The Nanny State Is Bad, Actually
Whether the nanny is (D) or (R)
First things first: I’m fine with a United States president picking his own cabinet. Donald Trump won, so he gets to choose the people he wants. It’s not fascism, it’s not unconstitutional, and it’s not going to destroy the country. This is the system we have, and so far the Trump administration has been operating within precedent. (Yes, even with Elon Musk and DOGE.) Fair enough.
And, also, in addition to that: I don’t like RFK Jr., and I won’t pretend I do just so you don’t yell at me.
RFK is still the same guy he was before he suddenly started being nice to Trump. He’s the guy who thinks COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” to attack Caucasians and blacks, while sparing the Jews and Chinese. He’s the guy who bragged about having a worm in his brain. He’s the guy who, just seven months ago, said “Trump was a terrible president.”
Now I’m supposed to pretend none of that happened, just because Trump likes him for the moment? Nah.
And, of course, RFK is the guy who thinks the role of government is to slap your hand at the dinner table. So I’m supposed to pretend nanny-statism is good now.
Yay, let’s embrace lib policies to own the libs!
If you didn’t want Michelle Obama telling you what to eat, why do you want RFK telling you what to eat? If you didn’t want the government telling you which vaccines to put in your body, why do you want the government telling you which food to put in your body?
“But seed oils and high-fructose corn syrup and Red Dye Number Whatever are bad for you!” Okay. So don’t eat that stuff. You can read labels, can’t you? Why do you need the feds to hold your hand?
It’s amazing: At the very same time MAGA is cheering on Trump for reducing the size of government — and buddy, I’m right there with them — they’re begging the government to “clean up the food supply.”
Which is it, friends?
Get mad at me all you want, but at least I’m consistent. I don’t want the government telling me what to do, no matter who’s in charge for the time being.
And I’ll still have the same opinion about RFK after Trump fires him and suddenly it’s okay for you to agree with me.
Sorry not sorry.
Severance Spoilers
Innie Mark is freakin’ fed up with Milchick and I love it.
“Hey, did Miss Huang take notes? I can’t wait to read her article about it in that newspaper you showed me. What was it called again? The Bull$#!+ Gazette?”
Is it just me, or is Adam Scott starting to look like a Mad magazine drawing of Adam Scott?
Like I said last episode: The kidnappers at Lumon mistakenly believe that because the innies don’t know anything, they’ll fall for anything. Lumon hired these people because they’re smart, but that’s also why they’re increasingly hard to control.
Up until last week, the innies suspected Lumon was lying to them. Now they know it for a fact. And Lumon knows they know. Playtime is over.
Oooooh, this is getting so good!
This episode is inevitably a comedown after last week’s masterpiece, but we still get a lot of forward plot movement. Helly is finally back, and she’s pissed that Helena stole her body and made Mark mistrust her. Dylan misses Irv, who left behind some turn-by-turn directions on how to get to that mysterious elevator. Outie Irv and Outie Burt have the weirdest meet-cute ever. Milchick is feeling the heat from his bosses, and now his patiently smiling lies no longer work on his underlings.
And Outie Mark is feeling the effects of reintegration, which apparently is an ongoing process that will probably take the rest of the season to complete. He knows his wife is alive, while Innie Mark knows he’s actually married to “Miss Casey.”
For now, the two halves of Mark’s consciousness are sharing a common goal. Will that change?
We also know that Lumon believes the Macrodata Refinement team’s completion of the Cold Harbor project, whatever the hell it even is, will be the most important event in the history of the world. Which is a scary thought, considering Lumon is an evil cult with an internal mythology that’s crazier than Scientology, Mormonism, and the Church of the Subgenius put together. What the hell are these wackos planning?
Season 2 is halfway over already. I sure hope we don’t need to wait three more years for season 3.
If none of that made a damn bit of sense, you need to start watching this show!
Happy Valentine’s Day to those who celebrate.
Meh. Lets see what RFK jr. does at his job. I don't think anyone wants to substitute liberal health scolds with MAHA ones. I would admit I have no trouble with any of this since he wants to take a wrecking ball to the FDA's rampant corruption and regulatory capture by big pharma interests. If he gets a fraction of what he wants to do done like removing drug commercials from the air waves I would call it a raging success.
The mere fact that RFK, Jr. is not just an outsider but an angry outsider is enough to make me want to give him a chance to bring some Creative Destruction to a very rotten, inbred system.
Your feelings aren't wildly different than mine, but I am unaware of anyone else who might have the capacity to break a lot of Iron Rice Bowls in the Dept.
It's time for pitchforks and torches, not gentle expelling of a few holdover "scientiss."
He needs to go after just about everyone under his purview with hammer and tongs. Maybe at some point the destruction will begin to be more than the value gained. At that point Trump can thank him for his invaluable service and replace him with someone who can build the Dept back to something useful.
(Would wnyone like to bet Trump already has an undated letter of resignation from FRK, Jr.?)
And every policy based on the useless and frequently fake studies of nutrition should be repealed immediately. Of all the research I am familiar with (I taught grad Health Policy for 20 years), the nutrition "science" crap is the worst of the worst. Pretty much always wrong and frequently actively damaging. IMHO