“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
God’s Sovereignty & Man’s Free Will
It is impossible for us to fully understand the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s free will and responsibility. Only God truly knows how they work together in His plan of salvation. With this doctrine, probably more so than with any other, it is crucially important to admit our inability to fully grasp the nature of God and our relationship with Him. Going too far to either side results in a distorted understanding of salvation.
Scripture is clear that God determines who will be saved (Romans 8:29; 1 Peter 1:2). Ephesians 1:4 tells us that God chose us “before the creation of the world.” The Bible repeatedly describes believers as the “chosen” (Romans 8:33, 11:5; Ephesians 1:11; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2, 2:9) and the “elect” (Matthew 24:22, 31; Mark 13:20, 27; Romans 11:7; 1 Timothy 5:21; 2 Timothy 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1). The fact that believers are predestined (Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:5, 11) and elected for salvation (Romans 9:11, 11:28; 2 Peter 1:10) is clear.
The Bible also says that we are responsible for receiving Christ as Savior. If we believe in Jesus Christ we will be saved (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10). God knows who will be saved and God chooses who will be saved, and we must choose Christ in order to be saved. How these facts work together is impossible for a finite mind to comprehend (Romans 11:33-36). Our responsibility is to take the gospel to the world (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8). We should leave foreknowledge, election, and predestination up to God and simply be obedient in sharing the gospel.
Along these same lines, the following are some excerpts from C. H. MackIntosh, a noted Christian theologian of the 19th century.
Charles Henry Mackintosh Born: October 1820 Died: 2 November 1896
[Many Christians] cannot see the rightness of calling upon the unconverted to “come,” to “hear,” to “repent,” or to “believe.” It seems to [them] like telling a crab-tree to bear some apples in order that it may become an apple-tree.
Now, we thoroughly believe that faith is the gift of God, and that it is not according to man’s will or by human power. And further, we believe that not a single soul would ever come to Christ if not drawn, yea, compelled by divine grace so to do; and therefore all who are saved have to thank the free and sovereign grace of God for it; their song is, and ever shall be, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake.”
And this we believe not as part of a certain system of doctrine, but as the revealed truth of God. But, on the other hand, we believe, just as fully, in the solemn truth of man’s moral responsibility, inasmuch as it is plainly taught in Scripture.
[God] has not confined Himself within the narrow limits of any school of doctrine. He has revealed Himself. He has told out the deep and precious secrets of His heart. He has unfolded His eternal counsels, as to the Church, as to Israel, the Gentiles, and the wide creation. Men might as well attempt to confine the ocean in buckets of their own formation as to confine the vast range of divine revelation within the feeble enclosures of human systems of doctrine. It cannot be done, and it ought not to be attempted. Better far to set aside the systems of theology and schools of divinity, and come like a little child to the eternal fountain of Holy Scripture, and there drink in the living teachings of God’s Spirit.
Let us face Scripture as it stands, and reject everything which will not stand the test. We may well call in question the soundness of a system which cannot meet the full force of the Word of God as a whole. If passages of Scripture seem to clash, it is only because of our ignorance. Let us humbly own this, and wait on God for further light. This, we may depend upon it, is safe moral ground to occupy. Instead of endeavoring to reconcile apparent discrepancies, let us bow at the Master’s feet and justify Him in all His sayings. Thus shall we reap a harvest of blessing, and grow in the knowledge of God and His Word as a whole.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
What is it that feeds our battle, yet starves our victory?
Do We Still Need the Kang (Mis)Quote?
I’m still using the quote about winning the battles but losing the war. It seems like this doesn’t make sense right now given that we seem to be going from triumph to triumph.
On the contrary. This is the exception that proves the rule. The quote isn’t just a lament, it’s to point out why we can never seem to win.
You see, the RINOs cannot interfere and that is why, just for once, we are actually winning. And that is just one more piece of evidence (for the willfully blind) as to what I have been saying with that quote.
It stays.
Speaker Johnson Pinging you on January 6 Tapes
Just a friendly reminder Speaker Johnson. You’re doing some good things–or at least trying in the case of the budget–but this is the most important thing out there still hanging. One initial block released with the promise of more…and?
We have American patriots being held without bail and without trial, and the tapes almost certainly contain exculpatory evidence. (And if they don’t, and we’re all just yelling in an echo chamber over here, we need to know that too. And there’s only one way to know.)
Either we have a weaponized, corrupt government or we have a lot of internet charlatans. Let’s expose whatever it is. (I’m betting it’s the corrupt weaponized government, but if I am wrong, I’d like to see proof.)
Justice Must Be Done.
The 2020 election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.
Yes this is still true in spite of 2024. Fraud must be rooted out of our system and that hasn’t changed just because the fraud wasn’t enough to stop Trump winning a second term. Fraud WILL be ramped up as soon as we stop paying attention.
Otherwise, everything ends again in 2028. Or perhaps earlier if Trump is saddled with a Left/RINO congress in 2026, via fraud.
Small Government?
Many times conservatives (real and fake) speak of “small government” being the goal.
This sounds good, and mostly is good, but it misses the essential point. The important thing here isn’t the size, but rather the purpose, of government. We could have a cheap, small tyranny. After all our government spends most of its revenue on payments to individuals and foreign aid, neither of which is part of the tyrannical apparatus trying to keep us locked down and censored. What parts of the government would be necessary for a tyranny? It’d be a lot smaller than what we have now. We could shrink the government and nevertheless find it more tyrannical than it is today.
No, what we want is a limited government, limited not in size, but rather in scope. Limited, that is, in what it’s allowed to do. Under current circumstances, such a government would also be much smaller, but that’s a side effect. If we were in a World War II sort of war, an existential fight against nasty dictatorships on the brink of world conquest, that would be very expensive and would require a gargantuan government, but that would be what the government should be doing. That would be a large, but still limited government, since it’d be working to protect our rights.
World War II would have been the wrong time to squawk about “small government,” but it wasn’t (and never is) a bad time to demand limited government. Today would be a better time to ask for a small government–at least the job it should be doing is small today–but it misses the essential point; we want government to not do certain things. Many of those things we don’t want it doing are expensive but many of them are quite eminently doable by a smaller government than the one we have today. Small, but still exceeding proper limits.
