RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary

 

Friend Xerxes objects to RFK Jr. as US Secretary of Health and Human Services, on the grounds that he is unqualified for the position. And, of course, that he is an “anti-vaxxer,” and promoting dangerous unscientific falsehoods about vaccines.

I note that his Wikipedia entry introduces Kennedy as, among other things, a “conspiracy theorist.” “Since 2005, Kennedy has promoted vaccine misinformation.”

However, as a result of his criticism of Kennedy, Xerxes had two readers unsubscribe from his newsletter.

I think it is a symptom of how dysfunctional our society has become that two people unsubscribed simply because Xerxes said something they disagree with. 

What is the point of reading opinions you agree with? They will tell you nothing you do not already know. To refuse to hear opposing arguments means you are not looking for truth; you can have no idea whether your own ideas are true or not, if you have not heard the opposing arguments. This amounts to deliberately choosing delusion. Too many people currently seem to be doing exactly that, systematically. They want to belong to a cult.

As it happens, I disagree with Xerxes on RFK Jr. I disagree with him on most things.

Regarding RFK Jr. being unqualified for his position, there is a Catch-22 here. Milton Friedman pointed it out. Who are the qualified experts? When a government wants to set regulations, they must indeed turn to experts for advice. That almost inevitably means people prominent in that industry or field set their own rules. For example, to regulate the automotive industry, government will turn to the executives of the big car companies. To set vaccine policy, the executives of the big drug firms. To set science, policy, prominent scientists. Of course. But such experts automatically have a conflict of interest, and an overwhelming temptation to set up a cartel. They are likely to regulate in their industry’s interests, or their profession’s interests, and to restrain competition; not in the public interest.

How can you get around this?

RFK Jr. arguably has the ideal qualifications for his position, precisely because he is not a medical doctor nor a food or pharmaceutical executive. Nevertheless, as a lawyer who has specialized in lawsuits against members of these groups, he has had to research the issues thoroughly and develop expertise to present his cases. You might argue he has a bias against the industry, but he is not beholden to them, nor nearly as financially interested. And a bias in the other direction might be a useful corrective.

For the same reason, it was rather a good idea to vote in an entrepreneur with no prior political experience as president. Trump knows how to get things done, but he is not compromised by nor beholden to what he calls the “Washington swamp.” Both appointments seem to be a useful experiment.

This is not to say I think JFK’s views are right; I have no position on that. I don’t have the knowledge nor expertise to know that. We do know something is wrong somewhere in the modern American lifestyle: perhaps in our food, perhaps environmental pollutants, perhaps the vaccines, perhaps in common drugs and medicines. We see an epidemic of obesity, of autism, of diabetes, of mass shootings, of suicides, of drug abuse, of unexplained sudden deaths of young and seemingly fit people. Something is up. Surely more research is a good thing, and independent research not directly funded by the drug companies or food companies. Maybe Kennedy can get to the bottom of it, with the resources now at his disposal.

One thing seems clear to me about Kennedy: he is sincere. He is doing this out of conviction. He is not paid off. I want leaders like that.

Why, other than voluntary delusion, would we not want to do the research to find out?

A Theory for Why the World Seems Mad Right Now

 

Here’s a unified theory of why governments around the world seem in the last few years to have gone mad and turned on their own citizens. Despite the obvious electoral risks of doing so.

It all seemed to start visibly going off the rails in about the Fall of 2021. It was well understood by then that the Covid vaccines did not halt the spread of the virus; and that we could never achieve herd immunity through vaccinations. Yet it was at that point that governments began to demand that everyone must get vaccinated. 

Unless I have missed something, this was the first obviously illogical and malicious move by governments. 

Others followed: 

Cracking down on long-distance truck drivers, demanding they in particular must be vaccinated, or lose their livelihood. Why? They rarely came in contact with anyone, alone in their trucks. And at the very time that we were facing a supply chain crisis due to the Covid lockdowns.

Cracking down on medical personnel, insisting they must get vaccinated or lose their livelihood. Granted, they came into close contact with the unwell; but we already knew the vaccines did not prevent the spread, and they were uniquely qualified to make their own decisions on their personal health. This at the very time when emergency rooms were supposed to be facing a crisis of overcrowding with Covid cases.

