"An internal government database ... revealed the scope of the ... administration's effort to revise or remove information on African-American history, LGBT rights, climate change and other topics at hundreds of national park sites." www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
For anyone interested in reading a dissertation on science for policy for science #SciPol: "Aiding and Abetting Scientific Integrity in U.S. Federal Government Agencies" by Keeley Townsend digitalcommons.odu.edu/businessadmi...
In 1854, after watching the federal government deploy 2000 federal troops and spend $40,000 sending Anthony Burns back into slavery, Boston's Amos Adams Lawrence said “we went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad Abolitionists.”
"Science is one of the best ways we have of understanding what’s going on around us. In Crash Course Scientific Thinking we’ll explore the foundational principles that underlie scientific thought." youtu.be/Y45KrixWRNg?...
A compelling graphic look at all the ways that Trump and his family and friends have been monetizing the White House in his second term to enrich themselves more than any presidential clan has ever done before. @lazarogamio.bsky.social Amy Schoenfeld Walker
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.
This is a quote from the article summing up both studies in Technology Review: "A multi-university team of researchers has found that chatting with a politically biased AI model was more effective than political advertisements at nudging both Democrats and Republicans to support presidential candidates of the opposing party. The chatbots swayed opinions by citing facts and evidence, but they were not always accurate—in fact, the researchers found, the most persuasive models said the most untrue things."
Two independent studies found that AI chatbots were better at persuading voters than political ads. The most persuasive bots also lied the most. This is something that humans working in psyops have known for decades. AI is psyops at scale. www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/04/1...
The EPA is starting to allow the use of pesticides containing PFAS on food. The move is part of an effort to roll back the regulation of PFAS — also known as "forever chemicals" because they don't break down easily in the environment.
After Biden commuted the sentences of 37 men on federal death row last year, the Trump administration is retaliating by sending them to the supermax. Prisoners are locked in cells smaller than a parking space 22-24 hours a day.
One prisoner told me he fears he won't make it out alive.
My latest:
Reporters—covering vaccine hesitancy? It's important to avoid the temptation to think of vaccine-hesitant individuals or groups as a monolith. Our tip sheet shares tips on how to connect with them to share evidence-based research: bit.ly/439lJfp
@aaas.org
Trump’s performance at the White House Tuesday was weak, crass and of no strategic benefit to America, the Editorial Board writes.
Informative and horrifying conversation about past and present threats.
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
"More than 420 anti-science bills attacking longstanding public health protections ... have been introduced in statehouses across the U.S. this year, part of an organized, politically savvy campaign to enshrine a conspiracy theory-driven agenda into law." apnews.com/article/vacc...
"... it is essential to recognize that Trump’s executive order is the culmination of long-standing efforts by congressional Republicans to attack or undermine US science in a way that is cloaked in benign and attractive terms." www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
"As Emily Bell says, billionaires and strongmen alike understand one thing: control the media, and you control democracy." open.substack.com/pub/democrac...
Here’s last night’s story about Donald Trump’s war on higher education, and what a young Stephen Miller looked like. Brace yourself. youtu.be/xk94il8L820
New, from me:
It was a terrible week, one that inspired some truly awful takes. The worst was the effort by Bari Weiss and The Free Press to smear universities as "the biggest culprits" to blame American political violence, with faculty training "jihadis."
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-worst-...
Breaking news: The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed eliminating a requirement that businesses report their greenhouse gas emissions, ending a program that has tracked the climate impact of major polluters since 2010.
"By tying increasingly severe and common heat waves to specific companies, the new research could find its way into courtrooms where individuals, cities, states and countries are seeking to hold fossil fuel producers accountable for climate damages." www.cnn.com/2025/09/10/c...
Uncoordinated federal regulations are increasing the time researchers spend on regulatory and administrative tasks, wasting intellectual capacity and taxpayer dollars.
Our new report examines the current regulatory system and suggests ways to optimize it: buff.ly/b5rGSC0
Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, spent so much money paying private schoolers’ tuition that it faced hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state programs and projects last year.
(Published July 2024)
New, from me:
America is no longer a functioning democracy. It is a competitive authoritarian system, hurtling rapidly toward authoritarianism.
This was a hard piece to write but we can't move forward if we don’t acknowledge where we are.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-author...
"This could be the difference whether your child gets cancer. Are you willing for them to die because the therapy for them is delayed?"
Powerful video with voices from top US scientists on the very real and devastating impacts of the funding cuts.
Enlightening, timely essay (from 2022):
Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway; From Anti-Government to Anti-Science: Why Conservatives Have Turned Against Science. Daedalus 2022; 151 (4): 98–123. doi: doi.org/10.1162/daed...
Hidaya Al-Motawaq's son is a year and a half old and weighs less than 10 pounds. Doctors warn of permanent damage to children's health due to chronic malnutrition from Israel's earlier blockade.
"So much groundwater is now being pumped that it is filling the oceans as it drains off land, becoming one of the largest drivers of global sea level rise." www.propublica.org/article/wate...
"Science and racism share a history because scientists, science’s institutions and influential supporters of science either directly or indirectly supported core racist beliefs" - one of many reasons why DEIA is critical for (not antithetical to) scientific integrity. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
