Saturday, September 6, 2025

No More 'Good Guys'?


When we look at the world today, it is undeniable that the most powerful countries are led by evil men. Russia's Putin, Amerika's Trump and China's Xi  JinPing readily come to mind, as does Benjamin Netanyahu leading the nuclear State of Israel. And I think it would be to declare the obvious that none of the aforementioned care about their people, except as means to certain ends.

While we expect authoritarian rulers to see their people as fodder, I have never really had a sense until now of a specific war being waged against the people of the U.S. by its government. To be sure, almost all American governments have cruelly abused their poor, their disenfranchised, their minorities. And of course that demographic has always provided the bulk of fodder in all of Amerika's post-WW11 military misadventures. However, one could almost have believed the abuse was rooted in the American disdain for the downtrodden (see the American Dream) as well as its historically racist nature.

However, to me it now appears that a wider battle is being waged by Amerika against its general population,  a kind of social eugenics, in which a wide swath of a credulous population will be gradually eliminated, While it might seem a conspiratorial thought, there is evidence to support my odd thesis.

Consider, for example the changes at the National Institutes of Health, led by the unhinged Bobby Kennedy Jr. Unqualified ethically, morally, intellectually or temperamentally, Kennedy, with the tacit permission of Trump, is doing his damndest to undermine the health of Americans. Claiming he wants to make America healthy again, he has systematically cut all manner of research grants.

Between late February and early April 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) executed an unprecedented wave of grant terminations, impacting a total of 694 active grants. 

The broad distribution of terminated grants demonstrates a systemic reshaping of NIH’s research portfolio. Nearly every institute experienced cutbacks, but the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) bore a disproportionate share of the reductions, accounting for 30% of the total funding loss. This notable concentration of cuts suggests targeted policy shifts or budgetary realignments that may adversely affect ongoing efforts to address persistent health disparities among minority populations.

Then, of course, there is Kennedy's broad undermining of confidence in vaccinations, recently claiming, for example, that healthy people have no need of vaccines. It is a position that led to him being excoriated this past week during a senate hearing over his tenure thus far:

The Senate’s second-highest ranking Republican, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY)—a physician—delivered a blistering rebuke of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., accusing him of advancing vaccine policies that undermine public health. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy—also a physician—also harshly questioned the HHS chief.

“Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” Senator  Barrasso began. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.”

"The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership with the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don’t know who to rely on,” Barrasso exclaimed.

How many more will die or become permanently disabled because the NIHS is led by a lunatic?

And that lunacy is filtering down to the state level. Florida, under the banner of freedom for all, has made a decision.

Florida will move to end all vaccine mandates in the state, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced Wednesday.

The move would make Florida the first state to end a longstanding – and constitutionally upheld – practice of requiring certain vaccines for school students.

The state health department will immediately move to end all non-statutory mandates in the state, Ladapo said at a news conference. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was also at the event, said state lawmakers would then look into developing a legislative package to end any remaining mandates.

Ladapo [a Black man] said that every vaccine mandate “is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”

Now, there is much more evidence I could adduce to support my contention, but let's cut to the chase. Who benefits if there is a substantial die-off of Americans? It is the real movers and shakers of society, the powerful elite, who neither respect nor need "the masses" and really don't care for the 'burden' of taxation to take care of them. With large numbers ultimately eliminated, that burden will be much reduced.

You might quite legitimately ask, "But what if substantial numbers of MAGATS perish? Who will vote for Trump or his successor if not the credulous? To that I can only say such a question is predicated on the belief that meaningful elections will continue in Amerika. That is an assumption I am not, at this point, prepared to grant you.

15 comments:

  1. It doesn't matter how many end up dying in the long run. Business discounts future profits in favour of maximizing current ones. This is why the oil and gas industry is 100% responsible for climate denialism and the anti-science libertarianism that goes with it. They don't care if the earth is destroyed and their descendants with it. They assume that their offspring will be protected by fat bank accounts, just as wealth shields them from consequences.

