As long as vaccines remain an option for parents and covered by insurance (even they understand the cost/benefit of vaccines over hospitalization) I say let RFK do what he wants.
I know it has a negative effect on public health but a side effect will be culling the genetic herd of future children bred and raised by idiots. Lack of vaccines made the Spanish Flu an equal opportunity killer. Today refusing vaccines makes the consequences more selective.
As Jimmy Buffett sang: "Evolution can be mean/there ain't no dumb ass vaccine."
Sarah was just on MSNBC and she was on fire. Saying the biggest problem we have now is that nobody on the good side (mainly Ds) aren't pushing back against the Orange Snake's lies and deceptions while the R MAGAs were constantly repeating the same lies. And low info voters, of course, believed the lies because there was no push back against McCarthy, etc.
Why doesn't Hegsith quit drinking now? Sounds like a guy with a big problem. If you sees alcohol as a problem, you quit. You don't say I'll quit if I get what I want.
Everything about Trump and MAGA is irony on steroids, and this is just one more example.
The rightwing, in particular MAGA, often complain about money in politics and how it corrupts. Taking away political leaders acting in the best interest of the people, but rather their political careers.
Yet, they seem to have no problem with one of America's oligarchs, and richest person in the world, using his money to get congress to bend to his will.
They have no problem with a Cabinet that is nearly 100% billionaires as well. They really think that those people have a clue what it means to live paycheck to paycheck.
I guess the question about whether congressional Democrats should help the Republicans govern just got answered with a resounding “Hell No” by the Republicans. It seems like one party rule is going to be awesome. I suppose Elon’s contracts will still get funding. Tough break for Lockheed and Boeing.
Instead of lamenting that Congressional Republicans are unwilling to face a primary, why not advocate turning the threat of a primary into a paper tiger? Counting Democratic voters' preferences among the Republicans would achieve that end. However, it has to be actually Counting those preferences, not hypothetically doing so, but disregarding them from anyone trying to get a Democrat elected. The way to do so is to enact pairwise-rated voting in which each candidate runs head-to-head against all other candidates based on each voter rating each candidate.
Advocating an action to turn the primaries into a paper tiger requires looking at who has an interest in defanging the forces that cause elected Republicans to worry more about tweets from Donald Trump or Elon Musk than about their Democratic constituents. That would be Democrats, who have trifectas in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Colorado, and California, whose delegations have a combined number of Republicans greater than 20. In those states, all the Democrats need to enact what would turn the primaries into a paper tiger, freeing over 20 Republican Congress members to disregard the MAGA base, is political will.
Sooner rather than later, Trump will put distance between himself and Musk, if not dispatch him entirely.
Yes, the Grifter-in-Chief loves Musk's money...but there's no way Trump's ego will continue to allow Musk having so much influence with Congress and legislation.
“Kennedy …. has spent years arguing that the vaccines currently on the market are harming more people than they help. And he’s actively campaigning against their continued use, pending a brand-new regimen of placebo-controlled testing.”
Ethical conduct of placebo-controlled trials requires a question for which the present state of knowledge is characterized by ‘equipoise’ (I.e., a degree uncertainty about efficacy or safety that cannot be resolved without the use of placebo-controls). When a ‘treatment’ is already known to be safe and effective, a state of equipoise is no longer present, and generally it would no longer be ethical to deny it to trial participants (e.g. randomizing some substantial number to receive a placebo).
Please tell me why I am optimistic today? I just am. Let the sh!tshow begin and land fast. I think the American pubic will revolt....American's do not like sacrifices. Maybe the fever will break faster. Anyway...this is how I feel today. Jan. 3rd can't come fast enough for me. Let them own everything. They are incompetent boobs. Plus, Musk is proving his replaceability everyday, isn't he the CEO of a million companies and he is cosplaying government guru, proving he doesn't really work.
