Anger? Heartbreak? Disbelief? Berserker rage? Which should come first in response to this?
For forty years, the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male passively monitored hundreds of adult black males with syphilis despite the availability of effective treatment. The study’s methods have become synonymous with exploitation and mistreatment by the medical community. We find that the historical disclosure of the study in 1972 is correlated with increases in medical mistrust and mortality and decreases in both outpatient and inpatient physician interactions for older black men. Our estimates imply life expectancy at age 45 for black men fell by up to 1.4 years in response to the disclosure, accounting for approximately 35% of the 1980 life expectancy gap between black and white men. (h/t Jesse Singal at The Science of Us)
That’s the abstract of a paper by Stanford Medical School’s Marcella Alsan and the University of Tennessee economist Marianne Wanamaker. It’s currently in the working paper stage at the National Bureau of Economic Research (which is, despite its name, not a government research institution).
As Singal writes over at New York Magazine that means both that this is not quite the final draft of this paper (or at least, that it hasn’t yet gone through the whole journal process yet) — and that there is a host of nuance and specific contingencies that surround the Tuskeegee story. But the central point remains: specific acts of racial cruelty harm not just those bearing the immediate brunt, but also can — and did here — do lasting and lethal damage to so many more.
Alsan and Wanamaker conclude:
Our findings underscore the importance of trust for economic relationships involving imperfect information. Typically the literature on trust has focused on trade settings (Greif, 1989); however, much of medical care depends on health providers and patients resolving information asymmetries. Trust, therefore, is a key component of this interaction…
Indeed.
And if we needed any more reasons to take this election seriously (we don’t) think on this: Donald Trump’s candidacy is based on racism, on the denial of a share in American polity and society to those who look the wrong way. There’s a breach of trust there, deep and dangerous — and in so many ways, deadly as hell.
John Singer Sergant, Graveyard in the Tyrol, between 1914 and 1915
pat
Um..I think you transposed the e and a in his name.
eta: That is a powerful picture!
schrodinger's cat
deleted because I was unable to edit my comment.
schrodinger's cat
He has likened immigrants and their progeny to snakes, he is the Modern day Hitler. He hounded our President for months about his birth certificate. He has pronounced immigrants from some countries and their progeny incapable of assimilation.
The Republican party should be ashamed of enabling this man.
BGinCHI
GOP = White Supremacy
Trump is just the enervating symptom.
humboldtblue
Here is one white Republican man making a tearful and heartfelt apology. Utah Lt. Governor Spencer Cox speaks about Orlando.
JPL
I can’t imagine having young children, and watching Trump on TV. In the olden days, parents were concerned that young children would read the headlines in the NYTimes, about President Clinton. What about the children? Parents should be concerned now with older children watching a debate. I really don’t care how small his pe.nis is.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
It’s been posted here a few times now, but the Twitter stream of Trumps Greensboro rally from yesterday is next level scary. The hatred and naked racism is out and loud and proud. We need to CRUSH THEM at the ballot box.
JPL
@humboldtblue: That might be why Utah is in play.
schrodinger's cat
@JPL: Mormons have been persecuted for their religious beliefs and haven’t forgotten.
JPL
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Trump rallies are similar to reading comments at the AJC.
Elie
The Mormons aint into Trump — very markedly so from what I have heard….
gex
@humboldtblue: I still hold a big huge asterisk for religious or conservative folks who find ways to speak nicely about us. They have a tendency to find a way to give the appearance of not being a hater, while still supporting things like RFRAs or bathroom bills or adoption bans. Watch what legislation and policy he supports, don’t watch the words he said. Too many politicians get away with cheap words while supporting hateful, deadly policies.
gex
@gex: And I might add he was quick to write off political responses. You know like addressing the fact that RFRAs and bathroom bills tell religious folks they have a fundamental right to our absence. Or doing something about gun policy (the LDS owns one of the biggest online gun sale sights.)
humboldtblue
@JPL: I think you’re correct and Utah may also be filled with Mormons but SLC is a pretty progressive town and they are at least serious when it comes to serious issues and they recognize the clown that is Trump.
humboldtblue
@gex: Wholly understandable, but I think Cox may be on the right track. He’s pretty clear and you can take his words not mine for that.
Randy P
@gex: Let me just point out that there are religious liberals as well as conservatives. The Episcopals have been welcoming (so it appears to me from my admittedly limited vantage point as a straight beige-ish male). Indeed, the denomination had rather a large schism about 10 years back over the decision to be welcoming, in particular to ordain an openly gay Bishop.
