I am glad AAUP endorsed Abdul Sayed. And I will never ever understand how some of my colleagues, Professors, continue to insist that education, the pursuit of KNOWLEDGE, is apolitical as cops are called to our campuses and hedge funds run our schools. Silence has not, will not ever, protect you.

RFK Jr.: “You probably don’t understand this as you’re not a scientist.” Dana Bash: “You’re not a scientist either.”

Beyond the lives lost for no reason and the other harms caused by the Iran War of choice, ships trapped near the Strait of Hormuz have hulls filling with invasive marine algae, microbes & invertebrates that may pose more ecological & economic damage as ships depart link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Closure of the Strait of Hormuz may trigger a bioinvasion super-spreader event - Biological Invasions

The ongoing conflicts in the Middle East are causing substantial humanitarian, economic, and geopolitical impacts and disrupting global trade. While the human and economic effects remain the focus of ...

link.springer.com

Internal documents show ICE's DNA collection has skyrocketed in the second Trump administration. Now hundreds of thousands of people never convicted of a crime are in an FBI criminal database forever. www.wired.com/story/ice-dn...

ICE Collected Nearly 1 Million People’s DNA Last Year—Including Young Children

Internal documents show ICE's DNA collection has skyrocketed in the second Trump administration. Now hundreds of thousands of people never convicted of a crime are in an FBI criminal database forever.

wired.com

Beyond the awfulness, it’s rich that this corporate supporter of MAGA deregulation ALSO used forced labor & the Administration claims that new tariffs are related to use of forced labor by companies from the respective countries. Forced labor for me but not for thee futurism.com/science-ener...

The Diarrhea Lettuce Company Has Been Linked to Forced Labor

The lettuce-producing Taylor Farms was linked to the widespread use of prison labor before its involvement in a cyclospora outbreak.

futurism.com

Good piece about the biomedical issues with the military’s testosterone testing plan + hypocrisy of pushing trans folks out of military service because need for regular injections makes them “non-deployable” but cis men who are found to have “low T” would get shots shows.acast.com/64e5149d0405...

Pete's War on Low T | The House of Pod

shows.acast.com

The DC museums filled with national treasures are preparing for the Grand Prix by “bracing for potential damage from vibrations. At the National Gallery … certain artworks have already been moved away from the side of the building facing the racetrack” #FreeDC newrepublic.com/article/2137...

Why Trump’s 250 Grand Prix Is a Really Bad Idea

It isn’t smart to host an Indy 500 race that roars past six museums and a sculpture garden.

newrepublic.com

About Sen. Rick Scott … “ During a 2000 civil deposition in a lawsuit related to the healthcare firm Columbia/HCA, of which he was chief executive until 1997, he pleaded the Fifth at least 55 times, using phraseology almost identical to Fauci's.” www.yahoo.com/news/politic...

Hiltzik: Senate Republicans try to smear Fauci over COVID, but he refuses to play their game

Dr. Anthony Fauci deprived Rand Paul of a chance to hold a show trial over COVID, columnist Michael Hiltzik writes.

yahoo.com

Just want to drop this bit of nativist paranoia about Italians here. Check out the labels.

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · last wk.

In recent weeks, congressmen like Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Rep. Michael Rulli (R-OH) have leveled racist attacks against immigrant communities in their districts. As I note in CAMPAIGN TRAILS, a century ago those same racist attacks were being made against people named Emmer and Rulli.

I challenge Rep. Andy Ogles to list 100 of his relatives and friends and then point out the one whose death wouldn't matter.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.

Rep. Ogles: "Look, I don't want to play down the effects of the virus, but at the end of the day it had a roughly 1 percent mortality rate. We coulda gotten through this."

man I will just never get over the fact that the collective response to the pandemic, and an absolutely miraculous vaccine development, was to destroy public health in this country and smear everyone involved I generally take a positive view of humanity overall but it's so depressing

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.

Moreno to Fauci: "Who the fuck did you think you were?"

This whole exercise isn't about COVID-19 or Gain of Function research...this is about Congress putting a retired public servant through the wringer because they want to spook scientists. This is all a part of a plan to chill scientists from taking evidence-based and principled stands against govt.

this is absolutely excellent and essential, clear, as hopeful as it is urgent, and we should all demand that — to win our votes, and a future for our species — McKibben’s message here becomes core to the platform of every person in, or running for, public office: energy from heaven not from hell

Bill McKibben@billmckibben.bsky.social · last wk.

So, I finally did a TED talk, and it got released today. I seem to have been quite intense, but I'm grateful they left in my Trump joke. www.ted.com/talks/bill_m...

It's worth noting that Putin/Russia are a major source of antivax propaganda, as @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social & I document in #ScienceUnderSiege (bookshop.org/p/books/scie...)

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.

Ron Johnson claims the the "injection injured" are committing mass suicide

4 yrs ago, I wrote this book & warned of what was to come w/ICE & Border Patrol. It talks about the ramming of cars, rape culture, the word tonk, the coverup teams etc. I made my bed when I joined Border Patrol served for 6 yrs. I’ve been lying in that bed, telling the truth for over a decade now.

