Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 417

Toxic Contagion – Funds, Food and Pharma

 

Colin Todhunter

In 2014, the organisation GRAIN revealed that small farms produce most of the world’s food in its report Hungry for land: small farmers feed the world with less than a quarter of all farmland.

The report Small-scale Farmers and Peasants Still Feed the World (ETC Group, 2022) confirmed this.

Small farmers produce up to 80% of the food in the non-industrialised countries. However, they are currently squeezed onto less than a quarter of the world’s farmland. The period 1974-2014 saw 140 million hectares – more than all the farmland in China – being taken over for soybean, oil palm, rapeseed and sugar cane plantations.

GRAIN noted that the concentration of fertile agricultural land in fewer and fewer hands is directly related to the increasing number of people going hungry every day. While industrial farms have enormous power, influence and resources, GRAIN’s data showed that small farms almost everywhere outperform big farms in terms of productivity.

In the same year, policy think tank the Oakland Institute released a report stating that the first years of the 21 century will be remembered for a global land rush of nearly unprecedented scale. An estimated 500 million acres, an area eight times the size of Britain, were reported bought or leased across the developing world between 2000 and 2011, often at the expense of local food security and land rights.

Institutional investors, including hedge funds, private equity, pension funds and university endowments, were eager to capitalise on global farmland as a new and highly desirable asset class.

This trend was not confined to buying up agricultural land in low-income countries. Oakland Institute’s Anuradha Mittal argued that there was a new rush for US farmland. One industry leader estimated that $10 billion in institutional capital was looking for access to this land in the US.

Although investors believed that there is roughly $1.8 trillion worth of farmland across the US, of this between $300 billion and $500 billion (2014 figures) is considered to be of “institutional quality” – a combination of factors relating to size, water access, soil quality and location that determine the investment appeal of a property.

In 2014, Mittal said that if action is not taken, then a perfect storm of global and national trends could converge to permanently shift farm ownership from family businesses to institutional investors and other consolidated corporate operations.

Why this matters

Peasant/smallholder agriculture prioritises food production for local and national markets as well as for farmers’ own families, whereas corporations take over fertile land and prioritise commodities or export crops for profit and markets far away that tend to cater for the needs of more affluent sections of the global population.

In 2013, a UN report stated that farming in rich and poor nations alike should shift from monocultures towards greater varieties of crops, reduced use of fertilisers and other inputs, increased support for small-scale farmers and more locally focused production and consumption of food. The report stated that monoculture and industrial farming methods were not providing sufficient affordable food where it is needed.

In September 2020, however, GRAIN showed an acceleration of the trend that it had warned of six years earlier: institutional investments via private equity funds being used to lease or buy up farms on the cheap and aggregate them into industrial-scale concerns. One of the firms spearheading this is the investment asset management firm BlackRock, which exists to put its funds to work to make money for its clients.

BlackRock holds shares in a number of the world’s largest food companies, including Nestlé, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Walmart, Danone and Kraft Heinz and also has significant shares in most of the top publicly traded food and agriculture firms: those which focus on providing inputs (seeds, chemicals, fertilisers) and farm equipment as well as agricultural trading companies, such as Deere, Bunge, ADM and Tyson (based on BlackRock’s own data from 2018).

Together, the world’s top five asset managers – BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity and Capital Group – own around 10–30% of the shares of the top firms in the agrifood sector.

The article Who is Driving the Destructive Industrial Agriculture Model? (2022) by Frederic Mousseau of the Oakland Institute showed that BlackRock and Vanguard are by far the biggest shareholders in eight of the largest pesticides and fertiliser companies: Yara, CF Industries Holdings K+S Aktiengesellschaft, Nutrien, The Mosaic Company, Corteva and Bayer.

These companies’ profits were projected to double, from US$19 billion in 2021 to $38 billion in 2022, and will continue to grow as long as the industrial agriculture production model on which they rely keeps expanding. Other major shareholders include investment firms, banks and pension funds from Europe and North America.

Through their capital injections, BlackRock et al fuel and make huge profits from a globalised food system that has been responsible for eradicating indigenous systems of production, expropriating seeds, land and knowledge, impoverishing, displacing or proletarianizing farmers and destroying rural communities and cultures. This has resulted in poor-quality food and illness, human rights abuses and ecological destruction.

Systemic compulsion

Post-1945, the Rockefeller Chase Manhattan bank with the World Bank helped roll out what has become the prevailing modern-day agrifood system under the guise of a supposedly ‘miraculous’ corporate-controlled, chemical-intensive Green Revolution (its much-heralded but seldom challenged ‘miracles’ of increased food production are nothing of the sort; for instance, see the What the Green Revolution Did for India and New Histories of the Green Revolution).

Ever since, the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO have helped consolidate an export-oriented industrial agriculture based on Green Revolution thinking and practices. A model that uses loan conditionalities to compel nations to ‘structurally adjust’ their economies and sacrifice food self-sufficiency.

Countries are placed on commodity crop production treadmills to earn foreign currency (US dollars) to buy oil and food on the global market (benefitting global commodity traders like Cargill, which helped write the WTO trade regime – the Agreement on Agriculture), entrenching the need to increase cash crop cultivation for exports.

Today, investment financing is helping to drive and further embed this system of corporate dependency worldwide. BlackRock is ideally positioned to create the political and legislative framework to maintain this system and increase the returns from its investments in the agrifood sector.

[…]

Via https://off-guardian.org/wp-content/medialibrary/dollarbills-blackrock-vanguard.jpg?x39625

Bill Gates ‘Blackmailed’ By Jeffrey Epstein Over Affair With Russian Bridge Player

Mila Antonova, screenshot (YouTube)

 

Zero Hedge

Remember when Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he ‘only had dinner’ with Jeffrey Epstein?

FLASHBACK: Bill Gates is asked if his ex-wife Melinda was warning him about Jeffrey Epstein sexually compromising him:

Bill responded “No — I had dinner with him, and that’s all.” pic.twitter.com/xaVincPcAA

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 21, 2023

Turns out (ok, we’ve known for a while) that’s a total lie – as the two also had a Russian bridge player in common, Mila Antonova.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Gates met Antonova in 2010 at a bridge competition, leading to an affair. Three years later, after Gates associate Boris Nikolic referred her to Jeffrey Epstein to help raise $500K for an online bridge business which failed to pan out, Epstein paid for her to attend coding classes.

