Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 96

Putin Says No Peace Possible With Zelenskiy, Suggests UN Govern Ukraine In Near Term

L Todd Wood

Russian President Putin declared peace is next to impossible with Ukrainian President Zelenskiy in power. He questioned yesterday how Russia could negotiate with an illegitimate government that is not legally elected.

Putin suggested in the speech that the United Nations could be brought in to govern Ukraine, as there is precedence for this action.

Zelenskiy recently said Putin will die soon as negotiations are ongoing with Washington and Ukraine. These are not the actions of a Ukrainian leader who wants peace.

The EU and Zelenskiy, as well as elements within the U.S. government, are working to sabotage any effort by the Trump administration to secure a peace deal in Eastern Europe.

[…]

Via https://tsarizm.com/news/eastern-europe/2025/03/28/putin-says-no-peace-possible-with-zelenskiy-suggests-un-govern-ukraine-in-near-term/

The Promise of the Egyptian Plan for Gaza

Mahmood Issa

In a press conference with Jordanian King Abdullah in February, U.S. President Donald Trump touted his proposal that the United States should seize control of Gaza, empty it of its roughly two million residents, and redevelop the territory as a tourist area, a “Riviera of the Middle East.” Such a plan is a nonstarter among Arab countries. They perceive it as tantamount to accepting the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Put on the spot, Abdullah demurred and suggested that he awaited an alternative plan for Gaza, one that would be advanced by Egypt.

[…]

The war in Gaza, however, offers Egypt a chance to regain the status it once had in the Arab world. On March 4, Egypt unveiled what it described as “a comprehensive vision for rebuilding Gaza while ensuring Palestinians remain on their land.” This reconstruction plan for Gaza was presented in a 112-page prospectus, complete with maps, AI-generated renderings, a phased five-year timeline, and an estimated budget of about $53 billion. It envisions redeveloped infrastructure, housing units for 1.6 million people, a commercial seaport, a technology hub, industrial zones, beach hotels, and an airport. And it insists, contrary to Trump’s claims, that such real estate development in Gaza is feasible without displacing its residents. Indeed, this was the plan’s principal purpose; its political prescriptions are deliberately vague, outlining a technocratic Palestinian interim administration of the territory, assisted by international peacekeepers. In separate meetings in early March, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Countries backed the Egyptian plan. And the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom commended the plan as “realistic.”

Israel, whose right-wing government seems intent on forcing out the residents of Gaza, rejected the plan immediately. Washington offered mixed messages, with Trump initially dismissing it as unworkable before other administration officials welcomed the initiative. Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, called the plan “a good-faith first step from the Egyptians,” suggesting that the Arab proposal was not, in fact, dead on arrival.

[…]

Just by advancing this peace plan for Gaza, Egypt has salvaged the Palestinian aspiration for statehood from Trump’s desire to conjure a showy real estate development deal.

[…]

[Ed What this article doesn’t make clear is that this proposal would remove Hamas from power in Gaza, placing it under the political control of the Palestinian authority. Nor that Hamas is agreeing to the proposal, as they indicated in their meeting with hostage negotiator Adam Boehler. See https://www.jns.org/egypt-proposes-interim-governance-for-gaza-replacing-hamas/ and https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-welcomes-egypts-gaza-reconstruction-plan-2025-03-04/%5D

Via https://www.foreignaffairs.com/egypt/promise-egyptian-plan-gaza

Amazon Removing Alexa Privacy Feature Today: Here’s What That Means

(Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

By Will Mccurdy

Amazon Echo users are set to lose the option to store and process their Alexa requests locally, meaning all of their voice recordings will be sent to Amazon’s cloud.

After March 28, Amazon will discontinue the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” setting on Echo devices that support on-device voice recording storage. After that, all your voice recordings will be sent to Amazon’s cloud for processing.

In a recent email sent to customers, Amazon attributed the decision to its expansion of “Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud.” That expansion is Alexa+, a supercharged version of the assistant that acts more like a human. It can search and summarize documents or emails you’ve shared or look up information. Alexa+ will be an Amazon Prime perk or $19.99 per month for non-Prime users.

However, these new Alexa+ features won’t be accessible for consumers who opt out of storing voice recordings with Amazon.

[…]

Via https://au.pcmag.com/ai/110301/reminder-your-alexa-voice-recordings-will-soon-be-sent-to-amazon

An Unholy Triad Birth of a Plague: Unanswered Questions

An Unholy Triad Birth of a Plague Episode 6

Pure Media Australia (2025)

Film Review

This, the longest episode, delves more into collaboration by Russian, US and Chinese biowarfare research scientists into the gain of function research that produced the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The Soviet contribution seems to have been inadvertent, as scores of Russian biowarfare researchers sought employment around the world following dissolution of the Soviet Union. The US/Chinese collaboration at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was deliberate.

