The "Ballroom"

Overheard on a friends FB page (Andrew Kerr):

Here's why the new White House ballroom project is not real. (The demo is obviously real)

Some background - I am a licensed Architect with 20+ years of experience. I have worked on multiple Federal projects with sensitive building programs that required background checks.

1. With a projected size of 90,000 sq ft, and a newly revised budget of $300M, the cost per square foot would be $3,333. No building costs anywhere near that. $1,000/sq ft is astronomical.
2. Let's assume, since we are drawing in the classical, style, that the proportions of the building adhere to the Golden Ratio. A 90,000 sq ft would be a building with a footprint roughly 380' x 235'. Longer than a football field and 1.5 times as wide.
3. The building is projected to accommodate 999 people. 15 sq ft/person is required for a banquet area; 20 sq ft/person is pretty comfortable. What you see in the rendering below is closer to 20 sq ft/person. That's only 20,000 sq ft, or a space that is 200'x100'. It's supposed to be a ballroom, so let's be extraordinarily generous and provide 10,000 sq ft for the ballroom support functions, and another 10,000 sq ft for pre-function. Extraordinarily generous. That's STILL only 40,000 sq ft, not even half of the supposed building. 
4. There are no drawings for the building. The renderings are poorly coordinated - exterior views do not match the interior views. See below - the White House is 70 feet tall, to the roof. The interior renderings show a room that is roughly 100' x 200', with a ~20 foot ceiling. The exterior renderings show a building footprint of 4.5x that amount.

Those are renderings that could be produced by young staff in a week or two, at most. Nothing else exists.

Here Comes The Fucking

In the last 15 years, more than 190 rural hospitals have shut down, partly because of the plague of Private Equity, but generally because of the ongoing attack of "conservatives" looking to cut funding for a healthcare system they insist can be shoehorned into a standard business model.

There are some things that just don't work according to Harvard Business School principles, and the metrics of a bean-counter's 12-column ledger.

You can walk into a busy shoe store waving $500, saying, "This belongs to whoever finds me a pair of brown wingtips in the next 5 minutes", and the clerks will swarm all over your ass to get you what you want.

Do the same in a busy ER, and the charge nurse is going to look daggers into your heart while she tells you to shut up and sit down - you'll just have to wait while they take care of the flail chest injury, and the gunshot wound, and the comatose diabetic, and the teenaged footballer who's thrashing around the exam room because of an obvious brain bleed due to concussion - your broken arm just isn't at the top of the triage list.

Some things have to be driven by need, and not demand.

In medicine - especially in emergency medicine - whoever needs it most gets it first.

Jesus, it's like some of these genius Masters of the Universe never saw an episode of M*A*S*H, or just can't fathom a world where not everything has to conform to Freddie Hayak's vision of totally unfettered free market capitalism.

HAVE THE DAY

YOU VOTED FOR

DUMBASS

Today's Rich

Today's Belle

There's nothing there, and the only one who doesn't know that is Trump.

BTW - Trump is now 201 days behind schedule on that whole "end the war in 24 hours with one phone call" thing.

It Got Worse

Republicans - because of course - are pimping legislation in 12 or 15 states that either have, or would ban Chemtrails.

Unsubstantiated ‘chemtrail’ conspiracy theories lead to legislation proposed in US statehouses

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As Louisiana Rep. Kimberly Landry Coates stood before her colleagues in the state’s Legislature she warned that the bill she was presenting might “seem strange” or even crazy.

Some lawmakers laughed with disbelief and others listened intently, as Coates described situations that are often noted in discussions of “chemtrails” — a decades-old conspiracy theory that posits the white lines left behind by aircraft in the sky are releasing chemicals for any number of reasons, some of them nefarious. As she urged lawmakers to ban the unsubstantiated practice, she told skeptics to “start looking up” at the sky.

“I’m really worried about what is going on above us and what is happening, and we as Louisiana citizens did not give anyone the right to do this above us,” the Republican said.

Louisiana is the latest state taking inspiration from a wide-ranging conspiratorial narrative, mixing it with facts, to create legislation. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a similar measure into law last year and one in Florida has passed both the House and the Senate. More than a dozen other states, from New York to Arizona, have introduced their own legislation.

Such bills being crafted is indicative of how misinformation is moving beyond the online world and into public policy. Elevating unsubstantiated theories or outright falsehoods into the legislative arena not only erodes democratic processes, according to experts, it provides credibility where there is none and takes away resources from actual issues that need to be addressed.

Louisiana’s bill, which is awaiting Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s signature, prohibits anyone from “intentionally” injecting, releasing, applying or dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere with the purpose of affecting the “temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight.” It also requires the Department of Environmental Quality to collect reports from anyone who believes they have observed such activities.

While some lawmakers have targeted real weather modification techniques that are not widespread or still in their infancy, others have pointed to dubious evidence to support legislation.

Discussion about weather control and banning “chemtrails” has been hoisted into the spotlight by high-profile political officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Recently, Marla Maples, the ex-wife of President Donald Trump, spoke in support of Florida’s legislation. She said she was motivated to “start digging” after seeing a rise in Alzheimer’s.

Asked jokingly by a Democratic state senator if she knew anyone in the federal government who could help on the issue, Maples smiled and said, “I sure do.”

Chemtrails vs. contrails

Chemtrail conspiracy theories, which have been widely debunked and include a myriad of claims, are not new. The publication of a 1996 Air Force report on the possible future benefits of weather modification is often cited as an early driver of the narrative.

Some say that evidence of the claims is happening right before the publics’ eyes, alleging that the white streaks stretching behind aircrafts reveal chemicals being spread in the air, for everything from climate manipulation to mind control.

Ken Leppert, an associate professor of atmospheric science at the University of Louisiana Monroe, said the streaks are actually primarily composed of water and that there is “no malicious intent behind” the thin clouds. He says the streaks are formed as exhaust is emitted from aircrafts, when the humidity is high and air temperature is low, and that ship engines produce the same phenomenon.

A fact sheet about contrails, published by multiple government agencies including NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency, explains that the streaks left behind by planes do not pose health risks to humans. However, the trails, which have been produced since the earliest days of jet aviation, do impact the cloudiness of Earth’s atmosphere and can therefore affect atmospheric temperature and climate.

