Good point.
Archaeologist and four-field anthropologist. Born on Long Island, NY. Do field research in Amazonia and Central Africa. Like animals. Like to grow plants. Don't like fake news, deception, authoritarianism. Teach at a large public university in Chicago, IL.
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Good point.
Why is the Draft Dodger-in-Chief trying to drag us into a war with Venezuela? The claim is that drug cartels are so out of control they’ve been designated an international terrorist organization, so we need to send warships. But we’re denying Venezuelan’s asylum claims who fled for their lives. 🤔
Right.
IT’S ALL NATIVE LAND!
A mother is filing a $1 million claim after her 15-year-old son was held at gunpoint by immigration goons in Los Angeles.
Paul Gowder at Northwestern U. Law said that Trump sending troops to Chicago would violate legal boundaries in the constitution even more than his sending troops to California or taking over DC. But he said "public protest is a real important signal of widespread opposition to this kind of conduct"
Contrary to the sanctimonous JD Vance and Speaker Johnson's reliance on "thoughts and prayers" to respond to mass killings, the Reverend Jacqui Lewis of Middle collegiate Church in New York posted on X, "American prays but does not act. Gun worship is killing us."
Trump's claim of national emergencies as an excuse for eggregious authoritarian actions without Congressional OK is inspiring some of the successful suits to block the actions. Plaintiffs in cases have persuaded a range of judges including ones appointed by Trump that no such emergencies existed.
in her ruling blocking the Trump administration's hasty deportations, Judge Jia Cobb wrote "By merely accusing you of entering unlawfully, the government would deprive you of any meaningful opportunity to disprove its allegations. Fortunately, that is not the law.
A federal judge in DC has blocked Trump's hurried deportations, ruling that the administration was obliged to let prospective deportees contest their deportation in court, as the Supreme Court ruled earlier. The case was brought by the ACLU for a migrant rights group.
Gregory Bovino, the puffed-up head of Border Patrol ran an operation in LA whose agents racially profiled, caused two deaths and damage to people's cars in poorly controlled operations, arrested a disabled 14-year old and US citizens by mistake, and urinated on storage containers at a school.
Trump's dust-up with India's Modi shows how Trump's trade "poliicies' boil down to his huge egotism and personal resentments. He turned off Modi by trying to get him to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize for "solving" India and Pakistan's conflict in return for a favorable trade deal.
NYT Business's Corner office had an unsatisfying interview with Mike Wirth CEO of Chevron. He evaded the role of fossil fuels in the climate crisis, hyping the fuels as "advancing human progress". He claimed the industry's doing great but said Chrevon will let go 9,000 employees in the next year.
Hail and farewell to Gina Bellafante, who's ending her NYT column after 14 years. Her parting shot reminder us how great the difference has become between the incomes of the top and bottom 20% NY, which went from the top making 40 times more in 2011 to making almost 50 times more in 2023.
NYT published a ldouble-page spread of bios of 25 Great Trees of the Parks and Recreation Department. But I wondered why Catalpa's bio left out the scent of its flowers and the importance of its family for tropical species. Also left out was the delicious tea Linden's scented flowers make.
A gallon of regular gas was over 4$ at the Shell station where I live on Friday.
Go to your local university library to the shelves with books on North American Paleoenvironment. There you will find many pollen profiles that show dominance of mixed deciduous trees, not prairie plants. Or search the same subject for scientific articles on the same topic.
The Whites-only living compound in Arkansas is headed by some men with questionable backgrounds of fraud and theft. One of 'em keeps Mein Kampf on his bookshelf and thinks I.Q. is a heritable trait. But if so, his interview with NYT suggests he is not one of the inheritors.
To avoid the long process of confirmation, Trump's administration's made some dodgy appointments of prosecutors and that's not going well in some states like New Jersey, California, and Nevada, where they've been held up by court cases.
When companies that heave been solid for years run into problems and get acquired by hedge funds and investment firms they often get reorganized for less customer service and they bulk up on debt, leading to an ultimate demise. Hammacher Schlemmer, the lastest victim. Beware.
Columbia and Princeton's international undergrad enrollment's holding steady, but fewer Black people are getting in.
Trying to make the case Trump's troops in Washington are lowering a horrific crime rate, his prosecutors are charging felonies for offenses more usually charged as misdemeaners or dismissed with warnings. Well, guess what? Grand juries aren't having it. Now thrice they've refused to indict.
Tesla's sales fall again, 40% in July, despite electric vehicles increasing sales. Tesla stock dropped. 1.5 Tuesday. Yet Elon Musk claimed there's be a big expansion of sales in Europe. That's not happening.
