I've been feeling someone needs to create this meme for a while now, but given I've not seen it, I've taken on this heavy burden myself.

It would also demonstrate that, for all their talk about caring about what happens to the country, all they really care about is its low tax rates.

Getting real alpha, top dog energy from this.

If you're on the receiving end of this sort of demand, make it part of the story. "We attempted to get the White House's perspective, but they refused to comment unless we provided internal details regarding our reporting process."

Two things: ICE staff is obviously angry and resorts to violence at the first excuse. They're perfectly comfortable directing this violence at the people they are ostensibly serving. Whatever we do about immigration in the future, it cannot involve these people.

The "debate me bro" tactic has been the backbone of creationists and anti-climate-change activists for decades. If you want to know why it's stupid to play their game, or want some advice on how to avoid it, talk to any science communicator.

Is there something about large sums of money that interferes with self awareness?

The paper: the genetic program that enables digit formation in limbs is derived from the system that drives cformation of the cloaca. Me, the headline writer:

So, today we had: Testimony about the clusterfuck RFK is creating at the CDC. Kash Patel being a clusterfuck while appearing before Congress. Kimmel getting suspended following FCC threats. If the plan is to exhaust me with outrage so that I lose the ability to act, then it's looking very effective

It's nice to see an implementation that's just as good as the concept you were promised.

Dr. Susan Monarez: “I could have stayed silent, agreed to the demands, and no one would have known. What the public would have seen were scientists dismissed without cause and vaccine protections quietly eroded…I would have lost the one thing that cannot be replaced: My integrity.”

"I'm sorry that our software accurately reported the numbers — we'll do our best to make sure that never happens again!"

But he said it in a calm tone of voice, and I'm being assured by people this week that that's the only thing that's needed to maintain civility.

Nothing quite like having your watch congratulate you for hitting an activity goal while you're mixing a vodka tonic.

For context, everybody at Columbia takes Contemporary Civilization as freshmen or sophomores. During my time there, it included the Bible. Given the course name, the Quran definitely belongs there as well. This is nothing but race-baiting.

I can only hope that future Supreme Courts treat the Roberts' Court's precedents with the same disdain that this court is applying to everything that came before.

All bets are off once these reach the Supreme Court, obviously. But the government has a finite number of lawyers, so the more suits they face, the tougher it is for prep and scheduling of that, so any legal push back helps.

Was there a time when enough people put babies through paper shredders that it justified putting a warning icon on one?

Over 20 major public health organizations jointly call for RFK Jr to resign after 1000+ HHS employees across every HHS agency call for his resignation. It's past time for him to go. You can help make it happen. Call your members of Congress. 5calls.org/issue/rfk-hh...

20th century garage vs 21st century truck

Wise words from Prof Andrew Dressler www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-mercha...

A lot of people fell in love with REM though a series of quiet, contemplative, poppy albums. Then REM came out with Monster and utterly fucked with their heads, and it was glorious.

I know this sounds crazy, but shouldn’t the Secretary of Energy know something about energy?

My first year in grad school at Berkeley, the Loma Prieta earthquake hit about a half an hour before a biochemistry midterm. Most of us showed up at the exam expecting to be told to go home. Prof instead hands out he exam, then hustled off to check whether his house was ok.

Every time I see this sort of thing said about renewables, my first thought is "you should be embarrassed to be making an argument that's so impossibly stupid." But then I remember that most of these people wouldn't have jobs if embarrassment were a hurdle for them.

Our 400+ page comment on the DOE climate working group report is now out. Our conclusion: The merchants of doubt are back, and they're coming for climate science.

This is also a great reminder that when someone says "they lied to us when they said the vaccine prevented COVID infections", that someone is engaging in some serious bullshit. It's a common trope now, used as a way to condemn public health authorities, but it's reinventing history.

I wrote an entire article arguing the point made in this thread. It's great that Congress is funding the science agencies. But if they don't OMB-proof that funding, it won't help anybody.

While good, this piece (ironically) ignores distinct aspects of the history of anti-science efforts in the US. Trump is not only following in the wake of authoritarians, but has a base prepared to accept attacks on science due to immersion in creationism and climate denial.

Wonder what the overlap is between people who think this is a good idea, and the people who were incandescently angry that schools were forced to go online during the pandemic.

Have just realized I've had the same job title for 12 years now, and there's a non-zero probability it'll be the job title I have when I retire. And I'm uncertain what to make of that.

What happened at the CDC this week wasn't only a tragedy for that agency; it was a warning to all the others. The one that worries me most? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Trump has made it a priority to get some developmental reactor designs approved and experimental reactors built.

So far I think we've have six internal letters of dissent from the government (CDC, EPA, FEMA NASA, NIH, NSF). Only two of those agencies — EPA and FEMA — have suspended the letter signatures. My suspicion is that the difference in response is based on the fragility of Noem's and Zeldin's egos.

This kind of enthusiasm from the non-political CDC staff - the clapping, shouting, nonstop handshakes - for the now-resigned CDC leadership is something that Trump Admin officials will never have. Which will only make them hate the competent administers even more.

One of the more striking things to me about RFK is that his brain is so locked in to his beliefs that he'll never have the experience of finding out he's wrong, and having to acknowledge that. He'll go his whole life without something that seems to me to be central to the human experience.

Kush Desai said when the White House fired Susan Monarez that she “is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again” If the President can’t even get the scientists HE appointed to support his agenda, maybe the problem is his agenda. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/h...

You think you know some anatomy because you used to do research on vertebrates, and then you read a dinosaur paleontology paper and you realize they had all sorts of anatomical features with absolutely no equivalent, making every 5th word a complete mystery.

If you've ever wondered why Trump says such deranged things about renewable energy, it's in part because he's surrounded himself with deranged individuals.

Based on the current EIA data, it's looking like this is the year that grid-scale solar passes hydro in terms of total electricity generated. If you'd counted small solar installations, like rooftop and commercial, then hydro was passed a while back.

Elon Musk apparently incapable of understanding why a major corporation would shy away from signing on to an AI service that might randomly start bringing up white genocide in South Africa at any moment.

"Headlines in New York Times Show Uneasy Mix of Cowardice and Journalism"

And here I was debating whether it was worth putting Jackson's "Calvinball" quote in my coverage. That is one potent (and accurate!) headline, @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social.

Two other things about this graph: Look at all the blue in 2025, and recognize Trump is trying to block ALL of that. Think of what that would mean for grid stability and power prices. It's been over a decade since the last coal plant was built. Trump I didn't change that. Trump II won't either.

Look, I cover science, so I'm perfectly well aware of the fact that a huge fraction of the US population would prefer not to live in reality. But it is not the job of the press to make it more comfortable for that fraction to do so.

Called it.

Any odds on whether they're going to charge him with having classified documents?

The number of times a day that I respond to information with WTAF appears to be increasing asymptotically.

Quick thought on this: while a 5 judge majority agreed to keep the stay on the government grant termination policy in place, it doesn't mean 5 judges think it's likely illegal. Barrett felt the government didn't really contest it. Roberts focused only on venue issues.

Justice Jackson gets it.