#Trump stem cells

[dosesofcommonsense]

If the Corporate Media Machine lies about everything (and they do), then everything they tell America about this guy is a lie.

Putin exposed Nazis in Ukraine. He attacked US Biolabs hidden under empty hospitals and apartments. He wasn’t the aggressor but was provoked by the CIA in Ukraine.

Ukraine is a proxy war created by the Deep State intelligence groups and a money laundering front for Congress. Ukraine has Hillary Clinton’s server data, info on Hunter Biden and the hidden Biden money, has a giant stem cell research environment for aborted fetal tissues from Planned Parenthood and Putin exposed all that.

Who doesn’t like him? The Deep State/NWO/Globalist cabal, UN (deep state), WHO (deep state), Mossad (deep state), CIA/FBI (deep state). He sounds like a Russian Trump. No wonder the deep state’s propaganda team hates him.

[reasonandempathy]

The weird radical/revolutionary politic larpers on this site are so allergic to political pragmatism I swear lmao. I am definitely left of the Democratic Party and I am certainly voting for Joe Biden in November. Not because I like him (I don’t). He is absolutely horrific on Gaza and that’s only the top (and priority considering there is a genocide going on there) of a list of complaints I have about him. I even voted uncommitted in my state’s presidential primary (the Pennsylvania one; I had to write it in) to protest. However, I’m still thinking pragmatically. Trump has said things that make me credibly think he will be worse on Gaza (insane that being worse on Gaza than Biden is possible but it is unfortunately), and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Project 2025, the potential for him to appoint more deeply conservative justices, more of his aggressively screwing over poor and middle class people with his tax policies. And does anyone else remember the spike in hate crimes after the race was called for him in 2016? Before he was even inaugurated? Whether people vote or not in November we will still have to deal with one of these two men in office come January unless all of the internet ancom larpers overthrow the government by then (doubt), so I’d rather deal with the one who will be marginally less bad and who didn’t try to overthrow the government. Can’t have your revolution if nobody’s alive cause you kept pushing off politically participating because there was no perfect option. 👍

Political pragmatist anon, sorry for ranting in your askbox but I feel like I lose brain cells watching these people talk. The other day I saw someone say Biden is bad because Roe v. Wade fell under his administration… even though the reason for that was Trump appointed justices. 💀 (2/2)

Fucking insane. Sincerely.

It's a completely, flatly binary choice for anyone with a brain stem and sincerity. It's distilled into the two below images:

Where all major third party candidates are even on the ballot

How many electoral votes the largest of those (green party, a.k.a. Jill Stein) would win if they won every single state they're on the ballot for.

They are literally, legally, incapable of winning the election. They are not on enough state ballots to win and Jill Stein would need to somehow win California and Texas to even "win" all the states they're on the ballot for. Which, again, would still not be enough to win the presidency and throw it to the currently existing Republican House of Representatives. Which would put Trump in office.

It's that straightforward. That simple. That BLARINGLY obvious to literally everyone except these people.

On the one hand you have:

Significant and continuous support for Israel and it's genocide

Record levels of pardons for low-level drug offenses

the gearing up of the strongest anti-trust regime since the early 20th century

the most aggressive NLRB I've seen in my lifetime, with massive wins and institutional changes to help workers

Including getting Rail strike workers a week of sick-leave that gets paid out at the end of the year, which is better than NYC and LA sick leave laws

Millions of people (not enough) getting student debt forgiveness

Some trillion dollars (not enough)of investment in renewable resources and infrastructure

Proposed taxes on unrealized capital gains (a.k.a. how billionaires never have any money but can still buy Kentucky, Iowa, and Twitter)

Effectively an end to overdraft fees

The explicit support of leftist world leaders like Lula de Silva. Who he has explicitly worked with to expand worker rights in South America.

Has capped (some, not enough, only a tiny amount really but it's something) some drug prices, including Insulin.

Reduced disability discrimination in medical treatment

Billions in additional national pre-k funding

Ending federal use of private prisons

Pushing bills to raise Social Security tax thresholds higher to help secure the General Fund

Increasing SSI benefits

and more

vs

Said Israel should just nuke Gaza and "get it over with"

Personally takes pride in and credit for getting Roe v Wade overturned

Is arguing in court that the President should be allowed to assassinate political rivals

Muslim Ban Bullshit, insistently

Actively damages our global standing and diplomatic efforts just by getting obsessed with having a Big Button

Implemented massive tax cuts on ich people, tax hikes on middle class and poor people, and actively wants to do it again

"Only wants to be a dictator for a little bit, guys, what's the big deal"

Is loudly publicly arguing that the US shouldn't honor its military alliances after-the-fact

Tore up an effective and substantial anti-nuclear-proliferation treaty with Iran

Had a DoEd that actively just refused to process student debt forgiveness applications that have been the law of the land for decades now

Has a long record of actively curtailing and weakening the NLRB and labor movement, including allowing managers to retaliate against workers, weakened workplace accommodation requirements for disabled people, and more

Rubber stamped a number of massive mergers building larger, more powerful top companies and increasing monopolistic practices

Fucking COVID Bullshit and hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths

Openly supporting fascists and wannabe-bootlicks ("Very fine people" being only the beginning of it

It's really not fucking close.

[mariacallous]

Earlier this month, the Alabama Supreme Court issued an opinion, complete with a wildly theocratic concurrence from Chief Justice Thomas Parker, that functionally outlawed in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the state.

In the wake of the ruling, Republicans have tried to unwind this mess, with the Alabama legislature considering passing a law to ensure IVF access and Donald Trump coming out to say he strongly supports access to IVF. 

All of this is a bit of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, as the damage is done. The entire spectacle was inevitable once the GOP gave the party over to anti-choice zealots decades ago.

In brief, the reason the Alabama Supreme Court’s opinion implicates and outlaws IVF is that the state has a Wrongful Death of a Minor statute, and the court decided this applies to “all unborn children, without limitation.” But there’s no language in the statute that says this. Rather, it’s just that over the last 15 years, the Alabama Supreme Court has issued a series of rulings saying that the undefined term “minor child” in the statute can be stretched to “unborn children” regardless of what state of development the embryo is at. Once the court created such an expansive definition, the decision that frozen embryos are people was inescapable. 

To be fair, though, the Alabama Supreme Court is entirely made up of conservative Republicans, they were a bit hamstrung in their decision. Alabama’s state constitution states that “it is the public policy of this state to ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child in all manners and measures lawful and appropriate." But that doesn’t necessarily mean the court was required to, as it did here, extend that “unborn child” definition to what it calls “extrauterine children” — embryos frozen by people pursuing IVF. 

