On Second Thought

Scared GOPmagas Lie About ‘No Kings’ Rallies

By Michael Woyton

I don’t know about you but I’m still waiting for my check from George Soros for the Women’s March after the first inauguration of President Donald J. Felon.

So I have no hopes that I’ll see anything from any future protest participation on my part.

All kidding aside, it’s telling that those on the ~~Reich~~ right side of the aisle are pretty nervous about the potential turnout for Saturday’s planned “No Kings” showings schedule around the entire country, especially with public opinion about the shutdown turning against them.

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The previous “No Kings” protests took place June 14 in more than 2,000 locations, NPR reported, with an estimated 5 million people participating.

Protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, though one man in Culpeper, Virginia, was arrested after he “intentionally accelerated his vehicle into the dispersing crowd,” NPR said.

So it is no surprise that ~~serial-liar~~ House Speaker Mike Johnson described the protest scheduled for the National Mall as a “hate America rally” attended by “the pro-Hamas wing” and “antifa people,” Politico reported.

Johnson used the protest as an excuse to slam the Democratic Party for the government shutdown, which is in its 13th day.

“They’re all coming out,” he said on Fox News. “Some of the House Democrats are selling t-shirts for the event. And it’s being told to us that they won’t be able to reopen the government until after that rally because they can’t face their rabid base.”

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minnesota, echoed Johnson’s comments, adding that the Dems had caved to the “terrorist wing of their party.”

Blah, blah, blah.

In response to Johnson’s comments, organizers for the “No Kings” rallies issued a statement saying, “Speaker Johnson is running out excuses for keeping the government shut down. Instead of reopening the government, preserving affordable healthcare, or lowering costs for working families, he’s attacking millions of Americans who are peacefully coming together to say that America belongs to its people, not to kings. We’ll see everyone on October 18.”

Organizers also said, “All No Kings events adhere to a shared commitment to nonviolent protest and community safety. Organizers are trained in de-escalation and are working closely with local partners to ensure peaceful and powerful actions nationwide.”

So far more than 2,500 peaceful protests are being planned for Saturday, according to an Indivisible Guide Facebook post.

Locations for and information about the protests can be found on the No Kings website through this link.

There also training calls in advance of Saturday on messaging, media and digital engagement and “protest safety, know your rights and de-escalation training.”

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Lead art: Screen grab from No Kings website.

Felon Loses Nobel Again; Cue Sad Trombone

By Michael Woyton

Is it just me or is there a bit of a message/slapdown being directed toward President Donald J. Felon from the Norwegian Nobel Committee?

Spoiler alert: the elderly golfer — for all his whining and needling — once again was passed over by the committee when it came to the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. And I say “passed over” as if he were ever in any serious consideration for the honor.

On Friday, the committee announced that Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela would be the 2025 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

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In a statement, the committee said Machado deserved the award “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

Huh. “Promoting democratic rights” and achieving “a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

The committee described the country of Venezuela, now under the leadership of Nicolas Maduro, as having evolved from “a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a brutal, authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis.”

Huh. “A relatively democratic and prosperous country” evolving into a “brutal, authoritarian state” that is in “a humanitarian and economic crisis.”

Without beating a dead horse, who doesn’t sound like the person the Nobel committee is describing?

Simple. The grifter-in-chief, that’s who.

In less than nine months, after winning an ultra-slim victory, the adjudicated rapist/convicted felon has plunged this country into an authoritarian state.

He’s allowed people like Elon Musk to rip humanitarian aid away from those who most need it throughout the world and enabled China and Russian to swoop into countries we once helped and supported to fill the void.

The mad makeup man of Mar-a-Lago has used his warped belief in tariffs to terrorize previously friendly trade partners, including penguins on uninhabited islands.

His sycophantic henchpeople — led by adviser Stephen “Temu Goebbels” Miller — are laying the groundwork for martial law by forcing National Guard personnel into American cities only because they are run by liberals and therefore, in this administration’s opinion, are terrorists.

What other rational peace-loving, democracy-embracing president would sanction an overnight ICE raid that utilized a Black Hawk helicopter to drop agents into an apartment building to tear half-naked children from their homes with their parents — many of the United States citizens — and detained them all before checking on their documentation?

The committee said in its statement that “Maria Corina Machado meets all three criteria stated in Alfred Nobel’s will for the selection of a Peace Prize laureate. She has brought her country’s opposition together. She has never wavered in resisting the militarisation of Venezuelan society. She has been steadfast in her support for a peaceful transition to democracy.”

Does any of that sound like the whiner-in-chief?

