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From Tantura to the Naqab, Israel’s roll call of shame is being exposed

By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | February 8, 2022

A succession of events in recent weeks all point to the inescapable fact that nearly 75 years of Israel’s painstaking efforts to hide the truth about its origins and its racist apartheid regime are failing miserably. The world is finally waking up, and Israel is losing ground quicker than it is able to gain new supporters or whitewash its past and ongoing crimes.

First, there were the revelations about Tantura, a peaceful Palestinian village whose inhabitants were mostly exterminated by Israel’s Alexandroni Brigade on 23 May, 1948. Like many other massacres committed against unarmed Palestinians over the years, the Tantura massacre was mostly remembered by the village’s few survivors, ordinary Palestinians and Palestinian historians. The mere attempt in 1998 by Israeli graduate student Theodore Katz to shed light on that bloody event ignited a legal, media and academic war, forcing him to retract his findings.

In a recent social media post, Professor Ilan Pappé revealed why, in 2007, he had to resign his position at Haifa University. “One of my ‘crimes’,” wrote Pappé, “was insisting that there was a massacre in the village of Tantura in 1948 as was exposed by MA student, Teddy Katz.”

Now, some Alexandroni Brigade veterans have finally confessed to the crimes in Tantura.

“They silenced it. It mustn’t be told, it could cause a whole scandal. I don’t want to talk about it, but it happened.” These were the words of Moshe Diamant, a former member of the Alexandroni Brigade who, with other veterans, revealed in the documentary “Tantura” by Alon Schwarz, the gory details of the horrific crimes that were committed in the Palestinian village.

An officer “killed one Arab after another” with his pistol, said former soldier Micha Vitkon. “They put them into a barrel and shot them in the barrel. I remember the blood in the barrel,” explained another. “I was a murderer. I didn’t take prisoners,” admitted Amitzur Cohen.

Hundreds of Palestinians were killed in Tantura in cold blood. They were buried in mass graves, the largest of which is believed to be under a car park at the Dor Beach, to which Israeli families flock daily.

The Tantura massacre is arguably the most glaring representation of “hidden” Israeli criminality on the occupation state’s roll call of shame. However, this is not the story of Tantura alone. The massacre in the village is representative of something much bigger, of ethnic cleansing on a huge scale, forceful evictions and mass killings. Thankfully, the truth is now being unearthed and exposed.

In another example, the Israeli army launched a full-scale military operation in 1951 to ethnically cleanse Palestinian Bedouins from the Naqab Desert. The tragic scenes of entire communities being uprooted from their ancestral homes were justified by Israel with the usual cliché that the terrible deed was carried out for “security reasons”.

In 1953, Israel passed the so-called Land Acquisition Law, which allowed the occupation state to seize the land of the Palestinians who had been forced out of their homes. By then, Israel had unlawfully expropriated 247,000 dunams of land in the Naqab, with 66,000 remaining “unutilised”. The remaining land is currently the epicentre of an ongoing saga involving Palestinian Bedouin communities in Israel and the Israeli government, which makes ludicrous claims that the land is “essential” for Israel’s “development needs”.

Extensive research conducted by Professor Gadi Algazi points to Israel’s narrative in the Naqab being a complete fabrication. According to numerous newly-revealed documents, Moshe Dayan, then the head of the Israeli army’s Southern Command, was central to an Israeli government and military ploy to evict the Bedouin population and to “revoke their rights as landowners”, under the conveniently created Israeli law, which allowed the government to “lease” the land as if it was its own.

“There was an organised transfer of Bedouin citizens from the north-western Negev eastward to barren areas, with the goal of taking over their lands,” Algazi told Haaretz. “They carried out this operation using a mix of threats, violence, bribery and fraud.”

The entire scheme was organised in such a way as to facilitate the claim that the Palestinians had moved “voluntarily”, despite their legendary resistance and “the stubbornness with which they tried to hold onto their land, even at the cost of hunger and thirst, not to mention the army’s threats and violence.”

Furthermore, a newly-released volume by French historian Vincent Lemire has entirely dismissed the official Israeli version of how the Moroccan Quarter in Jerusalem was demolished in June 1967. Although Palestinian and Arab historians have long argued that the destruction of the neighbourhood — 135 homes, two mosques and more — was done as per the order of the Israeli government through the then Jewish Mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek, Israel has just as long denied that version. According to the official Israeli account, the demolition of the neighbourhood was carried out by “15 private Jewish contractors [who] destroyed the neighbourhood to make space for the Western Wall plaza.”

In an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP), Lemire said that his book offers “definitive, written proof on the pre-meditation, planning and coordination of this operation,” and that includes official meetings between Kollek, the commander of the Israeli army and other top government officials.

The story continues with more heartbreaking revelations as a well-integrated version of the truth exposing long-hidden or denied facts. The days of Israel getting away with these crimes seem to be behind us. For the third time in a little over twelve months, a major human rights organisation, on this occasion Amnesty International, has condemned Israeli apartheid.

Amnesty’s report, “Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: A Look into Decades of Oppression and Domination”, is 280 pages of damning evidence of Israel’s racism and apartheid. It does not shy away from connecting Israel’s violent present with its equally bloody past, nor does it borrow from Israel’s deceptive language and self-serving division of Palestinians into disconnected communities, each with a different claim and a different status. For Amnesty, as was the case with Human Rights Watch’s report in April last year, Israeli injustices against the Palestinians must be recognised and duly condemned in their entirety.

“Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued an explicit policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony,” wrote Amnesty, “while minimising the number of Palestinians and restricting their rights.” This could only happen through mass killing, ethnic cleansing and genocide, from Tantura to the Naqab, to the Moroccan Quarter, the Gaza Strip and Sheikh Jarrah. The Israeli roll call of shame is long.

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , | 7 Comments

UK to arm Ukraine with anti-ship missiles against Russia – Kiev’s envoy

RT | February 8, 2022

The UK will supply Kiev with anti-ship missiles to potentially use against the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, Ukraine’s envoy to Britain, Vadim Pristayko, said in an interview with Novoye Radio on Tuesday. The official did not specify what munitions London is sending, nor the date they are set to arrive in Ukraine.

“For the first time, our armed forces, the Navy in particular, will receive real weapons, missiles that will finally enable us to have something against the Russians in the Black and Azov Seas,” the diplomat said.

The upcoming delivery of anti-ship missiles apparently falls under the £1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) deal, reached by London and Kiev last year. Under the agreement, the UK provides Ukraine with a loan, which Kiev has to pay back within 10 years, with the funds set to be spent on navy-related military hardware supplied by Britain. According to Pristayko, the equipment includes two minesweepers that are currently being “refitted” at a dockyard in Scotland, as well as other hardware.

“Our armed forces had never received such serious funds from abroad for their development,” the diplomat said.

Ukraine has enjoyed an uptick in foreign military aid in recent months amid fears of an allegedly looming attack by its neighbor, Russia. The UK has been among the top arms suppliers of Ukraine, sending in a large cache of NLAW shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles back in January, as well as deploying additional military instructors to teach Ukrainian forces to operate the systems.

Western media outlets and top politicians have repeatedly warned of Moscow’s allegedly imminent invasion of Ukraine, which has failed to materialize so far, with no solid evidence of the existence of such plans ever produced. Moscow has consistently rejected seeking to attack Kiev, denying claims that the movement of its troops in the relative vicinity of the Belarusian or Ukrainian border somehow threaten its neighbor.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba on Monday revealed the scale of foreign military aid Ukraine has already received.

“Ukraine has gotten more international political and economic support, as well as security,” the top diplomat said. “Over these weeks and months, we have received more than $1.5 billion, and more than 1,000 tons of arms and armaments.”

