Month: April 2025

Billionaire Vs Billionaire

This is what our economy has come to….billionaires in competition….itr has always been about profits but there seems to be something deeper than that there days.

Musk has Starlink and now Bezos has Project Kuiper which will be giving Starlink a run for its money….(it is hoped)

Amazon has launched its first Project Kuiper internet satellites, signaling its official arrival in the fast-expanding race to blanket the globe with broadband from space. The company launched its first batch of 27 Project Kuiper internet satellites into orbit Monday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the AP reports. The satellites were carried by the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. The launch marks Amazon’s entry into the satellite internet market, currently dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its more than 7,000 Starlink satellites. The Kuiper satellites will eventually reach an altitude of almost 400 miles.

Two test satellites for Project Kuiper were launched in 2023, also using an Atlas V rocket. Project officials said the newest satellites have major upgrades over the previous test models. Each satellite is coated with a mirror film designed to scatter reflected sunlight to address concerns from astronomers about night sky visibility. Stargazers and astronomers have criticized the increase in low-orbiting satellites, arguing they interfere with observations and may increase the risk of satellite collisions. The European-based OneWeb satellite constellation also has hundreds of satellites, but they operate at a higher orbit.

Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos, plans to launch more than 3,200 Kuiper satellites with an aim of delivering fast and affordable broadband internet globally. Bezos now also runs Blue Origin, another private rocket company. Amazon has purchased dozens of launches from both United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin, as well as other providers, to further deploy Kuiper satellites. The Verge recently reported that Project Kuiper is behind schedule; its FCC license requires it to have launched 1,600 satellites into orbit by next summer. Bloomberg reports the company has been struggling to increase satellite production at the rate it needs to.

It is all about the multi-billion dollar government projects….mo money, mo money….

As long as I was writing about Bezos I read a report of something that Amazon was considering….

Earlier this month, economic effects from the Trump administration’s tariffs blitz hadn’t yet made their way to Amazon, though that’s been changing in recent days as vendors have started to raise their prices, stating that keeping their costs to consumers the same amid the trade war is “unsustainable,” per CNBC. Now, the online giant is apparently trying to separate itself somewhat from the rising price tags: A source tells Punchbowl News that Amazon will soon be posting how much the tariffs are adding to each product it sells—meaning next to the total price of the product will be, in black and white, the added fee for consumers to see for themselves.

That news comes at the same time that the Financial Times reports Amazon has been putting the squeeze on suppliers to keep costs stable for consumers, according to a trio of vendor consultants. “Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla in the room,” Scott Miller, a consultant and former Amazon vendor manager, tells the outlet. “Brands have grown dependent on the platform and have little choice.” In a statement, Amazon notes: “We’re working with our broad, varied range of valued selling partners in our store to support them in adapting to the developing environment while maintaining low prices for customers.”

Two consulting sources tell the FT that Amazon has nixed a bunch of orders from China and pivoted to scooping up merchandise from suppliers carrying American inventory. Third-party sellers on the site are starting to get spooked by the tariffs upheaval: Reuters reports that some who hawk China-made goods are cutting down on the deals they’d planned to offer for Amazon Prime Day, which takes place in July, or pulling out of Prime Day altogether. “Last year Prime Day was a no-brainer,” says Rick Sliter, CEO of a therapeutic-pillow company that last year saw Prime Day sales that exceeded a typical day’s sales by seven times. “But if tariffs continue, discounting gets thrown out the window.”

I believe this is damn good idea….let people see just how much all these stupid tariffs is costing them in their purchases….

Just when I was giving Bezos a good pat on the back disappointing news breaks….

The Trump administration is taking none too kindly to reports that Amazon might slap labels on their imported wares letting consumers know how much tariffs affected the price. “I just got off the phone with the president about … Amazon’s announcement. This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday, Politico reports. The honeymoon between President Trump and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could be cooling in light of the report, with Leavitt holding up a printout of a 2021 story about Amazon’s ties with China with Bezos’ photo featured prominently. It’s “another reason why Americans should buy American,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt questioned why Amazon didn’t enact similar labeling “when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years,” per the Independent, which notes independent retailers that depend on imports account for some 60% of the behemoth’s sales. Amazon, however, is quickly distancing itself from the initial Punchbowl report. In a statement to USA Today, Amazon spokeswoman Rachael Lighty ruled out the new label: “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products,” she said. But “this was never approved and is not going to happen.”

So one of the world’s richest men caves to the likes of Little Donny…..that is a gutless move….and just when I thought there was integrity left in these social parasites….what did he say to Bezos to scare him off?

Any takes on these subjects?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More 100 Days Antics

On his 100 anniversary our boy in DC went to Michigan to run his mouth…..my granddaddy had a saying about people like Donny…’they talk out of both sides of their mouth’….but enough reminiscing….what did he go on and on about?

President Trump on Tuesday celebrated the 100th day of his second term—yet spent much of his rally marking it in campaign mode, bringing up past grudges and grievances. The AP reports that at the rally at Macomb Community College in suburban Detroit. Trump repeatedly mocked his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, attacking his mental acuity and even how he appears in a bathing suit. He again claimed he won the 2020 presidential election. And he attacked polling and news coverage not favorable to him. “I miss the campaign,” he said at one point, per the New York Times.

  • Trump again and again returned to immigration, his signature issue, at the rally that marked his largest political event since returning to the White House—boasting about his administration’s “mass deportation” efforts that have sent arrests for illegal crossings along the US-Mexico plummeting. “Removing the invaders is not just a campaign pledge,” Trump said. “It’s my solemn duty as commander-in-chief. I have an obligation to save our country.” He paused his remarks to play a video of of alleged gang members arriving at a notorious prison in El Salvador, with the crowd cheering as images of deportees having their heads shaved were played.
  • We’re here tonight in the heartland of our nation to celebrate the most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country,” Trump said, standing before large electronic screens reading “100 Days of Greatness.” He later added: “We’ve just gotten started. You haven’t even seen anything yet.”
  • “After a lifetime of unelected bureaucrats stealing your paychecks, attacking your values and trampling your freedoms, we are stopping their gravy train, ending their power trip, and telling thousands of corrupt, incompetent and unnecessary deep state bureaucrats, ‘you’re fired!'” Trump said during the 90-minute speech to crowd of around 3,000.
  • Trump gave shoutouts to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CNN commentator Scott Jennings, inviting the Republican consultant up on stage, the AP reports. Trump ended as he always did on the campaign trail, proclaiming he will “fight, fight, fight” and “win, win, win.”
  • The Times reports that the Democratic National Committee issued a statement in response to Trump’s rally: “While Donald Trump lives in his delusions, Michigan families—along with millions of working families across this country—are forced to live with the consequences of his dangerous, chaotic, and economy-destroying agenda.”

