Voters, including Trump voters, are going to be very surprised at the “mandate” they allegedly gave Trump. This is the first headline I saw today, from the New York Times, for example:
Yep, the New York Times reports that RFK the Lesser’s lawyer, a man actively involved in hiring for the new Regime, has been trying to get the polio vaccine banned. And other vaccines as well, including hepatitis B, tetanus, Covid-19, and diphtheria.
The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death.
That campaign is just one front in the war that the lawyer, Aaron Siri, is waging against vaccines of all kinds.
Mr. Siri has also filed a petition seeking to pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines; challenged, and in some cases quashed, Covid vaccine mandates around the country; sued federal agencies for the disclosure of records related to vaccine approvals; and subjected prominent vaccine scientists to grueling videotaped depositions.
Of course, RFK the Lesser hasn’t yet been confirmed as the head of Health and Human Services, so there’s a faint home the new Regime won’t run something like the Spanish Inquisition aimed at scientists. But I don’t think most voters had any idea banning vaccines was a possibility. It is. This is from an interview with Trump in Time magazine:
One of them who is controversial, who I just want to ask you a quick question about, is RFK Jr, who is a noted vaccine skeptic. If he moves to end childhood vaccination programs, would you sign off on that?
We’re going to have a big discussion. The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it.
Do you think it’s linked to vaccines?
No, I’m going to be listening to Bobby, who I’ve really gotten along with great and I have a lot of respect for having to do with food, having to do with vaccinations. He does not disagree with vaccinations, all vaccinations. He disagrees probably with some. But we’ll have it. We’re going to do what’s good for the country.
So that could include getting rid of some vaccinations?
It could if I think it’s dangerous, if I think they are not beneficial, but I don’t think it’s going to be very controversial in the end.
Do you agree with him about the connection between vaccines and autism?
I want to see the numbers. It’s going to be the numbers. We will be able to do—I think you’re going to feel very good about it at the end. We’re going to be able to do very serious testing, and we’ll see the numbers. A lot of people think a lot of different things. And at the end of the studies that we’re doing, and we’re going all out, we’re going to know what’s good and what’s not good. We will know for sure what’s good and what’s not good.
The alleged connection between vaccines and autism was first proposed more than 25 years ago and has been debunked up the wazoo. The original claim was based on bogus data. This has been verified beyond question. Yet we’re going to waste taxpayer dollars “studying” it some more.
Yes, a lot of people think a lot of different things, and a lot of those people are stupid.
Here’s another headline for you:
Yep, they want to drastically deregulate the financial sector. Has all memory of the 2008 financial crisis melted away, somehow? Note that the Heritage Foundation is on record as wanting to abolish the FDIC and replace it with private insurance going back about forty years. And I’m sure the Trump Family Grifters are already cooking up a way for them to use deregulation to make a fast killing off the rubes.
This is quote from the Wall Street Journal that I got from Talking Points Memo:
The Trump transition team has started to explore pathways to dramatically shrink, consolidate or even eliminate the top bank watchdogs in Washington.
In recent interviews with potential nominees to lead bank regulatory agencies, President-elect Donald Trump’s advisers and officials from his newfound Department of Government Efficiency have, for example, asked whether he could abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., people familiar with the matter said.
There are no words. This is stupid beyond all known parameters of stupid.
On to other stuff — Ronald Brownstein writes in the Atlantic —
Donald Trump’s support in rural America appears to have virtually no ceiling. In last month’s election, Trump won country communities by even larger margins than he did in his 2020 and 2016 presidential runs. But several core second-term policies that Trump and the Republican Congress have championed could disproportionately harm those places.
Agricultural producers could face worse losses than any other economic sector from Trump’s plans to impose sweeping tariffs on imports and to undertake what he frequently has called “the largest domestic deportation operation” of undocumented immigrants “in American history.” Hospitals and other health providers in rural areas could face the greatest strain from proposals Trump has embraced to slash spending on Medicaid, which provides coverage to a greater share of adults in smaller communities than in large metropolitan areas. And small-town public schools would likely be destabilized even more than urban school districts if Trump succeeds in his pledge to expand “school choice” by providing parents with vouchers to send their kids to private schools.
