Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 357
October 10, 2023
How the Fossil Fuel Industry Came to Love Climate Change
Internationalist 360°
During the early 2000s, only a few left-wing magazines with limited circulation warned about the threat of Global Warming. Now mainstream news media link virtually every weather disaster to global Climate Change.[1]
Groups like Extinction Rebellion get international coverage for their publicity stunts, and supranational organizations like the United Nations as well as presidents and even King Charles offer support through lip service and radical energy policy changes.
The New York Times hosted a “Climate Event with Bill Gates, Marie Kondo and Others” on September 21st. Gates’s environmental stewardship plans involve chopping down forests and burying trees to combat climate change, and blocking out sunlight with dust to prevent global warming.
To analyze this shift in positive press coverage for Climate Change, it is necessary to understand how the carbon tax policy creates new exploitable markets, benefits the fossil fuel industry, hides polluters, and promotes energy policies that are in effect hazardous to the environment and negatively impact the working class and developing nations.
Fossil Fuel’s Big Bonanza
Within this context, the latest industry giveaway is President Biden’s $500 billion in new spending and tax breaks under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which is slated to go into effect in tax year 2023, according to the IRS. It is the third piece of environmental-related legislation passed by Biden since late 2021.
It is considered by analysts as a “Bonanza for the Carbon Capture Industry.” Accordingly, its intent is to increase government subsidy for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from polluting sources from $50 to $85 per metric ton and to simplify the process of receiving tax credits. The net result is a bigger handout to oil companies.
The fossil fuel industry views emerging CO2 capture technology as a revenue stream. This costly and experimental technology is intended to vacuum CO2 out of the air so it can be collected and buried in the ground. Scientists argue that a cleaner and more cost-effective solution might be found at the front end with better processing methods and filtering.
Carbon Credit Global Compliance Market
The charts below show the ideological shift in the fossil fuel industry that took place in the mid to late 1990s as increased subsidies and international protocols, such as the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the Paris Agreement of 2015 took effect. Additionally, the histogram depicts the steep transactional
Scientists and Politicians Split Between Climate Deniers and Climate Alarmists
The scientific and political debate over man-made Climate Change has been heated, with both sides accusing the other of being either climate “deniers” or “alarmists.” While all scientists believe in global Climate Change, the root cause of it is the sticking point.
The alarmists blame it on “man-made” CO2 emissions and the deniers blame it on natural events that emanate from our solar system, such as sunspot activity, cosmic rays, and resulting cloud formations. Scientists in the denier camp do not discount the effects of regional or local man-made ecological disturbances caused by weapons of mass destruction, mismanagement and neglect.
There is a political side to this debate as well. Members of the Democratic and Green Parties mostly fall into the alarmist camp and deniers mostly fall into the Libertarian and Republican camp.
Climate Change deniers are accused of being paid by the fossil fuel industry, which may be true in some cases, although that does not nullify rigorous scientific research and well-documented conclusions. All industries fund research in their specific fields from aviation to pharmaceuticals. Should it all be invalidated? We think not.
Geologist Gregory Wrightstone provided an informative webinar for the Green Renaissance-Sovereign Rights Movement (GRSRM) on El Nino and La Nina. He serves as the executive director for the CO2 Coalition—whose mission is to promote education about CO2 emissions into the environment. The CO2 Coalition takes a critical view of climate change alarmism because its members disagree with the science it is based on and the policy decisions that it generates.
While Mr. Wrightstone has worked for the gas industry, the CO2 Coalition consists of many distinguished scientists, including Nobel laureates, who have not.
The fossil fuel industry ironically appears to be playing both sides of the debate. It donates to both the Democratic and Republican Parties and is hedging its bets because of the tax subsidies.
Shifting Sun Patterns and Nuclear Winter
Theodore Postol is an MIT physicist and weapons specialist who draws on the research of Dr. Henrik Svensmark, professor in the Division of Solar System Physics at the Danish National Space Institute (DTU Space) who has found that climate change has resulted largely from shifting sun patterns and a flux in cosmic rays.
According to Postol, the Earth may soon enter a period of cooling, followed by a heightened period of warming 20 or 30 years from now.
At a webinar that he gave for the GRSRM on Climate Change and the Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Dr. Postol strongly reminded his audience that the greatest existential threat to humankind is nuclear war and not man-made global Climate
ing increase in their profits.”
He chides “new or old celebs generating large carbon footprints by attending ‘Save-The-Planet’ stunts where they tell us all to not fly, not eat meat, not drive cars, not breathe, etc.” Apparently, there are two sets of rules for carbon usage that are based on class status.
Corbyn asserts that deindustrialization and rising energy costs, due to the prevailing CO2 global warming narrative, disproportionately affect the impoverished and working class and that “millions die of fuel poverty-related causes due to climate policies every year” and that the largest victimized group is “African women suffering and dying from smoke inhalation due to open cooking fires because ‘sustainable’ climate policies hold back coal-fired power station electrification of Africa (and thus hold back economic development)– effectively, UN-EU Climate policy is racist.”
