1475: Vaccident

Turns out the Jynneous vaccine has been in the FDA approval phase since 2019 (https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/jynneos).

It was supposed to be a better vaccine for smallpox (less side effects than ACAM2000, top paragraph page 3) and the monkey pox was added at the request of somebody in the US government (last paragraph of page 4 explains this):

“The applicant’s original proposed indication did not include monkeypox. During the review of this submission, we received inquiries from external stakeholders in the US government asking whether the available data for MVA-BN would support an indication for prevention of monkeypox. We determined that immunogenicity data for MVA-BN obtained in humans together with the non-human primate (NHP) data already submitted to BLA 125678/0 support the indication for prevention of monkeypox, since the clinical and non-clinical studies provided multiple lines of evidence that the immune response to MVA-BN provided protection against different orthopoxviruses, and specifically monkeypox in the NHP challenge model. Therefore, we recommended including the monkeypox indication in the product labeling.”

The US government kindly volunteered US servicemen for some of the trials (top of page 5) and the monkeypox effectiveness was never tested in human subjects (see last paragraph from page 4 above).

In 1907 an outbreak of a sickness in New York City gave the director of the Rockefeller Institute, Simon Flexner, MD, a golden opportunity to lay claim to discovery of an invisible “virus” caused by what was arbitrarily called poliomyelitis. The word poliomyelitis simply means inflammation of the spinal cord’s grey matter. There were some 2,500 New Yorkers, mostly children, designated with some form of poliomyelitis, including paralysis and even death, that year.

Flexner’s Fraud

The most striking aspect of the entire polio saga in the USA during the first half of the 20th Century was the fact that every key phase of the business was controlled by people tied to what became the Rockefeller medical cabal. This fraud started with claims by the Director of the Rockefeller Institute, Simon Flexner, that he and his colleague, Paul A. Lewis, had “isolated” a pathogen, invisible to the eye, smaller even than bacteria, which they claimed caused the paralyzing sickness in a series of outbreaks in the US. How did they come to this idea?

In a paper published in 1909 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Flexner claimed he and Lewis had isolated the poliomyelitis virus responsible. He reported they had successfully “passaged” poliomyelitis through several monkeys, from monkey to monkey. They began by injecting diseased human spinal cord tissue of a young boy who had died, presumably from the virus, into the brains of monkeys. After a monkey fell ill, a suspension of its diseased spinal cord tissue was injected into the brains of other monkeys who also fell ill.

They proclaimed that the Rockefeller Institute doctors had thus proven poliomyelitis virus causality for the mysterious disease. They hadn’t done anything of the sort. Flexner and Lewis even admitted that: “We failed utterly to discover bacteria, either in film preparations or in cultures, that could account for the disease; and, since among our long series of propagations of the virus in monkeys not one animal showed, in the lesions, the cocci described by some previous investigators, and we had failed to obtain any such bacteria from the human material studied by us, we felt that they could be excluded from consideration.” What they then did was to make a bizarre supposition, a leap of faith, not a scientific claim. They took their hypothesis of viral exogenous agency and made it fact, with no proof whatever. They asserted: “Therefore, …the infecting agent of epidemic poliomyelitis belongs to the class of the minute and filterable viruses that have not thus far been demonstrated with certainty under the microscope.“ Therefore?

Simon Flexner simply asserted it “must” be a polio virus killing the monkeys, because they could find no other explanation. In fact he did not look for another source of the illnesses. This was not scientific isolation. It was wild speculation: “…not thus far been demonstrated with certainty under the microscope.” They admitted this in a December 18, 1909 follow up in JAMA, titled, THE NATURE OF THE VIRUS OF EPIDEMIC POLIOMYELITIS.

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The Bank of Japan needs to keep studying digital but, in an unusually cash-based economy, needn’t set it up yet

"That has transformed cash into a substitute for bank deposits, contributing to Japan’s rising cash hoarding trend. Cash hoarding refers to cash lying idle without being utilized for economic and investment activities."

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:19

Something went wrong, but don't fret '-- let's give it another shot.

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:18

This undated photo provided by Unilever shows the Choco Taco. Klondike has announced it's discontinuing the ice cream treat. A Klondike brand representative'...This undated photo provided by Unilever shows the Choco Taco. Klondike has announced it's discontinuing the ice cream treat. A Klondike brand representative said in an emailed statement, Monday, July 25, 2022, that the Choco Taco has been discontinued in both its 1 count and 4 count sizes. (Claire Grummon/Unilever via AP)(NEXSTAR) '' Last week, ice cream fans were shocked to learn a beloved novelty treat, the Choco Taco, was being discontinued by Klondike. Now, following an overwhelming response online '' and a senator joking that the Defense Production Act should be used to save the treat '' it appears that the Choco Taco may not be gone long.

Klondike has been responding to tweets from disappointed customers since the announcement that Choco Taco was no more. In one thread that started on Tuesday, a user said they had been searching everywhere to find one last Choco Taco.

Klondike responded, ''We know this is disappointing '' we've heard our fans, and we're hoping to bring this favorite treat back to ice cream trucks in the coming years!''

The same response was given to a number of other Twitter users but no additional information has been shared. Klondike did not immediately respond to Nexstar's request for comment.

Late last week, Klondike tweeted that the Choco Taco being discontinued is ''not a PR stunt.''

''I knew you loved me, but not THIS much. While I reflect on this outpouring of support, we are discussing next steps, including what to do with the last 912 (we counted) tacos at HQ,'' a Thursday tweet, from the view of the Choco Taco, read.

The Choco Taco, which features fudge-swirled ice cream in a chocolate wafer reminiscent of a hard taco shell, has been around since the 1980s. It gained popularity when it partnered with Taco Bell, but was off the menu for seven years until a return to select locations in February.

That return was short-lived though. A spokesperson for Klondike told Nexstar that, ''Over the past 2 years, we have experienced an unprecedented spike in demand across our portfolio and have had to make very tough decisions to ensure availability of our full portfolio nationwide. A necessary but unfortunate part of this process is that we sometimes must discontinue products, even a beloved item like Choco Taco.''

You may still be able to find Choco Tacos at retailers as they sell through their remaining inventory.

Those that still have Choco Tacos have been trying to capitalize on their cold commodity. On auction sites like eBay, some sellers were listing the tacos for as much as $1,000. One listing hoped to excite the imagination with the description: ''Sealed Klondike Choco Taco Shipped with Dry Ice '' frozen GOLD.''

While there didn't appear to be much interest at those valuations, a box of 22 garnered multiple bids and was already at $232.50 with seven days remaining in the auction.

After news broke of the taco's end, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) joked that he would introduce legislation to use the Defense Production Act to ''mandate the continued manufacture of Choco Tacos.'' There are, of course, no actual plans to use Congress's power to keep the treat on the market.

Jeremy Tanner contributed to this report.

Top StoriesMore StoriesFox 8 Cleveland WJW VideoMore from Fox 8 Cleveland WJW

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Professor Shmuel Shapira, M.D., MPH, the former Director General of the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), is one of the top medical scientists in the world, and since his ''vaccine'' injury, he's become one of the world's top critics of the COVID-19 shots.

''I received 3 vaccinations, I was physically injured in a very significant way as many others were injured,'' Shapira tweeted on May 13, 2022. ''And in addition, my trust in the nature of the decisions and in the processes of making them has been severely eroded.''

Shapira's impressive resume was recently featured in a an article in CTC Sentinel, the publication of the West Point Combatting Terrorism Center.

Professor Shmuel Shapira, M.D., MPH, served as the Director General of the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), Israel between 2013 and 2021. He is the founder and head of the Department of Military Medicine of the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine and IDF Medical Corps. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at Reichman University in Israel.

Professor Shapira previously served as Deputy Director General of the Hadassah Medical Organization and as the Director of the Hebrew University Hadassah School of Public Health. He is a Full Colonel (Res.) in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and served as the IDF Head of Trauma Branch. He is an authority on terror, trauma, emergency medicine and military medicine, and instructs medical students, physicians, EMS, medical leaders, and rescue teams on terror medicine, management of mass casualty's events, military medicine, advanced trauma life support, and risk management. He has published more than 110 articles and is the editor of Essentials of Terror Medicine, Best Practice for Medical Management of Terror Incidents and Medical Response to Terror Threats. He is the author of The Pandemic Circus (Yediot Books, Rishon LeZion 2021).

Shapiro played a central role in the original development of Israel's BriLife COVID-19 vaccine, which is based on a virus platform. After two years of development, the vaccine is only in phase 3 trials due to red tape, he told the CTC Sentinel. ''We were affected a lot by bureaucracy, and this really delayed us.''

Last week, Twitter censored Shapira for posting ''disinformation'' after he suggested that the Monkey Pox outbreak could be related to the mRNA vaccines.

''Monkey pox cases were rare for years. During the last years a single case was documented in Israel,'' he tweeted. ''It is well established the mRNA vaccines affect the natural immune system. A monkey pox outbreak following massive covid vaccination: Is not a coincidence.''

Twitter forced the expert in biological research and military medicine to take the tweet down.

A recently released trove of internal communications obtained by America First Legal (AFL) revealed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) colluded with big tech monopolies to censor users'--including dissenting medical doctors and scientists'--who criticized the experimental COVID-19 ''vaccines.'' Prominent vaccine skeptics like Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Mary Bowden, virologist Adam Gaertner, feminist author Naomi Wolf, and journalists Alex Berenson, Emerald Robinson, and Daniel Horowitz have been banned from Twitter for contradicting the Biden Regime/Big Pharma narrative on the mRNA and adenovirus DNA genetic products.

Professor Shapira could be next.

Substacker ''Kanekoa The Great'' highlighted a number of his tweets, which he translated from Hebrew to English, and noted that the professor has become increasingly critical of the mRNA jabs since he started his Twitter account in January of this year.

In one of his first tweets, Shapira denounced the Israeli Genesis Award after it was given to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.

On January 18, 2022, Shapira said (translated from Hebrew by Google): ''The Israeli Genesis Award was given to the CEO of Pfizer, so wretched. Instead of giving it to an Israeli scientist, and all this for a mediocre, short-acting vaccine that yielded Pfizer a profit of billions, a wretched and exiled one. Bourla will be appointed the King of Israel now. Let me remind you that vaccinated Israel is the fourth-leading in the number of corona patients in the world. There is a championship!''

On February 6, 2022, Shapira asked: ''What grade would you give to a vaccine that people are vaccinated with three times and get sick twice (as of today)? Not to mention significant side effects[.]''

On April 9, 2022, Shapira said: ''The CEO of the company, millions of whose vaccines were used in Israel for vaccination, stated in an interview with NBC that Israel serves as the world's laboratory. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first case in history where experimental guinea pigs paid an exorbitant rate for their participation.''

['...]

On June 7, 2022, Shapira said: ''We are talking about vaccine five in two and a half years. When the vaccine is planned for the sequence from January 2020 (the great-grandfather of the great-grandfather of the current variants). A vaccine that does not prevent infection does not prevent morbidity. And it is allegedly attributed to significant side effects to say the least. Why? What is the logic? Which authority approved? And doesn't say that it prevents a serious illness, no one has proven it.''

On June 8, 2022, Shapira said: ''I will continue and ask why give an outdated fifth vaccine that does not prevent disease and apparently causes many significant common side effects.''

On July 5, 2022, Shapira discussed the ''son of a 36-year-old Australian friend'' who developed ''severe ventricular arrhythmias and went into heart failure'' only ''days after the second Pfizer vaccine''.

''The compensation is automatic by the Australian government,'' he said. ''Despite the behavior of their government they admit to the connection and the phrase 'no connection' does not appear in the lexicon.''

On July 15, 2022, Shapira shared a chart of New South Wales COVID rates showing an increased risk of COVID infection with every new dose of the mRNA vaccine on which he commented: ''According to official data from Australia the more you are injected the more likely you are to get sick as the fourth injection jumps the chance dramatically. According to this study it is supposedly an anti-vaccine at least according to what I have been taught.''

On July 18, 2022, Shapira said: ''I am not anti-vaccine, I am anti-stupidity, anti-fake science, and anti-incompetent management.''

On July 28, 2022, Shapira said: ''T warned me to remove the T connecting MP to C. Each day I understand better where we live and in which year.''

In other words, Twitter warned him to remove the tweet connecting monkeypox to the COVID vaccine.

On July 31, 2022, Shapira shared a link to the OpenVaers COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports which showed a total of 1,357,937 reports including 170,151 hospitalizations and 29,790 deaths, above which he simply commented: ''Safe & Efficient.''

Professor Shapira also pointed to an alarming article in Genes, a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal. The article'--mRNA Vaccines: Why Is the Biology of Retroposition Ignored?'--was written by Domazot Lozo, a Croatian geneticist, whose fields of expertise are in evolutionary genetics, evolutionary developmental biology, macroevolution, and tumor evolution. ''All pay attention a quote from Domazot Lozo article in Genes,'' Shapira tweeted.

''Here, I discuss the pervasive claim that mRNA-based vaccines cannot alter genomes,'' Lozo wrote.

Surprisingly, this notion is widely stated in the mRNA vaccine literature but never supported by referencing any primary scientific papers that would specifically address this question. This discrepancy becomes even more puzzling if one considers previous work on the molecular and evolutionary aspects of retroposition in murine and human populations that clearly documents the frequent integration of mRNA molecules into genomes, including clinical contexts. By performing basic comparisons, I show that the sequence features of mRNA vaccines meet all known requirements for retroposition using L1 elements'--the most abundant autonomously active retrotransposons in the human genome. In fact, many factors associated with mRNA vaccines increase the possibility of their L1-mediated retroposition. I conclude that is unfounded to a priori assume that mRNA-based therapeutics do not impact genomes and that the route to genome integration of vaccine mRNAs via endogenous L1 retroelements is easily conceivable. This implies that we urgently need experimental studies that would rigorously test for the potential retroposition of vaccine mRNAs. At present, the insertional mutagenesis safety of mRNA-based vaccines should be considered unresolved.

Dr. Eashwarran Kohilathas explained the significance of Lozo's conclusions in layman's terms on his website.

''Retroposition, in genetics, is a term that describes the integration of a sequence from RNA into a DNA genome,'' Kohilathas wrote. ''mRNA can be reintegrated into the genome via a process called reverse transcription. In fact, retroposition produces a large number of functional genes in the genome and accounts for about 10,000 duplications in the human genome.''

He added: ''If more evidence amounts to the fact that DNA integration is possible via these vaccines, then we're in big trouble. It essentially means that a large subset of the population could produce spike proteins naturally and others may pass this trait on to their children forever.''

The CDC continues to claim that the mRNA vaccines do not alter DNA, without offering any scientific research to back it up.

''Myocarditis, fatal arrhythmias, 20% increase in strokes, facialis, Herpes Zoster, tinnitus (ear ringing), gynecological excessive bleeding, monkey-pox, obscured long term side effects,'' Shapira tweeted on August 2. ''No worries. Be happy.''

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:14

(CNN)A French scientist has apologized after tweeting a photo of a slice of chorizo, claiming it was an image of a distant star taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

‰tienne Klein, a celebrated physicist and director at France's Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, shared the image of the spicy Spanish sausage on Twitter last week, praising the "level of detail" it provided.

"Picture of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, located 4.2 light years away from us. It was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. This level of detail... A new world is unveiled everyday," he told his more than 91,000 followers on Sunday.

The post was retweeted and commented upon by thousands of users, who took the scientist by his word.

Things, however, were not quite as they seemed.

Klein admitted later in a series of follow-up tweets that the image was, in fact, a close-up of a slice of chorizo taken against a black background.

"Well, when it's cocktail hour, cognitive bias seem to find plenty to enjoy... Beware of it. According to contemporary cosmology, no object related to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere else other than on Earth"

After facing a backlash from members of the online community for the prank, he wrote: "In view of certain comments, I feel obliged to specify that this tweet showing an alleged picture of Proxima Centauri was a joke. Let's learn to be wary of the arguments from positions of authority as much as the spontaneous eloquence of certain images."

On Wednesday, Klein apologized for the hoax, saying his intention was "to urge caution regarding images that seem to speak for themselves."

In a bid to make amends, he posted an image of the spectacular Cartwheel galaxy, assuring followers that this time the photo was genuine.

The Webb telescope, the most powerful telescope ever launched into space, officially began scientific operations on July 12. It will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by viewing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.

CNN's Amandine Hess, Xiaofei Xu and Joseph Ataman contributed to this report.

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:14

Amazon.com Inc.'s deal to purchase Roomba maker iRobot Corp., which comes hot on the heels of the tech giant's deal to acquire One Medical health clinics, is sparking more privacy fears.

On Friday before the market open opened, Amazon AMZN, -1.24% announced the agreement to acquire iRobot for $61 per share in an all-cash transaction. The deal is valued at approximately $1.7 billion, including iRobot's net debt.

The deal comes less than three weeks after Amazon announced a $3.9 billion deal to acquire the direct primary-care company One Medical, operating as 1Life Healthcare Inc. ONEM, +0.36% , which itself sparked concerns about data privacy.

Critics were quick to voice privacy fears about the iRobot purchase:

The last thing America and the world needs is ''Amazon vacuuming up even more of our personal information,'' according to Robert Weissman, president of consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen. ''This is not just about Amazon selling another device in its marketplace,'' he said, in a statement. ''It's about the company gaining still more intimate details of our lives to gain unfair market advantage and sell us more stuff.

See Now: Amazon to acquire Roomba maker iRobot in latest splashy deal

''Amazon just bought iRobot, which has immense amounts of data about people's physical homes. It never ends. Congress should have passed @TomCottonAR's bill to bar big tech mergers,'' tweeted Matt Stoller, research director at the American Economic Liberties Project.

''With Ring, Alexa and now Roomba, Amazon tracks EVERYTHING that happens inside your house (even who visits you). This is all about getting data on YOU. Google Nest too. Homes were your last data sanctuary as you put your phone down, but not now,'' tweeted Raoul Pal, CEO of globalmacroinvestor.com.

''No to this. Amazon has initiated another alarming acquisition '-- iRobot, maker of the Roomba,'' tweeted Stacy Mitchell, co-director at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, an advocacy organization that fights corporate control. ''This is part of a strategy to control the infrastructure of the smart home and gather up a ton of data about our houses and how we live in them.''

Amazon's One Medical acquisition sparks data privacy backlash: 'What could go wrong?'

MarketWatch contacted Amazon regarding the data privacy concerns:

''Protecting customer data has always been incredibly important to Amazon, and we think we've been very good stewards of peoples' data across all of our businesses,'' the company said in a statement emailed to MarketWatch. ''Customer trust is something we have worked hard to earn '-- and work hard to keep '-- every day.''

The tech giant's shares are down 1.4% in midday trading Friday, and have declined 15.6% this year. Shares of the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.16% , which are down 0.5% on Friday, have declined 13.3% in 2022.

D.A. Davidson analyst Tom Forte said that the short timespan between the One Medical and iRobot deals could indicate a new strategic emphasis at Amazon.

''While we may be placing too much emphasis on the short distance between the two latest M&A [merger and acquisition] announcements (less than three weeks between One Medical and iRobot), it does suggest to us that CEO Andy Jassy may be more willing to engage in M&A than his predecessor Founder/CEO Jeff Bezos,'' he wrote in a research note. ''In Mr. Jassy's defense, we believe he may have to given Amazon's current size and how it needs a lot more revenue to move than needle than it did when the company was smaller, even 10 years ago.''

See Now: Amazon shares surge on Q2 sales beat as analysts highlight the strength of AWS, Prime and advertising

D.A. Davidson has a buy rating and $151 price target on Amazon.

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:14

Five years almost to the day after it began, Hollywood's evangelistic fervor for streaming has been extinguished this week by the ''Batgirl'' imbroglio.

Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to scrap the completed DC Comics film that was bound for HBO Max marks the boldest example of Old Media economic rigor being applied to contemporary content spending.

David Zaslav, CEO of the newly reconfigured media conglomerate, didn't even mask his bewilderment at the decision-making process and optimistic profit projections made by the previous WarnerMedia regime. Zaslav and other executives spoke Aug. 4 during WB Discovery's second-quarter earnings conference call with Wall Street analysts that ran 95 minutes as executives spoke with candor about the new world order.

Zaslav and WB Discovery chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said more than once, with palpable exasperation, that there was simply no business case to be made for spending $90 million on a DC Comics movie designed to skip theaters and go straight to HBO Max.

''We've looked hard at the direct-to-streaming business,'' Zaslav said. ''And our conclusion is that expensive direct-to-streaming movies in terms of how people are consuming them on the platform, how often people go there or buy it or buy a service for it and how it gets nourished over time is no comparison to what happens when you launch a film in the theaters. And so this idea of expensive films going direct-to-streaming, we cannot find an economic case for it. We can't find an economic value for it.''

The emphasis on how ''Batgirl'' could '' or could not '' possibly recoup its costs was the equivalent of a bucket of ice water being thrown on the media and entertainment sector. Zaslav has already vowed that he's not trying to ''win the spending wars'' as he made the pre- and post-merger rounds around the AT&T spinoff transaction with Discovery.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Art Streiber for Variety

But the granular financial detail and significant strategy shifts outlined by Zaslav and Wiedenfels brought the curtain down on a period of irrational exuberance in Hollywood that began on Aug. 8, 2017 '' the day former Disney CEO Robert Iger surprised many of those same Wall Street analysts by announcing plans to launch the streaming platforms that became Disney+ and ESPN+.

''I would characterize this as an extremely important, very, very significant strategic shift for us,'' Iger said at the time.

That was the cap gun going off. From that day on, Disney outmaneuvered Comcast buy 20 th Century Fox, AT&T went after what was then Time Warner and Paramount Global chair Shari Redstone redoubled her efforts to reunite Viacom and CBS under one roof in a deal completed in December 2019.

Disney's strategy pivot toward a direct-to-consumer business model for most of its content '' following the path blazed by Netflix as a platform with global reach '' also crystallized the industry focus on content spending as measured in double-digit billions. Netflix drew talent like moths to a flame with its regular reveals of eye-popping content spending numbers. The traditional TV industry was already feeling the strain of Peak TV production levels, but Disney's big move in 2017 set most of its Hollywood peers on a mission to further grow the volume of content production.

Five years later, there's more content available than ever before but the path to seeing a return on movies and TV shows that are less than ''Top Gun: Maverick'' and ''Stranger Things''-level smash hits is murkier than ever. It's no secret that executives at Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and others are looking at the worst-performing shows in their vast streaming libraries. There's growing realization that there's a financial imperative to consider some form of syndication licensing for little-watched shows in the hopes of seeing some kind of return by selling it to an outside buyer.

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish has been a proponent of taking a diversified approach to streaming. He has championed the company's investment in free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels on its wholly owned Pluto TV platform, which is built on a revenue-share model with outside content providers, mixed with the premium subscription content offered by Paramount+ and the standalone Showtime streaming app.

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish Celeste Sloman/Variety

''We believe our streaming business can get to TV Media-like margins (of 20%-25%) over time,'' Bakish told Variety. ''We've only been in streaming for a short time. It's going to take a little while and that's why we say our model has some real advantages.''

Heretofore, the major TV networks have never had to grapple with juggling so much movie and TV inventory '' all of which comes with some level of residual fees due to creative partners. That's another cold, hard financial reason why it made more sense for WB Discovery to ground ''Batgirl'' and take a big tax write-off on the movie rather than spend more money on a property that Zaslav made clear was not up to snuff for the valuable ''Batman'' franchise.

Wiendenfels acknowledged that WB Discovery's thinking on content spending for its soon-to-merge streaming platforms '' HBO Max and Discovery Plus '' has changed over the 16 months since Discovery and AT&T first reached a deal on the spinoff transaction that created WB Discovery. Those changes were also surely accelerated by the volatility in equities markets and the plunge in WB Discovery stock price over the past few months. On Friday, the market cap of the company that is home to two of Hollywood's glossiest brands '-- HBO and Warner Bros. '-- fell to $35.4 billion as the stock price sank 16% following the after-market earnings report.

Direct to consumer streaming is ''one platform in a larger portfolio of assets and in a larger lineup of distribution outlets. We are not going to be religious about driving hard to fuel just one platform,'' Wiedenfels said on the call. ''DTC has its space and Warner Bros. Discovery is uniquely positioned with the enormous surface area with our customers to service them and to tell great stories for decades to come.''

Zaslav went further, saying that WB Discovery will return to pursuing international sales of content in select cases. Under the previous WarnerMedia regime led by Jason Kilar, the studio made the hard choice to forgo that third-party revenue in favor of stocking up titles that could only be found on HBO Max.

''Anything that's important to us to growing HBO and HBO Max '... we are going to keep that exclusively,'' Zaslav said. ''What kind of content could be non-exclusive and have no impact on us (that's what) we want to monetize to drive economic value. And then there's content that we are not even using right now '-- massive amounts of TV and motion picture content that we are not using.''

The steepness of the climb that Team Zaslav has ahead was underscored by a question from Morgan Stanley media analyst Ben Swinburne, who gently reminded the new owners that HBO not long ago was delivering about $2.5 billion in earnings (before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) a year as a linear cable offering.

But therein also lies the dilemma for Big Media. There's no going back to the linear era of fat profit margins from traditional cable. The explosion of free and lower-cost options has led to a steady shrinkage of high-paying subscribers to linear MVPD providers like Comcast, Charter and DirecTV. The customer exodus is running about 4%-5% a year in the U.S. It's carefully tallied every quarter because of pay-TV's importance to Hollywood earnings.

WB Discovery is mulling a FAST channel iteration of HBO Max and Discovery+ to serve as a kind of barker service to lure paying subscribers. The exploding popularity of FAST channels has industry veterans clucking that consumers now have the means to recreate the traditional cable bundle but on economic terms that are far worse for content providers.

All of this volatility, coupled with the gathering macroeconomic headwinds, explain why media stocks have been pummeled so far this year. Once Netflix's aura of invincibility came down with its Q1 surprise of subscriber losses ahead, the gospel of spend-at-all-cost to build platforms and gain market share has lost some of its hold on CEOs and CFOs.

The health of the subscription streaming market will get an important temperature check next week when Disney reports its fiscal Q3 earnings on Aug. 10.

Paramount's Bakish has been gratified to see that the strategy he set off on in 2019 of assembling a mixed portfolio of FAST and pay channels is being embraced by Paramount's larger rivals. With the road ahead more unclear than ever, Bakish said it's the kind of business environment that creates its own opportunities, for companies that aren't paralyzed by fear and second-guessing.

''You make your own decisions about what to do and then get on about doing it,'' Bakish said.

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:14

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comAug 5 (Reuters) - Scientists say that climate change is increasing the likelihood of lightning strikes across the United States, after lightning struck at a square near the White House, leaving three people dead and one other in critical condition.

The hot, humid conditions in Washington, D.C., on Thursday were primed for electricity. Air temperatures topped out at 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Celsius) '' or 5F (3C) higher than the 30-year normal maximum temperature for Aug. 4, according to the National Weather Service.

More heat can draw more moisture into the atmosphere, while also encouraging rapid updraft '' two key factors for charged particles, which lead to lightning. A key study released in 2014 in the journal Science warned that the number of lightning strikes could increase by 50% in this century in the United States, with each 1 C (1.8 F) of warming translating into a 12% rise in the number of lightning strikes.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comFast-warming Alaska has seen a 17% rise in lightning activity since the cooler 1980s. And in typically dry California, a siege of some 14,000 lightning strikes during August 2020 sparked some of the state's biggest wildfires on record.

Beyond the United States, there is evidence that lightning strikes are also shooting up in India and Brazil.

But even as lightning strikes increase, being hit by one is still extremely rare in the United States, experts say. Roughly 40 million lightning bolts touch down in the country every year, according to the Center for Disease Control '' with the odds of being struck less than 1 in a million.

A lightning strike hits a tree in Lafayette Park across from the White House, killing two people and injuring two others below, during an August 4 evening thunderstom as seen in this framegrab from a Reuters TV video camera mounted on a nearby rooftop in Washington, U.S. August 4, 2022. REUTERS/REUTERS TV

Among those who are hit, about 90% survive the ordeal, the CDC says. The country counted 444 deaths from lightning strikes from 2006 through 2021.

The two men and two women struck by lightning on Thursday while visiting Washington's Lafayette Square, just north of the White House, were among the unlucky few - struck by a bolt that hit the ground during a violent, afternoon thunderstorm.

The lightning hit near a tree that stands yards (meters) away from the fence that surrounds the presidential residence and offices across from the square, which is often crowded with visitors, especially in the summer months.

All four victims sustained critical, life-threatening injuries, and were taken to area hospitals. read more Two of them later died: James Mueller, 76, and Donna Mueller, 75, from Janesville, Wisconsin, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

"We are saddened by the tragic loss of life," the White House said in a statement on Friday. "Our hearts are with the families who lost loved ones, and we are praying for those still fighting for their lives."

Later on Friday a third victim, a 29-year-old male, was pronounced dead, the Metropolitan Police Department said. Further details on the victim were being withheld until the next-of-kin were notified.

Because heat and moisture are often needed to make lightning, most strikes happen in the summer. In the United States, the populous, subtropical state of Florida sees the most people killed by lightning.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comReporting by Gloria Dickie in London; Additional reporting by Frank McGurty in New York and Chris Gallagher in Washington; Editing by Louise Heavens, Mark Porter & Shri Navaratnam

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:13

Pope Francis tells young Europeans they need to eat less meat

His Holiness Pope Francis is demanding that young Europeans stop eating so much meat in a bid to save the planet from climate change.

Pope Francis says Europeans need to eat less meatIn a letter to the participants of the EU Youth Conference, Pope Francis advocated that young Europeans look at the planet as a ''common home'' that needs protecting. He says that one way to do this is for Europeans to give up ''superfluous things,'' like meat consumption, to turn a ''self-destructive trend around.''

''If you do not succeed in turning this self-destructive trend around, it will be difficult for others to do so in the future'... There is an urgent need to reduce the consumption not only of fossil fuels but also of so many superfluous things. In certain areas of the world, too, it would be appropriate to consume less meat: this too can help save the environment,'' Pope Francis wrote.

Pope Francis was previously offered $1 million to a charity of his choosing by vegan activist Genesis Butler to go vegan for Lent. While the Pope responded to the letter, he, unsurprisingly, refused the offer.

As the old proverb goes, it looks like it's 'Do as I say, not as I do.' Not a good look for the Bishop of Rome, who's often accused of being a Communist and serves as an Agenda Contributor at the World Economic Forum.

It's crucial we stay in touch

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:11

Attribution: Roy Reeve, chief of photography from 1917 to 1948: Reeve 081695-3, OHA 80: Reeve Photograph Collection Image License: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license License & Image Links: LINK By F. William Engdahl 12 July 2022 One of the outcomes of the alleged new SARS Covid virus that publicly emerged in 2019 is that the medical specialization of virology has been raised to a stature almost Godlike in the media. Few understand the origins of virology and its elevation into a leading role in today's medicine practice. For this we need to look at the origins and politics of America's first medical research institute, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, today Rockefeller University, and their work on what they claimed was a polio virus.

In 1907 an outbreak of a sickness in New York City gave the director of the Rockefeller Institute, Simon Flexner, MD, a golden opportunity to lay claim to discovery of an invisible ''virus'' caused by what was arbitrarily called poliomyelitis. The word poliomyelitis simply means inflammation of the spinal cord's grey matter. There were some 2,500 New Yorkers, mostly children, designated with some form of poliomyelitis, including paralysis and even death, that year.

Flexner's Fraud

The most striking aspect of the entire polio saga in the USA during the first half of the 20th Century was the fact that every key phase of the business was controlled by people tied to what became the Rockefeller medical cabal. This fraud started with claims by the Director of the Rockefeller Institute, Simon Flexner, that he and his colleague, Paul A. Lewis, had ''isolated'' a pathogen, invisible to the eye, smaller even than bacteria, which they claimed caused the paralyzing sickness in a series of outbreaks in the US. How did they come to this idea?

In a paper published in 1909 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Flexner claimed he and Lewis had isolated the poliomyelitis virus responsible. He reported they had successfully ''passaged'' poliomyelitis through several monkeys, from monkey to monkey. They began by injecting diseased human spinal cord tissue of a young boy who had died, presumably from the virus, into the brains of monkeys. After a monkey fell ill, a suspension of its diseased spinal cord tissue was injected into the brains of other monkeys who also fell ill.

They proclaimed that the Rockefeller Institute doctors had thus proven poliomyelitis virus causality for the mysterious disease. They hadn't done anything of the sort. Flexner and Lewis even admitted that: ''We failed utterly to discover bacteria, either in film preparations or in cultures, that could account for the disease; and, since among our long series of propagations of the virus in monkeys not one animal showed, in the lesions, the cocci described by some previous investigators, and we had failed to obtain any such bacteria from the human material studied by us, we felt that they could be excluded from consideration.'' What they then did was to make a bizarre supposition, a leap of faith, not a scientific claim. They took their hypothesis of viral exogenous agency and made it fact, with no proof whatever. They asserted: ''Therefore, '...the infecting agent of epidemic poliomyelitis belongs to the class of the minute and filterable viruses that have not thus far been demonstrated with certainty under the microscope.'' Therefore?

Simon Flexner simply asserted it ''must'' be a polio virus killing the monkeys, because they could find no other explanation. In fact he did not look for another source of the illnesses. This was not scientific isolation. It was wild speculation: '''...not thus far been demonstrated with certainty under the microscope.'' They admitted this in a December 18, 1909 follow up in JAMA, titled, THE NATURE OF THE VIRUS OF EPIDEMIC POLIOMYELITIS.

The so-called ''virus'' they were injecting into monkeys was hardly pure. It also contained an undetermined amount of contaminants. It included ''pureed spinal cord, brain, fecal matter, even flies were ground up and injected into monkeys to induce paralysis.'' Until Jonas Salk won approval from the US Government in April 1955 for a polio vaccine, no scientific proof of existence of a virus causing poliomyelitis, or infantile paralysis as it was commonly known, had been proven. That is the case to this day. The medical world all took Flexner's word that it ''must'' be a virus.

