Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 433
April 13, 2023
2 Million People Bolted From America’s Major Cities Since The Lockdowns
Justin Sullivan/Staff via Getty Images By
Ben Zeisloft
Daily WireMillions of people left major cities in the United States between 2020 and 2022, years dominated by government lockdown policies and elevated crime rates, according to an analysis released last week by the Economic Innovation Group.
Domestic outmigration from large urban counties reached 1.2 million residents in 2021 and 861,000 residents in 2022, implying that more than two million people moved from large cities in recent years. The trend contributed to a population surge in the suburbs and exurbs, which saw 486,000 and 822,000 new residents, respectively, between 2020 and 2022.
Increased rates of immigration from outside of the United States, however, added 507,000 residents to large cities in 2022, an increase from 186,000 residents in 2021 as worldwide travel restrictions eased. “Though large urban counties have not yet rebounded from large population outflows experienced in 2020 and 2021, they did nearly halt overall population loss in 2022, buoyed by more normal rates of international migration,” the analysts summarized.
Individuals who took advantage of remote work policies appear to have accelerated the domestic migration phenomena even as constrained housing markets likely slowed the trends.
“We find work-from-home related fundamentals remained important drivers of population shifts in 2022 but less than they were in 2021. One reason may be that the shift to remote work early in the pandemic was a one-time shock and this led to a one-time, temporary change in migration patterns, which are now converging towards normal,” the analysts said. “Alternatively, remote work may have an impact on migration patterns that will take a longer time to unfold. In this case, the weaker relationship with work-from-home fundamentals may be due to housing supply becoming a more binding constraint to work-from-home-driven population shifts.”
Lockdown mandates caused low labor force participation and supply chain bottlenecks, worsening already lackluster levels of new construction for residential real estate. Median home sale prices increased from $322,600 in the second quarter of 2020 to $467,700 in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Data released by the Census Bureau at the end of last month demonstrate that counties home to major cities in California, Illinois, and New York witnessed the nation’s most stark numeric population decline last year, while those home to major cities in Arizona, Texas, and Florida saw the largest numeric population growth. Los Angeles County, California, lost more residents than any other county in the United States as the population fell by 91,000 between July 2021 and July 2022. Cook County, Illinois, whose county seat is Chicago, saw its population decrease by 68,000 over the same time horizon.
Population trends correspond with the cities and states which enforced aggressive lockdown mandates. California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom only reversed the state of emergency established amid the spread of COVID as late as February 2023, while Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot informed unvaccinated residents as late as December 2021 that their “time is up” and said her health mandates were “inconvenient by design.”
Elevated violent crime and property crime rates in American cities have contributed to an exodus of businesses and residents. The phenomenon has continued into 2023: Walmart announced this week that the firm would shutter four stores in Chicago, while Whole Foods unveiled the forthcoming closure of the organic grocer’s flagship location in San Francisco.
[…]
U.S. Approves First 3 COVID Vaccine Injury Claims
The Health and Resources Service Administration approved its first three payments to people injured by COVID-19 vaccines — one for anaphylaxis and two for myocarditis — amounting to a total of $4,634.89.
The Health and Resources Service Administration (HRSA) vaccine injury claims report, updated monthly, shows one $2,019.55 payment for anaphylaxis and two payments — $1,582.65 and $1032.69 — for myocarditis.The payments were made through HRSA’s Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP).
The CICP was established under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, which protects pharmaceutical companies from liability for injuries sustained from “countermeasures,” such as vaccines and medications, administered during a public health emergency.
Since 2010, when it approved its first claim, the program has compensated a total of 33 claims for vaccine injuries — but these are the first awards for COVID-19 vaccines.
“These long-awaited awards were overdue, highly anticipated and speculated upon,” said Kim Mack Rosenberg, acting general counsel for Children’s Health Defense (CHD). “What is remarkable is that less than $5,000 was paid — total. This is a tragedy that highlights the severe limitations of the program.”
CHD Acting President Laura Bono called the payouts for myocarditis “insulting,” given that mortality rates increase to 50% within five years of diagnosis.
Bono said:
“The CICP is a pathetic, government-run program that gives complete liability protection to the very industries profiting from the COVID vaccine or product. While victims linger with their injuries, paying out-of-pocket for expenses, or at worst die, the industries run to the bank.”
Since the start of the pandemic, people claiming injuries related to COVID-19 vaccines and other countermeasures submitted 11,425 requests for compensation.
Of those, only 19 have been declared eligible for compensation and are undergoing a “medical benefits review” to determine payment.
The anaphylaxis case had been pending medical benefits review since the fall of 2021, and the two myocarditis cases had been pending review since January.
During the medical benefits review, HRSA determines any costs remaining after insurance, workers’ comp, disability or other reimbursements or payments.
Wayne Rohde, an expert in vaccine injury compensation, wrote on his Substack that given the “18+ months to review previous medical benefits that may have been awarded to the injured party [the anaphylaxis case], this process tells me it was a major injury that resulted in very large medical bills.”
Myocarditis is a serious condition that also requires a lot of medical attention, Rohde said.
To date, there have been 1,541,275 reports of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
How does vaccine injury compensation work? the VICP and CICP
HRSA, which operates under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), administers two vaccine injury compensation programs: the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP).
The VICP is a special, no-fault tribunal housed within the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that handles injury claims for 16 common vaccines on the childhood vaccination schedule. To date, it has awarded more than $4 billion for medical bills, lost wages, lawyer fees, and pain and suffering to thousands of people for vaccine injuries.
