Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 406
June 19, 2023
Organizing Across the Class Divide
T
The Global Activists Manual
Edited by Mike Prokosch and Laura Raymond 2002
Thunder’s Moth Press/Nation Books
Book Review
My primary interest in this collection of essays relates to its extensive coverage of the “Battle of Seattle,”* protests in which 50,000+ people shut down the 1999 WTO ministerial conference by blocking delegates’ access to the Seattle Convention Center.
In my view, the absence Unfortunately it contains no essays by the Seattle protest organizers. With the help of Ralph Nader and Public Citizen, the latter began preparing a year in advance to enable meaningful participation by tens of thousands of activists from around the world – in puppet and banner making workshops, civil disobedience training and a two-day teach-in (in Seattle’s Benaroya Symphony Hall) by San Francisco’s International forum on globalization. affinity group formation.
Thanks to this preparation, organizers already had 13 affinity groups surrounding the Convention Center at sunrise, when Seattle police arrived to cordon off the street. The book also fails to mention the hundreds of Seattleites who hosted out-of-state activists in their homes once the hotels were fully booked.
I agreed with the common theme expressed in several essays that the anti-WTO protests, like anti-globalizaton protests that followed, tended to be mainly white and middle class. I particularly appreciated the analyses by Fred Rose in his essay “Coalitions Across the Class Divide,” about middle class activists’ individual relationship with authority based on their skills and knowledge. For this reason, they tend to think change happens by getting the right truth out and pressuring those in authority to change their views. In contrast, working class campaigns nearly always arise from urgent local problems bringing victims together to demand a solution.
Otherwise I was disappointed The Global Activists Manual spent so little time addressing the impact of class issues in organizing and the abandonment of minimum wage workers by the Democratic party.
This is not terribly surprising, given the publisher. The Nation magazine is notorious for its dismissal of both class politics and intelligence crimes, such as the JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcolm assassinations and 9-11, as right wing conspiracy theories.
*In which I participated in early organizing meetings
June 18, 2023
Biden To Deploy Thousands of Armed IRS Officers To Forcibly Seize Guns From Americans
Sean Adl-TabatabaiThe Biden administration has announced plans to begin deploying armed IRS officers to seize guns from Americans, regardless of whether their firearms were purchased legally or not.
In a disturbing first step, the IRS sent twenty armed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents to carry out a raid on a gun store in Great Falls, Montana, seizing all Form 4473s – documents that contain the buyer’s information. It is believed this information will be used by the IRS in the near future to conduct unconstitutional raids on Americans.
Tom Van Hoose, owner of Highwood Creek Outfitters, says he has been under constant surveillance by state and federal agencies for over two years, according to KRTV.
Thegatewaypundit.com reports: On Wednesday, the gun shop owner reported an unexpected visit from 20 heavily armed IRS agents at his store.
The agents reportedly arrived at the shop early in the morning, as Van Hoose was opening for the day.
“We have now confirmed that both the IRS and the ATF were at Highwood Creek Outfitters in Great Falls around 7 am this morning. Both the IRS and ATF would not say why they were there,” KMON Radio reported.
“A spokeswoman for the IRS would only say they were there on official IRS business. The ATF says it was providing assistance to the IRS. We attempted to enter the store today and were stopped by agents at the door who would only say that the gun store is closed and will reopen tomorrow,” the news outlet added.
According to Hoose, the federal scrutiny began two years ago and has involved various agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and now, the Internal Revenue Service.
“They must think we’re making a fortune in the gun business to investigate us like this, assuming we’re hiding thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. However, anyone familiar with gun business profit margins would know that’s not the case,” Van Hoose told MTN News.
Van Hoose claims that he was simply told his business had been reported, although he remains in the dark about who reported it or why. He believes the whole episode was politically motivated.
“I can only assume that it’s because of the style of weapons that we have and the press that’s so against them,” said Van Hoose. “The current administration seems to be hell bent on getting those guns out of the hands of average Americans.”
The day’s operations were disrupted, leading to a significant loss of revenue.
“I had about 30 minutes to operate, making just a single $16 sale,” Hoose said.
Highwood Creek Outfitters is America’s largest online firearms and accessories mall, according to its website. The store is known for selling what Van Hoose calls “fun guns,” including AR-15’s and AK-47s.
[…]The Great Falls Police Department confirmed it was informed about the investigation and provided security, according to KRTV.
Although the Montana Department of Justice claimed no involvement in the incident, an IRS spokesperson confirmed their presence at Highwood Creek Outfitters but refrained from providing further details.
