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Climate change denialists are fond of pointing out that rising CO2 levels will mean that plant life will flourish, since plants “breathe” carbon dioxide. And it’s true that, up to a point, plants   do   grow faster with higher CO2 levels. But those plants have   less   nutritional value for the animals that depend on them for nutrition. “Research has already shown that climate change is causing nutrient dilution in human food crops. Declines in micronutrients, which play important roles in growth and health, are a particular concern: Long-term records of crop nutritional values have revealed declines in copper, magnesium, iron and zinc.    “In particular, human deficiencies in iron, zinc and protein are expected to increase in the coming decades because of rising carbon dioxide levels. These declines are expected to have broad impacts on human health and even survival, with the strongest effects among populations that are highly dependent on rice and w...

Under Biden, the IRS budget was significantly increased a couple years ago. Part of that increase was to fund the policing of tax returns, especially among the wealthy. According to Charles Rettig, an IRS commissioner appointed by Trump, the United States is losing $1 trillion in unpaid taxes every year. In the last two years, the IRS recovered ca. $4.7 billion in unpaid taxes from rich tax cheats.   Funding for the IRS budget increase was cut in the recent continuing resolution passed by the GOP House. After Trump’s inauguration, the IRS will be a paper tiger in enforcing honest tax returns from the wealthy. https://jabberwocking.com/auditing-the-rich-is-paying-off-already/

Elon Musk recently endorsed the racist xenophobic AfD Party in Germany. But for the US? "At another point, Musk said “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists” were “contemptible fools” who should be “removed … root and stem,” even though Musk himself been accused of fueling racist rhetoric." Will the real Elon Musk please stand up? https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-backs-musk-ramaswamy-in-support-of-merit-visas-amid-maga-turmoil_n_67705b61e4b0dec9fd22c50c

Who or what we become in life is influenced by a bunch of factors that can be boiled down to genetics and environment. Genetically, both my parents were PhD scientists. As a geneticist, I can tell you that there are no genes known to be responsible for “science.” But of course, my home environment skewed scientific. I grew up in Oak Ridge TN, which was a secret city during WWII and where the uranium was enriched for the Hiroshima atomic bomb. By the time I arrived in 1958 as a child, it was no longer a secret, but the X-10, Y-12 and K-25 plants were behind guarded gates. If your car broke down on the Oak Ridge reservation, you could be sure you’d be met with security within 15 minutes. I went to Oak Ridge public schools, graduating high school in 1973. By the time I was in elementary school, science curricula had been updated to address the space gap that opened up with Sputnik. Was I (and my lovely and talented wife) steered into a science career because of the Oak Ridge culture, beca...

I’m surprised this hasn’t bubbled up sooner. Not only has immigration been a net strength for America throughout its history (unless you’re a Native American), but in the last three decades, immigrants—particularly from China and India—have fueled American biotech and computer technology innovation. So when I read Trump and his supporters vilifying immigrants and threatening to deport over 10 million immigrants, my reaction was that this national hostility towards immigrants of color will be bad for America. The US is currently an engine for innovation, but if the innovators don’t feel welcome, the universe of innovation isn’t a closed system.   Josh Kovensky over at TPM has a piece highlighting the fissure in the MAGA movement over immigration. On the one side are tech oligarchs and moguls like Musk and Ramaswamy who are pushing for more immigration: “The two sides began to argue on Sunday, after Donald Trump appointed Sriram Krishan, a partner at Andreesen Horowitz, as a White Ho...

I finished Every Valley: The desperate lives and troubled times that made Handel’s Messiah by Charles King on Christmas Eve. It somehow seemed fitting to read this book in this season, although the oratorio Messiah was originally performed at Easter. As some of my friends know, I visited Handel’s birthplace in Halle three times in the 1990s, I’ve toured the Handel Haus Museum in the building where Handel was born and been inside the Marktkirche where he first performed. I’ve listened to several versions of Messiah and know most of the lyrics. Still, this book told me many things about Handel and the oratorio that made him famous that I didn’t previously know. The subtitle to the book is an accurate description—this is far more than a book about a musical work and its composer. It’s a history of the times and context from which Messiah sprang. King takes us into the lives of Messiah’s librettist, Charles Janssen, Handel’s prized female vocalist, Susannah Cibber, the lives and politics o...