The program does not currently cover COVID-19 vaccine injuries. Should COVID-19 vaccines be moved into the program, any injuries would be handled by the already overwhelmed VICP.
The CICP, the only program that covers COVID-19 vaccine injuries at this time, is even less equipped to deal with them, Rohde told The Defender.
“For COVID-19 vaccine-injured people, the CICP is the worst place, it’s the worst option,” Rohde said, “because it is not really a compensation program, it’s a reimbursement program for medical costs.”
The CICP allows individuals to claim compensation only for unreimbursed medical expenses — meaning those not fully reimbursed by insurance or government programs, such as Medicaid — for death and for lost wages up to $50,000.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, under the CICP:
“Eligible individuals may be compensated for certain reasonable and necessary medical expenses and for lost employment income at the time of the injury. Death benefits may be paid to certain survivors of covered countermeasures recipients who have died as a direct result of the covered countermeasure injury.
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the payer of last resort. Therefore, payments are reduced by those of other third-party payers.”
“There’s no pain and suffering here, there’s nothing,” Rohde said.
Because the CICP reviews and resolves claims through an administrative rather than a judicial process, no details other than the amount of the payments have to be shared with the public.
“It’s designed to be very convoluted, very non-transparent,” Rohde said.
The CICP was known for its cumbersome claims process and low likelihood of success for claimants even before the pandemic. Since then, it has seen unsustainable growth.
According to HRSA’s numbers, of the 11,941 claims filed with the CICP since 2010, nearly 11,000 of them are still under review.
The HRSA budget for COVID-19 vaccine injury compensation will increase in fiscal year 2023 — from approximately $1 million to $5 million — and its budget for staffing and contractors will jump from $5 million to $9.5 million.
How would COVID vaccine injury compensation change under the VICP?
For vaccine injury claims to be covered under the VICP rather than the CICP, three requirements must be met:
The vaccine needs to be recommended for routine administration for children and pregnant women.It needs to have an excise tax imposed upon it through the legislature.There needs to be a notice of coverage published in the federal record.The COVID-19 vaccine was added to the childhood immunization schedule earlier this year — but the next two steps in the process have yet to be completed and public health officials have not indicated when this might happen.
The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine met for three days last month — behind closed doors, except for a two-hour public comment period — to review the epidemiological, clinical and biological evidence on adverse events associated with COVID-19 vaccines.
The committee will generate a report that will be used to add injuries to the federal Vaccine Injury Table, which lists known adverse events associated with existing vaccines.
This list helps the VICP and the CICP decide whether to compensate vaccine injury claims.
At the National Academies meeting, Professor Renee Gentry, director of the Vaccine Injury Litigation Clinic at The George Washington University Law School, told the committee the stakeholders that created the VICP — vaccine manufacturers, lawyers and parents — set it up to be petitioner-friendly, informal, generous and non-adversarial.
But instead, she said, HHS has been “unrelenting” in its opposition to recognizing vaccine injuries.
“I believe the VICP as it exists today would be unrecognizable to those original stakeholders,” she said.
[…]
Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/covid-vaccine-injury-claims-hrsa/
Study linking mRNA Vaccines to Acute Coronary Syndrome
By Dr Mercola (originally published: November 30, 2021)Link to study in Circulation: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.10712
Story at-a-glanceUsing the PULS cardiac test, researchers have found Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID shots dramatically increase biomarkers associated with thrombosis, cardiomyopathy and other vascular events following vaccinationPre- and post-injection PULS tests for 566 patients were compared. On average, their PULS scores went from an 11% five-year risk for acute coronary syndrome, to a more than double, 25%, five-year riskThose who got the injection for fear that COVID-19 might adversely affect their heart now face the grim reality that they’ve exchanged a potential risk for a more certain oneAnother paper details how the mRNA shot can cause thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) through a mechanism that involves the activation of platelets by antibodies against the spike protein (anti-spike antibodies)A mystery that remains to be solved is why only certain people with antibodies to the spike protein (anti-spike antibodies) go on to develop symptoms of platelet activation and thrombocytopenia. One hypothesis is that only a subset of the anti-spike antibodies formed after vaccination can activate platelets and cause thrombocytopenia[…]
In a November 21, 2021, tweet, cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra writes:1
“Extraordinary, disturbing, upsetting. We now have evidence of a plausible biological mechanism of how mRNA vaccine may be contributing to increased cardiac events. The abstract is published in the highest impact cardiology journal so we must take these findings very seriously.”
The abstract he’s talking about is “mRNA COVID Vaccines Dramatically Increase Endothelial Inflammatory Markers and ACS Risk as Measured by the PULS Cardiac Test: A Warning,” published in the November 16, 2021, issue of the journal Circulation.2 (ACS is Acute Coronary Syndrome).
Cardiac Risk WarningThe PULS (Protein Unstable Lesion Signature) cardiac test3 is a simple blood test that detects unstable cardiac lesion rupture, one of the leading causes of heart attacks. As noted by the authors of that paper, this is “a clinically validated measurement of multiple protein biomarkers,” which include:
IL-16, a proinflammatory cytokineSoluble Fas, an inducer of apoptosisHepatocyte growth factor (HGF), a marker for chemotaxis of T-cells into epithelium and cardiac tissueThese and several other proteins are indicative of your immune system’s response to arterial injuries that can result in cardiac lesions. These lesions can become unstable, and if they rupture, they can lead to a heart attack.
