CNN poll: Trump address to Congress gets modestly positive marks, changes few minds(after the poll was released. kek)

By Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN1/2

Updated 7:39 AM EST, Wed March 5, 2025

The Republican-heavy audience that tuned in to hear President Donald Trump’s speech on Tuesday greeted it with tempered positivity, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

Speech-watchers broadly (60% to 76%, odd they left that out) said Trump’s policies would take the country in the right direction, with majorities saying the same across five issue areas that were the focus of the president’s speech. But fewer expressed strong confidence in Trump to help people like them, use his presidential power responsibly or provide the nation with real leadership.

Roughly 7 in 10 (70% had to add this) speech-watchers said they had at least a somewhat positive reaction to Trump’s speech tonight, with a smaller 44% offering a very positive response. That’s lower than the 57% of viewers who rated Trump’s initial address to Congress very positively eight years ago, or the 51% who said the same of President Joe Biden’s initial address in 2021. It also comes just below the 48% “very positive” rating Trump saw for his 2018 State of the Union.

Good marks from speech-watchers are typical for presidential addresses to Congress, which tend to attract generally friendly audiences(desperate) that disproportionately hail from presidents’ own parties. In CNN’s speech reaction polls, which have been conducted most years dating back to the Clinton era, audience reactions have always been positive.

The pool of people who watched Trump speak on Tuesday was about 14 percentage points more Republican than the general public.

The Trump-friendly audience reacted negatively to a protest effort from a Democratic member of Congress. Eight in 10 (the forgot this 80%) Americanswho watched the speech said they saw Rep. Al Green’s interruption of Trump’s speech as inappropriate, with just 20% saying the representative from Texas acted appropriately. Green was ejected from the House chamber after continuing to protest following a warning from House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Roughly 6 in 10 viewers said in a poll conducted before the speech that they approved of Trump’s handling of the presidency overall. By contrast, Trump’s approval rating is underwater with the American public as a whole, a CNN poll released Sunday found, with 48% of U.S. adults approving of his performance as president and 52% disapproving.

Trump’s speech on Tuesday did little to further improve the already-positive perspectives of his audienceKEK. In a survey conducted prior to the speech, 61% said they believed his policies would move the country in the right direction; afterward, 66% of the same people said his policies would take the country down the right path. The share who believed Trump has had the right priorities so far stood at 56% prior to the speech and 59% immediately following its conclusion.

Half of speech-watchers said they held a lot of confidence in Trump to provide real leadership, while 45% said they had a lot of confidence in him to use his presidential power responsibly, and just 4 in 10 expressed high confidence in his ability to help people like them.Majorities of 65% or more said they had at least some confidence in him across each metric.

Trump scored his highest marks of the night for his policies on immigration: 76% of speech-watcherssaid his proposed policies on that issue would take America in the right direction, compared with closer to 6 in 10 who said the same of his proposals to change how the government works (63%), or his proposed policies on the economy (62%) or tariffs (56%). That’s a shift from CNN’s polling on his first term speeches, when he consistently rated higher on economic issues than on those related to immigration.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/05/politics/cnn-poll-trump-address-congress/index.html

>>22707638

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Most who tuned in said they thought his proposed policies on foreign affairs would move the country in theright direction (61%). Speech-watchers are also largely aligned with Trump’s approach to Ukraine and Russia. Majorities said that based on what they heard in the speech, the president’s policies toward Ukraine (63%) and Russia (58%) offered the right amount of support for each country. Sizable minorities, though, see Trump as too supportive of Russia (37%) and not supportive enough of Ukraine (33%).

Annual presidential addresses rarely lead to significant shifts in presidential approval among the broader American public, particularly in recent years. Historically, first-year addresses to Congress have tended to be better rated than later State of the Union speeches and more likely than others to result in an approval rating bounce. But Trump, the first president in the era of modern presidential polling to serve nonconsecutive terms, isn’t new to the office — and current levels of polarization may also curtail his speech’s potential to affect public opinion.

The CNN poll was conducted by text message with 431 US adults who said they watched the presidential address on Tuesday, and are representative of the views of speech-watchers only. Respondents were recruited to participate before the speech, and were selected by a survey of members of the SSRS Opinion Panel, a nationally representative panel recruited using probability-based sampling techniques. Results for the full sample of speech-watchers have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points.

(Article should be named:Cry More CNN)

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/05/politics/cnn-poll-trump-address-congress/index.html

They don’t say was a phenomenally high numbers of approval 69% to 76% is hardly ever give for a Presidential speech!

Disney Cuts Nearly 200 Jobs at ABC News and Entertainment Networks

The data-driven news brand 538 will be shuttered in the cuts.BY ALEX WEPRIN

MARCH 5, 2025 6:25AM

The Walt Disney Co. is slashing just under 200 jobs at ABC News and at its Disney Entertainment Networks divisionas the traditional TV business continues to face economic headwinds, a source familiar with the decision tells The Hollywood Reporter.The cuts represented about 6 percent of the division’s workforce.

