Open Thread June 7, 2022

 Posted by at 7:03 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 072022
 

Yesterday, I had said I planned to rest, and I guess I did. I slept almost 4 hours passed my (only a suggestion) alarm time. When I did get up, my back was really complaining (which the TENS fixed up pretty quickly), but my shouldr felt fine. I think (hope) I have found the sweet spot to assuage that particular pain point. In any case, I have material – two stories about Colorado, one a good example and the other a horror story – and also a story on a crime prevention tactic hat actually works (so of course it has no chance against Republicans.)  Today’s cartoon memorializes the first known summit conference in WEurope (I for one would not be surprised t learn that native Americans were doind it long before that.)

Also, please, everyone, cick back (under the comments, on the left) to the post published just before this Thread for Nameless’s wonderful post. (And here I thought I was the queen of workarounds. This is brilliant!)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The 19th – Colorado is the first state to abolish anonymous sperm and egg donors. Activist Erin Jackson on why that matters.
Quote – In 2021, Jackson, who had no prior advocacy experience, joined a handful of other activists in starting the U.S. Donor Conceived Council, a political advocacy group. Sen. Stephen Fenberg, the president of Colorado’s state senate, reached out to Jackson to ask what donor-conceived people want to see happen in terms of regulation of the fertility industry. Jackson was armed with data she had collected outlining the types of policy positions her community wanted to see. Fenberg ran with it: Jackson and the U.S. Donor Conceived Council were instrumental in shaping first-of-its-kind legislation in Colorado.
Click through for details. Ethics is complicated. The original concept of anonymity was based on the assumption tha donors had a right to protection, but this ignored the fact that those who resulted had a right to information too. What you don’t know CAN hurt you.

CPR News – Victim IDs released in coal slide at Pueblo power plant
Quote – The men worked for Utah-based Savage, a contractor for Xcel Energy that operates the plant’s coal yard. Witnesses reported that the accident happened on a feeder pile for the station’s coal-fired power plant, which is Colorado’s largest…. Rescuers found the bodies of the two men buried beneath about 60 feet of coal after a day-long search. The men had been standing about 30 feet up a slope of the pile when the slide occurred, according to the Pueblo Fire Department.
Click through for background (including a lin to the original story). This is an extremely good argumant for terminating the use of coal world-wide. (Not that Republicans care about people dying as long as they are making money.)

Vox – A study gave cash and therapy to men at risk of criminal behavior. 10 years later, the results are in.
Quote – That’s such an incredibly good deal that it sounds too good to be true. But it’s been borne out by the research of Chris Blattman, Margaret Sheridan, Julian Jamison, and Sebastian Chaskel. Their new study provides experimental evidence that offering at-risk men a few weeks of behavioral therapy plus a bit of cash reduces the future risk of crime and violence, even 10 years after the intervention.
Click through for full story. It’s far more complex than a single quote can communicate.

Food For Thought

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Brilliant Workaround to “DON’T SAY GAY!”

 Posted by at 12:58 pm  Politics
Jun 062022
 

What’s a class president, who is a gay activist and just chosen to give his high school’s Commencement Address, to do when he’s called into the principal’s office and told he can NOT say the word “GAY” during his speech.  And if he does, his microphone will be cutoff, and the graduation ceremony ended.

That was the dilemma facing Zander Moricz just a few weeks ago.

Zander had been elected class president each of his four years at Pine View High School for the Gifted in Osprey, FL, and came out in his freshman year because of the supportive environment at Pine View.

He has been an activist against Gov. DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” (Parental Rights in Education) bill, leading a school protest walkout in March along with organizing a similar protest in downtown Sarasota attended by hundreds of people, including the mayor and county commissioners, before DeSantis signed Florida House Bill – HB 1557 into law.

In fact, Moricz is the youngest plaintiff in a lawsuit against DeSantis and HB 1557:

https://www.kaplanhecker.com/sites/default/files/ECF%201_Complaint_Equality%20Florida%20et%20al%20v%20Desantis%20et%20al_22cv00134.pdf

As class president he was accustomed to being called into Principal Stephen Covert’s office for meetings – but Zander immediately felt this one was going to be different.  He was warned that if mentioned the word “gay” or alluded to his activism his microphone would be cutoff.

