We have a leader who, I believe, does not, and is not able to, care whether there are more HIV-related deaths overseas nor imported into the US, nor whether heath care cuts cause suffering, nor - despite the one liners about "too many deaths" in wars tailored for public consumption - about those who die in war or under brutal occupation. Compassion is not something we should expect from the cadre who follow that lead. I hope enough people in Congress will care enough to veer off the path of indifference and myopic self-interest to save some of PEPFAR. I also was in the front lines of AIDS care through the 80s and early 90s.
I ran a nurse-led, community collaborative program in MA in the mid-eighties. Many patients, friends and my housemate all gone in their 20's and 30's. Acyclovir was news and we were running IV fluconazole at home for a patient with retinopathy. There is so much damage this administration has done to science, research and healthcare but the issue of HIV/AIDS is deeply personal for me and my disgust at this short-sightedness knows no limit. I will never understand this inhumanity.
I am so sorry for all those losses you experienced. Inhumanity is a kind description. I choose not to hate because that just consumes me and feeds them, but my judgment flipped to evil a while ago. I don't want this to be true, but I fear some (most?) of these deaths they are causing are intentional.
Blame for the resulting deaths is squarely on Trump, his lakeys, and his enablers in the Republican party. One more issue to remind voters of...at least voters who have a heart.
They’re not just dismantling HIV aid globally they are decimating HIV prevention and support services right here in the US! Virginia’s Ryan White B funding was 22 million and it has been cut to 8 million STATEWIDE. Hundreds of people are being left without medical care, emergency assistance, and at risk of being unhoused
AIDS is only one of many diseases set to come roaring back as the T. Rump criminal enterprise continues to undercut medical research and public health funding.
It's not about AIDS or PEPFAR, but want to give some praise to NBC News for reporting on the bullshit FDA panel lies about antidepressants during pregnancy. Finally at least one media organization is not putting administration lies in the headlines. Thanks NBC News.
Unfortunately, our Republican President is ignorant with no sense of history. He would not understand the concept of soft power if it bopped him on the nose. The Chinese, Russians and other countries, many of them hostile to US interests, are ready to step into the void left by our abandonment of almost all forms of foreign aid. This is incredibly shortsighted! Soft power has helped to make the US the most powerful and respected country in the world. The fool in the White House is throwing that away because he can't see the long term benefits of these policies.
When Republicans talk about life saving medications encouraging sexual promiscuity what they really mean is people having normal sex lives. This is especially true in the context of poorer developing nations.
I guess we should take comfort that it could have been worse?
The cynic in me wants to know how much the pharmaceutical companies paid, and to whom, in order to see some of its revenue stream preserved.
This news is beyond devastating , ignorant and irresponsible. Another shameful act that hurts the World. Yet another embarrasing moment for America on the World stage. It becomes clear with each passing day that Americans are being denied promises of freedoms as set forth in our constitution . We are being denied the opportunity to access health care here in our own country. We are erasing institutions we have worked to build to make health care accessible Globally. These are truly living in sad times. Thankyou BULWARK for bringing this situation to us so clearly.
Trump inherited a global health infrastructure that had taken decades, dollars, and the collective will of scientists, healers, and survivors to build. Then he walked in like a wrecking ball in a red tie and smashed it—not out of fiscal responsibility, but out of ideological spite and political theater.
PEPFAR saved millions. PrEP could have helped millions more. The injectable version wasn’t just a medical breakthrough. It was hope with a half-life. And now it’s hope delayed, hope denied, hope defunded.
You can’t eradicate a virus by dismantling the people fighting it. And you sure as hell can’t claim moral high ground while cutting off aid to pregnant women and LGBTQ folks in the name of “efficiency.”
Rubio can polish this all he wants, but the stench of abandonment is global. Clinics shuttered. Staff unpaid. Prevention limited only to wombs, as if only fetal life matters once the spreadsheets are done.
We were on the brink of something miraculous. Now we’re back to triage. Not because of science. But because of sabotage dressed as policy.
This wasn’t a stumble. It was a shove. And it’s the most vulnerable who are falling.
It’s not LTBTQ people in Africa who are the face of HIV but rather straight African men and women, and it’s spread by straight men — the initial spread of the disease followed the trucking routes and radiated out from there.
While racism is part of it, the bigger issue is the destruction of the infrastructure that had been put it place, but that really is the point. The whole point of the current administration is to destroy bureaucratic infrastructure that keeps the state running and hand it over to private corporations to profit, and turn the state into a service industry which you pay for rather than an elected institution that provides agreed upon social services.
