COMMENTARY
Trump's return is distracting the GOP — and allowing Democrats to get things done

Biden racks up wins on guns, climate, and loans — as Trump conspiracies weaken the GOP's obstructionist powers

By AMANDA MARCOTTE

Senior Writer
SALON
PUBLISHED AUGUST 25, 2022 

Joe Biden and Donald Trump

(Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Republicans are acting uncharacteristically flat-footed in response to President Joe Biden's announcement that he'll be forgiving up to $20,000 in student loan debt to people who make under $125,000 a year. Sure, Fox News pundits are all crying about it, but they can't quite seem to get their story straight on why viewers are supposed to be outraged.

Sean Hannity complained, "The people that likely will benefit the most are middle class" and whined that the "young people that work on my TV show" will get relief. He tried to make it sound bad, but he inadvertently pointed out that the program benefits his audience. Jeanine Pirro called it "disgusting" and suggested that the only legitimate way to fund a college education is to have your family pay for it all. Not an appealing argument to an audience who would rather be spending their retirement funds on cruises instead of grandkids' escalating tuitions. Tucker Carlson got a little closer to stroking the Republican voter erogenous zones with a word salad about "postcolonial liberation studies from Wesleyan" and "reparations" and claiming kids today are "Xanax-addicted robots with no job prospects." But honestly, even his heart doesn't seem in it. You get the feeling he can't wait to get back to screeching about how trans kids and the Obamas are conspiring to keep your daughter from giving you white grandbabies.

As Media Matters rapid response deputy director Andrew Lawrence said on Twitter, "no one complaining about student debt relief today will ever even think about it again after Monday."

It's not just the student loan thing. Democrats have been shockingly productive in the past few months, despite a slim 50-vote majority in the Senate (with Vice President Kamala Harris as a tiebreaker) and a filibuster in the way. The student loan forgiveness is just the latest in a string of wins over what is usually a sleepy summer. The biggest, of course, is the sudden passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which will inject billions of investment money into green energy technologies to fight climate change here and around the world. They even managed to pass a gun control bill through the Senate!

There was a time not too long ago when there was no chance in hell that Democrats would get any of this done. Not with only 50 senators, a filibuster, and a centrist Democrat in the White House who used to be so bank-friendly that his nickname in his earlier years was "the senator from MBNA." The Republican Party of the old days would have been able to leverage this situation to keep Democrats from getting anything done.

Katy Tur on how ratings can influence cable TV news stories
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Trump's antics have already been a political gift to Biden and the Democrats.

But that's not happening right now, and there's one primary reason why: Donald J. Trump.

He's a black hole that absorbs all attention with his relentless criminality and narcissistic antics. It's alarming in most ways, especially the cult-like hold he has over his followers. But it has one silver lining: While Trump and his followers obsess about an imaginary "deep state," they're not paying attention to what Democrats are actually doing. From the drunk uncle posting on Facebook to the Fox News punditry to Republican leadership in Congress, GOP energies are all sucked up by making excuses for Trump's crimes. They don't have a lot left in the tank after that to raise much of a fuss about student loan forgiveness, green energy, or gun control.

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It didn't use to be this way. Republicans used to be extremely good at whipping their base into a frenzy of opposition against Democratic policies, even ones most of these voters would benefit from. They knew how to create enough noise to keep Republican politicians in line and peel off enough cowardly Democratic support, killing all manner of progressive legislation.

For instance, Republicans very nearly killed Obamacare, despite Democrats having a theoretically filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate. They did so with non-stop and misleading propaganda ("death panels," anyone?), which compelled throngs of irate conservative voters to flood town halls during Congress' August recess and scare the pants off Democrats in swing districts. The sustained noise was successful in peeling off enough Democrats that the bill would have died, but for some deft political maneuvering at the hands of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

In 2013, the nation was outraged after the Christmas season massacre of 26 people — including 20 first graders — in Newtown, Connecticut. Yet Republicans and the NRA were still able to destroy all proposed gun safety bills, despite Democrats holding a majority in the Senate. By whipping the Fox News audience into a frenzy of paranoia about this, Republicans were not only able to hold the line against any bill passing, but they even chipped off some Democratic support in swing states. Contrast that with the recent gun bill that not only passed with total Democratic support but also garnered 14 Republican votes in the Senate.

A big difference between now and then is that Republicans are struggling to tap into that once bottomless resource of cranky Fox News viewers willing to shriek at their elected representatives — and it is because those people are all way too worried about what Trump's up to.

The gun bill was passed during the same time period that the January 6 committee was holding hearings. The GOP base was too preoccupied with nuh-uhing the committee findings to think much about gun control. Nor did we need to worry about Republicans reacting to Biden signing the massive climate bill as they did to Obamacare, complete with massive protests and the formation of a new version of the "Tea Party." They've been way too busy freaking out about the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago for all of that.