We conclude that the mRNA vacs dramatically increase inflammation on the endothelium and T cell infiltration of cardiac muscle and may account for the observations of increased thrombosis, cardiomyopathy, and other vascular events following vaccination. ~ Circulation November 16, 2021So, based on the levels of these biomarkers, the test gives you a score that predicts your 5-year risk, as a percentage chance, of developing acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Elevated levels raise your PULS score while levels below the norm lower it.
COVID-Jabbed Patients More Than Double Their ACS RiskAccording to the authors of the Circulation report:4
“The score has been measured every 3-6 months in our patient population for 8 years. Recently, with the advent of the mRNA COVID 19 vaccines (vac) by Moderna and Pfizer, dramatic changes in the PULS score became apparent in most patients. This report summarizes those results.
A total of 566 [patients], aged 28 to 97, M:F ratio 1:1 seen in a preventive cardiology practice had a new PULS test drawn from 2 to 10 weeks following the 2nd COVID shot and was compared to the previous PULS score drawn 3 to 5 months previously pre- shot.
Baseline IL-16 increased from 35=/-20 above the norm to 82 =/- 75 above the norm post-vac; sFas increased from 22+/- 15 above the norm to 46=/-24 above the norm post-vac; HGF increased from 42+/-12 above the norm to 86+/-31 above the norm post-vac.
These changes resulted in an increase of the PULS score from 11% 5-year ACS risk to 25% 5-year ACS risk. At the time of this report, these changes persist for at least 2.5 months post second dose of vac.
We conclude that the mRNA vacs dramatically increase inflammation on the endothelium and T cell infiltration of cardiac muscle and may account for the observations of increased thrombosis, cardiomyopathy, and other vascular events following vaccination.”
As noted by Malhotra, this is indeed extraordinarily disturbing. Patients who received a two-dose regimen of mRNA more than doubled their five-year ACS risk, driving it from an average of 11% to 25%. Just imagine the shape our medical system and society at large will be in if 1 of every 4 people who got the two-dose regimen ends up with acute heart failure.
Vaccine-Induced ThrombocytopeniaIn related news, a paper published in the journal Blood Advances reviews “SARS-CoV-2 Spike-Dependent Platelet Activation in COVID-19 Vaccine-Induced Thrombocytopenia.”6 Thrombocytopenia is the medical term for low platelet count.
The authors point out that following the rollout of the mRNA and DNA-based COVID shots, more than 150 cases of thrombocytopenia have been reported. The reference for that statistic is a March 9, 2021, paper in the American Journal of Hematology,7 and injuries are stacking up at breakneck speed.
As of November 12, 2021, there were 4,387 cases of thrombocytopenia reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS),8 so it’s far more frequent than what they’re stating. (There are also 9,332 reports of heart attacks, which we just discussed, and 13,237 reports of myopericarditis, i.e., inflammation of the heart and/or heart sack.9)
According to the authors, identifying the mechanism by which the shots cause thrombocytopenia would facilitate the development of a diagnostic test. Historically, heparin-induced thrombocytopenia has been diagnosed using a serotonin release assay (SRA).
Using SRA, a subset of critically ill COVID-19 patients have tested positive for platelet-activating immune complexes that can cause thrombosis. Other researchers have also showed IgG antibodies from critically ill COVID-19 patients can activate platelets, resulting in a thrombotic event.
Here, using a modified SRA, they discovered spike-dependent, platelet-activating immune complexes in a patient with vaccine-induced thrombocytopenia, suggesting the spike protein is the causative factor.
[…]
Potential Mechanism IdentifiedIf you found the section quoted above to be too complex, here’s the take-home message: The mRNA shot may be causing an exceptionally low level of platelets through a mechanism that involves antibodies against the spike protein (anti-spike antibodies) resulting in depletion of platelets by activating them.
Platelets are specialized cells that stop bleeding, and they have ACE2 receptors, which is what the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binds to. When the spike protein binds to the ACE2 receptor on the platelets, it activates them.
This platelet activation can lead to disseminated intravascular coagulation, i.e., a pathological overstimulation of your coagulation system that can result in abnormal, and life threatening, blood clotting, as well as thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) and hemorrhaging.
Doctors for COVID Ethics described this mechanism in a February 28, 2021, letter11 to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). In that letter, they warned that, based on this mechanism, spike protein-based COVID shots are likely to cause blood clots, cerebral vein thrombosis and sudden death, which is precisely what we’ve been seeing ever since.
In essence, you basically end up with so many blood clots throughout your vascular system that your coagulation system is exhausted, hence the low platelet count. The low platelet count, in turn, is what allows for hemorrhaging (abnormal bleeding).
[…]
Nord Stream blasts cover story is crumbling
The 50-foot charter yacht Andromeda. Photo: Twitter / Bellingcat
By Bradley K Martin
Asia Times
Reports that nongovernmental pro-Ukrainians were behind the Nordstream gas pipeline explosions last year appear to be losing traction, as illustrated by a new Reuters report quoting skeptical remarks by a Swedish official.
As originally put forth on March 7 by the New York Times (quoting unnamed US officials with access to intelligence) and by a consortium of German media (quoting unnamed police sources), the theory held that the otherwise unidentified culprits had carried out the Baltic Sea operation from a rented 50-foot charter sailing yacht named Andromeda.
