Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
JoanofArgh
JoanofArgh's Journal
JoanofArgh's Journal
October 12, 2020
Wow, this video of Doug Jones is powerful!
https://twitter.com/DavidYankovich/status/1315729848317378561?s=20
October 12, 2020
https://twitter.com/seanfeucht/status/1315455479037014016?s=21
Huge group of fundamentalist anti-maskers in front of the courthouse in Nashville
https://twitter.com/will_bunch/status/1315616442008719360?s=21https://twitter.com/seanfeucht/status/1315455479037014016?s=21
October 12, 2020
Tweet thread by Channel 4 Dispatches:
Now we’ve left the EU, the government is trying to do a trade deal with the US. @Dispatches can exclusively reveal dangerous levels of contamination in American meat that could soon be stocked in UK supermarkets. 1/
Between 12 & 14% of the pork & poultry samples tested have Salmonella, that’s about 6 times higher than levels in UK pork. According to preliminary results from Professor Lance Price who is in the middle of a 5year study looking at bacterial contamination in US retail meat. 2/
More than 60% of the pork products tested had E. coli on them, as did around 70% of beef products, 80% of chicken products, and more than 90% of turkey products. E. coli indicates faecal contamination. 3/
We can also reveal preliminary results from Professor Price’s study that shows that 45% of the bacteria they found on American retail meat is resistant to at least one antibiotic. 4/
In the US the rate of antibiotics given to livestock is 5 times higher per kilo than in the UK. Scientists are concerned that this will cause a rise in antibiotic resistant bacteria, which could prevent our life-saving medicines from working. 5/
US meat producers use 6 antibiotics that are classed by the World Health Organisation as “critically important” to human medicine. 6/
US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue declined to be interviewed but has previously said that the US is doing a much better job in ensuring that antibiotics are not overused & that most poultry is now antibiotic free & many other animals are only given them when they are sick 7/
The UK Government have insisted that if the UK were to do a trade deal with the US, that they’re not going to lower UK food standards. 8/
WATCH: Dirty Secrets of American Food: Coming to a Supermarket Near You? Monday at 8pm on @Channel4
UK documentary on the dangerous levels of contamination on US meat
https://twitter.com/c4dispatches/status/1315381869479890944?s=21Tweet thread by Channel 4 Dispatches:
Now we’ve left the EU, the government is trying to do a trade deal with the US. @Dispatches can exclusively reveal dangerous levels of contamination in American meat that could soon be stocked in UK supermarkets. 1/
Between 12 & 14% of the pork & poultry samples tested have Salmonella, that’s about 6 times higher than levels in UK pork. According to preliminary results from Professor Lance Price who is in the middle of a 5year study looking at bacterial contamination in US retail meat. 2/
More than 60% of the pork products tested had E. coli on them, as did around 70% of beef products, 80% of chicken products, and more than 90% of turkey products. E. coli indicates faecal contamination. 3/
We can also reveal preliminary results from Professor Price’s study that shows that 45% of the bacteria they found on American retail meat is resistant to at least one antibiotic. 4/
In the US the rate of antibiotics given to livestock is 5 times higher per kilo than in the UK. Scientists are concerned that this will cause a rise in antibiotic resistant bacteria, which could prevent our life-saving medicines from working. 5/
US meat producers use 6 antibiotics that are classed by the World Health Organisation as “critically important” to human medicine. 6/
US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue declined to be interviewed but has previously said that the US is doing a much better job in ensuring that antibiotics are not overused & that most poultry is now antibiotic free & many other animals are only given them when they are sick 7/
The UK Government have insisted that if the UK were to do a trade deal with the US, that they’re not going to lower UK food standards. 8/
WATCH: Dirty Secrets of American Food: Coming to a Supermarket Near You? Monday at 8pm on @Channel4
October 11, 2020
Tweet thread by Seth Cotlar:
Pete nicely skewers the illogic of "originalism" as articulated by many contemporary conservative jurists.
He's right that many people in the founding generation (like Jefferson and Paine) understood that constitutions would evolve as the societies to which they applied changed. It should go without saying that "loose constructionists" like Hamilton thought the same thing.
There are few ironies more delicious than the fact that many of the best arguments against originalism can be found in the writings of the founders.
The founders disagreed with each other about almost everything. The Constitution was the product of many compromises and authored by committee. The idea that there is even a singular "original intent" to be discerned, let alone definitively nailed down, seems absurd to me.
"Judicial activism" is just a scare term one uses to denigrate a "judicial interpretation" that you disagree with but don't want to argue against, or can't plausibly argue against.
