Kathy Cunningham, PhD

Just might be time to start calling this disinformation instead of misinformation 🤷🏻‍♀️

Must read: Mahmoud Khalil speaks out for the first time since his arrest by the Trump administration in an exclusive letter, dictated over the phone to his family, from ICE detention in Louisiana.

"The abuse of the word 'antisemitism' is meant to generate a sense of plausibility, confuse opposition, and create more space for the actual phenomenon of antisemitism. And this misdirection is an integral part of the effort to replace a constitutional order with an authoritarian one."

YouTube video by Gregory Mullins Claude Malhuret, Senator of the French Republic, speaks the truth about what is happening in the US

ICYMI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmDV...

I think about this a lot in my town where we have a fantastic rail trail, but no on-road infrastructure. The rail trail goes downtown, but not to the office park, the mall, or several schools. Imagine how much more powerful it could be when actually connected to potential destinations.

NEWS: The USAID official put on leave for disseminating two memos about Rubio's failure to push through life-saving foreign aid was in the process of writing a THIRD memo when fired. We obtained it. It's far more alarming than the first two.

www.thebulwark.com/p/what-a-wee...

Inside the Collapse at NIH Administration officials pressured NIH to avoid clear advice from the agency’s own lawyers to restart grant funding now.

By @katherinejwu.com

"The NIH... supported 99 percent of the drugs approved in the U.S. from 2010 to 2019. The agency has had a hand in “nearly all of our major medical breakthroughs over the past several decades,”

The NIH is in a struggle for its (and our) lives. This is existential to America:

Rubio terminated 5800 USAID contracts – more than 90% of its foreign aid programs – in defiance of the courts.

Here’s a list of just some of the lifesaving awards that were terminated. Nearly all were Congressionally mandated. They’ve saved millions of lives. 🧵

YouTube video by NowThis Impact Air Force General Shares Personal Experience as a Black Airman | NowThis

This is why the military's Chief of Staff was fired this weekend. (Fired by a guy whose relevant work experience was weekend anchor on Fox News). Listen to it, and then help rise to defend the America that produced this noble man.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=brQL...

Pritzker: If we don’t want to repeat history, then for god’s sake, in this moment, we better be strong enough to learn from it.

CDC 'disease detectors' among hundreds fired as Trump administration ramps up agency cuts Administration officials last week informed CDC leaders of plans to cut up to 10% of its workforce as it targeted federal probationary employees.

New: Last night, hundreds of CDC post-doc fellows were fired, including all in the group who call themselves the "disease detectors," and are the future of public health lab leaders. One senior official told me, "It is going to cripple public health for decades."

www.nbcnews.com/politics/dog...

Government’s wins are often invisible: Systems that avoid plane crashes; alliances that avert war; surveillance that prevent pandemics.

Government wins are often *the avoidance of loss.*

So how do we tell the story of the destruction of government? The story of future losses *not* averted?

"Where Law Ends Tyranny Begins"

Engraving on the exterior of the United States Department of Justice headquarters.

How much Elon Musk makes from the government a day: $8 million.

How much a senior on Social Security gets a day: $65

Guess which budget Musk and Trump want to cut?

US aid freeze claims first victims as oxygen supplies cut off Seventy-one-year-old woman dies after being sent home from USAID funded hospital. Others die after hospitals close in refugee camps

A 71-year-old woman has died after her oxygen supply was cut off when Trump announced his federal funding freeze.

Tell me you're redlining without telling me you're redlining

Wikipedia Prepares for 'Increase in Threats' to US Editors From Musk and His Allies The Wikimedia Foundation says it will likely roll out features previously used to protect editors in authoritarian countries more widely.

Wikipedia is rolling out anonymity features piloted in countries with authoritarian governments in the US & is making a change to not show editor IP addresses in response to a global "increase in threats" from Elon Musk, Heritage Foundation, and governments

www.404media.co/wikipedia-pr...

MAJOR BREAKING: Pope Francis has written a letter to US Bishops saying he’s following “major crisis” of “mass deportations;” takes on Vance saying “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the “Good Samaritan”

Imagine if university presidents instead of cowering, called up their faculty too speak in a round-the-clock marathon across the nation about how their research serves every American who has ever faced illness and disease.

Here are some facts about "facilities and administrative" (F&A) costs, what we in the business call "indirects" and what Musk is calling "overhead" as he tries to convince Americans with being ok with cutting billions on dollars from medical and public health research at universities & hospitals

1/

Whenever you hear someone sneer about scientific research that seems useless to them — “they’re studying the spit of lizards?!” — remind them that’s exactly how we got Ozempic.

globalnews.ca/news/9793403...

NIH In Your State - United For Medical Research Select a state on the map to see the impact of NIH funding across America.

This website shows you how many jobs NIH funding creates for your state along with the overall economic activity generated.
www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...

YouTube video by The Ezra Klein Show Don't Believe Him | The Ezra Klein Show

This is really good!

I'd encourage anyone who has been feeling overwhelmed, scared, and defeated by what's been happening lately to watch this latest video by Ezra Klein.

It explains very well what is happening, how to look at it, and gives you some basic tools for handling news as we go forward.

Mind-boggling wreckage. Among the lifesaving programs now disrupted by Elon’s attack on @USAID: phase 1 trials for a possible HIV vaccine.

Of course it’s a coup Miss the obvious, lose your republic

Of course it’s a coup. Miss the obvious, lose your republic.
open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

Trump’s Diversion Tactics Stay Focused on the Hostile Takeover of the U.S. Government

As infuriating and outrageous as Trump’s latest comments on annexing Gaza are, he is a master of distraction. He deliberately throws out incendiary statements, knowing they will dominate the headlines and divert attention from his dangerous actions at play—in this case, a power grab.

Evening Rush Hour by Bike in Utrecht This week, I’d like to share a video of the evening rush hour in the dark. We’re still in the darker months of the year here in the Netherlands. It will be a while before we can cycle home from work in daylight again. January, in particular, was very gloomy, with frequent mist that often made filming impossible. I even attempted to record a ride in the fog, but my camera lens literally fogged up.

Even in the dark and cold, cycling in Utrecht (NL) never stops. For my new post I filmed the evening rush hour at a busy intersection—hundreds of cyclists, smooth interactions, and barely a car in sight. Plus, an unexpected moment… Watch the video!

Exclusive: how NSF is scouring research grants for violations of Trump’s orders The US National Science Foundation has unfrozen grant funding, but it continues to scrutinize research projects, sowing turmoil.

NSF is still freezing grants and reviewing for potential clashes with trumps edicts: terms such as“broadening participation” language, foreign assistance, climate science, domestic energy” all flagged. This is insane, career wrecking and damaging for quality science 😡🧪

list of banned keywords

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.