NIH leaders got funding-pause memo Tuesday afternoon. Trump admin then backpedaled.
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$15 billion in NIH funding frozen, then thawed Tuesday in ongoing power war
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When people make the remark "history doesn't repeat, but it sure often rhymes," I don't think anyone had the current administration in mind.
I don't know that most of us could unscramble a random sampling of headlines about NIH/general grant funding because it feels like the same nightmare on loop/shuffle.
I don't know that most of us could unscramble a random sampling of headlines about NIH/general grant funding because it feels like the same nightmare on loop/shuffle.
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A classic case of the right hand, not knowing what the left hand is doing. But more specifically in this case, a definite sign of dementia.
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The only thing mitigating their evil is their incompetence. Vought unfortunately is far more evil than incompetent, but others in the administration balance that out to some extent.
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Russel Vought in particular is a dangerous and hate-filled person. I am a broken record on this, but he is part of a relatively small group of professional far-right freaks with intense and bizarre views that are hard to even raise awareness of becausse people simply don't believe you.
Vought and his cohort simply would rather America return, in full, to pre-New Deal era (and many of them actually and fully believe in the divine right of kings and see the French Revolution as the beginning of the downfall of "The West").
Sicker? Poorer? Weaker? Worse off in every way? Good - the better for The Righteous (rich, white Christian men) to control the entire state. That's the goal.
Vought and his cohort simply would rather America return, in full, to pre-New Deal era (and many of them actually and fully believe in the divine right of kings and see the French Revolution as the beginning of the downfall of "The West").
Sicker? Poorer? Weaker? Worse off in every way? Good - the better for The Righteous (rich, white Christian men) to control the entire state. That's the goal.
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Even if you believe the NIH needs "fundamental reform", only an arrogant ignoramus would think the best thing to do is stop all government biomedical funding at all research institutions in the USA with a snap decision. When those sorts of people are in charge, the country is on a downwards spiral.
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Agree 100%. I’m particularly worried about what’s going to happen when Trump shuffles off this mortal coil and we have True Believer(tm) Vance running things. It might be less chaotic, but it’s not going to be better.
I also would not be surprised to see this crew depose Trump in some way or another; MAGA is not going super well and they may eventually decide they don’t need him any more.
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Yet one more nail in the coffin of American greatness. Any medical researcher with skills would likely be looking for destinations outside the USA for stable work.
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Russell Vought is a radical. If it were entirely up to him, most of our Federal government would be abolished. Medicare, Obamacare, Social Security, Medicaid? Gone. You could probably save a lot of time by only listing the governmental functions he would keep.
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I look forward to Vought's unhinged screeching when he is eventually told not only is there no cure for the cancer killing him, but it's no longer being researched. Oh, and sooner rather than later please. Thanks.
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I'm looking at the US from the outside ... news plastered everywhere multiple time a day.
I'm sort of tired of this show, so I cannot even come close to understand how the good that lives on US soil, must feel.
So much damage in so little time, and decades, at minimum to restore it normal ... if normal will ever exist.
I'm sort of tired of this show, so I cannot even come close to understand how the good that lives on US soil, must feel.
So much damage in so little time, and decades, at minimum to restore it normal ... if normal will ever exist.
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Looking at the huge swath of the US that has revealed themselves over the last ten years to be somewhere between bloodthirsty nihilists and a death cult intent on enacting the apocalypse, I truly wonder how this country ever came to have any functioning institutions. It just doesn’t seem like they want to draw breath anymore and are trying their mightiest to ensure the rest of us don’t either.
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Vance doesn't have what it takes to keep the factions in line. there are stark and fundamental differences in the ideologies that make up "the Right Wing" in the US. So much so that they'd gladly shoot each other dead if they thought they could get away with it. They're united under Trump because Trump is so fucking chaotic and says at least some of what they all want to hear almost all the time.