I guess you could argue that the fact of the schism is an indication of a lot of intolerance, but the ones who stayed are the ones happy with the decision. :-)
debbie
So which is worse, the reason for a lawsuit or the reaction to it?
http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2016/06/parents-file-lawsuit-against-against-waco-private-school-after-12-year-old-daughter-suffers-severe-rope-burn-around-neck-on-field-trip.html/
Wapiti
I was in college in Georgia in 1979-83, and first heard about the Tuskegee Experiment then. Note that as the President, Bill Clinton apologized for it in 1997.
Mike J
Uhm, thanks, I guess?
amygdala
A decade or so ago, I did some reading on Tuskegee, as background work for a talk I was working on. The overall concept the study tested was revolting, but the invidiousness of it is sometimes clearer in the awful details. One that sticks out in my memory is that the investigators tracked subjects through their military service. The military tests its personnel for STIs periodically, but the Tuskegee subjects didn’t even receive treatment then, because the investigators somehow convinced the military to withhold penicillin.
Civilian-military cooperation, of the worst damn kind.
JPL
@debbie: Wow! Even if Trump doesn’t win, the assholes from the River Styx will never again go underground.
Randy P
Tiny bit of sunlight on this dark subject: the gap in life expectancy is finally, in 2016, beginning to narrow.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/09/health/blacks-see-gains-in-life-expectancy.html?_r=0
WaterGirl
@humboldtblue: Thank you for posting that. The LT governor seemed so very sincere and genuine. I got goose bumps listening to him speak.
The Thin Black Duke
The first step towards solving a problem is recognizing that there is a problem, so I suppose we can thank Donald Trump for providing a spotlight to a problem that is, to borrow a phrase from Tom Clancy, “a clear and present danger”.
debbie
@humboldtblue:
Then you have a Republican clown who loses all pretense of slickness in trying to explain himself on preventing gun sales to people on the terrorist watch list.
Sadly, he’s sure to win reelection.
patrick II
I was reading comments on at Youtube on Donald’s speech today. Here is my favorite:
Drader THE PROPHET OF AIDEN 1 hour ago
I was there, his hair is even more amazing in person.
Villago Delenda Est
Drumpf’s business practices are all about exploiting trust for his own personal benefit, with no regard for the consequences of the betrayal of trust.
Villago Delenda Est
Something over at yr Wonkette that everyone here should check out
rikyrah
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
I don’t think that it can be posted enough. Folks need to read that storyify. it is chilling.
JPL
@debbie: Yup.. a bipartisan consensus that gives the FBI 72 hours to determine whether or not the person is a danger. They investigated the murderer in Orlando for two years and deemed him safe.
rikyrah
Not only Tuskegee, but the story of Henrietta Lacks.
As someone on another blog reminded me today:
Companies made BILLIONS from the results of their research using her cells, yet her family lives in poverty.
debbie
I wasn’t able to find much to share on this bit this morning, but Colbert was genius last night on Trump, going all Beck-style on his ass with a chalkboard.
Here’s a recap in words.
But so much better in action.
(Chalkboard starts at about 5:00, but the whole thing’s worth a watch.)
rikyrah
Timothy Noah
@TimothyNoah1
“Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn [told] POLITICO he will no longer talk about Trump until after Nov. 8.”
BillinGlendaleCA
@Villago Delenda Est: In other words, a con-man.
Shell
I remember a movie on this (HBO?). The men were told they had ‘bad blood.’ And then even when antibiotics became available, they were told their condition was too advanced to be helped by it.
rikyrah
Maggie HabermanVerified account
@maggieNYT
“Everntually, it’s not going to survive, just so you understand,” Trump says of the United States.
Le
The paper did not go far enough. Blacks have had reason to be wary of medical authorities even before the 1972 disclosure of the Tuskegee Study. So what is total extra deaths and lost years because of mistrust?
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Still? I was hoping that the proceeds from the book about her would have benefited the family somehow – or enabled them to get a lawyer who might be able to help them get some compensation.
rikyrah
Donald Trump Pushes Conspiracy Theory That Obama Supports ISIS
Jun 15, 2016, 1:36 PM ET
excerpt:
Conspirator-in-Chief
Trump is no stranger to pushing conspiracy theories. He practically gave birth to the “birther” movement, which aimed to prove President Obama was not a U.S.-born citizen. That saga ended in dramatic fashion after the president produced his birth certificate to the public. Trump also has a history questioning Obama’s Christian faith, once claiming that this birth certificate may list him a Muslim.