There is zero evidence that the founders intended the Constitution to serve as a document that 5 Supreme Court justices could use to repeatedly nullify attempts to bring the nation's policies and laws into alignment with a changing society.
You'd be hard pressed to find more than a handful of historians of the founding era who see any merit in Scalia-style originalism. Which is ironic, given that Scalia claims to be channeling the spirit and intent of the founding era.
Pete is spot on when he says that "originalism" is conservative judicial activism cloaked in the garb of humility. "It's not me, Scalia, saying this, it's Madison and Hamilton speaking THROUGH me." Such a claim is 100% BS.
Pete Buttigieg nicely skewers the illogic of "originalism" as articulated by right wing Justices
https://twitter.com/SethCotlar/status/1315357762298105857?s=20Tweet thread by Seth Cotlar:
Pete nicely skewers the illogic of "originalism" as articulated by many contemporary conservative jurists.
He's right that many people in the founding generation (like Jefferson and Paine) understood that constitutions would evolve as the societies to which they applied changed. It should go without saying that "loose constructionists" like Hamilton thought the same thing.
There are few ironies more delicious than the fact that many of the best arguments against originalism can be found in the writings of the founders.
The founders disagreed with each other about almost everything. The Constitution was the product of many compromises and authored by committee. The idea that there is even a singular "original intent" to be discerned, let alone definitively nailed down, seems absurd to me.
"Judicial activism" is just a scare term one uses to denigrate a "judicial interpretation" that you disagree with but don't want to argue against, or can't plausibly argue against.
There is zero evidence that the founders intended the Constitution to serve as a document that 5 Supreme Court justices could use to repeatedly nullify attempts to bring the nation's policies and laws into alignment with a changing society.
You'd be hard pressed to find more than a handful of historians of the founding era who see any merit in Scalia-style originalism. Which is ironic, given that Scalia claims to be channeling the spirit and intent of the founding era.
Pete is spot on when he says that "originalism" is conservative judicial activism cloaked in the garb of humility. "It's not me, Scalia, saying this, it's Madison and Hamilton speaking THROUGH me." Such a claim is 100% BS.
October 11, 2020
The backdrop to QAnon’s arrival in Europe is the pandemic, which has supercharged conspiracy theories everywhere. Local Q groups have sprung up from the Netherlands to the Balkans. In Britain, QAnon-themed protests have taken place in more than 20 cities and towns. 2/8
Officials were baffled that a wacky conspiracy theory about Trump taking on a “deep state” of Satanists and pedophiles has resonated in places like Germany, which has handled the pandemic well. But as one official put it, QAnon’s mythology “falls on fertile ground.” 3/8
In Germany, as in the US, far-right activists were the first to latch on. QAnon's language - from claims of ritual child murder to revenge fantasies against liberal elites - conjure anti-Semitic tropes and putsch fantasies that have long animated Germany’s far-right fringe. 4/8
“It’s the 21-century version of blood libel,” said @DittrichMiro. “The idea of a global conspiracy of elites is deeply anti-Semitic. ‘Globalists’ is code for Jews.” 5/8
At its root QAnon is a fascist movement, some say. "It doesn’t openly fly the colors of fascism, it sells it as secret code,” one intelligence official said. “It's jumped from the virtual world into the real world. If the U.S. is anything to go by, it’s going to gain speed.” 6/8
Even those on the far right who do not buy into the conspiracy theory see QAnon as a strategic way to grow. A far-right magazine editor in Germany told me that the image of pedophile elites was a useful “allegory” for corrupt and decadent elites. 7/8
“Q is a completely novel attempt to structure political opposition in the era of social media,” the editor said. After the pandemic, “the far right will reconstitute itself differently. Q could play a role in this.” End
QAnon has taken root in Germany and other countries (thread)
https://twitter.com/kbennhold/status/1315252482126340096?s=21The backdrop to QAnon’s arrival in Europe is the pandemic, which has supercharged conspiracy theories everywhere. Local Q groups have sprung up from the Netherlands to the Balkans. In Britain, QAnon-themed protests have taken place in more than 20 cities and towns. 2/8
Officials were baffled that a wacky conspiracy theory about Trump taking on a “deep state” of Satanists and pedophiles has resonated in places like Germany, which has handled the pandemic well. But as one official put it, QAnon’s mythology “falls on fertile ground.” 3/8
In Germany, as in the US, far-right activists were the first to latch on. QAnon's language - from claims of ritual child murder to revenge fantasies against liberal elites - conjure anti-Semitic tropes and putsch fantasies that have long animated Germany’s far-right fringe. 4/8
“It’s the 21-century version of blood libel,” said @DittrichMiro. “The idea of a global conspiracy of elites is deeply anti-Semitic. ‘Globalists’ is code for Jews.” 5/8
