Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

When I was faster i was always behind.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

This chaos was totally avoidable.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

You are here: Home / Politics / Proud to Be A Democrat / Three Women Take On The Three Biggest Threats To Our Democracy

Three Women Take On The Three Biggest Threats To Our Democracy

by | 94 Comments

This post is in: ,

Three women.  Hillary Clinton.  Zoe Lofgren.  Stacey Abrams.

Three Women Take On The Three Biggest Threats To Our Democracy

The three biggest threats to our democracy:

Rampant disinformation.

Jan 6 insurrection amnesia.

Voting restrictions.

Hillary Clinton: There has to be a global reckoning with disinformation.  (The Guardian)

Her bid for the White House was engulfed by a tidal wave of fabricated news and false conspiracy theories. Now Hillary Clinton is calling for a “global reckoning” with disinformation that includes reining in the power of big tech.

The former secretary of state and first lady warns that the breakdown of a shared truth, and the divisiveness that surely follows, poses a danger to democracy at a moment when China is selling the conceit that autocracy works.

Zoe Lofgren: Rep. Zoe Lofgren embarrassed Republicans with their own words. Now they seek to silence her.  (Washington Post)

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) earned kudos from truth-tellers in March when she released a report simply documenting the social media posts of Republicans “who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election.” She compiled their words, revealing a hodgepodge of conspiracy-mongering and lying about the 2020 election. This was too much for the snowflake Republicans.

They have now filed a complaint, a copy of which I have obtained, with the Communication Standards Commission, an obscure body in the House formerly known as the Mailing Standards Commission, as it historically dealt primarily with franking issues.

The complaint, filed by Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-Ga.), whines: “At its core, the so-called report repeatedly violates the Commission’s rules of decorum and civility by personalizing and politicizing attacks on more than 100 Members of Congress for public statements they made on social media.” Actually, it simply recorded Republicans’ own words, thereby embarrassing them. He claims the report “engages in speculation as to the motivation or intent of the Members,” but it does no such thing.

Stacey Abrams: Stacey Abrams Has a Plan to Dismantle the Filibuster and Protect Voting Rights   (Mother Jones)

As Republicans in the Georgia state legislature passed a series of voting restrictions over the past 10 days, Stacey Abrams, the state’s leading voting rights activist, saw an ever more pressing need to reform the filibuster in the US Senate. And she has a plan for how to do it…

In the same way that Democrats can pass budget bills and confirm judges and Cabinet members with a simple majority, legislation protecting voting rights should also be exempt from the 60-vote requirement, Abrams says.

“The judicial appointment exception, the Cabinet appointment exception, the budget reconciliation exception, are all grounded in this idea that these are constitutionally prescribed responsibilities that should not be thwarted by minority imposition,” she says. “And we should add to it the right to protect democracy. It is a foundational principle in our country. And it is an explicit role and responsibility accorded only to Congress in the elections clause in the Constitution.”

Story and link to the podcast interview are at the link above.

These women will not be silenced.

These women and many more.  Nancy Pelosi.  Madame Vice President.  Who else?  Let’s name some more, and talk about how we can be more like them.

Update:  Just after posting this thread, I went back to the previous thread to catch up on comments, and this is what I found:

H.E.Wolf

When I read predictions of disaster (some of them based on excellent observations, hat tip to Kay as always), I ask myself: What would Stacey Abrams – and a host of other women of color – do?

And what would they want me to do, in support of their efforts?

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    I have had these links open in my browser, one of them for weeks, and two from earlier this week.  Chime in if you originally posted these on BJ and I will credit you with sharing them with us.

  3. 3.

    mali muso

    Not a politician, but Joy Ann Reid has been doing a bang-up job of keeping focused on the real threats to our democracy instead of chasing the usual media shiny-shiny.

  4. 4.

    citizen dave

    Go women!  I’m totally fine turning the next two and half centuries over to them.

    Hillary is right on it as usual–disinformation has to be talked about in the open, as a real issue.  Name the names, the Fox News, OAN, etc.  It’s rendering a minority but significant amount of people total idiots in the nation.

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    I’ll start a running list.

