Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
As erudite and informed as I pretend to be, the fact is that there is much that is important that I either miss, or fail to see any significance in. The death of investigative reporter Michael Hastings showed me that because my first reaction to the news flash was “who is Michael Hastings?” Reading further into the story I discovered that he was the reporter who brought down General William McChrystal and that he was considered to be one of America’s premier investigative journalists. As I read that original story, the thought occurred to me that possibly Hastings’s death in an auto “accident” was not simply a case of reckless driving, but I initially dismissed that as merely the operation of my cynical mindset. Nevertheless, the thought nagged at the back of my consciousness and then I saw a story on http://whowhatwhy.com/ , my favorite investigative website, run by the renowned Russ Baker. The stories title: “The Michael Hastings Wreck-Video Evidence Offers a few Clues” http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/07/14/the-michael-hastings-wreck-video-evidence-offers-a-few-clues/
For my own benefit and perhaps yours, I’ve done a little research into who Michael Hastings was and what he did that deserves attention. I explore the possibility that his death was no accident. I admit that I have no proof beyond speculation. Hopefully I can give you enough information to make your own judgments. In a world where American Presidents openly arrogate to themselves the right to kill people deemed enemies of the United States, all things suddenly become possible. When the basic right of habeas corpus can be denied to American citizens, based upon unproven allegations of their being threats to this country, isn’t it possible for those with the power to detain and to eliminate individuals, to make decisions as to someone’s existence doing harm to this country? Finally, doesn’t this unconstitutional expansion of powers give individuals with government connections the leeway to take revenge on those who expose them? While I’m not privy to knowledge of the actions of those in power and can claim no inside information, I certainly can speculate based on the experience of my lifetime. This then is my speculation about the death and life of Michael Hastings in the context of current life in these United States.
At about 4:30am a man driving a Mercedes swerved off of the straight as an arrow North Highland Avenue, in Los Angeles and into a Palm Tree. It is known that the man was driving at a high rate of speed. That man was:
“Michael Mahon Hastings (January 28, 1980 – June 18, 2013) an American journalist, author, contributing editor to Rolling Stone, and reporter for BuzzFeed.[4] He was raised in New York, Canada, and Vermont, and attended New York University. Hastings rose to prominence with his coverage of the Iraq War for Newsweek in the 2000s. After his fiancee, Andrea Parhamovich, was killed when her car was ambushed in Iraq, Hastings wrote his first book, I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story (2008), a memoir about his relationship with Parhamovich and the violent insurgency that took her life.”
“He received the George Polk Award for “The Runaway General” (2010), a Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO‘s International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war. The article documented the widespread contempt for civilian officials in the US government by the general and his staff and resulted in McChrystal’s resignation. Hastings followed up with The Operators (2012), a detailed book account of his month-long stay with McChrystal in Europe and Afghanistan.
Hastings became a vocal critic of the surveillance state during the investigation of reporters by the US Department of Justice in 2013, referring to the restrictions on the freedom of the press by the Obama administration as a “war” on journalism.[5] His last story, “Why Democrats Love To Spy On Americans”, was published by BuzzFeed on June 7.[6] Hastings died in a fiery high-speed automobile crash on June 18, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.[7]” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_%28journalist%29
It is of course possible that Michael Hastings death was an accident and that he was merely driving too fast on the wrong road. The WhoWhatWhy article linked above looks into the accident and I think fairly concludes that foul play was possible, but certainly not proven. We do know from Hastings’s friends that in the days before his death he felt he was being harassed our government:
“Earlier the previous day, Hastings indicated that he believed he was being investigated by the FBI. In an email to colleagues, which was copied to and released by Hastings’ friend, Army Staff Sergeant Joe Biggs,[45] Hastings said that he was “onto a big story”, that he needed to “go off the radar”, and that the FBI might interview them.[46][47] WikiLeaks announced that Hastings had also contacted one of its lawyers a few hours prior to the crash,[48] and the LA Times reported that he was preparing new reports on the CIA at the time of his demise.[49] The FBI released a statement denying that Hastings was being investigated.[44]
Hastings was eulogized by co-workers at Buzzfeed,[50] media figures such as Christopher Hayes[51] and Rachel Maddow[52] and others.[53]