Some analysts (including me) found the tale highly improbable from the start and suggested – or, in the case of investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, flat-out asserted – that it was a cover story concocted by spooks to counter Hersh’s February 8 report, based on the Pulitzer Prize winner’s own anonymous sourcing, that US divers working for the CIA did the deed.
This week, Washington Post reporters revisited the yacht tale, apparently trying to keep it afloat even as they acknowledged the story’s holes. One big hole: The reporters learned that the perps would have needed more of a base than a single sailing yacht for their operations at sea:
US and European officials said they still don’t know for sure who is behind the underwater attack. But several said they shared German skepticism that a crew of six people on one sailboat laid the hundreds of pounds of explosives that disabled Nord Stream 1 and part of Nord Stream 2, a newer set of pipelines that wasn’t yet delivering gas to customers.
Experts noted that while it was theoretically possible to place the explosives on the pipeline by hand, even skilled divers would be challenged submerging more than 200 feet to the seabed and slowly rising to the surface to allow time for their bodies to decompress.
Such an operation would have taken multiple dives, exposing the Andromeda to detection from nearby ships. The mission would have been easier to hide and pull off using remotely piloted underwater vehicles or small submarines, said diving and salvage experts who have worked in the area of the explosion, which features rough seas and heavy shipping traffic.
But in the course of their article, the Post reporters, at least to this reader’s eye, reinforced doubts about the veracity of the yacht yarn to a far greater extent than they straightened it out into a believable report. Take these details that the article offers relating to the yacht:
‘International game of Clue’
The German investigation has determined that traces of “military-grade” explosives found on a table inside the boat’s cabin match the batch of explosives used on the pipeline. Several officials doubted that skilled saboteurs would leave such glaring evidence of their guilt behind. They wonder if the explosive traces — collected months after the rented boat was returned to its owners — were meant to falsely lead investigators to the Andromeda as the vessel used in the attack.
“The question is whether the story with the sailboat is something to distract or only part of the picture,” said one person with knowledge of the investigation.
Still others allow that the bombers may simply have been sloppy. “It doesn’t all fit,” a senior European security official said of the fragments of evidence. “But people can make mistakes.”
But the most puzzling part of the Post story – and clearly the reporters themselves found this truly odd – is that, as the writers put it, “the Nord Stream mystery has turned into an international game of Clue,” but with reluctant players. The Post report goes on:
For all the intrigue around who bombed the pipeline, some Western officials are not so eager to find out.
At gatherings of European and NATO policymakers, officials have settled into a rhythm, said one senior European diplomat: “Don’t talk about Nord Stream.” Leaders see little benefit from digging too deeply and finding an uncomfortable answer, the diplomat said, echoing sentiments of several peers in other countries who said they would rather not have to deal with the possibility that Ukraine or allies were involved.
Even if there were a clear culprit, it would not likely stop the provision of arms to Ukraine, diminish the level of anger with Russia or alter the strategy of the war, these officials argued. The attack happened months ago and allies have continued to commit more and heavier weapons to the fight, which faces a pivotal period in the next few months.
Since no country is yet ruled out from having carried out the attack, officials said they were loath to share suspicions that could accidentally anger a friendly government that might have had a hand in bombing Nord Stream.
What’s oddest of all about the piece, though, is that at no point does it single out one particular “friendly government” that has been publicly accused in Seymour Hersh’s report of bombing Nord Stream: the United States. Without pointing explicitly to that subtext, the writers say:
In the absence of concrete clues, an awkward silence has prevailed.
“It’s like a corpse at a family gathering,” the European diplomat said, reaching for a grim analogy. Everyone can see there’s a body lying there, but pretends things are normal. “It’s better not to know.”
[…]
Via https://asiatimes.com/2023/04/the-nord-stream-blasts-cover-story-is-crumbling/
U.S. Chamber of Commerce: 3 Million Fewer Americans are Working Today Compared to February 2020
by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce published statistics last week that show there are 3 million fewer Americans working today than there were in February of 2020, before the “pandemic.”
They reported that the latest data shows that we have over 10 million job openings in the U.S.—but only 5.7 million unemployed workers.
They also reported that the labor force participation rate is 62.6% today, down from 63.3% in February 2020. That means there are 1.8 million missing workers today.*
What happened to all these missing workers?
The Chamber of Commerce admits that “there’s not just one reason that workers are sitting out, but several factors have come together to cause the ongoing shortage.”
However, one of those reasons they did not consider or report about, were deaths and disabilities due to the Operation Warp Speed mass vaccination program of COVID-19 shots that began at the end of 2020, and were widely mandated as a condition for employment throughout 2021.
Edward Dowd and his Phinance Technologies has supplied that data for us, which I reported on last week. Dowd’s data shows that deaths and disabilities skyrocketed as the experimental COVID shots were injected into Americans. See:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce surveyed unemployed Americans in 2021 and 2022 to find out why they had not returned to the workforce. Only one third of those surveyed stated that they wanted to return to work full time, and almost half of those surveyed stated that they would not return to work unless they could work from home.
Why?
According to their survey, the top two reasons given were they were too ill to return to work, or that they needed to stay home to take care of children or others in their family.
If there are so many jobs available, why are we seeing record layoffs?Over a quarter (28%) of respondents say they’ve been ill, and their health has taken priority over them looking for work. Additionally, 27% say the need to be home and care for children or others has made it difficult or impossible to search for full time employment. (Source.)
Another report that was published last week was The Challenger Report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
Their report stated that U.S.-based employers announced 89,703 job cuts in March, up 15% from the 77,770 announced in February, and an increase of 319% from the 21,387 cuts announced in the same month in 2022.
