Jess

Scientists’ role in defending democracy The United States’ democratic leadership, commitment to freedom of expression, and investment in the pursuit of knowledge have long enabled its preeminence in science and technology. Yet today we are ...

Science for democracy. Much needed. Powerful @science.org editorial by @gretchentg.bsky.social & @chenoweth.bsky.social

“The ability to tell the truth, especially when it does not suit any particularly partisan aims, is an essential prerequisite for a free society”

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

NEW: per multiple sources, apparently there may be punishment/retaliation coming for EPA employees who signed the Declaration of Dissent this week. People are starting to get letters putting them on administrative leave, seems like potentially targeted at those who signed with their names.

NO KING for SILVER SPRING · Mobilize **In America, we don’t put up with would-be kings.** NO KINGS is a national day of action and mass mobilization in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from President Trump and...

I'm attending No Kings's event, “NO KING for SILVER SPRING” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve...

YouTube video by The Weather & Climate Livestream Weather and climate science needs your help

ATTN!

200+ climate scientists & meteorologists (incl. RIFd NOAA staff & former NASA Goddard Institute scientists) will be live-streaming for 100 hrs—beginning today at 1 PM (ET) and running through June 1—about how DOGE is impacting weather & climate science.

Livestream @ wclivestream.com/watch

YouTube video by The Weather & Climate Livestream Weather and climate science needs your help

🎺🚨👀 WATCH TODAY: over 200 climate scientists and meteorologists (including NOAA and NASA veterans) are hosting a 100-hour livestream starting **today at 1 PM ET**, exploring how DOGE is impacting weather & climate science.

Trailer: youtu.be/-Go-RCg3AjI
Watch: wclivestream.com/watch

The attack on Medicaid to fund tax cuts for the rich is on the ropes… for the wrong reason Ron Johnson says the health care cuts just aren’t brutal enough

Wrote this on Friday about the dynamics that pushed the vote to this weekend. The core theory holds: the more cruel the bill gets to appease the maximum-cruelty Rs, the more public outcry can squeeze the this-could-cost-me-my-job Rs.

So, call. Protest. Make this the biggest story.

Institutionalizing politicized science The opening months of the Trump administration represent a historic disruption to America’s scientific agencies. Staff have been fired or reassigned in the name of efficiency, resulting in chaos. Gran...

Schedule F is a direct threat to science, democracy, and public health. It would gut civil service protections and politicize federal agencies. Read the Science letter by @donmoyn.bsky.social and @pamherd.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Charl Kleinhaus @charlkleinhaus Jews are untrustworthy and a dangerous group they are not Gods chosen like to believe they are . Where is the Temple that must be their concern leave us alone we all believe in the God of Abraham , Moses and Jacob ! I almost said something ugly … 🤐

WOW. The Trump admin said they will review social media and deny immigration benefits to people saying antisemitic claims. They're even trying to deport people with green cards on alleged claims of antisemitism.

Anyway, here's a tweet from an Afrikaner they flew here on Monday.

Gonna start a GoFundMe to finance the purchase of Russell Vought’s personal data, including his browser history.

Yep.

Dismantling NOAA Threatens the World’s Ability to Monitor Carbon Dioxide Levels The agency maintains the global backbone of measurements of CO2 and other gases, but these are at risk of being curtailed if the foreshadowed cuts to NOAA are realized.

The Trump administration has made clear it wishes to gut NOAA’s research enterprise, which is at the center of climate research globally. After 67 years of battling to keep the program funded and provide the data to other scientists around the world, the program faces its most dire threat ever.

Reposting with link to the toolkit.

bit.ly/FUNCommentTo...

While going about your Saturday routine, please take a minute to stop and think about this. #Altgov exists because regular employees of the federal government must FIGHT this administration to simply be allowed to do the work we were hired and funded to do for the American people. THIS IS INSANE.

Trump administration poised to accept 'palace in the sky' as a gift for Trump from Qatar: Sources President Trump poised to accept "palace in the sky" as a gift from Qatar: Sources

If you’ve ever wondered what the phrase “foreign emolument” means, here is the very definition:

As we point out in Science, the Trump proposal to convert NIH program officer jobs into political appointments (Schedule F) will mean, that instead of actual scientific experts, people like "Big Balls" will choose how to direct NIH funds. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A Frightening Moment to Fly

A 90-second failure of Newark Airport’s air-traffic safety systems, which blacked out communication to planes carrying thousands of passengers, has exposed a new level of crisis in U.S. air travel.

Listen to "The Daily."

The graphic says it all: We need your help to stop this Trump plan in its tracks. Please submit a comment ASAP and share widely. Link also in bio.

Join us and join in!

