Category: Education

Why brain rot and bed rotting aren’t all bad — and the reasons why Gen Z and millennials are so drawn to this form of escape

Yahoo! Life

Why brain rot and bed rotting aren’t all bad — and the reasons why Gen Z and millennials are so drawn to this form of escape

Elena Sheppard – December 30, 2024

Cheerful Woman connects to the online world on her smartphone in bed at night
Why people – particularly Gen Z-ers and millennials — are so drawn to “rotting.” (Getty Creative)

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Oxford University Press’s word of 2024 was “brain rot.” The year also gave us a flurry of TikToks documenting “bed rotting.” What’s with all this rotting — and is it a trend we should be taking into 2025?

But first: What do these terms, generally used by Gen Z-ers and millennials, even mean?

“‘Brain rotting’ typically refers to the idea of engaging in mindless content consumption, like scrolling social media or binge-watching TV shows, which over time, feels like numbing or dulling your brain,” explains mental health therapist Brittany Cilento Kopycienski, who owns Glow Counseling Solutions. “‘Bed rotting’ involves spending excessive time lying in bed, contributing to physical and mental stagnation.”

Both activities, it seems, are about checking out of whatever your reality is at the moment — and checking into the often good feeling of doing nothing. Is that good for our mental health? Here’s what experts say.

Why are we so drawn to ‘rotting’?

“Let’s face it—bed rotting or brain rotting is not a style of lazy living. It’s about escape,” psychologist Caitlin Slavens tells Yahoo Life. “The world is noisy, chaotic and often overwhelming. ‘Rotting’ is like pressing a giant snooze button on life. When you’re inundated with expectations (of work, family or even yourself), shutting down might seem your only option.”

She adds, “These trends are a response to a world that’s made us feel like we must be performing in every moment of our lives — for work, for social media, for each other’s expectations. The rise of rotting says we’re burnt out, together.”

That may be especially true for younger adults. “Our brains are experiencing unprecedented levels of stimulation through constant notifications, social media and digital engagement,” Sophia Spencer, a social psychology and mental health therapist, tells Yahoo Life. “For Gen Z and millennials in particular, they are the first generations to live like this from a young age and for this to be their norm. Essentially, their brains are subject to a level of information that was once unthinkable, and not what our brains are designed for.”

But others argue that this urge to disassociate from life isn’t new, but rather something past generations have also felt as they settle into adulthood.

“Do you remember the ‘adulting’ movement?” Slavens points out. “People began to celebrate even the most basic life tasks, like doing laundry or paying bills, as if they were a win in a world so large it felt overwhelming. Or hygge — the Scandinavian midcentury concept of warm living — where we all collectively agreed that it was candles and blankets we needed to feel better when burned out. “All of these trends speak to the same need: to ease up, to take a breath, to feel fine about not doing it all.”

Is rotting a bad thing?

It really depends on the intention behind it — and how much time is being spent staring at screens in lieu of actually resting. Many people see bed rotting as a particular form of self-care: a day spent in bed, with a sole focus on recharging. “Our brains are not meant to be on overdrive all the time. Intentional breaks, time away from screens and the permission to veg out can be restorative,” says Slavens. “The issue is when rotting turns into avoidance, when we’re evading responsibilities or feelings we’re afraid to confront. So yes, a little rotting? Great. Full-blown decay? Probably not ideal.”

As for “brain rot,” who among us hasn’t mindlessly scrolled on our phone? “‘Rotting’ in moderation can be seen as a chance to mentally reset,” says Kopycienski. “It can allow for a break from constant stimulation where emotional recovery can occur.”

How do we move forward?

Thinking all this rotting through, the long and short of it seems to be that it’s about burnout. And burnout isn’t best handled by festering, or rotting; it’s best handled via intentional rest, experts say.

“The best thing we can do is redefine what rest looks like in a digital age,” says Spencer. “Rather than reactively rotting, [we should be] having a system of proactive healthy habits.” That might involve proactively setting better work-life boundaries, scaling back our commitments or being less online to minimize burnout in the first place. Spencer doesn’t rule out more radical change.

“When our ancestors went through significant social change, such as during the Industrial Revolution, people moved from agricultural rhythms that followed daylight to the factory 9–5 schedule,” she notes. “I think we need to take the digital age as a significant change to our life … and adapt our lives ourselves as appropriate.”

“Concerning” bird flu mutations in Louisiana patient underscores pandemic potential of H5N1

Salon

“Concerning” bird flu mutations in Louisiana patient underscores pandemic potential of H5N1

Nicole Karlis – December 31, 2024

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

In 2024, at least 66 human cases of bird flu have been reported in the United States, each one raising the risk of another pandemic like COVID-19. So far, most cases have been described as “mild,” which means they weren’t hospitalized. No patients have died, though infections years ago had a very high mortality rate. Symptoms have typically included pink eye, but not serious respiratory distress.

However, a patient recently made headlines in Louisiana for being a more severe case. The patient, who is reportedly over the age of 65, was hospitalized and in critical condition due to severe respiratory symptoms.

Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said a genetic analysis suggests the virus mutated inside the patient to possibly make it a more severe illness in humans. The agency called the mutation “concerning,” as it may allow the virus to better bind to receptors in humans’ upper airways. This would make it easier to jump from person to person, sparking major outbreaks or even a pandemic. However, the public health agency said that the risk to the general public from the outbreak “has not changed and remains low.”

The CDC also stated that these mutations have not been detected in the bird flock that infected the patient, which would make the situation “more concerning.”

“These changes would be more concerning if found in animal hosts or in early stages of infection (e.g., within a few days of symptom onset) when these changes might be more likely to facilitate spread to close contacts,” the CDC said in its report. “Notably, in this case, no transmission from the patient in Louisiana to other persons has been identified.”

