31 Comments

It’s “just peachy” that you’re keeping us all updated. Thank you for the info. We ate some candy this week too, stressful week. Do people think he will be “ impeached “ ( candy pun 🍑🍬) ? I looked up the impeachment process to remember how it works…It’ll be interesting to see what Congress says this week about erratic changes …

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:)

I do not have the political expertise to know about that one...

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Morning,

Caroline Kennedy’s letter in the NY Times and the YouTube reading by her of the letter is an important condemnation of her cousin Bobby Jr. The guy is a predator according to his cousin Caroline. Additionally, the memo from the OMB office has been questioned as having no legal authority to order the termination and phasing of the programs that it did. The MAGAets never do their public pronouncements with any legal underpinnings. It is all for publicity and chaos.

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yeah it's for chaos and the "try 10 things and maybe 2 will stick" approach.

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I am profoundly saddened by the cruel & deliberate "bullying" tactics of your new occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave & his decrepit band on syncophants ☹️

I truly cringe when DJT is referred to as smart, he is not, simply a self serving "bully" that is enabled & facilitated by those unwilling to risk being reelected or fired 😥

It's said, "one should not mix politics and religion" 🤔 DJT should never be allowed to utter "God Bless America" while his actions are malicious & self serving.

His actions and those in his 'circle' may be viewed as strategic through someone's lens yet from my lens simply a 'bully' who hopefully will eventually receive the 'figuritive' punch in the nose, for that I pray for all Americans & remain once again saddened for those impacted by his actions. JJF 🇨🇦

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Very well stated

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This is a small but significant first step in countering reckless decisions that threaten public health and research. However, it is only a temporary reprieve, not a resolution—we need sustained pressure and persistence to safeguard public health from political disruption.

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Yes the larger fight is beginning.

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Indeed--we need sustained pressure, persistence, and strength.

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exactly.

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This is the intentional, cruel Putinization of American health care. Whether Kennedy, or another Trump pick is confirmed is not the point. It is deflection, dramatic, but only a deflection from The P2025 Blueprint. The plan is to dismantle HHS, and privatize. There is no good choice, none, if P2025 and Trump are doing the choosing.

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yeah that seems right. The question is how do we fight this.

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You already are. Whether appreciation is voiced, or not, you, your family, friends, your network of professionals are greatly appreciated. You reach many more people than perhaps you think you do. Many more. Thank you

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Don't know how you find the time and it will get harder for you to speak out. Having a husband who has worked in senior positions in state gov and Fed gov for 45 years in the Environment, and working myself with state legislators and laws on Public Education issues and health/disability on MA and MD, I can tell you the onslaught of what the present oligarchy is doing has far more lasting impact. Even if we win more lasting legal suits. Each time they do this, Fed workers can not plan ahead, cannot delegate tasks, cannot budget/allocate funds, set up calendars, etc. With Trump's threats to jobs for Fed workers currently telling them they have till early Feb to leave their jobs and get 8 months severance pay...he twists the "knife of insecurity" deeper and very effectively. In my family we saw how just the regular threat of gov shutdowns in past years could create so much stress and inefficiency. And how the general public has no idea just how much we ALL depend on gov services in this Democracy. It will be magnified way beyond that. Tying up our local, state, and federal workers' time fighting these suits while dealing with serious threats to the safety of their family and themselves. I just hope they weren't all living in "la-la land" and made plans and systems for communication long before before the inauguration. And that they found a way to hide and protect data. It will be and already is much worse than what Fauci experienced. And here comes Kennedy...

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Yes you are correct. A lot of this is designed to impede progress by making people play defense and clean up rather than moving ahead.

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PA-C with sour gummi worms in my desk. We will resist! Thank you for all of your updates and content.

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🙌 glad it is helpful!

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And then there's the Big Elephant in the room....what of Affordable Care Act and pre-existing conditions???! Watching the C_Span coverage of R. Kennedy's hearing. Will Congress address this? For those who ask what they can do...you should all be watching this hearing live and/or recorded.

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Can someone summarize it for me so far? I had to sleep and get a haircut lol. Plus, I have trouble watching these. I will watch some and read but ... on this one I am the one who is going to need updates.

