People who agree to become organ donors risk being aggressively harvested when they might otherwise recover

 

 We're getting more like China everyday.

Push for More Organ Transplants Putting Donors at Risk...
 

... Circulatory death donation is different. These patients are on life support, often in a coma. Their prognoses are more of a medical judgment call.

They are alive, with some brain activity, but doctors have determined that they are near death and won’t recover. If relatives agree to donation, doctors withdraw life support and wait for the patient’s heart to stop. This has to happen within an hour or two for the organs to be considered viable. After the person is declared dead, surgeons go in.

The Times found that some organ procurement organizations — the nonprofits in each state that have federal contracts to coordinate transplants — are aggressively pursuing circulatory death donors and pushing families and doctors toward surgery. Hospitals are responsible for patients up to the moment of death, but some are allowing procurement organizations to influence treatment decisions.

Fifty-five medical workers in 19 states told The Times they had witnessed at least one disturbing case of donation after circulatory death.

Workers in several states said they had seen coordinators persuading hospital clinicians to administer morphine, propofol and other drugs to hasten the death of potential donors. ...

Circulatory death donation used to be largely forbidden. That began to change in the 1990s, when a dying patient asked the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to remove her life support and donate her organs. The hospital honored her wishes, then spent two years creating guidelines for future cases. Use of the practice gradually spread. ...

The EU spent more on anti-carbon lunacy in 2024 than on defense

... the EU is now promising to cut carbon emissions by 90% in just 15 years. This goes even further than its already foolhardy promise of a 55% cut by 2030. ...

The EU splurged $381 billion just in 2024 on solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars and the like — more than its entire spending on defense. This is delivering skyrocketing electricity bills — last year they were two times higher than in the US. ...

... the climate impact from the EU’s policies will be next-to-nothing. Run the promised 90% by 2040 and net-zero by 2050 in the United Nations’ own climate model and compare the temperature outcome with the current policy. Because the EU matters little in global emissions and because it has already cut emissions significantly, it will only reduce global emissions through the 21^st century by a small 3%. The temperature difference in 2050 is a vanishing 0.02°F and even by 2100 the impact will be impossible to measure at 0.07°F.

All while models show that the cost for the EU by mid-century could be more than $3 trillion every year — more than all current public spending in the EU. ...

More. 

Ken Burns is full of it, doesn't even remember The McLaughlin Group featuring Pat Buchanan on PBS 1982-2016

 

 Ken Burns: "I Push Back" On Allegations Of Bias, PBS Had William F. Buckley On "Firing Line" For 32 Years

 

 

Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr., broadcast 1966-1999, was exclusively on PBS only from 1971, so 28 years.

Burns, a Democrat and Democrat donor, was 18 in 1971 and can't have been very well acquainted with the long-standing opinion already existing at the time among conservatives that PBS was hostile to conservatism.

 

As it was, neither The McLaughlin Group nor Firing Line ever received favorable time slots on PBS.

 

In point of fact, in Chicago back in the day Saturday night at our house was always make-pizzas-at-home-night, when most people went out. We wanted to stay home to enjoy watching both of these programs, which were broadcast back to back during the dinner hour on PBS, often followed by The Three Stooges and Svengoolie on a different channel, WCIU 26.

 

The playing field for conservatism was never level at PBS, and certainly isn't now.

The end of the show isn't the nail, Colbert himself is the nail

 

End of Late Show a Concerning Nail in Coffin for Comedy

Jesse Hassenger, Guardian

 

And just what is a concerning nail?

 

Is there an unconcerning nail to make the comedy inside less dead? 

 

The Grauniad on this topic suffers from the same thing Colbert suffers from: seriousness where it doesn't belong. 

 

In becoming political, comedy has become serious, while at the same time the leaders are no longer serious enough. No one wants to get ready for bed being reminded of that.

 

Back in the day when the population was a lot smaller, Johnny Carson regularly kept 15 million people awake laughing. Colbert today is lucky to get 3 million, in a much bigger country.

 

Carnac the Magnificent was funny and enduring. The rip-off from Steve Allen was in its turn ripped off from Carson by Howard Stern. And Wikipedia redirects you to "Late Night with David Letterman" from "Stupid Pet Tricks" for a reason. People remember that stuff.