The recent incident has attracted political attention, with Congressman Matt Rosendale expressing his concern over the IRS and ATF’s actions, interpreting them as another example of the Biden regime’s weaponization of federal agencies against hardworking Americans.
“I’m incredibly disturbed by initial reports that the IRS and ATF closed Highwood Creek Outfitters without any warning today,” said Rep Rosendale in a statement.
“This is yet another example of the Biden Administration weaponizing federal agencies to target and harass hardworking Americans. We cannot allow Biden to continue expanding these agencies to infringe on our liberties,” he added.
On Friday afternoon, the congressman announced he sent a letter to ATF Director Steven Dettelbach and IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, asking for answers.
“The weaponization of our government must be STOPPED, which is why I sent a letter to ATF Director Dettelbach and IRS Commissioner Werfel demanding answers about this outrageous attack and have used every tool available to me to remove funding for the 87,000 additional IRS agents!” Rep. Rosendale said.
Read the full letter here.
Rep. Matt Rosendale joined Chris Salcedo to discuss the incident.
“Here’s what they took out. IRS – financial records, accounting, making sure what transactions were taking place. No, they took all of the 4473 forms. The 4473 forms are what everyone fills out when they go to purchase a firearm,” said Rosendale.
“And it’s just a big disclosure to make sure that you don’t have a criminal background or other reasons where you should not be purchasing a firearm. So the IRS took every single one of the 4473s that Tom Van Hoose had in his possession there at Highwood Creek Outfitters,” he added.
20 armed IRS agents raid Great Falls gun store.
They didnt take any financial records, accounting or tax statements.
But they did take all the 4473 forms. (Buyer's Information)
Now we know what the 87,000 IRS agents are for.#614clinton pic.twitter.com/uJCTfcJfIK
— Clinton (@614clinton) June 17, 2023
I met with Tom Vanhoose this morning after 20 armed IRS agents raided his store in Great Falls earlier this week.
Tom informed me that these agents confiscated all the 4473 forms, none of which contain any financial information; instead, the IRS now has access to these forms… pic.twitter.com/HPFEgZedKI
— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) June 16, 2023
[…]
RNZ Editor Suspended for Providing Balanced News on Ukraine
An editor at Radio New Zealand has been suspended and is under investigation for the time-honored practices of providing balanced and factual reporting
Violent Maidan coup in Ukraine, 2014. (Wikipedia)
By
Tony Kevin
in Canberra
Special to Consortium News
An editor at Radio New Zealand has been suspended and is under investigation for the time-honored practices of providing balanced and factual reporting.
On Friday The Guardian Australia website carried a news report, with a follow-up piece on Monday, whose implications for free speech are profoundly disturbing.
They concern a Radio New Zealand, or RNZ, broadcasting employee — unnamed, but everyone in the small New Zealand broadcasting world will soon know who it is — who has been placed on leave while their professional conduct is investigated. Obviously, a career hangs in the balance.
The malign ghosts of Orwell’s 1984 stalk this story.
‘Russian Garbage’
This unnamed person in RNZ committed the cardinal sin of “inappropriate editing” of incoming Reuters news feeds on the war in Ukraine to insert “Russian garbage” in the contemptuous words of Paul Thompson, chief executive of RNZ. That is to say, they drew on Russian news sources to insert balancing pro-Russian material to the incoming Western news agency feeds.
The Guardian tells us that in fact accurate information about Ukraine was added to the Reuters copy:
“The articles in question made a range of amendments: adding the word ‘coup’ to describe the Maidan revolution; changing a description of Ukraine’s former ‘pro-Russian president’ to read ‘pro-Russian elected government’; adding references to a ‘pro-western government’ that had ‘suppressed ethnic Russians’; and on several occasions adding references to Russian concerns about ‘neo-Nazi elements’ in Ukraine.”
And more truth was added to the story, The Guardian says:
“In one article, a paragraph was added reading: ‘The Kremlin also said its invasion was sparked by a failure to implement the Minsk agreement peace accords, designed to give Russia speakers autonomy and protection, and the rise of a neo-Nazi element in Ukraine since a coup ousted a Russian-friendly Ukrainian government in 2014.’
Another added that Russia launched its invasion ‘claiming that a US-backed coup in 2014 with the help of neo-Nazis had created a threat to its borders and had ignited a civil war that saw Russian-speaking minorities persecuted.’”
This, it seems, is an offence not to be countenanced any longer in New Zealand. “An RNZ spokesperson, John Barr, said in a statement after the first article came to public attention that ‘RNZ is taking the issue extremely seriously and is investigating how the situation arose,’” the newspaper wrote.