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

UK “reforming” human rights law… compulsory vaccines on the horizon?

By Kit Knightly | OffGuardian | February 8, 2022

The UK government is planning to re-work its human rights law to put an increased emphasis on “personal responsibility” and “duties to the wider society”, as well as preventing people “abusing” their rights.

Sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it? But let’s go back to the beginning.

In December 2020 the UK government announced they would be looking into Human Rights reform in the near future.

These announcements became more concrete a year later on December 14th 2021, when the government began a “consultation” on restructuring the Human Rights Act.

The plan is to replace current rights legislation with a so-called “UK Bill of Rights”, a policy dating from the Cameron administration. The new “bill of rights” would update and replace the Human Rights Act.

As a brief summary of UK human rights law:

Some rights are enshrined in common law from the days of Magna Carta, but the vast majority of the time when we talk about “human rights” in the UK we’re referring to the Human Rights Act 1998.

This act was written into law as essentially a verbatim copy of the European Convention on Human Rights passed by the Council of Europe in the 1950s.

The purpose of writing the international treaty into domestic law was so British citizens could take human rights cases to domestic courts, instead of having to go to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

As with most human rights laws, from the UN Declaration of Human Rights to the US Constitution, a lot of the time the Human Rights Act is flat-out ignored, or at best worked around. But it does exist, and it does offer some protection of the individual from the power of the state.

Will that continue to be the case after these “reforms”?

The UK’s current “consultation” on Human Rights “reform” is set to end next month (March 2022), & whatever its final recommendations are will likely not be published for several months after that. But, while we can’t yet be certain exactly what they will say…we can get some rough ideas from what they have released so far.

Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary who commissioned the consultation, recently said in an interview on LBC:

Our plans for a Bill of Rights will strengthen typically British rights like freedom of speech and trial by jury, while preventing abuses of the system and adding a healthy dose of common sense.”

If you’re anything like me, the phrases “abuses of the system” and “common sense” just made your inner cynic twitch, but there’s no real detail there.

Perhaps you’re thinking, at this point, that if you read the whole briefing document there will be nothing there to justify any paranoia.

… except I have, and there is.

If you drill down through the filler, and can read through the bureaucratic language, there are some pretty concerning red flags waving around, especially in their stated aims [emphasis added]:

Our reforms will be a check on the expansion and inflation of rights without democratic oversight and consent, and will provide greater legal certainty.

[The Bill of Rights will] provide greater clarity regarding the interpretation of certain rights, such as the right to respect for private and family life, by guiding the UK courts in interpreting the rights and balancing them with the interests of our society as a whole

[The Bill of Rights will] provide more certainty for public authorities to discharge the functions Parliament has given them, without the fear that this will expose them to costly human rights litigation

The government is committed to ensuring that the biggest social media companies protect users from abuse and harm, and in doing so ensuring that everyone can enjoy their right to freedom of expression free from the fear of abuse.

Protecting authorities from legal consequences, stamping out “abuse” online, subordinating privacy to national security… these are pretty routine aims of new legislation these days. They are expected, almost cliche.

The biggest and freshest warning sign is the sheer number of mentions of “duty” or “responsibility” or “the wider society”.

For example, this sentence from the forward written by Raab himself:

our system must strike the proper balance of rights and responsibilities, individual liberty and the public interest,

And in point 6 of the Executive Summary…

The Bill of Rights will make sure a proper balance is struck between individuals’ rights, personal responsibility, and the wider public interest.

… and then point 9 too:

[The Bill of rights will] recognise that responsibilities exist alongside rights, and that these should be reflected in the approach to balancing qualified rights and the remedies available for human rights claims

The header at the top of Chapter 3, “The Case for Reforming UK Human Rights Law”, bemoans:

the growth of a ‘rights culture’ that has displaced due focus on personal responsibility and the public interest […] public protection [is] put at risk by the exponential expansion of rights

Going into greater detail further down:

The international human rights framework recognises that not all rights are absolute and that an individual’s rights may need to be balanced, either against the rights of others or against the wider public interest. Many of the rights in the Convention are ‘qualified’, recognising explicitly the need to respect the rights of others and the broader needs of society […] The idea that rights come alongside duties and responsibilities is steeped in the UK tradition of liberty

And then again, in the first paragraph from section IV “Emphasising the role of responsibilities within the human rights framework” [emphasis added]:

We all have responsibilities in our society: to society (such as to obey the law and pay taxes), to our families, and to people around us. Everyone holds human rights whether or not they undertake their responsibilities, particularly the absolute rights in the Convention such as the prohibition on torture. Nonetheless, the government believes that our new human rights framework should reflect the importance of responsibilities.

It carries on in equally concerning fashion…

when a court is considering the proportionality of an interference with a person’s qualified rights, it will consider the extent to which the person has fulfilled their own relevant responsibilities.

The overall message is clear: Human rights can be tempered with “responsibilities” & anyone who does not fulfil their “responsibilities” is less deserving of the legal protection of their rights.

This is neither new thinking nor new language. Throughout “Covid times” we have seen talk of liberty parried with talk of duty, but it predates Covid too.

For years free speech has been tempered with talk of “being offensive” or “spreading misinformation”. The right to privacy has long been secondary to “national security” and “keeping people safe”.

Human Rights law is regularly trumped by The Patriot Act or Investigatory Powers Act or a dozen equally appalling pieces of legislation from both sides of the Atlantic.

But now, rather than bypassing human rights laws, this government is going to – to quote Raab – “rebuild them”. Meaning shred the existing ones and write all new ones. Ones that use “common sense” to make sure people are “responsible” and don’t “abuse” their rights.

Within the scope of this so-called “reform” is the desire to add conditions to basic human liberties. Exchanging “self-evident” truths, “endowed upon men at their creation”, for a quid-pro-quo agreement with the state.

This is a seismic shift in the very definition of “rights”.

The entire point of human rights is that they are innate and inalienable, they exist for everyone everywhere, and are not in the gift of any authority.

But now, rather, the UK government is arguing your rights are given to you at their behest, and that they come at the cost of expected duty.

And given all the talk during the “pandemic” regarding “protecting others” and being “responsible” – with masks, lockdowns and most especially vaccines – it’s not hard to see how these new “duties” could be applied in the future.

There’s no direct talk of compulsory vaccination, yet, but if these new “human rights” laws are made a reality, the next pandemic could be much harder to navigate.

You can read the complete consultation on human rights reform here.

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Timeless or most popular | , , | 1 Comment

No One Can Tolerate Permanent Fever, High Antibodies

By Dr. Joseph Mercola | February 8, 2022

Endless COVID-19 booster shots are being presented as the solution to the pandemic, as repeated injections increase the level of antibodies in your body.1 In December 2021, for instance, Moderna reported that their COVID-19 booster shot increased the level of antibodies by 37-fold, and when a full dose was given — the same amount used for the initial shots — antibody levels rose 83-fold.2

Pfizer and BioNTech have also announced that their booster shots increase antibody levels, but to what end? Artificially inflated antibodies signal to your body that you’re always infected, and the resulting immune response could prove to be detrimental to your health.

Such a condition can only lead to a “death zone,” accelerating the development of autoimmune conditions such as Parkinson’s, Kawasaki disease and multiple sclerosis, according to tech leader and COVID analyst Marc Girardot, who urges a retreat from the vaccination “death zone” before it’s too late.3

Are Boosters Taking Humans to the Death Zone?

Mountaineers are familiar with the “death zone,” which describes the top portion of the world’s tallest mountains — areas of such high altitude that oxygen is scarce, where humans can only survive for a matter of hours. “The same principle applies to our immune system,” Girardot explains, referring to the intense response our bodies mount in response to infection.

