The Day in Stupid

Today has been weird, so was yesterday, what with the Klan rally for Charlie Kirk's passing.  Nothing says solemn event better than pyrotechnics on stage.  What was interesting was who didn't speak at Charlie Kirk's event —neither of his parents, no siblings, no old friends, just his wife, Tucker Carlson, and a whole lineup of Trump people he maybe knew getting in their agenda talking points. He really was worth more to MAGA dead than alive.

 

Steven Miller spoke, channeling Joseph Goebbels.  This is part of his uplifting speech. 

“Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello,” Miller continued. “Our ancestors built the cities. They produced the art and architecture. They built the industry,” he said, pulling “us out of the caves and the darkness into the light.

“We built the world that we inhabit now, generation by generation, and we will defend this world,” he later added.

Addressing “the forces of wickedness and evil,” Miller said: “You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness, you are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred. You are nothing. You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing. We are the ones who build. We are the ones who create. We are the ones who lift up humanity.

There is an article here, that has more of his uplifting oratory. 

Today was the White House announcement that Tylenol causes autism.  It doesn't.  The most thorough study was from Sweden that followed two million kids for 25 years.  Guess what does not cause autism.  The funniest part of 47 bloviating was watching him try to pronounce acetaminophen from his prepared text.  You would think someone would have taught him the word prior to putting him on camera. 

So, HHS will alert doctors and pharmacists that pregnant women should not take it during pregnancy.  Tylenol is the only pain reliever pregnant women can take. Interestingly enough, Tylenol was invented in 1956. Autism was identified in 1943.  Pretty hard to make that case.  When the presser reached the stage where 47 goes off the rails, he said people should not take Tylenol, followed by: "Nothing bad can happen. It can only good can happen. With Tylenol — don't take it."  He also said that his working group knows more about autism than the people who have studied it for years.  I hope the lawsuit is epic.

 

CNN article is here. 

Also announced was a cure for autism.  There have been a few tiny trials of Leucovorin, also known as folinic acid. Leucovorin has been studied in small, heterogeneous trials. Some show modest benefit for subgroups with rare folate receptor autoantibodies, but the evidence is not robust enough to generalize. The “first recognized therapeutic” label is an overstatement. No regulatory body has approved Leucovorin as an autism treatment.  It was found to help a specific type of autism, and did improve speech.  However, it's a very small sample size, and is unlikely to help everyone on the spectrum.  Never the less, it's going to be approved for treatment of autism, and Medicaid and Chips will be directed to cover it.  What could go wrong with a nationwide roll out of an untested drug. 

Today at the United Nations, this happened.

 

Poland just dropped a nuclear-level verbal strike on Russia at the UN. Foreign Minister Sikorski didn’t hold back: “We know you don’t give a damn about international law. You can’t live in peace with anyone. Your sick nationalism is just a thirst for domination. But let this burn in your head, the era of empires is OVER. Yours isn’t coming back.” And then he blessed every Ukrainian drone strike. “Every drone that hits you, launched by the heroes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, may God bless them, brings that day closer.” This was a warning shot, and Poland’s not bluffing. NATO’s not bluffing anymore. You escalate, you pay. No more patience. No more illusions. Poland isn’t the country you think it is. This time, we hit back, we did it before many times in history with Russia. 

So here we are, in the time of the giant stupid.  I will leave you with this.