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... Medical mycologist Shawn Lockhart stepped to the podium and began describing a fungal disease that attacks cats, causing oozing skin ulcers and worse, and spreads to humans. It isn't yet in the United States ... that officials know of. But the disease, caused by Sporothrix brasiliensis, has sickened and killed thousands of cats and infected more than 11,000 people and at least 200 dogs in South America since its emergence in Brazil in the 1990s.

"What we have right now is this ginormous ongoing outbreak of Sporothrix brasiliensis in Brazil," Lockhart, a senior adviser at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said June 7. The fungus has spread beyond Brazil to cats, dogs and people in Paraguay, Chile, Argentina and most recently Uruguay.

"It's just a matter of time" until the fungus reaches the United States, Lockhart told me after the session. "We're waiting."

Here's why he's so concerned.

He worries about the fungus spreading in big cities such as Istanbul and Bangkok where "cats are just everywhere," and in rural areas in the United States where large populations of farm cats roam freely.

"All it takes is one traveler [from South America] bringing their cat with them, and it can emerge anywhere," Lockhart said during the presentation. "This is something we are very, very worried about." ...

... D.C. Experiences Code Red' Air Quality After Fireworks ...

Gee, who could have ever seen this coming?

Another view ...

Related ...

@#1 ... Get your ballot in on time. Problem solved. ...

Define "on time."

Does that mean postmarked by the end of Election Day?

So far, the only possible vandalism that I have seen evidence of was Pres Trump's motorcade driving across the Reflecting Pool.

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... Like President Donald Trump, Burgum said he was 100% sure that vandals caused the damage to the century-old Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. Trump has charged that a 350-foot gash was cut into the pool's liner in the midst of recent renovations, while Burgum described it as multiple cuts adding up to that figure. He also said the pool would have to be at least partially drained in the coming week to finish the repairs.

The repairs will not be opened up to new contractors, he said.

"We'll use the same company, because they did a fantastic job," Burgum told CNN's "State of the Union." ...

@#1 ... As recently as last week, the president told attendees of a conservative religious conference that since his successful "one-day war" in Venezuela, the U.S. has "taken out millions of barrels of oil, and we've paid for the war many times over." ...

The reports I read stated that the oil revenue went to a bank account in Qatar.

@#4 ... Alcohol. ...

And the long, so long, winter nights ...

@#5 .... The -------- want to delete it... ...

Not sure why the site bleeped out MAGA in yur comment.

But, yeah.

The Declaration of Independence says that "all men are created equal."

Right there, MAGA seems to disagree. Maybe if it had said "all white men are created equal" MAGA would be more supportive?

More from the OpEd...

... Construction workers, hotel maids, gas station attendants and store cashiers will typically earn more than $20 an hour plus evening or weekend bonuses, about five weeks' paid vacation each year, a pension, maternity and paternity leave that add up to a year and paid leave when a child is sick. You may even get paid time off if you move homes.

Those are broadly the terms for Norwegian and foreign companies alike, including the likes of 7-Eleven shops, Burger King restaurants and ExxonMobil-affiliated gas stations. Which raises the question: If American and other international firms can offer such munificent terms for retail jobs in Norway, could they do so in our country?

We'll get to that, but what unfolds here is a result of the Nordic social and economic model, which aims to reduce inequality, boost opportunity and optimize the quality of life -- providing a lift, in particular, for those at the lower end of the income scale.

What we tend to think of as "low wage" jobs aren't truly low-earning in Norway, and they also come with state-provided health care and child care, plus strong unions that ensure that layoffs or firings are rare.

You want security, health care and the American dream? Look to Scandinavia. ...

@#1 ... Vance argued that many Americans turned to Trump as a "pain reliever" following mounting distrust in the government and economic decline. He called Trump's political appeal at the time, "cultural heroin," and predicted that supporters would eventually realize he was not necessarily the answer to their problems. ...

While his comment looks mostly correct, I think he failed to take into account the "members of a cult" aspect of MAGA, and the typical reluctance of cult members to leave a cult.

More from the article ...

... The newspaper is part of the Department of Defense, and its reporters are Pentagon employees. But it has long maintained editorial independence from the top brass. "We're trying to provide independent news for the military community," Slavin said. ...

The paper has been published continuously since World War II, heralded as representing "the free thought and free expression of a free people."

But this past January, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted this on X: "We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century. We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale ... "

Asked what he understood "woke distractions" to mean, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin replied, "I really don't know what they were referring to, because they didn't explain it." ...

@#3 ... Then Peter Theil opened his checkbook and offered him the VP job. ...

Looks that way.

