This, from @RonaldKlain, isn’t just alarming, it's jaw dropping https://t.co/oYtjw7Faf8 pic.twitter.com/c5VT6fAj62
— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) May 22, 2016
I’m probably gonna get dinged for chicken-littling, because hey, no Ebola outbreak happened in America, right? And yet… “White House Ebola response coordinator from 2014 to 2015” Klain’s Washington Post article:
The good news is that both the House and Senate have finally passed bills that would provide some funding to combat the Zika virus. The bad news is that this action comes more than three months after President Obama requested the aid. Moreover, the House bill provides only one-third of the response needed; pays for this limited, ineffective response by diverting money allocated to fight other infectious diseases; and necessitates a conference committee to resolve differences with the Senate bill, meaning we still do not know when any money will finally get through Congress to fund the response…
As befuddling as Congress’ refusal to approve funds for the Zika response is, perhaps even more of a mystery is why such approval is needed in the first place. If nature was threatening us with serious injury and evacuations via fire, flood or hurricane, the president could use his authority under the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to provide immediate aid without waiting for Congress to act. The fact that epidemic “natural disasters” are the result of disease and not an earthquake or tornado should not constrain the federal government’s ability to provide a timely, comprehensive response…
@samsteinhp @RonaldKlain why say congress is holding funds up? It's the republican assholes not all congressional members.
— tim hert (@TimHert) May 22, 2016
Speaking of those damaged babies? Once the Zika virus gets established in “our” mosquitos, microcephaly is going to become yet another standard prenatal test for women in the afflicted areas. Or who’ve visited those areas. Or whose male partners were exposed to Zika, even months before the pregnancy. And by the time microcephaly can be diagnosed, it’s too late for a quiet ‘medical abortion‘ — women will need full surgical services, and most will have been visibly pregnant. It’s not going to be easy for ‘fundamentalist’ anti-choicers to find reasons to blame good married Christian white ladies in the Sunbelt for having been bitten by the wrong mosquito… but I’m sure they’re gonna try their damndest.
JUST IN: CDC: 279 pregnant women in U.S. states and territories show lab evidence of possible Zika virus infection. pic.twitter.com/tkRBQv90Bq
— ABC News (@ABC) May 20, 2016
And while we’re on the topic…
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen calls for a comprehensive evaluation of the potential for the Olympics to spread Zika. https://t.co/lsAmozEmzW
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) May 19, 2016
… The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dismissed the idea of cancelling or postponing the games, but CDC spokesperson Tom Skinner told FP by email that the organization is researching whether the Olympics could spread Zika worldwide, especially through the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
“CDC researchers are studying the estimated Olympic delegation size for each country attending the Games and their usual travel volume to and from Brazil – and comparing that to the ability of the Aedes aegypti to circulate in their country, whether they have a history of epidemic dengue and their ability to support an outbreak response,” said Skinner.
Shaheen said that while she is worried for the United States, where Zika is almost certain to spread, the potential impact on developing countries could be even more severe.
“We saw that with the Ebola virus, the countries in Africa that were infected did not have the same ability to respond as industrialized countries,” she said.
Countries have found a variety of ways to prepare their athletes for the games, such as providing window screens, air conditioners, and protective clothing.
Some of the preparations so far have been creative, if not exactly comforting. The Australian Olympic team, for example, will be provided with condoms containing VivaGel, an antiviral lubricant that the manufacturer says can help stop the spread of Zika.
But the problem with Zika, said Shaheen, is that new information comes to light about how the virus spreads and what the effects are comes to almost daily….
Repubs don't care as much about Zika as they did about Ebola bc the public can't be as easily manipulated to fear dying from Zika
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) May 24, 2016
Surely we can count on Republicans, especially those who support their current presidential nominee, to respond with all the sophistication for which Donald Trump is renowned…
@ABC going to have to stop using pepper spray on illegals and switch to pesticides
— Emmanuel Patton (@mannykpatton) May 20, 2016
redshirt
The Repukes literally want this to spread in America so they can use it as a campaign “issue”. Issues = FEAR for Repukes, of course.
PsiFighter37
There have been Zika ads for a while in the NYC subways. Meanwhile, I have visited South Florida (Miami area) 3 times in the past 1.5 months, and nary a public announcement about it. I’d be mildly amused about Marco Rubio’s massive arm-wringing about his fellow Republicans voting down Zika funding if I wasn’t worried that the Olympics is going to turn it into a widespread disease bomb.
Also, funny how the GOP is exposing its base (the Deep South) to the virus the most by not getting funding. Or they figure the backwater folks never travel anywhere and thus have zero chance of catching it.
PsiFighter37
ETA: Good thing I have no further trips to the South planned anytime soon. I’d love to go back to New Orleans soon, but if this becomes a problem down south – adios, baby. You better hope President Clinton has sympathy for you.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I suppose it isn’t possible to mimic it everywhere in the country, even with funding and competence that large portions of it fail to demonstrate, but the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District here in the Twin Cities has done an amazing job reducing mosquito presence over the last decade. I hardly ever get bitten anymore.
Gin & Tonic
@PsiFighter37:
But mosquitoes do. And they don’t need a US visa.
NorthLeft12
@PsiFighter37: NO, those GOP douchebags know that their insane base will blame Obama for anything bad that happens. This goes beyond incompetence and dereliction of their duty of office…they just cannot do anything that Obama asks. Period. That has been the plan since day one of his presidency, and it ain’t changing now.
redshirt
@PsiFighter37: As if they care if they carpet bomb the South. Unless some Congressman’s wife or daughter is affected, of course.
kindness
Let us not discount that part of Republicans dithering is their obsession for not allowing the first black president any successes, any appearance of competence and integrity. Now you and I see that for what it is but to a lot of Bubbas out there it sells. Stick it to the man! They don’t care their next door neighbor’s kid is born retarded.
Adam L Silverman
This is going to be a massive crisis. Between the potential symptoms, such as Guillan-Barre syndrome for the infected to microcephalic babies, this is going to get ugly. And the fact that government hasn’t responded, because one faction within one party has tied its caucus into knots – not that that took much doing, will simply become a huge example of how government doesn’t work and cant be counted on so we should just dismantle it.