The response includes a high fever to damage virions, T-cell elevations and increased antibody production to rid your body of “viral debris.” This is designed to be a temporary response; after the threat is neutralized, your body tamps down its immune response. Girardot states:4

“Once the infection is gone, a regiment of sentinels is left in the mucus to guard the entrance for the remainder of the epidemic, a few roaming sentinels with lifelong memory are set, and the rest wanes back down to bring peace and balance. It’s called homeostasis. The fever dissipates. T-cells self-destruct rapidly. And antibodies wane progressively.”

This is by design, as a perpetual fever and high levels of antibodies keep your body in a dangerous state. Just as chronic stress — keeping your body in an extended state of “fight or flight mode” — increases disease risks, so, too, do permanently elevated levels of antibodies. Girardot details three reasons why:5

“1. Too long a fever would end up breaking down all healthy cells, and so the remedy would be worse than the illness.

2. Perpetual specialized T-cells are also dangerous as they can start off-target attacks of healthy cells (as often occurs with immune checkpoint blockade treatments against cancer), and would be like leaving your home filled with a battalion of armed soldiers with their guns loaded and pin-less hand-grenades.

3. Finally, very high levels of antibodies with nowhere to go are also extremely dangerous. They can passively bind to receptors of healthy cells, and kickstart a cascade of autoimmune diseases. Land mining where you live.”

Decreased Antibodies Isn’t a Measure of Waning Immunity

Remember, your immune system is designed to work in response to exposure to an infectious agent. Your adaptive immune system, specifically, generates antibodies that are used to fight pathogens that your body has previously encountered.6 During normal infections, high fever and temporary T-cell elevations, along with elevated antibodies to the infection, gradually dissipate.

However, declining antibodies shouldn’t be confused with declining immunity. Early data on SARS-CoV-2 also found that antibody titers declined rapidly in the first months after recovery from COVID-19, leading some to speculate — incorrectly — that protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 may also be short-lived.7

Senior author of the study, Ali Ellebedy, Ph.D., an associate professor of pathology & immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, explained, “It’s normal for antibody levels to go down after acute infection, but they don’t go down to zero; they plateau.”8

A biphasic pattern of antibody concentrations against SARS-CoV-2 was uncovered,9 in which high antibody concentrations were found in the acute immune response that occurred at the time of initial infection. The antibodies declined in the first months after infection, as should be expected, then leveled off to about 10% to 20% of the maximum concentration detected.

When a new infection occurs, cells called plasmablasts provide antibodies, but when the virus is cleared, longer lasting memory B cells move in to monitor blood for signs of reinfection.10 Bone marrow plasma cells (BMPCs) also exist in bones, acting as “persistent and essential sources of protective antibodies.”11

According to Ellebedy, “A plasma cell is our life history, in terms of the pathogens we’ve been exposed to,”12 and it’s in these long-lived BMPCs were immunity to SARS-CoV-2 resides.

Among people who have recovered from COVID-19, most of the participants had BMPCs that secreted antibodies specific for the spike protein encoded by SARS-CoV-2 at both seven months and 11 months after infection.13 This is evidence of long-lasting immunity,14 even if levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S) antibodies decline rapidly in the first four months after infection.

There’s a Cost to Massive, Artificially Elevated Antibodies

COVID-19 shots are poised for a perpetual cycle of ongoing booster shots every few months. After up to two doses of the initial shot, and a third booster already on the roster, a fourth booster is already being discussed, including by Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, who said that the efficacy of the third shot is likely to decline over several months, necessitating another shot soon thereafter.15

“Many politicians and vaccine manufacturers adamantly propose repeated injections, boosters every 3 or 4 months, as if waning antibodies were a sign of lost immunity,” Girardot said. “In reality, they are scapegoating the natural drop in antibodies. It is a smokescreen to hide their failure and the ineffectiveness of these intramuscular vaccines.”16

The reality is, repeatedly, artificially inflating antibodies comes with a cost. It’s known, for instance, that certain autoimmune diseases are seen alongside high levels of antibodies.17 Vaccine-induced autoimmunity is a well-known phenomenon, and molecular mimicry may be to blame.18

It occurs when similarities between different antigens confuse the immune system.19 There are often significant similarities between elements in the vaccine and human proteins, which can lead to immune cross-reactivity. When this occurs, researchers explained in Cellular & Molecular Immunology, “the reaction of the immune system towards the pathogenic antigens may harm the similar human proteins, essentially causing autoimmune disease.”20

In relation to COVID-19 shots, specifically, researchers wrote in the Journal of Autoimmunity, “Indeed, antibodies against the spike protein S1 of SARS-CoV-2 had a high affinity against some human tissue proteins. As vaccine mRNA codes the same viral protein, they can trigger autoimmune diseases in predisposed patients.”21

Already, case reports suggest that COVID-19 shots may trigger vaccine-induced immune-mediated and autoimmune hepatitis,22 and Girardot is concerned that repeated booster shots will only worsen outcomes:23

“In the case of an infection, the risk is relatively limited as the bulk of antibodies ends up binding to viral material circulating in large numbers. However, in the case of repeated doses, it’s very different.

After the second shot, it is likely that limited amounts of spike are produced as T-cells rapidly destroy production capacity. Thus, for most of us, large quantities of antibodies will inevitably be left idle circulating aimlessly, expanding exponentially (time x quantity) the risk of an accidental binding with catastrophic consequences.”

Natural Infection Produces Broad Immunity

Training your body to produce singular antibodies for one spike protein cannot compare to the protection provided by natural immunity, which occurs after recovery from an illness. Speaking with Daniel Horowitz, pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole explained that natural infection produces broad immunity that can’t be matched by vaccination:24

“A natural infection induces hundreds upon hundreds of antibodies against all proteins of the virus, including the envelope, the membrane, the nucleocapsid, and the spike. Dozens upon dozens of these antibodies neutralize the virus when encountered again.

Additionally, because of the immune system exposure to these numerous proteins (epitomes), our T cells mount a robust memory, as well. Our T cells are the ‘marines’ of the immune system and the first line of defense against pathogens. T cell memory to those infected with SARSCOV1 is at 17 years and running still.”

This may explain why a retrospective observational study published August 25, 2021, found that natural immunity is superior to immunity from COVID-19 shots, with researchers stating, “This study demonstrated that natural immunity confers longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization caused by the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, compared to the BNT162b2 two-dose vaccine-induced immunity.”25

Pharmaceutical companies and health officials are making plans for ongoing boosters, including combination shots that include, for example, a COVID-19 shot, a flu shot and a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) shot, in one injection — coming in 2023 — to avoid “compliance issues.”26

Nearly two dozen pathogens are currently being targeted for the development of new shots,27,28 and it’s likely that you’re going to see a continued push for more jabs and boosters. Will humans’ immune systems, and overall health, be able to withstand such an assault? Girardot doesn’t think so:29

“Today, I would like to underscore the absolute lunacy of delivering these products to an entire population every 3-4 months. It’s nothing short of criminal. In my earnest opinion, repeated vaccine injections can only lead to one outcome: generalized illness and death …

The vaccination ‘Death Zone’ exists, and we need to urgently go back down in the valley, we need to stop vaccinating, stop boosting aimless antibodies and trust our immune systems.”

Sources and References

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

Mandatory Vaccination via the Back Door

The Naked Emperor’s Newsletter | February 8, 2022

There has been a lot of fanfare about the recent decision to abandon mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for National Health Service (NHS) staff in England. However, the pressure is still on.

The welcome U-turn was announced on 31 January, when Sajid Javid (the health secretary) said that whilst looking at the risks and opportunities of the vaccination as a condition of deployment policy, there were 2 new factors to consider. Firstly, the population as a whole is better protected against hospitalisation and secondly, Omicron is intrinsically less severe. He then concluded that while vaccination remains our very best line of defence, he no longer believes it is proportionate to require vaccination through statute.