This adds to the mountain of evidence to prove that Trump has no conscience and is incapable of empathy. He is worse than a malignant narcissist - he has a dark triad personality disorder. Democrats need to realize what they are up against, and do whatever is necessary to win the next 2 elections (and be prepared when Trump and Stephen Miller try to use their toadies and their ICE thugs to cancel or overturn the election), in order to defend the rule of law and revive our constitutional democracy.
Yup. I thought that was one of the most telling -- and chilling -- moments of the whole DOGE phase. (Which in a sense hasn't ended, even though Musk is gone.)
Jonathan, thank you for this. I'm sitting at my desk in the living room of my house, looking out the window at Lake Superior. It's all familiar and it's home, but I no longer recognize my country.
I try not to judge other people based on how they live up to my faith, their faith or anybody else's faith.
That said... Christian groups haven't just supported PEPFAR. They pushed hard to create it and then, over the years, to sustain it.
It's a big reason George W. Bush became so passionate about it. Whatever else you can say about him -- and I've said a lot over the years! -- PEPFAR is an incredible achievement, and to his credit.
It will continue to operate, thankfully, but for the time being it will do so in a diminished capacity. And plenty of Christian groups are not happy about that.
Those are the true Christians. The MAGA Christians have no clue what it means to be a Christian. Their behaviors demonstrate their ignorance and hatred of those who are different from them.
At the most recent protest rally a family drove by and yelled "Trump, Trump, Trump" at us and returned with a Jesus in my Savior, Trump is my president sign. We all yelled back that Jesus is our savior too and my friend reminded them that Jesus was a refugee. No response to the Jesus stuff. All about Trump. The Christianity thing is a farce. The only people Jesus had no hope for were the Pharasees. I do want to leave the door open for those in the cult who might wake up. But I've got nothing for those wrapping their racism in Christianity.
We have a leader who, I believe, does not, and is not able to, care whether there are more HIV-related deaths overseas nor imported into the US, nor whether heath care cuts cause suffering, nor - despite the one liners about "too many deaths" in wars tailored for public consumption - about those who die in war or under brutal occupation. Compassion is not something we should expect from the cadre who follow that lead. I hope enough people in Congress will care enough to veer off the path of indifference and myopic self-interest to save some of PEPFAR. I also was in the front lines of AIDS care through the 80s and early 90s.
I ran a nurse-led, community collaborative program in MA in the mid-eighties. Many patients, friends and my housemate all gone in their 20's and 30's. Acyclovir was news and we were running IV fluconazole at home for a patient with retinopathy. There is so much damage this administration has done to science, research and healthcare but the issue of HIV/AIDS is deeply personal for me and my disgust at this short-sightedness knows no limit. I will never understand this inhumanity.
I am so sorry for all those losses you experienced. Inhumanity is a kind description. I choose not to hate because that just consumes me and feeds them, but my judgment flipped to evil a while ago. I don't want this to be true, but I fear some (most?) of these deaths they are causing are intentional.
Blame for the resulting deaths is squarely on Trump, his lakeys, and his enablers in the Republican party. One more issue to remind voters of...at least voters who have a heart.
They’re not just dismantling HIV aid globally they are decimating HIV prevention and support services right here in the US! Virginia’s Ryan White B funding was 22 million and it has been cut to 8 million STATEWIDE. Hundreds of people are being left without medical care, emergency assistance, and at risk of being unhoused
AIDS is only one of many diseases set to come roaring back as the T. Rump criminal enterprise continues to undercut medical research and public health funding.
It's not about AIDS or PEPFAR, but want to give some praise to NBC News for reporting on the bullshit FDA panel lies about antidepressants during pregnancy. Finally at least one media organization is not putting administration lies in the headlines. Thanks NBC News.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental-health/fda-panel-promotes-misinformation-antidepressants-pregnancy-psychiatri-rcna220047
Unfortunately, our Republican President is ignorant with no sense of history. He would not understand the concept of soft power if it bopped him on the nose. The Chinese, Russians and other countries, many of them hostile to US interests, are ready to step into the void left by our abandonment of almost all forms of foreign aid. This is incredibly shortsighted! Soft power has helped to make the US the most powerful and respected country in the world. The fool in the White House is throwing that away because he can't see the long term benefits of these policies.
When Republicans talk about life saving medications encouraging sexual promiscuity what they really mean is people having normal sex lives. This is especially true in the context of poorer developing nations.
I guess we should take comfort that it could have been worse?
The cynic in me wants to know how much the pharmaceutical companies paid, and to whom, in order to see some of its revenue stream preserved.