When Trump dies (and please, make that sooner than later!), the entire right wing will fall to in-fighting, lose all cohesion and fall apart as they bicker about who should be crowned next. None of them trust the others and there's no one else like Trump willing to say anything for the approval of all of the terrorist factions like he does.
So the sooner Trump goes, the better for the country, and the world. It'll be a chaotic time in the US, but it's like having surgery done. You have to hurt before you get better.
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[...] because people simply don't believe you.
The seriousness of a revolutionary vanguard movement is usually only established in hindsight, and I think we're definitely living through the transition moment in tomorrow's history textbook.
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fellow human
Ars Praefectus
Sometimes I wish god was real so evil idiots like these guys would be struck by lightning or something.
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The conservative movement has been openly and obviously coalescing around a unitary executive (read: dictator) for the last ~65 years. To say all of that functionally falls apart with Trump is...optimistic.
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I hope you’re right! I agree that he doesn’t really have the right stuff, but I wonder if his handlers (e.g., Thiel) can exert enough pull to get the worst parts through. Will be interesting to see what all the heavily-armed MAGA terrorists do when they are well and truly jettisoned.
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Project 2025: "Some of you will die, but that's a sacrifice we are willing to make."
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But, this is exactly what the Trump voters wanted. The average Trump voter could not care less how much anything he does harms them, in so long as it has even a remote possibility of harming the libs and, especially the intellectuals, worse.
Plus, it is all about power and cruelty. Re-read Chapter Two of 1984. They are using it as a manual for their actions.
And, if you'll remember, a couple of the Project 2025 authors (I can't find that reference when I need it!) have claimed that Project 2025 is only the beginning, and they won't stop until "America is Gilead." And, others have said they want to shrink all American Governments until they are so small they can be "drown in a bathtub."
This is what we are dealing with.
Sadly, Trump supporters are largely rejoicing at his actions. They want to see the destruction of the American government and the absolute destruction of academia, blaming universities (and, especially the sciences) for everything they dislike about modern life. And, remember that Vance has claimed multiple times, that "The Universities Are Our Enemy" (examples, here and here). All of these reasons combine to explain why Trump's overall poll numbers are largely stable, but that he has an increasing percentage of his supporters expressing a strongly favorable view of his actions.
Remember too, America has a long history of its citizens taking pride in their ignorance, disdain of modern medicine and modern life, and abject hatred of intellectuals.
I cannot see this ending well.
Edit: Grade School Grammar Error Corrections (shouldn't write when I'm pissed)
Plus, it is all about power and cruelty. Re-read Chapter Two of 1984. They are using it as a manual for their actions.
And, if you'll remember, a couple of the Project 2025 authors (I can't find that reference when I need it!) have claimed that Project 2025 is only the beginning, and they won't stop until "America is Gilead." And, others have said they want to shrink all American Governments until they are so small they can be "drown in a bathtub."
This is what we are dealing with.
Sadly, Trump supporters are largely rejoicing at his actions. They want to see the destruction of the American government and the absolute destruction of academia, blaming universities (and, especially the sciences) for everything they dislike about modern life. And, remember that Vance has claimed multiple times, that "The Universities Are Our Enemy" (examples, here and here). All of these reasons combine to explain why Trump's overall poll numbers are largely stable, but that he has an increasing percentage of his supporters expressing a strongly favorable view of his actions.
Remember too, America has a long history of its citizens taking pride in their ignorance, disdain of modern medicine and modern life, and abject hatred of intellectuals.
I cannot see this ending well.
Edit: Grade School Grammar Error Corrections (shouldn't write when I'm pissed)
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I mean if it weren't for Trump in the first place in 2016 the Republican party as it existed would have come apart at the seams. If not for a few thousand votes in a few key states it still would have after losing its 3rd straight election. 65 years of nefarious planning that hinged on a reality tv show star with a particularly marketable brand of nonsense coming out of nowhere?
