As I look back at this blog, I sometimes find it hard to believe that I’ve been writing about certain people since the beginning (or almost the beginning). One of these people is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose antivaccine conspiracy co-published in Salon.com and Rolling Stone in 2005 led to my first post ever went viral. Back then, RFK Jr. was promoting a conspiracy theory in which the CDC tried to cover up evidence that the thimerosal preservative that was used in several childhood vaccines until 2001 or so caused autism. These days, RFK Jr. promotes conspiracy theories that the CDC and Anthony Fauci are covering up harms from COVID-19 vaccines and other COVID-19 public health mitigation measures, such as mask mandates and “lockdowns,” but with added antisemitism and fascism. Nearly 17 years later, the only two things have changed. First, RFK Jr. has become more, not less, radical in his antivaccine crusade. Second, he’s not just antivax anymore! He’s broadened his conspiracy world to include all manner of COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories. (He’s even decided that Sirhan Sirhan didn’t kill his father, leading me down another rabbit hole of a conspiracy theory that I hadn’t known existed!) He’s also trying to buy political influence, as their report from Popular Information about his having donated to the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) illegally:
The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) accepted an illegal $50,000 contribution from Children’s Health Defense, a leading purveyor of anti-vaccine propaganda run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The unlawful contribution, which was received by RAGA last summer, was first disclosed in an 87-page document filed with the IRS last week.
Children’s Health Defense is organized as a 501(c)(3) charity, which means that contributions to the group are tax-deductible. As such, under the law, Children’s Health Defense is “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”
RAGA “elects and re-elects Republican attorneys general nationally.” RAGA is organized as a 527 “political organization” dedicated to “influencing or attempting to influence the selection, nomination, election or appointment of an individual to a federal, state, or local public office.”
In other words, a 527 organization is devoted exclusively to activities that are off-limits for a 501(c)(3) charity. The IRS is very clear that a 501(c)(3) cannot make donations to 527 groups…
Guess what, though? Children’s Health Defense contributed $50,000 to RAGA in 2021, a contribution that was clearly illegal for a group like Children’s Health Defense to have made. It’s not even a close call, as anyone who’s ever been involved with a 501(c)(3) charity can tell you. That’s what makes RFK Jr.’s response when it was busted by Judd Legum, who perused its IRS tax filing for 2021 and found the illegal contribution so implausible that it made me laugh out loud when I read it:
In response to a request for comment by Popular Information, Children’s Health Defense said that it paid $50,000 to gain access to Republican Attorneys General and brief them on “health policy issues.” Children’s Health Defense acknowledged paying the fee was illegal.Children’s Health Defense educates the public and advocates on health issues. CHD paid a fee to be able to educate attorneys general on health policy issues. We have since learned that the IRS prohibits any payment by a charity to a 527 organization, regardless of purpose. We regret our mistake and have changed our procedures so that this will not happen again.The use of charitable funds by Children’s Health Defense for political activity could “result in denial or revocation of [its] tax-exempt status,” according to the IRS.
I’m sorry, but I quite simply cannot believe this explanation. There’s no way that RFK Jr. didn’t know that having his antivax “charity” contribute to an explicitly political organization dedicated to electing and re-electing Republicans as state attorneys general was illegal. After all, how long has RFK Jr. been running a nonprofit, dating back to even before he went antivax? Does anyone remember Waterkeeper Alliance, founded by RFK Jr. in 1999 and also incorporated as a 501(c)(3) charity? Unsurprisingly, others who have worked with such charities were…skeptical:
One wonders if RFK Jr. will try to claim that RAGA paid for the “service” of an education in how to use pseudoscience and conspiracy theories to demonize COVID-19 vaccines and thereby justify mandates. Personally, though, even though this offense should be enough to take away Children’s Health Defense’s tax exempt status, it’s RFK Jr., and it probably won’t:
More interestingly, the Children’s Health Defense statement seems to actually admit that it had paid to gain access to Republican attorneys general. Basically, their excuse is, “Oops!” followed by a promise not to do it again.
Make no mistake, as well, many Republican attorneys general whom RAGA works to keep in office are rabidly anti-public health these days, which is why it actually does make sense that a nonprofit run by an ostensible “liberal” would make a sizable contribution to RAGA:
What would Kennedy and Children’s Health Defense see in RAGA? 24 Republican Attorneys General aggressively litigated against President Biden’s vaccine mandate for private employers, describing it as an “un-constitutional power grab.” The mandate was ultimately struck down last month by the Supreme Court.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed suit against Biden’s mandate for health care workers, which the Supreme Court upheld.
Individual members of RAGA also appear open to Kennedy’s anti-vaccine propaganda. In December, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry invited Kennedy to appear at a hearing “on the state’s plan to require COVID-19 vaccines for K-12 students.” The hearing included “false allegations the health department will force poor and minority children to get vaccinated.” Kennedy used the hearing to “spread misinformation about the risks of the vaccine.”
Last November, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor (R) attended “a summit health-care system skeptics hocking their alternative treatments to covid-19 and conspiracies about how the latest bioweapon is the ‘manipulation of gene therapy.'”
As I’ve been writing for years now, there has been an increasing alliance between conservative activists and antivaxxers dating back at least a decade, when the political party formed by antivaxxers in 2011, The Canary Party, started working with Tea Party-affiliated groups in California. Not long after, the Canary Party became known for sucking up to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), with one of its major financial backers Jennifer Larson contributing a lot of money to Issa’s campaign (indirectly, of course) in order to buy influence and win a hearing by his committee examining autism and focused on vaccines as one potential cause. By 2018, I saw the results from the previous years in Michigan in an antivaccine “vaccine choice roundtable” that I attended incognito and documented. Elsewhere openly antivax candidates were running for state governor and other offices. By 2019, Republicans in Oregon were openly opposing anything resembling tightening school vaccine mandates, and the Ohio Statehouse was rife with antivax legislators, to the point that antivaxxers were bragging about them. Also, to bring it around, antivaxxers in California were openly marching with the California State Militia, specifically the California State Militia, First Regiment, California Valley Patriots and the State of Jefferson.