US research in the weaponizing Chinese bat coronavirues occurred under the auspices of Project Defuse. The infamous spike protein, with its strong affinity for human cell receptors, originated from bat coronoviruses* from Mojang China after miners fell ill (with three dying) while clearing bat guano.

Independent research reveals immune system damage (resulting in large numbers of strokes, heart attacks, turbo cancers, autoimmune diseases and sudden deaths) is cumulative,  increasing with each successive mRNA booster.

Overall I was a little disappointed in the series because it failed to address some obvious questions:

1. Why do only a minority of mRNA vaccine recipients experience deadly and disabling side effects from Covid 19 vaccines? There seems to be substantial evidence that most of the deaths and disability were associated with specific lot numbers. What about these lots made them more dangerous?

2. Why are the side effects of Covid19 mRNA vaccine more dangerous that natural Covid19 infection?

3. What was the motivation of supposed enemies (China and the US) in collaborating in the production of biowarfare weapons to kill each other>

4. What about the 11,000 secret exemptions the New Zealand Labour government gave New Zealand health workers while they sacked the majority of doctors who sought exemption from the Pfizer mRNA Covid19 vaccine mandate? This would suggest some inside advanced knowledge of the jab’s deadly side effects.

 

US Loses Dominance at Sea and Has World’s Slowest Warship Construction Pace

By Ahmed Adel

The US is now the world’s laggard in warship construction, lagging behind most countries in the pace of building military vessels, the Wall Street Journal reported. The US Navy is not struggling alone, though, with close ally Britain not even able to sufficiently replace munitions sent to Ukraine.

“When a Wisconsin shipyard won the contract to build a new class of Navy frigate in 2020, the project was meant to address an embarrassing reality: The US is now the global laggard in building warships,” the article noted.

According to the publication, US military shipbuilding faces several challenges, including outdated equipment in shipyards and labor shortages. In addition, the 25% tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from all countries previously imposed by the US could likely increase the cost of domestically produced materials used by shipbuilders.

An interlocutor familiar with the work schedule told the newspaper that the construction of the new warship USS Constellation, which was supposed to be completed by 2026, is currently only 10% complete.

The Wall Street Journal stressed that the construction delays were caused by the intervention of the US Navy, which wanted to improve the design.

“A blizzard of design changes by the military have put production of the USS Constellation years behind schedule and millions over budget,” the article elaborated.

Furthermore, the publication added that the US is already behind most countries in building warships. Thus, the newspaper concluded that of the 20 different frigates constructed recently or nearly completed by other countries, all but one were or will be built faster than the USS Constellation.

It is recalled that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed on January 31 that the US Navy is struggling to keep its surface combat ships in good condition due to a lack of resources in recent years. The main problems include a shortage of spare parts and qualified personnel and the postponement of maintenance.

According to the report, the US Navy received only about $1 billion of the $24.9 billion requested for maintenance between 2020 and 2023. The difficulty continued throughout 2024.

“The Navy still faces persistent challenges sustaining combat surface ships, including limited spare parts, a lack of sufficient and qualified maintenance personnel, and a continual need to defer maintenance,” the report said.

The Navy issued 46 recommendations for improving vessels, but none of them were implemented. One example is the availability of sufficient materials for a ship to be ready for use when needed.

Amid the US Navy’s difficulties, The National Interest magazine published an article that revealed Russian Project 885M Yasen-M submarines can suddenly fire at US submarines at close range.

“The Yasen-M is meant for close combat with rival submarines. Utilizing its ultra-quiet rigging, these sea monsters can tailgate American or NATO subs, perhaps completely undetected, and then spring an attack on them with their 533 mm torpedoes,” the article said.

The National Interest also believes the same can be said about attacks on surface ships.

“The US Navy (and the navies of its NATO allies) are totally outmatched by the firepower of the Russian Northern Fleet’s Yasen-M-class submarines,” the publication noted.

However, not only did the US Navy face significant issues but also major ally Britain, with the Royal Navy not even sufficiently armed.

Prospect Magazine reported last month that the Royal Navy’s munitions were “running perilously low” as those sent to Ukraine were not yet “adequately replaced,” adding that the fleet of surface ships is “threadbare” and the nuclear submarines “are aging, with Dreadnought-class replacements not expected until the 2030s.”

While the Royal Navy is “threadbare,” China, in comparison, has built ships with a combined displacement greater than the entire British Royal Navy in four years as Beijing becomes a global maritime power.

