Fri: They Want to Be Ore-Gone

We Don't Need No Education

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) left his office early to become president of the University of Florida system at a time when Republicans in the state, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, are trying to reshape higher education. The result, wrote Georgetown University professor Jacques Berlinerblau for MSNBC, is the decimation of the state's academia.

Sasse's rise, wrote Berlinerblau, parallels a regime change at Florida institutions that pushes a slate of "once-unthinkable worst practices," including "anointing Sasse to the presidency in near secrecy and outfitting him with a pricey consulting firm to assist with 'strategic management,' and blatantly trying to prevent professors from exercising their academic freedom, not to mention engaging in a hostile, state-run ideological takeover of an entire public college" — all while Florida tries to stamp out the tenure system, which is a safeguard that ensures professors can express political opinions without retaliation.

Sasse himself, according to reports, has been a "ghost" on campus — but many of the other figures DeSantis has appointed to lead the states' schools are much more visible, like Chris Rufo and his associates, who have decimated New College of Florida's programs and are mismanaging it so badly that students promised dorm housing have to be crammed into an airport hotel, according to reports.

The result of this, Berlinerblau warned, is that Florida professors are fleeing their jobs and their state in droves, hollowing out campuses in much the same way that censorship in K-12 schools has driven out teachers there. But the problem is, Florida is but a testing ground — the GOP wants to take this experiment nationwide.

MEG3 Kills Brain Cells

Scientists in the UK and Belgium think they have figured out how brain cells die in Alzheimer's disease.

It has been a mystery and a source of scientific debate for decades.

But the team, writing in the journal Science, connect the abnormal proteins that build up in the brain with "necroptosis" - a form of cellular suicide.

The findings have been described as "cool" and "exciting", as they give new ideas for treating the disease.

It is the loss of brain cells, called neurons, that lead to the symptoms of Alzheimer's, including memory loss.

And if you look inside the brains of people with the disease you'd see the build-up of abnormal proteins called amyloid and tau.

But scientists have not been able to join the dots between these key traits of the disease.

This is what the researchers - at the UK's Dementia Research Institute at University College London and KU Leuven in Belgium - now think is happening.

They say abnormal amyloid starts to build up in the spaces between neurons, leading to brain inflammation, which the neurons do not like. This starts to change their internal chemistry.

Tangles of tau appear and the brain cells start producing a specific molecule (it's called MEG3) that triggers death by necroptosis. Necroptosis is one of the methods our bodies normally use to purge unwanted cells as fresh ones are made.

The brain cells survived when the team were able to block MEG3.

It is Not Known If Meg Ryan Movies Kill Brain Cells.

QANON Ron Shows He Can Obstruct, Too.

For once, the Senate was working well. The Appropriations Committee passed all 12 of the required spending bills with bipartisan support back in July. The full Senate was set to approve a “minibus” spending package of three of those bills this week, which would fund the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and Housing and Urban Development. In fact, senators agreed to bring the bill to the floor in a 91-7 vote early Thursday. They had an agreed-upon set of amendments, equally divided between the two parties, ready to be approved as a block.

Enter Sen. Ron Johnson, who just had to show the world that the obstructionist House Freedom Caucus has nothing on him. When Appropriations Chair Patty Murray asked for unanimous consent to adopt the amendments package, Johnson objected and effectively shut the Senate down for the day, since it can’t move the base bill until amendments are approved. The Wisconsin senator’s rationale is, well, not really rational.

“This place is completely out of control, completely dysfunctional,” Johnson explained incoherently after totally disrupting the functions of the Senate. He added that he was objecting to moving forward on amendments because all of this should have been done before August recess, “through an orderly process one appropriation bill at a time.” That means no combined bills at all, and no big “omnibus” appropriations package that has to be pushed through at the last minute because Congress is running out of time.

Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, explained the clear hole in her fellow Republican senator’s logic. Johnson’s stunt is going to cause delays that will almost certainly force the Senate to have to pass an omnibus bill or worse, the Maine senator said. “We don’t have time to take each bill individually to the floor or we’re going to end up with either an omnibus, a government shutdown or a yearlong continuing resolution, which would fund programs that shouldn’t be funded anymore and prevent new programs from starting up,” Collins said.

Fruit Loops are a Cereal. MAGA Doom Loop is Not.

How the ‘MAGA doom loop’ is already threatening Trump’s 2024 chances

The pattern is becoming clear: Even as voters are mobilizing to protect democracy at the ballot box, Republicans are redoubling their commitment to the former president’s anti-majoritarian mode of politics. And this, in turn, is motivating voters even more.

Call it the “MAGA doom loop.” It’s playing out in state after state.

Almost 17% were not very interested and 30% were not interested at all.

47%. Gee, I wonder what party they come from?