Facts exist whether you acknowledge them or not.
Among Trump’s blizzard of demented, anti-American Executive orders were several that attacked science and evidence. The declaration of an energy emergency was one–no such emergency exists. Asserting that the southern border is under invasion conveniently overlooked the fact that there are far fewer immigrants there than when he left office. The airy dismissal of climate change and the withdrawal from the Paris accords are part and parcel of a diseased mind that rejects irrefutable evidence of what is currently the single largest threat to human life on the planet.
Trump’s attacks on medical science were especially breathtaking, and enormously consequential.
As Talking Points Memo put it, the new administration has “turned off the spigot of funding for a huge amount of cancer research and various other health fields and diseases, and all signs point to a cutoff that will be thorough-going and draconian.”
This comes after a similar halt to the weekly MMWR report which CDC sends to hospitals and doctors every week with information on flu, COVID and other infectious diseases.
I think we’re at the point in this where you can’t yet categorically say that this is being done for RFK Jr.-adjacent anti-research nuttery, but basically all signs point in that direction. And there is at least a temporary and disruptive halt to how health research gets funded in this country.
The American Prospect reported on the assault on NIH.
All travel has been canceled, ruining many important conferences. All agency communications have been banned until further notice, blocking a highly anticipated report on the festering avian flu outbreak that has killed millions of birds, and could cause another pandemic if it mutates to enable human-to-human transmission. Worst of all, all study sections, which are required to disburse NIH’s $40 billion in grants—supporting some 300,000 working scientists at thousands of universities—are also halted indefinitely.
Before 1933, Germany was the clear world leader in academic research and achievement, winning far more Nobel Prizes than any other country. Hitler and the Nazis blew that up in a crusade against liberalism and “Jewish science,” driving most top researchers across Europe (like Albert Einstein) to Britain or the U.S., where many of them worked on the Manhattan Project. German science never recovered fully…
All agency communications have been banned until further notice, blocking a highly anticipated report on the festering avian flu outbreak that has killed millions of birds, and could cause another pandemic if it mutates to enable human-to-human transmission. Worst of all, all study sections, which are required to disburse NIH’s $40 billion in grants—supporting some 300,000 working scientists at thousands of universities—are also halted indefinitely.
As the Prospect concludes, Trump heads up a “rising tide of vengeful, crackbrained irrationalism” that is likely to end American scientific pre-eminence.
The Week reported on the Executive Order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization.
The problem is there is no similar organization ready to take its place. Meanwhile, global health threats continue to proliferate thanks to mass travel, rising urban populations and human encroachment on wildlife habitats. Without WHO, we leave ourselves unprepared.
Why, you might ask, has Trump withdrawn us from an organization that might protect us from (or at least alert us to) the next pandemic? Evidently, because the organization’s acceptance of medical science on matters like abortion and gender care is “woke.” (That’s the trouble with science and reality…they do tend to be “woke.”)
Trump hasn’t simply disrupted ongoing medical research–he has also censored medical information. Federal health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes for Health, have all been ordered to pause all external communications, including health advisories and scientific reports.
So–American doctors and scientists not only won’t be pursuing research into diseases and public health, We the People won’t be informed about evidence they’ve previously uncovered. If we experience another pandemic, we will once again be told to ingest bleach or a horse medication–or perhaps, given the overwhelming influence of anti-science White Christian Nationalists–we may just be told to pray the disease away.
Trump’s cuts to foreign aid included numerous assaults on global heath. He’s stopped bird flu monitoring in 49 countries; halted efforts to eradicate polio; cut off support for vaccination of 90 million women and children; halted drug supplies keeping 20 million people living with HIV alive, and services for 6.5 million children affected by HIV in 23 countries.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been recognized as central to both America’s prosperity and its geopolitical influence. As one article put it, the social and strategic benefits of owning such an immensely successful research complex are immense.
The benefits to individuals of living in a humane and fact-based world are also immense.
“Among Trump’s blizzard of demented, anti-American Executive orders were several that attacked science and evidence. The declaration of an energy emergency was one–no such emergency exists.” Trump is beginning his second onslaught on democracy blaming all on our southern border as he began and ended his first onslaught on American democracy.
