The Sycophancy Must Be Televised… My new column: www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...
Primary care pediatric nurse practitioner, mommay, friend, UU, runner, singer, mitten state resident/fan #VaccinesWork skeeting since Aug '23 Profile pic: Tiffany Aching, by Paul Kidby, cover of The Shepherd's Crown. https://www.paulkidby.com/paintings/
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The Sycophancy Must Be Televised… My new column: www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...
OP addressing mRNA vaccines specifically
@drdemetre.bsky.social: “as I was sitting there talking abt the outbreaks that I was managing, my phone blew up w/, ‘I didn’t know you guys were changing the chldrn’s sched.’..we asked if we could see the supporting data that led to the decision.&we were told no. Q: Just flat out no? Flat out no.”🧪🛟
“And, for an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.” -- William Gibson, Count Zero
the Federal Employees & Contractors Oral History Project (FECOHP) was launched in 3/2025 by the Organization of American Historians (OAH). Directed by an experienced oral historian & former federal historian, the project seeks to capture this pivotal moment through the voices of those who lived it.
This is kind of what it feels like to live in a crazy family where there’s all sorts of weird stuff happening and you’re expected to pretend like everything is fine and normal.
Look who made the cover of AJC? CDC heroes; our heroes. They are heartbroken. We are heartbroken. We will work together to #saveCDC and #savepublichealth. @drdemetre.bsky.social @drdebhoury.bsky.social Thanks @ajc.com for the coverage.
It's so sus
Stupider and stupider
New Mexico has issued a public health order that removes federal restrictions to COVID-19 vaccine access so that pharmacies in New Mexico can vaccinate people of all ages and risk profiles. Every state need to do this!
Must read story. Misinformation from DOGE and Elon about USIP-funded work of an Afghani working with the US against the Taliban leads to his family’s kidnapping by the Taliban
this should become a thing, putting up signs like this for every arrest & disappearance in public spaces. it would likely break into lower info, less politically engaged demos and local social media groups
More Democrats say it’s the most important issue facing the U.S. – more than inflation, jobs, and the economy combined... what is it? Civil rights & liberties. Read the story from @tesler.bsky.social: goodauthority.org/news/civil-r...
Amazing how the Biden administration "fixed elections" ... to favor a Republican wanna-be autocrat candidate.
You have to fight this. You MUST fight this. This is the first fight in 8 months that you, as a person without a law degree, can personally win against the Trump Administration. We still need a bit more critical mass from Democrats. Keep calling. Demand (1) statements and (2) investigative hearings
@colincarlson.bsky.social took a look at Project 2025 to see what is in store for CDC with O'Neill in charge. It's worse than I thought (and I expected it to be pretty bad). 🧵👇
"If the US govt persists down this..path—ignoring..evidence, embracing antivaccine conspiracy theories.., cutting..research & abandoning..global partnerships...the world will [see] a tragic increase in child deaths &..infections, ultimately making Americans less safe" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
"I'm concerned about the future of CDC. I'm concerned about what it means. CDC is a critical agency. CDC is a crown jewel... And to see the CDC being dismantled, and brilliant people and good people that work at CDC leave and resign, really concerns me" #MedSky #IDSky www.npr.org/2025/08/30/n...
The US Administration has decided to destroy a top network for clinical trials to test new treatments for children with brain cancer. This is another atrocity that will harm Conservative and Liberal Americans, long after the politicians responsible are gone.
"Some CDC employees are bracing for what they & many medical experts say could be a death knell for the credibility of public health in America: A declaration from Kennedy that vaccines can cause autism" This is like the NASA chief declaring the moon is really made of Swiss cheese wapo.st/4myP0HW
Bigots are so stupid
TEXAS: “Would I be required to carry my birth certificate to the restroom because I have short hair? Is there anything in it to protect people like me?” REP. ORR: “No. It protects biological females.” @jessicafortexas.bsky.social : “That’s what I am.” More: www.fox7austin.com/news/texas-h...
If you had told me in 2012 that Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign manager would be posting like this 13 years later i would not have believed you
Disabled people have been warning about this EXACT SCENARIO since 2016 and raising the alarm that if Trump installs a fascist government *this is what would happen* We very literally predicted all of this. None of it is a surprise. People just don’t listen to the disabled so you are caught off guard
You would think that documenting these effects - on farms, in meat-packing plants, in the garment industry, and restaurants would be a popular beat for reporters in MSM.
