At the end of WWII, Joseph Goebbels—Adolf Hitler's Reich Minister of Propaganda—and his wife Magda murdered their six children and then, just like their Führer, disposed of themselves.
That's an acolyte.
Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and his wife Emmy and daughter Edda survived the war, although he would later be tried for his war crimes, during which he claimed ignorance or that he was only following orders. After his 1946 conviction, he ended his own life to escape hanging.
That's a sycophant—ultimately just a self-serving opportunist.
Whether MAGA Republican President Donald Trump is surrounded by acolytes or sycophants probably won't be known until the end, like the fallout among Hitler's Nazi followers.
Some current MAGA minions will remain true to MAGA's White supremacist, Christian nationalist doctrine while others will fall over themselves to disavow Trump and blame ignorance or duty for their part in promoting Project 2025's racist, misogynistic, bigoted agenda.
Before the fall, they all look exactly the same, parroting Trump's rhetoric, making excuses for his failures, covering up his cognitive decline, and acting like everything he spews is brilliant.
Take a recent press conference where MAGA Republican members of Congress and Trump administration officials gathered to announce their plan to make less fuel efficient cars available again, instead of relegating them to the scrap heap with coal powered steam locomotives.
MTV Real World: Boston "party animal" turned Fox News personality turned Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy was speaking about his predecessor when a surprisingly awake Trump decided to mock former DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg's name.
Again.
The gathered sycophants, like former Trump foe Texas Senator Rafael "Ted" Cruz who flung his wife and father under the bus to suck up to the POTUS, and acolytes laughed like Trump's childish behavior and his old joke were comedy gold.
You can watch the moment here:
It reminded many of an actually funny scene from Austin Powers that mocks such boot licking behavior by underlings towards a largely incompetent, totally clueless leader.
People sounded off on the immaturity of the POTUS and the servile behavior from a group of adults handed power over others' lives and futures.
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Others noted Duffy struggled with more than just pronouncing his predecessor's name.
In another moment with the press, Duffy declared:
"This rule will actually allow you to bring back the 1970s station wagon. Maybe a little wood paneling on the side."
"We can bring back choice to consumers."
The return of gas guzzling, 12 miles-per-gallon, wood paneled land yachts—that's something definitely worth rolling back fuel efficiency and deepening the United States' dependence on fossil fuels.
Maybe the Trump administration can eliminate seatbelts and child safety seats next.
When Colbert asked why Harry would want a Hallmark movie gig considering he actually is a prince, Harry replied:
"Well, you Americans are obsessed with Christmas movies and you’re clearly obsessed with royalty, so why not?”
When Colbert said he doesn't think Americans are "obsessed with royalty," Harry said:
"Really?!? I heard you ‘elected’ a king.”
That remark brings to mind last year's 6-3 Supreme Court decision giving Trump immunity for many official acts as president—and it doesn't help that the White House has referred to Trump as a "king" more than once, or that he's been the target of the nationwide "No Kings" protests.
Harry then joked he would "do anything" to land a role in a Hallmark movie—and mocked Trump some more:
“I’ll record a self-tape, I’ll fly myself to an audition. I’ll settle a baseless lawsuit with the White House—all the things you people on TV do.”
In response to Colbert's insistence that "I didn’t do any of those things," Harry said:
“Maybe that’s why you’re canceled.”
Harry's remark referenced CBS' cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Colbert has consistently been at the top of the ratings, so it shocked people when CBS, citing economic concerns, announced that his program would go off the air next May—news that came as its parent company, Paramount, sought government approval for a merger with Skydance.
The FCC later approved the merger and Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump, which Colbert said amounted to a payoff to secure approval for the merger.
You can watch Harry's appearance on Colbert's program below.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
Harry's appearance was a hit with viewers.
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Well played, Harry.
The hep-B vaccine has been universally recommended for newborns in the United States since 1991.
Extensive, vetted, credible medical research shows hep-B infections among infants and children dropped 99% due to the existing vaccine protocol that MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary, antivaxxer conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wants to eliminate.
Hepatitis B is an incurable infection that once contracted, can lead to liver disease, cancer, and early death.
RFK Jr.—a former heroin addict who claims using the drug as a student improved his grades—vowed to his antivaxxer supporters he'd overhaul the children's vaccine schedule. He sang a different tune during his confirmation hearing when he acknowledged "people should not take medical advice" from him and that he'd vaccinate his own children.