    WaterGirl  (made me laugh, though!)
    Joy Ann Reid
    Jen Psaki
    AOC
    Katy Porter
    Justice Sonia Sotomayor
    Justice Elena Kagen

  6. 6.

    citizen dave

    @Baud: And yes watergirl and AL for ’round the clock service here.  Also Cheryl–I was scrolling through twitter the other day reading about something her cats had caught–a nice diversion in the twitter roll.

  7. 7.

    Nobody in particular

    Just in from Nature, if you got the BioNTech, you’re doing good.

    Pfizer–BioNTech protects against variants
    Data from Qatar’s second wave of COVID-19 have provided the strongest evidence yet that vaccines can stop the worrying B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants. Clinical trials in South Africa — where B.1.351 was first identified — had suggested that the strain would pose a threat to immunization efforts. But this study offers a fuller picture of what countries battling such variants can expect. People in Qatar who received two doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine were 90% less likely to develop an infection caused by B.1.1.7 than were unvaccinated people. They were 75% less likely to develop one caused by B.1.351, and had near-total protection from severe disease caused by that strain. It’s “extremely good news”, says infectious-disease epidemiologist Laith Jamal Abu-Raddad. “Things have been going extremely well, the numbers are going down very, very rapidly.”

  8. 8.

    Kay

    “engages in speculation as to the motivation or intent of the Members,”

    The exact opposite. Engaging in speculation about their motives or intent is the only thing protecting them. If we take any of them at their word they all want to overthrow the elected President. We all have to join them in their excuses, which all involve saying they don’t “really” believe what they say.

    Really really. They don’t.

  9. 9.

    Gravenstone

    by personalizing and politicizing attacks on by more than 100 Members of Congress

    Fixed that for ya there, “Buddy”. Run your mouths, take your lumps.

  10. 10.

    randy khan

    Lofgren must think the complaint is hilarious.  All it does is allow her to amplify her original report.

  11. 11.

    Catherine D.

    Also Jen Psaki. I just watched a clip of her pleasantly smacking down “Manny Peeples” crap from Newsmax.

  12. 12.

    Nobody in particular

    The Natural Superiority of Women, 5th Ed.

    by Ashley Montagu  (Author)

    I think it was published in the 1950s. The boys should read it, but I don’t like to promote any dominance hierarchies. One of my favorite anthropologists.

  13. 13.

    Old School

    Liz Cheney!

    More seriously, there’s a long list of women I’d want to include.  From congresspeople (AOC, Katie Porter, etc.) to Jen Psaki to Sotomayor and Kagan.  Extend to non-governmental positions and it would get longer.  The country is a better place thanks to women doing their part.

  14. 14.

    Kay

    @randy khan:

    The only fair way to interpret their statements is to add that they don’t actually believe any of it.

    What other group of adults gets away with this nonsense? They have a secret, better motive. Guess! Yeah, that’s it! The good one!

  15. 15.

    Ken

    @Kay: which all involve saying they don’t “really” believe what they say

    How is Sidney Powell’s defense working out?

  21. 21.

    UncleEbeneezer

    From some other realms:

    Beyonce
    Ava Du Vernay
    Serena & Venus Williams
    Naomi Osaka
    Billie Jean King
    The entire WNBA
    Megan Rapinoe

  22. 22.

    Nobody in particular

    @Kay:

     We all have to join them in their excuses, which all involve saying they don’t “really” believe what they say.

    Really really. They don’t.

    Difficult to say. Many do not “believe.” Belief is a very low level of consciousness, “unwoke.”

    Dr. John C. Lilly may no longer be a household name but if you saw two movies based on his research, Altered States, by the brilliant Paddy Chayefsky and Day of the Dolphin with George C. Scott, these were fictional Hollywood treatments of his really serious work. We both did Arica Trainings in the late ’60s and early ’70s, (not together) and he wrote about his experience in a book called The Center of the Cyclone.

     

    In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits… In the province of connected minds, what the network believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the network’s mind there are no limits.

    • The Human Biocomputer (1974)

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    @Nobody in particular:

    That’s the one I picked. Hah, kidding, it’s the one I got because it’s the one that was available, but I have not been sorry with my “choice.”

    The State of California has documented 3,084 “breakthrough” Covid cases among vaccinated individuals from January through April. It works out to a low percentage of the vaccinated population, but needs an eye kept on it regardless, especially if evaluating the value of a booster at some point.

