Caroline Kennedy's Warning about Her Cousin, RFKjr

[Physics Guy]

Having a grasp on reality is like speaking a language. The words in the language are the facts of real life, and the grammar is logic. Being more intelligent and better informed is being more fluent in this language. You know more words and you can connect them correctly.

A funny fact that I've noticed about learning a new language as an adult is that at first it's easier to understand other learners than it is to understand native speakers. The other learners speak more slowly, they mostly use the same limited vocabulary with which everyone starts, and the mistakes that they make, which would honestly baffle native speakers, are understood easily because they're the same mistakes that all learners make. I know what they mean when they say something wrong because I would have said the same wrong thing myself. It's the native speakers who seem to be speaking gibberish, and the other clumsy foreigners who are comprehensible.

No human beings are native speakers of reality's language, but some have become more fluent than others. The ones whose proficiency is more limited don't understand what the fluent ones say. They can follow what their peers say more easily.

If you're learning a new language while surrounded by its native speakers, you can't help knowing that they are the ones who better know what they're saying. You don't mock their pronunciation or correct their grammar. If a bunch of native English speakers are all learning Mandarin from a bunch of different phone apps, however, then they might have no clear way of knowing who is speaking it better. Two of them might each believe that they speak much better Chinese than the other, when an actual Chinese person might have an equally hard time understanding either of them.

Maybe some unintelligent and uninformed people can be blamed at least somewhat for not recognising that they might not be getting things right. The brighter and more knowledgable people can easily deserve some blame, too, though.

International gatherings are often conducted in English these days, and it's notorious that the native speakers of English are often the worst communicators at these meetings. They speak too fast; they enunciate poorly; and they use obscure words and expressions. And all too often they use their fluency to cover up laziness and ignorance, by exploiting their large repertoires of stock spiels that sound good but don't mean much. Everyone uses glib verbiage to hide ignorance and laziness that way, whenever we can, but it's harder to do in a non-native language, because in a second language you don't know all those tropes, and your pronunciation and grammar are so shaky that it would be hard to sound intelligent even if you said brilliant things. So in international discussions in English it's often the native English speakers who are wasting everyone's time with trivia poorly presented, while the comparatively plodding foreigners deal with real issues in ploddingly simple terms, clearly.

My favourite English prose writer is probably Joseph Conrad, whose native language was Polish. His English is simple, but to me it reads far better as English than fancier prose styles. Putting things simply and clearly, without oversimplifying, is the hard job. If these days some unintelligent and uninformed people seem to be getting too much attention, I think a lot of the blame lies with the more fluent speakers who failed to take on the hard job of speaking simply and clearly, and instead just played fancy word games.

[Gunnar]

I honestly feel kind of sorry for the dude. He's obviously severely cognitively impaired; potentially enough to be qualified for being intellectually disabled. I don't blame him for being so incompetent that he doesn't know he isn't qualified. The primary blame falls on the enablers, in my opinion. I don't even know that I can fully blame Trump because he's too stupid to know when someone is incompetent.

Wow! And despite all this, there are still prominent Republicans willing to confirm his nomination, even with all this incontrovertible evidence of his medical and scientific ignorance and incompetence!

[Gunnar]

This OGE disclosure by RFK Jr. is an interesting read. According to this, it turns out that he has pulled in roughly $10 million over the last year related to dividends from his vaccine lawsuits, anti-vax speaking fees, and leading ‘Children’s Health Defense’, an organization dedicated to spreading misinformation about vaccine efficacy.

https://extapps2.oge.gov/201/Presiden.n ... inalEA.pdf

And still prominent Senators, supposedly well versed in the law and ethics, are willing to confirm him. They obviously have no spine or sense of morality and couldn't care less how many people will be hurt or even die because of this man's corruption and ignorance.

[Brack]

And still prominent Senators, supposedly well versed in the law and ethics, are willing to confirm him. They obviously have no spine or sense of morality and couldn't care less how many people will be hurt or even die because of this man's corruption and ignorance.

