Bijan Salehizadeh

Alt-text: Marjorie Taylor Greene poses smiling next to her son, who is wearing a backward baseball cap, white polo shirt, and jeans. She is dressed in a white lace top with a denim jacket. The tweet above the photo says, “It’s my baby boy’s birthday!! He’s 22!! I love him so much! Buy him a beer!” followed by a Venmo link.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a sitting member of Congress who is worth many millions of dollars, posted a birthday message for her son—along with a link to his Venmo account, encouraging her supporters to send him money.

This comes at a time of significant economic uncertainty in the United States.

“Trump’s new Executive Order underscores how far removed this President, Attorney General and Administration are from our nation’s Constitution and bedrock values. Our liberties depend on lawyers’ willingness to represent unpopular people and causes, including in matters adverse to the Federal Government. An attack on lawyers who perform this work is inexcusable and despicable. Our profession owes every client zealous legal representation without fear of retribution, regardless of their political affiliation or ability to pay. We encourage law firm leaders to sign on to an amicus effort in support of Perkins Coie’s challenge to the Administration’s executive order targeting the firm, and to resist the Administration’s erosion of the rule of law.” – John Keker, Robert Van Nest, Elliot Peters, Laurie Carr Mims, and the Keker, Van Nest & Peters Partnership

Our first post is a big one...Statement from Keker, Van Nest & Peters on Trump’s Latest Executive Order “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court.”

A nonsensical threat to:
One of the most important advances in biotechnology of our time, already being used to successfully treat refractory cancers, enable genome editing, develop vaccines for infectious diseases for which there are none, treat autoimmune diseases, and more.

It’s the year of the snake
So let your heart break

It is a sad day for the legal industry. Paul Weiss, didn't just bend a knee, it set a new standard for shameful capitulation. This is a stain on the firm, every one of its partners, and the entire legal profession.

These are the principles, set out by the great Judge Simon Rifkind, that once governed Paul Weiss.

They should take his name out of the firm’s name out of respect for his memory.

A relentless attack on universities proceeds

Slava Ukraine

Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦💙💛

The new HHS issued an immediate stop work order on BARDA's contract with biotech company Vaxart & halted the nextgen Covid vaccine clinical trial with 10,000 enrollees that was supposed to start on Monday h/t @bijans.bsky.social www.foxnews.com/politics/mul... #medsky #biosky

Forbes is reporting that weeks after being named Chair of the House DOGE Committee, that Marjorie Taylor Greene (who is a wealthy woman), bought Tesla stock.

You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light

Feeling pretty psyched

… It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine

(time I had some time alone)

Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped

Look at that low plane, fine, then
Uh oh, overflow, population, common group

But it'll do, save yourself, serve yourself
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed

Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right

Bad intent and incompetence all in one.

Bird Flu in U.S. Is Creating Egg Shortages and Driving Up Prices Avian influenza has led to a shortage of eggs and wholesale prices that are through the roof. Consumers can expect to feel the pain for a while.

Price of eggs has shot up again.

Yes, it’s because of the raging bird flu epidemic — for poultry we have strict rules for culling.

The bovine H5N1 outbreak, already badly handled, is ongoing too.

And with health agencies muzzled, we are down to fingers crossed.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/b...

Banana republic.

NEWS

Chinese officials are evaluating a potential option that involves Elon Musk acquiring the US operations of TikTok if the company fails to fend off a controversial ban on the short-video app.

Full Story: https://bit.ly/40dYKNY

NEWS

President-elect Trump’s advisers are said to be trying to identify a disease that could help them justify closing the U.S. border with Mexico.

They have spent months trying to find the right disease to build their case.

Full Story: https://bit.ly/4h9oCRP

Pfizer executives descend on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for planning meeting Drugmaker is latest titan of corporate America to curry favour with president-elect

Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla traveled with his top management team to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for an off-site meeting, "according to flight records and two people familiar with the matter."

www.ft.com/content/ad6a...

Suppression of the inflammation that occurs with aging ("inflammaging") by blocking thrombospondin-1 (Thbs1), prevented age-related blood stem cell defects and expanded lifespan in the mouse model (KO-knockout)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

JUST IN: Tesla Cybertruck explodes at the entrance to Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas

UnitedHealth’s Army of Doctors Helped It Collect Billions More From Medicare The biggest Medicare Advantage insurer presented physicians with checklists of potential diagnose.; “I didn’t think I was obese,” one suspicious patient told his doctor.

www.wsj.com/health/healt...

Outstanding WSJ reporting on United Healthcare's massively outlier RAF scoring in MA - driven by its owned and affiliated doctor practices.

The year 1 "RAF lift" is crazy for United beneficiaries.

The GLP-1 family of drugs have anti-inflammatory effects independent of weight loss.
2 new studies shed light on the mechanisms
—brain-gut-GLP axis blocks inflammation induced by TLRs (toll-like receptor)
www.cell.com/cell-metabol...

CDC says H5N1 bird flu sample shows mutations that may help the virus bind to cells in the upper airways of people The CDC said Thursday that the mutations, detected in a sample taken from a Louisiana patient, may help bind the virus to the upper airways in people.

CDC says H5N1 bird flu sample shows mutations that may help the virus bind to cells in the upper airways of people www.statnews.com/2024/12/26/c...

That is a lot of $$ for sex.

It's really unfortunate that Covid trends do not act like the Flu or RSV (at least yet). The difference between peak and trough:
🔸Flu: 200x
🔸RSV: 400x
🔸Covid: 9x
And Covid only stays at those reduced levels for weeks, not most of the year. Always around.

Department of Government Efficiency & @DOGE The 1,547-page, $110+ Billion House "Continuing Resolution" meant to avert a government shutdown includes: -A pay increase for members of Congress from $174,000 to $243,000 per year. -A new football stadium in D.C. -72 pages of "Pandemic Preparedness and Response" policy - Renewal of the "Global Engagement Center" ", which is currently being sued for censorship

The official DOGE account, which has a grey checkmark reserved for elected officials and government entities, is tweeting out misinfo/disinfo/lies.

The raise takes members to $180,600.

The football stadium is about transferring admin of the site to DC from fed government. No fed funds used.

They better hurry up or else PCMA lobby will neuter this

Congress nears deal to rein in PBMs after years of debate The reforms are part of a government funding package set to be passed this year.

Congress nears deal to rein in PBMs after years of debate www.statnews.com/2024/12/16/p...

The policies in the package would put guardrails around how PBMs can operate.

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.