Times are tough, but we are tougher
December 14, 2024
This newsletter is intended to help us slide into the weekend in hopes of a brief respite.
I will hold a Substack Live session at 8:30 a.m. PST / 11:30 a.m. EST on Saturday, December 14, 2024. To join me, you will need the Substack App on your phone or tablet. There is no link to the live-streaming. When I go live on Saturday, you will receive a notification in the App and via email.
Update on nominations
Robert Kennedy is using anti-polio vaccine advocate to help staff HHS
The New York Times has reported that Robert Kennedy Jr. is using a private attorney to interview candidates for positions at the Department of Health and Human Services. That attorney, Aaron Siri, has filed a petition with the FDA seeking revocation of approval for the polio vaccine. See NYTimes, Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine. (Gift article accessible to all.)
Per the Times, “Siri is also seeking a pause in the federal government approval for vaccines designed to prevent or mitigate tetanus, diphtheria, polio and hepatitis A and B.”
Per the Times, Siri is helping “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration.”
Siri is an attorney specializing in vaccine lawsuits and filed the petition to revoke approval for the polio vaccine on behalf of a client. Siri also represented Robert Kennedy Jr. during his presidential campaign.
Per the NYTimes,
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.
There is no chance that Robert Kennedy Jr. or Aaron Siri will succeed in revoking FDA approval for the polio vaccine. It is possible, however, that they may disrupt federal approval for other vaccines.
The real danger presented by Kennedy’s use of Siri to help pick federal officials is that the pair of vaccine skeptics will fill HHS with anti-vaxxers who will impede or delay approval of new vaccines—like the two Covid vaccines that saved hundreds of thousands of lives during the Covid pandemic.
But Kennedy may have gone too far in his vaccine denialism for Senator Mitch McConnell, who is a victim of childhood polio, which caused permanent disabilities.
McConnell issued a statement that said, in part,
The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease. Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed – they’re dangerous.
Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.
McConnell’s statement is notable because it warns against “appearance of association with efforts” to undermine the public’s confidence in the polio vaccine. A reasonable interpretation of McConnell’s statement is that Kennedy must cut off his association with Aaron Siri or lose McConnell’s support for Kennedy’s nomination—which could potentially defeat the nomination.
So, that’s the “inside-Washington political take” on Kennedy using a polio anti-vaxxer to help staff the Department of Health and Human Services. But in the real world—where Kennedy’s affiliation with anti-polio vaccine efforts could kill and disable millions of people—Kennedy’s actions could only be described as depraved lunacy.
Sadly, Trump's “Time Magazine Person of the Year” interview included statements by Trump that suggested he was open to “testing” and “canceling” vaccines under Robert Kennedy’s tenure at HHS. See Axios, Trump says "big discussion" over childhood vaccine programs is coming.
It is rare that a cabinet nominee is utterly unqualified. It is rarer still that a cabinet nominee is so unqualified as to represent a imminent threat to the safety and well-being of Americans. And it has never happened in the history of our nation that at least a half dozen nominees exceed the threshold of “imminent threat.”
And yet, somehow, the GOP has lulled Washington into a state of complacency and “politics as usual” reporting over Trump's dangerous nominees.
If the policies of Robert Kennedy Jr. and Aaron Siri are adopted by the federal government, Americans will die of infectious diseases that have been effectively eradicated or controlled by vaccines that are safe and effective.
The fact that the nomination of Robert Kennedy Jr. is still under discussion is unfathomable. The GOP has surrendered to mass delusion. We must not relent in our efforts to demand that our Senators reject Kennedy’s nomination.
Trump nominates Kari Lake to lead Voice of America
Voice of America is an international radio service run by the US government to help counter propaganda from other countries and to spread democratic ideals throughout the world. VOA broadcasts in 48 languages and reaches over 325 million regularly. According to its website, it seeks to tell the truth by protecting “the ability of our journalists to develop content that reflects the highest professional standards of journalism, free of political interference.”
Earlier this week, Trump nominated election denier and conspiracy theorist Kari Lake to become the new Director of the Voice of America.
Given that VOA’s mission involves telling the truth about America and foreign powers, appointing someone who has actively tried to deny the truth about American politics for four years is a very bad idea. See Forbes, Here’s Why Kari Lake’s Nomination As Voice Of America Director Is Raising Alarms.
But getting Kari Lake appointed as a director is not a simple task. Per Brian Stelter at CNN,
The Trump-era purge efforts led Congress to institute reforms. A bipartisan group called the International Broadcasting Advisory Board now works with the CEO of the U.S. Agency of Global Media. By law, the head of VOA can only be “appointed or removed” by a majority vote of the board.
So, it remains to be seen whether Trump will succeed in placing Kari Lake as Director of VOA. But consistent with Trump's other nominations, she is the antithesis of the agency she has been nominated to lead.
Update on the Billionaire Boys Club a.k.a Trump Fanboy Club
Tim Cook of Apple and Sam Altman of Open AI have joined the list of white male billionaires lining up to kiss the ring and genuflect before Trump at Mar-a-Lago. See Bloomberg, Trump to Dine With Apple’s Tim Cook at Mar-A-Lago Friday, and NYTimes, Trump Transition: OpenAI Chief Joins Other Tech Firms in Donating to Inauguration.
