There's no vaccine to help America's body politic prevent the spread of unqualified cabinet confirmations. In a big (but, at this point, entirely unsurprising) win for measles, mumps, and whooping cough, the Senate has confirmed RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary. Welcome to Gov in the Time of Cholera. "The 52-48 vote was largely along party lines, though Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky once again joined with Democrats to oppose the nomination. McConnell has now voted against three of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, more than any other Republican senator." (Nothing explains this era more clearly than the fact that Mitch McConnell is now the most moderate Republican.)

+ RFK Jr enters office at a moment when his ideas with find fertile ground. As Emily Oster explains in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Vaccine Skepticism Has Never Been This Bad. "The first change is obvious: The parents and public personalities who strongly oppose vaccines have gotten louder. They have developed larger platforms, and faced less stigma for making hard-line anti-vaccination statements. Skepticism has gone more mainstream. The second change is less obvious, but more important: There has been huge growth in the number of parents who belong to what I think of as 'the middle group'—parents who are not fundamentally opposed to vaccines but do have more questions, more concerns, and (often) more skepticism than parents had in the past."

+ "Kennedy’s confirmation is a victory for Trump, and a clear message that Senate Republicans are willing to embrace pseudoscience in their unwavering deference to him. Americans’ health is in Kennedy’s hands." RFK Jr. Won. Now What? (I'm not sure. I think I'll check with my doctor, Joe Rogan.)

+ Meanwhile, nine unvaccinated people hospitalized as Texas measles outbreak doubles.

2

To Russia With Love

In a single day, the Trump administration announced Ukraine would not become a member of NATO and that any notion of a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is unrealistic. In other words, he gave Putin a lot of what he wants before negotiations even start. It was A Valentine for Vladimir. "They’re drinking vodka straight from the bottle in the Kremlin." And the world order is on the rocks.

+ NYT (Gift Article): "For President Vladimir V. Putin, one phone call marked a turning point as great as any battle in his three-year war." Putin Scores a Big Victory, and Not on the Battlefield.

+ US relations with Europe will never be the same after Trump’s call with Putin.

3

All In The Game, Yo…

Where exactly is America headed? Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way are professors who write about something called competitive authoritarianism. It's not quite a a dictatorship, but it's not quite a normal democracy, either. In Foreign Affairs: What Comes After Democratic Breakdown. "Competitive authoritarianism will transform political life in the United States. As Trump’s early flurry of dubiously constitutional executive orders made clear, the cost of public opposition will rise considerably: Democratic Party donors may be targeted by the IRS; businesses that fund civil rights groups may face heightened tax and legal scrutiny or find their ventures stymied by regulators. Critical media outlets will likely confront costly defamation suits or other legal actions as well as retaliatory policies against their parent companies. Americans will still be able to oppose the government, but opposition will be harder and riskier, leading many elites and citizens to decide that the fight is not worth it. A failure to resist, however, could pave the way for authoritarian entrenchment—with grave and enduring consequences for global democracy." Hopeless? No. Tough? Yes. "Trump will be vulnerable. The administration’s limited public support and inevitable mistakes will create opportunities for democratic forces—in Congress, in courtrooms, and at the ballot box. But the opposition can win only if it stays in the game."

4

Track Suits

So who is staying in the game and resisting the slide toward authoritarianism? Lawyers. Even with the associated risks and threats, major corporate law firms have joined legal battle over Trump policies. (I'm calling for a four year moratorium on lawyer jokes. Let's replace them with lawyer thanks.)

+ There are a lot of cases being brought. And they're coming almost as quickly as the executive orders. Here's a look from the NYT (Gift Article): Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda.

+ "The new resistance to Donald Trump’s presidency had a plan: State attorneys general from Maine to Hawaii would rush to court to stop vast portions of the agenda Trump had spent years promising to deliver. And it’s working." (Of course, we're less than a month in...)

+ And some of the resistance is coming from places you wouldn't expect. Politico: Red-state universities push back against NIH funding cuts.

5

Extra, Extra

When You Were Young: "And as the diagnoses of celebrities and public figures like Kate Middleton, Chadwick Boseman, Dwyane Wade, and Olivia Munn bring mass attention to the issue, scientists are racing to answer a question on the minds of many outside the medical profession: Why is cancer, historically a disease of old age, increasingly striking people in the primes of their lives?" Time: The Race to Explain Why More Young Adults Are Getting Cancer.

+ America Worst? "The U.S.-led global response to HIV has been so effective that AIDS wards of people wasting away are a vision of the past. Now health experts, patients and others fear those days could return if the Trump administration doesn’t reverse course or no other global power steps into the void, and fast." AP: This is what happens to the body when HIV drugs are stopped for millions of people. This is a great American global health story on the verge of turning very bad.

+ Hostage Stories: "The 16 Israeli hostages freed in recent weeks after being held in Gazan tunnels and homes for more than a year have begun to provide accounts to their families of being beaten, chained, burned and violently interrogated." This is another key political factor as the precarious ceasefire holds on. WaPo: Freed Israeli hostages tell families of torture while held by Hamas.

+ AI Do: "In 2021, the BBC reported that some 90 percent of marriages in India are still arranged, a triumph of tradition over change. At the same time, technology has been enacting changes in the practice of that tradition. The driving principle is still intelligence. Only now it’s artificial." Matchmakers in India Now Have Competition: AI. (I tried one of these AI matching services and it suggested that I marry my Macbook Air.)

+ Artistic License: "Scoring a fake ID has been a rite of passage for generations of underage New Yorkers eager to join the bar scene. Often this meant handing over cash for some laminated product slapped together by amateurs in a dorm room or head shop. But constant upgrades to license designs mean that shoddy fakes no longer cut it, and a new breed of counterfeiters is serving the underage drinking market. Their products, which can reap millions for them, include holograms, bar codes and laser engraving." NYT: A New Generation of ‘Unbeatable’ Fake IDs Is Bedeviling Bouncers.

+ Splash Cash Brother: Nice guys finish last? Hell no. Steph Curry is number 2 on this year's list of the highest paid athletes.

+ REMember: "If you ask him, Michael Shannon will tell you he doesn’t entirely approve of the turn his career has taken. At the age of 50, the prolific actor, twice nominated for an Academy Award, finds himself the singer in an R.E.M. cover band. And loving every minute of it, much to his dismay." Vanity Fair: Michael Shannon’s Latest Role: Touring in an R.E.M. Cover Band. (And they're pretty good!)

6

Bottom of the News

Let's close with a couple of amazing videos, both of which (miraculously) resulted in no injuries. First, a humpback whale swallows kayaker off Chile before releasing him. And then there's this moment when a US fighter jet crashes into San Diego Bay. The pilots ejected and were rescued by a fishing boat (before being swallowed and puked up by a whale).