That IVF is even controversial is an indictment of the GOP

An IVF cycle is designed to produce multiple eggs that can be retrieved in one procedure. The more eggs produced, the greater the likelihood of a viable embryo that can be implanted, hopefully resulting in a pregnancy. Because of this, multiple embryos often remain, and people freeze those for several reasons. People may use them if the first attempt at implantation doesn’t work, thus avoiding multiple egg retrieval cycles. They may save them for later if they decide to have more children. They may donate them to other people struggling with fertility issues. 

For people not saddled with the misguided anti-choice belief that a tiny clump of cells is the same as a person, this is a non-controversial process. It enhances the chance of pregnancy and allows people to plan for future children without undergoing multiple invasive egg retrieval cycles. But if one subscribes to the notion of fetal personhood — that a fetus is quite literally a person, with all the attendant privileges that confers — then those frozen embryos are the same as babies. 

This is, of course, a religious, not scientific belief. Chief Justice Parker, in his concurring opinion, made clear that his vote, at least, stems directly from his religious beliefs rather than being grounded in the law. Citing Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, the Ten Commandments, and the King James Bible, Parker concludes that “even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”

Notably, none of those things are legal precedent. Indeed, in a country founded on the separation of church and state, they shouldn’t inform a court holding. However, since religious conservatives dominate the US Supreme Court, that separation has largely collapsed. This has emboldened conservative litigants and conservative state and federal judges to take ever more anti-choice stances. 

Reproductive health activists have been sounding the alarm about the anti-choice attacks on IVF for years, particularly in the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. At least two prominent anti-choice groups, Americans United for Life and Students for Life, have railed against IVF. The chief legal officer for Americans United for Life, Steve Aden, called IVF “eugenics” and said that IVF created “embryonic human beings” that were destroyed in the process. Students for Life called IVF “damaging and destructive.”

These same anti-choice groups also hate birth control, and the Dobbs decision paved the way for them to mount a theocratic attack on it too. Christopher Rufo, who ginned up a panic over benign diversity initiatives and helped force out the first Black president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, has already telegraphed that this is his next attack.

Over on Elon Musk’s increasingly Nazi-fied social media site, X, Rufo is spewing rhetoric about how “the family structure disintegrated precisely as access to birth control proliferated” and that recreational sex is bad and leads to single-mother households. 

Rufo isn’t alone. The Heritage Foundation, which is also busy with a blueprint for a second Trump presidency that would destroy the administrative state and whose leader is still pushing the big lie that Trump won the 2020 election, has also called for the end of birth control. Also over on X, Heritage’s official account posted last year that “a good place to start would be a feminist movement against the pill and … returning the consequentiality to sex.”

And there you have it. Religious conservatives are calling for a return to a world where sex isn’t recreational or for pleasure but is instead fraught with consequences — namely, pregnancies that can’t be terminated even when the pregnant person’s life is in danger. To do this, however, they would need to succeed in getting the Supreme Court to overturn Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 case that invalidated restrictions on birth control. 

More importantly, Griswold affirmed the constitutional right to privacy. It’s that right that not only underpinned the right to an abortion in Roe but also underpins other cases related to the rights of Americans to pursue sexual and marital relationships without government interference. In Lawrence v. Texas, decided in 2003, the Supreme Court relied upon Griswold to throw out laws that criminalized sexual contact between members of the same sex. Twelve years later, that same reasoning was used in Obergefell v. Hodges to affirm a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. 

Justice Clarence Thomas hates the right to privacy and has made no secret he wants it gone. In his concurring opinion in Dobbs, he called on the Court to “reconsider” all these cases and overrule them as “demonstrably erroneous.” Justice Samuel Alito has been a bit more evasive about this, writing in Dobbs that “nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.” However, Alito’s Dobbs opinion is littered with references to “fetal life” and how abortion destroys an “unborn human being.” As recently as last week, Alito wrote a statement decrying Obergefell because he doesn’t think it’s fair that people who are bigots about same-sex marriage ever get called bigots. 

It isn’t just Thomas and Alito. During her confirmation hearing, Justice Amy Coney Barrett refused to say whether she thought Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell were rightly decided. In 2012, she signed an open letter stating that the Affordable Care Act’s required coverage for birth control was an assault on religious liberty. Similarly, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in his confirmation hearing, also wouldn’t say whether Griswold was correctly decided. Justice Neil Gorsuch did the same. 

That makes five likely votes — with Chief Justice John Roberts a possible sixth — for a rollback of privacy rights in America. With that pillar of law gone, states would be free to outlaw same-sex marriage, get rid of birth control, and impose any other theocratic conditions they’d like. 

The dog that caught the car

Right now, Republicans are scrambling to undo the damage they’ve wrought, realizing that an anti-IVF stance is alienating to most. Last year, the Pew Research Center found that 42 percent of adults had used fertility treatments or knew someone who had. From 1996 to 2018, over 1 million babies were born as a result of fertility treatments. Mike Pence has spoken publicly about how he and his wife used IVF and that the procedure should be protected. 

In Alabama, Republican legislators are planning to introduce a law that would say the embryo isn’t a person until implanted in a uterus. But legislation doesn’t trump the state constitution, which means the Alabama courts could throw out any law they deem contrary to their fetal personhood interpretation of the constitution. Several Alabama fertility clinics have stopped IVF services, citing the legal risk. The state’s GOP attorney general, Steve Marshall, said he wouldn’t use the decision to prosecute IVF providers or people seeking IVF treatment, but that’s a slender reed to rely upon. What provider or patient wants to rely upon the vague assurances of the attorney general rather than a law that protects access?

And it isn’t just IVF. Elected officials in states that have banned abortion have openly mocked those people who have come forward with horror stories of being refused abortions even as they developed sepsis or faced the possibility of permanent future infertility. Doctors have no clear guidance on when they can terminate a pregnancy to save the life of the pregnant person, leaving them vulnerable to prosecution. People who currently have frozen embryos have no idea what to do with them, and nor do clinics. If the hardest-line anti-choice people get their way, access to birth control will become as spotty and politicized as access to abortion is now. 

This type of amorphous fear is a feature, not a bug, of the post-Dobbs landscape. When the entire spectrum of reproductive health is murky, and the threat of prosecution looms large, doctors won’t perform abortions or IVF treatments. Patients won’t seek abortions even as their health deteriorates to a level that could result in death. People who can get pregnant will have their lives narrowed to nearly nothing as they try to sidestep the landmines of an ever-shifting jurisprudence over their bodies. 

