Your writing is obviously biased. There are doctors all over the world and peer reviewed studies that support Kennedy's assertions about the covid vaccines but you didn't quote any of them instead you cherry pick "experts" that support your biased claims. Disappointing article. It is too bad you didn't share more of Kennedy's positions -…
Your writing is obviously biased. There are doctors all over the world and peer reviewed studies that support Kennedy's assertions about the covid vaccines but you didn't quote any of them instead you cherry pick "experts" that support your biased claims. Disappointing article. It is too bad you didn't share more of Kennedy's positions - such as Ukraine, environmental, working to end the corruption in our regulatory agencies (the revolving door and the fact that the corporations have so much influence). This read much more like an opinion piece than journalism.
The author also keep repeating false accusation about RFK Jr. for example that he was comparing covid lockdowns to Nazi Germany. I was at the rally and he did not made that comparison, he compared the surveillance government that was being introduced during covid to Nazi Germany's totalitarian government, and he specifically said that at least during WWII people could escape to a different country, but with this kind of global threat there is nowhere to escape. This statement was used out of context, but other journalists gave him a possibility to explain himself, the author in question simply copied and pasted the sentence from some other publication.
BRAVO! Well said Tonya!!! As I began to read I thought to myself here's another one regurgitating the same ole garbage they all say! Jesus H. Christ can we get someone who actually does the research before penning another hit piece! I'm getting so sick and tired of the "vaccine skeptic" label!!! Hah! It's like one writes it and then they all follow suit - lemmings! Unbelievable!! Here's a novel idea - how about the fact that he's a staunch advocate for SAFE vaccines? What you have to love best about this label is - once people start popping their clogs by the millions, everyone WILL BE a vaccine skeptic or better yet - an ANTI-VAXER! So basically they're setting the table for him - talk about poetic justice!!
Yeah and casually saying that being anti vax is a right wing thing, while ignoring the REASONS - that the FDA, CDC and NIH have been spewing nonstop lies and garbage science for 3 years to which folks are not unreasonably wondering "well, what else are they lying or off the charts wrong about"
It's curious that we're not hearing more (or anything, really) about the recent COVID International Summit 3 held at the European Parliament in Brussels on May 2-4, 2023. What do more than 30 senior physicians and research scientists from around the world have to say about their experiences attempting to save the lives of patients affected by COVID-19 and the vaccines? Are the vaccines safe and effective? What are the results of their research derived from real-time interaction with COVID-19 patients? What are their observations regarding government policies towards masking, lock downs and treatment protocols? And what about the children?
It shouldn't be necessary to point this out, but these individuals, with decades of experience in their respective specialties, are the opposite of conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers.
In fairness to the author and The Free Press, it is intended as an opinion piece rather than objective reporting. However, it is shallow and deceptive and dismissive of the appalling corruption and ineptitude of the Biden administration.
With one noticeable exception- the value of the comments section... like many have commented, their has been a palpable change in a lot of the writing recently. for awhile I didn't have a problem with never having an article written (or podcast guest) by any conservatives outside of faux-conservatives (also TDS sufferers) like French and that hack Jonah Goldberg.. but now the writing is starting to delve into mainstream press levels of narrative framing.. articles like this one and that piece of trash article by Nocera on DeSantis vs. Disney being 2 notable recent examples.... but the discussion in these comment sections is TFP's saving grace and the only reason I haven't canceled my subscription.....
I am currently liviing in an expat community in Mexico filled with Democrats with whom I have many disagreements BUt there is an increasing number who, even after getting shots and booster shots, are rethinking the whole vaccine debacle. A very quiet anti-vax group was started about a year ago which has grown to over 50 in attendance all by word of mouth.. To be sure, this group will hardly swing an election but the more people hear from the many Canadians who live here and become aware of the restricitions Trudeau placed on the entire country and the more people hear of people who lost jobs or couldnt fly because they refused the vaccine, the more people are joining the group.
From what I hear, most of the Americans just drank the kool-aid out of fear of Covid and faith in Fauci. and had no idea what a stranglehold Fauci et al were exercising. Now that they are away from the American mass media and have a chance to talk to others in safe surroundings and think for themselves, they are changing their once iron-clad positions
To be sure the Thursday meetings are not advertised - this is still a nacent movement. But these expats are for the most part Dems who vote in large numbers. . It will be interesting to see when the election is held, if people are no longer put off by RFK Jr's anti-vax stance.
I think the DiSantis messaging that Trump gave the country over to Fauci and Pfizer is going to resonate among a good amount of people in the 2024 race.
The government and media definitely overplayed the dangers of Covid to the common person. Fear is a very powerful control tool. I always questioned why when something was so dire that those in power would only push one solution: a vaccine. There weren't any national or regional campaigns to encourage a healthy lifestyle nor were doctors encouraged to try medications off-label in the hopes of getting a stranglehold on the virus. It all defied logic.
Ditto. Kennedy has been very vocal about the evisceration of our bill of rights, the partnership between government and big corporations which equals fascism and the total capture of the press. Moreover, he has said repeatedly in interviews the he is NOT an anti-vaxer or vaccine skeptic. He is concerned and skeptical about the safety of vaccines. Not one child hood vaccine has been tested against a placebo. Not one! Read Turtles All The Way Down for some properly sourced information on vaccines. And BTW- this is just personal opinion- but the use of the term “ debunked” is a bit unprofessional and often indicative of the lack of professional research underlying an article.
Whom would we guinea pig to be the placebo arm? I.e. which persons would be selected to be infected so we can placebo-vaccinate them?
Ethically, we cannot do this. We have to think _ethics_ when we talk of using placebo controlled trials such that when it would not be ethical, other means are used for testing.
Countless studies have been done proving MMRs efficacy, and polio vaccine efficacy for example. And yet, Kennedy insisted he was right and people were harmed as immunity to MMR and others like polio has been diminished.
BTW, I am not likening the covid vaccines to the very well proven efficacy of MMR and polio vaccines and to whatever extent Kennedy may have barked against covid vacs for certain populations, I am in agreement as other leaders in the field have avered (e.g. Vinay Prasad, et al).
As I understand it, the argument against the trials is not that some should have been infected and given a placebo. (It would also be unethical to infect people deliberately and then give them the vaccine being studied before we even know if it works.) That is never the design- people are not deliberately infected, but the drugs are administered in a population where the pathogen is active and then monitored. All that needed to be done was inject some in the trial with the vaccine and leave others uninjected and then compare. Instead, they treated everyone- some with vaccine and some with something that was NOT a placebo but a substance that could have side effects of its own.
I haven’t read the trials myself so if this is incorrect, I will gladly stand corrected.
Preservation of the Republic, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights safeguarding the citizen is all that matters. This is a NEW AGE. A group of retro political grifter's have seized control of the world political narrative and are now attempting to redefine what it is to be a human being. Their's is a visionless devolution of society and politics as witnessed by their ineptitude in allowing the return of a possible nuclear confrontation, and their abandonment of human moral reason for the opportunity of personal financial gain. The realpolitik for the American citizen today is who will control access to free speech, expression and communication on tech platforms. That's the war they're waging.
Your definition of fascism is correct. But, I believe we are past the area of political/financial self-interested graft and squarely in the realm of the pathological. The DNC/D.C./corporate hog trough display's the same blinding megalomania, hubris and narcissism that defined the regimes of Hitler, Mao and "Uncle Joe". Their self-protecting move toward mass surveillance, the "be afraid" object lesson's of destroyed American lives and their willing financial support of "break a few egg's to make an omelette" Marxist utopians' to create chaos and division, clearly says they've departed sanity. The unfounded belief in their invincibility and their willingness (like all tyrants) to place themselves above individual freedom and dignity puts American's, and the world in peril.
The entirety of the fight for American freedom and survival lies in the Constitution. Europe, Australia and Canada are completely compromised. Their citizens are being arrested for thought and speech crimes. Movement restricted. Euthanasia on demand. Farmland and private property seized. Their societies molded and reshaped to fit the CCP ideal of totalitarian citizen control. Why not? That's where the Davos/Wall Street boy's make their money. And America? Nine dead and a dozen more senselessly wounded in Chicago this Memorial Day weekend. "ism's" are dead. The Constitution, the Republic and the citizen is all that remains.
I guessed I'd see this nonsense here. RFK has been a force against vaccines of all kinds for many years, long before you kids invented Covid-19. I have seen kids die of measles, chickenpox, pneumococcal, meningococcal and H.influenzae meningitis. Pregnancies lost or damaged by rubella, kids left deaf by OM, and dying of tetanus or rabies isn't much fun. ALL of these are prevented by immunization. So don't confuse his blanket hatred of all vaccination with your disagreement with Fauci: that's small beans compared to the lives that vaccines save every day.
What you really ought to ask yourselves is this: should someone stupid enough to see vaccines as harmful be trusted to be president?
Im no fan of RFK Jr but let’s not twist what he says. He said himself in the interview- it isn’t the vaccines that he sees as harmful, he sees improperly tested and monitored drugs as harmful. If every one of the current vaccines was thoroughly tested and well monitored and approved by an organization without massive conflicts of interest- then let’s talk about that. Many people don’t see vaccine technology as the problem, but the companies that produce them.
You’d think holding the pharmaceutical companies that make our drugs and the governmental organizations that approve them to a high standard would be something that we can all agree on.
The notion that all these vaccines are all equally important is hogwash, and the fact that pharmaceutical companies were given a free pass in our highly litigious society is an enormous, undulating red flag. Do you know what else is not much fun? Watching an individual struggle through life with autism, and their family struggle both emotionally and financially to support them. Vaccine legitimacy can be established through a series of steps: Remove legal protections to pharmaceuticals, so they may be directly responsible financially for any consequences. Allow parents to choose which vaccines to administer to their kids (the idea that chicken pox’s threat is equal to that of, say, polio or tetanus, is laughable). And many more I do not have the time to mention here. Pharmaceuticals and the government dismiss all this out of hand and continue to make these companies impermeable to any lawsuits - of course this will raise red flags, ans it should in any society that prides itself on accountability.
Christopher, it us the rapidly expanding cocktail of vaxxes we give our kids and the unknown potential interactions between them that is a concern, not the effect of any given vax per se.
We should support everyone’s right to control whats injected into their kids or their own bodies. Likewise those who don’t vax should live with consequences.
As to RFKs chances of presidency - less than zero.
In 1986 a law was passed that gave pharmaceutical companies freedom from liability for childhood vaccines. Since that time (gold rush!), the vaccine schedule has tripled. Children now get something in the neighborhood of 72 shots. After the law passed, chronic disease in childhood skyrocketed, from 12 percent to now 54 percent. No one is allowed to question why over 50 percent of our children currently have chronic disease such as autism and adhd. This seems way more important to me than the pronoun beat which occupies our courageous journalists. If interested, see a documentary on this subject called, 1986: The Act (2020).
Another red herring argument. The truth has been wildly twisted a la "How to Lie With Statistics" in typical cult fashion, just like the "9/11 Truthers" did with their conspiracy nonsense about 9/11. The anti-vaccine movement can be wholly likened to a cult. And it is even more destructive.
The actual informatiion, however, is fully available exposing and debunking RFK's and his accolytes' false assertions regarding vaccines. I won't detail them here. Only those truly interested in the facts will look it all up as I am and have.
A small word of advice, Learn the difference between correlation and causation. They are not the same. RFK famously and destructively has equated these concepts effectively spreading false information that would scare anyone. To the extent he has not recanted and apologized for his contribution to loss of immunity to certain diseases, he cannot be forgiven let alone given another bully pulpit from which to spread more of his disinformation and on other of his hobby-horses besides vaccines.