  25. 25.

    Benw

    OT but oh lord my oldest just passed his learner’s permit exam. Next step: behind the wheel!

  26. 26.

    LesGS

    @Another Scott: It would be great to have a discussion with Cheryl about it. A sweeping “He’s a crank” may be true, but I’d love to see a detailed refutation.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    So what can we do to counter the disinformation and the big lie?  (That doesn’t involve spitting into the wind.)

    Besides learning to ask questions like Jen Psaki does.

    Is it possible for us to push Twitter and Facebook to and YouTube to not spread this crap?

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    @Benw: If this had been a year ago, we would all have been safe because we wouldn’t be on the road much.  :-)

    Congratulations are in order, but yikes, 15 or 16 with hormones raging is so young to be behind the wheel of a zillion pound vehicle.

  29. 29.

    Nobody in particular

    @trollhattan:

    People are part of nature, even if making nerve agents., sadly. I imagine your concern is “Was it weapons research?” I tend to come down on the side of culture and gastronomy.  The wet markets of Wuhan. There are enough big and little monsters and terrors in nature without us adding to them.

    Garret Hardin had difficulty with multiculturalism and I’ve yet to delve into the facts of the matter but he was aligned or co-opted by the xenophobes. But he used to say multiculturalism was like expecting people to eat borscht with chopsticks.

     

    I should add, this is also why I am a very big fan of strict regulation. Kosher!

  30. 30.

    dmsilev

    @Kay: Yeah. If you read the complaint, they’re whining because she had the temerity to …exactly quote things that they wrote.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    A federal grand jury just indicted the 4 murderous cops in MN:

    A federal grand jury on Friday indicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and three other former officers on charges of violating George Floyd’s civil rights last year during the arrest that caused his death, a move that could offer another measure of accountability in a case that sparked nationwide protests over abusive policing.

    Justice Department prosecutors said Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, who took part in apprehending Floyd, who was Black, will stand trial on two counts apiece. Former officer Thomas Lane will face a single charge in the case.

    The announcement came less than three weeks after Chauvin, who is White, was found guilty on three murder and manslaughter counts in a state trial that focused on his use of force. Chauvin put his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as the 46-year-old was prone on the pavement and complained of being unable to breathe. His sentencing is set for June 25.

  32. 32.

    Another Scott

    @Another Scott: E.g. from the comments:

    https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/#comment-31606

    WHO report from February (40 page .pdf):

    COVID-19 is a zoonotic virus. From phylogenetics analyses undertaken with available full genome sequences, bats appear to be the reservoir of COVID-19 virus, but the intermediate host(s) has not yet been identified.

    SARS-CoV-2 wasn’t made in a lab.

    Wade wrote a book in 2014 claiming that human races are a thing and that’s why the Chinese are good at business and similar racist nonsense.

    Always beware when popularizers push a story farther than the scientists. Especially popularizers with an obvious, non-scientific, approach.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @WaterGirl:

    In a separate indictment, Chauvin also will face two counts of violating the rights of a 14-year-old boy during an arrest in September 2017, in which the officer is accused of holding the boy by the neck and hitting him twice with a flashlight, causing injuries.

    If our system worked properly, Chauvin wouldn’t have still been a cop in 2020.

  34. 34.

    Benw

    @WaterGirl: 17 – it’s been literally impossible to find an open in-person appt the last year! Another way the pandemic has hit kids hard in unexpected ways

  35. 35.

    Kay

    @dmsilev:

    Because for some reason we all owe these grown-ass adults an alibi for what they said. There’s no such obligation! I don’t have to search for a way to exonerate them by offering them an alternative motive. Obviously they’re all capable of doing that for themselves- they choose not to.

  41. 41.

    NetheadJay

    @Another Scott: Two chapters in and my nose is twitching sensing some of the techniques of misinformation and conspiracy-minded thinking. And reading your comment now I’m wondering what flavor of crank this dude might be. Haven’t googled yet but the name is ringing some distant bell.

  42. 42.

    J R in WV

    @trollhattan: ​
     

    Someone please ignite the Cheryl Beacon–would love an evaluation of this, from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists–“The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?” Disturbing read.

