The Most Revolutionary Act

Uncensored updates on world events, economics, the environment and medicine

The Most Revolutionary Act
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About stuartbramhall

Retired child and adolescent psychiatrist and American expatriate in New Zealand. In 2002, I made the difficult decision to close my 25-year Seattle practice after 15 years of covert FBI harassment. I describe the unrelenting phone harassment, illegal break-ins and six attempts on my life in my 2010 book The Most Revolutionary Act: Memoir of an American Refugee.

Black Men Respond to Obama’s Scolding, Double Down on Support for Donald Trump

More Black Men Went With Trump This Time. I Asked a Few of Them Why.

Former President Barack Obama’s attempt to shame “brothers” into voting for Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t sat well with black men.Obama was at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania Thursday, lecturing a group of blacks on their lack of turnout for Harris, particularly males.

“We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all corners of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running,” Obama said. “Now, I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.”

Obama then said the reason black men weren’t voting for Harris was because she was a woman, Fox News reported.

“[P]art of it makes me think, and I’m speaking to men directly… that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” he said.

Many took to social media to criticize the former president, including former Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones.

“For him to want to come down from his mansion in Martha’s Vineyard and tell black men how we should vote … Really?” Jones said.

“You don’t even live in Chicago anymore. You left your black community, Barack Obama. You want to tell us how to vote? We’re not having that, and we’re not voting for Kamala Harris,” he said.

Conservative activist CJ Pearson also rebuked Obama.

Barack Obama … believes that black men should set aside our disagreements, set aside our grievances and just ‘take one for the team,’” Pearson said.

“Barack, we’ve been ‘taking one for the team,’ when it comes to supporting the Democrat Party, for decades. And what do we have to show for it? Our inner cities are destroyed, violent crime is up, we are living in poverty in far too many communities across this country.

“That is the reality of progressive policies in this country and all across America.”

Conservative podcaster Rod Smith also slammed Obama in an X clip.

“Sorry, Obama, I’m a black man, and I’m voting for Donald Trump for president, and there’s no amount of lecturing, or bullying or shaming that you can do, that is going to make me change that decision,” Smith said.

“You may be the surrogate black dad for a lot of fatherless black boys that are running around this country, but I’ve got a dad, I know who he is, and it ain’t you,” Smith said.

[…]

Via https://www.westernjournal.com/black-men-respond-obamas-scolding-double-support-donald-trump-got-dad-know-aint/

Axelrod says ‘upscale’ North Carolina Harris voters will find way to vote, unlike rural Trump fans

Helene damage aftermath in NC

By Gabriel Hays

Former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod argued that Vice President Kamala Harris voters will be clever enough to navigate voting in the wake of the devastation from Hurricane Helene, while saying that rural Trump voters will have a harder time getting to the polls.

Axelrod made the claim during an episode of his podcast “Hacks on Tap” that aired Wednesday, predicting that liberal voters in Asheville, North Carolina – a predominantly blue area in the state – will “figure out a way to vote” more so than conservatives in the storm’s aftermath.

Describing Asheville as a “blue dot” in the state, he continued, “Those voters in Asheville are – they’re, you know, the kind of voters that will figure out a way to vote. You know, they’re upscale, kind of liberal voters, and they’re probably going to figure out a way to vote,” Axelrod said.

He continued, stating that rural conservatives may not be as resourceful in finding ways to vote following the destruction of their homes and communities.

“I’m not sure a bunch of these folks who’ve had their homes and lives destroyed elsewhere in western North Carolina – in the mountains there – are going to be as easy to wrangle for the Trump campaign,” the political commentator hypothesized.

“I don’t know how that’s all going to play out, but it’s an unpredictable element in North Carolina that has made it, maybe a little more interesting,” he mused.

Communities in North Carolina – which Axelrod noted is the second-most rural state in the country – were hit especially hard by the effects of Hurricane Helene. Catastrophic flooding has destroyed roads and bridges, cutting off communities from getting much-needed aid.

More than 70 people are now confirmed dead in North Carolina, and hundreds of people remain unaccounted for, due to the lack of power and communication access.

As of Thursday, the death toll among the six states most affected by Helene – Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee – sits at 170. Disaster-response teams fear that number will climb as they regain access to communities isolated by the storm.

Multiple prominent X users commented on Axelrod’s political assessment.

OutKick.com founder Clay Travis posted, “On his podcast @davidaxelrod says Democrat voters in Asheville, North Carolina are smarter, wealthier and will still show up to vote for Kamala while he thinks Trump voters won’t. This is why Kamala and Biden aren’t helping, they benefit from the disaster.”

The Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway commented, “I fear that Axelrod’s point is why Harris and Biden are letting these people drown.”

Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce slammed Axelrod over his take, asking, “Did ya know that famous Democrat operative David Axelrod figures city Democrats are smarter and more resourceful and will figure out how to vote whereas the dumb Trump deplorables up in the mountains of NC who just lost everything, won’t. Was he on the verge of a Kamala cackle?”

[…]

Via https://www.foxnews.com/media/axelrod-says-upscale-nc-harris-voters-find-way-vote-after-storm-not-sure-about-rural-trump-fans

Ukraine receiving chemical weapons from the West

Ukraine receiving chemical weapons from the West – Moscow

FILE PHOTO. ©  Getty Images / abile

Russia has “irrefutable evidence” of the supply of toxic chemicals to Kiev, the country’s mission to the UK has said

The West has been facilitating the supply of banned toxic chemicals to Kiev for use as chemical weaponry on the frontlines, the Russian Embassy in the UK has said.

The mission issued the claim on Tuesday in response to a new round of sanctions imposed by London targeting Russia’s Radiological Chemical and Biological Defense Forces (RChBZ) and its head, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov. London has accused them of “flagrant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).”

The embassy strongly rejected the accusations, pointing out that Moscow destroyed its chemical arsenal years ago, with the process overseen by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

“Russia strictly adheres to the norms of international law, including the provisions of the Geneva Conventions and the Chemical Weapons Convention. There are no chemical weapons in the arsenals of our Armed Forces, which has been confirmed by international inspections,” the mission said.

