We Don't Vote For Junior, No No No

 

There has always been an anti-vaccine movement in this country, right from the 1700s. I was blissfully unaware of the history of it. I only learned how many lives vaccines saved. By the time I got around to having a polio vaccine, which killed and crippled so many including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, I was able to enjoy the medicine on a sugar cube. Yum. It’s fading away but I can still see my smallpox vaccine scar. That one hurt. There were no vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, and other childhood ails so I developed a natural immunity after getting sick with them.

I was very happy that vaccines had been developed by the time my three kids were born. Natural immunity is a fine thing but the illnesses themselves were a misery. Besides, I saw firsthand some of the side effects issues of these illnesses as a sign language interpreter of the Deaf during the 1980s. I was working at a high school and several of the 15-year-old Deaf kids had been born to mothers who’d gotten rubella while pregnant. Not only were the kids Deaf, but they also had other disabilities as well. My kids were all vaccinated to prevent them from getting sick and possibly suffering side effects from the illnesses.

Over the years, I’ve had many vaccines: tetanus every so often, shingles (never want to get them again!), flu, and all available covid shots.

I first became aware of the theory that the MMR vaccine could cause a child to become autistic. That theory was first advanced in 1998 but I didn’t hear about it until almost 10 years later. Some dude named Andrew Wakefield published false research in the British medical journal Lancet. After conducting realistic research, that document was debunked and retracted by 2010. Meantime, parents suddenly didn’t want their babies getting the MMR because gasp! their children might get autism!

In the midst of all this, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stuck his nose into it. Junior was an environmental lawyer and an effective one. He was a strong advocate and if he’d just kept to that path, my feelings about him would be so different. But in 2005, he wrote this article for Salon and Rolling Stone magazines. He went on about a conspiracy that thimerosal was being used in the MMR vaccine and was causing autism. There were a lot of children diagnosed on the spectrum, but it was more because there was a better understanding of how we think and process things. So Junior was wrong that there was a conspiracy, and he was wrong that there was thimerosal in the MMR vaccine. Research debunked all of that, and Junior should have backed down, taken his theories, and gone back to environmental law.

But he didn’t.

Even though Salon and Rolling Stone both retracted the articles, Junior continues to spread the misinformation almost twenty years later. Not only that but he’s also tacked on a lot more misinformation about HIV and about the covid vaccines.

He is one of the founders of the Children’s Health Defense, a non-profit anti-vax organization that got itself kicked off Instagram and Facebook for publishing misleading misinformation. Even so, he’s managed to scare parents into foregoing important vaccines for their children. Cases of measles are rising again.

Junior has been interviewed by Fox News, which absolutely adores him, and has hung out with QAnon and white supremacist folk. He says he is a Democrat, but why? For the last twenty years, he sure hasn’t been behaving like one.

Most recently, he was interviewed by Joe Rogan. The two of them put their non-medically trained brains together and had a grand old time spouting off all kinds of crazy stuff. Junior thinks Bill Gates put computer chips into people’s brains or bodies. Really? He also thinks that all the requirements for covid vaccines during the pandemic were worse than the Holocaust. The nerve! Rogan still thinks ivermectin is a good cure for covid.

God help us.

Peter Hotez is a scientist that helped developed a low-cost covid vaccine. The vaccine can be used globally, and he won a Nobel Prize for his work. He criticized all of the misinformation on Rogan’s show. Rogan challenged Hotez to come on the show and debate with Junior. He offered to pay Hotez $100,000. Why would a brilliant scientist who accomplished so much condescend to debate with one who isn’t a doctor and is totally clueless about how vaccines work? Hotez said no thanks.

Junior is advancing in the polls, and that gives me agita. People like the name, Kennedy. People of my generation, the Boomers, remember JFK and RFK (the real Bobby) with affection and respect. We remember how other members of the Kennedy family were so active in the needs of the community. I appreciated  Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics. So many members of the family have been involved in good works.  There’s the temptation to automatically support Junior because he’s a Kennedy.

But no!

Here is an excellent, in-depth article. Please read it.