ABC News will behit particularly hard, with the data-driven digital news brand 538 being shuttered, teams from Nightline and 20/20 being consolidated, and all three hours of Good Morning America moving under the same top producer, Simone Swink. The company is also merging its digital and social operations.

Disney’s entertainment networks will see cuts in program planning and scheduling, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the cuts there.Disney’s channels include FX and Freeform. The newsletter Status first reported the looming cuts at ABC News.

ABC News last saw job cuts last fall, when around 75 jobs were eliminated. The news division had announced Almin Karamehmedovic as its president last August.

Broadcast news divisions in general are grappling with the changing economics of TV, with structures increasingly consolidated in divisions alongside local TV stations, andthe role of network news president being a smaller role than it was in they heyday of TV.Disney writ large announced structure-driven job cuts last September.

(Lesson: Don’t Go Woke or Hire Perves)

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/disney-abc-news-layoffs-538-shut-down-1236155190/

CrowdStrike falls 9% on disappointing earnings forecast

PUBLISHED TUE, MAR 4 20256:10 PM

KEY POINTS

• CrowdStrike slumped more than 9% after issuing disappointing earnings guidance.

• The company said it expects earnings per share, excluding some items, of between $3.33 and $3.45, falling short of the $4.42 expected by LSEG.

• CrowdStrike reported $4.24 billion in annual recurring revenues.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/04/crowdstrike-crwd-q4-earnings-2024.html

==State-Level Accountability for Illegal

Wars Comes One Step Closer==

The Tennessee Defend the Guard Act faces its subcommittee hearing Wednesday. 1/2==

Hurricane Helene was the deadliest hurricane to strike the mainland United States since Katrina in 2005, devastating the American southeast with close to $80 billion in estimated damages and killing 219 people.

In Tennessee, which saw severe flooding in its most eastern counties and suffered 18 deaths, more than 580 Tennessee National Guardsmenwere mobilizedSimultaneously, 700 Tennessee National Guardsmen were beginning their mobilization for a year-long deployment 7,000 miles away.

Members of the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Tennessee’s largest Guard unit, left for Fort Bliss, Texas on September 28, the day after Hurricane Helene hit their home state.Weeks later, they completed their transition to the Middle East where they’re currently participating in Operation Spartan Shield.

The side-by-side headlines provoked a storm of outrage on social media. “A third of the state is currently underwater. Why are they being shipped overseas instead of being deployed to help their own people?” asked Sean Davis, co-founder of the Federalist.

Steve Cortes, a media commentator and former spokesman for Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns, posted “Ok, we have a MAJOR storm event in parts of Eastern Tennessee…and we are sending troops to help ultra-wealthy countries in the Persian Gulf?!”Cortes asked Governor Bill Lee to “reverse this decision, please,” but once a National Guard unit has been mobilized by the president under Title 10, it’s out of the governor’s hands.

But new legislation introduced in Tennessee and dozens of other states this year seeks to prevent future National Guard deployments of this nature and to reorient the federal government’s priorities back to the United States.

The Defend the Guard Actwould prohibit the deployment of a state’s National Guard into active combat overseas unless Congress has first voted to declare war. This is the same requirement found in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, but one the federal government has ignored for seventy-five years. The bill does not interfere with domestic Title 32 deployments or overseas training, but would be an effective stopgap measure preventing the president from mobilizing the National Guard into an undeclared war.

Tennessee’s HB 129 is being championed by freshman State Representative Michele Reneau of Signal Mountain. “I think the priorities for the National Guard should be here at home, first of all. And when we have a natural disaster, that’s where our troops should have gone initially,” Reneau told The American Conservative. “But it’s definitely disappointing that our resources didn’t get diverted at home here where we have an immediate need.”

Legislation of this type has been endorsed by bothSecretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. But like so many other of the Trump administration’s reforms, it’s being met with strenuous opposition by the permanent bureaucracy and Pentagon establishment underneath these appointments.

The National Guard Bureau in Washington has launched a full frontal assault on Defend the Guard legislation being introduced in state houses, including pressuring lawmakers and having adjutant generals appear before committee hearings in full dress uniform.

“They have been present at the Capitol and visiting my cosponsors on the bill to lobby against the bill and communicate that we would potentially lose federal funding or four KC-135s that have been on the table since, maybe last year as well,” Reneau explained.

HB 129 and its companion SB 156 have a dozen House cosponsors and three Senate sponsors, including Senator Rusty Crowe, a Vietnam veteran who represents Carter, Johnson, and Washington Counties, the three most affected by Hurricane Helene.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/state-level-accountability-for-illegal-wars-comes-one-step-closer/

>>22707717

State-Level Accountability for Illegal Wars Comes One Step Closer

2/2

The opposition’s primary argument is that passage would result in a reprisal by the Pentagon in the form of removing federal funding and equipment. USC § 108 specifies that a state’s National Guard funding can only be withheld if it does not meet training and readiness standards under Title 32; legislation like HB 129 does not affect Title 32 missions, and there exists no mechanism to defund a National Guard out of punishment related to Title 10. If attempted without congressional approval, this unprecedented action would violate multiple federal laws such as the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Further, multiple members of Congress have publicly said that defunding a state’s National Guard would be a political impossibility.

