What was really going on with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s latest weird stunt, of wrestling garter snakes? It probably wouldn’t even be worth public comment, except RFK Jr. felt the need to post a video of his adventure on X, as if he was seeking attention and adulation.
Just another example of RFKJr “promoting health, work out and eating healthy….maybe with some testosterone thrown in,” as one friend put it?
Or was it a sign of some “weird” personality challenge, as another friend suggested? Even snakes that don’t have venom can cause serious infections with their bites. RFKJr. can be seen in the video shaking a hand as he’s handling the snakes, so he’s likely been bitten.
Maybe a little of everything. RFKJr defies easy explanations.
I’ve struggled to make sense of RFK Jr. since President Trump gained his endorsement in the 2024 election, and then made him his secretary of health and human services. I was a huge fan of his father, Robert F. Kennedy, the former U.S. attorney general and senator from New York, who was assassinated in June 1968 while running for president.
Like many Boomers, I’ve long been fascinated with the Kennedy family. Back in early1968, I actually campaigned in Indiana for the Democratic anti-Vietnam-War candidate, Sen Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, and was extremely upset when RFK entered the Democratic primary in Indiana in what many saw as a spoiler role. But I got over it, coming to the realization that RFK was probably the only Democrat who could defeat the pro-Vietnam-war Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson.
Sometimes, when I’m especially discouraged about the state of American politics, I’ll watch RFK’s act of ultimate political courage, going into a black Indianapolis neighborhood one night in April 1968, without police protection, and informing a crowd of residents that Martin Luther King Jr. had just been assassinated; the event sparked riots across American cities. If you’ved never seen the video, I advise you to watch it.
RFK had a very special skill of being able to connect strongly with both whites and blacks, rich and poor, which is why I feel confident he would have been elected president in 1968.
It was difficult for me to see RFK Jr. join the Trump ranks because of the Kennedy family’s strong identification with the Democratic party. Plus, RFK was the attorney general who implemented his brother’s decisions on behalf of desegregating the South in the early 1960s, and setting the stage for the Voting Rights Act of 1964. They were actions of such far-reaching consequence that they are still being litigated in our courts, and of late, reversed by a politically conservative Supreme Court.
I was hopeful before RFKJr made his MAGA leap in 2024 that the Democrats might involve RFKJr on their side. But from what I’ve seen, they didn’t even try to negotiate an arrangement; most of the Kennedy family was horrified by RFKJr’s anti-vax stance, just for starters. Trump understood much better that RFKJr brought with him something on the order of 10-15 per cent of the electorate—a decisive segment in a close election—who cared so strongly about health and food issues that they would vote for whichever presidential candidate RFKJr joined up with. So Trump gave RFKJr what he demanded: becoming secretary of health and human services.
Many Democrats view RFKJr as a weird oddball in the Kennedy family, someone who was a lost cause for the Democrats. I disagree. I think all the Kennedys, beginning with John Kennedy, were heavily driven by the desire for public service. Besides, the Kennedys were very savvy politically– they knew how to wheel and deal with the best of politicians, and they were capable of major shifts in ideology, depending on the times.
As one big example: RFKJr’s grandfather, Joseph P. Kennedy, became an important political force in the 1930s and 1940s, who strongly opposed America’s entry into World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed him America’s ambassador to Great Britain in early 1938, whereupon Kennedy became increasingly outspoken against American involvement in helping Europe stand up to growing Nazi aggressiveness; Kennedy pushed for appeasing Adolf Hitler’s intimidation and threats against various European nations, even after Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. Kennedy resigned as ambassador in late 1940, apparently under political pressure from Roosevelt because of Kennedy’s pro-Nazi sentiments.
Then, in 1953, Joseph Kennedy helped RFK become an assistant counsel to Joseph McCarthy, the obsessively anti-communist senator from Wisconsin who took pleasure in destroying the careers of movie stars, government officials and others via his anticommunist accusations. RFK only stayed six months before deciding he wasn’t in the best political place, whereupon he and his brothers threw in their lot with the Democrats later in the 1950s.
