An International Message of Hope from RFK Jr

By Children’s Health Defense Team

This past weekend, Children’s Health Defense’s (CHD) board chair Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sent a message to the people around the world who realize they are watching their freedoms be taken away one after the other. Spoken in solidarity with citizens who participated in rallies in at least 15 countries to protest the global movement towards totalitarianism, Kennedy not only provided hope to freedom advocates, but also asked some critical questions relevant to the COVID crisis.

Chief among those questions is: What are the origins of COVID? This very basic question on something that has taken lives around the globe — including deaths from despair — and destroyed countless businesses is not being asked of government officials in any country on the planet. This is why Kennedy and CHD President Lyn Redwood have asked leaders in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to launch a thorough investigation of COVID’s origins.

If you haven’t already asked your own congressional representatives and senators to get behind this crucial effort, you can do so here. If you live outside the U.S., you can read the letter and adapt it for your own country’s leaders and officials. No issue is more urgent, and the time to act is now.

 

Here’s the transcript from Kennedy’s International Message of Hope for Humanity:

Hey everybody it’s Robert F Kennedy, Jr. here and I cannot tell you how happy I am to be able to have this opportunity to talk to thousands of citizens in 15 countries on all the continents in the world who have come together today to protest this coup d’état by big data, by big telecom, by big tech, by the big oil and chemical companies and by the global public health cartel led by Bill Gates and the WHO that  now amounts to two trillion dollars and wants to magnify and amplify its wealth and its power over our lives, over our liberties, that wants to subvert our democracies and want to destroy our sovereignty and our control over our lives and our children’s health.

I want to remind you, those of you who are not Americans, of something that every American child learns when we’re growing up in this country about our history. During the great depression Franklin Roosevelt, who was one of the greatest presidents in American history, said to the American people, “The only thing that we have to fear is fear itself.” We grow up hearing that but people don’t really understand what it means, but it was a very, very profound warning by Roosevelt because he saw what the great depression was doing in eastern Europe and Italy in Germany and Spain. Where that crisis was turning people towards fascism in the eastern countries. Where the same crisis was turning citizens and governments towards communism and also causing the collapse of governments all over the world, And in our country — in the United States — it’s hard for people to remember today that almost a third of the people in our country were completely disillusioned with capitalism and wanted to turn to communism and another third wanted to turn to fascism. And Franklin Roosevelt wanted to preserve our country for democracy… for free market capitalism, for civil rights and to preserve our constitution. He recognized that the weapon of authoritarian control was going to be fear.

And when I spoke a few weeks ago in Berlin, I reminded the people of Germany of a very famous story that happened during the Nuremberg trials after World War II when Hitler’s closest Lieutenant, the head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering was asked by one of the prosecutors: “How did you get the German people — the German people, the most educated people in the world that were some of the most tolerant people in the world; the Weimar republic was one of the strongest democracies in the world — “how did you take these people who were so well educated and so awakened and so tolerant and turn them into obedient slaves who committed some of the worst atrocities in human history?” Goering said “Oh that’s a simple thing…” and any of you can look up his quote and I urge you to do so, and he said, and it works not just a fascist government but it works in a democracy, in a monarchy, in a communist government — in any government that you want the job of the government is to put the people in fear and if you can keep them in fear you can get them to do anything that you want them to do. They will turn into sheep […]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/message-of-hope-for-humanity/

Nuclear False Solution to Climate Change

Study shows that countries investing in nuclear didn’t see emission reductions but countries that invested in renewables did.

Beyond Nuclear International

Every dollar wasted on nuclear is a dollar not invested in renewables

By Tim Judson and Luis Hestres

We’ve known for a long time that nuclear energy is a false solution to climate change. Not only are the health and environmental impacts of nuclear power intolerable, but it also gobbles up investments we should be making in clean and safe renewable energy.

Now, a new study by researchers at the University of Sussex in the UK brings us the latest and most robust evidence of these facts.

The study, published last week in Nature Energy, considers three hypotheses: Firstly, that emissions decline the more a country adopts nuclear power; secondly, that emissions decline the more a country adopts renewables; and thirdly, that nuclear and renewables are ‘mutually exclusive’ options that tend to crowd each other out at an energy system level. The hypotheses were tested against 25 years’ worth…

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Small increases in air pollution linked to rise in depression

Exclusive: Cutting pollution levels may help to reduce rates of mental health problems, say scientists

Small increases in people’s exposure to air pollution are linked to significant rises in depression and anxiety, according to the first such study of UK adults.

