u/BalanceOrganic7735

M1000 is a Fine nib. It lays down a wet line. I have to refill it every week or two. My M800 is a medium nib. Now that I’ve had the nib tuned, it also lays down a wet and broader line. I can’t remember the last time I refilled it - maybe 2 months ago. I write about the same amount each week with each pen.

Is this a known thing? Any ideas why this would be?

I prefer political leaders who prioritize public health and safety instead of destroying it.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee voted Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress over his refusal to answer questions during a hearing last week, with the panel arguing he improperly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination since he is already protected from federal prosecution by a Biden-era pardon. Committee Chairman Rand Paul said, “Holding a witness in contempt is a serious thing, and it should be rare. But the contempt power exists for precisely this circumstance,” and the resolution passed 8 to 5, with all Democrats opposing and two more opposing by proxy vote. Rather than routing the matter through a full Senate floor vote, Paul said he intends to send the contempt resolution directly to the Justice Department as a referral, telling reporters, “We will send it to the Department of Justice tomorrow so there’s no delay. That will be a committee recommendation.”

Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to every question posed to him during last week’s subpoenaed hearing, part of the committee’s investigation into COVID-19’s origins, doing so 111 times according to Paul. Ahead of the hearing, Paul had released more than 1,000 pages of Fauci’s pandemic-era journal entries, which Fauci referenced in his opening statement, accusing Paul of an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution” and saying, “The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, ‘behind bars.’” Fauci’s attorney maintained he had “solid legal ground” for asserting the privilege, but Paul argues the pardon question remains legally unsettled, framing the vote narrowly: “We only have one question: Whether to hold a witness responsible for his contempt toward Congress. The witness had many chances to answer the questions pertinent to our investigation, and he made his decision 111 times.”

Democrats pushed back forcefully, with Sen. Gary Peters, the committee’s top Democrat, attempting to table or postpone the vote before it was blocked by the GOP majority, warning that criminal contempt “is punitive” and “does not compel a witness to answer questions or produce the documents we’d all like to see,” adding that it risks setting “a damaging precedent that future witnesses will use to resist legitimate congressional oversight and weaken this committee’s ability to compel testimony.” The resolution directs Vice President JD Vance, as president of the Senate, to certify the report to Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, though any decision to actually charge Fauci rests with the Justice Department. The move echoes a similar approach used by the Democrat-led Congress in 2021 and 2022, which recommended contempt charges against Trump allies Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro over Jan. 6-related subpoenas; both were later convicted and served prison time.

“The CDC says it stopped requiring tracking as of July 1 for everything except Salmonella and shiga-producing E. coli — meaning tracking for cyclosporiasis is now done only by state or local agencies.”

Why are Republicans so gung-ho about harming public health? How does stopping tracking public health risks improve the general welfare of the USA?

The White House on Wednesday moved to strip civil service protections from about 8,000 federal workers, including many working at public health agencies.

The executive order effectively transforms these positions—which include “epidemiologist”, “health scientist” and “toxicologist” jobs—into “at-will” positions—meaning they can be readily fired without cause. The job category, initially called Schedule F and now called Schedule Policy/Career, strips these federal workers of protections meant to prevent political interference.

According to the order, “policy-influencing positions” must be transferred to the new status, thereby “ensuring that such employees can be removed for misconduct or poor performance is essential to protecting democratic self-government by an elected President.” The move reflects President Donald Trump’s long-standing complaint of a “deep state” of federal workers resistant to his policies, and he has for years called for the schedule change in order to fire civil servants he views as impediments to his policies.

^(alt link:) ^(https://archive.is/EvQN3)

I have a couple of fountain pens that don’t flow well. Before I try to tune the nibs (or find a nibmeister) I thought I’d try the wettest ink I can find.

The pen I am most focused on is a Pelikan M800.

Suggestions?