Rockefeller Institute, Flexner and the American Medical Association

The Rockefeller Institute was founded from the Standard Oil fortune of John D. Rockefeller in 1901, to be America's first biomedical institute. It was modelled on France's Pasteur Institute (1888) and Germany's Robert Koch Institute (1891). Its first Director, Simon Flexner, played a pivotal and most criminal role in the evolution of what became approved American medical practice. The Rockefeller goal was to completely control American medical practice and transform it into an instrument, at least initially, for promotion of medical drugs approved by the Rockefeller interests. By then they were looking to monopolize medical drugs produced from their petroleum refining, as they had done with oil.

As Rockefeller Institute head, Simon Flexner, was publishing his inconclusive but highly acclaimed studies on polio, he arranged for his brother, Abraham Flexner, a school teacher with no medical background, to head a joint study by the American Medical Association (AMA), the Rockefeller General Education Board, and the Carnegie Foundation founded by Rockefeller's close friend Andrew Carnegie.

The 1910 study was titled, The Flexner Report, and its ostensible purpose was to investigate the quality of all US medical schools. The outcome of the report was, however, predetermined. Ties between the well-endowed Rockefeller Institute and the AMA went through the corrupt AMA head, George H. Simmons.

Simmons was also the editor of the influential Journal of the American Medical Association, a publication delivered to some 80,000 doctors across America. He reportedly wielded absolute power over the doctors' association. He controlled the rising ad revenues for drug companies to promote their drugs to AMA doctors in his journal, a highly lucrative business. He was a key part of the Rockefeller medical coup that was to completely redefine acceptable medical practice away from remedial or preventive treatment to use of often deadly drugs and expensive surgeries. As head of the AMA Simmons realized that the competition from a proliferation of medical schools, including then-recognized chiropractic, osteopathy, homeopathy and natural medicine, was lessening income of his AMA doctors, as the number of medical schools had increased from around 90 in 1880 to over 150 in 1903.

Abraham Flexner, former headmaster of a private school, toured various US medical schools in 1909 and recommended that fully half of the 165 medical schools be closed, as what he defined as ''sub-standard.'' This reduced competition from other approaches to healing diseases. They ruthlessly targeted then-widespread naturopathic medical schools, chiropractic ones, osteopaths as well as independent allopathic schools unwilling to join the AMA regime. Then Rockefeller money went to the select schools with a proviso that professors be vetted by the Rockefeller Institute and the curriculum focus on drugs and surgery as treatment, not prevention, nor nutrition, nor toxicology as possible causes and solutions. They had to accept Pasteur's germ theory of disease, which claims one germ to one disease reductionism. Rockefeller-controlled media launched a coordinated witch-hunt against all forms of alternative medicine, herbal remedies, natural vitamins and chiropractic''anything not controlled by Rockefeller patented drugs.

By 1919 the Rockefeller General Education Board and the Rockefeller Foundation had paid out more than $5,000,000 to Johns Hopkins, Yale and Washington University in St. Louis medical schools. In 1919 John D. Rockefeller granted another $20,000,000 in securities, ''for the advancement of medical education in the United States.'' That would be comparable to about $340 million today, a huge sum. In short the Rockefeller money interests had hijacked American medical education and medical research by the 1920's.

Creating Virology

This medical takeover, backed by the most influential doctors' organization, the AMA, and its corrupt head, Simmons, allowed Simon Flexner to literally create modern virology under Rockefeller rules. The highly controversial Thomas Milton Rivers, as director of The Rockefeller Institute's virology laboratory, established virology as an independent field, separate from bacteriology, during the 1920s. They realized they could manipulate far easier when they could claim deadly pathogens that were invisible germs or ''viruses.'' Ironically virus comes from Latin for poison.

Virology, a reductionist medical fraud, was a creation of the Rockefeller medical cabal. That highly important fact is buried in the annals of medicine today. Diseases such as smallpox or measles or poliomyelitis were declared caused by invisible pathogens called specific viruses. If scientists could ''isolate'' the invisible virus, theoretically they could find vaccines to protect people from harm. So their theory went. It was a huge boon for the Rockefeller cartel of pharmaceutical companies, which at the time included American Home Products which falsely promoted drugs with no proof of effect, such as Preparation H for Hemorrhoids, or Advil for pain relief; Sterling Drug,which took over the US assets including Aspirin of German Bayer AG after World War I; Winthrop Chemical; American Cyanamid and its subsidiary Lederle Laboratories; Squibb and Monsanto.

Soon virus researchers at the Rockefeller Institute, in addition to claiming discovery of the poliomyelitis virus, claimed to discover the viruses that caused smallpox, mumps, measles and yellow fever. Then they announced ''discovery'' of preventive vaccines for pneumonia and yellow fever. All of these ''discoveries'' announced by the Institute proved false. With the control of the research in the new area of virology, the Rockefeller Institute, in collusion with Simmons at AMA and his equally corrupt successor, Morris Fishbein, could promote new patented vaccines or drug ''remedies'' in the influential AMA journal that went to every member doctor in America. Drug companies refusing to pay for ads in the AMA journal were blackballed by the AMA.

Controlling Polio Research

Simon Flexner and the highly-influential Rockefeller Institute succeeded in 1911 in having the symptoms that were being called poliomyelitis to be entered into the US Public Health Law as a ''contagious, infectious disease caused by an air-borne virus.'' Yet even they admitted they had not proven how the disease enters the body of humans. As one experienced doctor pointed out in a medical journal in 1911, ''Our present knowledge of the possible methods of contagion is based almost entirely upon the work done in this city at the Rockefeller Institute.'' In 1951 Dr. Ralph Scobey, a critic of the Rockefeller rush to judgment on polio contagion, noted, ''This of course placed reliance on animal experiments rather than on clinical investigations'...'' Scobey also pointed to the lack of proof poliomyelitis was contagious: '''...children afflicted with the disease were kept in general hospital wards and that not a single one of the other inmates of the wards of the hospital was affected with the disease.'' The general attitude at that time was summed up in 1911: ''It seems to us despite the lack of absolute proof, that the best interests of the community would be conserved by our regarding the disease from a contagious standpoint.'' (sic).

By having poliomyelitis symptoms classified as a highly contagious disease caused by an invisible, alleged exogenous or external virus, the Rockefeller Institute and the AMA were able to cut off any serious research for alternative explanations such as exposure to chemical pesticides or other toxins, to explain the seasonal outbreaks of illness and paralysis, even death, mostly in very young children. That was to have fatal consequences lasting to the present.

Enter DDT

In his 1952 statement to the US House of Representatives investigating the possible dangers of chemicals in food products, Ralph R. Scobey, M.D. noted, ''For almost half a century poliomyelitis investigations have been directed towards a supposed exogenous virus that enters the human body to cause the disease. The manner in which the Public Health Law is now stated, imposes only this type of investigation. No intensive studies have been made, on the other hand, to determine whether or not the so-called virus of poliomyelitis is an autochthonous chemical substance that does not enter the human body at all, but simply results from an exogenous factor or factors, for example, a food poison.'' Toxins as cause were not investigated, despite huge evidence.

During the 1930s with economic depression and then war, few new major outbreaks of poliomyelitis were noted. However, immediately after the end of World War II, notably, the polio drama exploded in dimension. Beginning 1945, every summer more and more children across America were diagnosed with poliomyelitis and hospitalized. Less than 1% of the cases were actually tested via blood or urine tests. Some 99% were diagnosed by merely the presence of symptoms such as acute pain in extremities, fever, upset stomach, diarrhea.

In 1938, with the support of presumed polio victim, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (March of Dimes) was founded to solicit tax-exempt donations to fund polio research. A German doctor and researcher, Dr Henry Kumm, came to the US and joined the Rockefeller Institute in 1928 where he stayed until joining the National Foundation in 1951 as Director of Polio Research. Kumm was joined at the National Foundation by another key Rockefeller Institute veteran, the so-called ''father of virology,'' Thomas M. Rivers, who chaired the foundation's vaccine research advisory committee overseeing the research of Jonas Salk. These two Rockefeller Institute key figures thus controlled funds for polio research including developing a vaccine.

During the Second World War, while still at Rockefeller Institute, Henry Kumm was a consultant to the US Army where he oversaw field studies in Italy. There Kumm directed field studies for the use of DDT against typhus and malarial mosquitoes in the marshes near Rome and Naples. DDT had been patented as an insecticide by Swiss drug firm Geigy and their US branch in 1940, and first authorized for use on US Army soldiers in 1943 as a general disinfectant against head lice, mosquitoes and many other insects. Until war's end almost all DDT production in the US went to the military. In 1945 the chemical companies looked eagerly for new markets. They found them.

In early 1944, US newspapers triumphantly reported that typhus, ''the dreaded plague that has followed in the wake of every great war in history,'' was no longer a threat to American troops and their allies thanks to the army's new ''louse-killing'' powder, DDT. In an experiment in Naples, American soldiers dusted more than a million Italians with DDT dissolved with kerosene (!), killing the body lice that spread typhus. Rockefeller Institute's Henry Kumm and the US Army knew that, as one researcher put it, ''DDT was a poison, but it was safe enough for war. Any person harmed by DDT would be an accepted casualty of combat.'' The US Government ''restricted'' a report on insecticides issued by the Office of Scientific Research and Development in 1944 that warned against the cumulative toxic effects of DDT in humans and animals. Dr Morris Biskind noted in a 1949 article, ''As DDT is a cumulative poison, it is inevitable that large-scale intoxication of the American population would occur. In 1944, Smith and Stohlman of the National Institutes of Health, after an extensive study of the cumulative toxicity of DDT, pointed out, ''The toxicity of DDT combined with its cumulative action and absorbability from the skin places a definite health hazard on its use.'' Their warnings were ignored by higher officials.

Instead, after 1945, all across America DDT was promoted as the miracle new, ''safe'' pesticide, much like Monsanto's Roundup with glyphosate three decades later. DDT was said to be harmless to humans. But no one in government was seriously scientifically testing that claim. One year later in 1945 as the war ended, US newspapers praised the new DDT as a ''magic'' substance, a ''miracle.'' Time called DDT ''one of the great scientific discoveries of World War II.''

Despite isolated warnings of untested side effects, that it was a persistent, toxic chemical which easily accumulates in the food chain, the US Government approved DDT for general use in 1945. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), controlled by the Rockefeller-AMA-drug interests, established as ''safe'' a DDT content of up to 7 parts per million in foods, though no one had proven such. The DDT chemical companies fed the press with photos and anecdotes. Newspapers enthusiastically reported how the new miracle chemical, DDT, was being tested in the US against mosquitoes in the South believed carrying malaria, as well as ''preserving Arizona vineyards, West Virginia orchards, Oregon potato fields, Illinois cornfields, and Iowa dairies.'' DDT was everywhere in the USA in the late 1940s.

The US Government claimed DDT, unlike arsenic and other insecticides used before the war, was harmless to humans, even infants, and could be used liberally. Beginning 1945 cities like Chicago sprayed public beaches, parks, swimming pools. Housewives bought home aerosol spray DDT dispensers to spray the kitchen and especially childrens' rooms, even their matrasses. Farmers were told to spray their crops and their animals, especially dairy cows, with DDT. In postwar America DDT was being promoted, above all by Rockefeller drug companies like American Home Products with its Black Flag aerosol DDT spray, and Monsanto. From 1945 through 1952 the US production of DDT increased tenfold.

As presumed cases of polio literally exploded across the USA after 1945 the theory was advanced, with no proof, that the crippling polio disease was transmitted, not by toxic pesticide chemicals like DDT, but by mosquitoes or flies to humans, most especially young children or infants. The message was that DDT can safely protect your family from the crippling polio. Officially listed polio cases went from some 25,000 in 1943 before US civilian use of DDT, to over 280,000 cases in 1952 at the peak, more than a tenfold increase.

In October 1945 DDT, which had been used by the US Army under supervision of Rockefeller Institute's Henry Kumm as noted, was authorized by the US Government for general use as an insecticide against mosquitoes and flies. Dissenting scientists warning of toxic effects of DDT in humans and animals were silenced. Families were told DDT could save their children from the dreaded polio by killing the feared insects.

The US Department of Agriculture advised farmers to wash their dairy cows with a solution of DDT to combat mosquitoes and flies. Cornfields were aerial sprayed with DDT as well as fruit orchards. However it was incredibly persistent and its toxic effect on plants and vegetables were such it could not be washed off. Year-by-year from 1945 through 1952 the amount of DDT sprayed across the US increased. Notably, so too did the number of human cases of poliomyelitis.

Worst Polio Epidemic

By the beginning of the 1950s increasing attention was given in the US Congress and among farmers as to the possible dangers of such heavy pesticide use'--not only DDT, but also the even more toxic BHC (benzene hexachloride). In 1951 Morton Biskind, a physician who had successfully treated several hundred patients with DDT poisoning, testified to the US House of Representatives on the possible link of paralytic polio to toxins, specifically DDT and BHC. He noted,

''The introduction for uncontrolled general use by the public of the insecticide ''DDT'' (chlorophenothane) and the series of even more deadly substances that followed, has no previous counterpart in history. Beyond question, no other substance known to man was ever before developed so rapidly and spread indiscriminately over so large a portion of the earth in so short a time. This is the more surprising as, at the time DDT was released for public use, a large amount of data was already available in the medical literature showing that this agent was extremely toxic for many different species of animals, that it was cumulatively stored in the body fat and that it appeared in the milk. At this time a few cases of DDT poisoning in human beings had also been reported. These observations were almost completely ignored or misinterpreted.''

Biskind further testified to Congress in late 1950, ''Early last year I published a series of observations on DDT poisoning in man. Since shortly after the last war a large number of cases had been observed by physicians all over the country in which a group of symptoms occurred, the most prominent feature of which was gastroenteritis, persistently recurrent nervous symptoms, and extreme muscular weakness'...'' He described several case examples of patients whose severe symptoms including paralysis disappeared when exposure to DDT and related toxins was eliminated: ''My original experience on more than 200 cases which I reported early last year has since been considerably extended. My subsequent observations have not only confirmed the view that DDT is responsible for a great deal of otherwise inexplicable human disability'...'' Also noted was the fact that polio cases were always most in summer months when DDT spraying against insects was maximum.

The Rockefeller Institute operatives and the AMA, via their agents in the US Government, created the 1946-1952 USA health emergency called polio. They did so by knowingly promoting the highly toxic DDT as a safe way to control the mythical insect spreaders of the feared disease. Their propaganda campaign convinced the American population that DDT was the key to stop spread of poliomyelitis.

Polio Suddenly Declines

Under leadership of the two Rockefeller Institute doctors, Henry Kumm and Thomas Rivers, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) rejected critics such as Biskind and Scobey. Natural remedial treatment, such as using intravenous Vitamin C for the infantile paralysis, were rejected out of hand as ''quackery.'' In April 1953, leading Rockefeller Institute DDT consultant, Dr Henry Kumm, became Director of Polio Research for NFIP. He funded the polio vaccine research of Jonas Salk.

One courageous doctor in North Carolina, Dr. Fred R. Klenner, who had also studied chemistry and physiology, had the idea to use large doses of intravenous ascorbic acid'--Vitamin C'--on the hypothesis that his patients were victims of toxin poisoning and that Vitamin C was a powerful detox. This was well before Dr Linus Pauling's Nobel Prize research on Vitamin C. Klenner had remarkable success within days for more than 200 patients in the summer epidemics of 1949 to 1951. The Rockefeller Institute and the AMA had no interest in the remedial prospects. They and the Rockefeller-controlled National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis were only funding polio vaccine development, based on the unproven Flexner claim that polio was a contagious virus, not a result of environmental poison.

Then beginning sometime in 1951-1952, as polio cases were at an all-time high, something unexpected began to appear. The number of cases diagnosed as polio in the US began to decline. The decline in polio victims was dramatic, year by year until 1955, well before the National Foundation and Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was approved for public use and was widespread.

About a year before the sudden decline in polio cases, farmers, whose dairy cows were suffering severe effects of the DDT, were advised by the US Department of Agriculture to reduce DDT use. Rising public concern about how safe DDT was for humans, including publicized US Senate hearings on DDT and Polio in 1951 also led to a significant decline in DDT exposure into 1955, even though DDT was not officially banned in the US until 1972.

So-called ''polio'' cases fell by some two-thirds in that 1952-1956 time, in a remarkable parallel to the decline in DDT use. It was well after that decline, in late 1955 and 1956, that the Rockefeller-developed Salk polio vaccine was first administered in large populations. Salk and the AMA gave all credit to the vaccine. Deaths and paralysis as a result of the Salk vaccine were papered over. The Government changed the definition of polio to further reduce official cases. Simultaneously, cases of similar polio-like spinal cord nerve diseases'' acute flaccid paralysis, chronic fatigue syndrome, encephalitis, meningitis, Guillain-Barr(C) syndrome, muscular sclerosis'--rose notably.

Why it Matters

Over a century ago the world's richest man, oil baron John D. Rockefeller, and his circle of advisors set about to completely reorganize how medicine was practiced in the USA and the rest of the world. The role of the Rockefeller Institute and figures like Simon Flexner literally oversaw the invention of a colossal medical fraud around claims that an invisible contagious extraneous germ, the polio virus, caused acute paralysis and even death in young people. They politically banned any efforts to link the disease to toxin poisoning, whether from DDT or arsenic pesticides or even contaminated vaccine poisoning. Their criminal project included intimate cooperation with the leadership of the AMA and control of the emerging drug industry, as well as of medical education. The same Rockefeller group financed Nazi eugenics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes in Germany in the 1930s as well as the American Eugenics Society. In the 1970s they financed the creation of patented GMO seeds which were all developed by the group of Rockefeller chemical pesticide companies'--Monsanto, DuPont, Dow.

Today this control of public health and the medical industrial complex is exercised by David Rockefeller's proteg(C) and eugenics advocate, Bill Gates, self-appointed czar over the WHO and world vaccines. Dr Tony Fauci, head of NIAID, dictates vaccine mandates without evidence. The fraud behind the polio virus scandal after World War II has been refined with use of computer models and other ruses today, to advance one alleged deadly virus after the other, from Covid19 to Monkeypox to HIV. As with polio, none of those has been scientifically isolated and proven to cause the diseases claimed. None. The same tax-free Rockefeller Foundation today, posing as a philanthropic charity, is at the heart of the global medical tyranny behind covid19 and the eugenics agenda of the World Economic Forum Great Reset. Their poliomyelitis virus model helped them create this dystopian medical tyranny. We are told, ''trust the science.''

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine''New Eastern Outlook''

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:03

In a stunning development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week admitted '-- despite assurances to the contrary '-- the agency never analyzed the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) for safety signals for

COVID-19 vaccines.

The admission was revealed in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted by Children's Health Defense (CHD).

In September 2021, I published an article in The Defender in which I used the CDC's published methodology to analyze VAERS for safety signals from COVID-19 vaccines.

The signals were loud and clear, leading me to wonder "why is nobody listening?"

Instead, I should have asked, "Is anybody even looking for them?"

After that article was published, I urged CHD's legal team to submit a FOIA request to the CDC about its VAERS monitoring activities.

Since CDC officials stated publicly that "COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring is the most robust in U.S. history," I had assumed that at the very least, CDC officials were monitoring VAERS using the methods they described in a briefing document posted on the CDC website in January 2021 (and updated in February 2022, with minor changes).

I was wrong.

The lynchpin of their safety monitoring was to mine VAERS data for safety signals by calculating what are known as proportional reporting ratios (PRRs).

This is a method of comparing the proportion of different types of adverse events reported for a new vaccine to the proportion of those events reported for an older, established vaccine.

If the new vaccine shows a significantly higher reporting rate of a particular adverse event relative to the old one, it counts as a safety signal that should then trigger a more thorough investigation.

The briefing document states, "CDC will perform PRR data mining on a weekly basis or as needed."

And yet, in the agency's response to the FOIA request, it wrote that "no PRRs were conducted by CDC. Furthermore, data mining is outside of the agency's purview."

The agency suggested contacting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which was supposed to perform a different type of data mining, according to the briefing document.

CDC officials repeatedly claimed they have not seen safety signals in VAERS.

For example, on April 27, 2021, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated the CDC did not see any signals related to heart inflammation.

But a PRR calculation I did using the number of myo/pericarditis reports listed in the first table produced by the CDC obtained via the FOIA request reveals clear and unambiguous safety signals relative to the comparator vaccines mentioned in the briefing document (i.e., flu vaccines, FLUAD and Shingrix).

The table is dated April 2, 2021, almost four weeks before she made those remarks.

In fact, among the 15 adverse events for adults included in that week's tabulations, PRRs I calculated also show loud-and-clear safety signals for acute myocardial infarction, anaphylaxis, appendicitis, Bell's palsy, coagulopathy, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults (MIS-A), stroke and death.

The actual monitoring the CDC did diverges from the one promised in the briefing document in other ways.

For example, the CDC never created tables of the top 25 adverse events reported in the previous week, tables comparing different vaccine manufacturers, or tables of auto-immune diseases.

And it only began monitoring in early April 2021, even though reports from COVID-19 vaccines had been flooding VAERS since mid-December of the previous year.

To be clear, VAERS is not the only database the CDC uses to monitor COVID-19 vaccine safety.

For example, the CDC sponsored several studies of COVID-19 safety using the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), which is comprised of millions of medical records from HMO's across several states.

Those studies do not raise many safety concerns. However, they make many questionable methodological choices.

To give one example, a major safety study based on VSD data published in September 2021, in "JAMA," compares adverse event rates that occur within 1-21 days of vaccination to the rate of occurrence from 22 to 42 days after vaccination.

It makes no comparison between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, or before vaccination versus after in the same individuals.

Moreover, the VSD is far from infallible, having failed initially to detect the increase in myocarditis rates.

In contrast, although calculating PRR's is a blunt pharmacovigilance tool and far from perfect, it nevertheless has the advantage of being straightforward and difficult to manipulate with statistical sleight of hand.

PRRs are one of the oldest, most basic and most well-established tools of pharmacovigilance. The calculations are so straightforward that the CDC automated it several years ago, so it could have been done at the press of a button.

It simply beggars belief that the CDC failed to do this simple calculation. Even now, a paper published by CDC staff in March on the safety of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines remains purely descriptive with no PRR calculation.

Meanwhile, a study published by a researcher not affiliated with the CDC in February in "Frontiers in Public Health" analyzes VAERS and EudraVigilance data using a method similar to PRRs, revealing clear and concerning safety signals.

And while it is true that VAERS is not the only database the CDC can use to monitor COVID-19 vaccine safety, it is of critical importance because it can reveal signals much faster than any other method '-- if anybody cares to look for them.

It remains to be seen if the FDA was properly monitoring VAERS. That will be the subject of a future FOIA request.

But even if it was, it doesn't change the fact that the CDC completely failed in its promise to monitor VAERS for safety signals.

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:54

American scientist and coauthor of The Limits to Growth

Dennis Meadows

BornDennis Lynn Meadows

( 1942-06-07 ) June 7, 1942 (age 80) OccupationScientist, professor, writer Spouse(s) Dennis Lynn Meadows[1] (born June 7, 1942) is an American scientist and Emeritus Professor of Systems Management, and former director of the Institute for Policy and Social Science Research at the University of New Hampshire.[2] He is President of the Laboratory for Interactive Learning and widely known as a coauthor of The Limits to Growth.

Biography [ edit ] Dennis Meadows was born on June 7, 1942.[3] He received a BA from Carleton College, a PhD in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and holds four honorary doctorates.

He started working at the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late 1960s.[citation needed ] From 1970 to 1972 at MIT he was director of the "Club of Rome Project on the Predicament of Mankind".[4] Further on Meadows has been a tenured professor in faculties of management, engineering, and social sciences. For many years he was the director of a graduate program based in business and engineering. He has facilitated workshops and developed innovative and complex strategic games all over the world for decades. In addition, Dr. Meadows has lectured in over 50 countries.

He has been the Director of three university research institutes: at MIT, Dartmouth College and the University of New Hampshire. He is the Past President of the International System Dynamics Society and the International Simulation and Games Association.

In 1986, Dr. Meadows along with Thomas Adler and Colin High co-founded RSG (originally Resource Systems Group, Inc.) as a spin-off of Dartmouth's Resource Policy Center. RSG sought to combine academic rigor with high-impact government and business projects. Their vision was to foster sound decision-making rooted in serious data analysis to address ''resource'' constraints with complex ''systems'' (hence, Resource Systems Group).[5][better source needed ]

He has been a corporate board member and a consultant for government, industry and non-profit groups in the U.S. and many countries abroad. He co-founded the Balaton Group, an international network of over 300 professionals in over 30 nations involved in systems science, public policy and sustainable development.

He has received numerous international awards for his work, including the Japan Prize in April 2009.[6]

Work [ edit ] Club of Rome [ edit ] The Club of Rome is a global think tank that deals with a variety of international political issues. It was founded in April 1968 and raised considerable public attention in 1972 with its report The Limits to Growth. From 1970 to 1972 at MIT Meadows was director of the "Club of Rome Project on Predicament of mankind at MIT"[4] which constructed the world model underlying that publication.

The Limits to Growth [ edit ] The Limits to Growth is a 1972 book modeling the consequences of a rapidly growing world population and finite resource supplies, commissioned by the Club of Rome. Meadows coauthored the book with his wife Donella H. Meadows, J¸rgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III.

The book used the World3 model to simulate[7] the consequence of interactions between the Earth's and human systems.[citation needed ] Meadows led the team that developed this model.[8] The book echoes some of the concerns and predictions of the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus in An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798).

The eventual purpose of The Limits to Growth was not to make specific predictions, but to explore how exponential growth interacts with finite resources. Because the size of resources is not known, only the general behavior can be explored.

The 30-year update [ edit ] There has been a major cultural shift in the thinking about global processes in the last three decades of the 20th century. In a 2004 interview, Meadows explained:

"In 1972 it was inconceivable to most people that the physical impact of humanity's activities could ever grow large enough to alter basic natural processes of the globe. But now we routinely observe, acknowledge, and discuss the ozone hole, destruction of marine fisheries, climate change and other global problems."[9]In their 1972 publication Limits to Growth, their recommendations were focused on "how to slow growth". In the 2004 Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update, the message has changed. Meadows explained: "Now we must tell people how to manage an orderly reduction of their activities back down below the limits of the earth's resources."[9]

In 2014, research at the University of Melbourne confirmed that the predictions from the book Limits to Growth were largely correct.[10] Presently we are very close to tracking the "business-as-usual" scenario from the book.[11]

Publications [ edit ] He has written or co-authored 10 books on systems, futures, and educational games, which have been translated into more than 30 languages. A selection:

1970. Dynamics of commodity production cycles.1973. Toward global equilibrium: collected papers. Eds.1975. Beyond growth : essays on alternative futures. Edited with others.1974. Dynamics of Growth in a Finite World1977. Alternatives to growth-I : a search for sustainable futures : papers adapted from entries to the 1975 George and Cynthia Mitchell Prize and from presentations before the 1975 Alternatives to Growth Conference, held at the Woodlands, Texas. Eds.1992. Beyond the Limits: Confronting Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable Future1995 "The Systems Thinking Playbook"2004. Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. With Donella Meadows and J¸rgen Randers. ISBN 978-1-931498-58-62016. The Climate Change Playbook. with Linda Booth-Sweeney and Gillian Martin-Mehers. ISBN 978-1-60358-676-4Honors [ edit ] Among his many honors and awards have been:

The Japan Prize [ edit ] In 2009 he received the Japan Prize for his "contributions in the area of "Transformation towards a sustainable society in harmony with nature.

Earth Hall of Fame [ edit ] In 2008 he was inducted as a laureate into the Earth Hall of Fame in Kyoto, Japan for his contributions to the preservation of the environment with pioneering academic research into sustainable resource use.

German Culture Prize [ edit ] In 2019 he received the award for nature of the Foundation for Cultural Promotion in Munich, Germany

See also [ edit ] De-growthSystem DynamicsReferences [ edit ] ^ McCormick, John (1991). Reclaiming Paradise: The Global Environmental Movement. ISBN 9780253206602. ^ Dennis Meadows :: Chelsea Green Publishing ^ Date information sourced from Library of Congress Authorities data, via corresponding WorldCat Identities linked authority file (LAF). ^ a b Dennis L. Meadows (1977). Alternatives to growth-I: a search for sustainable futures : papers adapted. p.309. ^ "History". RSG . Retrieved March 22, 2022 . ^ "2009¼25th¼‰Japan Prize Laureates", Science and Technology Foundation of Japan [1] ^ The models were run on Dynamo, a simulation programming language. ^ Ahmed, Nafeez (November 22, 2019). "The Collapse of Civilisation May Have Already Begun". Vice. ^ a b Interview with Dennis L. Meadows Archived September 18, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, 2004. at euronatur.org. Retrieved October 20, 2009. ^ Turner, Graham (2014). "Is Global Collapse Imminent?" (PDF) . Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, The University of Melbourne. MSSI Research Paper No. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 28, 2014 . Retrieved October 25, 2015 . ^ Alexander, Cathy; Turner, Graham (September 1, 2014). "Limits to Growth was right. New research shows we're nearing collapse". The Guardian . Retrieved October 25, 2015 . External links [ edit ] The Brown center for educative learning.Presentation to the Earth Dialogues BarcelonaProfessor by Dennis Meadows, February 2004.The Japan Prize 2009 Japan Prize Commemorative Lecture on YouTube (The Japan Prize)Interviews with Dennis Meadows:

Christian Schw¤gerl (2009). "Copenhagen is about doing as little as possible". Salon . Retrieved October 12, 2016 . Markus Becker (2012). " 'Limits to Growth' Author Dennis Meadows: 'Humanity Is Still on the Way to Destroying Itself' ". Der Spiegel . Retrieved October 12, 2016 . Megan Gambino (2012). "Is it Too Late for Sustainable Development?". Smithsonian . Retrieved October 12, 2016 . Rainer Himmelfreundpointner (2012). "Dennis Meadows: 'There is nothing that we can do' ". Church and State . Retrieved October 12, 2016 . Allen White (2015). "Growing, Growing, Gone: Reaching the Limits". Great Transition Initiative . Retrieved October 12, 2016 .

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 15:37

Bank of Japan. Photo: Wikimedia CommonsCash remains king in Japan.

Like many other central banks, the Bank of Japan has conducted central bank digital currency experiments since 2021 to test the technical feasibility of the core functions and features of a retail CBDC ecosystem. The second phase of testing began in April 2022. But the central bank is not considering its implementation in the near future.

The purpose of the ongoing experiments is to catch up with new technical features involving blockchain technology, in case the need for a central bank digital currency arises. There are major factors that hamper the BOJ from actively considering implementation.

The Japanese public has virtually universal access to the banking system and so the issue of promoting financial inclusion has never been a major policy issue. The use of digital and mobile technologies initiated by the private sector when paying for goods and services is also widespread.

The CBDC idea has not received significant support due to the prevalence of internet banking services, credit card usage and e-money payment tools. The public may not find it attractive to use the CBDC since private sector-based payment tools provide tangible benefits '-- for example, points that can be gained from using payment services and can be accumulated and used for shopping or payment for other services.

Cash is a safe and highly liquid instrument for the payment of goods and services. As legal tender, cash fulfills the functions of unit of account, means of exchange and store of value. The amount of cash issuance remains high in Japan despite the declining use of cash '-- accounting for about 20% of nominal gross domestic product.

Cash becomes more useful when natural disasters or military conflicts cause serious damage to communities '' for example, via power shortages or the destruction of buildings and computer systems or by weakening trust in the private-sector banking system.

Cash is also preferred by the elderly and those with low-income levels. The significant prevalence of cash and cash demand in Japan correlates with its aging population '-- the number of people aged over 65 years old accounts for nearly one-third of the population.

While the increasing use of digital payments is a rising trend, cash is likely to remain in use in many economies. Central banks regard retaining cash in the economy as important, despite the higher cash-handling cost and the risk of cash-associated crime. Even some highly digitalized economies, like Finland, saw an increase in cash payments from 2019 to 2020.

The opportunity cost of holding cash is related to the financial return from close substitutes of cash, such as retail deposit rates offered by banks and the cost of holding digital currencies. The prolonged low-interest rate environment driven by monetary easing has contributed to lower opportunity cost, particularly in advanced economies.

Low inflation rates influence cash demand by lowering the opportunity cost of holding cash since the value of cash remains stable.

While recent inflation rates may depress cash demand globally, the prevalence of cash demand for precautionary reasons may intensify in some European economies as a result of heightened uncertainties stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a consequent potential decline in trust in the public sector and banking system.

The prevalence of contactless payment methods has reduced the use of cash for transaction purposes, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 2022 Supermarket White Paper, compiled by the National Supermarket Association of Japan, reported that over 90% of supermarkets are now equipped with credit payment tools; 77% utilize QR codes and/or e-money and 38% have developed their own cashless payment systems.

But cash in circulation has been rising. This is partly because of the long-standing low retail deposit interest rate '-- which was below 0.2% from 2007 through 2010 and below 0.02% from 2011 through 2016, and has been at 0.001 per cent since 2017 for ordinary retail bank accounts.

That has transformed cash into a substitute for bank deposits, contributing to Japan's rising cash hoarding trend. Cash hoarding refers to cash lying idle without being utilized for economic and investment activities.

The prevalence of cash in Japan's economy may discourage new technology firms from prioritizing the innovation of payment methods and financial activities.

Nevertheless, the BOJ must continue to accumulate knowledge relating to blockchain technology to ensure financial stability and financial innovation in Japan. In addition, considering the efficiency of cross-border payments using a CBDC, it would be a promising choice given the high cost of existing bank-based services.

Sayuri Shirai is a professor at Keio University and a former policy board member of the Bank of Japan. This article was first published by East Asia Forum, which is based out of the Crawford School of Public Policy within the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. It is republished under a Creative Commons license.

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Archived Version

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 15:35

Minister Hugo de Jonge (Volkshuisvesting en Ruimtelijke Ordening) tijdens een rondleiding op een bouwplaats.

''¸ ANP / ANP

Dat blijkt uit het Nationaal Toekomstbeeld Fiets. Er is simpelweg onvoldoende ruimte om parkeergelegenheid aan te leggen voor die huishoudens, tegelijk werkt de aanleg van fietspaden 'kostenbesparend', aldus het plan dat werd gepresenteerd door het ministerie van Infrastructuur. De Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten zegt dat de auto 'pas aan het eind' een oplossing is.

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Archived Version

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 14:26

Even as the overall VC market slows during the second half of 2022, investments in climate tech '-- particularly technologies that could enable green hydrogen to help decarbonize heavy industry and other big emitters '-- continue to add up.