Once the pandemic hit, antivaxxers rapidly allied themselves with antimaskers, anti-“lockdown” protesters, and QAnon, with fascists being a common sight now at antivaccine rallies and antivaccine rhetoric becoming increasingly violent. Indeed, months before donating to RAGA, RFK Jr. was addressing fascist groups without a hint of irony, and then last month at the antivaccine “Defeat the Mandates” rally, he compared the “surveillance state” enforcing vaccine and public health mandates to what Anne Frank endured, except according to him it’s worse now.
Also, since the pandemic, RFK Jr.’s charity lobbying group has been flush with cash. As reported by The Boston Globe a couple of weeks ago:
His family’s disapproval notwithstanding, Kennedy has used his famous name and the Kennedy mystique to solicit donations to Children’s Health Defense, even offering supporters a chance to visit the family’s compound on Cape Cod.
“You and your guest will join me for a day of sailing and private tour of the legendary Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port,” he wrote in a promotional post in 2019 that featured a photo of Kennedy family members on a wooden sailboat. “The more you contribute, the greater your chances of winning!”
In fact, the pandemic, and Kennedy’s response to it, has been a boon to Children’s Health Defense, which, according to an investigation by the Associated Press, has seen its revenues grow from $1.1 million in 2019 to $6.8 million in 2020. Its misinformation is also being widely consumed, with 4.7 million visits to its site last August, according to the AP, up from just 119,000 monthly visits before the pandemic.
I wonder what Children’s Health Defense’s revenue was in 2021. I fear that the answer will be: Even more.
Then there’s RFK Jr.’s increasing alliance with right wing grifters and COVID-19 conspiracy theorists:
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine message has brought him close to many leading figures who have attacked the nation’s democratic norms and institutions. A photo posted on Instagram July 18 and apparently taken backstage at the Reawaken America event, shows Kennedy alongside former President Donald Trump’s ally Roger Stone, anti-vaccine profiteer Charlene Bollinger and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, all of whom have pushed the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
Kennedy has appeared at multiple events with Bollinger and her husband, even after their Super PAC sponsored an anti-vaccine, pro-Trump rally near the Capitol on Jan. 6, when, as AP previously reported, Bollinger celebrated the attack and her husband tried to enter the Capitol. Kennedy filmed a video conversation for their Super PAC in the spring.
He has also courted major GOP donors including Leila and David Centner, who were listed as CHD board members for 2021 on a filing the group made in August with Georgia charity regulators, and which AP obtained in a public records request. The couple are best known for the private school they established in Miami, Centner Academy, which put in place anti-vaccine policies for children and teachers.
I’ve written about the Centners before, of course. I also noted over a year ago how RFK Jr. had been drifting further and further into the sphere of right wing “lockdown” protesters, antimaskers, and, of course, antivaxxers, of whom he’s one of the granddaddies. Most recently, he appears to have embraced pretty much every right wing conspiracy theory about Anthony Fauci, even going so far as to publish a book, The Real Anthony Fauci, which even included a chapter entitled Final Solution: Vaccines or Bust. in addition to its embrace of lab leak conspiracy theories about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and all manner of other generally right wing antivaccine and COVID-19 nonsense. I didn’t used to, but I’m increasingly agreeing with those who say that RFK Jr. can’t be considered a liberal any more.
Circling back to that illegal contribution, unsurprisingly, RAGA has thus far not said whether it will return it:
I’ll conclude with an observation that I’ve frequently made on Twitter, but perhaps not as often on this blog. With conspiracy theorists like RFK Jr., it is indeed all about the ideology and conspiracies, but it’s also all about the grift. Always.
92 replies on “RFK Jr.: Busted making a political donation to RAGA”
I’m sure big Pharma has never made political donations to PACs through its charitable organizations.
Big pharma isn’t TAX EXEMPT you horse’s ass.
No they’re accountability-exempt.
@Labarge
Show me on the doll where the evil big pharma hurt you…
@john labarge There were lots of criminals against Saacklers, How did this happen
Is that illegal?
Obviously charities. But Pharma in general shouldn’t have a problem. So I guess what I’m saying is, stop begging the question and show evidence. Then report it.
Actually no, I suspect Big Pharma does NOT make political donations through its charitable arms. Big companies have charitable foundations, which are legally separate entities, and charitable foundations do not make political donations any more than publicly funded charities.
And believe it or not, Big Pharma is responsible enough to hire professionals who know who to legally run a foundation.
I think CHD knows how to act legally. They just didn’t bother.
The limit on CHD making donations is because they’re tax exempt.
They can make any donation they want – if they pay taxes. The government tax exemption for charitable organizations, however, comes with limits.
I agree with all of your critique of RFK Junior – except your comment about Sirhan Sirhan.
The coroner of LA, Thomas Noguchi, found that the fatal bullets that killed Presidential candidate RFK were fired at point blank range because of powder burns on his body. (Mr. Noguchi has been consistent for a half century about the autopsy.). Paul Schrade, an aide to RFK, was wounded that day but survived, and has advocated for pardoning Sirhan for many years. There’s no question Sirhan fired a gun and there’s no question there were more bullets fired than fit in one gun and that the bullets Sirhan fired were not the ones that killed the Senator.
My theory about Junior is he was very traumatized growing up knowing the truths of the assassinations and forced to say nothing, pretend in public it was not real. That is not good for the psyche. In 2018, he co-signed a call for Truth and Reconciliation about the assassinations. He could use some Truth and Reconciliation to step back from his antiVa crusade.
