Have We Really Been Doing Everything Wrong

The administration wants the American people to believe we've been doing it all wrong

In an early biography of Trump, “Trump Revealed” a 2016 book, there is a story about after being sent to military school by his father (a move precipitated by young Donny tormenting other children, as well as teachers, and much as he does today, but literally, threw stones at other kids) how he used a broomstick as a weapon against classmates who didn’t listen to him when he told them what to do. Enforcing academy rules, or creating his own? Let’s say nothing has changed, except to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, he carries a much bigger stick; as for the talking softly part, well, perhaps with great bluster is more appropriate.

Our country throughout its history has had certain norms in and around the White House. Chief among these has been appointing those with experience in the various cabinet and other administration roles that the President must fill. You would be hard pressed to find anyone in this administration with a scintilla of the experience necessary to run the departments to which they have been given the keys. Given that Marco Rubio is likely the most qualified appointee, we all need to do some head scratching. If it were only the lack of qualifications vis-a-vis the roles being filled that would be troubling, but to begin to tear down institutions with no clear plan other than operating under a concept of getting rid of waste fraud and abuse, is terrifying.

Among all of the ill-suited cabinet officials, it would be almost impossible not to start with RFK, Jr. at HHS. Like other of the sitting officials in this administration he had the temerity to boldly lie during his confirmation hearings, where party line and fealty to fearless leader prevailed. Too many Senators failed to accept that their duty was to the Constitution, not to a man. As each day passed, the health of our Nation is under assault. Make America Healthy Again? Sounds great, and the idea of ridding our food systems of chemicals and additives sounds really good. Getting exercise and embracing the outdoors represents an idea about which we should all be nodding in approval. But as with most “it’s too good to be true” ideas, the devil is in the details.

How can Americans be more healthy (I will get to the medicine issues in a bit) when they cannot afford fresh fruit and vegetables? What about the inner city food deserts, where the opening of a grocery store offers a celebration close to your team wining a championship? And how does this concept of getting healthier operate when SNAP benefits have been assaulted and battered by the Big Boondoggle? What about urban centers without any trees? Talk is cheap and all of what HHS utters has no substance, support, or remedies to deal with the underlying goal of making us all healthier.

On the medical front, things are even more perilous. Kennedy announced earlier this week that the federal government is calling off around $500 million worth of vaccine development projects that use mRNA technology. 22 projects funded through something called the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA have been terminated. Most of the projects that were eliminated were for vaccines that fight COVID-19 or the flu. Did we learn nothing from 2020?! Kennedy announced the move on X as part of a step away from research into mRNA vaccines (messenger RNA, or mRNA, to prompt the body to make proteins that induce antibody production to protect against an infection). The approach with mRNA has drawn more interest since the COVID-19 pandemic, when mRNA vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna proved generally safe and effective against the coronavirus. Public health officials credit the rapid development of the vaccines with saving millions of lives.

Nevertheless, Doctor Kennedy, sorry researcher Kennedy, wait, witch doctor Kennedy said, "HHS has determined that mRNA technology poses more risk than benefits for these respiratory viruses." His unscientific and substantiated claim is that mRNA vaccines can stop working properly if the virus that they target mutates too much, citing a study in younger children as an example. "A single mutation can make mRNA vaccines ineffective," Kennedy said. But the study he cited had nothing to do with the more vulnerable among us. Real doctors and researchers pretty much all agree that the decision will leave Americans vulnerable.

Dr. Paul Offit, a virologist and vaccine expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said Kennedy "has once again made a decision, not based on scientific evidence that puts this country at unnecessary risk." Epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm called it "one of the worst decisions I've seen in 50 years of public health preparedness work." He added: "If an influenza pandemic hit us tomorrow, the global flu vaccine manufacturing capacity using the standard method of growing the virus in chicken eggs would only produce enough vaccine in 18 months to vaccinate just one fourth of the world." "We desperately need a vaccine technology where we could make enough vaccine for the world in a year."

