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Potpourri
Author: BobR    Date: 01/04/2017 15:18:38

When writing for this blog, I normally like to find a theme or story and do a deep dive. Over the next several years, it is going to be difficult for me to do that and not sink into a deep depression. I will try to do more "science stacks" or other blogs that don't keep us in a cycle of continuous outrage and despair.

That disclaimer given, I found 3 stories that are fairly unrelated, but nonetheless worthy of examining. So in no particular order:

Despite previous inklings that he might be abandoning one of his campaign themes, tRump seems to still be interested in The Wall and deportation:
In a Dec. 5 meeting between President-elect Donald Trump's transition team and Department of Homeland Security officials, Trump's representatives requested a broad selection of documents and analysis, including the federal resources available to build border walls, a list of all executive orders President Obama issued regarding immigration, and any changes made to files on foreign-born adults brought to the U.S. illegally as children and granted temporary protections by Obama, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing an internal DHS memo.

A DHS official told Reuters that the department interpreted the request about changes made to migrant records, including for reasons of protecting civil rights or civil liberties, as a signal to federal workers not to tamper with data to protect immigrants, especially those protected by the DADA program, whose applications include addresses and other information that could potentially be used to deport the young immigrants if Trump reversed Obama's policies.

This should make for an interesting clash as several states (notably California) have declared themselves to be sanctuaries (of course - their agriculture business model relies on them, so...)

While talk of repealing Obamacare swirls, KellyAnne Conway says no one will lose their coverage:
One more time: If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.

A senior advisor to President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that after Obamacare is repealed and replaced with different health-care law no one who has health insurance would lose their coverage.

"That is correct. We don't want anyone who currently has insurance to not have insurance," the advisor, Kellyanne Conway, said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

How that will be avoided, however, is a very big question.
[...]
... Republicans haven't committed yet to a concrete plan for a replacement, and it is not clear how such a plan could avoid big drops in the number of Americans with coverage without keeping several key parts of Obamacare — parts that many Republicans object to.

And many health insurance experts warn that gutting the ACA while delaying crafting a replacement could lead to sharp coverage drops, even if the repeal is suspended for several years.

This is so typical - they've been claiming for SIX YEARS that they want to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with something else, and they STILL don't have a plan for replacement. They mocked President Obama for saying "if you like your plan, you can keep it", and they have the gall to say "you won't lose coverage" when they have no plan at all for a replacement? Assholes...

And finally: Studies show that gun violence spreads like a disease:
Gun violence in Chicago spreads like an infectious disease — and now, researchers have figured out a way to predict who’s most likely get sick next.

With infectious diseases, predictions are fairly simple: The more relationships an individual has with sick people, the more likely he is to be infected. The longer it’s been since exposure, the less likely infection becomes.

Now, researchers at Harvard and Yale have adopted that same type of mathematical model to predict potential victims of gun violence in Chicago. In 63 percent of the shootings they studied, they found that social contagion played a key role. Their study was published Tuesday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“This paper is really one of the first to prove gun violence functions like a disease and deserves public health and medical resources,” said Charles Branas, an epidemiologist at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied the relationship between human geography and violence. Branas, who wasn’t affiliated with the study, penned an accompanying editorial on how to tackle gun violence as disease.
(much more at the link)

This is exactly the type of research the NRA-funded Republicans have tried to prevent the CDC from doing. Kudos to Yale and Harvard for doing the research and putting it all together. This sort of fits the "broken windows" approach that unfortunately has led to some racial profiling, but if done properly can reduce violence overall. Knowledge is power, and power creates change.
 

22 comments (Latest Comment: 01/04/2017 20:14:48 by Raine)
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Comment by Will in Chicago on 01/04/2017 14:04:38
Good morning, bloggers!!!

Greetings from the cold shores of Lake Michigan, where we are looking at wind chills below zero today.

It seems that public outrage has caused the GOP to walk back from their proposal to change the Congressional ethics office. I suggest keeping an eye on this Congress, as I am certain that they will try to do it again.

Comment by Raine on 01/04/2017 14:09:29
good morning!

Comment by Will in Chicago on 01/04/2017 14:10:30
Also, Agent Orange is mocking the intelligence agencies..

The frosty relationship between the president-elect and the nation's intelligence agencies seem to be going towards an ice age.

Comment by velveeta jones on 01/04/2017 14:21:44
Morning all!

I missed this last week:
Our new leader standing with a homeless man. How sweet....
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NL2OBlvIssU/hqdefault.jpg


Comment by Raine on 01/04/2017 15:08:37
Comment by Raine on 01/04/2017 15:08:57
Quote by velveeta jones:
Morning all!

I missed this last week:
Our new leader standing with a homeless man. How sweet....
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NL2OBlvIssU/hqdefault.jpg



Comment by BobR on 01/04/2017 15:19:52

BLOG IS POSTED


Comment by wickedpam on 01/04/2017 15:43:34
Morning

I think I dozed off at my desk...

Comment by wickedpam on 01/04/2017 15:46:14
Random question - is Trashhole a Scientologist?

Comment by Raine on 01/04/2017 16:00:33
I cannot stand KellyAnneConway.