Machado, according to the Nobel committee, “embodies the hope of a different future, one where the fundamental rights of citizens are protected, and their voices are heard. In this future, people will finally be free to live in peace.”

Does any of that sound like the man who sat in the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, and didn’t call out the National Guard as his supporters stormed the Capitol and lusted after killing Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence — all because he thought he could deny the will of the voting public?

The only reaction so far from the White House about the Nobel prize was from Communications Director Steven Cheung who wrote on social media “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”

Machado, on the other hand, thanked the president for “his decisive support of our cause.”

That is leadership worthy of the prize.

What Trump consistently shows is not.

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Lead art: Screen grab from the Nobel Peace Prize website.

He Really Said That: Mike Johnson Edition

By Michael Woyton

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is a lawyer. He was asked whether he agreed with President Felon who said Chicago’s mayor and Illinois’s governor should be imprisoned for failing to protect ICE agents.

Johnson quickly admitted he wasn’t the attorney general — that wasn’t the question — and pivoted to how safe the streets of the District of Columbia are now — again, that wasn’t the question.

Jamelle Bouie’s description of the speaker is perfect.

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Johnson can’t seem to keep straight how he feels about swearing in new Democratic members of Congress. He upheld his duty by swearing in two Republicans during a pro forma session, but has said Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva will have to wait.

Now he said she can be sworn in “as soon as she wants”?

Fun Fact: Grijalva has said she will be the necessary 218th congressperson who will force a vote on releasing the Epstein files.

Coincidence?

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Johnson, who said he didn’t even know who Bad Bunny was before being selected to headline the Super Bowl, said Lee Greenwood of “God Bless the U.S.A.” fame and who published the God Bless the U.S.A. Bible would be a better choice because a lot of impressionable children watch the sporting event.

Mike Johnson says Bad Bunny is a “terrible” Super Bowl choice and suggests Lee Greenwood would be better
byu/MrDillon369 inpopculturechat

Love the following comment — and the comments on the comment.

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Listen to what Johnson, a self-described Christian, says about who is worthy of emergency health care in America.

Fun Fact: President Saint Ronald Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act in 1986 which requires most hospitals that have emergency departments to provide emergency care to people — regardless of immigration status, insurance coverage or ability to pay.

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Lead art: Screen grab from the Associated Press via YouTube.

Another Poll That Won’t Be in Felon’s Scrapbook

By Michael Woyton

It should not be a surprise to anyone that Paramount Skydance’s multi-billionaire owners put a presidential-felon-friendly person in charge of CBS News.

The announcement Monday that former New York Times pundit Bari Weiss will be the storied news organization’s editor-in-chief is not receiving great reviews from those who value journalistic principals or competency.

Esquire’s Charles Pierce wrote in advance of the announcement that “[b]ased on her resume, Weiss isn’t any more qualified to run a major news organization than she is to fly Artemis III to the moon,” all jokes about rocket science to the contrary.

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Pierce’s kicker was that this move of hiring “a conservative affirmative-action monitor” for the newsroom in effect turns the Tiffany Network into the Dollar Store.

That said, CBS News pre-Weiss published what may be its last trustworthy poll in connection with YouGov over the weekend showing less than stellar results for the current commander-in-chief as well as both political parties.

As we discussed Friday, polls from the Washington Post, Marist, Siena and Morning Consult found pluralities blaming the the GOPmaga administration and Congress for the ongoing government shutdown, now in its sixth day.

CBS’s poll also blames the party that holds power in all three branches of government for the shutdown — according to 39 percent of respondents. Congressional Dems got 30 percent of the blame, with 31 percent saying everybody is equally at fault.

What caught my eye was the part of the poll results that focused on the economy.

How many times during his campaign for a second term did Trump promise to do something about skyrocketing grocery prices?

During the summer of 2024, he even stood in front of a table of food items at one of his golf courses and said, “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.”

Well, people remembered and noticed that “day one” has come and gone, and, according to the CBS News poll, they said “the Trump administration isn’t focused enough on lowering prices.”

People who responded to the poll said the most important issue facing the country was economy and jobs — 27 percent — and inflation — 21 percent.

Health care came in at 15 percent, and that might change in the near future because of next year’s premium payments for the Affordable Care Act Marketplace.

They are expected to go up drastically due to the enhanced premium tax credits set to expire at the end of 2025. The Democrats in Congress have been trying to no avail to get the tax credits extended.

Back to the CBS News poll, when asked what people thought of Trump’s focus on lowering prices, 75 percent said there was not enough focus, with 20 percent saying it was the right amount and 5 percent thinking he was spending too much time on the issue.

In fact, 51 percent of people said Trump’s policies were making them worse off. Thirty-two percent said they were the same and only 17 percent said they were better off.

