Robert F. Kennedy was a great man. His son Junior is just an overgrown boy. An embarrassment. A joke. The biggest disappointment anyone could ever imagine. Grace Harrington (THE DAILY BEAST) notes:
Democratic-leaning
healthcare groups discussed strategy for stopping Robert F. Kennedy
Jr.’s confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary, Politico reported
Monday. “We’re nowhere near conceding he’s going to be the next HHS
secretary,” said Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care.
On a call with over 200 people from dozens of healthcare organizations,
Protect Our Care launched the “Stop RFK War Room,” which aims to
convince moderate Republicans to block Kennedy’s confirmation.
Our
health system is about to crumble and, sorry, I'm not nutty Lisa Pease
who has wasted her entire life on Kennedy assassination research. I
care about our healthcare. But crazies like Lisa are thrilled that the
unqualified Junior plans to wreck our health system. Northwestern
University's Seema K. Shah actually has an education and, at THE HILL, she writes:
In other words, Kennedy is prepared to gut the National Institutes of Health, which is the largest funder of health research in the world, by immediately replacing experienced and qualified workers with his own people.
There was a time when advances in health were seen as optional. In 1969, the philosopher Hans Jonas argued that society did not need research on many health conditions. Jonas felt that if research stopped on “cancer, heart disease, and other organic, noncontagious ills, especially those tending to strike the old more than the young … society can go on flourishing in every way.” Kennedy seems to want to return to an era when health research was not a high priority.
This kind of thinking ignores the fact that NIH has fostered countless technological advances in health. Based in no small part on research funded by the NIH, advances in cancer treatment have prevented 3.8 million deaths since 1991. For anyone who has had a cancer diagnosis, lost someone they love to cancer or, increasingly, for those who are grateful to see a loved one survive a diagnosis that once meant certain death, it is clear we cannot afford to turn back the clock.
NIH has proven to be a good investment from an economic perspective as well. The money it used to fund research generated over $95 billion in economic growth in 2022. New treatments for addiction that NIH has helped move into the real world saved lives, and have potential returns of $58 for every dollar spent.
The NIH employees Kennedy would terminate have a wealth of knowledge about how to support valuable research. Why would the next administration would simply toss this value to the curb?
Kennedy has also said that he wants to defund work on infectious diseases to free up more money for chronic diseases. While the COVID-19 pandemic fostered deep political divisions, it is beyond dispute that more than 1 million people have died from the disease in the U.S. Remarkably, an estimated 140,000 American lives were saved by the vaccines that the Trump administration invested in and brought to the public in record time.
Again, only a dumb groupie like Lisa Pease -- who wasted her life on 'research' -- would be impressed with Junior. AP notes:
Asked
in Geneva on Friday about the nomination of anti-vaccine
activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and
Human Services, WHO spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris told reporters it’s
up to member countries — the U.S. is one of the biggest funders and
sources of technical support to the U.N. agency — to decide who they
appoint.
She also said vaccines were “absolutely critical” to good health outcomes.
Trump
said days before he won the election that he would let Kennedy, an
environmental lawyer, “go wild” on health, food, and medicines. But
until now, it was unclear whether Kennedy would have an official
position in the new administration. Transition co-chair Howard Lutnick
even stated bluntly last month that Kennedy would not be HHS secretary.
Lutnick
has been overruled. “I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as
The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” Trump
wrote in his announcement on Truth Social.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food
complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception,
misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health.”
Since
his star began to rise with Trump, after he dropped out of the
presidential race in August and threw his support to the Republican,
Kennedy has made a succession of pronouncements about his plans. He’s
said he wants to see the end of fluoridation of water—a state and local
prerogative—and to review all vaccine safety data with a view to the
market removal of those he finds unsafe—both prospects that Trump on 3 November said he was open to.
(Vaccines pass vigorous safety and efficacy reviews by panels of
experts at FDA before they are approved for market. Scientific advisers
to CDC then review data before recommending who should receive them.)
Kennedy’s
views on vaccines concern current CDC Director Mandy Cohen: “I don’t
want to go backwards and see children or adults suffer or lose their
lives to remind us that vaccines work,” she said in an email to Science today.
Junior's
disgusting. We get, right, that the only woman he's ever fooled is
Cheryl Hines? We also get how disgusting Hines is, right? Lookit, she
married him after his wife committed suicide when she learned of his
vast cheating. Cheryl Hines is no innocent. She is his partner in
crime.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Tuesday, November 18, 2024. The exodus from Twitter continues, the
silence on Black women also continues, Hegseth is not qualified for the
role of Secretary of Defense, and much more.
You ready to get off Elon Musk's plantation?
.
