Kennedy emphasized that "nothing is going to be off limits" as part of his broader review of public health concerns. He stated that his agency would also examine the effects of pesticides, food additives, microplastics, antidepressants, and electromagnetic waves from cellphones and microwaves.
Kennedy's statements have raised concerns about his commitment to Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana who was initially hesitant to support his nomination due to Kennedy's history of vaccine skepticism.
Cassidy ultimately voted to advance the nomination after Kennedy assured him that he would not alter the federal vaccine schedule. Cassidy has emphasized that the science behind vaccines is clear and that they are essential for preventing disease.
"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Wednesday, February 19, 2025. If you've got the time, we've got a lot of work to do to stop Donald Chump's assault on our nation.
Imagine being a governor in the US sucking up to Convicted Felon Donald Chump and swearing what Chump's doing is wonderful while also announcing you're preparing some form of 'relief' packages for the workers in the state that Chump's fired. Rachel Maddow addressed that last night on MSNBC.
Rachel notes some Chump voters with regrets. They didn't realize he would actually do what he said he would do. Rachel also notes politicians -- like the laughable Senator Susan Collins -- going along with Chump's policies but asking for an exemption from them for their state.
There are no exemptions coming. He can't argue in court that they were legal and fair actions if he exempts Maine and not Georgia. He has to apply these disaster policies across the board. The time to object, Susan Collins, was when he wanted your vote for a confirmation. That was the time to have a spine.
This is going on across the country. These are going to be massive layoffs and unemployment is only going to increase. If you fell for his lie about he'd lower grocery prices on day one because you were struggling economically? You think it's going to be any easier in the coming months, now that grocery prices have gone up, as you face a layoff at the government office you work, the university you work at, etc and suddenly you're on welfare?
If you're a Republican, you need to be calling this out. If you're a Democrat represented in the Senate by one or two Republicans, don't bury your head in the sand. Let your Republican senators hear from you. They are supposed to represent you -- regardless of party i.d. though you don't need to tell them your party i.d. -- and they're not doing their job.
They need to know that you're watching and you're objecting.
Polling already demonstrates that more Americans disapprove of Chump's actions than approve. That message needs to be sent to every US senator.
Even a useless idiot like Glenn Youngkin needs to hear it. Unless the laws changed, maybe it has, he can't run for re-election. If this is where he chooses to end his political career, great, the people of Virginia will be better off. But if he's eyeing a Senate run or a presidential run, grasping just how unpopular he's becoming and just how weak he looks might motivate him to stop kissing Chump's ass.
Might not.
But, if you're active right now, you need to be contacting your senators. The Senate has 100 members. 53 of those are Republicans. You want to reign in Chump? We need to peel off some support and the way we do that is making it very clear to Republican senators that we object and that they need to find their spines.
A nut job like Junior should never have been put in charge of Health and Human Services -- and they know that, the Republicans who voted for him. They need to be put on notice, they need to know that the voters in their home states saw what they did and that this craven disrespect for We The People and the Constitution is outrageous.
Consider the Republicans in the Senate infants born in January. They try to stand and they fall. It's our job to encourage them to stand upright.
Make them defend everything Chump is doing because they're signing off on it.
Senator Patty Murray (Democrat) is a former Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Her office issued the following:
ICYMI: Senator Murray: Trump Must Reverse Firing of VA Researchers Across the Country, Threatens to Decimate Lifesaving Work on Veterans’ Medical Care, Prosthetics, and More
ICYMI: FACT SHEET: Trump & Elon’s Layoffs Jeopardize Essential Services Americans Rely On, Threaten Critical Agency Objectives Keeping Americans Safe & Healthy
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, joined Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Gary Peters (D-MI) in pressing Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins to protect veterans, their families, and VA staff from unprecedented access to sensitive information by Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). According to a recent report by Military.com, DOGE employees accessed VA computer systems at the Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“We understand that personnel reporting to Mr. Musk have recently visited VA facilities,” wrote the senators to Secretary Collins. “Senators, veterans, and members of the public have serious concerns regarding Mr. Musk’s extraordinary and unprecedented activities and the lack of transparency surrounding them, including his potential access to and handling of sensitive or personal information.”
“Accordingly, we seek specific information regarding VA’s engagement with Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency,” they continued.
Senator Murray and her colleagues requested a list of DOGE personnel who have visited VA facilities, the systems they accessed, and whether veteran data—including medical and service records—may have been viewed, copied, or transferred. They also requested that Secretary Collins reveal the nature of the agreement under which DOGE personnel are governed by in their engagement with the VA.
