SNAFU

Hey you remember all those people Musk laid-off in the CDC?

The Washington Post wrote back in October that,

More than 1,000 staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received layoff notices, including in units that respond to infectious-disease outbreaks, analyze science and health data to develop policy, and monitor the safety of employees, according to multiple individuals issued dismissal notices and others with direct knowledge of the cuts.

Now they need Ebola specialists they are nowhere to be found!

Is The U.S. Stepping Up In The Fight Against Ebola?

KFF

Authors: Josh Michaud and Jennifer Kates

Published: May 23, 2026

The recently announced Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is quickly escalating in the region, emerges at a time when the larger fiscal and programmatic environment for global health efforts faces particular hurdles, and international cooperation has been significantly challenged. This is in large part due to policy decisions made by the Trump administration and presents the first real global outbreak test following those changes.

On May 15, news broke of a large, ongoing Ebola outbreak concentrated in northeastern DRC. Two days later, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak to be a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC) given its size and because Ebola cases were already reported across the border in Uganda, making the outbreak a regional threat. Despite only recently being detected and reported, this already appears to be one of the largest Ebola outbreaks to date, with almost 746 suspected cases and over 176 suspected deaths as of May 21st

[...]

Ongoing effects of foreign assistance funding freeze and cuts. Alongside the dissolution of USAID, in early 2025 the Trump administration implemented a freeze on all foreign assistance funding for a period last year. As a consequence, partner organizations report that they had to fire staff and cease many disease prevention and detection activities, including Ebola-focused activities in Uganda and DRC. . Eventually, the State Department issued “waivers” to allow funding for existing “life-saving” assistance programs to continue, which included infectious disease outbreak detection and response programs. While certain activities resumed, the underlying system itself was affected.

Then we have Trump withdrawing from the UN's WHO and placing roadblock for the CDC to work with the WHO!

Exclusive: Trump admin shutting key US researchers out of global virus response talks, documents and sources reveal

CNN

By Sarah Owermohle

May 25, 2026

Key officials responsible for leading US research on infectious disease threats have been barred from speaking directly with the World Health Organization — effectively shutting some of them out of the global discussions on virus outbreaks, according to documents and multiple sources who spoke to CNN.

The internal Trump administration policy stops individuals at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from communicating with the WHO unless authorized by senior staff.

The federal health subagency was led for decades by Dr. Anthony Fauci and oversaw developing treatments for public health emergencies including HIV/AIDs and Covid-19.

The prohibition has been in place during an outbreak of hantavirus that some Americans have been exposed to. The communication limits were relaxed slightly in the past week as another virus outbreak — an unfolding Ebola epidemic centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo — intensified.

Can you believe this bull! Putting politics before the health of the country! And don't forget we now have RFK Jr. in charge of the CDC!

Health & Politics!

So when I saw this my first thought in today's politically charged environment my first thought was... Democrat states vs. Republican states! Why do they keep voting Republican?

Yeah the article is two years old but the health facts are still the same.

2024 State Scorecard on Women’s Health and Reproductive Care

Common Wealth Fund.

July 18, 2024

Scorecard Highlights

• Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island top the rankings for the 2024 State Scorecard on Women’s Health and Reproductive Care, which is based on 32 measures of health care access, quality, and health outcomes. The lowest performers were Mississippi, Texas, Nevada, and Oklahoma.
• Deaths from all causes among women of reproductive age — 15 to 44 — were highest in southeastern states. Causes of death include pregnancy and other preventable causes such as substance use, COVID-19, and treatable chronic conditions.
• The highest maternal death rates were in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Vermont, California, and Connecticut had the lowest rates. Nationally, rates were highest for Black and American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women.
• Mental health conditions are the most frequently reported cause of preventable pregnancy-related death, including deaths by suicide and overdoses related to substance use disorders. States that screened for postpartum depression at the highest rates also had lowest rates of postpartum depression.
• Among women of reproductive age (ages 15–44), those in Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma were uninsured at the highest rates; those in Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and Vermont had the lowest uninsured rates. Women in states that had not expanded Medicaid eligibility were among those most at risk of lacking coverage.
• The U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022 has significantly altered both access to reproductive health care services and how providers are able to treat pregnancy complications in the 21 states that ban or restrict abortion access.

Take a look at the states with the best and the worst. Do you see a trend here?

Tighter limits and additional bans on abortion are certain to drive more maternal and reproductive health care providers to shut down or leave their states, deepening the crisis of access to maternity care. Abortion bans threaten American’s future access to care across all medical specialties; in fact, since 2022, medical residency applications in states with bans have declined by more than those in other states.8

Women’s access to contraception and infertility treatments is also at risk. In February 2024, Alabama’s supreme court gave stored embryos the same legal protections as children. This ruling disrupted the care of women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment in Alabama until the state’s governor signed legislation in March providing civil and criminal immunity to IVF providers. In some states, widespread misinformation and misunderstanding could also lead policymakers to place limits on contraception in the new landscape created by the Dobbs decision.9

Clearly, women’s health is under threat. That’s why the Commonwealth Fund has developed the first-ever state scorecard to track trends in women’s health over time and document how policy choices and judicial decisions may impact women’s access to timely health care.

Politics pays a big part in our health!

I Was Reading...

An article in "The Nation" by a journalist who covered the West Bank of Palestine and what he said about Minneapolis caught my attention!

Occupied Minnesota

Minneapolis right now reminds me of what I’ve seen during my time in the West Bank.

Ariel Gold

January 28, 2026

As someone who has spent a significant amount of time in the West Bank of Palestine, I know an occupation when I see one—and what is happening in Minnesota right now is an occupation.

I came out to Minneapolis to join the Twin Cities group Multifaith Antiracism, Change & Healing (MARCH) in protesting the atrocities being committed by ICE against the people of their state.

Following a couple of days of nonviolent training, trust building, rallying, marching, and direct action, notice came on Sunday—one day after the horrific murder of Alex Pretti—that our assistance was needed at one of the community’s dual-language (English and Spanish) churches. My responsibility was to make sure that parishioners, who were frequently too afraid to leave their homes, could worship together in relative safety.

[...]

It wasn’t the first time I had done this sort of “protective presence.” Staying for a month or two at a time in the West Bank city of Hebron, I used to spend each weekday morning and afternoon accompanying children to and from schools to protect them from  Israeli soldiers. Just as in Minnesota—wherefive-year-old Luis Ramos was snatched out of his father’s car in the driveway of their home last week—the threat the occupying army posed to Palestinian children was all too real.

But what also is happening is what it is teaching the children! If you look at the children who lived in occupied cities we changes in the lives of them. When they grow up they show a common trait, lack of empathy and caring for others,

In Berlin Germany, London, Beirut, the West Bank, and other sieged cities you see the same thing. The children in Minneapolis will be experiencing psychological effects not only from direct exposure to stressors of the occupied city but also reflect their parents’ chronic stress responses. Emotional contagion, disrupted routines, and modeled coping behaviors create a cascade of influence that shapes children’s development. These have lifelong effects on today's children.