So be careful what you ask for. You might get it and find you asked for the wrong thing.
Political Science In Summation
It’s really just a matter of people who can’t be happy unless they control others…versus those who want to be left alone. The oldest conflict within mankind. Government is necessary, but government attracts the assholes (a highly technical term for the control freaks).
His Truth?
Again we saw an instance of “It might be true for Billy, but it’s not true for Bob” logic this week.
I hear this often, and it’s usually harmless. As when it’s describing differing circumstances, not different facts. “Housing is unaffordable” can be true for one person, but not for another who makes ten times as much.
But sometimes the speaker means it literally. Something like 2+2=4 is asserted to be true for Billy but not for Bob. (And when it’s literal, it’s usually Bob saying it.) And in that sense, it’s nonsense, dangerous nonsense. There is ONE reality, and it exists independent of our desires and our perceptions. It would go on existing if we weren’t here. We exist in it. It does not exist in our heads. It’s not a personal construct, and it isn’t a social construct. If there were no society, reality would continue to be what it is, it wouldn’t vanish…which it would have to do, if it were a social construct.
Now what can change from person to person is the perception of reality. We see that all the time. And people will, of course, act on those perceptions. They will vote for Trump (or try to) if their perception is close to mine, and vote against Trump (and certainly succeed at doing so) if their perception is distant from mine (and therefore, if I do say so, wrong). I have heard people say “perception is reality” and usually, that’s what they’re trying to say–your perception of reality is, as far as you know, an accurate representation of reality, or you’d change it.
But I really wish they’d say it differently. And sometimes, to get back to Billy and Bob, the person who says they have different truths is really saying they have different perceptions of reality–different worldviews. I can’t argue with the latter. But I sure wish they’d say it better. That way I’d know that someone who blabbers about two different truths is delusional and not worth my time, at least not until he passes kindergarten-level metaphysics on his umpteenth attempt.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the Q Tree Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Political correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
Gold has been trending down ever since the cease fire, and on Friday it dropped $53.70. Other PMs followed suit, platinum dropped over five and a half percent on Friday. Silver dropped but it is in general holding its ground better than gold, as you can see from the gold:silver price ratio.
*The SteveInCO Federal Reserve Note Suckage Index (FRNSI) is a measure of how much the dollar has inflated. It’s the ratio of the current price of gold, to the number of dollars an ounce of fine gold made up when the dollar was defined as 25.8 grains of 0.900 gold. That worked out to an ounce being $20.67+71/387 of a cent. (Note gold wasn’t worth this much back then, thus much gold was $20.67 71/387ths. It’s a subtle distinction. One ounce of gold wasn’t worth $20.67 back then, it was $20.67.) Once this ratio is computed, 1 is subtracted from it so that the number is zero when the dollar is at its proper value, indicating zero suckage.
Place Holder Under Arrest
TBH I might not do anything significant before August.
The above free vintage image of the United States Bill of Rights is courtesy of Ebay and Google Images.
Health Friday is a series on Big Pharma, vaccines, general health, and associated topics.
There are Important Notifications from our host, Wolf Moon; the Rules of our late, good Wheatie; and, certain caveats from Yours Truly, of which readers should be aware. They are linked here. Note: Yours Truly has checked today’s offering for any AI-generated content. To the best of her knowledge and belief, there is none. If readers wish to post any AI-content to the discussion thread of today’s offering, they must cite their source. Thank you.
The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States of America:
The above image of the language of the Second Amendment is courtesy of Fine Art American and Google Images.
The Second Amendment was ratified on 15 December 1791. Since that date, there have been numerous attempts to “revise”, to “clarify”, to hobble, to limit, and even to erase, the Second Amendment. There are now hundreds of “gun laws” on the books. There is an entire agency of the federal government, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) that prospective firearms owners must submit to, and clear, before a firearm can be purchased.
The American Medical Association (the AMA), the largest and most influential physicians’ professional organization in the United States, has, for some years, been involved in initiatives and activities related to treating firearms ownership as a “health issue.” In Yours Truly’s opinion, the AMA appears to be getting more aggressive in these initiatives and activities.
The focus of today’s post is on two items: One, a recent CME (Continuing Medical Education) course offering by the AMA; and, Two, a 2016 article that includes, as an author, one of the physicians who is involved with the CME course offering.
Yours Truly begins with the CME course offering, found online here: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/science-medicine-public-health/video-player/18910731, “Health Care Strategies for Firearm Injury Prevention”, 11 September 2024. There is a video embedded for the CME course; there is also a “Read Transcript” link.Yours Truly believes that reading the Transcript is the better way to glean the course content.
In summary: One: it appears that the AMA officially termed firearms violence as a “public health crisis.” Two: it appears that the AMA is calling for “universal screening” of all patients by physicians for firearms ownership, for potential health and/or psychological issues that would limit or even remove such ownership. Such “universal screening” would occur as part of the “routine questions” that the physician asks the patient during an exam (for example: “Do you smoke?”; “Do you own a firearm?” would be added.) Three: it appears that the AMA endorses “lethal means counseling” for those patients who “fit” criteria under point Two, above. Screenshots that are relevant to these points, taken from the CME course Transcript, from physician panelists involved in the CME, are below. The first screenshot is from a statement by Dr. Willie Underwood, MD; the second screenshot is from a statement by Dr. Chethan Sathya, MD; and, the third and fourth screenshots are from a statement by Dr. Katherine Hoops, MD:
The last screenshot above (the second from the statement by Dr. Hoops) regards the use of ERPO (Extreme Risk Protection Orders) laws that multiple states have passed and implement. What appears to be going on in terms of the AMA is to encourage the discussion of ERPO with patients and/or their families, if the physician (the clinician) believes that the patient is at risk for harming himself/herself, or others.
