Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 165
November 15, 2024
CNN Freaks Out Over Trump Making RFK Jr. HHS Chief
Modernity
CNN freaked out over President-elect Donald Trump making RFK Jr. Secretary of Health and Human Services, with Jake Tapper accusing Kennedy of engaging in “quackery”.
Announcing Kennedy would head up the post on Truth Social, Trump asserted that it was a victory for Americans who have been “crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies.”
Trump added that Kennedy “will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
This caused heads to explode at CNN, with Tapper raging that RFK was “somebody who has been pushing quackery, who has been pushing lies, who has been pushing conspiracy theories.”
CNN’s resident regime mouthpiece Sanjay Gupta claimed that almost the entire medical community was in “lock step” in the belief that RFK would be a “horror” appointment.
Gupta said one source told him, “I can’t think of any single individual who would be more damaging to public health than RFK.”
The neurosurgeon then expressed his concern that Kennedy would essentially be in control of the CDC, the FDA, and the NIH.
“He’s talked about basically wanting to strip funding for infectious diseases overall,” said Gupta, referring to the COVID pandemic and future infectious diseases.
Gupta then perhaps unintentionally revealed why RFK would actually be a good appointment, acknowledging, “We are not a very health country, we spend four and a half trillion dollars on health care and we have some of the worst outcomes in the developed world.”
The doctor asserted that Kennedy was pushing “false views” about health care, including the claim that vaccines are linked to autism, before dubiously claiming that the unvaccinated are actually at higher risk of developing autism.
RFK Jr. has vowed to “make America healthy again,” and it appears as though Big Pharma and the medical establishment are utterly terrified of Kennedy pursuing that goal.
Kennedy would also undoubtedly launch inquiries into the COVID vaccine and gain of function research, another issue that the medical establishment and people like Dr. Anthony Fauci are loathe to see investigated.
[…]
Via https://modernity.news/2024/11/15/cnn-freaks-out-over-trump-making-rfk-jr-hhs-chief/
History of clashes with ‘deep state’ signals Gaetz would bring Trump reform to DOJ
By Steven RichardsIn Congress, Donald Trump’s Attorney General pick Matt Gaetz was at the forefront in challenging the Justice Department and was a staunch defender of the former president, hinting at the role the firebrand could play in remaking the troubled federal agency if he is confirmed.
Gaetz rose to prominence defending then-President Trump and bashing the Justice Department during the Russia collusion investigation into the Trump campaign, frequently appearing on television and using his role on key committees to challenge the agency, which pushed the long-debunked “Russian conspiracy” narrative.
After Trump’s first term ended, the four-term congressman challenged the department on its handling of Hunter Biden probes and the investigation into the Trump assassination attempts.
President-elect Trump undoubtedly nominated Gaetz for these reasons, seeing him as an important defender and loyal ally to head an agency he felt was undermining him at every turn in his first term.
But, Gaetz will still likely face a tough confirmation battle and his nomination has drawn skepticism from Senate Republicans who will be vital to confirming him to the role.
When spurious allegations that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia were being pushed by Capitol Hill Democrats, Donald Trump’s first attorney general, former Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, angered the president when he recused himself and allowed the department to appoint a special counsel to investigate the allegations.
Failure to verifyRep. Matt Gaetz, along with Reps. Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes became the chief critics of the investigation and defenders are President Trump and his administration.
Throughout the investigation, he demanded special counsel Robert Mueller release any evidence of collusion obtained during his secretive investigation. When the final report came showing the probe found no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia, Gaetz sharply criticized Mueller and pressed him in a hearing for answers about the foundations of his investigation.
Specifically, he criticized Mueller for the apparent bias of his team which pursued shaky leads on Trump but failed to evaluate the veracity of information in the infamous—and now discredited—Steele Dossier.
“Here’s what I am kind of noticing Director Mueller, when people associated with Trump lied, you threw the book at them. When Christopher Steele lied, nothing. So, it seems to be when Glenn Simpson met with Russians, nothing. When the Trump met with the Russians, 3500 words. And maybe the reason there are these discrepancies in what you focused on is because the team was so biased and pledged to the resistance. And pledged to stop Trump,” Gaetz told Mueller at the hearing.
