Category: DDP Newsletter

DDP Newsletter Vol. XL, No. 4

In the guise of promoting health and safety, the federal government has issued 200,000 pages of regulations and has 288,000 full-time federal employees engaged in regulatory activities. Every regulator destroys 138 private-sector jobs, according to an Auburn University study, and each dollar in a regulator’s salary destroys $112 of economic output. Regulatory costs devour $5 trillion, or one-fifth of our entire economy. Additionally, regulation fuels the totalitarian administrative state, strangles start-ups, and drives industry offshore. The worst offender is probably the Environmental Protection Agency (https://tinyurl.com/3zcv2n3m).

The regulations are based on published research and often claim to save thousands or millions of lives. But much of the research claims display the “Bunnies in the Sky” phenomenon: If you look long and hard enough at the clouds, you will see something. Warren Kindzierski, Ph.D., discussed the crisis of irreproducibility (falseness) of research claims in science at our 42^nd annual meeting (https://youtu.be/78sTkKrJ0bA).

Bad (irreproducible) science has crowded out good (reproducible) science in the literature, permitting governments to develop policies with no reliable evidence of public benefit or even with actual harm. In the National Association of Scholars Shifting Sands Project, Kindzierski and S. Stanley Young, Ph.D., showed how false but “statistically significant” results get established.

Observational studies have many potential sources of bias. Researchers have enormous flexibility to manipulate their data selection and analysis to get results they want. Examples include selective design, selective use of data, selective analyses, and selective reporting of results. Multiple testing multiple modeling (MTMM) bias involves using data sets with a computer to test multiple outcomes, multiple predictors, different population subgroups, or multiple statistical cause-effect models without statistical correction. This increases the likelihood of making a type I (false positive) error. Observational studies routinely perform MTMM statistical tests on a data set. One in twenty results (5%) could be “significant” (a false positive) even when the null hypothesis is true. Other terms for this type of bias in published literature are data dredging, fishing expeditions, multiplicity, or multiple comparisons.

Randomized studies reduce, but do not eliminate all sources of bias.

An analysis of MTMM determines the SearchSpace, the number of possible hypothesis tests. One study of links between various foods and diseases had 20,000 possible hypothesis tests, of which 1,000 could have been “significant” false positive tests with P < .05. This provides ample opportunities to fish for spurious correlations.

A P-value plot—which graphs P-values from studies included in a meta-analysis vs. their rank order—can distinguish a null or uncertain effect from a true positive. This method in petroleum refinery workers showed a null effect for chronic myeloid leukemia risk but a positive one for mesothelioma risk.

By this method, EPA’s claims of deleterious effects of small particulates (PM_2.5) on all-cause mortality, heart attacks, or asthma attacks cannot be substantiated, as James Enstrom, Ph.D., M.P.H., has previously shown (https://tinyurl.com/58e2c75d).

P-value plots of studies of health outcomes of eating red and processed meat showed a null association with cardiovascular mortality, breast cancer incidence, and colorectal cancer incidence, and claims concerning all-cause and all-cancer mortality are shown to be uncertain and unproven.

Concerning COVID response measures, Young and Kindzierski found null effects of public masking on respiratory illness, or of lockdowns on mortality. However, an association between lockdowns and domestic violence was validated.

Claims of “implicit gender and racial bias” are extremely challenging to evaluate. A computer-based speed-response test referred to as the Implicit Association Test (IAT) developed by researchers at Harvard is extremely important as it forms the scientific framework of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). P-value plot testing showed no association between the IAT and real-world microbehaviors.

Young and Kindzierski’s method shows that extremely costly and intrusive regulations are largely based on false results, even if promoted as “evidence-based” and “data-driven.”

‘POST-TRUTH SCIENCE’

We are constantly being exhorted to “trust the science.”

As William Briggs, Ph.D., points out, “Academics Blame Lower Trust in Scientists on Everything but Bad Scientists” (https://tinyurl.com/mnjmf3u8). “Science is the understanding of the nature of world. Controlling the world via this understanding is not science, but something else. Confusing the two leads to scientism.”

The science that the public is allowed to see is limited by “fact-checkers,” such as Science Feedback and other members of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), who allegedly generate and disseminate misinformation. Meta, owner of Facebook (3 billion worldwide users), explicitly relies on IFCN-approved organizations (https://tinyurl.com/47pdxek4).

“Trusted” publications such as Scientific American are rife with fraud such as “citation sorcery.” That is, the cited sources do not support the claims that are made. For example, references backing the claim that mask protection has been “validated over decades” have nothing to do with viruses. Or an oft-cited “study” turns out to be an opinion piece or a brief letter (https://tinyurl.com/5u79jbdm).

On important questions such as “Where did COVID come from?” Science magazine has played the Three Wise Monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) and has attacked and defamed scientists who pointed out scientific fraud and misconduct (https://tinyurl.com/42ehbh6u).

