Robert Kennedy jr. about to run for president

[Karl Kinaski]

The MSM Orks are already at him.

 

quote: Bill Rice Jr.'s Newsletter

 

Quote

 

Hatchet job on RFK, Jr. is new low for ‘journalism’

The AP has jumped the shark and shows again the MSM is among the most toxic agents in society.

Bill Rice, Jr.

21 hr ago

I was working on another big article when news hits that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is planning to run for president.

I’m  going to have to come back to that article after reading the most egregious smear piece I’ve ever read. The article was written by an unnamed AP “journalist.”

Whether you are a fan of Kennedy or can’t stand him, every person in America should read this hatchet job for confirmation that journalism in America has now fallen below the gutter. 

The real threat to America and “democracy” isn’t RFK, Jr. its instead journalists at once prestigious news organizations who now exist to attack people brave enough to dissent from the authorized narratives. 

What follows are excerpts from this hit piece of malicious slander. I added my comments although the examples of yellow journalism are so obvious I probably didn’t need to. (Emphasis added).

***

“NEW YORK (AP) — Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and scion of one of the country’s most famous political families, is running for president …”

Comment: The writer got “anti-vaccine activist” into the story after the fourth word. The not- exactly subtle theme of the article is that “anti-vaccine activists” are worse and more dangerous than communists, National Socialist’s, KKK leaders and “gold bugs.” As we will see, they are just as atrocious as supporters of Donald Trump, January 6th “insurrectionists” and deniers of Russian election “hacking.”

“… The 69-year-old’s campaign to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination is a long shot ….”

Comment: So there we have it: The AP somehow already knows Kennedy has no chance to defeat his opponent, a man who has the worst approval ratings in history and is suffering from ever-worsening and plainly obvious dementia (a medical condition the AP will never report).

“…  Kennedy … was once a bestselling author and environmental lawyer who worked on issues such as clean water …”

Comment: In this entire “fair and balanced” article, this is the closest thing readers get to a flattering comment about Mr. Kennedy.

FWIW, Kennedy is still a best-selling author. His book “The Real Anthony Fauci” sold more copies than any non-fiction book published in the last two years. (In my own book review, I called this book perhaps the most important non-fiction book published in my lifetime.)

“… But more than 15 years ago, he became fixated on a belief that vaccines are not safe. He emerged as one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement, and his work has been described by public health experts and even members of his own family as misleading and dangerous …”

Comment: It doesn’t matter that his “fixation” that many vaccines are unsafe … is 100 percent correct. 

Per the “watchdog” and skeptical journalists at the Associated Press, America’s “public health experts” have never uttered an incorrect statement in their entire careers. 

For example, on Covid topics, their batting average is 1.000. The science is completely “settled,” per the experts. It’s only the “old” debunked science that says it’s okay to keep challenging and questioning pronouncements of other scientists.

“Kennedy had been long involved in the anti-vaccine movement, but the effort intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic and development of the COVID-19 vaccine.”

Comment: The article correctly points out that Kennedy is skeptical about the safety and efficacy of many vaccines. Why in the heck would he get fired up about a “vaccine” that’s not even a real vaccine, a gene therapy that was mandated and shot into the arms of billions of people after three months of alleged safety trials? A shot he thinks - based on his copious research - is killing or injuring millions of people, including innocent children. 

I would hope such a person’s activism would “intensify” when the Mother of All Dangerous Vaccines was pushed onto the world.

If Kennedy just stuck to railing against contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune or asbestos cases, his life’s calling might be acceptable to the AP. But screaming about a vaccine that 250 million Americans got that is causing 100,000 times more harm is simply … not acceptable.

“… His anti-vaccine charity, Children’s Health Defense, prospered during the pandemic, with revenues more than doubling in 2020 to $6.8 million …”

Comment:  Why did his charity “prosper” and get so many more donors? Could it be that large numbers of people and donors support his work? Does the AP have a problem with non-profits whose work has large numbers of supporters? 

Also, Kennedy is the founder and leader of  a non-profit that is growing and attracting far more supporters. No other non-profit is doing this work. This means Kennedy went out on a limb by himself. The fact Children Health Defense is becoming very popular and more important actually speaks favorably of Kennedy's leadership and organizational talents. 

