Widower of Lori Klausutis Asks Twitter To Delete Trump Conspiracy Theory Tweets About Her Death - New York Times

President Trump tweeted to his nearly 80 million followers alluding to the repeatedly debunked falsehood that Klausutis' wife was murdered by her boss, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough.

Mr. Klausutis asked Mr. Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, to remove President Trump’s tweets that push a debunked conspiracy theory about the death of his wife, Lori Klausutis.

Twitter said it would not do so.

President Trump tweeted to his nearly 80 million followers alluding to the repeatedly debunked falsehood that Klausutis' wife was murdered by her boss, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough.

The son of the president followed and more directly attacked the late Lori Klausutis by tweeting to his followers as the means of spreading this vicious lie.

The President’s tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered — without evidence (and contrary to the official autopsy) — certainly appear to be a clear violation of Twitter’s community rules and terms of service.

Mr. Klausutis wrote to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, saying, "I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him - the memory of my dead wife - and perverted it for perceived political gain."

The full article is available here

What Is "Movement Conservatism?"

"Movement Conservatism" is a term describing conservatism in the U.S. and the New Right over the past 60-70 years. It differs from the moderate/traditional Republican Party which preceded it in being anti-regulation, anti-social web, pro-big business, and allied with the anti-Enlightenment Religious Right. 

Movement Conservatism is different from historic the moderate/traditional Republican Party in the vain of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Nelson Rockefeller, and Dwight Eisenhower. 

In his 2009 book "Reappraising the Right: The Past and Future of Conservatism," George H Nash identifies a tension between middle-of-the-road republicans and movement conservatives.

Political scientists Doss and Roberts say that "The term movement conservatives refers to those people who argue that big government constitutes the most serious problem .... Movement conservatives blame the growth of the administrative state for destroying individual initiative."

Historian Heather Cox Richardson has articulated how the pre-Movement Conservative Republican Party believed that society worked best when people at the bottom had education and equality of opportunity - and that it was the role of government to actively distribute resources to those at the bottom to provide education and equality of opportunity.  This belief in a social web led to policies which have historically led to a rising middle class,

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman devoted a chapter of his book The Conscience of a Liberal (2007) to the movement, writing that movement conservatives gained control of the Republican Party starting in the 1970s and that Ronald Reagan was the first movement conservative elected President.

However, movement conservatives had to compete for President Reagan's attention with fiscal conservatives, businessmen, and traditionalists.

Author and magazine editor William F. Buckley Jr. was one of the founding members of the movement. His 1951 book God and Man at Yale argued against Keynesian economics, progressive taxation and the welfare state.

In 1955, he founded National Review, which provided a platform for arguing the movement conservative viewpoint. His emphasis was on pro-business, anti-union domestic policy. (However, in its early days the magazine also included sentiments of white supremacy).

The movement also gathered support from such disparate sources as libertarian Monetarists like economist Milton Friedman and neoconservatives like Irving Kristol. Friedman attacked government intervention and regulation in the 1950s and thereafter.

Supreme Court Begins Arguments In Trump Bid To Keep Finances Secret - Reuters

3 months after Trump avoided removal from office in a Senate impeachment trial, Trump’s lawyers want the Supreme Court to endorse their expansive view of presidential powers that would severely limit the ability of Congress to carry out oversight of presidents and of prosecutors to investigate them.

Trump, unlike other recent presidents, has declined to release his tax returns and other financial records that could shed light on his net worth and the activities of his family real-estate company, the Trump Organization. The content of these records remains an enduring mystery of his presidency.

The full article is available here

Vaccine Myths Debunked - PublicHealth.org

Research shows that most of the biggest fears about vaccinations are unfounded.

Fears over the safety of vaccines felt by children's caregivers are understandable.  Research, however, shows that most of the biggest fears about vaccinations are unfounded.

Public health officials and physicians have been combating misconceptions about vaccine safety for over twenty years. They've had mixed success.

Despite the fact that numerous studies have found no evidence to support the notion that vaccines cause autism and other chronic illnesses, there's a lot of disinformation out there.  That disinformation poses a public health risk. Researchers now link falling immunization rates to recent resurgences of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Here are 8 major vaccine myths that research has shown to be baseless:

Myth #1: Vaccines cause autism -- Several major studies have been conducted. None of them found a link between any vaccine and the likelihood of developing autism.

Myth #2: Infant immune systems can't handle vaccines -- Though there are more vaccinations than ever before, today's vaccines are far more efficient, exposing children to fewer immunologic components overall than in the past.

Myth #3: Natural immunity is better than vaccines -- The dangers of this approach far outweigh the relative benefits.

Myth #4: Vaccines contain unsafe toxins -- There is no scientific evidence that the low levels of this chemical, mercury or aluminum in vaccines can be harmful.

