Dr_Aust_PhD
@draustphd.bsky.social
400 followers 290 following 2.9K posts
Grumpy old lab scientist (retd.), Uni teacher & centrist dad. Irked by trendy nonsense, own waistline, hair 📉 etc. NOT a medic - other ½ of NHS doctor. Long-ago 70s punk rock fan/ guitarist. 2 kids & a dog. Personal views.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Dr_Aust_PhD
realjakebroe.bsky.social
This is fascism. This is a police state. Masked men with guns in unmarked cars are driving through residential neighborhoods during the daytime looking to kidnap women and children.

Resist this. Never normalize this or else these fascists thugs will some day be used against you and your family.
Reposted by Dr_Aust_PhD
premnsikka.bsky.social
Private equity wrecked UK high street, says Iceland Foods boss

PE model - low wages, cut staff/investment, high debt, profiteering, tax abuse.

PE devoured Debenhams, Maplin, Byron Burger, Cath Kidson, Comet, Flybe, Poundworld, Toys R Us.

Controls care homes, vets, supermarkets.
archive.ph/tJVkV
Private equity has wrecked the high street, says Iceland boss
Richard Walker says private buyers take out costs and fail to invest then sell to the highest bidder in a cycle that makes retailers steadily worse
www.thetimes.com
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samfr.bsky.social
New post just out:

The relationship between Russia and the European radical right goes well beyond Reform's Nathan Gill being bribed.

In this post I trace the history back to the 1990s and look at the threat it poses now.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/r...
Russia and the rise of the radical right
Marine Le Pen meets with Putin before the 2017 French Presidential election (Photo credit Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images)
open.substack.com
draustphd.bsky.social
Likewise.
mja66.bsky.social
I'm old enough to remember the National Front and I honestly see no difference between the divisive rhetoric being spouted by the likes of Jenrick and the NF propaganda of the late 70s and early 80s.

Any One Nation Tories still left in the party should be ashamed of their own silence.
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explaintrade.com
This is an exact encapsulation of why I moved to Bluesky.

No amount of handwringing in the Atlantic about how I owe some eternal Promethean suffering to the discourse is going to make me stay on a site I hate, that stopped doing anything for me professionally years ago.
Well – no. Bluesky may or may not be, as one centre-right friend who felt unwelcome put it, “self-righteous island”. But the idea that’s why we went is nonsense. That I’ve largely stopped posting on a site that’s done more to shape my career and social circle than the rest of the internet combined is less about avoiding rival opinions (I love arguing with people who are wrong!) than with the fact the site simply became unusable. It stopped generating the things (good jokes, interesting debate, clicks) I wanted; it became extremely good at generating the things (racists, pornbots, racist pornbots) I did not.
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denis-gilbert.ca
Yep! 💯#SciComm
jonathanstea.bsky.social
Brandolini’s Law (also known as the bullshit asymmetry principle):

The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.

H/t @unbiasedscipod.bsky.social
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angierasmussen.bsky.social
For more information about the Friday night massacre at CDC, I wrote up an analysis of who got terminated and what that means for public health.

Grateful to @saveamericamvmt.bsky.social for supporting and amplifying. We are in really terrible trouble.

rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/the-death-...
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brendanmay.bsky.social
Absolutely superb effort by all those who voted for this, many of whom are now dead.
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jpspencer.bsky.social
All of the places in this map - and more - should have trams. We just need to let local areas get on with building things again, as they do in other countries.

Read more about how to get there here: futurenorth.substack.com/p/let-tracy-...
Large urban areas in the North like Leeds, Preston, Warrington and Hull should all have trams.
Reposted by Dr_Aust_PhD
gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social
It's incredible the extent to which Congress just utterly refuses to defend itself. You'd think for entirely self-interested reasons you would stridently oppose having the power of the purse arbitrarily ripped from you, ya know?

Why would you allow yourself to become the Roman Senate circa 27 BC.
kjephd.bsky.social
Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...
The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.
draustphd.bsky.social
An interesting thread.🧵
jameswoodfield.bsky.social
For Oslo’s sake don’t tell Trump, but the Peace Prize committee’s statement honouring Maria Corina Machado can also be read as a scathing indictment of the felon who so shamelessly claimed the prize should go to him. 🧵⤵️
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chadbourn.bsky.social
A member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee praises Putin.

The Trump Cult has driven Republicans mad.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna
@RepLuna
X.com
The @NobelPrize commission has LOST all credibility.
@realDonaldTrump has ended 8 wars in 9 months and he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
Thank you @KremlinRussia_E for backing
@POTUS!
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elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
“The administration did not like that CDC data did not support their narrative, so they got rid of them. They didn’t like that CDC policy groups would not rubber stamp their unscientific ideas, so they got rid of them”.

The damage to the CDC is “beyond repair”.
‘The damage is beyond repair’: The CDC faces another round of deep staff cuts | CNN
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suffered another round of deep staff cuts late Friday, with disease detectives, outbreak forecasters, policy and data offices among those impacted, ac...
edition.cnn.com
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amberspeaks.bsky.social
Both Epstein and Thiel poured money into transhumanism — the idea of using tech to “improve” or “extend” human life.
The overlap isn’t accidental. It’s where power, ego, and immortality meet.

I’ll soon be posting a deep dive about this connection and what it could mean for the future.
draustphd.bsky.social
Aktion T2024. One step at a time.

First: stigmatize and abandon. Label 'something that went wrong'. 'A burden'.

And when people have accepted that...
sarapartridge.bsky.social
There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.
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premnsikka.bsky.social
Thanks

Govts of Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Cayman, China, France, Germany Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Singapore, Spain, UAE, US would like to thank UK for letting their entities own UK infrastructure.

Vast profits exported, Britons stare at sewage in rivers.
If the government wants economic growth it must bring essential industries into public ownership
Successive governments clobber households and small businesses by hiking interest rates to manage inflation, but don’t inconvenience corporations.
leftfootforward.org
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sundersays.bsky.social
A man born in Pretoria, 1971, left for Canada in 1989, might want to wind his neck in (though apartheid South Africa was not necessarily too traumatic place for those who could benefit from apartheid if could manage to resist being too troubled by the racist principles of the state and society)
Reposted by Dr_Aust_PhD
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
A second generation nepo baby, raised by a pair of sociopaths and given every advantage in the world. I'm sure this story will end well.
robertscotthorton.bsky.social
Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...
Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job
US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board
www.telegraph.co.uk
draustphd.bsky.social
But entirely on point for a deluded and vengeful senile man-baby, and the ambitious fascist satraps pulling his strings for their own ends and craving for power.
davelevitan.bsky.social
“We can give $20 billion to Argentina but we can’t afford the CDC’s measles experts” is a hell of an argument
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thebulwark.com
"The president has already announced that if a judge does rule against him, he will invoke the Insurrection Act and then continue the military deployments. This is where we’ve been headed since January 6, 2021."
Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next
We aren’t at the worst-case scenario yet. But if you squint, you can see it looming out there, just over the horizon.
www.thebulwark.com