This is no joke or disrespectful put-down. More of us should become aware of the details that make our food production and distribution system work.

I feel that some of you might want to break free of your daily deworming.

animalhealth.boehringer-ingelheim.com/cattle/produ...

WE LOVE OUR CHILDREN, BUT, YOOHOO, WE REALLY LOVE OUR FIREARMS!

"Gun violence is still the number one killer of youth in the United States."

yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/gun-violen...

WHAT? I DEMAND TO SEE A MANAGER.

“Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
~ Henry II of England, preceding the death of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170.

More cattle might not mean lower beef prices More cattle might not mean lower beef prices

BTW, FEWER CATTLE, MORE BEEF, MORE PROFITS FOR BIG RANCHERS WITH ECONOMIES OF SCALE

bit.ly/more-cattle-...

OLD STORY MADE NEW.....

Thucydides, "History of the Peloponnesian War:"
“Right is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”.

Falling into "Thucydides Trap?"—namely, a rising Iran threatens to displace a dominant U.S.?

Measuring the Impact of Data Centers in the United States Economy: Monetary Damage from Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF DATA CENTERS

Data centers consume about 5–6% of U.S. generation, with Texas & Virginia accounting for 30%of the total. General external damages of use approximately equal GDP increases.

www.nber.org/papers/w35100

Chinese carmaker patents voice-controlled 'in-vehicle toilet' Seres' plans show how stiff competition in the EV space is putting pressure on carmakers to innovate.

DON'T TELL ME INNOVATION IS DEAD?

ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/chinese...

Long Time Comin’ – Can Permian Gas Processing Capacity Keep Pace With Production Gains? A combination of new natural gas takeaway capacity out of the Permian, rising feedgas demand from LNG export terminals and stronger gas prices at the Waha Hub will support a steady increase in associa...

WE GOT THE GAS, BUT CAN WE SHIP THE GAS?

rbnenergy.com/daily-posts/...

Ground broken for sterile fly production facility in Texas USDA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project marks next major milestone in strengthening U.S. screwworm preparedness.

THE LATEST ON STERILE FLY PRODUCTION

www.beefmagazine.com/livestock-ma...

How Pittsburgh hopes to tackle economic growth with the NFL draft The 2026 NFL Draft is expected to be the largest single event Pittsburgh has ever hosted. But it’s unclear if the one-time economic boost amounts to long-term benefits for the city and region.

WHAT? AN INVASION?
ARE THEY ALL EAGLES FANS?
SHOULD WE WORRY?
SHOULD WE DEFEND OUR LAMPOSTS, PITTSBURGH?

"500,000 to 700,000 football fans expected to press into Pittsburgh for the NFL draft this week."

www.wesa.fm/economy-busi...

U.S. JOBS & GLOBALIZATION

Seems counterintuitive that job growth in areas hurt by Chinese competition outpaced growth in areas less affected. Is due to a sharp rise in service industry employment among young adults and foreign-born immigrants taking their first U.S. jobs.

bit.ly/4mFDKKQ

LEO, THE IMPALER

“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”

THE ART OF THE TACO

On March 8, President Trump said that he would not sign any bills into law until the SAVE America Act was passed. Perhaps he’d forgotten his threat because by 15 April 6 bills were presented by Congress to the President for his consideration. He has signed all of them.

THE WORM CONTINUES TO BURROW

Supreme Court blocks your batshit crazy tariffs? No problem. Open another front under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, 19 U.S.C. § 2132(a).

More crazy, you think? You are not alone. See this Amicus brief:
www.aei.org/articles/ami...

UNFTR’s 5 Non-Negotiables | Unf*cking The Republic Explore UNFTR’s 5 Non-Negotiables framework for progressive policies addressing housing, healthcare, jobs, election integrity, and climate to create a just future for all.

5 NON-NEGOTIABLES OF THE PROGRESSIVE LEFT

• Housing
• Civilian labor corps
• Medicare for all
• Election integrity
• Climate action

Solid. Read about them:
bit.ly/unftr-non-ne...