Given a few more FBI raids and January 6 committee hearings, heaven only knows what other progressive priorities will suddenly be able to pass.

Indeed, you can sense Republican leadership's desperation in the way they are trying to tie the Inflation Reduction Act to the FBI searching Trump's residence for stolen classified materials. The conspiracy theory claiming the bill will lead to "87,000 IRS agents" supposedly kicking down doors and murdering MAGA-Americans only has legs because the right-wing press keeps tying this lie to Trump's false claims he's somehow the victim of an FBI conspiracy. But because they've hitched this conspiracy so tightly to the Trump story, it may be hard for it to get traction outside of the world of people who are already obsessed with Trump. A huge part of why the GOP freak-outs of old about Obamacare and gun control were so effective is that they were able to appeal to swing voters and independents who were susceptible to disinformation. When a conspiracy theory is tied to Trump, however, it means those folks tend to tune it out as more Trumpian nonsense.

Related

"87,000 IRS agents": New conspiracy theory proves Trump's encouragement of violence is GOP standard

That doesn't mean that Republicans have had no luck sowing lies, especially on the state and local levels. Conspiracy theories about "critical race theory" and LGBTQ people "grooming" kids in schools have gained traction, especially in the suburban swing districts. These lies do better, I suspect, because they are disassociated from Trump. It's about appealing to the fears and prejudices of all sorts of people, not just Trump partisans whose entire world is making sure he doesn't face punishment for his crimes.

Indeed, the Republican noise machine was quite successful at obstructing Biden earlier in his term. Both the anti-vaccine push and the attacks on the Build Back Better bill successfully sabotaged Biden's agenda in his first year and a half. It was really only once Trump started to seep back into the news this past summer that Democrats were able to seize the chance to start getting things done.

Overall, Trump looks like a net negative for the GOP going into the midterms. His Supreme Court appointments allowed Roe v. Wade to be overturned, which looks like it's driving up turnout for pro-choice voters. Trump's endorsed candidates do well in the primaries but are falling behind in the general election polls, due to radicalism and/or idiocy. The January 6 hearings and the Mar-a-Lago search are reminding voters of how much Republicans have hitched their wagon to Trump and his crimes. Democrats are outperforming expectations in pre-midterm special elections as a result.

But whatever happens in the midterms, Trump's antics have already been a political gift to Biden and the Democrats. While everyone was staring at Trump — and while his supporters were preoccupied with defending him — Democrats were able to push through a bunch of priorities that might not have ever otherwise passed. Given a few more FBI raids and January 6 committee hearings, heaven only knows what other progressive priorities will suddenly be able to pass.


Amanda Marcotte is a senior politics writer at Salon and the author of "Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself." Follow her on Twitter @AmandaMarcotte and sign up for her biweekly politics newsletter, Standing Room Only.

The Mar-a-Lago raid’s Saudi connection

Posted on August 25, 2022 

Author: Adam Lammon

SPECTATOR WORLD

It appears that the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Florida residence was just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, the Bureau’s probe has been underway for months, and its decision to interview former White House lawyers suggests that law enforcement is not only interested in what was in the more than 700 pages of documents that Trump took, but also why he took them.

The Washington Post recently alleged that some of those documents are related to nuclear weapons. This has shone a light on Trump’s prior attempts to share sensitive nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia, a country that has flirted with building nuclear weapons. Could Trump’s friends in Riyadh have been due for one of his infamous quid pro quos?

History provides a guide. As early as 2016, Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son, met with an emissary who offered Saudi and Emirati aid for his father’s presidential election. This was certainly not lost on Trump the elder, who places a premium on loyalty and bragged about the Saudis’ generous support for his business empire. As president, Trump returned the favor: his first international trip was to Saudi Arabia, and he later kicked Qatar, a close US military partner in the Persian Gulf, to the curb when Riyadh moved to punish its smaller neighbor for audaciously pursuing an independent foreign policy. The next year, Riyadh rewarded Trump by reducing oil prices after he defended the Saudis’ decision to sic a hit squad on Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist for the Washington Post.


This is hardly an exhaustive list of Trump and the Saudis’ symbiotic dealings. Trump also vetoed a bipartisan congressional effort to end US involvement in the war on Yemen, a signature Saudi initiative, and repeatedly bypassed Congress to sell the Saudis billions of dollars of American weapons (and fired the State Department’s inspector general for examining his actions).

This brings us back to the nuclear issue. In 2019, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform chronicled how the Trump administration was intending to “rush” sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia as part of a plan that began during the Trump presidential campaign.

