News bits: Faux tells Swift what to do; DJT’s double liar attorney; PA court attacks Dobbs

Mind-blowing Republican hypocrisy

Various media are reporting that America's authoritarian radical right including Faux News is engaged in a propaganda campaign to stop Taylor Swift from involvement in politics. The WaPo made a 1 minute montage of clips from various Faux blowhards insulting Swift and telling her to stay out of politics. The blowhards say things like (i) it is best for her to stay out, (ii) she can't name one Biden policy, (iii) she complains about climate change but she flew on a private jet, (iv) please don’t believe anything Swift says because she does not do what she says.

The Hill reports: 

“Does Taylor realize the guy that they want her to endorse is a kind of stumbling, bumbling mess, doesn’t have the energy to even give a 30-minute speech, let alone perform a three-hour concert like she does?” Hannity said of Swift and Biden on his nightly show. “He also is kind of very creepy. She may want to check out those creepy videos, they’re online.”

Faux accuses Swift of hypocrisy and Biden of being creepy?? The arrogance and hypocrisy of the Faux blowhard crew is stunning. And Hannity is creepy.

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Trump’s double liar attorney

The New Republic reports that crackpot Trump attorney Alina Habba, the Kraken-Lite of Trump thugs, has retracted her allegation that the judge on the latest defamation case was biased. She alleged that the judge should have recused himself from the trial due to a conflict of interest with the prosecuting attorney. In her retraction, Habba lied about her original accusation, calling it merely an inquiry. It was not a mere inquiry. It was full blown accusation. 

Then she lied about retraction saying the basis for the conflict of interest allegation had been resolved and there was none. There was no resolution, just statements from the judge and the prosecuting attorney that there was no conflict of interest. That is not a resolution. That is just statements from accused people.

What really pushed Habba back from continuing with the original lie about a conflict was a threat by the prosecuting attorney to seek sanctions against Kraken-Lite for lying to the court and smearing both the judge and prosecuting attorney Roberta Kaplan. Kaplan accused Trump and Habba of asserting “a false narrative of judicial bias” and said she will consider filing for sanctions against Habba.

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The Pennsylvania state supreme court issued an opinion that that abortion restrictions constitute sex-based discrimination and are “presumptively unconstitutional” under the state constitution’s equal rights amendment. Slate writes: 

The Supreme Court’s eradication of the constitutional right to abortion in 2022’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization had an immediate and devastating impact on gender equality in the United States. With a single ruling, five justices wiped out millions of women’s access to basic health care and handed control over their medical decisions to politicians and judges. It wasn’t just the court’s judgment, though, that relegated women to a lesser place in the constitutional order; it was also the court’s reasoning, which used the centurieslong oppression of women to justify an ongoing oppression of women by way of a deprivation of their rights. Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion rested largely on the views of dead white men who condoned the rape, beating, and murder of women to maintain female subjugation in every realm of life. And he dismissed his ruling’s ruinous impact on gender equality in a single conclusory paragraph asserting that abortion restrictions could not possibly discriminate against women.

This week the Pennsylvania Supreme Court responded to that conclusion: no. On Monday, the court issued a landmark opinion declaring that abortion restrictions do amount to sex-based discrimination and therefore are “presumptively unconstitutional” under the state constitution’s equal rights amendment. The majority vehemently rejected Dobbs’ history-only analysis, noting that, until recently, “those interpreting the law” saw women “as not only having fewer legal rights than men but also as lesser human beings by design.” Justice David Wecht went even further: In an extraordinary concurrence, the justice recounted the historical use of abortion bans to repress women, condemned Alito’s error-ridden analysis, and repudiated the “antiquated and misogynistic notion that a woman has no say over what happens to her own body.”

It is not clear what impact this might have, but at least in Pennsylvania abortion will remain legal. The logic attacking Alito’s crackpot “reasoning” is simple but solid. Restricting abortions does discriminate against women.

Rep. Ilhan Omar faces calls to ‘resign in disgrace’ over speech in support of Somalia

 

https://nypost.com/2024/01/29/news/rep-ilhan-omar-faces-calls-to-resign-in-disgrace-over-unbecoming-speech-in-support-of-somalia/amp/

“Ilhan Omar’s appalling, Somalia-first comments are a slap in the face to the Minnesotans she was elected to serve and a direct violation of her oath of office,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) wrote on X. “She should resign in disgrace.”

Omar, the first Somali American in Congress, appeared to assure her Somali American constituents that she would do everything in her power to prevent the disputed, breakaway Republic of Somaliland from entering into a sea-access deal with landlocked Ethiopia.

A clip of the Minnesota lawmaker went viral with over 2.6 million views after it was posted on X, with a translation saying Omar had said: “As Somalis, one day we will go after our missing territories.”

Newsweek cannot handle inconvenient truth!

A post here yesterday focused on comments by a Palestinian about the mess in the endless Israel-Palestine conflict. I read the article and it just didn’t make a lot of sense to me. So I thought I would set up an account and comment to ask a question. Newsweek rejected the comment. Here is the rejection email with my comments and question:

The AP article I quoted is headlined: Netanyahu says he told the US that he opposes a Palestinian state in any postwar scenario

I clicked on the learn more button in the rejection email and got this:

As far as I can tell, my comments and question were not uncivil, spam, profanity, incoherent, obscene, threatening or an attack on the identity of the author or other commenters. 

That leaves insulting and inflammatory as the only possibilities for rejection. But, were they insulting and/or inflammatory? Apparently so in the eyes of the Newsweek censor. 

But if inconvenient truth is insulting and/or inflammatory to at least some people and that merits censoring it, how is it possible to have open and thoughtful conversations as Newsweek claims it wants? That is how I analyze the reasoning that led to rejecting my comments and question.