    I read that. The author is a professional writer, not a scientist, but can make his arguments sound very real regardless.

    Then I saw a comment that said a guy who spread news about the article was FDA commissioner for The Former Guy, so now I dunno what to think.

    Obviously TFG wants us to believe it escaped from a virology lab in China, which makes me very suspicious. Add a little from here; leave something from there out, voila!

  43. 43.

    Gravenstone

    @trollhattan: That one got batted down pretty good when it popped up here a couple days ago. Basically an author with a likely partisan agenda and a lot of questionable interpretation of the science.

  45. 45.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Another Scott:Yes, but it will be some scientist like Cheryl describing the technical aspect of how the virus skipped species when Occam’s Razor says “Pandemics have happened every twenty years since the Neolithic” It don’t take any special magic for these things to happen.

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: All respect to Cheryl, but remember she’s a chemist.  (I’m not a virologist, either.)

    STATNews has had excellent coverage of the COVID-19 saga from the beginning (and SARS and Ebola and all the rest before).

    Here’s a story from September with lots of embedded links that might be a good starting point.:

    In 2001, not long after the 9/11 attacks, a mysterious spate of anthrax attacks by mail killed five people and sickened 17. What the FBI calls “the worst biological attacks in U.S. history” led to concerns that bioterrorists might weaponize other globally deadly diseases, like smallpox.

    The sudden emergence of a highly infectious novel coronavirus in late 2019 has reminded us of a sobering fact: Nature is the ultimate bioterrorist. It’s the one we should fear the most. An unknown virus that once existed only in nature quietly entered a major city in China sometime before the end of 2019 and then spread rapidly around the world. As we write this, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has already killed nearly 860,000 people.

    As the outbreak began, there was immediate speculation about the origins of the virus. Initial theories considered emerging viruses in wild animals sold for human consumption in a wet market in Wuhan. That turned out to be an unlikely origin. The legitimate quest for the source of the pandemic was then quickly overwhelmed by theories that were inconsistent with known facts about an accidental release of a novel coronavirus from a Chinese virology lab.

    […]

    HTH.

    Like many here, I’m interested in hearing Cheryl’s take. And others!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  48. 48.

    CaseyL

    @Gravenstone:

    @Another Scott:

    @Another Scott:

    It sure looks like Wade is a crank, or at least has a nefarious agenda.  Then what the hell is he doing getting published in The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists??  Or am I assuming, erroneously, that TBAS is a peer-review, respectable, science publication?

  52. 52.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Another Scott: Sure, but she understand how this is done much better than a lay person.

    But I think the bigger point is these “It’s a Bio-Weapon!” stories show is how borked the Right’s minds are now. If it’s a bio-weapon, as in something designed to kill people, then why in the heck did they basically invite it in and are still refusing to protect themselves. How does one have a rational discussion with people like that?

  53. 53.

    Another Scott

    @CaseyL: TheBulletin has a long and distinguished history.  But that history is mainly related to nuclear weapons and non-proliferation and pushing for weapons limitations.  They’re not a traditional peer-review type publication.  They want to drive the public debate on the topics of the day related to their expertise.

    They don’t have a history of giving visibility to articles on virology.

    I think their editors/reviewers messed up here.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    sdhays

    @J R in WV: I remember reading last year that DNA analysis of the original COVID-19 strain had nothing in it to suggest nature was tampered with. That doesn’t prove 100% that it wasn’t created in a lab, but it seems very, very unlikely. The path a genetic engineer would take to get this result would be completely different, apparently.

    Until strong evidence appears to suggest otherwise, the idea that it was grown in a lab is just nasty propaganda.

  56. 56.

    Anoniminous

    Looking at the emotional, hysterical, outbursts from Republicans I think it is clear we need to reconsider the decision to give men the vote.  They are simply not capable of rational and Critical thinking.

  62. 62.

    WhatsMyNym

    @trollhattan:   Your info doesn’t match any reporting in California – see below
    This year, California has recorded 1,379 cases of coronavirus infection in people who were fully vaccinated,     the state Department of Public Health said Tuesday. These so-called breakthrough cases — recorded from Jan. 1 to April 21 — make up about 0.1% of the roughly 1.4 million cases reported in California in that period.​

    ETA:  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 5,800 out of 75 million fully vaccinated people in the U.S. have been infected with COVID-19. Of these “breakthrough cases,” 396 were hospitalized and 74 people died. The CDC defines a breakthrough case as someone who gets sick, either symptomatically or asymptomatically, 14 or more days after full vaccination.