I am the youngest public plaintiff in the “Don’t Say Gay” lawsuit. I am my Florida high school’s first openly-gay Class President. I am being silenced, and I need your help.

A few days ago, my principal called me into his office and informed me that if my graduation speech referenced my activism or role as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, school administration had a signal to cut off my microphone, end my speech, and halt the ceremony. (2/8)

At what should be one of a student’s most joyous moments, Moricz now faced a dilemma he hadn’t anticipated: “I cannot ruin something that hundreds of my friends have worked for, for years.  I will not take away their moment simply because we have an administrator and a government that is telling us that those are the two choices.”

At the same time Moricz says he would also not compromise his principles. “That is something that I will not compromise over anything at any point in time. I will simply find a way to have both.”

But Moricz gave Principal Covert his word that he would conform to the school’s wishes.  As the adage goes: Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Tasked with staying true to his principles while keeping his word to his principal, Moricz found the perfect metaphor for “Gay”: His curly hair!

During his Commencement speech, after a few brief introductory remarks, Moricz brilliantly transitioned to a metaphor for his being gay and the damage that Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill will do to students in the LGBTQ community.

“I used to hate my curls. I spent mornings and nights embarrassed of them, trying desperately to straighten this part of who I am—but the daily damage of trying to fix myself became too much to endure.

“So, while having curly hair in Florida is difficult—due to the humidity—I decided to be proud of who I was and started coming to school as my authentic self.”

He shared that a teacher, Ms. Ballard, answered his questions “because I didn’t have other curly-haired people to talk to,” and that he found support from other students and adults.

“It’s because of the love I’ve drawn from this community that I came out to my family. Now I’m happy….  And that is what is at stake. There are going to be so many kids with curly hair who need a community like Pine View and they won’t have one.”

After receiving a standing ovation for his speech, Moricz was interviewed on ABC’s Good Morning America:

 

On a more serious note, he spoke with NBC News concerning the federal lawsuit against DeSantis and the price he has paid for his activism:

Moricz joined a group of over a dozen students, parents, educators and advocates who have filed a federal lawsuit against DeSantis and the state’s Board of Education, alleging the law would “stigmatize, silence, and erase LGBTQ people in Florida’s public schools.”

“The reason something like the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law seems like nothing but is actually everything is that when you cannot talk about or share who you are, there is a constant subconscious affirmation that you are not valid, that you should not exist,” Moricz said.

This fight against the legislation is personal for Moricz, explaining it was because of his school’s support system that enabled him to become confident about his sexuality.

“I would not be fighting for these things, I would not be standing up for these causes in the way that I am, if I had not been able to do so at school first.  I think in the same way that school is where you learn so many important things about life, you also learn about yourself, and that looks different for LGBTQ kids.”

But there has been a price Moricz has had to pay for his activism.  He has been harassed online and has received in-person and online death threats from strangers.  He even said strangers have come, unannounced, to his parents’ offices looking for him.

“I do not feel safe operating as an individual on a day-to-day basis in my county.  Pineview as a student community has been incredible for me.  Sarasota as a community has been something I’ve had to endure.”

But I doubt this will be the last we hear from Zander Moricz.  This fall he will begin his government studies at Harvard.

The world could use more chutzpah like that of Zander Moricz.

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Video Thread 6/6/22

 Posted by at 7:16 am  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 062022
 

Glenn Kirschner: BOMBSHELL AFTER BOMBSHELL! Justice Will Come for Bannon, Meadows & Donald Trump! (not his show, but some juicy stuff in a less formal tone.  Remember in Rocky Mountain Mike’s parody on “My Life” (called “Big Lie”), he said his friend who used to be “real gross” now “listens to Stephanie’s show from LA”? Well, this Stepahie is THAT Stephanie (often has Glenn and John Fugelsang as guests too.)

