Issues You May Know, 23 May 2025.
A list of things you might want to know about - or write your reps about.
Romania’s Trumpian candidate lost the election.
Pro-EU Dan beats Trumpist Simion in Romania's closely watched vote | DW News May 19, 2025 The pro-European Union mayor of Bucharest has won the Romanian presidential election. Nicusor Dan defeated a hard-right nationalist opponent who modeled his campaign on that of Donald Trump.
Of course in keeping with being openly Trumpian, he’s refusing to concede.
All that the Trump regime intends is chaos, including in space and planetary sciences.
NASA budget proposal boosts human exploration — at expense of science - “Skinny” funding prioritizes a focus on Moon and Mars missions over science and projects characterized as “grossly expensive.” By Jack Daleo | Published: May 2, 2025 | Last updated on May 5, 2025 - ASTRONOMY “Slashing NASA’s budget by this much, this quickly, without the input of a confirmed NASA administrator or in response to a considered policy goal, won’t make the agency more efficient — it will cause chaos, waste the taxpayers’ investment, and undermine American leadership in space,” The Planetary Society said in a statement Friday.
My letter to reps:
Defunding science at NASA to give big contracts with taxpayer money to private businesses and tech tycoons is not right for our future nor for the taxpayers of today. Slashing science budgets are causing chaos and waste taxpayer investment. Anyone serious about cutting waste shouldn't want that.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
People worried enough to tune into a middle of the night committee meeting in Congress.
I was up when the Republicans, also apparently vampires, had a committee meeting during the witching hours. The AP youtube livestream chat was super active and mostly negative to the bill.
Plans to get rid of the free IRS Direct File program are wholly wrong.
Rob Bresnahan bought Intuit stocks and now there's a report that Trump is planning on getting rid of IRS Direct File program.
I'm sure it's a big coincidence. They've been floating this since the election. And these Republicans have campaigned on making government paperwork easier, but what they're doing is just funnelling the public to tax preparation services that shouldn't be needed just so these outfits can skim the refunds of working people.
Letter to reps:
Keep and expand the IRS free tax filing “Direct File” service. We need this as a permanent option. It just makes sense.
Feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
AI therapy doesn't exist because it misses the point of therapy, which is a relationship.
People are rightly concerned about people using chatbots for therapy when it's a big surveillance tool in league with government that's not just contemptuous of privacy, but now in the US is headed up by officials and agencies that are targeting people for their political positions. Chatbot therapy is a good way to make yourself a sitting duck for political abuse of psychiatry.
There's been evidence for years that the type of therapy you get isn't as indicative about how effective it is, that it's the actual relationship with the therapist that counts. Most preferably a trusted relationship. That's why all the advice out there tells you to switch therapists and don't feel bad about it if it's not working. A client can't have a relationship with a chatbot because AI doesn't exist like that, it's not sentient and can't really even pretend to be.
My letter to reps:
Chatbot therapy defeats the purpose of mental health therapy since the therapeutic value is in the relationship with a trained professional. This should not be offered as a substitute or even a supplement to mental healthcare.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
FYI: I don’t use the term “behavioural health” because it’s just furthering the PR framing of mental healthcare being about controlling behavior rather than relieving suffering, and that in itself is a form of political abuse of psychiatry.
Trump met with leader of the Proud Boys at his home in Florida.
The New Republic - Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling May 5, 2025 Trump Reportedly Told January 6 Militant and Hate Leader “I Love You” Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and his mother met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. “He called me and my Mother over while we were at dinner and said he was sorry for what Joe Biden did to all J6ers,” Tarrio posted on X. “He knew the hardships me and my family faced for [three] long years.” “He knew how many times they moved me. And he said he is working on making things right. I thanked him for giving me my life back,” Tarrio continued. “He replied with … I Love You guys.” “To the J6ers he wanted me to send y’all a message,” Tarrio wrote. “He said … Thank you.”
I think every Republican politician should be asked how much they love Enrique Tarrio.