When I was in the target demographic, Sesame Street didn’t exist. I did watch Captain Kangaroo a few times, but that’s not the same thing. My daughter did watch Sesame Street, along with Reading Rainbow and other PBS kids shows when she was stuck at home with me because of illness. I certainly have a fondness for the Sesame Street of that time. “In 1969, “Sesame Street” was created largely as a way to help challenge the negative narrative about Black and brown children in the wake of the civil rights movement, similar to the motivation behind Head Start years prior. “I was like, all these great minds are gonna get together and fix the problem of especially children of color lagging behind in schools because of what can be perceived as lower literacy rates,” Jiménez García said.   “That was in part by showing human cast members of color exploring topics beyond literacy, like empathy and equity, alongside the Muppets that now make up so much of the show. “I think that they lost ...

In addition to being denied his debt ceiling extension, Trump was also repudiated when his daughter-in-law “withdrew” from consideration as Senator from Florida. Trump was pushing Lara Trump to fill the seat that will be vacated when Marco Rubio is approved as Secretary of State. Lara Trump’s appointment was intended as Trump domination: domination of “little Marco” by showing that an utterly unqualified person could fill his Senate role and domination of his primary opponent Gov. DeSantis by forcing him to appoint an unqualified Trump family member. It was a fail. This is after Matt Gaetz was forced to withdraw as Trump’s nominee for Attorney General.  We’re still a month out, and already Trump is showing the same skills that made him such a failure in business. “The Apprentice” TV show was meant to use media to create a faux image of Trump as a business success. It worked. People fell for it. But here we are, a month out from inauguration and Trump’s incompetence is already start...

This is just absurd. “ As first reported by  NPR , the state health department informed its employees that they were not allowed to promote COVID, influenza, or mpox vaccines. The directive, which department officials said they would not put into writing, related to all aspects of public health employees' jobs: employees could not send out press releases, give interviews, hold vaccine events, give presentations or create social media posts encouraging the public to get the vaccines, according to the story. They also could not put up signs at the department's clinics that COVID, flu, or mpox vaccines were available on site.” The given reason is apparently that the Louisiana state health department believes that telling people about the availability and benefits of vaccines constitutes coercion. When pressed on the issue: “In response to an email from  MedPage Today , a Louisiana Health Department spokesperson did not respond to specific questions but instead sent a st...

If current trends and policy continue, the Social Security Trust fund will be exhausted in the early 2030s and payments will drop by about 22%. If Trump has his way and income taxes are lifted on SS payments, payments are projected to drop by about 30%. And if Trump’s dream of deporting 10 million undocumented immigrants comes true, it will be even worse, since undocumented workers subsidize the SS system with fake SS numbers.   One way to delay the end of the Trust Fund and mitigate some of the reduction in benefits is to grow the population of workers in the US. The US population grew nearly 1% between 2023 and 2024.  “As the nation’s population surpasses 340 million, this is the fastest annual population growth the nation has seen since 2001 — a notable increase from the record low growth rate of 0.2% in 2021. The growth was primarily driven by rising net international migration. “Net international migration, which refers to any change of residence across U.S. borders (the ...

There's been loads of navel-gazing and brow-furrowing over the Democratic Party losses in 2024. Setting aside the fact that the election was actually very close, what do Democrats do to regain power in the midterms and in 2028? Josh Marshall over at TPM has suggestions: "If you were a party coming off a stinging defeat and looking for ways to burnish your brand as the party focused on the needs of average Americans on a budget you could scarcely ask for a better environment in which to do it. Even beyond what I described above, with these two rough beasts slouching their way into 2025, you have probably never had a time in American history where you have all the billionaires lining up and saying pretty much openly and loudly that we’re here as Team Billionaire and here to support the billionaire President and excited to usher in a new era of government   of   the billionaires, quite literally   by   the billionaires and really obviously   for   the billiona...

