July 1, 2017


News and Views


NO MORE AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT WITH SCIENCE? I SUPPOSE “THE MARKET” WILL TAKE CARE OF IT.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/science-division-of-white-house-office-now-empty-as-last-staffers-depart/
By JACQUELINE ALEMANY CBS NEWS June 30, 2017, 7:05 PM
Science division of White House office left empty as last staffers depart

WASHINGTON -- The science division of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was unstaffed as of Friday as the three remaining employees departed this week, sources tell CBS News.

All three employees were holdovers from the Obama administration. The departures from the division -- one of four subdivisions within the OSTP -- highlight the different commitment to scientific research under Presidents Obama and Trump.

Under Mr. Obama, the science division was staffed with nine employees who led the charge on policy issues such as STEM education, biotechnology and crisis response. It's possible that the White House will handle these issues through staff in other divisions within the OSTP.

On Friday afternoon, Eleanor Celeste, the assistant director for biomedical and forensic sciences at the OSTP, tweeted, "Science division out. Mic drop" before leaving the office for the last time.

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Kumar Garg, a former OSTP staffer under Mr. Obama, also tweeted, "By COB today, number of staffers in White House OSTP's Science Division = 0."

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Kumar Garg @KumarAGarg
By COB today, number of staffers in White House OSTP's Science Division = 0. https://twitter.com/elleabella1112/status/880870684485984256 …
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"All of the work that we have been doing is still being done," a White House official familiar with the matter told CBS News, adding that 35 staffers currently work across the OSTP.

"Under the previous administration, OSTP had grown exponentially over what it had been before," the official said. "Before the Obama administration, it had usually held 50 to 60 or so policy experts, director-level people, for all of OSTP."

The Obama administration staffed the OSTP with more than 100 employees.

Garg, the Obama-era OSTP staffer who tweeted Friday, said the size of the office under the Obama administration reflected Mr. Obama's "strong belief in science, the growing intersection of science and technology in a range of policy issues, and as showcased in the OSTP exit memo, in a sweeping range of [science and technology] accomplishments by the Obama science team."

The Trump administration hasn't demonstrated the same commitment to science to date, most notably by naming climate change skeptic Scott Pruitt to run the Environmental Protection Agency and announcing the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

But the Trump White House has decided to continue the tradition of hosting a White House science fair, an event started during the Obama years, CBS News reported in April. On Friday, Mr. Trump signed an executive order re-establishing a National Space Council.



A GREAT STORY OUT OF TEXAS

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/strangers-buy-car-for-20-year-old-who-walks-3-miles-to-work-in-texas-heat/
By JENNIFER EARL CBS NEWS June 27, 2017, 5:17 PM
Strangers buy car for 20-year-old Texas man who walks 3 miles to work every day

When Andy Mitchell spotted a young man in a fast food uniform walking along the side of a road on a 95-degree summer day in Rockwall, Texas, he felt compelled to pull over.

He rolled down his window and offered the man, a 20-year-old named Justin Korva, a ride -- not knowing how much that small gesture would impact the man's life.

While driving the Korva to work at Taco Casa, Mitchell discovered the young man normally walked 3 miles to work and home again every day. Korva said he was determined to save up money and someday, he hoped, he would be able to afford a car.

After dropping off Korva, Mitchell posted about the man's determination on Facebook.

"To all the people that say they want to work but can't find a job or don't have a vehicle all I can say is you don't want it bad enough," Mitchell wrote.


screen-shot-2017-06-27-at-3-32-03-pm.png
Andy Mitchell takes a selfie with Justin Korva, after offering the Rockwall, Texas, resident a ride to work on a hot summer day. FACEBOOK/ANDY MITCHELL

Hundreds of people in the community saw his post, including Samee Dowlatshahi, owner of Samee's Pizza Getti Italian Bistro & Lounge in Rockwell.

Dowlatshahi offered to put a donation box inside his pizza joint to aid Korva in his quest to buy a car.

In less than 48 hours, with some help from Mitchell, they'd raised more than $5,500.

That's when Danny Rawls, general sales manager at Toyota of Rockwall and a friend of Dowlatshahi, heard Korva's inspiring story.

"I presented it to my general manager and said, 'Hey, let's help the kid. It seems like a great story,'" Rawls told CBS News.

His boss agreed, and the pair reduced the price on a 2004 Toyota Camry that was available.

