Politics & Stuff

[Vesper 30,195]

 

[Vesper 30,195]

RFK Jr condemned as ‘clear and present danger’ after Trump nomination

Nominee for health secretary decried as ‘vaccine denier and tin foil hat conspiracy theorist … this is going to cost lives’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/14/trump-administration-rfk-criticisms

Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr as US secretary of health and human services has prompted widespread criticisms towards Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist who has embraced a slew of other debunked health-related conspiracy theories.

In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump claimed that Americans have been “crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies” and that Kennedy “will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”

In response to Kennedy’s nomination, Public Citizen, a progressive nonprofit organization focusing on consumer advocacy, said: “Robert F Kennedy Jr is a clear and present danger to the nation’s health. He shouldn’t be allowed in the building at the department of health and human services (HHS), let alone be placed in charge of the nation’s public health agency.”

“Donald Trump’s bungling of public health policy during the Covid pandemic cost hundreds of thousands of lives. By appointing Kennedy as his secretary of HHS, Trump is courting another, policy-driven public health catastrophe,” the organization added.

Apu Akkad, an infectious disease physician at the University of Southern California, called the announcement a “scary day for public health”.

“I’m saying this over and over – but it will be of the utmost importance to ONLY make public health decisions or changes based on robust evidence. I hope we have at least learned this much from Covid,” Akkad added on X.

The conservative pundit and lawyer George Conway also commented on Kennedy’s nomination, along with that of Tulsi Gabbard and Matt Gaetz.

“Very little of what Trump does these days amazes me. Any one of the last three of Trump’s Cabinet-level picks (Gabbard as DNI, Gaetz as AG, RFK Jr for HHS), standing alone, would arguably have been the worst in American history. The fact that Trump made all three in a span of roughly 24 hours is astonishing,” Conway wrote.

California’s Democratic representative Robert Garcia called the nomination “fucking insane”, writing on X: “He’s a vaccine denier and a tin foil hat conspiracy theorist. He will destroy our public health infrastructure and our vaccine distribution systems. This is going to cost lives.”

Alastair McAlpine, a pediatric physician at British Columbia’s children’s hospital, wrote: “It is hard to overstate what a terrible decision this is. RFK Jr has no medical training. He is a hardcore anti-vaccine and misinformation peddler. The last time he meddled in a state’s medical affairs (Samoa), 83 children died of measles.”

According to FactCheck.org, in 2018, two infants in Samoa died when nurses accidentally prepared the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine with an expired muscle relaxant instead of water. Following the infants’ deaths, the Samoan government temporarily suspended the vaccination program.

The temporary suspension prompted Kennedy and his anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense to reportedly spread various falsehoods about vaccinations across the island, in turn resulting in a drastic decline in vaccination rates.

A year later, a measles outbreak on the island caused by a sick traveler ended up infecting more than 57,000 people and killing 83, including children.

In an interview for a documentary, Shot in the Arm, Kennedy said he bears no responsibility for the outcome.

On another health issue, Kennedy has said that Trump would push to eliminate fluoride from drinking water, a mineral that strengthens teeth and reduces cavities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Throughout his own independent campaign trail, Kennedy has also touted the effectiveness of raw milk and ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug that has been disproved as a Covid cure. In addition to health-related conspiracies, Kennedy has admitted to decapitating a beached whale and collecting its head, and to dumping a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park a decade ago because he did not have time to skin it and eat it later.

Kennedy has also said that he had a worm in his brain which “ate a portion of it and then died” and vowed “to eat five more brain worms and still beat” Trump and Joe Biden in a staged debate earlier this year.

 

[Vesper 30,195]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/biden-legacy-trump-election-win-1235154852/

President Joe Biden during an address to the nation about his decision not to seek reelection in July - Andrew Harnik/Getty Images   

 

In 2022, President Joe Biden stood at a crossroads. His party had just shattered midterm expectations — the strongest showing for a first-term president in decades. It was a triumphant moment that came with a choice: step aside in victory or tempt fate for four more years.

 

A graceful exit then would have allowed an open primary, giving presidential hopefuls time to make their case to voters. 

 

He chose wrong.

 

After delivering a devastating debate performance, the rapidly diminishing 81-year-old president was still convinced that he, and precisely no one else, could save America.

 

This astonishing Buchananesque approach — declare yourself the only solution while actively making the problem worse — inspired unprecedented reactions: House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi emerged from retirement to pressure a transition.

 

Democrats increasingly broke their silence.

 

And this presidential historian found herself writing the hardest essay of her career: I called for an ostensibly successful, unindicted president to resign in these pages. 

 

I calibrated my appeal to his outsized ego — a trait he shares with the 44 men who preceded him.

 

My focus wasn’t saving democracy — though that would be a welcome bonus — but to what the archives have taught me commanders-in-chief hold most dear: their place in presidential history.

 

I celebrated his truly FDR-scale achievements while offering a dignity-preserving escape plan wrapped in historical glory: by listening to the electorate’s concerns and elevating the first woman president, he could join George Washington in democracy’s most exclusive club — one Donald Trump will never be accepted into — those rare leaders who chose to walk away from power. 

