Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Weaponization of Politics, an American Tradition

By Ron Paul | June 26, 20234

President Donald Trump is hardly the first political figure who has had the legal and policy processes weaponized against him. In fact, there is a long and shameful history of US politicians and bureaucrats weaponizing governmental powers against their political opponents.

The First Amendment was not even a decade old when fear of influence on America by French agents was used to support the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts. This outlawed “false, scandalous, and malicious writing” against the US government, Congress, or the president and made it illegal to conspire “to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States.”

The weaponization of politics is another example of how hysteria over alleged foreign threats leads to less liberty. The claim that opponents of US government policy were serving interests of France is an early example. Sadly, critics of US government policy have been smeared for spreading disinformation to benefit hostile foreign powers many times since.

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln oversaw the shutting down of newspapers and even the arresting of state legislators. After the US became involved in World War I, Congress passed a new Sedition Act banning “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” toward the military or US government. This act was used to imprison Eugene Debs, who then ran for president as the Socialist Party nominee while in prison.

Opponents of US involvement in World War II were accused by supporters of US military intervention of being a “fifth column” for Germany’s government. Later, opponents of wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and other countries where the US intervened were subjected to government surveillance and harassment.

Critics of US foreign policy may be the first critics of the US government targeted for opposing government policies, but they are not the last. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover targeted the civil rights movement and wiretapped and harassed Martin Luther King Jr. Hoover also kept files on those he deemed subversives, including even the pop music group The Monkees.

Presidents of both parties have used the IRS against their political enemies. As an IRS agent told the head of a conservative organization who was being audited after calling for the impeachment of then-President Clinton, “What do you expect when you target the president?”

The drafters of the Constitution knew those with power would always be tempted to use the power against their opponents. Hence, they created a limited government where power was diffused and checked. Unfortunately, American politicians gave in to the temptation to weaponize the law against their opponents in the early days of the Republic.

Since then, the growth of government has led to the growth of an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy that plays an important role for the deep state. The deep state pursues its own agenda regardless of the wishes of the people. The deep state works to subvert those who oppose its agenda, using tactics up to and including assassination in the case of President Kennedy.

A lesson of this history is that people who desire liberty should not trust the US government to advance liberty. Instead, they need to be vigilant in ensuring the government acts within the limits stated in the Constitution. Making sure the government is pursuing a policy of peace and free trade abroad is also essential to promoting liberty at home.

Copyright © 2023 by RonPaul Institute

June 27, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , | Leave a comment

Supporting US proxies not in Australia’s national interests

By Lucas Leiroz | June 27, 2023

Pro-Western countries continue to join the irresponsible wave of arming Ukraine. On June 26, the Australian government announced a new package of military aid to the Kiev regime, showing the country’s real willingness to follow NATO’s guidelines against Russia. The measure does not serve Australia’s actual interests but reflects the submissive status of the local government to Western partners.

“The Australian Government will provide a new $110 million assistance package to Ukraine (…) This package responds to Ukraine’s requests for vehicles and ammunition (…) In addition, Australia will extend duty-free access for goods imported from Ukraine for a further 12 months”, an Australian government’s statement reads.

The mentioned value of 110 million AUD is equivalent to around 74 million dollars. Among the equipment supplied, there are “70 military vehicles, including: 28 M113 armored vehicles, 14 special operations vehicles, 28 MAN 40M medium trucks and 14 trailers, and 105mm artillery ammunition”.

With this, Australian spending on aid to Ukraine amounts to 790 million dollars – US$ 610 million of which are specifically used for military assistance. While this spending is considerably less than that made by the US and other NATO’s powers, the numbers remain surprising given that, unlike its Western partners, Australia is not a key military power and has a smaller defense budget.

In fact, helping Ukraine is absolutely irrational for a country like Australia. Washington has a clear interest in attacking Russia, which shows the reasons for helping Kiev. In the same sense, although supporting the regime is not strategically beneficial for Europeans, these states can at least use as a “justification” some concern with the stability of continental security, fearing an “expansion” of the Russian operation.

But as far as Australia is concerned, there is no possible justification. The country has no reason to follow a foreign policy of aggression against Russia, nor is it geographically located on the Eurasian continent to fear that the conflict will physically affect it. Canberra is helping Kiev just because it is committed to Western geopolitical interests, even if these interests are not shared by the Australian people.

