Good Day, Gnuville! Happy Tuesday!
Well, this week got off with a bang, didn’t it? What a news day yesterday; a real mixed bag of good and not the best. I was delighted to note that although the faint strains of ‘WAHHH TFG will NEVER be brought to justice’ did predictably waft about in the atmosphere, there was a far more energetic chorus of “none of this is make or break”. And that’s the truth.
Everyone here knows that we aren’t waiting for some sort of legal miracle or health event to take TFG out of the political running. The wheels of justice grind WAY too slow for that and the wild speculation about TFG’s health is just that — speculation. No big health crisis is likely to end his campaign. And the court cases won’t get to the finish line in time, either. It doesn’t matter. He’s going down anyway.
The thing that will end TFG’s attempt to gain back the power and protection of the office of POTUS is us — the American people. We are going to turn out and vote in numbers too great to ignore and he will be even more soundly defeated than in 2020. After that, the rest of the slow train of justice will roll by him and take him away for good.
But we are the ones who will save the country — and ourselves — from that malignant weirdo loser.
Read on for the kind of news that will fuel your determination to do everything in your power to get Biden-Harris re-elected, along with a solid Democratic majority in the House and Senate. We can do this! Let’s get started!
🚚 💙 Democrats Deliver! 💙 🥰
Joe has delivered; let’s make sure he has 4 more years to finish the job!
The Promise of Biden’s Second Term, Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, March 22, 2024.
If you want to get a sense of what Biden might do in a second term, especially if he brings with him a Democratic Congress, consider what he has already done. Between November 2021 and August 2022, with the slimmest of Democratic majorities in both houses, Biden signed into law three landmark pieces of legislation—the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS Act.
Though Biden’s jobs creation record in general is exemplary—15 million jobs created in slightly over three years, including 800,000 manufacturing jobs. And the jobs created specifically thanks to these three laws were part of an industrial policy aimed at reviving U.S. supply chains, modernizing and greening decaying infrastructure, and adding new competence and domestic employment in semiconductors under the CHIPS Act.
As our friends at UMass Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute calculated in an authoritative report by Robert Pollin and colleagues released last September, “Investments supported by the BIL, IRA, and CHIPS programs would generate, in total, an average of nearly 3 million jobs per year, as long as investment levels associated with these programs are sustained at their anticipated levels.” They found that the expansion of job opportunities would be unusually large in occupations that did not require a four-year college degree.
Biden’s EPA to union-busters: not today, satan!
New Clean-Car Rule May Transform Unions in America, David Dayen, The American Prospect, March v22, 2024.
There are other rules coming soon, including the Department of Transportation’s fuel economy standards and a separate EPA rule for heavy trucks. But this rule limiting tailpipe emissions is a big deal for the climate, and for the public health of people who breathe in tailpipe emissions and suffer accordingly.
It just might also be a major win for American labor.
That’s because the United Auto Workers’ first attempt in its bold strategy to organize non-union U.S. auto plants is at a Volkswagen facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This plant’s primary output is currently Volkswagen’s only electric vehicle in the U.S., and even the weaker timelines in the new rules make it close to impossible to close that plant or shift EV production elsewhere. That robs UAW antagonists of a critical and oft-deployed argument against union drives: that the facility would lose business or have to close if the unionization is successful.
The UAW, which pushed for a slower phase-in last year, seemed pleased with the final version. In a statement, the union said that “the EPA has created a more feasible emissions rule” that “provid[es] a path forward for automakers to implement the full range of automotive technologies to reduce emissions … We reject the fearmongering that says tackling the climate crisis must come at the cost of union jobs.” In fact, in this case, it’s going to facilitate those union jobs.
I’m telling you: Joe is REALLY good at this!
Update: Volkswagen workers to vote on union representation in April, Nick Robertson, the Hill, March 25, 2024, 9:08 PM ET.
Dem Senators persuade Big Pharma to cap inhaler price at $35
Senators Have Pushed Big Pharma to Cap Inhaler Prices at $35–Bringing Relief to American Families, Andy Corbley, Good News Network, March 25, 2024.
Less than three months after U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and her colleagues launched an investigation into the four major American manufacturers of inhalers, three of the companies have relented, making commitments to cap costs for their inhalers at $35 for patients who now pay much more.
