Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
@pt007.bsky.social
2.6K followers 4.9K following 9K posts
Cancer & Developmental Biology, PhD👩‍🔬 🏳️‍🌈 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Organic Chemistry, MS UCLA, Go Bruins 💙 💛 Chemistry, BS UCSC, Go Slugs 💙💛 Encephalitis Warrior 🧠🔥 Politics Southern Illinois
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pt007.bsky.social
A hard, necessary 💊 to swallow.
"Coalitions of the like-minded are important, but they are not enough to defend democracy. The most effective coalitions are those that bring together groups with dissimilar—even opposing—views on many issues. They are built not among friends but among adversaries. An effective coalition in defense of American democracy, then, would likely require that progressives forge alliances with business executives, religious (and particularly white evangelical) leaders, and red-state Republicans. To Business leaders may not be natural allies of Democratic activists, but they have good reasons to oppose an unstable and rule-breaking administration. And they can be powerful partners. Think of recent boycott movements aimed at state governments that refused to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, continued to fly the Confederate flag, or violated gay or transgender rights. When major businesses join progressive boycotts, they often succeed.

Steven Levitsky, How Democracies Die
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
joshuasweitz.bsky.social
New reporting: many apparently fired at CDC in 'error'. This is a failure by design given that the admin does not care about fulfilling agency missions. This is the kind of error that should have political consequences.

Unserious people cause real-world harm.

🎁
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/h...
Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
markhisted.org
Seeing a lot of celebration of this as a win.

But at NIH we have seen this exact play before.

It looks like it is the Vought strategy -and to stop the lawless firings we have to see the bigger picture.
A 🧵:
Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
mcopelov.bsky.social
Nixon’s crimes look like harmless high school pranks compared to the now-daily unprecedented illegal & unconstitutional crimes being committed daily by this president & his staff
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.
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
angierasmussen.bsky.social
I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
crampell.bsky.social
Per CDC source: At internal leadership meeting this afternoon, it was shared that 1,257 people were RIF'd at CDC. Number may not be final. Apparently, chief of staff was unaware that RIFs were going to occur so not clear who is making decisions. (Short 🧵)
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
richraho.bsky.social
Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
timothysnyder.bsky.social
Qatari soldiers in Idaho will have better access to health care than Americans.
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
david.noll.org
Ladies and gentlemen, the meritocracy
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
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
ndrew.bsky.social
every single tech idea is like “soon our robots will be capable of playing catch with your kid, freeing you up to spend more time working on your employers’ spreadsheets”
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
gtconway.bsky.social
If a pharmaceutical company could mass produce whatever compassion pills Marjorie Taylor Greene seems to have been taking lately, we could save the world
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
lenasun.bsky.social
NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
itaisher.bsky.social
An excellent response by MIT’s President Sally Kornbluf rejecting the Trump compact.

Other universities should do the same.
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
premthakker.bsky.social
Huh: TikTok took down my 8-second video featuring this image of Debbie Brockman — the news producer just detained by Trump’s CBP agents — saying it violates the “joy of TikTok”
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
thegodpodcast.com
Peaceful assembly isn’t an insurrection.

Storming the Capitol to hang your own vice-president and end democracy is.
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
UPDATE: Judge Perry issued an opinion explaining why she blocked the Texas National Guard deployment in Chicago.

She begins with Alexander Hamilton’s rejection of a “preposterous” idea that the Constitution lets a President deploy a State’s militia to a different State for political retribution. 🧵
OPINION AND ORDER
Since this country was founded, Americans have disagreed about the appropriate division
of power between the federal government and the fifty states that make up our Union. This
tension is a natural result of the system of federalism adopted by our Founders. And yet, not even
the Founding Father most ardently in favor of a strong federal government believed that one
state's militia could be sent to another state for the purposes of political retribution, calling such
a suggestion "inflammatory," and stating "it is impossible to believe that [a President] would employ such preposterous means to accomplish their designs." But Plaintiffs contend that such
an event has come to pass, and argue that National Guard troops from both Illinois and Texas
have been deployed to Illinois because the President of the United States wants to punish state elected officials whose policies are different from his own.
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
beijingpalmer.bsky.social
this man's name is written in the book of life
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
newrepublic.com
His slip of the tongue reveals who’s really in charge. trib.al/mIvP0yE

