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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.

Fewer than 7% of Canadian kids 5 and younger have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine

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 (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Julia Wong

CBC

It has been more than four months since Health Canada approved the first COVID-19 vaccine for children under five, but national uptake has been low.

The latest numbers from the Public Health Agency of Canada show, as of Oct. 9, 6.5 per cent of kids under five have received one dose of vaccine, while one per cent have received two doses.

By comparison, 86.9 per cent of Canadians five and older have received one dose, while 84.2 per cent have received two doses.

“Coverage for COVID vaccination for kids under five is quite strikingly low,” said Shannon MacDonald, a nursing professor at the University of Alberta who leads the university’s applied immunization research team.

[…]

Via https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/covid19-vaccination-kids-under-five-low-1.6641727

First RSV Emergency Declared as Pfizer and GSK Race to Get Vaccines Approved

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rsv race vaccine pfizer gsk feature

By  Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

Southern California’s Orange County Health Department this month declared a local health emergency over concerns around the rising number of pediatric cases of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) amid news Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline are close to seeking approval for new RSV vaccines.

County officials also declared a Proclamation of Local Emergency, allowing them to access state and federal resources in response to the spread of RSV.

The news came amid media warnings of a looming “tripledemic” of RSV, influenza and COVID-19 and news that Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are close to securing regulatory approval for their RSV vaccine candidates — including Pfizer’s RSV vaccine for pregnant women.

RSV was first identified in 1956, and frequently affects children, with a majority of childhood cases occurring before age 2. For most children, symptoms are similar to those of the common cold, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

It can, however, cause serious symptoms in the very young and the elderly, although childhood deaths are infrequent, according to CDC data.

According to California attorney Rita Barnett-Rose, there’s no evidence to support claims that Orange County hospitals are overextended, or to justify a state of emergency.

[…]

 

Is pharma using COVID playbook to push RSV vaccines?

Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, Orange County’s health officer, said in a press release county officials issued the declaration due to “rapidly spreading virus infections causing record numbers of pediatric hospitalizations and daily emergency room visits.”

The declaration will allow the county to access state and federal resources and to allow non-pediatric hospitals to offer beds to sick children, Chinsio-Kwong said.

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) California Chapter notes that this declaration was unanimously ratified “over the objections by members of the public who showed up to speak against the declarations.”

Dr. Melaine Patterson, chief nursing officer for Children’s Health Orange County, said area hospitals are seeing an “unprecedented” volume of children visiting their emergency rooms — approximately 400 per day, with wait times of “four to 12 hours.”

She also said that, as of Nov. 1, there were 285 patients in her hospital, compared to 188 on that date last year, adding that 11 of those current patients were placed in ICU as a result of RSV infections. RSV cases also are on the rise nationally.

Chinsio-Kwong advised the public to remain “up to date with other vaccinations such as flu and COVID-19” to “reduce the burden on hospitals this fall and winter.”

“Our best shot at protecting ourselves and our children from respiratory illnesses continues to be the same things we practiced throughout the pandemic including the use of masks when indoors around others and staying home when you are sick,” Chinsio-Kwong said.

However, Barnett-Rose said hospitals in Orange County may be overextended not due to an unusually high number of admissions, but due to unvaccinated staff having been let go.

[…]

Barnett-Rose said the emergency declaration in Orange County may be tied to the fact that there are multiple RSV vaccines already in the pipeline:

“The reason this is becoming really huge news is because this is what happened with the COVID state of emergency, too, it kind of went like that in dominoes.

“Once Biden declares a national state of emergency, then that triggers all of the emergency use authorizations that allowed the so-called vaccines for COVID. And I’m sure you already know that there’s vaccines in the works now for RSV that they’re floating out there in the news as well.”

[…]

Up to 30 RSV vaccine candidates already in pipeline

Pharmaceutical industry publication FiercePharma reported that Pfizer and GSK “moved closer to regulatory approvals” in the past week, and “could each see the first-ever approvals for an RSV vaccine in 2023.”