"I sent [Dowlatshahi] a private message and said, 'Give me a call. I have a nice car that would work for the kid,'" Rawls explained.

Not only did they have enough money to buy the car, they had enough left over to pay for his insurance for a year, plus two years' worth of oil changes and a $500 gas card.

Last Friday, they drove the white 2004 Camry to Taco Casa and asked Korva to come outside.

"Justin, you can't imagine all the people who wanted to help you," Mitchell said, as several people filmed the exchange on their cellphones in the restaurant parking lot. "So, instead of walking to work, buddy, you're driving this car from now on."

Korva looked at Mitchell in disbelief, "Are you serious?"

"It's your car! This is your car," Mitchell repeated.

screen-shot-2017-06-27-at-3-31-38-pm.png
Justin Korva poses for a picture after getting keys to a 2004 Toyota Camry outside of his work in Rockwall, Texas. FACEBOOK

Korva gave each man a hug, wiping tears from his eyes as he walked toward the car.

"We just want you to know, seriously, this community, nothing we love better than to have someone who works hard," Dowlatshahi said. "We take a lot of pride in that. It's so hot out here, I can't believe you walk even one mile in this heat."

Later that day, Rawls helped Korva complete the paperwork on the car and put the title in his name.

"Surreal" is the only word Rawls could use to describe the moment he watched Korva walk away with the keys.

"He's a very humble young man and accepted it with stride," Rawls said. "There couldn't have been more of a deserving individual, for sure."


NOTE:TO QUOTE HENRY HIGGINS IN THE MOVIE VERSION OF MY FAIR LADY, “WHAT SORT OF WORD IS THAT??” Dowlatshahi IS PERSIAN, A SURNAME FROM THE NAME OF A VILLAGE OF 296 INHABITANTS IN NORTHWEST IRAN. IT IS PRONOUNCED MORE OR LESS LIKE DOWLAT SHAH. SEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowlatshahi.



FREEDOM IS USUALLY WON, NOT GIVEN. THIS SOUNDS NEGATIVE, AND IT MAKES ME SAD, BUT I THINK IT’S TRUE. FOR MANY REASONS, I’M GLAD I LIVE IN AMERICA, DESPITE MY VIEWS ON MANY POLITICAL ISSUES.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hong-kong-protests-20th-anniversary-britain-handover-freedoms-slipping/
CBS NEWS July 1, 2017, 8:47 AM
Hong Kong residents protest for democracy as China tightens grip

HONG KONG -- On the 20th anniversary of Britain's handover of Hong Kong to China, thousands of people filled parts of downtown Hong Kong Saturday demanding that the Chinese government respect the former British colony's special status and the rights that come with it.

This city is the only place in China where you can openly protest against the Chinese government, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy. That's because when Hong Kong was given back to China, the agreement stated it would retain most of the freedoms it had under British rule. But now many here feel those freedoms are slipping away.

Much of the anger is directed at Chinese President Xi Jinping who swore in Hong Kong's new chief executive today. Carrie Lam is widely seen as someone who will defer to Beijing.

rts19byo.jpg
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and Chinese President Xi Jinping BOBBY YIP

It's Xi's first trip to Hong Kong since taking office five years ago, and the Chinese government is clearly trying to show its strength while celebrating the handover anniversary.

"We don't celebrate. We mourn," lawyer and author Jason Ng said.

Ng said Hong Kongers worry China is undermining the agreement it made when Britain returned the city in 1997. Known as "one country, two systems," Hong Kong is part of China but retains a high level of autonomy and rights such as freedom of speech and an independent judiciary. The hope at the time was that this city of seven million people would help make the rest of China more open and free.

20th anniversary of Hong Kong handover
Play VIDEO
20th anniversary of Hong Kong handover

"Do you think China is becoming more like Hong Kong? Or is Hong Kong becoming more like China?" Tracy asked.

"The general sense that China would slowly democratize and Hong Kong would benefit from that seems to be a pipe dream… And in the past five or six years, we have seen really an acceleration of China's political agenda on Hong Kong," Ng said.

Beijing is tightening its grip. It recently blocked pro-independence lawmakers from taking office and abducted five publishers who sold books critical of the Chinese government. Lam Wing-kee was detained for eight months and said he was forced to sign a confession. He said if the Chinese government does not follow Hong Kong's constitution, the city will have no choice but to push for independence.

Police arrest dozens of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong
Play VIDEO
Police arrest dozens of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong

Most people here don't believe China will ever allow Hong Kong to be independent, but in the past decade, the number of protests has soared more than 200 percent as citizens fear their way of life is under attack.

