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Friday Fun: Trump To Require All Science Article Peer Review Reports to End with the Word “Sad!”

Or "LOve!" Or "Scooped!" One word peer review! A game you can play at home! Sad! Love! Changes! Scooped! Redo! Copied! Not! Even! Wrong! Cite! Me! One word peer review is going to be Huuuuugggggggeeeeee! Trump To Require Reviewers To End All Reviews With the Word “Sad!” Washington DC – President-Elect Mr. Donald Trump has tweeted that he will require all reviewers for all journals and grant agencies to end all reviews with the word “Sad!” Trump tweeted that all reviewers should be required to select the wording for their reviews from an approved list of words. The approved list of words…

President Obama Slams Donald Trump: He "Doesn't Know Much About The World"

President Barack Obama said Donald Trump "doesn't know much about foreign policy...or the world generally" in response to Trump saying Japan and South Korea should obtain nuclear weapons.

Trump Against the World

Donald Trump continues his blitz to fulfill all his campaign promises at once, leaving snowflakes aghast and deplorables cheering for the proto-fascism on parade at The White House. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Trump issued a statement "in the name of the perished" without any reference to Jews or anti-semitism, and while his Chief of Staff spun this omission a sign of inclusivity, Mark Hoofnagle writes on Denialism Blog that "this is part of a long history of Holocaust denial, in which the experience, memory, and truth of Jewish survivors and victims is diminished and denied…

The Day After: Trump's Blackmail Threat Is Bogus

I've been thinking about Trump's attempt to blackmail the voters. He intimates that he might not accept the election results unless he wins. The word goes around that his followers will go to the streets and carry out acts of violence if Trump does not win. It is a bully tactic by a bully's bully. But I have been having thought about this, about how it is actually likely to go down. I mentioned this already. Some of his supporters will go and take over a wildlife reserve somewhere, for a few weeks. A few others will carry out acts of violence here and there, but by count, not much. Mostly…

What?? Trump administration says unions don’t have role in defending OSHA regulation?

Add this to the list of absurdities from the Trump Administration: the Justice Department (DOJ) is arguing that the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers (USW) should rely on DOJ attorneys to defend an Obama-era OSHA regulation. Seriously? The rule that DOJ says it will defend on the unions' behalf was adopted by OSHA in May 2016 and concerns the reporting of injuries by employers. It is being threatened by a frivolous lawsuit brought the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Home Builders, and the National Chicken Council.  The business associations filed their lawsuit in the U.S.…

Clinton and Trump on Western Water Policy

Donald Trump speaking in Fresno, California, May 2016 Clinton on Western Water Trump on Western Water “Recognizes that the current long-term drought across much of the West poses a dire risk to the health and prosperity of Western communities and believes the federal government can and should be a better partner in supporting state and locally-led efforts to improve water security.” “There is no drought. They turn the water out into the ocean.” Explicit policy proposals: Increase federal investment in water conservation through a coordinated, multi-agency Western Water Partnership…

Is Trump Yet Another Russian Oligarch?

There has been a lot of talk about Trump and Russia and Putin. I think most people watching this see some sort of connections. Some go so far as to say that Trump is literally a Russian agent. Here is an interesting perspective from intelligence expert Malcolm Nance, author of The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election ... About Nance's book: In April 2016, computer technicians at the Democratic National Committee discovered that someone had accessed the organization’s computer servers and conducted a theft that is best described as…

US government disbands climate-science advisory committee

Posting this with no comment because it is expected and so obviously bone-headed Trump: US President Donald Trump's administration has disbanded a government advisory committee that was intended to help the country prepare for a changing climate. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration established the committee in 2015 to help businesses and state and local governments make use of the next national climate assessment. The legally mandated report, due in 2018, will lay out the latest climate-change science and describe how global warming is likely to affect the United States,…

Donald Trump Is Marion Barry for Rural White People

Here's a thought that occurred to me during one of this week's sleepless nights: Donald Trump is Marion Barry for rural white people. That's probably too cryptic for a lot of people, since I'm now an old man who yells at clouds, but what I'm referring to is Barry's second election as mayor of DC, the one after he served time in federal prison for being busted smoking crack. Even prior to the bust, Barry was pretty much a disaster due to his drug problems, so when he ran again it was widely seen as a joke. But then he won. I was in grad school at Maryland at the time, and remember a lot of…

