Article 43
Sunday, February 28, 2021
How Many Empty Homes
Empty Homes Outnumber The Homeless 6 To 1, So Why Not Give Them Homes?
“Homes are built for people to live in,” said one activist, so why are there millions of homeless people and millions more empty homes?
By MintPress News Desk
July 2, 2015
Millions of Americans experience homelessness every year, and yet they’re outnumbered by VACANT HOMES and government-owned buildings. A growing number of activists are calling for these empty spaces to be filled with the humans living on America’s streets.
According to the NATIONAL ALLIANCE TO END HOMELESSNESS, almost 600,000 people experience homelessness on any given night in the United States as of January 2014. About 15 percent of those people are the chronically homeless,Ӕ while the rest may lose their homes temporarily but find some form of recovery that keeps them off the streets on a long-term basis.
WRITING FOR AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL IN 2011, Tanuka Loha, then-director of Amnestys Demand Dignity program, put the numbers into a larger, annual perspective, and compared them to the shocking number of vacant homes left AFTER LAST DECADE’S FINANCIAL CRASH.
ғSince 2007, banks have foreclosed around eight million homes. It is estimated that another eight to ten million homes will be foreclosed before the financial crisis is over. This approach to resolving one part of the financial crisis means many, many families are living without adequate and secure housing. In addition, approximately 3.5 million people in the U.S. are homeless, many of them veterans. It is worth noting that, at the same time, there are 18.5 million vacant homes in the country.
Most empty homes sit vacant after foreclosures, leaving them OWNED BY BANKS that are loathe to part with them.
The numbers appear to be similar in Europe, according to Rupert Neate, writing for the GUARDIAN IN 2014. Neate interviewed David Ireland, chief executive of the Empty Homes charity.
“Homes are built for people to live in, if they’re not being lived in then something has gone seriously wrong with the housing market,” Ireland told Neate.
According to the Guardian, European Union figures show that there are 4.1 million homeless living across Europe, while there are 11 million empty homes across the continent.
Back in the U.S., another report last year highlighted the 77,000 empty government buildings that could be refitted to house the homeless. According to Matt Lemas, writing in Ryot, while some existing legislation allows for these kinds of conversions, it requires local pressure and pro-active legislators to be effective.
In San Francisco, for example, the city passed the Surplus Property Ordinance in 2004, which gave the MayorӒs Office for Housing the jurisdiction of vacant lots so they could be developed into shelters for homeless people, Lemas wrote. ԓAdditionally, in Seattle, a homeless grassroots group called Operation Homestead re-opened abandoned apartment buildings and turned them into affordable housing for formerly homeless people.
In October, the Atlantic reported that activists in Baltimore are pressuring lawmakers to house that cityԒs 30,000 homeless in its estimated 16,000 empty homes. Clearly thereӒs a moral crisis when you see so many people in need of homes and theres such a glut of vacant ones,Ҕ said Rachel Kutler, an organizer with United Workers.
And in April, UTAH ANNOUNCED IT HAD ALMOST ELIMINATED CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS through a pioneering program to put the homeless in vacant apartments, then provide them with social services like drug rehabilitation after they are safely housed.
[O]fficials announced that they had reduced by 91% the ranks of the chronically homeless - defined as someone who has spent at least one year full-time on the streets and are now approaching “functional zero,” according to John M. Glionna, a national reporter for the Los Angeles Times. In 2005, when state officials began placing people in permanent housing, they counted 1,932 chronically homeless. Today, with 1,764 people housed, that number has plummeted to just 178 statewide. And officials have their sights set on those remaining.
Overall, data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness suggests the homeless population, defined as those who sleep on the streets or resort to shelters, HAS DECREASED SINCE 2007. But the same figures look far less positive after factoring in the number of people who still lack homes of their own. According to the alliance, ”The number of poor people living doubled up, has grown substantially over the last several years. These are people who are housed, but not living independently in their own homes. This is a symptom of the affordable housing crisis in this country.”
Watch HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT - a presentation by Sczerina Perot, a human rights lawyer, at TEDxASL (American School in London) 2013 HERE
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Democracy Hollowed Out Part 38 - C2PA
“Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical minority views… The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that the right to anonymous free speech is protected by the First Amendment.”
- Electronic Frontier Foundation“Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. . . . It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation . . . at the hand of an intolerant society.”
- McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission 514 U.S. 334 (1995) - AND THIS“History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
- George Orwell, 1984
Microsoft heads Big Tech project to judge truthfulness of online information
Critics view the Big Tech coalition’s ‘content provenance specifications’ as the makings of a dystopian future in which free thought is effectively banned.
By Michael Haynes
Lifesite News
February 23, 2021
Several of the world’s largest tech and media companies have joined forces in a new globalist effort to combat “disinformation, misinformation and online content fraud” in a move that has raised concerns about the complete governance of the internet.
A PRESS RELEASE issued February 22 by Microsoft stated that the computer and software company would be joined by ADOBE, ARM, BBC, Intel, Microsoft, and Truepic, who would together form the “Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity” (C2PA). The C2PA would have as its aim the tackling of what Microsoft termed the “prevalence of disinformation, misinformation and online content fraud through developing technical standards for certifying the source and history or provenance of media content.”
In order to effect this, the C2PA announced its plan to “establish a standardized provenance solution with the goal of combating misleading content.” Under the “solution” mentioned, the C2PA seeks to enable vast numbers of internet users to take part in locating any piece of information deemed “misinformation.” The statement reads: “C2PA member organizations will work together to develop content provenance specifications for common asset types and formats to enable publishers, creators and consumers to trace the origin and evolution of a piece of media, including images, videos, audio and documents.”
C2PA’s announcement pointed to the nature of the internet necessitating such an organization to build “trust” and stressed the need for collaboration among companies, whose purview extended to nearly all corners of the digital world: “Collaboration with chipmakers, news organizations, and software and platform companies is critical to facilitate a comprehensive provenance standard and drive broad adoption across the content ecosystem.”
The C2PA is not a novel idea, as Microsoft acknowledges that it builds upon the similar, pre-existing CONTENT AUTHENTICITY INITIATIVE (CAI) and PROJECT ORIGIN. The latter is a joint effort of Microsoft, the BBC, CBC/Radio Canada, and the New York Times. These four organizations referred to the “growing threat” of “misinformation” and wrote that Project Origin would “establish a foundation for trust in media.”