In 2014, Antonova “stayed briefly at an apartment in New York City provided by Epstein” but claims not to have met with the guy who paid for her education.

Then in 2017, the pedophile financier allegedly blackmailed Gates over the affair – demanding in an email that the Microsoft co-founder to reimburse him for Antonova’s education. Given the de minimis amount involved for both men, Gates interpreted this 2017 email as threat to expose his 2010 affair.

So, poor boner-killer Bill was actually an Epstein victim all along, you see, and everyone interviewed for the report says they knew nothing about Epstein’s pedophile sex-trafficking operation and was ‘disgusted with what he did,’ etc.

But in March of 2013, long before the two had thrown out their BFF bracelets, they were hanging out at the house of Thorbjørn Jagland, then chair of the Nobel Peace Prize committee where the pair allegedly discussed ” the security situation in Afghanistan as part of Mr. Gates’ work on polio eradication,” according to a spokeswoman for the billionaire. We’re sure.

While he was working on the charitable fund, Epstein met in 2013 with Gates and Norwegian officials who were visitors to Epstein’s townhouse. Epstein told one former Gates Foundation employee that he knew the Norwegians, and could help Gates win a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to eradicate polio.

Here’s what else is contained in the report (some known, some unknown).

“Starting in 2011, Gates had more than a half dozen meetings scheduled with Epstein, including dinners at Epstein’s New York townhouse, documents show. “Gates flew on Epstein’s ‘lolita express’ plane from New Jersey to Florida in March, 2013. “That same month the two men met in France with an official on the Nobel Peace Prize committee.” (that official being its chair, Thorbjørn Jagland)

While he was working on the charitable fund, Epstein met in 2013 with Gates and Norwegian officials who were visitors to Epstein’s townhouse. Epstein told one former Gates Foundation employee that he knew the Norwegians, and could help Gates win a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to eradicate polio.

In 2012, Epstein pitched Gates on a failed investment in a multibillion-dollar, JPMorgan-run charitable fund with a minimum contribution of $100 million.

The deal went sideways. In messages to Jes Staley and Mary Erdoes, Epstein essentially coached the JPMorgan execs on how to pitch the fund to Gates’ team.

“In essence this [fund] will allow Bill to have access to higher quality people , investment , allocation , governance without upsetting either his marriage or the sensitvites of the current foundation employees,” Epstein wrote on Aug. 16, 2011.

The next day, Epstein wrote: “Bill is terribly frustrated. He woud! like to boost some of the things that are working without taking away from thoses that are not.”

Six weeks later on Oct. 2, Epstein sent another email to Staley and Erdoes criticizing a JPMorgan presentation. “the presentation , is not tailored to bill.. He is the only person , the only one, that counts.”

The charitable fund never got off the ground. “The firm didn’t need him as a client,” a JPMorgan spokesman said of Epstein. “The firm didn’t need him for introductions. Knowing what we know today, we wish we had never done business with him.” A spokesman for the bank said Erdoes declined to comment. A lawyer for Staley, who is no longer at JPMorgan, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Staley has previously said he regrets his friendship with Epstein. -WSJ

But – given that this deal fell through in 2012 or so, and the two were hobnobbing at the Nobel Peace Price Committee Chairman’s house in 2013, it’s obvious that the two mended fences and moved on.

[…]

Via https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bill-gates-blackmailed-jeffrey-epstein-over-affair-russian-bridge-player?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1504

Inventory of Vaccine Risks and Benefits

A Midwestern Doctor

[…]

Is there a benefit to developing the disease naturally that is prevented by vaccination?

One of the lesser known facts about diseases is that childhood infections are often critical for helping the immune system develop. A variety of diseases that are much more severe in adults than their corresponding “vaccine preventable” childhood infections are observed to result from not catching the disease in childhood. Some examples include:

-Not having a chickenpox infection increasing your risk of glioblastoma (a horrible brain cancer) later in life.
-Not having a mumps infection increasing your risk of ovarian cancer (one of the most deadly cancers for women).

Note: this research substantiating these links and more can be found here.

[…]

Vaccine Side Effects

[…]

An explosion of chronic illness (particularly of neurological and autoimmune nature) in our society has paralleled the mass vaccination of society.

[…]

At this point, we have never had a study performed on the cumulative effects of children receiving the entire vaccine schedule.

Since these studies have thus far never been completed, a variety of less controlled ones (e.g., comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children in the same medical practice) are published. While these studies show a massive number of complications arise from vaccination, they are typically dismissed as not being valid since they weren’t a controlled study, and in many cases, the authors are attacked (e.g., consider what happened to Paul Thomas). Similarly, I and many colleagues can often immediately recognize children who were never vaccinated (as they are healthier in the body, mind and spirit), yet the changes vaccination create have become so normalized in our society, most doctors now lack the ability to recognize the currently accepted baseline is not normal.

[…]

For each vaccine, as we consider the risk of its disease, the efficacy of the vaccine, the effects of developing vaccine immunity within a population, the issues with vaccinating while infected, and vaccine side effects, it should become clear that this is an immensely complex question to answer. There are so many potential risks and benefits of different magnitudes that combining them into a weighted average borders on the impossible.

[…]

When I approach this question I use the following algorithm, where each item takes precedence over the ones after it.

1. Does the vaccine have an unusually high degree of toxicity?

2. Does the vaccine potentially provide an important benefit?

3. Does the vaccine have other reasons to make me concerned about its potential side effects?

4. Does the vaccine actually work?

5. Does the vaccine still work?

I will now briefly discuss some of the vaccines on the current CDC schedule that I feel are the worst offenders.

Gardasil

First, let’s consider the HPV vaccine and the benefits it created by “preventing cervical cancer.”

While I have seen datasets (when stratified by age) showing Gardasil (and other HPV vaccines) actually increased the cervical cancer death rate in those vaccinated, I will give it the benefit of the doubt here. As the graph shows, cervical cancer rates were already approaching 0 before Gardasil, so it is difficult to say if any of the lives saved were due to it (at this point I believe the cancer prevention attributed to Gardasil is false).
Note: many other diseases whose decline was attributed to vaccination also actually had most of their decline occur prior to a vaccine being available.

[…]

This means, in the best case scenario for the vaccine, for 100,000 people you traded killing 89.3 of vaccine recipients in return for saving 2.