After the Trump Justice Department appointed special prosecutor John Durham to investigate any errors in the Russia investigation, Gaetz criticized him for, in his view, failing to deliver a thorough probe. “For the people like the chairman who put trust in you, I think you let them down. I think you let the country down. You are one of the barriers to the true accountability that we need,” Gaetz told Durham during a hearing.
Congressional Democrats swept into power in 2019 and eventually launched the first impeachment against President Trump alleging he improperly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to find political dirt on his opponent Joe Biden. Gaetz yet again became a key defender of Trump.
When Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led the probe, held secret hearings behind closed doors and out of public view in a SCIF—a facility for hearing classified information—Gaetz rallied a group of House Republicans to rush into the room and disrupt the hearings. The group of representatives complained of the “Soviet style” process of the impeachment. Schiff would later be censured by the House.
Eventually that impeachment effort failed when Senate Republicans voted to acquit the president.
After President Joe Biden took office in 2020, Gaetz continued his criticism against the Department of Justice for what he called unfair treatment of Jan. 6 protestors that entered the Capitol and for stonewalling the Biden impeachment investigation.
Garland’s DOJ fueled “conspiracy theories”Earlier this year, Gaetz pressed Garland on the several legal cases against Trump, asking the attorney general to provide communications between his office and local authorities that had charged Trump. Specifically, Congress sought any communications between Garland’s DOJ and either Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg or Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Gaetz argued that any obstruction of the request would fuel the very “conspiracy theory” Garland sought to discount: that the Biden administration had coordinated with local prosecutors in the Trump cases. “The offices you’re referring to are independent offices of state—” Garland attempted to answer.
“You come in here, and you lodge this attack that it’s a conspiracy theory that there’s coordinated lawfare against Trump. And then we say, ‘Fine, just give us the documents. Give us the correspondents, and then if it’s a conspiracy theory that will be evidence,’” Gaetz interjected. “But when you say, ‘Well, we’ll take your request, and then we’ll sort of work it through the DOJ’s accommodation process, then you’re actually advancing the very dangerous conspiracy theory that you’re concerned about,’” he continued.
Gaetz’s critical history with the Justice Department leaves little room for doubt that the now-former representative would seek to overhaul the agency and pursue the “retribution” at both the DOJ and FBI that Donald Trump promised on the campaign trial.
“Fully committed”The choice has reportedly rattled DOJ officials, especially those involved in the prosecutions against Trump, which have wound down at the federal level as the former president prepares to take office again in January.
One thing that Gaetz is almost certain to do is be fully committed to implementing any Trump policies at the department, a mission that stands in contrast to his Republican successors, which acted in more independent ways from their chief executive.
Close Trump ally and transition team member Mark Paoletta said that rank-and-file DOJ lawyers should be “fully committed to implementing President Trump’s policies or they should leave or be fired” in a post to X.
Paoletta also warned that the new Trump team would not accept any attempts by federal bureaucrats to thwart the agenda of the incoming administration.
Gaetz appears likely to face a tougher confirmation that other nominees. Several Senate Republicans, necessary to confirm the former representative, have expressed doubt about Gaetz’s ability to achieve the required support in the chamber. Losing the support of more than three GOP senators would doom any one of Trump’s nominees.
“It’s simply that Matt Gaetz has a very long, steep hill to get across the finish line,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.C. “And it will require the spending of a lot of capital, and you just have to ask: if you could get him across the finish line, was it worth the cost?”
“It’s going to be very difficult,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.
Some Senators have expressed concerns about the yet-unknown findings of a House Ethics Committee probe into Gaetz said to involve sexual misconduct and illegal drug use allegations. Gaetz has vehemently denied all of allegations that have been reported publicly. Now that Gaetz has resigned from the House, the committee no longer has jurisdiction to to continue the probe.
The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., that the findings of the report would remain confidential. Still, some Senators say they want to see the ethics report before voting on whether or not to confirm Gaetz.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., said he “absolutely” wanted to see the findings. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., both told NBC News that they believe the findings will come out one way or another and have bearing on the confirmation process.
[…]
Tulsi Gabbard Right Pick to Shake-Up US Spy Agiencies
By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 15.11.2024
President-elect Donald Trump nominated the former Democratic congresswoman and a 21-year army reserve veteran to oversee the bewildering array of 18 US spy agencies in his incoming administration.
“A foreign policy and national security appointment that has created considerable dissent is that of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence [DNI],” Philip Giraldi, a former CIA operations officer with experience in Europe and the Middle East, told Sputnik.
