Many of the oppoition parties do not endorse or support Guiiido. Interesting as for why.

Posted by: Victor J. | Feb 3 2019 18:32 utc | 3

70% in US say country headed the wrong way: Poll

Posted by: vk | Feb 3 2019 18:48 utc | 5

The shape of the forrest.
Putin, Lavrov and Shoigu on the US pulling out of the missile treaty.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/59763
Trump’s 2018 nuclear posture review.
https://dod.defense.gov/News/SpecialReports/2018NuclearPostureReview.aspx
Raytheon’s new production facility for medium range missiles – construction began two years ago. https://sputniknews.com/us/201902021072066039-satellite-images-inf/
Production of tactical nuke warheads.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/28/us-nuclear-weapons-first-low-yield-warheads-roll-off-the-production-line
“The NNSA said the first of the new warheads had come off the production line and that it was on schedule to deliver the first batch – an unspecified number referred to as “initial operational capability” – before the end of September,”

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Feb 3 2019 19:12 utc | 7

Caitlin Johnstone has written some excellent articles recently showing the idiocy of MSM “journalists” like WaPo Josh Rogin branding anyone critical of US foreign policy as Kremlin stooges. And she analyzes why it will probably get worse. So we have Trump, Jill Stein, Bernie, Corbyn, and now Tulsi Gabbard…who’s next?
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/02/03/why-all-anti-interventionists-will-necessarily-be-smeared-as-russian-assets/
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/01/31/the-single-stupidest-argument-in-the-entire-stupid-salad-of-russiagate/

Posted by: kabobyak | Feb 3 2019 19:19 utc | 9

right now, moon of alabama, craig murray and caitlin johnstone seem to be the most reliable sources for info on what is happening in venezuela.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 3 2019 19:37 utc | 11

kabobyak@9
I only read the first one of the articles you linked and something about the way that she referenced Big Brother makes me think that she hasn’t actually read 1984. Weird.

Posted by: mourning dove | Feb 3 2019 20:58 utc | 13

What is the reputation of Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal
https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/01/29/the-making-of-juan-guaido-how-the-us-regime-change-laboratory-created-venezuelas-coup-leader/
out there in the wild? Dan Cohen is an RT-correspondent in the USA. So they will say propaganda.

Posted by: Hausmeister | Feb 3 2019 21:03 utc | 15

Trump has many negative attributes, but befriending Russia or befriending Putin is not one of them.
It is preferable to nuclear war.
The jettisoned nuclear treaty is another matter. Not good. Letting the mad dogs (Bolton, Pompo, Rubio, et al) loose on Venezuela is also not good.

Posted by: fast freddy | Feb 3 2019 21:54 utc | 17

not wanting to get into a pissing match with either russia or china is a good thing, surely? i don’t care whether his motivation is patriotism or a desire to open a chain of hotels post presidency, it’s better than exacerbating tensions with a nuclear armed adversary.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 3 2019 22:27 utc | 19

The luxury-soaked, exclusive, expensive Trump “brand” logo, frontispiece, figurehead, talisman has revealed itself for all the world to see as it truly is.
To wit: tis a baggy, sagging, fat ass, orange caked, shit-and-urine stained fraud.

Posted by: fast freddy | Feb 3 2019 23:25 utc | 21

In what way exactly has Trump befriended Russia since taking office?
Lobbing missiles at Syria near Russian troops, killing dozens of Russian military contractors in Russia, increased sanctions, arresting a Russia citizen on trumped up charges, scrapping a nuclear treaty, etc. With friends like Trump who needs enemies.
As for Trump being an enemy of China. His family has landed dozens of trademarks from China since taking office. His commerce secretary negotiating the trade deal worked for the Rothschilds who are pro China. He also bailed Trumps casinos out 30 years ago. No sanctions against China have been levied, just tarrifs whose costs can be passed on to consumers. Pretty sure Trump has more business ventures in China, potential or otherwise, than in Russia. Trump of course did benefit from a lot of laundered money from Russian oligarchs looting Russia who purchased his properties.
Those who are perceived to be Trumps enemies may be his friends. Remember at the same time Trump was being portrayed as pro Russia during the campaign he was being painted as anti semitic. Israel never had a better poodle as President. The thing with Trump is one must judge his actions and ignore the rhetoric. Lies and deception are his assets to fuel chaos and confusion

Posted by: Pft | Feb 3 2019 23:31 utc | 23

After yesterday’s hijacking of the Venezuela thread to bring you something completely different, I am happy to notice that b has opened up a thread so we can continue the dialogue on vaccine safety and efficacy.
Firstly, we should just choose to disregard those who elect to demean people who honestly feel that compulsory vaccination is an open-question in the field of biomedical ethics and should be rigorously interrogated before the gov’t finishes off the remaining states that offer exemptions for mandatory vaccinations of children to attend school.
Like the overall state of politics here in the US and in the EU which has chosen to forsake principles of liberty and sovereignty of the west going back to the Ancient Greeks, I found the lesser ad hominem contributions to be both funny in a sad way but also horrifically scary. As Russ noted, it is shocking that after 30+ years of outright government malfeasance with regards to not only FP but DP as well, with the neolibs and neocons dominating the discussion and squashing dissent, why would it be shocking that there is a general mistrust with regards to those that set and enforce the policy? Has there been any action taken by the globalist-leaning creatures that govern us that has been judged to be beneficial historically or that has served the people, as Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching writes:

The way the Ancients had it, “Bowed down then preserved”,
is no empty saying. Truly it enables one to be preserved to the end. (XXII)

Or can the state of our government be better described as an all-devouring gelatinous blob, picking up speed downhill like a snowball adding volume meanwhile running over and collecting all the droppings of irresponsible dog owners? I believe most of us would agree that our gov’t is metastasizing and infringing, or as the Tao Te Ching says: Meddling.
The US Constitution, like the way described by Lao Tzu, has in it a self-balancing mechanism that, in this present age, is dangerously close to being lost altogether. It would be a calamitous shame, of course, if this were to occur, but the way would still be there because use will never drain it:

I give it the makeshift name of “the great”.
Being great, it is further described as receding,
Receding, it is described as being far away,
Being far away, it is described as turning back.

