Given the track record of Trump's cabinet picks, it seems fitting that the Secretary of Health and Human Services would follow the same trend of 'unique' qualifications. Consistency is key, right?
Compared to the calibre of people the previous regime put in place the current crop actually looks quite a bit more competent. It is also refreshing to see most of them being being picked not because of their skin colour, sex or sexual orientation but because they are deemed to be competent. You may not agree with their ideas - elections have consequences after all - but they have for the most laid out specific plans on what they intend to achieve. The 'MAHA' idea seems like a good idea, don't you agree? If you do not agree I'd like to hear why without any references to either Trump or Kennedy - just why it is not a good idea to improve the American diet.
And conservatives famously skewered Michelle Obama for promoting good exercise and good diet from an early age onwards. They think I have a short attention span.
I don’t recall this happening, do you have an example?
Edit: All the criticisms I can find online seem to point towards creating a top caloric standard with no change as kids age (and that seems to be pretty valid criticism to me). Also that she established low fat options which increased sugar intake (perhaps wasn’t as dubious then, but definitely seems to be more valid criticism now)
The current "regime" is so obsessed with anti-DEI that they managed to create a government consisting of the most unqualified group of humans since Nero.
I could not be more embarrassed for humanity, and my country.
If anyone would like an escape, please watch the amazing, and incredibly ignored show Pantheon.[0] The main topic covered is uploaded human intelligence. The script tech advisors, animation, and voice actors are excellent. Check it out. Much better than dealing with this folly.
You can not be pro DEI and still find competent people. Just by the numbers, it’s possible.
To be “most unqualified” you can select from DEI or not, as any group will have horribly qualified people.
There are many in the medical field that aren’t DEI that care deeply about, and are knowledgeable about the major health issues in this country - vaccines, obesity, malnutrition, mental health, fertility, cancer, food supply (and its poor quality), environmental, activity, elder care, dementia, early childhood health care, just to name a few.
I am unaware of his qualifications to lead such an org, but at that level, he’s mostly a political talking head anyway. Still, I agree it’s quite bad. We’ll know in a few years the outcome.
All that said, “could not be more embarrassed for humanity and my country” - really? You think this is worse than the Great Depression when security forces were paid to guard piles of rotting fruit so the starving couldn’t eat them? The rise of the KKK? The horrors of the civil war?
Inflationary language might feel good, but its effect is it encourages the forgetting of worse things, increases internal conflict, and makes reconciliation and course correction even harder. So the next time you read how someone is “the worst” or a Nazi, ask yourself if you are truly aiming for the erasure of Nazi crimes and further fracturing of society or simply exaggerating to highlight a point. One person’s exaggeration becomes someone else’s truth.
You are correct, I could have provided a time window for my shame. Obviously, there have been worse events in the United States' history. To qualify it clearly, I have not been this ashamed of my country since the entirely fabricated story of WMD in Iraq, which led to hundreds of thousands of lost lives, all for nothing.
Might I ask, which specific decisions are you talking about? Please provide supporting evidence.
I don't write this flippantly. You may have some excellent points, but in this environment, I would love to read more than just a broad statement. This website is one of the last places where we might expect such a thing.
World Affairs - I suppose you could concede portions of the Ukraine to Russia. Those aren't my politics. Maybe you believe in conquest by violence, though.
Afghanistan withdrawal was Trump's plan. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51692546. I credit Trump with ending this conflicting. It should have been ended a long time before that. But he signed a weak deal in February of 2020 that left a lot political pain for his successor.
There were only 6000 troops left in Afghanistan, actually much less than that, when the date got there. It’s like, hey, let’s leave at the last minute with a skeleton crew and see if that isn’t chaotic. Trump wasn’t an idiot, he knew the position he was handing off to Biden. Biden had two choices, a chaotic withdrawal, or put more troops in for a secure one, but that went against what Trump agreed to with the taliban (so not really a choice). You know who the POS is in this story right?
You don’t withdraw the bulk of an army, leave a token force in place, and expect that to go well. You just don’t do that, and Trump the very stable genius he is, did. And it worked out well politically for him, so I guess it was smart.