 

WTAF 2023 (2022 upgrade)

 Ah, so much going on and my poor old brain is feeling feeble and exhausted. What shall I write about? The fact that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s King’s words are being twisted by the Rethuglicans? The controversy over the statue honoring Rev. King and his wife Coretta Scott King, showing their hands only and not their heads? How about illiberalism and christian nationalism, which is running rampant throughout half our country? Book banning? The Rethuglican plot to gut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? God, no wonder my brain feels feeble today.

There’s something else too: despite three years of taking necessary precautions, Covid is residing in the house. We’re vaxxed, boostered, and careful to wear masks when we’re out but indoors somewhere. We avoid people without masks. Yet, somehow, that sneaky virus crept into our house. So far, I’m the only one testing negative but I feel sick. My husband and son are both ill, both positive, but their cases seem “mild”. I say mild because we haven’t had to go to Urgent Care or the ER.  Still, they are both miserable. I’m the caretaker, making sure they are fed, taking Paxlovid (hubby), vitamins and OTC products to treat their symptoms.

Regarding the Rethuglicans, twisting Dr. King’s words to suit their agendas: it’s been going on with that party forever. Intelligent, open-minded people will see through it for what it is. The sheeple won’t understand that Dr. King’s words do not reflect things as they are NOW. We still have racial and social injustices. That’s what Dr. King’s messages were about. What to do about it? The thinking open-minded people in red states and districts need to VOTE these evil legislators the fuck OUT.

The statue? I was a little taken aback at first, but I looked at it a while and realized it was beautiful. The clasped hands show the deep love Dr. King and Mrs. King had for each other. What a way to honor their memory.

What is really aggravating me today is book banning, defunding libraries, and Gov Death Santis’ recent rejection of APA Black history in high schools. What the actual fuck! Half of our country’s legislators and too many voters have learned NOTHING about history because they’ve banned the true teaching of it.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is not taught in any elementary, middle, or high school in this country. Yet the Rethuglicans keep howling about it. Governor Death-Santis proudly proclaims that CRT comes to Florida to die. His latest action was despicable. So, the College Board recommended adding an Advanced Placement (AP) class on African American History to high school curriculums in which the students earn college credit for passing the course.

The reason? It’s against the law in Florida! This is going to be another What the Actual Fuck Journal, dated 2023.  Against the law to learn facts about African American history? Meanwhile, there are other cultural AP classes offered that passed the litmus test. There’s been outrage, of course, about all this but he doesn’t care.

Death Santis wrote a letter rejecting AP African American History and added this sentence: “In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion.” I bet that means white bread history with WASP sauce.

I feel sorry for the parents and students in FL who care about getting a complete education. I feel sorry for the teachers who are being bullied and terrorized with restrictive rules about what they can and cannot discuss in the classroom.

I think to myself: why would anyone want to live there? I understand being “stuck” because of the economy, the job, the family but …. I also think to myself I would drop it all for the sake of my kids. I would rather we sleep in a car in a free state instead of a fascist state. I was reading another article about situations like this; that it’s not so much about CRT but about illiberalism.  Anti-liberal thinking is spreading across the country.

Another topic that touched my hot button is book banning. Once again, this is about the fear of learning that others exist: other colors, other religions, other genders, other sexualities. I have read most of the banned books and the reasons given are so shallow. We're dumbing down our nation. But even more insidious, the Rethuglicans are quietly going around defunding libraries. That's scary.

Can you tell I am not a fan of the Rethuglicans? This is my use of what used to be the GOP. Now they are made up of GQP thugs. If there are any R's that don't hold with what the Rethugs are doing, they are sitting with their hands over their mouths, quaking. And if someone has the courage to speak against the thugs, they are ostracized (Sen. Romney), cast out (Rep. Cheney) or forced into retirement to save the lives of their families (Rep. Kinzinger).

I started reading a book called The Last Train.by Peter Bradley. He learned not too long ago that his grandparents were exterminated in a Nazi concentration camp and that his father barely escaped with his life. I read the introduction and my understanding is that Bradley meant to keep the family history quiet but recent events (guess who and what) brought him to the decision that he had to tell the story. History is repeating itself right now.

There is still so much to write about but today I have to conclude with the inevitability of our unwanted guest, Covid.  Now all of us have it. Thanks, tRump. You screwed it up.