@unftr.com

AI can design and run thousands of lab experiments without human hands. Humanity isn’t ready for the new risks this brings to biology Researchers have found that even people with limited experience in biology can use AI to help them create a dangerous pathogen.

IF YOU HATE AI WITHOUT BOUNDS, YOU ALSO MUST BALANCE BENEFITS WITH RISKS

CASE:
"OpenAI and biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks paired an AI model with a robotic lab autonomously to run 36,000 experiments and produced a desired protein at significantly reduced costs."

bit.ly/humanity-unr...

SUPPLY CHAIN RISKS THREATEN ESSENTIAL MEDICINES

Many drugs are not in shortage but are structurally vulnerable to shortages. Many drugs require key starting materials originating in a single country, creating single, critical potential points of failure for essential drugs.

bit.ly/vulnerable-m...

"WEAK ON CRIME AND TERRIBLE ON FOREIGN POLICY"

I am not sure that Trump should take on a notorious bad-ass world-class warrior of morality and justice who is not afraid of taking a stand.

"The Pope? How many divisions has he got?" ~ Stalin
Where is Trump's ethics army?

on.wsj.com/4sJAkYF

A TAX REVOLT?

"Democrats and Republicans alike seem to be concluding that swathes of Americans should pay almost no income tax at all. To fund the state, many on the left would squeeze the richest few, while many on the right would hit foreigners with tariffs."

bit.ly/3QtSqk5

Iranian Jazz — Microtonal Mistery | 1 Hour Psychedelic JAZZ YouTube video by The Wandering Jazz

LISTEN FOR PLEASURE

Now that Angine de Poitrine (www.cbc.ca/music/angine...) is in our sights, here is some nice Iranian microtonal jazz that you might enjoy:
youtu.be/kfUAC90Aq30?...

Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate

CAN TRUMP BE THROTTLED

“When he does what he does, everyone around him keeps their eyes to the floor and says nothing.”

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/u...

Pope Leo Shrugs Off Trump’s Attack Pope Leo vowed to carry on speaking out against war after President Trump launched an extraordinary tirade against the pontiff on social media. “I will not shy away from announcing the message of the ...

“The message of the gospel is very clear: Blessed are the peacemakers....I have no fear of the Trump administration.”
~ Pope Leo XIV , on.wsj.com/4tDEv9i

How an Image Depicting Trump as Christ Sparked a Backlash on the Religious Right The president’s social-media posts triggered strong pushback from the religious right, and it could be a liability for Republicans in the midterms.

THE POPE'S A PUNK. RIGHT? RIGHT?

"An Eastern Orthodox Christian and past Vance acquaintance, said....'Trump seems to think that the pope is nothing more than Keir Starmer in a white cassock.'”
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

WHERE'S THE BEEF? OH, IT'S THERE....

"Fed beef production set a record in 2022 (at approximately 23 billion lb.) – and that happened with cow inventory being down 1% versus a decade earlier."

www.beefmagazine.com/market-news/...

Forecasting the Economic Effects of AI Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

FORECASTING ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF AI

Among other conclusions:
"Labor force participation rate falling from its current level of 62% to 55% by 2050, with roughly half of that decline—equivalent to around 10 million lost jobs—attributable to AI."

www.nber.org/papers/w35046

==========
FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION
==========
Freight transportation is fundamentally multimodal. Intermodal terminals are core infrastructure. Intermodal terminal improvements could yield $.46-$1.85 billion in real GDP gains.

bit.ly/nber-w35065

Marathon Petroleum’s Los Angeles Refinery. Source: Marathon

LIVING WITHOUT PERSIAN GULF OIL

U.S. refineries are far less dependent on crude oil from the Middle East than they were before the Shale Revolution and the ramp-up in Western Canadian production.

rbnenergy.com/daily-posts/...

The Pope, as a moral force, scares Trump.