Robert Reich

Trump destroys our source of information about jobs. This is beyond irresponsible.
He hates facts. He rejects truth. He doesn’t want the public to know what’s really happening.






Friends,

Sorry to intrude again on your day, but this is urgent.

I spent much of the 1990s as secretary of labor. One unit of the Labor Department is the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

I was instructed by my predecessors as well as by the White House, and by every labor economist and statistician I came in contact with, that one of my cardinal responsibilities was to guard the independence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Otherwise, this crown jewel of knowledge about jobs and the economy would be compromised. If politicized, it would no longer be trusted as a source of information.

So what does Trump do? In one fell swoop on Friday he essentially destroyed the credibility of the BLS.

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Bookkeeping
> 1,761 cubic feet: Size of the world's largest claw machine, found at an arcade in the Philippines.
> 33,740 degrees Fahrenheit: The temperature of a piece of gold superheated past its theoretical limit without melting.

Browse
> How texting too much can lead to arthritis.
> Michael Phelps is giving Baltimore Ravens players swim lessons.
> These jobs are least likely to be overtaken by AI.
> Gossip is good for you, according to a psychologist.
> Ranking every Marvel Studios movie and show, from worst to best.

Listen
> Why our brains fall for optical illusions.

Watch
> How airlines decide which plane to use.
> Ranking the world's stinkiest cheeses.
> Learn about your health through your poop.

Long Read
> Monkeys run this criminal enterprise.
> New research investigates whether single cells can learn and remember.
> Are GLP-1s—like Ozempic and Wegovy—really catch-all drugs?

Most Clicked This Week: See 31 of the US' most beautiful towns.

Historybook: Declaration of Independence is signed (1776); American actress Myrna Loy born (1905); Alexander Graham Bell dies (1922); Author and activist James Baldwin born (1924); Iraq invades Kuwait, leading to Gulf War (1990).

FINALLY! How to Make Tofu Actually Taste GOOD | Beginner's Guide to Perf...

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In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Pro Football Hall of Fame to induct 2025 class tomorrow featuring Antonio Gates, Sterling Sharpe, Eric Allen, and Jared Allen (More) | ESPN cut ties with Shannon Sharpe after Sharpe settles sexual assault lawsuit (More)

> Justin Timberlake reveals Lyme disease diagnosis, which left the singer dealing with nerve pain and fatigue while in the middle of his world concert tour (More)

> Sean "Diddy" Combs requests conviction be overturned ahead of his October sentencing (More) | UFC star Conor McGregor loses appeal in civil sexual assault case; McGregor was found liable for sexually assaulting a woman in 2018 (More)


Science & Technology
> Google DeepMind unveils AlphaEarth Foundations, combining its AI models with observational data from satellites; platform allows researchers unprecedented detail in monitoring changes on the planet's surface (More)

> Modern potatoes originated from a chance cross-pollination between ancient tomato plants and a related plant species; event occurred roughly 9 million years ago near the Andes Mountains, per study (More)

> Neuroscientists pinpoint brain region that helps distinguish between solid objects and viscous fluids; findings shed light on how the brain evolved to interact with the physical world (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close down (S&P 500 -0.4%, Dow -0.7%, Nasdaq -0.0%) (More) | Core personal consumption expenditures price index, which measures costs consumers pay across a wide range of items, excluding food and energy, rose 2.8% year over year in June; figure matches May's upwardly revised rate (More)

> Figma shares more than triple in NYSE debut, valuing design-software maker at roughly $48B (More) | Reddit shares rise over 10% in after-hours trading after better-than-expected Q2 results (More) | Apple reports largest revenue growth since December 2021 (More)

> OpenAI reaches $12B in annualized revenue; reports 700 million weekly active users for its ChatGPT products (More) | ... and will build its first European AI data center in Norway (More) | Learn more about OpenAI (1440 Topics)


Politics & World Affairs
> Ukraine's parliament passes legislation restoring the powers of two anticorruption agencies after domestic protests; the new bill reverses a move last week to sideline the agencies over allegations they were filled with Russian agents (More)

> US Northeast braces for torrential rain and possible flash flooding, with states of emergency declared in New Jersey, New York City (More)

> Texas' Kerr County emergency management director tells state lawmakers he was out sick, asleep when the Guadalupe River began seeing catastrophic flooding early last month (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

Morning Ritual

 

Each morning or at least most mornings, I wake up between 7:00 am and 8:00 am, without relying on an alarm clock.  There is a tendency for me to take a leak and go back to bed but I resist and just take the leak.

Our three cats are waiting at the door for it to open by one of the occupants inside, to give them their morning treat.  It is usually me.  Once their treat has been given, I take the can of cat food out of the frig to let it warm up.  This can is for the outside cat that comes to visit every day...  Go figure why???   lol

I then put treat in a bowl and take it outside for the stray cat that we call Little Boy but who only answers to Kitty Kitty.  

My next task is to take my thyroid pill with water and prepare my first morning cup of using a McCafe Decaf Keurig K-cup and pressing the button for 12oz, diluting it even further.