RFK (the original) immediately suspected the CIA killed his brother and never believed the Warren Dulles commission. Privately, he wanted to reopen the investigation if he assumed the powers of the Presidency. There were investigators into the JFK assassination who warned that Bobby needed to be public with his suspicions to protect himself (notably Jim Garrison, the District Attorney of New Orleans, portrayed by Kevin Costner in Oliver Stone’s JFK). This is not theory, it’s well documented at this late date. A good place to start is “Brothers” by David Talbot.
Nice photo of Junior with Roger Stone, the man with the Nixon tattoo. Bobby might have beaten Nixon in 1968. No riot in Chicago. No escalation in Cambodia. Kent State. Reagan. Bush. JFK wanted to end the Cold War and Bobby pledged to do this if he became President. Junior has some strange new allies.
President Kennedy, address to the UN, September 20, 1963
“Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world–or to make it the last.”
http://www.jfkmlkrfk.com
You don’t need a conspiracy theory about RFK’s assassination to imagine why it might have been traumatic enough to RFKJ that it contributed to him becoming a messed-up adult. I might even imagine that the many conspiracy theories swirling around his family as he grew up helped foster a psychic unease that worked to push him towards his own conspiracy theories for comfort, and retrieving a sense of agency.
Alternatively, having the CIA murder your entire family could also be traumatizing.
They haven’t murdered RFKjr though have they? If I was in charge of an organisation inclined to kill it’s own citizens for political reasons, first I’d kill the people giving us gyp. Then I’d kill anyone who said we killed that person. Then I’d keep killing people until they learned not to talk about it. I certainly wouldn’t carry out some convoluted plot relying on hypnotism and the likelihood of no one noticing a second shooter in a packed room.
“Alternatively, having the CIA murder your entire family could also be traumatizing.”
It would, if it happened. As it is that’s just another figment of your imagination.
Its taken on Jim Jones type propaganda here.
His other ten siblings don’t seem to be suffering this “trauma”.
People respond to events differently. That RFKJr is messed in this particular way, and his siblings are not, does not mean that the trauma is unrelated or that his siblings are not impacted. That said, it is almost certainly a factor, not the factor.
Well, that didn’t take long…
“The coroner of LA, Thomas Noguchi, found that the fatal bullets that killed Presidential candidate RFK were fired at point blank range because of powder burns on his body…There’s no question Sirhan fired a gun and there’s no question there were more bullets fired than fit in one gun and that the bullets Sirhan fired were not the ones that killed the Senator.”
Riiight.
The shots were fired at “point blank range”, Sirhan was seen firing at RFK and immediately seized and overpowered, but no one noticed a second (third? fourth?) gunman right next to RFK, who fired the real fatal shots.
Maybe in addition to “programming” Sirhan Sirhan like the Manchurian Candidate (an actual conspiracy theory), the C.I.A. arranged for additional killer(s) and programmed all potential witnesses to forget they’d seen them.
My take is that RFK Jr. is someone whose flaws and ugliness of spirit go far beyond the trauma he experienced over his father’s death.
It’s all a set up anyway because the supposedly dead Kennedy’s are due any day now to anoint Trump president. Junior, in on the troof, obviously knows that SS cannot possibly be guilty. Hmm, Dead Kennedys sounds like a good name for a rock band. Oh, wait.
My take is that RFKJ shows many signs of mental illness, specifically of the sorts of personality disorders that are typically rooted in childhood trauma, and extremely resistant to treatment or change. The guy’s broken, but that’s what makes him dangerous. If he just had some plain old “ugliness of spirit” you might be able to counter it or go around it. But it’s a monomaniacal obsession, such that if you took it away from him, or even reduced it, his psyche would cease to exist. Really, if your need for validation has you embracing Mike Flynn and Roger Stone, you’re surely pathological something.
There were too many shots fired to all come from Sirhan’s gun. This is a physical fact that has nothing to do with RFK Jr’s misbehavior. There were witnesses who saw accomplices (or handlers?). The kitchen was crowded and lots of people saw Sirhan firing, but no one saw him at point blank range in the position that would have been needed to fire the fatal shots.
Several members of the Kennedy family have, over the years, quietly admitted the assassinations were not by lone nuts, but it’s understandable they haven’t been very public with their understanding. It’s easy to conclude that Junior is just despicable, but there’s probably a lot of trauma that messed with him that led him to his current paranoia about public health. Not a justification, just potential explanation? Probably other things that aren’t public, too.
A lot of the noise and nonsense about the assassinations is deliberate distraction, just like a lot of the vaccine disinformation is weaponized to immunize Trump from accountability for letting the disease “R.I.P.” through the country, thinking it would primarily harm liberal Democratic cities.
Claims of undercounting the number of injuries and deaths from covid also distracts from “excess deaths” considerations – that the real toll passed a million in the USA and is maybe 2 to 4 times greater than official counts worldwide. 3 million in India. Undercounts in Russia, China, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Florida. This gets little attention in the USA media, not even the more Democratic leaning channels. Science magazine and the Economist have had excellent profiles of this scandal but it rarely gets mentioned.
And yes, the relaxing of mask requirements shows the Democrats are afraid that pandemic fatigue will result in election losses this fall.
The claim that there were extra shots fired is based on a cassette tape recording made accidentally. The vast majority of experts who have analyzed the tape do not hear any extra shots.
So many bits of falsehoods in Mark’s opening paragraph:
“There were too many shots fired to all come from Sirhan’s gun. This is a physical fact that has nothing to do with RFK Jr’s misbehavior. There were witnesses who saw accomplices (or handlers?). The kitchen was crowded and lots of people saw Sirhan firing, but no one saw him at point blank range in the position that would have been needed to fire the fatal shots.”
The “several members of the Kennedy family have admitted …” line seems odd, when you see this:
“The move by Newsom rejected an August recommendation from a two-person panel of parole commissioners that Sirhan, 77, should be freed. Two of Kennedy’s sons — Douglas Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — have said they support Sirhan’s release, but the remainder of their siblings and their mother, Ethel Kennedy, have expressed strong opposition to him being freed.