25 million Americans have asthma and 16 million Americans have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), meaning over 40 million Americans rely on inhalers to breathe.✂️
According to a statement from the Wisconsin Senator’s office, inhaler manufacturers sell the exact same products at a much lower costs in other countries. One of AstraZeneca’s inhalers, Breztri Aerosphere, costs $645 in the U.S.—but just $49 in the UK. Inhalers made by Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, and Teva have similar disparities.
Baldwin and her Democratic colleagues—New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) —pressured the companies to lower their prices by writing letters to GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim, Teva, and AstraZeneca requesting a variety of documents that show why such higher prices are charged in America compared to Europe.
Democrats spearhead Right to Repair
First Colorado, now Tennessee. Farmers and other people are finding out it’s the Democrats who have their backs (and the Republicans who have been stabbing them in the back for decades):
Farm Action Fund: Agricultural Right to Repair Movement Spreads, Morning Ag clips, March 19, 2024.
Cade testified and staffed a booth at the Tennessee state capitol urging legislators to enshrine the right to repair agricultural equipment by enacting Senate Bill 2035/House Bill 2029. The bills, introduced by Senator Sara Kyle and Representative Justin Jones, are based on Colorado’s law which made history in 2023 as the nation’s first agricultural right to repair law. Legislators from more than a dozen states have also introduced similar bills as the right to repair movement gains traction across the country.
In recent decades, agricultural equipment manufacturers like John Deere have imposed anticompetitive restrictions on who can repair the products they sell. These restrictions jeopardize thousands of dollars in potential yields for farmers and run independent repair shops out of business.
“Many thanks to Senator Kyle and Representative Jones for introducing these critical bills and fighting on behalf of Tennessee’s farmers,” said Farm Action Fund’s Willie Cade. “Our farmers have been able to fix their own farm equipment for more than a century, and they thrive on this spirit of self-sufficiency,” Cade said. “Repair restrictions cost farmers precious money and time. Since equipment dealers simply don’t have the workforce needed to serve farmers during harvest season, our farmers must be able to fix their equipment on their own.”
The bill was (of course) kicked down the road by Republicans (sent to a committee and deferred until at least summer), but this movement is not going away. It is another example of a way that Democrats can demonstrate to rural voters that their interests are better represented by Democrats than the Republicans who have decimated their communities and ways of life. Here’s an article with more on this topic.
Seeds of dissent: Agricultural manufacturers and farmers clash over “right to repair” equipment, Ashlie D. Stevens, Salon, March 25, 2024.
The bill that was passed in Colorado in 2022 was the first “right to repair” law in the country and naturally it was almost exclusively sponsored by Democrats. Although Rep. Ron Weinberg, a Republican, did enable the legislation to be called bi-partisan, getting this bill passed was nevertheless the work of Democrats standing up for the independence and self-sufficiency of regular rural Coloradans. It is DEMOCRATS who DELIVER. Let’s remind people of this!
Biden and the Democrats deliver!
This Is the Best Way for Biden to Talk About the Economy, Tim Wu, New York Times, March 25, 2024.
Americans are desperate for a fundamentally different, fairer kind of economy, and Mr. Biden is working to give them one. The urgent challenge, politically, is helping voters understand that.✂️
The Biden administration, in a break with center-left orthodoxy, seeks to address economic inequality not through taxation and transfers but through policies that allow more people and businesses to earn wealth in the first place. That is the meaning of the somewhat mysterious liberal catchphrase “growing from the middle out.” The goal is not the redistribution but the predistribution of wealth, to use a term popularized by the political scientist Jacob Hacker.
This approach calls for a different kind of capitalism — one that opposes the centralization of economic power and favors a market in which wealth can be earned by people and businesses in a broader set of regions, drawn from a wider array of social classes and involving a more diverse set of industries.✂️
There is arguably nothing more American than the balancing of power. The authors of the Constitution of the United States believed that unaccountable and centralized power was the chief evil facing any nation. Had the founders been familiar with the modern American corporation, surely they would have wanted to check its power.
Americans understand this instinctually. The National Football League, the nation’s most popular and successful sports league, doesn’t allow the richest organizations in places like New York or Los Angeles to build unbeatable teams. It has developed a structure of competition that rebalances power by way of a draft, salary cap and other techniques. No one thinks it unusual that a small city like Kansas City, Mo., can become a football powerhouse. In its own way, the N.F.L. — widely accepted as fair by Americans — provides a model for the U.S. economy.
