Hurricane Helene Recovery Update

I usually have a brief update on Hurricane Helene recovery in western North Carolina at the end of my Monday blog posts. That’s what I had planned to do yesterday, but news from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Friday afternoon prompted me to move yesterday’s report to today.

I wish I had some photographs to include in today’s post, but I don’t want to use pictures that are not in the public domain. You can see still photos and videos of the damage left by Helene by doing online searches. Television website such as the one for WLOS in Asheville are good sources, as well as this link to the National Park Service website: https://home.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/helene-impacts-and-recovery.htm.

It has now been eight months since Hurricane Helene, and it probably is a distant memory for most Americans. However, as of Friday, 51 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included five US highways, three state highways, and 43 state roads. You may recall that right after the storm, there were more than 1,200 roads closed in the state.

I failed to mention the last several weeks that I-40 near the Tennessee border is still just one lane in each direction with a 35 mile-per-hour speed limit for the foreseeable future.

It is an arduous undertaking to rebuild an interstate highway down in a gorge. It took years to construct the highway through those mountains. Its reconstruction cannot be rushed.

I have driven that section of I-40 a number of times. It is not a leisurely drive as you always see recent rockslides that have been caught behind the miles of steel mesh covering the side of mountains. I always feel a sense of relief when I successfully navigate that winding stretch of highway and can loosen my grip on the steering wheel.

Most of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina is still closed for the foreseeable future. A total of approximately 95 miles of the parkway are open, but much of that is in one- to four-mile long sections The longest section in NC that is open is a 46-mile section from Balsam Gap to the road’s southern terminus at Soco Gap near Cherokee.

Rail Service

Norfolk Southern freight train service from Tennessee was restored to Asheville on April 25, a full seven months after the hurricane. In addition to rail lines being destroyed, the Newport Bridge over the Pigeon River in Newport, Tennessee had to be replaced. Due to more than 100 washouts due to the hurricane, 13 miles of train track between Newport and Asheville had to be replaced.

On May 21, The (Raleigh) News and Observer reported on the restoration of the rail service as well as the remaining rail service recovery in western North Carolina.

The newspaper reported, “Now the company is focused on 16 miles of tracks east of Asheville, between Black Mountain and Old Fort. That part of the line tops the Eastern Continental Divide with a series of horseshoe turns through rugged terrain and was heavily damaged by landslides and wash outs.

“Not only does the Old Fort line connect to Norfolk Southern’s freight network in central and eastern North Carolina, but the N.C. Department of Transportation is studying that route for possible future passenger trains between Salisbury and Asheville.

“Norfolk Southern says it expects to rebuild the Old Fort section by sometime this winter.”

In addition to Norfolk Southern, CSX and Blue Ridge Southern operate train service in western NC. The Blue Ridge Southern line connects Hendersonville and Waynesville with the Norfolk Southern railyard in Asheville.

The Raleigh newspaper report says, “CSX, whose line through the mountains is a key link between the Southeast and Midwest, is still working to rebuild about 40 miles of tracks along the North Toe and Nolichucky rivers from Spruce Pine northwest into Tennessee. The flooded rivers washed out two bridges and miles of track in the steep, remote valley.”

FEMA

The 2025 Hurricane Season begins in five days, and the word on the streets is that FEMA is not prepared.

It was reported last week by WSOC-TV in Charlotte that FEMA is allowing some people in western NC to purchase the FEMA trailers they are living in at a discount. It made me sad to see a trailer park of FEMA trailers just a few feet apart and to think that those people are faced with a decision now to pay for those “temporary” units and I guess live in them for the rest of their lives. How disheartening that must be!

On Thursday, May 22, FEMA informed NC Governor Josh Stein that it is ending the direct assistance for the US Army Corps of Engineers. Gov. Stein thanked FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers for all that’s been done to remove debris let by Hurricane Helene in western NC.

The governor said, “I am pleased that they will stay in North Carolina to finish existing missions, and my team looks forward to working closely with them to get those jobs done quickly. Together, we have removed more than 12 million cubic yards of debris from our roads and waterways. Unfortunately, there remains vast amounts of work yet to be done. Our state’s debris removal program is prepared to contract and execute the remaining debris removal and will work diligently and with urgency to complete those jobs as soon as possible.”

Also on May 22, the NC House of Representatives unanimously passed the Disaster Recovery Act of 2025 Part II, which is the fifth round of Helene relief funding. This latest bill provides $464 million for recovery efforts, bringing the NC House’s total allocations to date to a total of $1.8 billion. This bill now goes to the NC State Senate for consideration.

But then the bottom fell out on Friday afternoon. FEMA denied North Carolina’s appeal to extend 100% cost reimbursement for debris removal cost-sharing for the hurricane. It is estimated that it will cost an additional $2 billion to finish cleaning up the debris left by Hurricane Helene. That’s a huge expense for a state like North Carolina to incur with no hopes of being reimbursed by the federal government.

During his campaign last October 21, Donald Trump visited western North Carolina for some a photo ops and told the people that he would respond to their needs. He went over the top (as only he can do) with lies about how the Biden Administration had let them down. He told them that Biden was going to steal their land. He told them that Biden had directed the storm to hit western North Carolina!

He accused FEMA of only giving hurricane victims a total of $750. Of course, the $750 people who have lost their homes in a natural disaster is what FEMA gives them to meet their immediate needs until long-term assistance can be determined. Whether Trump spoke out of ignorance or intentionally lied is up for debate.

In October 2024, Trump accused the Biden administration of diverting FEMA assistance from North Carolina to house illegal immigrants. He said, “$1 billion of FEMA spending was ‘stolen’ for migrants.” None of that was true.

Out of desperation, some of the people believed him and then voted for him just two weeks later. Some of them now see this as a case of “bait and switch.”

