Ex-Trump Staffer Brilliantly Responds To Trump’s Warning To Haley Donors
Ron Dicker – January 25, 2024
Sarah Matthews, who briefly served as Donald Trump’s deputy press secretary, happily defied Trump’s warning to Nikki Haley donors by giving money to Haley’s campaign on Wednesday.
Matthews took that as encouragement and shared a receipt for her contribution to Haley’s underdog bid against the GOP front-runner while attaching Trump’s threat on Truth Social.
“Done. Join me in donating to @NikkiHaley,” she wrote while including the link.
Matthews resigned on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a Trump-inspired mob laid siege to the Capitol. She said she was “deeply disturbed” by what happened and held Trump accountable for not keeping the peace. She later testified before a Jan. 6 panel and has periodically sounded the alarm on Trump’s rhetoric.
Haley also worked in the Trump administration as the U.N. ambassador and has been dismissed by the former president as a “birdbrain” while she carries on her presidential campaign against him despite long odds.
Many parts of the world are experiencing a rapid depletion in the subterranean reserves of water that billions of people rely on for drinking, irrigation and other uses, according to new research that analyzed millions of groundwater level measurements from 170,000 wells in more than 40 countries.
It’s the first study to piece together what’s happening to groundwater levels at a global scale, according to the researchers involved, and will help scientists better understand what impact humans are having on this valuable underground resource, either through overuse or indirectly by changes in rainfall linked to climate change.
Groundwater, contained within cracks and pores in permeable bodies of rock known as aquifers, is a lifeline for people especially in parts of the world where rainfall and surface water are scarce, such as northwest India and the southwest United States.
Reductions in groundwater can make it harder for people to access freshwater to drink or to irrigate crops and can result in land subsidence.
“This study was driven by curiosity. We wanted to better understand the state of global groundwater by wrangling millions of groundwater level measurements,” said co-lead author Debra Perrone, an associate professor in University of California’s Santa Barbara’s Environmental Studies Program, in a news release on the study that published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
The authors found that groundwater levels declined between 2000 and 2022 in 71% of the 1,693 aquifer systems included in the research, with groundwater levels declining more than 0.1 meter a year in 36%, or 617, of them.
The Ascoy-Soplamo Aquifer in Spain had the fastest rate of decline in the data they compiled — a median decline of 2.95 meters per year, said study coauthor Scott Jasechko, an associate professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at University of California Santa Barbara.
Several aquifer systems in Iran were among those with the fastest rate of groundwater decline, he added.
The team wasn’t able to gather data from much of Africa, South America and southeast Asia because of a lack of monitoring, but Jasechko said the study included the countries where most global groundwater pumping takes place.
Declines not universal
The study also highlighted some success stories in Bangkok, Arizona and New Mexico, where groundwater has begun to recover after interventions to better regulate water use or redirect water to replenish depleted aquifers.
“I was impressed by the clever strategies that have been put into action to address groundwater depletion in several places, though these ‘good news’ stories are very rare,” Jasechko said via email.
To understand whether the declines seen in the 21st century were accelerating, the team also accessed data for groundwater levels for 1980 to 2000 for 542 of the aquifers in the study.
They found that declines in groundwater levels sped up in the first two decades of the 21st century for 30% of those aquifers, outpacing the declines recorded between 1980 and 2000.
“These cases of accelerating groundwater-level declines are more than twice as prevalent as one would expect from random fluctuations in the absence of any systematic trends in either time period,” the study noted.
Donald John MacAllister, a hydrologist at the British Geological Survey who wasn’t involved in the research, said it was a really “impressive” set of data, despite some gaps.
“I think it’s fair to say this global compilation of groundwater data hasn’t been done, certainly on this scale, at least to my knowledge before,” he said.
“Groundwater is an incredibly important resource but one of the challenges is… because we can’t see it, it’s out of mind for most people. Our challenge is to constantly bang the drum for policymakers — that we have this resource that we have to look after, and that we can use to build resilience and adapt to climate change.”
Trump is getting ruthlessly ROASTED over this humiliating photo of his makeup & we’re giggling
Ariel Messman-Rucker – January 25, 2024
Donald Trump
Talk of Trump wearing makeup resurfaced this week when a photo of the former president with a face full of melting makeup started circulating online.
The photo going viral features Trump wearing what looks like orange makeup nearly dripping off of his face — he clearly needs someone at Sephora to teach him about undertones — and was taken at a campaign rally in Iowa in the lead-up to the state’s caucuses, LGBTQ Nation reports.
Mary, this is what happens when you don’t have any gays in your life — or you do and they really don’t like you.
Yesterday, the Lincoln Project, a group of moderate conservative Never Trumpers, posted the photo on X asking people to “Name this foundation shade.”
Apparently the library is open because even conservatives are reading Trump for filth!
The photo has been so widely circulated on social media that Snopes looked into it. The fact-checking site found that the image is real and was taken by photojournalist Tannen Maury, who confirmed that the shot was “authentic” and was taken on January 6, 2024, at a Trump rally in Clinton, Iowa, for Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“I suppose that Trump could look worse, but it wouldn’t be easy,” Psychologist Dr. David A Lustig wrote on X, sharing a different photo of Trump in ridiculous makeup. “You’d think that a claimed billionaire could hire a makeup artist who wouldn’t make him look like a dirty old shoe.”
People took to X in droves to mock the Republican front-runner for his sloppy makeup job, with some pointing out the inherent hypocrisy of Republicans passing drag bans while also worshiping at the altar of a presidential candidate who piles on the makeup.
“Quick question: How much more makeup & wig work will Trump need before he is officially in drag?” one person quipped on X.
“Seriously the Republicans are against LGBITQ but love a fellow who wears more makeup than a drag queen and claims $70,000 a year in Tax deductions for maintaining and dying his hair,” another person wrote.
Between Trump wearing makeup and Ron DeSantis trying to cheat his height with heels, you’d think that Republicans would be in favor of drag, not trying to villainize it. But that would require conservatives to not be GIANT hypocrites, and clearly, they are incapable of that.
While there are countless photos that show Trump’s poor foundation application, both former National Security Advisor John Bolton and former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson have talked about the MAGA leader wearing makeup.
Even comedian Patton Oswalt took the time to mock Trump’s makeup in the mostly hilariously patronizing way possible. “I’m not his biggest fan, but these are adorable,” he wrote on X. “Like a well-meaning, slow-witted lunkhead who couldn’t resist when he saw an open jar of Nutella. He should not be president again but he should be allowed to have goofy adventures like this.”