Still, every additional human case gives H5N1 more opportunities to adapt. As a study found earlier in December, it will only take one single mutation to make bird flu much worse. Out of the 66 human cases of bird flu that have been reported in 10 states, including some without reported outbreaks, all but two stem from exposure to either cows or poultry. Human-to-human transmission could be occurring undetected, but so far there is no hard evidence of such transmission.

In an interview with Intelligencer, Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan noted that these exact viral mutations have been seen in bird flu before, nearly two decades ago. The more concerning aspect of the emerging crisis, she said, was how the number of human cases keeps rising.

“Even though this particular virus from this particular case isn’t a huge concern in terms of onward transmission, if we’re having human cases tick up and up and up, we’re going to give the virus more chances to develop mutations,” Rasmussen explained. “And if that’s not detected and starts spreading in the human population, that’s a very good way to have a pandemic start out of this.”

Rasmussen also underlined the risk of reassortment — the potential for H5N1 to swap genes with human influenza virus, which could supercharge the spread of the pathogen. “That’s essentially like shuffling two decks of cards together, ending up making new viruses that have a combination of segments from both of the viruses that were infecting the person. That can lead to really, really rapid evolutionary jumps and rapid adaptation to a new host,” she said.

Over the weekend, Dr. Leana Wen, the former Baltimore health commissioner, told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” that the United States should have learned its lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We should be having rapid tests, home tests, available to all farm workers, to their families, for the clinicians taking care of them, so that we aren’t waiting for public labs and CDC labs to tell us what’s bird flu or not,” she said. “We have 66 cases of bird flu in humans, and this is almost certainly a significant undercount, because we have not been doing nearly enough testing.”

She also urged the Biden administration to approve the H5N1 vaccine.

“There’s research done on it,” she said. “They could get this authorized now, and also get the vaccine out to farm workers and to vulnerable people.”

As Salon previously reported, public health experts aren’t optimistic the incoming Trump administration will handle the bird flu situation any better.

“If the Biden administration is not doing a good job, you can only imagine when you have certain individuals who are much more hostile towards these types of government action, it will get worse,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Salon.

‘Worrisome’ mutations found in H5N1 bird flu virus isolated from Canadian teenager

Los Angeles Times

‘Worrisome’ mutations found in H5N1 bird flu virus isolated from Canadian teenager

Susanne Rust – December 31, 2024

**ADVANCE APRIL 22-23 ** A California Department of Food and Agriculture technician perform tests on chickens for the Avian Influenza viruses in poultry Friday, April 21, 2006, at the Best Live Poultry & Fish store in Sylmar, Calif. The stakes are especially high in California, where a $2.5 billion poultry industry ranks among the top 10 producers nationwide for dinner chicken, turkey and table egg output. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
A California Department of Food and Agriculture technician perform tests on chickens for bird flu in 2006 at the Best Live Poultry & Fish store in Sylmar. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

The fate of a Canadian teenager who was infected with H5N1 bird flu in early November, and subsequently admitted to an intensive care unit, has finally been revealed: She has fully recovered.

But genetic analysis of the virus that infected her body showed ominous mutations that researchers suggest potentially allowed it to target human cells more easily and cause severe disease — a development the study authors called “worrisome.”

The case was published Tuesday in a special edition of the New England Journal of Medicine that explored H5N1 cases from 2024 in North America. In one study, doctors and researchers who worked with the Canadian teenager published their findings. In the other, public health officials from across the U.S. — from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as state and local health departments — chronicled the 46 human cases that occurred between March and October.

There have been a total of 66 reported human cases of H5N1 bird flu in the U.S. in 2024.

In the case of the 13-year-old Canadian child, the girl was admitted to a local emergency room on Nov. 4 having suffered from two days of conjunctivitis (pink eye) in both eyes and one day of fever. The child, who had a history of asthma, an elevated body-mass index and Class 2 obesity, was discharged that day with no treatment.

Over the next three days, she developed a cough and diarrhea and began vomiting. She was taken back to the ER on Nov. 7 in respiratory distress and with a condition called hemodynamic instability, in which her body was unable to maintain consistent blood flow and pressure. She was admitted to the hospital.

On Nov. 8, she was transferred to a pediatric intensive care unit at another hospital with respiratory failure, pneumonia in her left lower lung, acute kidney injury, thrombocytopenia (low platelet numbers) and leukopenia (low white blood cell count).

She tested negative for the predominant human seasonal influenza viruses — but had a high viral loads of influenza A, which includes the major human seasonal flu viruses, as well as H5N1 bird flu. This finding prompted her caregivers to test for bird flu; she tested positive.

As the disease progressed over the next few days, she was intubated and put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) — a life support technique that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs for patients with severe heart or lung conditions.

She was also treated with three antiviral medications, including oseltamivir (brand name Tamiflu), amantadine (Gocovri) and baloxavir (Xofluza).

Because of concerns about the potential for a cytokine storm — a potentially lethal condition in which the body releases too many inflammatory molecules — she was put on a daily regimen of plasma exchange therapy, in which the patient’s plasma is removed in exchange for donated, health plasma.

As the days went by, her viral load began to decrease; on Nov. 16, eight days after she’d been admitted, she tested negative for the virus.

The authors of the report noted, however, that the viral load remained consistently higher in her lower lungs than in her upper respiratory tract — suggesting that the disease may manifest in places not currently tested for it (like the lower lungs) even as it disappears from those that are tested (like the mouth and nose).

She fully recovered and was discharged sometime after Nov. 28, when her intubation tube was removed.

Genetic sequencing of the virus circulating in the teenager showed it was similar to the one circulating in wild birds, the D1.1 version. It’s a type of H5N1 bird flu that is related, but distinct, from the type circulating in dairy cows and is responsible for the vast majority of human cases reported in the U.S. — most of which were acquired via dairy cows or commercial poultry. This is also the same version of the virus found in a Louisiana patient who experienced severe disease, and it showed a few mutations that researchers say increases the virus’ ability to replicate in human cells.