Trump would not be the position of power and total control he has today, with immunity provided by SCOTUS, if the sitting Democrats in House and Senate had not attacked and forced out our highly qualified and actively progressive President Joe Biden from his reelection campaign. Their replacing President Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris victimized her by not fully supporting her campaign then blaming her for losing the election to Trump and his MAGAs. They have also destroyed the legacies of both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, whose strong record in the Senate will also be lost to history.
“The Assault on Science” and the Senate vote today will result in either the waking up of Democrats and Republicans alike who can see the result of RFK, Jr.s appointment and the oncoming PandemicS or cast him out and save one of our sciences. The many tentacles of science that rule all of our lives is at stake with this vote today and we have some sitting Senate and House members who are in a position of losing their birthright citizenship due to the Democrats who sat mute and idle along with the mute and idle Republicans. Those Democrats did the work of Trump’s MAGAs for him and put him back in an even stronger position that he was handed in 2016.
53 days is all it took for Hitler to end Germany’s Constitution. With the media ecosystem of today, the compliant Congress, and a SCOTUS that will do the bidding of its puppet masters, it will end here even quicker.
The puppet masters pulling t*ump’s strings know that these actions are unconstitutional, but they don’t care, and will ignore it as long as there are no consequences for their actions.
The anti-science ground has been “fertilized” by churches as well. As a former secondary science educator, more than once I was told by students and parents that their minister’s “opinion” about science and science educators was more acceptable than the actual science. These people reveled in their abject ignorance and willingness to accept myths and fairy tales over the facts.
We are seeing Hitler 2.0, and James, I think the orange hairball is going after that record of 53 days. I’d bet on March 1.
I’m glad I’m old and have hobbies.
The scope of human knowledge is so vast that, right now, and even more in the coming moments, not even a single human knows more than an insignificant portion of it. We are all specialists in a few pieces of the totalitarity of it.
That’s why AI holds such promise. It seems to have the intelligence of a super being that serves all of us temporary beings who are born, take our places, and then die. That is the reality of our times. AI has a greater capacity to learn and teach us individuals what humans have figured out that is true because it consistently gives better results for humans.
We do not have time to do what AI can, which is to stretch our minds and bodies to learn, hold, understand, and do more.
Active minds continually add to the total by working at all the frontiers of knowledge and discovering new concepts. That’s the nature of some of us as individuals.
Even though I was raised to be a problem solver, my life has been spent figuring out how to learn and apply the appropriate collective knowledge to find better solutions to specific issues. I have not added a single iota to what is known because I was too busy applying knowledge figured out by others.
It takes humility to admit ignorance and vow to fill it with the knowledge that some possess. I use this knowledge by learning from them, as they were able to teach it and chose to offer it to me.
However, for individuals whose ego displaces that humility, the wisdom of learning new things is hampered by the confidence that it is unnecessary for them or beneficial to any problem.
For those people who don’t believe in the benefit of knowing more because humans know more every second, growth in capability ebbs and dies
We have elected very few people to rebuild the government. They use their limited knowledge and resist adding more because they cannot see the need or benefit. They are limited in their ability to do that because they are competitive and can only apply what they know; they don’t know enough. Because their approach is stubbornly limited, there is no hope that they will invest in catching up with the pace at which humans are expanding, teaching, learning, and applying the knowledge of humanity. That requires super collaboration.
Someone is watching too much MSNBC lately. Did anybody see what happened to Jim Acosta at CNN for being a chief critic of the Fuhrer? Trump revelled in Jim quitting.
Obviously, this has nothing to do with RFK, Jr. since he hasn’t even been confirmed yet and wouldn’t make such a bold statement against science. He’s anti-industry control of our health departments – not anti-science.
This is 100% due to Trump sending signals that he’s in charge and anybody that questions him will get the wrath of immediate consequences no matter what. Obviously, there will be legal repercussions because the POTUS can’t cut spending on projects already made law by Congress. That’s not what his job description states. He recommends a budget and then Congress approves it into law. If he doesn’t like it, he can always veto it. Once passed, his job is to execute the budget. He can’t withhold funding already approved.
As I mentioned yesterday, the legality of his actions will be tested which is most likely what he is waiting for to happen. He’ll find out who is eager to test his authority. They will be on his Shit List for the next four years.