Scientists have overwhelmingly agreed that data or evidence cited as proof of chemtrails “could be explained through other factors, including well-understood physics and chemistry associated with aircraft contrails and atmospheric aerosols,” according to a 2016 survey published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. In the survey of 77 chemists and geochemists, 76 said they were not aware of evidence proving the existence of a secret large-scale atmospheric program.

“It’s pure myth and conspiracy,” Leppert said.

Cloud seeding

While many of the arguments lawmakers have used to support the chemtrails narrative are not based in fact, others misrepresent actual scientific endeavors, such as cloud seeding; a process by which an artificial material — usually silver iodide — is used to induce precipitation or to clear fog.

“It’s maybe really weak control of the weather, but it’s not like we’re going to move this cloud here, move this hurricane here, or anything like that,” Leppert said.

Parker Cardwell, an employee of a California-based cloud seeding company called Rainmaker, testified before lawmakers in Louisiana and asked that an amendment be made to the legislation to avoid impacts to the industry.

The practice is an imprecise undertaking with mixed results that isn’t widely used, especially in Louisiana, which has significant natural rainfall. According to Louisiana’s Department of Agriculture and Forestry, a cloud seeding permit or license has never been issued in the state.

Geoengineering

While presenting Louisiana’s bill last week, Coates said her research found charts and graphics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on spraying the air with heavy metals to reflect sunlight back into space to cool the Earth.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 directed the Office of Science and Technology Policy, with support from NOAA, to develop an initial governance framework and research plan related to solar radiation modification, or SRM. A resulting report, which Coates holds up in the House session, focuses on possible future actions and does not reflect decisions that had already been made.

SRM “refers to deliberate, large-scale actions intended to decrease global average surface temperatures by increasing the reflection of sunlight away from the Earth,” according to NOAA. It is a type of geoengineering. Research into the viability of many methods and potential unintended consequences is ongoing, but none have actually been deployed.

Taking focus

In recent years, misinformation and conspiratorial narratives have become more common during the debates and committee testimonies that are a part of Louisiana’s lawmaking process.

And while legislators say Louisiana’s new bill doesn’t really have teeth, opponents say it still takes away time and focus from important work and more pressing topics.

State Rep. Denise Marcelle, a Democrat who opposed Louisiana’s bill, pointed to other issues ailing the state, which has some of the highest incarceration, poverty, crime, and maternal mortality rates.

“I just feel like we owe the people of Louisiana much more than to be talking about things that I don’t see and that aren’t real,” she said.

Return To Sender

China is sending 2 planes back - which will cost Boeing an extra $70M each (tariffs).

And they're canceling orders for maybe another 50.

At $55M per airplane, that's $2.5B in lost revenue - money that was all but in the fucking bag.

This is a total unforced error - an own goal - shooting yourself in the foot.

China sends Boeing planes back to US over tariffs

China has sent back planes it ordered from the US in its latest retaliation over Trump tariffs, the boss of aircraft maker Boeing has said.

Kelly Ortberg said two planes had already been returned and another would follow after trade tensions between the two countries escalated.

Boeing's chief executive told CNBC that 50 more planes were due to go to China this year but their customers had indicated they will not take delivery of them.

The US put 145% tariffs on imports from China and it hit back with a 125% tax on US products.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said he was optimistic about improving trade relations with China, saying the level of tariffs he had imposed would "come down substantially, but it won't be zero".

However, Mr Ortberg said China "have in fact stopped taking delivery of aircraft because of tariff environment".

Boeing is America's largest exporter with about 70% of its commercial aircraft sales outside of the US.

Mr Ortberg said Boeing was assessing options to re-market 41 of the already built planes to other customers as there was high demand from other airlines.

He said there were nine planes not yet in Boeing's production system and he wanted to "understand their intentions and if necessary we can assign to other customers".

He added Boeing was "not going continue to build aircraft for customers who will not take them".

Boeing in daily talks with Trump's team

Later in the afternoon, Mr Ortberg told an investor call "there is not a day that goes by that we're not engaged with either cabinet secretaries or either POTUS himself (President Trump) regarding the trade war between China and the USA."

He added he was "very hopeful we'll get to some negotiations".

On Wednesday, America's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conference there was an opportunity for a "big deal" between the US and China on trade.

Asked about an upcoming meeting between the countries, Bessent said it would be an "incredible opportunity" to strike an agreement, if China was "serious" on making its economy less dependent on manufacturing exports.

Mr Ortberg also told investors others in the Boeing supply chain were now exposed to tariffs - mainly in Japan and Italy where universal tariffs of 10% are being implemented.

Brian West, Boeing's chief financial officer said during the call "free trade policy is very important to us" and Boeing will continue to work to with suppliers to ensure continuity.

Boeing has reported smaller losses for the first quarter of the year after it manufactured and delivered more planes.

Production had slumped in 2024 due to a series of crises and a strike by about 30,000 American factory workers.

It wants to increase output of its 737 MAX jets to 38 a month in 2025.

Everything Trump touches

turns to shit

Today's WTF

Talk about being high on your own supply. The guy thinks he's so smart that when he "learns" a word that normal people have been using in everyday conversation for 600 years or more, he believes he's made the linguistic discovery of the ages.

Somebody please make this shit stop.

Another Bad Idea

Trump is not trying to put on a parade to celebrate the US Army's 250th birthday. He's not going to honor people he sees as suckers and losers,

Trump is not a guy who pays homage to anybody but himself.

And there's a fair probability that while he's plenty happy that his birthday happens to be on the same day (June 14), that's not really the point either.

There are IMO two basic reasons.

1. Equating himself with both the US military, and the country as a whole (Jun 14 is also Flag Day)
2. Getting people used to seeing tanks and armed soldiers on American streets

Parachutists — and maybe a military parade — for Army’s D.C. birthday bash

Trump intended to host one during his first term but backed off amid pushback from the Army and D.C. officials.

Plans are in motion for a massive event on the National Mall in June to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary with live music, fireworks, parachuters landing on the Ellipse — and perhaps the military parade President Donald Trump has been dreaming about for years.

The proposed parade would “consist of a history of the US Army, including some army equipment” and would start at the Pentagon, cross the Arlington Memorial Bridge into D.C., and continue on Constitution Avenue NW between 23rd and 15th streets, according to a permit application submitted to the National Park Service on March 31 by America250.org, a nonprofit founded to support the federal government’s multiyear celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Turning the June event into a military parade “has been discussed,” a senior White House official said, but the official said many ideas are discussed inside the White House without being acted on. “It means they could happen, but it doesn’t mean they will,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly about internal discussions.