And that’s exactly the way conservatives want it, no matter their current feeble attempts to get out from under an IVF disaster of their own making. The GOP made common cause with the worst people in the country on this issue, and now we’re all stuck with the consequences. 

[democratthatlovesguns]

TEXAS

There was a time that I could confidently say Texans demanded a minimum level of respect and decorum from any political candidate.

That is the impression I got from reading George W. Bush's Decision Points. I could never imagine W. calling Kamala Harris a "sleazebag" or openly fantasizing about his political opponents facing a firing squads.

I remember a W. that made the right choice for the country, even though it violated his religious principles, when it came to allowing further stem cell research - because it had the potential to help save the lives of many Americans. A George that kept loyal to his mother's plea asking him not to speak of her miscarriage. A W. that would never make light of another person's disability.

That is the type of Texan I remember and I still respect. And just for the record, I might be the last American that still agrees the war in Iraq was necessary - fuck Saddam Hussain. I have yet to meet an Iraqi that is not overjoyed that piece of shit is dead - the sacrifice of our brothers and sisters was not in vain.

I know that W., together with many Texans, is disgusted watching Trump mime oral sex on a microphone. And I know they're disgusted with many more failures of character and reprehensible behaviors from Donald Trump, and I hope it's enough for them to send a strong message that "no, Texans do not support the red banner no matter what."

[lean-mean-demon-genevieve]

Is there any evidence Jared and Gen were friends with Joe Rogan? Jared used to follow him but he doesn’t anymore after his political views came out. That doesn’t mean he ever knew him personally.

I got this ask a few weeks ago and life was lifeing and it didn’t get addressed. But answering it today feels extra appropriate.

I planned to say that while I didn’t have any evidence of Jared knowing Rogan personally, I also would like to question anon’s assumption that Jared unfollowed Rogan because of his political affiliations…because that’s not the impression I got. Again it seems anon may be assuming goodwill and good intentions based on overall liking/being a fan of Jared’s.

If anyone has proof of Jared decrying Rogan for his political leanings, I would love to see it.

If you believe this Reddit thread, Jared unfollowed after some Twitter backlash in 2019:

Liking a post doesn’t always mean that you support everything attached to it, but it’s a stamp of approval of sorts. Jared may have liked the comeback story of the guy in the picture. I believe facts and patterns. Call me a cynic, but I try not to attribute good intentions to anyone who I don’t know personally and especially not someone with an image for sale. This is true of any celeb. But Jared has a well documented habit of popping off and then weakly taking it back. So in this case, I’d much rather hear it from him explicitly that he disagrees with Rogan’s views.

Joe Rogan has been a known bro with problematic views long before he became even more openly right-wing in 2020 following the pandemic. Hence the backlash that caused Jared to unfollow in 2019. So basically, Jared didn’t unfollow until people noticed and it caused a dent in his own image. That’s not the same as cutting ties.

Let us not pretend that unfollowing means anything more than PR. In fact, in August of 2020, Gen had this to say in an interview:

Jared may have unfollowed Rogan’s socials but both of the Pads were still listening to the podcast a year later, per her report. And listening enough to proudly endorse Rogan’s “candor” and attach themselves to him in a public interview.

Gen also endorsed some of the same products as Rogan, including Four Sigmatic (mushroom power for focus) and Butcher Box. In this ad for Butcher Box in March of 2021, Jared can be heard to have more knowledge of Rogan’s promo codes than those of his own wife. So it seems 2 years post unfollowing, he is still paying pretty close attention to Rogan’s content:

Even more recently, The Pads and Rogan both endorse Ways 2 Well; a bougie Austin med spa for all things IV, supplements, stem cells, and otherwise “medical anxiety of the rich” related. Is this a crime? No of course not. But I do think it suggests that they all run in the same circles:

(Don’t get me started on Rogan’s anti-trans views while also receiving gender-affirming hormone treatments.)

Cut to this week, and a former Walker bit-part actor is singing the praises of Jared and Rogan in the same post. (To a Jason Aldean soundtrack, no less. You may recall this turd from his song controversy last year.) The post is tagged at Rogan’s comedy club in Austin, Mothership. Rogan himself moved to Austin in 2020, reportedly in part because of the state’s lack of income tax and because LA was too liberal.

And ok, so this says that David is friends with Rogan and also friends with Jared. And to anon’s point maybe we don’t have a documented friendship between Jared and Rogan but I’d argue that it doesn’t matter to me.

On the night before the US election, Rogan endorsed the then presidential candidate Donald Trump in this promo post for his Elon Musk interview:

An endorsement of this nature, I feel, tells us a lot about Rogan’s beliefs. I don’t have the bandwidth nor space in this post to detail all of those points. But from this leftist’s perspective, it includes endorsement of anti-choice/“prolife” (but also anti public assistance), anti trans right, pro war/genocide, anti climate change, and anti vaxx to name a few.

Pada-fans will often cite Jared’s connection to the Austin-based, pro lgbtq+ non-profit organization Out Youth as evidence of his liberalism. But I wonder what the people of Out Youth will think after seeing this photo of Jared and knowing that he came out to Mothership comedy club to see Rogan’s brand of “anti-woke” comedy. (Rogan was performing that night, per this post.)

Here is an article from an Austin newspaper that details the vibe of the club: X

I also think this bit is…interesting. Go ahead and Google the “vibe” of these other comedians if you’re unfamiliar. Big yikes.

And here are a couple other links that detail the content of Rogan’s most recent Netflix special, for further context on the content of his standup: X and X

I have several friends who are also trans. I, unlike Jared, have also never listened to a single Rogan podcast. But regardless of how big of a personality Rogan is, if I had the opportunity to meet him and get my photo taken with him, my values would give me serious pause. If my friends saw me with my arm slung around this guy, what conclusions should they draw from my smile and the comfort they see? Personally, since I do not agree with anything that Rogan stands for, I would opt out. I wouldn’t want to even risk someone assuming my affiliation.

Jared, on the other hand, did.

At the very least you can say that he was willing to risk the misunderstanding. And I think that’s because he knows it still won’t matter to most of his fans. They will always find a way to excuse his choices.

[darkmaga-returns]

#10 - Actor exposes cancer breakthrough suppressed by Big Pharma.

Remarkable success stories are pouring in from people using Ivermectin and Fenbendazole to combat cancer.

Mel Gibson dropped a bombshell on Joe Rogan’s podcast, revealing that three of his friends had “stage four cancer,” and now “all three of them don’t have cancer right now at all.”

“And they had some serious stuff going on,” Gibson emphasized.

