Vaccines, Depression and Neurodegeneration After Age 50
By Russell L. Blaylock, M.D., CCN
It has been estimated that 14.8 million Americans suffer from major depressive disorder and of this number 6 million are elderly. If we include anxiety disorders, which commonly accompany depression, the number jumps to 40 million adults. At a cost of $44 billon dollars a year just for care of the seniors, this impacts the national budget as well.
Depression later in life tends to last longer and be more severe than at younger ages. It is also associated with a high rate of suicide.
Previously, it was thought that major depression was secondary to a deficiency in certain neurotransmitters in the brain, particularly the monoamines, which include serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. While alterations in these important mood-related neurotransmitters is found with major depression, growing evidence indicates that the primary culprit is low-grade, chronic brain inflammation.
In addition, we now know that inflammatory cytokines can lower serotonin significantly and for long periods by a number of different mechanisms.
MSG and Depression
Researchers have also discovered that most people with major depressive disease (MDD) have higher levels of the neurotransmitter glutamate in their spinal fluid (CSF) and blood plasma. This is the same glutamate found as a food additive-for example, MSG (monosodium glutamate), hydrolyzed proteins, calcium or sodium casienate, soy protein isolate, vegetable protein concentrate or isolate, etc.
Much of the free glutamate in the brain of depressed people comes from within, that is it escapes from special cells within the brain itself (microglia and astrocytes). Free glutamate, that is, existing outside the neurons, is very toxic to brain connections and brain cells themselves — mainly by a process called excitotoxicity.
This connection between high brain glutamate levels and major depression was discovered quite by accident, when researchers observed that the anesthetic drug ketamine could relieve depression for a prolonged period. Ketamine is a powerful blocking drug for a class of glutamate receptors (NMDA receptors).
For quite some time it was known that depression could cause a loss of neurons in the hippocampus of the brain-the area most important for recent memory (declarative memory or working memory), the form of memory most affected in Alzheimer’s disease.
This shrinkage of the brain usually occurred with long-term depression, yet it was shown, using sophisticated testing, that even without brain shrinkage, memory could be adversely affected. Some antidepressants could not only reverse the memory loss but could reverse the shrinkage as well.
The implication was that the elevated brain glutamate, via excitotoxicity, was destroying brain connections and later killing brain cells in the hippocampus and that the antidepressants were lowering brain glutamate levels. Subsequent studies have confirmed that drugs that block excitotoxicity also reduce depression and that some antidepressants reduce brain glutamate levels.
The Link Between Elevated Brain Glutamate and Inflammation
A tremendous amount of research has now demonstrated the link between chronic low-level brain inflammation, elevated brain glutamate levels and major depression. We know that as we age, the level of inflammatory immune cytokines increase (such as interleukin-1ß (IL-1), IL-6 and TNF-a). That is, the level of inflammation in our body increases, with high levels being seen at the extremes of life — the 80s and 90s.
This progressive elevation in the body’s inflammation increases our risk of a number of inflammation-linked diseases, such as cancer, arthritis, muscle weakness, fatigue, sleep disturbances, memory loss and confusion. People with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease have even higher levels of these inflammatory cytokines — much higher.
When inflammatory chemicals are elevated in the brain it makes brain cells more vulnerable to a number of toxins, many of which are in the environment. One study demonstrated, using a series of sophisticated techniques, that if brain cells were exposed to low levels of a pesticide there was little toxicity seen and that if you exposed these same brain cells to an immune stimulant alone, little damage occurred.
But if you first exposed the brain cells to the immune stimulant, the same low dose of pesticide could destroy a great number of brain cells.
The importance of this observation was that the vaccine made the brain cells hypersensitive to the toxin so that even in concentrations that normally would do not cause harm, could wiped out most of the neurons. One of the strongest connections between an environmental toxin (pesticides) and a neurological disorder is with Parkinson’s disease.
The reason it is more common in the elderly is that they have the highest levels of inflammatory cytokines. This also explains the high incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, which reaches incidences of 50% after age 80.
The link to depression was also serendipitous
Doctors using immune cytokines to treat patients with cancer or hepatitis found that one third of the patients developed major depressive illness within days of the treatment and that it resolved only when the treatment was terminated. Other studies, in which inflammatory cytokine levels were measured in people with major depressive illness, also found most had high levels of these inflammatory chemicals.
To their surprise, they found that many of the antidepressant medications commonly used lowered inflammatory cytokines levels and that patients who failed to respond had the highest level of the cytokines.
So, how is this linked to excitotoxicity?
Neuroscientists have known for some time that inflammatory cytokines cause the brain to release higher levels of glutamate — the more intense the inflammation, the higher the brain glutamate level. The highest levels are found in the prefrontal lobes and limbic system, the areas most related to mood control. MSG also increases brain inflammation.
Vaccination and Brain Inflammation
A great number of studies have shown that when you vaccinate an animal, the body’s inflammatory cytokines not only increase dramatically, but so do the brain’s inflammatory chemicals. The brain has its own immune system that is intimately connected to the body’s immune system. The main immune cell in the brain is called a microglia. Normally, these brain cells are lying throughout the brain in a resting state (called ramified).
Once activated, they can move around, traveling between brain cells like amoeba (called amoeboid microglia).
In the resting state, they release chemicals that support the growth and protection of brain cells and their connections (dendrites and synapses). But when activated, they secrete a number of very harmful chemicals, including inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, complement, free radicals, lipid peroxidation products, and two excitotoxins — glutamate and quinolinic acid.
In essence, these brain immune cells are out to kill invaders, since the body’s immune system sent an emergency message that an invasion had occurred. With most infections, this phase of activation last no more than a few days to two weeks, during which time the immune system successfully kills off the invaders.
Once that is accomplished, the immune system shuts down to allow things to cool off and the brain to repair what damage was done by its own immune system.
What researchers knew was that during this period of activation, people generally feel bad and that what they experience closely resembles depression — a condition called “sickness behavior”. Most of us have experience this when suffering from a viral illness — such things as restlessness, irritability, a need to get away from people, trouble sleeping, fatigue and difficulty thinking.
Studies have shown that there are two phases to this “sickness behavior”; one in which we have the flu-like symptoms and a later onset of depression-like symptoms that can last awhile. They have also shown that all of these symptoms are due to high levels of inflammatory cytokines in the brain, which come from activated microglia.
A number of studies have also shown that after age 50, people have exaggerated and prolonged “sickness behavior”, much more so than younger people. This is one of the reasons why many elderly hang onto flu symptoms for months after exposure.
There is also another immune phenomenon that plays a major role in vaccine-related brain injury. Researchers discovered that when you vaccinate an animal, the brain microglia immune cells turn on partially (called priming), that is, they are in a state of high readiness. If the immune system is activated again soon after (days, weeks to months), these microglia explode into action secreting levels of their destructive chemicals far higher than normal. This overreaction can be very destructive and make you feel very depressed.
Stimulating your immune system with a vaccine is far different than contracting an infectious illness naturally. Vaccines are made of two components — the agent you wish to vaccinate against — for example, the measles virus; and an immune system booster called an immune adjuvant.
These adjuvants are composed of such things as aluminum compounds, MSG, lipid compounds and even mercury. Their job is to make the immune system react as intensely as possible and for as long as possible.
Studies have shown that these adjuvants, from a single vaccine, can cause immune overactivation for as long as two years. This means that the brain microglia remain active as well, continuously pouring out destructive chemicals. In fact, one study found that a single injection of an immune activating substance could cause brain immune overactivation for over a year. This is very destructive.
Flu Vaccines and an Expanding Vaccine Schedule for the Elderly
Public health authorities and physician societies are in an all out campaign to have every elderly person vaccinated every year with the flu vaccine as well as a growing number of newer vaccines. When I was practicing neurosurgery, the hospitals had an automatic written order on all older patients’ charts mandating a flu vaccine, unless it was countermanded by the physician, which I always did.
Now, they are giving the shots in malls, tents and every available site they can muster. And worse still, using lies and scare tactics to frighten the elderly into getting the shots (such as the bold lie that 36,000 elderly die of the flu every year).
As you age, your immune system, including that special immune system in your brain, releases significantly more inflammatory immune cytokines than when you were younger. This serves to prime the microglia, as discussed. So, when you get your first flu shot your microglia overreact and does so for a very long period — perhaps years.
Many elderly report that the flu shot gave them the flu. Proponents of vaccines, retort with a condescending laugh; that it is impossible because the flu vaccine contains killed flu viruses. In truth, what these people are reporting is a prolonged, intense “sickness behavior” response to the vaccine. To the body, it is worse than getting the flu.
Remember, no one is recording the number of elderly who die after getting the flu shot, especially if they die months later, which can happen with sickness behavior, especially if they have a preexisting chronic illness or are infirm.