Meidas Touch – Eric Swalwell SHREDS Republicans in SPEECH OF THE YEAR over inaction after Uvalde

Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Top Republican whining that Republicans Can’t Lie to the FBI

The Lincoln Project – Pat [sic] Attention

MSNBC – Cuffed: Trump Aide Navarro’s Arrest Puts Heat On Coup Plot After MSNBC Confession

MSNBC – Chris Hayes And Ari Melber Discuss Peter Navarro Indictment (yes, two from MSNBC – they are related

Ring of Fire – Conservative Writer Says Base Is Getting ‘Bored’ With Trump

Beau – Let’s talk about teachers, cats, and gas stations…. (possible hanky alert)

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Open Thread June 6, 2022

 Posted by at 7:13 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 062022
 

Yesterday, for reasons I won’t go into, I was late for my visit with Virgil. That is more annoying at this faco;ity than at prior facilities I’ve visited, because of the shuttle bus system. I ca arrive at the facility any time, but I can only get on the bus when it is scheduled. o I was late, arriving at the visiting room about 12:30, and he was also late, having gone to lunch. So the visit was shorter than usual, but still a good one. I’m just as tired as if I had been thre all day – maybe more so – so I’ll probably rest today as much as I can.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Torker (Andy) – Biden and Zelensky Reach Agreement to Send Americans’ Four Hundred Million Guns to Ukraine
Quote – In a move that could tip the scales in the war against Russia, U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have reached an agreement to ship Americans’ four hundred million firearms to Ukraine. “The Second Amendment calls for a well-regulated militia necessary to secure a free state,” Biden said. “I can’t think of a better description of what’s going on in Ukraine right now.”
Click through for full humor. This is Andy’s best idea since sending Abbott to Russia to take down Russia’s power grid. In fact, it may be even better!

Comic Sands (George Takei) – Boebert’s Inane ‘Reading Rainbow’ Dig At Randy Rainbow Has Fans Clamoring For A LeVar Burton Collab
Quote –

Click thrugh for lots more opinions – or just wait for it to happen, as you wish.

Dempcratic Underground (Applegrove) – Tweet of the Evening
Quote –


Click through if you like – I’d say the tweet stands alone (Also, all tweets I have quoted today are linked to Twitter, both at my source, and here. Click on the blue bird.)

Food For Thought

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Video Thread 6/5/22

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  Open Thread, Politics
Jun 052022
 

Glenn Kirschner – Trump aide Peter Navarro indicted for contempt of Congress; what’s next for defendant Navarro?

Meidas Touch – Proud Boy whines after being Denied Entry to Trump Rally

The Lincoln Project – Donald Trump Visits The NRA

Ring of Fire – FBI Nabs Capitol Riot Duo After They Sent Photos Of Themselves Inside The Capitol

CNN – Robert Reich on Biden’s Plan to Fight Inflation, and Why We Need a Windfall Profits Tax on Oil

Jimmy Kimmel – Lie Witness News – Roe vs Wade Edition

Beau – Let’s talk about disbanding Uvalde departments….

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Open Thread June 5, 2022

 Posted by at 7:04 am  Open Thread, Personal, Politics
Jun 052022
 

Yesterday, the radio opera was “Hemlet.” But I should be more precise, since this is a 21st century opera, and not the first based on Shakespeare’s play. The composer is Brett Dean, an Australian composer whose work is new to me, and who appears to have been influenced by Thomas Ades.Among the personae, I’m only familiar with those songing Ophelia, Polonius, and the ghost (who doubles as the Gravedigger), but those three are singers I know and like. The libretto is almost all Hamlet, although the lines may not be assigned to the characters Shakespeare gave them to, and it’s been hinted a few lines are from other plays.Two of the singers are counter-tenors (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern), and I’m glad to see contemporary composers writing for counter-tenors – provided they also write juicy roles for mezzo-sopranos (and this opera does – Hamlet’s mother Gertrude.) I’d very much like to see it – for me, it works well to hear an opera I’m familiar with, but until I have seen one that’s new, I miss things. I should get a chance though – it’s being shown in theaters, which means it’s being recorded, and should be available eventually for streaming from the Met’s website.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

Democratic Underground – “Democrats officially have more seats on the congressional map than Republicans”
Quote – Y’all, with our win in court in New Hampshire this week, the 50th state is officially done with map drawing, the congressional redistricting landscape is clear – and Democrats and #FairMaps supporters have a lot to celebrate!… Democrats officially have more seats on the congressional map than Republicans – there are now 226 Biden seats to just 209 Trump seats. (This is +1 in Biden seats compared to 2020 and a vast improvement over 2012.)
Click through for details. This is a good news story which however does NOT mean we can relax. Democratic majorities for the midterms are not useful if Democrats don’t get out and vote – and we are notorious for that.