Anne Laurie
@PsiFighter37:
Yeah, until the Zika-infected mosquitos show up “here” — which they will do, inevitably. (Even if we could keep every single infected mosquito out, and we can’t, eventually some American will come home with Zika circulating in their bloodstream & infect “our” mosquitos.) Unless “we” discover a very effective vaccine & get it widely circulated within months, not to mention drastic mosquito-control efforts in every state below the Mason-Dixon line… all of which takes, you know, money. Public funding.
Mike G
Repukes and their mouthbreather followers benefit from the failures of government, so of course they will do everything to prevent an effective response. When the government fails to control the disease (due to their sabotage), they can grandstand about how that proves government never works and the Kenyan is bringing third world diseases into the country because he’s a sekrit mooslin terrist, and Fox and their drooler audience will bray along in agreement.
redshirt
For a true dystopian future, we need to panic approve some genetic modification to the mosquito genome to battle zika that then behaves in ways we didn’t predict, leading to the Mansquito and all of our doom.
Mnemosyne
They’ll say that it’s evil to abort a fetus with microcephaly because women should joyfully accept what God has decided to burden them with, etc. etc. etc. I’ve already seen them do it with fetuses that have developed with no brain at all (anencephaly) and have zero chance of survival outside of the womb, so it’s a very short jump for them.
All this, of course, while cutting funding for any kind of healthcare or educational assistance, because those sluts should have thought about the possibility of getting infected with zika before they decided to have a planned baby with their partner.
dmsilev
@Gin & Tonic:
Clearly, we need to build a gigantic net extending across the length of the border. And get the mosquitos to pay for it, of course.
Elie
What many of the hoi poloi don’t get is that it isn’t just anencephaly and other effects on the fetus — which are bad enough. The other bad deal is the Guilliam Barre syndrome that affects people in varying severity from some transient to sometimes permanent paralysis. Again, it doesn’t affect everyone, but if you are one of those who draws the ace, you are good and fucked. There may be other impacts on the immune system as well though none explicit enough to make everyone run for the exits. It is an opportunity for our government to get ahead but of course, with the repubs in charge, we will be behind
PsiFighter37
@Anne Laurie: Oh, I have zero doubt it will be a huge problem in the South. I’m just indulging my general regional hatred of the South, ex-New Orleans really (Austin is overrated, and Florida is incredibly overrated. Although I have recently learned that South Beach is populated with very, very attractive women. None of whom I spoke to, as my wedding ring was pretty much like the plague. Diversion much?).
PF37 +5
Patricia Kayden
Republicans are extremely creative in going lower and lower. Not providing funding to fight a possible epidemic is beyond foul. Yet they always run their mouths about protecting the American people and promoting so called family values.
Focus less on transgender people’s bathroom usage and focus more on Zika.
Jeffro
Have to agree with Tim Hert: time to NAME NAMES and NAME PARTIES.
Now more than ever.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
Just wait until a safe and effective vaccine is developed and rich liberals in California refuse to let their kids be vaccinated because TEH AUTISTM!
(Everybody here knows that it’s been proven multiple times that vaccines don’t cause autism, right? Right.)
oklahomo
As the climate warms, won’t this allow the mosquitoes to have longer active seasons? And move farther and farther north?
SFAW
Tom Clancy strikes again. He envisioned a 9/11-like disaster in Debt of Honor, and Rainbow Six, where the terrorists plan to spread a plague via the Olympics, sounds not too far off from Zika and Rio.
As long as he didn’t write one where a short-fingered, narcissistic buffoon becomes President, who then starts nucular war, I guess we’re OK.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: I am constantly amazed by both the White House, House, and Senatorial Democrats inability and/or unwillingness to effectively message. Its not like being polite to the opposition has gotten them anywhere since 2002.
Adam L Silverman
@oklahomo: yes, but here in the US we have American Exceptionalism. So we don’t have to worry about climate change.
SFAW
@dmsilev:
Keep coming up with ideas like that, and President Trump will name you his new DHS head, or his head of Human Disservices. Or both
oklahomo
@Mnemosyne: Do those sorts of parents get vaccinated themselves? If not, some of the kids won’t need vaccinated; it will be too late. And same-said parents will be themselves vectors.
Punchy
No, Ebola was scary because it came from Black people. Zika sounds exotic, comes from exotic lands, and only affect chicks, so whatevs, right?
No to mention, it’ll raise abortion rates, just like abstenience-only ed, so in a mind boggling, WTF? kinda way Repubs must be pro-Zika
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Unless you’re a Rethug, falsely claiming that the Dems are doing that. Then, it’s all good. (Recent example, Turtle boy re: Fat Nino’s replacement, before the “clean-up” team even had a chance to get Nino out of the wetsuit.)
The Dangerman
Rio will be coming out of Winter in August; the problem with the Olympics should be minimized (but not eliminated, if I understand correctly).
Mike in NC
Wingnuts who watch FOX News are convinced that ISIL has thousands of Mexican/Muslim terrorists infected with deadly viruses swarming across the border every day. But Drumpf has a yooooge foolproof plan to pick them all up.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in NC: Tongs, very large salad tongs.
Face
@Anne Laurie: You’re leaving out the non-trivial factoid that our country is home to a non-trivial number of anti-vaxxers. So even if we get on that train, it’ll be derailed by helicopter moms and facial hair dads trying to avoid contracting autism.
Mnemosyne
@oklahomo:
A lot of them do avoid vaccinations for themselves as well. But, as zika becomes more established, there’s probably going to have to be a widespread vaccination program like there is with measles or whooping cough, and that’s where the idiots will suddenly appear.
(Note: IANA doctor or epidemiologist or anything like that, just an informed layperson.)
danielx
@oklahomo:
That would be a large fuckin’ affirmative in response to your question. Had frost here last week and I’m STILL starting to empty water from plant saucers and the like. Which is no bad idea even without the threat of Zika virus, or dengue fever, or malaria, etc etc.
And yes, the inevitable Republican response will be that Obama should have asked for five times the money six months earlier, because reasons. (i.e.; he should have known we’d be total assholes about the whole thing and planned ahead for that, then he might have gotten some money by now.)
