Folly and fakery have always been with us... but it has never before been as dangerous as it is now, never in history have we been able to afford it less. - Isaac Asimov
Every damn thing you do in this life, you pay for. - Edith Piaf
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. - Orwell
No amount of belief makes something a fact. - James Randi
I'm going to post some excerpts from the article. Very well written.
France has the virus under control.
When Trump supporters mean the liberals are the great evil of the world, they are including a LOT of people.The numbers are not ambiguous. From a peak of 7,581 new cases across the country on March 31, and with a death toll now just below 30,000—at one point the world’s fourth highest—there were just 526 new cases on June 13, the day we masked ourselves and took the train back to Paris. The caseload continues to be small and manageable.
The world in internalizing the fall of America, which is in progress as we speak.America, however, is an utter disaster. Texas, Florida, and Arizona are the newest hubs of contagion, having apparently learned nothing from the other countries and states that previously experienced surges in cases. I stared at my phone in disbelief when the musician Rosanne Cash wrote on Twitter that her daughter had been called a “liberal pussy!” in Nashville for wearing a mask to buy groceries.
America is my home, and I have not emigrated. I have always found the truest expression of my situation in James Baldwin’s label of “transatlantic commuter.” I have lived in France off and on since the early 2000s, and it has been instructive over the decades to glimpse America’s stature reflected back to me through the eyes of a quasi-foreigner. If the country sparked fear and intense resentment under George W. Bush and mild resentment mixed with vicarious pride under Barack Obama, what it provokes under Trump has been something entirely new: pity and indifference. We are the pariah state now, but do we even see it?
It almost certainly is. As Edge-'s post alluded, Grenon sent Trump a letter touting the benefits of MMS a few days before Trump's now-infamous bleach gaffe.
The leader of the most prominent group in the US peddling potentially lethal industrial bleach as a “miracle cure” for coronavirus wrote to Donald Trump at the White House this week.
In his letter, Mark Grenon told Trump that chlorine dioxide – a powerful bleach used in industrial processes such as textile manufacturing that can have fatal side-effects when drunk – is “a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body”. He added that it “can rid the body of Covid-19”.
A few days after Grenon dispatched his letter, Trump went on national TV at his daily coronavirus briefing at the White House on Thursday and promoted the idea that disinfectant could be used as a treatment for the virus. To the astonishment of medical experts, the US president said that disinfectant “knocks it out in a minute. One minute!”
He went on to say: “Is there a way we can do something, by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.”
Trump did not specify where the idea of using disinfectant as a possible remedy for Covid-19 came from, and the source for his notion remains obscure. But the Guardian has learned that peddlers of chlorine dioxide – industrial bleach – have been making direct approaches to the White House in recent days.
Grenon styles himself as “archbishop” of Genesis II – a Florida-based outfit that claims to be a church but which in fact is the largest producer and distributor of chlorine dioxide bleach as a “miracle cure” in the US. He brands the chemical as MMS, “miracle mineral solution”, and claims fraudulently that it can cure 99% of all illnesses including cancer, malaria, HIV/Aids as well as autism.
Since the start of the pandemic, Genesis II has been marketing MMS as a cure to coronavirus. It advises users, including children, to mix three to six drops of bleach in water and drink it.
In his weekly televised radio show, posted online on Sunday, Grenon read out the letter he wrote to Trump. He said it began: “Dear Mr President, I am praying you read this letter and intervene.”
Grenon said that 30 of his supporters have also written in the past few days to Trump at the White House urging him to take action to protect Genesis II in its bleach-peddling activities which they claim can cure coronavirus.
On Friday, hours after Trump talked about disinfectant on live TV, Grenon went further in a post on his Facebook page. He claimed that MMS had actually been sent to the White House. He wrote: “Trump has got the MMS and all the info!!! Things are happening folks! Lord help others to see the Truth!”
Paradoxically, Trump’s outburst about the possible value of an “injection” of disinfectant into the lungs of Covid-19 sufferers came just days after a leading agency within the president’s own administration took action to shut down the peddling of bleach as a coronavirus cure around the US.
Last week the US Food and Drug Administration obtained a federal court order barring Genesis II from selling what was described as “an unproven and potentially harmful treatment for Covid-19”. The FDA also ordered a disciple of Genesis II, Kerri Rivera, to remove claims that MMS cured coronavirus from her website.