The ironic thing is that if he made friends with drag queens instead of accusing them of grooming children, Trump would have flawless makeup because no drag queen would ever let a friend go out in public looking like such a fool.
Check out the most hilarious reactions to Trump’s photo below!
Darryl Ellis: Seriously the Republicans are against LGBITQ but love a fellow who wears more makeup than a drag queen and claims $70,000 a year in Tax deductions for maintaining and dying his hair. If we did not know Trump sleeps with prostitutes the line could be blurry.Li’l: I found a picture of someone applying Trump’s makeup before the rally:The Lincoln Project: Name this foundation shade.
Gary Arthur: I think it’s safe to say that Trump wears more makeup than Nikki Haley.
She was loaded for bear, scripted, wired and with a camera operator at the ready to bushwhack the congressman, who is also running for U.S. Senate.
Jeff DeWit was MAGA personified
Now comes the leak of a recorded conversation in which Arizona Republican Party chairman Jeff DeWit clumsily offers Lake a lucrative opportunity to step away from politics for a few years in exchange for … “is there a number … .”
The big story, for now, is all about DeWit’s ham-handed inducement, which took place back in March and is being released this week in what looks like a no holds barred effort to get DeWit ousted from his job.
He was the chief operating officer for Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He was rewarded by Dear Leader, who made him the chief financial officer of NASA in the Trump administration.
He has been the head of Arizona’s GOP since January 2023.
Who else said something they shouldn’t?
If someone like that was recorded during a private conversation with Lake, how many other good and loyal MAGAs are now wondering if they might have said something in private they should be worried about?
Arizona is a one-party consent state, meaning our law allows any conversation to be recorded so long as one party in the conversation is aware it is being recorded.
Lots and lots of big-time MAGAs have trooped through Arizona over the past couple of years. I’d guess most of them didn’t know about Arizona’s one-party consent law.
I’d also guess that more than a few of them are now thinking that maybe they should have brought along an electronic listening device detector.
Would Trump ask about other recordings?
Candidate for U.S. Senate Kari Lake arrives at the caucus night party hosted by Republican presidential candidate former U.S. President Donald Trump at the Iowa Events Center on Jan. 15, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Lake spent a lot of time at Mar-a-Lago as well. But Florida is a two-party consent state, requiring everyone in a conversation to know if they’re being recorded.
Of course, Trump has spent a lot of time in Arizona. In fact, he’s coming back this week. I can’t imagine Lake won’t be with him on the stage, or that the two of them won’t have a few quiet minutes together to chat.
The former president is known to be a suspicious guy. He envisions Deep State plots all around him.
If you were Trump, would you ask Lake if she was aware if any of their previous conversations were recorded?
Would you trust her answer if she said no?
What we can learn about Kari Lake
Would you ask her if she was aware of any other recorded conversations that might make MAGA folks look bad?
Would you trust her answer if she said no?
Would you have your Secret Service detail electronically sweep the room (with her in it) for bugs?
There is no doubt that in the leaked recording between Lake and DeWit, the chairman of the Arizona Republican Party comes off as the clumsiest of corruptors.
But in the long run, it may have been Lake’s character that was most plainly exposed.
On a dead-end street in north Denver, migrants are surviving winter with the help of an army of volunteers
As the city reinstates time limits on hotel stays, volunteers are making plans to help hundreds more migrants in camps
Jennifer Brown – January 22, 2024
Dusk falls over a migrant encampment of about 10 as Juan Carlos Pioltelli, of Peru, walks into the community warming tent in subzero temperatures in Denver on Jan. 15, 2024. An American flag hangs upside down after migrants, in a hurry and out of excitement for being in the U.S., accidentally put it up upside down. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Footprints in the snow lead from the sidewalk to a path through the weeds, opening to a field that is almost invisible from the road.
North of Interstate 70, in a part of Denver filled mostly with warehouses and gas stations, the tents are flapping relentlessly in the wind. About 10 migrants from South America hunkered down here during four days of subzero temperatures, and the volunteers who brought them heaters and propane, hot meals and fresh water, are prepared to help hundreds more as Denver pushes migrants out of their city-provided hotel rooms in the coming weeks.
The dozen or so brightly colored tents were mostly concealed from view by the field’s dirt mounds, despite that they were just across the South Platte River from the National Western Stock Show, one of Denver’s biggest events of the year. As the city stayed home during last week’s deep freeze, the Venezuelans and other South Americans in the encampment zipped into sleeping bags and gathered in a “warming tent” to play dominoes and eat a pot of homemade noodle soup.
The camp lasted about two weeks, until Friday, when crews from Denver Parks & Recreation arrived and helped the migrants bag up their belongings and dismantle the tents.
They moved a couple of blocks away, out of the field and at the dead end of a street to nowhere.
The men in the encampment, near Washington Street and East 50th Avenue, are among the few migrants who are still living outside after the city’s massive effort to get migrants indoors before the January freeze and snowfall. Because of the cold, Denver paused time limits on stays in the seven hotels it has rented out for migrants, but that pause is ending Feb. 5 after the number of people staying in hotels has surpassed 4,300.
Hundreds of people — including families with children — will have to leave their hotel rooms in the coming weeks.
Jose Giovanis, left, leaves his tent as he and other South American migrants get ready to take showers in Denver on Jan. 15. Giovanis and about nine other migrants lived in the encampment with heated tents and other provisions through January’s deep freeze. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)
They were offered mats in city shelters, hotel rooms and even to go home with some of the volunteers who stop by to make sure they survived another frigid night. But they chose to stay outside for various reasons — because sleeping mat to mat makes them anxious, because they didn’t want to leave their belongings or lose their campsite, because they would rather try to make it on their own, no matter how cold.
“The snow makes you shiver so much you can’t talk or anything,” said Kevin Bolaño, who is from Colombia. “Sometimes we go out to shake the tents around and remove the snow.”
Bolaño, 33, arrived in Denver just over a month ago, one of 37,600 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, who have come through the city in the past year. He spent his allotted 14 days in a hotel room, then camped outside the Quality Inn in northwestern Denver until earlier this month, when city crews bused more than 200 people in that sprawling camp to shelters and scooped left-behind tents, mattresses and furniture into garbage bins.
Bolaño, a chef who specializes in Chinese dishes, wants to work in a restaurant or for a construction company, but he has struggled so far because he does not have a work permit. “If we were working for a company, we would not be here in the cold,” he said.
He left his home in Colombia, where he lived with his parents and children, because of terrorism and poverty, he said. “The government wanted all of a person’s salary. The food went up, the services and the houses went up and nothing was enough,” Bolaño said in Spanish. “It makes a person want to leave their own country in order to be able to help the family they left behind.”