Corbyn also argues that scientific consensus does not equal truth. Consensus is often achieved through the targeted distribution of grant money that promotes topical politically advantageous positions.
Corbyn points out that CO2 in the oceans is 50 times more abundant than in the atmosphere, although he neglects to mention pollution that is leading to acidification that affects the capacity of crustaceans and mollusks to form shells.
Hijacked Environmental Movement, Amped Up Fear, Deindustrialization and Depopulation
While it is generally accepted that unbridled mass combustion of fossil fuels causes environmental and public health concerns, other underreported factors require consideration as well. However, the environmental movement has been hijacked, public fears are amped up, and all are hyper-focused on the carbon footprint of eight billion individuals. Since all life on Earth is carbon-based, this theory promotes not only deindustrialization but also depopulation.
Henry Kissinger linked overpopulation to U.S. national security in 1974 while he was President Richard Nixon’s National Security Adviser through National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM 200). Once he became secretary of state, NSSM 200 became Washington’s covert policy on population matters. It is important to note that Henry Kissinger’s work has been supported by elite eugenicist families such as the Rockefellers, Fords, Turners and Gates.
Kissinger has been closely involved with the development of the World Economic Forum (WEF). A spokesperson for the WEF, Yuval Noah Harari is emboldened to say the quiet part out loud. He disdainfully refers to the working class, displaced by technological advances, as “useless people” and he recommends “drugs and computer games” to occupy this “worthless/meaningless” grouping.
CO2 Climate Change Narrative Deflects Energy Away from Environmental Stewardship
The media and government’s hyper-focus on CO2 emissions deflects attention away from geo-engineering, big industrial polluters, the military-industrial complex, nuclear detonations and power plant waste, rocket launches into space, depleted uranium in weaponry, worldwide bombing campaigns, the use of defoliants, pesticides, napalm, fracking, open-pit and strip mining methods, non-regenerative mono-crop and Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) agribusiness farming practices, and the destruction of the Amazon jungle.
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Further, climate change hype is being used to rationalize more detailed surveillance that accomplishes greater socioeconomic control over the public.
Need for Better Designs
It is important to note the failure of big industry and government to support the design of cost-efficient, effective, scalable, and renewable energy options. Instead, technological designs favor centralized and monopolistic control and military applications, such as those funded by the Department of Defense (DoD), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and In-Q-Tel (the CIA’s Silicon Valley venture capital entity), etc.
Without controversy, hydroelectric and geothermal technologies can be expanded in addition to solar energy. Discussions that Tesla’s Tower also produced wireless decentralized electricity are interesting but remain speculative.
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Alternate Influences on Localized Climate Change/Return to Environmental Protection
While reusing or avoiding plastic, recycling glass and metal, and turning off lights when not in use are still important, these measures are inconsequential compared to the fallout from bombs, industrial pollutants, nuclear explosions, and faulty nuclear reactors such as Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. Despite the opposition of nearby countries, Fukushima will again release its stored radioactive water into the ocean.
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Also contributing to localized climate change and vast deforestation is the use of mono-crop agriculture on an industrial scale in huge territories, including, most unfortunately, tropical rainforests in Brazil and Indonesia. The destruction of these long-evolved ecosystems by cutting down thousands of square miles of forests and dislocating animal life is an environmental hazard.
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Researchers Claim Global Warming Distracts from Ecology and Promotes Neo-Liberal Agenda
As early as 1952, Murray Bookchin, an ecological revolutionary, warned about the problem of chemicals in food and the dangers to the environment and society by industrialization.
In 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring which cataloged the horrors of chemical pollution on bird populations. Bookchin’s Our Synthetic Environment was published a few months earlier. Earth Day was started in 1970 and sought to draw attention to the problem of the environmental degradation of the planet and the need to enact safeguards.
Of particular concern is the genuine issue of our natural well-being. Environmental protection is necessary to keep water, air and land clear of toxic contamination, and to reserve natural space for the preservation of species.
These fundamental needs for ecological action are being undermined, according to skeptics who believe that the environmental movement was usurped in the 1990s and greenwashed, as shown here and here.
Several researchers, such as Peter Koenig, Dr. Claudia von Werlhof, and James Corbett, believe the environmental movement has been hyped by fear to advance a neo-liberal agenda and totalitarian objectives.
They look cynically at the “solutions” proposed by international organizations, ranging from the United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), to networking entities such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Bilderberg.
Further, “carbon-neutral” solutions greenwash corporate polluters and shift blame and responsibility onto individuals. They seek to restrict the movement of the working class through the required use of electric-powered smart technologies.
