What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Tamas]

This might be entirely wrong, but there seems to be a similarity with Canadian polling. About a third of our population is always going to be Conservative supporters, independent of the policies of the party. So I am not sure it is correct to assume everyone carefully considers the positions of each of the options and then bases their vote on that analysis. Quite the opposite, if the polling numbers are accurate.

I've long ago come to the conclusion that a third of humanity are conservative/authoritarian, another third don't really care (as evident by their non-voting) and only a third are really liberal/left-leaning.

Yes, that sounds correct.

[The Minsky Moment]

A Federal judge has dismissed the charges against Comey and James on the grounds that Hallian was illegally appointed.

That's the kindest way to dispose of those cases.

[DGuller]

A Federal judge has dismissed the charges against Comey and James on the grounds that Hallian was illegally appointed.

That's the kindest way to dispose of those cases.

On the one hand, the ineptitude is amusing and to some extent reassuring.  On the other hand, the chilling effect is chilling.  I'm sure no one wants to be subjected even to such best case scenario for them, because it can still be life-altering.

[crazy canuck]

From the Globe and Mail's health reporter

Gifted link so the writer gets credit the link.

Sometime, in the not-too-distant future, we're going to look back and wonder: Whatever happened to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at one time the single most powerful and influential public-health agency on Earth?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (which oversees the CDC), and a fervent anti-vaccine activist, seems hell-bent on using his position to destroy the CDC.

Last week, in his latest salvo, Mr. Kennedy personally instructed the agency to change its long-standing position that vaccines do not cause autism.

Before the update, the CDC website said studies have shown that there is "no link" between vaccines and developing autism, and that "no links" have been found between any vaccine ingredients and the disorder.

The page now says that studies supporting a link between vaccines and autism "have been ignored by health authorities."

Then it adds: "The claim 'vaccines do not cause autism' is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism."

RFK Jr. says he told CDC to change position on vaccines and autism

CFIA monitoring U.S. move away from science-based decision making, documents show

This is preposterous, and doubly so because the change was ordered by a politician with no training in science, medicine or public health.

What Mr. Kennedy does have is a long-standing animus toward vaccination, and he has now co-opted and weaponized a powerful public-health agency toward his cause. The Health Secretary's claims are false, misleading and harmful.

Mr. Kennedy faux-innocently says he is not saying vaccines cause autism, just that studies have not shown that they can't.

But he knows full well that a negative cannot be proven. As Dr. Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University, said to The New York Times: "You can't prove that Coca-Cola doesn't cause autism either."

Research has shown quite clearly that there is no link between measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination and autism. Those studies were made necessary by explosive claims in a paper published by Andrew Wakefield – a paper that was later withdrawn because the findings were manipulated. But not before terrible damage was done.

Mr. Kennedy and his ilk are now "wondering" about another routine childhood vaccine for DTaP – a combination shot that protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough) in young children.

And, every now and again, he just tosses out weird new theories, like autism is caused by pregnant women taking Tylenol. Sorry, that should read: You can't prove it doesn't.

These are the common tactics of anti-vaxxers and other embracers of anti-science: Keep moving the goal posts, and then claim you're "only asking questions."

Mr. Kennedy's goal is clear: To foment confusion and distrust in vaccines.

It's surely a coincidence that, over the years, he has made millions promoting anti-vaccine views and referring clients to law firms that sue governments and pharmaceutical companies on behalf of parents of "vaccine-damaged" children.

Mr. Kennedy has been on a crusade against the CDC for years. He has called it a "cesspool of corruption" and claimed its officials are in bed with Big Pharma – all without evidence, it goes without saying.

Since becoming HHS Secretary this year, Mr. Kennedy has not just rewritten web pages. He has fired at least one-quarter of its staff, including the CDC director; dismantled its expert vaccine advisory panel; slashed the agency budget by roughly a third; cut the US$500-million research program for promising mRNA vaccines; slashed the infectious diseases program, both abroad and domestically (in the midst of the biggest measles outbreak in 30 years, no less); and, called for the CDC to abandon its chronic disease prevention activities.

Death by a thousand cuts, literally.

Mr. Kennedy is engaging in similar patterns of destruction at two other agencies he oversees, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, but not with the same fervour he has reserved for the CDC.

All this, presumably, to Make America Healthy Again.

Inviting back the spread of childhood illness and its related impacts – including the potential for childhood mortality – seems like an odd way of achieving this goal.

But it's all about ideology. The desire to be free of any regulations you don't like. The freedom to choose what you believe, even if it's dangerously wrong. The supremacy of the individual, regardless of the cost to the collective.

Seems like Donald's Trump's prescription for an angry nation is an unhinged health secretary.

We can't but shudder to think how much damage will be done before Mr. Kennedy is through with his crusade, or how long public health, in the United States and beyond, will take to recover and rebuild.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/519974dc5e28f762a87fb14c1570523f4fb873adfcfcb945043907ccc3c41650/3CWI3UBNSRGMHI3U4ZVDRYXFYM/

[Jacob]

Dangerous for the US and dangerous for the world.

[Valmy]

Yep. Almost like putting an incompetent idiot whose main qualifier for his job is nepotism in an important job is a bad idea.

