Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 454
February 23, 2023
Cubans Demand The Return of US-Occupied Guantanamo Bay
A view of the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, February 2023. | Photo: Twitter/ @mldezicapcmg
Since 1903, Washington has been exercising factual control over a part of the Cuban territory that was rented “to perpetuity.”
The International Day of Action Against Us/Nato Military Bases will be held on February 28. Regarding this occasion, the Cuban people demanded the return of the Caimanera territory in Guantanamo province, where the U.S. has held a naval base for 120 years.
“The illegally-installed naval base is a place of arbitrariness, torture, and abuse where laws have been suspended and justice rejected,” citizen Arbel Cortiñas tweeted, recalling that Cuba has demanded the Caimanera territory devolution since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959.
Washington gained control over this area after Cuba’s first president Tomas Estrada-Palma and President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Cuban-American Treaty on February 1903.
Their agreement provided that Cuba would lease Guantanamo Bay to the United States in perpetuity so that Washington could establish naval and shipping stations there.
The treaty was part of the Platt Amendment, which determined the conditions for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Cuba after the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898.
Cuban doctors are already in Türkiye helping out after the horrible earthquake which has stolen the lives and dreams of thousands.
In the hour of need, #Cuba will always be there to lend a hand. pic.twitter.com/lgc29AzInq
— Lianys Torres Rivera (@lianystr) February 17, 2023
On the Guantanamo naval base, the U.S. fleet prepared attacks on neighboring countries, including Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Panama, and Nicaragua.
In April 1961, during the invasion carried out by Cuban exiles to Bay of Pigs, Washington concentrated reinforcement troops and bellict material in Guantanamo. It also arranged for a frigate to hold 100 counter-revolutionaries to support the raid.
Since Jan. 11, 2002, the base has hosted the Guantanamo detention center, where some 780 Muslims, who were captured during the U.S. invasion to Afghanistan and accused of belonging to the Islamic State or the Al-Qaeda organization, have been tortured.
“As long as this territory remains occupied, the possibility of justifying an aggression or military intervention against Cuba is latent. The U.S.-Cuban relations cannot be normalized while that illegal base imposed by force remains,” historian Elier Ramirez considere.
February 22, 2023
Senator Accuses FAA of Ignoring Potential Vaccine Dangers to Pilots
By Janice HisleU.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is expressing dismay over how the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) responded to his questions about the agency’s handling of pilot health issues.
“How can the FAA maintain safe skies when it turns a blind eye toward pilots experiencing COVID-19 vaccine injuries?” Johnson said in an email sent exclusively to The Epoch Times on Feb. 21.
“Is it willful ignorance that the FAA is aware of only four active pilots experiencing adverse events connected to the COVID-19 vaccine? The American people are not getting the full transparency and honesty from federal agencies that they deserve.”
Johnson made those remarks in response to how Susan Northrup, the FAA’s federal air surgeon, answered eight questions surrounding pilot health.
Not the FAA’s RoleIn his Jan. 27 letter to the FAA, Johnson provided specific information about five named pilots with suspected COVID-19 vaccine ill effects; one of the pilots died 17 days after being vaccinated.
Numerous other accounts of pilots with suspected vaccine injuries are included in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, as The Epoch Times reported previously.
Johnson wanted to know what steps the FAA has taken or planned to take to investigate whether the five named pilots and others had suffered adverse effects after COVID-19 shots.
Northrup wrote that her agency isn’t in charge of that.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the responsible agency for tracking and follow up of suspected vaccine adverse events,” she wrote.
Northrup noted that pilots experiencing any medical issues are required to “ground themselves,” seek medical help and report any “significant medical events.”
“FAA is responsible for determining whether that event will have an adverse safety effect,” Northrup wrote.
She also said the agency was “aware of only four potentially vaccine-related adverse events in active pilots.”
Among those four, “only one has provided medical documentation through the normal process,” Northrup wrote. She gave no further information on what that process involves.
Justification For ShotsJohnson noted that, on Dec. 12, 2020, the day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized COVID-19 vaccines for “emergency use” among the general public, the FAA declared pilots were permitted to take the shots, too.
That action surprised many in aviation because pilots are forbidden from taking other emergency-use-authorized drugs.
To justify the drugs’ use in pilots, Northrup listed nine websites about the general safety of the various brands of vaccines. Aviation experts have questioned whether any studies were done on pilots specifically. There were no such studies immediately apparent among the list Northrup provided.
Asked whether the FAA evaluated whether any changes should be made to guidance on COVID-19 vaccines for pilots, Northrup responded that the agency has “continued to monitor the data and determined no change in policy was indicated.”
Heart Standard Change Pre-COVIDFinally, Northrup addressed concerns about the FAA’s decision to change the acceptable range for the “PR Interval,” an indicator of heart health, on pilots’ electrocardiogram tests.