Biased Greta Thunberg
While Greta Thunberg’s commitment to environmental activism may be perceived as honorable, Western leaders have used her youthful and innocent, appealing image to advance policies designed to keep the Global South in check and to criticize Russia for ecological damage in Ukraine. Notably missing from Thunberg’s analysis is any criticism against the United States for prolonging its proxy war against Russia by supplying Ukraine with weapons that include depleted uranium and its hand in the massive ecological damage that was caused by blowing up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
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Via https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/10/09/how-the-fossil-fuel-industry-came-to-love-climate-change/
October 9, 2023
Greene Calls for Investigation of US Weaponry Used by Hamas
RT
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claims the arms used to attack Israel may have come from Afghanistan or Ukraine.
Washington must work with Israel to investigate the origins of US-made weaponry used by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in its ongoing attack against the country, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Sunday.
The congresswoman claimed that some of the weapons used by Hamas may have originated from Ukraine or Afghanistan, and these must be tracked to determine their source.
“We need to work with Israel to track serial numbers on any US weapons used by Hamas against Israel. Did they come from Afghanistan? Did they come from Ukraine? Highly likely the answer is both,” the congresswoman wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Thus far, no solid evidence has emerged to support these claims. However, at least one unverified video circulating online showed a Hamas militant “thanking” Ukrainians for weaponry while showcasing assorted US-made pieces, including a standard-issue M136 anti-tank grenade launcher.
The US has been pouring military aid into Ukraine for over a year and a half, propping up Kiev in its fight against Moscow. Ukraine has faced repeated allegations of misusing and selling off weaponry, with items ranging from firearms to mines and guided anti-tank missiles repeatedly surfacing for sale on the dark net.
In Afghanistan, the entire arsenal of its now-defunct army, created with the direct and years-long involvement of the Pentagon, fell into the hands of the Taliban after the Islamist group took over the country in August 2021.
[…]
Via https://www.rt.com/news/584370-greene-us-weaponry-probe/
Senator warns of ‘very serious criminal penalties’ ahead of pro-Palestine protest in Sydney in response to Israel conflict
A Liberal Senator believes there is another rally pro-Palestine rally planned in Sydney on Monday night. Picture: Supplied
Sky News Australia
The shadow home affairs minister has issued a firm warning to anyone planning to attend pro-Palestine rallies in Sydney that “very serious criminal penalties” can apply for associating with terrorist organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Hamas’ “horrific attack” on Israel was “unprovoked”. This comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel was at war following a surprise attack from Hamas. “This is a horrific attack – it’s unprovoked, it is certainly the targeting of people as a definition of a terror,” Mr Paterson told Sky News Australia.Liberal Senator James Paterson has issued a firm warning to Australians ahead of a pro-Palestine rally planned in Sydney on Monday night, following a mass incursion of Hamas militants on Israel.
More than 700 people have been killed and thousands injured after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Saturday night, storming the country by land, sea and sky.
There are reports that more than 100 Israelis have been taken hostage by the terrorist group, which controls the Gaza Strip, as Israel continues its major counter offensive to regain control.
The attack on Israel has sparked a number of protests around the world, including a pro-Palestine rally at Sydney’s Lakemba Station on Sunday night.
It is understood another rally has been advertised on social media which is due to be held at Sydney Town Hall on Monday evening.
Speaking to Sky News Australia about the conflict in Israel, Mr Paterson shared an important message for any Australians planning to attend pro-Palestine protests in Sydney.
The Liberal Senator warned that both Hamas and Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim political party and militant group based in Lebanon, are listed in their entirety as terrorist organisations.
He cited the decision by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security last year, which made the recommendation to list both bodies in their entirety as terrorist groups.
Mr Paterson urged anyone attending pro-Palestine rallies to remember that it is a crime to associate with listed terrorist organisations.
“The important thing about that for Australians is, that the legal affect of that means, that it is now a crime under the Commonwealth Criminal Code to associate with a terrorist organisation and that includes all of Hamas and Hezbollah,” he told Sky News host Kieran Gilbert.
Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun praised the attacks on Israel as a “day of victory” after a Palestinian rally was held in western Sydney on Sunday night.
Mr Paterson also flagged the parading of paraphernalia connected to terrorist groups.
“Now to be clear, it is unlikely to meet the legal threshold for prosecution for simply attending a rally or even holding a flag as offensive and stupid as that would be,” he continued.
“But, providing material assistance to either of these organisations, particularly in the terms of fundraising or recruitment or in fact incitement to violence could meet that threshold and it’s a very serious crime that attracts serious penalties.”
People in their hundreds converged on Sydney’s Lakemba Station on Sunday night for a pro-Palestine rally where demonstrators expressed their support of Hamas’ efforts.
Shocking footage from the event captured the crowd cheering and shouting in celebration of the violent attacks on Israel, with fireworks seen shooting out from a vehicle.
Among those supporters praising the Palestinian attacks was prominent Muslim Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun who described it as a “day of victory”.
