Posts by augieray@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #B4HjE6ZN876BersxZw by augieray@mastodon.social
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Donald Trump repeatedly insulted our allies, claiming we didn't need them. Now he is begging for their support in the Strait of Hormuz.Trump declares victory over Iran every day and claims he's destroyed 100% of Iran's military capability, yet they keep attacking ships in the Strait and neighbors.Trump says we are closely monitoring Iranian “sleeper cells,” yet his DHS focuses on arresting immigrants without criminal records as they try to follow our naturalization laws. 1/5
(DIR) Post #B4HjE6pg9U8uTRVyzo by augieray@mastodon.social
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Trump used a photo from U.S. soldiers’ dignified transfer to fundraise for his PAC. This man, who mishandled secret documents, promised his donors they would get “private national security briefings.” (And why is a man who cannot constitutionally run again still fundraising,?) Trump was told by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that an American attack would prompt Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz. Trump ignored that warning, and now the entire world is paying for his arrogance. 2/5
(DIR) Post #B4HjE7FYbGqJlhceKe by augieray@mastodon.social
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Trump promised to end “forever wars,” and now he's bragging the U.S. has enough stockpiled weapons to fight wars “forever.”Trump accused the Bidens of profiting off the office of the president, but the Trumps have made almost $4 billion in the first year of his second term. Meanwhile, Trump's special Mideast peace envoy, Jared Kushner, is trying to raise $5 billion from foreign governments for his private equity firm in the midst of our war with Iran. 3/5
(DIR) Post #B4HjE7aTLVZaoZPLvs by augieray@mastodon.social
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Trump mocked every vacation taken by Obama and Biden; now he parties and golfs at his resort while Americans die in a needless war in Iran. Trump criticized Biden's economy, which The Economist labeled “the envy of the world.” Now, stocks are falling, inflation is up, the government revised downward GDP growth, and the last jobs report was the worst since COVID.4/5
(DIR) Post #B4HjE7vk4QaRsXML5M by augieray@mastodon.social
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Trump is everything he accused Democrats of being. He is breaking every campaign promise. He is harming the U.S. And he is profiting off Americans' pain.We are not powerless. Write your representatives. Donate to Democrats. Commit to vote for Democrats in every race in every election. Show up at marches. Share your concerns, not just in private with the people who agree with you, but on social media so that your conservative friends and family can see your fears and feel your disapproval. 5/5
(DIR) Post #B4U6i7UssJ4Q46aQkq by augieray@mastodon.social
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It's tough to keep up on the flood of news, but don't lose sight of what Trump is doing to our economy and finances. Headlines from the last couple of days:Trump promised his economic policies would erase the deficit. Instead, the national debt surpassed a record $39 trillion last week. It hit $38 trillion five months ago and $37 trillion two months before that.https://apnews.com/article/us-national-deficit-hits-39-million-6ff73495bae701b5c009d3da5515ca3a 1/3
(DIR) Post #B4U6i7rZVxDbCTCY7M by augieray@mastodon.social
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The Trump administration altered a Social Security report to hide how long call wait times have been due to the DOGE cuts. https://newrepublic.com/post/208020/donald-trump-changed-report-doge-social-security To try to calm the declining markets, Trump claimed the Iran war is winding down, but the Pentagon is making detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-iran-ground-troop-preparations/ 2/3
(DIR) Post #B4U6i8BmIpNiD8egc4 by augieray@mastodon.social
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As Americans struggle with rising energy prices, Trump wants to pay companies around $1 billion to cancel wind power projects that would reduce energy costs.https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-wants-pay-company-almost-174306851.html The Heritage Foundation's chief economist, who is a Trump ally, warned, “The economy is weaker than we thought it was, and inflation is worse than we thought it was… I don’t think this is an economy that is going to be able to handle $100 a barrel for oil, it’s just not.” https://www.newsweek.com/trump-ally-says-us-economy-weaker-than-we-thought-117022603/3
(DIR) Post #B4tp5V2UlVkofvGTGy by augieray@mastodon.social
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Marco Rubio on Monday: “Imagine an Iran that, instead of spending their wealth, billions of dollars, supporting terrorists or weapons, had spent that money helping the people of Iran.”Donald Trump on Wednesday: “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things… We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country.”Irony is dead.
