Ken Miller
Theoretical Neuroscientist, Columbia University
- Reposted by Ken Miller[This post could not be retrieved]
- I've been told Sameer Project is the "gold standard" for sending aid to Palestinians. Of many projects, this one is to keep Gazans warm this winter: shelter, warm clothing, blankets. Now they're in tattered tents w nothing, w/ Israel blocking aid entry despite ceasefire. chuffed.org/project/1491...
- Ketanji Jackson issues a stay on the order forcing Trump to fully pay SNAP now? WTF? Here's a good explanation: she's making the best of a bad situation, forcing things to move quickly; if she didn't do it, the rest of the court would have, and would have let everything slow walk thereafter.
- Isn't it amazing that IL was never limiting aid entry, never deliberately inducing hunger/starvation, or denying medical supplies so medical care couldn't function, no drugs, anesthesia/analgesia, proper sterilization; yet when there's a ceasefire Israel can suddenly "allow" 600 trucks/day to enter?
- So outrageous. Head of Kamal Adwan Hospital, "detained" by IL since Dec, held w/o charges at ILi torture ctr Sde Tieman, beaten, tortured, held in solitary confinement, starved, lost >40kg (~90 lbs), denied med treatment. They'll eventually claim he's Hamas but if so they'd have charged him.
- This is the professor at Rutgers who studies fascism and anti-fascism, got doxxed by some rt-wing group, was getting death threats, and decided to move to Europe.
- Haaretz wrote Hebrew-only article re IDF soldiers with PTSD from Gaza combat experiences. Various awful testimonies, including this from a sniper who daily served at GHF aid sites, w job to shoot any of the desperate unarmed people who crossed an invisible line. www.haaretz.co.il/news/magazin...
- Reposted by Ken MillerSCOTUS allowing ICE to racially profile will embolden Trump to use ICE & military against his political opponents, potentially demanding citizenship checks at polls & intimidating Dem voters in 2026. Already seeing such tactics with occupation of LA, DC & Chicago www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
- Again & again, the Supreme Mullahs rule that Trump can act unlawfully & unconstitutionally & violate constitutional rights w/o restriction, at least until the courts finish the process of officially resolving the legality of these acts (and S.M.'s may well ultimately decide they're legal).
- I wrote a substack article: open.substack.com/pub/youngert...
- Reposted by Ken MillerMay this portion of the dissent by Ketanji Brown Jackson haunt John Roberts forever and be the final word on his tenure as Chief Justice.
- For anyone wanting to contribute to get aid into Gaza: I've been told that Project Sameer is "the gold standard" for this, one of their projects: chuffed.org/project/help... & a friend tells me this is a trusted source, getting baby formula in: chuffed.org/project/1387... 1/
- A $ doesn't go very far, unfortunately: money has to first go through money changers who take a significant %, then it has to buy food on the market at wildly inflated prices. But it seems to be the only way to help other than pushing gov'ts to change. I attach a FAQ from the baby formula group.
- Reposted by Ken Miller“A retired US special forces officer has revealed to the BBC why he resigned from his work with US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution centres. "I witnessed the Israeli Defense Forces shooting at the crowds of Palestinians," Anthony Aguilar told the BBC.
- By the way, for anyone still on xitter: I stayed on it to read and post about Palestine/Israel/Gaza. It's still where most people living there post, so it's news you can't get anywhere else. But I've been kicked off X since June 12. It looks like someone hacked to change associated email; I got 1/
- notice: unusual activity, need to change pwd. But w/o account's email, I can't change my pwd, so can't login. Attempts to get xitter support to do something thus far utterly fruitless. I'll keep trying, but not hopeful. I made an account @zzkmzzkm just to read, but no followers so not posting.
- Invaluable xitter thread on famine momentum, famine response and the current disastrous state of Gaza from Jeremy Konyndyk, President of Refugees Intl and former lead for COVID (46) & disaster relief (44) @USAID: x.com/JeremyKonynd.... Note the alarming increase in starvation deaths; links in reply.
- link 1: on.ft.com/46iUoK6 link 2: www.refugeesinternational.org/reports-brie...
- This was posted on xitter, x.com/malonebarry/..., with the comment "This 18-month-old child is Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq. Photograph by Anadolu's Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini."
- Posts from Palestine on xitter are all reporting a level of hunger & desperation they've never reported before - people collapsing on the street, no food anywhere, maybe 1 inadequate meal in 2 days or 5 days. Mass death will likely soon begin. Here is a set of posts to give an idea. 1/
- In the past when the situation was not yet this desperate people were saying mass death would soon begin, & it didn't. I'm not sure if that's because IL let in more aid then or if people just overestimated how dire the situation was. But this time is much worse than anytime in the past. 2/
- Abundant aid is sitting on the border, if IL would let it in. After complete blockade for months they now are allowing in only a trickle. That combination is creating the current, rapidly worsening situation. How many people must die of starvation before the world will pressure IL to open the gates?
- NIH proposing a crazy new policy: they will not fund proposals involving only animal research, proposals must include alternative approaches such as non-invasive human, computational, or cell culture studies. They are accepting comments at link, deadline is 5pm EST TODAY! www.fda.gov/news-events/...
- It's not entirely clear that this policy is meant to apply to basic research as well as to studies of disease treatments, they motivate it in part by failures of disease treatments successful in animals to transfer to humans, but the way it is written it would apply to all proposals.