Trump's cut-backs at National Parks is hindering some in significant ways. At several lack of personnel at entrances has led to big lossed in payments. And many of the educational services of parks affect rural areas, often Trump-supporting areas. Might not help his party win next time.
A big conflict of interest by Steven Cook at EPA. He represented companies suing to block a rule making them clean up forever chemicals, then joined EPA but was prohibited from continuing such efforts. Yet a day after meeting with the companies, he rewrote the rule to make taxpayors pay instead.
Polling in Brazil shows that 52% of voter samples believe Bolsonaro tried to mount a coup to keep in the presidancy when he lost the election. SIgnificantly fewer - 36% - think he did not. Bosonarp has admitted in public that he discussed ways to stay in power.
A court ruled, again, that Trump's mega-tariffs are unlawful, this time the majority of a DC appeals court. The small businesses that sued argued that there's no emergency since the trade deficits in question are almost 5 decades-old. On to the Supreme Court now.
Fed Governor Lisa Cook's lawyer Abbe Lowell emphasized to the court Trump's stated motive for firing her, "He's already said he wants a majority...He's bragged that he's going to get it." Despite his pretense that it's because of a supposed mortgage fraud from before her arrival on the Fed.
From Susan Kang of John Jay College of Criminal Justice about Mamdani, "Efforts to make voters fear socialism have a long history...Maybe they were more effective with certain generations of voters, but I think a lot of voters don't care."
Though Trump's mendacious statements seem to have induced amnesia in much of the US, here's an example where it - his erroneous clain to have solved the war between Pakistan and India, made a problem with one of the most populous and productive countries in the world, India.
President Trump, openly campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize, has repeatedly claimed that he solved the India-Pakistan war, infuriating Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India. That was only the beginning of how the relationship between the two leaders soured. nyti.ms/4lWItWy
There is a massive walk out at the CDC by staff unfolding right now. It is NECESSARY. I stand in solidarity with my CDC colleagues. standing up for science and public health. It is a moral imperative.
GOV. @gavinnewsom.bsky.social : “Facts are stubborn things… Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas…. Alabama is a top 3 murder state. Where is the President? — He isn’t focused on crime & violence. It’s about an expression of authoritarianism.” (H/T @acyn.bsky.social )
That would be his only chance to be president, given his significant unpopularity.
"God forbid--GOD FORBID--there should be a tragedy and I should EVER have to take Mr. Trump's job," said JD Vance while signaling to this interior design team to measure the Oval Office drapes.
Outside the CDC, people are chanting “USA, not RFK.” They are fed up with having one unqualified person dictate the nation’s health. #USANotRFK
States must prosecute ICE agents for kidnapping and abduction. Video them all.
CDC employees standing up and walking out in light of the mass shootings, firings, and *waves hands in the air* everything else. #USAnotRFK Lets gooooo
Good idea.
New rule. A parent may only propose removing a book from the school library only after reading it in its entirety and delivering a book report to the librarian. Until then no discussion shall be entered into.
Is that crime-fighting? Considering the expense of bringing in the National Guard, I think it would be better to hire back the Latino landscapers.
National Guard doing landscaping in McPherson Square. Washington, DC
Multiple CDC leaders have resigned in the wake of layoffs and a shooting at the agency’s headquarters this month.
Starbucks CEO pay: $96 MILLION Starbucks worker pay: $15,000 Coca-Cola CEO pay: $28 MILLION Coca-Cola worker pay: $14,000 CEOs used to make like 20x the average worker. In 2024, the average CEO earned 632x more. The system is rigged.
🤬
CDC scientists receive a heroes welcome after walking out today.
I'd agree to that.
BREAKING: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey JUST CALLED FOR a statewide and federal ban on assault weapons. Who’s with him?
He’s the Vice President of the United States. He could actually *do* something about this instead of just play pretend games.
Hi, immunologist here: (a scientist who studies immune & inflammatory processes) RFK Jr is talking absolute bullshit when he says he can “see in kids faces that they have inflammation” That’s NOT how immunology works. He is an anti-science profiteer. Start calling him such.
Breaking: After face-planting on attempts to indict the DC sandwich tosser, the doj is now attempting to indict the ham sandwich...
The problem comes when prayer is the only response when others are also needed, like limiting and resitering guns more scrupulously.
"Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooter acted alone, did not have an extensive criminal history and legally purchased the guns used in the killings." What matters is the last part of the sentence "legally purchased the guns used in the killings."
