Economy / Politics / Society

Biden-Harris Record

For the record, the Biden-Harris administration has added 16 million jobs, including 800,000 manufacturing jobs, overseen the lowest unemployment rate in half a century, presided over the strongest economy on Earth, and brought the murder rate down 25%!

Legislatively, the comparison between Harris and Trump cannot be greater. Trump’s only legislative accomplishment was a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires. That’s it. Biden and Harris’s legislative accomplishments include the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, the PACT Act (expanding health care and benefits for veterans), the CHIPS Act, the Infrastructure Law, the Gun Safety Law, reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (which Trump allowed to lapse), codifying marriage equality into federal law. They have also prohibited junk fees at banks, capped insulin and inhalers at $35, and ensured that airlines automatically reimburse passengers for canceled flights. All of these help regular Americans, not just the wealthy.

Sources are linked below, using Wikipedia rather than government websites to help ensure objectivity.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Rescue_Plan_Act_of_2021

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_Reduction_Act

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honoring_our_PACT_Act_of_2022

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIPS_and_Science_Act

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructure_Investment_and_Jobs_Act

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipartisan_Safer_Communities_Act

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_Against_Women_Act#Reauthorizations

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respect_for_Marriage_Act

Source: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/916

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/trumps-economic-legacy/story?id=74760051

Source: https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-irs-files-reveal-how-much-the-ultrawealthy-gained-by-shaping-trumps-big-beautiful-tax-cut

Source: https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-2017-trump-tax-law-was-skewed-to-the-rich-expensive-and-failed-to-deliver

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2024-07-23
History

History of the Barber Pole

“The barber’s pole reflects a time when barbers not only cut hair, but performed medical operations such as bloodletting. Prior to the barber pole, barbers would place bowls of blood in their window to advertise their bloodletting capabilities, though that act was prohibited by a 1307 law in London. Hence, the barber’s pole was born, and it has remained a popular symbol ever since.”

“The look of the barber pole is linked to bloodletting, with red representing blood and white representing the bandages used to stem the bleeding. The pole itself is said to symbolize the stick that a patient squeezed to make the veins in his arm stand out more prominently for the procedure. In Europe, barber poles traditionally are red and white, while in America, the poles are red, white and blue. One theory holds that blue is symbolic of the veins cut during bloodletting, while another interpretation suggests blue was added to the pole as a show of patriotism and a nod to the nation’s flag.”

Source: https://www.history.com/news/why-are-barber-poles-red-white-and-blue

Source: https://estelarbarbers.com/barber-pole-history-and-significance-explained/

Source: https://interestingfacts.com/symbol-meanings/

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2024-07-23
History / Society

Perfect Spheres Carved Over 1,000 Years Ago

These large stones (up to 2.57m diameter) were carved into amazing perfect spheres and are estimated to be from 600 CE. They are located in the Diquís Delta in southern Costa Rica.

“On the small island of Isla del Caño and the Diquís Delta in Costa Rica are over 300 stone Petrospheres often referred to as the Diquís Spheres, that have been attributed to the now extinct Diquís culture.”

Source: https://www.heritagedaily.com/2021/06/the-mysterious-stone-spheres-of-costa-rica/139375

Source: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1453/

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2024-07-22
Politics / Society

World Leaders React to Biden Leaving the Race

“Messages of gratitude and support for US President Joe Biden poured in following his stunning announcement Sunday that he is exiting the 2024 presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the next Democratic nominee.

“It was the second seismic moment in US politics in just over a week, following the assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13, which saw global leaders rally around him as the Republican nominee.

“Pressure had mounted on Biden to pull out of the race since his disastrous performance at the CNN presidential debate last month, and on Sunday, he confirmed he would remain a one-term president, prompting a flood of tributes from US allies who thanked him for his leadership.”

See the link below to view the many statements by world leaders. The list was too long to include in the text of this post, so it is linked here:

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/22/world/world-reaction-biden-exit-2024-us-presidential-race/index.html

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2024-07-22
Politics

Biden Drops Out of Presidential Race

This is an interesting new development. It’s no longer a referendum on someone’s age, but more about policies.