He said he missed campaigning….what the Hell was this rally….

Then there was his 100 days interview with ABC News….would we call it contentious?

In addition to his Michigan rally, President Trump gave an interview to ABC News to mark his 100th day in office Tuesday, and it wasn’t exactly a friendly one. Words like “contentious” and “testy” were being used to describe Trump’s sit-down with Terry Moran, an anchor and senior national correspondent for the network—whom Trump said he picked for the interview because he’d “never heard of” him before. The two clashed on topics including tariffs, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the administration’s mass deportation efforts, per outlets including the Independent and the Hill. Some key quotes:

  • Kilmar Abrego Garcia: While discussing the accidental deportation of Abrego Garcia, Trump sparred with Moran over whether the man had MS-13 tattoos (many have said the photos appearing to show such tattoos have been digitally altered, which Moran pointed out to Trump, to no avail). “They’re giving you the big break of a lifetime, you know, you’re doing the interview,” Trump said during this exchange. “I picked you because, frankly, I never heard of you … but you’re not being very nice.”
  • Tariffs: After a back-and-forth on Trump’s trade policies got heated at times, with Trump downplaying Moran’s questions about concerns for the US economy, Moran eventually asked, “So your answer to the concern about the tariffs is, ‘Everything’s gonna be hunky-dory?'” Trump replied, “Everybody’s gonna be just fine. It wouldn’t have been if I didn’t do this. I had a choice. I could leave it, have a nice, easy time. But I think ultimately you wouldn’t had an implosion. Our country had inflation that was worse than they’ve ever had it before. You don’t mention that. Why don’t you mention that?”
  • Hegseth: Trump defended his defense secretary despite reports of chaos at the Defense Department and multiple allegations of security breaches involving Hegseth. Asked by Moran if he had 100% confidence in Hegseth, the president replied, “I don’t have 100% confidence in anything, OK? Anything. Do I have a hundred percent? It’s a stupid question.”
  • Putin: Trump also acknowledged he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin “wanted to get all of Ukraine, once he went in.” He added, “I think if I didn’t win the election, he would have gotten all of Ukraine, he would have taken all of Ukraine.”
  • Authoritarianism: Asked how he would respond to people who are concerned the country is sliding into authoritarianism, Trump replied, “I would hate them to think that. I’m doing one thing, I’m making America great again.”

As usual this interview was never about informing the viewers but rather a chance to take shots at anyone that he considers ‘hostile’.

All in all it was a day that will be remembered for  what your had for breakfast….nothing else.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Meanwhile Back To Ukraine

Sorry to bring this conflict up again since most people could care less but I am an international relations nerd and it interest me….

At the somber funeral for the Pope Donny made time to hold a meeting with Zelenskyy in the Vatican chapel….

President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met briefly on Saturday before the funeral for Pope Francis as the American leader steps up pressure to end Russia’s war against Ukraine. It was the first face-to-face encounter between the presidents since they argued during a heated Oval Office meeting at the White House in late February, per the AP. After the funeral, on his flight home, Trump questioned in a social media post whether Russian President Vladimir Putin is committed to ending the war. “There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days” in Ukraine, Trump wrote, per NBC News. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along.”

Part of any deal will involve the Donbas region and the Crimea….and Donny made a pronouncement on that situation…..

President Trump spoke five words in an interview with Time that won’t please Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky: “Crimea will stay with Russia.” It’s only the latest development about the Crimean peninsula, which has emerged this week as a sticking point in any peace deal to end the war with Russia.

  • The interview was published Friday, and Trump spoke those words on Tuesday. The next day, he also cast doubt on whether Ukraine should retain control of the peninsula seized by Russia in 2014. In a Truth Social post, Trump criticized Zelensky after the Ukraine leader—in an interview with the Wall Street Journal—flatly rejected any peace plan that calls for it to cede control of Crimea.
  • “This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion,” wrote Trump. “Nobody is asking (Zelensky) to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?”
  • An analysis at the BBC explains that Zelensky cannot cede control because it’s seen as a “red line” within his country. An American-designed peace plan, however, seems to call for just that, though details remain murky. “Trump is correct that there is little chance of Ukraine regaining Crimea in the foreseeable future, and it is in reality—de facto—under Russian control,” writes Paul Kirby. “But that is a far cry from recognizing it as legal.”
  • Another analysis at the New York Times points out that Zelensky is constrained on Crimea by Ukraine’s own constitution—and by political realities. “There is not a single Ukrainian politician who would vote to legalize the occupation of Ukrainian territories,” says Kostyantyn Yeliseyev, former presidential deputy chief of staff. “For members of Parliament, it would be worse than political suicide.”

Zelenskyy will not accept this….at least that is the position he held for all these years.

Donny seems to think that Zelenskyy is read to give up Crimea….

US President Donald Trump said he believed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was ready to concede Crimea to Russia as part of any ceasefire deal, as talks on a truce entered what Washington called a critical week on Monday.

Trump also stepped up pressure on Vladimir Putin, saying the Russian president should “stop shooting” and sign an agreement to end the grinding war that started with Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.

Trump’s comments came a day after he met Zelensky during the funeral of Pope Francis, breaking the ice after a major row between the US and Ukrainian leaders at the White House in February.

“Oh, I think so,” Trump told reporters in Bedminster, New Jersey, when asked whether he thought Zelensky was ready to “give up” Crimea — despite the Ukrainian president repeatedly saying he never would.

Trump Thinks Zelensky Ready to Give Up Crimea to Russia

Is he really willing to give up Crimea?

The mayor of Kyiv had a different take….

Ukraine may have to cede territory in order to secure “temporary” peace with Russia, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko told the BBC in an interview published Friday.

“One of the scenarios is… to give up territory. It’s not fair. But for the peace, temporary peace, maybe it can be a solution, temporary,” the former boxing champion said.

His comments came after a Russian missile-and-drone attack on his city killed at least 12 people and injured more than 80.

