DO THE BRAINWORM 🪱
RFK Jr. wants Americans to trust his controversial instincts, rather than the experts. One actual expert who worked for him is calling bullshit.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes a dim view of those with conventional medical expertise. They’re all corrupted by large corporations bent on making Americans sick, he claims, and the real solutions are *check notes* limiting vaccines, chugging whole milk, and flipping the food pyramid upside down.
“Trusting the experts is not a feature of democracy, and it’s not a feature of science. It’s a feature of religion and totalitarianism, not of democracy,” Kennedy declared during an appearance this week at the Heritage Foundation, the far-right think tank home to Project 2025.
It’s a line that Kennedy often repeats, as his own health officials warn about an uptick in measles cases. “Take the vaccine, please,” Dr. Oz, one of Kennedy’s top aides, said this week. This comes after Trump-appointed geniuses over at the Department of Health and Human Services spread misinformation about the disease’s spread.
Where are the real experts? Former CDC vaccine chief Dr. Demetre Daskalakis resigned last year after Kennedy stonewalled his team from providing informed guidance on vaccine policy. Daskalakis, a prominent LGBTQ health activist and the former deputy coordinator of the White House mpox response, predicts disaster if Kennedy remains in his post — and described Doktor Brainwürm’s rule as being entirely based on “vibes.”
I thought I’d ask an actual expert the country’s most pressing health questions. Here’s my conversation with Daskalakis, edited for clarity and brevity.
Matt Berg: What are your thoughts on RFK Jr.’s disdain for experts?
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis: In my infectious diseases space, almost everything that he’s implemented has been generated based on vibes.
Expertise is something that he doesn’t value because he doesn’t have it, and he surrounds himself with grifters and people who are going to profit off of some of the changes that he has made. Experts are their kryptonite, and that’s why you see them attacking organizations that are working so hard to maintain the health of Americans.
MB: What do you make of Dr. Oz urging Americans to get the measles vaccine?
DD: I’m not going to say anything bad about someone who actually is supporting common sense. But the bottom line is: You can’t pick and choose your experts. People are either experts or they’re not.
The things that [RFK Jr.] is changing… there’s just so much conflict of interest embedded in what he does. Of course he doesn’t like an expert, because an expert is the thing that debunks the stuff that he says, like keto diets are curing schizophrenia. What are you talking about?
MB: Is RFK Jr. correct that AI chatbots are better than doctors? [Ed.’s note: See NYT and BBC for more background.]
DD: Artificial intelligence is a very important tool, and I think that we’re just learning how to use it best in medicine. The notion that expertise can be replaced by algorithms is very aligned to RFK vision, because you can influence an algorithm to give you whatever answer you want.
There’s knowledge, and then there’s the experience of talking to a human. I understand AI can be pretty close to an emotional connection, but I would guess that most people in America would prefer to get their medical advice from a sentient, living being that has blood flowing through their veins.
MB: Are you still in touch with people in HHS? How are they doing?
DD: Yeah, they’re not doing well. When they see misinformation coming out that’s under their moniker, it hurts them. You have these people who are frankly yahoos, saying whatever they want or using talking points that serve a base rather than actually serve the people.
MB: What’s it like advising, or trying to advise, Kennedy?
DD: I wouldn’t know. Despite many offers to brief him on things, I was never taken up on it, and neither were any of my staff. You can’t advise someone who doesn’t want advice. You have people retrofitting data and retrofitting material to try to achieve their end, which they’ve already decided. The guy is unbriefable as far as I can detect, because he already knows what he thinks he knows.
MB: Do you have any expectations for the next three years?
DD: I think that we’re in for a ride. In the absence of really good oversight, or someone who tries to dislodge this very dangerous person, I think that we’re going to have consistent, consistent bad decisions being made.
If we keep going down the path of destruction on vaccines, eventually our rates are going to go low enough where we’re going to have a bunch of measles, and then kids are going to die. Is it going to happen in a year? Maybe, probably not. Is it going to happen in 10 years if we don’t change the course? Probably.
THE PAM SLAM
Another legal swing from Team MAGA — and another legal miss.