“With the foundation of the C2PA, technical standards will be unified while these two entities [CAI and Project Origin] continue to pursue adoption, prototyping and education within their respective communities,” Microsoft announced.
Microsoft’s chief scientific officer and Project Origin executive sponsor Eric Horvitz mentioned that there was a “critical need to address widespread deception in online content.” In a BLOG POST about the C2PA, Horvitz revealed that the organization is a brain child of the 2019 DAVIS MEETING, the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting to organize and promote globalist agendas and social engineering.
Horvitz wrote that a key part of the “fight against disinformation is to develop and field technologies for certifying the origin, authenticity and history of online media.” With the arrival of the C2PA, headed by the U.K. news group BBC and software company Microsoft, online media looks set to be subject to the certifying, and authentication of organisations which are part of the C2PA, or merely conform to its directives and standards.
Such news of the formation of C2PA MET WITH BACKLASH from some online, as PEOPLE were quick to comment on the potential dangers of the new organization. “Combat ‘disinformation’ = ‘information we deem fit to be released to the pleb,’” WROTE one Twitter user.
Irish media outlet Gript NOTED THAT the plans to vet information on the internet raise “all sorts of potential issues surrounding the accuracy and trustworthiness of so-called ‘official’ information.” Gript noted the example of the World Health Organization’s messages in early January 2020 claiming that there was no evidence of any person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 before having to change its “official” statements shortly after.
The formation of the C2PA comes shortly after an OPINION PIECE in the New York Times, one of the four members of the C2PA’s parent group Project Origin, advocated for the appointing of a “reality czar,” who would “ tackle disinformation and domestic extremism.” The author, Kevin Roose, called for U.S. president Joe Biden to appoint someone who would solve what Roose styled a “reality” crisis, particularly with regard to COVID-19 and the recent U.S. presidential election.
One of the “experts” Roose appealed to in making his self-confessed “dystopian” argument mentioned how a “centralized task force” would join with “tech platforms” and thus “push for structural changes that could help those companies tackle their own extremism and misinformation problems.”
Only days before, Fox News host Tucker Carlson had WARNED that a “profound change” was taking place due to moves by the Biden regime to eradicate “forbidden ideas” - namely, those held especially by conservatives. “Your mind belongs to you. It is yours and yours alone,” stated Carlson. “Once politicians attempt to control what you believe, they are no longer politicians. They are by definition, dictators. And if they succeed in controlling what you believe, you are no longer a citizen. You are not a free man. You are a slave.”
BIG TECH is INCREASINGLY CENSORING CONSERVATIVE and pro-life voices, PARTICULARLY since the November presidential election. LifeSiteNews itself was recently COMPLETELY BANNED from YouTube, resulting in the deletion of all videos from the channel, which had over 300,000 followers.
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Tuesday, February 23, 2021
NWO - A Year Into Covid
Yet there is one area where the world isn’t making much progress: pandemic preparedness. This failure should concern us all, because history has taught us there will be another deadly global pandemic. We can’t predict when, but given the continual emergence of new pathogens, the increasing risk of a bioterror attack, and the ever-increasing connectedness of our world, there is a significant probability that a large and lethal modern-day pandemic will occur in our lifetime.
And every year, advances in science make it easier for some-body to create a biologic weapon of mass destruction.
If we can learn how to use RNA or gene delivery effectively, we may not need to make the antibodies at all. Instead, new methods of gene delivery could enable our own cells to produce these antibodies directly. These approaches are promising because the protection comes literally within hours after the anti-bodies are injected into the arm.
- Bill Gates, Innovation for Pandemics, NEJM May, 2018Data from the study of SARS-CoV and other respiratory viruses suggest that anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies could exacerbate COVID-19 through antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). Previous respiratory syncytial virus and dengue virus vaccine studies revealed human clinical safety risks related to ADE, resulting in failed vaccine trials.
- Antibody-dependent enhancement and SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and therapies - September 2020We discuss evidence that downregulated signaling pathways impinging on the mRNA translation process, engender behavioral alterations
- Linking depression, mRNA translation, and serotoninEven so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.
- Matthew 24:33People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
- Luke 21:26The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the [Party’s] world-view and mental habits ... , but to make all other modes of thought impossible.
- George Orwell“Media manipulation in the U.S. today is more efficient than it was in Nazi Germany, because here we have the pretense that we are getting all the information we want. That misconception prevents people from even looking for the truth.”
- Mark Crispin MillerAs of now, the level of propaganda in the MAINSTREAM MEDIA (MSM) is quite high, with all of our television, printed media and internet sites associated with MSM OWNED BY ONLY 5 corporations.
- Propaganda American Style
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Have you noticed HOW HARD IT IS TO HAVE A LIVELY AND INFORMATIVE ONLINE DIALOGUE about the experimental Coronavirus vaccines? And God forbid if you go on one of the social media sites and ask a question that may raise doubt of its efficacy - YOU MAY FIND YOUR QUESTION DELETED:
Twitter and Facebook suppressed the Hunter Biden scandal. They controlled what we could say about COVID-19. They stomped on reports of election fraud.
Now, the social media behemoths are deciding what Americans can or cannot read about the new COVID vaccines.
If the intent is to confuse, put us in fear, and/or supress the truth - it’s working.
We’re a year into the COVID19 PANDEMIC. For me - some things are getting a little clearer, some clear as mud, and some seem almost ORWELLIAN.
AFTER LISTENING to American politicians and mouthpieces drone on with CONFLICTING BICKERING - I only believe two things today:
1. The virus is real. Else I figure President Trump WOULDN’T HAVE LEFT an ocean liner filled with infected people off the Pacific coast when it first started:
“I don’t need the numbers to double because of one ship,” Trump said, noting the U.S. numbers currently of 11 deaths and 240 infected.
2. There’s no real effort to fight it except for an EXPERIMENTAL INJECTION being pushed on us as a lifesaver to the killer contagion.
“Operation Warp Speed” is an impressive effort supercharged with around $10 billion in federal dollars spent with big pharma
Rule number one for a virus on the loose is CONTAINMENT - find and quarantine those affected to stop its spread. A plan for that never really got off the ground here. If it HASN’T HAPPENED YET, I doubt it ever will:
Of 2,000 people surveyed, two-thirds, or 64 percent, of people had never been tested for coronavirus.
