Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Just a few bad apples.

Usually wrong but never in doubt.

Wetsuit optional.

I showered with Rahm and all I got was this shitty blog.

Mission Accomplished!

Screw the Judean People’s Front. Splitters.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Too inconsequential to be sued

No one could have predicted…

Shocking, but not surprising.

What fresh hell is this?

We have all the best words.

This blog will pay for itself.

Militantly superior in their own minds…

Not all heroes wear capes.

How has Obama failed you today?

An army of rabid, anonymous commenters

‘Forty-two’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.

Almost as fun as hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Lighten up, Francis.

This blog is Obama’s Katrina.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Also, too.

You are here: Home / Archives for Cheryl Rofer

Retired chemist. I've done a lot of chemistry that has to do with policy, particularly nuclear policy.

Cheryl Rofer has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2017.

Where We Are With COVID-19

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If you’re hoping to go back to normal, it’s not going to happen. The normal of November 2019, before SARS-CoV-2 got a foothold in the human population, will not return. There will be a time when COVID-19 is no longer one of the top causes of death in the United States and a primary topic of concern around the world. But we can’t know when that will be. I’m guessing it’s at least two years away.

Because of negligence by leaders, particularly President Donald Trump, the virus is everywhere. It will take serious effort to bring it under control. The United States has handled the pandemic almost uniquely badly, but even countries that have minimized cases continue to be affected as well. Vigilance must be constant to keep the virus from returning with travelers. Where there are outbreaks, they will have to be tamped down with isolation, testing, and tracing.

After the long, hard slog to where virus cases and deaths are few, repercussions will continue. Some people continue to have symptoms for months. Because we have only seven months’ experience with the virus, we don’t know how many people will suffer virus-related disabilities, how long they will last or if they will flare up again later.

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A Woman In Portland

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What are the rules of engagement for a mob of highly-equipped men, with layers of protective clothing, against a woman wearing no clothes?

That was the situation in Portland on July 18. The woman was as unidentifiable as the men, wearing only a mask and a knit cap. She appeared, danced, and then sat to expose her vulva to the men. Photo showing nudity after the fold.

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The Last Word On EMP

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There is a small industry around a bizarre idea. Nuclear weapons are known to emit a powerful electromagnetic pulse when they explode. So grifters, cheap novel-writers, and proponents of moar defense spending push the idea that a random bad actor would detonate a nuclear weapon at high altitude over the United States and WIPE OUT ALL OUR ELECTRONICS!

This is a dumb idea, for many reasons. I have debunked it many times. The group referred to as “Nuclear Twitter” regularly mocks it.

Kelsey Atherton, a New Mexico friend, has written what should be the last word on EMP. The title says it all:

Electromagnetic Pulses Are the Last Thing You Need to Worry About in a Nuclear Explosion

But if you’d like more detail, Kelsey has it for you.

Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner

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Secret Police In Portland

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This is wrong, and it’s not being covered by the major news outlets. Maybe some of our Portland jackals can chip in some insight.

I’ve been waiting for more confirmation, but last night the governor of Oregon made a statement.

A bit more from Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley:

Merkley: Federal forces shot an unarmed protester in the face. These shadowy forces have been escalating, not preventing, violence. If Sec. Wolf is coming here to inflame the situation so the president can look like a tough guy, he should turn around and leave our city now.

The best sources I’ve found are on Twitter, unconfirmed, but from people I consider reliable.

Update: The Washington Post is working from an Oregon Public Broadcasting story:

When several men in green military fatigues and generic “police” patches sprang out of an unmarked gray minivan in front of Mark Pettibone in the early hours of Wednesday morning, his first instinct was to run.

He did not know whether the men were police or far-right extremists, who frequently don militarylike outfits and harass left-leaning protesters in Portland, Ore. The 29-year-old resident said he made it about a half-block before he realized there would be no escape.

Then, he sank to his knees, hands in the air.

“I was terrified,” Pettibone told The Washington Post. “It seemed like it was out of a horror/sci-fi, like a Philip K. Dick novel. It was like being preyed upon.”

He was detained and searched. One man asked him if he had any weapons; he did not. They drove him to the federal courthouse and placed him in a holding cell. Two officers eventually returned to read his Miranda rights and ask if he would waive those rights to answer a few questions; he did not.

And almost as suddenly as they had grabbed him off the street, the men let him go.

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This Is Definitive On Masks

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The Journal of the American Medical Association has a short article saying that the evidence is strong for wearing masks in public.

There is good evidence that masks help both in keeping viruses from being spread by the wearer and also in preventing the wearer from breathing viruses in. Further, wearing a mask does little harm, which is greatly outweighed by the benefit of reducing transmission.

Some selections:

After emerging data documented transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from persons without symptoms, the recommendation was expanded to the general community, with an emphasis on cloth face coverings that could be made more widely available in the community than surgical masks and to preserve personal protective equipment such as N95 respirators to the highest-risk exposures in health care settings. Now, there is ample evidence that persons without symptoms spread infection and may be the critical driver needed to maintain epidemic momentum.

…recent research of household textiles’ performance when used as source control suggests cloth face coverings may be able to do so with acceptable efficiency and breathability.

Like herd immunity with vaccines, the more individuals wear cloth face coverings in public places where they may be close together, the more the entire community is protected. Community-level protection afforded by use of cloth face coverings can reduce the number of new infections and facilitate cautious easing of more societally disruptive community interventions such as stay-at-home orders and business closings.

At this critical juncture when COVID-19 is resurging, broad adoption of cloth face coverings is a civic duty, a small sacrifice reliant on a highly effective low-tech solution that can help turn the tide favorably in national and global efforts against COVID-19.

The article is easy to read and gives examples with references. Check it out.

[Apologies to Betty Cracker for bigfooting.]

Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner

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Robert Mueller Speaks

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Robert Mueller has an op-ed in the Washington Post. He is getting tired of Trumpian misrepresentation.

I feel compelled to respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office. 

It’s short and clear, something that his earlier report could have benefitted from.

We now have a detailed picture of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The special counsel’s office identified two principal operations directed at our election: hacking and dumping Clinton campaign emails, and an online social media campaign to disparage the Democratic candidate. We also identified numerous links between the Russian government and Trump campaign personnel — Stone among them. We did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its activities. The investigation did, however, establish that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome. It also established that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.

Anyhow, read the whole thing.

Open thread!

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