Living under Trump 2 aka Musk!!!

[China]

‘We Are Witnessing a New Brain Drain’ as Scientists Flee America for France

Aix Marseille University in France has said that 40 U.S. scientists have “answered the call” it put out earlier this month offering safe harbor to fleeing Americans. Scientists in the U.S. under the Trump regime are facing a sudden loss of funding and stricter regulations on speech and areas of research. According to Aix Marseille University President Eric Berton, some of them will find a home in France.

In a press release about its “Safe Space for Science” initiative, the University announced that the 40 U.S. scientists included people from Stanford, Yale, NASA, the National Institute for Health, and George Washington University. It said that most of their research topics were related to “health (LGBT+ medicine, epidemiology, infectious diseases, inequalities, immunology, etc.), the environment and climate change…as well as the humanities and social sciences…and astrophysics.”

Aix Marseille University put out the call to American scientists on March 7 as news continued that the Trump administration was pulling funding from many universities and putting heavy restrictions on research topics. “We are witnessing a new brain drain,” Benton said on March 12. “We will do everything possible to help as many scientists as possible continue their research. But we cannot meet all the requests alone.” He then called on the French and European governments for help.

The Trump administration has been destructive to science and research in America in ways it will take generations to understand. Many colleges and research institutes rely on federal funding to make breakthroughs, and federal funding has vanished. Last night, UMass Chan—a public medical school in Massachusetts—announced a hiring freeze and sent out an email to previously accepted students telling them they had rescinded their admission.

“Due to ongoing uncertainties related to federal funding of biomedical research, UMass Chan, along with many of our peer universities, is facing significant challenges in ensuring stable dissertation research opportunities for incoming students,” the email said. “Unfortunately, as a result, we must rescind all offers of admission for the Fall 2025 term.”

“This is not a decision that we made lightly, and we understand how disappointing this news may be. Based upon your strong academic qualification and potential, we sincerely regret that circumstances beyond our control have led to this outcome.”

UMass Chan Medical School is a major researcher into the treatment of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The single biggest funder of research into the disease was federal NIH grants, which gave the school around $50 million every year. That money’s gone because the Trump administration has ended hundreds of active NIH research grants.

The University of Pennsylvania has also told students it can no longer take them. A professor at the University told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the loss of funding was sudden and came after many people had already been selected for graduate programs. “We go through hundreds of applications, we interviewed dozens of finalists, and basically all that work was just for naught. We just wasted half of those people’s time because our list just got cut by more than half,” they said.

Aix Marseille University said it had already put aside $16 million to host three U.S. scientists for three years. In its press release, it said it’s working with the local French government to “facilitate the arrival of scientists and their families in Marseille and the region” and that this will include “employment, housing, access to schools…transportation, [and] visas.”

[Emir of Schmoe]

The nonstop chaos that President Donald Trump is delivering with his erratic tariff policies and spending cuts is already hurting many farmers who voted for him in the 2024 presidential election.

In an interview with NBC News, West Virginia farmer Jennifer Gilkerson revealed that cuts to a key United States Department of Agriculture program have left her with a large stash of unsold freeze-dried fruits that she had spent thousands of dollars producing under the assumption that they would be bought by local schools.

“We’re just in such a state of shock," she told NBC. "We just don’t really even know how to respond to all this. We thought that this was sacred and really untouchable. So it’s just quite a shock and very devastating. Everyone thinks all farmers voted for this, but we did not vote for this."

Iowa farmer Bob Hemesath, meanwhile, told NBC that he cannot handle a long-term trade war with America's top trading partners.

"I know that this is the way President Trump believes he’s going to create better markets long term," he said. "I hope he’s correct. But my fear is that once you lose those markets to other suppliers, it’s very hard to get them back."

Chuck Conner, head of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, told NBC that the nations being targeted by Trump with tariffs have responded by targeting "our soft underbelly," which he said were "our food exports."

"That has always been the case, and that is the case this time around on steroids," he warned.

Just so no one forgets, this is what happened the last time. This time they're using a much big hammer on foreign markets. Some of the lost business returned (see below). I'm going to guess the amount that returns this time will be much, much less. Companies/countries like stability in their supplies (and suppliers). We saw rotting crops that were unable to be sold last time. Get ready to see much, much more of the same.

The folllowing was generated by Chatgpt:

Trade War Bailout (2018-2019): The U.S. government launched the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), which was designed to help farmers impacted by the tariffs, especially those in sectors like soybeans, pork, and dairy. In total, farmers received about $28 billion in payments over two years (2018-2019).