Klitschko told the BBC that he was “responsible for the capital of Ukraine” and that President Volodymyr Zelensky may have to accept a “painful solution” to achieve peace.

Ukraine May Have to Cede Land ‘Temporarily’ for Peace: Kyiv Mayor

After Donny was skeptical of Putin….Vlad announced a temporary ceasefire….

Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire in Ukraine on May 8-10 to mark the World War II Victory Day, reports the AP. The move comes as President Trump’s administration decides whether a deal to end the more than three-year war is within reach.

  • The Kremlin said the truce will start on May 8 and last through the end of May 10. The Kremlin said that Putin ordered the full cessation of hostilities on “humanitarian grounds” to mark the May 9 holiday celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany.
  • Just before the ceasefire announcement, Ukraine and Russia targeted each other with long-range strikes. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces downed 119 Ukrainian drones overnight, most of them over Russia’s Bryansk border region. In Ukraine, air raid sirens rang out across the country Monday morning. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
  • The outcome of a push by Trump’s administration to swiftly end the fighting remains unclear, clouded by conflicting claims and doubts about how far each side might be willing to compromise amid deep hostility and mistrust. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that this week would be “very critical.” The US needs to “make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
  • Trump said over the weekend that he harbors doubts about Putin’s sincerity in pursuing a deal, as Russian forces have continued to strike civilian areas of Ukraine while the talks have proceeded. But on Friday, Trump described a brokered settlement on the war as “close.”

Is this a break in the ice?

No one trust anyone so this may be a fart in the wind….but the Ukrainian people need a break from the death and destruction…

This situation gets more convoluted month by month.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“Lego ergo scribo”

It’s Always About The Money

For decades, since the election of Bubba Clinton, I have been saying that the Dems have lost their way when they embraced the big bucks from donors and now after 30 years a Dem is admitting what many of us on the Left have been saying for a very long time.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) discussed the influence of money on the political system in the U.S., implicating his own party in the corruption he said it causes.

“I think the entire American political system is corrupted by money,” Murphy said on a Wednesday episode of the “Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know” podcast.

Murphy also told comedian Hasan Minhaj that his party isn’t exempt.

“I think Democrats have been corrupted by money as well, much less than Republicans have been, [and] in a much less overt way, but I’d think it’d be silly to pretend as if Democrats, not everyone, but some Democrats … ultimately, are impacted by the fact that they’re spending a lot of time with donors.”

“But is that a real message, ‘Hey, we’re less corrupt than the other guys?’” Minhaj questioned.

“No, you have … to show how you’re gonna fix the problem,” Murphy responded.

In the wake of the 2024 elections, Murphy offered his thoughts on Democrats’ losses in a thread on the social platform X.

“We don’t listen enough; we tell people what’s good for them,” Murphy said at the time about the American left on social media.

“And when progressives like [Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)] aggressively go after the elites that hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists. Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base,” he added.

Sanders also alleged around the same time that Democrats had mostly ignored working-class priorities, saying that ignorance was a major factor in costing them the White House and Senate in the recent elections.

“The country is in a revolutionary mood today because they see that the whole game is rigged, that if you have money and power, you are in a position to just get more and more of it, and everybody else is left treading water,” Murphy told Minhaj.

(thehill.com)

He said they identified the problem….a bold statement and one that seems to leave an open ended conclusion.  They know the problem then tell us just how in the Hell they will fix it.

Identifying the problem is not the solution….and I doubt there is a solution in their repertoire for the money addiction has gone on for way too long.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Democrats, The Joke That Just Keeps Giving

It is regular for me to talk down the Dems in Congress and elsewhere….to me they are as useless as tits on a boar.  They have rhetoric and that is about it….there is no fire in their bellies to actually work for the people they pretend to speak for.

Every election we get a plethora of ideas that they say they will fight for and then when the election is over they go back to the silliness of bi-partisanship.

It is not working and yet they hang onto the pipe dream.

So far all they have done is talk….one Dem senator broke the filibuster record….he talk for 25 hours and all he did was set a record nothing has changed since his long boring speech.

Dem loyal are starting to see just how useless the Dems in Congress have become….and the survey shows their disdain for these spineless toads….

Active progressive and Democratic-leaning voters are interested in seeing primary challengers to Democrats who represent the “status quo” and are “failing to meet the moment,” according to a survey from the group Our Revolution, which polled more than 4,100 voters meeting that description between April 18-20.

According to survey results published Wednesday, 92% want primary challenges to status quo Democrats who aren’t generating enough grassroots energy—and 96% support “transforming the party from within,” which Our Revolution defines as electing Democratic challengers who reject corporate political action committee (PAC) money and are “ready to take the fight directly to [President Donald] Trump and his enablers.”

Our Revolution, a progressive political organizing group launched as a continuation of Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign, said in a statement Wednesday that the results reveal a deep frustration with Democratic Party leadership.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/our-revolution-primaries-democrats-david-hogg

Even when the Dem loyal tell them it is time to abandon this moronic centrists BS….they still are stuck in the center where nothing of substance ever gets done.

A survey taken by Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies and Harris between April 9-10 found that 72% of Democratic voters supported politicians like Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), “who are calling on Democrats to adopt a more aggressive stance towards Trump and his administration and ‘fight harder’,” rather than leaders who are willing to “compromise” with President Donald Trump.

Just 28% of Democratic voters said they support a so-called “moderate” approach. Across the political spectrum, 53% of respondents said they favored politicians who are willing to work with Trump—down two percentage points from the Harvard/Harris March survey.

Dems are such monumental losers….but why?

One indication is the youth vote…..they young do not trust Dems to get the things they promise done.

The Dems over the past 20-25 years has lost the support of the working class no matter how much crap they promise they still screw them every time…

The Dem shave their hands full between now and 208 to prove the working class that they have their best interest at heart.

Can they convince them that they will fight for their desires?

The problem is the party is in the hands of the old farts that are nothing but fat cats…..there needs to be a shake up…..and possibly that is on its way….

David Hogg was elected as one of five vice chairs of the Democratic National Committee earlier this year after promising to win back young voters who had drifted to the GOP—but some Democrats are angry about what he has planned. The 25-year-old says a separate group he heads, Leaders We Deserve, will spend $20 million in primary battles in safe Democratic districts to combat a culture of “seniority politics” and elect younger lawmakers who will take on President Trump more effectively.