“I’m elated, it’s a day of courage, it’s a day of happiness, it’s a day of pride, it’s a day of victory. This is the day we’ve been waiting for,” he shouted at the rally.
Mr Paterson condemned the scenes at the protest on Sunday evening and the words of praise from Sheikh Dadoun.
“What’s particularly troubling about these comments… is that it was not in response to an Israeli retaliatory attack on Gaza that might have had some incidental or accidental civilian deaths,” Mr Paterson told Sky News Australia.
“This was just in response to those first images that we all saw of Hamas terrorists getting into Israel kidnapping men, women and children including the elderly, taking them back into Gaza and in many instances executing them and other instances abusing them, documenting it and putting it up on social media.
“These are unquestionably crimes against humanity and (to) have any Australian person celebrating that is an abhorrent thing.”
“That Imam should be ashamed of himself and those who went along and cheered him should be ashamed of themselves as well and people like that have no position, have no place in community leadership in this country at all.”
A Liberal Senator believes there is another rally pro-Palestine rally planned in Sydney on Monday night. Picture: Supplied
Also speaking about the issue on Sydney’s 2GB radio on Monday morning, Senator Paterson declared there was “absolutely nothing” that justifies the conflict in Israel.
“Whatever your views are on the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Nothing justifies the targeting of innocent civilians in the way it was yesterday,” he told host Ray Hadley.
He again warned that providing material assistance to terrorist organisations, whether that be financial or recruitment, can attract “very serious criminal penalties”.
As stated on the the Attorney-General Department’s website, it is an offence to associate with a listed terrorist organisation.
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The Mongols After 1215
Episode 19 The Mongols After 1215
1215: Years That Changed History
Dr Dorsey Armstrong (2019)
Film Review
Religious tolerance on the part of Mongol leaders greatly facilitated their assimilation of other cultures. Their belief in a “clear blue sky” deity was compatible with most global religions. In fact, each of Genghis Khan’s sons married a Christian woman.
The Mongols were quick to adopt other cultural innovations from the civilizations they conquered. In 1204, Genghis Khan enlisted a Uighur scholar he captured to adopt Turkish script to the spoken Mongolian. He also adopted gunpowder from the Jurchin Jim dynasty, as well as conscripting Chinese engineers to build bridges and siege machines to help him conquer Eastern Europe.
As in they had in the conquest of Beijing, the Mongols frequently burned crops to drive a flood of refugees into overburdened cities. All these strategies combined enabed them to amalgamate Uighurs, Turks, Arabs, Huns, Indians and Chinese for the first time in history.
Five years before his death in 1227, Genghis Khan called a kuritai to approve his plan to divide his empire among his four sons.
His oldest Jochi was given the western empire (bordering modern-day Austria), which became known as the Khanate of the Golden Horded. As he died before Genghis Khan, his lands were divided further among Jochi’s sons.The second oldest Ogitai became the Great Khan and ruled the Middle East region (Ilkhanate)The third oldest Chagatai became ruler of Central Asia (Chagatai Khanate)The youngest Tolui became ruler of the Mongolian homeland and China.*Armstrong blames Ogitai, under whom the empire reached its maximum (with conquest of Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and eventually Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Hungary), for hastening collapse. She feels he bankrupted the empire by trying to create a Mongol capitol Karakorum on the Central Plains. As the Mongols had always been nomads, this was an artificial city in a region unsuitable for agriculture and remote from major trade routes. Everything, including water had to be transported a great distance into the city.
The Mongols were the first military force to successfully fight a war on two fronts (against Russia and against the Song dynasty south of the Jurchin emperor). It wouldn’t be until World War II that another armed force (the western Allies) did so successfully. .
The mongols won their three year campaign against Russia (1240-42) by using naptha and similar incendiary devices to frighten and distract the Russian horses, by attacking multiple city-states simultaneously (to prevent the Russian princes from forming a successful alliance) and by sending a small contingent of mounted warriors to exhaust out the Russian horses (whose riders wore armor) before unleashing the bulk of their warriors.
Other significant conquests include the sack of Baghdad in 1258, in which Hulagu Khan (son of Tolui) conquered the Abbasid Caliphate and the conquest of India in 1526 by Babur, a great-grandson of Chagatai.
*The Mongols practiced ultimogeniture, in which the youngest son stayed home to look after aging parents and their animals and inherited the family home.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy
https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/12392969/12393009
October 8, 2023
10 News Stories They Chose Not to Tell You This Week
#10 – Your next salad could vaccinate you.
#9 – Rand Paul declares Fauci belongs in jail “without question.”
#8 – Ukraine “corrupt at all levels” – says former EU Commission Chief Juncker
#7 – “Turbo cancers” are decimating young doctors.
#6 – New documentary exposes covert operations leading up to JFK’s assassination.
#4 – Murderous work on mRNA technology wins the Nobel Prize: Dr. Malone responds.
#3 – Excess deaths among young people are up 42% — and the situation is only getting worse.
