Thursday, April 3, 2025
Fisher-kids alert
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Butterflies declined by 22% in just 2 decades across the US
There are ways you can help save them
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| The endangered Karner blue butterfly has struggled with habitat loss. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
From 2000 to 2020, the number of butterflies fell by 22% across the continental United States. That’s 1 in 5 butterflies lost. The findings are from an analysis just published in the journal Science by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Powell Center Status of Butterflies of the United States Working Group, which I am involved in.
We found declines in just about every region of the continental U.S. and across almost all butterfly species.
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| West Coast lady butterflies range across the western U.S., but their numbers have dropped by 80% in two decades. Renee Las Vegas/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY |
Some species’ numbers are dropping faster than others. The West Coast lady, a fairly widespread species across the western U.S., dropped by 80% in 20 years. Given everything we know about its biology, it should be doing fine – it has a wide range and feeds on a variety of plants. Yet, its numbers are absolutely tanking across its range.
Trump administration killing anti-terrorism grant program
Musk-Trump kill effective program to prevent deaths from domestic terrorism
Resources focused on stopping "terrorists" from protesting at Tesla, other Musk businesses
By Hannah Allam for ProPublica
Soon after he was invited in for tea, the visitor pulled out a pistol and demanded the release of an al-Qaida-linked detainee from a nearby federal prison, seizing as hostages a rabbi and three worshipers. The standoff lasted 10 hours until the rabbi, drawing on extensive security training, hurled a chair at the assailant. The hostages escaped.
“We are alive today because of that education,” Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker said after the attack.
The averted tragedy at Congregation Beth Israel is cited as a success story for the largely unseen prevention work federal authorities have relied on for years in the fight to stop terrorist attacks and mass shootings. The government weaves together partnerships with academic researchers and community groups across the country as part of a strategy for addressing violent extremism as a public health concern.
A specialized intervention team at Boston Children’s Hospital treats young patients — some referred by the FBI — who show signs of disturbing, violent behavior. Eradicate Hate, a national prevention umbrella group, says one of its trainees helped thwart a school shooting in California last year by reporting a gun in a fellow student’s backpack. In other programs, counselors guide neo-Nazis out of the white-power movement or help families of Islamist extremists undo the effects of violent propaganda.
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| Trump sees Tesla protests as acts of terrorism |
Tens of millions of dollars slated for violence prevention have been cut or are frozen pending review as President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency steamrolls the national security sector. Barring action from Congress or the courts, counterterrorism professionals say, the White House appears poised to end the government’s backing of prevention work on urgent threats.
“This is the government getting out of the terrorism business,” said one federal grant recipient who was ordered this week to cease work on projects including a database used by law enforcement agencies to assess threats.
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Chariho right-winger attack group "Moms for Liberty" backed by anti-education oligarchs
Don't fall for bogus claim they are a "grassroots movement"
Maurice Cunningham
As the author of Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization, I have been following billionaire-backed education interest groups for more than a decade. Since big money lacks public credibility, it often masquerades as organizations claiming to represent the interests of “parents,” “moms,” “educators,” and “families.”
The concocted stories about how these groups were created are often repeated by
an incurious press, which misses the opportunity to tell its readers a more
interesting story: how billionaires and right-wing activists pour money into
upbeat-sounding organizations to further their aim of privateering our public
school system.
These astroturf operations have been proliferating resulting
in serious negative impacts. Consider the havoc wreaked
on some school boards by Moms for Liberty (M4L). M4L even got into presidential
politics in 2024, boosting Donald
Trump, at the behest of the donors, who co-founder Tina Descovich termed as
M4L’s “investors.”
Consider a November 2024 Washington Post story on
Linda McMahon’s nomination to be secretary of education. The article contrasted
remarks from National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle with
an alternative view from Keri Rodrigues, founding president of the National
Parents Union (NPU), which the reporter Laura Meckler called “a grassroots
group,” thus giving the impression that NEA and NPU are similar organizations.
They are not. NEA is a well-established teachers’ union that
credibly claims 3
million members and is governed by a democratic structure. NPU
appeared on the scene in 2020, surfing in on millions of dollars from the foundations
of American oligarchs, including the Walton family, Mark
Zuckerberg, and Charles Koch.
In 2024, Rodrigues, a fixture at education privateering
groups, told
the Boston Globe that NPU could get its message to “250,000 families
to vote against” a ballot question sponsored by the teachers’ union and would
“put that network to work.”
