a book worth reading

 

In 2024, Dr. Anthony Fauci released a book titled, “On call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service”. I read it shortly after it came out, and found it to be very inspirational.

 

 Here are some reviews of the book:

 “The memoir by the doctor who became a beacon of hope for millions through the COVID pandemic, and whose six-decade career in high-level public service put him in the room with seven presidents”

“An eventful autobiography [and] a classic American story…Gripping.”—The Washington Post

“One of the most consequential and most prominent [careers] in American medicine in the past fifty years.”—Jerome Groopman, The New Yorker

Dr. Fauci has had an impressive career, which is detailed in the Wikipedia article about him:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Fauci

Anthony Stephen Fauci^[a] (born December 24, 1940) is an American physician-scientist and immunologist who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022 and as Chief Medical Advisor to the President from 2021 to 2022. He was one of the world's most frequently cited scientists across all scientific journals from 1983 to 2002.^[6][7]

Fauci graduated from the College of the Holy Cross, where he studied classics, and earned his Doctor of Medicine from Cornell University. As a physician with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Fauci served in the American public health sector for more than fifty years and has acted as an advisor to every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan.^[8] During his time as director of the NIAID, he made contributions to HIV/AIDS research and other immunodeficiency diseases, both as a research scientist and as the head of the NIAID.^[6] In 2008, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work on PEPFAR, an AIDS relief program, by President George W. Bush.^[9]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci served under President Donald Trump as one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. His advice was frequently contradicted by Trump, and Trump's supporters alleged that Fauci was trying to politically undermine Trump's run for re-election in 2020. As part of the Biden administration, Fauci served as one of the lead members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team and as Biden's chief medical advisor, during which time his advice was generally supported.^[10][11] On Biden's last day in office, Fauci was issued a preemptive pardon covering potential federal offenses between January 1, 2014, and January 19, 2025.

As you are aware, Dr. Fauci has been in the news again this week:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/08/06/anthony-fauci-is-not-contempt/

The headline in today’s Washington Post tells us why:

The contempt vote against Fauci was a stunt

A Senate committee voted Thursday along party lines to approve a resolution holding Fauci in contempt of Congress for invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 111 times. It would be an abuse of prosecutorial power if the Trump administration were to use this stunt to pursue criminal charges against the 85-year-old.

Fauci explained that he would not cooperate with the committee because its chair, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), had an “obvious obsession” with trying to engineer his prosecution.

 Paul has argued that Fauci’s refusal to testify amounted to an obstruction of Congress’s investigative authorities. “A subpoena with no consequence is not a subpoena,” Paul said on Thursday. “It’s a suggestion.”

 But Fauci did comply with the subpoena. Unlike Peter Navarro and Stephen K. Bannon, who were convicted of contempt of Congress after refusing to appear before the House’s special committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, Fauci endured hours of public humiliation from Republican lawmakers as he repeatedly claimed the Fifth.

 The more complicated legal question is whether Fauci had a right to invoke that right after President Joe Biden granted him a preemptive pardon before leaving office. But that does not stop prosecution at the state level. Three Republican state attorneys general have opened a probe into him.

 Given the repeated statements by Paul and other leading Republicans that Fauci deserves to be behind bars, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases had reasonable fears that anything he said would be used against him.

If you are of the opinion that Rand Paul’s committee was correct in issuing a subpoena against Fauci, consider this fact:

Donald Trump pleaded the Fifth Amendment on August 10, 2022, during a four-hour deposition for a civil fraud investigation led by New York Attorney General Letitia James. [1, 2, 3]

 

Deposition Details

• Location: New York, New York (at the New York Attorney General Office).
• Case: Civil investigation into the Trump Organization's business practices and asset valuations.
• Frequency: Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 440 times during the questioning. [1, 2, 3, 4]
•  

Background & Statements

  

• Prior Stance: Trump had previously criticized others for using the constitutional protection, famously stating that "if you're innocent, you're not taking the 5th" and comparing it to the mob. [1, 2]
• Explanation: In a statement released during the deposition, Trump explained his change in perspective, stating that he had no choice because his family, company, and people in his orbit were targeted in an "unfounded, politically motivated witch hunt". [1]

 Watching political news can be exhausting, so here is my advice:

 Turn off the television, and read a book, starting with Dr. Fauci’s.

