Sailing Shoes and Influencers

Okay, that’s “sale,” not “sail.” 

According to the encyclopedia Britannica’s site, an influencer is:

A person who exerts influence to guide the actions of others. The term is commonly applied to people who help generate interest in consumer products or experiences by posting about them on social media. Influencers command large followings on social media and are often paid by companies to use and describe their products and services, encouraging their legions of followers to buy them. 

Is this like being one of those game show models – like Carol Merrill, Holly Hallstrom and Janice Pennington standing in front of Fridgidaires, reclining on La-Z-Boys, and looking good next to Chevrolets? Or Vanna White turning over letters. Not exactly skilled labor but it pays the bills, eh. Sounds like influencers are in the same family but they have a patter, a pitch which requires a bit more effort.

Is there a career evolution chart somewhere? How does one get here?

Elementary school – get invited to ALL the best, most posh sleep-over parties. 
High school – become a cheerleader and prom queen. 
College – get into Alpha Phi, become homecoming queen and win beauty pageants. 
Next stop – Game show mannequin! Influencer!

What happens after you’re no longer pretty or young enough to be a mannequin? What if you're not eloquent enough to “influence?”

The most famous of the game show models from my kidhood was Carol Merrill. She spent 14 years showing off appliances for Monty Hall on Let's Make a Deal. From there she went on to be the manager and co-owner of a beachfront restaurant in Malibu before moving to Hawaii, with her third husband. Hawaii sounds nice.

Vanna White, according to Wikipedia, has had a more active entertainment career. It hasn’t been all graceful, gown-clad letter turning for her. She’s no Streep (who is?) but has done a little acting and was occasionally the actual host of Wheel of Fortune.

I dug a little deeper –turns out there’s a little more to being an influencer. While they’re given info to include in their promos, they produce/create pics, vids, blog posts, and social media updates. They’re content creating shills. Marketeers of sorts.

There are, apparently, levels of shill:
Mega-influencers – celebrities who aren’t creating content for you. They just bring the fame.
Macro-influencers – they’re famous but we’re not talking Kardashian or Dwayne Johnson famous. 
Mid-tier influencers – not famous offline but authentic, charismatic, and widely appealing. 
Micro-influencers – they’re popular in niche communities like fitness, parenting, gaming, and suchlike. 
Nano-influencers – they’re used for brands looking for local promotion. e.g., a local coffee shop chain opens up a new shop or offers a new line of fancy caffè e latte and wants to get the word out.

So, what these influencers look like to me are, not so much product mannequins with small speaking roles but, maybe, home shopping network couch sitters. Remember them? The perfectly quaffed and cosmeticized women perched on plaid or otherwise homely beige couches, telling us all about the can’t-live-without-‘em-wonders of the Ninja 4-quart air fryer and how it absolutely changed their lives. How about the bareMinerals Complexion Rescue Stick Foundation with buildable coverage that’s “just a dream for difficult skin?” Or Too Faced’s Better Than Sex Mascara??? And we can’t forget Beekman 1802 Happy Place 2 Goat Dusting & Polishing Mitts?

BUY, BUY, BUY!!!

We’re all buried in a ton of cheap crap that we totally DO NOT need. Shit that does NOT improve the quality of our lives or ease our daily pains. Fuck this shit and fuck these shills who glorify this obscene acquisitive culture. Go outside and look at some trees, the ocean (or river or lake if you have one handy), the sky. Check out some birdies.

Get outside. 

Dancing on the Titanic

Clown Trump called Gavin Newsom “the President of the United States” during a press conference and he did so more than once. He went on to say that people with learning disabilities shouldn’t be elected president. Considering Prez Pedo is severely dyslexic and practically illiterate, this is pretty damned hilarious. 

The bully always comes back to his tired, played out shtick. Projection. Your rabid insecurity is showing, old man. Did you just now realize you’re the laughingstock of the planet and feel the need to hit someone?

He also told reporters that he spoke to a former president who said “I wish I did what you did” about Iran. Sure, you pathetic disgrace to humanity and villains everywhere. Need another pudding cup? Get up and fucking get it yourself, you lazy, used, fluorescent colostomy bag.

