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As a lifelong supporter of the ACLU, I take a back seat to nobody in my support for the 1 st  Amendment. But the 1 st  Amendment only enjoins the government from interfering with freedom of expression. Private entities are not covered.  “ YouTube will offer creators a way to rejoin the streaming platform if they were banned for violating COVID-19 and election misinformation policies that are no longer in effect, its parent company Alphabet said Tuesday.   “In a letter submitted in response to subpoenas from the House Judiciary Committee, attorneys for Alphabet said the decision to bring back banned accounts reflected the company's commitment to free speech. It said the company values conservative voices on its platform and recognizes their reach and important role in civic discourse.” When did lying become a “conservative” voice? Real conservatives valorize facts and evidence and reject propaganda. The voices opposing COVID-19 are not “conservative,” they are right-w...

That was my motto about faculty meetings when I was a professor and associate dean. A leader respects the time of their colleagues. Not so for Pete Hegseth. ““Nothing good is likely coming out of this,” said one Democratic political scientist on Thursday regarding reports that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called a meeting of hundreds of top military general and admirals in Quantico, Virginia next Tuesday.   “The highly unusual summit was announced on short notice and no reason was given to military commanders and other leaders stationed in conflict zones, across Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region who are being required to leave their posts for the meeting.” All this does is fuel rumors. “ The Intercept   reported   that military sources it spoke to “speculated about the purpose, wondering if it might foretell a culling of general officers; a significant reorganization of the military command structure; a threat to eschew contact with the press; ...

Former Fox News pretty boy   Pete Hegseth ordered hundreds of generals to travel on short notice from around the world to hear him make a short speech on military standards and the “warrior ethos.” As if these generals need a lecture on being a warrior from a former TV prop.* “Some Pentagon officials questioned the wisdom of launching a relatively large gathering on short notice to hear Hegseth speak for a matter of minutes, and bristled at the idea that long-serving military leaders — a segment of whom spent years in combat earlier in their careers — needed instruction on how to fight.” Not to mention the national security risk of putting most of the nation’s top military leadership in one room. *His highest level of leadership experience was Platoon Leader. His most impactful job was a battalion-level Civil Affairs OIC/AOIC position. Fox News relegated him to the weekend morning show – the doldrums of TV ratings. He parted ways with charities with which he was affiliated over alc...

Trump is  threatening to conduct mass firings of federal workers unless Democrats help Republicans overcome a filibuster to pass an unconditional stopgap measure keeping the government open. “The White House Office of Management and Budget, which is led by Russ Vought,   put out a memo   last night telling federal agencies to start prepping reduction-in-force (RIF) plans for widespread firings in the event of a potential government shutdown next week. The memo instructed agency staff to identify jobs that can be permanently eliminated from the pool of employees who would typically be placed on furlough in the event of a normal government shutdown.” The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities  has pointed out that the Trump administration doesn’t have the authority to use a government shutdown as an excuse to fire federal employees. “ Critically, while the executive branch has some discretion as to what activities continue during a shutdown — and it is impossible to pr...

RFK Jr and Trump have announced that the “cause” of autism is mothers who took acetaminophen during pregnancy. Not only are there no data supporting this, but chronology falsifies this theory.   Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler provided one of the earliest documented descriptions of autism-like behavior in 1911. He used the term “autistic” to describe some of the symptoms he observed in patients with schizophrenia, emphasizing their withdrawal from society.   American psychiatrist Leo Kanner published a seminal paper in 1943 that is often credited with the definition of autism as a distinct condition. Kanner described eleven children who displayed unique behaviors, including difficulties with social interactions, a preference for routines, and delayed language development. He used the term “early infantile autism” to describe this condition.   Kanner’s work was significant because it differentiated autism from schizophrenia and other mental health conditions. He recognize...

Trump brought the RFK Jr snake oil road show to the White House. “ Yesterday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s traveling medicine show made a stop at the White House, where President Trump was the   featured barker   at an   off-the-rails press conference . Taking   unscientific aim   at vaccines and unsubstantiated links between   Tylenol and autism, the president went on a long, meandering musing reminiscent of some of the worst of his COVID-era pressers touting bleach and ultraviolet light.” Of course, Trump’s goal is not improving the health of Americans, it’s to sow doubt about science and medicine. Vladimir Putin is smiling. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/trump-rfk-jr-tylenol-autism-vaccines

American hospitals are under siege. The Trump administration just announced an increase from $1500 to $100,000 per year for H-1B visas that are used by foreign-trained physicians. The recently passed GOP budget dramatically cuts Medicaid funding, cuts that will drive the closure of many rural and community hospitals that are on the edge of insolvency.   Now, a recent study shows that hospitals owned by private equity have reduced ED staffing and salaries and increased ED deaths:   “The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Tuesday, looked at Medicare data from 2009 to 2019 at 49 private equity hospitals, comparing them with 293 hospitals that had not been acquired by PE. After acquisition, private equity hospitals reduced emergency department salary spending by 18.2 percent, and ICU salary spending by 15.9 percent, likely due to a combination of reducing staff and filling roles with less expensive (often meaning less experienced) labor. Notably, these staffing...

