This is obviously fascist and not okay nor precedented. This is a huge setback for academic research in infectious disease as the COVID pandemic continues and H5N1 is mounting to mutate for human-to-human transmission.
I'm surprised the Democrats are silent. They've been derided as Vichy Democrats. I know all their protesting will mostly be useless, because the GOP apparatchik and judiciary can just bulldoze over them, but geezus fucking Christ Dems, you're politicians, it's pratically your job to make a lot of noise and hot air even though you might not get anywhere! The opposite will be considered surrender by your electorate, and you expect to win votes by projecting "We're the people that surrendered, vote for us!"?
One could argue what we're seeing/experiencing is what the plurality of American people voted for. Given the circus last time around and behaviors since, anyone expecting anything substantively better was deluding themselves very badly.
Given Republicans now control all three branches of the federal government, what exactly should Democrats do? Chest beating and theatrics have become boring. In ~2 years, there may (may) be an opportunity to do something, but right now? Non-Tech Bros and Non-MAGA are just along for the ride.
Plot twist: US government websites are actually experiencing the biggest state sponsored DDoS ever, they can't fight back and this is the best solution to save face they could come up with.
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