The PR Interval measures how long it takes for a pulse to travel from one part of the heart to another. A longer PR Interval could be benign, but it also could be an indicator of heart damage; further tests have traditionally been warranted for readings above 200 milliseconds.
Johnson noted that the FAA cited “new scientific evidence” as a rationale for expanding the acceptable PR Interval to 300 ms in a medical examiners’ guide in late 2022.
That change stirred controversy earlier this year after a researcher from an advocacy group, US Freedom Flyers, discovered it.
Some questioned whether spike proteins from the COVID-19 vaccines or the virus itself might be damaging pilots’ hearts and if the change in standard might cause potential issues to go untested.
Even though the revised standard was never added to the FAA’s guide for medical examiners until 2022, Northrup says the FAA made the change in 2017, “after discussions with our cardiology panel, which included FAA doctors as well as external practicing cardiologists.”
Aviation medical examiners were “alerted” to the change in 2018 and 2019, Northrup said, with a link to a video.
The 2022 revision to the PR interval was the first change to that specific part of the guide since 2016, Northrup said.
The change made on Oct. 26, 2022, was made as a clarification “to match existing training and instructions,” Northrup wrote.
Although some people suspected that the 2022 change may have been designed to hide a growing number of pilots diagnosed with PR Intervals above 210 ms, data from Northrup showed that number actually went down, not up.
Last year, there were 1,712 such cases; in contrast, there were 2,889 cases in 2021 and 2,642 cases in 2020, Northrup wrote.
Asked how many pilots are certified to fly with PR Intervals at the elevated levels, Northrup replied, “We do not know who was currently flying.”
[…]
Ohio Train Disaster Exposes Dark Side of Plastics
Photo credit: @ninaturner/Twitter
By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.When officials decided on Feb. 6 to burn off the hazardous chemicals in Norfolk Southern’s derailed freight train in a “controlled burn” in East Palestine, Ohio, the fire released a plume of highly toxic chemicals — many of which are key elements in plastics production.
When officials decided on Feb. 6 to burn off the hazardous chemicals in Norfolk Southern’s derailed freight train in a “controlled burn” in East Palestine, Ohio, the fire released a plume of highly toxic chemicals — many of which are key elements in plastics production.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that of the 20 railcars transporting toxic chemicals, at least five contained vinyl chloride — a carcinogenic gas used to make PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic.
The other railcars contained other chemicals used to make plastic, including butyl acrylate and ethylhexyl acrylate, which were all burned and released into the air, surface water and surface soils.
As of Feb. 16, a “chemical plume of butyl acrylate” was moving from the Ohio River toward Virginia, according to the Ohio EPA and Gov. Mike DeWine.
Norfolk Southern, the company that owns the train, and the EPA, which is monitoring toxins released in the spill, repeatedly assured residents that levels of chemicals in the air and water are at levels below those deemed safe for human consumption.
But there is widespread concern about safety, especially given the confirmation that 3,500 fish died in local streams, numerous reports of other dead animals, and resident complaints about lingering headaches and irritated eyes.
There are still many unknowns about how many chemicals were released and how they may be affecting the environment.
“As with most environmental spills, it is difficult to determine the exact amount of material that has been released into the air, water, and soil,” James Lee, an Ohio EPA spokesperson, told BuzzFeed.
Crews have been digging up soil and pumping out water from a 1,000-foot swath around the track. Norfolk Southern on Monday said 15,000 pounds of contaminated soil and 1.1 million gallons of tainted water had been removed.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), prominent environmental activists and local residents have been calling for an investigation into the chemicals released. Bowman tweeted:
Nearly 1 million pounds of vinyl chloride were on this train. Now, the EPA has confirmed it’s entered the Ohio River basin which is home to 25 million people.
This is one of the deadliest environmental emergencies in decades and no one is talking about it. https://t.co/HTsZhokEo4
— Congressman Jamaal Bowman (@RepBowman) February 13, 2023
The Ohio Environmental Council also underscored the need to continuously monitor the situation in order to fully understand the extent of the environmental and health effects.
“We know from decades of environmental injustices that Ohioans and Americans have experienced, that it takes time to understand the full picture of health impacts a community faces in the event of an environmental disaster,” Ohio Environmental Council said in a statement.
DeWine announced plans to open a medical clinic early next week in East Palestine to evaluate those who are worried and to analyze their symptoms.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan on Tuesday announced the EPA would “take control” of the disaster response. That means the EPA is using its authority under the federal Superfund law to require Norfolk Southern to clean up the contamination, the Associated Press reported.
[…]
How dangerous are these chemicals?
According to the National Cancer Institute, vinyl chloride, the chemical released in the greatest quantity in the controlled burn, is associated with lymphoma, leukemia, brain and lung cancers, and angiosarcoma, a rare form of liver cancer.