 

Colbert belongs to a small minority, the jaded left. 

 

Put funny back on late night, and people will stay up to watch it. 

What a shock, right, Trump's attacks on Powell's extravagance turn out to be completely hypocritical, including when you consider that he redecorated the Oval Orifice in gold leaf

 

Trump appointees pushed more marble in Fed building renovation White House now attacks

 

... As the Fed moved forward with plans to renovate its Great Depression-era headquarters in Washington during Trump’s first term, it faced concerns in 2020 during a vetting process involving Trump appointees, who called for more “white Georgia marble” for the facade of building.

 

The Fed’s architects said the central bank had wanted glass walls to reflect the Fed as a transparent institution, but three Trump appointees to a local commission felt marble best fit the building’s historic character. Marble was added as a result, according to the minutes of the Commission of Fine Arts, which advises the federal government on architecture. ... 

Russ Vought, Trump’s top budget adviser, cited “premium marble” in a letter to Powell last week as an example of the “ostentatious overhaul.” ... 

Trump issued [an] executive order in December 2020, which criticized modernist architecture and expressed a preference for “beautiful” classical buildings with more [costly] traditional designs. ...

Millennial bewildered by Gen Z "stair" lol

 I no what you mean.

 

As I said, TACO Trump & Co. talked up destruction of Fordow because that's the only one of the three sites they destroyed

The bunker buster bombs were made for Fordow, so they bombed Fordow with them, and talked Fordow, Fordow, Fordow, "obliteration", blah blah blah.

Military-industrial complex, rinse and repeat.

Meanwhile the threat remains, and the not serious people remain in charge.

Trump Always Chickens Out. 

  

 New U.S. assessment finds American strikes destroyed only one of three Iranian nuclear sites

WASHINGTON — One of the three nuclear enrichment sites in Iran struck by the United States last month was mostly destroyed, setting work there back significantly. But the two others were not as badly damaged and may have been degraded only to a point where nuclear enrichment could resume in the next several months if Iran wants it to, according to a recent U.S. assessment of the destruction caused by the military operation, five current and former U.S. officials familiar with the assessment told NBC News. ... 

U.S. officials believe the attack on Fordo, which has long been viewed as a critical component of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, was successful in setting back Iranian enrichment capabilities at that site by as much as two years, according to two of the current officials.

Much of the administration’s public messaging about the strikes has focused on Fordo. ...

U.S. officials knew before the airstrikes that Iran had structures and enriched uranium at Natanz and Isfahan that were likely to be beyond the reach of even America’s 30,000-pound GBU-57 “bunker buster” bombs, three of the sources said. Those bombs, which had never been used in combat before the strikes, were designed with the deeply buried facilities carved into the side of a mountain at Fordo in mind.

As early as 2023, though, there were indications that Iran was digging tunnels at Natanz that were below where the GBU-57 could reach. There are also tunnels deep underground at Isfahan. The United States hit surface targets at Isfahan with Tomahawk missiles and did not drop GBU-57s there, but it did use them at Natanz. ...

Trump was briefed on the so-called all-in plan, but it was rejected ultimately because it would have required a sustained period of conflict. ...

Before the June airstrikes, the regime had enough fissile material for about nine to 10 bombs, according to U.S. officials and United Nations inspectors. ...

J. D. Vance has had to cast six tiebreaker votes so far in the Republican-controlled U. S. Senate, this time to advance legislation cutting a measly $9 billion in spending

 Vance casts Senate tiebreaker to advance Trump’s DOGE-inspired cuts

... This was Vance’s sixth tiebreaker in the Senate, following his deciding vote on July 1 to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. ...

Today's core wholesale price report breaks the nine-month-string of producer prices increasing year over year at 3% or more, but as always there will be revisions

 Here are the current June 2025 yoy figures for core producer price increases Dec-Jun, followed by the figures reported the previous month, followed by the figures as originally reported:

December 2024: 3.74%, 3.74%, 3.5%

January 2025: 3.92, 3.92, 3.6

February 2025: 3.73, 3.74, 3.4

March 2025: 3.86, 3.91, 3.3

April 2025: 3.13, 3.18, 3.1

May 2025: 3.20, 3.02 (revised up as predicted)

June 2025: 2.60.