The CBS News/YouGov poll, conducted between Oct. 1 and Oct. 3, has a ±2.3 margin of error.

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I’d pay good money to see Miller perp walked.

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Lead art: Screen grab from CBS News website.

Felon, GOPmagas Continue to Play Blame Game over Shutdown

By Michael Woyton

President Donald J. Felon and his Republican buddies in the Senate and House may constantly be out in front of reporters and television cameras saying how the radical Democrats are the ones who turned out the lights and locked the doors throughout the government.

However, according to four polls of American voters taken between late September and Oct. 1, the GOPmaga message isn’t getting much traction, NBC News reported.

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In the middle of the third day of the shutdown, NBC said that the Washington Post found 47 percent of adults in the United States blame the president and the Republican-led Congress, with 30 percent blaming Dems and 23 percent unsure.

Polls by Marist, Siena and Morning Consult also found pluralities blaming the Republican administration/Congress.

A deeper dig into the Siena poll, which was done with the New York Times, found that both sides were blamed equally by registered voters — 33 percent — with 26 percent blaming Trump/GOP outright and 19 percent blaming the Dems. Twenty-one percent said they didn’t have enough information to make up their minds.

Even though the GOPmagas control all three branches of government, 60 votes are needed in the Senate to pass a funding bill — there are only 53 Republicans seats in the Senate, so they definitely require some Democratic votes.

The problem is the Dems want “an extension of the expiring Affordable Care Act funds, a repeal of the Medicaid cuts and changes in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ and assurances that Trump won’t unilaterally withhold money” that Congress previously authorized for spending, as the wannabe dictator has continued to do of late.

The White House even posted a video laying all the blame on the Democrats, who — again for the cheap seats — are the minority party in the Senate and House and do not have control of the Oval Office.

In the video, the White House claims the Dems want taxpayers to fund health care for illegal immigrants and “transgender for everyone,” whatever the hell that means.

Ironically, at one point, the video states that “Democrats are out of control.” Indeed, that is true: Republicans are the ones who are in control.

And here’s another thing to keep in mind when the Republicans say that the Dems are to blame for keeping the government closed:

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The more that is reported about the raid of a Chicago apartment building this week the more horrific it becomes.

About 300 federal officers and members of other agencies forced their way into the apartment building on Chicago’s South Side from the air and ground, resulting in the detention of at least 30 immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally, NewsNation reported.

Officials said “violent members of the Tren de Aragua prison gang are terrorizing residents and carrying out illegal operations,” NewsNation said.

However, it seems from other reports, the agents were doing their own share of terrorizing — by breaking down doors, using flash bangs and bringing children out of their apartments half-naked and zip-tied, the New Republic wrote.

Numerous U.S. citizens were detained and the building was left “ravaged.” Some apartment unit doors were “blown off their hinges.”

One resident returned to his apartment to find his electronics and furniture missing and his clothes and shoes thrown on the floor.

This is our government now, people.

Wait until the military starts using American cities as training grounds.

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Lead art: Screen grab from The White House YouTube channel

Felon Threatens Americans with More Troops

By Michael Woyton

Have you ever been summoned to your boss’s office and you have no idea why the meeting was called? Then you sit there and have to listen to your boss drone on and on about things you couldn’t care less about.

Now imagine you are a professional military person with years in the field with more medals on your dress uniform than anyone can believe and you are forced to sit through a “speech” by President Donald J. Felon.

I would love to be a fly on the wall when those generals leave the speech and almost in unison say, “What the f*** was that? He’s our commander-in-chief?”

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It’s pretty certain that, if there haven’t already been those conversations, there is more than a few top generals and admirals who are saying, “Listen, call me if you get an order from this guy so we can talk it through.”

The more-than-one-hour speech was considerably incoherent. It was fashioned more as one of his campaign rallies, with a list of slights, imagined and otherwise, as well as numerous grievances. Except no one in the audience was applauding — that must have been unsettling for the former reality show host.

Some of the subjects of his “weaving” included: Sleepy Joe Biden, the autopen, Canada as the 51st state, the assembled military leaders looking as if they were out of central casting, the 1950s being “woke,” all the wars he’s settled since January, the Gulf of America, fake news CNN, and on and on.

Feel free to spend your time listening to this man who has criticized Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris for not being able to put together complete sentences. The link to C-Span’s video is here.

Perhaps the most startling thing the rambler-in-chief said, in light of saying over the weekend that the troops that were threatened to be deployed in Portland, Oregon, could use “full force” against the citizens, was seemingly setting up conditions that could lead to real violence.