Again, Trump left Biden with a token force, there was no way that was going to work out for him, you just can’t drop more troops in when the security situations degrades but you are leaving. And Trump didn’t care about those soldiers deaths, his disdain for the military is well documented, this was a political win for him, it makes sense why he invited the taliban to 9/11 remembrance ceremony. The guy is just the worst kind of life form.
Why leave the base that has more security and airfields just to use the local airfield and rely on terrorists to run security because you pulled the troops out first?
It's not that he was pulling them out. It's HOW he pulled them out.
If it were a Republican you would have criticized that shit show too.
Because you didn’t have the troops to secure it. Isn’t t obvious? You don’t have the troops to secure your own base, and you have to rely on the party Trump made his deal with that was binding to Biden. It was lose lose for Biden and win win for trump.
> The agreement stipulated fighting restrictions for both the US and the Taliban, and provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan in return for the Taliban's counter-terrorism commitments. The US agreed to an initial reduction of its force level from 13,000 to 8,600 within 135 days (i.e. by July 2020), followed by a full withdrawal within 14 months (i.e. by 1 May 2021) if the Taliban kept its commitments. The United States also committed to closing five military bases within 135 days, and expressed its intent to end economic sanctions on the Taliban by August 27, 2020. The agreement was welcomed by Pakistan, China, Russia and India,[4][7][8] and unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council.[9]
> Insurgent attacks against the Afghan security forces, however, surged in the aftermath of the deal, with thousands killed. However, withdrawals per the agreement continued. By January 2021, just 2,500 US troops remained in the country, and NATO forces fully evacuated by the end of that summer. The US completed its full evacuation on August 30, 2021, as the Taliban took control of the country by force.
> Critics of the deal claimed that the then Trump administration appeased the Taliban and ignored the then Afghan government for a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan.[10]
Where to begin? I'll just mention a number of foreign policy failures since, not being an American, those failures of the 'Biden regime' (between quotes because it is highly unlikely that it was actually Biden who called the shots and way more likely for someone like Blinken to have been the ringleader here) are the ones which have caused most problems for non-Americans.
- the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden pulled out troops before getting out civilians, green card holders and allies. Not everyone was evacuated and billions of dollars worth of equipment was left behind for the Taliban to take over
- the way the Biden regime botched the burgeoning Abraham accords by turning their backs to the Saudis while opening up to the Iranians - why? All this achieved was the intensification of smouldering conflicts which begot the world the rise of the Houthi's, the 6th of Octoboer incursion by Hamas and the resulting carnage and more
- the way the Biden regime botched the situation around Ukraine with him hinting at a 'minor incursion' not being taken seriously. With the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal and this weak-kneed response from the USA Putin deemed the time ripe for invasion
On the domestic side I can mention the 'border crisis' caused by the intentional import of millions of illegal immigrants, the failed energy policies, the mis-named 'inflation reduction act' and similar financial boondoggles which caused rampant inflation, the weaponisation of the justice department and the FBI which has led to trust in the judiciary sinking to a record low level, the similar weaponisation of the IRS, the authoritarian push around the SARS2 unpleasantness with the whole web of lies around both the origin of the antigen as well as the efficacy of the only allowed treatment regimes, the mishandling of the military which has seen record low recruitment levels since the regime has tried to push the military towards 'progressive' political goals, the endless parade of lies around just about any subject which cropped up from the 'laptop from hell' through the 'summer of love', the clear examples of corruption where Biden pardoned his family for their influence peddling, etcetera. There is far more to mention but this is enough for starters.
If you want evidence I'd invite you to do a cursory search on the 'net, you'll find tons of it. Be aware of the political bias of whatever source you refer to but even the most biased sources will be unable to hide the last regime's failures since they are so blatant and visible.
mRNA vaccines. As someone who suffers from permanent heart damage after my first (and only) dose of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine I have some sympathy for this course of action.
I am sympathetic to your struggles, but a small percentage of patients suffering from vaccine-related conditions should not be a reason to ban vaccines for the millions of others benefitting from their effects. (What we should be doing is studying why the vaccines may cause heart damage in rare cases and then finding ways to mitigate that.)
Also some countries are denying landing of removal flights because, from what I hear, the current removals contain people with violent criminal records in nations other than America but may well include non-violent people being thrown out for reasons of paperwork simply to make mandated quotas.