Dr. William Makis, who treated one of Gibson’s friends, has been rigorously researching the anti-cancer potential of Ivermectin and Fenbendazole over the past two years. During that time, he discovered, “There are over 100 papers on the success of Ivermectin and cancer.”

“Ivermectin can actually kill cancer stem cells,” Dr. Makis explained, noting that it targets the cells “that chemo can’t kill.” He added, “It can also reverse resistance that cancer cells develop to certain types of chemotherapy.”

The benefits extend further. “It [Ivermectin] makes cancer cells susceptible to radiation treatment as well. And so it’s a radiosensitizer,” he shared.

Yet, research into these applications has been neglected. “Big Pharma has completely abandoned it. Ivermectin is off-patent. No one’s going to make money on it,” Dr. Makis pointed out.

Taking action where others haven’t, Dr. Makis applied his findings to his practice. “I have over 1,000 cancer patients who are on either a combination of Ivermectin and Fenbendazole or Ivermectin and Mebendazole,” he shared.

Some of his patients were “given a terminal diagnosis” but are now “cancer-free” or have their “cancer under control.”

“Patients, for example, who are taking combinations of chemo and Ivermectin or radiation and Ivermectin are seeing dramatic results that oncologists have never seen, that radiation oncologists have never seen,” Dr. Makis shared.

“Tumors shrinking down to almost nothing, liver metastases disappearing, brain metastases disappearing.”

“There are hundreds, if not thousands, of testimonials” documenting the success stories of Ivermectin and Fenbendazole, Dr. Makis added, offering hope to patients seeking alternatives.

He strongly believes that “the future of cancer care is in repurposed drugs.”

For more information on the use of Ivermectin and Fenbendazole for cancer, follow 

Dr. William Makis MD on Substack.

COVID Intel - by Dr.William Makis

In depth INTEL on COVID-19, Sudden Deaths, mRNA Vaccines, Turbo Cancer, Cancer Treatments, Ivermectin, Fenbendazole, Vaccine injuries, H5N1, New Pandemics and so much more...

By Dr. William Makis MD

(See 9 More Revealing Stories Below)

#9 - Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman breaks the internet with two explosive statements on Fox News.

#8 - Mollie Hemingway shares a hilarious take on the “gift” that Liz Cheney and the January 6 Committee gave to Republicans.

#7 - Shocking new study finds catastrophic neurological and psychiatric damage from the COVID jabs.

#6 - “This is not normal.” A leaked memo reveals an unusual “Presidential Inauguration Medical Personnel Support Deployment Request.”

While you’re here, please take a second to subscribe to this page for more weekly news roundups.Subscribe

#5 - Insane Joe Rogan clip predicting the Los Angeles wildfire goes mega-viral.

#4 - The UK government opens investigations into Elon Musk’s TWEETS about grooming gangs—instead of the grooming gang issue itself.

#3 - Greenland is “ready to talk” with Trump as “status quo” becomes “no longer an option.”

#2 - Joe Rogan shuts down Mark Zuckerberg’s bogus claim about COVID.

#1 - The New Zealand government pushes to codify “medical mandates” into law.

Share

BONUS #1 - The California Home Insurance Crisis is Worse Than We Thought

BONUS #2 - Donald Trump’s COVID ‘Game-Changer’ Finds Surprising New Use

BONUS #3 - Fortune Magazine Tricked Into Musk Hit Piece by Random Person on Internet

BONUS #4 - The Meat Upgrade You Didn’t Know You Needed

BONUS #5 - REVEALED: Georgia Judge Who Took His Own Life Sent a Cryptic Message to Governor Brian Kemp Before Dying

[catsonja]

posting this bc this album was my album of the year. from having my stem cell transplant, to getting on estrogen, to trump being elected. its been a weird year. but I will fight on for everyone I love. bc this year I found so many people that I love. and love is worth fighting for.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Laura Bassett at Men's Health:

LESS THAN A year after launching his independent campaign for president, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. began shopping around his endorsement—and the loyalty of his small but significant base—to both major political parties in exchange for a cabinet position. Kamala Harris reportedly rejected a meeting with him outright. Donald Trump, however, has taken him up on the offer, announcing that in exchange for Kennedy’s endorsement, he’d let the anti-vaccine candidate “go wild” on health, food, and medicine if he wins a second term. Kennedy says Trump has promised him control of multiple government agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—which includes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—and the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Therefore, a hybrid anti-vax and Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement was born: MAHA, short for “Make America Healthy Again.”

Supporting this movement to push Kennedy voters toward Trump is the MAHA Alliance, a Super PAC led by Del Bigtree, former communications director for the Kennedy campaign and CEO of the anti-vax group Informed Consent Action Network. The operation appears to be widely geared towards men, partnering with right-wing influencers like Russell Brand and Jordan Peterson who champion traditional masculinity, and aims to combine “the health-conscious, independent-minded voters with Trump’s proven ability to disrupt the status quo,” according to its mission statement. “This includes prioritizing regenerative agriculture, preserving natural habitats, and eliminating toxins from our food, water, and air.”

Some of MAHA’s goals sound pretty great in theory—especially during a time when public trust in the medical system and American food safety are so low. Incentivizing sustainable farming, improving soil health, protecting natural habitats, and cleaning up our air, water, and food are goals everyone should be able to get behind, paired with a viable policy strategy and leaders who are actually willing to take on the big oil and big agriculture lobbies to address our systemic environmental problems.

[...]

Meanwhile, other ideas being pushed by the movement and by Kennedy himself—like eroding public trust in vaccines and peddling pseudoscientific alternatives to vaccines—are downright dangerous to public health. In an October 25 post on X, Kennedy threatened to dismantle the entire FDA if Trump is elected, accusing the agency of “aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma.”

Many of these buzzwords he’s using—ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine in particular—are just snake oil alternatives to the Covid vaccine that don’t work, and in some cases, actually kill people. Jennifer Nuzzo, Ph.D., Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health, told me that Kennedy’s tweet “is straight from the anti-vaxxers' playbook that aims to sow doubt about credible medical approaches in order to sell and profit from unproven alternative approaches.”

[...]

Encouraging people to drink raw milk is another very dangerous health trend being promoted by supporters of the movement. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Fla.) recently waded into this one, tweeting a glass of unpasteurized milk with the caption, “Raw milk does a body good. Make America Healthy Again!” The problem is, by skipping the process of killing off harmful bacteria in milk, we are leaving it potentially contaminated with lethal pathogens. “Pasteurization has been one of the most effective public health measures ever, essentially ending the illnesses that used to come from drinking tainted milk,” explains Dr. Nestle. “Infectious diseases used to be the leading causes of death and disability among Americans. Public health measures effectively ended them. It makes no sense to bring them back.”

