I think one thing we’re all going to have to remember, is that living in unprecedented times means we’re going to have to start holding ourselves to unprecedented standards. We should all be very angry and demanding better as a society, but it’s important to give ourselves grace as individuals, remember it’s up to us to try and avoid the things that make us unhappy as much as we can, and be proud of ourselves when we do manage to find glimmers of happiness while living in a dystopian society.

I say that to remind myself as much as to give advice to anyone else. I remember dreading 30 as it approached, and feeling like I was nowhere near where I was supposed to be. It felt like I had done everything I was supposed to do, but just never saw the payout for doing it. I had gotten a college degree, then a graduate degree. This allowed me to get a 9-5 job that I dreaded going to everyday. I was under a mountain of college loan debt. I barely made enough to cover my rent, let alone ever consider buying a house. I felt like I was going nowhere fast, and when I looked at social media, it felt like I was way behind all of my peers.

That was also around the time I decided that if I couldn’t obtain the material things that were supposed to make me feel happy and successful, I would focus on maximizing the activities and relationships that made me happy while slowly (and sometimes painfully) cutting out the things that only made me more miserable.

Flashforward a decade as I begin to approach 40, and I wish I could tell you that the material things eventually all worked themselves out, but pretty sure you already know they didn’t.

Financially I’m in basically the same situation I was then, except now I have a child to take care of, so obviously that means less money. Even with cost of living and merit based raises over the years, with inflation and an even worse housing market, it just never seemed to work out to making much of a difference. I’m still buried under the mountain of student debt and barely make rent each month. I also found out this past week that I’m losing my job soon, and as a federally funded science researcher, the prospects of me finding one to replace it aren’t great to say the least.

However, even though the stakes are more dire than ever, and hard times are only forecast to get harder, I don’t feel quite as pessimistic as I did when I was approaching 30. I actually feel a bit of comradery with the majority of Americans, because I think most of us are in a pretty similar boat. As far as my personal relationships and family, I’m happier than I’ve ever been.

Maybe it’s just a part of mellowing out with age, but I feel it’s also in part due to being very happy with my personal relationships, and the people that are in my life now vs a decade ago. I’ve gotten involved in community work in my free time, and as of 2025 I feel a drive to embrace that kind of work more than ever. In a lot of ways starting from scratch at almost 40 is scary, but in some ways it’s actually somewhat of a relief. The last of a mirage that was keeping me in my stable career has been destroyed, and it would feel a bit more delusional of me to jump ship to a similar job which will eventually meet the same fate.

Again, I want to stress I don’t say this as a way to get people to be docile and just accept what’s happening, but to channel your anger and frustration into something that gives you a sense of accomplishment. If anyone in your life is making you think that being unhappy with the current situation is strictly a you problem, and not a reflection of reality, that’s a good sign you should probably lessen your ties to them for now. If they want to do some self reflection and try to come back later, that’s always an option.

Finding others in your community that feel the same way, and working together locally to keep people informed and prepared for policy changes before they happen, is one of the easiest ways you can improve your immediate surroundings and feel some power in a situation where we’re all pretty powerless.

Most of the senators and representatives we’ve elected to represent us and look out for our interests are failing hard. It’s important to keep in mind that everything happening at a federal level is going to start happening at state levels. In many red states it has already begun. DOGE inspired taskforces are popping up all over the country. I’ve been keeping a list of them, but even since my most recent update a few weeks ago, more have been announced.

Here is the list so far if anyone is interested: https://pimento-mori.ghost.io/state-level-doge-inspired-task-forces-pop-up-across-u-s-promoted-by-republican-governors-love-of-small-government/

Regardless of where they’re located, all of these DOGE task forces have a common goal. Make up a dollar amount to show how much they’re saving tax payers, find excuses to cut money for social programs (and in some cases even cuts to government safety programs that help prepare for natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes) in order to make that dollars saves number a reality. Citizens suffer, their lives are made worse, and governors and their wealthy friends become even wealthier, all in the name of trimming wasteful spending and getting rid of bureaucracy.