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I think the reason is that every day that stable base watches 7 hours of FoxNews, NewsMax, and OAN. A huge chunk of this population has NO exposure to news outside what's basically state propaganda. It'd be nearly impossible for them to think differently. A lot of people are legitimately in a NK-like information bubble.
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I don't think that's an accurate accounting of 2016 or the conservative movement. Trump didn't come out of nowhere, he rode the fascist sentiment that the GOP has been cultivating for decades to victory, and it was inevitable that Democrats wouldn't hold the presidency forever.
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Vought is one of the enablers that need to be neutered if/when the Dems regain control. I doubt many MAGAs know who he is or will care if he’s thrown in jail for the rest of his life.
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This really cannot be overstated. His frank and blunt desire to "traumatize" federal workers is an indicator but not a complete one; he is a vicious, sadistic extremist and he is waging total war against the administrative state and the concept of governance. The weird, incompetent mutants like Miller and Noem and the top guy himself hog all the air time, but people like Vought are the Grima Wormtongue types behind the throne.
One factor behind Trump that I think is insufficiently understood and internalized by people who are not susceptible to him is how personal this is. If you count yourself as educated professional or knowledge worker of almost any stripe, they hate us, both collectively and individually, and we cannot imagine how deep the resentment, suspicion, and hostility goes. It is an almost existential animosity for them. And it's not just scientists and academics (though especially them), but government employees, teachers, lawyers, journalists, doctors, researchers, creatives, even librarians.
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Trump was a GOP outsider who beat a large primary field because of how unpopular everyone else was, then barely won the election, then lost the next one. The situation we're in now wasn't inevitable.
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I somewhat disagree.
To the average American, you are right.
To most Trump supporters, he is the prototype of what they all aspire to be.
It is the latter which keeps him in power and powers Trump's worst instincts.
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It will be interesting to see how much of the "politics of retribution" tactics the Dems adopt if/when the pendulum swings.
eg:
-- will the McConnell Doctrine, re: SCotUS nominations, become to new normal?
-- will the Senate Budget Reconciliation approach become the new normal for budgets and other legislation, effectively ending the filibuster?
-- will federal agencies again be wiped clean with mass firings, every time a new party takes the Oval Office?
-- etc etc
-- however much I'd like to see MAGAts suffer some tit-for-tat, outright punitive cruelty is self-defeating as a nation.
eg:
-- will the McConnell Doctrine, re: SCotUS nominations, become to new normal?
-- will the Senate Budget Reconciliation approach become the new normal for budgets and other legislation, effectively ending the filibuster?
-- will federal agencies again be wiped clean with mass firings, every time a new party takes the Oval Office?
-- etc etc
-- however much I'd like to see MAGAts suffer some tit-for-tat, outright punitive cruelty is self-defeating as a nation.
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Trump beat everyone else because he was offering the Republican voter's fascist dreams on a golden platter. An agent like him was inevitable because the GOP has cultivated a base of extremists that are not satisfied with just the dog whistle anymore. If you cultivate a base that considers liberals, and Black people, and queers, and Jews, and immigrants, and academics their ontological enemy, they will vote accordingly.
And they did.
Edit: and it was also inevitable that each successive Republican regime would drastically expand the power of the executive, while stacking as much of the judiciary as possible, because that's their whole game.
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Russell Vought’s OWN daughter has cystic fibrosis and has BENEFITED from breakthrough NIH funded research personally. How can he so wantonly deny future children their own miracle cures? We don’t have words to describe that degree of cruelty.
Having submitted many grants to NIH and NSF the outcomes were always fair and balanced whether or not my proposal got funded. It was as close to the most platonically level meritocracy I have ever seen. The panels are intensely adverse to conflicts of interest and police them rigorously.
Oddly enough, the victims of these polemic attacks are always hard-working, heads down, in it for the cause types - people that are trying to measurably improve the world. Teachers, mothers, government workers, scientists, and children.
