Mark Histed
@markhisted.org
9.3K followers 1.3K following 590 posts
How brain neural nets do computations; we aim to understand differences in brain wiring, using lasers and neuro-AI. Lab head, NIH. Prev: policy for democracypolicy.network. Pers views only. neuro posts: #neuroscience /🧪
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
markhisted.org
Proud to talk about defending the Constitution in front of the Capitol this week.

We are seeing the greatest assault on our freedoms of our lifetimes. The shredding of the Constitution must stop. The lawlessness must stop.
And Congress can and must stop it.
safa-science.bsky.social
Federal workers are speaking out on how the Trump regime is harming Americans:

"We stand here today at a moment of the greatest assault of our lifetimes on our freedoms. The US Constitution is being shredded... We are here to call on Congress to stand up and stop it."

youtu.be/uw1KwIBgrCw?...
Mark Histed, NIH Scientist *speaking in personal capacity
YouTube video by Civil Servants Coalition
youtu.be
Reposted by Mark Histed
how-are-u.bsky.social
sincerity and good faith are no-joke pillars of democracy.
markhisted.org
And academic journals and government agencies and blue checks and the whole world of reputation and social trust?

(there‘s a reason that is all under attack and we’ll need to work extra hard to build that back up. but we can)
markhisted.org
oh, so institutions that are trusted to validate information and truth will be needed? Like universities and media outlets and civil society orgs?
quantian.bsky.social
Sora is not the real problem here. The real problem is that in 12, at most 24 months, there will be a Sora clone from Tencent or Alibaba that is just as good and can be run by anybody with a 5099, at which point everyone in society needs to rapidly agree to treat all digital video as fake, period.
markhisted.org
Dancing hamsters too!
markhisted.org
Hot mustardy BBQ sauce is my favorite bbq sauce and i stand by it
espiers.bsky.social
My favorite BBQ sauce is a Carolina gold, which as an Alabamian, is sacrilegious
markhisted.org
This sounds amazing! I’m trying to do 1:1 posts about science and posts about lawless Constitution-shredding
… but falling a bit short.

Maybe this is the way. Will try for more cooking posts.
espiers.bsky.social
I made a resolution this mornjng to post at least one thing a day that isn’t about the political apocalypse. Mostly for my sanity but maybe yours, too! So this is another kitchen post but I’m slow cooking a pork shoulder in a West Indian rub.
markhisted.org
The most important and most democratic branch of our government — Congress, the Article I branch — is under attack. It must stop.

Congress can assert itself and stop it.

chrislhayes.bsky.social
Just go ahead and delete article 1 entirely while you’re at it.
peark.es
Well that's not how appropriations work at all

*WHITE HOUSE TO TRANSFER TARIFF REVENUE TO FUND WIC: LEAVITT
markhisted.org
"This Court has also indicated... that statements by public officials on matters of public concern must be accorded First Amendment protection despite the fact that the statements are directed at their nominal superiors."

Must be accorded 1A protection.

/end
markhisted.org
Also, a good time to share:

"The public interest in having free and unhindered debate on matters of public importance [is] the core value of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment"

-Thurgood Marshall, in the decision in Pickering v. Board, still valid today.

3/
markhisted.org
This threat is just as lawless as many other actions we have seen this year.
markhisted.org
Here's my take on Vought's threats to deny back pay, from a federal worker:
It's lawless.

Congress made statutory law that clearly states federal workers must receive backpay. This admin is ignoring the law and Constitution—from mass firings to grant terminations to this—and SCOTUS is signing off.
murray.senate.gov
The letter of the law is as plain as can be—federal workers, including furloughed workers, are entitled to their backpay following a shutdown.

Another baseless attempt to try and scare & intimidate workers by an administration run by crooks and cowards.
newrepublic.com
A draft White House memo, reported by Axios, reinterprets the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, or GEFTA, to stiff federal workers on furlough amid the longest shutdown in U.S. history. trib.al/fWCjnLQ
markhisted.org
🧪#neuroscience
markhisted.org
“new pro-presidential and anti-agency separation of powers…”
markhisted.org
“Despite the Roberts Court’s
attempts to couch its separation-of-powers doctrines in originalist history and “foundational” constitutional principles, this narrative shows that these ideas date back to the Reagan Era, when an insurgent conservative movement began to intellectualize a…”
markhisted.org
“It has done so, often in “oracular” fashion, calling on
the authority of “foundational” rules that cannot be found anywhere in the Constitution’s text.”

@andreascoseriakatz.bsky.social in “Separation of Powers Lochnerism”
markhisted.org
“shrunk the power of Congress to structure our institutions and to check the President; handcuffed the federal agencies while placing them under the full force of presidential leadership; and, all the while, set itself up as the supreme arbiter of
what, structurally, is constitutional or not. “
markhisted.org
“Over the last two decades, wielding its power “to say what the law is,” the Supreme Court has effectuated a dramatic remaking of our government. It has identified new presidential powers
and raised them up to a supra-statutory status; …”
markhisted.org
Lots of good people there. the Fox and now social media thing has twisted a lot of the area IMO
markhisted.org
better guesser than me
markhisted.org
Moosic? That was too specific for my guess. I might have gone for Old Forge.

I grew up in Archbald, my mom in Moosic, and spent a lot of time there w my grandparents.
Scranton-WB are still boosted by ed-and-med, and when Fed funds dry up and hospitals close it will be terrible for the region
Reposted by Mark Histed
perrybaconjr.bsky.social
This piece is just an essential, important and excellent intervention as Coates' Vanity Fair essay was. One NYT column isn't that important, but an accommodationist mindset has spread in center-left elite circles. And it should be rejected forcefully. democracyamericana.com/posts/c5d024...
Where Is the Line?
On Ezra Klein, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the struggle to define the boundaries of what is acceptable in America
democracyamericana.com
markhisted.org
sorry, cheese castle. But the cheese curds were excellent too.