NC Governor Josh Stein responded to Friday’s decision from FEMA with his usual grace, class, and facts: “The first step to help western North Carolina recover is to clean up all the debris. So far, we have removed more than 12 million cubic yards of debris from roads and waterways, but given the immense scale of the wreckage, we have only scratched the surface. FEMA’s denial of our appeal will cost North Carolina taxpayers potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up out west. The money we have to pay toward debris removal means less money toward supporting our small businesses, rebuilding downtown infrastructure, repairing our water and sewer systems, and other critical needs.

“Despite this news, we are going to stay the course. We will keep pushing the federal and state governments to do right by western North Carolina. We will keep working with urgency, focus, and transparency to get any appropriated money on the ground as quickly as we can to speed the recovery. We will not forget the people of western North Carolina.”

I’m embarrassed to say it, but North Carolina voted for Trump last November. Perhaps the rest of the states need to take note: This is how Trump rewards his supporters.

If you live in a “a blue state” (or “a red state”) you’d better hope you don’t have a natural disaster in the next three and a half years. Just ask the people in Missouri and Kentucky who feel abandoned by FEMA since the deadly tornadoes experienced there this month.

I hope NC’s two Republican US Senators take note. I hope our Republican US Representatives take note. Y’all have backed Trump on every turn. Did you expect help for your state in return?

We have a crisis of government spending in this country. It must be addressed; however, suddenly pulling the rug out from under citizens is not the American way.

How FEMA operates needs to be assessed but making rash decisions about how its programs are implemented in places hundreds of miles from an ocean that have been devastated by a hurricane while denying that the climate is changing might not be the best time to pull on that rug.

No one living hundreds of miles inland can prepare for 30 inches of rain accompanied by tropical storm force winds. It’s one thing to build a house where the ocean waves lap at the foundation. It’s another thing altogether when the home several hundred miles inland where multiple generations of your family have lived gets washed away.

Until my next blog post

I hope you are reading a book that has you so captivated you will stay up all night tonight to finish it.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

No more contempt of court? (& other concerns)

Today I will touch on a variety of things going on within the Trump Administration. None of the news organization can cover everything, so I try to gather items from reputable sources across the board.

No more contempt of court for people like US Presidents?

Photo of a gavel
Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” which was passed in the US House of Representatives by a whopping ONE vote, is being hashed out in the US Senate. Various aspects of it get picked up by the broadcast news, but one item that is getting almost no publicity is perhaps the worst slam on our democracy yet: It will eliminate the power of courts to hold officials in contempt for disregarding court orders!

That bears repeating: As it was passed by the US House of Representatives, it will eliminate the power of courts to hold officials in contempt for disregarding court orders.

Trump is already ignoring court orders and no court has had the guts to hold him in contempt, so the remedy appears to be for us to strip the courts of any power they could hold over an elected official.

As a regular citizen, if I am called up for jury duty and I don’t show up, I will be held in contempt of court. The judge will order officers of the law to come to my house and transport me in the back seat of a police car to the courthouse where I must appear before the judge who is already unhappy with me. That’s the law. There are consequences when regular citizens break the law.

If this tiny part of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is passed by the Senate, he will sign it into law, thereby making himself untouchable by the Department of Justice.

The last guardrail will be gone.

You have 215 Republicans in the US House of Representatives to thank, but they don’t need your thanks. They have already been thanked by Donald Trump.

Now, we wait to see what the US Senate will do with that 1,000-page “big, beautiful bill.” Will they have the guts to remove the part that strips the judicial branch of our government from its power of checks and balances? Or will they see it as their own way out of being held accountable by the justice system?

Suppose they pass it as it is written. How happy they will be if we have another presidential election someday and a Democrat is elected President? (I did not use the word “if” by mistake. I intentionally used it.)

Be careful, legislators, over what you codify into law. It might come back to bite you.

And that, my friends, is how a 249-year-old democracy is dismantled.

Harvard University

Photo of a red Harvard graduate school banner hung on a pole on the side of a building
Photo by Manu Ros on Unsplash

Another way a democracy is dismantled is to attack and take control of its institutions of higher learning.

It was great that a judge placed a temporary injunction against Trump’s order that he would prevent Harvard University from enrolling any international students, but the damage has been done.

Even if Harvard wins in court, Trump has done irreparable damage to higher education in the United States because there is now a level of fear among students from abroad who will, no doubt, think long and hard before coming to our country to study.

And will students who are American citizens now think twice before they participate in a peaceful protest? Will Trump sign an Executive Order to prevent them from finishing their education? If he can do it to foreign students who are here legally to study, what is to stop him from doing it to American citizens?

And if the courts rule that he cannot do that? Nothing will happen to him. In 2024, the US Supreme Court ruled that the sitting US President cannot be charged with a crime. In May 2025, the US House of Representatives voted 215 to 214 that an elected official cannot be held in contempt of court. Will the US Senators agree?

The irony in Trump’s order that Harvard can no longer admit an international student is that his order would eliminate foreign Jewish students from Harvard all in the name of ridding the university of antisemitism.

Trump is like a dog with a bone. Over the weekend, he took to social media to demand the names of the international students at Harvard along with the names of the countries from which they came. He wants those countries to now pay. Since those students already pay for their education, I’m not sure what their countries are supposed to pay for… or who gets the money. Probably not Harvard.

His governance via social media and Executive Order are really getting old. Since Trump rules by Executive Order, the “big, beautiful bill” passed y the House of Representatives last week was one of the only things they’ve had to do since January 20.

Let’s be clear. This is not an attack on Harvard University. It is an attack on and a threat against every college and university in the United States. Harvard is just the test case to see how far he can push back on academia.

After all, he did say, “I love the uneducated,” when he was campaigning for office.

In an oddly-related story, the Pentagon promotes Kingsley Wilson

I didn’t know her name either, so don’t feel bad. She has been promoted to the position of Press Secretary for the Department of Defense. She is an interesting pick, in light of President Trump’s outrage over antisemitism at Harvard.

