New York Correctly Bans Religious Exemptions for Vaccines

As long time readers know, I believe that far too much deference is given to religion in the USA despite the reality that (i) it is often divisive, (ii) most churches do little true charity work, certainly not enough to justify tax-exempt status which forces the rest of the citizenry to indirectly subsidize them, and (iii) it often encourages the embrace of ignorance that is harmful towards other citizens.  Nowhere has the latter aspect been more true than in religious exemptions to public health laws requiring children to be vaccinated prior to entering public school.  With the measles outbreak sweeping the USA, but centered in New York State, the danger of indulging the religious based idiocy of religious extremists has been made visible.  Thankfully, New York State has said "enough" and has  banned religious exemptions from vaccination requirements. One's embrace of ignorance should not be allowed to endanger the health - or civil rights - of other citizens. The New York Times looks at New York State's belated move to fight religious beliefs that harm the general public. Note how opponents of the common sense move chanted the usual "religious freedom" bullshit so popular with evangelicals who seek to put their beliefs over the rights of other citizens.  Here are article excerpts:

New York officially ended religious exemptions for school vaccines Thursday as the state grapples with its largest measles outbreak in years.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) signed the legislation into law Thursday evening after it passed in the state’s Senate and Assembly, ending years of gridlock over the issue.

“We’re putting science ahead of misinformation about vaccines and standing up for the rights of immunocompromised children and adults, pregnant women and infants who can’t be vaccinated through no fault of their own,” state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D) said in a statement.

The law gives unvaccinated students up to 30 days to show they’ve started their required immunizations.

All states have laws requiring various vaccines for students and all allow for medical exemptions. Many also grant parents the right to exempt their children from the vaccines for religious reasons, and a smaller number for philosophical reasons. But the tide of public opinion has been changing as measles cases this year have already surged to the highest levels since 1992. The cases have largely stemmed from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish population in Brooklyn, and to a lesser extent, Rockland County, which anti-vaccine groups have had some success at targeting with misinformation. Many of these activists claim that vaccines cause autism, a link disproved repeatedly by scientists and medical experts.

Measles, a highly contagious and potentially life-threatening disease, was thought to have been eliminated in 2000, due to the success of decades-long campaigns to get people vaccinated.

Opponents of the bill protested Thursday outside of New York’s capitol in Albany before the vote, [lying and] claiming the legislation is an assault on religious freedom. “I’m not aware of anything in the Torah, the Bible, the Koran or anything else that suggests you should not get vaccinated,” Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (D), the bill’s sponsor, told reporters. “If you choose to not vaccinate your child, therefore potentially endangering other children … then you’re the one choosing not to send your children to school.” New York joins states such as California, Mississippi, West Virginia and Maine by outlawing nonmedical exemptions for vaccines. Several other states are deliberating whether to eliminate religious waivers for vaccines.

“The science is crystal clear: Vaccines are safe, effective and the best way to keep our children safe,” Cuomo said in a statement. “While I understand and respect freedom of religion, our first job is to protect the public health and by signing this measure into law, we will help prevent further transmissions and stop this outbreak right in its tracks.”

The bill’s passage was coupled with the news that the New York City Health Department has closed two private schools in Williamsburg for failing to comply with a recent emergency health order. . . . The Health Department has closed 11 schools over vaccine-related issues this year.

I'd go further and make the failure to have children vaccinated a form of statutory child abuse justifying the removal of children from parents.   Children are not chattel property of parents - notwithstanding the views of many fundamentalists - and should not be endangered by their parents' embrace of ignorance and superstition. 

Trump: Puppet, Incompetent or Traitor?

This photo is via the Russian Foreign Ministry since US reporters were barred from the meeting

The US intelligence community continues to reel in the wake of the disclosure that Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Trumpenführer,  revealed exceedingly top secret information to Russia as he sought to boast and impress Russia's foreign minister and ambassador to the US, endangering sources, the very lives of agents, and relations with allies in the process.  True to form, the Trump White House has denied the reports and called them "false news," yet a careful reading of the denials by mature officials suggests that something bad indeed took place.  The overall result is that citizens are left wondering why Trump betrayed an ally.  Is he a Putin Puppet?  Is he simply incompetent and unfit for office as David Brooks suggests in the New York Times:

He did it because he is sloppy, because he lacks all impulse control, and above all because he is a 7-year-old boy desperate for the approval of those he admires. The Russian leak story reveals one other thing, the dangerousness of a hollow man.