Jose Giovanis, nicknamed Valencia after the Venezuelan city he’s from, sits on his phone as he shows his heated tent in a migrant encampment where he and about nine other migrants are living, despite the frigid weather, in Denver Jan. 15. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)
On a blustery day last week, Bolaño smoked a cigarette in his tent with Elis Aponte, 47, who left Venezuela to escape discrimination he felt as part of the LGBTQ community. “Here, people don’t bully me,” said Aponte, who arrived in Denver four months ago and is now living in a house with a friend after weeks in a hotel and then an encampment along the sidewalk.
In Venezuela, Aponte studied radiology and forensic anthropology, and worked in a morgue. But like many migrants, he has struggled to find work here without the required legal documents. Still, Aponte said he is glad he made the journey to the United States.
“There is a lot of good stuff here,” he said in Spanish. “The only bad thing was that we arrived in a season when the snow was coming. I wear one, two, three sweaters and a jacket here, and even with all that, it’s cold. But I like Denver.”
They likely would not attempt surviving a Colorado winter outside, though, if it weren’t for the local army of volunteers who drive them to get showers and bring the propane needed to keep the heaters running in every sleeping tent and community warming tent.
Food and other cooking and eating supplies are stored in their designated tent at a Denver migrant encampment of 10 people. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Denver locals mobilize to help via social media
The calls to help Hugo, the lone man left in an encampment under a north Denver bridge near West 48th Avenue and Fox Street, went out daily.
“We need someone to bring Hugo a hot meal for dinner tonight after he gets home from work,” volunteer Chelsey Baker-Hauck posted on a migrant support Facebook page. “He may also need drinking water and some additional propane for tonight. He has a thermos you can also fill with hot water so he can make coffee/cocoa.”
Not long after her post, another Denver resident who is part of the “mutual aid” network responded that he would bring Hugo dinner and fresh water as soon as he finished work.
The Facebook page has 1,200 members and counting, hundreds of whom are actively helping, Baker-Hauck said. She and others started the page as an encampment began to spread under a bridge in their north Denver neighborhood. For weeks, they were delivering hot food and blankets, helping migrants find apartments and taking them into their homes.
“If they choose to stay outside,” she said, “we try to help them stay alive.”
Mutual aid volunteer Chelsey Baker-Hauck, right, and David Amdahl, a volunteer with the Denver Friends Church, organize, salvage and save items left behind at a migrant encampment on Jan. 16 near 48th Avenue and Fox Street in Denver, ahead of a city cleanup. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)
It was devastating, Baker-Hauck said, when the city posted notice that crews would clean up the camp last Thursday. Ahead of the cold snap, the city offered bus rides to shelters and hotels. But Hugo, who has no vehicle and found steady work in construction within walking distance of the bridge, refused to go.
For a week, volunteers packed up tents, gathered and washed coats and clothing, and saved paperwork left behind as the migrants — all but Hugo — rushed to take buses to shelters. The volunteers want to return it to the people who left the camp or save it for other migrants who end up on the street when their hotel stays expire, Baker-Hauck said. Either way, they didn’t want the city to stuff it all in the trash.
“When the city does it, everything goes in the garbage,” she said. “It’s a lot of waste.”
The tents and winter gear will likely go to other encampments, including the one near the Denver Coliseum, Baker-Hauck said.
The group operates under the “mutual aid” concept, meaning no one is in charge and everyone pitches in when they can. Baker-Hauck posts the needs of the day, and people respond. When the deep freeze began, a volunteer called the mayor’s office and said she had 15 people who were freezing at a camp near Tower Road and East 56th Avenue. The mayor’s staff made room inside a city building near Civic Center park that was opened as a migrant shelter a couple of weeks ago.
Then Baker-Hauck asked the volunteer group if anyone could pick up the migrants and drive them to shelter. Nine drivers went out in the subzero temperatures.
“They responded within minutes,” she said. “It was amazing.”
As for Hugo, he finally agreed to stay with Baker-Hauck as the city crews were coming to clean up what was left of the camp. His first night in her home, Hugo took a hot shower, called his family in Ecuador and asked if she had any books in Spanish that would teach him about Colorado history.
He insisted on walking to work, an hour each way.
Families will get 42 days in hotel rooms
The camp near the Stock Show has its own set of volunteers, including Amy Beck, a Denver resident who for years has been helping the city’s homeless population through her group, Together Denver. She focused her efforts on migrants in the past few months because they were so unprepared for the cold weather and it was so upsetting to her to see children in tents.
Beck chose the vacant field in the weeds, then helped coordinate efforts to gather tents and propane deliveries. She spent the past weekend helping set up the new camp in a culdesac that backs up to the field after city officials cleared the first one. Each sleeping tent has a Little Buddy propane heater, and the community tent — with a table in the center for meals and games — has a 20-pound propane tank that keeps it surprisingly warm.
“It’s so warm, you have to take your coat off,” she said.
Still, Beck and fellow volunteers say they have done everything they can to persuade people to move indoors. At the encampment, she pulled out her phone to show the men photos of unhoused friends she brought to the hospital for amputations last spring because of frostbite. One man lost both of his feet; another lost all of his toes.
The volunteers offer bus tickets to warmer cities, rooms in their homes, calls to Denver Human Services to find housing.
“As a last resort, we set them up in a tent,” Beck said.
Amy Beck, part of Together Denver and a volunteer working to help newly arrived migrants, stands for a portrait at a migrant encampment of 10 people in Denver on Jan. 15. Upset after seeing children in tents, Beck coordinated donations and volunteers to help migrants survive January’s deep freeze. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)
She helped set up the encampment as the city dismantled the one outside the Quality Inn, which had stretched multiple blocks in the Highland neighborhood, across Interstate 25 from downtown. That camp, Beck said, was “complete mayhem,” with tents lining the sidewalk and blocking traffic, and dozens of nonprofits and volunteers coming by daily with breakfast burritos, medicines and boxes of snow boots.
“Having children in tents, that crosses the line for me,” she said. “I can’t bring myself to go through a city sweep with children present. Children are not criminals, but that’s the law of Denver.”
Beck liked the new encampment because it was so out of the way. Volunteers have collected 200 tents, which they expect to fill in the coming weeks as people time out of hotels. They said they will squeeze more into the encampment near the Stock Show and look for other spots as needed. Individuals get 14 days, while families get 42 days.
They are going to exit everyone who queued up during the severe weather. That is going to be disastrous.
— Amy Beck, volunteer
“They are going to exit everyone who queued up during the severe weather,” Beck said. “That is going to be disastrous. That said, we are prepared. It’s not going to be super comfortable but we will be able to make a very good attempt to keep everyone safe.”
