Brief impressions of the Democratic debate

I watched most of the nearly three hours of the debate involving the ten remaining Democratic primary candidates who qualified for the third round. In watching and listening to them, one is struck by how far superior everyone of them is to Donald Trump merely in terms of the coherence of their thoughts and words. Trump’s policies of course are utterly execrable.

All of them were supporters of increasing healthcare coverage for everyone in some form of single-payer such as Medicare for All, differing only in details. All of them lambasted Trump for being a white supremacist and that we need to address systemic racism in the US.
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The strange appeal of Eastern-styled cults

In an interesting and informative profile of Tulsi Gabbard, Kerry Howley looks at her very unusual childhood and family that are followers of a one-time white surfer-dude named Chris Butler who became a self-styled guru called Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa and founded a group called Science of Identity that has pretty weird beliefs and actions.

I had thought that Gabbard’s father was an Indian-American but it turns out that he is a socially conservative Samoan who grew up as a Catholic before becoming a devotee of the guru. Gabbard calls herself a Hindu though the guru’s sect does not identify itself as Hindu. The article says that “Butler taught vegetarianism, sexual conservatism, mind-body dualism, and disinterest in the material world. He taught a virulent homophobia, skepticism of science, and the dangers of public schools… Whenever Butler traveled, he’d have the homes he stayed in lined with tinfoil, to protect against electromagnetic radiation.” He also thinks the moon landing was a hoax.
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Another way that the insane medical system in the US squeezes money from sick people

Here is another post about the insanity of the US health system, a post that will be utterly incomprehensible to people who live in civilized countries where you are not blindsided by huge bills just because you get sick. It involves the practice of people getting ‘surprise bills’ after treatment. For those of you not familiar with this insane system, in the US your insurance company contracts with a network of doctors and hospitals for your treatment. If you go to those when you are sick, your bill will be lower than if you go to an out-of-network doctor or medical facility (or if you do not have insurance at all) so you always have to check before going to see a doctor.
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Legal challenge to prorogation and farewell to John Bercow

In the latest Brexit drama, the Scottish appeals court has ruled unanimously that UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s prorogation (i.e., suspension) of parliament until October 14 is unlawful. Courts in England, however, have rejected a similar challenge, saying that prorogation is a political matter over which they have no say. The courts in Northern Ireland are considering a similar case. So the situation is murky to say the least and it is not clear what comes next.

The starkly divergent conclusions of the English and Scottish courts are due to be resolved in a series of supreme court hearings next week. Northern Ireland’s judges are due to deliver their decision on a similar application on Thursday morning.

Johnson’s government has said that they would not be bound by the decision of the Scottish court (which has put further strain on England-Scotland relations) and would only bring back parliament if the Supreme Court ordered them to.
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The fixer, the preacher’s son, his wife, & two young studs

Jerry Falwell was an evangelical preacher and the founder of Liberty University, a college that expects its students to abide by strict Christianity-based rules prohibiting drinking, dancing, homosexuality, and of course anything involving sex among its students. Falwell was the founder of something called the Moral Majority that represented the first major concerted effort to join at the hip evangelical Christianity with right wing politics and make them into a potent political force for reactionary policies, leading one wag to say that “The Moral Majority is neither”.
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How and why police brutality is institutionalized

On the latest episode of his show Patriot Act, Hasan Minhaj explains why the many cases in which police kill unarmed mostly black people and escape any punishment is not only due to the specifics of each case but that it is encouraged by a system in which the training of police encourages immediate violent action and the unions and the laws are designed to give police immunity from the consequences of their actions, however egregious they might be. In other words, this is a systemic problem that cannot be blamed on a few ‘rotten apples’.

Bye, bye, John! So happy that you have been kicked out

John Bolton, an incredibly ruthless neoconservative warmonger who seemed eager to use the US military to attack and invade any and all perceived enemies of the US, especially if they were also designated enemies of Israel, has been fired by Donald Trump from his influential position as National Security Advisor.

As is the case with this chaotic administration, there are conflicting reports of why he was fired and how. Bolton claimed he resigned while Trump insists he was fired. The days are long gone when firings were papered over with fake expressions of regret.

Trump tweeted: “I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service.”

He added: “I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.”

Bolton instantly tweeted back: “I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow.’”

Bolton’s dismissal was unexpected in the White House, which about an hour earlier had announced a press conference involving Bolton and the secretaries of state and treasury.

Bolton had taken consistently hawkish positions on major foreign policy issues that had frequently clashed with Trump, who had sought close relationships with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un.

What does it mean about US policy? Who knows? There seems to be no coherent policy, just the whims of an impulsive and erratic president. It may be that Trump just got sick of seeing Bolton’s walrus mustache up close, since it is known that he likes people to be clean shaven.

But one fewer ultra-aggressive warmonger who has the ear of the president has to be considered a positive development.

He’s not going to last long

[UPDATE: Neil Jacobs, the acting administrator of NOAA and himself a career meteorologist facing a potentially hostile audience of weather scientists at a meeting in Huntsville, Alabama who had threatened to walk out on his talk, tried to smooth over the conflict by tearfully thanking the Birmingham scientists in the audience for their work. The semi-apology seemed to have been accepted.]

There has been much publicity over the absurdity of Donald Trump claiming that Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian when it was not. National Weather Service scientists in Birmingham immediately corrected it as they should, since warning residents that they are in the path of a major storm when they are not is a serious matter. Trump then doubled down on his claim by showing a doctored NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) weather map that showed Alabama in the projected path. But the most serious aspect of this was when an unsigned press release came from NOAA (the NWS is overseen by NOAA) saying that earlier forecasts did include Alabama, implicitly rebuking the NWS scientists.
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