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The end of the enlightenment – politicalbetting.com
The end of the enlightenment – politicalbetting.com
President-elect Donald Trump has picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be his next Department of Health and Human Services secretary. Kennedy, a prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, has accepted. https://t.co/GYaVudFj5Y pic.twitter.com/nlwhpIwIff
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RFK in charge of Health? This really is popcorn time. At least this time a danger only to Americans.
If some of that SciFi nonsense about powered flight came true, things would be different. Why, in such a world, flu variants might be spread by aeronauts!!!
A strong start though, infighting in the Senate GOP, based on his first term some of these appointees may only last a few weeks or months.
Loads of fascinating stuff, as always, but a couple of things that are relevant to this discussion.
The first is the spread of Covid. It turns out that not only were different variants more or less effective at spreading, some infected people are MUCH more infectious than others. In particular, dehydration makes people more infectious, for example people who have just got off long International flights.
The other is the anti-vaxing. There are cluster of parents who send their kids to a specific type of school who don't vaccinate their kids. And their kids get all the diseases as a result.
This could affect the development of vaccines in response to the next pandemic.
Remember, the rules don't apply
So yes you can reject these candidates if you are happy for your political career to end in 2 years time.
“The populist right is the answer to the problems we face by a process of elimination - there is no other answer and no other viable option. The 'liberal establishment' has made mistake after mistake. It goes in to military conflicts with no strategic plan. It supports unlimited illegal immigration 'we can do this!' and then cannot integrate the immigrants in question.
“Everything has failed for the last 20 years, and no one has any plan, other than to just keep things running, keep the plates spinning, kick the can down the road. Every time you listen to a member of the liberal elite, they set out an excellent analysis of the problems, but then come to a conclusion like 'we have to face up to difficult questions' , or 'we all have to try harder'.
“In 2020 the liberal elite went completely insane and lost all its credibility, like when it supported superspreader events (mass protests) in the covid pandemic on the grounds that they have 'public health benefits', also supporting riots on grounds of stopping racism, etc. Against the backdrop of all this Trump appears sane and coherant.
“In the end it doesn't really matter. We don't know what the counterfactual scenario is (where Harris won) but the likelihood is that it would have been a disaster which has now been avoided, although Trump could well turn out to be a disaster too.”
👏👏👏👏
Other "cambridge-educated lawyers" in the news this week... John Smyth
There was no problem with being a member of the EU that Brexit actually solved.
The populist right made a lot of noise, got their way, and it's shit.
Murica is about to enter the Find Out phase of the same process...
Not going down well round here.
Kennedy’s other ideas, from implementing European food standards in the US to getting the big money out of the healthcare industry, are things that are much less controversial to the American people.
Here’s Trump’s and RFK’s statements following his nomination: no mention of vaccines.
https://x.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1857170020427595797
I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health. The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country. Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!
https://x.com/robertkennedyjr/status/1857198805919138235
Thank you @realDonaldTrump for your leadership and courage. I'm committed to advancing your vision to Make America Healthy Again.
We have a generational opportunity to bring together the greatest minds in science, medicine, industry, and government to put an end to the chronic disease epidemic.
I look forward to working with the more than 80,000 employees at HHS to free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture so they can pursue their mission to make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth.
Together we will clean up corruption, stop the revolving door between industry and government, and return our health agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science. I will provide Americans with transparency and access to all the data so they can make informed choices for themselves and their families.
My commitment to the American people is to be an honest public servant. Let’s go!
Trump has tried threatening to primary recalcitrant Senators before with varied success. Some MAGA primary candidates crashed and burned, although others were more successful. Musk brings more money to the table, but Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski don’t have much to worry about for starters.
Similarly qualified.
I think he's deadly serious, and the Senate may just buckle. No way do they reject all of them; they aren't brave enough.
Also note the 'protection from harmful chemicals'. Which is the sort of phrasing that he uses about vaccines...
Increase child benefit; scrap the triple lock and abolish free prescriptions for those aged 60-65; build lots of infrastructure and housing; cut back the Due Process State; stop rewarding failure; scrap laws that require public bodies to conduct impact assessments before taking decisions.
But, they fear electoral consequences of doing so.
Musk buying seats might work in safe red states; less so in contested ones. For a lot of GOP senators, that shouldn't be a particularly credible threat. If they choose to give in, that's on them.
https://x.com/kylenabecker/status/1856347293441466514
His own lying antivax "Children's Health Defense" organisation paid him over half a million bucks in 2023.
Another lying grifter. Just madder than most.
And a vile human being, to boot.
https://x.com/ONS/status/1857317678517502085
GDP fell 0.1% in September 2024, largely due to falls in manufacturing and IT.
Your faith in RFK is touching. In July 2023, Kennedy said, “there is an argument that [COVID-19] is ethnically targeted” and that “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are the most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese ... we don't know whether it's deliberately targeted or not.” He’s repeated claims that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS. Do you really think this man is a good choice as Health Secretary?
The problem is that we have vast rule sets that are ignored by most, broken by a few. Useless. What we need is simpler, clearer, shorter rules - actually enforced.
So “Don’t use fire lighters as a permanent part of residential buildings” and an inspectorate that detects fire lighters in building and sends people to prison for adding them.
