The more we understand Trump and Trumpism the more we realize he's reignited a class war in America. He's on a mission to turn America into an exclusive low tax mecca for the rich, privileged and entitled. All above the law while America's workers toil away to keep our society going; reminiscent of the 18th-19th century's plantation and industrial systems.
The GOOD news is that America is increasingly on to him and the GOP. Trump/MAGA is down 14% in its average approval ratings since Trump's inauguration. That equals 12,000,000 votes out of the 77,000,000 who mistakenly voted for the lying fascist rich boy and are now expressing remorse.
And in case you haven't heard, Trump's drop in popularity is who's fault? Biden if course. Why? Biden let 11 million illegal, criminals into the US forcing Trump to use harsh methods to build a police state to get them deported.
Funny how the GOP Budget numbers work. The $110 Billion the Trump/GOP has devoted to his ICE Gestapo secret police and prison camps is the amount of $s Americans need to refund our ACA healthcare subsidies.
The Constitution is coming for MAGA The people will win in Nov.
It’s his Brown Shirts, readying for the Midterms. Why else would they be hurriedly and secretly leasing “ headquarters” outside metropolitan cities in virtually every state? The perfect suppression: lawless killers in camouflage with big guns outside the polls.
Here is AOC who just got done speaking at the Technical University in Berlin, at a talk open to students at all universities in Berlin. It starts about 19-20 minutes in. She addresses class war and capitalism.
She is speaking truth to power, Trump's power and the entire talk is worth watching. AOC has this audience of over 1000 students and others in Berlin eating out of her hand. We all hunger for truth.
Merrill emphasizes a central aspect of this MAGA destruction of existing systems. Just as the investment in a Gestapo force wrecking peace equals the health care funding cuts the advent of increased contagious disease treatment is sure to increase deficit additions.
RFK,Jr et Al are developing disastrous economic consequences of exponential health emergencies and challenges.
What do you expect from a man who brags that he's not afraid of germs because he used to snort cocaine from toilet seats? We have entered an era of insanity.
I think the same way. So many are saying that MAGA is losing and the First Felon is dropping in approval big time but then the report says 46% disapprove of what he's doing. I don't know what they learned in math class but 46% is less than most. I can't believe it's not less than 10%. Why are so many happy with what is happening to our country?
I'm not sure whether folks are "happy" or simply overwhelmed or oblivious to the damage this jerk is doing. I'm tired of paying taxes so the wealthy don't have to pay their fair share. I spent yesterday afternoon making ICE OUT origami butterflies to be used as part of an installation at NO KINGS III. It was very satisfying to be with a group of ordinary citizens engaged in fighting back against stupidity and greed. Why anyone continues to support Trump and his enablers beats me.
In 1750, only 50% of people in wealthy countries lived to be 20 years old. Now, in wealthy countries, 99.7% of people live past 20 years old. Progress in medical science can't be denied. Sure we should go for walks and eat kale. But to dismiss preventive medical advances is not just naive, it's saying "yes" to untold suffering we can prevent. This is moronic.
I'm a retired Professor of Pathology at UCSD School of Medicine, where I taught Immunology and Cancer Biology. I know of no medical intervention in human history that has given us more years of healthy life than vaccines.
This was an excellent article and should be read by everyone. I consider RFK Jr's stewardship of American health to be a complete disaster.
I would also agree that our commercialized health care system just isn't working for the benefit of the American people. The Scandinavian, tax-funded, "socialized" medical care systems work far better and cost a far less percentage of their countries' GDP than ours. The data are compelling.
Stephen Baird, MD, Professor of Pathology Emeritus, UCSD School of Medicine
I was struck by the stark statistics, in The Atlantic, describing the descrepancy between the wealth of America and the poverty of American health outcomes. We're rich, but our lives are shorter. So let's Make a deal: I'll increase your salary by 50%, but you have to give me 5 years of your life. Deal?"
Overall US longevity began to decrease in 2014 and has not rebounded.
Within that statistic, white men live about 13 years longer than Black men.
And Yale's study of US longevity between 1900 and 2000 reported that in most places in the southeastern United States women's longevity increased only 3 years. That improvement entirely can be attributed to the installation of indoor plumbing and cleaner water. The women saw doctors, almost all men, but the doctors didn't hook them up with modern medicine such as vaccinations, antibiotics, and new standards of reproductive health care.
