Patrick Randall

To have this paper appear the same day that RFK Jr is canceling all mRNA vaccine funding is further indication that irony is not dead, even though we might all be soon.

@DHSgov on X: We’re taking father/son bonding to a whole new level. JOIN.ICE.GOV 06 Aug 25 [Young man and old man in ICE gear]

Wehrschiessen des Deutschen Volkes 1944 [Young man and old man sharing a rifle]

Oh look, ICE is copying literal Nazi recruiting propaganda again. The poster on the right is for the Volkssturm, the Nazi militia of older men and boys established during the final months of World War II.

I just received a JIT for one from October…whatever that ultimately means…

A tree lies on an enormously long couch, talking to its therapist. "I fell in the forest just as some hikers were passing by. I know they "heard" me fall, but I don't feel they really "listened" to me fall."

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com

I’ve sat on numerous faculty searches looking at a stack of outstanding candidates. His paper retractions alone would have landed him in the bin.

An eloquent image:

Setting aside the content under the tarp for a moment, teens were asked to make art expressing what it is like to be a teen, and the end result was a mural wrapped in a tarp by adults.

I bet a lot of teens would find this expressive of their experience.

LHSC names 5 former executives in $60M fraud lawsuits LHSC contends a former executive masterminded a "fraudulent scheme" and he and others used funds they obtained to buy properties

Almost every major university financial fraud is done by administrators...yet note the difference between the comically instrusive surveillance and accountability for faculty over every dollar vs the complete lack of oversight for management spending (or stealing).

lfpress.com/news/local-n...

Well I did bring this to another IC director earlier this week but they didn’t have much to say other than “meh, politics ya know?”

I mean, I’ve been talking about this to anyone who would listen IRL, no one particularly cares about my opinions on here though (or IRL for that matter 😂)

The final score is in from the CBO....

What a shitty piece of legislation.

#BookSky

They are putting this in place here except we’re looking at 25% cuts to start with increases from there for every additional % you aren’t meeting.

E.P.A. Says It Will Eliminate Its Scientific Research Arm

Terrible Friday news dump.The wealth of expertise. The decades of scientific progress. The emerging and urgent challenges we were focused on tackling. It is all so short-sided and cruel. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/c...

View of the WGBH building in Boston with an electronic marquee reading “Local. Trusted. Defunded.”

WGBH building in Boston today

WGA statement on Paramount’s decision to cancel the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Daniel Lawson @DanielLaw1998: Disabled parking should only be valid during business hours 9 to 5, Monday to Friday. I cannot see any reason why people with genuine disabilities would be out beyond these times. Jennifer Lee Rosman @JenLRossman: We’re disabled, Daniel, we’re not werewolves

7 years later and I still whisper, “We’re disabled, Daniel, not werewolves” to myself like a sacred mantra whenever I see a non-disabled person discover ableism like it’s the latest hipster indie band.

A little concerned about the nightmare creature that obviously escaped into my house during the day

This Democrat Won’t Let Go of the Jeffrey Epstein Case, Either

New bombshell from my investigators on Epstein's sex trafficking operation: the Trump administration has an Epstein file detailing 4,725 wire transfers and almost $1.1 billion flowing through just one of his banks. Hundreds of millions more through others.

Maurene Comey, daughter of James Comey, is fired from her job as a federal prosecutor Comey, who had worked in the U.S. attorney’s office for nearly a decade, prosecuted both Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

BREAKING: Trump's Justice Department just fired one of the Epstein prosecutors. www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

“Let me repeat that: Trump has sicced a billionaire wrestling promoter, currently fighting allegations she overlooked sexual abuse of boys, who has absolutely no expertise on education, on school children.”

No way this ends poorly…

This is why it's exhausting to be told political attacks on science are a failure of sci comm or any aspect of scientists' behavior. It has nothing to do with science or scientists. It's an entirely top-down right wing elite program, but sci policy is intangible and doesn't motivate voter behavior.

Homan tries to walk his words back: "I want to be clear because my words were taken out of context. Physical description cannot be the sole reason to detain and question somebody. That can't be the sole reason to raise reasonable suspicion. It's a myriad of factors."

Oh, now that it affects white scientists we are super concerned The NYT published an article titled “The Surprising Scientists Hit by Trump’s D.E.I. Cuts” by Kate Zernike. The subhead reads: “The N.I.H. has terminated hundreds of diversity gra…

#ICYMI, my disgust with the NYT is once again refreshed.

Oh, now that it affects white scientists we are super concerned drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/07/10/o...

This is exactly what I would have expected. It’s like when your standing over someone’s shoulder trying to show them how to do something on a computer only to say “hey, let me drive for a minute” except the other person is a computer. You’re trying to teach a computer….to use a computer.

Also not sure why that link is attached.

That’s an important distinction. It just has me thinking this is more about sending a message that affects the psychology of decision making from council to program to SROs to reviewers saying that this work is no longer a priority. You’ve been in this game a long time, am I crazy to think that?

For all of our sakes, I hope you’re right but I don’t put it passed this administration to just do whatever they want