Mike Franken, candidate for the US Senate in Iowa photo: screen capture
Weeks have come and gone.
During that time we suffered COVID and then Hurricane Ian left us in ruins.
Still, our most serious affliction remains our leadership vacuum.
We have an epidemic of bought leaders. Dedicated to serving themselves at the direction of the billionaires, foreign nations and corporations funding their campaign coffers, they accumulate millions of payola dollars while in office rather than serve the interests of the people who elected them.
In fact, our society has become dominated by the premise, “suck in big bucks while you can, even if means your own people will grievously suffer as a result”, that serving the interests of the people has become the exception rather than the first requirement for elected office.
Today, we expect that our representatives are or will soon be scumbags and are shocked if they exhibit concern for others, humanity, honor, and dedication to doing right by all people regardless of political affiliation, nationality, skin color or heritage.
All this said, I stumbled upon the interview below with Mike Franken, candidate for the US Senate in Iowa. I hope he is what he says he is… and if so, that he is elected to office.
Deep red Senate seat suddenly IN PLAY for Democrats, Brian Tyler Cohen
Oct 26, 2022
INTERVIEW: Brian interviews the Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Iowa, Mike Franken, about a bombshell new poll showing him within striking distance of unseating Chuck Grassley, and whether Grassley’s age (he’d be 95 years old by the end of the term he’s running for right now) is a concern to him.
Florida Gov. DeSantis’ latest FOX PR stunt seems to be backfiring because it appears to be just plain stupid, illegal, and inhumane.
First the stupid part. Mr. DeSantis used Florida funds to pay for the private jets used to transport 50 refugees to Martha's Vineyard. The problem is that the refugees originated from San Antonio. Last time I checked, San Antonio was located in Texas, not Florida. Floridians might find that a problem, even if they are Trumpers. Using Florida tax money to transport the Texas “unwanted” just doesn’t make sense.
Third, the inhumanity of this fraud is obvious to most people other than Mr. DeSantis.
Finally, despite Mr. DeSantis’ best efforts to embarrass the people of Martha's Vineyard and score points with the FOX talking heads, the opposite has happened.
If I lived
in rural Virginia, or anywhere else for that matter, and my children and
grandchildren were looking for a job, or start a business, I’d try to help them create opportunity in sustainable / green energy.
Region’s
long awaited energy and economic transition will be substantially boosted by
US’s first climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act
When Mason
Taylor enrolled at the local vocational school with dreams of becoming an
electrician like his dad, it was assumed that the ninth-grader would eventually
end up moving away from Wise county, Virginia, to find a decent job.
Now 19,
Taylor just bought a truck after a summer apprenticing with a crew of
electricians installing rooftop solar systems at public schools in the county.
He was among a dozen or so rookies paid $17 an hour, plus tools and a travel
stipend, as part of the state’s first solar energy youth apprenticeship scheme.
“Around here
it’s always been coal, coal, coal, we didn’t hear much about green energy,”
said Taylor, who comes from a long line of miners. “This is a great opportunity
to learn, great pay, and maybe I’ll be able to stay here in the mountains with
my family if solar takes off.”
In the past
decade or so, unemployment and poverty have forced many to leave south-west
Virginia as the coal industry’s decline ricocheted across central Appalachia.
It’s torn many families apart and any talk of renewable energy was considered
anti-coal, but attitudes are starting to change.
“We have to get away from fossil fuels that are killing our planet. Technology has come a long way and will keep getting better. This is the future,” said chief electrician Jimmy Rogers, 49, whose family worked on the coal trains in Tennessee.
The region’s long-awaited energy and economic transition will be substantially boosted by America’s first climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
It’s far from a panacea, but Joe Biden’s legislation provides $369bn for the transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy – a historic investment that scientists estimate will reduce greenhouse gases by 40% below 2005 levels by 2030 and create an estimated 1.5m new jobs.
Decent well-paid jobs are desperately needed. In Virginia, coal production has declined by 70% since its peak in 1990, and much of what’s left is semi-automated. Those old jobs are largely gone and are not coming back.
The IRA provides ring-fenced money for training, innovation and manufacturing, as well as an array of tax breaks and other financial incentives to help consumers and businesses transition away from fossil fuels. And Joe Manchin, the conservative Democrat senator from West Virginia played a pivotal role in watering down – and then reviving – the legislation, directing billions of dollars to the economic revival of depressed coal towns.
