- Via the NYT: $10 Million in Contraceptives Have Been Destroyed on Orders From Trump Officials.
- Via Politico: Obama stars in ad backing Newsom’s redistricting measure.
- From Judd Legum at Popular Information: Quid Pro Presidency.
- Via The Handbasket: Slate x The Handbasket: Top MAGA ‘voter fraud’ watchdog votes in PA. Records show he doesn’t live there. Spoiler: it’s Mr. Pizzagate, Jack Posobiec.
- Via CBS News: RFK Jr. suggests circumcision is linked to autism. Here’s what experts say. Spoiler: experts say that RFK, Jr. speaks nonsense. Rinse. Wash. Repeat.
- Via The Atlantic: America’s Perón. I keep meaning to write more on this, but am weary of the tab being open.
- Via The Atlantic: ICE’s Mind-Bogglingly Massive Blank Check.
- Via NPR: Opinion: Why I’m handing in my Pentagon press pass.
- Along those lines:
Monday Morning Tabs
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Air Force Academy alumni board withdraws motions to honor Charlie Kirk
A board of U.S. Air Force Academy graduates that was expected to vote Friday on whether to extend an honorary degree and honorary membership into the academy’s alumni association to slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk withdrew both of the motions.
In a statement late Friday, the Association of Graduates, which serves as the academy’s nonprofit alumni group, said its board of directors dropped the motions after hearing the past two days from “several hundred” Air Force Academy graduates, parents and other family members about the idea to recognize Kirk.
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CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.— The California Highway Patrol (CHP) published an internal report on an incident that occurred on Saturday, October 18, in which metal shrapnel from explosive ordnance fired over the Interstate 5 freeway detonated overhead prematurely, striking and damaging a CHP patrol vehicle. The incident happened in the area where CHP officers were supporting a traffic break along I-5 near Camp Pendleton during an exceptional U.S. Marine Corps live-fire training demonstration over the freeway, and where the CHP had elected to stop traffic during the live-fire exercise.
Although no injuries were reported, CHP personnel immediately notified the Marine Corps at the scene, who then canceled firing additional live ordnance over the freeway, and the area was swept for further evaluation. The CHP has filed an internal report on the incident, with a recommendation to conduct an additional after-action review into the planning, communication and coordination between federal, state, and local government around the event on Saturday, October 18, to strengthen protocols for future demonstrations and training events near public roadways.
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Summary of the Ukraine War as of 19 Oct from the Institute for the Study of War:
1. Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly reiterated his demand that Ukraine cede all of Donetsk Oblast as a condition for ending the war, and suggested that Russia would be willing to “surrender” parts of occupied southern Ukraine. Ceding Donetsk Oblast to Russia would set conditions for Russia to renew its aggression against Ukraine from more advantageous positions at a time of its choosing.
2. Russian officials and pro-Kremlin sources are attempting to portray limited Russian offensive operations in the Kherson direction as an ongoing offensive to recapture Kherson City — efforts that are incompatible with Putin’s claimed readiness to make territorial concessions in southern Ukraine.
3. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine made bilateral energy proposals to the United States.
4. Ukrainian forces struck Russian oil infrastructure in Samara and Orenburg oblasts on the night of October 18 to 19.
5. German officials reported observing unidentified objects resembling drones over Munich Airport on October 18.
6. Ukrainian forces advanced near Pokrovsk and in the Dobropillya tactical area. Russian forces advanced near Lyman and Hulyaipole and in western Zaporizhia Oblast.
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Early voting starts today here in Texas. On my ballot there are 17 Constitutional Amendments mostly dealing with taxes. The AI Overview:
The Texas Constitution is approximately 100,388 words long, making it one of the longest state constitutions in the United States, second only to Alabama’s. It is also one of the most frequently amended, with over 500 amendments adopted since its 1876 adoption.
* Length: Approximately 100,388 words, based on a 2019 version.
* Comparison: It is significantly longer than the U.S. Constitution, which is about 7,500 words.
* Structure: It has 17 articles and has been amended 528 times as of 2023.
* Reason for length: The constitution is detailed because its framers wanted to explicitly define the powers of local governments and protect the rights of individuals. It also lacks a “necessary and proper” clause, so government powers not explicitly granted are often detailed within the document.