There was a time when I could drink several cups of regular KONA coffee without cream or sugar.

Today, I drink decaf and further soften it down with 4 teaspoons (heaping) of Sugar Free Cappuccino Mix.

Fortunately for me, within 90 minutes (more often than not) the coffee does wonders with my bowels and I am usually in the bathroom.

My ritual continues with the daily preparing of two blogs.  I post 1 newly written poem to my poetry blog and 20-30 items to my journal blog, along with drinking 2-3 more cups of 12oz coffees.  These chores are accomplished while watching FOX News.

It is usually somewhere between 10:00 am and 11:00 am so it is time for breakfast.  My breakfast, more often than not, consists of raisin bran cereal and sugar free yogurt.

Once breakfast is completed, I begin work on my novels which may require some research before writing.  I like to research the names of streets and restaurants for instance to make sure they were operational in the year I am writing about.  Or if in a foreign country, I research roads, landmarks, and what might be nearby.

Lunch is usually a sandwich with tuna salad and mayo or chicken salad on pita followed by 2 oatmeal cookies.  Sometimes, while writing I also attend to making soup, or some kind of meal for dinner - usually a one-pot something that fits in 3-4 plastic containers that go in the frig.

Late afternoon, I watch a movie or two to three episodes of a series that has attracted my attention.  While watching, I will eat something for dinner.

After the movie, I mess around with Facebook, X, Truth Social, or Bluesky until it is time to go to bed around 9:00 pm or 10:00 pm.

Somewhat Political

 

Astronomers Discover Mysterious Radio Pulsing White Dwarf

A Team of astronomers have made a fascinating discovery that forces us to rethink our understanding of how dead stars behave. Using the powerful Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope in the Netherlands, the team have found a white dwarf star that's doing something completely unexpected, sending out bright radio pulses in a strange, rhythmic pattern.

The star system, officially called ILT J163430+445010 (or J1634+44 for short), is located over 3,500 light years from Earth. What makes it extraordinary isn't just that it's sending radio signals, it’s how those signals behave. Every 14 minutes, this dead star emits radio pulses that have a bizarre twist, some waves spin in circles while others vibrate in straight lines. This rapid switching between different types of polarization has never been seen before in any white dwarf.

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Alien

 

Lara Trump

 

The Shannon Joy Show

 

Classic MG

 

The Amber May Show

 

Russell Brand

 

Night Fantasy

 

The Big MIG

 

The White House

 

Full Moon

 

The Big THINK

Most social trends aren’t what they seem

Headlines

Jason Redmond/Getty Images




Microsoft is the second company ever to be worth $4 trillion. The company that brought you Clippy has now joined Nvidia in the $4 trillion market cap club, and, like Nvidia, it has AI to thank. Microsoft hit the milestone yesterday as investors digested its earnings report, which showed 18% revenue growth. The company also reported that annual revenue from its Azure cloud computing unit jumped 34% from its previous fiscal year, taking in more than $75 billion. But as with the rest of Big Tech, investing in AI requires a lot of cash, and Microsoft said it plans to spend $30 billion on AI infrastructure next quarter.

Apple’s quarterly revenue grew by the most since December 2021. With iPhone sales up by 30% and sales in China rising 4%, Apple blew past Wall Street’s expectations when it reported its Q3 earnings yesterday, as overall sales hit $94 billion, about 10% higher than in the same period a year ago. Though tariffs cost Apple $800 million, they also helped spur sales as consumers raced to buy new tech before higher prices kick in. The other member of the Magnificent Seven to report earnings yesterday, Amazon, didn’t leave investors impressed. Amazon also reported better-than-expected numbers, with revenue and profit both up. But the e-commerce giant’s stock fell in after-hours trading because its cloud business wasn’t growing as rapidly as its rivals’, leaving investors worried its AI investments weren’t paying off enough.

Figma jumps more than 250% in trading debut. Sometimes you lose a $20 billion merger opportunity but still win in the end. Design software-maker Figma’s stock soared on the NYSE after it sold $1.2 billion worth of shares for $33 each in an IPO, giving it a value above the amount it had agreed to sell itself to Adobe for before the deal fell apart in 2023. The stock rose so fast that trading had to be halted for volatility. The company’s success is a good sign for the tech IPO market, which had been in a lull for the past few years but has seen a few other buzzy debuts recently, like Circle and Chime.—AR

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Robert Reich

Must we choose between saving democracy and saving the Earth?
No!







Friends,

Some people tell me that I should be talking more about the climate crisis than the crisis of democracy.

But you know something? We can’t deal with the climate crisis unless our democracy is saved.

Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, just announced that the Trump administration will revoke the scientific determination that underpins the government’s legal authority to combat climate change — the “endangerment finding” of 2009, which concluded that planet-warming greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health.

That simple finding has allowed administration after administration to set strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, power plants, and other industrial sources of pollution.

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At A Glance

(7/9/2025) What happens when you flush an airplane toilet.

(7/14/2025) Girl's note to home residents found on empty toilet paper roll.

(7/7/2025) Roughly 1,500 bikers show up to accompany bullied teen to prom.

