alanjjohnstone
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Coincidentally, this UK press release on polio vaccination campaign appearedhttps://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/aug/04/uk-pledges-100m-global-efforts-eradicate-polio
Interview with the author of "All things in common"https://youtu.be/6Q0xfi2oYPc
Comparing ourselves with the DSA is apples and oranges.There are various membership options – 8 of them, including family memberships. You can even purchase membership for other people to give as a gift.https://dsausa.nationbuilder.com/join
Meel, as someone who has been advised to take statins for high cholesterol at a time when it was still under patent and generics not available so discontinued usage by myself because of cost, and from a family with no genetic disposition to heart disease, i found this an interesting article. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/aug/01/nearly-all-men-over-60-and-women-over-75-eligible-for-statins-analysis-suggestsA captive market for the pharmaceutical industry, mezinks.But if tomorrow i drop down dead from a heart attack, please reconsider this post
Just recently we have had serious forest fires in southern France and in Canada's New Brunswick island of Miscou as well as in British Columbia. While the US suffered a fire in one of its Montana forests and also in Oregon.The number of forest fires in the EU has trebled so far this year, according to figures obtained by Euronews, affecting an area nearly the size of Luxembourg. There have been 677 blazes in 2017 – a huge increase on the 215 the EU saw annually on average over the previous eight years.
Wikipedia offers an overview of sources to readhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_myth_theoryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_the_historical_Jesushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jesushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Did_Jesus_Exist%3F_(Ehrman)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus_on_Christhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portraits_of_the_historical_Jesushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_1st_century
Quote:The history of early Christianity has notable points of resemblance with the modern working-class movement. Like the latter, Christianity was originally a movement of oppressed people: it first appeared as the religion of slaves and emancipated slaves, of poor people deprived of all rights, of peoples subjugated or dispersed by Rome. Both Christianity and the workers' socialism preach forthcoming salvation from bondage and misery; Christianity places this salvation in a life beyond, after death, in heaven; socialism places it in this world, in a transformation of society– Engels
The existence or non-existence of an "end of the world is nigh, meet thy doom" Jewish prophet is fairly irrelevant to the development of a Christian communist tradition that over the centuries keeps on being resurrected in one way or another.Is there any value in directing some of our propaganda towards those who uphold the "Golden Rule". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_RuleI'm not convinced there is but i do think it is necessary to debate and discuss our campaign targets. We are having little success converting the Left, perhaps a new audience might be more fruitful. Since 2005 and the Make Poverty History, i came to realise despite its downturn the churches can still mobilise a vast political movement when it wishes. I know many will say it is an argument we should not be re-visiting and an invitation for certain ex-members to voice their concern that the Party has thrown the baby out with the bath-water with its religious/materialist position. But we have to find a receptive audience somewhere.
Coincidentally, this article appeared in today's Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/28/stabbing-children-disease-ridden-needles-science-common-sense
I know it is off topic but your point on cuts to local councils spending will only get worse with Brexit.Central government needs to replace £8.4 billion regeneration funding that will be lost when EU subsidies end. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/brexit-latest-billions-needed-regional-aid-eu-funding-cornwall-councils-a7863886.html
Jondwhite. I don't think anyone is disputing that capitalism has not built benefits for society. The food industry has had a benefit in that it has created a supply chain which can be used to provide food for all. Coca cola has a distribution system that extends to difficult-to-reach rural back-waters.But we have to look at the wide-ranging costs of permitting a few global corporations to dominate and direct what and where and when things are produced and distributed. Simply looking at recalls of either food or drugs is not presenting the complete picture. Compared with the size of the market, they are relative small problems. Big Pharma and Big Ag have many more short-comings than those. (Cars are always being recalled but the problem is not that but a much wider one and to do with pollution and method of transport)Dead workers like a dead planet does not produce profits but capitalism is not a unified one entity but various sectors competing and i don't think the price paid is supported by other capitalists. They baulk at the NHS paying so much to drug companies to treat life-style diseases encouraged by sugar and tobacco addiction manufacturers.
Oh, i should mention a recent SOYMB blog-post.http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/profits-before-cures.html GlaxoSmithKline plans to cut development programmes that don't produce medicines that generate substantial returns. This will involve neglecting research into the treatment of "orphan" illnesses since they do not make a profit for the pharmaceuticals.