According to Biggs, Hastings’ remains were cremated and returned to Vermont. Biggs stated that his family did not want Hastings to be cremated. Los Angeles medical examiner and police authorities indicated that it took two days to identify Hastings because he had been burned beyond recognition, and that the cause of death was undetermined, pending the results of an autopsy and toxicology tests.[54]” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_(journalist
We probably will never know what CIA stories Michael Hastings was working on before he died in that auto crash, or if indeed the FBI was investigating him, but given all that we have learned and are beginning to learn about the excessive use of government powers both by civilian and military intelligence, is it possible that Hastings was deemed a “threat” to our country and eliminated? Were I not a young adult in the 60’s I might have banished that type of idea with dismissive disdain. However, as I have written before, the assassinations of the 60’s and the murders at Kent State, have taught me to not be dismissive of the possibilities of conspiratorial actions by some with present or past connections to government. http://jonathanturley.org/2012/03/17/a-real-history-of-the-last-sixty-two-years/ and: http://jonathanturley.org/2012/10/27/murder-at-kent-state/
Hastings’ article that led to the McChrystal dismissal is a detailed and nuanced story of a tough, Spartan-like General: “McChrystal is reported to run 7 to 8 miles daily, eat one meal per day, and sleep four hours a night.” The General and his hand-picked staff had disdain for civilian leadership and basically he was given carte blanche by the President, who the General felt he had cowed in their meetings together. If you read it, as linked below, it seems a fair appraisal of the man and those men who he surrounded himself with.
“Even though he had voted for Obama, McChrystal and his new commander in chief failed from the outset to connect. The general first encountered Obama a week after he took office, when the president met with a dozen senior military officials in a room at the Pentagon known as the Tank. According to sources familiar with the meeting, McChrystal thought Obama looked “uncomfortable and intimidated” by the roomful of military brass. Their first one-on-one meeting took place in the Oval Office four months later, after McChrystal got the Afghanistan job, and it didn’t go much better. “It was a 10-minute photo op,” says an adviser to McChrystal. “Obama clearly didn’t know anything about him, who he was. Here’s the guy who’s going to run his fucking war, but he didn’t seem very engaged. The Boss [McChrystal] was pretty disappointed.” This was a statement from one of McChrystal’s aides.
“As McChrystal leaned on Obama to ramp up the war, he did it with the same fearlessness he used to track down terrorists in Iraq: Figure out how your enemy operates, be faster and more ruthless than everybody else, then take the fuckers out. After arriving in Afghanistan last June, the general conducted his own policy review, ordered up by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The now-infamous report was leaked to the press, and its conclusion was dire: If we didn’t send another 40,000 troops – swelling the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan by nearly half – we were in danger of “mission failure.” The White House was furious. McChrystal, they felt, was trying to bully Obama, opening him up to charges of being weak on national security unless he did what the general wanted. It was Obama versus the Pentagon, and the Pentagon was determined to kick the president’s ass.” This was Michael Hastings’s interpretation based on his access to General McChrystal and his team.
Below was Hastings assessment of the staff and culture that McChrystal surrounded himself with as taken from an evening in Paris:
“The general’s staff is a handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs. There’s a former head of British Special Forces, two Navy Seals, an Afghan Special Forces commando, a lawyer, two fighter pilots and at least two dozen combat veterans and counterinsurgency experts. They jokingly refer to themselves as Team America, taking the name from the South Park-esque sendup of military cluelessness, and they pride themselves on their can-do attitude and their disdain for authority. After arriving in Kabul last summer, Team America set about changing the culture of the International Security Assistance Force, as the NATO-led mission is known. (U.S. soldiers had taken to deriding ISAF as short for “I Suck at Fighting” or “In Sandals and Flip-Flops.”) McChrystal banned alcohol on base, kicked out Burger King and other symbols of American excess, expanded the morning briefing to include thousands of officers and refashioned the command center into a Situational Awareness Room, a free-flowing information hub modeled after Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s offices in New York. He also set a manic pace for his staff, becoming legendary for sleeping four hours a night, running seven miles each morning, and eating one meal a day. (In the month I spend around the general, I witness him eating only once.) It’s a kind of superhuman narrative that has built up around him, a staple in almost every media profile, as if the ability to go without sleep and food translates into the possibility of a man single-handedly winning the war.