This news is beyond devastating , ignorant and irresponsible. Another shameful act that hurts the World. Yet another embarrasing moment for America on the World stage. It becomes clear with each passing day that Americans are being denied promises of freedoms as set forth in our constitution . We are being denied the opportunity to access health care here in our own country. We are erasing institutions we have worked to build to make health care accessible Globally. These are truly living in sad times. Thankyou BULWARK for bringing this situation to us so clearly.
Every organization is a reflection of its leader. We chose a leader for whom compassion is not a driving principle.
It isn't a driving principle--- it isn't even a remote consideration.
It’s just soul-killing heartbreak for so very many people. I hate it beyond reason.
The cruelty isn’t ironic. It’s calculated.
Trump inherited a global health infrastructure that had taken decades, dollars, and the collective will of scientists, healers, and survivors to build. Then he walked in like a wrecking ball in a red tie and smashed it—not out of fiscal responsibility, but out of ideological spite and political theater.
PEPFAR saved millions. PrEP could have helped millions more. The injectable version wasn’t just a medical breakthrough. It was hope with a half-life. And now it’s hope delayed, hope denied, hope defunded.
You can’t eradicate a virus by dismantling the people fighting it. And you sure as hell can’t claim moral high ground while cutting off aid to pregnant women and LGBTQ folks in the name of “efficiency.”
Rubio can polish this all he wants, but the stench of abandonment is global. Clinics shuttered. Staff unpaid. Prevention limited only to wombs, as if only fetal life matters once the spreadsheets are done.
We were on the brink of something miraculous. Now we’re back to triage. Not because of science. But because of sabotage dressed as policy.
This wasn’t a stumble. It was a shove. And it’s the most vulnerable who are falling.
It’s not LTBTQ people in Africa who are the face of HIV but rather straight African men and women, and it’s spread by straight men — the initial spread of the disease followed the trucking routes and radiated out from there.
While racism is part of it, the bigger issue is the destruction of the infrastructure that had been put it place, but that really is the point. The whole point of the current administration is to destroy bureaucratic infrastructure that keeps the state running and hand it over to private corporations to profit, and turn the state into a service industry which you pay for rather than an elected institution that provides agreed upon social services.
This adds to the mountain of evidence to prove that Trump has no conscience and is incapable of empathy. He is worse than a malignant narcissist - he has a dark triad personality disorder. Democrats need to realize what they are up against, and do whatever is necessary to win the next 2 elections (and be prepared when Trump and Stephen Miller try to use their toadies and their ICE thugs to cancel or overturn the election), in order to defend the rule of law and revive our constitutional democracy.
More than that, they need to stop overreaching when they get power so that they can hold a trifecta for more than one election cycle.
It was Musk who bragged about “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” MAGA applauded.
Yup. I thought that was one of the most telling -- and chilling -- moments of the whole DOGE phase. (Which in a sense hasn't ended, even though Musk is gone.)
Jonathan, thank you for this. I'm sitting at my desk in the living room of my house, looking out the window at Lake Superior. It's all familiar and it's home, but I no longer recognize my country.
Greetings from closer to Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, where I know a lot of people who feel the same way.
These guys in charge wreaking all this misery should be ashamed to call themselves Christians.
I try not to judge other people based on how they live up to my faith, their faith or anybody else's faith.
That said... Christian groups haven't just supported PEPFAR. They pushed hard to create it and then, over the years, to sustain it.
It's a big reason George W. Bush became so passionate about it. Whatever else you can say about him -- and I've said a lot over the years! -- PEPFAR is an incredible achievement, and to his credit.
It will continue to operate, thankfully, but for the time being it will do so in a diminished capacity. And plenty of Christian groups are not happy about that.
Those are the true Christians. The MAGA Christians have no clue what it means to be a Christian. Their behaviors demonstrate their ignorance and hatred of those who are different from them.
At the most recent protest rally a family drove by and yelled "Trump, Trump, Trump" at us and returned with a Jesus in my Savior, Trump is my president sign. We all yelled back that Jesus is our savior too and my friend reminded them that Jesus was a refugee. No response to the Jesus stuff. All about Trump. The Christianity thing is a farce. The only people Jesus had no hope for were the Pharasees. I do want to leave the door open for those in the cult who might wake up. But I've got nothing for those wrapping their racism in Christianity.
Trump's supporters don't care about the lives of black and brown people overseas. They're fine with gutting funding for PEPFAR.
This is all because people could not bring themselves to vote for an overqualified candidate that happened to be a woman.
Then they decided to elect the most unqualified congress and senate in history to carry the country forward. You cannot fix stupid.