Before Crackpot RFKism There Was Crackpot Lysenkoism
By Gabriel Schoenfeld, The Bulwark, January 3, 2025
The following is an excerpt. The full article is available in The Bulwark.
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RATHER THAN OPPOSE DONALD TRUMP’S dangerous nominee for secretary of health and human services, some liberal commentators have suggested that the critics of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should find ways to accommodate him.
At a moment when we should be thinking of this nomination in terms of the potential risk to human lives, all this muddled analysis about science and politics calls to mind a grim episode from the last century that is a cautionary tale for today: the career of the Soviet biologist Trofim Lysenko.
Born in 1898, Lysenko had accomplishments of great consequence to his name. Most of these occurred in the field of agronomy, where he advanced a revolutionary set of ideas—now known as Lysenkoism. His main contentions were that genes did not exist, that acquired traits could be inherited, and that heredity itself could be altered by “educating” plants.
One such form of education was called “vernalization”—the notion that crop yields would dramatically increase if seeds that usually died in harsh frosts were exposed to lower temperatures before sowing. “Insights” like that, derived ultimately from Marxist ideology instead of legitimate empirical research, were put into practice on a large scale, first in the USSR and then in Communist China. Widespread crop failures followed, and then famines in which millions perished.
This history of massive state-sponsored scientific fraud is pertinent to Trump’s attempt to install Kennedy to the highest-ranking healthcare position in the U.S. government. The secretary of health and human services has oversight of everything from food safety to medical research to private health insurance to epidemiology to Medicare and Medicaid and much, much more.
Like Lysenko, RFK Jr. has departed from science even as he claims its mantle. He is a proponent of consuming raw milk despite the proven safety benefits of pasteurization (just last month raw milk in California was found to contain bird flu). He opposes the fluoridation of water despite the proven benefits to dental health. But it is for his opposition to vaccines—and his lies about them—that he is most notorious and most dangerous.
To be sure, in lobbying for his confirmation Kennedy has said that “We’re not going to take vaccines away from anybody.” He also says he aims to improve the science of vaccine safety and wants nothing more than to provide “good information” so people “can make informed choices.”
But in light of some of his other pronouncements, this is all disingenuous. One piece of his “good information”—repeated in a 2023 interview with Fox News—is that vaccines cause autism. This theory was first popularized by the British doctor Andrew Wakefield in the Lancet in 1998. But Wakefield was discredited and his Lancet paper was retracted because it was fraudulent. Despite numerous studies that have since found no link between vaccines and autism, Kennedy has persisted in trumpeting his view, and gone even further to claim that “no vaccine is safe and effective.”
A person with no medical or scientific training, RFK Jr. is evidently unaware that vaccines are one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments. Smallpox, the deadliest disease in human history, has been wiped from the face of the earth. Polio, a scourge that terrified generations of Americans and struck down an American president, has been largely consigned to the dustbin of history, at least in the developed world. Rabies, an invariably fatal disease, is preventable by vaccination (does RFK Jr. want to stop vaccinating Fido as well?).
UNFORTUNATELY, RFK JR. IS NOT THE ONLY Lysenko-like figure nominated to serve in the incoming administration. Trump has also tapped MAGA loyalist Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Oz has a long record as a grifter pushing pseudoscience for bucks. Among his claims lacking any scientific backing are that selenium supplements are “the holy grail of cancer prevention”; that raspberry ketones are “the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat”; that umckaloabo root extract is “incredibly effective at relieving cold symptoms,” and that hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for COVID-19. All of this is quackery.
Trump has said he has appointed Kennedy to “go wild” on U.S. health. The phrase is well chosen. When it comes to medical care and medical science in the unfolding second Trump administration, we’re entering a wild time and a dark age.
More than 15,000 doctors sign letter urging Senate to reject RFK Jr. as health secretary
By Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News, January 9, 2025
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More than 15,000 doctors have signed a letter urging senators to vote against confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services. The letter was posted online by the Committee to Protect Health Care, a physicians advocacy group.