The Guardian, in its effort to “correct” the story, says: “Ukraine says these claims are discredited Kremlin propaganda … The anti-corruption movement was peaceful and had widespread public support. Yanukovych fled to Russia months later after his security forces shot dead more than 100 unarmed protesters.”
‘Gutted’
The RNZ executive Thompson was “gutted” to learn what has been going on under his watch. We read that 250 past published articles have been gone through “with a finetooth comb” to investigate and counter such offensive inserted material, and thousands more are being reviewed.
Sixteen such offending articles have been found and warning commentaries added to them. Investigations continue while the staffer remains indefinitely suspended. The responsible minister is being briefed. Clearly these editors have not delved very deeply into the Ukraine story.
Luke Harding’s Involvement
Both Guardian articles carry a tagline that says “Additional reporting by Luke Harding.” This should be a key warning to everyone in New Zealand’s and Australia’s broadcasting world, indeed in the entire English-speaking world.
Harding carries a formidable reputation as an inveterate anti-Russian British journalist with alleged strong links to the U.K. anti-Russian disinformation system and even to MI6, the U.K.’s secret intelligence service.
He was heavily involved in the Julian Assange affair and in the now discredited campaign to label former U.S. President Donald Trump as under Russian control. He is known as a leading Western disinformation warrior.
Normal Editorial Practice
Australian Broadcasting Company journalists edit incoming feeds from Reuters and other wire services all the time. They add context, link to previous stories, add Australian-relevant material.
The problem is, this person in RNZ was adding such context from the “wrong ‘side.’”
The ABC has long been exposed as an obedient servant of the U.S.-dominated Five Eyes intelligence network and runs along approved anti-Russian and anti-Chinese editorial lines. RNZ, by contrast, is still widely respected in New Zealand. But it committed the sin of allowing counter-perspectives to be heard on the responsibility for the present tragic war in Ukraine.
Rendering of the “Five Eyes” intelligence network that includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., the U.S. (@GDJ, Openclipart)
Read the two Guardian articles to see what exactly Harding in London and his colleagues in U.K. disinformation appear to be objecting to. It sends a strong message across the Tasman Sea, from New Zealand to the Australian media world: We watch every word you say and every word you write.
Cancelled for the Same Thought Crimes
The examples of journalistic misconduct identified in the two articles match exactly research and opinions on the historical context and causes of the war in Ukraine and mounting Russia-West tensions that I have been trying to express publicly in Australia as an expert former senior diplomat since publication of my book Return to Moscow in 2017.
As a result I have been cancelled, unpersoned, silenced — dropped down the Australia Broadcasting Company memory hole, never to be allowed on its airwaves again.
An innocuous interview I conducted from Moscow with Paul Barclay for the respected ABC program “Big Ideas” in February 2022 was “disarchived” — yes, you read it right — a few weeks later, under pressure from unidentified critics.
Ukraine is Losing
The war in Ukraine now winds steadily towards its inevitable pro-Russian denouement. Russia clearly has the military edge and this will not change now. Billions of dollars’ worth of supplied U.S./NATO equipment continues to be destroyed in combat.
In suicidal offensives ordered by the doomed Zelensky regime in Kiev, an estimated half a million Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or crippled since February 2022. [Exact casualty figures are very hard to come by]. Many more proxy warriors will die in coming weeks as this brutal war of attrition demanded by the U.S. and NATO continues to destroy what is left of poor Ukraine.
Australians and New Zealanders with naïve faith in the professional integrity of their national broadcasters will continue to be insulated from these tragic truths.
Fortunately, for those who dare to read them, there are now plenty of accessible reliable sources of alternative perspectives on Russia-West relations and the pivotal importance of the war in Ukraine in transforming the world. This world now looks very different from outside the Western laager. We are in the midst of huge global changes.
But, thanks to the likes of Harding and his Anglo-American friends, we won’t find such information anywhere on the ABC or RNZ. We Antipodeans in the colonies will be the last to know.
[…]
Via https://consortiumnews.com/2023/06/13/suspended-for-providing-balanced-news-on-ukraine/
Mass Exodus Costs California $500 Billion in Revenue
By Travis Gillmore and Siyamak Khorrami
Recent Internal Revenue Service data showing a net loss of more than 425,000 people between 2021 and 2022 indicates California is losing residents to states with lower or no income tax, according to a Chapman University professor.
“We are losing more of the high-income earners than the low-income earners, and it’s an increasing proportion of the total loss,” Jim Doti, president emeritus and professor of economics at Chapman University, told Epoch TV’s California Insider. “They’re more mobile and have the greatest incentive to leave because they’re paying 13.3 percent marginal income tax.”