It appears that the CME course content mentions nothing about the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Yours Truly now turns to a 2016 paper by Dr. Marian E. Betz, MD, et al. Dr. Betz is also one of the panel members for the AMA CME course “round table”, cited above. The paper is found here: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M15-2905, “Yes, You Can: Physicians, Patients, and Firearms”, Marian E. Betz, et al., 17 May 2016. This paper covers several topics, including “parameters” for physicians to follow in speaking with patients regarding firearms ownership and “safe storage”; criteria for physicians to follow to “classify” whether or not a patient is “at risk” for harming themselves or others with firearms; various types of “safe storage” options for firearms; and, “strategies” for physicians to follow when speaking with patients about firearms. Two screenshots from the paper are below:
Dr. Betz, et al., also discussed the ways a physician can obtain information from a patient regarding firearms ownership; and, that physicians, under the Affordable Care Act, can disclose information regarding the patient’s possible risk of harming himself/herself or others to the authorities. Please the screenshots from the paper, below:
Yours Truly will make it clear that the Second Amendment is a protected right in the United States of America; that responsible firearms ownership and responsible firearms use are a given; that there may be certain circumstances in which firearms ownership and use may be restricted for the owner (and which restrictions must be lifted when the circumstances have been resolved); that firearms be kept away from criminals. However, it appears, in Yours Truly’s opinion, that the American Medical Association would prefer that firearms ownership and responsible use be, not under the aegis of the Second Amendment — but, rather, through the “approval”, “supervision”, and “discretion” of physicians.
This man, making Christmas calls from the White House, believes the world is a sphere. And he has even flown around it! So has our beautiful FLOTUS, who happens to be his wife!
Truth and common sense must be valued by us, as individuals, in order to lastingly disempower the authoritarian fake news media. This includes the perniciously smarmy science media, which never answers for its errors and lies. I believe that the media has been responsible not only for leftist pathologies like scientism, medical fascism, and radical gender ideology, but also for reactionary movements like modern flat Earth, rejection of all medicine, and Biblical geological literalism.
Just as Wheatie’s Stormwatch Monday Open Thread was created as a place for people to openly express their thoughts and opinions, so, too, is this Thank God Thursday Open Thread, where honest but civil discussion of all topics is encouraged. This thread is also to be known as Theistic Evolution Thursdays, due to the author’s expected “pontification” about his scientific, religious, and political opinions. You are welcome to pontificate back! Free speech matters!
Please label all AI-generated content as being such, unless it is patently obvious (e.g., humorous AI images). It is important that we as individuals not begin to pretend that socially derived artificial intelligence is actually our own, as this form of stealthy social information averaging and feedback would be one more pretense and deception between people, in service of stupid Marxist socialism, and of those who wish to substitute their communally protected lies for actual truth.
The source of alleged truth matters, not for the truth itself, but for validation.
And yes, it’s THURSDAY…again.
And that’s it. We’re done stealing from Wheatie.
OK – maybe her rules need to be posted.
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
Other rules may be derivable from these, and that conjecture is left for discussion.
If there is nothing beyond the “W” below, then this is a placeholder. For health reasons, I can’t always post a timely opinion before each Thursday, but I will try. Otherwise, you have this placeholder post, where YOU provide the content. Enjoy!
W
We’re almost done clearing YouTube tabs!
Here are a couple from a rather friendly Indian physics student who does the scientific equivalent of music reaction videos, when he finally figures something out.
Enjoy!
(1) The Speed of Light – Could it be Even More WTF Than We Thought? Yes!
(2) What the Heck is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle?
How about some smart kid math problems? You remember those gangling geeks with their Brillo-pad hair, buck teeth, pop-bottle-bottom glasses, high-water pants, and out-of-date dresses. Let’s look at what they did for fun!
There are Important Notificationsfrom our host, Wolf Moon; the Rulesof our late, good Wheatie; and, certain caveatsfrom Yours Truly, of which readers should be aware. They are linked here. Note: Yours Truly has checked today’s post for any AI-generated content. To the best of her knowledge and belief, there is none. If readers wish to post any AI-generated content in the discussion thread for today’s post, they must cite their source. Thank you.
Do not forget to LABEL AI articles video and such. ThankQ
This is the article Word Piss trashed several weeks ago.
I thought I would address NGOs – Non government Organizations – because they are a favorite weapon of the Cabal. An excellent example of the weaponization is in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Synopsis FROM THE US GOVERNMENT
It is interesting that 10 years later that website is still up.🤔
This treaty literally strips the USA of sovereignty and allows totalitarian rule by Corporations and bureaucrats with a bit of help from NGOs to add a veneer of ‘democracy.’
DISPUTE SETTLEMENT
….TPP Parties aim to have these disputes resolved through impartial, unbiased panels. … Panels will consider requests from non-governmental entities located in the territory of any disputing Party to provide written views regarding the dispute to panels during dispute settlement proceedings…
“Only five of the 29 chapters are about traditional trade. The others are about regulating the Internet and what Internet—Internet service providers have to collect information.
They have to hand it over to companies under certain circumstances. It’s about regulating labor, what labor conditions can be applied, regulating, whether you can favor local industry, regulating the hospital healthcare system, privatization of hospitals.
So, essentially, every aspect of the modern economy, even banking services, are in the TPP.”
Mike Benz points to 1913 and1917 the set up of non-profit ‘charitable organizations’ used by the wealthy to protect their wealth. think 501c3’s. This caused a money flow into private organizations and non profits. Then with the World Wars esp WWII humanitarian relief began. They became a big part of the OSS, the predecessor to the CIA. These NGOs were espcially involved with the Marshall plan after WWII. NGOs became a deniable front to run money to contacts and to provide direction and guidance to groups the USA did not want to be caught interacting with directly.
…….
Remember Maurice Strong, Chair of the First Earth Summit in 1972 that started CAGW? The guy who said “…current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class…are not sustainable. A shift is necessary toward lifestyles less geared to environmentally damaging consumption patterns….” in his opening remarks at Earth Summit II in 1992.
In brief Maurice Strong worked in Saudi Arabia for a Rockefeller company, Caltex, in 1953. He left Caltex in 1954 to worked at high levels in banking and oil. By 1971, he served as a trustee for the Rockefeller Foundation, and in 1972 was Secretary-General of the U.N. Conference on the Human Environment. He was Co-founder of the WWF and Senior Advisor to the World Bank and the UN.
Strong’s early work with YMCA international “may have been the genesis of Strong’s realization that NGOs (non-government organizations) provide an excellent way to use NGOs to couple the money from philanthropists and business with the objectives of government.”Maurice Strong: The new guy in your future!By Henry Lamb January, 1997
Strong was a member of the Club of Rome, a Rockefeller Foundation trustee and senior adviser to the World Bank.