#RESIST
#FederalWorkersAgainstDOGE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, AFL-CIO, et al., Plaintiffs, V. DONALD J. TRUMP, et al., Defendants. Case No. 25-cv-03698-SI ORDER GRANTING TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER AND COMPELLING CERTAIN DISCOVERY PRODUCTION Re: Dkt. No. 37 The new presidential administration has made clear that it intends to change the way the federal government operates. An Executive Order issued on February 11, 2025 seeks to "commence[] a critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy" by "eliminating waste, bloat, and insularityLl Exec. Order No. 14210, 90 Fed. Reg. 9,669 (Feb. 11, 2025). It is the prerogative of presidents to pursue new policy priorities and to imprint their stamp on the federal government. But to make large-scale overhauls of federal agencies, any president must enlist the help of his co-equal branch and partner, the Congress. Federal courts should not micromanage the vast federal workforce, but courts must sometimes act to preserve the proper checks and balances between the three branches of government. As a group of conservative former government officials and advisors have written to the Court, "Unchecked presidential power is not what the Framers had in mind." Dkt. No. 69-1 at 1.

CONCLUSION The Court concludes where it began. The President has the authority to seek changes to executive branch agencies, but he must do so in lawful ways and, in the case of large-scale reorganizations, with the cooperation of the legislative branch. Many presidents have sought this cooperation before; many iterations of Congress have provided it. Nothing prevents the President from requesting this cooperation- as he did in his prior term of office. Indeed, the Court holds the President likely must request Congressional cooperation to order the changes he seeks, and thus issues a temporary restraining order to pause large-scale reductions in force in the meantime. A temporary restraining order is, by definition, temporary. The Court will not consider defendants' request for a stay of execution of the temporary restraining order, as doing so would render the exercise pointless. The Court must promptly proceed to consideration of a preliminary injunction. Plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction shall be filed no later than Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. (PDT) and shall not exceed 25 pages; defendants' opposition is due by Monday, May 19, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. (PDT) and shall not exceed 25 pages. The Court shall hold a preliminary injunction hearing in person on Thursday, May 22, 2025 at 10:30 a.m. IT IS SO ORDERED. Dated: May 9, 2025 Suren Slaton SUSAN ILLSTON United States District Judge

BREAKING: Federal judge issues a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from implementing widespread RIFs and other efforts to dismantle wide swaths of the federal government for the next two weeks, during which time a preliminary injunction motion can be briefed and argued.

I'll just take this moment to point out that the US Institute of Peace, just a few weeks ago, contained one of the finest concentrations of US expertise on India and Pakistan, and crisis management in South Asia.

Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund

Exclusive: National Science Foundation staff were told today that the agency’s 37 divisions—across all eight directorates—are being abolished and the number of programs within those divisions will be drastically reduced.

it's cool that the best possible outcome now, where these thugs and looters lose power forever and the ship gets righted as best as anyone can manage, is that all of our national data systems will have a years-long mini dark age

The Trump administration is carrying out a large-scale operation across the DC area targeting *restaurants,* clearly trying to round up people for working under the table without papers.

Not gang members. Not felons. Not criminals. Dishwashers. Busboys. Cooks. Waiters.

He swore an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States"

The Scary Implications of U.S. Government Attacks on Medical Journals A Trump-aligned prosecutor’s attack on medical journals is a threat to your health care—and the medical establishment should not comply

Since this was published yesterday, NPR reports JAMA joins NEJM on the list of journals that confirms they’ve been sent threatening letters by Trump’s DOJ, ominously referencing their tax-exempt status in a bid to compel regime-friendly editorial choices.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

Yes. We keep writing headlines that assign powers to the president that he does not have.

“There’s nothing illegal about it and if they want to make it illegal, they can come take me.”

This is the energy I am trying to encourage people to cultivate instead of “they’ll arrest you next.”

A map of the contiguous 48 states titled: Thirty National Weather Service offices are without a chief meteorologist Some of these offices issue forecasts for major population centers such as New York City, Houston and Cleveland. Several are prone to hurricanes and tornadoes. Callouts include: Upton, NY - Covers New York City and southern Connecticut Tampa, FL - Hard hit by Hurricane Milton in 2024 Houston, TX - All management positions vacant Paducah/Louisville/Jackson, KY - Nearly the whole state of Kentucky is covered by forecast areas without leadership

Donald Trump and Elon Musk have left Houston, Tampa, New York and other major cities without head meteorologists just ahead of what will be another busy hurricane season

This is straight-up life-threatening malpractice

(h/t @lisamjarvis.bsky.social )

www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/w...

Trump Administration’s Mass Layoffs of Federal Workers Are Illegal | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The massive reductions in force the Administration is seeking to carry out would so degrade agency capacities that they would effectively end congressionally mandated activities and violate statutory ...

This is excellent - a very good reminder that RIFs are not supposed to be a backdoor impoundment, and should not be used to undermine the functioning of statutory responsibilities. But the scale of Trump's RIFs is very clearly doing both.
www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

If a hurricane smashes your home into kindling but you’ve axed the meteorologist who could have labeled it “hurricane,” did it even really happen?