All reasonably sensible stuff so far and this is what the majority of the media picked up on. However, he wasn’t finished yet. He continued with the following statement (emphasis my own):

Some basic facts remain: vaccines save lives, and everyone working in health and social care has a professional duty to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

So, while we will seek to end vaccination as a condition of deployment in health and social care settings using statute, I am taking the following steps:

First, I have written to professional regulators operating across health to ask them to urgently review current guidance to registrants on vaccinations, including COVID-19, to emphasise their professional responsibilities in this area.

Second, I have asked the NHS to review its policies on the hiring of new staff and the deployment of existing staff, taking into account their vaccination status.

And third, I’ve asked my officials to consult on updating my department’s code of practice, which applies to all CQC registered providers of all healthcare and social care in England.

They will consult on strengthening requirements in relation to COVID-19 including reflecting the latest advice on infection prevention control.

So it seems that, as suspected, the U-turn didn’t occur because it was the sensible path to follow but because of political motives. Too much pressure was building up in support of the unvaccinated health care workers. Furthermore, there would have been nowhere to hide politically, when 10 percent of the health care staff were sacked, causing massive chaos in an already overstretched service.

However, the pressure is still on for the staff who have chosen not to be vaccinated. Firstly, the regulations have not been revoked yet, they will be subject to a consultation and parliamentary approval. Secondly, similar to my article on the removal of human rights, there will be professional pressure applied to staff in the interests of the greater good. Thirdly, policies will be changed making it very difficult for unvaccinated workers. As one nurse put it:

No vaccine mandate but; you can’t change jobs, take a promotion, progress in your career, and you will forever be coerced into taking a jab and live with constant fear that one day you could be sacked for not taking it.

This is not over!

Yesterday, a Times article reported that Sajid Javid has told medical regulators to insist staff get jabs. It says the health secretary has said that “medical regulators must crack down on unvaccinated staff”. The article reports that “he has written to nine regulators, including the General Medical Council (GMC) and Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). Abandoning compulsory vaccines ‘in no way diminished the importance that health and care workers are vaccinated. Indeed, it is the responsibility of all health care professionals to take steps to ensure the safety of patients’. [Sajid is] ‘concerned that the guidance from the professional regulators on this issue is currently limited to a statement about vaccination in general’ rather than about Covid-19 in particular”. Javid told the regulators “that they should ‘urgently’ work with senior health leaders ‘to ensure yourself that your current guidance on vaccination for Covid, sends a clear message to registrants’.”

I don’t think there will be much opposition at management level in the NHS, when individuals such as Chris Hopson (CEO of NHS Providers) and Matthew Taylor (CEO of NHS Confederation) issued a joint statement saying “NHS leaders are frustrated to have such a significant change in policy at the 11th hour, given all the hard and complex work that has gone into meeting the deadline set by the government. They recognise the reasons . . . but there will be concern at what this means for wider messaging about the importance of vaccination for the population as a whole.”

Also yesterday, England’s Chief Medical Officer (Chris Whitty), together with the Chief Nursing Officer, Chief Midwifery Officer, Medical Directors and others wrote to NHS colleagues about their professional responsibility to get vaccinated.

In the letter they say “COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective because there have been over 10 billion doses given worldwide”. They also say that the vaccines “provide protection from becoming infected”. I don’t know how they can claim that when data from the UK Health Security Agency itself, shows infection rates to be higher in the majority of vaccinated age groups.

The main gist of the letter is to guilt health care workers into getting vaccinated. They use words such as “professional responsibility”, “the public reasonably expect” and “to protect our patients”. The letter ends by saying “the great majority of heathcare workers have already done so [been vaccinated]. We hope those of you who have not will consider doing so now.

The level of coercion to get vaccinated, particular with health care workers, is unacceptable and is not dying down. For a novel vaccine, with no medium to long term studies on side effects, the choice is down to the individual. The data suggests that the vaccinated are more likely to be infected, not less. So, even if the vaccine does protect someone on an individual basis, they are more likely to be infectious around patients, not less. Especially, if the vaccine masks any symptoms meaning a vaccinated individual is more likely to be infected and not realise they are.

Mandatory vaccinations for healthcare workers has been abolished for now, but the pressure is still being placed on them. Will new workers have to be vaccinated, will vaccination be necessary for certain roles or to progress careers. Or will the constant shaming or being made to feel guilty be too much for the individuals who have chosen not to be vaccinated and will they have to leave anyway but this time, without any legal redress or compensation?

The crescendoing chatter that this is for some greater good is also deeply concerning. The majority of individuals, when left to their own devices, will choose the correct path when deciding on the finely balanced risks between what is good for themselves and the public. Most people will always want to do the right thing and very often choose to help others over themselves. The only danger in society right now is the thought that public health officials or ministers can decide what is good for an individual based on a perceived threat to society. This top-down policy is not only dangerous but won’t achieve the results they are looking for.

I will conclude with a comment made by a reader on one of my previous articles:

“As a Human Geneticist in a profession that was responsible for the horrors of the Eugenics movement, I have been deeply steeped in ethics and the importance of abiding by codes of conduct especially those created after WW2 such as the Nuremberg Codes. As soon as one strays from these codes, one immediately falls into the danger of recreating the past horrors. Individual rights must always be respected over any other consideration and any abrogation of those rights no matter what the rationale must always be challenged and justified and as temporary and minimal as possible. One thing I learned taking courses in the mathematics of epidemiology is that public health are not trained in ethics in the same way. In fact they are almost trained in the opposite to always think of the good of the whole of society over the rights of individuals. Of all branches of medical health out there, it does not surprise me that tyranny came from public health.”

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Science and Pseudo-Science | , , | Leave a comment

How Big Pharma sold vaccines to the world – Part 1

By Paula Jardine | TCW Defending Freedom | February 8, 2022

OVER the last five decades – long before governments used the fear of Covid-19 to accustom their citizens to bio-security surveillance through continuous mass testing of healthy people, Test and Trace, vaccine mandates and vaccine passports that replace people’s rights to participate in society with conditional permissions – the control and elimination of diseases via medication has gradually become the sole and ultimate goal of global public health policy. Clean water, ending malnutrition, improving food production and supply and education have been all but eclipsed in the pursuit of universal vaccination.

Writing on the politics of vaccination in 2017 the international health policy expert William Muraskin  warned that ‘an all-out war on microbes is being planned right now by eradication proponents who intend to prevail regardless of developing-country governments’ or their peoples’ choices.’ Like the ‘war on terror’ it was an open ended concept, ambiguous and useful to justify a range of actions.

That vaccines have become the weapon of global health choice is down to two influential philanthropic foundations which have been working relentlessly towards the hubristic goal of eradicating diseases via universal vaccination.

For the past quarter-century the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has been front and centre of this widely perceived humanitarianism, inviting humankind to ‘reimagine the way we use our immune systems to combat disease’ through ‘just-in-time’ vaccines and surveillance. In fact BMGF is but a newcomer to this great vaccine game, joining another influential private American organisation, the Rockefeller Foundation (RF), which set the groundwork for this years ago. Set up by the family of John D Rockefeller, the world’s first billionaire who made his money through his company Standard Oil, RF’s role in vaccine promotion traces back to its pioneering disease eradication campaigns against hookworm and yellow fever. The foundations for what was to become the war on microbes was laid over the next decades with the RF making most of the running; exerting its influence through the placement of RF trustees across numerous international organisations, always evading the type of public attention that the BMGF has attracted by operating largely under the radar.

