Ryan Zinke

RFK, Jr. – Can you do the hustle?

by Dave

Some things you just can’t make up! I wrote about RFJ, Jr. in 2023:

Robert Kennedy, Jr.

Everything I said then, is even more true. He is intelligent and intense, but somehow his brain got locked into giant conspiracy theories, mixed in with an attack on all vaccines. But, he fell into the deep sink hole of connecting dots that really don’t exist.

He should be with other climate activists, promoting a more green planet and working for our transition to renewable fuels. You won’t see RFK, Jr. at any Earth Day celebrations.

https://www.rescue.org/uk/article/12-climate-activists-inspiring-us-fight-climate-change

He’s busy podcasting deep state conspiracies. Here is an excerpt from his 2020 book. “The deep state is real… The real power behind the curtain is a conglomeration of corporations, coal, oil, chemical, steel, and pharmaceutical – recently joined by telecom, Big Tech/ Big Data.”

Wow. The “Big Everything Conspiracy.” Seem to work for Trump, who wants everyone to believe that the Biden administration can manipulate the FBI and Justice Department, and our entire legal system, including municipal and State district attorneys grand juries and trial juries, to indict him on election interference, illegal possession of classified documents, hush money payments and defamation.

RFK, Jr. can talk all he wants about how government caters to the corporate elites as long as it is confined to the Democrats. He can do the Steve Bannon hustle all he wants. Just keep repeating “Biden-Harris” as the culprits. Never the Republicans.
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Of course, Trump and the Republican Party is and has been in his prior term very supportive of the coal and oil industry. Trump’s cabinet was a gift to the fossil fuels industry. And of course, the cabinet couldn’t care less about carbon emissions, and tried to downplay the effects, like increased forest fires in California.

Trump’s first Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, had been the CEO of Exxon-Mobil for 10 years. Trump’s first Secretary of Energy was Rick Perry, who had been Governor of Texas for 15 years, who supported the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change Accords.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry (per the NY Times)

Energy secretary, Mr. Perry oversaw a sharp increase in the production of fossil fuels, particularly liquefied natural gas, and promoted it with a patriotic fervor — even dubbing the fossil fuel “freedom gas” and likening its export to Europe to the United States efforts to liberate the continent during World War II.

“The United States is again delivering a form of freedom to the European continent,” Mr. Perry told reporters in Brussels in May, according to Euractiv.com. “And rather than in the form of young American soldiers,” Mr. Perry said, “it’s in the form of liquefied natural gas.”

Rick Perry became entangled in the Ukraine scandal, and many feel this was the reason for his early departure from the Trump administration.

Ryan Zinke, Trump’s Secretary of Interior, is usually a champion of protected our national parks. Zinke went just opposite way, and wanted to shrink the size of some of the mid-western parks. Per Wikipedia,

In August 2018, Zinke said that “environmental terrorist groups” were to blame for the wildfires in California, and that they had “nothing to do with climate change”. Fire scientists and forestry experts rejected that claim, attributing the increasingly destructive wildfires to heat and drought caused by climate change.[134] Later that month, Zinke walked back some of his earlier remarks, acknowledging that climate change played a part in the fires.[135] He also said that preventing removal of dead trees has increased the amount of flammable material and hurt timber salvaging.[136]

Worse of all, came from the Environmental Protection Agency, under the leadership (attack dog) of Scott Pruitt, who was able to rolled back as many of the environmental programs as possible, including regulations designed to keep pesticides out of our drinking waters, in the name of cutting bureaucratic red tape and saving taxpayer money. The Biden administration restored many of these programs.

See NY Times article: The Trump Administration Rolled Back More Than 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List.

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RFK Jr. had his chance to work with climate change activists years ago. He latched onto the anti-vaxxers and their misinformation campaign, through the Children’s Health Defense organization.

Wikipedia states: Children’s Health Defense (CHD) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit activist group mainly known for anti-vaccine disinformation, and which has been called one of the main sources of misinformation on vaccines.

Children’s Health Defense

CHD is on track to sue more media organizations than Trump including Facebook, BBC, AP and Reuters for censorship of their views. Like Trump’s lawsuits, when they lose the case, they appeal the decision.

