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Thomas “Mustache of Understanding” Friedman told us that globalization has leveled the economic playing field, facilitating competition and collaboration, making the world “flat.”.  So how’s that going? “ Thousands of U.S.-bound packages shipped by UPS are trapped at hubs across the country, unable to clear the maze of new customs requirements imposed by the Trump administration. “As packages flagged for customs issues pile up in UPS warehouses, the company told NBC News it has begun “disposing of” some shipments. “Frustrated UPS customers describe waiting for weeks and trying to make sense of scores of conflicting tracking updates from the world’s largest courier.” Maybe Trump needs to interview a Bombay taxi driver. https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/ups-delay-customs-tariffs-packages-destroyed-rcna236607

The president of MIT turned down the Compact for Academic Extortion in Higher Education sent by the Department of Education to MIT and eight other universities. MIT is the first. I expect they won’t be the only ones to refuse to cede academic independence to the fascistic Trump administration. My dad was an MIT grad. He would be proud. https://orgchart.mit.edu/letters/regarding-compact

In his quest to find an environmental “cause” for autism, RFK Jr has honed in on acetaminophen. Initially, it was gestational exposure. Now it’s acetaminophen exposure in newborn boys who were circumcised: “ While Kennedy did not cite specific research, he appeared to be referencing two older studies. “One was likely a  2015 Danish national cohort study  published in the  Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine . Among boys born between 1994 and 2003, those who were circumcised were 46% more likely to develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD) before age 10, and the risk was particularly elevated for infantile autism diagnosed before age 5, where a twofold risk was observed.   “But the study authors acknowledged numerous weaknesses, most notably that it had no data on whether acetaminophen was actually administered during circumcisions. The investigators acknowledged that while their evidence was "compatible with a possible causal role of circumcision trauma in some cas...

RFK Jr has dishonestly portrayed the increase in autism diagnoses over the past 20 years as an increase in incidence of autism to justify his claim of an environmental cause for autism. Multiple published and refereed reports using twin pair studies show 60-90% heritability for autism, and those are probably underestimates. What changed in the last 20 years is the diagnostic criteria for autism and the systematic application of the new diagnostic criteria. A friend of mine has an autistic son who is in his 30s. Just to underscore the impact of how diagnostic criteria have change, here’s my friend’s experience with his son: “By age [of diagnosis], T__ would fall into the late group (age 19),  but he was actually early in the sense that he could have been diagnosed much sooner (age 2) if physicians were more aware of autism. In the 90s it was all about ADHD and everyone seemed stumped when they couldn't make him fit that diagnosis. I remember a psychiatrist who watched T__ play for l...

If nothing is done, the Social Security Trust Fund will be depleted by ca. 2035 and projected retirement benefits will drop by ca. 20%. What are the alternatives? The favorite alternative on the right is to increase the normal retirement age to 70.  “Increase the normal retirement age (NRA) 3 months per year for those age 62 starting in 2026 and ending in 2037 (NRA reaches 70 for those age 62 in 2037). Thereafter, index the NRA to maintain a constant ratio of expected retirement years (life expectancy at NRA) to potential work years (NRA minus 20). We assume the NRA will increase 1 month every 2 years. Also, increase the earliest eligibility age (EEA) from 62 to 64 at the same time the NRA increases from 67 to 69; that is, for those attaining age 62 in 2026 through 2033. Keep EEA at 64 thereafter.” The argument for increasing the retirement age is that when the program started the average life expectancy was 62 and now average life expectancy is in the 70s or 80s. Of course, most o...

“Twenty-five years ago, the FDA made a decision that changed the course of reproductive health in America. By  approving mifepristone  (Mifeprex) for medication abortion, the agency gave people access to one of the safest, most effective, and most studied medications in modern medicine.   “Since then,  more than 7.5 million Americans  have relied on it to end pregnancies safely and with dignity. Its safety record is stronger than many drugs we take without question,  including penicillin .” Now, the Trump Administration is revisiting mifepristone approval. Let’s be very clear. This isn’t about science or health. This is about controlling women. Full stop. “Look no further than abortion access to understand the ways that science-driven innovation matters. As brick-and-mortar clinics across the country (including in states where abortion is still legal) continue to close, communities are left without local providers, forcing people to travel hundreds of miles...

The Chicago police force has over 12,000 sworn officers, the 2 nd  largest police force in the US. Trump plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard, most or all of whom will be sent to Chicago. That’s a 2.5% increase in total law enforcement, a trivial increase. Of course, that assumes they’ll all be doing law enforcement and not raking and spreading mulch, like the national guardsmen stationed in Washington DC. Or patrolling affluent, low-crime neighborhoods. Look, this has nothing to with crime or public safety. This is all about dominating a blue state governor who has said things that hurt Donald’s fee-fees, and the mayor of Chicago, who is Black.  https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-plans-deploy-national-guard-illinois-governor-pritzker-says_n_68e1728de4b060c19f1a8b1e?origin=home-latest-news-unit  

The campaign to sow doubt and confusion around vaccines uses several different lies. One is the facially absurd notion that combination vaccines can overwhelm the immune system.  A healthy infant's immune system responds to thousands of antigens from their environment daily, far exceeding the number found in modern vaccines.  Moreover, decades of experience the world over testifies to the safety and efficacy of combination vaccines.     ‘For Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's immunization program who recently resigned, the proposal reflects politics rather than science.    "This isn't about safety. It's about ideology," he said. "We've already seen directives issued without data to back them up."    “Dr. Debra Houry, who recently resigned as the CDC's chief science and medical officer, echoed the concern.    "The talk about separating MMR into individual components wasn't coming ...