 You’ll have a better appreciation for the experts in our society who protect us from harm – even when they are long past retirement age.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NASA

 

 

On this day in 1958, the U.S. Congress passed legislation establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s activities in space, on July 29, 1958.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-29/nasa-created

NASA has since sponsored space expeditions, both human and mechanical, that have yielded vital information about the solar system and universe. It has also launched numerous earth-orbiting satellites that have been instrumental in everything from weather forecasting to navigation to global communications.

NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union’s October 4, 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I. The 183-pound, basketball-sized satellite orbited the earth in 98 minutes. The Sputnik launch caught Americans by surprise and sparked fears that the Soviets might also be capable of sending missiles with nuclear weapons from Europe to America. The United States prided itself on being at the forefront of technology, and, embarrassed, immediately began developing a response, signaling the start of the U.S.-Soviet space race.

On November 3, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik II, which carried a dog named Laika. In December, America attempted to launch a satellite of its own, called Vanguard, but it exploded shortly after takeoff. On January 31, 1958, things went better with Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite to successfully orbit the earth.

In July of that year, Congress passed legislation officially establishing NASA from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and other government agencies, and confirming the country’s commitment to winning the space race. In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy declared that America should put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. On July 20, 1969, NASA’s Apollo 11 mission achieved that goal and made history when astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon, famously declaring “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

WATCH: Footage from the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing

NASA has continued to make great advances in space exploration since the first moonwalk, including playing a major part in the construction of the International Space Station. The agency has also suffered tragic setbacks, however, such as the disasters that killed the crews of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986 and the Columbia space shuttle in 2003.

Here are some surprising facts about NASA:

1)    Vodka had a lot to do with the launching of SPUTNIK, and the link below provides the details:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2009/11/vodka-and-internet.html

2)   Roughly 7% of the American public still believes that the moon landing was faked.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/3712/landing-man-moon-publics-view.aspx

 

3)   The moon landing was made possible due to the efforts of three black women in the early 1960’s. One of them is Katherine Johnson – a fact that people like Stephen Miller will never accept.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Johnson

Creola Katherine Johnson (née Coleman, previously Goble; August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020) was an American mathematician and human computer whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform tasks previously requiring humans. The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist".

Johnson's work included calculating trajectories, launch windows, and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights, including those for astronauts Alan Shepard (the first American in space) and John Glenn (the first American in orbit), and rendezvous paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on flights to the Moon. Her calculations were also essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle program, and she worked on plans for a human mission to Mars.

In 2015 President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2016, she received the Silver Snoopy Award from NASA astronaut Leland D. Melvin and a NASA Group Achievement Award. She was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. In 2019, the United States Congress awarded Johnson the Congressional Gold Medal and NASA announced the establishment of the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility in her home state of West Virginia  In 2021, she was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame

There are some events in our history that we will never forget.

When (and where) we were when we got married.

We all know exactly where we were when we heard that JFK had been shot.

We all know exactly where we were when Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon.

To give you an idea who remarkable the moon landing was, consider these facts:

  

A modern iPhone is millions of times more powerful than the technology NASA used during the 1969 moon landing, possessing vastly superior processor speeds, RAM, and storage capacity.

 

Apollo 11 Guidance Computer (1969)

 

• Processor Speed: Operated at roughly 0.043 MHz.
• RAM / Memory: Had about 4 KB to 64 KB of total memory (with magnetic core RAM around 2 KB to 4 KB).
• Storage: Limited read-only core memory equivalent to roughly 32 KB to 72 KB. [1,
•  
• Modern iPhone (Today)

• Processor Speed: Runs well over 2,400 MHz (2.4+ GHz) across multiple cores, making it over 100,000 times faster in raw processing.
• RAM / Memory: Features 6 GB to 8 GB+ of RAM—millions of times larger than the Apollo system.