Taking away life saving medication from over 20 million people takes the cake for me. After having visited Auschwitz and Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I'm really having trouble relating to friends and colleagues who are with the administration on this.
This is not to say the other concerns aren't valid.
Agreed. That's pretty craptastic. And the cutting of ongoing AIDS treatment in South Africa and the oxygen bottles in places like Myanmar and Bangladesh. People have already died because their previously stable medical management resources have been cut.
< And the cutting of ongoing AIDS treatment in South Africa
South Africa has largely decided to align itself with countries who act against the US interest and there is also a not insignificant sentiment against American intervention / involvement in other countries ("empire").
This is what withdrawal looks like. Assistance often comes with strings attached.
In my view, the withdrawal by America of intervention and support of liberal democracy around the world would be a detriment all around, but this is apparently what the American voter and many people from other countries prefer. That means in many cases throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak.
> HN flagging, censoring, and condoning what amounts to fascism rather than promoting rule of law, common sense, and freedom of speech
To be fair, HN kind of has to do this. Y Combinator has close ties with the world's richest man; he is even scheduled to speak at AI Startup School. Otherwise, people like dang and others may be subject to retaliation.
They don't HAVE to, but they do choose to allow it. We'll all likely have to make choices in the coming years regarding principles, morality, ethics, empathy vs profit, safety, and security. They've chosen one path, hopefully many others choose the other.
Exactly. It's a choice to de-prioritize ethics by mechanical application of policies rather than choosing the greater good with critical thinking skills and integrity. It becomes foot-gunning in the long term since history won't be kind to the [insert future pejorative label] sympathizers. More broadly, I hope SV cleans up its act and rejects the MAANG megacorp surrender to the current ideological faction because it didn't align to the other side the same way previously when the winds went the other way. (I don't have a horse in this fight but I can see what is happening now is objectively bad. I think we can choose to step back from the red vs. blue team sports nonsense and have objective discussions of what's likely to lead to more failure or more success for a given polity.)
HN moderation has zero to do with "ties" to the world's richest men. Sorry, but this one of the few things I'm in a position to be confident of.
We're just trying to make an internet forum that doesn't suck and doesn't burn itself to a crisp—same as it ever was. I know that's not very hot and exciting, but it's how it is.
Why do you use a new handle to post this? Please use your normal account and accept whatever karma hits or - more likely - gains you expect to get instead of hiding behind the excuse that you do not know your password.
Also, politics is supposed to be off-limits here but I sure noticed a change in tolerance for blatantly political posts after the elections. Maybe Dang can give a reason for why it suddenly is acceptable to criticise the sitting government where such posts where hidden with warnings about 'only using HN for political purposes' during the last regime. Is it simply because those posts got flagged while posts like this one get upvoted? If so it shows where the voting system fails in creating an open environment for wide-ranging discussion on topics of interest since it creates an echo chamber where only certain political ideas are tolerated while the rest is greyed out.
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[ 1.6 ms ] story [ 126 ms ] threadNo one is against improving the USofA diet, it's globally infamous for sugary toxicity.
RFK Jr's idea of a good diet, however, includes parasite ridden roadkill. Then there's all his other weird little fringe beliefs.
Edit: All the criticisms I can find online seem to point towards creating a top caloric standard with no change as kids age (and that seems to be pretty valid criticism to me). Also that she established low fat options which increased sugar intake (perhaps wasn’t as dubious then, but definitely seems to be more valid criticism now)
I could not be more embarrassed for humanity, and my country.
If anyone would like an escape, please watch the amazing, and incredibly ignored show Pantheon.[0] The main topic covered is uploaded human intelligence. The script tech advisors, animation, and voice actors are excellent. Check it out. Much better than dealing with this folly.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon_(TV_series)
You can not be pro DEI and still find competent people. Just by the numbers, it’s possible.
To be “most unqualified” you can select from DEI or not, as any group will have horribly qualified people.
There are many in the medical field that aren’t DEI that care deeply about, and are knowledgeable about the major health issues in this country - vaccines, obesity, malnutrition, mental health, fertility, cancer, food supply (and its poor quality), environmental, activity, elder care, dementia, early childhood health care, just to name a few.