#2 – Fenbendazole is emerging as a “miracle drug” for cancer, and it’s Big Pharma’s worst nightmare.
[…]
Via https://vigilantfox.substack.com/p/media-blackout-10-news-stories-they-964?r=83qir
Israeli PM Netanyahu Warns Palestinians to Leave Gaza
Destruction caused by Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip. | Photo: X/ @DrAlkordi
NewsletterIn practice, however, Gazans have no possibility of leaving the enclave since the strip is blocked by Egypt and Israel.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the Israeli Army will use “all its power” to destroy Hamas and urged Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip.
“The Israel Defense Forces are about to use all their power to destroy Hamas’ capabilities,” he said during the second televised speech broadcast since Hamas began resistance operations against Israel and its occupation forces.
“We will destroy them and forcefully avenge this dark day that they have imposed on the State of Israel and its citizens,” the right-wing politician threatened.
“I say to the residents of Gaza: leave now because we will act forcefully. All the places where Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating, we will turn into islands of rubble.”
Where was the western media when Israeli soldiers were beaten a 12 year old girl in front of masjid aqsa#savas #Israel #Gaza #FreePalestine #Gaza #Palestine #Hamas #طوفان_الأقصى #طوفان_القدس #حماس #فلسطین #طوفان_الاقصى #إسرائيل #Hamas #IronDome #Hamas #Gaza #SupportGaza… pic.twitter.com/6eCmgkT47v
— Quran Wisdom (@quran_sharing) October 7, 2023
Netanyahu’s statements, however, were criticized by human rights defenders because they do not reflect the reality of what is happening in the area.
In practice, Gazans have no possibility of leaving the enclave since the strip is blocked by Egypt and Israel. In fact, very few Palestinians obtain permits to leave Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant decided to extend the emergency situation to the entire country and not just in an 80-kilometer radius of the Gaza Strip, as he had previously done.
AlMayadeen TV Correspondent , Ahmed Ghanem, reports to teleSUR updated information on the situation in Gaza, after the launch of the Al-Aqsa Flood campaign by the Palestinian Resistance against Israel and the immediate Israeli response to the Palestinian fire@AlMayadeenNews pic.twitter.com/bb5TKmKGjY
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) October 7, 2023
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Subverting Democracy in Haiti – for 50 Years
Haitian Camille Chalmers is leader of the Rasin Kan Pèp la party, a socialist regroupment for a new national initiative – Daniel Jatimliansky
Internationalist 306°
Haitian scholar Camille Chalmers rejects yet another international intervention and says Haiti’s issues have deeper roots which much be addressed
Haiti was once self-sufficient in grain production. In the early 1970s, it produced almost 100% of what it needed. Five decades later, the country buys 82% of the rice its population consumes from the United States. The causes are the structural adjustment policies imposed on the country, which encourage imports and prevent the state from financing the peasant economy. Among the consequences is unemployment, which today affects 70% of the population.
This is the assessment of Haitian scholar Camille Chalmers, leader of the Rasin Kan Pèp la (Socialist Regroupment for a New National Initiative) party. According to him, Haiti is the victim of “chaos orchestrated by imperialist organizations” that want to continue to pursue their commercial interests. To do this, they need to prevent the Haitian people from achieving self-determination and choosing their own course of development.
For this reason, Chalmers is opposed to any international military intervention in Haiti, such as the one approved this week by the United Nations Security Council. “We have already suffered several interventions. Each time, the situation gets worse,” he says. “The current situation is the result of an imperialist intervention,” he adds, referring to the peacekeeping mission led by Brazil from 2004 to 2017.
The political leader, who spoke to Brasil de Fato by a videocall from Port-au-Prince, cites a list of economic activities in which this logic manifests itself.
“From the beginning of the 20th century, imperialism invested in structuring the sugar industry in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and put Haiti with the task of providing cheap labor for these industries. In order to maintain this, it is important that employment conditions and social levels are terrible.” He also mentions that Haiti is strategic due to the existence of essential resources for transnational companies, such as the gold found in the north of the country.
“Many say that Haiti is rich in precious metals, but none of this has been proven to date. It’s a gray area, which is part of an ideological discourse,” says Professor Ricardo Seitenfus, who holds a PhD in International Relations, is a former OAS representative in Haiti (2009-2011) and has written books about the country.
As for the drop in rice production, there was in fact a US incentive for Haiti to reduce tariffs and thus encourage the import of rice produced in the state of Arkansas—former president Bill Clinton (1993-2001) even publicly apologized for this, acknowledging how damaging it was for Haiti. This preference for imports, by reducing job opportunities in the countryside, led to migration to the cities, which ended up becoming “a [ticking time] bomb, with slums everywhere”, says Seitenfus. “However, nothing has been done [by Haiti] since then to stop this.”
