Dropping back to March 21st, I wrote "The people responsible should be spayed and neuter:"
Do you love cats? I do. I had a cat growing up named Little Bit and I thought about poor Little Bit Now the story:
According to a report released by a watchdog group, between 2003 and 2015 the U.S. government conducted experiments in which scientists euthanized dogs and cats from overseas and fed their remains to laboratory cats for research.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's lab in Maryland reportedly purchased 400 dogs from Colombia, Brazil and Vietnam and over 100 cats from China and Ethiopia for the research, according to NBC News, which added that not only were dog remains fed to cats but cat remains were injected into mice.
The watchdog group, the White Coat Waste Project (WCWP), gleaned its data from USDA research publications. The group’s report stated, "Some of these cats and dogs were purchased by the government from the same Asian meat markets that the U.S. Congress roundly condemned in a House Resolution" in 2018.
LIVE SCIENCE also reports on it:
A new watchdog report claims that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been purchasing cats and dogs at meat markets abroad to use in gruesome experiments here in the United States.
The experiments, according to the report, involved feeding their body parts to healthy cats as well as injecting them into mice.
The report was published online yesterday (March 20) by a nonprofit organization called The White Coat Waste Project. It says that the experiments were conducted by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service in the name of research that had a very limited impact on improving public health.
Why the hell did our government do this? This is disgusting and disrespectful and horrifying. Those poor cats. And the dogs but I don't know what they did to/with the dogs yet. But aren't we monsters to have done this to cats. This is disgusting and our Dept. of Agriculture needs to answer for this. We should have Congressional hearings but I bet we don't. I bet the attitude is, 'it's just animals.' Too many times when animals are at risk -- and at risk because of humans -- that's what's trotted out.
There has been an update. The USDA issued the following yesterday:
(WASHINGTON, D.C., April 2, 2019) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) today announced its toxoplasmosis research has been redirected and the use of cats as part of any research protocol in any ARS laboratory has been discontinued and will not be reinstated.
“Food safety research in ARS is of paramount importance for agriculture and the public we serve,” ARS Administrator Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young said. “We are continually assessing our research and priorities and aligning our resources to the problems of highest national priority. We are excited for the next chapter of work for these scientists and this laboratory.”
Background:
ARS is a world leader in research on the Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) parasite, which causes toxoplasmosis, a disease considered to be a leading cause of death from foodborne illness in the United States, especially for individuals with weak immune systems such as children and HIV patients. The agency’s research in this area has borne undeniable results – including helping to cut the prevalence of T. gondii by as much as 50 percent in the United States.
Over the course of this research, ARS worked to minimize reliance on cats – the only hosts in which T. gondii can complete its life cycle and produce oocysts (eggs) – as agency researchers worked to understand and combat toxoplasmosis.
In May 2018, after hearing the feedback of our customers and stakeholders, USDA took several actions, including commissioning external and internal scientific reviews that assessed the agency’s involvement in this research area and the feasibility of adoption for cats used in the research. Additionally, no cats have been infected with toxoplasmosis pathogens or euthanized since September 2018.
In November 2018, an external independent panel charged with reviewing the safety of adopting the cats unanimously agreed that cats infected with toxoplasmosis pathogens should not be placed for adoption, as the risk to human health was too great. ARS has had no infected cats on any facility premises since September 2018.
The panel recommended that cats that were never infected with the T. gondii parasite should be made available for adoption. USDA is in the process of adopting these 14 cats to USDA employees in accordance with regulatory guidelines.
ARS toxoplasmosis research has reached its maturity and ARS considers the project’s objectives for agriculture achieved. While there is still additional research needed in this area regarding human health, this research area is outside of USDA’s stated mission.
Effective immediately at the recommendation of ARS scientists under the leadership of Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young:
- USDA toxoplasmosis research is being redirected to other food safety research of high priority for agriculture; and
- Use of cats as part of any research protocol in any laboratory in ARS has been discontinued and will not be reinstated.
USDA remains committed to its mission of finding scientific solutions for the nation’s most critical agricultural problems with the strictest adherence to ethical standards.
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Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Thursday, April 4, 2019. More women come forward to speak about Joe
Biden groping them, Joe offers a justification and much more.
On sale now via ActBlue. Creepy Joe 2020!
