Without question, this was a week-long shitshow. Today marked the end of a marathon run of hearings that are essentially budget meetings. Making this fun is always a challenge, since I am actually not keen on attending budget meetings myself. Granted, when I work through budget details, I am not trying to pin down a duplicitous old sepia-toned piece of fully chewed Juicy Fruit gum who has somehow achieved humanoid animus to a simple yes or know answer about whether he knows basic information about his own taxpayer-funded job.
Unfortunately, this is unlikely to do much in terms of moving policy. As it stands, President Donald J. Trump’s polling results are quicksand and Trump himself is visibly deteriorating. For now, it’s looking like a MAGA bloodbath in November, although a lot can happen between now and then.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Kennedy is “on a tighter leash” for the midterms, but that only appears to mean he should be less visibly anti-vaccine. Or at least he should try. That didn’t go over well with me and Jessica, since “trying” amounted to him saying whatever he likes when asked a question he didn’t want to answer, which is usually a choice between four options of varying degrees of dishonesty:
Talk about something else, usually incoherently
Aggressive gaslighting and blame-passing to the point that it’s more of an adjustable floodlight
Boo hoo, people are being mean to me! I’m pro-science! I am not anti-vax.
Insert fictional content here
Unfortunately, the majority party is not doing anything to hold Kennedy accountable, as they have sworn to do in their oaths of office. Instead they are doing the Congressional budget appropriations equivalent of ball-stroking about “flipping the food pyramid” (as Jess pointed out, it’s an inverted triangle). I failed to finish last week’s MMMWR because it was one of those weeks.
Thank you Jessica Knurick, PhD, RDN, Ryan McCormick, M.D., Julie, Honey Badger, Marg KJ, and many others for tuning into see me and Making Science Make Sense hold what I assume are Kennedy’s leathern werewolf feet to the proverbial fire. As usual, Kennedy walked out unsinged, but that won’t be forever. Like a couple of Terminators, we’ll be back.
BINGO CARD RESULTS IN OUR UPCOMING JOINT POST!