 

The optimism of the original figures has been removed by the revisions to Dec-Mar available only but lately.

 

December and January revisions alone still hold fast today, but not thereafter.

 

As always it is important not to press the monthly results too strongly, but the May revised uptick is consistent with a down-up, down-up, down-up pattern which is obviously trending down.

 

Viewed on a semiannual basis, however, we are Wei Tu Hai, and trending Wong Wei Charlie.

 

 

 

 

KAOS denies plan to fire Powell

 

 

 Trump denies that he plans to fire Powell: ‘Highly unlikely’

Electricity posts its highest semiannual average price ever in 1H2025, under Mad King Ludwig

 The average price hit a record 19-cents per kWhr in June.

 

 

Chicken eggs in the United States post their highest semiannual average price ever, under Mad King Ludwig

Natural gas in the United States posts its second highest semiannual average price ever, under Mad King Ludwig

 

The future looks bright for gold

 Trump ‘likely’ will fire Fed Chair Powell ‘soon’: White House official

These people are nuts.

This person lives in the world of unreality and thousands upon thousands upon thousands follow him

 

That core cpi was up sharply is completely meaningless to this person. Who cares what people expected?

He also is mistaken about the Fed's preferred measure, which is NOT this but rather core pce.

Replies to all his posts are turned off, and he follows no one.

That there is so little pushback on this on X proves that American fans of American football have lost the testosterone which animates the game

Mad King Ludwig thinks he can re-name everything.

You know, like a man who thinks he can call himself a woman.

Same denial of reality disease, different expression. 

 

The world plays ‘football’ but the U.S. calls it ‘soccer’: Trump signaled that could change

 

... While the term “football” is widely used for the sport, especially in Europe and much of the world, the U.S., Canada and Australia generally use “soccer” to refer to the game. ...

 

 

 

Bond investors slowly roasting on the turning spit

 

Core cpi inflation in June 2025 is up sharply to 2.93% year over year from 2.78% in May

 

Corey Comperatore dodged nothing

 

 

2024 Was a Year of Bullet-Dodging

Elle Purnell, The Federalist

 

... It’s an ancient mistake to make messiahs out of politics. But likewise, it’s foolish to believe a God who clothes lilies and feeds sparrows is neglectful of the earthly authorities He commands His people to respect. To do either is to think too little of the sovereignty of God. It is the God of Heaven, the prophet Daniel says, who “changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings.” When doing so spares us from evil, we ought to thank Him. ...

Why do I think we would not be reading this today if God had removed the king instead of Corey at Butler one year ago?

Shall we thank God for the evil visited upon the family of Corey Comperatore? 

 

Different parties, same federal incompetence: Obama's EPA polluted the Animas and San Juan Rivers with 3 million gallons of toxic mine waste, 10 years later Trump's National Park Service burns down the Grand Canyon

Oops.

 

Trump reverses course and equips Ukraine with long-needed air defenses

 

The average vehicle on the road is now 12.8 years old, a new record as of May 2025

 

This index of used car values is still up 39% from the pre-pandemic level of 150 in June 2025

 

Kevin Hassett is full of it as usual

 

Trump tariffs don’t cause inflation because of ‘patriotism’ buying: WH advisor Hassett

 

That makes no sense.

 

Buying costlier U.S.-made goods over foreign goods would naturally boost inflation, quite apart from new tariff differences in price. 

 

Meanwhile the core pce inflation rate in May 2025 year-over-year was 3.88% higher than it was in April, the 65% majority of which is services but still includes goods.

 

That's what the 0.1 point rise from 2.577% to 2.677% means.

 

The May 2025 rate is actually slightly higher than in May 2024, which means we've made no progress in the last year. 

 

 

 

. . . with liberty and justice for all

 

 No Man can be a sincere Lover of Liberty, that is not for increasing and communicating that Blessing to all People; and therefore the giving or restoring it not only to our Brethren of Scotland and Ireland, but even to France it self (were it in our Power) is one of the principal Articles of Whiggism.

