Saturday, November 25, 2017

SHARYL ATTKISSON IN THE HILL: Sex abuse allegations expose the media’s hypocrisy on Trump. “No…

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SHARYL ATTKISSON IN THE HILL: Sex abuse allegations expose the media’s hypocrisy on Trump.

“Not every horny narcissist with bad judgment is named Donald Trump.”

That was the actual “reportage” of New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush last year, in an article referring to the online sexual exploits of former congressman Anthony Weiner.

It appears, in retrospect, that Thrush might well have been describing himself.

News reports about his behavior, allegedly inflicting unwanted advances on a series of young women, describe the fedora-wearing Thrush as a successful and influential reporter who once worked for Politico and was then plucked away by the New York Times — once, perhaps, the most prestigious news publication in the world.

Some of his accusers say they feared his industry connections and felt smeared by him after they rebuffed his advances — all of which Thrush has denied.

But there’s a question as to how he was allowed to become an influential force in newsrooms and in political journalism, as described by offended female colleagues.

His politics were right, by which I mean left.



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No, the entirety of US media are fixated on the Russiagate controversy.

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No, you are fixated on the Russia-Gate controversy

No, the entirety of US media are fixated on the Russiagate controversy. I provide commentary on that extremely obvious fixation.

and in lieu of being able to comprehensively debunk the continuing stream of news,

I do that. You just described the thing that my job is. You are deliberately ignoring the comprehensive debunkings I do constantly.

There’s tons more. That took me two minutes. You’re either being intellectually lazy or deliberately obtuse. You’ll need to stop that.

You also write that Trump is “a more overt version of his neoliberal, neoconservative, ecocidal omnicidal predecessors”, so why are some neo-cons (David Frum, Max Boot and Jennifer Rubin) supporting the anti-Trump Russia-Gate narrative?

Because neocons have an anti-Russia agenda and Trump doesn’t. An extremely hawkish, anti-detente posture toward the USSR was the original founding principle of neoconservatism.

You present a convoluted theory that Russia-Gate is intended to distract attention from similarities between Bush and Obama Administrations.

No I don’t. I argue that the Democrats can’t attack Trump on things they themselves have done and continue to do, so they focus on a fake psyop instead.

Russia-Gate is looked on as a way to get rid of him, not start a war with Russia.

For the Democrats this may be true. For the deep state the agenda is definitely to quash Russia to cripple China.

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Friday, November 24, 2017

Fukushima Darkness

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The impact of Fukushima Daiichi’s nuclear meltdown extends far and wide, as the hemispheric ecosystem gets hit by tons of radioactive water. Additionally, surreptitiousness surrounds untold death and illness, yet it remains one of the least understood and deceitfully reported episodes of journalism in modern history.

At the same time as Japan passed its totalitarian secrecy act in December 2013, it passed an obstructive Cancer Registration Law, which made it illegal to share medical data or information on radiation-related issues, denying public access to medical records, with violators subject to fines of two million Yen or 5-10 years in prison, a pretty stiff penalty for peeking into medical records, giving the appearance of somebody running scared.

Furthermore, and more egregiously yet, a confidentiality agreement to control medical information about radiation exposure was signed in January 2014 by IAEA, UNSCEAR, and Fukushima Prefecture and Fukushima Medical University. Thereafter, all info of illness from radiation is reported to a central repository run by Fukushima Medical Centre and IAEA. In turn, the Fukushima Centre for Environmental Creation was created in 2015 to communicate “accurate information on radiation to the public and dispel anxiety.” Ahem!

Well now, isn’t that convenient, a central depository controlled by the International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA – to report on Fukushima Daiichi radiation exposure and medical illness. It’s not hard to figure that’s rotten to the core, sounding a lot like words lifted directly off the pages of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).

Meanwhile, much, but not all, mainstream media reports about radiation-induced illnesses and deaths at Fukushima are feeble grossly incompetent journalism, as follows: “The latest update (in April) by the World Nuclear Association re the Fukushima disaster: There have been no deaths or cases of radiation sickness from the nuclear accident…”1

According to The World Nuclear Association, as of October 2017:

There have been no deaths or cases of radiation sickness from the nuclear accident, but over 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes to ensure this. Government nervousness delays the return of many.

Here’s one more statement of zero deaths at Fukushima, by Hannah Ritchie, published in Our World in Data, July 24, 2017:

In the case of Fukushima, although 40-50 people experienced physical injury or radiation burns at the nuclear facility, the number of direct deaths from the incident are quoted to be zero.2

And one more, an article in Forbes by Dr. James Conca, an expert on energy, nuclear and dirty bombs:

Strangely, the costs that never materialized were the most feared, those of radiation-induced cancer and death… No one received enough dose, even the 20,000 workers who have worked tirelessly to recover form this event.3

Au contraire, it is believed that official reports of Fukushima radiation-induced sicknesses and deaths are horribly under-reported and/or intentionally manipulated to show few, if any, cases. Based upon numerous testimonials obtained by independent journalists and researchers in Japan and U.S. attorneys, there is considerable evidence of radiation-induced deaths and sicknesses.

Seemingly, somebody is dead wrong on the issue of radiation-induced deaths, whether it’s (1) official sources via mainstream news or (2) independent researchers/journalists/U.S. attorneys that claim to personally know of deaths. One of those two sources is dead wrong and seriously misleading the world, which, in and of itself, should be classified as a criminal act, like the Nazi Nuremberg trials (1945-49). In point of fact, if it can be proven that people are covering up and/or lying about Fukushima radiation-induced illness and death, they should be tried and imprisoned, similar to Nazi war criminals. The implications of widespread radiation are not a trifle.

When it comes to uncontrollable radiation, there’s an ecumenical obligation for full transparency as a basic right for all humanity, worldwide.

It’s a real shame that the authorities hide the truth from the whole world, from the UN. We need to admit that actually many people are dying. We are not allowed to say that, but TEPCO employees also are dying. But they keep mum about it.4

Individual medical doctors in Japan have reported serious radiation-related problems, for example:

In April 2014, Dr Tsuda Toshihide, an epidemiologist at Okayama University, declared this a ‘thyroid cancer epidemic’ and predicted multiple illnesses from long-term internal radiation below 100 mSv/y and advocated for a program of outbreak (emergency or rapid) epidemiology in and outside Fukushima.5

Similarly, a Tokyo-based physician, Dr Mita Shigeru, circulated a public statement notifying his colleagues of his intention to relocate his practice to Okayama due to overwhelming evidence of unusual symptoms in his patients (roughly 2,000). Given that soil in Tokyo post-Fukushima returned between 1,000 and 4,000 Bq/kg, as compared to an average of 500 Bq/kg (Cs 137 only) in Kiev soil, Mita pointed to a correlation between these symptoms and the significant radiation contamination in Tōhoku and metropolitan Tokyo.6

The ashes of half a dozen unidentified laborers ended up at a Buddhist temple in a town just north of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Some of the dead men had no papers; others left no emergency contacts. Their names could not be confirmed and no family members had been tracked down to claim their remains. They were simply labeled “decontamination troops” — unknown soldiers in Japan’s massive cleanup campaign to make Fukushima livable again five years after radiation poisoned the fertile countryside.7

Mako Oshidori, director of Free Press Corporation/Japan, investigated several unreported worker deaths, and interviewed a former nurse who quit TEPCO:

I would like to talk about my interview of a nurse who used to work at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) after the accident… He quit his job with TEPCO, and that’s when I interviewed him… As of now, there are multiple NPP workers that have died, but only the ones who died on the job are reported publicly. Some of them have died suddenly while off work, for instance, during the weekend or in their sleep, but none of their deaths are reported.8

They are not included in the worker death count. For example, there are some workers who quit the job after a lot of radiation exposure… and end up dying a month later, but none of these deaths are either reported, or included in the death toll. This is the reality of the NPP workers.6

Greenpeace has been conducting radiation readings throughout Fukushima ever since 311. Accordingly:

The Japanese government will soon lift evacuation orders for 6,000 citizens of Iitate village in Fukushima Prefecture where radiation levels in nearby forests are comparable to the current levels within the Chernobyl 30km exclusion zone – an area that more than 30 years after the accident remains formally closed to habitation. Seventy-five percent (75%) of Iitate is contaminated forested mountains.9

Over time, high levels of radiation from the mountains leach onto cleaned up areas down below. In point of fact, based upon several Greenpeace analyses throughout Fukushima Prefecture, former inhabitants of several communities are returning to towns and villages where spot checks show unacceptable levels of radiation.