Along the way, various family members seemed to almost court physical danger. Ted Kennedy, the younger brother of JFK and RFK and a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, in 1969 drove a car with a female campaign aide off a crude bridge on Chappaquiddick island, adjoining Marthas Vineyard, late at night after a party. Ted Kennedy escaped the sinking car and the aide, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned; he got off with a slap on the wrist. Thirty years later, John Kennedy Jr., the son of President John Kennedy, crashed a private plane near Chappaquiddick while attempting to land with his wife in bad weather. There were other serious accidents and incidents involving family members in cars and on ski slopes over the years.
When you review all this history, you begin to understand three things about RFKJr that are in keeping with his family history:
-first, why he is drawn to conspiracy theories about pharmaceuticals, food, and health. His father and uncle were assassinated in circumstances that sometimes seemed as if they could only be explained via dark conspiracies, and then only partially.
-second, his family seems to mock danger, almost as if it won’t affect them, even when there is plenty of evidence it will.
-and third, much like his grandfather, he seems drawn to extreme politics on the order of MAGA.
You have to assume it’s his political savviness that keeps him from denouncing or threatening to resign over the serious curves President Trump has thrown his way, notably, encouraging production of glyphosate despite many concerns over its hazards to human health, and caving to the tobacco lobby to ease regulation of vapes that are also likely hazardous to teens’ health. And that it’s his commitment to his family’s tradition of service that keeps him focused on twin objectives: improving the nation’s dietary standards and options, and reducing dependency on pharmaceuticals, especially vaccines.
I happen to think he’s courting serious danger by reducing and otherwise messing with America’s use of proven vaccination options. But of course, courting serious danger is nothing that necessarily dissuades many Kennedys. Much like garter snake wrestling.
“…proven vaccination options…”
That is a laugh. Remove the legal statutory block on vaccine mfgr liability.
Mr. John Ingvar Odegaard
carmelcontest@protonmail.com
My thoughts exactly. The “safe and effective” catch phrase is a product of a marketing firm. Nothiing to back it. A slurry of random organic material mixed with various toxic ingredients can never ever be safe or “proven”. Kennedy’s own CHD came out with a book comparing vaxxed vs unvaxxed children. The data speaks for itself. He hasn’t ended the PREP act, which he could do. He could make vaccines optional so educated parents could have the choice NOT to poison their kid and still allow him/her to attend school. Gov’ts and pharma don’t want that, not because it would create any spread of disease but because it would expose the great lie of vaccines. Merck wants to test their Garasil on infants. I suspect it’s to hide the damage to the child. Take a baby that can’t even walk and it’s tougher to prove brain damage and tougher to get any compensation from the kangaroo vaccine court. Remove all liability protections and all vaccines will disappear tomorrow. But so will the profits and that’s the problem. What has RFKjr done so far? Changed the food pyramid and took some food dyes off the market and got Mike Tyson to tell us to eat real food.
Kennedy has repeatedly rejected the accusation leveled at him as being an antivaxxer… He has advocated the need for increased research and choice when it comes to those recognized toxic injections. That said that does not mean that he will at some point in the future eventually come to reject vaccines in their entirety, indeed, as many such as yourself have speculatively alleged he has already done.
Notice that he released the snakes out of harm’s way… I believe the video you referenced points to his symbiotic partnership with nature and directing humans towards unity with wildlife and natural processes. He has written extensively about how for example the sport of falconry (a lifelong passion) has taught him reverence for the natural world. The following short video summarizes his close ties to nature.
https://www.google.com/search?q=rfk+jr+falconry&oq=RFKjr+falconry&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgBEAAYDRiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAAGA0YgAQyDQgCEAAYhgMYgAQYigUyDQgDEAAYhgMYgAQYigUyDQgEEAAYhgMYgAQYigUyDQgFEAAYhgMYgAQYigUyCggGEAAYgAQYogQyBwgHEAAY7wUyCggIEAAYgAQYogTSAQoyMjY4NGowajE1qAIIsAIB8QXNkgROH2Ntsg&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:90c24db7,vid:YzPT6BsCUdc,st:0
RFK Jr clearly as with many in your country recognizes something about Donald Trump that many in their intense dislike for Trump fail to comprehend.