  • “People say they want change in the Democratic Party, but really they want change so long as it doesn’t potentially endanger their position of power,” Hogg told the New York Times this week. “That’s not actually wanting change. That’s selfishness.” “This is going to anger a lot of people,” he said of the effort, predicting there would be a smear campaign against him.
  • He was right about the anger. Axios spoke to House Democrats who called Hogg’s plan “counterproductive,” saying it would divert money and attention from the party’s effort to retake the House. “What a disappointment from leadership,” said Democratic Rep. Hillary Scholten, who represents a swing seat in Michigan. “I can think of a million better things to do with $20 million right now.”
  • Democratic strategist James Carville, who helped Bill Clinton get elected in 1992, called Hogg’s plan the “most insane thing I ever heard,” Fox News reports. On CNN, he said, “I’m not part of the hip generation. I’m not very au courant. But I actually thought our job was to beat Republicans? How quaint, how quaint of me.” On NewsNation, the 80-year-old called Hogg a “contemptible little twerp” and said he should be sued, the Independent reports.
  • Hogg, who started out in politics as a gun control activist after surviving the 2018 Parkland school shooting, told the Times that the goal is to “make room for a new generation to step up and help make sure that we have the people that are most acutely impacted by a lot of the issues that we are legislating on.” He said age isn’t the only criteria, naming 85-year-old former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and 80-year-old Rep. Jan Schakowsky as two effective older lawmakers who deserve to be re-elected. “More than anything, it is: Do you want to roll over and die, or do you want to fight?” he said. “And too many people look at our party right now and feel like we want to roll over and die.”

I am with Hogg on this….please get rid of the do-nothing old farts and return the party to the people.

We need a firebrand one with guts and vision…..I waited to see how the DNC would react…..and now the wait is over….

The Democratic National Committee is going to force David Hogg to decide: Get out of the primary game or lose his DNC post.

During a member call on Thursday, DNC Chair Ken Martin is expected to announce a proposal to change the party’s rules to mandate all DNC officers stay neutral in all Democratic primaries, according to a person directly familiar with the plan and granted anonymity to describe private discussions. The move comes after Hogg pledged last week to spend millions of dollars funding challenges to “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats in primaries, igniting a firestorm inside the DNC.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/23/dnc-gives-david-hogg-an-ultimatum-00307113

Just as I thought….the DNC has no intention of updating their party….they want to stick to the spineless tactics they continue to embrace.

The party needs a transfusion for their blood now is stale, old and tainted and they will do everything to keep it that way…..they remain the impressive losers they have been for 40+ years.

The people of this nation deserve a party that works for them and not the parasites from K Street.

82% want the Democratic Party to stop accepting “Big Money” from billionaires and corporations, 70% said they are not confident Democratic leaders will do what’s needed to stop Trump, and 72% support moving away from a “cautious, centrist approach” in confronting Trump and the far right.

Heed the words of the faithful and stop what you are doing or we will find a better place for our support.

Even Dem governors are calling the party out for their lack of guts….

JB Pritzker gave the keynote address at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner Sunday night, and the Illinois governor was not pulling punches—against his own party. Instead of listening to their actual constituents, Pritzker said, Democrat lawmakers heed the words of “a bunch of know-nothing political types, … flocking to podcasts and cable news shows to admonish fellow Democrats for not caring enough about the struggles of working families.” Pritzker spoke to an audience of more than 800, the largest the dinner has seen since 2020, NBC News reports. Past presidential hopefuls have been known to attend the dinner, and Pritzker is widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential contender, the AP reports.

“Those same do-nothing Democrats want to blame our losses on our defense of Black people, of trans kids, of immigrants, instead of their own lack of guts and gumption,” the governor, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt fortune, continued. (California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also seen as a 2028 contender, recently swung to the right on trans issues and called the case of wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia a “distraction” from the issue of Trump’s tariffs, but Pritzker didn’t name names.) Pritzker, who is Jewish, also criticized Trump’s deportation efforts against students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests. “Stop tearing down the Constitution in the name of my ancestors,” he said, to a standing ovation. Pritzker did not comment on his 2028 prospects, saying in an interview that he has not yet decided on whether to seek a third gubernatorial term in Illinois.

There has been much written about the troubles the GOP has been having with their town halls…..don’t be fooled the Dems are having a similar problem….

A Washington state Democrat came under fire during a town hall after backing a bill that would require voters to prove their citizenship when casting a ballot.

On Thursday, U.S. Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez walked into a town hall attended by hundreds of her constituents in Vancouver and was met with resounding boos.

Voters were upset she’d voted for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act and other pieces of legislation.

The second-term congresswoman struggled to speak over the disturbances during the hour-long event, according to KOIN 6.

Attendees told the outlet they wanted their representative to know they were outraged, even though Gluesenkamp Perez had told them the bill wouldn’t pass in the Senate.

“Americans believe that only US citizens should be determining the outcome of American elections. And any idea that I am standing to disenfranchise people is patently false,” the representative said at the meeting.

Anna Brouns, who lives in the congresswoman’s district, said: “I came here to hear what she has to say. Unfortunately, it always sounds like the same thing.”

She said she wants the representative to be angrier than she is and get more done.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/democrat-booed-washington-state-b2739695.html

It took a UK paper to bring this story to the US…..why is that?

Apparently the party cannot see how pathetic the voters view them for they are too dam,n busy counting all that special interests cash that is thrown at them.

If you have any thoughts please by all means voice them.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

100 Days–And Counting

The big day is here!

Today is 29May25 and it is the first hundred days of the Little Donny Show….as usual he has plans for this auspicious day….

President Trump will hold a rally in Macomb County, Michigan, next Tuesday to celebrate his first 100 days in office, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Wednesday. This will be Trump’s first big rally since his inauguration and his first visit to Michigan since winning the battleground state in the 2024 presidential election, NBC News reports. Before the rally, Trump will be in Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday, the first foreign trip of his second term. “President Trump is excited to return to the great state of Michigan next Tuesday, where he will rally in Macomb County to celebrate the FIRST 100 DAYS!” Leavitt posted on X. She added, per the Detroit News, “Michiganders are benefitting from President Trump’s agenda to revitalize … our economy and secure the southern border, and the best is yet to come!”

