But despite Kennedy’s explanation of his supplements, it’s not quite that simple. As someone who authored a 2000 New York Times lament about steroid use titled “Baseball Must Come Clean on Its Darkest Secret,” reported for The New Republic from Berlin on the legacy of the East German doping freak show, and helped write Juiced, the memoir of steroid slugger Jose Canseco, I politely call bullshit on the independent presidential candidate.
Steroids and synthetic testosterone are two names for the same thing. Allow me to quote from the Drug Enforcement Agency: “Anabolic steroids are synthetically produced variants of the naturally occurring male hormone testosterone that are abused in an attempt to promote muscle growth, enhance athletic or other physical performance, and improve physical appearance.”
The DEA lists the variations on the same basic molecule: Testosterone, trenbolone, oxymetholone, methandrostenolone, nandrolone, stanozolol, and boldenone. Put simply, it’s all about dosage. Think of the late broadcaster Rush Limbaugh on opioids: Take a modest dose, as prescribed by your doctor, and it’s health care; gobble pills like candy, and you’ve become a drug abuser. To this observer of the steroid scene, Kennedy gives every indication of being in the latter category and expecting the prestige of his last name, age, and wealth to shield him from scrutiny. He may be proved correct. Despite a few stories about how he came by that weird physique, the media hasn’t shown much interest. Perhaps they will, now that The New York Times has reported Kennedy’s claim that a parasitic worm was eating at his brain.
A progressive veterans group went after “disgusting” Donald Trump this past week following the GOP nominee’s controversial stop at Arlington National Cemetery that included campaign staffers’ altercation with cemetery officials.
“Now, maybe the greatest insult of all, turning a military cemetery visit into a political stunt with cameras in tow,” said a narrator in a scathing ad from political action committee VoteVets.
The ad arrives after an Arlington official during Trump’s visit to the cemetery (at the invitation of some family members of military service members killed in the 2021 Kabul airport attack), was allegedly “pushed” aside by campaign staffers after informing them not to film part of the cemetery where recently fallen U.S. troops were buried.
Federal law prohibits “political campaign or election-related activities” within Army National Military Cemeteries, according to a statement from the cemetery.
Trump has since shared a campaign video featuring footage from his visit while a campaign spokesperson has denied that a staffer pushed an official, claiming they were “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, on Saturday, declared that Trump “disrespected sacred ground” for a “political stunt” during the visit.
In an interview with Newsweek IAVA chief executive Allison Jaslow said: "When I visit Section 60, it is to honor the fallen and remind myself that I was one of the lucky ones who made it home. There are plenty of places appropriate for politics—Arlington is not one of them.
"Any aspiring elected official, especially one who hopes to be Commander-in-Chief, should not be confused about that fact. Nor should they hide behind members of our community to justify politicking on such sacred ground."
Following Trump's visit, Charlotte Clymer, a veteran and former member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as "the Old Guard," who was formerly stationed at Arlington National Cemetery, wrote in a blog post that Trump "cannot extend proper respect to our military."
Serving in a unit like the 101st Airborne Division can feel like a job. It’s a normal, everyday thing. Even in combat. It’s not until after you leave a famous unit like that — after you leave the Army, in fact — that you realize it is a privilege to lead and serve alongside such soldiers.
It’s not until much later, among the regular people at the office, that you realize how unlikely it is that anyone around you would ever grab three guys and come running if you were pinned down or out of ammo. In the Army, you take those things for granted because everybody does it. They do it. They don’t question it. They don’t all survive.
I survived and I’m old now. Not truly old. I’m 46. But old in the Army sense. I’m no longer carved out of wood. My left hamstring groans at the thought of running more than a mile. Doctors have taken an interest in my colon.