• Storage: Offers storage capacities up to 1 TB (1,000,000,000 KB), millions of times more capacity than the historic guidance hardware.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A word about tariffs

I was an Economics major in college, so I know more about tariffs than a lot of people. You can learn a little more about tariffs by revisiting the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of the 1930’s, but the truth is that they simply do not work as intended.

Here is the short version of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Act

The Tariff Act of 1930, also known as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, was a protectionist trade measure signed into law in the United States by President Herbert Hoover on June 17, 1930. Named after its chief congressional sponsors, Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley, the act raised tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods in an effort to shield American industries from foreign competition during the onset of the Great Depression, which had started in October 1929.

Hoover signed the bill against the advice of many senior economists, yielding to pressure from his party and business leaders. Intended to bolster domestic employment and manufacturing, the tariffs instead deepened the Depression because the U.S.'s trading partners retaliated with tariffs of their own, leading to U.S. exports and global trade plummeting. Economists and historians widely regard the act as a policy misstep, and it remains a cautionary example of protectionist policy in modern economic debates. It was followed by more liberal trade agreements, such as the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934.

Naturally, our trading partners retaliated, and their reaction made the Depression worse than it would have been otherwise.

Both Smoot and Hawley lost their re-election, and FDR   got elected in 1932.

The 1932 Democratic campaign platform pledged to lower tariffs. After winning the election, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the now-Democratic Congress passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934. This act allowed the president to negotiate tariff reductions on a bilateral basis and treated such a tariff agreement as regular legislation, requiring only a majority, rather than as a treaty requiring a two-thirds vote. This was one of the core components of the global economy that developed after World War II.

After World War II, that understanding supported a push toward multilateral trading agreements that would prevent similar situations in the future. While the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 focused on foreign exchange and did not directly address tariffs, those involved wanted a similar framework for international trade. President Harry S. Truman launched this process in November 1945 with negotiations for the creation of a proposed International Trade Organization (ITO).

As it happened, separate negotiations on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) moved more quickly, with an agreement signed in October 1947. In the end, the United States never signed the ITO agreement. Adding a multilateral "most-favored-nation" component to that of reciprocity, the GATT served as a framework for the gradual reduction of tariffs over the subsequent half century.

Postwar changes to the Smoot–Hawley tariffs reflected a general tendency of the United States to reduce its tariff levels unilaterally while its trading partners retained their high levels. The American Tariff League Study of 1951 compared the free and dutiable tariff rates of 43 countries. It found that only seven nations had a lower tariff level than the United States (5.1%), and eleven nations had free and dutiable tariff rates higher than the Smoot–Hawley peak of 19.8%, including the United Kingdom with 25.6%. The 43-country average was 14.4%, which was 0.9% higher than the U.S. level of 1929, demonstrating that few nations were reciprocating in reducing their levels, as the United States reduced its own

By now, you are aware of the fact that history often repeats itself.

In 1993, in discussion leading up to the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), then-Vice President Al Gore mentioned the Smoot–Hawley Tariff as a response to NAFTA objections voiced by Ross Perot during a debate they had on The Larry King Show. He gave Perot a framed photograph of Smoot and Hawley shaking hands after passage of the act.

In April 2009, then-Representative Michele Bachmann made news when, during a speech, she referred incorrectly to the Smoot–Hawley Tariff as "the Hoot–Smalley Act", misattributed its signing to Franklin D. Roosevelt, and blamed him for the Great Depression. The act has been compared to the 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), with Andrew Quinlan from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity calling FATCA "the worst economic idea to come out of Congress since Smoot–Hawley".

 

As soon as he was sworn in to his second term of office, Trump imposed a series of tariffs, which were called “Liberation Day tariffs, and many of them were later ruled illegal by the Supreme court.

