RFK Jr., Whose Misinformation Helped Cause a Measles Outbreak That Killed 83 People, Says Trump Has Promised Him “Control” of “Public Health Agencies”

submitted 6 days ago by theprogressivist@lemmy.world edited 6 days ago

www.vanityfair.com/news/story/rfk-jr-says-trump…

HHS is the Department of Health and Human Services, which is in charge of protecting the health of all Americans. Among other things, it includes the agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid; oversees the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and works to prevent disease outbreaks and ensure food and drug safety. So the idea of letting Kennedy “control” such a department is actually insane, and if you’re wondering why, a quick reminder that Kennedy:

Is a huge anti-vaxxer

Penned an article titled “Deadly Immunity,” published in Rolling Stone and Salon in 2005, in which he alleged that the government had covered up a link between vaccines and autism. (Both outlets later retracted the piece, and the Salon editor who worked on it said that after it went up, “we were besieged by scientists and advocates showing how Kennedy had misunderstood, incorrectly cited, and perhaps even falsified data…. It was the worst mistake of my career. I probably should have been fired.”)

Wrote a foreword for a book that claimed COVID-19 vaccines caused sudden deaths among healthy young people; the book featured on its cover a 12-year-old who’d never received the COVID-19 vaccine and had died as a result of a malformed blood vessel in his brain

Has been accused of stoking fears about vaccines in the run-up to a measles outbreak in Samoa that killed 83 people

Once implied that Anne Frank, she of Holocaust fame, had it easy compared to what anti-vaxxers go through

Has more than once suggested that chemicals in the environment can make children gay and trans

Declared, “I am not a church boy,” following a sexual assault allegation

Admitted to staging an elaborate bear-murder scene in Central Park because he didn’t have time to eat said bear’s flesh

Sawed a dead whale’s head off, according to one of his daughters, and strapped it to the roof of the family’s car, causing his children to have to wear plastic bags on their heads to avoid the “whale juice” that was “pour[ing] into the windows”

Said in a 2012 divorce deposition that a worm “got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died”

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32 Comments

There are real consequences for the lies these morons are spreading.

Nooo, youre supposed to say that both sides are the same :(

I try to explain why they're like this here.

This process started years ago with Rush Limbaugh. He provided alternative news and spent years disconnecting people from “mainstream media”. Now many only listen to right wing news that is disinformation. Not sure how we come back from a party that embraces the destruction of democracy and authoritarian leaders.

[deleted] 5 days ago

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I think Trump has been such an emotional white knight in shining armor for them, that they don't actually believe he could be a risk to democracy, national security, or the global world order that has American military power as the basis of its stability.

He gives his supporters, humor, a safe space, a big smile, and unflinchingly accepts their moral short comings... So they do the same for him in return.

Except he has more disdain for his supporters than anyone else, even the "radical left" that he puts on a show about disliking. But his cult are the ones he lies to, grifts away all their money on a deluge of just garbage with his "brand" on it, and just thinks they are the dumbest and most useless people. He has made comments about them not having lives and being unstable.

“I saw him when the cameras were off … Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement dwellers. On a hospital visit one time when people were dying in the ICU, he was mad that the cameras were not watching him.”

She continued: “He used to tell me: ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie, say it enough and people will believe you.’”

-- Stephanie Grisham, Donald Trump’s former press secretary

Source: Trump calls his supporters ‘basement dwellers’, says former press secretary

That's correct. It is irrational. But he did give them permission to be bigoted in public, and they really like that.

Except that regularly calls many of them garbage and they seem to like that kinda thing.

He's got plenty of credit with them to burn, and if he burns it right, they like him more.

Like when people have plastered their vehicles with your name, and they follow you from place to place in convoys flying flags like something out of a mad max movie? You can call them whatever you want and get a way with it a bunch of times without any consequences what so ever.

Damn, that wasn’t popular but you’re making so much sense. Good comment.

This mother fucker literally had worm eat his fucking brain, due to eating undercooked bear meat. He also cut the fucking head off a whale and hauled it around as it drop blood and guts on him. This man needs to be put away in a mental institution not in control of our health care. Please fucking vote because if Trump wins this man will be responsible for what treatments you get.

I mean I don't get how Trump's Covid response was never discussed during this election when the only reason he had a pandemic was because his plan was to pretend it didn't exist or wasn't that bad, even as it killed millions. All while yelling at anyone who actually wanted to do something.

It unironically could have been worse, at least he let Anthony Fauci talk a lot during the whole ordeal.

But yeah Trump sucked ass at preventing outbreaks. Obama stopped an Ebola Outbreak and Republicans freaked out, the incompetent buffoons in the GOP.

Obama foresaw and left a detailed manual for dealing with a pandemic and Trump basically threw it in the bin.

That same pandemic combined with his weird terifs caused all the inflation we have now too but somehow they keep saying he's strong on the economy. The news says it all the time. Like wtf

Nah, the weird inflation is because companies realized they could just raise prices and blame it on things like covid.

Since there's only like 10 companies in the US, their actions affect everyone, even small operations.

Measles isn't real, it's just a skin condition. You just gotta rub a little whale oil on it.

This is misinformation and you should be ashamed of yourself for spreading lies like this. Injecting oil directly into your toes and drinking hyena sperm is the real remedy. Heard about it on Rogan.

Gotta shoot it BETWEEN the toes to hide the marks, duh-doy!

What a dystopian society we are going to be living in soon if Trump wins.

So.....gop maga are just punishing people for voting for them. It gets worse and worse....

Man, wouldn't be hilarious if Trump won and put RFK Jr in charge of public health and he just abolished all vaccines and everyone got sick and died because of all these ancient diseases were fucking us up again? Yeah.

all this would be hilarious if it were the plot of a tv series. hmmm...tv...

Like all to much of modern politics, a movie would fail miserably because no one would believe the insanity. Movies have to be plausible or logically consistent.

Maybe if you positioned it that way, like Silence of the Lambs, or A Clockwork Orange ….

heh. yeah RL is very much more insane than the movies

A black comedy could also work. A comedy political drama could work.

Or a movie about a government run by idiots. An Idiocracy of sorts.

That’s only a completely terrifying prospect.

To discredit and destroy them, yes we know this play

Looks like he’s sharing Don’s bronzer

Don't worry. Trump just wanted Robert out the way so he could have that sliver of super-crazy voters back.

As soon as he gets in, RFK will be getting nothing. If Trump is consistent in anything, it's betraying people the second he's done with them.