Nate Bahr

Bernie Sander’s 2028 litmus test would strangle America’s golden goose

Surprise! The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post is against my 5% billionaire wealth tax. I wonder why?

If enacted, Bezos would owe $12 billion in taxes, and an average family of 4 would receive a $12,000 direct payment.

Poor Jeff would be left with just $224 billion to survive.

Delays in awards and funding calls worry NIH-funded researchers Many programs may be pushed into the next fiscal year, and some could face funding gaps

"The biomedical research community is facing the prospect of major funding disruptions again this year." www.science.org/content/arti...

The Clinical Impact of Antibiotic Allergy Labels on One‐Year Outcomes of Solid Organ Transplant Recipients Antibiotic allergy labels (AALs) are common and often incorrect. They have many potential impacts, including the use of broader-spectrum antibiotics and suboptimal treatment of infections. The impact....

New research from our faculty: antibiotic allergy labels in transplant patients are linked to C. diff infections, more antibiotic use & longer hospital stays, and they may be preventable. 🔬 #IDSky #MedSky

My top 10 ID papers for 2025. Full citations and descriptions available at clarityinitiative.org/hot-takes

Also see/hear our Communicable podcast episode on this at communicable.transistor.fm/episodes/com...

What were your top 10? Any thoughts about what I missed welcome!

#IDSky #Top10papers

States Move to Limit Access to H.I.V. Treatment

“This is really an economic disaster, a public health disaster, a moral disaster."

If sustained, we should expect:
- ↑ perinatal HBV transmission
- ↑ pediatric chronic HBV cohorts emerging in ~5–10 yrs
- reversal of U.S. HBV elimination trajectory, widening disparities (declines typically concentrate in vulnerable systems)

DHS admits it deported more than 80 DACA recipients “Dreamers” who came to the U.S. as children are protected under U.S. law, so deportations of them are unusual.

“The Department of Homeland Security admitted to Congress this month that it deported dozens of unauthorized immigrants who are protected under U.S. law because they were brought as children to the United States, according to a letter made public Thursday.” www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Congress has appropriated the funds to NSF but OMB is delaying the release. When funds are released, NSF, which has lost almost 1/5 of its staff, will struggle to evaluate proposals. Since they have to award the funds, big projects with established PIs will benefit. This is how US science dies.

As measles spreads in South Carolina, RFK Jr’s allies work to gut vaccine laws Activists who dispute safety of vaccines are pushing to limit immunization requirements in schools

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

That's right. Worse than Pointless
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/o...

Federal judge in Minnesota threatens criminal contempt over ICE noncompliance Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz warned that “one way or another” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will comply with court orders.

The chief federal judge in Minnesota has threatened to pursue criminal contempt charges against ICE and the state's top federal prosecutor if they don't comply with court orders in scores of immigration cases.

At least 97 violations involving 66 different cases have been documented.

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

This is a type of ICE "ruse," and is a tactic the agency has deployed for decades.

In 2015, ICE went to my former client's house posing as cops and convinced his 16-year-old US citizen niece to call him home from work with a fake story (the "identity theft ruse" explained below), then arrested him.

Columbia student arrested by DHS agents who posed as police officers Acting university president says agents misrepresented themselves to gain entry to the residential building

“ICE agents impersonated NYPD with fake badges and a phony missing persons bulletin for a 5 year old girl. They purposefully deceived campus housing/security to gain entry to the apartment. The level of civil rights violations that took place is staggering.”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Refugee released by Border Patrol found dead, sparking outrage Surveillance video obtained by The Post shows Border Patrol agents releasing the partially blind refugee, who went missing for days before being found dead.

1. The footage shows Homeland Security is lying when he got indoors and was wearing prison booties I doubt are good for the cold.
2. Nurul Amin Shah Alam apologized to police BEFORE he was tasered when he was originally arrested.

wapo.st/3OCwNx8

Epstein Files: NPR Finds 53 Missing ‘Trump’ Pages — the DOJ Has No Explanation NPR finds 53 Epstein file pages missing from the DOJ release, deepening questions about transparency in Trump’s own Justice Department.

Q: How far have we come in 54 years?
A: From 18½ missing minutes to 53 missing pages.

This headline is WAY too generous. One suggestion - Trump administration plans to halt $259 million in medicaid payments because Minnesotans won't submit to the regime's demands.

This is a theme - it's intimidation and harassment. When they actually have to provide evidence, they don't have it. The observers are not committing crimes. DHS knows that nothing illegal is being done but they don't like being watched...cause people don't like what they're doing.

And just to say it explicitly- this doesn't mean that his views or long term plans have changed. He is and always will be anti-vaccine.

BREAKING: Trump-Noem DHS admits to wrongfully arresting 261 DACA recipients, 86 of whom were deported, since Trump’s second term started, per disclosure to Congress.

Judge: IRS broke law ‘approximately 42,695 times’ in giving DHS data A court on Thursday issued an opinion on a data-sharing agreement between the taxpayer agency and federal immigration authorities.

Breaking news: A federal judge found that the IRS violated federal law “approximately 42,695 times” when it shared confidential taxpayer addresses with immigration enforcement officials last summer.

I don't know about you but I want a surgeon general who vaccinates their kids and encourages others to do so, who has completed medical residency and practiced medicine unsupervised, who has an active medical license and who believes in science and facts.
This is the bare minimum!

What to do in politics when you don't have a good answer? Blame someone else.

the party that wants to require ID to vote abruptly invalidating a thousand people’s IDs overnight seems like a pretty giant flashing red light

So they’re going to cripple healthcare for the poor in Minnesota to make an example of the state. The warning is “don’t resist.”

The Constitution clearly gives Congress the power to spend taxpayer funds, and no law allows the president to halt if he feels some US states aren’t being “good stewards” of the money.

In case there’s any confusion on this, the Impoundment Control Act forbids it.

Taxation without representation.

Translation: they are hell bent on killing more Minnesotans. This will cause clinics and hospitals to close if it is sustained.

Every major publication is reporting that the DOJ has spent over a year suppressing files that accuse the sitting president of the assault of a child take a moment and let that sink in

This stone has been turned MANY times. Vaccines do not cause autism. It's a fact. It's a fact that anyone interested in caring for patients or public health should have no problem saying. I wonder what she is interested in?

SOTU federal debt exploding