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Hundreds rally against firing of federal workers, emphasizing threats to public health
The Associated Press ^ | February 19, 2025 | BY NATHAN ELLGREN AND ASHRAF KHALIL

Posted on 02/19/2025 3:27:03 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of current and former federal employees rallied Wednesday outside the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters, protesting recent firings and their effect on public health, and directing much of their ire at Elon Musk and his agency’s efforts to cut spending.

Amid frigid temperatures and light snow, attendees chanted slogans such as “Funding, not freezes” and “Stand up, fight back.” They carried signs proclaiming, “Protect civil servants because they protect you!” and “In science we trust.”

Many said they were there to fight the work of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the confusion its workforce reductions have sowed. One sign altered the DOGE acronym to read “Department of Grifting Everything.”

“Are we going to shut down the illegal Elon Musk takeover of the government? Yeah, you bet we are,” Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen told the crowd of about 300. “We’re going to fight this in the courts. We’re going to fight this in the Congress. And there can be no business as usual in the Congress. And we’re going to fight this in gatherings like this all over the country.”

Ellen Bak, a former NIH scientist, said she was terminated over the weekend and that her research into stem cells and blood cancer had essentially been lost.

“The sheer amount of money and time and testing and care and effort,” she said. “Is it all just gone?”

Jenna McGrew, an 18-year-old student from Florida, said she attended because her older brother, Ethan, suffers from a rare autoimmune disease and is in intensive care at NIH with a serious bacterial infection. She called the “level of uncertainty” inside the NIH “a risk to his life.”

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: doge; federalworkers; fedworkers; hhs; journalism; media; press
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1 posted on 02/19/2025 3:27:03 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Protect civil servants because they protect you!”

Yeah its a protection racket but the taxpayers are not feeling very protected

“In science we trust.”

It's "the science." Sheesh. They cannot even keep their own propaganda straight.

2 posted on 02/19/2025 3:29:56 PM PST by AndyJackson
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Learn to turn a wrench. Just sayin’.


3 posted on 02/19/2025 3:29:58 PM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within ? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉! 🇮🇱👍!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Hundreds? Back when USAID was paying the rent-a-mob, it was 10’s of thousands.


4 posted on 02/19/2025 3:30:34 PM PST by MuttTheHoople ( "Never thot I'd live to see the day when the right wing would become the cool ones"-Johnny Rotten)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Ellen Bak, a former NIH scientist, said she was terminated over the weekend and that her research into stem cells and blood cancer had essentially been lost.

“The sheer amount of money and time and testing and care and effort,” she said. “Is it all just gone?”

Ellen, if you had been keeping proper notes, the research is simply on hiatus. You WERE keeping good notes, right?

5 posted on 02/19/2025 3:31:31 PM PST by MortMan (Charter member of AAAAA - American Association Against Alliteration Abuse)
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To: MuttTheHoople

Came here to say the same thing. “Hundreds”, rotflmao.

I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning.


6 posted on 02/19/2025 3:34:29 PM PST by Valpal1 (Not even the police are safe from the police!!!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Science - The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.

Science is a process, not a deity.


7 posted on 02/19/2025 3:34:33 PM PST by yuleeyahoo (“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” - the deep-state)
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To: rktman

With the border being secured, there will be lots of opportunities to learn roofing, concrete work, framing, drywall, landscaping…..
So many options!


8 posted on 02/19/2025 3:34:58 PM PST by sjmjax
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To: All

Tombstones to read “I died because there weren’t enough bureaucrats to keep me alive”.


9 posted on 02/19/2025 3:36:02 PM PST by BipolarBob (I'm at -15* and I feel like kicking Punxsutawney Phils buttocks.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The anti-Trump banned Associated Press is reporting this. Go figure!


10 posted on 02/19/2025 3:36:09 PM PST by Macho MAGA Man (The last two weren't balloons. One was a cylindrical object)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Maybe they’ll release more cooties on the pubic to get their point across.


11 posted on 02/19/2025 3:40:34 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: sjmjax

True but pretty hard to do from home. 😊👍


12 posted on 02/19/2025 3:45:15 PM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within ? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉! 🇮🇱👍!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Trillions already spent. Yet cancer, heart disease and diabetes still plague us. They pull this “you’re gonna die crap every time their rice bowls are threatened.” Yet these maladies get worse.

There is no money in curing disease. The big bucks are in never ending treatments. The worst is the mental health industry. No one is ever cured. Just a lifetime of legal drug addiction. With the side effects of mass shootings, parents murdering their children, etc.


13 posted on 02/19/2025 3:51:07 PM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Out(house)sourced...yall's gravy train?

Taste of Clinton...remember it well.

Perhaps ya'll can get TWO or THREE of those (bullshyte) "23 million" (minimum wage) jobs.

"welcome to the party, pal"

14 posted on 02/19/2025 3:58:00 PM PST by RckyRaCoCo (Time to throw them out of the Temple...again)
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To: Seruzawa

They forgot to mention that their “cancer research” is how to PROLONG and EXPAND cancer.


15 posted on 02/19/2025 4:03:23 PM PST by AbolishCSEU (Amount of "child" support paid is inversely proportionate to mother's actual parenting of children)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Well, federal workers have never shown any sympathy to all of the workers who create the wealth and have lost jobs. Even when the government shut down and they were laid off, they went back to work (joke) with retroactive pay for the time lost.

That doesn't happen for the above mentioned creators of wealth.

16 posted on 02/19/2025 4:07:50 PM PST by Parmy
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Some courageous reporter should ask them how it feels to be reduced to being one of the mere plebs that they hate so much.


17 posted on 02/19/2025 4:11:37 PM PST by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again," )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“In science we trust.”

-
They believe humans can change the earth’s climate. So much for science.


18 posted on 02/19/2025 4:12:20 PM PST by CIB-173RDABN (I’ll take a wait and see...)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

You see images of these rejects? Shoot, I wouldn’t trust them to protect my favorite spot on the couch, let alone me and mine!

Dahum!


19 posted on 02/19/2025 4:12:51 PM PST by Retrofitted
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Public threats alright.

As in....Give us our cushy, no -show, work at home, which is really shop and facebook at home, etc......or we gonna Eff you up on the streets. We’ll Burn this mutha down!


20 posted on 02/19/2025 4:13:26 PM PST by vespa300
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