[ToucanLoucan]

> HHS sent the fired fellows letters last weekend stating: “You are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs and your performance has not been adequate.” But HHS was in no position to judge fellows’ abilities because LLS performance reviews are not logged in the CDC system, several fellows and former fellows told Science.

I mean why let basic facts get in the way of a good mass-firing.

Genuinely the fact that we only just barely (kind of) finished with COVID, much in the same way we finished with Vietnam (everyone getting sick of how expensive it was and declaring victory as innocents continued to die) and now are presently gearing up for a fresh outbreak of bird flu which is creating vast flocks of living petri dishes, any of which can roll the dice on a new variant that can bring all kinds of hell upon our medical establishments, now, of all times, we're taking axes to tons of government agencies responsible for managing infectious diseases, is beyond parody. It's beyond national shame.

And the fact that this series of massive structural demolitions is being executed under the "advisement" of one of the worlds richest living people, who was not elected by anyone, and has ZERO qualifications to be doing this (or anything really), like... how do you even approach this?

And for what!? Another fucking tax cut for the billionaire class, presumably so they can get solid platinum toilets for the bunkers they're all moving to after the world fucking ends.

[__MatrixMan__]

You approach it by coordinating en masse to come up with a small list of reasonable demands, get widespread consensus on it, switch from W2 to I9 and withhold both your federal taxes and your mortgage payments until the demands are met. If they wanna play chicken re: crashing the system, well that's a game that two can play.

Or at least that's what my rough draft looks like anyway. Though I suspect that hunger may end up being a more potent catalyst for political change than anything I can plan. Unless H5N1 gets feisty first. COVID was a warning shot, if nature scores a direct hit, that'll be plenty catalytic too.

As for why: establishing a Mars colony is going to require the kind of sacrifice that a democratic government would prevent. So, down with democracy.