But this is just today, tomorrow perhaps a whole other set of 'feelings'. But today, I am optimistic, I am not fearful, I am not shocked, I am not clutching my pearls. However, I will remain alarmed (stolen from a wise fellow-Bulwark member, "not shocked, but alarmed")
I'm still putting my money on the Khodorkovsky Treatment. Sharing the spotlight, let alone the credit, is not something the Next Occupant of the White House cares to do.
Rand is the master at finding niches where he can wield a little bit of temporary power and generate some news about himself. Then he goes back in his cave for another 6 months.
Could someone please enlighten me as to where RFK Jr. came up with "72" as the number of "childhood vaccines" forced upon/into our children? From my reading (googling) in reference to his"factoid," I can only assume it was from far, far up in the nether reaches of his ass, which must be somewhere north of his amygdala (Google it). I, along with hundreds of thousands (millions, really) of my fellow military enlistees and draftees received vaccines for practically every disease known to man, and for which vaccines had been developed, and the total number was no fucking where near 6 dozen. Yellow fever, anyone. Yup, I got that one. Cholera? Yup. Smallpox? Again, yup. Plague? Uh-huh. How about typhoid? (Raising my hand here,) None of those five are given routinely to anyone in this day and age, with the exception of military personnel being assigned areas where these disease are, or were at one time, endemic. It's highly unlikely you are going to take your little ones to those places, is it not. In fact, this CDC web page - https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/site.html#hcp - lists a total of 34 currently available vaccines (with a couple of them covering the same diseases, differing in whether the active agent is live/attenuated or inactivated [polio] or they are combination vaccines where the number of different diseases covered is two or three. Kennedy's family has pretty much disowned him. It's time for the parents of America's children to do the same, and to make their position absolutely, perfectly clear to their Republican members of the House.
What? You think he's making things up? Who'd've thought?! When they start pulling these vaccines out of circulation, we'll all pay the price, especially the children. So drink that raw milk and prepare for the consequences.
RFK jr calling for vaccines to be tested is a great idea— so great that it already is standard practice!
Before my retirement, I taught microbiology to undergraduates, most of whom were aiming for med school, PA school, etc. I was fortunate to have data from a clinical trial of a vaccine against rotavirus to share with the students. For example, of 68,000 infants in that study, the percentages of infants who developed fever, vomiting, or diarrhea were 43, 13.4, and 19.1 in the placebo group, compared to 40.9, 12.8 and 19.7 in the vaccine-treated group, respectively; thus, safety data indicated no difference between the groups. Meanwhile, the vaccinated babies suffered just 19 cases of gastrointestinal illness severe enough to warrant a hospital visit, compared to 382 severe cases in the placebo group (out of 34,000 babies in each group). Because even a study with 34,000 vaccinated will miss rare side effects, our government maintains a system called Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting system (VAERS, https://vaers.hhs.gov/ ) to investigate potential problems with approved vaccines. VAERS is really cool, our government working at it best— no doubt old crazy Worm-brain will be looking to shut that down, too (assuming Pres. Elon doesn’t beat him to it.)
It is a great tool and allows for researchers to check things out. I remember being angered at anti-covid vaxxers using it to support their view that the covid vaccine was deadly/dangerous without, of course, explaining what the purpose of VAERS was. Misinformation/disinformation at its best.
As long as vaccines remain an option for parents and covered by insurance (even they understand the cost/benefit of vaccines over hospitalization) I say let RFK do what he wants.
I know it has a negative effect on public health but a side effect will be culling the genetic herd of future children bred and raised by idiots. Lack of vaccines made the Spanish Flu an equal opportunity killer. Today refusing vaccines makes the consequences more selective.
As Jimmy Buffett sang: "Evolution can be mean/there ain't no dumb ass vaccine."
There is no world where I would want RFK Jr being in charge of public health -- not in policy, opinion or budget.
The guy is a wacko. And sold his dad's name in order to play nice with trump. Just a horrible human being.