Ken, you are correct that RFK Jr. has ordered widespread research into effectiveness of vaccines, by his Dept.of Health and Human Services. You seem to anticipate only one possible outcome–that vaccines don’t work and cause widespread injuries. But what if the research confirms what we know already, that vaccinations have essentially eliminated cases of paralytic polio (about 16,0000 cases annually before vaccinations) and measles (about 48,000 hospitalizations, with about 500 deaths each year, prior to vaccinations), among just a couple of diseases that have long created much suffering? Do you think RFKjr might admit that his campaign against vaccinations wasn’t fully justified? No, I’m nearly certain he won’t. So as long as we don’t hear anything about this research, I think you can assume he hasn’t been able to disprove the success many vaccines have had.
He is advocating research into both the effectiveness and safety of vaccines…
Based on my personal experience and over 40 years of considerable research on the topic Dr. Robert S. Mendelsohn sums it up best, “The greatest threat of childhood diseases lies in the dangerous and ineffectual efforts made to prevent them through mass immunization…..There is no convincing scientific evidence that mass inoculations can be credited with eliminating any childhood disease”.
Indeed, there is no convincing scientific evidence other then a great deal of persistent rhetoric as to the overall effectiveness of these so-called immunizations. Injecting unnatural and disruptive toxic chemical and biological substances into the body is the product of fixated human recklessness.
The drop in polio was because of a drop in the use of lead arsenic pesticides and DDT. Polio was poisoning that affected the anterior horn cells of the spine. It’s why polio is the only disease that didn’t follow the normal flu cycle but appeared in the summer with increased pesticide exposure found on fresh produce and with high numbers in rural agricultural areas rather than urban areas. The introduction of the polio vaccines also came at the same time that DDT and lead arsenic usage was dropping. Also, after the introduction of the vaccines, the gov’t changed the definition of what was called polio to reflect a sudden drop in cases, just as they changed the PCR amplification count after the covid vaccines to create the appearance of a sudden drop in cases. Polio has a new name: accute flaccid myelitis. Changed the name and polio is gone. Voila. A couple books presenting this infomation: The Moth in the Iron Lung and Turtles All the Way Down. As for measles, as proven by Stephan Lanka in German courts, no one has isolated the measles virus so all tests are fraudulent and the diagnosis of measles is made by identifying symptoms that can apply to many different disseases. There is no specific clinical diagnosis of measles. Before the vaccines, the fraudulent tests didn’t even exist so all “cases” that doctors called measles are pure speculation. Rashes, fevers, coughs can be from many reasons and the 48000 number is just fraud. We do know that measles had all but disappeared before the introduction of the vaccine. And we do know that the measles (MMR) definitely causes autism in some children. This is beyond question. It’s listed as one of the
adverse events right on the vaccine information statement that accompanies the product. Why would any parent want to risk permanent brain damage to their child for a disease that for most, is just a few days off from school and with extra Vitamin A given to the child, shown to resolve quickly? What is the safe dosage of aluminum, polysorbate 80, formaldehyde, foreign animal cells and other toxic ingredient to inject into a child and then do it another 72 to 92 times(number of shots given to children with current vaccine schedule)? The answer is there is no safe level of poison you can inject into a child(or adult) and expect health. Why is the level of chronic illness rising right along with the level of injections? Why is the level of autism skyrocketing with increased vaccination rates? It’s time to stop pretending that vaccination is anything but systematic poisoning of the population, creating vast profits and patients for life.
I’m really not looking to have an extended debate about vaccinations, since I’m not an expert. But a few of your statements don’t require much expertise to dispute. Polio cases are gone because the disease’s name changed? Really? Having grown up just as the polio vaccine was first developed, I can tell you for certain that you would know if polio was still around. I went to the University of Illinois for a year, and the first floor of my dorm was full of polio victims. You could tell them right away because they went around in wheelchairs. It’s called “paralytic” polio for a reason. DDT caused polio? DDT hasn’t been used in agriculture for many years, but certain countries, like Pakistan and Afghanistan, still have widespread cases of polio, largely because many citizens believe the kind of misinformation you and and others put out, and so vaccination campaigns are sabotaged. It may not be long before the U.S. could be another of those countries that goes back to a time when polio and measles were to be feared. (Yes, a small number of the thousands of measles cases developed serious complications, like deafness and blindness.) Some signs already, per this report.