Exploring Solar Panel Efficiency Breakthroughs in 2022 Undecided with Matt Ferrell, 12 July 2022
Scientists have just had a major solar panels efficiency breakthrough, and it could mean a big change for the future of renewable energy. Visit https://brilliant.org/undecided to sign up for free. And also, the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium membership. This isn’t just more hype, but a sign of where solar panel technology stands today and is heading in the near future. However, this isn’t the only big solar panel news from 2022. There’s been a lot of very recent advancements from perovskites to organic solar cells too, so what does this mean for you and me? Let’s see if we can come to a decision on this.
UPDATE: The US congress recently extended and raised the solar tax credit as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. But you can still research for solar in your area using my EnergySage portal: http://bit.ly/undecidedsolar
I turned the TV on that morning to see if there was some reason why my Internet connection had suddenly frozen up. Perhaps, I speculated, someone had demolished the Comcast cable somewhere close by.
Instead of a car accident, I learned that the one of the WTC towers was on fire. I didn’t know it then, but our world had changed again, once more in a very bad way.
An estimated 200 people jumped to their deaths .
In shock, I suspect, after seeing several people jump from the WTC, I later accepted our government’s explanation of the collapse of the impossibly huge buildings. After all, I’d seen it all on TV, hadn’t I?
Never, for a second, did I question where the mammoth tons and tons of rubble went that day - the steel and the building contents. Nor did I question why they fell so quickly and without damaging the building close by.
Years later, during the 9/11 10th anniversary, I was overcome with sorrow and empathy listening to the Brooklyn Youth Chorus’ beautiful rendition of Sarah McLacklan’s song, I Will Remember You.(1.) In my mind I kept replaying the tragic scene: the jumpers… hundreds of first responders… and thousands of WTC workers… all lost their lives while I sat, horrified, in my office and watched via TV.
Something ignited my mind that day. Perhaps the catalyst was the replay of the buildings collapsing or the emergency personnel recounting their stories – whatever it was, I began to look back at 9/11. I started reading all I could find about how both of the towers could have collapsed so quickly due to a fire located so high up in the structures. I found that the official report really didn’t explain the collapse at all, and especially, nothing was offered to explain the lack of rubble on the day of the collapse.
Steel turns to dust in mid air.
Dr. Judy Wood
Then I discovered Dr. Judy Wood’s (2.) videos, her website and her case against the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the people Congress hired to file the explanatory report.
Here is how UK researcher Andrew Johnson explained the NIST report in his book, Finding the Truth: “NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), was tasked with analysing the cause of the destruction of WTC towers 1,2 and 7. When studied objectively, their report for WTC 1 & 2 fails to answer how the “pancake” collapse theory explains the evidence observed on the day – such as the complete pulverisation of most of the towers – including hundreds of steel girders – in about 10 seconds each. Readily available photos also illustrate the glaring lack of any “pancakes” in the WTC rubble pile.”
“Elements of the final NIST WTC reports have been the subject of a Legal Challenge (3.) by Professors Morgan Reynolds (Emeritus, Texas A & M University) and Professor of Mechanical Engineering Judy Wood (formerly of Clemson University, South Carolina). Their challenge was first made as a “Request for Correction” and then in two “Qui Tam” cases. These cases, unsealed in 2007, outlined how, as it is framed, the NIST study of the WTC collapse was fraudulent and deceptive. Indeed, the very title of the main report “The Collapse of the World Trade Centre Towers” is itself misleading, because the towers did not collapse, they turned to dust.”.( 4.)
Once clear of the shock of learning that the NIST report seemed eerily similar to the Warren Commission report, i.e. both avoided discussing clearly important aspects of the crimes they were charged to investigate, I devoted countess hours to studying what Dr. Wood had uncovered.
What happened to the two tallest buildings in North America, the WTC towers, and the other five WTC buildings on 9/11?
I did not want to accept Dr. Wood’s findings. Frankly, it was simply too shocking for me to believe the forensic evidence she had complied and the truth she uncovered. Now, nearly three years later as I write this article, I have come to the place in my life that I can, once again accept the facts of life. This time, ferreted out by Dr. Wood, at considerable personal cost to her, the evidence clearly shows that the towers did not fall… they were not taken down by two aircraft. No, something much more sinister took place on 9/11 and the “cover up” continues to play out to this very day.
What “weapon” could possible “dustify” those two massive towers, WTC 1 & 2 - 110 stories each, and make them disappear into clouds of dust in less than 10 seconds, leaving relatively little rubble on the ground? How did that happen?