What we see in the children of those cities. for children especially, the long-term effects tend to cluster in a few painful patterns:

• Chronic hypervigilance: kids grow up wired for danger. Loud noises, sudden changes, authority figures—everything can feel threatening decades later.
• Interrupted development: schooling breaks, play disappears, and kids are forced into adult roles too early. That loss doesn’t just “catch up” later.
• Attachment and trust issues: when safety is unreliable, trust becomes conditional. This can show up as emotional distance, intense loyalty to in-groups, or difficulty with intimacy.
• Normalization of violence: not always in obvious ways—sometimes it’s just a muted response to suffering, or a belief that cruelty is inevitable.
• Intergenerational transmission: trauma doesn’t stop with the first generation. Coping mechanisms, fears, and silences get passed down, even when the bombs stop.

The Republicans don't care about the long-term effects on the children, they are are only interested in power and control. They are on a mission to make this a Christian Nation and don't get in their way.

Do you remember "Save Our Children" that the conservatives ran against us? Well I say "What about the children?"

Trump called the rock icon “overrated.”

Think of the Children

[Editorial]

In the opening moments of Casablanca, a man is shot in the street because he lacks the right “papers.” We watch it as a relic of 1942—a cinematic warning of what happens when a state loses its humanity. But today, as Black Hawk helicopters hover over apartment complexes in Chicago and federal agents rappel onto roofs to conduct “administrative” arrests, we are no longer watching a movie. We are creating a new “normal” for the eyes of our children.

When we say, “Think of the children,” we usually mean their physical safety. But the greater danger is the fundamental distortion of their moral development.. 

PROPAGANDA AS PEDAGOGY: THE REEDUCATION OF MORALITY THROUGH NAZI SCHOOLING AND YOUTH PROGRAMS

Research Gate

Shawn Craig, University of Michigan
February 2025

Abstract

This article explores how Nazi Germany systematically used schooling and youth organizations as tools of ideological indoctrination, transforming education into a mechanism for moral reeducation aligned with the tenets of National Socialism. Drawing on theories of propaganda, political pedagogy, and moral development, the article examines how the regime leveraged curricula, ritual, and youth mobilization to instill racial ideology, obedience to authority, and the redefinition of virtue. Through an analysis of educational materials, institutional design, and the psychological tactics embedded in Hitler Youth programs, the paper reveals the extent to which pedagogy became a vehicle for totalitarian control over moral perception and identity formation.

[...]

Conclusion 

Nazi Germany’s reeducation of morality through schools and  youth  organizations demonstrates the  potent  convergence  of  propaganda  and  pedagogy  in  totalitarian  regimes.  By  embedding ideology into the everyday experiences of children and adolescents, the regime did not merely teach what to believe but shaped how to feel, how to belong, and ultimately, how to judge right from wrong. The moral world it constructed was not merely imposed but internalized, revealing the chilling efficacy of educational systems weaponized for authoritarian ends.

Stop and think for a moment about what Florida and Texas have done with “Don’t Say Gay” laws in schools and the banning of LGBTQ books and topics.

In addition to the bigotry being taught, there is also the lack of empathy that these policies are creating.

Sixty years later: post-traumatic stress symptoms and current psychopathology in former German children of World War II

International Psychogeriatrics

2007 Oct;19(5):955-61.

Philipp Kuwert 1, Carsten Spitzer, Anna Träder, Harald J Freyberger, Michael Ermann

Abstract

Background: The aim of the study was to determine the amount of trauma impact, post-traumatic stress symptoms and current psychopathological distress in a sample of former German children of World War II.

[...]

Conclusions: In line with other studies, our data document a high degree of trauma exposure during warchildhood. In comparison with other studies on PTSD in warchildren, there is a persisting high prevalence of war-associated PTSD symptoms in this sample. Despite some methodological limitations, our data underline the urgent need for further studies on the ageing group of former children of World War II.

In cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, and Minneapolis, militarized policing and raids have transformed neighborhoods into occupied zones, echoing the environments of chronic fear and instability these children endured.

Empathy as a risk factor for internalizing symptoms during war: A 10-year prospective study from toddlerhood to adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2025

Dana Katsoty, Lior Abramson, and Ariel Knafo-Noam

Introduction

Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is vital for social relationships and prosociality and is generally associated with positive psychological outcomes (Swenson et al., Reference Swenson, Ehsanian, Tran, Petersen, Kennedy, Roche, Oppezzo, Noordsy and Fredericson2024; Van der Graaff et al., Reference Van der Graaff, Meeus, de Wied, van Boxtel, van Lier, Koot and Branje2016). However, its role may become more complex in the context of mass trauma, such as war exposure, where heightened emotional resonance with the suffering of others may increase vulnerability to personal distress. This issue is particularly relevant for children and adolescents, whose emotion regulation capacities are still developing, making them more susceptible to the psychological impacts of traumatic events (McLaughlin & Lambert, Reference McLaughlin and Lambert2017). Using a longitudinal design, we studied the role of empathy as a prospective risk factor for psychological distress during mass trauma, focusing on the October 7th atrocities and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war.

[...]

Conclusions

Empathy is typically regarded as a resilience factor; however, our findings indicate that in the context of continuous mass trauma – characterized by extensive exposure to the suffering of others – it may function as a risk factor for internalizing symptoms in early adolescents. Specifically, empathic distress in toddlerhood was identified as a predictor of internalizing symptoms during war exposure occurring over a decade later. Similarly, pre-war emotional empathy in adolescence was associated with internalizing symptoms during war, even when controlling for pre-war internalizing symptoms. Importantly, both empathic distress in toddlerhood and emotional empathy in adolescence were predictive of internalizing symptoms exclusively during war exposure and not during regular times, consistent with a diathesis-stress model. During mass trauma, empathy may contribute to increased internalizing symptoms through prolonged exposure to the suffering of others.

I’ll ask the question again: what are we doing to our children today? What is Trump & Company teaching the children?

[/Editorial]

You All Know The Bull...

You all know all the bull coming out of the Republicans about our healthcare and the treatment of trans youth. It is there rhetoric that is hurting children, Well my alma mater, UConn School of Social Work, did a study about trans youth and how therapy helps us over come the animosity that is directed toward children;

Tuned In!: 12-month longitudinal outcomes of an affirmative mindfulness intervention for sexual and gender diverse youth and young adults

Science Direct

By Gio Iacono, Leah Holle, Craig Mortley, and Hsiu-Ju Lin

Highlights

• This study evaluates Tuned In!, an LGBTQIA+ affirmative mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) for sexual and gender diverse youth (SGDY).
• Results showed significant, sustained improvements in mental health outcomes over 12 months.
• Findings support scaling the intervention to address SGDY mental health disparities amid increasingly hostile anti-LGBTQIA+ political climate.

Abstract

Purpose

Sexual and gender diverse youth and young adults (SGDY) face mental health disparities due to anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination and minority stressors. Despite increasing research on youth mental health interventions, culturally responsive approaches for SGDY are scarce. This study addresses this gap by assessing the mental health impact of an SGDY-specific trauma-informed affirmative mindfulness-based intervention (MBI), Tuned In!, which was co-developed with SGDY through community-based participatory methods, and designed to support their mental health needs.

[...]

Results

Significant improvements were observed for all mental health outcomes, except for the BSI-Somatization subscale and the BSI-Hostility subscale. Depression (Beck Depression Inventory) and anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) significantly decreased, along with overall psychological distress (Brief Symptom Inventory) and several subscales, including obsession-compulsion, interpersonal sensitivity, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. Mindfulness, self-compassion, and sexual self-efficacy also showed significant improvements among participants. Findings remained statistically significant after adjusting for demographic variables.

