What in the world?

So, Pete Hegseth, of all people (why is he qualified?) put out a new list of US recognized religions

I think they cut it down from over 100 to just 30 or so

I mean…

In the 250th anniversary, I do wonder, does anyone remember the Puritans?

A people with such a huge stick up their ass that even the Brits didn’t want them LOL

Yeah, they sailed to the New World seeking religious freedom!! LOL

They must be rolling in their graves

Pilgrims too, one of the reasons for coming, was religious freedom…

The Founding Fathers were Deists more than Christian conservatives. If anything, they were the educated liberal elites of their time.

James Madison, “the father of the Constitution” went to Princeton and was a deist, influenced by the revolutionary French Enlightenment philosophers.

If you believe that this country was founded as a Christian nation, you probably got an F in US History in school (and that includes all boomers)

So, there are huge protests in Albania against the Trump family (Jared and Ivanka) buying a protected island to develop a hotel/resort.

I suppose it wouldn’t have been as big of a deal, if it wasn’t for the fact that it smells of corruption

The Albanian anti-corruption prosecution office is now investigating.

Turns out, the land protections were miraculously lifted, probably illegally, for Jared and Ivanka, shortly after Trump was inaugurated into his second term.

SHADY AF

What is even more galling is Ivanka’s recent interview about it where she sounds like a trad wife bimbo…she is anything but… so, it’s an act

She is speaking about how lovely and magical this island that they discovered is (in like the middle of Europe she is Christopher Columbus????)

And the importance of being your “authentic self” LOL LOL

GIRL PLEASE

She sounds as OUT OF TOUCH AS MARIE ANTOINETTE

People are seriously struggling to make ends meet and she is talking about buying an island in the Mediterranean (technically it is in the Adriatic, but right on the “border”)

And that prick Peter Thiel - decamping to Argentina -good fucking riddance

I have always said, ultra rich Americans don’t see the USA as their home

That’s why they don’t invest here, not because of high taxes, but because they can rob and pillage more easily somewhere else

The world is their oyster and that’s how they behave…

I keep laughing how the supposed American First party keeps picking candidates or people to identify with (Elon Musk) who are not American (according to the GOP definition)

LOL LOL

California Republican candidate for governor is Steve Hilton.

A Brit, whose Conservative Party orchestrated Brexit and left the UK in shambles after 14 years, now wants that right wing bullshit here…

And yet, Republicans think he represents them… yeah… sure

I mean, I am not against immigrants running for office obviously,

But I find it damned ironic coming from the party who claims foreigners are taking our jobs LOL LOL

Meanwhile, in the LA mayoral race, the Democratic Party keeps insisting on running minority women

And splitting the Democratic vote

Karen Bass current mayor won once, but against a man who had zero charisma

And in a much friendlier environment

We have now slid back into racism and sexism, so… no… minority women have an uphill battle

Are we shocked that a reality tv white male star is doing well in the polls??

NO

And if you are, you live in your own liberal bubble of idiocy

Just a reminder that the sick US doctor is being treated in Germany because the CDC FIRED the Ebola personnel

Dr. Craig Spencer, who was infected with Ebola in 2014 and was lucky to survive, still works as an ER physician and professor of public health, said the following:

The CDC found out details and information about the size of the Ebola outbreak on Friday

Basically, at the same time the rest of us found out

They announced $13 million in funds for the Ebola response which is not enough and we are also now playing catch up

Because we have lost touch with agencies around the world that we would normally have relationships with to get ahead of this

We have not only pulled out funding, but also personnel and resources

We have now shuttered all the global preparedness resources that we built up in the past decade

We have not only lost trust from the global health community but more importantly

As we get ready to welcome people from around the world for the FIFA World Cup (including players from the Dem. Rep. Of Congo)

We realize again that infectious disease prevention worldwide is a matter of national security

And we are yet again, unprepared

As we disbanded USAID, pulled out of the World Health Organization, and gutted the CDC

Sure, the risk of Ebola in the USA is very low, but not zero

We did have cases in the USA in the outbreak of 2014-2015

And we could have cases again, as people travel around the world with relative ease

So… again… for those that think that what happens around the world doesn’t affect us here in the USA (have you seen your gas prices recently)

The answer is yet again, yep, we do not live in a bubble and world events do affect us

P.S: US doctors working in Africa have been affected. One doctor is positive and symptomatic, while others are not symptomatic. The sick US doctor has been transported to GERMANY… yes, OUR ALLY Germany, the EU, who are our most important and loyal allies.