I am unaware of his qualifications to lead such an org, but at that level, he’s mostly a political talking head anyway. Still, I agree it’s quite bad. We’ll know in a few years the outcome.
All that said, “could not be more embarrassed for humanity and my country” - really? You think this is worse than the Great Depression when security forces were paid to guard piles of rotting fruit so the starving couldn’t eat them? The rise of the KKK? The horrors of the civil war?
Inflationary language might feel good, but its effect is it encourages the forgetting of worse things, increases internal conflict, and makes reconciliation and course correction even harder. So the next time you read how someone is “the worst” or a Nazi, ask yourself if you are truly aiming for the erasure of Nazi crimes and further fracturing of society or simply exaggerating to highlight a point. One person’s exaggeration becomes someone else’s truth.
https://pauloffit.substack.com/p/understanding-rfk-jr
I don't write this flippantly. You may have some excellent points, but in this environment, I would love to read more than just a broad statement. This website is one of the last places where we might expect such a thing.
The supporting evidence is the economy and world state of affairs.
Turns out printing a fuck ton of money, handicapping energy and massive amounts of fraud lead to inflation, who woulda guessed.
Not to mention the millions dead while Biden sit back and watched conflicts. All of which can now have peace talks.
Then there's the disastrous Afghanistan withdraw.
Want anything else?
Yes. The Truth.
Economy: US economy out-performed the Europe, Japan, India, ... during Biden's tenure. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?end=2023...
Energy: Production is at historic highs and the US is a net energy exporter. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/
World Affairs - I suppose you could concede portions of the Ukraine to Russia. Those aren't my politics. Maybe you believe in conquest by violence, though.
Afghanistan withdrawal was Trump's plan. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51692546. I credit Trump with ending this conflicting. It should have been ended a long time before that. But he signed a weak deal in February of 2020 that left a lot political pain for his successor.
Yes and Trump safely reduced troops down to 6000 out with no deaths for years.
But then, Biden pulled out of Bagram Airfield Base, leaving billions in weapons for the terrorists.
Then had Al Qaeda run security for the local airfield, so naturally there was a bombing that killed 300 people including 13 marines.
Not to mention the people falling of the airplanes because it was so chaotic and uncontrolled.
It's good to pull out of Afghanistan, Trump was right to do so. But Biden fucked it all up.
You don’t withdraw the bulk of an army, leave a token force in place, and expect that to go well. You just don’t do that, and Trump the very stable genius he is, did. And it worked out well politically for him, so I guess it was smart.
I was off on the numbers though.
So Trump reduced it from 4,500 to 2,500 mid Jan 2021.
Point is, terrible execution on the pull out.
Leave from the base, take the equipment.
Don't trust terrorists to run security.
300 people died because Biden is an idiot.
It's not that he was pulling them out. It's HOW he pulled them out.
If it were a Republican you would have criticized that shit show too.
The final 2500 were pulled out of Bagram by Biden.
THEN the evacuation was done by 500 troops at the local airfield by flying in.
If you knew it would collapse, why not fly everyone out when the 2500 troops were there and the airbase was still functional.
They even acted like they trusted the Afghan government for the 1 week it was still there.
It's not about losing or winning. Biden got 300 people killed.
> The agreement stipulated fighting restrictions for both the US and the Taliban, and provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan in return for the Taliban's counter-terrorism commitments. The US agreed to an initial reduction of its force level from 13,000 to 8,600 within 135 days (i.e. by July 2020), followed by a full withdrawal within 14 months (i.e. by 1 May 2021) if the Taliban kept its commitments. The United States also committed to closing five military bases within 135 days, and expressed its intent to end economic sanctions on the Taliban by August 27, 2020. The agreement was welcomed by Pakistan, China, Russia and India,[4][7][8] and unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council.[9]
> Insurgent attacks against the Afghan security forces, however, surged in the aftermath of the deal, with thousands killed. However, withdrawals per the agreement continued. By January 2021, just 2,500 US troops remained in the country, and NATO forces fully evacuated by the end of that summer. The US completed its full evacuation on August 30, 2021, as the Taliban took control of the country by force.
