Officials in US health agencies fear ‘people will get sick’ as programmes are slashed and scientists are fired under the constant surveillance of DOGE
Zoom meetings are avoided out of fear they are being secretly recorded. Conversations about budgets and policies are held in soundproof offices, as if they were matters of national security. Many employees carry small notebooks with them, jotting down notes instead of logging them on a computer. The desks of several sacked colleagues are empty — save for the few who have left family photos and possessions behind in case a judge rules they can return.
“There is a constant sense that we’re being watched and monitored,” the source said. “DOGE leadership are located several floors above but they have this omnipotent presence … We’re counted when we swipe our badges into the building.”
A reminder enough Democrats voted to approve this guy to be there. Everyone saw this coming.incorrect statement. (Edited)This is totally false. No Democrat voted to confirm him. It was 52 R for, 45 D, 2 I, and 1 R against. See https://ballotpedia.org/Confirmation_process_for_Robert_F._Kennedy_Jr._for_secretary_of_health_and_human_services#Confirmation_vote_roll_call for more details.
I will admit to being wrong here. I mis remembered.
A reminder that even if it is false in this case, many Dems did vote for many of Trump’s appointees. Kristi Noem comes to mind immediately.
Holy fuck, it’s literally every piece of news about what a disaster the trump admin is, someone has to butt in with a reminder “what about the democrats”. Democrats are irrelevant, have been since November. Even if all of them voted against, the gop would have approved this guy and all the other guys anyway. This is a gop nomination, approved by gop politicians, implementing a gop agenda, voted for by gop voters.
It’s not irrelevant. Voting to confirm some obviously incompetent moron into a cabinet position makes you complicit.
Edit: in this case, they didn’t actually vote for him. All Democrats voted against.
True, but his main point stands. It’s not just this. Every single time the Trump admin does something shitty, one of the first three comments is about how it’s the Democrats fault.
Lemmy is being manipulated.
I’m hoping the truth can prevail over the very loud noise. But if five people come after me to argue against Democrats, what will most people in here end up believing?
I’m fine with criticizing Democrats when it’s specific and targeted. This one kind of gets there. But, you know, isn’t there a bigger issue?
The point is that the Democrats aren’t doing anywhere near enough to resist the fascist takeover and that had been true pretty much since day one. They are so hell bent on preserving the status quo that they’ll rather hand the country to the fascists than support any meaningful change.
The point is that you want to discourage/split the vote for next election.
You’re doing the same the Fox News and talk radio did to Hillary Clinton over 20 years.
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I’m sure you will achieve these goals any day now.
What Lemmy threads have you been in for the last two years? The constant refrain in every political thread was about how the Democratic Party, in control of the executive, should not march into genocide, fascism, and hand Trump a second term. Those people got heavy resistance in every thread likewise without fail. There were those who felt a stance on Gaza was hypocritical and that a genocide should not have any place in their politics.
This is the entirely preventable and predictable reality.
Yep. No one except leftists tried to hold Dems accountable, so the politicians got lazy and complicit.
Yes, the fight against capitalism and the fascists that back it is an existential issue for all peoples. So it is incredibly important to point out how the Democrats are controlled opposition and waiting for them to save us will just allow us to sink deeper into the shit.
I’ll agree with complicit, but the main responsibility lies with the gop and the public that put them in place. There are 77 million people responsible, and a few dems “complicit”.
This never happened. The Democrats did not vote to confirm him.
It’s still important because the Democrats are our opposition to the GOP, so we need to work on replacing establishment Dems with people with a soul and a spine or we’ll never get anywhere.
No, citizens are the opposition to the GOP. It’s up to us that see MAGA bullshit to get others to realize too.
The citizens’ work of putting pressure on the government would have been so much easier right now had “both sides” mentality not elected Donald.
Had Harris won, criticism of democrats would have been far more effective.
No, citizens are the opposition to the GOP
What country are you from? In the United States we have a form of Government known as a ‘Representative Republic’. A type of Democracy where the people elect representatives to enact our will in Government. The people who the citizens elected to oppose the GOP are the Democrats. It is very much their responsibility.
That doesn’t mean that citizens shouldn’t make our voices heard as well, I encourage them to do so, especially in light of all the do-nothing Dems not doing jack shit to stop them.
The citizens’ work of putting pressure on the government would have been so much easier right now had “both sides” mentality not elected Donald.
This narrative needs to die. Yes, a significant portion of Americans believe that both sides are bad, and with good reason, but the ones that believe that are not so stupid as to think that both sides are equally bad, and didn’t vote for Trump. It was the millions of Americans who are cool with a fascist dictatorship that voted for Trump, and they don’t believe their side is bad. The rest of us held our noses and voted for Harris despite her being far from Ideal. All of the people who didn’t vote were never going to vote in the first place. People are fully capable of believing both sides are bad, but one side is objectively better at the same time. It’s called harm reduction.
Had Harris won, criticism of democrats would have been far more effective.
In what way exactly? If they are fully willing to ignore the will of the people now, what makes you think they would not ignore the will of the people if they were in power? It makes no sense.
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approved by gop politicians
…and a shocking number of democratic ones. It SHOULD have been a party lines vote. But Democratic politicians did what they always do: extend an olive branch while they’re in the process of actively getting fucked over, and then portray theatrical shock and dismay when entirely predictable consequences issue from the situation.
Genuinely, I have a very hard time believing the Democratic Party and its leadership isn’t just controlled opposition at this point. They’re so consistently feckless and ineffective - and have been for so long - that it’s got to be intentional at some level.
This is not true at all.
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00052.htm
Look at this, not a single (D) amongst the Yeas
and also they dint pursue the election rigging by the GOP when it really mattered, only like what 9 months later, everyone knew the machines, states were all rigged the moment we saw the counting has stopped for some of the states.