 

My legacy-saving solution was simple: 

1. Step aside as the 2024 candidate, signaling to the party he leads that they could move forward decisively.
2. Resign because most Americans believe you are unfit — and let those Oval Office photos of Kamala Harris silence the “she’s not presidential” chorus.
3. Retreat faster than Washington crossed the Delaware, allowing Harris to distance herself from your policies, secure your position as one of the greats in presidential history.

One needn’t be a presidential historian to see impending disasters everywhere.

 

He ignored them all. The most unsubtle red flags: 

• 86 percent of Americans declared him too old in February.
• 71 percent of his own party begged for alternatives.
• Gaza protesters became his unwanted opening act.
• Trump’s overwhelming lead, a political death knell.

Two days after my essay was published, Biden announced he would indeed step aside — and a hurried coronation would follow. In that moment, he did to his legacy what Charles Guiteau did to James A. Garfield in that fateful July of 1881: inflicted a mortal wound that would take a few months to kill.

 

Yes, Biden resigned — but with a poisoned chalice in hand, giving Harris merely two months to defend his indefensible position on Gaza while he periodically emerged from Delaware to kneecap her. 

 

Biden could have been his legacy’s savior; instead, he chose to become its executioner, surrounded by a Greek chorus of enablers who hummed approval as he sharpened the blade.

 

When future historians chronicle his presidency, his pathological grip on power will eclipse everything else — a tragedy Shakespeare himself might have deemed too obvious in its hubris.

 

His truly spectacular list of accomplishments will serve merely as dramatic irony, a glittering prelude to catastrophe. 

 

The C-SPAN presidential survey — where 142 historians score each president from 1 to 10 on leadership qualities — looms like an approaching executioner, ready to bury Biden’s legacy alive. In 2021, Trump was fourth from the bottom. 

 

Biden may now rank toward the middle tier, but that’s quicksand territory that few escape.

 

I think it’s more than likely he’ll soon join history’s basement dwellers: James Buchanan (watched the Union crumble with the passive interest of a theater critic), Herbert Hoover (conducted the economy’s funeral march), and Trump, who at least never posed as democracy’s champion while suffocating it.

 

Biden will be the only resident of this dark basement with genuine achievements worth eulogizing: He remains the only presidential candidate to defeat Trump.

 

The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (at last, bridges that don’t threaten suicide), the CHIPS Act (America flexing its technological biceps at China), and the first meaningful climate legislation since humans discovered they could wound the atmosphere.

 

He conjured 3.1 percent GDP growth from economists’ doom prophecies. His unemployment numbers made statisticians blush. NATO expanded like a European block party with an open bar.

 

He restored America to something resembling sanity. And, of course, he can be credited with the first woman and first Black woman vice president.

 

Trump can’t erase Kamala Harris — though he’ll attack her at every turn — but he will most certainly reduce most of Biden’s achievements to rubble with the gleeful efficiency of a demolition crew, taking liberal democracy down with them.

 

Some progressive policies may survive, like lower drug prices for seniors, but the most unpopular are more likely: a China strategy whose wisdom remains as murky as Beijing’s air, and a morally bankrupt stance on Gaza, where Biden’s response oscillated between comatose and criminal. 

 

And the nightmare compounds: The Supreme Court, already listing hard to starboard, likely faces two vacancies in the next four years.

 

Trump will cement a judicial fortress that will overshadow not just our lifetimes, but our children’s — a death sentence for countless daughters who will bleed out in states where their grandmothers secured their right to live.

 

Biden entered politics at 29, barely old enough to meet the Senate’s constitutional threshold, and he’ll exit at 82, having methodically dismantled his life’s work.

 

In the court of presidential history, the verdict will be brutal: He squandered his legacy and left democracy’s door ajar for precisely what he promised to prevent.

 

Alexis Coe is an American presidential historian, senior fellow at New America, and the author of, most recently, the New York Times best-selling You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington. 

[IMissEden 21]

Why keep up comments wherein you two WHS and V throw out names, to have the same in return, deleted. Clearly both missing brains. Hence getting along. 
 

Enjoy as said, the echo chamber of nonsense drying up. Learn how to interpret information simply. Both digest it like children so miss most points going over heads. 

Edited November 15, 2024 by IMissEden

[Vesper 30,195]

zios at work again

start up shit, attack people at the French v Israel match

then scream 'antisemitism!' (along with the lickspittle politicians)

fucking cunts

Moment 'Israeli fans launch attacks on French rivals during flashpoint football match in Paris after being taunted over Gaza'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14084503/Violence-France-football-match-against-Israel.html

Shocking footage shows the moment violent scenes broke out in Paris on Thursday night - as witnesses accused a group of Israeli football fans of launching an attack on French supporters during their high security match.

A mobile phone recording shows the moment fans fled their seats as the chaos erupted in the Stade de France, which onlookers have claim the away side's fans started. 

Witnesses say they saw young men wearing masks and balaclavas with blue Star of David flags on their backs apparently rampaging across seats, and then punching victims.

A heavy security presence was put in place by French officials to prevent a repeat of the violence seen last week when Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv played in Amsterdam.

However, the atmosphere inside the ground was still incredibly tense and whistles could be heard during the Israeli national anthem – which is said to have annoyed the visiting supporters.

At one point, it is claimed two Palestinian flags were brandished by home supporters, despite all flags being banned from the ground except the French tricolours and the Israeli Star of Davids.

