PHILIP GIRALDI: How to start an unnecessary war
PAT BUCHANAN: Trump must choose: war president or anti-interventionist
Zero Hedge: Iran vows that path to diplomacy “closed forever” after latest US sanctions
DANIEL LARISON: The cruelty and arrogance of sanctions
TAC: Arms dealers and lobbyists get rich as Yemen burns
RT: 400+ 737 Max pilots sue Boeing over “unprecedented cover-up” that led to crashes and grounding
Here is an amazing 1982 documentary on the dangerous vaccine that led to the 1986 legislation that granted blanket legal immunity to vaccine manufacturers. The DPT vaccine caused rampant injury in children, and parents began to sue the bastards. The pharmaceutical companies threatened to stop producing vaccines altogether in the face of these lawsuits, so they were granted immunity. Watch before its removed from YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtOh6vFnWg4
First it was Venezuela, and the war propaganda flowed fast and hot. Despite the disinformation blitzkrieg, the Political Class didn’t get the desired conflict. In hindsight, they probably realize their mistakes, chief among them being the choice of the wrong puppet to throw their weight behind, as Juan Guaido appeared to be an imbecile in every sense of the word, one that Maduro couldn’t bring himself to take seriously. He alternately laughed and ignored Guaido, seeing him for what he was: the useful idiot of a foreign power. And when was the last time we’ve heard about Guaido, or Maduro, or Venezuela?
Iran is now in the crosshairs, and the pedigreed and medalled filth that comprise the intellectual bodyguard of perpetual war have brought both countries to the brink. Iran shoots down a US spy drone, so the Political Class applies the pressure on Trump to retaliate. And it almost happened, but Trump couldn’t bring himself to go through with the dirty deed, which would have entailed the murder of over 150 Iranians. In an act of political calculation, and hopefully humanitarianism, he called off an attack just before it happened. His ostensible reasoning was that killing hundreds of Iranians over the shoot-down of an unmanned aircraft would have been disproportionate. I’m sure he also didn’t want the name of TRUMP scrawled across that particular Pandora’s Box, either. The fallout of a conflict with Iran would dwarf every previous US-instigated conflict in the region. Not only would the price tag be unimaginable, but it could very well incite world war. Even Trump isn’t that reckless.
The continuous, slimy push for war emanating from every hall of power is shameful, and every American should be ashamed that we have allowed such thugs to gain control of our foreign policy. Our government has become the mother of modern thug states, as well. A war with Iran would serve the interests of Saudi and Israeli thugs, not the interests of the people that will pay for the war with their lives and checkbooks. American citizens, always the human shield of the Political Class, will be forced to pick up the tab. A war with Iran would be paid for by our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, in taxes, debt, and worthless currency.
The cost of such a war never enters the equation: how are we going to pay for it? The professional liars that receive prime time slots on corporate media and push for war, thugs in every sense of the word, won’t address the question. And the servile propaganda couriers won’t ask.
War is like heroin to the corporate media: ratings and ad revenue skyrocket, and they get to be front and center of an exhilarating conflict. The CIA, Defense Dept., and other miscellaneous military and intelligence pepper these news stations with “ex” officials who push the pro-war line, attempting to mold public opinion into supporting a new war of aggression. War is an addiction of the powerful, whether among the corporate propaganda couriers, the puppet politicians, the weapons industry, the military, or now, Silicon Valley. “War is the health of the State.”
We’ve heard plenty of Russia’s alleged internet troll farms, but the corporate media will never cover this:
Inside Israel’s Million-Dollar Troll Army
Known as ‘Act.IL, it has 15,000 internet trolls tasked with “influence(ing) foreign publics” in a pro-Israel direction, of course. Unsurprisingly, the majority of its offices are in the United States, and these trolls are spreading Israeli propaganda to U.S. internet users. Could you imagine if Russia did something similar?
Difficult to watch. There is something strangely similar to Hillary’s behavior throughout 2016. What drugs are the Political Class on?