Insisting that children all be vaccinated. Even though herd immunity was not possible, and they faced no real risk themselves from the virus—and obviously some risk from the vaccine.

Insisting everyone stay indoors long after it was established that the virus spread better indoors than outdoors.

Suppressing any talk of cures or treatments other than the vaccine; even though some cheap and widely available drugs showed much promise.

Suppressing any warnings about dangers associated with the vaccines.

Then the weird overreaction to a peaceful demonstration by truckers in Ottawa.

Then they went after farmers, and the use of fertilizers—just as food prices were spiraling upwards due to inflation and interrupted supply chains.

In Canada, they then started raising exponentially their “carbon tax.” Effectively a tax on everything, just as inflation was going out of control.

Then they kicked the immigration doors wider open, a lot wider open, in the middle of an unprecedented housing crisis; and a crisis over health care availability. And just as studies were showing that mass immigration harms rather than helps the economies of receiving nations.

Then, in Canada, draconian measures to silence and punish dissent, and withdraw basic civil rights to do so. Similar initiatives seem to have arisen at the same time in England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, former bastions of the free speech tradition, and just about across the developed world. In the US, unprecedented and open attempts to rig the next election and suppress the political opposition.

I have probably missed a lot.

Occam’s razor suggests this explanation: the governments panicked over Covid, and grossly overreacted. The lockdowns killed more people than the virus would have, on top of the economic devastation and personal loss. The virus itself was engineered, and recklessly, and several goverments were responsible, not just China. They saw that this was going to come out, it was a huge scandal, and they anticipated that their publics would turn on them. 

They knew too by September that the vaccines they had hastily approved and encouraged everyone to get had dangerous side effects, worse than Covid itself, and also were not effective.

The truth must be worse than we yet know: so bad that they not only fear losing power. That is routine for democratic governments. The truth must be so terrible, they fear worse than this: revolution, serious criminal charges once they leave office, perhaps the guillotine.

Mudh of this, I suspect, is instinctive rather than planned. But if true, it seems to explain everything. 

Once they knew the vaccines were harmful, it might well have seemed in their interest to have everyone vaccinated. This might mask the issue: there would be no control group. Truckers and farmers had to be targeted, because they were least likely to see the need for the vaccine, and most able to avoid the government’s demands. Farmers can be self-sufficient more or less off the grid; truckers can flee the jurisdiction. Health professionals need to be bullied into it, because they can raise the alarm.

Other measures, like the rising carbon tax and the mass immigration, look like pre-emptive strikes against their expected future enemies, the public. Good idea to import a large body of new people who will not blame them for the vaccinations, not having been here at the time, and have reason for gratitude to the government for being let it, and given hotel rooms, social assistance and the like. Who else might stand up for them when the flag drops?

Seatbelts, everyone.

The Vaccines Issue

 

Tis hclip from Donald Trump shows RFK Jr.'s influence on the race. Trump may want to appeal to R.F.K's voters once he is frozen out by the DNC.

Why Are People Dying?

 

Dr. Campbell must choose his words carefully. But what if it turns out that, from about September of last year, from about the time that governments, including Canada's, were unaccountably imposing vaccine mandates, from about that time, the vaccines were killing more people than the virus?

There may be hell to pay if and when this gets out.

This may be why Trudeau wanted to call an election last fall--to grab a safe majority before the truth came out.

This may be why his government became so insistent that everyone be vaccinated at this point--to eliminate any control group to reveal the problem with the vaccine.

This may be why there are rumours Trudeau wants to call an election against this fall--for which he seems indeed to have been campaigning all summer.  Because they feel there is still a chance, if they move quickly, to grab a safe majority before the word gets out.

With a majority, at worst, they get four more years in power before they get cashiered. At best, they can manage and control the flow of information. Let someone else into power, without a vested interest in keeping all this quiet, and things could get much worse for them./

Okay, a conspiracy theory, but anyone who does not believe in conspiracies by now seems naive.