Even though this is terrible, the greater issue is that in the original HPV clinical trial, between 2.3% to 49% of the individuals who received Gardasil developed a new autoimmune condition. We do not know exactly where in that range the total number of new autoimmune disorders was, as Merck classified many autoimmune disorders simply as “new medical conditions” (industry trials always reclassify something they don’t want to show up in the final trial with vague labels like this), but other investigations have concluded the 2.3% figure significantly underestimated the rate of new autoimmune conditions.

[…]

Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus (DPT)

I am not a fan of the DPT vaccine for the following reasons:

•It is the vaccine most clearly linked to infant deaths (I summarized the extensive degree of evidence substantiating the link that has accumulated over the last century here).

•The vaccine frequently causes permanent brain damage (especially the older version of it). In addition to hearing this from many parents, this happened to two members of my extended family who received the slightly older and more toxic version of it.

•I believe it is one of the primary causes of childhood ear infections (one of the most common complaints parents see their pediatricians for). Many doctors have observed this link, and the best example I heard of came from a doctor and medical missionary who decided to vaccinate an ashram (Indian temple) he was staying in. Before the vaccines, ear infections were non-existent, immediately afterward a large number of children came down with them.

Conversely, I believe the benefit is minimal because:

•The vaccine does not prevent the colonization of any of these bacteria. This is why pertussis outbreaks occur in fully vaccinated populations.

•Diphtheria is now non-existent in the United States, so there is no reason to vaccinate against it (additionally it can be treated with modern antibiotics).

•Tetanus is now very rare (there are approximately 30 cases a year) and it’s actually difficult to say how much the vaccine antibodies protect a person from tetanus (studies have shown that the vaccine produced antitoxin does not prevent tetanus).

[…]

Hepatitis B

As stated above, I do not believe childhood hepatitis B vaccines can be justified. Additionally, the vaccine does create complications and has been repeatedly associated with neuromuscular autoimmune conditions. I believe that this is most likely due to the fact that the antigen used shares a homology with myelin (the coating of nerves), but it may be for other reasons as well.

[…]

As discussed above, it is a bit of a debate if the MMR vaccine decreases measles rates, since while regular vaccination does reduce measles rates, permanent immunity to it disappears within the population, and outbreaks will still occur within the vaccinated population. Sadder still, deaths from measles had almost completely disappeared at the time the vaccine for it was introduced (so there was essentially no justification for introducing it), and in effect by creating the vaccine we turned a non-existent problem into a permanent one by doing so. From my perspective, the greatest problem with the MMR vaccine is its frequent association with autism, something I believe is much worse than developing measles and something you are at a much higher risk for than the infection itself.

Polio

Two types of polio vaccines exist. The inactivated polio vaccine (currently used in the USA) and the live attenuated one (frequently used in poorer nations). The inactivated one does not prevent you from catching polio, but does to some extent (I don’t know how to calculate the exact figure) prevent a polio infection from causing polio-like paralysis. Since it does not prevent infection, it has no effect on transmission. The live polio vaccine does prevent you from becoming infected with polio, but has the unfortunate side effect of sometimes causing polio in the recipient and spreading the weakened polio virus into the environment.

At this point, the polio virus is mostly extinct, and from 2017 onwards, more cases of polio have resulted from the vaccine than polio itself (note: one of my friend’s relatives developed polio from the vaccine). One of the most tragic examples occurred in India where Bill Gates diverted their health budget to aggressively vaccinating against polio, which resulted in 491,000 children developing a “polio-like” illness.

[…]

Influenza

There is presently no evidence that the (often mandated) influenza vaccine prevents an individual from getting the flu (which, in most cases, is a relatively benign infection) or transmitting it to others. Additionally, there is evidence that the vaccine increases your likelihood of developing a severe case of influenza and developing influenza in the subsequent year. Furthermore, many individuals have developed injuries from the influenza vaccine.

Meningococcal

Initially, due to the severity of a Neisseria meningitidis infection, I initially thought the meningococcal vaccine would probably be a vaccine you could make a strong case for. Unfortunately, there are multiple dangerous strains of this bacteria, and one of those strains (strain B) is very difficult to make a vaccine for, since it has homology with tissue of the human body.

Not surprisingly, this has created a selective pressure on the bacteria and now the majority of infections are caused by strain B, which until recently, the scheduled vaccine did not cover (and at this point I am unsure how effective this newer vaccine is). Furthermore, as discussed above, many people carry this bacteria and are asymptomatic—the infection is very rare and the primary group at risk are those with pre-existing susceptibilities, not the general population. Additionally, tonsillectomies (an unnecessary procedure) significantly increase one’s risk for meningitis.

Conversely, the vaccine has a variety of potential autoimmune complications. By far the most common one I encounter is that it causes Crohn’s disease (typically a few months after vaccination), and I think this side effect alone outweighs any potential benefits from the vaccine.

[…]

Pneumococcal and Haemophilus influenzae type B (HiB)

These two are probably the most difficult routine vaccines to have a clear-cut position on. This is because:

•These two infections, especially HiB are the vaccine-preventable illnesses that are the most likely to cause severe complications in children. For example, when the HiB vaccine came out, pediatricians around the country noticed a significant decline in the rates of infants with meningitis, which is a big deal. Similarly, in modern-day pediatrics, many of the most common concerning infections doctors encounter are pneumococcal.

•Although these vaccines have adverse effects, they are not as dangerous as those of many other vaccines.

•Because these vaccines work but target an easily mutable part of the bacteria, their adoption triggers their target bacteria to mutate, become resistant to the vaccines, and, in some cases, affect different populations. For example, the pneumococcal vaccine is continually being updated and re-released, with additional strains being covered in each successive version (and I’ve seen multiple vaccinated children with potentially life-threatening pneumococcal infections who had been vaccinated). In the case of the HiB vaccine, it selected for the A strain (HiA), which in some areas was more deadly than HiB, and also selected for strains that affected adults (typically HiB only affects children), leading to severe HiB infections becoming a disease of adults and the elderly.

[…]

Via https://amidwesterndoctor.substack.com/p/what-are-the-risks-and-benefits-of

A War-Like Situation: Britain’s NHS Workers Strike Continues

By Ross Domoney, The Real News Network

The UK establishment (both major parties) have been sneakily defunding the NHS to provoke disenchantment with the system.A Devastating Combo Of Austerity And Inflation Under Tory Leadership Has Led To A 20 Percent Cut In Real Wages Over The Past Decade For UK Healthcare Workers.