Conclusions

Tuned In! intervention outcomes were consistent over a 12-month period, highlighting its potential to be scaled up as an effective intervention for promoting mental health among SGDY, particularly during this hostile anti-LGBTQIA+ political climate. A clinical trial is recommended to compare the intervention with treatment-as-usual or other youth mental health interventions.

You've seen all the garbage that the Republicans about us, well here is research that proves that their hate hurts us, "...that the hostile anti-LGBTQIA+ political climate are hurting children. The study showed that, Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been associated with improvements in mental health outcomes for various youth population..." We never needed this until Trump and Company spread their hate.

This Is BS!

Junk Science!

Rumors!

All BS

What am I talking about?

RKF Jr.! Need I say more?

Aluminum salts emerge as likely target as health officials scrutinize childhood vaccines

The vaccine ingredient has long been a talking point for anti-vaccine activists. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made unsubstantiated claims that it is linked to allergies and autism.

NBC News

By Aria Bendix

12/26/25

With further changes to the U.S.’ recommended vaccine schedule likely in the year ahead under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership, his agency’s recent scrutiny of one vaccine additive in particular — aluminum salts — may offer a clue about what’s to come.

Earlier this month, members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee — whom Kennedy selected after firing the previous group — suggested digging into concerns about aluminum salts, though large studies have found them to be safe. Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, told NBC News that the committee is “reviewing the body of science related to aluminum and other possible contaminants in childhood vaccine[s].”

Similarly, a statement that appeared on the CDC website last month said that HHS is investigating whether aluminum in vaccines could be linked to autism.

But... But... But...

Aluminum salts are not a “contaminant” in vaccines: The compound is added as an adjuvant, an ingredient that boosts the body’s immune response to a vaccine, allowing for a smaller dose to be used. Nearly a century of evidence has found it to be safe for this purpose. Aluminum salts are naturally present in soil and water, and the amount children are exposed to from vaccines is minuscule compared with cumulative daily exposures from food. (Exposure from infant formula or breastmilk is higher than exposure from vaccines in the first six months of life, as well.)

But the BS comes down from the top!

Skeptical or negative statements about aluminum have cropped up repeatedly during federal health announcements and meetings in recent months. President Donald Trump in September said aluminum was being “taken out of the vaccines” during a news conference in which he and Kennedy warned that Tylenol use in pregnancy may be linked to autism. (The bulk of scientific research has not identified such a link.)

“Who the hell wants that pumped into a body?” Trump said of aluminum.

This is Voodoo Medicine... You would expect something like this from Snake Oil Salesman not the head of the HHS! Bloomberg reported that,

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continued his campaign against the aluminum in some vaccines by suggesting at a conference on Monday that they may play a role in the rise of food allergies.

Kennedy acknowledged there is no science backing the connection, but said he wanted researchers to study aluminum adjuvants in childhood vaccines because he believes their use “fit the timeline perfectly” with an increased prevalence of food allergies. He added that pesticides and ultraprocessed food also could be contributing factors, without providing evidence.

Quack! Quack!

What’s the fuss about aluminum in vaccines?

Despite extensive safety record, U.S. health advisers are set to discuss claimed link to asthma

Science

4 Dec 2025

By Phie Jacobs

On Friday, advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are scheduled to discuss the safety of vaccines that include aluminum salts, compounds long added to vaccines to boost their effectiveness. The move comes amid a controversial push by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime skeptic of vaccination, to remake CDC’s influential recommendations for childhood vaccinations.

Here's some background on why CDC is now scrutinizing aluminum salts.

Why do vaccines include aluminum?

The aluminum used in vaccines is not the same as that found in foil or cooking pans. It is in the form of aluminum salts—aluminum hydroxide, aluminum phosphate, and aluminum potassium sulfate—that have been added to vaccines in small quantities for more than 70 years. They serve as adjuvants, which help the immune system react more strongly to the key proteins contained in vaccines. These adjuvants are often an essential ingredient, as without them the vaccine might not be able to trigger a strong enough immune response to adequately protect against disease. In addition, less material is needed to trigger an immune response, reducing the number of required booster shots.

But... But... But...

What do past studies say about the safety of aluminum adjuvants?

Large-scale studies have consistently found them to be safe. A 24-year-long study of more than 1.2 million Danish children, published earlier this year in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found no link between aluminum in childhood vaccines and the development of any neurodevelopmental disorders, and no connection to autoimmune and allergic disorders, which often trigger asthma. (Kennedy has called for the study to be retracted, questioning its methodology, analysis, and results. The journal has rejected his request.)

Scientists also note the tiny amounts of aluminum in vaccines are comparable to what infants ingest in breast milk and formula. And according to FDA, the most common source of aluminum exposure is food and drinking water, not vaccines.

This is a power play to their MAGA base, this is not about science. This is not about healthcare. This is about catering to the right-wing MAGA crackpots!

So what does this have to do with trans stuff? Absolutely nothing!

But... But... But... JFK Jr is pushing all of this anti-trans bias and healthcare and this is about his character, this is about pogroms.

Erased!

Trump is attacking us in anyway he can... now he is going after our healthcare. Not our hormones, not puberty blockers... but our healthcare. You know, like when you need to visit them for a high fever or a broken leg.

Trans people and people of color have been quietly erased from national caregiving plan

The decision ignores the stark reality that underserved communities experience greater negative impacts from caregiving, from financial hardships to worse health outcomes, advocates say.

19^th News

By Sara Luterman

November 20, 2025

Three years after the release of the first comprehensive roadmap to address difficulties faced by family caregivers of older adults and people with disabilities, the Trump administration has quietly erased transgender caregivers and caregivers of color from a list of underserved or hard-to-reach populations, The 19th has exclusively learned. 

Dozens of changes were quietly made this year to the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers, which was first released in 2022 after years of work by government officials and community stakeholders. An objective to “prioritize efforts to advance equity for unserved and underserved populations of caregivers” was removed entirely, as was a section noting that the challenges of family caregiving are not equally distributed.

You know Trump has to pay off his tax cuts to billionaires some way!

But the why is clear: On President Donald Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order stating that the government recognizes only two sexes, male and female. That order signaled his administration’s opposition to gender diversity and tasked federal agencies with excluding transgender people from laws that protect against sex discrimination. The order also equates being transgender to an ideology, or belief system, instead of an identity that is protected by state and federal law. That executive order is cited on the first page of the edited version of the report, along with a reference to a second executive order against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

[...]

“One thing that was really important to us was that all caregivers be able to see themselves in the report,” Barkoff said. “By taking out caregivers from certain communities, from taking out the acknowledgement of the unique barriers that people face in different communities face — I think it’s going to create challenges in really meaningfully engaging some types of caregivers that actually face the most barriers and are maybe the least likely to see themselves as caregivers and to seek support.”

[...]

Flatt said they are concerned about how erasing certain populations and the idea of inequality from government documents and research will impact policy and funding. 

“If a certain group isn’t listed as a priority, they don’t just go away,” Flatt said. “It just means we will not have data or information on them, which will create knowledge gaps and limit how we move forward and provide care to all caregivers.”

Hey... you know how we can save money... let them die. Trump says these groups get "special" treatment. The special treatment... is home healthcare, diabetes, and chronic disease.

This is from BF (Before Trump)...

