John Chodera

Cornyn Says F.B.I. Will Help Find Texas Lawmakers Who Fled State

“Senator John Cornyn said on Thursday that the F.B.I. had agreed to his request to help track down dozens of Democratic Texas state lawmakers who left the state to prevent a vote on a redistricting plan.”

Email from the "PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE" to Kate Starbird asking for all emails from Jan 1 2021 through July 30 2025 with any of the following keywords: "diversity and inclusion" "DEIA" "DEI" "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging" "DEIB" "gender identity" "racial preference" "ESG" "organizational equity" "intersectionality" "anti-racism" "critical race theory" "LGBTQ+" "transgender" "cisgender" "gender ideology" "white privilege" "privilege walk" "cultural humility" "equity audit" "restorative justice" "racial equity" "implicit bias" "microaggressions" "inclusive pedagogy" "identity-based oppression" "systems of oppression" "queer" "non-binary" "sexuality" “Trump” “fascist”

If anyone is curious about the current list of search terms being used by right wing activist organizations to harass university professors, here's a public records request I received today from Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation. Not intimidating or meant to curtail by my speech at all, right?

Rare disease patients caught in Trump crackdown on foreign grant awards Rare disease research has been caught up in a Trump administration crackdown on NIH grants being used to support international collaborations

Powerful story in STAT about disruptions in rare disease research.

www.statnews.com/2025/08/06/n...

1/3

I’m Captain Ahab and I Say We Must Never Transition Away from a Whale-Based Energy Industry When I heard that the globalist oligarchs and fat cats in the Washington marshland were conspiring to invest in alternative, non-whale-based energy...

"Reducing our dependence on whales as an energy source will send us sliding down the slippery, spermaceti-lubricated slope to socialism. If we give up whaling, what will those lackwits come for next? Will I have to surrender my peg leg for a titanium prosthetic?"

Federal mRNA funding cut is 'most dangerous public health decision' ever, expert says Many public health experts and scientists say they are stunned by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s decision to cancel nearly half a billion dollars in federal funding for future vaccine develop...

It’s mind boggling how many additional people this administration is killing.

“I have been in this business for over 50 years on the front lines of public health…And I can say unequivocally that this was the most dangerous public health decision I have ever seen made by a government body.”

SCOOP: Leaked drafts of the State Dept's annual human rights reports on El Salvador, Israel & Russia show the Trump admin is planning to eliminate or downplay accounts of prisoner abuse, corruption & LGBTQ discrimination www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

The student newspaper.
This fell. To the student. Newspaper.

🧪A pocket rescission is a process through which congress is bypassed to cancel funding, very close to the end of the fiscal year. This might be on the horizon for the NIH, brought to you by Russel Vought.

Before it was "waste, fraud, abuse"
Then it was "antisemitism"

thehill.com/business/bud...

For no particular reason, I watched "Judgement at Nuremberg" from 1961.

It is a powerful and thought-provoking movie about German judges tried for their actions in Nazi Germany.

Health secretary RFK Jr. shuts door on U.S. investment in mRNA vaccine research Vaccine experts and people steeped in pandemic preparedness expressed horror at the news that RFK Jr. has shut the door in U.S. investment in mRNA vaccine research.

Pandemic preparedness in the US has been leveled a crippling blow with the cancellation of multiple #BARDA contracts to help develop mRNA vaccines. No other vaccine platform produces vaccine so quickly; without mRNA, Americans will have a long wait for pandemic vax. www.statnews.com/2025/08/05/m...

Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts

I truly cannot emphasize enough how this is straight up Lysenkoism.

Because of the incredible work of our nation’s scientists, we have our finger tips on the closest thing humanity has ever come to “a cure for cancer”, but brainworm over here doesn’t believe in it.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/h...

Today we learned Andrew Cuomo is directly coordinating with Donald Trump, even as this President sends masked agents to rip our neighbors off the streets and guts the social services so many New Yorkers rely on.

It’s disqualifying and a betrayal of our city.