In reality, London’s accusations were intended to divert attention from the numerous instances of use of chemical weapons by Kiev’s forces during the conflict against Moscow, the embassy suggested.

“By groundlessly accusing Russia, they are keeping silent confirmed facts of the use of prohibited toxic substances and chemical agents by the Kiev regime forces,” it stated, accusing the collective West of facilitating the supply of such toxins to Ukrainian troops.

The new British restrictions and the exchange of accusations come a day after General Kirillov accused Kiev of making extensive preparations for “false flag attacks aimed at accusing Russia of using toxic substances during the special military operation.” The ‘proof’ resulting from the false flag operations would then be provided to OPCW officials.

Kirillov said Moscow had registered some 400 cases in which Ukraine had used riot-control chemical agents. While used in policing, such agents qualify as chemical weapons in warfare and, therefore, are prohibited.

The general also accused Ukraine of deploying chemical weapons disguised as smoke bombs during its ongoing incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. The munitions were used in the Russian town of Sudzha in August, with more than 20 people exposed to the toxins during the attack.

[…]

Via https://www.rt.com/russia/605490-ukraine-west-chemical-weapons/

High Middle Ages in the Pacific: Polynesia

Episode 18 High Middle Ages in Pacific Polynesia

The Middle Ages Around the World

Dr Joyce E Salisbury

Film Review

Between 400 and 700 AD Polynesia outrigger voyages from Samoa to the eastern Pacific islands far exceeded any European sea voyages at the time. From 400 till 1300 AD, Polynesians settled all the habitable islands in the so-called Polynesian triangle, an area of 800,000 square miles.

Starting from a homeland in Tonga/Samoa settled around 900 BC, they spent the first millennium expanding into the Cook Islands, Hawaii, the Marquesas Islands, Rapanui (Easter Island) and New Zealand. They reached New Zealand last (1200-1320 AD). Evidence from DNA and carbon dating is consistent with their oral tradition.

They traveled in double hulled dug out canoes, the forerunners of the catamaran. They used the area between the two canoes for storage and were powered by 24 rowers and/or triangular sails made of woven mats that could tack into the wind. During storms they overturned their vessels to ensure they stayed on course, breathing the trapped air under the canoe.

Eurasian sailors used the sky, compasses, or astrolabes to navigate along latitude lines (first conceived of by the Greeks). They were unable to measure longitude prior to the modern age.

Polynesians navigated by the rising and setting of 10 stars, prevailing ocean swells, the sun (when it was low on the horizon), cloud patterns, driftwood, fish and to some extent winds (less reliable). They used a 3-dimenional stick chart to teach novice sailors to read the winds and tides.

When they set out to settle a new island, explorers carried breadfruit, tarot, coconut (used for wood and thatch as well as food), banana, mangoes, Malay apples, sugar cane sprouts, pigs, dogs (eaten as delicacy by chiefs) and chickens. Diet also included fish, dolphin and shark.

Practicing a form of animism, they believed supernatural forces (the main one being mana) animated the universe and everything on earth, eg trees. rocks, buildings, people and ancestors. Mana could be canceled by violating tapus (taboos). For example, if a commoner touched a chief’s robe, it diminished the chief’s mana unless the commoner was killed. A common art form, the tattoo, helped preserved the mana of the individual being tattooed and their ancestors.

Typical tapus included a ban on men and women eating together or men eating food prepared by women (men did most of the cooking). Women wove mats and clothing.

Most Polynesian cultures played a nose flute (made from a one foot bamboo stalk), pan pipes and/or and ankle rattles.* Dancing, however, was the most important art form.

  • Hawai – hula dance
  • Tahiti – dance in which legs and arms are stationary and hips move to rapid drum beats
  • New Zealand – haka war dance

The inhabitants of Rapanui built extremely tall stone statues known a mohai. Believed to represent semi-divine ancestors they face the interior guarding the inland. Although 880 have been discovered, most remain in the quarry. Of the 113 erected, 25 of them extremely large (average 13 feet tall, 28,000 pounds). They were transported from the quarry by 60-500 people pulling a long wooden sled and using a sloping ramp to tip them upward.

Easter Island: What to do, see, eat on Rapa Nui including moai statues

Rat DNA suggest a continued state of trade between Samoa/Tonga and the other Polynesian islands (except for Rapanui) until 1400 AD when climate change curtailed ocean travel.

Human DNA studies reveals that Rapanui voyagers traveled 4,000 miles to the coast of Colombia before 1150. Sweet potato cultivated throughout the Pacific Islands originated in South America.

The Polynesians inventing surfing (first depicted in 12th century art work).


*The Ukelele was introduced to Hawaii after European arrived.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/13172786/13172825

 

Leaked: How MI6 Exploits Palestinian Refugees

Shatila refugee camp

Kit Klarenberg

Leaked files expose the intensive interest taken in Palestinians by British intelligence operatives, and Foreign Office-funded and directed cutouts, over many years. Collectively, the material leaves little room for doubt that the British government has long sought to covertly surveil, infiltrate, and manipulate Palestinians within and without their homeland for malign ends, while exploiting their suffering to serve London’s geopolitical objectives.

Throughout the Syrian proxy conflict, British intelligence ran expansive psychological warfare programs, targeting the local population and Western citizens. The objective was to destabilise Bashar Assad’s government and convince domestic and foreign audiences, including overseas governments and international bodies, that the Western-backed Free Syrian Army was a moderate, legitimate alternative and flood media globally with pro-opposition propaganda. A corrupt constellation of private contractors staffed by British military veterans and “former” spies delivered these clandestine campaigns.

Innovative Communications & Strategies (InCoStrat) was a particularly prolific participant in this effort. The firm was founded by Paul Tilley, Britain’s former Ministry of Defence head of communications for West Asia, and Emma Winberg, a longtime MI6 officer, who subsequently married now-deceased White Helmets founder James Lemesurier. The leaked documents reveal that in Syria, she was tasked with the “management and development” of a local “network of interlocutors, key leaders and local coordinators.”