“… His organization has targeted false claims at groups that may be more prone to distrust the vaccine, including mothers and Black Americans, experts have said, which could have resulted in deaths during the pandemic …”

Comment: What are these “false claims?” The AP doesn’t tell us. This is the same AP that’s swallowed hook-line-and-sinker probably 100 “false claims” about Covid.

And note how the author sneaks in his/her point about Kennedy’s efforts harming “Black Americans” and “mothers.”

Re-stated: Kennedy’s work is killing black people … and if you are targeting black people for abuse and death, you are a racist … which means your comments must be banned by social media (which actually happened to Kennedy).

It never occurs to this writer that Kennedy might be trying to save or help black people … “mothers” too.

“… Kennedy released a book in 2021, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” in which he accused the U.S.’s top infectious disease doctor of assisting in “a historic coup d’etat against Western democracy” and promoted unproven COVID-19 treatments such as ivermectin, which is meant to treat parasites, and the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine …”

Comment: Anthony Fauci did play a leading role in a “coup against Western democracy.” 

“Teflon Tony” led the movement to ban worship services, visits to nursing homes, shut down businesses, closed schools, made wearing worthless masks mandatory … all by emergency orders or bureaucratic edicts. 

In a real “democracy,” big decisions are supposed to be voted on by elective bodies after serious and open debate. Our “New Normal” democracy is actually totalitarianism run amok.  This is the type of “Western democracy” endorsed by the AP.

It has also been proven, per multiple studies, that ivermectin and HCQ benefit certain Covid patients. I would argue - like Kennedy does in his book - it’s also been proven that studies reaching this conclusion were sabotaged by people like Anthony Fauci.

“… His push against the COVID-19 vaccine has linked him at times with anti-democratic figures and groups. Kennedy has appeared at events pushing the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and with people who cheered or downplayed the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 …”

Comment: This is run-of-the-mill slander by association. The writer names allegedly awful figures and then link one person to these supposedly dangerous and nefarious individuals. 

“… A photo posted on Instagram showed Kennedy backstage at a July 2021 Reawaken America event with former President Donald Trump’s ally Roger Stone, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and anti-vaccine profiteer Charlene Bollinger. All three have promoted the lie about the 2020 election being stolen …”

Comment: Did you get this? Someone once snapped a photo of Kennedy with Roger Stone and Michael Flynn at … a political rally. In the AP’s more-healthy democracy, people simply can’t attend political rallies to support a cause they think is important.

Note: It’s already “settled” political science that no election fraud happened in the 2020 election. This is a “lie” just like it’s the “truth” that Russia stole the 2016 election after a couple dozen Russian trolls mades some posts that nobody saw on Facebook.

“… The photo was posted but later removed by Bollinger, who has appeared with Kennedy at multiple events. She and her husband sponsored an anti-vaccine, pro-Trump rally near the Capitol on Jan. 6. Bollinger celebrated the attack and her husband tried to enter the Capitol. Kennedy later appeared in a video for their Super PAC …”

Comment: Here we have a shocking case of another outlawed, undemocratic “pro-Trump rally.” Apparently Kennedy is disqualified from running for president because somebody he knows “tried to enter the Capitol” on January 6th.

“… Kennedy has repeatedly invoked National Socialists and the Holocaust when talking about measures aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19, such as mask requirements and vaccine mandates …”

Comment: Showing your papers, persecuting “anti-vaxxers,” “anti-maskers” and “anti-lockdowners” are National Socialist-like tactics. So are “quarantine camps.” So are exhortations of political leaders to rat-out your neighbors who are not complying with their masters’ orders. 

Plenty of credible scientists and skeptics believe millions of innocent people have already died and/or suffered life-altering medical conditions because of these alleged “mitigation” edicts. Those are Holocaust-type numbers.

“… Kennedy has at times invoked his family’s legacy in his anti-vaccine work, including sometimes using images of President Kennedy.”

Comment: To seal the narrative that Kennedy is beyond the pale, we learn that the fiend has actually shown images of his late uncle. 

Presidents Biden, Obama and Bill Clinton can publish images of President Kennedy, but not his nephew. 

“His sister Kerry Kennedy … told the Associated Press in a 2021 interview her brother is “completely wrong on this issue and very dangerous.”

Comment: This is the last sentence of the story. RFK, Jr. - per his sister no less - is “completely wrong on this issue and very dangerous.”

Kennedy’s sister probably hasn’t even read his book, where Kennedy included more than 2,200 footnotes to back up his claims. She’s probably never spoken to one mother who is anguished (and feels hopeless) because of the loss or debilitating injury suffered by their beloved child.

