The Dictatorship

RFK Jr. wants all Americans to use wearable health tech. I have questions.

Published

12 months ago

June 30, 2025

RFK Jr. wants all Americans to use wearable health tech. I have questions.

In a congressional hearing this past week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared his views on improving the health of Americans. “My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years,” he said. And next week, his department is scheduled to launch one of “the biggest campaigns in HHS history,” focused on encouraging Americans to use wearable technology to “take control over their own health.”

Making wearable health technology accessible to more Americans is an excellent idea — the massive $63 billion market for fitness trackers and $12.6 billion glucose monitor sector are growing exponentially due in part to the fact that awareness of one’s biometrics, from steps taken to sleep quality to calories consumed, can help improve health. But we shouldn’t overstate the power of these devices to transform the well-being of Americans, both because of the limitations of these technologies and because of the administration promoting it.

Making wearable health technology accessible to more Americans is an excellent idea — but we shouldn’t overstate the power of these devices.

Wearable health aids have a long history. Leonardo da Vinci designed the first pedometer around 1500, and Holter heart monitors were invented in 1949. Digital technology, however, has accelerated innovation in this space exponentially, such that in the 15 years since the release of the first step-counting Fitbit in 2010, devices now track sleep, breath, stress levels and more.

A federal campaign to promote wearables appeals to the commonsense idea that the more you know, the better equipped you are to improve your health — and thus more Americans should have access to this knowledge. And this initiative certainly lines up philosophically with the individualistic sensibility at the heart of the “Make America Health Again” movement’s animating definition of wellness, which elevates self-knowledge — “do your own research” — above clinical expertise, especially if it involves pharmaceutical intervention. Indeed, in the hearing, Kennedy described friends who “lost their diabetes” after wearing glucose monitors, thanks to their “miraculous” awareness of the impact of their dietary choices (evidence does show that diet and exercise changes can reverse Type 2 diabetesand that continuous glucose monitoring can be effective in motivating patients to make those shifts). Notably, the proposed HHS wearables campaign would come with a price tag of $80 a month for individuals, as opposed to GLP-3s, which can cost a person over $1,000 monthly.

You don’t need to be a MAHA acolyte to find this strategy compelling for a nation struggling with both chronic illness and the cost of health care. Furthermore, large-scale advertising campaigns encouraging personal fitness are a long-standing and effective federal strategy. It was Kennedy’s uncle President John F. Kennedy who most famously employed this approach, launching a national publicity campaign to encourage Americans to be more physically active, both in their personal lives and by lobbying local officials to fund physical education and community recreation programs.

That was during the Cold War, and JFK often linked the need to get moving with military preparedness. But he also talked about taking responsibility for looking good and feeling “vigorous,” for men, women and children alike. “Soft Americans” were morally suspect and national security risks, the then-president-elect wrote in a 1960 Sports Illustrated essay, but they also looked less attractive at the beach or the pool, the environments in which he was often photographed.

Physical education classes were as important as academic offerings, his administration emphasized in pamphlets, posters and even a special-release jingle written for P.E. classes that encouraged boys and girls through a playful, synchronized routine to “get rid of that chicken fat.” These federal campaigns didn’t solve the issues of sedentariness and obesity, but they were integral in establishing the expectation that it is the responsibility of every American to care about their physical fitness.

Echoes of the elder Kennedy’s approach are unmistakable in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announced advertising campaign. The differences, however, should give us pause. For one, the sophisticated wearable technology the health secretary celebrates as “miraculous” is much more powerful than the toe touches and jumping jacks promoted in JFK’s day. This is a boon, but we should be wary of the “techno-utopianism” that assumes more sophisticated technology always yields a better future.

We should not overstate the “miraculous” potential of any intervention, especially given this administration’s repeated ethical breaches on questions of security and science.

Psychologists, for example, track a recent rise in orthorexia, body dysmorphia and anxiety, disorders that only stand to be aggravated by access to endless streams of biometric data. More philosophically, sociologists warn of the dangerous tendency toward “the quantified self” and attendant “intimate forms of surveillance,” in which we normalize defining ourselves as an agglomeration of figures and metrics, existing only to be optimized.

Most immediately, as Kennedy was asked in the hearing but did not clearly answer, are concerns about data collection and privacy, especially relevant due to recent breaches like the 23andMe hackwhich leaked the data of millions of users to the public and potential nefarious actors. Fitness tracker data has already created a specific liability. The Strava running app, for example, has repeatedly revealed sensitive locations of troops and political figures to the public.

These are thorny but perhaps resolvable problems. It is true that making America healthy is an urgent priority and that individuals should be empowered to be stewards of their own well-being. We must use every tool at our disposal to achieve better health outcomes, and this can include partnering with the dynamic fitness and technology industries, the innovation of which outpaces that of the public sector.

That said, we should not overstate the “miraculous” potential of any intervention, and especially given this administration’s repeated ethical breaches on questions of security and science — and even its alleged affinity for eugenics — we should be especially vigilant about how this initiative is plays out.