[…]

Winberg is described as Britain’s “lead on engagement with the Syrian armed opposition in Istanbul” while serving as a Foreign Office “Political-Military Officer” in Turkey from 2013 onwards. She cultivated “an extensive range of contacts in north and eastern Syria,” and was reportedly “trusted and respected by moderate opposition leadership figures.” This may account for why InCoStrat avowedly “maintained a perfect record of safety and security for its staff” in the country, even while the company secretly operated in “areas under ISIS control.”

Winberg harvested so much crucial intelligence in this role, her resultant insights represented a “core contribution” to British, European and US understanding and assessment of armed groups in Syria. Intriguingly, she was transferred to Istanbul directly from the British consulate in Jerusalem, a vital regional base of operations for MI6. While there, she reported on “violent extremist organisations” active in Gaza, “including during Operation Cloud Pillar” in November 2012, for which she was “commended internally.”

Cloud Pillar saw Israeli Occupation Forces massacre almost 200 Palestinian civilians after assassinating high-ranking Hamas commander Ahmed Jabari. This was in keeping with MI6’s strategy to “degrade the capabilities” of “rejectionists” of the pro-Zionist Palestine Authority. Winberg’s close-range view of these events made her a compelling candidate for overseeing London’s contribution to the proxy war from the perspective of her employers in British intelligence. Moreover, she was not alone among InCoStrat operatives in secretly surveilling Palestinian resistance firsthand.

One company staffer managed a $25 million “small grants programme to directly support community stabilisation, engage youth, and moderate actors in the Palestinian Territories” for US intelligence cutout USAID, 2005 – 2007. This placed them on the frontline of the Zionist entity’s embarrassing drubbing by Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the summer of 2006, and concurrent “military incursion” in Gaza.

Along the way, they “reported on the political, economic, and security situation” locally, “including extensive reporting during internal instability in Gaza.” Meanwhile, another InCoStrat operative’s CV boasts that they “travelled and studied in Israel and Palestine, focusing on religious political movements,” then “studied Palestinian refugees in Syria before the uprising.” After that, they “worked with and trained Syrian activists in several different organisations.”

It is a supremely striking feature that multiple InCoStrat operatives went straight from intently “studying” Palestinian refugees and armed groups, to cloak-and-dagger management of the “moderate” Syrian opposition. In this context, what are we to make of British intelligence cutouts having been heavily active in Lebanon’s numerous Palestinian refugee camps, for many years? Around 300,000 Palestinian refugees inhabit the country, roughly half of them in installations administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Living conditions are appalling, with overcrowding, poverty, and unemployment rampant. Discrimination towards Palestinian refugees at both a public and state level in Lebanon is commonplace. This has intensified significantly due to untold numbers of displaced people – among them many Palestinians – pouring into Beirut from neighbouring Syria, as a result of the grinding, 11-year-long Western proxy war against Damascus. Such a milieu inevitably produces a wide array of grievances among refugees – which, of course, can be malignly exploited by British intelligence.

Since 2009, Foreign Office contractor ARK – founded and run by MI6 operative Alistair Harris – has operated across all Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps. In leaked files, the company boasts of its “granular understanding” of the camps’ internal political, economic, ideological, religious and everyday dynamics. ARK’s voluminous “local contacts” have “access throughout all camps and gatherings.” This means that community-level discussions and activities of all residents can be influenced and spied upon, as required.

Such everyday, real-life insight is augmented by “daily monitoring of neighbourhood-level WhatsApp groups.” Meanwhile, local engagement with a social media platform created by ARK, Nastopia, is heavily monitored. The page, run by a 24-strong team of ARK-trained “youth reporters,” is intended to increase demand for “community engagement and improved conditions” among camp residents. It promotes covertly Foreign Office-financed projects in the camps as “success stories” while serving “as a forum for online and offline discussion about social injustices [and] virtual space to talk about topics considered taboo in the camps.”

ARK has spearheaded various community initiatives elsewhere in the “offline” realm. These include repairing and restoring streets and cemeteries, recycling, promoting small businesses, providing welfare to disadvantaged and disabled residents, managing nurseries and daycare centres, and even launching a local coffee shop. The leaked files describe this as “a popular place for youth to gather and promote civic engagement in their community and a shared Palestinian identity that bridges factional differences.”

Insidious surveillance and manipulation components of these projects aside, one might reasonably argue that given the harsh internal environments of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, any effort to regenerate and improve conditions for residents of all ages and create a sense of community is a net positive. Yet, the ultimate purpose of these projects is to create a secret army of anti-government activists, which can be activated to stir up trouble if and when British intelligence wishes.

Of course, the leaked documents do not frame that objective in such terms. One file refers to the value of highlighting “success stories” in the camps as “enhancing the audience’s confidence in their own ability to contribute to social change.” In other words, encouraging Palestinian refugees to take matters into their own hands. This intention is articulated far more emphatically in a leaked March 2019 target audience analysis conducted by ARK.

The document identified a segment of Beirut’s diverse population that could be united in opposition to Lebanon’s government, and therefore mobilised to “affect positive social change.” The ideal target group comprised individuals who disavowed violence but not “other forms of contentious politics,” and could be “influenced” to engage in certain “behaviours”, such as protests, leafleting campaigns, and other community initiatives. The analysis explicitly cited Palestinian refugees as an “important part” of such an effort.

Therefore, ARK pledged to both covertly and overtly promote the message that “change is possible and ordinary citizens have a role to play in achieving change” through propaganda campaigns and civil society initiatives. These would “highlight where change has been achieved or where threats to Lebanon’s stability have been countered.” In turn, Lebanon’s wider population would be well-educated on how “barriers” to reform can be overcome via direct popular action.

Seven months after ARK produced this study, large-scale protests engulfed the streets of Beirut. Western media immediately spoke of “revolution” in the country. Few outlets acknowledged the unrest had originally begun in July of that year, when thousands of refugees inhabiting several camps commenced mass demonstrations, demanding reforms to local employment laws that barred them from numerous professions.

Coincidentally, in one leaked document, ARK boasts of how the company “takes pride” in ensuring refugees recruited to its illicit schemes receive “annual leave, sick leave, and health insurance,” despite this not being “legally necessary” due to local legislation “discriminating against Palestinians.”

