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RF Kennedy live

Politics
#1

Politics, health and a cigarette paper…

Second day of confirmation hearing.
Expect vigorous opposition

Apparently they (the Reps) can’t afford to drop more than a few senators’ votes.
UPDATE: “Kennedy can only afford to lose three Senate Republican votes if Democrats unanimously oppose his nomination. It’s currently unclear whether any Republicans will vote against him.”
(MSN link)

Currently a Dem senator is trying to hammer him with spin and lies at this point.

“The science is there”, pointing to official data which is crap.

Two main problems: Dem senators rhyming off reams of official studies which do not address the point, then say he is undermining health, settled science etc. Kennedy can answer that but disadvantaged at the devil being in the detail.
He is claiming only that proper investigations be carried out.

RFK has been trying to mend fences with diplomacy and specific aims for big general issues, but definitive vaccine statements in the past are being exploited, again against the facade of sound science that probably most of the senators believe exists that ‘shows’ vaccines are safe.

Strong acting as two Dem senators got temporarily emotional about personal tragedies, then immediately delivering cold collarorated attacks on his testimony yesterday. Citing ‘inaccuracies on his basic understanding of medicare’, where they had asked him to rhyme off pieces of the legislation. Kennedy hardly had time to answer these.
The idea of proper investigations is not going down well with many.

Elsewhere in the hearing RFK has pointed out that many senators (I believe at least half) are in receipt of large amounts of pharma money.

How will they vote? I’ve not been able to glean whether Kennedy is thought likely to be ratified. It looks like a split along partisan lines, but taking into account the financial interests as well you would think that would add up to more than a few Republicans who don’t fancy an unreasonable assault on their gravy train, though I don’t think they will speak out against him publicly.

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#2

A proliferation of Drs is loudly objecting to RFK’s appointment, but this is not the spontaneous, telling indicator that the media are presenting.

The biggest group you may read about is via this headline, referring to 15,000 physicians.

More than 15,000 doctors sign letter urging Senate to reject RFK Jr. as health secretary

Their letter calls the choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is known for promoting false medical claims, “a slap in the face” to health care professionals.

15,000 sounds impressive but this group is diehard anti-Trump (see below). Which is fine of course, except when they are a health group campaigning against “Trump-health” policy, you suspect Trump is the related issue.
Also as Dem diehards there is likely Pharma money going in too - I’m sure they are ‘concerned’ about RFK too :slight_smile: - if so it is unlikely to be chickenfeed.

Political Contributions

CTP spent $1,242,003 in the 2020 federal election cycle, $100,541 in support of Democrats and $1,139,058 against Republicans, with $1,136,263 spent opposing then-President Donald Trump. 20

This article by persistent digger Lee Fang rounds up some other supposedly ‘alarmed doctors’:

Industry Lobbyists Lead ‘Public Health’ Groups Rallying Against RFK

The largest doctors orgs in America have not taken a position on the Kennedy nomination. Yet small groups tied to the drug industry purport to represent physicians.

The entire medical and public health community opposes Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. That’s at least the impression that activist groups rallying on Capitol Hill gave this week.

The opponents to Kennedy’s nomination circulated letters recently attempting to show the expansive list of healthcare organizations troubled by his views. “Doctors opposing RFK Jr. rally in the lead-up to his confirmation,” blared NPR.

A closer examination of the groups leading the anti-Kennedy campaign shows far more of a typical mix of conflicted interest groups. Here are some examples:

– The National Hispanic Medical Association has denounced Kennedy for “spreading misinformation about vaccines.” The organization is funded by a litany of drug industry giants, including Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly & Company, Pfizer, Amgen, Sanofi, Abbott, AstraZeneca, Novo-Nordisk, and the trade group PhRMA.

– The National Consumers League has flooded social media with #StopRFK posts and claims that he is one of the loudest anti-vaccine voices in America. NCL, which has also signed multiple coalition letters against his HHS nomination, is funded by drug and food industry donors. It’s also led by lobbyists. Andrea Larue, a lobbyist for Pfizer, and Jose Borjon, a lobbyist for Roche, sit on NCL’s board of directors.

– The American Academy of Pediatrics is one of the most active anti-Kennedy groups. The AAP staged a protest outside of the Senate and has circulated quotes to friendly media outlets. The organization, as I’ve reported, received a series of earmarked Pfizer funding during the COVID-19 pandemic to lobby for vaccine mandates. Other major donors to AAP include Abbott Nutrition and Mead Johnson, the largest makers of corn syrup-based baby formula.
[The rest is paywalled - ED]
Industry Lobbyists Lead 'Public Health' Groups Rallying Against RFK

ED

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#3

Flavour of the occasion, courtesy of farmer writer John Klar; whose prose is praised and reposted.by Meryl Nass.

My fav of these snippets is the last one; having just heard that one of the dyes used in the packaging of foodstuffs is banned from soft toys, it seems it could be strengthened even further.

ED

Farmers unite for Robert Kennedy, Jr.

" Most of the flak consists of histrionic crocodile tears about his positions on vaccine safety and abortions, shifting attention from the core MAHA message about food safety. "

“The money and influence of Big Pharma, allied with multinational corporations that profit astronomically by converting industrial waste byproducts from liabilities into salable ultra-processed faux foods, is visible in the media blitz to stop Kennedy from storming their regulatorily-controlled Bastille.”

" On the eve of his confirmation, MSM hellhounds released their collective Kennedy-honed krakens, revealing loyalties not to American children but to the invisible powers that pull their purse strings. The Atlantic joined with the Wall Street Journal to disparage Kennedy, as if the DNC’s anti-Kennedy election apparatus had been revived for the occasion."

“Let them eat (ultra-processed, plastic-wrapped, government-controlled) cake!”