One definition of courage is one’s willingness to do something he knows could be dangerous to his life, or harm his career …. Or  cause a person to become estranged from long-time friends and family members. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has stuck to his principles and convictions even though his own sister apparently hates what he is trying to do.

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Final Points …

Significantly and tellingly, this article does not include one paragraph or quote of anyone saying anything complimentary about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Here is a man who wrote one of the most important books of our times, started an ultra-successful if politically incorrect non-profit (Children’s Health Defense) and has filed numerous lawsuits against Big Pharma and other companies that have harmed innocent people. 

It would have been easy for a fair-minded journalists to find thousands of Americans who had glowing things to say about Robert F. Kennedy and his life’s work and how it benefitted them. But the article did not include even one favorable quote.

Kennedy also started a journalism site (The Defender) which is publishing hundreds of stories that the mainstream press and AP won’t write about. 

Almost by himself, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has begun to change the narrative on the entire corrupt Science/Medical Industrial Complex.

Forget his scholarship on the Covid atrocities, millions of people are now receptive to his long-ignored claim that vaccines are probably causing an epidemic of autism (today, 1-in-34 kids are now diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum).

He also rails against ever-increasing censorship and has been one of the most conspicuous victims of this Orwellian campaign. 

Probably within one hour of his announcement he was running for president, the AP hit the wires with an article seeking to make this man seem like the worst villain in history.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. must scare the hell out of the people and organizations he wants to purge and discredit. 

Since his life’s calling threatens the agendas of the worst actors in our society and threatens the Status Quo, they will do anything in their power to harpoon his presidential bid before it even gets started.

Of course his campaign is a “long shot.” He’s fighting the most corrupt and dangerous organizations on the planet … one of these organizations being the Associated Press.

 

 

Close quote

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by Karl Kinaski

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, Karl Kinaski said:

You forget one thing: this new alien-lifeform called internet ...

And the incredible mediocrity of the two major parties. 

Biden? The Donks have not a single charismatic smarty they can run? 

And the 'Phants may be worse. 

An RFK-Trump ticket would probably self-immolate. Neither one will take the veep position anyway. 

 

 

[Paul Brancato]

