Open Thread September 8, 2022

Yesterday, I got to thinking about Eyam village in Dorsetshire England, a village known in England and among tourists to England as “The Plague Village.” Of course it wan’t alone in having experienced the Black Death when is steamrolled through Europe, but it was unique in that it voluntarily decided to self-quarantine the entire village for a full year, at the end of which many of course had died, but there were also a substantial number of survivors, and also a group of residents who had never (apparently) become infected – at least they had never had symptoms. Of course everyone would have loved to know why. In 2002, an American geneticist had a theory and came to Eyam to investigate it. Because it was a small village, where most folk remained through the generations, and it wasn’t that difficult to trace throuh Church of England records those who had moved away, he was able to identify descendants of the survivors, and to obtain DNA samples. He found a gene (a mutation) and was also able to identify the mechanism through which the bodies of people who had this mutation were able to prevent the bacteria from getting to the places in the body where they could produce symptoms. Because of this mechanism, he and colleagues began to wonder whether the same mutation might also provide protection against AIDS. He believes he found some evidence that it could and did. Yes, I know a bacterium is not a virus. But the mechanism appears to work similarly on both, unlike anti-bacterial and anti-viral drugs. Since watching the documentary, I have been wondering what our medical professionals and science geeks here would say about this – so I’ll share both the link to the documentary and also a link to a PHD thesis on the village. The documentary CC is quite good excwept for British names, especially the name of the village itself, which sounds like “Eem.” The documentary is over 45 minutes and the dissertation is over 200 pages so I’m not expecting to hear from any of y’all very quickly. But i am curious what y’all make of it.

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

HuffPost – In Jackson, Mississippi, It’s Easy To Go Missing When No One Is Looking For You
Quote – But Jackson’s water crisis is what happens when a largely Black city, which also happens to be largely Democratic, needs funding from a Republican-controlled legislature. Jackson is what happens when people ignore those who need their help. Jackson’s failure to fix what has been a problem for years falls squarely on the shoulders of people who don’t care. That’s not hyperbolic.
Click through for article. Technically, this is an opinion piece. But it’s definitely full of facts.

Raw Story – Expert: Dems need to expand Supreme Court to counter the conservative assault on democracy
Quote – Most of the political scientists who study the degradation of democracy will tell you that the Republican Party has become a radical quasi-fascist authoritarian party over the last 20 years, and the problem is not Trump. I mean Trump may exacerbate it, but he’s a symptom, at least as much as he’s a cause. The problem is the voters, however many percent of people who are Christian white nationalists who think the country is losing its Christian identity and its white majority. They see their world as being existentially threatened. Trump has come along and said, “follow me,” but those people had to be ripe for it. There’s no way. Donald Trump could have been successful 15 or 20 years ago. The Republican Party has been engaging in extreme voter suppression measures and attacking labor unions for the past 20 past years and it’s a recognition that by 2024, white Christians will not be a majority of the electorate.
Click through for interview. Raw Story and AlterNet (I forget which one owns the other) have a lot of stories which are derivative, so I don’t often post from either. This one seems to be original. I must point out that it’s another reason we need a landslide in the midterms – or, at the very least, to gain seats in both houses. Because we don’t have the moxie to do this now. But if we don’t get it done before 2024, there will never be another free and fair election.

Food For Thought