Another image taken from inside the stadium appears to shows a group of Israel supporters crowding round a France fan who is lying on the ground, and believed to be badly injured.

'France supporters retreated in the face of an attack by several dozen Israeli supporters,' said a spectator at the scene, who asked to be referred to as Etienne.

'We were in an area of the ground occupied by both sets of supporters, and there was a lot of shouting between the two sides – some of it referring to the killing in Gaza.

'The Israeli fans became very angry and charged towards us, throwing punches at anyone they caught,' said Etienne.

Another witness said he saw a French fan fall to the ground, before being surrounded by a group of Israel fans, who punched and kicked him repeatedly.

Stewards eventually intervened, setting up a double security cordon between the two sets of fans.

There were also images taken of at least one man wearing an Israeli Defence Force (IDF) T-shirt.

One Israel fan, who asked not to be named, said he was in Paris on an organised visit, and had recently been fighting with the IDF in Lebanon.

‘I’ve come along to the game to the enjoy the football, and am sorry there is so much tension between the two sets of supporters.

 

lickspittle:

 

 

also

 

More reports coming out of #Israel’s Mossad role in the #Amsterdam events. That they were embedded with the racist hooligans, fans were getting text messages from each other not to respect the minute silence for the Spanish dead in Valencia floods. No effort was made to stop the hooliganism outside before locals started attacking Israeli fans. The narrative quickly turned into bogus antisemitism etc. The point here is Zionists have completely lost the public narrative due to the #Gaza genocide so they’re now turning to their usual dirty tricks to sway opinion in Europe. It’s a desperate failure, too late bc people now know the truth

[Vesper 30,195]

2 minutes ago, IMissEden said:

Why keep up comments wherein you two WHS and V throw out names, to have the same in return, deleted. Clearly both missing brains. Hence getting along

I did not delete anything.

I am just a poster.

I have no special admin powers.

Hell, after an hour goes by, I cannot even delete nor edit my own posts.

Also, I can assure you I am not the one 'missing brains.'

Try harder, your ad hominem game is btec.

[Vesper 30,195]

[Vesper 30,195]

 

[Vesper 30,195]

 

[Fernando 6,585]

2 hours ago, Vesper said:

 

What he actually believes in? Or what he has said if you can get info without giving me those news source that distort the info, by miss quoting or taking things out of context. 

Would like to hear his own rationale un bias. 

[Vesper 30,195]

3 minutes ago, Fernando said:

What he actually believes in? Or what he has said if you can get info without giving me those news source that distort the info, by miss quoting or taking things out of context. 

Would like to hear his own rationale un bias. 

He is a fucking lunatic and staggeringly unqualified.

There is no way to sanewash him.

Anyone who legimately thinks RFK Jr is a viable head for US Department of Health and Human Services is so far round the bend I cannot help them.

He is, besides the fact he is a radical conspiracy theorist and a deeply disturbed human (he was a heroin addict/dealer, likely a serial sexual abuser, and did shit like chainsaw off the head of a shark, strap it to his family car (with his family in it) and drive it hundreds of miles, plus picked a dead bear cub (for meat) in upsate NY, and then ended up dropping it off in Central Park in NYC, and then filed a false claim with the coppers that a bicyclists killed it, etc etc), a person with ZERO experience running anything even one one hundreth the size of that massive, trillions of dollars budgeted, hundreds of thousands of people interlocked HHS organisation.

He is an archetypal troll pick by troll supreme Trump.

 

 

[Fernando 6,585]

28 minutes ago, Vesper said:

He is a fucking lunatic and staggeringly unqualified.

There is no way to sanewash him.

Anyone who legimately thinks RFK Jr is a viable head for US Department of Health and Human Services is so far round the bend I cannot help them.

He is, besides the fact he is a radical conspiracy theorist and a deeply disturbed human (he was a heroin addict/dealer, likely a serial sexual abuser, and did shit like chainsaw off the head of a shark, strap it to his family car (with his family in it) and drive it hundreds of miles, plus picked a dead bear cub (for meat) in upsate NY, and then ended up dropping it off in Central Park in NYC, and then filed a false claim with the coppers that a bicyclists killed it, etc etc), a person with ZERO experience running anything even one one hundreth the size of that massive, trillions of dollars budgeted, hundreds of thousands of people interlocked HHS organisation.

He is an archetypal troll pick by troll supreme Trump.

 

 

I still want to hear from the man himself what is he saying. And in context. 

Edited November 15, 2024 by Fernando

[Vesper 30,195]

lolololol

Donald Trump Supporters Are Already Finding Out What Their Vote Actually Meant, And The Stories Are Going Viral

https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-supporters-already-finding-184406723.html

Twitter: @Cavalorn In light of the 2024 election results, some have been evoking a 2015 meme that pretty succinctly sums up the obvious harm that a voter for Donald Trump is likely to inflict on themselves down the road: — Adrian Bott (@Cavalorn) October 16, 2015
'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.