High taxes are motivating wealthier residents to leave, with those making more than $200,000 per year increasingly choosing to relocate to states with no income tax like Texas, Florida, and Nevada, according to Doti.
California ranks as the second highest-taxed state, trailing only New Jersey, and IRS data show a flow of taxpayers from those with higher tax rates to those with lower rates or none.
“Right now, if you’re in that in $200,000 or above … by crossing the boundary into Nevada where they’re developing higher-income residential areas, you save 13.3 percent on your marginal tax rate,” Doti said. “That’s not chicken feed, and that’s why people are leaving.”
Doti related the ongoing situation to an economic theory known as the Laffer Curve—a formula developed by economist Arthur Laffer showing that reduced taxation spurs economic progress—with the exodus unfolding as businesses and taxpayers seek cost savings by relocating.
“State-to-state migration is so easy,” Doti said during the 30-minute interview. “And you save a lot of money.”
The Golden State experienced a $29.1 billion loss in 2021, according to the most recent data available from the tax agency, approximately triple the amount lost in 2019.
“Cumulatively, we’re talking about nearly a half trillion dollars in income lost in five years between 2016 and 2021,” Doti said, noting that the effects of taxable income loss compound over time.
Doti sat down with host Siyamak Khorrami to provide more details about the consequence to the state of the population decline and loss of businesses after being featured in EpochTV’s Leaving Californiadocumentary.
Less taxable income means less revenue for infrastructure, social services, and government programs, according to economists.
Businesses are also fleeing in record numbers, and a survey conducted by Doti and Chapman University revealed that one-half of responding CEOs reported they were contemplating moving, with one-third already having plans in place to leave the state.
Strict environmental regulations and a lengthy permitting process are common complaints from business leaders, according to experts.
“The need to bring down regulation was cited by CEOs as the number one reason for leaving because it hamstrings operations, making it difficult to expand,” Doti said. “This needs to be dealt with expeditiously and with a high level of priority.”
Jobs and businesses leaving the state fuel the loss of workers, exacerbating the economic impact by limiting and removing revenue streams from local communities, according to experts.
Significant loss of human capital and intellectual capacity is one of the most concerning aspects of the California exodus, according to Doti.
First theorized by Adam Smith in his book Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, the idea that human capital is the greatest source of wealth for a state is based on the notion that well-trained, educated workers are most capable of producing the prosperity needed to maintain a sustainable, thriving economy.
Public education systems including the University of California and California State University are subsidized by the government in recognition of this value, and the loss of graduates to other states is detrimental to the future of the state, according to Doti.
“If you lose them, you lost all that investment,” he said. “Younger people are thinking about forming families and buying a home, and in other states, they can find a starter home and a piece of the American pie.”
With a current median California home sale price of more than $728,000, according to Zillow—an online real estate listing company—many new graduates are priced out of the housing market, according to experts.
Population declines are expected to continue, as the problems facing California are significant, and solutions would require lawmakers to refocus their priorities, according to Doti.
“Not only are they not focusing on the proper issues, they’re not going to the root cause of the problem,” he said.
Lack of access to resources and housing boils down to high taxation and regulation, as less job creation and economic activity are the inevitable results, according to Doti.
“If we can reduce taxes and regulation, people will stay, and we will have greater prosperity,” he told California Insider. “We will begin to generate the kind of vital economy that can finally do something meaningful about the problems we’re facing: homelessness, crime, and an educational system, especially in the inner city, that is failing.”
[…]
Via https://peckford42.wordpress.com/2023/06/18/take-note-canada/
June 17, 2023
Twitter Shatters CNN Smear: Musk and Kennedy’s Truth Crusade
Dr Mercola
Story at-a-glanceJune 5, 2023, Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk co-hosted a live Twitter discussion about issues they believe ought to be at the forefront of the political debate going into the 2024 presidential electionTopics covered included free speech versus censorship, the destruction of democracy, the Ukraine war, foreign policy, the humanitarian crisis at the border, COVID, the link between mass shootings and antidepressants, the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) and moreIf elected president, Kennedy will issue an executive order forbidding federal agencies from participating in any efforts to censor speech by the American publicKennedy is adamant about stopping the ever-growing influx of illegal immigrants across the southern border and is currently formulating policies to make the border “impervious,” while simultaneously opening up legal immigration pathwaysKennedy also wants to shut down gain-of-function research and bioweapons developmentJune 5, 2023, Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk co-hosted a live Twitter discussion with Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, venture capitalist David Sacks, investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger and securities attorney Omeed Malik, about issues they believe ought to be at the forefront of the political debate going into the 2024 presidential election.
Topics covered included free speech versus censorship, the destruction of democracy, the Ukraine war, foreign policy, the humanitarian crisis at the border, COVID, the link between mass shootings and antidepressants, the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) and more.