The Electoral College Map Five Days Out: Most Likely Trump Scenario is a Tie

The most likely way for Hillary Clinton to not win the presidency may be a tie between Secretary Clinton and Donald Trump. This is because, when one looks at the data a number of ways, and makes various adjustments, Clinton wins, often just barely, most of the time, except in what appears to be the worst case scenario. That scenario is Clinton losing most of what are called "Battleground States" -- but for the most part, only those that are truly in contention, so it is quite possible -- but retaining her "firewall" states, the states she really can not possibly lose. That puts Clinton 3…

My new job: CEO of the United States National Parks Service Library System

You know, I'm the best librarian. Just the best. My collection is huge. The very very best collection. Such a great collection. I love collecting. I'm very good at bibliographic instruction. Nobody does bibliographic instruction like me. Students love it. I can talk for hours. I have long, beautiful book stacks. Look at those book stacks, are they small book stacks? I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee you. And since I'm the best librarian, my pal The Donald, the President of the United States, has hired me to be the Chief Executive Officer for the National Parks Service Library…

Occupational Health News Roundup

At In These Times, Elizabeth Grossman writes about whether workplace safety will survive a Trump presidency, noting that “Trump’s transition team has said he will introduce a moratorium on new regulations and cancel executive orders and regulations ‘that kill jobs and bloat government.’” In interviewing labor, health and safety advocates, Grossman writes that a number of federal protections could land on the chopping block, including the new overtime rule, proposed beryllium rule and fall protections. Grossman writes: How does Trump’s promise to reduce and eliminate regulations square with…

Political Blues

I think in the end Hillary will win in November, but I become less confident about that by the day. Donald Trump's latest is to bring up Vince Foster. Those of us who remember the nineties will recall this as one of the many fake scandals the right-wing noise machine just invented from whole cloth. But for those millennials whose political memory starts with Obama, this is all new. And since Bernie Sanders has spent months telling them how untrustworthy she is, they are already primed to believe it. When this election started, I had some admiration for Sanders. I liked a lot of what he…

Beware Democratic Party Optimism

I've seen it said again and again that the Trump nomination will be a debacle for the Republicans. The Republican party will fall apart, become small, become insignificant. Clinton will easily crush trump. We're done. Ding dong. But this is all wrong. The Republican Party is in power in more state houses than ever, and in most cases, are solid in those state houses. There are more Republican governors than Democratic governors, and this is a recent phenomenon never seen before. Most are pretty solid. Even the much maligned Walker of Wisconsin could not be gotten rid of when he messed with…

2016 US Presidential Election: Trump/Carson/Somebody vs. Clinton (polls)

The current polling as shown on the Huffpo Pollster, using only "likely voters" and "non partisan polls" shows that Trump and Carson are neck and neck and have been close for a week. Most of the other candidates are so low it is impossible to imagine any of them rising to a level of significance. On the other hand, there are still so many clowns in the clown car that it is hard to say. If eight or nine of the candidates dropped out over the next few weeks, it is possible that someone will rise up. On the other hand, there is a thing about how the Republicans pick their candidate that may…

Trump went full on dictator this morning

I've made the point several times now. We live in a constitutional democracy, but many of the first line (and last line) protections are not enforceable laws, but rather, agreements made among people who all want to live in and respect a constitutional democracy. But if a large enough cadre of members of Congress, a gaggle of highly placed judges, or a President decide to act in a way that conflicts with those conventions, they can actually get away with quite a bit. The US Congress is run by such a cadre, pretending to engage in a democracy but willing to break the non-enforceable laws…

Donald trump, ha ha ha

Tired of tossers6, I seem to be having a ha ha ha series. And it's time for a two-month review of my brilliantly prescient Trump predictions. Except not really, because it's too early, but I think the failure of his repeal of Obamacare is a good time to take stock, without breaking my resolution to not post too much politics too often2. [Picture: us at The Bridge at Clayhithe7. We were supposed to be going to HoRR but it was cancelled due to bad weather... as you can see.] There are many people going "nya nya" to Trump; here's one in The Atlantic from the Republican viewpoint. Since repeal…

Antivaxers supported President-Elect Donald Trump. Now they want him to satisfy their demands.