Well I’ll be damned if that isn’t describing the perils of overreach and meddling when it comes to the empire.
And so there are many reasons to be distrustful of a gov’t that lies to you all the time and yet those who choose not to vaccinated their children based off dubious science that refuses to give credit to the effect of sanitation, hygiene, and diet on the general eradication of much of the scourge of deadly disease in this country as the 20th century began, are told that they are a public health danger.
Au contraire, you are the public health emergency if you disregard this question and force unneeded healthcare which has the grave potential of serious harm upon the nation’s most vulnerable.
Why is it unneeded? Let’s look at a few of the hot-button infectious diseases which crop up every year or so around this time and which are capitalized on to sell to the public the compulsory vaccination agenda.
Pertussis. With whooping cough, it was only recently discovered and released by the CDC that the vaccine (DTap and TDap) does not prevent carriers of the disease, and only generally lessens the effects of infection, which is in itself a question that needs further explanation.
What does this mean? It means that the CDC for years, along with the MSM who was peddling their unfounded science, was telling people that you were safe to be around the vulnerable (the elderly, immunocompromised, and infants) if you had your vaccine. How is this not infinitely worse than the common sense approach of registering that your child is not doing well with a potentially deadly infection and so would keep your infected child away from the vulnerable. The CDC’S information on the vaccine was MORE DANGEROUS because it was INCOMPLETE and unfounded.
With regards to the lessening effects of an episode of pertussis if you are vaccinated, I have no idea how they are able to test this other than length of time that the infected are suffering extreme coughing fits and respiratory distress. But this is a dubious claim, as those infected with pertussis and who were vaccinated would have to be exhibiting signs of pertussis (extreme symptoms), otherwise parents would probably have just noted it as a common cold or cough.
OK, so let’s review:
The pertussis vaccine was originally thought to inhibit carriers. It doesn’t. They lied. And endangered. And it’s only net positive (if there is one) is that it lessens the effect of a pertussis infection. How much does it lessen? We don’t know because it is almost impossible to tell or has not been fully investigated scientifically to yield enough data.
Whooping cough has been an issue in SW WA, where I am from, as is rubella (measles) is now currently in the same area.
Measles. For the question of compulsory vaccination and measles, most of my information that follows I gathered from an article by Suzanne Humphries, MD.
Currently, my area in SW Washington is undergoing a small outbreak of the measles but is not showing any signs that it will balloon into an epidemic, contrary to what the media is telling you, in their angry propaganda.
The reason why it is not ballooning and will not become a public health scourge is because of the effects of sanitation, hygiene, and diet in the general population. If you take a look at this graph, you will notice that the amount of measles cases in the US took a dramatic hit right about at the advent of the first measles vaccine. But how this is deceptive is noted in the article linked to above by Dr. Humphries:

We explained this in Dissolving Illusions. In 1963, there were two measles vaccines. The first was the killed measles vaccine, which did not protect against measles. The recipients of that vaccine – when they came in contact with measles afterwards, got a much more serious form of measles; a susceptibility which the medical literature states lasted for up to 16 years[4].
At the same time, a non-attenuated live measles vaccine was used, which caused such severe side effects that it had to be administered with gammaglobulin to reduce the side effects and the severity of disease in the recipients. Anyone who got measles from this vaccine was not reported as having had measles.
So in the period between 1963 – 1968 one totally ineffective type of vaccine was used, which made recipients susceptible to a worse form of measles, and the other vaccine was a live, semi-attenuated one which “gave” people measles which was antidoted with gammaglobulin injected at the same time as the vaccine. Those were the ONLY two “vaccines” being used in the USA at the time that the so-called “landslide decline” in measles cases occurred.
The decline in reported cases can only be a statistical artifact similar to “observer bias”. In the years of the “landslide”, in the USA between 1963 and 1968, doctors simply got in first with the “vaccine” and created a blanket of “non wild-measles cases”, which they neutralized with gammaglobulin. These vaccine-induced cases took the place of wild measles transmission. Does that sound like a conspiracy or a reality?

In other words, the first vaccine didn’t work and was immensely dangerous and the second vaccine only served as a measure to “cook the books” by subtracting cases of wild measles and not counting cases induced by the second vaccine.
And yet the wonders of the MMR vaccine, which arrived much later in the 80’s, at the very tail-end of measles’ eradication is credited as being necessary today (!), even though measles was being naturally eradicated due to reasons such as sanitation and not due to vaccines. (It is important to note that wild measles can never be fully eradicated and can only be dwindled to innocuous numbers, which is the path that this country was headed on regardless of the introduction of vaccines.)
This revelation does not even touch upon the question of natural immunity from contracting the measles and the benefits of lifelong immunity which positively impact the theory of herd immunity that the pro-vaxx wannabe legislators always reference but yet never mention the phenomenon of vaccine failure and waning immunity which occurs frequently with the MMR and those who are vaccinated.
Does this evidence not suggest that there should be a question as to compulsory vaccination and as to what is actually better for the herd: natural lifelong immunity with other net-positive health benefits as a result of contracting a virus that will NEVER be eliminated and so is quite natural, or rolling the dice with the potential damages of vaccines (which is addressed below), waning immunity which can be deadly in its untimeliness, and the fact that it is wholly unnecessary and may bite us in the butt down the road:

Dr. Humphries: It should be obvious to anyone that the measles vaccine program did ultimately fail in its original stated goal, even if it interrupted wild virus transmission to a large degree. Imported cases will remain problematic even with 100% vaccine uptake rates. And after the naturally immune members of the population die off, the problem will become even bigger, as we are beginning to see today.