WHATEVER TESTING we had is a joke. Besides CONCERNS OF PCR TESTS - results took days or weeks to get back, making them USELESS:
“The simplest thing, which has to do with such insanity, is you should not reimburse somebody for getting a test that it takes more than 48 hours to get the result back. That test is a complete waste. And to all these numbers about how much we test, the majority is just complete waste,” Bill Gates said during his interview.
The government could have put the 20 million or so of us unemployed to work contact tracing to help in containment. Did they? No.
With all the talk about masks being of utmost importance - one would think government would mail us all a box, or maybe put vending machines in schools, supermarkets, etc - LIKE THEY DID IN HONG KONG - giving them out for free:
Vending machines providing free medical grade safety masks will be installed in service centers in 18 Hong Kong districts
‘Even though viruses can get in our bodies THROUGH OUR EYES, not much talk about eye protection.
The clear tissue that covers the white of the eye and lines the inside of the eyelid, known as the conjunctiva, can be infected by other viruses, such as adenoviruses associated with the common cold and the herpes simplex virus
Of all the news clips I’ve watched and read the past year starring Dr Fauchi - only once do I remember eye protection MENTIONED:
July 31, 2020 - In addition to wearing face masks, people should consider wearing goggles or eye shields for increased protection from COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
Look how fast they STARTED ACTING ON AN MRNA INJECTION:
On January 11, 2020, the Chinese authorities shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus.
On January 13, 2020, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Moderna’s infectious disease research team finalized the sequence for mRNA-1273, the Company’s vaccine against the novel coronavirus. At that time, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH, disclosed their intent to run a Phase 1 study using the mRNA-1273 vaccine in response to the coronavirus threat and Moderna mobilized toward clinical manufacture. Manufacture of this batch was funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
It seems to me like we’re all guinea pigs for an injection surrounded in MAINSTREAM MEDIA information. At the same time - trying to discuss it ON THE INTERNET, can even get doctors CENSORED:
Since June, Amazon has twice tried to suppress self-published booklets I have written about Covid-19 and the response to it. These booklets dont contain conspiracy theories. Like the scientists who wrote the Great Barrington Declaration, I simply believe many measures to control the coronavirus have been damaging, counterproductive and unsupported by science.
Evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein discuss with Bill Maher HERE.
This rest of the discussion can be downloaded below:
While BIG BUSINESS GETS OFF scott free:
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration hasn’t investigated most of the thousands of complaints employees have filed this year expressing concern about infection risks in the workplace
Workplace outbreak and worker infection information is limited because there is no comprehensive national surveillance system to collect case information by industry and occupation, other reporting is not mandatory and because testing is limited. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Systems is the only federal agency with requirements for employers to report infection information.
The only thing clear to me now - is that a new type of injection - MRNA VACCINE - is being pushed on us to combat the coronavirus - with little real effort to stop it from spreading.
Since the new vaccines are untested, there’s just as much of a chance they won’t stop the virus’ spread as much as they will. Any day now I’m waiting to hear something on the news that ANOTHER CARONAVIRUS WAVE is on the way - WONDERING WHY the powers that be don’t seem to want to fight it any other way but an injection that raises lots of questions.
WHAT NEXT I wonder.
Imagine if the whole thing is a put on? Would it surprise you?
In August 1964, the United States entered the Vietnam War after reports of an unprovoked attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. But the reports were false and the president knew it.
IRAQ:
A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The study concluded that the statements were part of “an orchestrated campaign that effectively GALVANIZED PUBLIC opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”
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The Covid Pandemic Is The Result of Public Health Authorities Blocking Effective Treatment
By Paul Craig Roberts
February 18, 2021
Why are all the countries in the world following the same unsuccessful and irresponsible response to Covid? The masks and six feet “social distancing” are ineffective, and so are the vaccines. Unless the mask is a N95, the mask does not prevent transmission of the virus. As the virus is airborn or areosol spread, six meters between persons dies not prevent spread. The lockdowns are more damaging to people and economies than Covid.
Why are authorities enforcing ineffective measures while ignoring proven successful measures that greatly reduce the Covid threat and perhaps eliminate it altogether? Is it because the proven measures are inexpensive and offer no opportunity for large profits from vaccines? Is it because the Covid “pandemic” is useful for mandating control measures that curtail civil liberties? Is it because the lockdowns decimate family businesses and enable further economic concentration? The answer is “yes” to all three questions.
The Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford Univesity, Sir John Bell, has revealed that COVID VACCINATION CAUSES MORE MUTATIONS OF THE VIRUS, requiring new vaccines in an endless chase.
I asked a distinguished virologist if the Oxford professor was correct, and was told: “Yes, Covid vaccination does and will cause more mutations.” There already are a number of varients, and the South African government has reported that the vaccine it has purchased is not effective against the Covid strain in South Africa.
Moreover, the vaccines themselves have not undergone long-run testing, and many serious reactions and more than 1,000 deaths are associated with the vaccinations. Some scientists are concerned that the untested technology in some of the vaccines will have adverse effects on the immune system and result in a jump in the overall death rate. However, we look at it, we are flying at least partly blind. Why as there is a far superior way to proceed?
First, begin with prevention. Vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc, and NAC are effective and inexpensive immune boosters that ward off infection and reduce the severity of infection. Jonathan Cook gives a report on the latest research HERE.
Then turn to cures. Both the HCQ/zinc/antibiotic treatment and the Ivermectin/zinc/antibiotic treatment are proven, safe, and inexpensive. Yet the evidence has been kept from the public. Even the most knowledgeable experts are deplatformed when they say anything that is in conflict with the vaccination/lockdown agenda. The media are complicit in keeping the public uninformed. Why is this? How does information suppression help deal with an alleged world pandemic? Clearly, it does not help.
I have reported many times on the effectiveness of HCQ/zinc. You can use the search feature on this website to locate my reports. IVERMECTIN has proven to be even more effective than HCQ. Dr. Marc Wathelet, a leading virologist, has brought the evidence for Ivermectin before the government of Belgium.
There is no justifiable reason for not using these cures, and there is no justifiable reason for not initiating a prevention program based on supplements, diet, and a more healthy life style. The failure of governments and health authorities to employ these proven means amounts to premeditated mass murder. The reason people have died from Covid is the refusal to treat and to prevent with known effective means. Instead, governments and health authorities have interfered with doctors and prevented treatment with HCQ and Ivermectin, while using the presstitutes to brainwash the public that these effective and safe treatments are dangerous.