The Canadian government declared the Proud Boys an international terrorist organization. I find terrorist designations to be rather corruptible and ultimately problematic, but there's no doubt that the Proud Boys organization was involved in organizing the January 6th Insurrection.
Why did the Trump administration rendition Burmese and Vietnamese immigrants to South Sudan.
US officials must keep control of migrants sent to South Sudan in case removals were unlawful: judge By LINDSAY WHITEHURST AP Wednesday, May 21, 2025 7:37AM The U.S. State Department's annual report on South Sudan, published in April 2024, says "significant human rights issues" include arbitrary killings, disappearances, torture or inhumane treatment by security forces and extensive violence based on gender and sexual identity.
Law and order… anyone?
The New Republic - Hafiz Rashid / May 21, 2025 Judge Rips Trump Admin Over Secret Deportations to South Sudan Trump is breaking court orders as he pleases. Murphy called for an emergency hearing only one day after learning in court from immigration attorneys that the Trump administration had sent two immigrants, one Vietnamese and the other Burmese, to South Sudan without any justification, and without giving them the chance to contest their deportation out of concern for their own safety. South Sudan is in the midst of violence and political unrest, with the State Department warning Americans not to visit. Despite the Department of Homeland Security releasing the names and photographs of many of the people on the deportation flights before the hearing, the government still told Murphy that information about them was too sensitive to disclose in open court. The Trump administration has routinely flouted court orders over its immigration policies, even when the Supreme Court ordered the government to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom even administration lawyers admitted was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. The White House continues to send immigrants to countries where they aren’t from, such as Rwanda, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama, and openly refuses to respond to any judicial oversight. Administration officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio even scoff at court orders that rebuke the administration.
Are people still using the term "constitutional crisis" or did the fancy people abandon that phrase now?
Trump's immigration scheme is really just a corrupt and unfair boondoggle.
White people are also getting put in private for profit immigration detention facilities.
Mississippi Free Press - ICE Arrests Mississippi Father at His Citizenship Hearing, Threatening Deportation - by Nick Judin May 21, 2025 After Trump’s victory last November, stocks soared for the GEO Group and another private prison operator, CoreCivic. “The group that has been growing the most is immigrants with no criminal charges and no criminal conviction,” Kocher said. “The government’s narrative that they’re targeting criminals is not bulletproof. They’re picking up a lot of people who don’t have any criminal history at all.” (...) But while the Eriksen family suffers, the private prison industry profits. Simply staying in close contact with Kasper during his detention at the facility in Louisiana costs the family hundreds of dollars per week alone, Savannah says.
"Degrading, dehumanizing, horrendous:" Fabian Schmidt on 2 months in ICE detention GBH News May 14, 2025 The legal permanent resident, who has lived in New Hampshire since 2022, was stopped at Logan International Airport on March 7 after visiting family in Europe.
My letter to reps:
The criminal justice system and prisons and immigrant detentions shouldn't be outsourced or run for profit for any reason.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.
The New Republic - Malcolm Ferguson / May 19, 2025 Trump Was Lying—He Deported a Lot of Legal Immigrants to El Salvador A new report reveals that Trump sent dozens of legal immigrants to be imprisoned in El Salvador. “Cato published my review of the ~240 Venezuelans the US government renditioned 2 months ago to Salvador’s notorious prison,” wrote David J. Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. “We identified FIFTY who came legally, never violated any immigration law, but are imprisoned at the US government’s request and at US taxpayer expense.”
Vaccination is far safer than getting covid unvaccinated.
Myocarditis after a covid vaccine is rare, even in people the FDA says are most likely to have that happen, it's rare. The truth of the matter is that getting myocarditis after a covid vaccine resolves quickly, but getting myocarditis from covid is far more likely and far more serious.
Trump's FDA full of covid deniers are fear mongering to dissuade people from vaccination possibly because of eugenics ideology aims.
And anyone who thinks there's an outside chance of getting exposed to covid you should want to be vaccinated to reduce the risks – and that's everyone because it's everywhere all the time and you can't predict if lightning strikes your house or a tree falls on you and you're taken to the hospital unconscious where there are covid patients not quarantined because of faulty AI.
