Bill Vanderburgh

Texas State Rep. James Talarico @jamestalarico.bsky.social criticizes Christian nationalism as being about the worship of power. "It is incumbent upon believers, upon Christians and people of other faith backgrounds to speak out against this perversion of faith and this subversion of our democracy."

Screenshot of a figure comparing average life expectancy in the United States to comparable countries. The graph shows a steep decline during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Between 1920 and 2020, the average human life span doubled because of the development & widespread use of vaccines, germ theory, & antibiotics.
www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/m...
But life expectancy is declining in the USA: www.npr.org/sections/hea... If vaccine use drops further, it will get worse.

“Neo-liberal capitalism is where the market has whipped the state & is in control of the state by way of debt & by way of control of politicians. And we have been in that for 40 years with disastrous consequences. And if we don’t get out of it, we’re going into a mass extinction event & mass chaos.”

Please follow me on Substack. Here's my latest little piece.

#philosophy
#religion
#government
#politics
#separationofchurchandstate
#USConstitution
#freedomofreligion
#christiannationalism

—Kim Stanley Robinson, interviewed on Wisdom at Work podcast.

t.co/esDtFzch8n

“Neo-liberal capitalism is where the market has whipped the state & is in control of the state by way of debt & by way of control of politicians. And we have been in that for 40 years with disastrous consequences. And if we don’t get out of it, we’re going into a mass extinction event & mass chaos.”

Please follow me on Substack. Here's my latest little piece.

#philosophy
#religion
#government
#politics
#separationofchurchandstate
#USConstitution
#freedomofreligion
#christiannationalism

I'm hearing reports that President Trump's erratic mental state and decaying physical condition are both being driven by continued discussion of the Jeffrey Epstein cover-up, so please, if you care about this man's health and well-being, please, do not mention the Epstein stuff anymore, please.

Public/Religion Never the twain should meet.

open.substack.com/pub/billvand...

FFRF slams Trump for ridiculing atheists and advancing religious agenda at CEO lunch FFRF strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s latest effort to entangle religion and government through a White House event rewarding wealthy business leaders for promoting religion and aligning the...

DJT: “Is there an atheist in the room?… I wouldn’t want to raise my hand if I were. You’d be in big trouble.”

I’m raising my hand. I am an atheist. 🤚

Church/state separation is in tatters as Christian Nationalists continue to impose their extremist agenda on the country.

ffrf.org/news/release...

warning lights flashing like the control board at chernobyl at this point

This is literally what the American Revolution was fought to overcome. The Speaker of the House is making a divine right of kings argument for tyranny.

FFRF slams Trump for ridiculing atheists and advancing religious agenda at CEO lunch FFRF strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s latest effort to entangle religion and government through a White House event rewarding wealthy business leaders for promoting religion and aligning the...

DJT: “Is there an atheist in the room?… I wouldn’t want to raise my hand if I were. You’d be in big trouble.”

I’m raising my hand. I am an atheist. 🤚

Church/state separation is in tatters as Christian Nationalists continue to impose their extremist agenda on the country.

ffrf.org/news/release...

Brainy Quote is full of shit. That’s Aristotle, not Durant.

What is consciousness? What are the challenges of studying it scientifically? Can we ‘dissolve’ them? @anilseth.bsky.social gives us some answers in this new #INMINDS interview for @cienciacog.bsky.social about *problems of consciousness (and how to handle them)*! www.cienciacognitiva.org?p=2549

The GOP’s Budget Bill and Its Federal Funding Cuts Will Harm Bucks County Students - Bucks County Beacon “It is heartbreaking to see Congress embrace a budget bill that strips meals and health care away from children and families to fund massive tax breaks for the super wealthy and an unaccountable priva...

“It is heartbreaking to see Congress embrace a budget bill that strips meals & health care away from children & families to fund massive tax breaks for the super wealthy & an unaccountable private school voucher program,” said PSEA President Aaron Chapin. This Bill Will Harm Bucks County Students

Wisconsin Supreme Court reminds us all why judicial elections matter As abortion-rights wins feel few and far between, it’s great to see the Wisconsin Supreme Court strike down the state’s 176-year-old abortion ban. Getting there has been a long process, one that ...

