"CDC is over": RFK Jr. lays off over 1,000 employees in Friday night massacre
www.msnbc.com
Amid the ongoing shutdown, the HHS secretary wiped out entire offices that investigate disease outbreaks, manage infectious disease responses and collect data.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/36033796

Amid the ongoing shutdown, the HHS secretary wiped out entire offices that investigate disease outbreaks, manage infectious disease responses and collect data.

  • Krauerking@lemy.lolEnglish
    681·
    16 days ago

    9% of the remaining staff.
    Another 4,000 government employees were fired across other vital programs.

    We are still leas than a year into this 4 years presidency.

    There isnt just gonna be a fixing this. The US is going to have to take decades to rebuild itself from scratch whenever this fascist agenda ends.

    • boonhet@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      3·
      15 days ago

      4 years presidency.

      So that’s not inherently guaranteed. The constitution can be amended - hell, term limits themselves come from an amendment, not the original text. I believe there’s at least one supreme court justice who doesn’t even believe in amendments - if it wasn’t in the original text of the constitution, it doesn’t count.

      Luckily POTUS himself can’t legally suspend or delay elections. But I’m pretty sure a sympathetic congress can.

  • altphoto@lemmy.todayEnglish
    41·
    16 days ago

    I remember the time when every weekend there was good news like NASA launching a new space station component on the space shuttle. They did have bad news like the shuttle blowing up and the NASDAQ dropping 10 points on the same day. But usually news had puppies being adopted and new vaccines or a new animal discovered.

    Now its all about what I can’t do anymore starting this week. Like bikes are not allowed anymore. Or you can’t kiss in public or below the chin. Can’t wear colored shirts or shorts but pants may still be blue. If you’re lucky you could be illegal this week too!

    • BanMe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      16 days ago

      As a kid I remember Tom Brokaw droning on about the collapsed soviet union and eventually Kuwait but all that bad news was offshore, domestic news was all about how great 3Q was going to be and how the malls and airports would be swamped for Christmas, great movies in theaters, optimism. I had no idea it was the last time I’d experience it.

  • frunch@lemmy.worldEnglish
    45·
    16 days ago

    From the article, a laundry list of ‘achievements’ since RFK Jr took office:

    Kennedy’s tenure at HHS has been unprecedented and chaotic. In just eight months, the secretary has: pushed sweeping budget cuts and canceled billions in research and development; overseen mass layoffs and reorganizations that erased whole teams tackling clear health threats; without scientific backing, withdrawn Covid vaccine recommendations for healthy children and pregnant people; gutted the agency’s vaccine advisory panel, firing respected experts and replacing them with ideological loyalists; installed a vocal Covid vaccine critic to chair a safety subcommittee; reopened the long-debunked vaccines-and-autism debate; hired a discredited anti-vaccine researcher who experimented on autistic children to trawl government data and relitigate settled science; pressed for access to private data to fuel the research; undermined his own epidemiologists during the Texas measles response; downplayed a shooting that left CDC staff shaken; announced sweeping policy changes on social media with no data to back them and accused the American Academy of Pediatrics of a “pay-to-play scheme” for daring to dissent. Most recently, he blew his self-imposed September deadline to figure out the cause of autism and, without compelling scientific evidence, blamed pregnant mothers’ use of Tylenol for the condition.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldEnglish
    183·
    16 days ago

    I’m just over here glad that I never stopped masking, distancing, washing my hands, or carrying my sanitizer around.

    Bummer that not everyone is able to do that.

      • peopleproblems@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        16 days ago

        Correct. That’s how I initially figured it out.

        Pam Bondi said 75% of Americans were saved. I laughed, that’s 268,500,000 people, then it hit me. I’ve heard a number of the population that the Heritage Foundation believes is a “good number of Americans.”

        It was 100,000,000. Current population is 358,000,000. 89,500,000 is way too fucking close to 100,000,000 for it to be a coincidence. Then they started shutting life saving things down rapidly. They mentioned new census.

        In another interview or maybe it was writing and I wish I could find it right now, “obviously executions would be a problem for the state, and would meet heavy resistance. Famine and disease happen all the time.”

        The disease one is obvious. But famine is much more nuanced. Tarrifs. Cutting farmers off from their ability to fund their farms. Cutting the food programs. Inflation in eggs. Think of how vital a source of nutrition eggs are.

        This regime wants to make the excess death count higher than Hitler, Stalin, and Mao combined.

  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    71·
    16 days ago

    RFK is on track to have one of the highest kill counts for a powerful US figure in the first quarter of the 21st century. That is an intimidating sentence and yet it seems to be undeniably true, I don’t see how we can swerve from the path of mass amounts of unnecessary death in the US from disease. Shame on us.

      • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        3·
        15 days ago

        RFK is on track to do a lot of damage, but he has some stiff competition.