Lebanon was a critical organising nucleus for the Syrian opposition, which ARK directed and embedded with before the “revolution” started. A document circulated among anti-Assad elements in Beirut in May 2011, secretly intercepted by Syrian security services, set out a blueprint for events in the uprising to date and precisely what would subsequently transpire in Damascus.

The opposition proposed convening mass demonstrations in every major Syrian city so security forces “will lose control of all regions,” be “taken unaware,” and become “exhausted and distracted.” This, along with “honest officers and soldiers” joining “the ranks of the revolution,” would make “toppling down the regime” straightforward. Any crackdown on these protests was forecast to precipitate a Western “military strike,” a la Libya. The opposition foresaw major news outlets playing a significant role:

[…]

The Assad government did not choose to publicise this bombshell file, for reasons unclear. It only became publicly available – and translated into English – via the work of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA). The organisation was spun out of ARK in May 2011 to prosecute Syrian officials for war crimes. Its first act was to covertly train opposition activists “in basic international criminal and humanitarian law”, in service of a “domestic justice process in a future transitional Syria.”

As the foreign-fomented crisis escalated into an all-out proxy war, CIJA began employing extremist groups to smuggle sensitive documentation out of abandoned government buildings in opposition-occupied areas of Syria, paying these factions – including al-Nusra Front and ISIS – vast sums for their services. While generating enormous amounts of fawning media coverage, the Commission convicted just two Syrian officials of war crimes, and only after the pair voluntarily defected and made numerous incriminating statements to their Western handlers.

This failure is attributable to the collapse of Anglo-American regime change project in Syria. The success of CIJA’s business model was wholly contingent on the violent overthrow of Assad and his government. That the Commission was founded before the Syrian Arab Army was even formally deployed to Damascus amply demonstrates CIJA and ARK had substantial grounds to believe decisive Western intervention would be forthcoming, at the earliest stages of the ‘peaceful revolution.’

Per the intercepted document, so too did opposition activists in Lebanon in May 2011 – the same month CIJA was founded – which of course referenced then-ongoing NATO airstrikes on Libya. While such intervention didn’t arrive as expected in Damascus, arms and fighters promptly began flowing from Tripoli to Syria, in direct coordination with MI6. Many insurgents were former members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), freed from prison four years earlier by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, after an intervention from one of the group’s founders, Noman Benotman.

Benotman claimed to have rejected political violence, embraced pacifism and democracy, and pledged to deradicalise the jailed LIFG fighters in return for their release. In 2010, he became President of the UK government-funded Quilliam Foundation, the world’s first “counter-extremism” think tank. In this position, he was instrumental in securing high-level defections from Gaddafi’s government during the civil war. The organisation’s avowed contribution to NATO’s Libyan intervention intensified existing suspicions about the spectral interests it might be serving.

After Quilliam shut down in April 2021, veteran journalist Ian Cobain made a startling disclosure. The Foundation had been secretly established by the Office for Security and Counterterrorism (OSCT), a shadowy British intelligence agency. London’s spies had initially planned to fund the venture covertly, “with money appearing to come in from a Middle Eastern benefactor, but channelled by MI6.” Instead, overt government financing was granted, a move “eventually judged within Whitehall to have been a mistake.”

[…]

Palestinian-focused civil society organisations and initiatives are frequently constructed by British intelligence without participants or broader local populations learning the true sponsors and purposes they serve.

[…]

Via https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/leaked-how-mi6-exploits-palestinian

LAST KING? Charles III Won’t Oppose Australia Becoming Republic, Highlighting Uncertain Future of Windsor Monarchy

King Charles III’s ‘slimmed down’ coronation is irking the aristocracy

By Paul Serran

Many feared (or hoped) that when the late Queen Elisabeth passed away, the British Monarchy of the Windsor dynasty would have its days numbered.

And in many ways, these ‘worst-case scenario’ fears (other people’s hopes) seem to have become an actual possible outcome, as the relentless infighting in the Royal family and the apparent lack of relevance of their work to the present-day reality of Britain are a constant object of debate.

Now, reports arise that ailing King Charles has stated that ‘he will not stand in the way’ if Australia wishes to replace him as the country’s head of state.

Ahead of his visit down under later this month, the Monarch is said to be adopting a soft, ‘anti-confrontational approach’ to the Australian republican campaigners.

“In response to the Australian Republican Movement’s (ARM) request for a meeting with the monarch, the king’s assistant private secretary is understood to have emphasized his ‘deep love and affection’ for Australia.

Nathan Ross reportedly told the anti-monarchists: ‘His majesty, as a constitutional monarch, acts on the advice of his ministers and whether Australia becomes a republic is, therefore, a matter for the Australian public to decide’.

The ARM says it is ‘the peak body advocating on behalf of the Australian people for an Australian republic with an Australian as our head of state’. Australia held a referendum in 1999 on the issue of becoming a republic, in which 54.9% voted against.”

[…]

Via https://hellboundanddown.com/2024/10/13/the-last-king-britains-charles-iii-will-not-oppose-australia-becoming-a-republic-as-the-future-of-the-windsor-monarchy-appears-uncertain/

Stock Depletion: Declining Supply Prompts Israel to Restrict Arms Use

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz cites sources as saying that the Israeli military is now operating under “tight weapons management.”

The Israeli military has adopted a policy of “strict weapons economy” regarding the use of shells and other arms in response to the depletion of ammunition stocks and the global embargo on arms exports to “Israel”, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

According to Haaretz sources, the Israeli military is now operating under “tight weapons management,” with the authorization for using certain weapons being elevated in some cases to brigade commanders who hold the rank of colonel.

This policy is designed to ensure that senior commanders prioritize weapon usage based on their operational objectives, a responsibility previously handled by lower-ranking officers.

The Israeli military also mentioned that its “ammunition economy” for Iron Dome interceptions began in the second week of the war. However, the current state of ammunition stocks has necessitated further restrictions.

This comes as “Israel” is facing relentless military operations involving rocket, missile, and drone launches by the factions of the Axis of Resistance, namely Hezbollah, the Palestinian Resistance, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, and the Yemeni Armed Forces, since the onset of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.

