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#uspolitics

165 posts83 participants3 posts today
Public
Mat Wright

Reason #257834 not to visit the US

'A routine traffic stop in Ohio turned into a bizarre loyalty test for a Halifax-based folk duo last week. The Celtic-music sisters Cassie and Maggie say they were on a short American tour when they were pulled over for distracted driving by two highway patrol officers who separated the siblings and asked them each if they preferred Canada to the United States.'

#CDNpoli #USpol #USpolitics

archive.ph/M9dRi#selection-254

Continued thread
Public
petersuber

Update. "Don’t wait out four hard years: speak truth to power"
nature.com/articles/d41586-025

"More scholars must push back. The idea that scientists can keep doing what they know must be done to incorporate #DEI into their work while adjusting terms to fit the demands of bigoted autocrats bent on hobbling science is to whistle loudly past a graveyard of avoidable error, continued financial cuts and censorship. That diversity matters to science is a truth — albeit one that has only recently begun to be accepted and applied…Genomics has established that different groups of people respond differently to drugs and vaccines. The individuals recruited to and participating in clinical trials must be representative of those who will use those treatments in real life…Social scientists are well aware that understanding behaviour and implementing desired change requires studying populations besides white, Western, university psychology students."

www.nature.comDon’t wait out four hard years: speak truth to powerThe importance of diversity in science is an unshakeable reality that the scientific community must stand by.
#Censorship#DefendResearch#Takedowns
Continued thread
Public *
petersuber

Update. "#DOGE order leads to journal cancellations by U.S. agricultural library"
science.org/content/article/do

"The #USDA on Friday told staff members it has canceled subscriptions carried by its National Agricultural Library as part of a drive by President Donald #Trump’s administration to cut federal spending. The move appears to drop nearly 400 of the library’s roughly 2000 journals, including many prominent in various agricultural subfields —but curiously none from the world’s three largest scientific publishers, all of which are #ForProfit. USDA staff members depicted the move as hasty, indiscriminate slashing…Studies of journal subscription fees indicate that on average, scientific #SocietyPublishers charge less than such for-profit companies."

PS: (1) Of course the best ag research should be #OpenAccess. But that's a goal, not the current reality, and while we work for that goal, policymaking agencies still need access the best research. (2) If efficiency requires budget cuts, why focus the cuts on journals from #nonprofit #publishers, which on average are lower in price and higher in quality?

#Agriculture#DefendResearch#USPol
Continued thread
Public
petersuber

Update. #Trump Administration Aims to Eliminate #EPA’s Scientific Research Arm"
nytimes.com/2025/03/17/climate

"The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, according to documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology…The EPA’s plan… calls for dissolving the agency’s largest department, the Office of Research and Development, and purging up to 75 percent of the people who work there. The remaining staff members would be placed elsewhere within the EPA…Rep. Zoe Lofgren [D-CA],…the top Democrat on the science committee, said that without the Office of Research and Development, the EPA would not be able to meet its legal obligation to use the “best available science” when writing regulations and considering policy. She also said that the office was created by congressional statute and that dissolving it would be illegal."

The Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 2021. The agency presented plans to let go of 75 percent of its staff within its largest department: the Office of Research and Development.
The New York Times · Trump Administration Aims to Eliminate E.P.A.’s Scientific Research ArmBy Lisa Friedman
#Censorship#Climate#DefendResearch
Public
Robert J. Berger

"The authoritarian playbook exploits the machinery of democracy against itself. It uses democratic processes to undermine democratic substance. It leverages judicial independence to capture courts. It uses free speech to spread disinformation. It uses elections to install leaders who then methodically dismantle the guardrails that might constrain them.

And it works because not enough people care enough to stop it.

This isn't fatalism. It's an warning bell, and it's being rung by journalists, writers, academics, activists, and believers everywhere."

#USpolitics
theindex.media/the-parchment-b

The Index. · The Parchment BarrierNo constitutional engineering can save democracy from citizens who've stopped caring about its preservation.
Public *
solarbird

LAST DAY for public comments on anti-trans passport rules

Today (Monday) is the LAST DAY to public-commentc-protest Trump/Musk anti-trans passport rules.

You’ve got ’til 9PM CASCADIAN/PACIFIC or Midnight EASTERN time to make public comments against Musk and Trump’s hate.

There are THREE open public comment sections. If you use the ACLU’s site, it’ll cover all three. But if you want to do it directly, you can. Just do it all three places.

Here’s the ACLU’s comment relay site. It also links directly to the individual comments sections.

Go. Do.

action.aclu.orgHands Off Our Passports: Stop Attacking Transgender AmericansThe Trump administration is denying accurate passports to trans, intersex, and nonbinary people – so I’m joining the ACLU to fight back. Urge the State Department to reject this dangerous attack on our rights.
#fascism#LGBT#LGBTQ
Public
Solarbird :flag_cascadia:

You've got 'til 9PM CASCADIAN/PACIFIC or Midnight EASTERN time to sign public comments against Musk and Trump's anti-trans passport rules.

There are THREE open comments sections. If you use the ACLU's site, it'll cover all three. But if you want to do it directly, you can. just do it all three places.

action.aclu.org/reg-action/han

action.aclu.orgHands Off Our Passports: Stop Attacking Transgender AmericansThe Trump administration is denying accurate passports to trans, intersex, and nonbinary people – so I’m joining the ACLU to fight back. Urge the State Department to reject this dangerous attack on our rights.
#uspol#uspolitics#politics
Public
Kyle Montanio

Harvard is joining other elite institutions (MIT, Pennsylvania and Caltech) who are responding to SCOTUS's ban on affirmative action by making tuition free for low-income students.

Harvard is providing free tuition to students whose family income is less than $200,000 per year, and are providing additional services (food, housing, etc.) for families making less than $100,000.

These do not directly target diversity, but help ensure equity.

axios.com/2025/03/17/harvard-f

#USPolitics @academicchatter

Illustration of three dollar symbols on a piece of lined paper with a pencil.
Axios · Harvard offers free tuition for some studentsBy April Rubin
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