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COMING: THE NEXT 9/11, COURTESY OF TSA: PART TWO (END)

In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on November 21, 2025 at 12:17 am

All security systems—including those considered the best—are created by humans. And humans are and will always be imperfect creatures.         

So there will inevitably be times when security agents miss the assassin or terrorist intent on mayhem.  For example:

  • In September, 1975, two women—Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and Sara Jane Moore—tried to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford on two separate occasions.
  • Fromme was tackled by a Secret Service agent. Moore’s aim was deflected by Oliver Sipple, a Marine and Vietnam veteran, thus saving Ford’s life.

Gerald Ford being hustled from danger by Secret Service agents

Until these incidents, the Secret Service profile of a potential assassin didn’t include a woman.

  • On March 30, 1981, John W. Hinckley, a psychotic obsessed with actress Jodie Foster, gained access to a line of reporters waiting to throw questions at President Ronald Reagan.
  • As Reagan got into his bulletproof Presidential limousine, Hinckley drew a pistol and opened fire. Wounded, Reagan escaped death by inches.

The Reagan Assassination attempt

The Secret Service Service had failed to prevent the attack because no one—until that moment—had attacked a President from the section reserved for reporters.

  • On September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists armed with boxcutters highjacked four American jetliners and turned them into fuel-bombs.
  • Two of the airliners struck the North and South towers of the World Trade Center, destroying both structures.
  • A third hit the Pentagon.
  • The fourth—United Airlines Flight 93—crashed when it was diverted from its intended target (the White House or Congress) by passengers who resolved to fight back.
  • Three thousand Americans died that day—in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Until this day of catastrophe, no highjacker had turned a jumbo-jet into a fuel-bomb. Passengers had been advised to cooperate with highjackers, not resist them.

So how will the next 9/11 happen?  In all likelihood, like this:

  • A terrorist—or, more likely, several terrorists—will sign up for one or more airline “VIP screening” programs.
  • They will be completely clean—no arrests, no convictions.  
  • They may well be respectable citizens in their communities.
  • They will probably have amassed enough “frequent flier miles” to ingratiate themselves with the airlines and convince the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) of their integrity.
  • Then, one day, they will breeze through their selected airports—
  • Without removing their belts and shoes;
  • Without undergoing pat-down searches;
  • Without being required to remove laptops and other electronic devices from their carry-ons;
  • Without exposing their electronic devices to X-ray technology.
  • Then they will board planes—either as part of an individual terrorist effort or a coordinated one, a la 9/11.

And then it will be too late.

Memorial to the passengers and crew of United Flight 93

The TSA/airlines’ VIP programs are based on the assumption that someone who has completed a security check in the past need not be re-checked in the future.

This assumption has proven false for American Intelligence agencies such as the FBI and CIA.

  • FBI agent Robert Hanssen spied for Soviet and Russian Intelligence services for 22 years (1979-2001). He’s now serving a life sentence in Florence, Colorado.
  • CIA agent Aldrich Ames betrayed American secrets—including those Russians who had shared them—to Soviet and Russian espionage agencies from 1985 to 1994. He is likewise serving a life sentence.

Even requiring an agent to undergo repeated security checks is no guarantee of trustworthiness.

When asked about how he repeatedly passed CIA polygraph tests, Ames said: “There’s no special magic. Confidence is what does it. Confidence and a friendly relationship with the examiner. Rapport, where you smile and make him think that you like him.”

Thus, as William Shakespeare warned in Hamlet, “One may smile and smile and be a villain”—or a highjacker.

The TSA introduced its Pre-Check program during the fall of 2011. By August, 2024, more than 20 million  travelers had been found worthy of “expedited” status.

In early September, 2013, TSA announced that it would more than double its “expedited screening” program, Pre-Check, from 40 to 100 airports by the end of the year.

Nor is TSA the only organization giving big-spending fliers special treatment at potential risk to their country. For example:

Delta Air Lines offers Sky Priority, described as providing “privileged access through security checkpoints” at select airports.

Another private security program, Clear, collects several pieces of biometric data on well-heeled passengers. Once verified by a kiosk local to the security checkpoint, the passengers are allowed to skirt the security barriers that poor and middle-class folks must pass through.

Priority Access, set up by TSA and the airlines, provides “expedited service” to first-class and business passengers. To qualify, you need only possess certain credit cards—such as the United Mileage Plus Club Card.

Some critics blast this two-tier passenger check-in system as an affront to democratic principles.

“It’s stratifying consumers by class and wealth, because the people who travel a lot usually have higher incomes,” said Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and frequent business traveler.

But there is an even more important reason to immediately disband these programs and require everyone—rich and middle-class alike—to undergo the same level of security screening:

The 3,000 men and women who died horrifically on September 11, 2001, at the hands of airline passengers whom authorities thought could be trusted to board a plane.

Tribute to the vanished World Trade Center

COMING: THE NEXT 9/11, COURTESY OF TSA: PART ONE (OF TWO)

In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on November 20, 2025 at 12:10 am

More than 20 years after 9/11, America is now selling its Islamic enemies access to the very weapons—jet-fueled airplanes—they need to wage jihad against its citizens.         

World Trade Center on September 11, 2001

This danger is brought to you by IdentoGO, the private security company chosen by the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) to screen airline passengers.

Consider this ad it posts:

“How many times have you stood in line at the airport watching others breeze through security with no hassle? By enrolling in TSA Pre✓® , you too can breeze through security.

“Keep your shoes, jacket and belt on; your laptop in its case; 3-1-1 compliant liquids in your bag; and enjoy a better overall travel experience.