[…]

Via https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/stock-depletion–declining-supply-prompt–israel–to-restric

12 Policy Imperatives for True Heath Freedom

 

As a requirement for discussing and appreciating the imperative of health freedom in the USA, we must first define what is meant by health freedom. A simple definition is: the right of every American to decide what medical interventions to put into or onto one’s body, the right to access and use the medical and healing modalities of one’s choice, the right to maintain one’s health according to one’s conscience, and the right to live free of involuntary medication be it via the food supply, the water supply, or something airborne.

In a free and moral society, health freedom is not simply a convenience, it’s an imperative. In this vein, in the event of injury or illness, all Americans must possess the absolute right to choose what medical interventions and treatments to accept and what medical or healing modalities to utilize in order to address illness or injury; Americans must be free to choose how to maintain their health whether that be through nutrition, supplements, herbs, drugs, or a myriad of healing modalities; Americans must have access to truthful information regarding how the seeds for plants and animal feed and the food in our food supply has been grown or developed, medicated, processed, and packaged; and Americans have the right to exist in a society free of water and airborne medications, insect vectors, and chemicals.

Health freedom can only exist in a free and moral society which values each and every member of that society. This prerequisite thus excludes medical mandates of any kind. It is immoral to force another individual to risk their life for the theoretical benefit of another. Moreover, government does not have the moral authority or power to dictate what medical products any American puts into or on his or her body. If anyone in government does possess that power, then no American is truly free, nor does he or she possess any meaningful right whatsoever – Americans are merely chattel.

In order to create a society based on true health freedom, the following policy shifts should be implemented, as a first step. There are many more changes which should be implemented as well, but these proposals would address some of the most glaring, pernicious anti-liberty and anti-health aspects of our system as it exists today:

1. Ban all Medical Mandates:

The Declaration of Independence states, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”  Medical mandates are prime facie violations of our founding documents.

Health freedom demands prior voluntary informed consent before a medical treatment or intervention is administered. Medical mandates are thus, by definition, antithetical to voluntary consent and therefore must be prohibited in a free and moral society. No single individual in government knows the medical history of any American, knows what is best for Americans, or has to live with the repercussions of any choices made by Americans, thus, medical mandates are never justified in any circumstance.

2. Repeal the Bayh-Dole Act:

“The Bayh-Dole Act, formerly known as the Patent and Trademark Act Amendments, is a federal law enacted in 1980 that enables universities, nonprofit research institutions and small businesses to own, patent and commercialize inventions developed under federally funded research programs within their organizations.”

Under this program, government scientists may receive up to $150,000 per year on their patents.

In theory, Bayh-Dole incentivizes bright scientists to seek employment at federal health agencies rather than entering more lucrative private industry by allowing these taxpayer-funded scientists and other individuals and entities to retain the patent rights to intellectual property developed during their taxpayer-funded research and development activities.

In practice, this Act forever realigned the interests of taxpayer-funded scientists away from the American people and toward their own interests and profits and the profits of the private industries with which they collaborate. Dr. Anthony Fauci and his team at NIAID infamously owned half the Moderna Covid vaccine patent which incentivized the misguided covid era policies leading to a colossal violation of the rights of Americans demonstrating the perverse incentives created by Bayh-Dole and the necessity of repealing the act.

3. Repeal the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) of 1992:

“The Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) was created by Congress in 1992 and authorizes FDA to collect user fees from persons that submit certain human drug applications for review or that are named in approved applications as the sponsor of certain prescription drug products. Since the passage of PDUFA, user fees have played an important role in expediting the drug review and approval process.”

In 2022 alone, the pharmaceutical industry paid $2.9 billion in user fees amounting to 46% of FDA’s entire budget including $1.4 billion or 66% for FDA’s drug approvers’ salaries and $197 million or 43% of the biologics (vaccines) program budget. As a direct consequence of PDUFA, the FDA has a vested interest aligned with the profits and success of the pharmaceutical industry rather than the health and wellbeing of the American people.

4. Repeal the Public Readiness and Preparedness Act (PREP Act) which authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to issue a PREP Act declaration.

“The declaration provides immunity from liability (except for willful misconduct) for claims:

  • of loss caused, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from administration or use of countermeasures to diseases, threats and conditions
  • determined by the Secretary to constitute a present, or credible risk of a future public health emergency
  • to entities and individuals involved in the development, manufacture, testing, distribution, administration, and use of such countermeasures

A PREP Act declaration is specifically for the purpose of providing immunity from liability, and is different from, and not dependent on, other emergency declarations.”

The PREP Act desecrates the ethical principle of informed consent by protecting individuals from liability even when they expressly act contrary to patients’ wishes and instructions and must be repealed.

5. Repeal the Affordable Care Act:

The Affordable Care Act anchors Americans to the pharmaceutical and drug-based medical paradigm even though a majority of Americans used at least one form of “alternative” medicine in 2021 and spent $30.6 billion in out of pocket expenses for those holistic medicine services in 2023 according to Statista. Instead, implement a health savings program which permits Americans to access the health and medical modalities of their choice which in turn would foster more competition and reduce the exorbitant health care costs in the US by breaking the extant monopolies held by the medical and insurance industries.

6. Repeal the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA):

NCVIA shields vaccine makers and those who administer vaccines from liability (except for willful misconduct), creating a perverse incentive to industry to develop a never-ending stream of vaccines which are then mandated by the states and a perverse incentive to medical professionals to charge for and inject patients irrespective of the harm they may cause. Further, the NCVIA protects industry, medical professionals, and vaccine programs by creating a separate administrative federal court structure lacking due process and discovery, managed by “Special Masters” instead of judges, all in violation of the constitutionally protected right to due process. While NCVIA contains other provisions designed to protect American families and ensure the safety of the national vaccine supply, Congress is not conducting proper oversight and the promises made in 1986 at the time of the Act’s passage have not been upheld. As such, Americans who have been injured or killed by vaccines are left with astronomical medical bills and to fend for themselves.

7. Prohibit Private Donations to Government Entities:

Prohibit private individuals, foundations, corporations, contractors, any other person or entity from donating or otherwise giving money to any agency or entity of the federal government. FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) accept money from private actors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Pfizer thus skewing the interests of the agency in favor of these private actors and away from the American public. Gates has collaborated with FDA and the CDC Foundation takes money from the pharmaceutical industry whose products CDC is responsible for monitoring for safety.