In the Louisiana case, researchers from the CDC suggested the mutations arose as it replicated in the patient and were were not likely present in the wild.

Irrespective of where and when they occurred, said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University in Providence, R.I., “it is worrisome because it indicates that the virus can change in a person and possibly cause a greater severity of symptoms than initial infection.”

In addition, said Nuzzo — who was not involved in the research — while there’s evidence these mutations occurred after the patients were infected, and therefore not circulating in the environment “it increases worries that some people may experience more severe infection than other people. Bottom line is that this is not a good virus to get.”

My Mom’s Support For Trump Divided Our Family. Then I Found The Crack In Her MAGA Armor.

BuzzFeed

My Mom’s Support For Trump Divided Our Family. Then I Found The Crack In Her MAGA Armor.

Tim Durnin – December 30, 2024

Red cap with
Busà Photography via Getty Images

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key Takeaways

The Trump presidency divided my family. The “Trump Effect,” as I called it, infected us shortly after he descended into the lobby of Trump Tower to announce his presidential candidacy. It ended seven years later, around my kitchen table, with three generations of my mother’s progeny mowing their way through Italian takeout. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

My mother was a Reagan Republican and had voted along party lines since 1980. While none of her four children were fully aligned with her politically, the Trump Effect created the greatest distance between my mother and me.

We fought every time we talked. Before Trump secured the nomination, I argued that his morals were in direct conflict with those she and my father had been driving into my head for decades. Furthermore, I argued, he did not even embody conservative values. He twisted them into grotesque manipulations of what had been reasonably sound policy.

I pleaded with her not to vote for him. She wouldn’t budge. In the wake of his election, her choice took on the weight of a betrayal. Her blindness to Trump’s white nationalist tendencies was an affront to my wife, who is a proud Latina, and angered my biracial, high-school-aged children.

Donald Trump in a suit and red tie, looking slightly upwards, in a public setting
Spencer Platt / Getty Images

The more egregious Trump’s violation of social norms, the harder she dug her heels in. In Northern Idaho, her political views went largely unchallenged. It was her excursions into Eastern Washington that afforded her the opportunity to proselytize and be heard. Any poker table became her pulpit as she would expound on the virtues of the new savior of the GOP. Having earned respect with her poker skills, she changed peoples’ minds.

At some point, after the Mueller investigation, she was so self-assured that she stopped fielding challenges or questions from folks on the left. We stopped talking about everything except cursory questions about my life and detailed reports about her current ailments. I longed for a return to our political discourse. It never came.

She voted for Trump again in 2020 but did not embrace the “big lie” that he’d won the election with anything close to enthusiasm. She did defend the honor of her chosen candidate afterward, but her Ultra MAGA armor started to crack when Trump’s attacks were directed at Republican icons like Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney and the Bush dynasty. Then Jan. 6, 2021, shook the foundation of her political fortress. The damage was considerable and lasting.

I wasn’t with my mother for the insurrection’s explosive violence that day. But our family has always been patriotic. My father served in Gen. MacArthur’s honor guard during the Korean War. We flew the flag, sang the anthem and respected servicemen and women. My mother and I shed patriotic tears on Jan. 6, 2021, and while admittedly from very different places, the tears ran into the same river. We both knew the America we loved was significantly diminished by the relentless attacks of a small percentage of Americans hell-bent on defining the world by their petty grievances and perceived injustices.

I didn’t reengage in political discourse with my mother, in spite of an obvious opening for a kill shot. The sadness that surrounded her settled in like a dense fog. Surprisingly, her depressed mood was less about Trump’s defeat and more about her own foolishness in the certainty that Trump was a hero and savior. As for me, I couldn’t even muster an “I told you so.”

Banner hanging on a white picket fence reads
Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

Sixteen months later, I was having dinner with my mother and some Trump news flashed on the screen. She shook her head in mild disgust. I hadn’t planned what happened next, although I had fantasized about this “intervention” countless times.

Taking a deep breath, I gathered my courage and started talking. “Mom, I am going to ask you a huge favor, something that may be jolting at first, but please, sit with it.” She started to speak, but I raised a finger, pleading with her to hear me out.

My voice was shaky and weak as I began, but grew confident as the memory of each Trump atrocity was replayed in my mind ― his near-constant appeal to our worst instincts, his undisguised racism and Islamophobia, and his blaming of anyone and anything besides himself. I was hot when I reached the point of my diatribe, asking what I believe to be the single most important question I will ever ask my mom: “Will you please apologize to my children for voting for Trump?”

I continued: “My fear is that, when Trump is seen through a clear and objective lens, the support you gave him will define you.”

A few days later, my mother, aka G-Ma and Grams, sat at the head of a round table. At 92, she was still larger than life and a commanding presence. She did not need to call for the attention of those gathered. At her first syllable, heads turned and phones were silenced. She would hold the room until she decided not to.

Before saying our traditional grace, she stood up, and the room came to attention. She took a moment to compose herself, and with her signature confidence, said, “I want to apologize.” Looking around the table, she did not falter. “I made a horrible mistake voting for Trump. Had I known then what I know now, I never would have voted for him. I hope you will forgive me.” And it was done.

There was a collective sigh of relief as she released our attention and laughed as she said, “That wasn’t so hard.” We hugged and I whispered my thank you as we embraced. “Let’s eat,” she said. And we began, “Bless us our Lord and these Thy gifts …

In the months that have followed, I have elected to continue the moratorium on political discourse and opted instead to explore our common ground — which, I have discovered, is fertile and vast and refreshingly friendly. Trump’s recent conviction on 34 felony counts affirmed that her divorce from MAGA and Trump was the right choice.