Donald Trump’s prosecutors tried to charge a half-dozen prominent Democratic members of Congress with crimes. But they were stopped by average citizens, who had been called to approve the charges as part of the grand jury process and instead dismissed them as meritless.
This latest failed attempt fits a trend. Trump keeps trying to use his Department of Justice as a political weapon, pushing forward flimsy cases against Democrats and other people he dislikes. But these indictments keep falling apart, out of sheer legal incompetence and overzealous sloppiness.
This time, Trump’s handpicked lead prosecutor for Washington D.C., U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, targeted six Democrats over a video they released last fall reminding active-duty military members of their duty to refuse illegal orders, according to the New York Times. Trump publicly fumed over the video last November, accusing the lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH.”
Why did Trump’s crew fail this time? Well, Pirro reportedly tapped a “dance photographer who worked for her decades ago,” with “minimal federal prosecution experience,” to bring this case, according to Bloomberg.
Gee, amazing it didn’t work! I figured a “dance photographer-lawyer” would definitely seal the deal!
Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), one of the six lawmakers, insisted he and the other Dems won’t back down.
“If these fuckers think that they’re going to intimidate us and threaten and bully me into silence, and they’re going to go after political opponents and get us to back down, they have another thing coming,” Crow told CNN.
WHAT ELSE? 👀
The U.S. economy saw almost no employment growth during the first calendar year of Donald Trump’s presidency, according to revised government data. Only 181,000 jobs were added in 2025, down from 1.46 million during the final year of President Joe Biden’s administration. Donald Trump, business genius, strikes again.
The FAA briefly closed airspace around El Paso, Texas today after the U.S. military used anti-drone tech to shoot down what appeared to be a foreign drone, but which turned out to be a party balloon, according to CBS News.
Why did Trump threaten to block the opening of a bridge connecting Michigan and Canada? It turns out that a billionaire, who owns a competing bridge, met with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick the day before, according to the New York Times.
ICE detained a Mississippi grandmother for nearly five months — because she wrote two bad checks worth less than $75 in 2012, the Washington Post reports. She immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland in 1978 and is a green-card holder.
LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️
House Speaker Mike Johnson tried to block lawmakers from being able to cast votes of disapproval on Donald Trump’s tariff policy… and failed miserably. Three Republicans joined with Democrats last night to defeat Johnson’s measure. So, Democrats can force a vote to put MAGA lawmakers on record: Do you support Trump’s unruly tariffs or not?
Violent crime in big cities dropped dramatically last year, according to new data. The good news pokes a major hole in Trump’s rationale for deploying military troops into major hubs like Chicago and D.C., which he falsely claims are overridden by crime.
Rich Ruohonen, 54-year-old personal injury lawyer, is responsible for cooking omelets and steaks for the U.S. curling team, in addition to chauffeuring them and booking their travel and hotels. He also, however, may become the oldest curler in Olympic history, as an alternate for the team. “In other words, he’s a slip-and-fall attorney who would become an Olympian if a curler slips and falls,” the Wall Street Journal writes.
A homeowner in North Dakota found an eight-decade-old newspaper under the floorboards of his new house… which included an image of his late mother. Here’s the weird part: His family had no connection to the house until he bought it in 2017.
MAGA’s backlash to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was so insane that it actually turned late Sen. John McCain’s daughter into a big fan of the Puerto Rican superstar. “Been listening to nothing but Bad Bunny since the Super Bowl. Congrats to all the lunatics who have inadvertently turned me into the biggest Bad Bunny stan on the planet now,” Meghan McCain tweeted. “My favorite song is Titi Me Pregunto & NuevaYol.”
“Trusting the experts is not a feature of democracy, and it’s not a feature of science. It’s a feature of religion and totalitarianism, not of democracy,” Kennedy declared during an appearance this week at the Heritage Foundation, the far-right think tank home to Project 2025.”
Wow, quite the statement; even George Orwell would be green with envy! This is seriously straight out of 1984: Doublespeak!
And the mainstream media treats these statements as just a normal day of journalism in America! Even engaging in bothsidesism in regard to statements as absurd as this.
What a bunch of complicit cowards! IMHO…:)
RFK Jr. is such an idiot.