All four living former presidents, by the by, have conveyed to the press that this never happened.

• An aide for George W. Bush says that “they haven’t been in touch."

• An aide to Bill Clinton says that whoever Trump was referring to was not Clinton.

• An Obama aide says “no recent conversations” have taken place between Barack Obama and Trump.

• A source familiar with the matter said the former president Trump was referring to was not Joe Biden. (source) 

Prez Pedo made it up just like Vance makes up stories if it’ll sell whatever steaming load of rhino shit he’s pushing.

You’re shocked, I know. Gosh, me too. 🙄

I’ve probably said this before but, here it is again…I believe that he initially does know that he’s fabricating a story, constructing a little con, when he comes up with this bullshit. After he delivers the lies though, he wholly, firmly, utterly believes what he’s said. He’s bought his own line of hokum like some sad, lost rube at prosperity gospel tent revival meeting. 

Is this dementia, barreling down on him like a freight train at top speed, or just his usual flim flam modus operandi? Either way, it seems pretty obvious that VP Many Names ain’t gonna step up and do the right, 25th Amendment thing. Why not? 

Amongst other reasons, Vance is invested in Anduril, a defense contractor profiting from the Iran War. He’s not out there, big and bold, cheerleading Pedo’s war but he’s making bank on it. He wants this war as much as Trump – he's just not proudly ballyhooing his greed.

The Veep with all the charm of an obnoxious, spoiled, bullying, and otherwise socially incompetent, snot-nosed 13-year-old doesn’t think we’ll notice that he’s every bit as on-the-take as his greasy, orange, child raping boss. He's just somewhat quieter about it.

In my less than humble opinion, the best way to end all this crap would be to arrest and imprison Trump, Vance, and the entire cabinet for treason and high crimes. They’re all light years beyond guilty to one degree or another. Pedo may no longer be competent to stand trial but that doesn’t mean he should avoid consequences. Fuck no! There's certainly abundant evidence  to convict and I'm certain more than a few of his fellow crimers would turn on him to save themselves. All his co-conspirators are definitely well enough to go through a long, nasty trial where all their sins against democracy are exposed. 

Is this gonna happen? I'll be ecstatic if it does. I’ll be thrilled if we have Nuremberg type trials (sooner rather than later). I do NOT want a repeat of Ford’s "full, free, and absolute pardon" of Tricky Dick. DUH!

I only mention it but it’s just come out that the retired three-star general and former commander of the French Foreign Legion, Michel Yakovleff, remarked that “Joining Trump’s coalition today is like buying a ticket to dinner and dancing on the Titanic the evening after it hit the iceberg." 

Yes, yezzzzz, rather. Well said.

Distractovision

Jen, Oni, Kevin, and I are on the last season of Mrs. Maisel and, I’m tellin’ you, I’m dreading the end.

I decided to do some advance research. What shows are out there that would appeal to the four of us? They don’t need to be full blown comedies but a healthy dose of wit is important. The shows must take us away from current traumas. So, The West Wing and Veep are right out, no matter how good they might be. Distraction is imperative. (Also too, now that teevee costs money, we can’t just turn on the set and *boom* watch interesting shows for free like when I was a kid – yes, I’m old. The programs must be available on the platforms Jen and Oni subscribe to.)

Ideally we’d like science fiction but we’ve already watched most of the good, fun, big series and franchises. 

Battlestar Galactica (the 2003 version), The Mandalorian (I couldn’t get into a lot of the other Star Wars teevee offerings. Dunno why. Just not my bag I guess), Alien Earth , Dollhouse, Eureka, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, WandaVision, Misfits, Murderbot, Firefly, Warehouse 13, and of course...
Star Trek:
     Discovery ✔️
     Strange New Worlds ✔️
     Voyager  ✔️
     Picard ✔️
     Next Generation ✔️
     Deep Space Nine ✔️

I know Star Trek Academy is out right now. We’ve watched a couple episodes and, honestly, it’s not grabbing me at all.