My children’s wounds have started to heal. They have forgiven her, and through them, my grandchildren will as well. In the end, the “intervention” we staged was a gift, a blueprint of sorts for a divided time. She showed us how to admit you were wrong in a world where it seems everyone has to be right. That’s the real takeaway, the kernel of truth I hope will grow and thrive.

CORRECTION: A prior version of this article incorrectly stated that the author’s father served in Gen. Patton’s honor guard.

Drink coffee, eat leafy greens, try this New Year’s champagne hack — plus 8 more health tips to help you have a great week

Yahoo! Life

Drink coffee, eat leafy greens, try this New Year’s champagne hack — plus 8 more health tips to help you have a great week

Kaitlin Reilly, Reporter – December 29, 2024

A fork and two plates covered in lettuce and greens sit on a wooden table.
Leafy greens include veggies like kale, spinach and collard greens. (Getty Creative)

Hello and happy New Year, Yahoo Life readers. My name is Kaitlin Reilly, and nearly every week throughout 2024 I’ve rounded up the internet’s latest health and wellness tips. This is our last Sunday edition of the year and it’s been a pleasure helping you improve your life in big and small ways.

With New Year’s Eve just days away, you may be considering the resolutions you’re setting for 2025. While the obvious choice for many may be to hit the gym more often (as so many of us will do come Jan. 2), one pro-health goal you may not have considered is getting better sleep.

There’s a good reason why you should: Getting quality shut-eye (aka “sleepmaxxing,” as social media has coined it) can improve your overall wellness, from boosting your immune system to enhancing memory and brain function. Plus, doing so may give you more energy to exercise and stop you from reaching for less nutritious foods as a pick-me-up (like, say, a Snickers bar from the vending machine when you hit that afternoon slump). Want some tips to get started? Establishing a consistent sleep schedule, creating a relaxing bedtime routine and limiting screen time before bed can be your gateway to better rest in 2025.

In the meantime, check the weather in your area and, if you are so inclined, your horoscope. Then read up on these wellness tips.

🍾 Stay safe on New Year’s Eve

Celebrating New Year’s Eve can be a fun and festive way to start 2025, but it’s important to keep a few safety tips in mind. More than 50% of crashes on New Year’s involve drivers with high blood alcohol content, per American Safety Council, so if you are planning on going out, make sure you designate a sober driver, plan for public transportation in advance or call an Uber or other ride-share service.

And speaking of alcohol — there’s also a risk of injury when popping that bubbly beverage, as many people do at midnight. To avoid shooting that cork into someone’s eye, make sure to chill the champagne to 45 degrees Fahrenheit, which will make it less likely to go rogue. Then, hold the bottle with one hand and use the other to twist the cork, nudging it gently out of the bottle and controlling the release of air. After a minute, the cork should come free.

🎆 Skip the fireworks and sparklers

Fireworks and sparklers may seem like a fun way to ring in the new year, but experts warn that playing with them can be dangerous, especially when children are in the mix. In 2023, fireworks led to 9,700 emergency room visits and eight deaths, per the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Sparklers, which can get up to 3,000 degrees, can also be risky — 700 injuries were caused by sparklers in 2023 alone.

If you do want to see some fireworks on New Year’s Eve, find a viewing of professional ones in your area — and keep children at least 500 feet away from where the fireworks will be set off in order to mitigate accident risk, as well as dampen noise. Pop noise-cancelling headphones on to protect you and/or your little one’s ears from intense sound, which can damage your hearing.

☕ Drink coffee and tea to help prevent cancer

A September report found that coffee consumption is linked to lower risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke — and now there’s another reason to pour yourself a cup of java. A review of 14 prior studies by the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium revealed that drinking four cups of caffeinated coffee daily could reduce the likelihood of developing head or neck cancer by up to 17%. Tea too may reduce head and neck cancer risk, according to some of the study interpretations. The theory is that coffee and tea contain powerful anticancer and anti-inflammatory compounds that could protect against the harmful effects of carcinogens.

Other warm beverages have some health benefits as well. The cocoa in hot chocolate, for example, may improve blood pressure as well as cholesterol and blood glucose levels. The spices in chai, like cinnamon, can also help fight inflammation and control blood sugar.

🥬 Eat leafy greens for heart health

Experts spoke to HuffPost about what veggies you should eat to improve different health factors. Dietitian Lena Bakovic said that those who want to improve their cardiovascular health should eat more leafy greens, which contain heart-healthy compounds like nitrates, which keep blood vessels open. Given that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that heart disease is the leading cause of death in America, it’s a great reason to pile your plate with Swiss chard, spinach, kale and collard greens.

🫀 Avoid heartburn while you sleep

If you often struggle with an uncomfortable burning sensation in your chest, known as heartburn, you know how important it is to find relief, especially if it interrupts your sleep. While popping antacids may quickly resolve the issue, doing so long-term can lead your body to produce more acid as a rebound effect — leading to more annoying symptoms over time.

Instead, experts told Yahoo Life to try sleeping at a slight elevation, such as with a wedge pillow, which can help keep stomach acid from flowing back into your esophagus. Another tip? Stop eating 90 minutes before lying down; that gives your body more time to digest food and reduces the likelihood of experiencing heartburn.

🐟 Dip into caviar

Caviar, which is made from sturgeon eggs, may be way too pricey to make a regular part of your grocery list, even as the high-low food trend spreads and people are putting the pricey delicacy on everything from potato chips to mozzarella sticks. If you do see it at your next party, however, or just feel like splurging on a fancy treat, dietitians give this fishy food the seal of approval, thanks to the fact that it is rich in protein, vitamin B12, vitamin D, selenium and iron. Just be cautious about how you consume it: While it may taste delicious with a dollop of crème fraîche, you could be getting more fat and calories than you’d like.