Congress never got to the bottom of the alleged misconduct. The committee found that the administration’s work was “ongoing” (which makes one wonder, did it ever stop?), and administration officials not only denied wrongdoing but justified their actions in national security terms. “If the United States does not sell the nuclear equipment to Saudi Arabia someone else will,” administration officials privately told the New York Times in 2018. If this outlook was new at the time, it certainly isn’t now. In fact, the Trump administration so successfully reframed the US debate on great power competition that even President Brain-Dead Biden — who has sought to distance himself from everything Trumpian — explained his recent embrace of Saudi Arabia as necessary to halt Riyadh’s cooperation with Russia and China.

Trump officials are right: countries like South Korea, France, Russia, and Communist China had been actively pursuing nuclear collaboration with the Saudis, and an American refusal to assist the Saudi nuclear program would have likely resulted in the United States losing market share to foreigners. Moreover, as Tristan Volpe has observed, the US has remarkably limited leverage when it comes to preventing its partners and allies from proliferating. As the Trump administration saw it, playing it “by the book” with a hostile Congress was not an option.

Be that as it may, there is more to Trump’s decision to back a lobbying effort by several US nuclear energy firms and Trump-connected politicos, including General Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security advisor, and other retired military officials. One firm in particular, Westinghouse Electric, the only US manufacturer of large-scale nuclear reactors, was especially bullish on the deal. In 2018, Westinghouse’s parent company, Brookfield Asset Management, bailed out a floundering $1.8 billion building that was owned by the family company of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. What role Kushner, who had built strong ties with the Saudi crown prince, ultimately played in the deal is unclear. The House committee’s report noted, however, that like Trump himself, Kushner was “directly involved” in the plot and the administration’s effort to develop a strategic partnership with the Saudis. Of course, that same relationship would be a key component of Kushner’s vaunted Middle East Peace Plan.

History may not repeat, but it certainly rhymes. Just this year, it was revealed that the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is helmed by the Saudi crown prince, had invested $2 billion in Kushner’s private equity firm. Although the terms of the arrangement will pay Kushner a minimum of $25 million a year, it is apparent that Saudi Arabia wants to continue its client-patron relationship with the Trump family and inner circle — to everyone’s benefit. To be sure, Trump’s New Jersey golf club held a tournament in August 2022 that was sponsored by the same Saudi fund, provoking a protest by some families whose relatives had been killed on 9/11.

Trump knows a good business opportunity when he sees one. But would he really pilfer some of America’s most highly sensitive nuclear secrets to provide them to Saudi Arabia, as some have alleged? Much like the question of why Trump was hiding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, it may be some time before we get answers. But the American people — and even Trump himself — deserve a speedy resolution. John Bolton, Trump’s second national security advisor, may be right: the mere existence of a piece of paper with “the word ‘nuclear’ on it doesn’t mean it’s apocalyptic.” But Trump’s obsession with nuclear weapons appears to have reared its ugly head again — with potentially deadly results.

The post The Mar-a-Lago raid’s Saudi connection appeared first on The Spectator World.

TRIFECTA

In one day, a man was diagnosed with monkeypox, HIV, and COVID-19
Andrea Michelson

Monkeypox skin lesions: small vesicles (Panel A), reddened haloed pustules (Panel B and Panel C) and umbilicated plaques (Panel D). After 16 days, the lesions had almost healed, leaving a small scar (Panels E to H). Journal of Infection

The first patient to have COVID-19, monkeypox, and HIV at the same time was recently diagnosed in Italy.

He came down with a fever and sore throat, then a blistering rash, about a week after a trip to Spain.

The man had unprotected sex with other men on vacation, which adds to growing evidence of sexually transmission

A man who tested positive for COVID-19 broke out in a rash later that day. Tests revealed he also had monkeypox and HIV, according to a case study in the Journal of Infection.

The 36-year-old patient, who was not identified by name in the report, is the first in the world to test positive for all three infections in a single day, the researchers said.

The Italian man reported that he developed a fever, sore throat and headaches nine days after returning from a trip to Spain. He tested positive for COVID-19 on July 2 — and his symptoms escalated past the typical presentation of the virus within hours.

First, the man noticed a rash starting to form on his left arm. Small, painful blisters appeared on his face, torso, legs, and backside the following day. As the blisters continued to spread and turned into telltale pustules, the man decided to seek emergency care at a hospital in Catania, Italy.

On July 6 — just a few days after his first symptoms — the man was diagnosed with a coinfection of COVID-19, monkeypox, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). His case demonstrates how early symptoms of monkeypox and COVID can overlap, and underscores the importance of testing for other sexually transmitted infections after a diagnosis of monkeypox, doctors wrote in the report.
'Suggestive' skin lesions and recent travel

The man's body was dotted with lesions that looked like monkeypox in various stages of progression when he arrived at the hospital. Pustules on the palm of his hand and the side of his foot were bulging with pus and haloed in red. Other sores had turned into scabs with depressed centers — one of the telltale signs of the virus.

The lesions also affected the patient's perianal region, which has been typical in the recent outbreak. Experts suspect a likelihood of sexual transmission of monkeypox because the outbreak has mainly affected men who have sex with men in their intimate regions.

