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Maui Fires: Weather Derivatives Strike Again?

August 23, 2023 / Joseph P. Farrell / No Comments

While you’re contemplating the Maui fires and the possibility that they were desired, if not deliberately set, remember that there are now “weather derivatives”. As I’ve mentioned before, weather derivatives are handy things to have around if you also have access to a technology that can manipulate the weather, and even more so if you’re pushing the narrative of climate change.

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M.D. spotted these three articles about weather derivatives and shared them (with our thanks), and I find it extremely odd that they should appear in the same time frame as the Maui fires:

Chicago Mercantile Exchange starts offering rainfall futures and options

A blockchain-based platform for trading weather derivatives

Now, why am I bothering you about the obscure area of weather derivatives trading and options? Beyond the obvious implication of the collateralization of weather effects themselves (imagine: rainfall on your “balance sheet” and you get the horrifying idea), there is a connection to natural disasters that it is time that people start considering seriously: weather derivatives and weather manipulation technologies are the ultimate way for insider trading, for the very obvious reason that most people are unaware of such technologies, nor their enormous potential to capitalize (literally) on weather windfalls and things like “fire sales”.

Many years ago, Catherine Austin Fitts mentioned her astonishment one year at the sudden – and inexplicable – sell-off of Indonesian bonds. But then everything became clear after the sell-off when the Indonesian tsunami of 2004 occurred. The sell-off occurred before the tsunami, indicating that the sellers had the ability to predict the tsunami, and what better way to predict a tsunami than to create one?

So with that in mind, one wonders: what were the weather futures and trades for Hawaii this month? for June and July? Who traded them? Who made money from weather derivatives involving Hawaii during this period?  The same questions not only might be asked of the Maui fire, but also of the Canadian, Australian, and California fires; and these questions not only might be asked of them, but they must be asked.

Will there be a pattern that emerges once one does ask these questions?

I simply don’t know.

What I do know is that, if there is a pattern of consistent winners and losers in such fires that is exhibited in weather derivatives, then it is all but certain the events themselves were deliberately coordinated.

I’ll go further: we need, from now forward, to query every natural disaster – floods, tornadoes, derechos, draughts, earthquakes – in this fashion: who were the pre- and post-disaster winners and losers? What were the weather derivatives trading? This will goa long way to determine if we are dealing merely with exploited crises of opportunity, or deliberately engineered ones.

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Via https://gizadeathstar.com/2023/08/weather-derivatives-strike-again/

Taliban’s Massively Successful Opium Eradication Raises Serious Questions about US Drug Policy

Alan Macleod

The Taliban government in Afghanistan – the nation that until recently produced 90% of the world’s heroin – has drastically reduced opium cultivation across the country. Western sources estimate an up to 99% reduction in some provinces. This raises serious questions about the seriousness of U.S. drug eradication efforts in the country over the past 20 years. And, as global heroin supplies dry up, experts tell MintPress News that they fear this could spark the growing use of fentanyl – a drug dozens of times stronger than heroin that already kills more than 100,000 Americans yearly.

THE TALIBAN DOES WHAT THE US DID NOT

It has already been called “the most successful counter-narcotics effort in human history.” Armed with little more than sticks, teams of counter-narcotics brigades travel the country, cutting down Afghanistan’s poppy fields.

In April of last year, the ruling Taliban government announced the prohibition of poppy farming, citing both their strong religious beliefs and the extremely harmful social costs that heroin and other opioids – derived from the sap of the poppy plant – have wrought across Afghanistan.

It has not been all bluster. New research from geospatial data company Alcis suggests that poppy production has already plummeted by around 80% since last year. Indeed, satellite imagery shows that in Helmand Province, the area that produces more than half of the crop, poppy production has dropped by a staggering 99%. Just 12 months ago, poppy fields were dominant. But Alcis estimates that there are now less than 1,000 hectares of poppy growing in Helmand.

Instead, farmers are planting wheat, helping stave off the worst of a famine that U.S. sanctions helped create. Afghanistan is still in a perilous state, however, with the United Nations warning that six million people are close to starvation.

[image error]Data from Alcis shows that a majority of Afghan farmers switched from growing poppy to wheat in a single year

The Taliban waited until 2022 to impose the long-awaited ban in order not to interfere with the growing season. Doing so would have provoked unrest among the rural population by eradicating a crop that farmers had spent months growing. Between 2020 and late 2022, the price of opium in local markets rose by as much as 700%. Yet given the Taliban’s insistence – and their efficiency at eradication – few have been tempted to plant poppies.

The poppy ban has been matched by a similar campaign against the methamphetamine industry, with the government targeting the ephedra crop and shutting down ephedrine labs across the country.

A LOOMING CATASTROPHE

Afghanistan produces almost 90% of the world’s heroin. Therefore, the eradication of the opium crop will have profound worldwide consequences on drug use. Experts MintPress spoke to warned that a dearth of heroin would likely produce a huge spike in the use of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, a drug the Center for Disease Control estimates is 50 times stronger and is responsible for taking the lives of more than 100,000 Americans each year.

“It is important to consider past periods of heroin shortages and the impact these have had on the European drug market,” the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) told MintPress, adding:

Experience in the E.U. with previous periods of reduced heroin supply suggests that this can lead to changes in patterns of drug supply and use. This can include further an increase in rates of polysubstance use among heroin users. Additional risks to existing users may be posed by the substitution of heroin with more harmful synthetic opioids, including fentanyl and its derivatives and new potent benzimidazole opioids.”

In other words, if heroin is no longer available, users will switch to far deadlier synthetic forms of the drug. A 2022 United Nations report came to a similar conclusion, noting that the crackdown on heroin production could lead to the “replacement of heroin or opium by other substances…such as fentanyl and its analogs.”

“It does have that danger in the macro sense, that if you take all that heroin off the market, people are going to go to other products,” Matthew Hoh told MintPress. Hoh is a former State Department official who resigned from his post in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, in 2009. “But the response should not be reinvade Afghanistan, reoccupy it and put the drug lords back in power, which is basically what people are implying when they bemoan the consequence of the Taliban stopping the drug trade,” Hoh added; “Most of the people who are speaking this way and worrying out loud about it are people who want to find a reason for the U.S. to go and affect regime change in Afghanistan.”

There certainly has been plenty of hand-wringing from American sources. “Foreign Policy,” wrote about “how the Taliban’s ‘war on drugs’ could backfire;” U.S. government-funded “Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty” claimed that the Taliban were turning a “blind eye to opium production,” despite the official ban. And the United States Institute of Peace, an institution created by Congress that is “dedicated to the proposition that a world without violent conflict is possible,” stated emphatically that “the Taliban’s successful opium ban is bad for Afghans and the world”.