It is reported that Wilson has repeated antisemitic comments regarding conspiracy theories against a Jewish lynching victim whose cause helped found the Anti-Defamation League. It’s so bad that some Republicans have criticized Wilson’s employment in any position at the Pentagon.

The Trump Administration is consistently inconsistent.

Speaking of the Pentagon, while I still can

Brian Stelter of CNN reported that more restrictions have been placed on journalists covering the US military. New credentialing constraints were issued by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last Friday night. Also, key parts of the Pentagon that journalists have had access to in the past will now require them to be accompanied by an official escort.

The Pentagon Press Association’s statement said it has tried to communicate with Hegseth “to keep in place a professional working relationship that as persisted for decades,” to no avail.

Stelter reported, “The association said it is ‘puzzled’ about why the Defense Department ‘is devoting such attention to restricting Pentagon media instead of engaging with it as senior leaders have long done.’ Hegseth’s public comments indicate that he views the media as the opposition. He has denounced what he called the ‘hoax press’ and promoted himself by appearing on Fox opinion shows hosted by his friends.”

Hegseth used to be a Fox News personality, like many of the other members of the Trump Administration.

Can someone please tell him to lose the red baseball cap?

First of all, the MAGA campaign caps are baseball caps. They aren’t “MAGA hats.” I know “hat” sounds more high class than “baseball cap,” but that’s not what they are. A man’s hat has a brim all the way around. A baseball cap has a bill on the front.

It was embarrassing enough that the graduating cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point had to listen to a political speech from Trump as their commencement speaker on Saturday, but did he have to wear his bright red MAGA baseball cap?

I have a hunch that he had to wear it because the event was held outside and there are some major issues with Trump’s balding head and his dyed blond locks of hair having to be swept in all directions. What if the wind picked up? What if his hair couldn’t be controlled with grease like it appeared during his Oval Office ambush of South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier in the week?

Too bad he couldn’t just rent a cap and gown and dress like a normal college-level commencement speaker. And what was the pink necktie about?

A video clip that I saw on TV showed Trump saluting while wearing his campaign cap. I tried to find out what he was saluting, but I couldn’t find it. I hope he wasn’t saluting our flag! Whatever he was saluting, it was a ridiculous and embarrassing image of a US President.

In a world where President Barack Obama was heavily criticized by Republicans for wearing a tan suit once, how is it now acceptable for President Donald Trump to wear a baseball cap everywhere he goes? Asking for a friend.

If a man wears a cap to a baseball game, he automatically removes it for the playing of our national anthem. I imagine the national anthem was played at the West Point commencement ceremony. I wonder if Trump removed his cap for it. We’ll probably never know.

Before I leave Trump’s speech at West Point, I will quote one line from it that sent a chill down my spine. He said, “The job of the U.S. Armed Forces is not to host drag shows, to transform foreign cultures, but to spread democracy to everybody around the world at the point of a gun.”

What a bizarre statement! That sounds like we’re going to force democracy on people “at the point of a gun” whether they want it or not. All the while, he is working every day to destroy our democracy. I don’t think another country wants his brand of democracy!

Photo of a building at West Point with a statue in front of a George Washington on a horse
Statue of George Washington on a horse in front of a building at the US Military Academy at West Point.
Photo by Dave Lowe on Unsplash

That was not the most bizarre thing Trump said in his nearly hour long “speech.” In addition to drag shows, he talked about trophy wives. (That must have made the female cadets uncomfortable… and that was probably why he brought up the subject.) He talked about boats and yachts.

His mind wonders and his words tend to follow his mind when he strays from reading the teleprompter. It has become one of his trademarks. He refers to it as “weaving” and justifies it as something he does by intention.

If any other US President had almost daily gone off the rails and rambled about sundry topics in every speech or other public remarks, the 25th Amendment would have been enforced and the Vice President would have replaced him.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read and time to read it.

Value time with family and friends. Tomorrow is promised to no one.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

Memorial Day Observance

This is Memorial Day in the United States.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

This is the day every year on which Americans are called on the remember the men and women who have died in the military service to our country. It dates back to 1868. After the Civil War, the 30th day of May was set aside as “Decoration Day” on which the graves of those soldiers who had given their lives for their country were to be decorated with flowers.

For decades it was called Decoration Day. Unfortunately, since it was begun as a day to remember those who had been killed in the military service of the United States, some in The South selected a different day in May to honor those who had died fighting for the Confederate States in the Civil War.

I can remember older people even in the 1960s who still marked Confederate Memorial Day. I’m glad we have gotten beyond that, or at least I hope and think we have.

Even after World War I, the day was specifically to remember those who died in the Civil War. After World War II, though, it was decided that it should be a day to honor the sacrifice made by all who had died in the military service, no matter the war or circumstances of their death during service.

Congress passed the National Holiday Act of 1971 and it designated that Memorial Day will be observed on the last Monday in May.

In 1915, Moina Michael was inspired by the poem “In Flanders Field” to write the following: “We cherish too, the Poppy red That grows on fields where valor led. It seems to signal to the skies that blood of heroes never dies.”

Photo of a field of red poppies
Photo by Irina Iacob on Unsplash

She then had the idea that we should wear red poppies on Memorial Day to honor those who died in the service. She sold them on her own and gave the money she made to benefit veterans in need. The custom was admired by a Madam Guerin of France, and she initiated the practice there to raise money for the children orphaned and the women widowed by war. The practice spread across many countries.

In 1922, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) organization became the first organization to sell the poppies across the US. IN 1924, disabled veterans started making the artificial poppies for the VFW members and their auxiliary members to sell.

So, if you see them selling poppies outside a supermarket, a shopping mall, or elsewhere today, stop and buy a poppy and wear it today to remind yourself and those who see you what this holiday is all about.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

Spend time with friends and family for you and they won’t be here forever.