Since the patient disclosed that he had unprotected sex with other men on his vacation to Spain, doctors tested him for monkeypox and ordered a full STI panel upon his intake at the hospital. According to his medical history, the man also had syphilis in 2019 and was negative for HIV as of his last test in September 2021.

It's likely that his HIV infection was fairly recent, based on his sexual history and immune markers that looked normal.

This particular case "emphasizes that sexual intercourse could be the predominant way of transmission" of monkeypox, doctors wrote in the report.

The man received treatment for COVID and HIV

As this is the first known coinfection of COVID-19, monkeypox, and HIV, doctors don't yet know how the trio of viruses could affect a patient's condition.

The Italian patient recovered well, with almost all of his monkeypox lesions crusting over after a few days in the hospital. He received an infusion of Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody therapy, to treat his COVID infection and improved the next day.

By day six in the hospital, most of the man's symptoms had resolved. Swabs for COVID and monkeypox were still positive, but he had no new skin lesions and was discharged to home isolation.

When he returned for a follow-up visit, the patient's sores had healed "almost completely, leaving a small scar." He did not require treatment for monkeypox, although some physicians may recommend antivirals (namely tecovirimat, or TPOXX) for people with compromised immune systems.

The patient was put on a combination antiretroviral therapy to maintain his immune system function and lower the amount of HIV in his bloodstream. Like many others who live with HIV, he'll need to continue taking the medication to keep the disease at bay.

British scientists from major COVID-19 trial turn focus to monkeypox

BY REUTERS LONDON AUG 24, 2022 

A pharmacist administers a dose of Imvanex, a vaccine to protect against the monkeypox virus, at a pharmacy in Lille, northern France, Aug. 10, 2022. (AFP Photo)


The British scientists who were behind one of the most major therapeutic COVID-19 trials have now turned their focus to finding treatments for monkeypox, a viral disease that has been recently labeled a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The team from Oxford University behind the so-called RECOVERY trial – which honed in on four effective COVID-19 treatments – on Tuesday unveiled a new trial, dubbed PLATINUM, to confirm whether SIGA Technologies' tecovirimat is an effective treatment for monkeypox.

Although there are vaccines developed for the closely related smallpox that can reduce the risk of catching monkeypox, there are currently no treatments that have been proven to help hasten recovery in those who develop the disease.

More than 40,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox – including a handful of deaths – in over 80 countries where the virus is not endemic have been reported since early May. Over 35% of the current global case count is in the United States, while the United Kingdom has over 3,000 confirmed cases.

The virus is transmitted chiefly through close contact with an infected person. It typically causes mild symptoms including fever, rash, swollen lymph nodes and pus-filled skin lesions. Severe cases can occur, though people tend to recover within two to four weeks, according to the WHO.

Siga's drug, branded Tpoxx, has been cleared to treat diseases caused by the family of orthopoxvirus that includes smallpox, monkeypox and cowpox by the European Union and United Kingdom, but due to limited trial data it is generally only used in severe cases in Britain.

In the United States and Canada, the drug is only approved to treat smallpox.

Since smallpox has been eradicated, and cases of monkeypox and cowpox typically occur sporadically, studies to assess the effectiveness of the drug in infected people have so far not been carried out.

Instead, its effectiveness is based on studies in animals infected with lethal doses of orthopoxviruses, as well tests of the medicine's effects in healthy humans.

The PLATINUM trial, funded by a 3.7 million pound ($4.35 million) U.K. government grant, aims to recruit at least 500 participants. Participants will either be given a 14-day course of tecovirimat twice daily, or a placebo.

To assess the drug's effectiveness, the rate at which lesions heal, the time taken until patients test negative for the virus, and the proportion of patients who require hospitalisation due to complications will be tracked.

"I'm hoping that we can have a result before Christmas, but it depends on the rate of recruitment," said Sir Peter Horby, professor of emerging infections and global health at the University of Oxford and the director of the new Pandemic Sciences Institute.

Earlier this month, U.S. officials indicated they were planning a randomized clinical trial in the country to determine whether tecovirimat should secure U.S. approval for monkeypox.

Siga, which sells an oral and intravenous formulation of the drug, has already received $60 million worth of orders for oral tecovirimat this year.

Meanwhile, the only approved monkeypox vaccine – made by Danish company Bavarian Nordic – is in short supply, pushing countries to stretch existing supplies.

WE ARE NOT POST PANDEMIC

World crossed tragic milestone of 1 million reported Covid deaths: WHO

One-third of global population still unvaccinated, says health agency chief



Published: Fri 26 Aug 2022,

The world crossed the tragic milestone of 1 million reported Covid-19 deaths so far this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced Thursday.