This looming catastrophe, however, will not hit immediately. Significant stockpiles of drugs along trafficking routes still exist. As the EMCDDA told MintPress:

It can take over 12 months before the opium harvest appears on the European retail drug market as heroin – and so it is too early to predict, at this stage, the future impact of the cultivation ban on heroin availability in Europe. Nonetheless, if the ban on opium cultivation is enforced and sustained, it could have a significant impact on heroin availability in Europe during 2024 or 2025.”

Yet there is little indication that the Taliban are anything but serious about eradicating the crop, indicating that a heroin crunch is indeed coming.

A similar attempt by the Taliban to eliminate the drug occurred in 2000, the last full year that they were in power. It was extraordinarily successful, with opium reduction dropping from 4,600 tons to just 185 tons. At that time, it took around 18 months for the consequences to be felt in the West. In the United Kingdom, average heroin purity fell from 55% to 34%, while in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, heroin was largely replaced by fentanyl. However, as soon as the United States invaded in 2001, poppy cultivation shot back up to previous levels and the supply chain recommenced.

US COMPLICITY IN THE AFGHAN DRUG TRADE

The Taliban’s successful campaign to eradicate drug production has cast a shadow of doubt over the effectiveness of American-led endeavors to achieve the same outcome. “It prompts the question, ‘What were we actually accomplishing there?!’” remarked Hoh, underscoring:

This undermines one of the fundamental premises behind the wars: the alleged association between the Taliban and the drug trade – a concept of a narco-terror nexus. However, this notion was fallacious. The reality was that Afghanistan was responsible for a staggering 80-90% of the world’s illicit opiate supply. The primary controllers of this trade were the Afghan government and military, entities we upheld in power.”

Hoh clarified that he never personally witnessed or received any reports of direct involvement by U.S. troops or officials in narcotics trafficking. Instead, he contended that there existed a “conscious and deliberate turning away from the unfolding events” during his tenure in Afghanistan.’

Left, a U.S. Marine picks a flower as he guards a poppy field in 2012 in Helmand Provine. Photo | DVIDS. Right, A man breaks poppy stalks as part of a 2023 campaign to target illegal drugs in Afghanistan. Oriane Zerah | AP

Suzanna Reiss, an academic at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the author of “We Sell Drugs: The Alchemy of U.S. Empire,” demonstrated an even more cynical perspective on American counter-narcotics endeavors as she conveyed to MintPress:

The U.S. has never really been focused on reducing the drug trade in Afghanistan (or elsewhere for that matter). All the lofty rhetoric aside, the U.S. has been happy to work with drug traffickers if the move would advance certain geopolitical interests (and indeed, did so, or at least turned a knowingly blind eye, when groups like the Northern Alliance relied on drugs to fund their political movement against the regime.).”

Afghanistan’s transformation into a preeminent narco-state owes a significant debt to Washington’s actions. Poppy cultivation in the 1970s was relatively limited. However, the tide changed in 1979 with the inception of Operation Cyclone, a massive infusion of funds to Afghan Mujahideen factions aimed at exhausting the Soviet military and terminating its presence in Afghanistan. The U.S. directed billions toward the insurgents, yet their financial needs persisted. Consequently, the Mujahideen delved into the illicit drug trade. By the culmination of Operation Cyclone, Afghanistan’s opium production had soared twentyfold. Professor Alfred McCoy, acclaimed author of “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade,” shared with MintPress that approximately 75% of the planet’s illegal opium output was now sourced from Afghanistan, a substantial portion of the proceeds funneling to U.S.-backed rebel factions.

UNRAVELING THE OPIOID CRISIS: AN IMPENDING DISASTER

The opioid crisis is the worst addiction epidemic in U.S. history. Earlier this year, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described the American fentanyl problem as “the single greatest challenge we face as a country.” Nearly 110,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2021, fentanyl being by far the leading cause. Between 2015 and 2021, the National Institute of Health recorded a nearly 7.5-fold increase in overdose deaths. Medical journal The Lancet predicts that 1.2 million Americans will die from opioid overdoses by 2029.

U.S. officials blame Mexican cartels for smuggling the synthetic painkiller across the southern border and China for producing the chemicals necessary to make the drug.

White Americans are more likely to misuse these types of drugs than other races. Adults aged 35-44 experience the highest rates of deaths, although deaths among younger people are surging. Rural America has been particularly hard hit; a 2017 study by the National Farmers Union and the American Farm Bureau Federation found that 74% of farmers have been directly impacted by the opioid epidemic. West Virginia and Tennessee are the states most badly hit.

[…]

Via https://uprootedpalestinians.wordpress.com/2023/08/27/talibans-massively-successful-opium-eradication-raises-questions-about-what-us-was-doing-all-along/

How to Reverse Alzheimer’s Disease

Dr MercolaVideo link: https://www.bitchute.com/video/eEaSSRadi2Je/Story at-a-glanceIn 2014, Dr. Dale Bredesen published a paper demonstrating healthy lifestyle choices could reverse Alzheimer’s in 9 out of 10 patients. His team is now launching a new randomized, controlled trial at six sites. Biological aging, brain aging and epigenetics will be included in this trial, using newer blood tests that weren’t available even a few years agoThe glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) test can be a valuable tool. This test basically looks at brain changes associated with astrocytosis. Astrocytes respond when there’s a problem in the brain, so it can give you a heads-up that something is afoot up to 10 years before symptoms set inSupporting energy production and reducing inflammation in the brain are the two most important factors to prevent and treat Alzheimer’sThe entire family of herpes viruses is associated with changes in the brain and neurons. Left untreated, chronic infections put your innate immune system into overdrive. Alzheimer’s is an innate immune system mismatch with the adaptive system. You’re not clearing the pathogen, so you’ve got a continued onslaught of cytokines causing damage in your brainValuable adjuncts that can help improve mitochondrial energy production include methylene blue, niacinamide and glycine

In this video, I interview repeat guest Dr. Dale Bredesen, a neurologist specializing in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. In 2014, he published a paper1 demonstrating the power of lifestyle choices for the prevention and treatment of this tragic condition. By leveraging 36 healthy lifestyle parameters, he was able to reverse Alzheimer’s in 9 out of 10 patients.

This included the use of exercise, ketogenic diet, optimizing vitamin D and other hormones, increasing sleep, meditation, detoxification and eliminating gluten and processed foods. It’s been several years since we spoke last, so he’s got quite a few updates to share.