[…]
Media BiasNot surprisingly, the liberal media chastised Kennedy for championing “right-wing ideas and misinformation” during the interview. In fact, that was The New York Times’ headline.1
The NYT went on to smear Kennedy as “a leading vaccine skeptic” who promotes “conspiracy theories” and “sounded like a candidate … in the mushrooming Republican presidential contest.”
[…]
Similarly, CNN wrote Kennedy off as a “marginal candidate who espouses debunked medical claims,” complaining he “attacked the closing of churches, social distancing and government track-and-trace surveillance.”2
[…]
Kennedy on Social Media CensorshipProving the ties between the Biden administration and Big Tech are still alive and well in the post-COVID era, Instagram recently suspended Kennedy’s official presidential campaign page, after reinstating his personal page, which had been banned for the last couple of years.
[…]
If elected president, Kennedy vows to call the heads of all social media companies into the Oval Office and “not walk out until we have figured out how to make this work and make it consistent with democracy.”
Like Sachs, Kennedy doesn’t believe that social media companies want to censor any of their users. Rather, they’re pressured to do so by advertisers and the government itself, which is using private companies to circumvent the U.S. Constitution. Were social media companies to continue censoring anyway, then turning them into common carriers could be one solution.
[…]
Musk is also adamant about the need for free speech. “I think if we don’t protect free speech at all costs, we don’t have a functioning democracy. If we don’t have a functioning democracy, nothing else matters,” Musk said. Ironically, since his acquisition of Twitter, the Democratic Party and its press allies have routinely portrayed Musk as a “threat to democracy,” primarily based on his support of free speech.
How Do We Combat Government Capture of Corporations?Malik also brought up an interesting point. Kennedy has frequently discussed the problems we have with regulatory capture — the fact that most of our regulatory agencies, including the FDA, CDC and EPA are controlled by the very industries they’re supposed to regulate.
As a result, there’s no one to make sure the public is not harmed by dangerous drugs, vaccines and chemicals. But a reverse kind of capture has also taken place, as elements within the federal government are pressuring private companies to violate the Bill of Rights on the government’s behalf, while pretending these companies are doing it of their own volition.
[…]
Kennedy on the Border CrisisThat’s what we saw during the pandemic. We saw it in the vaccine mandates, and we saw it in the censorship of speech. I will forbid that, and make sure that it does not happen [again], at least not during my term in office. Immediately, the first week I’m in office, I will sign that executive order.”
Kennedy is also adamant about stopping the steady and ever-growing influx of illegal immigrants across the southern border.
[…]
Kennedy Wants to Shut Down Gain-of-Function ResearchKennedy is equally adamant about shutting down gain-of-function research, which is nothing more than a convenient cover for bioweapons development. According to Kennedy, the CIA continued developing bioweapons in secret after the Biological Weapons Convention went into force in 1975, and never stopped.
[…]
Kennedy also stressed that, as we now face true existential threats such as bioweapons and AI, we must get off our war footing, as the constant threat of war “gives these institutions the excuse to be super secret and nontransparent and put us in a security state where they can develop all these crazy technologies in secret that are going to kill us all.” He believes in negotiation and working with other countries, including China and Russia, to ensure that everyone benefits and prospers.
Elon Musk on Neuralink and AIKennedy, in turn, wanted to know how Musk, who years ago warned we should all be terrified of AI because “first, it’s going to take our jobs, and then it’s going to kill us,” justifies being on the leading edge of that risky work.
Musk’s company Neuralink received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval at the end of May 2023 to test its implantable brain chips in human subjects.3 This is the first step in Musk’s stated vision to merge and augment the human mind with AI.
“It seems to me that [Neuralink] is a technology that could potentially be really … denigrating to democracy and human freedoms,” Kennedy said. “What are your thoughts about that?”
[…]
Kennedy expressed mild disagreement with Musk on some of these points, noting that even self-driving cars pose a significant threat to society considering some 40% of American jobs involve driving. What kind of productive work can we replace all those lost jobs with?
Kennedy on the Ukraine WarKennedy also didn’t mince words when asked to comment on the Ukraine war. He pointed out that the people of the West have been massively propagandized with “comic book depictions” of President Putin as the “bad guy” who attacked Ukraine unprovoked.
[…]
‘Put Yourself in Your Adversary’s Shoes’Kennedy continued by elaborating on the importance of the Minsk agreement when it comes to reestablishing and maintaining peace with Russia.
