In the 1930s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer(MGM) studio head Louis B. Mayer was asked why he was not capitalizing on the horror movie craze, “Frankenstein”, etc. that had made Universal so much money. He replied, ‘Why sell two tickets when I can sell four?’ In their case he meant family movies rather than just those for adults but if your product is for both Republicans and Democrats, cheese or booze, it is wise to alienate neither by telling the world you support Hamas terrorists or DOGE or anything else.
x01a Research Archives
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President Donald Trump fired three Democrats serving on the Consumer Product Safety Commission after the Department of Government Efficiency visited the agency on Thursday.
The firings leave the independent agency with two Republicans, acting CPSC Chairman Peter Feldman and Douglas Dziak, on the five-person board. It is unclear if their firings were related to the wide DOGE government spending cuts.
The agency’s former chairman, Alex Hoehn-Saric, who was also fired, said Friday that “Trump is attempting to illegally remove me from the CPSC” along with his colleagues Mary Boyle and Richard L. Trumka Jr., the latter of whom ignited controversy in 2023 over weighing a ban on gas stoves.
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The Trump administration has fully implemented the defunding of the UNFPA that it announced back in March and announced today that no new funding will the directed to it. And the pro-abortion agency is unhappy.
As LifeNews reported then, Trump has ordered the defunding of the UNFPA, a United Nations population control agency which promotes abortions worldwide.
This is a continuation of his pro-life policy from his previous administration. In 2017, Trump signed an executive order defunding the UN population group because it pushes abortions on other countries and has worked with China for decades to implement its forced abortion population control policies.
Trump officials previously informed the UN Population Fund that nearly all of its grants would be discontinued. That defunding has taken place – with some $335 million in taxpayer funds yanked from the pro-abortion UN agency. Now, Trump officials have informed the UN group that new funding will not take place in future years.
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Last week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, R, signed the “Riley Gaines Act” into law, prohibiting biological males from participating in female sports at public schools and colleges across the state.
The legislation also mandates that students use restrooms, locker rooms, and sleeping quarters that correspond with the sex on their birth certificates.
The act, officially known as Senate Bill 1, is named after former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, an outspoken advocate for protecting women’s sports. Gaines gained national attention after competing against transgender swimmer William “Lia” Thomas and has since campaigned for similar legislation in other states.
Kemp emphasized the importance of the new law in protecting the integrity of women’s sports.
“As the parents of three daughters, Marty and I know just how important it is to keep our children safe and to give them the best possible start in life,” Kemp said.
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In a video stunt published by the political action group ‘Led By Donkeys,’ a 98-year-old WWII veteran rode a Sherman tank over a Tesla Model 3 vehicle.
“My name is Ken Turner and I’m 98 years old. And I served in the British Army in World War II,” Turner said.
“I’m old enough to have seen fascism the first time around. Now, it’s coming back. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is using his immense power to support the far-right in Europe, and his money comes from Tesla cars. Well, I’ve got this message for Mr. Musk. We’ve crushed fascism before and we’ll crush it again,” he continued.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James was heckled at a town hall event on Thursday evening by a Trump supporter who questioned whether James would apologize to President Donald Trump for “wasting millions of dollars” on a “witch trial.”
“My question is for Tish James. Will you apologize to President Trump for wasting millions of dollars, and the state of New York, for a witch trial?” asked the man, adding, “And how does it feel to know that you will be in prison for mortgage fraud?”
His question was met with boos from the crowd and James responded, “Thank you for coming,” as the man was escorted out of the event.
She added, “We want to thank him for coming, we respect all opinions. Everybody knows those allegations are baseless. They’re discredited.”
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The University of Pennsylvania is under federal investigation for filing “inaccurate” disclosures of its foreign funding for years, the Department of Education announced in a Thursday letter.
The department’s Office of the General Counsel accused the Ivy League school of submitting “incomplete, inaccurate, and untimely disclosures” to the department in violation of “its foreign source funding statutory disclosure obligations.” As a recipient of federal funding, the University of Pennsylvania is required by the Higher Education Act of 1965 to disclose “qualifying foreign source gifts and contracts” worth $250,000 or more.
The investigation comes two weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order ramping up his administration’s scrutiny of foreign influence in U.S. universities. The order mandates that universities provide detailed information about the sources and purposes of such foreign funding. Failure to do so could result in the loss of federal funding.
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A New Jersey lawmaker ripped apart “decarbonization” legislation that will increase utility bills in order to stop the fictional “climate crisis.”