A couple of headlines caught my attention:
Trump approved Iran attack, but pulled back at the last minute The planes were apparently in the air and ready for a strike in retaliation for downing a U.S. spy drone. Trump had the presence of mind to take into account the possibility that Iran’s attack might have been a mistake, and probably realized that a hasty strike that would purposely kill Iranians would not only drag us into an unnecessary war, but one that could have been easily avoided if the truth about the drone had been given time to emerge. Would Hillary have called off the strike? Being used to the business of murder, it’s doubtful.
And here is a great piece in Rolling Stone: Next Contestant, Iran: Meet America’s Permanent War Formula
It is mind-boggling to think that we are yet again on the cusp of another war in the Middle East. After 18 years of an endless procession of devastating conflicts, instigated and inflamed by the U.S. government, and all ginned up with the same dirty tricks, we are again facing those tricks and false narrative as our murderous and cowardly elected leaders allow our country to arrive at the brink of quite possibly the most avoidable war in history. How can anyone fall for the propaganda? Why does anyone listen to those who lied us into every other conflict?
The U.S. has wanted a war with Iran my entire adult life. For at least thirteen years we’ve been told that Iran is hell-bent on acquiring a nuke and blasting it at either Israel or the eastern seaboard. It has prodded, provoked, sanctioned, and sabotaged the Islamic Republic at every opportunity, goading Iran into a first-strike. Iran has never taken the bait. Instead, it has borne up admirably under the economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., jumping through the arbitrary hoops in order to hopefully relieve its people of the suffering. Despite Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal, the U.S. has reneged on its side, proving to the entire world that it can’t be trusted.
There is only so much a nation can take, only so many slights to its dignity, only so much deception, and only so many passive acts of war such as economic sanctions before they draw their own line. If Iran is attacked, it will be an all-out war. Thousands of Iranians will die, and our government will be committing mass murder. The U.S. soldiers will not be defenders of the liberty of their native country, but invaders and murderers. It should be infuriating to many more people to see of how little value our Political Class holds innocent life.
Iran has supposedly shot down a U.S. spy drone near its border, and the Political Class is clutching its pearls, crying crocodile tears as it claims that this is the moment we’ve been waiting for, this is the time to launch the war. The real reaction should be: so what? Iran has been the target of devastating economic sanctions, which are an act of war. They’ve had to sleep with one eye open for years, waiting for the next provocation on the part of our government. They are sick unto death of being in the crosshairs, of the overt spying and sabotage. We are told by professional liars that the drone was in international airspace. If indeed it was, then it was within a hair’s width of Iran’s border, the place where our government parks its warships, nuclear submarines, and other weapons of war.
The war will be fought for Saudi and Israeli interests, which also align with many of the interests of our own Political Class. Yet middle class Americans and their kids will be the ones doing the fighting and dying, and picking up the tab after the smoke clears.
In many ways, D.C.’s treatment of the biggest businesses in any given industry mirrors its foreign policy. The foreign policy of the U.S. is one of fragile egotism, busybody-ism, and micromanagement: our government can’t just leave a regional power alone, it must have its tentacles firmly ensconced in its halls of power. So it extends offers of money, weapons, “aid”, influence over neighboring nations, all so the U.S. Empire can add another jewel to its gauntlet, and can sleep well knowing that it will be able to extract favors from this captive nation. The United States isn’t just the policeman of the world, it’s the world’s foremost corrupt cop, offering deals under the table while presenting itself as Virtue incarnate.
One thing this Empire can’t abide is a country that asserts its independence, and keeps the United States at arm’s length. The fragile Empire then behaves like a scorned lover, and nations such as Russia, Iran, and Venezuela become the new Axis of Evil. The scorned Empire sabotages these countries at every turn, utilizing every dirty trick short of war to get its revenge. Sanctions, endless provocation, cyber attacks, proxy war, intricate spy networks, the bullying of its captive nations into a refusal to deal with U.S. enemies. It’s a pathetic and reckless way for a government to behave, and one that isn’t sustainable.
And so it is with its dealings with industry. The federal government must firmly establish a well-oiled revolving door within every titan of industry, ensuring an indefinite quid pro quo situation. The company gets cushy government contracts in exchange for favors that the government will periodically call due, in Faustian style.
Just as in foreign policy, the one thing the federal government can’t abide is a company that refuses to deal. It will then unleash a similar bag of tricks on the target business until they fold or fall in line.