-- Robert Molesworth (1656-1725) 

Gallup poll shows backlash to ugly Trump immigration enforcement, record 79% now say immigration is a good thing

 

 The percentage saying immigration is a good thing has been slowly rising since the 2002 low at 52% to a record high 79% now.

The percentage saying it's a bad thing has been steadily falling since the 2002 high at 42%, now at just 17%, a record low.

The ten-point underwater spread in 2002 is now sixty-two points in 2025. 

Donald Trump has completely botched the issue, putting the stink of his ugly behavior on it for the foreseeable future.

More. 

Only fools throw red meat to dogs, yank it away, and act surprized when they turn mad

 

UPDATE: Trump faces revolt over Epstein...

Now Says Obama, Hillary, Biden, Comey 'created files'...

Begs supporters to end obsession...

Rips attacks by 'so-called' friends...

Bongino on Brink...

 

 

Imagine coming in third to this guy at this point

 

A new climatology graph not previously shown here: Trend for total seasonal annual snowfall for Grand Rapids, Michigan

 Seasonal measurements run from July to June.

Like the precipitation graph for Grand Rapids (recently updated), this one shows the same wetter trend over the last century plus, which makes sense given the cooler Pacific ocean trend shown by the Oceanic Nino Index (update forthcoming), and given the moderating winter heating demand shown by declining trend for heating degree days (also recently updated):

 

After the shot in Butler, Satan entered into him

And after the sop Satan entered into him. -- John 13:27

A Year Ago Today, 'Fight, Fight, Fight!' Was Born

Alayna Treene, CNN

They're leaving the dogs, they're leaving the cats . . .

 ICE raids are leaving some L.A. cats and dogs homeless

... Pets belonging to people who are deported or flee are being left in empty apartments, dumped into the laps of unprepared friends and dropped off at overcrowded shelters, The Times found.

"Unless people do take the initiative [and get the pets out], those animals will starve to death in those backyards or those homes," said Yvette Berke, outreach manager for Cats at the Studios, a rescue that serves L.A. ... 

"Pets are like the collateral damage to the current political climate,” said Jennifer Naitaki, vice president of programs and strategic initiatives at the Michelson Found Animals Foundation. ...

Trump's stupid bullying of Jerome Powell is analogous to his stupid bullying of Canada's Justin Trudeau and now Mark Carney

Jerome Powell doesn't set interest rates.

 

The Federal Open Market Committee sets interest rates. That's why the release of the committee's prior meeting minutes is always keenly awaited and is by itself a major market mover. Powell's is one vote among many on the FOMC:

 

Where interest rates should be today, and when they should be reduced, is already a topic of debate inside the Fed, a decision, it should be noted, that cannot be made unilaterally by the chair. Powell’s leadership and professionalism does not appear to be a concern within the halls of the central bank. Certainly, none of his colleagues, present or past, have made the case that he is incompetent. 

 

 

Similarly the Canadian Prime Ministers' control over trade decisions is also muted, deferring as they must to provincial and territorial authorities.

 

Trump bullies people like this who cannot make unilateral changes to policy in order to make himself look like an assertive leader to his equally stupid followers.

 

That's why people like Larry Kudlow disgust me. He knows what I am writing is true, but he joins in on the pig pile nonetheless. 

 

Greater things are at stake in this than interest rate policy. Trump is playing with fire. 

  

Now the disgusting Larry Kudlow piles on Jay Powell

 

Can Jay Powell Make It Through the Weekend?

Larry Kudlow, New York Sun

The New York Times eulogizes one of its sources from the past with contempt, David Gergen, who has succumbed to Lewy body dementia at age 83

 

 ... Years later, he expressed contempt for President-elect Donald J. Trump. “A bully — mean, nasty and disrespectful of anyone in his way,” he wrote in a 2021 column for CNN. ...

Mr. Gergen wore his 6-foot-5 frame comfortably and was graced with an easygoing manner, verbal quickness and a ready laugh that made him popular with many White House reporters. He also leaked information often enough to be labeled “the Sieve” by some of them. 

