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We should clarify a few things, as I can already feel the conservative brows twitching.

This is not a “declaration of war” against cattle, as you might hear on Fox News. It is just acknowledgement of an issue that exists, in which we should work to mitigate.

And when it comes to the environment, it’s always worth it.

Cows actually contribute to climate change in a couple of ways, compounding the effect they have. The main way people bring up, usually in jest, is through burping. However, this is actually more than accurate.

Cows are ruminant animals, which just means they gain nutrients through fermenting plants in a specialized stomach called the “Rumen.” Once broken down into “cud,” it is chewed again and digested in a process known as rumination.

In a cow’s stomach are microbes, or microorganisms, which generate energy to their cells through what is known as anaerobic respiration. This requires another process called methanogenesis, which has relevance here as it creates methane.

This means the release of methane is a natural byproduct of cattle, and that release is disproportionate compared to other livestock. A 2022 paper in Atmosphere found that in comparison to other livestock, cattle overwhelmingly make up the methane emissions. Stating:

These emissions are important to balance because of Radiative Forcing. Radiative Forcing is what happens when the amount of energy entering our atmosphere is different than what leaves it. A surplus causes warming, a deficit causes cooling.

So we have a sort of delicate dance of balancing greenhouse gas emissions with what our atmosphere can handle, and we’re experiencing rapid increases of methane.

This contributes massively to the global warming(The warming effects of methane are 86 times stronger than carbon dioxide) we are experiencing, which comes with its own long list of negative effects.

Studies have found from the industrial revolution until 2011, Methane emissions increased over 100% by just 2011. Methane has the same global warming potential of 25 metric tons of Carbon Dioxide emissions.

The other end of this is actually through cows manure, which also contributes both nitrous oxide, and methane itself. It is estimated this could make up as much as 25% of the emissions from the farm level. Making it no less important, while often overlooked.

There are solutions to mitigate these effects, but the first step is acknowledging they exist.Various dietary changes have been linked to a reduction in methane emissions, as well as some long term strategies centered around breeding.

On the manure side, there are additives and other strategies as well. But again, nothing changes until we can admit the truth. And stop politicizing science.

It isn’t “woke” to say cows contribute to climate change, it’s a scientific fact.

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Table Of Contents

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Table Of Contents

• Acetaminophen And Autism

• Comey Indictment

• Genocide Watch

• Monday’s Must Read

• This Week In Labor

• The Pulse

Donald Trump has stirred up quite the controversy this week.

From lies about autism, to indicting his political enemies, and that’s before mentioning the economy or our foreign relations.

Here the pulse.

Trump Lies About Acetaminophen As He Struggles To Pronounce It.

Donald Trump and RFK Jr, who have long promised to “cure” autism, had quite the announcement for this week.

Stating that Tylenol during pregnancy is linked to an increased risk of things like Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

To quote Trump from that announcement, “Taking Tylenol is uh not good.”

The problem?

It’s not true, and if these baboons did a shred of the research they claimed to have been doing, they would know that.

Take this paper for instance, a cohort of 2.5 million children from 1995-2019, which found there was no link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and risk of ASD, ADHD, or Intellectual Disability.

Mehmet Oz, head of Medicaid and Medicare, took the opportunity to push leucovorin as some miracle drug to possibly “cure” autism.

The problem?

Autism is a disorder, not a disease, so using language like “cure” is extremely problematic. Also, leucovorin treats Cerebral Folate Deficiency (CFD), which some but not all people with Autism have.

Data has it estimated between 38-44% of those with ASD have CFD. For this group leucovorin is shown to have some slight, but inconsistent benefits shown. To extrapolate this to a “cure” is dangerous misinformation.

Donald Trump also went on to show he struggles to pronounce acetaminophen, and that he believes Hepatitis B is only sexually transmitted so kids should not be vaccinated against it.

This is what we in the business call, an idiot.

Trump Targets Political Enemies

Just before the week began, Donald Trump took to social media to call for indictments on a list of those he considers enemies. Naming specifically, Letitia James, Adam Schiff, And James Comey.

This post was then swiftly deleted.

This also followed Donald Trump’s FCC chair going on a massive podcast to claim the FCC could “do this the hard way” if companies don’t “take action on Kimmel.”

Jimmy Kimmel was then indefinitely suspended before online backlash brought him back to his largest audience ever just 6 days later.

On top of this, we have the National Guard and ICE mobilization in curiously only blue cities. With LA being the first, then Washington D.C and now Chicago lined up next.

This is despite declining crime rates, and red cities with much larger issues pertaining to crime being ignored.