Donate to re-elect Joe Biden!
🎶 Joe Lassos the Moon 🎶
😁😡 Republicans in Disarray 🤬😫
Chaos all the way down
Who knows if this is sincere (I hope so because it sounds like this young man had a really tough childhood), or just another MAGA hoping to capitalize on the apparently universal ability of humans to fall for a redemption story, but at the very least it is another data point in the daily avalanche of data pointing to Republican disarray:
Oath Keepers Founder Stewart Rhodes’ Son Is Running for Office—as a Democrat, Amanda Yen, Daily Beast, March 25, 2024.
Democrat Dakota Adams is mounting an uphill battle for a seat in the MontanaLegislature in a deep red corner of the state. But even if his campaign fails, he expects a lifelong future in politics—drawing a stark divergence from his father, who founded the far-right Oath Keepers and is serving an 18-year sentence for conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.✂️
When his mother divorced Rhodes in 2018, Adams was able to move out of the shadow he cast on their family. Rhodes severely undercut Adams’ and his seven siblings’ schooling and barred them from publicly talking about their home lives. Adams couldn’t complete a times table until he was 19 and has spent the last several years trying to catch up on his education—recently enrolling in several college courses.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be fully caught up to where I would have been in life if I’d had a semi-normal childhood,” he said.
He also cited Jan. 6, 2021 as a turning point in his own political awakening.
“It served as a sobering wake-up call in terms of how much danger we are truly in and how the Republican Party enabled a president to become an active danger to this republic,” he said. “I was forced to reevaluate a lot of beliefs and face hard questions about what I really stood for.”
Another one walks away?
Several prominent Republicans have refused to publicly support TFG — Romney, Pence, Haley, Cheney — and it looks another one is likely to join their ranks and may exit from the Republican party:
Senator Lisa Murkowski Says She May Leave GOP Over Party’s Trump-Mania, Amanda Yen, Daily Beast, March 24, 2024.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a longtime critic of Donald Trump, teased a possible exit from the GOP over its unwavering commitment to the former president, refusing to rule out a run as an independent.
In a brief interview with CNN’s Manu Raju from Capitol Hill, Murkowski reiterated her disapproval of Trump and lamented the party’s continued defense of him.
“I wish that as Republicans, we could have a nominee that I could get behind. I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump,” she said.
When asked if she would consider leaving the Republican party and becoming an independent, Murkowski responded, “Oh, I think I’m very independent-minded.”
Here’s what Beau had to say about this:
Unlike the usual politicians who really need their party to stay viable as candidates, Lisa Murkowski is uniquely positioned to carry on without the MAGA party. She has already won election as a write-in candidate when she was primaried by her own party for not being sufficiently rightwing/tea party aligned in 2010. (which is pretty funny, but Murkowski is a right wing conservative — no mistake — just not a mad, MAGA right wing loon)
Speaking of Mad Maga Loons
Of course I am speaking of the looniest madman of all, TFG. Here he is being incoherent again:
Trump’s Weird Israel Rant: ‘You Shouldn't Be Doing That’, Jake Lahut, Daily Beast, March 25, 2024.
Days after claiming Jewish Democrats who criticize Israel “hate” the country and hate “their religion,” Donald Trump went on a confusing rant in which he both criticized Israeli military actions in Gaza as a “big mistake” and indicated he would have responded similarly to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
In an interview with an Israeli newspaper published on Monday, Trump said he would have responded to Hamas’ terrorist attacks “very much the same way as [Israel] did.”
“Only a fool would not do that,” he said.✂️
But asked in a follow up how he would counter the wave of antisemitism unleashed after Oct. 7 as president, Trump suggested the rise in hatred was due to Israel’s response.
“Well, that's because you fought back,” Trump said. “And I think Israel made a very big mistake. I wanted to call [Israel] and say don't do it. These photos and shots. I mean, moving shots of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza. And I said, Oh, that's a terrible portrait. It's a very bad picture for the world.”
🎶 Madman Music 🎶
Meanwhile, from the Schadenfreude File...these assh*les…
Haven’t peeked inside the Schadenfreude file for ages 😁. Let’s see what we can find in there, shall we?
Bolsonaro bolted for Hungarian bolthole
Bolsonaro Hid Out at Hungarian Embassy as Investigators Closed in: Report, AJ McDougall, Daily Beast, March 25, 2024.