Mnemosyne
@gex:
That is most often the case, but every so often a tragedy like the one in Orlando can be a breaking point for someone and make them re-examine everything they thought they believed. Now it’s the job of white, straight, cisgendered allies like me to start leading him towards the light until he’s able to discard all of that hateful baggage he was clinging to.
D58826
@Randy P: My very conservative sister and BIL were very opposed to gay marriage. They are on the pulpit committee of their Lutheran church. They are going to vote to call a new pastor. They really like this guy and his husband. Say’s what!
The Thin Black Duke
@rikyrah: Trump’s campaign is a National Enquirer headline.
rikyrah
This Couple Killed in the Orlando Shooting Hoped to Get Married. Now They Will Have a Joint Funeral
A couple who was deeply in love when they were killed during a gunman’s shooting rampage inside an Orlando nightclub will have a joint funeral service, their families said Monday.
Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22, and his 32-year-old boyfriend, Christopher “Drew” Leinonen, were among the 49 people who lost their lives Sunday in the worst mass shooting in American history. Services still need to be planned by the reeling families, but they want the two to be side-by-side when loved ones bid farewell, said Guerrero’s father, who has the same name as his son.
“I think my son wanted to do that. That’s why,” the elder Juan Ramon Guerrero, 61, said through tears. “I don’t care what the people think. I don’t care.”
The younger Guerrero and his boyfriend lived together and had been dating for nearly two years, family members said. Guerrero’s family was “really loving and accepting” when he came out as gay to them about three years ago, Aryam Guerrero, the victim’s 24-year-old sister, told TIME.
“They were honestly so in love. They were soul mates. You can tell by how they looked at each other,” she said. “It’s a little comforting that they died together.”
“If it’s not a funeral, they were going to have a wedding together,” she added.
Miss Bianca
@amygdala: this is what kills me, This has got to be a major violation of the Hippocratic oath, to say nothing of common humanity and decency. How could these researchers persuade themselves that they needed MORE evidence of what the full scope and scale of syphilitic infection looked like? Christ in the Balkans – it’s not like they didn’t have evidence – there have to be scores of descriptions, medical records, etc. from previous centuries. There was no justification for it – NONE. There was no excuse other than out-and-out racism. They condemned these men to the kind of death they wouldn’t condemn their worst enemies to. There’s no place in Hell warm enough for these “researchers”.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
There is a foundation that’s helping the Lacks family and others in similar situations. It’s a minuscule amount compared to the billions that were earned off her cells, but it’s a start.
Also, the family now has control over her cells and is allowed to decide who can and cannot use them.
rikyrah
Hackers Just Released What Appears To Be The DNC’s Opposition Research On Donald Trump. Read The Full Document.
Baud
@rikyrah: How is it only 200 pages?
Shell
I always preferred Dantes version of Hell. The lowest circles are frozen in ice and its inhabitants encased in it.
JPL
@rikyrah: Trump already stated that the DNC hacked themselves in order to release that filth. How do you hack yourself?
Villago Delenda Est
@JPL: This is a good question. Seeing as the document is all about Teh Donald, I’m sure he’s read it and is congratulating himself on it.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: He’s a coward. But we knew that already. He’s just confirming his cowardice.
rikyrah
Education Department Wants To Shut Down The Accreditor That Legitimized For-Profit Colleges
For-profit college watchdog under federal scrutiny
June 14, 2016
BOSTON —Federal education officials are deciding whether to shut down the nation’s biggest accreditor of for-profit colleges over allegations that it overlooked deception by some of its schools.
The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools is meant to be a watchdog for hundreds of for-profit schools, wielding the stamp of approval that colleges need to receive federal money. It’s one of many accreditors authorized by the U.S. Education Department to ensure the quality of schools. But the nonprofit is being accused of employing lax standards and failing to stop schools from preying on students.
Institutions that have operated under the group’s certification include the Corinthian College chain, which closed in 2015 amid fraud allegations, and the ITT Technical Institute chain, which now faces federal charges of fraud. Even after the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau began investigating both in 2013, the council found no major problems during its own reviews. In 2014, it included two Corinthian schools on its annual “honor roll.
West of the Cascades
@rikyrah: Can this “hack” be used as the pretext for getting Debbie Wasserman Schulz replaced as head of the DNC?
rikyrah
Best FLOTUS ever! I just love her.
……………….