One thing MAHA gets somewhat right is addressing the serious health harms of microplastics and “forever chemicals,” which have been linked to chronic disease, heart attack, and stroke. It’s great that we’re starting to pay attention to those. Unfortunately, though, the Trump administration created a loophole during his final few months in office that allows companies to dodge having to report how many forever chemicals they’re discharging into the environment.

Laura Bassett wrote in Men’s Health what the MAHA movement gets right and wrong (and it’s mostly wrong) about our state of health.

[ttpd-chair]

“Policies under consideration include banning the use of fetal stem cells in medical research for diseases like cancer, rescinding approval of abortion pills at the F.D.A. and stopping hundreds of millions in federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Such an action against Planned Parenthood would cripple the nation’s largest provider of women’s health care, which is already struggling to provide abortions in the post-Roe era.”

[macabresymphonies]

One may say Trump didn't get shot in the ear, cause it healed so quick, but my theory is he's still packed chock-full of those experimental, fetus harvested STEM cells from his Covid treatment shots that we're witnessing him about to turn into Resident Evil villian.

[so-much-for-subtlety]

Can we get a sleeper agent planted in the Qanon community to plant a rumor that Trump is transgender, or his kids are all cokeheads, or born in Saudi Arabia, or harvests prenatal stem cells to keep the mop on his head alive?

[daisychainsandbowties]

how did you figure out that you’re nonbinary and that you specifically use they/them pronouns? /genq

oh okay so figuring out gender was a ‘casper is stupid for 17 entire years’ situation.

i basically came out of the cradle insisting that it was cringe and terrible of my parents to think of me as a girl. i was, emphatically, a Pokémon obsessed little guy since i could form entire sentences. but it was 2002, and frankly i was more concerned with how far i could spit and collecting spiders off the bushes to be worried about it. my parents (bless) were 100% cool with getting my clothes in the boys section & letting me do whatever i wanted (except get ice cream from the ice cream van every day. their one and only instance of homophobia 😔) so i didn’t really suffer, especially, beyond scowling at people in school when they dared to refer to me. 

it was pretty clear to me when i was 11 that having a cursed body was, indeed, going to be a curse. not worth mentioning how terrible and evil 11-14 was for me physically, tho to be fair i also took up swordfighting then so swings and roundabouts.

but yeah, around when i was 9 i knew there was a huge massive problem but then my mom got cancer (multiple myeloma) and… yeah gender crisis took a backseat while we watched her almost die about three times (pulmonory embolism, stem-cell transplant, getting shingles with no immune system bc chemo). my grandmother looked after me while Hospital.

unhelpful to the anti-trans-kids-existing demons bc she was also like intensely indulgent of my refusal to wear anything but my brazil football jersey. she let me eat nothing but artificial cheese slices put on a single slice of white bread and then microwaved because i had the massive trump card of not being allowed to see my mother for almost six months. i think she was grateful that i seemed to find the whole situation too serious to cry over. my best friend was a boy & he was pretty willing to be like ‘ok cool. ur not a girl. can we go on the trampoline?’ 

& then, when things calmed down & i was about 16/17, i had come out as gay (good for me) about two years before & then i realised i was oh fuck A Bit More Complicated than that i spent a while agonising over it. really a long walks on the beach pondering my gay ass type deal.

but then, just when i was kind of starting to vibe with being enby, I got really really sick, which lasted aboooout 5/6 years where it was just an old school platforming game but titled ‘casper tries not to die while trying to get a degree & two masters’). very do not pass go do not collect 200 of the universe to Do That. but hey. 

so it was around Pandemic when i finally got the brainspace to actually think, & i realised that i was definitely trans, probably nonbinary. i experimented for a while with different pronouns. realised my ‘dumbass nickname everyone has to call me’ was my ACTUAL NAME (never underestimate my stupidity and ignorance) & yeah at first i was thinking of going the hormones path (do not ever please god don’t get me started on how hard that is in this stupid bastard country. 5 years waiting period, on average. have to get diagnosed formally by a team of psychiatrists with what is characterised as a ‘mental illness’. have to ‘live’ - as Some Fucker sees it - as your ‘chosen’ gender for like two years AND be out to basically everybody - realistic and safe i say sarcastically i say while looking into the camera like i'm on the office - oh look i got started. anyway. bullshittery)

but eventually i realised huh nope i just wanted top surgery (same fucking deal with the health service tho) & for people to use they/them generally (i am not too fussed w/ pronouns for myself tho. like, a lot of my friends use he/him because frankly i deserve it most of the time with the himbo behaviour. professionally i insist on they/them for consistency. i get congnitive dissonance with she/her as in i get a weird shock & want to laugh & wonder who the fuck they’re talking about for a sec before i realise it’s me. but like, miffed too much i am not).

also gender is a big pendulum for me it’s an elliptic orbit sometimes for a few weeks i’m like a feminine guy and other times i feel like a masculine gay & sometimes i feel like the autism creature (bc i AM an autism creature, always). 

but i have, essentially, felt nonbinary always. trust me i have a pic of blue-eyed blond 5y/o me sitting on my bed in my Pokemon-themed room wearing a Manchester United jersey and holding my PS2 controller in my hands with a profoundly vacant and himboish expression on my face. it did fully take me 17 whole years to have my ‘oh’ moment about it, but a lot of that was profoundly indulgent parents who were you can’t even imagine how determined to not raise me the way they were raised - which meant, apparently, that if i wanted to be a spider-collecting, bug obsessed pokémon-fixated little guy who kept snapping branches off the bamboo and fashioning makeshift swords out of them - well then that was the creature they’d send to school every day. 

i think the tldr here is: casper stupid. gender a concept. 

[mariacallous]

At his rally on Sunday at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said that if elected he would allow wellness conspiracist and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to “go wild on health.” Kennedy, a former Democrat and scion of the famous political family, initially ran as an independent third-party and potential spoiler candidate, and has spent the better part of two decades spreading conspiracy theories that would likely inform the policies of a Trump administration.

In August, Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign and threw his weight behind Trump. (Both the Trump and Kennedy campaigns received support from billionaire donor Timothy Mellon.) There were early indications that he might have a place in a possible Trump administration, particularly in some areas focused on health. Kennedy himself even created a spinoff of Trump’s MAGA slogan with his own Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA. But Trump’s speech seems to indicate that Kennedy would indeed have a place in the cabinet, perhaps running Health and Human Services (HHS).

Kennedy has since hit the campaign trail stumping for Trump alongside another former Democrat and conspiracy theorist, Tulsi Gabbard.