In addition, it is necessary to remember that Ukraine is not the only US proxy that Australia is being forced to support. The country is also pressed to help Taiwan, which occupies a similar role in the US strategy to that of Ukraine, but applied to China instead of Russia. Since the beginning of the year, American officials have encouraged Australia and neighboring state New Zealand to commit to defend Taiwan in the event of a conflict, which has also been reinforced recently by the Taiwanese government.

A day before the new package for Ukraine was announced, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu “reminded” the Australian government of the need to send a military attaché to Taipei. Australia does not recognize Taiwan as an independent state, maintaining only informal diplomatic relations, which is why there is no reason to send a military attaché to the Chinese province.

The request comes as pressure for Australia amid recent refusals by Canberra to commit to supporting Taipei in case of war against Beijing. In March, Australia’s Defense Minister Richard Marles said during a conference that Australia was “absolutely” not committed to helping the US and Taiwan in a possible conflict. Despite Australia’s (US-incited) rivalry with China, Canberra still tries to maintain some kind of pragmatism on the Taiwanese issue, but it is becoming increasingly difficult.

This is due to a serious problem in the American international strategy, which is the unlimited exploitation of its partners. Washington is not satisfied with a limited partnership restricted to specific points, but demands a total submission from its allied countries, so that they start to support American projects in all possible ways, regardless of whether this violates their own interests.

Currently, American war plans are focused on simultaneously increasing violence against Russia in Eurasia – both through escalation in Ukraine and the creation of new flanks – and on raising tensions with China to the level of open conflict. Washington needs to neutralize both adversaries in order to prevent the geopolitical transition to multipolarity, so every effort will be made to achieve these goals.

Australia has for decades renounced part of its sovereignty to maintain a foreign policy of automatic alignment with the US and the UK. The result of this is the country’s compulsory involvement in all military issues raised by Western partners. Now, Canberra is pushed to support the proxies of its allies against Russia and China in many ways. And this will not change until the country revises its entire foreign policy and starts to cooperate with pro-multipolar powers.

Lucas Leiroz is a journalist and researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.

You can follow Lucas on Twitter and Telegram.

June 27, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

Leave Trump Alone (Because It Does Not Matter)

By Peter Van Buren | We Meant Well | June 26, 2023

The narrative is set. Everything between now and November 2024, absent an actual alien intervention, is filler material.

Trump will ride his narrative to the polls, campaigning even if in hand cuffs and an ankle monitor. He is, he will make clear, the victim of a Democratic plot to weaponize “justice,” dating back to 2016 when Hillary was let off scot-free for her email shenanigans, followed by the FBI’s concocted Russiagate, two impeachments, and now a carousel of indictments. His opponent is Joe Biden, older than Yoda but presenting more like Jar Jar, crooked in cahoots with his scum bag son to hard suck bribe money out of eastern Europe. Sleepy Joe’s narrative is to count on the same FBI going after Trump with both barrels to shuffle its feet investigating him and Hunter through the election, with a final surge under the slogan “Oh who cares, I’m not Trump!” to wrap things up. It’s all a rich tapestry.

The problem is it is compelling; there is a lot of truth underneath the showmanship. There was David Petraeus, Obama’s CIA Director, who leaked secret docs to his girlfriend, and Sandy Berger, Clinton’s NSA Director, who stole secret docs. But it was Hillary who did get away with it all, at the FBI’s discretion (so much for one law for everyone) what Trump has been accused of in Mar-a-Lago. Hillary Clinton maintained an unsecured private email server which processed classified material on a daily basis. Her server held at least 110 known messages containing classified information, including e-mail chains classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level, the highest level of civilian classification. The FBI found classified intelligence improperly stored and transmitted on Clinton’s server “was compromised by unauthorized individuals, to include foreign governments or intelligence services, via cyber intrusion or other means.”

