Is it really gymnastics to see incompetence as a more likely explanation than malice?

Researchers are looking into bacteriophage that infect gut bacteria. It seems that over time, the viruses select for and introduce genes to bacteria that play nice with our intestinal health, rather than run amok.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbvAaDN1bpE

funny you keep coming back to slavery when so much of it was justified by claiming huge chunks of people were, empirically factually, incapable of being fully human

standing in the middle of a system that incentivizes, necessitates even, that people act against our collective shared interest; a system that, half through deliberate intention and half through the selective pressure of market forces, makes sure they have just enough education to be profitable workers – and to say, “We’ve always been this stupid. Just innate, innit?”, well you’re either missing the forest for the trees or for whatever reason you’d rather believe some people can just be written off altogether.

And every armed conflict in the world would end if everyone put down their guns right this instant.

We’re talking about structures that reach across the globe, with a momentum that existed before either of us were born, and with a trajectory that will be traced long after we are dead. You don’t shift that trajectory by Wishing Upon a Star that everyone Becomes Better overnight. That’s not a practical approach.

if the structure of society is set up in such a way that practically every action I need to take to keep myself fed and sheltered ultimately contributes to climate change, then it’s fucking inane to say it is the fault of individuals being stupid.

Plenty of bacteria and viruses are beneficial, and contribute to the overall health of their hosts.

If humans are diseases, then it is because through learned behaviors that we act in a deleterious manner towards the overall ecosystem. We are entirely capable of shifting those behaviors, of creating social structures that select for behaviors that promote co-existence and symbiosis with that ecosystem.

lovely flat comparison that only accepts this precise present moment as the only context.

Never mind that the Democrats today are the George W. Bush neo-cons of twenty years ago. Or that the precedent laid down by the Bush admin - and subsequently renewed and strengthened by the Obama admin - are the same legal standards Trump and ICE are now claiming cover under.

asking Democrats to stop campaign like Bush-era neo-cons is now apparently a right wing position

The Tea they destroyed was tariff-free, which hurt the organisers who were smuggling tea and charging a huge mark-up to customers

This is a critical bit that gets overlooked in the US framing of events. The taxed tea was actually cheaper than what local businessmen were charging! We didn’t have a grass-roots revolution for the benefit of “we the people”. It was organized and funded by the local elites, who were throwing a fit that larger overseas elites were telling them what to do.

The issue is the price gouging still exists for everyone who isn’t on Medicare. You have to either be old enough, or prove to the government that you fit their criteria for disabled before you get the reasonable price.

Democrats win by turning out people who otherwise don’t vote. If they aren’t already turned on by republicans talking like this, will those people see this as anything other than Democrats talking down to them?

People recognize when they’re being talked down to, this is a losing strategy.

It’s within the governments power to lock prices. For something as medically necessary as insulin, anything less is a half measure.

they’re not talking about the CTC expiring.

no, just the bit Biden did, the thing that was cited as one of his major accomplishments.

and c’mon; Insulin is cheaper for Medicare recipients. Insulin is cheaper for the elderly. It is, in effect, the same statement. You really quibbling over wording to try and scrape together a point?

You know medicare is primarily for retirees, right?

Edit: since you only read the first sentence I quoted from CBS, here’s the second:

But as the nation struggled to emerge from the pandemic in 2021, lawmakers expanded the $2,000 credit to as much as $3,600.

and the fourth

Once it expired in 2022, the poverty rate for children soared.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/09/politics/inflation-reduction-act-medicare-insulin-cap/index.html

Senior citizens and other Medicare enrollees can now get a break on the cost of their insulin.

They won’t pay more than $35 a month for each insulin prescription that’s covered by their Medicare Part D plan. And they won’t be subject to a deductible for insulin.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-budget-tax-child-tax-credit-ctc-eitc-who-qualifies/

The CTC isn’t a new tax credit — it’s been around since the 1990s. But as the nation struggled to emerge from the pandemic in 2021, lawmakers expanded the $2,000 credit to as much as $3,600. As part of that expansion, families received half of the CTC in monthly checks over six months, providing them with as much as $300 per child for each of those months.

That expanded tax benefit, which proved to be immensely popular with families, also helped lift millions of kids out of poverty. Once it expired in 2022, the poverty rate for children soared.

the child tax credit only lasted one year, and the cost reduction was only for the elderly