In a statement on Thursday, Ethel Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Christopher Kennedy, Maxwell Kennedy, and Rory Kennedy said that Sirhan has continued to “deflect blame for his crime.”
“there’s no question there were more bullets fired than fit in one gun and that the bullets Sirhan fired were not the ones that killed the Senator.”
Oh well, then the investigation is done./
What the hell is wrong with your people and your asinine conspiracies bullcrap? If you had any convincing evidence you wouldn’t be spreading your lines on blogs, you’d be working to get your “facts” out. If you had the evidence you’d be famous: the fact that you’re just exposing yourself for well deserved mocking shows you “got nothing”.
We are seeing this merger of the anti-vaxx and far right here in downtown Ottawa up close and personal. Weaponizing heavy trucks, oddball strategies to overthrow the government, bringing kids in as shields, possible attempted arson and the police seem to have little effect on the crowd here. Two of the leaders are ex-RCMP and there are more in the ranks. The organizers are attracting a lot of cash and I can’t help but think that is a major part of the strategy. It’s a good thing for them that they live in a democratic country, any good autocrat would have mopped the streets with them by now.
On a humourous note, a protest supporter (from Ohio!) got the wrong Ottawa to call to make fake calls to the police, he somehow got Ottawa Ohio instead…not the sharpest pencil on the desk.
A number of GOP pols here have enthusiastically endorsed the truckers. This includes a number of Republican state AGs who are threatening to go after GoFundMe for shutting down the page for crowdfunding support for the protests. The truckers — who have already called for the overthrow of Trudeau government, defiled national monuments, and paraded through Ottawa with Confederate flags and swastikas — have now completed their “legitimate political discourse” bingo card by trying to run over RCMP officers at the border crossing in Alberta. Meanwhile, not settling for just issuing statements in support of the truckers, Ron DeSantis is hawking t-shirts, caps and other merch declaring “TRUCK YEAH!” at his official web store.
It sure looks like anti-vax, anti-mask, anti-mandate is one of the central rails the GOP is aiming to ride into the 2022 election. It also looks like many Democrats are worried the anti-mandate part at least will appeal to too many pandemic-weary voters, as in the last few days several Dem governors in large ‘blue’ states have announced they will drop mandates for businesses and/or schools.
Personally, I’ve seen it here in Michigan. It started as early as more than a year ago here in Michigan, where Gov. Whitmer basically gave up on every other potential measure as soon as the vaccine became available. She doesn’t even try any more.
https://www.wjcl.com/article/proposed-georgia-law-to-get-rid-of-all-childhood-vaccination-requirements/38977250#
Update State of Georgia will overturn vaccine mandates for children in the state Legislature. Its another case of RFK Jr and the Disinformation Dozen paying off state legislatures to rant conspiracy theories on vaccine mandates for the 2022 elections.
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/anti-vaccination-bill-georgia-senate/85-dabc52a2-9af8-464d-835b-ff41651725ef
In my childhood home of Minnesota, the top GOP candidate for governor is Scott Jensen. Ew.
I was told by an Ottawan that some Grandma group, sick of the incessant honking, had huge placards that said–
“HONK IF YOU HAVE A SMALL DICK”
JDK:
There’s a similarly-inspired, but less disruptive, protest going on here in Canberra.
In our local “not the sharpest pencil” category, we have:
The SBS is Australia’s second public broadcaster, catering particularly to indigenous Australians and non-English speakers.
They have been protesting at other media offices around Canberra.
The quote is from the Canberra Times, but though the story was in this morning’s edition, I can’t find it on their Web site, so sorry, no link.
You cannot expect much sense from sovereign citizens.
From what I’ve read, there aren’t all that many “sovereign citizens” at the Canberra protests, though they are highly visible, flying Australian red ensigns and all.
Several of those doing things that got themselves arrested (including for alleged arson on Old Parliament House) do seem to have been “sovereign citizens”.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-02/ryan-dean-harder-charged-arson-old-parliament-house-fire/100798448
Its a cult
I was wondering where the information came from–it came from RAGA’s report. I was hoping that there was a CHD document that showed their activity. That would be informative for this kind of thing….
Hmmm.
They have to file a tax return with all this in there or else they lose their non-profit status.
This might happen soon to another noisemaking non-profit (BLMGNF).
@aairfccha
Fine. good. what’s your point? If they’re guilty of it, they can lose their tax exemption, too.
CHD is hiring!
Listed first is a “Compliance Officer” to “..prevent illegal, unethical and improper conduct..” within the org: I wonder if this includes the above?
Now, that’s hilarious.
WOW talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Need I list the tax exempt organizations that donate to democrats,
Planned Parenthood (an ironic name for an organization that promotes abortions) gave democrats money, they just do it thru their PAC.
It’s a new form of money laundering, of course it is legal, because of who the beneficiaries are.
I am not taking sides.
The people who benefit, are the congress who can legally trade stock on companies that they promote legislation for, do you really think a congress person or a senator really gives a rat about your checking account or you mortgage when they hold millions of dollars worth of bank stock? Even Elizibeth Warrens bill to ban trading of stock by congress has huge loop holes, it doesn’t cover children or pets (NS) I’ve never heard of a poor persons lobby, any “citizens” lobby quickly gets subverted.
opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/planned-parenthood/C00314617/candidate-recipients/2022
The Planned Parenthood Action Fund is a separate organization created when the Reagan administration made the need for political advocacy clear.
If you can document any direct contributions from PP to PPAC, please do so.
2019 -2020 annual report
55.4 million or public policy
11.5 million Payment to ‘related Organizations.
This happens all across the political spectrum, our politicians and indirectly our government is being bought and sold by companies and big organizations.
This should be apparent to anyone, when the teachers union can make policy for the CDC, when a military contractor can decide which air plane/ship/gun to use. when the government can choose winners and losers.