It’s easy to get stuck in a mindset where you let the reality of yesterday influence the way you view your present, but it’s a mental trap. I haven’t used any form of social media that isn’t anonymous in almost a decade. No Facebook or Instagram. I don’t scroll by pictures of a lifestyle that never even came close to matching my reality. I think it’s no coincidence that I no longer feel left out among my peers, when I’m not acknowledging false public images people attempt to shape for themselves online. Instead, I feel more connected to a bigger chunk of America than ever before, and it’s helped me to realize how much we all have in common regardless of political identity.

😭🎻

https://www.marinelink.com/news/elon-musks-firm-buys-two-offshore-rigs-484690

https://www.worldoil.com/news/2021/1/25/elon-musk-s-gas-drilling-plans-in-texas-meet-legal-resistance

https://www.forbes.com/sites/cyrusfarivar/2025/03/17/power-hungry-ai-data-centers-seek-more-quick-and-dirty-mobile-gas-turbines/

https://www.npr.org/2024/09/11/nx-s1-5088134/elon-musk-ai-xai-supercomputer-memphis-pollution

🎻😭

I will say though, I’ve been suspicious he’s had long standing plans to just dump Tesla at some point in the near future anyway. I’m hopeful the point he was planning to jump ship and sell off his stock has gotten beyond his control and he can’t do it without majorly fucking himself over.

Aside from everything else he’s done to get deeply involved in the oil and gas industry, what made me really suspicious was when DOGE removed all EV charging stations from federal buildings for not being “mission critical.”

https://gizmodo.com/u-s-government-removing-ev-chargers-from-all-federal-buildings-because-they-are-not-mission-critical-2000566987

Thank you for your reply!

Again, I am sorry if my understanding is way off base. So the house of Lords are all elected, and and peers are selected by elected members?

How much sway do individual peers currently have?

I’m not sure if a good U.S. comparison (if one exists) to peers needing to be vetted would be similar to U.S. lobbyists or if peers have more direct roles in law making, similar positions that individuals in the U.S. are nominated for (such as Kratsios’ OSTP nomination), which then has to be approved by the Senate.

In the case of U.S. nominees for executive positions, they are supposed to be vetted by bipartisan committees of elected senators that will not pass them on to be nominated by the entire Senate if they are not fit to serve those positions. It’s supposed to act like a safeguard, because once fitness is approved by those committees, it would basically take an act of God (for some reason) to keep the main Senate vote from approving the nomination. While I think it’s a good thing those committees exist, they also fail horribly to do what they’re actually supposed to do.

This U.S. election in particular has shown us what a joke that entire process is, and not only resulted in approval of Kratsios’ nomination by a Senate committee which s supposed to make decisions for U.S. science (only 4 of 13 Democrats bothered to object to his fitness), it has also resulted in several other individuals being approved who are clearly unfit for their roles. Such as RFK Jr., who is famous for his anti-vax and anti-science rhetoric, being approved by another committee for our secretary of health and human services. In that case, the committee decision came down to the vote of one Republican senator who is also a physician, and has publicly stated he is very pro vaccination and hoped to never have to witness another parent lose a child to a preventable disease. Yet for some reason, he voted to approve his fitness to serve.

I have no idea why, but we now have measles outbreaks in parts of the country which have resulted the death of at least one child. Here is an article about that same Senators displeasure with new vaccination policy in his own state. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/16/louisiana-vaccines-rfk-jr

Either way, in those two cases, I can see how the positions are a great thing to have, but only when the people who are elected to the positions actually do their jobs. Instead what we have is basically theatre that, as you correctly put it, just further undermines credibility of the entire government.

Hi all, Hope this is ok for me to post here, apologies if not. I’m in the U.S. and recently joined Lemmy looking for a place to have uncensored discussions about U.S. and global issues.

I am curious to hear how U.K.ers feel about this proposed law. It seems like an attempt to create some additional checks and balances and avoid unchecked power by the Prime Minister.

Watching executive power currently being used as a weapon to destroy any chance of public opinion pumping the breaks on insane policy makes this seem like a good idea, but I also know legal process and politics are very different in the U.K., so I would love to hear U.K. thoughts and opinions about this. If there is a better place for me to post this, I will delete it and move it there.

The reason this article caught my attention, is the mention of the former special adviser to David Davis, and his opposition to the bill.

I’ll be honest, before last month, I didn’t know who David Davis was, but have taken an interest in his connection to U.S. politics and the Trump administration.

Davis is the father-in-law of Michael Kratsios, Trump’s Science Advisor nominee and Director of Office of Science and Technology Policy. Kratsios is also a former employee of Peter Theil, and is focused on AI policy.