In England on May Day tens of thousands of nurses went on strike and walked out from their work at the NHS. In London alone there were over a dozen picket lines as anger, despair and the struggle for a better wage were shouted out on the streets. The government offered the nurses a 5% pay increase which some union members accepted. However, with the inflation continuing to rise in the UK this offer was turned down by many union members too.

Nurses, who are highly skilled workers are burnt out and some are leaving the job for better wages. The striking nurses say the situation has gotten so bad within the NHS, that they are not only striking for better pay but for the safety of their patients. Overcrowded hospitals, long waiting times and a social welfare state that has been continuously picked apart by cuts from the governing right wing Conservatives for the last 13 years. The Real News Network was on the ground speaking to the striking workers at picket lines across London.

This video is part of a special Workers of the World series on the cost of living crisis in Europe.

Producer, videographer, and video editor: Ross Domoney

This story, with the support of the  Bertha Foundation , is part of The Real News Network’s  Workers of the World  series, telling the stories of workers around the globe building collective power and redefining the future of work on their own terms.

Transcript (Partial)

Narrator (Ross Domoney): The UK is in the midst of a social and economic crisis and this time the NHS nurses are on strike.

Protester: We see nurses who have children mainly going to food banks.

Protester: We see so many children in poverty every day in A&E.

Protester: We’re watching the disintegration of our public sector.

Protester: It’s like a war like situation where you constantly put mental stress on yourself for 12 hours in a row and I couldn’t do it anymore.

Narrator (Ross Domoney): Amongst the discontent of a country whose inflation keeps on growing, even emergency departments, including intensive and cancer care, have joined in on this strike.

Protester: “We are the NHS!”

Narrator (Ross Domoney): In London alone there are over 12 picket lines at various hospitals.

Protester: “6, 7, 8, 9, 10, if you don’t we will strike again!”

Narrator (Ross Domoney): The Real News Network was on the streets to speak to workers at picket lines across the capital.

University College Hospital – Picket Line

Preya Assi (Cancer Nurse At UCLH): Really what you’re seeing now is an outpouring of disdain and distrust for the government. They’ve made cuts to our bursaries, cuts to our services, cuts to our pay. 20% lost in real terms over the last ten years under this Tory government.

Bert Roman (Cancer Nurse): So 75% of my shifts are understaffed. I often get asked to do double jobs running a shift and taking care of patients. I’m not enabled by this system anymore by the NHS to take proper care of my patients.

Preya Assi (Cancer Nurse At UCLH): A very clear demonstration of the way that we aren’t able to give safe care, is the number of nurses that we are currently under-recruited by 47,000 at the last count. 47,000 nurses that are nowhere, because people have left after the pandemic because young people are not able to get bursaries or funding to study nursing and people don’t want to come into nursing because actually it’s a very difficult profession to be in. It’s under-recognised. It’s underpaid.

Sarah Hewson-Parkinson (Intensive Care Nurse): People are leaving to go and work somewhere else where they’re going to get more money. Which is a massive loss and a lot of those nurses are very skilled, nurses who, you know, we need to support the junior nurses.

Protester: “How do we get it?” “Strike!”

Fiona Boxford (Health Care Assistant): It’s sad. It’s sad when I kind of tell my colleagues, Oh, I’m starting my course to train to be a nurse in September, and they’re saying:  ‘I can’t see myself doing this for more than five years.’ ‘Good luck to you.’ It is sad knowing that people who used to love this aren’t doing it anymore and they’re going to leave.

Narrator (Ross Domoney): The government have offered the nurses a 5% pay rise. Whereas some unions have accepted this offer others reject it and vow to continue industrial action.

Fiona Boxford (Health Care Assistant): I would love for this to end. I can’t believe I’m here back on the picket line today after the talks and the offer. It’s so tragic that we’re actually outside here today. I don’t want to be out here. I want to be in there looking after the patients.

St Thomas’ Hospital – Picket Line.

David Carr (Critical Care Nurse): I’m a critical care nurse, so I look after people in intensive care. I look after people who have just had cardiac surgery. And the compromises that I’m seeing now are putting patients potentially at risk of catastrophic, injury or death. And it breaks my heart to say that in the sixth richest country on the planet, in the 21st century the care in our health service has been so compromised by cuts and the Tory administration that we have to go on strike to try and get pay restoration.

Protester: “Power, power, power!”

Will Malcher (Senior Nurse In The NHS): Care? Well, care is very broad, but it’s looking after your patients, being there after their surgeries, before their surgeries. Supporting them through an emergency department. supporting them through end of life pathways and letting them die in a compassionate way. We have differences in that. You know, we’re seeing it often that we’re not giving that care anymore and that’s what’s really hurtful as a nurse. I didn’t go through three years of education and register as a registered nurse to give that care.

St Mary’s Hospital – Picket Line

Protester: “We are the nurses!” “The mighty mighty nurses!” “1, 2, 3 , 4, 5!” “Keep our NHS alive”

Katie Woodason (Senior Staff Nurse In Pediatric A&E): Absolutely. I’ve been on the [tannoy] Not the tannoy that’s in A&E. The megaphone today.

Protester: “What do we want?” “Fair pay!” “When do we want it?” “Now!”

Katie Woodason (Senior Staff Nurse In Pediatric A&E): It feels like the NHS is being pushed into privatization. But I don’t want that to happen. There are so many patients that wouldn’t be able to afford the basics of care.

Protester: “No nurses!” “No NHS”

Katie Woodason (Senior Staff Nurse In Pediatric A&E): My great grandma was poorly over Christmas. Just before Christmas. And she was in A&E in a Kent Hospital. She was in an A&E and she was there for two and a half days on a ventilator, before getting to a ward. That is how bad…Like no one of any age, should have to stay in A&E for 48 hours plus before they can get a bed on the wards and the beds…the whole A&E was piled up. It’s not it’s not safe for the patients. There’s no way…If there was an emergency, they couldn’t get an emergency trolley and a defib to the patients in the second row.

