On this day 60 years ago, with Harry Truman at his side, LBJ signed Medicaid into law to assist the least fortunate among us gain medical care.
Trump and Republicans Big Ugly Bill cuts $1T from Medicaid to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest.
Cancel that!
I actually agree with James Carville here. All Democrats can unite behind "WE WANT A REPEAL" of Trump's signature spending bill to win the 2026 midterms.
'James Carville Urges Democrats To Unite Behind This 4-Word Message Ahead Of Midterms | HuffPost' https://share.google/JAMjwoPWvPRjt8Bc3
Some personal reflections on the role of California in science and my scientific career in light of massive proposed budget cuts by the Trump administration.
This was inspired by the McClintock Letters campaign.
https://daniels-newsletter-42563f.beehiiv.com/p/golden-state-of-science
BTW, Congress wants to pass a budget with less cuts to science - call your Congressional Representatives and Senators at 202-224-3121 to urge them to continue to support research at universities!
The Republicans finally got their way, after 30 years of trying to defund public broadcasting. Most impacted will be rural stations.
"The sudden and dramatic reduction in funding will result in a pool of fewer stations to buy programming & solicit donations, potentially creating a “doom loop” "
For an uplifting yet quick read, pick up "The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in
the Natural World," in which MacArthur Fellow Robin Wall Kimmerer explores a gift economy with the Serviceberry plant and its surrounding community as an ecological metaphor.
Dr. Kiran Rabheru, geriatric psychiatrist, helped stop the World Health Organization from designating "old age" as an illness. In the passage screenshotted below, he gives his "Rule of 20s" prescription for extending your "healthspan," the length of quality, healthy living.
Geebus, Chris Rufo is the Forrest Gump of the right wing, attacking CRT, university presidents, Florida state colleges, and now ever present in the signal chats that "radicalized" the Silicon Valley billionaires.
What a tiresome putz.
“I looked at these chats as a good investment of my time to radicalize tech elites who I thought were the most likely and high-impact new coalition partners for the right.”
https://www.semafor.com/article/04/27/2025/the-group-chats-that-changed-america
This is the kind of rigorous investigation being done to round up Venezuelan immigrants-ICE agents claimed a Facebook photo showed YSM with a handgun -
"But according to his lawyer, Y.S.M. informed the agents that what they believed to be a gun was actually a water pistol." 🤦♂️
The ACLU is working furiously to stop the plane load of migrants in TX from being shipped to El Salvador without due process.
So, how did Trump pull the "tariffs" out (of his ass)?
They aren't tariffs at all. He took the ratio (US to X trade deficit)/(X to US export) when there is one and called that the tariff on US goods per James Surowiecki on X. He multiplied by 1/2 to get his tariff target. He charged 10% if there was no imbalance,except for Russia, Belarus, and North Korea of course.
Prior today, there were no true tariffs on imported goods to South Korea, for example, with whom we had a trade agreement.
With the AP reporting that Musk and Trump want to cut 80000 jobs from the Department of Veteran Affairs, it is worth asking what plausible theory other than outright nihilism can be offered to justify this action.
I think the answer lies in what Musk did at Tesla. The automaker once offered caring, concierge like service to owners. Musk managed to convince himself it was OK to replace that by phone trees to nowhere and AI chat bots, meaning in effect there is NO customer service now. 1/2
