US Politics: Biden our time while Trump's on the stump

[ThinkerX]

A minor (and temporary?) victory on the environmental/climate change front.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/507647-court-strikes-down-trump-administrations-methane-rollback?fbclid=IwAR3Zkk_h-SODr_5I-9UakboFZqWkacFBFBDhNibX5VFRw194lqDcldT8Rfs

“In its haste, BLM ignored its statutory mandate under the Mineral Leasing Act, repeatedly failed to justify numerous reversals in policy positions previously taken, and failed to consider scientific findings and institutions relied upon by both prior Republican and Democratic administrations,” wrote the Obama appointee. 

“In its zeal, BLM simply engineered a process to ensure a preordained conclusion,” she added in the decision’s conclusion.  “Where a court has found such widespread violations, the court must fulfill its duties in striking the defectively promulgated rule.”

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that can be 25 times more impactful than carbon dioxide in equal quantities. In 2018, it accounted for nearly 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity.

[ThinkerX]

Republican shift of sorts on mail in voting...

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-to-trump-change-tune-on-mail-in-voting-or-risk-ugly-november/ar-BB16Q4kK?ocid=ob-fb-enus-580&fbclid=IwAR1IKsK3SfTMD1a2nQfOnPgcakxDKH3umay3iD3mxunhPScrzixWR5uV4Wk

 

Republican officials throughout the country are reacting with growing alarm to President Donald Trump's attacks on mail-in ballots, saying his unsubstantiated claims of mass voting fraud are already corroding the views of GOP voters, who may ultimately choose not to vote at all if they can't make it to the polls come November.

[Martell Spy]

1 hour ago, Triskele said:

It is known that he does have red wine sessions, although total derail, I though the alcohol = better health thing had come under serious question in recent years.  

 

Given what he is doing for America, he can keep his red wine habit and declare it healthy living for all I care.

[DireWolfSpirit]

2 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Really pathetic. The Roberts Court continues its unhinged assault on voting rights.

 

Supreme Court allows limits on felon voting in Florida

https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/07/16/supreme-court-allows-limits-on-felon-voting-in-florida-1301508

 

JFC what a disgrace Florida is to have 10.43% of its voting age population as convicted felons.

And what a disgrace the U.S. Supremes are to disenfranchise over a million Floridians voting rights with this ruling. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/supreme-court-florida-felons-poll-tax.html

Pathetic!

[The Anti-Targ]

1 hour ago, Triskele said:

It is known that he does have red wine sessions, although total derail, I though the alcohol = better health thing had come under serious question in recent years.  

 

Completely debunked really. Given that ethanol is a primary carcinogen any marginal benefit to the heart that may exist with other chemicals in red wine is offset by the increased risk of cancer. Quite apart from the fact that no actual benefit to the heart from red wine has been proven. So, overall a negative effect on physical health. Mental health though, lots of people self-medicate with alcohol, but I'm not sure what if any studies have been carried out in that respect.

[The Anti-Targ]

Would it be incorrect to say that Russia is a bigger global threat to democracy now than at any time during the cold war?

[ThinkerX]

40 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Would it be incorrect to say that Russia is a bigger global threat to democracy now than at any time during the cold war?

as somebody who grew up during the cold war with the threat of thermonuclear annihilation hanging over the planet, the answer is 'no.'

 

the old line communists were committed ideologues, bent on their dogma becoming the only dogma.  New batch....basically criminals.  

 

but that's just me 

[karaddin]

On 7/16/2020 at 11:04 AM, GrimTuesday said:

Jesus, this is going on in Portland right now. Apparently it is a patchwork of U.S. Marshals, Federal Protective Service, Customs & Border Protection & Homeland Security Investigations. How long is it going to take until they start actually disappearing people if they aren't already.

 

Reports all over Twitter today of exactly that happening (federal agents (presumably) with no badges or any other identifying information, of even their agency, in military fatigues etc in unmarked vans snatching protestors off the street) so... Very little time.

