https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-kennedy-food-pyramid-dietary-guidelines-eb08465c99512d224112ff6c95d24a32

The food pyramid that once guided Americans’ diets has been retired for more than a decade, but that has not stopped President Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., from regularly criticizing the concept.

He often highlights the pyramid, misrepresenting dietary standards and criticizing health initiatives of the Biden administration. Such claims were featured in a video aired Tuesday, before his appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

KENNEDY: “The dietary guidelines that we inherited from the Biden administration were 453 pages long. They were driven by the same commercial impulses that put Froot Loops at the top of the food pyramid.”

THE FACTS: The original food pyramid did not mention any specific products. But at the very top, it recommended that oils, fats and sugar be consumed “sparingly.” Grains such as bread, cereal, rice and pasta were on the bottom tier, where six to 11 portions a day were recommended. The current dietary guidelines are 164 pages long, not 453. They were released in December 2020 during Trump’s first term, along with a four-page executive summary.

A scientific report used to develop the dietary guidelines is published every five years by an advisory committee. The latest report, released in December by the Biden administration, is 421 pages long. Trump’s first administration released an 835-page scientific report in July 2020 that informed the current guidelines.

> Thread theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvUSC3GVMyU

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/ny-appeals-court-throws-trumps-500-million-fraud-judgment-rcna217340

> A New York appeals court on Thursday dismissed a $500 million civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump and his companies for routinely over-valuing their properties in financial statements.

> Some judges of the state Appellate Division's First Department agreed that Trump and his companies had engaged in fraud, but agreed with their colleagues that the award was an "excessive fine."

> [W]hile harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half billion-dollar award to the State," two of the judges wrote.

> Trump praised the ruling as a "total victory" in a post on Truth Social.

> "I greatly respect the fact that the Court had the Courage to throw out this unlawful and disgraceful Decision that was hurting Business all throughout New York State," he wrote.

> "Every single Dollar was thrown out, even the penalties imposed on us by the Corrupt Judge, one of the most overturned in History, Arthur Engoron," Trump added in his lengthy post. He also called New York Attorney General Letitia James, who'd brought the case against him, a "political hack" and "Incompetent."

> Eric Trump celebrated the ruling in a phone interview with NBC News.

> "This is the biggest victory in the world," said the president’s son, who’s the executive vice president of the Trump Organization. "We always knew this was going to happen. The case is totally won, and it’s a big day for us.”

> His brother, fellow executive vice president Donald Trump Jr., called the ruling a "massive win" in a post on X.

> "It was always a witch hunt, election interference, and a total miscarriage of justice … and even a left leaning NY appeals court agrees!" he wrote.

> 8/15/2025
This summit is bogus - Ukraine was not represented.
> Top Headlines
Red Carpet for a Red Man. (Red Text)
> https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/live-blog/trump-putin-summit-alaska-ukraine-war-russia-peace-live-updates-rcna224983
Poor Putin - he has a limp. (Red Text)
> https://www.express.co.uk/news/2096076
Cozy chat in ‘The Beast’! (Red Text)
> https://archive.is/3Nr08
Putin shouts over journalists in photocall (Red Text)
> https://www.the-sun.com/news/14984205
“Sidelined Ukrainians look on.”
> https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm21l237pkpo
> Main Headlines
“Charm and Manipulate”
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/international-relations/ar-AA1KzhxH
‘Absolute Distrust’ of Putin…
> https://www.foxnews.com/world/nato-defense-minister-signals-absolute-distrust-putin-wants-any-peace-deal-ahead-trump-summit
Trump fails to get a peace deal…
> https://apnews.com/a7b167f17a3e06fbce2f583c93f8bae1
Ukraine to stay the course…
> https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-vows-to-continue-drone-attacks-until-theres-a-peace-deal-13412075
Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize for doing little.
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-asked-norwegian-minister-nobel-113141508.html

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/3975586/
>More News
DC sues Trump for taking over the police the way he did… (Red Text)
> https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/3975586/
New Jersey to fine or jail parents of law breaking kids…
> https://www.the-sun.com/news/14981031
Top podcasters may be fudging their numbers…
> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/are-podcast-metrics-numbers-reliable-accurate-1236342741/
Late Night TV should not resist…
> https://www.thewrap.com/late-night-colbert-kimmel-meyers-trump/
What will become of the Ed Sullivan Theater after Colbert?!?
> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/ed-sullivan-theater-colbert-history-future-1236340387/
RFK Jr. not to run in 2028…
> https://thehill.com/policy/5454652
Eeep!Outa text.

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/21/nx-s1-5509592/walmart-tariff-costs-rising-earnings
Walmart says it has been able to mitigate many of the tariff costs so far, but they are rising "each week" and will continue to do so through the rest of the year.

The world's largest retailer — like many others, including Home Depot and Target — has had to raise prices on some items, while keeping prices down on others. Walmart says its top back-to-school products were even cheaper this year than last year.

Still, the Trump administration's tariffs on virtually all imports loom large for all retailers who are seeing the cost of goods rise. Previously, when President Trump was threatening tariffs up to 145% on Chinese imports, Walmart drew his ire by saying that would lead to higher prices.

On Thursday, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said his company's costs keep climbing: "We've continued to see our costs increase each week, which we expect will continue into the third and fourth quarters," he said on an earnings call.

Walmart continues to attract more higher-income shoppers looking for deals, McMillon said. And where some items did go up in price, middle- and lower-income customers in particular sometimes switched or skipped those purchases. But broadly, he said, tariffs haven't prompted "dramatic shifts" in shopping behavior.

"The impact of tariffs has been gradual enough that any behavioral adjustments by the customer have been somewhat muted," McMillon said.

