Wednesday, February 26th, 2020
Stephan: Here is what sounds like very good news on a breakthrough in medicine.
Citation:
EbioMedicine.
A new predictive test for bladder cancer shows promise but still needs further verification in larger cohorts of patients
Credit: angellodeco/Depositphotos
A compelling new study from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is suggesting a simple biomarker in urine may be an effective predictive test for bladder cancer, signaling the disease’s presence up to 10 years before clinical signs appear.
Bladder cancer is a challenging type of cancer to catch in its early stages. The best diagnostic technique currently available is an invasive imaging procedure called cystoscopy. Several urine-based biomarkers are currently under investigation but none have been clinically verified to the point they are widely recommended. And even then, these urine-based tools may only be effective in surveilling active cases and not detecting early instances of the disease.
For several years researchers have known mutations in the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene are incredibly common in many cases of bladder cancer. These TERT mutations can be detected in urine samples but until now it hasn’t been clear whether this […]
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Tuesday, February 25th, 2020
MARK JOSEPH STERN, - Slate
Stephan: Criminal Trump aided by the Republican, now Trumplican Party over the last three years has been dismantling American democracy and the transformation of the country into an authoritarian christofascist kleptocracy. We know about the Justice Department, the State Department, and all the departments and agencies that deal with science. But the Supreme Court? Surely that has been immune? I am afraid not, and my opinion is backed up by no less than one of the Supreme Court Associate Justices.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor attends The 2018 DVF Awards at United Nations on April 13, 2018 in New York City.
Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
On Friday evening, by a 5–4 vote, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration’s wealth test for immigrants to take effect in Illinois. All four liberal justices dissented from the order, which changes relatively little: Thanks to the conservative justices’ intervention in January, the wealth test was poised to take effect in 49 states, and Friday’s vote lets the government apply it in the last state left. What’s most remarkable about the decision is Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s withering dissent, which calls out—with startling candor—a distressing pattern: The court’s Republican appointees have a clear bias toward the Trump administration.
Trump’s wealth test marks a brazen attempt to limit legal immigration by forcing immigrants to prove their financial status to enter, or remain in, the United States. It goes far beyond any statute passed by Congress, forcing immigrants to demonstrate that they will be not a “public charge”—that […]
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Tuesday, February 25th, 2020
Igor Derysh , - AlterNet/Salon
Stephan: In my opinion, Clarence Thomas should never have become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He got that appointment in part because of Joe Biden, and even at the time he was considered first and foremost an ideologue and a molester of at least one woman.
Like Justice Sotomayor, as described in the previous story, I do not think Justices should be active partisans rather, as Sotomayor argues, they should be neutral nonpartisans who make decisions on the basis of the law. And certainly, the spouses of Supreme Court Justices should never be active political hacks, as Thomas' wife Ginni is. Thomas should be impeached and removed from the court. But, of course, that will never happen in a senate led by Trumplican senator, Moscow Mitch.
Political hack Ginni Thomas, wife of Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Creidt: Gage Skidmore
A group led by Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is driving a White House effort to purge government officials seen as “disloyal” to President Donald Trump and replace them with vocal supporters who regularly appear on Fox News, according to Axios.
Trump recently rehired Johnny McEntee, a 29-year-old personal aide to Trump who was abruptly fired in 2018 amid an investigation over “serious financial crimes,” to lead the presidential personnel office and purge officials believed to be “anti-Trump,” Axios reported last week.
This effort has apparently been in the works since at least 2018, when Thomas’ group Groundswell submitted a number of memos urging the firing of so-called “Never Trump” and “Deep State” officials as aides complained that the government was filled with “snakes,” according to the report.
Thomas has spent a “significant amount of time and energy” urging White House officials to pursue the purge, […]
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Tuesday, February 25th, 2020
Stephan: Trump, with the assistance of his minion William Barr is in the process of dismantling the American Justice Department, now he begins his attempt to discredit and castrate the Supreme Court and its credibility. This is straight out of the fascist playbook.
We are very rapidly watching our country become something I, for one, never thought I would see happen. And do you notice the deafening silence coming from the Trumplicans in the Senate?
We need to start seeing millions out in the streets in protest. Our country is being destroyed out in the open and without shame, while most of us are inside watching television or staring at our phones doing social media.
I am astonished how easily criminal Trump and his minions are pulling this off.
The president of the United States on Monday demanded two Supreme Court justices recuse themselves from all cases related to his interests.
Donald Trump made his demand while visiting India.
Trump quoted Fox News personality Laura Ingraham as saying Justice Sonia Sotomayor “accuses GOP appointed justices of being biased in favor of Trump.”
“This is a terrible thing to say,” Trump argued.
The president did not see the comments as a warning of justices who were not acting impartially but instead said Sotomayor was trying to “shame” fellow justices into voting her way.
He then also lashed out at Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
“She never criticized Justice Ginsberg when she called me a ‘faker’. Both should recuse themselves on all Trump, or Trump related, matters!” Trump demanded, complete with an exclamation mark.
“While ‘elections have consequences’, I only ask for fairness, especially when it comes to decisions made by the United States Supreme Court,” Trump claimed.