In addition to the extremely high level of unemployment, Haiti has suffered economic recession for five consecutive years, 50% annual inflation and a population with very low purchasing power, data that illustrates the serious crisis scenario experienced by the country, whose clearest and most media-friendly expression at the moment is the rampant violence. Haiti is experiencing a collapse of institutions and a large part of the capital city is under the control of gangs. At least 2,000 murders and 1,000 kidnappings were recorded in the first half of 2023 alone, according to UN estimates.
Another example of how the US government contributes to this scenario, in Camille Chalmers’ view, is the fact that Washington has done “everything possible to combat” PetroCaribe, the oil sales program created by Hugo Chávez when he was president of Venezuela (1999-2013) and which supplied essential fuel to 16 countries under “exceptional” financial conditions.
Here again, Seitenfus validates the historical argument, but with another caveat that places part of the responsibility in the lap of the Haitians. “It’s true that the US tried to prevent [PetroCaribe from coming to fruition]. There are documents showing this resistance. But the problem is that 3 billion dollars have been embezzled,” says the professor. “One day this will have to be settled with Venezuela.”
Washington’s failures
According to Seitenfus, the US has two major foreign policy failures in the Caribbean: Cuba and Haiti. The first, because of the Cuban Revolution, which endures despite the embargo imposed by Washington. The second “pays the price for being close to Cuba,” he says. Jean-Claude Duvalier, ‘Baby Doc’, who led Haiti from 1971 to 1986, was a dictator, but a dictator accepted by the US because “we couldn’t accept a second Cuba in the Caribbean.” And so “they turned a blind eye to Haiti’s problems.”
Camille Chalmers says that the US wants to maintain control over Haitian politics because it fears a possible alliance between Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti, “which would produce a change in the relationship of forces in the Caribbean.” As examples of how such an alliance could take shape, he mentions the aforementioned PetroCaribe, which the Venezuelan government showed interest in reactivating last year, and the work of Cuban doctors in remote areas of Haiti, which has reduced maternal mortality indicators and represents an example of what could be “true solidarity with Haiti.”
But this doesn’t work, according to him, because in addition to international pressure, there is the complicity of leaders who, he believes, are appointed by international missions, without the participation of society. This is the case with the current government of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who took office after the assassination of Jovenel Möise in 2021.
“The entire current political administration in Haiti should be considered illegal from a constitutional point of view,” emphasizes Ricardo Seitenfus. While the constitution establishes that in the event of the president’s death, the prime minister must exercise power until a new ruler is elected, Henry has neither been sworn in nor approved by parliament.
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October 7, 2023
The Price of Amazon’s “Prime” Business Model is Our Bodies
Injured former Amazon workers protest the company’s safety practices in Chicago, December 2019. (Getty)
By Denise Kohr | October 4, 2023The billion-dollar company profits off pushing workers like me to our physical limits — only to ignore us when we’re hurt on the job.
Amazon is notorious for having one of highest injury rates in the warehouse industry.
What’s less well known is that Amazon will ignore, overcomplicate, or outright deny workers their right to disability accommodations, forcing them to perform physically impossible and excruciating work or risk giving up their income entirely.
I should know — it happened to me several times.
That’s why, alongside United for Respect, I’m demanding that Amazon abide by the Americans with Disabilities Act and reform its accommodations system to ensure that workers don’t have to sacrifice their health to keep their jobs.
I spend about 10 hours a day moving and sorting products that can weigh up to 49 pounds each. After four years of physically intense labor with minimal breaks, my shoulder finally gave out during one especially busy day last summer.
Like other workers who’d been injured before me, I was dissuaded from visiting my own doctor and encouraged to consult AmCare, Amazon’s on-site first aid clinic, instead. For a month, they gave me ice packs or heat treatments meant to help me endure the pain as I continued working through my injury.
But as the pain became unbearable, I escalated my case and consulted a doctor from the company’s list of approved providers.
I learned that I had damaged my rotator cuff. In order to fully recover, I was put on lifting restrictions with gradually increasing increments, from 5 to 20 pounds. The gradual increase was meant to help my healing process.
At first, I was allowed to return to work on light duty. But just a few weeks later, as we prepared for the holiday shopping season, Amazon expected me to go against my doctor’s orders. When I told management that I was physically unable, I was placed on indefinite leave and escorted out of the building.
During that time, I underwent surgery for my shoulder. When I was cleared to go back to work in February, again with restrictions on what I could lift, Amazon stonewalled me. Even as I sent in medical documentation proving my steady recovery, Amazon never answered whether I could continue working with my disability.
Instead, they kept extending my indefinite leave. With a mortgage to pay and a retirement to plan for, I was left with two bad options: Work my regular duty job or lose my house. With no other choice, I was back on the warehouse floor lifting 49 pounds for 40-60 hours a week.
Unsurprisingly, my injury is only getting worse.
Stories like mine are a part of a larger problem at Amazon, where workers are pushed to our physical limits only to be disregarded, ignored, and neglected by a billion-dollar company that makes its profits off our backs.
