Trump and Musk's snipe hunt for Social Security fraud

Musk hunt for Social Security fraud is a sham

Jake Johnson for Common Dreams

Tesla cyber truck crash WITHOUT Elon Musk in it

An internal Trump administration document reportedly shows that anti-fraud checks recently installed at the Social Security agency have found just two cases of potentially improper benefit claims out of more than 110,000—a rate of 0.0018%.

The documents, first reported Thursday by Nextgov/FCW, further undercut Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's narrative that Social Security is brimming with fraud. Musk falsely claimed in March that "40% of the calls into Social Security were fraudulent."

The anti-fraud checks for Social Security have been applied only to benefit claims made over the phone. According to the internal document, "No significant fraud has been detected from the flagged cases." Earlier this year, amid widespread outrage, the Social Security Administration (SSA) walked back a proposal to scrap many of its phone-based benefit claim services.

Nextgov/FCW noted Thursday that the Trump administration's deployment of the anti-fraud tools beginning last month "did cause delays, as SSA changed its phone procedures to add the checks on the backend."

Turn it into a Trump meme cryptocoin

Don't fry

Another reason why cats are superior to dogs

Mammal's lifespans linked to brain size and immune system function, says new study

University of Bath

Why do cats generally live longer than dogs? New research suggests that longer lifespans of mammals like cats could be linked to their bigger brains and more complex immune systems.

An international team of scientists led by the University of Bath studied evolutionary differences between mammal species and found that those with bigger brains and longer lifespans tend to invest more heavily in immune-related genes. Their findings show how broad genomic changes, rather than individual genes, shape longevity.

The researchers looked at the maximum lifespan potential of 46 species of mammals and mapped the genes shared across these species. The maximum lifespan potential (MLSP) is the longest ever recorded lifespan of a species, rather than the average lifespan, which is affected by factors such as predation and availability of food and other resources.

US excess deaths continue to rise even after the COVID-19 pandemic, study finds

Younger Americans dying at higher than expected rates

By Boston University, edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan

There were over 1.5 million "missing Americans" in 2022 and 2023, deaths that would have been averted if US mortality rates matched those of peer countries. Excess US deaths have been increasing for decades, with working-age adults disproportionately affected, and this trend continued during and after the pandemic.

In 2022 and 2023, more than 1.5 million deaths would have been averted if the United States had mortality rates similar to other high-income countries, according to a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researchers.

Published in JAMA Health Forum, the study refers to these excess deaths as "missing Americans" because these deaths reflect people who would still be alive if US mortality rates were equal to the average mortality rate in other high-income countries.

The findings reveal a continuing and worrying trend in worsening US mortality compared to other wealthy nations over the last four decades.

While excess deaths per year peaked at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, excess deaths in 2023 still far exceeded prepandemic levels in 2019 and closely matched the rising pre-pandemic trend.

After rising steadily since 1980, excess US deaths reached 1,098,808 in 2021, before dropping to 820,396 in 2022 and 705,331 in 2023, after the acute phase of the pandemic. However, the 2023 figure was still tens of thousands of deaths higher than the 2019 total of 631,247 missing Americans.

Remember when RFK Jr. and other anti-vaxxers said it was about people making their own choices about vaccination? They lied.

RFK Jr says no COVID vaccines for healthy children, pregnant women

Stephanie Soucheray, MA

Just the guy we need to run national
health policy

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made another sweeping change to the US vaccine landscape, saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has removed its recommendation of the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women. 

"I couldn't be more pleased to announce that, as of today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant woman has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedule," Kennedy said in a video message, flanked by Martin Makary, MD, MPH, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health. 

The move comes just 1 week after the FDA announced—via an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine—that the vaccine would now be offered only to adults 65 years and older or those with underlying conditions that made them vulnerable to severe COVID-19. 

Today's video message is short and direct but is already causing confusion, as pregnancy itself is considered a risk factor for severe COVID-19.

ACOG 'extremely disappointed' 

Steven J. Fleischman, MD, MBA, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), said in a press release sent to the media that the move is worrisome. 