The report stated that there were 270,416 total job cuts in the first quarter of 2023, a 396% increase from the 55,696 cuts announced in the first quarter of 2022.
“We know companies are approaching 2023 with caution, though the economy is still creating jobs. With rate hikes continuing and companies’ reigning in costs, the large-scale layoffs we are seeing will likely continue,” said Andrew Challenger, Senior Vice President of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. (Source.)
How can this be? How can there be record job cuts during the same time period we are seeing more job listings than those unemployed?
I think the main answer here is by looking at the sector of the U.S. economy that is laying off the most workers: Technology.
This is a topic I have reported on frequently since last year: The Big Tech Crash that started in 2022. The economy has not seen this many layoffs in the technology sector since the dot.com crash of 2001-2002.
Indeed, Technology companies have announced 102,391 cuts so far this year, up 38,487% from the 267 cuts the sector announced in the first quarter of 2022.
It is already up 5% from the annual total of 97,171 in 2022. It is on pace to surpass the highest annual total for the sector announced in 2001.
The only years during which Tech announced more job cuts than the current year are in 2001, when 168,395 cuts were announced, and 2002, when 131,294 Tech cuts were recorded. (Source.)
The Technology sector has created an economic bubble that today is much larger than the tech bubble that crashed in 2001-2002.
[…]
*[Ed note] After studying the Chamber of Commerce data, I assume the discrepancy (between 1.8 and 3 million) relates to 1.2 million people taking early retirement.
Julius Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul
Episode 5 Caesar and the Celts
The Celtic World
Dr Jennifer Paxton (2018)
Film Review
Rome’s Long Effort to Subdue the Celts
Prior to Caesar’s conquest of Transalpine Gaul, Rome had a long history of conflict with the Celts, both in France and in the Po Valley of northern Italy. In 218 BC, during the second Punic War, the Carthaginian emperor Hannibal made an alliance with a Celtic tribe called the Boii. Thousands of Celtic warriors joined in Hannibal’s attacks on Rome, resulting in three serious Roman defeats. At Cannae, Hannibal and the Celts killed 50,000 Roman soldiers, nearly annihilating the entire Roman army.
After the Roman’s eventually defeated Hannibal, they drove the Celtic rebels in Italy’s Po Valley across the alps and Romanized those that remained. From then on, the Cisalpine Celts were known as Gallia Togata (Gauls in togas) and the Transalpine Celts the Gallia Comata (hairy Gauls).*
Despite their colonization by Rome, in 73 BC the Cisalpine Celts would defy Rome a second time when they joined in the slave revolt organized by Spartacus (in which most of the latter’s warriors were Celts).
In 181 BC, the Transalpine city-state Massalia (currently Marseilles) requested help from Rome in resisting Celtic pirates. The Roman legions who came to their assistance never left, transforming the Massalia region into the Roman colony called The Province (now known as Provence).
The Celtic Cimbri north of Massala subsequently allied with a Germanic tribe known as the Teutonis to resist Roman occupation. By 105 BC a variety of Celtic coalitions had defeated four Roman armies sent north to contain them.
In 102 BC a Germanic coalition of Teutonis and Ambrones tribes tried to invade the Po Valley and were driven back by the Roman general Gaius Marius.
Julius Caesar’s Conquest of Transalpine Gaul
Caesar’s decision to undertake a series of proxy wars between warring Germanic and Celtic tribes in Transalpine Gaul was mainly political, dictated in large part by his conflicted relationship with Pompeii and Cassius.**
The former’s armies first intervened to support Germanic Soubi warriors who were occupying Celtic Aedui territory. His next move was to attack the Celtic Helvetii,*** who had been forced west when Germanic tribes encroached on their territory.
After massacring 75% of them, Caesar forced the survivors to return to their home region, where both their language and culture were suppressed (and eventually extinguished) by Germanic tribes. He subsequently carried out campaigns against the Aedui, the Sequani, the Belgae, the Veneti and various Germanic tribes on the the east bank of the Rhine. He also made two raids on Celtic Britain in 55 and 54 BC.
The Celtic Revolts
There were two major revolts against Caesar’s occupation of Gaul. In 54 BC, Indutiomarus of the Treveiri tribe led an the first unsuccessful revolt. In 53 BC, Vercingetorix of the Arveni tribe built a multi-tribe alliance and defeated Caesar at Gerogovia. In 52 BC, Caesar ultimately defeated and captured Vercingetorix at the siege of Alesia.
The Romanization of Gaul
Following the Roman conquest and colonization of Transalpine Gaul, the colony was filled with Roman roads, villas and aqueducts, and written and spoken Latin began to replace Celtic dialects. The Celtic language persisted, however, as evidenced by a 2nd century Celtic calendar from Cogny Calendar printed in Roman script.
*The Transalpine Celts were known for long hair and beards, unlike the clean shaven Romans.
**From 60 BC on, the three men ruled Rome as a triumvirate.
***Modern day Switzerland (Confederatio Helvitica) was the former homeland of the Helvetii.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
https://pukeariki.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/video/5701024/5701034
April 12, 2023
Banned Cancer-Causing Chemicals Found in 88% of Household Products
By Grace Van Deelen
Researchers found short-chain chlorinated paraffins, or SCCPs — a group of cancer-causing chemicals used in metalworking and the production of PVC, plastics, rubbers and other materials — in a wide array of household products, according to a study published Tuesday in Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts.