I know many co-workers who’ve been victims of Amazon’s careless, and at times illegal, accommodations practices. Some are military veterans who came to Amazon with physical disabilities only to be pressured to take on work that exacerbates their pain. Others have been terminated after trying to request accommodations for panic-inducing anxiety disorders.
These practices are unreasonable and inhumane. That’s why our worker-led campaign is sharing a petition calling on Amazon to implement immediate changes to the accommodations process. You can sign on in support at http://www.United4Respect.org/Campaigns.
No one should be kept in the dark about their employment when they have families to feed and roofs to keep over their heads. And no one should be discriminated against or harassed because of their disabilities.
The price of Amazon’s “prime” business model is our bodies and well-being. I’m speaking up with Amazon workers nationwide to say we won’t stand for it anymore.
[…]
Via https://otherwords.org/the-price-of-amazons-prime-business-model-is-our-bodies/
NZ doctors avoided Covid jabs while insisting patients have them
Guy Hatchard
TCW
THE New Zealand Ministry of Health granted vaccine exemptions to thousands among its key staff whilst hypocritically insisting that the public be vaccinated.
An Official Information Act (OIA) request to the ministry dated August 2, 2023 asked the following question:
‘According to the legislation at the time in 2021, there were operational exemptions available for those who were not getting vaccinated against Covid-19. How many requests were received? How many were approved by the ministry?’
Matt Hannant, Interim Director, Prevention, National Public Health Service, replied:
‘From 13 November 2021 to 26 September 2022, a total of 478 applications for Significant Service Disruption exemption (SSD) were received. 103 applications were granted, covering approximately 11,005 workers. Please note that it is not possible to provide the exact number of workers that were covered by SSDs. This is because it was possible for an organisation to submit an application to cover more than one worker.’
So exactly how many Ministry of Health staff and associated contractors benefited from the vaccine exemptions? I have made inquiries and found some staff prepared to leak information. One source has told me that 95 consultants in the Dunedin region alone benefited from vaccine exemptions. Another source has pointed to a group of doctors working in Northland who arranged among themselves to remain unvaccinated. The total appears to run to hundreds and possibly more.
It seems that those granted exemptions were restrained by gag orders so that they could not tell anyone that they had been granted exemptions: it was a secretive process that the Ministry of Health was anxious to hide from the public.
In any case, any doctor advising a patient that mRNA Covid vaccination might be risky faced disciplinary action, and many were suspended.
So medical staff allowed themselves to be manipulated into a position whereby, if they were unvaccinated themselves, they were still required to advise their patients to vaccinate, a recipe for widespread hypocrisy in the health service.
This process was certainly approved by Dr Ashley Bloomfield (then chief executive of the Ministry of Health) who gained considerable notoriety by refusing vaccine exemptions to those among the public severely injured by their first jab, insisting that they continue with a vaccination schedule. Given Dr Bloomfield’s close working relationship with Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins (then Health Minister, now Prime Minister) it is quite likely that they approved it. The opposition leaders were also likely kept in the loop.
The criteria for granting exemptions apparently entailed an assessment concerning how vital staff were to the working of the health service. In other words, senior figures and those holding key surgical positions could insist that they remain unvaccinated and continue to be allowed to work. Meanwhile unvaccinated nurses, for example, could not gain exemptions and lost their positions.
If senior staff who wished to remain unvaccinated had spoken out publicly, the issue of Covid vaccine safety might have been given a public airing. Instead the Ministry of Health and the government kept a lid on all and any discussion. It did so through liaison with mainstream and social media outlets to censor content and through tight control of staff.
Senior medical staff who chose to remain unvaccinated may have been aware of a 2019 paper in Frontiers in Oncology journal entitled Gene Therapy Leaves a Vicious Cycle which reported: ‘Gene therapy has been caught in a vicious cycle for nearly two decades owing to immune response, insertional mutagenesis, viral tropism, off-target activity, unwanted clinical outcomes (ranging from illness to death of participants in clinical trials), and patchy regulations.’
As someone who has analysed social data over the last fifty years, I do sympathise with the doctors who opted for caution. That would be a normal reaction to new medications. It takes years to assess safety. So how unsafe is the mRNA Covid vaccine? Extremely unsafe, as shown by the 2023 excess death data across OECD nations.
The most highly Covid vaccinated nations in the OECD are in order Portugal, Chile, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Spain and Australia. Their average percentage of the population vaccinated is 91 per cent. Their average rate of excess deaths so far in 2023 is 12 per cent above the five-year historical average.
The least Covid vaccinated nations in the OECD are Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Switzerland. Their average percentage of the population vaccinated is just 63 per cent. Their average rate of excess deaths so far in 2023 is 0 per cent compared to the five-year historical average. In other words, they have averaged a normal death rate.
Anyone who suggests that the death rate among the unvaccinated is higher than the vaccinated is running against the tide of evidence. This view doesn’t fit with the international data.