Activist Joshua Wong, 20, was arrested this week at a protest. He led the opposition to so-called patriotic education in Hong Kong schools and was part of the massive protests that shut down large parts of the city in 2014. Wong said despite the 20th anniversary, "it's not a time for celebration."

"It's time for demonstration," Wong said. "They hope to return to 'one country, one system.' We hope to maintain democracy and ask for autonomy."

But in his speech before he left Hong Kong, Xi issued a stern warning, saying any challenge to China's sovereignty or central government's authority crosses a red line and won't be tolerated.



THIS IS THE MAN WHOM TRUMP HAS CHOSEN FOR A KEY COMMISSION THAT COULD VERY WELL BE A DANGER TO THINGS THAT WE HOLD DEAR, SUCH AS THE RIGHT (AND REALIZATION OF THAT RIGHT) TO VOTE. SEE TODAY’S SECONDARY BLOG CALLED “TRUMP TODAY JULY 1 2017” FOR MORE ABOUT THIS VOTER FRAUD COMMISSION OF HIS. THERE’S TOO MUCH INFORMATION FOR THE DAILY BLOG.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/von-spakovsky-riled-fairfax-with-voter-fraud-efforts-trump-just-elevated-him/2017/06/30/9241ab70-5dab-11e7-9fc6-c7ef4bc58d13_story.html?utm_term=.61eb9334bdb8
Virginia Politics
Von Spakovsky riled Fairfax with voter fraud efforts; Trump just elevated him
By Gregory S. Schneider and Alex Horton June 30 at 5:54 PM

Photograph -- Hans von Spakovsky at the time of his nomination to the Federal Election Commission. (Douglas Graham/AP)

From pursuing voter fraud in the George W. Bush Justice Department to policing polling places on the Fairfax County Electoral Board, Hans von Spakovsky has been a national lightning rod on the issue of voter integrity.

Now that President Trump has named the Virginia lawyer to the new Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, the man the New Yorker magazine called the source of “the voter-fraud myth” has perhaps his greatest chance to influence Americans’ access to the polls.

Von Spakovsky, 58, a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said in an interview Friday that he does not enter this role with the assumption that voter fraud is a nationwide epidemic.

“I think the answer to that is what we hope to find out,” he said. “What I would say is that I think it’s a danger to the way our democratic system works anytime people are either kept out of the polls or their vote is stolen through fraud.”

But his appointment has drawn deep skepticism from many who view the commission itself as a chilling effort to control the voting process in states.

Play Video 1:42
What we know about Trump’s voter fraud commission

President Trump signed an executive order on May 11, initiating an investigation into voter suppression and election fraud. Here’s what we know so far. (Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)
“I think there are a number of people who have been active in promoting false and exaggerated claims of voter fraud and using that as a pretext to argue for stricter voting and registration rules,” said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Irvine. “And von Spakovsky’s at the top of the list.”

After von Spakovsky’s appointment was announced Thursday, Hasen wrote on his blog that it was “a big middle finger” from Trump to people “who are serious about fixing problems with our elections.”

Over the years, von Spakovsky has been accused of masterminding widespread efforts to suppress voting by marginalized populations, particularly African Americans and immigrants, who tend to vote for Democrats.

Von Spakovsky argued against renewing the Voting Rights Act while serving in Bush’s Justice Department. Bush later named him to the Federal Election Commission with a recess appointment, but so many senators objected that von Spakovsky eventually withdrew.

Similarly, after he served as vice chairman of the three-member Fairfax County Electoral Board between 2010 and 2012, Democrats objected to his reappointment. Local judges, who name the panel based on recommendations from the party of the current governor — who at the time was Republican Robert F. McDonnell — took the unusual step of not renewing von Spakovsky’s appointment.

“The problem with him is that his default position was always to make it harder for people to vote,” said John Farrell, who was general counsel to the Fairfax Democratic Committee and petitioned the judges not to reappoint von Spakovsky.

He said that von Spakovsky had stopped the League of Women Voters from putting free, nonpartisan election guides in the county elections office and that he voted against providing election materials in Spanish.

“ ‘Controversial’ would be a generous description of his nature,” Farrell said. “He’s a voter-suppression advocate, and he can’t deny that with a straight face.”