[…]
In short, everyone knew that inching NATO eastward would be viewed as a direct confrontation and a formula for war. Yet that’s what NATO and the U.S. did. NATO kept expanding eastward, until only Ukraine was left. And that was Russia’s “red line” that could not be crossed. “It’s just dumbfounding,” Kennedy said. “We’re picking a fight with a country that has 1,000 more nuclear weapons than we do. It’s just insane.”
Kennedy on Gun Violence and the Second Amendment[…]
Covid Vaccine and the Rise in Turbo Cancers
Dr. William Makis MDTurbo lung cancer – 24 year old UK paramedic coughed up blood and died within 5 months of Stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis – another type of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine induced turbo cancer?
“Turbo cancer” is a non-medical term that has arisen to describe very aggressive and rapidly progressive cancers following Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccination and suppression of the immune system.
I have written 13 substacks about turbo cancers so far:
turbo cancers in Canadian doctors (click here)turbo cancer leukemias (click here) and children (click here) and (click here)turbo cancer lymphoma (click here)turbo brain cancer glioblastomas (click here) and (click here)turbo cervical cancer (click here)turbo testicular cancer in athletes (click here)turbo cancer of appendix (click here)turbo sarcomas (click here)turbo colon cancers (click here)turbo gastric cancers (click here)[…]
Via https://makismd.substack.com/p/turbo-lung-cancer-24-year-old-uk
Early Photojournalism: The 19th Century Tenements of New York City
How the Other Half Lives
by Jacob A Riis, Edited with an introduction by David Leviatin
Bedford/St Martin’s 1996
Book Review
Jacob A Riis was a Danish carpenter who immigrated to New York City in 1870. As a police reporter, he became fascinated by flashlight photography technology (employing explosive magnesium allowing photographers to take indoor pictures for the first time. Riis used it to photograph the inside of dilapidated tenements that housed the city’s immigrant population between 1880 and 1890. As one of the world’s first photojournalists, he published his photos together with descriptive text in his 1890 How the Other Half Lives.
The book details how the population of New York started its rapid increase after the war of 1812 triggered massive European emigration. Over 35 years, the cty’s population increased from under 100,000 to 500,000. Beginning in 1830, property developers began subdividing former family homes into flats to accommodate them.
The 1840s and 1850s saw an influx of Irish immigrants during the Potato Famine, with demobilization of Civil War veterans creating another population influx in the late 1860s. The 1880s saw yet another wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe. By 1890, three quarters of New York’s population lived in tenements. The rents families paid were so high, that some landlords made a 75% annual profit on their investment.*
How the Other Half Lives gives us a tour of the various ethnic neighborhoods that comprised the slums of New York in the 1880s.
Italian – according to Riis, Italian adults had a monopoly on the city’s fruit stands and their sons on the boot black trade. Many Italian immigrants were brought to the US by padrones expecting to collect rent from them, as well as a percentage of their wages. Because Italian families had to work so hard to pay off the padrone, they had little time to learn English.Irish – First generation Irish immigrants worked has hod (coal) carriers, with their sons moving into bricklaying.Chinese – the Chinese had a monopoly on the laundry business, with laundries sometimes serving as cover for clandestine opium dens and fan tan games. The Chinese quarter was always the cleanest, with the residents immaculately clean and neat.Negro – unable to find jobs in Southern cities, Blacks began filtering into New York City after the Civil War. According to Riis, they were victims of serious prejudice and greed. Denied admission to trade unions, they were forced to give up trades they practiced under slavery (carpentry, bricklaying and barbaring) for unskilled work. They were also charged obscene rents because white families refused to live in the same tenements with them. They tended to disguise their poverty with nice clothes, pianos and parlor furniture. Regular church attendees, they also frequented the penny lottery, numbers games and fortune tellers.Jewish quarter – here tenements were much more crowded, with most housing sewing workshops employing up to 12 people per room. Half the clothes in New York’s major department stores were made in these sweatshops.Bohemian (Czech) quarter – about half the residents made cigars (including half the women, as they were also excluded from US trade unions). Typically working seven days a week they also had no time to learn English (to help qualify for better jobs).Despite the tenement reform movement, which started in 1879 (Riis was a member), the Tammany Hall machine running New York was loathe to enforce the city’s laws against overcrowding because Tammany Hall politicians depended on (bought) tenement votes at election time. More than half the city’s voters lived in tenements.
The book includes excellent chapters on homeless children in the tenement quarters, as well as their gangs and the private philanthropists and charities that set up schemes to get them off the street.
*In one example a landlord with a $800 building charged 10 families $5 per month each, for a net annual profit of $600.
June 16, 2023
How Did So Many Canadian Fires Start Simultaneously?
