Arkansas Granny
Arkansas Granny's Journal'Junk science': Kellyanne Conway blows off Elizabeth Warren's Native American DNA test results
The Boston Globe on Monday released the results of DNA test performed by a Stanford University professor. The test found that Warren likely had Native American ancestors in her family 6 to 10 generations ago.
But Conway hinted that Trump will continue to refer to Warren by the racist nickname Pocahontas.
I havent looked at the test, Conway told CNNs Abby Phillip. I know that everybody likes to pick their junk science or sound science depending on the conclusion it seems some days.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/junk-science-kellyanne-conway-blows-off-elizabeth-warrens-native-american-dna-test-results/
Wow! It's the middle of October, the temp is 45F and I still have hummingbirds this morning.
I always leave my feeders up until I no longer see visitors, in case a few stragglers still come by, but I would have expected them to all be on their way south by now.
Republican voters don't care about Trump's corruption -- and here's why
This article first appeared in Salon.
To add to this already disturbing situation, theres the shady behavior Trump is displaying around the disappearance and likely murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who has run afoul of Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and big buddy of presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. Saudi Arabia is widely believed to be behind the attack, but Trump who himself is overtly hostile to the free press seems reluctant to do anything about the situation, citing his unwillingness to spike an arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Its a stance made even more disturbing by the fact that arms deal isnt even real, but more like a fantasy unlikely to come to fruition. There is also reason to believe that Trump is personally enriching himself off the Saudi government, which likely factors into his decision-making.
Despite all this, in a story thats become all too predictable, Trumps approval ratings dont budge, lingering a few percentage points north or south of 40 percent. Hes not popular and never has been, but its clear that the 40 percent of voters who love him really do not care if hes a crook. And despite the GOPs widespread corruption, FiveThirtyEight still gives the party a four-in-five chance of holding a Senate majority in the midterm elections.
<snip>
If one believes, for instance, that Obama faked his birth certificate to evade citizenship requirements to be in the Oval Office as a solid majority of Republicans suspect then the fact that Trump is a tax fraud doesnt seem so unusual or objectionable. If one buys into the theory that the Clintons had former White House lawyer Vince Foster murdered back in the 1990s, then Trumps shady attitude about the murder of Khashoggi pales in comparison. And while its basically impossible to follow what, exactly, Republicans are getting at with their Benghazi obsession, theyve using that fake conspiracy theory to minimize real concerns about Trumps possible role in Russias criminal interference with the U.S. election.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/republican-voters-dont-care-trumps-corruption-heres/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Good article. Worth the read.
Found on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/kacang_tua/status/1050444857217638400?s=20Daniel
@kacang_tua
My 10 year old daughter earlier:
Dady, why is @realDonaldTrump like a pumpkin? Well, he is orange on the outside, hollow on the inside and we need to get rid of him in November.
I love her.
12:55 PM - Oct 11, 2018
'They're like seals': MSNBC's Chris Matthews mocks Trump and his fans for clapping for themselves
Matthews hammered the president for celebrating himself and attacking his enemies while American homes and businesses were washed away along the Gulf of Mexico and he said Trumps fans should be ashamed of themselves, as well.
He goes out there and starts his own fire, he knows what hes doing, Matthews said. Hes clapping to himself, clapping for himself theyre like seals.
He said the president doesnt care about winning over new supporters, and that hell continue using his divisive tactics to win re-election.
You know what will happen, Matthews said. Hell stay in the low 40s, hang in there between 40 (percent) and 45 (percent) and then knock the block off whoever runs against him, turn him into a hard-left crazy mob leading socialist and whether its Corey (Booker), Kamala (Harris), Elizabeth (Warren) whoever, hell do that. Thats the plan. We can all watch it play out in the next two years, we know whats coming.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/theyre-like-seals-msnbcs-chris-matthews-mocks-trump-fans-clapping/
It's one word, George.
Republicans used to love the sound of an angry mob. What happened?
That, of course, was when Barack Obama was president, and the tea party movement was hijacking congressional town hall meetings with shouts of Tyranny! There were plenty of shoving matches, and Democratic lawmakers were burned in effigy. The police were regularly called in to bring a semblance of order.