This week, Aurora Hydrogen, a pyrolysis startup in Edmonton, Alberta, disclosed $10 million in Series A funding led by Energy Innovation Capital and including some well-known fossil fuels funds including Shell Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures. Its pitch: the approach uses 80 percent less electricity than electrolysis, another "clean" hydrogen approach. There are concerns, however, that the technology may enable more tar sands development.

Sydney, Australia-based electrolyzer company Hysata announced an even larger early round of about $29.3 million. Its backers hail primarily from Australia, led by Virescent Ventures, but also include Vestas Ventures, part of the Danish wind company.

Both companies plan to use their new funding for scaling up pilot facilities.

One of the biggest rounds so far this summer was the $198 million in Series B equity and venture debt for Boston-based startup Electric Hydrogen, which is developing an electrolyzer for creating "fossil-free hydrogen." The round was led by Fifth Wall Climate Tech and a group of high-profile climate tech investors including Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Honeywell, Cosan, Equinor Ventures, Rio Tinto, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners, among others.

Electric Hydrogen is focused on addressing carbon dioxide emissions related large and crucial industries, such as steel production, mining and agriculture '-- among the most difficult sectors to decarbonize. Its electrolysis process runs on renewable power, the hallmark of so-called green hydrogen technologies. The company's executive team includes former executives from First Solar, Tesla and Breakthrough Energy.

It is unsurprising a company such as Amazon, with fleets of delivery trucks, vans and planes, might be interested in more sustainable and cost-effective methods of energy related to transportation. "Amazon has a long track record of using hydrogen in their forklifts trucks in their logistics centers," said Patrick Molloy, manager for the climate-aligned industries program at RMI. Despite its many investments in climate technologies, Amazon's overall emissions rose 18 percent in 2021.

Electric Hydrogen produces hydrogen using electrolyzer technology, a process by which hydrogen is created using electrolysis, or when electricity is used to split hydrogen and water molecules. Electrolyzer technology can generate large amounts of hydrogen cheaply. Electric Hydrogen says its "industrial scale systems" will make decarbonization "an inevitability" for industrial emitters.

Molloy agrees. "We are at a stage, particularly for green hydrogen, where deployment of electrolyzer systems and improvement of the technology drives the cost down and improves the overall efficiency of production, and makes it affordable and applicable to hard-to-abate sectors," he said. "This isn't about hydrogen becoming ubiquitous, this is about hydrogen being affordable, relative to the sectors where it has best application and can accelerate decarbonization with a view to net zero."

Companies such as Electric Hydrogen have their work cut out. According to a 2019 report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), hydrogen produced through electrolysis only accounts for 0.1 percent of hydrogen production globally. Despite this, the IEA report was quick to note growing interest in renewable sources, including electric hydrogen, due to decreasing costs.

The decreasing costs go hand-in-hand with increasing investments in green hydrogen technology. Molloy sees the interest by major companies as a positive development.

"It's really valuable to see folks actually investing money to build projects [that] deploy the technology so that the technology improves, the production chain actually improves in terms of efficiency, that it becomes a low-cost solution beyond even where it is today," he said.

If project deployment in critical areas comes to fruition, it is possible green hydrogen production methods, such as electrolyzer or fuel cell technologies, will become competitive, Molloy explained. "Maybe you can actually deliver a solution that is zero carbon that people want but maybe haven't been able to afford or maybe the technology hasn't been where it needs to be, so there's a kind of domino effect here, as we start to see deployment."

Electric Hydrogen isn't the only company working to help foster industrial decarbonization through electrolyzer technology usage. On July 13, Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund disclosed it had also invested in Sunfire, a German-based company that uses electrolyzer technology to produce hydrogen. In a statement, Amazon Vice President of Worldwide Sustainability Kara Hurst stated that Amazon is "proud to be investing in visionary companies like Electric Hydrogen and Sunfire that are developing vital technology for the deployment of green hydrogen to help decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors."

Beyond Electric Hydrogen and Sunfire, a number of other startups are exploring the green hydrogen sector using different approaches. Like the two electrolyzer companies, these companies have generated a considerable amount of interest from investors and have secured major investments.

Danish company Green Hydrogen Systems provides on-site electrolysis to producers of hydrogen industrial facilities and fueling stations, as well as to power various types of installations. The company said it has created a hydrogen generation system that produces 99.9 percent clean energy. Green Hydrogen Systems was estimated to be worth $293 million in 2021. The company reported raising $34.3 million over three funding cycles in 2019 and 2020.

Another green hydrogen company with considerable backing is Heliogen. Heliogen captures concentrated sunlight using heliostats, which reflect sunlight onto a tower called the Sunlight Refinery. From there, the sunlight is used to produce hydrogen and syngas, or synthetic gas created from a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. The California company has $332.6 million worth of funding. According to its website, Heliogen intends to offer low-cost energy "in the form of heat, power, or hydrogen fuel."

Israeli company H2Pro splits water into hydrogen using E-TAC, which it describes as a "revolutionary method for producing green hydrogen '... that is over 95 percent efficient, safe and cost-competitive with fossil fuel hydrogen." The company received $22 million during a fundraising drive last year, which included backing by Breakthrough Energy and Hyundai, among others. This year, it received $75 million worth of investments, notably from Breakthrough Energy yet again, as well steel and mining company ArcelorMittal.

"There are an awful lot of folks all over the world, working on various technology strains and streams," said RMI's Patrick Molloy. "There are a lot of startups. There are a lot of very, very interesting emerging technology, solutions and approaches."

Molloy highlighted ZeroAvia, a British-American company that is developing a hydrogen-electric airplane that produces net-zero emissions. ZeroAvia hopes to fly a passenger plane 500 miles by 2026. He also mentioned Enapter, a company based in Germany, which has patented an anion exchange membrane hydrogen generator, which is designed to allow the creation and storage of hydrogen energy on-site using electrolysis. Molloy also expressed excitement about GeoPura, which provides outdoor festivals, film and TV production, as well as construction projects, a solar or wind-generated green hydrogen-based alternative to diesel generators. Additionally, he mentioned that a number of companies are focused on developing more sustainable mining, construction and shipping technologies.

"I think it's a case of wherever you've seen problems or application, or decarbonization has been difficult, we've got a whole heap of folks that are looking at this and saying, 'OK, does this change the calculus, and does it give us a pathway where we can push on in a whole heap of spaces? That's certainly proven to be the case," Molloy said.

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Archived Version

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 14:19

The US will not supply new systems to Himars.

Until the end of this month, the United States will not supply new multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine. According to sources, the reason for this was certain circumstances identified by the American side, in particular, we can talk about the losses of six Himars MLRS, which the Russian side had previously announced.

It is known that the United States was forced to interrupt the supply of new Himars systems to Ukraine. Only ammunition will be supplied, but in very limited quantities, which may be due to the fact that as a result of high-precision strikes by the Russian Aerospace Forces and operational-tactical missile systems, part of the ammunition supplied to Ukraine, and the cost of each missile is estimated at 150 thousand dollars, was destroyed.

The information that the supply of Himars MLRS to Ukraine was blocked by the American side is also confirmed by the fact that both last and the week before last in Washington, announcing new assistance to Ukraine, they did not mention that such weapons would be sent to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

A little earlier, the United States announced that they planned to supply Ukraine with 50-60 M142 Himars and M270 MLRS MLRS, however, it is obvious that now the supply of these weapons is blocked, at least until the end of the month.

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Archived Version

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 14:02

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.Children's Health Defense

July 11, 2022

A

lawsuit filed by whistleblower Brook Jackson alleging Pfizer and two of its contractors manipulated data and committed other

acts of fraud during Pfizer's

COVID-19 clinical trials is paused following a motion by the defendants to dismiss the case.

In an interview with The Defender, Jackson's lawyer said Pfizer argued the lawsuit, which was filed under the False Claims Act, should be dismissed because the U.S. government knew of the wrongdoings in the clinical trials but continued to do business with the vaccine maker.

Under the False Claims Act, whistleblowers can be rewarded for confidentially disclosing fraud that results in a financial loss to the federal government.

However, a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded the scope of a legal principle known as ''materiality'' resulted in a series of federal court decisions in which fraud cases brought under the False Claims Act were dismissed.

As interpreted by the Supreme Court, if the government continued paying a contractor despite the contractor's fraudulent activity, the fraud was not considered ''material'' to the contract.

Pfizer is a federal contractor because it signed multiple contracts with the U.S. government to provide COVID-19 vaccines and Paxlovid, a pill used to treat the virus.

''Pfizer claims they can get away with fraud as long as the government would write them a check despite knowing about the fraud,'' attorney Robert Barnes said.

The other two defendants in the case are Ventavia Research Group, which conducted vaccine trials on behalf of Pfizer, and ICON PLC, also a Pfizer contractor.

In an attempt to strengthen the False Claims Act's anti-retaliation provisions and install new safeguards against industry-level blacklisting of whistleblowers seeking employment, Congress in July 2021 introduced the False Claims Amendments Act of 2021.

In December 2021, Pfizer hired a well-connected lobbyist, Hazen Marshall, and the law firm Williams & Jensen to lobby against the bill.

Pfizer previously was heavily fined in connection with the False Claims Act. As part of a 2009 settlement, the company paid $2.3 billion in fines '-- the largest healthcare fraud settlement in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice '-- stemming from allegations of illegal marketing of off-label products not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

''Pfizer, one of the most criminally fined drug companies in the world, wants to weaken the laws that hold them accountable,'' Barnes told The Defender.

Congress has taken no action on the False Claims Amendments Act since November 2021, when the bill was added to the Senate's legislative calendar.

Barnes said the outcome of Jackson's case against Pfizer is significant not just for his client, but also for the American public.

''This case will determine if Big Pharma can rip off the American people using a dangerous drug that harms millions without any legal remedy because they claim the government was in on the scam.''

Jackson was a regional director for Ventavia for a brief period in 2020 but was fired after she notified the FDA about issues with Pfizer's vaccine trials.

After she was fired, she gave The BMJ a cache of internal company documents, photos and recordings highlighting the alleged wrongdoing by Ventavia.

The documents she provided contained evidence of falsified data, blind trial failures and awareness on the part of at least one Ventavia executive that members of the company's staff were ''falsifying data.''

Jackson's documents also provided evidence of administrators who had ''no training'' or medical certifications, or who provided ''very little oversight'' during the trials.

Jackson filed her complaint in August 2021, in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division, alleging Pfizer, Ventavia and ICON ''deliberately withheld crucial information from the United States that calls the safety and efficacy of their vaccine into question.''

A district court judge in February unsealed Jackson's complaint, which included 400 pages of exhibits.

According to the complaint, Jackson, who had more than 15 years of experience working with clinical trials, ''repeatedly informed her superiors of poor laboratory management, patient safety concerns and data integrity issues'' during the approximately two weeks she was employed by Ventavia.

''Brook [Jackson] brought a Qui Tam action and a retaliatory discharge case against Pfizer and others for fraud on the people concerning Pfizer's false certifications to the U.S. Department of Defense about the safety and efficacy of their COVID-19 vaccine,'' Barnes said.

A Qui Tam case refers to a provision under the False Claims Act that allows individuals and entities with evidence of fraud against federal programs or contracts to sue the wrongdoer on behalf of the U.S. government

''She was part of the clinical trials, witnessed extraordinary malfeasance, blew the whistle, and was quickly fired after she blew the whistle.''

Barnes said his legal team will in August file its opposition brief to Pfizer's motion to dismiss, and the judge may rule on the motion to dismiss by fall 2022.

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Archived Version

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 13:50

On Wednesday, protesters flooded People's Park in Berkeley, California, chanting , "Housing is a human right, fight, fight, fight!" The reason the crowd was protesting? The University of California, Berkeley, was set to begin construction on a student housing project, which would not only house 1,100 Berkeley students at below-market rates, but also provide subsidized apartments for 125 homeless people. And the protesters want to stop this project.

According to the Associated Press, protesters threw rocks, bottles, and glass at construction workers. They also removed several sections of the chain-link fence surrounding the park. On Wednesday, the university announced that it would pause construction of the park, citing protester violence.

"All construction personnel were withdrawn out of concern for their safety," Dan Mogulof, UC's assistant vice chancellor, said in a statement to NBC News. "The campus will, in the days ahead, assess the situation in order to determine how best to proceed with construction of this urgently needed student housing project."

The University has tried since 2017 to construct more student housing in a city where rents are often so high and student housing supply so low that some students have resorted to sleeping in their cars. The construction project would provide much-needed affordable housing to many students. However, the project has faced considerable pushback, including lawsuits to prevent the construction. In typical NIMBY fashion, the lawsuits claim that the University did not consider enough other building sites. According to The Real Deal , a San Francisco real estate news website, the University considered over a dozen.

" Ever since we announced plans for the People's Park project in 2018, I have been convinced that we have an opportunity for a win-win-win benefitting our students, unhoused people in our community, and our neighbors across the city," said UC Chancellor Carol Crist in a 2021 email obtained by The Daily Californian .

The main source of controversy is the housing site's location, People's Park, a university-owned plot of land with a history as an activist site. Most famously, the park was the site of " Bloody Thursday ," a 1969 student protest-turned-riot that left 50 injured and one dead after police fired buck and bird shot into the crowd. Protesters thus view the park as a crucial historic site, and even though over half of the park will remain intact as a green space, many of them believe it should not be changed. The park is also the "home" of dozens of homeless people.

"Since its founding in 1969, People's Park has been home to countless houseless individuals in Berkeley," wrote The Daily Californian editorial board on Thursday. "It has served as the prime location for political events, performances and recreation, among countless other affairs. From these, a community bloomed, and it has quickly become a cultural and historical landmark."

Ironically, this oft-criticized building project would create housing for homeless people, not destroy it. According to the A.P., during the duration of construction, the nearly 50 homeless people living in the park were offered shelter (which almost all of them accepted) at a motel paid for by UC. When the project is complete, it will include 125 apartments for homeless individuals.

Those that oppose the housing project voice a uniquely Californian kind of NIMBYism when discussing homelessness. Sure, the project would provide much-needed housing for the homeless, but it would also displace the small number of homeless people who like sleeping in an open-air tent encampment with no running water. Apparently, we should prize the interests of a few'--in the case of People's Park, the two or three individuals who refused shelter out of nearly 50'--over the surely plentiful number of homeless who desperately want shelter and privacy.

"I think that it's really unjust what the university is doing trying to build housing here but at the cost of moving out all of these residents," UC student Sarah Hager told local news station KTVU. "You're causing significant amounts of harm by moving residents who have lived here forever and are absolutely integrated into the community."

If construction on People's Park is permanently stopped, cash-strapped students and homeless people will be the ones to suffer. Stopping the construction of new housing in a city with one of the worst housing shortages in America'--below-market-rate housing aimed at students and the homeless no less'--seems deeply at odds with the claim that "housing is a human right."

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 13:44

The Senate parliamentarian has given the green light to a $740 billion budget reconciliation bill that will reform the tax code, tackle climate change and lower drug prices, putting the Senate on track to begin voting on the bill Saturday afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Saturday that the bill is on track to pass this weekend now that the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, has ruled that its provisions comply with the budgetary rules enabling it to circumvent a GOP filibuster.

''Our meetings with the parliamentarian have now largely concluded, and we thank her and her staff for their hard work and diligence on such a large bill in such a short period of time,'' he said. ''Now that our meetings with the parliamentarian have largely concluded, we have a bill before us that can win the support of all 50 Democrats.''

Schumer said the bill's major provisions remain ''largely intact,'' though the parliamentarian did strike a provision that would have limited prescription drug price increases to the rate of inflation. The Senate rules official allowed to the inflation cap to be applied for Medicare beneficiaries but ruled out extending the cap to people with private health insurance.

The Democratic leader said senators should expect to vote sometime Saturday afternoon to begin debate on the legislation.

''In a few hours, we will formally begin the process of passing the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 by voting on the motion to proceed,'' Schumer said.

That will then trigger up to 20 hours of floor debate, followed by votes on an open-ended series of amendments that could last throughout the night and into Sunday morning.

Schumer told colleagues they should expect to keep voting until the bill is finished, likely sometime Sunday.

''It will help just about every citizen in this country and make America a much better place. We are not leaving until the job is done,'' he said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took to the floor after Schumer to blast the legislation for containing ''hundreds of billions of dollars in tax hikes and hundreds of billions of dollars in reckless spending.''

2 in 3 in new poll say US economy getting worse'Come on, Bernie': Democrats clash on Senate floor over Sanders proposalMcConnell took aim at the proposal to curb the costs of prescription drugs, which he warned would stifle how much money will go into future research.

''The government can't actually make something cost less by making it illegal to raise its price. This is the logic of college sophomore socialism,'' he said.

''The policy would bring about a world where many fewer drugs and treatments get invented in the first place as companies cut back on [research and development],'' he said.

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 13:26

Nairobi, Kenya '' It is election season in Kenya and even beyond the 22.1 million registered voters going to the polls on August 9, the biggest catchphrase of the campaign has been the ''deep state''.

Over the last couple of years, the phrase has emerged to convey the notion of a powerful shadowy cabal, not officially elected to government but, nonetheless, contorting the wishes of the people during elections and afterwards in the governance of the country.

Supporters of leading presidential candidate Raila Odinga have always claimed that there was a conspiracy at the highest levels of government to deny the former prime minister, who lost the 2002, 2007, 2013 and 2017 presidential elections, the role.

But in December 2019, former Deputy President Kalonzo Musyoka made possibly the earliest local mention of the phrase, in an interview with local private broadcaster Citizen TV.

''Kenyans must know that there is a 'deep state' government,'' he said. ''A country is never run by these politicians who shout [the] loudest.''

A year later, Musyoka, an influential member of the Azimio La Umoja coalition which backs Odinga, said, ''I don't know if there is a deep [state], what I know is there are interest groups and some of them have [an] enabling capacity.''

In September 2021, yet another member of the ruling party coalition reinforced the now widespread belief of a ''deep state''.

In an interview, Francis Kimemia, a former public service head and current governor for Nyandarua county in central Kenya said, ''The state exists. I can assure you it is deeper than deep. If you have two candidates at the rate of 50-50, and the 'deep state' backs one, you can be sure which one will win. The international community plays a great role in who becomes elected.''

But ahead of Tuesday's keenly contested polls, the phrase might be assuming dangerous dimensions.

A coalition for powerThe term has been popularised by the Kenya Kwanza (meaning Kenya First in Swahili, '' over the elite) '' a nationalist coalition movement headed by deputy president and the other main presidential candidate, William Ruto.

The so-called cabal is said to have the right of first refusal to influence choice positions and lucrative contracts in government and business.

Members are believed to be in the presidency, the security agencies, the electoral commission and other parts of the civil service that supposedly work in tandem as an ''All-Seeing Eye''.

For Patrick Gathara, cartoonist and political analyst, the ''deep state'' remains a deeply ambiguous term but could be a reference to a parallel political system inherited from British colonial administrators years ago.

''It's sort of an administrative system that we've essentially carried on since colonial times, and that the constitution was supposed to reform or actually eradicate,'' he told Al Jazeera. ''You know, there's a paper written by a former attorney-general, Githu Muigai, that really articulates the fact that the colonial system that we inherited '... in essence we've been unable, and to some extent, unwilling, when you speak about the powers that be, to remove.''

It is a concept not dissimilar to former United States President Donald Trump's constant talk of a ''deep state'' in that country, a conspiracy theory headlined by the discredited QAnon movement.

It is also reminiscent of ''the cabal'', a term that hit national consciousness in Nigeria around 2009 as then-President Umaru Yar'adua battled a terminal illness that left him incapacitated to run Africa's most populous country.

'Hustlers' vs 'dynasties'Now Ruto, a skilled orator, has now employed the same logic while framing the election as one of ''hustlers'' versus ''dynasties''.

This is in reference to the Azimio la Umoja coalition which has in its fold President Uhuru '' scion of the Kenyattas (beginning with inaugural President Jomo Kenyatta in 1964) '' along with the other leading presidential challenger Odinga (whose father Jaramogi Odinga was Kenya's first vice president in 1964) and their supporter Gideon Moi (son of former President Daniel arap Moi).

Former first lady ''Mama Ngina'', or Ngina Kenyatta, wife to Jomo, mother of Uhuru and one of the most influential people in the country since independence, is also endorsing Odinga.

''We have managed to relegate ethnicity to the background, '' Ruto, who has often called himself 'hustler-in-chief' and talked about growing poor, said at an August 6 press conference. ''Irrespective of where we come from, today we stand together as a people and we have overcome the so-called system, the so-called deep state.''

State versus the peopleIt is little wonder then, that the phrases ''deep state'' and ''hustlers versus dynasties'' have come to symbolise the involvement of the state machinery in the elections, even with the incumbent not being able to stand for re-election after serving the constitutional limit of two terms.

President Kenyatta has been on the campaign trail attempting to get citizens, especially his Kikuyu kinsmen, the largest voting bloc in the country, to back his longstanding foe turned ally Odinga. Consequently, he has been accused by the opposition, civil society and regular citizens of using the paraphernalia of state to back his preferred candidate.

With Ruto repeatedly alluding to there being higher powers at play wanting to rig the elections against him, this reinforces his narrative of having been forced out of relevance while in government but being an underdog working for the people.

He has even claimed that powerbrokers in Kenya sought to involve Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni in disqualifying Sakaja Johnson, the Nairobi county senator vying for its governorship with the Kenya Kwanza coalition.

This week, Ruto held back-to-back news conferences alleging that there were threats against his family and several communities, arising from ''meetings that are being organised in dark places to orchestrate disharmony'' including one that the president had supposedly attended.

''It is the people who hire and fire the government'', Ruto said on Saturday. ''It is not the system, it is not those in power, it is not the deep state and it is not everything else we have been told all the years, it is the people and in this election, it is the people of Kenya that will confirm this, ordinary as they may be.''

As recently as March, Ruto had said: ''I am the deputy president. Do you think that there is any deep state that I do not know about? Do you think that there is a system I do not know about? If you look at me, do I look like someone whose votes can be stolen? They should look for someone else.''

Still, industry insiders and rival politicians, including Jubilee Party vice chairman David Murathe, say Ruto, one of the country's wealthiest and most influential politicians, would himself be embedded in a ''deep state'', if it were to exist.

On the streets of the capital, an Odinga stronghold, that may be the feeling, too. ''Ruto is the most evil man in Kenya'', said Charles Wairimu, a security guard.

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 13:24

With these incentives and investments, this invoice would catalyze a new period of American innovation. The capability of America's universities and industries to innovate stays second to none, but the nation dangers falling behind as different nations race to construct their very own clear power economies. This laws would assist flip American power improvements into American power industries and unlock large financial alternatives in the power market. If it turns into regulation, few nations would have the capability for producing homegrown clear power like the United States. America may rapidly develop into a chief in the deployment of clear power at the scale required.

Opinion Conversation The local weather, and the world, are altering. What challenges will the future convey, and how ought to we reply to them?

American companies are prepared for this alteration. I've spoken with company leaders who're keen for our authorities to behave. Many have made huge local weather pledges and invested important quantities in clear power, each as a result of they care about making good on their guarantees and as a result of it's good enterprise. Even extra companies are ready on the sidelines for a robust sign from authorities that clear industries are a strong long-term funding. Passing the Inflation Reduction Act would ship that message and allow personal capital to supercharge our clear power future with even better confidence.

With President Biden's signature, this laws would jump-start and assist clear power industries that might create hundreds of thousands of jobs, many in communities which were constructed by fossil fuels. In reality, many of the most promising applied sciences in the clear power financial system would require comparable expertise and experience possessed by at the moment's coal, oil and gasoline employees. This will assist guarantee a honest transition.

Solving local weather change is probably the hardest problem humanity has ever confronted. It would require basically remodeling how we energy our communities, transfer items, construct issues, warmth and cool buildings and develop meals '-- principally how we do every part. We have to do it quickly with a cohesive and coherent plan if we need to keep away from the worst results of local weather change.

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 21:55

Shocking video footage has emerged of a young child repeatedly hitting a Minnesota cop who was there to arrest a murder suspect '-- calling the officer a ''b'--h'' and telling his colleague to ''shut the f''k up!''

The clip released by Alpha News was filmed last week in St. Paul, a city that saw widespread rioting after the nearby police murder of George Floyd and manslaughter of motorist Daunte Wright.

''Shut up, b'--h!'' screamed the young child, who appeared to be only a few years old and wearing just underwear while standing in the street, with an even younger child in a diaper just behind him.

He then strode up and hit one of them, repeating, ''Shut up, b'--h!''

''Shut the f''k up!'' the kid then screams at the other officer, who was wearing a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) vest, telling him his work boots are ''those ugly-ass church shoes.''

The child, only wearing underwear, aggressively confronted the cops who were executing a search warrant for a murder suspect, Alpha News said. Alpha NewsThe youngster hits one of the cops at least three more times in the 30-second clip, even as the officers '-- who remained calm throughout '-- start walking away.

One bystander can be heard encouraging the children and calling out that one of the officers was an ''Oreo head,'' a slur suggesting a black person is acting white.

The 30-second clip was just part of two minutes of footage '-- during which the kids also threw rocks at the cops, according to Alpha News.

The young child seen approaching the cops. Alpha NewsThe independent Minnesota news outlet said it was filmed while officers were trying to execute a search warrant for a murder suspect, without elaborating.

''This video is disgraceful. Heartbreaking,'' Alpha News' Sheila Qualls wrote.

''The behavior of these children is eerily similar to the behaviors of rioters who burned and looted Minneapolis two years ago,'' she wrote of the fiery protests that followed Floyd's murder in Minneapolis and Wright's shooting in Brooklyn Center.

The youngster hit one of the cops several times while calling him a ''b''ch,'' the footage shows. Alpha News''It is unsettling to law enforcement officers who encounter this behavior daily. It should be frightening to all of us,'' she warned.

The disturbing clip comes just weeks after the Minneapolis Star Tribune said a dramatic crime surge following the uprisings is ''causing waves of anxiety and fear'' for locals in the Twin Cities.

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 21:01

This video is available on BitChute, Brighteon, Rumble, Gab TV, 3Speak, UGETube, and GVID.

Why do blacks behave the way they do? Why is it that whenever we read certain headlines, we can be almost certain that the story is about black people? For example, ''Four Dead, Including Child, After Stimulus Check Dispute Leads to Gunfire.'' Or how about ''Toddler Died After Being Left Alone for Six Days as Mother Celebrated 18th Birthday''?Or ''Two Schoolgirl Carjackers, Aged 13 and 15, are Pulled from Overturned Vehicle in DC and Arrested for Murder.'' How about ''Postal Worker in Michigan Brutally Beaten by two Women, Video Shows''? And then there is the perennial, ''55 Shot, 10 Fatally, in Chicago Weekend Gun Violence.''

Even the most committed liberals must know those stories are going to be about blacks, and anyone whose eyes aren't shut tight knows that IQ has a lot to do with it. Even the very leftist Wikipedia recognizes that on intelligence tests there is ''a difference in average scores between black people and white people of 1.1 standard deviations.'' HIGHLIGHT WORDS In practical terms, that means only 16 percent of blacks have an IQ of 100 or higher, and it means that whites are 30 times more likely than blacks to have an IQ over 125.

Back in 1994, the famous book The Bell Curve reported long established findings on the correlation of low IQ with all kinds of behavior we don't want: crime, poverty, illegitimacy, shiftlessness, obesity, you name it. All these things are a lot more likely in people with low IQs than in smart people. But IQ isn't the whole story. If you compare blacks and whites with the same IQs, black behavior is still different. For example, look at these tables showing the likelihood of a 29-year-old woman ever having been on welfare.

The top graph shows 13 percent of white women and 49 percent of black women. A black woman is 3.8 times more likely. But if you look at the second graph, only of women with IQs of 100, it's 12 percent of white women but still 30 percent for black women. A black woman with a 100 IQ is still 2.5 times more likely that a white woman with the same IQ to have been on welfare.

Look at the likelihood of having an illegitimate child.

Without controlling for IQ, the figures are 12 percent for white women, 62 percent for black women. Control for IQ, and the figures are still 10 percent and 51 percent. Black women are still five times more likely to have illegitimate babies.

You get similar data for the likelihood that men will be in prison. If you don't control for IQ, black men are 6.5 times more likely than white men to be in jail. If you limit the sample to men with an IQ of 100, blacks are still 2.5 times more likely to be in jail.

So, what's going on? The obligatory explanation is that systemic racism and white supremacy are making life miserable for blacks. There is a better explanation, and Professor Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster has done the most important work on the question. He has written a book showing that blacks, across the board, are more likely than whites to be psychopaths. There is a good summary of his findings in an article at AmRen.com called ''Race and Psychopathic Personality.''

The American Psychiatric Association defines psychopathic personality as including such things as breaking rules, failure to plan ahead, aggressiveness and frequent fighting, risk taking, failure to honor financial obligations, being a bad parent, and inability to be sexually faithful. Blacks are more psychopathic than whites on all counts and, by the way, whites are more psychopathic than Asians.

This is shown in personality tests. The MMPI or Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory has been used since the 1930. Blacks and American Indians get the highest scores on psychopathy, followed by Hispanics, then whites, then Asians.

There are similar results on tests of what are called the big five personality traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Unusually low scores on agreeableness and conscientiousness are associated with psychopathic personality. This paper from 2014 finds that blacks are significantly lower than whites on those two important traits.

As noted earlier, psychopaths have trouble planning ahead, and you can test whether people live in the present or think about the future. In the 1970s, Walter Mischel came up with the marshmallow test, in which he gave children a choice between one marshmallow now or two marshmallows at some point in the future. This and similar studies with older children find that people who can delay rewards '' that is, who think in terms of the future '' get better grades, are less likely to smoke and take drugs, and are more successful in life. These results have been widely reported. Much less widely reported are the racial differences, with the usual pattern: whites are more willing than blacks to wait for a greater reward, and Asians are more willing than whites.

You get the same race differences when you control for IQ, because the ability to delay gratification is correlated with intelligence but is not the same thing as intelligence. That is probably why when whites and blacks get the same SAT scores '' that is, have the same basic intelligence '' whites get better grades in college. Whites are less likely to goof off, skip class, or wait until the last minute to study for exams.

Risk-taking is part of psychopathic personality. This paper finds that blacks are more likely than whites to take risks, and men are more likely than women. This 2015 article on ''Race Differences in Patterns of Risky Behavior in Adolescents'' is even more straightforward. It found some teenagers who are very high in different kinds of ''diverse'' risk taking: drugs, running away, fighting, delinquency.As you can see on this page (p. 15), ''We identified a similar group (i.e., high risk, diverse behavior) among the Black subgroup only.'' On the same page, the authors write: ''Finally, a class of adolescents specializing in risky sexual behavior was unique among the Black adolescents. These results underscore the importance of accounting for race when examining patterns of adolescent behavior. It is clear from our results that applying a ''one shoe fits all'' approach to adolescent risk behavior limits our understanding of how these behaviors coalesce.'' Needless to say, you never read about this study in the New York Times.

One of the best predictors of adult psychopathic personality is wild behavior as a child, and there are consistent race differences. There is probably not one school district in the country where students of different races are punished or disciplined at the same rate. Here is a typical headline: ''School Suspension Data Shows Glaring Disparities in Discipline by Race.'' This reports that nationally, black students are suspended at five times the white rate. Supposedly racist white teachers always get the blame for this, but does anyone really believe that in this hypersensitive time, white teachers are systematically punishing black students unfairly? This article claims that if black students have black teachers, they are less likely to be punished, but the difference was only a few percentage points. Black teachers are still much more likely to punish black students than white students. The obvious reason is that black children behave badly. By the way, differences of this kind have been found in Britain, Canada, and in Europe.

One of the most extreme forms of psychopathic behavior is murder, and we can learn a lot from this report from the Justice Department. Table 1 shows how much more likely blacks are than whites to commit murder.

The right-most figures in the last three lines tell the story. These are murder rates by race per 100,000 people. The white rate of 4.5 is one seventh the black rate of 34.4. The real difference is even greater because Hispanics '-- who have higher murder rates than whites '-- are lumped in with whites. Blacks probably commit murder at eight, nine, maybe even 10 times the white rate.

It's all very well to blame this on white supremacy, but how, exactly, do white people force or trick black people into killing each other? Or into having illegitimate children?

Psychopathic behavior explains not just gruesome crimes in the United States, but also in Africa. Mass slaughter by machete, the barbaric torture/murder of white farmers in South Africa, killing albinos to use their body parts in black magic, burning witches '' all these things show the heartless disregard for others that is typical of psychopaths.

Why would blacks be more psychopathic? In his excellent book, Making Sense of Race, Edward Dutton argues that it's because of evolution. Whites and Asians evolved in harsh, northern climates, in which people had to make plans to make it through the winter, they had to cooperate to hunt and share food, and couples had to stay together for children to survive. Africa was more forgiving. Cooperation, planning ahead, and care for children were less important. Psychopaths could survive, reproduce, and pass along their genes.

I think this is as good an explanation as any. The point is, however they got that way, people of different races are, on average, different. Expecting everyone to be the same is crazy. Blaming whites when blacks fail is not just crazy, it's vicious. Until we understand this, we can't even begin to talk about America's problems, much less solve them.

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 20:56

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What Is a Psychopath? The term "psychopath" is used to describe someone who is callous, unemotional, and morally depraved. Although not an official mental health diagnosis, it is often used in clinical and legal settings.

Psychopath DefinitionMerriam-Webster defines a psychopath as " a person having an egocentric and antisocial personality marked by a lack of remorse for one's actions, an absence of empathy for others, and often criminal tendencies."

Many psychopathy characteristics overlap with symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, a broader mental health condition used to describe people who chronically act out and break rules. But only a small number of individuals with antisocial personality disorder are considered to be a psychopath.

Learn psychopath characteristics, the history of the term, and how to recognize if someone might be a psychopath. We also cover the differences between sociopath vs. psychopath, available treatments, and things you can do to cope with this type of person.

Common Psychopath Traits Psychopathic behavior varies greatly from one individual to another. Some are sex offenders and murderers, while others may be successful leaders. It all depends on their traits. It's also important to distinguish between a psychopath and someone with psychopathic traits.