[…]

Via https://www.greanvillepost.com/2023/05/19/a-war-like-situation-britains-nhs-workers-strike-continues/

 

Gender Transition Surgery: Dreams Turned to Nightmares

Dr Mercola

Story at-a-glanceChildren are increasingly lured into “gender-affirming” hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgeries, are never given appropriate informed consent, and they have no idea what they’re getting themselves into. Many adults even underestimate how difficult and painful it will beAll it takes for a young girl to start the gender transition process to become a boy is a letter of support from a therapist. Typically, the therapist will write a letter of support after just one or two visits. Next, she’ll be sent to an endocrinologist who, after a single visit, will prescribe her testosteroneSome gender transition centers don’t even require any kind of mental health assessment, and several Planned Parenthood clinics are apparently handing out hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prescriptions on the first visitWhile some pro-trans advocates insist HRT is harmless and reversible once you quit taking the hormones, this simply isn’t true. The effects of testosterone on a girl can be both profound and permanent, and can be seen within a matter of monthsThe transgender movement is a stepping stone in the transhumanist agenda. Ultimately, the goal is to get rid of flesh and blood bodies altogether and have our existence either within a synthetic body or as disembodied avatar in cyberspace, or both. Turning humanity into misgendered people incapable of natural reproduction is merely a first step in that direction

In the video above, WhatsHerFace Entertainment dives into the “unspoken reality of transgender sexual reassignment surgery and all of the pain, regret and horrors it entails.”

Most clear-headed adults would realize that surgically and chemically altering your anatomy from male to female, or female to male, is a complex and painful process. The problem is that it’s typically not level-headed adults making the decision to undergo gender reassignment. It’s primarily children who are being pushed into it, and they have no idea what they’re getting themselves into. Many adults don’t even realize how difficult and painful it will be.

As reported by WhatsHerFace, all it takes for a young girl to start the gender transition process to become a boy is a letter of support from a therapist. Typically, the therapist will write a letter of support after just one or two visits. Next, she’ll be sent to an endocrinologist who, after a single visit, will prescribe her testosterone.

While that’s alarmingly lax enough, some gender transition centers have cut through even that tiny bit of red tape. Some don’t require any kind of mental health assessment, and a number of Planned Parenthood clinics are apparently handing out hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prescriptions on the first visit.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) Is Not Harmless

While some pro-trans advocates insist that HRT is harmless and completely reversible once you quit taking the hormones, this simply isn’t true.1 As reported by WhatsHerFace, the effects of testosterone on a girl can be both profound and permanent and can be seen within a matter of months. Effects of high-dose testosterone treatment include:

Voice deepening

Facial hair growthHair loss, receding hairline, baldingIncreased libidoSexual dysfunctionIncreased aggression and unpredictable moodsSterilityEnlargement of clitorisVaginal atrophy

As noted by Cleveland Clinic,2 many of these changes persist even if you completely stop taking testosterone. Can a child or teenager fully comprehend what sterility might mean to them later in life? I don’t think so. I also don’t think they can comprehend how other physical and emotional changes might affect them, such as going bald.

Other types of hormone therapy include puberty blockers, which are given to children who have not yet entered puberty. These drugs delay the onset of sex characteristics associated with the gender you were at birth.

What’s particularly shocking is that the adults steering them toward gender reassignment don’t make it a point to thoroughly inform them about the difficulties they might face. Overall, I don’t think children and teens are capable of making the decision to transition, and encouraging or facilitating it really ought to be illegal.

Double-Mastectomies Performed at 15

While you’re considered too immature to get a full, unrestricted driver’s license until you’re 18, and can’t drink alcohol until you’re 21, “gender-affirming” sex hormone therapy can begin as early as 14,3 girls who think they’re boys can get a double-mastectomy at the age of 15, and full sex reassignment surgery is available at age 17 or 18, depending on the procedure, although the World Professional Association for Transgender Health is advocating for surgeries as early as 15.4

The Boston Children’s Hospital requires you to be 17 to undergo vaginoplasty, where a boy’s penis, testicles and scrotum are removed and a vagina is created, and 18 to undergo phalloplasty, the surgical construction of a penis, or metoidioplasty, where testosterone is used to enlarge the clitoris, from which a small penis is then constructed. Prosthetic testicles are also added in both of those cases.

[…]Understanding Female-to-Male Reassignment Surgery

When a biological woman decides to surgically become a man, she’ll undergo phalloplasty, which involves taking large sections of skin from her forearms and/or thigh to fashion a penis. As you can see from the images included in WhatsHerFace’s video, this will leave a very large unsightly scar on one or both forearms, and while the donation site heals, there’s always a risk of infection.

Since the donation site needs to be hairless, electrolysis must first be performed. If electrolysis fails and hair grows back in the donated skin, the trans male may struggle with painful hair growth inside his urethra for the rest of his life.

Trans men who are on testosterone also face gynecological challenges, especially vaginal dryness, and vaginal atrophy, which can be very painful. Pelvic pain and bacterial vaginosis are other commonly reported issues.5,6

Understanding Male-to-Female Reassignment Surgery

During vaginoplasty, which is where a biological male surgically transitions to female, the surgeon will use skin from the patient’s scrotum to create a vaginal canal. If additional skin grafts are needed, they’ll use skin from the sides of their abdomen.

Before the skin grafts are taken, he must undergo electrolysis on the chosen donor sites. However, electrolysis does not always permanently eliminate hair growth, especially not male hair growth, which tends to be more profuse, and if the hair grows back, the trans male can end up with hair growing in his vaginal canal.

Vaginoplasties aren’t always successful, and if they must be redone, a part of the patient’s colon will typically be used instead. A downside of this procedure, called colovaginoplasty, is an offensive discharge odor.

After vaginoplasty, the patient must then dilate the vagina on a daily basis. This basically entails stretching (dilating) the vagina using a lubricated dildo to prevent it from sealing shut. Your body basically views this new opening as a wound and will do what it can to heal it. Trans women must do this several times a day for the rest of their lives.

Dreams That Nightmares Are Made Of

Dilation is one of the challenges of male-to-female sex reassignment surgery (SRS) that most people underestimate.

[…]

Parents Are Removed From the Equation

[…]

Consider those words, and then consider that pro-trans ideology is now being openly taught in kindergarten through high school across the U.S. Children are being brainwashed into thinking they can choose their own gender and that it’s as easy to switch genders as it is to switch clothes. It’s not.

Yet, the horrors of SRS are being so well hidden that neither parents nor their trans children understand what’s in store, both in the short and long term. While there are cases where everything goes right and the boy or girl finally feels “complete” after SRS,7 there seem to be far more cases where they end up even more miserable.

What’s worse, some states, like Washington, are considering laws that severely infringe on parent’s rights to be involved in their child’s decision to transition.

[…]

Signs of Indoctrination

Among the many surprises discovered in that study, the investigator, Dr. Lisa Littman, a behavioral scientist at Brown University, found that one of the many beliefs espoused by these trans teens was that anyone who isn’t specifically transgendered is “evil,” including gays and lesbians.

