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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.

And the Cancer Keeps Rolling In

Todd Hayden

Kate Middleton has cancer. The King of England has cancer. Every day we hear of more and more people diagnosed with cancer—many of them quite young. And not a single report we hear, unless coming from alt media, will suggest that the Covid vaccines are a possible cause.

There is no guarantee that any particular case is definitely attributed to the jabs. But considering the radical upswing of cases recently, you would think more people would be scratching their heads and connecting the dots. The rise in cancer cases pretty clearly correlates with the release of the vaccine.

That alone should get most thinking folks questioning. But they aren’t, and they won’t.

It is much easier to blame the usual suspects—pollution, bad water, unhealthy food, toxins in general, messy lifestyles, no exercise, and now, of course, climate change. Not only is the Covid vaccine not a suspect, but no vaccine is. In fact, no FDA-approved medication is. Big Pharma can once again hold the bloody dagger behind their back with a big grin on their face, “What, me worry?” Nope, you’ve played the game well Mr. Big Pharma, you’ve got us all (or most) under your spell. No matter how obvious your implication may be, you are off the hook.

If you believe in data from mainstream sources, they tell you that in 2019, one in ten deaths worldwide was caused by cancer. Over 10 million people in that year succumbed to the dreaded “C” word. I would be curious to know what the number was in 2023, the official figures for 2022 were not much different from 2019, which indicates to me that none of these statistics can really be trusted. Most mainstream reports are not reluctant to say cancer diagnoses are on the rise, but they say that every year, and of course the incentive is to frighten people into early diagnosis and early treatment, thus filling the coffers with even more gold coins.

Oooo, did that hit a nerve? As with most confusing things these days, this is confusing. There is no doubt in my mind that some cancers, at some stages, can be successfully treated through conventional methods. How they treat these cases in the conventional world may not be as safe as how they treat them in the alternative world, but nonetheless, there have been successful treatments using conventional methods.

Of course, that conventional world will do everything it can to convince you that their interventions are the only ones that can be effective and that anything the “safe” alternative world has to offer is bogus. I personally do not believe this, but I have to say, I have not experienced alternative treatments saving many lives. And I have experienced conventional, extremely invasive, treatments doing just that, saving lives. So, what can I say? This is from personal experience, and I have had a bit of it, considering my first wife died of cancer 20 years ago.

I’m off on a tangent, my apologies.

So, back to the question, what is causing the uprise in cancer cases? In my humble opinion, the culprit is most definitely the Covid vaccine. Of course, I am just an observer and have no medical data to back up my personal opinion. From what I understand, however, the data is out there. It may be difficult to find, but there are many quite learned, experienced, and credentialed folks (as in MDs) out there who would support my statement with medical data.

Although I do believe the upswing in cancer diagnoses is largely attributed to the Covid vaccine, it cannot possibly be the only reason. And the vax is certainly not the only answer to the ubiquitous cancer diagnosis question, “Why did this happen to me?”

As we all know, the agenda has more than one way to skin a cat. mRNA in injections is only one of them. mRNA is showing up everywhere anyway, not just in needles, and in nearly every form of bodily intake. So the mRNA method can get us, even if we avoided the jab. There are known cancer-causing elements in places other than mRNA and gene therapy as well. How about 5G, Chemtrails, GMO products, cricket meal, fluoride, any number of approved pharmaceuticals, need I go on?

As they add to their wicked mix of lethal concoctions, the cancer rate just continues to climb. And there is no way to put the proverbial finger on any one thing as “the” cause.

So, we all know this. When I say, “we all” I mean those of you reading this. No one would have gotten this far in this essay if they were not already in the choir I am preaching to. We are again left with the sheep, who will probably never “get it.” Here goes the broken record skipping back into the same groove over and over again. If people, I mean sheep, actually could accurately identify the enemy and stop chasing ghosts like climate change into the woods, guaranteed never to catch them, we would possibly have a fighting chance.

I have read at least a half dozen articles, some of them even a bit alternative, about the rise in cancer cases, particularly among young people, and not a single one mentioned the Covid vaccine as a cause. Yes, all of us have been hearing since day one about the proliferation of “turbo cancer” among the vaxxed, but no one else seems to make the connection. Of course, the horse is out of the barn to some degree with all this, at least for the folks already pin-cushioned by multiple needles. It is still a battle worth fighting considering the continuation of the vaccine as a “reasonable deterrent” against Covid, for adults, the elderly, and for children. It does seem to me that it is not worth getting cancer to avoid getting Covid.

And, as you know, I am only speaking of cancer as a side effect of the vaccine, what about heart disease, blood clots, and a myriad of other known Covid vaccine side effects? And that is only to mention the ailments we have scientific support for. What about the loss of cognition, loss of empathy, depression, and suicide, along with a plethora of other mental and physical maladies that are at the moment only speculations and anecdotal observations?

[…]

Via https://off-guardian.org/2024/05/25/and-the-cancer-keeps-rolling-in/

Failing EV industry lesson to businesses; never underestimate power of consumers

Ross Clark

In China, electric vehicles have been assigned to vast graveyards of unsold vehicles. While ride-share services bought the vehicles at subsidised prices, private buyers are not so keen.  So last year China began dumping its electric vehicles in Europe, where they are filling up the ports at Rotterdam and Antwerp.

The US also has unsold stocks of electric cars.  And in Britain, the momentum for electric vehicles has slowed.

The great electric revolution that was promised just three years ago is already failing – and it will bring the car manufacturers down with it.

China is often characterised as a copycat when it comes to industry and technology but in one way it has proved to be a pioneer. It was China which saw the first boom in electric cars – and it was China that was the first to suffer when demand for them collapsed. The vast graveyards of unsold vehicles found in Hangzhou and other Chinese cities are the result of a huge, subsidised push to manufacture electric vehicles, demand for which has never caught up with supply. Ride-share services bought the vehicles – in a rerun of the great cycle-share fiasco of 2018, which led to piles of unused and unwanted bikes. But private buyers have been notably less keen.

Where China leads, the rest of the world seems doomed to follow. With China’s manufacturers struggling to sell their electric cars at home, last year they started shipping them in large numbers to Europe – where many are now accumulating in ports at Rotterdam and Antwerp. The window in which to sell them may prove small, as the EU is considering measures to prevent the ‘dumping’ of cheap Chinese cars in Europe. The Biden administration has already taken action, increasing tariffs on cars imported from China from 25 per cent to 100 per cent. While that may put paid to Chinese imports, it won’t do anything to alleviate unsold stocks of US-made electric cars. The great electric revolution that was promised just three years ago is already failing – and it will bring the car manufacturers down with it.