I have a reflexive skepticism about fads. While AI isn’t exactly a fad, the relentless promotion by the media of an AI future certainly looks faddish to me.   That said, there’s no question that AI is making inroads into data analysis. Watson can already read radiological images more accurately than trained radiologists. AI is transforming warehouse management. Over at her blog “Eating Policy,” Jennifer Pahlka has a post on the role AI is likely to play in the execution of the Musk/Ramaswami DOGE project to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget.  “The reality is that in many domains, the regulatory and spending complexity is such that it’s very hard for  anyone  to know what’s going on. You might think it’s Congress’s job to understand how the laws they’ve written have been operationalized, but that’s one of their chief complaints — that they don’t really understand what happens within the agency and they don’t always think it's consistent with their intentions. An...

The US is one of a small handful of countries that has a statutory limit on the federal debt. It used to be routine for Congress to raise the debt ceiling, but recently, House Republicans have been using the debt ceiling to extract political concessions from Democratic Administrations. While raising the debt ceiling wasn’t in the recent continuing resolution that Speaker Johnson was negotiating and co-president Elon Musk just torpedoed, it will be an issue shortly after Trump’s inauguration. That would interfere with his plans for tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations. So according to the Guardian: “Now, the president-elect has modified his demands, by telling NBC News in an interview that he wants the debt ceiling eliminated outright. “The Democrats have said they want to get rid of it. If they want to get rid of it, I would lead the charge,” Trump told the broadcaster.” I say do it. Get rid of the debt ceiling once and for all and end the fiscal hostage taking. https://x....

Semaglutides are turning out to be transformative for obesity in the way that statins have been transformative for hypercholesterolemia and anti-hypertensives have been transformative for high blood pressure: they’re not only highly effective but have minimal side effects. From a public health standpoint, there’s every reason to allow Medicare and Medicaid coverage for semaglutides. But in the Trump era, public health is just another political toy. So what’s the future of semaglutides under Trump II? Well, Elon (who is not a doctor) likes them because they helped him lose weight. The one-time heroin addict and HHS director nominee RFK Jr. (who is not a doctor) is opposed. And Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services director nominee Dr. Oz (who *is* a real doctor) must like them because he pitched them on his tee-vee show. So where do we stand? “It’s unclear, however, whether the Trump administration will go along with the proposal, which it would have to finalize and implement. Whi...

The smirking faces of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have joined the smirking face of Donald Trump in threatening to burn down government in order to save it. What they’re announcing sure sounds bad to me (eliminate a third of federal spending, including cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid). Over at eatingpolicy.com, Jennifer Pahlka lays out her reasons why she’s skeptical that even whackjobs who are richer than God can make over the US government in their image: “I am guessing that those most worried that DOGE will succeed have never tried their hand at reforming government. It’s hard. But easier, you say, with no respect for the law, and the DOGE team will be unencumbered by such details. But that’s not true. The lawsuits will come. A lot of the government tech community is skipping the hand wringing; they've basically just grabbed a bag of popcorn and are watching in real time as Elon and Vivek learn all the things they’ve known, lived, and absolutely hated for their e...

I’m seeing people attacking universities, particularly private universities, for accumulating large endowments while allowing their graduates to accrue education loans that saddle them with debt for years or decades and cannot normally be discharged by bankruptcy. Why aren’t these universities the lenders? Setting aside the question of whether it is in the national interest to assure that all citizens reach their maximum potential, universities *already* subsidize tuition. Costs are heavily discounted at most or all private universities, except for foreign students.* Beyond that, endowments subsidize other things besides tuition. When people talk about sending their child to a “good school,” likely as not, they’re referring to the reputation as a research university. Most undergrads will never do research, and the most accomplished research-active faculty are excused from teaching undergrad courses. It’s all about branding.  Research is a cost center for universities. But the reput...