By midnight at Kitty O’Shea’s, much of Team America is completely shitfaced. Two officers do an Irish jig mixed with steps from a traditional Afghan wedding dance, while McChrystal’s top advisers lock arms and sing a slurred song of their own invention. “Afghanistan!” they bellow. “Afghanistan!” They call it their Afghanistan song.
McChrystal steps away from the circle, observing his team. “All these men,” he tells me. “I’d die for them. And they’d die for me.” http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-runaway-general-20100622
Those three quotations can give you a feeling for why Michael Hastings article in Rolling Stone was explosive enough to lead to the end of Stanley McChrystal’s military career. Hastings was an excellent writer and whether you agree with his conclusions or not the full Rolling Stone article will give you a flavor of his competence as a journalist and I suggest to reading it in its entirety.
I’ve written much on what I call the “Corporate/Military/Intelligence/Complex” (CMIC) as I see it. http://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/12/who-do-you-trust-us-or-your-lying-eyes/#more-66997 One of its’ features is that there is an interrelationship between those in the Military and Intelligence fields with those corporations who receive funding for providing supplies for them. I see this interrelationship as rather incestuous and harmful to our country, since the permeability between these entities can and often does leads to corruption of all parties. In General McChrystal’s case one can see that his Army Retirement has certainly not ended his career:
“In 2010, after leaving the Army, McChrystal joined Yale University as a Jackson Institute for Global Affairs senior fellow. He teaches a course entitled “Leadership,” a graduate-level seminar with some spots reserved for undergraduates. The course received 250 applications for 20 spots in 2011 and is being taught for a third time in 2013.[69][70][71]
In November 2010, JetBlue Airways announced that McChrystal would join its board of directors.[72] On February 16, 2011, Navistar International announced that McChrystal would join its board of directors.[73] He is also Chairman of the Board of Siemens Government Systems, and is on the strategic advisory board of Knowledge International, a licensed arms dealer whose parent company is EAI, a business “very close” to the United Arab Emirates government.[74]
McChrystal co-founded and is a partner at the McChrystal Group LLC, an Alexandria, Virginia-based consulting firm.[75][76]
In 2011, McChrystal advocated instituting a national service program in the United States. McChrystal stated, “‘Service member’ should not apply only to those in uniform, but to us all … America is falling short in endeavors that occur far away from any battlefield: education, science, politics, the environment, and cultivating leadership, among others. Without a sustained focus on these foundations of our society, America’s long-term security and prosperity are at risk.”[77][78]
McChrystal’s memoir, My Share of the Task, published by Portfolio of the Penguin Group, was released on January 7, 2013.[79] The autobiography had been scheduled to be released in November 2012, but was delayed due to security clearance approvals required from the Department of Defense. Portfolio publishers stated, “We have decided to delay the publication date of General McChrystal’s book, My Share of the Task, as the book continues to undergo a security review by the Department of Defense … General McChrystal has spent 22 months working closely with military officials to make sure he follows all the rules for writing about the armed forces, including special operations.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_A._McChrystal This is a case of Old (General) Soldiers not only not dying but certainly not fading away. In fact one can detect a political future in the making.