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... The original essay was written during Trump's first presidential campaign while Vance worked at Peter Thiel's venture capital firm, Mithril Capital Management.

Vance argued that many Americans turned to Trump as a "pain reliever" following mounting distrust in the government and economic decline. He called Trump's political appeal at the time, "cultural heroin," and predicted that supporters would eventually realize he was not necessarily the answer to their problems.

"Trump is cultural heroin," he wrote. "He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they'll realize it." ...

More from the article ...

... The original essay was written during Trump's first presidential campaign while Vance worked at Peter Thiel's venture capital firm, Mithril Capital Management.

Vance argued that many Americans turned to Trump as a "pain reliever" following mounting distrust in the government and economic decline. He called Trump's political appeal at the time, "cultural heroin," and predicted that supporters would eventually realize he was not necessarily the answer to their problems.

"Trump is cultural heroin," he wrote. "He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they'll realize it." ...

More from the article ...

... "We will definitely have special considerations for China, because China is a friendly country," Fazli said Saturday at the World Peace Forum in Beijing, without specifying what those concessions would entail. "Special treatment we should award to countries which are friendly to us."

The future management of the Strait of Hormuz is among several contentious issues being discussed as part of negotiations to secure a permanent end to the conflict. Iran effectively closed the strait when the US and Israel began airstrikes in late February, with traffic only recently picking up following an interim peace deal signed last month.

At least eight ships attempting to leave the Persian Gulf along the Omani coast turned back between Friday and Saturday, in the latest sign that reopening the strait remains fraught with complexity. ...

@#23 ... FoxNews pulled out of their Fox & Friends live coverage after two days at the National Mall because behind them were mostly live video of empty lawn in the middle of the "fair." ...

The FoxNews live video coverage of the empty lawn was difficult to watch.

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... The administration's approach envisions the Western Hemisphere " and Latin America in particular " as the United States' primary sphere of influence and the first line of defense for national security.

Mr. Trump's intervention in Venezuela this year, ousting unpopular President Nicols Maduro in a military operation, has come to be seen as a rare U.S. foreign policy success for this administration. But the devastation and threatening social collapse " in a country the president in January said the U.S. would "run" " could upend the White House's strategy for the region, analysts say. ...

The administration's approach envisions the Western Hemisphere " and Latin America in particular " as the United States' primary sphere of influence and the first line of defense for national security.

Mr. Trump's intervention in Venezuela this year, ousting unpopular President Nicols Maduro in a military operation, has come to be seen as a rare U.S. foreign policy success for this administration. But the devastation and threatening social collapse " in a country the president in January said the U.S. would "run" " could upend the White House's strategy for the region, analysts say. ...

Mr. Trump has spoken of Venezuela as though his only interest is the country's vast oil wealth, putting less focus on the democratic transition many Venezuelans are eager for. As recently as last week, the president told attendees of a conservative religious conference that since his successful "one-day war" in Venezuela, the U.S. has "taken out millions of barrels of oil, and we've paid for the war many times over."

But now, the two major earthquakes that left at least 2,000 Venezuelans dead and tens of thousands more missing and homeless have highlighted a dysfunctional state apparatus. ...

More from the article ...

... "We have officially taken over Infowars now," Heidecker said while playing a host character parodying Jones.

"We are in charge of Infowars. This is a new dawn, a new era. We are turning the page and we're forgetting the past."

The Onion plans to share some of the revenue from the parody website with the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, CEO Ben Collins told the Associated Press.

Collins said the company will send Sandy Hook families $100,000 from merchandise sales that combine the Infowars brand with The Onion logo in rainbow colors, the outlet reported Thursday. ...

Related ...

More from the article ...

... Volunteer Michael Scurr, recalled feeling butterflies in his stomach after he opened up the paper and realised what it was.

"I called over to my boss and said, 'I think you need to come and have a look at this'," he told BBC News.
Tim Muffett and Michael Scurr stand in a dark room, with a copy of the US Declaration of Independence in front of them.
BBC News correspondent Tim Muffett (left) being shown the recently found copy by volunteer Michael Scurr (right)

Following restoration works, the copy will be displayed in the archives' exhibition on the path to American independence, which opened last month.

Saul Nass, chief executive of The National Archives, praised the find as "an extraordinary discovery".

He added: "It's a vanishingly rare surviving copy of the Declaration of Independence, found not in America, but here in the UK."

The document was seized by the Royal Navy on Christmas Eve 1776 when the HMS Raisonable captured an American ship, the Dalton, off the coast of Portugal following a seven-hour pursuit.

Dr Graham Moore from The National Archives said the discovery is "one of the rarest forms of the Declaration we know about", adding that it was not meant to be preserved due to the intention to distribute it quickly. ...