Faced with the post-311 reality of government (and corporate) policy that protects economic and security interests over public health and well-being, the majority of the 2 million inhabitants of Fukushima Prefecture are either unconscious of or have been encouraged to accept living with radioactive contamination. People dry their clothes outside, drink local tap water and consume local food, swim in outdoor pools and the ocean, consume and sell their own produce or catches. Financial pressure after 311 as well as the persistent danger of social marginalisation has made it more difficult to take precautionary measures (i.e. permanent relocation, dual accommodation, importing food and water) and develop and share counter-narratives to the official message. Nevertheless, some continue to conceal their anxiety beneath a mask of superficial calm.

As Fukushima city resident Shiina Chieko observed, the majority of people seem to have adopted denial as a way to excise the present danger from their consciousness. Her sister-in-law, for example, ignored her son’s ‘continuous nosebleeds’; while her mother had decided that the community must endure by pretending that things were no different from pre-311 conditions. (Broinowski)

Radiation exposure shows up years later as one of several illnesses. This gives the nuclear industry an advantage of time lapses in its position statements about the safety of nuclear energy. After all when enough time lapses, who knows for sure the cause of death?

However, Chernobyl provides a perfect case study of radiation-caused deaths of workers with a direct link, “liquidators,” exposed to Chernobyl radiation (1986), keeping in mind that radiation takes several years to show up as cancer and other severe ailments:

By 2001, of 800,000 healthy Russian and Ukrainian liquidators (with an average age of 33 years) sent to decontaminate, isolate and stabilise the reactor, 10 per cent had died and 30 per cent were disabled. By 2009, 120,000 liquidators had died, and an epidemic of chronic illness and genetic and perigenetic damage in nuclear workers’ descendants appeared (this is predicted to increase over subsequent generations). The full extent of the damage will not be understood until the fifth generation of descendants. By the mid-2000s, 985,000 additional deaths between 1986 and 2004 across Europe were estimated as a direct result from radiation exposure from Chernobyl. (Broinowski)

Chernobyl likely foreshadows a dismal future for those exposed to Fukushima radiation whether residents, workers, or untold recipients throughout the extent of flowing seas, which is universal.

As Chernobyl clearly demonstrates: Over time, radiation cumulates in bodily organs. For an example of how radiation devastates human bodies generation by generation, consider:

There are 2,397,863 people registered with Ukraine’s health ministry to receive ongoing Chernobyl-related health care. Of these, 453,391 are children — none born at the time of the accident. Their parents were children in 1986. These children have a range of illnesses: respiratory, digestive, musculoskeletal, eye diseases, blood diseases, cancer, congenital malformations, genetic abnormalities, trauma.10

As for Fukushima’s direct impact on Americans that helped at the time of the meltdowns, former Senator John Edwards is representing cancer-ridden sailors who interceded on a humanitarian basis aboard the USS Ronald Reagan. According to Edwards:

We have all these sailors. Sailors whose case is now five years old, who have died or are in the process of dying right now. Edwards noted that some of his sailor clients have children born with birth defects.11

We now have a 250+ young sailors with all kinds of illnesses, we’ve had three die. We had one of the sailors who came home and impregnated his wife. They gave birth to a little baby born with brain cancer and cancer down the spine, lived for two years, and just died in March of this year.12

TEPCO’s attorney Gregory Stone claims his client accepts responsibility for the radiation released but maintains the amount sailors were exposed to was negligible. Stone: “People get sick at different times of their lives for different reasons.”

As people unceremoniously, more times than not anonymously, die from radiation exposure, the Abe administration keeps a tight lid on the reality and the potency of Fukushima Daiichi radiation. And, when faced with the prospect of not knowing what to do, bring on the Olympics! That’s pretty good cover for a messy situation, making it appear to hundreds of thousands of attendees, as well as to the world community “all is well.”

But, is it really?

Postscript:

These sailors are supposed to be very healthy. It’s not a normal situation. It is unbelievable that just in four or five years that these healthy sailors would become sick… I think that both the U.S. and Japanese government have something to hide.13

• Read Part One here.

  1. Michael W. Chapman, “5 Years Later, Deaths Caused by Radiation Leak at Fukushima -O-“, CNS News, May 11, 2016.
  2. Hannah Ritchie, Our World in Data, July 24, 2017.
  3. Dr. James Conca, After Five Years, What Is The Cost Of Fukushima?” Forbes, March 10, 2016.
  4. Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of Futaba (Fukushima Prefecture), “Fukushima Disaster: Tokyo Hides Truth as Children Die, Become Ill from Radiation”, Ex-Mayor, RT News, April 21, 2014.
  5. Adam Broinowski, PhD (author of 25 major academic publications and Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Australian National University): “Informal Labour, Local Citizens and the Tokyo Electric Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Crisis: Responses to Neoliberal Disaster Management,” Australian National University, 2017.
  6. Ibid.
  7. Mari Yamaguchi, “Fukushima ‘Decontamination Troops’ Often Exploited, Shunned”, AP & ABC News, Minamisona, Japan, March 10, 2016.
  8. “The Hidden Truth about Fukushima” by Mako Oshidori, delivered at the International Conference, Effects of Nuclear Disasters on Natural Environment and Human Health held in Germany, 2014 co-organized by International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War.
  9. Greenpeace/Japan Press Release, Tokyo, 21 February 2017.
  10. “Chernobyl’s Legacy: Kids With Bodies Ravaged by Disaster”, USA Today, C April 17, 2016.
  11. Bianca Bruno, “Dying Navy Sailors Push for Trial on Fukushima Meltdown”, Courthouse News.com, September 1, 2017.
  12. Attorney Charles Bonner, representing US service members exposed to Fukushima fallout, July 21, 2015 at 10:45, YouTube.
  13. Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan 2001-06 quoted in New York Times, December 31, 2016.


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Vegas Massacre Cover-Up: PR Firm Hired by Mandalay Bay Exposed Pushing Conspiracy Theories

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Mandalay-Bay-Photo-from-Wikipedia.jpg?re

In another strange twist to the largest mass-shooting in recent U.S. history, a damning report indicates that the parent company of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, MGM Resorts International, is paying crisis management firm Joele Frank to spread disinformation about the massacre online.

According to a bombshell report, published by Thomas Michael on Medium, the crisis management firm is deliberately spreading ridiculous conspiracy theories on social media in an attempt to discredit legitimate inquiry into the bizarre official narrative—and actively trying to muddy the water about events surrounding the mass-shooting.

The report details how MGM International hired Joele Frank to run damage control in the wake of the deadly attack that left 58 people dead on Oct. 1. Michael’s report subsequently exposes ties between the crisis management firm and numerous Twitter accounts posting clearly bogus conspiracy theories about the mass-shooting, claiming “the shooting was fake, there was no blood, no victims, crisis actors, the whole nine-yards.”



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Thursday, November 23, 2017

THE SCIENCE WAS RIGGED: Researchers Publish Bombshell Report That Suggests Sugar Industry Conspirac…

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THE SCIENCE WAS RIGGED: Researchers Publish Bombshell Report That Suggests Sugar Industry Conspiracy.