LGBTQ+ Caregivers: Challenges, Policy Needs, and Opportunities

Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS)

November 2023

Authors: Liz Gipson, Courtney Roman, Nida Joseph, Center for Health Care Strategies; and Jason Flatt, University of Nevada-Las Vegas

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and people with additional sexual and gender identities (LGBTQ+) have a rich history of caring for both biological and chosen family. Compared to their non-LGBTQ+ peers, LGBTQ+ people are 1.2 times more likely to be primary caregivers and 3.5 times more likely to provide care for friends and chosen family.

LGBTQ+ caregivers also report higher rates of social isolation and depression, as well as high rates of discrimination in health care settings. These challenges, coupled with fear of additional discrimination, result in caregivers and care recipients delaying or forgoing care.

 As the U.S. population ages overall, the LGBTQ+ older adult population will increase to an anticipated five million by 2030 and the number of LGBTQ+ caregivers will grow as well. Responding to their unique needs is becoming increasingly critical.

But hey, Trump & Company don't they just want to erase everything LGBTQ+. They know what they are doing and they want to bring us back to before the Stonewall Uprising, back to the era of "Father Knows Best".

I Think This Is So True!

Growing up I was constantly in the woods, on three sides of where I grew were woods and pastures and cow patties.

How a radical experiment to bring a forest into a preschool transformed children’s health

In Finland, kindergartens are exposing children to more mud, wild plants and moss - and finding changes to their health that show how crucial biodiversity is to wellbeing

The Guardian

29 Oct 2025

Aurora Nikula, 5, is having a normal day at her nursery. She is making a cake out of sand and mud, adding in make-believe carrots, potatoes and meat. “It’s overcooked,” she says as she splashes water in, then adds another dollop of sand. “More sugar, it tastes better,” she says. A handful of mud goes in, and the dish evolves into a chocolate cake.

Aki Sinkkonen, a principal scientist with the Natural Resources Institute Finland, is watching. He’s also very interested in Aurora’s cake, but for different reasons. “Perfect,” he says, admiring the way she is mixing soil, sand and leaves and then putting it on her face. “She’s really getting her hands in it.”

[...]

We already know that access to the outdoors is important for children and their development. But this study goes one step further. It is part of a growing body of research linking two layers of biodiversity. There is the outer layer – the more familiar vision of biodiversity, made up of soil, water, plants, animals and microbial life, that lives in the forest, playground (or any other environment). And then there is the inner layer: the biodiversity that lives within and upon the human body, including the gut, skin and airways.

Increasingly, scientists are learning that our health is intimately linked to our surroundings, and to the ecological health of the world around us. The first 1,000 days of human life – when the brain and body are most rapidly developing – are considered particularly crucial.

You all have seen ads for cleaning produces... kills 99% of the germs! The ads have created a fear of germs or mysophobia. We probably all know someone who carries around bleach wipes! Kill those germs!

While at the same time there is a rise in allergies! What did the researchers find?

A year later, it found children playing in the green kindergartens had less disease-causing bacteria – such as Streptococcus – on their skin, and stronger immune defences. Their gut microbiota showed reduced levels of Clostridium bacteria – associated with inflammatory bowel disease, colitis and infections such as sepsis and botulism. Within 28 days it found an increase in cells in the blood – called T regulatory cells – that protect the body from autoimmune diseases. Other research showed that in just two weeks children’s immune system regulation could be improved by playing in a sandpit enriched with garden soil.

Now look at this...

Peanut Allergy Rates Plummet 10 Years After AAP Early Introduction Guidelines

New data show peanut allergy rates have dropped sharply since early introduction guidelines, reducing 27% and 43% after the 2015 and 2017 guidelines, respectively.

Author(s)Stanislaw J. Gabryszewski, MD, PhD, Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, Vivian P Hernandez-Trujillo, MD

HCPLive®

October 30, 2025

New data show a sharp decline in peanut and food allergy prevalence, but experts say the real work is just beginning.

A decade after the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) endorsed early peanut introduction, new real-world data suggest those recommendations are paying off.

A study led by David Hill, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia analyzed data from more than 85,000 children across nearly 50 pediatric practices and found a 27% drop in peanut allergies following the 2015 early introduction guidelines (P <.0001), along with a 43% decrease after the 2017 addendum (P <.0001). Rates of any IgE-mediated food allergy also fell by more than a third, offering promise for food allergy prevention.

The findings, published in Pediatrics, provide the first large-scale evidence that national policy changes inspired by the landmark LEAP trial have translated into measurable real-world benefits. The LEAP study, published in 2015, demonstrated that infants who were introduced to peanuts early and kept them in their diet were significantly less likely to develop a peanut allergy later in life.

How many time have you heard parents say that they are not allowing their children to eat peanuts because they don't want there to get a peanut allergy... the exact opposite of what they should be doing!

Throw the kids outside! Let them play out in the dirt, let them drink from the garden hose, and let them use their imagination! 

Pride Centers

The big squeeze by Trump & Company is spelling the death of Pride Centers! The latest,

Pride Center of Vermont pauses operations, lays off staff

WCAX

By Laura Ullman

Oct. 9, 2025

The Pride Center of Vermont says it’s shutting its doors. Sources tell WCAX it’s a “pause,” but staff are being let go, a significant blow to Vermont’s LGBTQ community.

In a letter obtained by WCAX, the Pride Center says it will pause operations effective Friday. That’s when sources say most staff will be laid off. They were given just one day’s notice. But a couple of administrators will stay on a little longer.

The pause, as it’s being called, includes the Transgender Program, Safe Space Anti-Violence hotline, Health and Wellness HIV testing, and Harm Reduction Services. The Pride Center says in the letter that they’re exploring every opportunity to support participants of those programs.

Like many LGBTQ organizations across the country, officials say they’ve been hit hard by a wave of funding losses and shifting priorities at the state and federal levels. “These changes have made it increasingly difficult for community-based nonprofits like ours to keep doing the work we love, even as more people than ever are turning to us for support,” They said.

Thanks to Trump's transphobia and homophobia!

This has been happening all around the country since Trump took office... LGBTQ+ center are scrambling for funding as sources dry up.

Local LGBTQ resource center closing due to funding issues, increasing threats

ABC4 Utah

by: Connor Comeau

Sep 27, 2025

An LGBTQ+ bookstore and resource center in American Fork is closing its doors for good.

The Mosaics Bookstore and Resource Center says they’ve been forced to close their physical location in Utah County after a loss in federal funding. They’ve also faced increased challenges such as repeated bomb threats and continued harassment.

Despite the closing of their physical location, they are still planning to support other LGBTQ+ events in the state, attend pride celebrations and participate in other outreach efforts in the community.

Somehow I don't think that it is what Trump calls the Radical-left who are making the bomb threats.

Politics and economic uncertainty put Pa. LGBTQ+ centers at risk of closing

Federal funds, corporate donations, and individual giving all down, says LGBT Center of Central Pa. leader.

JORDAN WILKIE | Regional Democracy Reporter 

Oct 7, 2025

After opening what it called a permanent location on Harrisburg’s Front Street in spring 2024, the LGBT Center of Central PA is struggling to stay afloat. Amber Barnes, the center’s executive director, said it has been a close call to make payroll in recent months. 

The center and partner organization GLO Harrisburg are heavily reliant on federal grants, Barnes said, something she’s been trying to pivot away from since she took the job last year. But at the same time, corporate and individual donors are also pulling back, she said, both due to general economic uncertainty and to fear of political blowback for supporting organizations that serve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. 

