This author is all in on Robert F Kennedy Jr for President. After my first four months of retirement, I decided to pay more attention to Bobby Kennedy Jr., Glen Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Catalyn Johnston, Scott Horton, Dennis Kucinich and others. Let me explain why I will support RFK Jr., while not discussing his candidacy for several paragraphs.
I still read the New York Times and Washington Post's official take on things, but mainstream media seems to be always moving in lockstep with the Oligarchy and the Military Industrial Complex. When I moved out of the country (to Thailand) I wanted to escape a dysfunctional country. Maybe America looks more dysfunctional from afar, but there are recent major stories to backup the view that America's descent into madness or fascism is accelerating.
To start, it is clear that the American Empire has no desire to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war. In my opinion, this is insane, but everyone has their own opinions on this. However, the uniformity of the news presentations from the mainstream media is just as terrifying as the government's decision to continue to press Putin/Russia. We are reminded that Russia is the bad guy, NATO and our Empire are not the aggressor, and we could “win” this war. A win, I assume, is defined by removing Putin in yet another regime change
There are antiwar voices in the weeds, but the attacks on that commentary is relentless from the positions of power in the United States. Nobody at the New York Times is advocating for negotiation and they hold the power to simply ignore antiwar voices.
The Nordstream pipeline sabotage is another example. Clearly the American Empire is the only suspect, and the entire world knows it. Establishment media has avoided any serious inquiry of the National Security State, because at this point they function as a branch of the government.
The freak out over the National Security leaker Jack Teixeira is another example. The press decides not to use the information because the government asked them not to. Because, of course, National Security is at stake. Meaning what? That Putin learned something valuable such as the location of our nuclear weapons? Why is nuclear Armageddon on the table? Then they "use" parts of the release for their own benefit, while acquiescing to the government censorship of the whole.
Especially troubling is the willingness of the left to demonize Matt Taibbi, in the context of the fact that what he is reporting is information that we deserve to know. We deserve to know how the government worked with all the social media companies to control public opinion. Left, right or center, we should all care about what has been revealed. The knowledge we have today about the Hamilton 68 program reflects back on MSNBC/Mainstream media because it was a very clear example of how propaganda is created and disseminated.. As pointed out by Taibbi, there has been no apology for those deceptions. Like the Pentagon Papers, the Edward Snowden revelations, Wikileaks (and the torture of Julian Assange), we deserve to know that the government worked with social media platforms to control public opinion. The left should not demonize Matt Taibbi because we should all care about what has been revealed. That said, I disagree with his view that the Russian influence is 2016 was and is overplayed.
The same is true of Glen Greenwald, who is pretty effective at accurate reporting. Obviously Greenwald (and Laura Poitras) brought the Snowden revelations to life, so challenged the NSA/CIA. Greenwald has and does support Julian Assange, which is strike two with the National Security State . More recently he has reported on issues that the National Security State does not like, especially with respect to NATO's attack on Russia via Ukraine. Yet my impression is that accurate reporting has made him persona non-grata on the left, for daring to question the mainstream narrative on NATO's conflict with Russia.
Caitlin Johnstone is an antiwar writer for Consortium News and elsewhere. Her observations are the best source of antiwar perspective along with Dennis Kucinich. Of particular interest is her reporting on the Empire's continuing efforts to contain China. China has not gone to war with another country for decades, yet the Empire has surrounded the country with military bases. If the Empire wants to “contain” China with respect to Taiwan and Singapore, that could be done non-militarily. But this Empire always feeds the military.Somewhat reluctantly, I decided to analyze the results of the Covid vaccinations. This is within the context of the above, which just tells me I cannot trust government sources. I started by trying to learn exactly what is being reported as to harm caused. At this point, I believe that 1 in 10,000 experience serious vaccine injury such as Guillain–Barre syndrome (GBS), chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) , and Bell's Palsy. The less serious side effects, like myocarditis and blood clotting are significant enough that they cannot be dismissed when determining risk/reward. But they were dismissed by the Federal Government, until recently. In retrospect, the government certainly minimized reporting on serious reactions to the vaccine. Most readers will think that the first round of vaccines were necessary, and that may be correct. It is hard to argue however that the boosters were anything except a failure. This fact was covered by the Wall Street Jounral, The Deceptive Campaign for Bivalent Covid Boosters . This link may be behind a paywall, so here is the study. The real proof is the fact that there is unlikely to be a new version of Covid vaccine in the near future, or ever. I believe the effectiveness of mRNA technology was vastly overplayed, the results indicate that they failed on multiple levels, the most important being that they do not prevent a person from transmitting the disease.