And yes, the right-to-life nutcases will inevitably claim that people should joyfully embrace the possibility of being parent to babies born without a forebrain. It’s gawd’s will, donchaknow.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Adam L Silverman: Meh. They did strong messaging after Sandy Hook and the wingers still filibustered a proposal (background checks) that had 90 percent approval in the public.
I thought we long agreed that the wingnut modus operandi is simply to piss of Dems and obstruct any action they propose, even ones they may agree with or has broad public support (ie relief for Hurricane Sandy, farm bill, transportation bill, Judge Garland, Ex-Im bank, GITMO).
pseudonymous in nc
@efgoldman:
And that’s your thread, really. Just as ebola was African Jungle Plague to them, zika is perceived by the #keepamericawhite brigade as a gift from heaven.
danielx
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Yep. I’ve often fantasized about that bad man in the White House coming out in favor of oxygen, just to see if there would be a massive increase in auto-asphyxiation cases. One can always hope.
burnspbesq
One Republican who has really pleasantly surprised me during this mess is Jonny Isaakson.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: How do they do it? We live in an area where there are lots of mosquito nesting areas. Part of our backyard is wetlands off and on during the year. A neighbor stopped by the other day to ask if we’re interested in banding together to hire mosquito control, but I’m leery of using pesticides for that purpose. We are in the Chesapeake Bay catchment area, and I don’t want pesticides making it into the Bay to further endanger the crabs and other aquatics. But especially the yummy crabs.
Is there another way?
Face
@Adam L Silverman: I hate this shit criticism. Message via whom? Repubs own talk radio–completely–as well as cable (Fox, CNN (Fox-lite), CNBC, etc). Dems dont message because they have NO platform by which to do so. You think Chuck Toad and Brian Williams are going to push Dem memes? Nope, they’re BSDI 24/7 no matter what the topic.
Until the Dems can get the media to listen and report, or perhaps start a block of liberal cable news stations, there cant be any effective messaging.
PsiFighter37
@The Dangerman: It’s close enough to the Equator that it doesn’t really make a difference what season it technically is.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@PsiFighter37: The mosquito’s range is far beyond the deep south – e.g. central Ohio.
CDC Infographic
:-(
WHO:
It’s that last bit that is most worrying to me – who knows how much more mutating it’s going to be doing in coming months and years…
Cheers,
Scott.
redshirt
@burnspbesq: I’d like to confess that I’ve come to like Republican from Texas John Culberson. He’s personally overseen approval of a spaceship to Europa. Which is awesome. NASA got unrequested budget increases because of Culberson. He even ensured funding for Earth science missions which had been previously on the House cutting block for anti-Global Warming reasons.
danielx
@efgoldman:
Hey, if a concept or idea doesn’t fit the ideology, it’s bad by definition. Whether it works/saves lives is irrelevant. You know, like Social Security, Medicare, the National Institutes of Health…
trollhattan
Had a hummingbird hover two feet from my face just now, chirping and considering whether to…land? Little critters seem to have an innate curiosity, I’m just glad to be in a world they inhabit.
burnspbesq
@redshirt:
Ergo te absolvo, in nomine Patri …
Dork
@danielx: To think that Cleek’s Law may be more invariant than gravity, magnetism, and the Kardashians on TV.
seaboogie
@oklahomo: True. And I love your nym, among so many others here. I suspect that Fema Camp Counselors and Death Panel Trucks are one and the same, and love them nyms too.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@Mnemosyne: One of the reasons anti-vaxxers are able to rationalize their opposition is because they haven’t been exposed to the devastation of a measles or rubella or polio epidemic. Once micro-cephalic babies start showing up at mommy-and-me classes, and grandma or brother suffers Guillan-Barre syndrome, you will see some vaccination converts. Of course, then an awful lot damage will already have been done…
trollhattan
@Kay (not the front-pager):
Our abatement district makes mosquito fish (Gambusia) available for ponding water that can’t be easily drained or sprayed. Is that a possibility? There are also bacterial treatments and non-toxic controls.
greennotGreen
Republicans can block pandemic funding because They Are Not Scientists. (Also not rational human beings.)
Slightly OT, Grant Starrett is running for Congress from Tennessee, competing for Scott DesJarlais’s seat. Thank goodness, I thought! Someone to replace that national embarrassment. And then I read his campaign literature. He’s a “Christian” running to the right of Desjarlais! Repeal Obamacare, cut food stamps, defend the (second part of the) Second Amendment.
So, I was hungry and you didn’t feed me. I was sick and you didn’t visit me, and you made sure the doctor didn’t either. I was a stranger and you shot me on sight. That’s a different verse than I remember from Sunday School.
As for Zika, I think Republicans really don’t understand the passage, “Suffer the little children…”
Mnemosyne
@greennotGreen:
Oh, it’s in there, but it seems your guy is confused about whether’s he’s on God’s right or God’s left:
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Kay (not the front-pager): You can read about it here. It’s mostly larva control with minimal spraying for adults. The stuff they use for larval control is pretty much harmless to everything else, and they don’t spray for adults near water.
They also run educational campaigns to get people to dump out whatever open water containers they have outdoors. It all seems to work very well without any side effects that anyone has noticed.
seaboogie
@Adam L Silverman:
True – and this might be an opening for Hillary WRT messaging. Instead of addressing Trump’s infantile and insidious attacks directly, she should attack his “I’ll hire all the best people” BS and lack of knowledge of how government and the various agencies actually work. Then she can go all “Ebola” on Zika, but make it a motherhood and fatherhood issue, and call out the Repubs for wanting power, with no plan to govern. Just obstruct and try to dismantle in order to prove that gov’t doesn’t work. Gov’t works, for the most part, even if Republicans don’t or won’t.
One hopes that this would have some effect down-ticket against the Tea Partiers, and also bring the Bern-feelers onside; get involved and elect people who want to govern and support them in their efforts, especially during mid-terms.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@trollhattan: My experience has been that hummingbirds don’t seem to realize I’m there. They seem to have no fear of people. When one darts around while I’m in the garden I feel like that Star Trek episode where Kirk got sped up so that it looked like the rest of the ship’s crew was frozen in place. I don’t think they really see us as alive.