If there ever was a real-world demonstration of the old proverb ‘you can lead a horse to water…’, it is electric cars. Elon Musk’s visionary work with Tesla panicked the old combustion engine firms, which set themselves ambitious targets to phase out petrol completely: Fiat, Ford, Jeep, Nissan and Lexus by 2030, Vauxhall by 2028, Jaguar by 2025. One of the most dramatic announcements came three years ago when Hertz declared that a quarter of its entire rental fleet would be electric by 2025. ‘The new Hertz is going to lead the way as a mobility company,’ it said. It certainly did lead the way – into headlong retreat.

At the time, Hertz signed a $4 billion deal with Tesla and announced plans to buy 175,000 EVs from General Motors. In January it went into reverse and said it would instead start selling 20,000 EVs (later raising this to 30,000). It has pledged to ‘re-invest a portion of the proceeds from the sale of EVs into the purchase of internal combustion engine vehicles.’ Its share price (down 80 per cent since the Tesla announcement) has made it a case study.

In Britain, things don’t look much better. The slowing EV momentum led Rishi Sunak to drop his target of banning new petrol car sales by 2030 and push it back to 2035. The number of electric cars sold to drivers (as opposed to companies) was falling by 20 per cent as of last month. The UK’s market for EVs is being propped up by fleet companies which, spurred on by government incentives, now buy five in every six EVs sold.

‘Urgent action is needed to re-enthuse private buyers into switching,’ said the UK Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) in its last update. It pointed out it’s not just driver demand that is flat: the infrastructure is an issue. The ratio of charging points to EV drivers has not improved since last year. The cost of electricity from a rapid charger is up by about 10 per cent, according to the RAC. So not only are EVs themselves 40 per cent more expensive to buy than petrol cars, but they are also costlier to run. The average charge for refuelling at a rapid charger is 22p per mile, compared with 17p for petrol.

Even those figures don’t really provide a fair comparison. Around half the price of a litre of petrol is tax; the tax on electricity is just 20 per cent (in the form of VAT) or 5 per cent if you charge at home. Nevertheless petrol remains cheaper. But the government is not going to sit by and watch as £25 billion of revenue from fuel duty disappears – which will happen if electric cars do take over from petrol. So at some point it is going to devise some way of recouping lost fuel duty revenue, most likely through road-charging. Early adopters who bought electric cars have effectively been treated to a generous introductory offer, which is now stealthily going to be withdrawn. When electric cars come to be taxed like petrol ones, it is going to become obvious that they cost a lot more to buy and run. That is especially true if you live in one of the 30 per cent of UK households which do not have off-street parking.

Sunak drew outrage from the green lobby when he delayed what was an obviously unworkable target. But few seemed to have noticed that he had left in place an initiative called the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate. This came into force in January and obliges car manufacturers to ensure that 22 per cent of the vehicles they sell in Britain this year are fully electric (as opposed to hybrid). If they fail, they will have to pay a fine of £15,000 for every vehicle by which they fall short. This target ratchets up. It will rise to 28 per cent next year and go up steadily until it hits 80 per cent by 2030.

But what to do if the public are refusing to buy? In the first four months of this year, according to the SMMT, electric cars had a market share of just 15.7 per cent, hardly up on the 15.4 per cent share in the same period of last year. Unless sales soar, manufacturers are going to be facing enormous fines in just a few months’ time.

Earlier this month Carlos Tavares, the chief executive of Stellantis (the parent company of Vauxhall, Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat) warned that the ZEV had the potential to bankrupt car-makers. He complained that the ZEV had been set at ‘double the natural demand of the market.’ He said he wouldn’t be selling cars at a loss – suggesting that, if electric car sales do not pick up soon, the company might have to restrict sales of petrol and diesel cars. (It would be easier to sympathise had Stellantis not cheered on government efforts to turn the car industry fully electric by 2030.)

Petrol-car owners have reservations that may be hard to budge. Even among households which have off-street parking, only 8 per cent say that it’s likely they would buy an electric car as their main vehicle during the next five years – although 20 per cent said they would consider one as their second vehicle. Electric cars have found a niche as second cars for relatively wealthy, environmentally aware households. But the market is beginning to run out of those kinds of buyers.

This leaves Sunak with a dilemma. The US wants to repel China’s incoming electric cars, while Germany wants to welcome them and cut all tariffs (hoping Beijing will reciprocate – BMW now sells a third of its new cars in China). What will the UK do? If Sunak wants to prioritise net-zero targets and help with the cost of living, the logical thing would be to leave the ZEV in place and welcome China’s low-cost cars (made by MG and BYD). This could be billed as using Brexit powers, lowering motoring costs with other carmakers forced to compete. But this is Stellantis’s nightmare scenario. ‘If you go and cut pricing disregarding the reality of cost,’ Tavares said in January, ‘it’s a race to the bottom and that will end up with a bloodbath.’

Forcing consumers to pay over the odds for cars would lead to an electoral bloodbath, however – which is why, unless there is a sudden rush of interest in electric cars over the next few months, the government is likely to yield. The ZEV will probably be relaxed, just as the 2030 target was relaxed last year, which will mean yet another watering-down of net-zero promises, possibly just before the election. The price will be more outrage from environmentalists, and inevitable legal challenges. Last time Sunak relaxed net-zero measures, the former minister Chris Skidmore resigned his seat and triggered a by-election.

Could the outlook suddenly improve for British EVs? It’s hard to see how. The biggest single cost is batteries, and China has built up a dominant position in the global market. About 80 per cent of EV batteries are made in China, and the West’s efforts to catch up often end in debacle. The Britishvolt factory in Northumberland went bust before its foundations were even laid. But the situation is even worse when you consider that China has near-total dominance in LFP batteries, which are cheaper to produce than the lithium manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries made in Europe. They also come with fewer ethical objections as they do not require cobalt, which is often mined by child workers under terrible conditions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The traditional carmakers have responded by scaling back. Aston Martin has delayed its first electric model from 2025 to 2027 because of falling demand. Bentley has deferred its all-electric deadline. Fiat was going to phase out the petrol-powered Panda in 2026, then 2027, but now that date has been pushed back to 2030. Tesla’s deliveries fell 20 per cent in the first quarter of this year and market value has halved since the 2021 peak.

Last week, Stellantis announced a deal with the Chinese electric carmaker Leapmotor, which might just help it put off the day of reckoning with the ZEV: some of Leapmotor’s cars will be sold through a Stellantis subsidiary based in Amsterdam. In reality, this won’t do much for the planet. Making electric cars is a much more carbon-intensive business than making petrol ones, with the result that they have to be driven at least 15,000 to 20,000 miles before they can be said to have emitted less carbon. Worse, Chinese-made cars are manufactured with a far dirtier mix of electricity than UK-made cars are. Three-quarters of electricity in China is still generated by fossil fuels, 55 per cent of it from especially filthy coal. The government may well tinker with the ZEV before the year is out, but it is unlikely to admit to this greater folly, that the much-heralded switch to electric cars is likely to destroy our car industry, drive up costs for motorists – and fail to cut global emissions.