Conservatives tried to resurrect an 1849 abortion ban in Wisconsin. Today, it was buried by a 4–3 state Supreme Court ruling. The difference? Democratic victories in key court races.

www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...

3rd interstellar object discovered? Maybe. There's a lot of buzz right now in the Astro community. More observations should come in tonight to confirm if A11pI3Z is from beyond the solar system.

This is absurd. Murkowski was the deciding vote. All the GOPers who voted to strip millions of their health coverage & reduce food assistance to millions of kids to give deficit-expanding tax cuts to the wealthy are each responsible for this. But...Murkowski is a little bit more responsible.

Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.

So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...

This is a crucial time for people to call their reps (esp in red districts) and voice their unhappiness with the reconciliation bill.
Over the last 24 hours, I've gotten 8 Dem texts, often referencing the bill, but all asking for money but not action.

A screenshot of a tweet that reads “GOP negotiators looking at expanding the enhanced FMAP rate to at least three more states in addition to Alaska and Hawaii in order to pass muster with parliamentarian. Enhanced FMAP would be based on state population density and include North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. Big effort being made to woo Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski.”

Republicans are about to decimate Medicaid across the country and their top two Senate leaders are trying to get their states exempted from the cuts at the 11th hour.

If you think ICE is bad now, just wait till they hire 10,000 more agents and open more concentration camps.

This is obscene. Do the people really want this? I doubt it.

Abortion and Religious Freedom — Separating Church and State: Public Philosophy in Defense of Democracy What really makes abortion restrictions immoral is that they violate vital freedoms including freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. The existence of degrees of im/permissibility of killing m...

Christian nationalists' whole schtick is imposing their narrow, extremist, religious "morality" on everyone else.

I argue here that since no one can prove any metaphysical or religious story, we must let people decide matters of conscience for themselves: www.thedisunion.com/blog/abortio...

The National Science Foundation’s budget for FY24 was $9.06 billion. ICE will get many times more to terrorize people on the US.

Immediately following the fall of Roe v. Wade, Republican lawmakers in red states began discussing the possibility of arresting women who have abortions, a proposition prominent Christian far-right leaders endorse. Building on research linking Christian nationalism and racial prejudice with both anti-abortion sentiment and authoritarian punitiveness, we propose that Americans’ support for arresting women who have abortions reflects not only staunch anti-abortion sentiment but also a desire for a social order that controls sexual deviance and racial minorities, privileging traditionalist Christian identity and White Americans. We use data from an original nationally representative survey including measures of anti-abortion sentiment and identity, a novel measure of Christian nationalism, and belief in White nationalism (“true Americans” are White). In the main effects, Christian nationalism and White nationalism are among the strongest predictors of support for arresting women who have abortions, second only to anti-abortion views. Moderation tests show these forces work in combination: support is strongest among Americans who endorse both Christian nationalism and warmer feelings toward White nationalism. Ancillary analyses show these results are not explained by sexism. Findings suggest support for punitive abortion policies stems from a broader desire to preserve a social order where Christianity and Whiteness maintain supremacy.

🧵 Calls to arrest women who have abortions are getting louder on the Christian right. In our new FREE study in @socprobsjournal.bsky.social (led by rising star Darci Schmidgall) we find Christian nationalism & white nationalism work in combination to support that agenda. 1/5
doi.org/10.1093/socp...

Gotta admit that Republicans on the verge passing the Defund Rural America Especially The Hospitals Act of 2025 is in fact a good time for the "rural whites vote Republicans for the material benefits" pundit to peace out

I know I'm not the first person or even the millionth person to point this out; it's not even the first time *I* have said it, but this is what actual First Amendment violations look like and the fact that none of the supposed free speech warriors are saying anything about it tells us everything.

Busting the top 5 myths about the Big Bang For over 50 years, it’s been the scientifically accepted theory describing the origin of the Universe. It’s time we all learned its truths.

Busting the top 5 myths about the Big Bang

There are lots of arguments against the Big Bang, and many proclamations that it's already been disproven.

But those are mostly based on an incorrect depiction of what the Big Bang even is.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro #physics #bigbang