7 clips from The Majority Report. They cover everything from ICE staging photo ops to tRump’s lies being corrected on TV, to vote blue no …. not for Zohran Mamdani and then the genocide in Gaza
Category: Health / Healthcare / Illness / Vaccines
I Don’t Know What This Says
about the day, or my mood, or maybe even the moon phase (full at around 2:30 tomorrow morning,) but I LOL’d at this top one. I’m including a few others for a little more fun.
https://www.gocomics.com/heathcliff/2025/08/08
https://www.gocomics.com/foxtrotclassics/2025/08/08
https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2025/08/08
https://www.gocomics.com/jerry-king-comics/2025/08/08
(For me, it’s my watch. I even bought a simpler one so I wouldn’t obsess, but I’ve found a way to obsess, anyway. sigh 😄 🏃 It just now buzzed me, so I gotta go do my 10 at 10!)
A Couple Of Clay Jones’s Posts
Only one is a toon, today:
A Chat With Ed Wexler by Clay Jones
Meet Ed Read on Substack
Today’s Zoom talk is with Ed Wexler, who draws for Cagle Cartoons. Join us as we talk about cartoons, art supplies, caricatures, SoCal weather, and Duck Tales.
(The Zoom chat is on the page, linked at “Read On Substack” above. It’s an hour & 15 min.–A.)
You can find Ed on Facebook and X/Twitter.
If you’re a fellow cartoonist and would like to do one of these with me, let me know. I’d love to talk to you.
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Dr. Robert by Clay Jones
RFK Jr is going to stick it in our butts Read on Substack
On Tuesday, it was announced that the Trump Regime, which is a petri dish of conspiracy theories, is canceling almost $500 million in contracts to develop mRNA vaccines to protect the nation against future viral threats.
The federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA, which is also the noise Pete Hegseth makes when throwing up in a back alley dumpster), which oversees the nation’s defenses against biological attacks, is terminating 22 contracts with university researchers and private companies to develop new uses for the mRNA technology, because the Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is not a doctor or medical expert, but a conspiracy-theorist whack job.
Lunatics who believe vaccines cause autism and come with tracking chips so the Deep State Illuminati baby-eating reptillians can keep track of you are ecstatic. Actual scientists, doctors, and public health experts, not so much.
Showing evidence that the brain worm may have eaten more than we first believed, RFK Jr. said, “Let me be absolutely clear: HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them. That’s why we’re moving beyond the limitations of mRNA vaccines for respiratory viruses and investing in better solutions.”
This is like when Trump tried to get rid of Obamacare with “something better.”
The first COVID vaccine was developed during the first Trump regime, but that administration never had a plan to roll it out to the public. They were planning to hide it all behind a toilet at MAGA-Lardo. Thankfully, Joe Biden won the 2020 election and made the vaccines effective. Now, the same regime that took credit for the vaccine is trying to destroy it.
Michael Osterholm, who runs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said, “This may be the most dangerous public health judgment that I’ve seen in my 50 years in this business. It is baseless, and we will pay a tremendous price in terms of illnesses and deaths. I’m extremely worried about it.” He’s worried.
Every single MAGAt who yelled “Go get another booster, soy boy” during a losing argument responded with, “Yee-hay, yee-haw, yee-haw.”
Mary Holland, the president and CEO of The Children’s Health Defense, said, “While we believe the mRNA vaccines should be taken off the market, the announcement is a positive move towards protecting public health.” By the way, the Children’s Health Defense was founded by RFK Jr, but I’m sure the people running that organization are totally credible (insert rolling eyes here).
I had a feeling it was bad to make the nation’s top health official a guy who believes in chemtrials and likes to tool around town in a car with a whale’s head strapped to it. (snip-MORE, and it’s good/not good. Clay’s commentary is what’s good; the news is not.)
Sounds Good
Odie walked the Rainbow bridge about 4:20 pm on 8-5-2025
The weekend before this last one Odie started throwing up and he was not eating as well as he normally did. On Monday last week Ron took him to the vet. After 800 dollars the vet said she felt he had no blockage and most likely he had an ulcer. She gave us several medications and told us to get him some over the counter Pepcid. We managed to give him his medications in a syringe.
But on Thursday we took him back to the vet for a bolus of fluid because he still was not eating nor drinking. We increased his new make him hungry ear rub. All weekend we tried hard to entice him to eat or drink. On Monday I had a doctor’s appointment. When I got home I suggested that Ron call the vet. He told me he got Odie to drink something and said he heard cats can make huge turn a round after not eating or drinking for days. I felt what it really was a cry for more time. As Odie seemed stable and not in pain I let things be, after all Ron watches a lot of animal vet shows and I hoped he was correct.
For the first time since Odie got ill he did not leave his safe space which is Ron’s closet that day. Ron tried hard to get him to drink or eat. This morning (Tuesday 8-5-2025) I told Ron he needed to call the vet and he agreed, he had faced the fact of Odie’s situation and realized that Odie was passing and not able to get better.