“TSA Pre✓® allows low-risk travelers to experience faster, more efficient screening at participating U.S. airport checkpoints for domestic and international travel.”

Yes, for an enrollment payment of $78, you, too, can apply to receive such preferential treatment. Even if it means putting the Nation’s security at risk. Travelers that are eligible for TSA Pre✓® include:

  • U.S. citizens of frequent flyer programs who meet TSA-mandated criteria and who have been invited by a participating airline;
  • U.S. citizen, U.S. national or Lawful Permanent Residents who are members of the TSA Pre✓® Application Program;
  • U.S. citizens who are members of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Trusted Traveler program, such as Global Entry, SENTRI, and NEXUS and Canadian citizens who are members of NEXUS; and
  • Members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

To apply for TSA Pre✓®:

  1. Find an IdentoGO Center near you, including a growing number of airport locations, offering TSA Pre✓® and pre-enroll online.
  2. Schedule an appointment to come in for fingerprinting.
  3. Pay the $85 applications fee and show your proof-of-identity documents from the approved list of valid government IDs.
  4. A Known Traveler Number (KTN) will be mailed to you or can be obtained online.
  5. Once enrolled, your KTN is used when booking travel and your TSA Pre✓® approval is printed on your boarding passes.  
  6. Be sure to update your airline member profile to have the number automatically sent to the TSA when making reservations.

 Among the credit cards that will buy you such preferential treatment:

If you’re accepted, you don’t need to undergo another background check for the next five years.

In 2024, 96% of TSA PreCheck  passengers waited less than five minutes to board.

So what difference does it make that some passengers must submit to close inspection while others do not?

  • If you’re trying to carry a metallic firearm aboard a plane, the magnetometer will likely pick it up.  But if you’ve filled your computer with plastic explosive, the magnetometer won’t pick it up.

Feature Article: Reimagining Imaging at the Airport | Homeland Security

Advanced imaging technology

  • Or maybe you want to be a shoe-bomber like Richard Reid, who tried to blow up an American Airlines flight in 2001. Being allowed to skip the requirement to remove your shoes will certainly take you a long way toward reaching your goal.

Why is America being placed at such risk?  Three reasons:

  1. The greed of American airline corporations and the TSA.
  2. Wealthy, self-entitled Americans hate waiting in long airport security lines—like ordinary citizens.
  3. The Calvinistic belief—shared by most Americans—that wealth is a sign of God’s favor, and thus proof that its holder is worthy of deference, if not awe.

On September 11, 2001, 2,996 people were killed and more than 6,000 others wounded as three highjacked airliners slammed into:

  • The North Tower of the World Trade Center;
  • The South Tower of the World Trade Center;
  • The Pentagon; and
  • A field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew on United Flight 93 tried to regain control.

The attacks inflicted the worst shock and grief on America since the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

So think about how easy it is to qualify as a TSA Pre-Check passenger the next time you board an airliner.

According to Yelp! reviews of thoroughly satisfied IdentoGO customers:

  • “My TSA precheck appointment was done in 10 minutes! Plenty of free parking in their parking lot. The staff was friendly and courteous. I made an appointment thru the TSA precheck website. When I arrived, there was no wait. The office was clean, and the staff member who I met was friendly and courteous. Be sure to bring in your proper documents. $85 fee collected at the end of appointment. TSA precheck works for domestic flights only.”
  • “The friendly agent took me in right away and he proceeded to go through my application with me, just to double check that all the information in the application is correct. He took my fingerprints (all fingers) and I was pretty much done in about 10 minutes.”
  • “Going here for TSA precheck is a no-brainer.  Super easy to get an appointment, free parking, and no waiting.  Staff was friendly and efficient, explained what to expect after they submitted my information, and within less than 10 minutes I was on my way. Went in on a Friday afternoon and by Monday evening (ok, late evening really), I had my KTN. So, so easy.”

WHEN THREATS AND BRIBES FAIL: PART TWO (END)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on November 18, 2025 at 12:10 am

…A truly great man is ever the same under all circumstances. And if his fortune varies, exalting him at one moment and oppressing him at another, he himself never varies, but always preserves a firm courage, which is so closely interwoven with his character that everyone can readily see that the fickleness of fortune has no power over him.
The conduct of weak men is very different. Made vain and intoxicated by good fortune, they attribute their success to merits which they do not possess. And this makes them odious and insupportable to all around them. And when they have afterwards to meet a reverse of fortune, they quickly fall into the other extreme, and become abject and vile.
—N
iccolo Machiavelli, The Discourses     

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Niccolo Machiavelli

When Donald Trump—as a businessman and President—has been confronted by men and women who can’t be bribed or intimidated, he has reacted with rage and frustration. 

  • Trump boasted that he “never” settled cases out of court. But New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman pressed fraud claims against the real estate mogul’s counterfeit Trump University—and Trump settled the case out of court rather than take the stand.
  • On May 17, 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller to investigate links between Russian Intelligence agents and the 2016 Trump Presidential campaign. 
  • Upon learning of his appointment, Trump wailed: “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked.” 
  • Throughout Mueller’s probe, Trump hurled repeated insults at him via Twitter and press conferences. His shills within Fox News and the Republican party attacked Mueller’s integrity and investigative methods. But Trump didn’t risk firing him, fearing impeachment.