Sarah was just on MSNBC and she was on fire. Saying the biggest problem we have now is that nobody on the good side (mainly Ds) aren't pushing back against the Orange Snake's lies and deceptions while the R MAGAs were constantly repeating the same lies. And low info voters, of course, believed the lies because there was no push back against McCarthy, etc.
Does anyone still follow MSNBC?
Jebus, this country is really falling apart.
Kinda' like a Cybertruck ...
Made of stainless stupid!
Rand Paul is floating the idea of Musk as Speaker of the House.
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/12/19/congress/speaker-musk-00195302
Why doesn't Hegsith quit drinking now? Sounds like a guy with a big problem. If you sees alcohol as a problem, you quit. You don't say I'll quit if I get what I want.
Everything about Trump and MAGA is irony on steroids, and this is just one more example.
The rightwing, in particular MAGA, often complain about money in politics and how it corrupts. Taking away political leaders acting in the best interest of the people, but rather their political careers.
Yet, they seem to have no problem with one of America's oligarchs, and richest person in the world, using his money to get congress to bend to his will.
Give me a fuckin' break!
Populist theatrics + oligarchic policy & personnel.
Christian nationalism + conspicuous moral impunity.
"Restoring the constitutional republic" + advocating an imperial presidency without restraint of law.
Make America Great Again + shredding alliances & putting up walls.
"Saving Western civilization" + siding with Eurasian autocratic imperialism against the West.
They have no problem with a Cabinet that is nearly 100% billionaires as well. They really think that those people have a clue what it means to live paycheck to paycheck.
I guess the question about whether congressional Democrats should help the Republicans govern just got answered with a resounding “Hell No” by the Republicans. It seems like one party rule is going to be awesome. I suppose Elon’s contracts will still get funding. Tough break for Lockheed and Boeing.
"What do these Republican representatives fear?
Loss of office through primary challenges."
Instead of lamenting that Congressional Republicans are unwilling to face a primary, why not advocate turning the threat of a primary into a paper tiger? Counting Democratic voters' preferences among the Republicans would achieve that end. However, it has to be actually Counting those preferences, not hypothetically doing so, but disregarding them from anyone trying to get a Democrat elected. The way to do so is to enact pairwise-rated voting in which each candidate runs head-to-head against all other candidates based on each voter rating each candidate.
Advocating an action to turn the primaries into a paper tiger requires looking at who has an interest in defanging the forces that cause elected Republicans to worry more about tweets from Donald Trump or Elon Musk than about their Democratic constituents. That would be Democrats, who have trifectas in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Colorado, and California, whose delegations have a combined number of Republicans greater than 20. In those states, all the Democrats need to enact what would turn the primaries into a paper tiger, freeing over 20 Republican Congress members to disregard the MAGA base, is political will.
Prediction:
Sooner rather than later, Trump will put distance between himself and Musk, if not dispatch him entirely.
Yes, the Grifter-in-Chief loves Musk's money...but there's no way Trump's ego will continue to allow Musk having so much influence with Congress and legislation.
“Kennedy …. has spent years arguing that the vaccines currently on the market are harming more people than they help. And he’s actively campaigning against their continued use, pending a brand-new regimen of placebo-controlled testing.”
Ethical conduct of placebo-controlled trials requires a question for which the present state of knowledge is characterized by ‘equipoise’ (I.e., a degree uncertainty about efficacy or safety that cannot be resolved without the use of placebo-controls). When a ‘treatment’ is already known to be safe and effective, a state of equipoise is no longer present, and generally it would no longer be ethical to deny it to trial participants (e.g. randomizing some substantial number to receive a placebo).
Please tell me why I am optimistic today? I just am. Let the sh!tshow begin and land fast. I think the American pubic will revolt....American's do not like sacrifices. Maybe the fever will break faster. Anyway...this is how I feel today. Jan. 3rd can't come fast enough for me. Let them own everything. They are incompetent boobs. Plus, Musk is proving his replaceability everyday, isn't he the CEO of a million companies and he is cosplaying government guru, proving he doesn't really work.
