Trump's America

[yovargas]

So I'm not sure if this is the thread to put this but I just read this amazing article about the current state of our seemingly inreconcilably divided culture and had to share it. It is long but very well worth the read. I wish I could get everyone on the internet to read it.

http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/th ... a-of-rage/

[Dave_LF]

Good article. It has the virtue that everything in it seems obvious... after you've read it.

[Primula Baggins]

Exactly. Thanks for posting it, yov.

[yovargas]

Now how to give it an outrageous enough title so that it goes viral and millions of people read it.....

[Alatar]

I started to read this and I couldn't BELIEVE what happened next!!!!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Wow, Al, you could write headlines for the Huffington post.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

[yovargas]

I started to read this and I couldn't BELIEVE what happened next!!!!

Is what happened next peace and unity across the internet?

[Lalaith]

This is NOT what I want our area to be known for:

http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/vid ... 0744899513


I now live in the next county over, but it hardly matters. Opioids are everywhere in Ohio. I can't tell you how many positive drug screens I get through the ED and, even more disturbingly, from moms who are at the hospital to deliver their babies. And then the next day I'll get urine on their babies, which is also positive for opioids. I only work part-time for 8.5 hours in a night, and there have been at least 2 overdose deaths when I've been working. (I know there must be more, and we don't often see them at my small hospital.) As the coroner says, it needs to be declared a mass casualty event.

I don't know what the answer is. (I mean, I've heard some good theories and possible plans. I'd like to see my state working harder to try anything.)

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned here or not, but I have a half-brother who is in jail for selling fentanyl-laced heroin to a guy who died. I haven't had contact with Chris in decades, but it makes me so sad to think about the whole situation.

[yovargas]

Yeah....though I am generally opposed to the "war on drugs" and would legalize/decriminalize many if I could, I think it makes valid sense to treat highly addictive drugs as something distinctly dangerous. Though jailing users still seems like a bad idea.

[Lalaith]

I tend to agree with that. Apparently, my half-brother is being made an example of. I have no idea what his life has been like, really, after we lost touch with him when I was a child. I saw him at my grandma's funeral in 2009 and, before that, I saw him at my grandpa's funeral in 1980/1. (I can't remember which year now.) Anyway, I know he has made a lot of bad choices and only reaches out to my dad when he needs money or bailing out. Making the decision to sell heroin laced with fentanyl was, obviously, a very bad choice that resulted in the death of at least one person.

Anyway, this thing is out of control.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

Yeah....though I am generally opposed to the "war on drugs" and would legalize/decriminalize many if I could, I think it makes valid sense to treat highly addictive drugs as something distinctly dangerous. Though jailing users still seems like a bad idea.

That's the point though. Portugal went the decriminalization route, and those who are damaged by drugs are now able to get treatment. Those who are damaged by criminalizing drugs are no longer damaged that way. There are two aspects to the war on drugs - the harm done by the drugs, and the harm done by the war on drugs.

Portugal has seen drug usage drop and seen treatment for those who need it go up.

The harm of use will happen to those who use, whether legal or illegal, but the harm of criminalization is something the government can entirely control.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

In the race to replace Tom Price (who left to become HHS Secretary) in Georgia, the Democrats ran a young former congressional aide, Jon Ossoff, who almost won the race outright in the first round, but had to settle for a run-off, which became the most expensive congressional election in history. And the Dems still lost. So anyone who thinks that they will parley "anti-Trump fever" into stealing the House in 2018 is smoking something which is now legal in several states.

[Frelga]

It was always a long shot, although I am disappointed. But with the recent revelations about the vulnerability of the election process, I can't help wondering if the results are 100% legitimate.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I saw a story the other day in which the (if I am remembering correctly, I don't have a link) the head of the GOP in the county where the election took place basically said that they were going to win the election because of the Scalise shooting. I think he is right. Polls were consistently in Ossoff's favor, though close, and I think that the backlash to that shooting likely did make the difference.

While it is only one seat, it can have serious messaging implications, starting with the next round of battle of the ACA repeal and replace effort.

As for legitimacy of the vote, there is very little evidence of actual tampering of voting, and there has been a lot of looking for such evidence. I'm not so concerned about that, although I certainly recognize that other people's mileage may vary on that. I am much more concerned about tampering with the messaging that underlies the vote. That is where the Russians (and others) have had a fair degree of success, both in the U.S. and elsewhere.

[Frelga]

It looks increasingly likely that Russian agents did tamper with the voting process itself.

The Intercept reports that the Russian agents executed a successful attack on a voting software vendor to obtain credentials of the vendor's employees. Using this information, the agents went on a "spear-fishing" campaign with emails pretending to be from the vendor's employees and targeting the officials involved in local voter registration and similar activities. The emails directed the officials to open a "weaponized" Word document attachment, which would download malware on their computers. It is unknown to what extent this attack succeeded. This method could potentially enable the attackers to compromise voter registration databases, and ultimately affect the ability of voters in specific area to cast votes.

None of this has been proven conclusively, but the described mode of attack is fairly straightforward. Basically, if the Russians had wanted to do just that, chances are they could have, we just don't know for sure if they wanted to.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

That is actually a standard hacking method. It could be done by anyone, and if it was done could easily be attributed to anyone.

What I find shocking is that people are shocked that foreign countries are interested in the outcomes of US elections. The US takes a much more firm and direct interest, often with bullets, in the outcome of foreign elections.

[yovargas]

I also found this very troubling, as IMO the extreme mandatory minimums are amongst the very worst injustices being committed by my govt.

And stories like this sit right by it on my list of "he very worst being committed by my govt":
South Korean Adopted At Age 3 Is To Be Deported Nearly 40 Years Later
(He was deported later last year.)

This disgusting injustice happened pre-Trump. The Trump era's harsh stance on immigration is making this kind of horrible story only more common. It's utterly inhuman.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

SCOTUS has agreed to review Trump's travel ban, consolidating the two cases (the Fourth Circuit and Ninth Circuit decisions) and ordering that oral argument be scheduled in October. It also lifted the stay on the ban, except regard to people who “have a credible claim” of a genuine relationship with a person or an institution in the United States.

Justice Thomas issued a separate opinion joined by Justices Alito and Gorsuch stating that they would have lifted the stay entirely.

Meanwhile, speculation has been growing that Justice Kennedy will retire at the end of this term. That would potentially bring the most important moment in Trump's presidency. Another justice similar to Gorsuch replacing Kennedy could potentially result in huge changes for the U.S., including the end of same sex marriage, women's right to make their own decisions about abortion (or even possibly contraception), voting rights, and a host of other issues.

[Frelga]

When your fundamental rights depend on retirement plans of a single person...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Plus the health of an 84-year-old woman who has battled both Colon and Pancreatic cancers as well coronary issues. I have no doubt that Ginsberg will hang in there for as long as she can, but how long that will be remains to be seen.