Jair Bolsonaro enjoyed a two-night stay at Brazil’s Hungarian Embassy last month as the various investigations into his alleged criminal activities intensified, according to a Monday report by The New York Times. The newspaper obtained security camera footage of Brazil’s far-right former president hovering around the entrance to the embassy on Feb. 12, waiting to be let in.✂️
Four days prior to his sojourn, Brazilian federal police seized Bolsonaro’s passport and arrested two of his former aides on allegations they conspired to overturn the results of the 2022 election. Bolsonaro enjoys a close relationship with Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, and the Times theorized that his stay at the embassy might have been a “bid for asylum.” The federal police announced Monday they would investigate the embassy trip, according to The Brazilian Report.
Musk fails in harassment lawsuit and must pay fees
Judge dismisses Elon Musk's suit against hate speech researchers, Bobby Allyn, NPR, March 25, 2024.
A federal judge has dismissed X owner Elon Musk's lawsuit against a research group that documented an uptick in hate speech on the social media site, saying the organization's reports on the platform formerly known as Twitter were protected by the First Amendment.
Musk's suit, "is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose," wrote U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in his Monday ruling, "This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech."✂️
"It is also just not true that the complaint is only about data collection," the judge wrote. "It is impossible to read the complaint and not conclude that X Corp. is far more concerned about CCDH's speech than it is its data collection methods."
Musk, a self-professed free speech absolutist, often says that nearly anything within the bounds of law should be allowed on X. However, Musk himself has been less tolerant of comments and remarks that cast him in a harsh light.✂️
Since the center won under California's so-called anti-SLAPP laws — which protect people and groups from frivolous lawsuits aimed at suppressing free speech — Musk will be on the hook to pay the group's legal fees.✂️
Imran Ahmed, the founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, views Musk's suit as the billionaire's latest effort to silence criticism over how he is running the social media site.
"We hope this landmark ruling will embolden public-interest researchers everywhere to continue, and even intensify, their vital work of holding social media companies accountable for the hate and disinformation they host and the harm they cause," Ahmed said.
Remember Jeffery Clark? Hopefully soon to be an ex-Esq.
Trump lawyer accused in Georgia election case faces fight to keep law license, Sky Palma, Raw Story, March 25, 2024.
Jeffrey Clark is the subject of a complaint filed by the watchdog group The 65 Project, which has filed numerous election-related complaints against lawyers across the country, the Atlanta Journal Constitutionreported Monday.
In a statement, the group's managing director Michael Teter said their effort "is really to hold accountable those who fought to overturn the election."
“But, more importantly, it will deter future abuse of the American legal system to undermine elections," Teter told the outlet.
The disciplinary trial will start this Tuesday in D.C., according to the report.
TFG’s Delay Tactics Fizzle
Looks like this date might stick; Judge Merchan has had it with TFG and his lawyers.
Trump Criminal Trial Is Set for April 15 as His Attempt at Delay Fails, New York Times, March 25, 2024.
In a particularly low moment for the defense team, the judge questioned the claims — and eventually, the résumé — of one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers as the former president looked on.
After a midmorning break, the judge returned to the courtroom, said that the former president had suffered no harm from the late disclosure of the documents and made the April 15 trial date final.
“Defendant has been given a reasonable amount of time,” the judge said crisply.✂️
The decision underscored the limits of Mr. Trump’s favored legal tactics, as Justice Merchan took the former president’s lawyers to task for what he characterized as overheated rhetoric and transparent attempts at foot-dragging.
He said that the defense’s allegations that prosecutors had made ethical errors related to the document disclosure were “incredibly serious, unbelievably serious,” and then scolded Mr. Trump’s lawyers for failing to substantiate their claims.
“You are literally accusing the Manhattan D.A.’s office and the people assigned to this case of prosecutorial misconduct and trying to make me complicit in it,” the judge said.
TFG’s rich pals don’t want to pony up
Can’t say I blame ‘em!
‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal bills, Matt Laslo, Raw Story, March 25, 2024.
WASHINGTON — Some of former President Donald Trump’s fiercest allies in Congress may be multi-millionaires, but that doesn’t mean they’re opening up their wallets for the reality TV star turned contestant for America's most indicted.
