Monday, May 12
Robert Reich
Trump just can’t resist bribes
Friends,
Trump is overplaying his hand.
Not just by usurping the powers of Congress and ignoring Supreme Court rulings. Not just abducting people who are legally in the United States but have put their name to opinion pieces Trump doesn’t like and trucking them off to “detention” facilities. Not just using the Justice Department for personal vengeance. Not just unilaterally deciding how much tariff tax American consumers will have to pay on almost everything they buy.
Polls show all these are tanking Trump’s popularity.
But one thing almost all Americans are firmly against — even many loyal Trumpers — us bribery. And Trump is taking bigger and bigger bribes.
Yesterday it was reported that he’s accepting a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane worth at least $400 million from the Qatari royal family, for use during his presidency and for his personal use afterward.
At A Glance
Doctor gives science-backed advice for aging.
Time appears to slow when exercising.
Study finds 44% of Americans trust all or most neighbors.
How millennials, boomers, and Gen Xers travel.
Elizabeth Holmes' partner launches medical test startup.
New AI company creates Lego structures from text prompts.
Liam and Olivia top list of 2024 baby names in the US.
See still life series of frozen flowers.
Clickbait: A professional cuddler.
In The NEWS
How does the Federal Reserve work?
Known casually as “the Fed,” the century-old independent central bank sets the interest rates determining how much ordinary people pay for mortgages, car loans, and more, all to achieve its dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment (read 101).
After the panic of 1907, major US financiers and lawmakers worked to draft a uniquely American plan for a so-called Federal Reserve system. To avoid public backlash, these efforts were shrouded in secrecy, and in 1913, the Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson.
The Fed is technically an independent, quasi-governmental agency, meaning it operates without requiring government approval. Its board of governors, led by a chair, must report to Congress.
... Read our full deep dive on the Fed here.
Also check out...
> Ranking all 16 Fed chairs by stock market performance. (More)
> Six ways the Fed impacts your money. (More)
> The life span of a dollar bill. (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Health Update
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Recently, I had a PET scan, my last PET scan was 2023; however, I've been receiving CT scans every 3-4 months instead, so I was due for one. The PET scan was set up to detect both Melanoma and Lymphoma.
The results indicated that there was not metabolic activity relative to Melanoma but that my Lymphoma had increased in size. My Oncologist was not too worried about that until I shared with him that I had been having night sweats almost every night.
He increased the dosage of the daily pills I take and is considering trying a different medication or adding a previous med (infusion) for a short term or even doing a biopsy and sending it off to a lab that develops targeted treatment protocols.
Needless to say, I am a little concerned by his "I'm not too worried" approach yet his approach had kept me alive for the last 16 years, and there was a time during those 16 years that he was concerned that everything he was trying was not working.
While you need to take responsibility for the management of your healthcare, there comes a point-in-time where one just has to trust the doctor.
Scientists have been wrong for 200 years: Viking ships at the bottom of the sea turned out to be something else entirely
Archaeologists from the Stockholm Shipwreck Museum hope to secure funding for further research and excavation of the relatively well-preserved ship, found 20 km off the coast and with several masts still attached, which they now doubt may have been a Viking ship.
“This ship represents a fascinating transition from medieval to modern shipbuilding.” Viking Age ships (and all other ships from the Nordic countries before that) were built with clinker, long planks of the hull overlapping each other; but in hand-built ships, they lie side by side.
Sunday, May 11
In The NEWS
Trump signals openness to cutting China tariffs to 80%.
President Donald Trump proposed reducing tariffs on Chinese imports to 80% in a bid to ease trade tensions ahead of high-level talks today between US and Chinese officials in Switzerland. The talks mark the first major meeting between the two countries since the trade war began. Tariffs have surged to 145% on US goods from China and 125% on Chinese goods from the US, impacting markets and consumer prices.
Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter dies at age 85.
The retired Supreme Court justice, appointed by President George HW Bush in 1990, passed away Thursday at his home in New Hampshire. Though initially expected to be a conservative voice, Souter became known for his liberal stances on issues like abortion and civil rights. He also dissented in the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision, which ended the Florida recount and secured George W. Bush's presidential victory.
Newark Airport goes dark for second time Friday morning.
Early Friday morning, radar screens at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey went dark for about 90 seconds due to a telecommunications outage at a Philadelphia facility overseeing its airspace. The brief outage is the second such incident in two weeks and came a day after the Department of Transportation announced a multibillion-dollar modernization plan.
