Chuck Darwin
Cancer rates among those aged 15 to 49 have increased by 10 percent since 2000
even as they have fallen among older people.
Young women are more affected than men.
From ages 15 through 49, women have a cancer rate that is 83 percent higher than men in the same age range.
Chuck Darwin
Since Trump retook office, the United States has withheld as much as $1 billion in funding for the U.N.,
and the organization has moved to cut staff as a result.
Trump said the U.N. is “not even coming close to living up to that potential.”
During his remarks, Trump also urged world leaders Tuesday to
❌ reject policies to fight climate change, calling them a “scam,
and criticized European nations for continuing to buy oil from Russia amid its war with Ukraine.
He also defended his sweeping tariffs policy, calling it “a defense mechanism.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/23/trump-united-nations-address-live/
Chuck Darwin
I don’t expect the World Liberty Financial scandal,
—which The New York Times exposed in a superb investigative piece Monday
—to follow a recognizable trajectory.
That’s because nothing since January has followed a recognizable trajectory.
In the world I know, the Times story would initiate a Justice Department investigation and an impeachment inquiry,
and Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff could be counted on to resign by week’s end.
In the mystifying world we inhabit today, none of these things appears likely to happen.
In May, Zach Witkoff, the 32-year-old son of the billionaire Steve Witkoff, announced at a Dubai conference
—while sitting beside Eric Trump
—that he’d collected $2 billion from one Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan,
who controls the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates.
That $2 billion purchased a stablecoin called USD1 from World Liberty Financial,
a crypto firm of which Witkoff père et fils are co-founders,
and in which the Trump family owns a 60 percent stake.
It was, according to Binance (another participant in the deal),
“the single largest investment into a crypto company” that the world had ever seen.
Around the same time that Zach announced the UAE investment, his father, Steve Witkoff, said he was divesting his own stake in World Liberty Financial.
Four months later, though, the White House says Witkoff is
“still in the process of divesting.”
(High-ranking Trump officials are notorious slowpokes in this regard.)
What was worth $2 billion to UAE?
By what we’re supposed to believe is sheerest coincidence,
two weeks after Zach Witkoff announced Sheik Tahnoon’s stablecoin purchase,
President Donald Trump agreed to allow the UAE to import a large quantity of U.S.-produced AI computer chips,
-- with many of those chips going to a company named G42 that just happens to be controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon.
Previously, the Biden administration had sharply limited how many such chips could go to UAE
because the country conducted joint military exercises with China,
with which G42 had multiple business partnerships.
The UAE didn’t like being told no, so after Trump entered office it negotiated a better deal—with, among others, Steve Witkoff.
Another player in this drama is David Sacks,
who pushed hard to give UAE expanded access to the AI chips.
Sacks is Trump’s AI and crypto czar.
He also continues to work for the investment firm he founded, Craft Ventures. -- In the minds of some White House officials, this presents a potential conflict of interest.
(It’s a nice surprise to learn there remain a few ethics-minded people in the Trump administration.)
For example, according to a March press release from World Financial Liberty,
USD1 reserves are “custodied by BitGo,” -- which has significant backing from Craft Ventures.
The White House counsel finessed all this by giving Sacks a sort of golden ticket that allows Sacks to participate in government decisions that might affect his investments.
https://newrepublic.com/article/200551/trump-witkoff-emiratis-bribery-corruption?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SF_TNR&utm_source=Bluesky
Chuck Darwin
We wanted to document what it sounds like inside a glacier.
There is sadness because you know all these sounds are disappearing right now.
Of course, melting is something natural for glaciers, but the problem is that nothing new is coming back
Chuck Darwin
Calling your congressperson is the most effective way to influence policy.
Chuck Darwin
Don’t hold your breath, but as raids stifle economy, Trump proves case for immigration reform
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-20/lopez-column-trump-ice-raids-economy-immigration-reform
Chuck Darwin
The graph of public interest in Jimmy Kimmel's
#Wikipedia page since January 1 shows a few little bumps of interest and then a big BOOM.