It also can cause a nonmalignant liver disease known as TASH, or toxicant-associated steatohepatitis and may cause neurological symptoms, such as dizziness and light-headedness.
Vinyl chloride’s health risks have been known since the 1970s when several workers at a B.F. Goodrich factory in Rubbertown, a Louisville, Kentucky, neighborhood, developed the rare liver angiosarcoma, which led to the worldwide recognition of vinyl chloride as a carcinogen.
Vinyl chloride has been found in the air near PVC factories and hazardous waste sites, and can leach into groundwater.
The gas can be consumed by humans through inhalation. Outdoors, sunlight can break it down within 11 days of being released. But it can also be dispersed in water. If a water supply becomes contaminated with vinyl chloride, it can infiltrate homes that use that water source for drinking, showering, cooking or laundry.
The largest vinyl chloride train spill prior to East Palestine happened in 2012 when a train derailed in New Jersey releasing about 20,000 gallons of vinyl chloride. Hundreds of nearby residents and emergency workers went to local hospitals reporting coughs and neurological symptoms.
But in that case, the vinyl chloride did not burn.
When vinyl chloride burns, it releases hazardous chemicals phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air.
Phosgene is a colorless gas with a pungent odor that can cause vomiting and breathing difficulties, and was once used as a weapon in World War I.
Hydrogen chloride is a colorless to yellowish gas with a strong odor and is known to cause skin, eye, nose and throat irritation.
Neil Donahue, Ph.D., professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University, told the AP he worries the burning may have formed dioxins, which are created from burning chlorinated carbon materials.
“Vinyl chloride is bad, dioxins are worse as carcinogens and that comes from burning,” Donahue said.
Dioxins are a group of toxic chemical compounds classified as persistent organic pollutants, meaning they take a long time to break down once they are in the environment. The EPA reports they can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, immune system damage and can interfere with hormones.
“The thing about dioxins is they’re potent at really low levels, and are persistent and bioaccumulative,” Ted Schettler, science director of the nonprofit Science and Environmental Health Network, told Wired.
“You don’t want dioxins deposited in the soil around East Palestine that are not going to go away, and are going to bioaccumulate in people who are exposed to it.”
EPA head Regan said he isn’t sure if the EPA is testing for dioxins.
The flames and the plume could have spread toxicants well beyond the disaster site. There have been numerous unconfirmed reports of fallout from the event across the northeast. The Ohio Chapter of the Sierra Club is tracking the fallout.
PVC plastic, a ‘toxic time bomb’
“Sadly, this is yet another painful reminder of the dangers of making, transporting, using, and disposing of chemicals in plastics, especially polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic” Toxic-Free Future, a nonprofit, said in a statement about the unfolding East Palestine catastrophe.
Thousands of research papers have linked chemicals used in plastics to a host of environmental and health impacts. These include endocrine-disrupting compounds that cause problems in the body’s hormonal systems and are linked to reproductive issues, obesity, diabetes, ADHD and autism.
[…]
Despite the EPA’s announcement that it has taken control of the cleanup, Norfolk Southern is still the entity entirely responsible for carrying it out.
[…]
In East Palestine, there were several reports that residents having their homes tested by CTEH have been asked to sign waivers saying they would not hold Norfolk or their affiliates, including CTEH, responsible for any future liabilities.
One resident told Glenn Beck that 340 residents signed the contracts.
[…]
Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/ohio-train-disaster-toxic-chemicals-pvc-plastic/
Employee of rail company involved in East Palestine disaster makes stunning revelation
JD HeyesNewstargetAn employee of Norfolk Southern, the rail carrier whose train derailed earlier this month in East Palestine, Ohio, dumping tons of harmful chemicals and sending poisonous gases and smoke into the air and surrounding waterways, has made a stunning claim in a newly filed legal action.
A train carrying over 150 cars, measuring 9,300 feet in length, and weighing 18,000 tons met a tragic fate as it was filled with hazardous chemicals that spilled and needed to be addressed. It has been almost two weeks since the derailment occurred in eastern Ohio, causing the evacuation of numerous residents, and Norfolk Southern is now facing a multitude of lawsuits.
Last week, the law firm Morgan & Morgan filed a class-action lawsuit in a federal court in Ohio, representing two women residing in East Palestine. The town, with a population of around 4,700 people, is located near the Pennsylvania border and approximately 50 miles west of Pittsburgh, according to CBS News.
“Norfolk Southern discharged more cancer-causing Vinyl Chloride into the environment in the course of a week than all industrial emitters combined did in the course of a year,” the suit alleges, which noted further that the rail company chose to burn the vinyl chloride, which then turned it into a highly toxic gas, rather than disposing of it safely. It’s not clear why the Environmental Protection Agency would have ever approved that.