The CIA veteran said much of the dissent comes from inside the ‘intelligence community’, including active officers and former staff of organizations like the CIA and NSA.
Objections to Gabbard’s nomination have focused on her lack of intelligence experience, claiming she will “be unable to perceive problems among an unruly 18-member intelligence community,” the pundit said.
But Giraldi countered that she was “smart, experienced and capable enough to gather her own staff around her that will guide her way through the shoals of Washington DC.”
“To my mind, she is an excellent choice, coming from outside of the intelligence community ‘club,’ and could be an effective and ethical DNI,” he added.
The former CIA officer noted that Gabbard is viewed as a “peace candidate” for her opposition to endless overseas wars, the US military occupation of parts of Syria and the demonization of China. But she is also known for her support for Israel, currently waging a war against the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
“It is likely that Trump appointed her to shake up the intel community, which is regarded by many as the black heart of the deep state,” Giraldi said. “She will, of course, be both helped and handicapped by being provided with plenty of ‘direction’ by a president who is fundamentally ignorant of foreign policy and national security issues.”
[…]
Will Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Matt Gaetz Appointments be Approved by the U.S. Senate
by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News
President elect Donald Trump has announced that Florida Representative Matt Gaetz is appointed to be the next U.S. Attorney General, and that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is appointed to the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services, making these two appointments his most controversial appointments yet.
Matt Gaetz has been under investigation for child sex trafficking in the House of Representatives, and he promptly resigned from the House as soon as Trump appointed him as the AG, just days before a House ethics committee was due to release their findings.
What happens to the Gaetz House ethics report?Gaetz, tapped to be Trump’s attorney general, resigns from House days before vote on ethics report release
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., resigned from Congress late Wednesday, hours after President-elect Trump nominated him for U.S. Attorney General – and days before a long-awaited House Ethics report was reportedly to be released about him.
Earlier Wednesday, after news broke that Gaetz was chosen for the Trump Cabinet, House Ethics Committee Chair Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters that their investigation, which had reportedly centered around allegations Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor and illicit drug use, would end if Gaetz were to step down from Congress.
Gaetz has denied those misconduct allegations.
“This changes nothing,” Guest said in the Capitol, referring to Gaetz’ nomination.
“I’ve been asked, ‘Does this call us to expedite our investigation?’ Once the investigation is complete, then a report will be issued,” Guest said.
“Assuming that at that time, that Mr. Gaetz is still a member of Congress.
If Mr. Gaetz were to resign because he is taking a position, with the administration, as the attorney general, then the Ethics Committee loses jurisdiction at that point.
Once we lose jurisdiction, there would not be a report that would be issued – that’s not unique to this case.”
Guest said the Justice Department had previously requested the committee “cease and desist” its probe, which the House had since picked back up and was continuing. (Source.)
Pam Martens of Wall Street on Parade reported today that Gaetz has previously been under investigation for child sex trafficking by the Department of Justice (DOJ), which then suddenly dropped the case without explanation.
The DOJ is being sued by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), for failing to honor their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to find out what they had on Gaetz.
According to multiple media reports yesterday, the House Committee on Ethics was planning to vote to release a damning report on Gaetz as soon as this Friday.
Instead, Gaetz resigned from his House seat yesterday after Trump nominated him for Attorney General. This brought about much media speculation as to whether the House Committee on Ethics has lost jurisdiction to release its report.
There is, however, an active federal lawsuit that may shine critical disinfecting sunshine on the matter.
In May of this year, the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, D.C. to obtain records the DOJ had denied CREW under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. CREW explained the reasons for the lawsuit as follows:
“CREW is suing the Department of Justice for records related to the now-closed criminal investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz, including the DOJ’s decision not to charge Gaetz despite reports suggesting an abundance of evidence that he likely violated sex-trafficking laws, and the conviction of his associate on similar charges. CREW also challenges the legality of the Department of Justice’s policy of categorically denying FOIA requests for records relating to investigations of public officials.
“The lawsuit follows the DOJ’s refusal to release records relating to their investigation of Rep. Gaetz in response to CREW requests for information, as well as a long history of the agency issuing blanket denials of requests for records relating to investigations of public officials, despite a federal appeals court ruling that clearly prohibits such denials. The public deserves to know whether the decision not to prosecute Gaetz was motivated by political considerations or anything other than the sufficiency of evidence against him, and should not be forced to sue for records every time they seek transparency on investigations of public officials.