Does this smack of all the stories of antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA which we are seeing more of all the time? Does this lesson not fall into the “Meddling” category as mentioned in the Tao Te Ching? So far from the way we have travelled. Let us hope we turn back.
In conclusion with regards to the measles, here is Dr. Humphries once more form the article linked above:

Today the measles outbreaks in the USA are blamed on the vaccine refusers, despite the fact that half of the cases from the California Disneyland outbreak were of “unknown” vaccination status and 18% were fully vaccinated[25].
After people who have immunity from the natural measles pass away, we will be seeing more than 18% vaccinated in future outbreaks. At least two medical articles predict that. So yes, the original stated goal of the measles vaccine failed.
In a few more years this will become even more painfully obvious as more and more MMR booster shots will be added to the schedule, and could be mandated for us all.

Oh, boy. Runaway train, anyone?
…
SAFETY. On the subject of safety with vaccines, it is well-known that with regards to vaccine-injury in the U.S., there is no law that requires mandatory reporting, either from health providers or from vaccine producers like MERCK. How can we think we know anything about vaccine damages if there is no apparatus for reporting? In Canada and Australia, there are state-run organizations that release these numbers to the public quarterly, with Australia having the better, more specific data. These reports and numbers do point to higher-than-suggested serious, adverse-events post-vaccinations, at least from the perspective of one who is receiving care here in the states.
I propose that before there is mandatory compulsory vaccination among children, we do this to ADULTS first and develop a system of data-analyzing and mandatory reporting of adverse events following vaccination. Only after this is well studied, should we consider the question of compulsory vaccination among our DEVELOPING youth.
With regards to measles outbreak here in SW WA, why have we not developed a system of quarantine with regards to international travel? This would discourage the type of globalist-travel that has the potential extincting-effect as what happened to the Dodos or any other endangered animal that finds its home threatened. Developing a system of quarantine is a common-sense approach that is far less invasive than mandatory-vaccination schedules and does not infringe upon liberty.
Finally, I want to turn this personal. Next year my daughter will be heading to kindergarten. It is likely that in the state of Washington by the start of next school year that they will have eliminated the philosophical/religious exemption rule that allows objectors to attend public/private schools.
She will be heading to a Catholic Private School and we will be pinching pennies for a while. That is, of course, unless the Catholic Church refuses to challenge this in the courts and courageously raises the question of biomedical ethics that is involved in such a case. The Catholic Church, right now, has a policy that vaccines are encouraged to protect the vulnerable. For various reasons, included all those outlined above, I object to this opinion and view it as more evidence of globalism infecting the sovereignty and conscience of the Church. It will no doubt yield because the Church today resembles something of a jellyfish and is part and parcel of the globalist structure. It is forgotten its towing leaders like St. Thomas Aquinas, who, like the boogeyman, MAGA-hat-wearing racists here in the states, believed, for instance, in restrictions on immigration not limited to the common-sense notion of an immigrant with a desire to become fully-assimilated into the overarching culture, language, etc. How racist to preserve one’s heritage!
I have little hope in the church to fight this fight.
You will see, it will not even be a question within the church that the MMR vaccine is created and is still produced with the assistance of aborted fetal cells in the 60’s.
And yet you maniacs want me to allow a prick in my daughter’s arm that had it’s genesis in THAT mortal sin. FOR SHAME!
Thank you for reading and thanks to b for hosting such a well-groomed lot of intellectual giants.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 4 2019 0:31 utc | 25

@26 pft
I really appreciate your contribution and knowledge here. I will save it for future reference and also take a look at Dr. Humphries book. I was looking forward to your post and was not disappointed. I hope others can see that there are also pressing concerns on the domestic front other than the U.S.’ aggressive FP.
I will learn what I can and present something or other to our school’s Pastor in the future.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 4 2019 1:17 utc | 27

Now for a little bit of counterbalance.
Dr. Suzanne Humphries and the International Medical Council on Vaccination: Antivaccine to the core
Teaser quote:

… The clueless cite the ignorant to argue against vaccines. That’s exactly what it was, too, some truly clueless anti-vaccinationists arguing against vaccines and bolstering their argument with a hilariously pathetic list of signatories, among which were noted anti-vaccine activists, chiropractors, homeopaths, and other dubious practitioners totaling only between 80-90.

Wrong About Polio: A Review of Suzanne Humphries, MD and Roman Bystrianyk’s “Dissolving Illusions” Part 1 (the short version)
The woman is even against polio vaccinations? So it seems…
Why Dr Suzanne Humphries, an anti-vaccine activist, is lying to you about measles
Teaser quote:

Vaccinate or don’t vaccinate. But please don’t base your decision on the writings of this extremist.