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Fracking chemicals remain secret despite EPA knowledge of health hazards

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) knows that dozens of the chemicals used in fracking pose health hazards. The agency not only allows their use, but also lets the oil and gas industry keep the chemicals secret, according to a new report.Between 2003 and 2014 the EPA identified health hazards for 41 chemicals used in fracking, according to a report from the Partnership for Policy Integrity and Earthworks, based on documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Fracking is the ...

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As Americans Eat Turkey, Mainstream Media Quietly Admits US Gov’t Planned False Flags to Start WW3

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false flagsAs Americans gather with friends and family to celebrate Thanksgiving, the US government's desire to create false flags to start wars was quietly admitted by the mainstream media.

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COMPROMISED: Sex-abuser Congressmen are open to massive blackmail

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COMPROMISED: Sex-abuser Congressmen are open to massive blackmail

By Jon Rappoport

Most people are naïve about how intelligence operations are run. Holding damaging secrets on public figures equals the opportunity for blackmail. This strategy was probably discovered by cave men.

—Sex-abuse claims filed against members of Congress—beyond Al Franken and John Conyers—

Where are all the names of these Congressmen? We’re now told that, in the past 10 years, $17 million has been paid out to accusers in small sums. An unknown part of that money was compensation for explicitly sexual offenses.

There are more cases where the accusers simply gave up and refused to pursue claims. They’re potentially waiting in the wings.

Not only are the Congressmen guilty, they’re open to blackmail. As they vote on bills; as they decide which lobbyists to favor; as they decide what advice to follow from intelligence agencies; as they decide whether to take meetings with agents from other countries; they’re always looking over their shoulders, wondering: HOW MUCH DO THESE PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT ME? WHAT SHOULD I DO TO STAY SAFE?

And in some hotel room, late at night, when a person slips them a folder with details of their sexual misdemeanors or felonies, what are they going to do? How are they going to resist whatever is being asked for?

COMPROMISED.

This is the political elephant in the room the mainstream press isn’t talking about.

What about the NSA and the CIA and other spying agencies in the US (and other countries)? How much devastating information about sexual abuse have they gathered on these Congressmen?

How much covert control have the agencies chosen to exercise?

WE OWN YOU.

The levels of complexity can be dizzying. Suppose a guilty Congressman learns actual secrets about another politician? His impulse is to blow the whistle. But can he? What will he bring down on his own head?

Suppose he knows vital secrets about Monsanto, Dow, Exxon, Eli Lilly?

I’LL KEEP YOUR SECRETS IF YOU KEEP MINE.

A BROTHERHOOD OF SECRET-KEEPERS.

An awareness, over the years, spreads through Congress: “Many of us are guilty and we need to protect each other.”

Because it isn’t just the sexual secrets anymore. It’s the subsequent immoral actions taken and not taken, based on being compromised. Based on being controlled.

“Appreciate your committee vote to kill the bill yesterday, Senator. I assure you that thing in Miami last summer…”

“When does our deal end? When are we even? This is worse than prison.”

“It’s not worse. And it never ends. But don’t worry, be happy. Keep playing the game. It’s no skin off your nose.”

“What about honor?”

“Please. You gave that away a long time ago. In Miami. But we also know about the hotel rooms in New York, Washington, Chicago, LA…”

The Congressman can’t believe the bind he’s in. He’s having the above conversation with a man from the CIA. He and the CIA are supposed to be on the same team. And they are, if he’ll understand who is higher in the pecking order, who gives the commands.

One day, he’ll wake up and realize that, among the four women he abused, three were innocent, but one was sent in by the Agency with the task of seducing him. If necessary, at a later date, she could use their night together as blackmail. (For a rough variation on this theme, see numerous accounts of NY Governor Eliot Spitzer’s 2008 hooker scandal, which caused his resignation from office. Spitzer was attacking Wall Street and Big Pharma.)

Then we come to the issue of reporters, who themselves could be compromised, because they’re secretly guilty of sexual abuse.

For example, long-time political reporter, Glenn Thrush (Politico, NY Times, MSNBC), has just been accused of kissing and groping four women. The Times has suspended him from his position covering the White House.

If Thrush, at any time, has been aware of politicians’ misdeeds, did he cover them and expose them fully—or was he “under the gun” to play ball because of his own secrets?

One could reasonably ask this question about Thrush’s relations with the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign.

Case in point. WikiLeaks (October 2016) released an email from Thrush to John Podesta, Hillary’s campaign manager. Thrush was writing an article that referred to Podesta. He emailed Podesta part of the draft, asking him to “fact-check” it. Astonishingly, Thrush remarked in the email:

“No worries Because I have become a hack I will send u the whole section that pertains to u. Please don’t share or tell anyone I did this Tell me if I fucked up anything.”

Podesta replied: “no problems here.”

Politico’s vice president of communications, Brad Dayspring, made an impassioned and transparently moronic defense of his reporter:

“Glenn is one of the top political reporters in the country [!], in no small part because he understands that it is his job to get inside information, not appear perfect when someone illegally hacks email [!]…I can speak with firsthand knowledge and experience that Glenn checks the validity of often complex reporting with everybody, on both sides of the aisle.”

So who is Brad Dayspring, the ardent defender of his “top political reporter?”

Years earlier, on October 25, 2011, while Dayspring was working as Communications Director for House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, ADWEEK reported:

“Turns out Dayspring’s personal Twitter feed, @BDayspring… follows 1,007 accounts, one of which is SexyTwitPics… Description: ‘We RT [retweet] only the HOTTEST Pics DIRECTLY from Sexy Ladies’ Twitter Accts! (No random girls, xxx, guys) Ladies Mention us w your pics! 18+’”

Maybe it’s a stretch, but I’d say the level of intelligence Dayspring exhibited in defending Glenn Thrush is matched by his interest in SexyTwitPics.

One of the elephants in the room is, of course, Bill Clinton. For several decades, people having been writing about his sexual predations. It’s assumed that he and his allies (including his wife) have been able to avoid final excommunication from politics because of their power—but it would be foolish to assume he has been free from blackmail.

We wouldn’t be talking about some reporter with a damning file on Bill Clinton. We would be talking about an agency like the CIA and their file. No one who is a serial abuser simply shrugs off the CIA and blithely walks away.

In other words, the Clintons may have nine lives precisely BECAUSE they made a deal with the devil…


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Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Fukushima Darkness

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The radiation effects of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant triple meltdowns are felt worldwide, whether lodged in sea life or in humans, it cumulates over time. The impact is now slowly grinding away only to show its true colors at some unpredictable date in the future. That’s how radiation works, slow but assuredly destructive, which serves to identify its risks, meaning, one nuke meltdown has the impact, over decades, of a 1,000 regular industrial accidents, maybe more.

It’s been six years since the triple 100% nuke meltdowns occurred at Fukushima Daiichi (March 11th, 2011), nowadays referred to as “311”. Over time, it’s easy for the world at large to lose track of the serious implications of the world’s largest-ever industrial disaster; out of sight out of mind works that way.

According to Japanese government and TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) estimates, decommissioning is a decade-by-decade work-in-progress, most likely four decades at a cost of up to ¥21 trillion ($189B). However, that’s the simple part to understanding the Fukushima nuclear disaster story. The difficult painful part is largely hidden from pubic view via a highly restrictive harsh national secrecy law (Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, Act No. 108/2013), political pressure galore, and fear of exposing the truth about the inherent dangers of nuclear reactor meltdowns. Powerful vested interests want it concealed.

Following passage of the 2013 government secrecy act, which says that civil servants or others who “leak secrets” will face up to 10 years in prison, and those who “instigate leaks,” especially journalists, will be subject to a prison term of up to 5 years, Japan fell below Serbia and Botswana in the Reporters Without Borders 2014 World Press Freedom Index. The secrecy act, sharply criticized by the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations, is a shameless act of buttoned-up totalitarianism at the very moment when citizens need and, in fact, require transparency.