It's possible to exhibit psychopathic traits without being an actual psychopath. People with psychopathic traits don't necessarily engage in psychopathic behavior. Only individuals with psychopathic traits who also exhibit antisocial behavior are considered to be psychopaths.

Psychopathic traits commonly include:

Antisocial behaviorNarcissismSuperficial charmImpulsivityCallous, unemotional traitsLack of guiltLack of empathyOne study found that about 29% of the general population exhibit one or more psychopathic traits, but only 0.6% are likely to fit the definition of a psychopath.

Psychopath vs. NarcissistSome experts believe that narcissism and psychopathy exist on the same personality continuum and that both narcissists and psychopaths tend to have low humility and agreeableness, yet only a psychopath also has low conscientiousness.

Is There a Psychopath Test? While there may be plenty of free "psychopath tests" floating around on the internet, two that are used most often are the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPL).

Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R): The PCL-R is a 20-item inventory that assesses whether an individual exhibits certain traits and behaviors that could indicate psychopathy. It's intended to be completed with a semi-structured interview and a review of available records, such as police reports or medical information. This psychopath test is often used to predict the likelihood that a criminal may re-offend, as well as their capacity for rehabilitation.Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPL): The PPL is an alternative psychopath test that was introduced in 1996. This test is used to assess psychopathic traits in non-criminal populations. It may still be used with incarcerated individuals, but is more often applied to other populations, such as university students. Signs of a Psychopath Psychopathic traits may emerge during childhood and grow worse with age. The following are some of the most common signs of a psychopath.

Superficial Charm Psychopaths are often likable on the surface. They're usually good conversationalists and share stories that make them look good. Psychopaths may be funny and charismatic as well.

Need for Stimulation A psychopath loves excitement. They like to have constant action in their lives, and they frequently want to live in the "fast lane."

Quite often, a psychopath's need for stimulation involves breaking rules. They may enjoy the thrill of getting away with something, or they might even like the fact that they could "get caught" at any moment. Consequently, psychopaths often struggle to stay engaged in dull or repetitive tasks, and they may be intolerant of routines.

Pathological Lying Psychopaths tell lies to look good and get out of trouble. They also tell lies to cover up their previous lies. So, they have difficulty keeping their stories straight sometimes as they forget what they've said. If challenged by anyone, a psychopath will simply change their story again or rework the facts to fit the situation.

Grandiose Sense of Self-Worth A psychopath has an inflated view of themselves. They see themselves as important and entitled. Psychopaths often feel justified to live according to their own rules, and they think that the laws don't apply to them.

Manipulative Psychopaths are really good at getting other people to do what they want. They may play on a person's guilt while lying to get someone else to do their work for them.

Lack of Remorse A psychopath doesn't care how their behavior affects other people. They may forget about something that hurts someone, or they may insist that others are overreacting when their feelings are hurt. Ultimately, psychopaths don't experience guilt for causing people pain. In fact, they often rationalize their behavior and blame other people.

Shallow Affect Psychopaths don't show many emotions'--at least not genuine ones. They may appear cold and unemotional much of the time. But when it serves them well, a psychopath might exhibit a dramatic display of feelings. These are usually short-lived and quite shallow.

For example, a psychopath may show anger if they can intimidate someone, or they might show sadness to manipulate someone. But they don't really experience these emotions.

Lack of Empathy Psychopaths struggle to understand how someone else might feel afraid, sad, or anxious. It just doesn't make sense to them as they're not able to read people. A psychopath is completely indifferent to people who are suffering'--even when it's a close friend or family member.

Parasitic Lifestyle Psychopaths may have sob stories about why they can't earn money, or they might often report being victimized by others. Then they take advantage of the kindness of others by depending on them financially. A psychopath uses people to get whatever they can with no regard for how the other person may feel.

Poor Behavioral Controls Psychopaths struggle to follow rules, laws, and policies much of the time. Even if they set out to follow the rules, a psychopath usually doesn't stick to them for long.

Promiscuous Sexual Behavior Since they don't care about the people around them, a psychopath is likely to cheat on their partners. They may engage in unprotected sex with strangers, or they may use sex as a way to get what they want. Sex is not an emotional or loving act for a psychopath.

Early Behavioral Problems Most psychopaths exhibit behavioral problems at an early age. They may cheat, skip school, vandalize property, misuse substances, or become violent. A psychopath's misbehaviors tend to escalate over time and are more serious than their peer's misbehaviors.

Lack of Realistic, Long-Term Goals A psychopath's goal might be to become rich or famous. But quite often, they have little idea about how to make these things happen. Instead, they insist that somehow, they'll get what they want without putting in the effort to get there.

Impulsivity Psychopaths respond to things according to the way they feel. They don't spend time thinking about the potential risks and benefits of their choices. Instead, a psychopath wants immediate gratification. So, they may quit a job, end a relationship, move to a new city, or buy a new car on a whim.

Irresponsibility Promises don't mean anything to a psychopath. Whether they promise to repay a loan or sign a contract, they aren't trustworthy. They may shrug off child support payments, get deeply in debt, or forget about obligations and commitments.

A psychopath doesn't accept responsibility for the problems in their lives. They see their issues as always being someone else's fault. Psychopaths frequently play the role of the victim and enjoy sharing stories about how others have taken advantage of them.

Many Marital Relationships Psychopaths may get married because it serves them well. For example, they may want to spend a partner's income or share their debt with someone else. But their behavior often leads to frequent divorces as a psychopath's partner will eventually see them in a more accurate light.

Criminal Versatility Psychopaths tend to view rules as suggestions'--and they usually see laws as restrictions that hold them back. Their criminal behaviors can be quite varied. Driving infractions, financial violations, and acts of violence are just a few examples of the array of crimes a psychopath might commit.

Of course, not all psychopaths become incarcerated. Some may operate under shady businesses or engage in unethical practices that don't lead to an arrest.

Revocation of Conditional Release Most psychopaths don't adhere to the rules of conditional release when they are released from prison. They may think they won't get caught again, or they find ways to excuse their behavior. A psychopath might even blame "getting caught" on other people.

Recap of Psychopath Symptoms or SignsA person who is manipulative, dishonest, narcissistic, unremorseful, non-empathetic, and exploitative may be a psychopath. Criminality, promiscuity, and lack of responsibility are also common traits associated with psychopathy.

Psychopath vs. Sociopath While "psychopath" and "sociopath" are sometimes used synonymously, they have different meanings and different patterns of traits and behaviors. What's the difference between psychopath vs. sociopath?

Psychopaths lack a conscience and don't feel empathy for others. They may pretend to care, but often maintain a normal facade to cover up cold-hearted or even criminal behaviors. Sociopaths may experience limited empathy and remorse for their actions. They struggle to maintain normal behaviors and routines and can be impulsive and overly emotional. A sociopath may recognize that their actions are wrong but find ways to rationalize their impulsive and harmful behaviors.Learn More About the Difference Between Psychopaths and Sociopaths Causes of Psychopathy Early research on psychopathy suggested that it often stems from issues related to parent-child attachment. Emotional deprivation, parental rejection, and a lack of affection were all thought to increase the risk that a child would become a psychopath.

Studies have found a link between maltreatment, abuse, insecure attachments, and frequent separations from caregivers. Some researchers believe that these childhood issues can trigger psychopathic traits.

But other researchers suggest it may be the other way around. Kids with serious behavioral problems may end up with attachment issues because of their behavior'--their misconduct might push adults away from them.

It's likely that psychopathic traits stem from several factors, such as genetics, neurological alterations, adverse parenting, and maternal prenatal risks (such as exposure to toxins in utero).

Psychopaths and Violence Some literature suggests that a psychopath may be more likely to be violent than the general population. Many studies have linked psychopathic traits to violence. Court systems may evaluate a criminal's psychopathic tendencies as a way to predict the likelihood that they will commit further violent acts.

Psychopath ExamplesWell-known psychopaths who engaged in violent criminal behavior include Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and Jack the Ripper.

But not all psychopaths are violent. Some are even considered good human beings. Studies have found there are "successful psychopaths" who are more likely to be promoted to leadership positions and less likely to serve time behind bars.

Successful psychopaths may rank higher in certain traits, such as conscientious traits, and this may help them manage their antisocial impulses better than those who end up convicted of serious crimes.

Treatment for Psychopaths Whether psychopaths can be treated is a widely debated issue. Some researchers report that treatment doesn't help. Others argue that specific treatments can reduce certain behaviors, such as violence.

A 2018 review of the literature found that many of the studies conducted on treatment effectiveness only applied to specific populations, such as sex offenders. So, the treatments that work with that population may not work for other psychopaths.

Similarly, female psychopaths may require a different approach. In general, they tend to be less violent than men, so their treatment might be slightly different.

The same literature review found that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may be effective in some cases. But further research is needed to identify which cognitive restructuring strategies work best and how to use them with specific populations.

Coping With a Psychopath Most psychopaths don't want to change because they don't see any need. They remain convinced that other people are wrong instead of them. As a result, it's usually those around them who are searching for coping strategies. After all, being around a callous, unemotional person is tough.

Whether you think your friend, boss, or relative might be a psychopath, their behavior can take a serious toll on your psychological well-being if you're not careful.

If being around a psychopath is causing you a fair amount of distress, get professional help. A mental health professional can help you establish healthy boundaries and recognize when you're at risk of being manipulated so you can take care of yourself.

A Word From Verywell A psychopath often displays traits and behaviors that are cold, manipulative, antisocial, and narcissistic. These tendencies have been linked to early childhood experiences, including maltreatment, rejection, and lack of parental affection, however, the exact causes are not well-understood.

People with psychopath traits may have an increased risk for violence and criminal behavior, but not all psychopaths are violent criminals. Treatments such as CBT may help reduce certain psychopathic behaviors and traits.

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 20:49

American white supremacist author

Samuel Jared Taylor (born September 15, 1951) is an American white supremacist[2] and editor of American Renaissance, an online magazine espousing such opinions, which was founded by Taylor in 1990.

He is also the president of American Renaissance ' s parent organization, New Century Foundation, through which many of his books have been published. He is a former member of the advisory board of The Occidental Quarterly and a former director of the National Policy Institute, a Virginia-based white nationalist think tank.[3] He is also a board member and spokesperson of the Council of Conservative Citizens.[4][5]

Taylor and many of his affiliated organizations are accused of promoting racist ideologies by civil rights groups, news media, and academics studying racism in the United States.[6][7][8][9]

Early life and education Taylor was born on September 15, 1951, to Christian missionary parents from Virginia in Kobe, Japan.[10] He lived in Japan until he was 16 years old and attended Japanese schools up to the age of 12, becoming fluent in Japanese.[10]

He attended Yale University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy in 1973. Taylor then spent three years in France and received a Master of Arts degree in international economics at Sciences Po in 1978.[12] During a period that interrupted his undergraduate and later graduate college years, he worked and traveled extensively in West Africa, improving his French in the Francophone regions of the continent.[10] Taylor is fluent in French, Japanese, and English.

Career Taylor worked as an international lending officer for the Manufacturers Hanover Corporation from 1978 to 1981, and as West Coast editor of PC Magazine from 1983 to 1988.[9] He has also taught Japanese at the Harvard Summer School, and worked as a courtroom translator.[13]

In the 1980s, at the time of the country's strong economic growth, Taylor was viewed as a "Japan expert" in the mainstream media. In 1983 he published a well-received book on Japanese culture and business customs entitled Shadows of the Rising Sun: A Critical View of the Japanese Miracle.[14] While critical of certain aspects of Japanese culture, Taylor argued that Japanese society was more successful in solving social issues than the West, with lower crime rates and a similar or higher standard of living.

Sometime in his early thirties, Taylor reassessed the liberal and cosmopolitan viewpoint commonly professed in his working environment, which he had himself shared until then. He became deeply convinced that human beings are tribal in nature and feelings, and that they differ in talent, temperament and capacity. In the mid-1980s, he developed an interest in the emerging fields of evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology, especially in the controversial works of Richard Lynn, J. Philippe Rushton and Helmuth Nyborg, and came to believe that differences between human beings are largely of genetic origin, and therefore quasi-immutable. All the social miracles of Japan, Taylor averred by 1991 under the pen name Steven Howell, were at least partly a result of Japan's racial and cultural homogeneity.[18]

In November 1990, he founded and published the first issue of American Renaissance, a white supremacist[2] subscription-based monthly newsletter. He created the New Century Foundation in 1994 to assist with the running of American Renaissance.[19] Many of the early articles were written by Taylor himself and were intended to put white racial advocacy on a higher intellectual level than the traditional Klansman's or white skinhead's discourse that dominated the media at that time. The journal ceased its print publication in 2012 to focus on a daily webzine format.

In 1992, Taylor published a book titled Paved with Good Intentions in which he criticizes what he deems the unwise welfare politics that contributed to the economic situation of the African-American underclass. Unlike many of his American Renaissance articles, the work avoids genetic-based reasoning due to fears of not being able to get it published had he talked about IQ differences.[21] In 1994, he was called by the defense team in a Fort Worth, Texas black-on-black murder trial, to give expert testimony on the race-related aspects of the case.[22] Prior to testifying in the trial, Taylor, presented as a "race-relations expert and author" by the Washington Post, called young black men "the most dangerous people in America" and added "This must be taken into consideration in judging whether or not it was realistic for [the defendant] to think this was a kill-or-be-killed situation."[23]

Views Taylor has been described as a white nationalist,[24] white supremacist, and racist by civil rights groups, news media, academics studying racism in the US, and others.[6][7][8][25][26][27] Taylor has "strenuously rejected"[10] being called a racist, and maintains that he is instead a "racialist who believes in race-realism."[28][29] He has also disputed the white supremacist label, preferring to describe himself as a "white advocate",[30] and contends that his views on nationality and race are "moderate, commonsensical, and fully consistent with the views of most of the great statesmen and presidents of America's past".[10]

News coverage of Taylor has associated him with the alt-right.[31][32]

Race Taylor is a proponent of scientific racism and voluntary racial segregation.[8][33][34][35] Taylor also asserts that there are racial differences in intelligence among the various ethno-racial groups across the world.[36] Taylor argues that Blacks are generally less intelligent than Hispanics, while Hispanics are generally less intelligent than whites, and whites are generally less intelligent than East Asians: "I think Asians are objectively superior to Whites by just about any measure that you can come up with in terms of what are the ingredients for a successful society. This doesn't mean that I want America to become Asian. I think every people has a right to be itself, and this becomes clear whether we're talking about Irian Jaya or Tibet, for that matter".[37][39]

Taylor describes himself as an advocate for white interests.[40] He states that his publication, American Renaissance, was founded to provide a voice for such concerns, and argues that its work is analogous to other groups that advocate for ethnic or racial interests.[41] American Renaissance, however, has been described as a white supremacist publication and a "forum for writers disparaging the abilities of minorities".[42] In the journal in 2005, he stated, "Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization '' any kind of civilization '' disappears."[43] A 2005 feature in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described Taylor as "a racist in the guise of expert".[6]

Taylor presents his segregationist project as based on civil liberties and freedom of association, and has described government-mandated segregation as morally unjust. He believes that all anti-discrimination laws "from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 onward" are an unacceptable expansion of federal power. Taylor also opposes anti-miscegenation laws as impinging on the freedom of association of private citizens.[44]

Taylor believes that the multi-racial American society is "doomed to failure", and that non-white groups should not constitute a significant part of the American population, especially Hispanics, Africans, Afro-Caribbeans and Middle Easterners, although he also includes Northern Asians, whom he holds in high regard. He thus supports immigration policies that would favor white immigrants over other groups. Taylor has said: "Whites deserve a homeland," and when questioned about the US immigration laws passed in 1965, under the Hart-Celler Act, said that "Whites are making a terrible mistake by setting in motion forces that will reduce them to a minority."[46]

Taylor supports the white genocide conspiracy theory, and has hosted the Suidlanders on his AmRen podcast to discuss the topic,[48] while encouraging donations to the South African organization.[49] He has recommended Jean Raspail's The Camp of the Saints to his followers.[50]

Attitude towards anti-Semitism Taylor welcomes Jews to his organization and views American Jews as potential powerful allies. While several speakers of Jewish descent have participated in American Renaissance conventions, he has never sought to either welcome or expel anti-Semitic voices. This position has sparked tensions with far-right anti-Semitic organizations claiming that Jews are infiltrating their movements. In 2006, a clash erupted at one convention between anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist David Duke and Michael Hart, a Jewish astrophysicist sharing many of Taylor's ideas.[51] The Forward reported that Taylor "has been trying to de-Nazify the movement and draw the white nationalist circle wider to include Jews of European descent. But to many on the far right, taking the Jew-hatred out of white nationalism is like taking the Christ out of Christmas '-- a sacrilege."[52]

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) comments that Taylor is unusual among the radical right in "his lack of anti-Semitism."[53] Scholar Elizabeth Bryant Morgenstern states that "unlike many other white supremacists, Taylor is not anti-Semitic, and in fact encourages Jews to join his fight. . . . however many within the white supremacist/anti-immigration movement disagree with Taylor . . . and he has been under tremendous pressure to break ties with the Jewish community."[54]

Donald Trump Taylor supported Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and recorded robocalls to support Trump before the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.[55][56]

Taylor attended Trump's inauguration with front-row VIP tickets,[57] and he described the event as "a sign of rising white consciousness".[58]

A spokesperson told CNN that the candidate "disavows all super PACs offering their support and continues to do so."[59] When asked about the robocalls in an interview with CNN, Trump responded "I would disavow that, but I will tell you people are extremely angry."[60]

Influence Madison Grant, the author of The Passing of the Great Race (1916), and Lothrop Stoddard, the author of The Rising Tide of Color (1920), each the object of celebratory articles in American Renaissance, seem to have influenced or reinforced Taylor's belief in separate racial homelands. Southern conservatives Samuel Francis and Sam Dickson, who have been regular speakers at American Renaissance conferences, are also cited as influential on Taylor's views. According to scholar Russell Nieli, "the combination of southern regional conservatism and Taylor's experience of living in . . . Japan has undoubtedly had a formative effect on his thinking about race."

Hoping his ethnonationalist project will go global, Taylor has sought in recent years to establish relations with populist radical right parties in Europe such as France's National Rally, Britain's UKIP, Austria's Freedom Party, Germany's Alternative f¼r Deutschland, and Flanders's Vlaams Belang. Nieli notes that Taylor appears to have a special intellectual affinity for the French New Right author Guillaume Faye, whose books were favorably reviewed by Taylor in American Renaissance; both of them believe that white people need to join in a worldwide fight for their racial, cultural, and demographic survival.

According to Nieli, Taylor "may well have been as central to structuring the fledgling [America's radical Right] in the 1990s as the late William F. Buckley Jr. was in the 1950s and 1960s in structuring post-World War II American conservatism. The growing Alt Right movement in America today owes a great deal to Taylor's past efforts."

Reception The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Taylor as "a courtly presenter of ideas that most would describe as crudely white supremacist'--a kind of modern-day version of the refined but racist colonialist of old."[53]

Mark Potok and Heidi Beirich, writers for the Intelligence Report (a publication of the SPLC), have written that "Jared Taylor is the cultivated, cosmopolitan face of white supremacy. He is the guy who is providing the intellectual heft, in effect, to modern-day Klansmen." They have also stated that "American Renaissance has become increasingly important over the years, bringing a measure of intellectualism and seriousness to the typically thug-dominated world of white supremacy".[65]

On December 18, 2017, his account (as well as the account for American Renaissance) was suspended by Twitter, after Twitter adopted new rules prohibiting accounts affiliated with the promotion of violence.[66] In February 2018, Taylor filed a lawsuit against Twitter, claiming that the suspension violated his right to free speech.[67] Taylor's lawsuit was dismissed, and an appeals court upheld the dismissal, agreeing that services can control what is published on their sites.[68]

In March 2019, Taylor said on his website that he had been banned from the Schengen Area for two years on the instigation of Poland.[69]

References ^ Rich, Evelyn (May 4, 2016). "Setting the Record Straight: Longtime Partner of Jared Taylor Addresses White Nationalist Criticism". Southern Poverty Law Center. ^ a b Elizabeth Bryant Morgenstern, "White Supremacist Groups" in Anti-Immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1 (ed. Kathleen R. Arnold: Greenwood/ABC-CLIO, 2011), p. 508: "Jared Taylor is the editor of the American Renaissance magazine, a publication that espouses the superiority of whites. ... Unlike many other white supremacists, Taylor is not anti-Semitic..."Michael Newton, White Robes and Burning Crosses: A History of the Ku Klux Klan from 1866 (McFarland, 2014), p. 216: "Virginia white supremacist Jared Taylor"Jonathan Mahler, Donald Trump's Message Resonates With White Supremacists, New York Times (March 1, 2016), p. A15: "Jared Taylor, long one of the country's most prominent white supremacists."Daniel Kreiss and Kelsey Mason, Here's what white supremacy looks and sounds like now, Washington Post (August 17, 2017): "the influential white supremacist Jared Taylor argues:"Saini, Angela (2019). Superior: The Return of Race Science. Beacon Press. pp. 81''82. ISBN 9780008293833. Another contributor to Mankind Quarterly as become a key figure in the white supremacist movement. Yale-educated Jared Taylor, who belongs to a number of right-wing groups and think tanks, founded the magazine American Renassaince in 1990 ... His brand of white supremacy draws from race science to lend itself the illusion of intellectual backbone. ^ Doty, Roxanne Lynn (2009). The Law Into Their Own Hands: Immigration and the Politics of Exceptionalism. University of Arizona Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0816527717. ^ "Inside the White Supremacist Group that Influenced Charleston Shooting Suspect". TIME. ^ Devine, Curt; Griffin, Drew; Bronstein, Scott (24 June 2015). "White supremacist group stands by racist ideology". CNN Investigations . Retrieved 15 July 2015 . ^ a b c "Jared Taylor, a Racist in the Guise of 'Expert'". Dennis Roddy. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. January 23, 2005. ^ a b American Renaissance Southern Poverty Law Center ^ a b c Robert W. Sussman (6 October 2014). The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. Harvard University Press. p. 316. ISBN 978-0-674-41731-1. ^ a b Atkins 2011, pp. 59''60 ^ a b c d e Swain & Nieli 2003, p. 87 ^ Nieli 2019, p. 137. See the alumni directory of the institution for the date. ^ "Jared Taylor/American Renaissance". Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016 . Retrieved 2017-07-04 . ^ Nieli 2019, p. 141: "In the 1980s, Jared Taylor became known as a "Japan expert" at a time when much of the world was focused on the extraordinary rise of Japan to economic dominance in Asia. Taylor published at this time Shadows of the Rising Sun, a widely acclaimed book on Japanese culture, business practices, and folkways." ^ Nieli 2019, p. 141 See Howell, Steven (October 1991). "The Case of Japan (Part II)". American Renaissance: "Japanese society is a perfect example of the advantages of ethnic homogeneity." ^ Leonard Zeskind (May 12, 2009). Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream . Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 370. ISBN 978-1-4299-5933-9 . Retrieved November 28, 2015 . ^ Nieli 2019, p. 144; Swain & Nieli 2003, pp. 94''95. ^ "Business - 'Urban Survival Syndrome' Gets Blame In Slayings -- Is Defense Realistic, Or Does It Reinforce A Racial Stereotype? - Seattle Times Newspaper". community.seattletimes.nwsource.com. ^ Montgomery, Lori (26 October 1994). " 'Urban Survival' Rules at Issue in Trial". Washington Post '' via washingtonpost.com. ^ Leonard Zeskind, Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream (Farrar, Straud and Giroux, 2009), p. 370 & 427: "Taylor began his public foray into the white nationalist arena with a newsletter he edited called American Renaissance... Taylor, by eschewing conspiracy mongering and what they called 'paramilitary infantilism,' gave white nationalism greater potential access to the conservative mainstream."Roxanne Lynn Doty, The Law Into Their Own Hands: Immigration and the Politics of Exceptionalism (University of Arizona Press, 2009), p. 61: "One of the more prominent members of the new white nationalism is Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance."Carol M. Swain, The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration (Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 121: "White nationalist Jared Taylor had this to say..."Eric J. Sundquist, King's Dream (Yale University Press, 2009), p. 79: "the white nationalist Jared Taylor" ^ Peter Holley (2016-01-12). "Hear a white nationalist's robocall urging Iowa voters to back Trump". Washington Post . Retrieved 2016-02-08 . ^ Carroll, Rory (2016-12-27). " 'Alt-right' groups will 'revolt' if Trump shuns white supremacy, leaders say". The Guardian . Retrieved 2017-08-08 . ^ Martin Gelin (2014-11-13). "White Flight". Slate.com . Retrieved 2016-02-08 . ^ Atkins 2011, p. 59 ^ Cullison, Alan. "Far-Right Flocks to Russia to Berate the West". The Wall Street Journal. ^ Stephen E Atkins (2011). Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism In Modern American History. ABC-CLIO. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-59884-351-4. Taylor is the editor of the white supremacist journal American Renaissance. Taylor claims not to be a white supremacist ... Remarks by Taylor indicate his racist stance ^ " 'Alt-right' movement makes mark on US presidential election". Financial Times. August 28, 2016. ^ "Alt-right exuberant after Trump victory". Yahoo News. November 12, 2016. ^ Wilson, Jason (26 August 2016). " 'The races are not equal': meet the alt-right leader in Clinton's campaign ad". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 August 2017 . ^ "What This White Separatist Expects From the Trump Administration". WNYC. On the Media. 2016-11-18 . Retrieved 13 August 2017 . ^ "Jared Taylor: Academic Racist". adl.org. The Anti-Defamation League . Retrieved 12 August 2017 . ^ Sussman, Robert (October 14, 2014). "America's virulent racists: The sick ideas and perverted "science" of the American Renaissance Foundation". Salon. ^ Swain & Nieli 2003, p. 102 ^ "Jared Taylor - American Renaissance" (PDF) . Anti-Defamation League. 2013. ^ Swain & Nieli 2003, pp. 87''88. ^ Swain & Nieli 2003, p. 88. ^ Atkins 2011, p. 60 ^ "Jared Taylor". Southern Poverty Law Center . Retrieved 2017-06-17 . ^ Nieli 2019, pp. 145''146. ^ Jared Taylor, in an interview with ABC News' Amna Nawaz, on 26 March 2017; Jared Taylor, ABC Interview 2017. ^ "White genocide: How the big lie spread to the US and beyond". Mail & Guardian. March 23, 2018. ^ "Far-right activists are teaming up with white supremacists to exploit South African politics". Media Matters. March 6, 2018. ^ "The Notorious Book that Ties the Right to the Far Right". The New Republic. February 2, 2018. ^ Nieli 2019, p. 144; citing Smith 2009. ^ Tilove, Jonathan (3 March 2006). "White Nationalist Conference Ponders Whether Jews and Nazis Can Get Along". The Forward . Retrieved 19 January 2017 . ^ a b "Profile of Jared Taylor". Southern Poverty Law Center . Retrieved 2015-07-06 . ^ Kathleen R. Arnold (2011). Anti-immigration in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 508. ISBN 978-0-313-37521-7. ^ Piggott, Stephen (12 January 2016). "White Nationalists Continue to Support Trump Through Robocalls". Southern Poverty Law Center. ^ Reinhard, Beth. "White Nationalists See Advancement Through Donald Trump's Candidacy". Wall Street Journal. ^ Oltmann, Nick (10 February 2017). "Suits and Ties". The Baffler. ^ Valeri, Robin Maria; Borgeson, Kevin (2018). Terrorism in America. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-45599-0. ^ Bronstein, Scott; Griffin, Drew (6 February 2016). "Trump's unwelcome support: White supremacists". CNN. ^ Rappeport, Alan (14 January 2016). "Donald Trump Disavows Actions by White Nationalist Promoting His Bid". New York Times. ^ Mark Potok; Heidi Beirich (Summer 2006). "Schism Threatens White Nationalist Group". Intelligence Report. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007 . Retrieved July 20, 2010 . ^ Timberg, Craig; Tsukayama, Hayley (December 18, 2017). " 'Twitter purge' suspends account of far-right leader who was retweeted by Trump". Washington Post. ^ Shugerman, Emily (22 February 2018). "A white supremacist is suing Twitter for allegedly violating his right to free speech". The Independent . Retrieved 2018-02-27 . ^ Burnson, Robert (August 24, 2018). "Twitter Beats Censorship Lawsuit by Banned White Nationalist". Bloomberg. ^ Michel, Casey (March 31, 2019). "Europe bans one of America's most prominent white supremacists". ThinkProgress. Bibliography

Atkins, Stephen E. (2011), Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism In Modern American History, ABC-CLIO, pp. 59''61, ISBN 9781598843514 Nieli, Russell (2019). "Jared Taylor and White Identity". In Sedgwick, Mark (ed.). Key Thinkers of the Radical Right: Behind the New Threat to Liberal Democracy. Oxford University Press. pp. 137''154. ISBN 978-0-19-087760-6. Swain, Carol M.; Nieli, Russell, eds. (2003), Contemporary Voices of White Nationalism in America , Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-81673-1

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 20:29

20th-century rise in overall human intelligence

The Flynn effect is the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores that were measured in many parts of the world over the 20th century.[1] When intelligence quotient (IQ) tests are initially standardized using a sample of test-takers, by convention the average of the test results is set to 100 and their standard deviation is set to 15 or 16 IQ points. When IQ tests are revised, they are again standardized using a new sample of test-takers, usually born more recently than the first; the average result is set to 100. When the new test subjects take the older tests, in almost every case their average scores are significantly above 100.

Test score increases have been continuous and approximately linear from the earliest years of testing to the present. For example, a study published in the year 2009 found that British children's average scores on the Raven's Progressive Matrices test rose by 14 IQ points from 1942 to 2008.[2] Similar gains have been observed in many other countries in which IQ testing has long been widely used, including other Western European countries, as well as Japan and South Korea.[1]

There are numerous proposed explanations of the Flynn effect, such as the rise in efficiency of education, along with skepticism concerning its implications. Similar improvements have been reported for semantic and episodic memory.[3] Some research suggests that there may be an ongoing reversed Flynn effect (i.e., a decline in IQ scores) in Norway, Denmark, Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and German-speaking countries,[4] a development which appears to have started in the 1990s.[5][6][7][8] In certain cases, this apparent reversal may be due to cultural changes which render parts of intelligence tests obsolete.[9] Meta-analyses indicate that, overall, the Flynn effect continues, either at the same rate,[10] or at a slower rate in developed countries.[11][12]

Origin of term [ edit ] The Flynn effect is named for James R. Flynn, who did much to document it and promote awareness of its implications. The term itself was coined by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray in their 1994 book The Bell Curve.[13][14][15] Although the general term for the phenomenon'--referring to no researcher in particular'--continues to be "secular rise in IQ scores", many textbooks on psychology and IQ testing have now followed the lead of Herrnstein and Murray in calling the phenomenon the Flynn effect.[16]

Rise in IQ [ edit ] IQ tests are updated periodically. For example, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), originally developed in 1949, was updated in 1974, 1991, 2003, and again in 2014. The revised versions are standardized based on the performance of test-takers in standardization samples. A standard score of IQ 100 is defined as the median performance of the standardization sample. Thus one way to see changes in norms over time is to conduct a study in which the same test-takers take both an old and new version of the same test. Doing so confirms IQ gains over time. Some IQ tests, for example, tests used for military draftees in NATO countries in Europe, report raw scores, and those also confirm a trend of rising scores over time. The average rate of increase seems to be about three IQ points per decade in the United States, as scaled by the Wechsler tests. The increasing test performance over time appears on every major test, in every age range, at every ability level, and in every modern industrialized country, although not necessarily at the same rate as in the United States. The increase was continuous and roughly linear from the earliest days of testing to the mid-1990s.[17][better source needed ] Though the effect is most associated with IQ increases, a similar effect has been found with increases in attention and of semantic and episodic memory.[3]

Ulric Neisser estimated that using the IQ values of 1997, the average IQ of the United States in 1932, according to the first Stanford''Binet Intelligence Scales standardization sample, was 80. Neisser states that "Hardly any of them would have scored 'very superior', but nearly one-quarter would have appeared to be 'deficient.'" He also wrote that "Test scores are certainly going up all over the world, but whether intelligence itself has risen remains controversial."[17]

Trahan et al. (2014) found that the effect was about 2.93 points per decade, based on both Stanford''Binet and Wechsler tests; they also found no evidence the effect was diminishing.[18] In contrast, Pietschnig and Voracek (2015) reported, in their meta-analysis of studies involving nearly 4 million participants, that the Flynn effect had decreased in recent decades. They also reported that the magnitude of the effect was different for different types of intelligence ("0.41, 0.30, 0.28, and 0.21 IQ points annually for fluid, spatial, full-scale, and crystallized IQ test performance, respectively"), and that the effect was stronger for adults than for children.[19]

Raven (2000) found that, as Flynn suggested, data interpreted as showing a decrease in many abilities with increasing age must be re-interpreted as showing that there has been a dramatic increase of these abilities with the date of birth. On many tests this occurs at all levels of ability.[20]

Some studies have found the gains of the Flynn effect to be particularly concentrated at the lower end of the distribution. Teasdale and Owen (1989), for example, found the effect primarily reduced the number of low-end scores, resulting in an increased number of moderately high scores, with no increase in very high scores.[21] In another study, two large samples of Spanish children were assessed with a 30-year gap. Comparison of the IQ distributions indicated that the mean IQ scores on the test had increased by 9.7 points (the Flynn effect), the gains were concentrated in the lower half of the distribution and negligible in the top half, and the gains gradually decreased as the IQ of the individuals increased.[22] Some studies have found a reverse Flynn effect with declining scores for those with high IQ.[23][19]

In 1987, Flynn took the position that the very large increase indicates that IQ tests do not measure intelligence but only a minor sort of "abstract problem-solving ability" with little practical significance. He argued that if IQ gains did reflect intelligence increases, there would have been consequent changes of our society that have not been observed (a presumed non-occurrence of a "cultural renaissance").[17] By 2012 Flynn no longer endorsed this view of intelligence, having elaborated and refined his view of what rising IQ scores meant.[24]

Precursors to Flynn's publications [ edit ] Earlier investigators had discovered rises in raw IQ test scores in some study populations, but had not published general investigations of that issue in particular. Historian Daniel C. Calhoun cited earlier psychology literature on IQ score trends in his book The Intelligence of a People (1973).[25] R. L. Thorndike drew attention to rises in Stanford-Binet scores in a 1975 review of the history of intelligence testing.[26] Richard Lynn recorded an increase in Japanese IQ in 1982.[27]

Intelligence [ edit ] There is debate about whether the rise in IQ scores also corresponds to a rise in general intelligence, or only a rise in special skills related to taking IQ tests. Because children attend school longer now and have become much more familiar with the testing of school-related material, one might expect the greatest gains to occur on such school content-related tests as vocabulary, arithmetic or general information. Just the opposite is the case: abilities such as these have experienced relatively small gains and even occasional decreases over the years. Meta-analytic findings indicate that Flynn effects occur for tests assessing both fluid and crystallized abilities. For example, Dutch conscripts gained 21 points during only 30 years, or 7 points per decade, between 1952 and 1982.[17] This rise in IQ test scores is not wholly explained by an increase in general intelligence. Studies have shown that while test scores have improved over time, the improvement is not fully correlated with latent factors related to intelligence.[28] Rushton argues that the gains in IQ over time are unrelated to general intelligence.[29][30] Other researchers argue that the IQ gains described by the Flynn effect are due in part to increasing intelligence, and in part to increases in test-specific skills.[31][32][33]

Proposed explanations [ edit ] Schooling and test familiarity [ edit ] The duration of average schooling has increased steadily. One problem with this explanation is that if in the US comparing older and more recent subjects with similar educational levels, then the IQ gains appear almost undiminished in each such group considered individually.[17]

Many studies find that children who do not attend school score drastically lower on the tests than their regularly attending peers. During the 1960s, when some Virginia counties closed their public schools to avoid racial integration, compensatory private schooling was available only for Caucasian children. On average, the scores of African-American children who received no formal education during that period decreased at a rate of about six IQ points per year.[17]

Another explanation is an increased familiarity of the general population with tests and testing. For example, children who take the very same IQ test a second time usually gain five or six points. However, this seems to set an upper limit on the effects of test sophistication. One problem with this explanation and others related to schooling is that in the US, the groups with greater test familiarity show smaller IQ increases.[17]

Early intervention programs have shown mixed results. Some preschool (ages 3''4) intervention programs like "Head Start" do not produce lasting changes of IQ, although they may confer other benefits.[which? ] The "Abecedarian Early Intervention Project", an all-day program that provided various forms of environmental enrichment to children from infancy onward, showed IQ gains that did not diminish over time. The IQ difference between the groups, although only five points, was still present at age 12. Not all such projects have been successful.[17] Also, such IQ gains can diminish until age 18.[34]

Citing a high correlation between rising literacy rates and gains in IQ, David Marks has argued that the Flynn effect is caused by changes in literacy rates.[35]

Generally more stimulating environment [ edit ] Still another theory is that the general environment today is much more complex and stimulating. One of the most striking 20th-century changes in the human intellectual environment has come from the increase of exposure to many types of visual media. From pictures on the wall to movies to television to video games to computers, each successive generation has been exposed to richer optical displays than the one before and may have become more adept at visual analysis. This would explain why visual tests like the Raven's have shown the greatest increases. An increase only of particular forms of intelligence would explain why the Flynn effect has not caused a "cultural renaissance too great to be overlooked."[17]

In 2001, William Dickens and James Flynn presented a model for resolving several contradictory findings regarding IQ. They argue that the measure "heritability" includes both a direct effect of the genotype on IQ and also indirect effects such that the genotype changes the environment, thereby affecting IQ. That is, those with a greater IQ tend to seek stimulating environments that further increase IQ. These reciprocal effects result in gene environment correlation. The direct effect could initially have been very small, but feedback can create large differences in IQ. In their model, an environmental stimulus can have a very great effect on IQ, even for adults, but this effect also decays over time unless the stimulus continues (the model could be adapted to include possible factors, like nutrition during early childhood, that may cause permanent effects). The Flynn effect can be explained by a generally more stimulating environment for all people. The authors suggest that any program designed to increase IQ may produce long-term IQ gains if that program teaches children how to replicate the types of cognitively demanding experiences that produce IQ gains outside the program. To maximize lifetime IQ, the programs should also motivate them to continue searching for cognitively demanding experiences after they have left the program.[36][37]

Flynn in his 2007 book What Is Intelligence? further expanded on this theory. Environmental changes resulting from modernization'--such as more intellectually demanding work, greater use of technology, and smaller families'--have meant that a much larger proportion of people are more accustomed to manipulating abstract concepts such as hypotheses and categories than a century ago. Substantial portions of IQ tests deal with these abilities. Flynn gives, as an example, the question 'What do a dog and a rabbit have in common?' A modern respondent might say they are both mammals (an abstract, or a priori answer, which depends only on the meanings of the words dog and rabbit), whereas someone a century ago might have said that humans catch rabbits with dogs (a concrete, or a posteriori answer, which depended on what happened to be the case at that time).