 

The link below goes into a LOT more detail.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariffs_in_the_second_Trump_administration

In its annual forecast supplement for the global economy that was published in November 2024 ('Year Ahead' for 2025), The Economist observed that [in the wake of the Tariff Act] "... global trade fell by two-thirds. It was so catastrophic for growth in America and around the world that legislators have not touched the issue since. 'Smoot-Hawley' became synonymous with disastrous policy making"

The tariffs announced on April 2, 2025, which could raise tariff levels higher than the rates during the Smoot–Hawley Tariffs, brought renewed attention to the Smoot–Hawley Act.

In July 2026, the Trump administration invoked section 338 of the Tariff Act for the first time in its history (96 years after its passage). This section allows the president to apply a tariff up to 50% to nations which "discriminate" against American trade. On July 20, Trump invoked this section with a 50% tariff against multiple industries from Canada effective August 19. This was partially precipitated by recent Canadian wildfire smoke that caused negative air-quality across many cities in the Northern United States

The official position of the White House puts a more positive spin on the tariffs.

          https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/07/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-imposes-additional-tariffs-on-canada/

 

Although the latest round of tariffs is primarily aimed at Canada, Canada will not be paying them.

We will. 

They will be paid by American consumers – and that truth was summed up by Bill Bramhall this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bramhall cartoon

 

 

I smell a red herring

 

    

 

A red herring is a deliberate or inadvertent distraction intended to divert attention away from a central issue or mislead someone onto a false trail. The term is commonly used as a rhetorical device, a logical fallacy, or a literary plot point.

Donald Trump made over $2.2 billion during the first year of his second term.

 A comprehensive analysis by Forbes estimates his total 2025 operating revenue and asset sales at $2.4 billion, which is over 6,000 times the current $400,000 presidential salary.

 The vast majority of this income stemmed from his family's cryptocurrency ventures, with over $1.4 billion derived from meme coin royalties and related assets.

 He also saw significant revenue streams from his real estate portfolio, generating $122 million from Trump National Doral and $77 million from Mar-a-Lago.

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 The federal government estimates that Medicaid improper payments—which encompass fraud, waste, and administrative abuse—amounted to $31.1 billion in 2024. When combined with Medicare, overall healthcare fraud and waste in the United States is estimated by federal officials and research bodies to cost taxpayers between $100 billion and $300 billion annually.

 (Georgetown University)

 The Financial Scale of Medicaid Fraud

 

• Improper Payment Rates: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) pegged the national Medicaid improper payment rate at 5.09%, representing $31.1 billion in erroneous federal outlays.
•  
• Broader Estimates: Independent research organizations, such as the Paragon Health Institute, argue that the true loss is much higher. They estimate that improper federal Medicaid payments reached nearly $1.2 trillion over the past decade, suggesting an actual improper payment rate closer to 25%.
•  

(Paragon Institute)

 

• Enforcement Recoveries: State-level Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs), monitored by the HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), successfully recovered $1.4 billion from criminal convictions and civil settlements in FY 2024.

 

Recent Major Takedowns and Enforcement (2026)

 Federal agencies have heavily scaled up "prevention" strategies alongside traditional prosecutions to curb these losses:

 ·         The 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown: In June 2026, the 

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a historic, coordinated enforcement action that charged 455 defendants. The operation targeted schemes responsible for more than $6.5 billion in false claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid.

 

·         State Funding Freezes: In July 2026, CMS and the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force froze over $1 billion in federal Medicaid funds to California ($867 million) and Minnesota ($199 million). The funding was deferred due to systemic fraud vulnerabilities involving in-home care services, hospice programs, and billing for deceased enrollees.

·          

·         Pre-Payment Savings: The shift toward blocking suspicious billing before payments go out resulted in $4.1 billion in direct Medicaid savings last year alone.

 

 What were the largest cases of Medicare/Medicaid fraud in this country?

Miami healthcare executive Philip Esformes was convicted of orchestrating what the U.S. Department of Justice Philip Esformes touted as the largest individual health care fraud scheme ever prosecuted.

 Esformes was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

 Esformes used a network of assisted-living and nursing facilities to bill Medicare and Medicaid for services that were either medically unnecessary or never provided.