For some context about Newsweek:

Qs: Is Newsweek incapable of dealing with inconvenient truth generally, or is this a response limited to exceptionally emotional issues like the endless Israel-Palestine conflict, misery and bloodshed? For example, in an article that denies Republican animosity toward non-heterosexuals or abortion, would Newsweek have rejected similar comments and questions about Republicans passing laws that interfere with the freedoms of (i) the LGBQTN community, or (ii) women who want an abortion? Ditto for a pro-gun article about lack of gun violence but comments and a question about actual data on how severe the gun violence problem actually is? 

Is this just a tempest in a teapot, or is there something important going on here? 

News: Chevron deference; A warning about demagoguery; Elite support for demagoguery

American Progress comments about the pending USSC case that authoritarian radical right elites hope will end Chevron deference, thereby gutting the power of federal agencies to regulate businesses and protect consumers and civil liberties:

The U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to overrule 40 years of precedent, which may allow individual judges to implement their partisan policy preferences instead of abiding by agency expertise.

At issue in both Loper Bright v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce is a challenge to a regulation created by the National Marine Fisheries Service, under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, requiring commercial fishing vessels to pay for federal monitors who collect data to ensure that fisheries remain sustainable and viable for decades to come. Rather than address the narrow and technical question on this regulation, however, the Supreme Court opted instead to take up the broader and far more existentially threatening question of whether to completely do away with 40-year-old precedent known as Chevron deference.

The stakes of these cases could not be higher. The conservative legal movement’s efforts to use the legal system to serve the interests of billionaires and corporate behemoths at the expense of the American people has come to fruition. Indeed, ending Chevron deference may prevent agencies from effectively serving the American people and empower corporations to flout vital oversight. Moreover, the outcome could affect nearly every policy area, including health care, civil rights, workers’ rights, education, environmental justice, and financial regulation, to name only a few.

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The NYT writes about federal judge who issued a warning from the bench:

A Republican-appointed judge on Thursday denounced as “shameless” the attempts by prominent Republican politicians to recast the Jan. 6 riot in a positive light, including by portraying the Trump supporters who sacked Congress as having done nothing wrong and by calling those convicted of crimes political prisoners or hostages.

“In my 37 years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream,” wrote Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Court in Washington. “I have been dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness.”

The remarks, made in a seven-page filing that Judge Lamberth described as notes for what he had said on Thursday at a resentencing hearing for a Jan. 6 rioter, amounted to a scathing and extraordinary broadside against a vast web of conspiracy theories and falsehoods about the Capitol attack that have permeated the right.

Criticizing the rioter, James Little, for displaying “a clear lack of remorse,” the judge used the occasion to also “set the record straight” about what he portrayed as a broader disinformation campaign, citing the evidence he has absorbed from presiding over many Jan. 6 prosecutions.

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A NYT article reports about X and election lies and misinformation it is spreading:

Elon Musk Is Spreading Election Misinformation, but X’s 

Fact Checkers Are Long Gone

In the spring of 2020, when President Donald J. Trump wrote messages on Twitter warning that increased reliance on mail-in ballots would lead to a “rigged election,” the platform ran a corrective, debunking his claims. 

This month, Elon Musk, who has since bought Twitter and rebranded it X, echoed several of Mr. Trump’s claims about the American voting system, putting forth distorted and false notions that American elections were wide open for fraud and illegal voting by noncitizens.

This time, there were no fact checks. And the X algorithm — under Mr. Musk’s direct control — helped the posts reach large audiences, in some cases drawing many millions of views.

Since taking control of the site, Mr. Musk has dismantled the platform’s system for flagging false election content, arguing it amounted to election interference.   

The platform’s algorithm — which dictates how posts are circulated on the site — also now gives added promotion to those who pay to be “verified,” including previously banned accounts.

Among them is @KanekoaTheGreat, a once-banned QAnon influencer who this month circulated a 32-page dossier promoted by Mr. Trump that recounted a barrage of false charges about the 2020 election.

It drew nearly 22 million views.

There you have it as clear as it can be: lies are honest, patriotic and democratic, while inconvenient truth is dishonest, tyrannical and authoritarian. According to corrupt authoritarian radical right elites, asking for truth amounts to election interference. 

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From the Crackpots, Cranks, Creeps & Weirdos Files: 

GOP Chairwoman Says “Satan” Now Using 

Taylor Swift to Re-Elect Joe Biden

Kandiss Taylor, [a crackpot and] former Georgia school teacher who ran in the Republican primary for Governor in 2022 and who is now the GOP Chair of Georgia’s 1st congressional district, is back in the news with more Taylor Swift criticism. Taylor’s latest Swift attack was triggered by the Kansas City Chiefs winning their conference final matchup on Sunday, sending the team to the Super Bowl — their fourth in five years.

After warning earlier in the fall that Taylor Swift was having a “demonic” effect on today’s youth, the MAGA adherent Taylor still can’t shake it off, as it were — especially since she sees Swift’s role as having grown even more nefarious from a MAGA standpoint. Swift’s latest machinations, according to Taylor, include the singer’s working with “Satan” to “elect Joe [Biden] back into the White House to destroy what’s left of America.”

Taylor’s charge was unverifiable — Satan did not return our calls.

Agent of Satan (but cute!)

The US betrays and abandons the Ukraine? (Looks like it)

PD cited this video in some of his comments. It speaks for itself:

“Redefining success in Ukraine” smells

rather like the Vietnam failure sold to us as

Peace With Honor

 

It sure sounds a lot like the MSM starting to pound the American public with propaganda to soothe consciences about abandoning the Ukraine to the Russians. The goal is to justify the catastrophe that the Ukraine is going to experience once Putin’s Russia overruns the whole country, committing genocide in the process. If this marks the beginning of American abandonment of the Ukraine, it makes me ashamed to be an American. 