[…]

Via https://expose-news.com/2024/05/25/failing-ev-industry-is-a-lesson-to-businesses/

Local Food Movement Under Attack by New EPA Rule

Cattle on a grass field on the left and EPA in a magnifying glass on the right.

Dr Mercola

A new EPA regulatory rule that will force small meat and poultry producers to invest heavily in new water filtration systems while letting industrial factory farms off the hook is an attack on the local food movement and domestic agriculture, critics say.

Story at a Glance:

  • A new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory rule will harm local food producers by forcing small meat and poultry producers to invest heavily in new water filtration systems or face closure.
  • This rule threatens to have long-term repercussions on the food supply and benefits factory farms and multi-national beef producers by punishing small domestic producers and incentivizing imported meat and poultry products.
  • The Kansas Natural Research Coalition, American Stewards of Liberty and a myriad of smaller coalitions have denounced these rules as a departure from the EPA’s constitutional and statutory authority.
  • Federal regulators have evaded accountability in court for decades by using their interpretation of ambiguous statutes. Consumers are best served buying beef products with American Grassfed Association Certification rather than a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) stamp.

A new EPA regulatory rule is an attack on the local food movement and domestic agriculture. It will force small meat and poultry products (MPP) producers to invest heavily in new water filtration systems or face closure.

The EPA moved quickly to implement new rules on wastewater generated by the domestic MPP industry. This effort to regulate wastewater was not without opposition though.

The Kansas Natural Resource Coalition (KNRC), American Stewards of Liberty and smaller coalitions argue this is an example of federal overreach. The rule incentivizes meat importation, which may force small businesses to close.

Effluent limitations guidelines and standards

Effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) were first defined in the Clean Water Act of 1974.

These wastewater standards are developed by the EPA based on the current technological performance of treatment and control technologies. The goal was to prevent the discharge of harmful pollutants at levels that could adversely affect human health and the environment.

ELGs vary by industry, reflecting the unique characteristics and pollution profiles of different types of industrial activities. For the MPP industry, ELGs are designed to minimize the release of nutrients, pathogens and organic matter that could deplete oxygen levels in water bodies, harm aquatic life and compromise water quality.

The standards for meat and poultry producers were last updated in 2004. Currently, they apply to approximately 150 of the 5,055 MPP facilities in the U.S.

As the KNRC pointed out, “The history of EPA’s regulation of MPP effluent guidelines and standards has never extended beyond direct discharge facilities. The proposed rule seeks to significantly expand EPA regulatory reach.”

EPA rules previously covered only direct discharge facilities

EPA rules for the MPP did not previously cover direct discharge facilities. A direct discharge facility in this industry refers to a plant or operation that releases treated or untreated effluent directly into surface waters, such as rivers, lakes or estuaries.

This contrasts with indirect discharge facilities that release effluent into municipal sewage systems for further treatment before being released into the environment.

Direct discharge facilities are subject to stringent regulatory oversight because their effluents enter the water system directly, where they can have immediate impacts on water quality and aquatic ecosystems.

EPA shifts enforcement priorities away from factory farms

The new effluent guidelines represent a major change. The EPA’s proposed amendment establishes strict limitations on nitrogen and phosphorus while adding E. coli bacteria limitations for direct discharge facilities. But they have also greatly expanded the reach of their regulations.

The EPA’s proposal, at a cost of an estimated $232 million annually, is designed to reduce pollutant discharges by 100 million pounds per year. It is just part of an aggressive plan to update effluent guidelines nationwide, applying a wave of new industry-specific standards.

Waters of the United States expanded to include private sources

Most water used in meat and poultry farming is from well sources or privately owned water sources. Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA’s authority extends to the regulation of pollutants discharged into the Waters of the United States, a term that encompasses the scope of waterbodies under federal jurisdiction.

The definition of Waters of the United States has been subject to change and legal battles, which significantly impacts regulatory scope.

These waterbodies typically include major rivers, lakes and coastal waters, along with their tributaries and adjacent wetlands. Expanding EPA rules to include private water sources represents a massive expansion of federal reach.

Moreover, as the KNRC noted in their comment to the EPA, the stringent requirements under the updated ELGs for the MPP industry raise concerns among smaller producers about the financial and operational feasibility of meeting these enhanced environmental protections.

New clean water rules fast-tracked

With something as important as the expansion of federal authority over private water sources and laws that could shutter domestic meat producers in an era of inflation and supply chain issues, you should expect a period of deliberation.

The Clean Water Act Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Meat and Poultry Products Point Source Category rule was proposed by Biden Administration regulators on Jan. 23.

The public hearings were held Jan. 24 and Jan. 31. The minimum for public comment closed on March 24 and the new rules took effect on March 25.

The EPA public comment process requires a minimum of 60 days following the publication date. Considering the initial Clean Water Act was last updated in 2004, the stakeholders impacted by these rules hardly had time to mount a defense before they took effect.13

New meat and poultry regulations, an EPA power grab?

The KNRC argues this rulemaking’s proposal to regulate indirect discharge facilities strikingly stray from constitutional and statutory grounds, threatening to upend the delicate balance of power between state and federal governments. While it took immediate effect, it is certain to face legal challenges.

The Clean Water Act was crafted by Congress with a clear intent — to keep the primary control over land and water use firmly in the hands of the states.

As KNRC noted in their comment, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency et al., highlighted the dangers of stretching the Clean Water Act’s scope too far, warning it could infringe on this critical state authority.

Nitrogen and phosphorous pollution turned up by EPA field tests

In the case of MPP producers, EPA field researchers failed to find much in the way of viruses, bacteria, heavy metals or traditional toxins. What they did find were significant quantities of two nutrients — nitrogen and phosphorus.

Nitrogen and phosphorus, while essential for the growth and health of aquatic plants, are damaging in excessive quantities. For meat and poultry producers, controlling the discharge of these nutrients within acceptable EPA guidelines can pose a major challenge.

High concentrations of nutrients in bodies of water lead to eutrophication. This is a process characterized by the overgrowth of algae that depletes oxygen levels, harming fish and other aquatic species, as has happened in Florida.

This imbalance not only disrupts ecosystems but also compromises water quality, affecting the wildlife and human populations depending on these water resources.

Concerns about new EPA restrictions

Reducing pollution of public or private water sources is an admirable goal on paper. But there is more here than meets the eye. The rules list 17 species of endangered animals, setting the table for future lawsuits by environmental groups citing the Endangered Species Act to sue the EPA and private businesses.

In their comments in the federal comment register, the KNRC stated the new rules “gives priority to environmental justice goals and emphasizes ecological benefits, but the EPA jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act is not based on ecological importance or environmental justice.”

Rules are silent about greenhouse emissions and future carbon taxes

One method of reducing nitrogen and phosphorus is anaerobic wastewater treatment.