“The DOJ began its investigation into Gaetz in 2020, focusing on allegations of obstruction of justice and violations of federal sex trafficking laws. Gaetz’s associate Joel Greenberg pled guilty to underage sex trafficking and reportedly provided potentially incriminating information about Gaetz’s involvement to investigators. Gaetz also reportedly asked then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for a preemptive pardon from Trump. In February 2023, the DOJ informed Gaetz that the department would not bring charges against him.
“It is of public interest to understand why a member of Congress was not charged with any crime despite public reporting that suggested that potential crimes had been committed. Transparency around high-profile investigations, including any failures to properly investigate Gaetz, is both required by law and urgently needed.”
[…]
Trump, who is one of three billionaires who funded the Jeffrey Epstein financial empire, could have files stored at the DOJ investigating himself as well, and it would be very convenient to have someone like Gaetz with the power of the U.S. Attorney General office be able to go in and “take care” of all that evidence.
But Gaetz still needs to be approved by the Senate, and former leader of the House Kevin McCarthy has already stated that the Senate will not approve Gaetz for this position.
Can the Pro-Israel Zionist Lobby Get Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Approved as Secretary of HHS?
McCarthy says Gaetz won’t get confirmed: ‘Everyone knows that’Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) predicted Wednesday that former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), President-elect Trump’s pick for attorney general, will not get confirmed by the Senate.
Asked for his response to Trump’s Cabinet picks so far, McCarthy told Bloomberg Television in an interview, “I think the choices are very good, except one.”
“Look, Gaetz won’t get confirmed,” he continued. “Everybody knows that.”
McCarthy, a loyal Trump ally while serving in the House, was asked why the former president would bother tapping Gaetz if he knew the Florida Republican couldn’t get confirmed.
“You can talk to [the] president, but it’s a good deflection from others, but it also gives …” McCarthy responded, cutting himself off. “I’ll let it stand at that.”
Pressed again for some insight into Trump’s thought process, McCarthy said, “You’d have to ask the president, but Gaetz couldn’t win in a Republican conference, so it doesn’t matter.” (Source.)
Much to the pleasure of the MAGA crowd, Trump announced that he was appointing Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to the position of Secretary of HHS.
[…]Was AIPAC behind this appointment? Will Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s pro Zionist views, as well as the history of the Kennedy family, including his father, being pro-Israel Zionists help him with this appointment?
It’s hard to imagine that Kennedy could pass Senate approval for this position, but Trump is pressuring the Senate to approve his appointments without debate, while the Senate is recessed.
[…]
What Does Artificial Intelligence Think About?
What Does Artificial Intelligence Think About?
RT (2024)
Film Review
https://en.rtdoc.tv/episodes/1398-what-does-artificial-intelligence-think-about-rtd
Aimed at dispelling fears of AI, this film begins by reviewing Russian uses of AI, which date back to the 1960s. First used by the military to launch rockets, Russians also use it to manage traffic congestion (by timing stoplights), to run machinery in numerous industries, (in combination with facial recognition) to deduct metro fares from people’s bank accounts and identify unauthorized strangers in schools, to improve pilot performance, to perform automated radiology assessments, to run robots that can neatly suture wounds, and to predict brain disease in children.
According AI scientists interviewed in the film, the technology employs artificial “neural networks” to enable computers to reproduce simple brain activities. After loading a few basic algorithms, AI engineers expose AI applications with multiple paired problem/solutions to teach them to teach them to produce correct answers on their own.
After superficially addressing common fears that AI will make people stupid, take over their jobs and create an über class of technicians who will use AI control us, it makes a number of assertions about tasks AI can perform better (more accurately) than human beings:
flying airplanesreading xraysmaking neater sutures (ie driving a robot that makes neater sutures).processing bank transactionsteaching kids (I strongly dispute this, given decades of neurophysiological research documenting the role of positive relationships in effective learning)copywriting (which I also dispute after reading all the shoddy writing ChatGPT spits out)The filmmakers predict that soon AI will replace junior accountants and stock keepers, as well as producing video and audio content. At present China is experimenting with using TV presenters with AI-created personalities.
The film cites the WEF figures that AI will put 85 million people out of work by 2035 and force them to retrain or be pensioned off on a government-controlled Universal Basic Income.