Remember the people of Ukraine, western North Carolina, and the flooding victims in New South Wales, Australia, and in southern France. No part of the world is immune to war or extreme weather

Janet

I couldn’t help myself…

I ended yesterday’s blog post with “Until my next blog post, which I hope won’t be until next week…,” but here I am posting again today.

I could write 1,000 words about today’s topic, but I’ll just stop with the following 168 words.

Harvard University

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Yesterday, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem informed Harvard University that it can no long accept international students unless it meets all the Trump Administration’s demands in 72 hours.

One of those demands to for the university to give Noem films of all student protests that have taken place over the last five years.

International students make up 27% of the undergraduate and graduate student body of Harvard. That’s more than 7,000 students who now must transfer to another university or go home.

Under the guise of punishing Harvard’s leadership for not punishing antisemitic activity, Trump is going out of his way to hurt not only the international students but all the students, faculty, and the ideals of higher education in the United States.

This is not technically blackmail under US law because Trump is not demanding money from Harvard, but I do believe it meets the spirit of the law.

Other words that come to mind are extortion and coercion.

Or perhaps exaction.

Until my next blog post

Let’s all just try to have a peaceful weekend, as Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer in the United States.

Janet

More Snippets of What’s Happening to and in the US

As we continue through another week of the Trump Administration, I’m blogging again today about some of the things that are going on here in the United States. I wish I did not need to do this. It is not what I ever had in mind for my blog. With the free press continually under attack by Trump, though, I believe I’m doing what I must do.

Yesterday’s ambush of South Africa’s President

In another embarrassing and bizarre ambush, yesterday Donald Trump blindsided President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa in the Oval Office with a video and stack of papers claiming widespread genocide of white farmers in South Africa. I had flashbacks of how he ambushed Ukrainian President Zelensky in February.

At least once, Trump made a mistake he has made before when he said, “Africa and other countries.” Apparently, the private education Trump claims to have received did not include geography.

Before the day was out, Agence Frances Presse was rightfully calling yesterday’s meeting: “The Ambush Office: Trump’s Oval becomes test of nerve for world leaders.”Perhaps other world leaders will not request meetings with Trump or accept any invitations that come from him.

With ambush as the US President’s modus operandi, it is unlikely any other nations want their presidents or prime ministers to visit our country.

Emboldened by his week of being praised in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, Trump is full of himself and showing his true colors. He just can’t help himself.

The flying palace

The US Secretary of Defense accepted the $400 million airplane “gift” from Qatar yesterday, so now the American taxpayers are on the hook for the estimated $1 billion it will cost to gut it and rebuild it to Air Force One security standards. All this, so Trump can take it to his future presidential library, which is an oxymoron if there ever was one.

States’ rights

I read on Sunday that although Trump brags about being all for “states’ rights,” there is a provision in his budget bill that bans state and local governments from regulating Artificial Intelligence for 10 years. States can’t make laws about AI. No state laws about facial recognition, AI surveillance, or the misuse of date AI collects.

Miscellaneous Research

In the name of eliminating waste in the US Government, thousands of studies being conducted at state-supported colleges and universities have been cancelled by the Trump Administration. Without taking the time or even making the effort to analyze what they are cutting, they decided it would be easier to just de-fund anything and everything remotely associated with diversity, equity, or inclusion (DEI).

The Charlotte Observer published a report about 17 grants totaling $469,069 that had been awarded to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte that have been cancelled by Trump, while WSOC-TV reported that UNCC has lost $14 million in federal funds.

The 17 grants that the newspaper wrote about were cancelled, some of which were already in progress, included such things as the spread of online misinformation; encouraging girls and black youth to pursue careers in computer science; youth with disabilities transitioning into independent living; autoimmune disease (pemphigus) research; and black youth suicide detection and prevention.

It is obvious that any studies or programs that had anything to do with diversity, equity, or inclusion (DEI) were the grants being cancelled. Grants to study or help African Americans were obviously targeted, while 74% of patients with the potentially fatal autoimmune disease pemphigus are white and 61% of them are women.

UNC-Charlotte is just one of the 16 institutions that are part of the UNC system. What UNC-Charlotte has lost is a drop in the bucket compared to the federal grant losses at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University at Raleigh.

This has happened in every state and at countless colleges and universities, both state-supported and private.

Our apologies to France

In a 51 to 45 vote, The US Senate confirmed Charles Kushner as US Ambassador to France. He is the father of President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In 2005, the elder Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison for 18 counts, including tax evasion and witness tampering. He pleaded guilty to the tax evasion and making illegal campaign contributions.

Ashli Babbitt Settlement

US taxpayers learned on Monday that the Trump Administration is paying the family of Ashli Babbitt nearly $5 million. Ashli Babbitt was the insurrectionist killed at the US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Yes, you read that correctly.

Ms. Babbitt was shot as she tried to breach the barricaded House Speaker’s Lobby. President Trump has called her a “martyr” and a “patriot.”

Making America Safe Again?

There was a glimmer of hope after the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas in 2022. There was bipartisan support for investing in mental health support for students. But then the Trump Administration came along in 2025.

The US Department of Justice cancelled hundreds of grants that funded local government and community organizations’ gun violence prevention programs.

Photo of children holding signs saying thoughts and prayers don't stop bullets.
Heather Mount on Unsplash

Then the Trump Administration blocked $1 billion in grants for student mental health because this was no longer in “the best interest of the federal government.”

The latest example of the Trump Administration’s “Make America Safe Again” mantra is the legalization of “forced reset triggers.” I’m no firearms expert, but the best I can tell from reading and hearing the news reports is that this device enables a semiautomatic weapon to become even more deadly as it makes the shooter able to fire hundreds of rounds in a minute.

So when US Attorney General Pam Bondi said last week that this “will enhance public safety,” what did she mean? I guess I’m just stupid, because I don’t understand any of this.

