A Shot in the Dark

Reporter: I think I heard you say the MMR vaccine is quite lethal. Is there any evidence of that?

Trump: No. I’ve heard some people say it is that way. I've heard when you put them together, they can be explosive.

For the record, medical science is not an “I’ve heard some people say…” kind of thing.

Addendum: When you're own answer to a medical science question, "Is there any evidence of that?", is "No," that should be the end of your answer.

Still, it would be good to hear (and “fun”, in a sardonic way) who those “some people” were who told that to Trump.  Who said that when you combine vaccines for mumps, measles and rubella, they can be “explosive.”  Because it almost certainly wasn’t anyone who has a medical degree.  Anywhere in the world.  Even if it came from an Internet medical school based in some South Seas island.

The best guess is that he heard it from some guy without any medical training who’s admitted to having been a heroin addict and has acknowledged snorting cocaine off a public toilet seat, like his ace Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Or perhaps it was from someone posting on Trump’s social media platform who's previously written in support of QAnon conspiracies that President Kennedy was going to be coming back to life and run on a ticket in 2024 with Trump.  Or, for all we know, “some people say” are those voices Trump hears in his dementia.

Though mainly I want to hear what Trump means by “explosive.”  Because with Trump, we can’t assume anything.  Being Trump, he may actually mean something that will literally explode. 

Just to be clear, the MMR vaccine was approved in 1971.  For those without an abacus handy, that’s 55 years ago.  The number of explosions from the vaccine during that past half-century is less than one.

And I don’t care what anyone says, “What Trump meant by ‘explosive’ is…” because whatever he meant was incredibly stupid.  Which is the polite term for crazy.

Trump raising concerns at his Oval Office event about vaccines and autism is not only pure RKjr, but also wrong and unsupportable, but dangerous, since it will get “some people” concerned about getting vaccinated.  And Trump cutting back on requiring all the previously required childhood vaccines is equally wrong, unsupportable and dangerous, risking the death of children.

But his edict about separating the MMR vaccine into three individual vaccines is not just wrong, unsupportable and dangerous – but ignorant.

I was talking with a physician friend yesterday about Trump’s edicts on vaccines.  He, of course, was galled by it, but it was his comments about Trump wanting to separate the MMR vaccine that leaped out. 

He said, and I’m paraphrasing, but closely – “That is not an easy thing to do.  It will take several years.  You can’t just take three vaccines out of the MMR and have everything ready to go.  It required a long time to develop how to get the three vaccines into one vaccine, and have all the parts work together.  So, to separate the MMR into three individual vaccines is something that will take years – and each separate vaccine one would then have to be extensively tested, as well.”

So, it seems likely that this Trump medical fantasy will go nowhere – both, in part, because of how long it will take, but also because when the next administration comes in two years from now, they will overturn this Executive Order, which still won’t be in marketplace yet.  (I’m assuming it will be a Democratic Administration, who – for the cause of safety -- will make a very public reversal of this and all the Trump vaccine decision.  But even if a MAGOP gets elected, it’s likely – not being as accepting as Trump over killing children – that they too will reverse the decision, but quietly.)

I should add that what also especially galled the physician was Trump trying to scare people into thinking that vaccines caused autism.  And he said something pointed: “Even if it was true, that there was a remote possibility that you could get autism from vaccines – which isn’t true – I would still tell people to get vaccines.  Because the damage from not getting vaccines is SO MUCH GREATER than the remote possibility of getting autism from vaccines.  Which you can’t.  But even if you could.  Even if there was a 1% chance of getting autism from vaccines, that pales to the 99% benefits from vaccines.” 

And that’s not what “some people say.”  It’s what medical science has long proven.

Getting a Good Tan

Recently, HBO began running a seven-part series co-created, co-written and starring Larry David, Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America. The show was a random collection tales about the "real" stories behind American history, in which David playing a range of characters, from Alexander Graham Bell to the guy sitting next to Rosa Parks on her first attempt of a Civil Rights bus ride to a heckler at George Washington's Farewell Address and much more. It has an impressive cast of supporting actors including Henry Winkler, Jon Hamm, Kaley Cuoco, Jerry Seinfeld, Vince Vaughn, Rita Wilson, Lin Manuel Miranda, Greg Kinnear, Sean Hayes, Isla Fisher, Samuel L. Jackson, Timothy Olyphant, Susie Essman, Paul Rudd, Keegan-Michael Key and many more. Notably, too, two of the executive producers of the limited series were Barack and Michelle Obama. President Obama introduced the series to open Episode One.

I thought the first two episodes were hilarious from start to finish. The next four were a mixed bag for me, though to be clear I liked all the sketches. It's just a few were inconsistent in the direction some took, even though they were still funny, and each episode had extremely funny sketches. And the final episode of the series struck me as wonderfully funny, as consistently as the first two.