It also references a 5-month Hollywood screenwriters strike in 2023 over protections against AI taking their jobs. They went back to work after the studios agreed that no living screenwriters would be used to train AI and that AI wouldn’t be used in writing “treatments.”*
The film also includes a section on AI being used in China’s 800 million security cameras to run China’s social credit system. This is pure propaganda. The main use of “social credit” in China is by private businesses to analyze credit worthiness. A few small towns have rolled out “social credit” systems monitoring antisocial behavior (such as jaywalking) but no social credit system has ever been adopted nationwide – or even province-wide – in China.**
US, China and Russia are roughly equal in their AI development. There is always a risk people will use it for nefarious purposes (ie to enslave people), but as the filmmakers point out, all it takes to bring down an AI system is “a janitor with a wet mop.”
*A film treatment is a summary of a film or television show. It should communicate all of the essential scenes, themes, and tone of the project to entice or pitch to buyers and producers into reading, developing, or even purchasing your idea.
November 14, 2024
Gulag Watch: Momentum Swells, Pressure Builds For J6er Blanket Trump Pardon
Ben BarteeIf the only things Trump did of consequence for the entirety of his presidency was a.) scatter the intelligence agencies to the wind as JFK promised before a magic bullet coincidentally shredded his brains, b.) prosecute the Public Health
and pharmaceutical industry criminals who perpetrated the COVID-19 scam, and c.) free the J6 political prisoners and scrub their records, I would gladly consider Trump worthy of Mt. Rushmore.
Two out of three of those are not likely to happen — especially if he packs his cabinet with people like Marco Rubio, rumored to be in line for Secretary of State (wtf, Trump?).
The latter might — including for my good personal friend currently locked down on house arrest, Karen Jones.
Via Daily Mail (emphasis added):
“When Trump is sworn in as the 47th U.S. President, he will have the authority to wipe away [Jan 6] cases. If he were to issue broad pardons, it would repudiate the largest criminal investigation ever conducted by the Justice Department.
While Trump has not clarified the scope or implementation of these potential pardons, lawyers are already moving forward by filing the necessary paperwork…
One such rioter was Karen Jones, who first spoke about her and her husband’s participation during the comedy podcast Kill Tony – a show hosted by controversial comedian Tony Hinchcliffe – in June 2023.
Jones claimed that she and her husband, Robert Walter Jones, 72, had RSVP’d for a ‘permitted event’ called ‘Stop the Steal,’ which she believed would be just a regular Trump rally.
‘Violence has never been a part of anything I’ve been involved in, and I don’t even own a gun,’ Jones said.
But investigators said the couple crossed restricted boundaries, entered the Capitol, and remained inside for about 30 minutes, even after being directed to leave*.”
[…]
Via https://armageddonprose.substack.com/p/gulag-watch-momentum-swells-pressure
Door opening to discuss devastating public health data
Stock image.Guy Hatchard
We receive snippets of information from time to time and it now appears there are cracks developing in the solid wall of NZ Covid vaccine defences.
Some frontline medical staff are confronting the obvious. We have had first hand reports that some cardiac surgeons are quietly advising cardiac bypass patients to refuse boosters if they want to stay healthy. At a recent hospital meeting of Auckland cardiologists, a participant told the meeting that the time has come to admit the source of the current epidemic of heart disease. The spike protein generated by the mRNA Covid vaccines is a cardio toxin. As a result, cardiology waiting rooms and hospital cardiac wards are full, especially with young patients, and the problem is not going away, it is getting worse.
The scale of the problem is off the charts and it is crying out for a public discussion. So what is stopping this? The executive arm of our medical system is avoiding the obvious implications of key health data. The NZ Medical Council is still prosecuting doctors who cautioned patients about possible adverse effects of the Covid vaccine in the early days of the pandemic. This has created an ongoing atmosphere of fear among practising doctors, they are reluctant to come forward with their doubts, for fear of losing their jobs and professional registration.
A follow up set of questions probing the OIA which revealed a ten fold increase of chest pain presentations to A&E among the under forties has so far met with a blank wall. One request was submitted on 2nd October and under OIA legislation a reply should have been forthcoming by now. Instead Health NZ has written to say “Health NZ needs more time to make a decision on your request”.