        Yes but RFK genuinely terrifies me more than the competition, he is a super-critical confluence of stupidity, confidence and undisguised fascism.

        I am ADHD, RFK is intent on killing people like me off through his policy, that isn’t an exaggeration and he is likely to succeed by the look of things. The centrist position in the US is that people like me have had it coming, sooooo…

  • Spacehooks@reddthat.comEnglish
    5·
    16 days ago

    This has to be classic case of nurgle cultist wanting everyone to feel all of nurgles blessings.

    Someone burn nurgles garden again please.

  • Arghblarg@lemmy.caEnglish
    312·
    17 days ago

    Oh how I wish we didn’t share a geographic border with this fuck-up of a nation (with its ability to spread diseases directly to us). <cries in Canadian>

    … and how I also wish we didn’t have a significant cell of idiots within our borders who seem to believe the same insanity.

    EU, please take under your wing. Whatever faults may be there surely it must be better than this.

    • TronBronson@lemmy.worldEnglish
      310·
      16 days ago

      Monkeys Paw curls: you’re now a resource rich nation with little man power or military strength isolated from Europe geographically and Russia is your neighbor. “EU please take us under your wing”Ukraine2022-2026 Lmfaoo.

      You goofys are stuck with us on this ride to hell. Strap in and less bitching and whining.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.caEnglish
        6·
        16 days ago

        Fuck that, I’m already buying nothing from the US, and I’m not the only one. Every time I go to the grocery store there’s fewer US products (because people aren’t buying them) and more products from Canada and elsewhere. Sure there will be an economic impact on Canada if the US collapses, but we’ll still have food and a functional country so we can adapt. We know the direction the US is going even if you don’t and we aren’t going to be pulled down into being a shithole country like the US is becoming.

        Russia is on the ropes right now, and the US doesn’t have a good track record with occupying countries and can’t even keep it’s government running right now LOL. Hegseth wants to turn the US military into being more like ICE and cowards like that would shit themselves before they even got close to actual combat.

        Your country is falling apart, everyone in the world knows it and is already figuring out how things will work after the US collapses, because you’re the only “goofys” that would go from being the richest country on the the planet to complete collapse because y’all got suckered by a shady real estate conman twice.

        • TronBronson@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          15 days ago

          Once again, completely detached from reality. The right wing movements popping up in Canada and Europe are just a little bit younger than ours, they have the same resources at their disposal and they’re learning a lot of valuable lessons in real time from our dictatorship. You will get your dictatorship soon goofy ass. Look how quick you are to make friends, it seems like you are the perfect political target for the type of thing that is happening in America 🤷‍♂️. The Murdoch family will get you guys soon. Don’t worry. Just stay mad at us foreigners and lean into that nationalism you just regurgitated. Goofy.

          • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.caEnglish
            1·
            15 days ago

            Yeah and the rest of us are learning too. Look at the recent elections in Canada, Australia, Finland, etc. MAGA style politics were soundly rejected.

            Goofy Americans LOL. But you can still have a sense of pride over influencing the world (that seems important to you) but as a cautionary tale that no one wants for their own country.

            • TronBronson@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              14 days ago

              Germany seems to be having a hard time with their far right, Italy, Hungary, France. I think there are more examples. You guys fended off a polished PP but he’ll be back. Your wealth inequality and housing crisis ain’t getting any better. It’s just a matter of time. How are things in Alberta anyway? I’m going to take a wild guess and say you live on the coast? Or an internet echo chamber?

              • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.caEnglish
                2·
                10 days ago

                No, we get news all about Alberta throughout the country. There’s some idiots there to be sure, but they’re the minority. The oil industry dominates there and they’re only loyal to the almighty dollar. The farmers in Alberta don’t seem to like how things are going with the oil industry domination of their politics, and certainly don’t like the separatist bullshit promoted but the oil industry assholes that only care about money.

                PP has had to moderate quite a lot and Mark Carney is what we call a Red Tory… a conservative in the Liberal Party. Carney has a lot of popularity because he appeals to traditional conservatives and liberals aren’t going to be voting for PP, so that leaves the NDP which has lost the working class and seem directionless at the moment. PP is an internet weirdo (and only appeals to internet weirdos, not traditional conservatives) and there’s a very good chance he’ll be removed as leader of the party. There’s a significant probability that Doug Ford will replace PP next year, but in any case the Conservative rhetoric now seems to be all about them being tougher on the US than Carney. Even with PP has had to push that kind of rhetoric.

                See politics is more complicated that your simplistic view of things. There isn’t really any chance that Canada will fall in line with Trump, it would be political suicide to do so. The only grumbling I hear is that Carney is being too friendly with Trump.

                The other examples you listed are incumbents voted in before the tides turned.

                Consider the possibility there may be more going on in politics in other countries than people just mindlessly copying the US. But there’s an undercurrent throughout the world that Trump sucks (because he does) and politicians that resemble him are being rejected.