She wants the city, since the Stock Show ended Sunday, to turn the Denver Coliseum into a shelter as it did during the height of the COVID pandemic. “We’re hoping the city is going to make some humane decisions,” Beck said.
The city has no plans for that, as of now.
“All options are on the table, but there’s nothing happening with that space at the moment,” said Jon Ewing, spokesman for the Denver Department of Human Services.
Denver Parks & Recreation said they provided 48 hours notice that they would clear the camp in the field Friday. “Park rules do not allow individuals to set up tents or structures of any kind so as to ensure that public parks remain open for all,” spokesperson Yolanda Quesada said via email.
In November and December, Denver was receiving multiple busloads and 100-200 migrants per day, mostly from Texas. The buses keep coming, though the pace is now from 20-100 people per day.
“I’m getting the sense that this is not going to be resolved any time soon,” Beck said.
The outhouse sits under a tree as the sun sets and temperatures remain below zero at a migrant encampment of 10 people in Denver. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Migrants in apartments facing steep rent after initial aid runs out
Volunteers are also helping hundreds of migrants who have moved into apartments in the Denver area, many of them with help from the city and nonprofits to pay their deposit and first month’s rent.
Shari Spooner, who runs a marketing agency in Denver and has family in Venezuela, started volunteering with an organization called Para Ti Mujer when migrants began arriving in Colorado. “It pulls at my heartstrings, obviously,” she said.
Spooner delivers donated clothes and gift cards to Venezuelans around the metro area, and helps navigate bureaucracy to help people get information about unpaid wages and health care. She recently directed a pregnant woman to Denver Health, after explaining to her that she could receive care without insurance or citizenship.
The woman lives with her husband and children in an apartment that costs $2,400 per month, though the first two months have been covered by the city and a foundation. Spooner worries about how they will make rent when the third month is due, especially after the woman’s husband was cheated out of his wages for construction work.
“The vast majority of the people I’ve met and helped are looking for jobs,” Spooner said. “They are looking to be part of Colorado and build their life here in a positive way. They just need that first step. I think it’s important for people to know that.”
Snow rests atop a tent at a migrant encampment of about 10 people as temperatures dip to minus 6 degrees in Denver on Jan. 15. (Eli Imadali, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Some of the men in the encampment near the Stock Show are hoping to share apartments once they earn enough money. For now, they say they are content staying put.
Daniel Escalona, 21, said he does not want to sleep in a shelter where there are wall-to-wall mats on the floor and regular outbursts among people crowded into the room. And the heaters at the encampment are keeping him warm enough.
“We don’t want to sleep here,” said Escalona, who traveled from Venezuela on his own. “With a job, I can rent an apartment. But if I don’t get a job, I cannot.”
Jennifer Brown writes about mental health, the child welfare system, the disability community and homelessness for The Colorado Sun. As a former Montana 4-H kid, she also loves writing about agriculture and ranching. Brown previously worked at the Hungry Horse News in Montana, the Tyler Morning Telegraph in Texas, The Associated Press in Oklahoma City, and The Denver Post before helping found The Sun in 2018.
On Monday, the Supreme Court affirmed the federal government’s supremacy over the states, a principle established explicitly in the Constitution, enshrined by centuries of precedent, and etched into history by the Civil War. The vote was 5–4. Four dissenting justices would have allowed the state of Texas to nullify laws enacted by Congress, pursuant to its express constitutional authority over immigration, that direct federal law enforcement to intercept migrants crossing the border. These justices would have allowed Texas to edge ever closer to a violent clash between state and federal forces, deploying armed guardsmen and razor wire to block the president from faithfully executing the law.
It was no surprise that three of these dissenters—Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch—sided with Texas, given their overt hostility to the Biden administration’s immigration policies, which verges on rejecting the president’s legitimate right to govern. It was, however, deeply alarming to see who joined them: Brett Kavanaugh, the justice who expends tremendous energy assuring the nation that he is reasonable, moderate, and inclined toward compromise. Kavanaugh’s vote on Monday was none of those things; it was, rather, an endorsement of a state’s rebellion against federal supremacy.
Really, though, should we be shocked that Kavanaugh sided with the Texas rebels over the U.S. president? Maybe not. After spending his first few years on the bench role-playing as a sometimes-centrist, Kavanaugh appears to be veering to the right: His votes over the past several months have been increasingly aligned with Alito and Thomas rather than his previous ally, Chief Justice John Roberts. This shift is still nascent, but it grows more visible with each passing month. And it bodes poorly for the country as we careen toward an election that Donald Trump openly seems to hope the Supreme Court may rig for him.
Start with that jaw-dropping vote on Monday. It’s difficult to overstate how dire the situation had become in Eagle Pass, Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott mounted his insurgency against the federal government. Migrants frequently cross over at Eagle Pass, so Border Patrol has a major presence in the area. Federal law grants border agents the right to access all land within 25 miles of the border and requires these agents to inspect and detain unauthorized migrants. Yet Abbott defied these statutes: He ordered the Texas National Guard to erect razor wire at the border, a barrier that ensnared migrants (to the point of near death) and excluded Border Patrol. Federal law enforcement was thus physically unable to perform the duties assigned to it by Congress, or to rescue migrants drowning in the Rio Grande. In response, border agents began cutting through the wire, prompting Texas to sue. The far-right U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit dutifully issued an injunction prohibiting any federal destruction of the wire fencing.
The 5th Circuit’s injunction effectively allowed Texas to nullify federal law, in direct contradiction of the Constitution’s supremacy clause. Some of the oldest, most entrenched Supreme Court precedents forbid states from interfering with the lawful exercise of federal authority. It should have been easy for SCOTUS to grant the Biden administration’s emergency request by shooting down the 5th Circuit. Instead, the justices spent a baffling 20 days mulling the case—and, presumably, debating it behind the scenes. In the end, all the court could muster was a 5–4 order halting the 5th Circuit’s injunction, with Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the liberals. There were zero written opinions. The dissenters, including Kavanaugh, felt no obligation to explain their votes.
In a sense, Kavanaugh’s silence makes his vote even worse: Having lodged a protest against the single most important principle governing the relationship between the federal government and the states, the justice kept mum, forcing us to guess why he voted in support of nullification. Kavanaugh evidently felt that he owed us no explanation, no reasoning behind his desire to subvert executive authority in favor of a Confederate-flavored conception of state supremacy. His extremism was therefore compounded by an arrogant refusal to justify power with reason, an attitude fit more for a king than a judge.