Elon Musk was born and grew up in South Africa and he loved it. Until
apartheid began to crumble. The thought of Black people having the same
rights as he did caused him to flee South Africa. The racism is
ingrained in him and that's the only 'free speech' that he ever
tolerates.
THE GUARDIAN, The Free Press,
Gabrielle Union, Jamie Lee Curtis and so many others are doing the right
thing and leaving the racist's social media. He's lost money on
Twitter but that doesn't matter to him because he has influence as long
as he owns it -- if it remains popular. If we leave it, it's over.
It's nothing but a nest of racists, sexists and homophobes and then it
has no cachet and popularity.
Over on Blue Sky . . .
"I-I-I-I-I-I Ain't Gonna Tweet on TWITTER (Ava and C.I.)" -- let's all say goodbye to X and to Twitter and to racists who actively work to destroy our lives.
Let me note one more to join Bluesky.
I
called Alyssa out two weeks ago for not being on BlueSky. Now the
reason most give me is that they're afraid they'll lose their
following. Most of the people refusing to budge -- racist Katrina
vanden Heuvel of THE NATION, for example, don't have a following.
Alyssa built up her TWITTER following and has huge numbers. Knowing
Alyssa, I doubt she's stopped Tweeting but at least she's also gone to
BLUESKY. And I will say thank you and I will applaud.
Or I will applaud those of you going to BlueSky.
If,
on the left, we can't even do that -- and do it to oppose racism,
sexism and homophobia -- it says a great deal about our lack of
priorities.
Run X into the ground and Elon Musk is just another ugly man with ass hair implanted on his scalps and jowls.
Now let's note this from Reshonda Tate on THE DEFENDER NETWORK.
Community
member Keesha weighed in on that video above noting that this is the
big story of the post-election period "but no Democracy Now segment,
nothing on The Majority Report or at The Progressive or In These Times
or The Nation. The same outlets that ignored us in the lead up to the
election are ignoring Black women after the election. I guess they
couldn't do all their lying if they had to listen to Black women. So
they just ignore us instead. I'm registering and I doubt I'm the only
one who is."
It is very hard to ignore the silencing that's taking place.
An
e-mail to the public account (common_ills@yahoo.com) is from a woman
asking how long she should sit it out? You'll know when -- and if --
you're ready to take part again. Some will need longer to take care of
themselves and to heal. Some will never come back (and I don't blame
you if that's what you need to do).
This is a
very important time and you need to take care of you because the 'left'
has demonstrated that they won't -- not just before the election but
also, as Keesha points out, after as well.
Don't let them steal your joy -- we've all heard it.
But damned if they didn't try, right?
Kamala
was the first Black woman to run for the presidency on a major ticket.
And to even be joyful about that brought attacks from others. Brought
nonsense about Gaza.
Most political nominees
aren't tasked with solving the world's problems before they're even
elected president. Not so with Kamala. She had to solve everything and
please everyone and do so before she was in the Oval Office.
Yeah,
let's pretend like she was being judged by the same standard. That's
what so many on the left who helped derail her campaign want us to
believe.
We're not that stupid.
We
grasp that every column attacking her, every segment attacking her,
every speech attacking her was devaluing her -- intentionally devaluing
her.
And they try to act like she's the failure.
My
state's still got 6% of the vote to count but per the official results
nationwide right now, Kamala got 48.3% to Trump's 50%.
That's a less than 2% difference. For a candidate who had to hit the ground running in August.
But
don't the White men like Seth Prissy Moulton want to attack. Hey,
Seth, unlike you, she had a general election opponent. You didn't. So
you should have gotten 100% of the vote -- running uncontested. But you
didn't, did you?
So maybe you're the last
White windbag that needs to be speaking right now and maybe people need
to grasp that when you speak -- running unopposed, he couldn't even get
100% of the vote this time.
Let's
note Satanic Trump's unqualified nominees. Pete Hegseth is not
qualified to be the secretary of any department. You didn't have to go
left to find a qualified candidate. There are people serving in
leadership of the military that could have been elevated. There are
people in the Senate who are Republicans who would be qualified -- Joni
Ernst, Mike Rounds, Roger Wicker, Bill Cassidy, etc.
They
have the knowledge base. Hegseth doesn't have the knowledge base or
the experience. What he does have is a sad and drunken assault. It was
seven years ago. It is not the distant past. He was 37 years old. David Kurtz (TPM) notes:
More details emerged over the weekend about the sexual assault claim against Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of defense.
The WaPo was first with extensive new information about the circumstance of the alleged sexual assault, based on (i) a memo it obtained that was provided to the Trump transition team late Wednesday by a friend of the victim; and (ii) a statement from Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore.
The woman later reported the alleged assault to police, but no charges were ever filed:
According to the police statement, the complaint was filed four days after the encounter, and the complainant had bruises to her thigh. The police report itself was not released.