Clinton and her team destroyed tens of thousands of emails, evidence, as well as physical phones and Blackberries which potentially held evidence — obstruction as clear as it comes. She operated the server out of her home kitchen despite the presence of the Secret Service on property who failed to report it. A server in a closet is not as dramatic a visual as boxes of classified stored in a shower room, but justice is supposed to be blind. More recently, what of Mike Pence and Joe Biden, both of whom have escaped indictment so far on similar charges of mishandling classified information. Trump voters know if the FBI is going to take similar fact sets and ignore one while aggressively pursuing another, it is partial and political. No matter which candidate wins and loses, DOJ’s credibility is tanked.

The Stormy Daniels case, and the guilty finding in the Jean Carroll defamation case, reek of politics. Neither case would have seen daylight outside of Democratic hive New York, and neither could have held up outside a partisan justice system that permits it to ignore Jeffrey Epstein’s death in custody or a city in a crime tornado (New York in the past year reduced 52 percent of all felony charges to misdemeanors, opposite of what was done to Trump) while aggressively allowing the system to pursue a decades-old rape case of dubious propriety.

Witch hunt meet Hunter. New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg ran for office on the promise to prosecute Trump. He fulfilled a campaign promise and paid off his George Soros-connected backers. Bragg, in the words of law professor Jonathan Turley, had a “very public, almost Hamlet-like process where he debated whether he could do this bootstrapping theory [bumping misdemeanors up to felonies in the Stormy case.] He stopped it for a while and was pressured to go forward with it. All of that smacks more of politics than prosecutorial discretion.”

Calling it all a witch hunt is just a starting point. The point here is not innocence; it is whether the justice system is going to take fact sets and ignore one while aggressively pursuing another, risking being seen as partial and political. No matter which candidate wins or loses, credibility is tanked.

Still to come (at the least) are whatever judicial actions will emerge from the Special Prosecutor over Trump’s role in January 6, and legal action over the 2020 Georgia vote count (with another Democratic openly anti-Trump prosecutor.) Trump jokes in his stump speech nowadays every time he flies over a Blue State he gets another subpoena. He could easily head into the Republican convention to accept the nomination with multiple convictions and/or indictments on his shoulders. It won’t matter. The justice system is going to take fact sets and ignore some while aggressively pursuing others, partial and political plain as day. No matter which candidate wins, credibility is tanked. It grinds that most of the serious charges against Trump are under the hoary Espionage Act, seen by many as reviving the now-discredited trope Trump was a Russian agent.

Mostly overlooked for now is how much of the apparent evidence against Trump at Mar-a-Lago came from his own attorneys. Attorney-client privilege is recognized as one of the cornerstones of fairness in our system. In the Trump case, the Justice Department used the one major exception to privilege, when the communication is intended to further a criminal or fraudulent act, to compel Trump’s lawyers to give evidence against their own client. Justice asserted Trump lied to his own team about having no more classified documents, and that this constituted a crime of fraud and maybe obstruction, and thus privilege is not available and Trump’s lawyer can be made to testify against his client. The crime or fraud exception to attorney-client privilege itself has a long history, dating back to English common law. In the United States, the crime or fraud exception was first recognized by the Supreme Court in the 1840 case of United States v. Privileged Communications. But Trump’s supporters are unlikely to read deeply into the case law; all they’ll see is what looks like strong-arm tactics by the Department of Justice. No matter which candidate wins and loses, DOJ’s credibility is tanked.

The thing is no one has to work very hard to convince Trump supporters of the truth of what he is saying, that he is the victim. Trump support remained unmoved by the many investigations that plagued his presidency. Even during peak crises, views of him were static. Post-presidency polls continued the trend. Public opinion of Trump remains remarkably stable, despite his unprecedented legal challenges, and about half of Americans do not see his behavior as disqualifying, sharper if you divide along partisan lines. When asked if Trump’s legal troubles would impact their views of him, two-thirds of his supporters said it would not make a difference. That’s a committed bunch. Perhaps just as important, 57 percent of voters, including one-third of Democrats, said the indictment in New York earlier this year was politically motivated.

No one can say who will win in November 2024, but one loser is certain, faith in the rule of law by a large number of Americans. They will leave the polls certain the system was bent to “get” Trump, either saddened by the fall of blind justice or saddened that it did not work and Trump remined a powerful figure with a large movement behind him, either in or out of the Oval Office.