I told the story about the faulty AI in healthcare as reported in a National Nurses United webinar before.
Does CDC HICPAC want to make a mockery of infection control in healthcare? Chloe Humbert Aug 21, 2024 At a recent NNU webinar on the use of AI in healthcare, someone told the story about an automated shift change report that just makes a sheet with no human to human handoff between actual healthcare workers. In this case the automated sheet failed to show that the person coming into the hospital had “no immune system” and had the nurse not made the extra step of checking the patient’s chart, they would’ve put the immune compromised person in with the patient who had covid and flu.
Sidenote is that CDC's HICPAC committee was terminated by Trump. So there's no guidance on infection control in healthcare settings other than very specific conditions under CMS's HAC reimbursement rules which don't include a lot of stuff that circulates in hospitals like covid for example.
Trump regime reinstated military personnel who refused orders to get vaccinated.
Eurasia Review - US Defense Secretary Orders Additional Remedies, More Clarity On COVID-19 Reinstatements April 24, 2025 By C. Todd Lopez “It hasn’t been perfect, and we know that,” Hegseth said. “We’re having an ongoing conversation with you to get it right. [We’re] working with the White House as well. We want anyone impacted by that vaccine mandate back into the military — people of conscience, warriors of conscience — back in our formations.” The memorandum directs the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness to provide additional guidance to the boards responsible for reviewing the cases of service members discharged under DOD’s now-rescinded COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
There's something really Orwellian about referring to these ex-soldiers "people of conscience" for refusing vaccination in the middle of a surging pandemic.
The upside here is that there will be less unstable science denying propaganda pilled ex-military anti-vaxxers to be deputized for death squads or just harassing people on shitlists in livestreams with the anti-vax retiree interahamwe that Ivan Raiklin has talked about when he’s not talking about wanting show trials.
Marty Makary was copying Stephen Miller and saying America voted for this.
I’ve seen a lot of people on social media mad that Marty Makary said, “America doesn’t want covid boosters” and of course this doesn’t mean Americans don’t want covid boosters. He said “America doesn’t want covid boosters”. Important distinction. They don’t mean people in America don’t want boosters. This is the same as when Stephen Miller says “America voted for this” and insert whatever horrible courts defying unconstitutional thing he’s pushing. What they’re saying is that AMERICA VOTED FOR THIS and their side won. Marty Makary is invoking the idea that America voted for antivax, and now they’re going to force it on us all. He means that the majority of Americans voted for Trump with RFKJr’s endorsement, and that means they will cater to those people who have made it clear that they don’t want anyone allowed to be vaccinated. The FDA VRBPAC hearing comments period was full of anti-vaxxers demanding covid vaccines be ripped off the market and parents be banned from vaccinating their kids. There’s no meeting these people halfway to hell. They’re out for eugenics blood, and they think they were given ultimate power, and they’re wielding it.
More people need to speak up to representatives about this, as I’ve been saying month after month. And in fact WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD IS OPEN A FEW MORE HOURS UNTIL FRIDAY MAY 23 @ 1159pm EDT : https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2025-N-1146-0001
And write your reps… like I have:
I want covid boosters.
Feel free to copy my letter template. ;-)
Sidenote: I really wish podcasters would stop saying "during covid" already.
Resist the pressure to act quickly if someone contacts you about an unpaid bill.
"Your (student's) college tuition is unpaid" - another scam tactic Putnam County District Library May 21, 2025 "Scammers are calling students and parents and pretending to work at the school and they're claiming that tuition bills haven't been paid."
And don't trust caller ID.
Alligators knock doors in Florida.
This is going to put a damper on getting better politicians elected in Florida.
Maybe I'm cynical but I can't help suspect this is a PR planted story as covert marketing for doorbell cameras because later in the video they say "In Florida, a doorbell camera isn't a luxury."
Mădălina Pavăl of Romania
Madalina Paval Official - Mădălina Pavăl - Tu știi ce știi
My pen-pal in Romania told me about this musician.