I don’t know if it’s because the cast is primarily VERY young (teenagers) and I’m so VERY not young so I’m NOT the target audience. Or maybe I just can’t get past the fact that they replaced Chief Engineer Peli, a thousands of human years old Lanthanite, previously played by the seriously awesome Carol Kane, with a younger, much less naturally charming and eccentric actress. She also lacks Kanes’ dry, surreal, easy carriage. Kane, no matter what she says or does, feels organic. The replacement, on the other hand, is on the clock and really, truly giving it her best damn shot. You can see that she's working hard – she's sweating. It’s distracting.

So, I can watch the show but I’m not psyched about it.

 We’ve taken in a couple episodes of the interesting Why Women Kill.

A darkly comedic drama detailing the lives of three women living in three different decades: a housewife in the 60s, a socialite in the 80s, and a lawyer in 2019, each dealing with infidelity in their marriages. (source) 

So far it’s clear that infidelity is just one reason for each of the marital unions' endings. It’s reductive and simplistic to say that’s the only reason. The humor is subtle and the show's engaging.

Minx is fun. The main character is a bit of caricature of an earnest, young, early ‘70s feminist though. At least at first. She’s just graduated from Vassar and, in her ultra serious, inexperienced, biz world neophyte way is, bumblingly, trying to start a feminist publication a la Ms.magazine. She falls in with a savvy, bighearted men’s porn-mag publisher and they work together to produce the first erotic magazine for women (with a feminist bend). Hilarity, warmth, and personal evolution for all ensues.

And we just watched our first I’m Dying Up Here episode, which we all loved. This is the most serious of the three new-to-us shows despite it being about standup comics. It’s set in the LA stand-up scene of the early ‘70s. A group of young comedians try to become successful at Goldie's comedy club and potentially snag a star-making spot on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

It has a documentary-ish feel to it. Reminds me a little of John Sayles’ Return of the Secaucus Seven – an old favorite of mine. I look forward to seeing more of this.

Anyway, I’ll definitely miss Maisel but I think we’re all set in Distraction Land…for now.

Complete Idiot of the Day

Newt I-can’t-believe-he’s-not-dead-yet Gingrich really, truly, in all seriousness said this: 

"Instead of fighting over a 21-mile-wide bottleneck forever, we cut a new channel through friendly territory. A dozen thermonuclear detonations and you’ve got a waterway wider than the Panama Canal, deeper than the Suez, and safe from Iranian attacks."

Gee, golly, I'm sure the United Arab Emirates and Oman won't mind a bit – right? 

I just have to ask – is every single Republican on the planet a complete flaming, insane asylum bound, ninnyhammer? Did he say this mind bogglingly stupid and delulu shit for attention or is just this far out of his fucking mind?

Yes, yezzz, I do offer my sincere apologies to those ninnyhammer and delulu Americans out there who did NOT vote for the ugly, rotting pumpkin head and his party of moldy turnips. No offense intended. I didn't mean to imply that you're Republicans. //shudder//

Best quote on Iran war? When you kick a hornets’ nest it’s the hornets who decide when it’s over.

I’ve seen 2 posts this week saying “the raptor is coming.” Did the respective posters mean to write:

•  “Rapture,” i.e. Jesus’ much ballyhooed arrival to snatch up all the good Christians, is back on the calendar (again)? Sorry MAGAts, there’s no ticket to Heaven for you. Please do enjoy your burning-in-Hell-forever time though.

•  Were they saying that we’re soon to be visited by velociraptors? That could be interesting. 

•  Maybe they were referencing birds of prey? Like, maybe massive king vultures are gonna fly in to feast on our irradiated carcasses after Prez Pedo kicks off WWIII. 
Picture it – after the genius Republicans, inspired by that obviously dementia ridden, none-too-bright-to-begin-with, Reagan leftover, drop a dozen thermonuclear bombs in their destined-to-fail attempt to create a Strait of Hormuz workaround, the planet will be flooded with radioactive fallout. That entire area of the Middle East will be nothing but a radioactive sheet of glass.