In a recent post-election article, we highlighted stories of Trump supporters who are already finding out what their vote actually meant. Now, we're back with a few more:

Twitter: @luvin_JnJ 1. There's the coworker who thought that Trump's plan to scrap the Department of Education wouldn't affect her special needs child who relies on its funding: — 🍫 Fat Thigh Business 🍖 (@luvin_JnJ) November 13, 2024
It happened today a coworker (white lesbian with a special needs child) spoke about how she voted for Orange man because of her “beliefs and faith” said she didn’t know about his plans with DOE and he’s not “allowed” to take away funding especially for special needs kids 🙃

 

Twitter: @memetazaa 

2. There's the "MAGA cousin" who found out, lo and behold, that grocery prices will likely actually increase: — gilbert (@memetazaa) November 14, 2024
my MAGA cousin who voted for trump's texts in the family groupchat😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/e3g1pf6lA0

Twitter: @leftcoastbabe 

3. There's the "Latino male Trump voter" who was granted asylum but didn't think that Trump's mass deportation promises would extend to "family-oriented" undocumented immigrants: — Janice Hough (@leftcoastbabe) November 11, 2024
Latino male Trump voter told CNN mass deportation won't extend to law-abiding workers.“That wouldn’t be fair. They need to make sure that they don’t throw away, they don’t kick out, they don’t deport people that are family oriented.”Anyone got a face-eating leopard emoji?

Twitter: @highbrow_nobrow 

4. There's the woman who thought that Trump's plans for social security only applied to immigrants. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for social security or medicare: — The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) November 10, 2024
There is already a lot of Trump regret. pic.twitter.com/HQlUnlFaBm

5.There's the people on the pro-Trump subreddit r/Conservative who were surprised that Trump's cabinet picks, including Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, were bad:

Reddit / Via reddit.com

6. There's the cousin who doesn't think "women should have property" but still expected them to have him for Thanksgiving:

7. There's the MAGA neighbor who became "angry" once he learned how tariffs work:

8. There's the non-voter who commented on a pro-Trump subreddit and learned that mass deportations do apply to his "amazingly intelligent and brilliantly gorgeous gf...here illegally from Colombia":

 

Reddit / Via reddit.com

9. There's the Trump voter "getting a little nervous" as her child uses an Individualized Education Program:

Reddit / Via reddit.com

10. There's the former DACA recipient with undocumented parents who voted for Trump and became "utterly terrified" once he began getting "Pack your bags.." texts:

@agentselfNSA / Via x.com

11. There's the "Trump guy" who got mad that people wouldn't sell him materials for the same price if they became more expensive under Trump's tariffs:

@Andie0047 / Via x.com

12. There's the Trump voter who took the explanation that mass deportations might affect his undocumented daughter-in-law "badly":

Reddit / Via reddit.com

13. There's the railroader afraid that cuts to workplace regulations could jeopardize his safety:

 

r/Conservative via Reddit / Via reddit.com

Yikes. If you have a story about family members, friends, or neighbors who recently realized what their Trump vote actually meant, let us know in the comments below. Your response could be featured in an upcoming BuzzFeed Community post.

 

[Vesper 30,195]

12 minutes ago, Fernando said:

I still want to hear from the man himself what is he saying. And in context. 

go do your 'research'

LOLOL

there are a shedload of videos with him speaking, and also videos talking about his entire fucked up life

he and Matt Gaetz are the two worst cabinet nominations in the past 100 years or so, absolute jokes, and absolutely horrid human beings to boot

the ONLY way either gets into their positions is via a 'recess appointment' (and I do not see both chambers of Congress adjouring for ten days just so Trump can strip the Senate of its 'advise and consent' Constitutional role)

Muliple Repubicans have already called out both

along with Tulsi Gabbard as the (National Director of Intelligence (NDI)

(she is a profound national security risk, as well as having no remotely acceptable experience whatsoever)

 

[Fernando 6,585]

1 minute ago, Vesper said:

go do your 'research'

LOLOL

there are a shedload of videos with him speaking, and also videos talking about his entire fucked up life

he and Matt Gaetz are the two worst cabinet nominations in the past 100 years or so, absolute jokes, and absolutely horrid human beings to boot

the ONLY way either gets into their positions is via a 'recess appointment' (and I do not see both chambers of Congress adjouring for ten days just so Trump can strip the Senate of its 'advise and consent' Constitutional role)

Muliple Repubicans have already called out both

along with Tulsi Gabbard as the (National Director of Intelligence (NDI)

(she is a profound national security risk, as well as having no remotely acceptable experience whatsoever)

 

That is your opinion. But like I said I want to hear what they say un bias and in context so i can make up my mind about why your saying that. 

 

[Vesper 30,195]

Just now, Fernando said:

That is your opinion. But like I said I want to hear what they say un bias and in context so i can make up my mind about why your saying that. 

 

it is not just my opionion

I have posted facts and backgrounding about RFK Jr, the sum of which expose him as an unhinged and dangerous person who should NEVER be within a million kilometres of overseeing the overall direction of the US health care system

but by all means

go find 'alternative facts' and convince yourself into thinking he will work out just swell as the head of HHS

the very fact that this rotter is even up for debate to run the American healthcare system shows how absolutely fucked up the US is atm

 

[Fernando 6,585]

5 minutes ago, Vesper said:

it is not just my opionion

I have posted facts and backgrounding about RFK Jr, the sum of which expose him as an unhinged and dangerous person who should NEVER be within a million kilometres of overseeing the overall direction of the US health care system

but by all means

go find 'alternative facts' and convince yourself into thinking he will work out just swell as the head of HHS

the very fact that this rotter is even up for debate to run the American healthcare system shows how absolutely fucked up the US is atm

 

Well I just watch this video. Un bias and in context. 

