Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reveals plans to fire 600 federal health workers

The Trump ally and anti-vax conspiracist takes aim at the agencies he loathes. 

Mother Jones

At an event late last week in Arizona, anti-vaccine activist and Donald Trump transition team member Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he’d fire and replace 600 people from the National Institutes of Health on “day one” of a second Trump term. The NIH is one of the public health agencies Kennedy loathes the most—and despite still lacking any defined role in a new administration, he’s clearly relishing the opportunity to promise retribution against them.  In comments that were first reported by ABC News, Kennedy declared, “We need to act fast, and we want to have those people in place on January 20, so that on January 21, 600 people are going to walk into offices at NIH and 600 people are going to leave.”  Kennedy, a long standing opponent of vaccines, has consistently been critical of the NIH, the Centers for Disease Control, and other federal agencies that are part of the basic infrastructure of public health. His The Real Anthony Fauci attacked Fauci, a former NIH director, at book length, albeit with what one physician reviewer called “many errors and gross misrepresentations.”

The remarks offering some concrete details about Kennedy’s Trump-aligned and so-called “Make America Healthy Again” agenda came during an onstage interview at an entrepreneurship event in Scottsdale, which included discussions of Kennedy’s workout routine and his relationship with the once and future president.

[...]

(Experts believe that autism was underdiagnosed until recent decades; the earliest prevalence weren’t conducted until the 1960s and ‘70s. Autistic adults have a range of abilities and autistic self-advocates have said that Kennedy uses offensive and ableist language to talk about autism: rather than “full blown,” public health experts would generally say “profound autism.” Kennedy also still uses the term “Aspergers,” an outdated phrase referencing a scientist who worked with Nazis during the Holocaust.)

Trump’s Ambassador To Israel Believes Palestine Is A ‘Mythical Land’

President-elect Donald Trump has been filling out his administration in the week since his landslide election. On Tuesday, he announced that

TPM – Talking Points Memo

President-elect Donald Trump has been filling out his administration in the week since his landslide election. On Tuesday, he announced that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is his choice to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Israel. The pick is notable because Huckabee has a long history with the country, including statements that indicate he doesn’t necessarily believe in the two state solution to the country’s conflict with the Palestinian people. 

In multiple posts on the site once known as Twitter, Huckabee has suggested the nation of Palestine does not exist at all. For example, in 2019, Huckabee tweeted “there has NEVER been a nation called Palestine.” That comment came as a response to reports about the first Palestinian-American congresswoman, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (R-MI), including a new report at the time about a map in her office that was branded with a post-it note saying Palestine placed next to Israel. Huckabee offered a similar perspective in a 2020 tweet where he endorsed former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) against the man who ultimately won her seat, Raphael Warnock.  “Until terrorist Yassar Afafat ‘invented’ a ‘Palestinian nation’ in 1962, the term applied to ALL who lived in the region, including the Jews,” Huckabee wrote.

Huckabee did not respond to a request for comment. His contention that Palestine has never been a country and that the term “Palestinian” has applied to everyone in the region is a decidedly ahistorical one. The modern nation of Palestine, which includes the territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is recognized by over 140 other countries. That list does not include Israel, which has been engaged in a decades long conflict over borders with the Palestinians since its own founding in 1948, and the United States. The Palestinian people, a group that includes Arab Christians and Muslims, have been described as inhabiting the region since the Biblical times. English translations of the Torah and Bible translate the Arabic and Greek references to the group by calling them Philistines. In the relatively modern era, the region was ruled by a series of colonial powers, including the Ottoman Empire and the British, who left the territory in 1948, setting off a conflict between the newly-declared Jewish State of Israel and Arabs in the region. 

However, in Huckabee’s telling, any notion of a Palestinian state seems to be totally illegitimate. He reiterated this view in February when President Joe Biden visited the town of East Palestine, Ohio. On Twitter, Huckabee quipped that Biden made a mistake and thought it was “actually a visit to the mythical land of ‘Palestine’ where Jew-hating genocidal Hamas & Fatah rule and celebrate murder of Jews.”

