Notices by David Ho (davidho@mastodon.world)

Happy Liberation Day to all who celebrate the release of money from your retirement accounts into thin air.

Trump announces a massive tax increase on ordinary American consumers to fund tax cuts for billionaires.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-liberation-day-tariffs-protectionism-82d0aa3a?st=5wxupn

That's $100,000 per human per month.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/us/politics/migrants-guantanamo-costs.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8E4.VTsQ.o3UHGymiC55f&smid=url-share

This is cool. The Guardian recreated a searchable climate future risk tool (wildfire, extreme heat, drought, hurricane, and coastal flood) for the US that was developed by FEMA but deleted by the Trump administration’s ‘climate’ purge.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2025/mar/26/extreme-weather-risk-tool-fema-trump

In the last few days, I've had many European colleagues tell me that they're not coming to the US for work, and I don't blame them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/travel/foreign-travel-to-united-states-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.604.1TBt.CLn31_glWsIl&smid=nytcore-android-share

Parisians voted on a proposal to block 500 streets to traffic and replace asphalt with plants and trees. 😍

https://wapo.st/4iUN1vu

It’s probably not a good sign when your closest ally issues a travel warning against you.

https://www.newsweek.com/britain-issues-travel-warning-us-deportations-2047878

Decades from now, people will pay trillions of dollars every year to get back to the climate that we have today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/climate/global-temperatures-wmo-report.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5E4.mcnK.87j5cpht6uwX&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

I can't help but think they're trying to destroy our habitable planet because they either believe that's the condition under which God will rapture them into heaven, or they think their minds will be uploaded to a supercomputer where they'll live forever. Either way, there's no need for our planet.

Holy shit. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say they’re trying to kill us all.

“The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/climate/trump-eliminates-epa-science.html?unlocked_article_code=1.404.aeUC.tdm1nbDIVEL2&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

It's difficult to recommend anyone visit the US these days.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/canadian-woman-who-was-detained-in-us-immigration-jails-returns-to-vancouver/

If Viktor Orbán did this, we’d denounce it in the strongest terms. This is not normal for the US.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/nyregion/columbia-university-students-disciplined-hamilton-hall.html?unlocked_article_code=1.304.x6dC.bRQuLvmztnFc&smid=nytcore-android-share

It's only a tariff on champagne if it's on products from the Champagne region of France. Otherwise, it's just sparkling pettiness.

https://wapo.st/3DF1Mn2

Trump increasing the wrong kind of consumption.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/health/tuberculosis-kenya-us-cuts.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3E4.MXmu.dJzwd8IarYzR&smid=url-share

Sure, eggs are expensive but Trump has made stocks affordable for everyone.

"The Trump administration has terminated $800 million in grants to Johns Hopkins University, spurring the nation’s top spender on research and development to plan layoffs and cancel health projects, from breast-feeding support efforts in Baltimore to mosquito-net programs in Mozambique."

https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/johns-hopkins-federal-funding-foreign-aid-cut-ca841d31?st=EJYFJk&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Robin Gerus, the new executive director of Halifax Transit, takes the bus daily to understand the system from a rider’s perspective.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/why-halifax-s-new-transit-boss-is-taking-the-bus-every-day-1.7479717

This is exactly what they're trying to achieve by destroying government services that benefit the public. A VC-backed startup intervenes to gather data that the National Weather Service was previously collecting, and before we know it, we will be paying them for what was once funded by our taxes.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250228603358/en/

The idea that the countries of the Global South will be capable of recycling materials that rich countries dump on them is unrealistic.

https://english.elpais.com/climate/2025-03-01/where-do-the-clothes-go-after-we-put-them-in-a-recycling-bin-an-11-month-investigation-covering-thousands-of-kilometers.html

I dislike the framing of climate tipping points, but it's good to keep in mind that there are components of the climate system that react nonlinearly to warming and will exacerbate climate change. We don't know the timing, but we know the only way to prevent disaster is to stop burning fossil fuels.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/08/11/climate/earth-warming-climate-tipping-points.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2U4.i_iV.9BglkY4IpxCl