As Elaine Dewar wrote in Toronto’s Saturday Night magazine:
It is instructive to read Strong’s 1972 Stockholm speech and compare it with the issues of Earth Summit 1992. Strong warned urgently about global warming, the devastation of forests, the loss of biodiversity, polluted oceans, the population time bomb. Then as now, he invited to the conference the brand-new environmental NGOs: he gave them money to come; they were invited to raise hell at home. After Stockholm, environment issues became part of the administrative framework in Canada, the U.S., Britain, and Europe.
“Very few of even the larger international NGOs are operationally democratic, in the sense that members elect officers or direct policy on particular issues,” notes Peter Spiro. “Arguably it is more often money than membership that determines influence, and money more often represents the support of centralized elites, such as major foundations, than of the grass roots.” The CGG [Commission on Global Governance -GC] has benefited substantially from the largesse of the MacArthur, Carnegie, and Ford Foundations….
…One of Marxist revolutionaries’ most effective tactics wasn’t literally storming the palace— it was slyly capturing the certification process. Antonio Gramsci, the Italian communist theoretician, called it “the long march through the institutions,” meaning to infiltrate cultural organs not with guns, but with gatekeeping power.
The USSR mastered this model early, building parallel structures of party-approved unions, academic boards, and scientific councils—each vouching for the ideological purity of the others. In the West, the same approach evolved, virus-like, into a web of cross-reinforcing credentialing bodies: bar associations, accreditation boards, medical colleges, journal editorial committees—all marching in rhetorical lockstep.
They all work together. One group sets the guidelines, another “independently” evaluates compliance, and a third awards legitimacy. It’s Marxism in a business suit or a lab coat, spouting peer-reviewed footnotes. By the time anyone asks who made them the arbiters, they’ve already rewritten the standards and discredited anyone not compliant with the guidelines…
…The problem with the courts is the same as the problem with many of our other institutions. Called the Skinsuit Phenomenon, after the great @Iowahawk’s famous tweet that perfectly sums up the leftist approach to marching through our society: “1. Identify a respected institution. 2. Kill it. 3. Gut it. 4. Wear its carcass as a skinsuit, while demanding respect. #lefties.”…
When we were fighting National Animal ID and then the Food safety Modernization act, we found that Organic Consumers and Food and Water Watch were wearing Skinsuits.
Food and Water Watch had some really good info on the USDA and FDA and the corporate revolving door. But when crunch time came we found they were on the side of the big corporations.
From my old research decades ago on Food and Water Watch
Board of Directors:
Dennis Keeney is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Corporate Accountability International, an NGO in Official Relations with the World Health Organization (WHO)
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
$2,320,000.00 1995 – 2005
(IATP) was founded in 1986 with funds from the Unitarian Universalist Church’s Veatch Foundation (which was, at the time, run by a former Greenpeace director). Its apparent mission is to criticize industrial agriculture in general and food technology in particular.
In addition to its constant rant against genetically improved foods, IATP works behind the scenes in international bodies like the World Trade Organization to increase regulatory and trade burdens for countries that don’t practice enough “sustainable” agriculture. The Foundation for Deep Ecology gave IATP $75,000 in 1999 for this exact purpose. “Sustainable” agriculture refers to the move away from new technologies and toward more “natural” (read: organic) ways of producing food.
Here in the United States, IATP uses its activist network to strong-arm American corporations into endorsing its politically-correct trading model, which includes importing more food from “sustainable” growers in other countries.
Mark Ritchie: President, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy; Chair, International Forum on Food and Agriculture (a project of the Int’l Forum on Globalization)
Connection to Tides:
The Tides Center’s corporate registration documents on file in Minnesota show that Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) president Mark Ritchie is its “registered agent.” This might explain why the Tides Foundation has paid over $20,000 to a commercial corporation owned by Ritchie and his brother.
Food & Water Watch Board Chair Maude Barlow addressed the United Nations General Assembly today to support the Bolivian call for an annual “International Mother Earth Day” celebration. Her speech was a call to action to implement the human right to water and abandon the “hard path” of large-scale technology – dams, diversion and desalination – in favor of the “soft path” of conservation, rainwater and storm water harvesting, recycling, alternative energy use, municipal infrastructure investment and local, sustainable food production….
Organic Consumers sold us out too. I made a phone call and the lady apologetically told me the board was supporting the Food Safety Modernization act.
This is more of what I have in my notes:
I could not understand WHY Organic Consumers Assoc and Food and Water Watch were in favor of this bill. Until I did some digging: Maude Barlow a “no dog in this fight” Canadian, is a director of both. She has been handsomely rewarded for selling the US consumer out with an appointment as New Senior Advisor to the UN president on October 21, 2008. Note on February 18, 2008 “Hillary Clinton highlights a series of food safety proposals she would pursue as president.” (PRNewsChannel) / Washington, D.C
And then there was ‘Orange Cloud’ who fought online against us.
Who is Orange Cloud that attacks those against the bogus food safety bills?
She lists herself as Jill Richardson Consultant but she is “UC San Diego” Sustainability Coordinator and is working on the practical aspects of UN Agenda 21 as far as I can tell.
For example:
“Currently, we are particularly interested in receiving manuscripts that deal with some of the following subjects, although other submissions will continue to receive full consideration:
Implementing sustainable development strategies, Rio-Agenda 21 and Millennium Development” Objectives: The Journal of Environment and Development
Graduate School of International Relations & Pacific Studies
University of California, San Diego, MC0519
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92037-0519, USA
Raymond Clemencon another facultiy member, was one of the negotiators on the Rio Declaration and then Agenda 21
Monsanto bought 5% on Genetech, Genentech’s bovine growth hormone — licensed to Monsanto Corporation, In 1979, Monsanto coordinated a research program with Genentech,
UCSD’s Biotech Certificates Program is admired as the most advanced in the UC system.