Their ideology is barren for innovation and progress. They hope to rule over a repressed domestic population, wield nukes, and enjoy the aristocratic galas where power goes unchecked. We didn’t win the Cold War; we lost our souls.
Having submitted many grants to NIH and NSF the outcomes were always fair and balanced whether or not my proposal got funded. It was as close to the most platonically level meritocracy I have ever seen. The panels are intensely adverse to conflicts of interest and police them rigorously.
Oddly enough, the victims of these polemic attacks are always hard-working, heads down, in it for the cause types - people that are trying to measurably improve the world. Teachers, mothers, government workers, scientists, and children.
Their ideology is barren for innovation and progress. They hope to rule over a repressed domestic population, wield nukes, and enjoy the aristocratic galas where power goes unchecked. We didn’t win the Cold War; we lost our souls.
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Probably looking at a different field and/or the private sector more likely. The amount of actual new money for displaced researchers internationally has been, to date, drastically overhyped.
Going forward, our massive reliance on foreign researchers that props up our science endeavor at low cost in exchange for immigration access is going to be tested. Those people might actually stop coming, or working as hard when/if they get here as even they are no longer willing to put in the effort for the low and uncertain job quality.
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And in all those 65 years, only Trump has been depraved enough to actually make progress on a unitary executive. Sure, he's got a bunch of spinless psychophants that would like to take his place, but (and this is a very, very, big but) they universally come across as the creepiest people you've ever met. Vance isn't going to be able to cow Congressional Republicans the way Trump has because he's so creepy that even the MAGA faithful don't like him. And any other name you bring up is going to be the same way.
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This desire to inflict pain and traumatize is exactly what is detailed in Chapter Two of 1984.
Again, everyone should re-read 1984.
Thank you! You made my point far better than I did. You are precise and correct.
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He got his.
The leaders of the conservative movement ain't shit. They know they ain't shit. The self-loathing radiates from them and poisons everything they touch. Nothing pisses off a soulless, narcissistic, antisocial gremlin more than being reminded that they're nothing but, and nothing is a more constant reminder than the presence of people who work for something greater than themselves, feel and act on a sense of empathy, have a vision and a plan for the future, who believe in equity and egalitarianism. They desperately want to be more consequential and powerful and substantial than they are, and part of their constant fury is the simmering resentment of everyone who's smarter and better and more capable than they are.
This is government by, of, and for the Ain't Shit.
I don't think they think that far ahead. They're all tactics, no strategy. They have no idea what the future is. They can barely cope with the present. They're just reacting and retaliating.
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I'm absolutely immune to it, but Trump has a massive charisma with these people. He both stokes and soothes their fears, and he validates their resentments and hatreds, and he does it in a way that makes them feel good about themselves. There's nobody else in America right now who can do that the way he does. Another might rise someday, but Trump is the oxygen for the fire, in my view. I can't really see Vance making anybody feel good about agreeing with him.
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Vincent Hanna
Ars Scholae Palatinae
It is not an “ongoing power war” it is an “Illegal seizure of congressionally mandated funds”.
Headlines matter. We expect such sane-washing from the legacy media, but Ars can and should do better.
Headlines matter. We expect such sane-washing from the legacy media, but Ars can and should do better.
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[Loads ars site]
Sweet! Another article from Beth.
[Reads story]
Yep… Malevolent, flesh-eating worm, taking over Lady Columbia.
Sweet! Another article from Beth.
[Reads story]
Yep… Malevolent, flesh-eating worm, taking over Lady Columbia.
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J.D. Vance doesn't have the leadership skills to order doughnuts... How the hell is he going to run the country if Trump is incapacitated?
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The only situation that can change this is the 2026 election if Democrats re-take at least one legislative house. It would be even more effective if they take control of both houses. Until then the daily headlines will continue to be full of examples of incompetence and dismantling of our institutions that were created to de-politicize our government.
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