The Shocking Truth
With the elderly already having increased inflammatory cytokine levels both systemically and in their brain, stimulating these primed microglia so that a chronic overstimulation of the brain’s immune system is triggered, will not only increase their risk of developing one of the neurodegenerative diseases, but will also substantially increase their risk of developing major depression. Remember, this also increases their risk of suicide, and even homicide, dramatically.
Anxiety is a major problem with depression, and vaccinations will greatly worsen the condition. In fact, vaccination, especially multiple vaccinations, will maintain the brain in a state of inflammation that will be self-perpetuating, because the excess release of glutamate in the brain, as well as glutamate in the diet, will further enhance microglial activation and excitotoxicity.
Those who are prone to developing one of the neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease will be at a drastically increased risk as we have seen experimentally when even animals exposed to subtoxic concentrations of environmental toxins and vaccinated develop neurologic worsening.
Most people use pesticides in their home, and studies have shown that the concentrations in homes are sufficient to trigger Parkinson’s disease in susceptible people. Vaccinations, as these studies have shown, will greatly increase that risk. Most doctors are completely unaware of this important research.
You must keep in mind that “health authorities” urge the elderly to get the flu vaccine each and every year. This will keep the microglia in a primed and even activated state continuously. Recently, neurologists announced that the incidence of neurodegenerative disease had been grossly underestimated and that neurological diseases of aging were increasing at a frightening rate. They have no explanation.
Over the last three decades the number of elderly receiving yearly flu vaccines has risen from 20% before 1980 to over 60% today.
If this were not depressing enough, now the public health authorities and medical specialty societies are adding a whole new set of vaccines for those above 50 years of age, including the pneumococcal and meningiococcal vaccines. What is being completely ignored by the promoters of these vaccines is the effect of multiple doses of immune adjuvant that accompany each of these vaccines.
Let’s say you see your doctor and he talks you into getting the flu vaccine, the pneumococcal and meningiococcal vaccine all during the same office visit. That way, he can save you extra office visits. What your doctor ignores is that he is giving you three doses of powerful immune adjuvant all in one sitting, which means that your body and brain are assaulted by a massive dose of powerful immune activators, which have been proven to activate the brain’s immune system to dangerous levels, even when given as a single dose.
Proof of this mechanism exists not only in animal studies, but in humans as well.
Mercury and Aluminum
There are other ways that vaccines can cause havoc in the brain. Most vaccines contain aluminum compounds. A multitude of studies have shown that aluminum, especially if combined with fluoride, is a powerful brain toxin and that it accumulates in the brain. With each vaccine injection, a dose of aluminum is given. These yearly aluminum inoculations accumulate not only at the site of the injection, but travel to the brain, where it enters neurons and glial cells (astrocytes and microglia).
A number of studies have shown that aluminum can activate microglia and do so for long periods. This means that the aluminum in your vaccination is priming your microglia to overreact. The next vaccine acts to trigger the enhanced inflammatory reaction and release of the excitotoxins, glutamate and quinolinic acid.
You must also appreciate that any infection, stroke, head injury or other toxin exposure will also magnify this inflammatory brain reaction initially triggered by your vaccines. Studies have now indicated that the more one’s immune system is activated the more like he or she will suffer from one of the neurodegenerative diseases.
Mercury is also a powerful activator of brain microglia and can do so in extremely low concentrations — in nanomolar amounts. Because of its numerous reactions with sulfhydral compounds in the body (which are ubiquitous), mercury can poison a number of enzymes, both systemically and in the brain. Of special concern is the ability of mercury, especially ethylmercury (the kind found in vaccines called thimerosal) to inhibit the regulation of brain glutamate levels. (It does this by inhibiting the glutamate transfer proteins that control the removal of glutamate from outside the neuron, where it does its harm.)
In essence, mercury, in the concentrations being injected with vaccines, triggers excitotoxicity, increases brain free radicals and lipid peroxidation products, inhibits critical brain enzymes, inhibits antioxidant enzymes and impairs DNA repair ability. The flu vaccine contains enough mercury to do all of these things. You must keep in mind that each flu vaccine adds to the mercury supplied by your last vaccine — that is, it is progressively accumulating in your brain.
In addition, the aluminum in the vaccines also primes microglia, and when combined with mercury is infinitively more toxic to the brain. Now, if this is not enough, we also have to consider the contamination of vaccines with foreign viruses and viral components. Studies have shown that this is not a rare occurrence, with up to 60% of vaccines being contaminated in one study of several major manufactured vaccines.
When confronted with this fact, vaccine proponents just shrug their shoulders and say — “We don’t think these things are harmful.”
Yet, the studies say otherwise.
It has been found that insertion of viral fragments, not even the whole virus, is sufficient to trigger the brain’s microglial system and subsequent excitotoxicity, leading to progressive brain degeneration. This is accepted to be the mechanism by which the HIV virus causes dementia in a great number of AIDS victims. Fragments of the virus (gp140 and Tat) are engulfed by the microglia and this triggers chronic brain inflammation and excitotoxicity. The herpes virus and measles virus can do the same thing.
Danger of Live Virus Vaccines
A number of studies have shown that live viruses used in vaccines can enter the brain and reside there for a lifetime. One such study, in which autopsied elderly were examined for the presence of the measles virus, found that 20% of the brains had live measles viruses and 45% of other organs were infected. These viruses were highly mutated, meaning that they could be just as potent as other measles viruses, but could be even more virulent.
Worse, is that in most cases they cause a smoldering destruction of tissues without the obvious symptoms of infection, which has been shown in a number of studies.
Live virus vaccines are made using a process to attenuate the pathogenic or disease-causing virus by passing it through a series of cultures. The problem is that the reverse can also happen within the body. A number of studies have shown that when we produce free radicals in our body (and we produce tons of such radicals over a lifetime), it mutates the viruses residing in our tissues. This is what was found in the autopsy study I referred to above.
Likewise, these viruses can trigger brain inflammation and degeneration, which has been shown in a number of studies — that is, there exist a chronic degeneration of the brain over years or decades. Because it is so far separated from the time of the original vaccine, physicians just attribute it to old age or heredity. Anything but the vaccines.
Virologists are also concerned that such mutated live viruses can also infect other people, leading to outbreaks of disease totally unsuspected by health authorities.
Conclusion
Current recommendations by the CDC for adult vaccinations include a total of 14 separate inoculations with infectious agents and powerful immune adjuvants. To be fair, some of these are for special medical risks and conditions, such as high-risk behaviors, illegal drug use and HIV infected individuals.
If we eliminate these, women will be exposed to 10 inoculations and men 7, should they follow CDC guidelines, which doctors follow.
According to CDC recommendations, multiple vaccinations for a single disease are separated by no more than 4 weeks, which is close enough together to produce priming and subsequent hyperactivation of brain microglia. We have seen that this can trigger a smoldering process of brain inflammation and excitotoxicity that can not only result in depression, anxiety and high suicide rates, but can increase one’s risk of developing one of the neurodegenerative diseases as well.
We have also seen that in many cases a person will be injected with several vaccines during a single office visit and that this means their body is exposed to a very large dose of immune adjuvant. Compelling studies, using many animal species as well as humans, have shown that this overactivates brain inflammatory mechanism that can last for years.
In addition, several additives to vaccines, such as mercury and aluminum, are powerful brain toxins that are known to accumulate in the brain over years and can trigger brain inflammatory/excitotoxic mechanisms. Vaccine contaminants, such as bacteria, mycoplasma and viral fragments can also produce prolonged brain inflammation and neurodegeneration.
Because the elderly already have high levels of inflammatory cytokines, they are at a special risk. The very young (babies and small children) are at a high risk because their brains are undergoing the most rapid development at the very time they receive the greatest number of vaccinations — the first two years of life. In fact, they receive 22 vaccines during the first year of life, one of which contains a full pediatric dose of mercury.
Like adults, they receive many inoculations (up to 9 inoculations) in one office visit. This is insane and in my estimation, criminal.
Nasal flu vaccines are even worse, because they introduce a live virus into the nasal passages, which can then travel along the olfactory nerves, which leads to the very part of the brain first and most severely affected by Alzheimer’s disease. A number of studies have shown that viruses and bacteria can pass along this route to the brain.
In fact, in one study scientists sprayed a bacterium into the nose of mice and observed a rapid development of Alzheimer’s type plaques in the mouse’s brain.
So What Should Older People Do?
First, studies have shown that the primary cause of immune deficiency in the elderly is purely dietary. The carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, canthaxanthin, lutein and lycopene significantly enhance the immunity of the elderly. Zinc, magnesium and selenium are also essential. One should also avoid omega-6 oils (the vegetable oils: corn, safflower, sunflower, canola, soybean and peanut oils), since they greatly enhance inflammation and depress immunity. The EPA component of fish oils (omega-3 oils) is also a powerful immune suppressant. DHA is not.