Looks like Trump wants to kill the Postal Service. Postmaster General DeJoy has been bent on killing the USPS in a death by a thousand cuts, but the Trump administration will try to kill it outright. Ironic, because the big losers will be rural residents that overwhelmingly vote Republican. Makes no difference to me. Most of my business is transacted online, and if I need something delivered quickly, I can pay for FedEx, no prob. How will working class and middle class Americans react when (a) the cost of a 1 st  class stamp goes to $2, (b) they have to drive miles to retrieve their “mail,” and (c) Saturday delivery disappears? 

I grew up at the western edge of the Eastern Time zone.     There was enough daylight at 9:30 PM in the summer to finish up mowing the lawn. I’ve never found the switch between Standard Time and DST to be problematic. Jet lag after a flight to Europe is *much* more uncomfortable.   I see where Trump wants to eliminate DST. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine agrees: “It is the position of the AASM that the United States should eliminate seasonal time changes in favor of permanent standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology. According to the statement, evidence supports the distinct benefits of standard time for health and safety, while also underscoring the potential harms that result from seasonal time changes to and from daylight saving time.   “By causing the human body clock to be misaligned with the natural environment, daylight saving time increases risks to our physical health, mental well-being, and public safety,” said lead author Dr. M....

It’s bad enough that RFK Jr, the Trump nominee to head HHS, is spreading lies about water fluoridation. He’s also vetting federal health officials based on their willingness to question life-saving vaccines.   “Aaron Siri, the lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death.” *snip* “Poliovirus, the cause of a disease that used to be one of the most feared by Americans, has been eliminated from the country by the US through polio vaccines. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that the best way to avoid its return and keep people safe is through vaccination.” Hot stock tip: search for Assisted Breathing apparatus manufacturers and invest heavily while prices are down! https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/13/rfk-jr-a...

"Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, has repeatedly criticized policies allowing gay people to serve openly in the US military, calling them part of a “Marxist” agenda to prioritize social justice over combat readiness." LOL! I'm absolutely confident that Hegseth hasn't read a word of Marx or Marxist economics. I'm equally confident that Marx never wrote a single line arguing that social justice should be prioritized over combat readiness. Look, Lenin, Stalin and Mao all lied about Marx and Marxism. That's the company Fox News personality Pete Hegseth keeps. Nothing to be proud of. https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/12/politics/pete-hegseth-gay-trans-troops-marxist-agenda/

Recently, Anthem BCBS rescinded its policy of limiting the amount of anesthesia it would pay for during operations. The policy conjured images of patients waking up before the end of their operations, or later being confronted with unexpected bills. But allegedly, that’s not the intent: “Anesthesia services are billed partially on the basis of how long a procedure takes.  This creates an incentive for anesthesiologists to err on the side of exaggerating how long their services were required during an operation. And there is evidence that some anesthesiologists may engage in overbilling by overstating the length of a procedure, or the degree of risk a patient faces in undergoing anesthesia.   “Starting in February, Anthem had planned to discourage overbilling by adopting a set of maximum time limits for procedures, inspired by data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. If an operation went long for medically necessary reasons, anesthesiologists could appeal ...

I’m old enough to remember Russia as the mother country to the Soviet Union. While the USSR was never a world-class economic power, it did punch above its weight as a military power under Stalin and for a couple decades after. Russia under Putin has been described as a gas station with an Army. Its economy is enfeebled by dependence on energy exports and international sanctions. The Ukraine invasion exposed Russia’s second-rate military. Its recent abandonment of the al-Assad regime in Syria, which had been propped up by Russian air power, further underscores the extent to which Russia has become a military paper tiger. “The establishment of a military base in Latakia in 2015 represented Russia’s first substantial intervention outside its post-Soviet sphere of influence. This action not only sustained Assad’s regime for nearly a decade but also positioned Moscow as a key actor in the Middle East. Russia’s airstrikes and military presence forced Western powers, including NATO, to na...