I am still working on just what the Hell he means by ‘the best is yet to come’.

But what is Donny’s first 100 days really look like?

While the mainstream media was copiously tracing the physical and mental decline of President Joe Biden during the presidential campaign of 2024, Donald Trump’s decline was largely ignored or downplayed. The media seemed obliged to track Biden’s every move and stumble. Conversely, the media seemed obliged to ignore the worst of Trump’s faltering executive decision-making, but—even worse—believed it was their duty to make Trump’s irrational utterances appear to be rational.

There are already obvious political differences between the first term Trump and the second term Trump, but the cognitive decline of the Donald cannot be explained solely by the fact that there were a few rational advisers in the White House the first time around, and simply no competent advisors or leaders on hand for the second term. Economic advisers, such as Gary Cohn and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin, played a very important moderating role in the first term. The three and four-star generals in the first term were a particular surprise, doing their best to calm the roiled waters of the White House and the roiled behavior of the president himself.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/04/22/trumps-first-100-days-meaner-more-mendacious-more-unstable/

Another look at Donny’s first 100 days from a Moderate point of view…..

There are stories everywhere this weekend around the theme, as a CNN headline has it, that “Trump’s approval at 100 days is lower than any president in at least seven decades.” If you want to dig through some of the numbers, in addition to the CNN poll conducted by SSRS, there is an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, an Associated Press/NORC Centre for Public Affairs poll, and a New York Times/Siena poll among others.

A president committed to legitimate democratic processes would be concerned.

Though numbers will obviously vary from poll to poll, the story is the same. As per the CNN,
“Trump’s 41% approval rating is the lowest for any newly elected president at 100 days dating back at least to Dwight Eisenhower – including Trump’s own first term.” A mere 22% approve of the job he is doing, and “twice as many, 45%, say they strongly disapprove.

Notably, the partisan divide is as real as ever with “86% of Republicans approving and 93% percent of Democrats disapproving.” Perhaps crucial, though, is that his support among independents has declined considerably, now at about 31%, which, as these results indicate, match “his first-term low point with that group and about the same as his standing with them in January 2021.”

You don’t win national elections without attracting a very healthy swath of independents and, at least at the moment, Trump is failing to do that. Of course, Trump is not supposed to run again, and let’s stick with that assumption for the moment, so does he care about the electoral prospects of the Republican Party either in the 2025 mid-terms or in the 2028 general election? All evidence suggests this man is one of the biggest narcissists in an occupation that breeds them, so not caring what happens once he is gone makes a certain sense. But does he really want to deal with a Democratic House in the final two years of his term with all of the congressional investigations that could lead to? And while taking the Senate is going to be a harder hill to climb for Democrats in 2026, if Trump’s numbers continue to slide, there could be opportunities beyond Maine and North Carolina for Democrats.

Trump’s first hundred days and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad polls

Sorry to say but the ship of state is headed for the rocks and asll the captain can do is smirk and soldier on.

Seriously?

It has only been 100 days….it feels like a lot longer than that….

I cannot wait for the next 100 days….(sarcasm without being vulgar).

But for those readers that are interested here is the possibilities we face for his next 100 days….

The official said there is more to come, with lots of “torpedoes under the water.”
That includes more executive action, a hallmark of Trump’s first 100 days, which the official said would continue like a “snowball rolling downhill.” He said the administration was still working on a travel ban for citizens from multiple countries.
Courts have stymied some of Trump’s actions, drawing scorn from his allies and White House rebukes that those judges are thwarting the will of the head of the executive branch and the people who elected him.
While Trump will continue to wage war with the courts and a government bureaucracy that his team views as too bloated and out of line with his world view, another official said he would put more focus in his next 100 days on trade deals and peace talks.
The president launched an all-out trade war on numerous countries this year before putting reciprocal tariffs largely on hold to allow for negotiations with individual nations. His administration hopes to secure agreements within 90 days.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Gonna Be A Short Day

I will not be around much today for I have another round of doctors and a treatment…..anything I do on IST will most likely be done from my phone.

After the treatment I usually take a few days after the treatment for it kicks my butt….please bear with me.

I will catch up as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience, your understanding and your time.

I shall return as soon as possible.

Pentagon Does It Again

The War Department has wasted truckloads of money on weaponry…..the F-35 comes to mind (it is called a ‘flying brick’ because it spends more time on the ground than in the air)….wasted money that that cannot let go and just scrap the POS.

This and a story I read over the weekend reminds of a movie about the design of a new tank for our troops….the movie is called the Pentagon Wars and it describes the process of a new weapon with humor.

For those interested the movie is clever and can be watched here…..https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144550/

The Bradley Fighting Vehicle project, already stalled in development for seventeen years and at the running cost of $14 billion is the charge of Major General Partridge. In an effort to curtail further excessive Pentagon spending, Congress appoints U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Burton to observe the Bradley’s field development and tests.

Burton delves into the extensive and protracted development history, beginning in the 1960s originally under design supervision of then Colonel Robert L. Smith, who quickly becomes frustrated with the continuous change of design by the higher ups, eventually leading to the Bradley being drastically changed from its original role as a light troop carrier into a bulky tank-like vehicle that can only carry half of its original capacity.

The report that I referred to is about a new tank that has a similar humorous outcome.

As the 101st Airborne Division prepared last year to receive their first M10 Bookers—armored combat vehicles designed specifically for infantry forces—staff planners realized something: eight of the 11 bridges on Fort Campbell would crack under the weight of the “light tank.”

It turns out that though the vehicle was initially conceptualized as relatively lightweight—airdroppable by C-130—the twists and turns of the Army requirements process had rendered the tank too heavy to roll across the infrastructure at the infantry-centric Kentucky post, and nobody had thought about that until it was too late.

“This is not a story of acquisition gone awry,” Alex Miller, the Army’s chief technology officer, told Defense One. “This is a story of the requirements process creating so much inertia that the Army couldn’t get out of its own way, and it just kept rolling and rolling and rolling.”

It’s a twist on the classic Pentagon procurement snafu—a program that moves so slowly that it’s outdated by the time it reaches the field.

In this case, the Army knew early on that it wasn’t going to be able to make the thing it had set out to make, but it was bound and determined to make something. So it made something it doesn’t actually need.

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/04/army-made-tank-it-doesnt-need-and-cant-use-now-its-figuring-out-what-do-it/404877/

Classic case of stupidity….wasting butt-loads of cash all in the name of national defense.