 

He is a Christian and old. I did not hear any crazy stuff here. 

He also appear on Joe Rogan. I'm just watching it now and I will tell you about what I hear. 

 

Edited November 15, 2024 by Fernando

[cosmicway 1,333]

EARLY TRUMP DAYS AND DEJA VUS
------------------------------------------
Fulham Broadway the well known TC poster does n't like me writing stories from Greece.
Me ne frego.
It's my theasurus of political knowledge.

This is Sperantza Vranas:
 

a sexy idol of the fifties.
How does she relate ?

Sperantza Vranas was crazy about the Pasok party.
In 1981 after the October election victory Sperantza was made radio commentator and she was broadcasting every day a five minute program, "five minutes with Sperantza".
That was the craziest Pasok propaganda you ever imagined or heard.

She is a legend of course.
But the Greek radio and television company ERT are stupid people.
While BBC collect all of their old time goodies and have opened an e-shop from where we can by cassettes and videos, those fools throw everything away.
If anyone had recorded the Sperantza programs he could make a fortune.
Those gems are lost.

Edited November 15, 2024 by cosmicway

[Vesper 30,195]

1 hour ago, Fernando said:

Well I just watch this video. Un bias and in context. 

He is a Christian and old. I did not hear any crazy stuff here. 

He also appear on Joe Rogan. I'm just watching it now and I will tell you about what I hear. 

 

that first video is hardly 'unbiased'

its a Christian show therefore instantly biased

did she asked him about the heroin usgae and dealing?

the sexual assualt charges?

the brain worm?

and the 2nd video............

Joe Rogan???

unbiased???

he is a massive conspiracy and crackpot theory spreader

LOLOL

What's next, a Steven Bannon video?

Alex Jones?

Paul Joseph Watson?

Jordan Peterson?

Nick Fuentes?

 

RKK Jr is still pushing the CT bollocks that vaccines contain microchips that will be used to control the populace.

Just sheer madness.

People are entitled to their own opinions but NOT their own facts.

Just because someone says they are a christian doesn't mean they get a 'get out of logic/science/evidence/proof/truth free' card.

 

‘Plain old-fashioned dumb’: Joe Rogan slammed for spreading baseless Jan 6 ‘false flag’ conspiracy theory

‘If Mr Rogan is truly interested in focusing on who instigated the attack on the Capitol, he would find more truth in looking at the mirror,’ lawyer says

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/joe-rogan-january-6-false-flag-b2385733.html

Podcaster Joe Rogan has faced criticism after he once again pushed the baseless conspiracy theory that the January 6 insurrection was a “false flag” operation.

The same claim has led Fox News to face a second defamation lawsuit in connection to their coverage of the 2020 election. In a settlement, the network paid Dominion Voting Systems $787.5m for airing false claims about the company.

Mr Rogan has told his listeners on several occasions that federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies influenced the Capitol riot using “agent provocateurs”, including Ray Epps, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, who Mr Rogan said “clearly instigated” the insurrection, according to The Daily Beast.

“The January 6 thing is bad, but also, the intelligence agencies were involved in provoking people into the Capitol building, that’s a fact,” Mr Rogan said during his 28 July episode with fellow comedian Jim Gaffigan.

But the podcaster added that he wasn’t sure that Mr Epps was working with the FBI, claiming that he was only posing questions and noting that others appeared to think that Mr Epps was an undercover agent. But Mr Rogan made some of the same claims that Mr Epps included in his lawsuit against Fox and its now-ousted host Tucker Carlson.

“I think that every other person who was involved in January 6, who was involved in coordinating a break-in into the Capitol and then instigating people, they were all arrested,” Mr Rogan said. “This guy wasn’t. Not only that, but they were defending him in The New York Times, The Washington Post, all these different things saying Fox News has unjustly accused him of instigating when he clearly instigated, he did it on camera. I don’t know if he was a Fed. I know a lot of people think he was a Fed.”

Mr Rogan argued that the intelligence community wanted to frame Mr Trump because of his opposition to the “deep state” and that they created the right circumstances for the violence to occur to make Mr Trump appear responsible for the crimes committed by his supporters.

“Trump was very open about his disdain for the intelligence agencies. Throughout history, people of unchecked power and unchecked influence have enemies and Trump was their enemy,” Mr Rogan said.

He added that the intelligence community was “going to get him any way that they could”.

Mr Epps has sued Fox and Mr Carlson for defamation for claiming that he was an “agent provocateur”. It led to him facing death threats and he and his wife had to leave their home and move to a remote area.

“Just as Fox had focused on voting machine companies when falsely claiming a rigged election, Fox knew it needed a scapegoat for January 6th,” Mr Epps’ legal filing states. “It settled on Ray Epps and began promoting the lie that Epps was a federal agent who incited the attack on the Capitol.”

Mr Rogan has previously said that the intelligence community had a “vested interest in this going sideways”.

“If somebody wanted to disparage a political party or to maybe have some sort of a justification for getting some influential person like Donald Trump offline, that would be the way they would do it,” he has said.

In his legal filing, Mr Epps says he was a frequent viewer of Fox News and that their false claims that voting machines had been rigged was part of the reason he travelled to DC in January 2021.