The Daily Beast – Utah County Gripped by Bizarre Accusations of Murder and Cannibalization of Kids
Quote – Utah County Attorney David Leavitt, who is running for re-election, is calling for the immediate removal of the county sheriff, Mike Smith, over a bizarre report implicating Leavitt in a “ritualistic” sex ring known for “cannibalizing young children.” The 151-page report, which was released by the sheriff Wednesday among law enforcement but has not been made public, is said to name Leavitt and his wife as integral figures in the trumped up conspiracy. The report claims the abuse took place between 1990 and 2010 and was carried out in three Utah counties.
Click through for story. Because this is why this stuff upsets me so. Anyone and everyone is vulnerable. the next pseron to get accused could be me. It could be you.

Letters from an America – June 2, 2022
Quote – U.S. District Court Judge David Carter reviewed a number of documents. In March, he concluded that one particular memo must be released under the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege, a rule that shields communications between lawyers and their clients. That memo was perhaps “the first time members of President Trump’s team transformed a legal interpretation of the Electoral Count Act into a day-by-day plan of action,” Carter wrote. He said that the memo “knowingly violated the Electoral Count Act,” the 1887 law that establishes clear procedures for states to certify their electoral votes and assigns to the Vice President the role of opening the certified electoral votes. Carter continued that the memo “likely furthered the crimes of obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States.” Last week, the January 6 committee made the memo public in its ongoing legal fight with Eastman.
Click through – there’s lots more about the memo – and more about the implications of their plans.

Food For Thought

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Everyday Erinyes #321

 Posted by at 5:21 am  Politics
Jun 052022
 

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

My primary care physiocian once told me I deserved an honorary medical degree because I can spell all my prescription drugs (proprietary and generic), as well as all my OTC meds (proprietary and generic) correctly. He was joking, of course. I simply was born with the spelling gene, and I also do my best to pay attention. But his remark does illustrate how little attention so many people pay to matters of their own health. I am not a doctor nor a medical technician, and I certainly don’t play one on TV. But I do do “due diligence” when anythong new turns up in or near my own body (near meaning physically near, like a pandemic, or emotionally near, like in one or more people I care about.) And cancer is something none of us can really avoid being near at some point or other. So when something like this turns up, so does my gaze.
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‘Masked’ cancer drug stealthily trains immune system to kill tumors while sparing healthy tissues, reducing treatment side effects

Dendritic cells (green) produce cytokines like IL-12, which can train T cells (pink) to attack tumors.
Victor Segura Ibarra and Rita Serda/National Cancer Institute via Flickr, CC BY-NC

Aslan Mansurov, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering

Many cancer treatments are notoriously savage on the body. Drugs often attack both healthy cells and tumor cells, causing a plethora of side effects. Immunotherapies that help the immune system recognize and attack cancer cells are no different. Though they have prolonged the lives of countless patients, they work in only a subset of patients. One study found that fewer than 30% of breast cancer patients respond to one of the most common forms of immunotherapy.

But what if drugs could be engineered to attack only tumor cells and spare the rest of the body? To that end, my colleagues and I at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have designed a method to keep one promising cancer drug from wreaking havoc by “masking” it until it reaches a tumor.

Immunotherapies help the immune system recognize and target cancer cells.

The promise of IL-12

Cytokines are proteins that can modulate how the immune system responds to threats. One way they do this is by activating killer T cells, a type of white blood cells that can attack cancer cells. Because cytokines can train the immune system to kill tumors, this makes them very promising as cancer treatments.

One such cytokine is interleukin-12, or IL-12. Though it was discovered more than 30 years ago, IL-12 still isn’t an FDA-approved therapy for cancer patients because of its severe side effects, such as liver damage. This is in part because IL-12 instructs immune cells to produce a large amount of inflammatory molecules that can damage the body.

Scientists have since been working to reengineer IL-12 to be more tolerable while retaining its powerful cancer-killing effects.

Masking the killer

To create a safer version of IL-12, my colleagues and I took advantage of one of the main differences between healthy and cancerous tissue: an excess of growth-promoting enzymes in cancers. Because cancer cells proliferate very rapidly, they overproduce certain enzymes that help them invade the nearby healthy tissue and metastasize to other parts of the body. Healthy cells grow at a much slower pace and produce fewer of these enzymes.