  63. 63.

    El Cruzado

    From a different direction and more indirectly, but I do believe that Elizabeth Warren’s work might also help keep liberal democracy alive.

  65. 65.

    Anoniminous

    @trollhattan:

    It’s the standard over-hyped bullshit.

    “WHO expert and lead investigator of the mission Peter Ben Embarek reiterated the issue during a press conference on Tuesday following the release of the study.

    “We got access to quite a lot of data in many different areas, but, of course, there are areas where we had difficulties getting down to the raw data,” Embarek said, adding that China has restrictions and privacy laws restraining the sharing of private data to outsiders.”

    Guess what?  The US has restrictions restraining the sharing of private data to outsiders.  It’s called Doctor/Patient Confidentiality.

  66. 66.

    germy

    US prosecutors are seeking a 17-year prison sentence for Peter Debbins, the former US Army Green Beret who's pleaded guilty to divulging military secrets to Russia. Debbins “thought that Russia needed to be built up and that America needed to be ‘cut down to size.’” pic.twitter.com/N4bDFzoehX— Mike Eckel (@Mike_Eckel) May 7, 2021

    That’s probably why he voted for the former guy.

  68. 68.

    Anoniminous

    @trollhattan:

    Vaccines aren’t magic.  They vastly reduce the chances of getting infected.  They do not eliminate ’em.  The vaccinated-got-it-anyway stats from California is ’bout what is to be expected.

  69. 69.

    WhatsMyNym

    @Another Scott:   The CDC is talking about 2 weeks after final vaccination.

    ETA: or as they say it A person who has SARS-CoV-2 RNA or antigen detected on a respiratory specimen collected ≥14 days after completing the primary series of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-authorized COVID-19 vaccine.

  70. 70.

    Nobody in particular

    @WhatsMyNym:

    Nobody is really good at business except grifters. And Business schools are created to train them. Grifting is an equal opportunity employer.

     

    Finally, there seem to be but three Ways for a Nation to acquire Wealth. The first is by War as the Romans did in plundering their conquered Neighbours. This is Robbery. The second by Commerce which is generally Cheating. The third by Agriculture the only honest Way; wherein Man receives a real Increase of the Seed thrown into the Ground, in a kind of continual Miracle wrought by the Hand of God in his favour, as a Reward for his innocent Life, and virtuous Industry.

    Ben Franklin.

    ACADEME, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.

    ACADEMY, n. [from ACADEME] A modern school where football is taught.

    Ambrose Bierce

  71. 71.

    WhatsMyNym

    @Nobody in particular:

    Nobody is really good at business except grifters.

    LOL

    I’ve worked for some real good business folk. They work their butts off and hire great employees.

  72. 72.

    Another Scott

    @WhatsMyNym: Yes, but IIRC, there were reports early on that the incubation time for COVID-19 was as long as 4 weeks in some small percentage of cases.  One could in principle do some whataboutery involving some case like that with a single-dose J&J vaccine.

    To be clear, I don’t know.  I’m just saying that in the vast, vast majority of cases the vaccines work very well.  None of the data says anything unexpected so far.  Way out in the 6-sigma tail of the distribution all kinds of weird things are **expected** to happen with tiny frequencies because biology isn’t ideal statistics.  Without testing everyone before giving the vaccination (and having 100% perfect tests), one won’t be able to say for sure that case X is a “breakthrough” where the vaccine failed or something else (latent virus, different strain, whatever).

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (“Who is playing ‘what if’ on a wet Friday afternoon.  But should go walk the doggie instead.”)

  74. 74.

    H.E.Wolf

    What?! Thank you, WaterGirl, for the quotation. What a nifty surprise. :)

    In answer to your question, up top:  there are so many admirable women! I’m particularly grateful to state and local officials.

    https://emilyslist.org/ is a good place (among lots of others) to read up on inspirational and hard-working women of all ages and backgrounds, many of them from under-represented constituencies.