Additional Aid in 2020: In response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration also rolled out additional aid to farmers. This included $19 billion in direct payments through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). The program provided support to farmers who suffered losses due to the pandemic, including for the closure of food processing plants and disruptions in supply chains.

Other Aid: In addition to the direct payments from MFP and CFAP, farmers also benefited from the Food Purchase and Distribution Program, which involved the government purchasing surplus agricultural goods like dairy, meat, and produce to redistribute them to food banks and other organizations.

In total, over Trump's first term (2017-2020), farmers received roughly $46 billion in bailout funds, factoring in both the trade-related payments and pandemic-related aid.

These bailouts were heavily debated, with supporters arguing they were necessary to support struggling farmers, while critics contended that they were a result of the president's trade policies and disrupted markets.

While this financial assistance helped to offset some of the revenue losses caused by the tariffs, it did not fully restore the lost market access or business for U.S. farmers. A significant portion of the lost business due to Chinese tariffs, particularly in the soybean and pork sectors, did not return, and some of the damage to long-term market relationships remained. For example, China began sourcing soybeans from other countries like Brazil during the trade war, and it took time to rebuild those relationships.

In conclusion, while bailout programs provided some financial relief, they did not entirely rebuild the lost business for U.S. farmers. The loss of market share and long-term effects on trade relationships with countries like China meant that farmers didn't fully recover the volume of business they had prior to the tariffs.

[CobraCommander]

I don’t care about people that voted for Trump. I didn’t vote for this. I didn’t vote for any voting member of congress and me and my family are about to get fucked by all of them.

Also fuck Schumer and the feckless democrats with no fucking backbone.

[Jumbo]

I don’t care about people that voted for Trump. I didn’t vote for this. I didn’t vote for any voting member of congress and me and my family are about to get fucked by all of them.

Also fuck Schumer and the feckless democrats with no fucking backbone.

I get the AOC, House progressives, and a wide swath of Dem voters feeling anger and frustration about the idea of Dems actually "voting for" this gop shit show o a bill.

But I consider the boogey-man that Schumer (and I am far away from being any kind of Schumer fan) and a few others are raising is real and even more dangerous than the ugly choice of voting not for the bill per set but to keep the govt open.

The potential for much more serious DOGE and executive order damage during a shutdown seems valid to me.

[CobraCommander]

I don’t care about people that voted for Trump. I didn’t vote for this. I didn’t vote for any voting member of congress and me and my family are about to get fucked by all of them.

Also fuck Schumer and the feckless democrats with no fucking backbone.

I get the AOC, House progressives, and a wide swath of Dem voters feeling anger and frustration about the idea of Dems actually "voting for" this gop shit show o a bill.

But I consider the boogey-man that Schumer (and I am far away from being any kind of Schumer fan) and a few others are raising is real and even more dangerous than the ugly choice of voting not for the bill per set but to keep the govt open.

The potential for much more serious DOGE and executive order damage during a shutdown seems valid to me.

The courts seem to be doing a decent job of keeping doge and trump at bay. I don’t see democrats doing anything about anything.


My children’s school and my wife’s job will lose 1.1 billion dollars in funding.

That is absolutely devastating to us and our neighbors in the district.

[Simmsy]

This will kill Schumer's career:

Nancy Pelosi Delivers Remarkable Rebuke to Chuck Schumer

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former House Speaker, issued a blistering statement condemning Senator Chuck Schumer's decision announced Thursday to allow a vote on the Republican-backed spending bill.

Pelosi issued a statement and posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday around noon ET:

"Donald Trump and Elon Musk have offered the Congress a false choice between a government shutdown or a blank check that makes a devastating assault on the well-being of working families across America.

Let's be clear: neither is a good option for the American people. But this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable.

I salute Leader Hakeem Jeffries for his courageous rejection of this false choice, and I am proud of my colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus for their overwhelming vote against this bill.

Democratic senators should listen to the women. Appropriations leaders Rosa DeLauro and Patty Murray have eloquently presented the case that we must have a better choice: a four-week funding extension to keep government open and negotiate a bipartisan agreement.

America has experienced a Trump shutdown before – but this damaging legislation only makes matters worse. Democrats must not buy into this false choice. We must fight back for a better way. Listen to the women, For The People."

[88Commanders00]

Rep. Chuck Edwards is getting torn apart at a town hall in Asheville, NC.

“I’m a veteran & you don’t give a fuck about me. You don’t get to do this to us!”