The Trump GOP’s Medicaid cuts will cause many rural hospitals to close. Now, Trump has come up with a way to hasten that process. “NBC News medical analyst Dr. Vin Gupta warned of the consequences that President   Donald Trump ’s imposed   $100,000 annual visa fee   for highly skilled foreign workers could have on those seeking health care in the U.S., especially those living in Republican states.     “This is going to have significant impacts, not just in the short term, but very much in the medium term here and that’s the irony of a lot of these policies, they’ll impact red states, and it’s not going to be felt immediately,” Gupta said in a Friday interview with MeidasTouch.” In addition to four years in medical school, American med school grads need at least one year of internship/residency to legally practice. For most graduates, the crushing burden of student loans, particularly if they also took out college loans, means they need to train in a highly compe...

While we were grad students at UNC-Chapel Hill, we visited my wife’s uncle and his family on the Outer Banks. He built fishing boats, and lhey lived in a modest house in Buxton, near Hatteras lighthouse. Hatteras lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in the US. In 1999, Hatteras lighthouse was   moved  from its original location at the edge of the ocean to safer ground. Not so fortunate have been the recently abandoned private dwellings on the Outer Banks, which are now succumbing to erosion and collapsing into the water. While Fox News has covered these real estate losses, they’ve steadfastly refused to acknowledge the politically incorrect cause—climate change. “ The Observer noted that “the home was well away from the ocean and behind a vegetated dune when it was built in 1969. But a series of storms, which have occurred more frequently in recent years due to climate change, carved away the beach and the dune and brought the surf up to the pilings of the home and a string of...

Look, I haven’t watched TV in over 20 years. I’ve never seen a Superbowl game in my life, and the only time I’ve seen Jimmy Kimmel is clips on Youtube. So I can’t boycott Disney because I wasn’t patronizing them in the first place. Anyway, Bob Iger cares about stockholders first, last and always. “ If you want to be angry at somebody, be angry at Disney, don't be angry at Trump, don't be angry at ABC, point the finger where it needs to go, this is Bob Iger trying to get the NFL media deal done and get this asset bought.” https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/clay-travis-jimmy-kimmel-about-bob-iger-disney-and-espn-trying-get-nfl-network-deal-done

Here in Rhode Island, my wife and I were able to get the latest COVID booster with no problems. This is my 9 th   jab since August 2020. I’m not dead yet. As former heroin addict and current brain worm host RFK Jr attempts to impose his death wish on America, the grown-up states here in the northeast are stepping up to protect their citizens from preventable diseases. “ As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues his overhaul of federal health agencies, Pennsylvania health officials confirmed the commonwealth has joined  other Northeastern states  to develop their own public health guidelines. The collaboration, Pennsylvania officials said, aligns with Gov. Josh Shapiro’s effort to maintain current health policies aimed at  broad access to vaccines .   “The Northeast Public Health Collaboration — which includes all the New England states except New Hampshire plus Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and New Jersey — formed amid rapidly changing vaccine recommendations from f...

I was alive and sentient through the 1960s. It was certainly a turbulent time of violence and political activism. So it was in mid-19 th century America. But the ‘60s didn’t result in a civil war. “In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, voices from across the spectrum sounded alarms that the shooting was just the latest flashpoint in a rising tide of violence. “Progressive commentator Hasan Piker, shaken after watching video of Kirk’s murder, warned his audience of “people looking for decentralized forms of violence.” A Reuters analysis was even more blunt, declaring Kirk’s killing “a watershed moment in a surge of U.S. political violence.” Even Utah’s Republican governor mused whether this marked “the beginning of a darker chapter in our history.” “These aren’t the first calls for open strife. When Donald Trump himself was shot last year, some right-wing figures rushed to declare it the opening salvo of a new civil war. “Are we on the brink of another 1960s-style season of polit...