At the World Health Organisation-convened 1978 World Health Assembly in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, member nations agreed a broad vision for ‘Health for All’ as a fundamental human right, which was set out in a clear declaration. This was a manifesto to improve health in the developing world by the year 2000 by raising living standards through clean water, improved sanitation and nutrition – the fundamental contributory elements to good health. In this call for primary health care, immunisation against the major infectious diseases was but one of the tools in the box alongside ‘education, food supply and proper nutrition, the adequate supply of safe water and basic sanitation; maternal and child health care, including family planning; prevention and control of locally endemic diseases; appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries; and provision of essential drugs’.

The Alma Ata declaration displeased the Rockefeller Foundation because the vision and strategy ran counter to the disease-centric cure or eradicate model it had pioneered against hookworm, yellow fever and malaria. The RF convened a conference of its own six months later in Bellagio, Italy, to develop a counter-response. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, it was one of their own employees, Dr Rafe Henderson, who first encouraged the WHO to embrace vaccines. In 1977 he was seconded to WHO to run the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI).

Addressing the World Health Assembly 30 years later, the Danish physician and former WHO director general Dr Halfdan Mahler reminded his audience ‘of the transcendental beauty and significance of the definition of health in WHO’s Constitution’, health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’.

He lamented donors’ speedy loss of interest in and distortion of the very essence of the Alma Ata vision and its primary health care strategy ‘under the ominous name of Selective Primary Health Care which broadly reflected the biases of national and international donors and not the needs and demands of developing countries’.

Selective Primary Health Care, the Rockefeller Foundation’s riposte to Alma Ata written by its director of health sciences, Dr Kenneth Warren, was a ‘band aid’ package of ‘scientific’ solutions to paper over infrastructure and systemic problems. It was believed that ‘GOBI’, the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) acronym for its four essential measures for the maintenance of child health in developing areas – Growth monitoring, Oral rehydration, Breast-feeding and Immunisation – could halve the child death rate in developing countries. According to Warren, the GOBI scientific advances were more realistic and cost-effective interim measures.

While WHO director general Mahler was endeavouring to deliver his broader Health For All programme, the Rockefeller Foundation was busy finding a way around it. James P Grant, a Rockefeller Foundation trustee and a member of its executive committee, was nominated as a candidate to be executive director of Unicef. Grant, feted by Bill Gates as a ‘visionary leader’,  was appointed to this post in 1980 by United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim.

Writing later about the start of the global health strategy, Dr Kenneth Warren focused almost exclusively on vaccination. He explained how in May 1983 Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine who campaigned vigorously for mandatory vaccination throughout the rest of his life, calling the universal vaccination of children against disease a ‘moral commitment’, and Robert McNamara, the President of the World Bank who had advocated for population reduction claiming that population growth was second only to nuclear war as a global threat, together convinced Unicef that the Expanded Program on Immunization that Rafe Henderson was running for the WHO needed to be accelerated.

Warren records how in 1984 the Rockefeller Foundation helped to organise a consortium of agencies, including the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, to foster that goal, and how, within six years, 80 percent immunisation was achieved.

Yet it is striking how infrequently the WHO Health For All reports of that time, the early 1980s, mention immunisation, by contrast consistently noting how disease in developing countries caused by parasites, insects and infections was closely related to economic and social conditions, notably malnutrition or marginal nutrition and poor water.  When vaccination is mentioned in these reports it is as ‘a’ tool rather than as ‘the’ tool for addressing disease.

The insertion of the word ‘universal’ before vaccination coincided with the arrival of Grant at Unicef. However innocuous it may have seemed, the inclusion of this single qualifying word has had far-reaching ramifications. Universal vaccination was a policy choice, and the one preferred by the RF and its acolytes at the CDC.

Two years into his tenure, Grant rebranded the RF’s Selective Primary Health Care as Unicef’s Children’s Survival and Development Revolution. Phrases referencing Mao’s Cultural Revolution are, astonishingly, scattered throughout. He was soon touting vaccines as cutting-edge and low-cost and the push for universal vaccination began in earnest, aiming for 90 per cent of children in the developing world to be inoculated against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTP), polio, measles, mumps, rubella and tuberculosis by 1990, never mind whether these children had clean water to drink or adequate food or sanitation.

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Timeless or most popular | , , | 1 Comment

Pakistan in the Eye of the Storm

By Melkulangara Bhadrakumar | Strategic Culture Foundation | February 8, 2022

The joint statement issued on February 6 following the four-day visit by the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to China has been an exceptional gesture by Beijing underscoring the highest importance attached to that country as a regional ally. Beijing feels the need to underscore that not only does it back the government in Islamabad to the hilt but is determined to boost the ties, especially by boosting the flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Aside its overt emphasis on the launch of the CPEC’s Phase 2, the two highlights of the joint statement are: one, the affirmation that ’stronger’ defence and security cooperation will be ‘an important factor of peace and stability in the region,’ and, two, the joint initiative to take up with the Taliban government the holding of the China-Pakistan-Afghanistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue as well as the ‘extension of CPEC to Afghanistan.’

New trends have appeared in regional security during the past 6-month period since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan last August, which are highly consequential for regional politics. For a start, all evidence suggests that various terrorist groups continue to operate in Afghanistan. And groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir or the Islamic State affiliates have a long history of working as the West’s geopolitical tool.

The acute humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan following the abrupt ending of western assistance in August and the U.S. vengeful decision to freeze the country’s funds abroad are being turned around as pressure points by Washington to engage with the Taliban Government with a view to manipulate its attitudes and policies. With the departure of U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, the CIA is in direct control of Washington’s dealings with the Taliban.

The Oslo talks (January 23-25) between the Taliban and the U.S. has been a turning point. Notably, last week, the U.S. Treasury Department has unilaterally ‘tweaked’ the sanctions regime against the Haqqani Network. Funds can now be transferred to Afghanistan by international banks, and aid agencies are allowed to work with the Haqqanis. Alongside, President Biden has designated Qatar as a ‘major non-NATO ally’ even as direct flights commenced last week between Kabul and Doha (where CIA operatives dealing with Afghan affairs are based), and, furthermore, Qatar will now be operating the Afghan airports and controlling that country’s air space. Taken together, Washington is rapidly putting in place the infrastructure for conducting its operations in Afghanistan pending diplomatic recognition and the establishment of physical presence.

Meanwhile, the climate of Pakistan’s relations with the Taliban government has deteriorated. A surge of cross-border violence culminated last week in brazen attacks on Pakistani military. The picture remains hazy. Intriguing questions arise as to the culpability.

The internal tensions within the Taliban are no big secret. It is only to be expected that at a time when the group is trying to gain international legitimacy and tackle domestic crisis, internal tensions get accentuated, as interest groups competing for positions and privileges pull in different directions. Suffice to say, the Taliban is more vulnerable today than ever to infiltration and manipulation by the western intelligence.

Recently, Barnett Rubin, former State Department official and expert on Afghanistan who was a key aide to late Richard Holbrooke, took a historical perspective when he said, “The Taliban are the most unified organisation in Afghanistan. There has never been a significant split in the organisation. There are many differences and rivalries that are seized on by their opponents as evidence that the Taliban are divided, but they have never been divided in practice. The CIA spent $1 bn trying to split the Taliban and failed.”

That was time past. Time present may hold surprises. What is apparent is that while the Taliban government is being seen by the world community as the monarch of all it surveys in Afghanistan, Washington is singling out the Haqqani Network as its interlocutor. The folklore used to be that the Haqqanis were the blue-eyed boys of Pakistan. Equally, they became synonymous with brutal acts of terrorism. That said, however, the Haqqanis also have another side to their bio-profile.