    I don't know if you caught it, but Paul Krugman hosted an interesting discussion between climate scientist Michael Mann and vaccine expert Peter Hotez. They discuss how funding for climate denial comes from the same sources as anti-vax and broader science skepticism. During the Covid lockdowns, the Koch Brothers noticed profits declining as people stayed home and weren't burning as much fuel. This prompted them to fund anti-lockdown/anti-vax protests that culminated in shutting down Ottawa and the lifting of Covid restrictions. It's no wonder that Alberta remains anti-vax ground zero. Check it out: https://paulkrugman.substack.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the information, Sumi, and I shall check out your link.

      Delete
  2. When we look at the world today, it is undeniable that the most powerful countries are led by evil men. Russia's Putin, Amerika's Trump and China's Xi  JinPing readily come to mind, 

    I don't  anyone but Trump is evil. US propaganda shows Xi and Putin as terrible but why believe US lies?

    Xi has managed to raise a massive number of Chinese citizens out of abject poverty. I'd not say they are rich but they usually have a decent (half_decent?) place to live and are not afraid of having nothing to eat tomorrow. Xi went from being a privileged son of a senior general to being a peasant worker in rural China during the Cultural Revolution. He actually understands poverty. I expect that Xi at least partially benefited from a famous father but he seems to have also shown real ability. Of course, his daughter is a Harvard grad but still....

    Putin? IIRC, when Putin moved into government in St Petersberg, Western businessmen there and  in Moscow hired armed guards to prevent being kidnapping. There were shootouts between rival gangs  in major cities. Life expectancy, especially for men dropped like a rock after the collapse of the USSR. Since 2000, it is better, not up to Canadian standards but much better. IIRC Putin's father was foreman at St Petersberg Transit. 

    Donald Trump is the son of a very rich man and has never done an honest day's work in his life. In fact, he's infamous for not paying labour and stiffing subcontractors. He is about as corrupt as they come.

    I would not be terribly surprised it Xi and Putin have stashed away a bit of money. I have read a little about Xi but this may be slander or just a cultural difference. Just about everything believable I've read about Putin seems to say he's pretty honest.

    As something of an aside I remember viewing a video about how corrupt Putin was and discovered the video producer was using a shot of the Czech National Library in Prague in a tour of Putin's mansion in southern Russia.

    At the moment, Mr Trump seems to trying to loot the USA and helping his family loot much of the rest of the world.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your considered comments, Anon. They offer us a wider context upon which to judge these leaders, and the more information we have, the better.

      I will say one thing, however: your comments about Putin reputedly being honest is a little hard to accept. Given his aggression and his subterfuge about his wider intentions,
      he does not strike me as a forthright man.

      Delete
    2. I will say one thing, however: your comments about Putin reputedly being honest is a little hard to accept. Given his aggression and his subterfuge about his wider intentions,
      he does not strike me as a forthright man.


      Sorry but can you give me any examples of his aggression?
      Chechnia?

      As far as I can see he is mainly fighting a defensive war. Remember we are Canadians., About 15 minutes , well 2 hours after the Maidan Coup, I realized we had a civil war situation on our hands. The Ukrainian Gov't outlawed Russian (and I think but am not sure any other language) but Ukrainian

      And I see no signs of his subterfuge about his wider intentions.

      He is head of a major world power.

      Delete
    3. I will say one thing, however: your comments about Putin reputedly being honest is a little hard to accept. Given his aggression and his subterfuge about his wider intentions, he does not strike me as a forthright man.

      I would not not say he is all that  forthright but, for heavens sake, the man is a lawyer, a former intelligence agent, and a long-time politician. Was Sir John A. all that forthright? Maybe not the best example?

      What Russian aggression are you referring to? A three day (?) dispute with Georgia? Chechnya, if we like it or not, was a civil war. Horribly vicious but still a civil war. 

      Other than the Ukrainian issue, I cannot see any possible aggression and to be honest I thought Russia was doing its best to avoid  a military contest.

       It was perfectly clear that the civil war in Ukraine was getting really nasty. Ukraine was massing troops to finish off what remained of the independent parts of Lugansk and Donetsk Oblasts and if you were following the situation closely, it was pretty obvious that a major part of the Ukrainian forces were outright fascist/Nazi racists who would be happily carrying out a genocide. And no, I am not joking. 

      Can you point to anything believable about Putin not being honest? It is quite possible but I just have not seen it. I have seen stories of his fantastic wealth but I have never seen a photo of him on his 200 metre yacht.