Between 2019 and 2023, four of China’s main shipyards produced at least 39 warships with a combined displacement of around 550,000 tons. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, this is more than the British Navy’s battle force fleet, which has 19 surface ships and 10 submarines with a total displacement of approximately 440,000 tons.

It is also worth noting that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy already has more military vessels than the US Navy and is on track to have a fleet of 425 units by 2030, significantly more than the 300 expected by the US. In 2022, the Chinese Navy operated a fleet of 351 combat force ships, compared with the US Navy’s 294. However, for now, the US holds an advantage in destroyers and guided missile cruisers.

Nonetheless, the struggles of the US and British navies show that the Anglo Alliance no longer rules the seas. While the US and Britain lag, the Russian and Chinese navies are burgeoning, and it does not appear that the situation will improve in the short term for the Anglo Alliance.

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-loses-dominance-sea-slowest-warship-construction-pace/5882743

Ongoing (Vaccine Related?) Pilot Incapacitation

Incident: Transat A321 enroute on Jan 4th 2025, captain incapacitated.

By Simon Hradecky

Source: The Aviation Herald

An Air Transat Airbus A321-200, registration C-GEZO performing flight TS-880 from London,ON (Canada) to Cancun (Mexico) with 166 people on board, was climbing out of London when the captain indicated he was not feeling well. Later while enroute the captain became incapacitated. The first officer consulted with Medlink and it was decided to continue to destination, where the aircraft landed without further incident.

The Canadian TSB reported: “Later during the flight, the PIC became incapacitated and was unable to continue flying duties. Following a discussion with Medlink, it was decided to continue to destination. The first officer flew the aircraft to destination and aircraft landed without incident.”

The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground in Cancun for about 17.5 hours before returning to service.

Commercial Airline Pilot Incapacitations In-flight in 2025:

Mar. 11, 2025 – Flight Vueling VY-6015 (SVQ – LGW) Seville, Spain to London Gatwick UK – first officer incapacitated

Mar. 10, 2025 – Quantas Flight QF505 (BNE-SYD) Brisbane to Sydney – Quantas pilot collapsed with chest pains

Feb. 27, 2025 – Wizz Air Flight W9-5327 (LTN-IST) London Luton to Istanbul Turkey – one pilot incapacitated

Jan. 29, 2025 – Flysafair Flight FA-711 (GRJ-JNB) George to Johannesburg, South Africa – captain incapacitated

Jan. 5, 2025 – Transat Flight TS-880 (YXU-CUN) London, ON, Canada to Cancun, Mexico, pilot became incapacitated

Commercial Airline Pilot Incapacitations In-flight in 2024: 

Nov. 3, 2024 – British Airways Flight BA2158 (UVF-LGW) Saint Lucia to London, 47 year old pilot died suddenly during layover, after collapsing in Saint Lucia resort.

Oct. 9, 2024 – Turkish Airlines Flight TK204 (SEA-IST) from Istanbul to Seattle, Captain Ilcehin Pehlivan, age 59, died mid-flight

Sep. 8, 2024 – Southwest Flight SW3584 (LAS-DAL) departed LAS at 0834PDT headed to DAL, diverted to LBB due to incapacitation of the captain. FO landed, stopped and removed the captain from the seat to get to the gate.

Aug. 19, 2024 – Wizz Air Flight W6-1451 (WAW-LCA) from Warsaw (Poland) to Larnaca (Cyprus), pilot became incapacitated, plane forced to return to Warsaw, incident identified as serious

July 22, 2024 – Edelweiss Flight WK-5 (TPA-ZRH) from Tampa, FL, USA to Zurich, Switzerland, pilot suffered a medical condition and was incapacitated

June 12, 2024 – Nesma Airlines Flight NE-130 (CAI-TIF) Cairo, Egypt to Taif (Saudi Arabia) – pilot Captain Hassan Youssef Adas in his late 30s collapsed and died from a presumed heart attack

June 4, 2024 – Aeromexico Flight AM-34 (MTY-MAD) from Monterrey (Mexico ) to Madrid (Spain), first officer became unwell, had a medical problem, flight diverted to Mexico City.

Mar. 24, 2024 – Jetblue Pilot Captain Keith Duncan died suddenly during layover in Curacao

Mar. 14, 2024 – British Airways BA-2272 (JFK-LGW) New York to London-Gatwickone of the pilots became incapacitated, plane forced to divert to St.John’s, NL, Canada.