I’ve written about some of this before. For example, to me, “school choice” is an urban/elitist argument that ignores the realities of small town and rural communities. See, for example, The Republican War Against Public Schools Is a War Against the “Heartland” from 2020.
And I’ve written before about how rural hospitals are closing, especially in states that go cheap on Medicaid. See, from 2018, The Fruits of GOP Health Care in Missouri. Hospitals in low-population areas really need Medicaid dollars to stay open. And as of July 2024, Medicaid is the primary payer for 63 percent of U.S. nursing home residents. If they kill Medicaid, where will those people go?
The “government efficiency” guys don’t seem to understand that if you cut government cost, those costs don’t go away. And they aren’t painlessly absorbed by the private sector. In the end the economic and other devastation that will be visited on Americans will end up costing more in the long run.
First, you gotta look at the metronome of politics. In 2000, Bush for two terms. In 2008, Obama for two terms. In 2016, Trump for one term, In 2020, Biden for one term. In 2024, Trump for one term. And there's every reason to expect that the next four years will be a disaster that we will survive.
RFK will probably make some disastrous choices, especially with vaccines. The results won't show immediately. Congress will not pass anything to undermine public health, so a Democratic administration with a respect for science can undo what RFK does. If the USSC codifies the right of parents to practice public medicine and exempt their kids from vaccines, the consequences will eventually catch up to us.
The real play in undermining the FDIC is more devious. The banker is a gambler who bets with your money. He wants to take greater risks for greater returns bur the government has rules about how he can do business. The amount a bank can loan is limited by deposits – they can still loan many times what they have in deposits but there is a ratio, which is why they want you to do business, even if it's just a checking account that's at zero by the end of the month. The daily deposits will be counted at the midpoint of your deposited salary.
The reason the federal government can meddle in the casinos that the banks truly are is because the federal government insures the deposits so the government can demand that the bank does not take excessive risks. Which they want to do. SO get rid of the FDIC and you can then push the federal inspectors out. Or so they intend. I'm not sure the FDIC can be revoked by federal order – it was brought into existence by an act passed by Congress.
I'm resigned to things getting bad in the next four years. I want to preserve the Constitution and if things are bad enough, we should make gains in 2026 and sweep on 2028. When Trump is going to make a mistake that undermines MAGA, I'm not going to lose a lot of sleep about the pain Trump causes. It will cost MAGA and Trumpism a million votes each time the voter feels the pain.
Were going to bring back polio and cause a massive run on the banks! It's going to be just like the good old days!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK9I39wCLsg
Sita from Boston wrote a comment to a NYT article about the mysterious drones.
That is funny. UFOs to the rescue.
I'm sure everything is going well. Iron lung producers are gearing up to increase production.
Have you been watching Argentina? President Milei has been doing a lot of things like what in incoming regime in the US is proposing.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm55yv0g0veo
They see Milei as an inspiration, their model.
Today's downer.
The MAGA cultists will not have a revelation of any kind. they will continue to be true believers up to and past the point of drinking the Jim Jones kool-aid. Is a trademark thingy necessary for the kool aid phrase?
When the benefit checks stop coming, they will start to wake up.
Not just benefit checks, but benefits. I'm not of the opinion that the federal government is always right but these different agencies exist for reasons. Occupational health and safety, food inspection and water quality, Disaster response… you can add to the list.
Nobody knows for sure what Trump can and will slash. Last time around he eliminated the plans and people for pandemic response. Republicans want to "offset" the tax cuts without creating a voter backlash.
I don't care how Trump spins it – the results will hit the average person. Even if MAGA does not care about unemployment rising and stock prices falling, almost everyone will notice higher prices at the grocery store.
Yep. The so-called "deep state" is actually the array of not-for-profit organizations (our government agencies) that have been keeping us safe for decades. IMO that BS from ban-none (the war room podcast guy) about deconstructing the administrative state to "save the country" is basically sedition.
We are getting a window into the "deep state" of Syria, as the Assad rule is exposed. Not just a dictatorship, but one highly influenced by Iran a theocracy and Russia, a mutated remnant of a non-capitalist ideal gone dictatorial. klepto, and opportunistic. Nothing is pretty about what we see. Torture like the inquisition and beyond, combined with an immense scale of human suffering. The thin veneer of a monotheistic theocracy serving only to give the illusion rule by divine right.
