossing over the fact that they had been exonerated by DNA evidence.

The whole of your record is deeply disturbing, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Morrison.
Across this country, Americans are horrified at skyrocketing crime rates, at skyrocketing homicide rates, at skyrocketing burglary rates, at skyrocketing carjacking rates, he said. All of those are the direct result of the policies youve spent your entire lifetime advancing.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told Morrison he planned to oppose her nomination, along with any other nominees the Biden administration puts forward who are soft on crime.
I will oppose you and anyone else the administration sends to us who do not understand the necessity of the rule of law, he said.

None of it made sense until you noticed a pattern in the attacks Republicans were making: First, use a judicial nomination to wage a proxy fight against progressive prosecutors, a cohort of left-leaning Democratic district attorneys who have sought reforms to the bail system, curbed enforcement of lower-level marijuana offenses and increased the use of diversion programs over jail time. Second, falsely cast these Democratic district attorneys policies as the reason for spikes in crime, and then tie the judicial nominee to those policies and therefore the violence.

The whole situation the faux outrage, the claims that Morrison was soft on crime, the claims that Republicans were the ones who were tough on crime was a ridiculous spectacle, given that Morrison has spent her entire career getting innocent people out of prison.

The GOP attacks perhaps offer a preview of how Republicans on the panel plan to go after Bidens Supreme Court nominee when she comes before the committee.

In a series of gotcha-type questions, Cruz pressed Morrison on whether she thinks Philadelphia is safer now than it was before its Democratic district attorney Larry Krasner was elected in 2017. Morrison was an adviser to Krasners transition team.

I do not consider myself an expert on crime statistics, she began.

You have no view, Cruz interrupted.

I can certainly talk about the cases that Ive worked on in Philadelphia, she said.

So you advised his transition team, Cruz said, interrupting again. Let me ask you, when you were advising him on his and by the way, is the murder rate today in Philadelphia higher or lower than when Mr. Krasner was elected?

Senator, I do not know because I have not studied those statistics, Morrison said.

So you were part of the transition team but didnt really care about the results, Cruz said, cutting her off again while rattling off statistics about crime rates in Philadelphia.
It went on like this for several minutes, until Cruz ran out of time.

Why do you keep advising radical district attorneys who let violent criminals go and result in homicide rates skyrocketing? he demanded. Do you care about the innocent people being killed because of the policies youre implementing?

Morrison explained that her work with district attorneys like Krasner has been specifically focused on conviction integrity, or the review of old cases, not on formulating new policies relating to prosecutions. She said there was a link between the two, though.

It is because when the wrong person is convicted of murder, the person who has actually committed the crime isnt brought to justice, that I think the work connects and Morrison began until Cruz interrupted her again.

Sadly, your nomination is part of a pattern from this administration and Democrats in the Senate, if they follow their pattern, will vote to [confirm] yet another judge who will let more violent criminals go, he concluded.

Hawley tried to tie Morrison to a decision by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to release people who had been arrested during violent protests in the city in 2020 over George Floyds murder. Morrison previously wrote a 2019 article praising Gardners work on a murder case in which she found evidence that the person who had been put into prison, Lamar Johnson, was innocent, and went to court to try to overturn the conviction.
Lets talk a little bit about her record that you saw fit to praise, Hawley said, painting a dramatic picture of crimes in the city.

In the midst of rioting that convulsed the city of St. Louis, police officers were shot at rioters threw rocks and gasoline and frozen water bottles firefighters were assaulted innocent civilians were assaulted, he said. [Gardner] said the police were the ones at fault. Is that the kind of approach that you stand by and think is appropriate for prosecutors to take?

Morrison said her op-ed that referenced Gardner was specifically about the wrongly convicted man, Johnson and that the piece had a heartening effect among Republican lawmakers in his state.

The Missouri Legislature, I believe a Republican in both chambers who sponsored the bill, changed the law so that Ms. Gardner could successfully file a motion for a new trial on behalf of the individual referenced, and we were joined by the [libertarian] Cato Institute and others in supporting that bill, she said.

In the particular case I was writing about, she added, it appeared to reflect a broader consensus about how to handle wrongful convictions.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-attorney-general-loretta-lynch-defend-nfl-brian-flores-lawsuit-rcna16639

The NFL has hired a law firm that includes former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to defend it and its teams in Brian Flores race discrimination lawsuit.

Lynch, the attorney general in the latter part of the Obama administration, will work with Brad Karp, chairman at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. Karp previously has worked for the league in concussion cases.

Flores, who is Black, was fired as Miamis coach last month despite back-to-back winning seasons. He named the league and three teams the Dolphins, Denver Broncos and New York Giants in a class-action lawsuit earlier this month, alleging unfair hiring practices in the NFL.

In his lawsuit, Flores cites a string of text messages with Patriots coach Bill Belichick three days before his scheduled Giants interview for the head coaching position. Those texts led Flores to believe Brian Daboll already had been chosen as the new coach.