Can you now see the problem with the War Department and its defense industry co-conspirators?

On an unrelated topic….Hogsbreath (Hegseth)…..the idiot Donny put in charge of the US War machine….

Apparently he still using unsecured lines of communication and betting on sports.

Remember when defense secretary of the United States Pete Hegseth, the man at the center of all the “Signalgate” drama, accidentally texted a journalist about the need to maintain “100 percent OPSEC” about secret war plans?

As the New York Times reports, the same phone Hegseth used when he accidentally shared those covert military maneuvers is also his personal one. And embarrassingly, its number could easily be found online on a variety of public apps as recently as March, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Airbnb, and — we kid you not — a sports betting website.

“There’s zero percent chance that someone hasn’t tried to install Pegasus or some other spyware on his phone,” Mike Casey, the former director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, told the NYT. “He is one of the top five, probably, most targeted people in the world for espionage.”

According to security experts, it’s not surprising that Hegseth’s personal number is on the web, since he was a private citizen before being sworn in. Instead, the former Fox News host’s staggeringly stupid mistake was using the same phone number to do all his official top secret military stuff, like announcing the details of an airstrike in Yemen against Houthi forces in a group chat that also had his wife and brother (we should clarify: that was a separate incident from when he accidentally leaked stuff to a journalist).

As the NYT notes, even low-level government employees are forbidden from using personal devices for work-related tasks — and here’s the guy in charge of the entire nation’s defense efforts, leaving it all out in the open.

https://futurism.com/head-pentagon-personal-phone

This is what we get when amateurs are allowed to govern….if these transgressions do not worry then you need to return to head in sand.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Last Week At The Sh*t Show–27Apr25

The happenings withing the current administration….all the silliness that should have no place in a rational government.

Donny and his escort went to Rome where all the photographers were….as they say ‘all roads lead to Rome’ or in Donny’s case all Roman roads lead to the year’s biggest photo-op.

Protocol was that attendees to the funeral wear black in respect….Donny wore blue (was it a faux pas, a statement, or just outright disrespect for the man and the religion?)…..he did have a front row seat (that should have made him happy)….but if you need more….https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-gets-called-out-in-front-of-millions-at-popes-funeral/

At least he was not allowed to ramble on….the biggest story was his quick meeting with Zelenskyy before the funeral.

But Wait!  There is more!

Then there is the new episode of the “Magic Sharpie”….as it guts our society….

President Trump issued new executive orders Wednesday targeting US colleges and the accrediting organizations that oversee them, part of his campaign against “wokeness” and DEI efforts in higher education. One order calls for tougher enforcement of Section 117 of the Higher Education Act. This federal law, passed in the 1980s, requires colleges to disclose foreign gifts and contracts of $250,000 or more. The White House claims Harvard and other universities have violated this law, which has been “unevenly enforced,” per the AP. A second order aims to shake up the bodies responsible for accrediting colleges, which then allows them to accept federal financial aid; Trump has referred to this move as his “secret weapon” to remake higher education, the Wall Street Journal reports.

  • One order directs the Education Department and the attorney general to increase enforcement and possibly withhold federal money from institutions that violate disclosure rules. The administration aims to “end the secrecy surrounding foreign funds in American educational institutions” and protect against “foreign exploitation.” Concerns over financial ties between higher education institutions and foreign countries, especially China, have been persistent among Republicans and have been reignited during the recent dispute between the White House and Harvard University. One Republican representative says he believes China uses academic ties to “indoctrinate students” and steal US research.
  • Another order focuses on organizations known as accreditors, which set the standards colleges must meet to access federal financial aid. Trump has criticized the current system, calling it “dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.” The new order instructs the government to suspend or terminate accreditors that, in the administration’s view, discriminate against colleges due to DEI requirements. Some accreditors have already dropped or stopped enforcing DEI criteria following previous pressure from Trump. “Revoking accreditation is an existential threat for these universities,” explains one research fellow. “If you lose Pell grants and lose student loans, for most colleges that means you’re done.”
  • Other executive orders focused on K-12 schools, CNN reports. One aims to ensure students are taught how to use artificial intelligence. Another, per NPR, addresses discipline in schools and promises to issue new guidance “ensuring school discipline policies are based on objective behavior, not DEI.” Obama- and Biden-era discipline policies aimed to reduce racial disparities in disciplinary measures such as suspensions and expulsions, but the Trump executive order says “racially preferential discipline practices” will be prohibited under the new guidance.

Then there is ‘fix’ for the lower birth rate….

President Trump’s policy moves may revolve around tariffs, slashing the size of the federal government, and deportations, but sources tell the New York Times there’s one other issue gaining steam in the background: increasing the US birthrate, which has been declining since 2007. Those sources—four people who have been privy to some of these White House discussions—say the Trump administration has been on the receiving end of multiple proposed policies to encourage Americans to get married and have more children. The closeness of pronatalist proponents like Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk to the Oval Office is giving things a boost, they say.

The Congressional Budget Office expects an average 1.6 births per woman over the next three decades, reports Newsweek, a good deal below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population absent immigration. The administration has heard proposals that range from reserving 30% of Fulbright scholarships for married applicants or applicants with children to offering a $5,000 “baby bonus” to new mothers. Another proposal would fund education programs to teach women about their menstrual cycles and fertility. Activists Simone and Malcolm Collins say they’ve provided the White House with a number of draft executive orders, among them one that would award a “National Medal of Motherhood” to mothers with six or more children.

Other ideas are coming from within: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has nine children, issued a memo in which he vowed to give priority to transportation funding for areas with higher birth and marriage rates. And White House aides are working on a report, expected within the next month, on how to improve the affordability and accessibility of IVF. As the Times puts it, “The behind-the-scenes discussions about family policy suggest Mr. Trump is quietly building an ambitious plan to promote the issue.” He indicated he might do as much at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2023: “I want a baby boom,” he said.

There seems to be a program that I recall from the years before WW2….

The Magic Sharpie further attacks Civil Rights Act…..

“With the swipe of his pen, Donald Trump has just made an attempt to re-segregate America by repealing and deprioritizing landmark civil rights regulations and laws,” legislative researcher Allison Chapman told Truthout.

