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CUTTING PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH MEANS CUTTING AMERICA DOWN

Dr. Common Good

I have been doing social and public health research for more than 30 years, and have never seen anything like the mindless, ill-informed, and yes, malicious cutting of grant and other public health funding that is occurring now. It is important for the public to read the language that is in these grant termination notices, and to understand the appalling and dangerous consequences of the mindset that is revealed. Here is what these letters say:

“This award no longer effectuates agency priorities. Research programs based primarily on artificial and non- scientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives, are antithetical to the scientific inquiry, do nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems, provide low returns on investment, and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness. Worse, so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) studies are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race and other protected characteristics, which harms the health of Americans. Therefore, it is the policy of NIH not to prioritize such research programs.”

Let’s just take a look at some of this language:

“Amorphous equity objectives” – At least since the 1985 report of then-Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Margaret Heckler (the seminal “Heckler Report”) documenting the extensive and significant differences in health outcomes between African-American and white Americans, trying to understand and rectify these and other disparities in health have been primary goals for HHS activities, and a central tenet of the Healthy People national planning documents that come out every decade (the most recent being Healthy People 2030). There is nothing “amorphous” about this, and no one who has the slightest shred of knowledge could possibly make such a statement. Since the Heckler Report, a large body of research has documented a broad range of health disparities. For example: In 2022 (from the Kaiser Family Foundation 2024 report), infant mortality rates for African American women (10.9/1000) and American Indian/Alaska Native women (9.1/1000) were more than twice the rates for than they were for white/non-Hispanic women (4.5/1000); maternal mortality rates are also higher for American Indian/Alaska Native and African American women than for other groups; the total diabetes percentages for Asian non-Hispanics, Hispanics, and African Americans was significantly higher than for whites (from CDC National Diabetes Report, 2024); and white rural Americans fare much worse than their urban counterparts on a number of health outcomes (Efird & Griffith, 2025). Substantial research, over many years, has also documented the preventable, unequal conditions that underlie many of these disparities, which is the basis for the concept of health inequities. These conditions include lack of access to health insurance, poverty and associated stressors, discriminatory treatment in health care, unequal exposure to environmental pollutants, poor housing conditions, and others.  

“Antithetical to scientific inquiry” – Really? What could this possibly mean? The differences in health outcomes I just referred to are exactly what scientific inquiry should focus on. To serve the American public, and to improve the lives of Americans, we should want to know why such disparities exist and do our best to correct them so that the American ideal of liberty and justice for all is fully realized. It is difficult to understand why or how anyone came up with the idea that such inquiries are antithetical to science.

“Do nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems, provide low returns on investment, and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness” – This is simply nonsensical, if not madness. All research that helps understand the health and well-being of people in the United States and across the world by nature increases our understanding of living systems. Are we not “living systems”? This research has provided major, indeed historic contributions to advancing health, lengthening life and reducing illness, and most certainly provided immense returns on investment. There is not enough room in ten thousand pages like this one to document this, but a few examples should provide a clue – just think, for example, of the antiretroviral drugs that turned the tide of the once-fatal HIV/AIDS pandemic, the several COVID-19 vaccines that saved Americans and people all over the world from the ravages of that pandemic, or the mass prevention campaigns that contributed to the dramatic reduction in smoking here in the U.S., along with its associated cancers. All of these efforts were based on scientific research. What then could the author(s) of this sentence possibly have meant?

Finally, there is the wildly irrational obsession with the concocted spectre of “so-called DEI.” If the real-world data show dramatic differences between the health of one population group and others – whether those groups differ by racial categorization, ethnic background, gender, or geography (i.e., rural vs. urban) it is incumbent upon us as servants of the public good to know what is going on. There is nothing sinister involved. There is no “agenda” other than to improve the lives of all people. In fact, the opposite is true. Those who keep hammering the public with the “DEI boogeyman” are in fact using distortion and lies as an excuse to pursue an agenda of denial, to ignore the social differences that do exist and thus do nothing about them.  

