Julie Anne Cat
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goofyquestion.bsky.social
Julie Anne Cat
@goofyquestion.bsky.social
7.5K followers 9.9K following 730 posts
English teacher, farmer, thrifty sewing & knitting grandma. Queen of peasant cooking & cheesy anthems. Library superfan. Proud progressive, feminist, pro-choice. Lit. folks might guess why my pic's an axolotl. No MAGAts, no DMs 🇺🇦🌈🪷🌊🌊
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goofyquestion.bsky.social
Julie Anne Cat @goofyquestion.bsky.social · Jan 3
I know I am just one little person, but I have a 4-year resolution: buy nothing new for myself (food excepted). I know I will need some business/work purchases, but I believe I can do without new personal items. I will not feed the economy of the Musk/Trump Hate Machine. Join me? Share suggestions:
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
johnpavlovitz.bsky.social
Mel Robbins is welcome to leave her morality at the door during the holidays in the name of keeping an uneasy family peace, and if you choose to do the same, that’s your prerogative....

johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/actually-m...
Actually, Mel Robbins, Life is Too Short To Coddle Racists.
Best-selling author and self-help guru Mel Robbins recently posted a New York Times Op-Ed called Life Is Too Short to Fight With Your Family leading into the Thanksgiving weekend.
johnpavlovitz.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
joshuajfriedman.com
"The net effect would be to disadvantage the people the FDA exists to protect. ... The proposed new directives are not small adjustments or coherent policy updates. ... These arguments misrepresent both the science and the regulatory record." —former FDA commissioners writing in NEJM
The NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL of MEDICINE Perspective A Threat to Evidence-Based Vaccine Policy and Public Health Security at the FDA As former commissioners of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — who collectively guided the agency’s oversight for more than 35 years, through myriad public health crises — we are committed to medical product safety and identifying new medical evidence with the speed, rigor, and openness that the public should expect. We are deeply concerned by sweeping new FDA assertions about vaccine safety and proposals that would undermine a regulatory model designed to ensure that vaccines are safe, effective, and available when the public needs them most. The existing regulatory model builds public trust by encouraging open information exchange and rigorous, transparent scientific debate. Yet a memo sent last week to FDA staff will upend core policies governing vaccine development and updates.1 These measures, and the unilateral way they are being imposed, undermine the public interest. They are the latest in a series of troubling changes at the FDA, including substantial departures of FDA staff, that could diminish both the FDA’s strength and Americans’ health and safety. The memo (available at https://www-biocentury-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/article/657740) was written by Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), who also serves as the agency’s chief scientific officer, chief medical officer, and acting head of CBER’s office of biostatistics, as well as overseeing the division responsible for vaccine review and approval. His memo characterizes the actions of FDA scientists who express concerns about agency processes or decisions to outside parties as “unethical” and “illegal.” It calls for scientific debates to be kept within the agency “until they are ready to be made public,” and instructs staff members who disagree with the new framework to “submit your resignation letters.” The proposed guidelines would dramatically change vaccine regulation on the basis of a reinterpretation of selective evidence and by a process that breaks sharply with the norms that have anchored the FDA’s globally respected scientific integrity. If enacted, the framework would impede the ability to update vaccines to keep up with the natural evolution of respiratory viruses or changes in the prevalence of bacterial serotypes; it would also suppress innovation and competition. The net effect would be to disadvantage the people the FDA exists to protect, including millions of Americans at high risk from serious infections. The new framework rejects the agency’s long-standing reliance on “immunobridging” studies for well-understood vaccines with extensive safety data. Using this approach, once a reliable correlation with effectiveness has been established, a vaccine’s ability to stimulate the immune system to produce protective antibodies can serve as a surrogate for its efficacy in helping patients avoid infections and complications from rapidly evolving viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and influenza. Because these viruses change frequently, repeating large-scale efficacy trials for every new seasonal strain is not feasible within the time needed to update the vaccines. Bridging studies have also been used to broaden vaccine protection to additional serotypes of bacteria.2 The FDA continually updates the correlate strains used for immunobridging studies to ensure that vaccines remain safe and effective as threats evolve. Immunobridging studies have also been used for some new products, including the human papillomavirus vaccine that could largely eliminate cervical cancer. The proposed new directives are not small adjustments or coherent policy updates. They represent a major shift in the FDA’s understanding of its job. The memo states that “no amount of cell or humoral mediated immune surrogates” can justify approval of new or updated vaccines — logic that Prasad claims is implied by the lack of a full biosimilar pathway for vaccines. These arguments misrepresent both the science and the regulatory record, especially in the case of vaccines that target well-understood pathogens through an established mechanism of action. Abandoning the existing methods won’t “elevate vaccine science,” as the memo asserts. It will subject vaccines to a substantially higher and more subjective approval bar. The proposed measures will slow the replacement of older products with better ones and will create potentially prohibitive expenses for new market entrants, especially small biotechnology companies. It’s true that vaccines can generate substantial profits and that their complexity thwarts true generic competition, as the memo observes. But the proposed policy response would reduce competition and raise prices by demanding premarketing randomized clinical trials “for most new products.”1,3 Moreover, insisting on long, expensive outcomes studies for every updated formulation would delay the arrival of better-matched vaccines when new outbreaks emerge or when additional groups of patients could benefit. It is important to create a clear, science-driven, and well-reasoned pathway to approval; otherwise, innovators will have no reliable way to design their development programs. The people most affected by the FDA’s proposed framework will include older Americans and those with weakened immune systems who rely most on the protection that timely and updated vaccines can offer. The new approach would also evade public transparency, including long-standing statutory and regulatory mechanisms that enable disagreements about benefit–risk balance, clinical tria…
December 4, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
marisakabas.bsky.social
hey @nytimes.com i had the scoop on this story hours ago. add a reference in your story to my name and outlet. thanks.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/u...
Trump Renames Institute of Peace for Himself
www.nytimes.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
marisakabas.bsky.social
It appears the administration is now referring to the US institute of Peace as the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace.
December 4, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
premthakker.bsky.social
Agents in Key Largo, Florida ripped this woman wearing medical scrubs out of her car as she screamed she is a US citizen. Agents cuffed her and put her in one of their cars.