Unfortunately the delay in publication of health data is not limited to cardiac illness. Figures for cancer incidence have not been published since 2020. An unheard of situation. Normally cancer data is published annually. This is an important tool which helps in the early detection of any safety signals. An OIA request for information on cancer incidence covering the years 2020 to 2024 has been refused by Health NZ on the grounds that the information would compromise patient confidentiality. In fact, anonymised data collated by year cannot be traced back to any individual, pre-pandemic the publication of such data was routine.
Other countries however are releasing cancer figures and they are damning. A recent conference presentation by James Royal a UK consultant oncology surgeon paints a very concerning picture. He reports and graphs a sudden change in the rate and patterns of cancer presentation dating back to 2021 which has continued to accelerate during the last two years. This involves the sudden onset of aggressive, often incurable stage 4 cancers exhibiting a novel biology, so called turbo cancers. The trend is particularly evident in bowel cancer stats. These are also affecting young people not previously considered at risk.
You can see clips of Royal’s presentation at an Irish medical conference interspersed in this summary by Dr. John Campbell. Royal asserts there is a causal association between the Covid vaccine rollout and cancer incidence that is supported by both temporal association and his reference list of 13 biomolecular cancer mechanisms known to be triggered by mRNA vaccines. Royal systematically discounts the effect of other causal factors being promoted by poorly informed media such as poor diet, lockdowns, and genetics. They don’t fit the novel cancer data pattern and presentation types being seen by oncologists.
Unusually, a single cause (mRNA vaccination) has been identified for two normally unrelated conditions—heart disease and cancer. Why is this? The answer lies in the novel vaccine technology being employed. Uniquely, mRNA vaccines cross the cell membrane and interfere with genetic mechanisms designed to protect our health. Up until now, we have in many ways taken our health for granted. Unaware that trillions of immune actions are automatically initiated by our cellular-based genetics every single minute of the day and night to keep our body in balance and preserve our health. mRNA vaccines lock billions of cells out of this process and repurpose their genetic and immune functions to produce foreign toxic spike proteins. This is enough to trigger multiple immune failures, some of which can have fatal consequences.
At the outset of the pandemic, our health professionals were for the most part unaware of the published evidence documenting dangers of mRNA vaccines. They were bombarded with ‘safe and effective’ PR messages. They were mandated to participate both personally and in their practice. They were threatened with serious consequences if they asked questions and warned against doing their own research. They received generous financial compensation if they towed the government line.
It appears that the executive level of Health NZ management is still rigorously enforcing these procedures, even as frontline medical professionals are becoming aware of the obvious—mRNA vaccines don’t work and they are seriously degrading public health. Until some brave doctors decide to speak up, we will remain stuck in an information blackout.
After five long Covid years it is at last time to take a win.
The result of the US election has momentous implications for the Covid safety debate here in NZ and around the world. President Trump has appointed RFK Jr. leader of a program to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). In his victory speech last night, Trump promised to give RFK “wide latitude” to fix America’s health problems. In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal in September RFK outlined the beginnings of a program to tackle the chronic disease epidemic affecting the US, especially the youth, by among other things:
Unshackling the health system from the unethical and overtly commercially predatory straight jacket of the pharmaceutical industry.Closing the revolving doors and conflicts of interest which enable drug manufacturers to unfairly influence the regulatory process.Reforming the regulations on medical drug advertising which has prejudiced the media in the US and NZ against open debate of drug safety.Reforming regulations governing pesticide and chemical use.Educating people about the dangers of a highly processed diet and removing the crop subsidies which make highly processed foods so cheap.Funding research on preventive, alternative and holistic approaches to health and requiring doctor training to include such information.RFK also plans to cease fluoridation of water. The key to understanding Kennedy’s approach is his grasp of independent evidence-based medicine. The relief and hope that this brings to Covid campaigners is exemplified in this election night post from Robert Malone. How far will Kennedy go in righting the wrongs of the Covid era and the vaccine mandates? We are not sure. Some like Steve Kirsch are already laying out their stall for comprehensive Covid vaccine reform. We join Steve in wishing for a very broad brush.
The main challenge we face in our distant corner of the world is a public health information gap.
NZ has been following the lead of the US government on Covid policy, even pushing ahead of it in some cases. Pfizer Covid vaccines come from America and were approved by the US CDC. Pfizer’s contractual immunity from prosecution stems directly from US vaccine immunity laws. For the record, the Harris campaign and the Democrat Party required that all their staffers and volunteers be up to date with Covid shots and boosters. The Biden administration also made it a mandatory condition of public funding of hospitals that employees including doctors were fully Covid vaccinated. Therefore we appear to have dodged a bullet.