RFK Jr continues in his crackpot crusade against fluoridated water. There is *zero* evidence that artificial fluoridation of water at or below the approved level (0.7 mg/liter) has any pathological consequences. Why do we fluoridate public water? “Bacteria in the mouth that serve to break down food also create acids that degrade the enamel on the surface of the teeth. Fluoride strengthens teeth and prevents cavities by countering the acid damage caused by the bacteria. Water fluoridation reduces tooth decay by about 25% in children and adults and has a greater benefit (66% decrease) in children who have fluoride exposure before they develop their teeth. Fluoride also prevents other downstream dental complications like infections and abscesses that can lead to heart disease and other chronic health problems.” Yes, there are fluoridated toothpastes and mouth rinses, and fluoride treatments (I’ve had them) are available at dentists’ offices. Of course, affluent people like RFK Jr., Trump ...

Rebels have overthrown the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian Socialist Baathist Party. Whether that’s an unalloyed good depends on what happens next. Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan and an expert on Arab and Muslim history in the Middle East. I’ve followed his blogging for 20 years. He has an excellent post up today on the Syrian revolution. “The tip of the spear of the revolution was the fighters of the Levant Liberation Council (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham or HTS), a hard line fundamentalist organization that had run the province of Idlib in an authoritarian manner in recent years. It is not ISIL (ISIS, Daesh), though that is one path the victors could take if they were so inclined. So far, their behavior in Aleppo has presented a mixed picture, with some killing of Kurds but less turmoil, including for Christians, than some had feared.” The history of revolutions in Arab states during the past 20 years has not been encouragi...

Robert Kutner has a paywalled article in The New York Review of Books about the history of free trade and the efforts since Trump’s first term to impose tariffs, particularly on China, beginning with the first Trump Administration. “Free trade ideology once aligned with America’s economic and security interests. After World War II, open markets were good for domestic industry because the US had come out of the war economically preeminent. America had a huge trade surplus based on exports of a whole range of manufactured goods, as well as raw materials such as steel, aluminum, and farm products. This meant it could be generous about accepting offsetting imports. Openness to trade also helped anchor Washington’s cold war alliances, as its NATO allies earned dollars from exports that helped them rebuild after the war.   “Not surprisingly, free trade became an article of ideological and diplomatic faith. With America’s economic dominance, the US government could overlook the ...

High fructose corn syrup has been linked to fatty liver disease, high triglycerides, insulin resistance, high blood sugar, cancer and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. It is added to many foods: candy, condiments, beverages, pancake syrup and various snack foods. A recent paper in the journal Nature highlights the mechanistic link between dietary fructose and cancer growth. Bottom line: in zebrafish and mice, tumors grow up to twice as fast when animals are fed a fructose-rich diet. Cancer cells in culture don’t respond similarly. That’s because in whole animals, dietary fructose is metabolized by the liver into lipids that are then secreted into the bloodstream to be taken up by cancer cells. To be clear, this paper doesn’t say that dietary fructose *causes* cancer, only that it accelerates cancer growth. But it seems prudent to limit fructose intake. For those who know their carbohydrate biochemistry, table sugar—sucrose—is a disaccharide comprised of glucose and fructose. It see...

During his campaign, Donald Trump “promised” not to touch Social Security and to veto and law that modified the program. That “promise” is about to be tested. “Lee's attack has four basic components. One is to bemoan the fact that Social Security is funded mostly by a tax, which he asserts the government can use for any purpose — not necessarily to cover retirement and disability benefits.” Wrong. SS taxes can only be used to cover retirement and disability benefits. Lee is flat out lying here.   “Another is to point out that the program's reserves aren't stored in individual accounts with workers' names on them, but collected in "a huge account called the 'Social Security Trust Fund.'" He’s correct here. Social Security is insurance and that’s how insurance works. Your premiums aren’t stored in individual accounts, they’re invested to make profits for the insurance company so that when you make a claim, there’s money to pay it. “A third is to claim th...

Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac are the nicknames for two mortgage giants that back about 70% of U.S. mortgages and have been under government conservatorship since the 2008 financial crisis.  “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac don’t issue mortgages directly. They purchase loans from lenders and package them into securities sold to investors. This process ensures a steady flow of capital to mortgage markets and supports affordable loan rates.   “Privatizing these companies could disrupt this system. Investors might view mortgage-backed securities as riskier without explicit government guarantees, leading to higher borrowing costs.”   A possible compromise would be to charge the companies a fee for government guarantees in times of crisis. Such a measure could mitigate risks while maintaining some level of market stability. On the evidence, I’d say that the goal for the Trump Administration is chaos, not stability. Here’s hoping there are enough adults in the room to prevent that. https...

 The Hunter Biden pardon has exposed yet new lows in the mainstream media. Anyone who has been paying even the slightest attention knows the long list of convicted criminals that Trump pardoned in his first term and has announced his intention to pardon next January. And yet, here we are: WaPo : Biden pardon will “provide ammunition” to Trump. Politico : The Hunter Biden pardon gives Donald Trump powerful new political cover The Guardian : Trump uses Hunter Biden pardon to hint potential clemency for January 6 insurrectionists Stop it already. The Biden pardon has *nothing* to do with Trump's actions.  Trump has never needed ammunition or cover.

The antiregulation bias of the Supreme Court was loudly signaled with the overturn of Chevron deference. Now, the SCOTUS has arrogated to itself the interpretation of technical details for regulation of things they are all incompetent to assess: ““Since Chevron has fallen, agencies are much more cautious in putting forward rules and regulations,” Ramachandran said.   “And while this may be a hindrance to science-based public health rules, it could also act as a brake on any attempt by Kennedy to change how HHS treats vaccines, prescription drugs or other public health measures. “On vaccines, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for Kennedy to revoke an authorization for a vaccine. He has said he won’t do that, but if he did, it would trigger a fierce fight within HHS and litigation in the courts.   “He could, alternatively, try to issue new regulations or guidance related to vaccines — whether for future vaccine approval, coverage of vaccines under Medicare and Medic...

Over at jabberwocking.com, Kevin Drum has a systematic take-down of the anti-vaxxer propaganda on COVID19: • The reason the CDC initially recommended against wearing masks was because they thought you could just avoid people who were sick, so it was best to reserve limited supplies for doctors, who  couldn't  avoid sick people. When researchers discovered that COVID could be asymptomatic—which meant you couldn't tell if someone was sick—they changed their advice; • The CDC never recommended that kids not be allowed to play outside due to the risk of infected playground surfaces. This was something put in place by local officials who were being urged by parents to be ultra cautious; • The CDC didn't recommend that schools remain closed. Quite the opposite. Closure decisions were made locally, usually with the strong support of parents; • In any case, it's unlikely that school closures caused much harm. Test scores generally fell about the same in states that kept schools...

I see where Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter. I'm sure we'll hear plenty of outrage from the MSM, but look for a stout defense of Trump when he pardons all the Jan 6 rioters. What Biden did is nowhere near as outrageous as its historical antecedents: "George Bush Sr. pardoned a bunch of Iran-Contra plotters who he was directly involved with. Bill Clinton, in addition to pardoning Marc Rich, pardoned his brother Roger. George Bush Jr. was mostly pretty good, but he did commute Scooter Libby's sentence. And Trump in his first term reduced the system to rubble, granting clemency of one kind or another to Rod Blagojevich, Michael Milken, Joe Arpaio, Dinesh D'Souza, Bernie Kerik, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, George Papadopoulos, and seven (!) Republican congressmen convicted of crimes: Chris Collins, Duncan Hunter, Steve Stockman, Rick Renzi, Robin Hayes, Mark Siljander, and Randall "Duke" Cunningham. And, of course, Charles Kushne...

"Each appointment is part of a larger picture. Taken together, Trump’s candidates constitute an attempt to wreck the American government. "In historical context we can see this. There is a history of the modern democratic state. There is also a history of engineered regime change and deliberate state destruction. In both histories, five key zones are health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence. These people, with power over these areas of life, can make America impossible to sustain." https://snyder.substack.com/p/decapitation-strike-december