And not for the first time: Just last month, Kavanaugh cast another silent, startling vote that aligned him with Alito and Thomas. On Dec. 11, the court refused to take up a challenge to Washington state’s ban on LGBTQ+ “conversion therapy” for minors, dodging a case that imperiled similar bans in nearly half the states. Even Gorsuch, Barrett, and Roberts wouldn’t take the bait—perhaps because the case was entirely bogus, cooked up by anti-LGBTQ+ activists despite the absence of a live controversy. But there was Kavanaugh, dissenting from the court’s rejection of the case, telegraphing his hunger to shoot down conversion therapy bans without even the fig leaf of a genuine dispute. Thomas and Alito each wrote angry dissents arguing that the court should’ve taken the case, while Kavanaugh stood alone in his reticence to explain himself. It seems the justice wants to establish a constitutional right to “convert” LGBTQ+ kids, an act that can amount to torture, but lacks the courage to even describe why.
Kavanaugh’s hard-right turn arguably began earlier, in an Aug. 8 order that flew under the radar. It emerged out of a conflict between the Biden administration and gun advocates over a new federal rule that restricts the sale of “ghost guns.” A ghost gun comes in a “kit” that’s almost fully assembled, and a buyer can easily finish putting it together with the help of a YouTube tutorial. Once completed, the gun fires like a semi-automatic firearm. To buy a regular handgun, you have to prove your identity, undergo a background check, and satisfy other federal requirements. To buy a ghost gun, you need only place an anonymous order online. These guns lack a serial number—which are mandatory for regular guns—rendering them untraceable by law enforcement. For this reason, ghost guns are overwhelmingly favored by criminals.
Federal law regulates the sale of “firearms,” the definition of which includes any weapon that “may readily be converted” to shoot a bullet. In 2022 the Biden administration issued a regulation clarifying that ghost guns fit this definition and may therefore be sold only by licensed dealers. This limitation neatly fit the federal statute, which, after all, encompassed partially assembled firearms. Yet, a federal judge halted the rule nationwide, and the 5th Circuit backed him up. The Biden administration sought relief at the Supreme Court, which granted it—by a 5-to-4 vote: Roberts and Barrett joined the liberals, while Kavanaugh joined Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch in dissent.
Once again, Kavanaugh gave no explanation for his vote. Had he prevailed, the justice would have freed criminals to anonymously purchase untraceable, almost-finished guns online and use them to maim and kill Americans without consequence. Doesn’t such a radical outcome cry out for an explanation? Apparently not to Kavanaugh, who likes to depict himself as a commonsense conciliator on firearms, except when it actually counts.
What’s going on here? One possibility is that Kavanaugh moderated himself during his early years on the bench in the hopes of salvaging his public image after furiously assailing Democrats during his confirmation hearing. After latching himself to the chief justice for half a decade, Kavanaugh may now be showing his true colors, breaking away from the chief’s tactical restraint to chart his own rightward course. Or maybe the justice is being pushed toward the MAGA fringe by contempt for Biden, whose policies he has routinely struck down. Kavanaugh was, after all, a Republican political operative in his past life; it has always been doubtful that he truly slipped his partisan moorings when donning the robe. (Trump’s lawyers put this less subtly, saying that Kavanaugh will soon “step up” for the man who appointed him.)
If partisan discontentment is driving Kavanaugh’s growing alliance with the hard-right bloc, the development has ominous implications for the 2024 election. Already, one major Trump case has hit the court, forcing the justices to decide whether the candidate’s incitement of an insurrection disqualifies him from running for president. Another one is hurtling toward the court, asking whether the Constitution somehow grants Trump absolute immunity from prosecution for his involvement in that insurrection. More election cases will arise as the election draws nearer (presuming Trump is the nominee), many involving access to the ballot. And during the 2020 election, at Trump’s behest, Kavanaugh cast several dubious votesattempting to void valid mail ballots in swing states.
It is encouraging that Barrett has stepped up as an unexpected voice of reason when Kavanaugh defects to the MAGA wing of the court. But Barrett herself is also very conservative, and certainly not a reliable vote for democracy. If a principle as fundamental as federal supremacy can only squeak by on a 5–4 vote, no law is settled and everything is up for grabs. And that, of course, is exactly how Trump wants it.
Trump Chooses Absolutely Baffling New Topic For Latest Rambling Aside
Ed Mazza – January 22, 2024
Donald Trump’s speech on Sunday took an unexpected turn when he went on a tangent about the names of U.S. military installations.
“We won world wars out of forts,” he said at an event in Rochester, New Hampshire. “Fort Benning, Fort This, Fort That, many forts. They changed the name, we won wars out of these forts, they changed the name, they changed the name of the forts. A lot of people aren’t too happy about that.”
Trump then essentially repeated what he’d just said.
“They changed the name of a lot of our forts. We won two world wars out of a lot of these forts and they changed the name,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”
Nine U.S. military installations named for Confederate generals have been renamed to honor people who didn’t fight against the United States.
The Fort Benning that Trump mentioned was named for Henry L. Benning, who NPR noted was not just a Confederate general but a “virulent white supremacist.”
Trump’s critics on X, the former Twitter, noted the strange digression:
Paul Waldman:Understand that Trump is mad because military facilities named for treasonous white supremacist slavery advocates who waged war against the United States were renamed to honor actual American heroes. That’s what he and his audience are pissed about.
Sophie Persists:We can’t forget the brave soldiers stationed at Fort This.
Chris Taylor: I was stationed at Fort This in 2009. They wanted to transfer me to Fort That. Lol a commander in chief that can’t even remember the names of the bases, yet he’s so upset the names were changed.
Bryan: I know by now I shouldn’t be surprised at his ignorance. Yet here we are…
Rick Wilson: Grandpa Ranty’s Ahistorical Ignorance Tour, 2024 edition.
Ron Filipkowski: Attached to this post is an excerpt from the speech Henry Benning made at the Virginia convention with his reasons for secession. Trump is bemoaning not having a base named after him. https://t.co/c6HaYsrGa9
Wu Tank is for the Children:Stay in school kids…there is so much insanity in this clip
Pro Lib: “Where were you stationed?” “Fort This, you?” “Fort That!” “Oh weird!”
Sue Z: Good God. And you MAGA people still love him. He’s an incoherent buffoon.
Keith Edwards: Trump is experiencing huge mental decline. The media has to start taking this seriously.
America is hitting “peak 65” in 2024, breaking retirement records
Anne Marie Lee – January 22, 2024
2024 will be a record-breaking year for retirement in the U.S., with an average of 11,000 Americans a day expected to celebrate their 65th birthday from now until December.
