Amy Reichert & RFK Jr Take the COVID Denial Route to Politics
Political Opportunists on a Road to Nowhere
County Supervisor candidate Amy Reichert is unhappy about being called “a right-wing, science-denying extremist” who spreads “delusional conspiracy theories,” which is how she was described in an August email from opponent City Councilmember Monica Montgomery-Steppe.
The two candidates had a back and forth on the allegation at the recent Voice of San Diego Politifest event, with Reichert demanding an apology and Montgomery-Steppe noting that her opponent’s associations with public figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson justified the accusations.
Reichert's climb to candidacy started back during the COVID lockdown as the “responsible leader” amid a pack of people who manifested their opposition to mandates by disrupting meetings of the County Board of Supervisors.
Her speech in which she supposedly quoted the CEO of the Big Corporation she works for telling Supervisor Nathan Fletcher to “go pound sand,” responding to the suggestion that private employers require vaccinations for employees (or get tested weekly) got a prime slot on KUSI, along with national coverage.
Eventually, the Supervisors had enough of name calling, racist language, and being shouted down.
From NBC 7 in November, 2021:
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 1 Wednesday in favor of changing procedural rules for public meetings in an effort to curtail hate speech and inappropriate conduct during county meetings.
The vote followed months of vitriolic comments from members of the public that came to a head last week when a speaker wished death on two supervisors and death by suicide on another, and directed a racial slur at Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county's public health director, who is Black.
I’m sure Reichert would say she had no part of the threats aimed personally at either elected officials and local health authorities. She says she opposes mandates, not vaccines. And I believe her...
I also believe the Journal of the American Medical Association when it concludes:
“Approximately one-third of the more than 11,000,000 confirmed COVID-19–related deaths as of January 18, 2023, were considered preventable if public health recommendations had been followed.”
Just like I believe a certain former president doesn’t personally compose or deliver anonymous threats against anyone who crosses his path.
It’s no coincidence, however, that relatively small cadres of people nationwide disrupted public meetings with elected officials with overwrought claims about freedom. The far right realized that skepticism about public health measures enabled recruitment across the usual political divides and utilized their outreach to amplify people’s fears. Making people afraid necessitates “otherizing” the purported sources of those fears and characterizing them as inhuman oppressors.
Reichert hasn’t made COVID the center of her campaign, but her rise to fame as a critic of former Supervisor Nathan Fletcher is central to her biography on the campaign website. Her interpretation of the public health measures in response to COVID includes a denunciation of the failures of career politicians exacerbating the effects of the pandemic.
By the way, anytime you see “career politicians” in a candidate statement, you should look further to see if that wannabe office holder promises a limit on their own career path. And when you see “failure” as a descriptive adjective for a person or persons, you should realize that word is drawn from the arsenal of Dear Leader.
When it comes to political promises, the weak sauce that Reichert proposes is based on half-truths and shows a fundamental lack of understanding of what is doable for the office she’s seeking. Example: amid her claims about violent crime rising (it’s falling) she’s promising to beef up the San Diego Sheriff’s office - the problem here is that the SDSO’s responsibilities don’t include the vast majority of District 4.
Candidate Amy Reichert has been packaged by her Republican handlers as having a “reasonable” persona because voters haven’t been buying into their party’s core messages.
Her unity with El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells and other local GOPers on denying $3 million of County assistance to groups processing and caring for the latest migrant surge is a prime example of what she really is selling.
They’re bellyaching about thousands of people passing through San Diego as a federal problem, which it could be if MAGA congresscritters could pass a bill with funding for FEMA. Appropriation bills originate in the House, currently occupied with a circular firing squad prompted by who is willing to best serve the Dear Leader.
No thought was given to what would happen if the County had decided against funding: most of the incoming migrant population is being transported via non-profits outside San Diego to localities where they have relatives willing to sponsor them.
And so it goes; the anti-vaxxers in all their manifestations are really just a tool for far right organizing and ideology.
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Speaking of the far-right, let’s talk about the now-independent Robert F Kennedy Jr campaign for president.
If you think you know what he stands for, take a look at his actions. RFK Jr claims to have never said he’s anti-vaccine, yet his core supporters are drawn from science-denying groups. Don’t take my word for it; here’s the Associated Press:
The contradictions between what Kennedy says and his track record were nowhere more apparent than when he testified before a congressional committee in July at the invitation of Republican members.
Anti-vaccine activists, some who work for Kennedy’s nonprofit group Children’s Health Defense, sat in the rows behind him, watching as he insisted “I have never been anti-vaxx. I have never told the public to avoid vaccination.”
But that’s not true. Again and again, Kennedy has made his opposition to vaccines clear. In July, Kennedy said in a podcast interview that “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” and told FOX News that he still believes in the long-ago debunked idea that vaccines can cause autism. In a 2021 podcast he urged people to “resist” CDC guidelines on when kids should get vaccines.
“I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, better not get them vaccinated,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy’s initial campaign foray into Democratic primaries was supported by an assortment of far-right activists and PACs associated with their causes, including Heal The Divide PAC, a group involved with the campaigns of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and former Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker.
