Fri: Previous Guy's Biggest Vulnerability is ...

Who Thought Dark Energy Is Simple?

A new study of exploding stars shows dark energy may be more complicated than we thought

What is the universe made of? This question has driven astronomers for hundreds of years.

For the past quarter of a century, scientists have believed “normal” stuff like atoms and molecules that make up you, me, Earth, and nearly everything we can see only accounts for 5% of the universe. Another 25% is “dark matter”, an unknown substance we can’t see but which we can detect through how it affects normal matter via gravity.

The remaining 70% of the cosmos is made of “dark energy”. Discovered in 1998, this is an unknown form of energy believed to be making the universe expand at an ever-increasing rate.

In a new study soon to be published in the Astronomical Journal, we have measured the properties of dark energy in more detail than ever before. Our results show it may be a hypothetical vacuum energy first proposed by Einstein – or it may be something stranger and more complicated that changes over time.

We All Know Why the QOP Wants to Cut Funding for the IRS.  To Protect Rich Tax Cheats.

The IRS announced Thursday it has recently collected more than half a billion dollars from millionaire Americans who owed tax debt.

The agency credited the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act for its stepped-up ability to pursue "high-income, high-wealth individuals," as well as complex partnerships and large corporations, who are not paying overdue tax bills.

The IRA, pushed by President Joe Biden and approved in 2022, earmarked $80 billion over 10 years to step up the IRS’ enforcement capabilities. While $20 billion was ultimately clawed back in 2023 as part of the deal to head off a debt-ceiling crisis, the agency indicated it had already made use of its initial allotment.

Over the past year, the IRS said, enforcement officers had recouped approximately $520 million from the most well-off segments of society.

Blame Canada.  Really!

The plan to allow Florida to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada is already facing outrage from Canadians who claim it could make their own drug supply shortages worse. And experts in the U.S. have doubts the program will ever help people in Florida get a cost break on medications for conditions like heart disease and diabetes.

After years of federal efforts to lower prescription drug prices, is a shaky plan to import them from Canada the best the U.S. can do?

“The U.S. needs to solve its own drug pricing problem, and not rely on other countries to do it for them,” said Dr. Joel Lexchin, a professor emeritus at the School of Health Policy and Management at York University in Toronto.

Under a new policy the Food and Drug Administration approved last week, the Florida government will be able to purchase prescription drugs in bulk directly from wholesalers in Canada, where drugs are often cheaper than in the U.S.

“It’s almost laughable that the U.S. thinks that they’re going to solve their problems about prices with Canadian drug supply, which is already stretched to the limit,” said Dr. Jacalyn Duffin, a professor emerita of medical history and medicine at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

You Are Not a Loan

The Biden administration will start canceling student loans for some borrowers starting in February as part of a new repayment plan that’s taking effect nearly six months ahead of schedule.

Loan cancellation was originally set to begin in July under the new SAVE repayment plan, but it’s being accelerated to provide faster relief to borrowers, President Joe Biden said Friday. It’s part of an effort “to act as quickly as possible to give more borrowers breathing room” and move on from their student debt, the Democratic president said in a statement.

Borrowers will be eligible for cancellation if they are enrolled in the new SAVE plan, if they originally borrowed $12,000 or less to attend college, and if they have made at least 10 years of payments. The Education Department said it didn’t immediately know how many borrowers will be eligible for cancellation in February.

Biden announced the new repayment plan last year alongside a separate plan to cancel up to $20,000 in loans for millions of Americans. The Supreme Court struck down his plan for widespread forgiveness, but the repayment plan has so far escaped that level of legal scrutiny. Republicans in Congress tried unsuccessfully to block the new repayment plan through legislation and a resolution last year.

QOP "Logic"

Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas) suggested Wednesday that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should be impeached because slavery exists in the world and fentanyl is killing people ― a claim that law professor Frank Bowman, a witness in this House hearing, had to keep informing the congressman made no sense.

Both were participants in a House Homeland Security Committee hearing focused on impeaching Mayorkas. The hearing, which went on for nearly five hours, was a political stunt: Republicans are eager to make the migration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border a major liability for President Joe Biden in the 2024 elections. Mayorkas is their latest target.

The problem with the GOP’s impeachment effort is that Mayorkas, a cabinet secretary charged with carrying out immigration laws, as broken as they may be, has not been accused of any crimes. Never mind the kinds of serious “high crimes and misdemeanors” that meet the constitutional threshold for impeachment, like treason or bribery.

Nonetheless, the GOP’s rationale is that because Mayorkas is overseeing Biden’s border policies, he is responsible for the egregious crimes that people commit at the border and elsewhere, so he should be impeached.

Luttrell leaned hard into that rationale on Wednesday, trying to pin blame on the homeland security secretary for crimes carried out by others.

“Can you give me the definition of a ‘high crime and misdemeanor?’” the Texas Republican asked Bowman, who is a professor emeritus of law at the University of Missouri School of Law, and a former federal prosecutor.

Bowman said there’s no single definition that will satisfy everyone, but that the late constitutional scholar, Charles Black, would define it as “extremely serious offenses in the way that serious crimes like treason and bribery are.”

Bowman was still talking when Luttrell cut him off.

“Extremely serious,” repeated the Republican congressman. “That’s a great point. Is the selling of fentanyl inside the United States causing hundreds of thousands of deaths over the past years considered a high crime, in your opinion?”

“I’m unaware that the secretary has sold any fentanyl,” Bowman said flatly.

“No, I’m not directing that to the secretary, I’m asking you,” said Luttrell. “If the selling of fentanyl inside the United States, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans over the years, would that be considered a high crime?”

“If you could establish that an officer actually did that, possibly,” Bowman began, as Luttrell talked over him. “But we have no evidence that that ever happened.”

“There’s no evidence that hundreds of thousands of people over the past few years have died from fentanyl overdoses?” the Texas Republican asked.

“I’m unaware of any evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has ever sold fentanyl,” said Bowman.

By now, the two were openly clashing and raising their voices. Luttrell kept pointing out that fentanyl is killing people ― and Bowman kept reminding him that this has nothing to do with crimes being committed by the homeland security secretary that warrant impeachment.

“I’m not talking about Secretary Mayorkas,” said Luttrell, flustered. “I’m talking about fentanyl!”

“But that’s what we’re here to talk about!” replied Bowman. “Are we not, congressman? Secretary Mayorkas?”