This method uses microorganisms that consume biodegradable organic compounds, reducing organic matter and biooxygen demand in wastewater. The process generates CH4 and CO2. This combination of gases, predominantly CH4, is commonly referred to as biogas.

The new guidelines are silent on the topic of future carbon taxes and the financial toll of biogas produced by newly mandated anaerobic wastewater facilities. This is especially relevant considering the new carbon credit/taxes introduced by the Biden Administration through the Commodities Credit Corporation.

States like Oregon, California and Washington have taken the lead, implementing their own Cap and Trade laws, which require businesses to buy carbon credits to keep their doors open. This marks a significant shift in how environmental regulation and corporate responsibility are approached.

BEEF Act introduced to protect local meat processors

Reps. Ron Estes (R-Kan.) and Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) introduced the Banning EPA’s Encroachment on Facilities (BEEF) Act, H.R.7079 in response to the new EPA guidelines on Jan. 26.

This law would, “Prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from finalizing, implementing or enforcing certain changes to regulations regarding meat and poultry products effluent discharges and for other purposes.”

However, supporters of the bill are not optimistic about the odds of the BEEF Act ever passing out of committee and plan legal challenges to the EPAs authority.

Fall of Chevron doctrine means legal challenges are now possible

Until recently, this is where this story would end due to Chevron deference. This is a principle of administrative law that compels federal courts to defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous law that the agency administers unless the interpretation is unreasonable.

The Chevron deference stems from the 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. Historically, cases against new EPA rules would advance to federal court and the judge would not consider the case on its merit due to the precedent of Chevron.

Landmark 2022 SCOTUS ruling hobbled EPA

This principle significantly impacts how environmental regulations, among others, are interpreted and implemented, affecting the balance of power between the judiciary and federal agencies. Chevron deference made it nearly impossible for private businesses to sue or slow the expansion of federal regulatory power.

Chevron deference has been largely dismantled by recent Supreme Court decisions. West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency has put the deference into question, particularly when it concerns significant questions of economic and political impact that Congress did not clearly delegate to the agency.

This shift in judicial thinking suggests that the EPA’s new regulations on meat and poultry producers could face significant legal challenges, especially where authority under the Clean Water Act is interpreted to include broad regulatory actions that have substantial economic consequences.

Critics long argued that such expansive interpretations by the EPA need more explicit congressional approval, reflecting a judicial recalibration of the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches in environmental regulation.

Chevron deference circumvents the legislative process and consolidates power within federal agencies, raising concerns about the separation of powers and the democratic accountability of regulatory actions.

Beef Checkoff Program is another obstacle for local producers

Small beef and poultry producers are also facing other challenges to their businesses. Apart from the new EPA rules that are likely to cripple small local farms, the mandatory USDA Beef Checkoff program has also been structured to benefit the concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO, model.

The program requires cattle producers to pay a $1 fee per head of cattle sold. This fund pays for the marketing of beef in the U.S., including messaging contrary to the interests of small producers who adhere to more exacting standards. The American Grassfed Certification represents a far higher standard than the USDA’s Grass-fed Beef Label.

The Supreme Court denied a 2022 petition to hear a case brought by a group of Montana-based cattle producers called R-Calf, ending years of legal challenges. R-Calf contended the Beef Checkoff program was “unconstitutionally compelled subsidies of private speech.”

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/local-food-movement-under-attack-new-epa-rule-cola/

School That Let T-Mobile Install 9 Cell Antennas Near Playground Locked Into 31-Year Contract

kids on playground and hand holding cellphone with t-mobile logo

A private school in San Diego signed a contract with T-Mobile to install hidden antennas only 20 feet above the school’s playground. Parents said they didn’t find out until a parent accidentally saw them while the school was closed for a holiday break.

Parents whose kids attend the Rock Academy in San Diego said they’re angry that school leaders didn’t tell them about a deal the school signed with T-Mobile to put nine hidden cell antennas on the side of the school’s building.

The antennas are roughly 50 feet above the school’s preschool playground with the closest antennas only about 20 feet above the playground.

The private school, operated by the Rock Church — one of the largest megachurches in the U.S. — serves over 400 K-12 students and 100 preschoolers. The school and church share a campus.

Rock Church leaders in April 2022 secretly signed a contract with T-Mobile giving the telecom company permission to install the antennas, according to Rock Academy parent Laura Buckley.

“The problem is not just that the Rock failed to inform parents and staff before signing the contract,” Buckley, whose kids are in third, sixth and eighth grade, told The Defender. “They were presumably never going to disclose the antennas at all.”

During installation, the school and T-Mobile hid the antennas behind tarps. “Now they are hidden behind a facade that matches the building,” she said.

“No one would ever have known about the nine antennas had it not been for a mother who happened to be on campus at Christmas break [in early January 2023] when the tarp was down.”

The mother snapped a photo, Buckley said. “That is how people started finding out.”

Tiffany Fletcher, a mother whose sixth grader attends Rock Academy, told The Defender, “Word started spreading like wildfire.”

School tries to be ‘hush hush’

Fletcher, who launched a petition against the antennas, said parents demanded a town hall meeting. The petition so far has garnered more than 1,000 signatures.

School leaders on March 2, 2023, held a meeting with parents, but overall “tried to be hush-hush” about the matter, she said, as the Rock Church was concerned about “managing its brand.”

Parents then “raised a fuss” by flyering the church’s congregation — an estimated 15,000 people — with information about the issue. “That got school leaders’ attention,” Fletcher said.

School leaders in March 2023 told T-Mobile the company couldn’t come on the premises.

Parents filed a legal action — a writ of mandate — against the City of San Diego asking the city to disallow the installation of the antennas at the school.

“We tried every issue we could — permitting, fire risk, etc.” That action is currently on appeal, Fletcher said.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile in January sued the Rock Church and Academy, arguing the Rock committed a breach of contract when it denied T-Mobile’s access to school grounds.

T-Mobile brought a motion for an injunction to access the property. In April, a judge granted T-Mobile’s request, ruling that Rock Church couldn’t legally block T-Mobile from the property.

The company plans to activate the antennas after Memorial Day when the school session ends.

Risking kids’ health and safety in exchange for money is ‘shameful’

Rock Church and Academy’s contract with T-Mobile — which Buckley said she has seen but is not publicly available — stipulates that the telecom company pay the church roughly $4,000 a month for using its school property.

Mei Ling Nazar, Rock Church’s director of public relations and social media, said the agreement was made to generate additional income for the ministry, reported Point Loma-OB Monthly.

“It is shameful for a Christian church to risk the health and safety of the children it has a duty to protect in exchange for $4,000 a month,” Buckley said. “Shameful.”