A healthy immune system means that you can fight infections efficiently and rapidly.
Regular exercise, such as brisk walking or weight exercises three to five times a week also boost immunity, while extreme exercise suppresses immunity. Sugar and refined carbohydrates also suppress immunity and inflame the brain. Exercise protects the brain from aging effects and from degeneration.
Adequate sleep is also vital to both brain health and good immune function.
Pubic health officials and spokesmen for the major medical societies are lying to the public concerning vaccine safety. We now possess sufficient information from a great number of studies to halt this disastrous vaccine policy. We are facing a medial disaster in this country, which is already well on its way.
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Here is where we are going if we do not act together to stop it.
The Polio vaccine is known to carry the CMV-40 virus which is a proven cause of leukemia. it also confers huge dangers (http://thepowerhour.com/news/polio_dangers.htm) including paralysis and death (http://www.whale.to/a/mcbean5.html#CHAPTER%20X:%20THE%20HIDDEN%20DANGERS%20IN%20POLIO%20VACCINE). In fact, authorities examining the results of Polio vaccination concluded in 1955
“The interval between inoculation and the first sign of paralysis ranged from 5 to 20 days and in a large proportion of cases it started in the limb on which the injection had been given. Another feature of the tragedy was that the numbers developing polio were far greater than would have been expected had no inoculations been given. In fact in the state of Idaho, according to a statement by Dr. Carl Eklund, one of the Government’s chief virus authorities, polio struck only vaccinated children in areas where there had been no cases of polio since the preceding autumn; in 9 out of 10 cases the paralysis occurred in the arms in which the vaccine had been injected.” (News Chronicle, May 6, 1955)
According to the Daily Telegraph (June 18, 1955) Mr. Peterson, State Health Director of Idaho, stopped further inoculations and stated: “We have lost confidence in the Salk Vaccine.” He also stated that he “holds the vaccine, together with the instructions for its manufacture, directly responsible for the outbreak of polio and the deaths that had occurred.”
Nonetheless, Polio vaccination is a huge business and, despite the well documented dangers associated with it, mandatory vaccination has become an item of public health dogma in many places around the world. In fact, in Belgium, polio vaccination is compulsory and is taken so seriously that two parents who refused the infection for their child have been fined and jailed. Here is the story as reported in the British Medical Journal.
If this is not an acceptable public health policy, now would be a good time to act since State ordered (as well as school and college ordered) compulsory vaccination scenarios are becoming more common by the day in the US. The US government has given itself the authority to institute compulsory vaccinations without proof, scientific input or medical review. Frighteningly, it has announced that it has stock piled enough Avian Flu vaccine for every man, woman and child in the US.
Of course, virologically, that is impossible if, as they maintain, the pandemic form of the H5N1 virus does not exist yet since a vaccine cannot be made against a virus that does not exist. So just what is in that vaccine? And why is this such a vital issue to the US government and the World Health Organization (WHO)? Could the Health Minister of Indonesia be correct? Could it be true that the WHO gave Indonesian Avian Flu samples to a bioweapons laboratory at Los Alamos Laboratories in New Mexico? And could her belief be accurate that the US and WHO are manipulating the alleged dangers for their own political and economic gain?
And, oh, by the way, just what is in that vaccine (or any other, for that matter)? Would it contain the material to stimulate antibodies to the hormone that women make when they are in early pregnancy, HCG, (Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin) so that woman become sterile? That technology was used by the WHO in Africa by mixing it with other vaccines, according to Dr. William Deagle, to “eliminate 150 million excess sub Saharan Africans” since it rendered woman receiving it sterile. The same technology was used, under the support of the US, the Norwegian Government and the WHO in South and Central America when women of child bearing age got tetanus shots (which also contained this material, although they were not informed that they were receiving a vaccine against getting pregnant.) Significantly, men and boys did not receive this vaccine although they are probably just as likely to step on a rusty nail as a woman or girl.
Or might it have a new virus, or an old one like the one allegedly disseminated in small pox vaccinations in Africa? Might it have the double dose of thimerisol (compared to US vaccines) that the vaccines so generously supplied to the children of the developing world by high profile philanthropies are reported to contain. Perhaps a new genetically engineered plague? Who knows. Without public comment and scientific review, the harm done by new vaccinations will only emerge later, perhaps much later. And in that context it would be well to recall that the FDA has removed your right to sue the manufacturer of any drug or vaccine for any damage it causes if it has been approved by the FDA for any purpose at all. So if you roll up your sleeve (or your child’s sleeve) for that “jab” as they call them in the UK, you are accepting whatever risks and damage comes your way without recourse or recompense.
if that does not work for you, now would be a very good time to take action to make it clear to our legislators that we do not accept the notion that our health freedom can be tossed aside at the whim of a government or school official and that we will not accept compulsory vaccination. Visit the home page of the Natural Solutions Foundation at www.HealthFreedomUSA.org to take the action steps listed there to stop compulsory vaccinations. And while you are there, take a moment to sign up for the Health Freedom eAlerts and make a tax deductible donation (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189) to keep health freedom free! Recurring donations are especially helpful.
And don’t forget to join the No Forced Vaccination Forum on Yahoo.com (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/NSF-Panama/join) to share information and become part of an active community of like-minded activists.
Thanks for your activism.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
Two parents face jail for refusing polio jab
21 February 2008
Two sets of parents in Belgium have been sentenced to prison after they refused to vaccinate their children against polio. The vaccination is compulsory in Belgium.
The parents have been fined £4,100 ($8000) and sentenced to five months’ imprisonment.
They failed to appear in court, and the judge sentenced them on the basis of police evidence. He suspended the prison sentence, and has given the parents a second chance to have their children vaccinated.
Belgian law allows exceptions to the vaccine only if parents can prove that their child would have an adverse reaction to it.
(Source: British Medical Journal, 2008; 336: 348).
Vaccine Case Settled by US With Admission that Vaccine Injury Associated with Autism
In a striking admission, the US government has finally agreed to the fact that vaccines can cause autism, at least in one landmark case. In a Federal Vaccine Court case, the Department of Health and Human Services, the parent body for the FDA (and the CDC and the other organizations which impact and control vaccines in the United States) acknowledged that a little girl who collapsed into autism within days of simultaneous vaccination against 9 different diseases was, in fact, damaged by the vaccines. Although they asserted that the child had an underlying disorder of the mitochondria (the energy producing organelles upon which we rely for cellular energy) they did concede that “The vaccinations received on July 19, 2000, significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism, and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of ASD.”
The other 4900 pending cases in which vaccine damage is alleged will, according to our legal sources, probably be settled the same way. In this case, the little girl will receive the life-long care she will need because of this settlement. Nothing the government does, of course, can restore her life, or her family’s normality, to her. In my experience as a physician, there are ways to retrieve autistic people, but they do not involve drugs. They involve nutrition, detoxification, frequency therapies and other non-pharmaceutical approaches. But they are all long, arduous and demanding. And not every autistic child has access to these methods. For most, the risk of vaccination is not only the risk of infection with the disease supposedly being “protected” against, but a collapse of the immune system, neurological damage or death, cancer and other potentially lethal consequences. When do we, as a people, say “NO” to the uninsurable risk presented by vaccines?
Insurance companies refuse to insure vaccine risk because the risk is simply too great. But the US and the individual States in the Union continue to insist on more, and more dangerous, vaccines. According to Barbara Fisk, a New Jersey Health Freedom advocate fighting against compulsory vaccination, by the time a child reaches adolescence in New Jersey (which is not much different from the rest of the US), he/she will have received 74 vaccinations! Remembering that each one contains cumulative poisons like formaldehyde, heavy metals like mercury, toxins like aluminum, dangerous adjuvants like squalene (thought to be responsible for Gulf War Syndrome in soldiers vaccinated with the required Anthrax vaccine and present in most modern vaccines), neurotoxins like MSG (also toxic to the pancreas), cancer-causing viruses like CMV-40, bits of foreign protein and stealth viruses, the wonder of our modern, and somewhat insane, age is that there are any children left who are NOT autistic. Of course, given the numbers of children diagnosed with neurological and psychiatric disorders and the number of children with diabetes (MSG puts the pancreas into overdrive) and cancer, as well as auto immune diseases, perhaps that is too optimistic an assessment. Perhaps the only really healthy children are those who have never been vaccinated at all!