We have to decouple from reliance on prior US vaccine policy and misinformation, ask some serious questions and have public discussions. Mistakes were made and these have to be corrected. Continuing efforts to stop any public discussion of the official health data here in NZ is adding up to criminal folly.
So will the outcome of the US election affect our health discussions here in NZ? Yes, we believe so. The blocks to public discussion in America and on the world stage will be lessened if not removed. NZ is not so isolated that this will not trickle through our borders into the public narrative.
[…]
‘Extraordinary circumstances’: NY judge in Trump case pauses all court deadlines, sentencing
Former President Donald Trump, left, speaks at the end of the day alongside his attorney Todd Blanche during his financial-records trial in Manhattan. (Michael M. Santiago/Pool via USA TODAY NETWORK)
Fox News
The Manhattan judge overseeing President-elect Donald Trump’s trial agreed to grant a stay on all deadlines associated with the felony conviction proceedings against Trump in the final months before he takes office, a closely-watched decision that allows Trump to avoid a maximum sentence of up to four years in prison.
The judge overseeing the case, Judge Juan Merchan, granted the request, which issues a stay on all deadlines, including the Nov. 26 sentencing date, to consider the effect of his election as president.
Prosecutors had asked for the pause in proceedings, which they said would allow them to better evaluate the impact of Trump’s new status as president-elect.
“The People agree that these are unprecedented circumstances,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in a letter to Judge Merchan.
Trump’s attorneys, who had filed a motion to vacate the charges completely, also backed the stay.
Trump was convicted in May by a Manhattan jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records, stemming from a case about payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Merchan agreed earlier this year to a four-month delay for the court proceedings, pushing next steps until after the 2024 presidential election.
He had set Nov. 12 as a self-imposed deadline to decide how best to proceed.
The decision comes after the Supreme Court said in a July 1 ruling that presidents should enjoy presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for most actions taken as president.
Justices writing for a 4-3 majority said that presidents are entitled to absolute immunity from any actions taken within the scope of “core constitutional powers” as commander-in-chief.
A presumption of immunity also applies to other actions taken while holding office, they said.
It is not clear whether a president is to be afforded the same level of constitutional protections for state convictions, however, and the matter has never been tested in court.
Trump officials praised the pause in court proceedings Tuesday. Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital that the pause makes “abundantly clear that Americans want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system, including this case … so we can unify our country and work together for the betterment of our nation.”
The Nov. 12 deadline is separate from the sentencing hearing for the 34 convictions, which had previously been set for Nov. 26.
Rather, this was a self-imposed deadline set by Merchan that allows him to consider Trump’s claims of presidential immunity and whether the Supreme Court’s July ruling on the scope of immunity should apply to the state level.
Even if Trump’s convictions were upheld, the president-elect has myriad ways to appeal the case or get the charges against him dismissed before the Nov. 26 sentencing hearing — making it all but certain he will face no time behind bars.
The first would be moving the case from state to federal court — which Trump’s lawyers had twice tried and failed to do in the months ahead of the election. However, their request to elevate the case to federal court now carries more weight, given Trump’s status as president-elect.
If that fails, Trump’s attorneys would likely appeal the convictions ahead of his sentencing hearing, using the Supreme Court immunity ruling as grounds to have the charges dismissed.
They are also likely to use the immunity claim to throw out portions of evidence used by prosecutors in the New York case, including testimony from former White House communications director Hope Hicks.
Even if all this fails, legal analysts and former prosecutors have roundly dismissed the idea that Trump would face prison time for the convictions.
“Understand, Trump is not going to prison even if Merchan metes out an incarceration sentence. Though the charges are felonies, they are not sufficiently serious under New York law to merit immediate detention; Trump will get bail pending appeal,” Andrew McCarthy, a former U.S. prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, wrote in an op-ed last week for Fox News Digital.
Had Merchan moved to keep the convictions intact, he could have sought additional guidance from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, including on whether Trump should be submitted to state convictions as a sitting president — a question that has never been tested.Trump’s legal team would almost certainly have appealed any conviction as far as the Supreme Court, if necessary.
Trump is shielded from federal convictions under longstanding Justice Department policy preventing U.S. attorneys from prosecuting a sitting president.
However, this precedent has never been applied to state convictions, giving Judge Merchan a somewhat wider berth in deciding how to proceed.