The filing also states that following right-wingers accusing him of being a federal agent, the Department of Justice told him in May of this year that he was facing charges in connection to the insurrection.

The lawsuit states that this goes against the notion that he’s protected from prosecution.

Mr Epps’ attorney Michael Teter told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that “Joe Rogan’s recent comments show the staying power and consequences of Fox’s and Tucker Carlson’s lies about Ray Epps.

“For years, Fox targeted Ray and spread falsehoods about him and Fox’s viewers used the lies as a basis to harass and threaten Ray.

“The absurdity of the conspiracy theory does not stand in the way of it being spread and weaponized to harm Ray.

“If Mr Rogan is truly interested in focusing on who instigated the attack on the Capitol, he would find more truth in looking at the mirror than he does in focusing on a wedding venue owner from Arizona.”

The FBI has said that “Ray Epps has never been an FBI source or an FBI employee”.

The House Select Committee that investigated the riot has said there’s no evidence to support the claim that Mr Epps planned or instigated the riots.

Philip Bump of The Washington Post tweeted that Mr Rogan’s comments were “just plain old-fashioned dumb”.

Former Republican strategist Stuart Stevens added: “I’ve done a lot of reporting on steroids and multiple studies have proven steroid abuse is dangerous but does not turn you into a barking dog conspiracy nut. So Joe Rogan can’t blame his condition on the juice.”

“Now Joe Rogan, who currently runs one of the largest media platforms out there, is saying January 6th was a false flag. …please stop asking me why I think Rogan is a raging moron,” Ryan Shead wrote.

end

 

 

Science vs. Joe Rogan

In the on-going match between podcasting giant Joe Rogan and the scientific consensus, popularity is a dangerous fixer

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19-health-and-nutrition-pseudoscience/science-vs-joe-rogan

“Lot of times, we’re drinking or we’re high, you know, and I say stupid shit.” Coming from a teenager, this statement may invoke memories of your own adolescence. But carried by the voice of then-53-year-old Joe Rogan defending his off-the-cuff, on-the-air remarks about COVID vaccines in young adults, it reeks of arrested development.

Rogan, whose CV includes the television shows NewsRadio and Fear Factor, is, by his own description, a “cage-fighting commentator” and a “dirty stand-up comedian.” But his influence on the health landscape can be felt the most through The Joe Rogan Experience, his long-form interview podcast now exclusively available on Spotify thanks to a $100 million deal.

And that influence is considerable given the scale of Rogan’s podcasting platform, which a few numbers can contextualize.

1920 and counting. That’s the number of episodes the show has released since its beginning eleven years ago, and that number goes up by three or four each week. The average length of these episodes is roughly 2.5 hours. It would take close to seven sleepless months to listen to them all.

28.7 million. That’s the reported number of views on the most recent show Rogan hosted with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

200 million. That’s the number of monthly downloads the show was asserting in 2019, before the move to Spotify. For this same year, the episodes still left on YouTube all have millions of views each, and they generated additional clicks through audio podcasting apps. This regularly put Rogan’s show above the total average prime time audiences for Fox News (2.5 million viewers), MSNBC (1.8 million viewers), and CNN (972,000 viewers). There is indirect evidence that his audience has shrunk since moving behind the great Spotify wall, but his reach still appears to be immense.

The Joe Rogan Experience often feels like being a fly on the wall in a teenager’s basement apartment. The parents are upstairs, watching Carlson, Maddow or Cooper, and we’re downstairs, listening in on private conversations that reveal mind-blowing facts about the world. These conversations, serpentine and unpredictable, fill the air of Rogan’s online and informal equivalent of a gentlemen’s club. Indeed, a whopping 88% of Rogan’s guests are men, as well as 71% of his listenership according to a MediaMonitors survey in 2020. The average age of his listeners according to the same survey is 24.

Rogan has an undeniable appeal to young men who are trying opinions and ideologies on for size. To them, social media may appear superficial and political commentators on American television may seem hopelessly biased. Rogan comes across as a neutral, curious, and relatable host sharing deep, unfiltered conversations with experts and celebrities. No artifice, no sound bites. Just Joe and his inquisitiveness.

Many of his shows feature mixed martial artists and comedians but others focus on health, and that is where his apparent neutrality crumbles and his inclinations become hazardous. Speaking to comedian Bill Burr about COVID-19 while smoking cigars, Rogan said, half-humorously, half-seriously, that wearing a mask was “for b*tches, it just is.” Testosterone is not in short supply on The Joe Rogan Experience. As Matthew Remski, co-host of the Conspirituality podcast, wrote about bro science, “in the rugged country of bros, there are no communities, but rather collections of homogenous, self-contained, self-responsible individuals.” And the gentlemen’s club of Rogan’s podcast has had a disreputable clientele of so-called “self-responsible individuals.”

Rogan platformed Dr. Andrew Weil, one of the kings of promoting unproven and disproven pseudomedical remedies, who ridiculed the idea that placebo effects needed to be ruled out from studies. For the record, they have to be subtracted, though, because they represent non-specific effects of everything but the intervention. However, Weil claimed enthusiastically that they should be ruled in because “that’s the meat of medicine, that’s pure healing from within.” This shows a stunning misunderstanding of scientific research.

Rogan also hosted Bret Weinstein, a former biology professor turned podcasting conspiracy theorist, and Dr. Pierre Kory, a critical care physician, for an emergency broadcast on the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 during which the taking of this antiparasitic drug was said to yield “near-perfect protection” against the disease. This is not the case.

Abigail Shrier was welcomed on the show to talk about her provocatively titled book, Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. The book promotes a made-up diagnosis, “rapid-onset gender dysphoria,” to breathe new life into the cyclical moral panic surrounding children. The website Science-Based Medicine, following the publication of an endorsement of the book by one of its editors, posted a number of articles addressing the multiple inaccuracies of the book, written by actual experts. Meanwhile, Rogan portrayed the care given to transgender people as “stepping in to a developing baby that’s only been alive for six years and shooting chemicals into its body […] to hormonally interact with their body in some sort of a random, Dr. Frankenstein sort of way.” To be this clueless beggars belief.

Being interested in nutrition, Rogan has also aired long conversations with people on the topic of diets. Perhaps the strangest of all was with Mikhaila Peterson, who is not a dietitian, claiming that a diet consisting exclusively of beef and salt cured her arthritis. There are many, many problems with this “carnivore diet,” and it baffles me that Peterson is someone Rogan would look to for insight on what to eat.

And then there’s Alex Jones. The shock jock has embraced every grand conspiracy theory invented by humanity, from the existence of a New World Order to “Hurricane Katrina was a test of FEMA concentration camps.” He was sued for defamation by the families of ten people killed in the Sandy Hook school mass shooting, as he had repeatedly alleged that the massacre was a false flag operation and that the victims’ families were actors. He recently lost all of these defamation suits. Jones has been Rogan’s guest four times.

Rogan does not necessarily endorse what his guests say—he’s just asking questions—but he bullhorns their pseudoscientific and conspiracy-laden views to millions of audience members. To Alex Jones, he said, “it’s f---ing dangerous to censor you.” He subsumes calls for responsible platforming under a general defence of free speech. “Censoring is bad,” goes the thinking, “therefore the best thing to do is to platform as many iconoclasts as possible, to make sure their claims reach the ears of millions of people who can then decide for themselves where the truth lies.” Which leads to Alex Jones telling tens of millions of people that “they” are coming to your house demanding a COVID test and if you don’t agree, “they” will arrest you. And although Rogan often pushes Jones for evidence on his claims, he has still platformed a paranoid lunatic (or a man who acts in this manner for profits) who once said that Hillary Clinton has personally murdered children through a pedophilia ring found in the non-existent basement of a pizza joint.

A colossal reach like Rogan’s requires maturity, especially in the middle of an infodemic. But in clinging to the teenage desire to hear things that’ll blow your mind, the podcaster with a golden megaphone broadcasts lies, fantasies, and bad medical advice.

Living on the cutting edge

Joe Rogan’s attraction to pseudoscience wasn’t born with COVID. Like so many people passionate about fitness, Rogan is always looking for an edge. He has promoted cryotherapy in the past, even posting a photo of himself inside a cryochamber on his personal Instagram account which has 13.5 million followers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said this therapy has “very little evidence about its safety or effectiveness.” While the promoted claims may look scientific, they are based on a lot of hot air.

Rogan has also repeatedly publicized stem cell injections as miraculous treatments. They apparently completely healed his rotator cuff tear, and Rogan had Mel Gibson on to talk about how a stem cell treatment in Panama saved his 92-year-old father’s life, improving his thinking, his eyesight, “and other stuff […] that he would hate for me to talk about!” Anecdotes are not hard evidence, but the confessional atmosphere of the podcast gives these medical claims the weight of cutting-edge secrets. Make no mistake: stem cell research holds tremendous potential, but the current industry of stem cell tourism (and the growing creep of stem cell staycations) is built on scienceploitation. Its claims are unsubstantiated and the harms are very real.

The air of secrecy that surrounds these therapies—discovered through a personal network of would-be pioneers that Rogan’s status has allowed him to build—is also seen in the conspiracy theories he has embraced in the past. Moon hoaxes and Roswell aliens were frequent fodder in the early days of his podcast. One of his favourite guests is Graham Hancock, with seven appearances on the show, who wrote one of Rogan’s favourite books, Fingerprints of the Gods. In it, Hancock theorizes that an advanced civilization forgotten by historians existed in our distant past and was nearly wiped out, with survivors bringing their arcane knowledge to Egypt and the Americas. This kind of pseudoarchaeological hypothesis pushes all the right buttons: it’s revolutionary knowledge heretofore hidden from view and uncovered by a Galileo figure. This is heroin for the adolescent mind.

With COVID, Rogan’s habit for embracing pseudoscience and the rugged individualism that often puts him at odds with public health landed him in hot water with the media. COVID is no worse than the flu, he’d say. Ivermectin is a perfect storm against COVID: “extremely effective, extremely cheap, and generic.” And, infamously, if you’re a healthy 21-year-old, you don’t need to get the COVID vaccine. When confronted, Rogan simply says, “I’m not a doctor, I’m a f---ing moron.” But he’s a moron with influence.

A survey commissioned by The Washington Post revealed that Rogan’s listeners were significantly less likely to intend to vaccinate than those who do not regularly listen, with an 18% lower intent in February 2021. It would be foolish to infer that Rogan single-handedly swayed these people: many are drawn to him because of his libertarian tendencies and his suspicion of public health recommendations. But given the magnitude of his audience and its young average age, it would be equally foolish to pretend Rogan’s misinformed opinions have no effect. When quarterback Aaron Rodgers caught the disease, he took a cocktail of remedies, including ivermectin. Whose advice was he following? Joe Rogan’s.

Spotify, the company that exclusively platforms his podcast, says it will not allow “any inaccurate content on its podcasting platform,” which is ludicrous. First, audio content is notoriously challenging to moderate. Second, Rogan has proved to be too much of a draw for Spotify to risk their business relationship. Australian misinformer Pete Evans had his podcast removed by Spotify for “dangerous, false, deceptive, and misleading content about COVID-19.” Even though the same label could be applied to Rogan’s show, similar action has not been taken. Spotify did remove some episodes from its catalogue, including those with comedian Chris D’Elia (accused of soliciting nude photos from teenagers) and with far-right figures. But the COVID misinformation remains on the playlist for now.

The cycle of excitement

Whenever Joe Rogan is trending on social media, Dr. Danielle Belardo, a cardiologist, tweets out, “Joe Rogan is goop for men.” She is referring to Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness emporium, propped up by a foundation of pseudoscience. Indeed, Joe Rogan is a walking incubator for supplements. A fansite keeping close tabs on what the podcaster says reports that, during the pandemic, Rogan received weekly intravenous drips of vitamin C, zinc, glutathione, and NAD. At 40, he started testosterone replacement therapy. The site also lists a preposterous list of supplements Rogan has at least experimented with, from glucosamine to cannabidiol tincture, from quercetin to nootropics, including Onnit’s Alpha Brain, which the company started making it at Rogan’s suggestion and which he endorses. He says the supplement, which contains ingredients meant to increase levels of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, makes him mentally sharper. But while supplements can treat deficiencies, they don’t grant superpowers if you take more of them. Are the amounts in Alpha Brain enough to do anything? How do they interact together? The usual skepticism of the supplement industry should apply here. We are, after all, in the same territory as Alex Jones’ own Brain Force Plus.

There is another angle to the Rogan-Paltrow comparison: both hint at wealth being an important gateway to health. Rogan’s stack of supplements costs money. So does the private gym furnished with high-quality fitness and combat sport equipment. The Iron Neck, the glute-ham developer, the iron kettlebells with the ape faces sculpted into them, discussed on the air and Instagrammed for millions to salivate over, paint a familiar picture of aspirational wellness. Health is a personal choice that a multimillionaire can easily afford. Masks, after all, are for b*tches. But the metaphorical mask does slip when, despite a pantry full of supplements, Rogan did get COVID and did not trust his pantry to save him. He reached for the kitchen sink: monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, the antibiotic azithromycin, prednisone, and extra drips of NAD and vitamins. Everything money could conjure up was used in the wake of, as he put it, “one bad day.”

Despite many of his critics calling Rogan a meathead, he’s not dumb. But his thinking is biased in ways that make pseudoscience look titillating. Faced with a new supplement or new intervention, his brain seems to lean on the same shortcuts. Is this new? Does it challenge the status quo? Has it not yet been endorsed by the medical establishment? Does it feel objective to me and well-reasoned? Is it recommended by a friend of mine, possibly an expert I’ve had on the show who’s cutting-edge? And are they being censored or criticized in some way? Consensus is not sexy when you’re attracted to innovation. Rogan wants secret knowledge from his rogue experts who can tell him what looks promising in the lab. He wants to beat the lab mice to it. And he’ll bank on his personal experience to decide if it works or not, even when he admits that he does so many things to improve his health, it’s hard to know if the umpteenth addition to the lot made a difference. But no worries because the cycle of excitement gets to start again with another shiny thing.

In the background of all this is an anti-establishment sentiment. Mainstream medicine is boring and too slow to pick up on novelty, is the message. The mainstream media attempts to control the narrative with lies. CNN, in fact, did lie about Rogan by claiming repeatedly that he had taken a horse dewormer. Ivermectin can be used to deworm horses but it can also be used in humans, and Rogan said he got human-grade ivermectin from a medical doctor, not a vet. What CNN did affects its credibility.

But you cannot sow distrust in mainstream establishments and not expect people to seek out an alternative. But is the alternative better? If the pharmaceutical industry puts money ahead of patients, any off-patent drug pushed by an even-keeled contrarian is a cure-all. If CNN is found to slant its coverage, Rogan’s audience should watch Tim Pool, an independent pundit with a heavily biased, faux-journalistic body of work who recently hosted both Rogan and Alex Jones. According to Rogan, the mainstream media is “a left-wing cult.” Are we supposed to turn a blind eye to the numerous problems with the alternatives because the mainstream sometimes misses the mark?

Rogan wants us to drift away from “the establishment” and listen to the siren song of its “freedom”-chanting critics. Its secrets are whispering to us. Joe Rogan’s popularity mesmerizes and suggests we must listen to him or miss out on the experimental magic. But the real secret may just be this: we don’t have to listen to him.

 

 

Joe Rogan: "It's Obvious The Videos From The Moon Are Fake"

 

smdh

[Fulham Broadway 17,319]

3 hours ago, cosmicway said:

Fulham Broadway the well known TC poster does n't like me writing stories from Greece

Only when you used them to deflect from a home truth. Your Greek stories are great -keep em coming