Jumping the Shark In America!
It ain’t even transactional anymore; it’s just ordinary extortion. Sort of like Tony Soprano on steroids. Now it’s a major law firm well known for supporting various liberal causes (Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison) that has, er, agreed to pledge $40 million for pro bono legal services that the White House supports. It was an offer that da fancy law firm couldn’t refuse. Knee caps can be broken in so many ways.
I’ve started to lose track of the universities that have started to cave as well. Money talks, especially when you’re wealthy and comfortable and terrified of losing it all. You’ve never had to play in the real dirt … or you maybe have forgotten how.
Remember, contrary to the views of many people that are not wealthy, those that have may be even more fearful than regular folks about losing their stuff. There are many reasons for this, but irrelevant at the moment.
The lesson to take from all of this is never count on the privileged coming to your rescue, especially in the United States. We don’t have the required noblesse oblige in America, even though some bastardized version may exist among some individuals.
To me he’s simply “bullet head.” I’m talking about Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar. I saw him on TV a few nights back snarling at the camera, saying “no judge” is going to stop the deportations. The one thing that was missing I thought was the traditional black uniform with the skull-and-crossbones badges.
As many now know a federal judge had issued an order to turn the planes around and return the detainees back to the United States. They were headed to a notorious El Salvador prison. We paid the dictator of the country a few million bucks—chump change—to haul people away.
I may be wrong but didn’t the mob control the “garbage business” in New York City at one time. Sure, Mr. Bullet Head is small potatoes, but it’s telling in numerous ways, especially what’s likely coming our way. By, By Miss American Pie, as the song says.
Oh, and there is the story of the Canadian Woman, a poster girl of sorts, held in a miserable federal detention center for two weeks. Her name is Jasmine Mooney. She had a visa to work in the United States. The story of her detention is at the end of the post.
The private prison business by the way appears to be a growth industry under the current administration. Best let your money work for you and invest early.
How Did We Get Here?
This question continues to come up, which raises even more questions about our awareness in general. You could begin if you want with Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, and the 2013 decision Citizens United, which gave corporations and wealthy individuals the right to spend unlimited money on political campaigns. Momentous decision you and the majority crew made, John.
Then in 2024 the Roberts court passed the immunity ruling for presidents. This has got to be one of my favorites, right up there with the Dred Scott decision of 1857. Roberts, you’re going to be remembered as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the 21st century, just like Roger Taney was in the 19th century. Judge Taney wrote the Dred Scott decision leading to the Civil War in 1860.
But let’s be fair and not exclude anyone. You have to include former Senate majority leader, Republican Mitch McConnell in the pantheon of little minds, that so many people claimed Mitch was a shrewd political tactician.
But Mitch is now merely sad and pathetic, like the entire Republican cult, an increasingly peripheral group of frightened lap dogs. Of course there is the Democratic party; however, so much to say about them and so little time to say it, therefore we won’t.
Finally, we have us, the ordinary voter. This is the big story but it’s actually a little more complicated and nuanced than many activists—both on the left and the right—feel comfortable about. How will the great majority in the middle eventually respond? I have no idea, but it’s not the “great majority” we ought to focus on.
It is a key percentage of that amorphous mass that can move us to a nightmarish authoritarianism or a vibrant democratic republic, and so much in-between.
I want the democracy and all that it entails, the good and the not so good. It’s my idea of freedom, not some narcissistic libertarianism whining about “free to be me.” Devour feculence and let’s rid ourselves of the fetid odor that hovers over the United States at the moment.
Try to imagine a continental-size country like the United States with a diverse population of some 340 million people spewing out about 14.56 metric tons (2022) of CO2 emissions, and simply unraveling as a nation.
Now try hard to imagine a well educated country where diversity in general is welcomed and vibrancy across the U.S. is encourage and yes, CO2 emissions are moving downward. Last, think about what you as an individual might do to make all of us better.
The Constitutional crisis has arrived. It is indeed inconvenient but you have a decision—probably many—to make in the near future. Don’t ever think this is all an abstraction or in-house entertainment about those other people, and that it could never touch you. Good Night and Good Luck, the late Edward R. Murrow signed off at the close of his broadcast.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out-because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unions, and I did not speak out-because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak out for me. (Martin Niemoller, German Lutheran pastor, 1946)
John Galt Is Still Alive!
Are you coughing up blood? Don’t worry, you’re in my thoughts and prayers. Take these vitamin pills, grind up some dandelions and make a sacrifice to Dionysus. Two teaspoons of cod liver oil will help your uncontrollable dysentery. No I’m sorry, I don’t have any money to give you for health care. You should have invested in the stock market citizen….
It has been called the world’s deadliest infectious disease. Depending on which part of the body is affected, it could cause pain in the side, weight loss and night sweats. You might have excruciating pain in your spine, your lungs could fill up with fluid and you may have severe coughing.
A few of the famous people that have died from tuberculosis include George Orwell, Emily Bronte, Frederic Chopin and Robert Louis Stevenson. We have had antibiotics since the 1950s that have helped stop and control the spread of then disease.
The rich countries have largely avoided TB since the 1950s, thus making it not profitable for drug manufacturers to continue research and developing new drugs for the disease. Tuberculosis, however, has never gone away, including in the wealthier countries. The “game is afoot” at the present time Sherlock Holmes might have said to Dr. Watson.