GSK’s candidate will be reviewed May 3, 2023, while Pfizer is “eyeing an approval filing by year-end.”

In all, up to 30 RSV candidate vaccines have been identified by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

GSK has secured priority review status for its RSV vaccine following the submission of data from its AReSVi-006 phase 3 trial. The candidate vaccine exclusively targets adults 60 and older, and the data reportedly “showed high overall vaccine efficacy against RSV lower respiratory disease” at a rate of 82.6%, Fierce Biotech reported.

GSK initially intended to develop an RSV vaccine for older adults and for infants, but plans for the latter were shelved due to a “safety concern.” Nevertheless, GSK CEO Emma Walmsley in a call last week with investors described GSK’s new vaccine as “a very significant scientific achievement.”

Previous efforts to develop an RSV vaccine have failed because they “had a persistent tendency to cause worse disease,” due to “a phenomenon known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE).”

[…]

Pfizer, in its Nov. 1 announcement, claimed that its bivalent RSV prefusion vaccine candidate RSVpreF, also known as PF-06928316, delivered “broadly positive” results — namely, a significant reduction in the rate of respiratory illness in newborns and their mothers.

Pfizer claimed 81.8% efficacy against severe cases of RSV for babies up to three months, and 69.4% efficacy after six months.

Pfizer’s MATISSE (MATernal Immunization Study for Safety and Efficacy) trial involved 7,400 pregnant women and their newborns, tracking the infants for one year following birth, and some for two years. It was conducted in 18 countries beginning in June 2020.

Pfizer’s vaccine trial did not deliver statistically significant results regarding the prevention of infant medical visits caused by RSV, including for non-severe cases.

Nevertheless, Pfizer said there are “no major safety concerns” with its product, adding:

“At the recommendation of the DMC [Data Monitoring Committee], and in consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pfizer has stopped enrollment in the study.

On March 2, 2022, Pfizer’s candidate vaccine received a Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the FDA, while previously, in November 2018, the FDA granted it Fast-Track status, according to the Pfizer release.

[…]

Media tout benefits, ignore safety concerns

Online news portal Vox described the development of new RSV vaccines as “very, very good news” in a recent article.

Coupled with media coverage about “rising” RSV cases nationwide, it appears the stage is being set to create an emergency in the public consciousness, which could lead to EUAs being granted to the new vaccines and a rush to get the public vaccinated.

[…]

As previously reported by The Defender, RSV itself originated in monkeys housed in a Maryland facility where they were used to conduct polio vaccine research. Remarking on this and the connection to RSV vaccine development today, Brian Hooker, CHD’s chief scientific officer, told The Defender, “It is incredible that the vaccine industry can create a disease — RSV from the polio vaccine — and then create another vaccine to ‘prevent’ that disease. Talk about a business proposition!”

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/rsv-emergency-vaccine-race-pfizer-gsk/

20% Of Maricopa County AZ Voting Centers ‘Having Issues’; NJ GOP Responds To Irregularities

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https://m107833-mcdn.mp.lura.live/iupl/865/2FB/8652FB8C4D0F60CF4509142006D9666E.jpg?Expires=1667937578&KeyName=mcpkey1&Signature=oonzXZ0KCvwAymaKqqQUm_fbgVY

Zero Hedge

Nearly 20% of voting centers in Maricopa County, AZ are experiencing issues, according to officials.

The Maricopa County Recorder’s office says technicians have been dispatched to fixed broken tabulation machines.

“We’ve had a few tabulator issues at a couple locations where the tabulator isn’t immediately taking the ballot,” said County Recorder Stephen Richer after being asked about two locations with issues. “Instead it can either be Central count tabulated here, or if that issue can be addressed there, then it can be fed into the tabulator…”

[…]

They only had two years to figure this out… Unless of course this is a feature, not a bug.

Meanwhile, every single Dominion voting machine is down across Mercer County, New Jersey, according to officials.