“From chemicals that cause nausea and vomiting to a substance responsible for the majority of chemical warfare deaths during World War I, the people of East Palestine and the surrounding communities are facing an unprecedented array of threats to their health,” Morgan & Morgan attorneys said in a statement, according to Republic Brief.
CBS News noted further that the recently filed class-action lawsuit claims that the negligence of the company has led to the potential exposure of hazardous chemicals for “thousands of residents” living in rural eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Additionally, at least six other lawsuits have been filed against the company, demanding payment for damages to property, economic losses suffered by business owners, and exposure to toxic chemicals.
The size and structure of the train operated by Norfolk Southern are being scrutinized for their potential contribution to the derailment. Some individuals claim that the train’s immense size and weight could be responsible for the accident.
As per CBS News, Norfolk Southern workers have reportedly acknowledged that they were concerned about the train’s size before the incident and that this concern may have contributed to both the derailment and an earlier failure that occurred after the train left Illinois on February 1. One worker expressed that “it’s highly probable the impacts of the derailment would have been avoided” if the train had not been so long, adding that “we shouldn’t be running trains that are 150 car lengths long.” Two employees who spoke with Motherboard suggested that the train could pose a safety hazard.
The former director of the Federal Railroad Administration, Sarah Feinberg, agrees that the size of the train would have been a concern, per WayneDupree.com:
“I was not satisfied with the lengths of the trains, and they were 80 or 90 cars long,” she says of her tenure at the FRA. The derailed one had 151 cars. Even while adding more cars might make trains more efficient overall for railroad firms, it takes more time for staff to examine such a train. Shorter inspection times in the name of such efficiency, according to Jared Cassity, national legislative director for one of the Norfolk Southern workers unions, made it likely that the car that derailed earlier this month hadn’t been examined “in some time.”
[…]
FDA’s Long Overdue Warning Against Dental Amalgram
By Dr Mercola
Story at-a-glanceSeptember 24, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released its long-overdue safety communication on amalgamThe FDA warns mercury fillings may adversely affect people in certain high-risk groups and should be avoidedGroups identified as being at increased risk for harmful effects from dental mercury fillings include pregnant women and their developing fetuses, nursing women, women who are planning to become pregnant, infants and children under the age of 6, people with neurological diseases, impaired kidney function or heightened sensitivity to mercury or other amalgam componentsAfter years of pressure from Consumers for Dental Choice and its allies, the FDA finally agreed to reopen the amalgam issue, and now admits dental amalgam releases mercury vapor that can cause health problems in some individualsThe FDA also advised against use of the misleading term “silver fillings,” and urges patients to discuss all dental filling options with their dentist[…]
In an astounding about-face to its previous stance, the FDA issued a warning that mercury fillings may adversely affect pregnant women, children and other susceptible individuals, and should be avoided by these groups.
The safety communication1 was posted September 24, 2020, and with this, we have suddenly achieved an incredibly important goal that we’ve had our sights on for the last decade!
Goal Achieved: FDA Releases Amalgam Safety Communication[…]
Groups identified by the FDA as being at increased risk for harmful effects from dental mercury fillings include:
Pregnant women and their developing fetusesWomen who are planning to become pregnantNursing women and their newborns and infantsChildren, especially those younger than 6People with pre-existing neurological disease such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s diseasePeople with impaired kidney functionPeople with known heightened sensitivity (allergy) to mercury or other components of dental amalgamFDA Admits Amalgam Dangers
After years of pressure from Consumers for Dental Choice and its allies, the FDA finally admits the unvarnished truth about amalgam, noting3 that “Dental amalgam is a mixture of mercury and a powdered alloy made up of silver, tin and copper” that “releases small amounts of mercury vapor over time.”
The FDA has found that certain groups may be at greater risk for potential harmful health effects of mercury vapor released from the device [amalgam]. As a result, the agency is recommending certain high-risk groups avoid getting dental amalgam whenever possible and appropriate.The agency also admits there are “uncertainties” and risks associated with this mercury vapor release, especially for the high-risk groups listed. In particular, there is “the potential for mercury in dental amalgam to convert to other mercury compounds in the body,” and mercury could potentially accumulate in body fluids and tissues, resulting in “unintended health outcomes.”
[…]
While the FDA downplays the importance of its changed recommendation by stressing that the benefits of dental amalgam likely “outweigh their risks for most patients,” this update is nothing short of monumental, and opens the door, finally, for the elimination of dental mercury for all patients in the U.S., as has been done in many other countries already.
[…]
Consumers for Dental Choice put an end to FDA’s negligence when, in 2008, this dynamic nonprofit organization assembled plaintiffs and sued FDA, demanding that amalgam be classified. The judge agreed and told FDA to sit down with Consumers for Dental Choice to determine a deadline. FDA was compelled to commit to classifying amalgam by July 2009.