Kennedy’s books are extensively fact-checked and footnoted. He has a small army of fact checkers. Your comment, by contrast, makes reference to all sorts of information you have but are too important to produce. Just repeating the old saw “correlation doesn’t equal causation” while true does not prove anything. Most scientific discoveries began with observations. For instance, we have the most vaccinated kids in the world. Our kids rank at the bottom in measures of health in industrialized countries. Over 50 percent now have a chronic illness, an appalling statistic. At the very least, this bears immediate and extensive scrutiny. Sadly, you are the one in a cult or on a payroll.
Well, interesting tactic I didn’t employ but you did. Attack the commenter. I have spent a great deal of time researching and fact checking which is how I can say Kennedy is wrong where he is. Reading this thread it is clear others have done the very cherry picking you accuse me of which you do because you somehow think I owe it to you to share all my years of work? Well, I don’t owe it to anyone especially to those who are merely relying on their belief in this person instead of having researched honestly for themselves.
You go and throw out another correlation as if you think it is a cause.... Do you have any thought about what the terrible American diet might have to do with America’s inordinately high number of sick children? For info, there’s no vaccine against crappy diet.
I’m sure I’m not the only person over 60 who wonders how all kids nowadays are deathly allergic to so many things. No evidence- I just know that nobody worried about peanut butter in a classroom years ago.
I had no idea that kids were subjected to so many vaccinations now.
I think most people who don't have young kids don't realize what the CDC schedule looks like these days. I think many assume it's little changed from what they or their kids once had. And in their ignorance they believe the hype and assume "anti-vaxxers" (very many of whom were indeed vaxxers until their child "took one for the team") are paranoid and crazy for questioning the safety and risks and exposing the shoddy science.
This is the bottom line: 40 years of pedal to the metal vaxxing and we are way sicker overall than prior...yeah yeah, "correlation is not causation," but we are fools to not recognize this trend.
40? What do you guys say?—"Educate yourself"? Yeah, reading antivax sites on the internet. The first vaccine came about in 1701! Do you know anyone who has died of smallpox? It's incredibly unlikely as the vaccine works so well, and as a result smallpox has disappeared from the world. The only cases since have been lab leaks (ominous music and photos of Wuhan!) OK, let's get a bit more recent: do you know anyone who has died of any of the diseases I mentioned despite being vaccinated?
I am not saying you are wrong in stating we are sicker in some ways, but I defy you to prove it is from vaccines. Go on, try. You can't do it, as there is an utterly solid base of science showing that they work, and, BTW, I define "work" as being safer to have the vaccine than not having it.
I confess I'm a doctor. I have never received a dollar from a drug company (stupid me, apparently!) I just don't like to see patients die of unnecessary diseases. And those diseases are not old history. I expect you don't know what happened in the old USSR when it fell apart and childhood vaccines were not given? 4,000 deaths from a disease everyone had forgotten—diphtheria. I'm not old enough to have ever seen diphtheria, but I have seen and can recognise things like measles (two days before the rash by high fever and cough heard at the end of the street, and one day before the rash by Koplik's spots). I've seen chickenpox encephalitis kill a child. I did my best with IV antibiotics against bacterial meningitis, but sometimes lost. This isn't ancient history! Those diseases are waiting in the wings to kill your children if you don't vaccinate them. RFK seems to think there is a greater risk from the vaccines than from the diseases, but the onus is on him to prove his case, as no one else even begins to think he might be right.
I have not heard RFK say he thinks "there is a greater risk from vaccines than from diseases..." His point seems to be that the potential negative interactions of the dozens of vaccines currently in use has not been adequately addressed. I do not understand RFK to be categorically opposed to vaccines, as your comment suggests.
Just one clarification: the CDC pediatric schedule (pre Covid vax) recommended 69 vaccines from birth to age 18 (54 for birth to age 5); 72 was if including the recommended (but never safety tested) vaccines for pregnant women. Many of these are combo shots—trivalent/3-in-1 like MMR or DPT. I believe there is a 6-in-1 now in the pipeline or being tested for market. Worth noting: the rise in adverse events is noticeable in the clinical trials if you compare the original single shots to the multivalent: the more antigens combined in one shot the higher the adverse events reported in the trials.
I have yet to see anyone remotely justify giving a Hep B shot on the first day of life. Hep B is spread mainly by sex and needles. The shot wears off in about ten years. It is worth noting that most countries give this vaccine—which was originally developed for prostitutes and IV drug users—only if the mother tests positive for Hep B infection, a sane policy. Here we give it to all newborns, clearly a profit-driven decision. So, using neonates on the first day of life as a market. Pretty despicable in my book.
Yep—profit and nanny-state driven. Public health politicos decided to push it on newborns because the demographic it was developed to help are the least likely to pursue preventative medical care. On the (erroneous) presumption that the vaccine would confer lifelong immunity, they figured giving it to every newborn would solve their problem of getting it to the at-risk cohort. And then, of course, profits were too good to allow for actually following the science, so when it was discovered the vaccine's immunity wanes before babies even reach adolescence (much less have a chance to become prostitutes or IV drug addicts) they just kept the policy. Never mind the fact that a single dose has 17X the level of (neurotoxic) aluminum that the FDA has determined safe for an infant (calculated by bodyweight).
I read an interview a few years ago with a Danish doctor whose career is developing childhood vaccine programs for African nations—so obviously very pro-vax. She is also a mother and said (in response to a question I don't remember) that she would never consent to give her child a vaccine on the first day of life and couldn't believe the United States has HepB for newborns on their schedule, that it made zero sense. Yet "safe and effective" is the mantra of most American doctors and nurses no matter the vaccine or person. And "trust the science" that tells them and us we don't need to question, just blindly follow. I can't conceive of being that incurious and compliant.
I never questioned all the kids vaccines and thought the people who didn't want to vaccinate their children were crazy. It is now clear to me I had never done my homework. Many fo these vaccines are either unnecessary or dangerous, or both.
That’s the problem. We trusted the professionals and assumed that they wouldn’t recommend something that wasn’t really necessary. When my pediatrician tried to push the Covid booster on my healthy kids, he said “I’m having the hardest time convincing families that this is good for their kids.” I was so disappointed but not surprised. I wish I could do childhood vaccines all over again and do only the ones that were truly necessary.
Christopher, I ask the same question of you “is someone stupid enough to believe that vaccines pose no harm at all be allowed to have an opinion on this page?” It only matters when it is your kid or your family who is disabled or better yet dies from a vaccine with no recourse
I also thought his reply was off-base and odd. I actually wondered why it was included. He has argued numerous times about the true lack of Randomized Trials,
That’s exactly the core of the problem: most people are incapable of getting the fact that reality is somewhere between black and white positions. It’s so easy to just join one tribe and reject blindly whatever “the other side” says. In this case, a reasonable position like the vaccines are good for the elderly and others at high risk but not recommandable for younger people. Hate is always a stronger, easier to follow emotion that the unsatisfying idea that the truth is somewhere in the middle. There is now even a derogatory term for those who dare to not think in black and white: “bothwayism” or something like that - that’s what I get when I post something in NYT comments that those zealots don’t like. Both sides, same deep disease.
Dr Prassad just like Dr John Campbell have been great to watch since 2020. I think Dr Prassad is just a little behind Dr Campbell in his revelations of how truly corrupt “the science” is. Give it another year or so and we will see him not saying a single good word about the Covid saga, not even the initial bullshit phase 3 trial that showed more deaths among the vaccinated than placebo group
Thank you for the interviews. For me, 2024 must be about anybody who opposes the Biden administration of clowns. Neither Kennedy or Williamson seem presidential to me, but....
I saw Kennedy speak in San Diego on Memorial Day. Kennedy actually IS very Presidential. More so than Trump or Biden that's for sure! The difference between RFK and other candidates is that he speaks about real issues in full sentences, no...full paragraphs...to the American people whom he considers to be intelligent enough to understand the complicated nature of issues. If you think he's crazy you haven't listened to him, you are simply forming your opinions based on other people's opinions. RFK doesn't use sound bites for tag lines. The media doesn't know what to do with actual in-depth, real answers to their questions so they chop up what he says and end up saying things like "he speaks to dead people". The piece is so biased, dismissive and un-researched it's shocking and making me wonder if TFP hasn't lost its way. No mention of RFK's life long dedication to real solutions to environmental issues? No mention of his intelligent discourse on history and the war in Ukraine? Let's rather dish on his house and his meditation and prayer and make him look crazy. WTF TFP?
Agreed this article could have focused on what RFK Jr was saying and his platform. The author is delusional. The number of people who used to scoff at 'anti-vaxxer's' are sheepishly walking away from the crap they used to spew by the tens of thousands a day.
The Democrats did a fantastic job of making all of the anti-vax hecklers look like the biggest stooges on earth. They look in their wallets and have less money. They look at their kids and they are dumber. They played by the rules and got knifed in the back. Then they got told to shut up.
The author thinks a bunch of them will sign up for this crap again. He is dead wrong.
The problem with Kennedy is his message! Heal the divide seriously? The last thing he needs is more slogans because he is anything BUT like all the rest! You reminded me of an email I sent to his campaign - the message should be WATCH - LISTEN - LEARN exactly what you said! He also needs to have a website with interviews only so people CAN watch listen and LEARN!! He is the most unrehearsed and unrepetitive person that has ever run for POTUS! No platitudes, cliché's, slogans etc.!! He speaks the truth!
BJ - I agree that the "Heal the Divide" is not the best. Too many others have used it to poor effect. However, if you read the comments here there is actually a lot of crossover between the parties. My partner and I have always voted for opposite parties, but we both support RFK. So maybe there's something to it. And RFK does have a website where all his interviews are posted. Here it is: https://www.kennedy24.com/interviews
What I'm saying is that it has to be more than a slogan - I spend my life reading and have read probably close to a hundred if not more articles regarding RFK. I'm personally looking for that one tag line that is not a cliché or slogan. Something that sets him apart something that says who he is. Thus far Kucinich said it best when he said he can't be bought or bullied! Very true!
Do you write STOP the corruption or END the corruption? What will make people realize he IS the only one capable of doing what he says? Trump and DeSantis are both paid for. Trump made over a billion dollars in his first term (no different than the Obama's and the Clintons - and only that he made even MORE) and has been proven he deepened the swamp! He received over a million dollars from the pharmaceutical industry for his inauguration and will NEVER renounce any vaccine even though it's written Baron is on the spectrum caused by his childhood vaccines. I'm shocked Melanie hasn't come forward! Maybe she will?
Talk is cheap they all say the same but I truly beleive RFK Jr can become an impediment to the establishment! For the record I don't vote never have BECAUSE the system is so corrupt! But for the very first time in my life I beleive this man can turn this Country around. The most important fact is he has NOTHING TO GAIN and is putting his life on the line for this Country!
None of the other can say this. He has fame and fortune and notoriety this is why I beleive it's about being a savior rather than anything else. Obviously if he is to succeed, in office as well he will become the greatest president - dwarfing even his uncle.
I fully and completely agree with you! I will not vote in the next election if he's not running. Both GOP an DEM are just puppets on right and left hands operated by the same power hungry manipulators.
I love the Stop the corruption/End the corruption. Can't be Bullied or Bought. Have you suggested these to his campaign?!
