This is a wildly prescient story about Chicago's proto-RFK Jr., in charge of public health during the Spanish Flu. He thought beer killed malaria and that bathing could kill you. He had a feud with an actual TB doctor, who insisted bathing is good. He bullied the TB doctor until he killed himself.

Huge deal. Good news

Carolyn Fiddler@cfidd.bsky.social · 16h ago

Done and dusted. Kris Kobach, Leonard Leo, and other anti-abortion, anti-public school funding conservatives in Kansas who tried to remake the state Supreme Court in their image have LOST.

In 2024 before the election, I was talking to a former senior HHS/NIH official. They said they weren’t *that* worried about a second Trump admin (wrong in retrospect), but said (paraphrase): “If they clean out and replace the Institute directors, well, THAT will be a disaster.” That’s 👇👇 this. 🧵

A lab-leak proponent is in line for Fauci’s old job

Steven Quay is in final vetting to run the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

politico.com

There is no way that the Trump DOJ will prosecute Blanche for this alleged crime, but if either house of Congress switches hands, Congressional inherent contempt could be used to prosecute and punish Blanche—in just a few months from now.

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · yesterday

BREAKING: Sen. Dick Durbin accuses Todd Blanche of lying under oath. He says Blanche told him in his office — with witnesses — that the slush fund was a mistake. In his confirmation hearing, Blanche denied that remark.

Though this an inside-baseball report, there are a lot of extremely sharp recommendations in here that apply to any form of mobilizing people to make the world better. Give the list a read.

Adam Bonica@adambonica.bsky.social · 2d ago

His #1 near-term recommendation: convene committee leaders and use the DNC's authority to draft a fundraising code of conduct for candidates and committees. Not in the DNC release.

This is a great set of proposals for congressional reform: wethedoers.org/how-to-fix-c...

How to Fix Congress

In our last post, we described the two primary drivers of Congressional dysfunction: over-centralization of decision-making, and lack of capacity.  Party leaders have monopolized the procedural tools ...

wethedoers.org

Well-put

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 2d ago

Many pundits say "we controlled for district & candidate characteristics, and find that moderates do better." This is like controlling for blood pressure & BMI, and then finding that "people who go to the hospital are more likely to die." This is biased analysis. Shoutout to causal inference.

Updated our 'Do Moderates Do Better?' paper When you analyze the question rigorously (and don't assume correlation is causation), you find that moderates & non-moderates perform ~equally well in the Trump era Love working with @adambonica.bsky.social

“It is imperative that our academic institutions find a way to achieve bipartisan support…” [by compromising with Trumpism] 🤮In DC you hear this all the time—people like the AAU leaders actually believe that compromise can work. It is the reason univs are not fighting.

Luke Herrine@lookheron.bsky.social · 2d ago

This is the strategy: portray the increasingly brazen conservative attack on independent unis as a set of reasonable and majoritarian "concerns" & make it easier for uni execs to do their job if they agree to "reform" their schools

People ask me why the COVID contrarians were needed. Why did the first Trump White House align with rightwing billionaires and orgs to find credentialed ppl who looked good on TV that would deny COVID severity and yell about lockdowns? This is why

mtsw@mtsw.bsky.social · 3d ago

It's absolutely insane we've somehow let the Covid recriminations debate become like "why didn't we reopen in person schools before there was a vaccine" and not "why did none of the trump guys go to jail for stealing PPE from New York hospitals in March 2020"

"We need to tell a story that clearly identifies the villains... that identifies who is effing you. And then you talk about how we're going to change that." Good advice in a lot of domains, but especially now when it comes to our future

Midterms Update: Actually Eye Popping

Podcast Episode · Charting the Way Forward · July 23 · 1h 1m

podcasts.apple.com

Massive bolts of lightning in DC rn

So good. Read to the end!

ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com · 3d ago

this owns www.inverse.com/input/cultur...

The media environment plays a central role in public health, public science, and democracy.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d ago

"You were scaring people. That was the job of CNN" -- RFK Jr attacks Dana Bash over her claim that the covid vaccine worked. Bash ends up telling him to stop and tries to pivot to measles.

Dana Bash was railroaded by RFK Jr today. Shouted over her and calling scientific experts liars. She was visibly flustered as he yelled at her about COVID and VACCINES And reiterated lies about Fauci. He used the MAGA “when the truth ain’t on your side, bang the table” trope. And it worked.

i suspect this won't get nearly the coverage it deserves, but the implications are obvious: trump admin does not want coverage of its failing, illegal wars except on its own (lying) terms. nb: looks like the times is helping defend cole, which is 💯 b/c freelancers don't always get that.

David Kaye@davidakaye.bsky.social · 3d ago

once you go after reporters & their sources, you can start to kiss natsec journalism goodbye

As I and many others predicted, Seattle's conservative establishment is going after its young new progressive female mayor with all guns blazing. It is quite disgusting to watch.