In a Tuesday morning notice, West Windsor Township informed residents that “Due to a Mercer County-wide system outage, all voting machines are currently down in each district across the County.

[…]

In response, the New Jersey Republican State Committee (NJGOP) says they’re aware of the issue, and that voters can still cast their ballots on paper.

“On behalf of our NJGOP legal counsel and election integrity team, I want to make crystal clear to the voters of Mercer County that in spite of reported problems with scanners on voting machines in Mercer County, this issue does not affect their voting experience at all. Voters will still enter their polling place, cast their vote, and insert the paper ballot into the machine as they normally would.”

Voters can be completely rest assured that NJGOP is ensuring voters’ rights are protected at all phases of the process and that their vote counts -Tom Szymanski, Executive Director NJGOP

[…]

Via https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dominion-voting-machines-broken-new-jersey-reports-misread-ballots-arizona

Vax-Induced Deaths: Scrambling for Cover, CNN Blames Alcohol Abuse for 20% of deaths in Age 20-49.

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CNN scrambling to cover for Covid-vaccine-induced deaths across America, now blaming alcohol abuse for 1 out of every 5 deaths in demographic age group of 20 to 49

Dr Eddy Betterman

First it was cold showers and referee whistles that were suddenly killing healthy athletes and military members, and now it’s alcohol abuse as the cover story for the tsunami of SADS, also known as sudden adult death syndrome, due to the Covid clot shot effect.

A “global study” has revealed that it’s whiskey, wine and beer that’s killing off young adults in mass numbers, all of the sudden over the past two years, since the evil forced-vaccination campaign began for the worldwide scamdemic.

It must have been all that drinking during the lockdowns that started the death-by-alcohol wave. It’s all about age, specific regions and populations, the purported study claims. Published in the journal Lancet, the risk of dying from alcohol is at HIGHEST risk for adults under 40 years of age. Wait, what? Are we talking about crazy college parties where they compete to see what ‘frat’ boys and their sorority girlfriends can do the most shots?

According to the study, 1.34 billion people are in danger of overdosing from alcohol, and most of those people are males between ages of 15 and 39. How much alcohol is considered over the top by this study? One small glass of red wine, one 12-ounce can of beer, or 1 shot of spirits. Really? It leads to cardiovascular disease, the study says, which still provides no explanation for all the young adults dropping dead the past two years from myocarditis, pericarditis, heart attacks and strokes. Vaccines anyone?

Another cherry-picked study inflated and skewed to look like anything but vaccines causing the massive wave of heart problems and heart attacks among young adults

Yes, alcohol is toxic for the human body, taxing the cleansing organs over time, especially for alcoholics. During lockdowns for the pandemic, some people chose to drink more to deal with the stress and lack of entertainment, but it’s highly unlikely this is the cause of a whole wave of fatal heart attacks among young adults between the ages of 20 and 49. Yet, that’s now what CNN, the Counterfeit News Network, wants everyone to believe.

[…]

Via https://dreddymd.com/2022/11/07/cnn-scrambling-cover-covid-vaccine-induced-deaths-blaming-alcohol-abuse/

No Chance of Amnesty for Enforcers of False Covid Narrative

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=nqxGLxepUbM&feature=emb_logo
Dr Joseph Mercola

Story at-a-glance

  • As the COVID lies are now being exposed at exponential speed, some of those proven wrong are getting nervous — so nervous, in fact, they’re now pleading for amnesty and to just let bygones be bygones
  • While some now argue ignorance as their defense, there was no lack of data proving their positions were wrong, dangerous, destructive and deadly, right from the start
  • Health and government officials weren’t just wrong once and then changed course. No, they’ve doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on errors, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that they’re wrong. Granting amnesty to individuals who have been wrong from Day 1, without a single apology, is an untenable proposition. The price society has paid for their errors is far too great for that
  • They were wrong about masks working and natural immunity not working, they were wrong about asymptomatic spread, lockdowns, and the safety and effectiveness of the COVID shots. They were also wrong about SARS-CoV-2 jumping naturally from bats to humans by way of a wet market in Wuhan, China, and they were wrong when they insisted that mandating an experimental gene therapy was within legal bounds. Demanding that officials be held accountable for these errors is not gloating. It’s reestablishing a baseline of conduct and accountability to the public
  • There can be no amnesty for COVID narrative pushers as people proven right are still being persecuted as “misinformation spreaders,” and illegal government censorship continues without abatement. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security now views censorship and controlling the information space as one of its core duties