                Sorry, but the US is sinking ship and everyone else in the world knows this and is trying to get as far from you as they can to avoid getting sucked down with you. You’re the goofiest country in history going from the wealthiest country in the world to becoming a shithole country because something about your culture created the conditions so most of you got hypnotized by a real estate conman.

                • TronBronson@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  10 days ago

                  Sorry, but the US is sinking ship and everyone else in the world knows this and is trying to get as far from you as they can to avoid getting sucked down with you. You’re the goofiest country in history going from the wealthiest country in the world to becoming a shithole country because something about your culture created the conditions so most of you got hypnotized by a real estate conman.

                  Im not arguing with any of that, cause you spitting facts. I know nothing about politics outside of the US. I just know that the people in power here absolutely have the money power and influence to do this to any country. It only took a couple generations here. You guys aren’t really getting out fast enough, no ones really acknowledging us as a military threat or an economic threat. Decoupling your investments and economies has not happened yet. Why is that? of ya fear of escalation, because it is a real threat to any economy, thus we are all in this together brother. you may not share the glory of the American civil war, but you will feel the economic effects, and hell the winner might invade you so there’s that. Need to do some immediate looting and pillaging to rebuild the empire ya know? Your national security is closely tied to USA stability. you don’t want hordes of refugees or troops flowing over your uncontested boarders.

            • TronBronson@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              14 days ago

              What do you think the end game here is when the Nazis have a stranglehold on America? do you think their plan is to let you just sit there and do whatever you want? Do you think they plan on sticking to election interference or maybe get a little more aggressive? Like no one’s going to go after Canada in the later stages of this? Who’s going to come to your aid when you’re landlocked by the largest navy in existence? You’re goofy asses are in this with us. They’ve already started the claim of 51st state lmao. Just delusional to the interconnectedness of our two countries. Americas fate is your fate too.

              • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.caEnglish
                1·
                10 days ago

                I guess you realize now the MAGA style politics is losing traction outside of the US.

                The US invading it’s allies would be insane, and very costly. There’s a reason why countries don’t go to war with countries they do a lot of trade with. The US is already teetering on the brink of economic collapse and that would send it over the edge. Doesn’t mean it won’t happen, it was almost as stupid for Putin to invade Ukraine, authoritarians do stupid things sometimes.

                But that’s a low probability. You’re being goofy if you don’t realize a civil war within the US is a much more likely outcome than the US invading allied countries that will fight back. Of course Trump’s supposed “enemy within” will fight back too, but the US is already in a cold civil war states are sending soldiers into other states. It’s still cold since shots aren’t being fired yet, but it could go hot. I hope for your sake it doesn’t.

                • TronBronson@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  10 days ago

                  I think there is a truly infinite number of plausible outcomes from here, not many would exclude Canada from the fate of the US. Americans are probably too lazy for civil war, but im not excluding that. This republican regime has friends in most nations and they are eager to buy more. There’s nothing chaotic about what’s going on in America, and Im not accusing you of mirroring our political beliefs, or claiming to understand yours. Im just saying there’s a reason why JD Vance is visiting Germany for AfD rallies. This doesn’t end with trump, and it doesn’t stop in America. No one is out of reach of the American economy or military. Calling Putin stupid while he still occupies Ukraine is a great analogy of how I see your perceived independence from this chaos. Yes it’s stupid, yes it’s still happening, and yes the toll in human suffering is astounding.

                  Your neighbor is a nuclear superpower spouting belligerent aggressive threats. Im just a US Citizen who’s been partially Russified along with the mass majority of this country. A psychopath has taken control of our nuclear arsenal and is holding the world for ransom in some kind of strange protection racket. Most of us are completely powerless and apathetic, surly this won’t devolve from here! Hopefully we do have a civil war and disarm ourselves before we usher in nuclear Armageddon. My money is on comrade trumps central economy and wealth redistribution to be the down fall. hopefully a real populist uprising and some French style revolution with guillotines, maybe a little WW3 as a distraction from popular uprising tho who knows.

                  They are still testing boundaries right now.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        16 days ago

        Even Albertans know they gotta build some pipelines because the US is going down the tubes. Still not with it enough to understand O&G is a dead end, but it’s obvious to even them there’s no future selling anything to the US.

      • golden_zealot@lemmy.mlEnglish
        21·
        16 days ago

        No, I would not. Be careful with generalizations as they include all the people most negatively effected by the policies of the region. Criticizing “Alberta”? Completely fair. Criticizing all “Albertans”, people who didn’t choose to be born here, to have their families here? Very different, and a cohesion/division fallacy if you give it more than a passing thought.

        Saying that every person here is evil or stupid because of the choices of a government, ignoring those who voted against the government and then rolling the moral standing of both groups in with each other is an awful thing to do.