These Republican Senators don't want to lose to a primary challenger when they are up for reelection. And with 53 Republican Senators, RFK Jr is going to be confirmed. Link

[Gunnar]

And still prominent Senators, supposedly well versed in the law and ethics, are willing to confirm him. They obviously have no spine or sense of morality and couldn't care less how many people will be hurt or even die because of this man's corruption and ignorance.

These Republican Senators don't want to lose to a primary challenger when they are up for reelection. And with 53 Republican Senators, RFK Jr is going to be confirmed. Link

That's what I'm afraid of. None of those senators willing to confirm him have any spine or moral sense! Nor, for that matter, any understanding of science or health issues.

[Jersey Girl]

These Republican Senators don't want to lose to a primary challenger when they are up for reelection. And with 53 Republican Senators, RFK Jr is going to be confirmed. Link

That's what I'm afraid of. None of those senators willing to confirm him have any spine or moral sense! Nor, for that matter, any understanding of science or health issues.

I can't help but agree with you, Gunnar. I watched some of his hearing. The man isn't remotely qualified to fill that role and I think he's kind of slippery if you know what I mean. Like a chameleon kind of slippery.

[Gunnar]

Measles Outbreak Hits Texas As Anti Vaxxer Takes Over Nation's Health

Right on cue, so soon after RFKJr. takes over his position as HHS secretary. Already there are 22 cases, 9 of them already hospitalized, none of whom were vaccinated because of the advice of people like RFKJr. It will be interesting to see how he will react to the news.

[Chap]

Measles Outbreak Hits Texas As Anti Vaxxer Takes Over Nation's Health

Right on cue, so soon after RFKJr. takes over his position as HHS secretary. Already there are 22 cases, 9 of them already hospitalized, none of whom were vaccinated because of the advice of people like RFKJr. It will be interesting to see how he will react to the news.

Just to remind us all of the risks posed by measles, here is a note from the World Health Organisation:

Trust me, you don't want your kids getting this. I can remember a time when routine measles vaccination pretty well made measles a thing of the past where I live. But now, thanks to people like RFKJr, it's back again

Measles

14 November 2024

Key facts

Measles is a highly contagious, serious airborne disease caused by a virus that can lead to severe complications and death.
Measles vaccination averted more than 60 million deaths between 2000 and 2023.
Even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available, in 2023, there were an estimated 107 500 measles deaths globally, mostly among unvaccinated or under vaccinated children under the age of 5 years.
The proportion of children receiving a first dose of measles vaccine was 83% in 2023, well below the 2019 level of 86%.

Overview

Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus. It spreads easily when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. It can cause severe disease, complications, and even death.

Measles can affect anyone but is most common in children.

Measles infects the respiratory tract and then spreads throughout the body. Symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose and a rash all over the body.

Being vaccinated is the best way to prevent getting sick with measles or spreading it to other people. The vaccine is safe and helps your body fight off the virus.

Before the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963 and widespread vaccination, major epidemics occurred approximately every two to three years and caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.

An estimated 107 500 people died from measles in 2023 – mostly children under the age of five years, despite the availability of a safe and cost-effective vaccine.

Accelerated immunization activities by countries, WHO, the Measles & Rubella Partnership (formerly the Measles & Rubella Initiative), and other international partners successfully prevented an estimated 60 million deaths between 2000–2023. Vaccination decreased an estimated measles deaths from 800 062 in 2000 to 107 500 in 2022 (1).

[Gunnar]

Just to remind us all of the risks posed by measles, here is a note from the World Health Organisation:

Trust me, you don't want your kids getting this. I can remember a time when routine measles vaccination pretty well made measles a thing of the past where I live. But now, thanks to people like RFKJr, it's back again

Measles

14 November 2024

Key facts

Measles is a highly contagious, serious airborne disease caused by a virus that can lead to severe complications and death.
Measles vaccination averted more than 60 million deaths between 2000 and 2023.
Even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available, in 2023, there were an estimated 107 500 measles deaths globally, mostly among unvaccinated or under vaccinated children under the age of 5 years.
The proportion of children receiving a first dose of measles vaccine was 83% in 2023, well below the 2019 level of 86%.