Of course, von Spakovsky does deny that. He said Fairfax Democrats didn’t like it when he pursued legal action against some 300 residents who indicated on driver’s license applications that they were noncitizens, even though they were registered to vote.

That kind of fraud — though nothing ever came of the Fairfax charges — is what von Spakovsky has been trying to quantify at the Heritage Foundation and will pursue with Trump’s commission, he said.

“We’re supposed to take a look at and investigate the state of the election process in America,” he said. “I believe that means looking at everything from the voter registration process to the election process itself — voting, etc. — to see whether there are any problems that need to be fixed.”

In many ways, he said, the commission’s task will be to update the work done in 2012 by the Pew Center on the States, which found evidence that nearly 2 million dead people nationwide were still on voting rolls.

The commission’s request for information from states — which was immediately rejected by some governors, including Virginia’s Terry McAuliffe (D) — was simply a research query, like that sent out by Pew, von Spakovsky said.

He has spent his career on such efforts because of his upbringing, he said. “I’m a first-generation American. My mother grew up in Nazi Germany. My father was Russian — he fought the communists in his homeland and fought them in his adopted country of Yugoslavia. I grew up in a household where I was told just how precious our democracy was here and just how fortunate we are to have it.”

When he was a boy, he said, his parents always took him along with them to vote. “Basically it imbued in me the belief that I had a duty to vote and that if I didn’t vote, I was betraying all the people in countries around the world who can’t do that. It just gave me a real interest in working to make sure we have a fair process.”

Brian Schoeneman, a Republican who replaced von Spakovsky on the Fairfax electoral board, said he is uniquely qualified for the national commission. “He knows everything there is to know about the law,” said Schoeneman, who edits the Bearing Drift conservative blog.

He said von Spakovsky is not someone who sees massive fraud everywhere he looks. While “there is a belief in my party that it is endemic and everywhere, that’s not true,” Schoeneman said. “It is by no means endemic, and by no means as bad as the president claims it is.”

“I think Hans has struck a happy medium. . . . I know he gets a lot of criticism, but that’s just the typical demonization of anybody who wants to argue that voter fraud is an issue.”

SELECTED COMMENTS

Lex CDXIV
3:57 PM EDT
What a fantastic pick! Von Spakovsky has long been one of the most thoughtful commentators on procedural threats to democracy and has been widely published in places actually serious about issue -- Wall Street Journal, National Review, so on.

Quite naturally, the Post's readership and its reporting corps, sealed inside their protective bubble that does not admit to the existence of conservative ideas, would never have heard of him.

Democracy, indeed, dies in the darkness of the benighted progressive cranium.


Joe2323
9:35 AM EDT
It's more like Democrats are panicking about their voting corruption being exposed... and they are activating their fake voting rights experts (remember ACORN) to pretend to be concerned.


OG Ranger
9:42 AM EDT
Ahh, the Trump trolls are on duty.


BDR529
6:54 AM EDT
Is Spakovsky a Russian name?


Gary Harryman
6/30/2017 10:59 PM EDT
Like all Trump appointees, his job will be to divide and destroy that which he is in charge of - to destroy our government from the inside.

The goal of the Koch Republican Parasites is the same trick they've always used on Social Programs - make them dysfunctional and then replace them with for-profit corporations.

With Trump's collusion the Koch Republican Parasites are going to destroy the American government infrastructure and replace it with a for-profit corporation that they own. And their corrupt Republican Supreme Court will rule it all legal.


PattyGeorge
8:32 AM EDT
what's the prayer in "Fiddler on the Roof"? "May God bless the Czar - and keep him far away from us"


SantaBarbara Reg
6/30/2017 8:13 PM EDT
Ora le, campesino,

It has always intrigued me that these "voting fraud activists" never seem to be able to come up with the name of a single real person who has illegally been given the right to cast a ballot.

The only fraud here is the name of the appointed commission. 'Integrity' and Donald Trump are oxymoronic.

THIS IS ALL FOR NOW. THERE ARE PLENTY MORE WHERE THEY CAME FROM. IF THESE AREN’T FEISTY ENOUGH, WRITE YOUR OWN.



http://www.salon.com/2012/10/22/the_man_behind_the_voter_fraud_myth/
MONDAY, OCT 22, 2012 08:03 PM EDT
The man behind the voter fraud myth
Five key takeaways from Jane Mayer's scathing New Yorker piece
JILLIAN RAYFIELD

Photograph -- Hans von Spakovsky. (Credit: Wikipedia)

This week’s New Yorker features a blistering investigation by Jane Mayer into Hans von Spakovsky, a leading propagator of voter fraud myths. His work has led to a flurry of legislation and voting restrictions pushed by Republicans.