Approximately 4.1 million Americans are poised to turn 65 this year and every year through 2027, according to a report from the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Dubbed by experts as “peak 65” or the “silver tsunami,” the figure represents the largest surge of retirement-age Americans in history.
If you’re one of the many riding the retirement wave this year or next, here’s what you should know, according to one expert.
Enrolling in Medicare
The age of 65 is “a critical year,” Elizabeth O’Brien, senior personal finance reporter for Barron’s, told CBS News.
“That’s the year you become eligible for Medicare, so most people when they care 65 can sign up for that, unless you’re still working and still in a job with health insurance,” she said.
Asked whether everyone who turns 65 should enroll in Medicare, even if they receive health care through their employer, O’Brien says in part, yes, but full enrollment also depends on the situation.
“First of all, Medicare has two parts: Part A [hospital insurance] and Part B. Even if you are working, you should enroll in Part A because you don’t pay premiums for that,” she said.
Medicare Part B covers medical services including certain doctor’s appointments, outpatient care and preventive services. For those who already receive health coverage through an employer, Medicare may be your “secondary payer,” that is, the secondary insurance plan that covers costs not paid for by the primary insurance plan, or “primary payer.”
Whether or not Medicare is your primary or secondary payer depends on coordination of benefits rules which decide which insurance plan pays first.
“Part B is a different story,” O’Brien said. “If you’re still working, and if your company has 20 people or more, then that is primary. If you’re working for a very small company, Medicare does become primary so there’s a little bit of nuance there, but basically, you want to avoid late-enrollment penalties if you miss your sign-up window which is right around your 65th birthday.”
While late enrollment penalties exist for both Medicare parts A and B, those for Part B are an even more serious issue. For each full year you delay enrollment once you reach eligibility at the age of 65, an additional 10% is added to your Medicare Part B premium. Unlike late enrollment penalties for Medicare Part A, which are temporary, late penalties for Medicare Part B are permanent.
Retirement savings
In addition to health care decisions, there are also financial decisions that must be made at the pivotal age of 65, beginning with choosing whether or not to retire, O’Brien said.
“You’ve got to think about what you’re gonna do with your 401(k). If you’re still working and you’re retiring, are you gonna roll that over into an individual retirement account? Are you gonna leave that where it is with your company?” she said, adding that there are emotional factors to consider when deciding what’s right for you.
“If you leave your job, what are you going to be doing all day — it’s good to think of that before you get there,” she said.
“If you love what you do, there is no reason to stop at 65. You know there are financial benefits and cognitive benefits for continuing to work, so I would say absolutely keep working,” she added.
A recent Pew Research Center analysis finds that 1 in 5 people over 65 choose to continue working. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that Americans over 65 will continue to rise in labor force participation over the next decade.
For those who have “had enough” of the daily grind, she suggests semi-retirement. “Maybe you’re ready to retire but you still want to do something, there’s a lot to be said about downshifting into a part-time job.”
Never too early to prepare
And to those for whom retirement still seems eons away, O’Brien says there are many advantages to starting on your savings sooner than later.
“One of the biggest mistakes is simply just to not start to save for retirement. And, you know, it’s understandable. When you are young there’s not a lot of extra money in your budget, you’re paying student loans, your rent is too high,” she said. “But that’s precisely when it’s important to start, because you really get more bang for your buck if you start young, do the compound interest.”
What’s more, while O’Brien assures young people that Social Security will most likely be around for them, she notes that it may pay out significantly less. That’s because the program’s trust funds are on track to be depleted in 2033, unless lawmakers shore up the program before then, and which could lead to benefits getting shaved by about 20%.
But that forecast is another reason for younger generations to get an early start on savings, O’Brien said.
“You’re going to be able to count on Social Security, but probably less than today’s retirees do,” she said.
The surprising treatment that could boost your libido and lift your brain fog
Hattie Garlick – January 21, 2024
‘I had turned into a person I no longer recognised,’ says Shaw, before she was prescribed testosterone
For Andrea Shaw, the perimenopause came with a portfolio of symptoms, from urinary tract infections to heart palpitations. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) helped, but not entirely. She says she was left with a long list of symptoms, including “brain fog, concentration, energy levels and low libido”. She adds: “The low mood, crying episodes, wanting to stay in my bedroom and not wanting to go out were crippling. I had turned into a person I no longer recognised and felt extremely lonely and sad.” In April 2020, she saw a doctor who prescribed something new: a small tube of testosterone cream.
Testosterone is often associated with bulking up. But a growing body of research suggests that testosterone cream, gel and injections could be even more beneficial for the 13 million perimenopausal and menopausal women in the UK than was previously thought, as well as the one in 10 men aged 40 to 60 who are suffering the symptoms of low testosterone.
For Shaw, the effects were startling. “My energy levels and low libido improved quite quickly, perhaps within a few weeks. The low mood, brain fog and other symptoms took slightly longer.”
She says: “Testosterone was the missing link for me. It helped me to find my old self again and go back to living my life to the full.”
What is testosterone cream?
Women make testosterone naturally in their ovaries and adrenal glands, but production drops sharply during the menopause. The hormone influences libido and arousal, but also bone strength, cardiovascular health, cognition, energy and more.
In men, testosterone is produced in the testes and controls – among other things – sperm production and sex drive. Yet 2-5 per cent of men suffer from a shortage, a proportion that rises to eight per cent among the over-50s, and half of men over 80. The medical term for this deficiency is hypogonadism.
In both men and women, this diminishment in testosterone can be redressed using a gel or cream that is absorbed through the skin or, more unusually, an injection.
Is testosterone cream considered a steroid?
Anabolic steroids (that’s synthetic derivatives of testosterone) get a bad rap, of course. Most of us only hear of them when a sports star is caught misusing them. So, are the creams, gels and jabs themselves steroids? Well, yes, says Dr Robert Stevens. He is the founder of The Men’s Health Clinic in Dorset, a private medical practice that specialises in treating men with testosterone deficiency. However, he says: “We need to draw a clear distinction between anabolic steroid abuse and restoring your normal testosterone level and physiological function under careful medical supervision. It is 100 per cent beneficial to have a healthy testosterone level for life, but 100 per cent unhealthy to abuse it.”
What is it prescribed for?
About 25 per cent of menopausal women will suffer from hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), explains Dr Louise Newson, a GP, leading menopause expert and the founder of Newson Health. “Basically it means they’ll get a really low libido. Testosterone has been shown to help significantly with that.”