If you’re a skeptic dedicated to promoting science and reason, these are scary times. My country, the United States of America, just unexpectedly elected a racist, misogynistic, conspiracy-mongering, scientific ignoramus (who, by the way, is rabidly antivaccine) as its next President thanks to the political relic known as the Electoral College. In actuality, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by close to 350,000 votes at the last tally I checked this morning, but now, as in 2000, thanks to the Electoral College, the candidate with the most popular votes is not President-Elect. Hillary…

Is The Friday News Dump A Pernicious Falsehood?

Member of the press are so cute. They evolve so slowly. They are like monotremes or something. It is said again and again that a) government agencies and other entities, especially things like the White House, dump their news late on Fridays because this avoids the normal five-day news cycle and allows hot stories to cool off, and possibly be ignored by Monday and, b) that doesn't really work any more because of social media and cable news, but still c) we will repeat meme one endlessly anyway so that we can look very smart by then repeating memes b) which brings us to d) rinse and repeat.…

And so the dismantling of public health begins: Donald Trump meets with antivaccine ideologue Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to discuss "vaccine safety" and autism

I remember when I first heard on Twitter yesterday afternoon that our President-Elect, Donald Trump, was going to meet with longtime antivaccine crank Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Remembering how Trump had met with antivaccine "hero" Andrew Wakefield before the election and how after the election antivaccine activists were practically salivating over the thought of what Trump might do with respect to the CDC and vaccines, I was reminded of just how much I fear for medical science policy under the Trump administration. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. For a moment, I actually…

Why Donald Trump Is Being So Bad To Puerto Rico

Visiting Arkansas, hanging around briefly with some people in the Real Estate business, I found a lot of hatred of Mexicans, whom they unimaginatively referred to as "spics" but making it clear they were talking about Mexicans, not some other spics. Sitting with a group of people talking about racism in an urban neighborhood in near Minneapolis, I found zero mention of dislike between whites per se and blacks per se. But Poles and Tibetans, they were very much disliked by people who were mostly but not all white. Years ago I remember being shocked by a fellow anthropologist who expressed a…

Worth reading: Hurricanes and Trump's war on science

First, some important pieces related to hurricanes: Cindy George in the Houston Chronicle: City's underserved population foresees uneven recovery Aaron Caroll & Austin Frakt at the New York Times' Upshot: The Long-Term Health Consequences of Hurricane Harvey Lisa Rein in the Washington Post: Trump would slash disaster funding to the very agencies he’s praising for Harvey response Adrian Florido at NPR: Houston's Undocumented Residents Left Destitute And Fearful In Harvey's Wake Vann R. Newkirk II in The Atlantic: The Legal Crises to Follow in Hurricane Harvey's Wake Sheri Fink &…

The Electoral College Map One Week Out: Clinton Victory Likely But Not Assured

A couple of weeks ago, it was impossible to find a pundit or poll maven who saw a Trump victory as a possibility. I made the audacious claim at the time that this was incorrect, and I've been taking heat from it since then. Much of this widespread misunderstanding is ironically caused by the good work of the folks at FiveThirtyEight and their imitators such as the New York Times, who have been publishing probability statements about the outcome. If I know for near certain that Mary is going to beat Joe in an election, then I can say something like this: Probability of winning Mary: 97% Joe…

The Donald Trump War on Science: Scholarly and Professional Society Statements in Support of Open Science Communications

It's been a very bizarre week for those of us interested in science policy and the interface between government research and the public interest. To say the least: Trump bans agencies from 'providing updates on social media or to reporters'. Which is, of course, very reminiscent of the Canadian Conservative government under Stephen Harper and how they muzzled government scientists. Where Canadian scholarly and professional societies weren't really prepared for what happened and took a while to respond, in the US these societies have been quite a bit more pro-active in responding President…

Will Claims Of Voter Fraud Lead To Voter Suppression?

It is generally felt that Trump's claims of voter fraud, especially, apparently, by illegal aliens -- Or some kind of alien, not sure -- could be a prelude, or excuse for some kind of widespread voter suppression campaign. In any event, these repeated claims were once thought of as an odd and embarassing bit of yammering by the President elect, but now they have become a keystone of the White House's current activism, foregrounded by the hapless Sean Spicer, who appears to not believe the claims himself. From NBC: The White House doubled down on President Donald Trump's widely debunked…

You think this year's election is strange?