Given the UK-US refusal to join other countries signing an AI declaration, (which included agreeing to join other countries in defending against a cyber attack by another nation like oh idk…Russia), I find the connection between Davis and Kratsios very suspicious. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8edn0n58gwo

I also know that Musk is planning on opening an xAI branch in the UK, and I have been screaming into the void for months trying to warn people in the U.S. about his xAI data centers. I’m not sure how much news coverage this has received in the U.K., but there’s been hardly any focused coverage of all of the shady things surrounding xAI in the U.S.

I hope voters in the U.K. are aware of all of these things, if only for the sake of staying informed. Let me know if you would like to discuss any of this stuff, or know of a community that would be better to start a discussion about this.

Thanks!

Yeah there is a big list of people he might choose from, but I just feel like there has been such an obvious attempt lately to steer public attention towards Fauci and the NIH. I haven’t heard Hilary’s name mentioned in a while. I think the first will be a recipient of more recent public attention to test the waters. If the public doesn’t push back on it then he starts going after anyone he wants. This is why it’s never a good idea to encourage people to be quiet and keep their heads down when their head aren’t on the chopping block (yet).

They are pushing some very questionable and some outright incorrect theories as fact, so that when the “hammer of justice” comes down on Fauci, the public isn’t just expecting it, they’re cheering it.

https://heartland.org/publications/85800/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/3353058/experts-anthony-fauci-have-themselves-to-blame-for-distrust-of-institutions/

And then this one 🙄 jfc: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/faith-freedom-self-reliance/3350311/coordinated-plan-to-hide-governments-transgender-mice/

Nah, unless some things change very quickly, he will want to make retaliation against famous political enemies very public

Falling out of windows will be reserved for lesser known journalists, citizens, and even Republican law makers that dare to speak out against any of his policies.

I imagine famous political enemies at best night experience something like Putin’s wet dream from The 3rd empire novel:

“representatives of the American elite: President [George] Bush III and former presidents Bill Clinton, Bush Junior, and Hillary Clinton; current and former members of the cabinet, the House, and the Senate; bankers and industrialists; newspaper commentators and television anchors; famous attorneys and top models; pop singers and Hollywood actresses. All of them passed through Red Square in shackles and with nameplates around their necks. … The Russian government was letting its own citizens and the whole world know that Russia had fought with and vanquished not only the American army but the American civilization.”

Here is a snapshot of an Atlantic article from a few years ago about the novel. It seems to quite literally be Putin’s playbook sprinkled with some fanfiction about his deepest hopes and desires. The person that wrote the article is a professor in the U.S. that fled Russia and has been trying and failing to warn people about this book for years.

https://archive.is/CSBaa

There could be several people Trump has in mind for the first political enemy to be arrested, but my money would be on Anthony Fauci. They have been setting this guy up in a very elaborate way for years, but especially since last summer.

Below is a comment I made about the autopen pardon claim, but I’m just pasting it here so that more people can be aware of some facts before Trump starts making more bs claims to justify his bs policies:

Not sure if he has already said anything about the Fauci pardon, but almost certainly will be making the argument against him too.

I wrote about it a little in the post I made and plan to update with more information in a longer follow up post.

So Biden’s pardon to Fauci is backdated to 2014, the year the NIH issued pause on funding for gain of function (GOF) research. The pause was only meant to apply to research that increased the contagion or virulence of a pathogen with enhanced pandemic potential (ePPP).

From the time the notice was issued, many scientists were worried about the use of the term GOF because most virology and vaccine research involves what is by definition GOF research. Any modification of genetic material during an experiment could meet the definition of GOF. Whether it is traditional vaccine research where genetic alteration is used to increase yields for vaccine strains or even steps of genetic modification for mRNA vaccines which don’t require an inactive or weak pathogen to create a vaccine.