At its root QAnon is a fascist movement, some say. "It doesn’t openly fly the colors of fascism, it sells it as secret code,” one intelligence official said. “It's jumped from the virtual world into the real world. If the U.S. is anything to go by, it’s going to gain speed.” 6/8
Even those on the far right who do not buy into the conspiracy theory see QAnon as a strategic way to grow. A far-right magazine editor in Germany told me that the image of pedophile elites was a useful “allegory” for corrupt and decadent elites. 7/8
“Q is a completely novel attempt to structure political opposition in the era of social media,” the editor said. After the pandemic, “the far right will reconstitute itself differently. Q could play a role in this.” End
October 11, 2020
Joe Biden's most recent endorsements
https://twitter.com/helenkennedy/status/1315280125248917510?s=21
October 10, 2020
A new Trump PAC is trying to sign up businesses that'll promise employees raises
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1314971390307696642?s=21
October 10, 2020
A private security company is recruiting former U.S. military Special Operations personnel to guard polling sites in Minnesota on Election Day, an effort the chairman of the company said is intended to prevent left-wing activists from disrupting the election but that the state attorney general warned would amount to voter intimidation and violate the law.
The recruiting effort is being done by Atlas Aegis, a private security company based in Tennessee that was formed last year and is run by U.S. military veterans, including people with Special Operations experience, according to its website.
The company chairman, Anthony Caudle, posted a message through a defense industry jobs site this week calling for former Special Operations forces to staff “security positions in Minnesota during the November Election and beyond to protect election polls, local businesses and residences from looting and destruction.” He said in an interview earlier this week he is planning to send a “large contingent” to Minnesota but did not specify the numbers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/private-security-minnesota-election/2020/10/09/89766964-0987-11eb-991c-be6ead8c4018_story.html
Private security company recruiting former Special Forces to guard polling sites
https://twitter.com/capehartj/status/1314905493459152896?s=21A private security company is recruiting former U.S. military Special Operations personnel to guard polling sites in Minnesota on Election Day, an effort the chairman of the company said is intended to prevent left-wing activists from disrupting the election but that the state attorney general warned would amount to voter intimidation and violate the law.
The recruiting effort is being done by Atlas Aegis, a private security company based in Tennessee that was formed last year and is run by U.S. military veterans, including people with Special Operations experience, according to its website.
The company chairman, Anthony Caudle, posted a message through a defense industry jobs site this week calling for former Special Operations forces to staff “security positions in Minnesota during the November Election and beyond to protect election polls, local businesses and residences from looting and destruction.” He said in an interview earlier this week he is planning to send a “large contingent” to Minnesota but did not specify the numbers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/private-security-minnesota-election/2020/10/09/89766964-0987-11eb-991c-be6ead8c4018_story.html
October 9, 2020
Nine people who attended Trump's Minnesota rally tested positive . Two in hospital
https://twitter.com/NicoleSganga/status/1314675212504371201?s=20
October 9, 2020
More people are being born without wisdom teeth and an extra artery in their arm as a result of a human "microevolution" in recent years, a study has found.
Babies now have shorter faces, smaller jaws and extra bones in their legs and feet, a study in the Journal of Anatomy found.
Australian researchers who worked on the paper claim the human race is evolving faster than it has done at any point in the past 250 years.
Over time, human faces have got shorter, which has seen our mouths get smaller, with less room for as many teeth.
https://news.sky.com/story/human-microevolution-sees-more-people-born-without-wisdom-teeth-and-an-extra-artery-12099689
Human 'microevolution' sees more people born without wisdom teeth and an extra artery
More people are being born without wisdom teeth and an extra artery in their arm as a result of a human "microevolution" in recent years, a study has found.
Babies now have shorter faces, smaller jaws and extra bones in their legs and feet, a study in the Journal of Anatomy found.
Australian researchers who worked on the paper claim the human race is evolving faster than it has done at any point in the past 250 years.
Over time, human faces have got shorter, which has seen our mouths get smaller, with less room for as many teeth.
https://news.sky.com/story/human-microevolution-sees-more-people-born-without-wisdom-teeth-and-an-extra-artery-12099689
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHome country: USA
Current location: Charlotte, NC
Member since: Fri Sep 14, 2012, 01:15 AM
Number of posts: 14,971