NHS data suggests that 4,675 women aged 50 and over obtained testosterone gel using an NHS prescription in November 2022, a sharp increase from 429 women in November 2015, and largely attributed to a rise in demand from female patients. Guidelines by Nice (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) allow it to be prescribed to women who have tried HRT but still suffer symptoms. Yet while private practices such as Newson’s can prescribe a testosterone cream designed for women called AndroFeme, it has yet to be licensed in the UK. “On the NHS, the only option is male testosterone products prescribed off-licence, at lower doses than would be prescribed for men,” Newson explains.
A similarly complex situation currently exists for men. Testosterone replacement therapy is known to improve sexual function for men with pathological hypogonadism, so the NHS will prescribe it if a blood test shows a man’s levels to be low. Doctors will also look for symptoms of hypogonadism, but many of these – low libido, for example, or fatigue and anxiety – overlap with those of depression, meaning that sufferers are often prescribed antidepressants instead, says Stevens.
There has also been debate over whether testosterone can alleviate sexual dysfunction in older men and those with obesity. However, in October 2023, a landmark analysis in The Lancet revealed that “age, BMI, and diabetes status do not significantly alter the short-to-medium-term effectiveness of testosterone replacement therapy in improving sexual function or quality of life”. For many, one of the authors commented, it may be more suitable than Viagra.
Testosterone cream for men and women – the benefits
Fascinatingly, The Lancet analysis not only shed light on testosterone’s impact on libido and erections. Testosterone treatment, they found, also improved key quality-of-life indicators such as social functioning and energy levels. In fact, when it comes to diagnosing low testosterone, the biggest red flag is not low libido but mood dysregulation, says Stevens, “be that anxiety, low mood or depersonalisation. The second biggest red flag is fatigue and the third is brain fog.” Though there is no guarantee, all these symptoms can be alleviated with a well-designed testosterone replacement therapy protocol, he explains. Low testosterone can also reduce your bone density, and treatment can redress this.
Newson also finds that many female patients seek out testosterone cream for low libido, then see other symptoms improving alongside it. In May 2023, Newson Health published the results of a study involving 905 women aged 45 and over, all of whom were given testosterone in addition to HRT. “Unsurprisingly, libido improved. But more significantly, there were improvements in mental health,” says Newson. Treatment was associated with a 37 per cent improvement in sexual function, and a 47 per cent improvement in mood-related symptoms. Anxiety, memory and sleep improved dramatically too. This, she explains, is because testosterone is a neurotransmitter, altering the levels of other hormones such as dopamine and serotonin in our brain.
How should it be used?
Women are most commonly offered testosterone as a gel, cream or implant. In the first two instances, it is prescribed for daily use, explains Newson. Your doctor should monitor your response carefully through regular blood tests and discussion of your symptoms, adjusting your dosage accordingly. It can take around six months to have an effect, and if it works for you, you are likely to take it indefinitely, says Newson.
Men, on the other hand, are likely to be offered either three-monthly injections of a long-acting formulation of testosterone called Nebido. Sustanon – a combination of four forms of testosterone – is also commonly prescribed and requires an injection every two to four weeks. In both cases, the injections will be done by a doctor or nurse. Gels such as Tostran and Testogel are available too, and these are rubbed in at home daily, with the aim of creating more stable blood levels of testosterone.
Injections, however, can offer better and faster absorption into the bloodstream, so Stevens prefers a different protocol. His clinic prescribes daily injections, which patients can give themselves at home. This allows for much smaller “microdoses” to be administered regularly, “mimicking the body’s physiology as closely as possible” and creating stable levels. This protocol is, he suggests, attracting growing recognition. In 2022, the Society for Endocrinology added more frequent injections to their treatment guidelines.
Where do you put testosterone cream on your body?
Women usually rub testosterone cream or gel onto their thigh, says Newson, making sure the skin is clean and dry. Things are a little more variable for men. Tostran is rubbed into the abdomen or both inner thighs, while Testogel is often applied to the shoulders. Different studies show different absorption rates when the medication is applied to various parts of the body, which means the products have different application instructions.
And when it comes to injections, “The vast majority of my patients inject into the subcutaneous tissue, which is essentially the space between the skin and the muscle, in the belly or love handles,” says Stevens. “It’s painless – much like being a diabetic.” Plus, subcutaneous jabs have a slower rate of absorption.
What should I do if I forget a dose?
If you are on a daily treatment regime, don’t panic, says Stevens. “One of the beauties of microdosing is that you won’t end up feeling close to how you felt before you began your protocol, unless you miss multiple injections.”
Newson agrees. “It doesn’t really matter what time of day you apply it,” she says. “So if you forget, just take it as soon as you remember.”
Testosterone cream side effects
“When it’s prescribed properly, side effects are vanishingly rare,” says Newson. Mild acne is occasionally reported. “Some women find hair grows at the spot where they rub it in, as testosterone stimulates the hair follicles. Others, rarely, say they feel a bit agitated and wired right at the start, as their bodies adjust to the presence of a hormone that has been missing in these quantities for a while. If that’s the case, we can reduce the dose, then very gradually increase it,” she says.
“In a well-balanced protocol, there should be no side effects since all we are doing is normalising your physiology,” agrees Stevens. Cardiovascular complications have traditionally been the biggest worry due to associations between testosterone replacement treatment (TRT) and haematocrit which, he explains, “is essentially a rise in red blood cell count, thickening the blood and putting a strain on your cardiovascular system”. This may be associated with an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and blood clots. But, says Stevens, “There’s likely to be an underlying reason – either a bad protocol or sleep apnoea, dehydration or kidney disease.” In fact, in 2023, a major study of more than 5,000 men, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that the risk of “major adverse cardiac events” was not raised by the use of TRT.
Fertility is another common concern since, Stevens explains, your natural production of testosterone may be reduced as a result of ongoing testosterone replacement, leading to a reduction in sperm. Alongside testosterone, his clinic administers hCG or human chorionic gonadotropin – a female pregnancy hormone that (counterintuitively) helps preserve testicular size, function and fertility when given to men undergoing TRT.
For those who are using a testosterone cream or gel, it is important to wait for the gel to dry, cover the site where it’s been applied and make sure you have thoroughly washed your hands before touching other people, particularly children. “Otherwise there’s a small risk of transference,” says Stevens. “If it happens once or twice, and you’re touching your partner, it’s not going to be that much of an issue. But you don’t want to rub it on and then be in contact with young kids immediately.”
Things to consider before using testosterone cream
It might sound like a miracle cure, and for some it is. However, it’s not a guaranteed silver bullet. “There are lots of reasons why people have reduced libido and mood, so testosterone is not going to be a cure for everyone,” says Newson. Whatever you do, both she and Stevens agree that you should not consider taking testosterone without proper medical supervision.