Director Robert S. Mueller- III.jpg

Robert Mueller

  • When “democratic socialist” Zohran Mamdani declared his candidacy for New York City mayor on October 23, 2024, Trump viciously and repeatedly attacked him as a “communist.” He even threatened to cut off Federal aid to New York City.
  • Mamdami’s “communist” goals included support for universal child care and constructing 200,000 new affordable housing units.
  • When Mamdani overwhelmingly won election on November 4, he sannounced “If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.”
  • Trump responded the next day: “I hope it works out for New York. We’ll help him a little bit, maybe.”

Perhaps the key to Trump’s innermost fear can be found in a work of fiction—in this case, the 1996 historical novel, The Friends of Pancho Villa, by James Carlos Blake. 

The book depicts the Mexican Revolution (1910 – 1920) and its most famous revolutionary, Francisco “Pancho” Villa. it’s told from the viewpoint of Rodolfo Fierro, Villa’s most feared executioner. In one day, for example, Fierro—using two revolvers—executed 300 captured Federale soldiers.Related image

As in history, Blake’s Fierro presides over the execution of David Berlanga, a journalist who had dared criticize the often loutish behavior of Villa’s men.

On Villa’s command, Fierro approaches Berlanga in a Mexico City restaurant and orders: “Come with me.”

Standing against a barracks wall, Berlanga lights a cigar and requests permission to finish it. He then proceeds to smoke it with such a steady hand that its unbroken ash extends almost four inches.

The cigar finished, the ash still unbroken, Berlanga drops the butt to the ground and says calmly: “I’m ready.” 

Then the assembled firing squad does its work.

Later, Fierro is so shaken by Berlanga’s sheer fearlessness that he seeks an explanation for it. Sitting in a cantina, he lights a cigar and tries to duplicate Berlanga’s four-inch length.

But the best he can do is less than three inches. He concludes that Berlanga used a trick—but he can’t figure it out. 

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Rodolfo Fierro

It had to be a trick, Fierro insists, because, if it wasn’t, there were only two other explanations for such a calm demeanor in the face of impending death. 

The first was insanity. But Fierro rules this out: He had studied Berlanga’s eyes and found no madness there.

That leaves only one other explanation (other than a trick): Sheer courage. 

And Fierro can’t accept this, either—because it’s disturbing.  

“The power of men like me does not come solely from our ability to kill….No, the true source of our power is so obvious it sometimes goes unnoticed for what it is: our power comes from other men’s lack of courage.

“There is even less courage in this world than there is talent for killing. Men like me rule because most men are faint of heart in the shadow of death.

“But a man brave enough to control his fear of being killed, control it so well that no tremor reaches his fingers and no sign shows in his eyes…well. Such a man cannot be ruled, he can only be killed.”

Throughout his life, Trump has relied on bribery and intimidation. He well understands the power of greed and fear over most people.

What he doesn’t understand—and truly fears—is that some people cannot be bought or frightened. 

Like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Like Robert Mueller. And like Zohran Mamdani.

WHEN THREATS AND BRIBES FAIL: PART ONE (OF TWO)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on November 17, 2025 at 12:10 am

There’s a reason why Donald Trump loves tariffs—and it has nothing to do with economics. 

It has everything to do with fear.     

On January 20, 2025, his first day in office, he announced that he would impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting February 1. 

He could have opened well-intentioned negotiations with Canada and Mexico over what he considered an unfair trade imbalance. But he sees conciliation as a sign of weakness. 

Exactly as Adolf Hitler did. 

Robert Payne, author of the bestselling biography, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler (1973), described Hitler’s—and Trump’s—“negotiating” style thus: 

“He was incapable of bargaining. He was like a man who goes up to a fruit peddler and threatens to blow his brains out if he does not sell his applies at the lowest possible price.”

A similar example of his aggressiveness occurred during his first administration.

On July 14, 2019, Trump unleashed a brutal Twitter attack on four Democratic members of the House of Representatives who had harshly criticized his anti-immigration policies:

The Democrats—all female, and all non-white—were:

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York;
  • Rashida Tlaib of Michigan;
  • Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and
  • Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

Of the Congresswomen that Trump singled out:

  • Cortez was born in New York City.
  • Tlaib was born in Detroit, Michigan. 
  • Pressley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Only Omar was born outside the United States—in Somalia. And she became an American citizen in 2000 when she was 17 years old. 

Critics assailed Trump as racist for implying that these women were not United States citizens. 

Moreover, as members of Congress, they had a legal right to declare “how our government is to be run.” House and Senate Republicans had vigorously—and often viciously—asserted that right during the Presidency of Barack Obama.

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Donald Trump

Ocasio-Cortez quickly struck back on Twitter on the same day: “You are angry because you don’t believe in an America where I represent New York 14, where the good people of Minnesota elected , where fights for Michigan families, where champions little girls in Boston.

“You are angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us. You rely on a frightened America for your plunder.

“You won’t accept a nation that sees healthcare as a right or education as a #1 priority, especially where we’re the ones fighting for it. Yet here we are.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, official portrait, 116th Congress.jpg

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

But then followed the most significant part of Cortez’ reply:

“But you know what’s the rub of it all, Mr. President? On top of not accepting an America that elected us, you cannot accept that we don’t fear you, either.

“You can’t accept that we will call your bluff & offer a positive vision for this country. And that’s what makes you seethe.”