The researchers found that an incremental increase in nitrogen dioxide, largely produced by diesel vehicles, heightened the risk of common mental disorders by 39%. For tiny particle pollution, which comes from burning fuels, and brake and tyre dust, the risk rose by 18%.

The scientists also found that people living in places with higher levels of particle pollution were twice as likely to experience mental health problems as those in the least polluted areas. The researchers acknowledged that other factors were important for mental health, such as genetics and childhood experiences, but added that, unlike these, air pollution could be prevented.

The study followed more than 1,000 adults in south-east London over five years, but the results are relevant for cities and towns across the world. In the UK, almost every urban area has particle pollution levels above the World Health Organization guidelines, and around the globe 90% of people breathe dirty air […]

Via Small increases in air pollution linked to rise in depression, finds study — Respro® Bulletin Board

US, Global Corporate Giants Not Amused As Mexico Finally Forces Them to Pay the Taxes They Owe

Mexican prosecutors get tough under progressive Mexican president AMLO.

Rigged Game

American Bar Association, Mexican business lobby, ambassadors from the US, Canada, etc. in uproar over holding executives accountable and threatening them with criminal probes. 70 Mexican officials also investigated.

By Nick Corbishley and cross-posted from WOLF STREET.

The American Bar Association (ABA) this weeklambastedthe Mexican government for using heavy handed tactics, including criminal probes into tax fraud, to motivate corporate tax dodgers to finally settle their tax bills. The complaint echoes a similar broadside from the International Bar Association last month and reflects growing frustration among companies about the government’s use of more stringent audits, tighter surveillance methods, and the threat of tough legal action to crack down on corporate tax dodgers and tax frauds.

The Government says it has launched criminal proceedings against 43 companies that owe 55 billion pesos ($2.6 billion) to the treasury in unpaid taxes dating back to 2010. Most other companies that have…

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A new treaty will ban nuclear weapons

October 25, 2020 Labour Hub Editors

By Gaynor Lloyd

Waking unreasonably early this morning, having forgotten the clocks go back an hour, I was struggling to greet the day with cheer. Then I heard the news headlines: the 50th state, Honduras, had just ratified a treaty.  To ban nuclear weapons.

The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) opened for signature three years ago. It’s a treaty that will make nuclear weapons illegal in the countries that sign it. The treaty needed 50 countries to ratify it before it before it could come into force – and overnight that milestone was reached.

CND general Secretary Kate Hudson noted: “This is a sea change in international law; never before have nuclear weapons been illegal.”

The treaty will come into force on January 22^nd 2021. Shamefully the UK government refused to even participate in the treaty talks and now says it will never sign. The US has written to signatories, telling them they have made “a strategic error” and urging them to rescind their ratification. The Guardian dismissed the achievement as “essentially symbolic”, as the world’s nuclear powers have not signed up to the agreement.

But, for me, what is crucial is what Beatrice Fihn, the Swedish lawyer and executive director of the  Nobel Peace Prize-winning campaign International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons, said:  “Decades of activism have achieved what many said was impossible: nuclear weapons are banned.”

Campaigners hope this treaty will be a first rock in an avalanche of change, similar to that achieved by previous treaties on chemical and biological weapons, land mines and cluster munitions, stigmatising their use, changing states’ behaviour and discouraging financial institutions from funding the building of these weapons of terror […]

A new treaty will ban nuclear weapons — Labour Hub

Bolivia: Over 50% of Elected Lawmakers are Women

Parliament holds session in La Paz, Bolivia, Oct. 20, 2020. | Photo: Twitter/ @SenadoBolivia

by Arnold August

The MAS achieved a majority in the Senate with 21 seats, of which 10 are occupied by women.

After the general elections held in Bolivia last October 18, which was won by the Movement to Socialism (MAS), there is a strong female presence in both the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate.

The MAS achieved a majority in the Senate with 21 seats, of which 10 are occupied by women.

The Citizens’ Community won 11 seats, seven of them for women, while We Believe won four, two of them for women.