Good job, two-party system! 

Well done!

So, of the two parties, who gets the credit for this moral and human disaster? Repubs, maybe ~75% and Dems, maybe ~25%? ~80-20? ~50-50? 

Q: Does this reflect the morality and belief of most Americans, assuming (i) we are going to abandon the Ukraine, and (ii) average Americans understand what is happening?

Some key points in a brief filed in DJT's insurrection case

Some points from the 70 page brief that CREW filed with the USSC, arguing that DJT is an insurrectionist and not eligible to run for president:

These are the issues

according to CREW

Trump identifies no plausible basis to evade disqualification under Section 3. His brief gives only perfunctory treatment to the central issue—whether he engaged in insurrection. He does not show why the detailed 150-paragraphs of trial court factual findings were somehow clear error, and he fails to even acknowledge (much less to rebut) the most damning evidence against him. Section 3 does not give a free pass to insurrectionist Presidents; they are “officers” because they hold an “office.” And states’ broad authority to regulate presidential elections allows them to exclude constitutionally ineligible candidates from the ballot.

The thrust of Trump’s position is less legal than it is political. He not-so-subtly threatens “bedlam” if he is not on the ballot. Petr. Br. 2. But we already saw the “bedlam” Trump unleashed when he was on the ballot and lost. Section 3 is designed precisely to avoid giving oath-breaking insurrectionists like Trump the power to unleash such mayhem again.

As the Colorado Supreme Court correctly held, any plausible definition of that phrase “would encompass a concerted and public use of force . . . by a group of people to hinder or prevent the U.S. government from taking the actions necessary to accomplish a peaceful transfer of power in this country.” .... (“insurrection” means “rising of any body of the people, within the United States, to attain or effect by force or violence any object of great public nature” or “to resist, or to prevent by force or violence, the execution of any statute of the United States.”); United States v. Hanway, 26 F. Cas. 105, 127-128 (C.C.E.D. Pa. 1851) (similar); .... 

B. Trump engaged in the insurrection

1. The Court should decline Trump’s invitation to re-weigh the facts concerning his involvement in the insurrection. This Court does not overturn plausible factual findings even if it is “convinced that [it] would have decided the case differently,” particularly where, as here, “an intermediate court reviews, and affirms, a trial court’s factual findings.” Glossip v. Gross, 576 U.S. 863, 881-882 (2015) (quotations omitted); see also Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 366 (1991) (plurality opinion) (“[I]n the absence of exceptional circumstances, we would defer to state-court factual findings, even when those findings relate to a constitutional issue.”). (emphasis added)

Trump continued inciting the mob. At 2:24 pm—an hour after he learned the Capitol was under violent attack—Trump tweeted:   

Given the trial court’s emphasis on Trump’s 2:24 pm tweet, Trump’s failure to mention it anywhere in his brief confirms how divorced his narrative is from reality. Trump finally told the mob to leave at 4:17 pm, in a message that praised the attackers and justified their actions.

Hours later, Trump celebrated the violence again:

3. Trump contests almost none of this evidence.

4. Finally, Trump advances a perfunctory legal argument that he cannot have “engaged in” insurrection unless he personally committed violent acts. See Petr. Br. 35-36. That is wrong.

The USSC might let DJT run for office again, claiming he was not an “officer” or by some other “reasoning.” I can see two opposing political considerations the six radical authoritarian Republicans are faced with in this lawsuit. 

On the one hand, the authoritarians like corrupt dictatorship, while loathing democracy, civil liberties and transparency. A decision in DJT’s favor has got to be quite enticing. But on the other hand, holding for DJT gives him a lot of power. That poses a serious threat to the court's own ongoing massive power grab in a profoundly corrupt political plutocracy-Christian theocracy framework.

It will be a very interesting decision. To me, either outcome seems to be about equally likely. 

News: DJT evades taxes; Greedflation; GOP liars, bigots & haters

The Daily Beast reports about an apparent example of tax evasion by DJT that has gone on for years:

Trump’s $50 Million Mystery Debt Looks Like ‘Tax Evasion’

Former federal judge Barbara Jones, the court-appointed special monitor in Donald Trump’s New York business fraud case, just planted a financial bombshell that legal experts say suggests Trump lied knowingly and repeatedly on his federal financial disclosures about a major loan that never existed—and may have evaded taxes on $48 million in income.

But Jones tucked a major revelation into footnote 6, writing that a massive chunk of debt Trump has claimed to owe one of his own companies for years apparently does not exist, and never did.

“When I inquired about this loan, I was informed that there are no loan agreements that memorialize the loan, but that it was a loan that was believed to be between Donald J. Trump, individually, and Chicago Unit Acquisition for $48 million,” Jones wrote, referencing the name of Trump’s LLC that held his debt.

The Trump Organization denies this and says the loan is real. But two different experts who looked at the facts conclude DJT intentionally and knowingly committed tax evasion because he had chances to correct his tax filings but never did.

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Truthout reports about an analysis of sources of inflation:

The progressive organization Groundwork Collaborative, found that, in the past two economic quarters alone, 53 cents out of every dollar of inflationary price increases were due to corporate profits.

Since the start of the pandemic, corporate greed and profits accounted for close to one-third of all inflation, the group discovered — resulting in a phenomenon that is oftentimes called “greedflation.”

“Corporate profits as a share of national income have skyrocketed by 29% since the start of the pandemic,” the report says. “While our economy has returned to or surpassed its pre-pandemic levels on many indicators, workers’ share of corporate income has still not recovered.” 

