THE FARCE fights fascism with fearlessness. Subscribe to fuel the Farce—free or paid, your support matters. To help us grow, you can always drop us a tip.

You may have heard that a new COVID-19 variant from China has now arrived in the United States.

The good news is that it’s about as deadly as previous variants. 

The bad news? CBS News reports:

"Data indicates that NB.1.8.1 does not lead to more severe illness compared to previous variants, although it appears to have a growth advantage, suggesting it may spread more easily," Subhash Verma, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, said. "In other words, it is more transmissible."

In other words, it gets around—much like our current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Bobby Jr.*.

Sacrificing science and human lives

In related news, Bobby Jr. is welcoming the new variant by exposing more Americans to it. Reuters reports:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped recommending routine COVID-19 vaccinations for pregnant women and healthy children, U.S. health regulators said on Tuesday.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a video posted on social media platform X that the vaccines have been removed from the CDC's recommended immunization schedule for those groups.

Yes, you can only find out about these changes on the only site where you can find the song “Heil Hitler.”

This means that your insurer may stop covering the vaccinations, and many families will be unable to afford the shots. This will likely lead to countless unnecessary stillbirths.

Even Reuters cannot help but lay out some shade in its reporting on this development:

Studies with hundreds of thousands of people around the world show that COVID-19 vaccination before and during pregnancy is safe, effective, and beneficial to both the pregnant woman and the baby, according to the CDC's website.

This unilateral decision follows none of the basic hallmarks of science and risks the lives of babies in all 50 states.

“If pregnant women don't get vaccinated, high-risk infants can't be protected by the antibodies from their mother's vaccination,” noted Maggie Astor of the New York Times.

Risks are escalating 

As you probably know, Bobby’s FDA is planning on rolling back COVID-19 boosters for the vast majority of Americans. This move could leave America exposed to a new deadly wave of the virus that has transformed this decade.

But you probably didn’t know that there was a new, faster spreading COVID-19 variant on our shores. The only place I’ve seen it prominently covered is The Epoch Times, the far-right outlet owned by the Falun Gong. This radical movement, which has been accused of organ harvesting, originated in China and certainly wants us to blame China for any misfortunes that may befall the United States.

Meanwhile, the little America has done to contain the virus is being actively undermined. If this effort to 'Make America Get COVID Again' isn’t maliciously eugenic, hoping to finish off anyone the virus didn’t get the last time, it’s maliciously arrogant and incompetent, which may be worse.

Bobby illuminates how our politics work at their worst

The heel turn of Bobby Jr. is one of my more persistent intrusive thoughts.

Perhaps it’s because the risks and stakes of America’s obeisance keep escalating every day. Maybe I’m amazed how his durability and opportunism explain so much about our current crises. 

I also hate just him. And not just because I have the withering suspicion that his endorsement may be the single biggest reason Donald Trump won the popular vote, one of the most soul-crushing embarrassments in American history, and a potential death blow to democracy in North America.

And I hate him because you can’t blame people for getting suckered by him if you have any idea how brains work.

The son of a beloved member of America’s closest thing to a royal family, he once professed and practiced progressivism only to become a champion of the right-wing dream of replacing science with eugenics. 

His preoccupation with destroying one of the most tremendous advancements of human history, vaccinations, is abhorred by all but a small fringe of America. 

Yet he’s the most popular member of Trump’s cabinet:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received the highest approval numbers among Cabinet members, at +6 percent overall, the poll showed.

The two least popular members of the administration are Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with a -9 rating and DOGE leader Elon Musk, with a -15 rating.

This is your brain on Kennedy

Anyone who tells you that there’s anything more important in politics than framing and repetition must be forced to explain how Bobby Jr. became 12th in line for the presidency. 

Our minds cannot comprehend that Bobby Jr., who in many if not most American brains is Pure Kennedy and all that frame entails, is a bloodthirsty eugenicist out to punish America with his trauma-stained view of the world we must suffer.

Robert F. Kennedy once resembled his own human being, who bore a resemblance to his dad but wasn’t engaged in constant cosplay. As he aged, he decided to tailor his suits and his entire look to a carbon copy of Robert F. Kennedy. 

Coincidentally, Trump, probably through Roger Stone, recognized the incalculable value that would come from the most prominent living Kennedy and a human deepfake of Bobby Kennedy himself. It’s all in the collar.

The obsession with John F. Kennedy Jr. by the newsless hordes of QAnon is an example of the sort of tumors that develop on a cancer-ridden body politic. And Bobby Jr. used that fascination as a way to introduce his eugenic hokum directly into MAGA’s veins right when the movement was looking for an excuse to murder off vast populations of the United States through COVID-19 or other means:

[Bobby Jr.] compared vaccine mandates to Nazi Germany and promoted a film targeting disproven claimsabout vaccines to Black Americans. He touted the alternative treatments ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, which have not been found to be effective at treating COVID-19. He appeared at the Christian nationalist ReAwaken America Tour alongside MAGA stars Roger Stone and Michael Flynn and QAnon conspiracy theorists.

Bobby’s biggest donor in his 2024 campaign was also Donald Trump’s biggest direct donor—Timothy Mellon, not Elon Musk.

I don’t think parents are going to put up with this

From what I know of moms today, I don’t believe moms are going to let Bobby Jr. as his policies begin to directly affect kids in horrific ways I don’t even want to imagine. 

If that happens, and I beg the Universe for it not to happen, where the moms go, the dads better follow.

WARNING: This is pure speculation based on faith, not acts.

I’ve asked for the serenity to accept that the way I see America is not how America is going. However, I expect that to change any day, because any other future is impossible to permit into my imagination.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I expected America to see through Bobby Jr. and how even his brainworms story is a cover for what a disgusting, depraved human being he is, long ago. And I’m on record predicting that the Dobbs backlash we saw in 2022 would be bigger in 2024. I was very wrong. 

How I got it wrong

My belief that America would reject Trump and the Bobby Jr. Trojan Horse contradicted my understanding of how the brain works.

I suppose I figured that after seven years of messaging against Trump, we’d get better at it. Or that we’d even agree on the basics of how to oppose fascism. 

I still believe that a compelling message—a message that people cannot help but repeat—repeated systematically, is the best and perhaps only way to shape minds. 

Yet today, the center-left is scrambling to decide which issues to focus on, given the numerous attacks on the vulnerable and the concept of society as a whole. Then there’s a painful debate about how and IF we should even go on the offense. 

These dichotomies infinitely complicate the process of crafting messages worth repeating. And when we do finally decide to go with something, the competition for resources to amplify those efforts is intense.

What could change that? 

Mad moms who wake up to the vampires we’ve invited into our healthcare system.

*I call him Bobby Jr. because that's how good his branding is by birth. There's just no name to call him that doesn't endow him with the dignity of his family's legacy and few of the indignities. RFK Jr. feels like the worst. I'm trying to conjure up Don Jr. vibes because he's far more alike in spirit to that Jr. than his dad.

THE FARCE fights fascism with fearlessness. Subscribe to fuel the Farce—free or paid, your support matters. To help us grow, you can always drop us a tip.

We Rate Shenanigans

Inspired by Srđa Popović (activist leader who helped topple Serbian president Milošević using laughtivism and other non-violent actions), and WeRateDogs (truly one of the best things on the Internet), We Rate Shenanigans celebrates the harmless pranks happening that just might do some good.

Protests don’t have to be on a street corner, they don’t have to have any signs, and they can just be one person. This guy didn’t waste his shot, holding a punching bag at a race. Fun!

Rating: 👊 shenanigans