''We cannot say we are learning to live with Covid-19 when 1 million people have died with Covid-19 this year alone, when we are two-and-a-half years into the pandemic and have all the tools necessary to prevent these deaths,'' said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in his opening remarks at the Covid-19 media briefing.

''Once again, we ask all governments to strengthen their efforts to vaccinate all health workers, older people and others at the highest risk, on the way to 70% vaccine coverage for the whole population.''

He noted that one-third of the world’s population remains unvaccinated, including two-thirds of health workers and three-quarters of older adults in low-income countries.

''All countries at all income levels must do more to vaccinate those most at risk, to ensure access to life-saving therapeutics, to continue testing and sequencing, and to set tailored, proportionate policies to limit transmission and save lives.'' '

'This is the best way to drive a truly sustainable recovery,'' he affirmed.

Pakistan streets witness storm of infuriated protestors against inflated energy bills

ANI
26th August 2022, 08:37 GMT+10

Karachi [Pakistan], August 26 (ANI): Staging a massive protest against the over-billing of the electricity bills in Pakistan, numerous protestors stormed the office of K-electric in Korangi district and held demonstrations in different areas of Karachi Thursday.

Several protestors stormed different localities of Karachi and also vandalised and destroyed furniture of the K-Electric office, according to Express Tribune. Apparently, the over-billing of the electricity bills and long load-sheddings have infuriated citizens forcing them to take to the streets in different areas of the city.

Claiming that high taxes on energy bills were beyond affordability, the enraged protestors blocked the road by putting up barriers and burning tyres.

Separately, local residents also held protests against over-billing and prolonged power outages in Malir Halt and said that a large part of their income is being spent on payment of electricity bills, adding to the miseries of their lives.

As per the Express Tribune, North Karachi residents also staged a protest against power outages and over-billing in front of the KE office near the Power House roundabout, however, the police reached the spot and dispersed the protesters after negotiations.

Apart from this, demonstrations against over-billing were also held in other areas of the city including Nazimabad.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the local residents staged protests in Sir Syed Town Kalyana of the North Karachi area.

Earlier, numerous people took to the streets on Monday and gathered in front of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company office in Saidu Sharif, after the excessive rise in fuel cost adjustment (FCA) charges on electricity bills. Due to the imposition of taxes on energy bills, residents of Amankot, Faizabad, Rahimabad, Saidu Sharif, Gul Kada, Panr and other suburbs of Mingora marched from their respective areas and held protests and subsequently marched towards the Swat Press Club where their leaders, including local government members, claimed the current month's bills were heavily laden with FCA and other taxes.

Last month, Prime Minister Shehbaz said the federal government was making all-out efforts to revive the stalled power plants to put an end to the huge energy crisis faced by the country.

Pakistan already has two long-term supply deals with Qatar, the first signed in 2016 for five cargoes a month, and the second in 2021, under which Pakistan currently gets three monthly shipments but the nation is currently under a massive grip of widespread power outrages as procurement of the chilled fuel remains unreliable and expensive due to its increased reliance on LNG for electricity generation.

The fast depletion of the foreign exchange reserves was the result of Pakistan's inflation of twin deficits, and a lack of foreign currency inflows. (ANI)

Perseverance Mars rover finds surprising volcanic rocks in crater that was once a lake

These rocks really shouldn't be there.

By Keith Cooper 

Perseverance found volcanic rocks on the floor of Jezero Crater, such as this basaltic rock (center), nicknamed 'Rochette,' which Perseverance took a sample from. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech)

The surprising discovery of volcanic, "igneous," rocks by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover on the Jezero Crater's floor could be the key to unlocking Mars' climate history and revealing exactly when it was wet and potentially habitable, according to a comprehensive analysis of findings made during Perseverance's first year on the Red Planet.

"We were very excited to find igneous rocks," Ken Farley, a professor of geochemistry at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), project scientist on the mission and lead author of the new paper, told Space.com.

The discovery of volcanic rocks was a complete surprise, since the expectation was that the Perseverance rover would be landing on sedimentary rocks formed from mud and detritus laid down by the ancient lake that filled the Mars rover's landing site, Jezero crater, about 3.7 billion years ago.

"Most of us had expected to be studying rocks deposited by the lake, and it took us quite a while to come to terms with the fact that the rocks on the crater floor are igneous," Farley said

Perseverance landed on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021, with the 28-mile-wide (45-kilometers) Jezero Crater chosen as its landing site because of an extremely prominent and ancient river delta that spills into the crater. Planetary scientists and astrobiologists hope that such an environment would have been conducive to life billions of years ago. Indeed, some of the rocks found in Jezero Crater have a similar composition to rocks from Earth's deep subsurface, where the oxidation of iron through interactions with water can produce molecular hydrogen (a potential energy source for microbial life) and hydrocarbons such as methane that can act as the building blocks of some of life's more complex compounds.