    With Lauren Underwood and Katie Porter and Danica Roem and Deb Haaland and Mazie Hirono (to name only a few) on the job, how can we not pitch in alongside them?

  76. 76.

    Matt McIrvin

    @sdhays: If I recall correctly, the COVID-19 spike protein doesn’t even operate consistently with prevailing pre-COVID theories about how viruses get into cells.

    Which is to say, we probably couldn’t have designed it.

  78. 78.

    Nobody in particular

    @WhatsMyNym:

    I love my iPhone!

    It’s my dedication to the republicanism of the Greeks. I’m still plowing thru his books but Forrest McDonald is a hoot, and the foremost American authority on the founding generation. In one long CSPAN interview with him he actually calls most of the colonists “a bunch of lazy slobs.” I’ll get you the link if you want, or try In-Depth with Forrest McDonald. This is from a little-known speech he gave.

     

    As to whether the Framers intended to create a capitalistic order, the weightier evidence balances to the contrary…

    The very idea of economic growth that inheres in a market economy was incompatible with this primary principle of republicanism. Plato, believing that relative equality of property is essential to a republic, proposed to limit inheritances and recommended that no republic be established on the sea or on a navigable river, for that “would expose it to the dangers of commerce” and the inequalities that resulted from trade. Lycurgus, “in the most perfect model of government that was ever framed,” ancient Sparta, had forbidden trade altogether. And Montesquieu, whom American devoutly admired, declared that if people were allowed “to dispose of property [as they] pleased,” a republic would be “utterly undone.” As disparate a pair of Americans as John Adams and Benjamin Franklin agreed. Adams denounced credit as responsible for “most of the Luxury & Folly which has yet infected our People,” and declared that anyone who could devise a way to abolish credit forever “would deserve a Statue to his Memory.” Franklin characterized commerce as “generally cheating” and wrote bitterly of its corrupting and debilitating effects.

    But Franklin never claimed the right to patent the Franklin Stove, desiring to allow Americans to stay warm without paying for the privilege. Same with Bi-focals, I think.

  79. 79.

    MomSense

    I have to give a shout out to youngest spawn who was asked to testify before the joint standing committee on education in opposition to a bill before the committee.
    He was awesome!  I don’t think he is jackal material though because he was much too measured.  He started by thanking the committee and then he asked them how they were feeling (they had been holding hearings for several hours). Anyway the committee decided not to proceed which was not the expected outcome.
    I do a lot of phone banking  for D candidates and my phone blew up with messages and emails saying he was very persuasive.

    Youngest spawn is a big Hillbot, but Kamala is his favorite.  Every time I check her social media feeds, I see that he has already liked her post.  Gen Z is the best!

  80. 80.

    John Revolta

    @WhatsMyNym: These so-called breakthrough cases — recorded from Jan. 1 to April 21 — make up about 0.1% of the roughly 1.4 million cases reported in California in that period.​

    As I recall, even the best clinical results only claimed 95% efficacy so, this is pretty damn impressive.

  81. 81.

    Nora Lenderbee

    Yay Zoe! She’s my rep.

    Billie Jean King and the other athletes are strong women who have done great things, but I don’t think they qualify as “defending democracy.”

  82. 82.

    Matt McIrvin

    @CaseyL: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists isn’t a peer-reviewed scientific journal–it’s a specialized advocacy magazine. But usually it does better than this, unless it’s changed since I read it regularly.

  83. 83.

    Nobody in particular

    @Subcommandante Yakbreath:

    I’m a Gemini, so ya might say. I’ve been told I have one. Years ago a bar I use to frequent and was on a first-name basis with the employees and owners. On a couple of occasions I’d drop in and one would say “You’ve got a doppelganger!”  Never caught a  glimpse of him. I tend to think it’s not possible, just because no two snowflakes are supposed to be alike. OTOH, it might be Quantum Entanglement.

    Tiny drums push quantum limits
    By playing two tiny drums, physicists have provided the most direct demonstration yet of quantum entanglement on larger scales. The aluminium drums are each around 10 micrometres long — barely visible to the naked eye, but enormous by quantum standards. Physicists hit the drums with microwave photons and observed that the membranes moved with such a high degree of correlation that they could no longer be described separately: they were in a quantum-entangled state. In another tiny drum experiment, physicists linked the drums’ properties — although not in perfect sync — to get around some of the measurement restrictions defined by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The findings provide evidence that quantum laws still apply in the big world and open the door to future technology built with entangled macroscopic parts.