Closer to the Heart of the San Diego ‘Biotech Zone’: The Program’s Service Goals
The UCSD RA Program classes recently moved to the San Diego ‘Biotech Zone’–into the same building as a major CRO, Parexel, and only blocks from another big CRO, Quintiles. Both CROs will contribute RA experts to classroom discussions of topics. Nearby are also the new headquarters of Novartis, represented on the Advisory Board of UCSD Biotech Certificates Programs, as is Invitrogen. Other Advisory Board members, Monsanto and Dow, together with its hometown subsidiary Mycogen, demonstrate regional strengths in agbiotech (which is expected to “absolutely boom” in the near future). The newest UCSD Certificate in Agricultural Biotech is under development, since the UCSD Biotech Certificates program aims to be comprehensive and progressive in service to all biotech sectors.
…I think it’s time for a new definition of usury as follows: any interest on any loan of fiat money (meaning money made out of nothing). This example of a $100,000 home, as shocking as it is, producing $172,741 unearned interest, this is just a grain of sand in the Sahara. You have to multiply that by all the homes in America, by all of these hotels in America, all the high-rise buildings, all the factories, all the airplanes, automobiles, farm equipment, schools, everything, all the physical assets of America. You apply this same ratio and can you see it in your mind? We’re talking about a river of unearned wealth that is so wide you can’t even think of crossing it, flowing perpetually into the banking cartel. A dead short across the productive element of society. Money being taken from people who are working hard providing the material and the labor. They don’t even know that this is being taken from them and it’s in this huge river of wealth flowing into the banking cartel. It’s a staggering thought.
You are led to the question of where is this river flowing?…
They’re not buying more yachts and mansions with this money, they’ve already got all of those they possibly want. In fact they got rid of the mansions on Jekyll Island a long time ago because they were bored with that. That’s not it. When a person has all the wealth that you could possibly want for the material pleasures of life, what is left? Power. They are using this river of wealth to acquire power over you and me and our children.
They are spending it to acquire control over the power centers of society. The power centers are those groups and institutions through which individuals live and act and rely on for their information. They are literally buying up the world but not the real estate and the hardware, they’re buying control over the organizations, the groups and institutions that control people. In other words, to be specific, they are buying control over politicians, political parties, television networks, cable networks, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, wire services, motion picture studios, universities, labor unions, church organizations, trade associations, tax-exempt foundations, multi-national corporations, boy scouts, girl scouts, you name it. Make your own list of organizations and you will find that this is where those people have been for many decades spending this river of wealth to acquire operational control particularly over those institutions and individuals, those organizations that represent opposition to themselves. That’s a critical area for expenditure on their part.
This process has gone on not only to a marked degree in America and in the other industrialized nations of the world, but it has gone on in the so-called third world or underdeveloped nations to such a degree that I would say the process is now complete. They own these countries already. Have you ever wondered what’s going on there at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank? Kind of an obscure operation isn’t it? you don’t read much about it except once in a while on the back page of the newspaper you find out that Congress at the insistence of the President authorized another $100 billion for the International Monetary Fund. And then the article tells you that this money will be used to make loans to underdeveloped nations or grants to them to raise their standard of living. Do you believe that?… If the money is to be used to raise the standard of living of these countries they’re not doing a very good job of it because after all of these decades, after all of these hundreds of billions of dollars, you cannot point to one country that has had its standard of living raised one iota by that. In fact in most cases it’s the other way around and that’s not an accident because the money has not been used to raise the standard of living. The money does not go to the people in those countries. It goes to the politicians of those countries, to their governments and the money is designed and spent to strengthen their power structures, their ability to control their populations. They usually start off as inefficient dictatorships but by the time they get all this money from the IMF, they are now efficient dictatorships. They have a well-equipped army, a better bureaucracy, total control of their subjects. That’s where the money’s being spent…
That last sure does dovetail nicely with Colonel Towner’s Operation Gladio doesn’t it?
… Over the last quarter-century, historians have by and large ceased writing about the role of ruling elites in the country’s evolution. Or if they have taken up the subject, they have done so to argue against its salience for grasping the essentials of American political history. Yet there is something peculiar about this recent intellectual aversion, even if we accept as true the beliefs that democracy, social mobility, and economic dynamism have long inhibited the congealing of a ruling stratum. This aversion has coincided, after all, with one of the largest and fastest-growing disparities in the division of income and wealth in American history….Neglecting the powerful had not been characteristic of historical work before World War II...
Comment on the current wars:
I have tried to show how trade and transport routes are a big motivator in what has been happening in the middle east. I completely missed the newest planned trade routes. These certainly puts a different spin on the current wars.
After the miscue and recall of this post a few weeks ago, it is now time to return to the mission. Today we will spend all of our time on one of the key Declaration signers and founding fathers in our nation’s history, John Adams.
John Adams
Much time has already been spent in this series on the person, importance, events, and interactions of the great American Patriot, John Adams. There are loads of historical articles and biographies that readers can source to learn more. I will only hit on a handful of the major points of his biographical information. Instead, I will focus some of the information on his interactions, observations he made, and quotes of interest.
Adams was born in 1735 in Braintree, MA to John, Sr. and Susanna Boylston and two brothers. John, Sr. came from a long line of Adams that immigrated to America in 1638 from England. His father was a deacon in the Congregationalist Church and was a farmer, cordwainer (shoemaker) and officer in the militia. Susanna was from an area family that were leaders in the medical field. John had a good relationship with his family and great respect for his father.
He was first educated in a “dame” school, which were private schools for children aged 2-5. He then went to a local Latin school that focused on the language, logic, rhetoric and math. John ran into truancy problems with a dislike for his teacher partially because he preferred to farm with his father, but his he made him stay in school. At age sixteen he entered Harvard College, graduating at age twenty. During the period he developed a fire for studying the works of ancient writers in their languages. He became a teacher for four years as he personally debated his future profession. His father desired he enter the clergy, however, over time he felt the honor and respect earned in the practice of the law to be his calling. From Wiki there is this interesting quote from that time period, “He decided to become a lawyer, writing his father that he found among lawyers “noble and gallant achievements” but, among the clergy, the “pretended sanctity of some absolute dunces”. He had reservations about his self-described “trumpery” and failure to share the “happiness of [his] fellow men”. He even felt guilty at age nineteen when the French and Indian War began that he was not a soldier in the militia like his family members had been as he found it to be more fitting to him than even being a lawyer.
He began law studies in 1756, earned an A. M. in 1758, and was admitted to the bar a year later. He was quite good at his profession and was a leader for the colonists when the Stamp Act was imposed. His points were simple and applied to all British subjects – taxation only by consent and that all were entitled to a jury of their peers if charged with an offense.