The origin of Jezero's igneous rocks remains a mystery, since there are no obvious volcanic features in or near the crater, according to Farley. Perseverance has been studying two formations of igneous rock, named Séítah (after the Navajo word for "amidst the sand") and Máaz (the Navajo for "Mars"), with the latter overlying the former. Séítah is rich in olivine, which is a common volcanic mineral made from magnesium-iron silicate. Meanwhile, Máaz is interpreted as having formed from lava that flowed over Séítah.

The view from orbit by ESA's Mars Express spacecraft of the ancient river delta spilling sediment into Jezero Crater. (Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU-Berlin)

In a second paper, led by Svein-Erik Hamran, a professor of remote sensing at the University of Oslo, Norway, results from Perseverance's ground-penetrating radar show that the entire geological unit containing Séítah and Máaz extends underground and has been partially uplifted, placing it at an angle.

"We really are puzzling over that one," Farley said. "It's a very distinctive feature — an almost 1-kilometer-long [0.6 miles] ridge of rock that is tilted by about 10 degrees."

This finding is unexpected because to lift geological units like that requires exceptional tectonic forces, but Mars does not have plate tectonics, nor is there any strong evidence that it ever did. "It's safe to say that the rocks were tilted after they were deposited by some phenomenon yet to be determined," Farley added.

The lake filled Jezero sometime after Séítah and Máaz formed, covering them with mud that ultimately formed a deep layer of sedimentary rock. But as Mars' climate changed, the lake dried up, exposing the sediment. "Since then, it's been sitting there being eroded, mostly by wind," Farley said. "Three-and-a-half billion years' worth of blowing sand can really sculpt a landscape."

One of the things that sets Perseverance apart from previous rovers is its ability to cache samples of rock and soil for a future mission to retrieve and return to Earth. NASA and the European Space Agency are working together on a sample-return mission to launch in 2028, and Perseverance has taken vital samples of igneous rocks found on the crater floor. For his part, Farley can't wait to get his hands on them, because in a terrestrial laboratory igneous rocks can be more easily dated. Scientists would be able to provide dates to the timeline of Jezero Crater that are far more accurate than those estimated from counting craters (the more craters there are, the older a surface is).

"The igneous rocks and the lake are both very old, in the vicinity of 3.7 billion years," Farley said. "I say that glibly, because that age is based on crater counting and the uncertainty on that is plus or minus half a billion years. That is an enormous uncertainty!"

Another key measurement that the samples could provide is how long Mars — or at least Jezero Crater — was wet for. The crater floor has a distinct lack of clays, which typically form when rock is exposed to a lot of water over a long period, meaning that either the water in Jezero was long-lived but shallow, or that the lake didn't exist for very long, at least not on geological timescales.

"I would hazard less than a million years," Farley said.

However, groundwater could have persisted for a much longer time, leaving its signature on the samples collected by Perseverance. Already the rover has detected salts, such as perchlorate, in the cracks between the rocks, which could have come from interactions with groundwater or even with frost melt, and therefore they could be much younger than the lake.

Now that Séítah and Máaz have been characterized as best they can be, Perseverance has departed for new pastures on the river delta that was the chief reason for landing in Jezero in the first place.

"We were expecting to land very close to the delta and begin our exploration there, but it didn't quite turn out that way," Farley said. So, after exploring the igneous rocks, Perseverance embarked on a record-breaking 3-mile (5 km) sojourn to reach the clay-rich delta, showing off the capabilities of its advanced autonomous navigation.

"We're now on the delta," confirmed Farley. "We've been working there for the past few months and we are clearly now on sedimentary rock that was deposited in the lake."

Four papers describing Perseverance's findings were published on Thursday (Aug. 25), in the journals Science(opens in new tab) and Science Advances.

TWO FAKERS RAP

Surfing, robot memes and ‘upsetting’ Twitter: What we learned from Mark Zuckerberg’s Joe Rogan interview

Billionaire Facebook founder spent three-hours on The Joe Rogan Experience

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles

Zuckerberg says the FBI reached out to Facebook warning about Russian propaganda

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a surprise appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience where he sat for a three-hour interview with the controversial podcaster.

During the interview, which was filmed at Rogan’s studios in Austin, Texas, Zuckerberg pushed his company’s Metaverse expansion and claimed that it was the future for offices as well as home entertainment.

The notoriously private tech titan also gave a rare glimpse into his own life as he discussed his love of martial arts, UFC, and surfing with Rogan on the Spotify podcast.

Mark Zuckerberg updates Metaverse graphics after his avatar was likened to 2008 Nintendo game, and other top stories from August 21, 2022.

Here are five things we learned from it.

Zuckerberg spent a lot of the pandemic at his family ranch in Kauai, Hawaii

A ‘million’ bad messages a day: Mark Zuckerberg tells of struggles on Joe Rogan show

Mark Zuckerberg says he doesn’t have the time for Facebook

The Facebook founder told Rogan that it gave him the chance to be more active.