For all his adult life, Donald Trump—as a businessman, Presidential candidate and twice-elected President—has trafficked in bribery and coercion. First bribery: 

  • Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (now United States Attorney General) personally solicited a political contribution from Donald Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining an investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates.
  • After Bondi dropped the Trump University case, he wrote her a $25,000 check for her re-election campaign. The money came from the Donald J. Trump Foundation.
  • Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton moved to muzzle a former state regulator who says he was ordered in 2010 to drop a fraud investigation into Trump University for political reasons.
  • Paxton’s office issued a cease and desist letter to former Deputy Chief of Consumer Protection John Owens after he made public copies of a 14-page internal summary of the state’s case against Donald Trump for scamming millions from students of his now-defunct real estate seminar.
  • After the Texas case was dropped, Trump cut a $35,000 check to the gubernatorial campaign of then-attorney general and now Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
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Now coercion:
  • Throughout his career as a businessman, Trump forced his employees to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements, threatening them with lawsuits if they revealed secrets of his greed and/or criminality.
  • In 2016. USA Today found that Trump was involved in over 3,500 lawsuits during the previous 30 years: “At least 60 lawsuits, along with hundreds of liens, judgments, and other government filings” were from contractors claiming they got stiffed.
  • On March 16, 2016, as a Republican Presidential candidate, Trump warned Republicans that if he didn’t win the GOP nomination in July, his supporters would literally riot: “I think you’d have riots. I think you would see problems like you’ve never seen before. I think bad things would happen, I really do. I wouldn’t lead it, but I think bad things would happen.”
  • An NBC reporter summed it up as: “The message to Republicans was clear: ‘Nice convention you got there. Shame if something happened to it.'”
  • Speaking with Bob Woodward, the legendary Washington Post investigative reporter, Trump confessed: “Real power is—I don’t even want to use the word—fear.”
  • During his Presidential campaign he encouraged Right-wing thugs to attack dissenters at his rallies, even claiming he would pay their legal expenses (which he didn’t). 

But when he has confronted men and women who can’t be bribed or intimidated, Trump has reacted with rage and desperation.

“BOXING IN” HITLER AND TRUMP

In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 10, 2025 at 12:21 am

After Donald Trump won the 2016 election, many people feared he would embark on a radical Right-wing agenda. But others hoped that the Washington bureaucracy would “box him in.” 

The same sentiments echoed throughout Germany after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933.

The 1983 TV  mini-series, The Winds of War, offered a dramatic example of how honorable men can be overwhelmed by a ruthless dictator. 

Based on the bestselling 1971 historical novel by Herman Wouk, the mini-series factually re-created the major historical events of World War II.

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One of those events took place on November 5, 1939.

General Walther von Brauchitsch is summoned to the Chancellery in Berlin to meet with Adolf Hitler. He carries a memorandum signed by all the leaders of the German Wehrmacht asserting that Case Yellow—Hitler’s planned attack against France—is impossible.

Meanwhile, at the German army headquarters at Zossen, in Berlin, the Wehrmacht’s top command wait for word from von Brauchitsch. 

ZOSSEN: 

Brigadier General Armin von Roon: I must confide in you on a very serious matter. I have been approached by certain army personages of the loftiest rank and prestige with a frightening proposal.

Chief of the General Staff Franz Halder:  What did you reply?

Von Roon: That they were talking high treason. 

Image result for Gunter Meisner as Adolf Hitler in The Winds of War

Gunter Meisner as Adolf Hitler in “The Winds of War”

THE WHITE HOUSE:

Fast forward 79 years from Adolf Hitler’s stormy confrontation with Walter von Brauchitsch to September 5, 2018.

On September 5, 2018, The New York Times publishes an anonymous Op-Ed essay by “a senior official in the Trump administration.” This spotlights massive dysfunction within the White House—and put the blame squarely on the President. 

Among the revelations:

  • “Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”
  • “On Russia…the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain….But his national security team knew better—such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.”

ZOSSEN:

Von Roon: The conspiracy has been going on that long—since Czechoslovakia [1938)?

Halder: If the British had not caved in at Munich [where France and Britain sold out their ally, Czechoslovakia]—perhaps. But they did. And ever then, ever since his big triumph, it has been hopeless. Hopeless.

Von Roon: Empty talk, talk, talk. I am staggered.

Halder: A hundred times I myself could have shot the man. I can still at any time. But what would be the result? Chaos. The people are for him. He has unified the country. We must stick to our posts and save him from making military mistakes. 

THE WHITE HOUSE:

On September 11, 2018, legendary investigative reporter Bob Woodward publishes a devastating take on the Trump administration: Fear: Trump in the White House. The text features explosive revelations about the President’s ignorance and mistreatment of staffers:

  • Trump was about to sign a letter canceling a free-trade agreement with South Korea. To prevent this, Eric Cohn, his national economic council director, swiped it from Trump’s desk. Trump didn’t notice it missing.
  • Trump’s lawyer, John Dowd, convinced the President that he shouldn’t testify to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The reason: He would commit perjury—and end up in “an orange jumpsuit.” 
  • Trump referred to Alabaman Jeff Sessions, his attorney general, as “a dumb southerner” and “mentally retarded.”

General Walther von Brauchitsch fails to convince Hitler to postpone “Case Yellow”—the invasion of France. Hitler insists that it commence in seven days—on November 12.

And he issues a warning to the entire German General staff: “I will ruthlessly crush everybody up to the rank of a Field Marshal who dares to oppose me. You don’t have to understand. You only have to obey. The German people understand me. I am Germany.”

Due to foul weather, Hitler is forced to postpone the invasion of France until June, 1940. But the German General staff can’t ultimately put off the war that will destroy them—and Germany.