“Aborted fetal tissue” and vaccines: Combining pseudoscience and religion to demonize vaccines

Although antiabortion antivaccine activists frequently try to make it sound as though scientists are aborting fetuses left and right just to grind them up to make vaccines (presumably twirling their mustaches and cackling evilly as they slice and dice them), in reality there are only two cell lines used this way, and they are so far removed from the original abortions that even the Catholic Church has told its members that not only is it morally acceptable to use such vaccines…

In my opinion the Vatican’s thoughts about vaccines are as worthless as most other views by that organization, but there it is for those who still regard those thoughts with any respect. IMO, any outfit which spouts invented stupidities about contraception has zero credibility about almost everything. And don’t even get me started on their record of protecting their priestly perverts.
I’m well past the point of worrying about the prospect someone on the internet is wrong, but typing this didn’t waste all that much of my time.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Feb 4 2019 1:41 utc | 29

How about a little something to make everybody feel BETTER?
Here is a video of members of the Irish Senate speaking out against Israel’s systematic discrimination of Palestinians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc9bsL1jEMY
Really, this puts other western governments to shame…

Posted by: farm ecologist | Feb 4 2019 1:50 utc | 31

NemesisCalling – Your child gets complications from a bought of measles. Who you going to call? A homeopathic quack and charlatan like Dr Suzanne Humphries or the best ER in the region?
BTW, measles is an airborne viral infection so I don’t see how improved sanitation has anything to do with its eradication. Read the scientific literature rather than that lying quack Humphries and you’ll see that it was vaccination that almost led to its eradication until that murdering bastard Andrew Wakefield came out with his crackpot theories. The British media go on about Harold Shipman being the worst mass English murderer. Personally, I reckon it’s a toss up between Winston Churchill and Andrew Wakefield. As for American mass murderers, I reckon Obama will soon be among the leading ones for allowing a fake vaccination campaign to be used in the search for Osama bin Laden which BTW doesn’t do anything to devalue vaccination against measles.
I’d recommend that everybody reads the article “Why Dr Suzanne Humphries, an anti-vaccine activist, is lying to you about measles” linked to by Zachary Smith and ignore NemesisCalling and his vaccination conspiracy theories as I will now be doing.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Feb 4 2019 2:26 utc | 33

” Lies and deception are his assets to fuel chaos and confusion”
Posted by: Pft | Feb 3, 2019 6:31:15 PM | 23
Yep, perfect description of DJT…

Posted by: ben | Feb 4 2019 3:23 utc | 35

This report doesnt jibe so smoothly with the latest China bogeyman rhetoric:
Erik-prince-company-to-build-training-center-in-china
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang/erik-prince-company-to-build-training-center-in-chinas-xinjiang-idUSKCN1PP169
Even if one is able to avoid adverse effects of aluminum neuro toxicity used in vaccines, after one’s children and grandchildren mate with the glyphosate-ridden gene pool, our descendants will express autism With ubiquitous Alzheimers disease, eventually no one will remember things ever having been different! Empaths may become a gratuitous commodity like sex workers.

Posted by: slit | Feb 4 2019 4:29 utc | 37

…
Putin had a reason for stating last year when the NPR came out than any nuclear attack on an ally, no matter how small, would be considered the same as a nuclear attack on Russia.
It now remains to be seen if Trump will abide by this warning or take the risk and hope that Russia will do nothing.
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Feb 3, 2019 6:57:53 PM | 24
Trump is exquisitely accomplished at sizing people up accurately. One may safely assume that Putin is too. The only things we can be certain of are:
– They’ve got each other figured out.
– If a critical situation arises then they’ll talk to each other about possible solutions before doing anything irreversible.
That’s good enough.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 4 2019 5:07 utc | 39

The special circumstances in which the independence of Mexico was verified, of what,
for three centuries, was called ‘New Spain’, the character of the strong men who carried out
this revolution and implemented universal education and the absolute inexperience of the people
in terms of republican government, were unable to establish in the old Spanish colony, converted
into a new nation, a definitive regime where society might rest upon firm political foundations, freed
from worries and anxieties, to consecrate itself to the task of its own progressive development, in all senses.
The young republic owned its vast territory bathed by the two oceans,
enriched by its unique gifts that the fecundity of the tropics
and what the special formation of the soil have produced here.
The varied flora of our mountains and shallows, the amity of our eastern and western valleys,
the fertility of the extensive plains that form the great central mesa, and even the conditions
of the endless northern prairies for the production of a herd cattle capable of supplying the world,
these are indeed natural qualities characterizing the Mexican soil, which astonishes the traveler
as soon as he penetrates our territory, particularly if he had just abandoned ungrateful climates.
If these charms, at first sight, in the beauty of the sky, in the transparency of the air,
and on the surface of the earth, are added the riches that our thousands of metal laden mountains hid,
that were spilled out in the ancient world, for more than three hundred years, as a cascade of gold,
silver, copper, other precious or useful metals making of Mexico a legendary country. The treasures that came to the independent colony should have been enough to turn it into a prosperous and strong country.
No American colony of those who had proclaimed and carried out their independence, was in such a favorable situation and in possession of such powerful elements. The Latin republics of the south had smaller territorial extension or smaller populations. The Anglo-Saxon republic of the north had conquered its independence counting upon a population of only four millions.
Mexico, then, was placed under the best auspices and flooded by flattering destinations. It had a large population, partly civilized, and was of European origin; partly uneducated, it was ingenious, docile, sedentary, and agricultural in the way of social life, it had been doubly educated under the sultan empire of the Aztec monarchs and under the yoke of the denomination of the priests and the Spanish authority.
The new nation, broken the bond of servitude, could walk. Owners of a fertile soil in which the productions of the old world acclimatize and increased their value with the admixture of joyful Mexican labor; and owner too of the wealth of inexhaustible mines, also with free and willing labor, and markets open to local industry, with excellent ports in the Pacific, in the Atlantic and in the Gulf of Mexico, we could supply with our metallic products the old industrial nations of Asia, China and Japan, with whom we have already established trade relations on a modest scale; we could have supplied the European nations with our metallic and agricultural productions from the torrid zone, which they await with interest and eagerness.
The Mexicans, thirsty as we were for civilization, hospitably entertained all nations in incessant commerce and immigration, practicing an energetic thoughtful intercourse with the whole world.
What a beautiful future the independent nation smiled upon! No people ever gained their autonomy,
when they were in possession of so many gifts and of so sure hopes.
Chapter 3. Historical and Political Review (1821-1882) by Ignacio Manuel Altamirano

