Summations Only

The CDC has undone (some of) the political meddling from the Trump administration and restored its advice on testing. They again advise that people who have been in contact with an infected individual should get tested, even if they do not have symptoms. Ars Technica.This is important to controlling the virus, because asymptomatic individuals can and do spread the virus.Trump repeatedly said that testing was bad because it increased the numbers, and it’s quite likely that this was the motivation behind the removal of that advice in late August.This change is likely related to the departure of Michael Caputo from the HHS for mental health reasons.(Ars)

The passing of Justice Ginsburg will, of course, have a long lasting impact on our society. When it comes to sailing the seas of law, the rule of law and our rights under law The Supreme Court is the only long term rudder this nation has.That rudder is about to move markedly to the US political right.No. Other than lament, all the rest of the US body politic can do is watch. The Constitution is well understood. The president can nominate and the Senate must then approve. The present Republican leadership intends to accomplish both of these tasks in short order. Maybe in time for the October SCOTUS term.From now until there is further turnover in the court, US legal conduct will be quite conservative and friendly to reich-wing causes.Expect hits to voting rights, women's rights, civil rights, environmental protections ....Expect gains for police rights, employer rights, government rights and business protections ....Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

Unfortunately the Executive and the Senate want power and will try to appoint a justice on political views rather than merit. There is no chance that the Republicans in the Senate will hold to the views they expressed when they blocked the appointment of Merrick Garland - who was a moderate and eminently qualified. This is a bad time for democracy in America,

Yep. The separation of powers and (as part of that) an independent judiciary, is one of the key requirements of a free democracy. But it's a concept which is more subtle and complex than the concept of citizens being able to vote in their legislature and/or executive. As a result, populists (aka wannabe dictators) are able to paint the judiciary as needing to be subject to the same choices and will of the people as they are - and as the people's currently chosen representatives, they get to choose and hence control the judiciary. And there goes the separation of powers, enabling the eventual transformation of a democracy into totalitarianism.The enlightenment thinkers had it right. The cunning minds behind the populist pieces of shit who are currently floating to the top of the cess pit are clever enough to realise that the vast mass of voters will not understand the consequences of eroding the separation of powers.

Add a free press and freedom of speech.

In fairness a couple of Republican Senators have said that if Biden wins he should nominate Ginsberg’s successor.So, points to them. But the real question is how they will vote if a Trump nomination is put before the Senate.

To quote Rebecca Schoenkopf on Wonkette

Yeah, that's what they said. We'll see if they can withstand McConnell's heavy artillery.

Message 1 (I made a thread soley regarding Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgs passing and political impact.)I perked up when you mentioned employer rights. Overall I thought she dis an excellent job at providing a check and balance against the conservatives.
Our system works better that way.Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

[This piece is by Tammy Duckworth and is worth reading. --Admin]Trump's Disrespect Endangers the Troops - The AtlanticEdited by Admin, : No reason given.

And the plot thickens letter of Ellen KnightThis letter deals with the clearance process, which was lead by Ms Knight.I’m not going to list everything she claims, but here are some highlights:The NSC Legal department played an unusually large role in the process.Even though the book had been cleared they delayed sending the letter which would allow publication. (Which gives some insight into why the book was published without the letter).NSC Legal told Ms Knight that the delay was due to the COVID crisis.After six weeks of delay NSC Legal drafted a letter claiming that further reviews were underway and claiming that it still contained classified material.It turned out that there had been a secret second review by a political appointee who had - according to Ms Knight - badly misunderstood the process and the appropriate criteria and had missed important checks.There was an attempt to get Ms Knight to sign a declaration that this was a simple difference of opinion between experts, and agree that the manuscript was unpublishable despite the huge amount of work she and her team had put in to get it to a publishable state.It seemed indeed that the political team were only interested in blocking publication.Ms Knight was scheduled to transition to permanent staff at the NSC but this has been blocked.

So, the clown has COVID. Too much to hope that he'll self-medicate with bleach I suppose.

Don't those hydroxychloroquin pills he keeps hawking have some kind of fatal side-effects?Edited by dwise1, : name of the pills

As evil as Trump is, I still hope that if he really does have Covid-19 he and all the others on his staff who were exposed have mild cases and recover soon.Covid-19 is not something I'd wish on anyone.The Turd will be in my prayers.