      At last report his two daughters are both researchers at Moscow State University. One, IIRC, was married at one time to a very wealthy man but I don't know how that worked out. However neither seem a Chelsa Clinton or Ivanka Trump. I expect, as daughters of the President of the Russian Federation, either are lacking anything but so far I have not heard of wild parties in Monaco.




      Delete
    4. While I am no expert on Putin, Anon, of course I was thinking of his invasion of Ukraine, which was preceded by "military exercises" near the border. He proclaimed no interest in invading at that time. As well, of course, one hears all kinds of reports about Russian bots and disinformation campaigns. I'll leave it at that for now.

      Delete
    5. While I am no expert on Putin, Anon, of course I was thinking of his invasion of Ukraine, which was preceded by "military exercises" near the border. He proclaimed no interest in invading at that time.

      My guess, back in 2020, was Russia did not want a war, the political cost was too high and in simple terms Russia did not want the cost of bringing Lugask and Donesk up to Russian standards. Crimea cost a fortune and I doubt that Moscow wanted two more poverty-stricken oblasts (republics) to have to rehabilitate. I don't think I am exaggerating. These oblasts would be like us taking over a Louisiana parish or US Georgia county.

      There were clear indications that the Kiev regime was planing an attack on the Donetsk republics. My own feeling, and I am no expert, is that Russia just wanted the two Donetsk Republics to continue as part of Ukraine but with a few different rights, a bit like Québec. There were two Minsk Accords to do this but which the Chancellor of Germany and the President of France said were fake.

      The attacks might have been genocidal given some of the "irregular" troops in the region were madly racist. Again, most people in the Donetsk republics were ethnic Russians or Russian speakers. The Azov Battalion is not. When your aunt or first cousin in that kind of danger what do you do?

      Now Russia is stuck with at least 4 new oblasts, war refugees, and the somewhat irrational enmity of NATO. Of course, at the moment it looks like Nicolaev and Odessa oblasts will be Russian though I may well be wrong there.

      You might want to remember Russian history. If we forget the Mongols, in the last few centuries, Russia has been invaded by the Swedes, the French, and the Germans. The French torched Moscow but it may have been an accident. The Germans only got to 30-40 km of Moscow but something in the range of 27 million Soviet citizens died in that war. It's not clear to me but probably one if not two of Vladimir Putin's elder brothers died in the war from poor medical care. His father was badly wounded and, reportedly, his mother nearly starved to death in the Siege Of Leningrad.




      Delete
    6. Thanks for the information, Anon. As I said earlier, all information is helpful; in providing as much context as possible to the world we find ourselves in today, we have more tools by which to interpret it.

      Delete
    7. Thanks for the information, Anon. As I said earlier, all information is helpful; in providing as much context as possible to the world we find ourselves in today, we have more tools by which to interpret it.

      I am sounding snarky but it takes years of watching the USSR and Russian Federation to see what we think is happening. As I said, I've been doing it very casually but for many years. I suspect I miss 90% but still see more than the US Gov't

      Oh, wait a minute, If you have not encountered him, Yevgeny Yevtushenko is one of the USSR's greatest poets. Well worth looking up but I have only read him in English.

      Still there are one or two good translations

      Delete
    8. Thanks for the recommendation, Anon. I do believe I taught a poem by Yevtushenko years ago, but to be truthful, I don't remember which one.

      Delete
    9. There are one or two very good translations from back in the late 1950's or early 60's. I have not been looking for more modern stuff but it may exist.

      I did lie about only reading him in translation. I have read a couple poems in Russian. I can still quote the first line of one poem although no Anglophone or Russian speaker might understand me.

      Delete
    10. My preference was always for the Russian novelists, Anon. I was especially taken with Dostoyevsky.

      Delete
    11. Who is this "Dostoevsky" character? I try not to read "good" literature. I read some Dickens but only because it was the only thing around at the time. I think I still have nightmares.

      On the other hand, Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling were good fun.

      I did read War and Peace (Война и мир, ) but only as a way of avoiding studying for Christmas exams. I passed but it was close.

      Delete
    12. Actually, Dostoyevsky is not a difficult read, Anon. However, like Dickens, his work is usually long.

      Delete