As The Defender previously reported, there are many independent peer-reviewed studies about serious health risks from exposure to wireless radiation, including:

  • A 2017 study found living near a cell tower was linked to blood changes, which are considered biomarkers predictive of cancer.
  • A 2018 study showed adolescents exposed to higher levels of wireless radiation had delayed fine and gross motor skills, spatial working memory and attention compared with those exposed to lower radiation levels.
  • A 2015 study found higher rates of Type 2 diabetes mellitus in elementary students exposed to higher levels of wireless radiation compared with those exposed to lower radiation levels.

The telecom workers’ union, Communications Workers of America, also warns workers that wireless radiation can cause sterility, eye damage, central nervous system harm and other “serious biological effects.”

The Rock Church and Academy said in a statement they “did not foresee safety or structural issues that could harm our community.”

School leaders also didn’t foresee that the contract they signed would leave them with so little wiggle room, Fletcher said. “The school is failing to recognize that the contract is written solely for T-Mobile’s benefit.”

Buckley agreed. The contract includes a series of renewal periods — but only on the side of T-Mobile. “The 31st year of the contract is the first year the Rock can get out,” she said.

The contract also gives T-Mobile permission to change or increase the number and type of antenna without the Rock’s approval, Buckley said. “The antennas can become 5G at any time.”

“This is significant,” she added, “because according to the Rock’s spokesperson on radiofrequency [RF] radiation, Derek Falconer, radiation from 5G antennas can travel around corners.”

Leaders apologize, propose mitigation plan

The Defender asked the Rock Academy’s top administrator, Chuck Leslie, if and why he had considered it unimportant to inform families that the contract was being considered.

Leslie declined to respond other than to share an official statement, released on May 20, from the Rock Church and Academy, stating, “We realized that it was a mistake to sign the contract without first having a discussion with staff and parents and we sincerely apologized, and apologize, for the stress that this has caused.”

In the statement, the Rock Church and Academy said they proposed two alternative sites to T-Mobile, but the company refused.

The church and school also said they tried multiple times to negotiate an end to the contract and have the antennas removed, but Fletcher said that was untrue.

Buckley agreed. “To the best of my knowledge,” she said, “the Rock still has never made a written settlement offer to T-Mobile for $1.”

‘Too little, too late’

Since T-Mobile has the legal right to activate its antennas, the Rock Church and Academy promised to implement a “mitigation plan” to prevent RF radiation from the antennas from impacting its campus.

The plan includes installing RF-shielding materials, such as metal-based window tinting on the sides of the building where the antennas are located and copper-mesh shade structures over the preschool playground.

School leaders also said they hired the RF radiation mitigation company, EMF & RF Solutions, to measure RF radiation levels before the antennas were activated and to track RF radiation levels in the future.

Fletcher questioned if the school leaders will follow through with their mitigation plan. “They’re only attempting to remediate to appease the parents who are upset,” she said.

She also pointed out that the Rock Church and Academy’s plan proposed RF shielding only for its campus, even though the antennas will be directly pointing at three neighboring charter schools — High Tech High, High Tech Elementary, High Tech Middle — and a local grocery store.

“So as they are ‘protecting’ their own school, they’re radiating hundreds of other children,” she said. “That’s not very neighborly.”

Moreover, their efforts are “too little, too late” in most families’ eyes, Fletcher said. “Their lack of transparency and deceitful covert actions have lost many families’ trust.”

An estimated 30 to 50 families are pulling their kids from Rock Academy, according to a May 20 FOX 5 and KUSI News report.

‘There must be something we don’t know’

Buckley said the Rock Church’s founding pastor, Miles McPherson, has publicly remained “virtually silent” over the last year and a half as Rock Academy parents repeatedly voiced concerns that the antennas’ RF radiation might harm their kids.

This puzzled her because McPherson is a former NFL player known for being health-conscious.

When she asked about it, Rock leadership told Buckley that McPherson won’t talk about it from his platform because he doesn’t want to be seen as “anti-cell antennas.”

She said:

“He has about 1.5 million people that listen to him, I’ve been told.

“Why doesn’t he want to say, ‘Hey, I messed up in allowing these antennas on our building without running it by Rock staff and families. There are many people in our Rock community who don’t feel they are safe. Will you please partner with me now to help fix this mistake so we can keep our community together?’

“I don’t understand why he is so afraid of looking like he’s against cell antennas when his community is being broken apart due to this. There must be something we don’t know.”

Buckley learned from the Rock leadership that they spoke to telecom lobbyists. She wonders if the lobbyists somehow “got to them.”

“The Rock appeared to want the antennas removed,” she said, “and then they just crumbled on the 5-yard line and walked away. It’s unexplainable. It’s either all about the money or something else we don’t know about.”

The Defender reached out to Nazar and Santiago Ruiz, the Rock Church’s executive pastor, to clarify whether McPherson’s silence was due to concerns about being perceived as “anti-cell antennas” or something else.

The Defender also asked if the Rock Church — or McPherson, himself — would be willing to publicly share information that would put to rest speculation about their possible industry ties.

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/rock-academy-tmobile-cell-antennas-playground/

 

House committee adopts amendment to rehire troops fired for refusing COVID vaccine

Representative Nancy Mace is seen walking through the O’Neil House Office Building.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) walks over to address reporters during a break in the deposition of Hunter Biden as a part of the impeachment investigation into his father, President Biden, at the O’Neil House Office Building in Washington, D.C., Feb. 28, 2024.

Greg Nash

The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday adopted an amendment to the annual defense policy bill that would push the Department of Defense to rehire U.S. service members who were fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

The measure, which would require the Pentagon to create a robust plan for rehiring those service members, was adopted by voice vote as the committee considered a round of amendments for a markup of the 2025 national defense authorization act (NDAA).

The measure, however, faces an uncertain future later this year, when the committee will meet with the Democratic-led Senate Armed Services Committee to reconcile differences in the NDAA before full passage in Congress.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who offered the amendment, said the measure would correct the wrongful firing of 8,400 service members who refused the COVID-19 vaccine when it was made mandatory for the U.S. military.

“The Department has so far failed to recruit a significant number of service members separated under the COVID mandate. This is unacceptable,” she said. “These individuals possess valuable skills, and many already have training that our military desperately needs.”

In the 2024 NDAA, Congress included a measure that directed the Pentagon to consider the reinstatement of service members fired over the vaccine at the request of the veterans. Those veterans, however, must have submitted a request for a religious, administrative or medical exemption for the vaccine.

Lawmakers also included the authorization of an investigatory board to review service members discharged over the vaccine and a requirement for the Defense Department to communicate to those veterans how they can be reinstated in the 2024 bill.

In the 2023 NDAA, Congress forced the Pentagon to rescind a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

But Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) said service members are required to get multiple types of vaccines.

“Vaccines save lives,” he said. “It is a readiness issue. We currently vaccinate our forces to protect them and to protect their fellow troops. When service members get sick, it undermines the effectiveness of our entire force.”