Overview

Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus. It spreads easily when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. It can cause severe disease, complications, and even death.

Measles can affect anyone but is most common in children.

Measles infects the respiratory tract and then spreads throughout the body. Symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose and a rash all over the body.

Being vaccinated is the best way to prevent getting sick with measles or spreading it to other people. The vaccine is safe and helps your body fight off the virus.

Before the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963 and widespread vaccination, major epidemics occurred approximately every two to three years and caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.

An estimated 107 500 people died from measles in 2023 – mostly children under the age of five years, despite the availability of a safe and cost-effective vaccine.

Accelerated immunization activities by countries, WHO, the Measles & Rubella Partnership (formerly the Measles & Rubella Initiative), and other international partners successfully prevented an estimated 60 million deaths between 2000–2023. Vaccination decreased an estimated measles deaths from 800 062 in 2000 to 107 500 in 2022 (1).

Thanks for the reminder, Chap. The importance of vaccination can hardly be overemphasized. What do you think the chances are that Trump and his newly confirmed HHS Secretary will heed the warning?

I am flabbergasted by the mindboggling stupidity of Trump withdrawing the U.S. from the UN's World Health Organization and kneecapping our own CDC, one of the world's premier organizations for monitoring and researching diseases and how to prevent and cure them. He seems to have almost complete disdain for any kind of scientific findings or efforts or evidence that conflict with his silly preconceived ideas of how things work or ought to work. Or maybe he just resents the idea that the funds allocated to support these vital organizations are not instead being used to further increase the wealth of the already obscenely wealthy oligarchs who now pull his puppet strings.

[yellowstone123]

Measles Outbreak Hits Texas As Anti Vaxxer Takes Over Nation's Health

Right on cue, so soon after RFKJr. takes over his position as HHS secretary. Already there are 22 cases, 9 of them already hospitalized, none of whom were vaccinated because of the advice of people like RFKJr. It will be interesting to see how he will react to the news.

Just to remind us all of the risks posed by measles, here is a note from the World Health Organisation:

Trust me, you don't want your kids getting this. I can remember a time when routine measles vaccination pretty well made measles a thing of the past where I live. But now, thanks to people like RFKJr, it's back again

Measles

14 November 2024

Key facts

Measles is a highly contagious, serious airborne disease caused by a virus that can lead to severe complications and death.
Measles vaccination averted more than 60 million deaths between 2000 and 2023. Even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available, in 2023, there were an estimated 107 500 measles deaths globally, mostly among unvaccinated or under vaccinated children under the age of 5 years. The proportion of children receiving a first dose of measles vaccine was 83% in 2023, well below the 2019 level of 86%.

Overview

Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus. It spreads easily when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. It can cause severe disease, complications, and even death.

Measles can affect anyone but is most common in children.

Measles infects the respiratory tract and then spreads throughout the body. Symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose and a rash all over the body.

Being vaccinated is the best way to prevent getting sick with measles or spreading it to other people. The vaccine is safe and helps your body fight off the virus.

Before the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963 and widespread vaccination, major epidemics occurred approximately every two to three years and caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.

An estimated 107 500 people died from measles in 2023 – mostly children under the age of five years, despite the availability of a safe and cost-effective vaccine.

Accelerated immunization activities by countries, WHO, the Measles & Rubella Partnership (formerly the Measles & Rubella Initiative), and other international partners successfully prevented an estimated 60 million deaths between 2000–2023. Vaccination decreased an estimated measles deaths from 800 062 in 2000 to 107 500 in 2022 (1).

Are these cases in the USA? If Measles had been almost eradicated in the USA then who brought them here into the USA? Have those who are unvaccinated against Measles been allowed to walk across the border?