Venezuelans losing Temporary Protected Status (TPS)

On Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump Administration. The Court granted emergency application to the Department of Homeland Security to proceed with the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who had been given TPS by the Biden Administration. This ruling overruled a district court order.

US loses its AAA bond rating

And then there’s this, which sent stock markets around the word into a loss on Monday.

Shall I say something good that Trump did?

To be fair, I will point out that on Monday President Trump signed into law the Take It Down Act. The bill, which was championed by First Lady Melania Trump, sets stricter penalties for the distribution of non-consensual intimate imagery online and “revenge porn.” The bill had overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress.

Finally, something most Republicans and Democrats can agree on!

Trump’s US Interior Department loves plastic

The US Department of the Interior was recognized last June for its ongoing efforts to phase out the use of any and all single-use plastics. That was Joe Biden’s Department of the Interior.

Donald Trump’s Department of the Interior has rescinded the order behind that phase-out. So much for curbing pollution in our national parks. All bans on plastics on all federally managed land are being lifted.

US Secretary of Homeland Security’s Misunderstanding of Habeas Corpus

US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem got tripped up in a Congressional hearing on Tuesday when US Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire referenced White House advisor Stephen Miller’s comment earlier in May that the Trump Administration was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus.

Senator Hassan asked Secretary Noem, “What is habeas corpus?”

Secretary Noem’s response was jarring. She said, “Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country, and suspend their right to –”

Senator Hassan jumped in to cut her off. “That’s incorrect,” Hassan said. She went on to explain to Noem what habeas corpus is.

As I stated in my May 14, 2025, blog post, The New American Dream?: “Habeas corpus is a legal procedure by which a report can be made to a court alleging the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and requesting that the court order the individual’s custodian to bring the prisoner to court, to determine whether their detention is lawful.”

I also referenced habeas corpus in my May 19, 2025, blog post.

Senator Hassan and Secretary Noem’s exchange did not stop there.

“So, Secretary Noem, do you support the core protection that habeas corpus provides, that the government must provide a public reason in order to detain and imprison someone?” the senator asked.

Noem’s response was lame and telling: “I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.”

In case we needed any more proof, we now have a member of President Trump’s Cabinet and his close advisor both stating in public that the suspension of habeas corpus is under consideration.

Meanwhile

Against my better judgment, I signed up for my US Representative’s newsletter. This former Baptist preacher does not disappoint. This week’s newsletter sang the praises of Trump ad nauseum. He is pushing for congress to codify into law every Executor Order Donald Trump has signed.

Here’s just one paragraph from his long newsletter of Trumpian praise: “It doesn’t matter if we have to vote seven days a week. The Republican Congress needs to be passing bills that codify the executive orders that have been advancing the America-first agenda. That’s why I joined 16 of my colleagues in calling on Speaker Johnson to prioritize codifying President Trump’s wins into law.’

In case you missed my May 19, 2025, blog post, I gave a little background information about Representative Harris and the election fraud that landed him in court in 2018.

Mr. Harris has not responded to my email to him a couple of weeks ago about my distress over the fact that the United States is on the CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist for a narrowing of civil liberties.

He is a prime example of why I am frustrated with people who claim to be Christians but support Donald Trump. There is a disconnect there that I will never understand.

Until my next blog post, which I hope won’t be until next week…

I hope you have a good book to read and time to read it.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

Snippets of what’s happening to and in the US

Every time I think I won’t feel compelled to post on my blog multiple days a week, I am proven wrong. To live in the United States today is to live wondering what is going to happen next. Our new normal is to expect the unexpected. Every. Single. Day.

Our new normal is to expect things to get a lot worse before they will get better. Our new normal is to know that things are probably never going to return to what was normal for the last 80 years.

Last night, we learned that the Trump Administration, against a US District Court order, deported immigrants to South Sudan.

Photo of a person's head in the dark inside of an airplane peering out the window
Photo by kian on Unsplash

Apparently, Trump thinks it does not matter that it was against a court order. Apparently, Trump thinks it is okay to deport people to South Sudan where there is fighting between opposing forces and a civil war taking place in neighboring Sudan. He thinks it is all right to deport people to a country in Africa… even though at least two of those deportees were from Southeast Asia.

One of the individuals is from Vietnam and one is from Burma. The nationalities of the others – indeed, the total number of deportees on that flight – has not been revealed. Immigration attorneys say there are “likely” at least ten other immigrants on that deportation flight.

I apologize for referring to these two people as “deportees,” “immigrants,” and by their nationalities; however, I have not found their names. But they are human beings. They have names. They probably have families.

By living in the United States of America, they have had rights. They had a right to a hearing before a judge to determine if they could remain in this country or if they should be deported. That did not happen.

Common sense tells me that if a person is to be deported, they should be deported to their country of origin. They should not be deported to a country in which their language is not spoken. They should not be deported to a country in which their language is not spoken and in which a civil war is underway.

I have run out of words to express my horror at what the Trump Administration Regime is doing. My vocabulary is exhausted.

US District Court Judge Brian Murphy of Boston held an emergency hearing yesterday about this case and scheduled another hearing for today. In the meantime, according to The Wall Street Journal, the judge ordered the US to maintain custody of the deportees and ensure they are treated humanely.

I often pray that Donald Trump will accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and turn from his evil ways. I often pray those words. It would truly be a miracle, but I believe in miracles. We experienced a miracle in my family on Christmas morning in 1978. Miracles do happen.

Now, to what I had originally written for today’s blog post…

While some of us are still struggling to understand how the technicality of the Trump Administration saying the $400 million flying palace from Qatar is going to the US Department of Defense and not to President Trump, small bits and pieces of the “big, beautiful budge bill” are coming to light.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson wants the bill passed by Memorial Day (May 26) or at least by July 3.

It’s almost impossible find out what is in the bill, since it is not available online for the public. Hey, it’s just our money, right?

I have read that this budget will add $150 billion to the Pentagon’s budget, pushing the Defense Department’s budget to more than $1 trillion.