Comment by BobR on 01/04/2017 16:03:50
Quote by wickedpam:
Random question - is Trashhole a Scientologist?

No - he likes his money too much.

Comment by wickedpam on 01/04/2017 16:12:56
Quote by Raine:
I cannot stand KellyAnneConway.


Oh gawd, me neither. She and that Tomi girl are all part of the Coultergeist.


Comment by wickedpam on 01/04/2017 16:14:01
Quote by BobR:
Quote by wickedpam:
Random question - is Trashhole a Scientologist?

No - he likes his money too much.



Been watching that Leah Remini show on Scientology (which is good btw) and he reminds me of that David Misgruve(sp)

Comment by livingonli on 01/04/2017 16:17:27
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
I cannot stand KellyAnneConway.


Oh gawd, me neither. She and that Tomi girl are all part of the Coultergeist.

I guess it is required that right-wing blondes have to be evil bitches.

Comment by wickedpam on 01/04/2017 16:41:37
Quote by livingonli:
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
I cannot stand KellyAnneConway.


Oh gawd, me neither. She and that Tomi girl are all part of the Coultergeist.

I guess it is required that right-wing blondes have to be evil bitches.



I don't think they are real blondes.


Comment by Mondobubba on 01/04/2017 16:49:05
Quote by livingonli:
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
I cannot stand KellyAnneConway.


Oh gawd, me neither. She and that Tomi girl are all part of the Coultergeist.

I guess it is required that right-wing blondes have to be evil bitches.


Hey, Livin, Can you lay off the sexist comments please?

Comment by Raine on 01/04/2017 17:39:51
MY god, this is insane.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), an ally of President-elect Donald Trump and longtime enthusiast of Russian president Vladimir Putin, said Wednesday that he is planning to lead a congressional delegation to Russia next month and expects to meet with Russian officials to discuss “how we can work with the Duma.”

“We’re going to look at certain goals we can set with our Congress and the Duma,” the Russian legislature, Rohrabacher said in an interview. “What could we actually set in the legislature of Russia and in Congress? Could we work together, for example, and cooperate on space activities?”

Rohrabacher went on to list the rise of the Islamic State and President Obama’s latest round of sanctions against Russia as additional agenda items that he expects to come up during the talks in Moscow.




Comment by livingonli on 01/04/2017 18:40:39
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by livingonli:
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
I cannot stand KellyAnneConway.


Oh gawd, me neither. She and that Tomi girl are all part of the Coultergeist.

I guess it is required that right-wing blondes have to be evil bitches.


Hey, Livin, Can you lay off the sexist comments please?

It wasn't intended that way. I guess I just can't resist cheap shots at right-wingers.

Comment by wickedpam on 01/04/2017 18:47:00
Quote by Raine:
MY god, this is insane.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), an ally of President-elect Donald Trump and longtime enthusiast of Russian president Vladimir Putin, said Wednesday that he is planning to lead a congressional delegation to Russia next month and expects to meet with Russian officials to discuss “how we can work with the Duma.”

“We’re going to look at certain goals we can set with our Congress and the Duma,” the Russian legislature, Rohrabacher said in an interview. “What could we actually set in the legislature of Russia and in Congress? Could we work together, for example, and cooperate on space activities?”

Rohrabacher went on to list the rise of the Islamic State and President Obama’s latest round of sanctions against Russia as additional agenda items that he expects to come up during the talks in Moscow.




Occasionally I have to stop and wonder what China thinks of all this. Either they see it as we are teaming up with Russia therefore a threat, Or Russia is they don't like that Russia is doing all this influencing with countries around the world and see them as a threat and we are collateral damage.


Comment by livingonli on 01/04/2017 19:05:44
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
MY god, this is insane.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), an ally of President-elect Donald Trump and longtime enthusiast of Russian president Vladimir Putin, said Wednesday that he is planning to lead a congressional delegation to Russia next month and expects to meet with Russian officials to discuss “how we can work with the Duma.”

“We’re going to look at certain goals we can set with our Congress and the Duma,” the Russian legislature, Rohrabacher said in an interview. “What could we actually set in the legislature of Russia and in Congress? Could we work together, for example, and cooperate on space activities?”

Rohrabacher went on to list the rise of the Islamic State and President Obama’s latest round of sanctions against Russia as additional agenda items that he expects to come up during the talks in Moscow.




Occasionally I have to stop and wonder what China thinks of all this. Either they see it as we are teaming up with Russia therefore a threat, Or Russia is they don't like that Russia is doing all this influencing with countries around the world and see them as a threat and we are collateral damage.


And I thought he retired or was kicked out of office.

Comment by Raine on 01/04/2017 20:13:19
Comment by Raine on 01/04/2017 20:14:48
Quote by livingonli:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by livingonli:
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Raine:
I cannot stand KellyAnneConway.


Oh gawd, me neither. She and that Tomi girl are all part of the Coultergeist.

I guess it is required that right-wing blondes have to be evil bitches.


Hey, Livin, Can you lay off the sexist comments please?

It wasn't intended that way. I guess I just can't resist cheap shots at right-wingers.


We all can do a little better.