Randomized Trial Launch

For starters, his team has published another proof-of-concept paper and are now launching a randomized, controlled trial at six sites: Hollywood, Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; Cleveland, Ohio; and Sacramento, Oakland and San Francisco in California.

[…]

Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire

According to conventional thought, elevated tau and beta-amyloid are causative factors in Alzheimer’s, but Bredesen’s research suggests otherwise. He explains:

“This is a little bit like saying, ‘There’s some smoke there. If we just blow away the smoke, then the house is not going to burn down.’ It makes no sense. The key thing to know is that [tau and beta-amyloid] are responses and mediators. You’ve talked a lot about mitochondrial function, which is absolutely critical in this disease, but we know of many upstream contributors, and that’s another update.

[…]

Two Key Causative Factors That Must Be Addressed

According to Bredesen, supporting energy and reducing inflammation in the brain are the two most important factors to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s. Basics that all of Bredesen’s patients implement include:

Dietary intervention — Bredesen recommends a plant-rich, mildly ketogenic diet, with a good omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, no dairy, no grains and no simple carbs. “That’s the approach that has worked the best,” he says. “We call that KetoFLEX 12/3.” Nutrition for Longevity now offers meal kits for the KetoFLEX 12/3 diet at KetoFlex123.com, to make it easier to follow.

In the interview, I counter some of Bredesen’s dietary recommendations, as he still recommends polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs).

I’m convinced all omega-6 PUFAs need to be kept low, below 2% or even 1% of daily calories, for optimal health, and I strongly suspect people with dementia need to be even more cautious, as the PUFA linoleic acid (LA) appears to be the biggest dietary source of all the drivers of Alzheimer’s, including inflammation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and dysfunction in electron transport chain such that you cannot efficiently produce ATP.

I’ve written extensively on the ins and outs of this, so for more information, listen to the interview and/or review “Linoleic Acid — The Most Destructive Ingredient in Your Diet.”

I’m also not convinced that the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is as helpful as commonly suggested since you cannot counter the damage caused by omega-6 fats simply by taking more omega-3. On top of that, most omega-3 supplements, primarily fish oil, are worthless because they’re synthetic and rancid to boot, so making sure you’re getting high-quality omega-3 is an essential factor.

Exercise — Bredesen is seeing particularly good results with KAATSU (blood flow restriction training) and exercise with oxygen therapy (EWOT).Sleep optimization — Sleep apnea is a common problem that unquestionably contributes to cognitive decline, as it reduces oxygen to your brain and raises adrenaline while you’re sleeping.

“Sleep is a huge area in and of itself,” Bredesen says. “Patient zero, the first person we treated back in 2012 who reversed her cognitive decline beautifully, she’s now over a decade in on this, doing great continually. She’s now in her late 70s.

One of her issues was poor sleep and, of course, one of the things that was addressed. Getting at least an hour of deep sleep and at least an hour and a half of REM sleep is very helpful … Poor sleep gives you more amyloid. It’s just a marker, but it’s a marker of things that aren’t so good, and unfortunately, amyloid then gives you poorer sleep.”

Stress reductionBrain trainingDetoxTargeted supplements

The other part of Bredesen’s program is customized to each patient. Many have undiagnosed chronic infections, for example, that need to be addressed. Common ones include P. gingivalis and T. denticola, which work their way into your brain from your oral microbiome, herpes simplex and human betaherpesvirus 6A (HHV-6A).

The entire family of herpes viruses is associated with changes in the brain and neurons. HHV-6A in particular is associated with the brain degeneration seen in Alzheimer’s. Chlamydia pneumoniae is also highly troublesome, as are all tick-borne infections, including Borrelia, Bartonella, Babesia and Anaplasma.

All these infections put your innate immune system into overdrive and need to be quenched. As noted by Bredesen, COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s are “both innate immune system mismatches with the adaptive system.” You’re not clearing the pathogen, so you’ve got this continued onslaught of cytokines. In the case of COVID, you die from the acute cytokine storm, whereas in Alzheimer’s, you die from cytokine drizzle. “It’s a long-term cytokine problem,” Bredesen says.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup Down-Regulates ATP Production

Bredesen also highlights the importance of avoiding fructose. In March 2023, Dr. Richard Johnson, Bredesen, Dr. David Perlmutter and several other coauthors published a paper2 on Alzheimer’s disease as “a maladaptation of an evolutionary survival pathway mediated by intracerebral fructose and uric acid metabolism.”

[…]

Fruit Versus High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Here too, my current views veer a bit. It’s important to understand there is a world of difference between fructose from fruit and high-fructose corn syrup. I used to recommend limiting both sources, but I’ve recently changed my thinking on this, as fructose from fruit activates pyruvate dehydrogenase, which you need to metabolize glucose from pyruvate to acetal-CoA in your mitochondria. If that enzyme is not activated, the glucose cannot be used for fuel.

The key to this riddle for me was the Randle Cycle, which basically acts as a metabolic switch. Your primary fuels are fats and carbs, and the Randle cycle determines how your cells decide which one to burn. When your diet is more than 30% to 35% fat, this switch shifts to fat metabolism, so that you’re burning fat in your mitochondria rather than glucose. The glucose instead gets shuttled into glycolysis and any excess goes out into your blood.

So, eating a lot of fruit and a lot of fat at the same time is not a good idea. In essence, fructose by itself is not what’s causing the problem. Rather it’s eating too much fructose in combination with too much fat. If you increase your fresh fruit intake, you also need to lower your fat intake, or else the sugar can’t be used for fuel.

Additionally, there are individual variations in metabolic flexibility, toxicity and microbiome that likely contribute to a person’s ability to tolerate increased carbohydrates.

The other point of contention I have is that PUFAs also appear to induce torpor (decreased physiological activity marked by a reduced metabolic rate), much like high-fructose corn syrup does. So, I suspect ripe fruit is not going to be a major contributor to dementia. In a previous interview with Johnson, he also admitted being surprised that fructose from fruit did not have the same effects as high-fructose corn syrup.

p…]

Methylene Blue, Niacinamide and Glycine

One treatment adjunct Bredesen favors is methylene blue, which is something I recommend for just about anyone who wants to improve their health and reverse degenerative disease, primarily because it’s so effective at reducing reductive stress. It facilitates electron transfer forward in the mitochondria, thereby allowing ATP production to occur, even if the complexes are damaged.