Despite the change in recommendations from HHS, the science has not changed

"ACOG is concerned about and extremely disappointed by the announcement that HHS will no longer recommend COVID vaccination during pregnancy. As ob-gyns who treat patients every day, we have seen firsthand how dangerous COVID infection can be during pregnancy and for newborns who depend on maternal antibodies from the vaccine for protection. We also understand that despite the change in recommendations from HHS, the science has not changed," said Fleischman said.

Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), which publishes CIDRAP News, said the announcement is just another example of the policy making "on the fly" that has been emblematic under Kennedy during President Donald Trump's second term.

"We can't count on policy from hour to hour, let alone day to day,” said Osterholm. "Just last week the FDA indicated that pregnancy was a special risk group. There's been no new consultation, no new information since then."

The ACOG statement said there is evidence that maternal vaccination protects newborns from COVID infections in the first 6 months after birth. 

"We are concerned about access implications, and what this recommendation will mean for insurance coverage of the COVID vaccine for those who do choose to get vaccinated during pregnancy. And as ob-gyns, we are very concerned about the potential deterioration of vaccine confidence in the future," said Fleischman.

On its website, ACOC still recommends COVID vaccination for pregnant women.

In the video message, the three men did not address vaccination in pregnancy, but they did talk about why COVID vaccines were being pulled for healthy children.

"There's no evidence that healthy kids need it today, and most countries have stopped recommending it for children," said Makary.

The three officials also did not discuss what role officials from the CDC played in the decision, as changes made to immunization schedules are typically made by the CDC.

Team Trump's bogus reasons for limiting eligibility for COVID shots

COVID vaccine saved millions of lives in Trump's first term, but now he wants to trash the vax based on fake science

Stephanie Armour 

EDITOR'S NOTE: NBC reports that a new COVID variant "NB.1.8.1 has been detected in several states in the U.S, including California, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, and New York City, according to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) database." Like other COVID variants, it is highly contagious and would need to be added to the COVID vaccine. Trump and RFK Jr.'s crackpot beliefs are going to get a lot of people killed. Again.  -W. Collette

Larry Saltzman has blood cancer. He’s also a retired doctor, so he knows getting covid-19 could be dangerous for him — his underlying illness puts him at high risk of serious complications and death. To avoid getting sick, he stays away from large gatherings, and he’s comforted knowing healthy people who get boosters protect him by reducing his exposure to the virus.

Until now, that is.

Vaccine opponents and skeptics in charge of federal health agencies — starting at the top with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — are restricting access to covid shots that were a signature accomplishment of President Donald Trump’s first term and cost taxpayers about $13 billion to develop, produce, and distribute. The agencies are narrowing vaccination recommendations, pushing drugmakers to perform costly clinical studies, and taking other steps that will result in fewer people getting protection from a virus that still kills hundreds each week in the U.S.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people who rely on these vaccines,” said Saltzman, 71, of Sacramento, California. “For people who are immunocompromised, if there aren’t enough people vaccinated, we lose the ring that’s protecting us. We’re totally vulnerable.”

The Trump administration on May 20 rolled out tougher approval requirements for covid shots, described as a covid-19 “vaccination regulatory framework,” that could leave millions of Americans who want boosters unable to get them.

The FDA will encourage new clinical trials on the widely used vaccines before approving them for children and healthy adults. The requirements could cost drugmakers tens of millions of dollars and are likely to leave boosters largely out of reach for hundreds of millions of Americans this fall.

Under the new guidance, vaccines will be available for high-risk individuals and seniors. But the FDA will encourage drugmakers to commit to conducting post-marketing clinical trials in healthy adults when the agency approves covid vaccines for those populations.

For the past five years, the shots have been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for everyone 6 months and older. They have been available each fall after being updated to reflect circulating strains of the virus, and the vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in clinical trials.

Vinay Prasad, who leads the FDA’s division overseeing vaccines, cited “distrust of the American public” as he announced the new guidelines at a May 20 briefing.