“Green” energy is toxic, inefficient, expensive, unprofitable, and prone to failure. And since the “climate crisis” exists only in the minds of hysterical leftists, there is no reason at all for Democrat-run New Jersey to keep moving toward dependence on green energy. Yet they do, which will certainly lead to higher utility costs for New Jersey citizens.
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An appellate court handed the Trump administration a small victory Thursday evening by temporarily blocking a lower court’s order that required the government to take steps to return a Venezuelan national it deported to El Salvador.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit gave no explanation for its decision but granted the administration the stay until Thursday. Justice Department attorneys argued to the appellate court that the government legally deported Daniel Lozano Camargo to a terrorist prison in El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.
Trump invoked the powerful wartime law in March as a means to bypass routine immigration proceedings and quickly deport alleged members of Tren de Aragua.
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It’s a sad day in America when the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court ignores the basic framework of the Constitution he’s supposed to interpret.
That’s what happened on Wednesday, when Chief Justice John Roberts took it upon himself to subtly thumb his nose at President Trump and conservatives during a rare sit-down interview in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. In addition to rebuking calls to impeach activist lower court judges for overstepping the confines of the Constitution, the chief justice had this to say about the subject of “judicial independence”:
In our Constitution … the judiciary is a co-equal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president. That innovation doesn’t work if … the judiciary’s not independent. Its job is to, obviously, decide cases, but in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or of the executive. And that does require a degree of independence.
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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has plans to take advantage of the “AI boom” to fill glaring workforce gaps, following the layoff of thousands of tax agents.
In a May 6 oversight hearing of the House Appropriations Committee, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained that the agency would be leaning into AI solutions in order to accommodate further reductions in the IRS’ budget and staff and not fall behind on tax collection. The Treasury’s budget proposal includes the removal of another 40,000 jobs.
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The Trump administration’s latest trade deal with Britain unfairly penalizes U.S. automakers that have partnered with Canada and Mexico, a trade group representing Detroit automakers said Thursday.
In a sharply-worded statement, the American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC) said the U.S.-UK trade deal “hurts American automakers, suppliers, and auto workers,” according to the group’s president Matt Blunt.
The deal unveiled Thursday between U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer lowers the tariff on British vehicles to 10 percent from 27.5 percent on the first 100,000 cars shipped from Britain to the United States.
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A U.S.-backed mechanism for distributing aid into Gaza should take effect soon, Washington’s ambassador to Israel said on Friday ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East, but he gave few details.
Gaza’s residents are facing a growing humanitarian crisis with Israel enforcing a months-long blockade on aid supplies to the small Palestinian enclave in the third year of its war against militant group Hamas.
Ambassador Mike Huckabee said several partners had already committed to taking part in the aid arrangement but declined to name them, saying details would be released in the coming days.
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The decades-long dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region has resulted in numerous bloody skirmishes and three full-fledged wars — in 1965, 1971, and 1999. In the wake of a horrific terrorist attack in the southern part of Indian-administered Kashmir last month, fighting has resumed and threatens now to embroil the two nuclear powers in another major war.
When pressed on Thursday to comment about the Trump administration’s concern “about the potential for nuclear war between India and Pakistan,” Vice President JD Vance told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum that while concerned and keen on de-escalation, the U.S. is “not going to get involved in the middle of war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it.”
“Look, we’re concerned about any time nuclear powers collide and have a major conflict,” said Vance. “What we’ve said, what Secretary Rubio has said, and certainly [what] the president has said is we want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible.”
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The Ohio Republican Party has voted to endorse Vivek Ramaswamy for governor, following President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
At its central committee meeting, the party voted for Ramaswamy over state Attorney General Dave Yost and announced the results in an endorsement social media post on Friday.
“INTRODUCING: Ohio’s Endorsed Candidate for Governor,” the Ohio GOP wrote in the post, along with a photo of Ramaswamy.
INTRODUCING: Ohio’s Endorsed Candidate for Governor.@VivekGRamaswamy | @ohiogop pic.twitter.com/GcEdyCdhAK
— Ohio Republican Party (@ohiogop) May 9, 2025
President Trump endorsed Ramaswamy for governor in February.
In a post to Truth Social on February 24, Trump wrote:
VIVEK RAMASWAMY is running for Governor of the Great State of Ohio. I know him well, competed against him, and he is something SPECIAL. He’s Young, Strong, and Smart! Vivek is also a very good person, who truly loves our Country. He will be a GREAT Governor of Ohio, will never let you down, and has my COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT!
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A federal judge in Vermont on Friday ordered the Trump administration to release Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk on bail after she was accused of aiding the terrorist group Hamas.