Posted by: Guerrero | Feb 4 2019 5:37 utc | 41

@ Hoarsewhisperer #39

– If a critical situation arises then they’ll talk to each other about possible solutions before doing anything irreversible.
That’s good enough.

I see here an assumption Trump will remain President. Do you suppose President Pence will have any interest in putting up roadblocks to the Second Coming?
I don’t give Trump credit for much sense because he has forced the issue of ripping up the INF treaty. Russia has demonstrated in Syria they can build cruise missiles as well as anybody. Do any of the warmongering dingleberries suppose Russia can’t do the same thing the US is already doing – removing the second stage of a small ICBM warhead and installing it in one of their cruise missiles. This would allow them to add more fuel for longer range, for I suspect the nuke weighs much less than the standard conventional warhead.
When the neocon fools are treating the world as a chessboard, you, I, and most everyone else are the pawns. Utterly disposable pawns.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | Feb 4 2019 5:52 utc | 43

Zachary Smith | Feb 4, 2019 12:34:45 AM | 40
Sorry, but I’ve been following this for more than 40 years; so links are in the wayback machine; and I’ve no skills there.
It might be relevant that my father worked in upper management for 3 major pharmeceutical companies (Pfizer, Warner-Lambert, and Cutter Laboratories) for longer than I can remember.
This very topic was discussed often, along with declining effectiveness of anti-biotics (evident in the early 60’s).
I’m offering a considered, informed opinion; which has been supported by history.
I personally have no desire to preach to others when it comes to decisions about vaccines; but, there most certainly must be a choice. Without that, we have no individual sovereignty, not to beg the obvious…

Posted by: V | Feb 4 2019 6:17 utc | 45

@ V #36
Before reaching your comment in the thread, I was prepared to post an almost identical one (the major difference is I am “only” 68, lol).
As a child, my contemporaries — who also contacted measles, chicken pox, etc., being vaxxed for only polio and smallpox — by and large exhibited none of the debilitations that seems to plague a fairly decent percentage of today’s youth: peanut and gluten allergies, asthma, autism, ADD. And at a time when adults smoked incessantly, and pollution was rife. I do remember that when one child contacted measles, chicken pox, mumps, all were encouraged to visit, so that lifelong immunity could be obtained.
Once I was struck by reading of an experiment in providing “perfect” health conditions for strains of bacteria, to test the hypothesis that by providing perfect conditions, species immortality could be assured. Interestingly, no matter how perfect the conditions, eventually the strains weakened, then died off.

Posted by: Zakukommander | Feb 4 2019 7:42 utc | 47

Hoarsewhisperer 39
Look into MAGA. What time or era does he consider US to have been great?
…
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Feb 4, 2019 1:13:38 AM | 44
Having watched the 60 Minutes(?) clip of Trump lamenting the $6 Trillion splurged in the Middle East – “We could have rebuilt AmeriKKKa twice! And we’re gonna change that” my guess is that he was referring to the end of the Unionised Labor Era and the beginning of wage stagnation/reduction in the US.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 4 2019 7:59 utc | 49

Re corporate-controlled vaccines and vaccination regimes,
Thanks nemesis and others for expanding on this. It’s especially important to emphasize as you did that pretty much all significant advances in public health were empirical and low-tech rather than “scientific” and hi-tech. That puts in perspective the ignorance and religious commitment of the pro-corporate statist mob where it comes to vaccines and many other things. For them, whether or not something works is completely irrelevant. What’s important is that it’s an ideological sacred cow of the technocracy and that it involve the most costly, wasteful, high-maintenance, “hi-tech” as possible.
It’s telling that the supporters here of corporate vaccines as we have them in corporate reality (as opposed to a hypothetical fantasy-land where the corporate state and its flunkeys can be trusted) are running exactly the scam I described in my first comment at #95 on the prior thread, conflating three separate matters as if they were one.
Of these three distinct matters, only the first has anything to do with science in itself, while the second is about the proven shoddy and dangerous character of ANY corporate-manufactured product, and the third is how the system’s demanded conformity to an ever-escalating laundry list of allegedly necessary vaccinations clearly has left the realm of medicine and entered the realm of purely authoritarian politics (and corporate scare-mongering). The fact that the government/media-riled pro-vaccination lynch mob (kinda similar to Guano’s paid mob) always conflates the three is proof that they themselves are anti-science and that they have ulterior, corporate-stooge motives.
It’s especially weird at a site like this, where everyone supposedly understands the false character of the US corporate state. Yet in practice many such people swirl like drunken weathervanes, rejecting the government/media’s party line in one place (e.g. Syria or Venezuela), but swinging around to abjectly conform to it elsewhere.
As for me, I only had to learn once, decades ago, that the corporate state is a liar. Since then I’ve never had to do anything in each new case but apply that lesson as the most likely default, and I’ve never turned out to be wrong yet. In this case, I see the same corporate marketing campaign, the same type of government/media propaganda, the same allegations of the dangers of the shoddily manufactured corporate product (proven true in every other case – cigarettes, asbestos, leaded gasoline, BPA, vehicles, pesticides, and on and on) and the same industry lies supported by an astroturfed claque, and of course the same government legislation pre-emptively absolving the manufacturer of liability. That last one, of course, is the smoking gun proving that the government and manufacturers already knew or suspected that the corporate vaccination product is shoddy and harmful.