Adam L Silverman
@Face: I fully get the tilted playing field, but that just means you make the most of your opportunities. Its not like there’s never a daily White House Press Briefing. The President never addresses the Nation or does an interview. Neither does Senator Reid or Congresswoman Pelosi. You take those spots and hammer home your message ever time, with consistent message discipline, and that includes hitting the press over and over about failing to actually do their jobs and espousing the view from nowhere.
divF
@seaboogie: I got another one. Reality Show Trials – they are what Trump would use to prosecute enemies of the State.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay (not the front-pager): Yes, there is a mosquito larvae eating fish. Its not invasive, as in it won’t crowd out other fish, and you should be able to get the state department of fish and wildlife to seed the wetland or pond or lake with them.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@trollhattan: Mosquito fish wouldn’t work (the standing water is not so much a puddle as squishy sod and puddles), but the bacterial control might. Is that like those granules or ‘donuts’ you can put in your birdbath?
ETA: I guess I should call the county for suggestions. They may have a mosquito abatement program I don’t know about. They are pretty good about that sort of thing. Democratic local government actually works!
seaboogie
@divF:
Excellent. Maybe Scott can take it, since he isn’t sure who he wants to be yet. I was just going to suggest he opt for *Scott* which doesn’t appear to be taken. But maybe could have a nym suggestion thread and offer him other creative options.
Are you tracking this, Scott? Could be fun….
Keith P.
CNN Breaking News – “Protesters break through barriers, light fires, throw rocks outside Trump rally in Albuquerque, NM” Whoa.
Lamh36
Alright, finally watching Mission Impossible Rogue Nation
Only took me what… a year ?
uv a cool kick azz spy lady. Is it just me or is this Rebecca Ferguson chick a dead ringer for M. Monaghan who looked just like Katie Holmes. so either “Ethan Hunt” has a type or Tom Cruise does.
Who would have though Simon Pegg would become some kind of action dude…and it all started with Shaun of the Dead…lol
One of my fav bits about the MI films, the spy technology doesn’t seem “impossible” to come true, some have since become real.
Seriously though, does Ving Rhames just sit around and count his money or something during the downtime between MI films?
NOT at all surprised TC did much of actual driving in the car chase scene. he’s crazy but fun to watch
posted from my IPhone
Kay (not the front-pager)
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Thanks for the link!
Really?
@Adam L Silverman: Dear Mr. Silverman, you are way too good and.
Adam L Silverman
@Keith P.: It is important to remember that the original night riders in America where New Mexicans trying to terrorize and force out the Anglos who had moved into the territory from the East.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@Adam L Silverman: Congresswoman Pelosi has a weekly press conference. I believe so does Harry Reid (is that the right spelling?). The president records a weekly address. The problem isn’t that Democratic Leadership doesn’t talk to the press, the problem is that the press doesn’t listen, nor does it relay the information on to the public.
? Martin
I’m sure Congress could find the money by closing some Planned Parenthoods, that they don’t pay for anyway. Maybe they could take the savings from trans accommodations in bathrooms, which is pretty much nothing more than changing a bunch of blue signs.
trollhattan
@Kay (not the front-pager):
That’s a great description–metabolisms so cranked up we don’t even share the same space. I need to rig a camera to figure out which varieties we have in addition to the year-round Anna’s.
redshirt
I’ve successfully drained my mountain redoubt and no longer have mosquitoes, AMA.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@Keith P.: You know how Donnie said the protesters were paid to protest? I think he’s right. And I think he’s the one paying them. They are all part of his act.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay (not the front-pager): I’m tracking. But that means you just keep hammering and hammering and hammering. Every time a camera and microphone is stuck in your face you start with the message. And you have your own staff making their own recordings and put it on your website and use social media to put out that this was what happened at the press conference and if you didn’t see it on the news, its because the news media has decided to not cover it. Just keep hammering them. This type of punishment seems to be what they respond to. So trying it can’t hurt.
chopper
@redshirt:
won it in one. the goopers think a zika epidemic or the serious possibility of one is an election year goldmine. there’s no fucking way they’re going to want to spend money on stopping it.
bmoak
@danielx:
Obama should do a PSA about the danger of drinking Drano.
Adam L Silverman
@Really?: thanks. Are you okay? You seem to have been cut off abruptly.
Kay (not the front-pager)
Now this might work! I guess the first on-message message should be that the media doesn’t cover Democrats. I know bloggers point out that the news shows only have Republicans on (and that seems to be getting worse), but if Democratic politicians started mentioning it like a Tourrette’s symptom, it might get through.
trollhattan
@Kay (not the front-pager):
Ah, swampy. The bacteria–B.t.i.–is the ingredient in the dunks, but I don’t know if it’s cost-effective over large areas.
I’m holding out hope for genetically modified mosquitoes that either can’t breed or don’t bite. Yesterday would be fine.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay (not the front-pager): Its how the GOP and conservative movement actors worked the refs. Sauce for the goose and all that.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@greennotGreen:
There is a logic behind the Teabagger’s opposition. It’s not a rational logic, but there is one.
Their number one goal is to cut any part of the government that works on social programs, supports social programs, or legitimizes social programs.
That’s why they want to cut taxes so much (to try to force reductions in government spending).
That’s why they are quite happy to do nothing (so no new social programs can start, and so existing social programs can’t be improved).
That’s why they’re preventing Garland from being seated (so the SCOTUS can’t move toward the center and roll back some of the anti-government decisions of the past 35 years).
That’s why they’re dragging their feet on the Zika funding. They’re not anti-science, they just don’t want the government to spend any new money on it. They demanded that the money come from somewhere else in the budget so that no new money would be spent.
They’ll fight every proposal that is a social good that costs new money. They’ll eventually approve just enough money to cover their butt’s so that if something bad happens they can blame Obama and the CDC – “Hey, we gave them plenty of money – imagine what you could do with $600M!! They were incompetent in doing their jobs!!11 That’s why we need to cut their funding and let the private sector do the work!!111”
I don’t think that Obama doing bully-pulpit stuff will help much unless he can attack their intransigence from inside their world-view. And he has tried to do some of that.