June 26, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Progressive Hypocrite | , , , | Leave a comment

DeSantis Says Would Resume Keystone XL Pipeline if Elected US President in 2024

Sputnik – 26.06.2023

WASHINGTON – Florida Governor and 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis said on Monday that he would resume work on the Keystone XL oil pipeline between the United States and Canada, in addition to permitting other pipeline projects, if he is elected to be the next US president.

“Hundred percent, yeah. It’s a no-brainer,” DeSantis said during remarks in Texas, when asked whether he plans to restart work on the project.

DeSantis pointed out that pipelines are the safest way to transport energy and pointed to the latest derailment of a train with tanker cars over the weekend in the US state of Montana.

DeSantis also said he plans to permit “a lot of pipelines,” noting that such a move would also be good for national security.

The Keystone pipeline system transports oil from Western Canada to refineries in the United States. The system currently has three phases of the project operational, but with the fourth, Keystone XL, was suspended by the Biden administration.

Keystone XL would run through the state of Montana, where US oil would be added to the system. President Joe Biden rescinded a construction permit for the pipeline granted by former President Donald Trump in 2019.

Last year, the Biden administration said it had no plans to restart the Keystone XL project even amid concerns about rising gas prices and volatility in the energy market.

June 26, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | , | Leave a comment

Robert F Kennedy Jr. Calls CBDCs “Instruments of Control and Oppression”

By Ken Macon | Reclaim The Net | June 26, 2023

In an interview with The New York Post, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Democratic Party presidential candidate, took a deep dive into the topic of currency. He unfolded his candid views on Bitcoin, expressed trepidations over central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and rang the bell of caution around artificial intelligence (AI).

Kennedy plans to “support Bitcoin and the freedom to transact,” and enable individuals to wield command over “Bitcoin wallets, nodes, and passwords.” In his world, regulatory fetters would be whittled down to the bare essentials to curb money laundering.

Kennedy also locked horns with Biden’s proposed crypto tax, a formidable 30%, and sounded the alarm against CBDCs.

His argument on CBDCs was clear-cut – CBDCs, in his estimation, are “instruments of control and oppression, and are certain to be abused.” He’s not alone in this battle-cry; his rival from the Republican stables, Ron DeSantis, shares a kindred spirit.

His disquiet was not merely consigned to the domain of cryptocurrency; artificial intelligence was equally ensnared in his critical lens. Kennedy called for the global harnessing of AI, citing figures like Elon Musk, whose advocacy for free speech he commended. The omens, as he foresees, are grave – where AI’s formidable might could “control narratives, create illusions, surveil our activities to dictate our behaviors and enforce compliance, and ultimately enslave humanity.”

June 26, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Leave a comment

Facebook Trusts Former CIA Analyst To Manage Election Policies

By Dan Frieth | Reclaim The Net | June 26, 2023

Meta recently appointed Aaron Berman, an ex-CIA agent, to take charge of its Elections Policies. Berman, who previously led the misinformation team at the company during the 2020 elections, now occupies a prominent position with extensive oversight over elections-related content across the globe.

The move is part of the revolving door between the intelligence community and social media platforms.

Aaron Berman boasts a career that spans nearly two decades with the CIA, from March 2002 to July 2019, Breitbart reported. During his tenure, he wielded significant influence, assuming various roles including editing and writing for the President’s Daily Brief – a high-profile classified document prepared every morning for the President of the United States by the intelligence community. Besides this, he supervised numerous analysts and managed multimillion-dollar budgets. His wide-ranging duties also encompassed providing briefings to members of Congress and the National Security Council.

After his extensive tenure with the CIA, Berman joined Facebook in 2019. Here, he took on the role of Senior Product Policy Manager for “misinformation.” He was instrumental in constructing the misinformation policy team’s workforce in the US and implementing policies during what he refers to as “critical events.” Although Berman has not specified the nature of these events, his stint at Facebook’s misinformation department coincided with the period leading up to the 2020 election, which was marred by controversies such as suppression of voices and news outlets.

Now as the Head of Elections Policies, Berman has wide-ranging responsibilities, as described on his LinkedIn profile: “Leads a team responsible for elections-related content policies worldwide. Oversees policy development, advises senior executives, coordinates with teams on implementation via technical and human workflows, and represents Meta with external stakeholders. Puts policies into practice on key elections.”