These alarming and destructive funding cuts are harmful to the well-being of Americans and all peoples of the world, and they devastate the American research infrastructure that has heretofore been the envy of the world. It is light years from anything that “makes America great,” and is a fast track to making America an economic, social and intellectual backwater, and significantly weaker for it. The intentions and motivations represented in the language of these termination letters are purely ideological, and patently malicious. It is a gratuitous insult to the thousands of research professionals who have dedicated their time and their careers to making life better for others.

Shame on you, Trump administration. The American people need to know the damage you are inflicting.

THE PURE CRUELTY OF THE TRUMP/MAGA DESTRUCTION-FEST

Dr. Common Good

What is it that drives the vile cruelty of the Trump/Musk/MAGA horde? Really. So much that is just shockingly inhuman, unnecessary, and very little that has anything to do with increasing government efficiency. It is a sociopathic rampage. Just consider the following examples:

• The deportation of Venezuelans to a Salvadoran gang prison, with no notice to families or loved ones, no due process of law, and no justification, under the false pretext of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Armed ICE officers, storming into houses at any time, even late at night, yanking away anyone suspected of being associated with the Tren de Aragua gang, with no evidence whatsoever. It could be that someone simply has a tattoo. They are being taken to El Salvador’s infamous “Center for the Confinement of Terrorism” (CECOT) under a paid outsourcing agreement. CECOT is a mega-prison designated for the most serious gang members under the harsh regime of President Nayib Bukele. No visitors are allowed, no prisoners are even allowed outdoors. There is often no communication allowed, so loved ones have no idea what is going on. Imagine your brother, son, husband or whomever being snatched like that in the night. This is what happened under former dictator Augusto Pinochet in Chile, what happens in Russia, what happened in Assad’s Syria, what has happened in countless dictatorships throughout history. It is the “disappearance” redux. This is not the US as we knew it.

• The arrest and deportation of legal residents and scholars, like Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University and Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, with no criminal charge, just unsupported allegations of terrorist ties or expressing views in support of Palestinian rights. Again, the same brutal pattern – armed ICE agents, arresting people in their homes, without due process. These individuals are taken to a prison in Louisiana, again, often without access to communication. This is not the US as we knew it.

• Musk’s DOGE bullies are forcibly entering even non-government nonprofits like the US Institute of Peace and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (which receives a tiny amount of funding from the US government), to gut them or shut them down. Why? There is no, absolutely no justification related to efficiency or fraud. These actions are brazen and illegal. It is more of the same cruel, petty crusade to decimate any person or institution that does not fit under the MAGA authoritarian diktat. This is not the US as we knew it.

• Funding is being threatened and cut for so many government services that provide support for Americans who need help, including those on Medicare, children who only get meals through school lunch programs, students with disabilities, and veterans, to name a few.  

These and many other similar actions are taken with a certain public relish, a certain vengeful desire to inflict harm on those outside the MAGA orbit. It is a twisted revenge-fest fed and nurtured by the sociopathic victim fantasies of Trump, Musk, and what can only be described as the cult of MAGA. It is way beyond anything associated with traditional political parties or positions. It is not the US as we, or the world, knew it.    

STEPHEN MILLER’S UGLY IGNORANCE

Dr. Common Good

In a CNN interview on Monday March 17, Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller, an anti-immigrant rant personified, claimed that Trump’s recent deportation of Venezuelan immigrants using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act was not subject to judicial review. That law has only been used three times in the history of the U.S., and only in wartime. Over the weekend, U.S. District Court judge James Boasberg granted a temporary injunction against these deportations using that act, as it was only intended for wartime use and would open the door for detention and deportation of illegal or even legal immigrants without due process, a basic right. Trump ignored that injunction and deported the immigrants anyway. Miller fumed and flatly stated that the courts have no right to question or block acts that are within “executive authority.”

That is a five-alarm statement, and a blatant fallacy.

Basic constitutional law, and a foundational principle maintaining the separation of powers that was established in 1803 in the landmark Marbury vs. Madison Supreme Court decision, holds that federal courts indeed have the power to examine the constitutionality of legislative and executive actions. That is the principle of judicial review. It exists to guard against executive or legislative actions that undermine individual rights and democratic principles.  Again, this is basic American government.

So, are Stephen Miller and Trump rejecting that constitutional principle? Or are they just ignorant of essential American history and the nature of American government? Or do they simply not care, because they are bent on implementing an authoritarian version of executive power that is unprecedented in American history and which challenges the very nature of our system of government? Dr. Common Good argues that all three of the above are true.  