Army spokesperson Col. Dave Butler said Monday that a celebration for the 250th anniversary had been in the works for months, though no official decision had been made on a parade. America250.org did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The news of a potential military parade in D.C. — initially reported by Washington City Paper over the weekend — comes after Trump intended to host one during his first term but backed off amid pushback from the Army and D.C. officials over exorbitant costs and the damage tanks might cause to city roads.

D.C. and Virginia officials had few details to share, though some said they had been contacted by federal officials about a potential event.

Arlington County Board Chair Takis Karantonis (D) said in a statement that the county was contacted by the Secret Service on Friday about a possible military parade to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary. The Secret Service offered no further details, and the county police and fire departments had not received a formal request for assistance with a military parade, he added.

In D.C. on Monday, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said at an unrelated news conference that federal officials had reached out to the D.C. government about some kind of event, but that it was in early stages and she was not yet directly involved in plans. She could not confirm whether a military parade was officially in the works, she said.

Tanks or no tanks, the city can prepare for some kind of massive birthday bash for the Army on June 14, the anniversary of the Continental Congress’s vote to officially create the force, according to Butler. (That date also happens to be Trump’s birthday.)

“We’ll have free-fall parachutists there,” he said. “They’re going to jump out of planes and land on the Mall.”

In addition to a parade and a demonstration from the U.S. Army’s “Golden Knights” parachute team, the proposed celebration would include a flyover (the types of aircraft are still undetermined), a concert (probably country music) and fireworks, the event application states.

The idea of a military parade has in the past inflamed tensions between Bowser and Trump.

During his first term, Trump — inspired by a parade he saw in France — had proposed a military parade complete with tanks rolling through D.C. streets and fighter jets flying through the skies. After pushback from the military and D.C. officials over cost and logistics, he canceled it and blamed D.C.’s “local politicians” for inflating security cost estimates.

Bowser had mocked him afterward in a viral tweet, writing, “Yup, I’m Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington DC, the local politician who finally got thru to the reality star in the White House with the realities ($21.6M) of parades/events/demonstrations in Trump America (sad).”

This second Trump term, Bowser has been taking a much different stance toward the president, seeking common ground. Still, she said Monday that her concerns about military tanks on city roads still apply.

“Military tanks on our streets would not be good,” she said. “If military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads.”

Again With This Shit?

If we're going to be hunting down wasteful spending, maybe the dumbass in the White House could think about setting a fucking example.

Trump Orders Four Mile Military Parade for his 79th Birthday

SHOW OF FARCE

The president was previously forced to abandon plans for a procession in Washington, D.C., due to its colossal price tag.

President Donald Trump is making plans for a military parade in Washington, D.C., on his 79th birthday, according to a report.

A source in the capital told the Washington City Paper that Trump has earmarked June 14 - which is the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army - for the event.

The display of military might will march around four miles from the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, to the White House, the D.C. source told the publication.

The report said that local officials are only now hearing of plans for the parade and that no formal request has been made for their assistance.

Arlington County Board Chair Takis Karantonis told the City Paper that the White House had given the county a “heads up” about the parade on Friday, with only 10 weeks until the event.

He said “the parade’s scope ” was ” unclear” and that no firm details were disclosed.

Other unnamed officials told the paper that a big military parade will require a huge amount of coordination between the six branches of the armed forces, along with several federal agencies and regional officials.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s requests for comment.

President Trump previously pushed for a grand military parade in 2018 during his first term in the White House but was stymied by estimates the event would cost $92 million, according to the Associated Press.

The event had been slated to include tanks, fighter jets, and historic military planes.

The plans emerged after Trump’s 2017 visit to France where he witnessed the Paris Bastille Day celebrations which included displays of heavy military machinery. Trump said the U.S. is “going to have to try and top” the French display, according to the AP.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump watch a U.S. military aircraft flyover at the "2020 Salute to America."

When that parade failed to materialize, Trump pushed for tanks to be displayed in D.C. during Independence Day celebrations in 2019. The inclusion of military vehicles in the “Salute to America” pageant contributed to the event costing taxpayers over $13 million—double the cost of previous celebrations, according to Politico.

No tanks were included in the same event the following year.

Business Math

From the hallowed halls of

The Harvard Business School,

we see the divine wisdom of clear-eyed,

pragmatic capitalism

applied to the business

of running a government.

The total payroll of civilian government employees:

$271 billion per year

The cost of Republicans' tax cuts:

$400 billion per year

So we need to fire most of the people,

and borrow another $4 trillion.

That's what makes perfect sense to the plutocrats.

TB Outbreak

Doc Holiday

Dead at 36

Glenwood Springs CO

Tuberculosis

Gee - good thing Trump ordered the CDC to stop issuing health bulletins. I feel so fucking safe.

I wonder if we can look forward to lots more people getting sick because so many Chiefs fans are headed to New orleans for the Super Bowl next weekend.

Colorado tuberculosis cases hold steady, as a major outbreak rocks Kansas

Most of Colorado’s reported cases of tuberculosis per year are sporadic and not part of local person-to-person transmission chains

Colorado is not seeing an unusual uptick in cases of tuberculosis, despite an ongoing outbreak next door in Kansas, the state Health Department says.

The Kansas outbreak, focused in the Kansas City area, started last year, and it has since grown to be among the largest in the country since at least the 1950s. (You may have read that it is the largest in U.S. history, but that is erroneous.)

Two people are reported to have died.

Here in Colorado, cases of tuberculosis are more or less in line with recent historical averages, even though the number of cases reported in Colorado last year exceeded the number of cases reported so far in the Kansas outbreak.

Confused? To an epidemiologist, the term “outbreak” has a specific meaning — it implies not just a new emergence of a lot of infections but also linked chains of transmission that bind those infections together.

So, when Kansas reports 67 people being treated for active cases of tuberculosis as part of the outbreak, the implication is that those cases are all connected to some common origin of infection and being spread locally.

Colorado, meanwhile, has not seen such sustained local transmission of tuberculosis. The state last year reported 78 cases of tuberculosis, in preliminary numbers. That’s down from 89 cases in 2023 but above the average of 70 cases per year the state reported pre-COVID pandemic.