One method of introducing bias, “P-hacking,” occurs when researchers collect or select data or statistical analyses until nonsignificant results become significant. A method that uses text-mining demonstrates that p-hacking is widespread throughout science. Authors Megan Head et al. nevertheless conclude that “its effect seems to be weak relative to the real effect sizes being measured,” and that “p-hacking probably does not drastically alter scientific consensuses drawn from meta-analyses” (https://tinyurl.com/mybzvscv). Their study does not consider the SearchSpace.

Consensus results, however, in the hands of regulators have multibillion-dollar and life-and-death consequences. The consequence of safety-first, no pollution is not weighed against the consequence of not being able to make steel or antibiotics.            

Or the fact that there is no “post-truth” science.

DDP Newsletter November 2024, Vol. XL, No. 6

When political and/or economic collapse is threatening, an age-old method for a regime to maintain its grip on power is to start a war.

While the incoming Trump regime is unpredictable, President-Elect Trump said his priority was to stop the killing in Ukraine. However, without a crushing military defeat, Russia is not going to give up its proclaimed objectives. And it is Ukraine that is being crushed. Russians are advancing relentlessly on the ground in Ukraine, a succession of U.S. and NATO Wunderwaffen having failed to change the game (tinyurl.com/5n92u8yp).

A loss in Ukraine would be a disaster, according to Western reigning authorities (https://tinyurl.com/mr64ydh5). Former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark Milley said, “What’s at stake is the global international security order that was put in place in 1945” (https://tinyurl.com/5n8968n4). Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stated, “Failure in Ukraine could be the beginning of the end of the golden age of the West” (tinyurl.com/mru2cv95). Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Ukraine’s defeat would be the end of the West’s postwar hegemony (tinyurl.com/2sz783b8).

The Biden regime authorized striking into Russian territory with long-range missiles—which can only be operated by U.S. personnel. Both U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles have attacked Russian targets. It is not clear how many were destroyed by Russian air defenses or how much damage was done, but it was likely unspectacular (https://tinyurl.com/y9t372rd).

Former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev has declared that NATO and the U.S. are now at “full war” with Russia (https://tinyurl.com/3b23s7aj). On Nov 19, after the U.S. had authorized what Russia views as a major escalation, Putin signed a decree updating Russia’s nuclear doctrine. This stares that a nuclear strike could be justified in case of “aggression against Russia and its allies by any non-nuclear state…with the support of a nuclear state.” This would be “considered a joint attack by both countries on Russia.” Putin added that “a ‘critical threat to sovereignty’ posed by conventional non-nuclear weapons would also be seen as valid grounds for a nuclear response and that Russia reserved the right to use nuclear weapons in case of aggression against close ally Belarus” (https://tinyurl.com/2xnds3hd).

In retaliation for the NATO attack, Russia struck the Dnipro Yuzhmash aerospace manufacturing facility with a newly developed hypersonic Oreshnik (“Hazelnut tree”) intermediate range ballistic missile. Some accounts say the underground working part of the facility was turned into dust. This suggests that the Oreshnik submunitions crashed at hypersonic speed into the workshops and simply pulverized them. There was no particular need for high explosives to do the job (https://tinyurl.com/ssmzb593).

Putin claims that NATO has no means to stop such a missile and that the military is picking targets in Ukraine from a list of decision-making centers, industrial production sites, and military facilities. NATO has no analogues, and none will appear soon, he states. Russia has several more such missiles available now, and serial manufacturing has begun (https://tinyurl.com/3b9cnmsb).

The Oreshnik attack is not featured on news.google.com, and Western experts downplay its significance, according to a report on Reuters (tinyurl.com/e6swthsz). This said that the missile was no big deal, could be intercepted, and was possibly being used more for psychological effect. As Will Schryver states, “Reuters wants everyone to know…Putin is just talking tough to sow unfounded fear of Russian military might” (https://tinyurl.com/27pm72ue).

Despite the Oreshnik attack, the U.S. and its Ukrainian “orderlies” launched 13 more ATACMS missiles into Russia. The Russians claim to have shot down 10 of them and acknowledge the loss of an S-400 radar unit and its crew. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported today that five ATACMS launch vehicles were destroyed by a volley of Iskander missiles, and that additional Iskander strikes, directed against apparently known concentrations of US/NATO personnel in Ukraine, “neutralized” about 40 Americans and nine French personnel (https://tinyurl.com/4y58as9t).

Europe is taking the war threat far more seriously. An estimated 5.2 million copies of a crisis preparedness pamphlet are set to be delivered to Swedish households in the next two weeks, with the text available in multiple languages online. Citizens are advised to be ready with a stockpile of food and emergency supplies, including baby food, medicine, and hygiene products. There are diagrams of expedient shelters. Finland has also published its own online crisis preparedness brochure, warning that as of the last government survey in September, only 58% of Finns have adequate emergency supplies at home to ride out a crisis. Norway published its own printed pamphlets earlier this year on how citizens could manage by themselves for a week in the event of a national crisis, including war (https://tinyurl.com/5h7vrtm7). Germany is preparing to convert metro stations, offices, and public buildings into bomb shelters. The Federal Office for Civil Protection is identifying suitable structures and developing an app to guide the public to nearby shelters (https://tinyurl.com/n99a5y2s).