8. Cooling-off Period for Senior Federal Employees:

Enact a 5-year cooling-off period before which agency leadership, deputies, and other key officials may depart federal agencies in order to enter the companies they regulate in the private sector.

9. Prevent Conflicts of Interest:

Eliminate conflict of interest waivers so that no person serving on a health agency committee, board, or other regulatory entity may have a conflict of interest. Disclosure of conflicts of interest is insufficient to ensure the agencies pursue the interests of the American people. Individuals with financial or ideological conflicts of interest should not serve as decision makers in any capacity.

10. Prohibit Government Grants to Nonprofits:

Prohibit government from allocating taxpayer dollars to nonprofit. Nonprofits exists to serve the public interests and should be funded directly by American citizens. If a nonprofit has a worthwhile mission, the public will gladly support it. Government exists to protect our rights and should not be in the business of picking winners and losers nor should it be using third parties to pursue policies outside the reach and review of the public.

11. Ban Water Fluoridation:

While water fluoridation programs are broad spread, they are not only dangerous from a health standpoint, they are forced medication in violation of the ethical principle of informed consent. Research comparing the health outcomes and IQs of communities that do and do not fluoridate their water supply reveal that children in the fluoridated water communities have reduced IQs and therefore inferior prospects in life. Other research has documented the health hazards of fluoride, an industrial waste product.

In addition, as fluoride is added to municipal water supplies, residents of those communities have no way to opt out and therefore are subjected to involuntary forced medication. No one should be forced to consume drugged water in order to maintain a biological necessity.

12. Ban Release of Genetically Modified Insects

Two tenets of good health are abundant exposure to sunshine and fresh air, however in some states, the state governments have collaborated with private business to release genetically modified mosquitoes into communities. While these mosquitoes are often designed to breed with one another and eliminate the “dangerous” species going forward, the health impacts of humans being bitten by these insects is not well understood. Nor should a person have to be risk being bitten by one of these creatures in order to venture outside. This amounts to a form of forced medication absent any form of consent and must be ended.

[…]

Via https://healthfreedomdefense.org/policy-imperatives-for-health-freedom/

Military Whistleblower: Controversial Use of Remdesivir led to 601 Deaths

remdesivir bottle and stack of files

A military whistleblower release documents recording 601 deaths of military service members and a high rate of serious adverse events in clinical trials involving remdesivir, an antiviral commonly administered to COVID-19 patients during the pandemic.

According to “The Remdesivir Papers,” some clinical trials were improperly run. In the case of at least one study, results were never made public. The whistleblower also alleged a widespread lack of informed consent for trial participants.

“Data derived from the Department of Defense [DOD] Joint Trauma System … by a military whistleblower offers a stark contrast to results of multiple clinical trials involving the liberal usage of remdesivir in military treatment facilities and other civilian facilities, as well as its potential contribution to, at minimum, hundreds of untimely deaths,” the documents state.

Yet according to the documents, the military began “liberally” administering remdesivir to service members who were suspected of having COVID-19 — months before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug.

The whistleblower, known by the pseudonym Daniel LeMay, shared the documents with investigative journalist J.M. Phelps, who published them last week in The Gateway Pundit.

In interviews with The Defender, LeMay and Phelps discussed the documents and their significance.

LeMay said the DOD’s Joint Trauma System is responsible for tracking “all sorts of patient data.” He told The Defender that the “initial trial depicted data manipulation in favor of remdesivir.”

He also said that based on his analysis of the data, several clinical trials did not have a true placebo group for which results could be compared with the remdesivir-receiving group. “The primary issue is with patient data. If we can’t verify the placebo group … then we can’t determine the actual efficacy of remdesivir.”

Reacting to the revelations, Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer for Children’s Health Defense, told The Defender:

“All of the information here needs to be made public and the public officials, including Tony Fauci, need to be held to account for the criminal acts associated with the fraudulent ‘trials’ of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine that were tainted in order to preclude their use, and making remdesivir the standard of care despite the obvious data showing that it kills people.”

Former victims of the COVID-19 hospital protocols, which included administration of remdesivir, and advocates for those victims welcomed the documents’ release.

Gail Seiler, Texas chairperson of the FormerFedsGroup Freedom Foundation, escaped from a Texas hospital in 2021, where she was given remdesivir and listed as “Do Not Resuscitate” against her and her family’s stated wishes. She said “The Remdesivir Papers” only “scratch the surface as to the homicide toll in military hospitals.”

The documents “tell us that our government orchestrated the needless deaths of COVID patients who did not need to die,” Seiler said.

Charlene Delfico, New Jersey state chair of FormerFedsGroup, previously told The Defender that COVID-19 protocols, including remdesivir, implemented at a New Jersey hospital “ran roughshod” over her parents. She said the new documents “validate our grievances regarding remdesivir and the ‘out the window’ standard of care protocol put in place by our government.”

“The whistleblower highlights what we’ve been saying all along,” Delfico said. “This drug is dangerous, and in most cases, fatal. There’s been no transparency or oversight. This should enrage people and make them push for an immediate investigation by Congress.”

“While people were dying, their deaths were being unlawfully labeled COVID deaths — when the deaths should have been attributed to the treatment protocol,” LeMay told The Gateway Pundit.

Military administered remdesivir despite known risks, leading to 601 deaths

According to the whistleblower’s data, 941 military service members died between March 2020 and March 2024. Of those, 63.9%, or 601 service members, were treated with remdesivir. Deaths peaked between November 2020 and July 2021.

“While the military is only a subset of the larger population, it’s clear that service members and veterans who contracted severe COVID and were subsequently treated with remdesivir had a much higher chance of dying,” the documents state.

According to the documents, the DOD administered remdesivir to service members — despite the drug’s known risks and dangers.

“Gilead had already created a monopoly on the drug” with a U.S. patent it secured in 2017 “valid for up to 20 years,” the documents noted.

The drug, developed to treat Ebola, “was subsequently proven to be lethal in human patients.” According to a 2019 New England Journal of Medicine article, remdesivir resulted in the highest mortality rate among four investigational therapies for Ebola administered in the Democratic Republic of Congo — with 53.1% of patients dying.