Raising NAD+ is also important for energy production. NAD+ is oxidized, not reduced, so it facilitates the transfer of electrons forward in the electron transport chain. While there are expensive precursors out there, my favorite is plain old niacinamide, which is incredibly inexpensive yet raises NAD+ effectively.

Recent research has also confirmed that niacinamide helps slow brain aging. For general health, I recommend taking 50 milligrams of niacinamide three times a day. Niacinamide also works synergistically with methylene blue.

Many dementia patients also have low glutathione levels, especially if they’ve been exposed to mycotoxins or other toxins. I’m not a fan of taking glutathione, because glutathione is reduced, and you need the oxidized form to really make it work.

[…]

Via https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/08/27/dale-bredesen-alzheimers.aspx

 

Can You Reverse Autism and Other Chronic Health Conditions?

Dr MercolaStory at-a-glanceEpidemic Answers, founded by Beth Lambert in 2009, is a research organization focused on helping children with autism and other chronic diseasesIn her 2010 book, “A Compromised Generation: The Epidemic of Chronic Illness in America’s Children,” Lambert reviewed not only the epidemic of autism but also other childhood epidemics, such as autoimmune diseases, and their environmental root causeEpidemic Answers’ research project, “Documenting Hope,” is analyzing the environmental causes behind chronic conditions and what we can do to reverse themAutism and most other chronic childhood diseases are caused by a constellation of factors that contribute to the total toxic load of modern living

In the featured video, I interview Beth Lambert, who in 2009 founded Epidemic Answers, a research organization focused on helping children with autism and other chronic diseases.

When I graduated medical school, the incidence of autism was 1 in 10,000. For the first decade of my medical practice, I didn’t have a single autistic patient. By the mid- to late-1990s, I was treating hundreds of autistic children in my practice, and since then, autism has reached truly epidemic proportions.

In her 2010 book, “A Compromised Generation: The Epidemic of Chronic Illness in America’s Children,” Lambert reviewed not only the epidemic of autism but also other childhood epidemics, such as autoimmune diseases, and their environmental root causes.

[…]

Studies Underway

Chris D’Adamo, who co-wrote my paper on linoleic acid (LA), published in the journal Nutrients, is the research director for the Epidemic Answer’s research project called “Documenting Hope,” which is looking at the environmental causes of chronic conditions and what we can do to reverse them.

[…]

They’re also working on an intervention study in which they’re doing a deep dive into the health of a small group of children with chronic health conditions to identify the root causes. Each child is then placed on a customized 18-month program to reverse their condition and their progress is documented along the way.

[…]

Lay of the Land

As explained by Lambert, in the 1980s, a movement of parents who suspected their child’s autism was not necessarily genetic and irreversible started gaining traction. Physicians also began asking questions, wondering whether it’s a systemic problem as opposed to just a brain-based one, and started opening to the possibility that it might be reversible.

[…]

Unfortunately, many autism organizations have struggled to gain traction because the only autism treatments that are reimbursed by insurance are applied behavioral analysis (ABA), physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT).

Putting the Cart Before the Horse

The widely accepted form of treating autism, ABA, basically trains the child into expected or typical behaviors. Oftentimes, however, ABA is putting the proverbial cart before the horse. As explained by Lambert:

“They have brains and bodies that aren’t talking to each other, the communication’s out of whack. That needs to be addressed first.

 

[…]

The Real Cause of Autism: The Toxic Load of Modern Living

Root causes contributing to the epidemic of chronic diseases in children include (but are not limited to) things like processed food loaded with sugar and harmful fats like linoleic acid, gut dysfunction, childhood vaccines, antibiotic overuse and mold.

But it’s almost never just one of those things, but rather a constellation of contributing factors. Genetics also plays a role. For example, your genes dictate how well your body can detoxify. But contrary to popular belief, genetics are rarely the sole or even primary cause, because genes are epigenetically regulated, meaning they’re influenced and modified by the environment.

[…]

Multipronged Treatment Approach Is Required

Epidemic Answers is the only group currently conducting research to identify root causes and how to reverse chronic childhood diseases, and preliminary data confirm that the more stressors a child has, the worse their health outcomes.

They’re also one of the few groups looking at the impact of multiple interventions at once.

“These kids who have recovered from autism, they never did one thing at a time,” Lambert says. “The parents did everything all at once to support that child and get their body what it needed to course correct … You can’t just do one thing.

You have to address diet at the same time you’re addressing sleep, at the same time you’re addressing stooling, at the same time you’re addressing integrating the brain and the body with therapies that help correct those developmental problems that emerge.

By doing all of those things at once, we hypothesize that these kids can get better, that they can drop their diagnoses. That’s why we’re doing the research like this, because people don’t believe it. Anecdotes don’t carry weight.

We need to do the research in order to convince the medical community that this really is the way to go. Kids are developing these conditions because of the way we’re living, so we have to change the way they’re living in order to get them better.”

 

Basic Nutritional Considerations

I strongly suspect linoleic acid in processed food is a major contributor to ill health, so making sure you’re feeding your child whole food, ideally organic, is key. Sugar is frequently thought to be the primary culprit, but I believe linoleic acid is far more dangerous in the long term than sugar.

Now, that doesn’t mean carbohydrates are unfairly criticized. My first book, published in 2004, was “The No-Grain Diet.” Many autistic children put on a no-grain diet fared quite well. But while grains contain sugar, many also have high linoleic acid content.

Resistant starches can also cause problems, as the fiber, which your body cannot digest, ends up fueling gram-negative bacteria that produce endotoxin in your colon. Endotoxin causes loads of inflammation and increases your serotonin level.

Serotonin is probably another major contributing factor for these kids. Lowering their serotonin levels and increasing GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, would probably be quite helpful.

Other key strategies include spending more time outdoors in natural environments and minimizing your electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure. These things don’t cost anything, and they not only can reduce your child’s risk for autism but also most chronic degenerative diseases.

[…]

Via https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/08/27/reversing-chronic-diseases-in-children.aspx

Blade Runners Destroy 90% of Surveillance Cameras in London Suburb

Getty Images / Metropolitan Police / Collage

Oliver JJ Lane

Breitbart

Almost all of the licence-plate reading cameras that will enable London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s fresh crackdown on driving in the city in one neighbourhood have already been destroyed by ‘Blade Runners’, just days before the scheme is supposed to come into force.

As many as nine in ten of Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) cameras installed in the London suburb of Sydenham and Sidcup have already been disabled according to an online information-sharing group. According to The Times, the group takes submissions from the public when they see ULEZ cameras being installed, track locations on a viewable map, and record whether they are still functional or not.