Last August the FDA issued an urgent warning urging Americans not to buy or drink MMS, which it said was a “dangerous bleach which has caused serious and potentially life-threatening side effects”. Drinking MMS can cause nausea, diarrhea and severe dehydration that can lead to death, the federal agency said.
The Guardian contacted the White House asking whether Grenon’s letter had influenced Trump’s comments on disinfectant, but did not immediately receive a response.
"The difference between stupidity
and genius is that genius has its limits."
--Alexandre Dumas-fils
When people say we elected a snake-oil salesman, I didn't think it'd end up being quite so literal.
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Likely rolling their eyes and sighing, the CDC will release new guidelines next week on how to safely reopen schools.
As this announcement comes within a day of Trump tweeting that the CDC was being too strict, expect the new rules to be a lot Trumpier. For example, a lot of schools can't separate their students by six feet in their existing classrooms, and don't have the money to fix it. I expect the guidelines to be a variation of "put them in the classroom anyhow, and we're not paying you extra".
Incidentally, the push to get schools open could easily be part of the "get back to work, even if it's unsafe" policy that Team Trump is pushing hard. Without payment.
It is... every single prominent alt right fucker pushes supplements. Some have other schemes, but selling pretty much snake oil is common across all. Alex Jones producer have even gone on rants against debunking youtubers, because their supplements all have soy. While hating soy so much, he literally used the... “we remove the bad parts of soy” argument...
Folly and fakery have always been with us... but it has never before been as dangerous as it is now, never in history have we been able to afford it less. - Isaac Asimov
Every damn thing you do in this life, you pay for. - Edith Piaf
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. - Orwell
No amount of belief makes something a fact. - James Randi
InfoWars Founder Alex Jones Must Stop Selling Fake Coronavirus Silver Cures, FDA Says
- - - Updated - - -The warning letter comes three weeks after New York Attorney General Letitia James ordered Jones to stop marketing his products, which include “SuperSilver Whitening Toothpaste” and “SuperSilver Wound Dressing Gel” as cures for coronavirus.
Many of Jones’ products include mention of colloidal silver, which is small particles of silver in a liquid solution. The FDA has previously said there is no scientific evidence to show colloidal silver helps with any health issues.
The FDA warning letter orders Jones to correct his misbranding immediately, and contact the FDA within 48 hours to describe the steps he will take to rebrand these products.
Failure to correct these violations, the letter says, “may result in legal action including, without limitation, seizure and injunction.”
Oh boy.
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As a reminder, while we might not see Trump's taxes, he does have to file his fiscal disclosure forms. No, these are not as good as tax forms. On fiscal disclosure forms, you can say things like "TEN BILLION DOLLARS!" and answer questions in spans, not specific figures. Plus, they don't say which tax loopholes you used to pay no taxes, again. It's in the "better than nothing" column.
And he just pushed them back 45 days.
"You already posted that."
No no, that extension was until June 30th. Trump still didn't do it, so he got another one. Incidentally, if Trump is scared of even releasing this vague, inaccurate document, then things are really that bad. Too many bribes paid to him? Too many loans to himself? Is he unable to cover how poor he really is? Did he pay too much relief money to his own properties?
Pretty much this.
Presiding over a shuttered country with hundreds of thousands of people dead doesn't look good for his image, after all. Trump can't actually solve the problem, so he'll do what he does for every other problem he can't actually solve (read... "all of them)" ... pretend that the problem has magically disappeared.
“Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” ~ Emily3, World of Tomorrow
Words to live by.
Religious worship is part of the problem as well. The desperation to "get back to normal" is killing us. People congregate in enclosed places and it strengthens the virus.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/churches-...120612082.html
Title: Churches Were Eager to Reopen. Now They Are a Major Source of Coronavirus Cases.
It's a pretty depressing article. People pack in at beaches, at bars, in restaurants, and in churches, and then seem surprised when someone they know dies. The defiance against wearing masks and social distancing is psychotic and substantially weakening the country.
I'm pretty sure I can just say "older people are more likely to go to church" without citing evidence and get away with it, since most people here would agree.
Nah, just kidding. Here's a world-spanning study from 2018. And this Pew Research article mentions several.
Simply put, churchgoing audiences are more likely to be older and therefore more vulnerable. Packing people into them is extraordinarily risky right now. Why Trump wanted packed churches by Easter is pretty obvious, he wants the religious right vote, but that move was going to cost lives of the very group he was courting.
