Melissa L Weber
@melwriter.bsky.social
Freelance science writer, environmentalist, and animal lover. I believe in climate change, vaccines, and the Oxford comma. [College education doesn't "cause liberalism;" it teaches students to think and empathize. Caring for others is now liberal?]
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
The great dismantling
The White House has instructed NASA to terminate two major, climate change-focused satellite missions. They've been collecting widely-used data, providing both oil and gas companies and farmers with detailed information about the distribution of carbon dioxide and how it can affect crop health.
White House Orders NASA to Destroy Important Satellite
The White House has instructed NASA employees to destroy two major, climate change-focused satellite missions.
futurism.com
August 5, 2025 at 12:14 PM
The great dismantling
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
“If Americans don’t fight back … the U.S. will lose lifesaving medical research, innovation that spurs our economy and the ability to freely study science and society.”
Join the #SummerFightForScience to take action here ➡️zurl.co/zG9W5
zurl.co/F0Wyk
Join the #SummerFightForScience to take action here ➡️zurl.co/zG9W5
zurl.co/F0Wyk
Attacks on Higher Education Are Attacks on All Americans
If Americans don’t fight back against efforts to dismantle higher education, the U.S. will lose lifesaving medical research, innovation that spurs our economy and the ability to freely study science and society
www.scientificamerican.com
July 13, 2025 at 4:22 PM
“If Americans don’t fight back … the U.S. will lose lifesaving medical research, innovation that spurs our economy and the ability to freely study science and society.”
Join the #SummerFightForScience to take action here ➡️zurl.co/zG9W5
zurl.co/F0Wyk
Join the #SummerFightForScience to take action here ➡️zurl.co/zG9W5
zurl.co/F0Wyk
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
Dude, quit your job.
youtube.com/shorts/ORpJU...
youtube.com/shorts/ORpJU...
Quit Your Job
YouTube video by PoliticsGirl
youtube.com
July 13, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Dude, quit your job.
youtube.com/shorts/ORpJU...
youtube.com/shorts/ORpJU...
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
I can’t stop thinking about Texas…
youtube.com/shorts/ZK2gB...
youtube.com/shorts/ZK2gB...
Texas Floods
YouTube video by PoliticsGirl
youtube.com
July 9, 2025 at 11:04 PM
I can’t stop thinking about Texas…
youtube.com/shorts/ZK2gB...
youtube.com/shorts/ZK2gB...
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
One of the biggest problems with the world is that fools are always so sure and certain about everything and intelligent people are so full of doubts and uncertainties.
June 19, 2025 at 2:15 PM
One of the biggest problems with the world is that fools are always so sure and certain about everything and intelligent people are so full of doubts and uncertainties.
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
Our first post is a big one...Statement from Keker, Van Nest & Peters on Trump’s Latest Executive Order “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court.”
March 22, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Our first post is a big one...Statement from Keker, Van Nest & Peters on Trump’s Latest Executive Order “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court.”
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
Hey folks, I volunteer with the Nexus Moving Company. We relocate trans folk and their partners & families out of unsafe states/situations to safe ones at no cost to them. Please give to and/or share this fundraiser. THANK YOU! #transmutualaid #mutualaid gofund.me/c45668e0
Donate to Evicted Trans Folks Need Your Support, organized by Nexus Moving Company
Help trans folks fleeing from Iowa after a forced eviction who are relocati… Nexus Moving Company needs your support for Evicted Trans Folks Need Your Support
gofund.me
March 22, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Hey folks, I volunteer with the Nexus Moving Company. We relocate trans folk and their partners & families out of unsafe states/situations to safe ones at no cost to them. Please give to and/or share this fundraiser. THANK YOU! #transmutualaid #mutualaid gofund.me/c45668e0
@ronweber.bsky.social I also sent you a link via text to this same story
I helped build a government AI system. DOGE fired me, rolled the AI out to the whole agency, and implied the AI can do my job and the jobs of the others they've fired.
It can't. But, what DOGE accidentally revealed about themselves in the process is fascinating. 🧵
It can't. But, what DOGE accidentally revealed about themselves in the process is fascinating. 🧵
March 23, 2025 at 1:20 PM
@ronweber.bsky.social I also sent you a link via text to this same story
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
Every once in a while criticisms of American foreign policy are met with an insistence that actually the US does a lot of good in the world, citing work by organizations like USAID. The current administration seems determined to completely destroy that argument.