Feb. 17, 2024 – Lufthansa Flight LH-1140 (FRA-SVQ) Frankfurt to Seville on Feb.17, 2024 – First Officer Incapacitated, plane turned around back to Madrid

Feb. 16, 2024 – DELTA – NYC – 58 year old Capt Geoffrey John Brock died unexpectedly on Feb.16, 2024 during a layover in Honolulu, HI

Jan. 16, 2024 – LATAM Brasil Flight LA-3744 (BSB-JPA) Brasilia to Joao Pessoa on Jan.16, 2024 – Pilot Incapacitated, plane diverted to Salvador for safe landing

Commercial Airline Pilot Incapacitations In-flight in 2023:

Dec. 11, 2023 – Cathay Pacific Flight CX101 (HKG-SYD) from Hong Kong to Sydney – Captain felt unwell, crew turned around and returned to Hong Kong, landed safely 3 hr later

Dec. 5, 2023 – Ryanair Flight RK-8528 (STN-OZZ) from London Stansted, UK, to Ouarzazate, Morocco – pilot felt unwell, crew diverted to Faro, Portugal, landed safely 30 min

Nov. 29, 2023 – American Airlines Flight AA755 CDG-PHL, from Paris, France, to Philadelphia, PA, pilot had a seizure and collapsed in the cockpit.

Nov. 26, 2023 – Ryanair Flight FR-3472 (LTN-RZE) from London Luton, UK to Rzeszow (Poland) on Nov.26, 2023, one of the pilots became incapacitated, plane diverted to Krakow and landed safely

Nov. 20, 2023 – Air Transat Flight TS-186 (YYZ-PUJ) from Toronto, Canada to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic – pilot became incapacitated and was replaced by a pilot passenger

Oct. 30, 2023 – Jet2 Flight LS-1711 (MAN-DLM) Manchester (UK) to Dalaman (Turkey) – First officer became incapacitated, pilot diverted aircraft to Budapest, landed safely

Sep. 24, 2023 – Austrian Airlines Flight OS-188 (STR-VIE) Stuttgart to Vienna The captain became incapacitated, first officer took control of aircraft

Sep. 22, 2023 – Delta Flight DL-291 (CDG-LAX) Paris to Los Angeles – Pilot became incapacitated, was taken to cabin for care, plane diverted to Minneapolis, pilot taken to hospital

Aug. 27, 2023 – Air Canada Flight AC348 (YVR-YOW) Vancouver to Ottawa, one of the pilots felt ill and became incapacitated 50 min before landing in Ottawa.

Aug. 16, 2023 – Qatar Airways Flight QR579 (DEL-DOH) Delhi to Doha, Qatar, 51 year old pilot collapsed as a passenger inflight and died, plane diverted to Dubai.

Aug. 14, 2023 – LATAM Flight LA505 (MIA-SCL) Miami to Santiago, Chile – 2 hours into 8hr flight, 56 year old Captain Ivan Andaur collapsed and died in the lavatory – plane diverted to Panama City!

Aug. 9, 2023 – United Airlines UAL1309 (SRQ-EWR) Sarasota to Newark, pilot had a heart attack and lost consciousness in flight

Aug. 7, 2023 – TigerAIR Flight IT237 (CTS-TPE) Sapporo to Taipei, copilot had a medical emergency after landing plane in Taipei

July 19, 2023 – Eurowings Discover Flight 4Y-1205 (HER-FRA) Heraklion to Frankfurt, pilot incapacitated, first officer took control, landed safely

June 7, 2023 – Air Canada Flight ACA692 (YYZ-YYT) Toronto to St.John’s, First Officer became incapacitated, deadheading Captain assumed duties

May 11, 2023 – HiSKy Flight H4474 (DUB-KIV) Dublin to Chisinau (Moldova), 20 min after liftoff pilot became “unable to act”, plane diverted to Manchester

May 4, 2023 – British Charter TUI Airways Flight BY-1424 (NCL-LPA) Newcastle to Las Palmas Spain pilot became ill, plane diverted back to NCL.

Apr. 21, 2023 – Easyjet Flight U2-6469 (LGW-AGA) London Gatwick to Agadir, Morocco, first offer became incapacitated, diverted to Faro, Portugal.

Apr. 4, 2023 – United Airlines Flight 2102 (BOI-SFO) – captain was incapacitated, first officer was only one in control of the aircraft.

Mar. 25, 2023 – TAROM Flight RO-7673 TSR-HRG diverted to Bucharest as 30 yo pilot had chest pain, then collapsed

Mar. 22, 2023 – Southwest Flight WN6013 LAS-CMH diverted as pilot collapsed shortly after take-off, replaced by non-Southwest pilot

Mar. 18, 2023 – Air Transat Flight TS739 FDF-YUL first officer was incapacitated about 200NM south of Montreal

Mar. 13, 2023 – Emirates Flight EK205 MXP-JFK diverted due to pilot illness hour and a half after take-off

Mar. 11, 2023 – United Airlines Flight UA2007 GUA-ORD diverted due to “incapacitated pilot” who had chest pains

Mar. 3, 2023 – Virgin Australia Flight VA-717 ADL-PER Adelaide to Perth flight was forced to make an emergency landing after First Officer suffered heart attack 30 min after departure.