Dr William Makis MD
See https://makismd.substack.com/p/canadian-fires-are-being-set-deliberately for videos.)
Quebec Fires started simultaneously across entire province on June 2, 2023 (source)
Alberta fires started simultaneously on June 7, 2023:
Fires in Edson, Alberta:
Fires in British Columbia (Jun.8, 2023, New York Times)
Fires in Nova Scotia (May 28, 2023)
[…]
ARTICLES:
June 8, 2023 – Satellite footage raises possibility that arson, not climate change theory, to blame for Quebec fires (Lifesitenews)
June 8, 2023 – There are Now 250 “Out-of-Control” Fires in Canada, Here’s Why Some Say It’s All ‘Planned’ (Kyle Becker)
June 5, 2023 – Police in NS say some fires deliberately set
Via https://makismd.substack.com/p/canadian-fires-are-being-set-deliberately
Rep. Lauren Boebert Files Articles of Impeachment Against Joe Biden
Breitbart
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) announced Thursday she is filing new articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden in light of a border crisis and alleged bribery scheme.
“I have filed Articles of Impeachment now in this Congress just as I did in the last Congress, but I did it in a very special way. This time, I was sure to draft these so they can be brought up as a privileged resolution on the House floor at any time,” she said on The Benny Johnson Show.
“We know that Joe Biden is not capable of walking up stairs or standing on a stage without being sandbagged, let alone being President of the United States of America,” she added. “So I would love to see our committees actually do their job and bring up articles of impeachment in committee and have hearings and investigations with these so we can get more information out to the American people.”
BREAKING: Rep. @LaurenBoebert announces filing of articles of impeachment against Joe Biden as Bribery scheme exposed:
"Joe Biden is not capable of walking up stairs or standing on a stage without being 'sandbagged'— Let alone being President of the United States of America." pic.twitter.com/asFkCvW2sA
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 15, 2023
Boebert said the articles of impeachment would pertain to Biden’s handling of the southern border.
“As a result of Traitor Joe’s dereliction of one of his most basic duties to defend the homeland and uphold the rule of law, we have a complete and total invasion taking place at our southern border,” she said.
“More than 5.3 million illegal aliens…have been caught crossing our southern border,” she added.
Boebert said if the Judiciary Committee did not take up articles of impeachment for Biden, she would bring her privileged resolution to the House floor, where it would have to be addressed within 48 hours.
She also said the Oversight Committee, which she sits on, is still investigating the bribery scheme involving Biden and his son Hunter Biden alleged in FBI documents.
“We are still having investigations on the bribery that we are seeing with these FD-1023 documents. We are trying to get the audio tapes that are out there, the 17 audio tapes — two of which are alleged that it’s Joe Biden recorded on these calls,” she said.
She said more bank records could be coming over the next week and more subpoenas are going out.
[…]
How EMFs (Electromagnetic Fields) Damage Your Health
Dr MercolaStory at-a-glanceElectromagnetic fields (EMFs) include electric, magnetic and higher frequency radio fieldsWhile the literature discriminates between low- and high-frequency fields, microwaves, electric and magnetic fields, all of these have similar biological effectsEven low magnetic fields, such as 60 Hertz, can have drastic effects on cancer cells in culture. Effects begin around 20 nanotesla, and are fully developed around 50 nTAt levels over 160 nT, magnetic fields have been shown to affect sperm productionEMFs impair the flow of protons through ATP synthase. This increases mitochondrial membrane polarization, triggering a massive increase in reactive oxygen species. This oxidative stress causes most of the damageEditor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published April 29, 2018.
Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) have been shown to cause biological damage and even cancer, but exactly how does this happen? In this interview, Paul Héroux, Ph.D., a researcher and professor of toxicology and health effects of electromagnetism at the faculty of medicine at McGill University in Montreal, helps answer that question.
Originally trained as a physicist, he eventually ended up studying electrical power transmission lines, the topic of his Ph.D., and in the course of working for a power utility, he started investigating the health effects associated with the fields emitted from power lines.
“I got involved in biology, followed courses in medicine and became, so to speak, a different person from what my supervisors initially would have expected me to be,” he says. In time, he became a specialist on the effects of magnetic fields on the human body, and joined the Faculty of Medicine to help protect health and the environment.
Types of EMFsBroadly speaking, EMFs include electric, magnetic and radio frequency fields. While the literature tends to discriminate between low-frequency fields, high-frequency fields, microwaves, electric fields and magnetic fields, all of these have certain commonalities that allow you to lump them together, at least in terms of their biological action.
“It’s true that frequency influences the effects,” Héroux says, “but basically … I could, using an electric field or a magnetic field, produce the same effect in a cell. Most higher frequency signals have enough low-frequency components to have a lot in common with low-frequency components.