[…]

Via https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4680513-house-armed-services-committee-ndaa-amendment-re-hire-troops-fired-covid-vaccine/

Fauci Aide Destroyed Sensitive Emails, Used Private Gmail Account to Hide NIAID Ties to Wuhan

david morens, gmail app on cellphone

By Emily Kopp

 

Emails released Wednesday by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic show Dr. Anthony Fauci’s long-time aide, Dr. David Morens, often used his private Gmail account to shuttle messages between Fauci and virologist Peter Daszak in an effort to conceal sensitive information from the public.

[…]

A memo and over 150 emails released by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Wednesday show that Morens spent considerable time and energy avoiding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — a law that requires federal agency records to be provided to the public on request with limited exceptions.

Morens deleted sensitive emails, conducted official business on a private email account, and worked with an NIAID administrator in the FOIA office to strategically misspell keywords that the public might request to be searched, the committee alleges.

Morens sought to conceal emails in which he championed his close friend EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak, a scientist who subcontracted NIAID funding to the lab in Wuhan for experiments that made coronaviruses more deadly.

Morens said that he and Daszak met 20 years ago and were part of the same close-knit “fraternity” among emerging infectious diseases experts.

The subpoenaed emails make clear that Morens repeatedly advocated for EcoHealth and Daszak from within Fauci’s inner circle — serving as an intermediary between Daszak and Fauci — and often using his private Gmail account to shuttle messages.

One email released by the committee suggests that Fauci himself may have subverted public records requests through the use of a personal email account, bypassing official channels.

“I can either send stuff to Tony on his private email or hand it to him at work or at his house,” Morens emailed on April 21, 2021. “He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”

Other emails show Morens and Daszak strategizing about how to convey information to Fauci without leaving a paper trail.

Morens confirmed Wednesday that he discussed grants from NIAID to the Wuhan Institute of Virology with Fauci.

“I certainly told him some things that he asked me to tell him about the situation with Peter [Daszak],” Morens said.

That statement contradicts a transcribed interview Morens gave the committee earlier this year in which he said he did not recall discussing EcoHealth or the Wuhan lab with Fauci.

“The evidence establishes that Dr. Morens likely provided false testimony to the Select Subcommittee,” the committee’s memo states.

The committee may recommend that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate Morens for making false statements, a crime in violation of Title 18 U.S. Code Section 1001.

The testimony follows revelations last week that Morens stated he would delete any “smoking guns” implicating a connection between Daszak’s organization and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Far from allaying concerns, Morens’ subpoenaed emails and testimony only raised more questions about the culture at the NIAID around transparency and public records requests.

Indeed, the emails and testimony suggest NIAID may have systems in place to help employees evade FOIA requests.

NIAID did not reply to a request for comment.

In addition, Morens wrote an email about the possibility of a “kickback” for helping to restore EcoHealth’s NIAID funding.

He wrote profane emails that referred to binge drinking and sex and made a remark about former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky wearing a skirt, raising concerns about his lack of professionalism and attitudes toward women.

“It is very disturbing to witness this type of behavior from Dr. Fauci’s senior advisor, but the evidence is clear and overwhelming. Dr. Fauci’s NIAID was unfortunately less pristine than so many, including the media, would’ve had us all believe,” said Chair Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio).

In one of the emails obtained by the committee, Morens acknowledges that the reputation of EcoHealth and Daszak affect the reputations of Fauci and former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins.

“From Tony’s numerous recent comments to me, and from what Francis has been vocal about over the past 5 days, they are trying to protect you, which also protects their own reputations,” Morens wrote in October 2021.

Morens’ attorneys turned over 30,000 emails to the committee responsive to a subpoena on April 30, just before Daszak testified to the committee on May 1.

It remains to be seen whether more emails come to light following the new revelations that Fauci apparently used a private Gmail account and that Morens used a Proton Mail account in addition to his Gmail account.

Morens said that the emails about a “back channel,” a “kickback,” and “smoking guns” simply reflected “black humor.” Morens also expressed regret for how his emails had undermined trust in NIAID.

“I’ve already apologized for making snarky and profane comments but I made them thinking that they were made on my private Gmail in a manner that was just between a small group of friends,” Morens said. “It’s embarrassing to me. I shouldn’t have done it. But I accept that I did it. I don’t know what to say other than I’m sorry.”

However, Morens gave unclear testimony in response to the question of whether he improperly used his personal email to conduct official business.

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) read out six separate emails in which Morens referred to avoiding FOIA. It took over three minutes to read every one.

“This Gmail communication thing was set up purely to deal with personal things that were not government business,” Morens said.

“How can you say that when in all of these emails you said you were intentionally avoiding FOIA? You said it in your own words, sir,” Lesko said.

Lesko countered that official emails had been forwarded to his private Gmail and that the emails on his Gmail had his official NIAID position in the email signature.

Morens blamed a technical issue.

“Sir, I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe you,” Lesko replied.

‘Do I get a kickback???’

When the novel coronavirus emerged from the same city in China with a high-security lab specializing in coronaviruses, Daszak’s collaboration with the lab and with University of North Carolina gain-of-function corona virologist Ralph Baric, Ph.D., came under scrutiny — including from non-virologists like Wenstrup.

Morens, Fauci and Daszak all went into action.

Fauci met with virologists concerned about viral engineering, dispatched another aide to investigate any NIAID ties to the research and met with Baric to discuss these papers.

Daszak organized a letter in a prestigious scientific journal dismissing lab-origin concerns as conspiratorial.

For his part, Morens helped Daszak with non-public information when concerns about the Wuhan lab prompted NIH to suspend EcoHealth’s grant. Morens forwarded Daszak an email marked “for official use only” in April 2020.

Morens appears to have helped Daszak navigate around NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research Michael Lauer’s request for more information about the Wuhan lab in 2020 as a condition of the reinstatement of the grant, possibly hampering the U.S. government from accessing more information about the research underway there.

Morens even personally edited EcoHealth’s response to Lauer, one email shows. That email too contradicts Morens’ transcribed interview earlier this year, perhaps exposing him to criminal penalties.

Daszak’s testimony earlier this month indicated that he never asked the Wuhan lab for genomic data beyond 2015 or so or for relevant lab notebooks — instead he merely forwarded a request for information from NIH.

Morens also alerted Daszak to the forthcoming publication of documents released under FOIA in September 2021.

Morens invoked Fauci’s name in an email in which he appealed to an EcoHealth Alliance board member to continue to support the organization upon Daszak’s request.

After the grant was reinstated — despite Daszak’s failure to provide the data and information about the Wuhan lab that NIH requested — Morens sent an email referring to a “kickback.”

“Ahem…. Do I get a kickback??? Too much fooking money! DO you deserve it all? Let’s discuss….” he wrote.

“Of course, there’s a kick-back,” Daszak replied.

Morens said the emails were in jest and denied receiving payment or any gifts from EcoHealth or Daszak.

Members of the committee of both parties expressed concerns that Morens used official resources and the imprimatur of the NIAID to improperly assist the embattled EcoHealth, and how that could impact NIAID.