Senator Murray has spoken out forcefully against President Trump and Elon Musk’s mass firing of VA employees across the country who are in the middle of critical research on topics including mental health, alcohol and opioid withdrawal, cancer treatments, burn pit exposure, prosthetics, diabetic ulcers, and more. Earlier this month, Senator Murray sounded the alarm over reports of DOGE at the VA and voted against Collins’s nomination to be VA Secretary, making clear that the Trump administration’s lawlessness was putting our national security and our veterans at risk. Alongside 25 of her colleagues, Murray sent another letter earlier this month to Secretary Collins, demanding that he deny and sever Musk and DOGE’s access to any VA or other government system with information about veterans, and to delete any veterans’ information in their possession.
The full text of the senators’ letter to Secretary Collins can be found here.
###
We need to hold Chump and the Republicans backing his awful agenda responsible.
They're not the only ones we need to hold responsible. By all means, contact your Dem representatives in Congress. Stiffen their spines. Demand action.
But that's not what I'm talking about.
"Our job."
Refers to those who are not on vacation. Betty's "Quit trying to make it happen, Black women are not forgiving Tlaib" went up last night. Betty's not on vacation. If she needed to take time though, she should. Some people do. And it may be weeks, months or years. I don't blame you and you take every minute you need.
I get it.
We were stabbed in the back and disrespected. And we wrongly thought that people like Amy Goodman and Kyle Kuliniski and Katrina vanden Heuverl and Sam Seder and so many more 'friends' would come to our defense.
They didn't.
Because they weren't our friends. We were Black women who were Democrats.
They are Democratic Socialists.
The online attacks that we faced? Never noted by them to this day.
Because they agreed with those attacks. Uncomitted was a DSA 'movement.' They launched it and they wanted to do real harm. That's why Katrina asked THE NATION interns to write an editorial (I've harmed one offline with regards to the job market and made it clear that information on this is the only thing that's going to allow employment in the future the intern wanted) advocating that people not vote for Kamala. Katrina knows THE NATION needs donors to survive and that most DSAers don't have the kind of money THE NATION needs. So she hid behind the interns. She asked them to write the editorial and then she published it -- you remember an intern editorial on an election before? nope -- and popularized it on Twitter (because racists like Katrina don't want to come to BLUESKY) and could pretend that her hands -- and the hands of the Marxist she put in charge of the magazine -- were clean. Sadly for her, the donor class has not fallen for her b.s. Especially not now when I've got a recording of the intern outlining just what Katrina did behind the scenes. Oh, and Katrina, as I've said here before, I do know where your mom hid it. That thing you're still so desperate to find. What you ransacked her apartment for after she jumped off her balcony. I know. And I'm never telling you where it is.
Poor Katrina, even her own mother didn't trust her. Trusted me though -- enough to share just how embarrassing Katrina truly is.
But we saw what happened.
We turned out for everyone, election after election. We got Socialists like Laura Flanders giving us empty words of praise for that.
But when we had the chance to save democracy by election a qualified Black woman, the Socialists instead worked to defeat her. Again, that's why I don't believe the 'left' on reparations. I think it's just something Socialists advocate for but won't really do. If they really felt we were owed reparations, then the first place to start would have been voting for the Black woman and not the racist convicted felon.
It was a shock and it was a betrayal. I understand that. And the attacks on us were even worse -- and that's why Sam Seder, for example, won't cover those attacks, even now. They instead want to force Socialist Rashida Tlaib down our throats.
She, they insist, had to support "her people."
Did I miss something?
Bitch, wasn't born in this country?
She did what she did and it was a betrayal and, as Betty notes, we're not forgiving her.
She worked to elect Donald Chump.
That's not big deal to DSA-ers.
And that's why you need to be stopped.
Look around at the chaos you caused. I get it, you want to tear down the system. So this probably feels like a 'win' to you still.
It's not a win for the American people and that's why the DSA can't even get to 100,000 members and tries to hide in our party, the Democratic Party. Those days are over.
If we'd worked together, we could have continued.
But DSA -- call them Justice Democrats, they have so many names like a hooker who gets busted repeatedly. DSA didn't want to work with us. They wanted to put Chump in the White House.
Well they got what they wanted and they're not going to hide in our midst anymore.
If you're late to the party, I've not castigated the SEP or the PSL. Those are Socialists. Those are out and proud Socialists who organize and build and try to impact. DSA tricks and stays in a closet. Kyle knew calling his DSA slate of candidates -- his and Cenk's -- Justice Socialists wouldn't have gotten anyone elected. So he came up with the lie of Justice Democrats.
Your days of hiding are over.
The whole country is suffering now because of you. The American people had a right to know what you truly were. Now that you have put Chump into office, the American people have a right for you to come with a warning label.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is back in front of the camera with a message from President Donald Trump.
Noem announced Monday the launch of a multimillion-dollar ad blitz threatening consequences for illegal entry into the United States.
“Let me deliver a message from President Trump to the world,” Noem says in an ad she posted on X. “If you are considering entering America illegally, don’t even think about it.”