Clinton beat Trump by a large margin, by electoral standards. A couple of percent is actually a lot these days. Yet so far it appears that Trump won the electoral vote, even though those votes are not yet cast and who knows what is actually going to happen. But this year, strange as it it and stranger thought it may become, is not the strangest ever. That goes to 1876. Wow.

Donald Trump's Penis

I don't really want to write a blog post about Trump's junk. But I did feel a responsibility to get this image, the one at the top of this post, out there. If you want to know more about penis size, including the large vs. small hand as indicator of large vs. small penis idea, I've got you covered here. And let's hope we can keep Trump covered as well. Hard to say where this is all going.

Trump: Puerto Rico Did Not Suffer A Real Catastrophe, And It Is All Fixed Anyway

Today, Donald Trump told Puerto Rico that they dodged a bullet, that the hurricane that hit them was not a real catastrophe, that only a couple of people died, that he, Trump, is doing a great job, but would Puerto Rico please try to spend less money on fixing things up. https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/915249263520690177 Well, I'm certainly glad that problem is managed. Great work! Oh wait ... Is it too early to lighten the mood a bit?

Federal biomedical science policy under Donald Trump, nearly 100 days in

From the moment that Donald Trump was unexpectedly elected President, I couldn't help but be concerned about what President Trump would mean for medical science and science in general. I was not alone in my concerns. Of course, now, five months later, we know that such concerns were quite valid. If funding is a primary indicator, then, if anything, my concerns expressed last November were understated. For example, in his first budget, Trump proposed cutting the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget by 19%, and, then, not content with that, proposed cutting $1.2 billion from this fiscal…

The American Auto Industry Moves South: West Wing vs. Donald Trump

The West Wing Version: Josh, Toby, Leo, and Donna are in Leo's office. They have just gotten word that a major auto manufacturer plans to build a plant in Mexico, and will likely close a corresponding plant in Michigan. Josh is pacing, Leo is behind his desk, Donna is standing near the door, and Toby is sitting in a chair smoking an unlit cigar. All four had just come from a poker game with the President and others. Josh Leyman: Screw the auto industry. If they decide to move another plant to Mexico, we just slap a 35% tariff on them! Leo Mcgarry: That won't go well, Josh, and you know it.…

Republican Fast Food Pusher Andrew The Putz Puzder Not In Labor

As the Republican led US Senate has voted to confirm (or deny) the party leader's cabinet picks, they've done a poor job, approving, for example, people who have acted in direct opposition to the areas of government they are expected to serve, or in some cases, being abjectly incompetent. The Republicans in the Senate were not vetting the nominees. Some of the Democrats were, but even there, we saw failures of conscious. The Senators need to be reminded that the critical choices made by the Trump administration tend to be poor ones. Look, for example, at the first NSA choice. General…

Schadenfreude: At the FDA, it looks as though Donald Trump is about to sorely disappoint his antivaccine supporters

I’ve seen it noted that our new President-Elect seems to be selecting his cabinet officers and directors of federal bureaucracies based on how much they oppose the mission of the department they are supposed to head. For instance, to head the Department of Health and Human Services, he picked an orthopedic surgeon who belongs to an organization utterly opposed to any role of the federal government in health care and who himself looks poised to dismantle as much of the Affordable Care Act as he can. For the Department of Energy, he picked Rick Perry, a man so dumb that when he was asked during…

Warming Oceans, Trump, Cat Litter

A potpourri of miscellany: Human Caused Climate Change and the Oceans It is great to see our local political non-print non-TV news agency, MNPost, covering an important climate change story with local connections. I'll be writing John Abraham's research up myself shortly. An intriguing and important-sounding new research paper caught my eye on Sunday, with its finding that the world’s oceans have been warming at a much faster pace than is generally recognized. Because seawater holds more than 90 percent of the excess heat that arrives from the sun but, thanks to greenhouse gases, isn’t…

People are missing the importance of Trump's voter fraud claims

You know that Donald Trump has been claiming very clearly and precisely that he won both the electoral and popular vote, and that it only looks like he did not win the popular vote because of voter fraud, meaning, that a certain number of American citizens voted twice, or otherwise rigged the elections. In fact, he explicitly says that millions of Americans voted illegally, accounting for the >2 million popular vote margin that Secretary Clinton currently holds. Messing with voting in this manner is a serious crime, perhaps often a felony. What we have here is Donald Trump accusing a…

After the Primaries, What Next?