This is Thanos. He has figured out how to rest and babysit at the same time. Very impressive, very Montessori. 13/10 (TT: thanosthesaint)
Here's some good news: Catelin Drey won a special election this week to flip a seat blue in the Iowa Senate and break Republicans' supermajority.
From Dr. Demetre Daskalakis' letter resigning from the CDC: "It is untenable to serve in an organization that is not afforded the opportunity to discuss decisions of scientific and public health importance released under the moniker of CDC."
A Trump-appointed judge forcefully rejects DOJ's suit against Maryland's judges for slowing deportations to allow legal responses. He called it a "concerted effort by the executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it".. and an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers
The Trump administration doesn't like Europe's laws making social media companies police their platforms for disinformation and illegal content, because he and his appointees thrive on falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Not, as Vance and Rubio claim, because it's a burden and harms free speech.
Seems like Trump's volatile on-and-off global trade war is worse for small businesses than for the megas, so four years of this will only lead to more business consolidation, which is costly, inflexible, and less consumer friendly.
Voice of the People! J. Koomjohn suggests, 1. Trump bring Ukraine into NATO imediately. 2. Have NATO give Putin 2 weeks to stop fighting and remove his troops. 3. Have NATO bring in troops fully supported by US armaments if Putin refuses. 4. Impose severe economic sanctions on Russa."
Voice of the People! S.J. Burk, "I want to remain an American with all rights intact. We cannot let these important rights be lost through inattention and lack of effort to counter the current threats of gerrymandering and voter suppression...It is critical to who and what we are as Americans".
Voice of the People! L.J. Walker, "I question the patriotism and loyalty pf public officials at the highest level of our government as they cozy up to Russia and run roughshod over our constitution. It is not patriotic to whitewash and man-wash American history...to secure power."
US R.V. makers use unsustainably grown and illegally harvested lauan hardwood in their vehicles, despite the availability of sustainably grown and legally harvested lauan wood. A conservation organization director thinks nature-loving R.V. owners would pay the slighly increased price for it.
Trump is giving Americans' tax dollars to prop up the failing company Intel. Michael Strain of American Enterprise Institute says, "what we're seeing is less a strategic, thoughtful shift toward state capitalism and more an opportunistic display of corporate shakedowns."
Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik says, "The real question should be, did she commit mortgage fraud , yes or no, and if you did, please get out of the federal government"...Lutnick's boss, the president, was convicted or real estate fraud. Yes, he should get out of government.
Trump says, about Fed board member Lisa Cook, who has been accused but not been charged or convicted of fraud, "we need people who are 100 percent above board." Ahem, who is saying this? Someone convicted of real estate fraud?
Some restaurant owners in DC say their business is down because of all Trumps troops on the sidewalks. A restaurant association says business is down 24% this Restaurant Week, and one owner said his is down 30%. He said "DC is not the war zone that it's being painted out to be."
NYT Food section today gave a recipe for vegan gluten-free oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate chip cookies. But why, oh, why put in more than 2 cups packed brown sugar when one would have been sweet enough, and why not use more flavorful and healthier whole almond flour and whole-grain oat flour?
The editors of the Food and Health section of Chicago Trib should get together and compare how their two sections conflict. Health says alcohol, refined flours, sugar, and red meat are harmful, but Food promotes refined pasta and bread, cocktails, wine, and spirits, and red meat. Go figure.
Evidence against prairie dominated prehistoric Illinois? (Linda-how do I locate the post that someone responds to, as you just did?) You look up all the pollen diagrams for the area and compare the tree and grass/aster pollen. None have enough grass/aster pollen, which is produced at higher rates.
A Chicago Tribune front page article claims that "Almost all of pre-colonial Illinois was tallgrass prairie...". However, the evidence of pollen profiles from Illinois do not, in fact, show a dominance of grass over trees in the general landscape, but rather changes in the composition of forest.
Not a fan of John Bolton or his policies but it seems the searches of his house and office because of Trump's admitted resentment of Bolton's very accurate critique of Trump are likely unwarranted.
Good thing the appeals court stopped the transfer of federal land in Arizona to BHP and Rio Tinto companies. BHP was a principle in the mining disaster in Brazil in 2015 that led to huge areas of polluted land, 19 dead, and harm to residents, because of improper containment of mining waste.
Resolution Copper a subsidiary of international mega mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP tried to get Federal land transferred to put in a copper mine in Arizona. After a suit about inadequate environmental impact review and rights of local Native Americans, a appeals court blocked the transfer.
Bye-bye Aligator Alcatraz! A Miami Federal Judge has stopped future expansion of the facility to hold deportees and requested a schedule of steps to close it. Her premise is the environmental law that protects the Everglades and the rights of local native groups.