A national security expert tore into a Republican senator for his apparent failure to exercise due diligence in vetting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's finances during his confirmation hearing.
On Monday, Hegseth announced on the X social media platform that the IRS opened an audit into his tax returns, claiming that he owes more than $33,000.
They're not criticizing the existence of DOGE or decrying Elon Musk as an "unelected bureaucrat," as Democrats have.
In fact, they've each taken pains to emphasize their support for making the government work more efficiently as they've spoken up.
Yet in a stream of recent social media posts, interviews, and public statements, a growing number of Republicans have begun to criticize aspects of DOGE's work, saying that the cuts are too rapid and indiscriminate or warning that their particular states will suffer as a result.
In a social media post on Saturday, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy suggested his state would suffer if new hires at the Federal Bureau of Investigation were terminated.
"I am all for efficiency and ultimately downsizing the federal government, but firing large numbers of new FBI agents is not the way to achieve this," Cassidy wrote. "Louisiana specifically benefits from newly hired FBI agents. We need to add to our law enforcement, not take away."
His prison post prompted Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, to write to Musk, “Throwing journalists in jail over their reporting is what authoritarian governments do in countries like China, Russia, and Iran. Here in the US, you’ll have to settle for using your enormous public platform to criticize the media. As you’ve been doing. You know, counterspeech.”
This is not the first time Musk has encouraged prosecutions of people he dislikes. He has publicly hoped for criminal action against companies that “boycotted” X and asserted that a nonprofit group “should be prosecuted for interference in US elections by a foreign entity.”
Those posts last year led to an initial round of criticism that he wasn’t living up to his “free speech absolutist” posture.
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have come under similar scrutiny. Last month Trump signed several executive orders policing language at the same time he signed one titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.”
“Conservatives who just moments ago abhorred any form of censorship are now 100% chill with the government banning words,” USA Today national columnist Rex Huppke wrote last weekend.
In a high-profile speech in Munich, Germany last week, Vance accused European allies of censoring free speech at roughly the same time the Trump administration was banning The Associated Press from attending Trump Q&As and photo ops.
When progressive commentator Mehdi Hasan pointed this out on Monday, Vance replied on X; called Hasan a “dummy”; and said “I think there’s a difference between not giving a reporter a seat in the WH press briefing room and jailing people for dissenting views. The latter is a threat to free speech, the former is not. Hope that helps!”
Hasan pointed out that Musk “just called for a ‘long prison sentence’ for CBS journalists, for edits he didn’t like. Did you not get the memo?” Vance did not engage further.
Here's Medhi Hasan addressing the issue.
We'll wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
32 Democratic Senators Demand Trump Reject GOP Budget Proposals
“Republican budget plans do not focus on lowering costs, and in fact will raise costs for American families by forcing them to pay more for groceries, health care, education, and caregiving.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on the Budget Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), led Democratic senators in writing to President Donald Trump, demanding that he reject Congressional Republicans’ legislative plans to increase the cost of living for Americans after pledging to lower costs on “Day One” of his presidency. In total, 32 senators—over two-thirds of the Democratic caucus—signed the letter.
Last week, Congressional Republicans approved their 2025 budget proposals for floor consideration, their blueprints for a large legislative package that they hope to pass in the coming months.
“But the Republican budget plans do not focus on lowering costs, and in fact will raise costs for American families by forcing them to pay more for groceries, health care, education, and caregiving,” wrote the senators.
The senators explained that the Republicans’ budget plans will:
- Raise food costs: The Republican budget plans tee up extensive cuts to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and Meals on Wheels.
- Raise health care costs: The Republican budget plans also pave the way for 15 Republican proposals to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act coverage. These Republican cuts would raise health care costs for over 160 million Americans.
- Raise education costs: The Republican budget plans set them up to pass cuts to programs that help families afford college, including Pell Grants and income-driven repayment plans, and tax scholarships for hard-working students.
- Raise caregiving costs: The Republican budget plans pave the way to cutting programs that help families care for kids, people with disabilities, and aging loved ones. Cuts to these essential programs will make it impossible for many working families to live and work with dignity.
“If Congressional Republicans are successful at passing their proposals, it will mean that families will pay more for food, healthcare, education, and caregiving – while Republicans plot more tax cuts for billionaires,” concluded the senators. “We urge you to stand by the promises you made to the American people about lowering costs, including by committing not to sign any legislation that raises their costs.”
The letter is also signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Mark Kelly (D-Az.), Peter Welch (D-Maine), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ruben Gallego (D-Az.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J).
###
The following sites updated:
-
-
-
-
-
The Big Disgrace Donald Chump11 hours ago
-
-
-
Tacky Donald Chump is also a criminal11 hours ago
-
-
Miss Sassy bombs overseas11 hours ago
-
-
-
He'll kill us all if he's able11 hours ago
-
-
Making Microbes Great Again1 day ago