The current status, according to Mr. Okamura, a TEPCO manager, as of November 2017:

We’re struggling with four problems: (1) reducing the radiation at the site (2) stopping the influx of groundwater (3) retrieving the spent fuel rods and (4) removing the molten nuclear fuel.1

In short, nothing much has changed in nearly seven years at the plant facilities, even though tens of thousands of workers have combed the Fukushima countryside, washing down structures, removing topsoil and storing it in large black plastic bags, which end-to-end would extend from Tokyo to Denver and back.

As it happens, sorrowfully, complete nuclear meltdowns are nearly impossible to fix because, in part, nobody knows what to do next. That’s why Chernobyl sealed off the greater area surrounding its meltdown of 1986. Along those same lines, according to Fukushima Daiichi plant manager Shunji Uchida:

Robots and cameras have already provided us with valuable pictures. But it is still unclear what is really going on inside.2

Seven years and they do not know what’s going on inside. Is it the China Syndrome dilemma of molten hot radioactive corium burrowing into Earth? Is it contaminating aquifers? Nobody knows, nobody can possibly know, which is one of the major risks of nuclear meltdowns. Nobody knows what to do. There is no playbook for 100% meltdowns. Fukushima Daiichi proves the point.

When a major radiological disaster happens and impacts vast tracts of land, it cannot be ‘cleaned up’ or ‘fixed’.3

Meanwhile, the world nuclear industry has ambitious growth plans, 50-60 reactors currently under construction, mostly in Asia, with up to 400 more on drawing boards.  Nuke advocates claim Fukushima is well along in the cleanup phase so not to worry as the Olympics are coming in a couple of years, including events held smack dab in the heart of Fukushima, where the agricultural economy will provide fresh foodstuff.

The Olympics are PM Abe’s major PR punch to prove to the world that all-is-well at the world’s most dangerous, and out of control, industrial accident site. And, yes, it is still out of control. Nevertheless, the Abe government is not concerned. Be that as it may, the risks are multi-fold and likely not well understood. For example, what if another earthquake causes further damage to already-damaged nuclear facilities that are precariously held together with hopes and prayers, subject to massive radiation explosions? Then what? After all, Japan is earthquake country, which defines the boundaries of the country. Japan typically has 400-500 earthquakes in 365 days, or nearly 1.5 quakes per day.

According to Dr. Shuzo Takemoto, professor, Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University:

The problem of Unit 2… If it should encounter a big earth tremor, it will be destroyed and scatter the remaining nuclear fuel and its debris, making the Tokyo metropolitan area uninhabitable. The Tokyo Olympics in 2020 will then be utterly out of the question.4

Since the Olympics will be held not far from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident site, it’s worthwhile knowing what to expect; i.e., repercussions hidden from public view. After all, it’s highly improbable that the Japan Olympic Committee will address the radiation-risk factors for upcoming athletes and spectators. Which prompts a question: What criteria did the International Olympic Committee (IOC) follow in selecting Japan for the 2020 Summer Olympics in the face of three 100% nuclear meltdowns totally out of control? On its face, it seems reckless.

This article, in part, is based upon an academic study that brings to light serious concerns about overall transparency, TEPCO workforce health and sudden deaths, as well as upcoming Olympians, bringing to mind the proposition: Is the decision to hold the Olympics in Japan in 2020 a foolish act of insanity and a crude attempt to help cover up the ravages of radiation?

Thus therefore, a preview of what’s happening behind, as well as within, the scenes researched by Adam Broinowski, PhD (author of 25 major academic publications and Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Australian National University):5

The title of Dr. Broinowski’s study provides a hint of the inherent conflict, as well as opportunism, that arises with neoliberal capitalism applied to “disaster management” principles. (Naomi Klein explored a similar concept in The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Knopf Canada, 2007).

Dr. Broinowski’s research is detailed, thorough, and complex. His study begins by delving into the impact of neoliberal capitalism, bringing to the fore an equivalence of slave labor to the Japanese economy, especially in regards to what he references as “informal labour.” He preeminently describes the onslaught of supply side/neoliberal tendencies throughout the economy of Japan. The Fukushima nuke meltdowns simply bring to surface all of the warts and blemishes endemic to the neoliberal brand of capitalism.

According to Professor Broinowski:

The ongoing disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station (FDNPS), operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), since 11 March 2011 can be recognised as part of a global phenomenon that has been in development over some time. This disaster occurred within a social and political shift that began in the mid-1970s (ed. supply-side economics, which is strongly reflected in America’s current tax bill under consideration) and that became more acute in the early 1990s in Japan with the downturn of economic growth and greater deregulation and financialisation in the global economy. After 40 years of corporate fealty in return for lifetime contracts guaranteed by corporate unions, as tariff protections were lifted further and the workforce was increasingly casualised, those most acutely affected by a weakening welfare regime were irregular day labourers, or what we might call ‘informal labour’.

In short, the 45,000-60,000 workers recruited to deconstruct decontaminate Fukushima Daiichi and the surrounding prefecture mostly came off the streets, castoffs of neoliberalism’s impact on

… independent unions, rendered powerless, growing numbers of unemployed, unskilled and precarious youths (freeters) alongside older, vulnerable and homeless day labourers (these groups together comprising roughly 38 per cent of the workforce in 2015) found themselves not only (a) lacking insurance or (b) industrial protection but also in many cases (c) basic living needs. With increasing deindustrialisation and capital flight, regular public outbursts of frustration and anger from these groups have manifested since the Osaka riots of 1992. (Broinowski)

The Osaka Riots of 25 years ago depict the breakdown of modern society’s working class, a problem that has spilled over into national political elections worldwide as populism/nationalism dictate winners/losers. In Osaka 1,500 rampaging laborers besieged a police station (somewhat similar to John Carpenter’s 1976 iconic film Assault on Precinct 13) over outrage of interconnecting links between police and Japan’s powerful “Yakuza” or gangsters that bribe police to turn a blind eye to gangster syndicates that get paid to recruit, often forcibly, workers for low-paying manual jobs for industry.

That’s how TEPCO gets workers to work in radiation-sensitive high risks jobs. Along the way, subcontractors rake off most of the money allocated for workers, resulting in a subhuman life style for the riskiest most life-threatening jobs in Japan, maybe the riskiest most life threatening in the world.

Japan has a long history of assembling and recruiting unskilled labor pools at cheap rates, which is typical of nearly all large-scale modern industrial projects. Labor is simply one more commodity to be used and discarded. Tokyo Electric Power Company (“TEPCO”) of Fukushima Daiichi fame adheres to those long-standing feudalistic employment practices. They hire workers via layers of subcontractors in order to avoid liabilities; i.e., accidents, health insurance, safety standards, by penetrating into the bottom social layers that have no voice in society.

As such, TEPCO is not legally obligated to report industrial accidents when workers are hired through complex webs or networks of subcontractors; there are approximately 733 subcontractors for TEPCO. Here’s the process: TEPCO employs a subcontractor “shita-uke,” which in turn employs another subcontractor “mago-uke” that relies upon labor brokers “tehaishilninpu-dashi.” At the end of the day, who’s responsible for the health and safety of workers? Who’s responsible for reporting cases of radiation sickness and/or death caused by radiation exposure?

Based upon anecdotal evidence from reliable sources in Japan, there is good reason to believe TEPCO, as well as the Japanese government, suppress public knowledge of worker radiation sickness and death, as well as the civilian population of Fukushima. Thereby, essentially hoodwinking worldwide public opinion, for example, pro-nuke enthusiasts/advocates point to the safety of nuclear power generation because of so few reported deaths in Japan. But, then again, who’s responsible for reporting worker deaths? Answer: Other than an occasional token death report by official sources, nobody!

Furthermore, TEPCO does not report worker deaths that occur outside of the workplace even though the death is a direct result of excessive radiation exposure at the workplace. For example, if a worker with radiation sickness becomes too ill to go to work, they’ll obviously die at home and therefore not be reported as a work-related death. As a result, pro-nuke advocates claim Fukushima proves how safe nuclear power is, even when it goes haywire, because there are so few, if any, deaths, as to be inconsequential. That’s a boldfaced lie that is discussed in the sequel: Fukushima Darkness (Part 2.)