Two men convicted of cutting down iconic Sycamore Gap tree.
Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers were found guilty Friday of criminal damage for felling the Sycamore Gap tree in northern England in 2023. The roughly 150-year-old tree previously stood symmetrically in a dip between two hills (see photos) alongside a portion of Hadrian's Wall, a 73-mile stone barrier built by Roman Emperor Hadrian about 1,900 years ago to protect the empire's northwest frontier. Sentencing is July 15.
Lyft sees shares rise 28% after increasing its share buyback plan.
Lyft's shares popped a day after the rideshare company beat first-quarter estimates, reporting $1.45B in revenue. It also expanded its share buyback plan (see overview) to $750M. Additionally, Lyft reported strong rider growth in smaller US cities and international expansion through its FreeNow acquisition have contributed to a record number of bookings.
FDA approves first at-home alternative to the Pap smear.
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved an at-home cervical cancer screening tool called the Teal Wand, which allows women ages 25 to 65 to self-collect samples to test for HPV—the virus responsible for most cervical cancers. The alternative to traditional Pap smears aims to make screening easier, especially for those who find in-office exams uncomfortable or inaccessible.
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Deception
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It seems like commerce in the USA is completely based upon DECEPTION these days. Now, there was deception in the 60s/70s but not as bad as it is today.
I remember SEARS getting caught for a bait and switch scheme and nobody could trust used car salesmen, but for the most part everyone was honest and straight forward.
In the 1980s, I learned that Engineering Schools were teaching their students BUILT IN OBSOLESCENCE which mean design and built a product that has a limited life span... so it needs to be replaced more frequently.
As we moved into the 1990s and 2000s, I discovered that most all commerce was based upon, TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE BUYER IF YOU CAN... it seems nobody was playing the TRUTH GAME.
Today, in 2025, if you do not do your DUE DILLIGENCE then you might as well guarantee yourself that you will be conned, ripped off, or in some way taken advantage of. That is just the way it is.
A recent discussion with an online stranger trying to sell me a service, pushed the fact that he and his company had an A+ rating with the BBB... that could be verified but when I performed a GOOGLE search or searched using Microsoft's COPILOT(AI), I literally found dozens of dissatisfied customers that felt they had not just been lied to but that this company was not even answering their phone calls. This was also confirmed with COPILOT.
I think this started back in the 1970s/80s/90s when potential job applicants started lying on their resumes about their qualifications and what they could do. This was accomplished by playing with the use of words.
LET THE BUYER BEWARE....
Gravity is Result of Computational Process within Our Universe, Physicist Says
University of Portsmouth physicist Melvin Vopson proposes a new way to think about gravity — not just as a pull, but as something that happens when the Universe is trying to stay organized.
This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The possibility that the entire Universe is informational in nature and resembles a computational process is a popular theory among a number of well-known figures.
The thinking comes from within a branch of science known as information physics, which suggests physical reality is actually made up of structured information.
The thinking comes from within a branch of science known as information physics, which suggests physical reality is actually made up of structured information.
Saturday, May 10
Politics & a Few Other Related Thoughts
At 77 years of age, I don't really think that much about politics like I used to.
REASON? Politicians seem to care more about getting re-elected than they do about making life better for Americans.
When I was really focused on Politics, I was a KENNEDY DEMOCRAT... After he was killed, the Democratic Party was never the same.
My focus shifted from the PARTY to that candidate that I perceived to be the best for the country.
My Political Philosophy:
- Low taxes
- Small Federal Govt
- More powerful State's Govt
- Free healthcare
- No federal debt
- Strong retirement program
- Free trades - no tariffs
- No tax shelters for wealthy
- Large non-profits pay taxes
- Strong military
- Secure boarders
- Strong economy
- Robust education
I think fighting other country's wars should not be our responsibility like Korea, and Vietnam. But I do think that terrorists who attack us should be severely punished, like 9/11.
Companies ARE WRONG that pay their management teams bonuses and extremely higher salaries than their workforces that does most all of the work. Something is terribly wrong when GREED over Human Beings takes precedence... but it is not the Feds who should regulate that - it is the companies themselves.
There should be no discrimination, and women should be allowed to have an abortion anytime they damn well want, and if males want to be girls, then they certainly have the right to do that. Just don't violate MY RIGHTS for someone else's rights.
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