May 1 Open Thread: Refuse to Lose, Even After You’ve Lost
To everyone else, “refuse to lose” is a sales-motivational cliche. To Republicans, it’s an operating system. So even if you’re Roy Moore, and you lost not just the election but a referendum on your entire ethos — the Bible-fundie practice of selecting a “pure” virgin for marriage, and test-driving her by feeling her up in the church parking lot — you simply … refuse to lose! To that end, Mr. McFeely has filed a lawsuit alleging — get this — that because several of his victims prospective brides came forward just before the election, they must have been acting in concert for the purpose of costing him the election. The cruelest irony of that lame legal argument is that this limp-brained ephebophile was once a judge.
Speaking of people who refuse to lose, another pundit has joined the “Shut the fuck up, Hillary” chorus. Michelle Cottle in the Atlantic argues that it’s not that she’s speaking but what she’s saying — even when she’s right about Trump, it comes off as sour grapes, and makes it easier for the GOP to continue using her as a motivational boogeyman. I agree with the first point but the second, while true, is not her problem. They’ll still be running against Hillary after she’s dead. George Soros and Nancy Pelosi, too. They’re still railing against Saul Alinsky, and they never even heard of him until after he was dead.
Quickly buried under Washington gossip was what should have been the biggest sotry of the day: The Guardian got hold of some internal FDA emails about testing foods for glyphosate, better known as Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer. Testing for it started two years ago, and no results have been released, but one chemist wrote his colleagues, ‘“I have brought wheat crackers, granola cereal and corn meal from home and there’s a fair amount in all of them,” wrote FDA chemist Richard Thompson, who is based in an FDA regional laboratory in Arkansas. Broccoli was the only food he had “on hand” that he found to be glyphosate-free. Given the leeway Monsanto gets from regulators, this bears watching.
Your Schadenfreude pick of the day: Republicans in the House are demonstrating why theocracy is a bad idea: You have a constant fight over which version of the One True God is the One True God. The fight to replace the chaplain who got the sack for talking like Jesus has set fundamentalist “Christians” against Catholics, because the former see the latter as agents of the Whore of Babylon. The only thing they can all agree on is that the new guy should lay off all that crap Jesus said about the least of his brothers.
The Green Party sure did pick a winner with Jill Stein, who sounded like Donald Trump in a CNN interview, refusing to condemn Russian election interference by pointing out that America does it, too. I used to vote Green back when they cared about the environment — ever notice how much oil Russia pumps, Jill?
Finally, this one was too delicious to leave out: A museum in a small town in southern France went on a buying spree of paintings by a native son, a pal of Matisse who stayed local but had a respected career. Unfortunately, they didn’t hire a professional to help out. When a local art historian noticed that one of the paintings of a local scene included a building finished in the 1950s, 30 years after the artist’s death, they had the pros come in for a look. The verdict: 82 of the museum’s 140 works, almost 60%, were judged fakes by a panel of experts.
glyphosate … I’ve been wondering about why I’m contending with such ennui. Must be all the glyphosate in my system.
I used to vote Green as an alternative to Carper , never again. As noted when the focus was on the environment it was cool. Stein pitched that in the dumpster, she’s bad, the party that backed her is worse. Glyphosate reminds me of Red Dye #2 and DDT, if you make enough money from it then it’s poison at will up to a point. Believe that point is growing closer, albeit slowly.
The problem with the stuff is that they’ve never tested it for slow buildup of these small amounts. It’s like DuPont’s PFOA — it didn’t seem to hurt at low amounts, but it’s got to worry you some when it turns up in the bloodstream of nearly everyone on Earth.
The problem with glyphosate intensified with GM seeds resistant to the weed killer — it meant farmers could use more without harming the crops. It’s not the genetic modification itself that makes it unwanted in the EU but the glyphosate load these crops carry.
Chemicals are not like medications — they are not thoroughly tested before being turned loose on the public. If Republicans could get rid of trial lawyers, as they’re always trying to do, chemical companies would never respond to public concerns at all.
Although consumer preference is trending towards natural foods, which in itself puts pressure on the chemical companies, we need better environmental watchdogs to put more pressure on agrochemical.
A lot of these environmental “non-profits” that you would imagine would be against drenching the land with chemicals, take big money and form partnerships with the likes of DowDupont, Bayer, etc. The Nature Conservancy is a great example of this.
I don’t keep track of them individually myself.
As a kid I thought the great promise of genetic engineering — this was when it was still science fiction — was that maybe I’d see a real American chestnut tree in my lifetime. By the time I left college I hoped it might save the elms. Now I just hope we can stave off the corporate takeover of subsistence agriculture. This was a hopeful sign:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-11/monsanto-can-t-have-patent-on-bt-cotton-in-india-court-says
@A “…that because several of his victims prospective brides came forward just before the election, they must have been acting in concert for the purpose of costing him the election.”
And even if true, why is that a problem???
@LE: You’ll have to check withh the judge for his legal opinion on that one. The filing is at the link.
Alby, there are plenty of American Chestnut trees around growing out of the stumps of the old giants. The fungus doesn’t kill the roots so they keep growing new sprouts that eventually die. Some of them still grow large enough to produce fruit. I’m a member of the American Chestnut Foundation. They are working hard to bring the trees back, and they give you a cool T-shirt with your membership.
I’ve heard of them. Glad to hear they’re making progress.
Here’s an example of their work: A photo of a mature (young by AC standards but a lot more than a sprout) someone found growing in Tennessee.
https://www.acf.org/our-community/news/images/8903/
Now imagine where they’d be if they had Monsanto’s genenic-reseach budget behind them. Sadly, the chestnut can’t be monetized in a short enough time frame to make it worth the investment, so it doesn’t happen.
When I started with Uncle Dupie in 1972, I worked an area where they made teflon as a a gas. A year or so later, my Uncle started testing my blood for teflon. That continued for a number of annual physicals. When I figured out I wasn’t being tested for that anymore, I asked why? The response was that, now, everyone had it in their blood.
I think that’s why I have a hard heart for Republicons!
It’s taken us about a century to realize that the toxic properties of petroleum don’t end at the well head. We are learning about how the toxins ride each permutation of their use, and how subtle the particles of the toxins become, including being invisible to the senses. Time to get off plastics across the board. Fungus alternatives, anyone?
https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/germany-13-other-countries-say-no-glyphosate-what-about-us
If you receive their newsletter you’ll also receive donation and petition-signing solicitations but the information is worth it to me. Occasionally I’ll sign a petition.