Everything – all sea life will be dead. Land animals and people who haven’t died yet, will probably wish they had. They’ll be  crawling and hobbling on their remaining limbs to possible sources of water, food, and shelter. Vultures are circling. They gotta eat too, ya know.

Possibly it’s some combination of the three – rapture/velociraptor/raptor. Hard to tell. I really wish people would put a bit more effort into proofreading their posts before hitting “publish. 

By the way, the Raptor or Rapture is on the 22nd in case you want to prepare. Dunno how we’d get ready but I’d imagine it’d be the same no matter what.

•  Stock up on extra toilet paper, snacks, water, cat food, and meds.
•  Break out all the board games, knitting and other crafting supplies (figuring Wi-Fi’s gonna die).
•  Make sure all the laundry’s done.
•  Start a hydroponic garden in the basement. I should probably do that now.

AND here's ome news from Pedo and Bibi’s Operation Epstein Fury for your Monday morning:

The Israeli army said it had begun what it described as “limited ground operations” against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon – but IDF attacks in Lebanon have killed many civilians and have hit residential neighbourhoods.
~~~
The Lebanese health ministry said 850 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since 2 March, when Israel started striking Lebanon following Hezbollah’s firing of rockets towards the country. (source) 

The rational put out for this war was something about Iran being just about to attack Israel and/or the U.S. or some other made up bullshit. The real reasoning is more along the lines of Trump and Netanyahu not being able to get stiffies anymore in addition to needing distractions from their other, respective, myriad crimes. Thousands of dead innocents mean nothing to these rich fucks.

Looks like Italy, Greece, the U.K., Australia, Germany, Luxembourg, France, China, Japan, and South Korea, amongst others, have either said a big fat NO, we ain’t sending no warships to the Strait of Hormuz in support of your illegal war OR they’ve just, so far, ghosted the orange motherfucker. 

Must suck to be so astronomically stupid, deservedly unpopular, irredeemably ugly, AND a worldwide laughingstock. Somehow I’m experiencing a complete lack of empathy. I strangly suspect, in this particular case, that’s permanent.

Beware the Ides of March

The Death of Julius Caesar, Vincenzo Camuccini

‘da fuck are “Ides?”

The term Ides derives from the Latin word iduare (Latin: “to divide”), with the full moon serving as the division point in the middle of each month. In the ancient Roman calendar, months were divided according to the lunar cycle into three groups of days. The Ides corresponded with the rise of the full moon in the middle of the month, the Kalends corresponded with the new moon at the beginning of the month, and the Nones fell on the quarter moon phases in between. (source) 

WAY back in 44 BCE, Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, was assassinated by 60 or so co-conspirators on this day – March 15th. Dude had some serious haters. Folks, supposedly trying to save Rome from being a monarchy/autocracy, ganged up and stabbed the shit out of him.

Why’s this come to mind today? Gee…dunno. Waddya think? Bet we could find 60+ co-conspirators with sharp knives pretty quick if we tried though.

I only mention it but, while Caesar was certainly a conquest happy dictator, he did some good stuff too. He gave property to retiring soldiers, redistributed land to the poor, granted citizenship to people living in Roman territories, canceled debts, expanded the Senate to make it more representative, and reformed the tax system to make it more efficient and fair. So, for a dictator, he had some decent things going for him.

The same can’t be said for current era war-making, orange dicktator wannabes.

Speaking of serial warmongerers, did you know? The U.S. Mint is no longer printing dimes with an olive branch on them. NB, the eagle, based on the Great Seal of the United States is still clutching the arrows in its left talon but its right, which should be holding the olive branch, is now empty.

For a nation whose founding symbols were carefully engineered around the balance of peace and war, that omission is hard to read as accidental.
~~~ 
What does the olive branch mean?

When the Great Seal of the United States was finalized in 1782, it contained what the Founding Father’s held as the country’s most esteemed values. The eagle holds 13 arrows in its left talon and an olive branch in its right, its head turned toward the branch—the side which the eagle preferred to err on. (source) 

New dime – arrows, empty slogan, and
conspicuously missing olive branch

I guess Prez Pedo deemed the dime “woke” and, as we know, peace, love, and understanding just doesn’t fly with the all-war-all-the-time Guardians Of Pedophiles administration.