As the COVID lies are now being exposed at exponential speed, some of those proven wrong are getting nervous — so nervous, in fact, they’re now pleading to just let bygones be bygones.

The Atlantic1 has come under fire for suggesting that all the terrible pandemic-era decisions over lockdowns, school closures, masking and punishing an entire class of people who questioned the efficacy and wisdom of taking a rushed, experimental vaccine — for a virus with a 99% survival rate in most — should all be water under the bridge.

Brown University economist Emily Oster writes in The Atlantic,2 “We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID.”

[…]

Oster’s plea for the decency that she and the mainstream media and public health officials failed to offer Americans during the throes of the pandemic comes at a point when the COVID narrative has been all but lost by the current administration and the mainstream media.

Their Lies Have Been Exposed

For nearly the last three years, I have been exposing and documenting all of the lies that the global cabal has been promoting in their mainstream media propaganda.

[…]

  • COVID jabs were never tested for, or proven to stop transmission
  • The jabs were not 95% effective but actually increased the risk of getting COVID
  • The fatality rate of COVID was around 0.005%
  • Lockdowns did more damage than good
  • This bioweapon came out of a lab
  • “Safe and effective” turned into “sudden and unexpected death”

Their Crimes Must Be Reconciled

[…]

These murderous hypocrites killed thousands of seniors by knowingly putting infected patients into old age homes. They killed thousands more by putting treatable patients on ventilators and Fauci’s remdesivir, and additional thousands were killed by not allowing safe and effective treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to be prescribed by doctors.

They have killed and injured hundreds of thousands through coercion, threats, mandates and a never-ending stream of lies that forced people into taking a dangerous and untested, toxic concoction — a Big Pharma bioweapon.

These “experts” seeking forgiveness, ostensibly because they were just caught up in the “hysteria” of the moment, weren’t wrong. They were lying from the outset and need to pay dearly for their crimes against humanity.

We were scorned, ridiculed, ostracized, censored, fired, deplatformed and wished dead by the authoritarian-minded sheep who demanded compliance, and treated like outcasts by family members who believed the narrative hook, line and sinker.

[…]

Why We Must Reject Amnesty Plea

The reasons we must reject Oster’s amnesty plea are manifold. First and foremost, while some now want to argue ignorance as their defense, there was no lack of facts and data, right from the start, proving their positions were wrong, dangerous, destructive and deadly.

[…]

No luck was needed to know that masks were useless. The published science told us as much. Ditto for the conclusion that natural immunity is superior to vaccine-induced immunity. No luck was needed to know there was no such thing as asymptomatic spreaders, because again, science. Not only can you not have a “hot” infection without symptoms, but research looking at millions of individuals confirmed what we already knew from basic virology.

No luck was needed to correctly predict that lockdowns would have a dramatically negative effect on health, education and the economy. That was just plain rational, but early cost-benefit analyses also confirmed it.

No luck was needed to know that the COVID jab was useless because data from around the world rapidly grew to show that case rates rose in tandem with the shots. Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden and CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky have also demonstrated this.

All were jabbed more than once, and all got COVID — more than once! Seventy percent of jabbed CDC employees also got COVID, and on several occasions, ships where 100% of crew and passengers were jabbed reported outbreaks. None of this would occur if the shots actually prevented infection and spread, and you need no special skills other than clear-headed reason to come to that conclusion.

