WHOWHATWHY Now 04 August 2025

Monday, August 04, 2025

WHOWHATWHY Now 04 August 2025

Must Reads For August 4, 2025

In Trumpworld, Irrationality Is the New Normal

Russ Baker 08/04/25

With the current regime, what is especially disconcerting is our inability to predict anything — aside from Trump’s constant pivots for self-advantage.

Texas Governor Wants to Make Standing Up for Democracy a Felony

Klaus Marre 08/04/25

Top Republican officials in Texas want to impose draconian penalties on Democrats trying to prevent the GOP from further rigging the state's congressional map.

A Country of One: The Government Only Serves Donald Trump

Klaus Marre 08/04/25

Every American is hurt because the US government currently seems to have only the interests of Donald Trump in mind.

Editors' Picks

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PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.

Boeing Workers Who Build Fighter Jets Plan Midnight Strike (Maria)

The author writes, “Boeing workers who build fighter jets are planning to go on strike Monday at midnight Central Daylight Time. About 3,200 workers at Boeing facilities in St. Louis; St. Charles, Missouri; and Mascoutah, Illinois, voted to reject a modified four-year labor agreement with Boeing, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said Sunday.”

Trump’s Mental Decline Is Undeniable — So What Now? (Al)

From The Hill: “There is no question that the president — the man tasked with making critical life and death decisions for both the country and the world — is struggling with mathematical concepts, has vivid ‘memories’ that are not rooted in reality and has an increasingly foggy grasp of past events that did happen. That’s not a medical diagnosis. These are facts we can see for ourselves and we all know, even those of us who voted for Trump three times, that this can’t be allowed to continue.”

Corporation for Public Broadcasting is Shutting Down. Some Are Fighting Back (Gerry)

From NPR: “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the conduit for federal funds to NPR and PBS, announced on Friday that it is beginning to wind down its operations given President Trump has signed a law clawing back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting through fiscal year 2027. The announcement follows a largely party-line vote last month that approved the cuts to public broadcasting as part of a $9 billion rescissions package requested by the White House that also included cuts to foreign aid.”

FBI Officials Reportedly Redacted References to Trump From Epstein Files (Reader Jim)

The author writes, “Bloomberg reported on Friday that FBI officials earlier this year redacted the name of US President Donald Trump from the agency’s files on late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Three unnamed sources confirmed to Bloomberg that the FBI had redacted the names of Trump and other prominent public figures even before the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced last month that ‘no further disclosure’ of the Epstein files ‘would be appropriate or warranted.’ Bloomberg’s sources explained that ‘Trump’s name, along with other high-profile individuals, was blacked out because he was a private citizen when the federal investigation of Epstein was launched in 2006.’”

ChatGPT Users Shocked To Learn Their Chats Were in Google Search Results (DonkeyHotey)

From Ars Technica: “Faced with mounting backlash, OpenAI removed a controversial ChatGPT feature that caused some users to unintentionally allow their private — and highly personal — chats to appear in search results. Fast Company exposed the privacy issue on Wednesday, reporting that thousands of ChatGPT conversations were found in Google search results and likely only represented a sample of chats ‘visible to millions.’ While the indexing did not include identifying information about the ChatGPT users, some of their chats did share personal details — like highly specific descriptions of interpersonal relationships with friends and family members — perhaps making it possible to identify them.”

What Cats May Teach Us About Long COVID (Sean)

The author writes, “Feline infectious peritonitis, or FIP, is a serious and historically fatal disease in cats caused by a coronavirus. It behaves in many ways like severe coronavirus infections in humans, causing widespread inflammation, T cell exhaustion and chronic immune dysfunction. Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have found that mesenchymal stromal cells, or MSC therapy, in combination with antiviral drugs, helped cats’ immune systems recover and reduced systemic inflammation.”

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