Congratulations to all the Democratic candidates who won tonight. It’s a reminder that when we come together around strong, forward-looking leaders who care about the issues that matter, we can win. We’ve still got plenty of work to do, but the future looks a little bit brighter.
Today is only the beginning.
Our time has come, New York. Our time is now.
a small brown dog leaps up from behind a pile of crunchy brown leaves. her eyes and mouth are open wide, and her big floppy ears are extended out like wings to either side.
This is Annie. She freaking loves fall. 13/10 (FB: James Osborne)
The Supreme Court devalues democracy. Thirty-seven state constitutions block public funds from supporting religious entities. Richard Schragger, Micah Schwartzman & Nelson Tebbe, Reestablishing Religion, 92 U. Chi. L. Rev. 199, 211 (2025) . The Court aims to federally-repeal these state constitutional provisions. The Court's beliefs meddle with local and state governments. Forcing states to send public funds to religious entities federalizes public policy. By unprincipled fiat. See also New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022) (zero to superpower). Taxpayer funds now flow to religious institutions. So, the government collects money from nonbelievers (under the threat of jail), and uses some of it to support religion. And since not all religions will receive public funds, the government forces minority faiths to support other faiths, or else. The Court twists text, history, purpose, precedent, and public meaning to offend the First Amendment's character-of- government structure and the Constitution's separate sovereignty structure. As it steamrolls both, the Court says nothing about church- state separation and federalism principles. The Court's nevermind stance to the structural features of the Constitution "has unfolded with little engagement with, and occasional
Check out Justice Eddins’ complete repudiation of the Roberts Court here. It’s worth reading in full. It’s quite brave—and exceedingly rare—for a sitting judge to speak so candidly and scathingly about SCOTUS’ partisan contortions of law, history, and fact.
www.courts.state.hi.us/wp-content/u...
Extreme views are heavily over-represented on social media
Social platforms’ tendency to reward hostile content creates incentives that systematically reward simplistic messages and extreme positions and this fuels populism www.ft.com/content/9251... via @jburnmurdoch.ft.com
it is a stochastic intern and that abstraction works well enough for me to interact with it without going nuts
My resignation letter from CDC. Dear Dr. Houry, I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective August 28, 2025, close of business. I am happy to stay on for two weeks to provide transition, if requested. This decision has not come easily, as I deeply value the work that the CDC does in safeguarding public health and am proud of my contributions to that critical mission. However, after much contemplation and reflection on recent developments and perspectives brought to light by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough. While I hold immense respect for the institution and my colleagues, I believe that it is imperative to align my professional responsibilities to my system of ethics and my understanding of the science of infectious disease, immunology, and my promise to serve the American people. This step is necessary to ensure that I can contribute effectively in a capacity that allows me to remain true to my principles.
The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people. The data analyses that supported this decision have never been shared with CDC despite my respectful requests to HHS and other leadership. This lack of meaningful engagement was further compounded by a “frequently asked questions” document written to support the Secretary’s directive that was circulated by HHS without input from CDC subject matter experts and that cited studies that did not support the conclusions that were attributed to these authors. Having worked in local and national public health for years, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people. It is untenable to serve in an organization that is not afforded the opportunity to discuss decisions of scientific and public health importance released under the moniker of CDC. The lack of communication by HHS and other CDC political leadership that culminates in social media posts announcing major policy changes without prior notice demonstrate a disregard of normal communication channels and common sense. Having to retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page long X posts should not be how organizations responsible for the health of people should function. Some examples include the announcement of the change in the COVID-19 recommendations for children and pregnant people, the firing of scientists from ACIP by X post and an op-ed rather than direct communication with these valuable experts, the announcement of new ACIP members by X before onboarding and vetting have completed, and the release of term of reference for an ACIP workgroup that ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC.
Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc. I have always been first to challenge scientific and public health dogma in my career and was excited by the opportunity to do so again. I was optimistic that there would be an opportunity to brief the Secretary about key topics such as measles, avian influenza, and the highly coordinated approach to the respiratory virus season. Such briefings would allow exchange of ideas and a shared path to support the vision of “Making America Healthy Again.” We are seven months into the new administration, and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary. I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us. Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources. At a hearing, Secretary Kennedy said that Americans should not take medical advice from him. To the contrary, an appropriately briefed and inquisitive Secretary should be a source of health information for the people he serves. As it stands now, I must agree with him, that he should not be considered a source of accurate information. The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines favoring natural infection and unproven remedies will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer. I believe in nutrition and exercise. I believe in making our food supply healthier, and I also believe in using vaccines to prevent death and disability. Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated and is derivative of a legacy that good medicine and science should continue to shun.