But when July 2009 came around, it was clear the FDA had not considered the science — especially the evidence of harm amalgam can cause vulnerable populations like children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.
Its abysmal rule reflected this shortcoming, as it did not restrict the use of amalgam for these most vulnerable individuals. The rule did not even require that patients be told that amalgam is made of mercury. Nonetheless, FDA’s 2009 rule did acknowledge that amalgam could be harmful, and that there was no proof of safety for the populations most susceptible to this toxin.
In response, Consumers for Dental Choice challenged FDA’s rule, while simultaneously pursuing other opportunities to advance mercury-free dentistry, like defeating pro-mercury state dental boards, fighting for amalgam fact sheet laws for patients at the state level, and getting amalgam into the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
As Consumers for Dental Choice racked up win after win — regaining licenses for mercury-free dentists persecuted by state boards, gaining fact sheets to protect dental patients, achieving an amalgam reduction requirement in the Minamata Convention — the FDA’s rule was looking increasingly archaic.
Decade-Long Wait Is OverNearly a decade after the FDA issued its flawed amalgam rule, Consumers for Dental Choice launched a nonstop campaign focused on getting the FDA to move on amalgam.
They assembled an accomplished team of experts to approach the FDA, and in 2018, unveiled the “Chicago Declaration to End Mercury Use in the Dental Industry” at the University of Illinois School of Public Health.
This declaration, signed by more than 50 heavy-hitter environmental groups, called on the FDA “to bring its policies in line with the Federal Government as a whole and with its responsibilities under the Minamata Convention and to publicly advise a phase down of the use of mercury amalgams with the goal of phasing out entirely.”
The declaration also called for the immediate ban on amalgam use in children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. Working with key signatories to the “Chicago Declaration,” Consumers for Dental Choice were able to secure meetings with top officials at the FDA, during which they were able to submit scientific studies for the FDA to review.
[…]
FDA Reverses Stance on AmalgamConsumers for Dental Choice also organized a strong showing of public support from you. Its online petition, which had nearly 50,000 signatures, was presented to the FDA in person at its first meeting with the agency. Many of you also submitted public comments on patient preferences to the FDA.
FDA was also made aware of the changes to amalgam rules in other parts of the world, such as amalgam phase-out dates set by the Philippines, Ireland, Slovakia, Finland, Nepal, Moldova, Czech Republic and New Caledonia, and the bans on amalgam use in children issued by the European Union, Vietnam and Tanzania.
[…]
Final Step AheadNow that the FDA has finally broken its silence on the dangers of mercury for pregnant and nursing mothers, children and people with certain underlying conditions, the final step — a full ban on amalgam for all — looms near.
The American Dental Association, which has long defended amalgam’s safety, is now running out of allies. For now, however, the ADA still maintains its contrarian view.
[…]
In its September 24, 2020, safety communication on dental amalgam,7 the FDA specifically advises dentists against using the term “silver filling,” “as this may imply the filling is made solely from silver and does not accurately convey the mercury component of this restorative material.” The FDA also highlights this in its Dental Devices description page for amalgam, which received its last update September 29, 2020, noting that:8
[…]
What’s Lurking in Your Silver Fillings?That 50% to 60% of Americans don’t know amalgam fillings are half mercury is no accident. The American Dental Association, an amalgam patent-holder, popularized the deceptive term “silver fillings” so consumers would think amalgam is made mainly of silver when actually it has twice as much mercury as silver.
[…]
Via https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/02/22/fda-dental-amalgam-warning
Medicine Wheels of the Great Plains
Episode 7 Medicine Wheels of the Great Plans
Ancient Civilizations of North America
Dr Edwin Barnhart (2018)
Film Review
Medicine wheels, found throughout the Great Plains of Canada and the US are difficult to date (by Carbon 14 and and/or Optically Stimulated Luminescence – see Unkown Story of Ancient North America) because many are still in use. Most are found in Canada and are shaped like a wagon wheel, with a central cairn, spokes and outer rim. However some are ovals, rectangles or even the likeness of animals or human beings. Located away from habitation, usually on a mountain or high plateau, in some legends they’re associated with vision quests, a supernatural experience in which an individuals seeks to interact with a guardian spirit.
Medicine wheels are strongly connected to the modern day Ojibwa nation, as well as medicine lodges, bison, dream catchers, vision quests and the The Great Hoop of Life. The latter is a collection of traditional learning and wisdom first published in 2000.
The largest in the US, the Big Horn medicine wheel in the US is 88 feet in diameter with a 120-foot diameter central cairn and 28 spokes. There’s also a 28-spoke medicine wheel (still in use) in Majorville Alberta dating from 5200 BP (before present). A 30-foot diameter medicine wheel in Moose Mountain Saskatchewan had a 14-foot diameter central cairn (before it was vandalized) and only five spokes.