Spread through the air

Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease that spreads person-to-person through the air. The disease most often attacks the lungs and causes a chronic cough, among other symptoms. It can take two forms: active tuberculosis, where a person is showing symptoms and capable of spreading the disease, and inactive or latent tuberculosis, where the disease is lying dormant and the person cannot spread it. A latent case can turn active at any time.

Though tuberculosis was common historically, the highest number of tuberculosis cases recorded in the United States was in the very first year the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started keeping track — in 1953, with more than 84,000 cases.

Annual case numbers remained above 20,000 well into the 1990s, but then dropped over the next two decades. The 9,633 cases reported in 2023 — the most recent year for which the CDC has finalized data — were an increase over the prior handful of years but still near historic lows.

Transmission in the U.S. is rare

Transmission patterns have changed, as well.

Sustained person-to-person transmission of the disease within the United States is now rare. From 2021 through 2023, the U.S. reported only 34 infection clusters that had 10 or more cases associated with them.

But tuberculosis circulates more widely in some countries outside the United States, and it is not uncommon for states to report cases in people who traveled to or immigrated from those areas.

In the early 1990s, roughly two-thirds of tuberculosis cases reported were in people born in the United States, according to the CDC. In recent years, that proportion has flipped, with about three-quarters of cases now occurring in people born outside the U.S.

This trend holds for Colorado, as well.

“In general, our cases each year tend to be sporadic or associated with limited local person-to-person transmission,” Kristina Iodice, a communications director with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, wrote in an email. “We are not seeing increases similar to those in Kansas.”

Three Is Not The Charm

Another long one.

I don't know what else to do. I try to make calls, and I do some politicking on social media - all I can think of is to keep putting the problem in front of people.

So here it is.

A Third Woman Died Under Texas’ Abortion Ban. Doctors Are Avoiding D&Cs and Reaching for Riskier Miscarriage Treatments.

Thirty-five-year-old Porsha Ngumezi’s case raises questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to avoid standard care even in straightforward miscarriages.

Wrapping his wife in a blanket as she mourned the loss of her pregnancy at 11 weeks, Hope Ngumezi wondered why no obstetrician was coming to see her.

Over the course of six hours on June 11, 2023, Porsha Ngumezi had bled so much in the emergency department at Houston Methodist Sugar Land that she’d needed two transfusions. She was anxious to get home to her young sons, but, according to a nurse’s notes, she was still “passing large clots the size of grapefruit.”

Hope dialed his mother, a former physician, who was unequivocal. “You need a D&C,” she told them, referring to dilation and curettage, a common procedure for first-trimester miscarriages and abortions. If a doctor could remove the remaining tissue from her uterus, the bleeding would end.

But when Dr. Andrew Ryan Davis, the obstetrician on duty, finally arrived, he said it was the hospital’s “routine” to give a drug called misoprostol to help the body pass the tissue, Hope recalled. Hope trusted the doctor. Porsha took the pills, according to records, and the bleeding continued.

Three hours later, her heart stopped.

The 35-year-old’s death was preventable, according to more than a dozen doctors who reviewed a detailed summary of her case for ProPublica. Some said it raises serious questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to diverge from the standard of care and reach for less-effective options that could expose their patients to more risks. Doctors and patients described similar decisions they’ve witnessed across the state.

It was clear Porsha needed an emergency D&C, the medical experts said. She was hemorrhaging and the doctors knew she had a blood-clotting disorder, which put her at greater danger of excessive and prolonged bleeding. “Misoprostol at 11 weeks is not going to work fast enough,” said Dr. Amber Truehart, an OB-GYN at the University of New Mexico Center for Reproductive Health. “The patient will continue to bleed and have a higher risk of going into hemorrhagic shock.” The medical examiner found the cause of death to be hemorrhage.

D&Cs — a staple of maternal health care — can be lifesaving. Doctors insert a straw-like tube into the uterus and gently suction out any remaining pregnancy tissue. Once the uterus is emptied, it can close, usually stopping the bleeding.

But because D&Cs are also used to end pregnancies, the procedure has become tangled up in state legislation that restricts abortions. In Texas, any doctor who violates the strict law risks up to 99 years in prison. Porsha’s is the fifth case ProPublica has reported in which women died after they did not receive a D&C or its second-trimester equivalent, a dilation and evacuation; three of those deaths were in Texas.

ProPublica condensed 200 pages of medical records into a summary of the case in consultation with two maternal-fetal medicine specialists and then reviewed it with more than a dozen experts around the country, including researchers at prestigious universities, OB-GYNs who regularly handle miscarriages, and experts in maternal health.

Texas doctors told ProPublica the law has changed the way their colleagues see the procedure; some no longer consider it a first-line treatment, fearing legal repercussions or dissuaded by the extra legwork required to document the miscarriage and get hospital approval to carry out a D&C. This has occurred, ProPublica found, even in cases like Porsha’s where there isn’t a fetal heartbeat or the circumstances should fall under an exception in the law. Some doctors are transferring those patients to other hospitals, which delays their care, or they’re defaulting to treatments that aren’t the medical standard.

Misoprostol, the medicine given to Porsha, is an effective method to complete low-risk miscarriages but is not recommended when a patient is unstable. The drug is also part of a two-pill regimen for abortions, yet administering it may draw less scrutiny than a D&C because it requires a smaller medical team and because the drug is commonly used to induce labor and treat postpartum hemorrhage. Since 2022, some Texas women who were bleeding heavily while miscarrying have gone public about only receiving medication when they asked for D&Cs. One later passed out in a pool of her own blood.

“Stigma and fear are there for D&Cs in a way that they are not for misoprostol,” said Dr. Alison Goulding, an OB-GYN in Houston. “Doctors assume that a D&C is not standard in Texas anymore, even in cases where it should be recommended. People are afraid: They see D&C as abortion and abortion as illegal.”

Several physicians who reviewed the summary of her case pointed out that Davis’ post-mortem notes did not reflect nurses’ documented concerns about Porsha’s “heavy bleeding.” After Porsha died, Davis wrote instead that the nurses and other providers described the bleeding as “minimal,” though no nurses wrote this in the records. ProPublica tried to ask Davis about this discrepancy. He did not respond to emails, texts or calls.

Houston Methodist officials declined to answer a detailed list of questions about Porsha’s treatment. They did not comment when asked whether Davis’ approach was the hospital’s “routine.” A spokesperson said that “each patient’s care is unique to that individual.”