I think I might have said this earlier in the thread, but it’s worth repeating, especially here in this forum where if we’ve learned anything it’s to do your own due diligence and not just trust the msm. It’s absolutely not acceptable to discuss RFK Jr without actually reading what he’s written and spoken about. Sure, he has baggage - because the media is doing a hatchet job on him. That should not come as any surprise. 
Pat - I read your post with much interest. Your son had 15 vaccinations before the age of 5. RFK Jr talks about this specifically. He explains his involvement with the anti vaccine movement eloquently. He is advocating for parents who are as confused as you were. I’m sure there is some validity to your observation that parents are in some cases using the system to gain privilege for their children, mostly boys. But I don’t think you can extrapolate the way you have without taking into consideration the epidemic of childhood illnesses that dwarf our own. The figures are too stark to simply dismiss as the actions of out of control parents. We - he - are not just taking about autism. He is talking about a country beset with obesity, diabetes, auto immune disorders, asthma. He clearly states that vaccines with mercury are but one of many factors that need to be honestly looked at, and he blames our cozy relationships with polluting corporations and their government enablers. Then he goes on to attack censorship, specifically of scientists who are warning us that something is amiss. I did my own deep dive into mercury in vaccines a few years ago by reading carefully what the CDC has to say about this. In short, without admitting that mercury is a problem, and in fact saying that it wasn’t, they also said that as a result or the pressure brought to bear on them they removed mercury from ‘most’ vaccines. I wondered what that meant, so I kept reading. Well, it’s turns out that one can ask for mercury free vaccines. Have any of you ever been told by your doctor that you could request that? Probably not. Here’s the rub - CDC’s own words - all individually packaged vaccines are produced without using mercury as a preservative. However, most vaccines come in vials of several doses, and those vials do in fact use mercury.  RFK jr never states that mercury is causing autism. But he’s never going to back down from his position that something is causing it, and we are doing a pathetic job of figuring out what that is. 
During the Covid crisis I noticed, as we all did, that Pfizer et al kept advocating for authorization to vaccinate younger folks, eventually teens, and younger and younger it went. So I went to the CDC website to figure out how many children were dying of Covid. That was two years ago now, but the figures were startling. At the time there were about 700 children ages 0-17 who had died of Covid, out of a population of I think 47 million or so. And who those children actually were was not revealed. I’m not talking names or breakdown by exact age, I’m talking about whether they were healthy children or not. It doesn’t take much cognitive thought to see that this is important information that is left out. The reason given for seeking to vaccinate a population of youngsters that were clearly not at risk was to protect their grandparents. There is an element of truth there. Old age, and ill health, are the two predominant factors in Covid death, not vaccination. 
I have several friends who were double vaccinated and triple boosted (remember when we were told at first we just needed a vaccine? Then a second vaccine? Then a booster? Then another booster?) who got Covid anyway and being good trusting citizens took Paxlovid. The first of these friends still regrets it - he had to take himself off his meds, including prostate meds, and 24 hrs later had to get catheterized - for a week. His own doctor wasn’t up to speed on all the medications on Pfizer’s list of meds to stop because the list kept growing. The second of these stories is of a couple who returned from Europe and got Covid. Innocently the wife relayed her experience to me. They both went on paxlovid right away, and a week later the symptoms came back stronger than they were at first. They were really sick. She called this the paxlovid rebound. We all first heard of this when Biden experienced it. I kept thinking - when I have I heard in my lifetime the idea that a drug would cure a disease, but the disease might rebound later? The use of the word ‘rebound’ is my point. It’s now normalized. We are told to be good patients and for best results start taking paxlovid at the onset, that it was more effective that way. 
RFKJr talks about the US having one of the worst Covid results in the world. I haven’t fact checked this, but I suspect that it is true. Why? Because we have an unhealthy population whose life expectancy started going down several years prior to Covid. I looked that up too, and it was especially true in ‘red’ states. This has nothing to do with Covid or vaccines - it predates it. It has everything to do with healthy lifestyles. The better off one is, the better educated one is, the better the life expectancy. Red states have more obesity, more diabetes. 
If our pundits and politicians had, during the Covid crisis, addressed bad health generally, I would have trusted their Covid messaging more. But the crisis is decades old, and no one has done anything about it. That is RFK Jr’s message, not ‘vaccines are causing all your problems’. He is simply advocating for honest debate, not censorship. 

[Michael Griffith]

11 hours ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

First I do believe,  like Michael and Chris, that RFK's speech problem is a big impediment to his getting elected. It will also be difficult for him to win the Presidency just as it was for Ted Kennedy unseating Jimmy Carter, unless Biden decides not to run.

 

I do applaud that he, IMO has isolated the single greatest problem in the U.S., and that  is the preeminence of the Corporate State. Only 2 other people who have run for office have made that distinction. Ralph Nader in 2000, and Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020.

I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 and came to regret it as a number of people who voted like I did  made it easier for Gore to have the election stolen from him. I'll only say that as a person who doesn't believe in the electoral college and someone who actually believes Gore probably won Florida.

 

I think there were 2 basic reasons I was mistaken voting for Nader. I think it's important to say that no American politician, Republican or Democrat would have a ghost of chance of being reelected if he passively let 911 pass. The chief difference between Gore and Bush's reaction to 911 would be that Gore wouldn't have launched a major domestic surveillance spy state as Bush did and 2) Gore would never have invaded Iraq. And certainly RFK wouldn't have. These differences are historically huge. And the differences in the 2 parties  perceptions on geopolitcal strategy would not be near as clouded as it is now.

 

Even though sometimes I think Michael offers a unique perspective,and I did like his link, which does give voice to recent weather anomalies, but says it's within historical precedents and talks of the difficulties of achieving any real consensus politically on climate change goals, between have and have not nations.  I  don't agree with his' putting down of Gore's predictions in "An Inconvenient Truth" as he in fact said in 2006 that if there was no serious action taken to effect climate change in 10 years, you would start seeing very visible effects, and at least from where I live in California. It was right around 2015 that things started getting pretty crazy. As I always understood it, the climate scientists were not predicting greater frequencies of hurricanes and other various extreme weather phenomena but just more extreme incidents, like in Missouri just yesterday! To me it's unquestionable everything's going out of whack. I'm completely in RFK's corner on that, as well as the points made about ensuring clean water, rethinking food supply and the preservation of species on earth etc.. IMO, We need someone who won't just put lip service to climate change, and his anti corporate stance works hand in hand with that.