Posted by: Russ | Feb 4 2019 8:38 utc | 51

@ Zachary 29
“In my opinion the Vatican’s thoughts about vaccines are as worthless as most other views by that organization”
Exactly what I say about the thoughts and words of your corporations, your government, your media, and all the corporate state’s flunkeys, including its unpaid internet propagandists.

Posted by: Russ | Feb 4 2019 8:49 utc | 53

H @ 15
“out there in the wild? Dan Cohen is an RT-correspondent in the USA. So they will say propaganda.”
Any evidence to back that statement up?
Or do you consider printing unpleasant truth to be propaganda?

Posted by: arby | Feb 4 2019 12:37 utc | 55

@56
Nope.

Posted by: V | Feb 4 2019 13:18 utc | 57

Well, I guess we were all so much better before we had vaccines against smallpox.
The problem with unvaccinated people is that some people just can’t be vaccinated, because they’re newborns or have special conditions that make them unable to be vaccinated, and these people will be at increased risks as long as the unvaccinated population is too high. I don’t give a damn about people who aren’t vaccinated of their own will.
Speaking of which, I’ve come to the grim conclusion that, considering the trends of demographic growth and the incoming global resource peak, there’s a high risk that some major power will bring out smallpox stocks at some point this century (odds are that this would involve parts of Africa or S/SW Asia, basically areas with the highest birthrates). So, basically, any serious and sensible head of government right now should consider bringing back the universal smallpox vaccination of his population, just in case. Something the WHO is totally opposed – just to give food for thought for the conspiracy-minded around.

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Feb 4 2019 14:44 utc | 59

Although I am ever hesitant to weight in on the vaccine issue there are a few notables. The medical industrial complex being one very big one, and the virulent opposition by pro-vaccine elements when any other perspective is offered is another. There are huge profits to be made. The H1N1 swine flu event by all appearances looked like a scam. I recall an image with three females from each generation with each having the number of vaccines administered listed below. Why the ever increasing number and at such early ages? It’s not as though we live in a more infectious world than say the middle ages in Europe….Why the violent opposition to alternate views? Look at the way the film Vaxxed was shut down at the Tribeca film festival. From what i can tell it’s demonstrable that some vaccines are harmful. There are documented cases, even deaths involved. We are all familiar with calling the opposition a quack, a moonbat, or a tyrant. This is distraction and cultural warfare, and I am not engaging in that here. I simply wonder from time to time what the underlying agendas might be. If vaccines are necessary and without risk, why do huge poly-corporations need legal protection? Are there any historical precidents of vaccinations being used in dishonest or nefarious ways? Yes.
Could mandatory vaccination be used to inflict alteration and damage to a population? Certainly. See: soft-kill. The few times I have ever brought up vaccination in a questioning light, I have been met with violent condemnation. Why is that? Will there be an epidemic if every child is not vaccinated? Why the absolute refusal to consider an alternative perspective, to look at evidence, or ever consider the notion that we are not being told everything?

Posted by: Chevrus | Feb 4 2019 15:03 utc | 61

@ 20- avoiding a nuclear war is neither shortsighted nor naive. there is no chance russia will accede to letting the u.s. dominate the world, nor need it be an enemy. trump is moving toward making it one, though, with present actions. trump isn’t some strategic genius, he’s just following standard u.s. empire strategy for the most part, and it’s a losing game.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 4 2019 15:59 utc | 63

@31 farm ecologist
Thanks for sharing that video. It’s truly amazing to hear the truth spoken like that in a government assembly. It’s just amazing! That’s how bad it is everywhere else. Nothing sounds more beautiful and liberating than the truth especially to the victim of cruel deception and false witness.
It’s true, you can kill someone with a vicious lie, and Zionism has been killing for way too long.

Posted by: Circe | Feb 4 2019 16:19 utc | 65

Oh, big Pharma makes billions, there’s definitely a massive financial interest here. That said, let’s look at the numbers. They make some money with vaccines, but it’s not by vaccinating people 10 times in their life with something that cost 40 $ that they can keep being fat pigs – it’s blatantly obvious because they have to manufacture hypes like with random flu epidemics. To get filthy rich like Pharmas are, you have to rely expensive medicine that people have to take on a regular basis, ideally every day, and ideally for life – and on new vaccines and treatments against currently unbeatable diseases, like cancer and AIDS, where you can fix the cost at ludicrously levels and expect to get away with it.
You want to see them at their most nefarious, look at DSM, and how with each new edition, more and more “disorders” are put into it, to the point that now every single human on the planet is probably certifiably mentally unbalanced. Look at how official bodies are always restricting the boundaries of “normal” when it comes to blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI and other measures, to the point that only a minority of the population is “normal” and undeserving of being heavily medicated for every one of them – and, obviously, to the point that no one is clean and clear on all variables.

