March for Science, Low Ratings

Quod Erat Demonstandum: Hundreds of thousands of people, if not more than a million, marched in 600 locations around the world yesterday in defense of science and scientific facts that are under assault under the Trump administration. They carried signs that said, “Scientific facts, not alternative facts,” and “Denial Is Not A Policy,” and “Make America Smart Again.” Among the marchers in view of the White House were thousands of actual scientists, nerds who’ve never marched in a protest in their lives.

President Trump says man-made climate change is “a hoax” and has called for drastic budget cuts for the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health. The president issued a statement yesterday saying, “We should remember that rigorous science depends not on ideology, but on a spirit of honest inquiry and robust debate.”

Environmental author Bill McKibben writes in the NY Times that Trump, who denies the existence of man-made climate change, is president during the last few moments of geological time in which mankind can save its own world. “The effects will be felt not immediately but over decades and centuries and millenniums,” McKibben says. “More ice will melt, and that will cut the planet’s reflectivity, amplifying the warming; more permafrost will thaw, and that will push more methane into the atmosphere, trapping yet more heat. The species that go extinct as a result of the warming won’t mostly die in the next four years, but they will die.”

French Toast: Voters went to the polls in France today in an election that may begin to determine whether the country continues on a path of moderate centrism or turns to nationalistic populism.

No candidate is expected to win outright today. Emmanuel Macron, 39, a centrist ex-banker who set up his party just a year ago, is the favorite in the polls favorite to beat far-right National Front chief Marine Le Pen in the two-person run-off on May 7.

Permawar: At least 140 Afghan soldiers died in Friday’s Taliban attack on a military base. The Afghans say there’s a shortage of coffins to handle so many bodies. As the Taliban continue to gain ground, casualties among the army are frightful. More than 6,700 members of the Afghan forces were killed last year.

Not in This Country: Authorities in Michigan have arrested two doctors in what may be the first criminal case involving female genital mutilation performed on two 7-year-old girls. The cultural practice popular mostly in Africa, but also in Asia, is illegal in the Unites States.

Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, 53, and his wife, Farida Attar, 50, were arrested Friday in Livonia, Michigan. Jumana Nagarwala, 44, a Detroit emergency room doctor, was arrested April 12, and is being held without bail because she’s considered a flight risk.  The procedure they are accused of performing limits a woman’s pleasure during sex, but is done when they are still children.

The Obit Page: Erin Moran, the actress who played Joanie on the television series “Happy Days” and “Joanie Loves Chachi,” was found dead yesterday at age 56. No cause of death was given.

Moran was a child actor who ended up with a 10-year run on Happy Days playing Ron Howard’s sister. The spinoff, “Joanie Loves Chachi,” was a dud and Moran’s career was pretty much over by age 22.

Low Rated: If President Trump was a new television show he would probably have been cancelled by now. The president’s approval rating is 42 percent, the lowest at this stage of a presidency going back to Dwight Eisenhower, according to a Washington Post-ABC News Poll. His disapproval rating is 53 percent. At this point eight years ago Barack Obama’s approval was 69 percent, his disapproval 26 percent. But he has played more golf than Obama.

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It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

  • Donald Trump courting the vote of the Christian right

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