The massive disinformation campaign waged against effective prevention and treatment does not come from ignorance and incompetence of public authorities. It comes from the agendas that Covid is being used to advance, agendas whose toll in human life and suffering is unimportant to those whose agendas are being served.
What reason is there for people in any country to have confidence in their government and public health authorities?
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The Covid Deception Serves An Undeclared Agenda
By Paul Craig Roberts
February 19, 2021
Dear Readers,
There is no scientific basis for the measures in place to deal with the alleged Covid Pandemic. Among experts the support for these measures are largely limited to those with financial links with pharmaceutical corporations. Public health bureaucrats, such as Fauci at NIH, are also linked with pharmaceutical corporations. Medical practioners take their guidance from approved authority, which means NIH, CDC, WHO, all compromised with conflicts of interest. Conforming with these compromised institutions provides liability protection that relying on independent - expert advice does not.
One thousand five hundred experts from around the world have come together to challenge the Covid measures as a global scientific fraud of unprecedented proportions.
Selected Highlights
Stay home, save lives - was a pure lie.
Remove the following illegal, non-scientific and non-sanitary measures : lockdown, mandatory face masks for healthy subjects, social distancing of one or two meters.
The lockdown not only killed many people but also destroyed physical and mental health, economy, education and other aspects of life.
The natural history of the virus [the coronavirus] is not influenced by social measures [lockdown, face masks, closure of restaurants, curfew]
When the state knows best and violates human rights, we are on a dangerous course.
Exclude your experts and advisers who have links or conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical companies :
Stop the vaccination campaigns and refuse the scam of the pseudo-health passport which is in reality a politico-commercial project
Is it safe to assume that compromised public health bureaucries with links to pharmaceutical corporations know more and are more trustworthy than independent experts?
What is the real agenda behind the Covid Deception? Clearly it is not public health.
How was media orchestrated to deplatform and censor experts who challenge the obviously unsuccessful Covid measures? It should make you instantly suspicious when scientifically ignorant and totally compromised presstitutes dismiss dissenting independent experts as conspiracy theorists.
Why is no public discussion of the situation possible? If the Covid measures could stand examination, there would be no censorship.
Clearly, an undeclared agenda is being shoved down our throats.
In THIS ARTICLE Dr. Pascal Sacre explains why the PCR test results in a huge exaggeration in the number of Covid infections and thus serves the assertion of a pandemic and the creation of fear that causes people to accept tyrannical measures.
That independent scientifc experts have been forced out of public discussion should tell you how utterly corrupt are the governments of the world.
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Dangers of human mRNA genetic experiment presented as vaccine - Reiner Fuellmich and Dolores Cahill
Europa
February 22, 2021
Reiner Fuellmich and Dolores Cahill discuss the great dangers of what in reality and legally a genetic experiment on humanity. It is, however, is presented by the manufacturers as a “vaccine against Covid-19.” Besides the danger of increased disease symptoms due to ANTIBODY DEPENDENT ENHANCEMENT (ADE), they look at the implications of applying globally and for the first time ever, an mRNA injection, that may be capable of changing human DNA.
REINER FUELLMICH is a German international lawyer, specialized in global, corporate corruption. His best known case to date is the VW DEISEL FRAUD IN 2015 which he won ( BBC ). Together with three other lawyers he started the THE INAPPROPRIATE PCR TEST which is at the base of the whole scheme. However, the dangers of the current humans trials on a global scale with the mainly untested mRNA injections are the priority now.
DELORES CAHILL a renowned immunologist from Ireland who initiated the WORLD FREEDOM ALLIANCE to facilitate an open platform to promote Freedom in all its forms and offer the information of experts that are activelly silenced or even censored by the corporate media.
They are just two of countless medical specialists and other professionals who oppose the current global and national politics on Covid-19, some restrictive other mandated, imposed by the WHO, national governments and to a certain extend Anthony Fauci and global pharmaceutical industry.
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Former Pfizer VP to AFLDS: Entirely possible this will be used for massive-scale depopulation
By Mordechai Sones
America’s Frontline Doctors
March 25, 2021
America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) spoke to former Pfizer Vice President and Chief Science Officer DR. MIKE YEADON about his views on the COVID-19 vaccine, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, the regulatory authorities, and more.
At the outset, Dr. Yeadon said “I’m well aware of the global crimes against humanity being perpetrated against a large proportion of the world’s population.”
“I feel great fear, but I’m not deterred from giving expert testimony to multiple groups of able lawyers like Rocco Galati in Canada and RANIER FUELLMICH in Germany.”
“I have absolutely no doubt that we are in the presence of evil (not a determination I’ve ever made before in a 40-year research career) and dangerous products.”
“In the U.K., its abundantly clear that the authorities are bent on a course which will result in administering vaccines to as many of the population as they can. This is madness, because even if these agents were legitimate, protection is needed only by those at notably elevated risk of death from the virus. In those people, there might even be an argument that the risks are worth bearing. And there definitely are risks which are what I call ‘mechanistic: inbuilt in the way they work’”
“But all the other people, those in good health and younger than 60 years, perhaps a little older, they don’t perish from the virus. In this large group, it’s wholly unethical to administer something novel and for which the potential for unwanted effects after a few months is completely uncharacterized.”
“In no other era would it be wise to do what is stated as the intention.”
“Since I know this with certainty, and I know those driving it know this too, we have to enquire: What is their motive?”
“While I don’t know, I have strong theoretical answers, only one of which relates to money and that motive doesn’t work, because the same quantum can be arrived at by doubling the unit cost and giving the agent to half as many people. Dilemma solved. So it’s something else.”
“Appreciating that, by entire population, it is also intended that minor children and eventually babies are to be included in the net, and that’s what I interpret to be an evil act.”
“There is no medical rationale for it. Knowing as I do that the design of these vaccines’ results, in the expression in the bodies of recipients, expression of the spike protein, which has adverse biological effects of its own which, in some people, are harmful (initiating blood coagulation and activating the immune complement system), I’m determined to point out that those not at risk from this virus should not be exposed to the risk of unwanted effects from these agents.”
