Episode 25: The World After 1215

1215: Years That Changed History

Dr Dorsey Armstrong (2019)

Film Review

As Armstrong points out in her very first lecture, the years 1211-1225 experienced the mildest climate in a century and led to bountiful harvests and a population increase.

Following 1225, the world experienced a global environmental climate catastrophe that totally impoverished many of the civilizations discussed in this course. In Europe, for example, there were several planting seasons where it rained continuously (once for as long as six weeks) and seeds rotted in the ground.

Most civilizations declined after 1215:

In the Americas:

• The Mayan empire continued to shrink until Spanish invaders conquered it in the 16th century.
• In contrast, the Incan empire continued to expand until the Spanish conquered it in 1532 an put a puppet emperor on the throne. Incan civilization officially ended in 1572, when the Spanish executed the last Incan emperor Tupac Amaru.
• The Pueblo “accommodated” European culture until 1680, when they led the first successful revolt against Spanish invaders and drove them out of Pueblo territory.

In Africa

• In Ethiopia, the only African country never colonized by Europeans, the ruling Zabwe dynasty was overthrown by the Abyssinians* in 1270. They remained in power until Haile Selassie was assassinated in 1974.
• The Zimbabwe empire thrived for two centuries until 1500.
• After creating Ghana as a separate state, Mali continued to thrive until the 16th century, when it was sacked by its neighbors.

In Europe, increasing resource scarcity lead to an increase of persecutory behavior by church and secular elites focused on confiscating more resources for themselves. Archeological studies reveal human beings became smaller and sicker as the nobility forced them off their communal lands and they crowded into city centers. The temporary inquisition launched against the Cathars in the 12th century became permanent in 1220.

In 1347, an outbreak of plague in Europe, Asia and the Middle East (killing roughly half the European population) decimated communities and created massive political instability. European population levels wouldn’t rebound to 14th century levels until the 1600s.

By 1274, the Mongolian Empire had fractured into four separate khanates: the Yuan dynasty in China, the khanate of the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe, the Chagatai khanate in Central Asia and the Ilkhanate in the Middle East. Each became more and more politically autonomous until the Mongol empire ceased to exist in 1368.

*The plague started in China and was transmitted along the Silk Road by Mongol traders.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/12392969/12393019

Igor Chudov

Pfizer’s Greed and Recklessness Will Catch Up with Them. That Happened to Purdue Pharma

SUMMARY: The stock market may be waking up to the possibility that Pfizer may go bankrupt due to the upcoming Covid vaccine claims. Many parallels can be drawn between the corporate behaviors of Pfizer and Purdue Pharma, another pharmaceutical concern that dishonestly and aggressively marketed harmful products. Purdue Pharma went bankrupt due to the greed and depravity of its leaders, as their “legal protections” evaporated. The same may happen to Pfizer.

Old, experienced vaccine companies like GSK refused to participate in “Covid vaccines” – and we now see why they made the right choice.

Take a look at this chart: Pfizer’s stock (PFE) is valued at 25% less than it was five years ago, despite the billions of dollars it received from the sales of COVID vaccines, and the stock market and the pharmaceuticals index having gone up:

At first sight, Pfizer, a worldwide pharmaceutical juggernaut, should not be worth less than before the pandemic. Pfizer’s COVID vaccine made it billions and should have added value to the company, even if future sales of COVID-19-specific products cannot be assured. And yet, PFE has inexorably fallen since last November and is worth 25% less than five years ago, defying the general upside tendencies seen for other pharmaceuticals and the stock market.

Since November of 2022, Pfizer has deviated from the trend of the pharmaceuticals index, underperforming by 35%.

This can only be explained by the capital markets seeing something uniquely troublesome for Pfizer. This post will explore what it may be.

I am far from the first person suggesting that Pfizer, which aggressively marketed its COVID vaccines and underwrote a worldwide influence operation to mandate its product, may face ruinous liabilities.

Ed Dowd, a former asset manager, was one of the first people to realize that. He explained that legal protection granted to Pfizer by the PREP act will cease to protect it if significant fraud on the part of Pfizer is discovered.

Purdue Pharma as a Blueprint to the Future of Pfizer

Purdue Pharma was a company making opioid-based pain relief medications. They were very addictive. Purdue was owned by the “Sackler family,” with the entire company leadership obsessed with maximizing sales of opioids and minimizing ethical concerns.

The story of Purdue Pharma, its relentless push towards higher doses of opioids given to patients to get them addicted, is much longer than the story of the Covid vaccines. This post is not the best place for a comprehensive history. The best quick introduction to the malfeasance of the Sackler family that owned Purdue Pharma is to read the PDF of the Massachusetts legal complaint.