Banned chemicals that potentially cause cancer in humans have been discovered in a wide array of household products, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts.
Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) are a group of chemicals that are used in metalworking and the production of PVC, plastics, rubbers and other materials.
They are persistent chemicals, meaning they don’t degrade in the environment and accumulate in animals. Chlorinated paraffins have been detected in various wildlife and in human milk and blood.
The new study shows that SCCPs are still widely present in household goods despite bans on the chemicals, indicating the need for more regulatory action. Researchers found SCCPs in 84 of 96 household goods tested in Canada.
All the household goods were purchased at least one year after Canada’s 2013 prohibition of the chemicals went into effect, suggesting that chemical regulation against SCCPs has not been entirely effective.
“We found [SCCPs] in almost everything, which was very surprising to us,” said Steven Kutarna, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto and the lead author of the paper.
The 2017 Stockholm Convention listed SCCPs under Annex A, which urges the elimination of the chemicals. SCCPs were largely prohibited in Canada in 2013 and in the U.S. in 2012.
More than a million tons of chlorinated paraffins are still produced each year. Even in countries like Canada, where the chemicals have been prohibited, SCCPs have been detected in dust, prompting researchers to look for an indoor source of the chemicals.
Peng and his team collected 96 indoor products, including electronics, plastic toys, personal care products and furniture, from Toronto stores and homes. They found SCCPs in 88% of the products, with the highest concentration of the chemicals found in the outer plastic coatings of two electronic devices.
The researchers also found high concentrations of SCCPs in children’s plastic toys and in toy packaging. All the toys had been purchased in 2019, a full seven years after the prohibition of the use and importation of SCCPs in Canada.
“The concentrations were extremely high in the toys, said Hui Peng, a professor of environmental chemistry and author of the paper. “That’s a major finding.”
The discovery of high concentrations of SCCPs in toys is especially concerning for children, given that persistent chemicals are particularly dangerous in a child’s developmental stage, and that children may be more at risk of SCCP exposure via their hands and mouths coming into contact with toys, said the researchers.
“Any parent would shudder at the thought of their baby chewing on a toy filled with cancer-causing chemicals,” said Peng in a statement.
Since the tested products were manufactured internationally, it’s likely that similar levels of SCCPs may also be found in household products in the U.S. In fact, international manufacturing may be the main reason for the presence of SCCPs, despite regulation.
“It may well be unintentional because these compounds are commonly used in plastics,” said Kutarna. “It may just be that manufacturers are using plastic pellets from overseas, or [SCCPs] are getting added at some point in the production chain. It’s very hard to tell where it’s coming from.”
The high cost of testing for SCCPs, as well as the complex nature of international trade, also makes the chemicals difficult to regulate, said Peng.
However, the pervasiveness of the chemicals in common household products could “benefit from concerted and coordinated international efforts to stem their production and international trade,” the authors write in the paper.
“This is more of a regulation problem than it is something that individual consumers can deal with,” said Kutarna. “This information is not disclosed on the product, so that means there’s no way to really know if this chemical is added.”
[…]
Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/cancer-causing-chemicals-sccps-household-products/
Biden to Spend $5 Billion on New Coronavirus Vaccine Initiative Supported by Gates, Fauci and Republican Lawmakers
By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. The U.S. government will spend $5 billion on a program to accelerate the development of new coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics, White House officials announced this week. Project NextGen, a successor to Operation Warp Speed, has bipartisan support and will receive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations.
The U.S. government will spend $5 billion on a program to accelerate the development of new coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics, White House officials announced this week in an interview with The Washington Post.
Dubbed “Project NextGen,” the new initiative will serve as the successor to the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed,” launched in March 2020 to expedite the development of COVID-19 vaccines.
Similar to Operation Warp Speed, Project NextGen — with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation — will encourage public-private partnerships.
According to Reuters, the project will be managed out of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which will coordinate across various government agencies and private-sector actors, covering “all phases of development from lab research and clinical trials to delivery.”
[…]
The new initiative is based on a “roadmap” for the development of new coronavirus vaccines, formulated by the University of Minnesota and led by a former Biden administration official.
A ‘roadmap’ for ‘better’ coronavirus vaccines
Operation Warp Speed invested approximately $30 billion in the development, manufacturing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, according to USA Today, with six drugmakers each receiving more than $1 billion, along with a promise of a “guaranteed market” if they successfully developed a vaccine.
Project NextGen was originally to be named “Project COVID Shield,” after some Republican lawmakers called for the launch of an “Operation Warp Speed 2.0” to build on the Trump administration’s legacy.
[…]
The new initiative also will be “more modest,” and have a “more open-ended mission,” unlike Operation Warp Speed, which focused exclusively on COVID-19.
According to USA Today, the initial $5 billion in funding “will be financed through money saved from contracts costing less than originally estimated.”
Ashish Jha, White House coronavirus coordinator, said the new initiative has three primary goals: creating longer-lasting vaccines, accelerating the development of nasal vaccines and bolstering efforts to create “broader” pan-coronavirus vaccines.
The project also includes funding for more durable monoclonal antibodies.
[…]
Speaking to USA Today, Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, expressed skepticism about Project NextGen’s goals, noting that similar efforts to develop flu and HIV vaccines have been in progress for more than 40 years, without result.
Offit said that the effectiveness of nasal vaccines remains unclear, as they remain in the clinical trial stage at this time. Dr. John Moore, an immunologist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, expressed a similar view, saying “it’s seriously naïve to believe that it will be easy to make [a nasal vaccine].”