On top of that, equating the presence of gangs in the U.S. to an invasion, an act of war, is ridiculous, a “trumped up” justification — to use a phrase, and a pun that has taken on new meaning since Trump became president the first time. Who is the “country” or armed power that is invading? A brief look at MS-13, one of the gangs that has been included within the “invasion” rhetoric, tells a very different story. MS-13 was founded in Los Angeles (that’s right, here in the U.S.) for protection by Salvadorans fleeing the Central American civil wars in the 1980s — wars in which the U.S. was significantly involved. The gang was later exported back to El Salvador via deportations that resulted from changes in immigration policy, becoming established and growing amidst urban poverty in that country, and simultaneously expanding in the U.S. So, regardless of their criminality, MS-13 is domestic gang, not an invading force. Tren de Aragua, often mentioned in the news as a focus for deportations, is a gang that emerged in Venezuelan prisons in the early 2020s, and then began to expand into the U.S., and to other countries, as a result of the Venezuelan refugee crisis and migration. Again, criminal they may be, but they are not an invading force. This is the United States of America, still governed by basic constitutional principles. 

Clearly, none of these facts matter to the Trump clique of authoritarians. Following a pattern common to dictators, they are using crises of various kinds to justify decimation of our current system of government and the rights that go with it.

As I have said multiple times, continuation of the American project demands that we collectively put a stop to this travesty.

MORE TRUMP/MUSK INSANITIES, THUGGERY AND IDIOCY

Dr. Common Good

Just see if you can wrap your head around the continuing barrage of absolute craziness:

• Trump has asked the military to draw up option plans for retaking the Panama Canal. This, my friends, is not sane.

• On Wednesday, Trump was crassly hawking Teslas in the White House driveway. Not only is that tacky, but it is illegal. And it is symbolic of the unprecedented, unelected and flagrantly illegal role of Elon Musk, who donated almost $300 million to Trump’s campaign, has had almost $20 billion in federal contracts himself over the past decade, and who knows nothing about the agencies he is decimating or their key roles across many domains of service to the American people and service to our important global policy goals and position. Absolute, in your face corruption.

• During a public meeting with the Irish prime minister last week, Trump called Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “a Palestinian,” saying that “he used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian.” If any other public figure had made such an appalling and derogatory comment, they would have been widely excoriated.  

• Elon Musk, who has never gone to war or suffered from any war, and who knows – or cares — absolutely nothing about American values and American history, had the gall, the shameless gall, to call Senator Mark Kelly a “traitor” for publicly supporting Ukraine. That is just bottom-of-the-barrel, and ignorant beyond belief. Ukraine has been fighting, and suffering, on behalf of the West in the face of Russian aggression. Senator Kelly is a former space shuttle astronaut and Navy pilot who flew combat missions in the Gulf War. Musk does not deserve to be in the same room as Senator Kelly. More people should follow Kelley’s example and ditch their Teslas, “built and designed by an asshole,” as Kelley said.

• Let’s talk about “fraud and waste.” Last week the Trump administration returned all 41 migrants currently in Guantanamo to the U.S. He had previously transported a small number of migrants to Guantanamo using giant, expensive, and unnecessary C-17 military transports. So, Trump wasted $16 million in taxpayer money for a “deportation show” involving very few actual migrants. Where is Elon Musk and his “crusade” against “fraud and waste”? Oh, and in the first 50 or so days in office, Trump has already taken two weeks of that to go golfing in Florida, at a cost to taxpayers of $18 million! Where, oh where, is Elon Musk and the infamous DOGE?

• In a shocking comment on Friday demonstrating, yet again, what he really thinks of the Constitution (and what little he even knows about it), Trump declared himself the nation’s “chief law enforcement officer” during a vengeful rant at the Department of Justice (that title actually belongs to the attorney general). Really. But of course it fits with his absolutist authoritarian view of himself, a view that, among many other things, comes out in his repeated threats against anyone who does anything he doesn’t like – including people who protest against Elon Musk at Tesla stores, news media (CNN, MSNBC, even the Wall Street Journal and Fox), law firms that represent his political appointments, universities, and more. Meanwhile, he tries to extort countries under threat like Ukraine and Taiwan – the former for its minerals, the latter for its semiconductor industry.   