This is what people misunderstand about free speech. I'd prefer (perhaps quite strongly) you not to say that <> it ought to be illegal to say that. See also Celtic fans on Rememberance Day, or indeed much of what football fans say.
This feels a bit like the early days of Truss - furtive backpedalling as people realise it could all be a disaster, coupled with "they made us vote for him!".
https://x.com/jackposobiec/status/1857300981362438566
Part of the anti-vax thing is that it grows out of concern for chemicals in food, water etc.
Some people start with this, quite sensible, position, then spiral into the madness.
Back to the days of immigration officials checking your vaccinations?
With @Scott_xP it is the same, the same, the same. It is one subject spoken in one monotone in one autistic style, devoid of wit charm intelligence or insight, and delivered with hideous regularity
Experiencing the commentary of Scott_xP since 2016 is like being constantly rapped on the head with a small hand-made wooden penguin, in the exact same spot, every hour on the hour, for eight years
In the end you just want the guy with the wooden penguin to REDACTED
This owning the Libs attitude is pathetic .
I'm not misunderstanding anything - just pointing out what a risible comment it was.
"As usual I agree with a lot of what you say. But there is an obvious logical fallacy of stating (correctly) how bad the liberal establishment has been and would be, and concluding that Trump by default is an answer. It is quite possible (in fact I'd say its pretty much certain) that we aren't being offered any viable solutions at present.
It's clear you're still stuck in the 'Trump might be the answer' bit of this so I wonder: what would he need to do (or not do) for you to change your view of him? Or are you just part of the cult?
FWIW I'd mirror your comment about the liberal elite making an excellent analysis of the problems. In some ways I think the populist right does too, it's just that their solutions will make things worse not better. I don't really know what the solutions are, though I strongly suspect that the heart of it is reforming capitalism such that workers and consumers are less alienated from the products and services that sustain our economies."
But no doubt there will be more shit to be dumped on the Senate by Trump.
If you still want to own the libs past that point, you will merely be identifying yourself as an other.
FDP and Left probably out of parliament, and BSW in.
Getting the FDP out of government will at least allow government borrowing to increase.
https://dawum.de/Bundestag/
has current opinion poll averages, what that would mean in terms of seats, and theoretically possible coalitions - though note it includes anything mathematically possible whereas other parties have ruled out working with the AfD so you can forget those options.
Of course it's possible there could be big changes before the election, though I don't really see it, the government is just too unpopular. Though the AfD and/or BSW could improve on their current polling. What happens in Ukraine between now and then is a potential unknown.
The SPD seem to have decided to stick with the unpopular Scholz as chancellor candidate, which I'm interpreting as meaning that they've already decided that the election is lost and want Scholz to carry the can.
https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1857166708810666496
"How the Enlightenment created modern race thinking, and why we should confront it." - Slate, 5 June 2018
Race as we understand it—a biological taxonomy that turns physical difference into relations of domination—is a product of the Enlightenment... it took the scientific thought of the Enlightenment to create an enduring racial taxonomy and the “color-coded, white-over-black” ideology with which we are familiar,
"The Enlightenment’s ‘Race’ Problem, and Ours" - New York Times, 10 February 2013
Scholars have been aware for a long time of the curious paradox of Enlightenment thought... Equality was only ever conceived as equality among people presumed in advance to be equal... It would take explicitly counter-Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th century, such as Johann Gottfried Herder, to formulate anti-racist views of human diversity.
And as someone says on Twix: what about the Logan Act?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Act
Edit - oh you’ve edited your post, making my post redundant, you rotter.
😶
The wooden penguin is of course your conscience.
You know that you voted for the greatest mistake in recent British history.
Entirely avoidable and all down to Labour’s economic and political stupidity: in a very basic way
The last time I looked, OBR estimates suggested Brexit would ultimately cost the Treasury about £40bn a year in lost tax - coincidentally the size of the
@RachelReevesMP Budget tax rise
https://x.com/GeorgeWParker/status/1857345478960021865
It doesn’t get stupider than that
BBC to launch reality show to find new 15 mins of fame desperados
Sadiq Khan wants to introduce hotel tourist tax
Haringey to charge larger cars more to park.
Any more for any more?
@RobD The opposition may be chomping at the bit, but AIUI they can only call a constructive confidence vote ie propose an alternative chancellor that the majority vote for, and they don't have the votes (as they don't want to rely on AfD votes for this).
Anyone got any solid factual evidence where he's prevented deaths?
Reading the thread this morning it is clear just how acrimonious Trump's win has become and it looks like this will be the future for years to come
I have no idea how Trump will run the US, but it seems his appointments are highly controversial, even bizarre, but how anyone opposed to Trump can influence him seems impossible and the world will just have to hope it is not a catastrophic disaster
Maybe the world order is about to be tested to its limits, but change is coming with unknown consequences
OK if he can make a scam out of it I guess it's possible.
I went to Greenland to try to buy it
Here’s what happened:
https://x.com/drydenwtbrown/status/1856424282823541099
The average American will starve.
Roaring ‘Jesus Fucking Christ STFU’ at someone in the pub, however boring and repetitive they are, probably not recommended.
One of the things implicated in the recent deli deaths scandal.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-09-30/boar-s-head-listeria-outbreak-in-deli-meat-shows-price-of-deregulation
And will be the death of us.
https://x.com/rmac18/status/1549119481930100736?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q