(DIR) Post #B5BpfkE7H14534GInw by augieray@mastodon.social
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Just read a study that noted, “Unvaccinated residents showed higher hazards for transitioning to COVID death.” I am not sure that I've seen “dying” framed in such a delicate way. “Is he dying, doctor?” “No, he is merely transitioning to death.”
(DIR) Post #B5BvjhWpqWq1Z1Hsa8 by augieray@mastodon.social
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On a national basis, #COVID19 risks are at a multi-year low right now. (This isn't true everywhere—for instance, parts of the South have high viral activity at present.) Nevertheless, I am going to continue to urge you to protect yourself from COVID reinfections. Almost 100 studies have found that each reinfection increases risks for Long COVID and other health issues. COVID is NOT just a cold or flu. Studies published in the past two months found: 1/4
(DIR) Post #B5BvjhxQFg6atTj71U by augieray@mastodon.social
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Compared to getting Long COVID after a first infection, the odds of developing Long COVID are 2.01x greater after a second infection and 3.03x higher after more than three infections. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1760355/fullReinfection is among the two greatest risk factors for fatigue, second only to having a tumor. People reinfected had 2.39x the risk of chronic fatigue. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/16/4/e1134462/4
(DIR) Post #B5BvjiBbOxRpbSMR7o by augieray@mastodon.social
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The two greatest risk factors for psychoemotional issues after COVID were age (over 50) and repeated episodes of infection. https://journals.eco-vector.com/2226-6976/article/view/705088Cumulative exposure to COVID was strongly associated with Invasive Group A Streptococcal infection, a rare but severe and fast-progressing disease, especially in children. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.19.26348823v1 3/4
(DIR) Post #B5BvjiQqUHdoMjUbsu by augieray@mastodon.social
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The three greatest factors for Long COVID were hospitalization during acute COVID infection, duration of illness above the median, and reinfections. https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202603.1045 Although the frequency of acute symptoms in COVID-19 patients experiencing a secondary SARSCoV-2 infection was lower than during their initial infection, individuals who experienced multiple infections had a heightened likelihood of suffering more long COVID symptoms with increased severity. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12890-026-04221-2 4/4
(DIR) Post #B5E3RB5MuxhTgG2RH6 by augieray@mastodon.social
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My spreadsheet of the long-term effects of #COVID19 has surpassed 3,400 studies. Newer research finds:- COVID is a significant independent risk factor for chronic heart failure, extending far beyond the acute phase.- After hospitalization for COVID, 32% showed persistent cognitive impairment across all domains.- Reinfections were linked to exhaustion and cognitive fatigue.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12VbMkvqUF9eSggJsdsFEjKs5x0ABxQJi5tvfzJIDd3U/edit?usp=sharing
(DIR) Post #B5JHli2aTH1wpUDmoC by augieray@mastodon.social
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Who are they talking about, I wonder?
(DIR) Post #B6fA3Ncp79izjSTCM4 by augieray@mastodon.social
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I'm still #COVID19 cautious, but we need to discuss the cognitive biases that cause some to inflate risks. Probability Neglect describes our tendency to fixate on the outcome of a scenario rather than the probability of it happening.Today, people say, "Just one COVID infection can kill or disable you." That's true, but so can one accident during a drive or one stumble during a hike.Today, the risks of COVID infection are lower than they've been in five years. Be careful, not fearful.
(DIR) Post #B6fA3OHafaKnltXktk by augieray@mastodon.social
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@themaskerscomic Your reply is an example of the cognitive bias I referenced! The examples I used—driving or taking a hike—don't require one to sign off on risks. Even your assessment of risks is inflated—one has a 1 in 5 risk of LC IF INFECTED, not because stepped into a grocery store.Everything has risk. We go through life aware & cautious about risks--wearing seatbelts, for example--but we don't post about those risks, promote them daily to others, or let them stop us from living life. 1/2
(DIR) Post #B6fA3OVlorg2TsB504 by augieray@mastodon.social
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@themaskerscomic None of which is to suggest you need to change your choices. Your choices are your own. But if someone screamed how you can die from a single car accident every single day on social media, you wouldn't find that helpful, correct, or sane.My point is that we need a better discussion of risks with COVID now. We're no longer facing the sorts of risks we did--COVID activity is minimal, and many have some immunity. Talking about COVID in 2026 like we did in 2021 is unhelpful. 2/2
(DIR) Post #B6tUsY8KWV0GO6K4Xo by augieray@mastodon.social
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When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace becomes a circus.