GOP fails to appoint any woman to lead any House committee
The House GOP has appointed only males—almost exclusively white males—to lead the seventeen committees that run the House. See ABC News, No women will lead House committees for first time in 2 decades.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson addressed the absence of women in leadership roles in the House by saying,
We value those voices. And everybody has an equal say at the table. These are thoughtful elections. We have an embarrassment of riches, frankly.
Mike Johnson managed to squeeze several lies into his short statement. It is not true that “everybody has an equal say at the table.” Committee chairs set the agenda and control the calendar; they can unilaterally prevent legislation from moving forward, even if every woman on the committee wishes otherwise.
Nor is it true that the GOP has “an embarrassment of riches” that precluded appointing qualified Republican women. Committee chairs announced by Johnson include coup plotter Jim Jordan (Judiciary) and the laughably incompetent James Comer (Oversight).
The GOP war on women
Speaking of the GOP war on women, The Guardian is reporting that GOP members of Congress are targeting subsidies that primarily benefit women. See The Guardian, Republicans take aim at subsidies that help tens of millions of women.
And Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against a New York physician who prescribed and mailed mifepristone pills to a woman in Texas. New York passed a law that prohibits New York from cooperating with prosecutions and lawsuits by other states that conflict with New York’s abortion protections. See Chris Geidner on Substack, Texas A.G. Paxton sues New York doctor over medication abortion allegations.
Concluding Thoughts
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I spoke to the Democrats of Red Rock (Sedona) earlier this week. As I spoke, I found myself saying, “This is more difficult than anyone expected, including me.”
For example, in late October, Trump distanced himself from Robert Kennedy Jr., recognizing that his dangerous ideas were a liability to the campaign. Today, Kennedy has a reasonable chance of being confirmed. Elon Musk is amplifying Kennedy’s anti-vaccine, anti-science theories on Twitter and pouring money into negative advertising attacking GOP Senators who are considering voting against Kennedy. Did not see that coming.
The situation is worse, in part, because Musk’s bottomless pockets are open to Trump and because the billionaire class has decided to protect their billions rather than the democracy that allowed their fortunes to spring into existence. It is reminiscent of pre-WWII America, in which the titans of industry either supported Hitler or argued that the US should remain isolated from world affairs.
It also reminds me of the beginning of Trump's first administration. Recall that he formed a “business round table” that attracted leaders from every major business in America. The round table met once or twice—and then Trump imposed his ban on travel from majority Muslim countries. The business leaders fled the “round table” as quickly as possible—largely because their employees rose in revolt within corporations, law firms, accounting firms, consulting firms, and banks.
In the early days of 2017, Trump was the darling and patron of business leaders until he became toxic. His agenda in 2025 is worse than in 2017. Bezos, Zuckerberg, Cook, and Altman may think it is all fun and games until—as in 1939—the invasion of Poland disabused everyone of the notion that Hitler was a harmless crank. As in 2017, Trump will do something that will make it no longer “cool” for Tim Cook of Apple to “dine with Trump on the patio at Mar-a-Lago.”
The billionaire class lives under the illusion that their money insulates them from negative public reaction. They are wrong, as 2017 demonstrated. Bezos, Zuckerberg, Cook, and Altman may think Trump's tough talk is performative politics. But when he cages his first family in a concentration camp euphemistically called a “detention facility,” they will have nowhere to run from the wave of public opinion that will mark them with the same badge of shame worn today by Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh.
So, yes, it is worse than I expected. But I firmly believe that the wave of support from business and billionaires seeking to curry favor with Trump is a self-limiting disease that will flare and subside when Trump tries to implement his agenda.
Times are tough, but we are tougher. We need only outlast Trump to defeat him in the long run. But we can defeat him earlier at the ballot box in 2026 by removing his control of Congress. That’s the plan. Let’s do it!
Talk to you tomorrow! Remember, I will be on a Substack Live stream at 8:30 a.m PST / 11:30 a.m. EST on Saturday to chat with readers. (The live stream is open to anyone with the Substack app on their phone.)
Daily Dose of Perspective
The skies cleared over LA on Friday evening, but the Moon is high in the sky during the early evening. That limits “targets” to the portion of the sky not flooded with moonlight. I chose the always popular Eastern Veil Nebula as my target on Friday night because it was opposite the Moon—and therefore in the darkest part of the sky.
The Eastern Veil Nebula is a remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. The nebula is 2,400 light years from Earth and is about six times the apparent size of the Moon in the night sky.
Robert, I would be careful with "reasonable interpretations" of McConnell’s statements. Remember this one after Jan 6: “There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the event of that day.”
Robert, I have a macabre sense of humor. Tonight I watched a video about human composting when someone dies. The process is called “terramation” and it appeals to me. So why am I looking into this? I want to be a part of feeding our planet’s soil. I do not want to be buried in a pine box and set way down in the ground. If I am lucky, my family won’t be facing that for a long time but with the havoc and chaos DJT and Company will bring, who knows what time remains? Things will get pretty ugly and our hearts will be torn open. It will only get better if we hold proverbial guns to the heads of the MAGA Repubs and billionaires and demand decency along with immediate change. All bets are off.
I want to also say that DJT isn’t headed for dementia as people think. He is naturally mean and cruel. We should be eternally grateful for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for giving us respite between the insanity of two DJT terms!