Trump is enabling greedhead crooks with a vengeance

This is far from unexpected, but the scope of it is nonetheless startling. Literally everyone is at risk.

The first Trump administration didn’t pay much attention to white-collar civil and criminal enforcement, but this term is off the charts. Investigations into any business executive with even a passing relationship to Trump have been scotched, with beneficiaries ranging from the richest man in the world to the husband of the education secretary. Over 100 active enforcement actions have been either paused or dropped across the executive branch. In March, Trump donor Trevor Milton was pardoned after being sentenced for lying to investors; in April, Trump issued a corporate pardon to BitMEX, a crypto exchange that had pled guilty to failing to prevent money laundering.

Entire areas of the law, from prohibitions on U.S. companies bribing foreign countries to crackdowns on public corruption to bans on workplace discrimination, have essentially vanished. An orgy of deregulation, mainly benefiting corporate activities, is being planned. About $50 million in donations for Trump’s inauguration festivities came from companies under active federal investigation or lawsuits, and it’s hard to believe that any of those cases will see the light of a courtroom, or that any of those executives will be held accountable. - The American Prospect

Stopping IRA subsidies is incredibly foolish in many ways

This is a really good presentation of those ways.

How can you be a world leader when you are a laggard in the hottest, most important industries of the future? How can you attract the best people and businesses to the US when you have flip-flopping policies that kill incentives for these critical industries just a few years after enacting them?

If a company can cost effectively make battery-grade lithium, batteries, EVs, and solar panels in the US and make a profit selling them, they are going to do that. If their business plan is sabotaged by an anti-progress administration full of goons and corrupt cronies, are they even going to consider coming back here after shutting down shop, construction jobs, or even early-stage plans? - CleanTechnica

Ending sanctions on Syria is a very rare positive for Trump

If he doesn't change his addled "mind," that is. Undoubtedly the neocowards are trying to get him to do so.

Syrians are rejoicing at the announcement on Tuesday by President Donald J. Trump that he will lift U.S. economic sanctions on Syria, at the advice of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, among others. Saudi Arabia gave Trump the quid pro quos he wanted for such a favor, including a pledge of $600 billion in investments in the US and the purchase of military equipment worth over $100 billion.

Regardless of why Trump is taking the step, it is a welcome one, though it is attended by dangers. Economic sanctions have not been demonstrated to have any significant success in overthrowing governments or substantially changing their behavior. They have been shown, however, to drive ordinary civilians in the sanctioned country into poverty and to worsen their health. Since middle-income countries (and above) are more likely to be democracies, crashing a country’s economy probably dooms it to dictatorship. The US government is obsessed with sanctions, having slapped them on fully one third of the world’s population. Sanctions creep is driven in part by politicians who want to be seen as doing something dramatic about some problematic government but who do not wish to actually do anything. Sanctions are the bravado of the pusillanimous. - Informed Comment

Big cities are sinking

It's hard to think of a quick, easy remedy for this. I certainly can't suggest one.

A new study has revealed that 28 of the most populated cities in the U.S. are sinking, which can increase flood risks and weaken infrastructure. Further, researchers determined that 80% of total sinkage could be attributed to groundwater withdrawal for human use.

According to the study, published in the journal Nature Cities, about 34 million people in the biggest cities in the U.S. are being impacted by sinkage, with at least 20% of all the urban areas studied showing signs of subsidence…

In 25 of the 28 cities in the study, at least two-thirds of the urban area is sinking. Houston is the most affected, with 42% of the city sinking by more than 5 millimeters per year and 12% of the city sinking by more than 10 millimeters per year. Some parts of the city are sinking by up to 5 centimeters, or around 2 inches, each year. - EcoWatch

Who needs endangered species anyway?

I'm not sure how this will play out in the courts, if it happens.

The Trump administration is proposing a significant change to one of the country’s most important—and contentious—environmental laws, which could give farmers more leeway to use pesticides without regard to their impact on critical habitats.

In a proposed rule change announced on March 17, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service want to change the way they interpret the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which they collectively administer, by rescinding the definition of “harm.”

…Under the proposed rule change, habitat would not be protected, which could have huge consequences. It would open more of the United States to drilling, logging, and other industries. And it would represent a significant development for farmers, ranchers, and other food producers, affecting the ways they use land, make decisions about conservation, and treat crops. That’s especially true of pesticide use. - Civil Eats

Billions stolen in Bitcoin scams

Sadly this is probably just a taste of what's going to happen in coming years with crypto in general.

The FBI’s latest annual report reveals a sharp rise in Bitcoin-related fraud, with U.S. victims losing $9.3 billion in 2024 — a 66% increase from the previous year.

Total cybercrime losses reached $16.6 billion across more than 859,000 complaints filed to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)...

Of particular concern is the impact on older Americans. Victims aged 60 and above reported 33,369 Bitcoin-related fraud cases, amounting to more than $2.8 billion in losses.

The average loss per senior victim was $83,000 — more than four times higher than the average across all cybercrime. - BiTBO

No fluoride in water equals bad teeth in kids

Trump's HHS boss RFK Jr., who like Trump himself is clearly clinically insane by any legitimate standard, wants fluoride out of drinking water.

Warren Loeppky has been a pediatric dentist in the Canadian city of Calgary for 20 years. Over the last decade, he says, tooth decay in children he’s seen has become more common, more aggressive and more severe. Many of his young patients have so much damage that he has to work with them under general anesthesia…

Loeppky notes that many factors can contribute to tooth decay in children, including their diet and genetics. Still, he believes part of the problem is linked to a decision made in the halls of local government: In 2011, Calgary stopped adding fluoride to its drinking water. - Science News