[…]

To me, the fact that trans teens sound like carbon-copies of each other is a sign of indoctrination. A script has been unleashed, and trans activists are repeating that script with the aim of indoctrinating its audience. We saw the same thing happen during COVID. Mainstream media repeated the script of the official COVID narrative, word for word, day in and day out. Repetition — that’s how you indoctrinate people.

Now, we also have the added pressures of corporations that view the trans agenda as a cash cow (although most who have gone that route are finding out the hard way that trans is still a tiny minority of their customer base, and the rest are not willing to encourage the fomentation of a mental health problem).

Even if corporate CEOs aren’t gung-ho about the trans agenda, many are lured in that direction because they want to optimize their corporate equality index (CEI).

[…]9

What’s Behind the Trans Agenda?

Via https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/05/20/gender-transition-surgery.aspx

Railway of Resistance: A grand project to connect Iran, Iraq, Syria

By Mohamad Hasan Sweidan

Sir Halford John Mackinder, one of Britain’s most prominent theorists in the field of geopolitics, discusses the significance of land connectivity between nations in his 1904 essay called The Geographical Pivot of History.

Besides introducing his notable Heartland Theory, Mackinder argued that advancements in transportation technology, such as the development of railways, have altered the balance of power in international politics by enabling a powerful state or group of states to expand its influence along transport routes.

The establishment of blocs, like the EU or BRICS, for instance, aims to enhance communication between member states. This objective has positive implications for the economy and helps reduce the risk of tensions among them.

The cost of such tensions has increased considerably, given the growing benefits and common interests achieved through strengthened ties between nations. Consequently, reinforcing connections within a specific region has a positive impact on the entire area.

Therefore, any infrastructure project between countries cannot be viewed solely from an economic standpoint; its geopolitical effects must also be highlighted.

West Asia connected by railway

In July 2018, Saeed Rasouli, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (RAI), announced the country’s intention to construct a railway line connecting the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, the Iran-Iraq-Syria railway link. This ambitious project would run from Basra in southern Iraq to Albu Kamal on the Iraqi-Syrian border and then extend to Deir Ezzor in northeastern Syria.

Undoubtedly, this project strengthens communication between the countries of West Asia and increases the need for other powers to collaborate with this important region, which is strategically located in parts of Mackinder’s “Heartland” and Nicholas Spykman’s “Rimland” of Eurasia.

Moreover, in accordance with Mackinder’s proposition, it can be argued that this railway project holds geopolitical significance for the three involved countries – Iran, Iraq, and Syria – and for West Asia as a whole.

The concept of a railway link between Iran and Iraq emerged over a decade ago. In 2011, Iran completed the 17-kilometer Khorramshahr-Shalamjah railway, which aimed to connect Iran’s railways to the city of Basra. Subsequently, in 2014, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Tehran and Baghdad to construct the Shalamjah-Basra line.

As per the agreement, Iran was responsible for designing and building a bridge over the Arvand River, while the Iraqi side pledged to construct a 32-kilometer railway line from the Shalamjah border to the Basra railway station within Iraqi territory.

Final destination: Syria

On 14 August, 2018, Iran announced its intention to further extend the railway from its territory to Syria, with Iraq’s participation. This move aimed to counter western sanctions and enhance economic cooperation.

The railway project would begin at the Imam Khomeini port on the Persian Gulf, located in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, to the Shalamjah crossing on the Iraqi border. From there, the railway traverses through the Iraqi province of Basra, crossing Albu Kamal on the Syrian border and ending at the Mediterranean port of Latakia.

Iranian official sources stated that this railway would contribute to Syria’s reconstruction efforts, bolster the transport sector, and facilitate religious tourism between Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Iran would bear the costs of the project within its own territory, while Iraq would contribute its share up to the Syrian border.

During the visit of former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Iraq in March 2019, a memorandum of understanding on the project was signed between Tehran and Baghdad. However, despite the agreements, the Iraqi side has faced economic challenges and a lack of funds, resulting in a delay in the construction of the railway.

Three Sections

The railway project can be divided into three sections: The first section links the Imam Khomeini Port to the Shalamjah crossing on the Iraqi border. According to the Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash, the railway line in Iran has been completed and has reached the zero border point.

The second section will link the Shalamjah Crossing to Basra in southern Iraq, then extend to Baghdad, Anbar province, and finally, the Syrian border. The financing of this section, according to the agreement, falls under the responsibility of the Iraqi government. The commencement of this phase is expected soon.

The third section, within Syria, encompasses two routes: The northern route extends between Iraq’s al-Qaim and Syria’s Albu Kamal, then heads west towards the Syrian port of Latakia. The southern route runs from the al-Qaim crossing on the Iraqi-Syrian border to Damascus via Homs.

It should be noted that although the shortest route to Damascus is through al-Tanf, due to the presence of the illegal US occupation forces there, the longer Homs-Damascus corridor was adopted. This also ensures the passage of railways through a greater number of Syrian cities.

Economic significance

Although the rail line between Iran and Iraq will only span 32 km and cost approximately $120 million, divided equally, its significance extends far beyond its length. It will serve as the sole railway connection between the two countries and play a crucial role in improving communication throughout the wider region by linking China’s Belt and Road Initative (BRI) lines to Iraq via Iran.

Once completed, the project will enable Iraq to easily connect to Iran’s extensive railway network, which extends to Iran’s eastern border. This linkage will open pathways for Baghdad to connect with Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Far East.

Moreover, in the future, the project positions Iraq as a transit route for trade between the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region and Central Asia, as well as Russia. Incidentally, Iran and Russia have just inked an agreement to establish a railway connecting the Iranian cities of Astara with Rasht, as part of the International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC).

The railway line also contributes to the promotion of religious tourism among the three countries, which are home to several important Shia shrines. In September 2022, more than 21 million people from around the world, including 3 million Iranians, visited Iraq for the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage in the holy city of Karbala. This figure is likely to increase significantly with a rail link, leading to increased revenues for the Iraqi treasury.

Furthermore, the project serves as a means to bypass western sanctions and external pressures on the three countries, particularly Iran and Syria. It strengthens the independence of these nations and reduces the likelihood of foreign powers interfering in the economic relations of the project countries.