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The other big issue was questions about what brought about his complete turn-around on abortion care. Again, lots of wishy-washy answers but basically because he felt betrayed and angry with his former party, the Dems. When asked about what his plans for use of Mifepristone for women's health is , he said, "President Trump is studying that and I (Kennedy) will do whatever he wants me to do." Kennedy's mantra through out the hearing was "Radical Transparency" referring to Trump/MAGA refrain that the American people do not trust these established agencies and scientists. Mostly using lawyers without medical backgrounds to review them. Kennedy claimed he'd already hired a lawyer when asked by VT Senator what he planned to do about our failing, expensive healthcare system after Kennedy claimed how good his Medicare Advantage Plan was. I, personally, don't see how the Kennedy nomination will fail. Much like the Hegseth. When this hearing ended there were many loud cheers and clapping for Kennedy when he left the room. We saw this all through Trump's impeachment trials. I'm just hoping the folks that stay in these agencies have a plan to safeguard data and thwart Trump while keeping their jobs. We, on the outside need to find out how we can aid them.

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On some specifics outside of confirmation process, one of the biggest things that came out of today's Senate Finance Hearing was that Kennedy strongly watered down his previous stance on being anti-vax claiming he was NOT anti-vax at all. Which of course Dems nailed him on on even recent statements in interviews in which he said things like when asked in the past,"There is no safe and effective vaccine." He also claimed at one point that the Spanish flu deaths were caused by the vaccine reactions. And of course had all his info and historical dates wrong as proved by one Senator. Summation of his change of stance was obviously for benefit of nomination and when questioned thoroughly today sounded much like a white supremacist does when claiming he is not racist just doesn't believe Blacks are as advanced as Whites.

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One of RFK Jr’s beliefs is that black people need a different vaccination schedule than white people. CRAZY

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First, today's hearing is the first and most powerful committee Kennedy must gain support in, in order to move onto FULL Senate hearing/vote. This was the Finance CMT. Tomorrow is the Senate HELP Cmt (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions). They focus on FDA, CDC, NIH, etc...all the agencies that he would have power over in NIH.

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Bernie Sanders asked if healthcare is a human right and RFK jr. couldn’t answer that … geesh …

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Focus should be on alternative solutions because they are going to handily win this war.

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I'm not sure they are going to win but I agree it is going to be a war

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If the GOP confirmed Hegseth, they will certainly confirm Kennedy. Really sad that the collective group of Republicans have lost their spines.

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I too am very thankful for the reversal of the PEPFAR decree. I hope it shows a capability to listen to reason and have some compassion, but do worry that it may be due more to self-interest once learning that the US withdrawal of mediines could eventually cause drug-resistant cases in this small world. Along the same lines, I am surprised that any 78 year old would support appointment of someone who would interfere with vaccines and medical research that could prevent increased severity of diseases like flu and covid and help provide up to date treatments. Unless one is planning to rule in isolation from a bubble of filtered air, being anti vaccine and anti research is a risky personal choice as well as being detrimental to the American people.

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But didn’t you just show an “unverified” X post from a MD about ICE being in their hospital two days ago ? As a “trusted” source, you are well aware that if you repost something that is unverified, even with disclosing that you know it is “unverified”, just the weight of your authority infers it should be believed. That doesn’t build confidence for future posts.

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Ben, this is a bad-faith comment, I believe.

There are two differences.

1. In the previous post, I wrote "ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is now permitted to enter hospitals. As I wrote before, this is an awful idea. Is it happening? Well, at least one physician reported it happening in a BlueSky post, but I have not seen this confirmed." So, this was an explicit acknowledgement of the uncertainty of the information.

2. The post I shared was by made by a real, identified physician, showing their name and face, not an anonymous meme account. If that doctor was wrong about the report, it is on him. Indeed, that is why I specifically pointed out the uncertainty of it.

If you don't have confidence in my work, I'll be happy to discuss a refund with you.

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Jeremy, you seem to be saying that as long as one stipulates that something isn’t confirmed and, it is from a “verified” real account, then this essentially releases the reposter from the responsibility for the accuracy of the original post? My intent in commenting was twofold.

1. To point out that the reason the X post about BCH went viral was exactly because of exposure from reposting without any confirmation.

2. That because of your authority, your opinion holds more weight. The repost, by mere virtue of the fact that you chose to repost it, is an opinion on the likelihood of that event being true.

No, sorry, one disagreement doesn’t mean I will ignore a valuable source of information. $4/month still coming your way.

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