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gorillaguerilla.bsky.social
Beleaguered scientist. Primatologist interested in social behavior and behavior management, human interested in a life of purpose not profit.
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Well, here it is. Trump and Musk are turning #NIH into a garbage rightwing thinktank, just as we said. They’re forcing down junk science on us with your tax dollars. This is a deep shame for America and for scientists everywhere. 1/3

"We'll make mistakes" should be cited in every legal challenge to every RIF and removal.

“The long-term consequences for science and the next generation of scientists will be hard to repair” 10 lab directors purged from NINDS, just one part of the worst assault on science in US history 🧪 www.thetransmitter.org/science-and-...

NEW @vanityfair.com: When Americans died, were blinded, had eyeballs removed from tainted eye drops, @fda.gov relied on Dr Timothy Pohlhaus, among its few top sterile drug manufacturing experts. He, thousands more, were fired from US health agencies yesterday. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/t...

Per multiple sources, NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya sent all staff an email this morning saying that all employees and contractors must use a standardized email signature with certain details that he then ignored for himself and again signed it "Jay".

NEW: No fewer than 10 principle scientists at NIH investigating emerging infectious diseases and neural disorders were among those fired by RFK Jr. today. One is an esteemed scientist awarded for breakthrough research into the causes of Parkinson's disease. By me and @emilymullin.bsky.social:

Before sunrise, Trump and DOGE fired thousands of federal workers across HHS, including many of my constituents. Let’s fire DOGE and get these devoted and critical public servants back on the job. My full statement: raskin.house.gov/2025/4/raski...

I’m really tired of being the news.

NEW — This AM former HHS staffers confronted Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) about slashing budgets and staff, per video shared with me by Mack Schroeder, a former Budget Analyst for the Office of the Secretary.  Banks tells Schroeder he "probably deserved" to lose his job "because you seem like a clown."

Hearing from all corners of HHS this morning about a total bloodletting — firings of scientists, analysts and many more as delayed RIFs take effect. Many folks didn’t see early AM email and showed up, only to be turned away when badges didn’t work. Was sent this photo of long lines at one HHS site.

Reminder: Typos in official communications are intentionally included by the administration to identify potential leakers. Please exercise caution with anything you share.

This viral post on the US Institute of Peace is worth your time

America is spinning quickly in the direction of Hungarian kleptocracy, @anneapplebaum.bsky.social writes. Could Hungarian poverty lie in our future too?

Why is Trump going after US science? What's the endgame for these attacks? Vance, Rufo, Trump and Republican elites are attacking NIH and manipulating its grants in order to attack American universities. "It's bad, folks." New contributed post at our blog. Please share it w/ your 🧪 colleagues.

Sadly, we are getting here with NIH too. We need an independent body to say which work that comes out of NIH is real science, and which is RFK/Bhattacharya/MAGA junk science.

Peter Marks’s resignation letter. Everyone should read this.

Trump’s proposed cuts to NIH funding jeopardize medical research that benefits millions of working people. On April 8, UAW members across the country are taking action to demand our reps #KillTheCuts and save lifesaving research, healthcare, & education. killthecuts.org

Breaking: RFK Jr. has forced out PETER MARKS, the nation’s top vaccine regulator. In his resignation letter, obtained by the Post, Marks said he was willing to work with RFK Jr on his vaccine concerns — but said Kennedy wishes “subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”

Univ of Minn student taken by ICE. mndaily.com/293237/top-s...

Would the Department of Health and Human Services function better with 20,000 fewer workers? This highly placed brain worm says yes.