Stress the local aspects. Stress the need for the private sector to get what they need. Stress the need to get information to people so they don’t panic and so that we quickly know where the need is. The first two directly combat Teabagger memes.
It would be nice if there was a simple way to get the Teabaggers to vote sensibly. They’re not going to. They need to be voted out, but until January they’re going to have votes that have to be considered…
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@Lamh36:
We saw The Good Guys this weekend — you might like it because you like action movies. It’s by the same guy who wrote and directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and is fairly similar.
The “mystery” part is a total mess. I still don’t have any idea who wanted those people dead and how they killed them. But the action scenes are good. I think the extended fight between Russell Crowe and Keith David is supposed to be reminiscent of the one between Roddy Piper and Keith David in They Live.
Lamh36
Tell me again, why I shouldn’t mock anyone who votes Repubican.
Bunch of idiots perfectly willing to put a clown like Donald fuqn Trump into the Presidency…smh
Really white people, REALLY!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@seaboogie: :-)
Tracking…
Cheers,
Scott.
Face
@Kay (not the front-pager): BINGO. Thats my point, summed perfectly. Dem leaders can opine all they want, but no one is watching CSPAN. There’s no messaging infrastructure devoted to spreading progessive memes. None. Air America tried and failed. The MSM flat refuses to spread the word, instead working rather openly with the GOP framing of events.
amygdala
@oklahomo:
Yes to both. In temperate regions, human (and animal) outbreaks occur mostly during summer, when mosquitoes are active. Around the equator, mosquito season is year-round and hence humans (and other hosts) are constantly at risk for disease, too.
A non-pesticide approach to vector control is genetically modified mosquitoes, and there has been discussion about this as a public health intervention. Even putting aside the g-word, which tends to scare people, biologists raise concerns about attempting to eradicate an entire mosquito species or several.
There are a couple of aspects of Zika transmission that are troubling beyond microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). First is that most people who get the virus don’t get major symptoms related to the acute infection, which means it won’t be possible to screen based on clinical criteria. Second is sexual transmission, which is unusual for flaviviruses. That allows transmission to continue even without mosquitoes. I’m guessing that won’t be as efficient as vector-borne transmission, but it could mean that even in temperate climates, new cases could occur in spring and fall, or maybe year-round.
Microcephaly is always worrisome, but what scares me about Zika is that it’s looking like the virus goes after fetal neural progenitor cells. I hope like hell I’m wrong, but I suspect that will bode especially badly for neurologic outcome in affected infants. The best clinical data for GBS comes from Reunion Island, where there was a Zika outbreak a few years ago. The French studied these patients carefully and it looks like most of them recovered fairly well (this is often the case in GBS) and pretty quickly (this is atypical, particularly for the type of GBS that seems to be associated with Zika). And it at least was relatively rare.
I’m beyond enraged at House Republicans around this. One of the tough things about public health is you can’t win for losing. Prevent a major outbreak, and you get accused of being alarmist. If an outbreak happens, you screwed up.
Edited to close parenthesis.
Mnemosyne
@srv:
Isn’t Paul Babeau the guy who threatened to have his boyfriend deported if his boyfriend tried to break up with him?
PurpleGirl
@PsiFighter37:
There have been Zika ads for a while in the NYC subways.
I get my healthcare at a NYC-owned hospital. They still have signs posted about Ebola and they still ask you if you’ve been to west Africa within x-amount of time. I think they’ve put up signs about Zika also. Anyway, the signs will be posted.
Re not caring about their constituents in the South. No, it’s not because the Republican elites don’t think the people travel very far. The South has a lot of swampy rivers and lakes, which are prime breeding grounds for mosquitos, etc. They Know the bugs will breed and they think the people are too stupid to respond to education about the Zita virus. The hold their voters in contempt.
redshirt
@Face: Yep. The entire mainstream media apparatus is geared against the common person. Local papers still get it, but for how long? As the poison of Republican courses through the Body Politic.
MikeBoyScout
Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks.
You’ll want to watch and listen.
Yes.WeCan.
https://youtu.be/q1Mrfu4yE-w
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: Yes, yes he is.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/republican-sheriff-paul-babeu-outed-as-gay-by-ex-lover-running-again-for-congress-7719091
amk
#ODS extremism = self harming. Of course, rw’ers will elect these clowns again.
amk
@Adam L Silverman:
Guess all those weekly addresses and almost monthly interviews are just for giggles.
PurpleGirl
Besides, I think moswt of the Republican Congresscritters haven’t travel abroad themselves. They are mpre in the mold of Dubya, who showed NO interest or curiosity in traveling.
Mike J
The above is from a resolution introduced at our last District Democrats meeting. Would anybody like to guess at the outcome of the (nonbinding) Washington State primary tonight?
http://results.vote.wa.gov/results/current/President-Democratic-Party_ByCounty.html
hahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahah!
redshirt
@PurpleGirl: What do you mean? W. loved to travel. He was at his “ranch” all the time.
Adam L Silverman
@amk: I was being somewhere between facetious and saracastic. I figured that one was obvious. I apologize for any confusion and will go back to use // as sarcasm tags in the future.
bluehill
It is ironic that the repubs profess their love of country while doing so many things to weaken it. They have shutdown the government in all but name and their best con is get the public to believe both parties are equally to blame.
This is what worries me about Trump. I feel that a large segment of voters have resigned themselves to their lot in life and figure that neither candidate will help them so they might as vote for someone who projects the power and life that they will never have.
Ella inNew Mexico
I’m really confused.
This thread is ostensibly about something incredibly important, possibly a world catastrophe.
And yet there’s not a single post here about why Bernie Sanders is an asshole for staying in the race.
Hmmmmm…Did I miss something, or could there possibly be anything more important than that issue here at BJ?
amk
@Adam L Silverman: Guess you should, given the responses.
redshirt
@Ella inNew Mexico: Bernie Sanders is an asshole for not staying in this race but rather the manner in which he and his team have done so.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ella inNew Mexico: Then why be an asshole about it?