He added that the emphasis on improving existing COVID-19 vaccines, which he described as “amazing,” would likely undermine public trust in those vaccines.
[…]
Gates, Rockefeller Foundations behind Project NextGen
On Feb. 21, CIDRAP published its “roadmap for advancing better coronavirus vaccines” — with $1 million in support from the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations, “To help jump-start the search for better vaccines [and] develop broadly protective vaccines.”
According to the project description, the funding was used to assemble “an international collaboration of 50 scientists who mapped out a strategy to make the new vaccines a reality.”
Osterholm stated at the time, “If we wait for the next event to happen before we act, it will be too late.”
Bruce Gellin, M.D., M.P.H., chief of Global Public Health Strategy at The Rockefeller Foundation, said that there is an “urgency” to take the next steps, calling for an “equivalent” to Operation Warp Speed.
According to CIDRAP, Gellin “has led several federal vaccine initiatives and has been a technical advisor for groups including Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, COVAX, and the World Health Organization.”
The Gates Foundation is a partner of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, which, in turn, closely collaborates with the ID2020 Alliance, which promoted the development of digital ID. Microsoft is a founding member of the ID2020 Alliance, as well as Gavi, the BMGF, the World Bank, Accenture and the Rockefeller Foundation.
CIDRAP received the $1 million grant in April 2022, and by October 2022, had developed a draft version of its “roadmap.” According to Osterholm, it draws on a similar “roadmap strategy” employed by CIDRAP for previous projects, including the improvement of seasonal flu vaccines and the development of a universal flu vaccine.
For the new “roadmap,” these efforts culminated in a 92-page report, and accompanying summary, published in Vaccine journal. The project is divided into five core areas: virology, immunology, vaccinology, animal and human models for vaccine research, and policy and funding.
In an accompanying commentary published in the same issue of Vaccine, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, a former FDA commissioner who is co-president of the InterAcademy Partnership, and Dr. Greg Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, said that COVID-19 vaccines have been effective in preventing serious disease.
Hamburg was a participant in the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s (NTI) monkeypox pandemic simulation in March 2021, based on a remarkably prescient “fictional” monkeypox outbreak in May 2022. She is a board member of the Nature Conservancy and vice president of NTI’s Global Biological Policy and Programs and is on the board of Gavi.
However, according to Hamburg and Poland, there are some problems with the current vaccines, including “notable reactogenicity” in certain individuals, a short duration of protection, and technical requirements that make them difficult to store and administer in remote locations and areas with low resources.
They said the next-generation vaccines may offer additional benefits such as “new methods of delivery — transdermal patches, oral or intranasal vaccines — which are easy to distribute and apply, stimulate mucosal immunity, and potentially block transmission,” adding that this is superior to the current strategy of “chasing” new variants and developing boosters.
[…]
The Attack on Blackrock
The Freeonline
The invasion of BlackRock HQ in Paris on April 6 by a crowd of angry protesters and strikers revealed to the world that something very important is happening in France.
From a long distance, it may look like just another trade-union-led fightback against an increase in the retirement age.
From a closer distance, it might be evident that more general grievances against the Macron regime have temporarily amplified that union-led struggle.
But, in reality, it goes a lot deeper than that.
The revolt is a continuation, in fact, of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) uprising, which began in November 2018 and only came to an end with the Covid clamp-down.
Many Gilets Jaunes, unlike the top-down sold-out left, were involved in the massive wave of protest against vaccine passports that swept across the country in 2021.
Although the GJ uprising could itself be seen as continuation of previous struggles, such as those against the Loi Travail or in support of the ZAD at Notre-Dame des Landes, it represented a significant shift, which alarmed the authorities.
The movement was essentially uncontrollable, accepting no leadership or centralised structure, and also broke through the usual left-right divide, being a generalised revolt against the system.
The response of the Macron regime to the revolt only deepened the split between government and people.
The contempt, smears and brutal police violence unleashed against the GJs by the ruling clique, together with a refusal to take their demands seriously, shocked a large part of the French public.
This didn’t look like the kind of modern “Western” government that we are all used to, which likes to pretend to represent the people and to respond to their concerns.
Instead, Macron came across as a nasty tin-pot dictator, throwing his weight around with arrogant impunity.
Exactly the same thing has been happening in 2023. The government ignored weeks of massive and peaceful protesting, forced the law through parliament without a vote and then started banning demonstrations and mutilating protesters with military-style repression.
This looks less like a “liberal democracy” than a colonial government of occupation, determined to “put down the natives” at any cost.
And this, of course, is exactly what it is!
France is not run by representatives of the French people, but by representatives of the global money power, the criminal gang which owns pretty much everything, everywhere.
This power has decided to ditch the pretence at democracy so as to accelerate its control, under the pretext of various “emergencies”, whether Covid or climate.
Having bought up the mainstream media, it was confident that the overall picture could never be seen by the ordinary men and women it so despises.
But it is being seen.
All across the world, people are grasping that their local political chiefs are pawns of the WEF.
They know, as well, that the WEF is just one part of a global institutional network including the likes of the UN, the WHO, and Commonwealth.
They are fast finding out that these bodies are entwined with financial organisations such as the IMF, the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements.
These entities, like pretty much every single multi-national corporation, are controlled by the financial nexus built around BlackRock and Vanguard.
This is the entity that rules France, as it rules almost every other country.