For certain, no matter how big and how fast they were flying upon impact, not even two massive Boeings with resulting fires could have “disappeared” those two massive buildings, PLUS destroy the other five WTC buildings which were also obliterated that day, WTC 3 – 22 stories; WTC 4 – 9 stories; WTC5 – 9 stories; WTC 6 – 8 stories; and WTC 7 – 47 stories; AND create a plethora of never-before-seen phenomena as far away as one mile from the WTC.
Dr Judy Wood has assembled the forensic evidence.(5.) If we allow ourselves to see, hear and read it we may be on the path toward discovering the horrific truths about 9/11.
We begin by considering the question she asks: Do you know of anything that can turn a building to dust in mid air? And, then some of the principal data that must be explained, please go to Dr. Wood's website, wtc page. section: B. Some of the principal data that must be explained.
Second, at the 2012 Breakthrough Energy Movement (BEM) conference in Holland (6.) (and a number of other presentations and interviews), Dr. Wood explained, “The towers did not slam to the ground. If they had slammed to the ground (following a controlled demolition or as a result of catastrophic structural failure resulting from airplanes hitting the buildings): 1. There would be over 1,250,000 tons of debris piled on the ground. (Didn't happen) 2. Manhattan would have been flooded. (Didn't happen) 3. The seismic recordings would have reflected two 500,000-ton buildings and one 230,000-ton building slamming to the ground. (Didn't happen)”
So, what brought the towers down? The evidence, Dr. Wood has concluded, points to a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW). Dr Wood offers a clear, easily understood comparison of summary of the evidence in her book and in her presentations. Her findings are well documented and directly on target, especially given that she has been the trailblazer in describing an exceedingly complex, entirely new and, until 9/11, publicly unknown destructive force used with impunity upon innocent people whose only mistake was going to work that day.
Really? Directed Energy Weapons - Star Wars? I'll bet your first thought was that Star Wars weapons really don't exist, except in Hollywood. If that's your thought, well, you'd be wrong. Not only do they exist, they are in operation today. There's even a professional association devoted to the craft, the Directed Energy Professional Society. What kinds of weapons do we have? There are many. Check out this video from the U. S. Air Force Research Lab's Directed Energy Directorate Directed Energy Directorate:
Of course what you see above is one of the weapons we are using today in public view. We have no idea what the classified weapons are or what they can do.
In one of Dr. Wood’s most recent interviews (and also one of the best to date) George Noory, Coast to Coast AM (7. ), doggedly worked to understand the technology used to destroy the WTC. Finally, after being asked several times to name the type of directed energy weapon used to destroy the WTC on 11 Sept 2001, Dr. Judy Wood answered, maintaining her forensic scientist position:
Dr. Wood: “What the evidence shows is that you can eliminate kinetic energy as a destructive mechanism. Kinetic energy means that the buildings were beaten to death, like a gravity collapse, wreaking ball, missile or bomb. Thermal energy means the buildings were cooked to death, lots of heat. Those two things the evidence rules out. But, directed energy, as I define it, is energy that is instructed to do something differently than it normally does. Instead of the bonding forces of matter being attracted to each other, they are directed to repel each other. It is not like something physically hitting it or cooking it. And, within that, it's a big umbrella of things.”
Dr. Wood: “A lot of people are uncomfortable about that. They want to have a device - Acme model whatever it is. But, we can look at parallel evidence that produces the same thing. The source of the energy, she explained, "...could have been anywhere... it could be the energy comes from the material. I want to get away from a point and shoot laser beam. It was more of a field effect."
George Noory: How much energy was needed to destroy these buildings? Wood: It could even have been negative energy. If you can understand the mechanism – that’s the beauty of this – if there is a silver lining in this – it is that this technology was used for destructive purposes, but it doesn’t have to be (used that way). It can be used for good purposes… for providing free energy to the world.”
Dr. Wood: “If you have the ability to affect the nature of matter – instead of atoms attracting each other, they are repelling each other – if you give it that instruction… it isn’t like you have to put in a lot of energy, create bonds and use energy that way, it could be that the energy come from the material.”
Dr. Wood: “Actually, (regarding) the dust cloud that rolled down the street, first responders that I talked to said, that it was cooler than ambient temperature, in other words, not hot. It was cooler. Then it began feeling warm…you know when you put acid on your hand it feels like it’s burning up but it could be room temperature. There was something in the dust that was eating on their skin. They were scrubbing in the shower afterward; they just couldn’t get it off.”