That reputation fed speculation that he was Deep Throat, the shadowy figure who provided The Washington Post with insights into the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s. That source, however, was confirmed in 2005 to have been W. Mark Felt, the No. 2 official at the F.B.I. ...

The spin “had nothing to do with ideas,” Mr. Gergen said. “It had nothing to do with anything that was real. Eventually, it became selling the sizzle without the steak. There was nothing connected to it. It was all cellophane. It was all packaging.” ...

Mr. Gergen was the author of a best-selling book, “Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton” (2000). The book offered lessons for would-be leaders that tended to be little more than bromides, advising them to develop “a capacity to persuade” and “an ability to work within the system.” He revisited the topic in a 2022 book, “Hearts Touched With Fire: How Great Leaders Are Made.” ...

More.

Republican David Gergen was on the wrong side, you see, even if he was a centrist.

Elon Musk/DOGE cuts failure continues: Federal deficit spending is 5% higher year to date through June than it was last year at this time, according to the monthly statement of the U. S. Treasury Department

 The fiscal year to date deficit October 2023-June 2024 was $1.273258 trillion.

The fiscal year to date deficit October 2024-June 2025 is $1.337372 trillion, $64.114 billion higher than a year ago, or 5%. 

 

This dope who works for Trump can barely speak English, is just looking for any way he can to oust Fed Chair Jay Powell

These people make me sick.

 

The renovations were approved in 2021 and won't be finished until long after Powell leaves next May. 

 

Trump budget chief Vought ramps up criticism of Powell, vows investigation into Fed renovations

It's an investigation with a pre-drawn conclusion, that's all.

... “When you go to the nation’s mall, you see the construction of this palace ... upwards of $2.5 billion massive cost overrun, and we want to make sure we have facts as to the largesse and the extent to which it’s overrun,” Vought said during a “Squawk Box” interview. “I think it just points to the fundamental mismanagement of the Fed under the chairman.” ... 

″The problem with Chairman Powell is he has been late at every turn,” Vought said. “It’s time to lower rates. You have a problem there. But again, this is about the largesse and the fact that he has systemically mismanaged the Fed, and that is evident by what we’re seeing with regard to this monstrosity, this Palace of Versailles, on the National Mall.” ... 

“This certainly has to do with the fiscal mismanagement of the Fed, of which [interest rates] is one aspect of it,” he said. “We are going to zoom in over the last several days on this. We have new commissioners at the National Capital Planning Commission who are asking very tough questions.” ...

Ron Insana: Why Trump’s new attack on Powell should be so troubling to investors

... If I were a foreign investor witnessing the ouster of a Fed chair, replaced by a presidential supplicant, I’d sell the dollar and U.S. bonds and head for the hills. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

The great impediment to a U. S. - Canada trade deal which most people in the U. S., including our dunce of a president, don't seem to understand is that it's not Mark Carney standing in the way, it's Canada's sovereign 10 provinces and 3 territories

 

Canada is today's poster child for America's bad old system of states' rights.

Canada does not have free trade with itself, let alone with the United States. Imagine not being able to drive an 18-wheeler cross country. 

 

 Is Canada now free of internal trade barriers? Not yet, says expert: Breaking down interprovincial trade barriers is still a work in progress, says expert

... When Carney made his campaign promise, he was talking about cutting red tape put up by the federal government — not the rules set by the provinces, which have the most authority in this area. ... 

There is no comprehensive list of existing internal trade barriers. Even some lobby groups have told parliamentarians they don't know how many barriers their own industries face.

There isn't even consensus on what all counts as a trade barrier. ...

Internal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, who has repeatedly stated that most of the barriers are at the provincial level, testified to the Senate that she will meet with her provincial counterparts on July 8 to discuss next steps.

One major obstacle is in Freeland's crosshairs: Canada's patchwork of interprovincial trucking regulations.

"One of three areas that I will be putting on the agenda at that meeting is trucking," she said on June 16. "It should be a lot easier than it is to drive a truck from Halifax to Vancouver. We need to get rid of conflicting requirements."