Resources offered by Barnes’ center include a food bank, sexual health education and resources, and an array of social programs for similarly aged participants, from teen groups to an “aging with pride” group for older adults. While she tries to find more money, Barnes and her board of directors put the center’s housing program on hold for the rest of the year.

Trump is cutting the purse strings the LGBTQ+ centers which they have become dependent upon...

Trump’s impact on funding

The day Donald Trump was sworn in as president a second time, he signed 26 executive orders. One of those was “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” in which he directed the executive branch to no longer fund organizations that “promote gender ideology.” 

The next day, he signed another executive order directed at stripping federal funding from “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, again with language targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and especially transgender people and the organizations that serve them.

What Trump is focused on destroying anything LGBTQ+ and doesn't care about any collateral damage.

Citing President Donald Trump’s executive orders, Barnes said her center was preparing to lose another federal grant through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

But last week, Barnes learned SAMHSA renewed a $250,000 per year program to reduce substance misuse along with HIV and viral hepatitis transmission. It is part of a years-long grant scheduled to end in 2027.

As part of the annual grant renewal request, grantwriters asked Barnes to remove all references to LGBTQ+ people or services, she said. The programs are now described as serving "individuals," without ever mentioning their sexual or gender identity. The funding was secured as a “passthrough” grant, which first goes to UPMC and then is redistributed to local partners like GLO.

“Our doors are open to everyone, but the fact that we couldn’t say that we were specifically here to serve the most vulnerable and marginalized under the LGBTQ rainbow feels really, really gross,” Barnes said. 

It is community health. Not just LGBTQ+ people.

When I volunteers at the local LGBTQ+ center we had everyone walk through their doors for medical and dental treatment. They did not discriminate unlike Trump.

Some may blame businesses for the cuts but they are afraid they know Trump is crazy enough to go after them with all types of legal problems and cuts to contracts  

Big Government v. Smaller Government

I was searching for an article to post on another Facebook page I run about LGBTQ+ seniors, and an article in Newsweek caught my attention...

Louisiana, meanwhile, ranks as the worst state in the U.S. for senior care according to Retirement Living's analysis. As well as low-quality nursing facilities and high rates of preventable hospitalizations, researchers noted that the state's health care system has "some of the worst health outcomes in the country," a fact acknowledged in other analyses.

"The physical environment is another drawback for seniors in Louisiana. Air quality falls below average, while access to parks is limited throughout the state," researchers wrote. "Louisiana also has the second-worst drinking water in the U.S., which poses a significant health and safety risk for all residents, but particularly for seniors."

With the highest rates of both senior poverty and social isolation in the U.S., Mississippi comes in second last place, followed by West Virginia, the state with the worst senior health care access and the most preventable hospitalizations in the nation.

Is this the model of "less government" that the Republicans are pushing? If so I don't want it! Tell why would you want to move to a southern state?

Stop and think for a moment, the southern states are a poster child for the Republican dream of smaller governments and this is the results... do you like the results?

• Healthcare: They do not believe in public funding, so they have the highest uninsured rates and low life expectancy.
• Education: Less government spending on public education results in underperforming schools and low graduation rates.
• Taxes: Low or no income tax results in high reliance on sales taxes (regressive), underfunded services, and a dependence on federal funding.
• Labor: "Right to Work" states result in lower wages and fewer worker protections.
• Welfare/Safety Net: Shrinking the safety net results in persistent poverty, food insecurity, and reliance on SNAP, WIC, etc.

Education: there is a article in the Daily Talks Hub, "Back to School: The Least and Most Educated States in the US"

50th Place – Mississippi

Once again, the Magnolia State finds itself at the tail end of the American educational race. This isn’t a new view for it, as it’s often seen the back of the pack when it comes to schooling systems. But wait, there’s more! This educational rollercoaster doesn’t seem to have an end in sight, with the state’s academic woes continuing to pile up.

49th Place – West Virginia

In the wild and wonderful state of West Virginia, it’s not just the students who find themselves in a pickle, but the educators too. As reported by WBOY News, the trifecta of job pressures, meager salaries, and limited opportunities for advancement has created a revolving door, with teachers exiting as quickly as they entered. This teacher exodus is a conundrum that needs a solution, and fast!

48th Place – Louisiana

Imagine a gumbo pot of challenges that has Louisiana languishing near the bottom of the education league table. The state’s math skills are as murky as a bayou swamp, ranked the worst in the entire nation. Their reading competency isn’t much better, landing a dismal fourth from the bottom. Additionally, high school dropouts are as common as crawfish at a boil, with Louisiana boasting the fifth-highest rate in the country.

47th Place – Arkansas

Cracking the code behind Arkansas’s educational conundrum might seem like a tough nut to crack, but economists believe they’ve hit the bull’s eye. The state, often considered the underdog in the country’s wealth rankings, has an intimate tango with poverty. This dance of destitution, they argue, is the compelling ballad behind the state’s educational woes.

They care more about their sports teams then they do on education! Oh and where does Connecticut fall in the list?

5th Place – Connecticut

Hold on to your hats, folks! We’re now breaking into the top five, the crème de la crème of American education. Snagging the 5th spot is the charming state of Connecticut! Its impressive ranking is largely credited to its littlest learners, with a significant chunk of kiddos hitting the books from a tender age. That’s right, Connecticut is making sure its children start their educational journey early, and it’s clearly paying off!

Did you know that Connecticut is ahead of the curve when it comes to early education? While the national average for preschool attendance among 3 to 4-year-olds is a mere 47.7%, Connecticut is acing the test with a whopping 65.6% of kids in preschool! Not to mention, they’re also making the grade in kindergarten enrollments, boasting a sky-high rate of 80.7% – securing a bronze medal for the third highest in the entire nation!

Then their environment is polluted: less government oversight in Southern states has often meant more pollution and environmental degradation. The Mississippi River Chemical Corridor, (aka "Cancer Alley" in Louisiana it is an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River with over 150 petrochemical plants. where there is an extremely high cancer rates, a high rates of asthma, and respiratory illness.) where mega-corporations care more about the the bottom-line then the health and welfare of the people.

If this the future that the Republicans want for us? Are the southern states a model for the rest of the country? Where billionaires rack in the cash and the citizens live in poverty, riddle with diseases, and die young?

Lets go out and vote in November 2026 and vote Democrat. To keep from spiraling down to the lowest common denominator! 

---

I have been getting pushback because I have been moiving away from trans issues!

But now with Trump, politics have become a trans issue. With all the attacks on us by the Republicans we need to defeat them in the elections. We need the voter turnout to overcome the Republicans gerrymandering! We need the voters to say enough is an enough.

When you talk to southern Republicans they see northern Democrats as attacking their way of life! They see it as an attack on their "Christian values" with all our LGBTQ+ stuff! They still are fighting the Civil War and Reconstruction! 

This Is Terribly Wrong

It is a fishing expedition, with our medical records being dug through them hoping to find some dirt!

Appeals court gives Missouri AG pathway to Transgender Center patient records

Eastern District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the Missouri Attorney General’s Office may receive protected health information in its investigation of adolescent gender-affirming care, though it rejected the AG’s claims of broad investigative authority

Missouri Independent

By: Annelise Hanshaw

September 16, 2025

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is allowed to access patient health information as part of its investigation into the Washington University Transgender Center, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The Missouri Eastern District Court of Appeals decision, written by Judge Phillip Hess, reverses a ruling last year by a St. Louis judge that allowed the health center to withhold patient information protected by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. 