The order instructs federal agencies to stop enforcing laws and regulations based on disparate impact — a legal theory that identifies policies with discriminatory effects, even if they appear facially neutral. It also directs the attorney general to revise or repeal any Title VI racial nondiscrimination regulations that rely on this theory, and calls on agencies to review and possibly withdraw from ongoing cases or settlements involving disparate impact claims.

Trump Guts Key Civil Rights Protections With New Executive Order

A possible EO waiting in the wings for Social Security….

The Trump administration is planning to further cripple the Social Security Administration by making it easier to fire thousands of the agency’s employees.

The agency’s acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, told SSA staff earlier this month that many of their jobs would be converted to Schedule F positions, a new classification that would strip these workers of civil service protections. The move has prompted litigation from one of the unions representing SSA employees, the American Federation of Government Employees, who argue that the new classification is misplaced.

https://newrepublic.com/post/194362/trump-plan-social-security-administration-layoffs

Moving past the ‘Magic Sharpie….these are the idiotic situations coming from the office Little Donny….

His admin has denied disaster aide for Arkansas….

Donald Trump has denied federal disaster relief funds to the people of Arkansas, which saw dozens of people die from a series of deadly tornadoes last month, as legislators plead for him to reconsider.

More than 40 people have been found dead after a series of tornadoes and severe storms hit Arkansas and neighboring states Mississippi and Missouri in March, according to CNN.

Given the scale of the disaster, the state’s Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee, requested federal disaster aid as a part of an emergency declaration. That request was later denied by the Trump administration.

Huckabee and other Arkansas lawmakers have since publicly asked Trump to reconsider his decision. Huckabee sent an appeal of the decision on 18 April.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/24/trump-denies-aid-arkansas-tornados

Donny tells Veterans how lucky they were….

While speaking to a group of injured American veterans on Wednesday, April 23, the president claimed what happened to the wounded soldiers was “amazing” as he looked around at all of the men with prosthetic limbs.

“So you guys got hit, huh? Pretty good. You got hit. Amazing,” Trump muttered to the individuals, as one of the veterans admitted they were stationed at a “pretty tough area in the Arghandab River Valley” of Afghanistan.

A woman accompanying the group informed the president more than 50 percent of their unit received a purple heart, which is a heroic medal awarded to service members wounded, killed or who may die from wounds received while fighting against a U.S. enemy.

https://okmagazine.com/p/donald-trump-backlash-wounded-soldiers-amazing-hit-hopeless-empathy/

This from a president that could not take time off from golf to show some respect for soldiers death in Lithuania.

Income tax could be replaced with tariffs revenue…..

President Donald Trump has high aspirations for his tariffs, going so far as to suggest increased taxes on imports could replace income taxes.

“There’s a real chance,” he told Fox Noticias on April 15. “There is a chance that the money from tariffs could be so great that it would replace (the income tax).”

The idea may sound appealing, but economists who spoke to USA TODAY say Trump’s tariffs would struggle to raise enough money to eliminate income taxes in full.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/04/22/trump-tariffs-replace-income-taxes-economists/83196923007/

One more time!  Tariffs are paid by the importer not the country of origin and the costs will be passed onto the consumer (that is YOU)…in essence it is just another tax only much worse.

Finally, Donny has told the country a bunch of lies about the price of eggs and gas and etc.

Gas. Groceries. Eggs. Over the last week, President Donald Trump has lied about the price of all of them — using this repeated deception to try to minimize widespread concerns that his tariffs will fuel inflation.

Here is a fact check.

Gas

Trump claimed last Thursday that gas prices “hit $1.98 yesterday in a couple of states.” That wasn’t true. No state had an average gas price below $2.70 per gallon on Wednesday, according to data from AAA, which reported a national average of about $3.17 per gallon. And the lowest individual Wednesday price found by the firm GasBuddy, which tracks tens of thousands of gas stations across the country, was $2.19 at a station in Texas.

(there is more)

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/23/politics/price-of-eggs-gas-trump-fact-check/index.html

I feel his support is waning….but that is just my feeling….we will see in the coming months.

That was the week that was in the hallowed halls of the king in waiting….

Have a wonderful Sunday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–26Apr25

A beautiful Spring day (so far) and what better time than to sit and write about all the news that was missed during the past week.

Locally–Weather has been good lately….highs around 80…. lows around 70-75 the problem is the humidity has been over 90% for the last week and predicted to continue…..looks like Summer cannot wait to torture us down here.

Personal–It has been an exhausting week….working on Sue’s estate and spent a good portion of everyday on the phone with insurance, auto, and other such things…..plus with each phone call I seem to get more and more emotional and had to take breaks.

Shall we take a look at what was missed?

As someone who is dealing with cancer I am always interested when I see some research that could be promising….

Cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for some time, providing relief from pain, insomnia, anxiety, and nausea. Now, scientists say that pot shows promise in fighting the big “C” itself. The Guardian reports on the largest-ever study on using medical marijuana to treat cancer, with “overwhelming scientific support” for pot’s potential to alleviate symptoms, as well as to mitigate the progression of the disease itself. “Our goal was to determine the scientific consensus on the topic of medical cannabis, a field that has long been dominated by a war between cherry-picked studies,” says Ryan Castle, research director at the Whole Health Oncology Institute and lead author of the new study published Monday in the Frontiers in Oncology journal.

The huge meta-study reviewed more than 10,000 peer-reviewed studies on the matter using AI-driven “sentiment analysis,” which looked to see whether each study had a negative, positive, or neutral conclusion on how cannabis could be used to treat cancer and its symptoms. Castle and his team figured they’d find “a moderate consensus” on using cannabis to treat cancer, expecting a “best-case scenario” of about 55% of the studies suggesting a positive correlation. Instead, that figure was more like 75%, Castle notes, calling that level “shocking.” “That 3:1 ratio—especially in a field as rigorous as biomedical research—isn’t just unusual, it’s extraordinary,” notes a release.

Researchers found there was especially support for cannabis use in treating some of the symptoms of various cancers, including nausea, appetite loss, and inflammation. The Guardian notes that, “perhaps more surprisingly, it also showed that cannabis has the potential to fight cancer cells themselves, by killing them and stopping their spread.” “This is one of the clearest, most dramatic validations of medical cannabis in cancer care that the scientific community has ever seen,” Castle notes in the release. He and his crew hope that this study will also help to spur the DEA to reclassify cannabis so it’s no longer an illegal Schedule 1 narcotic—a fact that has stymied clinical research on cannabis used for cancer patients.