June 26, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Leave a comment

Democrats Call on YouTube To Bring Back Its Election Censorship Rules

By Dan Frieth | Reclaim The Net | June 26, 2023

A ripple of indignation surged through the Capitol this Thursday as some lawmakers pushed against YouTube and its parent colossus, Alphabet Inc. At the heart of the issue is the tech behemoth’s about-face on its election misinformation policy, a move that emerges as a tinderbox in the countdown to the presidential race next year.

The fury emanated from the news that YouTube has decided to slacken its policy reins, no longer acting as the all-mighty censor against videos questioning the the sanctity of the 2020 presidential elections. The revelation, made through an announcement from YouTube, was met with the usual complaints from four high-profile Democrats of the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. Among the voices was that of Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D.-NJ) who, along with his cohorts, denounced YouTube’s maneuver and demanded the tech giant retract this new stance.

In a letter, the lawmakers articulated their dissent, stating, “While you claim that taking such action is ‘core to a functioning democratic society,’ we emphatically disagree.”

We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.

They lambasted the policy relaxation as perilous and branded it a dagger pointed at the heart of American democracy, pressing YouTube to review this “harmful policy decision.”

YouTube’s silent watch was palpable as a spokesperson offered no rejoinder to the avalanche of criticism.

Dissecting the June 2nd announcement, YouTube’s reversal appears to be rooted in an introspective contemplation of its policy’s past efficacy and consequences. After purging of tens of thousands of videos, and a whole election cycle within its purview, the platform seems to have had an awakening. Perhaps censoring stuff isn’t good after all, they suggest, hopefully realizing that they were the baddies all along.

They believe the policy, initially started as a bulwark against election denialism, might inadvertently muzzle political speech without significantly stymieing the risk of violence.

However, the democratic lawmakers rebuked YouTube’s newfound stance as perilous, asserting that content discrediting the legitimacy of recent elections has already wreaked havoc upon democracy.

Since when has free speech been antithetical to democracy?

June 26, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Leave a comment

Republicans ‘Too Afraid’ to Remove Adam Schiff From Office Over Russiagate Hoax

By Andrei Dergalin – Sputnik – 25.06.2023

Despite being censured in the US Congress, Adam Schiff is in fact doing pretty well for himself and is likely going to “get a promotion for lying to the American people for four years,” says a former Colorado state senator.

The US House of Representatives voted to censure Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff this week for his role in promoting unsubstantiated claims that former US President Donald Trump colluded with Russia.

Former Colorado Senator Ted Harvey (Rep.), however, argued that Schiff deserves worse for essentially lying to the American people while in the capacity of the House Intelligence Committee head.

Despite basically knowing that there was no substance to allegations of Trump colluding with Russia, Schiff told the US public that there was “ample evidence of collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign,” Harvey told Sputnik.

“That is everything Schiff said to the American people for four years as the chairman of the intelligence community, he should not just be censured. He should be removed from office,” he said.

Alas, Harvey lamented, the US Republicans are simply “too afraid” to pursue this course of actions and instead managed to make a “martyr” out of Schiff.

“And he is raising money by the boatloads and he is now running for the United States Senate and will get a promotion for lying to the American people for four years,” Harvey mused about Schiff’s prospects. “And instead of being held accountable for that, he’s going to be promoted for that.”

During his tenure as the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump was hounded by allegations of colluding with Russia in order to be elected in 2016, with said allegations being actively promoted by his political opponents.

Despite the seriousness of the allegations brought against him, an investigation into the alleged Russian election interference led by special counsel Robert Mueller failed to produce conclusive evidence to back claims that Trump campaign members conspired with Russia.

June 26, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Russophobia | | Leave a comment

Fragmentation of World Economy Now Irreversible – Russia’s Representative at IMF

Sputnik – 25.06.2023

The use of international trade and the dollar as a weapon by the West makes the fragmentation of the world economy inevitable, Aleksei Mozhin, Executive Director for Russia at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), told Sputnik.

“The blatant use by the West as a weapon of international trade, finance, as well as the dollar and the euro itself, makes the fragmentation of the world economy not only inevitable, but also irreversible,” Mozhin said.