His decision comes days after special counsel Jack Smith filed a motion to vacate all deadlines in the 2020 election interference case against President-elect Trump in Washington, D.C.
Smith had been tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to investigate both the alleged effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as Trump’s keeping of allegedly classified documents at his residence in Florida after leaving the White House in 2020.
While those charges have not been officially dropped, the special counsel appears to be moving in that direction, and Smith said his team plans to give an updated report on the official status of the case against Trump on Dec. 2.
[…]
Via https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trumps-new-york-convictions-ruling-issued
Special counsel Jack Smith stands down in Trump classified docs case, asks court to halt appeal
Special counsel Jack Smith cited President-elect Donald Trump’s recent re-election for nixing the appeal. Bonnie Cash/UPI/ShutterstockBy Victor NavaSpecial counsel Jack Smith asked a federal appellate court on Wednesday to halt his appeal in President-elect Donald Trump’s classified documents case, citing the results of the 2024 election.
“As a result of the election held on November 5, 2024, one of the defendants in this case, Donald J. Trump, is expected to be certified as President-elect on January 6, 2025, and inaugurated on January 20, 2025,” Smith wrote to the Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The Government respectfully requests that the Court hold this appeal in abeyance — and stay the deadline for the Government’s reply brief, which is currently due on November 15, 2024 — until December 2, 2024, to afford the Government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy,” the federal prosecutor added.
The classified documents case was dismissed in July by Florida federal Judge Aileen Cannon, and Smith had sought to appeal her ruling.
The special counsel noted that if granted the abeyance, his team would inform the appeals court of its future plans by Dec. 2. Smith said that he consulted with Trump’s legal team and they “do not object to this request.”
The filing comes after US District Judge Tanya Chutkan froze Smith’s 2020 election interference case against Trump last week, following the prosecutors’ request for a pause in court filing deadlines.
Multiple reports indicate that the Justice Department intends to wind down all pending litigation against the 45th president in light of his Election Day victory last week.
The New York Times reported that Smith is scrambling to finalize what is left of his work so he can retire before Trump takes office in January and assuredly fires him.
The president-elect has promised to axe Smith within “two seconds” of being sworn back into the White House on Jan. 20.
Smith, 55, has already informed members of his team they can start planning their departures over the next few weeks, the outlet said.
Cannon threw out Smith’s case alleging that Trump improperly hoarded sensitive White House documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after his presidency after she concluded that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.
Smith’s appeal contends that Cannon’s decision was “at odds with widespread and longstanding appointment practices in the Department of Justice and across the government.”
The Justice Department has a longstanding policy of not going after sitting presidents.
[…]
The Occupied West Bank: The Other Front
The Occupied West Bank: The Other Front
Al Jazeera (2023)
Film Review
Link to film: The Occupied West Bank: The Other Front
Since the Israeli military attack on Gaza on October 7, 2023, Palestinians in the West Bank have also experienced settler and IDF violence not seen for 50 years.
The film starts by reviewing the 1948 Zionist terrorist violence that forced 75% of non-Jewish Palestinians to flee their country. Those that remained sought refuge on the West Bank of the Jordan river (ruled by Jordan) or Gaza (ruled by Egypt). Following the Six Day War in 1967, Israel took possession of both the West Bank and Gaza.
At present there are over 200 illegal* Israeli settlements in the West Bank, home to 750,000 Israeli settlers. As Jewish settlers take control of ever larger swathes of Palestinian land, (according to UN records) 2023 witnessed the largest number of settler attacks ever recorded on Palestinian homes, olive orchards and homes. Interviewed on camera, Palestinians report that Israeli troops frequently stand and watch these attacks. Sometimes they join in.
Since October 2023, the Israeli government has shut down access roads to the West Bank cities of Yatta and Hebron, making it impossible for Palestinians in the adjacent countryside to access schools, hospitals and basic necessities, such as water and cooking gas cylinders.
Making the plight of West Bank Palestinians even more complicated, many Isareli troops serving in the West Bank are settlers themselves. They frequently film themselves randomly attacking and sexually humiliating West Bank Palestinians and post their videos on social media.
*In 1960, settler colonialism was proclaimed illegal under international law by UN General Assembly Resolution 1514. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice confirmed the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal: ICJ United Nations Israel Settlment Violates International Law
The Most Revolutionary Act
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