President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday, ending his bid for reelection.

He has endorsed current Vice President Kamala Harris and encouraged his party to unite behind her. And it totally changes the dynamic of the election.

I wonder who will get the eventual nomination. Probably Harris, since she is the current VP and has been endorsed by Biden. I’d guess any other potential candidates will fall in line this late in the campaign.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/biden-drops-out-2024-election-ddffde72838370032bdcff946cfc2ce6

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2024-07-21
Politics / Society

Vance and Project 2025

Republican VP Nominee J.D. Vance wrote a foreword for a book that the Heritage Foundation’s president wrote that echoed much of Project 2025’s mandate.

“While Project 2025’s coordinators previously told Newsweek that it ‘does not speak for any candidate or campaign,’ it was written in conjunction with a host of former Trump staffers, as many as 140, according to an analysis by CNN.

“Last month, Vance posted on X, formerly Twitter, about writing a foreword for Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts’ new book, Dawn’s Early Light: Burning Down Washington to Save America, saying he was ‘thrilled’ to have done so and that the book contained ‘a bold new vision for the future of conservatism in America.’

“Vance also contributed a review for the book ahead of its release in September, writing:

‘Never before has a figure with Roberts’s depth and stature within the American Right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism.’

‘We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets.’

‘In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.’

“There are topics from the blurb that echo Project 2025’s proposals. For example, Roberts writes that the Department of Education (DOE) and the FBI are ‘too corrupt to save.’ Project 2025 states that the DOE should be shut down and describes overhauling the FBI, calling it a ‘bloated, arrogant, increasingly lawless organization.'”

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/does-jd-vance-support-project-2025-what-we-know-1925927

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2024-07-21
Science / Technology

Part-Robot Part-Frog Xenobots

“The African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, typically lives in the streams and ponds of sub-Saharan Africa, scavenging for food that it rips apart with its feet. In January, researchers at the University of Vermont and Tufts University published a report that gave the amphibian a different lot in life. They harvested its embryonic skin and heart cells and reassembled the living matter into robotic devices — transforming Xenopus into xenobot.

“Xenobots are the first robots made completely of living materials. They’re designed on a supercomputer running software that emulates natural selection: Algorithms determine possible effective tissue configurations for a xenobot to perform a specified task, such as moving through fluids or carrying a payload. The most promising designs are sculpted with tiny forceps and cauterizing irons, then set free in petri dishes, where the specks of amphibian flesh live for about a week before decomposing. There are no electronics involved. Behaviors are programmed entirely through the structural arrangement of the pulsating heart cells held in a matrix of rigid skin cells.

“Although xenobots can’t yet do much more than crawl or swim, the researchers see great potential for them to aid in fields like medicine and environmental remediation. In the future, xenobots could be engineered to deliver drugs through the human body or to gather up microplastics in oceans, politely biodegrading when the job is done.”

Source: https://www.discovermagazine.com/technology/part-robot-part-frog-xenobots-are-the-first-robots-made-from-living-cells

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2024-07-21
Politics

Fact-Checking the RNC Speeches

“Former President Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday with the most dishonest speech of the four-day Republican National Convention, making more than 20 false claims by CNN’s count.

“Many of the false claims were ones Trump has made before, some of them for years. They spanned a wide variety of topics, including the economy, immigration, crime, foreign policy and elections. Some of them were wild lies, others smaller exaggerations. Some were in his prepared text (like the absurd claim that he left the Biden administration a world at peace), while he ad-libbed others (such as his usual lies that Democrats cheated in the 2020 election and that the US is experiencing the worst inflation it has ever had).”

Here is a fact check of some of Trump’s false or misleading remarks, plus a fact check of claims made by other Thursday convention speakers: https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/18/politics/fact-checking-night-4-republican-national-convention-trump/index.html

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2024-07-21