SCIENCE

January 6, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Science

I trust that you, as Vice Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Science, Space and Technology Committee, have taken note of yesterday’s op-ed article in the New York Times. The authors are at pains to alert readers to the fact that, now almost a year into his presidency, Trump has still not named a science adviser and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

This neglect is clear evidence of what the article’s authors call the president’s “disdain for science,” most obviously in his rash withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement but also in numerous small acts that show an ignorance or contempt for the health and well-being of the American people and the natural environment. His recent—and continuing—cavalier and puerile references to the global threat of nuclear warfare reveal a startling unfamiliarity with its potential, as proven by both science and history.

Should it not be the job of your committee to monitor the nation’s commitment to science and technology? Given the apparent indifference of the president, should your committee not vigorously step in to ensure that he remain both conscious of and responsive to the nation’s priorities in this regard? Or do you stand idly by and watch as the atrocities continue?

I would appreciate some evidence of your concern, preferably in the form of public action that would demand greater responsibility and accountability on the part of the present administration.

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.

BE A HERO

January 4, 2018

 Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Be a Hero

It must be clear to everyone with a remaining rational thought in his or her head that the man in the Oval Office should not be there. His latest schoolyard tweet boasting of the size of his nuclear button in comparison to Kim Jong Un’s confirms that the quality of his mind is more nearly that of a four-year old brat than of a president of the United States. Not only does he bring the matter of nuclear war to a level of puerile taunts, he makes our country look foolish, untrustworthy and dangerous in the eyes of the world.

Also, no matter how you may question its every detail, the new book about Trump’s White House reveals an undignified scene of internecine squabbling, back-stabbing and administrative chaos which clearly reflects the character of the chief executive. Our country is in hands that can best be described as incompetent, at worst frankly criminal. For all his boasts of strength, Trump is clearly incapable of independent thought or resolve; he capitulates to the last person who manages to catch his ear, veering wildly from one position to its polar opposite in the space of no more than a few minutes.  His personal greed, his petty vengefulness, his willful ignorance, his rank authoritarianism and his bellicosity are by now unquestionable: he reveals them unabashedly on a daily basis to the country and the world.

You, Congressman, are in a position to be a hero. You can tell the truth. You can be the first of your colleagues in the House of Representatives to stand up, speak out, and say boldly what no others have the guts to say: the man should go.

How about it, Congressman? Will you be a hero? Or will you continue to serve, not your constituents, but a petty tyrant who serves no one but himself?

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.

2018!

January 1, 2018

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

It has been a while since you heard from me.  As I mentioned in my last letter, I have been traveling—to New York City and Washington DC—and celebrating the various holidays of the season with family and friends. I have read, listened to, and watched less news. It has been a good time.

I hope it has been a good time for you, too, and your family. I bear you personally no ill will, but my New Year’s resolution is to do everything in my power to support the effort to unseat you this November. I make this resolve because I believe that Republicans, and everything that Republicanism has come to mean, have brought great harm to this country, and threaten greater harm if they remain in power. In particular, the surrender of all their purported principles in support of a “president” who daily shows himself to be not merely deranged, but dangerous to a democratic republic, betrays a cynicism that I find indefensible.

This is, by the way, my 204^th letter to you since the Trump inauguration. Lacking access to a printer, I will be unable to mail a hard copy as I usually do. Instead, I will post it on my blog, The Rohrabacher Letters. I nursed an apparently vain hope that I might receive something personal—even a Christmas card!—in response to the plea in my 200^th letter of December 15. But no. Nothing but silence from your end. As your “president” might say: Sad!

With kind thoughts for all of us for 2018,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.

SIGNING OFF...

December 19, 2017

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Signing off…

… for now, at least. I’ll be on the road for the next week or so, and am unlikely to have access to a printer. I will not, then, be mailing hard copies as I usually do. I will likely try to stay off the computer altogether. However, if something comes up that truly demands attention, you’ll have to go to the blog, The Rohrabacher Letters, to find out what I have to say.