<snip>
Meanwhile, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) lauded the conservative agitation as a pure expression of the frustrations and values of ordinary Americans.
Now it is the Democrats who are making the noise, and the argument is playing in reverse.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-used-to-love-the-sound-of-an-angry-mob-what-happened/2018/10/10/e93ad7e2-cbd4-11e8-a360-85875bac0b1f_story.html?utm_term=.06dadf6009f8
It seems that when Democrats protest, they are a dangerous mob. Republicans don't like it when their own tactics are used against them.
FBI Director Wray Confirms That White House Limited Kavanaugh Probe
I think I would say that our investigation here, our supplemental update to the previous background investigation, was limited in scope and that that is consistent with the standard process for such investigations going back quite a long ways, he said.
<snip>
Harris then specifically tried to suss out if White House lawyer Don McGahn was involved in the communication, but Wray sidestepped.
Well, I cant speak to what anybody throughout the organization might have received instructions on, he said. My understanding is that the communications occurred between the White Houses office of security and the FBI security division.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/wray-confirms-that-white-house-limited-kavanaugh-probe
There is video at the link.
Trump says it's a scary time for young men because they can be accused of a crime
they didn't commit. That got me to thinking about how many false rape claims are actually made. Turns out that 2 - 10% of rape reports are determined to be false claims.
But those appear to be anomalies. Studies suggest the prevalence of false reporting on sexual assault is between 2% and 10%, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
And there's a big caveat to those numbers: "Research shows that rates of false reporting are frequently inflated, in part because of inconsistent definitions and protocols," the resource center said.
For example, some law enforcement agencies might label a rape claim as "false" just because there's not enough corroborating evidence to prosecute. (Those cases would be more accurately described as "baseless" rather than "false."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/10/03/health/sexual-assault-false-reports/index.html
That got me thinking about the number of rape kits that are collected from rape victims and never tested. There are thousands of them.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of rape kits sit untested in police department and crime lab storage facilities across the country in what is known as the rape kit backlog. Each kit represents a lost opportunity to bring healing and justice to a survivor of sexual violence and safety to a community.
The rape kit backlog comprises two distinct but related problems. The first part of the backlog occurs when rape kits are collected and booked into evidence, but detectives and/or prosecutors do not request DNA analysis. These kits may remain in a police evidence storage facility indefinitely. This is often referred to as the untested or unsubmitted rape kit backlog.
http://www.endthebacklog.org/backlog/what-rape-kit-backlog
When rape is reported, the victims body is treated as the crime scene. Gathering DNA evidence is a long and invasive process. To have this evidence go untested means that the rapist is likely still walking free with the potential to commit further crimes.
To add insult to injury, when sexual assaults are reported, the victim is often treated as though they were responsible for what has occurred to them.
Is it really surprising that many victims of sexual assault don't come forward to report the crime?
A neuroscientist explains why evangelicals are wired to believe Trump's lies
With so much evidence to contradict his claims, like having the largest inauguration crowd size despite pictures clearly showing otherwise, one must wonder how there are still people out there who believe anything the man says. But the fact of the matter is there are many who swallow it hook, line, and sinker. Most of his fervent supporters are convinced that Trump is the harbinger of truth when it comes to important issues like climate changewhich is really just a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese government.
While this might sound laughable, it is a serious problem, as it has contributed to fake news and dangerous propaganda running rampant. Given its negative impact on society, it is important to understand why certain groups of people are more vulnerable to believing unsupported lies than others. For this, we must look to science for answers, and fortunately, the fields of psychology and neuroscience offer valuable insight.
<snip>
For Christian fundamentalists, being taught to suppress critical thinking begins at a very early age. It is the combination of the brains vulnerability to believing unsupported facts and aggressive indoctrination that create the perfect storm for gullibility. Due to the brains neuroplasticity, or ability to be sculpted by lived experiences, evangelicals literally become hardwired to believe far-fetched statements.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/neuroscientist-explains-evangelicals-wired-believe-trumps-lies/
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