Brian Wasik
brianrwasik.bsky.social
Brian Wasik
@brianrwasik.bsky.social
Virologist. Evolutionary biologist.
Reposted by Brian Wasik
Trump’s new “affordability” push is basically reversing the tariffs he said would never cause un-affordability.

@nytimes.com 🤡
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...
November 14, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
“I’m a Grok guy” is the single most embarrassing phrase ever uttered in the course of human history.
JD Vance: "I'm a Grok guy. I think it's the best. It's also the least woke."
November 14, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
Worth 1,000 words. This picture is so revealing about so much about this “administration.”

Step back five feet from the dram of any photo about any Trump action or policy, and you’ll see the boom arms, the rigging, the floodlights…
November 14, 2025 at 1:10 PM
They're calling it 'the smoothest human brain ever observed'
JD Vance: "I'm a Grok guy. I think it's the best. It's also the least woke."
November 14, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
Oreoboros
oh wow that’s crazy

oreos with bits of

of oreos. in them

Real Bits of Oreos
November 13, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
I've been on the road so I'm behind the times—but if you wanted to destroy US science, I can think of no more expedient action.

Blatant unconstitutionality aside, fuck this backwards forwards and sideways.

www.science.org/content/article/u-s-congress-considers-sweeping-ban-chinese-collaborations
November 14, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
Let me fix that for you:

Texas A&M is limiting how instructors may discuss gender identity and race in classrooms in an assault on academic freedom unseen in America since the Red Scare.
November 13, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations
Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students
www.science.org
November 14, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
Pretty wild watching mainstream outlets trying so hard not to say the obvious Epstein-related conclusion out loud
November 14, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
'Matt Gaetz Raped A Homeless Teenager' is what you mean.

A teenager with a homeless parent? What? The fuck? Did she have a home and not allow her parent to live in it? Ended up having sex with? What? Yeah clearly you guys been caping for pedos long enough and you understand the assignment here
A teenager in Florida with a homeless parent wanted money for braces and ended up having sex for money with powerful men, setting off a chain of events that would have a dramatic impact on her life and help upend the political career of Representative Matt Gaetz. nyti.ms/49PSkL9
November 14, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
I gotta say, thirteen years after it was published, I think this holds up

bookshop.org/p/books/twil...
Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy
America After Meritocracy
bookshop.org
November 14, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
November 13, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
Just got an email from my SRO for the study section that was missed in October. Good news is that they are trying to reschedule ASAP (Dec/Jan). The bad news is that CSR is mandating that only the the top third (not half) of applications will get discussed for the next 2 rounds.
November 13, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
quick question, what role did he play in this chain of events
A teenager in Florida with a homeless parent wanted money for braces and ended up having sex for money with powerful men, setting off a chain of events that would have a dramatic impact on her life and help upend the political career of Representative Matt Gaetz. nyti.ms/49PSkL9
November 14, 2025 at 12:37 AM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
Forty years of study by economists around the world come to the same conclusion: high tariffs coupled with a discretionary regime of exemptions is a growth matrix for the crudest sort of corruption.
Trump Administration Prepares Tariff Exemptions in Bid to Lower Food Prices
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
Trump’s HHS put me on “non-disciplinary” admin leave today. This was retaliation for speaking up. Moves like this are designed to silence us. Let’s not let.

www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8Dteoop/
I guess I am hitting a nerve, because they just put me on admin leave.
TikTok video by Jenna
www.tiktok.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
Trump’s new national-security document rants against migration and cultural “erasure” – and endorses far-right political parties abroad, sources tell Zeteo.

Read @premthakker.bsky.social and @swin24.bsky.social 's latest SCOOP: zeteo.com/p/trump-nati...
Trump’s Unpublished National Security Strategy Is Stephen Miller’s Far-Right Wet Dream
The president’s new national-security draft document rants against migration and cultural “erasure” – and endorses far-right political parties abroad, sources tell Zeteo.
zeteo.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
you could fact check this — there aren’t 30 million illegal immigrants and there is no evidence that the presence of an immigrant in say houston has any impact on housing in madison, wisconsin — or you could note straightforwardly that this is just nazi rhetoric
JD Vance: "A lot of young people are saying housing is way too expensive. Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who were taking houses that ought by right go to American citizens."
November 13, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
It’s not over but when it is I will never, ever forget the “serious people” who buckled and compromised and abetted the torture and crime and murder for a fascist lottery ticket.
I think the core point is that trump had a honeymoon in which capital/media/political opposition all decided he was the one true voice of america. he did a lot of horrible things with that (including murdering 100s of thousands), but didn't consolidate power...
November 13, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
This is both comically ignorant economically and, on the immigrant count, empirically wrong by a factor of 2-3.
JD Vance: "A lot of young people are saying housing is way too expensive. Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants who were taking houses that ought by right go to American citizens."
November 13, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
Predictable but still amazing to watch people who spent literally years accusing every librarian, teacher, and trans person they could find of sexually grooming children suddenly throw themselves in with "actually it's ephebophilia"
Megyn Kelly: "I know somebody very close to this case…Jeffrey Epstein, in this person's view, was not a pedophile…He was into the barely legal type, like he liked 15 year old girls…He wasn't into like 8 year olds…There's a difference between a 15 year old and a 5 year old."
November 13, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
Remember the immigration raid on the apartment complex in Chicago almost two months ago? The one with the Black Hawk helicopter and federal agents rappelling on ropes? @ProPublica decided to take a deeper look. We found little evidence to support the government’s claims. 🧵
November 13, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
democrats love all their moderate, progressive, and top-of-the-distribution leaders <3
they can all live in harmony together under a big diverse tent if they restore regional party identities and stop the circular firing squad on nationalized media <3
November 13, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Reposted by Brian Wasik
A bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions.

A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪
November 13, 2025 at 10:31 PM