“I have read about lots of people buying it online and that really fills me with horror,” she says. “We all respond differently to hormones, and in our clinic we’re very careful to give individualised doses.”
Stevens warns that while TRT can be transformative, “patients should only go on it if they can’t correct their problems by addressing their sleep, stress, nutrition and exercise”. Three common causes of low testosterone are obesity, diabetes and stress.
“We need to think about testosterone as a foundation hormone – it’s the foundation allowing you to do what you need to do to be a healthy human being: pursue a healthy lifestyle, healthy nutrition and healthy exercise,” says Stevens. The treatment, he suggests, often works like a catalyst, giving you the boost required to make these fundamental changes to your lifestyle. Then it’s up to you. “To continue feeling great, you need to put the work in.”
You can still be contagious with COVID if you have a negative test — here’s why
Shiv Sudhakar, MD – January 21, 2024
Michael Siluk
As the nation experiences what many experts believe is the second-largest wave of COVID infections since the pandemic started, many Americans will be checking to make sure they don’t have the respiratory illness.
COVID testing guidelines and what we know about how long you’re contagious have changed since the start of the pandemic. So we sat down with a leading epidemiologist, who provided guidance on which tests to do, when to do them and how to interpret them.
If you were exposed to COVID, you should take a test at least five days after your exposure.
If you don’t have symptoms or any known COVID exposures, you can may also consider testing before an even where you’ll encounter a lot of people or if you’re spending time with someone high risk for severe illness, such as an older or immunocompromised person. Test right before the event or visit, if possible.
How accurate are COVID tests now?
A positive result on an at-home COVID test is very reliable, according to the CDC. However, a single negative result with an at-home test may not be accurate because you may have taken it before the virus reached detectable levels.
That’s why, if you’re using at-home tests to detect an infection, you should test more than once.
If you have symptoms and test negative with an at-home rapid test, test again 48 hours later, the CDC advises. If you were exposed to COVID, do not have symptoms and test negative, test again 48 hours later. If that test is negative, test again another 48 hours later.
The emergence of new variants, in particular JN.1, has not affected the accuracy of at-home tests, TODAY.com previously reported.
If you want to take only one test, the CDC recommends what’s known as PCR test for the most reliable result. PCR tests are usually administered in medical settings, and they detect a virus’s RNA, which is similar to human DNA, Dr. Michael Mina, a leading epidemiologist and chief science officer at the telehealth company eMed in Miami, Florida, tells TODAY.com. (At-home tests are usually antigen tests, which look for proteins of the virus.)
He notes that PCR tests often stay positive for days or even weeks longer than people are contagious, making them ideal for diagnosing COVID, but less ideal for knowing when you no longer need to worry about spreading an infection to others.
Can you be contagious after a negative COVID test?
If you test negative with a PCR test, you are likely not contagious.
But if you test negative with an at-home test, the answer will depend in part “on whether the negative COVID test is at the beginning of feeling sick or on the way to recovery,” Mina says.
“If you have already been positive and are testing to see if you are recovering or recovered, then as soon as you become negative, it is appropriate to assume you are no longer infectious,” he explains.
When a positive rapid antigen test goes from a dark line to a very faint line, this means that the virus load in the swab is probably less than when then line was dark, he adds.
“So even a faint line after a really dark line means you are likely much less contagious, and no line means you are likely very low risk of being infectious,” Mina says.
But at the beginning of an COVID illness, an at-home antigen may come back negative, even though you may become infectious as the viral load increases.
“You may be starting to feel symptoms because your immune system is activating, but the virus might not yet be high enough in your nose to cause a test to turn positive,” Mina says. In this scenario, you may test positive several hours later, the next day or the day after that.
If you get a negative at-home test result at the beginning of a possible infection, keep the following guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in mind when weighing your risk of having COVID:
If you have typical symptoms with a known exposure, assume you have COVID (despite the negative result). Take precautions and test again 48 hours later.
If you have typical symptoms but no known exposure, you might have either COVID or another illness. Take precautions and test again 48 hours later.
If you have no COVID symptoms but a known exposure, you might still have COVID. Take precautions, test again 48 hours later, and if the second test is negative, take a third test 48 hours later.
If you have no COVID symptoms without any known exposure, you probably don’t have COVID. Test again 48 hours later, and if it is negative, take another 48 hours after that.
When are you no longer contagious from COVID?
If you get a negative at-home COVID test result after previously testing positive, you are likely no longer contagious, Mina says.
But how long that will take is “wholly dependent on the person,” he explains says. How long you are contagious depends on:
Your underlying medical problems
Your immunization status
Severity of your illness
The predominant circulating variant at the time
If you have mild illness or no symptoms, you’re less likely to be contagious after day five of your illness (with day 0 being the day your symptoms started or you tested positive if you have no symptoms), per the CDC.
If you have moderate to severe illness, you may have to wait 10 to 20 days after your symptoms started to no longer be contagious. It may take people who are immunocompromised 20 days or more to no longer be infectious.
If you continue to test positive for COVID after 10 days, continue to take precautions until you have a negative test result, experts previously told TODAY.com.
How long should you isolate and mask if you have COVID?
The CDC recommends using its isolation calculator to determine how long you should take precautions. Here’s a summary:
No symptoms: Stay at home for at least five days but wear a mask when around others in at home.
Symptoms improving: End isolation after five days (as long as fever-free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication).
Moderate illness (like breathing difficulty): Isolate for 10 days.
Symptoms not improving: Isolate until your symptoms are improving and you have had no fever for 24 hours (without the use of any medication to reduce fevers).
Severe illness (hospitalized or have a weakened immune system): Isolate for 10 days but check with your doctor first before ending isolation.
Regardless of when you stop isolating, the CDC advises wearing a mask around other people through day 10 of your illness — unless you get two negative antigen test results 48 hours apart prior to day 10. (In Mina’s opinion, one negative antigen test after previously testing positive is sufficient to know you’re no longer infectious.)
Mina also provides these examples of using rapid antigen testing to see when you can end isolation.
If you test yourself and you’re positive, stay in isolation (even if it’s after day 10).
If you have access to several tests, consider repeating the test several days after you turn positive on the test. If your repeat test is negative, you can likely exit isolation — assuming you don’t have any symptoms anymore and fever-free.
If you have multiple tests with a faint positive line over several days, “you’re probably have very, very, very low infectivity, if at all,” Mina says, adding, “But maybe wear a mask, maybe don’t go to a cancer hospital or a nursing home, but you’re probably good to go back out and be with your family.”