The combination of a pandemic that's going to be raging hot at the time of the election along with federal agencies that are functionally a military personally loyal to Trump and already getting away with this behaviour really ought to be concerning. All the polls in the world won't help in the face of fascist opportunism snatching it.

[Ran]

What's going on in Portland looks like a travesty. And near a I can tell, it's suggested they're operating without any coordination with local PD or city authorities? Has Oregon's governor said anything about it?

[GrimTuesday]

1 hour ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Would it be incorrect to say that Russia is a bigger global threat to democracy now than at any time during the cold war?

It really depends on what you are looking at in terms of threats. I think that because of advances in technology it is easier than ever to negatively impact another nation through indirect means, so if we are talking about eroding trust in elections and media, yeah. If we are talking about the conditions and context that define the each era, decidedly no. The threat of the Soviet Union was that we both had nukes pointed at each other while we fought proxy wars and ticked ever closer to humanity and a habitable planet going the way of the dodo. The threat of Russia today is that they, along with other groups opposed to American hegemony, are actively working on undermining the institutions that bind us together. Of course, from there we have to consider what the end result of a fall from hegemony status of the US would be. as well as if Russia is actually the most dangerous actor among those states. So short answer is no.

Since am procrastinating going to bed (hopefully it all makes sense) and haven't gotten to flex my International Relations muscles since I graduated university, I am going to give the longer answer. Those questions are interesting, and I'm going to start with the second because it is less complex. The fact of the matter is that Russia, while a powerful state in its own right, is not the global super power it once was. It does not have the economic power that and foriegn policy reach that it once did. China on the other hand is decidedly the second most powerful state in the world, and I think that in terms of their potential to fuck our shit up, they are on a whole other level than Russia

Now the first question is more more complicated, namely does a fall from status for the US mean it completely collapses entire international system, or does it means that it simply moves in to a more bi-polar system with the US and China balancing against each other. The latter would probably be the best outcome so long as the US' fall does not correspond with China's rise to hegemon, since they are an autocratic state and their global influence may be a stark contrast to American influence. A bi-polar system is actually a very stable one, since there are only two powers who are in contention and both are too powerful to get into a scrap with the other since their status would likely also be diminished no matter the outcome since the two side are comparable in terms of strength.

The other option would be a multi-polar system with numerous states jockeying for influence. with The US, China, and Russia being the three main powers with smaller states coming and going between the three powers' orbit. A multi-polar system would be analogues to the state of the world prior to the start of WWI, with five or six, depending on if you include the Ottomans, major world powers. The shifting alliances along with the colonial competition made things highly unstable, and I think that we would see something similar today.

In the end, Russia could end up being the straw that breaks the camel's back if it were to really take on the role of revisionist actor and blow up the whole system, but it would not allow Russia to rise to the status it once held. China trying to take the top spot of hegemon outright would be a much more dangerous prospect that they might actually be able to achieve. There are so many unknowns about what effect Russia's actions would have, and the outcome of a rumble between the US and the USSR would have had, I think total exintiction of humanity takes the cake.

5 minutes ago, karaddin said:

Reports all over Twitter today of exactly that happening (federal agents (presumably) with no badges or any other identifying information, of even their agency, in military fatigues etc in unmarked vans snatching protestors off the street) so... Very little time.

The combination of a pandemic that's going to be raging hot at the time of the election along with federal agencies that are functionally a military personally loyal to Trump and already getting away with this behaviour really ought to be concerning. All the polls in the world won't help in the face of fascist opportunism snatching it.

It's really quite scary. I'm originally from the Portland area (on the Washington side) and so I have friends and family there a few of whom have been actively supporting the protests.

I wonder why they are doing it in Portland and not Seattle though, must be because of the Portland's connection with antifa actions against the Proud Boy and such. Could also be Washington's Governor is a man, and Oregon's is a woman, so I wonder if there is some sort of weird misogynist angle to it where they think they can push Kate Brown around more easily.

[GrimTuesday]

1 minute ago, Ran said:

What's going on in Portland looks like a travesty. And near a I can tell, it's suggested they're operating without any coordination with local PD or city authorities? Has Oregon's governor said anything about it?