It was humiliating to be quite honest, Flores said. There was disbelief, there was anger, there was a wave of emotion for a lot of reasons.

There were nine head coach openings this offseason and two went to minorities: Mike McDaniel, who replaced Flores in Miami and is biracial, and Lovie Smith, who is African American and replaced David Culley, who also is Black. That brought the total of minority head coaches to five, three Black. More than 70% of NFL players are Black.

Flores also alleges in the lawsuit that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered to pay him $100,000 for every loss during the coachs first season (2019) because he wanted the club to tank so it could get the drafts top pick.

https://twitter.com/GMA/status/1493946137237245956

Probably for the best

Kloe_Rinz posted...

ive played a bunch of games from korea and theyve all lacked soul.

They spell it Seoul over there

hockeybub89 posted...

4 has the worst plot in the entire series

I liked it, but that might just be because I like when games mess around with plot structure. Delivering it across 4 perspectives is cool, and I don't think it's any more convoluted than 2 or 3.

0 > Kiwami 2 > Like a Dragon > Lost Judgment > 4 > Judgment > 3 > Kiwami

Not sure when I'll carve out the time for 5 and 6, but hoping to get to them while they're still on Game Pass.

This piece sums it up well
https://defector.com/facebook-meta-asks-wouldnt-it-be-nice-to-die/

https://theintercept.com/2022/02/15/afghanistan-central-bank-911-lawsuit/

A LEAD ATTORNEY for the families of 9/11 victims who sued the Taliban plaintiffs who could receive billions of dollars as a result of the Biden administrations decision to seize the reserves of the Afghanistan central bank also worked until January at the Biden White House on Afghanistan issues. Lee Wolosky, co-chair of the litigation department at the law firm Jenner & Block LLP, was appointed to aid with Afghan evacuees in September 2021 and returned to his firm last month.

After the fall of Kabul, the U.S. government seized the assets of the countrys central bank, and last week the administration announced it would hold half of the roughly $7 billion for families who had brought suit against the Taliban, and deploy the other half at some undetermined point in time for the benefit of the Afghan people.

On Monday, Wolosky himself signed a brief asking the judges in the families case against the Taliban to move forward with enforcing the settlement. The long-running lawsuit stands to be a lucrative payday for the high-powered attorneys working on the once long-shot case. Lawyers often take a percentage of damages awarded, which in this case easily puts the payout into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Neither Jenner & Block nor Wiggins Childs Quinn & Pantazis LLC, two of the lead law firms representing the victims seeking compensation from the Afghanistan government, responded to a request for comment on the role of Wolosky or the firms fee structure for the decision. A representative of Wolosky referred questions to the White House.

In September, when Wolosky joined the administration, Axios reported he would be involved in resettlement of refugees as well as other issues related to the U.S. drawdown from Afghanistan. Wolosky was reportedly hired as a special government employee, a role that allows temporary appointments for up to 130 days in a year. Wolosky officially signed onto the 9/11 victims case on January 13, 2021, according to his filing with the court.

The White House said that Wolosky recused himself from discussions over whether the Afghan central bank reserves should be seized and handed over to him and his clients. Lee Woloskys service as an SGE at the White House Counsels Office ended on January 6, 2022. Lee was formally recused from all matters related to Jenner & Block during his time as an SGE, a White House spokesperson said. Given his past representation of the victims of 9/11, he was specifically recused and walled off from any and all discussions related to any litigation related to the victims of 9/11, including but not limited to the disposition of the Afghan reserves at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Prior to his role at Jenner & Block, Wolosky was a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, where he also represented the families of 9/11 victims in an effort to seize funds from the Iranian central bank held in Luxembourg, arguing that Iran had aided Al Qaeda. Luxembourg ultimately ruled that the sovereign immunity of Iran took precedence over the plaintiffs claim. Before that, Wolosky was appointed by former President Barack Obama to lead the ultimately failed effort to close the Guantnamo Bay prison.
The Afghanistan central bank was designed largely by the United States during the occupation and was modeled on the Federal Reserve. It remains in operation today, and two members of its board are Afghan American. By law, it is independent of the government and cant be raided for pet government projects or to patch deficits. Its mandate is limited to price and currency stability. President Joe Bidens use of the reserves to pay off a legal judgment for the clients of a recent senior administration official puts the administrations criticism of the previous Afghan government as hopelessly corrupt in a new light.

The consequences of seizing the reserves of the central bank have been similar in Afghanistan to what would happen to the U.S. economy if the Federal Reserve was suddenly shut down. Businesses have been unable to secure loans, depositors have been unable to access money held in banks, importers have been unable to fund imports, the currency has collapsed, and prices have soared. More than a million refugees have fled starvation since the fall.

The administrations executive order on the frozen funds is tantamount to brazen theft and a death sentence for countless Afghans, said Arash Azizzada, co-founder of Afghans for a Better Tomorrow. Its shortsight, cruel and will serve to worsen the catastrophe currently unfolding in Afghanistan.