“There’s only so much money,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told Raw Story.
With creditors demanding a $454 million bond as his appeals slowly wind through the courts, Trump’s personal deficits have been the talk of the Capitol in recent days.
“Hopefully, I never get into that problem myself,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story while riding an elevator in the Capitol.
“You’re not planning to cut him a check?” Raw Story asked.
“No. I don't have enough. Mine would be just a blip,” Tuberville — who’s been estimated to have a net worth of around $20 million — said. “But if I could help, I’d help, maybe.”
How about predictive schadenfreude? Is that a thing? (Let’s make it a thing)
TFG got a reprieve until April 4, when he has been given a big break — he only needs to put up $175million bond instead of the more than $500 million anyone else would have been expected to put up to appeal the financial fraud case he just lost. And yet… TFG may not even be able to make THAT bond (c’mon, you know it’s probably true):
Trump Might Be Too Broke for a $175 Million Bond, Too, Timothy Noah, The New Republic, March 25, 2024.
A New York appeals court on Monday reduced the $454 million that former President Donald Trump was required to put up while he appeals his civil fraud case. Now Trump must put up, by April 4, a mere $175 million. The trouble is, he may not get a bond for that amount, either. Should that happen, this act of judicial mercy will end up feeling to Trump like a curse.
The stay deprives Trump of the only argument on which he was gaining any traction at all—that the amount the court required him to put up was excessively high. Four hundred and fifty-four million was indeed an unusually large judgment against a private corporation or individual. (The distinction between Trump and the Trump Organization is paper-thin.) Monday’s appeals court decision doesn’t reduce that judgment, as New York State Attorney General Letitia James pointed out in a written statement. But it does dramatically reduce the amount Trump needs to turn over to the state while he pursues his appeal. It also gives us some hint that the appeals court may reduce Judge Arthur Engoron’s $454 million judgment to, well, $175 million.✂️
But Levinson presumes a degree of rationality in Trump that may not exist. Trump may or may not have $175 million in securities above and beyond the $91 million in a Schwab brokerage account that he reportedlyused to collateralize a bond backed by Chubb in the E. Jean Carroll case. We know Trump has a lot of equity in Truth Social, which he just took public, but he’s barred for six months from using that as collateral. And even if Trump possesses additional liquid investments, he’ll be reluctant to put them up as collateral for the same reason that surety firms prefer collateral in the form of cash and securities to collateral in the form of real estate: It’s much easier to grab in the event that Trump loses his appeal. Which, let’s face it, is likelier than not.
What surety firm would step forward to cover a $175 million bond for Trump?
Better think twice, Truth Social investors!
Or not. You do you. 💸
Finance expert to Truth Social investors: 'You are certain to be taken for a sucker', Tom Boggioni, Raw Story, March 25, 2024.
The advice "buyer beware" should rule the day when Donald Trump's Truth Social, which has never shown a penny of profit, starts trading publicly, financial writer Adam Lashinsky argued Monday.
Lashinsky issued this warning in the Washington Post one day before the former president's media company is slated to begin trading under the ticker name “DJT” on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The former executive editor for Fortune admitted he is not one to normally give investment advice, but argued the securities filing from the former president's Trump Media & Technology Group has enough red flags in it to give any investor pause.
"I assure you that a company with $3.4 million in revenue and $49 million in losses over the past nine months is not worth $5 billion," Lashinsky wrote. "Buy into shares of any company with those numbers and you are certain to be taken for a sucker."
Okay, I had an unhealthy amount of fun on this section. I think I need a shot of anti-venom like after a snakebite. How about a little Mozart?
🎶 Anti-Schadenfreude Musical Break 🎶
🔬🌒 Cool Science 😎🧪
Medical research — Crispr
Scientists say they can cut HIV out of cells, Michelle Roberts, BBC, March 19, 2024.
Scientists say they have successfully eliminated HIV from infected cells, using Nobel Prize-winning Crispr gene-editing technology.
Working like scissors, but at the molecular level, it cuts DNA so "bad" bits can be removed or inactivated.
The hope is to ultimately be able to rid the body entirely of the virus, although much more work is needed to check it would be safe and effective.
Existing HIV medicines can stop the virus but not eliminate it.
The University of Amsterdam team, who will soon be presenting a synopsis, or abstract, of their early findings at a medical conference called ECCMID 2024, stress their work remains merely "proof of concept" and will not become a cure for HIV any time soon.