? Martin
@PurpleGirl:
They treat Zika like AIDS. Its what brown people get, not white people. Show us some nice blonde middle class women holding Zika babies and money will show up within hours.
sm*t cl*de
It is fortunate that only sporting delegations travel to the games, not spectators as well.
chopper
@redshirt:
yup. he’s an asshole because he’s running an asshole campaign.
PurpleGirl
@oklahomo: I don’t know if those parent get current new vaccines but I’m sure that when they were children they got the standards vaccines — polio, measles, chicken pox, etc.
redshirt
@efgoldman: Poor people are more likely to live in swamps, if The History Channel has taught me anything.
Mnemosyne
@sm*t cl*de:
It’s much easier to track a sporting delegation starting in their home country and following them through the Olympics and for several months beyond than it is to track random spectators who will all have different arrival and departure times.
Really?
@Adam L Silverman: Dear sir, May I just add that in nearly fifteen years lurking and making snide statements(punctuation) that you are wonderful and informative person and yadda yadda. Cheers!
danielx
@Ella inNew Mexico:
I was not at all missing a Sanders/Clinton “discussion”.
seaboogie
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Cheers!
Beth
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: I live in a cypress swamp. Or more accurately a wetland that was developed before the zoning rules to protect wetlands were put in place.
Adam L Silverman
@Really?: Thanks again. And I’m honored to have pulled you out of your lurkerdom.
RaflW
Also, too, in the horror show category, if this hasn’t been linked to already upthread:
Mnemosyne
In So Cal election news, the local assembly election has gotten nasty. I received competing campaign flyers today, each alleging that the other candidate is secretly — horror of horrors! — a Republican!
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman:
So, “somewhere in Florida”.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: I could drain that swamp. I’d need only large digging machines.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: Yes, though in Florida’s defense a good chunk of the state that isn’t wetland is just a glorified sand bar.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: Its still a wetland.
seaboogie
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Supreme Commander of Obvious Truth-Telling….
Kind of magisterial and weighty – if you are feeling bold…
Cheers,
Beth
seaboogie
@redshirt:
And perhaps some mosquito netting. I’ve seen extreme Guillain-Barre up close and personal – and lethal.
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman: I did a six month contract in Lakeland. It was where i learned to demand stuff in contracts. Every Monday when I flew into Tampa I had a red convertible waiting for me to partially make up for being there.
Major Major Major Major
Good evening, Juicers.
J R in WV
@Kay (not the front-pager):
Kay, there is a commonly used substance called BT, short for Bacillus thuringiensis, a common organism in dirt. It is grown in specific strains for specific insects, and there are strains for mosquitos.
Here’s the link to the Wikipedia article on it.
Here’s the link to the National Pesticide Information Center data sheet on it.
It isn’t harmful to other critters, only one strain of it even affects honeybees. It doesn’t replicate after being sprayed, won’t harm fish or tadpoles, and works well against skeeters. Check it out, print the data sheets for your neighbors.
Really?
Now it has become my New Mexico-class might just survive those torpedoes.
redshirt
@Major Major Major Major: Add an emoticon.
seaboogie
@efgoldman: We’ll need an evacuation plan for Ms. Cracker and fam – she is too precious to us to lose….
redshirt
@seaboogie: Nope. Don’t care if workers get zikaria.
Adam L Silverman
@seaboogie: We’ll have a request in for the larvae eating fish for the retention ponds again. And I don’t go out during skeeter times without appropriate protection on.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: still waiting.
@redshirt: ?
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: Nice. My last TDY the orders came with a coupon for a rental upgrade. They didn’t have anything one class up so they stuck me in an extended cab F150. I was expecting F18As to be landing on the hood!
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: Amazingly enough we’re not in a flood zone. We’re a good fifteen miles from the Gulf in one direction and about ten from the Northern edge of Tampa Bay in the other.
redshirt
@Major Major Major Major: I like it. Literal thumbs up!
seaboogie
@redshirt:
Working that non-compassion thing pretty hard these days, n’est-ce pas? (Nod to Omnes…for the French, Omnes, just for the French!)
Major Major Major Major
@redshirt: it’s my favorite emoji.
Omnes Omnibus
@seaboogie: What the hell? Not you, redshirt. Jebus.
redshirt
@seaboogie: We all die as fodder in a war that will literally never end.
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman: Taught me an important lesson. People like the little symbolic things, even when they’re cheap. The extra cost per week for a sports car was less than they were paying per hour(not all to me), and I tolerated being in the middle of nowhere. People like being appreciated! Who would have thought?
Major Major Major Major
@redshirt: the war against entropy does alas have an ending.
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus: Holy shit did you actually get a joke?!
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: Dear god, you are off on this again?
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus: LOL
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: That’s crazy talk!//
(I’ve used sarc tags because apparently when I’m sarcastic no one else can tell…)
seaboogie
@Omnes Omnibus: @redshirt:
Am getting that I am the butt of said joke, please explain.
redshirt
@Major Major Major Major: The war never ends, obviously.
redshirt
@seaboogie: Blame Omnes, as usual.
mental.masala
Without a strong Federal response thanks to the GOP Congresscritters, I’m sure the ‘free market’ will come up with a great solution, right? Right?
Omnes Omnibus
@seaboogie: redshirt complains when people talk about a tragic event because X people died in traffic accidents or Y died in a Taiwanese ferry disaster and we didn’t talk about it.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@J R in WV: Thanks, will do. I think a big problem will be finding all the wet spots in and under rocks and in the crooks and hollows of trees. Chasing down the little buggers is a chore. And it has been a really wet spring. Also the deer ticks are a problem… Both my husband and I have had Lyme infections. I’m talking myself into thinking this is a problem that can be addressed by throwing money at it, as in hiring someone to spread the mosquito plague.
Thanks to everyone who addressed this! I have a lot of information to share with my neighbors now.
PurpleGirl
@Adam L Silverman: On one of my trips to Southern Florida Nick took me on a tour of several areas, we were going through an area close to the Everglades. It was a community of all new houses and he told me he didn’t buy in that area because it was land drained and filled in from the Everglades. The problem — the bugs kept returning each year to breed and he knew he didn’t to be near that. (He was raised in Southern Florida.) The bugs just didn’t want to leave the area..
