governing
Trump Taps Bhattacharya to Run NIH. Who?
Jan 3 2025Hegseth, Kennedy, Gabbard, Patel — The media loops through these controversial choices day after day. Certain of the less-noticed Trump picks are no less controversial but are overlooked. Here’s one of particular importance at a time when viruses pose an increasing threat to the human race.
settled opinionThe right has arrived at a widespread view that lockdown mandates and remote teaching in 2020 and 2021 were the wrong remedies for confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s hindsight that gives no quarter to the epidemiological “experts” – now spoken of with scorn — who had to come up with methods to combat a plague not experienced in a hundred years.
So it was deemed "karmic justice", said a full-page Wall Street Journal interview, when President-elect Trump tapped Jay (Jayanta) Bhattacharya to be 
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The professor at Stanford University was much vilified for his contrarian views in the early months of the outbreak. The article is titled "The Man Who Fought Fauci—and Won" and tells us that his Bengali first name means “one who is victorious in the end.” The newspaper says, “Bhattacharya is as qualified as you can get to be head of the National Institutes of Health”, not least for his nomination being “a triumph of free speech”.
Dr. Bhattacharya is both a physician and economist, a combination that led to statistical conclusions first voiced in March and April of 2020 that made him a pariah in epidemiological circles. He co-authored an op-ed titled “Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?” that argued, followed by a study a month later, that the number of asymptotic and undetected cases vastly outnumbered those confirmed by testing, meaning that the death rate relative to all infections was much lower than the alarm sounded by the Center for Disease Control and… Read More »
miscellany
Year-End Clearance: Some News Items That Shouldn’t Be Left Behind
Jan 4 2025In no particular order:
STOP THE CLOCK: The Supreme Court will on January 10th decide whether a controversial ban on the social media app TikTok, signed by President Biden in April of last year and about to take effect January 19th, violates the First Amendment. But Donald Trump’s lawyers have submitted a brief to the Court asking that their hearing be postponed until after Trump is inaugurated the day after, January 20th, so that the then-president can negotiate a compromise.
"President Trump alone possesses the consummate deal-making expertise, the electoral mandate and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the government”
A baffled MSNBC host Christina Ruffini asked,
"Does the president even have standing to do this? And what kind of a motion is this? Is this an amicus brief, a writ? I don't know what this is. Can he just involve himself in a case that he is not, you know, a party to?"
But Trump appointed three out of the nine justices, so he thinks he, still just a citizen, has a right to special deference.
THE GREAT ONE: It rises majestically to its snow-capped peak 20,310 above the near sea-level Alaska tundra, the most rapid ascent of any mountain on Earth. It was unaccountably named Mt. McKinley after the 25th president until President Obama’s Department of the Interior granted Alaska’s long-standing request that the mountain finally be renamed Denali, meaning “The High One” or “The Great One” in the language of Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascan people who have inhabited these lands for thousands of years.
But now, as part of Trump’s campaign to reverse everything of the nation’s first black president, Trump wants the mountain restored to the McKinley name. In a speech before the arch-conservative group Turning Point USA in Phoenix, Trump obscurely said:
“They took his name off Mount McKinley, right? That’s what… Read More »
We Could Be Down to One Party If Democrats Don’t Solve Their Media Problem
After a crushing defeat at the polls, the Democratic Party is in a quandary, trying to find a way forward. It has seen its traditional constituency, the working class, usurped by the Republican Party – or should we call it the Trump Party — and must discover how to bring the flock back into the fold. The left espouses a host of programs that voters want, but there's a problem: How will Democrats make themselves known? How will they reach the public?
The Trump campaign emerged from the election well ahead of Democrats for having exploited every avenue to reach voters. They exhibited remarkable savvy about where all age groups go to form their opinions, leaving Democrats breathless trying to catch up. We touched on this a few weeks ago but the right-wing's dominant saturation needs emphasis.
elephantineCable may be fading, but the right-wing fields three national channels of any weight — Fox, Newsmax, and OAN. The left only one. In broadcast, the Sinclair network has gobbled up 300 local television… Read More »
"I subscribe to Let's Fix This Country (http://letsfixthiscountry.org) for their reporting and think you might want to subscribe too."
We rely entirely on word of mouth. Yours would be greatly appreciated.
law
Turns Out He Did Nothing Wrong
The campaign to make Donald Trump's criminal prosecutions fade away Dec 6 2024
Like a magician’s disappearing act, Trump’s attempt to take over the government and usurp the presidency from Joe Biden has vanished. In accordance with Justice Department practice never to prosecute a sitting president – an exemption nowhere found 
in the Constitution — Special Counsel Jack Smith is closing his two federal cases against Donald Trump. He is doing so without prejudice, which means they can be brought again when (or should we say if) Trump leaves office, but that is unlikely.
