DL Open Thread: Saturday, October 30, 2021
Final Call For The Claudettes. Tonight. Prices are incredibly affordable: $20 for the general public. Tickets available at the box office. Here’s how Downbeat described them:
For months after the event, Dannenfelser and some other CNP members were determined to stop Trump. While he solidified his lead as GOP front-runner, they denounced him as a “charlatan” in the conservative magazine National Review, blasted his prior support of abortion rights and implored Republican voters to choose another candidate.
“America will only be a great nation when we have leaders of strong character who will defend both unborn children and the dignity of women,” Dannenfelser and other women wrote in an open letter to Iowa voters in January 2016. “We cannot trust Donald Trump to do either.”
Then came a great swerve that would upend politics in America: Millions of conservatives — Dannenfelser and other CNP members among them — got firmly behind Trump. Today, the Republican Party has been transformed, and Trump or one of his ideological heirs is likely to be the GOP nominee in 2024.Enmeshed in these efforts was the Council for National Policy. CNP may be the most unusual, least understood conservative organization in the nation’s capital. A registered charity, it has served for 40 years as a social, planning and communications hub for conservative activists in Washington and nationwide. One of its defining features is its confidentiality. In a town where people and groups constantly angle for publicity, CNP bars the press and uninvited outsiders from its events. All members — even such luminaries as former vice president Mike Pence, Ralph Reed and Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — agree to remain silent about its activities.
Universities across the country have long faced scrutiny for their handling, and mishandling, of sexual assault cases. But Liberty University’s responses to such cases stand out. Interviews with more than 50 former Liberty students and staffers, as well as records from more than a dozen cases, show how an ethos of sexual purity, as embodied by the Liberty Way, has led to school officials discouraging, dismissing and even blaming female students who have tried to come forward with claims of sexual assault.
Three students, including Axley, recalled being made to sign forms acknowledging possible violations of the Liberty Way after they sought to file complaints about sexual assaults. Others say they were also warned against reporting what had happened to them. Students say that even Liberty University police officers discouraged victims from pursuing charges after reporting assaults.
Some students still confided in school staff — who at times did not report the cases to the Title IX office, despite being legally required to do so. When students filed complaints themselves, they were often not given legally required notice that they had the option of going to the police.
Same holds true for the Moody Bible Institute. In rock-ribbed Evangelical Christianity, blaming the victims and protecting the predators is a feature, not a bug.
Dog-Bites-Man Headline Of The Day: “Biden’s Agenda Remains Unrealized As Democrats Fail To Close Deal Again”. $1 trillion, anybody? Hey, at least Carper helped to kill expanded federal negotiating power on lower drug prices. As consistent as he is wrong-headed:
“The pharmaceutical folks have to be at the table,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware. “There is going to be a number that the pharma industry needs to contribute to actually pay for stuff. The number is not going to be $600 billion. It is not going to be zero either.”
Carper said there will be some kind of Medicare pricing and negotiation authority but that “the industry needs to be at the table trying to figure out what makes sense.”
“We have an incredible pharmaceutical industry,” said Carper. “We want to make sure at the end of the day we don’t take away the incentives for innovation.”
Lisa? Time to have ‘the talk’ with this relic.
What do you want to talk about?
The only thing “amazing” about the pharmaceutical industry is the profit margin.
As for “incentives for innovation,” I think the guy who invented the wheel is still waiting on his royalties.
https://www.statnews.com/2019/12/10/large-pharma-companies-provide-little-new-drug-development-innovation/
Exactly. A lot of the ‘innovation’ takes place at the university level, then Big Pharma swoops in and hoovers up all the profit. Once a shill for Big Pharma, ALWAYS a shill for Big Pharma.
Well, for all you masochists and cartographers out there, here is SB 199, the redistricting bill for the House and Senate:
https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?legislationId=79036
Chris Coons on “Real Time with Bill Maher” last night. He was cordial, in a laughy mood, and sold Biden’s agenda pretty well. He earns a point I guess.