THE WHITE HOUSE:

Since re-taking office as President, Donald Trump has:

  • Ordered massive purges of the federal workforce—especially in agencies responsible for national security and health.
  • Signed 26 executive orders that: Reversed climate change initiatives; eliminated DEI programs; and changed the federal designation for the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”
  • Turned America’s longtime allies—like Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Panama and the European Union—into mortal enemies.
  • Ordered illegal prosecutions of officials who have offended him—such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
  • Deployed National Guardsmen and into Democratic states Turned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into his private secret police force and 
  • Appointed incompetents to office—like alcoholic Pete Hegseth Secretary of Defense and 14-year heroin addict Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Like Hitler, he can truthfully say: I am the destiny of America.  

History has yet to record if Trump’s subordinates will prove more successful than Hitler’s at preserving “our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.”

REPUBLICANS’ LATEST TARGET–DOCTORS: PART SEVEN (END)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on October 3, 2025 at 12:10 am

Republicans have a long and despicable history of scapegoating one group after another: Blacks, liberals, Hispanics, gays, Asians, women, Muslims, environmentalists, lesbians.  

And now they have added scientists generally and doctors in particular to their list of hated targets.

Since taking office on January 20, Donald Trump has virtually declared war on the American medical establishment.  

Summarizing Trump’s first 100 days in office, Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, warned: 

  • “Trump’s health administrators fired or forced resignations of senior staff, including the top vaccine regulator at the FDA, directors of many NIH institutes, and senior FDA staff involved in the regulation of food, tobacco and new drugs.”
  • “The administration has also proposed consolidation of many HHS agencies with near elimination of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).”
  • “The Trump Administration stripped vital public health information from HHS, CDC and FDA websites and abandoned all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.”
  • “Trump issued an executive order announcing his intent to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), suspending funding and other support and recalling U.S. government personnel assigned to work with WHO—to the detriment of several global health programs and emergency response efforts.”

  • “Trump’s  allies in Congress are seeking to cut Medicare and Medicaid, with dangerous implications for access to health care, particularly for seniors and people with disabilities.”
  • “The Trump Administration is threatening to further privatize Medicare, threatening to hinder access to care and put the long term health of the program in jeopardy.”
  • “Trump and his allies in Congress want to give Big Pharma its top demand to undermine the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program—blocking seniors’ and people with disabilities’ access to Medicare-negotiated prices until 13 years after a drug is approved.”

On September 4, for the first time since he took office as Secretary of Health and Human Services on February 13, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. faced his critics at the Senate Finance Committee.

Defending the wholesale firings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), he said: “The people at the CDC who oversaw that process—who put masks on our children, who closed our schools—are the people who will be leaving. ”

He called the United States the “sickest country in the world” due to the prevalence of chronic diseases:

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Kennedy attacked the integrity of Susan Monarez, whom he fired as CDC director after less than a month on the job. She had been nominated by Trump, endorsed by Kennedy and confirmed by a Senate vote in July.

Kennedy claimed: “I asked her: ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ and she said ‘No.’ If you had an employee who told you they weren’t trustworthy, would you ask them to resign?” 

In testifying before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions  on September 17, Monarez offered a different explanation for her firing: She refused to cede to Kennedy’s demands to pre-approve vaccine recommendations for the public and he wanted her to fire career scientists.

“He just wanted blanket approval. Even under pressure, I could not replace evidence with ideology.

“He called CDC the most corrupt federal agency in the world, emphasized that CDC employees were horrible people. He said that CDC employees were killing children and they don’t care.”

Susan Monarez

In late August, Kennedy told her he had “already spoken with the White House several times about having” her removed, she said.

Kennedy used much of his testimony to lie or lob insults, rather than refute his critics with facts.

On August 9, a 30-year-old Georgia man, Patrick Joseph White, using an automatic rifle, had fired over 180 rounds on the CCD headquarters in Atlanta, breaking about 150 windows.

Influenced by anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, he believed the COVID-19 vaccine had made him depressed and suicidal.

When Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock asked Kennedy if his disparaging remarks about CDC employees could have instigated the shooting, Kennedy retorted: “Are you complicit in the assassination attempts on President Trump?”

“Why have you acted behind closed doors to overrule scientists and limit the freedom of parents to choose the COVID vaccine for their children?” asked Democratic New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan.

Kennedy: “This is crazy talk.”

It wasn’t. In many states, pharmacists cannot legally administer vaccines unless they are endorsed by the CDC’s advisory panel.

During 2020—Donald Trump’s final year of his first term as President—COVID-19 emerged as the greatest threat to worldwide health since the 1919 Spanish influenza.

Interferon Plays Pivotal, Inflammatory Role in Severe COVID-19 Cases

Coronavirus

To this crisis, Trump responded with:

  • Lies about its dangers
  • Attacks on medical authorities who urged masking and social distancing
  • Inciting his followers to ignore governors’ “lockdown” orders to stop the spread
  • Thefts of medical supplies from Blue states
  • Quack cures (bleach, UV light)
  • Demands to “Re-open the country!” and
  • “Learn to live with it.”

At least 400,000 Americans died as a result. 

Through his wholesale gutting of America’s healthcare system—once considered the best in the world—Trump and his anti-science accomplices are setting the United States on a collision course with the next deadly epidemic.

REPUBLICANS’ LATEST TARGET–DOCTORS: PART SIX (OF SEVEN)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on October 2, 2025 at 12:22 am

As a Presidential candidate in 2024, Donald Trump warned Americans that he planned to decimate their healthcare system: His Secretary of Health and Human Services would be Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.    

On October 27, speaking at a rally in Madison Square Garden, Trump said:I’m going to let him go wild on health. I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines.

“The only thing I don’t think I’m going to let him even get near is the liquid gold that we have under our feet,” he added, referring to oil.

Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, is a self-admitted former 14-year heroin addict, which he has said began at age 15.