It has managed to grab this chilling and unprecedented degree of global power by stealth, by hiding its existence behind front after front after front.
But now, in its impatience, it has made itself visible to the extent that striking rail workers in Paris know exactly where to find it.
The game has changed. The emperor is known to be naked and the people are turning on him in disgust and in anger.
[…]
Declassified Guantanamo court filing suggests some 9/11 hijackers were CIA agents
© Global Look PressFelix Livshitz
RT
An explosive court filing from the Guantanamo Military Commission – a court considering the cases of defendants accused of carrying out the “9/11” terrorist attacks on New York – has seemingly confirmed the unthinkable.
The document was originally published via a Guantanamo Bay court docket, but while public, it was completely redacted. Independent researchers obtained an unexpurgated copy. It is an account by the Commission’s lead investigator, DEA veteran Don Canestraro, of his personal probe of potential Saudi government involvement in the 9/11 attacks, conducted at the request of the defendants’ lawyers.
Two of the hijackers were being closely monitored by the CIA and may, wittingly or not, have been recruited by Langley long before they flew planes into the World Trade Center buildings.
The story of two menOf the great many enduring mysteries of the 9/11 attacks still unresolved over two decades later, perhaps the biggest and gravest relate to the activities of Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar in the 18 months leading up to that fateful day. The pair traveled to the US on multi-entry visas in January 2000, despite having repeatedly been flagged by the CIA and NSA previously as likely Al Qaeda terrorists.
Mere days before their arrival, they attended an Al Qaeda summit in Kuala Lumpur, during which key details of the 9/11 attacks are likely to have been discussed and agreed. The meeting was secretly photographed and videotaped by Malaysian authorities at the direct request of the CIA’s Alec Station, a special unit set up to track Osama bin Laden, although oddly, no audio was captured.
Still, this background should’ve been sufficient to prevent Hazmi and Midhar from entering the US – or at least enough for the FBI to be informed of their presence in the country. As it was, they were admitted for a six-month period at Los Angeles International airport without incident, and Bureau representatives within Alec Station were blocked from sharing this information with their superiors by the CIA.
“We’ve got to tell the Bureau about this. These guys clearly are bad. One of them, at least, has a multiple-entry visa to the US. We’ve got to tell the FBI,” Mark Rossini, a member of Alec Station, has recalled discussing with his colleagues. “[But the CIA] said to me, ‘No, it’s not the FBI’s case, not the FBI’s jurisdiction.’”
Immediately upon arrival, Hazmi and Midhar encountered a Saudi national residing in California named Omar al-Bayoumi in an airport restaurant. Over the next two weeks, he helped them find an apartment in San Diego, co-signed their lease, gave them $1,500 towards their rent, and introduced them to Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam at a local mosque. Al-Awlaki was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
In the wake of 9/11, Bayoumi unsurprisingly became a subject of interest in an FBI probe of potential Saudi involvement in the attacks, known as Operation Encore. In a 2003 interview with investigators in Riyadh, he claimed his meeting with Hazmi and Midhar was a coincidence – he heard them speaking Arabic, realized they couldn’t speak English, and decided to assist them out of charity.
The Bureau reached a very different conclusion – Bayoumi was a Saudi intelligence operative and part of a wider militant Wahhabist network in the US, which handled a myriad of potential and actual terrorists, and monitored the activities of anti-Riyadh dissidents abroad. What’s more, Encore judged there to be a 50/50 chance he had advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attacks before they happened, and so did the Saudi government.
Why was it hidden?Those bombshell facts remained hidden from public view until March 2022, when a trove of FBI documents was declassified at the request of the White House. The newly released Guantanamo Military Commission filing sheds even further light on Bayoumi’s contact with Hazmi and Midhar – and in turn, the CIA’s keen interest in them, their activities throughout their stay in the US, and refusal to disclose their presence to the FBI until late August 2001.
The filing is an account by the Commission’s lead investigator, DEA veteran Don Canestraro, of his personal probe of potential Saudi government involvement in the 9/11 attacks, conducted at the request of the defendants’ lawyers. Based on a review of classified information held by, and interviews with representatives of, the FBI and Pentagon, the content strongly suggests that the CIA obstructed official investigations to conceal its penetration of Al Qaeda.
That’s the judgment of four separate, unnamed FBI agents interviewed by Canestraro who worked on investigations into the 9/11 attacks. The most incendiary charges were leveled by a Bureau agent referred to in his report as ‘CS-23’, who had “extensive knowledge of counterterrorism and counterintelligence matters.”
CS-23 recounted how the CIA repeatedly lied and stonewalled the FBI in its investigations into Bayoumi. For example, while Agency officials claimed to possess no files on him when asked by Operation Encore representatives, CS-23 knew for a fact this was a “falsehood,” and the CIA maintained several operational files on Bayoumi, amounting to an extensive paper trail.
Furthermore, CS-23 was certain that the CIA used its liaison relationship with the Saudi intelligence services to attempt to recruit Hazmi and Midhar, and circumvent laws prohibiting the Agency from conducting spying operations on US soil, by using Riyadh as a go between.
This account was backed up by another FBI investigator, ‘CS-3,’ who further claims that Bayoumi setting up bank accounts and renting an apartment for the two hijackers in San Diego “was done at the behest of the CIA.” Any information provided to Bayoumi would then be fed back to Alec Station.
[…]
Via https://www.rt.com/news/574490-cia-dirty-deeds-nine-eleven/
The Most Revolutionary Act
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