If You Voted for Trump, Here’s a Clue You Got Fooled

Government drops cases against ‘predatory’ financial firms

During Biden’s administration the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was led by Lina Khan, who has relentlessly pursued corporations who have preyed on consumers. Khan had earned praise from both sides of the aisle with her actions. Trump and Musk attacked it first, even though it has returned to consumers way more money than it costs to run. They falsely claimed it was waste. Now what’s left of the agency can do little to protect us. So one of Trump’s first acts was to get rid of an agency who was trying to rein in payday lenders. Folks, unless you’re rich, you were had.

Long COVID in Kids

“An article recently published in JAMA Pediatrics (or, the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics) presents findings from a study suggesting that Long COVID, a condition where symptoms last at least 3 months and up to several years after a SARS-CoV-2 infection, has surpassed asthma as the most common chronic health problem affecting children.”

Summary here… Long COVID in Young Children, School-Aged Children, and Teens

Full article here… Characterizing Long COVID Symptoms During Early Childhood

Don’t bother vaccinating them, they’ll be fine.

If You Are Religious

I tend to believe most people who claim to be religious are, in fact, hypocrites. But, assuming there are some actual Christians reading this, let Bernie put the Republican budget into perspective…

Update: In case you thought I was being uncharitable when I said most Christians are hypocrites. Please see below…

‘Christian’ Lobbyists Embrace Ohio Republican Budget That Guts Programs to Help the Poor and Hungry

Insanity

The science behind vaccines is some of the most stringent in medicine. Double-blind tests are mandatory. Vaccines have been one of the most important developments of modern medicine; perhaps only second to antibiotics.

CDC vaccine advisers who were removed from committee by RFK Jr. speak out

NIH has been a great leader in medical research and outreach. It has made some of the best science based educational computer software out there.

Judge rules some NIH grant cuts illegal, saying he’s never seen such discrimination in 40 years

Capricious, and racist, these cuts were designed to please their fan base. This guy should know.

Trump’s former surgeon general is now one of his most pointed critics

No Kings Day

Kent, Ohio today
Kent No Kings Day 2025

My wife and I attended the “No Kings” protest in Kent today. Nice turnout, great vibe, it felt good. I saw quite a few veterans there as well as other folks you wouldn’t expect to see at a protest. I saw two people with a sign that read something to the effect of “I have too many reasons to be here to list on this sign”. I only saw one really vulgar sign that contained the “F” word. Most of the rest were clever or just sincere. One veteran carried a sign that read “My oath did not expire. I’m still defending the constitution” which I thought was nice.

Cleveland is Pretty Great

This Is the Most Affordable U.S. City to Live Comfortably—and Here’s Exactly How Much You Need to Earn

A few months ago I published a Youtube video from an Irish travel show on Cleveland as a vacation destination for Europeans. With one of the best art museums in the world, as well as many other fine museums, a world class symphony orchestra, something like 173 parks including a national park, a vibrant food scene and most of all cheep prices. Cleveland is pretty great. Now if we could get somebody to stop scaring away the foreign visitors we could build our brand as a vacation destination.

Jimmy Kimmel’s Monologue Last Night

I don’t normally post Kimmel’s stuff. While I think he is usually dead on in his criticism of Trump, I frequently don’t enjoy his comedy sketches. The events in Los Angles are a welcome distraction for Trump, from his “Big Beautiful Bill” that will kick 7.7 million people off Medicaid, reduce or eliminate SNAP benefits for needy families, make most civil servants eligible to fire and replace with sycophants, and so many more dreadful things. Not to mention Elon’s casual mention of Trump being in the Epstein files (something most of us knew anyway). So Trump wants this fight. Kimmel puts the whole thing into perspective…

It is interesting that Trump’s insurgents, who broke into the Capitol and assaulted police, were “fine people” who were mistreated. But these protestors are “bad actors” and “paid protestors”.

I Could Watch This Guy for Hours

I first heard about “Mend It Mark” when there was an outcry from the Youtube community that he had received a take down notice from a “high end” audio manufacturer called Tom Evans. It became a right to repair issue and many Youtubers posted a copy of the video and dared Tom Evans to try and take them down. Anyway, Mend It Mark is a really good channel of a very competent electronics tech doing his job. Like furniture and tool restoration videos, it is soothing. Here Mark does a quick, but thorough repair on a 90’s Technics Amp.

The Tom Evans thing is pretty neat. He basically reverse engineers a piece of audio kit that has every part “potted” (identifying numbers have been erased or covered on every component) and created his own repair manual. Amazing talent this guy has. The video was restored and is here…

The £25,000 Pre-Amp that went Wrong – Tom Evans Mastergroove SR mkIII