So vaccination benefits the manufacturers of vaccines in several ways: first, through direct profits from the huge sales of ever more vaccines and second from the drug sales engendered by the many diseases precipitated by vaccination. By the way, according to FDA documents, that would include cervical cancer in girls and women vaccinated with the HPV vaccine since the vaccine is associated with a four fold increase in cervical cancer BUT the types of HPV which it supposedly protects against are self-limited, benign viruses which do not cause cancer.
If you do not want to be forcibly vaccinated, you need to take action now and ask everyone in your circle of influence to become active in protecting your rights and theirs at the same time as well. Here’s how:
1. Forward this article to everyone you know
2. Ask them to go to www.HealthFreedomUSA.org and sign up for the secure, free Health Freedom eAlerts so they can stay current on health freedom issues like this one.
3. Ask them to “Ride the Freedom Mouse” and tell their legislators that they do not want compulsory vaccinations by clicking here (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=21833)
4. Let them know that they can sign the Tiburon Declaration (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?p=460) against forced drugging of any kind (including vaccination) and become part of the growing number of grass roots voices taking charge of our own health decisions
5. Ask them to help prevent schools from enforcing drugging in kids when their parents do not agree by supporting S. 891, the Child Medication Safety Act (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=18970), which prevents schools from forcing parents to drug their children or face charges of child abuse, having the child removed from the home or barred from school and other abuses designed to force parents to consent to drugging their children with dangerous psychoactive medication.
6. Join the No-Forced-Vaccination Forum (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/no-forced-vaccination/join) and become part of a vigorous and highly informative community of people determined not to permit compulsory vaccination for themselves and their loved ones.
7. And, of course, let them know that health freedom is not free and ask them to help support the Natural Solutions Foundation (www.HealthFreedomUSA.org) with a tax deductible donation (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189). Recurring donations help us a great deal because then we know what we can budget on a monthly basis.
Our solutions are natural and they work! We are the most effective grass roots voice of health freedom in the US and globally.
Please pass this information along as widely as you can. Thanks for your activism.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
Read David Kirby’s article on this land mark settlement:
Government Concedes Vaccine-Autism Case in Federal Court – Now What?
Posted February 25, 2008 | 12:42 PM (EST)
After years of insisting there is no evidence to link vaccines with the onset of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the US government has quietly conceded a vaccine-autism case in the Court of Federal Claims.
The unprecedented concession was filed on November 9, and sealed to protect the plaintiff’s identify. It was obtained through individuals unrelated to the case.
The claim, one of 4,900 autism cases currently pending in Federal “Vaccine Court,” was conceded by US Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler and other Justice Department officials, on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, the “defendant” in all Vaccine Court cases.
The child’s claim against the government — that mercury-containing vaccines were the cause of her autism — was supposed to be one of three “test cases” for the thimerosal-autism theory currently under consideration by a three-member panel of Special Masters, the presiding justices in Federal Claims Court.
Keisler wrote that medical personnel at the HHS Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation (DVIC) had reviewed the case and “concluded that compensation is appropriate.”
The doctors conceded that the child was healthy and developing normally until her 18-month well-baby visit, when she received vaccinations against nine different diseases all at once (two contained thimerosal).
Days later, the girl began spiraling downward into a cascade of illnesses and setbacks that, within months, presented as symptoms of autism, including: No response to verbal direction; loss of language skills; no eye contact; loss of “relatedness;” insomnia; incessant screaming; arching; and “watching the florescent lights repeatedly during examination.”
Seven months after vaccination, the patient was diagnosed by Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a leading neurologist at the Kennedy Krieger Children’s Hospital Neurology Clinic, with “regressive encephalopathy (brain disease) with features consistent with autistic spectrum disorder, following normal development.” The girl also met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) official criteria for autism.
In its written concession, the government said the child had a pre-existing mitochondrial disorder that was “aggravated” by her shots, and which ultimately resulted in an ASD diagnosis.
“The vaccinations received on July 19, 2000, significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder,” the concession says, “which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism, and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of ASD.”
This statement is good news for the girl and her family, who will now be compensated for the lifetime of care she will require. But its implications for the larger vaccine-autism debate, and for public health policy in general, are not as certain.
In fact, the government’s concession seems to raise more questions than it answers.
1) Is there a connection between vaccines, mitochondrial disorders and a diagnosis of autism, at least in some cases?
Mitochondria, you may recall from biology class, are the little powerhouses within cells that convert food into electrical energy, partly through a complex process called “oxidative phosphorylation.” If this process is impaired, mitochondrial disorder will ensue.
The child in this case had several markers for Mt disease, which was confirmed by muscle biopsy. Mt disease is often marked by lethargy, poor muscle tone, poor food digestion and bowel problems, something found in many children diagnosed with autism.
But mitochondrial disorders are rare in the general population, affecting some 2-per-10,000 people (or just 0.2%). So with 4,900 cases filed in Vaccine Court, this case should be the one and only, extremely rare instance of Mt disease in all the autism proceedings.
But it is not.
Mitochondrial disorders are now thought to be the most common disease associated with ASD. Some journal articles and other analyses have estimated that 10% to 20% of all autism cases may involve mitochondrial disorders, which would make them one thousand times more common among people with ASD than the general population.
Another article, published in the Journal of Child Neurology and co-authored by Dr. Zimmerman, showed that 38% of Kennedy Krieger Institute autism patients studied had one marker for impaired oxidative phosphorylation, and 47% had a second marker.
The authors — who reported on a case-study of the same autism claim conceded in Vaccine Court — noted that “children who have (mitochondrial-related) dysfunctional cellular energy metabolism might be more prone to undergo autistic regression between 18 and 30 months of age if they also have infections or immunizations at the same time.”
An interesting aspect of Mt disease in autism is that, with ASD, the mitochondrial disease seems to be milder than in “classic” cases of Mt disorder. In fact, classic Mt disease is almost always inherited, either passed down by the mother through mitochondrial DNA, or by both parents through nuclear DNA.
In autism-related Mt disease, however, the disorder is not typically found in other family members, and instead appears to be largely of the sporadic variety, which may now account for 75% of all mitochondrial disorders.
Meanwhile, an informal survey of seven families of children with cases currently pending in Vaccine Court revealed that all seven showed markers for mitochondrial dysfunction, dating back to their earliest medical tests. The facts in all seven claims mirror the case just conceded by the government: Normal development followed by vaccination, immediate illness, and rapid decline culminating in an autism diagnosis.
2) With 4,900 cases pending, and more coming, will the government concede those with underlying Mt disease — and if it not, will the Court award compensation?
The Court will soon begin processing the 4900 cases pending before it. What if 10% to 20% of them can demonstrate the same Mt disease and same set of facts as those in the conceded case? Would the government be obliged to concede 500, or even 1,000 cases? What impact would that have on public opinion? And is there enough money currently in the vaccine injury fund to cover so many settlements?
When asked for a comment last week about the court settlement, a spokesman for HHS furnished the following written statement:
“DVIC has reviewed the scientific information concerning the allegation that vaccines cause autism and has found no credible evidence to support the claim. Accordingly, in every case under the Vaccine Act, DVIC has maintained the position that vaccines do not cause autism, and has never concluded in any case that autism was caused by vaccination.”
3) If the government is claiming that vaccines did not “cause” autism, but instead aggravated a condition to “manifest” as autism, isn’t that a very fine distinction?
For most affected families, such linguistic gymnastics is not so important. And even if a vaccine injury “manifested” as autism in only one case, isn’t that still a significant development worthy of informing the public?
On the other hand, perhaps what the government is claiming is that vaccination resulted in the symptoms of autism, but not in an actual, factually correct diagnosis of autism itself.
4) If the government is claiming that this child does NOT have autism, then how many other children might also have something else that merely “mimics” autism?
Is it possible that 10%-20% of the cases that we now label as “autism,” are not autism at all, but rather some previously undefined “look-alike” syndrome that merely presents as “features” of autism?
This question gets to the heart of what autism actually is. The disorder is defined solely as a collection of features, nothing more. If you have the features (and the diagnosis), you have the disorder. The underlying biology is the great unknown.
But let’s say the government does determine that these kids don’t have actual “autism” (something I speculated on HuffPost a year ago). Then shouldn’t the Feds go back and test all people with ASD for impaired oxidative phosphorylation, perhaps reclassifying many of them?
If so, will we then see “autism” cases drop by tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people? Will there be a corresponding ascension of a newly described disorder, perhaps something like “Vaccine Aggravated Mitochondrial Disease with Features of ASD?”
And if this child was technically “misdiagnosed” with DSM-IV autism by Dr Zimmerman, how does he feel about HHS doctors issuing a second opinion re-diagnosis of his patient, whom they presumably had neither met nor examined? (Zimmerman declined an interview).
And along those lines, aren’t Bush administration officials somewhat wary of making long-distance, retroactive diagnoses from Washington, given that the Terry Schiavo incident has not yet faded from national memory?