(7/15/2025) Housekeeping reveals the dirtiest parts of a hotel room.

(7/8/2025) A guide to America's loneliest road.

(7/11/2025) Why Dairy Queen can't legally sell "ice cream."

(7/9/2025) Earth is spinning unusually fast today.

(7/22/2025) A potential fix for America's public bathroom crisis.

(7/3/2025) See a ranking of the best hot dog brands.

(7/7/2025) Study reveals six factors determining what makes someone cool.

Clickbait: World's richest woman opens a medical school.

Historybook: "Moby-Dick" author Herman Melville born (1819); American frontierswoman Calamity Jane dies (1903); Sniper kills 14, wounds 31 at University of Texas (1966); MTV launches with "Video Killed the Radio Star" as first video (1981).

Healthy Chickpea Wrap in 5 Minutes!

Quick Clips

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> NFL preseason kicks off tonight (8 pm ET, NBC) with the Los Angeles Chargers taking on the Detroit Lions in the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game (More) | How does the NFL make money? (More)

> Laura Dahlmeier, two-time Olympic gold medal-winning biathlete, dies at age 31 following a climbing accident in northern Pakistan (More)

> NBA sets up 2026 regular season matchups in Berlin (Jan. 15) and London (Jan. 18) featuring the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies (More) | USA Track and Field championships begin today from Eugene, Oregon; see complete schedule (More)

Science & Technology
> Joint US-India mission to deploy satellite capable of capturing changes on the Earth's surface with resolution of a single centimeter; NISAR mission can image the same spot on Earth every 12 days (More) | The history of NASA (1440 Topics)

> Chronic disrupted sleep modifies blood vessels in the brain known as pericytes, can lead to impaired cognitive function and higher dementia risk (More)

> Dormant cancer cells can be reawakened by viral respiratory infections, including the flu or COVID-19; study suggests acute inflammation in the lungs may trigger cells to reactivate (More) | How alcohol leads to cancer (1440 Topics)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 -0.1%, Dow -0.4%, Nasdaq +0.2%) (More)

Federal Reserve keeps interest rates steady for fifth consecutive meeting, faces dissents from two officials seeking rate cuts (More) | The US economy grew at an annual rate of 3% in Q2, a better-than-expected pace (More)

> Microsoft tops $4T in market cap in after-hours trading after beating Q4 earnings and revenue; reports revenue from Azure and cloud services for first time, with sales exceeding $75B for fiscal 2025 (More) | Meta shares rise over 10% in after-hours trading after topping Wall Street estimates, raises full-year forecast (More)

> Ford says Q2 results took $800M hit from tariffs (More) | Robinhood beats Q2 earnings and revenue, saw revenue rise 45% year over year to $989M (More) | What is retail trading? (1440 Topics)


Politics & World Affairs
> Evacuations in Hawaii downgraded, with tsunami threat to US West Coast receding after 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula; earthquake is tied as sixth strongest ever recorded and biggest since 2011 quake that hit Japan (More) | See photos of the aftermath (More)

> Texas Republicans release proposed new congressional map aimed at flipping five Democratic seats by redrawing district lines in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and South Texas (More) | US Senate Democrats invoke rare "Rule of Five" to force Justice Department to release Jeffrey Epstein files (More)

> Canada to recognize a Palestinian state in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney says (More) | Brown University reaches deal with Trump administration to restore over $500M in funding, resolve nondiscrimination review findings (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

August 2025 Begins

 We are now in the month of AUGUST 2025 for both the first and last time.  As each second, minute, hour, day, and week goes by, it will never be visited again unless it is through records, photos, or digital memories.

What is unique about AUGUST 2025?

Nothing...

It is just another month just like any other month.

For some, it is the start of school.

For others, it is the last month of summer.

For me, August of increased humidity, rain, and trying to find a window where the lawn can be mowed without having to rack up grass cuttings.

For my wife, August is just another warm month that she can spend out in the sunroom reading her romance novels or watching her Korean movies.

She was one of the first fans of the musical group BTS and began watching Korean Drama when several members of the group decided to fulfill their military obligations.

But...

back to August 2025...

When I was growing up in Alexandria, Virginia, when August rolled around, we knew that we only had one more complete month of summer vacation.

Unlike today, summer vacation was between the Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays.

The summer was originally shortened because teachers wanted more money and in order to get that extra money, they had to agree to extend the school year.

Many of our decisions, as you well know, revolve around MONEY...

Somewhat Political

Somewhat POlitical

 

16 High-Fiber Breakfasts to Prep the Night Before

Credit:  Photographer Victor Protasio, Food Stylist Chelsea Zimmer, Prop Stylist Hannah Grennwood.


Wake up to an easy breakfast when you prep one of these dishes the night before. From overnight oats and chia puddings to muffins, these make-ahead recipes are a delicious way to start each day. Plus, each serving offers at least 3 grams of fiber to help you feel full for longer, support your heart health, promote healthy digestion and more. Tackle the day ahead with flavorful and filling dishes like our Peaches & Cream Overnight Oats and High-Protein Strawberry Muffins.

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