Never pass up a chance to sit down or relieve yourself. -old Apache saying

Saturday, January 4, 2025

Scott Dworkin

Scott Dworkin is another voice for sanity (on Substack) from the left. He's not a conspiracy theorist or a wild-eyed liberal. He's a realist, and a good Democrat. He uses the levers that are available to us to counter Trump. 

I try to find as many of these people as I can to help me cope with the upcoming shitstorm otherwise known as Trump's 2nd term. Perhaps they can help you too.

(Yeah, I'm no conspiracy theorist either but there are signs here and there that this election was manipulated to favor Trump, especially in the swing states, but it could take a while to unveil it. Fucking bastards cannot win fair and square. They have to gerrymander, they have to strike as many people off the voter rolls as possible, they have to restrict polling places in blue cities to suppress the vote, and perhaps worst of all, they lie repeatedly about damn-near everything to keep their voters all hopped up. Where do you think the Cybertruck bomber got his warped ideas about wiping out Democrats? From the sick, diseased right-wing media networks that constantly pump lies and misinformation to their viewers to keep them in the dark. The media landscape in America is disgraceful. Lies are the currency these days.)

Anyway... 

Trump Will Always Be A Convicted Felon, Who Should've Been Disqualified From Running

by Scott Dworkin
Jan 4, 2025

Yesterday, the judge in Trump’s hush money case announced that Donald will still be sentenced for his crimes on January 10th.

Donald has no mandate, seeing how most Americans didn’t vote for him. He will forever be known as a convicted felon who should have already been disqualified from office.

Trump will lie, cheat, steal, and abuse his power in every way imaginable. He should be serving prison time, instead of getting sworn in.

We did everything we legally could to stop this from happening—from uncovering his Russian ties, to running the original impeachment campaign. We came really close, but the system failed us, and now our country will pay the price for it.

I remember calling out Trump on MSNBC in 2016, and how lonely of an island I was on. It took a while to get folks on board with everything we organized. Protests, online actions to push back against him on Twitter, petitions, letters to Senators, calls, etc.

That was more than 8 years ago. Now we are stronger, bigger, and louder than ever before.

Look no further for that proof, than the fact we’ve already sent (drumroll) more than 100,000 letters to Senators opposing Trump’s unhinged and unfit cabinet picks. And we’re going to turn up the volume even more as confirmation hearings begin in the next few weeks.

We’ve already seen Republicans bend to our public pressure, by pushing out Gaetz and getting the House Ethics report about him released.

Trump expects us to cower in fear, but we’ll never bend a knee or kiss the wannabe dictator’s ring. We’ve never backed down before, and won’t be starting now. Yes, we’re getting threats every day, but that just means we are doing something right.

We will once again be leading the charge, pushing back against Trump and maga at a constant, while holding corporate media accountable. We need all hands on deck. If you want to help us stand up to this orange monster, please become a paid subscriber today.

Onward

Scott

Do you agree that Trump should already be in prison? And that he should’ve been disqualified?

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Original.


Wednesday, January 1, 2025

bird flu!

Oh boy, it looks like Trumpy might have another virus on the horizon that needs attention. Good luck! This time it's Bird flu, aka H5N1 or avian influenza. We know how he handled the last one (Covid-19). And with that loony goofball RFK, Jr hanging around and squawking bullshit in that cringy raspy voice of his, there will probably be less urgency to deal with H5N1 if needed. I hope some enterprising corporation (or billionaire?) will research it and develop a vaccine. Lots of us Americans still believe in science. This item was found on the IFLScience website.

First Severe Human Infection Of Bird Flu Virus In The US Shows Signs Of Mutation

ROSIE MCCALL, Freelance Writer
December 28, 2024


A patient in Louisiana became severely ill after contracting Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced in a 
statement on Thursday. This is the first serious case of bird flu affecting a human reported in the US since the outbreak began. An analysis of the virus revealed the existence of mutations that affect the virus’ ability to attach to infected cells.

Following the hospitalization of the patient, researchers compared the genomic sequences of the strain affecting them with those collected from animals including dairy cows, wild birds and poultry. The sample was also compared to those in earlier cases involving humans. The results identify the strain as the D1.1 genotype, different to the B3.13 genotype affecting cattle, poultry and other animals across the country but matching those found in samples from birds on the patient’s property as well as those recently found in wild birds and poultry in other parts of the US. 

However, the results also revealed the presence of mutations not seen in those of the poultry, indicating genetic changes that occurred in the patient post-infection. According to the CDC, these mutations display changes in the hemagglutinin (HA) gene – a gene responsible for helping the virus bind to the infected cell. These mutations occurred at a “low frequency”, meaning they represent a small proportion of the virus sampled. This again suggests that the changes likely took place post-infection, when the virus was replicating, and not before pre-infection or during transmission.

“Although concerning, and a reminder that A(H5N1) viruses can develop changes during the clinical course of a human infection, these changes would be more concerning if found in animal hosts or in early stages of infection (e.g., within a few days of symptom onset) when these changes might be more likely to facilitate spread to close contacts,” the CDC states.

According to the CDC, these mutations are rare but have been reported in previous incidents affecting people in other countries, including a patient in British Columbia, Canada. The changes most commonly occur during severe cases of the disease but don’t show signs of reducing the effectiveness of antiviral drugs when it comes to treating the virus. 

“Overall, the CDC considers the risk to the general public associated with the ongoing U.S. HPAI A(H5N1) outbreak has not changed and remains low,” the CDC states.

“The detection of a severe human case with genetic changes in a clinical specimen underscores the importance of ongoing genomic surveillance in people and animals, containment of avian influenza A(H5) outbreaks in dairy cattle and poultry, and prevention measures among people with exposure to infected animals or environments.”

According to the CDC tracker, there have been 66 confirmed cases of bird flu reported in humans since the start of the outbreak, the majority of which have taken place in California.