MIDDLE EAST FRONT

Shortly after Israel and Hezbollah announced a temporary ceasefire, Turkish-backed rebels launched a shock offensive against Syria that reached past the gates of Aleppo. Many factors may have contributed to re-bleeding in the “frozen” Syrian civil war (https://tinyurl.com/y6432u4u). According to Simplicius, Israel, having failed to defeat Hezbollah, has gone to Plan B, which is to eliminate Iran’s ability to resupply Hezbollah via Syria. To do that, Assad must fall. Showing Israel’s handprint on the attack, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) was hit with a major “exploding beeper and radio” attack, wounding many SAA servicemen—a perfect replay of the same attack on Hamas earlier. Russia has evidently sent reinforcements to Syria, weakening its efforts in Ukraine.

The incursion followed weeks of Israeli strikes into Syria itself, likely the preparatory forewarning in anticipation of this offensive.

Ukraine’s calling cards were also visible, Simplicius states, with the Syrian terrorists’ usage of FPV (first-person view) drones in the attacks, and their choice of yellow and blue head and arm bands. Ukrainian field commanders have been spotted among the militants. Ukraine, with the U.S., has been training members of the Hayat Tahir al-Sham  (HTS) terrorist group, and actively recruiting them to fight in Ukraine.

“It’s clear that the conflict is taking on a global proportion of interconnectivity, a true ‘world war’” (https://tinyurl.com/m3m9rtsy).

Is World War III already here?

DDP Newsletter Vol. XL, No. 3

A current invisible scary threat, impossible for people to verify for themselves, is endocrine disruptors (EDs) lurking in the water. This topic first appeared in the National Library of Medicine PubMed data base in 1995, reached a maximum of 1,088 citations in 2019, and still occurs almost 1,000 times/y, dozens of times in association with plastics.

The term was coined at the 1991 Wingspread conference, a rebranding of the more benign term “endocrine modulators,” explains Steve Milloy (tinyurl.com/4ssdrfjj).

On Aug 23, 1994, the endocrine-disruptor scare was reported in the New York Times in an article titled “Pesticides May Leave Legacy of Hormonal Chaos.” Referring to some wildlife populations, Theo Colborn, the activist who convened the Wingspread conference, stated: “I’d say we are on a fast track to extinction…. You would expect the same thing to happen to human populations.” Colburn, a pharmacist, earned a Ph.D. in zoology at age 58 (ibid.).

Continue reading “Endocrine Disruptors”

DDP Newsletter Vol. XL, No. 5

In the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, many people were asking this question. Accusations first about absence and then about slow deployment and malfeasance are widely disseminated and officially denied. Also, sensationalist theories assert that the storm was man-made or steered for a nefarious purpose, such as to affect the election or to wipe out those who oppose lithium mining in this area. Counterintuitively, influencers who promote such allegations claim to belong to the political side that was always highly skeptical about “man-made climate change.”

What is the true situation?

Whatever it is, it is not new. During Hurricane Katrina, people asked the same question, and the passage of S.3721, the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (https://tinyurl.com/8jyctvar) seemingly made no difference.

FEMA operates like any other corrupted bureaucracy: response will be slow and encumbered with red tape. There will be conflicts with local and state authorities and volunteers. As one person who did public relations for the agency during disasters described it, “FEMA sends in the money truck.” An official photo from North Carolina shows a neat trailer with staff to help people fill out forms. So far, a relatively paltry $4 million has been paid directly to families and individuals in the week after Hurricane Helene, reports Larry Bell, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has warned that his $640.9 million FEMA storm relief budget is now just about tapped out for the rest of this season (https://tinyurl.com/9a4rrwtz).

“FEMA is broke,” said Prof. Peter St Onge, because of spending on other priorities such as Ukraine and migrants. Quoting America First Legal, he said that “Over the last 4 years the Biden-Harris admin has steadily transformed FEMA into an illegal alien resettlement agency” (https://tinyurl.com/y5pxyjw5). Critics of this interpretation claim that subsidies for immigrants come from a “different source” and that the GOP-led House is responsible for the agency’s funding shortfall (https://tinyurl.com/4a5tn8p3).

But where are relief supplies going, and who is rescuing people?

Elon Musk accused FEMA of “belligerent government incompetence.” He claimed that FEMA was “blockading the disaster area and preventing private helicopters from delivering Starlink terminals, which connect to satellite internet service, and other supplies…. @FEMA is both failing to help AND won’t let others help” (tinyurl.com/25thtp8z).

Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg said, “No one is shutting down the airspace and FAA doesn’t block legitimate rescue and recovery flights.” A FEMA spokesperson stated, “FEMA has helped provide Starlink terminals…. These units are supporting state and local municipalities, Urban Search and Rescue and disaster coordination” (ibid.).

[Musk noted that Starlink likely would have already been up and running in some of these areas if the Harris-Biden Federal Communications Commission hadn’t stopped a $885 million grant to SpaceX to provide broadband to rural communities in 2022. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law set aside $42 billion to build broadband infrastructure in rural and underserved communities, but so far, zero connection have been made.]

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell called the “false” criticisms of the agency’s response “dangerous.” They could hinder FEMA’s recovery efforts. “It has a tremendous impact on the comfort level of our own employees to be able to go out there, but it’s also demoralizing to all of the first responders…FEMA staff, volunteers,” she told host George Stephanopoulos (https://tinyurl.com/mstnssvp).

One allegation is that FEMA refused to supply body bags and was planning to bulldoze an area without recovering the bodies. A responsive response would have been: “We did supply the body bags. All human remains will be treated with respect. Here is a source of information about efforts to identify them.” This has not been heard.

The task is enormous; volunteers are urgently needed. However, FEMA.gov urges you to “donate and volunteer responsibly.” You should register before volunteering. Unaffiliated volunteers who self-deploy might burden the community, FEMA warns.

As disaster response lags, FEMA’S new priorities, posted on its website, are: (1) Instill equity as a foundation of emergency management; (2) Lead whole of community in climate resilience; (3) Promote and sustain a ready FEMA and prepared nation.

Criswell said she made Equity her priority; then FEMA held Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training saying the U.S. is rooted in extreme violence, and “White Supremacy is in almost every institution” (https://tinyurl.com/yrfbrb8r). In a virtual meeting in March 2023, FEMA emergency management specialist Tyler Atkins said the agency was prioritizing LGBTQ people because they are “already disadvantaged.” LGBTQ victims should receive more support because they would have been “already struggling” before a natural disaster (https://tinyurl.com/39syehx7).

FEMA BACKGROUND

DDP was originally part of The American Civil Defense Association (TACDA). Our joint meetings generally featured a speaker from FEMA—when it still concerned itself with civil defense. In the Reagan Administration, under Gen. Julius Becton, FEMA revived nuclear war defense instead of being an “all hazards but one” agency. It supported the construction of five mobile NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) shelter displays, which appeared at DDP meetings and were taken by DDP to county and state fairs in many cities. The one made for FEMA deteriorated unused at the National Emergency Training Center until it was finally buried to use in fire-training exercises. FEMA required us to remove the medical kit as too dangerous for laypeople (the updated version can be downloaded from ddponline.org/medkit).The refurbished Arizona shelter appeared at the 2023 meeting and is now popular in Oregon at fairs and in parades. Today, the U.S. is largely do-it-yourself for all hazards as well as for civil defense.

FEMA was started by executive order in the Nixon Administration to assure the survivability of the United States government in the event of a nuclear attack on this nation. It was also assigned the task of being a federal coordinating body during times of domestic disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes.

Over the years, the scope of FEMA’s activities has expanded, as have its powers, through a series of executive orders. For example, E.O. 11921 of June 11, 1976, gives the federal government power over all “usable  water” (https://tinyurl.com/39wp43j3).

Only a small fraction of FEMA’s spending goes for helping U.S. disaster victims. Continuity of government—including elaborate bunkers for selected officials—is likely the highest priority. Some say that FEMA is the most powerful organization in the U.S.—or could be in case of a national crisis (real or imagined). Meanwhile, it is busily implementing the regime’s political and social priorities, as flood victims are abandoned.

DDP Newsletter Vol. XXXIX, No. 4

In these days of forever wars, we face rising threats to our way of life. Will we live under a system of freedom and prosperity, or will we be ruled over and our liberties treated as “privilege” that can be given or taken based on the judgment of a ruling class?

In trying to identify good guys and bad guys, friends and foes, some little-known historical events, and facts on some important persons, may provide helpful insight.

Key issues include slavery and control of the levers of power.

Continue reading “War vs. Peace: Historical Pointers”

DDP Newsletter Vol. XL, No. 1

After a disaster, it is critical to do a “post-mortem” analysis for lessons learned—or the equivalent of an M&M (Mortality and Morbidity) conference for surgical outcomes.

The COVID-19 emergency is officially over, although one sees occasional masks, and “booster” shots are constantly recommended. Already there is talk of “Disease X,” which might be “20 times worse.”

The first lesson might be the need for post-mortems (autopsies) of early deaths. After a delay of many months, a dozen autopsies revealed the importance of inflammation and blood clots. Thousands of deaths might have been caused by rigid hospital protocols, with overly aggressive sedation and ventilation, and failure to use anti-inflammatories, such as steroids, and anticoagulants in the second and later phases of disease (see McCullough Protocol, as at https://aapsonline.org/covidpatientguide/).