What does he recognize about Donald Trump?
You left me hanging with anticipation?
In my world he does not recognize the obvious and he has sold his soul to the devil.
What does he recognize about the orange corrupt felon circus “wanny-be dictator” buffoon? What do we fail to comprehend? What does RFK understand that all of us have missed?
Share with all of us, I don’t get your message here at all.
Mark,
In a statement under the heading “Everything is Trump’s fault” Janet Elaine Parks from Florida sums it up well… “If you’re incapable of acknowledging any failures of one administration while blaming the next administration for everything that happens, that’s not objective analysis… That’s TDS.
‘The truth is that every administration has successes..
‘Every administration has failures..
‘And if we’re only willing to see one side of that equation depending on which political team we’re on, then we’ve stopped thinking critically and started thinking tribally..
‘That’s a dangerous place for any country to be.”
Mark, I’m not sure what you are referring to in your question about Trump. I basically said RFKjr endorsed Trump in 2024, and in return for the endorsement, was made secretary of health and human services. The endorsement helped Trump get elected president, and gave RFKjr the influence he sought over America’s policies on public health (especially vaccinations) and diet/food. Pretty straightforward. On Trump’s other policies on things like immigration, foreign affairs, etc., I think RFKjr just decided to look the other way, and give attention to the health issues he cares most about.
Thank you for explaining…much appreciated.
I would gladly take Bush senior, or junior or even Reagan and I am a moderate democrat and humanitarian. Hell, even Ford or Nixon would be a relief.
Interesting point. I would take issue with you on Bush junior, for a reason that Trump has harped on him about: getting the U.S. into “forever wars.” I think one of the things people were hopeful about Trump for was his apparent commitment to avoiding forever wars. Yet he keeps going around threatening to conquer other countries. He has us mired down in the Middle East, creating global economic problems because oil is backed up, and he complains that long-standing American allies don’t want to join his international adventures. Even today, I read, he was threatening Canada to become America’s 51st state. Here is something I wrote recently about Trump’s international adventurism:
https://medium.com/the-geopolitical-economist/heres-why-germany-refuses-to-be-bullied-into-supporting-trump-s-america-%C3%BCber-alles-policies-7b7e8f6ec6b6?sk=cc3b46edf25bb51d1d7189df48f3b579
https://dissolvingillusions.com/graphs-images/
Graphs showing the true rise and fall of disease vs vaccines. Until people understand that disease comes about from poor nutrition, poor water, food, air, poor sanitation, bad thoughts and emotions, high EMF exposures, toxic exposures like glyphosate, pesticides, herbicides, leaching plastics…you will never inject your way out of disease. NEVER. You can’t add toxins to an already toxic environment and expect health. Your mind and the current failing medical system are stuck in the germ theory way of thinking. Pasteur was a fraud. His own diaries released by his grandson showed this. Until you clean up the terrain, disease is inevitable. It is also known that mico-organisms are pleyomorphic. They change their shape/role depending upon the terrain. They can go from harmless to cancer just by changing the terrain. They can go from bacilli to viral form to fungal form. The same organism! These micro organisms live within in us ALL the time. You can’t vaccinate them away. You can only keep yourself healthy so that they don’t morph into something that causes disease. That means eating right, drinking clean water, avoiding EMFs as much as possible, avoiding toxins, avoiding negative thoughts and emotions as best you can. The NY Times article is a product of the pharma industry and the medical establishment trying to keep the gravy train running. Not one doctor ever questions what these kids are exposed to, what was their health before they got disease X, Y or Z. Their small minds immediately blame lack of more poison in the kid’s arm because that is what they were taught by their pharma funded medical schools. Sorry to harp on this but it can’t be stressed enough that health is Never Ever delivered through a needle full of toxins.