NEW: Foreign food safety inspections have hit a historic low after Trump staffing cuts. The dramatic shift in oversight comes as the U.S. has never been more reliant on foreign food. “It’s only a matter of time before people die,” one expert said.

The miracle of Effin' Birds is that I had to submit all the comics for the 2025 calendar by June 2023, so I wrote this joke somewhere between late 2022 and early 2023. I remain a shitty Nostradamus. (Get your 2026 calendars right now at eatf.art)

where I’m at spiritually if you even care

Remembering satirist Tom Lehrer, one of whose most popular works was "The Elements," which is simply the names of all the elements, set to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune from The Pirates of Penzance. Lehrer passed away last week at the age of 97.. youtu.be/AcS3NOQnsQM?...

This is a moral crime. There is a GoFundMe

Morning friends

#BackyardChickens Sweet lil baby cockerel keeping these two broody mamas company for the last 3 weeks. Babies soon!

Can someone in immigration law explain to me how this is legal?

BREAKING: A federal judge reversed National Institutes of Health's terminations of hundreds of critical research grants that were canceled because of their alleged connection to disfavored topics, including diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender identity. This is a major win for public health.

As SCOTUS said in Houston v. Hill: The "freedom of individuals verbally to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state." www.thefire.org/supreme-cour...

Signs you might be a far right authoritarian party (#3179):

ICE are nazis cos playing.

BREAKING: Federal agents in plain clothes and unmarked cars tried to snatch 1st graders from LA elementary schools—told staff they had “parental consent.” They lied. When pressed, they HID THEIR IDS. DHS admits they sent them. This wasn’t a welfare check. It was a test run for a police state.

This administration needs to stop targeting international reporters, they’re the ones helping spread the truth. In multiple videos, officers are seen aiming directly at them, fully aware they’re members of the press. These so-called “non-lethal” rounds can absolutely be lethal.

"Tanner, a chemist at the Univ. of Mississippi working to develop a novel approach for treating glioblastoma, was notified in April that the grant was terminated. “I would like to cure brain cancer,” Dr. Tanner said. “I think that's not particularly controversial.” www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Me and roosters. @cock.beauty because you get it.

This super cute little cockerel is the sweetest thing. #chickensofbsky

Once again, what could possibly go wrong, you ask? bsky.app/profile/mcop...

It is very clear now that unusual trading before news is happening. Take Friday. Right before close, in the FINAL MINUTES of the market, traders bought MILLIONS in $SPY calls, the largest volumes of days. These calls were all OTM, expirying the next Wednesday & Friday (!!!).

This is absolutely outrageous and has already been confirmed by a federal judge to violate a previous order that he issued. Sitting back and saying "phew, we stopped that" isn't nearly enough. We need an immediate and aggressive investigation into the what the hell is going on and on whose orders.

This is unusual trading by a politician. Marjorie Taylor Greene bought Palantir, $PLTR, on April 8th. On April 17th, Palantir, $PLTR, was awarded a government contract with ICE to develop ImmigrationOs. She sits on the Committee of Homeland Security Palantir is up nearly 50% since.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Fired workers from the Division of Drug Information, which conducts safety monitoring, say the DDI team lost between 75% and 90% of its roughly 50-person staff in the FDA’s April 1 reduction in force. cen.acs.org/safety/drug-... 🧪

1. Clay Jackson, a Texas lawyer, provided basic legal advice to an immigrant family fearing deportation Then, two officers visited him at his home, accusing him of "obstructing an ongoing immigration investigation" Then, after speaking publicly, he was fired from his job at a Fortune 500 company

Please do it less quietly, Europe. US political leadership needs to be more rattled by this! www.politico.com/newsletters/...

In much better news: after our fury, HHS says “We are now working to fully restore funding to” the Women's Health Initiative. Sharing the gift article. Reminding us all that we're in 'announcements about announcements' territory, but let's keep close eye on this. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/h...

Federal funding for investigating child sexual abuse and internet crimes against children; responding to reports of missing children; and preventing youth violence has been withdrawn indefinitely by the Trump administration.

I'm drinking hard apple cider in an apple orchard that has chickens. It's a perfect day and the trees are starting to blossom.

May you all have a day as filled with joy-- bewildered, un-looked-for, incomprehensible joy-- as my almost-2-year-old was at having M&Ms out of a plastic egg for breakfast.

The Golden Age Of Corruption www.wired.com/story/cfpb-h...

Snow rooster

Chicken bean bag party favors #chickens

Guess what? #chickensofbsky This lil one hatched 4-5 days after her hatchmates, and has remained small. But this bit of umbilical (?) has dried up and come off and she seems to be doing well, other than being very small

To be clear, I truly don't GAF that some wealthy and/or famous women were passengers on a Bezos rocket. It is not in any way inspiring, especially at a time when NASA budgets are being slashed and women engineers & scientists are being pushed out of their careers and having their legacies erased 🧪

BREAKING: Economic Advisor Hassett has said: there was no insider trading at the White House. Meanwhile, here are some unusual tariff trades nearly perfectly timing the news:

@cock.beauty thought you might appreciate this chill cock in a swing.

3 days ago RFK Jr. told the CDC to stop recommending water fluoridation, claiming it was a neurotoxin (this is a lie). Turns out he also just eliminated the CDC’s entire Lead Program, and now lead poisoned children in Milwaukee are just on their own. Lead IS a neurotoxin and harms brain development

Share this everywhere. I believe there should be immigration enforcement. I believe there shld be an immigration enforcement agency. But this one is simply lawless to the core. That fact is just inescapable.

BREAKING: The country of Norway just entered a bill to give transgender Americans asylum in the country of Norway… LGBTQ+ STRONG! 🌈✨

👇🎯 We are having trouble using proper terminology because it requires us to fully accept exactly what has happened to our country & wrestle with the fact that every single one of our elected representatives in Congress is violating their oaths of office by not immediately impeaching & removing him.

you, a rube: “i want my kid to grow up to be a doctor or an engineer or a teacher” lutnick, a genius: “to make america great again your child will make iphones that they will not be able to afford”

Petabytes of critical government research that is marked for possible deletion cannot be archived because of technical and legal restrictions, meaning it is very likely to be lost forever: www.404media.co/nih-archives...

Senator Jim Banks (R) isn’t sorry he told a fired federal worker “he probably deserved it”. He went on to say the worker was “complaining about losing a left-wing woke job in the federal government that should have never been a job to begin with”. The job was helping people with disabilities.

I don’t think people realize how bad it’s going to get tomorrow when Wall Street finally collectively realizes that these people have no idea how economics work, and then it’s gonna be a scramble to not be the one left holding the bag.

This is their "methodology." ustr.gov/issue-areas/...

I had been reluctant to amplify the theory that Trump's "reciprocal tariff rate" for a given country was based on the dumb calculation: (bilateral trade deficit) divided by (imports from that country) But now USTR has confirmed it. Brief 🧵

Oh, please! The US is paying that El Salvador jail MILLIONS of dollars to house those falsely accused prisoners. Of course, that concentration camp would gladly return one prisoner to keep that cash flowing.