But this is just today, tomorrow perhaps a whole other set of 'feelings'. But today, I am optimistic, I am not fearful, I am not shocked, I am not clutching my pearls. However, I will remain alarmed (stolen from a wise fellow-Bulwark member, "not shocked, but alarmed")
I'm still putting my money on the Khodorkovsky Treatment. Sharing the spotlight, let alone the credit, is not something the Next Occupant of the White House cares to do.
Rand Paul, the quintessential public servant, distinguishes himself once more. By all means, cede your power to the maniac Musk. What could go wrong?
Whenever Paul speaks, I understand why his neighbor beat the shit out of him.
Rand is the master at finding niches where he can wield a little bit of temporary power and generate some news about himself. Then he goes back in his cave for another 6 months.
Could someone please enlighten me as to where RFK Jr. came up with "72" as the number of "childhood vaccines" forced upon/into our children? From my reading (googling) in reference to his"factoid," I can only assume it was from far, far up in the nether reaches of his ass, which must be somewhere north of his amygdala (Google it). I, along with hundreds of thousands (millions, really) of my fellow military enlistees and draftees received vaccines for practically every disease known to man, and for which vaccines had been developed, and the total number was no fucking where near 6 dozen. Yellow fever, anyone. Yup, I got that one. Cholera? Yup. Smallpox? Again, yup. Plague? Uh-huh. How about typhoid? (Raising my hand here,) None of those five are given routinely to anyone in this day and age, with the exception of military personnel being assigned areas where these disease are, or were at one time, endemic. It's highly unlikely you are going to take your little ones to those places, is it not. In fact, this CDC web page - https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/site.html#hcp - lists a total of 34 currently available vaccines (with a couple of them covering the same diseases, differing in whether the active agent is live/attenuated or inactivated [polio] or they are combination vaccines where the number of different diseases covered is two or three. Kennedy's family has pretty much disowned him. It's time for the parents of America's children to do the same, and to make their position absolutely, perfectly clear to their Republican members of the House.
I'm sure it's found on his work-in-progress anti-vax manifesto which is, no doubt, located in same place you suggested he found the number 72.
What? You think he's making things up? Who'd've thought?! When they start pulling these vaccines out of circulation, we'll all pay the price, especially the children. So drink that raw milk and prepare for the consequences.
RFK jr calling for vaccines to be tested is a great idea— so great that it already is standard practice!
Before my retirement, I taught microbiology to undergraduates, most of whom were aiming for med school, PA school, etc. I was fortunate to have data from a clinical trial of a vaccine against rotavirus to share with the students. For example, of 68,000 infants in that study, the percentages of infants who developed fever, vomiting, or diarrhea were 43, 13.4, and 19.1 in the placebo group, compared to 40.9, 12.8 and 19.7 in the vaccine-treated group, respectively; thus, safety data indicated no difference between the groups. Meanwhile, the vaccinated babies suffered just 19 cases of gastrointestinal illness severe enough to warrant a hospital visit, compared to 382 severe cases in the placebo group (out of 34,000 babies in each group). Because even a study with 34,000 vaccinated will miss rare side effects, our government maintains a system called Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting system (VAERS, https://vaers.hhs.gov/ ) to investigate potential problems with approved vaccines. VAERS is really cool, our government working at it best— no doubt old crazy Worm-brain will be looking to shut that down, too (assuming Pres. Elon doesn’t beat him to it.)
It is a great tool and allows for researchers to check things out. I remember being angered at anti-covid vaxxers using it to support their view that the covid vaccine was deadly/dangerous without, of course, explaining what the purpose of VAERS was. Misinformation/disinformation at its best.
I heard the GOP wants to revisit the Flat Earth theory during Trump's term in office as well.