At least five of the medicine wheels that have been studied have astrological alignments with summer and winter solstice sunrise and sunset points. Others seem to be monuments to past chiefs or even burial sites. Sun lodges, used by many Plains nations for annual gatherings, tend to have the same shape as medicine wheels with 28 roof poles radiating out from a center post. Temporary shelters that were rebuilt annually, the sun lodges were used for grueling sun dances associated with fasting and tests of physical endurance.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
February 21, 2023
Why Are Colleges Still Mandating COVID Vaccines for Students?
By Yasmina Palumbo Lucia Sinatra If college bureaucrats aren’t willing to end their reckless and outdated COVID-19 policies now, parents will shift their support to colleges that do.
Headlines last week declared natural immunity better protection than vaccines, based on a Lancet study that backed up a groundbreaking Israeli study from August 2021.
Yet vaccine mandates continue to block a full return to normalcy, and it’s taking a particularly hard toll on college kids.
Three years in — and well after COVID-19 ceased to be a deadly, nationwide threat — many institutions are still reluctant to let go of pandemic restrictions.
Parents have come to see how those lingering rules have hit the young especially hard. For college students, campuses feel forever altered under the weight of the ubiquitous refrain “to keep the community safe.”
Some professors, for instance, still mask their classes or move them online. Many colleges continue to have vaccine and booster mandates in place, though the overwhelming majority of students have already acquired natural immunity and are among the least vulnerable population of Americans.
The graduating class of 2023 has hardly known the freedoms older generations enjoyed — exuberant and unrestricted socializing, in-person intellectual debates and, of course, the freedom to choose whether to take an experimental medical intervention.
Is it any wonder college enrollment is down? CUNY just reported a decline of 9%.
While many were willing to accept a temporary suspension of rights when little was known about this mysterious virus, there has been a dramatic shift in public opinion of late.
Even those who advocated for vaccine mandates and lockdowns now talk of “pandemic amnesty,” quietly turning their attention to the unintended consequences of the pandemic response instead.
But bureaucracy lags far behind. It operates at its own speed, regardless of common sense, critical thinking or harmful impact.
College vaccine mandates are a glaring example of this phenomenon; after all, vaccine mandates are simply not effective in protecting the community. How could they be if they don’t prevent transmission? Nonetheless, they remain stubbornly the norm in New York and elsewhere.
One of the most outrageous college mandates can be found on SUNY campuses. Shockingly, it only applies to students: Older, more vulnerable faculty and staff are not required to take vaccines, making it one of the most egregious and legally questionable mandates still standing.
SUNY’s policy affects more than a million students, who are at little risk of serious COVID-19 complications. And like all medical interventions, the vaccines aren’t without risk.
So why are we still doing this? In 2021, a SUNY student succumbed to vaccine-related myocarditis after he was forced to take the vaccine to stay enrolled. Tragedies like this must not go ignored and should have been enough to call mandates into question long ago.
Risk of myocarditis in young men and menstrual cycle irregularities in women are recognized side effects of the vaccines that weren’t fully known when they were first made available. What else will we discover in hindsight, and who will be liable?
Students and parents have struggled to have their voices heard, and at least one university in New York has listened.
Rochester Institute of Technology recently dropped its vaccine mandate, noting that “while COVID-19 is present in our community, it has evolved into a milder illness with significantly less risk to the general population.” This refreshing return to common sense makes SUNY’s 2023 spring guidance look even more ridiculous than ever.
Of all the lessons from the pandemic, the greatest is how fragile our civil liberties are. We have witnessed a relentless encroachment on every civil liberty we’ve ever taken for granted, up to and including the right to education and bodily autonomy.
Even with the pandemic clearly over, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to issue Emergency Use Authorization for COVID-19 vaccines and tests. We have no idea what any of this means for college mandates, but we do know that after three long years, we have had enough.
Students and parents will no longer be silenced. If college bureaucrats aren’t willing to end their reckless and outdated COVID-19 policies now, parents will shift their support to colleges that do.
[…]
Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/colleges-mandating-student-covid-vaccines/
The Antiwar Movement Demonstrate Together
Consortium News
A bunch of people who disagree with each other on a lot of things have actually gotten together to organize a big antiwar rally in Washington next Sunday. I say, Bravo!
In a nation as divided as the United States is today, a large rally of people who agree with each other on everything is hardly imaginable.
A rally by people who disagree with each other gives hope that a movement to stop war can grow, and even shake the political system paralyzed by the military industrial congressional complex and confusion spread by its servile media.
