Kennedys write pro-vaccine op-ed to counter RFK Jr.'s advocacy

May 8 (UPI) – The debate over vaccines has driven a wedge through the Kennedys, with several prominent family members writing an op-ed blasting Robert Kennedy Jr. for his anti-vaccination views. Robert Kennedy Jr. has been an outspoken critic of vaccinations, prompting Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Joseph P. Kennedy II and Maeve Kennedy McKean to write an op-ed in Politico saying he is wrong. McKean, executive director of Georgetown University's Global Health Initiatives, is Kennedy's niece, while Townsend, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, and Joseph P. Kennedy II, a former congressman, are his siblings.

"We love Bobby. He is one of the great champions of the environment," the Kennedys wrote. "We stand behind him in his ongoing fight to protect our environment. However, on vaccines he is wrong. And his and others' work against vaccines is having heartbreaking consequences."

More than 700 cases of measles have been reported in the United States in 2019. In Maine, there were 41 new cases of whooping cough, another disease that had been largely eradicated. The problem is, the Kennedys said, many patients are more afraid of the vaccine than the disease itself. "Americans have every right to be alarmed about the outbreak of measles in pockets of our country with unusually high rates of unvaccinated citizens, especially children," the Kennedys wrote. "Right now, officials in 22 states are grappling with a resurgence of the disease, which was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000."

An estimated 170 million children worldwide haven't been vaccinated over the last decade, the United Nations children's agency estimated. The biggest reason is the anti-vaccine movement, a UNICEF report said. "The ground for the global measles outbreaks we are witnessing today was laid years ago," UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said. "The measles virus will always find unvaccinated children. If we are serious about averting the spread of this dangerous but preventable disease, we need to vaccinate every child, in rich and poor countries alike." Vaccines are eliminating a wide range of other diseases, including mumps, rubella, hepatitis, tetanus, influenza and HPV.

President John F. Kennedy signed the Vaccination Assistance Act in 1962 to eliminate diseases in preschool-age children. Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy were both champions of healthcare and community health centers. "Those who delay or refuse vaccinations, or encourage others to do so, put themselves and others, especially children, at risk," the Kennedys wrote. "It is in all our interests to make sure that immunizations reach every child on the globe through safe, effective and affordable vaccines."

Two Los Angeles area universities went into quarantine last month because of measles cases. The crowdfunding site Indiegogo banned anti-vaccine fundraisers in April. A scientology cruise ship with 300 people on board was quarantined in the Caribbean Sea after a positive case of measles last week.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/05/08/Kennedys-write-pro-vaccine-op-ed-to-counter-

>>6453136

Sauce for Op-ed:

RFK Jr. Is Our Brother and Uncle. He’s Tragically Wrong About Vaccines.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/08/robert-kennedy-jr-measles-vaccines-226798

>>6453131

Reading the article I wondered why it would take so long to remove guns, very curious, indeed.

Maxine Waters seeks to weigh in on BB&T, SunTrust merger

House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters is seeking for her committee to have its own say in a major planned bank merger. The California Democrat asked Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairwoman Jelena McWilliams Wednesday to defer approval of the proposed merger between BB&T Bank and SunTrust Bank until her committee can hold hearings on the subject. If the merger goes through, it would result in the eighth largest bank in the country by total assets.

“[T]he proposed merger warrants serious scrutiny from Congress,” Waters wrote in a letter to the regulators. “This is especially true given the rubber-stamping bank merger applications receive from regulators demonstrated by the recent data regarding the Federal Reserve’s reviews."

Waters raised the fear that the merger would harm community banks, black farmers, and lead to layoffs and branch closures. The Fed and FDIC conducted two public hearings, one in Charlotte, N.C., the other in Atlanta, Ga., and are accepting public comments on the merger. If the merger receives regulatory approval and moves forward, the combined bank would control over $440 billion in total assets.

Congressional Democrats have accused bank regulators of rubber-stamping bank mergers, an accusation Powell has pushed back on. In a 2018 letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Powell acknowledged bank regulators rejected only three of the 3,819 bank merger applications it received between 2006 and the end of 2017. But Powell also noted that 503 additional applications were withdrawn by banks before the Fed made a formal decision on the application, implying that most or all of those applications would have been rejected. Waters asked for a written response to her letter by May 15. The committee has a hearing on how regulators oversee large banks and other depository institutions scheduled for May 16.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/maxine-waters-seeks-to-weigh-in-on-bb-t-suntrust-merger

>>6453163

>>6453166

Agreed, the rest of the clan had too much of the Gate's Family, kool aid

>>6453182

Which is exactly why she is creating this charade, complete and total optics…they will probably meet prior to the hearing, very quietly of course, to seal the deal.

‘Fast And Furious’ Settlement Entered Into DC Court

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Hours after House Judiciary Committee Democrats voted to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress for withholding parts of the Mueller report, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the House Oversight Committee settled the 2012 contempt case against the DOJ. The case, related to the “Fast and Furious” document subpoena demanded of Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder when Republicans held the majority, is now considered settled, since Democrats became the majority in the lower chamber and Elijah Cummings became Oversight Committee Chairman.

According to court documents, settlement negotiations first began January 2017 during the 115th Congress. By March 7, 2018, the Justice Department and the Oversight Committee signed a conditional settlement agreement with certain conditions, which included that the court would vacate certain rulings at issue on remand. However, the court ruled last October that it would not vacate the rulings. Following a subsequent lapse in appropriations for the DOJ and the election of Cummings as Chair, “the parties resumed settlement negotiations in early February 2019. The parties informed this Court on April 4, 2019, that they had ‘made substantial progress towards a negotiated solution.’”

The settlement agreement includes that the Oversight Committee “will take all necessary steps to voluntarily dismiss its appeal with prejudice in Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the United States House of Representatives v. Barr, No. 16-5078 (D.C. Cir.), marking the termination of all civil litigation between the parties arising out of the complaint filed by the Committee…”

The case with which Holder was charged with contempt by the House sprung from a botched federal gun-tracking program that came to light in 2010. Known as “Operation Fast and Furious” by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the gun-walking program came out of the Arizona field office. Federal investigators set the program up so licensed firearms dealers could sell guns to illegal straw purchasers and the U.S. government could track the firearms to Mexican cartel leaders, arrest them and dismantle their operations.

However, in 2010 it came to light that the guns that ATF was supposed to track turned up at Mexican crime scenes where vicious murders took place and at the site where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was slain by Mexican gang members in December of that year.

Holder was charged by the House with two separate contempt resolutions—criminal and civil—for withholding documents related to the Fast and Furious case. The criminal contempt charge was never prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney in D.C., as he served at the pleasure of Holder at the time. The civil charge, though, was a different matter and remained litigated in the court for the past seven years. The charges against Holder also stemmed from his testimony before Congress, when he claimed he was unaware of the operation until a few weeks before he came to testify. However, leaked documents from the Justice Department showed that he was informed of the matter for months.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/05/08/fast-and-furious-settlement-dc-court/