Discussion of these issues and many others was prevented by unprecedented censorship of anything that disagreed with the lavishly funded fear campaign. The common sense of intelligent lay people occasionally overcame it.

YouTuber Gonzalo Lira said that at first he was very afraid, and wondered whether he should buy a couple of ventilators, in case his family should need them in a medically impoverished country (Ukraine). But while traveling in Amsterdam, he conversed with homeless (but not unintelligent or uneducated) junkies, and noticed that this vulnerable population was not dying. When the vaccines were released, he recalled that when he was 5 years old he had seen children with flaps for limbs, because of “safe and effective”—but inadequately tested—thalidomide. He decided to wait to see whether girls born to vaccinated mothers had normal fertility (http://tinyurl.com/apczmedt, 21 min.).

Lira, an American citizen, got the harshest form of censorship—imprisonment, torture, and death due to refusal of medical treatment in a Ukrainian prison. The U.S. Department of State did nothing while he languished without trial for 7 months.

(Lira’s offense involved posting YouTube videos from an apartment in Kharkov, with incisive commentary about the war in Ukraine, Western culture, and world affairs, with many interesting interviews. He clearly was not a “Russian asset,” but was very critical of U.S. policy. The most intolerable posting might have been his commentary on U.S. Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland and her role in the Russia-Ukraine war (tinyurl.com/mvv7vt36). Postings by and about Lira can still be found by searching X.com, including Tucker Carlson’s interview of his father (http://tinyurl.com/a5ey72hm). Like Carlson, Lira asserted that Ukraine was not winning the war.)

Censorship of scientists and physicians who disagree with the official narrative on pandemic control measures or treatment protocols has so far been limited to attacks on their livelihood. Yet as with “climate deniers,” “COVID deniers” or “vaccine deniers” have faced public demands to exclude them from participation in life, or even to imprison or to “gas” them (http://tinyurl.com/59xmx28a).

Incalculable losses include ruptured family ties and friendships; grief, anxiety, and depression because of separation from dying family members or cancelation of important events such as graduations; cognitive losses owing to school closures, masking, and other measures; trauma from overzealous law enforcement; and loss of freedom.

THE $16 TRILLION VIRUS

JAMA estimated the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic at $16 trillion in the Oct 20, 2020, issue. That is 90% of the U.S. GDP, more than twice the cost of all wars the U.S. has fought since 2001, and four times the lost output in the Great Recession. Since the onset of COVID-19 in March, 60 million claims for unemployment had been filed, greater than 1 million per week. The prior record was 695,000 in the week of Oct 2, 1982.

A survey of 10,000 persons in May 2020 showed that about half reported losses of income and wealth, an average of about $5,000 and $33,000, respectively (http://tinyurl.com/bdfny6dd). Federal spending meant to mitigate lockdown effects led to the “hockey stick” pattern of federal debt (http://tinyurl.com/mw3a7n2k). This is on top of what Prof. Peter St Onge calls the “greatest credit bubble in history,” which “despite bank failures and commercial real estate collapse has not yet begun to pop” (http://tinyurl.com/trehpjdu).

Based on modeling and numerous assumptions, some calculated a cost of $90 million per life saved by measures such as “social distancing” and lockdowns (http://tinyurl.com/34vaswht). (It is now being admitted that the 6-ft distancing was based on nothing.)  

In the COVID response, “we have reached the bottom of human baseness,” write Tom Jefferson and Carl Henegan (“The Rule of Terror and Empty Vessels,” http://tinyurl.com/msycusrc). The government “managers” and the media lured the populace into a state of panic, in order achieve control. Vital records have systematically been erased to cover corporate backs and avoid the nuisance of Freedom of Information requests. “The unedifying…show among politicians and their cliques continues, laid bare by the WhatsApp messages surviving the nightly cull. In archaeology, they would be known as ‘residual deposits surviving later disturbance,’ meaning what’s left of documentable and verifiable evidence after thieves, robbers and demolition squads have taken their toll.” Because of their stance, they write, “we have been subject to personal attacks, University investigations, spying, ostracism and loss of jobs.”

The public-health control measures were supposed to be a stopgap until we had the miraculous vaccine, but control was relinquished reluctantly, if at all. Many vaccinated persons had so little confidence in vaccine protection that they continued to mask. Indeed, protection was partial and quickly waned, and was never shown to interrupt transmission. Adverse effects, if acknowledged at all, were said to be “rare” (tinyurl.com/yeymnfxc).

At least 9 million Americans probably lost their jobs (tinyurl.com/4p8akxp5)—likely including many of our most skilled, experienced, and irreplaceable workers—for refusing the shot. How many young, apparently healthy working people died unexpectedly from adverse reactions? Cancers seemingly are increased in frequency and aggressiveness (http://tinyurl.com/59zn9hxx). Disability claims are up 33% after the vaccine rollout (http://tinyurl.com/yc8s56va). Delayed adverse effects may take years to manifest. The final tally might show the worst public health disaster in history.