Abroad, the United States has exploited deep political enmities to provoke a war in Ukraine intended to split Europe definitively, cutting Russia off totally from Germany and the EU, cementing permanent U.S. control of Western Europe.
This divisive policy is pursued in all sorts of sneaky ways that make it hard to uncover and explain. The war in Ukraine creates division between those who have understood what it’s all about and those who haven’t. A large movement is needed to spread discussion, understanding and opposition.
While supporting the war machine’s foreign policy of divide and rule, in recent years the American political class has also fostered internal divisions to an unprecedented extent — some of them real, some of them more or less artificial.
The degree of internal animosity echoes the international hatred fostered by U.S. President Joe Biden’s geopolitical mindset. WE are the GOOD (democracy), THEY are BAD (not communism any more, rather, “autocracy”).
At home, Democrats and Republicans, left and right are two different species, one species born good and the other bad. The bad are inherently bad, with a contagious badness, so we must not meet and try to persuade them. We must have nothing to do with them, and a political apartheid might be the solution. A sort of moral/political racism, creating total division between US and THEM reigns both at home and abroad.
In such an atmosphere, it is no wonder that the Feb. 19 rally “Rage Against the War Machine,” its organizers and its speakers, are being attacked for not being good enough.
Organizers & Speakers
The main announced organizers of the Rage rally are two relatively weak political organizations: the People’s Party and the Libertarian Party. Their weakness should be a positive signal. Inasmuch as neither has the strength to manage a really significant antiwar movement alone, these sponsors are voluntarily offering the movement as a gift to all who take it up. So grab it!
Inevitably, however, the rally itself is being attacked, even by some opponents of the current war, on grounds of the political deficiencies of the organizers.
Could veteran activists be so petty as to be jealous that somebody else got there first? I hope not.
Veteran socialist and antiwar militant Jeff Mackler has strongly condemned the rally as “reactionary” mainly because it is backed by the Libertarian Party. Its success would be a defeat for all enemies of the capitalist system, he has claimed. At one point he observes:
“The Libertarians’ call for a return to a capitalist society where ‘free competition’ prevails is pure fantasy.”
For one thing, that policy has nothing to do with the demands of the rally. For another, if Libertarian Party socio-economic policies are indeed pure fantasy, totally inapplicable in today’s world, they are nothing to worry about.
Come to the rally, try to find a Libertarian and argue. Libertarians are against spending billions for war, this is a point of agreement that could start a fruitful discussion.
Leftist militants who believe a man can be transformed into a woman should have no trouble believing that a libertarian might be transformed into a socialist. Such miracles do occur.
Guilt by Association
Besides that, the presence of the People’s Party makes it clear that the Libertarians’ extreme free market policies are irrelevant to the rally.
The Libertarian Party quickly demonstrated its incapacity to lead the movement very far by its failure to support an important announced speaker against personal attacks — to the dismay, incidentally, of leading libertarians. But the bandwagon rolls on.
Some critics of the rally trot out a favorite cliché of the self-righteous left according to which we must stay away in order not to “legitimize” rightwing participants. This “legitimize” threat is merely the other side of the “guilt by association” coin. Both are used to evade discussion of serious matters by treating political convictions as if they were incurable contagious diseases.
It is perfectly childish to claim that anyone is “legitimized” (or guilty) by random association, such as participation in an antiwar demonstration.
The Feb. 19 speakers’ list is very long, perhaps even too long for the time allotted. But the point is precisely to show a range of viewpoints.
However much I may disagree with this one or that one on somethings, or even on everything else, I am glad to see them getting together to stop the rush toward World War III.
When the subject is WAR, if you can join in opposition only with people who agree with you about everything else, you have lost the sense of common humanity.
The organizers’ list is short, too short. It would be great to see ANSWER, Black Alliance for Peace, Code Pink and other longstanding antiwar organizations involved. No single one of them is strong enough to build a major mass movement alone — at least, so far, none of them have proposed anything as promising as Feb. 19.
The failure of Feb. 19 would not be their success. It would be a failure for all who oppose the war, showing that internal divisions can unravel every hope.
The rally is open. Everyone can share its success by crashing the party, arousing their supporters and friends, turning the rally into the broad, wide-open mass movement that can really begin to challenge the war machine. The need for peace is nobody’s private property.
Wherever you see popular resistance to war begin to come to life, go to it and make it belong to everybody.
[…]
Via https://consortiumnews.com/2023/02/14/diana-johnstone-demonstrate-together/
132 Canadian doctors have died suddenly or unexpectedly since COVID-19 vaccine rollout
By Dr William Makis MDOverall Canadian physician mortality in 2022 was 53% higher than 2019, however, as with all excess mortality data in highly COVID-19 vaccinated jurisdictions, this mortality is heavily skewed towards the younger age groups, with the youngest doctors – medical students or medical residents under age 30 dying at a 900% higher rate in 2022, compared to the 2019/2020 average.