🥑 Eat these foods for longevity

Dr. Michael Roizen, a 78-year-old anesthesiologist, internist and longevity expert, claims he reversed his biological age by 20 years. One tip he gave Insider for how he did it? Eating lots of salmon, avocado and olive oil — all foods that are rich in healthy fats, which support heart health, reduce inflammation and promote cell repair. These are all foods included in the much-celebrated Mediterranean diet, which is plant-focused and high in omega-3s. Want to follow his lead? Try adding a salmon salad to your lunchtime routine.

🚶 Go for a big walk

Many in the U.K. take Christmas week walks, but going for a long stroll, especially after a meal, is a great idea no matter the day. Experts told Yahoo Life that these walks can help regulate your blood sugar, improve digestion and prevent post-meal energy dips.

Walking in a winter wonderland? Just make sure to stay hydrated, wear layers and shoes with proper tread, and keep a charged cellphone on hand in case you need assistance.

📖 Read a book

An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 people found that 46% of Americans didn’t finish a single book last year — and only 5% finished one, continuing a data trend of Americans reading fewer books overall. That’s unfortunate, given that research has shown there are many health benefits to doing so. Reading books lowers your heart rate, reduces stress, improves your cognition over time and may help you sleep better.

Want to get into a reading habit? Schedule a manageable amount of time to sneak in some pages — like, say, 20 pages per day right when you wake up in the morning, as Atomic Habits author James Clear does. Not into morning reading? Grab a book on your lunch hour, or swap out a TV show with a few chapters before bed.

❄️ Use wintertime to create SMART goals

You may have heard of the “Winter Arc,” which is a TikTok-fueled trend that has people committing to transforming their lives during the colder months by adopting intense fitness, productivity or self-improvement routines. Sam Hopes, a personal trainer, doesn’t think a total rehaul of your life this season is effective long-term, however. Instead, writing for Tom’s Guide, Hopes said to stick to SMART goals — specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based objectives. So instead of saying, “I’m going to walk more in 2025,” pick a reasonable goal — like walking 7,000 steps each day. You’ll be more likely to track your progress, which can help you stick to it over time.

🥗 Choose omega-3-rich foods

We all need both omega-3- and omega-6-rich foods in our diets, but the imbalance of them may lead to increased inflammation, which is linked to chronic diseases such as heart disease and arthritis. While most Americans tend to get more than enough omega-6-rich foods — which include vegetable oils, common in processed foods — many more are falling behind on omega-3s. A solution? Pile your plate with omega-3 foods like salmon, mackerel, chia seeds and spinach.

Congress’ youngest woman says her election is a “signal” that future of Democratic Party is changing

Salon

Congress’ youngest woman says her election is a “signal” that future of Democratic Party is changing

Griffin Eckstein – December 29, 2024

Yassamin Ansari Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Yassamin Ansari Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The Democratic Party is searching for its soul. Tasked with rebuilding from an electoral loss in November, one of the biggest questions on Democratic voters’ minds is how the party will engage with checked-out young voters.

Voters under 30, who strongly lean Democratic, failed to turn up for Vice President Kamala Harris, with 54% of the age group voting for her compared to the more than 60% who voted for President Joe Biden in 2020. While the loss is no doubt driven by a multitude of factors, some young voters said they simply feel left behind by the party.

Critics took Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s, D-N.Y., unsuccessful bid for House Oversight leadership as a sign that the party was unwilling to change its ways after 84-year-old ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reportedly campaigned against her in favor of 74-year-old Gerry Connolly, D-Va. Still, some choose to focus on the progress, not the setbacks.

In an interview with Salon, 32-year-old Rep.-elect Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., counted herself as part of a new generation of Democratic leaders ready to make change.

“There truly is a shift happening with young people getting more involved,” Ansari said, adding that part of the transition to younger leadership is getting young voters more involved.

Ansari connects with constituents through informal, online outreach. On TikTok and Instagram, the congresswoman-elect documents the procedural business for new members, provides legislative updates and organically promotes constituent services.

“One of the major lessons learned from this election and overall the climate that we’re living in is that people are really wanting authenticity,” she told Salon. “I don’t wanna prescribe for others what they should do because I think the most important thing is that no matter who you are, if you’re an elected official or have a platform, that you’re doing what feels natural to you and comfortable to you.”

Ansari’s TikTok videos aren’t so much a savvy strategy as they are the authentic output of a power user. In one post on the platform, Ansari admits she can be found scrolling through the app most nights. “Most of my feed is the Eras Tour,” she admits. That connection to the platform makes it easier for her content to break through.

“I think it’s incumbent upon elected officials to, again, go out of their way and go above and beyond to be more proactive in the community,” Ansari said. “We do live in a time where we can be less worried about… just being on script all the time… It’s important for people to see that politicians are people and have some of the same interests and hobbies as they do.”

Slated to be the youngest woman in Congress when she’s sworn in on Jan. 3, Ansari was elected the Democratic freshman class president last month. In a statement, she called her election to that post a “small signal to Democratic voters, and especially young people, that the party is ready for new, young voices in Congress to be given opportunities to lead.”

Amid criticism, Ansari points to major signs that the Democratic Party is ready to listen to young people.

“Angie Craig, who is a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota representing a rural community, beat out someone that is several decades her senior,” Ansari said. “She will be, now, the lead Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, which I think is awesome and really encouraging for younger members.”

Likewise, 35-year-old Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, will take a leading role in the lower chamber, chairing the House Progressive Caucus.

“It may not be happening as quickly as some people would like,” Ansari acknowledged, adding that winning leadership posts required building a large and diverse coalition, reflective of the entire Democratic caucus.