Kennedy falsely believes—or claims to believe to the scientifically illiterate people he grifted millions of dollars from—an autism epidemic—that never existed—is caused by vaccines and vowed to find the cause by September of 2025—which he didn't. For people like Kennedy, a child with autism is worse than having a child die from a preventable disease.
But there is zero credible scientific or medical evidence to support his autism vaccination link claim and RFK Jr. has never produced any.
Despite this, Trump's HHS Secretary had the CDC website updated to claim there is a likely connection between vaccines and autism.
RFK Jr. has no training or education in public health, medicine, or the physical sciences.
Kennedy's campaign to reshape vaccination policy has drawn vocal opposition from epidemiology experts and representatives of the major credible medical groups.
Back in September, when the change to hep-B childhood vaccination was first discussed, pediatric infectious disease clinician Dr. Flor Muñoz told the panel:
"A question I've had all along through these discussions is why? Why are we addressing this hepatitis B vaccine recommendation? Is there really a reason?"
No verifiable medical reason has been provided for any of RFK Jr.'s changes that are now dominating HHS and CDC practices.
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Kennedy routinely defends his positions based on what he has or hasn't seen firsthand.
Kennedy has claimed autism and other childhood illnesses and disorders are an epidemic because he never saw neurodivergent, disabled, or chronically ill children when he was a child.
Kennedy was born in 1954. The Americans with Disabilities Act wasn't passed until 1990, which required a free, appropriate, public education in the least restrictive environment for all children with disabilities. Prior to that, disabled children were often either educated in separate, private institutions or not educated at all.
The last of the "Ugly Laws" was stricken in 1974, when Kennedy was 20 years old. Ugly Laws allowed police to arrest and jail people with visible disabilities for the crime of being seen in public.
It's highly likely RFK Jr. never did see disabled or neurodivergent children when he was a child, but not because they didn't exist. His inability, or unwillingness, to make such logical progressions instead of drawing false conclusions is part of why Kennedy is unfit to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy also infamously cut the head off a whale to bring it home, dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park, told the world a worm was found in his brain, and took his grandchildren swimming in sewage-contaminated water despite a U.S. National Park Service ban on entering or even touching the water. RFK Jr. also claims he can tell when children at airports are unhealthy just by looking at them.
The proposed changes to existing vaccine schedules run counter to hours of data presented by the CDC's own scientists throughout the ACIP meetings.
Prior to his confirmation, many in public health warned that Kennedy aimed to bring his antivaxx pseudoscience to HHS.
Once confirmed, Kennedy replaced all 17 members of ACIP with his own handpicked people. Most of his appointees have a history of using antivaxxer rhetoric and promoting disproven or wholly unsubstantiated science and medicine to support their beliefs—just like Kennedy.
After Thursday's ACIP meeting, the qualified, vetted health experts with Defend Public Health issued a statement expressing their shock at the "flood of antivaxxer disinformation" that dominated the proceedings.
Epidemiologist Elizabeth Jacobs of the Defend Public Health Coordinating Committee said:
"The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is no longer a legitimate scientific body. At their meeting today, the primary speakers were a climate scientist and an MBA who are immersed in anti-vaccination misinformation."
"When pressed for evidence to back up their vague but sinister claims alleging harm associated with hepatitis B vaccine, they were unable to do so."
Dr. Jacobs, professor emerita of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Nutritional Sciences at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and the University of Arizona Cancer Center, added:
"Secretary Kennedy claims that he wants to rid ACIP of conflicts of interest, yet he has organized a group that espouses and promotes anti-vaccination beliefs in the absence of facts."
"Tomorrow, the parade of conflicts of interest will continue with the appearance of an attorney who sues vaccine companies for a living and yet was given a speaking slot at a scientific meeting. He will likely present data from a discredited and unpublished study, as he has done in the past, because he doesn't have the knowledge, training or experience to understand its flaws."
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"At today's meeting, multiple speakers also attempted to re-stigmatize Hepatitis B infection by blaming US cases on 'illegal immigrants,' and tying the condition to men who have sex with men, women having multiple sex partners, immigrants, and urban residence. This is a disgraceful direction for a once scientifically-based committee."
Dr. Jacobs concluded her statement, saying:
"It is an epidemiological crime scene."
And just like the results of RFK Jr.'s work to eliminate childhood vaccinations for measles, if his latest change gets implemented by ACIP, more people will be permanently adversely affected or die from an almost entirely preventable disease.