“Costs have come down substantially, and while corporations were quick to pass on their increased costs to consumers, they are surprisingly less quick to pass on their savings to consumers,” said Liz Pancotti, strategic adviser for Groundwork Collaborative and a co-author of the report.

Assuming the analysis is accurate, this should be a major talking point for Dems. Whether it will be is an open question. Given the low quality of Dem messaging, it probably won’t be used much by Dems. Repubs will never use it, but they will blame inflation all on Biden and the Dems. Such is the way of incompetent vs competent messaging.  

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The Sacramento Bee reports about more garden variety, easily debunked Republican lies:

Some conservatives say transgender people regret surgery. 

A new study says otherwise

A common refrain among anti-transgender activists and politicians, including in California, is that many trans and gender-diverse people experience regret after obtaining gender-affirming surgery.

Last spring, self-described “de-transitioner” Chloe Cole came to Sacramento and told rally-goers at the Capitol that there are too many “bodies and minds falling apart in the aftermath of transition.”

However, that argument is not supported by the science, according to a new article published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association by three researchers from Johns Hopkins University. The researchers conducted a retrospective look at all available evidence and found that the “regret rate” for gender-affirming surgery is less than 1%. “This rate of surgical regret among (transgender and gender diverse) patients appears to be substantially lower than rates of surgical regret following similar procedures among the broader population, including cisgender individuals,” the report summary said, in part.

The Los Angeles Blade reports about garden variety, public, bigoted Republican hate of, and attacks on, LGBQT people:

GOP in audio: “Endgame” is to ban trans care “for everyone”

In audio released Friday evening, GOP lawmakers from Ohio and Michigan revealed the “endgame” is to ban transgender care “for everyone”

Towards the end of the Twitter Space [post], the conversation shifts to a plan for the “endgame,” where Republican legislators and anti-trans activist Prisha Mosley discuss various plans aimed at “banning this for everyone,” referring to gender-affirming care.

LGBQT Nation reports about radical authoritarian Republican support for hate:

Angry Republicans are going to protest against a “Hate has no 

home here” flag in a classroom

A Republican organization in Florida is demanding a school teacher take down a flag that says, “Hate has no home here.”

“The issue at hand is that the district needs to get out of having any type of political influence on our children,” said Lee County Republican Executive Committee chair Michael Thompson as his group announced that they would be protesting an upcoming Lee County School Board meeting.

Example of what Republicans call

illegal political influencing 

Does that include images of Jesus, the cross and 

the 10 Commandments?

Does that include pictures of 

non-White people or the Christian flag?

Christian flag

What about the American flag,

also political?

The confederate flag?

This one?

"My Fellow Palestinians: It's Time to Get Rid of Our Leaders and Accept Israel's Offers for Peace"

The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict regarding a two-state solution reveals a harsh reality: Israel has consistently made genuine efforts toward peace, only to be met with rejection, treachery, and blood-curdling violence by the Palestinian side. This pattern of refusal, particularly epitomized by groups like Hamas, has been the real obstacle to peace.

It's time to acknowledge this truth bluntly. Those who claim to desire peace must confront and challenge the rejectionist elements within Palestinian society, including Hamas. We need to get rid of the Palestinian establishment who have ruled for 15 years without actually representing the Palestinian people. Only then can we hope to forge a path toward a peaceful, two-state future.

Eid is a Palestinian human rights activist. He lives in the West Bank.

https://www.newsweek.com/my-fellow-palestinians-its-time-get-rid-our-leaders-accept-israels-offers-peace-opinion-1864654

Some people never/can't learn...

Take DJT.  He doesn’t learn from his mistakes.  He wants revenge (“I am your retribution.  I am your retribution.”) for anything (any mistakes) he’s made or that went wrong in his life.

The perfect example is the latest E. Jean Carroll case.  That repeated mistake will cost him over $83 million.  Will he learn from that mistake and not do it again?  Or will there be a third Carroll “mistake?”  Talk about the jury’s decision in the latest E. Jean Carroll trial.  

How about you? Do you learn from your mistakes, or do you get revenge for your mistakes?  How do you deal with mistakes you’ve made in your life?

News: Elites protecting elites; Lupus research discovery; Rotten GOP politics

In the last several days, various reports popped up about pornographic AI-generated images of Taylor Swift circulating in the internet. The first one I saw was about Biden railing about someone has gotta do something about this horrible, terrible Taylor Swift thing. I ignored it. But more recently, we see the CEO of the gigantic person (with more constitutional rights than us) named Microsoft blithering that someone has gotta do something about this horrible, terrible Taylor Swift thing. 

WTF! If AI-generated pornographic images of Germaine were circulating on the interwebs,* Biden and Gates would scream at the messenger and tell ’em to get out, with the door rigged to smash their ass on the way out and the guards instructed to shoot at ’em as they ran down the hallway toward the exit. 

* Eew, pornographic Germaine?? Talk about a horrible, terrible thing.

See my point? Us regular people get a kick in the ass and silently pay our taxes, but the noisy and famous beautiful and other elites get elite service and engage in vast amounts of tax evasion (~$700 billion/year by my estimate for the elites alone). They get real, honest to God service and respect. The rest of us get real honest to God disservice and disrespect.

The Mirror writes:

Microsoft CEO calls for tech industry to ‘act’ 

after AI photos of Taylor Swift

Satya Nadella spoke to Lester Holt about artificial intelligence and its ability to create deepfake images of others. After pictures of Taylor Swift circulated, he called for actions

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has called on the tech industry to take action after viral AI pornographic photos of Taylor Swift circulated.