Oh for the love of God
The undermining of science and the incalculable value of vaccines is scary to watch - effects will be global due to the huge influence of US 💉⚕️🧪 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
US Health Secretary Kennedy Ignored & Sidelined CDC Experts, Officials Claim in Resignation Letters Multiple claims of CDC data manipulation, eugenics rhetoric, & misinformation. ✍️ @kerrycullinan.bsky.social @seckennedy.govpeeps.us @hhsgov.govmirrors.com @childrenshealthdefense.org.web.brid.gy
That’s two reported ChatGPT suicides in one week, plus the grandpa who died trying to meet Meta’s chatbot which had arranged an in-person meeting All going really well
Think twice before you put anything in a form—even if it looks legit. www.wired.com/story/how-to...
Pay attention, Canada. If Alberta is successful in this book banning, this will spread. Look around you, b/c this is how it starts. We're on the same ledge the US was on. And we either start fighting this right-wing rise now, or we follow the Americans over the edge. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
/7 In short, I strongly support gestures of contempt and disrespect for the people carrying out the regime's lawless and contemptible orders, notwithstanding the expectations imposed by our squalid and obsequious cop-fluffing culture. They suck and they should know we know they suck.
I will remind folks those images of Nazi book burnings aren't burning just any books. They're burning the library of Magnus Hirschfeld; a gay, Jewish doctor who created an institute dedicated to LGBTQ sex education and healthcare. And a man who pioneered gender affirming care surgeries.
i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.
I hate this dangerous stupidity and infringement by federal bureaucracy and incompetence and willful ignorance on our ability to take care of our own health.
NEWS: CVS, the largest pharmacy chain in the country, is currently not offering Covid vaccines in 16 states and DC — even to people who meet the new FDA criteria — because the CDC hasn't signed off and isn't expected to do so (if it does so) for at least three weeks.
CDC employees standing up and walking out in light of the mass shootings, firings, and *waves hands in the air* everything else. #USAnotRFK Lets gooooo
Tick tock. Tick tock. RFK Jr.'s time is running out. Today, Senators Cassidy and Sanders both challenge RFK Jr's reign of (t)error at HHS. Call your Senators and Representatives. U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
New acting director of CDC Jim O'Neill expressed being pro paid organ donation. "There are plenty of healthy spare kidneys walking around, unused."
I bet you never thought of housing as a tech problem before…
Attention: "The Media" Don't be the stenographer for this corrupt administration
So, so hard
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:
The Wednesday Night Massacre at #CDC. Key leaders depart after firing of Director. #RFKJr #Vought & #Trump have now destroyed the agency. Their acts will kill people. They have blood on their hands. www.statnews.com/2025/08/27/c...
Demetre Daskalakis' resignation letter. One for the history books. www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/the-resign...
"Just Say No, NIH": new post from us. If and when NIH employees are ordered to terminate grants, besides complying or resigning they have a third option: they can just say no. There is great personal risk. But as lower court judges and KBJ said, the terminations are illegal. 1/
I saw an anonymous source say it would be hard to defend against.
Do you have information that UM is doing nothing, and not fighting this in the courts?
The mental health benefits of not knowing any history right now must be massive. Moving through your day with total equanimity. What happens next? Who knows? Maybe something good
A complaint by Social Security Administration chief data officer Charles Borges alleges that the Department of Government Efficiency uploaded a copy of all federal Social Security numbers to a high-risk server in June. www.forbes.com/sites/sarado...
I don't care about the NFL, but I just want to see still one more message that ends with Moreover, ICE must be destroyed
@drneilstone.bsky.social #medsky Please sign and share our petition to remove RFK Jr. www.change.org/p/rfk-jr-mus...
And you want the DoJ digging into vulnerable minors' medical records?
Word association... "Capital, capital" Toddler-level policy ideas
Concentration camps: All in good fun, or a "threat to democracy?"
#Resist
The thing people point to as "crime in cities" is mostly visible poverty on the streets. The way to solve this is housing, not cops. This is a true thing Democrats can talk about and solve w/o giving air the bs crime narrative.
They are trying. they are pausing this care to protect patients and providers, while folks all around the state have mobilized to pick up the slack, and there are lots of legal cases playing out that will help resolve this. Michigan Medicine has excellent counsel working on this.
it's impossible to understand how anyone thinks masked anonymous thugs snatching people off the street or out of their homes won't lead to disaster and chaos -- especially with the "more guns everywhere" crowd.
just gives coal and oil more power, and leaves us poor, polluted, and in the dark.
horrific
Michigander here. Saying no would risk the DoJ goons trying to get private medical records of minors and harrassing/endangering them and their families. Meanwhile, since the election, folks have been preparing for exactly this scenario, and are mobilizing.