But the threat (even worded as conjecture) and the imposition of a military figure with one or two stars on their shoulder into the legislative process can sometimes be enough to squash local efforts.

“I have questions about whether their being here in uniform lobbying against the bill potentially violates some sort of [restriction],” said Reneau. “Something I feel is not completely kosher about them being specifically in uniform and lobbying against this bill.”

The legal reasoning presented by the National Guard Bureau is that adjutant generals are state employees not subject to federal anti-lobbying statutes and their lobbying for or against legislation, even in military dress and using taxpayer money, does not violate DoD Directive 1344.10. At a minimum, it’s difficult to argue that this interpretation does not violate the spirit of the law.

One of the Volunteer State’s largest (literally) supporters of Defend the Guard is Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs.

“For me it’s a way to put America First, to hopefully start limiting some of the military adventurism that we’ve seen, and frankly keep our boys and girls out of harm’s way,” Jacobs said about HB 129, recounting that a graduate of a local Knoxville High School was one of the soldiers killed during the evacuation from Afghanistan.

Before his entry into politics, the 7-foot tall Jacobs made his bones as the legendary professional wrestler Kane, and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021.

A self-identified Ron Paul Republican for many years, Jacobs has been a consistent advocate for less meddling overseas: “I come from a military family. My dad spent twenty-one years between the Navy and the Air Force. Part of the reason that I feel the way that I do is because of that history, because of knowing what my dad did.”

East Tennessee has formed an unexpected bastion of conservative non-interventionism for decades, and Mayor Jacobs is only the latest iteration. His congressional district was the longtime seat of Rep. Jimmy Duncan, one of the few Republicans to vote against the Iraq War. Today it’s represented by Jacobs’ mayoral predecessor Tim Burchett, an outspoken critic of American involvement in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“We are a different place, and I say that with great affection,” Jacobs told TAC. “I heard someone once say that in Appalachia, we value freedom over wealth.”

“They understand, especially Congressman Duncan and Congressman Burchett, they understand there’s a cost, not only obviously in lives but also in treasure,” he continued. “And part of the reason that our country has accumulated thirty-six and a half trillion dollars in national debt is because of foreign adventurism; and not only wars but also again foreign aid that goes all around the world, sometimes to places that have less debt than we do.”

Last week a Defend the Guard bill unanimously passed its Senate committee in Georgia, another state affected by Hurricane Helene. A hearing for HB 129 has been scheduled for Wednesday before the Tennessee House Public Service Subcommittee.

Reneau highlighted the groundswell of popular support for the measure: “Several people have reached out and said they were excited about the bill. They thought it was just a great show of reinforcing states’ rights and the ability for the state to push back on the federal government and just hold their feet to the fire on their constitutional duties. In fact I think that’s always a good effort.”

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/state-level-accountability-for-illegal-wars-comes-one-step-closer/

'WORSE THAN EVER': Hosts list moments Dems refused to cheer for

Fox News' Jacqui Heinrich reports the latest on President Donald Trump's joint address to Congress. The 'Fox & Friends' co-hosts also discuss their reaction to his remarks and the most notable moments that Democrats refused to applaud during the historic speech.

10:27

https://youtu.be/Jpknkc1JvjU

>>22707754

Kilmeade says he should have been the Sec. of Defense. That guy hates Russia with a passion and repeats the propaganda of Ukraine every chance he gets. He’s worse than Hannity.

>>22707643

Thx for your opinion shill!

>>22705891, >>22705892 ICYMI: Dem Rep Kamlager-Dove accidentally says the quiet part out loud, Trump, Elon and DOGE: "We are gonna continue to speak lies to his truthPN

Did you notice only 4-5 women of the Dems, and they had no audience clapping, maybe two to three people; or there were Dems planted as the minute onlookers

Initial DOGE FindingsReveal $80 Million in Wasteful Spending at DOD

March 4, 2025 | By C. Todd Lopez, DOD

A quick review of some of the initial findings within the Defense Department by the Department of Government Efficiencyreveals some $80 million in funds wastedon programs that do not support DOD's core mission.

An aerial view of the Pentagon.

In a social media video posted yesterday evening, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell read off a few of the initial findings from DOGE, which revealed expenditures many service members would be hard-pressed to connect to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's focus on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.

"At the DOD, we've been working hand in hand with the DOGE team," Parnell said. "And as the secretary said, we welcome that process because that process will make us more lethal. And that means that our warfighters on the battlefield will be more successful."

