Rich Boone

Monarez refused to fire top CDC leaders, ‘rubber-stamp’ vaccine changes, confidante says The former CDC director was ousted late Wednesday after refusing to resign despite pressure from Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The newly ousted director of the CDC refused to fire top agency leaders or approve changes to vaccines from RFK Jr.’s hand-picked panel of advisers.

How Trump Is Fueling the Most Important Trend in American Politics A longtime political strategist weighs in on the X factor that could help Democrats in 2026 — and hurt them in 2028.

America is in the midst of a political realignment — accelerated by Trump. The biggest indicator of how someone will vote is now based on education.

Trump's playbook for capturing and crushing America's institutions In Trump's America, authority flows only from his consent.

Great Axios explainer on how Trump is organizing an Orban-style democratic dictatorship, with all power coming from and concentrated at the top.

www.axios.com/2025/08/27/t...

F.B.I. Plans to Lower Recruiting Standards, Alarming Agents

Yes. Collapsing all fed law enforcement into one undifferentiated, untrained, masked force.

"Agents said they worried the changes would transform the FBI from an investigative agency focused on national security into something more akin to a federal police force..."

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/u...

This is so important…

Sharon has been tracking license plates on cars driven by ICE agents, and she’s finding they don’t match the vehicles.

In other words, ICE is using secret, illegal tactics—just like we suspected.

REMINDER: the DMV is not a federal agency.
@governor.ca.gov
🧵

May this portion of the dissent by Ketanji Brown Jackson haunt John Roberts forever and be the final word on his tenure as Chief Justice.

White House Orders NASA to Destroy Important Satellite The White House has instructed NASA employees to destroy two major, climate change-focused satellite missions.

The White House has instructed NASA to terminate two major, climate change-focused satellite missions. They've been collecting widely-used data, providing both oil and gas companies and farmers with detailed information about the distribution of carbon dioxide and how it can affect crop health.

E.P.A. Is Said to Draft a Plan to End Its Ability to Fight Climate Change

Sad, but an utter rejection of science and with it, any desire to limit the damage that the burning of fossil fuels causes is where Republicanism has gone.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/c...

What now? It is time…

The worst piece of legislation since the Slave Fugitive Act passed 175 years ago rips a gash in the social safety net, delivers the largest transfer of wealth to the rich in memory, and supercharges a violent, reckless, and cruel deportation machine
open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

I am grieving the barbarism that is going to unfurl from all this. People are going to die. Livelihoods gone. All to feed a corrupt kleptocracy.

I see every day up close how different it is from the first time around. There are no guardrails. A disaster. I’m sorry we have to live through this.

So they’re basically laundering our federal science budget over to the for-profit prison and concentration camp industry?

NSF’s 2024 budget was $9.06 billion.

NASA: $24.875.

NIH: $47.7 billion.

Fund science, not cruelty.

We now have a concentration camp in Florida.

Stop pretending any of this is normal.

If you claim to be a good person and you're not outwardly opposing this regime, you're not a good person.

Be human.

Remember Collins and Murkowski could have stopped this. People who lose healthcare coverage will die because of them

A reminder…

I'm not a huge fan of citing the Founding Fathers (after all, they endorsed slavery and denied women the vote), but I think it's obvious that they'd be aghast to see today's Congress and Supreme Court surrender their power to an aspiring dictator.

Stripping birthright citizenship from people born in this country goes against rights guaranteed in the Constitution. We must stand against unconstitutional actions and stand up for the fundamental rights granted to people in the United States of America.

Dismantling of USAID is expected to kill more people than the bombs dropped on Japan during WW2. Now, the US is actively threatening access to vaccines at home and abroad. The potential death toll in just a few short months is staggering.

These are slow-moving massacres of choice.

Many Chicagoans likely to wait decades for dangerous lead pipes to be replaced The city with the most lead service lines in the country doesn’t plan to finish replacing them until 2076.

A 2024 study found two-thirds of Chicago children under 6 years old live in homes with tap water containing detectable levels of lead - the city with the most lead service lines in the country doesn’t plan to finish replacing them until 2076.
www.wbez.org/environment/...

As a physician, I can’t stay silent. $1T in Medicaid cuts, provider tax caps, and work requirements will cost lives. This isn’t reform. It’s a heist.

@elladisruptors.bsky.social
@meidastouch.com

WATCH HERE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0tg...

Why Are Federal Agents Wearing Masks? It’s a Threat to American Democracy Masked Federal Agents Are Undermining Trust—and Democracy

Federal and local law enforcement wearing masks is just plain unamerican. It’s a cowards move, and shows the fact that the kinds of deportations happening and the methods are, shameful and unpopular.

adamkinzinger.substack.com/p/why-are-fe...

Wonder why ICE workers are so horrible? Whistleblowers who speak out about illegal actions and inhumane conditions are being fired, then replaced with Trump loyalists who won’t ask questions. ICE leadership has seen over a dozen top-level resignations and firings since Trump took office,

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." 

-Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

Undecoded aviation observations from Fairbanks Airport Sunday late morning showing visibility being reported at 1.5 miles in smoke.

Visibility noon-time Sunday at Fairbanks Airport down to 1.5 miles in smoke. Air quality mostly in the "very unhealthy" category. Overall assessment: ugsome. #akwx #Smoke

Smoky sky from forest fires in Fairbanks, Alaska.

this is what Hakeem fucking Jeffries should be saying

A screenshot of a social media post from Donald J. Trump's account, @realDonaldTrump, with a red verification checkmark. The post, dated 6/21/25 at 7:46 PM, reads: "We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter." Below the text, the post shows 482 ReTruths and 1.54K Likes. The profile picture is an image of Donald Trump's face merged with an American flag.

Trump just announced the US just bombed Iran.

Dodgers commit $1M to families of immigrants after pushback from community groups The Dodgers announced that the organization will donate $1 million to immigrant families impacted by recent raids.

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced today that the organization will donate $1 million to immigrant families impacted by recent raids.

Why Iran’s Nuclear Program Cannot Be Dismantled from the Air OPINION — As Israel launches one of the most expansive covert-kinetic operations in recent memory against Iranian nuclear infrastructure, a critical question returns: can airpower—supported by advance...

This is so obvious that it shouldn't need to be quoted. But needs to be quoted nonetheless:

You CANNOT "eliminate" Iranian nuclear program through bombing.

You can only redouble Iranian commitment to developing nuclear-weapon capacity, at all costs.

www.thecipherbrief.com/iran-nuclear...