I would suggest that you vastly underestimate the harm of Big Pharma, DJP.Immediately, i would raise the point of how their ownership of patents denies cheap medicines for the poor and how their legal lobbying of the WTO the major brands alone are a constant risk to Little Pharma ie the numerous Indian drug businesses that offer generics.This alone out-weighs the nefarious damage by CAM – Complementary Alternative Medicine. Let us not forget how the drug corporations demanded unreasonable high prices for HIV/AIDS until pressure prevailed. Claiming they have lowered the prices now, does not excuse them from being the cause of a devastating death toll in the past.But i give no carte blanche to the anti-science advocates when they get into positions of power. South African government engaged in what can only be described as a genocidal health policy against HIV/AIDS victims. Over 300,000 people had their lives cut short as a result. Instead of providing anti-retroviral drugs, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the country's health minister, promoted the use of unproven herbal remedies such as garlic, beetroot, and lemon juice to treat AIDS. A meeting of the Presidential Advisory Panel on AIDS recommended that the disease be treated not with antiretroviral drugs, but rather with vitamins and “alternative” and “complementary” therapies including “massage therapy, music therapy, yoga, spiritual care, homeopathy, Indian ayurvedic medicine, light therapy and many other methods,” despite a plea from the scientific community through the Durban Declaration, signed by 5,000 scientists, that this position will cost countless lives.South African Department of Health would not provide a relatively inexpensive shot of Nevirapine to 100,000 pregnant, HIV-positive women to prevent mother-to-child transmission: ‘That mother is going to die and that HIV-negative child will be an orphan. That child must be brought up. Who is going to bring the child up? It’s the state, the state. That’s resources, you see.’I see no reason not to damn both – a plague on both houses (without any vaccinations!)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/27/met-says-grenfell-council-may-have-committed-corporate-manslaughterThe Scotland Yard investigation into the Grenfell fire disaster has said there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect the council and the organisation that managed the tower block of corporate manslaughter.The two organisations under suspicion are Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation.The law on corporate manslaughter would require any prosecution to prove that there was a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed to those who died.Police said: “After an initial assessment of that information, the officer leading the investigation has today notified Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that each organisation may have committed the offence of corporate manslaughter, under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.”The 2007 act says that an organisation is guilty of corporate manslaughter “if the way in which its activities are managed or organised … causes a person’s death and amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased”.Anyone found guilty is liable to a fine, not imprisonment. The breach of the duty of care “is a gross breach if the conduct alleged … falls far below what can be reasonably be expected of the organisation in the circumstances”.The 2007 act does not give detectives the power to arrest any individual from the organisations under suspicion.Any prosecution would need the consent of the director of public prosecutions, who is the head of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Quote:There is a lack of rigorous safety studies.https://thoughtscapism.com/2015/04/10/myth-no-studies-compare-the-health-of-unvaccinated-and-vaccinated-people/Using the ethical basis arising from the Nuremberg Nazi medical experiments, double-blind placebo experiments would be unethical but there are plenty of other evidence available.To have a real double blinded vaccine trial, can imagine the response from parents when they are informed. Wwe're going to subdivide children into two groups. Parents would not be allowed to have their children receive any injection from any other source, to avoid contamination of the data. Some children in the study would be completely unprotected from any disease outbreak, and their parents would be unaware of whether or not the children were unprotected.Doctor–your child has a 50/50 chance of getting an injection that is worthless.Parent–Go F..k yourself. So epidemiologists construct studies using data in the past that isolate confounding data from real data, and determine the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Multiple studies in multiple countries using multiple research models and multiple research groups, with multiple funding sources. And guess what? It's overwhelming proof of the usefulness of vaccines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_controversieshttp://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Anti-vaccination_movementBut, your point that Big Pharma try to create a market is well-taken., Meel. Certain anti-social behaviour is indeed medicalised and drug treatment encouraged. We ourselves rather than change our life-styles (much less society) demand the magical pill that can cure us without any effort by ourselves.
We should stay well away from the anti-vax. They are anti-science. We have had the MMR causes autism debate and evidence-based science has prevailed. We have just had reported news that just a slight fall in the measles vaccination and the consequence to the herd immunity is an out of proportion serious one. We have the biggest outbreak of cholera in recent history taking place right now in Yemen – and yes, we should end the war, end the famine, and end capitalism, but right now it is access to vaccination that is needed.Same with polio, the eradication campaign is thwarted by civil war but in general can be viewed as a great success. I am of the age that i still remember the sight of children my age in calipers. I have been in countries where polio victims can still be seen begging. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/07/small-drop-in-measles-vaccinations-would-have-outsized-effect.htmlBut even when it ends we have anti-vax who claim smallpox has never been ended and that it still exists but being deliberately misdiagnosed as another variant of pox. It is a conspiracy they say by the medical and pharmaceutical industry. But we need not be skeptical of vaccines to have a healthy distrust of the drug corporations, much like we do not need to agree with the bankers to explain that it is not the cause of our social woes, merely a contributory factor, as the SOYMB blog regularly does. There is no doubt that Big Pharma puts profits before people, but all of capitalism does that.If you wish to be sceptical about something, i suggest the Natural News website should be your target, Meel, as it spreads half-truths and downright lies.
