REPUBLIC REBORN

The question that has been on everyone’s mind since the assassination of top Iranian general Soleimani is this: how will Iran exact their revenge? A top advisor to Iranian president Rouhani has stated that Iran’s quarrel is with Trump, not the American people:

“We have ZERO problems with the American people. We even achieved deals with previous US administrations. Our sole problem is Trump. In the event of war, it is he who will bear full responsibility.”

That should terrify Trump, because it hints at retaliation on a personal level. When, in 1988, the USS Vicennes accidentally shot down an Iranian airliner, killing all 290 on board, Iranian agents targeted the captain of the naval ship, planting a pipe bomb beneath his car in San Diego. It was being driven by his wife at the time that it was detonated, and she narrowly escaped death.

Maybe Iran will attack Trump’s properties throughout the world. But it’s more likely that it will be something much more devastating to Trump personally. Iran has no way of waging a successful war again the United States, but it could carry out silent assassination campaigns within US borders.

Did it cross Trump’s mind that ordering the murder of Soleimani could endanger his wife, children, or himself? It’s tragic to think that Trump, someone utterly hypnotized by his own ego, believes himself to be completely immune to the consequences of his actions.

Ponder how many Americans abroad in the Middle East will now become targets due to this killing.

It’s been a pleasant surprise to see how many public figures swiftly denounced Trump’s impetuous, cowardly assassination of Iran’s most beloved military leader, Qassem Soleimani. Tucker Carlson denounced it, as did Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Tulsi Gabbard, and many others. Rand Paul believes war will now happen, and that Soleimani’s murder has also killed any future opportunity for diplomacy or peace. Did this ever enter Trump’s mind before ordering the attack?

Trump has defended Soleimani’s murder as necessary to prevent war. If that were the case, why does war now seem like a much more likely possibility? Why are Americans abroad in the Middle East only now being warned to leave? The US soccer team has cancelled a training trip in Qatar, and over 3,000 more US troops are being sent to Iraq.

No, this was meant to start a war with a nation that has attempted to avoid this war at every opportunity. Iran has endured repeated humiliations with grace up to this point, but it is clear that they have been pushed into a corner. War will likely be the only path from here on.

But war with Iran will be far different from any US war waged during the previous two decades. It’s likely that the war will be fought within US borders. It will then cease to be an abstraction, a distant annoyance that most citizens have allowed through sheer apathy. Once the nightly news begins airing footage of attacks on the east coast, or Midwest, war will become a reality for every American. Then they will wonder why they allowed their government to needlessly incite the most avoidable war in history. But by then it will be too late.

If Iran didn’t want a nuke before, you can bet that they do now. And they won’t waste their time building it, either. A couple of suitcase-sized packages will be delivered to their military easily and swiftly. And if one is launched, and tens of thousands die, it will be because our government balked at peace, and ignored consequences. It will have been the fault of the power-drunk within our own government, heedless of anything other than their own ego.

If you’d like to know why they hate us, and want us to die, it’s because of actions like this assassination. It’s not due to our freedom, or our way of life, but because our government is a bully, and threatens, attacks, and struts across the globe with its chest stuck out, just like every garden-variety schoolyard bully. The crimes that our government commits in our name are dark, and evil. And they will have consequences, unfortunately. We exposed citizens will take the brunt of the retaliation. We will serve as human shields, protecting the Political Class from the consequences of their actions abroad.

Let it be said now that it is disgraceful, tragic, but also entirely avoidable.

Let’s mourn the future casualties of the inevitable retaliation, and let us also mourn the many innocent of Iran that will surely pay the ultimate price as well. This does not have to happen.

Tulsi responds to the unbelievably reckless and cowardly murder of Iran’s top military commander in Iraq.

Iran has thus far suffered gracefully under repeated taunts, threats, sanctions, and various sabotages from the United States. But the murder, surely an act of terror as well, of a widely respected, and very popular, military leader will probably be the last straw. Iran will retaliate, giving the green light for an enormously lopsided counterattack from the US. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Iranians will die. Why did it come to this? It appears that Iran’s only real “crime” is wounding the ego of Trump and the entire military establishment. Now Trump is boasting of the murder openly. How many Americans abroad will now die because of what he’s done?

Our government has been looking to fight a war against Iran for over a decade, and it now appears that they will finally get their war. It won’t be clean, or short. It will be the Iraq and Afghanistan for a new generation. But the price will be far larger than any war in recent memory.

It’s rare that a medical journal will exhibit a spine to any degree in the face of the pharmaceutical industry, but the BMJ had done just that in its rebuke of Pharma’s influence over the medical profession. The Sydney Morning Herald has the story.

Reason: A ‘good guy with a gun’ prevented a Texas church shooting from becoming a massacre

Common Dreams: UN expert calls detention of Chelsea Manning ‘open-ended, progressively severe, coercive measure amounting to torture’

The American Conservative: Why Americans fear trial by jury

PHILIP GIRALDI: The year of war against ‘anti-Semitism’

DANIEL LARISON: When in doubt, blame imaginary isolationism

Techdirt: Tracking college students everywhere they go on campus is the new normal

Activist Post: 2019: Facial recognition and corporate surveillance become commonplace

Astounding investigation by the Kansas City Star: THROWAWAY KIDS

“As part of its investigation, The Star surveyed nearly 6,000 inmates in 12 states — representing every region of the country — to determine how many had been in foster care and what effect it had on their lives.

Of the inmates who took the survey, 1 in 4 said they were the product of foster care. Some spent the majority of their childhood in strangers’ homes, racking up more placements than birthdays.”

“Foster children are diagnosed with PTSD at a rate greater than Iraq war veterans.”

Over 4,000 men, women, and children protested for over 8 hours at the New Jersey state capitol yesterday, voicing their staunch opposition to a bill that would remove all non-medical exemptions that parents currently enjoy as is their right in the state. After waiting for half the day, the protesters and everyone following the story online were ecstatic to hear that the bill, S2173, had been pulled and would not be voted on until January. The bill itself was apparently held up by state senator Joe Lagana, who is now a hero amongst the vaccine risk-aware movement. I can’t imagine the threats, and promises of riches and reward he received once it became clear that it was his vote that would decide the fate of thousands of families. I can’t imagine the level of harassment and under-the-table bribery he’ll be subjected to for the next month.

Now, for one small nitpick/suggestion/word salad: these exemptions shouldn’t be dubbed “religious” or “philosophical”. It should be called a scientific exemption. The science shows that the dangers of vaccination are much higher than the public is being told. This, of course, is due to the fact that public confidence must remain high in the program if vaccine rates are to remain high.  But if vaccine injury is far higher than the public is led to believe, then this confidence is artificial.

What percentage of the public knows that vaccine manufacturers can’t be sued over a vaccine injury? What percent knows that over $4 billion has been paid out in vaccine injury settlements, $220 million in 2019 alone? How many know that only 1% of vaccine injuries are ever even reported? How many know of the deceptive behavior of Merck during the testing of its HPV vaccine Gardasil? How many have heard of Hannah Poling? How many know that the vaccine court routinely compensates cases of “vaccine-induced brain damage”, which is a euphemism for vaccine-induced autism? How many even know of the existence of the vaccine court?

How high would their confidence be if they were aware of just those facts?

How long can a government program rely on censorship and coercion? At some point there will be a massive revolt against it, and public confidence will collapse completely.

Far from an elimination of exemptions, we need a new category: the scientific exemption.

Vaccine Impact has the story.