Terrible people control the government, so terrible things will happen. That’s just reality. But we don’t have to be passive collateral damage.

Trump is currently doing unpopular shit that can and should be converted into a cudgel with which to relentlessly whack Trump and congressional Republicans. Most of the time, we won’t be able to stop them, but loudly opposing their horrible policies and personnel can perhaps mitigate the damage this administration does or at least maximize the pain Republicans incur for inflicting said damage.

One example of unpopular shit Trump did/is doing is the blanket pardon of J6 criminals who violently attacked the Capitol and the cops protecting it. Nearly 90% of Democrats, 62% of independents and 30% of Republicans opposed the pardons before Trump took office. Elected Democrats should be making those fuckers own it every day, and to their credit, many are.

All of my federal representatives are MAGA cultists, but I called their offices anyway to register my disapproval of their lord and savior’s releasing violent criminals into our communities. Elected Republicans should be made to own this at every opportunity, and where relevant, as in the upcoming Kash Patel hearing, complicity in the jailbreak must be tied around the necks of Trump nominees and those who vote to confirm them.

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In addition to releasing violent criminals, another thing no one asked for which does not lower the price of eggs: hobbling the nation’s incredibly successful work in medical research and treatment innovation by screwing with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI). But that’s what’s happening already as Trump/Republicans plan to put bona fide kook RFK Jr. in charge of public health. Via Science:

Donald Trump’s return to the White House is already having a big impact at the $47.4 billion U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), with the new administration imposing a wide range of restrictions, including the abrupt cancellation of meetings such as grant review panels. Officials have also ordered a communications pause, a freeze on hiring, and an indefinite ban on travel.

The moves have generated extensive confusion and uncertainty at the nation’s largest research agency, which has become a target for Trump’s political allies. “The impact of the collective executive orders and directives appears devastating,” one senior NIH employee says…

Even more troubling to many researchers is a pause on study sections that many received word of today. Without such meetings, NIH cannot make research awards…

Another consequence of the communications pause, according to an NIH staffer involved with clinical trials at NIH’s Clinical Center, is that agency staff cannot meet with patient groups or release newsletters or other information to recruit patients into trials. Another unknown is whether NIH researchers will still be allowed to submit papers to peer-reviewed journals.

This one is personal for me since I’ve directly benefited from NIH-funded research. I suspect most of the cancer survivors here have too, as well as families and friends of people who have or had cancer, which is damned near everyone.

According to the Association for Clinical Oncology [PDF], “investment in research to better understand, prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer has paid off. Thanks to funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI), millions more Americans are surviving cancer. In the United States, a record 15.5 million survivors of cancer are alive today—more than 5 times the number of survivors alive in 1971.”

As the largest funder of biomedical research on the planet, the NIH pays for research that creates breakthroughs and new treatments to reduce diseases and disabilities of all types. And while any organization’s operations can be improved and made more efficient, that’s not what the Trump-MAGA vandals are proposing or they wouldn’t shut down activities that are essential to carrying out medical research and suggest putting an anti-science crazy person like RFK Jr. in charge of public health.

So here’s an action item: Contact your federal reps and urge them to oppose the attack on medical research that benefits everyone. If you’re lucky enough to have Democratic representatives, thank them if they’ve spoken out or encourage them to publicly oppose the vandals if they haven’t yet.

If, like me, you’re in a red state, contact your federal representatives and ask them to explain why they support hobbling medical research and putting a nutcase like RFK Jr. in charge of HHS. If possible, find stats on how NIH funding supports research universities in your state (example from Florida here) that are finding new cures and treatments and biomedical startups that are saving and improving lives.

Trump and the congressional MAGA majority have all the power. They will use it to loot public coffers and hurt people. That’s inevitable, and it sucks. But I think there are fissures where we, the opposition, can insert crowbars and widen cracks in the evil MAGA carapace.

Releasing violent criminals is unpopular. Interrupting the lifesaving work of the NIH and NCI is unpopular too, and no one elected that whackadoodle Kennedy nepo baby to destroy this nation’s biomedical research efforts. Trump may owe that fool a favor, but we damn sure don’t.

Elected Democrats should take the lead on opposing these unpopular and dangerous activities. We won’t always be able to stop them or limit the damage, but we should damn sure extract the maximum price for it, every time, and we all have a role to play in that.

Open thread.

Action item: Contact your reps about the MAGA attack on medical researchPost + Comments (106)