In reality, Syria's primary function was as a pipeline of supply for a number of militias who used the terrorist style war techniques. A pipeline of men, arms, material, and hate. The flying of unorthodox flags a crime punishable by death and enforceable by vigilante action condoned by the state. Needless to say, other personal freedoms were tightly controlled, most by fear and punitive measures.
This was sustained for years by almost a total absence of checks and balances on power. The total absence of checks and balances is exactly what MAGA is all about, unfortunately. The only correct will be the politically correct. So, no matter the truth, no matter the scientific data, no matter what any but the chosen sect of the chosen religion says, if the political powers say vaccines are bad, they will be banned. Is it sedition? Sure is. The cult has us on a one-way street into a box canyon. They are under a delusion they are going to save us all. At the lead is the likes of Ginni Thomas with whatever flag she is under. Soon to be the only allowed her orthodox flag, in an Assad style regime in the United States. We will be saved if we like it or not. Your body, Your soul (metaphysical), Ginni's control. The Ginni way or the hi-way.
I still say no way that way. What they call the right way is the wrong way, and a lot of conservatives say so too.
The thin veneer of a monotheistic theocracy serving only to give the illusion rule by divine right.
Syria under Assad was basically a secular state or at least enforced strict religious tolerance. The Syrian Christians, the Yazidi, the Alawites, and just about anyone who was not a rabid Salifist Sunni supported him during the 'Dirty War" as his regime was the only protection from those nice moderate, head-chopping jihadi "freedom fighters" who used to sell women in the streets in their occupied territory. Men they just shot, beheaded and so on.
Under the pressure of vicious sanctions, a civil war, attacks by Turkey and Israel plus US support for the jihadis and the Kurds in Eastern Syria, what was a rather corrupt but not all that bad country, Syria sank into the hellhole it was when Assad fled.
Admittedly Assad was a crappy Head of State to begin with. He wanted to be an ophthalmologist not head of Syria. In fact he was an ophthalmologist in London when his older brother was killed in a car accident and his father called him home to take over the family business (i.e Syria).
I've often wondered if for the first few years when he was president of Syria if he actually had any power or if he was being basically held hostage by the generals and the Secret Service. I'm still not sure that's some or most of the horrors that we've seen there something he ordered or he really had no choice because of the internal power structure.
Sounds like you have a longer view than I have. Only since the Arab spring has Syria had my attention at all. Nothing I have read or heard suggested anything but religious favoritism toward the Alawite Sect of Islam. Assad's use of chemical weapons on his own people and his Russian alliance painted him poorly at that time and beyond. Recent reports and pictures from the prisons show truly horrific practices that can only be classified as barbaric at best.
Was he an overpaid puppet and front man for the 'real power' I cannot say or know. I am sure a few at least are sorry to see him go. Most people who identify as Syrian seem happy he is gone.
The only good I see in Assad is as a bad example. It is the same only good I see in our leader to be. My view of the situation is poor, and my harsh view probably a bit twisted, but I am not convinced that my sentence would not generally characterize Assad's Syria from the Arab Spring until recent days. A benevolent dictatorship it was not. The dictatorship we are headed toward will not be benevolent either.
I probably do. I worked in Saudi Arabia for a couple of years back in the late 1980s. My immediate boss was Syrian.
Since then, back here in Canada, by sheer chance I have known Palestinians, worked with a couple of Egyptians and a student from Damascus and love shwarmas and humus.
So I have been keeping a very casual eye on the region for years. I am no expert and I think I know probably three words of Arabic but I probably have a better acquaintance with the region than a lot of people, say in North America.
I don’;t think you see any religious favoritism towards the Alawites. What you see is straightforward favouritism or nepotism. Assad is an Alawite. As I understand it, and have never been to Syria, the country still has a lot of tribal structure so Assad would have a responsibility to support his people and he probably would be able to put a lot more trust in his Alawite relations then people in other tribes or any other religious group to be honest.