The tech leader expressed grave concern and urgency to do something now. He told Lester Holt in an interview set to air on NBC News Tuesday: "We have to act, and quite frankly all of us in the tech platform, irrespective of what your standing on any particular issue is - I think we all benefit when the online world is a safe world.”

Nadella doesn’t merely have concern for Swift. He has grave concern. I guarantee it, he has zero concern for Germaine and other vermin of that ilk.

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Lupus is a truly terrible disease. Treatments suck and are fairly toxic. One gigantic problem with finding treatments for diseases with bad or no treatments is knowing at the tissue, cell and molecular level what event or series of events triggers disease. That is where most biomedical research is focused these days. It is a slow, tedious, failure-riddled endeavor. 

A press release from the Max Planck Institute in Berlin announced that researchers have found the disease trigger for at least some lupus patients:

Sometimes a single mutation in our genetic make-up is enough to cause disease. This is also the case with the autoimmune disease lupus. Lupus causes severe inflammation throughout the body and can have a serious impact on the lives of those affected. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin have now discovered a mechanism that can trigger lupus in children. This mechanism regulates the amount of a specific immune receptor that normally recognizes the genetic material of pathogens. If this mechanism is disrupted, receptors accumulate in the immune cells leading to the recognition of the body’s own genetic material. As a result, the immune system turns against its own body and causes the systemic inflammation of lupus. In collaboration with physicians from the Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the researchers were able to identify a lupus patient in whom this mechanism is disrupted by a single mutation.

In order for the immune system to react quickly, a certain number of these receptors must be present in the immune cells. Cells maintain this balance by constantly producing and degrading receptors. “We wanted to understand what happens when this balance is disturbed,” explains group leader Olivia Majer.

During their work, Majers’ team became interested in a protein complex called BORC. The researchers were able to show that BORC is required to degrade Toll-like receptor 7 within the cell. In addition, BORC needs another protein, UNC93B1, to carry out the degradation process correctly. If there is an error in this process, the receptor is not degraded and accumulates in the immune cells. “From earlier experiments in mice carried out a few years ago at the University of Berkeley in California, we already knew that too many of these receptors are a problem,” explains Majer. A greater amount of receptor biases towards recognizing the body’s own genetic material. This leads to an immune response against self, a trigger for the autoimmune disease lupus. So far, however, neither BORC nor UNC93B1 have been associated with lupus in humans.  

Testing for mutations in UNC93B1 could quickly become part of lupus treatment, opening up new approaches to therapy. In the past, doctors have mainly focused on suppressing inflammation with drugs. By targeting the mechanism that has now been discovered, it may be possible to prevent the inflammation from developing in the first place—and thus significantly reduce the disease burden for those affected.

This is early and this discovery needs to be repeated and expanded on to see how common this lupus trigger mechanism is. 

Two points:

• Just because researchers observe an phenomenon in an animal model like mice, it does not mean the same or anything similar goes on in humans. By my estimation, that mistake has been made at least ~100,000 times since the dawn on modern biomedical science in the ~1950s, probably more like 1 million times. For some reason, that lesson just won’t sink in with lots of people, especially non-scientists but including researchers themselves (hence the replication crisis in biomedical and other biological sciences).

• Here, one sees how one discovery builds on another over the years. Researchers at Berkeley found that Toll-like receptor 7 was a problem in mice. That suggested to the Max Planck researchers to look for a human connection with out of whack Toll-like 7 biology in humans. It’s a slow, tedious, failure-riddled process. Biomedical science researchers need to be persistent as hell and have the patience of a freaking saint.*

* I lacked the patience part to stay on the bench as a researcher. That’s why I went to law school and picked an area of law that focuses on biomedical science and research. It’s a heck lot faster and more fun to think and write about science than it is to do it. Can you imagine how long it takes a botanist to do an experiment on a species of a tree? (hint: years)

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These days, there is an almost endless supply of examples of stupidity, corruption, incompetence, crackpottery, bad faith, ill-will, cruelty, mendacity, vulgarity, jaw-dropping hypocrisy and all-around fetid moral rot coming from America's authoritarian radical right Republican Party. Here’s a couple of examples.

1. The WaPo writes: House GOP unveils Mayorkas impeachment articles despite lack of evidence -- The charges come as Republicans swiftly concluded two public impeachment hearings this month without Mayorkas’s in-person testimony or testimony from any fact witnesses, and they have struggled to detail clear evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors.

So instead of doing something about America's worsening problems, including the ongoing radicalization of people on the far right, the dimwit Republicans who control the House piss precious time away with their idiotic impeachments and sabotage efforts to deal with real problems like the US-Mexico border.

2. The WaPo writes: Trump brags about efforts to stymie border talks: ‘Please blame it on me’ -- “As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America,” Trump told a rowdy crowd of supporters at a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday, ahead of the state’s presidential caucus on Feb. 8. “I’ll fight it all the way. A lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s okay. Please blame it on me. Please.”

That cynical, self-serving bullshit is worse than mere incompetence. In my opinion, it amounts to intentional treason.

3. Regarding elite Republican sex pervert, hypocrite Christian nationalists: 

Late last month, the Southern Baptist Convention settled a sex abuse lawsuit brought against a man named Paul Pressler for an undisclosed sum. The lawsuit was filed in 2017 and alleged that Pressler had raped a man named Duane Rollins for decades, with the rapes beginning when Rollins was only 14 years old.

Pressler is one of the most important American religious figures of the 20th century. He and his friend Paige Patterson, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, are two of the key architects of the so-called conservative resurgence within the S.B.C.

Both men are now disgraced. In 2018, the board of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary fired Patterson after it found that he’d grossly mishandled rape allegations ....