The long simmering Israeli-Palestinian conflict reached a new level of urgency in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack staged by Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. During the violence, Hamas militants invaded southern Israel, killed over a thousand people and took more than 200 hostages. The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by staging an invasion of Gaza, which is ongoing and has left over 40,000 people dead, so far. Fighting has also spilled over into Lebanon, Israel’s Northern neighbor.  President Biden’s support for Israel despite an invasion that many on the left view as a genocide is one of the issues believed to have helped erode support for Vice President Kamala Harris as she lost last week’s election to Trump. While some Democrats and leftists may have been unhappy with Biden’s support for Israel, during the election, Netanyahu displayed a clear preference for Trump. And, despite shifting comments on the conflict, Trump has increasingly indicated he would be open to a so-called one-state solution that saw Israel take control over the Palestinian territories. 

Manitoba government lowers age for self-referral breast cancer screening

The Manitoba government has announced a plan to expand breast cancer screening for the second time in a month.

Winnipeg

The Manitoba government has announced a plan to expand breast cancer screening for the second time in a month. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says the minimum age for self-referrals will drop to 40 by December 2026. The NDP government said last month the age would drop to 45 from the current 50 by the end of next year and promised to eventually cut it to 40 at some unspecified date. Asagwara says the government has been working to boost capacity in the system to allow for more tests and is accusing the former Progressive Conservative government of not having the required staff and support in place.

Trump’s First Executive Order May Be a Military Purge

The order could place the military under the president’s total command, like never before.

The New Republic

Trump’s transition team has a “warrior board” executive order ready for the president-elect’s desk.  An executive order draft is floating around MAGA world that would establish a Trump-appointed “warrior board” with the power to purge any three- or four-star generals as it sees fit. The board would send its dismissal recommendations to Trump and they would be acted upon within 30 days. The draft executive order, which was first reported on by The Wall Street Journal, makes it easy to quickly remove military officials “lacking in requisite leadership qualities” but leaves open the question of what those requisite qualities are. The executive order draws on General George C. Marshall’s 1940 creation of a “plucking board” led by retired general officers to “remove from line promotion any officer for reasons deemed good and sufficient.” But that plucking board was to uplift young officers with high potential, not to cull anyone not perfectly aligned with MAGA.  It’s not yet clear if Trump will sign the executive order, but Trump has held vitriol toward certain military leaders for some time now. 

• Daily Kos: Trump reportedly creating 'warrior board' to purge 'woke' generals

Trans Representative Elect Sarah McBride Hits Back On Blaming Trans People For Harris Defeat

Representative-elect McBride stated in response to question on trans people and Democratic losses, "The party that was focused on culture wa

erininthemorning.com

In the aftermath of the 2024 election results, a handful of political pundits and two Democratic members of Congress have pointed fingers at transgender people, blaming them for Kamala Harris’s loss in the presidential race. While few voices are echoing these claims, prominent publications like The Atlantic and The New York Times have amplified these sentiments to millions of readers, despite limited evidence linking transgender issues to Democratic losses. Now, Sarah McBride, the first transgender Democratic congressperson in U.S. history, is pushing back. During a press conference held by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which represents over 100 progressive members of Congress, caucus chair Pramila Jayapal was asked, “Some have blamed that voters in your party have leaned too far into culture war issues, transgender issues… how should your party respond to that?” In response, Jayapal turned to other caucus members present, prompting Sarah McBride to step forward and deliver a sharp rebuke of those claims.

“Let’s be clear,” McBride started. “The party that was focused on culture wars… the party that was focused on trans people… was the Republican Party. It was Donald Trump. It was the hundred million, two hundred million dollars they spent on television ads. But I want to be clear: I do not believe, from what I’ve seen from the voters in Delaware, that the voters in my state were responding to those attacks… We were seeing those ads that Donald Trump clearly prioritized… What I was hearing from voters across the state of Delaware was not the ads that Donald Trump was putting on the air. What I was hearing from folks was the need to build an economy for everyone… What I was hearing was that the American dream is increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible. What I was hearing was that we need to guarantee affordable healthcare, housing, and childcare for every person in this state and country.” She then added, “I did not run on my identity, but my identity was not a secret. In a state where two-thirds of the voters are in the Philadelphia media market, with a trans candidate statewide, that candidate had the highest percentage of any Democrat running for statewide office in Delaware this cycle,” she said, referring to herself. Indeed, McBride received the highest statewide vote in Delaware, securing 57.9% compared to Harris’s 56.6%. McBride also recorded more votes than the Democratic candidate in 2020 and 2022.