Yes, here is a report with some details as well as statements from multiple officials involved. https://katu.com/news/local/oregon-leaders-respond-to-criticism-from-dhs-head-over-portland-protests

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

6 hours ago, Triskele said:

Two questions then:

Voting for Biden?

Pronouns?  

Don't know. She's easily bribable, especially if you have a rawhide bone.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

4 hours ago, Ran said:

What's going on in Portland looks like a travesty. And near a I can tell, it's suggested they're operating without any coordination with local PD or city authorities? Has Oregon's governor said anything about it?

Hopefully action will be taken soon and the Courts will shut this down.  This is very scary.

[Paladin of Ice]

6 hours ago, Triskele said:

As our friend upthread pointed out he was a leader on the LGBT (before we called it that) during the AIDS crisis.  That huge playwrite from the gay community (sorry i'm blanking, he passed recently) went after Fauci a bit at the time but then totally reconciled with him and put him into a play even.  It sounded like the anger was more at the Reagan admin overall as opposed to Fauci in particular, but because he was head of NIAID (the allergy and infectious disease part of NIH) it just went down that way.

(Sorry in advance for a long post that's on something of a side topic, but I thought this was something that more people might be interested in seeing, knowing, and having a source for.)

I'm guessing you probably mean Larry Kramer, who was also a founder and major leader in ACT UP. They became lifelong friends despite the fact that their first encounter was Kramer accusing Fauci of being an incompetent, a murderer, and calling on him to resign.

From a long NPR interview:

Quote

DAVIES: Yeah. I mean, Larry Kramer, who was one of the lead activists - he called him a murderer, essentially, right?

SPECTER: Yeah. I mean, I've known - to be honest, Larry also called me a murderer because he didn't think my reporting was good enough. He was pretty easy with that term. But I've known Larry a long time. And he was a very influential man, and he cared deeply. And he just attacked Fauci relentlessly because Fauci was the guy that he saw who could pull some strings. And it was vicious.

DAVIES: And what was the problem? I mean, Fauci didn't control the Food and Drug Administration. I mean, what were the hang-ups? What were the bottlenecks...

SPECTER: Well...

DAVIES: ...That they wanted action on?

SPECTER: So basically, drug trials, for a long time, have undergone a particular system where you try a drug over a period of time in a small group of people who are healthy to see if it's safe, if it has side effects, if it would harm you. Once that's done - and it can take a while - you then move to another level of testing called phase two, where you test a small group of people to see if it's effective. Like, does it change the course of your disease? Are there markers in the blood system that show that it's taking effect? That takes a while. And then if it's safe and seems to be effective, you do a much longer and bigger trial to make sure it works and that there aren't some adverse reactions that people hadn't counted on. This can take years.

Meanwhile, these guys had nothing. They had no hope of any treatment or cure. They were dying by the hundreds, then the thousands, then the tens of thousands. And they were listening to organizations not only say, well, wait a few years, but they had rules like if you were on one experimental drug, you couldn't take another one in a trial. So that disease Pneumocystis pneumonia that I mentioned, there was a treatment for that. It was an anti-microbial drug called Pentamidine. If you took it, it was very effective. So thousands of men were taking it. But if you took that drug, you could not enter any other clinical trial that NIH had for AIDS. So you could be OK with the Pneumocystis. You would just die of something else.

And these were absurd and outdated rules, and Fauci was the person that they knew who they could attack. It didn't matter whether he was in charge. He was the face of AIDS for the U.S. government.

DAVIES: He made a difference, though, and it involved a change of his own thinking. Tell us about that.

SPECTER: Well, I mean, after a certain number of protests, he looked out at NIH one day as they were - as ACT UP and other protesters were storming the gates. And he thought, you know, these guys, they dress crazy and they say terrible things, but they're mostly from New York like I am. And let me think about this for a minute. If I had a disease in which the result was that I would die no matter what and the government was telling me you can't try anything that might work under any circumstances, I'd be ramming down the doors, too.

So at that point, he decided to talk to these leaders more frequently, to go up to New York and meet with them, to go to San Francisco. And he came to realize that, A, they had a point, and even more importantly, they had some people who understood the system way better than anyone who worked for him.