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is Professor of History at The New School in New York City. She is the author of two books, most recently “Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession,”and is currently a Carnegie Fellow, working on a new book about education and political polarization.

The Dictatorship

National Guard and Park Police patrol as coating peels…

Published

30 minutes ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

National Guard and Park Police patrol as coating peels…

WASHINGTON (AP) — National Guard members and U.S. Park Police patrolled the deck around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Monday as President Donald Trump’s administration faces a self-imposed deadline to fix a botched renovation before the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.

The patrols came two days after Trump said authorities had made “multiple arrests” of people he insisted were responsible for damage to the peeling coating after an algae bloom occurred. The liner was installed as part of his $14 million-plus project.

The president has confirmed the problems most likely require draining the pool again for liner repairs and he promised a quick fix. Without offering substantiation, he also said vandals dumped fertilizer in the pool and slashed the coating with a box cutter.

But the timeline was not clear Monday, with the White House saying damaged areas are still being assessed. Contractors and federal workers in recent days have been using chemicals and ozone nanobubbles to combat the algae.

Trump pitched the original improvements as intended to clean, beautify and reinforce an iconic site that he said had become dilapidated and dirty because of previous presidents’ neglect. Algae has plagued the pool for a century, and Trump insisted that a newly installed “American flag blue” coating, which he selected himself, would turn the pool into a gleaming expanse along the National Mall.

Yet within weeks of Trump declaring the rehabilitation completed in time for Independence Day, the water was plagued by a vivid green algae bloom that clouded the pool’s coating. A piece of liner, about 4 square feet, was observed Friday partially floating in the pool. The Associated Press saw additional pieces in the water Monday.

Via social media, the president has blamed the problems on “SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE!” He asserted Monday on Truth Social that intentional damages include a “300 foot long gash” and that “chemicals have been illegally placed in the water.” A day earlier, Trump posted, “Work will begin immediately on fixing the seriously vandalized Reflecting Pool.”

At an executive order signing on Monday, the president said five people had been arrested and five more were under suspicion, and he deflected blame for the pool’s maintenance issues: “I can’t help it if somebody goes in with a knife and starts hacking it up.” He has not backed up those claims, and even if anyone has deliberately peeled or cut the lining, that would not explain the algae bloom that appeared more intensely than what typically occurred before the renovation.

Images showing that Trump’s project apparently backfired boomeranged across social media last week, drawing crowds of onlookers eager to see the effects themselves. An unknown number ended up being detained by federal authorities.

One man arrested was David Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland. A former Olympic canoe racer, Hearn told The Associated Press that he reached into the pool because he wanted to examine the peeling new coating. He said he briefly touched a chunk that was still attached to the side of the pool, then let go shortly after a park worker told him to. Hearn said he was then detained by National Guard troops and Park Police for five hours before being released Friday night.

“I’m a curious citizen,” Hearn said in a telephone interview. “I reached down to see what it felt like. It was very rubbery.”

The Park Police did not immediately respond Monday to AP’s questions about how many arrests were made and whether any charges had been filed. Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department said Monday that the agency is not involved.

The White House said Monday that any arrests have been made only by the U.S. Park Police.

It was not immediately apparent what criminal or civil violation someone might commit reaching into the pool. Trump, in one of his Truth Social posts, cited laws against defacing monuments as grounds for imprisoning anyone harming the pool.

___

Barrow reported from Atlanta. Katie Vogel contributed reporting from Washington.

The Dictatorship

8 convicted in Texas immigration center shooting sentenced to decades in prison

Published

19 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

8 convicted in Texas immigration center shooting sentenced to decades in prison

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Eight protesters accused by the Justice Department of having ties to antifawere sentenced Tuesday to decades in federal prison over a shooting outside a Texas immigration detention center that wounded a police officer. Prosecutors have called the shooting an act of terrorism.

One of the defendants, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist convicted of opening fire during the July 4 demonstration outside the Prairieland Detention Center near Dallas, was sentenced to 100 years in prison, the maximum punishment.

The lengthy sentences were condemned by family members and supporters in a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Fort Worth. Hope Song, whose son Benjamin Songreceived the heftiest sentence, disputed prosecutors’ claims that her son shot the officer and said he didn’t intend to hurt anyone.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, one of two judges overseeing the proceedings, said what happened wasn’t a protest but “an assault on democracy.”

“The need to deter this type of conduct is high,” O’Connor said.

The seven other protesters received prison terms ranging from 30 to 70 years.

Prosecutors said the eight are members of antifa, a decentralized anti-fascist organization and a targetof the Trump administration. Antifa is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.

President Donald Trump last fall signed an executive order designating antifa a domestic terrorist organization, even though there is no domestic equivalent to the State Department’s list of foreign terror organizations.

The defendants deny any affiliation with antifa and maintain they attended the demonstration in support of detained immigrants.

Prosecutor Frank Gatto urged the judge to impose stiff penalties.

“People with that kind of extremist beliefs need extra time in prison,” Gatto said. “They believe violence is justified.”