Photo of a pile of US paper money
Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash

I have read that this budget takes Medicaid healthcare coverage away from 13 million Americans. These are children, people living with disabilities, and the elderly.

This budget will give the wealthiest people in the United States additional tax breaks. It is those tax breaks and the increased defense budget that resulted in the politicians choosing to leave 13 million citizens without health coverage.

It is no big deal to them. Those 13 million people are not likely to raise a stink The ones under 18 years of age can’t even vote. They are America’s most vulnerable citizens and, hence, the easiest for the people in Congress to target.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: Many, if not most, of the members of the US Congress claim to be Christians, so what about any of this follows the teachings of Jesus Christ? (At least, when they are running for office, they claim to be Christian. How many of them, when asked, “What the last book you read?” answer, “The Bible”?)

Why do so many Christians across this country think cutting Medicaid is wonderful. “It will save us money! Cuts must be made!”

Yes, it will save us money to spend on more weapons. It will save the richest among us money because they will pay less in income taxes.

Just like eliminating USAID will save us money because why would the richest country in the world want to send medical and food aid to the poorest countries in the world?

Just like cutting off the funding for medical research will save us money… but only in the short term.

The motive behind one “big, beautiful budget bill” is to overwhelm Congress and the public. Put everything in one bill, and it will be so long that nobody can read it.  That’s the point. At 1,116 pages, I would guess that very few members of Congress have read the entire thing.

Granted, there is wasteful spending in the federal government. Granted, if wasteful spending is not stopped, our national debt will continue to increase

My objection is with the manner in which the Trump Administration has chosen to address the problem. We hear example after example of worthwhile research and aid programs being slashed just because Elon Musk’s teenage employees with no knowledge or interest in the operation of government in a democracy were given free range to eliminate agencies and programs with the touch of a button on a keyboard.

Wholesale, sweeping cuts in government grants have resulted in the immediate loss of jobs, careers, and doctoral degree research studies. Those are just the instantaneous losses that are visible to the thousands of individuals affected.

The long-term effects will not be realized this year or next year. They will be identified in the coming decades when we learn that cures for various cancers would have been discovered in the 2020s if not for these budget cuts.

President Trump warned us that there could be short-term pain due to his single-handedly imposed global tariffs, but he is yet to even own up to the pain he has inflicted in the name of taking waste out of the government. He has yet to own up to the short-term losses in medical research, much less long-term losses we can only imagine.

And yet, his followers still say he is a “wonderful President.” Some of them still dare to say he was sent by God.

Under the Cover of Darkness

When a person or group is proud of what they are doing, they tend to do it in broad daylight. If that group is a legislative body, they definitely do it in broad daylight. If that legislative body is the United State Congress, they tend to do it at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time or later so the citizens in the Pacific Time zone will be awake to see it or hear it.

The US House of Representatives Committee on the Budget held a vote on Trump’s “big, beautiful budget bill” at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday. Who does that? Who meets late on a Sunday night to vote on something important?

Photo of the US Capitol building at night
Raphael Assouline on Unsplash

It gets worse. The House Rules Committee scheduled their next meeting for 1:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time this morning.

My erratic sleep habits almost guarantee that I am wide awake at 1:00 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, but I’m the exception to the rule.

Making America Healthy Again?

While politicians boast about money saved, they fail to mention the medical and social research being lost. What is the real cost in terms of lives?

We’ll never know what diseases could have been prevented, treated, or cured if the research Congress had approved had not been terminated by the Trump Administration.

We will have to pin our hopes on other countries picking up the slack and hiring the researchers the United States is losing.

Until my next blog post, which I hope won’t be until next week…

I hope you have a good book to read.

Value time with family and friends.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

#OnThisDay: Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, 1775

Today is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. It predated the national Declaration of Independence by more than a year.

A recreation of the
Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

In case it sounds familiar, I have blogged about the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence on or near May 20th several times in the more than ten years I’ve been blogging.

My immigrant ancestors were among the Scottish Presbyterian pioneers who settled old Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Years of discontent in the American colonies were piled on top of the anti-British Crown feelings they brought with them across the Atlantic.

Weary of unfair taxes imposed by the Crown and the discrimination they were subjected to as Presbyterians slowly brought the settlers to the boiling point. An example of the persecution these Presbyterians felt were the Vestry and Marriage Acts of 1769. Those acts fined Presbyterian ministers who dared to conduct marriage ceremonies. Only Anglican marriages were recognized by the government.

On May 20, 1775, the citizens of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina declared themselves to be free and independent of the rule of Great Britain. It was a sober and sobering declaration not entered into lightly. Those American patriots meant business, and they knew the risks they were taking.

Archibald McCurdy, an elder in Rocky River Presbyterian Church, heard the document read from the steps of the log courthouse in Charlotte. When he got home, he and his wife, Maggie, listed everyone they knew of who could be trusted in the coming fight for American independence.

No original copies of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence survive today. The local copy was lost in a house fire at the home of one of the signers. The copy taken to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia by Captain James Jack on horseback was also lost. Later, signers of the document recreated it from memory.

Nevertheless, those of us who were raised on stories of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and the brave souls who risked their lives to sign it know that the document was real. The blood of the American patriots still flows in our veins and their spirit of freedom still beats in our hearts.

Hurricane Helene Update

As of last Friday, 54 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included five US highways, four state highways, and 45 state roads. That’s a decrease of one state highway and one state road since the week before.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read.

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina. Their situations are quite different, but the people in both places are stressed and weary.

Janet

That’s pretty much all I wanted

I majored in political science and minored in history in college. My Master’s degree is in public administration. I can’t just turn all that off, even though I graduated 50 years ago.

I used to not be a political person. I just wanted government on all levels to work at their highest and best purposes. I wanted honesty and transparency in government. I wanted the politicians to have as little influence as possible over the actual daily operations of the government.