Kennedy has spent years spreading health mis- and disinformation, particularly about vaccines. In 2014, Kennedy joined Children’s Health Defense (CHD) as a member of its board. CHD pushes debunked conspiracy theories linking conditions like autism with vaccines and other environmental factors. In 2021, Meta banned Kennedy’s Instagram account for spreading disinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine, and he was named by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) as one of 12 people responsible for 65 percent of vaccine disinformation across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, Kennedy’s own profile, as well as that of CHD, began to rise. CHD raised more money in 2021 than it ever had before.

Meta reinstated Kennedy’s Instagram account last year when he announced his run for the presidency, and it remains up, despite the fact that he is no longer running for office. CHD remains banned from Meta’s platforms. More recently, Kennedy has echoed unfounded conspiracies that could undermine faith in the integrity of the 2024 elections.

During his presidential campaign, Kennedy tried to distance himself from the anti-vax movement. Still, he continued to spread disinformation, like falsely saying that the Biden administration had violated the Nuremburg Code by mandating vaccines. And his vision for making America healthy again is drastic. Last Friday, he posted on X to warn the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that its “aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, [and] hydroxychloroquine” was about to end.

The Department of Health and Human Services oversees 13 agencies, including the FDA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In an interview with NBC News while he was still running for president, Kennedy said he would gut those agencies, which he has said are now captured by corporations. He would also impose more testing on already existing vaccines, which health experts told NBC would result in many children being unable to get vaccinated. (Trump, for his part, has claimed he would withhold funding from schools that require vaccination.) Kennedy’s plan would also include dismissing scientists at the NIH who study infectious diseases, focusing instead on the environmental factors and vaccines that he believes cause illnesses.

During his campaign, he held a health policy roundtable with doctors that pushed fake Covid-19 treatments.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told WIRED that “President Trump announced a Trump-Vance transition leadership group to initiate the process of preparing for what comes after the election. But formal discussions of who will serve in a second Trump Administration is [sic] premature.”

[the-firebird69]

I told him to do this and he's pretty good about it. He's actually trained I told Melissa to train him this is part of the women's stuff either side she agreed. So he says oh I get it now I know what to do reprogramming so she gets mad but he's not going to do anything like that yeah the effort is feeble. So here I am as the Black widow and it's the cost of me likes the other ones look a little odd no the white one's okay the black one looks like the granny stuff that's ironic in the spandex is kind of awkward it's true too I like this one too with hair down and everything it distracts people.

I calculated the size of the muscle. And we're always doing stuff like this we don't have a lot to do lots of times it became a huge deal we ran around for days we're really happy with it. Man he said to Trump did you really dial it in and it's like afraid and stuff and our friend's not going to do anything he's a class and he's kind of mean and his injured and we mean trump. So weird talking about it and people want to know what I came up with for size if you look at the cross section then you can kind of get it here we have better pictures of him doing the muscle thing it comes out as about 3.23 bars if you do it by volume it's about 7.45 bars a little bit more and we have people who have and it's 17 inch circumference almost it's 16.95 in measured by a computer and he says it usually in public is not flexing that hard so they say that in the computer and it's probably 17 in just barely but yeah so it's a little bit underneath those and yeah it's probably true so here we are again but the volume is about 7.54 bars that's really what I wanted to put down. Our men have a volume went at 17 in in circumference most of them from my age group of about 3.5 bars when you have a 20 inch biceps our age group which is that of Lily and Jason who becomes very huge without the gorilla stuff is about 7.1 bars keeping in mind it's measured out bigger but it's not and that's juicing too with the regular stuff we do stem cells and more at 21 inches it's 7.56 bars no it's 7.5 bars thank you jason. At 22 in say go up just a bit over the top of the shelf and are at 7.9 bars. By volume and it's not hard to figure it out. He's young he's a baby the muscles are not fully developed but it's all muscle and density is hard to figure out but his muscles are fairly dense and they're real they're similar to Jason when he works out for about 4 days and he is at 21 in and when he walks around he looks gigantic his arms are sticking out and all sorts of things

This can be a standard of measurement because when you put the bar up you see how big it is it's like a policeman's nightstick for other stuff and Melissa says I'm sick and his her husband that is says he knows so she's upset and says what are you doing about it since I'm trying to do what I'm doing which is nothing and she says good it's just too much activity suck a damn blog or the notes that Michael too funeral no that wasn't that bad. Inauguration of Biden and I understand that it's like this huge revolving door and a coliseum.. that was mop I don't appreciate it but it might be true.

"GOLD BAR STANDARD"

That's what I want people to call it because it's the way they're saying it you don't have to say the number and people would have to figure it out and it's less embarrassing. And the soap smells good and it does the job and it helps us we need it desperately very badly most of you men smell very badly you stink all the damn time

Black widow

Well don't that be all yeah we smell he doesn't say it cuz we stay away from him because we smell no he can't smell it sometimes cuz he's stuffed up it blows a huge load of boogers out and he still can't smell. And this is true that we don't have the same size muscles and it's hard to compare so right now he's as big as most of us no I'd be at like almost 20 in at the same volume in size of or really amount of muscle that's a big difference he says at 20 inches he's going to be gigantic and it's true the Colossus when he raises his arms and he's still with big when they're down but he's got big bones his arms arm bones are large on the inside of him and he says he's been trying because he needs to support his body through the sickness I got very sick and didn't do anything but he's focusing like all day on it says he's getting tired and needs to rest so I see when he's tired he rests what I'm doing is terrible I'm running myself into the wall

He says it this size will be strong so I want to know how strong

Trump

He's going to be very strong and the Black widow wants to say but she might not know because Dave wasn't as strong but she can say it

Thor Freya

It's a decent comparison because he knows how to train more and because he's smaller and can get stronger easier but this guy is bigger and get stronger he says great that's a lot of fun and it's true I don't see you Comic-Con as. And a period and I'm saying nothing and I'm saying as it's kind of funny cuz he can't be the hulk he's not big enough he could be the other one but doesn't want to. Thor no he can't do that and his father is laughing and smiling and his mother too. And yeah the helm is real and it looks a little bit more extravagant and he has one and we know who the name is in the wow

Yeah it'll be fun to be a Comic-Con I want to go too mop says and he wants her there and you'll see them go very fast if he catches wind of it as a character with sneakers yeah I can't run fast and boots that well unless he tightens the crap out of them it's really actually true you can't do it and we know about it. So he wants her to be there not going to try and look like her. And he says she looks just like Eileen Myers from westborough so Melissa is laughing or Jen format or something. And here we go it's more like the Jersey girl okay but I was trying to think about this. Colossus is not the MCU so there's a few characters and he has to look at it good this is Juggernaut no that's not it strong man or strong guy no

