Saturday, November 30, 2024

"Navel Pulling": Does Putting Castor Oil In Your Belly Button Benefit You?

 "Navel Pulling": Does Putting Castor Oil In Your Belly Button Benefit You?

The practice is nothing new. It’s actually based on Ayurvedic methods, a historic medical system from India that involves applying different kinds of oils — like caster, peppermint, and ginger oil — to the belly button and surrounding abdomen.

However, it’s recently taken off on TikTok with the hashtag navel oiling amassing over 11.5 million views.

Pete Hegseth’s Mom Said He Abused ‘Many’ Women in Bombshell Email

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/pete-hegseths-mom-said-he-abused-many-women-in-bombshell-email/

“On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say… get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” she wrote on April 30, 2018.

“I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego.

“You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”

The GOP Barely Won the House

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-gop-barely-won-the-house-9d5e1bb5?mod=hp_opin_pos_3#cxrecs_s

Republicans boasting about their great election mandate may want to hold the euphoria. As the final results trickle in from the late state of California, the GOP looks set to have the narrowest House majority in more than a century.

In the latest race to be called, Republican Rep. Michelle Steel lost her Orange County seat, while Rep. John Duarte now trails his Democratic challenger in his Fresno-area district. If Mr. Duarte loses, Republicans would hold nine of 52 House seats in the Golden State. The Democratic gerrymander in California, plus those in New York (19-7 Democratic to GOP seats), Illinois (14-3) and Massachusetts (9-0), mean four states will deliver 85 of the Democratic total of 215 seats. The GOP could have as few as 220.

Overdose deaths are dropping. So why is Trump applying tariffs which will devastate economy?

Donald Trump's Tariff Threat Could Devastate Texas

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-tariff-threat-could-devastate-texas-1993250

Economists have warned Donald Trump's plan to impose a 25 percent tariff on all products entering the United States from Mexico and Canada could have a dramatic impact on the economy of Texas, with one predicting it would cost 370,000 jobs in the Lone Star State.

Friday, November 29, 2024

A glut of cheap Chinese goods is flooding the world and stoking trade tensions

 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/28/business/china-goods-exports-trade/index.html

China’s factories are churning out more steel, cars and solar panels than its slowing economy can use, forcing a flood of cheap exports into foreign markets.

The oversupply of Chinese goods in key industries is stoking tensions between the world’s biggest manufacturer and its major trading partners, including the United States and the European Union. Its global trade surplus in goods has soared and is now approaching $1 trillion.

UN envoy Albanese says Israel had no right to wage a war in Gaza after Oct. 7

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-envoy-albanese-urges-israel-to-hand-netanyahu-and-gallant-over-to-global-court/

“The fact that we call it terrorism doesn’t justify what Israel has done since,” said Albanese, arguing that “waging a war” was “not proportionate.”

Buy Now Before Tariffs Hit, Retailers Are Telling Shoppers - Trump's answer to high prices - raise them

 https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/trump-tariffs-warnings-retailer-sales-fc270ca9?mod=hp_lead_pos1

“There is a misconception that the countries exporting goods will bear the cost of the tariffs, but that is simply not true,” Arnold said. Rather, she added, price increases will be passed on to consumers. 

Trump’s School-Choice Agenda Hits Pushback From Red-State Voters

 https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/trump-school-choice-republican-voter-ballot-measures-11e0c0d7?mod=hp_lead_pos3

Trump has indicated that he supports public funding of private schools and other options outside traditional school districts. “We will give all parents the right to choose another school for their children if they want,” Trump said in a campaign video. “It’s called school choice.”

Yet school-choice ballot measures lost in three states in the November election, including in two that went strongly for Trump, Kentucky and Nebraska. The results suggest a divide between Republican lawmakers and voters, many of whom have said in opinion surveys that they are generally dissatisfied with what they view as a “woke” agenda in public education but still like their own children’s local schools.

Sheinbaum refutes Trump’s border claim: ‘Mexico’s position is not to close borders’

 https://thehill.com/policy/international/5014093-mexico-claudia-sheinbaum-donald-trump-border-comments/

“In our conversation with President Trump, I explained to him the comprehensive strategy that Mexico has followed to address the migration phenomenon, respecting human rights,” Sheinbaum wrote Wednesday evening in a post on the social platform X, according to a translation from CNN.

“Thanks to this, migrants and caravans are assisted before they arrive at the border,” she added. “We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples.”

Thursday, November 28, 2024

MPs may trust doctors to manage assisted dying. Disabled people like me cannot

 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/28/assisted-dying-bill-vote-mps-disabled-people-liz-carr

As someone who relies on the health service and the state for my survival, I simply have a healthy distrust of giving either of them any more power over my life – and death – than they already have. Though some people want the right to die, many of us are still fighting for the right to exist. That’s why I’m part of Not Dead Yet, an international network of disabled people who oppose a law that would give the state and the medical profession potentially even more involvement in many ill and disabled people’s lives.

Trump fires back at WSJ editorial, argues his tariff policies were a success

 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4180825-trump-fires-back-at-wsj-editorial-argues-his-tariff-policies-were-a-success/

“The best way to stop this hemorrhaging of America’s lifeblood is a simple but powerful tariff on most foreign products, like the kind that was the primary source of government revenue through most of American history, and which built this country into the manufacturing powerhouse of the world,” Trump said.

However, the editorial board had also dismissed this argument, suggesting that the trade deficit “isn’t a useful measure of economic performance” and noting that the trade deficit increased under the former president even when adjusting for inflation.

What Trump’s New Tariff Threats Mean for the U.S. Economy

 https://www.wsj.com/economy/trade/what-trumps-new-tariff-threats-mean-for-the-u-s-economy-f0e4e69a

The stiff duties that President-elect Donald Trump threatened against the U.S.’s neighbors and big trading partners, along with the additional tariffs he promised against China, could raise prices for Americans on everything from fresh fruit from Mexico to lumber from Canada and Chinese electronics.

Remember the last time a country fooled around and found out?