Hegseth settled the woman’s claim for an undisclosed amount, and she signed a nondisclosure agreement.
Trump is standing by Hegseth in the face of the undisclosed settlement of the sexual assault claim.
That's reason enough not to confirm him.
But he's also not qualified for the job.
He shouldn't be confirmed. He shouldn't even be
nominated. He's not fit to oversee the Pentagon -- he does not have the
background. If the nomination was to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs,
I'd have a few problems -- mainly around the issues of female
veterans. And I would also question his ability to oversee any
department because he just doesn't have that experience -- not in his
military service and not in his civilian experience.
This is a huge department that is taxed with many, many duties including ensuring the US military is prepared.
What in Hegseth's past experience argues that he knows a thing about hiring or recruiting, for example?
The last Senate hearing on military readiness was eleven months ago.
At that hearing, US Army Maj Gen Johnny Davis spoke on a number of topics including the statements below:
Today's youth are far more likely to pursue education beyond high school. Currently,
high school seniors and recent graduates account for more than 50% of our annual
contracts. However, they only represent 15-20% of the labor market. We will transform
our prospecting to expand into a greater representation of the labor market and enter
the larger prospect pool. In addition to the high school market, we will target those with
more than a high school diploma, this includes a college degree, some college, or a
technical certification. By FY 2028, it is our goal for one third of new recruits to have
more
than a high school diploma. We are growing our analytical capability
to incentivize and position our recruiting force, tailor marketing based
on segmentation, and place our recruiters in the right place with the
right training, products, and tools. Our quarterly Industry Engagement
Program allows us to identify new tools to improve operations across the enterprise.
As we transform how the Army prospects for talent, we will continue to innovate and
leverage data analytics, artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) to quickly
identify the right talent and provide tailored messaging to potential talent. We are
expanding our presence on both social media and digital job boards to communicate the
Army's Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Expanding our market is critical to
accomplishing the mission today and in the future.
What does Hegseth know about hiring practices, recruitment and
retention? Nothing. Can he address, off the top of his head, the
issue of evidence-based learning capability? Does he know what a
command wide retention surge is? If so, does he approve or does he
think it's a waste of time. Each of the four branches needs to be
adequately staffed (the Air Force didn't make the goal in 2023). How
does Hegseth plan to address this. Does he have an overall plan or is
he going to propose piece meal strategies?
He wants this office why? How does he see himself delivering in this office?
Where does he stand on waivers?
Due
to his plethora of body markings, I'd assume he is okay with tattoos.
But what about age restrictions -- what his top end for someone serving
in combat? On drug tests, what's his wait window on retesting -- 60
days, 90 days, less, more? And why? Drug testing does include testing
for alcohol.
ESaR has
been a semi-successful recruiting tool for the Navy (Every Sailor a
Recruiter). Is that a policy Hegseth agrees with? Why or why not?
The
Navy's "Make Your Name" series has been successful in recruiting --
noting women's roles and experiences serving in the Navy. It's a fairly
inexpensive recruiting tool and it has been successful. Does he
endorse this recruiting tool? If not, why not? If not, is it because
he has a limited view of what women can do in the military?
Grasp
that -- without him -- women have been moving up in the ranks in the
military. Are these women going to hit a glass ceiling if he becomes
the Secretary? How is he planning to address these issues? How is
going to maintain the US military's competitive edge?
Guess
what, those are very basic questions about basic duties and that's
before we get beyond workforce issues. I see nothing in his background
that demonstrates experience with those type of issues.
Again,
we still haven't gotten to other issues that include oversight, combat,
military exercises and partnering with the VA to improve the transition
from veteran to soldier. On that last one? I don't think he has
expertise but I think his experience -- personal -- could compensate for
the lack of expertise. I do not feel that way about any other
responsibility that he would be tasked with should he become the
Secretary of Defense.
The
US Army is supposed to be refocusing with an emphasis on LSCO
(Large-Scale Combat Operations). That is one of the defined 2025
goals. Hegseth will pursue that how?
These
are not minor details. And you can't learn it on the job, not as
Secretary of Defense. That means being over the defense of this country
so Americans are entitled to expect someone in that role to have actual
experience.
Hegseth has none.
Again,
this isn't a right-or-left issue. There are Republicans who are
qualified for this post. Hegseth is not one of them. Any sitting
senator on the Armed Services Committee is qualified for the post.
They would know the issues needing to be addressed before they were even sworn into office.
Hegseth
doesn't know the issues, he's never overseen any workforce -- let alone
a workforce as large as the Defense Dept -- and he would put military
readiness at risk as the whole world had to wait for him to learn on the
job and familiarize himself with tasks and concepts that he's honestly
not suited for.
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