Taking money which rightfully belongs to the Afghan people, he added, will not bring justice but ensure more misery and death in Afghanistan.

I think it doesn't matter.

Oh I thought you meant in theaters, but yeah, it's kinda interesting how sex less a lot of the big movies are these days.

People who are wrong on Gamefaqs dot Gamespot dot com

PoundGarden posted...

Clowns need to stop with this idea of "it worked for this tiny European country, surely it will work for the largest country on the planet! Apples to apples!"

What's the mechanism by which population size impacts workweek length?

You've done it again

Seems bad, imo.

https://twitter.com/lmlauramarsh/status/1493610681769332736

(To the extent they're linked it seems to me like less traffic is simply resulting in higher speeds, but I don't know whether traffic is even reduced at this point in the pandemic.)

God bless

Okay, here's the video from NBC: https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics/status/1493426146352025603
And CBC for the Canadians: https://twitter.com/CBCOlympics/status/1493524017789161474

Blue_Inigo posted...

Image gone

Goddamnit, IOC must've put in a copyright claim. You'll just have to take my word for it

Because people care less about privacy concerns than about the areas where Facebook's impact is being felt. Say what you will, Google hasn't contributed to genocide with our stolen data.

Also I'm about finished with 4, and the soundtrack has been one of my favorite parts of it. There's more of a jazz vibe to a lot of the tracks that I really enjoy.

au_gold posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/4/8/AAZ5w5AAC7XY.jpg

This is fake: https://twitter.com/QOrigins/status/1493450863515353090

Why has Sega put the 0, Kiwami, and Judgment OSTs on Spotify but not LAD or Kiwami 2?

Curling is good, actually.

Unsugarized_Foo posted...

The ukraine is actually the weather in England

Now that's funny

What's the Sotenbori battle theme titled?

Ichiban voice: hell yeah

https://twitter.com/suss2hyphens/status/1493426007763791872

Fun match, the win keeps the US on pace to reach the semis

I'm looking forward to it still, but the demo hasn't wowed me.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/San-Francisco-police-linked-a-woman-to-a-crime-16918673.php

The San Francisco police crime lab has been entering sexual assault victims DNA profiles in a database used to identify suspects in crimes, District Attorney Chesa Boudin said Monday, an allegation that raises legal and ethical questions regarding the privacy rights of victims.

Boudin said his office was made aware of the practice last week, after a womans DNA collected years ago as part of a rape exam was used to link her to a recent property crime.

If DNA from a rape kit was used without consent for purposes other than investigating the underlying rape case, it may be a violation of constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures as well as Californias Victims Bill of Rights, Boudin said.

Such a practice could also create another deterrent to sexual assault victims coming forward with allegations that are already notoriously under-reported to law enforcement.

The primary concern that I and my office have ... is with detecting and preventing future crime, Boudin said. We want San Francisco to be as safe as possible, (and) we want survivors of sexual assault to feel comfortable and safe reporting and cooperating with law enforcement.

COVxy posted...

I cannot reconcile the Ukrainian president flippantly mocking the possibility of Russian attacks when Russia has literally stationed an army at the border and are ready to attack at a given notice.

The alternative is reconciling Ukrainian media and advisors saying he was being ironic despite that not being the case.

https://twitter.com/ScooterCasterNY/status/1493287086266408966?

Assuming this translation is correct, it could well be that he is referring to media reports rather than intel. "They say it's happening Wednesday, we'll make Wednesday a show of our pride."

COVxy posted...

Feel like a joke is usually followed by some indication that you made a joke.

This is that indication
https://twitter.com/vplus/status/1493306416525942785

https://twitter.com/ChristopherJM/status/1493318642754334723

It's hard to make jokes work in translation.

Funkydog posted...

Weird time to make such a joke when UK/USA are both saying they have intelligence Russia is very likely to attack >.>

US intelligence has been saying this since the fall, though.

https://twitter.com/shustry/status/1493311857116991490

Update:
https://twitter.com/TheM_L_G/status/1493312334873378823

A reminder that Ukraine's president's previous job was playing the president on a Ukrainian sitcom.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/3/4/AAWHm8AAC7MO.jpg

He and I get along real well, and spend most nights hanging out on the couch watching sports together. I've known him for some time before we started living together (along with other roommates) and he's been open about dealing with mental illness in the past. He has a therapist and I know he takes medication for this stuff.

His mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer several months ago, and is nearing the end now. I can't speak too much about his relationship with her, other than I feel it's strained at times.

But the thing that seems to be the primary source of his anguish at the moment is his lack of success in dating. He's had a string of first dates from Hinge and Bumble that haven't progressed into second dates, and the one he had on Friday night seemed to hit him particularly hard, because he'd been hyping that girl up beforehand to me.

My fear is, based on comments he makes, that the death of his mom might "free him" to harm himself. He's an only child and his dad passed away several years ago, so he might feel like there's no guilt, nobody he'd be leaving behind anymore.

I don't know if CE could possibly have advice for a situation like this, but I felt a need to type it out for my own sake.