 

I don't want to misinterpret RFK's anti vax stance because I frankly don't understand it, and to me,  it's not completely clear. And  that's bad political baggage that he's just going to be continually having to stave off.  He's villainized Faucci as evil, whose not been perfect but the worst you can say with certainty about him is that he's a government bureaucrat /turned in part politician,  living in a Capitalist economic system whose had to maneuver around a President who could  see nothing beyond his desire to get re elected. And despite some people's wishful thinking. There's not going to come a day when RFK Jr.is going to suddenly look brilliant on that issue.

 

This Banon, Roger Stone connection is new to me. But both those guys are politically very smart. All of  Trump's rhetoric about the issues of protecting the border and Globalism, (which is the closest thing Trump has to an ideological base outside of his Culture War rhetoric) didn't come from Trump, but from Steve Banon. Steve Banon's stated aim is the dismantling of the administrative state, including the nation's safety net. He and Stone are smart enough to know that RFK is diametrically opposed to that. So it's obvious they are just cynically using him trying to stir up more sh-t against the government, and allow an opening for Trump to get the plurality in 2024, because their proximity and influence to Trump was their single politically greatest life achievement, and would like to see it continue.

I think they're grasping at straws, as I don't think there is any more real evidence that RFK will start a third party movement than Ted Kennedy would have in 1980. I think the Kennedy's are smart enough to know they need the Dem Party apparatus. IMO, that possibility of unseating Biden, could have been much more interesting if he didn't have the vaccine baggage.

 

I was kind of hoping for the next generation of Kennedy's because I wanted to think my generation was someday going to pass the baton, and that this story could be better told now by a younger person. But we will see if some of that Kennedy mystique is left. Either RFK Jr. or someone similar, could have the ideas whose time has come. 

I agree with much of what you say here.

I definitely agree with your comments about Gore and 9/11. think Gore would have responded to 9/11 in a much more rational, sensible way than Bush Jr. did. I think the invasion of Iraq was a terrible mistake, if not a scandal.

I would be curious to see RFK Jr. enter the Dem primary. It's just too bad that his voice has been so damaged by spasmodic dysphonia. I like the fact that he's proven willing to think outside the box and outside the standard partisan paradigm. 

Joe Lieberman, Joe Manchin, and Larry Hogan of the No Labels movement are trying to get a third party on the ballot nationwide for the upcoming election. The DNC and the RNC are already trying to block them from ballot access. 

I would like to see a sensible, centrist third party that could be a home for those of us who are tired of the bitter partisan feuds and strife between the two major parties. Both major parties have some good ideas, but hardliners in both parties are making it harder and harder to compromise and to get anything done. 

Edited April 7, 2023 by Michael Griffith

[Gil Jesus]

2 hours ago, Karl Kinaski said:

You forget one thing: this new alien-lifeform called internet ...

The left wing media is already using that internet to trash him, saying that, "his work has been described by public health experts and even members of his own family as misleading and dangerous."

https://apnews.com/article/robert-kennedy-jr-presidential-campaign-9fb5ed5c8e1fd31d2a4458d44b086593

They have his sister Kerry coming out against him, saying, "I love my brother Bobby, but I do not share or endorse his opinions on many issues, including the COVID pandemic, vaccinations, and the role of social media platforms in policing false information. It is also important to note that Bobby's views are not reflected in or influence the mission or work of our organization."

Bobby Jr.'s youngest brother, Doug Kennedy, a correspondent for FOX News Channel, had similar sentiments. When reached by PEOPLE, he noted that, "Everyone [in the family] loves him and recognizes his talent," Doug, 56, says. "Not everyone agrees with his positions."

https://people.com/politics/kerry-kennedy-speaks-out-rfk-jr-presidential-bid/

If you don't have the support of your own family, ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE A KENNEDY, it's gonna be hard to get the support of the people. Especially when you're being ridiculed by the press.

I like Bobby, Jr.. But he's not acceptable to the ruling Left. For this reason, I advised him via tweet some time back not to take this on. I am disappointed he didn't take my advice and I doubt he'll be able to muster the support within the Democrat Party. 

Edited April 7, 2023 by Gil Jesus

[W. Niederhut]

1 hour ago, Michael Griffith said:

I agree with much of what you say here.

I definitely agree with your comments about Gore and 9/11. think Gore would have responded to 9/11 in a much more rational, sensible way than Bush Jr. did. I think the invasion of Iraq was a terrible mistake, if not a scandal.