Black widow

We'll see how it goes with the gold standard yeah

Mop

Olympus

[epic-fail-compilation-2024]

The liberal feminist defense of sex work often fails to address the root causes of exploitation. While protecting workers is important, radical feminists argue that the industry itself needs to be dismantled. They advocate for social and economic systems that offer women alternatives to sex work, focusing on poverty reduction and access to education as key solutions to breaking the cycle of exploitation. Men—who might otherwise consider themselves supportive or open-minded—will often resort to condescending remarks like "who hurt you?" or "you re just bitter." This response seems designed not to understand but to discredit. But what s really happening here? Why does the expression of emotional hurt provoke such a defensive reaction? Radical feminists critique sex work as an exploitative industry that thrives on women 's vulnerabilities. While they support protecting sex workers from harm, they also argue for dismantling the conditions that force women into these roles. By addressing systemic issues like poverty, abuse, and lack of opportunity, feminists aim to create a society where women don 't have to rely on selling their bodies for survival. Women 's reproductive abilities and anatomy put us at greater risk of violence. Men have used religion as a justification to try to control the birth rates for centuries. Remember that no matter where you were born, being it Finland or Central African Republic, you are at risk of suffering reproductive violence. Could be you, me, your mom or your best friend. The ease of accessing transgender medical care without thorough mental health evaluations raises questions about the responsibility of the medical system. For such life-altering decisions, a lack of psychological support can leave trans individuals vulnerable to future regret or emotional challenges. This oversight points to a broader problem in healthcare, where efficiency and profit sometimes trump patient well-being. Why is hands always the one to trip over in Under the couch when things go bengy? Why is hands always the one to trip over in Under the couch when things go bengy? Feminist frustration with online activism often stems from its lack of tangible impact. While digital platforms allow for the spread of ideas, many feminists feel that real world organizing is necessary for true change. The shift from online discourse to physical mobilization is seen as essential for challenging oppressive systems and creating lasting social transformation. Zero: If I had a sonic the hedgehog for every time vengis tried to sag, Id own the perfect cell realm.

[lifestyleliv]

What Cancer Taught Me, Why I Don’t Trust Politicians, and How Chickens Saved My Sanity

Hey there,

It's Liv again.

If you haven’t checked out my first blog post, you should so you can get to know me a bit better! If you have, thank you so much and welcome back.

Over this past weekend I spent some time at Mayo Hospital for my FINAL round of ICE chemotherapy and immunotherapy. I got to go home on Monday and will stay home through the New Year. You can’t imagine how excited I am to be home, in my own bed, for the holidays! On January 8th, my husband Dan and I will move to Rochester for the 5-6 week stem cell transplant process. It’s honestly a bit daunting, but for the first time in a while, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with all this cancer crap, you know?

Despite the chemo treatments, I’ve been feeling pretty good overall. Some of my biggest side effects have been fatigue, nausea, and, worst of all, drinks tasting like salt…YUCK! The ICE chemotherapy also took all of my hair, and while I’m still adjusting to being bald, I got a wig that looks like “me.” I think the hardest part, though, has been all the nights away from home and, of course, away from my fur babies, Gus and Fiona (see picture for maximum cuteness).

What Have I Learned From Cancer?

I’ve been asked a lot lately, “So, what have you learned from cancer?” At first that question kind of pissed me off. Here’s why: when my mom passed away four years ago, I felt like I already learned all of the “important life lessons” you’re supposed to when something tragic happens: Live life to the fullest, never take a day for granted, always tell your loved ones you love them because you never know when it’ll be the last time…blah, blah, BLAH! 

When I got diagnosed with cancer, I initially viewed it as a punishment. Did I not sacrifice enough for my mom when she was battling dementia? Was I somehow the villain in my family? Did I not work hard enough? Did I sabotage my own health? The questions, anger, and self-loathing circled in my mind for a long time. And then someone has the nerve to ask me what “lessons” cancer has taught me…

Reflecting on that question now, the answer is clear. After my mom passed and several family members became estranged (more on that another day), I spent a lot of time holding pity parties for myself.  I’d tell myself things like, “No one loves me,” or “I’m the only girl left in my family and I have no one,” or even “I’m so lonely because there aren’t any women in my life to love and support me.” These thoughts bled into other areas of my life, like visualizing motherhood. I fantasized about how my relationship with my mom might have looked if she had lived to see me become a mom. I mourned the fact that she would never see me as a mother with children of my own, nor be able to support me through that motherhood journey. 

Now, on top of all that grief, I get cancer?! But here’s the beautiful thing that emerged from this shitty diagnosis - I am not alone. The lesson cancer has taught me is that I’m fiercely loved. There are strong women in my life that love and support me, and family doesn’t need to mean ‘by blood.’ Cancer has highlighted my support system in ways I couldn’t have imagined, and it’s made me feel beyond lucky, loved, and cared for. 

When I put together a group text to update my family and friends about my treatment, I was shocked at how long the list was - my inner circle. That was when I realized: I am not alone. While cancer has taught me about love and support, the world around us often feels chaotic and uncertain—especially when it comes to leadership and policies that directly affect our daily lives.

Rising Grocery Prices Under the Trump Administration: Why I Don’t Care

As many of you have probably heard, Trump gave an interview with Time Magazine this past week and walked back campaign promises, including the one about lowering grocery prices (shocking, right?). When asked whether his tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico would raise grocery prices, he said, and I quote, “I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow.” Later, he added, “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up” (Time Magazine, 2024). 

Here’s what I have to say about that: Well…well…well…I TOLD YOU SO! This buffoon isn’t even inaugurated yet and he’s already backing off his promises. It’s honestly embarrassing how many Americans were fooled by him while the rest of the world is just left laughing at us. And for anyone who thought Project 2025 wasn’t his endgame? You’re delusional. Who writes a 900+ page manifesto and then just says, “Just kidding, this isn’t the plan!”?  Look at who he’s appointing to his cabinet: Linda McMahone, Howard Lutnick, Scott Bessent, and Dr. Oz. These people have a combined net worth of over $340 billion. You really thought he wasn’t going to appoint his rich friends? News flash: none of them care about the price of groceries or gas because I’m pretty sure none of them have ever had to fill their own tanks or shop for their own food. So, to conclude: NONE of them, especially Donald J. Trump, care about YOU!

If you are worried about rising prices, I hear you. If you’re not worried, you probably voted for the orange dipshit and still have faith he’ll make good on his campaign promises. Best of luck and warmest regards with that one (insert eye-roll here). 