It's so obvious that all the powers-that-be are afraid of RFK (including MSM, Big Tech, Pharm, DEMs, GOP, etc.) which is why they won't debate, give him any credence, and continue to impugn his character. Sadly this seems to include TFP! Very disappointing!
RFK said at his rally that they don't even include him in the polls. I don't know why people can't see that! I think everyone on this thread who supports him should get a Kennedy24 bumper sticker and drive it proudly around. I knew Trump would win in 2016 because his bumper stickers were everywhere - even in my deep blue SoCal town.
I totally agree - for all the naysayers that claim he doesn't stand a chance - it's our job to make sure he does! I forget who wrote what but I think it may've been something to the effect of 32 million Substack subscribers? Number 1 that's a helluva lot of coverage and Number 2 everything I've read about him in the comment section is all positive!
Also true they're scared shitless because unlike all the rest he can and will do what he says - he's already named names of those he'll terminate! He's been suing the government for 40 years and knows exactly where the corruption lies!
Agree about the bumper stickers but as I say we need something a helluva lot more potent then what's he's selling! I personally send all the Substacks, interviews and articles to all my friends. That alone is vital - we all need to do our part! I also print the articles and hand them
RFK Jr. is Presidential? Trump is Presidential? These two sleazebags are Presidential?? What's your definition of Presidential? Charlie Sheen? My beloved country has lost its collective mind!
Ask his ex-wives; he cheated on both. You can't ask Anne Frank, who according to RFK Jr., had it better living in an attic before getting murdered then those of us who suffered under Covid lockdowns. I met the conspiracy nut once, and he was a smug creep, mocking the "broom pushers" in this country and laughing his entitled head off. Need more?
I'm not familiar with his ideas, what he feels needs to change. My main concern is govt. censorship. We will be in deep trouble if the govt. continues to censure us. Esp. if they get more control of the internet.
Totally agree- I was also at his rally in San Diego and his speech was so smart and thoughtful. This article is a disgrace. I thought that the FP was better than this - sounds like CNN
Masterful is not a descriptor I would use for the White House's handling of anything. The fact that Biden said he would not negotiate at all, and then ended up having to do so does not spell mastery.
Biden has never in his life done a masterful job at anything. You can't possibly imagine he had anything to do with that, can you? He's a factotum. A figurehead. He's not in charge. He even says so accidentally - frequently ("They won't let me [do this, or say that").
I don't know what planet you're on, but here on Earth Biden is doing a truly masterful job, as you can read here: https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/
You do sound like you're in a bubble. Just one that does not include the far left, and maybe not any of the left. I do read stuff from the right, and my policy prefs on immigration are closer to the right than the left.
Now you are projecting. I just think the New York Times and the Washington post were once fine newspapers that now are a tool of the left just like Fox is a tool for the right. They only present one side of the story and protect politicians like Joe Biden who is clearly unfit for duty. Just listen to him speak. Can’t wait to see him in debates, but that won’t happen because he can no longer do that.
Is this satire? The fangirls at WaPo basically print DNC press releases. See: A Washington Post reporter admitted Wednesday to passing along a misquote of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., from the lawmaker's office that drastically cleaned up his actual remarks.
This is Jennifer Rubin, one of the best columnists in the country. If the cleaning up of a misquote actually happened, it wasn't Rubin who did that. And, no, Rubin is no "fangirl." She's tough as nails.
They are side shows. I think both of them are nut cases. She's a spiritualist and he is just plain nutz. Some of the things that comes out of his mouth are not just radical but crazy.
I have always been skeptical of the Kennedys. They are poor little rich boys who have never held a real job and don't need to. Politics is a hobby. JFK was a womanizer and I believe like Clinton a sexual predator. I might be wrong but that is what I believe.
The patriarch of the family, Joe Kennedy was an antisemitic, bootlegging gangster in the 1920s and by all accounts a horrible person. Harry Truman wanted to punch him out.
They are considered saints by the loony left. Teddy was a hard core alcoholic and sexual predator. He should have gone to jail for what he did to Mary Jo Kopechne but the Kennedys owned Massachusetts and all he got was a slap on the wrist. The same thing with his alcoholic, drug using son Patrick who while driving drunk, ran into a Capital Hill traffic barrier, following in his fathers footsteps. When he was a US congressional representative from Rhode Island, he said in a speech, " I Never Worked A Fuc*ing Day in My Life...." and those morons in Rhode Island reelected him.
So, yes, you might surmise from my rant that I have a low opinion of the Kennedys and the party that worships them.
I have problems with the Kennedy family. But their power is, I think, largely a thing of the past. And I could see myself voting for Robert Jr. His skepticism about where America is now and how all our systems are failing is a good thing. If TDS Dems are willing to vote for a skeptic as long as he has a D after his name, that may be the only thing that saves us.
Having come from Massachusetts, I never dreamed I would see a time in my life when the Kennedy family was politically and culturally irrelevant in this country. But that's what they've become. The fact a Kennedy is running for office as an outsider and a long shot is something I would have thought unthinkable. I think any chance they had at continuing their dynasty died with JFK Jr. But I like the things RFK Jr. is saying.
When I was young I was staying at my grandma and grampa's farm. A show came on about JFK. I had thought he was a big hero. My Grandpa actually started swearing. He hated the Kennedys. I was shocked. He was very mild mannered and never swore.
You left out JFK's drug addictions and the Kennedy scion who was plausibly accused of rape down in Florida. Interesting book I read many years ago that stuck with me: Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail". He wrote it while working as a journalist for the Rolling Stone, following McGovern's campaign. Boy, there was a guy who disliked the Kennedy's. Some of his credible anecdotes are really surprising.
Live in the past. I might point out that Biden has spent billions of dollars in Ukraine, much of it unaccounted for, and brought us to the brink of nuclear engagement. The press coverage mimics that of the Iraq war, later found to be an unmitigated disaster. The next war, I want all the Democrats to send their kids. No more wars being fought by people who can’t pay 80,000 dollars a year for college. I want to see all the Soros clan and tech titan heirs enlisting.
I agree. Every person in congress or high national office should have their kids drafted into the military. Have them put their children where their mouth is.
The hawks would have to send their children to the wars they so love and the anti-war advocates would then have to fight harder to see we don't go to war. Oh, and their children aren't sent to some admin post like Al Gore's father did for Al but they have to go to a line unit and eat crappy rations, dodge bullets and sleep in the mud.
It is atrocious that we now have what amounts to a mercenary army made up of working class citizens who are routinely vilified by our war-mongering president. And the troops that had their legs blown off in the Iraq war don’t even have homes yet we can pay for DEI and Ukraine. What a joke.
I still read him. He has been against vaccinating the young and men up to age 35-40. He has said the cost/benefit ratio is negative for those groups. However, he has always been in favor of vaccinating the aged and the unhealthy. The quote was about the testing protocol only. He has stated the data demonstrated the myocarditis issue in young men, but was buried. So, his issue was with not being "evidence based" as opposed to an anti-vaccine stance.
The mania to impose the tricky Covid vaccine on everyone was madness. The elderly and immunocompromised? Fine. But mandates for a vaccine that has waning efficacy and known side effects is totalitarian madness. What sane country would have allowed it? Or not torn limb from limb those who insisted upon it.
How about the mandate for college students which compelled taking a vaccine for which that age group had a statistically zero risk of death? The vaccine wasn’t even offered to that age group in some other (sane) countries.
I had children at UW Madison, U of Iowa and Bama in 2020/2021. I was so glad none of those schools forced it on the students. The data in early 2020 proved beyond a doubt that, unless they had preexisting medical issue, 20 somethings had virtually zero risk of serious illness or death from Covid. It was primarily liberal elite schools that did so - schools with students who's parents likely instilled enough fear into them that they gladly took as many shots as they could.
Worse, or little kids. Whose moms they hectored and terrified. What a bunch of totalitarian freaks. And some of them still post here. No apologies. No amends. Like locusts on to the next mad jihad.
Remember where Dr. Prasad works: UCSF. He could be fired or have his medical license revoked if he doesn't support the covered vaccines. I always keep that in mind when reading his posts.
It read like a dismissive puff piece, as though you know there’s an issue with the establishment democrats that must be addressed but don’t actually believe it will ever come to anything.
If Kennedy wants to get real traction, I’d advise him to focus on deep state corruption and its unholy alliance with big tech and the mainstream media to stifle dissent. When the FBI and IRS can act as its enforcers and have their misdeeds encouraged, covered up and then ignored by Merrick Garland’s Just Us Department to the point where half the country believes it is being victimized, our democracy cannot be sustained.
I have to believe that most of the country KNOWS we are on a perilous path, but tribal instincts prevent “a coalition of the left and the right”. Kennedy is in a unique position to dissipate at least some of that tribalism. His pole numbers are an encouraging sign that some in the democrat party are willing to participate. I wish him well.
I found the "coalition of the left and right" thing to be the most absurd notion in the entire article. A coalition of liberals and conservatives is possible, and indeed, is already happening in some ways. But left and right? In 2023? Keep dreaming. They might as well be inhabitants of different planets. The left seems to occupy a completely different reality from the one I do, and as long as they maintain their current chokehold on the Democratic party, the only Democrat I would even remotely consider voting for is a contrarian like Kennedy, and I even have issues with him.
“A coalition of liberals and conservatives is possible”
Maybe I’m showing my age but that’s how I, and I presume RFK define the left and right. What you call the left I call progressives when I’m being unduly kind. Generally I refer to them more accurately as Marxists
Maybe it used to be that way. Not all liberals are leftists and not all conservatives are right-wingers. I don't think the terms are synonymous. Many conservative commentators have described the distinction between liberals and the left. Liberals believe in free speech; leftists don't. Liberals believe in individual liberties; leftists don't. Liberals oppose government authoritarianism; leftists don't. Liberals and conservatives can find common ground, but not the left and the right or even the left and ordinary conservatives. The problem is that liberals continue voting for the left because they refuse to vote for a conservative, even though they might be more in agreement with them.
Deep state corruption is exactly what he’s focusing on in his campaign--his vaccine views are being focused on by others, especially in the media. That’s one reason this FP piece is disappointing --it’s just following alongside the MSM, with a less vicious attitude.
This is an honest and genuinely useful interview that Kim Iversen did if you want to hear from the man on a range of issues; highly recommend it.
I don't recall Trump having any of those shills backing him in 2016. They laughed at first and even had him on late-night talk shows as a living meme. I think Kennedy has a lot of momentum building behind him that will never be acknowledged by the media. If he takes the Sanders campaign as a lesson and fund raises outside of the billionaire/corporate cartel system, I think he will surprise everyone. And maybe he will garner some solid negative coverage. The type of coverage that served Trump so well in 2016 - the ratings of the established media were never higher and evaporated when sleepy Joe hit the stage. I am looking forward to see how many people come up from the grass roots to help tear the system to shreds!
I keep thinking if one person of esteem - notoriety or wealth, so much as dares to support him - it's over for the rest! They won't be able to censor or silence him! What we basically need is one person to step up and put the Country ahead of themselves - their career, reputation etc! Because that's exactly what this boils down to - he is the only PERSON capable of saving what little is even left of this Country and perhaps even restoring it!
The man lives in California and clearly knows everyone - who will have the courage to do the right thing? Taylor Swift? Britney Spears - Jennifer Lopez - Leonardo DeCaprio? It'll just take ONE!
YES - but . . . all it will take is ONE!! The attention it will garner - even though it will be negative is STILL ATTENTION!! Who will be the one willing to give up everything? Tom Hanks? Who cares if he never gets hired again - haven't they made enough money to last beyond a lifetime? Actually, maybe his son will do it?