Car-T cells are created using gene editing technology, like Crispr. There has been so much progress in medical research! This trial reported below was extremely small (just 3 participants), but nevertheless the results were incredibly exciting and promising for future treatment of what has been one of the most deadly and difficult to treat cancers:
CAR-T Cell Therapy Achieves Near-Complete Tumor Regression in Brain Cancer After Five Days, Andy Corbley, Good News Network, March 14, 2024.
Clinical trials for a novel treatment for patients with glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer, have shown rapid success, with some patients experiencing a dramatic decline in tumor size just days after their first treatment course.
Researchers from the Mass General Cancer Center, Massachusetts, have shared the results for the first three patients in a clinical trial of CAR-T cell therapy for glioblastoma.
CAR-T cell therapy, or CAR-T for short, won the Nobel Prize in Medicine, and works by using a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer. It’s currently the most personalized way to treat the disease.✂️
Just days after a single treatment, patients experienced dramatic reductions in their tumors, with one patient achieving near-complete tumor regression in five days after one treatment.✂️
“These results are exciting, but they are also just the beginning—they tell us that we are on the right track in pursuing a therapy that has the potential to change the outlook for this intractable disease.”
2024 Eclipses
The penumbral lunar eclipse has already happened (early Monday morning), but this is a cool article because it explains how these lunar and solar eclipses are related. And the writing in the article itself is quite poetic!
A Lunar Eclipse Warms Up the Moon for April’s Solar Eclipse, Katrina Miller, New York Times (gift article), March 24, 2024.
As the moon prepares to blot out the surface of our sun in two weeks, it’s warming up with a penumbral lunar eclipse on Sunday night or Monday morning, depending on your time zone. ✂️
“It’s all about shadows,” said Noah Petro, a planetary geologist who works on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA. The sun beams light on Earth, casting a long shadow behind it.
“And every once in a while, the moon wanders into that shadow,” Dr. Petro said. ✂️
“The moon is this dance partner that we’ve now had for four and a half billion years,” Dr. Petro said, adding that both kinds of eclipses should remind us of the importance of our cosmic companion.
“We are part of a system,” Dr. Petro said. “Eclipses are great reminders that we are not alone in space.”
By the way, if you’re lucky enough to be in the path of totality for the upcoming solar eclipse on April 8, be sure to wear protective eyewear! There will be tons of eclipse glasses for sale, and if you are in doubt about safety, here is a page from the American Astronomical Society which lists manufacturers of safe, inexpensive safety eyewear to use to watch the eclipse. Some of these can be purchased online — but hurry! 😃
Suppliers of Safe Solar Viewers & Filters, American Astronomical Society, partnered with NASA.
Infinite possibilities
Cern: Scientists search for mysterious ghost particles, Pallab Ghosh, BBC, March 24, 2024.
Some physicists have long suspected that mysterious 'ghost' particles in the world around us could greatly advance our understanding of the true nature of the Universe.✂️
The current theory of particle physics is called the Standard Model.
It says that everything in the Universe is made up of a family of 17 particles - well known ones such as the electron and the Higgs boson - as well as the lesser known but wonderfully named charm quark, tau neutrino and gluon.✂️
But there's a problem: astronomers have noticed things in the heavens - the way galaxies move, for example - that strongly suggest that all that we can observe makes up just five per cent of the Universe.
Some, or even all the rest of the Universe, could be made up of the 'ghost' or 'hidden' particles. They are thought to be phantom doppelgangers of the 17 particles of the Standard Model.
If they exist, they are really hard to detect because they very rarely interact with the world we know. Like ghosts, they pass straight through everything, and can't be detected by any earthly device.
But the theory is that the ghost particles can, very rarely, disintegrate into Standard Model particles, and these can be picked up by detectors. The new instrument increases the chances of detecting these disintegrations by greatly increasing the number of collisions.
🎶 Sciencey Musical Break 🎶
This is the perfect opportunity to slip in one of my favorite short videos:
⚡️ Lightning RoundUp ⚡️
⚡️ Eclipse fun: Your special eclipse forecast for 2024: An astrologer shares what to expect for your sign, Bryanna Collier, CBC Life, March 22, 2024.
⚡️ Scientists Just Gave Humanity an Overdue Reality Check. The World Will Be Better for It. Stephen Lezak, New York Times, March 22, 2024.