He first met his future wife who was a cousin, Abigail, when she was fifteen years old. It was not love at first sight. However, over time they grew very close and married in 1764 when he was 29 and she was 19 years of age despite her mother’s objections. Adams’ father had died in 1761 and left him a small farm with a home. The couple moved in and lived there until 1783. They had six children together and four survived to adulthood. They had three sons, two became alcoholics, but one was successful and a future POTUS, John Quincy Adams.
The legal career of Adams was hugely successful with many notable cases during the period that included successfully representing John Hancock and the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre. Despite that he was an antagonist against the British Parliament ‘s Acts as well as moves of the Crown at every turn. He found the Boston Tea Party to be the “grandest event” in the history of the colonist independence movement. Yet, he was constantly struggling with living arrangements. He found the rural area of the Braintree farm and home to be filled with vulgar people unacceptable to raising his family, so he moved them to a home in Boston near his law practice; only to move them back to the farm a couple of years later due to the turmoil in Boston.
His activities during the Continental Congresses, votes and signing of the Declaration of Independence are well documented, sourced and legendary. I will not repeat them here as it would take too much time. However, none are more explanatory of his thoughts and devotions than the following letter to his wife, Abigail, dated July 3, 1776.
He knew what it all meant and the risks. He knew our nation was dependent on God’s Providence as written in the Declaration document he and the others signed. He was willing to risk it all for what would come of it.
For more detail of his life, including those of his person versus accomplishments, please read the following link,
It is remarkable to me that many of our founders soon visited the nation that oppressed them after the war. Adams was no exception to this as he returned there for health reasons and because he could not get along with Benjamin Franklin in France the year the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the war. He even attended a meeting in Parliament and heard King George III recognize the independence of America. He brought his wife and family there and became the first minister (ambassador) to Great Britain from 1785-88.
As a result he desired to stay neutral with the war between Great Britain and France. However, he felt it necessary to achieve what we now know as “peace through strength” with a military build up in our homeland as well as strengthening our central government through the new Constitution and increased revenues to support it all. That would become very important with the War of 1812 looming in the not too distant future.
With his coziness with Great Britain, being a perceived antagonist of France, and the passage of the highly unpopular Alien and Sedition Acts that he promoted; it all eventually cost his political career. With his fall, the Federalist Party generally disappeared from existence after the War of 1812. In his later years, Adams reconciled with Anti-Federalist Thomas Jefferson as we discussed in a previous Part, thanks to the efforts of their mutual founding father friend, Benjamin Rush. The scars of politics and governance had healed enough for both to find perspective, put aside differences, and rekindle their friendship.
Quotes
Nothing sheds more light on the life of this patriot than his personal quotes. However, if you expect consistency in thought and word, you probably need to move on to future Parts and other signers. Nobody could flip flop better that John Adams in my opinion. He was always quick with a remark and had an opinion on every subject or person. The problem was that at times his opinion changed depending on the audience, interactions, and season. That being said, many are memorable and relevant to patriotism. Below is a sampling of quotes on various subjects.
Quotes on Government,
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people”. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
“When legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.”
On Freedom and Democracy,
“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.”
“Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”
“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.”
“Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.”
On the Constitution,
“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
“Human passions unbridled by morality and religion…would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.”
On Power,
“Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws.”
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
On Law and Politics,
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
“It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, “whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,” and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.”
“In politics the middle way is none at all.”
On Religion,
(The next two are dandies 😂 – TB2)
”Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell.”
“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.”
“Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System.”
I could go on and on as he had quotes for years. Just one more, it is well noted, and is 100% truth.
“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.”
America will not be enslaved by sword anytime soon. It was being enslaved by debt. Which is a Biblical statement of truth (Proverbs 22:7) that John Adams may have agreed with (or not) depending on situation, audience, day of the week, weather forecast… 🤪
Conclusion
Normally, I would end there. I would stay on topic, which in this case would be about John Adams and something he did or said. This great patriot achieved the highest office in the land and risked everything for liberty. He lived to 91 years of age and had a very close relationship with his wife, family and many contemporaries. As previously stated he had son who became a POTUS as well. However, I am not sure he had the relationship I would have wanted for him to have with Jesus Christ. I believe his life would have played out somewhat differently and he would not have been so polarizing and sharp of tongue. That would have led to reason and less contentiousness that sank his career in public service. I contrast him with another fiery founding father below, who was a contemporary of Adams, and who made the statement below. From the Trumpet Voice of Freedom,
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
– Patrick Henry –
May it always be so.
Please remember Wolf’s rules for our community. In general that means to be respectful to each other and to pull no shenanigans that your mom might find offensive or otherwise cause jail time. That said, free speech is honored here.
Joe Biden never won. This is our Real President – 45, 46, 47.
AND our beautiful REALFLOTUS.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
Our various sister sites, listed in the Blogroll in the sidebar
Our beloved country is under Occupation by hostile forces.
Daily outrage and epic phuckery abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Joe Biden didn’t win.
And we will keep saying Joe Biden didn’t win until we get His Fraudulency out of our White House.
Wolfie’s Wheatie’s Word of the Week:
procerity
noun
tallness
loftiness
height of stature
an archaic word meaning height or tallness, derived from Latin procerus, meaning high or tall
Used in a sentence
Procerity Inc. is a company that provides strategic and financial consulting services to senior levels of client organizations. Some of their clients include Royal Bank of Canada, Marsulex Inc., Ontario Provincial Police and private clients.
Shown in a picture
MUSIC!
Always remember Sunday!
THE STUFF
Patience is a thing, if you want to work in the mines of Neutrinoville. Welcome to the job. Take a seat and relax. You’re gonna be here a while.
This video may be three years old, but in Neutrinoville, that’s like yesterday. Speaking of which, what’s up, down at the mine?
This Rejoice & Praise God Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It’s also a place to read, post, and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for our fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure your opinion addresses the issue only, and does not confront or denigrate the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name-calling, ridicule, insults, baiting, and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores, and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, we can find something here that will build us up a little . . . give us a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
JOY
Psalm 100
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come into His presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name. For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever and His faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100 issues three commands in the first two verses.