There is zero evidence that this extensive network exists or
that it did anything on the ballot question. There is also no proof to validate
Rodrigues’s claim that
the organization has 1.7 million members nationally.
Partial explanation for Trump's behavior
Narcissists more likely to feel ostracized
American Psychological Association
"Feeling ostracized is a subjective experience based on
the perception of social cues by the individual. Some may be intentionally
ostracized, while others may merely believe they are being excluded when that's
not the case," said lead author Christiane Büttner, PhD, of the University
of Basel. "Our findings suggest that individuals with higher levels of
narcissism are more sensitive to exclusion cues, leading them to perceive
ostracism more frequently."
The research was published in the Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology.
While narcissism can take various forms, the researchers
chose to focus exclusively on grandiose narcissism, which includes traits such
as entitlement, dominance, a strong desire for admiration and a tendency to
seek status and recognition.
Chewing gum is plastic pollution, not a litter problem
Like chewing on tires
.webp)
If you find that thought slightly unsettling, you are not alone. I have been researching and speaking about the plastic pollution problem for 15 years. The people I talk to are always surprised, and disgusted, when they find out they’ve been chewing on a lump of malleable plastic. Most manufacturers just don’t advertise what gum is actually made of – they dodge around the detail by listing “gum base” in the ingredients.
There’s no strict definition of synthetic gum base. Chewing gum brand, Wrigley Extra partners with dental professionals around the world to promote the use of sugar-free chewing gum to improve oral health.
The brand’s Wrigley Oral Health Program states that: “Gum base puts the "chew” in chewing gum, binding all the ingredients together for a smooth, soft texture. We use synthetic gum base materials for a consistent and safe base that provides longer-lasting flavor, improved texture, and reduced tackiness.“
It almost sounds harmless. But chemical analysis shows that gum contains styrene-butadiene (the durable synthetic chemical used to make car tires), polyethylene (the plastic used to make carrier bags and bottles) and polyvinyl acetate (wood glue) as well as some sweetener and flavoring.
The chewing gum industry is big business, worth an estimated US$48.68 billion (£37.7 billion) in 2025. Three companies own 75% of the market share, the largest of which is Wrigley, with an estimated 35%. There are few reliable statistics available about the amount of gum being produced, but one peer-reviewed global estimate states 1.74 trillion pieces are made per year.
Stanford Scientists Create a Painless, Living Vaccine You Rub on Your Skin
What are the chances of getting approval from an FDA controlled by RFK Jr.?
By Bruce Goldman, Stanford Medicine
Thanks to researchers at Stanford University, that future
may be closer than we think. By harnessing a common skin bacterium found on
nearly everyone, scientists are exploring a revolutionary approach to
vaccination.
“We all hate needles — everybody does,” said Michael
Fischbach, PhD, the Liu (Liao) Family Professor and a professor of
bioengineering. “I haven’t found a single person who doesn’t like the idea that
it’s possible to replace a shot with a cream.”
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Why King Donald and MAGA hate the Education Department
Donald Trump made this promise in a Sept. 13, 2023, campaign statement and repeated it frequently on the campaign trail.
Trump tried to make this long-standing pledge a reality on March 20, 2025, by signing an executive order that he said will “begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all.”
Trump said that he hopes Democrats would support his executive order. “I hope they’re going to be voting for it,” said Trump, speaking from the White House in front of a group of children seated at desks. “Because ultimately it may come before them.”
Project 2025, the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for the Trump administration, provides detailed recommendations for closing the Education Department, which was created by an act of Congress in 1979.
The Department of Education already announced on March 9 that it laid off more than 1,300 of its 4,100 employees.
Trump’s new executive order calls for Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure (of) the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely,” according to a White House statement distributed to media.
I am an anthropologist and have been studying U.S. political culture for years. During Trump’s first presidency, I wrote a book about the extremist far right called “It Can Happen Here”. Since then, I have continued to study the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement, seeking to understand it, as the anthropological expression goes, “from the native’s point of view.”
Education policies in the U.S. are largely carried out at the state and local levels. The Education Department is a relatively small government agency, which as late as February 2025 had just over 4,000 employees and a US$268 billion annual budget. A large part of its work is overseeing $1.6 trillion in federal student loans as well as grants for K-12 schools.
And it ensures that public schools comply with federal laws that protect vulnerable students, like those with disabilities.
Why, then, does Trump want to eliminate the department?
