Apparently, it’s hear no evil, see no evil, avoid all mention and then the problem of climate change disappears. Magic! WashPo reports that the State Department has fired the remaining employees who worked on climate change negotiations.
Take Off the Mask, ICE is an excellent essay by former police officer and chief of police Brandon del Pozo, writing in the Atlantic.
Jeremy Faust summarizes the current cuts to Science, the NIH, CDC, etc. in his latest Inside Medicine Substack post. It’s not pretty.
More insanity, this time coming from the incompetent head of HHS; as reported by the Washington Post:
“Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that he may bar government scientists from publishing in the world’s leading medical journals, instead proposing the creation of “in-house” publications by his agency — the latest in the Trump administration’s attacks on scientific institutions.
“We’re probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and those other journals because they’re all corrupt,” Kennedy said during an appearance on the “Ultimate Human” podcast. He also described the journals as being under the control of pharmaceutical companies.”
And then there’s this – STAT reports that a $600 million Moderna contract for work on mRNA vaccines for pandemic influenza (including H5N1) was cancelled.
Steven Pinker’s Harvard Derangement Syndrome essay in the NY Times is a must-read. A small part of that essay:
Just as clear is what won’t work: the Trump administration’s punitive defunding of science at Harvard. Contrary to a widespread misunderstanding, a federal grant is not alms to the university, nor may the executive branch dangle it to force grantees to do whatever it wants. It is a fee for a service — namely, a research project that the government decides (after fierce competitive review) would benefit the country. The grant pays for the people and equipment needed to carry out that research, which would not be done otherwise.
Mr. Trump’s strangling of this support will harm Jews more than any president in my lifetime. Many practicing and aspiring scientists are Jewish, and his funding embargo has them watching in horror as they are laid off, their labs are shut down or their dreams of a career in science go up in smoke. This is immensely more harmful than walking past a “Globalize the Intifada” sign. Worse still is the effect on the far larger number of gentiles in science, who are being told that their labs and careers are being snuffed out to advance Jewish interests. Likewise for the current patients whose experimental treatments will be halted, and the future patients who may be deprived of cures. None of this is good for the Jews.
The concern for Jews is patently disingenuous, given Mr. Trump’s sympathy for Holocaust deniers and Hitler fans. The obvious motivation is to cripple civil society institutions that serve as loci of influence outside the executive branch. As JD Vance put it in the title of a 2021 speech: “The Universities Are the Enemy.”
Katelyn Jetelina and Aaron Kesselheim discourse on the insanely illogical system of drug pricing in the U.S. in this edition of Katelyn’s Your Local Epidemiologist.
Thank you, Harvard, for holding fast and refusing to submit to the spiteful demands of the current administration.
President Garber’s response is here. An excerpt:
“The work of addressing our shortcomings, fulfilling our commitments, and embodying our values is ours to define and undertake as a community. Freedom of thought and inquiry, along with the government’s longstanding commitment to respect and protect it, has enabled universities to contribute in vital ways to a free society and to healthier, more prosperous lives for people everywhere. All of us share a stake in safeguarding that freedom. We proceed now, as always, with the conviction that the fearless and unfettered pursuit of truth liberates humanity—and with faith in the enduring promise that America’s colleges and universities hold for our country and our world.”
Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary: “Any reporter who chooses to put their preferred pronouns in their bio clearly does not care about biological reality or truth and therefore cannot be trusted to write an honest story” (I mean, sorry, but WTF) … A spokesman for The NY Times said: “Evading tough questions certainly runs counter to transparent engagement with free and independent press reporting. But refusing to answer a straightforward request to explain the administration’s policies because of the formatting of an email signature is both a concerning and baffling choice, especially from the highest press office in the U.S. government.”
Which universe do you want to live in?
Worth considering…
John Gruber has an apt quote from Hanna Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism in a March 25 Daring Fireball post:
“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”
and then there’s this one from Arendt, same source:
“Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow.”
it seems pretty clear that she was right.