Among the DOGE findings, Parnell highlighted $1.9 million for holistic diversity, equity and inclusion transformation and training; $6 million to the University of Montana to "strengthen American democracy by bridging divides"; $3.5 million by the Defense Human Resources Activity to support DEI groups; and $1.6 million to the University of Florida to study the "social and institutional detriments of vulnerability and resilience to climate hazards in [the] African Sahel."

Altogether, he said, thefull set of initial findingsof DOGE reveals about $80 million in wasteful spending that could be better spent on lethality and readiness.

On the day he was sworn in, Hegseth released a message to the force spelling out his three top priorities. Those include reviving the warrior ethos and restoring trust in the military; rebuilding the military by matching threats to capabilities; and reestablishing deterrence by defending the homeland.

Parnell said theDOGE team is just getting started rooting out department expendituresthat are not aligned with the secretary's top priorities.

"This stuff is not a core function of our military. This is not what we do. This is a distraction from our core mission," he said. "Today's actions are just the start; [there is] more to come this week. Again, we are working hand-in-glove with DOGE. So, stay tuned in the weeks ahead as we trim the fat, preserve the muscle, [and] make the DOD more mission-capable and more lethal."

(People will read that’s it, it is just the start)

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4096431/initial-doge-findings-reveal-80-million-in-wasteful-spending-at-dod/

Transgender Americans weigh leaving U.S. over Trump’s policies. Some already have(cause: NGOs defunded) LA times of course.

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(It’s working, thank you PDJT, no boo hoos for you)

People hold LGBTQ+ flags outside the Supreme Court. People hold LGBTQ+ flags outside the Supreme Court in December during oral argument on whether states can ban certain gender transition medical treatments for young people.

Transgender Americans fear a slate of Trump administration policies targeting gender-affirming medical care and U.S. passports that recognize their identities. Many are now making plans to flee the country, or have already done so.

They are saving money, getting travel documents in order, considering foreign jobs and even applying for asylum abroad. Alexia Nunez presumed “things were going to be pretty bad” for transgender people under President Trump, given his campaign rhetoric, but had decided to stick it out in the U.S. “as long as possible.”

Her breaking point came just days after Trump’s inauguration, she said, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered the suspension of passport applications seeking a gender marker different from an applicant’s birth sex.

Alexia Nunez smiles in a recent selfie Alexia Nunez, in a recent selfie, fled the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s anti-transgender policies and filed an asylum claim in Canada. Nunez, a 46-year-old software engineer originally from San Diego, called the directive the “definition of discrimination against a marginalized community,” and a direct threat to her safety as a transgender woman.

Although her passport has reflected her female identity since 2016, it expires next year. Suddenly, she feared renewing it would leave her without a travel document that matched her identity and appearance, and without a means of fleeing the country if things in the U.S. grew increasingly hostile.

“I knew it was time to enact my emergency plan,” Nunez said. Transgender Americans and their families are reaching similar conclusions across the country amid numerous anti-transgender policies from the Trump administration.

They include directives to defund or even criminalize gender-affirming medical care, punish teachers who support gender nonconforming kids at school, ban transgender people from bathrooms and sports teams, and cast doubt not only on their legal documents but their very existence.

Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office declaring that the U.S. recognizes only “two sexes, male and female,” which are “not changeable.”

The order called the idea people can change genders a “false claim” that endangers women, and directed federal agencies to strip “gender ideology” from their regulations and policies. The Trump administration did not respond to a request for comment.

M.L. is a 16-year-old transgender high school student track athlete who fears threats to young athletes like her.

Al though many of Trump’s proposed policies are being challenged in court, the fear and panic they have evoked is already widespread. Both transgender adults and parents of transgender kids are comparing the risks of staying versus those of leaving.

https://archive.is/JmGCj#selection-2959.2-3047.31

>>22707916

2/2

They are calculating the financial costs of moving versus the mental, emotional and physical costs of staying. They are also eyeing asylum claims abroad and other potential paths to securing foreign visas, such as through work, schooling, lineage, real estate investments or other cash commitments.

Those who can afford it are hiring lawyers and relocation specialists. The one thing they are not considering, they said, is going back into the closet. “Right now I am in a prison within my own country.

Before I transitioned I was in a prison inside myself,” said K.D., a transgender man in Orange County who is considering fleeing. “I would rather be who I am without apology [than] hide for my own safety.” K.D. and others requested to be identified only by their initials due to harassment of transgender people and for fear of reprisal from the Trump administration.

The increased fear and interest in fleeing marks a stunning reversal for queer rights in the U.S., but also for the nation’s standing in the world as a relative haven for LGBTQ+ people. LGBTQ+ refugees have long fled to the U.S., not from it.

The process has never been easy, but people facing violence, arrest or even death in their home countries due to their LGBTQ+ identities have successfully claimed asylum on those grounds in the U.S. since the 1990s. A 2021 study by the Williams Institute at UCLA Law found that, between 2012 and 2017, LGBTQ+ people from 84 countries filed 3,899 asylum claims in the U.S. based specifically on their persecution for being queer.