“We have launched down this multiyear campaign of booster after booster after booster,” he said, adding that “we do not have gold-standard science to support this for average-risk, low-risk Americans.”

The details were outlined in a May 20 article in The New England Journal of Medicine, written by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. He and Prasad later followed up with the briefing, which appeared the same day on YouTube.

The added limits on access aren’t the result of any recent data showing there are new health risks from the covid vaccines. Instead, they reflect a different regulatory stance from Kennedy, who has a history of anti-vaccine activism, and Makary, who has questioned the safety data on covid mRNA shots.

Order the Bobby

Save $45 million - no King Donald parade

Bed Bugs Are Evolving: Researchers Uncover Alarming Insecticide Resistance

Rumors are that some are being considered for Trump Cabinet positions

By Virginia Tech

Following World War II, a global bed bug infestation was nearly eliminated during the 1950s, primarily through the widespread use of the pesticide DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane). However, DDT has since been banned due to its environmental and health risks. 

In the decades since, bed bugs have made a significant comeback worldwide and have increasingly developed resistance to many of the insecticides used to control them.

A study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology highlights research conducted by a team at Virginia Tech, led by urban entomologist Warren Booth. The team identified a gene mutation that may play a key role in the bed bugs’ resistance to insecticides.

How Trump solves food safety problems: ignore them

Silence on E. Coli Outbreak Highlights How Trump Team’s Changes Undermine Food Safety

Stephanie Armour

Colton George felt sick. The 9-year-old Indiana boy told his parents his stomach hurt. He kept running to the bathroom and felt too ill to finish a basketball game.

Days later, he lay in a hospital bed, fighting for his life. He had eaten tainted salad, according to a lawsuit against the lettuce grower filed by his parents on April 17 in federal court for the Southern District of Indiana.

The E. coli bacteria that ravaged Colton’s kidneys was a genetic match to the strain that killed one person and sickened nearly 90 people in 15 states last fall. Federal health agencies investigated the cases and linked them to a farm that grew romaine lettuce.

But most people have never heard about this outbreak, which a Feb. 11 internal FDA memo linked to a single lettuce processor and ranch as the source of the contamination. In what many experts said was a break with common practice, officials never issued public communications after the investigation or identified the grower who produced the lettuce.

From failing to publicize a major outbreak to scaling back safety alert specialists and rules, the Trump administration’s anti-regulatory and cost-cutting push risks unraveling a critical system that helps ensure the safety of the U.S. food supply, according to consumer advocates, researchers and former employees at the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The investigation into the illnesses began near the end of the Biden administration but work on the lettuce outbreak wasn’t completed until Feb. 11. At that time, the decision was made by the Trump administration not to release the names of the grower and processor because the FDA said no product remained on the market.

UPDATED: Dept. of Homeland Security puts R.I. on notice as a ‘sanctuary jurisdiction.’

It’s unclear why Trump is targeting us

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

Yet another bizarre AI-image posted by Trump

UPDATE: In another classic TACO move, Homeland Security Barbie Secretary Kristin Noem pulled this list off the DHS website after protests from a conservative national sheriffs' association. The sheriffs said the list was compiled with no input from them and “violated the core principles of trust, cooperation, and partnership with fellow law enforcement”. TACO, which stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out," is becoming a more frequent occurrence as Trump and his minions continue to do stupid things they are then forced to withdraw.  - W. Collette

Exactly what court order the Trump administration is using to base its declaration that Rhode Island is defying federal immigration policy remains a mystery. But the head of the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has a theory.

The state as well as Providence and Central Falls are on a list of 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions” that may lose federal funding released Thursday night by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 

The list was compiled based on factors like noncompliance with federal law enforcement, information-sharing restrictions, and giving legal protections to undocumented immigrants, the department’s website stated.

Federal fallout

The website also states that Rhode Island made the list because of a “Court Order Requiring State Sanctuary Requirements.” Rhode Island Current reached out to Homeland Security for specific details and received a statement reiterating the designation factors on the department’s website. 

Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island, hypothesized that the federal government may be citing a 2014 federal court order that ruled police officers in Rhode Island cannot hold a person in custody based upon an U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer alone for more than 48 hours.

RI Republicans think the way to cut electricity bills is to curb renewable energy

To prove they are mega MAGA macho, they've dumped a symbolic package of bills to wipe out green energy

By Will Collette

Is that Mike Chippendale heading down from Foster
to his news conference? 

Not to be outdone by their lord and master Donald Trump, his hatred of “windmills” and love of coal, Republican General Assembly members led by House Minority leader Mike Chippendale just announced a collection of bills to promote fossil fuels at the expense of energy efficiency.

These bills have NO chance of passage, not just because they have no merit, but because they are being introduced at the end of the General Assembly session. Apparently Chippendale et al. are sending some symbolic message to somebody – maybe King Donald – that they are as MAGA-maniacal as anybody.

Like most energy conversations, they begin with the largely true, widely held belief that electricity bills are too high. But from there, it’s all downhill.

I live in Charlestown, one of Rhode Island’s most vulnerable communities to the effects of climate change. Storms are worse and more frequent even trashing the Charlestown Breachway. Our beaches are eroding. The sea level is rising. Seawater is infiltrating groundwater. It’s very hard to get homeowner’s insurance at any price.

Over the past 25 years, Cathy and I have taken action to increase our energy efficiency by getting an energy audit, adding insulation, putting on a light-colored steel roof and, through the much missed Solarize Charlestown program, installed an array of solar panels in 2017. We’ve also replaced our appliances with the most energy efficient available and added heat pumps.

I would love to add residential sized vertical axis wind turbines, but Charlestown’s town ordinance makes it impossible to do so (click HERE to see why). This is a legacy of the NIMBY faction of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), and I hope to see that ordinance repealed soon.

Every change we made cost money upfront but was made easier through state and federal rebates and tax credits and, in the case of our solar panels, being able to sell our excess power back into the grid. Every energy investment we have made has paid us back through lower electricity usage.

Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans want to end all of that and now we’ve heard from state Republicans that they want to do the same here in Rhode Island.

Chippendale said, “Far too often, the utility is painted as the villain, but many of these cost increases stem from legislative mandates — laws passed by the General Assembly that forced utilities to buy expensive energy or fund inefficient programs…”

He condemned the payback solar panel owners like us get for selling our excess energy: “Right now, solar customers are credited at the full retail rate for energy. They produce up to 125% of their usage. That’s not market-based. It’s an inflated rate that gets passed on to every single ratepayer in this state.”

WTF? “Full retail rate” isn’t “market-based?” As it is, the number of solar panels you can install has to roughly match your usage. Personally, I would have wanted to add more since the marginal increased cost would have meant more generated power. That’s market-based, Mike. And like the energy companies, the utility pays us at the rate called for by law.

The other market-based reality ignored by the MAGA world is the rapid expansion of green energy generation and how through the economies of scale, green energy prices have been consistently dropping. 

All across Red State Middle America, wind and solar power companies have been booming, generating employment booms as well as energy at levels that now surpass fossil fuels. Trying to reverse this market trend makes no economic sense. As Mike would say, not “market-based.”

Even Charlestown’s ex-state Rep. Blake “Flip” Filippi is on board with this regressive approach to energy, shown in this tweet on X (note: Trump is pictured with coal miners, not natural gas drillers):

I do not understand the MAGA obsession with wasting energy. Or hating energy efficiency. Or leaning into increased use of polluting fuels. Who benefits other than the fossil fuel companies?

Is it just about “owning the libs?”

Ever since Jimmy Carter’s sweater and the first Arab oil embargo in 1973, most Americans have come to believe we need to be smarter about energy. Energy efficiency is an unqualified good thing regardless of your location on the political spectrum. Burning less fossil fuels is an unqualified good thing.

We’ve come a long way in 50 years and we still have quite a distance to go. Why Chippendale and MAGA-world want to turn the clock back is baffling and unjustified.

If not in the bus, then under it

The evolution of ethics