You also don’t need special skills to see that the COVID shots are killing healthy people. Just look at all the sudden deaths of professional athletes and children. It’s so common they’ve even given it a new name: Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. Look at the excess mortality statistics and the skyrocketing life insurance claims.

Oster’s proposition that luck was behind correct analyses is a cop-out and a sign that she’s not ready to accept that she was gullible and irrational — and possibly cruel toward others. Recall, threatening the lives of the unvaccinated and mocking their deaths was basically part of the public policy.4

[…]

Government Officials Must Be Held Accountable

[…]

Their reckless behavior has caused people to lose their businesses, their livelihoods; they’ve lost family members to reckless medicine; they’ve lost out on weddings and funerals; drug use and suicides have skyrocketed; children have fallen years behind on their schooling and the economy has been destroyed. The list goes on. Being wrong has a price, and society will be paying it for quite some time.

[…]

Those Proven Right Are Still Persecuted

Setting the record straight starts with ending the persecution of those proven to be right. It also requires putting an end to censorship and the promulgation of propaganda.

[…]

The latest victim of this government orchestrated persecution is Dr. Peter McCullough, one of the most well-credentialed and respected cardiologists in the world. He’s now being stripped of his medical credentials for the crime of speaking truth to the public (and thereby contradicting the legalized propaganda).6

[…]

Via https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2022/11/08/covid-tyranny-amnesty/

Mainstream Media Warns of ‘Tripledemic’ This Winter — What’s Really Behind the Hype?

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tripledemic influenza rsv covid mainstream media feature

By  Dr. Joseph Mercola

While influenza, RSV and COVID-19 can be problematic and dangerous for certain high-risk individuals, the overall risks associated with them are negligible for most — but “fear sells” and for Big Pharma, it sells more vaccines.

  • According to mainstream media, hospitalizations for respiratory infections are on the rise and “experts” warn of a potential “tripledemic” this winter, as COVID-19, seasonal influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are all in circulation.
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports a 1% increase in new admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19. Maine — which has one of the nation’s highest COVID-19 jab rates — has the most COVID-19 hospitalizations. RSV cases are also unseasonably high.
  • “Health experts” are now calling for voluntary indoor masking again, even though all the evidence garnered over the past three years confirms that face masks cannot prevent viral infection and spread.
  • The first-ever RSV vaccines are now in the pipeline, directed at pregnant women, newborns and seniors. Some of them are based on mRNA technology.
  • No vaccine for RSV has ever been successfully developed before, because the vaccines had a persistent tendency to cause worse disease, a phenomenon known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE).

According to mainstream media, hospitalizations for respiratory infections are on the rise and “experts” warn of a potential “tripledemic” this winter, as people contract COVID-19, seasonal influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

“The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] reports a 1% increase in new admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19 in the U.S.,” Yahoo! News reported at the end of October.

Far from being a pandemic of the unvaccinated, however, most COVID-19 patients are now, in fact, fully jabbed. As noted by Yahoo! News (before urging everyone to stay up to date on their boosters):

“The state with the most COVID hospitalizations is Maine even though it has one of the country’s highest full vaccination rates, which means a person has received their primary series of vaccinations (whether that’s one or two doses) and two weeks have passed since their last dose.”

RSV cases are also unseasonably high. According to Dr. Margaret R. Moon, co-director of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, the hospital “is experiencing a surge of patients due to an increase in cases of RSV, as well as other reasons, and many surrounding hospitals are facing the same.”

Scare tactics to sell you on RSV vaccine

Fear sells, they say, and that’s certainly the adage used by Big Pharma when it comes to vaccines. A perfect example of this was recently published by Vox. “New RSV Vaccines Are Coming. This Is Very, Very Good News,” the headline states.

Why good news? Because RSV is a “baddie responsible for much of the mayhem” now seen in hospitals. Vox publishes classic fear porn:

“RSV generally causes cold symptoms but can also lead to severe lung inflammation or infection in very young and very old people. And it’s started off cold season with a bang:

“As of October 22, babies under a year old were being hospitalized at rates six times higher than they were at the same point in 2019, and the overall hospitalization rate was seven times higher for people of all ages.

