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Minnesota: The Trump/Chilean/Antofagasta/Twin Metals/Northeast Minnesota/Copper Mining Connections (ENV, AA)

November 14, 2018

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The Trump/Chilean/Antofagasta/Twin Metals/Northeast Minnesota/Copper Mining Connections

 

By Gary G. Kohls, MD – 11-13-2018

Pictured above are Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Andrónico Luksic Craig and the $5.5 billion Washington, DC town house that Kushner and Trump leased from Luksic, the CEO of Antofagasta Holdings and the richest man in Chile. Luksic purchased it the week after Donald Trump won the election and immediately leased it to Kushner.

Iván Arriagada Herrera, the CEO of Antofagasta Minerals S.A. (since 2015) and Antofagasta plc (since 2016) said that Donald Trump’s election has created a “more favourable climate for the development of the (Northern Minnesota Twin Metals) project.”

Arriagada recently said that Antofagasta’s Twin Metals unit was preparing an environmental impact assessment for an underground copper-nickel mine in Minnesota. (Twin Metals was a Canadian Penny Stock mining company until Antofagasta acquired 100% of the company’s shares a few years ago.)

But the project hinges on the resolution of a legal dispute with the US government, which under former President Barack Obama, refused to renew the company’s mineral leases in 2016 to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness area from possible pollution.

But the dispute would still need to be settled in court, he said, adding: “We’ll keep defending our right to develop the mine.” Trump’s election makes the deal much more likely to happen, given the strong pro-extractive business climate of the Trump administration.

When Guillermo Luksic died in 2013, his older brother Andrónico Luksic stepped into the role of CEO of the Luksic Group (that their Croatian/Bolivian father had founded) and several of its related companies, notably Quinenco S.A., the holding company for the family’s non-mining investments. Andronico decided to concentrate on consolidation of the group and on building strong positions for the new acquisitions.

Andronico is also CEO of Compañía Cervecerías Unidas S.A. and its subsidiary companies CCU Chile, CCU Argentina and ECUSA, vice chairman of Compania Sud Americana de Vapores S.A. (CAV), of Banco de Chile and a member of the board of directors of Madeco S.A. (renamed Invexans), and Sociedad de Fomento Fabril (SOFOFA). He is member of the International Advisory Council of Barrick Gold, the Brookings Institution, the Panama Canal Authority, the Chairman’s International Council of the Council of the Americas, International Advisory Council of the President, board member of the Chilean Pacific Foundation and is a member of the Latin American Council of Nature Conservancy.  

Andrónico Luksic is also a member of the Boards of Antofagasta plc and Antofagasta Minerals.

The Luksic family is one of the richest families in the world. The founder’s second wife is worth $20 billion, At one time she was the 33rd richest person in the world.

Barrick Gold Corporation is the largest gold mining company in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario.

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The Precautionary Principle, the Politics of Selfishness and the Influence of Right-Wing Think Tanks

October 27, 2018

ppjg Dr Gary Kohls, ENERGY/OIL, environmental pollution, Minnesota, The PPJ Gazette, WATER , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Duty to Warn

By Gary G. Kohls, MD – 10-23-2018

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FASCISM DOESN’T COME CHEAP

“Working mostly with data from Facebook and other social media sites, they are able to determine what people want to hear and how they want to hear it. Cambridge Analytica based much of its model on research done by Cambridge University’s Psychometric Centre which earlier published an online personality quiz that went viral. In the UK there are ethical guidelines about how such data can be used and according to Professor Johathan Rush, the Centre’s director, as quoted in the Guardian article:

“The danger of not having regulation around the sort of data you can get from Facebook and elsewhere is clear. With this, a computer can actually do psychology, it can predict and potentially control human behaviour.  It’s what the scientologists try to do but much more powerful. It’s how you brainwash someone. It’s incredibly dangerous.”

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The Precautionary Principle: “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage to environmental or human health, exploitation by any corporate or personal entity that could damage the environment or the health of humans must be delayed until there is absolute scientific certainty that damage can be totally averted.” 

“The point, ladies and gentleman, is that greed is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.” – Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) from the movie Wall Street

“The economic system in the USA is not capitalism. Rather, it is corporate fascism, individualism and money worship, not capitalism.” – Anonymous

”Environment Canada reported that the metallic contaminants that had been dumped in the tailings pond included these hazardous metals: Lead, Arsenic, Nickel, Zinc, Cadmium, Vanadium, Antimony, Manganese and Mercury.” (Note that Mount Polley was a copper mine whose massive tailings lagoon earthen dam [130 feet tall] dissolved in 2014, suddenly releasing 24,000,000 million cubic meters of toxic sludge into the tiny Hazeltine Creek, the nearby Lake Polley and then into the pristine Quesnel Lake, which flowed into the 600 mile long Fraser River, a migratory Sockeye salmon-bearing river that empties into the Georgia Strait and the Pacific Ocean at the city of Vancouver, B.C. The dam wall breech resulted in the worst environmental disaster in the history of British Colombia)

