shadowmonk.bsky.social

A friend shared this photo from outside an NIH building this morning. The signs refer to four former NIAID staff members who were recently forced out. 2 are retiring and 2 have been reassigned to the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities. A travesty and 🙏 for their service.

This is one of the most disturbing actions by this nascent autocracy... a move to punish lawyers who challenge his illegal actions in court.

FOIA template for DOGE

This is what we really need to fear. #Musk is working to take over the court system along side his assault on the government, leaving him or his proxy free rein.

If Musk and his Technoboyz can't stop a cyber attack at X, maybe they shouldn't have access to our Social Security? Just brainstorming.

"We don’t know what the risk profile is for these products." Unbelievable unscientific ignorance from the leader of HHS. These vaccines have one of the best characterized safety profiles in existence.

This is deeply illegal, violating appropriations law, authorizations law, and the Impoundment Control Act. It is also deeply immoral, condemning people to die.

Louder for those in the back saying "but they can't do that." They CAN and WILL do whatever they want if being in contempt of court is no longer treated as a crime, which is apparently where we are.

Some Democratic member of Congress should propose a bill saying that a POTUS may golf at government expense no more than, say, once every 14 days, and must reimburse the Treasury for anything beyond that.

Hmm, I though DOGE wasn't firing anyone...

@raskin.house.gov @vanhollen.senate.gov @alsobrooks.senate.gov Why is DOGE dictating layoffs at NIH without the input of the agency heads?

@altnih4science.bsky.social What did I do this week? Well, spent a bunch of time trying to rescue a grant because the PIs decided to use the word "gender" instead of "sex" because it sounded more polite. 😒

Paying back the crypto bros with taxpayer money... a "strategic reserve" of something with no inherent value is worthless. Utterly stupid... it's just payback to the people who bought the election for him.

Kind of seems like a straight up First Amendment violation here?

This is corruption in plain sight. Musk is getting sweetheart deals for his companies, DOGE is helping him do it, and the President is cheering him on. This isn’t about government efficiency, but making him richer.

Pathetic. Spineless. Self-serving. Cowards. What are they even doing there?

He said he was “deporting criminals” but he’s actually importing them…

NEW: The email went out about 30 minutes ago.

I'm not sure it's actually set in that the Trump administration has done an end run to effectively grind to a halt new scientific research. They're not pausing the money. They're pausing the meetings needed to sign off on the $ www.thetransmitter.org/funding/fede...

This is a five-alarm fire 🔥 for US science 🧪. (We keep saying that, but it keeps being true 😭.) Trump and Musk are blocking *ALL* NIH grants ‼️ by "exploiting a loophole in the process"—stopping study sections & council meetings. Every biomedical researcher in the country should be screaming. 1/

Dear scientists at US universities: Trump/Musk continue to freeze your grants. NIH is not reviewing grants nor funding them in council. This is a backhanded, legal method to effectively stop NIH grants. See thread and linked article. Are we going to “keep our heads down” about this?

www.nature.com/articles/d41... #NIH

@raskin.house.gov @vanhollen.senate.gov @altnih4science.bsky.social NIH funding is effectively suspended, using the FRN as a tool. Review meetings must be posted 30 days prior, and no notices are being posted. No meetings, no review, no funding.

Why the hell is the US advocating on behalf of Andrew Tate? Our envoy says he's a supporter...??? Of misogyny, sex trafficking, and slavery?

Before running opinion polls on whether the US spends too much on things like aid, science, education, participants should also have to answer how much we *actually* spend. It's meaningless to tell me you think we spend too much on foreign aid when you think we spend 10X what we actually do.

"People who like to sound tough reflexively back the guys with guns over the guys in jeans with sacks of grain or the guys in suits with papers. But take it from someone who spent nearly 1,500 days downrange over the course of 20 years: USAID is worth every penny." www.thebulwark.com/p/usaid-kept...

The closure of CFPB highlights the grand lie at the heart of DOGE. CFPB is cheap to run & delivers billions to victims of corporate scams. It’s the definition of value for money. But X & Meta hate it because it targets big tech fraud. DOGE is not about waste. It’s about enriching the oligarchy.