Ella inNew Mexico
@redshirt: @Omnes Omnibus: @chopper:
Whew! Thank goodness! I was worried you guys had gotten off track with this whole Zika distraction. Thanks for the reassurance you’re on this “Bernie Sander’s losing campaign is the apocalypse” thing like white on rice!
Maybe we need to signal Hilary that her “pivoting to the general” is a waste of time.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ella inNew Mexico: You brought the Bernie discussion into a completely unrelated thread. I called you an asshole for doing it. That is all. If you want to play the victim, take a walk.
redshirt
@Ella inNew Mexico: Since you live in New Mexico you also have to worry about Plague: The Bubonic and other types of Plague.
Major Major Major Major
Three kerbals just died and NOBODY NOTICED. You’re all MONSTERS.
Mike J
If people really want it, I’m happy to contribute. Sandernistas complain about the shape of the earth.
redshirt
@Major Major Major Major: RIP Bytes.
Major Major Major Major
@redshirt: Oh, so you’ll say “RIP” for bytes but not for meatspace humans.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: Please tell me it wasn’t Jebediah.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: It was an unmanned probe, but I wanted to add something to the conversation. I lied ?
Jebediah!’s safe up on the Mün, don’t worry.
Cacti
For the second time in this election cycle, Bernie is getting his ass kicked in a non-binding primary, that had a much higher turnout than the caucus he’d previously won.
Washington’s non-binding primary draws almost 3x as many votes as the official Democratic caucus, and Bernie carries only 46% of the primary vote vs. 72% of the caucus vote.
Note to WA’s uncommitted supers: Bernie’s prior declaration of an overwhelming mandate from WA Dems is bullshit.
Adam L Silverman
@PurpleGirl: Its a problem Things are too often built in Florida in places they should not have been built. Its better than it was, but its still a problem.
redshirt
@Major Major Major Major: We’re all already dead. It’s the manner you find out how is what defines you. Good luck changing it.
seaboogie
@Omnes Omnibus: So, a bro that has not been tested by life – other than not turning on the heat in his joint. And so clever!
PurpleGirl
@redshirt: I double checked The Google and Hantavirus is carried by fleas and mice. It kills in 4 days.
Mike J
@Cacti:
At our last LD meeting, Representative Smith (WA-08) cited the primary as one of the reasons he didn’t trust the caucus to reflect the will of the voters.He said he would vote for whoever got the majority of delegates. This was the same meeting in which a vocal minority called for a vote against endorsing Gov Inslee for the office of governor since he hadn’t promised to vote for Bernie. We overwhelmingly voted to endorse the sitting Democratic governor. What a surprise!
Major Major Major Major
@redshirt: I never did get the hang of Lost.
redshirt
@Major Major Major Major: Your loss. Such wonderful stories!
Mike J
@redshirt: Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Lost just piled weird shit on top of weird shit until they shrugged and said, “we’re canceled”. As much as I love weird shit, there was no actual story.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: First few seasons were good though.
seaboogie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sorry – just got it. You think I’m dissing you. Not the case at all. Dissing rs, but using French in a sort of intellectual flirtation with you. Hence the nod. For the record (per something I wrote the other eve too about being shirty) just assume that I am on your side. That should be your first instinct when I respond to your comments. Forget the French – apparently I’m not even using English correctly. It will be super-obvious if I am actually taking issue with something that you’ve posted.
Omnes Omnibus
@seaboogie: For fuck’s sake.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: Sure, when you didn’t know it wasn’t really going anywhere. Once you knew the writers had no clue what direction things were going it all seemed rather pointless.
seaboogie
@Omnes Omnibus: ?
Omnes Omnibus
@seaboogie: Click on the link.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: Yeah, I guess with the full context it… probably doesn’t stand up to repeat viewing.
Now there’s an interesting thought. It would have been better if it had just been stopped halfway through on accident. Any hypothetical, optimal, fan-theory second half would have been better than what we really got.
Perhaps most importantly, Not Penny’s Boat would be an awesome name for a band.
seaboogie
@Omnes Omnibus: I did click on the link, and it was a very general thread link – nothing specific. Try the link yourself and see if you get more than I can see.
Monala
@Mike J: not only did Clinton win, but she won the more heavily populated, blue areas of the state (except for Thurston County/Olympia, where Sanders squeaked out a win). Otherwise Sanders won the more conservative and rural areas.
Omnes Omnibus
@seaboogie: Jesus. No, you didn’t get it. I was just rolling my eyes at redshirt’s idiocy.
seaboogie
@Monala:
I think I see the problem right there. Cole might have some input on this. Thurston being a(n adorable) shit-disturber.
seaboogie
@Omnes Omnibus: This is why it is a good thing that I am not in a close interpersonal relationship right now. What I miss is everything, and I take it personally. Then I think that you are taking it personally and blame myself. Buddhist/Hindu nunnery* – here I come!
*Not an actual place, except in my mind.
CarolDuhart2
@Kay (not the front-pager):
Compared to the 24/7 radio and tv apparatus, which covers local as well as national with more than a side dish of propaganda, Presidential statements and press conferences have little impact. AM radio is struggling financially against even FM radio (youngs don’t tune int). Why cant more money be directed to liberal radio and liberal tv? They do exist, but they need more money.
Major Major Major Major
@seaboogie:
You don’t have friends? ?
seaboogie
@Major Major Major Major: Thank you M4, I do have a few friends. But they are discrete, and not a tribe. Long story. Life story. What I meant to say was not a life companion – which many of us don’t have. Would love to have the right Mr. S – but not just now. Thank you.
Major Major Major Major
@seaboogie: Friends are good ?
Well, you don’t need one ‘o them anywho. And to be honest I have no idea what OO was going on about either ?
seaboogie
@Major Major Major Major: Hey dude – if you ever feeling like crossing the bridge and driving up Sonoma way, give me a shout. Would be the tiniest BJ meetup ever. Tree with Water seems to have evaporated – must be the drought?
Major Major Major Major
@seaboogie: I’m not much of a driver, but I’ll keep it in mind. I do a week or so in Tomales every year usually.