I would be curious to see RFK Jr. enter the Dem primary. It's just too bad that his voice has been so damaged by spasmodic dysphonia. I like the fact that he's proven willing to think outside the box and outside the standard partisan paradigm. 

Joe Lieberman, Joe Manchin, and Larry Hogan of the No Labels movement are trying to get a third party on the ballot nationwide for the upcoming election. The DNC and the RNC are already trying to block them from ballot access. 

I would like to see a sensible, centrist third party that could be a home for those of us who are tired of the bitter partisan feuds and strife between the two major parties. Both major parties have some good ideas, but hardliners in both parties are making it harder and harder to compromise and to get anything done. 

Both parties "have some good ideas," eh?

Can you give us some examples of Republican "good ideas?"

Reaganomic tax cuts for billionaires?

Cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid?

De-funding Obamacare?

Obstructing gun control legislation?

Suppressing voting?

Sabotaging climate change mitigation?

Rolling back Clean Air and Clean Water protection?

Banning books and the teaching of true American history?

[Michael Griffith]

4 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

Both parties "have some good ideas," eh?

Can you give us some examples of Republican "good ideas?"

Reaganomic tax cuts for billionaires?

Cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid?

De-funding Obamacare?

Obstructing gun control legislation?

Suppressing voting?

Sabotaging climate change mitigation?

Rolling back Clean Air and Clean Water protection?

Banning books and the teaching of true American history?

Most of this is a mix of far-left nonsense and exaggeration. I think you are a wingnut, an extremist. Your mindset is that it's your way or the highway, and you see anyone who disagrees with you as the enemy. I think people like you are part of the reason that our politics have become so polarized and poisoned. I won't even bother answering your list of accusations--virtually all of them are either falsehoods or distortions.

[W. Niederhut]

42 minutes ago, Michael Griffith said:

Most of this is a mix of far-left nonsense and exaggeration. I think you are a wingnut, an extremist. Your mindset is that it's your way or the highway, and you see anyone who disagrees with you as the enemy. I think people like you are part of the reason that our politics have become so polarized and poisoned. I won't even bother answering your list of accusations--virtually all of them are either falsehoods or distortions.

I'm Harvard man, Mr. Buzzwords.

Do let us know about those alleged "good Republican ideas."

Were you thinking of the Republican efforts to roll back women's rights, and rights for gay and lesbian couples?

Rolling back our traditional separation of church and state?

Shooting Mexicans?

The Bush/Cheney/Neocon "War on Terror?"

[Gil Jesus]

52 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

I'm Harvard man, Mr. Buzzwords.

 

FWIW, Harvard University was involved in the CIA's MK/ULTRA program.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1977/9/28/cia-papers-link-harvard-to-mind-control/

That mind-control program was run by Prof. Henry Murray.

In 1960, Timothy Leary began research at Harvard on "psychedelic drugs", which Murray was said to have supervised.

One of the subjects of their human experimentation was 17 year old Ted Kaczynski, who went on to fame as the "Unibomber".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Murray#:~:text=The unwitting undergraduates were submitted,levels of stress and distress.

Edited April 7, 2023 by Gil Jesus

[Kirk Gallaway]

2 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

If our pundits and politicians had, during the Covid crisis, addressed bad health generally, I would have trusted their Covid messaging more. But the crisis is decades old, and no one has done anything about it. That is RFK Jr’s message, not ‘vaccines are causing all your problems’. He is simply advocating for honest debate, not censorship. 

I agree Paul, but what are politicians going to do? That will never gain momentum politically because people are lazy and don't want to change their eating habits and develop a healthier lifestyle, and any politician who would try to do that would just lose, and unfortunately that's called Democracy. By middle age , most people know of somebody who was given a choice to either quit an unhealthy habit or die, and has consciously chosen to die. 

Junk food is an American exported health crisis throughout the world. Getting rid of unhealthy food would be the answer. But everyone would squawk that it's their freedom to live the lifestyle they choose. The U.S, has made great strides in eliminating cigarette use, but in Europe, they still smoke like trains!

The closest thing I remember of someone banning junk food was New York Mayor Bloomberg trying to ban big size sugary drinks, and what of lasting value came of that?  Probably the best example of a candidate who emphasizes health is Marianne Williamson, who makes a lot of sense, but a majority of people will never accept the message..