Dr. Wood: "I want to get away from the idea of a point and shoot laser beam, it’s more of a field effect, like the coverage range of your cell phone… it’s a zone of effect.”
George Noory: Do you ever, Dr. Wood, get into the Who? Dr. Wood: No, but I got closer than anyone has, in the public domain, that is. I pretty much know who knows. And that is who I tried to take to court. These were contractors on the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) report. They were mandated by Congress to find why and how the towers collapsed. They didn’t do that. I wrote a request for correction to NIST saying that their contractors were leading them astray. You can’t sue a government agency but we can sue contractors for fraud of a government agency. There are a couple of the contractors, one in particular, which had the most number of people on the contract, on the NIST report. They are developers and manufacturers of energy weapons. Not only that, they also had and still have, I believe, a contract with the U.S. government to know everything about any weapon of mass destruction that exists or is being developed anywhere. So, not only do they know what technology there is, they know whose technology it is. Wouldn’t it have been nice to have them under oath?
Third, from that day in September 2001, Dr. Wood has taken tremendous personal risk to voice her findings both to her peers, the general public and via the judicial system. After shifting through huge amounts of forensic evidence and literally overcoming a barrage of character assassination attempts to discredit her, Dr. Wood continues to stand alone, well above her critics, as the qualified expert with the correct academic and professional credentials, training and experience. In other words, she really does know what she is talking about because she has the interdisciplinary education, training and experience to pull the forensic evidence together. I don’t know why Dr. Wood left her position at Clemson. But, what I can say is that the alumni, faculty, administration and student body of Clemson should honor her and restore her status as a full professor, with full back pay and benefits, for her years of trail blazing forensic scientific work, applied engineering expertise and dedication to ferreting out the truth about the crime of the century. Clemson should be honored to be associated with Dr. Wood. Dr. Judy Wood is an American Hero - a World Hero. She is also something rarer today. She is a member of a breed which I feel is nearly extinct - Dr. Judy Wood is a Patriot.
Who benefited from 9/11? Certainly the usual suspects – the armaments industry and the financiers of war, the bankers – have gained immeasurably from 9/11.
Who obstructed justice? According to the Washington Post, 7 May 2004, “Six air traffic controllers provided accounts of their communications with hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, on a tape recording that was later destroyed by a Federal Aviation Administration manager…But months after the recording was made… another FAA manager decided on his own to destroy the tape, crushing it with his hands, cutting it into small pieces and depositing the pieces into several trash cans.”(8.) For more about 9/11 and obstruction, please go here.
Who has lost because of 9 /11? We the People lost. Just consider the civil liberties we have given up under the USA PATRIOT Act. (USA PATRIOT Act) is actually an acronym for: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001), the Military Commission Act and the National Defense Authorization Act, which permits any person, citizens included, to be arrested without charge and held indefinitely without access to a lawyer or a trial. It even permits torture. This is not to mention the loss of more than $4.5 trillion spent on the “War on Terrorism”, the loss of close to 2 million innocent Iraqis and Afghans and 6,000 of our sons and daughters.
Again, we have lived through acts of unspeakably evil. To this very day, this very minute, the monstrosity which occurred on 11 Sept 2001, frightens me; fills me with compassion for those who lost their lives and for their loved ones who must carry on without them; and empowers me with a sense of duty to ferret out the soulless beings responsible for this heinous crime against humanity.
Now, knowing with absolute certainty that not one of us is safe in our own homes or businesses, we all should fear that once again we will discover that the trail of the soulless evil beings who perpetrated this crime will bring us back to our own government.
We live in a world of scams and fraud. For instance, every day I receive phone calls and internet messages from a variety of scammers. They range from unrelenting phone calls to, “drop your Medicare Plan for a privately-operated Medicare Advantage Plan to “here’s your invoice for your (unordered) Amazon shipment.”
No one pays for something he/she didn’t order. And, Medicare has no cap for health care chargers and will not abandon subscribers when ill, while the Advantage Plans are known for declaring services, ‘medically unnecessary’ and dropping subscribers when seriously ill.
Of course, these are just examples of common, everyday type scams.
Agnotology is the name of the study of deliberate propagation of ignorance and willful acts to spread confusion and deceit, usually to sell a product or win favor. The term, agnotology, was coined by Dr. Robert Neel Proctor, American historian of science and Professor of the History of Science at Stanford University. It is derived from, “agnosis”, the neoclassical Greek word for ignorance or ‘not knowing’, and “ontology”, the branch of metaphysics which deals with the nature of being.”