I am not anti vax, had all my shots but the idea of labeling the anti-vaxxers as Nazis or Fascist is wrong. Both Nazis and Fascist are the state abusing power to further coerced collectivist goals and by centralization of authority suppression of the opposition allowing crony capitalism to expand but under government control.
Many of the banking controls that were put into place after 2009 had very little effect on the big banks as they could afford to assign 50-100 people (less then 1% of work force) in compliance units. Smaller banks (who had to work under the same rules (even though the big banks caused the problem) had to assign a bigger percent of their work force in the compliance effort and ended up merging with bigger banks, its happening in other industries too.
Well, Anthony, if recent legislative changes are any indication their money sure is falling short of whatever nefarious intent you ascribe to it. It seems that religious lunacy and/or dark anti-choice money is having the biggest impact. You can sleep tight knowing the Christian Taliban is telling us doctors how to treat patients.
Of note-I’m completely uncomfortable with anything past first term. I also won’t be involved if it is simply for birth control. Pretty conservative position. I refer out instead of telling the patient what my beliefs are. It’s HER goddamn choice. Sort of like the people screaming “Medical choice” about vaccines amiright?
Yeti
I have no problem with a persons right to choose abortions, vaccination or just about any other decision they want to make in their lives.
I just picked one of liberals favorite to point out the vast amounts of money being stuffed into pockets, I could have used the teachers union, Lockheed, Raython, trade unions, medical associations. I ascribe ‘nefarious intent’ to all of it.
Its ironic that you would state this “you can sleep tight knowing the Christian Taliban is telling us doctors how to treat patients.” yet you post things about other doctors who don’t want to follow “Fauci/CDC Taliban” prescribed treatment.
“other doctors who don’t want to follow “Fauci/CDC Taliban” prescribed treatment.”
Don’t know what your problem with corruption is Tony. It’s just accounting and ethics done by independent thinkers.
You’re wrong, buddy. Doctors want to give people IVM? I don’t care. I won’t give it out because, for the millionth time, IT DOESN”T WORK. It’s called clinical judgement. As long as that judgement does not involve willful fraud and intentional harm, who cares?
Better stated:
I DO have a problem with doctors claiming efficacy and/or charging people however much they want for the visit and Rx. If a patient comes in and says “I want IVM because I heard about it on YouTube” and a doctor says “It really doesn’t work but I can prescribe it-your insurance won’t cover it” and they say “I don’t care, I’ll pay!!” No harm, no foul.
That’s not what happens in reality, though. There are grifters happy to take money from people desperate to be contrarians or whatever in the hell on the premise that it works due to magical knowledge that is being suppressed.
Also, I don’t like Fauci. I’ve made that abundantly clear over the past several months. I wish he would go away. CDC should be running the show on all of this not NIH, not the president, etc.
to the Yeti
You and I are in agreement, I wouldn’t spread that around it might make people question your loyalty. I agree with medical decisions, it a personal choice.
As to Fauci I would agree, people who are in a position of power tend to have an inflated ego, his statement “If you question me your questioning science” is arrogant he’s been at the NIH since 1968 and head of NIH since 1984.
I have mixed feeling about the CDC as I believe it has become too political, and is not a nimble enough to adjust to the situation or changing facts/science, their collections of statistics is slow and cumbersome. In this digital age they have not kept up with technology or modern record keeping. And if you remove the President from the decision making you absolve him/her/it of the responsibility and leave it in the hands of unaccountable persons, I am unwilling to do that at this time.
Anthony,
I’m pretty sure that every lawyer know that ‘but everyone does it’ is not a legal defense. If the CHD wants to make political donations, I’m sure they know a lawyer or two that can set up a PAC.
BTW, is the PAC one of the ‘related Organizations’?
@Anthony And is this “related organisation” Democratic Party ? If it is, donation is as illegal.
If you actually read Orac’s article, he said that antivaxers use fascit propaganda technique and has same attitude towards vulnerable people.
@Anthony Check difference between social welfare organisation and charity. Charity cannot give money to political purposes. Lockheed is not charity either.
Article is about breaking charity law, not general flow of money. Actually it would nice if Robert Kennedy Jr would have a PAC against public health. That would be more honest, at least.
@Anthony Actually Fauci said I base my action to scientic research, so if you question them, you question science.
Now i add a personal peeve, be warned. If an organisation want to save money, ICT is first to go.
“If a patient comes in and says “I want IVM because I heard about it on YouTube” and a doctor says “It really doesn’t work but I can prescribe it-your insurance won’t cover it” and they say “I don’t care, I’ll pay!!” No harm, no foul”
I suppose that works in the US where you can pay directly. Would they sign a waiver in case of harm from the IVM?
Isn’t there a danger of indirect approval though? If the IVM pushers say things like ‘a million doctors have prescribed IVM and a million doctors can’t all be wrong ‘. The doctor in your example would be included in that statistic. Maybe most of the doctors prescribing IVM are only doing it because the patient wants it rather than think it works.
@Numberwang
I think it would just have to be accurately documented, in the US at least. Something like “I advised patient this is unlikely to be efficacious and warned of side effects, he/she wishes to proceed.”
Won’t keep you out of court but I’m guessing that’s how it goes. It may surprise some folks to learn (Maybe not) that most of these patients who got stuff via telehealth didn’t even have that in their chart note. I saw one the other day that didn’t even try to have an “exam” or “ROS” in the note. Pretty pathetic.
In Australia, if the doctor was a general practitioner, they would be able to say: “I am not permitted to prescribe ivermectin for that condition”. Only certain specialists are permitted to prescribe ivermectin “off-label” (in place since Sep 2021).
https://www.tga.gov.au/media-release/new-restrictions-prescribing-ivermectin-covid-19
Anti-vac bigwig and founder of America’s Frontline Doctors Simone Gold has struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors for her actions in the 1/6 insurrection. She had been charged with some fairly serious felonies as she was using a bullhorn inside the Capitol to exhort the rioters onward. No word yet on what exactly she pled to, and how much hot water she’s avoiding with the plea.