Recent reports have noted the varying ways disgruntled members of the public — described as a criminal “small minority of people” by London government spokesmen but who call themselves ‘Blade Runners‘ — have found to take out the cameras they object to. Among them are full-on theft of the cameras themselves, detaching the power and data cables that feed into them from their street poles, cutting the wires, or less active acts as simple as pushing the camera upwards to point at the sky with a stick, or placing a sticker of the lens.

One recent video taken by a member of the public of an anti-camera activist in action as patrons at a local pub smoke and drink and watch the man at work reported by London’s local freesheet newspaper the Evening Standard shows him use a garden branch ‘lopper’ to cut the camera’s cables, rendering it useless.

Per The Times‘ report, 185 cameras have been spotted in Sydenham and Sidcup — a 56 square-mile area — and 156 of them have already been taken out of action, equivalent to 90 per cent. In other areas like Bromley, 80 per cent of known cameras have been vandalised, the group claims.

If all goes to plan, Khan’s plan to crack down on London traffic will go into force next Tuesday, the 29th of August. While he defends the scheme as one to enhance the air quality in London, critics say the rules which ban older cars and trucks from the street while imposing no fines on new vehicles has a pronounced effect on the less well-off and particularly blue-collar workers who rely on a truck to carry tools and materials.

Nigel Farage ally Richard Tice, leader of Reform UK said that move to push the ULEZ out from the very centre of London all the way to its orbital ring road is an “attack on ordinary working people, going to work, in their vehicles, it’s an assault, it’s a financial assault on people coming in to do a decent days work to earn some cash, to pay your bills.”

“He’s got no idea how big of an impact this will have on people’s lives. And for those who say ‘I don’t live near London, that doesn’t affect me’, yes it will because it’s coming to a city near you,” he added.

Angry Londoners Attacking Mayor Sadiq Khan’s Dystopian ‘Low Traffic’ ULEZ Spy Cameras https://t.co/rVGitaKO2s

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 18, 2023

Attacking ULEZ cameras can constitute criminal damage and police are trying to catch those thought responsible. Last week they published a surveillance camera still of a man alleged to be in the act of damaging a camera. At the time of the statement, London’s police force said they had “recorded 288 crimes relating to ULEZ cameras. This includes approximately 185 reports of cables being damaged, 164 cameras being stolen and 38 reports of cameras being obscured” as of the beginning of that month.

Calling the damage “unacceptable acts of criminality”, police asked any witnesses or those with information to come forwards.

While the Mayor’s office has tried to not talk about the vandalism, arguing to do so gives publicity to those attacking the cameras, a recent report has highlighted the cost to the budgets of London’s local governments as they race to keep up with the pace of destruction. Looking at damage to all ‘Low Traffic Neighbourhood’ infrastructure including cameras, non-visual traffic monitoring equipment, and road-blocking bollards, it was said earlier this month that councils had spent £850,000 since 2020.

Those who oppose Low Traffic Neighbourhoods have been decried as being ‘conspiracy theorists’ by the establishment media. London’s Time Out magazine in a review of the controversy noted, for instance: “some conspiracy theorists claim that 15-minute cities would come with a greater surveillance culture, and that they would restrict people from moving between neighbourhoods. There’s little evidence to show that this would be the case.”

Attacks on ‘Low Traffic’ Cameras, Equipment Costs London Governments £850,000https://t.co/CPCJzb2X2w

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 16, 2023

[…]

Via https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/08/24/just-days-before-khans-car-crackdown-goes-live-one-london-area-sees-90-per-cent-of-cameras-destroyed/

Untold Story of George Soros’ Worldwide Soft Power Empire

Ilya Tsukanov

Sputnik Inernational

Elon Musk has confirmed X’s plans to sue NGOs funded by US financier George Soros over their alleged attempt to crack down on free speech. What’s the lawsuit about? Who is Mr. Soros? And how has his name come to feature so prominently in many of the most politically disruptive events of the first decades of the 21st century? Sputnik explains.

X CEO Elon Musk dropped a bombshell late Wednesday after confirming that his social media empire would “be filing legal action” to “stop” an attempted crackdown on free speech by politicians and George Soros-funded NGOs justified using trumped-up data on the number of “hate incidents” in the British Isles. “Can’t wait for discovery to start!” Musk wrote.

Musk’s message was a response to a report by an independent Irish journalist accusing authorities in Ireland and Scotland of inflating statistics about “hate-based offenses” to pass a new “hate speech” law which would make it a criminal offense to possess “hateful material” on your person or in your home – including up to a year in prison and a 5,000 euro fine for those refusing to hand over their digital device passwords to the authorities.

The crackdown is reportedly being backed by George Soros-funded non-government organizations (NGOs) accused of supporting a hardline censorship agenda, including by supporting police intervention and the seizure of personal phones and computers, as well as raids on the homes of the accused.

What is Soft Power?

Soros-backed NGOs’ alleged attempts to influence Irish and Scottish government policy are a prime example of soft power.

Soft power, or the use of ideological, cultural, or economic influence rather than force to achieve one’s policy objectives, has been a primary tool of US and European foreign policy from at least the mid-1980s onward. After 1991, Western countries working to build the post-Cold War unipolar world order used soft power tools to spread visions of liberal democracy, free market economics, and “open societies” as “universal values” applicable to all nations. Countries refusing to adhere to these concepts have faced invasions, crushing sanctions, and coup d’états (among them Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Ukraine, just to name a few).

George Soros, 93, has been a staple of Western soft power campaigns for well over 40 years, and is perhaps the single most visible face of such efforts (although certainly not the first or only one). His Open Society Foundations spends around $1.5 billion a year from the financier’s vast hedge fund empire to fund “civil society” groups around the globe.

How Do Soros’ NGOs Work With Soft Power, and What Ideology Do They Spread?

While conservatives often characterize Soros as a “leftist,” “communist,” or even “neo-Marxist,” his actions in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s reveal that he can best described as a standard social and economic liberal, promoting a vision of the world which both social conservatives and traditional leftists abhor – that is, the spread of a neoliberal political, social, and economic order perhaps best exemplified by academic Francis Fukuyama in his famous 1989 essay “The End of History?”

The Hungarian-born hedge fund manager and financier got his start in soft power “philanthropy” in the 1980s, providing funding for groups promoting radical political, economic, and institutional reforms in the communist nations of Eastern Europe and the USSR. He quickly ramped up the scale and scope of his activities in the region after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989 and the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Soros’ Open Society Foundations and other major Western political philanthropic institutions like them succeeded in creating an entire generation of new political and social leaders in over 60 countries, not just in Eastern Europe and the Global South, but many Western countries as well, including the United States.