President Biden had ramped up U.S. efforts to defend LGBTQ+ rights and protect queer asylum seekers and refugees. In contrast to Trump’s recent orders, Biden issued a memorandum in 2021 stating that the U.S. would “lead by the power of our example in the cause of advancing the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons around the world.”

The ground has clearly shifted…Long boo Hoo article…

(https://archive.is/JmGCj#selection-2959.2-3047.31

Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight Is Being Scrapped in Disney Layoffs

Leigh Kimmins 03.05.25 9:44AM EST

FiveThirtyEight, the political analysis site created by stats guru Nate Silver, is shutting down, according to a report. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that some 200 staff layoffs are expected at Disney’s ABC News Group—which rebranded the site 538 and cut most of its staff two years ago—and Disney Entertainment Networks unit. The cuts will reportedly include the 15 or so employees remaining at the site, which Silver founded in 2008.

“Oh geez, I just saw the news about 538,” he wrote on X Wednesday. “My heart goes out to the people there. They were tremendously hard-working and produced a lot of extremely valuable data and insight for everyone who wants to understand politics better. They deserved much better.”

Silver left the famed politics, economics, and sports analysis website in 2023, taking his data model with him to his own site, Silver Bulletin, while ABC kept the brand name.

(https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-insults-and-berates-his-way-to-longest-address-ever/

Read NPR's annotated fact check of President Trump's address to Congress

MARCH 4, 202511:06 PM ET

DEFUND NPR(ALL WERE REPORTERS OR “CORESPONDENTS.LONG BS FROM DS MEDIAMUCH THEN THESE)

President Trump delivered an address to a joint session of Congress in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night, six weeks into his second term. Since his inauguration, he has worked briskly to try to radically reshape the government and has signed dozens of executive orders, many upending policies created by former President Joe Biden. Trump took stock of what he's done so far and laid out his vision for the economy, immigration and foreign affairs.

Reporters from across NPR's newsroom fact-checked the address and offered context as the speech unfolded.

ImmigrationUnlawful border crossings

TRUMP: "Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border, and I deployed the U.S. military and border patrol to repel the invasion of our country, and what a job they've done. As a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded ever. They heard my words and they chose not to come."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had about 30,000 encounters with migrants attempting to cross the U.S. borders illegally in January, the agency reported. The agency has not reported the numbers for February, however Reuters reported last week that the administration is on track to report about 8,500 arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border for February. This could be the lowest number of crossings since Homeland Security started reporting the data in 2000.

CBP has been recording apprehensions since 1925. In 1935, there were only 11,000 apprehensions nationwide for the full year. During President Biden's administration, unlawful crossings nationwide hit an all-time high in 2022 — CBP reported more than 2.2 million encounters. However, Biden's last full month in office, December 2024, saw about 48,000 encounters.

— Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Immigration Correspondent

Deportations

“I have sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our Homeland, and complete the largest deportation operation in American history, larger even than current record holder Dwight D. Eisenhower—a moderate man but someone who believed very strongly in borders.

In his remarks, Trump referenced 1954's "Operation Wetback" — a racist term used to refer to migrants who crossed the Rio Grande. Government estimates of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's effort showed more than a million Mexican immigrants and some U.S. citizens were rounded up.

Since then, other presidents have carried out large deportation actions throughout their terms. Former President Barack Obama's administration, for example, deported over 3 million people. But Trump's second administration's own efforts facelong-standing logistical and capacity challenges.

— Ximena Bustillo, DHS and Immigration Policy Reporter

Biden allowing migrants into the U.S.

TRUMP: "In comparison, under Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, there were hundreds of thousands of illegal crossings a month, and virtually all of them, including murderers, drug dealers, gang members and people from mental institutions and insane asylums were released into our country. Who would want to do that?"

The nonpartisan Migration Policy Instituteestimates that from 2021 to 2024, the Biden administration allowed more than 5.8 million immigrants into the U.S. They were temporarily allowed into the country through multiple parole and sponsorship programs, many of which have been dramatically curbed or ended by the Trump administration. Migrants who participated in these programs were vetted before being allowed into the country.

— Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Immigration Correspondent

Immigrants and the workforce

TRUMP: "Entire towns like Aurora, Colorado and Springfield, Ohio buckled under the weight of the migrant occupation and corruption like nobody has ever seen before."

Increased immigration — both legal and illegal — has helped to grow the labor force in recent years. It has allowed employers to keep adding jobs at a rapid clip without putting much upward pressure on prices, even as millions of baby boomers are retiring. From January 2024 to January 2025, for example, the foreign-born workforce grew by 2.1 million people while the larger native-born workforce added just 1.3 million.

Immigration has slowed considerably in recent months, however. Foreign-born workers do not appear to be displacing the native-born workforce. The share of working-age men who were in the workforce in January was 89.4% — higher than all but one month during the first Trump administration.