As one labourer stated re Fukushima Daiichi: ‘TEPCO is God. The main contractors are kings, and we are slaves’. In short, Fukushima Daiichi clearly illustrates the social reproduction, exploitation and disposability of informal labour, in the state protection of capital, corporations and their assets. (Broinowski)

Indeed, Japan is a totalitarian corporate state where corporate interests are protected from liability by layers of subcontractors and by vested interests of powerful political bodies and extremely harsh state secrecy laws. As such, it is believed that nuclear safety and health issues, including deaths, are under-reported and likely not reported at all in most cases. Therefore, the worldview of nuclear power, as represented in Japan at Fukushima Daiichi, is horribly distorted in favor of nuclear power advocacy.

Fukushima’s Darkness: Part 2 sequel, to be published at a future date, discusses consequences.

  1. Martin Fritz, “The Illusion of Normality at Fukushima”, Deutsche Welle–Asia, November 3, 2017.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Hanis Maketab, Environmental Impacts of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Will Last ‘decades to centuries’, Greenpeace, Asia Correspondent, March 4, 2016.
  4. Shuzo Takemoto, “Potential Global Catastrophe of the Reactor No. 2 at Fukushima Daiichi”, February 11, 2017.
  5. “Informal Labour, Local Citizens and the Tokyo Electric Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Crisis: Responses to Neoliberal Disaster Management,” Australian National University, 2017.


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2016 ‘Was Not a Legitimate Election’

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Washington Free BeaconNovember 22, 2017 Former acting Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile voiced her agreement Tuesday with Hillary Clinton’s judgment that President Donald Trump was not legitimately elected in 2016. MSNBC host Chris Matthews said it was “confounding” that Clinton would call Trump’s election illegitimate, but Brazile said Clinton is right to draw attention […]

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Meet the Sacklers: The Family That's Killing Millions (Maybe More Than Stalin)

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By Dr. Mercola

The U.S. has a massive opioid addiction problem. According to the U.S. surgeon general, more Americans now use prescription opioids than smoke cigarettes,1 and addiction to narcotic pain relievers now costs the U.S. more than $193 billion each year. The Manchester, New Hampshire, fire department recently said it now responds to more calls for drug overdoses than fires.2 That's not so surprising when you consider that opioids are now the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 50.3

The following graph by the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows the progressive incline in overdose deaths related to opioid pain relievers between 2002 and 2015.4 This does not include deaths from heroin addiction, which we now know is a common side effect of getting hooked on these powerful prescription narcotics. In all, we're looking at just over 202,600 deaths in this 13-year time frame alone.5

National Overdose Deaths

Misleading Marketing Created the Opioid Epidemic

How did we get into this mess? Part of the problem, from the very beginning, has been false advertising. This past summer I wrote about how a single paragraph in a 1980 letter to the editor in the New England Journal of Medicine became the basis of a drug marketing campaign that has since led hundreds of millions of people straight into the arms of addiction and/or death.

In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved OxyContin (an extended-release version of oxycodone) for children as young as 11,6 thereby opening the gate for narcotic addiction among children and young teens as well. In July 2015, The Fix7,8 wrote about the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, who that year made it onto Forbes' Top 20 billionaires list9 — in large part due to the burgeoning sales of OxyContin.

About 80 percent of heroin drug addicts report starting out on painkillers such as OxyContin.10 Indeed, prescription opioids are now recognized as the primary gateway drug to heroin and other illicit drug use, and prescription painkillers — not illicit drugs — are the most commonly abused drugs in the U.S. As noted by Zachary Siegel, writing for The Fix,11 "It's easy to get rich when health care providers write 259 million prescriptions for painkillers, enough for every American adult to have a bottle full of pills."

The massive increase in opioid sales has been repeatedly blamed on an orchestrated marketing plan aimed at misinforming doctors about the addictive potential of these drugs. Purdue Pharma was one of the most successful in this regard, driving sales of OxyContin up from $48 million in 1996 to $1.5 billion in 2002.12

Purdue's sales representatives — who received handsome incentives and bonuses for OxyContin sales — were extensively coached on how to downplay the drug's addictive potential, claiming addiction occurring in less than 1 percent of patients being treated for pain.

As noted by Dr. Irfan Dhalla, a drug-safety researcher, "Purdue played a very large role in making physicians feel comfortable about opioids."13 Statistics reveal this marketing claim to be an outright lie. In reality, studies show addiction affects about 26 percent of those using opioids for chronic noncancer pain, and 1 in 550 patients on opioid therapy dies from opioid-related causes within 2.5 years of their first prescription!14

A Fortune Built on Dangerous Misrepresentations

In 2007, Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to charges of misbranding "with intent to defraud and mislead the public," and paid $634 million in fines — an amount said to represent 90 percent of its profits from OxyContin sales during the time of the offense.15 Fast-forward a decade, and it seems this fine did little to alter the company's moral compass. Opioids are still massively misrepresented, misused and abused by tens of millions of Americans.

A potential part of the problem is the fact that no specific individuals have ever been charged. None of the members of the Sackler family was ever charged with any kind of misdeed, for example, and owners and corporate leaders of other drug companies have also walked away scot-free.

The Sacklers' profiteering from the opioid abuse epidemic they helped engineer was again highlighted in Esquire16 in mid-October, as well as The New Yorker.17 After recounting the family's extensive philanthropic endeavors18 and notorious "pursuit of naming rights," Esquire journalist Christopher Glazek writes:

"To a remarkable degree, those who share in the billions appear to have abided by an oath of omertà: Never comment publicly on the source of the family's wealth. That may be because the greatest part of that $14 billion fortune … came from OxyContin, the narcotic painkiller regarded by many public-health experts as among the most dangerous products ever sold on a mass scale …  

Even so, hardly anyone associates the Sackler name with their company's lone blockbuster drug. 'The Fords, Hewletts, Packards, Johnsons — all those families put their name on their product because they were proud,' said Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine who has written extensively about the opioid crisis. 'The Sacklers have hidden their connection to their product' …

The family's leaders have pulled off three of the great marketing triumphs of the modern era: The first is selling OxyContin; the second is promoting the Sackler name; and the third is ensuring that, as far as the public is aware, the first and second have nothing to do with one another."

Opioid Epidemic Equates to 9/11 Massacre Every Three Weeks, Year-Round

According to President Trump's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, led by New Jersey governor Chris Christie, opioids kill an estimated 142 Americans each day, a death toll equivalent to a "September 11th every three weeks," and Purdue Pharma was one of leading engineers of this still ongoing massacre.

You may want to believe that the Sackler family, while being the sole owners of Purdue Pharma, personally had nothing to do with the corporate decisions that fueled the epidemic but, according to Glazek, that's not true.

"Few are aware that during the crucial period of OxyContin's development and promotion, Sackler family members actively led Purdue's day-to-day affairs, filling the majority of its board slots and supplying top executives," he writes. In other words, Sackler family members were fully aware of, and involved with, the marketing machinations behind OxyContin.

Sackler Marketing Specialty — Inflated Claims

Glazek provides a summarized history of the Sackler family's rise to wealth and power. In 1952, Arthur Sackler, son of immigrants living in Flatbush, Brooklyn, bought Purdue Frederick, a company founded in 1892 that sold patent medicines. It's flagship product back then was Gray's Glycerine Tonic, a remedy peddled as a general cure-all.

Arthur's two brothers, Mortimer and Raymond, ran the company. Arthur made a name for himself in drug advertising, which at the time was relegated to "detail men" who sold medicines to doctors by going door-to-door.

