I wish I had included this in my “Some things we’ve lost, like …” blog post on May 6, 2025.
The National Cancer Institute is one of the 27 components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
A couple of weeks ago, the National Cancer Institute had 28 Scientific Advisors. Today it has none. I copied the following from the National Cancer Institute’s website (National Cancer Institute (NCI) | National Institutes of Health (NIH) on May 7, 2025, because it will probably disappear soon:
“The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is the federal government’s principal agency for cancer research and training. Established under the National Cancer Institute Act of 1937, NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of 11 agencies that make up the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
NCI’s mission is to lead, conduct, and support cancer research across the nation to advance scientific knowledge and help all people live longer, healthier lives.
“As the leader of the cancer research enterprise, collectively known as the National Cancer Program, and the largest funder of cancer research in the world, NCI manages a broad range of research, training, and information dissemination activities that reach across the entire country, meeting the needs of all demographics—rich and poor, urban and rural, and all racial/ethnic populations. Specifically, NCI focuses on two broad roles:
“Cancer Research
- Leads the nation’s research efforts to improve cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, and survivorship
- Supports 72 NCI-Designated Cancer Centers and more than 5,000 grantees
- Coordinates and supports all phases of clinical trials across 2,500 clinical trial sites nationwide, seeking the development of new and improved cancer treatments
- Supports intramural research scientists in our own laboratories and clinics
- Partners with industry, private philanthropic organizations, other federal agencies, and other national and foreign institutions to engage in cancer research and training opportunities that otherwise might not be possible because of their complexity and cost
- Collaborates with private-sector life sciences companies to advance promising innovative technologies that fuel improvements in detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer
- Supports the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, the only federally funded research and development center dedicated exclusively to biomedical research
- Maintains long-term storage of publicly available cancer genomic and clinical data
- Supports construction of laboratories, clinics, and related facilities for cancer research
“Training and Support for Cancer Researchers
- Strives to attract, train, and retain the best minds to become the next generation of cancer researchers
- Provides support to scientists and their institutions to create outstanding environments for researchers to train, conduct basic and clinical research, and care for cancer patients
- Funds training and career development opportunities across a broad spectrum of cancer research disciplines through training grants, fellowships, research career development awards, and research education grants
- Supports targeted cancer research training for individuals from backgrounds underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences to achieve and sustain a diverse workforce
- Provides comprehensive training programs that support the needs of qualified individuals at all stages of their career development, ranging from middle-school students to independent researchers
- Offers training opportunities centered in hospitals and research institutions across the nation, in addition to intramural training programs offered at NCI laboratories and offices in Maryland
“As a federal agency, NCI receives its funds from Congress. The bulk of our budget supports extramural grants and cooperative agreements to facilitate research conducted at universities, medical schools, hospitals, cancer centers, research laboratories, and private firms in the United States and abroad. These funds also support intramural research at NCI’s laboratories and offices in Bethesda, Rockville, and Frederick, MD.
“Our investments have led to declines in the rates of new cancer cases and cancer deaths overall in the last few decades in the United States. In line with this improvement, the number of cancer survivors in the United States has more than doubled from 7 million in 1992 to more than 15 million in 2016—and is expected to rise to more than 26 million by 2040. These trends reflect advances in cancer detection, diagnosis, and patient care that have resulted in people living longer, healthier lives than ever before.”
I copied the following paragraph from http://Grants & Funding | National Institutes of Health (NIH): “The National Institutes of Health is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. The NIH invests most of its nearly $48 billion budget in medical research seeking to enhance life and to reduce illness and disability. NIH-funded research has led to breakthroughs and new treatments helping people live longer, healthier lives, and building the research foundation that drives discovery.”
So how does the National Cancer Institute continue that work without any scientific advisors?
After reading online that the National Cancer Institute was looking for candidates to apply for the position of Advisor in Bioinformatics in the Surveillance Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, I copied the following from https://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/careers:
“The largest of the institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is a premier research center that offers research, programmatic support, and training opportunities at its laboratories and offices in Maryland.
“In accordance with the https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/hiring-freeze/ dated January 20, 2025, which is effective immediately, we have been informed that all recruitment activities must cease.”
If you voted for Trump and you did not want this to happen, it is time for you to let President Trump, your two US Senators, and your US Representative know you don’t like this. That power rests with you.
The Trump Administration should be afraid of YOU now. It should be afraid of the people who elected them. Please, please show them that they should be afraid of you!
When you write or call their offices, be sure to tell them you voted for them and you voted for Trump. They need to know that their base is not happy with this decision
If, like me, you didn’t vote for Trump, either of your US Senators, or your US Representative, you should contact them anyway and let them know your displeasure. Just don’t count on hearing back from any of them.
We need a businessman in the White House?
What really irritates me with my public administration background is that we keep being told the government needs to be run like a business. “We need a businessman in the White House.”
If this is the way business works, thank goodness businessmen (of course, they are all men!) weren’t in charge of our government for its first 248 years. If they had been, we wouldn’t have lasted into the 18th century, much less until 2025.