The accusations that Assad used chemical weapons on his own people are total lies. I don't even think his father who was a real bastard ever did that. Sudan Hussein in Iraq did. If you look really carefully at the times it’s claimed that Assad used chemical weapons it was always when he was winning. He did not need to use chemical weapons then, but the opposition really needed to blacken his name.
If you want to follow it there’s a really nasty and convoluted sorry about the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, (OPCW) and how some people in the organization actually rewrote the report of their experts who had investigated one such attack. That was straight fraud.
I see nothing wrong with this Russian alliance. Syria and the Soviet Union had been close allies since the 1950s so a continuation of an alliance with Russia makes perfectly good sense. When you've got the USA and Israel trying to destroy you, the Russian Alliance probably looked pretty good.
Those recent reports and pictures coming out of the prisons are probably pretty accurate and may even downplay things. I don't know if Assad would have actually ordered that sort of horror or just ignored it or was totally ignorant of totally ignorant of it.
Oh I mean he knew there were lots of prisoners, but he may not have realized the absolute horror of what they were being subjected to. He might have thought it was just a little torture here and there. A little like Abu Grab or Guantanamo. How often does a head of state tour a prison?
After 13 years of Civil War particularly when you’re facing a bunch of mad fanatic jihadis I suspect that there was a really wild tendency to overreact and to be honest, most of the Middle East is not noted for a high respect for human rights. Certainly Saudi Arabia and Israel are not and Egypt can be pretty vicious. Come to think of it when I was in Saudi Arabia they used to hold public beheadings in the marketplace after the mid-morning prayer on Fridays.
I don’t think he was an overpaid puppet, but as I said I think he originally may have been captive to some extent to his generals and his secret service. However I think he grew into the job but he really was not competent. He’s probably a good ophthalmologist.
So far Assad has had a very interesting career head of state of major country, lovely wife, three fine children, one of whom has just graduated from university in Moscow and he now plans apparently to open a Ophthalmology practice in Russia. You couldn’t write this in a Tom Clancy book.
Until the Arab Spring in the beginning of the Civil War in Syria the country really wasn’t all that bad. Good educational system, universal health care and a not terribly corrupt legal system though in some ways I think corruption worsened a little bit under Assad. He was not as ruthless as his father.
Everything went to hell in a hand-basket with organizations like ISIS and al Nusra plus a dozen other jihadi groups shooting, looting, stealing women, chopping off heads' and so on all over the country. And a good number of those groups were being funded by the USA, Britain, and Israel, though as the war went on we need to include Türkiye as well.
There’s even one funny story where the US Army was funding one terrorist group and the CIA was funding another. They weren't coordinating their efforts all that well, and ended up in a firefight. Luckily, the CIA agent realized what was happening and managed to calm things down.
If you have about a half an hour to spare, you might find this video interesting. It's an interview by a former New Jersey judge and FOX News personality talking to a former British diplomat/MI5 officer who has had had many years of experience in the Middle East. Alister Crooke does not make the next few years in Syria sound good. He's probably talking about something a bit worse than Libya.
A War Without Limits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSrzdVdG-Pg&t=6s okay come on
So, according to you, Assad is basically a regular guy in the wrong job who was being forced to do terrible things by the U.S. Secret Service, an agency that is tasked with providing security protection to high-level politicians in the U.S.? If you're going to believe in some nutjob conspiracy theory, at least try to get your Deep State Agencies right.
"nutjob conspiracy theory's" are best when they are convoluted, confusing and fantastical. That way no one understands what they mean so they can't really refute them succinctly!
Please be so kind to point out any issues you have and notice I said nothing about the US Secret Service. That seems to have been maha's misreading. I really should not have used that term with a lot of US readers. My apologies. I did not think of it.
No, he probably was not all that bad originally but power does corrupt.
Who was talking about the U.S. Secret Service?
I was referring to the Syrian service whose Arab name I could not remember and I was not going to spend half-an-hour looking it up.
Oh my. I can kind of see where you are coming from. It does take some mental gymnastics to revise history to paint Assad your way. That he was not nearly as cruel as his father is a plus, but hardly persuasive that Assad had good character. The dots just don't connect that way. I see a different picture and connect the dots differently.
I am glad he is setting up ophthalmology services in Russia. He is far enough away I should never be inclined to let him effect how I see things.