I will start with some medical news…there has been a wealth of news lately about microplastics….and now there is more….

A high-end medical practice is offering clients the purported service of scrubbing their blood of microplastics.

In an interview with Wired, Clarify Clinics CEO Yael Cohen said that her London facility’s bespoke blood-filtering service — which is otherwise known as apheresis and generally used for plasma donation or other so-called therapeutic plasma exchange procedures — is so comfortable that some patients doze off during it.

“Once it’s running, you feel nothing. It’s very comfortable,” Cohen told the magazine of its Clari procedure, which costs more than $12,000 per session. “Patients take calls, do Zooms, watch movies, sleep. The ones who sleep are my favorite.”

…

While there don’t appear to be any studies about the effectiveness of the Clari procedure, there’s a pretty strong body of evidence suggesting that therapeutic plasma exchange in general is a safe and effective treatment for some autoimmune and neurological disorders.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/microplastic-blood-cleansing-clinic

News about what happens to your brain if you are a heavy drinker….

Boozers beware: a new study has found links between heavy alcohol consumption, brain damage, and earlier death.

As the American Academy of Neurology notes, Brazilian researchers established in a new study that heavy drinkers — defined as those who have “eight or more alcoholic drinks per week,” so not a particularly gigantic quantity — have a greater risk of developing brain lesions that can cause issues with memory and cognitition.

Known as hyaline arteriolosclerosis, the lesions caused by this condition occur when small blood vessels in the brain narrow and become stiff and tight.

“This makes it harder for blood to flow,” the press release notes, “which can damage the brain over time.”

As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Neurology, pathologists from the University of São Paulo looked at records, both pre- and postmortem, for nearly 1,800 subjects that were published in the United Kingdom’s first-class Biobank health database. Cross-referencing brain autopsies with living health record details, the researchers grouped the subjects into four groups: those who never drank, moderate drinkers who had “seven or fewer drinks per week,” people who used to drink heavily, and those who drank heavily until the time of their death.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/heavy-drinking-brain-research

Scientists have a new anti-viral chewing gum….

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine have created a chewing gum that can neutralize viruses responsible for causing influenza and herpes in humans.

This antiviral gum is made using lablab beans (hyacinth beans), which contain a unique protein capable of reducing virus count by 95 percent. The gum stops the viruses in the mouth only, preventing them from entering and infecting other body parts.

This is an important breakthrough because viruses, including influenza andherpes simplex that collectively affect over a billion people globally each year, are transmitted through the mouth. Moreover, traditional vaccines may not fully prevent their transmission, especially for viruses like HSV (herpes simplex virus), for which there is no vaccine at all.

https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/this-chewing-gum-can-destroy-95-percent-of-flu-and-herpes-viruses/

Autism has been in the news lately and now some research has provided some (hopefully) answers….

Scientific research continues to uncover interesting connections between the gut microbiome and human health, including everything from depression to PTSD to autoimmune disease. Another example of this are emerging ties between gut health and autism. Exciting new research, now moving to Phase 3 human trials, has found boosting microbial diversity via fecal transplants can dramatically reduce autism symptoms in the long term.

One in every 59 children born in the US is diagnosed with autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and unfortunately for many of them, chronic gastrointestinal issues are a harsh reality of their condition. According to scientists at Arizona State University (ASU), who conducted the current study, around 30 to 50% of people with autism experience serious gut problems like constipation, diarrhea and stomach pain.

“Many kids with autism have gastrointestinal problems, and some studies, including ours, have found that those children also have worse autism-related symptoms,” ASU’s Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown said back in 2019 during the early stages of the work. “In many cases, when you are able to treat those gastrointestinal problems, their behavior improves.”

https://newatlas.com/adhd-autism/fecal-transplants-for-autism-delivers-success-in-clinical-trials/

Moving on from medical stuff….how about some nutrition news?

Among nutritionists, the type of protein we should eat is always a cause for debate. A new global analysis has brought the conversation into sharper focus.

In a study spanning six decades and over 100 countries, researchers at the University of Sydney found that plant-based proteins are linked to longer adult life expectancy, while animal proteins appear to benefit survival in early childhood. The findings strengthen the case but also add a layer of nuance to the global push toward sustainable, plant-forward diets.

The study mined national food supply data and demographic records from 101 countries between 1961 and 2018. It considered not only how much protein people had access to, but also where it came from—plants or animals.

Using a sophisticated statistical approach called the geometric framework for nutrition, the researchers matched national protein supplies to age-specific survival data, adjusting for economic disparities and population sizes.

They found that a high supply of animal-based proteins—such as meat, eggs, and dairy—correlated with better survival rates among children under five. These nutrients are dense in essential amino acids, iron, and vitamins like A and B12, which are critical during early development. In settings with adequate calories, adding animal protein seemed to give young children a survival edge.

https://www.zmescience.com/medicine/nutrition-medicine/this-surprising-protein-shift-could-add-years-to-your-life-study-finds/

One final thought…..have you ever asked yourself why are urinals shaped like that?  (Come on I know you have)

Urinals aren’t a new concept. In fact, some of the earliest known examples can be traced back to around 1000 CE, when Sri Lankan monasteries began installing elaborately carved stone receptacles. European versions began taking hold in the 19th century thanks in large part to the work of Parisian civil servant Claude-Philibert Barthelot. By 1917, the public restroom staple was culturally ubiquitous enough to inspire Marcel Duchamp’s “La Fontaine.” Since then, basic urinal design has remained similar, if not nearly identical, to Duchamp’s famous dadaist art piece. And as any urinal user knows, there are still drawbacks—or, rather, splashbacks.

While most people only occasionally experience the unpleasant splash, pee droplets add up. A 2019 study estimated that in the US alone, the country’s roughly 56 million urinals splatter public bathroom floors with as much as 1 million liters of urine every single day. Urine is mostly sterile, but the liquid quickly becomes a breeding ground for bacteria. Meanwhile, its ammonia-laden odor frequently seeps into the ambient air. The results are urinals and floors with significantly higher bacteria concentrations compared to toilets requiring additional cleanup efforts. More cleanup means more labor, which in turn costs public institutions more money, time, and resources.

https://www.popsci.com/science/new-urinal-design/