AFLDS: The Israel Supreme Court decision last week cancelling COVID flight restrictions said: In the future, any new restrictions on travel into or out of Israel need, in legal terms, a comprehensive, factual, data-based foundation.
In a talk you gave four months ago, you said
“The most likely duration of immunity to a respiratory virus like SARS CoV-2 is multiple years. Why do I say that? We actually have the data for a virus that swept through parts of the world seventeen years ago called SARS, and remember SARS CoV-2 is 80% similar to SARS, so I think that’s the best comparison that anyone can provide.”
“The evidence is clear: These very clever cellular immunologists studied all the people they could get hold of who had survived SARS 17 years ago. They took a blood sample, and they tested whether they responded or not to the original SARS and they all did; they all had perfectly normal, robust T cell memory. They were actually also protected against SARS CoV-2, because they’re so similar; its cross immunity.”
“So, I would say the best data that exists is that immunity should be robust for at least 17 years. I think it’s entirely possible that it is lifelong. The style of the responses of these people’s T cells were the same as if you’ve been vaccinated and then you come back years later to see if that immunity has been retained. So I think the evidence is really strong that the duration of immunity will be multiple years, and possibly lifelong.”
In other words, previous exposure to SARS that is, a variant similar to SARS CoV-2 - bestowed SARS CoV-2 immunity.
The Israel government cites new variants to justify lockdowns, flight closures, restrictions, and Green Passport issuance. Given the Supreme Court verdict, do you think it may be possible to preempt future government measures with accurate information about variants, immunity, herd immunity, etc. that could be provided to the lawyers who will be challenging those future measures?
“Yeadon: What I outlined in relation to immunity to SARS is precisely what we’re seeing with SARS-CoV-2.”
“The study is from one of the best labs in their field.”
“So, theoretically, people could test their T-cell immunity by measuring the responses of cells in a small sample of their blood. There are such tests, they are not “high throughput” and they are likely to cost a few hundred USD each on scale. But not thousands. The test I’m aware of is not yet commercially available, but research only in U.K.”
“However, I expect the company could be induced to provide test kits ‘for research on scale,’ subject to an agreement. If you were to arrange to test a few thousand non vaccinated Israelis, it may be a double edged sword. Based on other countries experiences, 30-50% of people had prior immunity & additionally around 25% have been infected & are now immune.”
“Personally, I wouldn’t want to deal with the authorities on their own terms: that you’re suspected as a source of infection until proven otherwise. You shouldn’t need to be proving you’re not a health risk to others. Those without symptoms are never a health threat to others. And in any case, once those who are concerned about the virus are vaccinated, there is just no argument for anyone else needing to be vaccinated.”
My understanding of a “leaky vaccine” is that it only lessens symptoms in the vaccinated, but does not stop transmission; it therefore allows the spread of what then becomes a more deadly virus.
For example, in China they deliberately use leaky Avian Flu vaccines to quickly cull flocks of chicken, because the unvaccinated die within three days. In Marek’s Disease, from which they needed to save all the chickens, the only solution was to vaccinate 100% of the flock, because all unvaccinated were at high risk of death. So how a leaky vax is utilized is intention-driven, that is, it is possible that the intent can be to cause great harm to the unvaccinated.
“Stronger strains usually would not propagate through a population because they kill the host too rapidly, but if the vaccinated experience only less-serious disease, then they spread these strains to the unvaccinated who contract serious disease and die.”
Do you agree with this assessment? Furthermore, do you agree that if the unvaccinated become the susceptible ones, the only way forward is HCQ prophylaxis for those who havent already had COVID-19?
Would the Zelenko Protocol work against these stronger strains if this is the case?
And if many already have the aforementioned previous “17-year SARS immunity,” would that then not protect from any super-variant?
“I think the Gerrt Vanden Bossche story is highly suspect. There is no evidence at all that vaccination is leading or will lead to dangerous variants. I am worried that its some kind of trick.
“As a general rule, variants form very often, routinely, and tend to become less dangerous & more infectious over time, as it comes into equilibrium with its human host. Variants generally don’t become more dangerous.”
“No variant differs from the original sequence by more than 0.3%. In other words, all variants are at least 99.7% identical to the Wuhan sequence.”
“It’s a fiction, and an evil one at that, that variants are likely to escape immunity.”
“Not only is it intrinsically unlikely - because this degree of similarity of variants means zero chance that an immune person (whether from natural infection or from vaccination) will be made ill by a variant but it’s empirically supported by high-quality research.”
THE RESEARCH I refer to shows that people recovering from infection or who have been vaccinated ALL have a wide range of immune cells which recognize ALL the variants.
“This paper shows WHY the extensive molecular recognition by the immune system makes the tiny changes in variants irrelevant.”
“I cannot say strongly enough: The stories around variants and need for top up vaccines are FALSE. I am concerned there is a very malign reason behind all this. It is certainly not backed by the best ways to look at immunity. The claims always lack substance when examined, and utilize various tricks, like manipulating conditions for testing the effectiveness of antibodies. Antibodies are probably rather unimportant in host protection against this virus. There have been a few ‘natural’ experiments, people who unfortunately cannot make antibodies, yet are able quite successfully to repel this virus. They definitely are better off with antibodies than without. I mention these rare patients because they show that antibodies are not essential to host immunity, so some contrived test in a lab of antibodies and engineered variant viruses do NOT justify need for top up vaccines.”
“The only people who might remain vulnerable and need prophylaxis or treatment are those who are elderly and/or ill and do not wish to receive a vaccine (as is their right).”
“The good news is that there are multiple choices available: hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, budesonide (inhaled steroid used in asthmatics), and of course oral Vitamin D, zinc, azithromycin etc. These reduce the severity to such an extent that this virus did not need to become a public health crisis.”
Do you feel the FDA does a good job regulating big pharma? In what ways does big pharma get around the regulator? Do you feel they did so for the mRNA injection?
“Until recently, I had high regard for global medicines regulators. When I was in Pfizer, and later CEO of a biotech I founded (Ziarco, later acquired by Novartis), we interacted respectfully with FDA, EMA, and the U.K. MHRA.
“lways good quality interactions.”
“Recently, I noticed that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) had made a grant to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)! Can that ever be appropriate? They’re funded by public money. They should never accept money from a private body.
“So here is an example where the U.K. regulator has a conflict of interest."”