In related 1/6 news, one of the local news reports on Gold’s plea also notes attorneys for the Oath Keepers have filed court papers comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Because, of course they have.
Top marks for chutzpah, claiming that Jr. is no longer a liberal and has become a fascist. This is textbook projection, straight from the pen of Alinsky: accuse others of what you yourself are guilty of. It is the Democratic Party that has ceased to be liberal, lining up behind Bush era war criminals, cheerleading CIA and FBI propaganda, cheerleading new wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, denying constitutional rights to the public under the pretext of security, and advocating for a world in which everyone who disagrees with their bullshit is forcibly silenced. You’ve come a long way, baby.
Your mischaracterization of fascism is one of the many types of misinformation that you propagate. Fascism is what you and your pharmaceutical patrons represent. It is the marriage of corporate and state power for the “greater good” of the nation. It rejects individualism in favor of a collectivism designed and enforced by the state. Public health is textbook fascism: yes, the government may kill the few to protect the many.
You like to call white nationalists fascists, which is OK I guess, but to be more precise they are wannabe fascists, they want to replace your fascism with theirs. The real problem is that you, like Trudeau et al, love to label anyone who disagrees with you as a white nationalist. Even Trump, the arch Zionist philo Semite favored by some Jews to be their Mashiach, is characterized by the likes of you as a Nazi. Well, maybe he is. But then so are Biden and Obama.
So you, the fascist, characterize yourself as a liberal (which is easy enough, since fascism is a form of socialism). Then you label anyone who disagrees with you a racist and a fascist. Even if they are an individualist or a libertarian. Even if they are not a racist. Even if they are black.
Your political movement has no respect for individual rights. You are not a liberal. You are a totalitarian.
I keep getting confused about whether to use “Alinsky tactics” or “Hegelian dialectic”. 🙁
I’m a former Right Wing voter who left since 2010. This RFK ranting Anti-Vax garbage is leading to Jonestown type events here but with more victims.
Oh yeah. Trump. “King of the Jews.” :rolleyes:
BTW it’s disgusting how close your talking points mirror the Russian language version of Pravda
Bingo!
And on my non-COVID card too! Wow, this is my “old fashioned political conspiracies card” from the 90’s.
Fascism was actually to killi jews. other lesser subhumans ndstart a a war to conquer other nations. Under fascism, corporations run free, being able to use even slave labor.
One one their propaganda claims was jewish bolsevik conspirary. Now we have elite socialism, as ridiculous concept.
Actually we are speaking about public health. Stick with it.
Nonsense. Alinsky didn’t say this. You won’t find it anywhere in his Rules for Radicals:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rules_for_Radicals
Thanks, at least I learned something from this blog. I guess someone pulled a pseudo Alinsky on Alinsky by accusing him of telling others to accuse others of what they themselves are doing. But still, even if unattributed, it’s great advice for liars.
“Even Trump, the arch Zionist philo Semite favored by some Jews to be their Mashiach . . . ”
You owe me a new keyboard for that one, sweetie. OTOH, it’s the best laugh I’ve had all week, so there’s that.
According to reliable news sources ( legacy; yahoo sports), right wingers are using Telegram to plan a truck convoy in the US ( Washington DC route 495; LA?) around the time of that big sporting event on Sunday. Similar material on Natural News. I suppose this disruption will endear the movement to people who want to watch sports.
Interestingly, ( MSNBC) Canadians are vaccinated to a great extent including truckers ( over 80%). So I’m sure most people are enjoying the shutdowns immensely if they live nearby.
I sometimes wonder how followers of RFK jr ( or other alties/ woo-meisters) are somehow able to continue accepting him as a credible source on medical/ scientific topics when he subscribes to so many crazyarsed ideas. He once believed that mercury causes autism**. He endorses political CTs as mentioned above. He spreads nonsense about 5G.
SRSLY. If you followed someone for information and they later revealed secret alien bases, governmental neo-fascistic camps or 911 truth stories, wouldn’t that make you suspicious of their reliability as a source in general?
YET I hear exactly this type of BS peppering altie “health information” and woo-meister’s advice. Is it merely a means to separate out the most impressible/ unsophisticated marks to sell to and split off the more discriminating?
** perhaps he still does
that’s woo-meisters’ and impressionable
“(RFK Jr.) once believed that mercury causes autism.”
I’m sure he still does. His book, ironically titled “Thimerosal: Let The Science Speak” was published in 2015, fourteen years after thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines* and long after it became clear that the change had no effect on incidence of autism or other neurologic disorders. Yet the book was fulminating on getting thimerosal out of “vaccines”.
*the only one on the routine vaccine schedule for children that still has thimerosal preservative is multi-dose flu vaccine, in my experience not in common use in the U.S., while thimerosal-free alternatives are widely available.
**weirdly, the book doesn’t actually specify any authors.
***there’s a tribute up at CHD to Luc Montagnier, a “shining star” of the “Health Freedom Movement”.
The likelihood that RFK Jr. will ever change his mind on any of his delusional beliefs is near zero. Note that in the photo that accompanies Orac’s article, “God” refers to Psalm 16:8, which reads: “I have set the Lord always before me: Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”
As I’ve noted before, RFK Jr. on his CHD website recently made allusions to a final battle being at hand, with him reminding followers of their duty at zero hour and promising to be at their side.
He apparently views himself as the Sword of the Lord.
I guess that beliefs are all you have, when you can’t actually prove that mercury causes autism…
Children’s Health Defense was until a couple of years ago The World Mercury Project and Kennedy was using it to promote some sort challenge to prove thimerosal was safe.