On September 16, 1983, he was charged with heroin possession in Rapid City, South Dakota. In February 1984, he pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of possession of heroin, and was sentenced to two years’ probation and community service. After his arrest, he entered a drug treatment center. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Since 2005, Kennedy has peddled vaccine misinformation and public health conspiracy theories. Among these: HIV/AIDS denialism (that the human immune deficiency virus—HIV—does not cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

His vaccine misinformation has included:

  • Vaccines cause autism;
  • The COVID-19 vaccine—which has saved countless lives—is “the deadliest vaccine ever made.” 
  • There is no comprehensive system for monitoring vaccine safety.

So how did such a man become the final arbiter of the American healthcare system?  During 2024, he ran an independent Presidential campaign before dropping out in August and endorsing Trump.

Predictively, since taking office on February 13, Kennedy has proven a disaster for the scientific approach to medicine. 

On February 14, around 1,300 employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were laid off by the administration, which included all first-year officers of the Epidemic Intelligence Service.

In August, over 600 CDC employees were laid off and a number of programs completely dismantled, including maternal and child health services, oral health programs, and the CDC’s long-running Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys.

At the May 6 meeting of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Rep. Kim Schrier, M.D. (D-Washington) decried the Trump administration for attacking American healthcare.

The first pediatrician elected to the House, Schrier warned: “We’ve got to recognize that our nation’s health care system is under attack right now.

Kim Schrier

“What we’re seeing now from the current administration has been infuriating and reckless, and this includes slashing medical research and essential staff and funding from agencies like the CDC, the NIH and the FDA, and this kneecaps U.S. research and innovation, and it jeopardizes public health.

“It also cedes the ground for U.S. leadership in the world, and basically hands that leadership to China. That’s plain wrong, and I feel like it just undermines U.S. leadership in the world.”

Referring to the $1 trillion in Medicaid funding cuts mandated in Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” then certain to be passed by the Republican-controlled Congress, Schrier noted: 

“These cuts would be disastrous and detrimental for the most vulnerable members of our communities, many of whom are at higher risk for cancer, for deaths from cancer, for late detection of cancer, and I want you to know that I’m doing everything in my power to call out the destruction these cuts would cause, to restore funding for medical research, especially cancer research, and to stand up for patients.” 

Trump signed the “Big Beautiful Bill” into law on July 4.

On June 9, 92 National Institute of Health researchers, program directors, branch chiefs and scientific review officers signed their names in a protest letter to Jay Bhattacharya, their Trump-appointed director. Another 250 of their colleagues across the agency endorsed the declaration without using their names.

Accusing the Trump administration of spreading “a culture of fear and suppression,” the declaration said: “We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety and faithful stewardship of public resources.”

Its accusations included:

  • NIH’s terminating 2,100 research grants valued at more than $12 billion;
  • The resulting human costs—such as cutting off medication regimens to participants in clinical trials or leaving them with unmonitored device implants;
  • NIH’s ending a $5 million research study when it was 80% complete.

On August 9, a 30-year-old Georgia man, Patrick Joseph White, fired over 180 rounds on the CCD headquarters in Atlanta, breaking about 150 windows and piercing some of the blast-resistant windows.

Influenced by anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, he believed the COVID-19 vaccine had made him depressed and suicidal.

White died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Fired But Fighting, a group of laid-off CDC employees, blamed the attack on the anti-vaccine rhetoric on the Trump administration. Kennedy, they charged, “is directly responsible for the villainization of CDC’s workforce through his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety.” 

Under Kennedy, CDC has laid off nearly 2,000 employees. And Trump proposes cutting the agency’s budget in half in 2026. 

Fired But Fighting also demanded the resignation of Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget. In a a video he had said:

“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work, because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.”

REPUBLICANS’ LATEST TARGET–DOCTORS: PART FIVE (OF SEVEN)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on October 1, 2025 at 12:10 am

In an October 27, 2020 press release from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, “Advisor to the President” and First Daughter Ivanka Trump noted her father’s signature achievement:   

“ENDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. From the outset of the COVID019 pandemic, the Administration has taken decisive action to engage scientists and health professionals in academia, industry, and government to understand, treat and defeat the disease.” 

Ivanka Trump has absolutely no scientific or technology background.  

Ivanka Trump

In January, 2020, Donald Trump confronted an enemy—to his re-election—that he couldn’t bribe or intimidate.

Unable to apply his trademark solutions, he was forced to improvise one attempted remedy after another. Chief among these:

  • Denial
  • Lies
  • Extortion
  • Propaganda as news
  • Attacking science
  • Reopening the country 
  • Resignation.

Ultimately, the virus—far more than Democratic nominee Joseph Biden—proved his fatal enemy.

Millions of Americans didn’t care that Trump had criminally fired FBI director James Comey and tried to coerce the president of Ukraine to smear Biden. Nor that he had antagonized America’s closest allies while paying homage to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

But when COVID-19 wiped out their jobs, their children had to stay home because schools were closed, and they couldn’t pay their mortgage, Trump’s “President-for-Life” ambitions were doomed.

One of the harshest—and most poignant—attacks on Donald Trump came on August 17, 2020. It was delivered at the Democratic National Convention by Kristin Urquiza—the daughter of one of Trump’s 2016 supporters.

That supporter, Mark Anthony Urquiza, had died—from COVID-19.

Kristin Urquiza, MPA (she/her) on Twitter: "Yes, I'm boiled over. Thanks for sharing my dads obit. 💔 @MarkedByCovid… "

Kristin Urquiza

In early June, he contracted the disease, shortly after Arizona lifted its stay-at-home order. He visited a karaoke bar with friends—and died, alone, after five days on a ventilator.