The problem with advocating a position at odds with the prevailing belief on a topic as radioactive as vaccine policy is that you run the risk of triggering the defenses of others almost as soon as the topic comes up. Most people are pro-vaccine by default, thanks to a relentless PR campaign that begins shortly after birth, one that has cultivated a reverence of vaccination bordering on religious awe. But since this reverence has been with them since their earliest years, and is reinforced throughout their lives, they’ve never thought to question it, and so encountering someone who does question it elicits a defensive emotional response that is almost impossible to overcome. Even when confronted with the facts surrounding U.S. vaccine policy, many of the reflexively pro-vaccine will refuse to consider them, or offer in response the internal arguments that maintain their belief in the efficacy and safety of the current vaccine schedule. A representative conversation quickly devolves into personal insults launched almost exclusively by one side, and the vicious attacks can reach appalling heights. Granted, these exchanges occur almost exclusively on social media, but the reflexive faith in current vaccine policy on display in those exchanges is representative of the attitude among many state legislatures, the major news outlets, and social media giants. The latter who have been nudged into censoring content critical of vaccines, which is dismissed as “misinformation” regardless of it’s truthfulness. According to this strange orthodoxy, criticism of current vaccine policy is misinformation by default. Mentioning facts at odds with this orthodoxy will immediately draw the ire of the mob, who will respond with venomous anger and ridicule.
The danger lies in the real-world consequences: a refusal to debate the facts by medical professionals who know better, a uniform dismissal of any and all concerns by parents of vaccine-injured children, a constant witch-hunt of medical professionals and scientists who raise legitimate questions regarding vaccine safety, and state legislatures that seek to force through mandatory vaccination bills, normally on the grounds of one “emergency” or another, with the most convenient and commonly chosen one being the measles, as cases normally crest around the time that pro-vaccine rhetoric has hit an emotionally overwrought milestone. The deluge of fact-free, reflexively pro-vaccine editorials similarly reach a peak around this time as well, sheering off once voting has wrapped up and the public stumbles out of the media-induced hysteria, wondering in what manner they’ve been fleeced this time.
A few facts that draw such a lynch mob reaction include the bizarre legal immunity enjoyed by the vaccine industry, the more than $4 billion in settlements paid out to the vaccine-injured over the past 30 years, the toxic levels of aluminum contained within many of the vaccines given to infants, the fact that the rapid emergence and increase in childhood autoimmune disease coincided with the sudden expansion of the childhood vaccine schedule around 1990, the fact that vaccines weren’t responsible for the precipitous decline in infectious disease that occurred during the early to mid twentieth century (improved hygiene, clean water and food, nutrition, and a rising standard of living were the responsible for that), and that measles is a mild, self-limiting infection that confers lifetime immunity, not the rampant killer that the mainstream media paints it as.
A serious debate must happen. What are pro-vaccine professionals so afraid of that they are unwilling to consider it? Even Peter Hotez, appearing on the Joe Rogan show, refused to even consider a debate, despite advocating for a strong-handed censorship of “anti-vaxxers”. Does he really have so little confidence in his position? And what value does a product really have if it requires censorship of its critics to find any customers? Criticism makes products and their manufacturers better. So does competition, something the vaccine industry is utterly devoid of.
There are far too many questions, far too much evidence that “safe and effective” is a slogan inappropriately applied to a pharmaceutical product that has too often proved to be both unsafe and abysmally ineffective, far too much in the way of conflicts of interest between vaccine manufacturers, regulatory bodies, politicians, and the various trade associations that seek to bring physician independence to heel, to give in to the vitriol, the juvenile promotion of censorship, and the effort to bully into silence anyone who doesn’t blindly accept the safety of a pharmaceutical product just because it comes in an inject-able form.
The injuries that have taken place, the lack of testing regarding a pharmaceutical product we are expected to inject into our children, and the risks, must be discussed frankly. And if the reflexively pro-vaccine truly do care about public health, then they should welcome discussions regarding the safety of vaccines.
Unfortunately, criticizing vaccine policy feels all too similar to criticizing a religion, or some new patriotic war that we all must line up behind. Ironically so.