But I realize this is a privilege. It’s a gift. Being old, I mean. Aging out. For once, I’m finally aware of the privilege in the moment. I am old. But I have friends who are still in their 20s. Friends who should be in their 40s. Some of them are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
That is what makes Arlington a special place. And for those of us who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, Section 60 — the burial site of hundreds of service members killed in those wars — is the inner sanctum. It is the most sacred plot among more than 600 hallowed acres. When I lived in Northern Virginia during Barack Obama’s administration, I avoided Section 60 studiously. It was too much, and still too close. There was always that looming sense that it could’ve been me. Maybe it should’ve been me.
So I didn’t visit until I was about to move back to Dallas. An Army buddy told me I had to go before I left D.C. So I did. Finally.
All of this is to say that, to combat veterans, Arlington National Cemetery has the same power that all holy places have. And that is why Donald Trump’s recent behavior is so repulsive.
Trump was so eager to use Arlington’s Section 60 as a backdrop for a campaign event this week that he may have broken federal laws against politicizing the burial ground to do it. Trump’s staff also shoved aside a cemetery official trying to stop them. He even posed for a photograph over a U.S. Marine’s gravesite, grinning and giving a thumbs-up. The moment was jaw-droppingly crass and vulgar, as all of Trump’s are. It defiled sacred ground.
In other news, Lawahez Jabari, Rebecca Cohen, Hayley Walker and Sarah Dean (NBC NEWS) reported:
Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli American taken hostage in the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, is among six hostages whose bodies were recovered Saturday.
"With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh. The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time," a family representative said.
President Joe Biden said the bodies of Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages held by Hamas were recovered in a tunnel under Rafah.
The other five discovered were Carmel Gat, Alexander Lobanov, Eden Yerushalmi, Oren Danino and Almog Sarusi. Would the six be dead if War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu had worked on an actual cease-fire instead of prolonging the assault on Gaza? It's a question more and more Israelis are asking themselves. , and (CNN) reported:
A group representing the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza has called for the public to mobilize after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported finding “a number of bodies” in the war-torn territory.
The demands by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum came as thousands rallied across Israel on Saturday demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sign a ceasefire-for-hostages deal.
The IDF said in a statement Saturday that it had “located a number of bodies during combat in the Gaza Strip,” but it has not confirmed whether any of the bodies are those of hostages and asked the public to “refrain from spreading rumors.”
However, many Israelis have taken the statement to mean that more Israeli hostages have been found dead and it has amplified calls for the government to secure a ceasefire-for-hostages deal.
The Hostages Families Forum, which has confirmed their deaths, has organised nationwide rallies and hit out at Prime Minister Netanyahu for failing to secure a ceasefire deal.
"Today, the entire nation will stand alongside the hostages' families to protest the cabinet's ongoing neglect if the hostages," it said, calling on the public to join a demonstration "demanding a complete halt of the country and the immediate implementation of a deal to release the hostages."
"If it weren’t for the saboteurs, the excuses, and the spin, the hostages whose deaths we learned of this morning would probably be alive,” the forum said on X.
On 21 November 2019, Netanyahu was officially indicted for breach of trust, accepting bribes, and fraud, leading him to legally relinquish his ministry portfolios other than prime minister. Netanyahu's trial in the Jerusalem District Court began on 24 May 2020, with witness testimony starting on 5 April 2021. The prosecution listed 333 witnesses.[1] As of June 2024, the trial is still ongoing.[2][3][4][5]
Saturday's discovery of six dead hostages has only inflamed anger at Netanyahu who should not have taken nearly nine months to bring the hostages home. BBC NEWS noted, "The mayor of Tel Aviv says the municipality will join tomorrow's strikes, he says in a post on X, external. Ron Huldai goes on in the social media post to say the Israeli government 'abandoned' the six hostages whose bodies were recovered from an underground tunnel in southern Gaza." Holly Johnston and Taylor Heyman (THE NATIONAL) added, "Israel's Ben Gurion Airport will be closed for take-off and landings from 8am, the country's Trade Union Federation said, and schools would only open until 11.45am. Nurseries would be closed all day, the Teachers Union, a branch of Histarut, said." And ALZEERA reported, "Tevel Dan, the company that operates light rail services, in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area said train services will “operate in a reduced format” and that there may be disruptions and delays, according to YNet. In West Jerusalem, Cfir said the city’s light rail system will not operate until 12:00pm local time (09:00 GMT) because of the strike called by the Histadrut, the country’s largest labour union."