The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud. I am resigning because of the cowardice of a leader that cannot admit that HIS and his minions’ words over decades created an environment where violence like this can occur. I reject his and his colleagues’ thoughts and prayers, and advise they direct those to people that they have not actively harmed. For decades, I have been a trusted voice for the LGBTQ community when it comes to critical health topics. I must also cite the recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision. Public health is not merely about the health of the individual, but it is about the health of the community, the nation, the world. The nation’s health security is at risk and is in the hands of people focusing on ideological self-interest. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the opportunities for growth, learning, and collaboration that I have been afforded during my time at the CDC. It has been a privilege to work alongside such dedicated professionals who are committed to improving the health and well-being of communities across the nation even when under attack from within both physically and psychologically. Thank you once again for the support and guidance I have received from you and previous CDC leadership throughout my tenure. I wish the CDC continued success in its vital mission and that HHS reverse its dangerous course to dismantle public health as a practice and as an institution. If they continue the current path, they risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States.
Full resignation letter from Demetre C. Daskalakis, a CDC leader, does not hold back.
"The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud."
Well, I'll be damned.
It's royalty free and there's already six, generic manufacturers lined up.
newatlas.com/infectious-d...
A Texas researcher is facing deportation after being held for over a week by immigration authorities at San Francisco Intl. Airport. Returning from an overseas trip, he was detained upon arrival, forced to sleep in a chair, and survived on airport food during the ordeal. apnews.com/article/texa...
Holy shit. This guy saved a PNG to a bird.
(he drew a bird into a spectrogram, played that sound to a starling, and the starling reproduced it back to him with enough accuracy he got his bird drawing back in their call's spectrogram) www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCQC...
The fact that the President of the United States posts a fake video of a kneeling Barack Obama being handcuffed and we’re supposed to pretend it’s perfectly normal, everyday stuff shows exactly what is terribly wrong with today’s political mainstream media.
writing new black mirror episodes must be pretty tough these days
I imagined the Chatsubo in 1984. 41 years later I opened its door. Neuromancer is in production.
nyt op-ed: we cannot normalize the left’s brazen attempt to win voters by talking to them
Thank you for modeling a different approach to politics. Solidarity for the win!
I've said it before, I'll say it again: pitch it as increasing SCOTUS to at least 100 Justices, with randomly selected pools of 9 to hear each case, such that no single Justice matters so much.
Happy Juneteenth! On this day in 1865, enslaved people in Galveston, TX, finally learned of their freedom, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Today, we celebrate Black freedom, and reflect on our understanding that queer liberation is deeply tied to Black liberation.
CLARIFICATION :
The Trevor Project's hotline will still be live. But basically this means LGBTQ people can no longer be connected to it through the US national 988 suicide prevention hotline.
They will need to be contacted DIRECTLY
So spread this around
They can be texted. They can be called.
A three-year-old brought me a bit of black paper. "Look", she said, "I found a piece of night!"
We're all born poets, but slowly we forget.
“No! Mis hijos estan en La escuela! (My kids are in school!) Por favor!”
Tennessee’s @davidwontshutup.bsky.social on a very difficult video to watch of ICE grabbing a mother outside immigration court in Texas.
insane moment in world history right here
This is bleak reading
50% tariff on "just something to think about" topics in meetings
87% tariff on adding people to email chains for awareness
127% tariff on just circling back
ONE IF BY LAND
TWO IF BY D.C.
the north end church in boston
it’s 250 years today
@northendpage.bsky.social
Certainly worth repeating in the times we are in..
"Tesla Inc. employs an odometer system that utilizes predictive algorithms, energy consumption metrics, and driver behavior multipliers that manipulate and misrepresent the actual mileage travelled by Tesla vehicles," reads the lawsuit. "In so doing, Defendants can, and do, accelerate the rate of depreciation of the value of Tesla vehicles and also the expiration of Tesla vehicle warranties to reduce or avoid responsibility for contractually required repairs as well as increase the purchase of its extended warranty policy."
It seems Tesla is detecting vehicles that may have problems, and artificially running their odometers faster so the warranty expires before they have to do any service
Just incredible grift