“Every year, hundreds of children die of RSV, and tens of thousands more are hospitalized … RSV disease is one of the first pediatric illnesses that young pediatricians learn to fear, said [Amy] Edwards [a pediatric infectious disease specialist in Cleveland].

“Babies with the infection have terrible coughs and make wheezing noises as they struggle to move air through their swollen airways. ‘Once you’ve seen it, it’s like you never forget it,’ she said …

“In the US, the infection leads to about 58,000 hospitalizations and 100 to 300 deaths among young children each year, making it the country’s top cause of hospitalization in infants.

“Although it’s a particularly risky infection for babies born prematurely and for those with lung problems or heart abnormalities, about 40% of American infants who died of RSV over the past few decades were otherwise healthy.

“However bad RSV is in the United States, it’s worse globally. Every year, it causes an estimated 120,000 infant deaths worldwide … There is currently no approved antiviral treatment for RSV in either adults or children, and the one preventive option that currently exists is far from perfect …

“Babies need something better — something affordable that can protect all infants, not just the highest-risk ones, from this seasonal scourge. Adults, too, need something to protect them from a virus that reliably causes an immense amount of disease — ideally, something that’s as good as a flu shot, or better.”

“Something as good as a flu shot.” Really?

The 2017/2018 seasonal influenza vaccine’s adjusted overall effectiveness for the U.S. was just 36% against influenza A and influenza B virus infection, and between 2005 and 2015, the flu vaccine’s adjusted overall effectiveness was less than 50% more than half the time — with a low of only 10% in the 2004-05 season.

Other than the COVID-19 jab, it’s difficult to find another example of where a commercial product can fail to work more than half the time and still be recommended and even mandated.

Not to worry, though, because according to Vox, “RSV vaccines are super effective.”

Where have we heard that before?

Expect insane COVID measures to resume

As predicted, “health experts” are starting to call for voluntary indoor masking again, even though all the evidence garnered over the past three years confirms what we already knew in 2020, which is that face masks do nothing to stop viral infections.

And, as before, in the absence of actual scientific evidence, the narrative focuses instead on virtue.

Masking up is said to be a way to protect everyone, so just “do your part” and wear it, even though, in reality, it protects no one.

The same goes for vaccination. Both the flu vaccine and the COVID-19 shots are proven ineffective, yet the recommendation to get them continues.

And this season, you’re expected to get both!

First-ever RSV vaccines expected in 2023

The fact that RSV is now being highlighted as a severe risk is understandable in light of the fact that the first-ever RSV vaccines are now in the pipeline. According to CNN, four different RSV shots are “nearing review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)” and more than a dozen others are in trials.testing “protein subunit” RSV vaccines for pregnant women and seniors.

According to Forbes, Pfizer announced Nov. 1, that it is ready to seek FDA authorization for its RSV vaccine.

In clinical trials this shot was given to pregnant mothers and the efficacy was measured not by whether it prevented RSV, but by severity of the infection in hospitalized babies during their first months of life.

Why no RSV vaccine ever made it to market

No vaccine for RSV has ever been successfully developed before. Why?

Because the vaccines had a persistent tendency to cause worse disease, a phenomenon known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE).

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/tripledemic-rsv-covid-influenza-mainstream-media-cola/

Algeria applies for BRICS membership

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Archive - The President of Algeria, Abdelmayid Tebune - -/Iranian Presdiency/dpa

MSN News

The Algerian authorities have submitted a formal application on Monday to join the BRICS, an economic-trade organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

This was confirmed to the media by the Algerian Foreign Ministry representative in charge of international partnerships, Leila Zarrougi, according to the Al Shorouk news portal.

Algeria, which participated as a guest country in the last BRICS summit in China, argued its request in view of the need to open up commercially to other states.