Lest it gets forgotten, the great patriarch Jalaluddin Haqqani’s rift with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the subsequent split with Hizb-i-Islami in 1979 was not due to the acceptance or rejection of radicalism but reflected regional geography and their respective tribal origins. The Haqqanis belong to the Zadran Pashtun tribe, a branch of the Kalani tribal confederacy inhabiting southeastern Afghanistan (Khost, Paktia and Paktika provinces) and parts of Pakistan’s Waziristan. That is what distinguishes the Haqqanis in the top rungs of the Taliban leadership in Kabul. Mullah Hasan Akhund, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Mullah Mohammed Yaqoob, etc. are largely drawn from the Abdali (Durrani) confederacy of the dominant Pashtun tribes.

True, the Taliban movement managed to put up a show of unity, but that was the period of the jihad against foreign occupation when clan and tribal identity got submerged and the friendship networks, or andiwali (Pashto for camaraderie) played an important cementing role. But even then, interestingly, the Haqqani Network had enjoyed battlefield autonomy while remaining politically subservient to the Quetta Shura.

Today, two factors become particularly important. First, no one knows whether the Taliban supremo Amir Hibatullah Akhundzada is still alive or not. There is a leadership vacuum. Second, since 2013-2014, Pakistan’s control of the Taliban had been progressively weakening following the assassination of several senior Taliban figures in Quetta. Now, these two factors combined together, there is no one with power or authority who can rein in the Taliban factions from going overboard. In all likelihood, Pakistan is helplessly watching. The cross-border tensions could well be a manifestation of this epochal transition in the Taliban’s tumultuous history.

Then, there is an interesting detail that has great relevance today. The Haqqanis and the CIA go back a long way. The Haqqani Network was the only Mujahideen group that then Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq permitted the CIA to have direct dealings during the 1980s jihad. How far that had anything to do with the Haqqanis’ devotion to ‘global jihad’ is a moot point today. The point is, it was in the safe hands of the Haqqanis that the CIA entrusted Osama bin Laden’s life and security during the 1980s jihad.

Is it coincidental that the U.S. has ‘tweaked’ the sanctions against the Haqqanis unilaterally so soon after the defeat in Afghanistan so as to revive their direct line of communication with them?

The regional states cannot but be worried. Simply put, the spectre that is haunting the region is the U.S.’ return to Afghanistan to finesse a new geopolitical tool for influencing regional politics in a wide arc of countries — Central Asian states, China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan. The China-Pakistan joint statement issued in Beijing on Sunday is a forceful signal from Beijing against any such attempt to use Afghan soil as a springboard to destabilise the region. But it is going to be an uphill struggle unless the attempt is nipped in the bud.

It is not without reason that the Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at their meeting in Beijing on Saturday that ‘The dimension of China-Kazakhstan relations has gone beyond the bilateral scope and is of great significance to regional and even world peace and stability.’ The very next day, at the meeting with Imran Khan, President Xi emphasised that ‘as the world finds itself in a period of turbulence and transformation, China-Pakistan relations have gained greater strategic significance.’

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Timeless or most popular | , , , | Leave a comment

Joe Rogan shows us the real purpose of cancel culture

By Kit Knightly | OffGuardian | February 7, 2022

Joe Rogan has just been cancelled. Again. It’s not about covid “misinformation” this time.

No, now he’s a racist.

Some enterprising young mind combed through 13 years and hundreds of episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience, and cut together around twenty instances of Rogan using “the n-word”.

This video was shared by award-winning musician India Arie, and used to explain her pulling her music from Spotify’s platform in protest of Rogan’s continued presence there.

Rogan claims that these clips are all taken out of context in his recent apology video, and none were ever intended to be racist. This may well be true… we can’t check for ourselves, because Spotify removed all the episodes.

These important bits of context were, naturally, removed from the viral video. Besides, it has since been said that context doesn’t even matter.

And you know what, they’re right. The context doesn’t matter, perhaps the intention doesn’t even matter, what matters is “Why now?”

Some of these clips are over twelve years old, and yet there have never been any calls to boycott Spotify or cancel his show until just the last couple of days.

Were they not racist before? Or was everyone just OK with the racism? Could there be something else behind this?

… but why bother pausing the hate-fest to ask questions, right?

The only message that matters is – Joe Rogan is a racist now, and streaming giant Spotify have pulled over seventy episodes of his show from their platform as a result.

Of course the cyber-torches and internet-pitchforks coming for Joe Rogan is nothing new. Having preached the tenets of a healthy lifestyle, promoted alternate Covid treatments, and invited dissenting experts onto his show, Rogan has obviously been on the establishment’s hit list for a while.

This reached a peak in January when ageing rock royalty Neil Young gave Spotify an ultimatum: Remove Joe Rogan’s “misinformation”, or take my music down.

Despite adding a weasely disclaimer to the beginning of the podcast’s episodes, Spotify essentially sided with Rogan, probably because they couldn’t be seen to bow to that kind of pressure, and because they figured most people had forgotten Neil Young was still alive.

In short, and despite other musicians like Joni Mitchell adding their voices to Young’s, the gambit failed and Rogan remained on the air.

Then, just last week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki added fuel to the fire by announcing the President would like to see “more done” by tech companies to “limit the amount of misinformation” on their platforms.

Within days of that press conference, the viral video compilation of racial slurs had appeared, and Rogan is now a racist as well as an “anti-vax covidiot” or whatever they are calling us these days.

He’s also an object lesson in the entire purpose of cancel culture, and extreme identity politics in general.

I don’t know how many of our readers are gamers, or remember Half Life 2, but go with me here…

Around two-thirds of the way through the game you encounter giant insect-like aliens called Ant Lions, and soon afterwards get a special attack: The ability to “paint” enemies with pheromones which cause an unending swarm of Ant Lions to attack them.

Of course, the giant insects don’t know WHY they are attacking your enemies, they don’t sympathise with your aims and are not capable of understanding your plans, all they know is the chemical signals driving them to fits of rage.

You probably don’t need me to explain the metaphor.

This is the purpose of rampant, hysterical identity politics. You can paint your enemies as a target and watch the mindless swarm do its work.

As much as “cancel culture” is portrayed as a totally organic process, without any top-down control, this is simply not the case.

It is almost NEVER organic, and seemingly ALWAYS contrived.

If you need to be persuaded of that, simply look at who is immune to it.

Both Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau have got enough racist (or at least racist-seeming) scandals to get them cancelled if the process really was anything but a covert tool of maintaining the status quo. And yet still they stand.

To show how selective it is, we have examples of the same exact behaviour eliciting complete opposite responses depending on the person involved.

When Gina Carano compared the hatred of the unmasked and unvaccinated to the way Jews were treated in Nazi Germany, she lost her job and her agent.

When Margaret Hodge made similar comments about Corbyn’s Labour party, there was no rebuke at all.

It seems only people outside the establishment, or promoting the ‘wrong’ opinions, are ever in real danger of falling victim to ‘organic’ cancellation.

Indeed, one can be a totally white-bread member of the entertainment industry for years and be safe in the knowledge your racism/homophobia/misogyny etc will never really come to light, but step out of line on the wrong subject at the wrong time, and you will suddenly find yourself facing a tidal wave of past “sins” about to wash over you.

Look at Donald Trump, an insider to the bone when he was just a billionaire reality TV host, but then he ran against Hillary and became “literally Hitler” overnight.

Rogan is a perfect examplar of this phenomenon. Spend ten years going on about legalising weed, taking DMT and talking about martial arts and you can say “the n-word” as much as you want and nobody notices or cares. But the minute you even mildly interrogate an important media narrative, then the mob ‘organically’ remembers you were a racist the whole time.

The evidence of contrivance is obvious. Simply ask yourself: where did this video compilation of racial slurs actually come from? Who made it?