Oturk’s arrest occurred in late March when immigration agents approached her on the street while she was walking with friends outside her home in Somerville, MA. The agents placed her in handcuffs and drove her to Vermont. Afterward, she was transported to a Louisiana prison.
From The New York Times:
In seeking her release, her lawyers have accused the government of detaining her in unconstitutional retaliation for protected speech. The main evidence against her appears to be an essay critical of Israel that she helped to write in a Tufts student newspaper last year.
Video footage of Ms. Ozturk’s detention went viral, leading to public outrage of her treatment by critics who say the government is abusing the immigration system to deport international students.
Ms. Ozturk has spent six weeks in detention in Louisiana and has endured unsanitary conditions that have triggered increasingly severe asthma attacks, her lawyers said in court documents.
The arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk (on a student visa) and Mahmoud Khalil (a green card holder) by masked “officer” using Gestapo-like tactics should concern all Americans. While not citizens, they have rights under the Constitution.
— Matt K. (@MattJKoe) March 27, 2025
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Imagine if doctors could precisely print miniature capsules capable of delivering cells needed for tissue repair exactly where they are needed inside a beating heart. A team of scientists led by Caltech has taken a significant step toward that ultimate goal, having developed a method for 3D printing polymers at specific locations deep within living animals. The technique relies on sound for localization and has already been used to print polymer capsules for selective drug delivery as well as glue-like polymers to seal internal wounds.
Previously, scientists have used infrared light to trigger polymerization, the linking of the basic units, or monomers, of polymers within living animals. “But infrared penetration is very limited. It only reaches right below the skin,” says Wei Gao, professor of medical engineering at Caltech and a Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator. “Our new technique reaches the deep tissue and can print a variety of materials for a broad range of applications, all while maintaining excellent biocompatibility.”
Gao and his colleagues report their new in vivo 3D-printing technique in the journal Science. Along with bioadhesive gels and polymers for drug and cell delivery, the paper also describes the use of the technique for printing bioelectric hydrogels, which are polymers with embedded conductive materials for use in the internal monitoring of physiological vital signs as in electrocardiograms (ECGs). The lead author of the study is Elham Davoodi, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah, who completed the work while a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech.
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Panama President Jose Raul Mulino said Thursday that he will not renegotiate an agreement with the United States to give U.S. troops access to Panamanian facilities, despite protests charging that he compromised the country’s sovereignty.
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President Donald Trump confirmed late Thursday he was appointing Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia after pulling his controversial nomination of Ed Martin to hold that role permanently.
“Jeanine is incredibly well qualified for this position, and is considered one of the Top District Attorneys in the History of the State of New York, Trump said on Truth Social.
“She is in a class by herself. Congratulations Jeanine!”
NBC News reported earlier Trump was strongly considering Pirro for the position, which oversees criminal prosecutions and civil cases in Washington, D.C., a federal district.
Pirro is the former district attorney for Westchester County, New York.
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President Donald Trump’s executive order strengthening restrictions on gain-of-function research is a sensible step in his administration’s crusade for sanity. Signed Monday evening, the order seeks to clamp down on the risky research that modifies pathogens or toxins to enhance their ability to cause disease or spread more easily, which most authorities believe caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
A White House fact sheet claims the new order “empowers American research agencies to identify and end federal funding of other biological research that could pose a threat to American public health, public safety, or national security.”
This is a broader clampdown on gain-of-function research than was enacted by former President Barack Obama. Late in his second term, Obama announced a funding pause for some gain-of-function experiments on certain pathogens, including influenza, SARS, and MERS viruses. But enforcement was limited, and the federal government continued to fund other gain-of-function research, including experiments at the Wuhan Institute for Virology with grants from Anthony Fauci and the National Institutes of Health.
All Major U.S. Cities Are at Risk of Sinking, Not Just Coastal Urban Areas– www.discovermagazine.com
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The 28 most populous U.S. cities are all settling to one degree or other, according to a study in Nature Cities. The phenomenon isn’t limited to coastal urban areas but includes population centers in the country’s interior as well. Rates differ from city to city — even area to area within some municipalities — but the general phenomenon is consistent.
Authors suspect that draining the groundwater upon which the cities sit is a major contributor. If that practice continues — not just in the U.S. but around the world — it could put lives at risk.
“As cities continue to grow, we will see more cities expand into subsiding regions,” Leonard Ohenhen, a research fellow at the Columbia Climate School and an author of the paper, said in a press release. “Over time, this subsidence can produce stresses on infrastructure that will go past their safety limit.”
