Thoughts for the Day, June 23, 2025: I pray for restraint

Restraint

Today I am praying for restraint. Now that President Trump has bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities and Iran has retaliated against a U.S. military base in Qatar, I am praying the U.S. involvement ends now. Hopefully, the bombs from Saturday night did the job and totally disarmed Iran’s nuclear facilities so there is no further need for the U.S involvement in the hostilities between Israel and Iran.

The U.S. track record of fighting wars in the middle east is mediocre at best.

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Thank you to the Senate Parliamentarian.

A few weeks ago in this blog, I wrote that my biggest concern about the “big beautiful bill” was the provision requiring the posting of enormous bonds with the courts prior to asking courts to issue preliminary injunctions and hold government officials in contempt. Thankfully, this provision may not survive the senate version of the bill because it does not meet the criteria necessary to be included in a budget reconciliation bill.

Here are excerpts from a Wall Street Journal article. Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who has been hearing arguments from Republicans and Democrats behind closed doors, issued guidance in recent days on which measures don’t fit within the so-called budget-reconciliation process. She is expected to issue more guidance through Sunday night into Monday. Under budget reconciliation, provisions have to be primarily related to the budget to be eligible for a simple majority vote, rather than the 60 votes typically required in the Senate.

She struck out a measure that would have required plaintiffs to post potentially enormous bonds when asking courts to issue preliminary injunctions or imposing temporary restraining orders against the federal government. The provision was a variation on a House measure that would have prevented the Supreme Court and other federal courts from enforcing contempt orders unless plaintiffs posted a monetary bond.

The parliamentarian said a provision barring people living in the country illegally from receiving nutrition assistance didn’t conform to the requirements of the budget-reconciliation process. She said a provision that would reduce the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding to zero and a proposal to merge the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission wasn’t eligible for the fast-track process.

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Vote for healers, for collaborators and those committed to civil discourse.

One reason today’s politics have become so vicious is the way we characterize our political campaigns.

They are battles, not races, and are contested by candidates, no matter how scrawny, who cast themselves as Viking warriors. Nearly everyone who runs for office claims to be a “fighter” and promises to go to Washington, Lansing or City Hall and battle on behalf of their constituents.

A fighter needs someone to fight. So Job One is to manufacture a enemy. Candidates must convince voters “the other side” is out to harm them and destroy their way of life. They fearmonger, demonize their opponents and portray every policy disagreement as an existential threat.They need us to be anxious and worried that our neighbors are out to get us to motivate us to the polls to vote for them as our protectors. They want us to believe our countrymen are our blood enemies simply because they vote differently than we do.

They know that if we stop hating each other, they’ll be out of business.

…When is the last time a politician has made a case for office by inspiring voters rather than scaring them to death? Who is out there pitching a message of hope rather than fear?

In a political environment in which elected officials are being murdered in their homes, I’m done with all this fighting talk. I don’t need anyone to fight for me. I need someone to get things done for me. I need a representative who will seek consensus for me. I’m looking for politicians willing to reach across the political divide for me. There’s too much fighting and not enough cooperating. Too much partisanship and not enough fellowship. If you want my vote, tell me about who you will lift up rather than who you will knock down.

I’m not afraid of those I disagree with, and I certainly don’t hate them. I believe for the most part they are good, honorable people who hold values and views that are different from mine, but no less valid. I don’t need a politician punching them in the nose in my name.

When we give our Civility Project presentations, Stephen and I are nearly always asked what individuals can do to help close the political divide. For one thing, they can stop voting for candidates who preach division. Stop choosing politicians who put partisanship over principles.

This cycle, I’m rejecting any candidate who casts politics as a war. I’m not voting for any fighters. I’m voting for healers, for collaborators, for those committed to civil discourse.

The above was from the Detroit News’ Nolan Finley commentary. The above editorial is my Quote of the Day.