Former US Vice President and former US Senator Joe Biden released a video announcement yesterday. We'll get to it. I don't have time to watch every video in the world and rarely do. If I'm watching the news, I'm 'watching,' meaning I'm reading and listening. I'll watch if it's something Ava and I'll be covering at THIRD, otherwise, I am multi-tasking. I bring that up because several videos were mentioned yesterday by college students we spoke with about the war.
Joe Biden is a natural topic in these discussions. He's planning to announce that he's running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. In typical Gaffe Prone Joe, he actually already announced last month only to grasp his words moments after he said them and then pull them back. Can't have spontaneity, everything must be part of the master plan!
Joe Biden supported the Iraq War as a US senator. He promoted the concept of splitting Iraq into three sepearate governments -- a federation. While Barack Obama was president (January 2009 through January 2017), Joe Biden represented the US government on and in Iraq. Barack put him over Iraq.
So any discussion of ongoing wars is going to include Joe.
But Goping Biden has been the topic the students ha e raised all week. Yesterday was pretty much the same except several students wanted to discuss specific videos, videos of Joe with children. I had not seen those videos before. Boundary-free Biden needs to grasp right now -- whether he runs for president or not -- that his hands do not belong on little girl's chests. In two different videos, a person could argue that it looks like he's rubbing/touching the girls' nipples. Is he doing that? I hope to hell not. But the videos do beg that question.
From this day forward, he needs to never again touch a little girl's chest while 'supporting' their parents in some form. It is disgusting and it is outrageous. There is very real anger at Joe Biden this week and his little video yesterday did not help him.
I will say here what I said to the students who showed the videos. I have known Joe to be a nice person. I have never heard a whisper about him and any child -- male or female. I have known him to be a good parent to his sons. I would be surprised if Joe had any intention to do anything untoward to children. But those videos are gross and that behavior is not 'presidential.' He needs to stop touching little girls to begin with but his hands do not ever, ever need to go to a little girl's chest again. It is gross and it is disgusting.
I also explained that former US House Rep Bob Filner (also former mayor) is someone I still have great love for. I was shocked when the women came forward to speak against him. I said when they came forward that they had every right to speak and be heard. They spoke of a Bob I did not know. And I thought I knew him very well. As I've noted here many times, that moment made really clear that if we're not there we need to shut up. I am very glad that I wrote what I did before Bob confessed. I am glad I didn't Alyssa Milano him -- cover for him and insist that he couldn't be guilty because blah blah blah. As I know Joe, he couldn't do anything to children. But I'm not around Joe twenty-four seven and watching the videos the students showed -- CSPN footage on one -- I do understand how someone could interpret them the way the bulk of the students did.
Joe needs to do a sit down interview and the interviewer needs to show him video of his hands on the chests of little girls, of his hands moving around on the chests of little girls. And Joe needs to state he will never touch that area on a little girl again. This is so grotesque and so outrageous. And disgusting. It is uncomfortable to watch. And no one should have to watch it because it never should have happened.
Here is the video Joe released yesterday, via NBC NEWS.
He doesn't need "to make a human connection" with children. He needs to keep his hands off them.
In the two minute video, he speaks a lot about himself and offers a hell of a lot of justifications.
He does not, however, manage to utter the words "I'm sorry" or "I made a mistake and I apologize."
I find the video to be utter crap. Joe needs a better team if they think that was gong to cut it. It's not going to.
Joe keeps presenting himself as the champion of women and Alyssa Milano's howring whatever is left of her I-was-a-TV-celebrity-decades-ago reputation on this. Joe is not a champion of women. He failed women in the Thomas-Hill hearings. I can remember a woman who will not -- will not! -- be endorsing Joe publicly, I can remember her crying in the halls of Congress over Joe's behavior with a Bully Boy Bush Supreme Court nominee (who was then confirmed). I don't care how many times some bra-less airhead Alyssa insists otherwise, Joe is not a champion of women. A champion of women does not do to Anita Hill what Joe did. And a champion of women does not have one or two pieces of legislation to point to. Not when they've spent decades -- decades! -- in the US Senate.
Prior to this issue -- the groping -- becoming a focus, Joe was on his Non-Apology Tour. He was talking about Anita Hill and how he wronged her. Or hinting around it. But he didn't say the words "I'm sorry." Just like he didn't offer an apology in that two minute video.