Arthur believed, and rightfully so, that print ads in medical journals would be a great way to boost drug sales, and in 1952 published the first color drug ad in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). He later went on to develop an ad campaign for Valium, made by Roche. Glazek writes:

"This posed a challenge, because the effects of the medication were nearly indistinguishable from those of Librium, another Roche tranquilizer that was already on the market. Arthur differentiated Valium by audaciously inflating its range of indications.

Whereas Librium was sold as a treatment for garden-variety anxiety, Valium was positioned as an elixir for a problem Arthur christened 'psychic tension.' According to his ads, psychic tension, the forebear of today's 'stress,' was the secret culprit behind a host of somatic conditions, including heartburn, gastrointestinal issues, insomnia, and restless-leg syndrome." 

As a result of this campaign, Valium became the most widely prescribed drug in the U.S., making a record-breaking $100 million in sales. According to Glazer, it was this "original marketing insight" that drove OxyContin's success as well — "That simple but profitable idea was to take a substance with addictive properties … and market it as a salve for a vast range of indications."

Marketing Messaging Was No Mistake

Glazer also notes that one of the Sackler family members that appears to have been heavily involved in the marketing of OxyContin was Raymond's eldest son, Richard Sackler.19

"'At all the meetings, that was a constant source of discussion — 'What else can we use the Contin system [editor's note: a slow-release system] for?'said Peter Lacouture, a senior director of clinical research at Purdue from 1991 to 2001. 'And that's where Richard would fire some ideas — maybe antibiotics, maybe chemotherapy — he was always out there digging' …

In the tradition of his uncle Arthur, Richard was also fascinated by sales messaging. 'He was very interested in the commercial side and also very interested in marketing approaches,' said Sally Allen Riddle, Purdue's former executive director for product management. 'He didn't always wait for the research results.'"

Despite his close involvement in the business, heading up the firm's research and development division, as well as its sales and marketing division, Richard's name does not appear anywhere on the Purdue Pharma website. Between 1999 and 2003 he also served as company president, after which he became co-chairman of the board.

Arthur's daughter, Elizabeth Sackler, described by Glazer as "a historian of feminist art who sits on the board of the Brooklyn Museum and supports a variety of progressive causes," has "emphatically distanced" herself from her cousin, Richard, and Purdue Pharma, noting in an email to Glazer that "Neither I, nor my siblings, nor my children have ever had ownership in or any benefit whatsoever from Purdue Pharma or OxyContin."

The Rise of Narcotic Entitlement for Every American 

As noted by Glazer, while Purdue didn't invent the movement incited by pain specialists in the mid-'90s, who were calling for more and better pain management strategies, the company certainly took full advantage of it. Purdue and other drug companies in the business of making painkillers created patient advocacy front groups such as the American Pain Society, the American Academy of Pain Medicine, and Purdue's own group, Partners Against Pain.

These groups were instrumental in pressuring regulators into making pain assessment one of the vital signs20 recorded at every doctor's visit. The inclusion of pain as "the fifth vital sign" has since become one of the hidden drivers behind opioid prescriptions, as nothing lowers a patient's pain score as much as a narcotic pain reliever, thereby assuring the doctor will maintain a higher patient satisfaction rating.

"As an internal strategy document put it, Purdue's ambition was to 'attach an emotional aspect to noncancer pain' so that doctors would feel pressure to 'treat it more seriously and aggressively.' The company rebranded pain relief as a sacred right: a universal narcotic entitlement available not only to the terminally ill but to every American," Glazer writes.

This "universal narcotic entitlement" is now killing an unprecedented number of Americans.21,22 According to the latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics, life expectancy for both men and women dropped between 2014 and 2015 for the first time in two decades, and drug overdose deaths appear to be a significant contributor.23,24,25

In 2015, 33,091 Americans died from an opioid overdose. Nearly one-third of them, 15,281, were by prescription.26,27,28   Back pain, which is of the most common health complaints across the globe, has also become one of the most common reasons for an opioid prescription. And, if you have back pain and suffer depression or anxiety you're at particularly high risk for opioid abuse and addiction, research shows.29

Opioids Are by Far the Most Lethal Medications Available

The most common drugs involved in prescription opioid overdose deaths include30 methadone, oxycodone (such as OxyContin®) and hydrocodone (such as Vicodin®). As noted by Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): "We know of no other medication routinely used for a nonfatal condition that kills patients so frequently."31

Despite its many risks, which include birth defects and the risk of addiction, nearly one-third of American women of childbearing age are now prescribed opioid painkillers32 and more than 14 percent of pregnant women were prescribed opioids during their pregnancy.33 Clearly, if you are planning a pregnancy or are pregnant, you should go to great lengths to avoid narcotic drugs. If you wouldn't consider taking heroin, you really should not take a narcotic pain reliever either.

Knowing that these drugs carry the serious risk of addiction, abuse and overdose, they should be prescribed sparingly and only for the most severe cases of pain, for which no other options are available. Unfortunately, the current medical system heavily discourages doctors from making much-needed changes in their prescription habits. As mentioned, patient pain assessment plays a significant role in a doctor's quality of care indicator, and nothing will eliminate pain as effectively as a narcotic.

Additionally, and in the midst of this epidemic of opioid overdose deaths, drug companies are still paying physicians to boost opioid sales by writing more prescriptions. According to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health,34 between August 2013 and December 2015, more than 375,000 non-research opioid-related payments were made to more than 68,000 physicians, totaling in excess of $46 million.

This amounts to 1 in 12 U.S. physicians collecting money from drug companies producing prescription opioids. The top 1 percent of physicians received nearly 83 percent of the payments, and the drug fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can be anywhere from 500 to 1,000 percent more potent than morphine, was associated with the highest payments.

Many of the states struggling with the highest rates of overdose deaths, such as Indiana, Ohio and New Jersey, were also those showing the most opioid-related payments to physicians.

This suggests there's a direct link between doctors' kickbacks and patient addiction rates and deaths. It's also worth noting that a significant amount of people get their first opioid prescription from their dentist.35 This is particularly true for teenagers and young adults.36 Half of all opioids are also prescribed to people with mental health problems.37

Industry, Distributors and Congress Have Much to Answer For

In a recent episode of 60 Minutes,38 whistleblower Joe Rannazzisi lays the blame for the opioid crisis squarely on the shoulders of the drug industry — especially the drug distributors — and Congress.39,40

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was well aware of the fact that drug distributors were sending extraordinarily large shipments of opioids — hundreds of millions of pills — to pharmacies across the U.S., and that people were dying from their misuse; yet rather than taking steps to stop the massacre, industry lobbyists and Congress made it virtually impossible for DEA agents to take action.

With this new information about the Sacklers, we now have a good idea of where the financing came from to facilitate the opioid distribution that Rannazzisi was seeking to shut down. Rannazzisi led the DEA's Office of Diversion Control, which specifically regulates and investigates the drug industry.

According to Rannazzisi, "This is an industry that's out of control. What they want to do is do what they want to do, and not worry about what the law is. And if they don't follow the law in drug supply, people die." As reported by CBS News:41

"His greatest ire is reserved for the distributors — some of them multibillion dollar, Fortune 500 companies. They are the middlemen that ship the pain pills from manufacturers, like Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson to drug stores all over the country. Rannazzisi accuses the distributors of fueling the opioid epidemic by turning a blind eye to pain pills being diverted to illicit use."

Opioids Have Never Been Proven Safe or Effective Beyond Six Weeks of Treatment

In April 2016, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a paper in which it noted that:42

"Most placebo-controlled, randomized trials of opioids have lasted six weeks or less, and we are aware of no study that has compared opioid therapy with other treatments in terms of long-term (more than 1 year) outcomes related to pain, function, or quality of life. The few randomized trials to evaluate opioid efficacy for longer than six weeks had consistently poor results.