Anyway, this past summer during House Oversight COVID-19 Select Subcommitee Hearings into the NIH funding for the EcoHealth Alliance collaboration with Wuhan Institute of Virology, the subcommitee asked the deputy director of the NIH this question:

Rep Lesko: “Dr. Tabak, did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through EcoHealth?” Dr. Tabak: “It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research. If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did…the generic term is research that goes on in many, many labs around the country. It is not regulated. And the reason it’s not regulated is it poses no threat or harm to anybody.” https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-nih-repeatedly-refutes-ecohealth-alliance-president-dr-peter-daszaks-testimony-tabak-testimony-reveals-federal-grant-procedures-in-need-of-serious-reform/

The Subcommitee claims this contradicts previous testimony given by Anthony Fauci. It seems pretty clear Fauci was referring to GOF as it was used in the 2014 NIH pause and Tabak was using it regarding the broad definition. However, the conclusion of many is that Fauci willingly misled the American public when he said the NIH does not support GOF research.

Biden has never acknowledged this is what the pardon was about, but it would be quite the coincidence if the 2014 backdate had nothing to do with this.

And of course the Heritage Foundation has jumped on to the we need to end dangerous GOF funding train https://www.heritage.org/public-health/commentary/president-trump-should-reinstate-president-obamas-moratorium-risky

Out of a concern for public safety of course.

Thanks!

Also just need to add that I am so glad I started using lemmy. Without it, the death rattle of publicly available information and the internet would probably have been enough to make me give up any will to fight against the Broligarchy.

Finding so many people that have been way ahead of the game for years has motivated me to keep going even when you have to give up what’s familiar and learn new ways around censorship

Thank you!

I think the lives are collateral damage. RFK Jr spouts all his BS about being anti vax bc of “big pharma” corruption.

Yet he had dinner with the CEO of Pfizer right before he was confirmed by the Senate. https://fortune.com/well/2025/02/04/pfizer-ceo-had-dinner-with-rfk-jr-cautiously-optimistic-despite-vaccine-controversy/

There is a very long convoluted story behind all of this going back to the COVID lab leak theory and the director of the CDC at the time Robert Redfield. That will be the focus of my next blog post, but he’s been all over the news recently pushing the lab leak theory. Coincidentally he was also one of the two individuals that wrote the Heritage Foundation’s praise of Trump’s EO attacking vaccine research. https://www.heritage.org/public-health/commentary/president-trump-should-reinstate-president-obamas-moratorium-risky

It just so happened that article came out on Feb 13. Feb 14th, the HHS under RFK announces they are granting a Pharmaceutical company, Zoetis, a provisional patent for a bird flu vaccine. Zoetis is a spin off of Pfizer but allegedly fully independent.

Then on the 25th Pfizer and Zoetis shareholds suddenly peak in a very similar pattern, while Moderna shares take a tumble overnight (I cover all of this with images of the sock market trends in my blue sky post I linked in this post).

The morning of the 26th, HHS says they’re considering pulling funds granted by Biden to Moderna for an mRNA bird flu vaccine. That same day senator Roger Marshall re-proposes a senate bill that would effectively end all public funding for vaccine research, making it completely privatized.

Meanwhile it turns out Pfizer and Moderna have been in a legal battle for mRNA vaccine patent rights in the U.S. and Germany. Then today the NIH starts telling researchers they can’t include any mRNA references in federal grant submissions

So, the sicker and more desperate people are when a bird flu pandemic finally hits, the more they will be in complete control of a vaccine roll out. It will be completely private so they can charge as much as they want and make up whatever rules they want, and if we want vaccines we better play by their rules or tough shit.

Trump gets to make all the money he didn’t get to make during COVID because of all that pesky NIH publicly funded science that made mRNA vaccine technology possible.

It’s a win win for everyone involved in his administration and the giant pharmaceutical companies RFK allegedly despises.

I don’t really use blue sky but here is my attempt to make a series of skeets(?) explaining exactly how they could be making a lot of money off of this https://bsky.app/profile/pimentomori123.bsky.social/post/3lkoogcqvo22o

Just hoping somebody points this out before we’re in the thick of a bird flu pandemic

Hmm wonder what possibly could be motivating an attack against mRNA vaccine technology.

All references to mRNA vaccines should be scrubbed from future grant applications… As in no federal funding for mRNA vaccines. Which would leave only privately funded research with no public input or oversight/transparency.

It’s every major platform. Even Substack is just so ridiculous at this point. Idk if it’s even necessarily Russians, but just the ability of wealthy people to buy algorithm control and push an agenda.

I tried to use Substack for a min but just kept getting frustrated with the inability to sort feed content of any accounts unless you follow them already. Like something would happen and I would want to discuss it with a large group of people and learn information while it’s still relevant, but there’s no way to do that.