Donald Trump is now the presumed Republican candidate for President of the United States. Prior to Cruz and Kasich dropping out of the race, it was not 100% clear that Trump would achieve enough delegates to "lock" the convention, but he was vey close. I am not sure if Trump will be the only candidate on the ballot for the remaining GOP primaries. Had Cruz and Kasich remained in the race, my estimate was that Trump would be about six delegates short of a lock, but even if those candidates are still listed on some future ballots, it seems likely now that Trump will win enough delegates to go…

Faking explosive evidence to discredit the legit press to protect Trump

Part of the active effort to defend Trump and his administration and campaign against accusations that they directly engaged with the Russians to alter the outcome of the 2016 presidential election appears to be the faking of explosive documents, sent to news agencies. When these fake documents are then used, and subsequently discredited, the news agency, the reporters, the specific story at hand, and the entire investigation against Trump and his people all lose credibility. Here, Rachel Maddow reports on a document sent to "Send it to Rachel." Who is behind this attack? I assume someone…

Trump Attacks New York Times, Makes Grammatical Error

President Elect Donald Trump is tweeting again. See above. Phenomena is plural, phenomenon is singular. Here, the New York Times is being chastised for not covering the "Trump Phenomenon" in a way that the president elect finds acceptable. That is bordering very closely on a violation of the first amendment. Clearly, The Donald somehow managed to get his hands on his twitter account again. His handlers need to tighten up security in that area. Here is a link to the tweet: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/797805407179866112

Who Won The Iowa Caucus 2016? (Final)

UPDATE (Tuesday Morning): In the Democratic Caucus, Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders by an amount so small that the caucus results have to be regarded as tie. Clinton: 49.86% Sanders: 49.57% O'Malley: 0.57% Lesson learned: Those who caucused for O'Malley for ideological reasons, knowing he could not possibly win, account for a larger percentage of the overall caucus than the difference between the top two contenders. If most of those O'Malley voters would have been Sanders voters had O'Malley not been in the race, then they effectively Nadered Sanders. Ted Cruz won the GOP caucus. Cruz:…

Good news: We're going to Mars. Bad news: During Trump's second term

The Washington Post: What we are reporting here isn't fake news. But it doesn't feel exactly like real news, either. It's in that foggy realm of Trump news in which everything is slightly ambiguous and wobbly and internally inconsistent and almost certainly improvisational and not actually grounded in what you could call “government policy.” LOL On being told that a reasonably ambitious plan for going to Mars would get humans there in the 2030s, Trump directed NASA to speed it up and make sure it happens between 4 and 8 years from now.

Will Trump Appear On The Cover Of Vogue?

Donald Trump is meeting, this morning, with the editor of Vogue and the owners of Vogue's overarching publishing company. This can only mean one thing. We will be seeing The Donald on the cover of the famous magazine sooner than later. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/817374875962769408 This revelation comes after a long night of sweaty drunken tweets by the Oligarch, in which he compared himself favorably too Arnold Schwarzenegger. The good news: Trump's mind is on things other than how to run the United States government. That has to be a good thing.

Republicans are weakening the "civilian led" US military

The Republicans don't care at all bout the law, the Constitution, freedom, security, or the people of the United States. One way we ensure civilian control of the military is by restricting military associated individuals from being secretary of defense. It is not like it can't happen, but there has to be a waiting period. Trump's current pick for this position is too fresh out of the military to legally take this roll. So, the Republicans are changing the rules. Just for their own guy, though. Just for Trump's appointment. Roll over, Republicans. Sit. Heel.

How to avoid nuclear apocalypse: this will only take you a few minutes.

Right now the number one problem we face in the US is the fact that a) the president of the United States can not be stopped or deterred from launching nuclear missiles if he choses to do so, by design; and b) Donald Trump will be inaugurated, if the electoral college so decides, in January. If you are in a state that has electors slated to vote for Trump. send your city and state name to this email address: votehrc@gmail.com You will then receive instructions as to what to do next. Pass it on.