Thus one.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/robert-f-kennedy-jr-announces-the-world-mercury-projects-100000-challenge-with-goal-of-stopping-use-of-highly-toxic-mercury-in-vaccines-300407825.html
Off topic, sorry.
Luc Montagnier has died. He was 89.
https://www.rawstory.com/luc-montagnier-french-nobel-laureate-who-co-discovered-hiv-dies-at-89/
Denice
Looking back on the ‘MOSTLY PEACEFUL’ protest of BLM, when 2 BILLION dollars in property damage was done and over 30 killed. Those protester used twitter, facebook and others to foment violent with no banning and similar kinds of actions on social media.
Oh and disrupt the sporting event, you mean like moving the baseball ALL-STAR GAME.
And there is talk about lifting the mask mandate just in time……..
I guess from your point it just matters who is protesting.
“when 2 BILLION dollars in property damage was done and over 30 killed.”
Fuck the police. #ACAB
We need a new medical definition for death. Brain death is insufficient since, as we can see, it is still possible to manipulate a keyboard when in that state.
If you are stupid enough to blame BLM for the protests you’re too stupid to take seriously “Eddy”.
Perhaps you should nnot copy BLM, if you think they are so bad,
Regardless of the cause inciting the protests, I think it’s interesting to contrast spontaneous. intermittently gathering crowds of people with a planned collection of hundreds** of large transport vehicles clogging a major city for weeks. Not to mention international crossings as well.
** despite claims of “50,000” trucks, CNN fact check counts much less from police observers in Kingston
The governments have shut down things for over 2 years, but said they only needed 2 weeks to flatten the curve and we have about 1,400 deaths a day but democrat governors are lifting restrictions.
And a Harvard professor and former Homeland Security Undersecretary and now CNN analyst, Juliette Kayyem calls for “Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks.” I believe she is calling for violence and property damage against peaceful protestors.
The US has a truck driver shortage of over 50,000 drivers now and is expected to grow to over 100,000 in the next 10 years, do you really think that strategy will prove wise. I learned a long time ago don’t piss off the waitress (she will spit in your food, and yes they do spit in your food), don’t drive a car with a ‘Fuck the Police” bumper sticker (obvious reasons), don’t yell at the plumber/sewer worker or the electrician/linesman (try flushing the backed up toilet in the dark) and now don’t piss off the people who deliver over 90% of your food, clothing etc.
And do you still watch CNN after all scandals they have been thru. The employees didn’t know the top guy had a high paid concubine and you still expect them to report ANYTHING accurately ? Their source claimed that it was on about 120 tractors, some with trailers, (if you did the math that would be less than 4,000 feet of trucks or less then one mile) you really think that 120 semi’s could shut down a city or nation and cause such panic in the country’s leadership ?
I think you have had one too many boosters of something.
Well, of course it’s counterproductive to slash the trucks’ tires and then attempt to move them.
What governments have instituted lockdowns lasting over two years?
Melbourne in Australia has had one of the longest totals of lockdown, but that was (depending on how you define “lockdown”) 257-277 days, and not all in one lockdown. Some other cities or regions have had similar periods of lockdown.
Melbourne’s longest continuous lockdown was 111 days.
The longest continuous lockdown was Buenos Aires, 234 days.
(Numbers are as of Oct 2021).
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-25/fact-check-is-melbourne-most-locked-down-city/100560172
I think Eddy’s definition of “lockdown” is something like “someone, somewhere, was inconvenienced by COVID public health measures”.
@ Eddy
You write: “Looking back on the ‘MOSTLY PEACEFUL’ protest of BLM, when 2 BILLION dollars in property damage was done and over 30 killed. Those protester used twitter, facebook and others to foment violent with no banning and similar kinds of actions on social media.”
In fact, the Black Lives Matter uprisings were remarkably nonviolent. When there was violence, very often police or counterprotesters were reportedly directing it at the protesters. . . . Here is what we have found based on the 7,305 events we’ve collected. The overall levels of violence and property destruction were low, and most of the violence that did take place was, in fact, directed against the BLM protesters. . . Only 3.7% of the protests involved property damage or vandalism. Some portion of these involved neither police nor protesters, but people engaging in vandalism or looting alongside the protests. . .The claim that the protests are violent – even when the police started the violence – can help local, state and federal forces justify intentionally beating, gassing or kettling the people marching, or reinforces politicians’ calls for “law and order.” . . Given that protesters were objecting to extrajudicial police killings of Black citizens, protesters displayed an extraordinary level of nonviolent discipline, particularly for a campaign involving hundreds of documented incidents of apparent police brutality. The protests were extraordinarily nonviolent, and extraordinarily nondestructive, given the unprecedented size of the movement’s participation and geographic scope. . . Further, authoritarian leaders almost always try to treat protesters as criminals and to delegitimize their claims by exaggerating any incidents of violence and property destruction. These narrative techniques shore up support for broad-based repression against these groups, at little political cost to the autocrat. [Chenoweth (2020 Oct 20). Black Lives Matter Protesters Were Overwhelmingly Peaceful, Our Research Finds | Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.] NOTE. I found over a dozen newspaper articles, etc. that all basically said the same thing, that is, that on the whole, given the size of the BLM protests they were exceedingly peaceful AND the overwhelming violence was by police and those opposing BLM.
So, in your opinion any peaceful protests should be banned because groups opposing the protests and/or police respond with violence??? I guess you opposed the Civil Rights Movement, especially when police turned dogs and fire hoses on defenseless non-violent kids? How about peaceful protest against the Vietnam War when police and blue collar workers attacked the peaceful protestors? AND NO, finding isolated incidences are NOT proof of anything! ! !
@ Eddy
You write: “The governments have shut down things for over 2 years, but said they only needed 2 weeks to flatten the curve and we have about 1,400 deaths a day but democrat governors are lifting restrictions.”