5) Was this child’s Mt disease caused by a genetic mutation, as the government implies, and wouldn’t that have manifested as “ASD features” anyway?
In the concession, the government notes that the patient had a “single nucleotide change” in the mitochondrial DNA gene T2387C, implying that this was the underlying cause of her manifested “features” of autism.
While it’s true that some inherited forms of Mt disease can manifest as developmental delays, (and even ASD in the form of Rhett Syndrome) these forms are linked to identified genetic mutations, of which T2387C is not involved. In fact little, if anything, is known about the function of this particular gene.
What’s more, there is no evidence that this girl, prior to vaccination, suffered from any kind of “disorder” at all- genetic, mitochondrial or otherwise. Some forms of Mt disease are so mild that the person is unaware of being affected. This perfectly developing girl may have had Mt disorder at the time of vaccination, but nobody detected, or even suspected it.
And, there is no evidence to suggest that this girl would have regressed into symptoms consistent with a DSM-IV autism diagnosis without her vaccinations. If there was such evidence, then why on earth would these extremely well-funded government attorneys compensate this alleged injury in Vaccine Court? Why wouldn’t they move to dismiss, or at least fight the case at trial?
6) What are the implications for research?
The concession raises at least two critical research questions: What are the causes of Mt dysfunction; and how could vaccines aggravate that dysfunction to the point of “autistic features?”
While some Mt disorders are clearly inherited, the “sporadic” form is thought to account for 75% of all cases, according to the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. So what causes sporadic Mt disease? “Medicines or other toxins,” says the Cleveland Clinic, a leading authority on the subject.
Use of the AIDS drug AZT, for example, can cause Mt disorders by deleting large segments of mitochondrial DNA. If that is the case, might other exposures to drugs or toxins (i.e., thimerosal, mercury in fish, air pollution, pesticides, live viruses) also cause sporadic Mt disease in certain subsets of children, through similar genotoxic mechanisms?
Among the prime cellular targets of mercury are mitochondria, and thimerosal-induced cell death has been associated with the depolarization of mitochondrial membrane, according to the International Journal of Molecular Medicine among several others. (Coincidently, the first case of Mt disease was diagnosed in 1959, just 15 years after the first autism case was named, and two decades after thimerosal’s introduction as a vaccine preservative.)
Regardless of its cause, shouldn’t HHS sponsor research into Mt disease and the biological mechanisms by which vaccines could aggravate the disorder? We still do not know what it was, exactly, about this girl’s vaccines that aggravated her condition. Was it the thimerosal? The three live viruses? The two attenuated viruses? Other ingredients like aluminum? A combination of the above?
And of course, if vaccine injuries can aggravate Mt disease to the point of manifesting as autism features, then what other underlying disorders or conditions (genetic, autoimmune, allergic, etc.) might also be aggravated to the same extent?
7) What are the implications for medicine and public health?
Should the government develop and approve new treatments for “aggravated mitochondrial disease with ASD features?” Interestingly, many of the treatments currently deployed in Mt disease (i.e., coenzyme Q10, vitamin B-12, lipoic acid, biotin, dietary changes, etc.) are part of the alternative treatment regimen that many parents use on their children with ASD.
And, if a significant minority of autism cases can be linked to Mt disease and vaccines, shouldn’t these products one day carry an FDA Black Box warning label, and shouldn’t children with Mt disorders be exempt from mandatory immunization?
8) What are the implications for the vaccine-autism debate?
It’s too early to tell. But this concession could conceivably make it more difficult for some officials to continue insisting there is “absolutely no link” between vaccines and autism.
It also puts the Federal Government’s Vaccine Court defense strategy somewhat into jeopardy. DOJ lawyers and witnesses have argued that autism is genetic, with no evidence to support an environmental component. And, they insist, it’s simply impossible to construct a chain of events linking immunizations to the disorder.
Government officials may need to rethink their legal strategy, as well as their public relations campaigns, given their own slightly contradictory concession in this case.
9) What is the bottom line here?
The public, (including world leaders) will demand to know what is going on inside the US Federal health establishment. Yes, as of now, n=1, a solitary vaccine-autism concession. But what if n=10% or 20%? Who will pay to clean up that mess?
The significance of this concession will unfortunately be fought over in the usual, vitriolic way — and I fully expect to be slammed for even raising these questions. Despite that, the language of this concession cannot be changed, or swept away.
Its key words are “aggravated” and “manifested.” Without the aggravation of the vaccines, it is uncertain that the manifestation would have occurred at all.
When a kid with peanut allergy eats a peanut and dies, we don’t say “his underlying metabolic condition was significantly aggravated to the extent of manifesting as an anaphylactic shock with features of death.”
No, we say the peanut killed the poor boy. Remove the peanut from the equation, and he would still be with us today.
Many people look forward to hearing more from HHS officials about why they are settling this claim. But whatever their explanation, they cannot change the fundamental facts of this extraordinary case:
The United State government is compensating at least one child for vaccine injuries that resulted in a diagnosis of autism.
And that is big news, no matter how you want to say it.
David Kirby is the author of “Evidence of Harm – Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic, A Medical Controversy” (St. Martins Press 2005.
Will there be a violent revolution in the US? If there is, will it be triggered by violations of your health freedom so devastating and so dangerous that Americans will, at last, say, “Enough”, just as they did with the imposition of new taxes at the end of the unopposed British Colonial era and the beginning of that difficult and dangerous period glorified in grade school history books as “The American Revolution”?
Whether you are a liberal, a progressive, a conservative, a Constitutionalist, a libertarian or a six foot scaly reptile, if you are watching (and that means living through) the political, social, economic, constitutional and social upheaval besetting the United States right now, you will find this provocative and thought-provoking article worth reading. Asking if we are heading for a revolution does not mean that I advocate one. Let me be very clear on that score: revolutions damage us all deeply and leave scars which may not heal for hundreds of years. But think about what happens if the US Government starts yelling, “Pandemic! Pandemic”, for example, saying there is an Avian Flu outbreak. Although the Indonesian Health Minister, Mme. Siti Fadila Supari, states unequivocally that the US is manipulating the Avian Flu situation for its own gain and greed, and that the World Health Organization provided Indonesian Avian Flu samples to a US Bioweapons lab at Los Alamos, New Mexico, most people will be so spooked and stampeded by the public “Wag the Dog” outcry created to drive people to compliance that we can expect the majority of them to roll up their sleeves and beg, literally bet, to be inoculated. Or will they?
Liberty after liberty, trusted source after trusted source, civil protection after civil protection have all been rapidly eroding through the heavy hand of an increasingly dictatorial “protection” mentality by government and agencies. On that we all can agree, no matter what our political stance or belief system. At the same time, global and local health freedoms have been undergoing the same erosion for the supposed benefit of our health and well being but with personal freedom and the right to make our own health decision as the victims. Quick, real and frightening examples:
– The rapidly arriving onslaught of compulsory vaccinations of children and adults in the US and elsewhere with the specter of “Avian Flu vaccine” on a universal compulsory basis lurking in the not-too-distant background
– The FDA literally forbidding labeling of genetically modified ingredients and foods (other than raw produce which has a code on the little oval label produce carries. If it begins with the number “8” it has been genetically modified) because they recognize, according to FDA employee Barbara Schneeman, PhD [head of Office of Dietary Supplements and frequent Codex Delegate for the US] that if you knew your food was genetically modified you would refuse to buy it. By the way, if it begins with the number “4”, the produce has been raised conventionally, which means with pesticides and other chemicals. If it begins with the number “9” the produce is organic and has not been treated with chemicals although it may have been irradiated or “pasteurized” without label notification.
– Your medical records, all of them, becoming public property which the Federal Government can sell for commercial purposes and which doctors offices can now transmit on special, $600 computers now available, directly to Google where they will be stored and accessed without your knowledge or your doctors (which is not such a huge departure from where we are now, after all, since if your doctor (or anyone else in the office) tells you that your records have been accessed, that person has committed a felony crime
– Your access to foods which have not been raised with undeclared pesticides or irradiated (now called “pasteurization” to make it sound less frightening) is nearly impossible to assure. All fruits and vegetables imported into the US must be irradiated, but that fact is not declared on any label
– Compulsory “mental health screening” followed by drugging with dangerous psychiatric drugs for children, adults and adolescents mandated by at least 6 Federal and numerous State laws. Parents who resist this dangerous imposition on their rights face criminal charges and potential loss of their children to the State. The same imposition of State over personal interests has led to numerous cases of forced chemotherapy treatment despite the wishes of patients and parents
– The disappearance of free speech to allow you to learn about and tell others about health benefits associated with a food or food component (currently forbidden by the FDA and Codex as “Health Claims” and “advertising” respectively) without having the potentially benefical substance classified as an “untested drug” by the FDA
– The right to sue manufacturers of devices, drugs and vaccines for the damage they have caused whether or not the drug, vaccine or device has been approved by the FDA for any purpose. Currently, if a device, drug or vaccination has been approved by the FDA for any use at all, the manufacturer has no liability, none, for any damage – even death – that the device or drug caused.