Based on what I presented above let me present a hypothetical, which is only buttressed by my background as a psychotherapist, life experience and love of history. I have little doubt that the General and his cronies believe themselves to be good men and patriots all. They view the world from a perspective that arrogates to themselves knowledge not available to those who have never “walked in their shoes”. While capable of nuanced judgment, it is a judgment nevertheless informed by their world perspective and self-concept of being heroic individuals. Among his men the General is no doubt looked at as the Alpha. As he was quoted in saying: “McChrystal steps away from the circle, observing his team.”All these men,” he tells me. “I’d die for them. And they’d die for me.” I believe the General is stating the truth. So then hypothetically, how would he and/or his men view Hastings’s article that led to the General’s retirement? They believed that the General had the insight to bring the war to a successful conclusion. They believed that our President and his vice President didn’t have a clue as to how to successfully prosecute this war. They therefore then believed that those who opposed the General and his plans were acting against the best interests of the United States, possibly skirting treason. Finally though, Hastings’s was a person who they opened up to and allowed to sit in on their inner circle. They trusted him to produce an article that would highlight the greatness and successes of Stanly McChrystal, after all how could he not after spending so much time with them? Hastings’s article and McChrystal’s ouster probably infuriated them all and raised an angry reaction in men who were described by Hastings as:
“The general’s staff is a handpicked collection of killers, spies, geniuses, patriots, political operators and outright maniacs. There’s a former head of British Special Forces, two Navy Seals, an Afghan Special Forces commando, a lawyer, two fighter pilots and at least two dozen combat veterans and counterinsurgency experts. They jokingly refer to themselves as Team America, taking the name from the South Park-esque sendup of military cluelessness, and they pride themselves on their can-do attitude and their disdain for authority.”
Am I being unfair in speculating that perhaps the death of this Journalist, three years after this article, may well have been payback? Who knows, not I, but my senses tell me that there are at least two scenario’s whereby Michael Hastings death may be no accident. One could be the government itself, or certain parts of it related to the CMIC and another could be those able to take revenge on someone who in their opinion “brought a good man down to the detriment of our country”. I doubt that the public will ever know the truth if the death was not accidental and really that is not my point in writing this. What I’m trying to bring out is that beyond the unconstitutional behavior of our government in the name of “National Security”, which escalated after 9/11, a situation which in itself is terrible, is the heightened speculation and concomitant loss of faith in our government which follows in its wake. We are supposed to be a nation that exists under the rule of law and guided by our Constitution. How can we maintain faith in these institutions if we suspect that those in government or in the Corporate/Military/Intelligence Complex are able to act outside the law with impunity? What do you think?
Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
Other links about Hastings death and the suspicions about it:
http://www.infowars.com/friend-michael-hastings-marked-for-death/
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hastings-panicked-email-fbi-death-article-1.1380539
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-09/elusive-details-michael-hastings-death
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/21/email-sent-by-michael-hastings-hours-before-his…
http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-of-rolling-stone-muckracker-the-michael-hastings-wreck-…
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/18/19027717-journalist-michael-hastings-dies-at-33..
http://www.sandiego6.com/story/details-of-reporter-hastings-death-remain-elusive-20130708
RE: Oky1 1, July 22, 2013 at 11:43 am
Oky1 : thanks for the reply. I realize now that this board is not going to be able to keep any sort of focus on any given point… So I have put my 2pence in the ring and will let it lie.
But since you say again some version of the conversation I had with GeneH earlier about the general principle of this board being free speech, and then others who made the comment that “that’s what scroll bars are for” as a way to say skip what you don’t like…. I’ll simply reply that free speech can, and obviously does, too often lead to irrelevant speech. Free and unconstrained.
What else to call the completely disassociated postings from GodFather, as as well as the less hyperbolically disassociated ones?
And the damage that is done to discourse is just that…. There is none. Or none that can get thru the piled high bullshit.
So even in this thread the post begins with a fair conversation about the event of Michael Hastings death and its suspicious circumstances; concludes with some v.good reflections and questions. From there the commetariat on this blog spin into an array of non sequiturs that make it impossible to actually carry a thought from one post to another.
So it is. It is the way this board is organized. And so I, at least, have offered my bits, and have been voted down and educated as to how things are. This is also a form of democracy.
But, since you opened the door I’ll say one last time : the original blog posts often seem to me to serve an important journalistic and educational function. And JT is a good mind who has a good way of offering the various points and to adroitly contextualize the story. So all that is good and reason to stay in the game.
And sometimes the comments actually stay on point long enough to solicit a good idea or two… But, in my experience, it hasn’t been able to last for very long.
A thread or two, and then off we go into some odd irrelevancy. How in the heck do we get into the swirl of vaccines when talking about the implications of Hastings’ death?!
The point maybe worthy of its own post and examination. But why does every conversation about anything have to end up in these dead end eddies?