SPECTER: Over time, at the urging of activists - particularly a man named Mark Harrington, who is an ACT UP activist and a very brilliant man - Harrington said, listen. Let's look at this testing regime, and let's give people who are dying a chance to take drugs that may or may not work after we know they're safe, not just throw them at them. But after the first phase is done, let's give them some opportunity to try these drugs. And we will continue with the other trials anyway so we can get to the bottom. We need to do that. But we can't deprive everyone of any hope whatsoever.

And Fauci - once he understood that the activists weren't saying, let's get rid of the whole system but let's open it up a bit so that we can have some relief while we press on to get the ultimate answer, he said that makes perfect sense. And he proposed something called parallel track, which was these sort of two systems - the old system and the new - melded. And it worked.

 

Quote

DAVIES: How did Larry Kramer and these other activists come to regard Fauci?

SPECTER: (Laughter) Kramer loves Fauci. Kramer went from wanting him dead to never being in the same city without having dinner with him. I think he, in my piece, said that Anthony Fauci was the one true hero of the AIDS epidemic. Larry's hyperbolic, but the truth is that the AIDS activist Mark Harrington, who is not hyperbolic, felt that Fauci could be worked with. And Fauci listened to reason, and Fauci responded to data and analysis. And if you gave him the right facts, he'd make the right decision. So, you know, that was all they ever wanted. And Fauci, all he ever did was look at the information before him and make his decisions based on what he thought the data said. And that turned out to be enough.

DAVIES: So did Fauci's work on HIV/AIDS - I mean, it obviously was recognized by AIDS activists as having made a difference. What did it do to his stature within the public health community?

SPECTER: Huge. I mean, he went from - you know, in 1988 during a debate between Michael Dukakis and George Bush, someone asked Bush who his heroes were. And he said, oh, there's this guy Dr. Fauci at NIH. None of you have ever heard of him. But he's working hard and brilliantly to solve AIDS.

From the Washington Blade, an LGBTQ+ publication that interviewed Fauci after Kramer's death in May:

Quote

“It’s a very sad day, not only for me, but for so many who have had the opportunity to interact with Larry since the very beginning of the HIV/AIDS era,” Fauci told the Washington Blade in an exclusive interview.

Although the two had a relationship that was at times friendly, other times antagonistic, Fauci said he and Kramer had conversations right up until his death, including at dinners, via email and “a lot of telephone calls, a lot of calls.”

It was in one of those phone calls a couple of weeks ago Fauci said he began to suspect Kramer’s passing would come soon. At the time, Fauci said he was calling Kramer to congratulate him on a new honor, calling it a “personal friendly thing.”

“He sounded extremely halting on the phone, barely able to get the words out,” Fauci said. “I said to myself when I hung up, ‘Gee, this is not good news. He’s getting very weak and frail.’”

Fauci acknowledged he was aware Kramer “was getting very fragile over the last several months” based on recent pictures of the HIV activist and previous phone conversations.

News of Kramer’s passing Wednesday, Fauci said, came to him via a text message earlier in the day from HIV activist Peter Staley, who urged Fauci to call him.

“It was very sad; we both were in tears on the phone,” Fauci said, becoming choked-up in his interview with the Blade.

Crediting Kramer with having an “amazing life, a full life,” Fauci recalled the late activist’s efforts in helping found ACT UP and the New York City-based Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

“He was truly an icon,” Fauci said. “He kind of forged the area, the role of the activist community and participating in the serious aspects of how you respond to a particular disease that afflicts individuals who are at risk, and actually already afflicted. And that’s Larry. I mean, that’s what Larry did.”

“I’ve had an interesting, unusual — and in some respects, wonderful — journey with Larry over the years,” Fauci conceded. “Since I was in his mind a representative of the government that he felt wasn’t moving quickly or well enough with HIV, we started off in somewhat of an adversarial role where he was attacking me for any number of reasons, and then as we got to know each other and realized that we both had a common goal that we shared, we became acquaintances, then friends, then really, really close friends.”

