@michaelgemar Loved that. Thanks. I subscribed to Musora.

A sign of a great song is when other artists do great cover versions of it.

Here is Aha's Take On Me done by The Dreggs. It features banjo, cello and great vocal harmonies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11aaY0kY7lM

A couple of months ago I shared another great cover of Take On Me by a punk band from Argentina, Pacifica.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw2uwo6CPKs

Trump believes he is influential. He's right--he keeps influencing voters in other nations to reject conservatives and vote for liberals.

Australia's ruling center-left Labor Party wins amid Trump influence
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/australia-labor-party-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-trump-election-results/

Canada was poised to elect its own 'Maple MAGA' movement. Then Trump happened.
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/canada/canada-was-poised-elect-maple-maga-movement-trump-happened-rcna203645

He's also influencing Americans--to hate him. Trump has the lowest approval rating for any president after 100 days since Eisenhower.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-polls-2067414

@InkySchwartz A study of 75 people is not intended to be "statistically significant." It's meaningful, however. (Do you have any idea how expensive it is to do MRIs on enough people in the population to be "statistically significant?" Saying that suggests you do not understand medical research.)

STUDY:

"These findings indicate that even mild #COVID19 can result in persistent neurocognitive deficits, structural brain alterations, and functional network abnormalities, both in individuals with and without brain fog. Structural MRI analyses revealed reduced gray matter concentrations in the left inferior temporal gyrus, left fusiform gyrus, and right orbital gyri in both COVID-19 groups (those with and without brain fog) relative to HCs (healthy controls)."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010945225001017

@david Total BS. She's appealing, but she has a trip coming up, and she won't be able to get the shot before she travels. It's infuriating.

Even Trumpsters know this is Trump's economy.

"Cargo on ships from China loaded after April 9 will carry with them the 145% tariff President Donald Trump slapped on goods from that nation last month.

"Businesses are making a difficult choice: Continue selling products from China at more than double their previous prices or stop selling those products altogether. For consumers, that means some products will be hard to find or may be too expensive to buy."

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/01/business/ports-shelves-tariffs-shipping/index.html

"Conservative and independent friends who once strove to put the best gloss on Trump have noticed the ground is missing beneath their feet. I give credit to these Wile E. Coyotes for acknowledging gravity...

"Trump’s cabinet and half his party are suffering from a readily diagnosable disorder called TDS. I assume there is no need for a second opinion."

Edward Luce, US national editor and columnist at the Financial Times.

https://www.ft.com/content/0c148c7e-133f-49ea-b26e-5c793cddd298

A friend suffers from severe back pain. She's had testing that confirms her condition. She got a first injection that provided pain relief, but her health insurer just denied the second injection.

Do healthcare execs still wonder why people are so viscerally angry at healthcare companies?

@cwgrody Thanks!

My new weekly update of #COVID19 in the US:

- No change to COVID risks this week
- COVID is low and steady in the US
- No signs a summer surge is imminent--but it is expected in the months ahead
- My spreadsheet of research studies implicating longer-term health risks from COVID infection has surpassed 2000 studies.

This update is a 5-minute read:

https://medium.com/@augieray_66704/no-new-covid-surge-in-sight-for-the-us-update-for-may-2-2025-49693baba656

My spreadsheet of studies implicating #COVID19 in longer-term, chronic health problems has now exceeded 2,000 studies.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12VbMkvqUF9eSggJsdsFEjKs5x0ABxQJi5tvfzJIDd3U/edit?usp=sharing

STUDY: Both #COVID19 and non-COVID deaths decline after people receive the COVID vaccine.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccinated are less likely to die from non-COVID-19 causes.

This trend is strongest at the time of vaccination and decreases thereafter.

The results are irrespective of number of vaccinations.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016344532500091X

But... a single customer walks in, sees EVERYONE masked (employees and customers), coughs, and ignores the free box of masks on the counter. Some people! 🙄

Pretty incredible: My wife has dental surgery today, and every single employee at Community Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in Milwaukee, WI is masked. (And our city just reported near record low #COVID19 in wastewater the past week. I still appreciate masking, of course.)

https://www.communityomfs.com/

https://city.milwaukee.gov/coronavirus/Wastewater-Dashboard

I hate the way some liberals farm for engagement on social media. A thing they do when a judge rules against Trump is to ask for likes to "thank" the judges for protecting a marginalized group.

First, liking a post is NOT a way to "thank" anyone.

Second, judges don't act on their desire to protect people; they evaluate the legality of Trump's actions. They don't decide if they like or dislike his actions; they assess if Trump's orders violate the law. They don't create law--they interpret it.

The good stock market in 2024 was his doing. The bad stock market 100 days into his term, after his tariff chaos, is someone else's fault. The buck stops somewhere else.

I anticipated this, but it still sucks: FDA chief says they're looking at whether to approve #COVID19 shots for next winter

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fda-covid-booster-shots-marty-makary/

Times are so crazy that I can't tell if Lindsey Graham meant this as satire or not.

@EricFielding It'd be harder to hate Trump if he didn't give Americans so many reasons to do so. I'm just saying.