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Feb 4 2019 16:39 utc | 67

@ Posted by: Zachary Smith | Feb 3, 2019 8:41:22 PM | 29
@ Posted by: Ghost Ship | Feb 3, 2019 9:26:46 PM | 33
@Posted by: Clueless Joe | Feb 4, 2019 9:44:20 AM | 59
Thanks, all, for your posts clearing the air of all the swill that’s floating around about vaccinations.
Those who get their scientific “knowledge” from Jenny McCarthy and Oprah are beginning to realize that the ground on which they stand is not only shaky, but is also shrinking – rapidly. They are running out of arguments, and like all fanatics they give evidence of that by resorting to the personal.
I recently posted a comment disagreeing with one of them. In his reply he referred to me variously as:
1. a capitalist
2. an authoritarian
3. a bootlicking conformist authoritarian yahoo
4. a globalizationalist
5. a climate change believer (guilty as charged)
6. an immiserationist (superfluous – see #1, above)
7. a lynch mobster
8. a fraud
9. a mobber (whatever that might be)
10. a mouth-frother
11. a death-threat-spewer
12. a destroyer of antibiotics
13. a corporate troll
14. a “proxxer”
15. an hysteric
16. a cultist
17. a scientist (I wish!)
18. a statist
19. a pants-wetter
20. a crybaby
Such is the quality of discourse to which they have descended. I think it is inevitable that they will at some time begin to realize how ridiculous they have made themselves. Unfortunately, in the interim, too many of their victims will die.

Posted by: AntiSpin | Feb 4 2019 17:16 utc | 69

@ CorpSpin 69
All those words, and not a single substantive phrase. Including any answer to my question about your record on the antibiotic crisis. You’re a fraud like any other proxxer.
I never called you a climate change “believer” (though I’d be willing to bet money a “believer” is all you are, and that you don’t actually want to do any of the things necessary), I said that as a statist and scientism cultist* you’re a cause of the climate crisis and that you don’t care about how climate chaos is reviving and spreading all your pathogens, far more than any civil disobedience group. I missed the part where you called for firing squads for substantial greenhouse emitters and sink destroyers. (No, we’d never hear that from a domesticated animal like you.) You’re typical in having zero context or proportion where it comes to any of your ignorant opinions.
*Not a “scientist”; try to learn to read for once in your life. (It’s amazing how bad your reading comprehension is – you screwed up half the things on your list.) A member of the religious cult of scientism is an authoritarian follower who is ignorant of science but who worships a vapid religious notion of big-S “Science” (really technological deployment, which the cultists assume is the one and only purpose of science). That’s what I called your type, and your performance in this exchange bears me out.
As for spewing death threats, that’s a simple fact:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/02/venezuela-coup-propaganda-depicts-gang-criminality-as-coup-supporting-protest/comments/page/2/#comments
Russ –
There is, right now, a rapidly spreading measles outbreak in SW Washington State, which has just crossed the river into Oregon. The outbreak originated in an area heavily populated with anti-vaxxers.
When and if the first child dies from this, I will rush to be the first to sign up for the firing squad . . .
Posted by: AntiSpin | Feb 2, 2019 2:39:39 PM | 129
I think that says it all about the “quality of discourse” one can expect from you. Like I said you’re a muddled fraud.
Still no answer on the antibiotic crisis? Why are no firing squads necessary there? The answer is because the destruction of antibiotics is top-down government policy, so you either support it or are too cowardly to oppose it. Making death threats against dissidents is more up your alley.

Posted by: Russ | Feb 4 2019 18:09 utc | 71

aw jesus the fossil fuel corporate propaganda about the science behind climate change raises it’s ugly head, again. it’s not “scientism” tools, and you’re not being scientific when you parrot exxon’s talking points.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 4 2019 18:25 utc | 73

@ pretzel 73
I take it reading comprehension isn’t your strong point either.
It sure seems like I’m the only one who takes the climate crisis seriously. God knows the “climate movement” doesn’t.

Posted by: Russ | Feb 4 2019 18:50 utc | 75

Russ 72
Do you have any ideas on what their real agenda is? Cause it definitely is not our wellbeing…

Posted by: dan | Feb 4 2019 19:00 utc | 77

Just lost a massive comment, @$#&! Anyway, nice to have the list provided above by CorpSpin of those on MoA who just can’t be bothered to read past the headlines wrt the vaccine debate. At this point in history, it’s a hallmark of insularity at the very least.

Posted by: sejomoje | Feb 4 2019 19:07 utc | 79

Dan 77
To sum it up briefly, the Gates Foundation and USAID along with British government elements are coordinating an agribusiness plan called the “New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition” which, under the propaganda cover of “helping” to “feed” Africans (who are perfectly capable of feeding themselves if the imperialists would leave them alone), has the goal of driving them all off their land which is to be turned into corporate plantations for the power, profit, and gluttony of the West. The people are driven into shantytowns or else become migrants who are then demonized by the same Westerners who dispossessed them.
It’s economic and land-grabbing aggression under the cloak of a fake “humanitarian intervention”. “Target Malaria”, the project described in those links, is part of this. They don’t really care about malaria (though they should, as global heating soon will be bringing it northward to their home towns), they’re just testing genetic engineering techniques on an economically vulnerable population. The real goal is the same as for all other GMOs, profitable poisons to prop up industrial agriculture. The same globalized commodity agriculture they want to force upon the part of the continent not already subjugated. As for the communities and tribes living and sustaining themselves on that land, they’re all to be driven out.
Here’s one of several pieces I’ve written on it.
https://attempter.wordpress.com/2017/01/24/seeds-of-doom-vs-seeds-of-rebirth/

Posted by: Russ | Feb 4 2019 19:19 utc | 81

Russ 81
Thanks, I’m gonna check it out.
Its already becoming difficult to eat healthily here without spending a fortune on organics, they used to be the staple but have recently been replaced with GMO corn and soya products in the stores. Fortunately a lot of us still grow our own food to whatever degree we’re able, but it is a dying tradition. As is keeping our wealth in cattle.
I like your website, by the way. Keep up the good work!

