15 Comments

As a polio survivor, I have always viewed RFK, Jr. with the utmost loathing and contempt. Would that the “toxic” polio vaccine had been available when I was six years old! The man is nothing more that a medical Luddite.

And if RFK Jr. thinks that Trump is going to make him America’s medical tsar, he’s even stupider than I believe him to be. Assuming that Trump is elected president next week, in a year’s time RFK Jr. will be denouncing him in a joint press conference with John Kelly on MSNBC. Why? Because RFK Jr. is a true believer, whereas Trump believes in nothing but his own wonderfulness.

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Claire,

Forgive this tangent. I mean the following with all due respect as a faithful reader and fellow-traveler.

I wish you would separate the ideas and policies of Rachel Levine from the human who is Rachel Levine.

The ideas can be absurd and harmful, but the human suffers and is as deserving of compassion as the next person.

For a moment, leave aside that I personally have (and you likely have not got) complete comfort thinking of adult-transitioned women as “she/her*.” (The asterisk comes from the obvious biological differences and the painful societal edge cases worth thoughtful consideration and discussion.) From a rhetorical perspective, calling RL “this fellow” is needlessly combative, reads as ad hominem and turns off the people you might actually persuade. I plead with you to use your prodigious writerly gifts to *persuade* rather than to reinforce.

You are eloquent, passionate and well-informed. I see you as someone who could prompt action from both sides of our political divide. Why limit who might be receptive to your message?

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Well said.

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While it may seem like everyone voting for Trump is some sort of deranged, crazy person, that's simply not true. I've been critical of him where warranted, and was far from my first choice, but the alternative, in my opinion is far worse. Trump is neither who his hardcore supporters think he is, nor is he who his hardcore detractors think he is. He surrounds himself with people I don't agree with, but have you seen the current admin? Unreal. Harris wants to censor us, disarm us, while both want everything to be more expensive.

In regard to Scott Adams, he was on the "gravy train" before he was canceled by the left, and lost a huge chunk of his income. Does that sentiment also apply to Lincoln Project guys? Talk about gravy train. Thank you, have a great day.

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Forgive me for forgetting to add that Kennedy is a horrible choice, and Trumps embracing him is a terrible idea. Pretty much the same with Carlson, and former HI rep, whatever her name is.

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Tulsi Gabbard.

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Leroy - When weighing the virtues and deficits of Trump and Harris, what are the strengths and weaknesses of each, in your opinion?

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7 hrs agoLiked by Claire Berlinski

Very important request when you asked people who use pat phrases like "Trump derangement syndrome," actually to spell out whatever reasoning they think they might have.

In George Orwell's classic essay, "Politics and the English Language" he warned that it is easy to write sentences with well-worn phrases that seem to glue themselves together. More often than not, such sentences convey no meaning. Therefore Orwell proposed a simple (though not always easy) cure. To "Let the meaning choose the word, rather than the other way about."

If for example, you really believe that the covid mandates for masking and social distancing were "tyranny," you should have to explain exactly what freedoms were being abridged and what consequences you were willing to accept. You shouldn't get to shout, as Trump did, "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" from mask mandates [caps in the original] without telling us which clause of the Constitution Michigan had presumably violated, what alternative health regime he would want, and how much of an increase to the covid death rate he was willing to tolerate.

I believe that anyone who follows the rules Orwell sets forth in that essay can make a decent job of expository writing -- or at least, as Orwell says, avoid saying anything that is "outright barbarous."

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We now know that masking and social distancing and lockdowns were largely ineffectual. It’s excusable that in the early going, when not much was known about the virus, such measures were embraced. But when better information came to hand, instead of adjusting its guidance the public health establishment doubled down on those measures. That was justified as “following the Science.” And need I even mentioned the totally unnecessary, politically motivated school closures that so grievously harmed this country’s children?

I think that Mr. Orwell would have been scathing in his critique of those egregious abuses of power.

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Not arguing with you re schools. But it would seem that scientists believe that masking and distancing were helpful in reducing the spread of covid. Some primary sources for your reading pleasure. If you can find something from a respectable scientific journal that says otherwise I'd love to see it.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7471891/

https://www.livescience.com/face-masks-eye-protection-covid-19-prevention.html

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201007085638.htm

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220308190532.htm

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All those studies assume a masking regime that was impossible of enforcement: “well-fitting M95 masks.” As if. The paper masks worn by most people during the pandemic were totally ineffective. I myself wore those useless masks and contracted COVID anyway.

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Suntrader - Not disagreeing with your point, but some people do what you suggest - define a term ("Marxist" is a great one, suggesting both Communist and Jewish - a two-fer) and then accuse someone of being one. This is especially egregious when people are posting back-and-forth barbs in a comments column like this one, as the accuser generally has only limited information on the other.

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Best monument to "celebrate" "freedom" I know of: (but will it be any help next time ?)

https://www.nationalcovidmemorialwall.org/

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author

Hear, hear.

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8 hrs agoLiked by Claire Berlinski

🙃the best about polio were those summer school holydays in 🇩🇪 when they closed all public swimming pools and all newspapers frontpaged huge fotos of people in iron lungs.

I was 8 to max 11 during those summers when all those caring adults did their very best to max scare us all, adults & kids, into max sensible behaviour.

Very unlike Covid when all "they" seemed to care about was to protect people from panic thereby open barn doors for all kinds of nutty stories that harmed 🧡RKI🧡 our no 1 authority.

(which has lost lots of its indepence in the aftermath and been "liberated" from its possibilities to loudmouth scientifically sound but politically incomvenient facts. - "it" is everywhere💧)

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