This is a 1938-level story from Nazi Germany

Gabe Ortíz@tusk81.bsky.social · last wk.

“‘Should I keep paying my mortgage?’ Haitian families confront impossible choices around #TPS. As Haitian TPS nears an end, families are asking who will care for their children, whether to sell their homes and whether they can survive what comes next.” haitiantimes.com/2026/07/27/h...

Under a government that claims to want increased fertility … 19thnews.org/2026/07/mate...

"Also among those detained was a Ugandan woman in a wheelchair who has sickle cell anemia and an active asylum application, according to her lawyer." “It’s not people with criminal records” being targeted, Mr. Shamieh said. “You are talking about people with legitimate pending applications.”

Yonette Joseph@sugarcane99.bsky.social · last wk.

ICE agents have begun arresting foreign citizens with expired U.S. visas as they travel through airports, including spouses of Americans, according to documents obtained by The NYT and interviews with immigration lawyers — opening up a new pool of possible deportees www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...

This can’t be reformed. It’s not a training issue. The agents who murdered Pretti and Good, and who shot Sosa-Celis have been agents for more than 8 years. I’ll be voting for candidates who support dismantling DHS and abolishing ICE.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · last wk.

"Tonk" is a Border Patrol slur that refers to the sound a metal flashlight makes when used to beat a migrant in the head. And that's the word that Border Patrol agents under the direct command of Greg Bovino were using when bragging about their arrests in Los Angeles last year.

My Haitian friend was just fired from his job. "They said I don't have a legal status now." This is likely happening to hundreds of thousands of people across this country today. Sick.

New paper @pnas.org "Inoculation Against Climate Doom"-we show in a social media simulator that cognitive inoculation improves discernment of doom stories across the political aisle & shifts behavior, incl less sharing of doom. Doom also predicts less climate action. 👉 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I suffered through Kratsios' answer to Science: the Endless Frontier. The NYT summary is good, but there's more to it. And I should say that I welcome improvements to the scientific enterprise (which is why I'm participating in @alondra.bsky.social and Jenny Reardon's Public's Science project). 🧵

Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities (Gift Article)

Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.

nytimes.com

When Elon Musk says "zero" children died in Africa from his DOGE cuts, he really means zero children died who are *worthy of any concern.* It's vile coded signaling to his global fascist audience. From me and @polphilpod.bsky.social, a deep dive into Musk's fascism: newrepublic.com/article/2135...

The Real Reason Elon Musk Keeps Insisting DOGE Cuts Killed “Zero” Kids

In his explosive interview with The Economist, the SpaceX billionaire inadvertently revealed something darker about his true vision for the future—and about his affinities with global fascism.

newrepublic.com

🧵 This piece is really important, because it gets to something that is a prerequisite for and recurring feature of atrocities worldwide: selective empathy. Most people assume that when atrocities happen, it’s bc everyone involved is a sociopath. Some are. But not all. 1/

Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · last wk.

When Elon Musk says "zero" children died in Africa from his DOGE cuts, he really means zero children died who are *worthy of any concern.* It's vile coded signaling to his global fascist audience. From me and @polphilpod.bsky.social, a deep dive into Musk's fascism: newrepublic.com/article/2135...

I was angry that the Israeli govt was so quick to blame Mamdani for an unrelated antisemitic stabbing last week - even as they absolved Trump of responsibility for the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, for which he was much more directly culpable. So I wrote about it. forward.com/opinion/8409...

Israel's government doesn't want to protect American Jews. It wants to use us.

Leaders’ silence when the Tree of Life massacre followed Trump’s anti-immigration tirades speaks volumes about the current campaign to tie Mamdani to a violent attack.

forward.com

Good grief, this hits home.

Legal experts agree: It's time for Supreme Court term limits. Staggered 18-year terms would ensure regular turnover on the bench while preserving judicial independence.

“The shabby emptiness … is not what the Kennedy Center was. For more than half a century it was a grand democratic project, she tells them, bringing the beauty and inspiration of the arts to everyone.” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/u...

Trump Gutted the Kennedy Center. A Tour Guide Wants You to See It Anyway. (Gift Article)

In a dogged demonstration of love for a Washington institution, Sandy Weiswasser is among a few dozen volunteers still showing dwindling visitors a hollowed-out building.

nytimes.com

“The food delivery platform backed legislation that would strip Washington, D.C., residents of power over their own taxes.” #FreeDC www.ms.now/opinion/door...

Opinion | DoorDash is selling out D.C. over a 20-cent delivery tax

The food delivery platform backed legislation that would strip Washington, D.C., residents of power over their own taxes.

ms.now

Mitch McConnell hasn’t been seen or heard from in 6 weeks(!) in the hospital. Yet he still has a job, still getting paid, and getting unlimited world class healthcare. The man who voted against a living wage, against universal healthcare, and against guaranteed paid leave—is now getting all three.