It will take decades to undo the damage they are doing. Sorry world and all the millions of people who will die of infectious disease.

[grumbler]

Dangerous for the US and dangerous for the world.

That's not a bug, that's a feature. RFK Jr is an ambulance-chaser and knows the value of discrediting truth.

All of the Trump cabinet appointees were appointed to effectively destroy their respective departments.

[Josquius]

Dangerous for the US and dangerous for the world.

That's not a bug, that's a feature. RFK Jr is an ambulance-chaser and knows the value of discrediting truth.

All of the Trump cabinet appointees were appointed to effectively destroy their respective departments.

A disturbing thought. He knew they were shit, not just believing the same craziness he does but actually shit, and that's why he appointed them...

[viper37]

Leaked recordings prove Putin is making Trump his puppet

The Witkoff tape reveals how much the game has changed - US diplomacy now appears to centre around flattering and stroking the ego of Donald Trump 



In normal times, we the public are left to wonder what presidents and their envoys say to one another behind closed doors, when they're negotiating deals on which our future safety and prosperity depend – for understandable reasons, this kind of statecraft is kept as secret as it is possible to be. 

But, of course, we are not living in normal times. Our latest reminder of that is the publication by Bloomberg of the full telephone transcript between Donald Trump's special envoy for peace, his billionaire pal Steve Witkoff, and Vladimir Putin's top aide on foreign policy, Yuri Ushakov. 
If nothing else, it's fascinating to see how much these ultra-rich and ultra-powerful men flannel one another even in private. As the call – which took place on 14 October, shortly after Israel and Hamas agreed a US-brokered ceasefire – opened, Ushakov fell over himself to praise Witkoff for his role in that deal. 

Witkoff, in turn, gave Ushakov extensive advice on how he should make sure to flatter and praise Trump over the deal, and how he could leverage that flattery – and Trump's ensuing good mood – to try to net a favourable deal for peace between Russia and Ukraine.
"Just reiterate that you congratulate the President on this achievement, that you supported it, you supported it, that you respect that he is a man of peace and you're just, you're really glad to have seen it happen," Witkoff said, per Bloomberg's translation of the call. "So I would say that. I think from that it's going to be a really good call." 

As the call continues, Witkoff suggests the two men work together on a 20-point peace proposal "just like we did in Gaza", which could become a "Trump plan". Just weeks later, the US and Russia supposedly agreed a 28-point plan for peace that in reality read almost word-for-word like a list of Russian demands, with virtually no concessions towards Ukraine and its red lines. 
The transcript makes for extremely difficult reading. At a surface level, it looks almost like treason – it seems as if a top aide for the US government is helping one of America's most prominent adversaries, and being chummy to the point of oleaginousness as he does so.


The reality of negotiation is more complex. "Good cop, bad cop" – the tactic used by police to try to make suspects confess – is one of the best-known and oldest negotiating strategies in the book, and few would suggest the good cop is being disloyal when he's nice to the suspect. In more normal times, when people had confidence in the ability and loyalty of those at the top of US government, it might be possible to shrug off Witkoff's tactics. If it gets results for America, then maybe it's fine. 

But the very fact that we are able to read that transcript, that we know what was said on the call, shows that it worried someone – perhaps a whistleblower within the US government, or perhaps a usually-friendly intelligence agency who intercepted the call. Someone well placed thought it was important enough to be out there, and that the world should see it. 

That might just be a rational response to the erratic nature of the Trump administration, which has been accused of going around the world doing deals that also net millions or billions for the business interests of the President or his inner circle. It is a response to the alarm bells raised at the apparent willingness of the US to endorse a peace deal that looked as if it was authored by Russia – even if it seems to have rowed back on that support since. 

But more than any of that, the Witkoff tape reveals how much US diplomacy seems to centre around flattering and stroking the ego of Trump. Diplomacy is usually a matter of knowing your own country's strategic interests and red lines, and trying to advance those goals. 

The Witkoff recording revealed the game has changed. Out are America's long-term interests, let alone any consideration for the security of Ukraine or even Europe as a whole. Instead, Witkoff seems laser-focused on delivering a deal, any deal, because that's what Trump wants.
More than that, he seems to know that how Trump will regard any proposal depends more on his mood at the time – and his disposition towards whoever he's talking to – than its contents. Witkoff is telling his counterpart Ushakov how to do something he is surely very familiar with: he is telling him how to manage someone ruling like an autocrat. 

That, more than any concerns over Witkoff's personal loyalties, is what's alarming about this extraordinary leaked call. It is not how a democracy negotiates: it's how you handle a world in which the world's greatest superpower is run in the interests of the man who leads it.

[Savonarola]

Yep. Almost like putting an incompetent idiot whose main qualifier for his job is nepotism in an important job is a bad idea.

Like father, like son...




 

[Admiral Yi]

2 National Guardsmen shot in DC by Afghan refugee.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Whenever I hear about these 20 and 28 point peace plans I can't help but think of Clemenceau's response on hearing of Wilson's 14 points : "The good Lord had only ten!" (Le bon Dieu n'en avait que dix !).

Many people are saying that Trump's peace plans have bigger and better points than Woodrow Wilson's, in fact the best points.