Of Course It’s Medicare And Medicaid Administrator Dr. Oz
You get a parking-lot checkup, and you get a parking-lot checkup!
Look who just got confirmed by the Senate as the next administrator of Medicare & Medicaid, it is Dr. Mehmet Oz, TV huckster! Because President Gameshow Host loves people on the teevee, and hucksters. And they can do an “aw, shucks” routine together. Remember how in 2016 Trump went on Dr. Oz’s show to performatively hand him his “medical records” that looked like two blank pieces of paper?
“If your health is as strong as it seems from your review of systems, why not share your medical records?”
“Well, I have really no problem in doing it. I have it right here. I mean, should I do it? I don't care. Should I do it?” To whoops, and then Dr. Oz pretended to look at the two blank pieces of paper.
Medical claims based on nearly blank pieces of paper is Dr. Oz’s specialty! For more than 10 years, until 2022, he had a show blasted at patients in doctors’ waiting rooms nationwide that was not much more than a half-hour infomercial for “magic” and “miracle” ingredients like “green coffee extract,” and “raspberry ketone,” which one could conveniently purchase as supplements at a site he had a stake in, iHerb. And some of his medical claims were just pulled-out-of-thin-air kooky, like lavender soap curing restless-leg syndrome, or that taking human pregnancy hormones could help people lose weight. A 2014 study concluded that less than a third of the claims made on “The Dr. Oz Show” were backed by any “believable” evidence.
In 2012, Oz paid a $3.5 million fine to the FTC for making “baseless weight-loss claims.” And then in 2018, the Healthiest Man Who Ever Lived appointed him to the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.
And during the pandemic, Dr. Oz became a Fox quackflack, promoting chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as a COVID cure in more than 25 appearances in March and April 2020. Then in 2022 he gave up his snake-oil show and seat on the Fitness Council to run for Senate against John Fetterman, a race he lost after getting heartily mocked for living in New Jersey, and fussing around “Wegners” grocery store like Lucille Bluth with armfuls of produce, blaming Joe Biden for ruining an imaginary booze-soaked vegetable party his wife was making him have: “Guys, that’s $20 for crue-dee-tay, and that doesn’t even include the tequila!”
Most ominous Dr. Oz claim: that no one has a right to health care, though the uninsured should be generously allowed 15-minute checkups in a “festival-like setting.” Get ready to party with checkups in the parking lot, grandma, grandpa and poors!
Trump and Oz go way back, via Oprah, and Trump and Oprah go way way back, to at least 1988. Trump appeared on her show multiple times through the years. (Oprah endorsed John Fetterman over her former protege, better late than never!)
Dr. Oz has ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, too, and is an Armenian Genocide denier. And Trump and VERY DICTATOR-Y Erdogan have lots of ties too, like Michael Flynn, and the time Trump pulled troops out of northern Syria so Turkey could massacre some Kurds. It’s just all one big Turkish-dictator-loving family. Get in this hug too, Eric Adams!
Isn’t this-all such a festival-like setting?! Pass the raw asparagus and salsa!
[AP]
O/T The Hands Off! march in Richmond is fucking huge. And this was only the people behind me. Click the photo to embiggen.
https://substack.com/@sayitwithwookies/note/c-106260717?r=2kw0pf
OT but pertinent: just got out of a demonstration in Albany. It rained off and on and our hands are cold but are hearts are warm. No police presence noticeable. No MAGA counter-demonstrators. But there was a monster truck event at the arena, so that may have drawn some off.