RFK Jr. cuts $500 million in mRNA vaccine contracts, dealing major blow to promising area of research The cuts add to mounting evidence that Kennedy is pursuing an aggressive anti-vaccine agenda.

We need a word for someone who is beyond perverse, sadistic, sociopathic. Blocking mRNA vaccine research means that you or someone you love will die of something you could have avoided or survived. He is intentionally killing people.

RFK continues to prove he’s a threat to the health and well-being of every American citizen.

He must resign or be fired. Immediately.

The president has been briefed by Mark Penn, a pollster who has worked for Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Andrew Stein, a former New York City Council president and decades-long friend of Mr. Trump, on a range of polling that showed Mr. Cuomo could still be competitive as an independent candidate. Both men have pushed Mr. Cuomo as the best candidate despite his loss in the Democratic primary, including in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. One of Mr. Penn’s firms did extensive work for a pro-Cuomo super PAC in the primary. And in a previously undisclosed call in recent weeks, Mr. Trump spoke about the race directly with Mr. Cuomo, an old associate and foil, according to three people briefed on the call, who were not authorized to discuss it.

Bombshell report from The New York Times reveals that President Donald Trump spoke directly to Andrew Cuomo about how to stop Zohran Mamdani from becoming NYC mayor. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/n...

50501 — 50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement Join the movement to uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach. 50 protests, 50 states, 1 day: #50501.

Join us in the resistance.

Next nationwide protest: September 1st — Workers Over Billionaires.

Learn more at fiftyfifty.one.

How Many Times Can Science Funding Be Canceled? Whether or not Congress cuts NIH’s budget, the Trump administration has devastated its ability to operate.

"In the United States, government agencies need Congress to fund them, but the executive branch still runs them. The Trump administration is no longer allowing the NIH to function as an agency that can handle a $47 billion budget."
By @katherinejwu.com
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Rachel @maddow.msnbc.com last night: "We do now live in a country that has an authoritarian leader in charge. We have a consolidating dictatorship in our country."

We’ve discovered a literal miracle with almost unlimited potential and it’s being scrapped for *no reason whatsoever*. This isn’t even nihilism, it’s outright worship of death and human suffering.

What. The. Fuck.

Trump on Texas redistricting: ‘We are entitled to five more seats’ Democrats are trying to block the redraw in the state by denying the state legislature a quorum.

Authoritarian mindset

www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

This would more or less halt the ability of scientists and academics from visiting the US to give talks, attend meetings and workshops, collaborate with peers on research and I think that is the primary point. 🧪

New Research Shows the HPV Cancer Vaccine Saves Lives Learn why MSK recommends that children be vaccinated against HPV.

The number of cervical cancer cases and deaths among American women dropped after the HPV vaccine was introduced in 2006

www.mskcc.org/news/new-res...

A massive regressive national sales tax imposed upon every American by a president with no constitutional authority to impose a national sales tax. The reason why the founders gave this power to Congress is because this would never pass any Congress- even this one.

The sudden shift from “the Internet isn’t real life” to “the Internet is real life and everything else is irrelevant” over the last decade or so has been absolutely astounding to witness.

Thanks, I hate it.

Here is a pretty picture of what air in American cities used to look like before the EPA

Forged signatures listed on New York City mayor’s re-election campaign petition – report More than 50 signatures were revealed to be fraudulent on Eric Adams’ petition to run as an independent in election

This dude is like constitutionally incapable of not being corrupt lol. Maybe if he doesn’t lie enough times every day he turns back into a pumpkin or whatever

Drought in Utah.

Nothing says climate policy like skipping brunch and hoping the sky notices.

PBS: Public Broadcasting Service Watch full episodes of your favorite PBS dramas, find in-depth news analysis and explore documentaries on history, science, art and more!

For $5/month or $60/yr you get access to PBS Passport and the entire Masterpiece library plus Great Performances, etc. Defunded but not defeated. www.pbs.org/passport/lea...