“The European Medicines Agency failed to require certain things as disclosed in the ‘hack’ of their files while reviewing the Pfizer vaccine.
“You can find examples on Reiner Fuellmichs “Corona Committee” online.
“So I no longer believe the regulators are capable of protecting us. ‘Approval’ is therefore meaningless.”
“Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg and I petitioned the EMA Dec 1, 2020 on the genetic vaccines. They ignored us.”
“Recently, we wrote privately to them, warning of blood clots, they ignored us. When we went public with our letter, we were completely censored. Days later, more than ten countries paused use of a vaccine citing blood clots.”
“I think the big money of pharma plus cash from BMGF creates the environment where saying no just isn’t an option for the regulator.”
“I must return to the issue of ‘top up vaccines’ (booster shots) and it is this whole narrative which I fear will he exploited and used to gain unparalleled power over us.”
“Please warn every person not to go near ‘top up vaccines.’ There is absolutely no need to them.”
“As there’s no need for them, yet they’re being made in pharma, and regulators have stood aside (no safety testing), I can only deduce they will be used for nefarious purposes.”
“For example, if someone wished to harm or kill a significant proportion of the world’s population over the next few years, the systems being put in place right now will enable it.”
“It’s my considered view that it is entirely possible that this will be used for massive-scale depopulation.”
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Friday, February 19, 2021
Republican Redux 21 - R.I.P. Rush Limbaugh
It was Bob Grant. Bob Grant was a bombastic, rude, openly racist and sexist radio host. And very slowly, my dad began to change.
Then when he started listening to Rush Limbaugh, that was when I started getting worried
When my dad changed, he became obsessive. He got angrier. After he retired, he would sit in the kitchen and eat his lunch and listen to Rush Limbaugh for three full hours a day.
I’ve been told that using the word “conspiracy” is not a good idea. But there were specific plans drawn up, some in secret, by members of the Republican elite to create a major change from the political direction the country was moving in (namely more progressive) to one with much more emphasis on business through, in large part, the media. Those forces turned into changes in the media and the language and framing of values and messages like “liberal” media being repeated over and over.
They created scapegoats to blame, and produced a hostility within him towards other people that he felt should be making it on their own - no excuses! He became convinced that if they were suffering IT WAS THEIR OWN FAULT.
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Rush Limbaugh Made America Worse
New Republic
February 17, 2021
Twenty-five years ago, Rush Limbaugh GRACED THE COVER of Time magazine. Wearing a striped shirt, an expensive suit, and a look of total contempt, he held his trademark cigar between two stubby fingers. A thick plume of smoke obscured part of his face, styling him in brimstone. The issues cover asked a simple, almost innocent question: Is Rush Limbaugh good for America?
The answer to that question was as obvious 25 years ago as it is today: Limbaugh was not merely bad for the United States, he was bad in uniquely terrible ways, and uniquely terrible RIGHT UP UNTIL THE END. He is near the top of any list of malign actors in the post-Vietnam period.
Obituaries of Limbaugh, who died on Wednesday at the age of 70 of lung cancer, have - much like the Time cover - danced around this fact in the same “have the cake and eat it too” fashion. Limbaugh’s politics have been sanded down in these tellings, which label him as merely “controversial” or “polarizing.” The New York Times DESCRIBED HIM as “relentlessly provocative,” a particularly weaselly way of describing his approach to talk radio. The Wall Street Journal WROTE that he “rode a wave of national polarization.” Nearly every obituary notes that he was “influential.”
These are the kinds of things you could say about so many people in politics: generic appellations that would leave someone unfamiliar with LimbaughԒs oeuvre confused as to why this instant bellowing of eulogy is even necessary to memorialize a man who merely possessed these ordinary qualities. What earns Limbaugh this special peal of immortalization is the qualities that these obituary writers know full well but have assiduously buffed into nothingness in their drafts: that Limbaughs politics were forged in a crucible of hatred and cruelty; that his racism and extraordinary misogyny are the only standout contributions he made to the world.
Limbaugh was undoubtedly influential. But he didn’t ride a “wave of national polarization,” he was the source of its tidal pull, directing it with a bullhorn for decades. He first appeared on the airwaves shortly after the Fairness Doctrine was repealed, helping to introduce a new style of decidedly unfair media. His politics were vicious and deceitful, aimed at undercutting liberal institutions in service of policies that made people like Limbaugh wealthier, often at the expense of his listeners. He thrived on making people angrier and more alienated, on obscuring the truth, and rewarding meanness at every turn.
You could fill shelves of books with Limbaugh’s vile statements. He spent decades denigrating gay people, mocking people with AIDS, and fighting against equal rights for LGBTQ people. He SUGGESTED that Jesse Jackson looked like “all composite pictures of wanted criminals” and compared watching NFL games to watching the “Bloods and the Crips without weapons.”
His attacks on America’s first Black president were relentless and disgusting - Obama was a “halfrican American,” an “affirmative action candidate.” FEMINISTS were “feminazis,” a term he must have used thousands of times. A chauvinist and sexist in every way one could possibly be, Limbaugh mocked anyone who wasn’t rich or white or male for daring to seek EQUALITY. His show reveled in punching down, particularly on marginalized communities, as the purpose of politics itself. Whatever discussion there is to be had about whether he was the author of this unique style of grievance politics or merely the man who profited most from it is a moot point. Limbaugh loosed a dark and ichorous ooze of anger and resentment into our political groundwater, one that has polluted American politics and culture. His legacy is a civic Superfund site, an untreated hog lagoon that continues to spill its poison into the cracks in our democratic foundation.
Limbaughs energy had dimmed in recent years. That was, to a certain extent, a reflection of his fading health; those cigars doing unto his body what heҒd done to our body politic. But it also pointed to the fact that he was hardly unique anymore: His influence was felt everywhere; a thousand copycats still prowl the medias darker corners. Sean HannityҒs smarmy bloviating approach to opinion programming, Glenn Becks Looney Tunes conspiracy theorizing, Tucker CarlsonҒs white grievance politics and nativism all owe a great debt to Limbaugh. Its a debt that the rest of us have to pay. Limbaugh paved the way for media that was angrier and dumber, and we are all worse off.
