Republicans, who like to pretend they follow Jesus, are mocking a Democrat who does.

Surprising report suggests GLP-1 users buy fewer groceries but more chocolate. www.emarketer.com/content/risi...

You know what’s the sort of thing you’d invest in if you wanted to reduce Iranian power over the global economy in the long run? Renewables, that’s what.

The dawn of the age of Frankenchocolate. www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2026...

Includes map showing price increases by state. sherwood.news/markets/wher...

Portland, you really get me

Supply disruptions caused by the Iran conflict hit the global confectionery industry hard. (Here in the US we’re not as directly affected. But expect prices to rise as producers in Europe & Asia search for alternative sources for key ingredients.) www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2026...

"At least eight Department of Homeland Security officers expressed confusion about several key elements at issue in the case, including actions protected under the First Amendment, what constitutes passive resistance, proper crowd control tactics and their agency’s own use of force policies."

Not just in media, overall. The amount of interest / attention to climate change has plummeted. Maybe people are distracted by more immediate things, but last year was Oregon's third hottest year in records dating back to 1895. Almost every year since 2020 has been in the top 10.

Climate change's rising seas may threaten tens of millions more people than scientists and government planners originally thought because of mistaken research assumptions on how high coastal waters already are, a new study said. https://to.pbs.org/4ss9xR7

Case study of the cocoa crisis in a nutshell. Or in this case, a peanut shell. Plus a great new word: skimpflation. www.klcc.org/npr-news/202...

Cocoa prices have fallen from their stunning peak a year ago, but the industry has not returned to its pre-spike normal. And conditions that caused the earlier increase have not gone away. www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2026...

War is Peace

Meanwhile, over on the Upside Down site, Grok has thoughtfully summarized the current top news story. (For those unfamiliar, Musk added Grok to X because he wanted a non-woke AI feature on the platform.)

The @nytimes.com just sent me a reminder that I’ve a bunch of unused gift links that expire today, so here’s one. Let me know if there are any articles you would like me to share before late evening today. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/w...

The world could be such a nice place if we allowed it. It's all so goddamn unnecessary. There's no need for any of it. It's so beautiful here. It should be so cool to be alive

im starting to think the woke mind virus wasnt actually the biggest threat to civilization

Updated:

Kids, don’t put this on your sundae! Chocolate syrup recalled for undeclared Sildenafil (active ingredient in Viagra). Although with that product name and package art, “undeclared” is a technicality. www.fda.gov/safety/recal...

🧵🧵🧵

"We must reject political violence of any kind," says Trump, who pardoned hundreds of violent rioters who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection that he inspired.

"SLOPPINESS": The Trump administration claimed that a man detained by ICE had a criminal convictions for marijuana possession in 2009. The judge pointed out that the man was 4 years old at the time. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Wouldn’t it be great if all of 2026‘s huge problems could just… cancel each other out?

“Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm.”

Turns out it’s remarkably easy to manipulate AI chatbot responses. And since AI is almost everywhere these days, that seems like a yet another huge problem. www.bbc.com/future/artic...

🍫*🥜=🔥 www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2026...

Challenging times ahead for chocolate lovers as well as producers. www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2026...

So AI may not be the real reason for all those job losses, at least for now. Also, check out reasons #1 & 9. sherwood.news/markets/ai-i...

TWIN CITIES Armed Citizens Against Tyranny is a HONEYPOT action. No one in the Twin Cities, including the MN Gun Owners association, knows anyone supposedly in this group. Local orgs are STRONGLY urging folks to STAY AWAY from their planned "protest." acatusa.com

How embarrassing 😳

Turns out food safety experts also like pro football. Via the Seahawks fans at Seattle-based @foodsafetynews.com.web.brid.gy. www.foodsafetynews.com/2026/02/supe...

It’s unfortunate, but with this incident, the White House has purposely and unapologetically misled the American people. Which begs the question: why should we take ANYTHING they say at face value? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/u...

“To the administration and the perpetrators responsible, you have awakened the most overworked, abused, under-appreciated, and organized workforce…” -San Diego vigil for Alex Pretti organized by VA nurses

GIFT LINK! The Powerful Tools in ICE’s Arsenal to Track Suspects — and Protesters By Eva Dou, Artur Galocha and Kevin Schaul Biometric trackers, cellphone location databases and drones are among the surveillance technologies that federal agents are tapping in their deportation campaign.

wapo.st/49ZqtqC Gift link, free to read and share.

Former cop now at John Jay College of Criminal Justice walks through video of Pretti killing to offer a professional assessment of tactics used by federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis. Audio and transcript. www.npr.org/transcripts/...

Any prospective government shutdown should not end until and unless this ghoul is removed from public life

Reports from Cambodia indicate that thousands of workers have fled or been released from online scam centers, many of them suspected survivors of trafficking. Their protection should be highest priority. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Moderna CEO says Trump’s policies have so curtailed vaccine market they won’t be investing in new research. So that’s awesome. Good luck when the next pandemic hits. www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8fWErMy/

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Of all the departures this past year at NOAA—via the fork offer, retirements, etc.— the one that stung the most was the firing of people in their probationary first year. They have more modern skills than those of us who received their PhDs in the 90s and 00s. My whole department is in its 50s now.

My friend Sara posted this about the superb care her father received from with Alex Pretti Absolutely heartbreaking

Current consumer economic challenges—inflation, stagnant job market, depleted savings—drive a revision in ranking the top grocery chains. www.foodandwine.com/heb-top-groc...

Less chocolate in your chocolate: major manufacturers explore ways to cope with cocoa shortages due to upheaval and climate change. www.confectionerynews.com/Article/2026... (Note that one approach, alkalinizing the cocoa, undermines the antioxidant health benefits of chocolate.)

Pew Research Institute (2023): • Red State Texas has about 2.1 million undocumented immigrants • Red State Florida has 1.6 M undocumented immigrants • Blue State Minnesota has 130,000. And yet only Minnesota is being occupied by masked thugs over "immigration." It's *not* about immigration.