OSF’s initiatives include a mind-numbing array of the types of support it provides, from generous grants to political parties pushing liberal, pro-Western politics, to money for media, think tanks, academia, and publishing houses (including those pushing textbooks for children), as well as modern art.

Soros in Ukraine

Setting up shop in Ukraine immediately after independence in 1992, Soros’ foundations played an intimate role in the formation of the country’s post-Soviet elites, especially its liberal, pro-Western faction.

Both during the Orange Revolution of 2004 and the Euromaidan coup in 2014, the OSF had a critical job to play in financing and otherwise supporting the “revolutionaries,” from lobbying efforts targeting US allies to “legalize” the coup, to meeting with the country’s new authorities to advise them on policy, to spending vast sums of money on an array of domestic “civil society” initiatives (including over $181 million by late 2015 alone).

Ukraine, perhaps more than any other case study to date, demonstrates the effective synergy between private “soft power” wielded by billionaires like Soros combined with institutions like USAID and the US State Department, showing the effective role soft power in creating a crisis from scratch, and then attempting to use it to achieve a geopolitical objective.<

Americans Get a Taste of Soros

Before the political rise of Donald Trump, Soros-linked organizations played a mostly low-key role in American politics, with the OSF’s initiatives and allies not really popping up on the radars of ordinary Americans before the rise of Black Lives Matter (which, it turns out, began receiving generous funding from Soros-linked groups from 2016 onwards).

Since then, the OSF has been thoroughly linked to financing of the election campaigns of judges (including some of those now looking to prosecute former President Donald Trump), and the bankrolling of major candidates for high political office. In 2022, a series of memos from an influential, but highly secretive Soros-linked Washington, DC-based nonprofit revealed that the billionaire had helped to formulate the then-incoming Biden administration’s policies across nearly two dozen policy areas, including the environment, education, healthcare, housing, and labor.

Where Have Soros and His OSF Been Banned

Russia was the first country to move to stamp out Soros’ activities, banning the OSF and its affiliates in 2015.* The Pakistani government issued a similar order against the OSF in late 2017, although the organization’s activities have since been reapproved. Turkiye banned the OSF in late 2018, citing the NGO’s meddling in domestic politics. The same year, the Hungarian parliament issued a series of measures aimed at forcing the OSF to close down its operations in Soros’ native Hungary. Poland’s nationalist authorities similarly called for a “de-Sorosization” of society in the late 2010s.

What is OSF’s Future?

Soros’ 37-year-old son Alexander took the reins of his father’s $25 billion business and soft power philanthropy empire in June, having replaced him as the OSF’s chairman in late 2022.

Last week, the OSF announced a “radical shift of strategic direction” for grantees, moving to end much of its operations across the European Union as part of a “global review of how we work to support democracy, human rights and climate justice.”

It’s not clear how much of an impact the shift in strategy will have on other countries where Soros-linked NGOs operate. However, if the billionaire’s comments about Trump being a “danger to the world” and the “threat” Russia and China supposedly pose to “open societies” are anything to go by, the OSF will likely ramp up its activities to prevent the former president’s reelection, and do what whatever is in its power to prevent the emergence of a genuine multipolar world order.

*Canadian historian Matthew Ehret disputes this. He asserts China was was the first country to ban Soros and his cronies following the 1989 Tienanmen Square color revolution. See  https://gt.linkedin.com/posts/mattehret_how-china-banned-soros-in-1989-a-canadian-activity-7033463355696631808-npDj

[…]

Via https://sputnikglobe.com/20230824/untold-story-of-george-soros-worldwide-soft-power-empire-1112859657.html

 

Reuters Admits the Blood Clots Are Real

By Sam Tobin

AstraZeneca facing two London lawsuits over COVID-19 vaccines

LONDON, Aug 23 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca (AZN.L) is facing two London lawsuits, including one from the husband of a woman who died after receiving the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker’s COVID-19 vaccine, in the first of potentially dozens of cases brought in England.

Britain was the first country to roll out the at-cost AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in early 2021, although it later restricted the use of it among under 40s due to the small risk of blood clots.

Anish Tailor, whose wife Alpa died in March 2021 after receiving her first dose of the vaccine, filed a product liability claim against AstraZeneca at London’s High Court on Aug. 4, according to court records.

His lawyer Peter Todd, from the law firm Scott-Moncrieff & Associates, told Reuters that he has nearly 50 other clients who will formally sue AstraZeneca in the coming months.

AstraZeneca declined to comment on active legal cases. A spokesperson said in a statement: “Patient safety is our highest priority and regulatory authorities have clear and stringent standards to ensure the safe use of all medicines, including vaccines.

“Our sympathy goes out to anyone who has lost loved ones or reported health problems.”

AstraZeneca is facing a similar lawsuit from Jamie Scott, who was diagnosed with vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, which can cause fatal blood clotting, after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Scott filed a product liability lawsuit against AstraZeneca on Monday, according to court records. No filings or further details about the case were immediately available.

Hausfeld, the law firm representing Scott, said it represents around 40 other individuals or bereaved families.

Sarah Moore, a lawyer at Hausfeld, said in a statement that Scott had “suffered life-changing injuries which have severely impacted not only him, but those close to him”.

She said Scott will argue AstraZeneca is “liable to compensate him for what he has suffered so that he can rebuild his life as far as possible and ensure the security of his family”.

The two cases are the first lawsuits brought in England and Wales over an adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine, according to publicly-available court records.

[…]

Via https://www.reuters.com/legal/astrazeneca-facing-two-london-lawsuits-over-covid-19-vaccines-2023-08-23/

India After Independence

Episode 34 India Under Nehru

A History of India

Michael Fisher (2016)

Film Review

Jawahadal Nehru, who died in 1964, was the country’s longest serving prime minister. Gandhi who disagreed with Nehru’s vision of a strong central government, refused to accept any post under his administration. Both favored a secular government for India with separate civil codes (related to marriage, divorce, etc) for different religions.

One of Nehru’s main problems in 1947 was the hundreds of princely states who refused to join either India or Pakistan.  Nehru persuaded most within India’s boundaries to cede sovereignty by allowing them to keep their palaces and some local revenues for themselves. The Indian army had to formally annex the largest, Ayderabad (with a Muslim leader ruling a Hindu minority), at a cost of 30,000 lives.