Could these basic human, American, personal rights, especially the right to refuse vaccination for oneself and one’s children be so dearly held by Americans, and could the distrust and loathing of government be so strong that, despite marshal law, despite propaganda and despite the police power of the state enforcing it, Americans might refuse in enough numbers, and with enough force to create a revolution? Well, that all depends on whether American discontent has reached a boiling point, rather than a roiling malaise.
Students of social movements and change (and revolutions certainly quality for those descriptions) ask the question, “What are the conditions necessary to create a full blown revolution and have we reached them in the United States. Please read on to learn more about whether the US is, in fact, in critical “blow up” mode.
When Change Is Not Enough: The Seven Steps to Revolution
by Sara Robinson
“Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.â€
– John F. Kennedy
There’s one thing for sure: 2008 isn’t anything like politics as usual.
The corporate media (with their unerring eye for the obvious point) is fixated on the narrative that, for the first time ever, Americans will likely end this year with either a woman or a black man headed for the White House. Bloggers are telling stories from the front lines of primaries and caucuses that look like something from the early 60s – people lining up before dawn to vote in Manoa, Hawaii yesterday; a thousand black college students in Prairie View, Texas marching 10 miles to cast their early votes in the face of a county that tried to disenfranchise them. In recent months, we’ve also been gobstopped by the sheer passion of the insurgent campaigns of both Barack Obama and Ron Paul, both of whom brought millions of new voters into the conversation – and with them, a sharp critique of the status quo and a new energy that’s agitating toward deep structural change.
There’s something implacable, earnest, and righteously angry in the air. And it raises all kinds of questions for burned-out Boomers and jaded Gen Xers who’ve been ground down to the stump by the mostly losing battles of the past 30 years. Can it be – at long last – that Americans have, simply, had enough? Are we, finally, stepping out to take back our government – and with it, control of our own future? Is this simply a shifting political season – the kind we get every 20 to 30 years – or is there something deeper going on here? Do we dare to raise our hopes that this time, we’re going to finally win a few? Just how ready is this country for big, serious, forward-looking change?
Recently, I came across a pocket of sociological research that suggested a tantalizing answer to these questions – and also that America may be far more ready for far more change than anyone really believes is possible at this moment. In fact, according to some sociologists, we’ve already lined up all the preconditions that have historically set the stage for full-fledged violent revolution.
It turns out that the energy of this moment is not about Hillary or Ron or Barack. It’s about who we are, and where we are, and what happens to people’s minds when they’re left hanging just a little too far past the moment when they’re ready for transformative change.
Way back in 1962, Caltech sociologist James C. Davies published an article in the American Sociological Review that summarized the conditions that determine how and when modern political revolutions occur. Intriguingly, Davies cited another scholar, Crane Brinton, who laid out seven “tentative uniformities†that he argued were the common precursors that set the stage for the Puritan, American, French, and Russian revolutions. As I read Davies’ argument, it struck me that the same seven stars Brinton named are now precisely lined up at midheaven over America in 2008. Taken together, it’s a convergence that creates the perfect social, economic, and political conditions for the biggest revolution since the shot heard ’round the world.
And even more interestingly: in every case, we got here as a direct result of either intended or unintended consequences of the conservatives’ war against liberal government, and their attempt to take over our democracy and replace it with a one-party plutocracy. It turns out that, historically, liberal nations make very poor grounds for revolution – but deeply conservative ones very reliably create the conditions that eventually make violent overthrow necessary. And our own Republicans, it turns out, have done a hell of a job.
Here are the seven criteria, along with the reasons why we’re fulfilling each of them now, and how conservative policies conspired to put us on the road to possible revolution.
1. Soaring, Then Crashing
Davies notes that revolutions don’t happen in traditional societies that are stable and static – where people have their place, things are as they’ve always been, and nobody expects any of that to change. Rather, modern revolutions – particularly the progressive-minded ones in which people emerge from the fray with greater rights and equality – happen in economically advancing societies, always at the point where a long period of rising living standards and high, hopeful expectations comes to a crashing end, leaving the citizens in an ugly and disgruntled mood. As Davies put it:
“Revolutions are most likely to occur when a prolonged period of objective economic and social development is followed by a short period of sharp reversal. The all-important effect on the minds of people in a particular society is to produce, during the former period, an expectation of continued ability to satisfy needs – which continue to rise – and, during the latter, a mental state of anxiety and frustration when manifest reality breaks away from anticipated reality….
“Political stability and instability are ultimately dependent on a state of mind, a mood, in society…it is the dissatisfied state of mind rather than the tangible provision of ‘adequate’ or ‘inadequate’ supplies of food, equality, or liberty which produces the revolution.â€
The American middle class was built on New Deal investments in education, housing, infrastructure, and health care, which produced a very “prolonged period of objective economic and social development.†People were optimistic; generations of growing prosperity raised their expectations that their children would do even better. That era instilled in Americans exactly the kind of hopeful belief in their own agency that primes them to become likely revolutionaries in an era of decline.
And now, thanks to 28 years of conservative misrule, we are now at the point where “manifest reality breaks away from anticipated reality;†and the breach is creating political turbulence. The average American has seen his or her standard of living contract by fits and starts since about 1972. This fall-off that was relieved somewhat by the transition to two-earner households and the economic sunshine of the Clinton years – but then accelerated with the dot-com crash, followed by seven years of Bush’s overt hostility toward the lower 98 percent of Americans who aren’t part of his base. Working-class America is reeling from the mass exodus of manufacturing jobs and the scourge of predatory lending; middle-class America is being hollowed out by health-care bankruptcies, higher college costs, and a tax load far heavier than that of the richest 2 percent. These people expected to do better than their parents. Now, they’re screwed every direction they turn.
In the face of this reversal, Davies tells us, it’s not at all surprising that the national mood is turning ominous, from one end of the political spectrum to the other. However, he warns us: this may not be just a passing political storm. In other times and places, this kind of quick decline in a prosperous nation has been a reliable sign of a full-on revolution brewing just ahead.
2. They Call It A Class War
Marx called this one true, says Davies. Progressive modern democracies run on mutual trust between classes and a shared vision of the common good that binds widely disparate groups together. Now, we’re also about to re-learn the historical lesson that liberals like flat hierarchies, racial and religious tolerance, and easy class mobility not because we’re soft-headed and soft-hearted – but because, unlike short-sighted conservatives, we understand that tight social cohesion is our most reliable and powerful bulwark against the kinds of revolutions that bring down great economies, nations and cultures.
In all the historical examples Davies and Brinton cite, the stage for revolution was set when the upper classes broke faith with society’s other groups, and began to openly prey on them in ways that threatened their very future. Not surprisingly, the other groups soon united, took up arms, and rebelled.
And here we are again: Conservative policies have opened the wealth gap to Depression levels; put workers at the total mercy of their employers; and deprived the working and middle classes of access to education, home ownership, health care, capital, legal redress, and their expectations of a better future for their kids. You can only get away with blaming this on gays and Mexicans for so long before people get wise to the game. And as the primaries are making clear: Americans are getting wise.
Our current plutocratic nobility may soon face the same stark choice its English, French, and Russian predecessors did. They can keep their heads and take proactive steps to close the gap between themselves and the common folk (choosing evolution over revolution, as JFK counsels above). Or they can keep insisting stubbornly on their elite prerogatives, until that gap widens to the point where the revolution comes – and they will lose their heads entirely.
Right now, all we’re asking of our modern-day corporate courtiers is that they accept a tax cut repeal on people making over $200K a year, raise the minimum wage, give us decent health care and the right to unionize, and call a halt to their ridiculous “death tax†boondoggle. In retrospect, their historic forebears might have counseled them to take this deal: their headless ghosts bear testimony to the idea that’s it’s better to give in and lose a little skin early than dig in and lose your whole hide later on.
3. Deserted Intellectuals
Mere unrest among the working and middle classes, all by itself, isn’t enough. Revolutions require leaders – and those always come from the professional and intellectual classes. In most times and places, these groups (which also include military officers) usually enjoy comfortable ties to the upper classes, and access to a certain level of power. But if those connections become frayed and weak, and the disaffected intellectuals make common cause with the lower classes, revolution becomes almost inevitable.