Sunday did see strikes and massive protests across Israel. THE JERUSALEM POST offers a photo essay here. Dearbail Jordan and Alice Cuddy (BBC NEWS) note, "Protesters - many clad in Israeli flags - descended on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities, accusing PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his government of not doing enough to reach a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas during the 7 October attacks." Josef Federman and Melanie Lidman (AP) explain, "The mass outpouring appeared to be the largest such demonstration in 11 months of war and protesters said it felt like a possible turning point, although the country is deeply divided." And how were the protesters recognized by the police? CNN reports, "Police in Tel Aviv used stun grenades to disperse protesters on Sunday night, according to video footage and Naama Lazimi, a member of Israel’s parliament who was present at the demonstration. In video footage verified by CNN, police are seen throwing stun grenades at protestors blocking Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway, who were calling for the release of hostages in Gaza."
ALJAZEERA adds, "The protesters chanted 'Now! Now!' and demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a ceasefire with Palestinian group Hamas to bring the remaining captives home. Many Israelis blocked roads in Tel Aviv and demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s office in West Jerusalem." IPS analyst Phyllis Bennis tells ALJAZEERA, "Clearly the best way to bring all the hostages home, to get the Palestinian prisoners released -- some 10,000 of them who are being held illegally inside Israeli prisons, 6,000 of them without any charges, and stopping this genocidal war that Israel is waging in Gaza -- the best way to do that is for the United States to stop sending weapons."
Barak Ravid (AXIOS) notes, "White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday told families of U.S. hostages held in Gaza that President Biden is considering presenting Israel and Hamas a final proposal for a hostage-release and ceasefire in Gaza deal later this week, two sources with direct knowledge of the meeting told Axios." What's holding it up? ALJAZEERA notes, "Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya told Al Jazeera that the Palestinian group has been ready to sign a ceasefire agreement for Gaza, but Netanyahu has prevented that from happening." Again, the minute the assault ends, Netanyahu has to deal with the criminal charges he faces for his corruption. BBC NEWS reports, "Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant is urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas to bring the remaining hostages home from Gaza"
Sunday also saw the Israeli government has bombed another school in Gaza. AFP quotes a Palestinian government spokesperson, Mahmud Bassal, stating, "Eleven people, including a woman and girl, were killed when an Israeli air strike struck the Safad school in Gaza City sheltering displaced people.
Nadine Yousif (BBC News) reports, "Joe Biden has said Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure a hostage deal and ceasefire with Hamas, amid reports suggesting a new proposal would be sent to the Israeli prime minister as 'final.' The US president and Kamala Harris, his vice-president, met negotiators in the Situation Room to hammer out a proposal, as protests engulfed Israel on Monday over the weekend deaths of six hostages in Gaza." Eugenia Yosef and Lauren Kent (CNN) note, "The Hostages and Missing Families Forum praised US President Joe Biden’s comment that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas" and quote this statement, "The Hostages Families Forum commends President Biden and his administration for their actions and determination to secure the release of all 101 hostages. We urge Prime Minister Netanyahu to demonstrate similar resilience, determination, and commitment to the lives of the hostages,"
In the face of the anger and fallout, War Criminal Netanyahu has issued an apology. I'm sorry? That's supposed to cover it?
CNN's Nic Robertson offers this take:
Gripped by swelling protests and labor union strikes, the weeks ahead for Israel are unpredictable. These well-tested democratic tools of change have toppled governments before, but it’s best to remember that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a political survivor extraordinaire.
Even now, Netanyahu and the hard-right nationalist members of his cabinet are working to shut down the legal protests and strikes through a court order, that seemed in the short term at least to have been successful.
