American Politics from 2019 on

[Tero]

He does not know.

[Tero]

Shades of Scopes Trial. NYT article by
Georgetown University history professor Michael Kazin, writing in the "New York Times" calls attention to the fact that 2025 is the "centennial" of the Scopes Trial.

"All this strikes the secular cosmopolitan base of the Democratic Party as dangerous babble by people who abhor expertise and intellectualism — often to their own detriment."

But Bryan was not just the Bible quoting defender of rural religious beliefs. He had run for president three times as the "prairie populist."

"Back then, many Bible-believing rural and small-town people supported the progressive populism of Bryan, who had run three times as the Democratic candidate for president. Throughout his career, he denounced corporate power and big financiers like J.P. Morgan while championing crop subsidies, labor unions, a ban on large donations to campaigns and higher income taxes on the rich. That may point a path forward for Democrats grappling with how to reach rural voters today."

"Of course, rural and small-town voters may appreciate the talk of populist-minded Democrats but still decide to stick with the right-wing party that flatters their religious and racial worldviews. Less than a decade after the Scopes trial — during the Great Depression — rural Christians made common cause with liberal Democrats. They voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt and welcomed his New Deal programs that brought electricity to their homes, as well as relief and a measure of security to their families."

[Tero]

NYT Thomas Friedman

"The Chinese simply can’t believe their luck: that at the dawn of the electricity-guzzling era of artificial intelligence, the U.S. president and his party have decided to engage in one of the greatest acts of strategic self-harm imaginable. They have passed a giant bill that, among other craziness, deliberately undermines America’s ability to renewably generate and store electricity — through solar, wind and batteries, in particular.

"And why? Because they view those as “liberal” energy sources, even though today they are the quickest and cheapest ways to boost our electricity grid to meet the explosion of demand from A.I. data centers."

"In sum, this dog’s breakfast of a bill — rushed through without a single congressional hearing with independent energy experts or even one scientist — is sure to put at risk billions of dollars of investments in renewable energy, mostly in Republican states, and potentially kill the jobs of tens of thousands of U.S. workers."

"So, in one fell swoop, this bill will make your home hotter, your air-conditioning bill higher, your clean energy job scarcer, America’s auto industry weaker and China happier. How does that make sense? "

[Sean Hayden]

[Tero]

[L'Emmerdeur]

Trumpist USA: 'You thought it was despicable of me to burn tons of emergency rations for children because I couldn't be bothered to distribute them? Hold my beer.'

'US-funded contraceptives for poor nations to be burned in France, sources say'

U.S.-funded contraceptives worth nearly $10 million are being sent to France from Belgium to be incinerated, after Washington rejected offers from the United Nations and family planning organisations to buy or ship the supplies to poor nations, two sources told Reuters.

The supplies have been stuck for months in a warehouse in Geel, a city in the Belgian province of Antwerp, following President Donald Trump's decision to freeze U.S. foreign aid in January.

They comprise contraceptive implants and pills as well as intrauterine devices to help prevent unwanted pregnancies, according to seven sources and a screengrab shared by an eighth source confirming the planned destruction.

The U.S. government will spend $160,000 to incinerate the stocks at a facility in France that handles medical waste, according to four of the sources with knowledge of the matter, following Trump's decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment on the negotiations to save the contraceptives from destruction or the plans to incinerate them.

U.S. lawmakers have introduced two bills this month to prevent the destruction of the supplies but aid groups say the bills are unlikely to be passed in time to stop the incineration.

The Belgian foreign ministry said Brussels had held talks with U.S. authorities and "explored all possible options to prevent the destruction, including temporary relocation."

"Despite these efforts, and with full respect for our partners, no viable alternative could be secured. Nevertheless, Belgium continues to actively seek solutions to avoid this regrettable outcome," it said in a statement shared with Reuters on Tuesday.

"Sexual and reproductive health must not be subject to ideological constraints," it added.

The supplies, worth $9.7 million, are due to expire between April 2027 and September 2031, according to an internal document listing the warehouse stocks and verified by three sources.

Sarah Shaw, Associate Director of Advocacy at MSI Reproductive Choices, told Reuters the non-profit organisation had volunteered to pay for the supplies to be repackaged without USAID branding and shipped to countries in need, but the offer was declined by the U.S. government.

[Brian Peacock]

Some wag on the internet said that destroying US contraceptives virtually guarantees the great replacement. Someone should point that out to Tim Pool.

[Tero]

Have to cut off those drugs and vaccines. Because of sperm count.

brittainforsenate
https://www.threads.com/@brittainforsen ... l3tzeQu9IQ
RFK Jr.: The USA has the sickest population in the world. Teenagers in America have sperm counts that are 50% of what 65 year old men have. They have testosterone levels that are half of what 65 year old men have.

[Sean Hayden]

I’ve never looked around and wondered: what’s happened to all the sperm?

[JimC]

If the contention of reduced sperm count is true, then the reasons are more likely to be environmental pollution than diet. The gutted EPA will be struggling to assess this, of course...

[Brian Peacock]

If the contention of reduced sperm count is true, then the reasons are more likely to be environmental pollution than diet. The gutted EPA will be struggling to assess this, of course...

It doesn't have to be true to be a potent political metaphor for the diminution of traditional male power and privilege as seen in direct conflict with increased awareness of gender inequality, shifts in societal norms around the boundaries of personal identity, and wider recognition of the diversity of experiences within masculinity itself. To paraphrase Gen. Jack D. Ripper: "I can no longer sit back and allow Woke infiltration, Woke indoctrination, Woke subversion, and the international Woke conspiracy to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids."