Sandy Collins

Imperdible mensaje de Chistina Koch tras su vuelta del espacio. Oratoria 10/10. Contenido 10/10. Emoción 10/10. Gente que sí ♥️

JUST IN: The most irreversible consequence of this war is not happening in Tehran. It is happening in a barn in Iowa. A farmer is standing over a kitchen table looking at two seed catalogues. One is corn. One is soybeans. Corn needs 180 pounds of nitrogen per acre. Nitrogen costs $610 per ton on the CBOT March futures settlement as of yesterday, up 35 percent in a month. Soybeans fix their own nitrogen from the atmosphere through root bacteria called rhizobia. They need nothing from the Strait of Hormuz. The farmer is choosing soybeans. Millions of acres are choosing soybeans. And once the planter rolls into the field, the choice cannot be reversed until next year. USDA projected corn at roughly 94 million acres for 2026, down from 98.8 million. Soybeans at 85 million, up from 81.2 million. Those projections were published February 19, before urea surged past $683 at New Orleans. The actual shift will be larger. USDA Prospective Plantings reports March 31. By then the seeds will be in the ground. This is the transmission channel the world is not watching. A 21-mile strait enforced by provincial commanders with sealed radio orders just rewrote the planting economics of 90 million acres of the most productive farmland on Earth. Not through sanctions. Not through diplomacy. Through the price of a single molecule that corn cannot grow without and soybeans do not need. Now follow the cascade. The Renewable Fuel Standard mandates 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol annually. That consumes roughly 43 percent of the entire US corn crop. The mandate is set by the EPA. It does not flex when corn acres shrink. It is inelastic demand consuming a fixed share of a declining supply. When supply tightens against a fixed mandate, the remaining corn reprices upward. Corn above $5 per bushel compresses every margin downstream. The US cattle herd stands at 86.2 million head, a 75-year low per USDA NASS. Poultry and pork operations face compression from higher corn prices. Feed is the single largest cost in livestock production. When feed reprices, protein reprices. When protein reprices, every grocery shelf in America absorbs the increase. This is the protein cascade. Corn to feed to meat to eggs to dairy to the checkout counter. Each link tightens because the link before it tightened. The originating cause is a urea molecule that cannot transit a strait because a provincial commander’s sealed orders say it cannot. The farmer did not start this war. The farmer cannot end it. The farmer responds to the price on the screen and the biology of the two crops in front of him. Corn needs the molecule. Soybeans do not. At $610 the arithmetic is settled. The planter rolls. The season is locked. Israel just authorised the assassination of every Iranian official on sight. The US has spent $16.5 billion. South Pars is burning. The Fed is holding rates because oil inflation will not break. Gold touched $5,000. Bitcoin is bleeding. China is running exercises near Taiwan. Sri Lanka shut down on Wednesdays. And underneath all of it, a man in a barn is making the decision that determines whether four billion people pay more for food this year. He has never heard of the Mosaic Doctrine. He does not know what a sealed contingency packet is. He knows what nitrogen costs. And he is planting soybeans. Full analysis - open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

HHS cancels $500 million in mRNA research, a $600 million contract to develop an mRNA bird flu vaccine, narrowed criteria on who should get the mRNA COVID vaccine, and now refuses to review a completed study of a mRNA flu vaccine. If you were trying to kill a technology, and a company, this is what you would do. Someone at HHS seems to have a thing about the President’s truly lifesaving mRNA vaccines. nytimes.com/2026/02/11/hea…

The meningococcal vaccine just got moved to "shared clinical decision-making" on the new CDC schedule. This is one of the infections I feared most during my training. Here's what it is, why it's often confused with "meningitis," and what this policy shift will mean in practice. 🧵

@ddale8 Same ol lies.

I counted at least 18 false claims in President Trump’s speech to House Republicans today. Here’s a quick fact check of some of the things he said. There’s a link at the bottom with more details. - Washington, DC hasn’t had a murder “in seven months” (there have been dozens of murders in DC in the last seven months, including multiple murders within the last two weeks) - DC is “now the safest city in the country” (not even close to true, though crime is down) - He’s reducing prescription drug prices by “thousands of percent” (again: mathematically impossible) - The House Jan. 6 committee failed to note that he used the words “peacefully and patriotically” in his speech before the riot (it did note he said that, though also correctly noted the rest of the speech was combative and filled with election lies) - Nancy Pelosi turned down 10,000 National Guard troops (still zero evidence she was ever offered them, and the president, not the speaker, is in charge of the DC Guard anyway) - Pelosi was caught on her daughter’s documentary footage admitting she turned down the National Guard troops that day and saying, “It's my fault, I should’ve taken the soldiers” (Pelosi didn’t say that; she said she took responsibility for not “having them just prepare for more” at the Capitol, not that she turned down Guard troops, and added, “Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?”) - Two 2024 Olympic gold medalists in women’s boxing were men who “transitioned” (both of the boxers who faced gender scrutiny were always female and always competed in women’s events) - The 2020 election “was rigged” (he lost fair and square) - He “won Minnesota” (he lost there three straight times) or would have without corrupt elections (nonsense) - “We’re the only country that votes by mail, essentially” (dozens of countries use mail-in voting) - In his 2019 call with Zelensky, he simply “told Ukraine not to cheat, and if you see any cheating, report it to the Attorney General of the United States” (he pressured Zelensky to investigate Biden and an election conspiracy theory) - He was beating Biden “by 30 points” when Biden unfairly dropped out midway through the race (he had single-digit leads over Biden in most polls) - There’s “$18 trillion” being invested in the US (this figure is fiction, nearly double the White House's own wildly inflated $9.6 trillion figure) - “Many stations” are now selling gas for $1.99 a gallon (“many” is too vague to call this flat false, but GasBuddy says about 650 out of 150,000 US gas stations it tracks, 0.43%, are below $2 today aside from special discounts) - “Prisons from the Congo” were released into the US under Biden (both Congo countries and independent experts say this didn’t happen, and Trump’s team has never provided a shred of evidence) - Last year’s Los Angeles wildfires were affected by California using some water to protect a fish species in the north of the state (California water experts have repeatedly explained those two things are completely unrelated) - He inherited “the greatest inflation in history” (even peak Biden-era inflation of 9.1% in June 2022 was less than half the all-time high of 23.7%, and it then declined to 3.0% in January 2025, just a bit above where it is now) - He achieved “no tax on Social Security” (he didn’t; his big bill created an additional deduction for people 65+, but many people 65+ and also recipients under 65 are continuing to paying tax on Social Security) cnn.com/2026/01/06/pol…