Phillip Hayes, Song’s attorney, said outside the courthouse that he takes issue with the idea that the protesters are extremists.

“This is a bunch of kids and young adults who really have a really big heart and really wanted their voice to be heard,” Hayes said. “It was never intended that anybody get hurt. It was never intended that any shots would be fired.”

Prosecutors said in court that Song had yelled “get to the rifles” and opened fire, striking a police officer who had just pulled up to the center.

Hayes argued that Song’s shots were “suppressive fire” and that a ricochet bullet hit the officer after he arrived on the scene and “aggressively” pulled out his firearm. He said his client will appeal the 100-year sentence.

“Song, aside from this day, has had an impeccable life. A former Marine. A good student,” Hayes said. “He had a lot of good qualities that were just ignored. The judge went ahead and gave as much as he could.”

Other defendants and their family members pleaded for leniency in court.

Autumn Hill said the gathering “seemed more like a party to me than anything else” and that she and others who participated “didn’t expect or want any violence or destruction of property to occur.”

Amber Lowrey told the judge that her sister, Savanna Batten, is a compassionate person with dreams of opening a bakery. She said Batten’s activism started with animal rights and evolved into anti-war and human rights advocacy.

“She’s the best person I know,” Lowrey said.

Hill and Batten both received 50-year sentences.

Other defendants previously pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists rather than take their case to trial.

Critics warn the case could have a wide-reaching impact on protests given that organizations operating within the U.S. are supposed to be protected by First Amendment free-speech rights.

Last week, federal prosecutors charged 15 peoplewith impeding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdownin Minnesota. They claimed the demonstrators were members of antifa who conspired against the federal government to block arrests and deportations by setting up blockades around government buildings and throwing chunks of ice at federal vehicles, among other actions.

The Dictatorship

Tulsi Gabbard and Senate GOP face difficult new questions over influence of her ‘guru’

Published

19 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Tulsi Gabbard and Senate GOP face difficult new questions over influence of her ‘guru’

About a month into Donald Trump’s second term, Senate Republicans weighed whether to confirm one of the president’s worst nominees. Indeed, the list of reasons to reject Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination for director of national intelligence was not short.

The former congresswoman lacked the requisite experience in intelligence matters. She had an indefensible habit of echoing Russian propaganda. She struggled to explain her record of defending Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime. Senators heard from former national security officials who issued unsubtle warnings about elevating Gabbard to an important and influential position.

But in case that weren’t quite enough, let’s also not overlook the fact that Gabbard was a member of a secretive Hare Krishna offshoot religious sect that is considered by many of its former members to be an abusive cult.

Gabbard, who wrapped up her tenure as DNI last week, has long insisted that any suggestion that she was somehow enthralled to or controlled by this sect or its leader, whom she has referred to as her “guru,” is just bigotry against her faith.

But it’s against this backdrop that The Washington Post obtained hundreds of secret memos prepared for Gabbard during her congressional tenure, which were put together by members of the alleged cult and which included thousands of pages of specific directives to her on policy and politics.

After careful analysis of thousands of these documents, which have not been independently verified by MS NOW, the Post determined that they likely came from Gabbard’s secretive guru, a man named Chris Butler.

The memos, starting in 2013, when the Hawaiian first arrived on Capitol Hill, reflect a dynamic in which Gabbard didn’t just take direction from the materials, but essentially took dictation from the alleged cult leader: Memos told Gabbard what she should do as a member of Congress, and she often did exactly that, sometimes word for word.

The Post’s Jon Swaine spent months trying to get Gabbard to respond to questions, but to no avail. Her spokeswoman reportedly encouraged Swaine to drop the story, saying, “I cannot imagine WaPo’s readers would be interested in yet another uncredible, bigoted attack on the DNI’s faith.”

On May 20, Swaine nevertheless alerted the DNI and top members of her staff to the fact that the Post was prepared to publish his reporting anyway on her association with Butler.

On May 22, Fox News reported that Gabbard was leaving the administration, ostensibly because of a health issue involving her husband.

This week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke on the Senate floor and commented on the reporting:

There are reports that Tulsi Gabbard was receiving instructions from a so-called guru and repeating them word for word. That ought to concern all of us if it’s true. No one knows who this guru really is, what his connections are, and where the instructions came from. … We need answers.

The New York Democrat’s comments made sense, though it’s worth considering who, exactly, “we need answers” from.

It stands to reason, for example, that Gabbard has some explaining to do, but I’m also interested in the answers from those who elevated her to an influential intelligence office in the first place.

In February 2025, confronted with an avalanche of reasons to reject Gabbard’s nomination, 52 Senate Republicans — every GOP member except Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell — shrugged off every red flag and voted to confirm her as the nation’s DNI, including so-called “moderates” such as Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski.

The question for these 52 senators seems obvious: Do you regret that confirmation vote and now recognize it as a mistake? Or do you still think it was a good idea to put Gabbard in this influential intelligence position?

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”