Notices by Sean Casten (seancasten@mastodon.social), page 2

There are no Republican Senators who take their advice and consent role seriously. Most just roll over for Trump. Some (Collins) will pretend to when they have political cover. Others (Cassidy, Tillis, Cornyn) claimed to care before they folded. https://x.com/atrupar/status/2088977604556587125?s=20

It’s easy to forget how little real world experience Vance has. He is the classic guy with a lot of education and zero street smarts. This is the kind of thing 20 year old college students BS about late at night when there are no stakes. He should have outgrown that by now. https://x.com/PhilWMagness/status/2088276071862960554?s=20

What a perfect encapsulation of him. How he prioritizes his time, how he spends taxpayer dollars and how he understands the role of the military.

Yet another case of economic illiteracy from the Trump administration. The US, lacking vibranium reserves of our own can't influence US production with tariffs on Wakandan exports. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50849559

...like anything you do in the early part of your career, it shaped the way I think. Doing science well requires you to train your brain to be hyper skeptical of yourself. Asking honestly what the data tells you is VERY different from asking what part of the data confirms your pre-existing belief.

If you'll allow me a bit of a philosophical digression here: I have an undergrad degree in molecular biology and biochemistry and an MS in biochemical engineering. I spent 1993 - 1997 doing basic benchtop research in cancer and biofuels. I would not claim expertise in either BUT...

RFK Jr has no scientific training. He's a history major with a law degree who worked as an environmental advocate but has never spent any meaningful time doing science, or understanding how science is done. This isn't "an alternative scientific view". It's just kooky opinions. https://x.com/atrupar/status/2083907234405269638?s=20

Political training also doesn't seek truth. You learn to persuade. You learn to understand what people believe and perhaps to shift that belief. But it is not, at core, a truth seeking exercise, at least not at the level of the individual politician.

But legal training at core doesn't train you to seek truth. It trains you to understand the law, use the law to emphasize facts that advocate for your client and develop strategies to protect you from those facts that create risk for your client.

Not better, not worse. Just the opposite. And having a group of people working together who think in different ways makes that group better as they all come at the problem from different directions.

When people ask me now what part of that training prepared me for being in Congress, I always tell them that Congress is best when it includes people who think in lots of different ways. And the way that scientists think if often antithetical to the way politicians and lawyers think.

And if you slow the deployment of vaccines that have kept people from getting measles, polio, hepatitis and countless other communicable diseases, people will die. Not because RFK Jr. is evil. But because he is a true believer who is totally unqualified for his job.

All this may sound very philosophical, but when you put true believers in charge of science, people die. If you think bad weather is caused by witches, people die. If you think AIDS is God bringing vengeance on the LGBT community, people die.

Which brings me to RFK Jr. Because the reverse of that is also true. You do not want someone running a scientific agency like the HHS who has been trained to persuade you of things that he believes without any consideration for whether they are actually true.

And that's fine! If I'm on trial, I don't want a lawyer who is explaining that my alibi makes it 48% likely that I'm not guilty and depends substantially on the jury cherry picking data from the evidence presented even if that is factually true. :)

The danger however comes when we confuse his title for his expertise. "Secretary of Health Kennedy says ___" gives the air of legitimacy. Far better to say "Heroin addict Kennedy", "Man who eats road kill and has a brain worm", "Harvard drug dealer" or even "Nuzzi's ex boyfriend".

"For 5 hrs, solar provided more electricity than nat gas... [between 9 AM - 5 PM]... solar provided > 1/3 of all elec in TX. At times it topped 40% of supply. Solar also helped charge up enough batteries that TX set a record for battery output when the sun set". https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/doe-solar-power-day-night-texas

Trump was found guilty of sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in civil proceedings, AND of defaming her in the course of saying she lied about what he did. He is now asking SCOTUS for immunity because lying about rape was done in his official capacity as POTUS. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/07/28/trump-asks-supreme-court-overturn-83-million-verdict-e-jean-carroll-case/

One thing not mentioned in that article is that repealing the whole thing would also repeal the massive ramp up in ICE funding. Which would save money and lives.

Repeal the whole damned Big Ugly Bill. https://www.dailyherald.com/20260727/columns/repeal-the-whole-big-beautiful-bill/