He pointed out that Western representatives at the IMF are trying to avoid this problem, and the leadership of the international organization cannot ignore the pressure that Western participants are exerting on it. As an example of the fragmentation of the world economy Mozhin mentioned the consequences of Western sanctions introduced against Russia.

“We have learned this lesson, we will never allow ourselves to be so dependent on imports again, at least in the strategic sectors of the economy,” Mozhin told Sputnik, adding that the whole world is now aware that globalization is forcing all countries to follow the path of specialization to the detriment of economic diversification and that the process of deglobalization will continue.

June 25, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

Clinical Trial to License RotaTeq, Like Almost All Childhood Vaccines, Did Not Use a Placebo Control

Those attacking RFK are wrong

BY AARON SIRI | INJECTING FREEDOM | JUNE 25, 2023

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is on record stating that almost all childhood vaccines were licensed based on clinical trials that did not include a placebo control. He is correct.

Nonetheless, numerous news outlets, such as Stat News in its article titled “Correcting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine ‘facts’”, are stating Mr. Kennedy is wrong because they claim the clinical trial relied upon to license the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, did include a placebo control. They are wrong.

A placebo is defined by the CDC as a “substance or treatment that has no effect on living beings.” This means a saline injection or water drops in mouth.

RotaTeq is administered via oral drops. A “placebo” would have been water drops in the mouth. The control used in the trial, however, included bioactive ingredients including almost all the ingredients in the RotaTeq vaccine itself.

How do I know this? Because in 2018, on behalf of ICAN, we were investigating the control used in each clinical trial relied upon by the FDA to license each childhood vaccine.

In that review, we found that while the package insert for the RotaTeq vaccine says the control in its clinical trial was a “placebo,” when we read the FDA’s clinical trial review for RotaTeq, the ingredients of this so-called “placebo” were redacted:

So, on behalf of ICAN we submitted a Freedom of Information Act Request to the FDA for “Documents sufficient to identify the ingredients of the ‘placebo’ in the prelicensure clinical trials identified in Section 6.1 of the package insert for RotaTeq.”

In a response dated June 14, 2018, the FDA provided the requested documents which clearly show that the control was not a placebo. Rather, it included polysorbate-80, sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, and sucrose.

These same four ingredients are also contained in RotaTeq. The only difference between the vaccine and the control is that RotaTeq also included tissue culture medium and rotavirus reassortments. So, bottom line: the control used in the RotaTeq clinical trial was not a placebo since it included bioactive ingredients.

For example, here is what the NIH explains about sodium phosphate, one of the ingredients in the control:

Sodium Phosphate can cause serious kidney damage and possibly death. In some cases, this damage was permanent, and some people whose kidneys were damaged had to be treated with dialysis (treatment to remove waste from the blood when the kidneys are not working well). Some people developed kidney damage within a few days after their treatment, and others developed kidney damage up to several months after their treatment.

And as these studies and data sheet make clear, polysorbate-80 is far from an inert substance, is bioactive, and can have safety concerns, especially when given to infants.

Bottom line, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s claim that virtually all childhood vaccines were licensed based on clinical trials that did not include a control group that received a placebo is correct. The undisputable evidence for this claim, all from FDA or pharma sources, is detailed on pages 3 to 7 of a response we sent to HHS on December 31, 2018. (In sharp contrast to virtually all other childhood vaccines, the clinical trial relied on to license Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for teenagers 12 to 17 years of age appears to have had a placebo control group, though we are still reviewing that claim.)

Here are copies of the charts from that 2018 response to HHS which show what the control group received in each clinical trial for each childhood vaccine:

It is also why the following claim by Dr. Paul Offit in his article “Should Scientists Debate the Undebatable” is categorically false: “All vaccines are tested in placebo-controlled trials before licensure.”

I would more than welcome a public debate with Dr. Offit on this point and would welcome being proven wrong – would gladly prefer that products injected into babies not have this safety gap. Oh, but wait, Dr. Offit says it is undebatable, which again shows precisely why there must always be complete, uncoerced choice when it comes to any medical product.

What is really incredible about the attacks on Mr. Kennedy is that he has made clear he has no intention of changing anyone’s right to obtain vaccines. Everyone who wants to keep vaccinating will be free to do so. He just wants to assure freedom of choice and help those who are injured by these products.