In fact, several studies have showed that use of opioids for chronic pain may actually worsen pain and functioning, possibly by potentiating pain perception. A 3-year prospective observational study of more than 69,000 postmenopausal women with recurrent pain conditions showed that patients who had received opioid therapy were less likely to have improvement in pain … and had worsened function …

An observational case–control study of patients undergoing orthopedic surgery showed that those receiving long-term opioid therapy had significantly higher levels of preoperative hyperalgesia. After surgery, patients who had received long-term opioid therapy reported higher pain intensity … in the recovery room than patients who had not been taking opioids."

Another 2016 paper43 found nearly half of all unemployed men between the ages of 25 and 54 are using opioids on a daily basis. Two-thirds of them, about 2 million, are on prescription opioids. A follow-up study44 looking at the opioid epidemic's impact on the American labor force suggests chronic opioid use is in fact a major driver behind the decline in labor force participation, accounting for 20 percent of the increase in male unemployment between 1999 and 2015.

How You Can Avoid Becoming a Statistic

Attorney Mike Moore, who is currently representing the states of Ohio, Louisiana and Mississippi against Purdue Pharma, recently stated he has discovered evidence connecting the Sackler family "directly, and personally, to corporate misdeeds" committed in the '90s and 2000s, and says he's "looking really hard" at the possibility of suing certain Sackler family members personally.45 He and others also want Purdue's owners to fund opioid addiction treatment.46

However, according to Glazer, the family "will likely emerge untouched: Because of a sweeping non-prosecution agreement negotiated during the 2007 settlement, most new criminal litigation against Purdue can only address activity that occurred after that date. Neither Richard nor any other family members have occupied an executive position at the company since 2003." The same safe and rosy future is not guaranteed the tens of millions of Americans who fall victim to opioid addiction each year.

It's extremely important to be fully aware of the addictive potential of opioid drugs, and to seriously weigh your need for them. Once you start to develop a tolerance to them, meaning your regular dosage is no longer providing the same relief it did in the beginning, addiction is close at hand, and can develop faster than you might think.

Drug addiction is an extremely complex and difficult-to-treat condition that has the power to demolish and undo everything you've accomplished so far in life — or put the brakes on any advancement you may have hoped for. You stand to lose not only your health but also your family and your job.

There are many other ways to address pain. Below is a long list of suggestions. If you are in pain that is tolerable, please try these options first, before resorting to prescription painkillers of any kind. If you need a pain reliever, consider an over-the-counter (OTC) option. Research47 shows prescription-strength naproxen (Naprosyn, sold OTC in lower dosages as Aleve) provides the same pain relief as more dangerous narcotic painkillers.

Eliminate or radically reduce most grains and sugars from your diet

Avoiding grains and sugars will lower your insulin and leptin levels and decrease insulin and leptin resistance, which is one of the most important reasons why inflammatory prostaglandins are produced. That is why stopping sugar and sweets is so important to controlling your pain and other types of chronic illnesses.

Take a high-quality, animal-based omega-3 fat

Omega-3 fats are precursors to mediators of inflammation called prostaglandins. (In fact, that is how anti-inflammatory painkillers work, by manipulating prostaglandins.) Good sources include wild caught Alaskan salmon, sardines and anchovies, which are all high in healthy omega-3s while being low in contaminants such as mercury. As for supplements, my favorite is krill oil, as it has a number of benefits superior to fish oil.

Optimize your sun exposure and production of vitamin D

Optimize your vitamin D by getting regular, appropriate sun exposure, which will work through a variety of different mechanisms to reduce your pain. Sun exposure also has anti-inflammatory and pain relieving effects that are unrelated to vitamin D production, and these benefits cannot be obtained from a vitamin D supplement.

Red, near-, mid- and far-infrared light therapy (photobiology) and/or infrared saunas may also be quite helpful as it promotes and speeds tissue healing, even deep inside the body.

Medical cannabis

Medical marijuana has a long history as a natural analgesic and is now legal in 29 states including Washington, D.C. You can learn more about the laws in your state on medicalmarijuana.procon.org.48

Kratom

Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) is another plant remedy that has become a popular opioid substitute.49 In August 2016, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued a notice saying it was planning to ban kratom, listing it as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. However, following massive outrage from kratom users who say opioids are their only alternative, the agency reversed its decision.50

Kratom is likely safer than an opioid for someone in serious and chronic pain. However, it's important to recognize that it is a psychoactive substance and should not be used carelessly. There's very little research showing how to use it safely and effectively, and it may have a very different effect from one person to the next.

Also, while it may be useful for weaning people off opioids, kratom is in itself addictive. So, while it appears to be a far safer alternative to opioids, it's still a powerful and potentially addictive substance. So please, do your own research before trying it.

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)

EFT is a drug-free approach for pain management of all kinds. EFT borrows from the principles of acupuncture in that it helps you balance out your subtle energy system. It helps resolve underlying, often subconscious, and negative emotions that may be exacerbating your physical pain. By stimulating (tapping) well-established acupuncture points with your fingertips, you rebalance your energy system, which tends to dissipate pain.

Meditation and Mindfulness Training

Among volunteers who had never meditated before, those who attended four 20-minute classes to learn a meditation technique called focused attention (a form of mindfulness meditation) experienced significant pain relief — a 40 percent reduction in pain intensity and a 57 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness.51

Chiropractic

Many studies have confirmed that chiropractic management is much safer and less expensive than allopathic medical treatments, especially when used for pain such as low back pain.

Qualified chiropractic, osteopathic and naturopathic physicians are reliable, as they have received extensive training in the management of musculoskeletal disorders during their course of graduate health care training, which lasts between four to six years. These health experts have comprehensive training in musculoskeletal management.

Acupuncture

Research has discovered a "clear and robust" effect of acupuncture in the treatment of back, neck and shoulder pain, and osteoarthritis and headaches.

Physical therapy

Physical therapy has been shown to be as good as surgery for painful conditions such as torn cartilage and arthritis.

Foundation Training

Foundation training is an innovative method developed by Dr. Eric Goodman to treat his own chronic low back pain. It's an excellent alternative to painkillers and surgery, as it actually addresses the cause of the problem.

Massage

A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the journal Pain Medicine included 60 high-quality and seven low-quality studies that looked into the use of massage for various types of pain, including muscle and bone pain, headaches, deep internal pain, fibromyalgia pain and spinal cord pain.52

The review revealed massage therapy relieves pain better than getting no treatment at all. When compared to other pain treatments like acupuncture and physical therapy, massage therapy still proved beneficial and had few side effects. In addition to relieving pain, massage therapy also improved anxiety and health-related quality of life. 

Astaxanthin

Astaxanthin is one of the most effective fat-soluble antioxidants known. It has very potent anti-inflammatory properties and in many cases works far more effectively than anti-inflammatory drugs. Higher doses are typically required and you may need 8 milligrams (mg) or more per day to achieve this benefit.

Ginger

This herb has potent anti-inflammatory activity and offers pain relief and stomach-settling properties. Fresh ginger works well steeped in boiling water as a tea or grated into vegetable juice.

Curcumin

In a study of osteoarthritis patients, those who added 200 mg of curcumin a day to their treatment plan had reduced pain and increased mobility. A past study also found that a turmeric extract composed of curcuminoids blocked inflammatory pathways, effectively preventing the overproduction of a protein that triggers swelling and pain.53

Boswellia

Also known as boswellin or "Indian frankincense," this herb contains specific active anti-inflammatory ingredients.

Bromelain

This enzyme, found in pineapples, is a natural anti-inflammatory. It can be taken in supplement form but eating fresh pineapple, including some of the bromelain-rich stem, may also be helpful.

Cetyl Myristoleate (CMO)

This oil, found in fish and dairy butter, acts as a joint lubricant and anti-inflammatory. I have used this for myself to relieve ganglion cysts and carpal tunnel syndrome. I used a topical preparation for this.

Evening Primrose, Black Currant and Borage Oils

These contain the essential fatty acid gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), which is particularly useful for treating arthritic pain.