Overall, shoppers keep spending at stores and restaurants. Walmart's sales in the U.S. grew 4.6% in the latest quarter. Home Depot on Tuesday said its U.S. sales in the three months that ended August 3, rose 1.4%, which was much more than earlier this year. The home-improvement chain said people have moved on to smaller projects, while delaying major renovations — largely out of worry about where the economy is headed.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-denies-doj-request-release-jeffrey-epstein-grand-jury-transcript-rcna226117

A federal judge in New York on Wednesday denied the Justice Department's request to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits in the Jeffrey Epstein case.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman found the government had not reached the high bar necessary to unseal the transcripts - and suggested there was not much there anyway.

"A significant and compelling reason to reject the Government's position in this litigation is that the Government has already undertaken a comprehensive investigation into the Epstein case and, not surprisingly, has assembled a 'trove' of Epstein documents, interviews and exhibits," Berman wrote.

"The government's 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials," the ruling said, adding the government's motion “appears to be a 'diversion' from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession.”

The grand jury testimony, the judge said, is “a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct" delivered by an "FBI agent who had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case."

https://www.rawstory.com/ghislaine-maxwell-work-release/
Convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has reportedly been cleared to leave prison on work release.

Podcast host Allison Gill obtained information about Maxwell's security score, sex offender waiver, and other details after the former partner of Jeffrey Epstein was moved to a minimum-security prison in Texas.

According to journalist Adam Klasfeld, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) raised questions about Maxwell's new prison accommodations in a letter to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The senator demanded to know if Maxwell received special treatment after meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney.

Documents viewed by Gill indicated that Maxwell was given a 7-point base security score — the highest possible because she is a sex offender and considered a danger to the community.

"Despite her score of 27 resulting in a MINIMUM security level, BOP policy does not allow people with a sex offender PSF (Public Safety Factor) to serve their sentences in minimum security facilities. Someone has to waive the PSF to make that move," Gill noted.

The documents also showed that Maxwell's custody level was set to "OUT," allowing her to leave the prison to work.

Gill explained that sex offender Epstein, Maxwell's associate, enjoyed the same ability to work outside prison after a "sweetheart deal" penned by attorney Alan Dershowitz and approved by Alex Acosta, who served under former President George W. Bush and Trump.

https://www.clarin.com/estados-unidos/revolucionaria-ia-youtube-detecta-menores-mienten-edad-protegeremos-jovenes_0_jWmoMTEZEa.html

Are you aware of the news that the government is suing 4chan for not having verified users? This is bullshit and makes no sense, because companies like Google, Mirsoft, and governments want to eliminate, censor, and force verification with unnecessary personal data. They want to have total control over the internet even if it violates privacy rights, and they want to collect very specific user information to sell it to advertising companies and AI, under the pretext of “protecting children,” as if that would actually solve the problems.

Something must be done: protests, petitions, hacks, to stop these abuses of authority that want to take away our freedom of expression and privacy. Because they can’t do what they want to do, since on the internet we can all expose the bad situation, the truth, the injustice, the government’s mismanagement, the corruption, the disgust of the people inside or outside the country, and demand constitutional reforms where the only beneficiaries are those in power and the corrupt, and no one else.

And something very wrong is happening on YouTube: it makes no sense that they block or delete your account just for watching Minecraft videos or something like that, when you’re over 30 years old, and then block your account on the “suspicion” that you are a child. And to recover it they force you to give personal data: a photo of your face, your ID, banking information, where you live, where you work, or where you study… all just to get your account back! Just because you watched a Minecraft video, or because you lent your phone or PC to your little brothers, cousins, or kids who were watching Minecraft videos.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/08/16/us/politics/texas-california-redistricting-republicans-democrats.html

The aggressive push by President Trump and Republicans in Texas to flip as many as five congressional seats by drawing new maps ahead of the midterm elections threatens to set off a nationwide redistricting arms race. But it is Republicans who have a clear advantage over Democrats in the total number of states that could redraw their maps.

The process of drawing new legislative maps — which is typically done at the beginning of every decade, after the census — varies from state to state. And not every state has the right conditions to participate in the emerging redistricting battle.

Redrawing a map in the middle of the decade without a court order is likely a highly partisan affair, requiring one party to control both the governor’s mansion and the statehouse. The state must have seats that could be drawn into a partisan advantage without running afoul of Voting Rights Act protections for communities of color. And it must also be one where the legislature holds the power to draw the maps.

Here’s how the list of states that could consider redistricting gets narrowed down.

> Thread theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss7WpOHCcmA

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/venezuela-deploying-millions-of-militia-after-outlandish-threats-by-u-s/ar-AA1KN1Rq

> Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro on Monday said he would deploy 4.5 million militia members in response to "outlandish threats" by the United States after Washington raised the bounty for his arrest to $50 million and launched anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.

> "This week, I will activate a special plan with more than 4.5 million militiamen to ensure coverage of the entire national territory — militias that are prepared, activated and armed," Maduro announced on state television.

> Official figures say the Venezuelan militia, founded by Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez, contains about 5 million people — though the actual number is believed to be smaller.

> Venezuela's total population is around 30 million.

> Maduro lambasted "the renewal of extravagant, bizarre and outlandish threats" from the U.S.

> "We are also deployed throughout the Caribbean ... in our sea, our property, Venezuelan territory," Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said.

> The administration of President Trump earlier this month doubled its bounty to $50 million for the arrest of Maduro, who faces drug trafficking charges.

> Washington, which does not recognize Maduro's past two election victories, accuses the Venezuelan of leading a cocaine trafficking gang called Cartel de los Soles. The Trump administration announced sanctions against the group and Maduro's administration last month.