Current dime

The dime’s redesign is for the 250th birthday of the U.S. The quarter is also getting a makeover. Three of the five designs recommended by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee were ixnayed by that flaming load of pompous, condescending, rich white trash, who’s so far up Pedo’s ass he’ll never see daylight again – Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Why did he trash these particular designs? They were about the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, and the civil rights movement. Bullshit Bessent approved designs about pilgrims and the Revolutionary War instead. Yup, nice and safe. Won’t upset any delicate, Republican, white people feelings. Good job, you fucking suck up.

Jesus Rabbit Hole Christ

Someone on Threads last night asked if Jesus’ last name was actually “Christ” or is that just, like, his job title? 

The comments were informative but mostly hilarious. Here are a small selection of them:  

He was a carpenter, Christ was his side hustle
~~~ 
Middle name Christ, last name Onacracker.
~~~
I think it must be his last name because lately I've been hearing a lot about his Auntie Christ.
~~~
Yeshua HaMashiach is one attributed to him. Translates to Yeshua the messiah.

Yehoshua Ben David would have possibly been his full name since it would include his reference to being from the house of David.

Christ is Greek and means anointed.

If Jesus’ name had been anglicanized like Paul, Peter, Mark, etc. it would be Josh.

So, oily Josh from David.
~~~ 
Jesus’ last name was Feldman. Full name and title: Jesus H. Feldman, Christ.
~~~
Jesus was his first name, the Christ bit started as a nickname when he hit his thumb with a hammer while doing some carpentry. His loud shout of ‘Christ! I’ve proper fucked me thumb this time lads’ led to his carpenter pals all calling him Jesus Christ-I’ve-knacked-me-thumb, later shortened to Jesus Christ. 

True story. It’s in the bible.
~~~ 
My Dad always screamed at my Mom, “Jesus Christ Alice!” I grew up thinking she was part of the trinity. The Father, the Son, and my Mom in the kitchen.
~~~
I thought his last name was Superstar.
~~~ 
He went by Jesus of Nazareth after he was supposedly knighted, but some people think he was just a squire who never was knighted and he just wanted to fight in tourneys.

I might be mixing up my nonsense, it's late.
~~~
His adoptive parents were Jose and Maria Christ. I think his birth name was Ramirez. Jesus Ramirez. Immigrated from Spain which is why they wouldn't let him stay at the inn, made them sleep in the barn, and then chased them out of the country. 

At least it's a more believable story than that virgin birth bullshit.
~~~ 
His last name was originally “Christstein” but he shortened it because it sounded too ethnic.
~~~
I thought his last name was “of Nazareth.” He changed it to Christ when he married God or something.