In the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, there was no treatment. Fauci took a lead role in the development in 1987 of AZT, or zidovudine, the first antiretroviral approved for the treatment of HIV, but that drug was limited in effectiveness and carried side effects. 

It wasn’t until many years later in the 1990s — and many, many more protests from HIV activists — that more effective treatments became available against HIV/AIDS, which led to the availability today of Truvada as a prophylactic to prevent infection. Fauci has credited the gay community with having “incredible courage” in lifting stigma during the HIV/AIDS crisis to help the push forward for drugs available today.

 

[Ormond]

16 hours ago, HoodedCrow said:

Ormond, this may surprise you, but shorter people live longer, when SES is controlled! Yes I’m sure Fauci has great habits as he seems very responsible, and if he is Italian in ethnicity, perhaps he drinks red wine, and might have a Mediterranean diet.

Loved his response to the reporter. Let’s stop this nonsense and get on with dealing with the pandemic. 

 

Could you give a link to that? I am absolutely sure that many years ago I saw research that said just the opposite, at least among males -- that tall men live longer on the average than short men. 

[Ormond]

15 hours ago, The Mance said:

*sigh*

Twenty some years ago we named our second daughter, "Bailey".  We thought it had a pleasant, ol' timey sound, without being too gendered.   Since then I've encountered at least a dozen dogs, a few horses, two male classmates, a guinea pig, and a C-Sec officer, named Bailey.  But whatever, she is crushing life and absolutely owns her name.  I just wish she never had to endure that moment of cringe whenever she shares a name with somebody's pet.

Well, you can console yourself with the fact that many more people will be having that experience than did in the past, not just your daughter, because the great majority of dogs and cats in the USA now get "people names".  There aren't many Rovers, Lassies, Blackies, Sooties, Snowballs, etc. any more among American dogs and cats. Most of them have names like Max, Bella, Charlie, or Lucy these days.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

15 minutes ago, Ormond said:

Could you give a link to that? I am absolutely sure that many years ago I saw research that said just the opposite, at least among males -- that tall men live longer on the average than short men. 

I seem to recall short men have better heart health than tall men.

Our dog is named Kirby.  

[DMC]

So this complaint from Kemp to Bottoms in Georgia is pretty damn interesting on a few levels.  Federalism, constitutionally, and the legitimacy of executive orders.  Here's a summary of the details, but what I'm really interested in is a governor suing a mayor in order to get her to comply to his EO.  Constitutionally, local governments basically have no power as they are emanated from the state, and it's entirely up to the state government.  If it was actual legislation, even though obviously policywise I strongly disagree with Kemp, I'd say he has legit grounds for mayors to comply with state policy.  But, it's just an executive, and emergency at that, order.  Plus, as Bottoms points out, he didn't sue the city, he sued Bottoms and the city council personally.  Very interested to see what the courts say.

 

[DanteGabriel]

7 hours ago, karaddin said:

Reports all over Twitter today of exactly that happening (federal agents (presumably) with no badges or any other identifying information, of even their agency, in military fatigues etc in unmarked vans snatching protestors off the street) so... Very little time.

The combination of a pandemic that's going to be raging hot at the time of the election along with federal agencies that are functionally a military personally loyal to Trump and already getting away with this behaviour really ought to be concerning. All the polls in the world won't help in the face of fascist opportunism snatching it.

Where's all those libertarians who always condemn the overreach of federal government? Your dream scenario is here, 2nd Amendment Patriots! Innocent Americans exercising their rights are being kidnapped by unaccountable federal thugs! Rise up and resist like you did for *checks notes* Cliven Bundy's grazing fees.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

19 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

Where's all those libertarians who always condemn the overreach of federal government? Your dream scenario is here, 2nd Amendment Patriots! Innocent Americans exercising their rights are being kidnapped by unaccountable federal thugs! Rise up and resist like you did for *checks notes* Cliven Bundy's grazing fees.

No, no.  They only act when they disagree with Government actions politically not when they like the Government overreach.  It is the same way they always find a way to justify police (the literal teeth and claws of the State) when they abuse their power.