But Tuesday’s ruling does not end the fight for these otherwise confidential records nor will it open the floodgates for the attorney general to have untethered access to records. Instead, the circuit court must step in to tailor the requests and minimize the amount of protected health information that is ultimately shared.

Among the records requested in a February 2023 civil investigative demand was a desire for “all electronic health records of (the center’s) clients” and a list of all the Transgender Center’s patients.

“This court is very mindful of the breadth and depth of the attorney general’s requests to examine 1,165 minor patients’ most personal medical information,” Hess wrote. “Thus, the circuit court is empowered to modify the (civil investigative demands) as it deems appropriate under state and federal law.”

The decision touches on a notion that private information may already be in the attorney general’s hands. When the center received the initial requests for information, it provided “remote, read-only access to its electronic medical records system” alongside lists of patient information, prescriptions and billing data.

This is designed to create fear in the community to scare us away for getting proper medical care and to scare away medical professional from treating us!

The case is one of a handful of legal fights stemming from former Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s use of the state’s consumer protection law to probe into adolescent gender-affirming care through the state’s consumer protection law. Bailey began looking into the prescription of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to minors in early 2023, after a former case worker for the Transgender Center claimed in an affidavit that children were rushed into care.

[...]

The battle will return to St. Louis Circuit Court, where a judge must sort out whether de-identified records will suffice for the investigation.

Normally subpoenas are used in a crime to find evidence but in this case there is no crime and they are trying to find a crime!

Sadly We Are Repeating History: The Dred Scott Decision

There was a case that led up to the Civil War, if you are from the north you probably learned about it as a human rights case, but if you are from a Republican state you learned that it wasn't about slavery but rather states rights! The 1857 U.S. Supreme Court decisions: the Dred Scott v. Sandford case divided the nation over slavery. The encyclopedia Britannia wrote this about the ruling...

Dred Scott Decision Causes and Effects

 

Causes

The North and the South had been divided for many years over the issue of slavery. The Southern economy was based largely upon cotton, which was grown on large farms called plantations. Enslaved African Americans did most of the work on the plantations. The Northern economy relied more on manufacturing and used paid workers.

Neither the North nor the South wanted the other’s ideas to spread to U.S. territories in the West. Northern states wanted to stop the spread of slavery. But Southern states believed that the U.S. government did not have the right to decide whether slavery should be allowed in a state or territory.

[...]

Effects

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case struck down the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional, maintaining that Congress had no power to forbid or abolish slavery in the territories.

The doctrine of popular sovereignty as articulated in the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)—whereby the people of each federal territory would have the power to decide whether the territory would enter the Union as a free or a slave state—was also invalidated by the ruling.

The opinion of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney further declared African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States.

[...]

Despite the ruling, many Northern courts and politicians rejected the Dred Scott decision as binding. In several states legislatures resolved to prohibit slavery in any form from crossing onto their soil and enacted legislation freeing slaves passing within their borders.

Now we fast forward to 2025, where new legal battles are reaching the Supreme Court — this time involving telemedicine, abortion rights, and transgender healthcare.

A constitutional showdown is brewing over whether states with abortion bans can demand medical records from states that allow telehealth services for abortion or trans health care — and whether they can punish providers across state lines.

States Heading Toward Constitutional Showdown Over Abortion Shield Laws

Texas and New York are at the leading edge of an escalating states’ rights battle over the mailing of abortion pills to patients in states with bans.

The New York Times

By Pam Belluck

September 9, 2025

America’s battle over abortion has entered an intense phase of legal maneuvering over a deeply fraught issue of states’ rights: Whether states must honor one another’s abortion laws.

At the center of the fight are abortion shield laws, which were adopted by many states that support abortion rights after the Supreme Court revoked the nationwide right to abortion three years ago. Shield laws in at least eight states protect health care providers who prescribe abortion pills by telemedicine and send them to patients in states with abortion bans.

Officials in those shield-law states are prevented from obeying subpoenas, extradition requests and other legal actions that states with bans take against abortion providers. That is a stark departure from typical interstate practices of cooperating in legal matters.

With more and more patients — well over 100,000 per year — receiving pills from shield-law providers, states with abortion bans have been searching for ways to block or hinder those laws. Now, the battle is about to explode into a constitutional showdown in a New York court — a challenge that is expected to wind up in the Supreme Court.

On Monday, the attorney general of New York, Letitia James, announced that she was stepping into a case filed in New York by the attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton. The case stems from a lawsuit Mr. Paxton filed in December against a New York doctor, whom he accused of prescribing abortion pills to a patient in Texas.

In court documents, Mr. Paxton argues that New York’s abortion shield law amounts to a “policy of hostility to the public acts/statutes of a sister state” and that it violates the Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, which says that states should generally respect other states’ laws.

In announcing that she would “defend the constitutionality of the shield law,” Ms. James said that “Texas has no authority in New York, and no power to impose its cruel abortion ban here. Our shield law exists to protect New Yorkers from out-of-state extremists.”

And thus the ground work has been laid for the new Dred Scott case on state rights!

Just like in Dred Scott, where the Court tried to define citizenship and how laws apply across state lines, today's telemedicine battles raise similar constitutional tensions. The upcoming rulings could set a precedent that reshapes the future of medicine, privacy, and state power.

If the Court allows states to punish providers or patients across state borders, it risks repeating the moral and constitutional mistake of Dred Scott — by denying people their personal autonomy and letting one state impose its will on another.

Such a ruling could kill telemedicine. Imagine this: a cancer specialist in California advising a doctor treating a patient in rural Alaska could be breaking the law — just because they’re not licensed in both states.

All to control what a person does to their onw body... the Republicans want to step between you and your doctor!

---

The Supreme Court pocket ruling said that ICE can use race in stopping people...

‘Unconscionably irreconcilable'. Sotomayor rips Supreme Court’s pro-Trump ICE ruling

The liberal justice called the order "unconscionably irreconcilable with our nation’s constitutional guarantees."

By Terry Collins

USA TODAY

Sept. 9, 2025

Key Point:

• Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissenting opinion criticizing the majority's decision and the Trump administration's actions.
• Sotomayor argued the ruling allows the government to seize people based on their appearance, language, and type of work.
• The Supreme Court overturned a lower court's order that had restricted ICE agents' tactics in Los Angeles.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor blasted the Trump administration’s operation of the Los Angeles immigration raids, vowing not to stand idly by while the United States' "constitutional freedoms are lost."

On Sept. 8, the Supreme Court lifted a restraining order from a federal judge in LA who had restricted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from conducting stops without reasonable suspicion.

In July, US District Judge Maame Frimpong of the Central District of California said the government can’t rely solely on the person’s race, the language they speak, the work they perform, and whether they’re at a particular location, such as a pickup site for day laborers.

Sotomayor called the order "unconscionably irreconcilable with our nation’s constitutional guarantees."

The justice, an Obama appointee, ripped her high court conservative colleagues and the government over the ruling. Sotomayor declared that all Latinos, whether they are U.S. citizens or not, "who work low-wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction."

Think about this... college admissions are now banned for even using race as one of the criteria for admission but it is okay to use race as one of the criteria for ICE.

✔️ Police being allowed to consider race among other factors when stopping someone vs.

❌ Colleges being banned from considering race among other factors when admitting someone.

I think that there is something wrong wrong here. I don't see any difference between the two!

✅ Legally defensible? Maybe.
❓ Morally consistent? Highly debatable.