The New York Times is the first to put out comprehensive estimates on the cost of a year without U.S.A.I.D. and they’re higher than I thought:
- 1.65 million deaths from AIDS
- 500,000 from lack of vaccines
- 550,000 from lack of food aid
- 290,000 from malaria
- 310,000 from TB
- 1.65 million deaths from AIDS
- 500,000 from lack of vaccines
- 550,000 from lack of food aid
- 290,000 from malaria
- 310,000 from TB
Killing children is by design, I'm afraid. "Pro-natalists" like Musk claim they aren't racist, but their pressure to have children is solely focused on white women, while they back policies that literally kill of non-white children.
He's a eugenicist.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
He's a eugenicist.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
March 15, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Every once in a while criticisms of American foreign policy are met with an insistence that actually the US does a lot of good in the world, citing work by organizations like USAID. The current administration seems determined to completely destroy that argument.
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
Trump Is Ceding Ground to a Deadly Enemy, an essay by me adapted from my book Everything Is Tuberculosis.
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
Trump Is Ceding Ground to a Deadly Enemy
By retracting foreign aid, the president could make tuberculosis untreatable again.
www.theatlantic.com
March 15, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Trump Is Ceding Ground to a Deadly Enemy, an essay by me adapted from my book Everything Is Tuberculosis.
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
New Yorkers: Call Sen. Gillibrand’s office to vote NO on cloture and NO on the Republican Spending Bill.
They vote in the morning.
☎️: (202) 224-4451
They vote in the morning.
☎️: (202) 224-4451
March 14, 2025 at 12:56 AM
New Yorkers: Call Sen. Gillibrand’s office to vote NO on cloture and NO on the Republican Spending Bill.
They vote in the morning.
☎️: (202) 224-4451
They vote in the morning.
☎️: (202) 224-4451
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
Some people think getting your books banned is a badge of honor, but it’s not. As I told Ms. Mag: “It’s not a badge of honor to have my creative work denigrated as obscene, especially when that work is about queer people and people of color. It’s offensive to have my work mischaracterized this way.”
March 12, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Some people think getting your books banned is a badge of honor, but it’s not. As I told Ms. Mag: “It’s not a badge of honor to have my creative work denigrated as obscene, especially when that work is about queer people and people of color. It’s offensive to have my work mischaracterized this way.”
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
The erosion of trust in science & scientists — sometimes due to complex social/historical factors but often deliberately perpetrated by charlatans — has tragic, deadly consequences, and, if unchecked, is an existential threat to society.
"The vaccination has stuff we don't trust," said the father of the 6-year-old girl who died from measles at the end of last month. Tom Bartlett visited with a family confronting an unthinkable tragedy:
The Texas Girl Who Died From Measles
Her father tells her story.
www.theatlantic.com
March 11, 2025 at 2:45 PM
The erosion of trust in science & scientists — sometimes due to complex social/historical factors but often deliberately perpetrated by charlatans — has tragic, deadly consequences, and, if unchecked, is an existential threat to society.
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
Right now there is clear, overwhelming opposition to Mahmoud Khalil’s abduction across the moderate, liberal, progressive & left spectrum. This kind of loud unity is what authoritarians are afraid of. To keep it up we need every institution & public leader to join the chorus.
March 11, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Right now there is clear, overwhelming opposition to Mahmoud Khalil’s abduction across the moderate, liberal, progressive & left spectrum. This kind of loud unity is what authoritarians are afraid of. To keep it up we need every institution & public leader to join the chorus.
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
I prefer presidents who don't do car ads for unelected billionaires who are trying to destroy the retirement plans of millions of Americans.
"He's definitely gonna buy one" -- Leavitt says that Trump plans to do a promotional event for Tesla at the White House today
March 11, 2025 at 5:56 PM
I prefer presidents who don't do car ads for unelected billionaires who are trying to destroy the retirement plans of millions of Americans.
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
🚨 EMERGENCY PRESS CONFERENCE
Columbia/Barnard faculty, Jewish community leaders, immigrant advocates, and rabbis are demanding the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil from ICE custody.
We will not be silent or cower in the face of American Fascism. #FreeMahmoud
Columbia/Barnard faculty, Jewish community leaders, immigrant advocates, and rabbis are demanding the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil from ICE custody.