You say it is due to ‘running with the point according to our “own perceptions”. Fair enough. That much is obvious.
It was my wan hope that a board hosted by JT and visited by other luminaries that we would get some actual illumination on the matters at hand.
One last point and then out: It is my underlying premise that bad thinking, and consequent bad choices leading to v.bad outcomes is the underlying cause for the various troubles we find ourselves in as a country: socially, constitutionally, internationally, in every way. All very well documented here on the JT blog. And it is only better, deeper, more systemic, more meaningful thinking that can lead to meaningful action that can (might?) solve/resolve these troubles and problems. Again, something I had high hopes for on first encountering this board.
To find that any point/story/event/post, no matter how important or salient or sharp can be dulled by any diversion into any other idea or point related or not, and then have the thread essentially spin out in essentially dogmatic rants of one sort of another; All because, as you say “we run with it according to our own perceptions” is, to me disappointing.
Oh well. That is the way it is, and it doesn’t matter any more. I got it.
However, I’ll leave the rant with this rant and accusation : that while there is value in being able to speak your mind, to boldly go where one has always and only ever gone before — it is of course important and a foundational stone of freedom and liberty. But I question whether treating every post/thought as an opportunity to segue into ones standard bits just because it is what is on ones mind, irrespective of any actual relationship to the underlying topic,
while “free” does not actually serve the purpose of inquiry and advancing knowledge and insight. Much less any sort of focus that might lead to meaningful action.
I know. I know. People are gathered here and encouraged to take the conversation where ever they want, as you have so well said. And so it is.
It just means that it isnt something else : a place to actually engage with smart people in a focused way, to stay on point, and learn something new.
Not that it cant happen. It has from time to time. Of course.
Wisdom is to take things as they are and not try and change them. It is wisdom therefore to recognize what this part of the public square is and revel in that. And that is what I hope to do going forward.
Thanks
Michael.
“But, since you opened the door I’ll say one last time : the original blog posts often seem to me to serve an important journalistic and educational function. And JT is a good mind who has a good way of offering the various points and to adroitly contextualize the story. So all that is good and reason to stay in the game. And sometimes the comments actually stay on point long enough to solicit a good idea or two… But, in my experience, it hasn’t been able to last for very long.”
Michael B.,
When I began as a guest blogger the divergence from a topic I had provided distressed me, so I get where you are coming from. however, when I thought about my distress it occurred to me something that I already knew and that is that each of us reacts in our own unique way to a particular stimuli. What we get then in comments is a free form expression of individual impressions of the issue raised. We’re human and so the issue will often go off track and morph into something other than intended by the blogger. I personally prefer that to a rigid system of rules to keep people on track because that would stultify the creativity that comes from a comment from the gut. Bear with us though because your comments have already added value to us all and the nuggets gleaned from the creative mental processes of those who comment are worthwhile whether or not you reject particular ones.
Many thanks to Mike Spindell for this well written and relevant post. Also I would like to thank all the commenters who posted links to information concerning the crash of Michael Hastings.
I have a question for Otteray Scribe: I do respect very much your comments and have learned from each of them. I was wondering if you have ever read the book American Assassination, the strange death of Senator Paul Wellstone by Four Arrows and Jim Fetzer. I read it some time ago and came away convinced that Wellstone was murdered. It seems that the cover-up attempts are what convince me in the end. The same can be said concerning the December 12, 1985 crash in Gander, Newfoundland of Arrow Air military charter flight where 250 American soldiers were killed. There is evidence of a cover-up in that crash also. It seems we are always told of pilot error, weather, icing, etc in the case of plane crashes…but then there is seemingly actions on the part of government entities that appear to cover-up evidence. What are we to believe?
Look, it’s Trayvon! LOL:)
**
Exclusive Footage of Birth of Royal Baby!
