American Politics from 2019 on

[Tero]

Science politics

The Bethesda Declaration of 9 June begins, "For staff across the National Institutes of Health (NIH), we dissent to Administration policies that undermine the NIH mission, waste public resources, and harm the health of Americans and people across the globe." A portion of it is as follows:
"Since January 20, 2025, NIH has terminated 2,100 research grants totaling around $9.5 billion and $2.6 billion in contracts. This undercuts long-standing NIH policies designed to maximize return on investment by working with grantees to address concerns and complete studies. Many terminations contradict federal regulations that mandate protections for research participants and require grant awards to specify potential termination reasons. These terminations:

Throw away years of hard work and millions of dollars. Ending a $5 million research study when it is 80% complete does not save $1 million, it wastes $4 million.
Shirk commitments to participants, who braved personal risk to give the incredible gift of biological samples, understanding that their generosity would fuel scientific discovery and improve health.
Risk participant health. NIH trials are being halted without regard to participant safety, abruptly stopping medications or leaving participants with unmonitored device implants.
Damage hard-earned public trust, counter to your stated goal to improve trust in NIH.
We urge you as NIH Director to restore grants delayed or terminated for political reasons so that life-saving science can continue."
AP reported, "White House spokesman Kush Desai defended the administration’s approach to federal research and said President Donald Trump is focused on restoring a “Gold Standard” of science, not “ideological activism.”"

https://www.standupforscience.net/bethe ... ethesdadec

[Tero]

Joe Biden causes plane to crash in India!
https://www.foxnews.com/world/london-bo ... eoff-india

[Tero]

A county with high Jewish population. 300 votes for a democrat in the race, 500 for Trump and zero for Harris.

[Sean Hayden]

Maybe, but the conspiracy theorists have an uphill battle: Biden’s debate performance and a brown woman candidate.

[Brian Peacock]

Democrats still looking to external reasons why they lost eh? Anything to avoid self-reflection I guess.

[Tero]

We lost due to the brown lady running. And eggs. And vaccinations. And feeble Biden.

[Tero]

We lost due to the brown lady running. And eggs. And vaccinations. And feeble Biden. Plus Trump telling that thousands of assylym seekers had escaped an assylum.

[Sean Hayden]

Did you vote for Trump because you don't have healthcare? No, and fuck universal healthcare! Great, we promise universal healthcare, does that change your mind?

Did you vote for Trump because you don't earn a living wage? What? No, and fuck minimum wage laws! Great, we promise to increase the minimum wage, does that change your mind?

...you see the fundamental problem, uhm, the real issue here, uh, is that their needs aren't being met. Uhm, until we can meet their needs, uh, we can't hope to reach them with reason, with argument

--//--

Could they have different interests you're ignoring?

[JimC]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-29/ ... /105461744

It was a fierce and at times nasty battle that pitted competing visions and ambitions for the future of the Democratic Party against one another.

In the end, the New York progressives emerged victorious, and they now believe they have the momentum to change their party.

The race to determine who would be the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor had two distinct sides.

On one was the Democratic establishment — Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of the State of New York and scion of one of the country's most powerful political families.

On the other, the progressive insurgency — Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old Muslim and self-declared "Democratic socialist" and critic of capitalism who was promising to hike taxes on the rich.

In the end, New York City voted for the younger and far less experienced Mamdani to be its Democratic candidate for mayor, shocking the party establishment and lighting a fire under the progressives who are ready to march further to the left.

It works well in New York, but a similar presidential candidate nationally might face difficulties, I suspect...