I don’t know what being “on the spectrum” means but the Twitter Files Musk presented to journalists Taibbi, Shellenberger, Berenson and Weiss illuminate the extent to which our government, Big Tech and the Mainstream Media colluded in kneecapping Trump while protecting Biden during the 2020 election cycle. While not an outright proclamation of support for Trump, it was a damning indictment of the participants. I give Musk a lot of credit, first for buying Twitter and then having the balls, at great personal risk to show the world how corrupt our government has become.
Thanks for the explanation and personal insight. I always thought RFK Jr. was a spoiled rich kid trying to be relevant when his sole schtick was promoting anti-vaccination hysteria. For a long time, I also thought talk of CIA involvement in the assassination of his uncle and murder of his father was just conspiracy fodder to sell books and movies. But after real science about Covid finally emerged and revelations of past FBI and CIA complicity in engineering an attempted coup against Trump and their ongoing attempts to obliterate the Constitution, I’m willing to give Kennedy some grace.
"If he takes the Sanders campaign as a lesson and fund raises outside of the billionaire/corporate cartel system, I think he will surprise everyone," 100% agree.
I am still on the fence about the "almost" in that statement. I took a deep dive into the alt media "stolen election" narrative and must say, the amount of shenanigans pulled by the DNC and their troops does make one scratch ones head. Either that or the MAGA crowd faked some pretty compelling docudramas. Looking back at just how lousy Biden was a candidate it still amazes me that the hatred of the Orange Man was so great that more people voted for him than voted for Obama! We will never know the full truth and it doesn't matter much at this point, we are where we are. I prey we have a level and fair playing field next year. If the DNC sticks to their no-primary stance, I am afraid that prayer will go unanswered and it's game over for any chance of us ever having a truly democratic election again - assuming we ever really did. If Kennedy is sidelined by the establishment without even giving him a chance to debate sleepy Joe, let alone Trump or DeSantis, I hope he runs as an independent and disrupts the whole shit show.
Go look at Green Bay WI and the Zuckerberg impact on the way the election was run. There is a lot of good, old fashioned investigation by the local press - and then extend those examples out. They can tell me that turnout under covid went up 20% and that hate drove an additional 15 million voters out to vote for Biden over Obama. They can tell me that the evidence presented in Ten Thousand Mules is all "debunked." They can tell me the 100k plus to almost zero, vote surges that came in the wee hours of the next morning in three states were not highly irregular and therefore not suspect - but I will never believe it.
The Democrats and the Establishment have broken American democracy with ballot harvesting and cheating. Do you really believe that San Francisco's residents have been voting in favor of what's going on in their city? Do you really believe the American system voted FOR Joe Biden and his disastrous presidency?
Don't even get me started on Ukraine and the massive slaughter therein that we are encouraging and responsible for.
It reads remarkably like a lot of media coverage of Trump in 2015. "The guy has some points but he's definitely crazy and we the elites have decided he has no chance of winning so just forget about him."
The author follows the familiar TFP scrip. Acknowledge that something terrible is wrong in the country and in this case RFK may be addressing some of the distress. But of course, the author accepts all the nostrums of the left: Trump is Hitler, questioning vaccines is idiocy, questioning election integrity will make one eligible for jail time. These articles give no insight into the reality we live in because they start from many of the positions of the woke ideology, and from these positions there can be no progress.
Mail in ballots w/o signature verification, ballot harvesting, the corruption of the media, Hollywood, tech giants and Zuckbucks alone insure Dems will always win. Keep in mind they also have overwhelming control of the county agencies that do the counting.
There can never be a solution to this corruption because we are cancelled if we even show an openness to question the corruption.
It is so depressing to have to agree with you concerning your assessment that the Democrats will always win. If election fraud (ballot harvesting, mail-in ballots, etc.) were eliminated and the media actually informed the pubic of the disastrous policies advocated by the Democrats, the next presidential election would be a landslide victory for any Republican candidate. Can you imagine if the media hammered away at illegal immigration, inflation, Democrat-supported district attorneys, and the economic consequences of this administration's energy policies? Biden's approval rating would drop to one percent, given the expected number of deranged people in any society.
I agree. Overall, a fairly balanced piece. The author obviously still harbors some of the old "Camelot" worship that has run through the Democratic Party for my entire lifetime. This fantasy always raises my eyebrows, as the Kennedy administration was far from the great success old Democrats like to believe it was.
I think that Kennedy is a little nuts regarding vaccines, especially the much-tested-but-no-link-found autism claims. He is right about the lightly-tested Covid vaccines being pushed by the government and media. This, I don't have a huge problem with. I do have a problem with the government and media censoring vaccine criticism, even from some of the most qualified and respected medical professionals in the country, and the government's efforts to mandate the unproven vaccines. I'm not an anti-vaxxer - not even an anti-covid-vaxxer. I got 3 doses of the stuff and got Covid at least once (probably twice, but I wasn't going to run out and pay $25 for a test that, if positive, the treatment would have been the same - stay home, rest and drink lots of fluids).
As for populism in politics, it's a lot like salt in food. A small to moderate amount adds flavor/context, but too much ruins it.
Brian, I used to think that people talking about the vaccine link to autism were nuts too but when I allowed myself to actually read what the very intelligent, well informed and well read people who were on that side were saying (including Kennedy), I was shocked to realize how much of the science that vaccine safety is based on is terrible, captured and incomplete. It was eye opening to say the least and over time I have come to my own well researched belief that our schedule of childhood vaccines all have major safety issues that need addressing. The utter silence from the media is telling. It is a scared cow that can’t be questioned or discussed unless the discussion is one of praise, and the majority of the population has been misled by this.
The study that is heralded as the definitive study to ”prove” that vaccines don’t cause autism has so many flaws in , including majorly compromised authors with deep conflicts of interest (one of whom is now on the DOJ’s most wanted list for absconding with over $1M in US grant money). This is but one example of the issues that Kennedy discovered and has written and talked about. Why this is a “nuts” position to hold is baffling to me, but I used to be there, so I get your hesitation. I would just encourage you to spend the equivalent of a few hours reading what the other side has to say, it may be enlightening.
I know a highly educated couple who were super leftwing and fully onboard the pro-vaccine train (she had once been a pharma rep) but agreed—at a friend's request—to watch Vaxxed: From CoverUp to Catastrophe. Afterwards they determined to research every claim in the movie because they didn't—couldn't—believe it was true and wanted to debunk it. Instead, what they discovered up-ended their entire worldview. She is now a pro informed consent advocate and won't even take an aspirin.
The first time I got Covid, (which I picked up in Vegas, so not everything that happens there, stays there!) I took the test because my wife had a couple unused kits from her previous work in a hospital. After testing positive, I followed the recommendations on the packet and called my primary care physician. Well, nobody called me back for 4 days, by which time I was past the worst of it (fever, etc.). When they nurse finally called back and asked if there was anything I needed, I asked for some prescription (codeine) cough syrup so that I could sleep and therefore better fight off the remnants of the virus. Another 5 days passed before someone called to say the doc had signed the prescription, but they wanted to see if I still needed it. Well, no! This is why the second time, with much milder symptoms, I didn't even bother to get tested, much less call the doctor. The second time might have been some other respiratory virus, but it came shortly after a wave of Covid went though my daughter's circle of friends at high school and she had been sick a few days earlier. At this time, until I see the results of more testing, I have no intention of getting another Covid vaccine booster. With the much milder variants and natural immune function from infection, the risk-reward tradeoff no longer favors getting the shot, but I will keep reevaluating the situation as I get more information. I am 55, but fit and healthy, so I'm not at particularly high risk.
Bari has a very young child and wants to believe the best about the medical profession. Many have trusted their advice with disastrous results. Unfortunately the press muzzles reporting on this.
I think it would have been important to note that Pharma lobbyists in Washington outnumber every other type and that our television news gets an estimated 70 percent of its revenue from Pharma ads. Just for starters. Anyone who feels that it is possible to get unbiased vaccine reporting from corporate media is sadly misinformed.
I made sure my subscription was set to cancel after reading this piece. Too many of the recent columns on Free Press seem lazily written to me. It is no longer a reliable source of investigative journalism or independent thinking.
Struck me as typical of TFP. On the particular topic of vaccines Bari shows none of her signature questioning of the Narrative™ or any willingness to dig into the evidence. TFP just parrots what "everybody knows" as if it must be true because it's "common knowledge." On this topic Bari & Co are more of a piece with Krystal Ball—unserious about the issue and oddly willing to place trust blindly in the system and corporations they claim to be holding to account.
Sadly, regarding the Free Press's coverage of COVID-related matters, I must agree with you. I admire Bari, and I quit the New York Times because of the way she was treated. It's to be expected that I won't agree with everything she publishes, but the lack of journalistic rigor around COVID is more than disappointing. I'm not ready to cancel yet, but I have to choose my paid subscriptions carefully. The jury is out.
Surprised to see the word “debunked” in a free press article. That term is one of the bedrocks of cancel culture and the “believe the Science / in Fauci we Trust” community.
In my world, when I hear “debunked”, I think “someone doesn’t really like that view/journal article or whatever”. Because in science world, very seldom are things finally settled to the point where all the experts agree.
Your writing is obviously biased. There are doctors all over the world and peer reviewed studies that support Kennedy's assertions about the covid vaccines but you didn't quote any of them instead you cherry pick "experts" that support your biased claims. Disappointing article. It is too bad you didn't share more of Kennedy's positions - such as Ukraine, environmental, working to end the corruption in our regulatory agencies (the revolving door and the fact that the corporations have so much influence). This read much more like an opinion piece than journalism.
The author also keep repeating false accusation about RFK Jr. for example that he was comparing covid lockdowns to Nazi Germany. I was at the rally and he did not made that comparison, he compared the surveillance government that was being introduced during covid to Nazi Germany's totalitarian government, and he specifically said that at least during WWII people could escape to a different country, but with this kind of global threat there is nowhere to escape. This statement was used out of context, but other journalists gave him a possibility to explain himself, the author in question simply copied and pasted the sentence from some other publication.
BRAVO! Well said Tonya!!! As I began to read I thought to myself here's another one regurgitating the same ole garbage they all say! Jesus H. Christ can we get someone who actually does the research before penning another hit piece! I'm getting so sick and tired of the "vaccine skeptic" label!!! Hah! It's like one writes it and then they all follow suit - lemmings! Unbelievable!! Here's a novel idea - how about the fact that he's a staunch advocate for SAFE vaccines? What you have to love best about this label is - once people start popping their clogs by the millions, everyone WILL BE a vaccine skeptic or better yet - an ANTI-VAXER! So basically they're setting the table for him - talk about poetic justice!!
Yeah and casually saying that being anti vax is a right wing thing, while ignoring the REASONS - that the FDA, CDC and NIH have been spewing nonstop lies and garbage science for 3 years to which folks are not unreasonably wondering "well, what else are they lying or off the charts wrong about"
It's curious that we're not hearing more (or anything, really) about the recent COVID International Summit 3 held at the European Parliament in Brussels on May 2-4, 2023. What do more than 30 senior physicians and research scientists from around the world have to say about their experiences attempting to save the lives of patients affected by COVID-19 and the vaccines? Are the vaccines safe and effective? What are the results of their research derived from real-time interaction with COVID-19 patients? What are their observations regarding government policies towards masking, lock downs and treatment protocols? And what about the children?