— Scott Horsley, Chief Economics Correspondent…..

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/04/g-s1-50488/trump-congress-joint-address-fact-check

Men with higher-quality sperm live longer, study finds

Research suggests difference in life expectancy between men with highest and lowest quality is nearly three years

Ian Sample Science editor

Tue 4 Mar 2025 19.05 EST

(Who didn’t know this?) partial article

Sperm may be the canaries in the coalmine for male health, according to research that reveals men with higher-quality semen live longer.

Danish scientists analysed samples from nearly 80,000 men and found that those who produced more than 120 million swimming sperm per ejaculate lived two to three years longer than those who produced fewer than 5 million.

The men with the highest-quality sperm lived to 80.3 years old on average, compared with 77.6 for those with the poorest-quality sperm, the researchers report in Human Reproduction.

“It really seems to be that the better the semen quality, the longer the survival,” said Dr Lærke Priskorn, an epidemiologist at Copenhagen university hospital, who led the study with Dr Niels Jørgensen, an andrologist at the hospital.

The finding implies that semen quality reflects a man’s broader health and how likely he is to succumb to medical conditions later in life. On every measure of sperm quality the researchers checked, poorer quality was linked to earlier death.

The men in the study had their semen analysed between 1965 and 2015 after they reported problems starting a family with their partner. The samples were assessed for semen volume, sperm concentration, sperm shape, and the proportion of motile, or swimming, sperm. While some men produced no sperm, others had very good semen quality.

Using national registers, the researchers tracked the men’s health for up to 50 years after their sperm tests. There were 8,600 deaths in the follow-up period, amounting to 11% of the group. Nearly 60,000 of the men provided semen samples between 1987 and 2015 and their records held more information, such as education level and any medical conditions diagnosed in the 10 years prior to the semen analysis.

The link between poor semen quality and an earlier death was not explained by any diseases diagnosed in the decade before testing, nor by the men’s education level, which often reflects socioeconomic status and to some extent lifestyle factors such as smoking, diet or exercise.

Priskorn said that while the data did not shed light on the potential biological mechanisms, conditions in the womb may be important. In this scenario, factors that affect the baby’s development would harm both their sperm and wider health in later life.

The researchers now want to find out which diseases are more common in men with poor semen quality. If particular conditions are identified, doctors could ultimately advise men on preventive action should sperm analysis show they are at risk.

In an accompanying editorial, Prof John Aitken, a reproductive biologist at the University of Newcastle in Australia, said: “If spermatozoa really are the canaries in the coalmine of male health, the obvious question to ask is why.”

Possible drivers are genetic defects on the sex chromosomes, an impaired immune system, coexisting problems such as heart disease, lifestyle factors, and pollutants. Aitken suspects a process called oxidative stress, where highly reactive molecules called free radicals harm semen quality and body tissues and accelerate ageing….

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/05/men-with-higher-quality-sperm-live-longer-study

Yep my Dad contributed sperm for 10 kids and lived to 80, and my Mom that bore 10 kids and lived to 89. He got a vasectomy because enough was enough!

EMERGENCY DOCKET

Supreme Court denies Trump request to block $2 billion foreign-aid paymentBy Amy Howe

on Mar 5, 2025 at 9:45 am1/2

A divided Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down a request by the Trump administration to lift an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that had directed the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to pay nearly $2 billion in foreign-aid reimbursements for work that has already been done.

In a brief unsigned opinion, the court noted that the Feb. 26 deadline for the government to make the payments had already passed. It instructed U.S. District Judge Amir Ali to “clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill to ensure compliance” with the temporary restraining order that Ali has entered in the case, paying attention to how feasible it is for the government to comply with those timelines.

Ali is expected to hold a hearing on the aid groups’ motion for a preliminary injunction – which, if granted, would suspend the freeze on foreign-assistance funding going forward – on Thursday, March 6. This means that the dispute could return to the Supreme Court as an emergency appeal again soon.

Four of the court’s conservative justices would have granted the government’s request to put the order on hold. Justice Samuel Alito, in a dissenting opinion joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, described himself as “stunned” by the ruling, calling it “a most unfortunate misstep that rewards an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers.”

The brief unsigned order came six days after Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily paused Ali’s Feb. 25 order, which had ordered the agencies to pay contractors and grant recipients by 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 26 for work that had already been done before he issued a Feb. 13 temporary restraining order that prohibited the State Department and USAID from suspending foreign-aid payments.

In an executive order last month, President Donald Trump ordered a halt to the distribution of foreign-aid funds so that federal agencies can ensure that those funds are only disbursed in ways that are “fully aligned with” Trump’s foreign policy. Following that order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered a freeze on all foreign-aid programs funded by the State Department and the USAID.

Several groups that receive or have members that receive foreign-aid funds challenged the pause in federal court in Washington, D.C. They argued that the funding freeze violated both the federal law governing administrative agencies and the Constitution.

Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris came to the Supreme Court on Wednesday night, asking the justices to quickly put Ali’s Feb. 25 order on hold before the deadline for the State Department and USAID to make the payments and then ultimately to lift it. She argued that Ali’s order infringed on the executive branch’s power to make decisions about foreign aid and “stands on the brink of placing USAID into a court-run receivership.” And although she agreed that the government “is committed to paying legitimate claims for work that was properly completed,” the government could not “pay arbitrarily determined demands on an arbitrary timeline of” Ali’s choosing.

A few hours later, Roberts – who handles emergency appeals from Washington, D.C. – granted Harris’s request to temporarily pause Ali’s order before the midnight deadline.

Foreign-aid recipients on Friday urged the Supreme Court to quickly lift the Roberts order. In a 21-page brief, they told the justices that “the government’s actions bring their very existence—and the existence of fellow foreign-aid partners—to the brink.” Their work, they said, “advances U.S. interests abroad and improves—and, in many cases, literally saves—the lives of millions of people across the globe.”

https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/03/supreme-court-denies-trump-request-to-block-2-billion-foreign-aid-payment/

>>22708149

2/2

The foreign-aid recipients emphasized that, as a general rule, temporary restraining orders like the one Ali issued on Feb. 13 are not appealable. But the government has not even asked the Supreme Court to lift the TRO, they observed. Instead, it has asked the justices to lift Ali’s Feb. 25 order directing the government to comply with the TRO and pay for work that had already been completed – something that is even less amenable to an appeal than a TRO. Moreover, they noted, because the government has not appealed the temporary restraining order, it would still have to comply with it even if the court were to lift the Feb. 25 order.

In a one-paragraph order on Wednesday, the court emphasized that Harris’s request to lift the Feb. 25 order “does not challenge the Government’s obligation to follow” the Feb. 13 temporary restraining order.

Alito’s dissent acknowledged Ali’s “frustration with the Government,” and that the aid groups had broached “serious concerns about nonpayment for completed work.” But the court’s denial of the Trump administration’s request to lift Ali’s Feb. 25 order, he contended, “is, quite simply, too extreme a response.=A federal court,” he suggested, “has many tools to address a party’s supposed nonfeasance. Self-aggrandizement of its jurisdiction is not one of them.”

https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/03/supreme-court-denies-trump-request-to-block-2-billion-foreign-aid-payment/

It’s time to reveal who Chief Justice Roberts crimes and be removed, along with Coney Barrett

'This is the whole point!': Jim Jordan SPARS with sanctuary city mayor

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, questioned Denver Mayor Mike Johnston about the city's sanctuary policies impacting ICE agents' ability to capture violent migrants

6:54

https://youtu.be/PVYUNsuFQ8w

'SWORD OF JUSTICE': Trump, Kash Patel announce Abbey Gate terror arrest

Deputy Middle East special envoy Morgan Ortagus joined 'America's Newsroom' to discuss the arrest of the suspect connected to the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan that killed 13 service members.

6:34

https://youtu.be/UOLVNFIzCTY

5 Mar, 2025 16:58

EU publisher pulls Vance’s book

A Lithuanian publishing house has recalled the US vice president’s novel in protest of Washington’s policy turn away from Kiev

Lithuanian publishing house Sofoklis has taken US Vice President J.D. Vance’s book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ off the shelvesin response to reports that Washington has halted military aid to Kiev. The White House has not directly confirmed the reports to date.

US President Donald Trump made the decision after his public altercation with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in Washington last week. Speaking to the press afterward, Trump accused Zelensky of not wanting peace and trying to drag Washington into supporting the conflict long-term.

When asked about the pause of US aid to Ukraine, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told Fox News on Wednesday thatthe president would consider reversing it “if we can nail down these [peace] negotiations.”

The publisher made its own announcement in a Facebook post on Tuesday: “After the US presidential administration suspended aid to Ukraine, the publishing house Sofoklis withdrew J.D. Vance's book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ from sale until the US foreign policy towards Ukraine changes.”

Sofoklis suggested customers read books by Ukrainian authors and donate to Kiev instead.

Zelensky has called called his Oval office debacle “regrettable,” although he has not apologized over the spat. The Ukrainian leader has also offered to sign a minerals deal with the US cancelled after the Oval office shouting match.

Trump has touted the deal as a way for the US to “get back” the money it has spent on funding Kiev since the escalation of the conflict in 2022.

In addition, Zelensky has declared himself ready to work towards an immediate ceasefire, reversing his hardline position on peace talks. In the past, he said that Ukraine would fight as long as it takes, and that any talks would be on Kiev’s terms.

Moscow has repeatedly stated that it finds a temporary ceasefire to the Ukraine conflict unacceptable, alleging that it would be used by Kiev to rearm. Russia insists on what it calls a permanent, legally binding solution that would address the fundamental causes of the conflict.