Or is the man only too happy to act in a treasonous manner?  None of the options provides much comfort and Americans are left fearing what new bombshell/disaster awaits the country minutes, hours or days down the road.   Talking Points Memo provides an overview:

Despite nominal denials from the White House, it seems clear that The Washington Post blockbuster about President Trump’s meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak is accurate and may even understate what transpired last week. Numerous other news organizations have now independently verified the Post’s report.

Why did this happen exactly?

The original Post report suggested that the President was boasting about quality of intelligence he receives and dropped the information as part of his bragging. This would certainly be in character from the man we know. But another explanation, different but perhaps overlapping with that explanation comes from NBC News reporter Richard Engel.

Whatever the seriousness of the breach, this suggests that, rather than mere boasting, Trump was trying to ingratiate himself with his visitors, leaning forward in how candid he would be to show how “cooperative” he was and how productive a partnership could be.

If I understand Engel’s reporting in these three tweets, his source seemed to be downplaying just how secret the information really was. But this is actually a highly disturbing account of Trump’s motivation. This is a portrayal of a man who seems somehow desperate for a relationship with the Kremlin for reasons that aren’t entirely clear.

Another question: why did Trump meet with Lavrov at all? My recollection is that the meeting was announced not long before it happened. Lavrov is the Foreign Minister, not the head of government or head of state. Meeting with Secretary Tillerson only wouldn’t have seemed out of the ordinary. It would have seemed more like the norm. The best answer we have on this point is that in a recent phone call President Putin asked him as a personal favor and Trump obliged.

When people think about what Trump’s ties might be to Russia and whether those around him colluded with the Russians in their disruption campaign they often think in very binary terms: no connection at all or a coordinated, deliberate plot. I suspect the truth is much more murky. Indeed, as I’ve argued before, targets who are gullible, impulsive, stupid or corrupt (or in this case all four) are often the most rewarding for spies.

Consider again from the campaign when Trump went before the press and begged the Russian government to hack more of Hillary Clinton’s emails. Was he serious? Joking? . . . . It was one of many examples that people at the pinnacle of the Russian government seem to have some hold over Trump, some understanding of him that triggers his most impulsive and transgressive instincts.

I do not believe this is an accident that this huge breach happened with, of all people, the foreign minister of Russia, during an Oval Office meeting which itself beggared belief. It can hardly be the case that Trump is somehow focused, deliberate and strategic in some notional plot with the Russian government when we’ve seen that each of those qualities escape him entirely. He is, at least at his current age, wholly incapable of those attributes. But as hyperbolic as it sounds to say, members of the Russian government do seem to have his number, some ability to push his buttons and make very weird things happen. I suspect that whatever else we end up finding will either be of a similar character or share the same mix illicit actions with clownish, erratic and impulsive behavior.

Fox News watching Trump supporters who will only hear that the news reports are false and have been denied might do well to read this piece that looks at the actual substance of White House efforts to mislead and deny:

Deputy national security advisor Dina Powell has denied the story as false. Notably, national security advisor General H.R. McMaster limited his denial to the fact that, “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly.” Likewise, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has denied disclosure of any information on “sources, methods or military operations.” These are both very carefully worded statements that leave open the possibility that classified information was disclosed other than sources and methods or that classified information was disclosed which might be used as a basis to infer sources and methods not directly disclosed. Typically, policies related to the safeguarding of classified information treat both sources and methods information and information pertaining to or related to sources and methods in the same category.