The biggest worry is the corrupt SCOTUS gives the Executive branch powers the Constitution does not grant him and renders the Legislative branch ineffectual and subordinate. That will put the dying democracy into the grave for good. We already lost the Fourth Branch of government decades ago, if we ever had one.
That would be problematic for MAGA Republicans unless they end elections in this country. I mean there would be the potential for a radical leftist being elected in this country (LOL) and could make serious changes to the oligarchy. Of course, that would never happen via our Democratic Party.![😉](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.0.3/svg/1f609.svg)
There are many articulate, intelligent comments posted. I’d like to read about plans made and actions taken to save our democracy.
Just one sick f***er!
After Hitler took the Jews out of science, in effect, he said that the Germans would do just fine without science for a while. That helped his venal cause, right?
Trump said, the other day, as he cancelled all those previously ongoing programs, medicaid included, that we don’t need those “Marxist” programs. Who writes this garbage for him, Stephen Miller?
RFK is anti-science. The scientists who produce and approve vaccines are required to assess the benefits and risks and submit an informed decision about using it. RFK looks at any vaccine as an unacceptable risk based on his beliefs – not proof.
His stand on fluoride in drinking water is yet another marker showing his mindset. Fluoride is naturally present in water supplies around the country because it is in the native soil. It has been added to drinking water supplies at 0.7 parts per million to reduce the risk of cavities. RFK is another Trump hoax to undermine our healthcare by casting doubt on the science involved
Trump is moving as fast as he can to become King. The Republican’s quest for power is aiding him unchecked. Some of his actions are being stopped by courts for now but he is going to try and side-step them. His action to buy out 2 million Federal Employees would bring the government to a halt and then he would issue more emergency orders, etc.
To support a meaningful resistance, it is important to call out what we have been witnessing.
There is a corrupt gang of bedfellows in the White House where Donny Boy has empowered a cabal of Neo-Facisist Capitalists engineering a blatant takeover of our democratic republic in return for allowing Donny Boy ample space to release his anal retentive obsessed revenge on perceived enemies. The cabal is ensuring Donny Boy he is the unrivaled king and that no avenue is left open for Neo-Liberal Democratic initiatives to intervene.
Once we understand and agree on what is happening, a unified counter insurgency can be marshaled behind strong leadership to rally behind The Constitution and the virtues of our democratic republic.
There are legitimate ‘oligarchs’ who will support and help finance a counter insurgency.
For trump and his rich enablers cruelty, pushing people into illness and poverty, are features of his plans. Sadly his cult won’t admit this even as they fall headlong into the same pit
seems trumps world sees cheapining the working class lives to save money,no matter the costs. of course the working class blinded by noise over fact,and the billionaires wanting to cull the heard to preserve their new entitlements. though i dont see the fact that there is more jobs than people in the U.S. and the fact, every dime we make as the working class is shreaded up and into the profit game the rich just won.(how come we dont call it the new entitlments to the rich?)i never heard trumps gang mention a living wage or a healthy work force to provide a normalcy amoung the working person. instead its toot its massive think tank thought provoking shit. even the new press sect takes a huckabee page into the new realm of indecency. congress is a lost cause, and its speakers,both minority and major blowhards seem inept to change course. but then again,they posses the capital and shares to weather the fall. weve elected the best shareholders and lawyers that trump could ask for,on both sides of the isle. if the demos have any issue with trump, its sounds more like a echo in a distant tunnel as the gleefully follow the other side into the dark. there is no backbone or a dime of common decency in the demos party anymore,none..Bernie is right, and if you cant grasp it, then you just lead us further into economic slavery to the newly elected billiinaire,all hail the kings!
Norris,
name one?
seems they all made their bucks by screwing the working class to get there..
@Jack Smith …. Michael Bloomberg. He has already covered the deficit created by Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. As former Mayor of NYC, he knows intimately Trump’s dark side.
I know this article is about health and I’m glad Sheila is Bringing it up but Has anyone else been hitting the pay walls on the news sites? Now you can’t even know what’s in a news article unless you cough up some money to subscribe! And how many books at the library are being made into being available ONLY in “digital form” or accessible only through a computer? Think about what that could mean across the board in our country! We live in some crazy times folks and with Trump in charge it just keeps getting more dysfunctional. Look at what is happening to our information” or Media. How can people even be educated to resist? What’s going to happen when “facts” just seem like someone’s “propaganda”?