⚡️ Stressed or sad? Four ways to cope with difficult emotions. Juli Fraga and Hilary Jacobs Hendel, Washington Post, March 22, 2024.
⚡️ Yer Wonkette: Don't You Dare Investigate Leonard Leo's Nonprofits!, Marcie Jones, Wonkette, March 25, 2025.
⚡️ Vigorous POTUS vs low-energy loser: As Biden tours the country and visits swing states, Trump is fundraising and playing golf, Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller, AP, March 25, 2024.
⚡️ Unions Offer a More Promising Future Than Politicians, Indigo Olivier, The New Republic, March 25, 2024
⚡️ Maybe not today, but soon: Today Is the Day That 50 Years of Grifting Finally Comes to an End, David Cay Johnston, The New Republic, March 25, 2024.
⚡️ Republican Disarray, Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, March 25, 2024.
⚡️ More Rs breaking ranks re TFG (like a dam starting to burst?) Massie blasts Trump’s ‘ridiculous bullying tactics’ in trying to primary Florida Republican, Sarah Fortinsky, the Hill, March 25, 2024.
⚡️ Trump reels from competing court decisions as trials disrupt campaign, Isaac Arnsdorf, Washington Post, March 25, 2024.
🐩 💙 CG’s Picks 💙 🐩
Hello Everybody! It’s me, Curlygirl and have I got some stories for you today!
First, a story about some very small — but apparently pretty smart! — creatures:
🐝 Something different — an insect story!
Bumblebees Share Knowledge Like Humans and Chimpanzees, Suggesting the Hive Mind Is More Personal, Andy Corbley, Good News Network, March 25, 2024.
Bumblebees can teach others new behaviors too complex for them to learn alone, suggests a paper published in Nature that essentially posits humans and bees share knowledge in exactly the same way.
In the study, a bee taught to solve a puzzle for a sugary reward was able to train other bees to complete the task, providing evidence that bees can socially learn some behaviors at a level of complexity previously thought to be unique to humans and our ancestors.✂️
Bumblebees, however, are extremely social insects that have proven themselves capable of acquiring non-natural behaviors, such as string-pulling and ball-rolling, via social learning in order to gain rewards.✂️
However, untrained bees quickly learned to open the two-step box from these demonstrators without needing a reward after the first step. The findings provide evidence that bumblebees are capable of social learning and possibly cultural transmission.
🐶 A video from two clever and mischievous dogs
I love these two 😃
🦍 There’s a new baby gorilla in the London Zoo!
Baby gorilla cuddled by mother at London Zoo remains nameless, AP, March 25, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — The newest endangered baby gorilla at the London Zoo is more than six weeks old but doesn’t yet have a name. Zookeepers aren’t even sure if it’s a male or female because they haven’t been able to get close enough to examine it.
A photo taken Monday by The Associated Press shows why: The gorilla’s mother, Effie, has the baby in her loving cuddle.
“It’s actually quite tricky to sex a young gorilla without a close-up examination,” said Rebecca Blanchard, a zoo spokesperson. “The infant is still held closely by its mum most of the time, and here at London Zoo, we leave the baby in mum’s capable hands.”
🐈 A video about a cat, also in England
I like the cat’s name — Boysie!
🐦 Making cities safer for migrating birds
This morning when we were walking, I saw a bird on the sidewalk and it made me sad. It made Mama sad, too. So when we got home, we googled about birds in the city and what can humans do to make the city a little bit safer for birds? Regular city birds are used to our big buildings and all the lights and noise just like I am and just like other city cats, dogs and other animals are. But it’s the migratory birds who pass over Chicago every spring and fall who come to grief. They are not used to the city and the tall buildings.
Luckily, this is a problem that lots of concerned people have been thinking about for awhile. Building a Bird-Safe City | Chicago, Urban Nature, PBS (WTTW). I’m putting in a lot because it is PBS and they want this stuff passed on — but there is even MORE at the link. Like a famous Chicago architect who designs high rise buildings with migrating birds in mind!
While Chicago’s nighttime skyline offers a spectacular view for people, it can be a deadly vision for migrating birds. Thousands of birds are injured and killed here in building collisions each year during spring and fall migration.