It is all part of the political hustle. I really feel badly for parents who bought into all RFK Jr. rhetoric and have not vaccinated their children. Right now, the parents in the embattled Gaza strip are begging for polio vaccines for their children. The polio virus is a monster, but the vaccine works.

Part of Harris’ campaign is “We are not going back!” She’s right.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Bluster, brag and diplomacy

by Dave

“In the world of diplomacy, some things are better left unsaid.”, Lincoln Chafee

I was glad there was a summit between North Korea’s President Kim Jung-un and Donald Trump.   They signed an agreement to work towards “denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula.  That’s a positive step forward.   North Korea released 3 American prisoners prior to the summit.  More good news.

Donald Trump went to Grand Falls, Montana fora “Make American Great Again” rally.  Notably absent from Trump’s entourage was Ryan Zinke,  Secretary of the Interior, who served in Congress representing Montana.  Known as Scott Pruitt’s evil twin,  he immediately cosied up to the fossil fuel industry.   Like Pruitt, he is under investigation by the Office of Inspector General for his spending. See link below.

Trump was right on message,  slammed the media in general as being dishonest and fake. (note, last I looked, Trump statements were rated “true” about 5% of the time according to Politico).   He endorse US senator candidate Matt Rosendale,  and bashed his opponent, current Senator Jon Tester.  Tester had discovered that the President’s nominee for the VA Secretary Ronnie Jackson,  was known as the “candy man” for over prescribing medications and there was evidence that Jackson was drinking on the job.   Hearings were postponed and then cancelled as Trump withdrew the nomination.

No mention of Scott Pruitt, who had just moments before, was forced  to resign amid a slew of scandals.  It would explain why Ryan Zinke,  Secretary of Interior,  wasn’t there.

Since Mike Pompeo was in North Korea,  it was time for Trump to start bragging at he got the prisoners free without spending 1.8 billion dollars like Obama had done, and the peace treaty with North Korea.  All bluster and brag – and on top of it untrue.

This  was an old Republican allegation – and a false claim right  from the get-go.  A payment of 400 million dollars was made to Iran.  It wasn’t ransom, but Iran’s money which we had frozen, after the overthrow of the Shah of Iran. in 1979.   Iran’s claim was valid, and they were chasing after the US in World Court.   They wanted 10 billion from the US.  We couldn’t really keep holding on to their money. What we did, was make the payment only after Iran had released American prisoners.   There was no bargaining for prisoners, but the timing looked bad. See links below.

Then Trump launched into how the North Korea problem was a slam dunk because he was the man in charge.   It was this very old, muy macho stunt, with the US Space Force, which I guess is supposed to intimidate people around the globe  every time they look up at the sky.

Trump:  “But we signed a wonderful paper saying they’re going to denuclearize their whole thing. It’s going to all happen.”

Per CNN – see link below:  This statement was made yesterday, in a 2020 campaign rally.   Crowds loved it. Trump’s assertion that North Korea has agreed to denuclearize and that “it’s going to all happen” is a massive overstatement of the facts. What Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed in Singapore last month was a sort of outline of an agreement. There was nothing binding in it. And this week we got word that satellites have picked up what looks to be more construction at a ballistic missile site in North Korea. So yeah, this version of the North Korea story via Trump misses some major points.

Then came Mike Pompeo claim that the meetings were “productive.”   The reason why Kim Jong Un signed the agreement with Trump was  because he considers South Korea to be a nuclear power, due to the US bases in South Korea, and that we have nuclear weapons ready to defend South Korea.  Of course, we’re not going to trade our bases for nuclear disarmament in the North.  But of course,  to make the summit look like a success for both leaders, the word “denuclearization”  was left undefined.

North Korea had had enough.   This meeting was not productive.  North Korea charged that the US was pushing a “unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization”  and called Pompeo’s remarks, “deeply regrettable.”

Politics is one thing,  diplomacy another.   His bragging about how great a negotiator is, may in the end, cause the talks to fail.

 But, if there is one take away from the Grand Falls, Montana rally,  it is that Donald Trump is trying to set some kind of Guinness book of records, for the most lies in less than an hour.  And his only competition is himself.

Stay tuned,
Dave

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-bribed-iran-400-million-to-release-u-s-prisoners/

http://time.com/4441046/400-million-iran-hostage-history/