Commercial Airline Pilot Deaths on Duty (Not in Flight) in 2023:

Sep. 23, 2023 – Alaska Airlines Pilot Death – 37 year old Captain Eric McRae died suddenly in his hotel room during layover, was to fly that morning

Aug. 17, 2023 – IndiGo Flight (NAG-PNQ) Nagpur to Pune, India, 40 year old Pilot Manoj Subramanium died after collapsing at the boarding gate, about to board.

May 3, 2023 – Air Transat and Air Canada Pilot Death – 48 year old Eddy Vorperian, died suddenly during layover in Croatia

Mar. 11, 2023 – British Airways (CAI-LHR) pilot died of heart attack in crew hotel in Cairo before a Cairo to London flight (name & age not released)

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/pilot-incapacitation-transat-flight/5882823

RFK Jr. Pushing Big Pharma Ad Ban — And Corporate Media Panicking

Kyle Becker

“Enough is enough. RFK Jr.’s proposal to kick drug ads off TV isn’t radical—it’s responsible. And it’s long overdue.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary, is pushing a plan to ban pharmaceutical ads from television. He’s right to push for it—and not just because the U.S. is one of only two countries on earth that allows such advertising (the other being New Zealand).

America’s health system isn’t just flawed; it’s harming public health, distorting journalism, and fueling Big Pharma’s malignant influence over our daily lives.

Let’s start with the obvious: TV drug ads aren’t designed to inform—they’re designed to manipulate. The formula is always the same. Cue soft lighting and sappy piano music. A sad, listless person pops a pill and suddenly life is vibrant again. They’re running through fields, laughing with family, walking dogs across idyllic bridges.

Then, in a breathless voiceover, the side effects come tumbling out like a legal disclaimer roulette wheel—stroke, heart failure, suicidal thoughts. The goal? Make viewers want a drug before they even talk to their doctor. It’s emotional coercion dressed up as health education.

This completely inverts how medicine is supposed to work. Health care decisions should be made inside the exam room, not in a 60-second marketing spot. Patients should go to their doctors with symptoms, and those doctors—armed with clinical training and knowledge of the patient’s full health profile—should decide whether a drug is even necessary.

Many issues could be better addressed through lifestyle changes, diet, supplements, or preventative care. But instead, America has normalized a pill-for-everything culture, supercharged by the fact that doctors are often nudged by patients demanding whatever drug they saw advertised last night during a commercial break.

This isn’t just bad medicine—it’s dangerous. And it’s no accident.

Big Pharma isn’t spending billions on advertising because it cares about your health. It’s doing it because the return on investment is enormous. Studies estimate the ROI on direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug ads ranges from 100% to 500%, depending on the drug. In 2025 alone, pharmaceutical companies are projected to spend over $5 billion on national linear TV ads, according to iSpot.tv. That number balloons even higher when you include digital and streaming. Just a handful of blockbuster drugs—like Skyrizi, Jardiance, and Ozempic—are burning through tens of millions in TV ads every month.

This revenue isn’t just padding Big Pharma’s pockets—it’s quietly buying influence in the media. Nearly 31% of ad minutes on major nightly news broadcasts in 2024 came from pharmaceutical brands. That means a huge portion of media budgets depend on the very companies they should be holding accountable. And surprise, surprise: when Big Pharma misleads the public, many news outlets are either silent or hesitant to report critically. The financial conflict of interest is baked in.

We saw the worst-case version of this during the COVID-19 pandemic. The novel mRNA shots—rushed to market under emergency use—were sold to the public as miracle solutions. Government officials and media outlets claimed these vaccines would “stop infection,” “prevent death entirely,” and “end the pandemic.” Younger, healthy individuals were told they needed them for everyone’s safety, despite already low statistical risk. None of these claims held up. As the data evolved, we learned the vaccines offered some reduction in severe disease, but not sterilizing immunity. Yet the media rarely corrected course.

Why would they? Pharma ads were paying the bills. Meanwhile, federal workers were mandated—and many private sector employees coerced—into getting injections under false pretenses. Billions of dollars flowed to Big Pharma. The American public was misled.