[…]

Via https://thecradle.co/article-view/25027/railway-of-resistance-a-grand-project-to-connect-iran-iraq-syria

Dutch-Led Network Of International Experts Finds “Serious Errors” In Latest IPCC Report

By P Gosselin | No Tricks Zone | May 12, 2023

The UN Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) is misleading policy makers by focusing on an implausible worst-case emissions scenarios, concludes a new analysis report published by the Clintel Foundation: “The Frozen Climate Views of the IPCC“

The IPCC is hiding the good news about disaster losses and climate-related deaths and wrongly claims the estimate of climate sensitivity is above 2.5°C. Also errors in the AR6 report are worse than those that led to the IAC Review in 2010, concludes the report by The Climate Intelligence Foundation (Clintel), which was founded in 2019 by emeritus professor of geophysics Guus Berkhout and science journalist Marcel Crok.

Opposite of IPCC claims likely true

Another result: The IPCC ignored crucial peer-reviewed literature showing that normalized disaster losses have decreased since 1990 and that human mortality due to extreme weather decreased by more than 95% since 1920.

Clintel accuses the IPCC of cherry picking from the literature to claim increases in damage and mortality due to anthropogenic climate change, when in fact the opposite is likely true.

Rewrote climate history

The Clintel report is 180 pages long and the first serious international ‘assessment of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report. In 13 chapters the Clintel report shows the IPCC rewrote climate history, and emphasizes an implausible worst-case scenario, favoring bad news and ignoring good news.

“The strategy of the IPCC seems to be to hide any good news about climate change and to hype anything bad,” reported the Clintel press release.

The errors and biases that Clintel documents in the report are far worse than those that led to the investigation of the IPCC by the Interacademy Councel (IAC Review) in 2010. Clintel believes that the IPCC should reform, or be dismantled.

Clintel is a network of international scientists who analyzed several claims from the Working Group 1 (The Physical Science Basis)
and Working Group 2 (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability) reports. This led to the latest report: “The Frozen Climate Views of the IPCC”.

IPCC ignores 97% of all papers

Clintel explains how the IPCC ignored 52 out of 53 peer reviewed papers dealing with “normalized disaster losses” and found no increase in harms that could be attributed to climate change. Yet, the IPCC highlighted the single paper that claimed an increase in losses.

Cherrypicking, rewriting history

The IPCC also has tried to rewrite climate history by erasing the existence of the so-called Holocene Thermal Maximum (or Holocene Climate
Optimum), a warm period between 10,000 and 6000 years ago, and has introduced a new hockey stick graph, which is the result of cherry-picked proxies. The IPCC ignores temperature reconstructions that show more variability in the past, such as the well-documented Little Ice Age.

In its recent report, the IPCC also has grossly exaggerated sea level rise and CO2’s ability to warm the earth’s atmosphere and thus appears to have remained ‘addicted’ to its highest emissions scenario, so-called RCP8.5, which in recent years has been shown by several published papers to be implausible and thus should not be used for policy purposes.

Severely biased 

“We are sorry to conclude that the IPCC has done a poor job of assessing the scientific literature,” the Clintel scientists report. “In our view the IPCC should be reformed, and should include a broader range of views. Inviting scientists with different views, such as Roger Pielke Jr and Ross McKitrick, to participate more actively in the process is a necessary first step.”

If the inclusion of other views does not permitted, then the IPCC should be dismantled, the scientists say.

Reality: Future is far less bleak

“Our own conclusions about climate – based on the same underlying literature – are far less bleak. Due to increasing wealth and advancing technology, humanity is largely immune to climate change and can easily cope with it. Global warming is far less dangerous to humanity
than the IPCC tells us.”

Clintel also published the World Climate Declaration, which has now been signed by more than 1500 scientists and experts. Its central message is “there is no climate emergency”.

Clintel press release here.

[…]

Via https://alethonews.com/2023/05/19/dutch-led-network-of-international-experts-finds-serious-errors-in-latest-ipcc-report/

The Gaelic Revival in Ireland

Episode 22 The Gaelic Revival in Ireland

The Celtic World

Dr Jennifer Paxton (2018)

Film Review

Paxton traces Ireland’s Gaelic revival to a 1798 revolt by the United Irishmen (consisting of both Gaelic and non-Gaelic Irish) demanding independence for Ireland.  Heavily influenced by the US and French revolutions, a contingent of troops from the new French republic briefly supported the rebellion.

Britain responded by passing the Act of Union, abolishing Ireland’s parliament and placing it under British parliamentary control. Ireland’s Catholic bishops backed this move because the Irish parliament was controlled by protestant landlords.

Following the crisis triggered by the 1845 Potato Famine, Ireland’s political landscape divided along the following broad categories:

1. The unionists, consisting mainly of Irish protestants, who wanted Ireland to remain under British control.

2. The constitutional nationalists, consisting of protestants and Catholics, who wanted the Act of Union repealed. Under the leadership of Daniel O’Connell, they managed to repeal the law that barred Catholics from holding political office. Charles Stewart Parnell, who represented Ireland in the British Parliament was a constitutional nationalist who fought for home rule for Ireland.

3. The Fenians (who took their name from mythological hunter-warrior Finn McCool) who sought to win Irish independence via armed struggle.

The mid-19th century also saw the rise of movements pursuing non-political goals, eg the Land League, which sought better economic conditions for farmers and various movements seeking to revive Irish culture. Some groups sought to do so by promoting Irish sports, others Irish language, literature or art.

In 1884 the Gaelic Athletic Association was founded, focused primarily on reviving the ancient sport of hurling and Gaelic football (a cross between rugby and soccer).

During the 19th century, the Gaelic language fell into decline for two main reasons: the repeal of the Penal Laws in 1829 (which increased the demand to learn English by permitting Catholics to train for professions) and the 1845-1852 Potato Famine (which caused many many poor rural Gaelic speakers to either die or emigrate).

The Gaelic League was founded in 1893 in an attempt to revive the Gaelic language. Many Irish who sided with the South African Boers when Britain declared war on them in 1899 joined the League to protest against British imperialism.

In 1915, the League came out in favor of Irish independence. Many rebels who participated in the 1916 Easter Rising were League members.

The revival of Gaelic was accompanied by a renewed interest in Irish literature and mythology. William Butler Yeats was the most famous Irish poet associated with this period. In 1899, Yeats and dramatist Augusta Lady Gregory founded the Irish Literary Theatres. John Millington 1907 Synge’s Playboy of the Western World was the most important play produced by this project.