A will to fight against so-called “wokeness” and a desire to shrink the government are among the four reasons I have found.
MAGA reason #1. Education Department’s alleged ‘woke’ mentality
First and foremost, Trump and his supporters believe that liberals are ruining public education by instituting what they call a “radical woke agenda” that they say prioritizes identity politics and politically correct groupthink at the expense of the free speech of those, like many conservatives, who have different views.
Diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives promoting social justice – and critical race theory, or the idea that racism is entrenched in social and legal institutions – are a particular focus of MAGA ire.
So, too, is what Trump supporters call “radical gender ideology,” which they contend promotes policies like letting transgender students play on school sports teams or use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, not biological sex.
Trump supporters say that such policies – which the Education Department indirectly supported by expanding Title IX gender protections in 2024 to include discrimination based on gender identity – are at odds with parental school choice rights or, for some religious conservatives, the Bible.
Race and gender policies are highlighted in Project 2025 and in the 2024 GOP’s “Make America Great Again!” party platform.
Trump has repeatedly promised, as he did on Aug. 14, 2024, in North Carolina, to “keep critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our schools.”
MAGA reason #2. American Marxist indoctrination
For MAGA supporters, “radical left” wokeness is part of liberals’ long-standing attempt to “brainwash” others with their allegedly Marxist views that embrace communism.
One version of this “American Marxism” conspiracy theory argues that the indoctrination dates to the origins of U.S. public education. MAGA stalwarts say this alleged leftist agenda is anti-democratic and anti-Christian.
Saying he wants to combat the educational influence of such radicals, zealots and Marxists, Trump issued executive orders on Jan. 29 that pledge to fight “campus anti-Semitism” and to end “Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schools.”
MAGA reason #3. School choice and parental rights
Trump supporters also argue that “woke” federal public education policy infringes on people’s basic freedoms and rights.
This idea extends to what Trump supporters call “restoring parental rights,” including the right to decide whether a child undergoes a gender transition or learns about nonbinary gender identity at public schools.
The first paragraph of Project 2025’s chapter on education argues, “Families and students should be free to choose from a diverse set of school options and learning environments.”
Diversity, according to this argument, should include faith-based institutions and homeschooling. Project 2025 proposes that the government could support parents who choose to homeschool or put their kids in a religious primary school by providing Educational Savings Accounts and school vouchers. Vouchers give public funding for students to attend private schools and have been expanding in use in recent years.
Critics of school vouchers, like the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers unions, argue that vouchers would diminish public education for vulnerable students by taking away scarce funding.
Trump has already issued a Jan. 29 executive order called “Expanding Educational Freedom and Educational Opportunity for Families,” which opens the door to expanded use of vouchers. This directly echoes Project 2025 by directing the Education Department to prioritize educational choice to give families a range of options.
MAGA reason #4. Red tape
For the MAGA faithful, the Education Department exemplifies government inefficiency and red tape.
Project 2025, for example, contends that from the time it was established by the Carter administration in 1979, the Education Department has ballooned in size, come under the sway of special interest groups and now serves as an inefficient “one-stop shop for the woke education cartel.”
To deal with the Education Department’s “bloat” and “suffocating bureaucratic red tape,” Project 2025 recommends shifting all of the department’s federal programs and money to other agencies and the states.
These recommendations dovetail with Trump’s broader attempt to eliminate what he and his MAGA supporters consider wasteful spending and deregulate the government.
Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 that establishes a “Department of Government Efficiency” headed by billionaire Elon Musk. Musk said on Feb. 4 that Trump “will succeed” in dismantling the Education Department.
Can Trump abolish the Education Department?
Trump’s executive order shuttering the Department of Education will almost certainly spark legal challenges in court.
Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota also introduced a bill in November 2024 to close the department.
Trump has dismantled other government agencies in his second term, chiefly the U.S. Agency for International Development, without the required congressional approval. A federal judge ruled on March 18 that the dismantling of USAID likely violated the Constitution and ordered the Trump administration to restore all USAID employees’ email and computer access.
Abolishing the Department of Education would legally require congressional approval and 60 votes to move forward in the Senate, which is unlikely since Republicans only have 53 seats.
Regardless of such legal challenges, Trump’s March 20 executive order will further weaken the Department of Education even as it remains in the crosshairs.
This story was updated on March 20, 2025, from an earlier version published originally on Feb. 7, 2025.
Alex Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University - Newark
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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