Michelle Obama Reveals That Yes, President Obama Has Always Been ‘Swagalicious’
….Another thing the first lady also hasn’t gotten over is the president’s frequent walk back to the White House from Marine One.
“Good lord. Watching my husband walk off of Marine One and go to the Oval Office, it’s like, mmm, mmm, mmm,” she said. “And you know he’s got that walk, right?”
The exchange prompted Winfrey to ask whether or not President Obama has always had so much swag or whether he’s gotten “swaggier.”
“No, he was very swagalicious,” the first lady said. “Look, I told people this from the very start, when I — started running — Barack Obama is exactly who he says he is. We both are. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell people. Ain’t no surprises. We’re telling you who we are, and no tricks up our sleeves.”
Baud
@West of the Cascades: No.
JPL
@rikyrah: They just need to ask if he will vote for the Republican candidate for President in November. Yes.. Trump
amygdala
@Miss Bianca: Some of the same investigators responsible for Tuskegee were involved in another horror show conducted in Guatemala. Not only were subjects intentionally infected, subjects included the mentally ill and prisoners, groups that most clinical researchers avoid studying, because informed consent is extremely difficult with such individuals.
I forced myself to read that entire report not long after it was released. As with my Tuskegee background reading, I had to stop and take a walk to clear my head more than once. It’s that upsetting.
I was glad President Obama directed the Presidential Bioethics Commission (full disclosure: I have worked with more than one of its members). Crucially, they convincingly made the case that the Guatemala study violated bioethical principles of that time, as well as the current one. Things do evolve, and there are studies that wouldn’t pass an Institutional Review Board now but met the standards of a prior time. But that was not the case with the Guatemala study (or Tuskegee). And that needs to be remembered, always.
rikyrah
In Whitewashing The Pulse Shooting, We Dehumanize The Victim
gex
@Randy P: Well I meant, but maybe was not clear enough, “the religious (who are/were opposed to gays).” Which I felt carried over from the context of the post I responded to about a most likely Mormon, definitely Republican, and admitted “unkind” to gays in the past politician under discussion.
Most of the people in my life are believers who belong to nice churches.
So yes. I DO know there are good Christians. And good believers of all stripes. And good men. And good white people. And good straight people. Sometimes I forget to sing my Not All Hashtag song of praise when I post something about these groups. Next time. It’s a catchy tune!
JPL
@rikyrah: Your comment at 42 is why I think it is changing. My first thought was how do we send a wedding cake to the family?
Roger Moore
@Randy P:
I’m not sure how much sunlight that is. The reason the gap is closing is because mortality for middle aged whites isn’t dropping the way it is for other ethnic groups and for people in just about every other country.
different-church-lady
An odd (and perhaps untrustworthy) thought just popped into my head: perhaps the GOP — and even the rest of the nation — are going to find Trump to be a silver lining. Because his spectacular flame-out, his reduction of the last 40 years of GOP code talking to one ugly beam of light, will finally cure them of the dangerous disease they’ve been spreading for all this time. They will be utterly broken by the logical results of their own sins. Either we will be rid of them, or they will reform. But they will not be able to carry on as they have been, and they will no longer get away with their stealth racism.
rikyrah
John Nichols
@NicholsUprising
Trump has cancelled next week’s planned trip to Ireland — avoiding massive protests planned by Ireland’s “Trump Not Welcome!” Movement.
ThresherK
@rikyrah: Oh, she is just too cool for this world.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
“Swagalicious.” Love it! Love FLOTUS!
Emma
@Miss Bianca:
Worry not about heat. Their place is in the Ninth Circle, among the betrayers, frozen in a lake of ice.
Sometimes Dante can be quite consoling.
schrodinger's cat
Just saw Thomas Frank on the Snooze Hour. He has a punchable face.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Organized by that rowdy O’Bama family.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
And if anyone needs to be reminded how Obama was received in Ireland ….
(Spoiler alert: they went nuts with joy.)
Emma
@rikyrah: Why the blinking blink would he aim at Ireland? It’s an Obama stronghold. They would have voted for him if they could.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: @SiubhanDuinne: It seems that, just like her husband, Michelle Obama has no more fucks to give. I like this Michelle as much as much as this Barack.
JPL
I was just listening to sen. Whitehouse speak on CSPAN asking a question on the floor. I have to say there is something about him that I like.
Shell
In another example of someone who just won’t go away…
Surfed past the Newsmax channel and who should be there but Dick Morris. Yes, Mr. ‘Im wrong 99.9% of the time’ Morris. The same guy who predicted McCain and Romney would win in a landslide. Who was absolutely certain Condi Rice was gonna run for President.
