January 12-14, 2018

January 12-14, 2018

Now with 200% more science!

Politics

Marijuana

In another example of how policy should be informed by evidence, we have a study showing that legalized marijuana coincided with a 13% average reduction in violent crimes along border states.

So Long, Hawaii

While President Trump enjoyed his 77th round of golf since being sworn in, 1.5 million Americans were collectively shitting themselves after a mobile alert informed them of an incoming ballistic missile and advised them to seek immediate shelter.

38 minutes passed before a follow-up alert was released clarifying that the previous alert was a false alarm.  This is, incidentally, slightly longer than the estimated time it would take for an ICBM to reach Hawaii from North Korea.

Luckily, Trump finished his round of golf.  As Taylor Funk has noted, the president does not take phone calls while he plays.

Science!

Citizen Science

The concept of citizen science, basically crowd-sourcing research by allowing amateurs to participate in tasks that humans perform better than computers, has been around a while, but it doesn't get a lot of headlines.  Until now!  A multi-exoplanet star system has been discovered by contributors to the Exoplanet Explorers project.

For more information or to join, click here.

Cosmos

I've got good news!  A second season of Cosmos, starring Neil deGrasse Tyson, has been confirmed.  Be on the lookout in spring 2019.

Turtle Sex

I've got bad news!  Pacific green sea turtles are having a rough time of it.  Unlike humans, whose sex is determined by the quality of mustache porn our parents watched in the seventies, the sex of Pacific green seat turtles is determined wholly by the temperature of the sand in which they incubate.  Unfortunately, even though climate change is a hoax made up by the Chinese and Al Gore, the temperature of the world's largest green sea turtle rookery has increased sufficiently that recently hatched female sea turtles outnumber the males by a ratio of 116 to 1.

By comparison, for turtles hatched at the smaller southern reef where temperatures have not risen so drastically, the ratio is 2 to 1.

We know that life, uh, finds a way, but adaptation to changing environments takes time.  And while our ecology and climate has forever been changing, it has never changed at such a dramatic rate.

[Editor's note:  It has, and there was mass extinction.]

Shit Trump Says

Faux News

In a quick followup to the article I recently linked involving Trump live-tweeting Fox & Friends, here is a Vanity Fair piece detailing the feedback loop between Trump and Fox News.  It really is terrifying the degree to which they are guiding our policy.

Weasel News: Confirming your prejudices.

Shithole Shitstorm

It all started innocently enough.  During a bipartisan meeting with the president to discuss DACA, Trump allegedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries as "shithole countries."

According to reports, Sen. Graham (R - SC) immediately confronted Trump regarding the remark.

The White House did not immediately deny the allegation, instead taking the offensive.

“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement.

By the next morning, however, Trump took to twitter to deny he ever said those words.

Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country. Never said “take them out.” Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Haitians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018

Sen. Dick Durbin (D - IL), who was present, confirmed the reports to the press.  Senators Tom Cotton (R - AR) and David Perdue (R - GA) were struck by amnesia and could not recall the president's words.

The US Ambassador to Panama has resigned, declaring that he can no longer serve the Trump Administration.

Good Relationship

Hot on the heels of that shitstorm, the failing liberal Wall Street Journal released an interview they conducted with Trump on Thursday in which he claimed, “I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong Un.  I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised.”

Predictably, Trump went to Twitter to call them liars.

The Wall Street Journal stated falsely that I said to them “I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un” (of N. Korea). Obviously I didn’t say that. I said “I’d have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un,” a big difference. Fortunately we now record conversations with reporters...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018

...and they knew exactly what I said and meant. They just wanted a story. FAKE NEWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018

The WSJ, which had previously stood by their reporting, proceeded to release the audio.  For your listening pleasure:


Kim! Jong! Un!

Our liar-in-chief just can't help himself.

Red Dawn

A relatively quiet few days in the Russia investigation, which would not be uncommon, as Mueller's team never says anything ever to anyone.  Clearly, Trump and his team were too busy performing acts of foreign diplomacy to obstruct justice this weekend.  Give them a few days.

Hacking Hacking Hacking

Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro has found evidence that Russian Hackers targeted the US Senate in mid-2017.  Apparently, they used the same techniques in an attempt to steal emails from French President Macron's party last year.  Good thing all of our congressman are far too technically savvy to fall for simple phishing tricks.  The internet is a series of tubes, you know.

More Interviews

Steve Bannon and Corey Lewandowski will be meeting with the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors this week.  Lewandowski is extraordinarily loyal, but with all the drama between Trump and Bannon these last few days, there's a possibility of some fireworks.  Sadly, we won't get to tune in on CSPAN, but as the House leaks like a sieve, we'll likely hear about anything significant within a few days.