Myth #5: Better hygiene/sanitation is actually responsible for decreased infections -- Better sanitation, nutrition, and the development of antibiotics helped a lot too. But when these factors are isolated and rates of infectious disease are scrutinized, the role of vaccines cannot be denied.

Myth #6: Vaccines aren't worth the risk -- There has never been a single credible study linking vaccines to long term health conditions.

Myth #7: Vaccines infect children with disease it's trying to prevent -- Vaccines can cause mild symptoms resembling those of the disease they are protecting against, but do not signal infection.

Myth #8: We don't need vaccines when infections rates are so low -- If too many people don't vaccinate themselves or their children, they contribute to a collective danger, opening up opportunities for viruses and bacteria to establish themselves and spread.

The full article is available here

Judy Mikovits Didn't Discover Deadly Virus Delivered Through Vaccines, Wasn't Jailed For It - Snopes

Judy Mikovits - who was featured in a recently viral conspiracy theory YouTube video 'Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind Covid 19' - did not discover a deadly virus delivered through vaccines and was not then jailed for it.

She was arrested for allegedly stealing equipment belonging to the Institute that fired her.

Fortunately, the video  - which had been widely shared on social media despite its obviously sensationalistic and preposterous title - has been removed from YouTube for violating guidelines.

The full article is available here

Conspiracy Theories Run Rampant When People Feel Helpless - Washington Post

The object of the conspiracy theories — the coronavirus — is, itself, the source of the undesirable psychological states that promote beliefs in conspiracy theories. Thus Coronavirus conspiracy beliefs are a self-fulling prophecy. 

Psychologists have identified a number of psychological traits that are related to conspiracy beliefs, including the predisposition to see systematic patterns where there is only random noise or to interpret coincidence as intentional cause.

But when it comes to a global pandemic — and the deaths, social isolation and collapsing economy that it has brought about — three other factors are key: uncertainty, anxiety and powerlessness.

The object of the conspiracy theories — the coronavirus — is, itself, the source of the undesirable psychological states that promote beliefs in conspiracy theories. In other words, coronavirus conspiracy beliefs are a self-fulling prophecy.

This is dangerous because belief in conspiracies undermines societal behaviors that are crucial to limiting the damage of the virus. Social distancing, hand-washing, and wearing masks in public all have the most impact at the outset of a global pandemic

Political and social leaders can combat pandemic-induced anxiety and uncertainty by visibly taking the threat seriously, including steps to promote public health and reduce the negative economic impact on people.

Even merely demonstrating that they are working hard to address the crisis and avoiding engaging in conspiratorial rhetoric themselves could limit the likelihood of the mass public turning further toward conspiracy theories for relief.

The full article is available here

There’s No Such Thing As "Judeo-Christian Values" - Charles D Dunst in The Forward

Rather than reference traditional and contemporary shared values between the 2 traditions, the term is utilized by those who wish to imply the existence of a contemporary cultural war and evoke the visceral responses that come from such war.

Sure, both Judaism and Christianity emanate from the Torah; there certainly are shared values.

These values, however, are not what the term​ “Judeo-Christian values” refers to.

Rather than reference traditional and contemporary shared values between the 2 traditions, the term is utilized by those who wish to imply the existence of a contemporary cultural war and evoke the visceral responses that come from such war.

The term, as used by the GOP, is not reflective of Jewish inclusion in Republican politics, but of an ideological strategy to unite 2 camps — the anti-immigrant nationalists and the evangelicals.

For anti-immigrant nationalists,​​“the promise of “Judeo-Christian values” implies a return to dominant whiteness.

For evangelicals, the promise of “Judeo-Christian values” implies returning Christian hegemony, privilege, and Dominionism.

Contemporary U.S. Jewish values — values which are largely liberal — are simply not reflected in the right’s usage of the term. The term is not one of Jewish inclusion and Jewish values, but of cynical Republican politics.

Using Judaism to posture to two groups – nationalists and evangelicals – whose values diverge so emphatically from those of the contemporary Jewish community is outrageous.

The full article is available here

Lockdowns Save Lives: The Evidence Is Clear From Around The World - Aria Bendix in Business Insider

Social distancing provided by the lockdowns has clearly slowed the spread of the virus.

Overwhelming evidence suggests that lockdowns help contain coronavirus outbreaks and prevent additional deaths.

China, Germany, and Spain all saw their number of daily infections drop off after lockdowns were instated.

"Social distancing provided by the lockdowns has clearly slowed the spread of the virus," Jeffrey Morris, director of the biostatistics division at the University of Pennsylvania, told Business Insider.

In Italy, towns with lockdown measures also seemed to fare better than those without.

"Clearly we need for society to practice new levels of caution in terms of social distancing, hygiene, and mask-wearing," Morris said. "Even they came at a great cost, Lockdowns achieved this."

The full article is available here