42^nd ANNUAL MEETING

Our annual meeting w ill be held in El Paso, TX, on July 5-7^th. A group outing to the world’s largest inland water desalination plant will be held on Friday, July 5. Watch www.ddponline.org for agenda and on-line registration.

Vol. XXXIX, No. 5

A color photograph of “the  awesome fireball” from a test of a hydrogen bomb (what Edward Teller called “the Super”) appeared on the cover of the Apr 19, 1954, issue of Life magazine (20 cents). It resembles photos of the sun.

The first page of the article quotes President Dwight D. Eisenhower, concerning fears raised by the threatening aspects of the world, including the H-bomb. “The greater these apprehensions, the greater is the need that we look at them clearly, face to face, without fear, like honest, straightforward Americans….”

The editorial is titled “The Christian Hope” with subtitle “It will not save civilization except by saving the soul of the individual.” It stated that there was little evidence of desperation. The suicide rate showed no meaningful trend. “The general fear of annihilation by H bomb is not desperate; it takes the form of barking for action, as you would expect of any healthy animals whose instinct of self-preservation is unimpaired.”

It noted that “the doctrine of automatic progress, which so warped the 19^th Century’s picture of itself, has all but vanished.” It quoted St. Paul’s admonition that “For when they shall say Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh.”

Continue reading “American Response to Nuclear Testing”

DDP Newsletter, Vol. XXXIX, No. 6

The radiation terror campaign continues in the December 2023 issue of Scientific American on “The New Nuclear Age” (http://tinyurl.com/5exwpywd). As has become typical with this once excellent magazine, beautiful illustrations and some fascinating articles are mixed in with politicized commentaries, and certain assumptions are not to be questioned: safe-and-effective vaccines, nonexistence of an intelligent designer, and catastrophic human-caused climate change. Doubts or skepticism (“denialism”) are “conspiracy theories” and “antiscience ideology.” And nuclear weapons are an existential threat, a nuclear attack is nonsurvivable, and tiny radiation doses are deadly.

“The U.S. is beginning an ambitious, controversial reinvention of its nuclear arsenal. The project comes with incalculable costs and unfathomable risks.”

A major part of the $1.5 trillion program to build up the U.S. nuclear arsenal is to refurbish the land-based part of the “strategic triad.” Upgraded missiles are to be planted in hundreds of silos across five states, “to serve as a ‘great sponge’ to soak up enemy missiles,” states the article on “Sacrifice Zones.” During the Cold War, “the air force used the vulnerability of the land-based missiles to argue for their necessity.” The enemy would use up resources that could otherwise be used to attack military targets, infrastructure, or cities. It is claimed that such an attack would “annihilate all life in the surrounding regions,” cause several million fatalities across the U.S. from acute radiation exposure if people had advance warning and adequate shelter for four days, and twice as many if they did not (they don’t).

Continue reading “Nuclear Scaremongering”

DDP Newsletter Vol. XXXIX, No. 2

With the sudden collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), recently rated very highly, people are understandably nervous. This was said to be the second largest bank failure in history. Will your bank be next?

SVB’s special features included administrators who were more concerned about being “woke” than about the financial stability of their bank. Most depositors (93%), including many venture capitalists, had accounts greatly in excess of the FDIC-insured amount of $250,000. Many are just very very important persons, such as Prince Harry or major donors to the Democratic Party—and major businesses linked to the Chinese Communist Party. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, after an initial denial, said that they would all be bailed out—at the expense of consumers who will have to pay increased fees that banks must assess to rebuild the Deposit Insurance Fund (tinyurl.com/y2uvak8z).

Yellen told Congress that depositors at other banks would be similarly protected only if “failure to protect uninsured depositors would create systemic risk and significant economic and financial consequences” (https://tinyurl.com/pv7cmh3a).

If fears sparked by recent bank runs continue, there could be a sharp drop in the velocity of money as people hoard cash, with sizable deflationary/depressionary effects, writes Richard Maybury. But he states that you need not fear a run on your bank like the one depicted in the 1946 movie It’s a Wonderful Life. He writes: “When the Twin Towers came down in 2001, a run on the banks began. Federal Reserve staff quickly contacted armored car companies to make sure any bank needing greenbacks could be speedily resupplied. The run was nipped in the bud, and you probably never heard about it.”

If he were in charge, he would have such a rescue plan ready. Depositors would get their money back. But what would it be worth (Early Warning Report April-May 2023)?

Like many, Maybury recommends owning some precious metals as a back-up. It might be too late—at this moment, platinum coins and small-denomination silver coins are unavailable. A few coins that you can carry might be lifesaving. Remember, however, that living in a rural area with a large stash of gold in a nonportable safe will not light your home, keep you warm, protect you from thugs or wild animals, or cure a bacterial infection. My grandfather’s 4 G’s were grub, gold, guns, and ground. Perhaps more important are 3 G’s: grub, guns, and gear—tools and useful items of all types.