(The U.S. gives security subsidies to these countries, it’s not like Vance will miss the money. They are just digging a bigger hole for themselves. If that’s all they got it’s not going to help them pressure the U.S. to change the policy. It seems very few people in Europe want this war to stop killing millions. Faggots)

https://www.rt.com/russia/613770-publisher-pulls-vances-book-over/

5 Mar, 2025 12:37

Myanmar leader backs Russia against Ukraine

The Asian country’s prime minister has said Moscow will soon win the conflict

Myanmar fully supports Russia’s military campaign against Ukraine and is confident in Moscow’s victory, the Asian country’s prime minister, Min Aung Hlaing, has said.

He made the remarks during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday, stressing that the conflict was instigated by the West.

According to Min Aung Hlaing, the world is moving toward a multipolar order, led by Russia, while the Ukraine crisis has unfolded as a direct result of Western countries’ efforts to resist this shift.

“I am confident that every country must defend itself, its sovereignty, its people, and its interests,” Myanmar’s leader said. “We understand Russia’s situation, and we fully support it in its special operation in Ukraine. And I am certain – I can say this: victory will be yours soon.”

Russia has repeatedly argued that the Ukraine conflict was provoked by NATO’s expansion toward its borders.

Last year, Putin outlined his conditions for peace negotiations with Kiev, which involve the complete removal of Ukrainian troops from all Russian territories, including the four former Ukrainian regions that joined Russia in 2022. He also demanded that Ukraine legally commit to never joining NATO or any other Western military bloc.

Following the escalation of the crisis in February 2022, General Zaw Min Tun, a representative of Myanmar’s military authorities, stated that Russia was “taking necessary actions to preserve and strengthen its own state sovereignty” and, as a great power, was “ensuring a balance of global forces that helps maintain peace worldwide.” The South-East Asian nation has since refused to back Western sanctions on Russia.

During his meeting with Min Aung Hlaing, Putin noted that relations between Russia and Myanmar are “indeed developing steadily,”noting bilateral trade rose 40% last year.

The two countries have agreed to boost economic ties and signed a deal on the construction of a small-scale nuclear power plant in Myanmar. Russian state nuclear energy giant Rosatom said the plant will have an initial capacity of 100 megawatts, with the potential for future expansion.

The Russian president also announced that a military contingent from Myanmar will participate in the May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

https://www.rt.com/russia/613749-myanmar-russia-ukraine-victory/

5 Mar, 2025 17:24

Poland confirms US has suspended military aid to Ukraine

American weapons have stopped moving across the border, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said

The US has suspended military assistance to Ukraine, including the delivery of weapons that were already in shipment, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has told journalists. Earlier, the move was reported by several US media outlets.

“Today, a decision was announced to suspend American aid for Ukraine,” Tusk told reporters ahead of a government meeting on Tuesday. Washington has not made any official announcements on the issue.

“Reports that are coming from the border, from our hub in Jasionka, have confirmed the announcements of the American side,” the Polish prime minister stated. Located in the southeastern Poland, Jasionka airport has been transformed into a major supply and transport hub for Ukraine-bound Western military aid.

Several US media outlets, including Bloomberg, the New York Times and CNN, then reported that US President Donald Trump had paused military aid following the falling out with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky in Washington last Friday. According to the NYT,the president’s order affected more than $1 billion in “arms and ammunition in the pipeline and on order.”

According to Tusk, American weapons which had already reached Poland were not expected to be sent to Ukraine following Trump’s decision. The prime minister also claimed that the US actionssuggest the Trump administration could possibly “start lifting” anti-Russian sanctions.

Last month, Trump held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with discussions aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict and restoring bilateral ties. The US president then announced that he was “trying to do some economic development deals” with Moscow. He also signaled that sanctions could be lifted “at some point.”

Moscow responded by saying that it was open to economic cooperation with the US and called for the restrictions to be lifted.

According to Tusk, such developments were putting the EU and Ukraine “in a more difficult situation.” He also stated that the bloc’s task was “to increase its defense capabilities as quickly as possible” and in close coordination with “neighboring” NATO states.

On Wednesday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed to Fox Business that Washington has suspended intelligence sharing with Kiev as well. He called the measure temporary and argued that it was aimed at ensuring Kiev was committed to the peace process. Sky News initially reported on the same day that the suspension was “selective” only to say that it became total hours later.

Moscow had previously welcomed the reports about the suspension by saying thatif Washington stuck to this decision, it would “probably be the best contribution to the cause of peace.”

(The EU are freaking out because they will have to foot the bill. They should, they started it. It’s really unbelievable that Poland would back Ukraine when the Nazis there killed more than a million Polish citizens in WWII, plus Poland has the goal of taking back land that was stolen by the Nazis from them in WWII, so their motives are not pure. They are fine with more Ukrainians dying.)

https://www.rt.com/news/613774-poland-us-military-aid-kiev/