Nutrition [ edit ] Improved nutrition is another possible explanation. Today's average adult from an industrialized nation is taller than a comparable adult of a century ago. That increase of stature, likely the result of general improvements in nutrition and health, has been at a rate of more than a centimeter per decade. Available data suggest that these gains have been accompanied by analogous increases in head size, and by an increase in the average size of the brain.[17][38] This argument had been thought to suffer the difficulty that groups who tend to be of smaller overall body size (e.g. women, or people of Asian ancestry) do not have lower average IQs.[21]

A 2005 study presented data supporting the nutrition hypothesis, which predicts that gains will occur predominantly at the low end of the IQ distribution, where nutritional deprivation is probably most severe.[22] An alternative interpretation of skewed IQ gains could be that improved education has been particularly important for this group.[21] Richard Lynn makes the case for nutrition, arguing that cultural factors cannot typically explain the Flynn effect because its gains are observed even at infant and preschool levels, with rates of IQ test score increase about equal to those of school students and adults. Lynn states that "This rules out improvements in education, greater test sophistication, etc., and most of the other factors that have been proposed to explain the Flynn effect. He proposes that the most probable factor has been improvements in pre-natal and early post-natal nutrition."[39]

A century ago, nutritional deficiencies may have limited body and organ functionality, including skull volume. The first two years of life are a critical time for nutrition. The consequences of malnutrition can be irreversible and may include poor cognitive development, educability, and future economic productivity.[40] On the other hand, Flynn has pointed to 20-point gains on Dutch military (Raven's type) IQ tests between 1952, 1962, 1972, and 1982. He observes that the Dutch 18-year-olds of 1962 had a major nutritional handicap. They were either in the womb or were recently born, during the great Dutch famine of 1944'--when German troops monopolized food and 18,000 people died of starvation.[41] Yet, concludes Flynn, "they do not show up even as a blip in the pattern of Dutch IQ gains. It is as if the famine had never occurred."[42][43] It appears that the effects of diet are gradual, taking effect over decades (affecting mother as well as the child) rather than a few months.[citation needed ]

In support of the nutritional hypothesis, it is known that, in the United States, the average height before 1900 was about 10 cm (~4 inches) shorter than it is today.[44] Possibly related to the Flynn effect is a similar change of skull size and shape during the last 150 years. A Norwegian study found that height gains were strongly correlated with intelligence gains until the cessation of height gains in military conscript cohorts towards the end of the 1980s.[45] Both height and skull size increases probably result from a combination of phenotypic plasticity and genetic selection over this period.[46] With only five or six human generations in 150 years, time for natural selection has been very limited, suggesting that increased skeletal size resulting from changes in population phenotypes is more likely than recent genetic evolution.

It is well known that micronutrient deficiencies change the development of intelligence. For instance, one study has found that iodine deficiency causes a fall, on average, of 12 IQ points in China.[47]

Scientists James Feyrer, Dimitra Politi, and David N. Weil have found in the U.S. that the proliferation of iodized salt increased IQ by 15 points in some areas. Journalist Max Nisen has stated that with this type of salt becoming popular, that "the aggregate effect has been extremely positive."[48]

Daley et al. (2003) found a significant Flynn effect among children in rural Kenya, and concluded that nutrition was one of the hypothesized explanations that best explained their results (the others were parental literacy and family structure).[49]

Infectious diseases [ edit ] Eppig, Fincher, and Thornhill (2009) argue that "From an energetics standpoint, a developing human will have difficulty building a brain and fighting off infectious diseases at the same time, as both are very metabolically costly tasks" and that "the Flynn effect may be caused in part by the decrease in the intensity of infectious diseases as nations develop." They suggest that improvements in gross domestic product (GDP), education, literacy, and nutrition may have an effect on IQ mainly through reducing the intensity of infectious diseases.[50]

Eppig, Fincher, and Thornhill (2011) in a similar study instead looking at different US states found that states with a higher prevalence of infectious diseases had lower average IQ. The effect remained after controlling for the effects of wealth and educational variation.[51]

Atheendar Venkataramani (2010) studied the effect of malaria on IQ in a sample of Mexicans. Malaria eradication during the birth year was associated with increases in IQ. It also increased the probability of employment in a skilled occupation. The author suggests that this may be one explanation for the Flynn effect and that this may be an important explanation for the link between national malaria burden and economic development.[52] A literature review of 44 papers states that cognitive abilities and school performance were shown to be impaired in sub-groups of patients (with either cerebral malaria or uncomplicated malaria) when compared with healthy controls. Studies comparing cognitive functions before and after treatment for acute malarial illness continued to show significantly impaired school performance and cognitive abilities even after recovery. Malaria prophylaxis was shown to improve cognitive function and school performance in clinical trials when compared to placebo groups.[53]

Heterosis [ edit ] Heterosis, or hybrid vigor associated with historical reductions of the levels of inbreeding, has been proposed by Michael Mingroni as an alternative explanation of the Flynn effect. However, James Flynn has pointed out that even if everyone mated with a sibling in 1900, subsequent increases in heterosis would not be a sufficient explanation of the observed IQ gains.[54]

Reduction of lead in gasoline [ edit ] One study found the drop in blood lead levels in the United States from the 1970s to 2007 correlated with a 4-5 point increase in IQ.[55]

Possible end of progression [ edit ] Mean standing height and mean GA (both in z scores units+5) by year of testing, from Sundet et al. 2004 (figure 3)

Jon Martin Sundet and colleagues (2004) examined scores on intelligence tests given to Norwegian conscripts between the 1950s and 2002. They found that the increase of scores of general intelligence stopped after the mid-1990s and declined in numerical reasoning sub-tests.[45]

Teasdale and Owen (2005) examined the results of IQ tests given to Danish male conscripts. Between 1959 and 1979 the gains were 3 points per decade. Between 1979 and 1989 the increase approached 2 IQ points. Between 1989 and 1998 the gain was about 1.3 points. Between 1998 and 2004 IQ declined by about the same amount as it gained between 1989 and 1998. They speculate that "a contributing factor in this recent fall could be a simultaneous decline in proportions of students entering 3-year advanced-level school programs for 16''18-year-olds."[56] The same authors in a more comprehensive 2008 study, again on Danish male conscripts, found that there was a 1.5-point increase between 1988 and 1998, but a 1.5-point decrease between 1998 and 2003/2004.[57]

In Australia, the IQ of 6''12 year olds as measured by the Colored Progressive Matrices has shown no increase from 1975 to 2003.[58]

In the United Kingdom, a study by Flynn (2009) found that tests carried out in 1980 and again in 2008 show that the IQ score of an average 14-year-old dropped by more than two points over the period. For the upper half of the results, the performance was even worse. Average IQ scores declined by six points. However, children aged between five and 10 saw their IQs increase by up to half a point a year over the three decades. Flynn argues that the abnormal drop in British teenage IQ could be due to youth culture having "stagnated" or even dumbed down. He also states that the youth culture is more oriented towards computer games than towards reading and holding conversations. Researcher Richard House, commenting on the study, also mentions the computer culture diminishing reading books as well as a tendency towards teaching to the test.[59][60]

Bratsberg & Rogeberg (2018) present evidence that the Flynn effect in Norway has reversed, and that both the original rise in mean IQ scores and their subsequent decline was caused by environmental factors.[8]

One possible explanation of a worldwide decline in intelligence, suggested by the World Health Organization and the Forum of International Respiratory Societies' Environmental Committee, is an increase in air pollution, which now affects over 90% of the world's population.[61][62]

IQ group differences [ edit ] If the Flynn effect has ended in developed nations but continues in less developed ones, this would tend to diminish national differences in IQ scores.[57]

Also, if the Flynn effect has ended for the majority in developed nations, it may still continue for minorities, especially for groups like immigrants where many may have received poor nutrition during early childhood or have had other disadvantages. A study in the Netherlands found that children of non-Western immigrants had improvements for g, educational achievements, and work proficiency compared to their parents, although there were still remaining differences compared to ethnic Dutch.[32]

In the United States, the IQ gap between black and white people was gradually closing over the last decades of the 20th century, as black test-takers increased their average scores relative to white test-takers. For instance, Vincent reported in 1991 that the black''white IQ gap was decreasing among children, but that it was remaining constant among adults.[63] Similarly, a 2006 study by Dickens and Flynn estimated that the difference between mean scores of black people and white people closed by about 5 or 6 IQ points between 1972 and 2002, a reduction of about one-third. In the same period, the educational achievement disparity also diminished.[65] Reviews by Flynn and Dickens,[66] Mackintosh,[67] and Nisbett et al.[68][69] all concluded that the gradual closing of the gap was a real phenomenon.

Flynn has commented that he never claimed that the Flynn effect has the same causes as observed differences in average IQ test performance between blacks and whites, but that it shows that environmental factors can create IQ differences of a magnitude similar to that gap.[70] A meta-analysis which examined whether g factor and IQ gains from the Flynn effect are related found a small negative correlation between the two, which may indicate that group differences and the Flynn effect are possibly due to differing causes.[71] Flynn also argued that his findings undermine the so-called Spearman's hypothesis, which hypothesized that differences in g factor are the major driver of the blacks-whites IQ gap.[72]

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Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol. 245, The Netherlands during German Occupation (May 1946), pp. 93''110 ^ Flynn J.R. (1987). "Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: What IQ tests really measure". Psychological Bulletin. 101 (2): 171''91. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.101.2.171. ^ Flynn, James R. (2009). What Is Intelligence? (p. 103). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition. ^ Samaras, Thomas T.; Elrick, Harold (May 2002). "Group Height, body size, and longevity: is smaller better for the human body?". West J Med. 176 (3): 206''08. doi:10.1136/ewjm.176.3.206. PMC 1071721 . PMID 12016250. ^ a b Sundet, J.; Barlaug, D.; Torjussen, T. (2004). "The end of the Flynn effect?: A study of secular trends in mean intelligence test scores of Norwegian conscripts during half a century". Intelligence. 32 (4): 349''62. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2004.06.004. ^ Jantz RL, Meadows Jantz L (May 2000). "Secular change in craniofacial morphology". Am. J. Hum. 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"Parasite prevalence and the worldwide distribution of cognitive ability". Proc. Biol. Sci. 277 (1701): 3801''08. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.0973. PMC 2992705 . PMID 20591860. ^ Eppig C, Fincher CL, Thornhill R (2011). "Parasite prevalence and the distribution of intelligence among the states of the USA". Intelligence. 39 (2''3): 155''60. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2011.02.008. ^ Venkataramani A (September 18, 2010). "Early Life Exposure to Malaria and Cognition and Skills in Adulthood: Evidence from Mexico". SSRN 1679164. ^ Fernando SD, Rodrigo C, Rajapakse S (2010). "The 'hidden' burden of malaria: cognitive impairment following infection". Malar. J. 9 (1): 366. doi:10.1186/1475-2875-9-366. PMC 3018393 . PMID 21171998. ^ Mackintosh, N.J. (2011). IQ and Human Intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 291. ^ Kaufman, Alan S.; Zhou, Xiaobin; Reynolds, Matthew R.; Kaufman, Nadeen L.; Green, Garo P.; Weisse, Lawrence G. (July 2014). "The possible societal impact of the decrease in U.S. blood lead levels on adult IQ". Environmental Research. 132: 413''420. Bibcode:2014ER....132..413K. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2014.04.015. PMID 24853978. ^ Teasdale TW, Owen DR (2005). "A long-term rise and recent decline in intelligence test performance: The Flynn Effect in reverse". Personality and Individual Differences. 39 (4): 837''43. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.01.029. ^ a b Teasdale TW, Owen DR (2008). "Secular declines in cognitive test scores: A reversal of the Flynn Effect" (PDF) . Intelligence. 36 (2): 121''26. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2007.01.007. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 15, 2012 . Retrieved April 18, 2010 . ^ Cotton, S.M.; Kiely, P.M.; Crewther, D.P.; Thomson, B.; Laycock, R.; Crewther, S.G. (2005). "A normative and reliability study for the Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices for primary school aged children in Australia". Personality and Individual Differences. 39 (3): 647''60. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.02.015. ^ Gray, Richard (February 7, 2009). "British teenagers have lower IQs than their counterparts did 30 years ago". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on February 16, 2018 . Retrieved April 5, 2018 . ^ Flynn, J.R. (2009). "Requiem for nutrition as the cause of IQ gains: Raven's gains in Britain 1938''2008". Economics & Human Biology. 7 (1): 18''27. doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2009.01.009. PMID 19251490. ^ Carrington, Damian (May 17, 2019). "Revealed: air pollution may be damaging 'every organ in the body' ". The Guardian. Archived from the original on May 17, 2019 . Retrieved May 17, 2019 . ^ Wuebbles, Donald J.; Vanker, Anessa; To, Teresa; Thurston, George D.; Sood, Akshay; Riojas-Rodriguez, Horacio; Rice, Mary B.; Perez-Padilla, Rogelio; Mortimer, Kevin (February 2019). "Air Pollution and Noncommunicable Diseases: A Review by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies' Environmental Committee, Part 2: Air Pollution and Organ Systems". Chest. 155 (2): 417''426. doi:10.1016/j.chest.2018.10.041. ISSN 0012-3692. PMC 6904854 . PMID 30419237. ^ Vincent, Ken R. (March 1991). "Black/white IQ differences: Does age make the difference?". Journal of Clinical Psychology. 47 (2): 266''270. doi:10.1002/1097-4679(199103)47:2<266::aid-jclp2270470213>3.0.co;2-s. PMID 2030133. ^ Neisser, Ulric (Ed). 1998. The rising curve: Long-term gains in IQ and related measures. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association ^ Dickens, William T; Flynn, James R (2006). "Black Americans Reduce the Racial IQ Gap: Evidence from Standardization Samples" (PDF) . Psychological Science. 17 (10): 913''20. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.186.2540 . doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01802.x. PMID 17100793. S2CID 6593169. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 9, 2009. ^ Mackintosh, N. J. (2011). IQ and Human Intelligence (second ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-958559-5. ^ Nisbett, Richard E.; Aronson, Joshua; Blair, Clancy; Dickens, William; Flynn, James; Halpern, Diane F.; Turkheimer, Eric (2012a). "Intelligence: new findings and theoretical developments" (PDF) . American Psychologist. 67 (2): 130''159. doi:10.1037/a0026699. ISSN 0003-066X. PMID 22233090. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 8, 2020 . Retrieved July 22, 2013 . ^ Willingham, Dan (May 10, 2012). "The latest on intelligence". Daniel Willingham'--Science & Education. ^ Flynn, J.R. (2010). "The spectacles through which I see the race and IQ debate". Intelligence. 38 (4): 363''66. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2010.05.001. ^ Nijenhuis, J.; van der Flierb, H. (2013). "Is the Flynn effect on g?: A meta-analysis". Intelligence. 41 (6): 802''07. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2013.03.001. ^ Flynn, J.R. (1999). "Searching for justice: the discovery of IQ gains over time" (PDF) . American Psychologist. 54: 5''9. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.54.1.5. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 25, 2010 . Retrieved October 26, 2017 . Further reading [ edit ] Flynn, James R. (1984). "The Mean IQ of Americans: Massive Gains 1932 to 1978" (PDF) . Psychological Bulletin. 95: 29''51. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.95.1.29 . Retrieved May 16, 2013 . Flynn, James R. (March 1987). "Massive IQ Gains in 14 Nations: What IQ Tests Really Measure" (PDF) . Psychological Bulletin. 101 (2): 171''91. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.101.2.171 . Retrieved May 13, 2013 . Flynn, James R. (1998). "IQ Gains over Time: Toward Finding the Causes". In Neisser, Ulric (ed.). The Rising Curve: Long-Term Gains in IQ and Related Measures . Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. pp. 25''66. ISBN 978-1-55798-503-3. Flynn, James R. (2012). Are We Getting Smarter? Rising IQ in the Twenty-first century . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-60917-4. Winerman, Lea (March 2013). "Smarter than ever?". Monitor on Psychology. 44 (3): 30. Ulric Neisser; James R. Flynn; Carmi Schooler; Patricia M. Greenfield; Wendy M. Williams; Marian Sigman; Shannon E. Whaley; Reynaldo Martorell; Richard Lynn; Robert M. Hauser; David W. Grissmer; Stephanie Williamson; Sheila Nataraj Kirby; Mark Berends; Stephen J. Ceci; Tina B. Rosenblum; Matthew Kumpf; Min-Hsiung Huang; Irwin D. Waldman; Samuel H. Preston; John C. Loehlin (1998). Neisser, Ulric (ed.). The Rising Curve: Long-Term Gains in IQ and Related Measures . APA Science Volume Series. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN 978-1-55798-503-3. Tuddenham, Read D. (1948), "Soldier intelligence in World Wars I and II", American Psychologist, 3 (2): 54''56, doi:10.1037/h0054962, PMID 18911933 External links [ edit ] "TED Speaker: James Flynn: Why our IQ levels are higher than our grandparents' ". TED.com . Retrieved November 13, 2017 . Beyond the Flynn Effect a 2006 lecture by James R. Flynn at the University of CambridgeThe Flynn Effect by Indiana University.Marguerite Holloway, Flynn's effect, Scientific American, January 1999; online edition"Heritability Estimates Versus Large Environmental Effects: The IQ Paradox Resolved" '' a 2001 article by Dickens and Flynn"Dome Improvement" (Wired article)Malcolm Gladwell from the New Yorker on race, I.Q., and the Flynn effectIncreasing intelligence: the Flynn effect

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 20:11

Interest in intelligence dates back to more than a century ago. But it wasn't until psychologist Alfred Binet was asked to identify which students needed educational assistance that the first intelligence quotient (IQ) test was born.

Although it has its limitations, Binet's IQ test is well-known around the world as a way to assess and compare intelligence. It also set the stage for the development of several of the IQ tests that are still in use today.

History of Intelligence Assessments In the late 1800s, Sir Francis Galton'--the founder of differential psychology'--published some of the first works about human intelligence. Galton proposed that intelligence was hereditary and that it could be tested by looking at how people performed on sensorimotor tasks.

Sensorimotor tasks are tasks or exercises that involve the brain receiving a message, then producing a response. An example would be driving a car and recognizing that the vehicle in front of you is slowing (the receipt of a message), causing you to hit your brakes to slow down as well (a produced response).

Galton also liked to use statistics to explain the data he collected, even though this information didn't always verify his beliefs. For example, although he originally thought that head shape and size were correlated with intelligence, the data did not support this notion.

Galton himself was thought to be of higher intelligence, even as a child, with some suggesting that his IQ was "not far from 200" when he was under 8 years of age. According to IQ score ratings, this would have put him in the "profoundly gifted" category for intelligence.

Other psychologists of that time had their own ideas, such as James McKeen Cattell who proposed that simple mental tests could be used to measure intelligence. Yet, it wouldn't be until a few years later that the first IQ test was born.

Alfred Binet and the First IQ Test Alfred Binet was a French psychologist who played an important role in the development of experimental psychology. Although he originally pursued a career in law, Binet become increasingly interested in Galton's attempts to measure mental processes'--so much so that he abandoned his law career and set out to do the same.

At the time, the French government had laws requiring that all children attend school. So, it was important to find a way to identify the kids who would need extra help. In 1904, as part of this effort, the French government asked Binet to help decide which students were most likely to experience difficulty in school.

Binet and his colleague, Theodore Simon, began developing questions that focused on areas not explicitly taught in the classroom, such as attention, memory, and problem-solving skills. They then worked to determine which questions best predicted academic success.

Binet and Simon ultimately came up with a test that included 30 questions, such as asking about the difference between "boredom" and "weariness," or asking the test-taker to follow a moving object with just one eye. This became known as the Binet-Simon Scale and was the first recognized IQ test.

Binet quickly realized that some children were able to answer more advanced questions. Based on this observation, he suggested the concept of mental age, which is a measure of intelligence based on the average abilities of children within a certain age group.

Limitations of the Binet-Simon IQ Test This Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale (also sometimes called the Simon-Binet Scale) became the basis for the intelligence tests still in use today. Though, this scale had many limitations.

For example, Binet did not believe that his psychometric instruments could be used to measure a single, permanent, and inborn level of intelligence. Instead, he suggested that intelligence is far too broad a concept to quantify with one number.

Binet insisted that intelligence is complex in that it is influenced by many factors, changes over time, and can only be compared in children with similar backgrounds.

The Binet-Simon test didn't necessarily account for this complexity, providing an incomplete measure of intelligence. Some psychologists set out to make the modifications needed to supply a more complete picture, which led to the creation of newer, more comprehensive IQ tests.

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale Stanford University psychologist Lewis Terman is one professional who took Binet's original test and standardized it using a sample of American participants. Initially, this was known as the Revised Stanford-Binet Scale but is now known more commonly as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale.

The Stanford-Binet test, which was first published in 1916, was adapted from the original test in that French terms and ideas were translated into English. It also included new terms, using two scales of measurement versus one to provide a more accurate score.

The Stanford-Binet intelligence test provided a single number, known as the intelligence quotient (IQ), to represent an individual's score on the test. It remains a popular assessment tool today, despite going through a number of revisions over the years since its inception.

The IQ score was calculated by dividing the test taker's mental age by their chronological age, then multiplying this number by 100.

For example, a child with a mental age of 12 and a chronological age of 10 would have an IQ of 120: (12·10) x 100 = 120.

Army Alpha and Beta Tests At the outset of World War I, U.S. Army officials were faced with the task of screening and classifying an enormous number of recruits. In 1917, as chair of the Committee on the Psychological Examination of Recruits, psychologist Robert Yerkes developed two IQ tests known as the Army Alpha and Beta tests.

The Army Alpha was designed as a written test, while the Army Beta was made up of pictures for recruits who were unable to read or didn't speak English. The tests were administered to over 2 million soldiers.

The goal of the Alpha and Beta tests was to help the Army determine which men were suited for specific positions and leadership roles. After the war, the tests remained in use in a wide variety of situations outside of the military.

For example, IQ tests were used to screen new immigrants as they entered the United States. As a result of these tests, harmful and inaccurate generalizations were made about entire populations, leading Congress to enact discriminatory immigration restrictions for groups deemed to have a "genetically inferior" IQ.

Wechsler Intelligence Scales Much like Binet, American psychologist David Wechsler believed that intelligence involved different mental abilities. But he wasn't happy with the limitations of the Stanford-Binet so, in 1955, he published his new intelligence test known as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS).

Wechsler developed two different tests specifically for use with children: the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI). The adult version of the test has been revised since its original publication and is now known as the WAIS-IV.

WAIS-IV Rather than scoring based on chronological and mental age, the WAIS is scored by comparing the test taker's score to the scores of others in the same age group. The average score is fixed at 100, with two-thirds of scores lying in the normal range, which is somewhere between 85 and 115.

This scoring method has become the standard in intelligence testing and is also used in the modern revision of the Stanford-Binet test. The WAIS-IV contains 10 subtests, along with five supplemental tests, and provides scores in four major areas of intelligence:

Verbal comprehensionPerceptual reasoningWorking memoryProcessing speedThe WAIS-IV also provides two broad scores that can be used as a summary of overall intelligence. The Full-Scale IQ score combines performance on all four index scores while the General Ability Index is based on six subtest scores.

Debates Surrounding IQ Testing Opinions vary on the validity of IQ testing, sometimes even changing based on the expert's political viewpoints and gender. Concerns exist as to whether these tests accurately measure intelligence or if results are impacted by outside influences such as the person's motivational level, quality of schooling, health status, coaching, and more.

There are also questions as to whether IQ tests are reliable. Reliability exists when the same test results are repeated over time. One pilot study involving the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence - Second Edition (WASI-II) found good reliability in some testing conditions and poor reliability in others.

Some of the controversies surrounding IQ tests revolve around the notion that they are inherently biased against certain ethnic groups, namely Black and Hispanic Americans. This apparent bias then can result in discrimination and disadvantages for these groups.

IQ Test Uses At the same time, others believe that IQ tests offer some value, particularly in certain situations. A few of the ways intelligence tests are used today include:

Criminal defense applications: IQ tests are sometimes used in the criminal justice system to help identify whether a defendant can contribute to their own defense at trial, while others have used their test results in an attempt to secure benefits in the form of Social Security Disability. Learning disability identification: Subtest scores on the WAIS-IV can be useful in identifying learning disabilities. For instance, a low score in some areas combined with a high score in others may indicate that the person has a specific learning-related difficulty.To assess therapeutic impacts: IQ tests are sometimes used to help measure whether a certain therapy is working or if a medical treatment impacts cognitive function. For example, a 2016 research study used IQ testing to learn whether a therapy designed to help treat brain tumors in children had a better neurocognitive outcome than another type of therapy. To promote AI development: Some of the same theories and principles behind IQ testing on humans are being used to help advance the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in computer systems. AI is used online to personalize search engine results and product recommendations. It may even aid in the prediction of mental illness.

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 20:10

Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) protects individuals against employment discrimination on the basis of genetic information. GINA covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies, labor organizations, joint labor-management training and apprenticeship programs, and the federal government.

Definition of Genetic InformationGenetic information means:

Information about an individual's genetic tests;Information about the genetic test of a family member;Family medical history;Requests for and receipt of genetic services by an individual or a family member; andGenetic information about a fetus carried by an individual or family member or of an embryo legally held by an individual or family member using assisted reproductive technology.Employment DecisionsGINA prohibits the use of genetic information in making employment decisions, such as hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. For example, it would be illegal for an employer to reassign an employee from a job it believes is too stressful after learning of his family medical history of heart disease. There are no exceptions to the prohibition on using genetic information to make employment decisions.

Acquisition of Genetic InformationGINA also prohibits employers from requesting, requiring, or purchasing genetic information about applicants or employees, except in very narrow circumstances. For example, it is illegal for an employer to require an applicant or employee to answer questions about family medical history during an employment-related medical exam, such as a pre-employment exam or a fitness for duty exam during employment.

There are six very limited circumstances under which an employer may request, require, or purchase genetic information:

Where the information is acquired inadvertently, in other words, accidentally;As part of a health or genetic service, such as a wellness program, that is provided by the employer on a voluntary basis;In the form of family medical history to comply with the certification requirements of the Family and Medical Leave Act, state or local leave laws, or certain employer leave policies;From sources that are commercially and publicly available, including newspapers, books, magazines, and electronic sources (such as websites accessible to the public);As part of genetic monitoring that is either required by law or provided on a voluntary basis; andBy employers who conduct DNA testing for law enforcement purposes as a forensic lab or for human remains identification.Lawful Requests for Health-Related InformationBecause GINA prohibits employers from requesting, requiring, or purchasing genetic information about an individual, when an employer asks for information about an applicant's or employee's current health status (e.g., to support an employee's request for reasonable accommodation under the ADA or a request for sick leave), it should warn the employee and/or the employee's health care provider from whom it is requesting the information not to provide genetic information.

An employer must tell its own health care providers not to collect genetic information as part of employment-related medical exams when it sends an applicant or employee for a medical examination.

Confidentiality of Genetic InformationEmployers must keep genetic information about applicants and employees confidential and, if the information is in writing, must keep it apart from other personnel information in separate medical files. There are six limited circumstances under which an employer may disclose genetic information:

To the employee or family member about whom the information pertains upon receipt of the employee's or family member's written request;To an occupational or other health researcher conducting research in compliance with certain federal regulations;In response to a court order, except that the covered entity may disclose only the genetic information expressly authorized by the order;To government officials investigating compliance with Title II of GINA, if the information is relevant to the investigation;In accordance with the certification process for FMLA leave or state family and medical leave laws; orTo a public health agency only with regard to information about the manifestation of a disease or disorder that concerns a contagious disease that presents an imminent hazard of death or life-threatening illness.Other ProtectionsIt is also unlawful to retaliate against an individual for opposing employment practices that discriminate based on genetic information or for filing a discrimination charge, testifying, or participating in any way in an investigation, proceeding, or litigation under GINA. For example, it would be unlawful for an employer to transfer an employee to a less prestigious position after the employee complains of employer's attempt to acquire genetic information during a fitness for duty exam.

GINA also prohibits harassment on the basis of genetic information, such as offensive and derogatory comments about an individual's genetic information that are sufficiently severe or pervasive to create a hostile work environment.

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 19:49

British-American researcher (1925''2002)

Antony C. Sutton

BornAntony Cyril Sutton ( 1925-02-14 ) February 14, 1925London, United Kingdom[1]DiedJune 17, 2002 (2002-06-17) (aged 77)Reno, Washoe, Nevada, United States[2]OccupationResearcher, writerNationalityBritish, AmericanAlma materUniversity of Southampton, EnglandGenreNon-fictionSubjectHistory, economics, politics antonysutton.com Antony Cyril Sutton (February 14, 1925 '' June 17, 2002) was a British-American writer, researcher, economist, and professor.