I wanted government employees to be left alone by the politicians to guarantee the water was safe to drink.

I wanted government employees left alone by the politicians to make sure building permits were issued and followed up by trained and certified building inspectors to make sure houses and commercial buildings were built to meet construction standards and codes.

Photo of construction workers on a high-rise building
Photo credit: Etienne Girardet on Unsplash

I wanted government employees left alone by the politicians to register the deeds for all real estate transactions within the county.

I wanted professional librarians left alone by the politicians to use their years of training to purchase age-appropriate materials to benefit all citizens.

Photo of a bookcase with a woman's hand reaching up to the books
Photo credit: Guzel Maksutova on Unsplash

I wanted the archivists at the State and National Archives to be left alone by the politicians and trusted to gather and preserve the articles of history for future generations.

I wanted governing licensing boards to be left alone by the politicians so that I could trust that a person with M.D. or R.N after their name had the knowledge and skill to treat me when I am sick or hurt.

I wanted government employees to be left alone by the politicians so they can regulate the insurance industry and speak up for a citizen when they believe they have been mistreated by an insurance company.

I wanted medical researches to be left alone by the politicians so they can work tirelessly to find causes and cures for diseases.

Photo of a man looking into a microscope
Photo credit: Lucas Vasques on Unsplash

I wanted university professors to be left alone by the politicians so they can teach from their knowledge of their chosen field without fear that they might say something that offends someone.

I wanted college and university students to be left alone by the politicians so they can take any course they want to take, read any book they want to read, and non-violently protest anything they want to protest without fear of being kicked out of school, arrested, or deported.

Photo of peaceful protestors
Photo by Duncan Shaffer on Unsplash

I wanted public school teachers to be left alone by the politicians so they can teach what their grade-level students need to learn so they can progress through the education system and be free thinkers.

I wanted park rangers to be left alone by the politicians who have absolutely no understanding of or appreciation for the natural world.

I wanted government employees to be left alone by the politicians so they can monitor air quality and prevent us from returning to the smog of the 1950s and 1960s.

Photo of a city enshrouded in smog
Photo by Nick van den Berg on Unsplash

I wanted our system of elections to be left alone by the politicians who are determined to make it more and more difficult for a person to vote… all in the name of preventing voter fraud, when fraud by politicians is a much bigger problem than voter fraud. (Case in point, my current US Representative, Mark Harris, who used to be a Baptist preacher, hired someone to go around marking absentee ballots for people in his 2018 run for the US House. His own son even testified against him. His operative was charged with several counts of obstructing justice and possession of absentee ballots, but he died before the case went to trial. Mr. Harris escaped being criminally charged, brushed the dirt off himself, and successfully ran from NC’s 8th District in 2024. In another case, Mark Meadows, who served as Chief of Staff for Trump in his first administration, claimed a home address in a remote area of the mountains and cast his vote in North Carolina in 2020. The address he gave as his residence was a dilapidated, vacant mobile home which he had probably never laid eyes on.) But somehow, it is the everyday citizens who cannot be trusted to vote.

I wanted the United States to continue the USAID program of distributing food and medical aid to the poorest people in the world.

Photo by Andrej Nihil on Unsplash

I wanted the United States to not only maintain but to strengthen its decades old (and in some cases, centuries old) international alliances.

I wanted to be allowed to be a Presbyterian and not have some right-wing conservative evangelical dogma forced on the public at-large that paints all American Christians with a broadbrush of misinformation.

I wanted the separation of church and state to remain a valued principle. I did not want a Presidential Administration to parade under the guise of being Christian while openly, as well as under the cover of darkness and behind closed doors, attacking everything from science to education to medical research to food safety to immigrants to museums to clean air to the arts to clean water to libraries to national parks to habeas corpus to national forests to the United States Constitution to our very sense of security.

I wanted a United States Government that did not operate through intimidation and threats to individuals, groups of people, and institutions.

I wanted our system of government, though flawed, to continue to generally work for the good of the whole.

Photo credit: Anthony Garand on unsplash.com

I wanted every citizen to have an equal opportunity to follow their dreams and be allowed to live in peace.

I wanted a President who did not embarrass me every time he opened his mouth.

That’s pretty much all I wanted.

I miss that America.

Janet

Why doesn’t the US Congress do something about Trump?

I rarely blog on Saturdays. Of my 755 blog posts, I doubt if more than two or three have been on a Saturday.

This week, I ran out of days. That has happened twice recently, so I’m afraid there is a trend developing.

I had originally planned today’s topic for Thursday, but it got pushed to Friday, and in the wee hours of Monday morning, it got moved to Saturday.

Today’s topic centers around a question I’ve seen a thousand times on social media and comments on my blog since January 20, 2025. I don’t begin to know the answer, but the other day I stumbled upon some information that shines a light on one of the ways the members of Congress who are trying to do something about the Trump Administration are being stopped in their tracks.

Photo Credit: Andra C. Taylor Jr on unsplash.com

Why doesn’t the US Congress do something about Trump?

Many of us are at our wit’s end wondering why the Democrats and Independents in the US Congress aren’t doing more to stop all the destruction being wrought by the Trump Administration.

Today’s blog post focuses on some efforts by Democrats in the US House of Representatives and how those efforts have been thwarted.

I would still like to know why neither the Republicans nor the Democrats in the US Senate have not been able to do anything to stop Trump. It seems to me that people in the US Senate should all have the welfare and preservation of our democracy as a priority, but it appears that few of them do.

The following information somehow got past me on April 29, 2025, but the new media can’t report everything. Or perhaps I was on politics overload that day and just missed it.

There are 435 seats in the US House of Representatives. On April 29, there were 220 Republicans, 213 Democrats, and two vacancies. That’s a slim majority for the Republicans, but it is a majority and means that the Republicans chair every House committee and sub-committee. The system virtually guarantees that the Speak of the House will be of the majority party, which Representative Mike Johnson, of course, is. The Speaker of the House controls what bills can be brought up for a vote, so he holds tremendous power.

