Last year I saw a super cheap mistake fare from the Bay Area, where I live, to Costa Rica, a country I’ve always wanted to visit. So I booked it without really thinking about the timing.
Anyway, I just got back from eight days of surfing and reading on the beach with minimal internet. Here’s an abbreviated list of what I appear to have missed:
Donald Trump signed about 120 executive orders, most of which were just grievances, like “I, Donald Trump, want an extra barbecue dip with my chicken nuggies from now on,” but others that had serious ramifications. For instance, an order that was titled to suggest it was about protecting me personally “from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” resulted in the purging of information from a variety of sites including the CDC and Health and Human Services to remove any acknowledgement of the existence of trans people, or “gender,” or “diversity.” Yes, I already feel more protected.
Trump started the “Dumbest Trade War in history” with stupid fucking tarriffs on Canada and Mexico that would only increase costs for American consumers and have now already been paused.
Elon Musk hired a swarm of Nazi children to illegally raid government offices and steal data concerning government employees. Their names are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger and Ethan Shaotran, and Elon Musk claims it is now illegal to say that.
Trump let Elon Musk force the FAA administrator to resign and killed a DHS airline safety committee and then blamed two major plane crashes on black people and women.
Trump officially opened the first concentration camp, a prison on Guantanamo Bay where 30,000 people will be held without due process.
The administration also made a deal with El Salvador, asserting that they will be forcefully shipping US citizens to the Central American country for extrajudicial imprisonment.
Oh, and eggs are still expensive, if you can believe that.
That’s just a sampling but it’s enough, I think, to get the point across: we are in the midst of a multipronged fascist coup perpetrated by some of the stupidest people on the planet, and there appear to be few to no adults in the room trying to stop it.
It’s all pretty overwhelming, which is by design: part of their plan is burning you out so you throw your hands in the air and submit instead of fighting, which is why there will be a few comments on this video saying “don’t bother, it’s too late, no one can do anything.” But that’s why it’s actually GOOD that I was on the beach during all that, because this week I return refreshed and unbothered, so that I can take a deep breath, pluck one gleaming turd from this pile of shit, explain why it’s so gross and shitty, and tell you a little something that you can do to try to fix it, all without completely losing my mind.
So! Let’s talk about RFK, Jr. Yes, again. Previously, two years ago I made a video very clearly pointing out that RFK is a disgusting, anti-vaccine kook who should be driven from the public stage at all costs. I went over his DECADES of dangerous anti-science bullshit, including of course the completely debunked, ridiculous, stupid idea that vaccines cause autism. No one with two firing neurons believes that, including the people most famous for spreading it. Andrew Wakefield was the asshole who started that particular bit of bullshit, and he literally only did it because he held a patent on a vaccine that he hoped would replace the standard safe and effective Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccine. That’s right, anti-vaccine cranks always try to claim that they aren’t anti-vaccine but in the case of Andrew Wakefield it was true. He wasn’t anti-vaccine. He was just pro-whatever-vaccine-makes-him-rich.
We’ll come back to that.
Anyway, we DID get some success from the campaign to let everyone know exactly how bonkers RFK is, though I admit we were helped by him admitting things like the dead worm in his brain, the dead bear carcass he dropped in Central Park, and the dead whale he strapped to the roof of his car. Because eventually he dropped out of the race and endorsed Donald Trump in a naked attempt to cling to some kind of power.
And that’s worked out for him, because Trump nominated RFK to lead Health and Human Services, which, yes, is insane. RFK is completely batshit in at least a hundred different ways, and 87 of them are related to health and/or human services. He’s wrong about vaccines, to the point where he even thinks that the POLIO VACCINE should be an optional thing. Fucking polio. Tiny, innocent children, dead and disabled for life because he thinks their parents should have the right to withhold a simple, safe, effective vaccine from them. It’s like saying parents should have the option to withhold water from their kids.
RFK also took time during a confirmation hearing to shit on SSRIs, which are a category of drug that has allowed me to continue to lead a normal life mostly free from anxiety and depression, even while doing videos like this. Thank you, escitalopram! He claimed that SSRIs are harder to quit than heroin which is weird because that’s a really obvious fucking lie.
He also confuses Medicare (government healthcare for people over the age of 65) and Medicaid (government healthcare for people who are very poor or disabled). In recent questioning he claimed that people don’t like Medicaid because the premiums are too high. Now, he wouldn’t know this because he’s a nepo baby who never had to struggle for a thing in his life, and so not only has he never been on Medicaid but he also doesn’t feel the need to even bring a page of basic notes to a confirmation hearing for a job he’s in no way qualified for, but I HAVE been on Medicaid. I lived in the UK for a few years and then came back to the US, and before I had a chance to get a job and therefore insurance, my chronic back problems hit in the worst possible way. I had to be taken to the ER in the middle of the night, unable to move and nearly passing out from intense pain. I writhed on a cot for hours before a doctor came in, looked at me for a minute, and then left. A few hours later a nurse handed me a prescription for extra strength Tylenol and my boyfriend carried me back to the car and then home. A few weeks later I got a giant bill I couldn’t afford. Once I could walk again, I went back to the hospital and a lady helped me get the bill down to $500, and then she helped me get on Medicaid.
