cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/44698184

The fruit pouches: https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/11/toxic-toddler-fruit-pouches-extremely-high-lead-levels-sicken-7-in-5-states/

Amid the brutal cuts across the federal government under the Trump administration, perhaps one of the most gutting is the loss of experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who respond to lead poisoning in children.

On April 1, the staff of the CDC's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program was terminated as part of the agency's reduction in force, according to NPR. The staff included epidemiologists, statisticians, and advisors who specialized in lead exposures and responses.

The cuts were immediately consequential to health officials in Milwaukee, who are currently dealing with a lead exposure crisis in public schools. Six schools have had to close, displacing 1,800 students. > In April, the city requested help from the CDC's lead experts, but the request was denied—there was no one left to help.

In a Congressional hearing this week, US health secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told lawmakers, "We have a team in Milwaukee."

But Milwaukee Health Commissioner Mike Totoraitis told NPR that this is false. "There is no team in Milwaukee," he said. "We had a single [federal] staff person come to Milwaukee for a brief period to help validate a machine, but that was separate from the formal request that we had for a small team to actually come to Milwaukee for our Milwaukee Public Schools investigation and ongoing support there."

Kennedy has also previously told lawmakers that lead experts at the CDC who were terminated would be rehired. But that statement was also false. The health department's own communications team told ABC that the lead experts would not be reinstated.

While Milwaukee continues to struggle, a Stat report Friday hints at losses yet to come. Looking back at the national scandal of lead-contaminated apple-sauce pouches, Stat reported that at least six of the CDC scientists and experts who worked on that nationwide poisoning event are gone.

Trump: Some of you have even pushed the limits a bit too much. So for any cadets who have not finished walking off their hours, as commander in chief, I hear by absolve all cadets on restriction for minor conduct offenses, and that is effective immediately. Congratulations. That's a nice one, isn't it? Don't you feel better now? Surviving the 47 month experience is never easy, but only the class of 2020 can say it survived 48 months. And when it comes to bragging rights, no one can boast louder than the class that brought Navy's 14 year football winning streak to a screeching halt. You did that. I happened to be there.

I happened to be there. That's right. That was a big day. I was there. You beat Navy and brought the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy back to West Point for two straight years. So we say, “Go, Army, go.” This graduating class secured more than 1000 victories for the Black Knights, including three bowl victories, 13 NCAA team appearances and a woman's rugby championship, with the help of somebody that I just met, 2019 MVP, Sam Sullivan. Fantastic job. Thank you. Fantastic.

...

Tomorrow, America will celebrate a very important anniversary, the 245th birthday of the United States Army. Unrelated, going to be my birthday also. I don't know if that happened by accident. Did that happen by accident [inaudible 00:24:59], but it's a great day because of that Army birthday

Donald Trump ranted to a captive audience of graduating West Point cadets about military drag shows, urging the students to focus on killing America’s enemies.

“The job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows, to transform foreign cultures, but to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun,” the president said. “The military’s job is to dominate any foe and annihilate any threat to America anywhere, anytime, and anyplace.”

While college commencement addresses are usually a chance to celebrate the graduates’ achievements, the more than a thousand West Point cadets and their families were treated to a recounting of Trump’s war on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the military.

More than three years after its installation was approved by Congress, a plaque honoring law enforcement personnel for defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is instead sitting in a Capitol basement utility room surrounded by tools and maintenance equipment.

The cast bronze memorial to the officers, which declares that “their heroism will never be forgotten,” was required by law to be installed by March 2023 near the west front of the building. That was the scene of some of the most intense battles between police and supporters of President Donald Trump who attacked the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election of Joe Biden as president.

The legislation authorizing the memorial was part of an omnibus spending package approved by Democrats and 39 Republicans in 2022 and signed into law by Biden. Leadership of the House changed in 2023 when Republicans took control and before the plaque was ready to be installed. The memorial has been in limbo ever since.

Archive

The crypto conmen got conned by the grifter in chief. Poetic justice at work 🙂

House Republicans tucked the measure into a section ordering the Commerce Department to deploy funds to “modernize and secure Federal information technology systems through the deployment of commercial artificial intelligence.” The measure has remained largely unchanged since its consideration by the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this month, though lawmakers on the House Committee on Rules recently added an exemption so that the moratorium would not apply to the enforcement of any law that “carries a criminal penalty.”

Widely rejected by Democrats, the push is also facing opposition from some Senate Republicans, who would largely need to unite on the legislation to get it passed. At a Senate hearing Wednesday, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) poured cold water on the idea, expressing concern that the bill would override legislation to protect artists from deepfakes in her state.

“Speaking to the states and their actions, I do want to mention that Tennessee passed the ELVIS Act, which is like our first generation of the NO FAKES Act,” said Blackburn, “And we certainly know that, in Tennessee, we need those protections, and until we pass something that is federally preemptive, we can't call for a moratorium on those things.”

A federal judge on Friday struck down an executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year targeting the law firm Jenner & Block, ruling the effort ran afoul of the Constitution’s First Amendment.

For context, increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, including CO2, are responsible for approximately all of the warming that has happened in recent decades:

With carbon dioxide being the largest part of that:

And human burning of fossil fuels (as in power plants) is substantially responsible for that increase:

Based on multiple lines of evidence using interhemispheric gradients of CO2 concentrations, isotopes, and inventory data, it is unequivocal that the growth in CO2 in the atmosphere since 1750 (see Section TS.2.2) is due to the direct emissions from human activities. The combustion of fossil fuels and land-use change for the period 1750–2019 resulted in the release of 700 ±75 PgC (likely range, 1 PgC = 1015 g of carbon) to the atmosphere, of which about 41% ±11% remains in the atmosphere today (high confidence). Of the total anthropogenic CO2 emissions, the combustion of fossil fuels was responsible for about 64% ± 15%, growing to an 86% ±14% contribution over the past 10 years.

I want a job that I dont have to show up to if I'm having a bad day.

The supreme court just green lighted the ability for trump to fire the heads of independent agencies. Some news outlets saying this type of power hasn't been seen since kings.

This is the supreme court again rewriting history and killing one of their own decisions.

Goddamn how fucking stupid is this guy?

And no one is going to do a damn thing about this because the US is not a nation of laws anymore.