The complaint reads like a detective story, full of sordid details about malfeasance in Purdue Pharma and the deaths that it caused.

The Sacklers and Purdue Pharma used the same playbook as Pfizer did by buying off the corrupt press to place favorable publications. Take a look at just one example: a paid article from the New York Times:

[…]

Greedy and Reckless Management at Purdue and Pfizer

The maternal RSV vaccine story further highlights how reckless Pfizer is.

The NIH gave the blueprint for the RSV vaccine to both Pfizer and GSK. Both companies tested essentially the same product. Clinical trials revealed that giving the RSV vaccine to pregnant women increased premature births and infant mortality.

GSK, the established and conservative vaccine company, wisely heeded the alarm signal and abandoned the maternal RSV vaccine development. Instead of honestly terminating the program, Pfizer purposely selected small vaccine and placebo groups to make the premature birth signal statistically insignificant and lobbied the corrupt FDA to approve its vaccine.

[…]

Via https://www.igor-chudov.com/p/pfizer-may-go-bankrupt-financial

Dr Mercola

Story at-a-glance

• France plans to vaccinate 64 million ducks across 2,700 farms against bird flu, at a cost of $105 million
• The vaccination campaign, which is mandatory for farms with more than 250 ducks or those raising ducks for meat or foie gras, was launched in response to the country’s repeated outbreaks of bird flu since 2020
• Birds vaccinated for bird flu may not show signs of illness but could still transmit the virus, causing further circulation of the disease
• As a result, the U.S. restricted the importation of poultry from France, as well as live ducks, duck eggs and untreated duck products from the European Union, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway
• Bird flu is being painted as the next big pandemic, and the U.S. is testing avian flu vaccines for use in poultry and people

France plans to vaccinate 64 million ducks across 2,700 farms against bird flu. The vaccination campaign, which is mandatory for French farms with more than 250 ducks or those raising ducks for meat or foie gras, was launched in response to the country’s repeated outbreaks of bird flu since 2020.

If even a single case of the disease is found, an entire farmed population may be culled. Hundreds of millions of birds have already been killed as a result in the last two years.¹

Officials have also turned up the fear-mongering, suggesting avian influenza could mutate, infect humans and turn into the next pandemic.² The shots are estimated to cost $105 million, 85% of which will be paid by France³ — and that’s without factoring in the economic losses from import restrictions.

US Restricts French Poultry Imports

Due to the use of bird flu vaccines, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced it restricted the importation of poultry from France, as well as live ducks, duck eggs and untreated duck products from the European Union, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway.⁴ According to APHIS:⁵

“These restrictions are due to increased risk of introducing Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) into the United States … The restrictions … the result of France’s decision to vaccinate commercial meat ducks against HPAI. France’s decision to vaccinate presents a risk of introducing HPAI into the United States.

The United States does not currently allow the import of poultry from countries affected with HPAI or from flocks that have been vaccinated by HPAI. Vaccination of poultry against HPAI virus may mask HPAI virus circulating in poultry. Vaccinated birds may not show signs of HPAI infection, which could lead to the export of infected live animals or virus-contaminated products to the United States.”

Japan’s Agriculture Ministry also announced plans to suspend imports of poultry products from France due to the vaccination campaign.⁶ It’s interesting to note that, compared with chickens, ducks are typically resistant to avian influenza virus and don’t show symptoms.⁷

Duck and foie gras trade group CIFOG was in favor of the shots nonetheless, stating, “This vaccination plan … is a world-first: its goal is to protect all farmed birds and should put an end to the preventive slaughter of animals, which no one wants to live with anymore.”⁸ Yet, others weren’t receptive to the idea. One farmer told French news outlet AFP that her clients were “calling to tell me they don’t want meat from vaccinated ducks.”⁹

USDA Is Testing Bird Flu Vaccines

Most countries have been hesitant to vaccinate poultry against bird flu because it can hide symptoms of the illness, allowing the virus to circulate further.¹⁰ But the U.S., despite restricting imports of vaccinated poultry from France, has already begun avian influenza vaccination trials. In an April 2023 news release, the U.S. Department of Agriculture stated:¹¹

“ARS [Agricultural Research Service] researchers are currently testing several vaccine candidates … Should the trials be successful, and should USDA elect to continue development, the next step is identifying manufacturers interested in vaccine production. Once one or more manufacturers are identified, there are 20 discrete stages to complete before vaccine delivery.

These stages begin with feasibility work by the manufacturer and culminates with product label submission and review. General timeframes are 2.5-3 years; however, in emergency situations manufacturers may expedite development, resulting in a shortened timeframe to licensure.