Early life and education [ edit ] Antony C. Sutton was born in London on February 14, 1925 to Edward Ceril Sutton and Marjorie Sutton, maiden name Burrett.[1] The family relocated to California in 1957 with Antony and his two siblings, and he became a U.S. citizen in 1962.[3]

Sutton studied at the universities of University of London, University of G¶ttingen, and University of California, Los Angeles, and received his D.Sc. from the University of Southampton.[4]

Career [ edit ] Sutton became an economics professor at California State University, Los Angeles. He had a research fellowship at Stanford University's Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace from 1968 to 1973.[citation needed ]

At the Hoover Institution, he wrote the study Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (in three volumes), arguing that the West played a major role in developing the Soviet Union from its beginnings until the then-present year of 1970. Sutton argued that the Soviet Union's technological and manufacturing base, which was then engaged in supplying North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, was built by United States corporations and largely funded by US taxpayers. Steel and iron plants, the GAZ automobile factory, a Ford subsidiary in eastern Russia, and many other Soviet industrial enterprises were built with the help or technical assistance of the United States government or US corporations. He argued further that the Soviet Union's acquisition of MIRV technology was made possible by receiving (from US sources) machining equipment for the manufacture of precision ball bearings, necessary to mass-produce MIRV-enabled missiles.[non-primary source needed ]

Ayn Rand advertised the first volume of the book for sale in The Objectivist Book Service for $9 alongside a review of the work by Robert Hessen that she published in The Objectivist.[5][non-primary source needed ]

He contributed articles to Human Events, Review of the News, Triumph, Ordnance, The Proceedings, and other journals.[non-primary source needed ]

In early 1972, U.S. Senator Jack Tunney received an inquiry from Sutton regarding the rumor that Chou En-lai was involved in the murder of a family of six in the 1930s.[6]

In 1973, Sutton published a popularized, condensed version of the sections of the forthcoming third volume relevant to military technology called National Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union, after which he was forced out of the Hoover Institution.[7][better source needed ] His conclusion from his research on the issue was that the conflicts of the Cold War were ''not fought to restrain communism'' but were organised in order ''to generate multibillion-dollar armaments contracts'', since the United States, through financing the Soviet Union ''directly or indirectly, armed both sides in at least Korea and Vietnam.''[8][non-primary source needed ]

The update to the text, The Best Enemy Money Can Buy, looked at the role of military technology transfers up to the 1980s.[9][non-primary source needed ]

Sutton's next three published books (Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Wall Street and FDR and Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler) detailed Wall Street's involvement in the Bolshevik Revolution to destroy Russia as an economic competitor and turn it into ''a captive market and a technical colony to be exploited by a few high-powered American financiers and the corporations under their control''[10] as well as its decisive contributions to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose policies he assessed as being essentially the same ''corporate socialism,'' planned by the big corporations.[11] Sutton concluded that it was all part of the economic power elites' ''long-range program of nurturing collectivism''[8] and fostering ''corporate socialism'' in order to ensure ''monopoly acquisition of wealth'' because it ''would fade away if it were exposed to the activity of a free market.''[12][non-primary source needed ]

In his view, the only solution to prevent such abuse in the future was that ''a majority of individuals declares or acts as if it wants nothing from government, declares it will look after its own welfare and interests'' or, specifically, if ''a majority finds the moral courage and the internal fortitude to reject the something-for-nothing con game and replace it by voluntary associations, voluntary communes, or local rule and decentralized societies.''[8][non-primary source needed ]

In the early 1980s, Sutton used a combination of public-domain information on Skull and Bones (such as Yale yearbooks) and previously unreleased documents sent to him by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt whose father was a Skull and Bones member to write America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull and Bones, which, according to Sutton, was his most important work.[13][non-primary source needed ]

The Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University house four boxes of Sutton's personal papers from 1920 (?) to 1972. The collection includes writings, clippings, letters, and notes related to the outbreak of wars, civil wars, revolutions and other violent conflicts around the globe from 1820 to 1970. There is a particular emphasis on the life and career of American entrepreneur Armand Hammer and his business investments and operations in the Soviet Union.[14]

Sutton died in Reno, Nevada on June 17, 2002.[2][1]

Reception [ edit ] Sutton's works have received criticisms from academics, particularly his Wall Street trilogy (Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Wall Street and FDR, and Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler)".[15][16] A contemporary review of Sutton's Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, researcher Virgil D. Medlin of Oklahoma City University reported finding numerous factual errors in the book and claimed that Sutton repeated "unsubstantiated allegations [and came to] unwarranted conclusions." Medlin also wrote that Sutton made use of dubious sources, such as rumor and uncorroborated inquiries, as "documentary proof of [his] allegations."[15]

Howard Dickman of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research referred to Sutton's Wall Street and FDR as a "weak specimen of conspiracy history" that was "poorly written and edited, digressive, repetitious, disorganized, and unconvincing."[16]

Sutton's Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1945 to 1965, also received criticism, specifically its thesis. Dr. Samuel Lieberstein of Temple University had initially praised the first two volumes of the study but later came to criticize it in his review of the third volume, stating that Sutton failed to note instances of Soviet technological innovation and ignored positive aspects of the USSR's planned economy that seemed to conflict with his thesis.[17] British historian Richard C. Thurlow also criticized Sutton's thesis, writing that "all nations were dependent on international trade for economic development and their industrial infrastructure, including the United States" adding that Sutton "totally [disregarded] alternative explanations of Soviet industrialization".[18]

Writing in the Journal of Libertarian Studies, T. Hunt Tooley, professor of history at Austin College of Sherman, Texas, said Sutton was the most important of the conservative and libertarian writers who "took up the subject of the bankers from the 1960s, bringing to paleoconservative and libertarian audiences a highly critical picture of bankers and their influence".[19]

Bibliography [ edit ] Books [ edit ] Sutton's 1976 study of "the past, present, and future of the metal that Keynesian economists and political schemers have denounced as a 'barbaric relic.'"

[20]Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917''1930. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution (1968)Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1930''1945. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution (1971)Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1945''1965. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution (1973)National Suicide: Military Aid to the Soviet Union. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House (1973)Wars and Revolutions: A Comprehensive List of Conflicts, Including Fatalities, Part One: 1820 to 1900. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution (1973)Wars and Revolutions: A Comprehensive List of Conflicts, Including Fatalities, Part Two: 1900 to 1972. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution (1973)Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House (1974)Wall Street and FDR. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House (1975)Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler. Seal Beach, Calif.: '76 Press (1976)The War on Gold. Seal Beach, Calif.: '76 Press (1977)Energy: The Created Crisis. New York: Books in Focus (1979)The Diamond Connection: A Manual for Investors. Future Technology Intelligence Report (1979)Trilaterals Over Washington, Vol. 1. Scottsdale, Ariz.: August Corporation (1979). Co-authored with Patrick M. Wood.Trilaterals Over Washington, Vol. 2. Scottsdale, Ariz.: August Corporation (1980). Co-authored with Patrick M. Wood.The Paper Factory (1980)[21]Gold vs Paper: A Cartoon History of Inflation. Phoenix, Ariz.: Phoenix International Publications (1981)Investing in Platinum Metals. Metairie, LA: Adam Smith Publishing (1982)Technological Treason: A Catalog of U.S. Firms with Soviet Contracts, 1917''1982. Phoenix, Ariz.: Research Publications (1982)America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones. Walterville, Oregon: TrineDay (1983)An Introduction to the Order. Phoenix, Ariz.: Research Publications (1983)The Secret Cult of the Order. Seal Beach, Calif.: Concord Books (1983). ISBN 978-0949667199.How the Order Controls Education. Seal Beach, Calif.: Concord Books (1985)How the Order Creates War and Revolution. San Pedro, Calif.: GSG & Associates (1985)The Best Enemy Money Can Buy. Billings, Montana: Liberty House Press (1986)Two Faces of George Bush. Dresden, New York: Wiswell Ruffin House (1988)The Federal Reserve Conspiracy. Boring, Oreg.: CPA Book Publishers (1995)Trilaterals Over America. Boring, Oreg.: CPA Book Publishers (1995)Gold For Survival. Boring, Oreg.: CPA Book Publishers (1996)Cold Fusion: Secret Energy Revolution. Future Technology Intelligence Report (1997)The View from 4-Space. Future Technology Intelligence Report (1998)Newsletters [ edit ] Phoenix Letter: A Report on the Abuse of Power (1982-1997). OCLC 35676184.Phoenix, Arizona: Research Publications.Billings, Montana: Liberty House Press (November 1988-).Future Technology Intelligence Report (FTIR). (1990-2002). ISSN 1523-5807.Congressional testimony [ edit ] "Statement of Antony C. Sutton, Former Research Fellow, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University" (April 24, 1974). International Economic Policy: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on International Trade of the Committee on Banking and Currency. House of Representatives, Ninety-Third Congress, Second Session. April 22-26, 29-30; May 1-2. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1974, pp. 155-166. OCLC 899744169Film appearances [ edit ] Archive footage of Sutton was used in the 2014 documentary, JFK to 9/11: Everything Is a Rich Man's Trick.[22][better source needed ] According to Sutton, a Dutch TV production company interviewed him for a documentary on Skull and Bones in the 1990s, but it was not aired.[23][24][better source needed ]

See also [ edit ] Military funding of sciencePower eliteReferences [ edit ] ^ a b c "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007." Ancestry.com. ^ a b "Nevada, U.S., Death Index, 1980-2012." Nevada State Health Division, Office of Vital Statistics. State Death Index. Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, Carson City, Nevada. Ancestry.com. ^ "National Suicide." Interview with Prof. Antony C. Sutton in Pasadena, California (October 1973) ^ Sutton, Antony (1976). Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler (1st ed.). Seal Beach, CA: '76 Press. pp. Jacket. ISBN 0892450045. Antony C. Sutton was educated at the universities of London, G¶ttingen, and California. ^ Hessen, Robert (Jan. 1970). Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917 to 1930, by Antony C. Sutton. The Objectivist, vol. 9, no. 1. pp. 9-15. Published and edited by Ayn Rand. ^ Maury, John M. (15 Feb 1972) Journal '' Office of Legislation Council. Provided by the Central Intelligence Agency. ^ Millegan, Kris (ed.) (2003). Fleshing Out Skull & Bones. Walterville, OR: TrineDay. p. 89. ISBN 0975290606. ^ a b c Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, Chapter 12 ^ "The Best Enemies Money Can Buy" (video) . Interview with Prof. Antony C. Sutton. 1980. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12 . Retrieved 2016-08-05 . ^ Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, Chapter XI ^ Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, Chapter 8 ^ Wall Street and FDR, Chapter 12. ^ Sutton, Antony C. Preface to America's Secret Establishment:An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones. Walterville, OR: TrineDay (1983). ISBN 0972020748. ^ Sutton, Antony C. "Papers, 1920-1972." OCLC 122385247. ^ a b Medlin, Virgil D. Review of Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution by Antony C. Sutton. Canadian Slavonic Papers, vol. 19, no. 2 (June 1977), pp. 229''30. JSTOR 40867552. ^ a b Dickman, Howard. Review of Wall Street and FDR by Anthony C. Sutton. Business History Review, vol. 50, no. 4 (1976), pp. 541''43. doi:10.2307/3113155. JSTOR 3113155. ^ Lieberstein, Samuel. Review of Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1945 to 1965 by Antony C. Sutton. Technology and Culture, vol. 15, no. 3 (July 1974), pp. 508''510. doi:10.2307/3102976. JSTOR 3102976. ^ Thurlow, Richard C. "The Powers of Darkness: Conspiracy Belief and Political Strategy." Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 12, no. 6 (1978), pp. 1''23. doi:10.1080/0031322X.1978.9969469. ^ Tooley, T. Hunt. "Merchants of Death Revisited: Armaments, Banker, and the First World War." Journal of Libertarian Studies, vol. 19, no. 1 (Winter 2005), pp. 48-50. ^ Sutton, Antony C. The War on Gold. Seal Beach, Calif.: '76 Press (1977). ISBN 0892450088. ^ "Antony C. Sutton." Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors. Gale / Cengage (2002). Gale In Context: Biography. Gale H1000096617. ^ "Full Cast & Crew". IMDb . Retrieved 3 May 2019 . ^ Millegan, Kris (Jul. 1999). "'W', S&B'--and the truth... shall set us free! An interview with Antony C. Sutton, Researcher Emeritus." Little Red Hen. Archived from the original. ^ "Published Works of Antony C. Sutton." antonycsutton.com. External links [ edit ] Antony C. Sutton at IMDbAntony C. Sutton at Find a GraveAntony C. Sutton papers at Online Archive of CaliforniaAntony C. Sutton at The Online Books Page

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At the age of 14, after becoming pregnant from a violent rape, the eugenics board of the State of North Carolina decided Elaine Riddick should not have any more children and sterilized her without consent. Riddick claims the reason she was sterilized without her knowledge or approval was because the state of North Carolina had ruled her ''feebleminded,'' a degrading term commonly used in eugenics. She recently told her emotional story in the powerful documentary film, produced by Life Dynamics, Inc., called Maafa21: Black Genocide in 21st Century America, which Live Action is screening on social media this month. North Carolina's eugenics program was funded in part by a member of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger's Board of Directors and close friend of the Federation '-- Clarence Gamble. Gamble sat on the board of Sanger's American Birth Control League (ABCL) as well as Planned Parenthood, and was also a financier of Sanger's birth control crusade. In addition, he helped to fund the North Carolina Eugenics program.

Sanger, an established member of the American Eugenics Society, stacked her organization with like-minded men and women. In 1942, the ABCL changed its name to Planned Parenthood.

Clarence Gamble, a director of Margaret Sanger's American Birth Control League

Elaine Riddick was kidnapped, molested, and became pregnant as a result of rape at 13 years of age. At the time, Riddick was living with her grandmother, Maggie Woodard, known as ''Miss Peaches,'' when a social worker with the State discovered her pregnancy. Her name was Sue L. Casebolt, and she referred Elaine's case to the state's Eugenics Board. Casebolt had been installed as the Executive Secretary of the North Carolina Eugenics Board in 1961.

Elaine Riddick speaks about eugenic sterilization in Maafa21

According to Maafa21:

At a board meeting held three weeks later, she stated that she intended to keep a file on every child whose name reached her desk so that they could be picked up as soon as they reached childbearing age. Casebolt was still on the board in 1968 when it approved the sterilization of Elaine Riddick.

Sue Casebolt on eugenics board that sterilized Elaine Riddick (Image credit: Maafa21)

Riddick said that her grandmother was illiterate and did not understand what she was signing. Knowing this, the social worker pressured her to sign with an ''X,'' threatening to send Elaine to an orphanage, and remove her grandmother's government aid for food if she did not. Unfortunately, the document her grandmother was pressured to sign was not a medical consent form for the birth, but a consent to have Elaine sterilized after she gave birth to her son Tony, now a successful businessman.

''I did not find out that they had sterilized me until I was nineteen years old,'' Riddick says in Maafa21, adding:

I asked the State of North Carolina why they did this to me and they said that [they did it] because I was feebleminded. That I would not be able to take care of myself'.... That I was incompetent'.... They were saying that feeblmindness is hereditary. So, they sterilized me so I would not produce my kind. Mind you, I am not illiterate nor am I feebleminded'.... They sterilized kids, my understanding'...-as young as eight years of age. I don't know what an eight year-old can do that could cause them to do this to them? The only reason I can give myself is that [it's] because they're Black.''

Riddick's powerful testimony and nearly 40-year battle for justice secured millions of dollars for surviving victims in North Carolina. As a result of Riddick's willingness to tell her story, North Carolina also agreed to make its eugenics records public.

North Carolina Eugenics Program document

North Carolina's sterilization program began with the passage of the North Carolina Sterilization Act in 1929. In 1933, according to the North Carolina History Project online, the act was declared unconstitutional on the grounds that it ''did not allow an appeals process. In the same year, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law allowing an appeal process and created the Board of Eugenics to oversee sterilizations.''

''Between 1929 and 1974, more than 7,600 North Carolinians were sterilized,'' reports the Winston-Salem Journal, which wrote extensively on this tragedy, ''many of them against their will. Young girls who had gotten pregnant, some by rape or incest, were frequently the targets. Some were flagged because faulty intelligence tests labeled them ''feeble-minded,'' others simply because they were epileptic. Many were young, poor and black.''

''It's a very paternalistic model,'' author and researcher Johanna Schoen said. ''(Women) certainly weren't supposed to choose when to use birth control or when not to use birth control, or when to be sterilized or when not to be sterilized. The model was, the physician knows best.''

Schoen writes in his book, ''Choice & Coercion: Birth Control, Sterilization, and Abortion in Public'':

[M]any philanthropists and health officials believed that African Americans lacked the intellectual capacity to use any form of birth control. Elsie Wulkop, a social worker who collaborated with [Clarence] Gamble to establish small contraceptive field trials, commented on the attempt to educate African Americans on birth control, ''It impresses me as being like trying to get sheer animals to conform.''

Schoen continues, ''Sources indicate that some health officials might have found birth control programs appealing as a form of population control.''

Elaine Riddick

Riddick is also understandably outspoken against Planned Parenthood, as the abortion corporation's founder was financially supported by Clarence Gamble, the man who also helped fund the very eugenics program that sterilized Riddick. ''Euphemisms and sterilization target code words, for example, ''feebleminded'', were used to describe Black women like me,'' Riddick wrote in an op-ed:

''I was forcibly sterilized at the age of 14 years under North Carolina's inhumane forced sterilization policy. A policy that was derived from Margaret Sanger's Planned Parenthood population control handbook, which spread across the United States by her loyal band of eugenicists and lobbying our elected officials.''

Despite Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger's ties to the horrors of eugenics, many laud her as a hero, including modern-day Planned Parenthood itself. But, as Mary Senander explains in the Star Tribune, Sanger was anything but a heroine:

Contemporary liberal social planners have elevated Sanger to sainthood, protesting that her birth control campaign was nothing more than a vehicle for economic betterment and health for the masses. But Sanger's own well-documented words, publications and associations indicate a deeper and darker motivation. Sanger began publishing the Birth Control Review in 1917 and served as its editor until 1938. The May 1919 Review proclaimed, ''More children for the fit, less for the unfit.'' By unfit, Sanger meant the mentally retarded or physically handicapped; later her definition expanded.

Birth Control to Create a Race of Thoroughbreds, by Margaret Sanger (Image Birth Control Review)

In November 1921 the review issued a clarion call: ''Birth control, to create a race of thoroughbreds.'' Sanger suggested that parents should ''apply for babies as immigrants have to apply for visas.'' By 1925, she was a true convert to eugenics, setting up birth control clinics in poor neighborhoods populated by ''Latins'' and ''Slavs'' (both groups heavily Catholic) and ''Hebrews'' '' groups she had targeted as threats because of their increasing numbers. She spoke of those who were ''irresponsible and reckless,'' among them those ''whose religious scruples prevent their exercising control over their numbers'''...

In the October 1926 Review, Sanger announced her idea for eugenic sterilization: ''There is only one reply to a request for a higher birthrate among the intelligent, and that is to ask the government to first take off the burdens of the insane and the feeble-minded from your backs.'' Eugenicists like Sanger concluded that the poor were both stupid and immoral, fueling campaigns for sterilization during the Depression. (By 1932, 27 states had compulsory sterilization laws.)

Sanger supporter Clarence Gamble was a graduate of Harvard Medical School graduate, the heir to the Procter & Gamble fortune, and a teacher at the University of Pennsylvania. He was also a medical consultant for the Human Betterment League of North Carolina, another organization with ties to eugenics.

Eugenics pamphlet from Human Betterment League Association

Eugenics pamphlet from Human Betterment League Association

According to the book, ''Intended Consequences,'' in 1933, Gamble was elected president of the Pennsylvania Birth Control Federation, an organization affiliated with Sanger. And, according to researcher James A. Miller:

In December 1937, Gamble was appointed 'Medical Field Director' of Sanger's Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau and at the same time became a member of the editorial advisory board of the Bureau's Journal of Contraception, a propaganda vehicle for Sanger's birth control and eugenics agenda'...When the North Carolina plan was launched, there were just three (private) birth control clinics in the state; by the end of 1938, with Gamble's backing, the state had created 56. At that time, with less than 3 percent of the country's population, North Carolina had 13 percent of the nation's birth control clinics. By mid-1939 the number of birth control clinics in North Carolina had risen to 62, second only to New York.

Margaret Sanger letter to Clarence Gamble (image credit: Maafa21)

By 1939, Gamble joined others in funding Sanger's Committee on Planned Parenthood. And, according to Senander's article, ''Eugenics part of Sanger legacy'':

Dr. Clarence J. Gamble, previously a director of the ABCL, was elected the BCFA regional director in the South. Almost immediately, he drew up a memorandum for his plans for the ''Negro Project.'' Gamble's plan included placing black leaders in positions where it would appear that they were in charge (in order to counter the perception by black leaders who might regard birth control as an extermination plot). Sanger agreed: ''We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten that idea out if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.''

Sanger's 1939 letter to Gamble, about the infamous ''Negro Project,'' can be seen excerpted in the image below:

Excerpt: Margaret Sanger Letter to Clarence Gamble, Negro Project

Gamble referred to eugenic sterilization as ''preventative medicine,'' writing in the North Carolina Medical Journal in 1951:

One method of preventive medicine, the sterilization of the insane, the feeblemided and the epileptic, is supervised by the Eugenics Board of North Carolina'.... Petitions for the sterilization of a mentally diseased, feebleminded, or epileptic person may be initiated by a county superintendent of welfare, or the head of a state institution. If the Board finds that the operation is for the best mental, moral or physical improvement of the patient, or for the public good, it may authorize the procedure'.... Of those sterilized under the law, 23 per cent were Negro. That this figure is lower than the proportion of Negroes in the population of the state-approximately one-third-is due partly to the fact that the state hospital caring for the Negro insane and feebleminded has not had sufficient surgical services to perform many of these operations.

Then, by the early 1960's, Gamble co-authored a booklet on family planning with Planned Parenthood's president, Alan F. Guttmacher. It was published by Pathfinder Fund, an organization Gamble helped to found. The book was entitled, ''Family planning: a challenge to health workers of every nation.''

Guttmacher, a former vice-president of the American Eugenics Society, had been a longtime advocate of abortion and a strong proponent of government funded ''family planning.'' Author Angela Franks notes in her book on Sanger:

As both Sanger and Gamble had foreseen, once government got involved, Planned Parenthood [PPFA] and Gamble's Pathfinder Fund would be able to spend great sums of money carrying out their original eugenic and population control mandates, and with people like Gamble and PPFA's Alan Guttmacher directing the organizational bureaucracy, the continued influence of eugenics was inevitable.

Research from the Winston-Salem Journal discovered that ''Gamble wanted sterilizations to increase rather than decrease, and increase they did.''

According to the film, Maafa21, ''In 1947, Gamble called for the expansion of North Carolina's State's sterilization program saying that for every feeble minded person sterilized, 40 more were polluting and degrading the bloodlines of future generation with their defective genes.''

Clarence Gamble calls for eugenics sterilizations (Image: Maafa21)

Gamble had been promoting birth control since the late 1930s'...'' writes the Winston-Salem Journal. In addition:

Gamble was sure that eugenic sterilization was a good idea, but after World War II few states were willing to consider the kind of aggressive program that he wanted. Gamble contributed time, money and a keen public-relations sense to the Human Betterment League. He also paid for most of the sterilizations in Orange County during one year, and he paid for the research that went into the book Sterilization in North Carolina, written by researcher Moya Woodside.

According to Maafa21, ''North Carolina was not the only state whose eugenics programs were influenced by friends of Sanger or Planned Parenthood. In some parts of the country, Planned Parenthood was closely associated with these state eugenics boards and was often a referral agency for them.'' You can watch Maafa21 on Live Action's Facebook page.

Elaine Riddick embraces her son (Image credit: Maafa21 blog)

In her quest to get justice for eugenics victims, Elaine Riddick testified tearfully:

I was a victim of rape'...I was a victim of child abuse'... I have to get out what the state of North Carolina did to me. I am not feeble minded. I've never been feeble minded. They slandered me. They ridiculed and harassed me'....

They cut me open like I was a hog'... at the same time they gave me a cesarean birth and took my child and when they did that '' they sterilized me. What do you think I'm worth?

Riddick told the lawmakers that her only crime was being poor, Black, and from a bad home environment.

Between 1929 and 1974, nearly 7,600 documented males and females were sterilized by choice, force or coercion under the authority the NC Eugenics Board program. The youngest victims were ten years of age.

85% of victims were female.40% of victims were minorities, including African Americans and Native Americans.In 2010, the Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation was established as a Division of the NC Department of Administration to compensate victims who were forcibly sterilized by the State. The exact number of victims alive today is unknown. However, the State Center for Health Statistics estimates that 2,944 victims may have still been alive as of 2010. It is more realistically estimated by the State Center that 1,500 to 2,000 victims may still be alive.

In 2013, the NC state legislature included $10 million in the budget to be divvied among verified victims.

Eugenics is an evil ideology that tragically remains alive today. As Live Action News has previously documented, the philosophy of eugenics continues to morph under different terms such as abortion and euthanasia. Today, abortion disproportionately targets the African American community '-- and the main promoter of abortion is Planned Parenthood.

Although Planned Parenthood was founded by Margaret Sanger, an eugenics enthusiast, the organization has yet to denounce her. That is because Planned Parenthood's ties to eugenics run just as deep as their founder's '-- and that evil root, which claims to decide who is worthy to live or to die, exists to this day.

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 19:21

American radio host

Mae Magnin Brussell (May 29, 1922 '' October 3, 1988) was an American radio personality and conspiracy theorist. She was the host of Dialogue: Conspiracy (later renamed World Watchers International).

Early life [ edit ] Mae Magnin was born on May 29, 1922, in Beverly Hills, California.[1] Her father, Edgar Magnin, was a Reform rabbi at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.[2] Her paternal great-grandparents, Isaac Magnin and Mary Ann Magnin, were the founders of I. Magnin, an upscale women's clothing store in San Francisco, California.

She attended Stanford University in Palo Alto and received an associate degree from the University of California, Berkeley on June 3, 1942.[2][3]

Career [ edit ] She was a radio host.[1] Much of her radio programming focused on the conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.[1] She also covered the history of fascism.[1]

Distraught by the murder of President Kennedy, she purchased all 26 printed volumes issued by the Warren Commission report, and attempted to make sense of them by cross-indexing the entire work with stories from major newspapers and magazines that she thought showed connections and patterns that she found disturbing.[4]

Her career in radio started in May 1971 when, as a guest on the independently owned radio station KLRB, she questioned the Warren Commission.[1] She suggested Lee Harvey Oswald might not have been the only person involved in the assassination of the president.[1] She became a weekly guest.[1] Shortly after, she became the host of Dialogue: Conspiracy (later renamed World Watchers International).[1] From 1983 to 1988, she hosted the same show on KAZU, a radio station based in Pacific Grove.[1]

Additionally, she wrote articles that were published in The Realist, a magazine published by Paul Krassner.[1] An impressed John Lennon donated money so Krassner could afford to print Mae Brussell's work.[4]

Brussell was profiled on episode six of Slate's Slow Burn podcast.[5]

Personal life [ edit ] She married twice and had five children:[1] two sons with her first husband, David Goodwin and John Goodwin; and three daughters with her second husband, Barbara Brussell, Keyenne Brussell, and Bonnie Brussell (who predeceased her in 1970).[6]

Death [ edit ] She died of cancer on October 3, 1988[1] in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

Bibliography [ edit ] Articles [ edit ] "What's Your Opinion?" Monterey Peninsula Herald (Sep. 12, 1966)."Oswald Not a Communist?" Monterey Peninsula Herald (Jan. 17, 1967)."Who Killed Congressman Larry McDonald?" Hustler, vol. 10, no. 8 (Feb. 1984), pp. 40-44, 46, 52, 142, 194. Photos by Ladi von Jansky.Collected works [ edit ] Constantine, Alex (ed). The Essential Mae Brussell: Investigations of Fascism in America. Introduction by Paul Krassner. Port Townsend, Was.: Feral House (2014). ISBN 978-1936239986, 1936239981. OCLC 937871969.References [ edit ] ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Knight, Peter (2003). "Mae Brussell." In: Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1: A''L. Foreword by David Brion Davis. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. pp. 140-141. ISBN 1576078124, 978-1576078136. OCLC 773633696. ^ a b Staff writer (Jul. 14, 1941). "Rabbi to Deliver Sunday Sermon." The Stanford Daily, vol. 99a, no. 8. p. 1. Full issue. ^ University of California, Los Angeles (1942). The Twenty-Third Commencement Exercises, June 3, 1942 (event program). Los Angeles, Calif.: The Open Air Theater. p. 3.Published in Register: University of California, vol. 2. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press 1943), p. 611. ^ a b Constantine, Alex (ed). The Essential Mae Brussell: Investigations of Fascism in America. Introduction by Paul Krassner. Port Townsend, Was.: Feral House (2014). ISBN 978-1936239986, 1936239981. OCLC 937871969. ^ Slow Burn (podcast), with Leon Neyfakh. Season 1, Episode 6: "Rabbit Holes". Slate Plus (Jan. 9, 2018). View transcript. ^ Staff writer (Oct. 4, 1988). "Conspiracy Theorist Mae Brussell Dies of Cancer" (obituary). The Monterey Herald. Archived from the original. External links [ edit ] Official websiteInterview with Keyenne Brussell at spitfirelist.com

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 18:45

Author of the beloved best seller Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnik has been writing for The New Yorker since 1986. He is a three-time winner of the National Magazine Award for Essays and for Reviews and Criticism and of the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. He lives in New York City with his wife and their two children.

Excerpt. (C) Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The middleweight champion [of the early twentieth century, Stanley Ketchel] was stunned by [Wilson] Mizner's recitation of the Langdon Smith classic that starts ''When you were a tadpole and I was a fish, In the Palaeozoic time'' and follows the romance of two lovers from one geological age to another, until they wind up in Delmonico's. Ketchel had a thousand questions about the tadpole and the fish, and Mizner, a pedagogue at heart,took immense pleasure in wedging the whole theory of evolution into the fighter's untutored head. Ketchel became silent and thoughtful. He declined an invitation to see the town that night with Mizner and [Willus] Britt. When they rolled in at 5 a.m., Ketchel was sitting up with his eyes glued on a bowl of goldfish. ''That evolution is all the bunk!''he shouted angrily,''I've beenwatching those fish nine hours and they haven't changed a bit.''Mizner had to talk fast; one thing Ketchel couldn't bear was to have anybody cross him.'--Alva Johnston, The Legendary Mizners Americans seemed to fascinate Picasso. Once, in Paris, he invited the Murphys to his apartment, on the Rue de la Botie, for an ap(C)ritif, and, after showing them through the place, in every room of which were pictures in various stages of completion, he led Gerald rather ceremoniously to an alcove that contained a tall cardboard box. ''It was full of illustrations, photographs, engravings, and reproductions clipped from newspapers. All of them dealt with a single person'--Abraham Lincoln. 'I've been collecting them since I was a child,' Picasso said, 'I have thousands, thousands!' He held up one of Brady's photographs of Lincoln, and said with great feeling, 'There is the real American elegance!' '''--Calvin Tomkins, Living Well Is the Best Revenge We are all pebbles dropped in the sea of history, where the splash strikes one way and the big tides run another, and though what we feel is the splash, the splash takes place only within those tides. In almost every case, the incoming current drowns the splash; once in a while the drop of the pebble changes the way the ocean runs. On February 12, 1809, two baby boys were born within a few hours of each other on either side of the Atlantic. One entered life in a comfortable family home, nicely called the Mount, that still stands in the leafy English countryside of Shrewsbury, Shropshire; the other opened his eyes for the first time in a nameless long- lost log cabin in the Kentucky woods. Charles Darwin was the fifth of six children, born into comfort but to a family that was far from ''safe,'' with a long history of freethinking and radical beliefs. He came into a world of learning and money'--one grandfather, Josiah Wedgwood, had made a fortune in ceramic plates. Abraham Lincoln was the second of three, born to a dirt- poor farmer, Thomas Lincoln, who, when he wrote his name at all, wrote it (his son recalled) ''bunglingly.'' Their narrow circles of immediate experience were held inside that bigger ocean of outlying beliefs and assumptions. In any era, there are truths that people take as obvious, stories that they think are weird or wrong, and dreams that they believe are distant or doomed. (We like stories about time travel and living robots, and even have some speculative thoughts about how they might be made to happen. But on the whole we believe that the time we're living in, and the way we live in it, is just the natural way things are. We like strange stories but believe only a few.) The obvious truths of 1809, the kind that were taught in school, involved what could be called a ''vertical'' organization of life, one in which we imagine a hierarchy of species organized on earth, descending from man on down toward animals, and a judge appraising us up above in heaven. Man was stuck in the middle, looking warily up and loftily down. People mostly believed that the kinds of organisms they saw on earth had always been here and always would be, that life had been fixed in place since the beginning of a terrestrial time, which was thought to go back a few thousand years at most. The eighteenth-century Enlightenment had, of course, already deepened a faith in Reason among the elite, but it was not a popular movement. It had altered many ideas without changing most minds. ( John Stuart Mill could say, as late as the 1850s, that he was still almost the only Englishman he knew who had not been brought up as a believer.) The Enlightenment ideal of Reason was in any case bound by taxonomies and hierarchies, absolute and extended right through earth and time. That the long history of life might be one driven by shifting coalitions of contingency, with chance having at least one hand on the reins, was still a mostly unthinkable idea. The forms of life were set, and had never varied. ''Species have a real existence in nature, and a transition from one to another does not exist'' was the way one magus put it, decisively.People also believed, using what they called examples ancient and modern'--and the example of the Terror in France, which had only very recently congealed into Napoleon's empire, was a strong case'--that societies without inherited order were intrinsically weak, unstable, and inclined to dissolve into anarchy or tyranny. Democracy in the sense we mean it now was a fringe ideal of a handful of radicals. Even in America the future of democracy was unclear, in part because of the persistence of slavery, which was still a feature of Western life. Democracy was hard to tell from mob rule and the tyranny of mob rule. Democracy existed, and was armed, but didn't feel entirely liberal; the difference between reformist parliamentary government and true democracy seemed disturbingly large even to well- intentioned people. In the 1830s, Tocqueville, sympathetic to American democracy, was still skeptical about its chances, writing that ''until men have changed their nature and been completely transformed, I shall refuse to believe in the duration of a government which is called upon to hold together forty different nations covering an area half that of Europe, to avoid all rivalry, ambition, and struggles between them, and to unite all their independent wills in the accomplishment of common designs.'' Throughout Europe and America many thoughtful, truth- seeking people also believed in divine judgment and an afterlife in more or less literal terms.The thought of no time is monolithic, and the people of 1809 in England and America did not believe these things absolutely. The new science of geology was pressing back the history of the earth; old bones would start turning up that threatened old stories; the new textual studies of the Bible were pressing against an easy acceptance of their truth, too. And there were many Utopian radical democrats in both countries. We can find plenty of astonishing ideas in that day, just as we will find traces of the astonishing ideas of the next century somewhere on the fringes of our own time. But on the whole these ideas belonged to the world of what would have been called ''fancy,'' not fact.By the time Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were dead'--the American murdered by a pro- slavery terrorist in 1865, the Englishman after a long illness in 1882'--the shape of history had changed, and the lives they had led and the things they had said had done a lot to change it. Two small splashes had helped to move the tide of time. Very different beliefs, ones that we now treat as natural and recognize as just part of the background hum of our time, were in place: the world was understood to be very, very old, and the animals and plants in it were known to have changed dramatically over the aeons'--and though just how they had changed was still debated, the best guesses, then as now, involved slow alteration through a competition for resources over a very long time. People were convinced, on the whole, that democratic government, arrived at by reform or revolution, was a plausible and strong way to organize a modern nation'--that republican regimes were fighters and survivors. (A giant statue, one of the largest since antiquity, of a goddess of Liberty was under construction in once- again republican France for a vindicated republican America, just to commemorate this belief.) Slavery in the Western world was, for the first time in thousands of years, finished (although racism wasn't). Liberal republicanism and universalist democracy had begun the steady merger that persists to this day, so that most of us no longer see the governing systems of Canada and the United States as decisively, rather than locally, different.Most of all, people thought that, in one way or another, by some hand or another, the world had changed and would continue to change, that the hierarchies of nature and race and class that had governed the world, where power fell in a fixed chain on down, were false. Fixity was not reality. Life changed, and ways of living changed, too. Life was increasingly lived on what we can think of as a horizontal, with man looking behind only to see what had happened before, and forward to see what he could make next. On that horizontal plane, we are invested in our future as much as in our afterlife, and in our children more than in our ancestors. These beliefs, which we hold still, are part of what we call the modern condition'--along with the reactive desire to erase the instability that change brings with it, to get us thinking up and down again, instead of merely back and forth.The two boys born on the same day to such different lives had become, as they remain, improbable public figures of that alterationof minds'--they had become what are now called in clich(C) ''icons,'' secular saints. They hadn't made the change, but they had helped to midwife the birth. With the usual compression of popular history their reputations have been reduced to single words, mottoes to put beneath a profile on a commemorative coin or medal'--''Evolution!'' for one and ''Emancipation!'' for the other. With the usual irony of history, the mottoes betray the men. Lincoln came late'--in the eyes of Frederick Douglass, maddeningly late'--and reluctantly to emancipation, while perhaps the least original thing in Darwin's amazingly original work was the idea of evolution. (He figured out how it ran; he took a poetic figure familiar to his grandfathers and put an engine and a fan belt in it.) We're not wrong to work these beautiful words onto their coins, though: the two were the engineers of the alterations. They found a way to make those words live.Darwin and Lincoln did not make the modern world. But they helped to make our moral modernity. The two little stories at the head of this chapter suggest just how widely their images and ideas had already spread within a half century of their deaths: in the first decade of the last century the concept of evolution troubled and fascinated and intrigued even a middleweight boxer, whose indignation at not actually seeing it happen anticipates that of many just- as- two- fisted skeptics today, while Lincoln's face would haunt the imagination of an artist remaking art. For more than a century they've been part of the climate of modern life, systems in the weather of the modern world.The shared date of their birth is, obviously,''merely'' a coincidence, what historians like to call an''intriguing coincidence.''But coincidence is the vernacular of history, the slang of memory'-- the first strong pattern where we begin to search for more subtleones. Like the simultaneous deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on July 4, 1826, the accidental patterns of birth and deathpoint to other patterns of coincidence in bigger things. ( Jefferson and Adams, born at about the same time, were likely to die at about the same time; that they willed themselves to live long enough to see in the holiday says something about the urgency of the new rituals of the Republic.)As long ago as the early twentieth century, the shared birthday of Darwin and Lincoln seemed central enough to an idea of liberal democratic civilization to have inspired a proposal for a binational, transatlantic holiday: the birthday of the two, ''Lincoln, the embodiment of Anglo- Saxon devotion to Justice, and Darwin, the incarnation of Anglo- Saxon devotion to Truth,'' should be declared an international holiday, a Massachusetts writer named William Thayer insisted in 1908, making the rational and good point that Lincoln was exceptional in being without malice, Darwin, in welcoming criticism and argument'--though Thayer rather weakens his point, to our minds, by all those ''Anglo- Saxon'' attitudes. (Useful reminders, really, that similar assumptions, which will seem just as onerous or absurd to our great- grandchildren, linger in the corners of our minds, too.)My own head has been filled with images and ideas of the two men since I was small. My father introduced me first to Lincoln, pressing on me a picture book called Meet Mr. Lincoln , a handsome oversize thing connected to a television special of 1959, filled with black- and- white Brady photographs'--and the gravity, the melancholy, the destiny of that face touched me as it has touched so many others. (Readers will recall that Alexander Portnoy, too, was turned on to a lifetime of commitment to human rights, among other human activities, simply by the soulfulness of the statue of Lincoln in downtown Newark, outside the Essex County Court House.) Darwin was my mother's hero, though it would be years before, one summer on a beach, I actually read On the Origin of Species. Then I discovered, as have generations of readers since that fateful day in 1859 when the entire first print run sold out in a day, that it is not just a Great Book but a great book, an absorbing, wonderful adventure in argument, a beach read in which your view of the world is changed by the end even if your view of the world was agreeable to it at the beginning. It's a Victorian hallucinogen, where the whole world suddenly comes alive and begins moving, so that the likeness between seagulls and sandpipers on the beach where you are reading suddenly becomes spookily animated, part of a single restless whole, with the birds' giant lizard ancestors looming like ghosts above them. What looks like the fixed, unchanging solitude of the beach and ocean suddenly becomes alive to, vulnerable to, an endless chain of change and movement. It's a book that makes the whole world vibrate.