“I hate sitting in front of my desk, I feel that if I’m not active I’m just wasting away,” he said.

“My energy level and mood and how I interact with the world is based on...its so physical. I don’t believe we are just brains in a body, our physical being and actions we take there are as much of kind the experience of being human.”

And he told Rogan that he spent hours every morning in the ocean before starting work.

“I spent a lot of time down in Kauai early on. I got really into surfing and hydrofoiling and I would get up early and go and do that and then be really refreshed for my day of meetings,” he said. “That is not something I could do in Palo Alto.”

Tech boss does not have time for social media and doesn’t enjoy watching TV

Zuckerberg said that he is too busy to get on social media platforms, despite founding the world’s most successful one.

“Me personally I am just doing so many things that in practice that there are not (enough) hours in the day,” he told Rogan.

He said that in what free time he does have he does a “bunch of messaging” but that he does not watch much TV as it puts him in “a weird mental state”.

He has seen the Internet’s robot memes

At the end of the podcast, Rogan teased the Meta CEO about how stiffly he had drunk a glass of water when he appeared before Congress in 2018.

“I don’t like the way you sip water though, you sipping water at the Senate, you were sipping water like a robot,” Rogan joked and asked Zuckerberg to take a proper drink.

Zuckerberg laughed and took a swig of water from a cup, before defending himself.

“The Senate testimony is not exactly an environment that is set up to accentuate the humanity of the subject,” Zuckerberg said. “If you’re up there for six or seven hours you’re going to make some face that is worth making a meme out of.”

Finds being on Twitter for too long ‘upsetting’

“I find that it’s hard to spend a lot of time on Twitter without getting too upset,” he told Rogan.

“On the flip side, I think Instagram is a super positive space. I think some of the critiques we get there is that it’s very curated and potentially, in some ways, overly positive... It’s easy to spend time there, and kind of absorb a lot of the positivity.”


Zuckerberg added that the design of Instagram was a deliberate one, saying “I don’t want to build something that makes people angry.”

Dreads checking his phone in the morning


Zuckerberg said that when he gets up in the morning he starts his day by looking at his phone, where he normally finds a “million messages” and they are “usually not good”.

“People reserve the good stuff to tell me in person, right?” the billionaire told the podcaster. “So it’s like what’s going on in the world that I need to pay attention to? So it’s almost like every day you wake up you are punched in the stomach.”

White House Slams Republicans Who Criticized Student Debt Relief But Received PPP Loans

Nicholas Reimann

Forbes Staff

Aug 25, 2022

TOPLINE

 

The White House caused a stir on Twitter Thursday afternoon by calling out several Republican lawmakers who criticized President Joe Biden's move to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for many borrowers, pointing out that some of the critics’ businesses had more than $1 million in federal loans forgiven as part of the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program.

Then-Vice President Joe Biden laughs during an event at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on May 5, ... [+]

 AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

KEY FACTS

The White House account quote-tweeted criticisms of Biden's plan voiced by Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Vern Buchanan (Fla.), Markwayne Mullin (Okla.), Kevin Hern (Okla.) and Mike Kelly (Penn.), while also quoting a tweet from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) critical of funding the Ukrainian military.

Each quote tweet simply listed the member of Congress' name and how much in PPP loans they had forgiven: The White House says Buchanan had the most of the cohort with $2.3 million in forgiven loans, followed by Mullin ($1.4 million), Hern ($1 million), Kelly ($987,237), Gaetz ($482,321) and Greene ($183,504)

All six lawmakers received PPP loans by owning or being affiliated with businesses eligible under the program: For example, Hern’s fast food company and Mullin’s plumbing company received PPP loans, as did several of Kelly’s car dealerships and a company owned by Greene’s family.

The six tweets in the White House's thread were the six most popular on the platform published between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern time, according to data compiled by social media tracking firm NewsWhip.

CONTRA

Unlike federal student loans, PPP loans were doled out at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic with the intention of being forgiven, provided borrowers met certain qualifications like spending most of the funding on payroll costs and maintaining employee compensation levels.

KEY BACKGROUND

Biden has come under a barrage of criticism from Republican lawmakers for his move Wednesday to cancel $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year, with $20,000 in debt relief for those under the income threshold who received Pell Grants. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was among the first lawmakers to speak out against the plan, castigating it as "a slap in the face to every family who sacrificed to save for college." The GOP and a handful of Democratic moderates have also slammed the plan over concerns that it will further fuel inflation, but the White House has brushed off those worries. Biden suggested at a news conference Wednesday he would use PPP loan forgiveness to clap back at criticism, saying, “No one complained that those loans caused inflation.”