“ALL tailings “ponds” are problems. If they don’t breach and spill massive amounts of toxic sludge into the environment like at Mount Polley, they leach that contamination slowly, poisoning the waters and lands around them.” — From: http://canadians.org/blog/update-mount-polley-mine-disaster-imperial-metals-and-government-focus-covering-instead;

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Last night in Duluth, Minnesota (10-22-2018) a small, Minnesota-based, right-wing, Libertarian think tank, the Center of the American Experiment (CAE), came to town to do a one-sided, propagandistic, fact-free promotion supporting the foreign penny stock mining company, PolyMet and its plans to dig an experimental, inherently dangerous, highly toxic, open pit copper/nickel sulfide mine in water-rich northern Minnesota near the headwaters of the St Louis River.

What was likely not discussed at the pro-corporate presentation (to which nobody opposing copper-nickel mining was invited) was the fact that PolyMet’s massive open pit mine has to have an even more massive, highly toxic waste/tailings lagoon nearby that would eventually store, behind 250 foot high (!) earthen dam (!) walls, billions of gallons (!) of eternally-poisonous, highly acidic (sulfuric acid with a pH of stomach acid) mine sludge for generations or centuries (absent, of course a locally heavy rain deluge that could easily cause a sudden, unexpected breech in the earthen dam walls, resulting in what could potentially be the worst environmental catastrophe in the history of Minnesota).

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Return of Polio? Six Studies Linking Acute Myelitis (aka paralysis) to Vaccines

October 13, 2018

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Submitted by: Dr Gary Kohls

 

Health Freedom Idaho

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“WHAT VACCINES ARE KNOWN TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH TRANSVERSE MYELITIS?

  • DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, acellular Pertussis) vaccine
  • Hepatitis B vaccine
  • HPV vaccine (Gardasil, Cervaris)
  • Influenza (Flu) vaccine
  • MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine
  • Meningococcal vaccine
  • TDap (Tetanus, Diphtheria, acellular Pertussis) vaccine”
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  October 11, 2018

Eight confirmed or probable cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) this year in Texas. On Tuesday, officials in Minnesota said they have seen six cases. They typically see zero to one cases of AFM per year, on average. ABC News reports nine cases were diagnosed recently in Illinois, five cases in Washington state, and a single case was confirmed in Wisconsin. Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) is now in multiple states!!! All would have been diagnosed as polio in the 50’s. All of them.

CNN says, The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a spike in a mysterious polio-like illness, confirmed this year in nearly half of the states in the country. Most of the cases are in children. Like polio, AFM affects the body’s nervous system — specifically, the spinal cord — and can cause paralysis. What we do not know: the exact cause of the illness, though scientists think it is most likely the result of a viral infection. Other potential culprits include environmental toxins, genetic disorders and Guillain-Barré syndrome, according to the CDC. The CDC said there have been 362 cases of AFM recorded in the U.S. from 2014 to 2018.

WHAT IS ACUTE FLACCID MYELITIS?

From the Transverse Myelitis Association:

Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) is a variant or sub-type of transverse myelitis. AFM is inflammation of the spinal cord and generally presents with unique clinical and MRI features that are not typical of classical transverse myelitis. AFM abnormalities noted on MRI are predominantly found in the gray matter of the spinal cord. In 2013, an outbreak of what is now believed to be this sub-type of transverse myelitis occurred in California and more cases were reported in the summer and fall of 2014 across the United States. The enterovirus (EV-D68) has been suspect in many of these cases however, it has not been definitively proven that it is this particular virus that has caused the paralysis,1 although several cases of AFM occurred at around the same time as an outbreak of the EV-D68 virus.

So… AFM is one form of TM – Transverse Myelitis. More

US Vaccine Exemptions Remain Secure in 2018

September 28, 2018

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  • In Minnesota, two bills that tried to eliminate conscientious vaccine exemptions (SF 3977 and HF 4406) failed to secure even a single hearing.
  • The same thing happened in Oklahoma, where a bill (SB 1123) that would have eliminated all exemptions to vaccination except for limited medical reasons, along with a resolution (SJR 57), which would have placed the elimination of all non-medical exemptions on the next general election ballot, were both rejected.   
  • Minnesota HF 96 and SF 143 would have required parents to get a physician to sign off on the conscientious belief exemption and would have replaced the language “conscientious belief” with “personal belief,” but both of these bills died.
  • Government health officials do not like vaccine exemption language that includes the words “religious” or “conscientious” because freedom of religion and freedom of conscience are defined as human rights. 