“Discussing his efforts to send troops to American cities, he said: ‘We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military‘.” the New York Times said. (The link is not behind a paywall.)

As rambling as his entire appearance was, that statement stood out.

He knows he is unpopular, he knows his “policies” are unpopular, and he knows that he will lose what power he already has if he doesn’t find a way to keep people from voting in the midterms.

The United States is no longer at the threshold of a dictatorship. We are there.

He has fiddled with freedom of speech and that didn’t turn out the way he really wanted.

Having the military use liberal urban areas as “training grounds” means that freedom of assembly is on the table as well.

As I’ve said all along, anyone who voted for him thinking he would be a strong supporter of the second amendment must be surely be thinking that right is also on the chopping block. He will have to come up with a reason to get those guns off the streets.

Let’s hope the military leaders who had to sit through the nonsense from SecDef Pete Kegseth and the Mar-a-Lago makeup man realize that these are not people who have the best interests of the nation in mind and will actually uphold the Constitution.

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Remember this when you see on TV or read in the news that the Democrats are to blame for the government shutdown, which is highly likely at this point.

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Lead art: Screen grab from C-Span.org

Felon Threatens US City with ‘Full Force’ from Troops

By Michael Woyton

Because we can never get away from whatever brainfart the felon-in-chief is having at any moment, news broke Saturday that the president is sending troops to Portland, Oregon.

The elderly golfer made the announcement on social media that “he was directing the Department of Defense to ‘provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland‘,” the Associated Press reported.

As an explanation of the unexplainable, the adjudicated rapist and world leader bested by an escalator said the decision was “necessary to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, which he described as ‘under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists’.”

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A quick look at some of the local news online outlets Saturday morning found the top stories included anguish over the loss of a football game, Jimmy Kimmel returning to the Portland airwaves and a story on which Starbucks in the city are slated to be closed.

Screen grab from Portland Tribute website

One would think that some editor somewhere would consider being “war ravaged” newsworthy — even on a Saturday morning.

The Portland Tribute had a breaking news story about the president sending troops in to fight protesters, which quoted Portland Mayor Keith Wilson.

He said Friday that federal officers were neither needed nor wanted in the city,

“We did not ask for them to come,” Wilson was quoted as saying.

Earlier in the week, Trump said political activists in Portland were “professional agitators and anarchists,” and he said “we’re going to do a pretty big number on those people.”

The Mar-a-Lago makeup man is certainly ramping up the stakes, especially when he states that he is authorizing of “Full Force” by troops sent to Portland under the guidance of War Secretary Pete Kegseth.

Really, Grampa?

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Congratulations to Jimmy Kimmel for making both Sinclair and Nexstar back down.

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Lead art: Screen grab from LiveNow from Fox via YouTube.

Voters Think US in Political Crisis; Felon-in-Chief Not Improving His Numbers

By Michael Woyton

Is the United States of America in a political crisis?

An overwhelming number of registered voters think it is, according to the Quinnipiac Poll released yesterday.

And the breakdown is pretty telling, too, because 93 percent of Democrats, 84 percent of independents and, surprisingly, 60 percent of Republicans said this country is indeed in a political crisis.

Quinnipiac surveyed registered voters from Sept. 18 to Sept. 21, so it was in the period after Charlie Kirk’s murder and up to his memorial service.

The poll found that a majority of voters — 53 percent — are now pessimistic about freedom of speech being protected, with 43 percent saying they are optimistic.

That is a reversal from what Quinnipiac found six months ago, when 54 percent were optimistic and 43, pessimistic.

Couple that with 53 percent of voters believing that the system of democracy in the U.S. is not working, with 41 percent saying it is, while 71 percent of voters believe that politically motivated violence is a very serious problem.

Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said the Kirk assassination “lays bare raw, bipartisan concerns about where the country is heading.”

He said that the numbers tell us that few are confident that these problems will go away anytime soon.

“From a perceived assault on freedom of speech to the fragility of the democracy, a shudder of concern and pessimism rattles a broad swath of the electorate,” Malloy said.

Perhaps needless to say and perhaps not, voters are not gaining any more confidence that the administration of Donald Trump will be the way out from our troubles.

His approval ratings are largely unchanged from the poll’s August 27 survey, Quinnipiac said.

Fifty-four percent of voters disapprove of the way he is handling the job with 38 percent approving.

And the current Oval Office occupant is still underwater on each of the following issues: immigration, foreign policy, trade, the economy, gun violence, the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Trump’s troubling job performance numbers don’t do anything to help either of the two major political parties.

The recent poll found that only 30 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of the Democratic party, while 54 percent have an unfavorable opinion.