Lucky Ed Martin was relegated to US Pardon Atty from interim US Atty. He's showing his problematoc approach by parading in a trenchcoat in >90 degree weather in front of NY Atty General Letitia James' house, mendaciously telling a neighbor who challenged him that he was just viewing houses
Have you noticed Trump is spending a lot of his time and the government's time and our tax dollars pursuing his revenge against former government functionaries he resents for perceived wrongs against him? What does all that achieve for the US of A?
Remember how Trump miscalculated by imposing enormous tariffs on China when China held control of most of the rare minerals US relies on? His imposition of demands and high tariffs on Brazil also seemed ignorant of important facts, that Brazil is the main potential alternate source of those.
The Supreme Court's allowing US to cancel NIH research grants was temporary and limited because it allowed the case against the cancellations to proceed in the lower court according to that judge's ruling and because the challenges to the cancelations needed to be filed in a different court.
A federal judge in DC ruled that the witholding of visas from winners of the lottery in May 2024 was unlawful. The ruling was narrowly relevant to the 84 individuals from 19 countries who sued and because the law conferring their visas by lottery was not one that the State Department could overrule.
NYT Op Ed: President of the US Conference of Mayors and Osage Nation member, David Holt says "I'm a red-state mayor [Oklahoma City]. Diversity is not reverse bigotry...Sometimes the language is cloaked in in patriotism, but it is really just repackaged bigotry, misogyny and racism."
Peter Conti-Brown at the Wharton School said there to NYT Business that was "more smoke here in terms of wrongdoing" and "an escalation of the manufactured crisis around Fed legitimacy" that Mr. Trump had fostered.
Lev Menand at Columbia LAw and former Fed economist told NYT Business that the "allegations against Lisa Cook were "not sufficient" to allow Trump to remove her, and she's not been charged or convicted of any crime.
Kathleen Engle a mortage finence and regulation professor and at Suffolk U. Law says "Fraud has a lot of elements to it, including an intent requirement, and there's nothing in what they've provided here that would form the basis of a fraud charge."
About the accusations against Lisa Cook on the Fed, Kathryn Judge at Columbia Law says "there's very little information ...about what actually transpired...what the lender's understanding was...about whether there was actual wrong-doing."
With wonderful Dan Bouchier managing @nitv.bsky.social maybe there needs to be a move to multicultural @sbn-bsky.bsky.social Time #theirABC was pensioned off. #auspol
🚨 Mayor Wu faces criminal charges because she is decent. We all know what ⏰ it is. Of course you are going after a female POC first. She is a “suspicious person” in 2025.
Andrew McCabe casts doubt on Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview with DOJ: “It‘s so suspicious. When you listen to the tapes, you get the sense that Ghislaine Maxwell went into that room knowing what information she had to deliver…to get some sort of benefit that she is pursuing from the administration.”
Walmart spent $35.3B on stock buybacks from 2019 to 2024, enough to give each of its 2.2M employees annual bonuses of $2,719. Last year, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon pocketed $27.4M — 930x the company's median employee pay of just $29,469. Textbook corporate greed.
😬 checking in on Nancy Mace’s bid for governor…
Way to go, San Francisco!! 👏👏
My name is Captain Dylan Blaha, and this message is for members of the National Guard across the USA. I've served in the Illinois Army National Guard for over 12 years, including a deployment to Afghanistan and three years on active duty in Europe. What's going on right now is not normal.
Elon Musk, supposedly the richest man on earth tried to stiff the Twitter employees he fired after be bought the social media site contrary to their contracts he'd said he'd follow in the purchase agreement. But now he's been forced to settle and pay up. What a jerk.
Independent bookstores are alive and well in our country. J. Hood, Booksellers(proprietor John J. Hood) has been in Baldwin City KS for 50 years! I just got from it via ABE Books a rare but reasonably priced book on Mauritanian archaeology in mint condition nicely wrapped in brown paper. Thank you!
Macron says he and Brigitte "had to" sue Candace Owens.
Meet the Maine oyster farmer looking to challenge Sen. Susan Collins.
🗞️ I spent decades in newsrooms, finishing up as Managing Editor of Stars & Stripes. I am telling you our legacy media is not a part of the problem in America. It IS the problem in America. 🗞️ By platforming the most notorious liar on earth, instead of reporting the truth, they have put us in danger.
For anyone interested in accuracy of information, the Trump/MAGA barrage of falsities can be frustrating. But the judges see the problem. Judge E.M. Davis ruled against Newsmax that Dominion had "clear and convincing evidence that the statements from Newsmax were false and defamatory". So there.