Donald Trump, who AWARDED Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year, also owes a huge debt to the broadcaster. Trump’s own seemingly improvised, crass, and mean-spirited speeches weren’t too distinct from Limbaugh’s own radio show transcripts. Trump’s electorate was, of course, Limbaugh’s audience - the alienated and aggrieved who wanted someone to “fight” for them and against everyone who was against them, the liberals, the experts, the feminists, the nonwhite. Limbaugh, maybe more than any other figure in recent American political history, made Trump inevitable.
This inevitability extends beyond politics. Limbaugh’s entire career was based on a series of provocations; he was, to borrow from Chappelle’s Show, a habitual line-stepper. What he proved, in the end, was that American politics and culture had no red lines. You can be as racist and sexist, as hateful and divisive as you want - and millions of people will love you for it. Rush is gone now, he leaves a baleful reckoning behind for the rest of us to face.
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Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Will President Biden Sell Us Out
In 1982 Ronald Reagan, who was probably the first moron elected President of the USA. began a war on government, stating it was the enemy not your friend, and a war on working people by beginning the process of rolling back gains U.S. workers had made in the 20th Century. Every President since Reagan, including President Obama, have continued the war on working people, by destroying labor unions and reducing benefits working people had fought for and gained in the last hundred years.
It is no longer possible for the vast majority of workers to get a good job that pays a living wage. The economic pie is no longer being shared equitably. The wealthy classes and their political flunkies have broken the Social Contract with the workers and people of the USA and Canada.
- The Broken Social Contract
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Biden Sold-Out Totally
By Eric Zuesse
The People’s Voice
January 22, 2021
On January 19th, The Daily Poster - which is by far the best news-source reporting on the Biden Administration - headlined BIDEN LIFTS HEALTH CARE PLAN FROM INSURANCE LOBBYISTS and reported that “the health-care plan that President Joe Biden will be proposing was written by the lobbyists for the mega-health-insurance companies and will include no public option and will include Nightmare Deductibles And Widespread Claim Denials.” Its all explained in their news-report. That’s not the type of news - billionaire-owned-and-controlled news - media provide. Those mainstream media are just Democratic Party or Republican Party propaganda, because both Parties are controlled by the fewer-than-a-thousand American billionaires, and the billionaires make their money by fooling people about politicians and about public policies, so as to control the Government in their favor, collectively, as the super-rich, and this is why they control all of the major news-media to fool the public.
Here’s just one paragraph from The Daily Posters brilliant news-report and analysis:
Biden’s inaugural committee has RECEIVED DONATIONS from at least two major health insurers, Anthem and Centene, WHICH both OFFER plans on state marketplace exchanges. Centene’s CEO bundled donations for Biden’s presidential campaign, and Biden’s first major campaign fundraiser was headlined by Independence Blue Cross’s CEO.
During the 2020 primary campaign, Biden repeatedly DEMONIZED Medicare for All legislation offered by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders, questioning how the country would pay for it and proposing a public health insurance option people can buy into instead. Democrats previously considered creating a public option during ACA negotiations a decade ago AHIP secretly BANKROLLED a successful $100 million advocacy campaign to kill it.
While Medicare for All COULD ACTUALLY SAVE the country up to $650 billion annually, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Biden is now proposing some of the most costly and inefficient ways to expand health insurance coverage. The moves could still leave people exposed to substantial out-of-pocket costs - from deductibles, copays, and coinsurance that act as barriers to care.
The Daily Poster always digs deep and exposes the reality, not the propaganda of either of America’s thoroughly corrupt political Parties.
This news-report from me is not written as either a Republican or a Democrat, because both Parties are total sell-outs - one of which is controlled by Republican billionaires, and the other of which is controlled by Democratic billionaires. I instead writethis with actual disappointment that my previous predictions about what type of President Joe Biden would make - such as JOE BIDEN IS AS CORRPPT AS THEY COME - are turning out to have been accurate. I would much prefer that they hadn’t been accurate.
The problem here is that the U.S. Government is extraordinarily corrupt and therefore twice as high a percentage of our GDP is spent on health care as is the case for any other nation on the planet, and yet Americans are receiving health care tha’ts actually inferior to that which is provided in almost all other industrialized nations. So, we pay more than twice the average, but get below-average health care - all because of voters voting for corrupt politicians who are basically owned by the billionaires. Americans get mind-manipulated by the billionaires their news-media, their think tanks, their experts, their PACs, and their lobbyists. It’s all a scam. And that extra (above the norm, 10% or so of Americas entire GDP, just wasted) which gets paid for our health care is not being spent on other things that Americans need, but instead goes into the pockets of investors and of top executives in healthcare-related firms. And that’s a full 10% of Americas GDP which is wasted that’s not even considering other additional enormous wastes in America, such as our nations paying actually AROUND 50% OF THE ENTIRE PLANET’S MILITARY EXPENSES, which likewise is because of the ASTOUNDLY HIGH CORRUPTION OF OUR GOVERNMENT.
As I REPORTED ON DECEMBER 3, 2018:
The COUNTRIES that have the highest life-expectancies, and therefore the best health-outcomes, are the same as the countries that have SOCIALIZED basic healthcare services, paid for normally entirely through taxes and provided to all citizens as a basic HUMAN RIGHT instead of as a privilege that’s available only to individuals who can afford it . (Of course, tucks and such get charged extra to the patient.) The United States has by far the costliest health care in terms of not only what Americans pay for it but in terms of healthcare costs as a percentage of GDP, and yet the U.S. has the lowest life-expectancy of all OECD countries; the U.S. has the most-free-market healthcare, and also the worst healthcare, among all of the economically developed countries - all (excep tthe U.S.) of which provide guaranteed basichealthcare services to all citizens: essential services free as a right, not charged as a privilege. Americas combination of the worst healthcare plus the by-far-costliesthealthcare is no coincidence; and healthcare profits in America are the world’s highest; so, the present American system is terrific for those stockholders (whose firms hire the lobbyists and their politicians who writeAmerica’s healthcare-laws). Because basic healthcare in the United States is a privilege instead of a right, the U.S. is the only economically developed nation that does not have universal coverage, health insurance for 100% of its citizenry, healthcare as a guaranteed right instead of dependent upon the patient’s ability-to-pay. When Barack Obama entered the White House, the uninsured rate was 14.6%; when he left office it was 10.9%; the insured rate when he started was 85.4%, and it was 89.1% when he left office. His repeated promises of universal coverageӔ were blatant lies. His plan was in no way designed for universal coverage; that promise was a lie from the very outset .