We will not be silent or cower in the face of American Fascism. #FreeMahmoud
March 10, 2025 at 9:10 PM
🚨 EMERGENCY PRESS CONFERENCE
Columbia/Barnard faculty, Jewish community leaders, immigrant advocates, and rabbis are demanding the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil from ICE custody.
We will not be silent or cower in the face of American Fascism. #FreeMahmoud
Columbia/Barnard faculty, Jewish community leaders, immigrant advocates, and rabbis are demanding the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil from ICE custody.
We will not be silent or cower in the face of American Fascism. #FreeMahmoud
This terrifies me. But so does the EO to cut down protected forests. We are living ib a nightmare so overwhelming i dont know who to call www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
March 4, 2025 at 5:39 AM
This terrifies me. But so does the EO to cut down protected forests. We are living ib a nightmare so overwhelming i dont know who to call www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
NEW: When the Trump Admin abruptly cancelled almost all USAID programs, it also refused to pay $2bln the U.S. govt owes **for work that’s been done.**
One of the cut-off programs in Syria couldn’t afford security and was robbed by masked men.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
One of the cut-off programs in Syria couldn’t afford security and was robbed by masked men.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
March 1, 2025 at 11:31 PM
NEW: When the Trump Admin abruptly cancelled almost all USAID programs, it also refused to pay $2bln the U.S. govt owes **for work that’s been done.**
One of the cut-off programs in Syria couldn’t afford security and was robbed by masked men.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
One of the cut-off programs in Syria couldn’t afford security and was robbed by masked men.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
NEW: Senator Marshall (R-KS) RUNS AWAY, fleeing his own town hall after being asked about DOGE firing Veterans. MAKE HIM GO VIRAL.
March 1, 2025 at 6:21 PM
NEW: Senator Marshall (R-KS) RUNS AWAY, fleeing his own town hall after being asked about DOGE firing Veterans. MAKE HIM GO VIRAL.
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
The greater the number of citizens gathering at these events, the louder the condemnation of DOGE’s wanton & indefensible slash & burn destruction is highlighted. Lives are at stake. Mid-terms are coming. We are NOT a Kingdom, NOT a dictatorship. We are a Republic by the people and FOR the people.
March 3, 2025 at 4:18 PM
The greater the number of citizens gathering at these events, the louder the condemnation of DOGE’s wanton & indefensible slash & burn destruction is highlighted. Lives are at stake. Mid-terms are coming. We are NOT a Kingdom, NOT a dictatorship. We are a Republic by the people and FOR the people.
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
The immediate removal of USAID funds and programs is not like a tech company firing their QA team. It’s like someone told you they would feed you next week and instead of canceling with notice so you can go to the shop, they take all the food you have in the house and burn down your kitchen.
March 3, 2025 at 3:34 PM
The immediate removal of USAID funds and programs is not like a tech company firing their QA team. It’s like someone told you they would feed you next week and instead of canceling with notice so you can go to the shop, they take all the food you have in the house and burn down your kitchen.
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
Again, the richest man in human history personally individually directed this
An estimated 300,000 children globally are expected to lose access to a nutrient-dense peanut butter that’s specially formulated to treat severe acute malnutrition.
Georgia Nonprofit That Produces Life-Saving Food For Kids Has Federal Contract Cut
An estimated 300,000 children globally are expected to lose access to a nutrient-dense peanut butter that’s specially formulated to treat severe acute malnutrition.
www.huffpost.com
February 28, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Again, the richest man in human history personally individually directed this
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
I don’t even know how this could be presented as being in service of anything other than hindering scientific progress.
CDC Staff Prohibited From Co-Authoring Papers With World Health Organization Personnel
It’s just the latest “Orwellian” crackdown on government scientists.
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
March 1, 2025 at 12:46 PM
I don’t even know how this could be presented as being in service of anything other than hindering scientific progress.
@jgrabmeier.bsky.social know anyone who might contribute to this??
February 13, 2025 at 5:14 PM
@jgrabmeier.bsky.social know anyone who might contribute to this??
Reposted by Melissa L Weber
every pandemic, every security leak, every military screw up is on Republicans for entrusting serious jobs to fools, flakes and fanatics.
February 13, 2025 at 4:46 PM
every pandemic, every security leak, every military screw up is on Republicans for entrusting serious jobs to fools, flakes and fanatics.