Robert Cruickshank@robertcruickshank.com · 4d ago

Danny Westneat joins the Seattle Times in full scale war against Mayor Katie Wilson, which is no surprise but another example of the Brandi Kruse-ification of local establishment media. They've gone from providing independent reporting and analysis to using their perches for a partisan agenda.

“I did interviews [previously] saying, you know, if you destroy nature, you destroy the core on which our economies depend. And that got people’s attention. This is not some kind of a flower-power, tree-hugging exercise. This is core economics...” www.theguardian.com/business/202...

ECB official warns climate crisis poses growing threat to ‘core financial stability’

Exclusive: As wildfires rage across Europe, Frank Elderson tells the Guardian nature loss poses a growing risk to the global economy

theguardian.com

"Our time will come, and when it does: no amnesty." Great, important piece from @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/tru...

Truth Without Reconciliation

Why did Brazil’s democratic institutions hold firm while those in the United States so quickly wilted?

bostonreview.net

Yes. And this too is about the political economy of DC orgs. White Coat Waste is a rightwing org founded and funded by people who want to destroy the gov’t, and they are hammering wedge issues to do that. Scientists have to pay attention to the flood of rightwing money in politics.

Dan Vergano@danvergano.bsky.social · 4d ago

Pro tip: If you are reporting on Tony Fauci and are unaware of, (or not mentioning in your hot take) @peteraldhous.com 2022 report on the attack on the NIAID director in the first months of the pandemic: www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pete... then you and your editor really aren't up to the job.

“Everyone knows what the problem is” Yes. This is one of the things widely known in DC but, frustratingly, is not widely known to the public. Another one is that there is much, much, MUCH more money on the right. Liberal/democracy grps (incl for science) barely have two nickels to rub together.

Adam Serwer@adamserwer.bsky.social · 4d ago

Not only did they absolutely beg for this, they made it so that “merit” was synonymous with being white so now you’re stuck with precisely the kind of moron who believes that. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Once again asking where the advocacy groups and think tanks are on this because elected officials are not going to get there on their own.

Jay Willis@jaywillis.net · 5d ago

Chaperoning a preschool trip to the aquarium and one of the other dads who is vaguely familiar with what I do comes up to me and goes “man I sure hope we get some Nuremberg-style trials at the end of all this”

“Why did a hedge fund guy’s foundation take all this initiative to reach out to scholars and offer them immense resources they had not asked for? And then sustain them with tens of millions of dollars“ why indeed?

Important to note that at NIH, while awards are made to universities, it is generally possible to transfer research grants if the PI moves to a new institution. (paperwork should be made more efficient, and this is based on basic science expc, but it is still true and undermines their rationale)

Cole Donovan@colesci.bsky.social · 4d ago

Hearing that NSF is going to pilot moving awards from institutions to individuals. Hello compliance nightmare. Especially because a lot of federal requirements for these awards (research security) are tied to institutional requirements. Potentially devastating for scientific collections/archives.

“Arnold [Fdn] gave money to Nosek… and to Ioannidis to build MRIC. He also funded … science reform projects that popularized the replication ‘crisis’ framing and cast doubt on the trustworthiness of science….” Political economy of thinktanks! I am here for this.. A short 🧵

Jeff Lockhart@jwlockhart.bsky.social · 5d ago

I wrote about science funding, science reform, and anti-science agendas. scatter.wordpress.com/2026/07/31/s...

I think (as a non-lawyer) that there are a lot of good arguments one can make but they need to be packaged up in law journal articles and circulated for public discussion to build the kind of authorizing authority that a future liberal court’s going to need for this.

‼️ Trump Administration Plans to Upend Head Start by Deregulating It. The White House tried but failed to block funding for preschool for poor children. Instead, it will seek to strip away standards on health, literacy — and brushing teeth. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/u...

Trump Administration Plans to Upend Head Start by Deregulating It (Gift Article)

The White House tried but failed to block funding for preschool for poor children. Instead, it will seek to strip away standards on health, literacy — and brushing teeth.

nytimes.com

Second this. There are many great reporters out there fighting to do good work in tough conditions, while in some cases institutions are collapsing around them. (Since 2025, a similar thing has happened to many scientists. Solidarity.)

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · 5d ago

I've been as critical of the Post as anyone, but this is a reminder that they still have some terrific reporters and their analysis of the Reflecting Pool damage made Pirro's prosecution seem (even more) unsustainable.

Yes. I have not worked in industrial research, only at universities and govt agencies. But I have good friends in biotech, pharma, and Silicon Valley, and the stories I hear from them have done as much as the theory of public goods to convince me of the vital importance of NIH and NSF.

Joshua G. Schraiber@jgschraiber.bsky.social · 5d ago

Nothing convinced me more of the importance of publicly funded basic research more than my time in industry.

The apical dendrite looks great, and does wonders in a slice. What does it do in the living cortex? It depends on the cell. A causal spatial role for apical dendrites in the cortex www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... by @anyiliu.bsky.social with @kenneth-harris.bsky.social and @fedrossi.bsky.social