"In his 2024 campaign, Trump ran against inflation, immigration, and allegedly woke social policies. You know what Trump didn’t run against? National Institutes for Health." Why Trump's assault on NIH is a political opportunity for liberals--if they'll seize it." www.thebulwark.com/p/the-most-d...

“Mark my words. … They are going to basically tell the U.S. Marshals Service, do not enforce any of these orders, we will not obey them, … and, once that happens—I hope it doesn't … but I know in my heart that it will—our 236-year experiment … in American constitutionalism, is over.”

Russell Vought, the far-right extremist appointed to run CFPB, has closed the building this week and told employees not to come to work or do any work. They are illegally ending government agencies. NSF and NIH will be next.

They don't think the presidency has these powers, a democrat was president less than a month ago and they didn't think he had them. They just think America should be a dictatorship where they rule forever bsky.app/profile/jame...

I realized today that Trump, Musk, DOGE, Vance, Miller, Vought and their many collaborators have broken so many laws already that they know they have to destroy our government and entire way of life to stay out of jail. This is all or nothing. We should respond accordingly.

Yes, this is exactly the question that we all need to be asking right now. One of the IGs that Trump fired was the one at the Defense Department, and he was examining Musk's breach of national security reporting protocol for Pentagon contractors. Now Dems tell me they fear this probe is dead:

to be fair, ketamine is now cheaper than coffee

Everyone understands that Russia basically got the United States to dismantle the CIA through Trump and is infinitely stupid followers, right?

talks about how it is a textbook definition of “arbitrariness and capriciousness.” Bagenstos is the ex-top lawyer at HHS. He’s reliable on the law. But he’s right to focus on the big picture: even if science and universities win this battle, Trumpers are on a mission to destroy us.

THAT is the real lesson today from the indirect cost cut. If you’re not already working to stand up for science and fight back against Trump’s Republican Party, the time to do so is now. Talk to your colleagues and see what you can do together. /end

“It’s important to see the big picture... [The cut in indirect costs] came directly from a Project 2025 proposal that was explicitly designed to “reduce federal taxpayer subsidization of leftist agendas.” This whole piece by @sbagen.bsky.social is excellent. 🧪

"The NIH announced it will slash billions of dollars of support to universities and research centers. "This is one of the biggest attacks on science we have ever seen. It could dismantle the biomedical research system, shut down clinical trials, and halt development of treatments" - Dr. Lucky Tran

US farmers sold $2 billion of food to USAID. Not any more. - US farmers provided 41% of food delivered by USAID - $340M of purchases/shipments are now paused. Over 680,000 tonnes. - Food stranded in Houston - Aid stopped in transit. The world’s poor starving, food rotting & US farmers screwed.

@drugmonkey I am hearing that despite the court stay on the funding freeze, NIH grantees are unable to draw on awarded funds. The funding freeze appears to be in place, despite the court ruling against it.

#NIH I am hearing that despite the court stay on the funding freeze, NIH grantees are unable to draw on awarded funds. The funding freeze appears to be in place, despite the court ruling against it. If you are impacted, call your representatives ASAP.

@vanhollen.senate.gov @raskin.house.gov I am hearing that despite the court stay on the funding freeze, NIH grantees are unable to draw on awarded funds. The funding freeze appears to be in place, despite the court ruling against it.

Around 35% of SpaceX’s revenue comes directly from the federal govt. Less than 1% of NPR’s budget comes from the federal govt.

@marcelias.bsky.social It would be irresponsible for Dems to agree to a CR longer than a month. It's the only leverage we have left. Give them a month and hold them accountable if they want an extension. We have to play like absolute bastards.

@vanhollen.senate.gov @aoc.bsky.social @raskin.house.gov It would be irresponsible for Dems to agree to a CR longer than a month. It's the only leverage we have left. Give them a month and hold them accountable if they want an extension. You have to be utterly ruthless to save the country.

You'd think that such a weaponized deep state bureaucracy would be better able to stop a Musk... Unless that was all a lie??