Cayenne Cream

Also called capsaicin cream, this spice comes from dried hot peppers. It alleviates pain by depleting the body's supply of substance P, a chemical component of nerve cells that transmits pain signals to your brain.

Methods such as hot and cold packs, aquatic therapy, yoga, various mind-body techniques and cognitive behavioral therapy can also result in astonishing pain relief without drugs.

Grounding

Walking barefoot on the earth may also provide a certain measure of pain relief by combating inflammation.

Mind-Body Therapies

Methods such as hot and cold packs, aquatic therapy, yoga, various mind-body techniques and cognitive behavioral therapy can also result in astonishing pain relief without drugs.

Low-Dose Naltrexone (LDN)

Naltrexone is an opiate antagonist, originally developed in the early 1960s for the treatment of opioid addiction. When taken at very low doses (LDN, available only by prescription), it triggers endorphin production, which can boost your immune function and ease pain.




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Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Google will ‘de-rank’ RT articles to make them harder to find – Eric Schmidt

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Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, says the company will “engineer” specific algorithms for RT and Sputnik to make their articles less prominent on the search...

The post Google will ‘de-rank’ RT articles to make them harder to find – Eric Schmidt appeared first on GOV'T SLAVES.



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Study Finds Higher Mortality In Infants Who Received The DTP Vaccine Compared To Those Who Didn’t

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For many years, public health advocates have vainly urged the CDC and WHO to conduct studies comparing vaccinated vs. unvaccinated populations to measure overall health outcomes.  Now a team of Scandinavian scientists has conducted such a study and the results are alarming.  That study, funded in part by the Danish government and lead by Dr. Soren Wengel Mogensen, was published in January in EBioMedicine.  Mogensen and his team of scientists found that African children inoculated with the DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) vaccine, during the early 1980s had a 5-10 times greater mortality than their unvaccinated peers. 

The data suggest that, while the vaccine protects against infection from those three bacteria, it makes children more susceptible to dying from other causes. 

The scientists term the study a “natural experiment” since a birthday-based vaccination system employed for the Bandim Health Project (BHP) in Guinea Bissau, West Africa had the effect of creating a vaccinated cohort and a similarly situated unvaccinated control group.  In the time period covered by this study, Guinea-Bissau had 50% child mortality rates for children up to age 5.  Starting in 1978, BHP health care workers contacted pregnant mothers and encouraged them to visit infant weighing sessions provided by a BHP team every three months after their child’s birth.  Beginning in 1981, BHP offered vaccinations at the weighing sessions.  Since the DPT vaccine and OPV (oral polio) immunizations were offered only to children who were at least three months of age at the weighing sessions, the children’s random birthdays allowed for analysis of deaths between 3 and 5 months of age depending on vaccination status.  So, for example, a child born on January 1st and weighed on April 1st would be vaccinated, but a child born on February 1st would not be vaccinated until their following visit at age 5 months on July 1st.

In the primary analysis, DTP-vaccinated infants experienced mortalities five times greater than DTP-unvaccinated infants.  Mortalities to vaccinated girls were 9.98 times those among females in the unvaccinated control group, while mortalities to vaccinated boys were 3.93 times the controls.  Oddly, the scientists found that children receiving the oral polio vaccine simultaneously with DTP fared much better than children who did not.  The OPV vaccine appeared to modify the negative effect of the DTP vaccine, reducing mortalities to 3.52 times those experienced among the control group.  Overall, mortalities among vaccinated children were 10 times the control group when children received only the DTP.

Mogensen and his colleagues hypothesize that the DTP vaccine might weaken a child’s immune system against non-target infections.  They conclude, “Though protective against the target disease, DTP may increase susceptibility to unrelated infections… DTP was associated with 5-fold higher mortality than being unvaccinated.  No prospective study has shown beneficial survival effects of DTP.”

The Mogensen study supports the conclusions of previous investigations into child survival following vaccination.  An earlier study by Dr. Peter Aaby, of the introduction of DTP in rural Guinea-Bissau, indicated a 2-fold higher mortality among vaccinated children (Aaby et al. 2004a).  The Aaby report is one of several early studies that documented vaccination status and followed children prospectively.  All of them indicated that DTP-vaccinated children died at rates far exceeding mortality amongst the control group.  A meta-analysis of all eight known studies found a two-fold higher mortality for DTP-vaccinated compared to DTP-unvaccinated (Aaby et al. 2016) (Appendix A).

In 2014, The World Health Organization (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) conducted its own literature review of the potential non-specific effects (NSEs) of several vaccines, including DTP, and found that the majority of studies reported a detrimental effect of DTP (Higgins et al., 2014; Strategic Advisory Group of Experts of Immunization, 2014) due to its penchant for increasing susceptibility to unrelated infections.  SAGE recommended further research.

Moreover, Mogensen and his colleagues observe that the studies reviewed by SAGE probably underestimated the lethal effect of the DTP vaccine because of unusually high mortality in the control groups, ”Unvaccinated children in these studies have usually been frail children too sick or malnourished to get vaccinated and the studies may therefore have underestimated the negative effect of DTP”.  The Mogensen study sought to avoid this pitfall by using controls selected by birthday and by eliminating underweight children and orphans from both the study group and the control group.  It included only children who were breastfed.  All the infants were healthy at the time of vaccination.  Nevertheless, the Mogensen authors point out that, even in their study, the unvaccinated children had slightly worse nutritional status and travelled more – biases that would tend to increase mortality. They conclude that, “The estimate from the natural experiment may therefore still be conservative.”

The significance of the Mogensen study findings is underscored by the observation that, “Unfortunately, DTP is the most widely used vaccine, and the proportion who receives DTP3 is used globally as an indicator of the performance of national vaccination programs.”

The authors close with a bracing rebuke to public health regulators, “It should be of concern that the effect of routine vaccinations on all-cause mortality was not tested in randomized trials.  All currently available evidence suggests that DTP vaccine may kill more children from other causes than it saves from diphtheria, tetanus or pertussis.  Though a vaccine protects children against the target disease it may simultaneously increase susceptibility to unrelated infections.”  Those words should serve as a cold water wake-up call to the World Health Organization (WHO), the CDC and other public health officials.  The public in both poor and rich countries has a right to scientifically-based evidence that international vaccine programs are as safe as possible and that they have been thoroughly safety-tested.  The best metrics for measuring safety are studies comparing health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated cohorts.  Yet, both the CDC and the WHO have aggressively discouraged the pursuit of such studies.

Finally, it’s important to note that the DTP vaccine used in Guinea-Bissau in the early 1980s almost certainly contained high concentrations of both mercury and aluminum. Vaccine makers first created the combined diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine in the 1940s, mixing in an aluminum adjuvant and a mercury preservative (thimerosal) from its inception.  At that time, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended DTP for mass use in children. Prior to 1990, DTP was the only thimerosal-containing vaccine recommended for infants.

Five manufacturers supplied UNICEF with the DTP vaccines used in West Africa in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  One of these, Biken of Japan, described the industry standard in its 1987 lab report: “Outline of Method of Manufacture—The preparation [of DTP] also contains thimerosal as a preservative.”

By the early 1980s, a cascade of lawsuits filed across the United States on behalf of vaccine-injured children were driving DTP manufacturers from the market and threatening to shut down production of the DTP shot and other vaccines. That threat led the U.S. Congress to bestow legal immunity on vaccine makers via the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Program in 1986, followed in December, 1987, by the rollout of “Vaccine Court.”  Following the recommendation by the Institute of Medicine, vaccine makers removed thimerosal from the American DTaP between 2001-2003.  However, multi-dose DTP vaccines given to tens of millions of children across the African continent continue to contain massive doses of thimerosal (25mcg of ethylmercury per injection) that exceed the EPA’s maximum exposure levels by many times. Neither the CDC nor the WHO has ever published a vaccinated vs. unvaccinated study that would be necessary to determine the overall health impacts of this potent toxin on African children.  The Mogensen report is a loud call for such a study.

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