Sovereignty over Kashmir, administered by India, Pakistan and China, has never been resolved. In 1948 after Pakistan invaded western Kashmir, India airlifted troops into eastern Kashmir, establishing a Line of Control between Pakistani-controlled Azad Kashmir and India-controlled Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.  China controls Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract) in Northeastern Kashmir. A popular referendum India promised the majority Muslim Kashmiris never happened.

India’s constitution, approved in 1950. It establishes India as a republic.* It also abolishes Untouchability and establishes compensatory discrimination (creating special seats and quotas for “scheduled” castes and tribes), as well welfare provisions for the poor, elderly and disabled. Two hundred fifty million people voted in India’s first election 1951-52.

India has a bicameral legislature, with the lower house elected by direct popular vote and the upper house selected indirectly by state legislatures. India’s president is also elected indirectly.** The prime minister, elected by the lower house, has direct governing authority but can be dismissed if he loses a parliamentary vote.

With 18 years in office, Nehru was India’s longest serving prime minister, and his daughter Indira Gandhi the second longest (15 years).

Under Nehru (a democratic socialist), India established a mixed economy, with the government owning heavy industry railroads and energy production. One of his first acts one to create a planning commission to established five year plans to establish economic goals. The first five- year plan (1951-56) focused mainly on making India agriculturally self-sufficient. The second focused mainly on making heavy industry more efficient. From the outset Nehru set high tariffs on imported goods to prevent Western countries from crushing the country’s burgeoning industry with cheap imports.

Another major hurdle he faced was establishing a natural language, as the vast majority of the country couldn’t speak Hindu. A compromise he reached with state legislatures was initial constitutional recognition of 14 languages, with a 15-year transition to Hindi and English as the two official languages.

In 1955, Nehru became a leader in the international Non-Aligned Movement,** along with Indonesian president Sukarno, Yugoslavian president Tito and Egyptian president Nassar.

In 1961 he forcibly annexed Goa and other Portuguese enclaves, as well as forcing the French to withdraw from Pondicherry.

*Although India is still in the British Commonwealth of Nations, they no longer recognize the British monarch as head of state and no longer have a governor general (as do Canada, Australia and New Zealand).

**India’s president is elected by the members of an electoral college, consisting of the elected members of both the houses of parliament the legislative assemblies of states and the Union Territories of Delhi and Pondicherry.

***The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is an international organization dedicated to representing the interests and aspirations of developing countries

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

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/366254/366239

Politics – Not Science or Health – Behind Return of Masks

By  Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

A growing number of universities, businesses and hospitals in recent weeks have reinstituted mask mandates and social distancing requirements, and a new report warned that broader mandates may be coming this fall.

At the same time, the Biden administration is pushing for the public to get COVID-19 booster shots for the fall and winter seasons — even though President Joe Biden ended the COVID-19 public health and national emergencies in May, as did the World Health Organization (WHO), citing an overall low level of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.

Meanwhile, recently released documents from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reveal that public health officials privately questioned the effectiveness of masks and the guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) promoting their use.

While some experts have openly called for the widespread use of masks to return, experts who spoke with The Defender questioned the need for mandates and the effectiveness of masks in preventing the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses.

“Masks are not effective against the spread of viruses like COVID-19,” said Brian Hooker, Ph.D., senior director of science and research for Children’s Health Defense (CHD). “The virus is much too small to be blocked by a cloth/paper mask and even N95 masks have very limited effectiveness in reducing transmission.”

Dr. Meryl Nass, an internist and member of CHD’s scientific advisory committee, told The Defender that while medical professionals may “benefit from short periods” of mask-wearing before disposing of them, “Regular people who use these masks and are not trained in their use probably get no benefit and may well be at greater risk.”

Is threat of new mandates being used to push COVID boosters?

CBS News reported that several new COVID-19 variants have surfaced in recent weeks and are spreading across the U.S. These include the EG.5 variant, “estimated to be the ‘dominant’ strain in the U.S.,” FL.1.5.1 and a “highly mutated” strain, BA.2.86.

These strains have caught the attention of public health authorities and the WHO, which on Aug. 9 declared EG.5 (“Eris”) a “variant of interest,” even though the WHO acknowledged there’s no evidence the strain leads to more severe disease than its predecessors.

According to CNN, the CDC no longer reports aggregate COVID-19 case counts, but still urges people to “wear a mask with the best fit, protection, and comfort for you.”

Yet, CNN also reported there were “four new hospital admissions for every 100,000 people” in the U.S. for the week ending Aug. 12, “which is considered low.”

The CDC continues to recommend universal masking in areas where 20 or more people per 100,000 are hospitalized with COVID-19, and masking for “high-risk” individuals where between 10-19.9 people per 100,000 are hospitalized with COVID-19.

CNN cited a “growing number of hospitalizations” and increased virus levels in wastewater as “an early indication of a COVID spike.”

Universities, hospitals push mask mandates citing reports of ‘positive cases’

Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, announced Sunday it is reinstating a mask mandate, social distancing and bans on large gatherings as a precaution and for a two-week period, citing “reports of positive cases among students at the Atlanta University Center” — but not the university’s main campus.

Rutgers University, which also requires indoor masking, announced it is maintaining its COVID-19 vaccine requirement for the new academic year, and that students granted a medical or religious exemption may still be barred from campus attendance.

Rutgers previously announced that, as of Aug. 15, it would begin disenrolling students who had not complied with its vaccine requirement. In June, a federal appeals court heard arguments in an ongoing lawsuit supported by CHD challenging Rutgers’ policy.

According to No College Mandates, 90 U.S. universities require COVID-19 vaccines.

In New York, several hospitals reinstated mask mandates, including Upstate University and Community General hospitals in Syracuse and Auburn Community Hospital.

In California, Kaiser Permanente on Tuesday announced the reinstatement of a mask mandate for its Santa Rosa facilities.

Also in California, Hollywood studio Lionsgate reinstated mask mandates on Monday, until further notice, for employees on the third and fifth floors of its five-story headquarters in Santa Monica, affecting nearly half the company’s employees. The policy change came in response to several positive COVID-19 cases among its employees.

According to Deadline.com, all Lionsgate employees are required to perform a daily self-screening before coming to the office and must stay home if they exhibit any symptoms or have traveled internationally in the last 10 days.

And in an Instagram post Tuesday, actor Jamie Lee Curtis posted a photo of herself wearing a cloth mask, accompanied by a message reading “COVID is on the rise. SO MANY friends now are really sick. BE MINDFUL. WEAR A MASK if required or even if you feel unwell and are out in public spaces,” and suggesting masking will “be back.”

Some medical experts also recently spoke in favor of masks. A Royal Society report published Thursday found “clear evidence … that stringent implementation of packages of NPIs [non-pharmaceutical interventions] was effective in some countries in reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2.”