The vet told us to bring him in around 4 pm or 1600 for those on a 24 hour clock. All day both Ron and I checked on him and Ron kept trying to get him to eat or drink. The veterinarian hospital is only like five or 7 minutes away from us. At about 3:50 pm Ron set the carrier on the counter and put a fresh blanket in it. I picked Odie up from the closet and realized he had no strength to even support himself anymore. Once I got him in the carrier he did not even try to turn around and we struggled to get his tail completely in the carrier. I ended up having to reach around him to pull the blanket further in so we could secure the door.
I needed Ron to carry the carrier to the vet’s office, but while I had been with every furry family member when they walked the rainbow bridge, Ron has not joined me during the procedure as his feelings are so strong and he has struggled with the death of each one. I feel it is the last act of love I can do for them. My last duty for them.
The vet asked if we both wanted to stay and I said yes. I was surprised Ron did also. The vet assistant took Odie to have an IV inserted. I asked Ron if he was sure he wanted to stay instead of going to the waiting room or the car. He wanted to stay. When they brought Odie back we petted him until the doctor came in to do the finial step. As first the sedative and then the last medication was injected Ron sat near him and talked to him. I stood next to him and gently rubbed his head and neck fur. I said a few things verbally and a lot more mentally. I could see Ron was doing the same. I was proud of how he handle a very painful experience. The one who was crying the most was the vet, she said that her cat was a ginger and she really liked Odie when he was visiting them.
I have included a few pictures of Odie below. Best wishes, Purrs, and Hugs for all who want them.
Odie as a Kitten
Odie older.
Odie in his favorite spot to get my love and attention. My desk.
Four clips from The Majority Report. One on Gaza war crimes committed by Israel, one on ICE, one on tRump’s attacks on schools, and one on the jobs numbers.
Hibernating For Better Health?
Unlocking the genetic ‘control switches’ of hibernation
Velentina Boulter – Velentina Boulter is science journalist based in Melbourne.
New research has identified specific regions of DNA that regulate hibernation by tweaking metabolism. The findings could offer pathways to new treatments for metabolic disorders like type 2 diabetes in humans.
When hibernating animals wake, they reverse dangerous health changes similar to those seen in type 2 diabetes, muscle atrophy, Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. Researchers hope that unlocking hibernation regions in the human genome could help develop treatments for these potentially fatal health conditions.
“If we could regulate our genes a bit more like hibernators, maybe we could overcome type 2 diabetes the same way that a hibernator returns from hibernation back to a normal metabolic state,” says Elliot Ferris, a bioinformatician at the University of Utah (U of U) Health in the US.
Ferris is co-author of 2 new studies which pinpointed that DNA regions near a gene cluster called the “fat mass and obesity (FTO) locus” play a crucial role in the ability to hibernate. While the FTO locus also appears in humans, hibernating animals use it in a different, and potentially more advantageous way.
“What’s striking about this [FTO] region is that it is the strongest genetic risk factor for human obesity,” says senior author of the study, Chris Gregg, a professor in neurobiology at U of U Health.
According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 8 people worldwide were living with obesity in 2022. Obesity can lead to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other health implications, which illustrates the importance of preventing and treating the condition.
“Humans already have the genetic framework,” says Susan Steinwand, a research scientist at U of U and co-author of the studies. “We just need to identify the control switches for these hibernator traits.”
To locate the hibernation-specific regions of the genome, the team used multiple independent whole-genome technologies to compare mammals that do and don’t hibernate.
“If a region doesn’t change much from species to species for over 100 million years but then changes rapidly and dramatically in 2 hibernating mammals, then we think it points us to something that is important for hibernation, specifically,” says Ferris.
The hibernator-specific DNA regions (located close to the FTO locus) weren’t genes but DNA sequences called “cis–regulatory elements” (CREs) which contact nearby genes to either turn up or down their expression, almost like a film director coordinating cinematographers, set designers and actors. The researchers found the CREs regulated the activity of neighbouring genes, including those involved in metabolism.
When they mutated these regions in mice, the researchers observed changes in weight and metabolism. Some of the mutations the researchers performed sped up the weight gain, while others slowed it down. Other mutations affected the body’s ability to recover body temperature after hibernation.
They suggest that this is what allows animals to gain weight before entering hibernation and then slowly release the energy in their fat reserves during the winter.
This means that mutating a single hibernator-specific region has wide-ranging effects extending far beyond the FTO locus, says Steinwand.
“It’s pretty amazing,” she says. “When you knock out one of these elements – this one tiny, seemingly insignificant DNA region – the activity of hundreds of genes changes.”
The studies suggest that CREs might also play a role in regulating human metabolism.
While understanding this flexibility could lead to better treatments for disorders like type 2 diabetes, the study also helps indicate which DNA elements should be explored in future studies.
“There’s potentially an opportunity – by understanding these hibernation-linked mechanisms in the genome – to find strategies to intervene and help with age-related diseases,” says Gregg.
“If that’s hidden in the genome that we’ve already got, we could learn from hibernators to improve our own health.”
The research has been published in the journal Science.
Originally published by Cosmos as Unlocking the genetic ‘control switches’ of hibernation
Scottie's Playtime 