It shouldn't be necessary to point this out, but these individuals, with decades of experience in their respective specialties, are the opposite of conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers.
Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFLPWWCAHfQ
Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ93mW_sMPo
In fairness to the author and The Free Press, it is intended as an opinion piece rather than objective reporting. However, it is shallow and deceptive and dismissive of the appalling corruption and ineptitude of the Biden administration.
This, like most Free Press articles, is indistinguishable from Mother Jones’ usual claptrap.
With one noticeable exception- the value of the comments section... like many have commented, their has been a palpable change in a lot of the writing recently. for awhile I didn't have a problem with never having an article written (or podcast guest) by any conservatives outside of faux-conservatives (also TDS sufferers) like French and that hack Jonah Goldberg.. but now the writing is starting to delve into mainstream press levels of narrative framing.. articles like this one and that piece of trash article by Nocera on DeSantis vs. Disney being 2 notable recent examples.... but the discussion in these comment sections is TFP's saving grace and the only reason I haven't canceled my subscription.....
I am currently liviing in an expat community in Mexico filled with Democrats with whom I have many disagreements BUt there is an increasing number who, even after getting shots and booster shots, are rethinking the whole vaccine debacle. A very quiet anti-vax group was started about a year ago which has grown to over 50 in attendance all by word of mouth.. To be sure, this group will hardly swing an election but the more people hear from the many Canadians who live here and become aware of the restricitions Trudeau placed on the entire country and the more people hear of people who lost jobs or couldnt fly because they refused the vaccine, the more people are joining the group.
From what I hear, most of the Americans just drank the kool-aid out of fear of Covid and faith in Fauci. and had no idea what a stranglehold Fauci et al were exercising. Now that they are away from the American mass media and have a chance to talk to others in safe surroundings and think for themselves, they are changing their once iron-clad positions
To be sure the Thursday meetings are not advertised - this is still a nacent movement. But these expats are for the most part Dems who vote in large numbers. . It will be interesting to see when the election is held, if people are no longer put off by RFK Jr's anti-vax stance.
I think the DiSantis messaging that Trump gave the country over to Fauci and Pfizer is going to resonate among a good amount of people in the 2024 race.
I am one of those people.
The government and media definitely overplayed the dangers of Covid to the common person. Fear is a very powerful control tool. I always questioned why when something was so dire that those in power would only push one solution: a vaccine. There weren't any national or regional campaigns to encourage a healthy lifestyle nor were doctors encouraged to try medications off-label in the hopes of getting a stranglehold on the virus. It all defied logic.
Ditto. Kennedy has been very vocal about the evisceration of our bill of rights, the partnership between government and big corporations which equals fascism and the total capture of the press. Moreover, he has said repeatedly in interviews the he is NOT an anti-vaxer or vaccine skeptic. He is concerned and skeptical about the safety of vaccines. Not one child hood vaccine has been tested against a placebo. Not one! Read Turtles All The Way Down for some properly sourced information on vaccines. And BTW- this is just personal opinion- but the use of the term “ debunked” is a bit unprofessional and often indicative of the lack of professional research underlying an article.
You bring up Kennedy's big red herring, Beth.
Whom would we guinea pig to be the placebo arm? I.e. which persons would be selected to be infected so we can placebo-vaccinate them?
Ethically, we cannot do this. We have to think _ethics_ when we talk of using placebo controlled trials such that when it would not be ethical, other means are used for testing.
Countless studies have been done proving MMRs efficacy, and polio vaccine efficacy for example. And yet, Kennedy insisted he was right and people were harmed as immunity to MMR and others like polio has been diminished.
BTW, I am not likening the covid vaccines to the very well proven efficacy of MMR and polio vaccines and to whatever extent Kennedy may have barked against covid vacs for certain populations, I am in agreement as other leaders in the field have avered (e.g. Vinay Prasad, et al).
As I understand it, the argument against the trials is not that some should have been infected and given a placebo. (It would also be unethical to infect people deliberately and then give them the vaccine being studied before we even know if it works.) That is never the design- people are not deliberately infected, but the drugs are administered in a population where the pathogen is active and then monitored. All that needed to be done was inject some in the trial with the vaccine and leave others uninjected and then compare. Instead, they treated everyone- some with vaccine and some with something that was NOT a placebo but a substance that could have side effects of its own.
I haven’t read the trials myself so if this is incorrect, I will gladly stand corrected.
Preservation of the Republic, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights safeguarding the citizen is all that matters. This is a NEW AGE. A group of retro political grifter's have seized control of the world political narrative and are now attempting to redefine what it is to be a human being. Their's is a visionless devolution of society and politics as witnessed by their ineptitude in allowing the return of a possible nuclear confrontation, and their abandonment of human moral reason for the opportunity of personal financial gain. The realpolitik for the American citizen today is who will control access to free speech, expression and communication on tech platforms. That's the war they're waging.
Your definition of fascism is correct. But, I believe we are past the area of political/financial self-interested graft and squarely in the realm of the pathological. The DNC/D.C./corporate hog trough display's the same blinding megalomania, hubris and narcissism that defined the regimes of Hitler, Mao and "Uncle Joe". Their self-protecting move toward mass surveillance, the "be afraid" object lesson's of destroyed American lives and their willing financial support of "break a few egg's to make an omelette" Marxist utopians' to create chaos and division, clearly says they've departed sanity. The unfounded belief in their invincibility and their willingness (like all tyrants) to place themselves above individual freedom and dignity puts American's, and the world in peril.
The entirety of the fight for American freedom and survival lies in the Constitution. Europe, Australia and Canada are completely compromised. Their citizens are being arrested for thought and speech crimes. Movement restricted. Euthanasia on demand. Farmland and private property seized. Their societies molded and reshaped to fit the CCP ideal of totalitarian citizen control. Why not? That's where the Davos/Wall Street boy's make their money. And America? Nine dead and a dozen more senselessly wounded in Chicago this Memorial Day weekend. "ism's" are dead. The Constitution, the Republic and the citizen is all that remains.
If the media repeats it enough (anti-vaxxer) they are hoping it becomes truth.
Yes, "debunk" is a code word meaning "does not conform to the dominant narrative."
Even with that, RFK, Jr. and Ms. Williamson are so much more than anything we have been given as a "choice" since 1968.
Thanks, I’ll pass on reading this.
I guessed I'd see this nonsense here. RFK has been a force against vaccines of all kinds for many years, long before you kids invented Covid-19. I have seen kids die of measles, chickenpox, pneumococcal, meningococcal and H.influenzae meningitis. Pregnancies lost or damaged by rubella, kids left deaf by OM, and dying of tetanus or rabies isn't much fun. ALL of these are prevented by immunization. So don't confuse his blanket hatred of all vaccination with your disagreement with Fauci: that's small beans compared to the lives that vaccines save every day.
What you really ought to ask yourselves is this: should someone stupid enough to see vaccines as harmful be trusted to be president?
Im no fan of RFK Jr but let’s not twist what he says. He said himself in the interview- it isn’t the vaccines that he sees as harmful, he sees improperly tested and monitored drugs as harmful. If every one of the current vaccines was thoroughly tested and well monitored and approved by an organization without massive conflicts of interest- then let’s talk about that. Many people don’t see vaccine technology as the problem, but the companies that produce them.
You’d think holding the pharmaceutical companies that make our drugs and the governmental organizations that approve them to a high standard would be something that we can all agree on.
"should someone stupid enough to see vaccines as harmful be trusted to be president?"
Yes, when the alternative is someone mentally incapacitated or a lunatic.
Exactly!!
The notion that all these vaccines are all equally important is hogwash, and the fact that pharmaceutical companies were given a free pass in our highly litigious society is an enormous, undulating red flag. Do you know what else is not much fun? Watching an individual struggle through life with autism, and their family struggle both emotionally and financially to support them. Vaccine legitimacy can be established through a series of steps: Remove legal protections to pharmaceuticals, so they may be directly responsible financially for any consequences. Allow parents to choose which vaccines to administer to their kids (the idea that chicken pox’s threat is equal to that of, say, polio or tetanus, is laughable). And many more I do not have the time to mention here. Pharmaceuticals and the government dismiss all this out of hand and continue to make these companies impermeable to any lawsuits - of course this will raise red flags, ans it should in any society that prides itself on accountability.
Christopher, it us the rapidly expanding cocktail of vaxxes we give our kids and the unknown potential interactions between them that is a concern, not the effect of any given vax per se.
We should support everyone’s right to control whats injected into their kids or their own bodies. Likewise those who don’t vax should live with consequences.
As to RFKs chances of presidency - less than zero.
In 1986 a law was passed that gave pharmaceutical companies freedom from liability for childhood vaccines. Since that time (gold rush!), the vaccine schedule has tripled. Children now get something in the neighborhood of 72 shots. After the law passed, chronic disease in childhood skyrocketed, from 12 percent to now 54 percent. No one is allowed to question why over 50 percent of our children currently have chronic disease such as autism and adhd. This seems way more important to me than the pronoun beat which occupies our courageous journalists. If interested, see a documentary on this subject called, 1986: The Act (2020).
Another red herring argument. The truth has been wildly twisted a la "How to Lie With Statistics" in typical cult fashion, just like the "9/11 Truthers" did with their conspiracy nonsense about 9/11. The anti-vaccine movement can be wholly likened to a cult. And it is even more destructive.
The actual informatiion, however, is fully available exposing and debunking RFK's and his accolytes' false assertions regarding vaccines. I won't detail them here. Only those truly interested in the facts will look it all up as I am and have.
A small word of advice, Learn the difference between correlation and causation. They are not the same. RFK famously and destructively has equated these concepts effectively spreading false information that would scare anyone. To the extent he has not recanted and apologized for his contribution to loss of immunity to certain diseases, he cannot be forgiven let alone given another bully pulpit from which to spread more of his disinformation and on other of his hobby-horses besides vaccines.
Kennedy’s books are extensively fact-checked and footnoted. He has a small army of fact checkers. Your comment, by contrast, makes reference to all sorts of information you have but are too important to produce. Just repeating the old saw “correlation doesn’t equal causation” while true does not prove anything. Most scientific discoveries began with observations. For instance, we have the most vaccinated kids in the world. Our kids rank at the bottom in measures of health in industrialized countries. Over 50 percent now have a chronic illness, an appalling statistic. At the very least, this bears immediate and extensive scrutiny. Sadly, you are the one in a cult or on a payroll.
Well, interesting tactic I didn’t employ but you did. Attack the commenter. I have spent a great deal of time researching and fact checking which is how I can say Kennedy is wrong where he is. Reading this thread it is clear others have done the very cherry picking you accuse me of which you do because you somehow think I owe it to you to share all my years of work? Well, I don’t owe it to anyone especially to those who are merely relying on their belief in this person instead of having researched honestly for themselves.
You go and throw out another correlation as if you think it is a cause.... Do you have any thought about what the terrible American diet might have to do with America’s inordinately high number of sick children? For info, there’s no vaccine against crappy diet.
I’m sure I’m not the only person over 60 who wonders how all kids nowadays are deathly allergic to so many things. No evidence- I just know that nobody worried about peanut butter in a classroom years ago.
I had no idea that kids were subjected to so many vaccinations now.
I think most people who don't have young kids don't realize what the CDC schedule looks like these days. I think many assume it's little changed from what they or their kids once had. And in their ignorance they believe the hype and assume "anti-vaxxers" (very many of whom were indeed vaxxers until their child "took one for the team") are paranoid and crazy for questioning the safety and risks and exposing the shoddy science.