Shout joyfully to the LORD (100:1). This is quite a beginning! The term “joyfully” doesn’t appear in the Hebrew. Literally rendered, it’s “Shout to the Lord!” The word “shout” comes from a Hebrew word meaning “to raise a noise, to give a blast (as on a trumpet).” This calls for the kind of shouting that erupts from a person so full of joy he can’t contain his emotions, the kind of uninhibited whooping you hear from fans at a football game. He says, in effect, “Shout in joyful approval of God!”
When’s the last time, if ever, we shouted like sports fans because of something we read in Scripture? Have we ever pumped our fists and shouted after a sermon on God’s attributes? This is not a suggestion that we become overly expressive; but certainly we should feel some excitement, at least a little joy, perhaps a lot of joy, and even maybe some unbounded joy.
Sometimes the Lord does things that defy natural explanation, accomplishing something completely beyond our capabilities. When He comes to our rescue, we shouldn’t accept this silently. Shout to Him. Lift up our voices in praise!
Serve the LORD with gladness (100:2). A healthy sign of the grateful life is serving. Few actions are more effective in creating joy than serving others. In doing God’s work, we serve Him, not the local church, not the superintendent of some department, not the pastor or some board. We serve the Lord. It is He we worship and for Him we labor—not people! And please observe that we are urged to serve “with gladness.” The Hebrew term for this phrase was used to describe pleasant things that gave happiness.
This psalm doesn’t imply we should serve only when our hearts are filled with joy. On the contrary, we are commanded to serve regardless; gladness will soon follow. In fact, when we start feeling sorry for ourselves or our attitude takes a cynical turn, it’s time to serve someone who’s in worse shape. It’s not long before gladness pushes joy into our hearts.
Come before Him with joyful singing (100:2). God prefers to have us be happy people, rejoicing in His presence. Are we joyful? Are our faces pleasant—is a smile frequently there? Do your eyes reveal a joyful spirit within? When we sing in church, is it with joy?
It’s time to lighten up! After all, joy is a choice. We should be saturating our lives with a genuine spirit of joy! It does the heart good and it’s truly contagious.
JOY IN BELIEVING You love Him [Jesus] even though you have never seen Him. Though you do not see Him, you trust Him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy. Your reward for trusting Him will be the salvation of your souls. (I Peter 1:8 & 9)
JOY IN HEARING I [Jesus] say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. (John 17:13)
JOY IN OBEYING You know these things – now do them! That is the path of blessing. (John 13:17)
JOY IN ABIDING I [Jesus] have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! (John 15:11)
Yep, Kurt has noticed that lots of people are getting twanging schadenböners.
And you do not have to be male to get this kind of böner.
Hat tip to Scott (I think–if it wasn’t Scott it was 4GodAndCountry) for this video, which implies a LOT of schadenböners in our future.
[WOLF EDIT – for whatever reason this YouTube video no longer embeds, even as the shortened URL (below), so I have converted both URLs to links which open up in a new tab.]
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights 2. No running with scissors. 3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone. 4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns. 5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
Thursday was not a good day for gold and silver. Friday was also down slightly.
*The SteveInCO Federal Reserve Note Suckage Index (FRNSI) is a measure of how much the dollar has inflated. It’s the ratio of the current price of gold, to the number of dollars an ounce of fine gold made up when the dollar was defined as 25.8 grains of 0.900 gold. That worked out to an ounce being $20.67+71/387 of a cent. (Note gold wasn’t worth this much back then, thus much gold was $20.67 71/387ths. It’s a subtle distinction. One ounce of gold wasn’t worth $20.67 back then, it was $20.67.) Once this ratio is computed, 1 is subtracted from it so that the number is zero when the dollar is at its proper value, indicating zero suckage.
The above free image of an approval stamp is courtesy of Depositphotos and Google Images.
Health Friday is a series regarding Big Pharma, vaccines, general health, and associated topics. As today’s offering speaks to the disaster of the COVID-19 “vaccines” (in reality, dangerous and deadly Bioweapon Toxin Injections), Yours Truly dedicates it to the memory of all persons, of whatever age or location, who have passed away from the negative effects of the COVID-19 “vaccines” that they had permitted be injected into their bodies.
There are Important Notifications from our host, Wolf Moon; the Rules of our late, good Wheatie; and, certain caveats from Yours Truly, of which readers should be aware. They are linked here. Note: Yours Truly has checked today’s offering for any AI-generated content. There appears to be an AI-generated image in the Children’s Health Defense article by Dr. Brenda Baletti, PhD, that is cited below in today’s offering, just below the header title. If readers wish to add any AI-generated content to today’s discussion thread, they must cite their source. Thank you.
Note 2: Yours Truly is aware that there are other very important news stories and events that are unfolding that are not health-related. However, the following needs to be presented.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an attorney, an outspoken critic of Big Pharma and other entities that, up to now, had an undue influence on government health agencies, and who is the founder of Children’s Health Defense (https://childrenshealthdefense.org/), has been confirmed as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the new administration of the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump. Secretary Kennedy, Jr., has already done several things to re-focus the mission and activities of HHS in the direction of being more responsive to the public health of all Americans. Among these moves was his rescinding a previously-awarded HHS grant of $590 million dollars to Moderna to develop Avian Influenza and “pandemic vaccines.” This grant was awarded to Moderna by outgoing HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in the final days of the previous administration of former President Joe Biden. Please see: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/hhs-cancels-funding-moderna-s-candidate-h5-avian-flu-and-pandemic-vaccines, by Lisa Schnirring, 29 May 2025.