Rogan’s uses of “the n-word” are not new. They are all several years old and from 23 separate episodes, all multiple hours long. And there are almost 1800 episodes of the show to plough through if you decide to go searching. So making this video is at least two days’ work of simply watching the episodes – and that’s assuming you know where to start looking.

And that’s before editing or trying to make it “go viral”.

Was all this done on a whim by some bored pro-vaxxer?

Does that sound likely?

Far more likely is that it was created and deployed to discredit Rogan’s COVID-questioning without having to engage with the Covid sceptic evidence or arguments.

It’s even possible the video may even have already existed before the current controversy. After all, why create this climate of stifling sensitivity if you don’t have the tools to use it?

Perhaps most authors, actors, comedians etc. have a “tape” in the vault somewhere. A database of racism, homophobia or transphobia just waiting to be released when needed. A collection of neo-kompromat that works best as a deterrent, but is always ready to be loosed if needed.

Those people who do step too far out of their box are taken down, and act as an example to others. Ensuring everyone on the public stage is singing from the same hymn sheet.

Because that, it seems, is what cancel culture is for.

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Progressive Hypocrite, Timeless or most popular | , | 2 Comments

Canada’s Justice Center on Constitutional Rights Represents Freedom Truckers

By Stephen Lendman | February 8, 2022

The nation’s Justice Center is a “legal organization and federally registered charity that defends citizens’ fundamental freedoms under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, through pro bono legal representation and through educating Canadians about the free society.”

Expressing support for anti-mandate protesters, Justice Center attorney Samuel Bachand said the organization is involved “to help defend political freedoms of these people of good will” — in Ottawa and other Canadian cities.

Over the weekend, the Center warned Ottawa authorities that intimidation and/or arrests of individuals involved in bringing food, fuel and/or other supplies are in flagrant breach of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Section 2(b) states:

“Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

(a) freedom of conscience and religion;

(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and

(d) freedom of association.”

Article 7 assures that “(e)veryone has the right to life, liberty and security of person and the right not to be deprived thereof in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”

Representing Freedom Convoy truckers, Justice Center attorney Nicholas Wansbutter stressed the following:

“People who bring food, water, gasoline or other supplies to peacefully protesting truckers are not breaking any law.”

“There is no basis for this police threat…”

“In a free and democratic society that is governed by the rule of law, citizens can freely associate with each other, including the giving and receiving of goods and gifts.”

“There is no law that would allow the Ottawa Police to arrest people for giving fuel or food to another Canadian.”

“The truckers themselves are exercising their Charter freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, as they are legally entitled to do.”

The Justice Center challenged the state of emergency declared by Ottawa mayor Jim Watson, Wansbutter saying:

He presented no evidence to legally prove that peaceful actions by freedom truckers pose “a danger of major proportions” that doesn’t exist.

Under Canada’s Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, an “emergency (is) a situation or an impending situation that constitutes a danger of major proportions that could result in serious harm to persons or substantial damage to property and that is caused by the forces of nature, a disease or other health risk, an accident or an act whether intentional or otherwise.”

Nothing of the sort exists in Ottawa or other Canadian cities where similar anti-mandates activism is ongoing.

Watson’s declaration amounts to a “disturbing overreach and misuse of emergency powers,” Wansbutter added.

An affidavit filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice states that Freedom Convoy organizers and truckers involved are working closely with Ottawa police, the RCMP and Parliament’s Protective Service to maintain order according to the rule of law.

On Monday, the Justice Center represented Freedom Convoy organizers and leaders in court.

They challenged a hostile $10 million lawsuit for nonexistent damages from horn-honking.

Along with honking for justice, video and photographic evidence showed the following, according to the Justice Center:

“Bouncy castles for the kids, farmers with their tractors, cowboys on their horses, impromptu street hockey, protestors shoveling snow and feeding the homeless, live music, and flags from all nations and protests,” adding:

“A more realistic picture of what is happening in Ottawa will soon be revealed by sworn affidavits filed in this court application.”

“Convoy leaders asked truckers to refrain from honking horns between 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.” They obliged.

On Monday, an eyewitness in court said the following under oath:

The individual saw truckers and supporters “feeding the homeless on Wellington Street and filling their backpacks with food.”

“Truckers have taken a whole trailer full of food to the homeless shelter.”

“Truckers are maintaining cleanliness of city streets, including picking up discarded masks on the ground, centralized garbage collection, shoveling snow at the War Memorial and the Terry Fox statue, and decorating and providing security for the War Memorial and Terry Fox statue.”

The above sworn testimony is polar opposite fabricated accusations against truckers and supporters by Ottawa authorities, city police and MSM co-conspirators.

Another witness said the following:

“(T)ruckers I have interacted with have, at all times, been friendly, courteous, humble, considerate and peaceful.”

“I have not observed any aggressive or inappropriate behavior.”

Truckers are diverse. They include Sikhs, Blacks, Aboriginals and others.

The witness “observed truckers decorating the tomb of the unknown soldier with flowers and guarding it.”

He saw no “violent or threatening behavior.”

“Truckers are not honk(ing) their horns at night.”

“My everyday life has not been disrupted by any noise related to the Freedom Convoy during the day.”

“My ability to park and travel in downtown Ottawa, or to and from Parliament Hill has not been impeded by the presence of the truckers.”

Still another witness said the following:

“(P)rotesters were peaceful and respectful.”

“I saw no violence or harassment.”

“I was not impeded in any way, and could walk about freely and safely.”

“I did not see any hateful symbols.”

“I saw an abundance of Canada flags and Quebec flags as well as countless signs calling for freedom and the end of (flu/covid) related mandates.”

“I would describe the scene as a peaceful, pro-freedom demonstration.”

“Many people walked the streets peacefully protesting.”

“Many of them carried Canada flags and signs.”

“It was a peaceful and fun atmosphere with dancing and public speakers taking turns at a microphone while people listened on.”

“I did not observe anyone being harassed or intimidated. I felt totally safe.”

“Contrary to what I have seen in the media, I did not see that the Terry Fox statue was desecrated or defaced in any way.”

“I saw flowers at the feet of the statue as demonstrators walked by.”

“My everyday life has not been disrupted by any noise related to the downtown demonstrations.”

“I do not hear any honking near my home.”

“The only honking I have heard is on Wellington Street, particularly across from Parliament Hill.”

Justice Center Litigation Director Jay Cameron stressed the following on Monday:

“The right to peacefully protest is a fundamental right protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

“Governments across Canada have ignored Canadians, and bypassed their elected representatives in the passage of health and (jabbing) mandates which strip people of their jobs and civil liberties.”

“People are tired of being ignored by the indifferent elite.”

“The lack of meaningful democracy means citizens have no voice regarding health mandates.”

“They have a right to peacefully protest and have their voices heard.”

Nationwide protests in Canada have the Trudeau regime and local authorities on the back foot.

Staying the course to keep them there is crucial while pursuing restoration of lost rights until draconian mandates are rescinded.

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Solidarity and Activism | , , | Leave a comment

British police colluded with loyalist paramilitaries during Irish ‘Troubles’ – watchdog

RT | February 8, 2022

An investigation into eight attacks attributed to the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA) or the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) has identified “significant failures” by UK authorities during the period known as The Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1990s.

Laying out the findings in the 344-page report, published on Tuesday, Marie Anderson, the police ombudsman for Northern Ireland, claimed she was “deeply concerned” by the findings, which showed members of the police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), had deliberately destroyed files.

The “damning” investigation, which found “undiluted evidence of the policy of collusion,” stated that “11 murdered citizens and their families were systemically failed by the British state in life and in death.”