People don’t know. Nothing wrong with that. What I don’t like is the press and government actively working to prevent informed consent.
This is the bottom line: 40 years of pedal to the metal vaxxing and we are way sicker overall than prior...yeah yeah, "correlation is not causation," but we are fools to not recognize this trend.
40? What do you guys say?—"Educate yourself"? Yeah, reading antivax sites on the internet. The first vaccine came about in 1701! Do you know anyone who has died of smallpox? It's incredibly unlikely as the vaccine works so well, and as a result smallpox has disappeared from the world. The only cases since have been lab leaks (ominous music and photos of Wuhan!) OK, let's get a bit more recent: do you know anyone who has died of any of the diseases I mentioned despite being vaccinated?
I am not saying you are wrong in stating we are sicker in some ways, but I defy you to prove it is from vaccines. Go on, try. You can't do it, as there is an utterly solid base of science showing that they work, and, BTW, I define "work" as being safer to have the vaccine than not having it.
I confess I'm a doctor. I have never received a dollar from a drug company (stupid me, apparently!) I just don't like to see patients die of unnecessary diseases. And those diseases are not old history. I expect you don't know what happened in the old USSR when it fell apart and childhood vaccines were not given? 4,000 deaths from a disease everyone had forgotten—diphtheria. I'm not old enough to have ever seen diphtheria, but I have seen and can recognise things like measles (two days before the rash by high fever and cough heard at the end of the street, and one day before the rash by Koplik's spots). I've seen chickenpox encephalitis kill a child. I did my best with IV antibiotics against bacterial meningitis, but sometimes lost. This isn't ancient history! Those diseases are waiting in the wings to kill your children if you don't vaccinate them. RFK seems to think there is a greater risk from the vaccines than from the diseases, but the onus is on him to prove his case, as no one else even begins to think he might be right.
Please address what the ladies had to say about HepB administration to infants. What is your take on that?
I have not heard RFK say he thinks "there is a greater risk from vaccines than from diseases..." His point seems to be that the potential negative interactions of the dozens of vaccines currently in use has not been adequately addressed. I do not understand RFK to be categorically opposed to vaccines, as your comment suggests.
One would have to engage in actual science to determine if it is correlation or causation. I do not predict that happening anytime soon.
Just one clarification: the CDC pediatric schedule (pre Covid vax) recommended 69 vaccines from birth to age 18 (54 for birth to age 5); 72 was if including the recommended (but never safety tested) vaccines for pregnant women. Many of these are combo shots—trivalent/3-in-1 like MMR or DPT. I believe there is a 6-in-1 now in the pipeline or being tested for market. Worth noting: the rise in adverse events is noticeable in the clinical trials if you compare the original single shots to the multivalent: the more antigens combined in one shot the higher the adverse events reported in the trials.
thanks Leah!
Thanks!
I have yet to see anyone remotely justify giving a Hep B shot on the first day of life. Hep B is spread mainly by sex and needles. The shot wears off in about ten years. It is worth noting that most countries give this vaccine—which was originally developed for prostitutes and IV drug users—only if the mother tests positive for Hep B infection, a sane policy. Here we give it to all newborns, clearly a profit-driven decision. So, using neonates on the first day of life as a market. Pretty despicable in my book.
Yep—profit and nanny-state driven. Public health politicos decided to push it on newborns because the demographic it was developed to help are the least likely to pursue preventative medical care. On the (erroneous) presumption that the vaccine would confer lifelong immunity, they figured giving it to every newborn would solve their problem of getting it to the at-risk cohort. And then, of course, profits were too good to allow for actually following the science, so when it was discovered the vaccine's immunity wanes before babies even reach adolescence (much less have a chance to become prostitutes or IV drug addicts) they just kept the policy. Never mind the fact that a single dose has 17X the level of (neurotoxic) aluminum that the FDA has determined safe for an infant (calculated by bodyweight).
I read an interview a few years ago with a Danish doctor whose career is developing childhood vaccine programs for African nations—so obviously very pro-vax. She is also a mother and said (in response to a question I don't remember) that she would never consent to give her child a vaccine on the first day of life and couldn't believe the United States has HepB for newborns on their schedule, that it made zero sense. Yet "safe and effective" is the mantra of most American doctors and nurses no matter the vaccine or person. And "trust the science" that tells them and us we don't need to question, just blindly follow. I can't conceive of being that incurious and compliant.
Thank you Ladies.
Guess Big Pharma wants to start 'em young. Sigh.
I never questioned all the kids vaccines and thought the people who didn't want to vaccinate their children were crazy. It is now clear to me I had never done my homework. Many fo these vaccines are either unnecessary or dangerous, or both.
That’s the problem. We trusted the professionals and assumed that they wouldn’t recommend something that wasn’t really necessary. When my pediatrician tried to push the Covid booster on my healthy kids, he said “I’m having the hardest time convincing families that this is good for their kids.” I was so disappointed but not surprised. I wish I could do childhood vaccines all over again and do only the ones that were truly necessary.
Christopher, I ask the same question of you “is someone stupid enough to believe that vaccines pose no harm at all be allowed to have an opinion on this page?” It only matters when it is your kid or your family who is disabled or better yet dies from a vaccine with no recourse
Dr Prasad has posted many videos challenging covid vaccines and covid policy. I question whether he actually said what is quoted.
I also thought his reply was off-base and odd. I actually wondered why it was included. He has argued numerous times about the true lack of Randomized Trials,
That’s exactly the core of the problem: most people are incapable of getting the fact that reality is somewhere between black and white positions. It’s so easy to just join one tribe and reject blindly whatever “the other side” says. In this case, a reasonable position like the vaccines are good for the elderly and others at high risk but not recommandable for younger people. Hate is always a stronger, easier to follow emotion that the unsatisfying idea that the truth is somewhere in the middle. There is now even a derogatory term for those who dare to not think in black and white: “bothwayism” or something like that - that’s what I get when I post something in NYT comments that those zealots don’t like. Both sides, same deep disease.
God forbid there be good people on both sides!
I was wondering about that also. I used to read all his substack posts until he went paywalled, and that supposed quote contradicts many, I believe.
Dr Prassad just like Dr John Campbell have been great to watch since 2020. I think Dr Prassad is just a little behind Dr Campbell in his revelations of how truly corrupt “the science” is. Give it another year or so and we will see him not saying a single good word about the Covid saga, not even the initial bullshit phase 3 trial that showed more deaths among the vaccinated than placebo group
Thank you for the interviews. For me, 2024 must be about anybody who opposes the Biden administration of clowns. Neither Kennedy or Williamson seem presidential to me, but....
I suggest you listen to a few interviews of RFKjr. You can find them on YouTube.
I saw Kennedy speak in San Diego on Memorial Day. Kennedy actually IS very Presidential. More so than Trump or Biden that's for sure! The difference between RFK and other candidates is that he speaks about real issues in full sentences, no...full paragraphs...to the American people whom he considers to be intelligent enough to understand the complicated nature of issues. If you think he's crazy you haven't listened to him, you are simply forming your opinions based on other people's opinions. RFK doesn't use sound bites for tag lines. The media doesn't know what to do with actual in-depth, real answers to their questions so they chop up what he says and end up saying things like "he speaks to dead people". The piece is so biased, dismissive and un-researched it's shocking and making me wonder if TFP hasn't lost its way. No mention of RFK's life long dedication to real solutions to environmental issues? No mention of his intelligent discourse on history and the war in Ukraine? Let's rather dish on his house and his meditation and prayer and make him look crazy. WTF TFP?
Agreed this article could have focused on what RFK Jr was saying and his platform. The author is delusional. The number of people who used to scoff at 'anti-vaxxer's' are sheepishly walking away from the crap they used to spew by the tens of thousands a day.
The Democrats did a fantastic job of making all of the anti-vax hecklers look like the biggest stooges on earth. They look in their wallets and have less money. They look at their kids and they are dumber. They played by the rules and got knifed in the back. Then they got told to shut up.
The author thinks a bunch of them will sign up for this crap again. He is dead wrong.
WELL SAID Mo!!
The problem with Kennedy is his message! Heal the divide seriously? The last thing he needs is more slogans because he is anything BUT like all the rest! You reminded me of an email I sent to his campaign - the message should be WATCH - LISTEN - LEARN exactly what you said! He also needs to have a website with interviews only so people CAN watch listen and LEARN!! He is the most unrehearsed and unrepetitive person that has ever run for POTUS! No platitudes, cliché's, slogans etc.!! He speaks the truth!
BJ - I agree that the "Heal the Divide" is not the best. Too many others have used it to poor effect. However, if you read the comments here there is actually a lot of crossover between the parties. My partner and I have always voted for opposite parties, but we both support RFK. So maybe there's something to it. And RFK does have a website where all his interviews are posted. Here it is: https://www.kennedy24.com/interviews
Agree and I saw . . . .
What I'm saying is that it has to be more than a slogan - I spend my life reading and have read probably close to a hundred if not more articles regarding RFK. I'm personally looking for that one tag line that is not a cliché or slogan. Something that sets him apart something that says who he is. Thus far Kucinich said it best when he said he can't be bought or bullied! Very true!
Do you write STOP the corruption or END the corruption? What will make people realize he IS the only one capable of doing what he says? Trump and DeSantis are both paid for. Trump made over a billion dollars in his first term (no different than the Obama's and the Clintons - and only that he made even MORE) and has been proven he deepened the swamp! He received over a million dollars from the pharmaceutical industry for his inauguration and will NEVER renounce any vaccine even though it's written Baron is on the spectrum caused by his childhood vaccines. I'm shocked Melanie hasn't come forward! Maybe she will?
Talk is cheap they all say the same but I truly beleive RFK Jr can become an impediment to the establishment! For the record I don't vote never have BECAUSE the system is so corrupt! But for the very first time in my life I beleive this man can turn this Country around. The most important fact is he has NOTHING TO GAIN and is putting his life on the line for this Country!
None of the other can say this. He has fame and fortune and notoriety this is why I beleive it's about being a savior rather than anything else. Obviously if he is to succeed, in office as well he will become the greatest president - dwarfing even his uncle.
I fully and completely agree with you! I will not vote in the next election if he's not running. Both GOP an DEM are just puppets on right and left hands operated by the same power hungry manipulators.
I love the Stop the corruption/End the corruption. Can't be Bullied or Bought. Have you suggested these to his campaign?!
It's so obvious that all the powers-that-be are afraid of RFK (including MSM, Big Tech, Pharm, DEMs, GOP, etc.) which is why they won't debate, give him any credence, and continue to impugn his character. Sadly this seems to include TFP! Very disappointing!
RFK said at his rally that they don't even include him in the polls. I don't know why people can't see that! I think everyone on this thread who supports him should get a Kennedy24 bumper sticker and drive it proudly around. I knew Trump would win in 2016 because his bumper stickers were everywhere - even in my deep blue SoCal town.
Yes I actually did - I designed a sign that read
STOP THE CORRUPTION
RFK Jr
THE ONLY PERSON CAPABLE
OF SAVING THIS COUNTRY
KENNEDY24
I totally agree - for all the naysayers that claim he doesn't stand a chance - it's our job to make sure he does! I forget who wrote what but I think it may've been something to the effect of 32 million Substack subscribers? Number 1 that's a helluva lot of coverage and Number 2 everything I've read about him in the comment section is all positive!
Also true they're scared shitless because unlike all the rest he can and will do what he says - he's already named names of those he'll terminate! He's been suing the government for 40 years and knows exactly where the corruption lies!