I have watched with concern as Musk and Trump, two incredibly cruel, narcissistic humans, have gone about dismantling USAID, the agency that funds foreign assistance abroad, including needed medical assistance, with no apparent thought nor actual understanding as to what they were doing. It is with a scalpel and not a club that you go about uncovering actual “fraud and waste.”
In 2023 total foreign aid amounted to 71.9 billion. In 2024 USAID accounted for 0.3 percent of all federal spending.
In 2024 the U.S recorded more cases of tuberculosis since the Center for Disease Control (CDC) started keeping count in the 1950s. Deadly infectious diseases are not limited to developing nations nor are they incapable of settling in developed countries like the United States.
Continuous research on TB tests and treatments have now been significantly reduced or closed. Without treatments many thousands of people will die—needlessly. “Given enough time, a strain of tuberculosis may evolve that is resistant to all available antibiotics”
Remember COVID in the U.S. It killed more than a million people a few years ago. I know, I know, you were “inconvenienced” by masks, you couldn’t go out to restaurants and your children had to stay home. I agree. Some not so good recommendations were made in the midst of a global pandemic. Uh, huh, and Robert Kennedy Jr is not crazy about vaccines. That’s a good reason to avoid them.
SEE, The world's deadliest infectious disease is about to get worse
SEE, Funding cuts to TB endanger lives of millions
SEE, Kansas reckons with large TB outbreaks
But for just a brief moment try to imagine what the world’s most infectious disease could do in the United States, especially with incompetents, grifters and outright charlatans in charge. It could become very personal very fast. Are you certain that the “best and the brightest” are now watching out for your health?
Red Spots In All the Wrong Places
“A new age of public health libertarianism”
It’s called immunological memory. Also sometimes referred to as trained immunity. We want the immune system in our bodies to remember any past encounters with pathogens, those disease causing organisms like bacteria, viruses and fungi. We also want to know about antigens, the molecules that hang around on the surface of pathogens. They help trigger an immune response.
We did eliminate the measles virus about 25 years ago. Did you know that? But it’s back citizens! What’s that about vaccination rates you ask?
SEE, More U.S. states report measles cases
SEE, Measles outbreak how contagious it it
It’s about science. It’s about studying the world around us and it’s about keeping those natural enemies, in many cases, at a safe difference. It is not something you do when you get around to it. Pathogens change and make their own decisions like humans and animals do all the time.
Perhaps a poor analogy but change is inevitable. We humans can’t rest on our laurels or wait for the latest unscientific fad to disappear or some California guru to stop chanting. For that matter be wary of any “medical” doctor hustling some pill on television and claiming it’s the cure of the century. No doubt there have been some incredible “cures,” but they usually have gone through rigorous trial and error and can be reproduced.
No it’s not a part-time endeavor and it is much more than just your feelings at the moment. One finding or one discovery builds on that which went on before, sometimes creating a brand new discovery that may or may not cause the discarding of an older belief.
Most important it is not just about the individual but how an individual interact with a great many individuals. Then we may get a herd response that just might tell us a lot about the world we all live in, and not just humans. It’s good science and good health to know this. We’ve been doing this a long time, not because we’re all just dull-witted and too lazy to change but because it works. Yet….
Ancient Greece is the most beautiful invention of the modern age. (Paul Valery, French poet)
The science writer, David Wallace-Wells, has an excellent piece in the NYT. He states that the U.S. is now “feeling its way toward a new anti-establishment equilibrium—and anointing a new class of health leaders distinguished by their vocal skepticism and distrust” Yes and I might say it’s an understatement.
I remember being introduced to Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism back in my college undergraduate days. You may have heard of the novels Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Rand was a mediocre novelist but her beliefs resonated with many and still do albeit in an updated version of Objectivism and libertarianism . Some of Musk’s young acolytes are those updated zealots now attempting to dismantle America at the present time.
John Galt is one of the characters in Rand’s writings and belief system. It’s about stopping all the “leeches” preventing great men (probably now great women as well) from taking control. After all, rational self-interest with the individual seeking his own happiness is the highest goal, blah, blah and so forth and so forth. “The truth is not for all men but only for those who seek it.” Thus spoke and speaks Ayn Rand, even from the grave.
There is so much more to all of this great man crap but suffice it to say for the time being that public health in America is now infused with so much of this, which is likely to be both nonsensical and dangerous. Yes, as said before, it could all become very personal very soon. We will probably not like the outcome.
SEE, The Entire Future of American Public Health Is at Risk
SEE, What it really means to give infectious disease a break
SEE, Kennedy's Alarming Prescription For Bird Flu on Poultry Farms
There is no vaccine that is safe and effective. (Robert Kennedy Jr.)
CLOSING
Get busy and get active now. Withhold your money and your support when necessary. Find out the groups and organization that make sense to you. These groups and organizations are springing up throughout the country. Of course you can do something. You won’t be able to wait it out or hope someone else will make the bad things go away. In terms of your health—as an individual—it will come down ultimately to collective well being. You most definitely have a part to play in this.
SEE, I'm the Canadian who was detained by ICE
OF COURSE I CAN USE YOUR SUPPORT