“I just hope you’re going to be very careful as you are telling us what the facts are because I’m very disturbed about other people who may be thrown under the bus in some of the wiley statements you made on your personal statements,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), an apparent reference to Fauci and Collins.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has suspended federal funding both to EcoHealth and to Daszak personally pending an investigation into their handling of taxpayer funds. EcoHealth and Daszak could face debarment of any federal funds for several years.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who recently co-launched a bipartisan investigation into biosafety issues at the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, called upon the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Morens Wednesday and alleged a criminal conspiracy to conceal records at NIAID.

The emails also indicate that Morens played a central role at NIAID in early debates about gain-of-function experiments — specifically, controversial experiments on highly pathogenic avian flu in 2011 — and that he privately criticized scientists in favor of stronger biosafety regulations at Rutgers University, Harvard University and Stanford University.

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/david-morens-destroyed-sensitive-emails-hid-niaid-wuhan-ties-rtk/

US Government Producing 4.8M Bird Flu Vaccines as 2 New Human Cases Identified

h5n1 and vaccine bottles

Federal health officials are ramping up efforts to combat what they claim is the growing threat of H5N1 bird flu with plans to produce 4.8 million vaccine doses and increase influenza surveillance nationwide.

The move comes as two new human bird flu infection cases were identified — in Michigan and Australia — heightening concerns about the virus’s potential to spread among humans.

The new vaccine, currently in bulk form, will be filled and finished in multidose vials by one of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) manufacturing partners without disrupting seasonal flu vaccine production, according to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP).

HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell on Wednesday said that active discussions are underway across federal agencies about the key triggers for deploying the H5N1 vaccine doses.

Triggers could include evidence the virus is spreading to people not employed on farms, or between humans rather than solely from animals to humans, or that the virus is causing more severe illness in those infected.

O’Connell also said HHS is in talks with Pfizer and Moderna about developing mRNA-based bird flu vaccines.

Reports of new human bird flu cases and plans for increased vaccine production sparked a surge in the value of vaccine-focused biotech companies’ stock on Wednesday, including Moderna, BioNTech, CureVac and Novavax, according to The Financial Times.

New human cases in Michigan, Australia

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported that the H5 avian flu case in a dairy farm worker was identified through ongoing public health actions, which allowed farm workers to monitor and notify health officials if they developed symptoms, CIDRAP reported.

Reporting on only the second human case of bird flu infection this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the worker’s nasal swab tested negative for H5 influenza. But an eye swab tested positive, suggesting an eye infection similar to a previous case in Texas, reported in April.

Meanwhile, Michigan’s agriculture department reported another H5N1 avian flu outbreak in a dairy herd, bringing the total number of affected farms in the state to 19. The latest outbreak occurred in Gratiot County, where the virus was found at three other dairy farms earlier in the week.

On Tuesday, Australian health authorities reported the country’s first human case of H5N1. According to a report from the Victoria Department of Health, a child contracted the infection during a trip to India.

Although the report described the case as “severe,” it said the child had fully recovered. Contact tracing showed the infection did not spread to anyone else.

An outbreak of the H7 flu strain at a Victoria egg farm is not the same as the one fueling outbreaks in the U.S., according to Australian health officials. They noted that H5N1 was never detected in animals or people in Australia before this case.

Flu surveillance to scale up nationally

The CDC on Tuesday issued new recommendations urging state and local health officials to maintain enhanced levels of influenza testing over the summer to track potential human infections of bird flu, Newsweek reported.

During a call with health leaders, CDC Principal Deputy Director Nirav Shah emphasized the importance of keeping a “heightened awareness” of influenza transmission amid the ongoing H5N1 outbreak in poultry and U.S. dairy cattle.

Shah encouraged local health officials to collaborate with laboratories to increase submissions of positive flu virus samples for subtyping, determining whether an influenza sample is a common, seasonal flu virus or a novel virus like bird flu.

In a related development, an infectious disease-tracking sewage surveillance network began scaling up H5N1-specific testing of wastewater samples from its 190 sites at treatment plants across 36 states, according to STAT News.

The WastewaterSCAN network, led by Stanford University and Emory University in partnership with Verily Life Sciences, will share data with local public health officials and on its public dashboard in the coming weeks.

Marlene Wolfe, an environmental microbiologist and epidemiologist at Emory and one of the directors of WastewaterSCAN, emphasized the importance of testing wastewater for a genetic signature of the H5N1 virus to give officials “one extra piece of information” to help understand the outbreaks.

However, the CDC admitted that wastewater detection is an “evolving science” that cannot yet precisely determine the source of viral contamination.

This news follows the publication on April 29 of a preprint study by Wolfe and others describing the development of a novel polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to detect the H5 subtype of influenza A virus in wastewater solids.

The researchers detected the H5 marker in samples from four treatment plants in Texas and North Carolina coinciding with areas reporting H5N1 outbreaks in dairy cattle.

Another preprint study published on May 10 by researchers at the University of Texas and Baylor University detailed their detection of H5N1 sequences in wastewater treated at 19 plants across nine Texas cities beginning on March 4.

The CDC has also begun releasing data from its influenza A-tracking efforts on a public wastewater dashboard, including data from 230 sites in 34 states.

While the agency is not conducting H5-specific testing, finding high levels of influenza A in wastewater over the next few months could indicate unusual activity before the higher seasonal flu levels return in the fall.

 

This article was funded by critical thinkers like you.

The Defender is 100% reader-supported. No corporate sponsors. No paywalls. Our writers and editors rely on you to fund stories like this that mainstream media won’t write.

‘Relatively easy’ to ‘run a fear campaign’ to sell a vaccine

While expanding wastewater testing can be a tool for monitoring the spread of H5N1 bird flu, Dr. David Bell, a public health expert, warned against overinterpreting the results.

Bell told The Defender the presence of a pathogen’s genome in wastewater, including bird flu, does not necessarily indicate the presence of sick or infected humans.

“Birds poo rather widely,” he said, suggesting that finding the bird flu virus in wastewater is almost inevitable, regardless of the time period. “We would have found it if we had done this 20 years ago, 50 years ago or 100 years ago.”

Bell also expressed concern about the pressure to use new and more sensitive tests, incentivizing sales and use and yielding results that are “divorced from actual risk or the production of useful data.”

“It seems almost inevitable that we will find bird flu virus if we look for it in this way,” he said.

As an example of misplaced risk assessments, Bell said most deaths during the 1917-18 pandemic were not due to the virus but occurred because modern antibiotics for treating secondary bacterial infections were unavailable.

“It is relatively easy to demonstrate theoretical risk and run a fear campaign that may change behavior and sell a product such as a vaccine,” Bell said. “It is much harder to run a proportionate, evidence-based and sustainable public health policy.”