The media and medical profession’s attack on this position is callous. Just as they care about those injured by infectious disease, as Mr. Kennedy certainly does, they should also care about those injured by vaccines. Mr. Kennedy is clear that we can and should do both. And to his amazing credit, no amount of insult or attack has moved him from his position that we must protect every American, including those injured by these pharma products.

June 25, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular | | Leave a comment

FDA Approves 2 New Diabetes Drugs for Kids — Critic Says Clinical Trial Sample Was ‘Shockingly Low’

By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D. | The Defender | June 23, 2023

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week approved two drugs to treat Type 2 diabetes for children ages 10 and up, “as additions to diet and exercise,” the agency said.

The drugs — Jardiance (empagliflozin) and Synjardy (empagliflozin and metformin hydrochloride) — previously were approved for adults with Type 2 diabetes to improve blood sugar control.

They join metformin, approved in 2000 to treat Type 2 diabetes in children.

“Compared to adults, children with Type 2 diabetes have limited treatment options, even though the disease and symptom onset generally progress more rapidly in children,” said Michelle Carey, M.D., MPH, associate director for therapeutic review for the Division of Diabetes, Lipid Disorders, and Obesity in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

But critics like pediatrician Dr. Elizabeth Mumper said the agency’s action ignores the root causes of Type 2 diabetes in children while generating profits for pharmaceutical companies:

“Rather than doing the hard work of preventing chronic diseases by cleaning up multiple environmental sources of harm to children, we allow the pharmaceutical industry to spend millions to develop drugs that do not address root causes of conditions like diabetes but do create lifelong medicine customers.”

Mumper, the former medical director of the Autism Research Institute, said “a pill for every ill” is “not a good strategy for pediatric care.”

Type 2 diabetes used to be called “adult-onset diabetes” — but now we are seeing it in younger and younger ages, Mumper told The Defender. In her state of Virginia, 31% of children are overweight or obese, she said.

“This is a clear risk factor for insulin resistance progressing to Type 2 diabetes,” Mumper said, adding:

“We are redefining normal by assuming Type 2 diabetes is a reasonable condition in children to treat with medicine instead of attacking the root causes of this ever-increasing chronic condition.

“We continue to allow Big Food to sell food-like products which are devoid of nutritional value and filled with sugar and bad fats that are addicting and proinflammatory.”

‘System is rigged for Big Food and Big Pharma, with kids … as the losers’

Nina Teicholz, author, science journalist and founder of The Nutrition Coalition — a “non-profit, non-partisan educational organization that aims to improve health in America by ensuring that the public receives evidence-based nutritional advice” — also emphasized the importance of diet in successfully preventing and managing Type 2 diabetes.

Commenting on the FDA’s new drug approval, she said, “This is another Pharma victory, promoting drugs while ignoring diet,” adding:

“The system is rigged for Big Food and Big Pharma, with kids, getting fatter and sicker, as the losers.”

We’ve known for more than a decade that people can safely reverse their Type 2 diabetes through diet alone — “within a matter of just weeks,” Teicholz said. “But multiple government agencies ignore this lifesaving science while the FDA approves drugs instead.”

Adult participants in a 2017 peer-reviewed study who used a ketogenic diet to manage their blood sugar levels reported a 1.0% reduction in their hemoglobin A1c — while reducing their medications — and were still sustaining that reduction one year later, Teicholz said.

In contrast, the FDA safety and efficacy trial of empagliflozin — the active ingredient in the two newly approved products — showed the drug reduced the recipients’ hemoglobin A1c by 0.2% in 26 weeks.

According to the authors of a study released Thursday:

“Type 2 diabetes, which makes up the bulk of diabetes cases, is largely preventable and, in some cases, potentially reversible if identified and managed early in the disease course. However, all evidence indicates that diabetes prevalence is increasing worldwide, primarily due to a rise in obesity caused by multiple factors.”

The study, published in The Lancet, projected the number of adults with Type 2 diabetes will more than double — to 1.3 billion — by 2050.

‘Shockingly low’ clinical trial sample size makes it impossible to assess adverse events

Commenting on the FDA’s safety and efficacy trial for the drugs, Brian Hooker, Ph.D., P.E., senior director of science and research for Children’s Health Defense, told The Defender :

“The sample size for this clinical trial is shockingly low. Given that 157 patients were split into three separate treatment groups, it was impossible to properly assess adverse events from the drug.