From vaccine development to production timelines, to dissemination to flocks, there are many factors that make implementing a vaccine strategy a challenge and it would take time to deliver an effective vaccine.

In a best case scenario, USDA estimates an 18-24 month timeline before having a vaccine that matches the currently circulating virus strain, is available in commercial quantities, and can be easily administered to commercial poultry.”

Further, back in 2015, the USDA granted a conditional license to Harrisvaccines for its RNA avian influenza vaccine against HPAI.¹²

Is Bird Flu Being Weaponized?

Nearly 15 years ago, I wrote my New York Times best-selling book “The Great Bird Flu Hoax.” President George Bush spent over $7 billion and warned that more than 2 million Americans could die.¹³ But no one in the U.S. died from bird flu, which was a fraud. Yet, here we are today, with governments still warning that bird flu could be the next big pandemic in humans.

Historically, natural avian influenza (H5N1) hasn’t posed a threat to mankind, but then scientists started tinkering with it, creating a hybrid with human pandemic potential.¹⁴ Some of that research has been undertaken in Pentagon-funded biolabs in Ukraine.¹⁵

Bill Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have also funded gain-of-function research on H5N1.¹⁶ One scientist whose work on H5N1 has been funded by both Fauci and Gates is Yoshihiro Kawaoka, Ph.D.¹⁷

In one experiment, Kawaoka mixed bird flu virus with the Spanish flu virus, resulting in a highly lethal respiratory virus with human transmission capability. Kawaoka has also played around with mixtures of H5N1 and the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) virus, creating an airborne hybrid capable of evading the human immune system, effectively rendering humans defenseless against it.^18,19,20

Further, in a March 30, 2022, CenterPoint interview, former director for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, more than hinted at the possibility of a coming bird flu pandemic, stating, “I believe the great pandemic is still in the future, and that’s going to be a bird flu pandemic for man. It’s going to have significant mortality in the 10% to 50% range. It’s gonna be trouble.”²¹

Meanwhile, bird flu is also affecting mammals at a rate not previously seen, including skunks, bears, seals, foxes, minks and even dolphins.²² Gavi, which was founded by the Gates Foundation in partnership with WHO, is using this as propaganda for why “bird flu vaccines need urgent R&D.”²³ According to Gavi:

“In general, bird flu doesn’t infect people easily — the virus binds to receptors in the upper airways of birds that are not as common in mammalian upper airways, which means it is much harder for infected mammals to spread it. Those affected tend to have been in close contact with the animals, such as farm workers, and it doesn’t easily spread between people.

However, the fact that the current global H5N1 bird flu outbreak has caused such large die-offs and has started to spread in small mammals means that some scientists are concerned that the virus could evolve to spread more easily among human beings, potentially triggering another pandemic.”

Given the increasing rhetoric from globalists that a bird flu pandemic is coming, if we do end up with a lethal human bird flu, there’s every reason to suspect it was manmade. There’s also every reason to suspect a bird flu vaccine will be either ineffective, hazardous or both.

Bird Flu Shots in the Works for People ‘Just in Case’

Even though “bird flu doesn’t infect people easily,”²⁴ and human cases are “very rare”²⁵ with low risk of transmission, three vaccine manufacturers — GSK, Moderna and CSL Seqirus — are developing or ready to test bird flu shots in people. A fourth company, Sanofi, said they have existing bird flu vaccine strains and “stand ready” to ramp up production.²⁶

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which was founded in 2017 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Economic Forum and Wellcome, among others, is already setting the stage for a rush on bird flu shots. “We could potentially have a much worse problem with vaccine hoarding and vaccine nationalism in a flu outbreak than we saw with COVID,” Dr. Richard Hatchett, CEPI’s chief executive, told Reuters.²⁷

Why should you be wary of CEPI’s warning? As The Highwire reported, “CEPI is a global syndicate of public-private organizations whose mission is to highlight pandemic threats, continuously prepare for the next “Disease X,” and advance vaccines.”²⁸

Moderna already launched trials of an mRNA pandemic flu shot targeting avian influenza and also said it could produce such vaccines “very quickly” if an outbreak occurs.²⁹

[…]

Via https://envirowatchnz.com/2023/10/19/with-france-planning-to-vaccinate-64-million-ducks-is-bird-flu-being-weaponized/

(Illustration: Lex Villena; Pojoslaw)

Joe Lancaster

Michigan Supreme Court will hear opening arguments today in a case that could decide whether the practice is allowed.

A Michigan township sued a local family over a minor zoning violation, but the case could determine whether governments can spy on citizens without warrants. Today, the Michigan Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on the case.