 For context, this individual record is separate from corporate fraud operations, such as the hospital giant Columbia/HCA, which was penalized a record Rick Scott, who ran a company involved in the nation's largest Medicare fraud ($1.7 billion).

 

Scott was pressured to resign as chief executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997, after the company pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs in what was at the time the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history at $1.7 billion. Following his departure from Columbia/HCA, Scott became a venture capitalist and pursued other business interests.

Scott ran for governor of Florida in 2010, defeating Bill McCollum in a vigorously contested Republican primary election and Democratic nominee Alex Sink by just over one point in the general election.

 Scott was reelected in 2014, again by just over one point, against former governor Charlie Crist. He was barred by term limits from running for reelection in 2018 and instead ran for the U.S. Senate.

Scott won the 2018 U.S. Senate election, defeating incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson in a close election that triggered a mandatory recount. He was reelected in 2024, defeating Democratic nominee Debbie Mucarsel-Powell by over 12 points. He became Florida's senior senator in 2025, when Marco Rubio resigned from the Senate to become Secretary of State.

Let’s compare notes:

Philip Esformes was convicted of orchestrating what the U.S. Department of Justice Philip Esformes touted as the largest individual health care fraud scheme ever prosecuted.

 He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

 Rick Scott committed the largest corporate Medicare fraud in our country’s history.

 Scott was elected to be Florida’s governor in 2010 – and was re-elected in 2014.

 He is currently serving as Florida's SENIOR senator.

 Want more examples?

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After being impeached for the first time in 2019, Trump ran for office again in 2020 – and was DEFEATED by Joseph Biden. He lost by a total of 7,000,000 votes. Even today, he still will not admit defeat.

 Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York on May 30, 2024.

 He was re-elected in the 2024 presidential election. He got less than 50% of the popular vote (49.8%), but got enough electoral votes (312) to win. His margin in the popular vote was 2,000,000 votes.

 If you are wondering how a convicted felon got elected< here is the answer:

 https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2024/11/how-americas-worst-president-got-re.html

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Let’s talk about the emolument clauses.

  

The Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses are among the oldest federal anticorruption safeguards. Both clauses apply to the president, who is exempt from many other government ethics rules.

The Foreign Emoluments Clause bars the president and other federal officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State” without the consent of Congress. It reflects the framers’ desire to prevent federal officials from succumbing to foreign influence.

 

The Domestic Emoluments Clause provides for the president to receive a fixed salary and bars him from receiving “any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.” It was designed to insulate the president against undue pressure from Congress or any individual state.

 

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President Donald Trump officially accepted the luxury Boeing 747-8 jet from the Qatari government on May 21, 2025. After undergoing a series of security upgrades and interior retrofitting, the aircraft was unveiled at Joint Base Andrews on June 19, 2026, and made its maiden flight with Trump on July 1, 2026.

The plane was valued at $400 million.

 

• Estimated Upgrade Cost: The Air Force estimates the security and communications retrofitting for this interim luxury 747-8 (gifted to the U.S. by the Qatari government) will cost less than $400 million. However, defense and political critics estimate the modifications could ultimately cost closer to $1 billion.
•  

The Next-Generation VC-25B Fleet (Purpose-Built Boeing 747-8s)

• Contract and Overruns: The long-term Air Force One replacement program—which consists of two brand new, heavily modified jets—was originally awarded to Boeing in 2018 under a $3.9 billion fixed-price contract.
•  
• Total Program Cost: Years of delays, engineering challenges, and supply chain issues have driven Boeing's cost overruns to more than $2.8 billion, pushing the total expected cost of the program to over $5 billion. Despite these overruns, the Air Force maintains its fixed contract limit protects taxpayers from taking on the burden of the extra costs.

 

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According to the Presidential Greatness Project, Trump is the worst president that we have ever had, so I don’t need to tell you how to vote in future elections. 

https://presidentialgreatnessproject.com/

 Setting aside all the political nonsense, though, I have one basic truth for you.

You can learn a lot from cartoons.