Agree about the bumper stickers but as I say we need something a helluva lot more potent then what's he's selling! I personally send all the Substacks, interviews and articles to all my friends. That alone is vital - we all need to do our part! I also print the articles and hand them
to all my clients! The intellectuals of course!
RFK Jr. is Presidential? Trump is Presidential? These two sleazebags are Presidential?? What's your definition of Presidential? Charlie Sheen? My beloved country has lost its collective mind!
Maybe you can provide some examples why you call RFK jr a sleazebag? Name calling only goes so far.
Ask his ex-wives; he cheated on both. You can't ask Anne Frank, who according to RFK Jr., had it better living in an attic before getting murdered then those of us who suffered under Covid lockdowns. I met the conspiracy nut once, and he was a smug creep, mocking the "broom pushers" in this country and laughing his entitled head off. Need more?
Who do you think would make the best President? I'm referring to the 2024 election.
Adam Kinzinger.
I'm not familiar with his ideas, what he feels needs to change. My main concern is govt. censorship. We will be in deep trouble if the govt. continues to censure us. Esp. if they get more control of the internet.
Why do you think RFK is a “sleazebag”? What is this opinion based on?
Totally agree- I was also at his rally in San Diego and his speech was so smart and thoughtful. This article is a disgrace. I thought that the FP was better than this - sounds like CNN
True.
I can't imagine him doing the masterful job that Biden has done in negotiating the debt ceiling.
Masterful is not a descriptor I would use for the White House's handling of anything. The fact that Biden said he would not negotiate at all, and then ended up having to do so does not spell mastery.
You're welcome to believe that.
Biden has never in his life done a masterful job at anything. You can't possibly imagine he had anything to do with that, can you? He's a factotum. A figurehead. He's not in charge. He even says so accidentally - frequently ("They won't let me [do this, or say that").
I don't know what planet you're on, but here on Earth Biden is doing a truly masterful job, as you can read here: https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/
Hidden behind a paywall. I'm not paying for anything that "publication" produces. I'm not inside the far left bubble.
You do sound like you're in a bubble. Just one that does not include the far left, and maybe not any of the left. I do read stuff from the right, and my policy prefs on immigration are closer to the right than the left.
Now you are projecting. I just think the New York Times and the Washington post were once fine newspapers that now are a tool of the left just like Fox is a tool for the right. They only present one side of the story and protect politicians like Joe Biden who is clearly unfit for duty. Just listen to him speak. Can’t wait to see him in debates, but that won’t happen because he can no longer do that.
Is this satire? The fangirls at WaPo basically print DNC press releases. See: A Washington Post reporter admitted Wednesday to passing along a misquote of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., from the lawmaker's office that drastically cleaned up his actual remarks.
This is Jennifer Rubin, one of the best columnists in the country. If the cleaning up of a misquote actually happened, it wasn't Rubin who did that. And, no, Rubin is no "fangirl." She's tough as nails.
You are not a serious person if you think Jennifer Rubin is anything but a cheerleader for the DNC.
They are side shows. I think both of them are nut cases. She's a spiritualist and he is just plain nutz. Some of the things that comes out of his mouth are not just radical but crazy.
I have always been skeptical of the Kennedys. They are poor little rich boys who have never held a real job and don't need to. Politics is a hobby. JFK was a womanizer and I believe like Clinton a sexual predator. I might be wrong but that is what I believe.
The patriarch of the family, Joe Kennedy was an antisemitic, bootlegging gangster in the 1920s and by all accounts a horrible person. Harry Truman wanted to punch him out.
They are considered saints by the loony left. Teddy was a hard core alcoholic and sexual predator. He should have gone to jail for what he did to Mary Jo Kopechne but the Kennedys owned Massachusetts and all he got was a slap on the wrist. The same thing with his alcoholic, drug using son Patrick who while driving drunk, ran into a Capital Hill traffic barrier, following in his fathers footsteps. When he was a US congressional representative from Rhode Island, he said in a speech, " I Never Worked A Fuc*ing Day in My Life...." and those morons in Rhode Island reelected him.
So, yes, you might surmise from my rant that I have a low opinion of the Kennedys and the party that worships them.
I have problems with the Kennedy family. But their power is, I think, largely a thing of the past. And I could see myself voting for Robert Jr. His skepticism about where America is now and how all our systems are failing is a good thing. If TDS Dems are willing to vote for a skeptic as long as he has a D after his name, that may be the only thing that saves us.
Having come from Massachusetts, I never dreamed I would see a time in my life when the Kennedy family was politically and culturally irrelevant in this country. But that's what they've become. The fact a Kennedy is running for office as an outsider and a long shot is something I would have thought unthinkable. I think any chance they had at continuing their dynasty died with JFK Jr. But I like the things RFK Jr. is saying.
Have you heard him speak? He doesn't talk. He whines.
I have not. I tend to read instead of watch/listen.
When I was young I was staying at my grandma and grampa's farm. A show came on about JFK. I had thought he was a big hero. My Grandpa actually started swearing. He hated the Kennedys. I was shocked. He was very mild mannered and never swore.
As far as I can see they are leeches on society. Joe Kennedy stole his fortune fair and square. HIs spawn has been living off that fortune ever since.
You left out JFK's drug addictions and the Kennedy scion who was plausibly accused of rape down in Florida. Interesting book I read many years ago that stuck with me: Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail". He wrote it while working as a journalist for the Rolling Stone, following McGovern's campaign. Boy, there was a guy who disliked the Kennedy's. Some of his credible anecdotes are really surprising.
I do not like political dynasties.
Me neither.
Here here! The Camelot fantasy disgusts me.
Live in the past. I might point out that Biden has spent billions of dollars in Ukraine, much of it unaccounted for, and brought us to the brink of nuclear engagement. The press coverage mimics that of the Iraq war, later found to be an unmitigated disaster. The next war, I want all the Democrats to send their kids. No more wars being fought by people who can’t pay 80,000 dollars a year for college. I want to see all the Soros clan and tech titan heirs enlisting.
I agree. Every person in congress or high national office should have their kids drafted into the military. Have them put their children where their mouth is.
The hawks would have to send their children to the wars they so love and the anti-war advocates would then have to fight harder to see we don't go to war. Oh, and their children aren't sent to some admin post like Al Gore's father did for Al but they have to go to a line unit and eat crappy rations, dodge bullets and sleep in the mud.
Would have to be great grand children if you are talking Congress lol.
It is atrocious that we now have what amounts to a mercenary army made up of working class citizens who are routinely vilified by our war-mongering president. And the troops that had their legs blown off in the Iraq war don’t even have homes yet we can pay for DEI and Ukraine. What a joke.
I still read him. He has been against vaccinating the young and men up to age 35-40. He has said the cost/benefit ratio is negative for those groups. However, he has always been in favor of vaccinating the aged and the unhealthy. The quote was about the testing protocol only. He has stated the data demonstrated the myocarditis issue in young men, but was buried. So, his issue was with not being "evidence based" as opposed to an anti-vaccine stance.
If Dr Prasad truly believes that the Covid vax was adequately tested, he is, as Noam Chomsky would say, a charlatan. That research is ongoing.
Big part of the problem is big pharma helps fund CDC and FDA. Fox watching the hen house, what could go wrong?
The mania to impose the tricky Covid vaccine on everyone was madness. The elderly and immunocompromised? Fine. But mandates for a vaccine that has waning efficacy and known side effects is totalitarian madness. What sane country would have allowed it? Or not torn limb from limb those who insisted upon it.
How about the mandate for college students which compelled taking a vaccine for which that age group had a statistically zero risk of death? The vaccine wasn’t even offered to that age group in some other (sane) countries.
Or cloth face masks for toddlers? Insanity.
Or cloth face masks for anyone!
I had children at UW Madison, U of Iowa and Bama in 2020/2021. I was so glad none of those schools forced it on the students. The data in early 2020 proved beyond a doubt that, unless they had preexisting medical issue, 20 somethings had virtually zero risk of serious illness or death from Covid. It was primarily liberal elite schools that did so - schools with students who's parents likely instilled enough fear into them that they gladly took as many shots as they could.
Worse, or little kids. Whose moms they hectored and terrified. What a bunch of totalitarian freaks. And some of them still post here. No apologies. No amends. Like locusts on to the next mad jihad.
Remember where Dr. Prasad works: UCSF. He could be fired or have his medical license revoked if he doesn't support the covered vaccines. I always keep that in mind when reading his posts.
It read like a dismissive puff piece, as though you know there’s an issue with the establishment democrats that must be addressed but don’t actually believe it will ever come to anything.
If Kennedy wants to get real traction, I’d advise him to focus on deep state corruption and its unholy alliance with big tech and the mainstream media to stifle dissent. When the FBI and IRS can act as its enforcers and have their misdeeds encouraged, covered up and then ignored by Merrick Garland’s Just Us Department to the point where half the country believes it is being victimized, our democracy cannot be sustained.
I have to believe that most of the country KNOWS we are on a perilous path, but tribal instincts prevent “a coalition of the left and the right”. Kennedy is in a unique position to dissipate at least some of that tribalism. His pole numbers are an encouraging sign that some in the democrat party are willing to participate. I wish him well.
I found the "coalition of the left and right" thing to be the most absurd notion in the entire article. A coalition of liberals and conservatives is possible, and indeed, is already happening in some ways. But left and right? In 2023? Keep dreaming. They might as well be inhabitants of different planets. The left seems to occupy a completely different reality from the one I do, and as long as they maintain their current chokehold on the Democratic party, the only Democrat I would even remotely consider voting for is a contrarian like Kennedy, and I even have issues with him.
“A coalition of liberals and conservatives is possible”
Maybe I’m showing my age but that’s how I, and I presume RFK define the left and right. What you call the left I call progressives when I’m being unduly kind. Generally I refer to them more accurately as Marxists
Maybe it used to be that way. Not all liberals are leftists and not all conservatives are right-wingers. I don't think the terms are synonymous. Many conservative commentators have described the distinction between liberals and the left. Liberals believe in free speech; leftists don't. Liberals believe in individual liberties; leftists don't. Liberals oppose government authoritarianism; leftists don't. Liberals and conservatives can find common ground, but not the left and the right or even the left and ordinary conservatives. The problem is that liberals continue voting for the left because they refuse to vote for a conservative, even though they might be more in agreement with them.
Deep state corruption is exactly what he’s focusing on in his campaign--his vaccine views are being focused on by others, especially in the media. That’s one reason this FP piece is disappointing --it’s just following alongside the MSM, with a less vicious attitude.
This is an honest and genuinely useful interview that Kim Iversen did if you want to hear from the man on a range of issues; highly recommend it.
https://rumble.com/v288tw7-conversation-with-robert-f.-kennedy-jr.-how-the-powerful-captured-the-publi.html
Thanks
"Just Us Department". Great line.
The problem is, how do you win an election without Big Tech backing you. It’s impossible.
Bernie did pretty well in 2016, just not well enough.
Not sure Bernie Sanders would agree with that
I don't recall Trump having any of those shills backing him in 2016. They laughed at first and even had him on late-night talk shows as a living meme. I think Kennedy has a lot of momentum building behind him that will never be acknowledged by the media. If he takes the Sanders campaign as a lesson and fund raises outside of the billionaire/corporate cartel system, I think he will surprise everyone. And maybe he will garner some solid negative coverage. The type of coverage that served Trump so well in 2016 - the ratings of the established media were never higher and evaporated when sleepy Joe hit the stage. I am looking forward to see how many people come up from the grass roots to help tear the system to shreds!