This pattern of deception is not new. Pfizer alone has paid billions in legal penalties over the years for unethical marketing, off-label promotion, and other violations. The most infamous: a $2.3 billion settlement in 2009—the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history at the time. Yet companies like Pfizer, AbbVie, and Johnson & Johnson still enjoy a polished image on TV, thanks in part to relentless ad spending and regulatory leniency.

RFK Jr.’s plan, while legally uphill, is not without precedent. In 1970, President Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned tobacco ads from TV and radio. Cigarettes were legal, yet too dangerous to promote on air. The same principle should apply here. Just because a drug is FDA-approved doesn’t mean it should be marketed like soda. Approval doesn’t equal infallibility—just ask anyone who took Vioxx or OxyContin.

Critics, including the Wall Street Journal, have framed RFK’s proposal as a personal vendetta. That’s both lazy and misleading. In reality, there’s wide bipartisan and public support for reining in pharma ads. The American Medical Association called for a ban back in 2015. A STAT/Harvard poll found that 57% of Americans support banning TV drug ads. Even hosts on CNBC—hardly anti-business—agreed the ads are unnecessary. “Don’t you think doctors should prescribe it if you need it?” asked Joe Kernen. Exactly.

The pharmaceutical industry’s defenders like to invoke the First Amendment, claiming that banning ads would be unconstitutional. But commercial speech does not enjoy absolute protection. Under the Central Hudson test, the government can regulate ads if it has a substantial interest, the regulation directly advances that interest, and the restriction is narrowly tailored. Protecting public health from misleading pharmaceutical marketing clears all three hurdles. Even if a full ban doesn’t survive, tighter restrictions—like banning ads for certain drug classes, or requiring full price transparency—could pass muster.

More importantly, even the threat of a ban could pressure drugmakers to change course voluntarily. They did it before in 2008, when criticism led to updated self-regulatory guidelines. If Kennedy’s push forces them to rethink their practices, that alone is a win.

Pharma companies will no doubt fight this tooth and nail. But that’s not a reason to back down—it’s a reason to press harder. We’ve allowed an industry with an immense profit motive to shape our health decisions for too long. The result? A country drowning in prescriptions, mired in chronic disease, and confused about who to trust.

[…]

Via https://www.thekylebecker.com/p/rfk-jr-is-pushing-big-pharma-ad-ban

Yemeni Air Force strikes Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, engages US warships in Red Sea with rockets, UAVs

Al Mayadeen English

The Yemeni Armed Forces have announced a significant escalation in their military operations, thwarting enemy warships’ advances in the Red Sea.

The Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) have launched a series of military strikes targeting Israeli and US assets, including Ben Gurion Airport and enemy warships in the Red Sea, according to a statement by the Yemeni Armed Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree.

Saree announced that Yemeni forces successfully struck Ben Gurion Airport in occupied Yafa with a Zulfiqar ballistic missile, while a Palestine 2 hypersonic ballistic missile hit a military target in the southern part of the area. Both operations achieved their objectives, as per the YAF spokesperson. See https://x.com/i/status/19052406499866...

In a significant escalation, Yemeni forces also carried out a joint military operation in the Red Sea, targeting US and allied naval forces, including the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier. The attack involved ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones.

YAF escalate military operations

Saree added that the Yemeni Armed Forces significantly escalated their military operations, thwarting enemy warships’ advances in the southern Red Sea and launching fresh missile strikes on “Israel”.

In a statement on Thursday, the Yemeni military confirmed that its defensive operations had successfully repelled naval incursions, vowing to continue expanding its military response in the coming days.

“The enemy will witness more of the might of Yemen’s unyielding people—strength, determination, resilience, and unwavering faith,” the statement read.

The YAF also reaffirmed their commitment to blocking Israeli navigation in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, emphasizing their ongoing support for Gaza until the blockade is lifted.

Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that two missiles were launched from Yemen toward “Israel”, triggering air raid sirens and explosions across central regions. The Israeli military confirmed that missile debris fell on a major highway connecting Tel Aviv to occupied al-Quds, causing widespread panic.

Following the attack, operations at Ben Gurion Airport were temporarily suspended as millions of settlers sought shelter, according to Israeli reports. The escalation follows Yemen’s drone strike on Israeli military targets in occupied Yafa on Wednesday, not to mention military operation targeting the United States Navy Carrier Strike Group 8, which lasted for hours, and a missile attack on Ben Gurion Airport earlier in the week.

It is worth noting that Yemen has vowed, despite the brutal US- UK aggression, to continue its military operations against Israeli targets and maintain its blockade on Israeli maritime activity until the ongoing war on Gaza ends.

US launches new aggression on Yemen with 15 airstrikes

Meanwhile, the US carried out a new aggression with 15 airstrikes on the southern and northeastern outskirts of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Wednesday evening, Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported.