What can I say… just cringeworthy

Literally China got all sorts of concessions - now Trump is not sure if he will defend Taiwan (hello, we get electronics from them), and now suddenly Chinese students in the US should all get green cards LOL

Xi openly told Trump we were a declining country and Trump said nothing LOL

Xi is not wrong of course

I hope Fox News watchers actually paid attention to Fox reports and what China looks like today, because we are an embarrassment in comparison

China is beating us in electric vehicles, renewable energy, infrastructure, robotics, science and medicine

People from all over the world used to come to the US to get the latest medical treatments, spending their money at US hospitals and in the US…

Americans had access to the latest technology, science and medicine

NO more

Be prepared to travel to China in the future for the latest medical treatments

The rich oligarchs don’t care of course… the world is their oyster, they will just go abroad…leaving the rest of us in the shithole

The fact that Trump thought he would bring all the bankers and tech CEOs to wow China…LOL LOL LOL

Complete misunderstanding of what is important to China and what makes a country great

China is beating us without a single major CEO in tow

They have also taken over in being a “steady”, uncomplicated, global power - spreading soft power in ways the US used to do

The fact everyday Americans never understood the value of “soft power” and how much they benefit from it, has always been mind boggling to me

As for US scientists - well, carry on

I didn’t study and do research all these years to have someone in China suddenly overtake me due to lack of funding…fuck that

My brain and knowledge are still valuable

BUT

Since January, all I have done is travel around to meetings, conferences, private foundation symposia and venture capital firms seeking funding

Which means I have not been in the lab, doing research

The lab is not out of funding

But ffs, I don’t want to have to lay anyone off in 2 years when some of the funding runs out

That’s not just job loss, that is loss of knowledge and talent that will go elsewhere, maybe not in the United States… American scientists are looking to Europe for opportunities

And I have ZERO confidence the National Institutes of Health under this administration will be functional enough to review and fund new competitive grants

I would be happy to be proven wrong though

I am all for reducing overuse of pesticides and processed foods, eating balanced meals and exercising.

However, MAHA needs to take a chill pill with some of their “all natural” - no need to go overboard now

Just a reminder that everything prior to the Industrial Revolution of the 1850s was organic and “all natural.”

There was no major pollution, no chemicals, no pharmaceuticals, no vaccines, and everyone ate organic and was physically active.

In other words, prior to 1850s it was MAHA

Hold up, so we are cutting healthcare, education, science etc etc to everyday Americans

So that we can give benefits to those Americans who didn’t serve in the US military (no, of course not), but who served in the Israeli Defense Forces????

I’m sorry WHAT??

I had to go to the Congress website to see if this was a joke, IT IS NOT

But sure, let’s make it a shitshow about any, in retrospect, minimal help we gave Ukraine, without cutting benefits

Btw, Ukraine doesn’t need us anymore… they are literally defending on their own and have built a modern military arsenal that costs a FRACTION of our defense budget

Which btw, that’s what Iran is doing too… fighting multi million dollar US missiles with drones that cost 20k to make

But the GOP wants a 1.5 TRILLION dollar defense budget

Literally fuck off

Well, the Virginia Supreme Court decision was disappointing.

Two lessons there:

1. Dems can’t always be the ones playing by the rules when others are not playing by the same rules.

2. Throwing out results of an elections is a dangerous slippery slope

Commentary on both of these:

1. California and Virginia had stricter rules for redistricting. Democratic states have always tried to limit such actions, seeing them as antidemocratic, and as such put in place restrictions that would make it harder to redistrict.

2. Republican states, especially in the south, have always cheated and especially by minority voter suppression. They have never wanted to put restrictions in place because they always planned to, some time in the future, do exactly what they are doing now.