“My dad, Mark Anthony Urquiza, should be here today, but he isn’t,” Kristin said during a televised segment. “He had faith in Donald Trump.

“He voted for him, listened to him, believed him and his mouthpieces when they said that Coronavirus was under control and going to disappear; that it was OK to end social distancing rules before it was safe; and that if you had no underlying health conditions, you’d probably be fine.

“My dad was a healthy 65-year-old. His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that he paid with his life.”   

By the time that Joseph R. Biden took office as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021, more than 400,000 Americans had died of COVID-19.

Four years later, 77 million Americans returned to office the man responsible for the deaths of many of their friends and family members.

Head-and-shoulders shot of Trump with a serious facial expression, his right eye partly closed. He is wearing a dark blue suit, a pale blue dress shirt, a red necktie, and an American flag lapel pin. Parts of the image are slightly out of focus. The background is black.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump was the most prominent Republican to:

  • Dismiss—and even lie about—the dangers of COVID-19.
  • Promote quack cures and attack legitimate medical professionals who urged citizens to mask up and socially distance.
  • Incited his cult followers to violently defy governors and mayors who declared stay-at-home orders.

But it’s essential to remember that he was supported in this by virtually the entire Republican party.

Once Biden took office, he put the full weight of his Presidency behind legitimate medical science, urging Americans to get vaccinated, mask up and socially distance.

Since Donald Trump moved into the White House again on January 20, 2025, he has relentlessly attacked the medical profession. And, once again, virtually all House and Senate Republicans have supported him in these assaults. 

On March 14, Representative Kim Schrier, M.D. (D-WA) and the other five Democratic physicians serving in the U.S. House of Representatives announced the launch of the Congressional Doctors Caucus.

Schrier condemned Congressional Republicans for questioning [the] proven safety and efficacy of vaccinations, and endanger[ing] our public health by knee-capping key agencies and medical research.

“Together, we will stand up for patients, providers, innovation, science, and common sense improvements that enhance health care and bring down costs.”

But voters had not only elected Trump to office; they elected Republican majorities in the House and Senate. As a result, Democrats were powerless to halt Trump’s relentless efforts to dismantle the American healthcare system.

On July 4, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, which enacts significant cuts to federal health programs to help pay for tax reductions.

The law primarily impacts Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and is projected to cause millions of Americans to lose health insurance coverage. 

The bill includes the largest cuts in Medicaid’s history, reducing funding by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. Among its impacts: 

  • Able-bodied adults aged 19–64 must now work, volunteer, or participate in qualifying activities for at least 80 hours per month to maintain their coverage.
  • Medicaid eligibility has been eliminated for certain categories of lawfully present immigrants, including refugees and asylees, effective October 1, 2026.
  • States are required to verify eligibility for Medicaid expansion enrollees every six months, instead of annually. Hundreds of thousands could lose coverage.

Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proven the single most destructive attack on the American healthcare system.

Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, is a self-admitted former 14-year heroin addict, whose addiction began at age 15.

REPUBLICANS’ LATEST TARGET–DOCTORS: PART FOUR (OF SEVEN)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on September 30, 2025 at 12:26 am

Once states across the country began “reopening,” President Donald J. Trump scheduled his first 2020 re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.   

Then, to celebrate Independence Day, Trump scheduled yet another rally at Mount Rushmore, in Keystone, South Dakota, on July 3. 

Trump rallies supporters in Wis. as Democrats debate in Iowa

A Trump rally

Although health experts expressed fears about large gatherings during the Coronavirus pandemic, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said people would “not be social distancing” during the celebration:

“In South Dakota, we’ve told people to focus on personal responsibility….Those who want to come and join us, we’ll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one. But we won’t be social distancing.”  

According to a July 3 story by NBC News: “Eager to move forward and reopen the economy amid a recession and a looming presidential election, the White House is now pushing acceptance. ‘The virus is with us, but we need to live with it,’ is how one official said the administration plans to message on the pandemic.” 

On June 30, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before the U.S. Senate: “We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.” 

Fauci warned that the infection surge across the South and West “puts the entire country at risk.” Much of that increase was being fueled by young adults testing positive for COVID-19. 

Anthony Fauci

Christopher Michel, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

But Trump wanted children to return to school—and not through virtual classes at home.

And he wasn’t asking parents to send their children back to school after summer. He was ordering them to.

On July 8, 2020, he tweeted that he might withhold federal funding from schools that did not resume in-person classes that fall:

“In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!” 

And moments after making that threat, Trump said the guidelines of his own Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) for safely reopening schools were too expensive and impractical.

CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia

Among those guidelines:

  • Schools should have markings on sidewalks and walls, that mark off six feet, and signs reminding students of protective measures.
  • Masks should be worn by students and faculty, “as feasible,” and especially when keeping a distance isn’t possible.
  • Sharing equipment, games and supplies should be avoided. If that’s not possible, they should be cleaned after each use.
  • Playgrounds, cafeterias and dining halls should be shut. Students eat in their classrooms.
  • Rooms should be well-ventilated.
  • Schools should allow sick staff members to “stay home when they are sick, have been exposed, or caring for someone who is sick,” without being punished for staying home.

Many Americans asked: “How can President Trump demand that children return to school in the midst of a deadly plague? Especially when we don’t have adequate testing facilities—and, most importantly, a reliable vaccine?” 

There was an answer—and it was brutally ugly. 