Having given thousands of vaccines myself, I now think I was far too trusting. The serious injury rate is approximately 1 in 10,000 rather than 1 in a million.
I respect Robert F Kennedy Jr. greatly because of, rather than in spite of, his unwavering position on children's health including his “antivax” stance. He has refused to compromise his firm belief that our healthcare system is broken, and is controlled by the pharmaceutical industry rather than people with our best interests in mind. Also, woke leftists have always supported his environmental work.
Additionally, RFK Jr. has taken the correct approach in supporting the parole efforts of Sirhan Sirhan. He has done the research and knows that Sirhan Sirhan did not assassinate his father. He also knows Sirhan is a model prisoner who is not a threat and who deserves parole. Even if Sirhan had killed RFK, which he definitely did not, he should be paroled. The official stories behind all the political assassinations of the 60's (JFK, MLK, RFK) have fallen apart over time, despite the great efforts of the government to convince the population of something that is recognized as absurd to anyone one who dares to look behind the curtain.
The major attacks on Robert Kennedy's decision to register to run for President relate of course to his anti-vax stance. It should be mentioned that RFK Jr does not consider himself to be anti-vax, but arguing that point is useless. RFK Jr. has been fighting for those with vaccine injuries for a long time. The information published at “The Defender” from his Children's Health Defense is scientifically sound.
Kennedy has been known for his excellent work as an environmental lawyer heading “Earth Justice”. Unlike Bernie Sanders in 2020, RFK Jr. is challenging the National Security State on perpetual war, based on his comments in his two hour speech announcing his candidacy. He has his father's instincts regarding peace and war, and he also understand why his father and brother were assassinated. Maybe the WOKE among us need to go back and take a look at RFK Jr.'s life and work. I suggest readers make the effort to analyze what worked and what did not work with respect to governmental response to Covid.
Biden should not be anointed without a challenge due to his refusal to negotiate an end to this war.
For me Robert F Kennedy has been correct in challenging the government blanket and unflinching support of vaccines, when there are facts and data that need to be discussed not suppressed. Bobby Kennedy does his homework. He has done his homework on the assassination of his father, something that cannot be said for the rest of his family.
Before I get attacked for my support of RFK Jr., I admit the mistake of supporting the third party candidate (Jill Stein) in 2016 which allowed us to have Donald Trump. I won't do that again because anyone identifying as a Republican at this point is a threat to democracy. But I strongly believe that primary elections, especially with respect to the President, should be contested and not predetermined. Robert Kennedy should be able to express his views on Covid and anything else in a format that is less easily controlled by limiting access. Also consider the obvious fact that we do not need or want a 90 year old president, and the only reason to accept that outcome is to pre-determine that the threat posed by Donald Trump is so great that we cannot risk another candidate except Joe Biden. I want a choice that is not Joe Biden because of his support of this war. However, I will support the Democratic candidate against whatever fascist they put forward.
Watch RFK Jr's announcement of his candidacy for President of the United States. In it he states that his mission is “to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening to impose a new corporate feudalism in our country....and (to end the) constant state of war.”
Full disclosure: The author is President of the Board of the Free Press, but the opinions expressed are the authors, and not necessarily those of the Free Press.
Correction made on 5/11/23: RFK Jr.s organization is the Childrens Health Defense.