~~~ 
All I know is, his middle name starts with an H and he drove a blue Accord. Only one though. The rest of his rides were ancient, beat to shit VW bugs.
~~~ 
If there's any confusion on his last name and Pedo’s SAVE Act passes, it seems Jesus will have to jump through a bazillion and three hoops in order to vote in the next election.
~~~ 
Last name is Christ. He had a brother named Samuel – Sam Fucking Christ.
~~~ 
His full, government name was Jesus Tap Dancing Christ. 

Wine will do that to people.

One last Threads comment really struck me:

An adult asked me what Judas' last name was when I was a kid. I answered “Priest"

Why did that hit me? Because Judas Iscariot was the only New Testament character, that I know of, who had a last name. 

The naming conventions of the time and place were: 
Who’s your Daddy: Your name + father's name, e.g: Donna of Chuck or Jen of Jack
Where you from: Your name + your home town. e.g: Donna from Boston, Jen from Scituate

So, old Judas didn’t really have a last name, as we think of them today. According to Bart Ehrman on his blog about the history and literature of early christianity:

… Iscariot, most likely, comes from the Hebrew words “ish-Kerioth”– which might mean something like “a man” (= ish) who comes from the village of Kerioth. If this view is correct,– then the question remains: where was Kerioth?  The book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible mentions a town of this name in the southern part of Israel, the region later known as Judea (Josh. 15:25); and perhaps that’s what the name signifies, that Judas was a Judean.  If so, that would make him the only “southerner” among Jesus’ followers. (source) 

Ehrman lists a few other possible roots for Judas' name. I feel a rabbit hole coming on.  Gotta explore.

Operation Epstein Fury Day 14

Jeff Stahler

More than $11.3 billion of our taxpayers buckos were spent in the first week of Operation Epstein Fury. Today is Day 14. How much are we on the hook for now? Hey, it's not coming out of Prez Pedo's pockets. Pete, the drunk-on-death Grim Reaper, isn't picking up that tab. The rich motherfuckers who got all of Big Donnie's sweetheart tax breaks won't feel it. How's that $4 and $5 a gallon gas feel, eh?

Nearly 300 children have been killed so far by the self-proclaimed “pro-life” warmongering GOP bastards.   

Krazy Eyes Kash’s FBI is fearmongering – he sent a warning to local California police about a potential Iranian plan to strike the west coast. Iranian drones have a range of 1,200 to 2,500 miles – a direct flight from Iran to California isn’t happening, even in Pedo’s twisted dreams. Launched from a boat in the Pacific? Also tremendously unlikely. 

Why did Krazy Kash specifically say California would be the target? Maybe because Pedo really hates Newsom. Kash and Pedo are known to create narratives as needed so… 

Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz. 

Prez Pedo, in his usual over-the-top, scenery-chewing, bad dinner theater performance, bellowed that if mines were placed and they are not removed, Iran will face consequences “at a level never before seen.”

OH please! That he honestly believes his own cheesebag, histrionics, that he thinks anyone buys him as some serious, fearsome, strongman, world leader is just desperately sad at this point. It’s not even funny anymore. It’s simply pathetic. Can someone get this decaying old ham OFF the goddamn stage already? His shtick is SO last century!

Prez Clownshit also said that “the Strait of Hormuz is going to remain safe. We have a lot of Navy ships there. We have the best equipment in the world inspecting for mines.”

Ya know what we really need in order to make the Strait safe from all those nasty mines? Minesweepers. We used to have four of those babies in Bahrain – right there in the Persian Gulf. The USS Devastator, the USS Dextrous, the USS Gladiator, and the USS Sentry had been there for 35 years too.

What happened to them? Trump had ‘em decommissioned this past September. Then, despite shit looking tense with Iran in January, Pedo had them moved to Philadelphia for disassembly. There’s now just four Avenger-class ships in active service. They’re based in Sasebo, Japan. Japan…hmmmm. That’s not where the Strait of Hormuz is, now, is it?!

That's right. Not even two months before he attacked Iran, he got rid of four ultra important tools. Dimwit Donny surely isn’t much of a forward thinker, is he? 

Oh but WAIT – our preposterously vain, Nazi tattooed, perma-sozzled Secretary of WARmongering, Makeup Studios, and Bad Acting has some obvious fairy tales to add:

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth posted on X that at Trump’s direction, US Central Command “has been eliminating inactive mine-laying vessels in the Strait of Hormuz—wiping them out with ruthless precision. We will not allow terrorists to hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage.”

Christ almighty, Kegseth sounds like he’s just stepped off a Monty Python sound stage.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise... surprise and fear... fear and surprise... our two weapons are fear and surprise... and ruthless efficiency... our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency... and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.