3. We are not playing by the same rules, so it is time to throw the rulebooks out the window. Why should Democratic states make things more difficult for themselves.

4. I don’t know anything more anti-democratic than canceling the results of an election

So, no doubt you’ve heard about the hantavirus outbreak on that cruise ship

Gene Hackman’s wife died of hantavirus days before he died

It is a rare viral infection and human-human transmission is not common

That being said, I wouldn’t throw all caution to the wind

Look at what happened on that cruise ship

Marjorie Taylor Green (girl, just no) of course has the cure for it, based on some quack on Twitter:

Ivermectin

Oh and Vitamin D

I mean.. ffs JUST STOP

Ivermectin is used to treat parasitic worms and other parasites

And if misused it can be highly toxic

It didn’t actually work for Covid

There is ZERO data on it for hantavirus

What’s next, Ivermectin is a cure for cancer???

And Vitamin D, ffs…

Does anyone really believe vitamin supplements actually help treat diseases?

Unless you are malnourished, or Vit D deficient, then yes, it probably would help

The scientific support on vitamins being protective is slim

Good night for Dems imo, going into November

Republican primary voters, which I suspect are the real MAGA cultists are obviously very strongly aligned with Trump

Hence the Trump aligned results in Indiana

I think that is actually a good thing for Democrats this coming November

MAGA base alone, can’t win elections…

Even if we stretch them out to 40% of the vote (and that’s being generous), that’s not enough to win

In 2024 MAGA needed the “Trump voting coalition”

Which as far as I can tell included many Independents, Libertarians, Latinos switching from Biden to Trump as well as Muslims who had done the same, such as in Dearborn MI

Imo, the more the MAGA base digs in with Trump, the more likely Republicans are to lose large swaths of their 2024 coalition

And that’s a GOOD THING

If we look at Michigan special election results, this is a region Kamala Harris carried by less than 1 point.

The Dem candidate won convincingly

It was 58.9 for the Dem vs 39.4 for the Republican

Who remembers when the ballroom was going to cost 200-250 million and be paid by Trump himself and “donors”??

No? It wasn’t that long ago

It was not going to cost the US taxpayer anything, cause Trump is sooo generous LOL

Can we remember that Trump ran specifically on cutting govt costs and corruption

Well, that was a LIE

They asked the Senate for $400 million just last week

Now the price has more than doubled in just one week

Sneaking in $1 BILLION for the ballroom as part of an ICE/CBP funding package in the Senate

I mean… the corruption of this administration LOL

But hey, elect a crook… that’s what you get

So, are you better off now than 2 years ago?

Should we start asking people that question

Because I remember the GOP major talking/outrage points for 2024

The culture wars

Do we really care now, with all the mess?

Yes, but also fuck no…

1. Is anyone right now really worried about:

- the ethnic composition of The Little Mermaid movie

- if men were insulted by the Barbie movie

-about the 0.002% of tans athletes in college sports

-about how someone you don’t know and will never meet chooses to identify themselves

-about what some kids are learning in a college class you’ve never taken and will never take

Yeah.. didn’t think those were on the priority list anymore

When you have time to worry about if the Little Mermaid was Danish or from a Danish colony in the Caribbean, you are doing pretty well

2. Now, we are talking about really serious things:

- war in Iran that WE started

-ICE murdering US citizens on the street

-increased surveillance of US citizens

-loss of healthcare

-loss of global status as a world leader

-loss of economic influence abroad and

-worsening economic situation at home

Feel free to compare those two lists

If you are embarrassed that you elected a crook like Trump because of list #1 - yeah, you should be

On May 1st, International Worker’s day

This prick declares that the affordability crisis is just bs

It’s a “let them eat cake” moment

I will remind everyone that this type of attitude not only led to the French Revolution, but contributed to the fall of other empires, like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire and it was directly responsible for the Communist Revolution

Because at some point people get tired of the Epstein class/Robber Baron wealth stealing… because that’s what they are doing, they manipulate markets to their benefit

They are not earning a good portion of their wealth in an honest and hard working way

They literally get wealthy by cheating