Cuckoo Award

I have been amiss in awarding the Cuckoo Award but to tell the truth it was had to pick out something that was above the craziness coming out of Washington... but one stands out from all the rest. And it is from the Florida Surgeon General and what else... vaccines!

Florida surgeon general says he didn’t study whether ending vaccine mandate would increase diseases

Joseph Ladapo has compared vaccinations to government-imposed ‘slavery’

Independent

By Graeme Massie

Sunday 07 September 2025

Florida’s Surgeon General says his team did not study what impact ending vaccine mandates in the state would have on the spread of diseases.

Joseph Ladapo, an appointee of Governor Ron DeSantis, announced this week that Florida would look to end all vaccine mandates for schoolchildren and others.

Ladapo has said that required vaccinations are equivalent to government-imposed “slavery”, and that ending them is a question of parental rights.

So what if you child dies... lit' mis MAGA child will be able block "government overreach"

He admitted to news anchor Jake Tapper on CNN’s Sunday show, “State of the Union”, that studying the impact of such a move was not necessary.

“Absolutely not,” Ladapo told Tapper. “It’s an issue of right and wrong.”

Cuckoo, cuckoo...

But the thing is, it is against the law! Florida law mandates that...

Under Florida state law, children planning to attend public school are required to receive immunizations for polio, diphtheria (a bacterial infection), rubeola (measles), rubella (a viral infection also called German measles), pertussis (whooping cough), mumps, tetanus and other "communicable diseases" as determined by the department of health.

So with great fanfare I here by award the coveted Cuckoo award to Florida’s Surgeon General Ladapo for playing politics with your lives.

Mini-Post: Under His Watch!

What a thing to happen when you are in command, Trump set a record! Under his administration measles has made a come back! What a thing to be known, bring back an eradicated disease.

US measles cases hit 6-year high at 1277 cases, Johns Hopkins data shows

By Reuters

July 7, 2025

Measles cases in the United States have already reached a six-year high this year, data from Johns Hopkins University's outbreak response center showed, as a drop in vaccination rates causes a surge in the disease once eliminated from the country.

The U.S. had 1,277 cases of measles, the data showed on Friday, surpassing the last record of 1,274 cases from 2019.

Measles was declared eliminated from the country in 2000, meaning there were no cases spreading within the country that year. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continued identifying individual cases tied to international travel, and outbreaks have occurred every year since elimination.

Congratulation to Mr. Trump and Mr. Kennedy you two are amazing! It only took you two six months to bring an eradicated disease back! Measles is now on the brink of becoming an epidemic. What an accomplishment!

Trump downplayed COVID and now they are doing the same thing measles. My MMR vaccine is up-to-date, Is yours?

Reagan!

All the animosity against us has long, long consequences.

When the Reagan administration labeled HIV/AIDS as the “gay disease,” that damaging narrative stuck—and it created a false perception that HIV/AIDS only infects LGBTQ+ people. Today has an article about a Supreme Court case where a person in Texas does not think she should have to pay for PrEP,.

The lawsuit, filed by two Christian-owned businesses and individuals, argues that health insurance plans they purchase shouldn’t have to cover medical tests and drugs they object to on religious grounds—specifically the HIV-prevention drug PrEP. While the legal question at the heart of the case is about the appointment powers of a federal task force, the underlying issue is the persistence of stigma rooted in decades-old misconceptions.

In reality, about 20% of HIV cases in the U.S. are among heterosexual people, and globally, that number is over 80%. Yet, because of the Reagan-era “gay disease” label, HIV/AIDS remains unfairly stigmatized.

That stigma has caused profound harm:

• It has stigmatized and isolated people living with HIV.
• It fueled discrimination in healthcare, employment, and communities.
• It led to neglect and delay in mounting an effective public health response.
• It created a public misunderstanding of risk, giving many a false sense of immunity.
• It shaped rhetoric and policies that marginalized vulnerable groups, including laws criminalizing people with HIV.
• It allowed some religious groups to frame HIV/AIDS as a moral failing rather than a medical issue.

This legacy continues today. In the recent One Big Beautiful Bill Act, critical programs like the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, and the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund face significant funding cuts or elimination.

Diseases don’t take time off—and cutting funding only makes things worse. One particularly vulnerable place where HIV/AIDS is spreading is in long-term care facilities. Reduced funding means fewer routine tests, less early intervention, and limited education and training for staff and residents—factors that increase risk and delay treatment.

Once again, HIV/AIDS is in the general population, affecting people of all backgrounds. Cutting funding now is one of the worst possible moves for public health, justice, and human dignity.

---

This was posted on Facebook by our senator from Connecticut...

Report from the Senate Floor, from US Senator Chris Patrick Murphy:

Last night in the Senate, something really important happened. Republicans forced us to debate their billionaire bailout budget framework. We started voting at 6 PM because they knew doing it in the dark of night would minimize media coverage. And they do not want the American people to see how blatant their handover of our government to the billionaire class is.

So I want to explain what happened last night and what we did to fight back. The apex of Republicans’ plan to turn over our government to their wealthy cronies is a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations. And they plan to pay for it with cuts to programs that working people rely on. Popular and necessary programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP, are all being targeted. In order to pass the tax cut, Republicans have to go through a series of procedural steps. Last night, they took the first step which requires them to pass an outline of their plan, but with it, any senator can offer as many amendments as we want. So my Democratic colleagues and I did just that.

Now, we knew that Republicans would largely unanimously oppose them, but we had two objectives here. One, Republicans were forced to put their opinion on record — many for the first time — on the most corrupt parts of Trump and Musk’s agenda. Two, as I’ve been saying, I am going to make every process and procedure as slow and painful as possible for as long as my colleagues choose to ignore the constitutional crisis happening before our eyes.

So what did we propose? We proposed no tax cuts for anyone who makes a billion dollars a year. We made them vote on whether or not Elon Musk and DOGE should have limitless access to Americans’ personal data. We made them vote on whether to protect IVF and require insurers to cover it. Every single amendment Democrats proposed was shot down. On almost every single amendment, Republicans universally opposed it. Every Republican voted against our proposal to prevent more tax cuts for billionaires. The corruption and theft is happening in the open here.

The whole game for Republicans is taking your money and giving it to the wealthiest corporations and billionaires — even if it means kicking your parents out of a nursing home or turning off Medicaid for the poorest children. They know what they are doing is deeply unpopular. They are offering a tax cut to the most wealthy that is 850 times larger than what they are offering working people. Oh and by the way, any tax cuts for working people are going to be washed out by higher costs for basic necessities, like health care and food. It’s a fundamental injustice.

Thanks to your pressure and support, many of my Democratic colleagues have joined my effort to do everything we can to make sure they cannot destroy democracy and steal your money in the dark of the night. We are being loud about what is happening. I’m going to continue to grind the gears of Congress down as much as possible to make it that much harder and slower to get away with this corruption. 

That’s why the votes lasted until nearly 5 AM

This is a five-alarm fire. I don’t think we have two years to plan and fight back. I think we have months. 

It’s still in our power to stop the destruction of our democracy with mass mobilization and effective opposition from elected officials. So we can’t miss any opportunity to take advantage of opportunities to put Republicans on the record and shine a light on what is happening.

