Zac Roy

NEWS: Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration "It's an extinction-level event for science". The US government is proposing massive cuts to almost every branch of science, from NASA to the National Institutes of Health. NSF would completely eliminate the social, economic and behavioral sciences directorate. This would decimate the world's leading scientific system. nature.com/articles/d4158…

Barack Obama reached a deal that prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Trump ripped up that deal. Now we are at war with Iran to prevent it from getting a nuclear weapon.

Like everything ⁦@jburnmurdoch⁩ makes, this chart is amazing. The sharp decline in conscientiousness and rise in neuroticism among young people is astonishing. But also of note: literally every age group has gotten less extroverted in the age of the smartphone

“A generation of scientific talent is at the brink of being lost to overseas competitors by the dismantling of the National Science Foundation, with unprecedented political interference at the agency jeopardizing the future of US industries and economic growth”

S&P 500 change, Inauguration Day through April

Basically unprecedented for a new administration to inherit a strong economy and immediately tank it as both businesses and consumers internalize its agenda.

Kids will die because Elon Musk starved them of food we already paid for

your views on the economy: likely tied w/ your political affiliation (same thing happens with dems too, of course)

Trump says 25% Canada/Mexico tariffs and another 10% China tariffs are coming next week. Meanwhile, US steel prices spiked 9%-20% last week and US manufacturers just reported their highest input costs in two years. I'm sure it's fine.

I'm hearing from experts around the world about what the destruction of USAID is meaning: "a global health massacre," in the words of a doctor who has devoted her life to humanitarian work on the front lines. Millions of malnourished children left to starve. Pregnant women not getting micronutrients to prevent neural tube defects. Programs against schistosomiasis abandoned. HIV positive patients left without ARV's. Water no longer purified. Surveillance against Ebola and bird flu set back. TB patients unable to get medicine. I've long argued that USAID should be reformed, but this Trump/Musk demolition is cruel and incompetent and benefits China, while killing children just as wonderful as our own.

Awful: Numerous scientists and researchers were just fired at NIH's center for treating Alzheimer's, sources tell me. They fear Trump-Musk cuts could dramatically set back our ability to treat dementias. New reporting from me here: newrepublic.com/article/191702…

DEVELOPING: The Trump Administration has started firing "several hundred" FAA probationary employees who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, according to their union. The move comes not even three weeks since the deadly midair collision over Washington, D.C.

Russia, China and Iran have pulled off one of the greatest psychological warfare operations in recorded human history - they’ve somehow managed to gaslight the American MAGA right into dismantling the CIA and almost all American influence operations abroad

Trump has repealed a Biden executive order mandating ethical behavior from administration employees. The order told federal workers to: -Not accept gifts from lobbyists -Not take other bribes -Not lobby for two years after government work -And more Now those rules are gone.

U.S. surgeon general in first Trump administration →

This is why the entire narrative about Dems losing touch with the working class while Trump apparently showed he cares for them is so infuriating. Biden tried to give extra pay to 4 million workers. A Trump-appointed conservative judge just blocked him. No blowback for Trump.

Among the most important charts for thinking clearly about the 2024 election — and politics in general. The hardest divide to cross isn't left vs. right. It's interested vs. uninterested. dataforprogress.org/insights/2024/…

"These studies reveal an interesting fault line. While most women get their news from TikTok, most young men get their news from YouTube, X, and Reddit." Also, if you read a newspaper, odds are 3-to-1 you voted Harris. If you don't consume news, odds are 2-to-1 you voted Trump.

A 1.5% popular vote win--or as it'd be called anywhere else, a win--will put his margin at #50 among all 55 presidential elections in which the popular vote winner became president. And his electoral college margin is #43 among all 60 presidential elections. Not a landslide.

Where did Trump voters get their news? 📰 Yes, there's social and partisan sites, but there is another influential strategy that isn't getting enough attention: Manipulated, pay-to-play and all out fake news sites I've been covering a mix of those for years. Here's a primer 🧵