On July 10, Paula Reid, White House correspondent for CBS News, provided the answer on the PBS program, Washington Week:

And just speaking with White House advisers, I’m told the president knows that in order to get parents back to work you need to get kids back to class, and for the president a lot of this is about hoping that that would give an economic boost to the U.S. ahead of his reelection in November.” 

For which he could then claim credit. 

Just as the ancient Canaanites sacrificed their children to the god Moloch, so President Donald J. Trump expected his followers—and opponents—to risk their children’s lives for him.  

On August 10, CBS News reported:

“Nearly 100,000 children tested positive for the Coronavirus in the last two weeks of July, a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics finds. Just over 97,000 children tested positive for the Coronavirus from July 16 to July 30, according to the association.”

By October, no vaccine had been invented. Nor had a national system of testing or contact tracing. 

Hospitals began overflowing with COVID cases. Doctors and nurses were overwhelmed with fatigue. Many of them had become COVID victims.

On October 20, more than 70,450 new coronavirus cases were reported in the United States in a day for the first time.

On October 25, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union”: “We are not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas.”

By October 28, more than 8.8 million Americans had been diagnosed with COVID, and at least 227,673 had died from it.

Meanwhile, Trump kept barnstorming the country in a relentless re-election effort. Although infected with COVID-19 in September, he refused to wear a mask in public. His rallies reflected this same contempt for public health, with most attendees refusing to wear masks and/or socially distance.

Critics dubbed these rallies: “Super-spreader events.”

REPUBLICANS’ LATEST TARGET–DOCTORS: PART THREE (OF SEVEN)

In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on September 29, 2025 at 12:05 am

During the 2016 Presidential race, after winning the Nevada primary, Donald Trump infamously celebrated his victory: “We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.”    

A February 24, 2016 USA Today story covering this event carried the headline: “Donald Trump loves the poorly educated—and they love him.”  

Related image

Donald Trump

As a result, countless numbers of them believed Trump’s lies that they had nothing to fear from COVID-19. And they continued to disobey recommendations from the country’s foremost experts on infection disease: Wear a mask when you go out in public, and stand at least six feet away from others.

Those whose advice they ignored included Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022.

Risking dismissal for speaking the hard medical truth about Coronavirus, Fauci was one of the few high-ranking government officials willing to contradict President Donald Trump’s ignorance- and lie-riddled statements. 

For example: Trump loudly touted hydroxychloroquine, used for treating malaria, as a miracle cure for the Coronavirus.

Yet Fauci dared to point out there had been no scientific trials of the drug for its effectiveness against COVID-19. Moreover, given the medical condition of some patients, it could even prove fatal.

Anthony Fauci

This put him squarely in the crosshairs of Trump’s chorus of Congressional cheerleaders. 

Among these: Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). At a House subcommittee hearing about the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Greene screeched at Fauci: “You know what this committee should be doing?  We should be recommending you to be prosecuted.

“We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. You belong in prison, Dr. Fauci!” 

On April 23, Trump offered his own suggestions for how COVID-19 might be prevented or cured. His proposed remedies: Ultraviolet light and disinfectant. 

Medical experts found Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks no laughing matter. Several doctors warned the public against injecting disinfectant or using UV light.   

“It is incomprehensible to me that a moron like this holds the highest office in the land and that there exist people stupid enough to think this is OK,” said Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics. “I can’t believe that in 2020 I have to caution anyone listening to the president that injecting disinfectant could kill you.”

Faced with public ridicule, Trump canceled a White House press briefing for the first time since Easter weekend. 

Instead, on April 25, he issued this tweet: “What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had urged Americans to wear masks and keep at least six feet from their fellows. And most of the nation’s governors had issued stay-at-home orders that banned large gatherings—including visits to parks and beaches.

Yet Trump openly encouraged defiance of those orders.

On April 17, he issued a series of tweets to his supporters, encouraging them to defy the law:

“LIBERATE MINNESOTA!”

“LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” 

“LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”

All these states had Democratic governors. Their residents were being urged to stay indoors, wear masks when they ventured outside and keep a six-feet distance between themselves and others. 

These states had been targeted for Right-wing protests—featuring large numbers of men and women standing close together, with most of them not wearing masks. They claimed their “freedoms” were being infringed upon. 

Trump saw the stay-at-home orders as a two-fold threat to himself:

  1. He couldn’t return to his hate-filled rallies until these were lifted; and
  2. The stock market wouldn’t start soaring again so long as the country was “locked down.”

Without his Nuremberg-style rallies and a roaring stock market, Trump faced the danger of being a one-term President. 

Since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, the Right had demanded that even women who were pregnant due to rape or incest carry the fetus to term. Yet now that Right-wingers were being asked to wear masks in public—to protect themselves and others from a deadly plague—they had suddenly discovered the mantra: “It’s my body!” 

Writer Steven Pressfield summed up the immorality of these protests: “Why are we asked to wear surgical or face masks in public, to practice social distancing and to observe self-quarantining? Because these practices are not for the individual alone but for the protection of the whole [community].”

Washington Governor Jay Inslee tweeted: “The president’s statements this morning encourage illegal and dangerous acts. He is putting millions of people in danger of contracting COVID-19.”

Trump scheduled his first 2020 re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20 at the BOK Center.. 

Coronavirus is more likely to be transmitted indoors than outdoors, when masses of people are packed together and loudly talking—or, worse, shouting. Especially when they’re not wearing masks.

Masks were available for those who wanted them, but Trump made it clear that his supporters shouldn’t wear masks, as a sign of support for him. Thus, his egomania literally put the lives of his most devoted followers at risk.