Two recent examples of corporations using doubt-sowing / confusion campaigns come to mind. First, for years the international tobacco corporations deliberately planted and spread disinformation and created doubt to obfuscate the fact that researchers had repeatedly confirmed that smoking dramatically increased smoker’s chances of getting lung cancer and a host of other diseases.
Second, using the same disinformation and doubt tactics as the tobacco industry, the sugar, processed foods and beverage industries have tried and are still actively trying to create doubt in the general public mind about sugar consumption’s role in plethora of metabolic diseases, among them: diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and dementia.
Since class action lawsuits are underway, it remains to be seen when sugar corporations and co-conspirators within the processed food and beverage industries, will be forced to conclude similar settlements as the tobacco people did so that Medicare, insurance companies, and the states can recover billions of dollars in health care costs.
Please see Dr. Lustig’s website for a clear understanding of the battle for your health. https://robertlustig.com/
Only time will tell if he skates into eternity or is finally brought to justice. During his four years as president, Mr, Trump is credited with telling at least 30573 lies. That’s according to the Washington Post. For more current list of a few more, as called by his own people, see: 10 Trump election lies his own officials called false.
In sum, given how pervasive “doubt is our product” scams are today and how attractive and easy to propagate “blame the victim” misdirection tactics are to create by the fraudsters, it’s a good to know that the science of Agnotology is now there to document the whole phenomenon for generations to come.
Robert Proctor: Nazi Science and Ideology | Lex Fridman Podcast #268
750 Pages of Tobacco Conspiracy
Stanford
Smoking is not going away. Worldwide, says Stanford historian Robert Proctor, the tobacco industry continues to create toxic products that cause not just lung cancer but also cataracts, ankle fractures, early onset menopause, spontaneous abortion and erectile dysfunction, among other maladies.
As we wait the outcome of Mr. Trump’s encounters with Lady Justice, one thing is certain, his time on this earth will scar and cripple us and our ancestors for generations to come.
Like gorging vampires, Trumpism and Trump crawl out of their coffins each night to feast on the blood of their victims, i.e., us.
In fact, Trumpism and Trump are at once both the Naegleria fowleri, the "brain-eating" shapeshifting amoeboflagellate excavate, the Republican Party, and the current manifestation of the same-old-same-old conman/fraudster melded with a psychopathic/white supremacist/fascist.
What are we to make of this? How did we get here? What does it say about us?
In an attempt to answer these questions, I’ve posted (below) a presentation and two interviews with Sarah Churchwell, Professor of American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London.
I found them interesting and enlightening. I hope you will, as well.
The Vice-Chancellor's Distinguished Lecture Series – Professor Sarah Churchwell
University of Birmingham, Jan 14 Jan 2020
Sarah Churchwell is Professorial Fellow in American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and one of the UK’s most prominent public intellectuals and cultural critics.
A renowned specialist in American literature and culture, she appears regularly on current affairs and cultural programmes such as Question Time, Newsnight and the Review Show, and writes for national and international newspapers such as The Guardian and Financial Times. She is the author of ‘The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe’ and ‘Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great Gatsby’. Her most recent work ‘Behold, America: A History of the American Dream and America First’ argues that the meanings and history of these terms need to be understood afresh so that the true spirit of America can be reclaimed.
This lecture forms part of ‘The Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Lecture Series,’ which aims to reflect on the major social, scientific, cultural and policy issues of our time.
What is the history of the American Dream? | Sarah Churchwell | 5x15
Nov 6, 2020
Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She is the author of Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and The Invention of The Great Gatsby and The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe. Her literary journalism has appeared widely in newspapers and she comments regularly on arts, culture, and politics for television and radio. She lives in London.
5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each.
Q&A, C-SPAN, Brian Lamb, Host
Sarah Churchwell, 5 Nov 2018
University of London literature Professor Sarah Churchwell talked about her book, Behold America, which looks at the history of the phrases “America First” and “The American Dream.”
Still, there is much more: Iraq 4,431 KIA and 31,994 Wounded Afghanistan 2,448 KIA and 20,752 Wounded Plus 3.5,000,000 PACT Wounded
'We owe you big': See how Biden honored Jon Stewart before signing bill.
CNN, 10 Aug 2022
President Joe Biden took a moment to honor comedian Jon Stewart's advocacy of veterans ahead of signing the PACT Act, which will expand health care for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. #cnn #News
