This obviously won’t be the last word here. The question to me is just whether DOJ goes straight to #SCOTUS or seeks rehearing en banc from the Fifth Circuit first.
Facts & strategy, in an authoritarian takeover. Rightwing billionaires want to privatize NIH and use it to control universities. We work to cure diseases like cancer. Pers views. #science #medicine
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This obviously won’t be the last word here. The question to me is just whether DOJ goes straight to #SCOTUS or seeks rehearing en banc from the Fifth Circuit first.
It also means we can help move things by getting Cassidy voters in Louisiana to dislike Trump. (Different strategies for Republicans for Cassidy primary; and for Republicans, swing voters and Dems for general election. But Cassidy won by ~40 pts in his last general in 2020.)
And that means it's our job to hold Cassidy's feet to the fire. Don't let him get away with pretending to fight. Make sure he DOES something.
This is the reason why Cassidy voted to confirm RFK Jr: Cassidy was afraid of angering Trump, because Trump has great control over the Louisiana Republican base.
Quick politics analysis: Bill Cassidy is up for election in 2026. His absolute highest priority now is to avoid angering Trump. He doesn't want Trump turning Louisiana Republican voters against him. So what does that mean? Cassidy wants to pretend he cares about RFK, but not do anything real. 1/
Before he rebooted his Instagram account to look presidential, this was RFK Jr during COVID.
Let’s add that SCOTUS also gave Big Balls and Musk all your grant data, scientists
wrote about the Republicans on the Supreme Court giving Big Balls and the other DOGE youths the homie hookup to your Social Security Number ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/big-b...
FYI there are connections between the Republican political billionaire who owns JetBlue and that junk science Santa Clara study Bhattacharya worked on
It’s not a mistake that they fail to say that: Bhattacharya is Baghdad Bob of Biomedical Research.
We are now in a pitched battle against Republican anti-science forces, with Trump, Vought, RFK, and Bhattacharya on one side, and America’s entire scientific and medical and university world hanging in the balance. Co-President Miller and Bhattacharya are defending RFK because he’s vulnerable.
Look at this. Who politicized science by advocating for mass death to help the political right downplay COVID, decrease social trust, and help Trump’s electoral prospects? That was you, Politician Jay.
Bhattacharya before NIH: work w Epoch Times, Reason Mag, WSJ Opinion, Fox, Unherd, AIER; money from GOP political billionaires via Bradley and AIER—that we know. Bhattacharya now: Fox, Bari Weiss, Reason Mag, Steve Bannon. These are all political rightwing sources! Who does he think he’s kidding?
Jay Bhattacharya was nominated by Trump to spread lies to help the right’s political project. Because that’s what Bhattacharya did for four years after 2020. Authoritarians and their lackeys need lies. Truth is: **Bhattacharya and RFK** politicized science, then and now.
This video remains undeleted. Watch 2 very powerful officials today discuss their plan for herd immunity via mass infection 5 years ago. (Or skip to minute 11 to hear it). It’s important to remember. youtu.be/rz_Z7Gf1aRE
Thursday
RFK Jr will testify before the Senate Finance committee on Thursday. Should be interesting. Hopefully the Senators are ready to hold his feet to the fire and flatly call out his lies.
This is very good news. BUT, as we saw this year when NIH was operating under a flat budget, Trump and Russell Vought can effectively destroy NIH even if Congress holds the budget flat. To stop Vought and make sure NIH can function, Congress must go much further than “no cuts to budget.” 1/
Michelle Obama: "please I'm begging you feed kids just one (1) vegetable" RFK: "some children deserve to die. there's a healthy way to eat deep fried burgers" Media: "these are the same, to me"
These are the people everyone should be citing, interviewing, & listening to. Stop platforming the charlatans and parroting their snake oil arguments about things that didn’t happen.
They can't cover things that are antagonistic to the interests of their owners... & also they support what Trump is doing.
NEW: Huge anti-Trump protests happening across the US for Labor Day. This is the current scene in San Diego. A seemingly endless line of thousands of people on the streets! @50501movement.bsky.social #workersoverbillionaires #NoKings (🎥 10-97 News)
Great turnout at today’s Labor Day protest. Bainbridge township in red Ohio knew the assignment. So glad my friend Darcy could join me with her VERY LOUD cowbell.
Absolutely huge turnout again. Hard to get a sense from the middle of the march but it's at least 12 blocks long
Scientists especially always want to start new groups. Don't start a group until you've done some joining first, and you're sure the group you want to start can't be better done within another group.
yes. And if you haven't done organizing before, please just find a group, listen, join, do some work, find a way to contribute.