Sadly, we have to wait to see what SCOTUS will do to have any idea how the next few years will play out. That leaves me with very little hope for the future.
We might swing Coney Barrett toward the Constitution, if she hasn’t been so scared by her last bucking of OJ and the MAGATS. We are now at the point John Roberts has dreamed of since his law school days. Unitary Executive taken to its extreme would grant POTUS total control of the executive branch. It would eliminate oversight by Congress. It seems as if we are already there. Congressional Republicans don’t seem disposed to check his overreach, even if they know that what he has done breaks a law passed by them and signed by a President. They are his minions.
Thank you for writing this. Many jobs at the IU School of Medicine and other medical schools, including mine, would be on the line.
The best I hope for is the Republican Congressional Caucus uses some low ball caterer and they get hit with an unreported outbreak of food poisoning because the FDA has shut down all of its reporting.
Worst case scenario is just like 2017 when Trump blew up the funding and dismantled the pandemic preparedness team. Nobody seems to remember that and you can see where that got us in 2020. Stock up on N95 masks now while you can still get them.
An interesting comment was made by Gov. Tim Walz during his interview last night on Rachel Maddow’s “Trump’s First 100 Days”; he referred to President Musk. Sorry I didn’t catch the rest of his comment. It is difficult to laugh and read closed captioning at the same time.
Declaring a national emergency, on any particular issue of or subject, takes the leash off of the executive branch. They have unfettered power to do whatever they feel the need is, in a full-throated audio and visual display of raw disdain, The same mistakes on that end, won’t be made the second time around.
Are our institutions buckling? I mean with a stroke of a pen he is altering every aspect of our existence. I really didn’t think it would be that easy-that it just takes an executive order and ‘poof’ things are gone or altered so significantly.
I have worked in healthcare going on 30 years–bedside, public health, mental health, and now cancer research. Groups are already getting emails that going forward they do not know what will incur.
I have worked in clinics where 60% of our patients were on Medicaid. Death panels? Wasn’t the GOP all up in arms on Death panels?! Survival of the fittest? Not in this country, it is survival of the wealthiest.
Our healthcare ‘system’ is a shit show on many, many levels but what was pulled yesterday was cruel and then reading the comments of the populace was worse–I mean the hate is palatable. I have never felt the need to buy a gun; but might need to reconsider.
While Todd continues to defend the indefensible – a brain-addled idiot who actually became his family’s drug dealer and created addicted siblings and cousins – the Republican/Trump shit show continues to hog the headlines and the “discussions”. So, what is YOUR red line? What will it take to get YOU to leave the country? Remember, the Jews tried to escape before the Nazis slammed the door on them … and our complicit Breckenridge Long slammed the door on this side of the ocean.
Are liberal-thinking, Constitution-loving, high-functioning citizens America’s “Jews”?
Stephan Miller does concern me a great deal…is he at the root of all this and how is it that he rose to such influence and managed to quietly stay in the back room for four years to emerge now fully loaded for bear and cranking out these horrible dictates at rapid speed???? Who is the guy reallly???
Vernon; I only watched a little of the RFK, Jr. hearing today, couldn’t stomach the appalling outcome will know is coming. I worked in a methadone clinic years ago and Jr.’s deliberate, repeated eye blinking appeared to me that he was on some form of drug and was fighting the urge to “nod off” as I watched so many addicts do every day in the clinic. The Kennedy family should have taken a much stronger stand against RFK, Jr.; their once honored name will now be remembered by the man with a worm that ate his brain.
Trump is at the height of his hubris. That means he is standing on the brink of his own destruction. Why do I think that? In a word, history. He will burn down his own house around himself. Unfortunately, we all live in that house with him.
He is testing to see how much he can destroy before he is stopped. Will sane Republican members of Congress take action? Will SCOTUS pull back from the precipice? Will there be a new Peasants’ Revolt? Will the military refuse to follow his illegal orders? Will enough of the MAGA minions finally wake up to the fact that they the victims of a con man? How many Americans see this as entertainment instead of the life and death conflict that it truly is?
We are all about to find out.
I am a cancer patient. Stage 4. I would be dead today if not for the research supported by the NIH in developing new chemotherapy drugs. Screw Trump.