[...] As explanations for Harris’s 2024 loss continue to surface, the Democratic Party has not yet fractured over transgender rights. The two representatives who scapegoated transgender people after the election have faced intense backlash, including from organizations like the Young Democrats of America. Meanwhile, transgender lawmakers like McBride and Zephyr offer a blueprint for the future, urging Democrats to stand firm on their values and work to improve the lives of all constituents without sacrificing vulnerable minorities. The question now is whether the Democratic Party will embrace this vision, or reject it in an attempt to court right-wing voters.

Took a minute, but how bout we hear from a member of the constituency Dems DIDN'T lose ground from?

www.huffpost.com/… Trevor Noah says it all, says it better and says it truthfully about Black women like no one else can, so that’s why I st

Daily Kos

Trevor Noah says it all, says it better and says it truthfully about Black women like no one else can, so that’s why I started this diary with that clip. It’s worth seeing the whole spech when you have a chance. It’ll give you some insight into some of the reasons Black women vote the way we do (and it’s NOT because we’re necessarily so enamored with Democrats!!) If you got tender eyes (and ears), don’t read this diary. I’mma try to contain the cuss words, but I don’t know how successful I’ll be. If you’re a white person who has listened to and believed ANY pundit’s “post-election analysis” where the effect of MVP Harris’ race and gender was not part of said “analysis,” don’t bother reading this diary because you sound like the white liberal friends Dr. King warned us about (and no, I’m not providing no link-do yourself a favor and look it up. While you’re at it, read King’s “Letter From A Birmingham Jail”). If you’re buying the pundits’ “Dems do too much identity politics” bullshit, skip this diary. Because you know whose campaign was literally ALL about “identity politics?” Drumpf’s!!! It’s just that folks who look like me and other people of color and have a uterus were just the wrong identity. Black women led the way in supporting, donating, and working our asses off to get MVP Harris elected in the 100 days after Dems forced President Biden out of the race. Let me remind you “Biden shoulda gotten out sooner” folks that LBJ opted not to seek reelection in March of ‘68  (primarily due to the Vietnam War), but Dem infighting and the historically difficult challenge of a sitting VP winning the Presidency after his unpopular sitting President doomed Hubert Humphrey from the start. (In addition to the whole dynamic of civic unrest and the disasterous Convention that year). I’m seeing shades of that same shit today with this Dem blame-game going on. (And MISS me with your “we’re just offering constructive criticism,” “Dem leadership don’t know how to talk to the working class,” “Dems don’t listen” blah, blah, blah. How come Black women can somehow hear loud and clear when the majority of us are working class-I’m a semi-retired nurse-for instance- living in the Midwest)? “We’re not “coastal liberal elites.” But we are WOKE!! We can’t afford to sleep on these racist, sexist MAGA M’frs-or on the Repubs who say they’re not that, but are perfectly cool to have a racist, sexist, pig-assed, lawless, wannabe dictator in the White House. However, don’t think for ONE minute that we’re giving up the fight! As I said before, we’re disappointed but not a bit surprised that MVP Harris didn’t win in a system that, from its VERY ORIGINS, was set up to keep wealthy white MEN in power. Also not surprised that the white men (white women too-but at least they did better for Kamala than they did for Hillary), who aren’t wealthy fell for that “take back our country” shit from trump. You never lost it bruhs. Folks that look like me and have uteruses just finally gained some ground. And too many of these men like that zero sum game, though. So I’m done ‘splaining because here’s the thing the “Bros” don’t get: The orange leopard-assed motherfucker is coming for their faces too. Watch. All I’ll have to say then is what Roland Martin said recently on his digital platform,  #WETRIEDTOTELLYOU.

Biden and Democrats are already fighting Trump's second administration

Behind the scenes, President Joe Biden’s team has been preparing for his big final weeks in office, regardless of who won the 2024 election.

Daily Kos

Behind the scenes, President Joe Biden’s team has been preparing for his big final weeks in office, regardless of who won the 2024 election. “The schedule will be robust and he plans to leave it all on the field,” White House communications director Ben LaBolt told NBC News in September.  During his speech to the nation last Wednesday, Biden addressed some of his administration’s final priorities, including a focus on infrastructure spending, which was a major legislative accomplishment of his presidency. "We're going to see over a trillion dollars' worth of infrastructure work done, changing people's lives in rural communities and communities that are in real difficulty," the president said.  In addition to getting infrastructure projects off the ground before Trump takes office, White House advisers said Biden will also work to safeguard freedoms the president believes are under threat, strengthen global alliances, and take steps to reduce costs for Americans.