"The consolidation/RIF plan pulls power away from scientists and puts it in the hands of political employees. It sets up Trump and Musk to kill NIH as an evidence-based science funder. We must stop this plan." New contributed post on our blog: Please read. It describes Orban and authoritarianism. 🧪

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. Find out how your community may be impacted. Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org a 🧵

ICE has arrested Iranian national Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral candidate studying mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama. He was arrested at home at 5 a.m. Tuesday. As with some of the others who've been disappeared, unclear why he was detained. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Trump's executive order tonight has illegally cancelled union contracts for 67% of the federal workforce & 75% of unionized federal employees — roughly 700,000 union workers This may be the single biggest attack on the labor movement in American history

Try to imagine a situation where you are not allowed to do your job (e.g. working with applicants to formulate successful proposals), you and and your long-time colleagues are fearful of losing their job, ... 1/n

Proud to say HHS is making America healthy again through motivating our workforce to work harder by firing a bunch of them. Firings will only continue until morale improves www.linkedin.com/posts/secret...

The staff at this public elementary school in DC showed far more courage than an Ivy with $15 billion endowment

After Larry Tabak and Mike Lauer, a third major departure at NIH: Tara Schwetz, deputy director for coordination, planning, and strategic initiatives will be placed on leave today, an NIH source tells me. No reason was given, but it's likely because leadership wants their own person in place.

Big win overnight for the coalition that won the reinstatement of tens of thousands of wrongly fired feds — & that we are proud to be part of. Judge reverses his earlier ruling and finds that unions have standing to bring their claims in fed court & are not “channeled” into administrative remedies.

Important: They're now trying to deport *another* student, 21-year-old Yunseo Chung, a legal permanent resident, under the statute authorizing SecState to remove people deemed threat. She's lived here since childhood. Rubio is at the center of many of Trump's most lawless and destructive actions.

but her emails

WHOA. On March 15, a Cornell PhD student with UK and Gambian citizenship, here on a student visa, filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn Trump's EO aimed at foreign students accused of "antisemitism. Last night, the DOJ emailed asking him to come to ICE to be detained and put into removal proceedings.

The Trump administration repeatedly promised Judge Alsup that the Office of Personnel Management is NOT directing the firing of government workers (which would be illegal). But Trump just issued an executive order ostensibly giving OPM the power to do just that... www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Reminder: If you’re sharing information, protect yourself. Documents and communications often contain hidden watermarks, intentional typos, odd punctuation, inconsistent spacing, or stylized phrasing—all designed to uniquely identify the source.

We've been tracking unlawful NIH grant terminations for 3 weeks. Spread the word👇! Fellow PIs: what can you do upon termination? ✅ Email PO + document questions ✅ Submit FOIA ✅ Advocate to your OCG/OSP for appeal + litigation ✅ Consider outside litigation ✅ Donate to state AGs + legal orgs 1/🧵

A Pentagon official not authorized to speak publicly said its review to scrub websites of DEI content was too hasty and used search terms like "gay," which led to the flagging of Enola Gay images.

At the session on protecting science, APS chief external affairs officer, Francis Slakey, notes that APS submitted an amicus brief in this case about federal workers being terminated. www.courtlistener.com/docket/69655...

The general vibe we are getting across #NIH institutes is deeply bleak — that the agency is nearly, if not already dead. Top people are leaving or have left. Nearly everyone's looking for other jobs. People still care about what NIH was, but are growing resigned to its death. 1/

This New Yorker piece about the Irish Famine has several paragraphs I found literally jaw-dropping (positive). This is a book review!! Good god!!!

The loss of a legend- Kanzi, the language-competent bonobo, has died age 44. Kanzi was exceptional in so many ways and offered us profound insights into the linguistic & cognitive capacities of great apes. He has taught us so much and will be hugely missed. www.apeinitiative.org/remembering-...

The hearing for US Institute of Peace vs Kenneth Jackson et al with Judge Beryl Howell starting now. I'm listening via phone.

NEW: We're going to have more about this later after today's court hearing. But I just got more details about a part of the DC Metro Police/US Institute of Peace story that I at least knew nothing about yesterday. Based on new filings - which again are just filings at this point - those private

Op Ed in the Harvard Crimson about the dangers of staying silent www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...