“Illinois governor says we’re provoking actions that are unlawful,” Miller said on CNN. “If I put federal law enforcement and National Guard into a nice sleepy Southern town, is anyone gonna riot?”
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
annabower.bsky.social
Paul Ingrassia is now threatening to sue Politico:

“This vexatious political attack masquerading as "journalism" is defamatory and will be addressed in forthcoming litigation.”
October 10, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Re: Statement on behalf of my client Paul Ingrassia regarding last night's story, Key Trump nominee accused of sexual harassment, POLITICO (Oct. 9, 2025), https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/09/ingrassia-trump-harassment-dhs-
00596545
POLITICO's hit piece about Mr. Ingrassia is calculated to cause maximum harm to his promising career — and torpedo his nomination for Special Counsel. This vexatious political attack masquerading as "journalism" is defamatory and will be addressed in forthcoming litigation.
To be 100% crystal clear, so that there is zero room for doubt: Mr. Ingrassia did not engage in any wrongdoing in connection with the matters reported. As POLITICO itself reported: "The woman, whom POLITICO is not naming, said in a statement that she 'never felt uncomfortable' about Ingrassia's behavior and said she had never made a complaint." This is one of the only accurate parts of POLITICO's otherwise fantastical and fictional partisan fairy tale.
Accordingly, one last time, I call upon POLITICO to publicly apologize and issue a full retraction of this disgraceful and partisan sludge.
/s/ Edward Andrew Paltzik
taylordykema.com
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
kenwhite.bsky.social
I have a couple of comments about Paul Ingrassia's lawyer, who sounds like a lawyer who would be hired by Paul Ingrassia.

First, vagueness in legal threats is the hallmark of legal thuggery. Notice the letter does not identify a single allegedly false statement of fact in the Politico story.

/1
annabower.bsky.social
Paul Ingrassia is now threatening to sue Politico:

“This vexatious political attack masquerading as "journalism" is defamatory and will be addressed in forthcoming litigation.”
October 10, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Re: Statement on behalf of my client Paul Ingrassia regarding last night's story, Key Trump nominee accused of sexual harassment, POLITICO (Oct. 9, 2025), https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/09/ingrassia-trump-harassment-dhs-
00596545
POLITICO's hit piece about Mr. Ingrassia is calculated to cause maximum harm to his promising career — and torpedo his nomination for Special Counsel. This vexatious political attack masquerading as "journalism" is defamatory and will be addressed in forthcoming litigation.
To be 100% crystal clear, so that there is zero room for doubt: Mr. Ingrassia did not engage in any wrongdoing in connection with the matters reported. As POLITICO itself reported: "The woman, whom POLITICO is not naming, said in a statement that she 'never felt uncomfortable' about Ingrassia's behavior and said she had never made a complaint." This is one of the only accurate parts of POLITICO's otherwise fantastical and fictional partisan fairy tale.
Accordingly, one last time, I call upon POLITICO to publicly apologize and issue a full retraction of this disgraceful and partisan sludge.
/s/ Edward Andrew Paltzik
taylordykema.com
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social
This shit is crazy because they're just straight up on video hitting a car that was blocked in the street. The extent as to which DHS now just brazenly puts out lies is utterly obscene.
cjciaramella.bsky.social
UPDATE: In emailed statement to me / @reason.com, DHS alleges that WGN-TV producer Debbie Brockman "threw objects at Border Patrol’s car and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer."
Screencap of email from DHS public affairs: Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin:

 

“U.S. Border Patrol was conducting immigration enforcement operations and when several violent agitators used their vehicles to block in agents in an effort to impede and assault federal officers. In fear of public safety and of law enforcement, officers used their service vehicle to strike a suspect’s vehicle and create an opening. As agents were driving, Deborah Brockman, a U.S. citizen, threw objects at Border Patrol’s car and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer. 

 

“This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of illegal aliens violently resisting arrest and agitators and criminals ramming cars into our law enforcement officers. These attacks highlight the dangers our law enforcement officers face daily—all while receiving no pay thanks to the Democrats’ government shutdown.”
Reposted by Vanessa Enriquez-Rios
jaywillis.net
Took a break from the Supreme Court's ongoing horrorshow to focus on what really matters: how funny it is for a federal judge to decide, as a matter of law, that Drake lost the Kendrick Lamar beef
Federal Judge Declares Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” Too Awesome to Be Defamatory
Apparently, Drake decided that losing in the court of public opinion was not humiliating enough.
ballsandstrikes.substack.com