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Last year, companies began to pull back from promoting their Diversity Equity Inclusion efforts and social justice activists blamed the incoming Trump administration. It has been a violation of federal law to discriminate for 60 years so to moderates it seemed odd to add a layer of discrimination in hiring, even one deemed positive. And they never considered it may have instead been done at all due to pressure from the previous administration.The backlash was entirely predictable, but in both cases it was on the fringes. For no benefit, corporate CEOs were ignoring the ‘stay out of it unless your customers are dominated by it’ mantra.
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More than 50 years after its launch, a Soviet spacecraft called Kosmos 482 is about to come crashing back to Earth. It was originally intended to land on the surface of Venus, but it started to fall apart in low Earth orbit and never made it beyond there. After decades of circling our planet in an oval-shaped orbit, it’s finally about to hurtle back to the ground.
Kosmos 482 launched in 1972, but because of secrecy during the cold war period, little is known about its structure or its exact mission. We only know it was headed for Venus because of other Soviet missions that were focused on our neighbouring world at the time and because the spacecraft appeared to attempt to launch on a trajectory there before it went to pieces. It isn’t clear what exactly caused the spacecraft failure, but three of the four fragments fell in New Zealand shortly after the launch.
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New Delhi — A deadly terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s picturesque Pahalgam area in April has brought India and Pakistan once again to the brink of war. The nuclear armed South Asian neighbors have attacked each other this week with missiles and drones in a sudden flare-up of a decades-old feud that’s being watched with concern by leaders around the world.
The bitter rivals have fought three wars over Kashmir in the past, and once again they’re warning each other against any moves that could escalate the tension — and vowing to respond in kind to any such moves with tough military action.
After a week of intense clashes, air raid sirens blared in a couple Indian cities near the Pakistani border on Friday and authorities asked people to remain indoors. Officials said a woman was killed and four men injured in alleged Pakistani cross-border fire in the Kashmiri town of Uri, while all major airports and the capital city of Delhi were on high alert, with some schools shut and major landmarks evacuated.
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Robert Francis Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV, made history on Thursday, May 8, when he was elected as the first American Pope. The Chicago native, who has spent many years serving as a missionary in Peru, took to the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and addressed the cheering crowd, speaking in Spanish and Italian.
On Friday morning, Pope Leo spoke once more when he presided over his first mass as Pontiff.
Dressed in a white robe with a gold border and a tall white miter, and holding a gold crucifix, Pope Leo delivered his first homily during which he spoke in his native English, as well as Latin and Italian, to the cardinals who elected him just a day before.
Leo referred to being appointed Pope as both a cross and a blessing, and spoke of the responsibility he and the cardinals have to spread Christianity in a world that sometimes mocks faith.
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Abortionist Christine Henneberg revealed in her 2022 memoir that Planned Parenthood trained her to send women with uterine perforations home without treatment, instead of to the hospital.
A uterine perforation occurs when an abortionist pokes a hole through the uterine wall. Medic-Journal calls a uterine perforation a “formidable complication” that can cause “life-threatening bleeding, peritonitis, [and] loss of reproductive function.”
Medic-Journal gives the symptoms of a uterine perforation as “intense pain in the lower abdomen and signs of intra-abdominal bleeding: bloody discharge from the vagina, weakness, dizziness, tachycardia.”
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Catholics in Virginia on Thursday celebrated the historic announcement of the first American pope in the history of the church. Diocese of Richmond Bishop Barry C. Knestout said he rejoiced at the selection of Cardinal Robert Prevost.
“Along with the faithful of the Diocese of Richmond, I rejoice in thanksgiving at the announcement of our new pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope to be elected,” Knestout said in a statement. “Like many, my initial reaction was one of joyful astonishment when I heard the cardinal protodeacon announce that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicago native, was elected as the 267th pope to lead our Church.”
Prevost, 69, who took the name Pope Leo XIV, was born in Chicago and spent much of his career ministering in Peru.
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An Asian American coalition has filed a federal civil rights complaint against Yale University alleging discrimination using racial proxies during the 2023-2024 admission cycle.
The complaint, filed on April 22 by the Asian American Coalition for Education to the Office for Civil Rights under the U.S. Department of Education, alleges that Yale discriminated against Asian American applicants in its admissions process.
“Compelling evidence indicated that Yale University may have unlawfully employed race proxies to circumvent the Supreme Court’s SFFA rulings,” AACE President Yukong Zhao told The College Fix in a recent email.
In the complaint, the coalition asked the federal government to suspend funding to the university if Yale does not comply with the law and remove all race-based admission preferences and practices.