We have been witness these last four years to how the propaganda of denial can successfully become the dominant ethos at the expense of both truth and justice. In what follows we trace the evolution of how the right-wing persuaded their millions to think of Trump as victim rather than villain.
Outrage
The stunning blow against the Constitution and its democratic process January 6, 2021, was originally met with outrage from all quarters, not least from Republicans in Congress. After all, their lives had been threatened that day by a violent mob of thousands, some with murder in mind. Speaking in the House of Representatives that night, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said,
“The violence, destruction, and chaos we saw earlier was unacceptable, undemocratic, and un-American. The President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.”
In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke of…
“violent criminals who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty…They were provoked by the President and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government.”
The nation was in a state of shock and disbelief. A columnist at…
Read More »
Like a magician’s disappearing act, Trump’s attempt to take over the government and usurp the presidency from Joe Biden has vanished. In accordance with Justice Department practice never to prosecute a sitting president – an exemption nowhere found
in the Constitution — Special Counsel Jack Smith is closing his two federal cases against Donald Trump. He is doing so without prejudice, which means they can be brought again when (or should we say if) Trump leaves office, but that is unlikely.
We have been witness these last four years to how the propaganda of denial can successfully become the dominant ethos at the expense of both truth and justice. In what follows we trace the evolution of how the right-wing persuaded their millions to think of Trump as victim rather than villain.
OutrageThe stunning blow against the Constitution and its democratic process January 6, 2021, was originally met with outrage from all quarters, not least from Republicans in Congress. After all, their lives had been threatened that day by a violent mob of thousands, some with murder in mind. Speaking in the House of Representatives that night, Speaker Kevin McCarthy said,
“The violence, destruction, and chaos we saw earlier was unacceptable, undemocratic, and un-American. The President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.”
In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke of…
“violent criminals who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty…They were provoked by the President and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government.”
The nation was in a state of shock and disbelief. A columnist at… Read More »
military
Trump’s War with “My Generals”
Nov 22 2024
With courts-martial in mind, the Trump transition team has developed a list of current and former U.S. military officers involved in the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. A commission would seek to find actionable blame for the chaotic evacuation that led to the death of 13 American service personnel and about 170 Afghans by a suicide bomber, and the later killing of 10 Afghan civilians by an errant allied drone.
But it was President Biden whose failure to plan led to the last-minute crush of panicked Afghans at 
Desperation at Abbey Gate, Hamid Karzai Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 2021.
the Kabul airport. The military, having argued strenuously that the U.S. should keep a force in the country to inhibit the Taliban’s advances, were following the order of their commander-in-chief. They are credited with the largest noncombatant evacuation operation in U.S. military history, with some 123,000 people flown to safety.
The list is not about the military’s failure. This is Trump seeking revenge, part of his promised program of retribution against those he has referred to as “my generals” who he feels betrayed him. For those who have since retired, he would recall them to active duty in order to subject…
Read More »
With courts-martial in mind, the Trump transition team has developed a list of current and former U.S. military officers involved in the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. A commission would seek to find actionable blame for the chaotic evacuation that led to the death of 13 American service personnel and about 170 Afghans by a suicide bomber, and the later killing of 10 Afghan civilians by an errant allied drone.
But it was President Biden whose failure to plan led to the last-minute crush of panicked Afghans at
Desperation at Abbey Gate, Hamid Karzai Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 2021.
the Kabul airport. The military, having argued strenuously that the U.S. should keep a force in the country to inhibit the Taliban’s advances, were following the order of their commander-in-chief. They are credited with the largest noncombatant evacuation operation in U.S. military history, with some 123,000 people flown to safety.
The list is not about the military’s failure. This is Trump seeking revenge, part of his promised program of retribution against those he has referred to as “my generals” who he feels betrayed him. For those who have since retired, he would recall them to active duty in order to subject… Read More »
china watch
I. Our Focus Elsewhere, the U.S. Neglects the China Threat
Mar 29 2024
The United States faces no greater threat than China, which Donald Trump would have to face come 2027. Let's Fix This Country put together this series to show how vastly unprepared the U.S. is to confront China militarily compared to our leadership's blind assumption of U.S. invincibility. Click the titles to read each of the subsequent installments:
I. Our Focus Elsewhere, the U.S. Neglects the China Threat
II. What Would War With China Look Like?
III. War with China: Could America…
Read More »
The United States faces no greater threat than China, which Donald Trump would have to face come 2027. Let's Fix This Country put together this series to show how vastly unprepared the U.S. is to confront China militarily compared to our leadership's blind assumption of U.S. invincibility. Click the titles to read each of the subsequent installments:
I. Our Focus Elsewhere, the U.S. Neglects the China Threat
II. What Would War With China Look Like?
III. War with China: Could America… Read More »