A monkey wrench thrown in the system on April 29, 2025

This is complicated and, to my knowledge, was not reported at the time by mainline news organizations.

Under the rules of the US House of Representatives, any legislator may introduce a “resolution of inquiry” for consideration. That inquiry is then referred to a committee. Although the majority party can stall and essentially block a resolution of inquiry from going beyond committee referral, a resolution of inquiry has special dispensation: 

“If the committee to which such a resolution is referred has not reported the measure back to the House within 14 legislative days after its introduction, a privileged and non-debatable motion to discharge the committee of further consideration of the resolution becomes available on the chamber floor.”

In other words, if the committee to which an inquiry resolution has been referred does not report back to the full House within 14 legislative days after its introduction, it can then be introduced to the full House.

However, on April 29, 2025, an interesting and very pointed clause was included at the end of a House Resolution 354: “Each day during the period from April 29, 2025, through September 30, 2025, shall not constitute a legislative day for purposes of clause 7 of rule XIII.”

“What’s the big deal?” you may ask.

It means that none of the resolutions of inquiry put forth by Democrat members of the House will be considered until after September 30, 2025, if then… if ever. (For obvious reasons, no Republicans have put forth any resolutions of inquiry because they don’t want any Trump Administrations shortcomings to be investigated.)

Those resolutions of inquiry pertain to such concerns as the partial shutdown of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, Elon Musk’s possible conflicts of interest as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and the deportation of certain individuals to El Salvador.

Two specific House Resolutions that will now not be considered are H.R. 255 and H.R. 286.

House Resolution 255 calls for President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to turn over all communications regarding the Signal app interchange about US military strikes on the Houthis in Yemen that included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg.

House Resolution 286 directs President Trump to share all communications and documents related to DOGE’s use of artificial intelligence to mine federal agency records of “sensitive, personally identifiable information of American citizens.”

So those investigations are dead in the water, thanks to the Republicans in the US House of Representatives. The Republicans in the House have no interest in finding out why the US Secretary of Defense thinks it is acceptable to relay military scheduled bombing details via a less-than-secure social media app.

The Republicans have no interest in delving into Elon Musk’s gathering of American’s personal information in the name of “Government Efficiency,” even though their own personal information has probably been compromised.

And the Republicans in the House have no interest in investigating the “administrative errors” being made in the deportation of people to El Salvador.

The only reason the Republicans don’t want any of these issues to be investigated is that the findings might reflect poorly on Donald Trump. Therein lies the fear those US Representatives live with 24/7. When they assumed office, each of them pledged to defend the US Constitution but when it comes down to it, all they want to defend are Donald Trump and their own reelection prospects.

Ever since the party-system evolved in the US, politicians have connived and created new rules to steer legislation in ways to benefit themselves or to protect the President if he is from their political party. That’s a practice as old as humanity; however, when a democracy is as divided as ours is now in the United States, it seems particularly reckless for the party that has such a slim 220 to 213 majority in the House. (There are currently two vacancies, in case you’re wondering why 220 plus 213 only adds up to 433.)

If there is nothing to hide…

If the Trump Administration has nothing to hide, it seems they would welcome the investigations the Democrats have called for, but that is not to be. Not until after September 30.

The incident in New Jersey on Friday, May 9, 2025

Three Democrat members of the US House of Representatives (Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez, and LaMonica McIver, all of New Jersey) visited the Delaney Hall detention center in New Jersey on Friday, May 9. Members of Congress have the right to do that.

Also in the group was Ras Baraka, the mayor of the City of Newark, New Jersey.

The government’s side of the story is that Mr. Baraka was told he was trespassing and was asked to leave. He was there to protest the existence of the detention center which was constructed without the government obtaining a building permit.

Photographs show a heavy police response, with all officers wearing masks and sunglasses. Long story short, Mayor Baraka was arrested and held for a few hours.

The video shown on TV shows a lot of pushing and shoving by Homeland Security police officers. On Saturday, the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Laura McLaughlin, said the three members of Congress who were involved might be arrested. The investigation is ongoing.

Although this incident happened just a week ago, it seems like a month ago. It has disappeared from the headlines.

It’s as if Oprah is back, “Here’s a plane for you, and a plane for you…

I haven’t heard this mentioned by any of the main TV networks. It has been reported by the Associated Press and The Washington Post that the Department of Homeland Security wants to buy a new $50 million plane for Secretary Kristi Noem, other DHS officials, and top US Coast Guard officials to use.

$50 million here, $50 million there. Pretty soon they’re be talking about a lot of money. Isn’t it nice that the Trump Administration is getting rid of waste in government?

This just seems wrong to me on so many levels. First of all, what’s wrong with flying commercial or traveling by car? Government employees are not supposed to fly around in $50 million private jets. Period.

At least we now know what the Trump Administration meant when they said they were ushering in a “Golden Age.”

But what are the major TV networks reporting?

They are reporting on the Sean Diddy Combs trial, the Menendez brothers parole order, and the Kim Kardasian theft some years ago.

In this age of instant information, it is becoming more difficult for Americans to get any real, substantive, or important news.

I am becoming as worried about the press as I am about our government. When reporters are too distracted by bright shiny objects to inform us about the dismantling of our democracy, we have indeed lost perhaps the most important pillar of our society.

Until my next blog post

As I write this on Friday afternoon, President Trump is on his way home from the Middle East. I’d like to think he is returning to real life after his week of being wined and dined by the oil-rich countries in the Middle East. I fear this week of praise and opulence will only leave him on “a high” that will embolden him to even more frightening words and actions.

I hope you have a book that is so engrossing that you hated to put it down long enough to read my blog!

Remember the people of Ukraine and western North Carolina.

Janet

National Cancer Institute Appears to be in Limbo

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