“All Houston Methodist hospitals follow all state laws,” the spokesperson added, “including the abortion law in place in Texas.”

“We Need to See the Doctor”

Hope and his two sons outside their home in Houston Credit:Danielle Villasana for ProPublica
Hope marveled at the energy Porsha had for their two sons, ages 5 and 3. Whenever she wasn’t working, she was chasing them through the house or dancing with them in the living room. As a finance manager at a charter school system, she was in charge of the household budget. As an engineer for an airline, Hope took them on flights around the world — to Chile, Bali, Guam, Singapore, Argentina.

The two had met at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. “When Porsha and I began dating,” Hope said, “I already knew I was going to love her.” She was magnetic and driven, going on to earn an MBA, but she was also gentle with him, always protecting his feelings. Both were raised in big families and they wanted to build one of their own.

When he learned Porsha was pregnant again in the spring of 2023, Hope wished for a girl. Porsha found a new OB-GYN who said she could see her after 11 weeks. Ten weeks in, though, Porsha noticed she was spotting. Over the phone, the obstetrician told her to go to the emergency room if it got worse.

To celebrate the end of the school year, Porsha and Hope took their boys to a water park in Austin, and as they headed back, on June 11, Porsha told Hope that the bleeding was heavier. They decided Hope would stay with the boys at home until a relative could take over; Porsha would drive to the emergency room at Houston Methodist Sugar Land, one of seven community hospitals that are part of the Houston Methodist system.

At 6:30 p.m, three hours after Porsha arrived at the hospital, she saw huge clots in the toilet. “Significant bleeding,” the emergency physician wrote. “I’m starting to feel a lot of pain,” Porsha texted Hope. Around 7:30 p.m., she wrote: “She said I might need surgery if I don’t stop bleeding,” referring to the nurse. At 7:50 p.m., after a nurse changed her second diaper in an hour: “Come now.”

Still, the doctor didn’t mention a D&C at this point, records show. Medical experts told ProPublica that this wait-and-see approach has become more common under abortion bans. Unless there is “overt information indicating that the patient is at significant risk,” hospital administrators have told physicians to simply monitor them, said Dr. Robert Carpenter, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who works in several hospital systems in Houston. Methodist declined to share its miscarriage protocols with ProPublica or explain how it is guiding doctors under the abortion ban.

As Porsha waited for Hope, a radiologist completed an ultrasound and noted that she had “a pregnancy of unknown location.” The scan detected a “sac-like structure” but no fetus or cardiac activity. This report, combined with her symptoms, indicated she was miscarrying.

But the ultrasound record alone was less definitive from a legal perspective, several doctors explained to ProPublica. Since Porsha had not had a prenatal visit, there was no documentation to prove she was 11 weeks along. On paper, this “pregnancy of unknown location” diagnosis could also suggest that she was only a few weeks into a normally developing pregnancy, when cardiac activity wouldn’t be detected. Texas outlaws abortion from the moment of fertilization; a record showing there is no cardiac activity isn’t enough to give physicians cover to intervene, experts said.

Dr. Gabrielle Taper, who recently worked as an OB-GYN resident in Austin, said that she regularly witnessed delays after ultrasound reports like these. “If it’s a pregnancy of unknown location, if we do something to manage it, is that considered an abortion or not?” she said, adding that this was one of the key problems she encountered. After the abortion ban went into effect, she said, “there was much more hesitation about: When can we intervene, do we have enough evidence to say this is a miscarriage, how long are we going to wait, what will we use to feel definitive?”

At Methodist, the emergency room doctor reached Davis, the on-call OB-GYN, to discuss the ultrasound, according to records. They agreed on a plan of “observation in the hospital to monitor bleeding.”

Around 8:30 p.m., just after Hope arrived, Porsha passed out. Terrified, he took her head in his hands and tried to bring her back to consciousness. “Babe, look at me,” he told her. “Focus.” Her blood pressure was dipping dangerously low. She had held off on accepting a blood transfusion until he got there. Now, as she came to, she agreed to receive one and then another.

By this point, it was clear that she needed a D&C, more than a dozen OB-GYNs who reviewed her case told ProPublica. She was hemorrhaging, and the standard of care is to vacuum out the residual tissue so the uterus can clamp down, physicians told ProPublica.

“Complete the miscarriage and the bleeding will stop,” said Dr. Lauren Thaxton, an OB-GYN who recently left Texas.

“At every point, it’s kind of shocking,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco who reviewed Porsha’s case. “She is having significant blood loss and the physician didn’t move toward aspiration.”

All Porsha talked about was her devastation of losing the pregnancy. She was cold, crying and in extreme pain. She wanted to be at home with her boys. Unsure what to say, Hope leaned his chest over the cot, passing his body heat to her.

At 9:45 p.m., Esmeralda Acosta, a nurse, wrote that Porsha was “continuing to pass large clots the size of grapefruit.” Fifteen minutes later, when the nurse learned Davis planned to send Porsha to a floor with fewer nurses, she “voiced concern” that he wanted to take her out of the emergency room, given her condition, according to medical records.

At 10:20 p.m., seven hours after Porsha arrived, Davis came to see her. Hope remembered what his mother had told him on the phone earlier that night: “She needs a D&C.” The doctor seemed confident about a different approach: misoprostol. If that didn’t work, Hope remembers him saying, they would move on to the procedure.

A pill sounded good to Porsha because the idea of surgery scared her. Davis did not explain that a D&C involved no incisions, just suction, according to Hope, or tell them that it would stop the bleeding faster. The Ngumezis followed his recommendation without question. “I’m thinking, ‘He’s the OB, he’s probably seen this a thousand times, he probably knows what’s right,’” Hope said.

But more than a dozen doctors who reviewed Porsha’s case were concerned by this recommendation. Many said it was dangerous to give misoprostol to a woman who’s bleeding heavily, especially one with a blood clotting disorder. “That’s not what you do,” said Dr. Elliott Main, the former medical director for the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative and an expert in hemorrhage, after reviewing the case. “She needed to go to the operating room.” Main and others said doctors are obliged to counsel patients on the risks and benefits of all their options, including a D&C.