No wonder Trump has bankrupted so many companies. It must take a certain level of business acumen to bankrupt a casino.
Trump’s embarrassing remarks in Qatar
Speaking to US military personnel at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar this week, President Trump mocked France for celebrating the Allied victory in World War II on May 8.
I watched the video. Trump said, “We love France, right. But I think we did a little more to win the war than France did, do we agree?”
How dare he!
He continued, “You know. I don’t want to be a wise guy. But when Hitler made his speech at the Eiffel Tower, I would say that wasn’t exactly ideal.”
Trump went on to repeat a supposed conversation he had with French President Emmanuel Macron, mimicking Macron’s voice.
Trump said, “Russia was celebrating, France was celebrating, everybody was celebrating but us. And we’re the ones that won the war. We won the war.”
Someone needs to remind Trump that it was European countries like France that were bombed and occupied by German troops.
Someone needs to remind Trump that it was a joint effort by Allied troops from many countries that won the war. The United States of America did not single-handedly win World War II!
This was a pathetic show of ignorance of history by President Trump in front of a captive audience of American troops.
Until my next blog post
I sincerely hope you have a good novel to read. I hope you are not in the doldrums like I’ve been in since Inauguration Day, unable to enjoy a novel.
But I do hope you are disgusted with how our country is being run.
Support small local businesses and restaurants. They need your business.
Support your local public library system! They are always operating under tight budget restraints. If you don’t darken the door or ever check out a book, music CD, or other resource, it makes it difficult for them to justify their very existence. It makes it difficult for them to justify their budget requests for the next fiscal year. Did you not know that?
In North Carolina, at least, local governments’ fiscal years begin on July 1. May and June are when county commissions are studying budget requests and deciding where to make cuts. Public libraries are often a target of those cuts. This is a critical time to let your local elected officials know that libraries are important. Sadly, many of them never use a public library and are ignorant of the resources they hold.
Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.
Janet
Janet's Writing Blog 
Trump probably doesn’t know how the French Resistance rose up in support of D-Day, with hundreds of acts of sabotage, tying up German troops, and many dying in the process. He is so F’ing stupid and arrogant, that even when he actually doesn’t make things worse, he can’t tell the difference. So much for the fever dreams of peace in Gaza or Ukraine on day one. Not to mention the special refugee status of Afrikaners who even say they weren’t discriminated against.
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He is the most ignorant president we’ve ever had. The remarks he made at the air base in Qatar this week were horrible! To claim we did more in WWII than France. Mocking France. Making fun of France for Hitler having his picture made at the Eiffel Tower. Saying these things in front of young American soldiers who probably don’t know any more history than he does! Horrifying! And the Afrikaner “refugees.” But please, can’t CNN, CBS, ABC, and NBC stop talking about the Diddy Combs trial and start reporting on the dismantling of our democracy?
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Amen to that, Janet.
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Sadly Trump gets what little historical knowledge he has from Hollywood films and he doesn’t realise that they are made by Americans for Americans primarily. If he really believes that America won WW1 and WW2 all by themselves then I look forward very much to watching him fighting WW3 all by himself. Because I very much doubt that any Europeans, or the Canadians, will show up the next time America decides to start a war, as it does periodically. The bust of Churchill that sits in the Oval Office should shame him, but nothing can.
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He probably doesn’t know who Winston Churchill was any more than he could explain the Declaration of Independence to Terry Moran of ABC News. He all but called it a love letter to King George III! His words at that base in Qatar speak volumes about his ignorance of history. I’m sure his slum-lord father paid his way through school and I doubt Dear Leader ever attended class. He certainly never took a history course, read a book, or watched a documentary on PBS. It is especially rich for a draft dodger to make stupid remarks about a war. He had a captive audience at that base in Qatar, and I suppose they were ordered to cheer no matter what he said. I still shudder to think about it. As expected, Trump came home on a high and is lashing out at everyone from Taylor Swift to Bruce Springsteen to Walmart to James Comey to whatever pops in his head. This week of nonstop praise in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE will embolden him as never before. I just hope the world remembers that half of us did not vote for this. Sadly, neither half can begin to understand why the other half voted the way they did and still stand by their vote. I will never, ever understand. Family gatherings and social gatherings are all strained now because you either don’t know where another person stands — or worse, you do know where they stand and you feel you no longer have anything in common with them or anything you can discuss with them. Until the Trump hate-filled rhetoric started when Barack Obama dared to run for President and people’s true colors began to show, I couldn’t have told you which political party anyone affiliated with or how they voted. Many of us were so hopeful after Obama was elected… and then reelected… that racial differences would finally be put aside. Unfortunately, it only ignited a fire. People started choosing sides. Until then, one’s politics was a private matter, and people just did not talk about politics. Now, the MAGA people think they have the right to broadcast their narrow, hateful views at any time and any place. They assume most people agree with them and if you don’t agree with them you are just stupid and they don’t care how uncomfortable they make you feel. I don’t know if my country can ever be put back together. I’m sure that’s how people on both sides felt for a long time after our Civil War.
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