Davies notes that, compared to both the upper and lower classes, the members of America’s upper-middle class were relatively untouched by Great Depression. Because of this, their allegiances to the existing social structure largely remained intact; and he argues that their continued engagement was probably the main factor that allowed America to avert an all-out revolution in the 1930s.
But 2008 is a different story. Both the Boomers (now in their late 40s to early 60s) and Generation X (now in their late 20s to late 40s) were raised in an economically advancing nation that was rich with opportunity and expectation. We spent our childhoods in what were then still the world’s best schools; and A students of every class worked hard to position ourselves for what we (and our parents and teachers) expected would be very successful adult careers. We had every reason to believe that, no matter where we started, important leadership roles awaited us in education, government, the media, business, research, and other institutions.
And yet, when we finally graduated and went to work, we found those institutions being sold out from under us to a newly-emerging group of social and economic conservatives who didn’t share our broad vision of common decency and the common good (which we’d inherited from the GI and Silent adults who raised us and taught us); and who were often so corrupted or so sociopathic that the working environments they created were simply unendurable. If wealth, prestige, and power came at the price of our principles, we often chose instead to take lower-paying work, live small, and stay true to ourselves.
For too many of us, these thwarted expectations have been the driving arc of our adult lives. But we’ve never lost the sense that it was a choice that the America we grew up in would never have asked us to make. In Davies’ terms, we are “deserted intellectuals†– a class that is always at extremely high risk for fomenting revolution whenever it appears in history.
Davies says that revolutions catalyze when these deserted intellectuals make common cause with the lower classes. And much of the energy of this election is coming right out of that emerging alliance. The same drive toward corporatization that savaged our dreams also hammered at other class wedges throughout American society, creating conditions that savaged the middle class and ground the working class toward something resembling serfdom. Between our galvanizing frustration with George Bush, our shared fury at the war, and the new connections forged by bloggers and organizers, that alliance has now congealed into the determinedly change-minded movements we’re seeing this election cycle.
4. Incompetent Government
As this blog has long argued, conservatives invariably govern badly because they don’t really believe that government should exist at all – except, perhaps, as a way to funnel the peoples’ tax money into the pockets of party insiders. This conflicted (if not outright hostile) attitude toward government can’t possibly lead to any outcome other than bad management, bad policy, and eventually such horrendously bad social and economic outcomes that people are forced into the streets to hold their leaders to account.
It turns out there’s never been a modern revolution that didn’t start against a backdrop of atrocious government malfeasance in the face of precipitously declining fortunes. From George III’s onerous taxes to Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake,†revolutions begin when stubborn aristocrats heap fuel on the fire by blithely disregarding the falling fortunes of their once-prosperous citizens. And America is getting dangerously close to that point now. Between our corporate-owned Congress and the spectacularly bad judgment of Bush’s executive branch, there’s never been a government in American history more inept, corrupt, and criminally negligent than this one – or more shockingly out of touch with what the average American is going through. Just ask anyone from New Orleans – or anyone who has a relative in the military.
Liberal democracy avoids this by building in a fail-safe: if the bastards ignore us, we can always vote them out. But if we’ve learned anything over the last eight years, it’s that our votes don’t always count – especially not when conservatives are doing the counting. If this year’s election further confirms the growing conviction that change via the ballot box is futile, we may find a large and disgruntled group of Americans looking to restore government accountability by more direct means.
5. Gutless Wonders in the Ruling Class
Revolution becomes necessary when the ruling classes fail in their duty to lead. Most of the major modern political revolutions occurred at moments when the world was changing rapidly – and the country’s leaders dealt with it by dropping back into denial and clinging defiantly to the old, profitable, and familiar status quo. New technologies, new ideas, and new economic opportunities were emerging; and there came a time when ignoring them was no longer an option. When the leaders failed to step forward boldly to lead their people through the looming and necessary transformations, the people rebelled.We’re hard up against some huge transformative changes now. Global warming and overwhelming pollution are forcing us to reconsider the way we occupy the world, altering our relationship to food, water, air, soil, energy, and each other. The transition off carbon-based fuels and away from non-recyclable goods is going to re-structure our entire economy. Computers are still creating social and business transformations; biotech and nanotech will only accelerate that. More and more people in the industrialized world are feeling a spiritual void, and coming to believe that moving away from consumerism and toward community may be an important step in recovering that nameless thing they’ve lost.
And, in the teeth of this restless drift toward inevitable change, America has been governed by a bunch of conservative dinosaurs who can’t even bring themselves to acknowledge that the 20th century is over. (Some of them, in fact, are still trying to turn back the Enlightenment.) Liberal governments manage this kind of shift by training and subsidizing scientists and planners, funding research, and setting policies that help their nations navigate these transitions with some grace. Conservative ones – being conservative – will reflexively try to deny that change is occurring at all, and then brutally suppress anyone with evidence to the contrary.
Which is why, every time our current crop of so-called leaders open their mouths to propose a policy or Explain It All To Us, it’s embarrassingly obvious that they don’t have the vision, the intelligence, or the courage to face the future that everyone can clearly see bearing down on us, whether we’re ready or not. Their persistent cluelessness infuriates us – and terrifies us. It’s all too clear that these people are a waste of our tax money: they will never take us where we need to go. Much of the energy we’re seeing in this year’s election is due to the fact that a majority of Americans have figured out that our government is leaving us hung out here, completely on our own, to manage huge and inevitable changes with no support or guidance whatsoever.
Historically, this same seething fury at incompetent, unimaginative, cowardly leaders – and the dawning realization that our survival depends on seizing the lead for ourselves – has been the spark that’s ignited many a violent uprising.
6. Fiscal Irresponsibility
As we’ve seen, revolutions follow in the wake of national economic reversals. Almost always, these reversals occur when inept and corrupt governments mismanage the national economy to the point of indebtedness, bankruptcy, and currency collapse.
There’s a growing consensus on both the left and right that America is now heading into the biggest financial contraction since the Great Depression. And it’s one that liberal critics have seen coming for years, as conservatives systematically dismantled the economic foundations of the entire country. Good-paying jobs went offshore. Domestic investments in infrastructure and education were diverted to the war machine. Government oversight of banks and securities was blinded. Vast sections of the economy were sold off to the Saudis for oil, or to the Chinese for cheap consumer goods and money to finance tax cuts for the wealthy.
This is no way to run an economy, unless you’re a borrow-and-spend conservative determined to starve the government beast to the point where you can, as Grover Norquist proposed, drag it into the bathtub and drown it entirely. The current recession is the bill come due for 28 years of Republican financial malfeasance. It’s also another way in which conservatives themselves have unwittingly set up the historical preconditions for revolution.
7. Inept and Inconsistent Use of Force
The final criterion for revolution is this: The government no longer exercises force in a way that people find fair or consistent. And this can happen in all kinds of ways.Domestically, there’s uneven sentencing, where some people get the maximum and others get cut loose without penalty – and neither outcome has any connection to the actual circumstances of the crime (though it often correlates all too closely with race, class, and the ability to afford a good lawyer). Unchecked police brutality (tasers, for example) that hardens public perception against the constabulary. Unwarranted police surveillance and legal harassment of law-abiding citizens going about their business. Different kinds of law enforcement for different neighborhoods. The use of government force to silence critics. And let’s not forget the unconstitutional restriction of free speech and free assembly rights.
Abroad, there’s the misuse of military force, which forces the country to pour its blood and treasure into misadventures that offer no clear advantage for the nation. These misadventures not only reduce the country’s international prestige and contribute to economic declines; they often create a class of displaced soldiers who return home with both the skills and the motivation to turn political unrest into a full-fledged shooting war.
This kind of capricious, irrational ineptitude in deploying government force leads to public contempt for the power of the state, and leads the governed to withdraw their consent. And, eventually, it also raises people’s determination to stand together to oppose state power. That growing solidarity and fearlessness – along with the resigned knowledge that equal-opportunity goons will brutalize loyalists and rebels alike, so you might as well be a dead lion rather than a live lamb – is the final factor that catalyzes ordinary citizens into ready and willing revolutionaries.
* * *
“A revolutionary state of mind requires the continued, even habitual but dynamic expectation of greater opportunity to satisfy basic needs…but the necessary additional ingredient is a persistent, unrelenting threat to the satisfaction of those needs: not a threat which actually returns people to a state of sheer survival but which put them in the mental state where they believe they will not be able to satisfy one or more basic needs….The crucial factor is the vague or specific fear that ground gained over a long period of time will be quickly lost… [This fear] generates when the existing government suppresses or is blamed for suppressing such opportunity.â€
When Davies wrote that paragraph in 1962, he probably couldn’t have imagined how closely it would describe America in 2008. Thirty years of Republican corporatist government have failed us in ways that are not just inept or corrupt, but also have brought us to the same dangerous brink where so many other empires have erupted into violent revolution. The ground we have gained steadily over the course of the entire 20th Century is eroding under our feet. Movement conservatism has destroyed our economic base, declared open war on the middle and working classes, thwarted the aspirations of the intellectual and professional elites, dismantled the basic processes and functions of democracy, failed to prepare us for the future, overseen the collapse of our economy, and misused police and military force so inconsistently that Americans are losing respect for government.