Ansari also recognizes how important Democratic leadership will be over the next four years, as President-elect Donald Trump prepares an assault on Arizona’s most marginalized residents.

“I’m acutely aware that [Arizona’s] District 3 is going to be on the front lines of the immigration battle and particularly Trump’s devastating and harmful pledge to carry out mass deportations … I have not stopped working since election day preparing for this,” Ansari told Salon. “I am representing a blue district, a racially diverse district in a red or purple state, that’s going to be on the front lines of this battle. So I’m not gonna sit out. I intend to do everything I can to protect families in Arizona’s 3rd district.”

Amid fear and discontent, Ansari emphasized that staying involved in the political process was crucial, especially for young people who feel left behind.

“It can be very tempting to wanna completely disengage from politics,” Ansari said. “I would say that just because you’re disassociating from politics doesn’t mean it is disassociating from you. And at the end of the day, politics do matter.”

Though she holds a relatively uncompetitive seat, replacing Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., Ansari is no stranger to the importance of each vote.

The rep.-elect won a heated primary in Arizona’s third congressional district by a wire-thin margin in August, besting former Arizona Democratic Party chair Raquel Terán by just 36 votes.

“Stay active when you can because it does matter — and it’s exciting!” Ansari said.

Congress has the power to block Trump from taking office, but lawmakers must act now

The Hill – Opinion

Congress has the power to block Trump from taking office, but lawmakers must act now

Evan A. Davis and David M. Schulte – December 26, 2024

The Constitution provides that an oath-breaking insurrectionist is ineligible to be president. This is the plain wording of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” This disability can be removed by a two-thirds vote in each House.

Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution and not the government. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel.

The first fully contested proceeding was Trump’s second impeachment trial. On Jan. 13, 2021, then-President Trump was impeached for “incitement of insurrection.” At the trial in the Senate, seven Republicans joined all Democrats to provide a majority for conviction but failed to reach the two-thirds vote required for removal from office. Inciting insurrection encompasses “engaging in insurrection” against the Constitution “or giving aid and comfort to the enemies thereof,” the grounds for disqualification specified in Section 3.

The second contested proceeding was the Colorado five-day judicial due process hearing where the court “found by clear and convincing evidence that President Trump engaged in insurrection as those terms are used in Section Three.” The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed. On further appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the court held that states lack power to disqualify candidates for federal office and that federal legislation was required to enforce Section 3. The court did not address the finding that Trump had engaged in insurrection.

Finally, there is the bipartisan inquiry of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol. More than half of the witnesses whose testimony was displayed at its nine public hearings were Republicans, including members of the Trump administration. The inescapable conclusion of this evidence is that Trump engaged in insurrection against the Constitution. In particular, Trump unlawfully demanded that his vice president, Mike Pence, throw out votes in the Electoral College for political opponent Joe Biden, a power he did not have. While the riot was in progress, Trump used Pence’s rejection of his demand to further enflame the crowd and cause them to chant “Hang Mike Pence!”

Some will argue that the Supreme Court decision in the Colorado case, Trump v. Anderson, precludes Congress from rejecting electoral votes when they convene on Jan. 6, on the basis of 14th Amendment disqualification. This view lacks merit for three reasons.

First the majority’s suggestion that there must be new implementing federal legislation passed pursuant to the enforcement power specified in the 14th Amendment is what lawyers call dicta. Dicta are the musings of an opinion that are not required to decide the case. The holding that Section 3 is not self-executing may be an alternate holding, but thoughts about the kind of implementing statute required are plain dicta. Dicta are not precedential. The four dissenters strenuously objected to this part of the opinion as overreach to decide a question not presented. This overreach is a power grab which Congress is not required to credit.

Second, counting the Electoral College votes is a matter uniquely assigned to Congress by the Constitution. Under well-settled law this fact deprives the Supreme Court of a voice in the matter, because the rejection of the vote on constitutionally specified grounds is a nonreviewable political question.

Third, specific legislation designed for this situation already exists. The Electoral Count Act was first enacted in 1887 and later amended and restated in 2022. That statute provides a detailed mechanism for resolving disputes as to the validity of Electoral College votes.

The act specifies two grounds for objection to an electoral vote: If the electors from a state were not lawfully certified or if the vote of one or more electors was not “regularly given.” A vote for a candidate disqualified by the Constitution is plainly in accordance with the normal use of words “not regularly given.” Disqualification for engaging in insurrection is no different from disqualification based on other constitutional requirements such as age, citizenship from birth and 14 years’ residency in the United States.

To make an objection under the Count Act requires a petition signed by 20 percent of the members of each House. If the objection is sustained by majority vote in each house, the vote is not counted and the number of votes required to be elected is reduced by the number of disqualified votes. If all votes for Trump were not counted, Kamala Harris would be elected president.

The unlikelihood of congressional Republicans doing anything that might elect Harris as president is obvious. But Democrats need to take a stand against Electoral College votes for a person disqualified by the Constitution from holding office unless and until this disability is removed. No less is required by their oath to support and defend the Constitution.

Evan Davis was editor in chief of the Columbia Law Review and David Schulte was editor in chief of the Yale Law Journal. Both clerked for Justice Potter Stewart. Davis is a New York lawyer who served as president of the New York City Bar, and Schulte is a Chicago investment banker.

Americans and their leaders are to blame for returning Trump to the White House

Nashville Tennessean – Opinion

Americans and their leaders are to blame for returning Trump to the White House

April Lieberman – December 26, 2024

From rural Tennessee to Democratic presidential politics, I’ve lived in both worlds − of “us and them.”

Here’s my take on why:

  1. my neighbors don’t trust Democrat
  2. a convicted felon is returning to the White House.

There’s plenty of blame to go around.