• And the Trump/Musk wrecking ball continues to decimate agencies whose mission and work is critical to the American people, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, relied on for weather monitoring and reporting, among many other functions), the Department of Education (which provides funding for a broad range of school-based assistance, including help for students with special needs, school lunches for hungry children, and much more), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (which prevents financial fraud and abuse of customers). And meanwhile, Trump/Musk have dropped legal actions against dangerous polluters, and have already gutted environmental regulations.  

Trump is a thug, an ignorant, malicious thug, who does not give one grain of sand about the United States, its people, its role in the world, or anything else. Musk is his equally thuggish, equally ignorant, pro-Nazi, billionaire backer who, like Trump, thinks of the U.S. as nothing more than a transactional asset that can be used for personal gain. This is not the America of the past 250 years, and is not the America that the world knew just a few short months ago.   

ONE OF MANY EGREGIOUS LIES BY TRUMP IN HIS “SPEECH”

Dr. Common Good

There were so, so many lies spewed out by Trump in his joint session rant on Tuesday that I can’t possibly address all of them. But I will mention one that is just stunning. He said, “I brought back free speech in America.” What? That is monstrously false. Ask anyone who teaches a class, anyone who works (or did work) in a federal agency, or anyone who does research, just to name a few. Trump and Musk’s junior minions have been ripping through these activities, searching for anything that uses one or more newly prohibited words as a guide for what to eliminate or de-fund. For the National Science Foundation, as one example, that list of prohibited words includes:

• activism
• activism
• advocacy
• advocate
• advocates
• barrier
• barriers
• biased
• biased toward
• biases
• biases towards
• bipoc
• black and latinx
• community diversity
• community equity
• cultural differences
• cultural heritage
• culturally responsive
• disabilities
• disability
• discriminated
• discrimination
• discriminatory
• diverse backgrounds
• diverse communities
• diverse community
• diverse group
• diverse groups
• diversified
• diversify
• diversifying
• diversity and inclusion
• diversity equity
• enhance the diversity
• enhancing diversity
• equal opportunity
• equality
• equitable
• equity
• ethnicity
• excluded
• female
• females
• fostering inclusivity
• gender
• gender diversity
• genders
• hate speech
• excluded
• female
• females
• fostering inclusivity
• gender
• gender diversity
• genders
• hate speech
• hispanic minority
• historically
• implicit bias
• implicit biases
• inclusion
• inclusive
• inclusiveness
• inclusivity
• increase diversity
• increase the diversity
• indigenous community
• inequalities
• inequality
• inequitable
• inequities
• institutional
• LGBT
• marginalize
• marginalized
• minorities
• minority
• multicultural
• polarization
• political
• prejudice
• privileges
• promoting diversity
• race and ethnicity
• racial
• racial diversity
• racial inequality
• racial justice
• racially
• racism
• sense of belonging
• sexual preferences
• social justice
• sociocultural
• socioeconomic
• status
• stereotypes
• systemic
• trauma
• under appreciated
• under represented
• under served
• underrepresentation
• underrepresented
• underserved
• undervalued
• victim
• women
• women and underrepresented

[Notice that female and women are on that list, but no mention of male or men]

Now tell me that Trump and his hatchet-boys have brought back free speech. This is pure, unadulterated censorship. And his claim is a flat-out lie to the American people.

TRUMP REALLY IS A RUSSIAN STOOGE

Dr. Common Good

Dr. Common Good is usually not quick to assume or accuse a president of something this serious, but in the case of Trump (or Trump/Musk, whichever you like), the evidence is overwhelming, and it represents a serious threat to the United States – perhaps the most serious threat since World War II.

Just take a few of Trump’s recent actions:

• Halting the sanctions imposed on Putin/Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine.
• Ceasing offensive cyber operations and information operations conducted by the U.S. Cyber Command against Russia, at a time when Russia is no doubt engaged in significant operations of this kind against Europe and the US.
• “Pausing” all US aid to Ukraine,
• Calling for Russia to be readmitted to the G7.
• Openly siding with Russia against Ukraine, repeating Russian talking points about Zelensky as a dictator and as instigator of the war – which of course, is an absolute, baldfaced and shameless lie.
• Dressing down and humiliating Zelensky in a staged, made-for-TV attack.