Letter to United States Senate
From Rob Davidson, MD, MPH, Executive Director. Committee to Protect Health Care
Link | PDF
The Issue with Democrats and the Media with Jen Rubin
Washington Post opinion columnist Jen Rubin joins Marc Elias to discuss how media companies are capitulating to President-elect Trump, what it actually means to "find common ground" and what they're doing to prepare for a second Trump presidency.
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Rachel Maddow on Dr. Mehmet Oz: Five things about Trump's pick to lead Medicare & Medicaid Services
Rachel takes a closer look at Trump's choice for administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who brings the endorsement of "magic" pills to what has been called "the most challenging technical, policy and political job in government," and questionable business ties to a job that oversees over a trillion dollars a year.
MSNBC Link | YouTube Link
Rachel Maddow on Tulsi Gabbard: Six things about Trump's pick for director of national intelligence
In this episode, Rachel takes a closer look at Trump's choice for director of national intelligence, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who has a deep history of anti-gay activism and a disturbing amount of support from Russian state media.
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The Democrats can't keep doing it like they've always done it. Those days are over.
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Fangirl
Tulsi Gabbard’s career is marked by her praise for brutal dictators. That’s why Trump the wannabe dictator nominated her, and it’s why our enemies really hope she’s confirmed.
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December 17, 2024
Donald Trump Tamed the Media. Some Even Paid for the Privilege.
The legacy media is not just tamed. Some of its most prominent participants act like obedient puppies. They are at heel and have dutifully learned to come when called. Several of the billionaire owners have even paid for the privilege — cutting seven figure checks to fête Trump at his inauguration. All the time wagging their tails.
Read the full article at Democracy Docket.
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December 13, 2024
Rep. Dan Goldman on Jan. 6 Pardons, Trump’s Nominees and Project 2025
New York Congressman Dan Goldman joins Marc Elias to discuss how Trump’s proposed January 6 pardons would harm our justice system, political nominees, the implementation of Project 2025 and more.
Democracy Docket: Link
Rachel Maddow on Kristi Noem: Five things to know about Trump's pick for homeland security secretary
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MSNBC Link | YouTube Link
Rachel Maddow on Matt Whitaker: Six things to know about Trump's pick to be NATO ambassador
Rachel Maddow presents a closer look at Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, from his dubious business dealings to his dearth of relevant experience. MSNBC Link | YouTube Link
Building the Opposition
By Marc Elias, Democracy Docket, December 5, 2025
The following is an excerpt. The complete text is available online at Democracy Docket.
Link
Hoping that Trump fails is not a plan. We must develop and foster new movements, structures, tactics, platforms and leaders to oppose Trump and articulate a positive vision.
In most democratic political systems, this is referred to as the opposition. Rather than a resistance, the concept of an opposition is more comprehensive and durable. It recognizes that there are no time limits to the effort.
First, we must prioritize effective electoral campaigns that maximize the chances of electing Democrats and defeating Republicans. Ideological fights must yield in service of winning. We must recruit and fund candidates who can win their state or districts.
Second, we must be a big tent full of diversity of new policy ideas and approaches to governing. Political movement must be about big ideas. New Deal liberalism was a big idea. So was the Great Society, neo-liberalism and populism.
Third, we need new and existing institutions to bolster the opposition, not work against it. The only litmus test for groups is whether they help the opposition effort. Building and funding pro-democracy opposition groups needs to be a critical priority for years to come.
Fourth, we must cultivate and amplify new communication methods and messengers. We need to identify and promote our best messengers and pair them with the most influential platforms, period. This means ending our reliance on credential-based legacy media. These high prestige outlets command very small audiences and that audience is shrinking. They speak to almost no persuadable audience. The goal should be to reach voters, period.
Finally, we must be comfortable using every legal tool available to challenge Trumpism in court. One of the most important lessons from the last eight years is that the courts matter. Litigation is one of the most important tools to protect democracy and we must use every tool we have.
Meet the Republicans Voting Against Trump with Sarah Longwell
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