She was eventually let go, per David Goodhue of the Miami Herald, who also took this footage:
December 3, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
urocklive1.bsky.social
Oh. Just following orders.

The @nytimes.com reported Wednesday that before the administration began launching maritime strikes at suspected drug traffickers, Hegseth approved contingency plans for how to handle potential survivors during drug interdiction missions.
www.rawstory.com/hegseth-stri...
Explosive report reveals Hegseth's pre-approved order ahead of strike on boat survivors
An explosive new report Wednesday night undercut Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's attempt to distance himself from an order to kill two survivors clinging to a boat following a strike on an alleged dr...
www.rawstory.com
December 4, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
patriottakes.bsky.social
Pete Hegseth, who has been blowing up people on boats: “If you’re trying to honor God, if you’re shooting at the ideal, …means your treatment of other people is going to be affected by that.”
December 3, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
davidjbier.bsky.social
DHS agents appear to profile 3 Hispanics in a car, aim their guns at them, order them out, arrest 2 without warrants, and then unconstitutionally hold one of them, a US citizen, until she proved her citizenship to them. Why threaten to shoot them?
December 3, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
teapainusa.bsky.social
Trump (This morning): "Our border has never been so secure! Nobody's coming in."

Trump (One hour later): "Criminals are pouring into our country at rates nobody's ever seen before!"
December 3, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
awkword.bsky.social
Icymi: A week before Thanksgiving, the Trump administration deleted the Federal Report on Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women

The ‘Not One More’ report recorded indigenous deaths and disappearances, and provided resources and policy suggestions to address the crisis

www.jezebel.com/trump-admin-...
A woman with brown skin and glasses holds up a protest sign reading “SILENT NO MORE - MMIW - Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women - No More Stolen Sisters”
December 3, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
cwebbonline.com
Unearthed 2016 video: Pete Hegseth straight up says US troops will not follow ‘unlawful orders’ from the commander-in-chief, and there have to be consequences for ‘abject war crimes’.