In the OECD’s HEATH AT A GLANCE 2015 (which covers 44 nations), the United States scored at or near the bottom for almost all indicators of healthcare-quality, including: Life expectancy, Access to care, Quality of care, Doctors per capita, and Hospital beds per capita. We were by far the highest on Pharmaceutical expenditure per capita. Oddly, three nations, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, were exceptionally high in both their heart-disease death-rates and their cancer death-rates; plus their life-expectancies were even lower than America’s, and their most carefully medically calculated measured “Quality of care” rankings were also generally as bad as the United States. However, in the latest calculated year, which is shown there, which was 2013, Health “expenditure per capital” (p. 165) was U.S. $8,713; Switzerland $6,325; UK $3,235; Czech Republic $2,040, Slovak Republic $2,010; and Hungary $1,719. So, America’s was over four times as high as the healthcare costs of some of the other countries in its class - i.e. in the overall worst class. Generally the top-performing nations were: Japan, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Italy, and Switzerland. Switzerland was the second-highest in cost-of-care ($6,325), right below the United States. Norway was third-costliest, $5,862. Sweden was fifth-costliest, $4,904. Japan was 14th-costliest, $3,713. Finland was 17th-costliest, $3,442. Italy was twentieth-costliest, $3,077. The average OECD cost for all the 44 nations was $3,453 , which was less than half of Americas obscene $8,713. Whether Obamacare changes any of those U.S. rankings is too early to tell. However, the U.S. is such an extreme outlier so that our healthcare system would need to be replaced root-and-branch in order to be competitive with any other nationԒs in terms of delivering value-for-the-money, instead of rip-off (which is its existing outlier status - unparalleled by any other country’s, for delivering lousy value) . It is so bottom-of-the-barrel, that it is below the barrel. This is by far the worlds most-free-market healthcare system, but our government spends more per-capita on it than do other nations’ governments that pay almost all of their citizens healthcare costs. Wow! In fact, as shown in the chart 9.3. Health expenditure as a share of GDP, 2013 (or nearest year) on page 167 of that OECD report, the U.S. is the only country where the private sector pays more of the nation’s healthcare costs than does the public sector, the government. America is a libertarians paradise. No other nation comes anywhere close to that degree of non-governmental providing of the healthcare function. Every other nation has socialized the healthcare-function to a vastly higher extent than the U.S. has. That’s how corrupt America is.
America’s billionaires take advantage of, and exploit, the American people’s equating socialism with communism, and, so, Americans fear socialization of the healthcare function, though it would actually provide vastly better-quality health care at vastly lower prices. Americans are so suckered as to believe that the Government is even more corrupt than health insurance companies are as if the owners and executives of those insurance companies aren’t the source (and beneficiaries) of that portion of the Governments corruption.
That’s how we get super-corrupt Presidents, and Senators, and Representatives by believing in בthe free market of corruption.
For any American, it’s depressing to see ones country sink in the international rankings, while its billionaires extract a higher and higher percentage of the nation’s wealth, as has been happening in America ever since around 1980. But it just keeps on happening, and Joe Biden, evidently, has no actual interest in leading the basic change that is needed here, in order to turn that depressing situation around. Hes just the same old Joe he always has been.
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Biden Will Shut Down Left Voices
Jimmy Dore Show
February 16, 2021
WATCH the video with Chris Hedges:
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We Need Radical Economic Change - Not Biden’s Corporate Capitalism
Stimulus packages are not enough. Only practices of deep democracy and shared ownership can end our cycle of economic disaster.
By Stacy Sutton
In These Times
July 26, 2021
President Joe Biden;s stimulus packages do not fulfill his promise to “build back better.” We must demand more.
Corporate capitalism’s disregard for the needs of workers, families and communities undergirds our current crises in healthcare, housing, finance and debt.
All the stimulus packages, from the first (under former President Donald Trump) to the most recent (Bidens American Rescue Plan), have one thing in common: They attempt to restore the order that created the problem in the first place.
Corporate capitalis’s disregard for the needs of workers, families and communities - along with its contempt for regulatory and ecological boundaries - undergirds our current crises in healthcare, housing, finance and debt. We cannot expect to get out of this mess by injecting public stimulus dollars into the current undemocratic, unregulated and destructive political-economic system. Reopening the system is not reparative; we learned as much in 2008 when banks and corporations got bailouts while low-income and poor people of color got foreclosure, bankruptcy and more debt.
Truly building back better would require building an equitable, socially just, ecologically sustainable and democratic economy that is of, by and for the people.
This big idea isnҗt speculative fiction; models of economic democracy and shared ownership have existed in the United States for generations, including practices of deep democracy, worker-owned cooperatives, community investment funds, peoples assemblies, participatory budgeting and solidarity economy institutions.
What would a stimulus package constructed from these building blocks look like?
We could follow an example from North Dakota and create public banks that are funded with taxpayersҒ money and serve as public trusts. Economic stimulus and relief funds could be transferred from the U.S. Treasury directly into these public banks, which are able to make loans at lower interest rates (because their goal is not simply to maximize profits), which translates into more money for public projects.
We could also take our cue from Brazils Partido dos Trabalhadores (WorkersҒ Party) and develop participatory budgeting, a grassroots and democratic process of decision-making to determine how public funds should be used. As a form of direct democracy, participatory budgeting has radical potential for establishing transparent, equitable and community-led spending. Compulsory participatory budgeting with funds from public coffers (e.g., federal stimulus packages), could sensibly bolster and build local physical and social infrastructure, from community block clubs and neighborhood councils to alternatives to policing, holistic community healthcare, youth development programs and resources for seniors. The cultural problem of equating democracy with electoral politicsҢ rather than participatory democracy ח would have to be overcome. A good introduction to participatory democracy might be through community-controlled investment funds. Through deliberative processes (such as peoples assemblies), community residents could collectively decide their needs and provide the resources needed to manifest the desired changes.
The burden of corporate capitalismҒs successive crises is disproportionately borne by care workers (the majority of whom are women of color), nonunionized service workers, gig workers and informal workers. We should be supporting worker-owned cooperatives, which are democratically owned and controlled by the workers. Typically, they generate living wage jobs and are more sustainable and more embedded in communities.
Rather than perpetuating these cycles of economic disaster, real stimulus and relief - invested in public infrastructure - could create multiplier effects that redound to the publics good.
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