@johl@mastodon.xyz“What is political agency?” is an interesting text about how to approach political activism that has impact. I also learned something about garlic preserved with honey. https://write.as/conjure-utopia/what-is-political-agency
@cdarwin@c.imThe IRS said in a new court filing that clergy and houses of worship should be allowed to make political endorsements,
-- abandoning an 71-year-old tax policy that banned the mixing of religion and politics.
Nonprofits should be allowed to make political endorsements and not lose their tax exemption,
the IRS said in the court filing.
Religious congregations, the filing said, are like families and communication between them should not be deemed “participation” in a ca…
@cdarwin@c.imOn Thursday, the Trump administration issued an executive order
🆘 asserting political control over grant funding,
-- including all federally supported research.
The order requires that any announcement of funding opportunities be reviewed by the head of the agency or someone they designate,
💥which means a political appointee will have the ultimate say over what areas of science the US funds.
Individual grants will also require clearance from a political appo…
@inthehands@hachyderm.ioI’m rambling, and struggling to figure out the heart of what I’m getting at.
It’s something about how maybe we should view the fecklessness of Democratic politicians the OP laments not as the •source• of the problem, but as the inevitable result of failing to form anti-fascist coalition, and to make that coalition into the other major political party in this country.
I feel like there’s something useful in there, something maybe strategically helpful that gives us a sense of agency. And man do I hate grand political cynicisms that rob us of our sense of agency.
/end
@memeorandum@universeodon.comWatchdog agency investigating ex-Trump prosecutor Jack Smith for alleged illegal political activity (Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/trump-jack-smith-investigate-cotton-special-counsel-f32b39962d7aee1cb87f71ea9fde13f5
http://www.memeorandum.com/250802/p55#a250802p55
@bici@mastodon.social"US President Donald Trump said he would fire the head of the agency charged with publishing some of America's most closely watched economic data, after a weaker-than-expected jobs report stoked further alarm about his tariff policies.
In a post on social media, Trump - without evidence - accused the commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, of manipulating jobs figures for political reasons."
Newspeak is rampant in American Politics
@cdarwin@c.imAn email sent by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) that claims Donald Trump’s major new spending bill has eliminated taxes on benefits for most recipients is misleading, critics have said.
Jeff Nesbit, who served as a top SSA official under Republican and Democratic presidents, posted on X: “The agency has never issued such a blatant political statement. The fact that Trump and his minion running SSA has done this is unconscionable.”
The reconciliation bill – which the p…
@cdarwin@c.imA generation of scientific talent is at the brink of being lost to overseas competitors by the Trump administration’s dismantling of the National Science Foundation (NSF), with unprecedented political interference at the agency jeopardizing the future of US industries and economic growth, according to a Guardian investigation.
The gold standard peer-reviewed process used by the NSF to support cutting-edge, high-impact science is being undermined by the chaotic cuts to staff, programs a…
@cdarwin@c.imConfirmation of an investigation into Jack Smith comes after Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, a Republican,
requested last week that Smith be investigated for
“unprecedented interference in the 2024 election”.
The Hatch Act,
a federal law passed in 1939, limits certain political activities of federal employees.
Trump, along with other prominent Republican lawmakers, have argued that Smith’s investigations into Trump amounted to illegal political activity.
Smi…
@cdarwin@c.im @cdarwin@c.imDame Stella Rimington, the first woman to head MI5,
has passed away.
The Daily Express obituary highlights her trailblazing career.
Appointed director general in 1992, she was globally recognized as the first female head of an intelligence agency.
Rimington joined MI5 in 1967 as a part-time typist at the British High Commission in New Delhi,
transitioning from what she described as a “bored housewife”.
Throughout her career, she confronted Russian spie…
@cdarwin@c.imIf a sitting president can direct the IRS to investigate political enemies, revoke nonprofit status from dissenting institutions, or selectively enforce tax law to reward loyalty,
the agency no longer serves the public.
It serves power.
The slow hollowing of the IRS through funding cuts, staff attrition, and the erosion of norms yields the same result:
a weakened institution unable to enforce the law, uphold equity, or hold the powerful to account.
And when th…
@cdarwin@c.imBack in 1964, microbiologist Tom Brock received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study how life works at high temperatures,
a question that took him to Yellowstone’s hot springs in search of extremophiles.
There, he and his student discovered a bacteria they called Thermus aquaticus,
which had enzymes that could work at incredibly high temperatures.
Two decades later, this discovery paved the way for the development of a technique called polymerase ch…