Both were powerful men so brazen about their misconduct that it was an “open secret” in their respective worlds. Yet they were also so powerful that an army of enablers coalesced around them, protecting them from the consequences of their actions. A single individual can be a predator, but it takes a village to protect him from exposure and punishment.

Yeah, God sure does work in mysterious ways, assuming there is a God. But if not, powerful, perverted men often work in transparent ways.

4. Regarding elite Republican lunacy and cynical mendacity, The Hill writes: Rick Scott: Trump ‘irrelevant’ to border talks: ‘He’s not in office’ -- “He’s irrelevant to this conversation. He’s not in office,” Scott said on “Fox News Sunday,” while laying blame on the Biden administration. Trump has slammed negotiation efforts by Senate Democrats and Republicans on a border security and foreign aid package, raising criticism that he wants to sink any potential deal.

Scott, the author of a lunatic, pro-pollution, pro-climate change, pro-Christian Sharia law 11 Point Plan to Save America, knows that DJT absolutely, positively is relevant to all conversations in congress. Scott is a disgusting scumbag and liar. 

News: DJT blocks immigration solution; Christian nationalist hate, bigotry & tyranny; Etc.

For personal political reasons, DJT wants to block a bipartisan effort to fix the border situation. This is not much different than Nixon sabotaging Johnson’s effort to reach a peace agreement with North Vietnam. What Nixon did struck me as treason. This doesn’t seem much different to me. The Hill reports:

Romney: ‘Appalling’ Trump wants to kill border bill so he can ‘blame Biden’

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Thursday took aim at former President Trump for pushing Republican lawmakers to oppose a border deal so that he could use the issue to campaign against President Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

“I think the border is a very important issue for Donald Trump,” Romney said. “And the fact that he would communicate to Republican senators and congresspeople that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem because he wants to blame Biden for it is really appalling.”

“But the reality is that we have a crisis at the border, the American people are suffering as a result of what’s happening at the border, and someone running for president ought to try to get the problem solved as opposed to saying, ‘Hey, save that problem. Don’t solve it. Let me take credit for solving it later,’” Romney continued.

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LGBQT Nation reports about a zealot Christian nationalist group calling itself One Million Moms. The zealots hate LGBQT people and how they live their lives. They hate a lot of other stuff too. LGBQT Nation Writes:

Conservative Christians rage at “unnatural” 

TurboTax ad showing a loving gay couple

“TurboTax is glorifying sin, and no sin should be honored,” the hate group wrote of the cute 30-second ad

The anti-LGBTQ+ organization One Million Moms (OMM) has condemned a new, humorous 30-second advertisement from the income tax preparation software company TurboTax. OMM claims the ad, which features a male same-sex couple, tries to “push the gay lifestyle and redefine ‘family.'”

The ad features Doug and Andre, a mixed-race male couple who say they “navigated a turbulent housing market” by buying a “boater home,” a playful word for a houseboat that sounds similar to the word “motor home.”

OMM, which only has 108,000 social media followers on Facebook and X, has a habit of throwing a fit anytime any company anywhere publicly acknowledges the existence of queer people.

Their past moral outrage has been directed at Parents magazine for featuring a same-sex couple, an anti-smoking ad that mentioned erectile dysfunction, Highlights magazine for acknowledging gay people, Scholastic books for featuring LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books, the Roseanne reboot for featuring a non-binary child, a Disney cartoon series for its brief scene of two men kissing, a Zales jewelry commercial for featuring a lesbian couple, the fairy tale drama series Once Upon a Time for showing a lesbian kiss, a 30-second TV ad for featuring an affectionate male same-sex couple, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for featuring trans and nonbinary performers, and an ad showing a lesbian couple playing with their laundry.

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Trumplandia

Everybody is reporting that the jury awarded $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll for defamation in a second lawsuit. In the first trial, the jury awarded $5.5 million. Speculation is that DJT’s arrogant demeanor in the courtroom and his public comments was part of what motivated the jury to whack him hard in this trial. 

Whether Trump will wind up paying much any time soon is an open question. Trump can to wait to pay the full $83.3 million until appeals are exhausted. That could take years. But, in the meantime, Trump will have to either pay some, buy a bond and put up collateral or put some money under the control of the court until appeals are done. And there is this according to the NYT:

And when it comes to his varied legal expenses — of which there are many — he tries to avoid spending his own money at all. Mr. Trump has tapped his political action committee’s coffers to pay for his own legal fees and other expenses stemming from his criminal indictments and civil trials. Yet $83.3 million eclipses the amount in his political accounts. The verdict on Friday will require Mr. Trump to reach into his own pocket.

For what it’s worth, the standard of evidence in this matter was the preponderance of the evidence standard, i.e., more likely than not. That means that the plaintiff (Carroll) had to produce evidence which, considered in light of all of the facts, leads jurors to believe that what the plaintiff claims is more likely correct or true than not. That is a much lower evidence standard than what is needed for finding criminal guilt, namely proof or evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of guilt.

The World Court Imposes Injunctions Against Israel With Near Unanimity In Historic Ruling

*** BREAKING **** 

 

The ICJ just ruled against Israel and determined that South Africa successfully argued that Israel’s conduct plausibly could constitute genocide. The Court imposes several injunctions against Israel and reminds Israel that its rulings are binding, according to international law. A final ruling will still take more time, but this ruling will have significant political repercussions. Here are a few thoughts. 

 

 This is a devastating blow to Israel’s global standing. To put it in context, Israel has worked ferociously for the last two decades to defeat the BDS movement - Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions - not because it will have a significant economic impact on Israel, but because of the manner that it could delegitimize Israel internationally. However, the ruling of the ICJ that Israel is plausibly engaged in genocide is far more devastating to Israel's legitimacy than anything BDS could have achieved. 