This has culminated in the first official indictment, of James Comey, essentially over something he said years ago. This comes after removing his own appointment for prosecutor in Virginia who said there was not enough evidence to indict.

Trump swiftly replaced him with a loyalist who got right to meeting the presidents demands.

It’s a scary move toward authoritarian with very clear in-group, out-groups being defined. I would say historically, this sort of social structuring never ends in peace.

Genocide Watch:

Genocide In Gaza:

• Over 64,000 Dead Per Gaza Health Ministry. Independent Survey Reports Over 80,000 Dead. Lancet Finds Over 100,000 Dead Plausible.

• Over 121,000 Injured, Plenty More Lost Under Rubble.

• 100% of population experiencing food insecurity

• 92% of homes destroyed, 88% of schools.

• 98% of those in Gaza experience multidimensional poverty

  

  Genocide In Sudan:

• Between 10-20,000 In El Geneia Where Genocide Has Been Acknowledged, Over 61,000 However With All Regions Considered.

• 570,000 Displaced Just From Start Of This Conflict.

• 30 Million In Need Of Humanitarian Assistance, 24.6 Million Food Insecure.

• Critical Infrastructure Damage Affecting Water Supply, Hospital Functions, Food Production, And Electricity.

Monday’s Must Read

Our relevant read for this week is “Science Under Siege” written by Peter Hotez and Michael Mann, two PhD scientists in their respective fields.

The book is described as such:

This Week In Labor

• Canadian Post Union Strike

• Boeing Strike

• Kaiser Permanente Health Care Workers Vote To Strike

The Pulse

Donald Trump is continuing to test the guardrails of our democracy, pushing the limits of constitutional right after right. From due process, to the free speech attack that took over this week, this should not be overlooked.

Nothing is more important than this upcoming midterms. Make sure to mobilize as many people as you can. The house is in play, and we must win it.

This is the only way to ensure oversight can appropriately be carried out on this corrupt administration. Those destroying our country need held accountable, and it’s more evident than ever that Republicans are unwilling to do it.

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In 2025 there has already been 47 school shootings, leaving 19 dead and 77 injured. Between 2009-2018 there were 57 times more school shootings in America than the rest of the world.

Using the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) we see that between 2000-2021 there was 515 children who died in school shootings, with 1,161 injured. This amounts to 382 shootings with at least one death, 591 with no deaths but at least one injury, and 402 with no casualties.

Diving more into these numbers from NCES there was 320 shootings that targeted elementary schools, 162 targeted middle schools or junior highs, and 777 targeted high schools.

This is where "School shootings" includes all incidents in which a gun is brandished or fired or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims or reason.

If we go back to 1970, and compare to today, school shootings are 12 times more likely to happen. Children are 6 times more likely to be a school shooting fatality, and 5 times more likely of being a victim.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that between 2009-2018 most school shootings were as a result of a dispute or grievance between students, with second being a general grievance with the school itself.

Most shootings carried out by a student happened in rural, wealthier, low-minority populated areas and these shootings are the most fatal. However, poorer, high-minority populated schools have more shootings overall with the shooters typically being non-students.

According to a Stanford study using over 100,000 students, antidepressant use is higher among those who survived a school shooting. These students are less likely to graduate high school or college, often experience declining test scores, and are more likely to need to repeat a grade.

Luckily, we know there are solutions. Unfortunately, they are being ignored at the federal level.

Say Something is an anonymous reporting service created by the Sandy Hook Promise, that allows students to leave anonymous tips for staff about students they believe may pose a threat.

A study published in Pediatrics analyzing over 18,000 tips throughout 4 school years found over 1770 included tips about firearms. 51% of these firearm tips were considered life threatening, 38% of those tips about firearms included potential school attacks, 22% included personally seeing or knowing someone had a weapon on them.

School violence prevention programs like social-emotional learning or positive behavior interventions are also linked to reducing violence, and better student mental health.

These programs teach strategies to build character development, manage emotions, and deescalate social situations one might find themselves in.

Meta-analysis of other psychological intervention programs at school heavily link them with being effective in reducing aggression, violence, and conflict.

And then there's the one that may trigger some gun lovers, but it doesn’t make it any less true.

Stricter gun laws.

I don’t just say this to say it, but increases in the strictness of a states gun law’s are associated with decreases in the probability of a weapons threat at any given school within the state.

This isn’t to say take anyone’s guns away, but to implement Red Flag Laws and get rid of loopholes allowing those without a background check to obtain a gun.

These are easily implementable, could be required through law by federal legislation that should get total bipartisan support, and would show America finally putting its children before it’s guns.

The question is why we haven’t done it yet.