As was proven with COVID, mRNA vaccines can be developed, manufactured and changed quickly, allowing drugmakers and public health officials to make the kind of rapid development against novel viruses and to constantly mutating viruses like the flu. Not trusting science is bad enough, especially from a department that should have a science forward viewpoint, but one of the projects being canceled was aiming to develop an mRNA vaccine for H5N1, bird flu, considered a potential future pandemic agent. I guess that egg prices thing is old news now that the economics of it all has been solved!

In yet another hollow pronouncement, Kennedy boldly asserted: “We’re moving beyond the limitations of mRNA and investing in better solutions.” He offered that “We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.” I feel like the kid in class that knows the answer and is wildly raising his hand, but in this case I just want to know what the fuck he is suggesting! Remember, this is the guy who said “there’s no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective.” What I find most peculiar, (although in this administration, what isn’t peculiar), is it was not that long ago that as 45, the Felon took credit for Operation Warp Speed, and now we have an anti-vixx crank running the show.

Obviously, one cannot talk about the change brought forth during the reign of 47 without talking about the economy. Needless to say, the attacks on the Fed and the recent firing of the head of BLS because Trumplethinskin cannot tolerate bad news, or news that paints him in less than a heroic pose, have been at the front of the news these last few days, but it seems that great majority of economists, in both the academic and business worlds, believe that the economic policies preferred by the Felon are destructive. Let’s start with his edict of high tariffs, which has undone the effects of 90 years of trade negotiations. With no clear model, when you add the tariffs, to labor shortages created by a racist assault on America, masquerading as an immigration policy, and the cruelty of the Big Boondoggle, one has to wonder when the proverbial other shoe will drop. Even more frightening are the cuts to scientific research (another masquerade in an effort to rip away the independence of universities and DEI, which quite simply is another racist ploy) which he does not seem to understand is an economic driver.

As for how the stock market has recovered from the initial tariff fear, I guess we just need to wait and see. But is the market our economy? Who benefits from higher stock prices? The person who has lost Medicaid? The family living at the poverty level that loses SNAP benefits? To my mind’s eye a more holistic view needs to be taken and simply marveling at the growth in the markets is a very slippery slope on which to travel.

As we collectively hold our breath on the economy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which hears disputes concerning international trade, government contracts, and patents, among other clearly delineated areas, has a case on its docket, V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump, a consolidated case involving businesses and states that say they have been harmed by the President’s tariffs. The court, sitting en banc, that is, all eleven active judges present, is soon expected to pass judgment on this deeply disruptive, feature of Trump 47.

Judging the legality of Trump’s tariffs, as a matter of basic statutory and constitutional interpretation, seems pretty clear. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or I.E.E.P.A., which Trump has invoked, and which grants the President broad authority to take urgent economic actions concerning other nations, doesn’t mention the word “tariffs.” This particular statute, allows the nation’s chief executive only to deal with “any unusual and extraordinary threat.” How a mere trade deficit with another country (about which he has repeatedly lied), is neither unusual nor extraordinary, and under the Constitution, Congress, not the President, gets to set taxes on goods that the rest of us end up paying. Regardless of how the Court rules, the case will likely be appealed, leaving the final word to the Supreme Court. Heaven help us if they resolve a claim favorable to the administration via the shadow docket as these issues and this power grab must be stopped because the more power is taken by the executive, a key point in Project 2025, the closer the Republic is to collapse.

During arguments for the V.O.S. a lawyer for the one of the plaintiffs said: “Tariffs and taxation are always tempting for kings and Presidents.” Reports suggest that more than one judge on the Federal Circuit seemed deeply incredulous that Trump, or any President, could, on pure whim, call anything a national emergency, and then go unchallenged. And yet, the Supreme Court may yet again punt.

Finally, one of my personal fears has been the Felon appearing at the 2028 Olympics here in LA to celebrate the greatness of the Reich administration. He has already grabbed onto the creation of a White House task form to oversee preparation for the Games. It is unclear how closely the task force plans to work with state and local officials, the ones he attacked and who told him in no uncertain terms to fuck off. One has to question if he will seek to bypass local authorities and run things through the White House (of course, will athletes be denied entry into the US?). Historically, host countries have had some form of military presence at the Olympics, but General Bone Spur might want to offer the world a more aggressive approach. Who will be his Leni Riefenstahl?

Get up. Stand up.