Posted by: dan | Feb 4 2019 19:33 utc | 83

Tom: the article and talk on Gorilla is not very credible. It’s pure conjecture. Personally I do not believe that Putin’s half grin had anything to do with that. It was a chuckle, most likely for 2 reasons: one, he had no problem showing that they had found who these people were (while on UK TV the government officials and media had said ‘we probably will never know who these people are and we will never find them’) and the other reason is the same one that about 70% of the Russian TV audience had when they watched the interview: that they thought the guys were gay.

Posted by: Josh | Feb 4 2019 19:46 utc | 85

..Adding my piece to an already impressive discussion about viruses/
It has been reported that the AID epidemic has been fostered by vaccines. The culture tissues
used as growing medium also contained the Simian Imuno-deficiency virus besides bringing
poliomyelitis to those that it was supposed to shield from precisely poliomyelitis.
There is a remarkable correlation between the vaccinations and the appearance of AIDs in
communities that would otherwise have been spared both diseases.
“Also the Cutter vaccine was recalled because Dr. Bernice Eddy discovered that the lab
animals were not only developing Polio, they were also growing tumors. It was discovered
that the Polio Vaccine was contaminated with a virus called Simian Virus 40 aka SV-40.
-Dr. Bernice E. Eddy: http://www.whale(dot)to/vaccine/eddy_h.html
-SV40 (polio vaccines):http://www.whale(dot)to/v/sv40.htm.
-Extracts from Edward Shorter’s The Health Century about Dr. Bernice E. Eddy, whose lab tests found that the Cutter vaccine had been improperly inactivated and contained a cancer causing monkey virus–SV40: http://www.whale(dot)to/v/eddy.html.
-Merck vaccine scientist Dr. Maurice Hilleman admitted presence of SV40, AIDS and cancer viruses in vaccines: http://www.naturalnews(dot)com/033584_dr_maurice_hilleman_sv40.html.”
So in all aspects caution must be exerted when it comes to vaccinations albeit some vaccines-
smallpox, rage and tetanus deserve our respect.

Posted by: CarlD | Feb 4 2019 21:41 utc | 87

Lots of activity but nobody’s noted Pepe Escobar’s flurry of recent articles:
“MAGA Misses the Eurasia Train”
“Venezuela: Let’s Cut to the Chase”
“Bolsonaro scandal puts Brazil on edge as farmers eye Amazon forests”
“Insights on the Iran deal, BRICS and handling a crisis in Venezuela”
Now everyone can become better informed about a great many things!

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 4 2019 22:23 utc | 89

Monthly Review is back at work with this long essay that asks the same question yet again: “Capitalism Has Failed—What Next?” IMO, Monthly Review‘s Marxists continue asking the wrong question. IMO, the question ought to be: Capitalism’s Evolution Exposes Ever More Contradictions: When Will It Morph Into Socialism? Recall that Marx was gung-ho about Capitalism because he predicted it would evolve into Socialism. This is an outcome knowledgeable Deep State members want to prevent for as long as possible, thus they’re seemingly illogical reaction to China & Russia’s Eurasian Integration Project by seeing as a threat instead of as an opportunity. I’ve yet to dig far into this latest by John Bellamy Foster, but as usual I’ll learn something!

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 5 2019 0:09 utc | 91

Peter @92–
Not for the first time will a civilian airliner be shot down during a military exercise then have its demise covered up. This happened in the USA during the Clinton Years to TWA Flight 800.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 5 2019 0:38 utc | 93

94
Here the sick bastards went a step further and built a memorial for their victims.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Feb 5 2019 0:57 utc | 95

Hey pft, could you provide a reference to your pre-vaccine mortality numbers for measles? You mentioned 1960 having a .24 per 100,000 cases. I have only seen much higher, but realize that the cdc likes to cook the books.
…
To reiterate the point of my initial post, I am merely trying to raise awareness that compulsory vaccination is here and yet treated as if there is no biomedical ethical question in this practice.
I hope that many here who read the fine contributions from Pft, Russ, Robert S. And others might understand why compulsory vaccination needs to be questioned not only in its scientific reasoning but in its punative method which will no doubt lead to further erosion in gov’t trust and perhaps violence.
How much longer before we are assessed a fee for choosing not to vaccinate? How much longer before an objecting parent is penalized with the threat of jail? How much longer before the state seizes children in the night to inject them?
Silly? IMO, so is compulsory vaccination without a rigorous debate, full disclosure, and informed consent.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 5 2019 1:00 utc | 97

“The ARPANET was created and used as surveillance technology from the very beginning. And no amount of clinging to the free and open origin myths of the Internet will change that.”
Tweet links to rebuttal of The Spectator article aimed at debunking the new book, Surveillance Valley. Sounds like a great tech history work I ought to know about.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 5 2019 1:15 utc | 99