With this in mind, we “masked” IL-12 with a cap that covers the part of the molecule that normally binds to immune cells to activate them. The cap is removed only when it comes into contact with enzymes found in the vicinity of tumors. When these enzymes chop off the cap, IL-12 is reactivated and spurs nearby killer T cells to attack the tumor.

Killer T cells surrounding a cancer cell
Killer T cells (green and red) can attach to cancer cells (blue, center) and kill them by releasing toxic chemicals (red), a move scientists have dubbed ‘the kiss of death.’
NIH/Flickr

When we applied these masked IL-12 molecules to both healthy and tumor tissue donated by melanoma and breast cancer patients, our results confirmed that only the tumor samples were able to remove the cap. This indicated that masked IL-12 could potentially drive a strong immune response against tumors without causing damage to healthy organs.

We then examined how safe masked IL-12 is by measuring liver damage biomarkers in mice. We found that immune-related side effects typically associated with IL-12 were notably absent in mice treated with masked IL-12 over a period of several weeks, indicating improved safety.

In breast cancer models, our masked IL-12 resulted in a 90% cure rate, while treatment with a commonly used immunotherapy called a checkpoint inhibitor resulted in only a 10% cure rate. In a model of colon cancer, masked IL-12 showed a 100% cure rate.

Our next step is to test the modified IL-12 in cancer patients. While it will take time to bring this encouraging development directly to patients, we believe a promising new treatment is on the horizon.The Conversation

Aslan Mansurov, Postdoctoral Researcher in Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, “training” certainly implies a lower level of intellectual involvement than “teaching” or “educating,” but even so, it sounds like pure science fiction to even think about “training”a non-sentient  particle such as a protein to act in a certain way – to stop working in some environments and start working in others. Even though it accomplishes this mission by reacting in a particular way to particular enzymes, it still sounds virtually miraculous. This solution is not ready to approve yet, but it is ready for testing in live cancer patients, and, though I know it will take time, I am looking forward to seeing resutlts from that testing. Please, Eumenides, keep an eye out (and help in any way you can.)

The Furies and I will be back.

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SOUND OFF! 6/4/22 – The Old Boy Network

 Posted by at 6:18 pm  Politics
Jun 042022
 

Two issues have occupied much of the media lately: guns and abortion, two very touchy topics. The leaked SCOTUS decision that could gut Roe v Wade and the recent spate of mass shootings have inspired numerous headlines, opinion pieces and editorial cartoons.

The recent surges in mass shootings and attacks on reproductive rights could be among the last hurrahs of the Old Boy Network, the white, straight, wealthy, fundamentalist Protestant patriarchy that has controlled this country from Day One. The framers of the Constitution originally intended for voting rights – hell, most civil rights – to be strictly for white men who owned land. Women, people of color, and those who didn’t own land need not apply. It took a bloody civil war to end the evil of slavery, and decades of hell-raising after that to give nonwhites nominal legal equality. Women could not vote in this country till the 19th Amendment passed in 1920, and we are STILL fighting to pass the ERA, though we may be on the threshold of success.

Over the last many years we have seen the rise of “men’s rights” groups and the Incels, as well as organizations such as the Proud Boys. The anti-abortion movement has succeeded in getting harsh laws passed to strip women of reproductive choices, though courts have struck down a lot of them. Many of these extremists are anti-government (while they want everybody’s intimate lives to be strictly regulated) and strongly for more access to guns – in a country where there are 12 guns for every 10 residents. Pro-gun and anti-abortion go together hand in hand because both represent male dominance over women. Of course, not everybody is either pro-gun and anti-choice or vice versa; one can be pro-gun and pro-choice, or against both. However, many gun advocates are anti-choice, and many abortion foes lean strongly right on many other issues.

The “great replacement theory” that wound up front and center after the Buffalo massacre is typical of the vile bilge that extreme right-wingers like to spew. They fear that white people are being replaced by non-whites, which is why they feel a need to kill POCs. Why? The times, they are a-changin’. Out with the old, in with the new. That is how life always has been. All change inspires opposition and protest, all change is painful. But change and grow as a society we must.

In my essay about the Buffalo shooting I touched on the fears of the Straight White Rich Male establishment losing its grip. Extending such rights as voting, marriage, and equality before the law is not a zero-sum game. When people who are different from you gain civil and human rights, your own rights are not lessened; in fact, everybody wins.

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