Guess it suddenly gets blurry when it’s Trump issuing the unlawful orders.
December 3, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
oliviaoftroye.com
I warned yesterday that this administration is creating the conditions for radicalization here at home. Hours later, Trump called Somali immigrants “garbage,” and implied even U.S. citizens should “go back.”
ICE “strike teams” are now headed to Minneapolis. This is exactly the danger I wrote about.
The Hard Truth About the D.C. Attack
The danger didn’t come from abroad. It came out of what we did here.
www.livingitwitholiviatroye.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
joncooper-us.bsky.social
So am I.
December 3, 2025 at 4:12 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
joncooper-us.bsky.social
Caption this.
December 3, 2025 at 4:15 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
ronfilipkowski.bsky.social
95% of the vote is in. Trump won this district by 22 points in 2024 as Democrats across the country continue to over perform even in the reddest districts.
December 3, 2025 at 2:47 AM
goofyquestion.bsky.social
Day 336 of Buy Nothing (from the broligarchs): I dreamed I was hanging out in a gigantic shopping mall. But even in my dream I stuck to my no-buy principles: I only bought a service (a lecture! 😁) & ONE item - and from an individual artist with a micro shop there! Ingrained values, I guess?
December 3, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
clauirizarry.bsky.social
A 6-year-old boy is missing after ICE arrested him and his dad in NYC last week and shipped them off to separate facilities. www.thecity.nyc/2025/12/02/i... @thecity.nyc @gwynnefitz.bsky.social
ICE Arrested and Separated Chinese Father From 6-Year-Old Son, Advocates Say
The father and son were detained at an ICE check-in on Nov. 26, advocates say. The son’s location is currently unknown, while the father is being held at an upstate ICE facility.
www.thecity.nyc
December 2, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
atrupar.com
Trump on Somalis: "We're gonna go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage."
December 2, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
I can't get over the fact that they scheduled a televised Cabinet meeting, hyped it as a major event, planned it all out to show how active and in control Trump is ... and then he dozed off in the middle of it. Repeatedly.
December 2, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
brandonfriedman.bsky.social
Hegseth is very transparently blaming a Navy admiral for his own decision. Let this be a lesson for every other military officer: The Trump administration will issue unlawful orders, then blame you for following them.
@PeteHegseth on X: Let’s make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since. America is fortunate to have such men protecting us. When this @DeptofWar says we have the back of our warriors — we mean it. 01 Dec 25
December 2, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
drjackbrown.bsky.social
None of the alleged drug boats that were destroyed recently by the US Navy in the Caribbean or Western Pacific had anywhere near enough fuel capacity to have reached the United States.

Facts.
December 2, 2025 at 5:18 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
muellershewrote.com
Remember in May when Trump gave asylum to 17 family members of the Sinaloa cartel after making a deal with El Chapo’s son? And did you know in 2013, El Chapo bribed Juan Hernandez- who trump just pardoned - in exchange for protection in Honduras? I’m sure it’s all just a coincidence.
December 2, 2025 at 4:28 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
kylegriffin1.bsky.social
Costco has sued the Trump administration, asking the Court of International Trade to consider all tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act unlawful.
December 2, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
thetnholler.bsky.social
“Trump says they care so much about stopping drugs from coming in they're going to 💣 guys on a fishing boat— but set free the guy who ran the cartel?”

@abbydphillip asks the right Q as Lydia moynihan defends the indefensible & Pete Hague-Seth throws Admiral Bradley under the bus.
December 2, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Reposted by Julie Anne Cat
propublica.org
Pastor Jorge Bautista was telling a Border Patrol agent "we come in peace" when the agent fired toxic powder at him, leaving him struggling to breathe.

“No one should be assaulted for being out there protesting,” he says.

With @frontlinepbs.bsky.social
Trump’s Immigration Forces Deploy “Less Lethal” Weapons in Dangerous Ways, Skirting Rules and Maiming Protesters
Civil rights and weapons experts cite the consequences of federal agents’ use of crowd control weapons: religious leaders shot with pepper balls and noxious chemicals. A nurse nearly blinded by tear g...
www.propublica.org
December 2, 2025 at 4:00 AM