Remember that bank depositors are unsecured creditors. Increasingly, banks are denying delaying access to deposits, or refusing credit cards if they “suspect” fraud.

Banks’ loss of depositors is an alarming trend. From a high of $18.15 trillion in April 2022 total deposits at all US commercial banks dropped to $17.3 trillion as of March 22, 2023, a loss of $850 billion of capital in the past 12 months. As the Fed hikes rates, deposits are withdrawn to seek a higher return (tinyurl.com/2zwxjyt5). Though having a large effect, the inflation-adjusted Fed funds rate is still -1.9%, meaning that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is “so far behind the inflation curve that they can barely see its tail lights,” writes David Stockman (https://tinyurl.com/bdhy8exj). Since March 2008, the Fed funds rate has been negative in real terms 96% of the time.

The contagion is not restricted to the U.S. The Swiss bailed out Credit Suisse, which Stockman describes as a “walking dumpster fire, which had fallen for nearly every fraudster on the planet.” Since 2016, it had booked $3.3 billion of cumulative losses even as it had paid out $4.9 billion in dividends and stock buybacks (ibid.).

SVB’s egregiously mismatched asset book still amounted to only 0.6% of the U.S. banking system, and Credit Suisse’s $718 billion of assets amounted to just 0.4% of the global banking system. The bailouts amount to a confession that “15 years of negative real interest rates have so thoroughly infected the banking system with gambling excesses that they dare not allow even the sub-1 percenters to face their just deserts.”

The Fed is an SDI (Systematically Dangerous Institution), Stockman states.

---

FINANCIAL MELTDOWN AND UKRAINE

The war in Ukraine is occurring as the states that are “at war with Russia” stand “at the edge of an economic precipice.” Living standards are collapsing, prices are spiraling, jobs are priced out by higher energy costs, shelves have empty spaces, and pockets of system dysfunctionality as in transport systems are confounding the smooth running of society, writes Alistair Crooke. The Europeans fear kinetic war in Europe, whereas the American faction is more fearful of the prospect of financial meltdown, should the war widen. The “Rockefeller-Davos prescription” of blowing a new financial bubble of “renewable tech” to keep the dollar-hegemony project afloat is running into difficulty as the world is moving toward decentralization and multipolarity (tinyurl.com/2rwxmn8b).

In response to U.S. sanctions disconnecting their banks from international financial services, Iran and Russia have integrated their interbank communication and transfer systems to help enhance trade and financial operations. The Russian Financial Message Transfer System “is immune to sanctions as it is based on the infrastructures of both countries,” according to Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Mohsen Karimi (https://tinyurl.com/53jdu7nn).

Countries that are dumping the dollar also include China, Brazil, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and India: the majority of the world economy.

---

41stANNUAL MEETING

DDP’s 41^st annual meeting will be held in Tucson at the Doubletree Reid Park, July 7-9. The theme is: “Global Crises: Reawakening vs. ‘Reset’.” Developing crises include energy poverty, food shortages, the corruption of science and education, possible new pandemics, escalating war that could go nuclear, and economic decline.

Sadly, Jay Lehr, “the world’s most optimistic man,” died recently, so will not be with us. As Edward Teller said, “It is our duty to be optimistic, as otherwise we do nothing to change things.” Thus, the meeting will feature ways to counter alarmism and self-destructive policies; effective pandemic response; the promise of nuclear energy; therapeutic advances (photobiomodulation); and decontamination technology (ozone).

Civil defense will be highlighted by Stephen Jones, including breakthroughs in radiation monitoring. The mobile nuclear/biological/chemical shelter display that debuted at DDP in the 1980s will be back.

Banquet speaker Robert Zubrin, founder and president of Pioneer Energy, has authored more than 200 technical and non-technical publications in various areas of astronautical, aerospace, fossil fuel, and nuclear engineering, and 14 U.S. patents. He will be available to sign his latest book, The Case for Nukes.

DDP Newsletter Vol. XXXIX, No. 1 

A successor to the 1984 nuclear apocalypse, The Day After, was released in 2020—interesting timing? Night into Day (https://tinyurl.com/4ck9xuv8) is a fairly realistic depiction of the beliefs and probable reactions of most Americans.

Many do not believe the radio warnings of an imminent attack but intend to proceed with their planned activities, in this case filing for divorce the next day. The soon-to-be-ex visits his estranged wife to sign papers but doesn’t leave because of jammed freeways. The couple are stuck in a tiny apartment. When the flash comes, he drops to the floor—she is standing at the window and is knocked down. The power goes out; there is no TV or cell phone service. The first thought is to leave. They find an old paper map and gather all their canned food and water, but have nowhere to go. Anyway, cars don’t work.

