My personal favorite was:
It is a pity that the book is so full of errors and gross misrepresentations that nothing the author says can be taken as true unless known for certain to be so by the reader …
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I will bet dollars to donuts that if RFK Jr. gets a government position, he will also push the cure-all benefits of fenbendazole, yet another anti-parasitic medication.
I learned of its alleged wonderdrug cancer treatment status when an acquaintance heard that I had a pancreatic tumor. He said, “You should be taking fenbendazole!” I replied, “I’ve heard of it but my tumor is non-cancerous in any case.” He said, “Doesn’t matter! It cures all sorts of things.” That is what fascinates me most is that NOT only are various quack treatments supposedly “absolutely effective”, they also “cure” virtually everything you might have. It is like the medicine show tonics of the Old West. I marvel that so many people think that one substance can cure virtually everything—and also serve as a prophylactic treatment as well. What causes this phenomenon? It is like a disease that RFK Jr. and many others have caught.
Just for kicks I Googled fenbendazole and found this article:
I’m not at all trained in cancer treatment but even I immediately spotted all sorts of red flags in that tome.
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So ehh @Giltil, RFK Jr. was spouting nonsense on vaccines. Are you morally and intellectually capable of admitting that?
Meanwhile, if RFK Jr., Matt Gaetz, and Kristy Noem all get their appointments approved, is there any doubt that this nation will enter into a late night comedian’s monologue paradise?
(Yes, I’m trying very very hard to find a silver lining around a very dark cloud.)
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What nonsense are you talking about precisely ?
Otariine alert. Please exit the beach in a calm and orderly manner.
Of course, we will continue to welcome posts intended for educational purposes only. (Young people, please do not attempt these stunts at home. We are trained professionals.)
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Literally all his claims in your first post of course. All have been shown false in this thread.
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These people are liars. All liars. They hide behind a veneer of civility, reason, faith, safety concerns, and principles. But they L I E through their teeth. They just want tax cuts for the rich, and a brainwashed religious public to exploit by scaring them with immigrants, gays, trans, and communist feminists.
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I agree that it’s something that should be monitored and reported on, especially because there is big money involved. It’s not as simple as Big Pharma owning the FDA, because the pharma companies are in fierce competition with one another. If one company somehow manages to get an unfair advantage from the FDA, the other companies are going to scream bloody murder about it.
In my experience I have seen a small company with a promising smoking cessation product get edged out by a larger company, who may have pushed the FDA to require more thorough clinical trial testing the small company could not afford. One one hand this is anti-competitive, which is unfair. OTOH there is a unstated “bar” that any new treatments must pass; they must show sufficient promise to attract sufficient funding for the required testing. Bringing a new drug to market is enormously expensive, and without some protection from the FDA many promising treatments would simply be abandoned as too much risk for too little return.
It’s not a perfect system, but it exists for good reasons, and to the greater benefit to all IMO. If it’s conflict of interest that worries you, I suggest taking a hard look at the medical insurance industry in the US.
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There may actually be some silver lining. The worst scenario is that The Orange Peril appoints competent evil people. Incompetent evil people may actually do less harm. I suspect that Gaetz, if he does become AG, will have almost no ability to control the Justice Department, where every last lawyer on staff is smarter than he is.
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And I have been assuming that someone like Gaetz, with virtually no meaningful litigation experience, whether he personally goes into the courtroom or (more likely, obviously) delegates another equally inexperienced T-loyalist, will totally fail at defending White House policies/executive-orders that are challenged in court. In that case, an incompetent A.G. may be an unintentional check on Presidential power.
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The AG very rarely goes into a courtroom (though John Mitchell had some unpleasant times there), but yes, Gaetz probably has minimal experience with litigation. The AG’s job is extremely broad: the federal government has all kinds of civil and criminal work to do, and nobody who becomes AG knows the whole scope of it in any depth. But Gaetz will be a rather extreme case, assuming he’s confirmed. He probably wouldn’t be any good at getting a parking ticket reversed, and he’ll be in charge of the people who are doing some highly complex litigation.
It sort of reminds me of the DI. The DI has had lawyers associated with it, few of whom had any meaningful experience. It hasn’t made them less evil, but it has made them less effective.
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Initially I thought these crazy appointments like Matt Gaetz would give me a bonanza of cartoon comedy ideas. But the jokes are so obvious that I find that all of the comedy teams who write for the late night talk show monologues are coming up with virtually identical jokes. Example: I thought it would make a great joke to have a caption something like this: “Matt Gaetz thinks a recess appointment is a really great date during the middle of a school day.” Unfortunately, I came across that same joke in two other contexts within 24 hours.
It really brings to life the old maxim: “Some jokes write themselves.” (And some jokes get appointed to Trump’s cabinet.)
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Sadly, while it is true that some jokes write themselves, some jokes wrong others. But I will place such faith as I have in the incompetence of those jokes and jokers.
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Just minutes ago:
Trump selects Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, as health secretary
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/14/trump-administration-transition/
So, what’s the worm? Deputy Health Secretary?
And as yet another sign of his cognitive decline, Martha Stewart is the new Secretary of the Interior.
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Not likely. I heard that Kennedy slept on his side one night and there was a falling out.
So…
If the RFKs of the world have their way and public health indicators go south (as they surely will if unproven and dubious ideas are pursued), who will then be blamed?
It will either be an opportunity to vindicate that which he rails against, or a dystopian nightmare of conspiracy theories.
I am going to hope for the former.
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