- Doesn't discuss NIH, but Senate Appropriating committee wants to restore NSF & NASA research funding & also National Weather Service. Good signs ...https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02171-z
- Apparently a separate committee that hasn't met yet deals with NIH appropriations. Excellent write-up of the whole process and actions that can be taken here: bsky.app/profile/neur...
- Just sent this as an email to my department but figured I'd share more broadly in case it is useful. This describes the procedure happening now for science funding in Congress (@davidimiller.bsky.social can correct me if I got this wrong). Importantly, there are still actions that can be taken.
- Reposted by Ken MillerJust sent this as an email to my department but figured I'd share more broadly in case it is useful. This describes the procedure happening now for science funding in Congress (@davidimiller.bsky.social can correct me if I got this wrong). Importantly, there are still actions that can be taken.
- Reposted by Ken MillerThis is an excellent statement of scientific values that we should all strive to uphold. 🧪🧠🤖 Sharing from @suryaganguli.bsky.social , who said this is the Stanford Med affirmation that all their PhD grads sign. 1/
- Reposted by Ken MillerIsrael's defense minister is proposing a concentration camp. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
- Reposted by Ken MillerWith this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined.
- 🚨🚨 NEW: House passes sprawling domestic policy bill, sending it to Trump's desk Final House vote is 218-214, with TWO Rs voting no (Massie & Fitzpatrick). Senate passed it 51-50. www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...
- Reposted by Ken MillerThis account of torture and human rights abuse at Trump's and Kristi Noem's behest is shocking (if not surprising).
- Here’s Abrego Garcia’s amended complaint. It alleges that Abrego Garcia “was subjected to severe mistreatment upon arrival at CECOT, including but not limited to severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture..” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
- Reposted by Ken MillerCan we pause and reflect on the fact that this statement could be made in a Supreme Court dissenting opinion without hyperbole or exaggeration?
- Reposted by Ken MillerPeople vote, not polls. This is pretty damn awesome. Now gird your loins for nearly post-9/11 levels of crazed Islamophobia, brought to you by billionaires, right wing media, and “centrist”Democrats.
- Reposted by Ken MillerHer bravery helped make tonight possible.
- Mamdani winning and it's not even close! Rejection of Machiavellian power-mad sex-harasser w full support of Dem establishment & $20M in PAC $$, in favor of a young fresh, guy really committed to ordinary people with a huge grassroots volunteer effort. Huge grassroots victory!
- Reposted by Ken Miller
I just submitted a comment it was super easy - I urge you to as well. All of our lives depend on having serious vaccine researchers at the CDC, not RFK's crackpots. - The great land selloff in the reconciliation bill -- they are selling off huge chunks of the west and Alaska, what is now Forest service and BLM land.
- PLEASE share this map with everyone you know who is an outdoors person especially if they live in the West www.arcgis.com/apps/instant...
- CORRECTION: I've been told that the bill says 3.5 million acres will be sold, whereas the amount shown in the map is more like 150 million acres. So the map may be showing the land that potentially could be sold, of which a much smaller amount will be sold.
- A Republican amendment proposes to sell off 240 million acres instead of 3.5 million. Fate of amendment not clear yet.
- Aid massacres continue day after day. Desperate hungry crowds try to get tiny bits of aid allowed in, IDF shoots into crowd-"crowd control". Never admits, never explains, only ever says "investigating reports". Famine intensifies. War crime upon war crime, world yawns www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/w...
- New Yorkers: remember, Mamdani and Lander cross-endorsed each other, saying whichever one you rank #1, rank the other one #2 (and don't rank Cuomo)
- NYC progressive candidates are working together. Cuomo should be worried. From Robert Kuttner: trib.al/19ZHwLf
- Reposted by Ken MillerNew Yorkers: If you haven't settled on your five candidates to rank for mayor, here's a simple metric to use: Rank the guy who was wrongly arrested for attempting to protect an immigrant from ICE, and the four people running against him who showed up to demand his release.
- Reposted by Ken MillerPissed off about that disgraceful NYT hit piece on Zohran Mamdani and his visionary campaign? Take it to the voters! I'm kicking off a phone bank *tomorrow at 6 pm ET* with NYC's next mayor. Join us! volunteer.zohranfornyc.com/phonebank-fo... (fixed link)
- Interesting article. Lots more besides this excerpt.
- Thoughts on Israel’s Iran Campaign and Donald Trump talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/thoug...
- Aid massacres continue every day. Over 300 killed in them so far.
- Reposted by Ken MillerHaaretz's @nirhasson.bsky.social writes that since the start of their operation, over 300 Palestinians were killed on the way to receive food aid in the GHF humanitarian aid compounds.
- Reposted by Ken Miller51 killed in Khan Younis as they queued for food distribution outside the "humanitarian" compound Every. Day
- Reposted by Ken MillerNow that we’ve seen the full Senate text, we can say for certain: either the House or the Senate version would be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in history. Each have the largest Medicaid and largest SNAP cuts ever. And each give huge tax cuts to the rich.
- Reposted by Ken Millerread the rest of this powerful thread
- Reposted by Ken MillerBREAKING: A federal judge in Massachusetts (the Reagan-appointed William Young) has declared the Trump administration's cuts to NIH grants — ostensibly over Trump's EOs on gender ideology and DEI — are "illegal" and "void." He's ordering many grants restored.
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