[Leslie Sharp]

15 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

I'd read a little about the autism aspect.  But I did not know vaccines have not been regulated for decades.  Why the hell not?  As a kid I got shots that left scars on my arm, being given a sugar cube to dissolve in my mouth.  My grandkids are vaccinated (not for covid).  No one has been making sure these are safe for decades?

That's RFK Jr.'s argument as well, and it's tragic he has been associated with the MAGA movement simply because he was outspoken about the Covid vax when in fact he had been writing and speaking about vaccines in general for years.  I think he's being exploited and there will be blowback from both sides.  MAGA will be furious if he dilutes his position, and some Dems will be/are furious he's danced with Carlson, Stone, and Trump on the issue. 

Did you see that Franken may throw his hat in the ring?  Where is Wellstone when we need him?!

[Joe Bauer]

Watch out for any 3rd party run in 2024.

A well financed ( big money ) campaign could sway this presidential election either way.

Ross Perot's 1992 run gave the election to Clinton.

I sense a serious 3rd party run this next year.

I think the Democrats would be the more susceptible party if this occurs.

The Republican party both on the national and state levels has taken on an all out war mentality in regards to keeping and regaining political power the last 20 years.

Pushing every constitutional law boundary to the limit and even beyond, daring the Democrats to stand up to them.

Politically we actually have been in a "Civil War" in this sense the last 30 years imo.

The huge violent mob injury and even death causing attack on our Capital Building while our entire Congress was held hostage terrified and traumatized inside on January 6th, 2021 was a monumentally important and super dangerous dynamic spill over of our political Civil War into an actual physical military battle assault manifestation one.

Seems in too many ways we Americans are numbing ourselves to the dangers of mass violence against each other.

The incredibly violent and injurious Jan 6th seditious coup Capital Building assault ...was "OKAY" in the minds of tens of millions of Americans?

Wonder which side of this precarious national crisis any 3rd party run campaign would be on.

[Joe Bauer]

Speaking of vaccines.

I remember the upper arm polio pin pricking one I had in the 1950's. Wasn't there a sugar cube one back then as well?

I feel uncomfortable with mandatory vaccination. My kids were forced to get many. 

Yet, a friend of ours daughter came from Sweden to attend Santa Barbara Jr. College 10 to 15 years ago.

She hadn't been vaccinated. She contracted meningitis not long after she arrived. The best doctors in Southern Calif. barely kept her from dying.

However, she lost both arms and one lower leg.

My kids had to get the meningitis vaccine before they could attend college.

 

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[W. Niederhut]

Well, I'm not surprised that Michael Griffith is having trouble giving us any examples of "good Republican ideas."

There aren't any.

This is another case of the misleading false equivalence that we so often hear about from Benjamin Cole-- i.e., that there are no significant differences between Donks and 'Phants, etc.  It's bunk.

The examples of good Democratic ideas and achievements during the past century are legion-- the New Deal, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, etc.-- almost all of which Republicans bitterly opposed.

Meanwhile, what constructive policies have the post-Reagan Republicans ever offered to the American people or humanity?  Their policies have started multi-trillion dollar wars, damaged the middle class, widened the gulf between the very rich and the rest of society, and created our gargantuan national debt.

They are the party of "supply side" tax cuts for billionaires, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, bank and railroad de-regulation, and deference to Big Oil plutocrats who oppose environmental protection and climate change mitigation.

At present the GOP House can't even draft a budget-- their essential task.  Why?

Because they are suppose to follow Reagan's plutocratic plan of "Starving the Beast" by cutting Social Security, Medicare, etc., but they fear the blow back.

And, in the grand scheme of things, Republican dirty tricksters like Roger Stone and Steve Bannon are simply hoping that RFK, Jr.'s candidacy will function as another Republican dirty trick, allowing the GOP to regain control of the White House in 2024.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

Junk food is an American exported health crisis throughout the world. Getting rid of unhealthy food would be the answer. But everyone would squawk that it's their freedom to live the lifestyle they choose. The U.S, has made great strides in eliminating cigarette use, but in Europe, they still smoke like trains!

I agree, Kirk. Training eating habits in young children is the answer and taxing the stuff that kills people and strains health systems heavily. However, the elephant in the room is that your government and just about every other doesn’t want people living to 100 years of age. And big pharma wants people as ill as possible, so they can sell them products. Its the marketeers that sell products and ideas. Its the food / beverage producers that are loading everything with as much sugar (addictive) as possible. Its the government that don’t address that.