If we had affordable healthcare like our wealthy counterparts, and we had gun control, and we could get rid of RFK Jr, we would have much better mortality numbers. If Xmas would come twice a year??? 😉
Americans have lived under this messed-up healthcare system for so long that they can't imagine a better one. Trump will always blame everything on Biden, but sooner or later, the chickens will come home to roost. I vote for making that happen sooner.
I’ve read just about everything out there on RFK Jr. I have no trouble stating that this is one of the worst human beings ever. Given every privilege and opportunity not just financial but for love, he chose instead to destroy and harm. Piles of anecdotal evidence shows that he enjoys others’ suffering. There are such people, who will do anything not to suffer themselves. You can call it evil. Caroline Kennedy came close to that when, decorous as she is, pleaded with US senators not to approve him. For Trump to place RFKJr at the head of health services for the country is one of the more perverse of his sick, sadistic actions. For people in power not to point out the evil is pure cowardice.
National health service, public health service, clean air and water, no more tons of antibiotics and anti-fungals dumped on plant crops every year, more and more affordable healthy foods. Little children often say they want to grow up to be organic farmers or organic food inspectors. Laws which keep progressive taxes progressive. Some national parks jointly governed by National Park officials and representatives of tribal governments. More buffalo. More habitat protections for endangered species. Chestnut trees. Bob white quail. Coral reefs. All that nature stuff remains healthy and desirable.
Add a national fast rail passenger system and the beginnings of passenger submarines, no kidding.
My father, a teacher and WWII veteran, had positive TB tests and required chest X-rays periodically at a VA Hospital. I’m sure he had antibiotics since they were available at this time. He was infected but didn’t develop the disease. As a precaution, any employees in schools or in Massachusetts public employment had to have periodic TB testing. I do not know if that standard has changed. My mother had polio just as the sugar cube with vaccine was given to me in school in 1954. In order to receive a marriage license in 1969 a test for syphilis was required. Public Health was important. In 1968 I was isolated due to mumps at age 19, infected by a sick 6 year old, not vaccinated. By 1970 the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella was given to my little daughter. The Kennedy Shriver Center was located on the grounds of The Walter E Fernald State School in Massachusetts. The Kennedy family knew of the horror of rubella infection of pregnant mothers, where an entire building housed many children with blindness and multiple physical disabilities. The Kennedy family also was familiar with autism since many institutions throughout our country had thousands of children having autistic behaviors many before vaccines were invented. These institutions also housed children with disabilities caused by parents with syphilis. The present Kennedy, in charge of our public health has a history of narcotics abuse, has had a parasitic infection, and has promoted eating road kill. I’m not convinced this Kennedy is someone to care for our health. Instead of making our public health systems stronger along with supporting better food nutrition, and exercising, his policies have undermined progress and science throughout this government.
It is relevant that a number of the major "supplement" companies are owned by major pharm companies. So the "competition" is, in practice, lucrative for the same people on both ends. Examples: Nestle owns Solgar, Garden of Life, Nature's Bounty, et al. Bayer owns "one-a-day," Glaxo owns Centrum. Pretty clear pharma invests in "daily vitamins"--that which are used, and relied upon, by the most people. In general, supplements have relatively little FDA oversight whether re manufacturing or claims. Even less under the current, anti-FDA FDA.
What I fear is behind MAHA is population control, especially since abortion is off the table. The elite will always have the money to pursue whatever they need to maintain their health, attain longevity, or pursue the myth of immortality. The rest of us will die of natural or unnatural causes, and the masses of the most vulnerable will clear the way for the privileged few.
Good one. In the dark days of Covid, I listened to an hour-long NPR radio interview with Dr. Peter Hotez, the bow-tied vaccinologist. He said the health supplements industry had been gunning for him for 20 years.
As an R.N., retired now, I always knew that Medicine, Pharma, Hospitals, should not be part of the capitalist system. The "bottom line" always supercedes care. Big scary words like socialism (or mistakenly called communism) convince people not to consider health care as a human right that governments should give their people -- if you're more well, ... you can work, not be a drain on the society you live in. Part of the problem in the U.S., is our ever-abiding ego, that we are the best people, that god has favored us over others. We ignore all the industrialized countries that have gov't health care. Life is not perfect; humans and gov'ts make mistakes -- there will be waiting times, JUST LIKE HERE, but weighing the benefits, we should go for Medicare-for-All, or some such plan. It's not too late, ... if we give money a lessor role in what's important in life. That's up to the repubs, who emphasize corporations over people.
The cynical side of me wonders if Kennedy is truly as dumb as he often appears, or if he is deliberately lying about evidence-based medicine for the purpose of creating sick people who will then seek “answers” from the wellness industry. He certainly has a financial stake in this. Not once have I believed he gives a damn about the people he is supposed to be serving. Not once.
What a fine essay, Prof. Silverstein! I enjoyed it very much. About 20 years ago I read an obituary in the local newspaper for an 8-month-old girl who died of measles because she was too young to be vaccinated. The parents begged other parents to have their older children vaccinated for the protection of both their children as well as those under the age of 12 months. I've never forgotten her, who by now would be about 20 years old. Occasionally I still ask myself, "What would she be like now? What would she be doing with her life?" It would be better for me never to have known of her existence, for that means she would still be alive.
Wakefield's article managed to get through peer review (Bad papers get through the process from time to time, but this one continues to be especially maddening and destructive), and was published in The Lancet in 1998. The consequences were immediate, and are still with us nearly 30 years later.
In the 1920s, two uncles of mine died before they turned 5 years old. One died of pneumonia and the other, diarrhea. I'm told this was a common occurrence. We've come far. Why the interest in making a U turn?
Historically, I think these ideas come and go. These ideas apparently have power. It's a belief that nature can do "magical wonders." It's Romanticism. It has quite a hold on the human imagination.
The more we understand Trump and Trumpism the more we realize he's reignited a class war in America. He's on a mission to turn America into an exclusive low tax mecca for the rich, privileged and entitled. All above the law while America's workers toil away to keep our society going; reminiscent of the 18th-19th century's plantation and industrial systems.
The GOOD news is that America is increasingly on to him and the GOP. Trump/MAGA is down 14% in its average approval ratings since Trump's inauguration. That equals 12,000,000 votes out of the 77,000,000 who mistakenly voted for the lying fascist rich boy and are now expressing remorse.
And in case you haven't heard, Trump's drop in popularity is who's fault? Biden if course. Why? Biden let 11 million illegal, criminals into the US forcing Trump to use harsh methods to build a police state to get them deported.
Funny how the GOP Budget numbers work. The $110 Billion the Trump/GOP has devoted to his ICE Gestapo secret police and prison camps is the amount of $s Americans need to refund our ACA healthcare subsidies.
The Constitution is coming for MAGA The people will win in Nov.
ICE has more finding than the US Marines. Think about that.
It’s his Brown Shirts, readying for the Midterms. Why else would they be hurriedly and secretly leasing “ headquarters” outside metropolitan cities in virtually every state? The perfect suppression: lawless killers in camouflage with big guns outside the polls.
Funding?
Yes, sorry. Our old friend autocorrect.
Here is AOC who just got done speaking at the Technical University in Berlin, at a talk open to students at all universities in Berlin. It starts about 19-20 minutes in. She addresses class war and capitalism.
https://www.youtube.com/live/L5V-XkjqBLc?si=Rr_akYLxPOPUTZeb
She is speaking truth to power, Trump's power and the entire talk is worth watching. AOC has this audience of over 1000 students and others in Berlin eating out of her hand. We all hunger for truth.
Merrill emphasizes a central aspect of this MAGA destruction of existing systems. Just as the investment in a Gestapo force wrecking peace equals the health care funding cuts the advent of increased contagious disease treatment is sure to increase deficit additions.
RFK,Jr et Al are developing disastrous economic consequences of exponential health emergencies and challenges.
Well put. Thank you.
What do you expect from a man who brags that he's not afraid of germs because he used to snort cocaine from toilet seats? We have entered an era of insanity.
I sure hope you are right. I’d be more assured if his poll numbers showed a 20% drop instead of 14%. But it is going down.
Really. It's stunning that anyone supports this stuff.
I think the same way. So many are saying that MAGA is losing and the First Felon is dropping in approval big time but then the report says 46% disapprove of what he's doing. I don't know what they learned in math class but 46% is less than most. I can't believe it's not less than 10%. Why are so many happy with what is happening to our country?
I'm not sure whether folks are "happy" or simply overwhelmed or oblivious to the damage this jerk is doing. I'm tired of paying taxes so the wealthy don't have to pay their fair share. I spent yesterday afternoon making ICE OUT origami butterflies to be used as part of an installation at NO KINGS III. It was very satisfying to be with a group of ordinary citizens engaged in fighting back against stupidity and greed. Why anyone continues to support Trump and his enablers beats me.
It's just constant input into the outrage machine. It's a devilish way to keep people off balance. There's nothing new under the Sun.
Fear and anger override the prefrontal cortex. And they are much easier and cheaper to use!
In 1750, only 50% of people in wealthy countries lived to be 20 years old. Now, in wealthy countries, 99.7% of people live past 20 years old. Progress in medical science can't be denied. Sure we should go for walks and eat kale. But to dismiss preventive medical advances is not just naive, it's saying "yes" to untold suffering we can prevent. This is moronic.
I'm a retired Professor of Pathology at UCSD School of Medicine, where I taught Immunology and Cancer Biology. I know of no medical intervention in human history that has given us more years of healthy life than vaccines.
This was an excellent article and should be read by everyone. I consider RFK Jr's stewardship of American health to be a complete disaster.
I would also agree that our commercialized health care system just isn't working for the benefit of the American people. The Scandinavian, tax-funded, "socialized" medical care systems work far better and cost a far less percentage of their countries' GDP than ours. The data are compelling.
Stephen Baird, MD, Professor of Pathology Emeritus, UCSD School of Medicine
I was struck by the stark statistics, in The Atlantic, describing the descrepancy between the wealth of America and the poverty of American health outcomes. We're rich, but our lives are shorter. So let's Make a deal: I'll increase your salary by 50%, but you have to give me 5 years of your life. Deal?"
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/04/america-mortality-rate-guns-health/673799/?gift=niLWuRvFudoxF62LXVve1YIb3NfwDY0hFX5KZ-FVh5A&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
Overall US longevity began to decrease in 2014 and has not rebounded.
Within that statistic, white men live about 13 years longer than Black men.
And Yale's study of US longevity between 1900 and 2000 reported that in most places in the southeastern United States women's longevity increased only 3 years. That improvement entirely can be attributed to the installation of indoor plumbing and cleaner water. The women saw doctors, almost all men, but the doctors didn't hook them up with modern medicine such as vaccinations, antibiotics, and new standards of reproductive health care.
If we had affordable healthcare like our wealthy counterparts, and we had gun control, and we could get rid of RFK Jr, we would have much better mortality numbers. If Xmas would come twice a year??? 😉
Americans have lived under this messed-up healthcare system for so long that they can't imagine a better one. Trump will always blame everything on Biden, but sooner or later, the chickens will come home to roost. I vote for making that happen sooner.
Thank you, Ms. Silverstein and Dr. Snyder.
I’ve read just about everything out there on RFK Jr. I have no trouble stating that this is one of the worst human beings ever. Given every privilege and opportunity not just financial but for love, he chose instead to destroy and harm. Piles of anecdotal evidence shows that he enjoys others’ suffering. There are such people, who will do anything not to suffer themselves. You can call it evil. Caroline Kennedy came close to that when, decorous as she is, pleaded with US senators not to approve him. For Trump to place RFKJr at the head of health services for the country is one of the more perverse of his sick, sadistic actions. For people in power not to point out the evil is pure cowardice.
As we go forward, what should our constitutional republic look like?
Are we returning to capitalism and consumerism?
Or will we start redistributing health and wealth so that all Americans have a real opportunity for both?
And will we become a welcoming nation with supportable rules for coming here, and helping them get a good start at health and wealth as well?
I hope we can make good choices and support the people.
National health service, public health service, clean air and water, no more tons of antibiotics and anti-fungals dumped on plant crops every year, more and more affordable healthy foods. Little children often say they want to grow up to be organic farmers or organic food inspectors. Laws which keep progressive taxes progressive. Some national parks jointly governed by National Park officials and representatives of tribal governments. More buffalo. More habitat protections for endangered species. Chestnut trees. Bob white quail. Coral reefs. All that nature stuff remains healthy and desirable.
Add a national fast rail passenger system and the beginnings of passenger submarines, no kidding.
Very revised K-12 curriculum, more like Finland.