Performing a D&C, though, attracts more attention from colleagues, creating a higher barrier in a state where abortion is illegal, explained Goulding, the OB-GYN in Houston. Staff are familiar with misoprostol because it’s used for labor, and it only requires a doctor and a nurse to administer it. To do a procedure, on the other hand, a doctor would need to find an operating room, an anesthesiologist and a nursing team. “You have to convince everyone that it is legal and won’t put them at risk,” said Goulding. “Many people may be afraid and misinformed and refuse to participate — even if it’s for a miscarriage.”

Davis moved Porsha to a less-intensive unit, according to records. Hope wondered why they were leaving the emergency room if the nurse seemed so worried. But instead of pushing back, he rubbed Porsha’s arms, trying to comfort her. The hospital was reputable. “Since we were at Methodist, I felt I could trust the doctors.”

On their way to the other ward, Porsha complained of chest pain. She kept remarking on it when they got to the new room. From this point forward, there are no nurse’s notes recording how much she continued to bleed. “My wife says she doesn’t feel right, and last time she said that, she passed out,” Hope told a nurse. Furious, he tried to hold it together so as not to alarm Porsha. “We need to see the doctor,” he insisted.

Her vital signs looked fine. But many physicians told ProPublica that when healthy pregnant patients are hemorrhaging, their bodies can compensate for a long time, until they crash. Any sign of distress, such as chest pain, could be a red flag; the symptom warranted investigation with tests, like an electrocardiogram or X-ray, experts said. To them, Porsha’s case underscored how important it is that doctors be able to intervene before there are signs of a life-threatening emergency.

But Davis didn’t order any tests, according to records.

Around 1:30 a.m., Hope was sitting by Porsha’s bed, his hands on her chest, telling her, “We are going to figure this out.” They were talking about what she might like for breakfast when she began gasping for air.

“Help, I need help!” he shouted to the nurses through the intercom. “She can’t breathe.”

“All She Needed”

Hours later, Hope returned home in a daze. “Is mommy still at the hospital?” one of his sons asked. Hope nodded; he couldn’t find the words to tell the boys they’d lost their mother. He dressed them and drove them to school, like the previous day had been a bad dream. He reached for his phone to call Porsha, as he did every morning that he dropped the kids off. But then he remembered that he couldn’t.

Friends kept reaching out. Most of his family’s network worked in medicine, and after they said how sorry they were, one after another repeated the same message. All she needed was a D&C, said one. They shouldn’t have given her that medication, said another. It’s a simple procedure, the callers continued. We do this all the time in Nigeria.

Since Porsha died, several families in Texas have spoken publicly about similar circumstances. This May, when Ryan Hamilton’s wife was bleeding while miscarrying at 13 weeks, the first doctor they saw at Surepoint Emergency Center Stephenville noted no fetal cardiac activity and ordered misoprostol, according to medical records. When they returned because the bleeding got worse, an emergency doctor on call, Kyle Demler, said he couldn’t do anything considering “the current stance” in Texas, according to Hamilton, who recorded his recollection of the conversation shortly after speaking with Demler. (Neither Surepoint Emergency Center Stephenville nor Demler responded to several requests for comment.)

They drove an hour to another hospital asking for a D&C to stop the bleeding, but there, too, the physician would only prescribe misoprostol, medical records indicate. Back home, Hamilton’s wife continued bleeding until he found her passed out on the bathroom floor. “You don’t think it can really happen like that,” said Hamilton. “It feels like you’re living in some sort of movie, it’s so unbelievable.”

Across Texas, physicians say they blame the law for interfering with medical care. After ProPublica reported last month on two women who died after delays in miscarriage care, 111 OB-GYNs sent a letter to Texas policymakers, saying that “the law does not allow Texas women to get the lifesaving care they need.”

Dr. Austin Dennard, an OB-GYN in Dallas, told ProPublica that if one person on a medical team doubts the doctor’s choice to proceed with a D&C, the physician might back down. “You constantly feel like you have someone looking over your shoulder in a punitive, vigilante type of way.”

The criminal penalties are so chilling that even women with diagnoses included in the law’s exceptions are facing delays and denials. Last year, for example, legislators added an update to the ban for patients diagnosed with previable premature rupture of membranes, in which a patient’s water breaks before a fetus can survive. Doctors can still face prosecution for providing abortions in those cases, but they are offered the chance to justify themselves with what’s called an “affirmative defense,” not unlike a murder suspect arguing self defense. This modest change has not stopped some doctors from transferring those patients instead of treating them; Dr. Allison Gilbert, an OB-GYN in Dallas, said doctors send them to her from other hospitals. “They didn’t feel like other staff members would be comfortable proceeding with the abortion,” she said. “It’s frustrating that places still feel like they can’t act on some of these cases that are clearly emergencies.” Women denied treatment for ectopic pregnancies, another exception in the law, have filed federal complaints.

In response to ProPublica’s questions about Houston Methodist’s guidance on miscarriage management, a spokesperson, Gale Smith, said that the hospital has an ethics committee, which can usually respond within hours to help physicians and patients make “appropriate decisions” in compliance with state laws.

After Porsha died, Davis described in the medical record a patient who looked stable: He was tracking her vital signs, her bleeding was “mild” and she was “said not to be in distress.” He ordered bloodwork “to ensure patient wasn’t having concerning bleeding.” Medical experts who reviewed Porsha’s case couldn’t understand why Davis noted that a nurse and other providers reported “decreasing bleeding” in the emergency department when the record indicated otherwise. “He doesn’t document the heavy bleeding that the nurse clearly documented, including the significant bleeding that prompted the blood transfusion, which is surprising,” Grossman, the UCSF professor, said.

Patients who are miscarrying still don’t know what to expect from Houston Methodist.

This past May, Marlena Stell, a patient with symptoms nearly identical to Porsha’s, arrived at another hospital in the system, Houston Methodist The Woodlands. According to medical records, she, too, was 11 weeks along and bleeding heavily. An ultrasound confirmed there was no fetal heartbeat and indicated the miscarriage wasn’t complete. “I assumed they would do whatever to get the bleeding to stop,” Stell said.

Instead, she bled for hours at the hospital. She wanted a D&C to clear out the rest of the tissue, but the doctor gave her methergine, a medication that’s typically used after childbirth to stop bleeding but that isn’t standard care in the middle of a miscarriage, doctors told ProPublica. "She had heavy bleeding, and she had an ultrasound that's consistent with retained products of conception." said Dr. Jodi Abbott, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine, who reviewed the records. "The standard of care would be a D&C."