2021 Sudden and unexpected Canadian doctor deaths:
I would like to thank Michael for the tremendous work and hundreds of hours spent compiling this important data from official medical sources: (Canadian Medical Association, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Provincial Medical Associations, Canadian Medical University Alumni Associations, Provincial Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, and online obituary aggregators), as well as Sonja, VA and everyone else who provided valuable contributions over time.
This data has been available to the Canadian Medical Association as well as the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
Via https://makismd.substack.com/p/news-132-canadian-doctors-have-died-38e
German Mainstream Media Discusses Pfizer Vaccine Trial Fraud
Igor ChudovI am pleasantly surprised to see the mainstream German publication Die Welt openly asserting that clinical trials of the “Pfizer COVID vaccine” were rife with fraud. (paywall-free German language link, PDF with English translation) What a change!
Again, click here for the English version saved as a PDF file.
The article explains that Pfizer unblinded and removed numerous patients who suffered adverse events from the Covid vaccine trial. It also gives examples of Pfizer subjects whose deaths were covered up. One of the victims described by Die Welt is Pfizer subject C4591001 1162 11621327, whose story I unearthed in July of 2022.
[…]Subject C4591001 1162 11621327, a 60-year-old white male with a pertinent medical history of obesity (since 2010), traumatic brain injury (in 2011, recovered), depression (since 2011), and hip replacement (in 2015), received Dose 1 of mRNA vaccine on 10 S…WELT has documents according to which patient no. 11621327 was found dead in his apartment three days after the 2nd dose, apparently a stroke. Patient #11521497 died 20 days after vaccination, diagnosis of cardiac arrest. “According to the current state of science, these two cases would be assigned to the vaccination,” says the Berlin pharmaceutical specialist Susanne Wagner, “especially since the US health authority CDC is currently investigating strokes in vaccinated people and it is known
As you remember, Pfizer’s investigators falsely ruled these deaths unrelated.
Die Welt also describes Argentine lawyer Augusto Roux, who remained alive, but whose sufferings were written off as “anxiety.”
Three weeks later, test candidate Roux received the second dose. He remained under observation for 40 minutes, then left the hospital feeling good. In the taxi home he felt uncomfortable, and later he had shortness of breath, burning chest pain, nausea and fever. His urine turned black like cola and he passed out. Three days later, Roux was in the Alemán Hospital, several PCR tests for Covid were negative. Senior physician Gisela di Stilio noted in the discharge report, which is available to WELT: “Adverse reaction to the coronavirus vaccine (high probability)”. The computer tomograph had provided images of fluid in Roux’s heart. A pericardial effusion.
Over the next few months, Roux lost 14 kilos, he had liver problems, and his heart sometimes beat irregularly. … The diagnosis for the symptoms after the second vaccination is very likely to be “pericarditis”, inflammation of the heart. All of this fits exactly with a clinical picture that the Paul Ehrlich Institute also has in its list of “rare side effects” for mRNA vaccines.
Note how Die Welt sarcastically puts “rare side events” in quotes.
… He found amazing things there. His story, one might think, should appear in Pfizer’s pivotal study papers, but it doesn’t. The pharmaceutical company’s papers say Roux informed the research team that he was hospitalized with pneumonia on both sides, following the initial report, which was classified as an “adverse event of toxicity level 1”. That could have nothing to do with the vaccine, the file goes on to say, it is probably a Covid infection. Not a word that Roux had tested negative for Corona in several PCR tests.
The paper finds more cases of Pfizer fraud:
Pfizer Fraud Discussed in Mainstream Press.Almost at the same time as the Roux case, there must have been an incident in the Buenos Aires test center. In one fell swoop, the test management said goodbye to 53 subjects on August 31, 2020. The test candidates were “unblinded”, which means they were informed about their vaccination status, a process that the Pfizer study protocol expressly only provides for “in emergencies”. But there is nothing about it in the approval study. In protocol documents that are available to WELT, and which are actually not intended for the public, those responsible get caught up in contradictions. “
While Die Welt does an excellent job at exposing Pfizer’s trial fraud, which the FDA wanted to hide for 75 years, most of what it discussed is not new to us. What is new is that mainstream newspapers are now discussing it.
Die Welt mentions that Pfizer’s contracts included a liability waiver even for Pfizer’s negligence and for “fraud or bad faith on the part of Pfizer itself.”
I expect this “fraud waiver” will be litigated furiously in many countries. In the United States, liability for certain misdeeds, such as fraud, cannot be waived in advance because it would “violate public policy” and encourage fraud. Thus, I expect Ed Dowd’s “fraud vitiates all contracts” doctrine to prevail legally in many localities.
[…]
Via https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/german-press-discusses-pfizer-vaccine
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