The airstrikes targeted the Jirban area in the Sanhan district, south of Sanaa, as well as the al-Khadam area and Jabal al-Jamima in the Bani Houshesh district to the east, in addition to the al-Dailami Air Base to the north, according to our correspondent.

He added that eight airstrikes targeted the Jirban area in Sanhan district, while five strikes hit the al-Khadam and Jamima Rajam areas in the Bani Hushaysh district.

Additionally, Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported that US warplanes bombed the vicinity of Sanaa International Airport.

Yemen’s Al-Masirah TV had earlier reported 17 raids by the United States “on the Saada governorate,” on top of two more on Amran.

The official news agency, SABA, said that “the American aggression targeted the Oncology Hospital building in Saada.”

Sanaa’s Health Ministry confirmed that two civilians were wounded in the latest hospital attack, which it described as “a full-fledged war crime.”

[…]

Via https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/yaf-strike-ben-gurion–engage-us-warships-in-r–sea-with-roc

Trump’s Attacks on Yemen Will Cost US Taxpayers Billions​

By Robert Inlakesh

While U.S. President Donald Trump announces that Yemen’s Ansar Allah will be “completely annihilated,” he is racking up costs for the American taxpayer, using a strategy that failed under the Biden administration for more than a year. Instead of pressuring Israel to allow aid to reach Gaza, the White House has declared war.

In October 2023, the Ansar Allah-led Yemeni government in Sana’a decided to intervene directly in the conflict between Gaza and Israel, firing more than 100 missiles and drones at the port of Eilat, many of which were shot down by U.S. naval vessels. By November, Yemen declared it would impose a blockade on all Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea.

Ansar Allah made it clear it would continue to take action against Israel until a ceasefire was implemented in Gaza, justifying its intervention on humanitarian grounds, claiming an obligation under the Genocide Convention to act. The U.S., under the Biden administration, then decided to attack Yemen directly despite no immediate threat to American interests or vessels.

Then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational naval mission that failed to achieve any of its objectives and was conducted primarily in the interest of Israel. The costs of the mission ran into the hundreds of billions, while U.S. taxpayers suffered at least billions in losses with no positive outcomes to show for it.

Through 2024 alone, Ansar Allah’s blockade in the Red Sea cost more than $200 billion. Although the U.S. and its British allies repeatedly launched airstrikes on positions across Yemen, they only succeeded in extending the blockade in the Red Sea to their own vessels instead of just Israel’s.

Trump began launching airstrikes across Yemen on March 15, which were deadlier to the country’s civilian population than comparable assaults during the Biden administration. Yet, there are no objective indicators that a favorable result has been achieved.

Similar hyperbole that seeks to exaggerate the results of airstrikes was used by Pentagon officials in January 2024, after the former U.S. president ordered a large-scale bombing campaign. “We feel very confident about where our ammunition struck,” remarked Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the Joint Staff’s director for operations at the time. Offering no proof of success, Trump is following in the footsteps of the Biden administration.

In the first wave of Trump’s attacks against Yemen, the U.S. used RGM-109 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, estimated to cost between $1.4 million and $2 million per unit. In 2018, when Trump launched an attack on Syria with 66 Tomahawk cruise missiles, the estimated cost for munitions alone exceeded $92.4 million.

The munitions used by the U.S. Navy to shoot down Yemen’s missiles and drones cost between $1 million and $4.3 million each, provoking Department of Defense officials to voice their discontent. “That quickly becomes a problem because the most benefit, even if we do shoot down their incoming missiles and drones, is in their favor,” said Mick Mulroy, a former Defense Department official, in December 2023.

A former U.S. naval officer told MintPress News that the cost of Operation Prosperity Guardian was roughly $600 million per month. “This appears to be a much more intense and costly operation, so without all the specifics, it’s hard to predict how much this will cost,” the officer said. Operating an aircraft carrier alone is estimated to cost between $6 million and $8 million per day.

In early 2024, Politico reported worrying signs of an overburdened U.S. Navy struggling to deploy replacement ships to the West Asia region. In addition, Yemen’s air defense units continue to shoot down American drones. So far, Ansar Allah has downed 16 MQ-9 UAVs, each valued at $33 million, costing the U.S. a total of $528 million.

Despite the Biden administration deciding to attack Yemen on Israel’s behalf, now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio penned an op-ed last year complaining that the strategy was not aggressive enough. Under the Democratic administration, Ansar Allah was designated a “specially designated global terrorist” organization, a label that Trump replaced with the harsher “Foreign Terrorist Organization” designation upon taking office.