Algiers has remarked that its request for membership has been well received by Moscow and Beijing, two of the most prominent governments of the bloc, although joining the group has yet to be studied by the rest of the members.

Already in August, Algerian President Abdelmayid Tebune stated that the country “largely” fulfilled the conditions for joining the organization and acknowledged Algeria’s interest in the group’s economic and political influence.

Even then, Tebune acknowledged that BRICS membership was “possible,” and predicted “good news” in the future. “Joining this group would put Algeria, a pioneer country of non-alignment, safe from the friction between the two poles,” he remarked.

[…]

Via https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/algeria-applies-for-brics-membership/ar-AA13PCT7

Holland becomes first European country to withdraw sanctions against Russia, without permission from EU

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Blogging Hounds

Wow! Holland has said enough is enough!

They become the first European country to withdraw sanctions against Russia, without permission from EU.

This is the first example we see of a European country acting in the best interest of their own country.

Now who is next?

The Dutch government has issued 91 waivers from sanctions against Russia since the country invaded Ukraine late in February, RTL Nieuws reports after talking to the Ministries. The ministries shielded the names of the companies involved, the value of transactions which were exempted, and the business sectors concerned.

The information was “company-sensitive,” according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economic Affairs, Finance, Infrastructure, and Education are allowed to grant exemptions to sanctions to “allow a degree of flexibility in specific cases,” the spokesperson affirmed.

In April, the European Union banned ships sailing under the Russian flag from European ports. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management issued waivers so 34 ships could access Dutch ports, for example, because they carried important cargo like aluminum and food.

“Diplomatic relations” was stated as the reason why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted one exemption, the broadcaster reported. In the isolated case, transactions which involved Russian banks majority held by the State were permitted to occur.

The Ministry of Finance granted 13 additional waivers related to frozen assets or goods that fall under the sanctions regime.

The Ministry for Climate and Energy, which falls under Economic Affairs, issued 25 waivers for Dutch organizations to still get energy from former Gazprom companies. The waivers help 150 companies and organizations, including municipalities, schools, and water boards, the Ministry said to the broadcaster.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, which falls under Foreign Affairs, issued 18 waivers to 13 organizations on “humanitarian grounds” for cooperation between the EU and Russia on “purely civilian matters.” Foreign Affairs issued one waiver so a company could receive another payment from Russia.

[…]

Via https://theblogginghounds.com/2022/11/07/wow-holland-says-enough-is-enough-and-becomes-first-european-country-to-withdraw-sanctions-against-russia-without-permission-from-eu/

The Industrial Revolution of the Song Dynasty

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PPT - China 600-1450 C.E. PowerPoint Presentation, free download - ID:2342348

Episode 33: The Industrial Revolution of the Song

Foundations of Eastern Civilization

Dr Craig Benjamin (2013)

Film Review

In 960 AD the Song Dynasty came to power by way of a palace coup. This followed fifty three years (907 – 960 AD) of great instability known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

By 978 AD the Song had claimed control rule over most of China. The Northern Song Dynasty (960 – 1126 AD) ended when China was invaded and occupied by Jurchen nomads from the steppes. After the Jurchens declared themselves the Jin Dynasty, the Song declared the Southern Song Dynasty in Southern China and paid tribute to the Jurchens.

In 1279 AD, Mongol invasion of China ended both dynasties.

Significantly expanding trade across the Indian Ocean, as well as the Silk Road, the Southern Song Dynasty was extremely prosperous. Benjamin attributes its phenomenal economic development to new strains of fast growing rice that enabled Song farmers to increase from one to three harvests a year.*

The growing food surplus enabled farmers to grow more fruits and vegetables, as well as luxury items such as lychee nuts and sugar came. It also enabled some to abandon agriculture altogether for the porcelain industry (now exporting to remote cities in Southeast Asia, Africa and Persia) and the burgeoning iron and steel industry, as well as stimulating the appearance of taverns and specialty shops in city centers.