Looked like he had a book to flog (anti-Hillary, of course). I was wondering , who in their right mind would publish his stuff. Turns out the publisher is Humanix books, which is owned by…….Newsmax!
Ultraviolet Thunder
I just started reading the Dem oppo material on Trump. I hate reading online. I’d pay to have this on paper.
There’s a lot of really nasty stuff in here. Expelled from school in 1959 for punching a teacher, and put in a military academy!
I was speculating that Trump’s unhinged personality was due to age, power and dementia, but that’s no excuse for what he did when he was 14.
Roger Moore
@JPL:
It’s really easy; you just guess the passwords!
More seriously, it could be an excuse for releasing something that might cause you problems if you deliberately released it yourself. You release it yourself through an anonymizing service and claim it was hackers that did it.
Origuy
@Emma: I think it has to do with golf courses and hotels he owns there. He’s still running his businesses, at least until he goes bankrupt again.
Baud
@Roger Moore: If that’s what happened, I approve. Releasing it this way gets the media excited like they are doing something naughty by reading and reporting on it.
Baud
@Emma:
More evidence the system is rigged.
amygdala
@JPL: I’m watching it, too. They’re bringing up magazine size, armor piercing ammunition, and other relevant issues, along with keeping guns away from people on the no-fly list. If it’s true that Republicans came up with some sort of bill just to deal with the no-fly list today, it means they’re getting rattled.
Shell
Whats new in Bernie news? Any speeches or more meetings with Hillary planned? Is he still saying hell go on to the convention? Does anybody care?
JPL
@amygdala: The state of CT and Murphy’s family must be so proud.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Shell:
No. The Sanders Revolution turned out to be a bunch of whiny entitled young whites who all lost the plot the day after Super Tuesday, when it became manifestly clear that the Obama coalition wasn’t going to coalesce behind a cranky old white guy backbencher from super white Vermont, who insists that racism is a distraction from the world view he developed in the 60s. He’s rendered himself irrelevant, and his ego got in the way of well, everything interesting he had to say. Maybe he’ll grow out of it when he turns 75.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
I’ve said many times that I can hardly wait to read Barack’s White House memoirs, but I’m thinking Michelle’s might be even more interesting and entertaining. Honestly, looking forward to reading their respective books is the only thing at all that gives me solace about the fact that … they’re (gulp) … leaving in (SOB!) ... seven months ?
Corner Stone
What in the ever fuck is Tweety talking about?
Emma
@Origuy: That makes some sense. Of course, he’s SOL in Scotland too. *snicker*
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Emma:
Trump is fueled solely by the rage of being belittled by Obama at the WHCD. Everything about Trump’s candidacy needs to be understood in that context. Any pundit spending time on trying to dissect Trump’s motivations or the meaning of Trump and doesn’t focus on that night, is missing the whole enchilada. It’s just that weirdly simple.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m with you on that. I tear up every time I think about it. I truly LOVE our President.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
I doubt that’s what happened. The usual strategy for this kind of thing is to feed it to reporters, whose whole job is to get tips and convert them into stories. That means you can give them incomplete details and hope they’ll make more of it, and they have a strong incentive to hide your role in it so they can take the credit.
Emma
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: You know, I was going to say “he wouldn’t be that foolish” until I realized who I was talking about.
Corner Stone
Mmmm…Jennifer Granholm…
Baud
@Roger Moore:
I also doubt that’s what happened. Then again, there’s so much to cull through with Trump that who can say they didn’t decide to adopt a different strategy.
humboldtblue
@WaterGirl: You’re welcome.
Iowa Old Lady
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I’d heard about him punching a teacher, and you’re right that it’s out of the ordinary even for a “bad” kid. Especially as young as 14. Not saying it never happens, but in Trump’s social circle? I’ll bet he’s the only one.
magurakurin
@Shell: The thing about Sanders is that he doesn’t actual have a magical spell on the people who voted for them that only he can release. The primary is over. That is just a fact. And with each passing day a certain number of his voters are making a decision on their own who to support in the general. They will make that decision with or without his input at this point. Each day that passes he loses more relevancy. Each day that passes more of his voters choose Clinton. Each day that passes makes any endorsement that he gives just a confirmation of what is already a forgone conclusion. In other words…not a leader.
And with the Democrats engaged in a filibuster on gun control and him not being their…further and further down the rabbit hole of irrelevancy.