Biden himself is among those to blame among Democrats
  • President Joe Biden: for selfishly pursuing the presidency despite cognitive decline, his sundowning obvious back in the 2019 primary debates.
  • Biden supporters and allies: First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and his family for letting him. White House staff, the Democratic National Committee, and party leaders, for enabling this epic disservice to the country. His Cabinet, profiles in cowardice, for not invoking the 25th Amendment and removing him.
  • Attorney General Merrick Garland: for delaying appointing a special counsel, allowing now President-elect Donald Trump to run out the clock. Rep. Jim Clyburn, for delivering Biden South Carolina in the 2020 primaries. Former President Barack Obama, for strong-arming Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, out of the race, placing loyalty over country, then again by preemptively supporting Biden’s reelection bid, deterring primary challengers.
  • The Clintons: 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and coastal elites, for underestimating Trump in 2015-2016 and neglecting the Blue Wall. Former President Bill Clinton and ‘90s NAFTA Dems for decimating small towns across America, including mine. All of them (not named Bernie Sanders), for decades of ignoring rural and blue-collar voters while taking Black and Latino Americans for granted, instead pushing agendas far left of the American electorate.
  • Miscellaneous: Whichever idiot coined “Bidenomics,” an infuriating attempt to gaslight America.
  • Vice President Kamala Harris: for not distancing herself from Biden or showing us she felt our pain. Her campaign, for inaccessibility and insularity (shades of Hillary Clinton), ignoring those devastating anti-trans ads, and fundamentally misreading what mattered most to voters: It’s still the economy, stupid.

Opinion: Kamala Harris is the best Democrats can do? Looks like they don’t want to beat Trump

MAGA voters and justice system are responsible for returning Trump to the White House
  • MAGA: For placing a racist/rapist/convicted felon over our Constitution.
  • Other Republicans: Most of them, for striking Faustian bargains in normalizing Trump, sacrificing their integrity for power, none more craven than Sen. Lindsey Graham’s betrayal of “Amigo” John McCain on his deathbed to worship at the orange altar. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, for not saving us this national nightmare by ordering his minions to remove the Insurrectionist-in-Chief, forever barring him from federal office − Howard Baker he is not.
  • Right-wing Supreme Court justices: For not checking the presidency, instead placing Trump above the law, dismantling our rights and democracy itself.
  • Judge Juan Merchan: For delaying sentencing on 34 felony convictions until after the election, instead of letting Trump campaign from a New York City jail cell.

Opinion: Tennessee Democrats should build upon the movement Gloria Johnson created

Media, dictators, billionaires and Congress bear responsibility too

Opinion: Nashville’s star is fading. The Big Sort is creating a rural and red revolution.

April Lieberman
April Lieberman

April Lieberman is a former appellate attorney with family experience in presidential politics, a Yale Law School graduate who studied philosophy at Vanderbilt, and Democratic politics in the backwoods of West Tennessee.

Dem Plan to Block MAGA Revolution

Daily Beast

Chuck Schumer Reveals Stealth Dem Plan to Block MAGA Revolution

David Gardner – December 26, 2024

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer believes the record number of judicial appointments may keep the Biden administration's legacy intact.
Kent Nishimura / Getty Images

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has revealed the Democratic Party’s secret weapon in fighting a rearguard action against Donald Trump’s MAGA offensive.

The Democrats are holding onto one last hope after a disastrous election in which they lost control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.

For the past four years, President Joe Biden, Schumer, and his colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee have been quietly stacking the federal judiciary with liberal-minded judges knowing they could one day provide a crucial bulwark against a resurgent Trump.

Just before Christmas, they achieved their goal of pushing through a record 235 judicial nominations, more confirmations in a single administration than any since the Jimmy Carter White House. That total includes 150 women judges, the most under any president.

With less than a month to go before Trump can begin putting his MAGA policies into action, Biden and Schumer see the batch of new judges as their best, and perhaps their only chance of preserving any kind of legacy from the last four years.

“I don’t know exactly what (Trump will) do. But I can tell you this: The judiciary will be one of our strongest — if not our strongest — barrier against what he does,” Schumer told Politico Playbook in an exclusive interview.

“They’re going to come after everything,” he said of the Trump administration. “They have so many different parts of MAGA: the people who are anti-women’s rights; the people who are anti-environment; the people who are anti-working people rights and union rights; the people who are anti-the consumer. They’re going to use the judiciary in every way they can.”

The Democrats didn’t go the traditional route of picking prosecutors and lawyers from “fancy” firms but chose people from all walks of life – civil rights lawyers, voting rights experts, teachers, mentors, union reps, scholars – to “resemble America,” Schumer boasted.

Schumer said they tried to get “as many judges confirmed as possible because we knew that Trump had loaded the bench up with a lot of MAGA judges and achieving balance was important. And the more the better.”

He told Politico: “In a time when there’s more legislative gridlock and there’s an attempt to use the judiciary to actually legislate, having judges that are not MAGA judges, that are not extreme judges, is more important than it’s ever been.”

Schumer saw the writing on the wall in the last couple of years and he said: “We also saw that the hard right was gearing up to use the bench in case after case to achieve their goals.”

It will be a struggle to control a rampant Republican Congress, fueled by a White House intent on recrimination. But Schumer is hoping his army of judges can hold the fort until (he hopes) the cavalry arrives in the mid-terms two years away.

The use of the Senate’s power to shape the judiciary was aggressively practiced by Schumer’s Republican opposite number Mitch McConnell, who had set a record for confirmations under Trump’s first term. McConnell also created a conservative super-majority on the Supreme Court with a series of power moves. First he blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland, then a federal appeals court judge, by then-President Barack Obama to replace the conservative justice Antonin Scalia who died in March 2016, then when presented with an almost identical vacancy by the death of the liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020, rushed the conservative Amy Coney Barrett on to the bench.