TANGENT

The Paycheck Protection Program was created under the CARES Act in March 2020, with the primary purpose of keeping workers on small businesses' payrolls during a period of widespread shutdowns in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been marred by reports of fraud and abuse, and instances in which larger and more well-heeled employers took out loans. A study published last month by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis determined "benefits flowed disproportionately to wealthier households rather than to the rank-and-file workers," and estimated that taxpayers spent $4 for every $1 that went toward workers' wages in PPP loans.

White House calls out Greene, other GOP 

critics on how their own loans were forgiven

BY JULIA MUELLER - 08/25/22

The White House on Thursday called out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) criticism of President Biden’s plan to forgive some student loans, noting that the congresswoman had Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven.

The Biden administration’s official Twitter account shared a video of Greene knocking the just-announced debt cancellation in a Newsmax interview as “completely unfair.”

“Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven,” the White House wrote, referring to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a lifeline extended to help small businesses stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data from ProPublica shows the loan and accrued interest for Greene’s company, Taylor Commercial, Inc., which reportedly would go to payroll, was forgiven.

The Hill has reached out to Greene’s office for comment.

The Biden administration is forgiving up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for Americans earning less than $125,000 per year, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients earning less than $125,000 per year.

Biden also announced yet another extension of a freeze on federal student loan repayments and interest accrual, just before the Aug. 31 expiration date set when the deadline was last pushed back.

“For our government just to say, you know, ‘Ok, well your debt is completely forgiven,’ … it’s completely unfair,” Greene said in the Newsmax interview, which aired Wednesday.

Taxpayers “shouldn’t have to pay off the great big student loan debt for some college student that piled up massive debt going to some Ivy league school,” Greene argued. “That’s not fair.”

MOST STUDENTS GETTING LOANS DON'T GO TO PRIVATE IVY LEAGUE SCHOOLS, STUDENTS AT THOSE SCHOOLS USE DADDY'S MONEY

Biden responded on Wednesday to reporters’ questions about whether the debt forgiveness is unfair to those who have already paid off or chose not to take out loans, taking a swing at tax cuts on the rich.NotedDC — Biden hitting the road?Mike Lee agrees to Senate debate against Evan McMullin

“Is it fair to people who, in fact, do not own multibillion-dollar businesses, if they see one of these guys getting all the tax cuts? Is that fair? What do you think?” Biden said after his remarks announcing the plan.

The debt relief move has garnered praise from Democrats, while Republicans have criticized the economics.

The White House Twitter account has created a thread below its response to Greene’s criticism, with similar responses to other Congressional critics of the student loan debt announcement. The congressmen whose PPP loan amounts were revealed include Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

House Democrats Demand Answers From Twitter CEO Agrawal On Whistleblower’s Security Allegations

Derek Saul

Forbes Staff

Aug 25, 2022,

TOPLINE

 

In a Thursday letter, the House Committee on Homeland Security asked Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to answer questions sparked by incendiary allegations of security violations from the social media company’s former head of security Peiter Zatko.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal is facing questions following a bombshell whistleblower complaint.

 GETTY IMAGES

KEY FACTS

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the committee, and Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Mass.), chairwoman of the cybersecurity subcommittee, expressed their “deep concern” about the allegations made by Zatko in a whistleblower complaint filed with the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission last month and first reported on Tuesday.

Zatko, who worked at Twitter from late 2020 until January 2022, claimed Twitter failed to protect user data and knowingly misled investors and regulators.

Clarke and Thompson noted Twitter has a “staggering security to-do list” if any of Zatko’s assertions are true.

The lawmakers requested written responses from Agrawal by September 8 on eight questions related to Zatko’s assertions, specifically focusing on a claim that Twitter knew its team focused on content moderation was understaffed and how it plans to address political misinformation ahead of November’s midterm elections.

KEY BACKGROUND

Twitter has denied all of Zatko’s accusations, and Agrawal called the whistleblower complaint a “false narrative riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and presented without important context” in a memo to employees Tuesday. Clarke and Thompson’s letter comes after several Democratic and Republican lawmakers called for an investigation into the company, pointing to Zatko’s claim that Twitter knowingly fell short on its 2011 agreement with the FTC on protections for user privacy and security.

TANGENT

A five-day trial for Twitter’s lawsuit against world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk looking to enforce Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the company will take place in October. Zatko alleged that Twitter has intentionally undercounted the presence of fake and spam accounts on the platform, a claim previously brought forward by Musk. The billionaire has stayed surprisingly quiet about the accusations, though he tweeted Tuesday a whistleblowing meme and a screenshot of a Washington Post report about Twitter’s board’s knowledge of “spam detection” efforts at the company.

SURPRISING FACT

Twitter shares are down more than 5% since Monday’s market close.

FURTHER READING

Twitter Whistleblower: Here's What Former Security Chief Peiter Zatko Claims (Forbes)

Lawmakers investigate Twitter security chief’s whistleblower allegations (Washington Post)