In 2017, the documents noted, two University of North Carolina researchers, including Ralph Baric, Ph.D., received a $6 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), then headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, to “accelerate the development of a promising new drug (remdesivir) in the fight against deadly coronaviruses.”

Despite its deadly history, in February 2020, Gilead Sciences received FDA approval to initiate two Phase 3 clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of remdesivir in treating COVID-19.

In March 2020, the DOD announced “a cooperative research and development agreement with an industry partner” — Gilead — “to gain access to an antiviral drug for treatment use in our medical centers.”

According to the documents, aside from this expedited approval on the part of the DOD, “remdesivir moved quickly through government scrutiny,” with the FDA issuing emergency use authorization in August 2020 and full approval in October 2020.

“I think the DOD has a track record of making the FDA’s life easy,” LeMay said. “If investment and preparations precede approval, who will say no to the DOD, especially if the president is in agreement on a course of action?”

Phelps noted that Public Law 115-92 allows the FDA “to authorize the emergency use of an otherwise unapproved medical product if the Department of Defense … determines that there is a military emergency involving an agent that may cause imminently life-threatening and specific risk to U.S. forces.”

“The expedited timeline for the FDA’s emergency use authorization is beyond concerning, given remdesivir’s troubling history,” Delfico said. “It was very disturbing to read that the DOD and Gilead directly contracted to do this experiment on our military.”

Clinical studies lacked placebo groups

The documents compared several civilian and military clinical studies involving remdesivir, finding a high rate of deaths and injuries among participants who were administered remdesivir. The documents also showed that studies of remdesivir revealed the drug’s dangers.

According to the documents, a May 2020 study published in The Lancet “brought concerns about the efficacy of remdesivir,” noting that administration of remdesivir was stopped early in China “because of adverse events in 18 (12%)” of patients “versus four (5%) who stopped placebo early.”

And a 2021 study published in JAMA Network Open of over 2,300 veterans hospitalized with COVID-19 found that “remdesivir treatment was not associated with survival,” with more deaths and longer hospital stays among those patients who received remdesivir compared to those who did not receive the drug.

According to the documents, “service members and veterans participated in at least four Phase 3 Adaptive COVID19 Treatment Trials” in 2020 and 2021, all of which were sponsored by NIAID. Another study was sponsored by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC).

The documents revealed questions about studies and how they were conducted.

In one study, NCT04280705 [ACTT-1], “A true placebo, like saline, wasn’t used other than … where there were limitations on matching placebo supplies” and no distinction was made “as to who received which placebo.” Its findings “ignored those who didn’t finish the trial for various reasons, including adverse events.”

As a result, “this study is problematic due to multiple confounding variables that appear to exist intentionally to present a positive outcome for the remdesivir group,” the documents note. Yet, this study “ended up being the only comparison between remdesivir and a type of placebo.”

According to the documents, three other studies, NCT04401579 [ACTT-2], NCT04492475 [ACTT-3] and NCT04640168 [ACTT-4], had “no true placebo group.” Instead, the two groups in each trial received remdesivir alongside another drug.

In these three trials, all-cause mortality ranged from 3.5% to 7.1%, while the rate of serious adverse events ranged between 14.2% and 24.6%. In NCT04401579, “59 participants didn’t finish the trial due to death, which isn’t characterized as being caused by the investigative treatments.”

Another study, NCT04302766, sponsored by USMARDC, was conducted at 22 military facilities, “involving an undisclosed number of participants.”

But according to the documents, “While the trial examined the effects of remdesivir on the treatment of COVID-19, there are no details available at ClinicalTrials.gov to determine the amount of remdesivir administered to participants. There are no results posted to determine all-cause mortality or serious adverse events.”

“In four of five trials, the use of remdesivir resulted in a minimal positive effect on instances of all-cause mortality and serious adverse side events when compared to the administration of a placebo,” the documents stated.

“In some cases, these patients also had comorbidities (e.g., renal and liver disease) that could have been exacerbated by remdesivir and resulted in some of the reported complications such as acute renal injury and failure, as well as liver dysfunction and hepatic failure,” the documents noted.

“With many clinical trials involving service members and veterans taking place before Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s now-rescinded 2021 shot mandate, I question whether the deaths in these trials should have been attributed to remdesivir, or the overall treatment protocol, rather than COVID,” Phelps asked.

“If this was the case, what better coercion technique is there than to improperly say, “Look at all the people dying from COVID,” when you’re trying to convince someone to take a so-called vaccine that can also wreck people’s lives or send them to their graves?” Phelps added.

Remdesivir risks withheld from service members

The documents also noted that key details about the risks of remdesivir were concealed from service members, depriving them of being able to provide informed consent.

For instance, participants in NCT04302766 were told “there have not been kidney problems seen in humans who have been given remdesivir,” while there was “no mention that the use of remdesivir resulted in the highest mortality rate among participants” in the African Ebola trial.

Gilead’s lobbying may have played a role in the lack of military or regulatory oversight the drug enjoyed. Between 2018 and 2021, Gilead increased its spending on lobbying from $3 million to $8.1 million. By spring 2020, taxpayers had already funded Gilead to the tune of at least $70.5 million for the development of remdesivir.

Delfico connected Gilead’s lobbying to remdesivir’s inclusion in the National Institutes of Health’s COVID-19 hospital protocols. She said:

“Under the CARES Act [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act] hospitals received significant payments for administering specific treatments, including remdesivir, which created a financial incentive for hospitals to use the drug despite its mortality rates.

“The lobbying, financial incentives and treatment protocols raise questions about the motivations behind remdesivir’s widespread use and the potential impact on patient care.”

Questions about the remdesivir clinical trials, missing clinical trial results and the potential lack of informed consent were addressed in a Sept. 27 letter by Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) to Austin and the heads of other federal and military agencies, including the FDA.

Separately, on Sept. 24, Phelps submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the USAMRDC, for the results of the NCT04302766 trial. According to LeMay, “They’ve been unresponsive and will likely continue in that fashion unless there’s an official inquiry by Congress which is specific to this matter.”