Maybe someone said “only needed 2 weeks to flatten the curve” but anyone trained in epidemiology, etc. would NEVER say that. First, it was a new virus, so we needed to learn more about it. Second, to flatten the curve means to stop overwhelming of hospitals. If too many sick at one time, many more would die simply because hospitals and hospital staffs would be overwhelmed. Without lockdowns, we might actually have obtained herd immunity; but with loss of more than 2 million lives and many more with long covid. As for 1,400 deaths per day currently, almost all are among unvaccinated or some who only received first injection. So, the lockdown did what it was supposed to do, flattened the curve, which allowed development of treatments and vaccines. As for “democratic governors lifting restrictions”, some yes; but not all restrictions. For instance, in California we have high rate of vaccinations, so mask restrictions have been reduced; but not eliminated.
So, this is second time you didn’t get your facts right.
However, we did screw up in many ways, including not maintaining National Strategic Stockpile, underfunding/understaffing NIH, FDA, and CDC, allowing most Personal Protective Equipment to be manufactured in China (with covid outbreak they kept), most of medicines produced partly or completely in India and China, a strategic pandemic plan based on flu virus (corona virus functions very differently), and a polarized nation with high levels of scientific illiteracy and many trusting social media, etc. and finally, we are NOT a nation; but Federal, State, County, Municipal public health departments, etc. each doing to some extent their own thing. Result, we have highest per capita death rate by far among any advanced democracy. For anyone interested: Scott Gottlieb (2021). Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic
I have to snigger a little when people say how the country has shut down for X amount of time and the problem still hasn’t gone away.
Dude, I watched you not wear a mask, not social distance, not wash your hands regularly, downplay the severity of the virus and not get all of the vaccines. You’re part of the problem.
@ Sue Dunham
You write: “Your mischaracterization of fascism is one of the many types of misinformation that you propagate. Fascism is what you and your pharmaceutical patrons represent. It is the marriage of corporate and state power for the “greater good” of the nation. It rejects individualism in favor of a collectivism designed and enforced by the state. Public health is textbook fascism: yes, the government may kill the few to protect the many.”
“It rejects individualism”. We live in mainly urban environments where we have rights and responsibilities. We have laws against driving under the influence. We have laws against dumping toxic chemicals down drains. We have laws against loud noises; e.g., parties, etc. after certain hours. We have seatbelt laws, which both protect the occupants to some extent and reduce medical costs which we all contribute indirectly to. A few years ago someone refused to pay their fire department assessment fees, when their house caught fire, fire department showed up and just watched. However, if home had NOT been isolated they would have had to act to protect surrounding homes. We have laws against being naked in public. Which of the aforementioned laws would you annul??? So, basically, any law that restricts individuals in any way, shape, or form according to you is fascism???
As for wearing masks, physical distancing, there is a long history of similar acts going back to the Plague of the Middle Ages; e.g., lockdowns, masks, etc. As for mandatory vaccines, despite what scientifically illiterates believe, the current mRNA vaccines work quite well and have extremely low risks. However, if someone doesn’t want to get vaccinated, they can stay at home, have food delivered, etc. Otherwise, an asymptomatic could infect someone who couldn’t be vaccinated and/or their immune system didn’t respond. If we could trace each infection to who transmitted, which we can’t, then we could simply indict someone who didn’t get vaccinated with, for instance, manslaughter, since by not being vaccinated they allowed possibility they could infect an innocent third party.
I realize you don’t understand any of the above; but reasonable people will. Even historically several Supreme Court Justices have said: “The Constitution isn’t a suicide pact” quite simply, the Bill of Rights isn’t some absolute that ignores the reality of living in communities, having rights and responsibilities. And whatever you think of Pharmaceutical Industry/Government is not completely wrong; but grossly exaggerated; however, when it come to the COVID vaccine, it is based on over 50 years research on mRNA, 30 years on mRNA vaccines, and even if questioned when first offered, we now have thousands of studies and reports from around the world of it effectiveness and safety
Effectiveness and safety, right. You mean short term effectiveness against severe symptoms, correct? Perhaps you could explain to me why the mass media and science communicators more broadly actively implied that the vaccine was also effective at stopping transmission of COVID. Even though they had no reason to believe this was true, not even an initial claim from Pfizer. Now the results are in: the mRNA products were and remain incapable of ending the pandemic, no matter the variant in play. So you say “effective” but isn’t that a bland coverup of a much more nuanced situation? I just read another comment from you saying that correlation can sometimes be causation. How do you feel about the correlation between vaccine uptake and following huge waves of COVID disease and death? How do you feel about the COVID statistics currently coming out of Israel?
As for “safe”, well, I’ll ask you the same question I asked Orac, since you claim to fully understand the risks of the spike protein jabs. How many people do they kill? When you say “safe” what you really mean is that the incidence of benefit outweighs the incidence of harm. But the harm is there, totally ignored, just like vaxxed people spreading the disease uncontrollably is also ignored.
Consent to treatment requires actual information, not euphemistic blandishments scripted for the least common denominator. Therefore everyone who has overstated the effect and understated the risk of mRNA spike protein prophylaxis in an official capacity is guilty of crimes against humanity.
There are actual studies COVID transmission and vaccines. Do you not know thwm ? Transmissionb is prevented, too,
After billlions of “spike protein jabs” safety profile should be quite well established, do you think ?
Consent should be based on facts, not ramblings of greedy trial lawyers.
“Effectiveness and safety, right. You mean short term effectiveness against severe symptoms, correct?”
And in greatly lowering risk of death, also reducing viral transmission, keeping people from having to experience months/years of long Covid etc.
What the vaccines have not been shown to do is lower the incidence of projection in antivaxers who rant about “crimes against humanity”.
Just an ad hominem reminder of what a sleaze and sociopath RFKJr really is: he’s a known philanderer who dumped his wife for the current one and then refused to help her out financially knowing she had a history of depression. She killed herself. I’d go out on a limb and say he drove his ex-wife to suicide.