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Contributors@adamgopnikAdam Gopnik, a staff writer, has been contributing to The New Yorker since 1986. During his tenure at the magazine, he has written fiction, humor, book reviews, personal essays, Profiles, and reported pieces from abroad. He was the magazine's art critic from 1987 to 1995 and the Paris correspondent from 1995 to 2000. From 2000 to 2005, he wrote a journal about New York life. His books, ranging from essay collections about Paris and food to children's novels, include ''Paris to the Moon,'' ''The King in the Window,'' ''Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York,'' ''Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life,'' ''The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food,'' ''Winter: Five Windows on the Season,'' ''At the Strangers' Gate: Arrivals in New York,'' and, most recently, ''A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism.'' Gopnik has won three National Magazine Awards, for essays and for criticism, and also the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. In March of 2013, Gopnik was awarded the medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, and in 2021 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion d'honneur. He lectures widely, and, in 2011, delivered the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's fiftieth-anniversary Massey Lecture. His musical, ''Our Table,'' opened in 2017, at the Long Wharf Theatre, in New Haven, and his one-man storytelling show, ''The Gates,'' played at the Public Theatre in New York.

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July 21, 2022Culture DeskHow Oscar Hammerstein Remade the American MusicalA new collection of letters shows him to be a master craftsman of the theatrical experience'--and that's both a blessing and a curse.By Adam Gopnik

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This article is about concepts called Darwinism. For biological evolution in general, see

Evolution. For modern evolutionary theories, see

Modern synthesis. For Wallace's defence of the theory of natural selection, see

Darwinism (book).

Theory of biological evolution

Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809''1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Also called Darwinian theory, it originally included the broad concepts of transmutation of species or of evolution which gained general scientific acceptance after Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, including concepts which predated Darwin's theories. English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the term Darwinism in April 1860.[1]

Terminology [ edit ] Darwinism subsequently referred to the specific concepts of natural selection, the Weismann barrier, or the central dogma of molecular biology.[2] Though the term usually refers strictly to biological evolution, creationists have appropriated it to refer to the origin of life or to cosmic evolution, that are distinct to biological evolution.[3] It is therefore considered the belief and acceptance of Darwin's and of his predecessors' work, in place of other concepts, including divine design and extraterrestrial origins.[4][5]

English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the term Darwinism in April 1860.[6] It was used to describe evolutionary concepts in general, including earlier concepts published by English philosopher Herbert Spencer. Many of the proponents of Darwinism at that time, including Huxley, had reservations about the significance of natural selection, and Darwin himself gave credence to what was later called Lamarckism. The strict neo-Darwinism of German evolutionary biologist August Weismann gained few supporters in the late 19th century. During the approximate period of the 1880s to about 1920, sometimes called "the eclipse of Darwinism", scientists proposed various alternative evolutionary mechanisms which eventually proved untenable. The development of the modern synthesis in the early 20th century, incorporating natural selection with population genetics and Mendelian genetics, revived Darwinism in an updated form.[7]

While the term Darwinism has remained in use amongst the public when referring to modern evolutionary theory, it has increasingly been argued by science writers such as Olivia Judson, Eugenie Scott, and Carl Safina that it is an inappropriate term for modern evolutionary theory.[8][9][10] For example, Darwin was unfamiliar with the work of the Moravian scientist and Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel,[11] and as a result had only a vague and inaccurate understanding of heredity. He naturally had no inkling of later theoretical developments and, like Mendel himself, knew nothing of genetic drift, for example.[12][13]

In the United States, creationists often use the term "Darwinism" as a pejorative term in reference to beliefs such as scientific materialism, but in the United Kingdom the term has no negative connotations, being freely used as a shorthand for the body of theory dealing with evolution, and in particular, with evolution by natural selection.[8]

Huxley and Kropotkin [ edit ] Huxley, upon first reading Darwin's theory in 1858, responded, "How extremely stupid not to have thought of that!"[15]

While the term Darwinism had been used previously to refer to the work of Erasmus Darwin in the late 18th century, the term as understood today was introduced when Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species was reviewed by Thomas Henry Huxley in the April 1860 issue of the Westminster Review.[16] Having hailed the book as "a veritable Whitworth gun in the armoury of liberalism" promoting scientific naturalism over theology, and praising the usefulness of Darwin's ideas while expressing professional reservations about Darwin's gradualism and doubting if it could be proved that natural selection could form new species,[17] Huxley compared Darwin's achievement to that of Nicolaus Copernicus in explaining planetary motion:

What if the orbit of Darwinism should be a little too circular? What if species should offer residual phenomena, here and there, not explicable by natural selection? Twenty years hence naturalists may be in a position to say whether this is, or is not, the case; but in either event they will owe the author of "The Origin of Species" an immense debt of gratitude.... And viewed as a whole, we do not believe that, since the publication of Von Baer's "Researches on Development," thirty years ago, any work has appeared calculated to exert so large an influence, not only on the future of Biology, but in extending the domination of Science over regions of thought into which she has, as yet, hardly penetrated.[6]

These are the basic tenets of evolution by natural selection as defined by Darwin:

More individuals are produced each generation than can survive.Phenotypic variation exists among individuals and the variation is heritable.Those individuals with heritable traits better suited to the environment will survive.When reproductive isolation occurs new species will form.Another important evolutionary theorist of the same period was the Russian geographer and prominent anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin who, in his book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902), advocated a conception of Darwinism counter to that of Huxley. His conception was centred around what he saw as the widespread use of co-operation as a survival mechanism in human societies and animals. He used biological and sociological arguments in an attempt to show that the main factor in facilitating evolution is cooperation between individuals in free-associated societies and groups. This was in order to counteract the conception of fierce competition as the core of evolution, which provided a rationalization for the dominant political, economic and social theories of the time; and the prevalent interpretations of Darwinism, such as those by Huxley, who is targeted as an opponent by Kropotkin. Kropotkin's conception of Darwinism could be summed up by the following quote:

In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of species live in societies, and that they find in association the best arms for the struggle for life: understood, of course, in its wide Darwinian sense'--not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a struggle against all natural conditions unfavourable to the species. The animal species, in which individual struggle has been reduced to its narrowest limits, and the practice of mutual aid has attained the greatest development, are invariably the most numerous, the most prosperous, and the most open to further progress. The mutual protection which is obtained in this case, the possibility of attaining old age and of accumulating experience, the higher intellectual development, and the further growth of sociable habits, secure the maintenance of the species, its extension, and its further progressive evolution. The unsociable species, on the contrary, are doomed to decay.[18]

'--'‰Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902), Conclusion

Other 19th-century usage [ edit ] "Darwinism" soon came to stand for an entire range of evolutionary (and often revolutionary) philosophies about both biology and society. One of the more prominent approaches, summed in the 1864 phrase "survival of the fittest" by Herbert Spencer, later became emblematic of Darwinism even though Spencer's own understanding of evolution (as expressed in 1857) was more similar to that of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck than to that of Darwin, and predated the publication of Darwin's theory in 1859. What is now called "Social Darwinism" was, in its day, synonymous with "Darwinism"'--the application of Darwinian principles of "struggle" to society, usually in support of anti-philanthropic political agenda. Another interpretation, one notably favoured by Darwin's half-cousin Francis Galton, was that "Darwinism" implied that because natural selection was apparently no longer working on "civilized" people, it was possible for "inferior" strains of people (who would normally be filtered out of the gene pool) to overwhelm the "superior" strains, and voluntary corrective measures would be desirable'--the foundation of eugenics.

In Darwin's day there was no rigid definition of the term "Darwinism", and it was used by opponents and proponents of Darwin's biological theory alike to mean whatever they wanted it to in a larger context. The ideas had international influence, and Ernst Haeckel developed what was known as Darwinismus in Germany, although, like Spencer's "evolution", Haeckel's "Darwinism" had only a rough resemblance to the theory of Charles Darwin, and was not centred on natural selection.[19] In 1886, Alfred Russel Wallace went on a lecture tour across the United States, starting in New York and going via Boston, Washington, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska to California, lecturing on what he called "Darwinism" without any problems.[20]

In his book Darwinism (1889), Wallace had used the term pure-Darwinism which proposed a "greater efficacy" for natural selection.[21][22] George Romanes dubbed this view as "Wallaceism", noting that in contrast to Darwin, this position was advocating a "pure theory of natural selection to the exclusion of any supplementary theory."[23][24] Taking influence from Darwin, Romanes was a proponent of both natural selection and the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The latter was denied by Wallace who was a strict selectionist.[25] Romanes' definition of Darwinism conformed directly with Darwin's views and was contrasted with Wallace's definition of the term.[26]

Millennial usage [ edit ] The term Darwinism is often used in the United States by promoters of creationism, notably by leading members of the intelligent design movement, as an epithet to attack evolution as though it were an ideology (an "ism") based on philosophical naturalism, atheism, or both.[27] For example, in 1993, UC Berkeley law professor and author Phillip E. Johnson made this accusation of atheism with reference to Charles Hodge's 1874 book What Is Darwinism?.[28] However, unlike Johnson, Hodge confined the term to exclude those like American botanist Asa Gray who combined Christian faith with support for Darwin's natural selection theory, before answering the question posed in the book's title by concluding: "It is Atheism."[29][30]

Creationists use pejoratively the term Darwinism to imply that the theory has been held as true only by Darwin and a core group of his followers, whom they cast as dogmatic and inflexible in their belief.[31] In the 2008 documentary film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which promotes intelligent design (ID), American writer and actor Ben Stein refers to scientists as Darwinists. Reviewing the film for Scientific American, John Rennie says "The term is a curious throwback, because in modern biology almost no one relies solely on Darwin's original ideas... Yet the choice of terminology isn't random: Ben Stein wants you to stop thinking of evolution as an actual science supported by verifiable facts and logical arguments and to start thinking of it as a dogmatic, atheistic ideology akin to Marxism."[32]

However, Darwinism is also used neutrally within the scientific community to distinguish the modern evolutionary synthesis, which is sometimes called "neo-Darwinism", from those first proposed by Darwin. Darwinism also is used neutrally by historians to differentiate his theory from other evolutionary theories current around the same period. For example, Darwinism may refer to Darwin's proposed mechanism of natural selection, in comparison to more recent mechanisms such as genetic drift and gene flow. It may also refer specifically to the role of Charles Darwin as opposed to others in the history of evolutionary thought'--particularly contrasting Darwin's results with those of earlier theories such as Lamarckism or later ones such as the modern evolutionary synthesis.

In political discussions in the United States, the term is mostly used by its enemies.[33] "It's a rhetorical device to make evolution seem like a kind of faith, like 'Maoism,'" says Harvard University biologist E. O. Wilson. He adds, "Scientists don't call it 'Darwinism'."[34] In the United Kingdom, the term often retains its positive sense as a reference to natural selection, and for example British ethologist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins wrote in his collection of essays A Devil's Chaplain, published in 2003, that as a scientist he is a Darwinist.[35]

In his 1995 book Darwinian Fairytales, Australian philosopher David Stove[36] used the term "Darwinism" in a different sense than the above examples. Describing himself as non-religious and as accepting the concept of natural selection as a well-established fact, Stove nonetheless attacked what he described as flawed concepts proposed by some "Ultra-Darwinists." Stove alleged that by using weak or false ad hoc reasoning, these Ultra-Darwinists used evolutionary concepts to offer explanations that were not valid: for example, Stove suggested that the sociobiological explanation of altruism as an evolutionary feature was presented in such a way that the argument was effectively immune to any criticism. English philosopher Simon Blackburn wrote a rejoinder to Stove,[37] though a subsequent essay by Stove's prot(C)g(C) James Franklin[38] suggested that Blackburn's response actually "confirms Stove's central thesis that Darwinism can 'explain' anything."

In more recent times, the Australian moral philosopher and professor Peter Singer, which serves as the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, has proposed the development of a "Darwinian left" based on the contemporary scientific understanding of biological anthropology, human evolution, and applied ethics in order to achieve the establishment of a more equal and cooperative human society in accordance with the sociobiological explanation of altruism.[39]

Esoteric usage [ edit ] In evolutionary aesthetics theory, there is evidence that perceptions of beauty are determined by natural selection and therefore Darwinian; that things, aspects of people and landscapes considered beautiful are typically found in situations likely to give enhanced survival of the perceiving human's genes.[40][41]

See also [ edit ] Evolutionary biology portal

References [ edit ] ^ Huxley, T.H. (April 1860). "ART. VIII.'--Darwin on the Origin of Species". Westminster Review (Book review). London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. 17: 541''570 . Retrieved 19 June 2008 . What if the orbit of Darwinism should be a little too circular? ^ Wilkins, John (21 December 1998). "So You Want to be an Anti-Darwinian: Varieties of Opposition to Darwinism". TalkOrigins Archive. Houston, TX: The TalkOrigins Foundation, Inc . Retrieved 19 June 2008 . ^ Bleckmann, Charles A. (1 February 2006). "Evolution and Creationism in Science: 1880''2000". BioScience. 56 (2): 151''158. doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2006)056[0151:EACIS]2.0.CO;2 . ISSN 0006-3568. ^ "...on what evolution explains". Expelled Exposed. Oakland, CA: National Center for Science Education. Archived from the original on 25 October 2015 . Retrieved 15 November 2015 . ^ Le F¨vre, Olivier; Marinoni, Christian (6 December 2006). "Do Galaxies Follow Darwinian Evolution?" (Press release). Marseille, France: European Southern Observatory. eso0645 . Retrieved 15 November 2015 . ^ a b Huxley, T.H. (April 1860). "ART. VIII.'--Darwin on the Origin of Species". Westminster Review (Book review). London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. 17: 541''570 . Retrieved 19 June 2008 . What if the orbit of Darwinism should be a little too circular? ^ Bowler 2003, pp. 179, 222''225, 338''339, 347 ^ a b Scott, Eugenie C.; Branch, Glenn (16 January 2009). "Don't Call it 'Darwinism' ". Evolution: Education and Outreach. New York: Springer Science+Business Media. 2 (1): 90''94. doi:10.1007/s12052-008-0111-2 . ISSN 1936-6426. ^ Judson, Olivia (15 July 2008). "Let's Get Rid of Darwinism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 16 November 2015 . ^ Safina, Carl (9 February 2009). "Darwinism Must Die So That Darwin May Live". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 7 October 2020 . ^ Sclater, Andrew (June 2006). "The extent of Charles Darwin's knowledge of Mendel". Journal of Biosciences. Bangalore, India: Indian Academy of Sciences / Springer India. 31 (2): 191''193. doi:10.1007/BF02703910. ISSN 0250-5991. PMID 16809850. S2CID 860470. ^ Moran, Laurence (22 January 1993). "Random Genetic Drift". TalkOrigins Archive. Houston, TX: The TalkOrigins Foundation, Inc . Retrieved 27 June 2008 . ^ Hanes, Joel. "What is Darwinism?". TalkOrigins Archive. Houston, TX: The TalkOrigins Foundation, Inc . Retrieved 19 June 2008 . ^ Browne 2002, pp. 376''379 ^ Huxley 1893 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHuxley1893 (help) vol. 1, p.189. ^ Blinderman, Charles; Joyce, David. "Darwin's Bulldog". The Huxley File. Worcester, MA: Clark University . Retrieved 29 June 2008 . ^ Browne 2002, pp. 105''106 ^ Kropotkin 1902, p. 293 ^ Schmitt S. (2009). Haeckel: A German Darwinian? Comptes Rendus Biologies: 332: 110-118. ^ Tippett, Krista (host); Moore, James (5 February 2009). "Evolution and Wonder: Understanding Charles Darwin". Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippett (Transcript). NPR . Retrieved 16 November 2015 . ^ Wallace, Alfred Russel. (1889). Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection, with Some of Its Applications. Macmillan and Company. ^ Heilbron, John L. (2003). The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science. OUP USA. p. 203. ISBN 978-0195112290 ^ Romanes, John George. (1906). "Darwin and After Darwin: An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and a Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions". Volume 2: Heredity and Utility. The Open Court Publishing Company. p. 12 ^ Costa, James T. (2014). Wallace, Darwin, and the Origin of Species. Harvard University Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-0674729698 ^ Bolles, R. C; Beecher, M. D. (1987). Evolution and Learning. Psychology Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0898595420 ^ Elsdon-Baker, F. (2008). Spirited dispute: the secret split between Wallace and Romanes. Endeavour 32(2): 75-78 ^ Scott 2007, "Creation Science Lite: 'Intelligent Design' as the New Anti-Evolutionism," p. 72 ^ Johnson, Phillip E. (31 August 1996). "What is Darwinism?". Access Research Network. Colorado Springs, CO . Retrieved 4 January 2007 . "This paper was originally delivered as a lecture at a symposium at Hillsdale College, in November 1992. Papers from the Symposium were published in the collection Man and Creation: Perspectives on Science and Theology (Bauman ed. 1993), by Hillsdale College Press, Hillsdale MI 49242." ^ Ropp, Matthew. "Charles Hodge and His Objection to Darwinism: The Exclusion of Intelligent Design". theRopps.com. Chesterbrook, PA . Retrieved 4 January 2007 . Paper for CH506: American Church History, Dr. Nathan Feldmeth, Winter Quarter 1997, "written while a student in the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California." ^ Hodge 1874 ^ Sullivan, Morris (Spring 2005). "From the Beagle to the School Board: God Goes Back to School". Impact Press. Orlando, FL: Loudmouth Productions (56) . Retrieved 18 September 2008 . ^ Rennie, John (9 April 2008). "Ben Stein's Expelled: No Integrity Displayed". Scientific American. Stuttgart: Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. ISSN 0036-8733 . Retrieved 16 November 2015 . ^ "Constitutional Rights Foundation". www.crf-usa.org . Retrieved 25 May 2020 . ^ Adler, Jerry (28 November 2005). "Charles Darwin: Evolution of a Scientist". Newsweek. Vol. 146, no. 22. New York: Newsweek LLC. pp. 50''58. ISSN 0028-9604 . Retrieved 16 November 2015 . ^ Sheahen, Laura. "Religion: For Dummies". Beliefnet. Norfolk, VA: BN Media, LLC . Retrieved 16 November 2015 . ^ Stove 1995 ^ Blackburn, Simon (October 1996). "I Rather Think I Am a Darwinian". Philosophy. Cambridge. 71 (278): 605''616. doi:10.1017/s0031819100053523. ISSN 0031-8191. JSTOR 3751128. ^ Franklin, James (January 1997). "Stove's Anti-Darwinism" (PDF) . Philosophy. Cambridge. 72 (279): 133''136. doi:10.1017/s0031819100056692. ISSN 0031-8191. JSTOR 3751309. ^ Singer, Peter (2021) [2010]. "A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution, and Cooperation". In Ruse, Michael (ed.). Philosophy after Darwin: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Princeton, New Jersey and Woodstock, Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press. pp. 343''349. doi:10.1515/9781400831296-039. ISBN 9781400831296. ^ The Oxford Handbook for Aesthetics ^ "A Darwinian theory of beauty". ted.com. Archived from the original on February 11, 2014 . Retrieved May 1, 2018 . Sources [ edit ] Bowler, Peter J. (2003). Evolution: The History of an Idea (3rd completely rev. and expanded ed.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23693-9. LCCN 2002007569. OCLC 49824702. Browne, Janet (2002). Charles Darwin: The Power of Place . Vol. 2. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-679-42932-8. LCCN 94006598. OCLC 733100564. Hodge, Charles (1874). What is Darwinism?. New York: Scribner, Armstrong, and Company. LCCN 06012878. OCLC 11489956 . Retrieved 16 November 2015 . Kropotkin, Peter (1902). Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. New York: McClure Phillips & Co. LCCN 03000886. OCLC 1542829. Mutual aid; a factor of evolution (1902) at the Internet Archive Retrieved 2015-11-17.Petto, Andrew J.; Godfrey, Laurie R., eds. (2007) [Originally published 2007 as Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism]. Scientists Confront Creationism: Intelligent Design and Beyond. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-33073-1. LCCN 2006039753. OCLC 173480577. Stove, David (1995). Darwinian Fairytales. Avebury Series in Philosophy. Aldershot, Hants, England; Brookfield, VT: Avebury. ISBN 1-85972-306-3. LCCN 95083037. OCLC 35145565. Further reading [ edit ] (in Russian) Danilevsky, Nikolay. 1885-1889 Darwinism: A Critical Study (Ð--аÑвинизм. КÑитическое иссÐ>>едование) at Runivers.ru in DjVu format.Fiske, John. (1885). Darwinism, and Other Essays. Houghton Mifflin and Company.Huxley, Thomas Henry. (1893). Darwiniana: Essays. Macmillan and Company.Mayr, Ernst. (1985). The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance. Harvard University Press.Romanes, John George. (1906). Darwin and After Darwin: An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and a Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions. Volume 2: Heredity and Utility. The Open Court Publishing Company.Wallace, Alfred Russel. (1889). Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection, with Some of Its Applications. Macmillan and Company.Simon, C. (2019). Taking Darwinism seriously. Animal Sentience, 3(23), 47.External links [ edit ] Wikiquote has quotations related to

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Lennox, James (26 May 2015). "Darwinism". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2015 ed.). Stanford, CA: The Metaphysics Research Lab, Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), Stanford University . Retrieved 16 November 2015 .

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Toxicology vs Virology: Rockefeller Institute and the Criminal Polio Fraud P 12.07.2022 U F. William Engdahl

One of the outcomes of the alleged new SARS Covid virus that publicly emerged in 2019 is that the medical specialization of virology has been raised to a stature almost Godlike in the media. Few understand the origins of virology and its elevation into a leading role in today's medicine practice. For this we need to look at the origins and politics of America's first medical research institute, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, today Rockefeller University, and their work on what they claimed was a polio virus.

In 1907 an outbreak of a sickness in New York City gave the director of the Rockefeller Institute, Simon Flexner, MD, a golden opportunity to lay claim to discovery of an invisible ''virus'' caused by what was arbitrarily called poliomyelitis. The word poliomyelitis simply means inflammation of the spinal cord's grey matter. There were some 2,500 New Yorkers, mostly children, designated with some form of poliomyelitis, including paralysis and even death, that year.

Flexner's Fraud

The most striking aspect of the entire polio saga in the USA during the first half of the 20 th Century was the fact that every key phase of the business was controlled by people tied to what became the Rockefeller medical cabal. This fraud started with claims by the Director of the Rockefeller Institute, Simon Flexner, that he and his colleague, Paul A. Lewis, had ''isolated'' a pathogen, invisible to the eye, smaller even than bacteria, which they claimed caused the paralyzing sickness in a series of outbreaks in the US. How did they come to this idea?

In a paper published in 1909 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Flexner claimed he and Lewis had isolated the poliomyelitis virus responsible. He reported they had successfully ''passaged'' poliomyelitis through several monkeys, from monkey to monkey. They began by injecting diseased human spinal cord tissue of a young boy who had died, presumably from the virus, into the brains of monkeys. After a monkey fell ill, a suspension of its diseased spinal cord tissue was injected into the brains of other monkeys who also fell ill.

They proclaimed that the Rockefeller Institute doctors had thus proven poliomyelitis virus causality for the mysterious disease. They hadn't done anything of the sort. Flexner and Lewis even admitted that: ''We failed utterly to discover bacteria, either in film preparations or in cultures, that could account for the disease; and, since among our long series of propagations of the virus in monkeys not one animal showed, in the lesions, the cocci described by some previous investigators, and we had failed to obtain any such bacteria from the human material studied by us, we felt that they could be excluded from consideration.'' What they then did was to make a bizarre supposition, a leap of faith, not a scientific claim. They took their hypothesis of viral exogenous agency and made it fact, with no proof whatever. They asserted: '' Therefore, '...the infecting agent of epidemic poliomyelitis belongs to the class of the minute and filterable viruses that have not thus far been demonstrated with certainty under the microscope. '' Therefore?

Simon Flexner simply asserted it ''must'' be a polio virus killing the monkeys, because they could find no other explanation. In fact he did not look for another source of the illnesses. This was not scientific isolation. It was wild speculation: '''...not thus far been demonstrated with certainty under the microscope.'' They admitted this in a December 18, 1909 follow up in JAMA, titled, THE NATURE OF THE VIRUS OF EPIDEMIC POLIOMYELITIS.

The so-called ''virus'' they were injecting into monkeys was hardly pure. It also contained an undetermined amount of contaminants. It included ''pureed spinal cord, brain, fecal matter, even flies were ground up and injected into monkeys to induce paralysis.'' Until Jonas Salk won approval from the US Government in April 1955 for a polio vaccine, no scientific proof of existence of a virus causing poliomyelitis, or infantile paralysis as it was commonly known, had been proven. That is the case to this day. The medical world all took Flexner's word that it ''must '' be a virus.

Rockefeller Institute, Flexner and the American Medical Association

The Rockefeller Institute was founded from the Standard Oil fortune of John D. Rockefeller in 1901, to be America's first biomedical institute. It was modelled on France's Pasteur Institute (1888) and Germany's Robert Koch Institute (1891). Its first Director, Simon Flexner, played a pivotal and most criminal role in the evolution of what became approved American medical practice. The Rockefeller goal was to completely control American medical practice and transform it into an instrument, at least initially, for promotion of medical drugs approved by the Rockefeller interests. By then they were looking to monopolize medical drugs produced from their petroleum refining, as they had done with oil.

As Rockefeller Institute head, Simon Flexner, was publishing his inconclusive but highly acclaimed studies on polio, he arranged for his brother, Abraham Flexner, a school teacher with no medical background, to head a joint study by the American Medical Association (AMA), the Rockefeller General Education Board, and the Carnegie Foundation founded by Rockefeller's close friend Andrew Carnegie.

The 1910 study was titled, The Flexner Report, and its ostensible purpose was to investigate the quality of all US medical schools. The outcome of the report was, however, predetermined. Ties between the well-endowed Rockefeller Institute and the AMA went through the corrupt AMA head, George H. Simmons.

Simmons was also the editor of the influential Journal of the American Medical Association, a publication delivered to some 80,000 doctors across America. He reportedly wielded absolute power over the doctors' association. He controlled the rising ad revenues for drug companies to promote their drugs to AMA doctors in his journal, a highly lucrative business. He was a key part of the Rockefeller medical coup that was to completely redefine acceptable medical practice away from remedial or preventive treatment to use of often deadly drugs and expensive surgeries. As head of the AMA Simmons realized that the competition from a proliferation of medical schools, including then-recognized chiropractic, osteopathy, homeopathy and natural medicine, was lessening income of his AMA doctors, as the number of medical schools had increased from around 90 in 1880 to over 150 in 1903.

Abraham Flexner, former headmaster of a private school, toured various US medical schools in 1909 and recommended that fully half of the 165 medical schools be closed, as what he defined as ''sub-standard.'' This reduced competition from other approaches to healing diseases. They ruthlessly targeted then-widespread naturopathic medical schools, chiropractic ones, osteopaths as well as independent allopathic schools unwilling to join the AMA regime. Then Rockefeller money went to the select schools with a proviso that professors be vetted by the Rockefeller Institute and the curriculum focus on drugs and surgery as treatment, not prevention, nor nutrition, nor toxicology as possible causes and solutions. They had to accept Pasteur's germ theory of disease, which claims one germ to one disease reductionism. Rockefeller-controlled media launched a coordinated witch-hunt against all forms of alternative medicine, herbal remedies, natural vitamins and chiropractic''anything not controlled by Rockefeller patented drugs.

By 1919 the Rockefeller General Education Board and the Rockefeller Foundation had paid out more than $5,000,000 to Johns Hopkins, Yale and Washington University in St. Louis medical schools. In 1919 John D. Rockefeller granted another $20,000,000 in securities, ''for the advancement of medical education in the United States.'' That would be comparable to about $340 million today, a huge sum. In short the Rockefeller money interests had hijacked American medical education and medical research by the 1920's.

Creating Virology

This medical takeover, backed by the most influential doctors' organization, the AMA, and its corrupt head, Simmons, allowed Simon Flexner to literally create modern virology under Rockefeller rules. The highly controversial Thomas Milton Rivers, as director of The Rockefeller Institute's virology laboratory, established virology as an independent field, separate from bacteriology, during the 1920s. They realized they could manipulate far easier when they could claim deadly pathogens that were invisible germs or ''viruses.'' Ironically virus comes from Latin for poison.

Virology, a reductionist medical fraud, was a creation of the Rockefeller medical cabal. That highly important fact is buried in the annals of medicine today. Diseases such as smallpox or measles or poliomyelitis were declared caused by invisible pathogens called specific viruses. If scientists could ''isolate'' the invisible virus, theoretically they could find vaccines to protect people from harm. So their theory went. It was a huge boon for the Rockefeller cartel of pharmaceutical companies, which at the time included American Home Products which falsely promoted drugs with no proof of effect, such as Preparation H for Hemorrhoids, or Advil for pain relief; Sterling Drug,which took over the US assets including Aspirin of German Bayer AG after World War I; Winthrop Chemical; American Cyanamid and its subsidiary Lederle Laboratories; Squibb and Monsanto.