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
July 22, 2013
**
http://www.prisonplanet.com/exclusive-footage-of-birth-of-royal-baby.html
feemeister,
Excellent rant & points.
test
** Mike Spindell 1, July 18, 2013 at 11:14 pm
Michael B,
Discussions here are at times messy because so many of us here take the original proposition and run with it bssed on our own perceptions. I agree though that the basic issue is the idea of whether the US still functions as a representative republic, much less a democracy. My own view is that it no longer is a functioning republic. I see it as a feudalistic oligarchy, where some freedom remains for us masses, simply because the oligarchs are too self centered to cooperate. My fear is that a strong leader will arise who is so sociopathically remote, like Hitler, or Stalin and the ballgame will be over, so to speak. A great movie meditation on this was in Visconti’s “The Damned”, from the 60′s. It showed a powerful industrial dynasty in pre WWII Germany who backed Hitler, thinking they could control him, only to be destroyed by the NAZI’s they helped put in power.
The issue of what is happening to our country is far too urgent to argue it in terms of individual political memes, like Left and Right, but then again those memes are the fodder for the propaganda that has allowed this state of affairs to come about.
**
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/18/carter-the-united-states-has-no-functioning-democracy/,
Mike S,
JP Morgan had a hand in building the Nazis.
They are currently receiving part of 85 billion a month in taxpayer backed welfare.
I know them , other wallst/London firms, as being responsible for most murders, crime & corruption.
We may never know of a hidden agenda of Jones/Infowars, but we can judge infowars & JPM by their fruits.
BTW, I see Jamie Dimon got his fire put out over night, but it’s still smoldering. 🙂
When it finally goes it’ll be ugly for a bit.
Mike,
Your reply is straightforward, serious, and without sarcasm. Those are your qualities that I always admire and respect. The conspiracies – not so much.
I’m pressed for time so I can’t go into the larger question, spreading fear, but I will say your reply about a specific person, Alex Jones, is mush. May I try again? Is Alex Jones on the payroll of the FBI? Also, I looked around and find nothing about Elridge Cleaver and Elijah Muhammad being linked to the FBI. How about some backup?
“May I try again? Is Alex Jones on the payroll of the FBI?”
My answer is clear which is how would I know that for a fact? The real question should be do I think he might be in the employ of some forces related to the CMIC for disinformation purposes and my answer is that is a definite possibility based on past history. You’ve heard I presume of “COINTELPRO” and their subverting members of the Movement via the use of paid agents? They were the ones who were always trying to produce more violent protests and demonstrations. From what I know of Jones he could well fit the bill in this day and age.
However, as in this particular guest blog and in all my others I take pains to assure people that what I am presenting is my own personal speculation based on my examination of the evidence I present. I have no special knowledge of the workings of the “permanent government”, only the power of my own surmises, which you can accept or reject.
“Also, I looked around and find nothing about Elridge Cleaver and Elijah Muhammad being linked to the FBI. How about some backup?”
Regarding Elijah Muhammad speculation about his FBI ties goes back to his attendance at a Ku Klux Klan Convention in the late 50’s as reported in life magazine and runs to the murder of Malcolm X where the FBI and police had “withdrawn” their protection of Malcolm the day of his shooting. The thought at the time was that Luis Farrakhan was behind the shooting as an agent of Muhammad. The Nation of Islam, with its Black separatist agenda was approved of by the segregationists and by J.Edgar Hoover (an arch segregationist). When Malcolm X had his revelation that Whites and Blacks should join together in a movement for freedom he became a threat to both the FBI and Muhammad.
As for Cleaver look at this rather tame Wiki article and tell me how he managed to return to the U.S. and had his attempted murder charges dropped? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldridge_Cleaver Back in the Movement days in the 60’s, in which I played a very minor part, it was common speculation that Cleaver was a government plant. There are other things but I too am pressed for time. As far as government plants in various movements look up the Senator Frank Church hearings on the CIA’s involvement in domestic issues that gave its report in the later 70’s.
MS If you read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, he tells the story of how he went to meetings with the Nazis and the KKK since they had the same agenda as the Black Muslims. He was rather disturbed by this at the time, and was one of the things that made him break with the Nation of Islam.
“MS If you read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, he tells the story of how he went to meetings with the Nazis and the KKK since they had the same agenda as the Black Muslims. He was rather disturbed by this at the time, and was one of the things that made him break with the Nation of Islam.”