The big driver for voting (besides being our duty) are school board members. Our school district is the 3rd largest in the state (over 100,000) students. It has been taken over by far right Christian Nationalists. There is a big drive to sense them back to the abyss.
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@Scott: I lived in Arlington ‘69 – ‘71. Allow me to add that I bought a copy of the TX Constitution, it was an average size paperback book. It is so detailed it provided funding for one building at what is now the University of Texas. I voted on a handful of amendments, including repealing the provision prohibiting operation of an “open saloon”. It was said one of the drivers of this 1876 constitution was ending what they saw as the evils of reconstruction. Some years after I moved back north I got a jury summons from TX. It listed a number of occupations exempted by the constitution including faith healers and agents of one man railroad stations.
Texas. The only state to commit treason in defense of slavery twice.
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@Scott: The Texas and Alabama constitutions are ridiculous. Alabama’s overly centralizes power and Texas’s decentralizes. Both are just a mess.
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Circumcision now. What about brain worms, I wonder?
Meantime, here’s what people on the spectrum think
Choice quote:
Gross said the administration was “trying to act like they have all the answers about autism, but the truth is, they’re not even asking the questions”.
“They don’t want to do the research that would matter in our lives, and they don’t want to do what research shows works, which is to provide us with services and support so we can be included in the community,” she said.
On the matter of circumcision, it should be done away with.
Let me clear first. What’s often called “female circumcision” is nothing less than genital mutilation and has no place at all in any civilized or even uncivilized society.
Male circumcision is largely harmless, assuming there are no accidents when performing it, and no infections like gangrene and such afterward. What’s unclear is whether there are any benefits at all. Tons of studies on this momentous question show between miniscule and zero benefit. The associated risks, while small, cannot be justified by the end result.
I’ve heard suggestions to keep the rituals, for such religions that practice it, but to merely do a mere pinprick on the foreskin and be done. That would be better for all concerned.
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@Kathy: Speaking as someone on the spectrum, the entire way RFK and others talk about autism reflects deep misconceptions about the condition, even aside from the question of cause. The very idea that it’s intrinsically some catastrophic illness is itself a misunderstanding. Did you know that many companies today actively seek people on the spectrum for certain types of jobs? I think it’s in part because they are often especially good at detail-oriented work and can have unusual ways of looking at things.
A lot of people have very outdated views of the condition, because the field’s understanding of it has changed vastly over the past generation or so, yet the public view of it is filtered through limited stereotypes created through pop-culture osmosis, from Rain Man to The Big Bang Theory. I was never seen as autistic growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, even with the many problems I had in school and in fitting in with other kids. Back then, they thought all autistic kids had significant deficits in language and could even be nonverbal. I was an early talker and reader, and my language skills have always been strong.
On the one hand, people like RFK want to depict autism entirely based on the picture of it that was prevalent in the ’80s, a person incapable of ever taking care of themselves and who would be destined to be institutionalized for the rest of their life. On the other hand, they want to cite the rise in cases to argue that it’s an “epidemic,” ignoring the fact that the main thing driving that rise has been an expansion in diagnostic criteria that has led the field to recognize autism in people a lot less obviously impaired than in the traditional model.
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@Scott: In local news there is a proposed bill to require all 40 Florida public colleges and universities to name a street after Kirk. I wonder how many of the people worshipping Kirk actually knew who he was six months ago. Oh well, you go to war with the Horst Wessel you’ve got.
The linked column also notes another proposed FL bill to require all public school teachers to swear an oath, among other things pledging to be “objective and non-partisan”. Which is it, objective or non-partisan? The columnist speculates,
Or is this just a cover to allow boards and the state to fire any educator who makes a public statement contrary to the ideas of those who hold political power in the nation and state?
To ask the question is to answer it.
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@gVOR10: In other local news declining enrollment has left some public schools with unused classrooms. The state has passed a bill allowing private charter schools to claim the unused space. Besides being rent free,
When that happens, districts must continue paying for utilities, busing, custodial services and even meals for the new charter students — all at no cost to the charter operator.
The public school districts are required to subsidize the parasitical private schools. Guv DeUseless and his accomplices want to destroy the public schools. Why? Lots of ridiculous MAGA silliness, but mostly the public schools can’t spread around lobbying money.
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@gVOR10: Well, there was a a couple of decades in exile that he had to deal with.
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