 

Just as much as Israel's political system has publicly been increasingly associated with apartheid in the past few years, following groundbreaking reports by major human rights organizations such as Amnesty, Israel will now increasingly be publicly associated with genocide - as will likely those countries that have supported Israel and its military campaign in Gaza, such as the US under Biden. 

 

The implications for the United States, as a result, are also significant. Firstly because the court does not have the ability to implement its ruling. Instead, the matter will go to the Security Council, where the Biden administration will once again face the choice of protecting Israel politically by casting a veto, and by that, further isolate the United States, or to allow the Security Council to act and pay a domestic political cost for “not standing by Israel.” 

 

 So far, the Biden administration has refused to say if it will respect ICJ's decision. Of course, in previous cases in front of the ICJ, such as Myanmar, Ukraine & Syria, the US and Western states stressed that ICJ provisional measures are binding and must be fully implemented. The double standards of US foreign policy will hit a new low if, in this case, Biden not only argues against the ICJ, but actively acts to prevent and block the implementation of its ruling. It is perhaps not surprising that senior Biden administration officials have largely ceased using the term “rules-based order” since October 7. 

 

 It also raises questions about how Biden’s policy of bear-hugging Israel may have contributed to Israel’s conduct in terms of genocide. Biden could have offered more measured support and pushed back hard against Israeli excesses - and by that, prevented Israel from engaging in actions that can fall under the category of genocide. But he didn’t. 

 

Instead, Biden offered unconditional support combined with zero public criticism of Israel's conduct and only limited push-back behind the scenes. A different American approach could have shaped Israel’s war efforts in a manner that arguably would not have been preliminarily ruled by the ICJ as plausibly meeting the standards of genocide. 

 

This shows that America undermines its own interest as well as that of its partners when it offers them blank checks and complete and unquestionable protection. The absence of checks and balances such protection offers fuels reckless behavior all around. As such, Biden’s unconditional support may have undermined Israel, in the final analysis. This ruling may also boost those arguing that they, as signatories of the Genocide Convention, have a positive obligation to prevent genocide. The Houthis, for instance, have justified their attacks against ships heading to Israeli ports in the Red Sea, citing this positive obligation. What legal implications will the court’s ruling have as a result on the US and UK’s military action against the Houthis? 

 

The implications for Europe will also be considerable. The US is rather accustomed and comfortable setting aside international law and ignoring international institutions. Europe is not. International law and institutions play a much more central role in European security thinking. The decision will continue to split Europe. But the fact that some key EU states will reject the ICJ’s ruling will profoundly contradict and undermine Europe’s broader security paradigm. 

 

Final point: The mere application of South Africa’s application to the ICJ appears to have moderated Israel’s war conduct. Plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza and send its residents to third countries appear to have been somewhat paused, presumably because of how such actions would boost South Africa’s application. If so, it shows that the Court, in an era where the force of international law is increasingly questioned, has had a greater impact in terms of deterring unlawful Israeli actions than anything the Biden administration has done.

 

[This analysis was written by Trita Parsi on X immediately following the ruling. Trita Parsi is the Executive VP of The Quincy Institute For Responsible Statecraft ] 

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Further thoughts: I think it is significant that the president of the ICJ/World Court, Joan Donaghue, is an American. Despite the  Biden Admin's statement that this case is  "meritless, counterproductive and lacking basis in facts," she voted against Israel on all the injunctions. This is also the case for judges from other countries that are allies of Israel, proving that the ICJ functioned without fear or favor. Only Israel's ad hoc judge and the judge from Uganda down-voted any of the injunctions. 

Predictably US media outlets are spinning this historic decision by emphasizing almost exclusively the fact that  the ICJ did not order an immediate and complete ceasefire, which S Africa requested. But to appreciate what just happened I encourage all who are interested to skip the remarkably biased media on this issue here, and simply watch the proceedings which were live-streamed earlier this morning. Let there be no doubt that Israel (and by extension the US which enables its actions) has been condemned for potentially genocidal acts. Israel has been given one month to comply with injunctions that are delineated in the proceedings in the following video. They must submit a progress report on their compliance to the measures in 31 days. Almost all the substantive accusations made against Israel by South Africa in this case have been deemed serious enough to warrant the *prevention of genocide* under international humanitarian law. The US and Israeli dismissal of  this case as "meritless and not based on facts" is no longer possible to take seriously on the international stage. The list of egregious acts presented in the proceedings truly shocks the conscience, and agrees with S Africa's presentation in the court 2 weeks ago. The ICJ also quoted UN officials and reports frequently to substantiate S Africa's accusations in the proceedings. Israel (and by extension the US) have been warned to change course. It now remains to be seen whether or not they will.

News: A liberal's thoughts about Davos; Radical right attacks free speech again; Plutocracy in action

Jim's avatar

An essay by our good friend Jim Hightower comments on the self-described World Economic Forum meeting in the hyper-snotty resort of Davos, Switzerland. The hoi polloi elites gather at Davos to solve the world's problems, well, their own problems. Jim makes some good points:

Why You Were Not Invited to Davos

Once again, my invitation to the big shindig in Davos never arrived. Davos is the posh resort village in the Swiss Alps where some 3,000 global power elites gather every January for a weeklong, corporate-funded Schmooze-and-Booze-Fest to solve the world’s problems.

You and I are never invited to this confab, grandiosely titled “World Economic Forum.” That’s because (1) we’re not corporate or governmental VIPs, and (2) we might raise rude questions like, “Who the hell elected you plutocratic know-nothings and screw-ups to solve world problems – which you largely created?” See? We the People can’t be trusted to be polite.