And you have a role to play in this as well. I need you to amplify what’s happening, support the leaders who are fighting for you to make sure they can continue speaking truth to power against Musk and Trump’s billionaire cronies, and show up at rallies and town halls. Use every tool at your disposal to send a message loud and clear about how you expect my colleagues to lead and fight in this moment

Every best wish,

US Senator Chris Patrick Murphy

PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THIS POST instead of sharing it. Thank you

How Many Times Have We Heard

That we are mentally ill from the Republicans, well studies confirms it... the Republicans are driving us crazy.

New Poll Emphasizes Negative Impacts of Anti-LGBTQ Policies on LGBTQ Youth

Jan. 19, 2023

BY: Trevor News

• 86% of transgender and nonbinary youth say recent debates around anti-trans bills have negatively impacted their mental health; as a result of these policies and debates in the last year, 45% of trans youth experienced cyberbullying, and nearly 1 in 3 reported not feeling safe to go to the doctor or hospital when they were sick or injured.
• 75% of LGBTQ youth say that both anti-LGBTQ hate crimes and threats of violence against LGBTQ spaces often give them stress or anxiety.
• At least 70% of LGBTQ youth say issues like efforts to restrict abortion access, gun violence, police brutality, and not having enough money often give them stress and anxiety.

The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) youth, released a new poll today that finds an overwhelming majority of LGBTQ youth have been negatively impacted by recent debates and laws around anti-LGBTQ policies and that many have also experienced victimization as a result. The poll, conducted by Morning Consult between October 23 and November 2, 2022, among a national sample of 716 LGBTQ youth ages 13–24, also assessed emotional responses to these anti-LGBTQ policies, as well as which other social issues often give LGBTQ youth stress and anxiety. The full analysis can be found here.

They are driving us to drink... literally.

The Newport Institute reports...

It’s important to understand that a young adult’s sexuality and mental health are not directly related. LGBTQ youth mental health suffers not because of their sexual orientation or gender identity in itself. Rather, they face higher risk due to being mistreated and stigmatized in society, as well as by family.

Between 20 and 45 percent of the homeless youth in the United States identify as LGBTQ, and most have left home or been kicked out due to family rejection. And 1 in 4 LGBTQ young people report that they have been physically threatened or harmed in the past year due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, according to the Trevor Project survey. Moreover, the survey found that nearly 1 in 3 LGBTQ young people experienced poor mental health most or all of the time due to anti-LGBTQ policies and legislation.

So when the Republicans point out the fact that the LGBTQ+ and especially the trans community have a high rates of depression... well yeah. They are doing that to us and it effects our health.

The National Institute of Health has a website that publishes medical research called PubMed and there is an article there, "Examining the relationship between proposed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and LGBTQ+ college student mental health: findings from the Healthy Minds Study, 2021-2022" and their conclusion...

Results: A significant positive association between proposed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and increased depressive symptoms among LGBTQ+ college students was found. This association remained significant after controlling for individual-level stressors and identities, including a sense of belonging, campus environment perceptions, first-generation student status, and transgender or gender non-conforming identity (TGNC).

They are driving us to drink and drugs! Then they hold it against us. A Rutgers University study found...

The recent tidal wave of anti-trans state legislation, coupled with a harmful practice that’s still legal in much of the country, could have dire consequences for many of the nation’s 300,000 transgender adolescents.

Three new studies by researchers at Rutgers and other institutions add to the mounting evidence that banning gender-affirming care for minors and allowing parents to force their children into conversion therapy could lead to more suicide attempts.

The research also reveals that anti-trans legislation causes ambient harm by emboldening transphobic people and by causing many trans youth and young adults to become more anxious, depressed, and withdrawn.

“State lawmakers and governors have enormous power to lower the suicide risk for some of their most vulnerable constituents,” said Yana Rodgers, a professor in the School of Management and Labor Relations. “Unfortunately, many states are raising the risk by choosing ideology over evidence.”

All their hate that is directed at us is having a negative health affect on us! In the White House "research paper" pushed the discredited Conversion Therapy on us, Their reliance on junk science hurts us in more way then one.

Conversion therapy is a pseudoscientific practice that seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Leading medical and mental health organizations have warned that it’s harmful and ineffective.

Campbell and Rodgers analyzed data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey to examine how conversion therapy affects trans youth. Their study, published by the Journal of Health Economics, reveals that it increases the risk of attempting suicide by 55 percent and increases the risk of running away from home by 128 percent.

The effects are largest in people who began conversion therapy between ages 11 and 14. Strikingly, the danger progressively worsens in the five years after first exposure. This reflects intensifying gender dysphoria and the stress of living in a hostile environment.

“Parents who subject their children to conversion therapy are inflicting serious harm,” Rodgers said. “The detrimental effects appear immediately, and they accumulate over time.”

Twenty-one states, the District of Columbia, and more than 100 municipalities have banned conversion therapy for minors, and five states have enacted partial bans, but it remains legal everywhere else.

They don't want to help us, they want to destroy us!

Many respondents reported the anti-trans legislation does not affect them directly because they already face barriers to gender-affirming care, such as affordability and fear of telling their family. But the indirect harm still resonates.

I don't want to end on a negative note, the Newport Institution goes on to write...

These four resources are essential in supporting the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ+ young adults.

Support from family

Parental acceptance and affirmation are the most important predictors of LGBTQ mental health. When they are deprived of that acceptance, young adults suffer from the tragic consequences of relational trauma. One study found that LGBTQ young adults who experienced high levels of family rejection during adolescence were nearly six times as likely to be depressed and three times more likely to use illegal drugs. Trevor Project research shows that LGBTQ youth who feel high social support from family attempt suicide at less than half the rate of those who felt low or moderate social support.

Self-compassion

It sounds simple, but it’s incredibly effective. Research shows that self-compassion and self-empowerment are essential resources for personal happiness—and can even help overcome a lack of parental acceptance. Mindfulness and positive affirmation practices that build empathy and acceptance for oneself are therefore powerful resources for LGBTQ youth mental health.

Supportive communities

Connection is vital for LGBTQ young adults. A review of 34 studies on LGBTQ youth mental health found that community groups and GSAs (Gay-Straight Alliance groups) provided an all-important “sense of solidarity and friendship in the face of isolation.” Feeling connected with the LGBTQ community can even protect young people from the negative outcomes of prejudice, one study found. In addition, caring adults and positive peer connections also serve as invaluable resources.

Self-care

Building healthy habits and routines can take some effort, but once these practices are established, they will continue to support young adults throughout life. Self-care includes not just attending to physical health, but also to mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational well-being—whether that means making a gratitude list or savoring the beauty of the ocean or a gorgeous sunset. And self-care also includes seeking the support of a mental healthcare professional if you’re suffering from anxiety, depression, or suicidal thoughts, rather than trying to tough it out on your own.

Ultimately, despite the challenges they face, developing and drawing on these resources can help LGBTQ young adults fully embrace who they are and find a path forward to flourishing.

I remember the old saying... What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

*****

I asked ChatGPT AI that...

That phrase — "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger" — originally from Nietzsche, can be empowering in some contexts, but it’s also complicated when applied to marginalized communities like LGBTQ+ individuals.

In reality, chronic exposure to discrimination, hostile legislation, and social stigma doesn't just build resilience — it also causes measurable psychological harm. While many LGBTQ+ people do develop incredible strength, empathy, and community solidarity in response to adversity, it often comes despite the trauma, not because of it.

Resilience shouldn't be a requirement for dignity or safety. Everyone deserves to thrive without needing to be "toughened up" by injustice.