Try it yourself: https://wikitwister.com/seismograph.html
Chuck Darwin
Bored Trump Spends Night
Channel Surfing For New Shows To Cancel
https://theonion.com/bored-trump-spends-night-channel-surfing-for-new-shows-to-cancel/
Chuck Darwin
The blast zone from The Walt Disney Company’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show off the air is now threatening to engulf the Brentwood home of Bob Iger
-- who just happens to be married to Willow Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
Iger, along with Disney Entertainment chairman Dana Walden, was the Disney exec who pulled the chord on Kimmel’s suspension over on-air comments about Charlie Kirk’s murder
— and that decision has prompted a journalism non-profit that Bay (and Iger) have supported for years to consider distancing themselves from the westside power couple.
The International Women’s Media Foundation,
an organization dedicated to elevating female and non-binary journalists,
boasts some of the biggest names in broadcast journalism as board members
“board members have expressed their concerns internally over the optics of holding a free speech event at the home of the man who yanked Kimmel off the air”
Chuck Darwin
This week, the France-based ArianeGroup aerospace company announced that it had completed the integration of the
Themis vehicle,
a prototype rocket that will test various landing technologies, on a launch pad in Sweden.
Low-altitude hop tests,
a precursor for developing a rocket's first stage that can vertically land after an orbital launch,
could start late this year or early next.
Chuck Darwin
Trump is being cagey about how many people he’s ordered the U.S. Navy to kill on the high seas.
The official toll from American military strikes on two boats accused of running drugs from Venezuela is now 14,
but a few days ago, Trump teased the possibility that a third boat had been “knocked off,” presumably on his orders.
The Trump administration’s justification for these strikes, such as it is,
seems to be that any shipment of drugs connected to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a direct threat to the United States.
These “narco-terrorists” may therefore be destroyed on sight, and without the fuss of asking permission from the courts or U.S. Congress.
This argument reflects the president’s childlike but dangerous understanding of his role as commander in chief.
The United States, once the leader of a global system of security and economic cooperation, is now acting like a rogue state on the high seas
Trump is treating the military like his personal mercenaries -- a Department of War Crimes
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/rogue-nation-high-seas/684272/
Chuck Darwin
Judge Zia Faruqui, a former federal prosecutor,
said leaders of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office have tarnished its reputation with how they are handling their deluge of cases.
He said Pirro’s office is routinely bringing cases that don’t belong in federal court and needlessly keeping people in jail for days while they evaluate charges.
“It’s not fair to say they’re losing credibility. We’re past that now,” Faruqui said.
He later added, “There’s no credibility left.”
https://kstp.com/ap-top-news/judge-upbraids-prosecutors-for-handling-of-dc-surge-cases-saying-they-have-no-credibility-left/
Chuck Darwin
“This is not a hoax, and it’s not going away,”
said Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda.
Trump’s struggles reveal the limits of his usual tactics.
His strategy
—harnessing the anger caused by inequality to deflect blame
—has faltered here.
To understand why, we must look beyond Epstein as a predator to examine the system that protected him.
Documents recently released from Epstein’s estate expose the extent of his aristocratic immunity.
In a 2008 plea deal, prosecutors agreed not to charge his alleged co-conspirators
and gave Epstein a list of victims who had come forward
—a list that victims describe as a “hit list,” provided by law enforcement.
https://therealnews.com/the-real-reason-donald-trump-cant-escape-the-epstein-scandal
Chuck Darwin
Department of Homeland Security agents arrested 70 New Yorkers outside 26 Federal Plaza on Thursday afternoon,
with an additional 12 elected officials arrested upstairs,
after they had attempted to enter the building to assess the living conditions of immigrants detained there.
Some of the electeds had made it past the doors, and came upstairs
— only to be handcuffed moments later.