NPIs include masks, social distancing, lockdowns and travel restrictions.

In an editorial published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a group of Washington doctors called for mask mandates to return to healthcare settings.

Cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN members of “high-risk” groups should “take some precautions and wear a mask in crowds,” while Dr. Trish Greenhalgh, a primary healthcare expert at the University of Oxford, tweeted on Aug. 15 that “it looks like it’s once again time to MASK UP.”

[…]

Previous transportation mask mandate struck down, but decision vacated

A federal judge in Florida, in April 2022, struck down the Biden administration’s previous transportation mask mandate, following a lawsuit filed by the Health Freedom Defense Fund. CHD supported the suit.

The U.S. Department of Justice appealed the ruling in June 2022, but in June 2023, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated the decision and dismissed the case as moot.

[…]

CHD Senior Counsel Ray Flores told The Defender that while the federal government traditionally exerts its authority only over federal employees, “the transportation case was different.”

[…]

Masks ‘do not prevent the spread of respiratory viruses’

Recently released documents show that some key public health experts expressed reservations about the effectiveness of masks.

A November 2021 letter obtained by The Functional Government Initiative following a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., MPH, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, argued the CDC was promoting flawed mask data and excluded data which did not fit its narrative.

Osterholm, along with seven colleagues who co-signed the letter, asked the CDC to reconsider its claims regarding the “efficacy of masks and face coverings for preventing transmission of SARS-CoV-2,” adding that “the information and recommendations as provided may actually put an individual at increased risk of becoming infected.”

A meta-analysis published in Cochrane in January found masks were largely ineffective in reducing the spread of COVID-19. Cochrane has been described as “the gold standard” and “major source of high-quality, reputable meta-analyses.”

The study was authored by Oxford University senior associate tutor in epidemiology Dr. Tom Jefferson and 11 other researchers, who identified “78 relevant studies” conducted “in low-, middle-, and high-income countries” during health emergencies, and assessed the effects of different types of masks, including surgical masks and N95/P2 respirators.

The researchers found surgical masks “may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness/COVID-like illness,” while N95/P2 respirators “probably [made] little to no difference in how many people have confirmed flu … and may make little to no difference in how many people catch a flu-like illness … or respiratory illness.”

A 2022 study published in Cureus by Beny Spira, Ph.D., coordinator of the Bacterial Genetics Laboratory at Brazil’s University of São Paulo, analyzed mortality and morbidity rates in Europe during the winter of 2020-2021, finding that “countries with high levels of mask compliance did not perform better than those with low mask usage.”

Spira told The Defender “If you compare the Nordics with southern Europe … the difference in mask wearing was gigantic,” he said. Sweden, which did not mandate masks, had lower levels of excess deaths compared to countries with mask mandates.

Notably, in 2020, Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said, “We see no point in wearing a face mask in Sweden, not even on public transport,” adding there were “at least three heavyweight reports … which all state that the scientific evidence is weak.”

As of April 2022, Sweden had recorded fewer COVID-19-related deaths per million people than the U.S. — and 53 other countries. A Swedish government commission that investigated the country’s COVID-19 response found the no-lockdown strategy was “fundamentally correct,” and that, at most, masks should have been “recommended.”

Spira said masks “certainly will not help, because the best available studies … randomly controlled trials, have time after time shown that masks do not work. They do not prevent the spread of respiratory viruses.”

Spira has completed an updated study confirming his initial findings, but “most journals don’t accept this material,” he said.

Mask mandates pose ‘particular risk to children’

A September 2022 study published in Environmental Research concluded that “Wearing of [surgical masks] raises CO2 content in inhaled air quickly to a very high level in healthy children … that might be hazardous to children’s health.”

The study’s lead author, Harald Walach, Ph.D., founder of the Change Health Science Institute in Germany and professional research fellow at Kazimieras Simonavicius University in Lithuania, told The Defender “We have been highly critical of mask mandates, and our study vindicated our original skepticism.”

“Masks do not appear to have changed the infection dynamics,” Walach said. “A lot of the problems are really home-made, as the vaccination campaigns might have led both to the emergence of more dangerous strains of the virus and immunologically compromised individuals that are much more susceptible.”

“For instance, if one looks at deaths and mortality data during 2020, with no vaccines present, one sees that the mortality rates were much lower — at least in Germany,” Walach said. “After the vaccination campaign started, death tolls rose. At the very least, this shows that the vaccination campaign did not do what it was meant to do: to prevent excess mortality. It rather exacerbated mortality.”

Harvey Risch, M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus and senior research scientist in epidemiology (chronic diseases) at the Yale School of Public Health, told The Defender: “There is no evidence that wearing masks contributes appreciably to source control of respiratory virus infections. This has been shown in all of the studies of source control.”

Cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough told The Defender that while the Cochrane analysis “found that masks are ineffective … 17 studies, including three large randomized trials, have demonstrated that viricidal nasal sprays and gargles (iodine, xylitol) are very effective in reducing the spread of the virus,” suggesting their use be encouraged.

For Dr. David Bell, a public health physician, biotech consultant and former director of Global Health Technologies at Intellectual Ventures Global Good Fund, mask mandates pose a particular risk to children.

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/politics-mask-mandates-return/

50% of trans-identifying biological males in Wisconsin prisons convicted of sex crimes

It has been revealed that half of the trans-identifying biological males currently serving out sentences in Wisconsin prisons have been convicted of at least one sex crime.

The statistic was uncovered by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project during its analysis of Wisconsin Department of Corrections data obtained via an April 2022 public records request.

According to the report, of the 161 trans-identifying biological males in prisons across the state, 81 have sex crimes on their record.

The report did not divulge exactly which crimes the 81 inmates had been convicted of, though details of certain cases have been previously reported on.

One such case is that of Mark Campbell, who was allowed to stay in a women’s prison while awaiting his taxpayer-funded gender transition surgery in 2020. Campbell was arrested in 2007 after allegedly sexually assaulting and abusing his 10-year-old daughter.

Six years into his 34-year sentence, he began identifying as a woman and changed his name to Nicole, and in 2020 US District Judge James Peterson ruled that receiving surgery fell under his constitutional rights, arguing that “an inmate’s criminal history is irrelevant to whether she has a right to necessary medical treatment.” The women at the prison he ended up in were not consulted prior to his arrival.

[…]

Via https://thepostmillennial.com/50-of-trans-identifying-biological-males-in-wisconsin-prisons-convicted-of-sex-crimes-report