Waymarks of the Otherland, 58th of the Dog Days, 526 M.E. (Aldebaran): The number of people now missing from the flood in Nepal has risen to 1,924, with 93,000 survivors in a state of "great need." This is beyond heart-breaking. The humanitarian crisis is almost beyond comprehension. 

Historian Heather Cox Richardson is about the only person I see picking up on the story about RFK, Jr. lying to Congress. In her newsletter, she notes that Kennedy’s visit to Samoa empowered anti-vaccine activists there, and after he left, a measles epidemic killed 83 people. Knowingly lying to Congress is a crime, although it is rarely prosecuted. Still, the apparent proof that Kennedy lied to Congress is a clear opening for hearings into Kennedy’s testimony, history, and conduct in office, including changing the vaccine schedule after promising not to. If Senator Rand Paul could only redirect some of his irrational hatred of Anthony Fauci toward the U.S. health official who actually is harming the health of Americans.

Yesterday, RFK, Jr. suggested that Governor Josh Shapiro’s announcement of the deaths of two unvaccinated people in Pennsylvania from measles might “have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor’s hopeful staffers.” One of the deceased was a newborn, too young for the vaccine and thus dependent on herd immunity. 

The MAGA/MAHA faction is playing the some old game they tried to play during the covids. "They didn't die from covid - they died from respiratory failure," and "Covid didn't kill them, pneumonia did." Those arguments ignore the fact that the respiratory failure and pneumonia were caused by the covids and/or exacerbated by the covids. It's like if I dropped an anvil on someone's head and tried to argue, "The anvil didn't kill then, they died of blunt force trauma."   

As forecast, Dolly petered out in the Atlantic and is no longer considered a tropical storm. There may still be damage and flooding from heavy rains in the Leeward Islands from the remnants of Dolly, but it looks now like the poetic justice of Mar-A-Lago being washed away by Hurricane Dolly isn't going to come to pass. We're counting on you now, Edouard.