A spike in violence from loyalist paramilitary groups during the Troubles saw the RUC seek to expand its network of informants within the UDA and UFF. The RUC was condemned for a “totally unacceptable” practice of using informants who “were actively participating in serious criminality” and, in some cases, murders. However, the report did not find evidence that police had been handed information that could have stopped the attacks.

The Troubles, which lasted from the 1960s to the late 1990s, saw violent attacks and reprisals between Irish republican paramilitaries and Ulster loyalist groups. The UDA, which had tens of thousands of members at one point, has been deemed responsible for killing hundreds of people during the conflict. It was formally banned in August 1992, and announced in 2007 that “the war is over.” However, in 2018, then-Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable George Hamilton claimed members of the UDA were still involved in criminal activities.

“Areas of the report make uncomfortable reading and I want to offer my sincere apologies to the families of those killed and injured for the failings identified in this report,” PSNI Temporary Assistant Chief Constable Jonathan Roberts said in a statement.

In his remarks, Roberts acknowledged the “continuing distress being felt by all of the families of those killed and injured in these attacks, and want to acknowledge the pain and suffering that they all continue to feel.”

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , | 1 Comment

16 States File New Lawsuit Challenging Vaccine Mandates for U.S. Healthcare Workers

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | February 7, 2022

Attorneys general from 16 states, led by Louisiana, filed a new legal challenge to COVID-19 vaccine mandates for U.S. healthcare workers.

The amended lawsuit was filed Feb. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Chiquita Brooks-Lasure, administrator of CMS.

The suit seeks to block the mandate for healthcare workers in the 25 states that previously challenged it and where it is set to take effect beginning this month.

The revised lawsuit puts forth a series of new arguments, including that the CMS mandate was designed in response to the Delta variant and is therefore now obsolete.

Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia joined Louisiana in the lawsuit.

The amended lawsuit comes in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Jan. 13 decision, which lifted injunctions that had been in effect in 25 states. The Supreme Court said mandates could go into effect while lawsuits challenging it continue to weave their way through the judicial system.

This decision came following a circuitous legal process, where U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty initially blocked the mandate nationwide, on Nov. 30, 2021. (Judge Doughty is overseeing the case involving the amended lawsuit.)

An appeals court later lifted the injunction in 26 states on Dec. 15, 2021, but the mandate was then separately blocked in Texas that same day by another judge.

These developments prompted the Biden administration in late December 2021 to file an emergency request with the Supreme Court, asking the court to lift the various injunctions barring implementation of the CMS mandate.

The mandate, as originally issued by the CMS, specifically applies to healthcare workers at hospitals and facilities that receive federal funding — namely, those that accept Medicare and Medicaid payments.

Following the Supreme Court decision, healthcare workers in 24 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming) will be required to furnish proof of having received at least one COVID vaccine dose by Feb. 14, and must complete their primary series of vaccines by March 15.

Healthcare workers in Texas have until Feb. 22 to receive their first dose, and March 21 to complete their primary series of vaccinations, while in states where the mandate had not previously been blocked, the respective deadlines are Jan. 27 and Feb. 28.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry described the CMS vaccine requirement as a “job-killing directive” that is ineffective as a measure to stop the spread of COVID or protect public health.

Landry argued the mandates violate states’ rights:

“The CMS vaccination rule remains a misguided, one-size-fits-all, job-killing directive that does not account for any change in circumstances — including how the vaccines do not stop the transmission of the Omicron variant.

“What’s more, the federal government has now made clear that it expects the states to implement this flawed policy with state employees. So I will continue fighting this ill-advised invasion of individual autonomy and my state’s rights.”

Landry said the mandate is “causing havoc in the healthcare labor market across the nation — especially in rural communities.”

The lawsuit addresses a notable discrepancy: The mandate, signed by Becerra, specifically references the danger the Delta variant poses to the unvaccinated, adding that vaccines “continue to be effective in preventing COVID-19 associated with the now-dominant Delta variant.”

The Supreme Court agreed with Becerra’s reasoning, stating he had “good cause” to impose the mandate without the typically mandated comment period, because of his belief that any additional delay would pose a danger to patient health and safety in light of the spread of the Delta variant.

The lawsuit argues that as of mid-December 2021 and based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Delta was no longer the prevalent strain of COVID, having been replaced by Omicron:

“[T]he Secretary’s rationale for the rule and for avoiding public comment no longer exists. The Delta variant has run its full course.

“… It is now established beyond any serious question that the secretary’s speculation was wrong. The Delta variant effectively disappeared from the scene within weeks of the issuance of the rule.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall also questioned the efficacy of the COVID vaccines against Omicron:

“The mandate was promulgated in response to the Delta variant, which now accounts for only 0.1 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the United States.

“But research suggests that COVID-19 vaccines do little to stop the transmission of the predominant strain today — the Omicron variant, which accounts for 99.9 percent of all cases — which undermines the premise for forcing people to submit to them.”

The amended lawsuit states, “Omicron’s transmission is largely undeterred by the vaccines.”

The lawsuit also references findings by the American Association of Retired Persons Public Policy Institute, which indicates nursing homes and long-term care facilities are already facing a severe shortage of nurses and aides, without the mandate having yet gone into effect.

The lawsuit argues these low staffing levels place patients at greater risk, including a higher likelihood of contracting COVID:

“By forcing healthcare workers to choose between their jobs or an experimental vaccine they do not want, CMS is affirmatively pinching an already strained workforce — and particularly so in rural areas within the States.”

The lawsuit also notes the shifting and contradictory position of the federal government, which, for instance, recently issued guidance permitting healthcare workers who have tested positive for COVID to go to work, which undercuts the policy that prohibits unvaccinated healthcare workers from going to work even with a negative test result.

The lawsuit further argues the CMS vaccine mandate violates the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution concerning states’ rights; the Spending Clause of the Constitution; the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine, which stems from two Supreme Court decisions prohibiting the federal government from commandeering state governments; and the Nondelegation Doctrine, a principle in administrative law that stipulates Congress cannot delegate its legislative powers to other entities.

In contrast, government lawyers told the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in January that following the Jan. 13 Supreme Court decision striking down the previous injunctions, the case was “effectively concluded,” and they submitted a motion for its dismissal.

The CMS on Jan. 25 issued new guidance that broadened the mandate, extending the vaccine requirement to surveyors who enter the healthcare facilities covered by the rule.

In turn, the lawsuit argues the latest CMS guidance clashes with laws in the states participating in the lawsuit, including an Indiana law that bars government entities from requiring any individual to furnish proof of vaccination, and a Montana law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of vaccination status.

© 2022 Children’s Health Defense, Inc. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of Children’s Health Defense, Inc. Want to learn more from Children’s Health Defense? Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Children’s Health Defense. Your donation will help to support us in our efforts.

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Science and Pseudo-Science | , , | Leave a comment

Negative vaccine efficacy example in the UK

By Steve Kirsch | February 8, 2022

Summary

This example shows that triple vaccinated people in the UK are more likely to be hospitalized, not less likely. In other words, the vaccines are doing the opposite of what the health authorities claimed. Mandating vaccination is actually making the problem worse, not better.

The FOIA request

Consider the following FOIA request from Feb 3, 2022:

Now consider the following stats:

So we have 130/182 = 71% of the patients in the hospital are triple vaccinated.

But only 45% of the public is triple vaccinated.

Negative efficacy

If the vaccines worked, we’d see that fewer than 45% of the patients are triple vaccinated. Instead, we see the opposite.

In other words, not only are the vaccines not working, but they are actually making it more likely you will be infected. Whoops.

UK Government data confirms negative efficacy

Reminds me of this chart showing similar negative vaccine efficacy.

The only question remains: when will people wake up?

February 8, 2022 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular | , | Leave a comment

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