Under the Song, steel production experienced a technological innovation that wouldn’t appear in England for another 500 years. By using coke instead of coal,** The Song substantially improved both the quantity and quality of steel they produced. It would be used in weapons, agricultural implements, pagodas and the first iron bridges in the world.

During this period, the Chinese also invented gunpowder, which they used in bamboo fire lances; reusable moveable type printing (which led to an explosion in printed books and literacy); the magnetic compass; the first true market economy; the first modern banking system (creating the first letters of credit, promissory notes, checks and paper money; and iron nails.

*In 600 AD, the total population of China was 15 million; by 1200 AD it had increased to 150 million (when London had a population of 80,000 and Paris 250,000). The Song capitol Hangzhou had 2 million people, several cities had 1 million and scores of cities had 100,000. According to Benjamin, the 18th century British industrial revolution also followed a revolution in agricultural production and a steep population increase.

**Coke is made by heating carbon in the absence of air to remove impurities.

Film can be viewed free on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5808608/5808675

Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Ukraine Aid Will Drop to Zero If GOP Takes Congress

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By Ilya Tsukanov – Samizdat – 04.11.2022

Via Aletho News

Last month, the White House expressed concerns that Trump Republicans could jeopardize future military and economic assistance to Ukraine after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy promised to stop writing “blank checks” to Kiev if the GOP wins back control of the House in the midterms.

Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has vowed that US aid to Ukraine will drop to nothing if her party takes Congress on Tuesday.

“Democrats have ripped our border wide open. But the only border they care about is Ukraine, not America’s southern border. Under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine. Our country comes first,” Greene said at a “Save America” Trump rally in Sioux City, Iowa on Friday.

The congresswoman accused President Joe Biden and the Democrats of ignoring domestic problems, including the economy, inflation, crime, and the fentanyl crisis, of “putting America last,” and “destroying every single thread of democracy in the process.”

Greene promised that the GOP would open corruption investigations, impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and President Joe Biden, and “defund all the horrific policies the Democrats have passed over the past two years,” including plans to increase the size of the IRS, vaccine mandates, and political actors inside the Department of Justice and the FBI.

“In order to truly make a commitment to America, Republicans are going to have to be the new Republican Party. We can no longer be the party of Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Dick Cheney, George Bush and Mitt Romney, or any other sellout, weak Republican brand that just holds hands with Democrats and serves the globalist agenda that is the enemy of us all,” Greene said.

Greene, 48, has been an outspoken critic inside the Republican Party of Washington’s economic and military aid to Kiev. Earlier this year, she attacked the $40 billion Ukraine Spending Bill, citing the nation’s shortage of baby formula. “40 billion dollars, but there’s no baby formula for American mothers and babies,” the lawmaker said on the House floor in May.

Greene condemned the bill’s approval of “an unknown amount of money to the CIA” and other boondoggle assistance. “If this is claiming that it’s about saving lives, let’s be real. Then we would care about war-torn countries like Ethiopia. So that’s a bunch of hypocrisy,” she said.

57 mostly pro-Trump House Republicans and 11 GOP senators voted against Ukraine assistance earlier this year, citing fears of escalating tensions with Russia and a range of domestic issues. According to an NPR primary election tracker estimate, over nine in ten of the 200+ Trump-endorsed candidates running for the House, Senate, and top state offices won their GOP primaries earlier this year, oftentimes knocking out Republicans with a traditional, neoconservative stance on foreign policy, and those rejecting the former president’s claim that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.

On Friday, Republicans in the House Judiciary Committee released a 1,050-page report citing whistleblower testimony outlining alleged politicization of the FBI and the DoJ, with the document expected to serve as a “road map” for congressional probes against Biden and the Democrats, should the GOP take Congress on Tuesday.

[…]

Via https://alethonews.com/2022/11/05/marjorie-taylor-greene-says-ukraine-aid-will-drop-to-zero-if-gop-takes-congress/