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/hhs-bird-flu-vaccines-two-human-cases/

World Bank launches plan to decimate global farming under excuse of cutting carbon emissions

World Bank launches plan to decimate global farming under excuse of cutting carbon emissions

Dr Eddy Betterman

The globalist-led World Bank issued a report recently that proposes the idea of making drastic cuts to global agriculture production in order to achieve “net zero emissions.”

The plot involves centralizing the world’s farms in the hands of just a few wealthy individuals who plan to cut almost one-third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions by radically altering the way food is grown.

The report touts the proposed changes in nice-sounding terminology that claims food production will continue in such a way as “to feed a growing population.” The reality, though, is that the proposal threatens to eliminate large swaths of agricultural production that in turn could lead to famine and starvation.

“While the food on your table may taste good, it is also a hefty slice of the climate change emissions pie,” claims Axel van Trostenburg, a World Bank figure.

The good news is that the global food system can heal the planet – making soils, ecosystems and people healthier, while keeping carbon in the ground. This is within reach in our lifetimes, but countries must act now: simply changing how middle-income countries use land, such as forests and ecosystems, for food production can cut agrifood emissions by a third by 2030.”

The end of food

Instead of promoting diverse agricultural practices that local family farmers have been honing for centuries – such practices are good for the environment rather than bad – the World Bank wants to throw the baby out with the bathwater by getting rid of agriculture entirely in some areas.

We are seeing that push in the Netherlands and other parts of Western Europe. And now the World Bank is proposing even more agriculture reductions because it claims the climate is warming from all the food people are growing.

“Action should happen across all countries to get to net zero, through a comprehensive approach to reducing emissions in food systems, including in fertilizers and energy, crop and livestock production, and packaging and distribution across the value chain from farm to table,” the World Bank says.

As usual, the globalists are proposing a one-size-fits-all solution to standardize farming practices even though local ecosystems vary widely from place to place. It does not matter to them, though, because the investment returns from their proposal are massive.

“Annual investments will need to increase to $260 billion a year to cut in half agrifood emissions by 2030 and to reach net zero emissions by 2050,” the World Bank says.

“Making these investments would lead to more than $4 trillion in benefits, from improvements in human health, food and nutrition security, better quality jobs and profits for farmers, to more carbon retained in forests and soils.”

Greed is once again ruling the day, and the shortsightedness of these globalists will spell their own undoing. Once they, too, run out of food, all that money they are stealing will be worthless because there will be no food left for them to buy with it.

“Ultimately, the World Bank’s ambitious project to restructure global agriculture underestimates the risks of unintended consequences, including food shortages, economic disruption, and increased hardship for the most vulnerable,” warns Watts Up With That.

“History teaches that centralized interventions in complex systems such as global agriculture often lead to outcomes opposite those intended, driven by a failure to account for the organic and evolved nature of these systems. The portrayal of these interventions as low-risk and high-return is not only misleading but potentially dangerous, paving the way for a future where the global food supply is less secure and more susceptible to the whims of bureaucratic mismanagement.”

[…]

Via https://dreddymd.com/2024/05/24/world-bank-decimating-global-farming-carbon-emissions/

International Court Orders Israel to Halt Offensive in Rafah

International Court of Justice.

International Court of Justice. | Photo: X/ @ShaykhSulaiman

teleSUR Newsletter

Israel’s response to the order will be the occupation of Rafah, Defense Minister Gvir said defiantly.

On Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to halt its military offensive in southern Gaza city of Rafah.

This decision is related to the request made by South Africa in December 2023, when the International Court received an application for instituting proceedings against Israel for violations in the Gaza Strip of obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Convention.

“Israel must immediately cease its military offensive or any other actions in the Rafah governorate that may endanger the Palestinian population in Gaza, potentially leading to their physical destruction, wholly or partially,” ICJ Judge Nawaf Salam said.

“Israel must implement effective measures to ensure unhindered access to the Gaza Strip for any commission of inquiry, fact-finding mission, or investigative body authorized by the relevant organs of the United Nations to investigate.

Among the first reactions to the ICJ decision were the statements of the Israeli Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir, who described the ruling as “anti-Semitic.” Defiantly, the Zionist official said that Israel’s response to the ICJ order will be to “occupy Rafa.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich held a similar opinion, denoting Israel’s unwillingness to abide by international institutions and law.

“Those who demand that the State of Israel stop the war demand that it be decreed to cease to exist. We will not accept that. If we lay down our weapons, the enemy will reach the beds of our children and women throughout the country,” he said.

On the other hand, the Palestinian Resistance Movement (HAMAS) welcomed the ICJ decision but expressed that it has a limited scope.

“We expected the court to decide on the cessation of aggression in the entire Gaza Strip and not only in the Rafa area. What is happening in Jabalia and other areas is no less criminal and dangerous,” it said.

Another limitation of the ruling lies in the fact that the ICJ does not issue binding decisions. Furthermore, Israel does not recognize the jurisdiction of the UN highest court of justice.

The ICJ ruling might have some immediate practical effect if the United Nations Security Council meets and approves a decision along similar lines, which could lead to the intervention of a UN peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip.

[…]

Via https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/International-Court-Orders-Israel-to-Halt-Offensive-in-Rafah-20240524-0006.html

The End of Egyptian Dynasty XVIII

Ancient Egypt - Karnak

Blocks Horemheb Recycled from Ankenaten’s Temple

Episode 23 The End of Dynasty XVIII

The History of Ancient Egypt

Professor Robert Brier

Film Review

Ay, the former vizier (prime minister) who succeeded Tutankamen by marrying his widow. ruled from 1325-1321 BC. His reign continued to steer away from Ankenaten’s monotheistic heresy (see Egypt’s Ankenaten: The World’s First Montheistic Ruler). Ay buried west of the Valley of the Kings in a tomb originally built for Tutankamen.

His successor Horemheb (1320-1292 BC)  was a military man who served Tutankamen’s father Amenhotep (as King’s Deputy). He stayed behind in Memphis when Ankenaten moved the capitol to Akhetaton. Under Tutankamen, he served as Recorder of Royal Laws. He married Mutnedjme, believed to be the sister of Nephriti. As a commoner, it’s likely he used military force to seize the throne.

Associated with Tof, the god of writing, Horemheb ruled for 28 years, trying to erase all temple inscriptions pertaining to Ankanaten, Tutankamen and Ay.

The new policies he initiated were

  • integrating the priests (owing to their immense power) into the military to bring them under closer control
  • appointing a separate military commander for northern and southern Egypt
  • launching an immense program of building projects, include pylons at Karnak constructed from the blocks of Ankenaten’s temple (which he disassembled).*

Horemheb also usurped all Tutankamen’s monuments (which was why it took Egyptologists so long to learn Tutankamen existed), carving out Tutankamen’s name to replace it with his own.


*A virtual model of this temple has been created via computer to reconstruct the original inscriptions.

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

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/1492791/1492846