You want those DoJ goons going after private medical records of minors to harrass them and their families?? I guess that's a take. Thoughtful health care providers and advocates in our state have been gearing up in anticipation of this since the election. No one need be "sacrificed."
Just as an example: if a health system will lose federal reimbursement for health care if providing gender-affirming care, you think they should still go ahead? Now *no one* with Medicaid or Medicare insurance can access health care from this system. The fed administration is the villain here.
Pausing this care to protect patients and physicians while pursuing their legal options, is very different from "doing nothing." Unless you have information that I don't have and you know they are "doing nothing...." Also, Pritzker and Newsom are governors. This is a health care system.
Not every lawsuit wins, but the reason for people to keep suing is that sometimes you do win. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Are you sure Michigan Medicine is not? I don't know, but I wouldn't assume they are not. My understanding is that this is a pause while they sort out the criminal subpoenas.
I don't think you can just smack criminal subpoenas to make them simply evaporate.
Tbf, though the optics are terrible, the athletic program and the health system are quite separate.
In the face of a federal criminal subpoena, my understanding is that this horrible move was necessary to protect patients and physicians. It was an impossible position.
This prophet of our time has been speaking and writing about the third reconstruction for a decade. youtu.be/xSAopY7hgaA?...
Put another way basic research is just that basic. It helps us understand how shit works. Most of it will not result in technologies that make money, but when they do it's usually the private sector that runs with it. This has lead to the false belief that the private sector pulls all the weight
I'm genuinely glad for Canada and this is a smart business play by Moderna but it also stings when you consider the Moderna vaccine exists because of $10 billion dollars of US taxpayer money. And RFK Jr. might kill our access.
But it's also so mind-numbingly and ignorantly inaccurate. For example, we get cancer cures! The internet! Smartphones!
EXCLUSIVE: In response to threats of criminal prosecution from the Department of Justice for performing gender-affirming care, the University of Michigan hospital system will tomorrow announce they are ending gender-affirming care in the UM hospital system. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/univers...
Scoop from me & @joshkovensky.bsky.social: After receiving a subpoena and being threatened with criminal/civil investigations by Trump's DOJ, the University of Michigan's statewide hospital system will stop providing gender-affirming care to patients under 19 talkingpointsmemo.com/news/univers...
UMich received the subpoena July 14, per an internal university memo we obtained. Source tells us DOJ indicated it is investigating the doctors on suspicion of abusing their authority to prescribe medication, among other things. Adds that hospitals feared legal fees, docs feared losing licenses
This is a really big deal, as UMich is one of two trans health care providers in the whole state, the group TransGender Michigan told us. Similar subpoenas reported in PA and IL. Further evidence that being in a blue state/under blue state gov does not guarantee protection from this administration
Wish we were
I'm concerned that this is the playbook: to establish Federal thug policing in every heavily Democratic city and then intimidating people into staying home from the polls in the midterms.
We’re seeing the same bifurcation of haves and have-nots throughout the #travel industry.
The US President’s declaration that he alone can dictate how Americans’ votes are counted is a direct and obvious violation of our Constitution. He has zero power to restrict our votes. It is past time for this lawless rampage to end. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...
Yes!
Vimes is so cheeky
Discworld QOTD, from Thief of Time “EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS, STAYS HAPPENED. "What kind of philosophy is that?" THE ONLY ONE THAT WORKS.”
My point is that we can certainly understand the tendency to promote anti-democratic policies when it works in favor of the causes that are important to us.
bsky.app/profile/duer...
Right, I mean lots of people are cheering on Newsom's efforts to super-gerrymander California to counter Texas's gerrymandering and that is an inherently anti-democratic action.
Isn't this why people study history? To expand the scope of our imaginations so that less and less is "beyond imagination"?
This is an important idea. It's human to want to defend our past choices, but we have to rise above that self-protective stance. Helpful: if those who hear such admissions (of having been wrong to support Trump) refrain from gloating. We can welcome the courage of those who admit they were wrong.
@polphilpod.bsky.social wrote a great piece on this theme a while back: www.liberalcurrents.com/trump-alarmi...
Policing Dem cities to intimidate and control who can vote in the midterms
WELKER: “Are the Russians stringing Trump along?” VANCE: “No not at all.” REALITY: Of course they are. Russian State TV laughs about it out loud. ASK: “How long will you let them? And why let them walk all over you?” (Also, Russia has made no concessions)
It's harder when the maga minions have taken away the language for talking about structural problems
Ignoring the power and problems of privilege is precisely what got us into this mess.