Spakovsky, a Republican lawyer who worked in the Bush administration and is a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, is a key supporter of True the Vote, the Houston-based group that has been pushing for these new laws. “Although the group has a spontaneous grassroots aura,” Mayer writes, “it was founded by a local Tea Party activist, Catherine Engelbrecht, and from the start it has received guidance from intensely partisan election lawyers and political operatives, who have spent years stoking fear about election fraud.”

Here are the five most scathing parts of the article:

John Lewis, D-Ga., an activist during the civil rights era, on von Spakovsky:

“He’s been the moving force behind photo I.D.s. I don’t know if it’s something in the water he’s been drinking . . . but over the years he’s been hellbent to make it more difficult—always, always—for people to vote. It’s like he goes to bed dreaming about this, and gets up in the morning wondering, What can I do today to make it more difficult for people to vote? When you pull back the covers, peel back the onion, he’s the one who’s gotten the Republican legislatures, and the Republican Party, to go along with this—even though there is no voter fraud to speak of. He’s trying to create a cure where there is no sickness.”

From Joe Rich, who worked in the voting section of the Department of Justice, and went up against von Spakovsky and other voter fraud fearmongerers during his tenure:

“I worked at the Justice Department for thirty-six years, twenty-four of them under Republican Administrations,” Rich told Mayer. “The disdain and antagonism that they had for the experience, expertise, and dedication of career civil-rights attorneys was something I had never experienced before. It was just awful.”

Richard L. Hasen, a law professor and author of the “The Voting Wars,” on what he calls “the Fraudulent Fraud Squad,” those scholars who claim there is evidence that widespread voter fraud exists:

“I see them as foot soldiers in the Republican army,” he says. “It’s just a way to excite the base. They are hucksters. They’re providing fake scholarly support. They’re not playing fairly with the facts. And I think they know it.”

Mayer on one of von Spakovsky’s disproven theories about voter fraud:

Last year, in an op-ed piece that was nationally syndicated, he wrote, ‘A 2010 election in Missouri that ended in a one-vote margin of victory included 50 votes cast illegally by citizens of Somalia.’ He told me that these voters ‘could only speak Somali, even though to become a U.S. citizen you must learn English.’ Once again, when the case was examined by a judge, no fraud was found. Although the judge’s ruling had been issued before the column appeared, von Spakovsky didn’t mention it. He told me that the omission was justified, because the judge hadn’t investigated ‘the citizenship issue.’ Yet the voters’ citizenship was never in doubt. Translation assistance is available at the polls—citizens sometimes have shaky English—and the court had found merely that election officials had not made the voters take an oath before receiving help, as state law required. The judge determined that such a mistake ‘should not result in the disenfranchisement of the voters.'”

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And on von Spakovsky’s book, which presents the following conspiracy theory:

“’Who’s Counting?’ opens with an insinuating account of how Al Franken, the Minnesota Democrat, was elected to the Senate in 2008. According to the book, there is ‘compelling’ evidence, compiled by a citizens’ watchdog group, that ‘1,099 ineligible felons voted illegally’ in the contest—’more than three times’ Franken’s victory margin. The subhead of the chapter is ‘Would Obamacare have passed without voter fraud?’

Fox News and other conservative media outlets have promoted this argument. However, Mike Freeman, the Hennepin County Attorney, who oversees Minneapolis, told me, ‘Those numbers are fraudulent. We investigated, and at the end of the day, out of over four hundred allegations in the county, we charged thirty-eight people. Their research was bad, sloppy, incredible. They are just liars.'”

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.
MORE JILLIAN RAYFIELD.


THIS IS A CLEVER TONGUE-IN-CHEEK COMMENTARY BELITTLING A SERIOUS SUBJECT: THE AMERICAN RIGHTIST LEANINGS TOWARD HITLER, DURING HIS REIGN IN GERMANY AND ELSEWHERE. THERE WAS A WONDERFUL BRITISH MOVIE CALLED “THE REMAINS OF THE DAY,” WHICH FEATURED THESE PRO-NAZI ACTIVITIES IN BRITAIN IN THE EARLY WAR YEARS.