? Martin
@amygdala:
But not by this issue. They’re rattled by Trump undermining their electoral chances. Basically, they’re just trying to save their own ass here. Giving a bit of ground on guns is a way to get back in the good graces of the general public. After all, the sociopaths that support Trump aren’t going to vote for a Dem over them. Magical things can happen once the primaries are over.
Roger Moore
@magurakurin:
Most of them. There are a few who are really into the personality cult, and a good word from him might make a difference. I don’t know if it’s enough to make a difference in the election, but I sure don’t want to gamble on it.
Mnemosyne
I’m not the only cynical one who assumes that the Russian hackers released the Trump oppo file to try and defuse all of those attacks before the general election starts, right?
? Martin
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Anyone who lived in or around NYC (like me) knows that he’s always been this way. And I moved from NY almost 30 years ago.
redshirt
To Hell with Bernie Sanders.
Or St. Johnsbury. Probably St. Johnsbury.
magurakurin
@Roger Moore: The ones caught in a cult of personality will turn on Sanders if and when he endorses Clinton. As has been said many times, they are not and never have been reliable Democratic voters. They will return to the Green Party or the Libertarian Party or staying home. Bernie is now focusing on the minutiae of the nomination process a week after the worst mass shooting in US history and five months before what will be one of the most crucial elections in US history. Nobody gives a shit about Debbie Wasserman Shultz at this point. If he refuses to endorse in his podcast tonight or by tomorrow morning he will slip into complete irrelevancy. Clinton will be forced to ignore him at that point. She has an election to win, with or without him. Of course, his support is welcome, but at some point it starts to be throwing good money after bad chasing that support. All this shit has a shelf life and deadlines.
Baud
@Mnemosyne: Seems like a stretch to me. But who knows anymore?
? Martin
@Mnemosyne:
That’s because the Irish are black and they’re proud.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
on the oppo file
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ooooh. So this is like a appetizer.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
But it’s not a new story. Nasty, certainly, but it’s something that Trump himself wrote about nearly 30 years ago, according to an Alternet article:
(Although the dates don’t line up. He would have been age 7 in second grade in about 1953. So maybe he punched out two teachers during his youthful academic career? Or maybe he’s lying about one or the other incident? Naaaahh….)
Mary G
@Villago Delenda Est: That is lovely – an Iman in an Orlando mosque remembering the victims and and saying that we’re all humans.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: His parents must of been so proud. Mr. and Mrs. Drumpf we need you to come to school because your son punched out a teacher.
WaterGirl
@JPL: Trump (senior) had a ton of money, who knows if Trump was even punished by the school or at home. Trump (R-Idiot nominee) had to learn this stuff somewhere.
? Martin
@? Martin: Evidence of Trump’s prior behavior.
amygdala
@? Martin: Combover Caligula tweeted that he’s meeting with NRA to discuss keeping people on the no-fly list from buying guns. Who even knows if that’s true, but Democrats having having gotten themselves a platform they control with this filibuster, could be that Republicans are feeling a little boxed in. They should be.
lurker dean
someone probably already posted about this but brad delong’s twitter take down of fournier last night was righteous.
https://twitter.com/delong/status/742564413371088901
lurker dean
oops, meant to post the above comment (which is in moderation) in the open thread, sorry about that…
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: I will miss them both so much in the White House. Bill Clinton has got a certain pizzazz factor as First Consort, but Michelle Obama has got him beat on style points alone.
Miss Bianca
@amygdala:
I have a hard time believing that Tuskegee could have been considered ethical even by the standards of 50-75 years ago. Deliberately allowing subjects to continue to sicken of a disease when they *knew* by then that penicillin cured it? (they did know that, right?) What possible medical benefits could such a study have, that justifies the utter pointless cruelty of such a thing?
Miss Bianca
@Shell: I’m not quite at the “Bernie who?” stage yet, but damned if the events of the past few days haven’t threatened the swamp the man in the waves of irrelevance. Methinks the Sanders tide has well and truly turned.
That being said, I was pissed when I heard some teevee talking head had tried to shut Sanders down when he tried to talk about gun control.
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: I’m sort of with you on that suspicion – that somehow, Trump’s candidacy is fueled in large part by his utter rage at being so thoroughly pantsed by PBO.
Bitter Scribe
Horrific medical experiments have always been conducted on marginalized, powerless members of society: orphans, prisoners, Jews and POWs in the Third Reich, and African-Americans. It’s one of the lasting shames of medical research.