Edwards orders veteran to be thrown out.

We’re approaching a tipping point now. Anger across the country is going to boil over soon.

Click on the link for the video

Yep, looks like we're going the violent route. I wonder why the GOP thinks its such a good idea to piss off the veterans? If anyone is going to pop off, it'll probably be a vet.

Violence is happening . All the crap Elon and Don; will start trickling to everyone. Don thinks all the firings won’t impact negatively? It won’t just be the fired affected. It will trickle to rest of economy. The DC area will collapse. Sorry guys.

Tariffs also is starting to effect everyone.

The reaction to this will be violence; especially since many affected are maga. Just wait when they cut Medicare and social security.

[China]

Less than 20 red wolves remain in the wild. We had a plan to save them.

Then Trump got in the way.

Few individual animals have ever been more important to their species than 2323M — a red wolf, dubbed Airplane Ears by advocates for his prominent extremities, who spent his brief but fruitful life on North Carolina’s Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.

Red wolves, smaller, rust-tinged cousins to gray wolves, are among the world’s rarest mammals, pushed to the brink of extinction by threats such as habitat loss, indiscriminate killing, and road collisions. By 2019 fewer than 15 were known to survive in the wild. Against that grim backdrop, 2323M offered hope.

Born at a federal site in Florida, he was released in 2021 onto the Alligator River refuge, a swath of coastal plain on North Carolina’s eastern shore. Over the next two years, he and a female known as 2225F raised 11 pups.

Alas, in September 2023, Airplane Ears was killed by a car on US 64, the highway that runs through the refuge. One of the world’s rarest species had lost its most prolific member.

Airplane Ears was an extraordinary animal who suffered a common fate. Around one-fifth of red wolves meet their end on a bumper, many on US 64, a primary route that vacationers take to the Outer Banks, the picturesque chain of barrier islands that line North Carolina’s seaboard. Black bears and white-tailed deer, and even alligators fall victim to collisions that kill animals and result in “significant harm to humans and vehicles,” according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Even the occasional alligator blunders onto the highway.

While US 64’s roadkill rates are exceptional, it’s far from the only perilous highway in the United States, where animal crashes annually cost society more than $10 billion in hospital bills, vehicle repairs, and other expenses. For species from Florida panthers to California tiger salamanders to North Carolina’s red wolves, collisions pose an extinction-level threat.

After 2323M perished, a coalition of conservation groups began pushing the North Carolina Department of Transportation to retrofit the highway with fences and underpasses — essentially spacious tunnels that would allow red wolves and other animals to slink safely beneath US 64. “We knew that something had to be done, quick,” says Ron Sutherland, chief scientist at the Wildlands Network, a conservation group that focuses on habitat connectivity throughout North America. Otherwise, wild red wolves could be lost.

Drumming up millions of dollars for wildlife crossings has always been a tall order. In December, however, North Carolina received $25 million from the US Department of Transportation to build underpasses on Highway 64. Combined with $4 million that Wildlands Network and the Center for Biological Diversity raised in donations, as well as state funds, it was enough to make a stretch of Highway 64 safe for wolves. “It felt really good to know that something had gone right for the red wolf, for once,” Sutherland says.

That the transportation department invested in animal underpasses may come as a surprise — its primary mission, after all, is to facilitate human movements, not the peregrinations of wolves and deer. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), however, contained an initiative called the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program, which allotted $350 million in competitive grants for animal passage, the largest pot of federal funding ever earmarked for the cause. In addition to North Carolina’s red-wolf crossings, the program has awarded grants for nearly three dozen projects — some of which will aid imperiled species such as ocelots and desert tortoises, many more that will seek to avert dangerous crashes with large mammals like deer, elk, and moose.

“This is not ornamental,” Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden’s transportation secretary, told Vox of the wildlife crossings program in an interview earlier this year. “This is something that ties into the very core of our mission, which is to secure the safety of the American traveling public.”

Unfortunately for the red wolf and many other species, President Donald Trump’s administration may not agree.

The future of the wildlife crossings program, and many similar initiatives that the BIL supports, is uncertain. Shortly after taking office, Trump suspended the disbursement of BIL funds, leaving hundreds of Biden-era initiatives twisting in the political wind. Will animal passages, traditionally an overwhelmingly nonpartisan solution, endure? Or will the Trump administration stymie crossings, and a plethora of other BIL projects, before they ever truly get off the ground — perhaps dooming red wolves, and many other animals, in the process?

Click on the link for the full article