“I would expect that the trial be at least 10 times larger with a longer period of follow-up than 26 weeks, given that these children would be on the drug indefinitely.”

According to the product’s website, Jardiance can have serious side effects, including increased ketones in blood or urine — which may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, tiredness and breathing difficulty, allergic reactions, dehydration, serious urinary tract infections, yeast infections, low blood sugar and necrotizing fasciitis.

Necrotizing fasciitis is “a rare but serious bacterial infection that causes damage to the tissue under the skin in the area between and around your anus and genitals (perineum),” the company said.

Synjardy listed the same possible side effects, plus a possible deficiency in vitamin B12 caused by using metformin for long periods of time.

The drugs are manufactured by insulin producer Eli Lilly and its partner Boehringer Ingelheim.

Eli Lilly’s revenue for the quarter ending March 31 was $6.960 billion.

The pharmaceutical industry in 2022 funded about 75% of the FDA’s drug division, The New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, the FDA said that based on the results of a “SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth” study involving more than 27,000 youth, the incidence of Type 2 diabetes in children increased by 4.8% per year from 2002 to 2015 and is expected to continue increasing.

The agency did not comment on why researchers believe the rate of Type 2 diabetes in kids is expected to rise but noted:

“As of 2017, there were approximately 28,000 cases of Type 2 diabetes in children in the U.S.

“By 2060, if current trends continue, that number is predicted to be approximately 220,000, with the majority of cases occurring in minority racial and ethnic groups such as Non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics.”

Additionally, the FDA last year approved the first drug designed to delay the onset of Type 1 diabetes for children as young as 8 years old.

Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D., is a reporter and researcher for The Defender based in Fairfield, Iowa. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Texas at Austin (2021), and a master’s degree in communication and leadership from Gonzaga University (2015). Her scholarship has been published in Health Communication. She has taught at various academic institutions in the United States and is fluent in Spanish.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

June 25, 2023 Posted by | Corruption | , | Leave a comment

Trump’s 2024 lead widens after latest indictment

RT | June 25, 2023

Donald Trump’s lead over his nearest Republican opponent for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination has nearly doubled since the former US president was indicted on federal charges earlier this month, a new poll has shown.

The NBC News survey, released on Sunday, shows that Trump is the first choice for 51% of Republican primary voters, compared with 22% for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and 7% for former vice president Mike Pence. Trump’s 29-point lead over DeSantis compares with a 15-point margin when the same poll was done in April.

Pollsters began the latest survey on June 16, a week after the ex-president was charged with 37 felonies by a US Department of Justice (DOJ) special prosecutor over his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Trump has tried to turn the case to his political advantage, just as he did after a New York City prosecutor charged him in April for allegedly falsifying business records.

“Every time the radical-left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of courage,” Trump told supporters on Saturday at a Christian voter conference in Washington. “I’m being indicted for you, and I believe the ‘you’ is more than 200 million people that love our country.”

A Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released earlier this month showed that Trump leads incumbent President Joe Biden by a margin of 45% to 39% in a hypothetical 2024 rematch of their 2020 race. An Emerson College poll released on Thursday found that a third-party candidate, such as philosopher and activist Cornel West, would draw support away from Biden, giving Trump an advantage.

Results of the NBC News survey suggest that the federal indictment has made Trump even more politically polarizing. While 21% of respondents said they have a “very positive” view of him, up from 17% in April, 49% gave a “very negative” assessment, up from 44% previously.

Just 20% of US voters believe the nation is on the “right track” under Biden, down from 23% in January. At the same point in Trump’s presidency, the number was 33%. Just 18% of voters have a “very positive” view of Biden, down from 29% in the early days of his presidency, the poll showed.

The current and former vice presidents, Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, have even lower favorability ratings. Only 11% of voters have a “very positive” view of Harris, while Pence’s rate is even worse, at 3%. DeSantis went from a 19% “very positive” rate in September 2022 to 14% this month.

Voters also give low marks to the DOJ, with 14% rating the department very positively, down from 18% in the most recent reading before Trump’s indictment.

June 25, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Corruption | | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »