RFK, Jr- Putting the Fox in the Henhouse

RFK, Jr- Putting the Fox in the Henhouse

                        Robert A. Levine    11-20-24

Donald Trump has made some bad choices for cabinet positions in his administration, placing America’s future in jeopardy with unqualified personnel to run government agencies. However, two of them stand out as particularly unfortunate- Matt Gaetz for Attorney General and Robert Kennedy, Jr as head of health and human services. That means that Kennedy will control the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Communicable Disease Center. Kennedy’s ideas flout scientific data in a number of areas, and he has no medical background to provide him with expertise in the field of health. He is actually a danger to the health of the American public with a number of the concepts he is promoting.

Probably the most publicity he receives, both adverse and positive, is because of his stand on vaccines. This emerged to a large degree with his opposition to the mRNA vaccines which were being used to fight Covid-19. Partially because of his preaching against vaccination for Covid, over 1.2 million Americans were known to have died of the disease, though the true mortality was undoubtedly much higher. On a per capita basis, the United States, had one of the highest mortality rates in the world. He has also claimed rather bizarrely that the Covid virus was engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese, without any basis for his claim.

Kennedy says he is not against vaccines, but other words belie what he has said. He believes that childhood vaccinations MMR- measles, mumps and rubella, are responsible for autism and its rise over recent decades. This belief has been scientifically disproven, but Kennedy adheres to this idea. If he convinces parents to forego childhood vaccines, we will see polio re-emerge along with measles and whooping cough, both of which can kill children. Every other advanced nation promotes the use of childhood vaccines. Kennedy is also against fluoridation of our water supply which protects against tooth decay. He believes this may lower IQ in children and affect bone development. The data on this is not yet definitive. Kennedy would also like unpasteurized raw milk to be sold, which could cause various infectious diseases. He would like the FDA to stop warning of the dangers of raw milk as well.

In addition to the above ideas, Kennedy would like to have hydoxychloroquin available as a treatment for Covid though it has been shown to be of no value. He wants chelation therapy, which can be dangerous, to be utilized for autism, with the idea that mercury (unproven) is causing autism. Stem cell treatments can be helpful in certain diseases, but the FDA shut down clinics that were using stem cells for conditions where they were unwarranted. Kennedy would like the FDA to give more leeway to stem cell therapy.

Overall, we can see the disaster Kennedy could be as head of Health and Human services. However, some of his ideas about processed and ultra-processed foods being unhealthy do have value. The epidemic of obesity and chronic diseases are related to the popularity of fast foods and processed foods. A few good ideas by Kennedy do not make up for his ignorance and certainty regarding medical problems, and he should not be confirmed by the Senate for the head of Health and Human Services.

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Why Trump Won the Election

Why Trump Won the Election

            Robert A. Levine   11-13-24

What? Another post-mortem on the Trump presidential election victory. I just want to emphasize as others have that Trump really didn’t win the election. The Democrats lost it. One has to wonder the way the campaign was run if some Democrats secretly wanted to lose. A number of Democrats did not vote, particularly progressives, the young, and Latinos. Some of the blame for the loss certainly must fall on Jill Biden’s shoulders. Joe was not cognitively able to make an early decision to drop out of the race because of his diminished brain function. But it was obvious to all of those close to him that he was having problems. Either he had mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early dementia and could not run for president again. But Jill Biden and his children did not apply enough pressure to have him drop out early. Because of that, he embarrassed himself in the debate with Trump and prevented a primary campaign to occur for the Democratic candidate for president. Many Americans were unhappy that Kamala Harris was handed the Democratic nomination by default instead of competing for it against other Democrats. She was not an outstanding andidate and may not have won the position if she competed for it.

It’s true that Kamala did not have enough time to run a strong campaign, but she also made a number of mistakes. The most blatant error was her response to the question of what she would do differently than Biden if she were president. She repeatedly said she could not think of anything she would do differently even though Biden’s favorability rating was in the toilet and the majority of the electorate thought the country was on the wrong track. And the major thrust of her campaign was pointing out Trump’s lies and exaggerations instead of laying out her programs for the citizenry. Kamala also did not emphasize enough the economic gains the country had made in cutting inflation and raising employment. And she did not focus on Trump’s vetoing of an immigration bill for political reasons that Congress was about to pass that contained all the elements that Trump had wanted.

The Democrats were also burdened by ideas that the progressive wing favored that the majority of the nation was against. One was transgender women competing in women’s sports which was actually a big issue. This was not neutralized by the Democrats favoring abortion. Another idea they could not live down was the concept of defunding the police which the majority of the country considered crazy. Kamala was also not strong enough on defending the border from illegal immigration. She also refused to go on Joe Rogan’s podcast unless he came to her, even though he is a strong influencer of young men. (Trump spent three hours with him.) Kamala did not specifically try to endear herself to young men and the Latin community, and they were the ones who sent Trump over the top. Another burdensome factor was her failure to completely disavow the “woke” agenda of the progressives.

The Democratic rout was not all Kamala and Biden’s fault. But with the GOP in control of all the reins of government it’s going to be difficult for the Democrats to make a comeback in two and four years. On the other hand, with Trump now in the driver’s seat, I would not be surprised at all if he manages to crash the car and give the Democrats an opening. Hopefully, he won’t damage the country too badly in the meantime..

www.robertlevinebooks.com

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