I keep thinking if one person of esteem - notoriety or wealth, so much as dares to support him - it's over for the rest! They won't be able to censor or silence him! What we basically need is one person to step up and put the Country ahead of themselves - their career, reputation etc! Because that's exactly what this boils down to - he is the only PERSON capable of saving what little is even left of this Country and perhaps even restoring it!
The man lives in California and clearly knows everyone - who will have the courage to do the right thing? Taylor Swift? Britney Spears - Jennifer Lopez - Leonardo DeCaprio? It'll just take ONE!
I have a feeling someone will jump on board. Won't be any of those you listed I'm afraid to say. All just a bit too entrenched in the big lie.
YES - but . . . all it will take is ONE!! The attention it will garner - even though it will be negative is STILL ATTENTION!! Who will be the one willing to give up everything? Tom Hanks? Who cares if he never gets hired again - haven't they made enough money to last beyond a lifetime? Actually, maybe his son will do it?
I don’t know what being “on the spectrum” means but the Twitter Files Musk presented to journalists Taibbi, Shellenberger, Berenson and Weiss illuminate the extent to which our government, Big Tech and the Mainstream Media colluded in kneecapping Trump while protecting Biden during the 2020 election cycle. While not an outright proclamation of support for Trump, it was a damning indictment of the participants. I give Musk a lot of credit, first for buying Twitter and then having the balls, at great personal risk to show the world how corrupt our government has become.
Thanks for the explanation and personal insight. I always thought RFK Jr. was a spoiled rich kid trying to be relevant when his sole schtick was promoting anti-vaccination hysteria. For a long time, I also thought talk of CIA involvement in the assassination of his uncle and murder of his father was just conspiracy fodder to sell books and movies. But after real science about Covid finally emerged and revelations of past FBI and CIA complicity in engineering an attempted coup against Trump and their ongoing attempts to obliterate the Constitution, I’m willing to give Kennedy some grace.
Agree, but only because they didn’t think they needed to put their finger on the scale at that time. That all changed in 2020.
They had their finger on the scale in 2016, they just miscalculated how much Hillary Clinton is despised. So in 2020 they went all in.
"If he takes the Sanders campaign as a lesson and fund raises outside of the billionaire/corporate cartel system, I think he will surprise everyone," 100% agree.
"I don't recall Trump having any of those shills backing him in 2016".
And in 2020 with Big Tech, the Deep State and Mainstream Media completely allied AGAINST him, he almost won again.
What do you mean almost?
I am still on the fence about the "almost" in that statement. I took a deep dive into the alt media "stolen election" narrative and must say, the amount of shenanigans pulled by the DNC and their troops does make one scratch ones head. Either that or the MAGA crowd faked some pretty compelling docudramas. Looking back at just how lousy Biden was a candidate it still amazes me that the hatred of the Orange Man was so great that more people voted for him than voted for Obama! We will never know the full truth and it doesn't matter much at this point, we are where we are. I prey we have a level and fair playing field next year. If the DNC sticks to their no-primary stance, I am afraid that prayer will go unanswered and it's game over for any chance of us ever having a truly democratic election again - assuming we ever really did. If Kennedy is sidelined by the establishment without even giving him a chance to debate sleepy Joe, let alone Trump or DeSantis, I hope he runs as an independent and disrupts the whole shit show.
Go look at Green Bay WI and the Zuckerberg impact on the way the election was run. There is a lot of good, old fashioned investigation by the local press - and then extend those examples out. They can tell me that turnout under covid went up 20% and that hate drove an additional 15 million voters out to vote for Biden over Obama. They can tell me that the evidence presented in Ten Thousand Mules is all "debunked." They can tell me the 100k plus to almost zero, vote surges that came in the wee hours of the next morning in three states were not highly irregular and therefore not suspect - but I will never believe it.
The Democrats and the Establishment have broken American democracy with ballot harvesting and cheating. Do you really believe that San Francisco's residents have been voting in favor of what's going on in their city? Do you really believe the American system voted FOR Joe Biden and his disastrous presidency?
Don't even get me started on Ukraine and the massive slaughter therein that we are encouraging and responsible for.
Many people voted against Trump, not for Biden. The Twitter Files show us that some in the govt. didn't want Trump to win.
100% agree. And the staged, coordinated J6 capital debacle put an end to the conversation in the main stream media.
Or Big Media.
It reads remarkably like a lot of media coverage of Trump in 2015. "The guy has some points but he's definitely crazy and we the elites have decided he has no chance of winning so just forget about him."
The author follows the familiar TFP scrip. Acknowledge that something terrible is wrong in the country and in this case RFK may be addressing some of the distress. But of course, the author accepts all the nostrums of the left: Trump is Hitler, questioning vaccines is idiocy, questioning election integrity will make one eligible for jail time. These articles give no insight into the reality we live in because they start from many of the positions of the woke ideology, and from these positions there can be no progress.
Mail in ballots w/o signature verification, ballot harvesting, the corruption of the media, Hollywood, tech giants and Zuckbucks alone insure Dems will always win. Keep in mind they also have overwhelming control of the county agencies that do the counting.
There can never be a solution to this corruption because we are cancelled if we even show an openness to question the corruption.
It is so depressing to have to agree with you concerning your assessment that the Democrats will always win. If election fraud (ballot harvesting, mail-in ballots, etc.) were eliminated and the media actually informed the pubic of the disastrous policies advocated by the Democrats, the next presidential election would be a landslide victory for any Republican candidate. Can you imagine if the media hammered away at illegal immigration, inflation, Democrat-supported district attorneys, and the economic consequences of this administration's energy policies? Biden's approval rating would drop to one percent, given the expected number of deranged people in any society.
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Overall I think the piece was balanced, but would admit the author does appear to harbor some bias against anti-vax opinions.
I agree. Overall, a fairly balanced piece. The author obviously still harbors some of the old "Camelot" worship that has run through the Democratic Party for my entire lifetime. This fantasy always raises my eyebrows, as the Kennedy administration was far from the great success old Democrats like to believe it was.
I think that Kennedy is a little nuts regarding vaccines, especially the much-tested-but-no-link-found autism claims. He is right about the lightly-tested Covid vaccines being pushed by the government and media. This, I don't have a huge problem with. I do have a problem with the government and media censoring vaccine criticism, even from some of the most qualified and respected medical professionals in the country, and the government's efforts to mandate the unproven vaccines. I'm not an anti-vaxxer - not even an anti-covid-vaxxer. I got 3 doses of the stuff and got Covid at least once (probably twice, but I wasn't going to run out and pay $25 for a test that, if positive, the treatment would have been the same - stay home, rest and drink lots of fluids).
As for populism in politics, it's a lot like salt in food. A small to moderate amount adds flavor/context, but too much ruins it.
Brian, I used to think that people talking about the vaccine link to autism were nuts too but when I allowed myself to actually read what the very intelligent, well informed and well read people who were on that side were saying (including Kennedy), I was shocked to realize how much of the science that vaccine safety is based on is terrible, captured and incomplete. It was eye opening to say the least and over time I have come to my own well researched belief that our schedule of childhood vaccines all have major safety issues that need addressing. The utter silence from the media is telling. It is a scared cow that can’t be questioned or discussed unless the discussion is one of praise, and the majority of the population has been misled by this.
The study that is heralded as the definitive study to ”prove” that vaccines don’t cause autism has so many flaws in , including majorly compromised authors with deep conflicts of interest (one of whom is now on the DOJ’s most wanted list for absconding with over $1M in US grant money). This is but one example of the issues that Kennedy discovered and has written and talked about. Why this is a “nuts” position to hold is baffling to me, but I used to be there, so I get your hesitation. I would just encourage you to spend the equivalent of a few hours reading what the other side has to say, it may be enlightening.
I know a highly educated couple who were super leftwing and fully onboard the pro-vaccine train (she had once been a pharma rep) but agreed—at a friend's request—to watch Vaxxed: From CoverUp to Catastrophe. Afterwards they determined to research every claim in the movie because they didn't—couldn't—believe it was true and wanted to debunk it. Instead, what they discovered up-ended their entire worldview. She is now a pro informed consent advocate and won't even take an aspirin.
why does anyone "test" for covid if they have cold?
The first time I got Covid, (which I picked up in Vegas, so not everything that happens there, stays there!) I took the test because my wife had a couple unused kits from her previous work in a hospital. After testing positive, I followed the recommendations on the packet and called my primary care physician. Well, nobody called me back for 4 days, by which time I was past the worst of it (fever, etc.). When they nurse finally called back and asked if there was anything I needed, I asked for some prescription (codeine) cough syrup so that I could sleep and therefore better fight off the remnants of the virus. Another 5 days passed before someone called to say the doc had signed the prescription, but they wanted to see if I still needed it. Well, no! This is why the second time, with much milder symptoms, I didn't even bother to get tested, much less call the doctor. The second time might have been some other respiratory virus, but it came shortly after a wave of Covid went though my daughter's circle of friends at high school and she had been sick a few days earlier. At this time, until I see the results of more testing, I have no intention of getting another Covid vaccine booster. With the much milder variants and natural immune function from infection, the risk-reward tradeoff no longer favors getting the shot, but I will keep reevaluating the situation as I get more information. I am 55, but fit and healthy, so I'm not at particularly high risk.
Because, unlike the common cold, COVID is dangerous to those with compromised immune systems and the elderly - at least that’s why I would test.
Bari has a very young child and wants to believe the best about the medical profession. Many have trusted their advice with disastrous results. Unfortunately the press muzzles reporting on this.
I think it would have been important to note that Pharma lobbyists in Washington outnumber every other type and that our television news gets an estimated 70 percent of its revenue from Pharma ads. Just for starters. Anyone who feels that it is possible to get unbiased vaccine reporting from corporate media is sadly misinformed.
Very good point.
Balanced in that it proposes two non-viable candidates?
Yes, claims of “zero evidence“ reek of mainstream media, not deserving of Free Press.
I made sure my subscription was set to cancel after reading this piece. Too many of the recent columns on Free Press seem lazily written to me. It is no longer a reliable source of investigative journalism or independent thinking.
Struck me as typical of TFP. On the particular topic of vaccines Bari shows none of her signature questioning of the Narrative™ or any willingness to dig into the evidence. TFP just parrots what "everybody knows" as if it must be true because it's "common knowledge." On this topic Bari & Co are more of a piece with Krystal Ball—unserious about the issue and oddly willing to place trust blindly in the system and corporations they claim to be holding to account.
Sadly, regarding the Free Press's coverage of COVID-related matters, I must agree with you. I admire Bari, and I quit the New York Times because of the way she was treated. It's to be expected that I won't agree with everything she publishes, but the lack of journalistic rigor around COVID is more than disappointing. I'm not ready to cancel yet, but I have to choose my paid subscriptions carefully. The jury is out.
Yes, they all need to read the Turtles book—including the methodology chapter on types of “evidence”, “proof” of benefit etc.
Surprised to see the word “debunked” in a free press article. That term is one of the bedrocks of cancel culture and the “believe the Science / in Fauci we Trust” community.
Yeah, "debunk," thats Hillary speak for "our flaks have written a BS rebuttal."
In my world, when I hear “debunked”, I think “someone doesn’t really like that view/journal article or whatever”. Because in science world, very seldom are things finally settled to the point where all the experts agree.
Thank you Sharon! That is EXACTLY why that word bothers me. I haven't been able to articulate it appropriately before... you captured it perfectly.