And that’s when I learned that Medicaid generally doesn’t cost a single cent, so when RFK said most people hate it because it’s too expensive, he was either lying or ignorant. Oh, and most people like Medicaid. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Rules vary by state, not all doctors accept it, and a lot of people don’t even know they qualify for it. But let me tell you, it’s better than going bankrupt because a doctor accidentally made eye contact with you once.
Despite RFK’s complete lack of knowledge or expertise, this week a Senate committee voted to allow him to advance to a full Senate vote some time in the next few weeks. The vote fell along party lines: 13 Democrats opposed, and 13 Republicans were in favor. The deciding vote was cast by Republican Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, who is an actual physician. He’s a gastroenterologist, which is particularly ironic because you’d think that in medical school they would have at least taught him how to identify an asshole.
(I stole that joke from fellow gastroenterologist Dr. Kaveh Hoda).
During the confirmation, RFK repeatedly and falsely claimed that he is not anti-vaccine. Like I said, this is such a common catchphrase from anti-vaccine lunatics that I can say it along with them word for word as soon as they’re challenged. They KNOW that they are holding a completely idiotic position, so they pretend they are not anti-vaccine. They claim to be pro-safe vaccine, but when you ask them to name a safe vaccine, they never quite can. “Which vaccines should be mandatory?” None. They conveniently ignore issues like herd immunity or the inability of children to make their own medical decisions, and pretend that this is simply a question of personal bodily autonomy.
Unlike Wakefield, RFK does not, to my knowledge, hold a patent on an innovative new polio vaccine. But like Wakefield, he is obviously using this grift for personal gain: late last year, RFK trademarked the phrase “Make America Healthy Again” and the abbreviation, “MAHA,” which he then transferred to fellow anti-vaccine crank Del Bigtree. They officially established that the trademark can apply to merchandise, supplements, vitamins, essential oils, homeopathy, cryptocurrency, and…hold on, what’s this? Does that say “vaccines?” Huh.
And yeah, that brings me to my final point on RFK: many people desperately want to believe he’s good, and would be good in this role, because he will fight against Big Pharma. I want you to know–I NEED you to know–that being anti-vaccine has nothing to do with being anti-Big Pharma. RFK is one example: he is an enthusiastic supporter of Big Pharma, when it comes to their vast, extremely lucrative supplement wing. He knows that there’s big money to be made there, which is why he constantly talks about how much he loves gulping down vitamins even if he doesn’t know what they do–when it comes to many supplements, no one really knows what they’ll do. As I’ve said repeatedly in the past, the FDA barely regulates them, meaning that manufacturers can throw whatever they want in there so long as they don’t maim or kill anyone, at which point they will have to pay a fee of up to several percentage points of their overall profit to date. Oh yeah, and also RFK is lying or terminally ignorant when he says the FDA is unfair to supplements. They are so underfunded and understaffed that you could probably sell homeopathic dog shit to cure AIDS on a Walgreens end cap and get away with it for at least a few years. And by that point you’ll be rich, and as they say, if the punishment for a crime is a fee then it’s only a crime for poor people.
So yeah, this money grubbing quack is very close to being put in charge of the department that will, you know, be in charge of the actual physical and mental health for all Americans. While a pandemic is still limping along, and another one may be on the horizon.
But here’s where I get to the good news: you can help! Maybe! I mean, if you have the energy, and if you live in the United States. Because it is NOT a foregone conclusion that this nutter is going to get the job. You need to call your Senators.
Like I said, I know that there will be comments on this saying not to bother because they’re just going to do it anyway. I want to repeat something I’ve said several times since November of last year: DO NOT COMPLY IN ADVANCE. If you give up on one of the basic tenets of our democracy before they even take it from you, then they’ve already won. Don’t do it and don’t listen to the losers who are saying it. Whether you have a Democrat or a Republican Senator, call them. Tell them that you want them to block RFK, and not only that, tell them you want them to block every single person Trump nominates AT LEAST until Elon Musk and the Xitler Youth stop illegally destroying our democracy. We absolutely MUST let the Democrats know that we are watching, and YES, there are a few Republicans who we might actually convince to reject at least this one stupid asshole.
And even if the confirmation still goes through? Well, you’ve burned off some energy and you did it annoying these fuckers who should be working for you. No matter what, we must persist in being as annoying as possible. This applies to every aspect of what’s going on right now, and I may get into that in later videos, but it definitely applies here. .Not only can you call your representatives, not only can you email them, not only can you mail them an actual letter, but you can go to their office and knock on the door. And best of all? For many Senators, you can even FAX THEM. That’s right, a fucking FAX. You can use resistbot or any one of several free services to do it. Annoy the shit out of them. Annoy in advance. Do not comply in advance.