Soon virus researchers at the Rockefeller Institute, in addition to claiming discovery of the poliomyelitis virus, claimed to discover the viruses that caused smallpox, mumps, measles and yellow fever. Then they announced ''discovery'' of preventive vaccines for pneumonia and yellow fever. All of these ''discoveries'' announced by the Institute proved false. With the control of the research in the new area of virology, the Rockefeller Institute, in collusion with Simmons at AMA and his equally corrupt successor, Morris Fishbein, could promote new patented vaccines or drug ''remedies'' in the influential AMA journal that went to every member doctor in America. Drug companies refusing to pay for ads in the AMA journal were blackballed by the AMA.

Controlling Polio Research

Simon Flexner and the highly-influential Rockefeller Institute succeeded in 1911 in having the symptoms that were being called poliomyelitis to be entered into the US Public Health Law as a ''contagious, infectious disease caused by an air-borne virus.'' Yet even they admitted they had not proven how the disease enters the body of humans. As one experienced doctor pointed out in a medical journal in 1911, ''Our present knowledge of the possible methods of contagion is based almost entirely upon the work done in this city at the Rockefeller Institute.'' In 1951 Dr. Ralph Scobey, a critic of the Rockefeller rush to judgment on polio contagion, noted, ''This of course placed reliance on animal experiments rather than on clinical investigations'...'' Scobey also pointed to the lack of proof poliomyelitis was contagious: '''...children afflicted with the disease were kept in general hospital wards and that not a single one of the other inmates of the wards of the hospital was affected with the disease.'' The general attitude at that time was summed up in 1911: ''It seems to us despite the lack of absolute proof, that the best interests of the community would be conserved by our regarding the disease from a contagious standpoint.'' (sic).

By having poliomyelitis symptoms classified as a highly contagious disease caused by an invisible, alleged exogenous or external virus, the Rockefeller Institute and the AMA were able to cut off any serious research for alternative explanations such as exposure to chemical pesticides or other toxins, to explain the seasonal outbreaks of illness and paralysis, even death, mostly in very young children. That was to have fatal consequences lasting to the present.

Enter DDT

In his 1952 statement to the US House of Representatives investigating the possible dangers of chemicals in food products, Ralph R. Scobey, M.D. noted, ''For almost half a century poliomyelitis investigations have been directed towards a supposed exogenous virus that enters the human body to cause the disease. The manner in which the Public Health Law is now stated, imposes only this type of investigation. No intensive studies have been made, on the other hand, to determine whether or not the so-called virus of poliomyelitis is an autochthonous chemical substance that does not enter the human body at all, but simply results from an exogenous factor or factors, for example, a food poison.'' Toxins as cause were not investigated, despite huge evidence.

During the 1930s with economic depression and then war, few new major outbreaks of poliomyelitis were noted. However, immediately after the end of World War II, notably, the polio drama exploded in dimension. Beginning 1945, every summer more and more children across America were diagnosed with poliomyelitis and hospitalized. Less than 1% of the cases were actually tested via blood or urine tests. Some 99% were diagnosed by merely the presence of symptoms such as acute pain in extremities, fever, upset stomach, diarrhea.

In 1938, with the support of presumed polio victim, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (March of Dimes) was founded to solicit tax-exempt donations to fund polio research. A German doctor and researcher, Dr Henry Kumm, came to the US and joined the Rockefeller Institute in 1928 where he stayed until joining the National Foundation in 1951 as Director of Polio Research. Kumm was joined at the National Foundation by another key Rockefeller Institute veteran, the so-called ''father of virology,'' Thomas M. Rivers, who chaired the foundation's vaccine research advisory committee overseeing the research of Jonas Salk. These two Rockefeller Institute key figures thus controlled funds for polio research including developing a vaccine.

During the Second World War, while still at Rockefeller Institute, Henry Kumm was a consultant to the US Army where he oversaw field studies in Italy. There Kumm directed field studies for the use of DDT against typhus and malarial mosquitoes in the marshes near Rome and Naples. DDT had been patented as an insecticide by Swiss drug firm Geigy and their US branch in 1940, and first authorized for use on US Army soldiers in 1943 as a general disinfectant against head lice, mosquitoes and many other insects. Until war's end almost all DDT production in the US went to the military. In 1945 the chemical companies looked eagerly for new markets. They found them.

In early 1944, US newspapers triumphantly reported that typhus, ''the dreaded plague that has followed in the wake of every great war in history,'' was no longer a threat to American troops and their allies thanks to the army's new ''louse-killing'' powder, DDT. In an experiment in Naples, American soldiers dusted more than a million Italians with DDT dissolved with kerosene (!), killing the body lice that spread typhus. Rockefeller Institute's Henry Kumm and the US Army knew that, as one researcher put it, ''DDT was a poison, but it was safe enough for war. Any person harmed by DDT would be an accepted casualty of combat.'' The US Government ''restricted'' a report on insecticides issued by the Office of Scientific Research and Development in 1944 that warned against the cumulative toxic effects of DDT in humans and animals. Dr Morris Biskind noted in a 1949 article, ''As DDT is a cumulative poison, it is inevitable that large-scale intoxication of the American population would occur. In 1944, Smith and Stohlman of the National Institutes of Health, after an extensive study of the cumulative toxicity of DDT, pointed out, ''The toxicity of DDT combined with its cumulative action and absorbability from the skin places a definite health hazard on its use.'' Their warnings were ignored by higher officials.

Instead, after 1945, all across America DDT was promoted as the miracle new, ''safe'' pesticide, much like Monsanto's Roundup with glyphosate three decades later. DDT was said to be harmless to humans. But no one in government was seriously scientifically testing that claim. One year later in 1945 as the war ended, US newspapers praised the new DDT as a ''magic'' substance, a ''miracle.'' Time called DDT ''one of the great scientific discoveries of World War II.''

Despite isolated warnings of untested side effects, that it was a persistent, toxic chemical which easily accumulates in the food chain, the US Government approved DDT for general use in 1945. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), controlled by the Rockefeller-AMA-drug interests, established as ''safe'' a DDT content of up to 7 parts per million in foods, though no one had proven such. The DDT chemical companies fed the press with photos and anecdotes. Newspapers enthusiastically reported how the new miracle chemical, DDT, was being tested in the US against mosquitoes in the South believed carrying malaria, as well as ''preserving Arizona vineyards, West Virginia orchards, Oregon potato fields, Illinois cornfields, and Iowa dairies.'' DDT was everywhere in the USA in the late 1940s.

The US Government claimed DDT, unlike arsenic and other insecticides used before the war, was harmless to humans, even infants, and could be used liberally. Beginning 1945 cities like Chicago sprayed public beaches, parks, swimming pools. Housewives bought home aerosol spray DDT dispensers to spray the kitchen and especially childrens' rooms, even their matrasses. Farmers were told to spray their crops and their animals, especially dairy cows, with DDT. In postwar America DDT was being promoted, above all by Rockefeller drug companies like American Home Products with its Black Flag aerosol DDT spray, and Monsanto. From 1945 through 1952 the US production of DDT increased tenfold.

As presumed cases of polio literally exploded across the USA after 1945 the theory was advanced, with no proof, that the crippling polio disease was transmitted, not by toxic pesticide chemicals like DDT, but by mosquitoes or flies to humans, most especially young children or infants. The message was that DDT can safely protect your family from the crippling polio. Officially listed polio cases went from some 25,000 in 1943 before US civilian use of DDT, to over 280,000 cases in 1952 at the peak, more than a tenfold increase.

In October 1945 DDT, which had been used by the US Army under supervision of Rockefeller Institute's Henry Kumm as noted, was authorized by the US Government for general use as an insecticide against mosquitoes and flies. Dissenting scientists warning of toxic effects of DDT in humans and animals were silenced. Families were told DDT could save their children from the dreaded polio by killing the feared insects.

The US Department of Agriculture advised farmers to wash their dairy cows with a solution of DDT to combat mosquitoes and flies. Cornfields were aerial sprayed with DDT as well as fruit orchards. However it was incredibly persistent and its toxic effect on plants and vegetables were such it could not be washed off. Year-by-year from 1945 through 1952 the amount of DDT sprayed across the US increased. Notably, so too did the number of human cases of poliomyelitis.

Worst Polio Epidemic

By the beginning of the 1950s increasing attention was given in the US Congress and among farmers as to the possible dangers of such heavy pesticide use'--not only DDT, but also the even more toxic BHC (benzene hexachloride). In 1951 Morton Biskind, a physician who had successfully treated several hundred patients with DDT poisoning, testified to the US House of Representatives on the possible link of paralytic polio to toxins, specifically DDT and BHC. He noted,

''The introduction for uncontrolled general use by the public of the insecticide ''DDT'' (chlorophenothane) and the series of even more deadly substances that followed, has no previous counterpart in history. Beyond question, no other substance known to man was ever before developed so rapidly and spread indiscriminately over so large a portion of the earth in so short a time. This is the more surprising as, at the time DDT was released for public use, a large amount of data was already available in the medical literature showing that this agent was extremely toxic for many different species of animals, that it was cumulatively stored in the body fat and that it appeared in the milk. At this time a few cases of DDT poisoning in human beings had also been reported. These observations were almost completely ignored or misinterpreted.''

Biskind further testified to Congress in late 1950, ''Early last year I published a series of observations on DDT poisoning in man. Since shortly after the last war a large number of cases had been observed by physicians all over the country in which a group of symptoms occurred, the most prominent feature of which was gastroenteritis, persistently recurrent nervous symptoms, and extreme muscular weakness'...'' He described several case examples of patients whose severe symptoms including paralysis disappeared when exposure to DDT and related toxins was eliminated: ''My original experience on more than 200 cases which I reported early last year has since been considerably extended. My subsequent observations have not only confirmed the view that DDT is responsible for a great deal of otherwise inexplicable human disability'...'' Also noted was the fact that polio cases were always most in summer months when DDT spraying against insects was maximum.

The Rockefeller Institute operatives and the AMA, via their agents in the US Government, created the 1946-1952 USA health emergency called polio. They did so by knowingly promoting the highly toxic DDT as a safe way to control the mythical insect spreaders of the feared disease. Their propaganda campaign convinced the American population that DDT was the key to stop spread of poliomyelitis.

Polio Suddenly Declines

Under leadership of the two Rockefeller Institute doctors, Henry Kumm and Thomas Rivers, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) rejected critics such as Biskind and Scobey. Natural remedial treatment, such as using intravenous Vitamin C for the infantile paralysis, were rejected out of hand as ''quackery.'' In April 1953, leading Rockefeller Institute DDT consultant, Dr Henry Kumm, became Director of Polio Research for NFIP. He funded the polio vaccine research of Jonas Salk.

One courageous doctor in North Carolina, Dr. Fred R. Klenner, who had also studied chemistry and physiology, had the idea to use large doses of intravenous ascorbic acid'--Vitamin C'--on the hypothesis that his patients were victims of toxin poisoning and that Vitamin C was a powerful detox. This was well before Dr Linus Pauling's Nobel Prize research on Vitamin C. Klenner had remarkable success within days for more than 200 patients in the summer epidemics of 1949 to 1951. The Rockefeller Institute and the AMA had no interest in the remedial prospects. They and the Rockefeller-controlled National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis were only funding polio vaccine development, based on the unproven Flexner claim that polio was a contagious virus, not a result of environmental poison.

Then beginning sometime in 1951-1952, as polio cases were at an all-time high, something une xpected began to appear. The number of cases diagnosed as polio in the US began to decline. The decline in polio victims was dramatic, year by year until 1955, well before the National Foundation and Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was approved for public use and was widespread.

About a year before the sudden decline in polio cases, farmers, whose dairy cows were suffering severe effects of the DDT, were advised by the US Department of Agriculture to reduce DDT use. Rising public concern about how safe DDT was for humans, including publicized US Senate hearings on DDT and Polio in 1951 also led to a significant decline in DDT exposure into 1955, even though DDT was not officially banned in the US until 1972.

So-called ''polio'' cases fell by some two-thirds in that 1952-1956 time, in a remarkable parallel to the decline in DDT use. It was well after that decline, in late 1955 and 1956, that the Rockefeller-developed Salk polio vaccine was first administered in larg e populations. Salk and the AMA gave all credit to the vaccine. Deaths and paralysis as a result of the Salk vaccine were papered over. The Government changed the definition of polio to further reduce official cases. Simultaneously, cases of similar polio-like spinal cord nerve diseases'' acute flaccid paralysis, chronic fatigue syndrome, encephalitis, meningitis, Guillain-Barr(C) syndrome, muscular sclerosis'--rose notably.

Why it Matters

Over a century ago the world's richest man, oil baron John D. Rockefeller, and his circle of advisors set about to completely reorganize how medicine was practiced in the USA and the rest of the world. The role of the Rockefeller Institute and figures like Simon Flexner literally oversaw the invention of a colossal medical fraud around claims that an invisible contagious extraneous germ, the polio virus, caused acute paralysis and even death in young people. They politically banned any efforts to link the disease to toxin poisoning, whether from DDT or arsenic pesticides or even contaminated vaccine poisoning. Their criminal project included intimate cooperation with the leadership of the AMA and control of the emerging drug industry, as well as of medical education. The same Rockefeller group financed Nazi eugenics at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes in Germany in the 1930s as well as the American Eugenics Society. In the 1970s they financed the creation of patented GMO seeds which were all developed by the group of Rockefeller chemical pesticide companies'--Monsanto, DuPont, Dow.

Today this control of public health and the medical industrial complex is exercised by David Rockefeller's proteg(C) and eugenics advocate, Bill Gates, self-appointed czar over the WHO and world vaccines. Dr Tony Fauci, head of NIAID, dictates vaccine mandates without evidence. The fraud behind the polio virus scandal after World War II has been refined with use of computer models and other ruses today, to advance one alleged deadly virus after the other, from Covid19 to Monkeypox to HIV. As with polio, none of those has been scientifically isolated and proven to cause the diseases claimed. None. The same tax-free Rockefeller Foundation today, posing as a philanthropic charity, is at the heart of the global medical tyranny behind covid19 and the eugenics agenda of the World Economic Forum Great Reset. Their poliomyelitis virus model helped them create this dystopian medical tyranny. We are told, ''trust the science.''

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine ''New Eastern Outlook''.

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 13:37

Take a seat with a Gillespie County rancher and one will find there are particular years that linger in the lore of local agriculture. And 2022 is shaping up to be one of those years.

Drought and the economy are combining to form a perfect storm scenario that is sinking some local livestock producers.

According to the National Weather Service, Fredericksburg is more than 12 inches below normal rainfall in 2022.

''Everybody is affected just a little bit different,'' said Brad Roeder, who oversees Ag & Natural Resources at the Gillespie County AgriLife Extension office. ''Some people have zero grass, others are getting to that point, and then others have grass to maybe get them into next spring.''

With the food supply wearing thin for cattle, sheep and goats, Roeder explained that most ranchers have three options. They can buy hay from nearby areas with more rain, bring hay in on semi-trucks, or haul their cattle to a different lease. But when drought becomes more widespread, even these options become difficult.

The final option for ranchers is to begin selling off the herd.

''As we get dry and as people start to cull their herds, it kind of floods the market and then the price goes down,'' said Roeder.

''What a lot of producers do is wait until they're out of grass, or almost out of grass, before they start making those cuts.''

Experienced and active livestock producers often try to stay ahead of the crash by accounting for drought conditions in their hay reserves and selling older cows to reduce cattle consumption, helping to stretch the food supply further before the situation becomes drastic.

''The cattle still have a fair price but with the number of cattle hitting the sale barns all around, they're going down,'' said Len Weinheimer, a Gillespie County cattle rancher who has worked livestock his entire life.

Sheep and goats are better equipped to withstand the drought due to diet and are also commonly shipped to more distant markets where their meat is more in demand. But even sheep and goat ranchers are feeling the burden of feed costs.

Hay and feed shortages

In addition to natural grasses drying up in drought, regional hay production also gets spread thin once ranchers begin buying hay reserves to keep herds healthy. But drought also affects hay production, and both fall and spring hay growth has taken a hit.

''People that normally grow hay haven't produced hardly any hay at all,'' said Weinheimer. ''We are having to go outside of the county, mostly East Texas or further to get hay.''

Weinheimer has livestock in both Texas and New Mexico. For him, moving his herd to another location is not an option as New Mexico is also extremely dry.

Shipping hay from other areas has typically been an option when local hay production becomes strained. But many local ranchers are feeling the financial burden of high freight costs due to the rising cost of fuel.

This affects the grain industry as well, where freight expenses are also a struggle.

Clark Behrends, owner of Behrends Feed & Fertilizer, has seen price increases for all his products. His feed and grain supplies have been crucial to many local ranchers who are trying to provide good nutrition to their hungry herds.

''Our commodities are getting tougher and tougher to get,'' said Behrends. ''With fuel prices, trucking has been a big issue, trying to get ingredients in. And to top it all off, commodity prices are high.''

So far, Behrends has been able to keep most of his supply in stock despite increasing demands.

''Due to drought conditions, we've been very busy because the producers have to feed. Normally this time of year they do not,'' Behrends said.

Weinheimer was able to minimize some of the financial hardship by staying ahead of the drought as best he could.

''I got some hay bought before the prices really went up,'' Weinheimer said. ''Now I'm having to pay freight on it to get it here but it's still a whole lot cheaper than if I had waited.''

Like many career ranchers, Weinheimer is constantly having to evaluate conditions to find the best timing for purchasing hay and for selling off cows.

''I've been reducing some, but I've also been having to feed a lot more than I normally feed just to keep cattle in shape,'' said Weinheimer.

Culling the herd

When grass, hay and grain are all difficult to supply, ranchers must sell livestock to stay afloat.

''The best thing is to be ahead of the curve. Selling those old cows early is not going to hurt you that bad,'' Roeder said.

Making the decision on when to sell can be tricky business even for the experienced rancher, where the goal is to sell your livestock at a profit.

''If you can hold the cattle until it starts raining, they're going to go up on price just because so many cattle have been sold off,'' said Weinheimer. ''But you don't know where that point is, where they eat more than they're worth.''

When the realization begins to sink in that rain may not be coming, a lot of livestock go up for sale in a short amount of time. That spike in supply causes the price per head to drop significantly. Then the ranchers, who typically struggle to keep their ranches profitable in the best of times, wind up selling their herd for very low prices.

Shaun and Wayne Geistweidt, owners of Gillespie Livestock Co. are at the front lines of the livestock market. They have been in business as a sale barn and livestock auction since 1950.

''It's affected everybody greatly,'' Shaun Geistweidt said. ''If we don't get any rain and they keep selling, then there's not going to be a lot of stock left out there at all.''

Geistweidt recalls the drought of 2011 and the toll that it took on the cattle market.

''It's similar to 2011 except for the numbers. The numbers aren't quite what they used to be '-- we're cut back about 30%,'' said Geistweidt. ''After 2011, nobody really restocked fully. So, we're not seeing that great impact of cattle coming.''

The consequences of the 2011 drought are still being felt, and the same may be true after 2022.

Geistweidt has forged relationships across the nation through his lifetime in livestock sales. Those relationships have allowed him to help some of the ranchers get maximum prices for their product by shipping livestock to good buyers.

''We're sending some cows out of here that are going up north to some green areas,'' Geistweidt said.

A changing industry

The economic hit from low cattle prices, high hay prices, rising freight costs and drought conditions are likely to cause more livestock producers to reduce their herds or step out of the business.

And even with more cattle going to market, it is unlikely that meat prices will improve for consumers.

''There are so few meat packers that they control the price of meat,'' Roeder said. ''As much as we want to say with prices, if I sell my cattle for really cheap it ought to be cheaper at the grocery store, that's kind of being very simplistic.''

Gillespie County is also experiencing changes in both the land and in land ownership.

''So much of our country has gone out of production,'' Geistweidt said. ''That's affected numbers also, with a lot of wineries and stuff going up. It's taken quite a bit out of production.''

Most current producers are the sons and daughters of once full-time ranchers who now work their herds as a hobby or as a part-time income.

Roeder also points out that livestock grazing is a significant form of fire prevention, and that the reduction of livestock may take a toll on fire conditions.

''The cattle and grazing really reduces our fire threat here in the county,'' he said. ''As more people go into wildlife exemption and don't allow their neighbors to graze off that top forage every once in a while, our fire danger here in the county is going to get outrageous.''

Weinheimer recalls a time when yearly rainfall was better than current conditions.

''Since 1996, we've been pretty much in a drought,'' said Weinheimer. ''We have not had our normal rain patterns for 25 years.''

The one-two punch that many of Gillespie County's ranchers are feeling is likely to cause long-term consequences for local agriculture. Rain would help. But even when rain increases, the damage will be done, and Gillespie County ranching may be dried up for many years to come.

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:16

The United Nations has declared war on conspiracy theories, describing the rise of conspiracy thinking as ''worrying and dangerous'', and providing the public with a toolkit to ''prebunk'' and ''debunk'' anybody who dares to suggest that world governments are anything but completely honest, upstanding and transparent.

The UN also warns that George Soros, the Rothschilds and the State of Israel must not be linked to any ''alleged conspiracies.''

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UNESCO has teamed up with Twitter, the European Commission and the World Jewish Congress to launch the campaign dubbed #ThinkBeforeSharing: Stop the spread of conspiracy theories.

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The UN wants you to know that events are NOT ''secretly manipulated behind the scenes by powerful forces with negative intent'' and if you encounter anybody who thinks the global elite are conspiring to consolidate power and dictate global events, you must take action.

According to UNESCO, ''if you are certain you have encountered a conspiracy theory'' on the internet then you must ''react'' immediately post a relevant link to a ''fact-checking website'' in the comments.

(Never mind the fact that ''fact checkers'' are mostly untrained and unqualified hacks performing ''fact checks'' from the comfort of their bedroom in between posting far-left political content on personal blogs and getting high.)

UNESCO also provide advice for anyone who encounters a real live conspiracy theorist in the flesh. According to the UN agency, you must not under any circumstances be lured into an argument with the conspiracy theorist. ''Any argument may be taken as proof that you are part of the conspiracy and reinforce that belief'' and the conspiracy theorist will probably ''argue hard to defend their beliefs.''

Instead you must show ''empathy'', avoid ''ridiculing them'', and if you are a journalist you must ''report'' them to social media and ''contact your local/national press council or press ombudsman.''

Remarkably, hidden in the fine print, UNESCO admit that conspiracy theories do exist. Under the heading ''What is a real conspiracy?'' the United Nations bureaucrats explain that ''real conspiracies large and small DO exist.''

According to the UN, it's only a REAL conspiracy theory if it's ''unearthed by the media.''

''They are more often centered on single self-contained events, or an individual like an assassination or a coup d'etat. They are unearthed by whistleblowers and the media, using verifiable facts and evidence.''

There is just one problem with the UN's definition of a ''real'' conspiracy theory. The media has been fully bought and paid for by the elite. And it's the elite who are conspiring against the masses.

Ever heard of Operation Mockingbird? In the 1960s you would get called a conspiracy theorist if you dared to suggest that the CIA was spying on journalists and controlling the mainstream media.

In reality, this is exactly what was happening. Operation Mockingbird was a CIA operation that spied on members of the Washington press corps in 1963, 1972 and 1973. They also paid journalists to publish CIA propaganda.

Wiretapping of US citizens is against CIA code, but this is what they did.

How do we know about this? Mockingbird was uncovered by the Church Committee after the Watergate scandal. John F. Kennedy secretly recorded Operation Mockingbird conversations in the Oval Office and they are now part of The Presidential Recordings.

So sure, we should be trusting everything the media and fact checkers say, right? It's not like they have a history of being manipulated by shadowy three-letter agencies and the global elite, right?

But that was the 60s and 70s and everything has gotten worse since then. In 2013, Obama signed legislation that repealed the U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, also known as the Smith-Mundt Act.

Why is this important?

The Smith-Mundt Act was a so-called anti-propaganda law that prevented the U.S. government's mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2 2013, Obama quietly and deceitfully changed the law, meaning that the US government and the CIA could legally propagandize US citizens.

Strangely, the mainstream media don't like to acknowledge this fact. But it suits government agencies and the United Nations down to the ground. Of course they will tell you to place blind trust in the mainstream media and fact checkers. Regardless of how many times they get proved wrong, time and time again.

Hunter Biden's Latpop from Hell, anyone? It took the media more than a year to admit that it was a real thing. For a whole year the media was telling us that the laptop story was ''Russian disinformation'' and fact checkers were censoring social media, scrubbing it clean of any trace of the Laptop From Hell story, for fear that it would damage Biden Sr.'s presidential run.

In 1998 Noam Chomsky co-authored a book with Edward Herman called Manufacturing Consent. It blasted apart the notion that the mainstream media informs the public, serves the public, so that we can better engage in the political process.

In fact, the mainstream media manufactures our consent. It tells us what their paymasters, the three letter agencies and global elite, so that we can fall in line. Democracy is staged with the help of the mainstream media which works as a propaganda machine.

Mainstream media is not a check on power. The very system requires complicity. Governments, corporations, global institutions like the United Nations'... they know how to play the media game. They know how to control the news narrative. They know how to manipulate and control the masses.

They feed official scoops, official accounts, interviews with so-called experts. They breed fear because fear breeds compliance.

If you want to challenge power, you will be pushed to the margins. The CIA invented the term ''conspiracy theorist'' in the 1950s in order to denigrate those who dared to ask questions outside of the box and challenge the corrupt system.

The United Nations' war on conspiracy theorists is more of the same. They want to shame those among us who dare to ask questions and question the official narrative.

Ask yourself, when was the last time the media unearthed a conspiracy? (Tumbleweed blowing down a dusty street).

Also ask yourself, when was the last time the media covered up a conspiracy? (The list is endless. That's a story for another video).

Watch:

About Latest PostsBaxter DmitryBaxter Dmitry is a writer at News Punch. He covers politics, business and entertainment. Speaking truth to power since he learned to talk, Baxter has travelled in over 80 countries and won arguments in every single one. Live without fear.

Email:

baxter@newspunch.com Latest posts by Baxter Dmitry (see all)

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:10

Cygnus : Humanity reverts to Baal worship.Birmingham England 2022 Commonwealth Opening Ceremony https://t.co/PpaFcifrn3

Thu Aug 04 03:27:56 +0000 2022

..::ELPANAME‘O::.. : @CygnusAmerica @UwriyelMag #WEMUSTBEUNITEDALL SLAVES MUST OBEY#DemocratsCities#ClimateChange#PutinFault#PANAMA'... https://t.co/JMVcCqNxbs

Sun Aug 07 14:46:52 +0000 2022

Kerstin VV : @CygnusAmerica Ik bekijk maar een glimp van het filmpje en ik vind het heel erg wat ik hier zie.

Sun Aug 07 12:04:55 +0000 2022

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:55

Grant Taylor : Dennis Meadows: Hopefully depopulating the planet from 8 billion to 1 billion can occur peacefully and equally (C'... https://t.co/elSxHmnoQz

Tue May 10 18:45:32 +0000 2022

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:49

David Pinsen : Horse named ''Heavenly Trump'' wins race after lead horse throws its jockey. An omen? https://t.co/sKBM5SfiRJ

Sun Jul 31 23:05:47 +0000 2022

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:40

Peter McCullough, MD MPH : Medical emergencies are declared by doctors in the field not by bureaucrats. There has been no national viral emer'... https://t.co/kwaj40W5Ot

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:38

Episode Summary Farmers around the world are facing the full weight of the globalists climate Agenda 2030. With its stated goal to eliminate world hunger, Agenda 2030 is rapidly working to devastate global farming with fertilizer cuts aimed at farmers in the middle of an impending, man-made, food crisis. The timing couldn't be worse.#CanadianFarmers #Agenda2030 #FoodCrisis #FertilizerShortage

... Show More

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:32

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:27

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:26

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:22

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:18

Anarquista 🕊 : What could the common denominator be in hyper-vaxxed Australia '... ðŸ¤--#pfizer https://t.co/vcJtPeIvvd

Sat Aug 06 21:26:03 +0000 2022

Maggs2022 : @jacquel19826381 👍ðŸŠGeez i wonder. ðŸ‰Some people really need to understand that: 1+1=2 NOT 5!

Sun Aug 07 05:15:00 +0000 2022

'­ð'--žð'--ð'--žð'--ð'--...ð'--žð'--ð'--…ð'--žð'--ð'--žð'--·ð'--· ð'--žð'--¨ð'--ž ð'--.ð'--Š.ð'--' : @jacquel19826381 ðŸ'‰ðŸ'‰

Sun Aug 07 04:41:13 +0000 2022

Jerry Birchler : @jacquel19826381 Make Pfizer bankrupt by suing them out of existence

Sun Aug 07 04:23:55 +0000 2022

Andy : @jacquel19826381 Is the answer heart attacks? Is that the common denominator?

Sun Aug 07 04:13:22 +0000 2022

Eriker : @jacquel19826381 Exactly! Suddenly every household needs one'...ffs..wake up sheeple.

Sun Aug 07 04:02:57 +0000 2022

Cathryn G. Gibson - Heads Up Launceston : @jacquel19826381 mmm ... I wonder ... but even faced with the facts and the truth, they don't believe. ðŸ''ðŸ''¤¸

Sun Aug 07 03:51:37 +0000 2022

Zeitgeist : @jacquel19826381 The collective consciousness is eating itself to death like a maggot infested carcass that wants to be a butterfly.

Sun Aug 07 03:04:03 +0000 2022

PAddingtonbare1 : @jacquel19826381 So after the dodgy tests , this is the next cash cow, for the jab investors.?

Sun Aug 07 01:10:35 +0000 2022

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Thank you for contributing to r/TerrifyingAsFuck. Please double-check NSFW posts to see if they are labeled as such.

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:09

Alex Stein #99 : Do you think @DanCrenshawTX is lying about his involvement with the World Economic Forum? https://t.co/dZEkI08tfL

Tue Jun 21 03:55:54 +0000 2022

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 15:43

Election Wizard 🇺🇸 : BANNON: ''We don't need to audit the Fed. We need to end the Federal Reserve.'' https://t.co/nykvM3CcVG

Sat Aug 06 19:14:15 +0000 2022

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 15:38

Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis : Lots of work for oncologists. https://t.co/8iYC8RaahZ

Sun Aug 07 09:07:16 +0000 2022

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 15:31

Clown World Today ðŸ¤ðŸŒŽ : ðŸ¤ðŸŒŽ New Zealand to tax cows burps and farts https://t.co/rVFAfBW8de

Sun Jul 31 13:25:31 +0000 2022

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Sun, 07 Aug 2022 15:28

Steve Guest : Under questioning from Sen. Ted Cruz, FBI Director Chris Wray admits the FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit'... https://t.co/eZiThdDv8x

Thu Aug 04 16:23:42 +0000 2022

Bring DJT Back : @SteveGuest The scary thing is that Wray seems fine with it.

Sun Aug 07 15:20:23 +0000 2022

Bring DJT Back : @SteveGuest Un fing believable.

Sun Aug 07 15:18:27 +0000 2022

Lisa Hatzopoulos : @SteveGuest #WeCantBreathe from Divide(R)$ and Rule(R)$ in #PolitcalTheatre with (D)evil (D)elite$#ManUp for'... https://t.co/rAzJyGwgC8

Sun Aug 07 15:04:47 +0000 2022

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Sat, 06 Aug 2022 14:04

Mike Yeadon, retired vice president and chief scientist of Pfizer.Please take a look at my Substack. Excellent investigative reporting content.

Listen to the Mike Yeadon Interview | Download Zip | Watch

https://audio.pwfm.tech/220508-pww-yeadon.mp3Full Program at Normal Bandwidth

https://audio.pwfm.tech/220805-pwfm.mp3Full Program at Reduced Bandwidth | Zip

https://audio.pwfm.tech/220805-pwfm-mono.mp3Here is the Corman-Drosten retraction paper signed by Mike Yeadon.

Here is the article Thinking of You on Judgment Day.

Dear Friend and Listener:

Last night I listened to an interview with Mike Yeadon, retired vice president and chief scientist for Pfizer's respiratory division '-- and I was astonished. Originally broadcast earlier this week on Hearts of Oak, I will be replaying the entire conversation on tonight's Planet Waves FM. The interview was conducted by Peter Mcilvenna.

Eric Francis. Photo by Dani Voirin.The full program usually posts before its scheduled time of 10 pm EDT. However, I plan to have the Mike Yeadon segment on this page by about 2 pm EDT.

Yeadon's role at Pfizer was to supervise research and development of respiratory drugs worldwide (among other projects).

In this interview, he talks about natural pandemics, the fraudulent use of the PCR device as a ''diagnostic tool,'' the nature vaccine design and in particular the use of spike proteins, and how his fellow scientists felt when Pfizer was convicted of crimes several years ago.

He talks about his correspondence with former colleagues over matters related to the toxicity of what were then proposed formulations for the ''covid'' vaccine.

He discusses his discovery of problems with the concept of a respiratory virus as disease vector. He explains how many doctors and scientists were able to see through the issues but said nothing.

You will be familiar with many of these issues

If you've listened to any of my coverage the past few years, you will be familiar with many of the things he says. It's just that now they are coming from someone who faithfully served Pfizer as one of its best minds.

This is someone who displays no bitterness, only grounded sincerity and deep concern for life on the planet.

Jerry GarciaThe interview is one hour long and I think Yeadon deserves the benefit of the doubt. Last week, I read some of his correspondence to me. From my personal interactions with Mike, my impression is that he is the real thing.

Jerry Garcia Was Born 80 Years Ago

On a happier note, Jerry Garcia's 80th birth anniversary was earlier this week, and of course I will have a musical and astrological tribute to the great maestro, and some interview material '-- as well as coverage of next week's Full Moon in Aquarius.

Thank you for your ongoing support of the program and all of our journalistic efforts. Check out the top menu above for a tour of what we do, though I suggest you use a separate browser window if you're listening so that you don't interrupt the audio.

Your $5 and $10 donations add up to our web hosting and electric bill. We keep our costs modest, but we maintain our own technical and business infrastructure to ensure our editorial independence.

If you envision a brilliant future for Planet Waves FM and steward a charitable family trust, please get in contact. There is a lot to do, and we do what we can.

Faithfully,

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