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Multiple sites, including Forbes, talk about this scathing report of Facebook's policies:
"That's nonsense. Who even asked for this?"The report summarizing the two-year audit, led by former American Civil Liberties Union executive Laura W. Murphy, describes Facebook’s approach to civil rights as a “seesaw of progress and setbacks,” finding that while the company has made “significant improvements” with regard to civil rights, these changes are “inadequate” and the overall approach “remains too reactive and piecemeal.”
Among the changes Facebook should make, the auditors advise, are a “stronger interpretation” and enforcement of its voter suppression policies, more resources toward addressing organized hate on the platform, addressing issues of bias and discrimination in its algorithm, going beyond simply banning white nationalists and supremacists, and “more visible and consistent prioritization of civil rights” in Facebook’s overall decision-making.
The audit expresses “significant concern” over CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s repeated defense of free expression on Facebook—used to explain the company’s refusal to fact-check political ads—saying that “the prioritization of free expression over all other values, such as equality and non-discrimination, is deeply troubling.”
Auditors also flagged the prevalence of misinformation around voting ahead of the November election, writing that they’re “confounded...as to why Facebook has failed to grasp the urgency of interpreting existing policies to make them effective against suppression.”
Facebook did. In 2018. It was a multi-part audit, one that basically cleared them on working with Cambridge Analytica.
This timing is not great news for FB, who is already losing more money than Blizzard is worth due to a boycott, and could be dragged before the House for profiting off of intentionally-spread misinformation.
I work for the US Department of Energy and Princeton University. I received a university wide email from the President of the university (Dr. Eisgruber) yesterday. I have never read a more scathing email in regards to a government policy.
"Heartless, senseless, ill-defined, cruel, disruptive, damaging, misguided, unnecessary, wholly irresponsible, arbitrary, policy making at it's very worst."
Just a few of the adjective he used.
Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding.
You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it.
Sovereign
Mass Effect
Folly and fakery have always been with us... but it has never before been as dangerous as it is now, never in history have we been able to afford it less. - Isaac Asimov
Every damn thing you do in this life, you pay for. - Edith Piaf
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. - Orwell
No amount of belief makes something a fact. - James Randi
Folly and fakery have always been with us... but it has never before been as dangerous as it is now, never in history have we been able to afford it less. - Isaac Asimov
Every damn thing you do in this life, you pay for. - Edith Piaf
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. - Orwell
No amount of belief makes something a fact. - James Randi
I don’t think people working retail right now get the respect they deserve. I know many are just young and naive, but many recognize the impact of covid and still do their shit job, for shit pay, for a public that seems to hate them. I think due to covid, our view of retail workers needs to change.
Sorry to go off topic, but trying to spread a little respect for folks working retail...
Edit: I haven’t seen the usual 2 Indian guys at 7/11 for a few weeks and there is a new young kid I noticed. I don’t know them, but I spent years stoping bye and buying smokes/junk food. I’m honestly concerned if they are alright... I kind of miss them...
Last edited by Felya; 2020-07-09 at 12:36 PM.
Folly and fakery have always been with us... but it has never before been as dangerous as it is now, never in history have we been able to afford it less. - Isaac Asimov
Every damn thing you do in this life, you pay for. - Edith Piaf
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. - Orwell
No amount of belief makes something a fact. - James Randi
Here comes the taxes...
Supreme Court says Manhattan district attorney can get Trump tax records
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/09/supr...x-records.html
The house request is rejected... more info incoming.The Supreme Court on Thursday voted 7-2 against President Donald Trump in a case over whether he could shield his tax records from the Manhattan district attorney.
Chief Justice John Roberts authored the court’s opinion, which was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch wrote separately to explain their votes with the majority. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
Last edited by Felya; 2020-07-09 at 02:28 PM.
Folly and fakery have always been with us... but it has never before been as dangerous as it is now, never in history have we been able to afford it less. - Isaac Asimov
Every damn thing you do in this life, you pay for. - Edith Piaf
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. - Orwell
No amount of belief makes something a fact. - James Randi
Not quite... the position is that there are no additional barriers due to him being president, throwing out his argument that being the president provides a privileged position where he cannot be subpoenaed in such a manner due to article II and the supremacy clause.
Still a huge step forward, though. And hopefully starts up the momentum to crack the walls he's thrown up trying to hide from the light of day.