As for the Chamber of Representatives, 48.33 percent of the plurinominals are men, while 51.6 percent of the seats will be held by women. Meanwhile, Women’s hegemony returns in the uninominals with 57.14 percent of the seats […]

Via https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bolivia-Over-50-of-Elected-Lawmakers-Are-Women-20201025-0003.html

I am Big Bird

I am Big Bird

Directed by Dave LaMattina and Chad N Walked (2014)

Film Review

This is an extremely moving film about Carroll Spinney, the puppeteer who played Big Bird on Sesame Street from 1969 until a year before his death (at age 85) in 2019. He also played Oscar the Grouch from 1969 until 2015.

The film has lots of great footage of Big Bird riding in limousines, disembarking from planes, and touring the Great Wall of China. To the best of my knowledge, Big Bird is the only fictional character with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. .

My favorite parts of the film were the cartoon showing how Spinney worked the wings, beak, and eyes from inside the costume, Big Bird singing “It Isn’t Easy Being Green” at Muppet creator Jim Henson’s funeral in 1990, and his appearance on Saturday Night Live to respond to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s threat to cancel the PBS subsidy.

This film can be viewed free via participating libraries on Beamafilm. Type “Beanafilm” and the name of your library into your search engine.

 

 

 

 

Climate change a big threat to nuclear reactors – as water supplies at risk

In August Moody’s Investors Service reported that 48 GW of nuclear capacity across the U.S. face elevated exposure to combined heat and water stress, including plants owned by Exelon Corp., Vistra Corp., Entergy Corp., and the Arizona Public Service Co.

nuclear-news

Climate change poses big water risks for nuclear, fossil-fueled plants, S and P Global, Esther Whieldon Taylor Kuykendall, 23 Oct 20,

Exelon Corp.’s Clinton Power Station nuclear plant in Illinois uses about 248.5 billion gallons of water annually, the utility said in its 2020 report to CDP.to CDP. The plant is in an area projected to face increased water stress by 2030.

As global warming climbs and humanity’s water consumption increases, nuclear and fossil-fueled power plants that rely on freshwater for cooling may not be able to perform at their peak capacity or could be forced to shut down temporarily even as demand for their supplies for indoor cooling and other uses increase, according to researchers and industry experts.

Climate change-exacerbated water shortage issues pose a near-term and longer-term performance risk to power plants, such as hydropower and nuclear, around the world. And in the Lower 48, more than…

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61% of Americans Support Abolishing Electoral College

https://news.gallup.com/poll/320744/americans-support-abolishing-electoral-college.aspx

Megan Brenan

Just Sayin’

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Heading into the 2020 presidential election, three in five Americans favor amending the U.S. Constitution to replace the Electoral College with a popular vote system, marking a six-percentage point uptick since April 2019. This preference for electing the president based on who receives the most votes nationwide is driven by 89% of Democrats and 68% of independents. Far fewer Republicans, 23%, share this view, as 77% of them support keeping the current system in which the candidate with the most votes in the Electoral College wins the election.

Americans Favor Using Popular Vote to Elect President

Of the seven times this question was asked over the past two decades, support for amending the Constitution to abolish the Electoral College only fell below the majority level once — in November 2016 after Donald Trump won the electoral vote and Hillary Clinton the popular vote. At that point, 49% of Americans wanted the current system to be replaced, and 47% wanted it to remain in place. By 2019, support for using the national vote totals over the Electoral College had risen to 55%.

[…]

Via 61% of Americans Support Abolishing Electoral College – September 24, 2020 by Megan Brenan — Just Sayin’

Employer-provided health insurance is the problem, not the cure. Nobody should die because they lost their job.

A substantial majority of Americans support Medicare for All. Because they rely on the insurance industry for campaign donations, neither presidential candidate supports it.

Fred Klonsky

Wakarusa, Indiana. 2009. Photo: Fred Klonsky

If all goes our way on November 3rd, the Democrats will control both the Congress and the White House.

Yesterday, about 150 hotel workers who’d been laid off rallied in Grant Park Friday to call on their employers to continue providing health insurance.

They are among about 7,000 Chicago hotel workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 1 who are out of work, most since March.

It is obvious that if we had a system of national health care, some form of Medicare for all, those hotel workers would not be dependent of employer based health insurance.

They would have access to health care now, while we are in the middle of a pandemic.

We would not be debating pre-existing conditions or whether your family dependents were covered.

Joe Biden’s proposals for the existing Affordable Care Act are insufficient.

The position of the national leaders…

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