Wednesday, April 2
Robert Reich
Office Hours: Trump’s worst Cabinet member?
Not including Elon Musk, because he isn’t officially in the Cabinet
Friends,
Granted, it’s too early in the life of the Trump regime to be able to know the full extent of its awfulness or how bad his Cabinet is, but enough has happened already to form some preliminary views.
It is by far the worst presidency in American history — far surpassing James Buchanan’s, Andrew Johnson’s, Warren G. Harding’s, and even Trump’s first term in cruelty, corruption, and incompetence.
It has the least qualified people working in it and the worst Cabinet ever assembled. Don’t just take my word for it. Polls show a majority of American voters are disappointed with Trump’s Cabinet members, registering a record-high level of dissatisfaction over the last four presidential administrations.
The regime is filled with bottom-feeders, frauds, fanatics, and fools — but so far, four really awful Cabinet members stand out (I’m not including Elon Musk, because he’s not officially in the Cabinet; in fact, he’s not officially in the Trump regime):
At A Glance
World War II museum honors Rosie the Riveters.
Venice to host Jeff Bezos' wedding.
Why you might be tired despite getting enough sleep.
Coastal Carolina fans offered free concessions.
Farmer seeks to revive a biblical superfood.
Family's painting turns out to be an original Delacroix.
The science behind having room for dessert.
... and why we all should wander.
Clickbait: Introducing a new plaid frog.
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> NCAA women's Final Four set as UCLA, South Carolina, Texas, and Connecticut advance from the Elite Eight; see updated bracket (More)
> Kendrick Lamar live-action comedy film from the creators of "South Park" sets March 2026 release date (More)
> NFL adds United Arab Emirates to slate of new international markets as the league looks to play up to 10 international games in 2026 (More) | NFL owners meeting this week to discuss potential for 18-game regular season (More)
Science & Technology
> Amazon unveils AI agent that can take control of a web browser and perform simple tasks as well as a tool kit for developers to build personalized agents (More) | The history of Amazon (1440 Topics)
> Engineers develop brain-computer interface that converts thoughts to speech in near real time; device may allow patients with severe paralysis to regain verbal communication (More)
> Fecal transplants from elite athletes into mice improve insulin sensitivity and help muscles store more energy (More) | Explore the best resources on the gut microbiome (1440 Topics)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.6%, Dow +1.0%, Nasdaq -0.1%); Nasdaq, S&P 500 post worst quarters since 2022 as investors await new US tariffs to take effect tomorrow (More) | Conservative cable channel Newsmax shares surge over 700% in first trading day on NYSE (More)
> Google DeepMind’s drug discovery spin-off Isomorphic Labs raises $600M (More) | Mortgage company Rocket to buy competitor Mr. Cooper Group in all-stock deal valued at $9.4B; comes three weeks after Rocket bought Redfin (More)
> CEO of fast-fashion brand Primark, Paul Marchant, resigns over allegations of improper behavior; Marchant had led the company since 2009 (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Death toll from earthquake that struck Myanmar Friday surpasses 2,000, with more than 3,000 injured; at least 20 people dead in Bangkok, Thailand, which also felt the quake (More)
> Trump administration says it is reviewing roughly $9B in federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard, claiming the school failed to address issues of antisemitism on campus; review comes after similar probe into Columbia (More)
> Israeli military orders evacuation of Gaza’s southern border city of Rafah as it seeks to reoccupy 25% of the enclave (More) | Three US Army soldiers found dead in Lithuania after their armored vehicle sank in a bog during training; search for fourth soldier continues (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Time
Time is something, along with birth and death of which we all have in common. We are all born; we all die, and we all experience the passage of time.
For some of us, time is kind and for others, time is not kind... everyone has seen this often where people look 10 years older than they really are.
Reasons for this:
- health
- alcohol
- drugs
- not much sleep
- working outside
- working manual labor
Cosmetics and surgery and genes (DNA) keep us younger keep us younger than we really are, but with clothes off, much of the skin we don't see is still wrinkled.
For me, I don't spend any more money than I have to on my looks.
- If my hair falls out, it falls out
- If my teeth lose their whiteness, sobeit
- If I gain weight, I gain weight
- If my skin wrinkles, it wrinkles
We can watch what we eat, exercise and get the sleep we need, but we cannot STOP TIME, nor can we SLOW TIME DOWN. Times moves as it was always intended to move.
We must accept time for what it is an what it is not.
NASA Reveals 5 Million Images of Gravity Waves Rippling Through Earth’s Sky
NASA’s AWE mission just released millions of gravity wave images from space, unveiling atmospheric forces that ripple through the sky and affect our tech on Earth. It’s a whole new window into space weather.
After completing its 3,000th orbit aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) has released its first set of scientific data.
This milestone marks a major step in studying how subtle changes in Earth’s upper atmosphere can lead to disturbances, and how those disturbances can affect technologies like satellites, communications systems, and GPS on Earth and in space.
Tuesday, April 1
Robert Reich
Did you miss last night’s executive order?
Friends,
Today is actually April 2. Your calendar may show April 1 but late last night President Trump issued an executive order making all months 30 days long. That means March actually ended Sunday, March 30, and yesterday was April 1. “This will give dangerous aliens one fewer day each month to cross our borders illegally” Trump said.
“It’s more efficient to do away with the 31st’s,” added Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has been cutting days out of the calendar for months.
But scientists are criticizing the move. “It leaves the earth six days short of a full cycle around the sun each year,” said Dr. Earnest Won, a Nobel Prize-winning geophysicist at the Berkeley Geodesic Laboratory.