The declaration that the story “as reported” is untrue leaves plenty of room for the administration to pinpoint discrepancies in the Post story without denying the substance. And once again, McMaster does not deny that an egregious breach of national security information was revealed, merely that “intelligence sources or methods [were] discussed” and that the President “disclose[d] any military operations that were not publicly known.” The Post’s Greg Miller, one of the two reporters who broke the story, accused the White House of “playing word games” in response to McMaster’s press conference. And indeed, if McMaster meant to be denying that anything harmful was said in the Oval Office, then it is hard to understand why (as the Post reports) “senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency,” or why the Post agreed not to publish certain details of the plot discussed in the Oval Office after “officials” warned that doing so would “jeopardize important intelligence capabilities."

This is perhaps the gravest allegation of presidential misconduct in the scandal-ridden four months of the Trump administration.

This piece is excellent and deserves a full read,  It will not leave you feeling good about where the nation finds itself with Trump in the White House.

Petraeus Condemns Church Plan to Burn Qurans - Church Flips Him the Bird

While constantly wrapping themselves in religiosity and the American flag as they push an agenda of hate -n this case against Muslims rather than gays, their other preferred target - U.S. Christianist in reality do not give a damn about fanning anti-America flames or even endangering the lives of U.S. service members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, its all about the Christianists and their over powering egos and lust to disseminate hatred. Even the objections of General Patraeus, commanding general in Afghanistan, who says that burning Qurans will endanger American lives, means nothing to egomaniac wingnut pastor Terry Jones, who has basically told Patraeus to go f*ck himself. The irony, of course is that pastor Jones is no better than the Islamic extremists that he purports to condemn. Change the holy book in their hands and Jones and Islamic terrorists are nearly interchangeable. Here are highlights from the Wall Street Journal on Patraeus' remarks:
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The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the planned burning of Qurans on Sept. 11 by a small Florida church could put the lives of American troops in danger and damage the war effort.
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Gen. David Petraeus said the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes, drumming up anger toward the U.S. and making it harder for allied troops to carry out their mission of protecting Afghan civilians.
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"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," Gen. Petraeus said in an interview. "It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."
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Hundreds of Afghans attended a demonstration in Kabul on Monday to protest the plans of Florida pastor Terry Jones, who has said he will burn copies of Islam's holy book to mark the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Afghan protesters chanted "death to America," and speakers called on the U.S. to withdraw its troops. Some protesters threw rocks at a passing military convoy.
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Mr. Jones, head of the 50-member Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., said in a statement that "We understand the General's concerns. We are sure that his concerns are legitimate." Nonetheless, he added, "We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam. We will no longer be controlled and dominated by their fears and threats." Mr. Jones has been denied a permit for the demonstration, but has said he plans to go forward with the protest.
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[M]ilitary officers said they hoped that Gen. Petraeus's statement—an unusual move since military commanders rarely get involved in politics—would convince Mr. Jones to change his plans.
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Gen. Petraeus declined to elaborate on the nature of the threats or violence that could occur, but westerners in Afghanistan have been warned away from restaurants and other public places amid the rising tensions.
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Military officials also fear that if video of the Quran burning is broadcast in Afghanistan, tensions could rise between NATO forces and the Afghan military and police. Allegations of mishandling the Quran have interrupted Afghan security training at least twice this year, Gen. Caldwell said.
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If pastor Jones represents true Christianity, then I want nothing of it.

Prince Harry Forced to Return To UK

I find it ironic that it was reported closet case and often yellow journalist, Matt Drudge, who blew Prince Harry's cover fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan, thereby placing both Harry and his fellow servicemen at risk. Not exactly what responsible journalism, but then much of what one finds on the Drudge report is not exactly responsible or unbiased reporting. Leave it to an American publication to endanger Harry's life. Here are a few of Prince Harry's comments on it all via Toweleroad (http://www.towleroad.com/2008/03/prince-harry-ro.html):

The British media kept to their side of the bargain. I'm very grateful for that and thanks to all the British media for keeping their mouths shut. And I know for a fact that there was stuff they did behind the scenes to stop stuff coming out which was massively kind of them. But at the same time, it was foreign media that spilled the beans. I didn't see it coming. It's a shame. Angry would be the wrong word to use but I am slightly disappointed. I really thought I could see it through to the end and come back with our guys and the colonel himself. But I'm back here now and I suppose deep down inside it's quite nice. I'm looking forward to having a bath but, no, I would like to have stayed back with the guys.