Polio is a threat in Gaza now thanks to the continued assault. We'll note this from NPR's WEEKEND EDITION (Saturday):
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Polio, which has been gone from the Gaza Strip for decades, is back as the war there continues. But there is the possibility of good news. Tomorrow, the United Nations will begin to vaccinate children in Gaza against that preventable and highly contagious virus. It'll be an enormous effort, one that NPR international correspondent Aya Batrawy will follow from her base in Dubai. And she joins us now. Aya, thanks for being with us.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Thank you, Scott.
SIMON: Tell us about how this vaccination campaign's being rolled out.
BATRAWY: Well, the U.N. has really big aims here. They want to reach more than 640,000 children across Gaza to give them two courses of the polio vaccine. It will be given orally in droplets, but it needs refrigeration at every step, and pretty much Gaza has no electricity. They're just running on generators and fuel that's in short supply. Another logistical challenge here is that the whole population is displaced, and so it's not easy for them to reach U.N.-run clinics. But the U.N. groups leading this vaccination effort, which is UNICEF and the World Health Organization, they say the most critical factor is a pause in airstrikes so that the vaccines can reach all these children. Now, Israel says it's agreed to short pauses. Basically, it won't attack for about eight hours a day in specific parts of Gaza for the few days that this campaign is being rolled out, and Hames says they'll also cooperate.
SIMON: How did the polio spread there in the first place?
BATRAWY: Doctors tell me this was a combination of factors. You know, you have children, Scott, that haven't had access to vaccines, but also most of Gaza's hospitals have been destroyed or closed. You also have wastewater treatment plants and desalination plants that have been bombed, so people have been drinking dirty water to survive. And we know from the Gaza Health Ministry that more than 40,000 people have been killed by Israeli fire in this war, but we don't have a tally for people who've died from illness. However, we know there's been a huge spike in kids with infections and diarrhea. Children are hungry. They are malnourished. They're living in these overcrowded shelters or in the open in tents and with weak immune systems.
SIMON: And do we know how widespread polio could now be in Gaza?
BATRAWY: Well, there's already been a case confirmed in a 10-month-old baby boy who was active and crawling, and he's now paralyzed in one leg after contracting polio. And he is the first case of polio in a quarter-century in Gaza. Now, it comes after the Gaza Health Ministry and the World Health Organization - they sounded the alarm on this in July when they announced that the polio virus had been found in sewage water flowing in the streets around the tents of displaced people. And there are now at least two other suspected cases as well. Now, the symptoms for polio show in one out of every 100 to 1,000 people. So the doctors I spoke with say this means thousands of people in Gaza likely already have contracted polio. It is spreading, and one doctor called it a powder keg.
Yolande Knell (BBC NEWS) notes, "To be effective, the World Health Organization (WHO) says at least 90% of children under 10 must be immunised in a short time frame. It follows the discovery of the first confirmed case of polio in 25 years in Gaza, with a UN expert saying more children are likely to be infected and that there could be a wider regional outbreak if the virus is not dealt with." Amr Mostafa (THE NATIONAL) reported, "Teams will be based at the health centres affiliated with the ministry and international organisations, including the UNRWA, in addition to mobile teams that will tour the enclave including the camps of the displaced people, Mr Dahir said. Another round will start on September 17 and will revisit the same areas. Yousef Abu Al Reesh, Gaza's deputy minister of health, said vaccination teams would try to get to as many areas as possible to ensure wide coverage but he said only a comprehensive ceasefire could guarantee enough children are reached." The roll out depends on a level of safety and it's a level that the Israeli government is unwilling to ensure. THE NATIONAL reports this morning:
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Tuesday that more than 160,000 children in central Gaza have received a first dose of polio vaccine, as part of an inoculation campaign that started on Sunday.The vaccination drive will continue in the centre of the enclave until Wednesday evening, the ministry said in a statement.
Vaccine doses will on Thursday be administered in Khan Younis governorate in southern Gaza for four days, the ministry added. It will then move to northern Gaza on Monday, with doses to be given out for another four days.