Caitlyn Caruso is one of the four women who have publicly spoken out about Joe's groping.
As Biden considers launching a presidential campaign for 2020, Caruso
said his “mistreatment of Anita Hill” is what people should consider
when it comes to determining whether he’s qualified to run.
Amid the Me Too movement, there has been renewed criticism of Biden’s handling of law professor Hill’s testimony during the 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Clarence Thomas. Biden has expressed regret for the treatment Hill received at the time, although Hill has called this insufficient because he did not directly address his own role in the matter.
“If we’re really centering sexual assault survivors, we have to make
sure we recognize why he made this whole movement of ‘It’s On Us,’” Caruso said, referring to Biden’s initiative aiming to end sexual assault. “What is he making up for? And that is his mistreatment of Anita Hill in ’91.”
Before the groping became a focus in the press, people were already calling Joe out on his refusal to apologize to Anita Hill.
Come on @JoeBiden . Just CALL Anita Hill and then GO TO HER HOUSE and APOLOGIZE to her FACE. The longer you wait the worse it gets.
Christina Cauterucci (SLATE) offers a very strong analysis of yesterday's video which includes:
Wednesday’s video didn’t significantly depart from that “hey, I’m just like this” defense. And it’s unlikely to convince many of those who have criticized Biden for his behavior that Uncle Joe should be forgiven for bringing creepy and inappropriate invasions of personal space that were condoned in his youth into 21st century politics. But the video serves its purpose brilliantly. It was written and filmed for his base, the disproportionately older Democrats who might identify more with a well-meaning man caught in the crossfire of fast-changing social norms than with the people trying to change them.
And the four women who have come forward? It's now seven. Rebecca Falconer (AXIOS) explains:
Another 3 women came forward to say they had uncomfortable encounters with former Vice President Biden, The Washington Post first reported Wednesday night, bringing the total number of accusers to 7.
Details: Vail Kohnert-Yount, Sofie Karasek and Ally Coll told
WashPost Biden had touched them in ways that made them feel
uncomfortable.
Sophie Weiner (SPLINTER NEWS) notes:
In response to the video Biden posted earlier today, in which he said he will change his behavior, Kohnert-Yount emailed the Post.
“I appreciate his attempt to do better in the future, but to me this is not mainly about whether Joe Biden has adequate respect for personal space. It’s about women deserving equal respect in the workplace,” she wrote.
We've had to spend every day this week on Joe Biden. It fits, he's one of the reasons the Iraq War started and certainly a reason it continues. His behavior is important for that reason alone. In addition, I'm a feminist so that makes it important as well. But those of you buying into Alyssa Milano's warped view better grasp that I'm not in a bubble. I knew Donald Trump was going to win the election and said so in September. I knew that because I was not in the bubble. I'm not laying around my pool ll day. I am out in the country speaking out against these never-ending wars to various groups and I'm hearing what they are saying.
The video Joe made is going to do very little because he's already taken a hit and what he needed was a video that included an apology. This is a very real issue and it is not going away because of his video yesterday. If you think that, you're in for some surprises.
If Joe declares he's running, the issue may be put on hold because he's forced to answer serious questions about his role in the rise of ISIS -- chief among them, supporting Nouri al-Maliki for a second term (when ISIS took hold) after the Iraq people voted Nouri out of office (the US-negotiated Erbil Agreement overturned the vote of the people).
Search results
What the US needs to do in order to prevent a new ISIS in Iraq
ISIS is a bigger issue today than it was when Joe was vice president. The world has a more clearly defined view of the terrorist organization. Biden's role in its growth is not a non-issue.
In other news . . .
Saudi Arabia gives Iraq $1 billion grant: state TV citing minister reut.rs/2uK6gSo
When you think of the poor countries where people starve it is flat out offensive that Iraq is getting a billion dollar grant. More offensive is that oil-rich Iraq needs that money -- or the people do -- because Iraqi officials keep stealing the money of the people.
Joe Biden was a US Senator and he was a vice president and yet he mainly advocated backing every fraud and theif in the Iraqi government. (We attended the hearing where he didn't do so and it was the most poorly attended hearing -- by the press -- I've ever been at. If Joe declares, we will be touching on that earlier reporting a lot.)
The following sites updated:
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