ArthurRE,
Thank you. I did read Malcolm X’s biography but the atrophying of my 68 year old brain didn’t bring that knowledge to the forefront, as it should have. you have jogged it out of its semi-coma. Malcolm was also disturbed by Elijah Muhammad’s disdain for MLK and Elijah’s refusal to participate in the civil rights movement. That is where a good part of the speculation about the involvement with the FBI and Cointelpro began.
Mike,
I’m glad you didn’t snark your reply as I think the question was thought provoking as was your answer.
A new study is the latest research failing to find a connection between autism and vaccines.
Liz Szabo
USA TODAY
March 29, 2013
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/29/vaccine-schedule-autism/2026617/
Excerpt:
At least 10% of parents of young children skip or delay routine vaccinations, often out of concern that kids are getting “too many shots, too soon.”
A new study finds that children who receive the full schedule of vaccinations have no increased risk of autism.
“This is a very important and reassuring study,” says Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer at Autism Speaks, who wasn’t involved in the new paper. “This study shows definitively that there is no connection between the number of vaccines that children receive in childhood, or the number of vaccines that children receive in one day, and autism.”
The study, published today in the Journal of Pediatrics, is the latest of more than 20 studies showing no connection between autism and vaccines, given either individually or as part of the standard schedule. The paper is the first to consider not just the number of vaccines, but a child’s total exposure to the substances inside vaccines that trigger an immune response.
Study authors say they sought to address the fear that multiple vaccines are “overwhelming” children’s immune system, possibly contributing to long-term problems. Twenty years ago, children were vaccinated against nine diseases. Today, they’re vaccinated against 14, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which funded the study.
Though kids get more needle sticks, the next-generation vaccines they receive are easier on the immune system than those used two decades ago, says Frank DeStefano, lead author of the new paper and director of the Immunization Safety Office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s because modern vaccines are more sophisticated, using just a few critical particles — called antigens — to stimulate the immune system, DeStefano says. These antigens, found on the surfaces of bacteria and viruses, spur the body to make antibodies, which block future infections.
Regarding the polio vaccine: Since 2000, the only vaccine recommended and used in the USA is the IPV (Inactivated Polio Vaccine)–or the one that has a killed virus and cannot cause polio.
Don’t take no wooden/Paper Nickels from Wallst’s JP you know you, G nite.
All Right, completely shut out, nice, I must be right on top of the target!
For those that don’t know, it’s an inside joke.
JP ( Censored, starts with M, ends with Organ) Gold Vault burned yesterday.
Alex Schaefer, an artist, uses paint, chalk, etc., to get the point across to the people the Wallst/London Banks/Insurance Co’s are totally corrupt & criminals.
Vaults of Gold don’t burn! Gold Melts!
The inside joke is that all JP ( Censored, starts with M, ends with Organ) has isn’t real Gold, but paper promises of delivery of real gold. That Paper Burns as it’s not real Gold & is a complete criminal Fraud!
If you can’t understand their scam, that means you are the victim!
Next attempt:
For those that don’t know, it’s an inside joke.
JP M…….organ’s Gold Vault burned yesterday.
Alex Schaefer, an artist, uses paint, chalk, etc., to get the point across to the people the Wallst/London Banks/Insurance Co’s are totally corrupt & criminals.
Vaults of Gold don’t burn! Gold Melts!
The inside joke is that all JP M………..organ has isn’t real Gold, but paper promises of delivery of real gold. That Paper Burns as it’s not real Gold & is a complete criminal Fraud!
If you can’t understand their scam, that means you are the victim!
In my Opinion!
WoW! Ph’in , censored!
Say nothing about the burning of the paper gold at JP you know who! LOL: 🙂
Not to worry, I saved the comment before posting.
For those that don’t know, it’s an inside joke.
JP Morgan’s Gold Vault burned yesterday.
Alex Schaefer, an artist, uses paint, chalk, etc., to get the point across to the people the Wallst/London Banks/Insurance Co’s are totally corrupt & criminals.
Vaults of Gold don’t burn! Gold Melts!
The inside joke is that all JP Morgan has isn’t real Gold, but paper promises of delivery of real gold. That Paper Burns as it’s not real Gold & is a complete criminal Fraud!
If you can’t understand their scam, that means you are the victim!