Stell says that instead, she was sent home and told to “let the miscarriage take its course.” She completed her miscarriage later that night, but doctors who reviewed her case, so similar to Porsha’s, said it showed how much of a gamble physicians take when they don’t follow the standard of care. “She got lucky — she could have died,” Abbott said. (Houston Methodist did not respond to a request for comment on Stell’s care.)

It hadn’t occurred to Hope that the laws governing abortion could have any effect on his wife’s miscarriage. Now it’s the only explanation that makes sense to him. “We all know pregnancies can come out beautifully or horribly,” Hope told ProPublica. “Instead of putting laws in place to make pregnancies safer, we created laws that put them back in danger.”

For months, Hope’s youngest son didn’t understand that his mom was gone. Porsha’s long hair had been braided, and anytime the toddler saw a woman with braids from afar, he would take off after her, shouting, “That’s mommy!”

A couple weeks ago, Hope flew to Amsterdam to quiet his mind. It was his first trip without Porsha, but as he walked the city, he didn’t know how to experience it without her. He kept thinking about how she would love the Christmas lights and want to try all the pastries. How she would have teased him when he fell asleep on a boat tour of the canals. “I thought getting away would help,” he wrote in his journal. “But all I’ve done is imagine her beside me.”

Huh?

Sensible critters hibernate in the winter, they don't shit where they eat, and they don't let the crazy fuckers among them lead the pack.

BKjr is no dummy. Unfortunately, his mental health problems have led him to some really dumb places.

This one is a slight variation on:

"Legless dogs won't come when you whistle, but that don't mean they're deaf."

He's (maybe deliberately) mistaking 'racism' for 'prejudice'.

To varying degrees, everybody's prejudiced.

Prejudice has been built into our big ol' simian brains across 3 million years of evolution. Sometimes, your survival depended on being wary of somebody who didn't look like you, or smell like you, or sound like you. If we, as a species, can manage to survive another hundred generations or so, we might put that one behind us - as we evolve a skin color that's a nice neutral beige.

As usual MAGA is both missing the point, and acknowledging it at the same time. First, they deny racism even exists, but then they turn around and say it's not that big a deal if those whiny minorities would just toughen up a bit.

But that totally ignores the political, social, and economic power that takes a personal prejudice and turns it into full blown institutional racism.

It Was A Stunt

The guy is nothing but smoke and mirrors.

Trying to put Kamala down, he took a dump on everybody who works at a fast food joint like McDonalds. He can't help himself. He just doesn't give one empty fuck about people.

He just wants what he wants in the moment, and he doesn't care who he fucks over trying to get it.

Oops - Again

His advance team has to be the worst ever. They had him drop in on a donut shop not too long ago and it was about the cringiest thing anybody's ever seen.

Now Vance has been blocked from bringing his gang into a place in western PA called Primanti Brothers because the franchise employees objected to having the whole mess disturbing their customers and staff, and disrupting their business.

Nobody checked with the restaurant's management beforehand to see if it was OK in the first fuckin' place.

NEW: JD Vance barred from entering Primanti Bros in North Versailles, PA as supporters waited for him inside, decided to pay for everyone's tabs anyway & signed with "No Taxes on Tips"

When Vance arrived, he was reportedly told he wasn't allowed to leave his car because the… pic.twitter.com/GCuAqDYCs1

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 28, 2024

 

Another advance issue w/ Team Vance:
After showing up to Primanti Bros. in North Versailles, PA, a restaurant worker told the press that cameras were not allowed and that they did not want a “campaign event.”
Vance ended up glad-handing in parking lot outside, per @AlecAHernandez pic.twitter.com/BgCbFWl52a

— Gary Grumbach (@GaryGrumbach) September 28, 2024

JD Vance Forced to Greet Supporters In A Parking Lot After Restaurant Denies Him Entry

JD Vance was forced to address supporters in a parking lot after a Pennsylvania restaurant denied him entry because they did not want to host a “campaign event.”

According to NBC News reporter Gary Grumbach, supporters of Vance came early to Primanti Bros. in North Versailles, Pennsylvania, to greet the Ohio lawmaker when he arrived. However, employees with the restaurant told reporters that cameras would not be allowed in and they did not want to host the event.

After barring Vance from the venue, customers canceled their food orders after learning he was not welcome. Video from outside the restaurant shows Vance welcoming his supporters and encouraging not to hold a grudge against the business and the employees.

“We paid for everybody’s food. We gave him a nice tip. And of course, when I gave him a nice tip, I said, ‘No taxes on tips,'” Vance told his supporters.

He added, “Don’t hold it against her. She just got a little nervous. But it’s a great local business. Let’s keep on supporting it.”

Today's Belle

In case you needed to know the whole story.

How Dumb Is he?

'Are You Seriously This Stupid?': Legal Minds Nail Trump After Fox News 'Confession'

The former president's latest defense backfires on social media.

Donald Trump on Sunday tried to defend himself from the criminal charges he’s facing in the election interference case ― but experts say it sounded more like a confession.

Trump on Fox News bragged that his poll numbers go up every time he’s indicted.

“Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election, where you have every right to do it, you get indicted, and your poll numbers go up,” he said.

Trump is facing charges in multiple jurisdictions and cases, including election interference in a criminal case filed in federal court in Washington. Last week, he was reindicted to comply with directions from the Supreme Court, which in July ruled that Trump was immune from prosecution for “official acts.”

On Sunday, however, Trump flat out said he had “every right” to have been “interfering” with the election.

Lawmakers, former prosecutors, attorneys and other legal minds were ready with a fact-check ― and some said it sounded like Trump was admitting to a crime:

Dear @realDonaldTrump: Are you seriously this stupid? You think President Biden has the right to interfere in the upcoming election? Do you want VP Harris to do what you tried to get former VP Mike Pence to do? Are you really this dumb?

Also, interfering in elections is illegal. https://t.co/9ceSd99K1t

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) September 2, 2024

There's no right to "interfere" with a presidential election. This is the banality of evil right here—Trump asserting he can override the will of the voters to claim victory in an election he lost. And, he will do it again. We must vote against him in overwhelming numbers. https://t.co/S0ECtVdPOt

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) September 2, 2024

I love that Trump uses the word "interfere" thereby making the case against himself.

— Elizabeth de la Vega 🇺🇸🦅 (@Delavegalaw) September 2, 2024

Paging @ManhattanDA —

A transcript of this interview might be helpful for the sentencing memo your office is drafting https://t.co/OFB9tDLG4z

— Jennifer Taub (@jentaub) September 2, 2024

Criming and then confessing to the criming.