@prisonculture.bsky.social we wanted to add a note to science people and allies; if you want us to delete let us know.
This is extremely good advice. Scientists and allies, take note. If you have questions on how to organize, or how to join a group that is organizing, please reply to this thread and we'll all help. 🧪
Point #2 is corruption, what RFK Jr uses as an excuse for all his destruction. What Senator will call him corrupt? That’s what is needed.
No wonder @schatz.bsky.social is not fighting for us if he believes this BS. It is the right that politicized science and seized on COVID as a way to decrease social trust. Come to NIH, Sen Schatz, and we will tell you! DM’s open.
good piece thx
🚨 on this Labor Day: We have a moment of leverage in Congress at the end of September. Democrats in Congress can use this to stop Trump’s lawlessness. But we all have to start acting NOW. This is a public fight and D politicians need our help. New from us. “Democrats: Stand Up and Shut Trump Down”
Chris Van Hollen is a Maryland Senator and thus he represents #NIH. @vanhollen.senate.gov has been a great leader on many issues. Wherever you come from on this one, bearing witness to the reality of Gaza is important and van Hollen deserves credit.
Van Hollen is taking huge professional and personal risks trying to break the institutional omertà in the American political establishment with on bearing witness to Gaza and relaying its reality to the American people, and actions like this should be praised.
Could not agree more. Yesterday would have been good. But there is no better time to fight than now. Solidarity
🧪 #resist #resistrfk #defendresearch #standupforscience
Importan: it is not scientists that put science on one side of the partisan divide in America! The core issue is that the Republican Party has become a far-right authoritarian oligarchy party.
Correct. This is one major part of the political dynamics that motivate Russell Vought and Project 2025 to attack science.
Because they are authoritarians! Yes.
What the Project 2025 people say is best seen in that light. They are liars. Because they are authoritarians. And authoritarianism is built on lying. Dans is a liar: they do aim to destroy science. Here’s the NYT link:
(That was a lot of colons. Whoops. Editing.)
Meanwhile, the MAGA authoritarian forces do what autocrats always do: Lie. They attack truth casually and they attack institutions of truth: universities, journalism, and of course: science.
Science is a long-term process. Projects take years. The uncertainty, the damage to the workforce, the change in expectations, the damaged universities: all of these are body blows to what used to be the world’s strongest scientific enterprise.
The Republican damage to science will take years to repair, perhaps a decade—if we went back to 2024 science policy right now. That immediate switch cannot happen. All we can do now is fight to defend and rebuild.
Take it from scientists: These are authoritarian lies. Trump and Project 2025 are destroying American science. They already have done great damage. American science has been forever changed and diminished. 🧪
Do not disagree
When Leana Wen, a right-leaning contrarian, writes this, we know things are very bad.
Pediatric Brain Cancer Group to Lose Federal Funding. A respected network of hospitals and cancer centers is halting enrollment in clinical trials for children with brain cancer after the federal government said it would no longer provide funding to the group. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/28/w...
Wow, who could have predicted that the COVID contrarians would flip and attack their own once they had power? Once a contrarian, always a contrarian. Team anti-science — led by Bhattacharya, Prasad, Pinker — have no values beyond what gets them attention and influence.
Wow, who could have predicted that the COVID contrarians would flip and attack their own once they had power? Once a contrarian, always a contrarian. Team anti-science — led by Bhattacharya, Prasad, Pinker — have no values beyond what gets them attention and influence.
“Trump announced that he’ll unilaterally take back money already appropriated for foreign aid. This new so-called pocket rescission totals $4.9 billion.” So. This is the big one. If Vought floats this for foreign aid and it flies, science agencies are next.
Yes! He’s a liar. The Republican Party is built on lying to voters. When things are bad for them, they lie harder and louder.
We are here to provide science talk, but also political strategy talk! At your service. 🫡
Also: prosecute and imprison fascist Stephen Miller. It’s needed for the country to move forward.
This is a bit weird, right? “What, Alt NIH, you’re saying that if Miller says this it is a GOOD SIGN for science? Isn’t that backward?” No! This is politics. Wins beget wins, and losses beget losses. The sharks are circling and there is blood in the water. Now is the time to go harder.
All right, scientists. This is Stephen Miller saying that RFK Jr is vulnerable. The co-president doesn’t need to say things like this unless he feels like our hits have scored. Now is the time to turn up the pressure! Get RFK Jr OUT.🧪
Yes. This is important. A major story we could tell right now is that RFK Jr is corrupt. He makes money from lawsuits against vaccines! That story has purchase even amongst his fans. We should tell it.