On the other hand, HHS has, under Secretary Kennedy, Jr., also made some decisions that have raised eyebrows: for example, in April 2025, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, a division of HHS) granted “Fast Track” approval for the self-amplifying modRNA H5N1 “pandemic vaccine”, ARCT-2304, to be tested in the United States. Please see: https://www.contagionlive.com/view/fda-grants-fast-track-status-to-arct-2304-for-h5n1-influenza-protection, by Sophia Abene, 10 April 2025. ARCT-2304 is expected to submit the BLA (Biologics License Application) documents and data for ARCT-2304 by early fall 2025. However, there’s something else that’s eyebrow-raising about this situation: The clinical trial for ARCT-2304, the data from which is going to be used in the BLA submission, has no true Placebo Control Group (a Placebo that uses Saline solution) — instead, the “Placebo Control Group” in the clinical trial is being injected with a “Placebo Vaccine.” How does this fit in with the “new FDA” that requires Placebo testing? Does the “new FDA” concept of “Placebo” now mean anything that is not the actual “candidate” drug or injectable when used in a clinical trial? Please see: https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/arcturus-self-amplifying-rna-shots, “Arcturus self-amplifying RNA: US approval expected this year”, 11 June 2025. A screenshot from this article is below:
It is now well known that the modRNA COVID-19 “vaccines” can, and do, cause multiple types of serious adverse events reactions, medical conditions of both body and mind, and death, among the COVID-19 “vaccinated.” Thousands of these reports are found in the VAERS database, and can also been searched here: https://openvaers.com/. But the FDA still has not removed these dangerous, deadly injections from the market. However, one new drug, for certain types of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) — ELEVIDYS — was just removed by the FDA after ONLY TWO DEATHS in the “post-marketing trials” group. Please see: https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/sarepta-and-roche-halt-dmd-gene-therapy-use-after-second-death/?cf-view&cf-closed, 16 June 2025. ELEVIDYS was FDA-approved on 20 June 2024. As with the modRNA COVID-19 “vaccines”, the FDA required Sarepta / Roche to perform “post-marketing trials” of the injectable (in effect, using the persons who would take ELEVIDYS as “human lab rats” to see if the injectable really worked, and to see if there would be serious adverse events in the persons who took the injectable.) Please see the FDA-issued Package Insert for ELEVIDYS, here: https://www.fda.gov/media/184855/download. Screenshots of section Warnings and Precautions; of section 11 Description; and, of section 13 Nonclinical Toxicology are below:
And, by the way, ELEVIDYS apparently “sheds” into areas around inside the body of the person who takes this injectable. Please see section 12.3 Pharmacokinetics Vector Distribution and Vector Shedding of the ELEVIDYS Package Insert linked above.
Then, there is the recent FDA approval of the use of the meningococcal “vaccine”, MenQuadfi, in infants between two months and two years of age (although it appears that this injectable may be used in infants as young as six weeks of age.) MenQuadfi is already FDA-approved for use in persons age two years and older. Attorney Aaron Siri believes this FDA “extension of use” approval is based on the “Pyramid Scheme of Vaccine Safety.” Please see: https://www.2ndsmartestguyintheworld.com/p/all-vaccines-will-kill-you-menquadfi, “ALL VACCINES WILL KILL YOU: MenQuadfi Approval and the Pyramid Scheme of Vaccine Safety”, 15 June 2025. A screenshot of Attorney Siri’s statement from the article is below:
Which reminds Yours Truly of FDA approvals of “the latest version modRNA COVID-19 vaccine”, approvals based solely on “safety and efficacy data” from earlier “latest version modRNA COVID-19 vaccines.”
Before Yours Truly turns to yet another eyebrow-raiser FDA approval, a new article by Dr. Martin Makary, MD, MPH (FDA Commissioner) and Dr. Vinay Prasad, MD, MPH (director of the CBER division of the FDA) in the Journal of the American Medical Association: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/fullarticle/2835314, “Priorities for a New FDA”, 10 June 2025. This article is discussed by Dr. Meryl Nass, MD, on her Substack: https://merylnass.substack.com/p/another-makary-prasad-article-lists, “Another Makary-Prasad article lists the changes they are making at FDA: but again, it comes with flaws”, 10 June 2025. Screenshots from Dr. Nass’ article are below. The passages with the orange line are from the Dr. Makary – Dr. Prasad article; the rest of the language is from Dr. Nass:
This new article follows on the heels of the first one published by Dr. Makary and Dr. Prasad in the New England Journal of Medicine in May 2025: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb2506929, “An Evidence-Based Approach to COVID-19 Vaccination”, in which Dr. Makary and Dr. Prasad made it clear that the FDA would follow “new guidelines” in the approval process and implementation of “new versions” of the COVID-19 “vaccines”, including in numerous “high risk” populations. Among the populations now considered by the FDA to be at “high risk” of severe complications from COVID-19 infection (and, therefore, “in need” of being COVID-19 “vaccinated”) is that of healthy pregnant women.
Yours Truly now turns to the most recent eyebrow-raising move by the FDA: the agency’s approval of lab-grown salmon, an approval based only on the manufacturing company’s “safety claims.” Please see: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/fda-approves-first-lab-grown-salmon-based-solely-manufacturers-safety-claims/, “FDA Approves First Lab-Grown Salmon Based Solely on Manufacturer’s Safety Claims”, by Brenda Baletti, PhD, 10 June 2025. The manufacturer is a company in San Francisco called Wildtype Foods. Please see the screenshot from this article, below:
The FDA Letter of Approval for the lab-grown salmon is found here: https://www.fda.gov/media/186752/download. Below are screenshots from the FDA Letter of Approval:
Mark A. Hartman is a holdover appointee from the Biden Administration. His job at the FDA began on 29 December 2024. Previous to this, Mr. Hartman worked for the EPA. Please see: https://www.lawbc.com/oppt-deputy-director-mark-hartman-will-become-will-become-director-of-fdas-office-of-food-chemical-safety-dietary-supplements-and-innovation/, 13 December 2024. From what Yours Truly can find, Mr. Hartman has no background in chemistry, in health, or in science. His Master’s degrees are in Environmental Studies and in Public Administration. To Yours Truly, this begs the following questions, among many more: Did HHS Secretary Kennedy, Jr., know about this man? Did he know in advance about the FDA’s approval of lab-grown (“cell-cultured”) salmon to be sold and used for consumption in the United States? Exactly what “testing” was performed on this “cell-cultured” salmon to make quite sure that is not carcinogenic? What exact “ingredients” are “fed” to the “cell-cultured salmon cells” in the “steel tanks” at Wild Type Foods (aka Wildtype, Inc.) during the “culturing” process? How many unsuspecting people will be eating this “cell-cultured” salmon in restaurants and other places? What exactly was the “Cell Culture Consultation CCC ooooo5” listed in the FDA’s Approval Letter about? What data were presented?
What on Earth is really going on at the “new FDA”?