How did the Republican Party fare? Thirty-eight percent have a favorable opinion of the party with 51 percent having an unfavorable opinion.

Interestingly, Fox News First chose only to highlight the bad Dem numbers on one of their shows, ignoring how badly their Dear Leader was doing. See it here.

The poll which can be seen in full here surveyed 1,276 registered voters from Sept. 18 to Sept. 21. The margin of error is ±3.3 percentage points.

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Secretary Pete explains why indicting the guy who reopened the investigation of Hillary’s email server just 11 days before the 2016 election is bad for all of us.

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Why bring up the Epstein files? Because they need to be released.

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I think we’re all waiting for these ICE thugs to be brought up on assault charges.

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Lead art: Screen grab from the White House via YouTube.

He’s Back; The Other One Is Still Here, Too: Around the Enterwebs

By Michael Woyton

If anyone ever needed to make a case against giving even an inch to a bully, here are two sentences that summarize President Felon perfectly.

“Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative.”

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Jimmy Kimmel didn’t hold back in his return to late night Tuesday.

He set the right tone but still made his case.

Here’s the complete monologue from his Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel.

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During the news conference Tuesday the adjudicated rapist tried several times to say the word “acetaminophen” and didn’t really come close. That is why he kept saying, “Don’t take Tylenol.”

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The 24-hour news cycle in one editorial cartoon, via Martin Rowson.

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Lead art: Screen grab from Jimmy Kimmel Live via YouTube.

‘Tough It Out’: Felon Tells Pregnant Women

By Michael Woyton

OMG. The crazy — it burns.

Looks like we are back to the level of expertise from government akin to the “insert light into bodies” days of the COVID pandemic.

The grifter-in-chief and his merry band of sycophants told America and the world Monday that women are hurting their in utero children by taking over-the-counter pain- and fever-mitigating Tylenol.

The press release that was issued by the government had a headline that read “President Trump, Secretary Kennedy Announce Bold Actions to Tackle Autism Epidemic.”

Many of the headlines produced by news organizations disagreed: CNN — “Trump links autism to acetaminophen use during pregnancy, despite decades of evidence it’s safe”; NPR — “Trump blames Tylenol for autism. Science doesn’t back him up: Shots – Health News”; NYT — “Trump Issues Warning Based on Unproven Link Between Tylenol and Autism.”

Basically, the announcement was that the United States Food and Drug Administration was going to notify medical doctors “that the use of Tylenol during pregnancy can be associated with a ‘very increased risk of autism‘,” CNN reported.

“They are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary,” the president was quoted as saying, “if you can’t tough it out.”

CNN points out that medical experts say, without treatment, a fever can be dangerous for both the mother and the fetus, with risks including miscarriage, birth defects and high blood pressure.

Acetaminophen, which is sold under the brand name of Tylenol, is considered to be the only safe non-prescription option for pain or fever for someone who is pregnant.

Experts say that ibuprofen and even regular-dose aspirin can increase the risk of serious pregnancy complications, CNN said.

So sure, tough it.

Even the FDA — the agency that is initiating the process for a label change for acetaminophen — said in the last paragraph of its own news release that a causal relationship between Tylenol and neurological conditions “has not been established and there are contrary studies in the scientific literature.”

The FDA further said in the news release that “acetaminophen is the only over-the-counter drug approved for use to treat fevers during pregnancy, and high fevers in pregnant women can pose a risk to their children. Additionally, aspirin and ibuprofen have well-documented adverse impacts on the fetus.”

Way to confuse the consumer and cover your ass when the lawsuits start rolling in, FDA.

I pulled the transcript produced by Roll Call to give a few examples of what the Mar-a-Lago makeup man said during the news conference.

Now I understand why the White House press office does not issue transcripts of what he actually says.

I couldn’t in all honesty find a few examples that, in typing them out, much less in reading them, wouldn’t be enough to send someone open a bottle of acetaminophen and take the drug.

If you care to, click through to Roll Call’s transcript for shits and giggles.

The claims made by the president and RFK Jr., according to the BBC, have been attacked by medical experts.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said the announcement was “unsettling” and not based on reliable data. The National Autism Society in the United Kingdom said Trump’s statement was “dangerous, it’s anti-science and it’s irresponsible.”

We’ve seen how this administration either fails to understand scientific principals and data or refuses to in favor of conspiracy theories.

My hope is that people will continue to get their information from trusted medical sources and not be persuaded by whatever pseudo-medical bullshit is being spewed from his mouth.

Remember, he wanted the CDC to study injecting bleach in our bodies during COVID.

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Lead art: Screen grab from CNN.