Indeed, the theme of this year’s forum is, “How Can We Rebuild Trust?” By “we,” they mean the Davos clique itself – the Wall Street bankers, Silicon Valley speculators, various oligarchs, industrial barons, billionaire campaign donors, labor abusers, war mongers, mass polluters, high-tech futurists, and other architects of… well, the mess we’re in.

In our country, only about 10 percent say democracy is working for most Americans today, with the Powers That Be not even trying to serve what the majority believes in, wants, and needs. Economic fairness, social justice, and equal opportunity – our society’s fundamental, unifying values – are being trampled by the greed of moneyed elites and the fear and hatred of small-minded ideological extremists. They squabble over even keeping our government operating and fritter away their time and credibility on crap that undermines public trust.

This is Jim Hightower saying… So, no, Davos crowd, you cannot “rebuild trust,” for no one can trust you. You could gain a real measure of credibility if your elite forum would do something truly significant for democracy, like taking corporate money out of our politics. That would make Davos historic. Otherwise, you’re just partying… and stroking your egos.

Good thing the only thing the high ’n mighty are stroking is their egos. It would be obscene & pornographic otherwise.

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Federal Appeals Court circuits

5th Circuit is MAGAlandia 

Vox reports about another attack from the authoritarian MAGA-fied 5th federal court circuit (TX, LA, MS) on first amendment free speech rights:

A renegade federal appeals court — one dominated by MAGA-aligned judges who routinely read the law in ways that even the current, very conservative Supreme Court finds untenable — has spent the last half-decade harassing DeRay Mckesson, a prominent civil rights activist and an organizer within the Black Lives Matter movement

As part of this crusade, two of the Fifth Circuit’s judges effectively eliminated the First Amendment right to organize a protest in a case known as Doe v. Mckesson.

Mckesson’s case has already been up to the Supreme Court once, and the justices strongly hinted in a 2020 opinion that the Fifth Circuit’s attacks on Mckesson’s First Amendment rights should end — labeling this case “fraught with implications for First Amendment rights.” But the Fifth Circuit did not take the hint, issuing a new opinion last July reaffirming its attack on First Amendment-protected political protests.

Now the case is before the Supreme Court again, and Mckesson’s lawyers want the justices to restore the First Amendment as fast as they possibly can.

The facts are needed to put this case in context. In 2016, Mckesson helped organize a protest near Baton Rouge’s police department building, after the fatal police shooting of Alton Sterling there. During that protest, an unknown person threw a rock or some other hard object at a police officer (“Officer John Doe”), hit Doe in the head, causing injuries. The court previously admitted that Mckesson did not throw the heavy object that injured Doe. Doe sued Mckesson, claiming that, as the organizer of the protest where this injury occurred, Mckesson should be liable for the illegal action of an unidentified protest attendee. 

In a 1982 case, the USSC held that “civil liability may not be imposed merely because an individual belonged to a group, some members of which committed acts of violence.” Despite that precedent, the 5th Circuit appeals court is trying to impose liability for protest organizers for anyone present who breaks any law. That could force protest organizers to pay for any unlawful acts of protesters, counter-protesters, bored agitators and anyone else in close proximity to a lawful protest. In essence, the 5th Circuit’s interpretation of the 1st Amendment would make most organized mass protests impossible.

It’s not just that this kind of attack is authoritarian. It’s the case that the same attacks come again and again. America’s ARR (authoritarian radical right), including ARR federal judges, does not give up. If the ARR fails this time, it will keep trying as long as they can or until they get what they want.

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From the Corrupt Plutocrats & Corrupted Congress Files: The Lever reports: 

The Oligarch Exemption For New Business Disclosure Rules

After a multimillion-dollar lobbying blitz, Wall Street firms got themselves exempted from anti-money-laundering requirements being imposed on small businesses

As of Jan. 1, small businesses must report who owns and controls the company to financial regulators or face stiff penalties. The disclosure is required under a new anti-money laundering law designed to curb tax fraud and terrorism financing.

But while mom-and-pop cafes and hardware store owners are now busy filling out the disclosure paperwork, many investment vehicles flagged by law enforcement agencies are exempted from those same disclosure rules after Wall Street firms spent millions lobbying on the matter.

Early versions of what became the Corporate Transparency Act did not include the special carve-out. But the final legislation had a line exempting pooled investment vehicles. That means venture capital funds, hedge funds and private equity funds are not required to report their ownership information, even though the FBI has said such opaque entities are among those used in criminal money laundering.

This loophole undermines “anticorruption, counterproliferation, and counterterrorism programs,” Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote in a 2022 letter to the Treasury Department and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is responsible for regulating the securities markets and protecting investors.  

According to lobbying records, the American Investment Council (AIC), an advocacy organization for private equity firms, spent $22 million trying to influence legislators over the past decade. In the two years leading up to the passage of the Corporate Transparency Act — and its inclusion of the loophole — the group lobbied directly on the legislation and related matters. AIC later boasted that it “worked with Members of Congress and their staffs to help craft these exemptions.”

The Corporate Transparency Act?? Bwahahahahaha!! Yeah, right.

This kind of sleaze is what Jim Hightower was referring to when he mentioned world problems and why people distrust plutocrats and government power players. Guess I’m not going to get invited to Davos either. I wanted to guzzle champagne and scarf caviar with the hoi polloi. Bummer. 

What they serve at Davos for starters

A mere $7,980/kg - yummy!

On sale for only $9,559/bottle - cheap!! 

Yummy!

Discrete, expert service staff at Davos

Yummy!

The economy must be good for them

Wait! What??

I wanna be a corrupt plutocrat too!!