 

 

Unaffordable Care Act to become more unaffordable for millions in 2026 due to Trump's reconciliation bill, just in time for the election

 

 Why 22 million people may see ‘sharp’ increase in health insurance premiums in 2026

... More than 22 million people — about 92% of ACA enrollees — received a federal subsidy this year that reduced their insurance premiums, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.

Those recipients would see “sharp premium increase” on Jan. 1, Cynthia Cox, the group’s ACA program director, said during a webinar on Wednesday.

The average marketplace enrollee saved $705 in 2024 — a 44% reduction in premium costs — because of the enhanced tax credits, according to a November analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Without the credits, average out-of-pocket premiums in 2026 would rise by more than 75%, Larry Levitt, KFF’s executive vice president for health policy, said during the webinar.

Additionally, 4.2 million Americans would become uninsured over the next decade if the enhanced subsidies lapse, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

That growth in the ranks of the uninsured is on top of the nearly 12 million people expected to lose health coverage from over $1 trillion in spending cuts Republicans made to health programs like Medicaid and the ACA to help offset the legislation’s cost. ... 

ACA enrollment has more than doubled, to roughly 24 million people in 2025 from about 11 million in 2020, according to data tracked by The Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF. ...  

According to Google's AI, there are 22.8 million fewer uninsured 2010-2024, presumably because of Obamacare, but 26.7 million more on . . . Medicaid!

Because of that Rube Goldberg Machine known as Obamacare!

Push here, and it comes out there. And the kicker is Medicaid involves estate recovery for nursing home and other care costs at death, which varies by state.

You can run, but you cannot hide. 

 

 

Undersea UFO expert Republican Tim Burchett (TN-2) says the Biden administration destroyed the Epstein client list lol

 Atta boy, Tim, blame the Democrats.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday he believes a client list associated with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein once existed but was “destroyed” by the Biden administration.

“I think the files existed at one time,” Burchett said in an interview on NewsNation’s “On Balance” with host Leland Vittert. “I think they were destroyed in the previous administration.” ...

More.  

Alan Dershowitz claims he saw the names on the Epstein client list, now suppressed, because he had the right of discovery while defending himself against Virginia Giuffre

 

Dershowitz claims he's seen files, docs suppressed to protect elites...

Mad King Ludwig to impose 50% tariff on Brazil but not on Israel lol

I mean, some countries are more equal than others amirite? 

 Trump To Impose 50% Brazil Tariff, Citing Bolsonaro "Witch Hunt"

Trump brands Netanyahu's corruption trial a 'witch hunt,' calls for it to be canceled

 

Six climatology charts for Grand Rapids, Michigan, updated today continue to show little evidence of global warming, but plenty of winter moderation

 

average temperature trending up about only 1 degree F in 132 years; could be heat island effect

winter lows trending slightly lower

summer highs trending slightly lower

winter heating demand trending lower

summer cooling demand effectively flat

and much much wetter

Camp Mystic campers routinely did not receive weather emergency training, did not have access to their phones while at camp

 

Texas inspectors approved Camp Mystic disaster plan 2 days before deadly flood...

 

HUNT, Texas (AP) — Texas inspectors signed off on Camp Mystic’s emergency planning just two days before catastrophic flooding killed more than two dozen people at the all-girls Christian summer camp, most of them children.

 

The Department of State Health Services released records Tuesday showing the camp complied with a host of state regulations regarding “procedures to be implemented in case of a disaster.” Among them: instructing campers what to do if they need to evacuate and assigning specific duties to each staff member and counselor.

 

Five years of inspection reports released to The Associated Press do not offer any details of those plans at Mystic, raising new questions about the camp’s preparedness ahead of the torrential July 4 rainfall in flood-prone Texas Hill Country. ... 

 

Charlotte Lauten, 19, spent nine summers at Camp Mystic, mostly recently in 2023. She said she didn’t recall ever receiving instructions as a camper on what do in the case of a weather emergency. ...

 

One thing that likely hindered the girls’ ability to escape was how dark it would have been, Lauten said. Campers don’t have access to their phones while at camp, she said, adding they wouldn’t have cell service anyway because of the remote location. ...

Put it back in the warehouse, Pam