For some reason I kept seeing the same messaging over and over pushed on my feed trying to convince me that Pete Buttigeg is somehow the same as AOC or Bernie Sanders (which logic should tell you wtf no he’s not) then yesterday I see the same account announcing he’s gearing up to run for 2028 and suddenly it all made sense. Typical establishment bullshit but modernized for the Broligarchy takeover.

Paying for social media algorithm control like advertising so that what people get to experience is nothing social, just media pushing a wealthy agenda but tweaked to their individual feed.

I think Russian propaganda has always been there it’s just been tweaked over the years to match the audience. Reddit has exiled anyone that doesn’t support Musk, so by default the audience is mainly far-right. And it has definitely gotten out of hand to such an extreme that most of reddit is just dead internet. Bot posts filled with one liner bot comments that rarely actually engage in a discussion about anything.

I just assume any content that pushes extreme divisiveness on issues and refuses to acknowledge any sort of logic or gray area is probably due to Russian bot swarms on most major platforms.

Before I left reddit for the final time, if there was a message that was clearly being suppressed, any attempts to talk about it would be met with the most irrational wall of resistance.

Like I tried to post on a sub for federal workers back in late Jan telling people they should be refusing illegal orders being given to them. It started to get some traction, and then suddenly it was just like a swarm of very irrationally angry comments and downvotes. Like a thread could be almost completely dead, with no activity in the last several hours and I would make a comment like that and get one or two upvotes and then suddenly within a minute it would be sitting at -15 downvotes.

Idk if a community already exists for this but I feel like we need a way to teach people how to spot bot activity the same way we teach people how to spot disinformation.

She’s got a work on her sales pitch. “Probably one of the greatest… Oh it’s not for you, it’s more of a Shelbyville idea…”

Not sure if he has already said anything about the Fauci pardon, but almost certainly will be making the argument against him too.

I wrote about it a little in the post I made and plan to update with more information in a longer follow up post.

So Biden’s pardon to Fauci is backdated to 2014, the year the NIH issued pause on funding for gain of function (GOF) research. The pause was only meant to apply to research that increased the contagion or virulence of a pathogen with enhanced pandemic potential (ePPP).

From the time the notice was issued, many scientists were worried about the use of the term GOF because most virology and vaccine research involves what is by definition GOF research. Any modification of genetic material during an experiment could meet the definition of GOF. Whether it is traditional vaccine research where genetic alteration is used to increase yields for vaccine strains or even steps of genetic modification for mRNA vaccines which don’t require an inactive or weak pathogen to create a vaccine.

Anyway, this past summer during House Oversight COVID-19 Select Subcommitee Hearings into the NIH funding for the EcoHealth Alliance collaboration with Wuhan Institute of Virology, the subcommitee asked the deputy director of the NIH this question:

Rep Lesko: “Dr. Tabak, did NIH fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology through EcoHealth?” Dr. Tabak: “It depends on your definition of gain-of-function research. If you’re speaking about the generic term, yes, we did…the generic term is research that goes on in many, many labs around the country. It is not regulated. And the reason it’s not regulated is it poses no threat or harm to anybody.” https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-nih-repeatedly-refutes-ecohealth-alliance-president-dr-peter-daszaks-testimony-tabak-testimony-reveals-federal-grant-procedures-in-need-of-serious-reform/

The Subcommitee claims this contradicts previous testimony given by Anthony Fauci. It seems pretty clear Fauci was referring to GOF as it was used in the 2014 NIH pause and Tabak was using it regarding the broad definition. However, the conclusion of many is that Fauci willingly misled the American public when he said the NIH does not support GOF research.

Biden has never acknowledged this is what the pardon was about, but it would be quite the coincidence if the 2014 backdate had nothing to do with this.

And of course the Heritage Foundation has jumped on to the we need to end dangerous GOF funding train https://www.heritage.org/public-health/commentary/president-trump-should-reinstate-president-obamas-moratorium-risky

Out of a concern for public safety of course.

You’re absolutely right. Sorry about that. Just updated it.

Sorry about that not sure why it didn’t attach. I just updated it

Thank you! Like I said I’m still figuring things out. The instance I joined says you can’t post images until 40 days after joining. Is there an alternative way to do that?