That’s a Trump specialty. https://t.co/mK3HiH76kc

— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) September 2, 2024

In his defense, Trump’s not wrong to suggest that indicting a President for interfering with an election is without precedent. Then again, so is a President interfering with an election. So that’s where we are. https://t.co/QuYL9AwB3k

— Marc Guggenheim (@mguggenheim) September 2, 2024

To be clear: NO ONE “has a right to interfere in a presidential election” nor indeed any other election. It is against the law to do so. It is a violation not only of law, but indeed of every oath that son of a bitch and his enablers swore. https://t.co/90ptLsccuT

— (((Denise A Rubin))) (@DeniseARubin) September 2, 2024

No one has the right to interfere with an election. Either 1) Trump believes his lies, or 2) Trump is old and delusional. Either way, he is unfit to be president.

— Taylor E. Darcy (@tayloredarcy) September 2, 2024

More On The Arlington Thing

Trump is defending his shitty behavior by blaming the family of the dead uniform - because of course he is, because he's a weak little shit-waffle - excusing his actions by saying first, he had no idea about any of it, but then saying the family invited him to do it.

I think the family probably got the idea because Trump's helpers suggested it to them.

And anyway, It doesn't matter if some random family invited you to steal their nephew's car - you stole a car and that means you're guilty of theft. Because you stole a fucking car.

It's too typical - and it's perfectly in line with the usual gaslighting bullshit - the guy says he's the smartest dude ever, but he keeps getting suckered into doing really stoopid shit.

So which is it? Both can't be true at the same time.

If you're all that smart, then you don't get suckered.

If you keep getting suckered, then you ain't all that smart.

Typical

Trump's team must be trying to clue him in to the criticism that he's not right in the head.

So, as is typical of his brand of narcissism, he does his usual double-down thing by pretending that it's all a brilliant application of 47 dimension linguistic chess.

And BTW - does anybody believe the guy has friends who're English professors?

BREAKING: Donald Trump says his rambling, incoherent vowel movements are actually a brilliant strategy called “The Weave”

I don’t know what to say anymore. Oh my god. pic.twitter.com/yxJwLRfxmY

— Jim Stewartson, Counterinsurgent 🇺🇸🇺🇦💙🎈 (@jimstewartson) August 30, 2024

More BKjr

I think I get it - the critters were all dead, so no harm no foul. Seriously though? The guy has to know how fucked up it makes him look.

But maybe he doesn't. The dog incident seems to have coincided with his brain worm thing.

The guy is fuckin' weird, and fits in with the Trump crowd just fine.

So - JD Vance has some rather peculiar aspects to him, and now BKjr comes off as nutty-like-a-squirrel-turd, all while the campaign team is moving mountains trying to rehab Trump's image.

I suppose it's possible that the Trump campaign gurus believe they can make him look like he's closer to normal by surrounding him with off-the-wall Looney Tunes characters (?)

This is, after all, the gang that put Hulk Hogan on stage not long before Trump's "acceptance speech" at the RNC.

So who the fuck knows what these idiots think they're up to?

(from July 24, 2024)

Unsettling photo appears to show RFK Jr. with barbequed carcass of dog

An unsettling, newly unearthed photo shows Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posing with a barbecued carcass of an animal — and while a veterinarian reportedly said it was a dog, the independent presidential candidate insists it’s not.

Kennedy, 70, texted the shocking photo of himself and an unidentified woman posing with the charred four-legged animal to a friend last year, according to a Vanity Fair report.

The Kennedy family scion is seen clutching the barbequed remains on a big metal spit and pretending to take a big bite out of the ribs.

The carcass has 13 pairs of ribs – including a tell-tale “floating rib” that suggests it is in fact a canine, a veterinarian told the magazine.

But Kennedy on Tuesday claimed the animal was a goat as he downplayed the report.

“It’s of me at a campfire in Patagonia on the Futaleufu River, eating a goat, which is what we eat down there,” he told Fox News.

Kennedy shared the snap with a friend who was traveling to Asia and suggested that the pal would enjoy a restaurant in Korea that had dogs on the menu — raising more speculation the 2024 candidate once ate a pooch, according to the report.

The recipient, however, thought the image was insensitive for how it made light of animal cruelty, the magazine added.

The friend also expressed concern that it appeared to mock Korean culture and put the reputations of Kennedy and his famous family on the line.

The photo’s metadata dates it to 2010 – the same year Kennedy was diagnosed with a dead tapeworm in his brain.

During his 2012 divorce proceedings, the 70-year-old claimed he may have contracted the parasite during a trip to South Asia.

Kennedy’s family, however, generally believed that his cognitive issues stemmed from his 14 years as a heroin user, Vanity Fair reported.

When RFK Jr was married to his second wife, Mary Richardson, he supposedly sent nude photos of women to his friends.

Kennedy’s heroin addiction reportedly started when he was 15 – one year after his father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated – and continued through his 20s when he started his legal career at the Manhattan DA’s office.

The bombshell report also alleged that during his marriage to the late Mary Richardson, Kennedy was known for sending his friends photos of naked women.

The friends reportedly assumed that Kennedy had taken the photos but did not know whether the subjects had consented to be photographed — or to have the images shared.

When one unnamed friend lost his phone, Kennedy allegedly panicked that someone would find the photos, the magazine reported.

Meanwhile, another woman alleged that the insurgent presidential candidate was “totally inappropriate” when she, then 23, worked as a babysitter for his family in 1998.

The woman, Eliza Cooney, claimed that she felt Kennedy’s hand moving up and down her leg during a meeting one evening.

A few weeks later, the then-45-year-old father and husband allegedly came into her room and asked her to rub lotion on his back.

Cooney also claimed that Kennedy came up behind her and groped her in the kitchen pantry, leaving her “frozen” and “shocked” as he supposedly grabbed her hips and slid his hands up to her breasts.

The alleged sexual assault was only interrupted when another worker came into the kitchen, Cooney told Vanity Fair.

When asked during a Breaking Points interview if he was denying the allegations leveled by the nanny, Kennedy replied, “I’m not gonna comment on it.”

Kennedy overall ripped the Vanity Fair story while he insisted that from the start of the campaign, he said he was not a church boy.

The Kennedy campaign did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the allegations.