  84. 84.

    Ohio Mom

    I kinda get wanting to believe the virus was created in a lab, that idea puts people in the driver’s seat.

    The alternative, which is true, is that we are mere animals, living on an extremely weird rock in the middle of nowhere. We are always at the mercy of the forces of the universe. Some of these forces we have the barest outlines of understanding, others are beyond our understanding and may always be.

  86. 86.

    Brachiator

    @Nobody in particular:

    This stuff about the Founders and others is not very persuasive or historically accurate.

    Lycurgus, “in the most perfect model of government that was ever framed,” ancient Sparta, had forbidden trade altogether.

    Sparta was a strange war cult society that depended on a permanently subjugated slave caste, the helots, in order to maintain their society. And because of their peculiar insularity, they could never grow. There could be no new Spartans, even if they conquered other countries (and they were not much for peaceful alliances or trading partners. Not much of a model for any government at all.

    And Montesquieu, whom American devoutly admired, declared that if people were allowed “to dispose of property [as they] pleased,” a republic would be “utterly undone.” As disparate a pair of Americans as John Adams and Benjamin Franklin agreed.

    Franklin had become independently wealthy and could retire from business at around age 40. But for a time he had tried to become an established Englishman before throwing in with his fellow patriots and becoming American.

    England, later Britain, had become a leading economic power, and America had the resources and opportunity to join the club. By 1876 the GDP of the US probably equaled or exceed that of the UK without the need for an empire.

  87. 87.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I’ve been out all afternoon, including a light supper with O. Felix Culpa!

    I saw the Nicholas Wade article when it came out, thought oh no, and haven’t read it.

    I too am surprised that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published it. Wade was a science writer for the NYT, I think, but as has been noted, recently wrote a book on how the human species is divided into races. He was quite vociferous in defending it, too.

    I’ve been waiting to hear from the virologists, although I know what they’ve been saying, and it’s that the SARS-CoV-2 shows every sign of being natural, and none of being cooked up in a lab. Escape from a lab studying natural viruses? Could be, but probably not.

  88. 88.

    Nobody in particular

    @Brachiator:

    Franklin reminds me of Carnegie then. Are you the same today you were at 40?  Or should I suggest you give it a few years? Franklin never sought a patent or copyright.

    In this particular instance, the Greek history that is relevant is the one the Framers knew and worked with. As stated, I am discussing the founding generation. Not the teaching of ancient Greek history down through the years. To read the Jefferson- Adams Correspondence and many letters of the time required, Greek, Latin, French, and some German and those two quoted all 3 frequently so we know what they thought. And people then were actually far more literate than the crowd today.

  89. 89.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Cheryl Rofer: His article has a lot of weasel words and poor reasoning. I’m not a scientist but he’s using a lot of rhetorical and persuasive tricks you use when you don’t have good data to back you up.

     

    Including things like establishing that one or two people might have a potential conflict of interest. and then pretending that EVERYONE has a conflict of interest.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @karensky: Maise Hirono and Val Demings illustrate a certain phenomenon. They both became stars when they appeared in high profile nationally televised hearings. But Maise Hirono was the same talented, capable Senator before the Kavanaugh hearings as she was after. And Val Demings was the same talented, capable Congresswoman before trump’s first impeachment as she was after. How many more Hironos and Demings are out there, who just have not shown up in the national spotlight? I think there are many.

  91. 91.

    Stephen

    An interesting article has dropped in The Australian newspaper, which suggests that the PLA was doing research into biological warfare using coronaviruses back in 2015. Yeah, it’s a Murdoch rag, but its reporting in things like this is often solid. Certainly makes the accidental release from a lab story more plausible.

    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/chinese-military-scientists-discussed-weaponising-sars-coronaviruses/news-story/850ae2d2e2681549cb9d21162c52d4c0

  92. 92.

    Another Scott

    @Stephen: No, it really doesn’t.

    Always be suspect of reporting on scientific topics that goes farther than the scientists.  Especially when it’s being pushed by people and outfits with known anti-science bias.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

Comments are closed.