Kennedy denied knowledge of the Heal the Divide PAC at the congressional hearing, but the Associated Press cited a video of him as a guest speaker at a Heal the Divide event. Featured on the video were a “Heal the Divide 2024” logo along with clips of him speaking about plans to back the U.S. dollar with bitcoin and precious metals.
Rightist nutters like Steve Bannon and Alex Jones had nice things to say about Kennedy, along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Here’s the first two paragraphs from a New York Times fact check:
He has promoted a conspiracy theory that coronavirus vaccines were developed to control people via microchips. He has endorsed the false notion that antidepressants are linked to school shootings. And he has pushed the decades-old theory that the C.I.A. killed his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer, is a leading vaccine skeptic and purveyor of conspiracy theories who has leaned heavily on misinformation as he mounts his long-shot 2024 campaign for the Democratic nomination.
RFK Jr never gained much traction with Democratic activists, although some polls showed 20% support, and so he dropped out of the primary contests and now says he’s Independent.
Republicans were angry about his reframing the campaign, giving credence to the widely held (I agree) assumption RFK Jr was going to split off enough Democratic voters to assure a Donald Trump victory.
From ABC News:
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel quickly released a statement billing the 2024 hopeful as a "Democrat in Independent's clothing" and a "typical elitist liberal."
"Voters won't be fooled," she said.
In tandem with the committee's response, the GOP's national research team, which focuses on highlighting potentially negative information about rival politicians, released its own dossier on Kennedy pointing to dozens of his prior statements and policy positions of his, such as his opposition to fracking and his desire for the country to wean off plastics.
Wherever Kennedy ends up politically, his ascendence into national politics was bolstered by feeding the fears of people confronting a pandemic along with an anti-establishment cause willing to embrace science denialism.
If he were to be elected, RFK Jr would have to navigate an entrenched bureaucracy and assume some sort of political leadership in a world where power is distributed via political parties.
In a utopian sense, that might seem ideal. In a practical sense –since no organization to convey power accompanies his victory– nihilism based authoritarians would have the most to gain.
RFK Jr is not a capable candidate for office. Neither is Amy Reichert.
Full disclosure: I have endorsed Monica Montgomery-Steppe for D4 Supervisor.
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Totally Vaccinated News Clips
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An Invasion of Gaza Would Be a Disaster for Israel Via Mark Lynch at Foreign Affairs
Those urging Israel to invade Gaza with maximalist goals are pushing their ally into a strategic and political catastrophe. The potential costs are extraordinarily high, whether counted in Israeli and Palestinian deaths, the likelihood of a protracted quagmire, or mass displacement of Palestinians. The risk of the conflict spreading is also alarmingly large, particularly in the West Bank and Lebanon but potentially far wider. And the potential gains—beyond satisfying demands for revenge—are remarkably low. Not since the American invasion of Iraq has there been such clarity in advance about the fiasco to come.
Nor have the moral issues been so clear. There is no question that Hamas committed grave war crimes in its brutal attacks on Israeli citizens, and it should be held accountable. But there is also no question that the collective punishment of Gaza, through blockades and bombing and the forced displacement of its population, represents grave war crimes. Here, too, there should be accountability—or, better yet, respect for international law.
Although these rules may not trouble Israeli leaders, they pose a significant strategic challenge to the United States in terms of its other highest priorities. It is difficult to reconcile the United States’ promotion of international norms and the laws of war in defense of Ukraine from Russia’s brutal invasion with its cavalier disregard for the same norms in Gaza. The states and peoples of the global South far beyond the Middle East will notice.
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Scholastic's "bigot button" Via Judd Legum at Popular Information:
But this year, facing pressure from right-wing ideologues, Scholastic is facilitating the exclusion of books that feature people of color and/or LGBTQ characters. Scholastic has grouped many of these titles in a collection called "Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice." School officials are then given the option to exclude the entire set of books from the book fair. Scholastic has, in the words of one librarian, given schools a "bigot button" to exclude these books and mollify intolerant pressure groups.
Scholastic declined to provide a list of the titles included in the "Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice" collection. But Popular Information was able to identify many of the titles through photographs of the collection, including those shared by activist Kelly Jensen and others posted publicly by librarians.
Among the books Scholastic is giving schools the opportunity to exclude is Justice Ketanji, a short biography of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. According to Scholastic, the book tells the story of how "Ketanji refused to let naysayers stop her from rising to the top, whether it was participating in her high school debate team, applying to her dream college, or excelling at Harvard."
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FBI director warns of increase in domestic threats related to Middle East conflict Via Politico:
FBI director Christopher Wray on Saturday said reported domestic threats have surged as conflict in Israel escalates.
Wray acknowledged the increase in threats due to the “heightened environment,” calling for increased vigilance and requesting that police continue to share intelligence and observations.
“History has been witness to antisemitic and other forms of violent extremism for far too long. Whether that be from foreign terrorist organizations, or those inspired by them, or domestic violent extremists motivated by their own racial animus, the targeting of a community because of their faith is completely unacceptable,” Wray said in his prepared remarks at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in San Diego.
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