On Jan. 19, upon the implementation of a ceasefire in Gaza, Yemen ceased all offensive operations and ended its blockade in the Red Sea. However, just over two weeks ago, Israel violated the terms of the ceasefire and blocked all aid from entering the Gaza Strip, prompting Ansar Allah to issue a four-day deadline for allowing aid before restarting its blockade on Israeli shipping.

The immense cost to U.S. taxpayers of Trump’s assault on Yemen, which promises no results and primarily serves Israel’s interests, could easily reach the tens of billions at the current pace, especially considering the intensity of operations is much greater than under his predecessor. All of this could have been avoided had Washington pressured Tel Aviv to allow humanitarian goods to enter Gaza.

[…]

Via https://www.mintpressnews.com/trumps-attacks-on-yemen-will-cost-us-taxpayers-billions/289272/

LinkedIn and Soul-Sucking Corporate Pollyannaism

By Toby Roger

The Insidious Nature of Corporate Pollyannaism 

I’m completely fascinated by the unwritten discursive norms on LinkedIn. I call it Corporate Pollyannaism. It’s a language unto itself. Most everyone intuitively knows the rules (they are the rules of bourgeois society after all) but no one ever says them out loud lest they upset the Leviathan. But I shall proceed anyway because I find the social dynamics so interesting and yet under-theorized.

Here’s my first take at the “LinkedIn Rules of Discourse:”

Everyone is always winning. Just so much winning. To the extent that anyone acknowledges anything other than winning, it’s always in service of a larger heroic journey. The artful can sometimes touch upon politics lightly. But capital is never criticized and class struggle is never mentioned. Orange Man Bad and anti-vaxxers can be disparaged, that’s the only “othering” that’s acceptable (all in-groups need an out-group otherwise membership has no value). Beyond that, everyone appears to get along and the “best of all possible worlds” is presented as well within reach. In spite of being one of the world’s largest employment platforms, there is vanishingly little discussion of work per se on the site. No one ‘spills the tea’ on bad bosses or workplaces to avoid. It’s just always go go go from an idealized present into an imagined utopian future.

Look, on some level I get it. LinkedIn is a market — a dating market between employers and employees — so of course everyone wants to present themselves in the best possible light. Microsoft owns the site, and so it can do whatever it wants. Indeed as poorly tested biologics were forced on the population over the last four years, developed and promoted in part by Microsoft’s former CEO and Chairman, Microsoft/LinkedIn censored anyone who told the truth.

The discursive norms on LinkedIn are a convention, a social practice, a type of theater for the purposes of financial gain. The dialect is an artifice, a language of introductory commerce but not descriptive of reality (even though it pretends to describe reality). Corporate Pollyannaism is not a method for finding or communicating the truth; indeed it is unconcerned and often contemptuous of the truth. Actual commerce, for example an audited financial statement, involves a completely different dialect (indeed using the peppy, cheery, performative LinkedIn dialect in an SEC statement would get one fired or possibly jailed).

But are the people well-versed in LinkedIn-speak fully aware of its insidious nature? I can picture people new to the site adopting the discourse to try to put their best foot forward. At first they are still bilingual — they present one way on LinkedIn even though they speak a different vernacular in their day-to-day life. They remain cognizant of the fact that most workplaces are authoritarian, abusive, filled with petty infighting, and damaging to the soul even if they are not allowed to speak about that on LinkedIn. But maybe they get a promotion and are now seeking job candidates — they are on the management side of the transactional relationship representing the interests of capital or the state.

I wonder if over time they come to permanently see the world through the lens of this bougie discourse? Is LinkedIn a slippery slope that trains people into a mindset they probably would not have willingly chosen on their own? If so, is LinkedIn a machine that gradually strips us of our humanity?

My profound worry is two-fold (and I guess it’s why I felt compelled to write this):

Repeating something over and over, as part of the LinkedIn discursive system, really does change one’s thoughts over time. So it’s not entirely innocent.What happens if corporations and the state merge (what we’ve historically called fascism but the faint of heart call corporatism) and put their profit interests ahead of the well-being of individuals, families, and society? At that point, we are participating in our own demise if we play by the rules (unwritten or otherwise) of the system.

Indeed that’s what happened over the last five years. Corporations and the state merged. They ran a sophisticated global operation to increase their power, wealth, and control. And the vast majority of the over one billion Bougie Winners on LinkedIn didn’t say a word because they were so thoroughly indoctrinated into a system of Corporate Pollyannaism that, to this day, they don’t even realize what happened or acknowledge how they may have participated in the assault on humanity by the fascist Pharma state.

[…]

Via https://brownstone.org/articles/linkedin-and-soul-sucking-corporate-pollyannaism/