What stood out in the very last sketch of the series was a piece on the Obama Administration when it was shaken by its greatest scandal. And what was that great scandal? The day that President Obama worse a tan suit to a press conference. And playing the role of President Obama in the sketch was...Barack Obama.

Here's that sketch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crNcV0k0aMQ

And as a bonus, here's a 2-1/2-minute behind-the-scenes video of the sketch. There's a particularly wonderful quip by Mr. Obama at the 10-second mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqy-jXOX_oc

A Transport of Delight

Yesterday afternoon, an article in RawStory began with a sentence that should have been shocking, but has become almost business-as-usual for the Trump administration. Though even at that at least still manages to creep through into the "Oh, my God, enough already" territory, which is impressive. It read:

"A multi-billion-dollar natural gas export company just made its first and only federal political donation ever, and it landed squarely in the pocket of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's son-in-law."

For those keeping score, this would be the same Sean Duffy who, as Transportation Secretary, took his family on a cross-country road trip of the U.S. for a proposed reality series on YouTube described as supposedly being be part of the 250th anniversary celebration of the United States -- a trip that was paid for by donations from companies such as Boeing, Toyota, Shell, United Airlines, Royal Caribbean Group, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, all of which Sean Duffy oversees as Transportation Secretary -- a limited series which still has not aired anywhere, nor is there an announced date.

Man, where is Hunter Biden's laptop when you really need it, for a great scandal?

I can only imagine the infuriated outrage (outrage, I say!!) in the office of James Comer (MAGOP-KY), chairman of the crack House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. No doubt he's betwixt and between himself, bursting to begin a new investigation -- though torn between whether it should be for this donation to Sean Duffy's son-in-law for how closely it supposedly overlaps his blistering fury over Hunter Biden, his laptop and salary from oil and gas production company Burisma (though, in fairness, Hunter Biden got personally paid for actually sitting on the board of directors and doing nothing, while Michael Alfonso -- Sean Duffy's son-in-law -- is merely doing nothing more than running for Congress to serve in Sean Duffy's old seat, and only received a mere $125,000 for his campaign, the first-ever political donation multi-billion dollar Fairwood Peninsula Energy has ever made), or whether the House investigation should be of Sean Duffy's family grift road trip series that has yet to exist.

What a dilemma.

To be clear, the dilemma is not whether to investigate Sean Duffy's son-in-law or Sean Duffy himself -- or investigate both. No, no, the question is how does James Comer and his fellow MAGOPs on the Oversight Committee explain why they're not going to investigate either case.

(I anticipate something like, "Well, sir, we were just following the mandate of the Committee. We failed to notice it. It was an oversight. We have done our sworn duty.")

Again, to repeat -- because it bears repeating as much as possible:

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy gets donations from major corporations he oversees to pay for a "realty series" about his family road trip that has no air date set.

And the son-in-law of Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy gets a $125,000 donation to his political campaign from a multi-billion dollar corporation, their first ever, that his father-in-law oversees.

Man, it's like they're not even trying to hide the grift.

In fairness, that's because it's all pouring in so heavily that it's almost not possible to hide it. And of course that's not the case for just Sean Duffy (and the Duffians) alone, but so many in the Trump circle, from the Grand Poobah on down -- Don Jr., Eric Trump, Jarod Kushner, Brandon and Kyle Lutnick, for starters. As the expression goes, a fish rots from the head down.

We're at the point where "Hey, if Trump can get the grift, where's ours?" is the administration slogan. And if we do it in the open air, that must make it okay, since everyone can see it!

Yes, everyone can see it. The question is if MAGOPs in Congress care in the slightest?

And, yes, I know, that was a trick question, since that's not actually a "question". It's 11 words after which I stuck a squiggly line with a dot underneath.

As eye-rolling, teeth-gnashing, utterly galling as this unrelenting larceny all is, I am comforted by two things.

 First was this report in RawStory on Friday that said --

“Senior House Democrats and committee aides are eyeing hearings, subpoenas and document requests aimed not at the White House itself, but at the companies and financial firms orbiting Trump's world, a bet that Trump-linked businesses will prove easier to crack than a West Wing expected to stonewall oversight entirely.

“…The groundwork is already underway, two inside sources told Reuters. Letters have gone out to Paramount Skydance, YouTube parent Alphabet, private prison operator GEO Group, security firm Salus Worldwide Solutions and commodity traders Vitol and Trafigura, seeking records that could pave the way for subpoenas down the line.

"In a statement to Reuters, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) said, ’From sketchy Pentagon contracts lining the pockets of the president's sons, Trump's crypto billions, and the shady backroom deals for Trump donors, we will ensure we combat corruption when Democrats take back the House in November.’”

Which is a great plan, I think.

And the second is remembering that what helped overthrow the long, dictatorial regime of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, finally push the public too far, and shockingly defeat him in last year's election was -- corruption.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p23jsRYBkmc