The Irish artistic revival of the late 19th century was mainly based on significant Celtic archeological finds. Queen Victoria and other luminaries had copies made of the Tara Brooch (see Celtic Art in Medieval Ireland) and historic Celtic motifs were used in Gaelic League books and other publications.

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

https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5701024/5701068

Jane Yellen: More Bank Mergers May Be Necessary

Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

It appears that the Biden Administration is abandoning their rhetoric that “the banking system is fine.”

CNN reported today that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with CEOs of large banks yesterday and told them that “more bank mergers may be necessary.”

New York (CNN) — During Thursday’s meeting with the CEOs of large banks, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told executives that more bank mergers may be necessary as the industry continues to navigate through a crisis, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.

The comments from Yellen provide further evidence that Biden officials are starting to warm up to the idea of bank mergers despite concerns from progressives and the administration’s own scrutiny of corporate concentration. (Source.)

Her statements killed a stock rally this week that saw the stocks of regional banks increase 10%, in one of their best weeks since 2020.

As ZeroHedge News reported today, reports show that $billions of losses in deposits at U.S. banks have occurred in the past two weeks, with over $70 billion lost in large US Commercial Banks.

[…]

As I wrote yesterday, the entire stock market is now being held up by a few Big Tech companies, and each day I am reading new reports about just how disastrous this could be, because Big Tech is mostly just moving money around right now and trying to buy in on the AI fad.

For example, think about the $10 billion deal that Microsoft paid to OpenAI to start using ChatGPT. $10 billion went on to the books of OpenAI as a gain, but on Microsoft’s books it was entered as a loss.

For the U.S. economy, that is a net zero until Microsoft starts turning a profit and gaining revenue for what they paid to use ChatGPT and started giving it away for free to the public.

Microsoft has huge cash reserves, so they could afford to do something like this, and by giving it away for free, they put pressure on their competitors, especially Google, to hurry up and get their own AI chat software launched.

How long will it take for Microsoft to start seeing a profit with revenue coming in which would benefit the overall U.S. economy?

This is what Goldman’s Sales and Trading desk is saying regarding how long it will take to start seeing benefits from investments in chat AI:

While we are big AI and Chat-GPT enthusiasts ourselves, we tend to be skeptic of significant productivity gains on short time horizons of any new technology.

Even if the new technology can benefit from an existing delivery infrastructure and educated recipients, it should take at least a decade to start having a meaningful impact on a large economy.

On long horizons, productivity boosts from a new technology are temporary as high wages in the most productive sector, in the presence of redistributive taxation, are pushing wages in less productive sectors higher and the most productive sector shrinks in relative employment size and also in relative size to the economy (this is known as the Baumol effect – see Hartwig, Jochen (2001) – “On Misinterpreting the ‘Baumol Disease.’”).

As less productive sectors gain employment the average productivity declines to possibly even lower level. (Source.)

These are actually pretty basic economic principles, but when you look at what investors are doing right now, one has to wonder if this frenzy that is leading to what appears to be uninformed and emotional (primarily0.

[…]

Via https://healthimpactnews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Yellen-more-bank-mergers-CNN.jpg

Infiltration, Provocation and Surveillance American Style

AI Generated Photo of Trump Arrest

Dmitry Orlov

I now live in Russia, a happy country where roughly 90% of the population supports the president and his special operation in the former Ukraine, feels that the country is moving in the right direction and is generally unified and patriotic.

This is quite unlike the US, where I lived before and where roughly half the population absolutely hates the government, making no comparison to Russia even possible. What’s more, the other roughly half of the US population absolutely hates their country, taking pleasure in burning flags and toppling historical monuments. It’s a manic, bipolar sort of country with a touch of schizophrenia.

What makes this situation particularly amusing is that the first, government-hating half includes plenty of both former and acting soldiers, policemen and spooks while the second half is stocked with all sorts of activists, anarchists, would-be terrorists and general misfits and malcontents. Both sides have formed organizations with memberships into the hundreds of thousands of potential torch and pitchfork wielding maniacs seemingly ready to launch into waves of murder and mayhem at a drop of a hat.

So, what keeps this entire moiling fiasco of a country under control? Why hasn’t it blown up yet? The keys to keeping a tight lid on it are infiltration, provocation, surveillance and very long prison terms for anyone who tries to act rather than just talk. Every organization is chock-full of agents and informants. Any incipient action finds ready support from agents skilled in the arts of provocation and entrapment.

The scheme is basic and simple and becoming an agent is far easier than, say joining a gang or the mafia. Agents have more money, more free time and can safely show more initiative than the rest. If their techniques don’t work, the troublemakers can have a little accident and find themselves under the wheels of a truck, or end up in jail for some reason or other (the laws are such that an average American commits several felonies per day, most of them unwittingly).

Most of the better-known cases against both the right-wing and the left-wing extremists have involved persons almost half of whom are agents. Sometimes this is positively comic; for instance, out of the five people in the car that was on the way to try to kidnap the governor of Michigan, three were FBI agents. Tens of those involved in the January 9th event are not identified by name — because they are agents. And it turned out that the head of one of the most vilified right-wing organizations — the Proud Boys — is an FBI agent, but this in no way deterred the authorities from accusing these white supremacists of every crime imaginable.

Where infiltration doesn’t seem worthwhile, there is surveillance. Almost every single gathering of any size is monitored: churches, mosques, synagogues, clubs, down to condominium associations and sewing and knitting circles. Where active surveillance isn’t considered worthwhile, there is artificial intelligence. Do you have a Facebook or a Twitter account? Do you use WhatsApp? Well then, you can be sure that all of your communications are being scanned by an automated agent for signs of subversive activity.

But suppose you are a very quiet person and don’t share your subversive, revolutionary thoughts with anyone at all. Well then, there is a technique to lure you out: attempts will be made to befriend you, to invite you to gatherings or to otherwise involve you in some group of other that may seem quite innocuous and pleasant so as not to spook you. If you let your guard down and voice your disapproval of the government or suggest that it needs to change, your name will go on a list and you will be scrutinized for signs of subversive activity, including your physical movements, financial transactions and your family members. If you are then found to be a sufficiently high risk subject, an agent will approach you and offer you some remuneration for your participation in some action or other. You will be kept in the dark about the nature of the action up until your arrest — but good luck proving that in court!

[…]Via https://boosty.to/cluborlov/posts/e1cffbd1-f103-4806-a479-d0fc8e4bd0ab