Drew Barker

Humanist & music listener/watcher.

[Jake Tapper 🦅 @jaketapper]

One very telling moment from that Trump interview on NBC that I keep thinking about —-

[Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom]

"Russians are just amplifying all of this because they know Trump will believe it."

[Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat]

A holistic, coordinated, and multi level effort to wreck US science. Ask why and who benefits from it.

[Michael O’Brien @DrOBrienMD]

Factually false. We have a violence problem, and when it comes to political murders it is disproportionately right wing.

But let’s start with addressing gun violence, oh wait YOUR party dismantled all the infrastructure we had for that.

[Gianl1974 @Gianl1974]

Trump just fired all 24 members of the National Science Board. Every single one. By email. No warning. No reason given. The board has existed since 1950.

The National Science Board is the independent body that oversees the National Science Foundation, the agency that distributes $9 billion in research grants every year.

Its members are scientists and engineers from universities and industry. They serve six-year staggered terms specifically so they cross presidential administrations and stay independent of whoever is in power.

On Friday, every single one of them got the same boilerplate email from Mary Sprowls of the Presidential Personnel Office: "On behalf of President Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the National Science Board is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service."

That's it. That's the whole letter. For 76 years of institutional independence.

The NSF funds the basic science behind MRIs. Cellphones. LASIK eye surgery. GPS. The internet itself. The Antarctic research stations. The deep-space telescopes. The research vessels mapping the ocean floor. Every breakthrough that made America the world's leader in science for the better part of a century traces back through grants this agency made and this board approved.

The board chair, Victor McCrary, was actively advising Congress on Trump's proposed 55% cut to NSF's budget. The board was helping fight back. So Trump fired the board.

Marvi Matos Rodriguez, one of the fired members, told reporters she had been reviewing an 80-page report as part of her board duties just days before being terminated.

Keivan Stassun, a physicist at Vanderbilt, said NSF's leadership had already stopped responding to board oversight requests months ago. "We would ask them, 'Are you following board governance directives?' And their answer would be, in effect, 'We don't listen to you anymore.'"

Now there's no board to answer to.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the House Science Committee, called it "the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to harm science and American innovation. Will the president fill the NSB with MAGA loyalists who won't stand up to him as he hands over our leadership in science to our adversaries?"

That's the actual question.

Because while Trump is firing American scientists, China is building research universities at a rate we cannot match. The CDC just buried a study showing vaccines work.

RFK Jr. runs HHS. The EPA is gutted. The Forest Service is being broken. Half of American children are breathing dangerous air. And now the people who decide what gets researched in the United States have all been fired by email on a Friday afternoon.

[Frederick Clarkson @FredClarkson]

You may have heard about the dangerously theocratic New Apostolic Reformation. But you may not have heard of many of the leaders of the movement.

To help, @andre_gagne1 and I have compiled a list of two dozen top apostles, for handy reference.

https://t.co/8Lheqx8KCE

[Mike Nellis @MikeNellis]

Some very good journalism from MSNBC, reporting on all the fabricated stories that Donald Trump has told over the last year. It’s embarrassing. The guy is either brazenly lying or riddled with dementia—likely both—but either way, that boy ain’t right.

[Rep. Jared Huffman @JaredHuffman]

These are not rando misogynists ranting to the manosphere: they are prominent faith leaders in Pete Hegseth's church, CREC. Hegseth has invited CREC pastors who preach the same poison to preside over his Pentagon prayer services.

[Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing]

The nuclear winter and decimation of medical research in America. Murdered by RFK Jr and Trump regime. Next time you/your family suffers an illness, remember who killed our future cures and preventions. Never forget.

[Dwarkesh Patel @dwarkesh_sp]

Gutenberg invented the most important technology of the millennium and immediately went bankrupt — and so did the bank that foreclosed on him, and so did his apprentices.

Gutenberg could make a batch of 300 books for the cost of one, but there weren't enough buyers in his small, landlocked village in Germany.

It it took the better part of a century of further innovations, social changes, and setting up of distribution networks before you could have a pamphlet like Luther's 95 thesis get from Wittenberg to London in 17 days.

[Drew Barker @drewNblue]

@WombatBrawler This has happened 3 times! All legendary. They disappeared after just a second or two, never to be seen again. No coins or record at dock. Thanks for looking into this.

[Drew Barker @drewNblue]

@WombatBrawler My boy & I are having issues with Cast&Chill on Switch where legendary catches dissappear from the hook AFTER reeling in. Losing a legendary Muskie made my boy cry. The box popped that gave 70 lbs & XXL & everything but then fish disappeared. Can that be fixed?

[Max Flugrath🗳️ @MaxFlugrath]

This is buried under the noise.

By November, it may be the story that mattered most.

If you read one thing today, make it this.

[The New Republic @newrepublic]

The FBI interviewed one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims four times over her allegation that Donald Trump assaulted her when she was underage—but most accusations against the president appear to have been removed from the government’s documents. https://t.co/9J0GVvC14K

[Ryan Busse @ryandbusse]

If our government being racist against Native Americans does not piss you off, I'm probably not your guy. Zinke obviously is.

[Pod Save America @PodSaveAmerica]

49% of Trump’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, was purchased by an Abu Dhabi royal for $500m, days before he was inaugurated. This level of corruption from a U.S. president is mind-boggling.

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

Former Tennessee Libertarian party chair @JoshEakle notices how many in Trump’s cabinet/inner circle are in the files — and theorizes maybe this is no coincidence

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

Trump raids the Georgia election office to perpetuate the 2020 lie and tee up stealing the midterms.

We are off the cliff, folks. 🇺🇸

(From @bluegeorgia )

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

Wow — retired Army general and former commander of 🇺🇸 Special Operations Command @TonyT2Thomas replies to Miller & Hegseth with the execution freeze frame

[Chris Tackett (aka See It Name It Fight It) @cjtackett]

Don’t forget, they told us what was coming