We should look more like the EU, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
My father, a teacher and WWII veteran, had positive TB tests and required chest X-rays periodically at a VA Hospital. I’m sure he had antibiotics since they were available at this time. He was infected but didn’t develop the disease. As a precaution, any employees in schools or in Massachusetts public employment had to have periodic TB testing. I do not know if that standard has changed. My mother had polio just as the sugar cube with vaccine was given to me in school in 1954. In order to receive a marriage license in 1969 a test for syphilis was required. Public Health was important. In 1968 I was isolated due to mumps at age 19, infected by a sick 6 year old, not vaccinated. By 1970 the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella was given to my little daughter. The Kennedy Shriver Center was located on the grounds of The Walter E Fernald State School in Massachusetts. The Kennedy family knew of the horror of rubella infection of pregnant mothers, where an entire building housed many children with blindness and multiple physical disabilities. The Kennedy family also was familiar with autism since many institutions throughout our country had thousands of children having autistic behaviors many before vaccines were invented. These institutions also housed children with disabilities caused by parents with syphilis. The present Kennedy, in charge of our public health has a history of narcotics abuse, has had a parasitic infection, and has promoted eating road kill. I’m not convinced this Kennedy is someone to care for our health. Instead of making our public health systems stronger along with supporting better food nutrition, and exercising, his policies have undermined progress and science throughout this government.
It is relevant that a number of the major "supplement" companies are owned by major pharm companies. So the "competition" is, in practice, lucrative for the same people on both ends. Examples: Nestle owns Solgar, Garden of Life, Nature's Bounty, et al. Bayer owns "one-a-day," Glaxo owns Centrum. Pretty clear pharma invests in "daily vitamins"--that which are used, and relied upon, by the most people. In general, supplements have relatively little FDA oversight whether re manufacturing or claims. Even less under the current, anti-FDA FDA.
And that's why petroleum companies are aggressively pro-recycling. Buy plastic. It's recyclable. Be eco-friendly.
What I fear is behind MAHA is population control, especially since abortion is off the table. The elite will always have the money to pursue whatever they need to maintain their health, attain longevity, or pursue the myth of immortality. The rest of us will die of natural or unnatural causes, and the masses of the most vulnerable will clear the way for the privileged few.
That's exactly what it's about. It's eugenics with a new name.
Good one. In the dark days of Covid, I listened to an hour-long NPR radio interview with Dr. Peter Hotez, the bow-tied vaccinologist. He said the health supplements industry had been gunning for him for 20 years.
As an R.N., retired now, I always knew that Medicine, Pharma, Hospitals, should not be part of the capitalist system. The "bottom line" always supercedes care. Big scary words like socialism (or mistakenly called communism) convince people not to consider health care as a human right that governments should give their people -- if you're more well, ... you can work, not be a drain on the society you live in. Part of the problem in the U.S., is our ever-abiding ego, that we are the best people, that god has favored us over others. We ignore all the industrialized countries that have gov't health care. Life is not perfect; humans and gov'ts make mistakes -- there will be waiting times, JUST LIKE HERE, but weighing the benefits, we should go for Medicare-for-All, or some such plan. It's not too late, ... if we give money a lessor role in what's important in life. That's up to the repubs, who emphasize corporations over people.
The cynical side of me wonders if Kennedy is truly as dumb as he often appears, or if he is deliberately lying about evidence-based medicine for the purpose of creating sick people who will then seek “answers” from the wellness industry. He certainly has a financial stake in this. Not once have I believed he gives a damn about the people he is supposed to be serving. Not once.
What a fine essay, Prof. Silverstein! I enjoyed it very much. About 20 years ago I read an obituary in the local newspaper for an 8-month-old girl who died of measles because she was too young to be vaccinated. The parents begged other parents to have their older children vaccinated for the protection of both their children as well as those under the age of 12 months. I've never forgotten her, who by now would be about 20 years old. Occasionally I still ask myself, "What would she be like now? What would she be doing with her life?" It would be better for me never to have known of her existence, for that means she would still be alive.
Wakefield's article managed to get through peer review (Bad papers get through the process from time to time, but this one continues to be especially maddening and destructive), and was published in The Lancet in 1998. The consequences were immediate, and are still with us nearly 30 years later.
In the 1920s, two uncles of mine died before they turned 5 years old. One died of pneumonia and the other, diarrhea. I'm told this was a common occurrence. We've come far. Why the interest in making a U turn?
My grandfather survived polio, but had a weakened leg for the rest of his life. These idiots want to go back to those times. It's insanity.
Historically, I think these ideas come and go. These ideas apparently have power. It's a belief that nature can do "magical wonders." It's Romanticism. It has quite a hold on the human imagination.