What a dramatic, shocking reversal this is of US policy backing Ukraine and standing with – indeed, strengthening – our NATO allies, not to mention some 80 years of an alliance with Europe, initiated to protect against Russian aggression. What a dramatic reversal this is of the United States as global leader (albeit inconsistent) in defending democracies against authoritarianism. And yet Republicans and their allies just stand by and let this happen, itself a dramatic reversal of the traditional Republican stance.

What bizarre form of subservience or allegiance to Putin is going on here with respect to Trump? And why are so few on the Republican side calling him out on this?   

TRUMP AND VANCE’S APPALLING MEETING WITH ZELENSKY Part Two

Dr. Common Good

Following up from my post yesterday about the disgusting display by Trump and Vance, I want to repeat excerpts from a short commentary on the exchange by Congressman Seth Moulton (D-Mass), during an interview with CNN:

“The President of the United States is a coward, who is Putin’s puppet. And the Vice President of the United States is a (pogue) and a coward who is Donald Trump’s puppet.”

“And so what we just witnessed was a meeting in the Oval Office between two cowardly puppets and a hero.”

“Whether you voted for these puppets or not, just as an American, as a fellow American, it’s just embarrassing that the only hero, the only decent human being for that matter, is the Ukrainian. I mean, this administration is going to go down as an embarrassment to American history.”

Could Zelensky have been more “deferential” to Trump and Vance, asked the CNN reporter? Said Moulton: “Deferential to what? Deferential to a president who allowed a deal, in his first term, to crumble because Putin just violated it? Deferential to a vice president who didn’t even bother to visit Ukraine? I hardly know anyone in Congress who has any view on national security who hasn’t been to Ukraine during this war. Deferential to a draft dodger who’s our commander in chief? Zelensky doesn’t deserve to be deferential to anyone in that Oval Office. In fact, I kind of wish he’d put them in their place a little bit stronger.”

“The vast, vast majority of my Republican colleagues in Congress completely agree with me. They know the truth here. They’re just too scared to say it themselves.”   

A high five to you, Representative Moulton. You said it like it is. [I will note here that Moulton is a Marine veteran who served four tours of duty in Iraq.]

Let me just reiterate – Trump and Vance are ignorant cowards who don’t deserve to be in the same room as Zelensky. What Zelensky said in that meeting was absolutely fair and true, and he said it in a straightforward manner without raising his voice. Those Republicans (e.g., Lindsey Graham and others) who later criticized Zelensky for “provoking” the exchange either did not see it and are mindlessly repeating Trump talking points, or they are just as ignorant and shameless as Trump and Vance. Period.

Finally, I would go a step further than Representative Moulton on one point. The exchange was not just embarrassing for the United States, it was degrading and contemptible. Only a fool would think this is “Making America Great.”

TRUMP AND VANCE’S APPALLING MEETING WITH ZELENSKY

Dr. Common Good

Today Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Trump and VP JD Vance, and faced the true measure of this administration’s ugliness, idiocy and arrogance. As an American, I am sorry, President Zelensky. I am sorry that this administration is so devoid of character, decency and intelligence. Please understand that Americans as a whole are not this way.

All Trump/Vance were after was obeisance and sycophancy from Zelensky. They just wanted him to praise them and take whatever deal they offered, with no recognition or admiration for the valiant defense Ukraine has put up in the face of brutal Russian aggression, no recognition that it is Ukraine that has sacrificed its people to protect not only itself but Western Europe and ultimately the US. And when he did not bow down like a puppy, Trump publicly lost his temper and demanded that he thank the US, and cowardly Vance chimed in, berating Zelensky for being disrespectful.

There are no words for this outrageous, disgraceful conduct. Trump and Vance do not deserve a micron of the respect that should be accorded to Zelensky. They deserve only contempt. Neither of them has ever sacrificed anything. In the annals of human decency and courage, Trump and Vance wallow in the bottom, among the swill. What a disgusting mockery they have made of the United States of America. And I say to voters — Is this revolting display what you were thinking of as “making America great”? I sincerely hope not.