What our rotted rutabaga brained administration didn't expect is that the Iranians would be a bit put out about being bombed, having their loved ones murdered, and their homes, hospitals and businesses destroyed. Huh, go figure.

What I've observed over the course of studying air power in history is that any time you attack a civilian population, you usually end up finding that it just hardens their resolve.
~ U.S. Air Force General Grynkewich, the highest-ranking U.S. commander in Europe testifying in Congress on Thursday.

Gee duh!!!

Iran is pissed. Trump and Netanyahu played them and played them badly.

…we don't see any reason why we should negotiate with the U.S., when we negotiated with them twice, and every time they attacked us, the middle of negotiations.
~ Abbas Araghchi, Iran's Foreign Minister

Dude’s got a solid point. Trump and his band of idiot, power-mad handlers and cowering sycophant yes-men did this. If there’s gonna be boots on the ground in Iran, those brainless White House assholes better be sending ICE. No one will miss those sick fucks. They’ll make the perfect sacrifice to Donnie’s Epstein “Excursion.”

Analysts say speculation from Washington that Iran would quickly submit after the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were misguided. (no shit?!)

Tehran is likely going to determine the end of this war, not the US or Israel, because of its ability to inflict economic pain broadly, they say.

Amid a military pummeling by the US and Israel, Iran has launched heavy retaliatory strikes at US assets and other critical infrastructure in Gulf countries, upsetting global supplies. It has also adopted what analysts call “asymmetric” tactics – such as disrupting the critical Strait of Hormuz and threatening US banking-linked entities – to inflict as much economic pain on the region and wider world as it can. (source) 

There’s Persian saying: He who has been bitten by a snake does not trust even a black and white rope.

Yup.

Quackers

The 14 year heroin addict whose brain can’t even keep a worm alive; the man who saws off the heads of whales, dumps dead bear cubs in Central Park, sexually assaults babysitters, takes saunas with skeevy, clapped out, panty-sniffing, has been white rappers while wearing jeans; the freak with absolutely NO medical education or experience who claims vaccines cause autism, anti-depressants are responsible for school shootings, and Wi-Fi causes "leaky brains” – is up to his usual science denying tricks.

He’s appointed vaccine skeptic, Retsef Levi to the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. There he'll “review the safety of Covid-19 vaccines.” Levi’s already decided though – there’s not going to be any review. Like Bobby Brainworm, he’s not a supporter of vaccines, no matter what the actual facts say.

Dude claims that “Covid-19 vaccines are the “most failing medical product" in the history of medical products” despite all formal, conclusive research stating the exact opposite.

Levi is a professor at MIT where he teaches Operations Management at the Sloan School of Management. He also does something with Food Chain Supply Analytics. Nothing to do with medicine.

Dr Sharon Alroy-Preis, who served as head of Israel’s public health services during the pandemic, and stepped down from that role earlier this year, told the Guardian she could recall reading a draft of a paper Levi wrote in 2021, which suggested a correlation between Israel’s vaccination rate and emergency calls received by first responders in Israel that involved cardiac arrest.

“We took it very seriously at the ministry of health. We invited him to a meeting to thoroughly look at the research,” she said. “At the meeting it was clear that he was not familiar with the way the data is collected and potential wrong interpretations. What was more troubling: he didn’t seem to care.”

She added: “Having no answers to our professional questions he continued to insist he was right and ‘on to something’. It was clear he came with an agenda.”

Levi did not comment on this specific criticism. (source) 

How’d an anti-science quack get to be a big time tenured professor at MIT in the first place? Seriously.

Naturally, Levi objects and denies that he doesn’t have specific pertinent knowledge and real applicable experience to weigh in on this. Of course he does. He’s a big important guy in a big important job where he’s paid big important money and respected by loads of other big important men. That means he's an expert on everything he imagines. Just like Junior. Right?!

The Guardian asked Levi to address all of these critiques of his work. In response, Levi said in a statement: “The mentioned criticism on my research has been addressed through formal peer-review processes, with all retraction requests, including the one by the Israeli Ministry of Health, denied by Scientific Reports.”

Sure pal.

A spokesperson for HHS said “attacks” on Levi were “clearly politically motivated and ignore his substantial credentials”.

Of course. It’s the fall back position for all substance and fact-free bullies everywhere and that’s what the Republican Party is – a bunch of whiny-ass toddlers who love nothing more than to cry victim the minute anyone calls them out on their weaselly bullshit. 

Levi may have substantial deserved cred within the field of operations management – if so, he should stick to that.