Katie ventures outside to search for some potassium iodide to save them from radiation, thinking that someone in the building might have a thyroid problem, or there might be some at the corner pharmacy. None is found. The only plan is to await rescue. Based on past experience with hurricanes, they expect FEMA to arrive in 48 hours. Soon, they begin to suffer radiation sickness from the initial release.

None of the people commenting on the film appear to have read even the first 35 pages of Nuclear War Survival Skills. There is nothing about fire hazards, initial radiation vs. fallout, radiation monitoring, radiation protection factors, expedient shelter, or the actual purpose of potassium iodide.

Stephen Jones writes: “The whole movie is worth watching as it gives a sense of what most people will be facing, both their ignorance and denial. Psychologically it was well done. It’s a movie about what not to do.” He points out that more than 100 civil defense films are available on www.youtube.com. Just search “civil defense.” While some are outdated and no longer relevant, others are excellent.

He says: “Many people would embrace the truth if they knew where to find it.”

“Nukes are in the news, every day 24/7! Fighting in Ukraine is said to be on par with World War II battles. In each month more soldiers are killed than in ten years of the Vietnam war. Talk of using nuclear weapons by both sides grows each day.”

“Biblically we are in the time of apocalypse, meaning ‘that which is hidden is now being revealed.’”

Compared to decades ago, Jones writes, “our current inventory of civil defense meters is massive. Very likely we have the largest inventory of rad monitors for the public and emergency response in the country, and our rad monitors are the only ones designed specifically for nuclear fallout that are reliable and simple to use.”

The Kearny Fallout Meter, which was originally considered to be the meter of last resort, is the meter of only resort for the current crisis. “The best we can do with our current inventory of some 160,000 meters is to encourage the public at large to make their own.” Unfortunately, the digital age has dumbed down most of the public. The KFM was designed to be built by children born before 1968. Due to the digital age, those born later did not develop gadgeteering skills. Still, there are many millions of seniors alive today with the skills to make the simple KFM from the instructions in Nuclear War Survival Skills, with materials found in the average kitchen. The unwaxed dental floss originally specified is no longer available, but the plastic bag strips and clean human hair work. Alcohol on a Q-tip works to clean meter stop threads if contaminated with hand oil.

The breakthrough SIRAD (self-indicating radiation alert dosemeter) technology (https://tinyurl.com/4ttwfdrt), the basis for the Oh Shucks! Meter, has not been widely adopted. Jones attributes this to the Semmelweis reflex and to interagency rivalry in federal and state governments. NWSS was created by the U.S. Department of Energy (the agency that handles nuclear weapons). SIRAD was created by the Department of Defense. When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was formed, it could not even be persuaded to add the Oak Ridge National Laboratory website (www.ornl.gov) to DHS’s site, www.ready.gov.

Searching ready.gov for any type of radiation monitoring device turned up nothing. Entering “Geiger” turned up three links to “gender.”

An additional problem is the collusion or corruption in the incestuous relationships between bankers, developers, and politicians that are making our cities tinderboxes, firestorms waiting to be lit by nukes. Instead of blast-resistant construction at a cost of only ten percent, modern buildings are built of “straw” like Hollywood sets, or sheathed in glass that would be shattered by a blast wave.

There has been massive opposition to civil defense work and to related new technology. Most importantly, enemy propaganda has been successful in convincing Americans that nuclear war is not survivable. This began with books/movies like On The Beach and Level 7, but we still hear it constantly, even from “patriotic” sources. So far, the new technology has not been a commercial success. If panic sales hit, we must charge enough to take the technology worldwide—and to distribute it to first responders.

Doctors for Disaster Preparedness was founded 40 years ago by the fathers of the atomic age to keep civil defense alive. Some of those founders were also responsible for the creation of the U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear War Survival Skills and Kearny Fallout Meter project.

So far, our accomplishments have included groundwork towards science education nationally. We are responsible for the fact that science teachers nationwide wide now use common smoke detectors for their radioactive sources instead of expensive sources “approved” by educational sales companies. We saved more than 20,000 Geiger counters headed for landfills and got them into classrooms instead. Shane Connor (www.ki4u.com) has salvaged an additional 100,000 from the scrap heap.

Our people may have a second chance to get prepared before an all-out nuclear attack occurs. Though the situation of our country looks dismal indeed, recall that the Bible is explicit about times in which “evil shall slay the wicked” (Psalms 34:21).

PREPAREDNESS TIPS

• Your life could be saved by wearing white cotton undergarments. One soldier’s life was thus saved in Hiroshima when his outer clothing instantly burned off.
• If there is warning, fill every available container with water.
• Do not try to outrun fallout. Shelter in place is generally better.
• Have small LED flashlights and headlamps.
• Have a portable radio and plenty of batteries.

See http://www.ki4u.com/guide.htm for what to do if an attack is imminent.