THIS FASCISM WAS, ONE CONSPIRACY THEORY GOES, A PART OF WHY AMERICA DIDN’T ENTER THE WAR UNTIL HITLER WAS ALREADY AN OBVIOUS THREAT MOVING ACROSS EUROPE. AS TODAY, IT ACCOMPANIED A STRONG ISOLATIONISM HERE. WHEN THE AMERICAN FLEET AT PEARL HARBOR WAS DIRECTLY ATTACKED, ROOSEVELT HAD HIS CHANCE AND ASKED FOR A DECLARATION OF WAR. AFTER THAT, CONGRESS FINALLY ACTED, POSSIBLY OUT OF SHAME. IT MAKES A VERY INTERESTING POINT THAT IS VERY MUCH APPLICABLE AGAIN TODAY.

THIS PIECE IS SHORT. GIVE IT A READ. FOR YOUR INFO IF YOU DON’T ALREADY KNOW THE TERM, AS I DIDN’T, THE NEXT ARTICLE FROM WIKIPEDIA EXPLAINS WHAT “THE VOLOKH CONSPIRACY” IS.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/04/28/the-justice-department-is-fascist-literally/?utm_term=.ec2d067e9370
The Volokh Conspiracy
The Justice Department is fascist… literally!
By Eugene Kontorovich April 28, 2014

The federal government is rife with fascism… from the Justice Department to tax collection, and across the the river to the Pentagon, the signs of fascism abound.

I am not referring to government polices – but rather to architecture. Federal buildings throughout Washington, and across the country, are decorated with “fasces” – the bundle of rods with an axe that Benito Mussolini adopted for his political movement. As I describe in an essay in the current issue of City Journal, while fasces had long been a motif in neoclassical architecture, most of the federal fasces were put in places in the 1920s and 1930s, at a time Fascism had fully appropriated the symbol. Thus the fasces boom of the interwar years could only be a conscious nod to Il Duce – which is not surprising, as he was widely regarded as “the top,” as Cole Porter put it.

You always knew there was something fascist about tax enforcement…

What is surprising, as I discuss in the essay, is the fasces were not taken down during the war, and have not become controversial since them. This is in sharp contrast to the ongoing disputes over public religious displays, Confederate flags, Indian mascots, and other public imagery that persists long after the vogue that gave rise to it:

The fasces have survived not just the Second World War but also, thus far, the Culture Wars. Perhaps their quiet persistence suggests that we need not always take offense at, or seek to purge, public symbols of outmoded or discredited political ideas. Such symbols may even have value for us today as historical reminders: lessons in humility, carved in stone.

(For those interested, I’ve previously written about other forgotten aspects of our public buildings, discussing the Establishment Clause issues with the National Cathedral.)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Volokh_Conspiracy
The Volokh Conspiracy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eugene Volokh.jpg
(/ˈvɑːlək/ VOL-ik,[2][3] Ukrainian

Photograph -- Eugene Volokh, founder of The Volokh Conspiracy.

Born February 29, 1968 (age 49)
Kiev, Ukrainian SSR
Alma mater University of California, Los Angeles (B.S., J.D)

Occupation Law professor, legal commentator
Known for The Volokh Conspiracy


The Volokh Conspiracy (/ˈvɑːlək/ VOL-ik[1][2]) is a blog, founded in 2002,[3] covering legal and political issues[4][5][6] from an ideological orientation it describes as "generally libertarian, conservative, centrist, or some mixture of these."[7]

Its name is a joking reference to Hillary Clinton's reference to a "vast right-wing conspiracy".[8] In 2007, Andy Guess of the Inside Higher Ed wrote that it was "one of the most widely read legal blogs in the United States" and that it "probably has more influence in the field – and more direct impact – than most law reviews."[3]

According to Adam Teicholz of The Atlantic, The Volokh Conspiracy, among other blogs, played an important role in influencing the view of Americans against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[9] In 2013, The Volokh Conspiracy appeared in ABA Journal's "Blawg 100 Hall of Fame".[10]

In January 2014, The Volokh Conspiracy migrated to the The Washington Post, and was moved behind a paywall in June 2014[10] although it can still be viewed for free via RSS.[11] The Volokh Conspiracy retains full editorial control over its content.[12]