“ A new study   has found that brown rice—often touted as a healthier alternative to white rice— contains 24 percent more arsenic and 40 percent more inorganic arsenic than white rice.” I learned years ago that most white rice sold in the US has significant levels of arsenic. I used to cook rice with a measured amount of water so that when it was done, all the water ended up in the rice. Now, I cook rice in an excess of water and drain off the excess water at the end. This removes much of the arsenic. I didn’t realize that brown rice has more arsenic than white rice. Still, washing the rice before cooking, cooking in excess water and rinsing after cooking will remove most of the arsenic. https://www.vice.com/en/article/is-brown-rice-really-healthier-than-white-rice/?fbclid=IwY2xjawM2Q4lleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFaa0RFZ2Q4ajV1NlpUU05TAR5pisgD9f5ruuokY7JCb8QqDhPMYWAh-4LKlMAtWZLOgpyQYxWotN4qMscezw_aem_K04rvODD3uXjxzNE_y139w

St. Reagan famously said that the nine scariest words were “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Now that the Roberts SCOTUS has decided that Donald Trump   is   the government, Reagan’s quip takes on a new salience. “For more than half a century publicly-traded US corporations have reported earnings at quarterly intervals, but during an early-morning wave of social media posts on Monday, President Donald Trump reignited a long-standing debate over the requirement. “Trump is pushing for a six-month reporting schedule as opposed to the current every three-months format. Ending quarterly results in favor of a six-month reporting schedule would “save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies,” Trump said.” Trump’s proposal would certainly mean less accountability and more volatility, two goals that describe Trump’s reign.  “ Quarterly earnings were mandated by the SEC in 1970 as part of the government agency’s decades-long push to incre...

I see where Karen Attiah, an editor for the Washington Post, was fired for quoting Charlie Kirk’s outrageous and racist statements. I stopped reading the WaPo after they refused to endorse a presidential candidate. That was just the final straw, as I saw them trying to compete for the Fox News demographic.   As Josh Marhall notes in the link, the MAGA/Kirk Cult is out to avenge anything remotely critical about their recently departed propaganda minister. They’re all about freedom of speech, except when it comes to other people’s freedom of speech. Just like Kirk said he was fine with innocent lives being sacrificed to preserve the Scalia interpretation of the 2 nd   Amendment. Of course, Charlie didn’t mean *his* life. It’s only a matter of time before some cult member shoots or blows up innocent people. That’s what Timothy McVeigh was about: don’t tread on me, but I can tread on thee. This is Charlie Kirk’s legacy. Personal attacks on anyone who doesn’t lament his passing and...

  I have attacked Charlie Kirk's *beliefs* as heinous and pernicious. I stand by those words. I didn't describe Charlie Kirk himself as heinous or pernicious, nor did I endorse his murder in any way. So claiming I dehumanized him is a lie. What Charlie Kirk did was to dehumanize others. If you think that deserves respect, that's on you. I don't. As a lifelong member and supporter of the ACLU, I defend Kirk's right to express his dehumanizing beliefs. I'm under no obligation to support them or honor the life of anyone who does. Some are uncomfortable with me speaking openly and honestly about Kirk's egregious behavior. I don't develop my morality in order to curry favor with or seek approval from others. I do it in order to live with myself.

Shingles can be extremely painful. So much so that some people with shingles contemplate suicide.   Shingles is caused by a virus. In fact it’s the same virus that causes chicken pox. The virus can hide out in ganglia, typically in the trunk area, and then escape later in life to cause a painful rash. Fortunately, there’s a vaccine that protects from the rash. But it turns out, it also protects from dementia. “ Previous studies based on health records have linked the shingles vaccine with lower dementia rates, but they could not account for a major source of bias: People who are vaccinated also tend to be more health conscious in myriad, difficult-to-measure ways. Behaviors such as diet and exercise, for instance, are known to influence dementia rates, but are not included in health records.” *snip* “ But two years ago, Geldsetzer recognized a fortuitous “natural experiment” in the rollout of the shingles vaccine in Wales that seemed to sidestep the bias. The vaccine used at that t...

I recently wrote a review for Missouri Medicine on the current scientific understanding of the underlying basis for autism spectrum disorder. Before submitting the manuscript, I had (a) a physician mom of an autistic son and (b) a physician mom of a Downs son review and edit the text. Both were fine with the science, but both pointed out language that could be regarded as intensive to ASD individuals and/or their care-givers. I made all the suggested changes. Why? Because the purpose of my review is to educate, and part of that is to use a lexicon that respects the intelligence and humanity of my audience. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to discern what I think about the intelligence and humanity of anyone who objects to the decision to respect my editors.  