The gun violence epidemic in America should not go another year unaddressed.

The only thing Andy Ogles has ever fought for is attention. We need serious adults in the room who are fighting to lower costs and put people over headlines. Proud to join the folks over at @MeidasTouch to talk about our Middle-Tennessee powered campaign to flip #TN05.

Throwback to 2010: While serving as District Attorney, @KamalaHarris spent a day with Wendy Ko, a Bay Area home care provider. A powerful reminder of her enduring commitment to improving workers’ lives.

RT @TheTNHoller: WATCH: “Why is he here? Are you prepared to distance yourself from views of that disgracefully violent nature?” @SenWhite…

@christopherhale L9l

Today marks Pope Leo’s 200th day as pope. In that time, he has spoken with more than 40 world leaders — including every G7 head of government except two: Japan’s newly elected prime minister, and Donald Trump. Given that Leo is the first American pope in the Church’s two-millennia history, the silence from Trump is nothing short of extraordinary.

This morning, a friend posted a video in which he shared a quote, “Do you remember when you wanted what you have?” That hit home because, despite the unrelenting stream of harassment from neo-Nazis over the last few days, I am doing what I always wanted to do. Having the ability to be a voice for the voiceless is the fulfillment of a dream. Which is why you won’t see me succumbing to those who would hope to cow me into silence! You don’t let go of the dream once you have achieved it. Have a fantastic Saturday! 🌞

Damn, we need more people like him. Dude didn't even blink to stand up for people. Type of people we need in office.

@JenniferJJacobs Concept of a plan.

On MBS meeting with Trump next week, Rubio says: "We're still working through all that. ... We'll have some good agreements to sign with them. ... There's still a few things that need to be tightened up and finalized, and we're going to have a good meeting."

RUBIO: "I don't think that the European Union gets to determine what international law is. They certainly don't get to determine is how the United States defends its national security." He added: "I do find it interesting that all these countries want us to send and supply, for example, nuclear capable Tomahawk missiles to defend Europe. But when the United States positions aircraft carriers in our hemisphere where we live, somehow that's a problem."

I walk through these woods this morning, a north wind blowing and tall pines creaking, sycamores surrendering their giant leaves, all nature swaying to the rhythm of at last a changing season, I bring my burdens to the Lord — my pleadings, “how long, O Lord??” — And yes for me but not just for me. For wounded people I deeply love. For some to whom it seems the pain never ends. The wind whips up words into a path before me I’ve walked a thousand times. Words my heart hears as an invitation: Just around the bend. Oh let it be, Lord. Let that be the hope lent to the labored and heavy laden by your Holy Spirit and not just the yearnings of human imagination. And let it be for all who are weary, for all who have long prayed. Oh let it be, Lord Jesus, for every brother and sister who dares to keep walking into an uncertain future, faithing, hoping, praying. Let some answers to petitions long pled be waiting for each of us just around the bend.

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

@bartbarber Oh what a tangled web we weave...

With real data, my answer this year is 20% smaller than the prior year, but our attendance is higher than ever.

We started counting our worship attendance late in 2024. We've never done that before. The ACP (a Southern Baptist statistical survey) asks that number every year. I've never had data. I've just made up a number every year.

I joined Connecticut Attorney General William Tong to announce a lawsuit filed by 25 states and the District of Columbia over the Trump administration‘s refusal to release almost $6 billion in emergency funds so that families won’t see their SNAP benefits interrupted starting November 1st. I am grateful to live in a state that fights for our residents at every level.

@atrupar Permits and historical review be damned.

Trump on demolishing the East Wing: "After really a tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section. The East Wing was not much. There was not much left from the original."

Elon Musk Wealth 2012: $2 billion 2025: $486 billion Larry Ellison Wealth 2009: $23 billion 2025: $370 billion Mark Zuckerberg Wealth 2008: $1.5 billion 2025: $245 billion Jeff Bezos Wealth 1998: $1.6 billion 2025: $233 billion Minimum Wage 2009: $7.25 2025: $7.25 Obscene

Breaking: Disturbing scenes out of Portland, 2025 — authorities warn the situation could escalate.