Agreed.
Which is bad optics, but irrelevant to the outcome.
He was confirmed 52-48, it’s absolutely not irrelevant.
Republicans have majority in the senate, they would have confirmed him anyways.
Remember when RFK jr was trying to hitch his wagon to either Biden’s camp or trumps?
Dems didn’t call out his pseudoscience then and distance themselves.
Dems voted to confirm wormbrain.
The DNC is complicit in this shit show and enable the GOP
Dems rejected his proposal and he went to trump. If the dems voted not to confirm him it wouldn’t have mattered. The republicans are in charge, full control of all branches of government. Complaining about the dems everytime a republican does something barbaric is just excusing their behavior.
If the dems voted not to confirm him it wouldn’t have mattered
Oh, well if it didn’t matter if they chose to confirm him or not, why did they do it?
Complaining about the dems everytime a republican does something barbaric is just excusing their behavior.
And you’re excusing the Democrats for confirming an anti-science wormbrain to the highest medical office in the land.
I get not wanting to blame the Democrats when the Republicans are shitty, but that only really works WHEN THE DEMOCRATS AREN’T PART OF THE REASON IT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Generally I’d be with you in trying to shift the unwarranted blame, but it’s not unwarranted in this situation at all.
I’m not excusing them. I’m saying why are we talking again about democrats in a piece of news about republicans doing republican things with a republican president, house, senate and Supreme Court. I do think it is unwarranted in this case.
If none of it mattered, why tf would Dems vote to confirm him? It’s spineless leadership that spits on voters who are sick of not having any representation. The establishment Dems are complacent and can’t bothered with showing any form of resistance. It is not excusing the GOP to say the DNC is complicit trash.
Why? No idea, maybe for optics, maybe because some deals, maybe because they are idiots. Idiots without power for the next year and a half at least.
I think it is excusing the gop if on every comment section about their fuckups the top 5 comment is “but the dems”.
Democrats still got almost half the votes in the entire country and they aren’t doing any efforts to represent their interests.
Almost half, exactly, so they have no power. They control no chamber. They sit in no office. They can go on interviews and complain how much everything sucks, and I assume they do that. Voters made sure to leave them no tools to stop the gop.
They can fight resist and delay. But they are doing literally nothing. They could have blocked the budget. But they said “nah, it would harm the people blocking it”. So yeah they’re doing nothing to stop them.
Why would it harm people blocking it? Is it because they would lose the next election? Like… People don’t want it to be blocked? That’s why they gave the majority in all chambers to the republicans?
Not if you’re Israeli, which is all that counts. You got your boom boom tonight!
ready the tribunals.
i swear to god if americans don’t drag these democrats out of the country (and maybe into an el salvador prison) for collaborating with fascists they don’t deserve a democracy ever.
Not a single democrat voted for rfk jr
cool. save the tribunals for those who voted for the dog killer noem.
Who are twenty people who downvoted the comment? As is the attribute of the party, there are always enough Democrats who are bootlickers and vote for oligarchic policies to keep the corruption going!
The 20 of us who looked up the vote record for his confirmation?
Democrats do bad things, but let’s at least complain about the bad things they actually did.
RfK is doing great! - Lord of Pestilence Nurgle
he is pestilence acolyte. controlled by goauld.
don’t besmudge-tain the great-famed god Nurgle like this!
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honorary pestilens
(still salty that 40k doesn’t have skaven)
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Everything under this Chicken Taco Turd’s shadow has been a disaster
Not quite. Israel is getting its wishes granted, and that’s all that really matters.
True, but I was making a reference towards everything in the US
If it’s too much chaos for you, you need to buy a bunch of crystals, and place them in strategic places on your body, and let the crazy flow through you.
This way you adapt to your surroundings, and everything will make sense without even thinking about it. And you definitely don’t want to read scientific papers, they will just confuse you.Hallelujah to the brave new world.
I don’t know. I’m leaning more towards a raw sewage bath, to strengthen their immune systems, and toughen them up.
Yes all Republicans should do that. It makes you STRONK!
Have they tried eating more roadkill?
Obviously not, or we wouldn’t be having this discussion
probably need to spray some anti-parasiticals around you to keep worm brains out.
Don’t end up like George!
His face really exemplifies my impression of the entire Boomer generation.
They’re obsessed with chasing aesthetics of wealth (tanning their skin) but are also too arrogant to reconsider their values in light of all the new knowledge we’ve discovered (using sunscreen). So they just end up with avoidable consequences (extra wrinkly), pissed off, and don’t even know why or how so they just take their angry out on everyone else.
You might enjoy the Kyle Dunnigan impression of RFKjr
I’m always so blessed to be in the presence of greatness on Lemmy. Now it’s all clear exactly how an entire generation of people think and behave. Thank you 🙏
Rude
Why do I want to listen to King Crimson now?
Not terribly relevant - I’m crying today.
We are uniquely vulnerable now.
Imagine a biological weapons attack on the US. Do you think RFK would support giving out the anthrax vaccine after an attack? Would Americans even do it if the government recommended it?
What about telling people to lock down for bird flu?
We’ll never see a lockdown again. If there’s another pandemic, millions will die, and MAGA won’t care.
Duh
We did get beef tallow fries back in the United States again available at Steak 'n Shakes because of RFK Jr
Guess we gotta take the wins we are given
RFK jr prefers finer things, like wild animal carcasses, with side dish of parasitic eggs. he would probably actively fight scavengers for the roadkill.
Even if we took that “win” which is just some junk science to make idiots think they got a win the net gain is still significantly into the negative. You can’t run a country on one false step forward and 100 real steps back