  I'm firmly opposed to the death penalty. It's one of a few things I do agree with the Roman Catholic Church about. My opposition derives from my belief that killing an unarmed person is never justified. Even a person who rhetorically advocates for the killing of innocents, like Charlie Kirk, doesn't deserve to die for his pernicious beliefs. I've been a life-long member of the ACLU, and will defend the right of fascists like Charlie Kirk to express their heinous beliefs. I apologize to no one for that. There is nothing incongruous between those beliefs and my observation that he himself validated his death by his own words.

In the early years of the USSR, Soviet genetics was internationally recognized. Then along came Trofim Lysenko, an agronomist who convinced Stalin that he could bypass the laborious genetics of plant breeding to develop strains of wheat through the transmission of acquired traits. This fit well with the Soviet philosophy that humanity could be transformed by politics. Soviet scientists who refused to renounce genetics lost their jobs*. Lysenkoism contributed to famines that killed millions of people in the USSR and the Peoples Republic of China. For decades, the US has led the world in the development of vaccines. Smallpox has been eliminated because of vaccines, and polio was well on the way to being eliminated when RFK Jr, a decades-long anti-vaxxer, convinced Trump that he could bypass the laborious process of vaccination against preventable diseases and replace it with diet. This fit well with the GOP philosophy that science could be transformed by right-wing mythology. American sc...

It’s been fashionable to beat up on blue states for their high taxes. But if taxes were the only reason people and companies decided where to locate, why are Boston, San Francisco and New York City not just deserts? I didn’t realize until we moved here that Rhode Island has been the long-time home of Hasbro, makers of Monopoly and other games and toys. But Hasbro has decided to move to Boston MA: “Commercial real estate prices and taxes are much higher in Boston than in Rhode Island, and Hasbro executives had been concerned about the impact of   President Trump’s tariffs .” And Hasbro isn’t unique. “Hasbro and Foundation are among a larger cohort of companies that have relocated their central offices to Boston’s buzzy Seaport District from outside the market, including Alexion Pharmaceuticals, PTC, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Hasbro will also join another toymaker in town. Lego Group opened its  bright and colorful  157,000-square-foot headquarters at the end of Back Bay’...

About 475 workers, mostly South Korean nationals, were arrested at a Hyundai Motor   car battery facility under construction in Georgia. The workers were shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles. The return of ca. 300 to South Korea has been negotiated. At a time when Trump is demanded the foreign companies invest more in the US, this is bound to throttle such investments. “LG Energy (373220.KS) has tentatively decided to postpone the start of its EV battery plant with Hyundai in Georgia, the Korea Economic Daily reported Monday, without saying where it got the information. Hyundai has banned all US trips by its staff, the newspaper said. “LG Energy had initially planned to begin production later this year, with the goal of churning out batteries totaling 30 GWh annually, but decided to push that back to the first half of next year, the publication said, saying it would likely affect production plans for Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Corp. “An LG Energy spokesperson said Monday the...

You’d think a guy who led four casinos into bankruptcy would understand the business of entertainment, right? “ Ticket sales at the Kennedy Center have continued to plummet following   Donald Trump ’s takeover of   Washington DC ’s premier performing arts venue, with the prestigious Stuttgart Ballet expected to dance next month to houses less than 20% full.” There’s your problems. The Kennedy Center books pooftah woke foreign ballet when it needs to book red-blooded boot-scootin’ American ho-down dance. “ The Washingtonian report paints a damning portrait of the health of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the months since its takeover by Trump, who last month announced he had  decided “reluctantly”  to personally host its annual arts awards signature show in December. “Subscription revenue is down by about 50%, the magazine’s report said, and it quoted a spokesperson for the German embassy who said they did not know if the Stuttgart Ballet would st...

Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after the July jobs report signaled a slowing jobs market, and larger-than-normal revisions for May and June suggested a more significant economic downturn could be anticipated. Trump’s reasoning appears to be that the BLS commissioner’s reports can create jobs, just like the rooster crows to create the dawn. Realty begs to differ: “. . .    the economy is cooling, the unemployment rate is going up, and the number of job openings isn’t keeping pace.   “The U.S. economy added just 22,000 jobs in August, less than economists had   expected .” Wonder who Trump will fire next. Maybe if he fires enough people, we’ll reach full employment? https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/new-jobs-report-shows-trump-cant-control-data-by-firing-people-he-doesnt-like    

RFK Jr is testifying today at a Senate panel on HHS policies. Sen. Wyden   said the secretary “stacked the deck” of a vaccines committee, replacing scientists with “vaccine skeptics and conspiracy theorists.” Kennedy said his actions “got rid of the conflicts of interests” he said had pervaded such panels. So according to RFK Jr, scientific expertise is a conflict of interest on a vaccine committee? Who knew. RFK Jr also claimed he had support from scientists and doctors “all over the country.” Of course, far more scientists and physicians oppose RFK Jr’s policies and decisions, including the American Medical Association, American Public Health Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Look, all authoritarian governments sow distrust in institutions. That’s what Trump is doing with the Fed, with the BLS, with NATO, with elections, with immigration law and with the US dollar. RFK Jr is instrumentalizing this distrust at the CDC and NIH. A request to make RFK Jr testify und...

Florida is set to drop all state vaccine mandates. Look for Florida EDs to fill up with children suffering from preventable diseases. Of course, the civilized states can maintain theirs, but there’s no way to prevent Florida children and their families from traveling to other states.  Other civilized countries are another matter. Look for some civilized nations to require vaccination certification at their ports of entry. And foreign travelers from civilized countries will be even more reluctant to spend their tourist dollars here. Well played, Ron DeSantis and RFK Jr! America is well on its way to becoming a shithole country. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article311956239.html  

The right of Trump to impose tariffs at will and without Congressional approval is headed to the SCOTUS. What’s the odds that the tariffs will be overturned?   Turns out there’s a market in tariff refunds if the SCOTUS rules against Trump: “ In July the US government brought in $29.6 billion in tariff revenue compared to $8.7 billion in July 2024. So that’s more than $20 billion in probably illegal tariffs before many of them had even kicked in. The current market for these refund rights is already in the tens of billions and could hit the hundreds of billions by years end. According to Wired, Cantor said in July that it had “the capacity to buy the rights to hundreds of millions of dollars” of tariff refunds. So the amounts we’re talking about, both at risk and in potential windfalls, is very, very big.” And Trump’s treasury secretary stands to gain from insider trading. “Lutnick can’t be certain what’s in a judge’s mind any more than Trump can. But he’ll have lots of visibility i...

“ The 2026 COLA is likely to be 2.7%, according to a recent projection by The Senior Citizens League. That’s a notch above this year’s COLA of 2.5%, which bumped up the average monthly benefit by roughly $50 for retired workers, and applies to more than 70 million retired senior citizens and disabled workers.” But does this capture the lived experience of retirees living with Trump tariffs? “ The Nationwide data found that 3 in 10 retirees are already relying more heavily on their savings or retirement accounts, and nearly 1 in 5 say it has become more difficult to access or manage their benefits this year. “You could make the case that tariffs are likely to drive up inflation more than Social Security COLA actually rises or can cover,” said Mary Johnson, a Social Security expert. “Food costs are likely to continue to climb due to several issues other than tariffs, too, including weather, geopolitical disasters, and lack of farm workers,” she added. “And there is a wild card: There are...

1. A recent study showed that even people with mild COVID infections have a loss of blood vessel elasticity comparable to someone five years older. 2. A recent study showed that fragments of Sars-CoV-2 viral proteins—particularly the RNA replicase protein—can be found in circulating vesicles months after a COVID infection and could contribute to the symptoms of “long COVID.” Beyond that, fewer vaccinated people means more virus in circulation, which increases the risk of infections. It also enlarges the pool of virus, making the evolution of more infectious strains more likely. For your sake and for the sake of your fellow Americans, get the jab, peeps.

RFK Jr isn’t exactly wrong about how Americans need to improve their diets. But vilifying ultraprocessed foods and food dyes won’t do it. The actual problem is that most Americans get too many of their calories from fat, sugar and red meat, when they should get most of their calories from fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and fish. This isn’t just about obesity and type 2 diabetes. 15-25% Americans carry the  APOE4  haplotype, which confers an elevated risk for Alzheimer’s disease and atherosclerosis. “Adherence to the Mediterranean diet more effectively modulated dementia-related metabolites in  APOE4  homozygotes than in people with lower genetic risk, wrote Dong Wang, MD, ScD, of Mass General Brigham in Boston, and colleagues in  Nature Medicine . I’m not a fan of medicalizing food, but the role of diet in health is well-established. While people with the  APOE4  haplotype can reduce their risk of dementia and atherosclerosis with statins, diet is an...