Among the officials arrested include New York City Comptroller Brad Lander,
Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams,
Assemblymember Emily Gallagher,
Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas,
Assemblymember Robert C. Carroll,
State Sen. Jabari Brisport
and Council member Sandy Nurse.
Lander (who had, in June, been arrested by DHS police at Federal Plaza while attempting to escort an immigrant from a court hearing),
Sen. Julia Salazar,
and more than 15 other elected officials and faith leaders
said they had come to 26 Federal Plaza to peacefully gain entry to the 10th floor.
“I’ve been here more than a dozen times,
and every single time I have seen a lawless abduction,”
said Comptroller Lander,
while sitting cross-legged on the floor outside the elevators of the first floor of Federal Plaza.
“I saw a woman who was eight months pregnant have her husband ripped from her arms,
and what she said to my wife, she’s sobbing in my wife’s arms, was,
‘Are they going to kill him?’”
https://documentedny.com/2025/09/18/ice-brad-lander-protest-federal-plaza-arrests/
Chuck Darwin
Guinea is one of a growing number of West African countries where the military has taken power and delayed a return to civilian rule.
Chuck Darwin
Over 100 liberal philanthropies,
including those that are being targeted by the Trump administration as part of an expected crackdown after the killing of Charlie Kirk,
are banding together to try and stave off attacks on the nonprofit sector.
The institutions, including the Ford Foundation and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations,
on Wednesday pushed out an open letter that forcefully defended the philanthropy sector,
even as its list of signers doubled as a list of the types of left-leaning charities that President Trump may target.
The statement condemned political violence and any possible retribution.
“Organizations should not be attacked for carrying out their missions or expressing their values in support of the communities they serve,”
the letter said.
“We reject attempts to exploit political violence to mischaracterize our good work or restrict our fundamental freedoms,
like freedom of speech and the freedom to give.
🔥Attempts to silence speech, criminalize opposing viewpoints, and misrepresent and limit charitable giving undermine our democracy and harm all Americans.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/us/politics/trump-liberal-philanthropies-pushback.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Chuck Darwin
Gerald Epstein, a leading expert on finance and financial crises,
warns that Trump’s executive order on retirement accounts
not only comes with high risks,
but the so-called alternative assets deliver, at best, average returns.
Chuck Darwin
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said Monday she plans to file a resolution to strip her House colleague,
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), of committee assignments
following comments from Omar in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death.
Omar had said video and news of Kirk’s assassination were “really mortifying.”
Omar also criticized Republican attacks on the left after the fatal shooting of Kirk, calling them “full of s‑‑‑.”
“You have people like Nancy Mace, who constantly harass, you know,
people that she finds inferior and wants them not to exist in this country or ever,” Omar told Mehdi Hasan in an interview on his Zeteo platform.
“And, you know, you have people like Trump, who has incited violence against people like me.
And so, you know, these people are full of s‑‑‑,
and it’s important for us to call them out while we feel anger and sadness,”
she added.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5504924-mace-resolution-omar-committee-assignments-kirk-comments/
Chuck Darwin
"There is nothing new under the sun. But there are new suns."
- Octavia Butler
https://bsky.app/profile/drfunkyspoon.bsky.social/post/3lytebjwh322n
Chuck Darwin
Things changed Thursday when the Trump administration informed the Navy, the Marines and the Federal Aviation Administration that San Diego was no longer a preferred site for the show.
No clear, detailed reason was given. But such a large-scale operation was likely to face local opposition.
One person familiar with the plans said airport officials were concerned that the event could affect the airport because of the Blue Angels’ part of the performance.
Officials were told the airport would likely have to shut down for a few hours on a couple of days for practice time and then again for the actual performance.
Now, as word has spread that the planning has been called off, “there’s a general sense of relief,” the source said
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/09/13/trump-air-show-navy-anniversary/
Social and economic justice, technology and tennis. I'll have what @jbf1755 is having. searchable
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