The Electoral College Vote Three Days Before The Election

Who will win the electoral vote on Tuesday, November 8th? It is not what you say, but how you say it. For several days now, I've been told by some how totally wrong I am in my various analyses of the electoral map. Half the naysayers say "But but FiveThirtyEight says this, so you are wrong" and the other half say "No, no, Sam Wang at Princeton says that, so you are wrong!" But all along, we've all three been saying something very similar. The difference in how we say it is, Sam Wang says something like "I'll eat my shorts if Clinton doesn't win" and I say "I think Clinton will win, but…

Pregnancy, C-Sections, and Postpartum Depression Are Preexisting Conditions in New American Healthcare Act

This is from Parents magazine: When you talk about “preexisting conditions,” you probably think of things like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But the reality is that healthcare companies consider a whole slew of common health concerns preexisting conditions. Odds are, if you’re a mom, you probably already have one of them. And now that the American Healthcare Act passed the House of Representatives today—if it becomes law, your health insurer could charge you thousands more for your coverage or reduce your insurance coverage because of these "preexisting conditions." "Things that are…

The Saga of Mickey Kaus

This might be too inside baseball for a lot of people, but those who have been reading political bogs for a long time might find it interesting. BuzzFeed has a lengthy profile of Mickey Kaus. When I first started taking politics seriously in the mid-nineties, Kaus was a writer for The New Republic, and a very good one at that. He was someone I paid a lot of attention to. He was very much in the mold of Michael Kinsley, who at that time was basically the go-to guy for sensible liberal commentary. He was also one of the first serious political bloggers, largely responsible for defining the…

More on what US scientists can learn from the Canadian War on Science

I've been thinking a lot about this the last week or so, with media appearances already out there and more to come. The list of links I've amassed is quite impressive, a significant number to add to the post highlighting Sarah Boon's advice. But that was a week or so ago, which seems like an eternity in Donald Trump years. So perhaps it's time to take another look at the issues around science advocacy and politics in the Canadian context. My advice? Don't bring a test tube to a Bunsen burner fight. Mobilize, protest, form partnerships, wrote op-eds and blog posts and books and articles, speak…

Inauguration day: How President Trump could undermine trust in vaccines

In a (very) few short hours, Donald Trump will take the oath of office and become the 45th President of the United States. I realize that I don't normally blog about politics, at least other than that related to medicine, but I make no bones about it. I'm dreading 12 Noon ET on January 20, 2017. There is more than enough reason for dread given the likely effect on medical science, at the very least. Also, Donald Trump is antivaccine. He's shown it through meetings with Andrew Wakefield and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, the former of whom spoke a year ago on a "Conspira-Sea Cruise" and the latter of…

Is the Trump-Russia scandal a decade long plan just now unraveling?

From the Washington Post: The special counsel investigating Russian election meddling has requested extensive records and email correspondence from the White House, covering everything from the president’s private discussions about firing his FBI director to his White House’s handling of a warning that President Trump’s then-national security adviser was under investigation, according to two people briefed on the requests. White House lawyers are now working to turn over internal documents that span 13 categories investigators for the special counsel have identified as critical to their…

Donald Trump Signs Up for On Line Dating

A statement has just been released by the White House, regarding President Donald Trump: President Trump has a magnetic personality and exudes positive energy, which is infectious to those around him. He has an unparalleled ability to communicate with people, whether he is speaking to a room of three or an arena of 30,000. He has built great relationships throughout his life and treats everyone with respect. He is brilliant with a great sense of humor … and an amazing ability to make people feel special and aspire to be more than even they thought possible. There are a thousand ways to…

Will 2017 be the antivaccine year?

]As hard as it is to believe, I've been dealing with the antivaccine movement since at least the early 2000s. Back then, I didn't have a blog, either this one or my not-so-super-secret other blog, and most of my online activities were restricted to Usenet. For those of you who don't remember Usenet, which has largely become the province of trolls and spam these days, it is a massive set of online discussion boards on literally thousands of topics. Indeed, I first encountered antivaccine advocates on Usenet and started to learn the sorts of pseudoscientific arguments they make, so that when I…