“ ADP also revised the August jobs number down, saying that the private sector   lost 3,000 jobs   that month. Ultimately, that means the private sector has lost jobs in   three out of the last four months , per ADP estimates.   “What's more, since the start of April, when Trump first announced his moronic " Liberation Day " tariffs, the private sector has added only 135,000 jobs on net, per ADP's   reports —a paltry number that is not nearly enough to keep up with the needs of the American labor market.” Republicans elected Trump because of his track record as a businessman. LOL! The man bankrupted a casino*, FFS. *   Companies controlled by Trump filed for bankruptcy multiple times for their casino properties in Atlantic City.  While Trump himself never filed for personal bankruptcy, the companies he oversaw used Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure their significant debt.   https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/1/2346365/-Trump-s-economy-is-...

When we moved to Rhode Island, we chose the location to be near high end healthcare. In addition to being only an hour from Boston, we were close to clinicians affiliated with Brown University, the local Ivy League university. But that affiliation is no guarantee against quacks: “A population-based retrospective study from South Korea is being touted as evidence that COVID-19 vaccines may cause cancer, but epidemiologists were quick to highlight the study's numerous flaws and caveats. “Over the weekend, Wafik El-Deiry, MD, PhD, of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, who is a member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) workgroup on COVID vaccines, shared the study from  Biomarker Research  in a post on X “But several experts said El-Deiry should have known better than to promote a study that has several flaws, including not controlling for confounders such as healthy user bias.” That’s not the only problem with the study. “In a similar...

Until this year, China has been a major consumer of US soybeans. But Trump’s trade war with China has resulted in a shutdown of that major market for American farmers and billions of dollars in lost sales. Trump has promised federal dollars to farmers to compensate for the loss of the Chinese markets. So taxpayers are paying for the Trump trade war. Meanwhile, Trump has announced a $20 billion currency swap line to prop up the failing Argentine currency. The prime minister is a right-wing politician.  And then there’s this: “ Chinese buyers booked at least 10 cargoes of Argentine soybeans after Buenos Aires scrapped grain export taxes, three traders said on Tuesday, dealing another setback to U.S. farmers already shut out of their top market and hit by low prices.” So US tax dollars will help subsidize the sale of Argentine soybeans to replace those formerly purchased from US farmers.  Is America great yet? <a href=" https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinese-buyers-book-l...

The late Jane Goodall has, on multiple occasions, noted the primitive simian behavior adopted by Donald Trump and admired by the Trumpenproletariat: “In order to impress rivals, males seeking to rise in the dominance hierarchy perform spectacular displays: stamping, slapping the ground, dragging branches, throwing rocks,” she said, adding that the “more vigorous and imaginative the display, the faster the individual is likely to rise in the hierarchy, and the longer he is likely to maintain that position.” I’ll only add that chimps don’t take Adderall. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jane-goodall-donald-trump-analysis-viral_n_68de3301e4b028d81f307b9d?origin=home-latest-news-unit  

Trump has threatened to withhold federal funds generated in part through NYC taxpayer dollars from New York City if they don’t elect Mario Cuomo as mayor. Zohran Mamdani claps back: “I look for examples across this country that showcase the best way to respond to Donald Trump’s... threats rather is responding with strength,” he continued. “And what we see in California is an attorney general of the state has estimated that for every dollar they spent on lawsuits against the federal government’s threats to withhold funding, they won more than $30,000 in what would otherwise have been lost.” Even if he’s exaggerating by two or three fold, that’s still a great return on investment for California and a terrible business model for Trump. Of course, it’s our tax dollars that Trump is burning up on his futile attempts to bully blue cities and states. Remember this when you read the inevitable NYT and WaPo navel-gazing editorials about the federal deficit and national debt.  https://w...

Trump is unhappy with the mayor’s race in New York City. His designated candidate may not win.   “Trump then claimed that Mamdani “needs the money” from him .   “Remember, he needs the money from me, as President, in order to fulfill all of his FAKE Communist promises,” he continued. “Trump added: “He won’t be getting any of it, so what’s the point of voting for him? This ideology has failed, always, for thousands of years. It will fail again, and that’s guaranteed!” So all the taxes paid by NYC voters and the rest of us are now his money? Who knew? “Last week, New York state   scored a win   in its   lawsuit   against the Department of Homeland Security for withholding disaster relief from the state due to its immigration enforcement policies. “If Trump were to withhold federal funds allocated to New York City, similar legal challenges would likely follow.”   https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-zohran-mamdani-new-york-mayor-race-cut-funding_n_...