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/remdesivir-papers-drug-military-members-601-deaths/

 

When the Electricity Dies

Jeffrey Tucker

Most of the things we use today have not been stress tested. They are centralized and have a single point of failure. And they are very vulnerable. It could all stop in an instant with no sure guarantee of when it will come back.

Once a huge champion of all things digital, I’ve come to develop serious doubts about the pace at which humanity made the switch from analogue to the cloud. The hackings, outages, data breaches, and extended breakages all make the point. Then it dawned on me that the danger is even greater.

A turning point came for me visiting a small basement laundry in Manhattan. The proprietor was still using a sewing machine from 1948. She would have nothing to do with newer models. After that, I took greater notice of the machinery of other merchants in my area. Many sewing machines were 75 years old and still working well. My cobbler uses equipment more than a century old. This is not uncommon.

They can all still do business with a generator and a good supply of fuel. They are prepared. This is also why people are holding on to their older gas-powered cars without all the snazzy stuff. They are more trustworthy and you can fix what breaks. It’s better to maintain the old thing in good repair than move to the new thing that is not going to last long.

These days, few things are built for the long term. We buy smartphones and computers with full anticipation that we will buy new ones in a few years. Repairing things is ever less possible. Home appliances are the same: kaput in 5 to 10 years. And so many are dependent on digital applications to work. The operations of locks on homes, cars, ignitions, lights, and so much more are wholly dependent on a web of hooks that require that everything is in perfect working order.

What if it’s all a house of cards?

Imagine a time when it all goes down, not for an hour or day but for weeks. Or months. This is precisely what people in areas most affected by Hurricane Helene experience. As is well known, FEMA has been underperforming, but more importantly, it has attempted to stop private efforts in multiple documented instances. Elon Musk had to take to social media to beg the government to let him offer free internet to people because all other options died.

The money died. Credit cards stopped working. ATMs were dead. All communications came to a halt. The only way to transact was through cash, silver, gold, or barter. Electric cars could not be charged. The locks on doors seized up. You could not access your bank. The internet was gone in a flash. In short, the whole of the 21st century vanished in an instant.

The only path out of this mess was with old technology. Gasoline. Generators. Matches and candles. Internal combustion. Radios with hand cranks. Cash. Books on physical paper. Paper maps. Thermometers. Blankets. Firewood. In the end, survival depended on analogue things and analogue skills. For all the methods in which we’ve tried to reinvent the world in ways that are not dependent on “fossil fuels,” know-how, and elbow grease, it just keeps reverting.

Remember during the COVID crisis when everyone became suddenly obsessed with “touchless” everything? None of it made any sense because the virus did not spread on surfaces, and we discovered that pretty early on. But touchless went ahead anyway, and when restaurants reopened, people had to scan a code to access a list of things to order.

Customers hated it and now most places have gone back to physical menus. We go to restaurants to get away from digital everything, not find ourselves newly immersed in it.

There is something deeply wrong with the attitude that touching things is icky and beneath us. It suggests an unwillingness to use the hands God gave us to better the world. On a theological level, it suggests disgust with the incarnation: why would God ever become man if God wanted to be “touchless?” It suggests even a cult-like disgust with the physical world itself.

Fortunately, the word touchless seems to have lost its cache. Even so, the word itself reveals a dangerously millenarian eschatology, the belief that history is somehow headed toward a full escape from the physical world and all its limits, including the need for work and the inevitability of mortality. It’s pure delusion. A disaster event proves that.

Government has been running table-top exercises for decades with the idea of preparing for large-scale grid outages in the event of a huge weather event or a cyberattack. I can predict with 100 percent certainty that whatever plans they have in place, none will work. As our experience with Helene suggests, in the event of an emergency, the government may not be your friend but rather an obstacle, even a dangerous one.

My friend Mark Hendrickson experienced some of the worst of the hurricane. He writes: “I had never been without electric power for such an extended period of time before, and the experience vividly underscored something that I had known intellectually, like an abstract theory, but now felt at a deep, visceral level: how utterly dependent our society is on electric power.”

It meant for him a fundamental rethinking of everything.

“Sitting at home during most of the power outage, time seemed to slow down. It seemed like every few minutes I had an impulse to turn on the TV to see how storm cleanup was proceeding, but—oops—no TV. Or I wanted to go online and see which teams had won sports contests, what was going on in the world, or even something as trivial as checking my current bank balance with the addition of the month-end interest payment. Oops—no internet.”

“My thoughts turned to my dear Amish friends and neighbors when I lived in Pennsylvania. Our quiet candle-lit evenings at home during the outage now mirrored their evenings. Without the myriad distractions that electronic devices offer, there is more time for quiet reading or direct human interaction. In a society that has been becoming increasingly atomized, more personal connection seems appealing. Hmmm … maybe now, with the power back on, I should choose one evening a week to forsake the electronic world.”

The scenarios above all depend on disaster happening. It might not happen. The actual reason we might fall into crisis are simple matters of inflation. It could just become too expensive to use, and cost too much to charge the cars or keep the lights on. Already I have friends whose utility bills are higher than their mortgages from 10 years ago. Somehow people don’t think about this when they buy maximum square footage. Do you have an additional $15,000 to heat and cool it?

Most houses today, and certainly most office complexes, are designed to require electric-powered indoor air cooling and heating. We don’t use gas furnaces or rely on cross breezes anymore. Fireplaces are nothing but nostalgic vanities.

When all this building was going on for many decades, hardly anyone even considered the contingencies. We built as if there were no eventualities for which to prepare.

There is another factor: forced government rationing of power. Dependency on the grid, electric cars connected to the internet, and app-controlled things are all very easily controlled by a third party. But you say: these companies are all private and surely will ignore government edicts. We know now that this is not the case. Private companies become arms of the state under the right conditions. They will gladly comply to keep the paychecks rolling in and out.

People who have dealt with the worst of the hurricane came face-to-face with the state of nature without all the comforts we’ve learned to take for granted. For my own part, it has caused me to rethink some matters. Keeping a stash of cash around is a good idea. Some bags of silver dimes are also essential. Having plenty of blankets is advisable.

The most important way to prepare is to have a strong network of friends. In the end, human bonds will prove more enduring than the power grid.

[…]

Via https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/when-electricity-dies