A note before departure: I sat yesterday in Frank Gehry’s incredible Disney Hall and listened to Mozart and Bruckner. On Wednesday I’ll be at the Metropolitan Museum to see Michelangelo and David Hockney; and, at the Breuer extension, Edvard Munch and Anselm Kiefer. On Thursday I’ll be at the Museum of Modern Art to see an old friend and colleague, the African American master Charles White paired in an exhibition with Leonardo da Vinci (Charlie would be so chuffed, had he lived to see it). On Saturday, with luck and time enough, I’ll be at the National Gallery in Washington DC to see Vermeer.

Lucky me! What a wealth of culture from the Western Heritage! And—I can’t resist—how very small beside these great minds seems your Donald Trump, with his petty, vindictive Tweets and his vulgar castles!

To go to NYC and then Washington DC (to escape politics)! That’s the ticket!

Respectfully, as always,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.

A NO VOTE!

Delighted to hear that Re. Dana Rohrabacher intends to vote NO on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act! Congratulations to him on his decision! Could it be that his constituents made a difference? And... can other Republicans be far behind? We need many more of them to defeat this monstrosity of a bill and deny Trump his massively generous Christmas present to himself and his family! Does anyone believe his assertion that it's a Christmas present for America? No one I know.

MERRY?

December 15, 2017

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: MERRY?

Your Trump has been smirking “Merry Christmas” since October—still a warrior, I presume, in Fox News’s ardent defense against the pagans’ “war on Christmas.” I feel compelled to ask, though, merry for whom? Merry for Trump, no doubt, who may get to sign an actual—though despicable—bill this coming week, and whose family stands to profit handsomely from its passage! Merry, it seems also, for Republicans, who can soon rejoice not only in their success in placating their oligarchic donors, but also in depriving millions of their fellow Americans of the security of health care insurance. They have managed in a sneaky way what they failed so very often to achieve with what Sen. McCain referred to at a moving but alas ephemeral moment as “the proper order.”

Well done, Republicans! Well done! You have flaunted the will of the majority of those you were elected to “serve”! You have sold the America you claim to love down the river of cash delivered by your bosses.

Not so merry for that majority, however—myself amongst them. We are left feeling ill-served, cheated, betrayed by our “government,” permanently angry, and clinging to the last straws of hope for the survival of our vaunted democracy. We are feeling embarrassed for a country that so readily abandons old relationships and treaties and declares to the world its callous disregard for the well-being of our planet. Not only does our “president” behave like a spoiled and truculent child in the global community, he encourages the exploitation or dismantling of all our country’s resources, whether human or natural. And, before the disbelieving world, you Republicans rally round to support him in his every rash action and delusion.

Not so merry for the rest of us in America, then, this Christmas. I wish you better judgment and a more ethical conscience in the coming year.

Not merrily, no. But sadly,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.

TAX CUTS (again!)

December 15, 2017

 Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

If I understand correctly, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will be sent to the House of Representatives next Tuesday or Wednesday for a vote. The latest word that has come to my attention is that the House and Senate have succeeded in reconciling their bills, and that the Majority Leader in the Senate believes he has the votes needed for passage.

I write to ask you to vote NO. I realize that my request is likely to be ignored, but I write to ask it any way. From everything I have read about this bill—and I have read a good deal of reports from a variety of sources—it is an atrocious piece of legislation, which is being rushed through Congress merely in order to have something, anything, for Republicans and their “president” to claim as a victory in the first year of his tenure; to rescue one last possible scrap of his already tattered reputation.

Aside from needlessly prioritizing the military and adding shamefully and massively to the deficit—an action that Republicans loudly deplored when enacted by their Democratic colleagues—the bill masks its real purpose of benefiting the already wealthy behind token sops for the middle class and a slap in the face for the poor. It will be followed, we can safely assume, by loud calls from your party for severe cuts in social services to cover the increase in the deficit that you have created.

I don’t know how much longer Republicans can get away with spitting in the face of the people whose interests they are supposed to serve, but I’m fervently hoping it will be no longer than November, 2018. The damage you and your “president” are inflicting on this country will unhappily last very much longer.

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.