Sabotaging research is easy, resuming it is hard

Hunter of Daily Kos discussed a new release from the Justice Department documenting conversations between the nasty guy and acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen in the weeks leading up to the Capitol attack on January 6th. Those notes show that the nasty guy pressured Rosen to say the election was corrupt, then leave the rest to the White House and the Republicans in Congress. Adding that to what we already know, Hunter wrote [I changed the formatting of the first paragraph]:

There is nothing that needs teasing out, here. The Trump White House plan was in full view. Donald Trump and his top allies engaged in a multi-pronged, extended, pre-plotted campaign to overthrow the next constitutionally appointed U.S. presidency by falsely claiming the election was invalid; by pressuring the Department of Justice to issue statements further casting doubt on the election's integrity; by calling key election officials and asking them to change reported vote totals on Trump's behalf; by using conspiratorial claims to gather a mob of enraged would-be "patriots" convinced that direct action was needed to "stop the steal" from happening; by asking that crowd to march the Capitol; by rebuffing efforts, during the mob's attack, to call off the now-violent mob. It was an act of plain sedition, pre-planned and premeditated and orchestrated from inside Trump's own inner circle. It was backed by a majority of House Republicans, multiple of which were in communication with Trump and dozens of whom were allied with the effort to falsely dispute the election's results. ... It is the three-pronged plan that elevates Trump and his top Republican allies from merely corrupt to outright seditionists. It was a plan intended to erase a U.S. presidential election. It sought out allies in the Department of Justice who would publicly discredit the election, allies in state governments who would change the vote totals, and a public mob that would disrupt the vote count and intimidate public officials into approving a Trump return to power. It was all one plan, not three. Discredit the election using false claims; use the same false claims to stoke a public anger deep enough to justify tossing out the rule of law, in the name of restoring "order." ... It was still an attempt, though. Trump and others within the White House engaged in weeks of effort in attempts to enlist both accomplices within government and a paramilitary force outside it. Trump is a traitor to his country. Any outcome that does not see him rotting in prison for his acts will itself be an affront to our would-be democracy.

Hunter also wrote about the nasty guy’s effect on the climate crisis. He reported some of the ideas in an article in the New York Times.

Killing vital government research is easy; you defund it, you reassign the government-hired scientists conducting it, or you simply intercept the scientific conclusions and write in your own ideological caveats ... Resuming vital government research, on the other hand, is hard. It requires refunding what was lost, re-gathering equipment and data, replacing lost expertise, and starting over.

An example, Biden ordered new climate rules and clean air regulations to be issued by the EPA. But because the staff was depleted they could be held up for months or years. Agencies in the Agriculture Department that produce climate research to help farmers lost 75% of their employees – your job just relocated to Kansas City so you can move with it or quit. Yeah, in both cases it was climate research that was sabotaged.

It's still shocking how devoted current conservative movement heads continue to be, when it comes to making sure that the generation directly after their own will have to deal with as much death and destruction as possible. It's a trend. From DeSantis to Trump to the gross little twits bellowing that a little insurrection here and there is certainly no big deal, the cult has settled into what if we just start killing people off outright? as the ideology underpinning all the others. Pandemic? Let God sort it out. Catastrophic drought? Eh, the resulting food shortages will thin out the ranks of the poor a bit. Large segments of Florida about to duck under the ocean waves, never to come back? No worries, those people can just sell their properties and move to higher ground.

I disagree with Hunter’s last point. Once Florida property starts disappearing under the waves selling won’t be an option because no one will be buying (yeah, the first floor is submerged, but this condo is on the third floor, so no worries!). Meaning they may not be able to afford to move to higher ground. Hunter also wrote about the current state of the pandemic. I mention this post for the map of average daily COVID cases per county from NYT. Nebraska and parts of South Dakota (a former hotspot) and Montana are white – no cases. Michigan is mostly pale yellow – few cases. Missouri and Arkansas are mostly red and Louisiana and Florida shade from red to purple – the highest number of cases. Bob Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF, tweeted a thread about how COVID delta is different from the original and what that might mean for our future. Here’s some of the differences. The original usually spread to 2-3 people. Delta usually spreads to 7-8. Getting to herd immunity rose from about 75% to over 85%, which may be impossible. Exposure needed to spread dropped from 15 minutes to less than 5. Vaccine (mRNA type) protection dropped from 95% to 85% and may need a booster after six months. Vaccinated people probably can spread it even if they don’t get sick. Brian Dickerson, in an editorial in last Sunday’s Detroit Free Press (online for subscribers only), compared the vaccine to a very good goalie in a hockey game. The goalie is so good he deflects 90% of shots on goal. Now consider who is making those shots on goal – the unvaccinated. We should consider they are playing for the opposing team. I’ll add one more bit to the analogy – the delta variant means the shots on goal are coming at the goalie more frequently and more forcefully. I had written that in some sports women are required to wear bikini bottoms while men wear less revealing shorts. Michael Harriot tweeted about that:

One time, probably in ‘00, my niece said she’d wanna be in the Olympics if she was a boy “Girls are in the Olympics, too,” I said “I know,” she replied. “But they gotta do everything in a bathing suit.” I laughed my ass off But I think about it every time I watch the Olympics