05/28/25

Good morning! It’s Wednesday, May 28th.

Amnesty International Day, which is a day meant to encourage the entire world to study the ways we can improve human rights conditions around the world and work together to overall make things better for—whoops! This just in from the White House – May 28th is cancelled.

And now, the news.

Chinese Chemical Plant

-via AP News

Starting in China, where an explosion at a chemical plant has killed at least five people and injured another 19. Six others are missing.

The plant, which has more than 500 employees, makes pesticides and medical-use chemicals. A local environmental bureau has been dispatched to measure pollution in the air, but of course it’s too soon to know. Also, will we ever really know?

Last year, the same plant was cited for safety risks at least twice, with more than 800 safety hazards spotted in the first eight months of 2024. However, it was also praised in September for rectifying those hazards.

Last year, China recorded 19,600 deaths from workplace safety incidents.

Trump v Harvard

-via CBS News

In the continuing saga of Trump v Harvard (which is really Trump v the First Amendment but that case is Trump v too many people to be specific so…), on Wednesday the Trump administration announced that they are going to take funding away from the university, writing that all federal agencies to cut contracts with the university.

Those contracts total about $100 million.

In a letter from the US General Services Administration, they allege that Harvard, "continues to engage in race discrimination, including in its admissions process and in other areas of student life." Adding, And that’s our job!

No no. But…

Federal agencies have until June 6th to respond to the administration about what actions they’ll take.

Trump, meanwhile, is considering taking $3 billion in grants that would normally go to Harvard and giving it to trade schools. Hey man… that’s almost a good idea. Don’t take it from Harvard, because this whole thing is a wildly bad idea that’s straight out of Hitler’s playbook. But investing in trade schools is a good idea.

Will he do it? Probably not. Certainly, this is just something he thought about to help drum up publicity against Harvard.

NPR Sues Trump

-via NPR

In other Trump move news, after signing an executive order to cut funding from NPR and PBS, NPR and three Colorado radio stations are joining the ranks of Harvard and others and also suing Trump.

The language in the suit is pretty great too.

"It is not always obvious when the government has acted with a retaliatory purpose in violation of the First Amendment. 'But this wolf comes as a wolf.’ The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President's view, their news and other content is not 'fair, accurate, or unbiased.'"

“But this wolf comes as a wolf,” is a cool line but it’s also from a 1988 dissent from the conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a case which asked if an appointment "independent counsel" to investigate, and, if necessary, prosecute government officials for certain violations of federal criminal laws violated separation of powers.

So the suit is nodding to two things… we’re willing to take this straight to the top. And when we do, separation of powers is one of the things we’ll be arguing.

PBS has not joined the suit. On Tuesday they put out a statement saying they are exploring every option, including legal action, or maybe just having cookie monster eat the Executive Order.

…I say again, maybe Cookie Monster will just eat the Executive Order.

These are the jokes, people! The show is free!

Abortions in America

-via CNN

In Missouri, Planned Parenthood has stopped all abortions in the state after the state supreme court ruled that a district judge applied the wrong standard in December and February rulings that allowed abortions to resume.

I feel genuinely sick to my stomach at this next part, but here we go… in their petition to the state Supreme Court, the state said that Planned Parenthood had failed to prove women were harmed without the temporary blocks on the laws and regulations on abortion services and providers.

Not harmed.

Not harmed by the laws and regulations placed on the facilities that then prevented people who can get pregnant from being able to make decisions about their own bodies.

Okay.

Then let it happen to you.

Tell me a law that governs a man’s body. Talk to me about any time, any time in history, where a law that regulates any right over a man’s body, has ever existed and ever been litigated like this. Their minds would implode.

Explode, actually. They’d be too polite to implode. They’d explode. Get their annoying thoughts everywhere. As they do now.

So annoying.

Anyway, the state’s AG had the audacity to say this is a win for women but of course we know these regulations only exist to make abortions harder to get. And we know these abortion laws in general exist because they want to control people who can get pregnant because they certainly don’t care about human beings.

It is especially infuriating because Missouri voters used a ballot measure to overturn an abortion ban at all stages of pregnancy.

But of course… they wouldn’t possibly let a little thing like that stop Republicans.

I hate it here!

Flames on the side of my face.

Covid Shot No Longer Recommended for Pregnant Women and Healthy Children

-via Washington Post

On Tuesday, Director of Health and Human Services RFK Jr. (a truly cursed sentence) announced that the agency would no longer recommend the Covid vaccine for pregnant women and healthy children, a move that goes against the advice of the CDC.

Not sure what to say about this one. I’m no doctor. But neither is he. I would recommend talking to a doctor for all medical advice, and not listening to that guy who, by choice, chopped the head off a whale, and no one knows what he did with the whale's head.

The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older receive the coronavirus vaccine annually.

As a reminder! A mere month ago, this buffoon sat in front of congress and said, “I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.”

I would say that is the one and only time we should listen to him.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

What a day!

I’m proud of… doctors. Nurses. Medical personnel. In general, people who study and then talk about the things in which they are experts but choose to learn, rather than lecture, about things in which they are not experts.

Also people that want to make the world better.

So I guess no one in this administration. Big thumbs down energy coming out of that are.

But more than… brisket. It’s also national brisket day and I don’t even eat meat so more than brisket… I’m proud of you.