Todd and Heather Maxon live in Long Lake Township, on five acres of land with two garages. Todd likes to work on cars, so he keeps some on the property. In 2008, the township sued, accusing them of storing “junk,” a zoning violation. In exchange for dropping the charges, the couple agreed not to expand their collection. Neighbors later complained that the Maxons had indeed acquired more cars, but the collection was not visible from the road.

Instead of getting a warrant—or, since nothing was visible from the road, dropping the issue altogether—the township hired a private drone company to fly over the property and take pictures several times between 2010 and 2018. Citing the pictures, the township sued the Maxons for violating the agreement.

The Maxons argued that since the township never sought a warrant, the pictures violated their Fourth Amendment rights. While the Michigan Court of Appeals agreed, the state Supreme Court remanded the case back and asked the appeals court to determine “whether the exclusionary rule applies to this dispute.” Under the exclusionary rule, evidence obtained illegally cannot be used at trial.

This time, the court of appeals sided with the township. It agreed that the search was a violation of the Maxons’ Fourth Amendment rights but decided that it didn’t matter since the case was civil and not criminal. “The exclusionary rule was not intended to operate in this arena, and serves no valuable function,” Chief Judge Elizabeth Gleicher wrote, adding, “The exclusionary rule is intended to deter police misconduct, not that of lower-level bureaucrats who have little or no training in the Fourth Amendment.”

Gleicher contended that the Maxons could sue the township in civil court for the Fourth Amendment violation but that the evidence should remain free to use against them at trial, as “the social cost of excluding evidence in a case such as this would be substantial…as a public nuisance would potentially remain unabated.”

Today, the Michigan Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Long Lake Township v. Maxon. The court has the chance to decide whether a municipal government can circumvent constitutional protections by farming out the task to a private company.

Oddly, the case is not so straightforward as deciding whether or not warrantless drone surveillance is constitutional; in fact, the appeals court ruled explicitly that it was not. But it also said that excluding any evidence gathered would be inappropriate, so the state Supreme Court can functionally determine whether local governments can do this and get away with it.

Multiple civil liberty advocacy organizations have submitted amicus briefs on behalf of the Maxons. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Michigan, and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free market think tank based in Michigan, jointly filed a brief in September. The organizations argued that “if the Township gets its way, it will not only profit from its privacy violations, but open the door to other local governments deploying cheap, pervasive, flying surveillance devices to surveil private property for the smallest of civil infractions.”

“The exclusionary remedy—whether in criminal or civil enforcement cases like this one—is, in practice, the only reliable incentive modern officials have to take care that Fourth Amendment rights are respected,” argued the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit public-interest law firm, in its own brief. “Without consequences for arbitrary invasions into those rights, no one can be secure in their person, house, papers, or effects.”

The Cato Institute called the township’s search “manifestly unreasonable” as it was “conducted without judicial supervision and with no justification for failing to procure a warrant other than mere convenience.”

[…]

Via https://reason.com/2023/10/18/should-governments-need-a-warrant-to-spy-on-you-with-a-drone/

Getty Images

Robert Hart

Forbes

Topline

Stocks of Pfizer and other Covid vaccine makers like BioNTech and Moderna fell in premarket trading Monday after the company slashed its revenue forecasts last week, a change in fortune for the sector as demand for the pandemic-related products that propelled them to record profits last year plummets.

Key Facts

News Peg

Pfizer slashed its annual revenue forecast by 13% on Friday due to sliding demand for its Covid-19 products. Sales of the firm’s mRNA shot, produced jointly with BioNTech, and its antiviral drug Paxlovid helped it secure record profits last year but the firm has long warned about sliding demand as the world, and particularly the U.S., exits the pandemic this year.

The company cut its projections for Paxlovid by $7 billion and by around $2 billion for its Covid shots, which was greater than analysts expected. Pfizer said it was launching a $3.5 billion cost-cutting program covering jobs and expenses as it prepares for the hit to its revenues.

Pfizer said it would take a write down of $5.5 billion in the third quarter due to shrinking demand for its Covid stock, most of which comes from inventory write-offs of Paxlovid worth $4.6 billion. The company also acknowledged a $900 million write off from Covid vaccine stock, a write-off BioNTech also flagged on Monday on account of its profit sharing agreement with Pfizer.

What To Watch For

Moderna will report its quarterly earnings on November 2. While Moderna is leveraging its success during the pandemic to develop a wide array of medicines, treatments and vaccines for things including Lyme disease, the flu, HIV, RSV, Zika, norovirus and genetic conditions, its Covid-19 vaccines are its only commercial product and it is particularly vulnerable to sliding demand.

[…]

Via https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/10/16/vaccine-stocks-including-pfizer-moderna-biontech-and-novavax-slide-amid-plummeting-demand/?sh=d213d2c70999