> Critics of the deal claimed that the then Trump administration appeased the Taliban and ignored the then Afghan government for a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan.[10]
How is how Biden executed the final withdraw Trump's fault?
- the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden pulled out troops before getting out civilians, green card holders and allies. Not everyone was evacuated and billions of dollars worth of equipment was left behind for the Taliban to take over
- the way the Biden regime botched the burgeoning Abraham accords by turning their backs to the Saudis while opening up to the Iranians - why? All this achieved was the intensification of smouldering conflicts which begot the world the rise of the Houthi's, the 6th of Octoboer incursion by Hamas and the resulting carnage and more
- the way the Biden regime botched the situation around Ukraine with him hinting at a 'minor incursion' not being taken seriously. With the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal and this weak-kneed response from the USA Putin deemed the time ripe for invasion
On the domestic side I can mention the 'border crisis' caused by the intentional import of millions of illegal immigrants, the failed energy policies, the mis-named 'inflation reduction act' and similar financial boondoggles which caused rampant inflation, the weaponisation of the justice department and the FBI which has led to trust in the judiciary sinking to a record low level, the similar weaponisation of the IRS, the authoritarian push around the SARS2 unpleasantness with the whole web of lies around both the origin of the antigen as well as the efficacy of the only allowed treatment regimes, the mishandling of the military which has seen record low recruitment levels since the regime has tried to push the military towards 'progressive' political goals, the endless parade of lies around just about any subject which cropped up from the 'laptop from hell' through the 'summer of love', the clear examples of corruption where Biden pardoned his family for their influence peddling, etcetera. There is far more to mention but this is enough for starters.
If you want evidence I'd invite you to do a cursory search on the 'net, you'll find tons of it. Be aware of the political bias of whatever source you refer to but even the most biased sources will be unable to hide the last regime's failures since they are so blatant and visible.
I looked up some of your accusations, and there is no evidence. If you disagree, please provide links.
I used to think that "may you live in interesting times" was a blessing. I no longer believe that. It is clearly a curse.
At this moment in time, it appears that we are cooked as a species.
You didn't address any of his points, at all.
- Closing the Dept. of Education
- An anti-vaxx, anti-flouridation nut for HHS
- A traitorous Putin-lover for DNI
- Head of DOD throwing Ret. Gen. Kellogg's work and Ukraine under the bus
- The world's richest man ransacking government with unvetted persons on a plan to commit maximum chaos and destruction
- HN flagging, censoring, and condoning what amounts to fascism rather than promoting rule of law, common sense, and freedom of speech
When ICE starts detaining people who go up against them online (https://theintercept.com/2025/02/11/ice-immigration-social-m...), it won't just be poor brown folks being memory-holed.
Also some countries are denying landing of removal flights because, from what I hear, the current removals contain people with violent criminal records in nations other than America but may well include non-violent people being thrown out for reasons of paperwork simply to make mandated quotas.
This is not to say the other concerns aren't valid.
South Africa has largely decided to align itself with countries who act against the US interest and there is also a not insignificant sentiment against American intervention / involvement in other countries ("empire").
This is what withdrawal looks like. Assistance often comes with strings attached.
In my view, the withdrawal by America of intervention and support of liberal democracy around the world would be a detriment all around, but this is apparently what the American voter and many people from other countries prefer. That means in many cases throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak.
To be fair, HN kind of has to do this. Y Combinator has close ties with the world's richest man; he is even scheduled to speak at AI Startup School. Otherwise, people like dang and others may be subject to retaliation.
We're just trying to make an internet forum that doesn't suck and doesn't burn itself to a crisp—same as it ever was. I know that's not very hot and exciting, but it's how it is.
Also, politics is supposed to be off-limits here but I sure noticed a change in tolerance for blatantly political posts after the elections. Maybe Dang can give a reason for why it suddenly is acceptable to criticise the sitting government where such posts where hidden with warnings about 'only using HN for political purposes' during the last regime. Is it simply because those posts got flagged while posts like this one get upvoted? If so it shows where the voting system fails in creating an open environment for wide-ranging discussion on topics of interest since it creates an echo chamber where only certain political ideas are tolerated while the rest is greyed out.