I believe one of Alex’s paintings should be a great investment! We’ll see!
http://www.maxkeiser.com/2013/07/alex-schaefer-life-imitates-art/comment-page-1/#comment-666339
There are those that call anyone who hints that 9/11 was an inside job, a complete conspiracy nut. Of course it was an inside job. I’m not ready to have a friend of the people of America, Alex Jones, slammed like that. Vaccines is a tricky subject. Some invaluable, like Polio, & some highly suspect. Like O.S., some good info & also a lot of BS.
Infowars and the Blaze has as much if not more credibility than Huffington, MSNBC, FOX or most of the Progressive sites. Both are relatively independent and not particularly corporate run. To call them right wing is disingenuous, dishonest, pathetically partisan-lefty or completely ignorant.
Im not saying either site is right on everything either btw.
To outright dismiss them reeks of ignorance and willful blindness to factual stories the regular media is too cowardly to report.
Anyone who dismisses any news source because they do not like their politics is a fool.
Mike,
Are you suggesting that Alex Jones is on the FBI payroll?
And if you are concerned about the business of spreading fear, what the hell are you pedaling?
“Are you suggesting that Alex Jones is on the FBI payroll?
And if you are concerned about the business of spreading fear, what the hell are you pedaling?”
Justateacher,
Yes I am suggesting that based on the fact that many that the technique of buying off people in the information dissemination business has been a technique of our Government via the CMIC for quite a long time.
Now what I’m “peddling”, as I’ve always tried to do in my life is a sense of the reality beyond the reality that has been fed to us through our lifetimes. I can of course be criticized because perhaps the “reality” I have is subjective and certainly in my writing I have never urged people to take my version on faith. I personally question all authority, so I always invite people to make their own independent judgments upon the logic of my thought and the validity of the evidence I back it up with.
My aim is not to lead any movement except that which urges all people to question all those who presume to be authorities (including me), with the end that each person learns to rely on their independent judgment based on their own testing of evidence. As I keep telling people, I don’t believe in any “Isms” and feel that “Isms” are the means whereby the powerful and/or sociopathic control the world. To me the ills of the world are based in the psychology of us humans which differs little from that of the Great Apes. We construct hierarchies among ourselves and manage society based on these rigid structures that in the end are incapable of rapid adaptation to changing situations and so lead to the conflict and despair among us. The success of any political philosophy will not change things unless we as humans adapt to a different societal model. That this hierarchical structure is probably learned behavior is illustrated by the study of the Bonobo’s, who are as genetically close to us as the Great Apes. Their societal systems are mainly conflict free as opposed the the societies of the Great Apes and the Chimpanzees.
Which leads me to your last question which implies that what I do is spread fear also. I can see how trying to get people to see beyond the “reality” foisted upon them might be inferred as spreading fear, yet that would I think mis-characterize what I’m doing. I don’t live my life in fear, which is not to say that situation-ally I can’t be afraid. Only a fool is never afraid of the potential dangers in life, yet that fear is more about the awareness of immediate danger, rather than anxiety about the myriad possibilities in life of danger. As I write this I am sitting outside under an old, large tree. It is theoretically possible that as I sit here the tree will sudden collapse crushing me. I can choose to sit here anxiously scanning the tree every few seconds to assure myself I’m safe. That would be neurotic anxiety and ultimately destructive to my mental health.
Government, Religions, Political Partisans, Corporations, the Military and the Intelligence Services use the Media to create fear. This fear can take many forms, but its ultimate result for so many of us humans is to allow us to be herded like cattle into violence, hatred and ultimately existential paralysis. The difference between me and someone like Alex Jones is that what I say is done not to terrify people about the world around them while making a handsome profit. My urging to people is to comprehend the world around them and thereby increase their personal awareness. I believe that if more people became aware of the true state of the world around them, there would be a possibility for lasting change. If one is really aware of their environment they can learn to change it. The problem is that most of us are blinded by the fear mongers among us creating a terrifying reality that engenders an almost perpetual state of fear.
You will note that I’m answering you without sarcasm and dismissal of your words, merely with an honest statement of where I am coming from, which you can accept, or not, as is your wont.