Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership is "unlike anything our country has ever experienced," nine former directors and acting directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in a scathing guest essay Monday for the New York Times. ... Their essay listed a string of concerns and accused Kennedy of focusing "on unproven 'treatments' while downplaying vaccines." Kennedy, they added, "canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements."
Here's the bottom line: local public broadcasting stations save lives. That's not a slogan. It's a fact.
A portrait of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in his Confederate uniform with a slave guiding his horse in the background will be rehung in West Point's library, the Army confirmed to Military.com on Friday.
A federal judge prevented the Trump administration from fast-tracking deportations, ruling expedited removal creates a "significant risk" to migrants' due process. read more
A large buildup of U.S. naval forces in and around the Southern Caribbean has officials in Caracas and experts in the United States asking: is the move aimed at combating drug cartels, as the Trump administration has suggested, or is it for something else entirely?
@#5 ... "And JD Vance told USAToday that after 200 days of experience flying around on vacation with Usha, he's ready to step into Trumpf's shoes as President if a tragedy should befall Dear Leader." ....
Wow, that's real.
Scary as it may seem.
Vance, in exclusive interview, says he's ready to be president while hailing Trump's health
www.usatoday.com
... The first time Vice President JD Vance walked into the Oval Office, he noticed the drapes ("dark and gloomy") -- but he insists he's not measuring them for a future turn behind the Resolute Desk.
"I've gotten a lot of good on-the-job training over the last 200 days," Vance said in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY on Aug. 27, when asked if he was ready to assume the role of commander in chief. ...
@#8 ... This is what you get when you hire a lawyer instead of a doctor. ...
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
en.wikipedia.org
... Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. (born January 17, 1954), also known by his initials RFK Jr., is an American politician, environmental lawyer, author, conspiracy theorist, and anti-vaccine activist serving as the 26th United States secretary of health and human services since 2025. ...
@#8
It is typical MAGA mentality, imo.
Focusing and highlighting the symptom, instead of focusing and trying to resolve the cause.
For example, why did the Trump admin cut funding for crime prevention in Chicago?
Trump administration slashed federal funding for gun violence prevention (July 2025)
www.reuters.com
... The Trump administration has terminated more than half of all federal funding for gun violence prevention programs in the U.S., cutting $158 million in grants that had been directed to groups in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Baltimore.
Of the 145 community violence intervention (CVI) grants totaling more than $300 million awarded through the U.S. Department of Justice, 69 grants were abruptly terminated
, opens new tab in April, according to government data analyzed by Reuters. ...
Xi Jinping Unveils Vision For New Global Order
www.newsweek.com
... Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) should cooperate further in economics and security to move away from the Western-led world order, China's President Xi Jinping has said.
Xi's address to members of the Eurasian bloc on Monday delivered a statement of intent about the rise of the so-called Global South.
"We should advocate for equal and orderly multi-polarization of the world," he said.
Steve Tsang, author of the forthcoming book, China's Global Strategy under Xi Jinping, told Newsweek that Xi's comments showed how he was working "to transform the existing international order into a Sino-centric one."
Why It Matters
The SCO is a Eurasian bloc established in 2001, which has expanded to include economic heavyweights like India to become a counterweight to the western G7 (Group of Seven) countries.
Xi's comments about closer economic and security cooperation among members chime with the vision of his ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly called for a pivot away from the U.S.-led global order. ...
Related?
Inside the Russian Troll Factory: Zombies and a Breakneck Pace (2018)
www.nytimes.com
... At first, new recruits to the Internet Research Agency, the notorious Russian troll factory, were thrilled by the better-than-average salaries they earned simply for posting on the internet. But one says he eventually realized that the work hid a darker reality: both they and their audience were meant to turn into zombies.[emphasis mine]
"They were just giving me money for writing," said the former troll, a St. Petersburg resident who wanted to get into marketing or journalism but was drawn by the hard-to-match $1,400 weekly paycheck. "I was much younger and did not think about the moral side. I simply wrote because I loved writing. I was not trying to change the world." ...
In recent interviews conducted before the indictments, two former trolls spoke about their experiences. Neither man wanted his full name used, citing the threats and intimidation others have been subjected to for speaking out.
Both left the agency for different reasons -- one troubled by the substance of the work, the other struggling with the breakneck pace to create fake content.
Aleksei, the troll from St. Petersburg, said he was among the first 25 employees hired. To get the job, he said, he had to write an essay on the "Dulles Doctrine," a Soviet-era conspiracy theory that may seem obscure to Westerners but is well known to Russians. ...
As the factory got going, Aleksei said, the first task assigned to all new employees was to create three identities on Live Journal, a popular blogging platform. One was to be of very high quality in writing and content, the other two "marginal."
They worked in 12-hour shifts, either day or night, and the assigned topics popped up in their email: President Vladimir V. Putin, or President Barack Obama, or often the two together; Ukraine; the heroism of Russia's Defense Ministry; the war in Syria; Russian opposition figures; the American role in spreading the Ebola virus. ...
My first question ...
Why would a Vice President even see the need to express such a comment?
Did fmr Pres Johnson say something similar regarding fmr Pres Kennedy?