I'm on Substack Live with @thewarningses.bsky.social this morning at 10 am ET to discuss the decline & fall of public health in America & the future of vaccines (warning: it is bleak). Join on Substack or I’ll post a link later Proud to stand for public health w/ the @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social
Please read this thread. Then, send it to the presidents of Stanford and Columbia, Steve Pinker, Jeffrey Flier, and any other academic who is misled enough to think scientists are at fault for politicizing COVID.
💕
#RFKResign RFK Jr is corrupt. He’s paid by law firms that sue vaccine companies. It’s a conflict of interest for him to blow up vaccines: he profits from that. Resign or be impeached and removed.
wrote about it www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Yes. This is important. A major story we could tell right now is that RFK Jr is corrupt. He makes money from lawsuits against vaccines! That story has purchase even amongst his fans. We should tell it.
Perhaps Congress would be supportive for NIH people who take this path.
ah, there is a thread:
"NIH employees [could] refuse to terminate grants because such terminations are illegal and unconstitutional. " "Defending the Constitution now may require opposing illegal Trump administration actions, even when the Supreme Court provides political cover for those actions." Good post
Bhattacharya must be persona non grata in science social circles going forward. He should never step foot on Stanford's campus again without getting hecked and told he is a liar and anti-freedom, anti-human rights scumbag.
Jay Bhattacharya claims scientists 'politicized science.' He's a liar. He did that, appearing on Fox and other rightwing outlets and endlessly attacking science to help Republicans blame COVID negative effects on others. Now he's going to this political hack conference. Feh.
Looking at you, Harvard Med, Jeff Flier, Stanford, NASEM, and most other scientific and medical institutions.
Let's please listen to the scoldy liberals next time when they say someone is bad, instead of saying they're overreacting, ok?
Ugh on those predictions. There is no better moment to fight than now.
Thank you, Demetre
Call your Congress member and demand impeachment!
What do we need, 4 Republican House votes to impeach him? Removal and trials can come later. Impeach first.
Good. Impeach RFK Jr. The House can do this. Use the hearings to drive public attention to the damage he’s doing.
h/t @ericcolumbus.bsky.social for the screenshot
Agree
The full three letters
This is from Dr Demetre Daskalakis, who ran the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at CDC and resigned today. He specifically blames RFK Jr, the COVID vaccination recs, and decisions forced down from HHS onto scientists. Please read the whole thing. 🧪
Haha
Heroes in our public service are making sharp sacrifices to stand against extremist attacks on our institutions. What a contrast to what others are doing.
👀 But she is a political appointee, so Miller and Vought could get Trump to fire her.
violations of the law, such as securities fraud, tax evasion, bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy against the United States, can be punished by fines and jail time, yes.
Abbe Lowell and I represent CDC Director #SusanMonarez. Contrary to govt statements, Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor yet been fired. She will not resign. We have issued the following statement:
@hana-kiros.bsky.social at the Atlantic.
Nice Gorsuch meme
One option for the new American republic is to fine Elon Musk approximately $30 billion, in order to rebuild USAID and buy all-new defibrillators, motor bikes, and water towers. It’s only fair. Lawbreaking has consequences.
Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, both fans of science and representative #NoKings governance, would be turning over in their graves right now hearing this.
Does great science depend on not having a king dictator? Yes, yes, it does. Science depends on not having an authoritaritan regime that seeks to twist truth and facts to subjugate them to the regime.
This is, very explicitly, the precise thing that America was founded to fight. The Revolutionary War was fought over this, and the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were very much written to oppose this.
Please join!
Gorsuch: "So this is now the 3rd time in a matter of weeks this Court has had to intercede in a case squarely controlled by one of its [shadow docket!] precedents. All these interventions should have been unnecessary" Stop making up the law and district judges won't have to say you're wrong, Neil.
As the Second Founders, the Americans who wrote the Reconstruction Amendments, would have wanted.
An unconstitutional, anti-constitutional, administration deserves total resistance from federal workers.
Yes. Federal workers should assimilate this idea. Trump’s presidency is extra-constitutional. By the oath federal workers took, they are sworn to oppose him and the lawless things he is doing.
After the Civil War, the Reconstruction Acts established conditions to rejoin the U.S., including ratifying the 14th Amendment. When This Is All Done™, we're going to need something conceptually similar.
Here is Nichols, Sept 2024, before the election, when it mattered enormously. “The magazine’s endorsement of a candidate undermines trust in expertise.” Incorrect, and destructive.
Yes their nuclear physics made great progress (Tsar Bomba; but see Chernobyl), and so did missiles and some engineering and a few other fields. But compare Soviet science and technology to US science and tech over same period. The huge difference comes from openness, freedom, and public investment.
