Extra, Extra
Politcal Science: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a withering barrage of questioning from a Senate committee on his vaccine policy and his record as President Trump’s health secretary, responding at times with clear disdain for the senators, public health data and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which he oversees.” He’s exactly who’s he’s always been. That’s the problem. Here are some depressing highlights from the hearing. And from Susan Monarez: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC and Me.”During my first week as CDC director, a gunman opened fire on our Atlanta headquarters on Aug. 8. Investigators recovered more than 500 shell casings at the scene and more than 180 rounds struck CDC campus buildings … Just as we began to recover, I was confronted with another challenge—pressure to compromise science itself.”
+ Side Gig Jig is Up: It’s 2025, so this wasn’t the only crazy Senate hearing. Trump’s Fed nominee says he’d keep his White House job even if confirmed by the Senate. You only really have to hear a couple of his answers.
+ Pill Kill: The Texas Senate voted Wednesday to pass a bill that would allow private citizens to sue out-of-state providers of abortion pills for $100,000 or more.
+ Whatever Defloats Your Boat: Using the military for law enforcement “represents a shift away from the vision, dating back to the colonial revolt against an overbearing superpower, that U.S. armed forces should defend the country from external threats but not be used to routinely enforce the law.” Trump Is Crossing a Line That Dates Back to the Revolution.
+ Harvard Yard Inches Forward: “Now it is the job of the courts to similarly step up, to act to safeguard academic freedom and freedom of speech as required by the Constitution, and to ensure that important research is not improperly subjected to arbitrary and procedurally infirm grant terminations, even if doing so risks the wrath of a government committed to its agenda no matter the cost.” Judge Rules Trump Administration Illegally Canceled Harvard Funding. (This could be another massive decision left up to SCOTUS, which doesn’t inspire confidence.)
+ Where the Wild Things Star: “I do not have children, nor am I a child, so it is not for me to say how many readers were lifted from their pigmented doldrums by Julianne Moore’s ‘Freckleface Strawberry.’ But it is for me to say that having a child qualifies you to write a children’s book the same way that using a toilet qualifies you to be a plumber.” The New Yorker on the exploding market of celebrity picture books for kids.
+ Don’t Lose Your Sh*t: “The special toilet and the requisite garbage bags of detritus, waste and cigarette butts are so that a foreign intelligence agency, even a friendly one, does not acquire a sample and test it.” When Kim Jong Un visits a foreign country, he leaves without a trace. North Korea wipes traces of Kim Jong Un after Beijing meeting with Putin.