Brachiator
I’ve been away from media, tv, internet. Is another Democratic debate definitely off? Has either Sanders or Clinton said what they would do about the zika?
Has Trump grunted anything coherent about the issue?
seaboogie
@Major Major Major Major: Not much of a driver here either – bridges and freeways are anathema to me – but I could manage a foray to Tomales – so keep in touch if you are headed that way.
Chris T.
Perhaps Der Trumpenfürher will build a yooge, classy
wallmosquito net…magurakurin
@redshirt: This. Bernie Sanders isn’t an asshole for staying in the race. He is an asshole by claiming morning, noon, and night that he has been cheated out of the nomination.
Washington Primary result (non binding)
Clinton 354,000
Sanders 306,000
Imagine if the results had been reversed and Clinton had won the caucus by 40 points and Sanders a primary vote of 10 times as many people by 6 points. All.Hell.Would.Break.Loose.
Chris T.
@dmsilev: Dammit, I thought I’d scanned thoroughly! :)
Zinsky
Legions of pin-headed, low intelligence people in the South sounds like a prescription for the revitalization of the Republican Party!
Bobby Thomson
Given that Ebola is transmitted completely differently, yeah, everyone who freaked the fuck out about it was a bed wetting moron.
Mosquito-borne viruses are different.
Bobby Thomson
@Monala: that’s not surprising. He’s the candidate of gun humpers and racists.
Bobby Thomson
@Ella inNew Mexico: we need the wood.
JMG
Obama’s got seven months left in office. He should go on national TV tonight, declare Zika an emergency and announce he’s spending whatever it takes starting immediately and the Congress can go to hell. They’ll impeach him. That’ll be a trial. He’s guilty of unconstitutionally protecting the country from a plague!!
Joel
Shit like this is partly why I want to switch over to infectious disease research.
AxelFoley
@Adam L Silverman:
Um, the President has consistently addressed the Zika Virus online and in interviews.
Jeffro
@JMG:
You’re right, he absolutely should do this (I’m being serious, not snarky). It’s that important.
And he can sign off with, “I’ll be back next week to talk about Judge Garland…”
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Kay (not the front-pager): The mosquito that carries Zika is sort of a “domestic” mosquito. It likes to live in houses and in tires and bottle caps and so forth. CDC:
Treating ponds and trees and so forth apparently isn’t necessary nor effective in controlling the Zika-carrying mosquito.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who figures lots of pest control companies are going to get business from scared people. I hope it doesn’t help make the coming outbreak worse because cheap, effective controls aren’t done instead.)
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Mike J:
You mean, they were Lost?
Hehe.
I slay me.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who never watched the show.)
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@CarolDuhart2: There’s a Pacifica station in DC – WPFW. J supports them and listens to them every morning. But they seem unwilling or unable to do the simple things that keep her happy as a supporter. E.g. they’ll have a fund drive, offer a premium for giving $150. J calls in and gives the $150. Months go by, and she doesn’t get the premium. She calls and writes. They don’t send the premium. A year goes by, they have a fund drive, she gives $150 for a premium. Months go by, …
Maybe they’re understaffed. Maybe they’re so broke that they can’t even send out their premiums. But it’s not the way to make supporters happy.
And WPFW is supposedly one of the Pacifica flagship stations in one of the most important markets in the US. I can imagine what it’s like for smaller progressive stations, and it’s not a pretty thought.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@AxelFoley: You and Face missed the point. I am aware that he does it, but its not enough to address the problem if you’re still too polite in your messaging to call out exactly who, in excruciatingly painful detail, is holding the process up and is going to be responsible for the public health disaster to come. Even in the material AL quoted at the top, the subject matter expert and former Obama Administration official blames “Congress”. Technically correct, but not an effective form of messaging here.
Snarki, child of Loki
It’s FAR too late for Zika measures.
Donald Trump’s Mother is ‘patient zero’ of the outbreak, and the virus has spread far and wide.
We’re all doomed, one way or the other.
Matt McIrvin
Commenter “bugboy”, apparently an expert on mosquito control, has a really interesting comment about this on LGM.
EthylEster
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: my mom worked for mosquito control in Tampa before she retired. They had a plane for “dusting”. A. Egypti was the main target. Of course I must now mention running behind the fogging truck as a kid.
chopper
@Ella inNew Mexico:
you’re the one who brought up bernie fucking sanders.
Bitter Scribe
@Mnemosyne: Yep. To them, no burden is too great for women to bear.
Also they’re using this as an excuse to gut regulations on dangerous pesticides.
Ella in New Mexico
@Omnes Omnibus: @Omnes Omnibus: @chopper: you three just don’t do sarcasm, apparently. Pity.
Uncle Cosmo
@Major Major Major Major:
You could replace “it” with Fringe (another Abrams abortion) as well as Lost & still be spot on. I think I’d constructed at least 3 different scenarios between seasons 3 & 4 that made more sense than the cluster-aw-hell-fuckitall that transpired.
artem1s
what this will cause is pre-emptive first trimester abortions and prophylactic use of the morning after pill. once this starts we will see a whole new round of legislation at the state level that will make it a criminal offense for women of child bearing years to be tested for Zika. Guilt will assumed. Only those who can afford private care and privacy will have access to early testing and termination. Doctors at hospitals (especially those owned by the church and other religious institutions) will be instructed to forgo Zika testing of their pregnant patients. They’ll be told to lie to their patients about risks to them and the fetus and they will be told to forego treatments that will favor the life of the mother over the fetus. Remember the panic and vilification that went on during the AIDS crisis and multiply. It’s sex and disease. The nightmare scenario for the rightwing to make every decision in the most horrifically wrong way.
so let’s all make sure we GOTV for the inevitable SCOTUS decisions this is going to bring about.
sherparick
@Face: I somewhat agree, although the Democrats could be more disciplined, at least the liberal democrats. The “moderate” or “blue dog” Democrats as a reflex, put out a “both sides” narrative (its not “us who want to work with our Republican colleagues, but those “crazy” liberals that keep us for working with Paul Ryan, just as his crazies keep him from working with us.”) I suspect Klain could not have gotten his opinion piece pass Fred Hiatt if he wrote “Republicans” instead of “Congress.”