Trump announced the pick on the social media platform Truth Social, and said RFK Jr. will be charged with ending what he called the nation’s chronic disease epidemic and reforming U.S. science and health agencies.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump wrote.

“HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country,” he continued.

Vote on Today’s Poll

Yesterday’s Poll Results – Smerconish.com

When will the Trump-Musk bromance end?
46.5% – By end of first 100 days
27.07% – By the midterms
17.74% – It will last the full Trump term
8.69% – By inauguration day
*Percentage of 30,571 votes

AM Headlines

Axios AM   Smerconish  The Hill Morning Report   CNN Breaking News

PM Headlines

Axios PM    Politico Nightly

Associated Press   Digital Future Daily (Politico).   NPR Politics

Facing quick pushback, Colorado leader clarifies that science should remain at center of public health

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday cheered anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the nation’s top public health agency, highlighting the controversial nominee’s stances on “big pharma” and “corporate ag.”

Polis, a Democrat, faced quick pushback on social media after he said he was “excited” by President-elect Donald Trump’s selection, and he posted again an hour later to clarify his thoughts. A spokesman for the governor then further walked back Polis’ support for Kennedy in a statement to The Denver Post.

The newspapers address the surprise and the shock by investigating each proposed appointment individually.  And we need this.  With detail comes leverage and power.  But clarity must also come, and quickly.  Each appointment is part of a larger picture.  Taken together, Trump’s candidates constitute an attempt to wreck the American government.

And citizens, regardless of how they voted, need now to check their attitudes.  This is no longer a post-electoral moment.  It is a pre-catastrophic moment.  Trump voters are caught in the notion that Trump must be doing the right thing if Harris voters are upset.  But Harris voters are upset now because they love their country.  And Harris voters will have to get past the idea that Trump voters should reap what they have sown.  Yes, some of them did vote to burn it all down.  But if it all burns down, we burn too.  It is not easy to speak right now; but if some Republicans wish to, please listen.

Slaughter offered his post-election thoughts on why he thinks reflexive hostility to tech is a dead end for the party, his astonishment at the quick growth of crypto as a salient policy issue, and why he thinks Robert Moses still has a lesson or two to teach modern policy entrepreneurs.

Crypto is now a $3 trillion asset class owned by 20 percent of Americans. Yet crypto’s potential remains underrated because folks don’t realize it’s a software platform that is doing for money, finance, and digital property what the internet did for information and media.

Today, you can build a permissionless social media app on Ethereum, like Farcaster. You can create a system of peer-to-peer payments without intermediaries with stablecoins. And you can build trading systems with decentralized finance, or DeFi, without expensive middlemen. My colleagues are often amused how “behind” American policymakers can be on emerging technology. The frontier of tech is sitting right there in front of us.

The big news Thursday was that Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins told the Washington Examiner that she is planning to run again in 2026.

Aside from Collins, the only obvious target for Democrats is North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. Tillis won a 2nd term in 2020 with just 49% of the vote.

For Democrats, they will have two obvious vulnerabilities: Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia and Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan. Both represent states that Trump won in 2024. Democrats are defending just 13 total seats.

Populism is a political story that presents the good “people” of a nation as in a struggle against its “elites,” who have corrupted democratic institutions to further their own selfish interests. It cuts across the ideological spectrum, often combining left-wing economic critiques with right-wing cultural ones.

Based on my research, I find that Kennedy uses a populist style of speech that matches the rhetoric of today’s online alternative media, also known as the “alternative influence network.”

This network of politically diverse independent podcasters, YouTube hosts and other creators connects with young, politically disaffected audiences by mixing politics with comedy and pop culture, and presenting themselves as embattled defenders of free thinking – in opposition to mainstream media and mainstream parties.

Top-rated shows include “Breaking Points,” “Stay Free with Russell Brand,” “The Joe Rogan Experience,” The Culture War with Tim Pool“ and ”This Past Weekend w/Theo Von.“

Like Kennedy, alternative media hosts often identify as former or disaffected Democrats. Many used to work at mainstream left news sites, where they say they experienced censorship.

Trump’s position is certainly not predestined. He is known to be a highly transactional politician, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. So while many commentators assume that Trump is likely to favour Russia, the European powers and Ukraine could come up with a way to appeal to Trump’s instinct for cutting a deal and to be the “big man of history” if he generates a different outcome.

A plan that allows Trump to reduce the US military presence in Europe, while being able to publicly claim that he won the peace could be a win-win for the re-elected president. But wars are messy, and Russian progress in Ukraine is now changing the reality on the ground.

By the time Trump takes office, the situation in Ukraine – and the territorial advantage held by Russian troops – is likely to have changed markedly. So the two months between now Trump’s inauguration on January 20 are a critical time for all concerned.

In the past few years, my circle of 20- and 30-somethings has transitioned away from boozy late nights in favor of early-morning meetups at the track. Suddenly, I have strong opinions on brands of gels and shoes and run belts. I spend my weekends cheering at all sorts of races. Running culture has taken over our lives.

As it turns out, we’re part of a global trend toward marathon participation in recent decades — a phenomenon that’s been helped along further by the pandemic-era running boom.

That adds up to a lot of uncertainty. And what helps manage uncertainty if not a four-month, intensive training plan that calls for four to six training runs a week covering hundreds of miles, plus cross-training and stretching?

Thoughts on the sudden surge of success Bluesky has seen this week—without a network-dampening algorithm in sight.

What’s interesting is that so much of its growth is happening essentially through organic tools. Sure, there are algorithms, but what is fascinating is how they don’t feel incredibly visible. The company’s decision to create “starter packs” that users can share with one another has created an absolute explosion in followers in a short amount of time, that, combined with the accelerant of the election putting pressure on legacy social networks to change direction, suggest that what many users wanted all along was not extremely high levels of engagement, but an experience they more or less feel in control of

That, to be clear, is not a given. For years, nearly every major social network has taken steps, in the name of its business model, to minimize the impact of basic digital tools like links, self-promotion, and even the ability to talk about desired topics. And these decisions seem to be driven by business calculus, not the needs of the user. And it just leads to awful experiences.

It is not trying to heavily personalize or build algorithms. As a user, that’s your job. It is instead focusing on building a strong central identity, and a good user experience that the user ultimately controls.

The network should serve the users, not the other way around. It is shocking that it has taken this long for someone to figure it out.