In a second executive order issued late last night seemingly in response to Dr. Won, Trump mandated that the six extra days be devoted to himself.
At A Glance
Are you a hostile punctuator?
Why dogs love to play with trash.
See what the Hubble telescope saw on your birthday.
What it's like to retire in America at age 55 or younger.
Photographer captures rare orange snowy owl.
A tool to calculate when your baby might arrive.
Pennsylvania's apple-snatching "Little Bigfoot."
Japanese chain temporarily closes after rat found in soup.
Clickbait: The world's longest tongue plays Jenga.
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Richard Chamberlain, longtime stage, film, and TV actor who also charted as a singer, dies of a stroke at age 90 (More) | Rapper Young Scooter dies at age 39 after severely injuring leg while fleeing from police (More)
> "A Working Man" upsets "Snow White" to lead slow box office with $15M over the weekend; Disney's "Snow White" dropped 66% from its first to second weekend (More)
> "Beautiful Girls" singer Sean Kingston and his mother found guilty of federal wire fraud charges; each faces a maximum of 20 years in prison at July sentencing (More)
Science & Technology
> Top vaccine scientist resigns from Food and Drug Administration, accuses agency officials of misleading public on the topic; Peter Marks helped lead previous Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed during the pandemic (More)
> NASA's Curiosity rover discovers the longest-chain carbon molecules on Mars found to date; such molecules are key ingredients in organic life on Earth (More)
> AI startup Anthropic releases two papers investigating how large language models reason to produce answers; how the models arrive at realistic outputs using billions of parameters remains an open question (More) | Generative AI 101 (1440 Topics)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets drop sharply Friday (S&P 500 -2.0%, Dow -1.7%, Nasdaq -2.7%), driven by increased core consumer prices and trade policy uncertainty (More) | Athleisure brand Lululemon falls 15% after lowering 2025 expectations (More)
> Frank founder Charlie Javice found guilty of defrauding JPMorgan Chase of $175M; student loan assistance startup allegedly fabricated millions of user profiles to facilitate its acquisition by the bank (More)
> China to issue a reported $72B in capital injections to four of the country's largest banks in an effort to shore up their lending capacity (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Federal judges block executive orders from President Donald Trump targeting two law firms, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale, calling the directives retaliatory in nature (More) | Separate firm, Skadden, agrees to provide $100M in pro bono work to administration-aligned causes during Trump's term to avoid executive order (More)
> Columbia University's interim president resigns; move comes a week after the university agreed to a raft of policy changes over Trump administration's threat to pull $400M in federal funding (More)
> French court to deliver verdict against nationalist-populist opposition leader Marie Le Pen on embezzlement charges today; guilty verdict would bar Le Pen from elections for five years (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Animals: Cats... Dogs...
When I was growing up in Alexandria, Virginia, we grew up around dogs, specifically dachshunds and always a male. His name was Rebel, and he lived to be over 20 years old when our father finally had to put him down due to the old age pain he was feeling. Our father said that was the hardest thing he ever had to do and refused to have another animal after that - and he did not.
During my first marriage we did not have any animals for the first 15 years, then a friend of mine could not take care of this lab due to the apartment complex rules; he had been forced to take the dog as a result of a divorce. So, my wife and I agreed to take him. Eight years later, we got a divorce, and my ex-wife kept the dog.
Five years later when I got married for a second time, we took in stray cats right after we got married, a mother and her son. They were outside/inside cats but primarily outside. The son died after 12 years; the mother died after fifteen. She was blind and had caught pneumonia, so we had to put her down. Her son had a heart attack while playing with my wife.
Right before the mother died, my wife needed a replaced for the son to whom she had grown very attached. As a result, we got a stray from the animal pound, the a few weeks later we got a rescue cat from a animal rescue organization, then a few weeks after that, we got a Siamese cat that we had been tricked into believing was still a kitten.
After 14 years we still have these three cats who are primarily indoor cats and have grown into becoming part of the family. When we go on vacation, we arrange for someone to come by and feed them once a day while we are gone. Cats are easier to take care of than dogs and do not have to be house broken or walked. However, these three cats present attention issues and the Siamese knows when it is time to go to the vet.
After these we will have no more animals.
Ranked: The World’s Fastest Growing Economies in 2025
Oil Powering Economic Growth
The top economies in this ranking are heavily tied to the oil sector, meaning fluctuations in production can have a drastic effect on GDP.
Let’s take a closer look at the top two.
South Sudan (+27.2%)
South Sudan’s GDP has fluctuated up and down in recent years due to an ongoing civil war that has thrown its population into extreme poverty.
As a landlocked country, South Sudan also relies on pipelines that run through its northern neighbor, Sudan, to transport its oil to the Red Sea.
In 2024, South Sudan’s most important pipeline ruptured, putting massive strain on government revenue. Repairing the pipeline is difficult because parts of it lie in active conflict zones.
According to Bloomberg, South Sudan has been seeking alternative routes to export its oil, as well as cash bailouts from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to stay afloat.
South Sudan’s GDP has fluctuated up and down in recent years due to an ongoing civil war that has thrown its population into extreme poverty.
As a landlocked country, South Sudan also relies on pipelines that run through its northern neighbor, Sudan, to transport its oil to the Red Sea.
In 2024, South Sudan’s most important pipeline ruptured, putting massive strain on government revenue. Repairing the pipeline is difficult because parts of it lie in active conflict zones.
According to Bloomberg, South Sudan has been seeking alternative routes to export its oil, as well as cash bailouts from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to stay afloat.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)