Kash Patel, Trump’s FBI pick, would turn the agency into the Federal Bureau of Retribution

The Los Angeles Times

Kash Patel, Trump’s FBI pick, would turn the agency into the Federal Bureau of Retribution

Doyle McManus – December 16, 2024

Kash Patel speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at the Findlay Toyota Arena Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Prescott Valley, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Kash Patel, shown campaigning for Donald Trump this year, has vowed to purge the FBI of anyone who doesn’t fully support Trump and to prosecute those he accuses of conspiring to undermine the president-elect. (Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)More

Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee as the next director of the FBI, has big plans.

He has called for the prosecution of a long list of people he accuses of conspiring to undermine Trump, including President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and outgoing FBI Director Christopher A. Wray.

“These people need to go to prison,” Patel said last year. If he delivers on that threat, he would turn the once-independent FBI into the Federal Bureau of Retribution.

Patel has vowed to purge the federal law enforcement agency of anyone who doesn’t fully support Trump, and says he will transfer all 7,000 employees in the bureau’s Washington headquarters to other cities — apparently including agents who now focus on international terrorism and foreign espionage.

“Go chase down murderers and rapists,” Patel said. “You’re cops. Go be cops.”

On both counts, he is echoing Trump’s long-expressed desire to prosecute his political opponents and bring the FBI to heel.

The president-elect has called on prosecutors to investigate the Biden family, Harris, Clinton, former President Obama, the members of the congressional committee that investigated his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, even the police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol against rioters on Jan. 6, 2021 — “The cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed” — among many others.

Read more: Trump says he’ll jail his opponents. Members of the House Jan. 6 committee are preparing

And he has long harbored a special animus toward the FBI, which he blames for investigating allegations that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia and for the 2022 search of his home and social club in Florida that turned up more than 100 classified documents he claimed not to have.

Since his election last month, Trump has said — not entirely reassuringly — that he does not intend to order up investigations from the Oval Office.

Read more: Column: Trump hoped his Cabinet picks could escape serious vetting. He was so wrong.

“That’s going to be [attorney general nominee] Pam Bondi’s decision, and to a different extent, Kash Patel,” he said last week.

But he added: “If they think that somebody was dishonest or crooked or a corrupt politician, I think he probably has an obligation to do it.”

Patel may not find that a difficult call. He has already published an enemies list of 60 people he considers “corrupt actors of the highest order.”

The record from Trump’s first term suggests that these threats should be taken seriously.

During his four years in the White House, Trump frequently demanded that the FBI and the Justice Department investigate his adversaries. His aides often pushed back, but eventually bowed to his pressure and opened investigations of Clinton, former Secretary of State John F. Kerry, former national security advisor John Bolton, former FBI Director James B. Comey and other former FBI officials. None was charged with a crime.

Those episodes reflect a sobering fact: It’s easier for the FBI to open an investigation than you may think.

“There’s basically no limit, at least when it comes to opening a preliminary investigation,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a former federal prosecutor.

For a full-scale investigation, which could include search warrants and electronic surveillance (if a judge approves), the standards are tougher.

Read more: Column: Trump’s worst Cabinet picks aren’t just unqualified, they’re part of a bigger power grab

“They have to have an articulable factual basis to believe a federal crime has been committed,” said Michael R. Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general. “There’s a lot that can fit within that, but it’s not limitless.”

“If Patel goes to his deputies and says, ‘Let’s open an investigation into Liz Cheney,’ they’re going to ask: ‘What’s the factual predicate?’” he said, referring to the Republican former congresswoman from Wyoming, a vigorous Trump critic. “There will be resistance in the FBI … unless he finds compliant officers who are willing to make something up.”

Prosecution is harder. A criminal indictment requires clear evidence that the person under investigation committed a specific federal crime.

But merely being investigated can have devastating consequences.

“There’s a lot of damage that can be done by an investigation even if there’s no indictment,” Bromwich said. “Investigations are very expensive; a target needs to hire a lawyer. They affect a target’s ability to gain a livelihood. And they are extremely stressful.”

“Lives get ruined,” said Faiza Patel of the Brennan Center for Justice (who is not related to Kash Patel). “People get fired from their jobs.”

An investigation also opens a target’s private life to scrutiny, potentially putting embarrassing information in the hands of the FBI director.

Under J. Edgar Hoover, who ran the FBI for almost half a century until 1972, the bureau assiduously collected private information about politicians and other prominent figures.

The most infamous example was the FBI’s attempt to blackmail civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by threatening to expose his extramarital affairs.

So if a president wants retribution, opening investigations is a good way to start.

The irony, of course, is that Trump and other Republicans have spent years condemning what they claim has been a “weaponization” of the Justice Department and FBI under Democratic presidents.

Now that they’re about to regain the White House, they appear to have decided that weaponization is now their friend.

But senators in both parties should resist that dangerous trend.

Read more: Column: Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence czar? The Trump Cabinet pick most likely to fail

They should look carefully at Patel’s skimpy qualifications beyond his loyalty to Trump. In 2020, when Trump proposed giving Patel the No. 2 job in the bureau, his attorney general, William Barr, threatened to quit. “The very idea of moving Patel into a role like this showed a shocking detachment from reality,” Barr wrote later.

They should ask Patel if he realizes that transferring all the FBI’s staff out of Washington would disrupt the bureau’s efforts to stop espionage by Russia and China.

And they should ask whether he really intends to turn the bureau into a weapon of partisan retribution against every target of Trump’s boundless ire.

GOP senators might want to ask why so many of the names on Patel’s enemies list are Republicans who disagreed with him during Trump’s first term, including Barr, Bolton and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

Then they should think twice about giving Patel power to investigate anyone he chooses. One day they may find themselves in his sights as well.