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Grants

In my experience, most people do not understand federal grants. They are not free money. They have a purpose, and the funds must be accounted for in meeting that purpose by the recipient of the grant. Federal grants are audited during and after the completion of the grant for compliance with the purpose of the grant. The grant includes direct cost, specific to the grant, and indirect cost which helps cover a small portion of the overhead or fixed cost of the recipient of the grant.

Excerpts from a NY Times article. The canceled grants at Harvard by the Trump administration add up to about $2.6 billion in awarded federal funds, nearly half of which has already been spent according to government data.

The term ‘grant’ is a problematic word, because people think they’re just sort of handing this money out for us to do what we want with,” said Marc Weisskopf, who directs a center for environmental health at Harvard that lost its funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The money the government sends to Harvard is, in effect, not a subsidy to advance the university’s mission. It’s a payment for the role Harvard plays in advancing the research mission of the United States. This is the science model the U.S. has developed over 80 years: The government sets the agenda and funds the work; university scientists design the studies and find the answers. The president’s willingness to upend that model has revealed its fragility. There is no alternative in the U.S. to produce the kind of scientific advancements represented by these grants. This research provides evidence that shapes public policy, like nutritional guidelines, federal laws or local education initiatives.

A federal rule in 2018 banned artificial trans fats, following the findings of a decades-long longitudinal study of women’s health based at Harvard.… Harvard researchers are trying to determine how well telemedicine appointments — sometimes paid for by Medicaid and Medicare — connect opioid use disorder patients with lifesaving treatments. (Some of the National Institutes of Health funding for that research goes right back to the government, in the form of fees to access Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services health data). Other researchers are studying how well community college students have fared amid remote learning, after a pandemic boost in federal support for community colleges. Others are working on how to implement smoke-free policies in low-income housing after a move by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to curb secondhand smoke.

“We are directly informing the government’s capacity to work to serve its constituents,” said Vaughan Rees, the lead investigator on that HUD-funded research.

Just as much of basic research couldn’t be done in corporate labs, this kind of work — often relying on large-scale surveys, or partnerships that cross universities, hospitals and countries — couldn’t be funded by Harvard alone.

We all know that there is waste in government spending, including federal grants, which need to be addressed. However, eliminating federal grants at major research institutions because of political disputes is not in the best interest of keeping the U.S. in the forefront of scientific discovery and all the benefits that come with it.

Please call your members of Congress today. The U.S. Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. Tell the operator where you’re from and the operator will connect you to your representatives and senators. I tested this out today. It is very simple. They will ask for the congress member you want to contact. They will then switch you to that office.

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Quote of the Day: See above from Nolan Finley

Orchid of the Day: The Oklahoma City Thunder for winning the NBA championship. The Thunder are the youngest team to win the NBA championship in nearly 50 years. It is hard to repeat as champions, but the Thunder are built to do so.

Onion of the Day: The injury bug that hit the Indiana Pacers star player Tyrese Haliburton in the first quarter of last night's NBA finals game seven. The Pacers mounted a valiant effort in Haliburton’s absence, but in the end, the Thunder defense prevailed without Haliburton leading the Pacers. This leads to my Question of the Day.

Question of the Day: Would the Pacers have been able to win the NBA Championship if their star player Tyrese Haliburton would not have gotten hit by the injury bug in the first quarter of last night's game seven?

Lyrics of the Day: Now we'e got country and western on the bus
R B. We got disco on eight tracks and cassettes in stereo.
And we got rural scenes and magazines. And we got truckers on CB.
And we got Richard Pryor on the video. We got time to think of the ones we love. While the miles roll away. The only time that seems too short
Is the time that we get to play

If you think you know the lyrics send me your answer in the comments section of the blog.

Answer to the Lyrics of the Day for June 16, 2025: Gimme Three Steps, by Lynyrd Skinner

Video of the Day: One of my favorites

Jackson Browne The Load Out and Stay Live BBC 1978

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