The standard way to resolve this inconsistency would be to refer to prospective studies which assemble two matched groups, vaccinate one group and leave the other unvaccinated and measure what happens over a significantly long period. In the normal course of vaccine approval this would have been done for around ten years prior to approval. No one has done this.
In the Pfizer trial the unvaccinated control group were all vaccinated after a few months, ensuring that long-term comparative outcomes are unavailable. In any case, during those few months more people died in the vaccine group than the unvaccinated control group. There are also many studies differentiating the outcomes of the vaccinated and unvaccinated that we have reported including journal citations.
How concerning is the excess death problem? According to the OECD there were 1.2million excess deaths in 2022 among their member countries, with a combined population of 1.2billion: one excess death in every 1,000 people.
Now it is becoming accepted that both Covid and Covid vaccination began their lives in a biotech lab, it doesn’t seem to much matter what proportion of excess deaths are due to Covid and what to Covid vaccination, but for the record in 2022 there were approximately 200,000 deaths ‘with Covid’ in the OECD. In summary, OECD excess deaths not attributable to Covid were one million in 2022 alone. This probably extends to a few millions worldwide, about the same as the annual deaths during World War one.
[…]
In this light we can now assess the motivations of those still poking fun at the vaccine injured or accusing the ‘vaccine hesitant’ of seeking to undermine the government. For example the New Zealand Disinformation Project, funded by the Prime Minister’s Office, in common with many politicians, have described vaccine injury as a conspiracy theory. They are trying to hide their own mistakes which have undermined the health of the nation.
[…]
The Ministry of Health has been hiding these disturbing facts while quietly and hypocritically acknowledging their staff have a right to avoid these risks. They have not just gaslighted the public, they have recklessly put the public’s lives at great risk. This has broken families and communities, pitting one against another. It has caused tragedies affecting families across the nation, while the Ministry of Health and the government are going through tortuous and secret processes in order to conceal what is happening. Moreover they have plans to continue to roll out more experimental vaccines.
Footnote: Guy Hatchard has updated the figures for health staff avoiding vaccination in light of information received. You can read the report here.
[…]
The 1215 Mongol Conquest of Beijing
Episode 18 The Battle of Beijing
1215: Years That Changed History
Dr Dorsey Armstrong (2019)
Film Review
The great Mongol warrior Tamugen (aka Genghis Khan) conquered and amalgamated not only warring Mongol tribes but also the Uighurs, Turks, Huns and other steppes nomads into the Mongol Empire, the largest the world has ever known. Tamugen himself referred to it as the People of Felt Walls (referring to the felt ghers they lived in).
Armstrong attributes his success to his
insistence on total freedom of religion,total ban on looting (after battle) until there was clear and decisive victory*distribution of booty equally among all his followers (and their widows and families).organization his warriors into decentralized administrative units of 10, 100 and 1000 troops.lack of foot soldiers or supply trains to slow the onslaught of his mounted warriors. His army survived mainly on yak’s milk, the occasional slaughter of an animal for meat and hunting.recruitment of Chinese engineers to build siege technology and help him divert the Yellow River to drown opposing armies.ingenious use of spies and agents provocateurs.The 1215 Battle Zhongdu (Beijing)
When Genghis Khan conquered Beijing in 1215, China was divided into warring Song, Tangut (Xia Xi) and Jurchen Jin kingdoms. He made the decision in 1210 to attack the Jurchen capitol Zhongdu when the Jurchen emperor sent an envoy to him demanding that he pay tribute. Tamugen first allied himself with the Tangut (in modern day Tibet) and the Khitans in eastern inner Mongolia so could move his forces through their territories.
As his warriors sacked the rural Jurchen provinces, they created a flood of refugees seeking shelter in the walled city of Zhongdu. As the capitol ran out of food and began turning refugees away, many defected to join the invading forces. In fact, many Jurchen peasants (and even Jurchen generals) eagerly welcomed Genghis Khan, believing he had the mandate of heaven.
Crippled by the Mongol siege on his capitol, the emperor Xuanzong agreed in 1214 for Jurchen Jin to become a Mongol vassal state, offering Genghisi Khan tools, jewels, silk and his daughter in marriage. Accordingly, Genghis Khan withdrew his forces and returned to Mongolia.
When Xuanzong reneged on his promises, Genghis Khan and his forces returned, forcing the Jurchen emperor to flee south (where he established a new capitol in Keifind) and leave his Zhongdu undefended.
The conquest of Zhongdu resulted in a continuous transfer of bronze, iron, silk, jade, gold and silver to Mongols remaining on the steppes, promoting a major step change in their nomadic ways.
*His rivals allowed looting before enemy forces had surrendered, exposing their warriors to counterattack.
**See China’s Mandate of Heaven: The Right to Overthrow Morally Unfit Rulers
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/12392969/12393006
The Most Revolutionary Act
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