For those of us with good sense, though, here’s my plan…

That’s right, homesteading. Now, I know what you may be thinking: “Liv, we’re feminists. Isn’t homesteading, ‘going back to the kitchen,’ a little counterproductive to us fighting the good fight?” And to that, I say: If you look at it that way, sure, homesteading would go against everything I stand for. Have no fear, I am a feminist. Let me explain how I can f*uck the patriarchy, be a homesteading feminist queen, and how you can be one, too. 

In my Homesteading Feminist Queen Green Thumb Era

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, the food here in America is toxic. It’s packed with hormones, pesticides, chemicals, and preservatives. Even the fresh produce section is a little suspicious. Plus, a lot of our foods, like avocados, are imported. Now, under Trump’s tariffs, not only do I have to deal with these chemically-induced foods that are linked to obesity, heart disease, and cancer, but now I have to pay more for them?! No thanks.

That is why my “f*uck the patriarchy plan” is to rely on the grocery store as minimally as possible. I want to opt out of paying these higher consumer prices and, more importantly, I don’t want to rely on what the government provides. For the next four years, I want nothing to do with the government except to oppose everything they do. 

One of the ways I’m planning for opposition is implementing self-sufficiency methods and opting out of a broken system. In my upcoming blog posts, I’ll dive into my homesteading hobby. Since everyone’s freaking out about the price of eggs, let’s start with my flock of chickens. I’ll talk about the benefits of raising your own chicks, caring for them, and the costs and maintenance involved.

Our Flock

We have eight chickens on a .35 acre lot. One of them is pictured above: Stevie Chicks (we love a good pun). Our compost bin rarely gets food scraps anymore because the chickens will eat anything! I now understand what it feels like to be “chased by chickens,” because they constantly beg for scraps. They live in a coop and outdoor run we bought on Amazon and then improved and embellished to give them more shade and space. Here’s what a similar starter coop looks like: Amazon Chicken Coop

Here’s “Cluckingham Palace” in all its glory! To build up our coop, our neighbors and I used scrap materials and bought a few lumber posts from Menards and some extra chicken wire. We dug trenches and buried the frame and wire underground to prevent pests from tunneling under the fencing. We filled the run with sand to prevent them from standing in mud when it rains.

We got our flock as hatched chicks from Runnings. They needed bedding, chick feed, water feeders, a rubbermaid tote, and a heat lamp. They lived indoors (or in the garage) for the first few months under the heat lamp. Once they were old enough to live outdoors, we let them free-range during the day, and they tucked themselves in at night. Here are the supplies we used while the chicks were young:

Chick Starter Feed 50 lb bag

Chick Feeder

Chick Water Feeder

Heat Lamp

Fluff Bedding

Tips for Transitioning Your Chicks to The Coop

When the chickens got older, we upgraded our equipment to accommodate their needs in the coop. Here is what we use now:

Heated Water Feeder - especially if you live in the Midwest or other places where water freezes over, you’ll want a heated water feeder. You can unplug it and use it normally during the warmer months. 

30 lb Chicken Feeder - chickens eat a ton and often, so buying a larger feeder that can hold a 30 lbs bag of food that they can’t easily tip over is key. 

Adult Chicken Feed 40 lb bag - we have found using crumbled food rather than pellets works best.

(Note: none of the links in this blog are sponsored items).

Once our flock reached full maturity, they were each producing an egg per day. Now, I know what you’re thinking: eight eggs per day? What will I do with all those eggs? Here’s a few pro tips: Farm fresh eggs make great gifts! You could also sell them to friends and neighbors for less than grocery store prices. If you do not wash your eggs, they can sit on the counter for days, even weeks, without going bad! Only refrigerate eggs if you’ve washed them, as that shortens their shelf life. If you’re ever unsure if an egg is bad, try the float test.

Egg Float Test 

Fill a bowl with cold water.

Gently place the egg into the water.

Observe the egg’s position.

If the egg sinks to the bottom and lies flat, the egg is fresh.

If the egg sinks to the bottom, but stands on one end, the egg is a few weeks old, but edible.

If you’re thinking about starting your own flock, I’ll be sharing more details in upcoming posts. Fresh eggs are a game-changer boasting vibrant yellow yolks and unbeatable flavor!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Trump’s cabinet picks, rising grocery prices, or your chicken coop adventures! Like, comment, and share below.

Until next time,

Liv

Mom’s Crockpot Chili

By my mom, Elizabeth Wicklund

When the colder months approach, it’s time to pull out the crockpot, and the first meal I think of is my mom’s chili - a total comfort food classic! You’ll have to forgive me, as my mom never measured ingredients or wrote her recipes down. This recipe comes straight from memory and the heart. It was one of the first meals she taught me to make before I left for college, ensuring I wouldn’t have to survive on instant ramen alone.

Ingredients

(1) tbsp olive oil

(1) yellow or white onion

(5) cloves of garlic

(1 lb) lean ground beef (sub. turkey)

(2) 14.5 oz cans of stewed diced tomatoes

(2) 16 oz cans of chili beans (do not drain)

(1) 10 oz can of Rotel (diced tomatoes with green chilis)

Seasonings (to taste):

Chili powder

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Paprika

Cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional Topping Choices

Fritos corn chips

Shredded cheese

Sour cream

Green onion

Whatever your heart desires!

Supplies

Crockpot

Mixing bowl

Sauté pan

Cutting board

Knife

Strainer /grease drainer

Wooden spoon

Garlic mincer

Can opener

Directions:

Season the Meat: In a large mixing bowl, add your ground beef (or turkey). Generously season with chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper. Adjust quantities to suit your spice preference. For extra heat, add more chili powder.

Sauté Aromatics & Meat: Heat olive oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and minced garlic. Sauté until softened and fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Add the seasoned meat and cook until browned. Drain excess grease.

Assemble the Crockpot: Transfer the cooked meat, onions, and garlic mixture into the crockpot. Add the stewed diced tomatoes (with their juice), chili beans (do NOT drain), and the can of Rotel. 

Adjust Seasonings: Stir everything together and taste. Add more seasoning if desired. Remember, the flavors will deepen as the chili cooks.

Cook Time: Cover your crockpot and set to low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours. Stir occasionally if you can, but it’s not necessary.

Serve: Ladle the chili into bowls and top with your favorite toppings - Fritos, shredded cheese, sour cream, and green onions are all great choices.

Enjoy: Cozy up with a warm bowl of chili and maybe a cinnamon roll or crescent roll (the great debate) on the side and enjoy!