Located on the Mississippi Flyway, Chicago lies along a critical migratory route for millions of birds flying between the northern United States and Canada—where they spend the warmer months—and Central and South America—where the birds overwinter.
While bird species like pigeons and sparrows are familiar with the urban cityscape, hundreds of migrating bird species from rural areas become easily confused by the unfamiliar sight of glowing skyscrapers and gleaming glass windows.✂️
In an effort to protect migrating birds, the City of Chicago, the Chicago Audubon Society, and the Building Owners and Managers Association launched the Lights Out Chicago program in 1995.✂️
The program recommends turning off decorative lighting on tall city buildings at 11 p.m. daily during the migration seasons, which run from March through June in the spring, and August through November in the fall. In addition, the Lights Out guidelines recommend dimming lobby lighting in buildings that have glass atriums with plants, trees, and other indoor vegetation from 1:00 a.m. until daylight. Migrating birds mistakenly fly toward these lobbies with the hopes of entering a welcoming refuge, and instead collide with a glass barrier.✂️
McCormick Place is the largest convention center in the United States and has proven to be one of the biggest bird killers in Chicago. According to Field Museum Senior Conservation Ecologist Douglas Stotz, the Field Museum has been taking tabs of dead birds at McCormick Place for nearly 40 years, during which time it has collected more than 35,000 total specimens to date. However, since becoming a participant in the Lights Out Chicago program, McCormick Place has decreased its bird mortality rate by 80 percent, Stotz said.
In order to further deter birds away from McCormick Place and downtown buildings, migratory bird habitat has been created near the convention center at the Burnham Wildlife Corridor, the McCormick Bird Sanctuary, and at Northerly Island.
Located on the same 91-acre manmade peninsula that once housed the Meigs Field airport, Northerly Island is now home to hundreds of species of wildflowers, grasses, trees, shrubs, and plants that provide food and shelter.
Migratory bird collisions are not limited to Chicago—between 500,000,000 and a billion migrating birds are killed annually in building collisions across the United States. With the ongoing efforts led by Lights Out Chicago, Studio Gang Architects, the Field Museum, the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, and others, Chicago is providing a model for cities nationwide and across the globe to adopt bird-safe strategies.
🐦💕👶 A bird and a baby become friends! TRUE STORY!
Crows are such cool birds! And this little child, Otto, is also pretty cool!
That’s all my stories for today. Pretty neat, huh?
Thanks for reading — bye for now! Luv, CG 💙🐾
💗 How Can You Help Build Our Democracy Back Better? 💗
Put your beautiful bleeding liberal heart into it! 🥰
Share Goody’s Boosting Biden series on social media — Boosting Biden Series
Democratic litigation hero, Marc Elias was the legal eagle behind the 60 Big Lie losses after the election. Here’s his website, Democracy Docket. You can find information about current cases he is fighting to defend voting rights around the country, as well as actions you can take to help fight voter suppression at the link!
Write to voters around the country with Postcards to Voters. Progressive Muse usually posts an update on current campaigns in the comments and you can also check out the website. It’s easy, fun and it really works to GOTV!
🎩 Also, Goody posted a great list of links a while ago. I am borrowing and adding the latest ones to it 🎩
Fight voter suppression!
What can you do?
HERE’S HOW TO CONTACT CONGRESS:
U.S. House of Representatives:* Telephone: 202-225-3121
* Website: http://www.house.gov/
U.S. Senate:* Telephone: 202-224-3121
* Website: http://www.senate.gov/
Find your member of Congress and contact him or her:
Let them know what matters to you!
Contact your Representative
Contact your Senator
And remember, all politics is local and personal! Let’s work to flip state and local elected positions Democratic! ↓
Sister District Project — organization that is working to help Dems win state legislature races.
Donate to re-elect Joe Biden!
Oh, and don’t forget!…. Share Goody’s Boosting Biden series on social media —
💙 RoundUp WindDown 💙
That’s it from me and CG for another Tuesday. Take good care of yourself, Gnusies. Remember it’s like that airplane safety announcement — you need to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. Get some rest, eat nutritious food and make a plan to get outdoors every day if you’re able.
There’s no superhero on the way to save us from the madness of King Donny and his loony MAGA party. Luckily, we don’t need a superhero — we are our own hero. And together we are going to not just save the country, but make it so much better! I am excited! And so glad to be in this with all of you!
Happy Tuesday, Gnuville!