It’s not always the case that revolution inevitably emerges wherever these seven conditions occur together, just as not everybody infected with a virus gets sick. But over the past 350 years, almost every major revolution in a modern industrialized country has been preceded by this pattern of seven preconditions. It’s fair to say that all those who get sick start out by being exposed to this virus.
Hillary Clinton is failing because this is a revolutionary moment – and she, regrettably, has the misfortune to be too closely identified with the mounting failures of the past that we’re now seeking to move beyond. On the other hand, Ron Paul’s otherwise inexplicable success has been built on his pointed and very specific critique of the kinds of government leadership failures I’ve described.
And Barack Obama is walking away with the moment because he talks of “hope†– which, as Davies makes clear, is the very first thing any would-be revolutionary needs. And then he talks of “change,†which many of his followers are clearly hearing as a soft word for “revolution.†And then he describes – not in too much detail – a different future, and what it means to be a transformative president, and in doing so answers our deep frustration at 30 years of leaders who faced the looming future by turning their heads instead of facing it.
Will he deliver on this promise of change? That remains to be seen. But the success of his presidency, if there is to be one, will likely be measured on how well his policies confront and deal with these seven criteria for revolution. If those preconditions are all still in place in 2012, the fury will have had another four years to rise. And at that point, if history rhymes, mere talk of hope and change will no longer be enough.
–Sara Robinson
Please note that the political opinions are those of Sara Robinson, not mine or the Natural Solutions Foundation. We are deeply concerned by what is happening to the United States and, with it, the rest of the developed world. Please note, too, that the Natural Solutions Foundation does not endorse or support candidates for office because, as a tax exempt organization, we are prohibited by the IRS from doing so. We do, however, work closely with the candidates and other important figures on issues pertaining to health freedom. For example, we wanted to know what the 16 Presidential Candidates had to say about Health Freedom so we asked them in our Health Freedom Score Card. We sent more than 93,000 faxes to the candidates then running for President of both parties asking them 19 tough questions about Health Freedom.
Only Ron Paul answered those questions. And, in fact, only Ron Paul has a health freedom plank in his campaign specifically addressing such issues as compulsory vaccination and other burning health freedom issues. While we cannot endorse any politicians, we can note their behavior and statements. We can also note with dismay that while Barack Obama’s campaign promised several times that the Senator would respond to our faxes shortly, that never happened. Hillary Clinton and all the Republican candidates with the exception of Dr. Paul chose to ignore our repeated requests for clarification on these issues with a strong consistency which does not, we fear, bode well for your health freedom no matter who becomes president. it is for this reason that our Congressional Education campaign is so vital to our health freedom. In fact, we are asking you not only for your tax deductible donations (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189) to the Natural Solutions Foundation to keep us active and effective, but we are also asking you to support a non-tax deductible activity of the Natural Solutions Foundation, the creation of the Natural Solutions Health Freedom Alliance, a lobbying 501 (c) 4 organization which will be able to take our message about legislation we support and legislation we oppose directly to Congress at a whole new level of intensity. If you are interested in supporting a lobbying effort for our side, not just the drug and Codex industry side, send Ralph Fucetola an email at ralph.fucetola@usa.net with “Lobbying” as the subject line. Don’t forget to include your contact information.
Articles and analysis like this are important because they can generate thoughts and responses clarifying both the questions and the answers of our time. Please feel free to respond to this opinion piece by email to dr.laibow@gmail.com with “BLOG RESPONSE” to let us know your thoughts on this topic and perhaps we will publish them in “Your Stories” on our web page, www.HealthFreedomUSA.org.
Living in a free society means defending freedom on a continuing basis. That’s what you and we are doing together. The Natural Solutions Foundation is the largest, and most effective health freedom organization in the English speaking world. And we are that effective only because of you – your actions, your input and your financial support.
Thanks for your continuing support. Don’t forget to let the people on your list know that they can join the Natural Solutions Foundation Health Freedom eAlerts list (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=187) to find out what is happening and how to take meaningful action.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
Every time you take action and send an email to Congress, you are building the health freedom constituency. Not only are you letting Congress know about a particular issue, you are also letting Congress know that there is a tidal wave of voters who are watching and who care about the fact that health decisions, all of them, are private decisions, not the business of government! And you make it easier for the Natural Solutions Foundation to gain access to Congressional decision makers to let them know what we want them to do – and to not do. They know, when we walk into their offices, who we are because you have told them who you are and what you want and do not want from them. “Oh, the Natural Solutions Foundation”, they say, “We get lots of emails from your people. How can we help?” You, through your activism, provide entree to the halls of legislative power. You are the real power behind the Natural Solutions Foundation.
Some say that your communication does not matter. They are wrong. In the press of events and impacts on Congress, Members and their staff actually miss a great deal and, as a long time Senior Aide to a California Representative answered when I asked him how he keeps on top of all the issues and legislation in the Congressional system, “There is no way we can do it by ourselves. We depend on people who care about something to tell us about it and keep us informed about the legislation and the issues!”
What that means is that every time the Natural Solutions Foundation goes to Congress (and we try to go at least once a month for several days at a time), we go prepared with fact sheets, Congressional Briefings, information on legislation and suggestions for solutions to problems the Congressperson either is involved with or should be. The response is astonishing. The staffers value our input and we have been asked by members of Congress for language for new legislation to fix problems we identify and care about (often created by the industry friendly actions of agencies like the FDA) .
Earlier this month, Natural Solutions Foundation Trustee Ralph Fucetola and our Congressional Education Director, Charlie Frohman, visited Congress. Click here (http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/02/educating-congress.html) to read Ralph’s report. Here is Charlie’s letter thanking the staff for their time (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?p=529) and here () is Ralph’s follow up letter to Congress. need letter
On another, related front, natural supplements like DHEA, although protected by DSHEA (the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act, 1994) which classifies nutrients as foods rather than drugs, are under attack as if they were steroids. Senator Hatch, a long time friend of supplements, defended them once again and the Natural Solutions Foundation is watching. Here (http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/02/senator-hatch-defends-dietary.html) is Ralph’s blog on the subject.
Ralph beat back the FDA when they tried to ban DHEA last time so he is uniquely qualified to report on this battle. And it bears watching, of course, because the piecemeal attack on supplements does not let up. To the Pharma Phriendly FDA, any stick will do to beat a dog and they are determined to beat the natural medicine dog to death since it steals thAnd then there’s the problem of an out-of-control FDA. Yesterday, according to the AP, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), who heads an investigative panel that conducts oversight of the agency, said in an interview with The Associated Press that FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach should step down because ‘it’s just a total lack of leadership.’ Stupak, chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said he had lost confidence in the commissioner and other top FDA officials over the handling of inspections and oversight by the agency.â€
We agree and have been meeting with Congress for months on these issues. Can we take credit for this position by the Congressman? We cannot be not sure, but our boots on the ground certainly have helped to bring about this crisis in Congressional confidence in the FDA.
Take for example the FDA policy (which they have foisted on Codex and are implementing in the US as well) of criminalizing your right to communicate about, or use, the health benefits foods confer. Remember the FDA 2007 CAM Guidance setting up the FDA’s “right” to turn any food used for health purposes into “an untested drug” (like cherry juice, since it is good for arthritis)? The Natural Solutions Foundation found out from the FDA Receiver of Dockets that paper comments (e.g., letters) were not tabulated, only archived at the FDA Reading Room, and that the FDA website was “broken†and could not accept comments. Two Natural Solutions Foundation Trustees called the FDA Receiver of Dockets and persuaded her to give us HER email address so our supporters could let the FDA know how they felt about this Guidance. That meant that the Natural Solutions Foundation website was the only electronic means available in the US to submit comments to the FDA on this wildly misguided Guidance. Five hundred and eighty eight thousand Natural Solutions Foundation supporters visited our site to tell the FDA just how bad an idea they thought their Guidance was.
Of course, all of this activity costs money. We know you value our efforts to educate and help Congress do the right thing for health freedom. That’s why it makes sense to give generously and make a recurring tax deductible donation (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189) to the Natural Solutions Foundation. Now would be a great time! Your activism and your financial support are the life blood of health freedom.
And don’t forget to sign up for the free, secure Health Freedom eAlerts (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=187) and ask your contacts and friends to do the same. Your voices protect our health freedom.
Thanks for your support!
Yours in health and freedom
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
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