Nonthermal Effects MatterThe practical aspect of this is that usually the fields have an effect maybe in one application, but they are mirrored in other applications as well. There’s a type of great unifying view that you can have about these fields.”
It’s important to realize that the damage EMFs cause has nothing to do with thermal effects. At typical exposures, EMFs do not create heat, which has been the telecommunication industry’s main defense and argument for the safety of cellphone radiation. However, hundreds of researchers have in fact noted biological effects both at low and high frequencies.
“Covering the whole spectrum, there is no doubt that there are biological effects,” Héroux says, adding “There’s no doubt there are substantial health effects that we have been experiencing for a long time, and that have been increasing our health bills.
Initially, I got into this field because a power utility asked me to design an instrument that would measure electromagnetic fields on the workers. I designed a dosimeter that was a very successful unit.
After that, I imagined maybe this would be followed up with basic work on the biology of the phenomenon, but obviously, the utility was not very interested in that. Essentially, about at that time, I went to McGill University … and started to do research.
I had a student in the lab who was working on the toxicity of metals, who came to me one day and said, ‘Why don’t you give me a subject that would be a little more spectacular than the toxicity of metals?’…
This student started to work on magnetic fields. The results that came out of these experiments were quite spectacular. The effects were very, very strong. From then on, I felt I could not ignore this and that I had to bring this to the attention of the world.”
What they discovered was that even small levels of magnetic fields, such as 60 Hertz (Hz), can have drastic effects on cancer cells in culture. Research published as early as 1985 showed quite clearly that these fields were also able to suppress metabolism. Some 15 years later, Héroux duplicated those results, and was able to determine the mechanism behind it.
[…]You’re in Potentially Hazardous Fields Every DayIn the research Héroux and his student did on cancer cells, using a field of 60Hz, effects began around 20 nanotesla (nT), which is 0.02 microtesla (mT) or 0.2 milligauss (mG),1 and were fully developed around 50 nT.
At levels over 160 nT, magnetic fields have also been shown to affect sperm production — and male fertility declined by about 50% between 1973 and 2013. Research2 also reveals prenatal exposure to power-frequency fields can nearly triple a pregnant woman’s risk of miscarriage.
These are environmental fields that most people spend a majority of their time in. Based on my own measurements, a vast majority of people never actually leave these fields; they remain in them continuously. Simply living in a home wired for electricity makes it difficult to avoid these fields — unless you take remedial action, such as turning off your circuit breaker at night.
Sam Milham, whom I interviewed on the topic of dirty electricity, did some amazing investigative epidemiological work showing radical differences in disease prevalence between rural and urban populations between 1900 and 1950. Once that rural population became electrified, their disease rates converged with the urban ones, to the point that they are now near-identical. “I strongly believe that to be one of the most important observations of this century,” Héroux says.
Mechanism of Action — How EMFs Cause HarmThe mechanism of action proposed by Héroux involves the enzyme ATP synthase, which passes currents of protons through a water channel (similar to current passing through a wire). The protons have to go through about 20 molecules of water to get through this channel. ATP synthase is extremely ancient and common to all living systems. It basically generates energy in the form ATP from ADP, using this flow of protons.
Magnetic fields can change the transparency of the water channel to protons, thereby reducing the current. As a result, you get less ATP, which can have systemwide consequences, from promoting chronic disease and infertility to lowering intelligence.
[…]
EMFs Trigger Massive Oxidative Stress
Although slightly different from Martin Pall’s work, which shows that EMFs activate voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs) in the outer membrane of the cell, it is consistent with increased oxidative stress and decreased ATP. Pall believes that when activated by EMFs, these VGCCs open up, allowing for a massive influx of calcium. This excess intracellular calcium and associated calcium signaling are responsible for most of the biological effects we see.
Héroux is not convinced that low fields can substantially alter the behavior of VGCCs or the behavior of calcium ions in solution. He believes it’s not calcium ions that are being directly acted on.
Rather, what’s being acted on are electrons and protons, which are far more sensitive to magnetic fields. Still, the outcome is the same. In a nutshell, what we’re talking about here is the creation of excess oxidative stress, which in turn can damage cell membranes and proteins, and break DNA bonds.
It’s not the energy in the electromagnetic frequency that catalyzes this process, rather it’s secondary damage from the oxidative stress EMF triggers. According to Héroux, a lot of the free radical detoxification reactions involve the transfer of protons, and EMFs not only increase free radicals but also reduce our ability to get rid of them.
[…]
The Most Revolutionary Act
- Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's profile
- 11 followers