IF ONLY GOING OFF A CLEARLY NEEDED DRUG WOULD SOLVE THE PROBLEM THAT WOULD BE NICE, BUT I THINK TRUMP HAS ALWAYS BEEN MUCH THE SAME AS HE IS NOW. WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU ABOUT THE FUTURE?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-propecia-haiir-loss_us_58936376e4b06f344e4058a6
HEALTHY LIVING 02/02/2017 02:48 pm ET | Updated Feb 02, 2017
Trump Takes Propecia, A Hair-Loss Drug Associated With Mental Confusion, Impotence
Everything you need to know about the new disclosure.
By Ann Brenoff

Finasteride and “Post-Finasteride Syndrome”

In a snicker-worthy disclosure by President Donald Trump’s longtime personal physician, readers of The New York Times learned Thursday that the leader of the free world takes a small daily dose of the drug finasteride ― otherwise known as Propecia ― which is used to treat male-pattern baldness.

The revelation by Dr. Harold N. Bornstein that the president uses a prostate-related drug to grow scalp hair was not previously known publicly, according to the Times story, and appears to explain why Trump has a very low level of prostate specific antigen, or PSA, a marker sometimes used to diagnose prostate cancer. The newspaper said it had four telephone conversations with Bornstein, whose office is in Manhattan, about Trump’s overall health.

Bornstein, 69, said he takes finasteride himself and credited it with helping maintain his own shoulder-length hair. “[Trump] has all his hair,” Bornstein said. “I have all my hair.”

Bornstein, who said he hasn’t seen Trump since his ascension to the presidency, first came on the public radar in December 2015, when he released a four-paragraph letter extolling Trump’s health.

“If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” Bornstein wrote. Trump, 70, is also the oldest person ever elected to the presidency. Eight months after writing the letter, Bornstein said he dashed it off in five minutes while a Trump limousine waited for him to finish.

Of course, with the revelation that Trump is taking finasteride, many rushed to warn of possible side effects ― including mental confusion and permanent sexual dysfunction.

Punchlines aside, the safety of the drug has been challenged.

“The FDA-approved pill has been called into question, with emerging research and a slew of lawsuits suggesting that finasteride may be more dangerous than previously believed,” reported Men’s Journal. “Users report that its side effects — inability to orgasm, painful erections, chronic depression, insomnia, brain fog, and suicidal thoughts — can last long after patients stop taking the pill.”

Since 2011, at least 1,245 lawsuits have been filed against Propecia’s manufacturer, Merck, alleging that the company didn’t sufficiently warn users of sexual and cognitive side effects. Patients and physicians reportedly call the effects “Post-Finasteride Syndrome” because, they say, symptoms often persist after discontinuing the drug. The National Institutes of Health has added PFS to its rare-diseases database. Merck told Men’s Journal the the company “stands behind the demonstrated safety and efficacy profile of Propecia.”

And of course, the disclosure about the president taking Propecia spurred many to ask: What other drugs does he take? The Washington Post noted that Trump had multiple opportunities to mention his Propecia use, but didn’t.

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Ann Brenoff
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MSNBC VIDEOS

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-news/watch/states-reject-trump-s-voter-fraud-commission-request-980913219749
HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS 6/30/17
States reject Trump's Voter Fraud Commission request
Judith Browne Dianis of the Advancement Project says that Trump's commission is a way for Republicans to dismantle the Voting Rights Act. Duration: 4:58


http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/gop-strategist-trump-health-care-flip-immoral-wrong-981049411924
6/30/17
GOP strategist: Trump health care flip 'immoral,' 'wrong'
Republican strategist Evan Siegfried says Trump's apparent shift in health care – wanting to repeal first, then replace – goes back on a long-held promise and would do severe damage to the public. Ari Melber also discusses with Joan Walsh and Shannon Pettypiece. Duration: 12:18


A VERY TALENTED MAN

MUSIC – GLEN CAMPBELL ON GUITAR
https://www.youtube.com/embed/GUBhE00h9U0?feature=player_detailpage


SCIENCE, HISTORY AND OTHER REAL INFORMATION

https://curiositystream.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuaFJaiAx4U

SEVERAL HOURS WORTH OF GEORGE CARLIN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuaFJaiAx4U
George Carlin speaks trump and 2016
George Carlin & Richard Pryor Carson Tonight Show 1981
The Truth About Republicans by George Carlin
Jon Stewart Interviews George Carlin
The Best Of George Carlin

GEORGE CARLIN BIOGRAPHY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgqXsW8X92E
THE GEORGE CARLIN SHOW (A SITCOM)
MOVIE IN WHICH HE PLAYS A CATHOLIC PRIEST, CALLED "DOGMA".