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NVIC’s 2018 Annual Report on U.S. State Vaccine Legislation: Breakdown, Trends and Predictions

By NVIC Advocacy Team and Dr. Joseph Mercola at Mercola.com

Protection of the human right to exercise informed consent to vaccination continues to be a topic that is of great concern for many people in America. In a 2018 Annual Report on U.S. State Vaccine Legislation, the non-profit charity National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) reports that during this year’s legislative session, no state eliminated or restricted existing medical, religious and conscientious or philosophical exemptions for daycare or school attendance.

This is the third year in a row that state legislatures have rejected the efforts of vaccine industry lobbyists to persuade more state governments to do what California did in 2015 and eliminate the legal right of citizens to exercise freedom of thought, conscience and informed consent when making vaccine decisions for themselves and their children.

Working to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education since 1982, NVIC is the largest and oldest U.S. charity disseminating information about diseases, vaccines and informed consent to vaccination. NVIC provides well-referenced, accurate information to the public about vaccination and health but does not make vaccine use recommendations. In 2010, NVIC launched the NVIC Advocacy Portal (NVICAP), a free online vaccine choice advocacy network, for the purpose of securing and defending informed consent protections in state vaccine policies and laws. More

MINNESOTA From WESTERN VALUES PROJECT: A Report on Possible Instances of Corruption at Ryan Zinke’s Interior Department

September 1, 2018

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MINNESOTA
From WESTERN VALUES PROJECT

A Report on Possible Instances of Corruption at Ryan Zinke’s Interior Department

pages 3 and 4

Ivanka Trump/ Jared Kushner and Twin Metals Principal Deputy Solicitor of the Interior Department Daniel Jorjani issued a legal decision allowing Twin Metals Minnesota to renew mining leases for their copper and nickel mining operation near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Twin Metals is a subsidiary of Antofagasta PLC, a Chilean mining company that coincidentally is owned by the family of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s landlord.

In December 2016, the Obama administration decided not to renew leases “for a copper and nickel mining operation on the border of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness,” “while federal officials launched a formal review of the operation’s environmental Page 4 of 23 impact.” Obama administration “Interior officials expressed concern that any potential spill from nearby mining could cause ‘serious and irreplaceable harm’” to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which is “the only large lake-land wilderness in the National Wilderness Preservation System.” [Juliet Eilperin, “Trump administration renews mining leases near Minnesota wilderness, reversing Obama,” Washington Post, 12/23/17]

The company applying to renew the leases was Twin Metals Minnesota, a “a subsidiary of the Chilean mining giant Antofagasta PLC.” Antofagasta belongs “to the family of billionaire Andrónico Luksic, who rents a home to Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, in Washington.” [Juliet Eilperin, “Trump administration renews mining leases near Minnesota wilderness, reversing Obama,” Washington Post, 12/23/17]

Daniel Jorjani, on December 22, 2017, issued a legal decision allowing Twin Metals Minnesota to renew the leases. “Jorjani’s decision came after a concerted lobbying effort by Twin Metals and its parent company.” In 2017, Jorjani met with Antofagasta and the lobbying firm that represents Twin Metals. [Jimmy Tobias, “Meet the Former Koch Adviser Slashing Conservation Safeguards at the Department of the Interior,” Pacific Standard, 01/10/18]

http://westernvaluesproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Report-on-Possible-Instances-of-Corruption-in-Zinkes-Interior-Department-1-Year-Anniversary.pdf

TSA: The Stanford Experiment Goes Live

August 26, 2018

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Marti Oakley

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I find it more than strange that the government knows exactly who I am if I owe taxes, if I get a ticket, when I apply for a drivers license, or in a myriad of other settings….but suddenly has amnesia when I attempt to board a plane. Now, by October 1, 2018, thanks to the failure of the Minnesota legislature, who, in pursuit of Federal largesse, failed to act to protect Minnesota residents from federal encroachment and over-reach, I must have a biometric marked ID or passport to board a plane. And TSA is now installed in many train stations and bus stations.

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You need to biometrically brand me? I need a passport to travel in my own country? You’ve been tracking me since the day I was born and suddenly you can’t be sure who I am? This after admitting that allegedly 20 million or more people have entered the US illegally, many working under assumed names, fake ID’s and millions who have simply disappeared into the country?

A recent trip that included destinations in five states, resulted in me and thousands of other individuals, being subjected to invasive assaults from TSA officers under the guise of “keeping us all safe”. The question that comes to mind immediately after these assaults is: Who is going to keep us safe from the TSA?

By far, the worst experience was at the Lindbergh terminal in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This airport is a study in chaos, mismanagement and particularly venomous TSA agents. Of course, if you are one of those individuals convinced that even after passing through the scanners that for some reason you must now be groped, patted, grabbed, mashed, and verbally assaulted by these otherwise unemployable individuals who are now sporting a uniform and a badge, I assume this physical assault is just fine.

After all, almost 20 years ago they blew up buildings with planes in New York. I was reminded of this at the Lindbergh terminal after having my hands swabbed with a strip used to detect dangerous chemicals. Having had this done numerous times on numerous trips, when the agent swabbed my hands and told me to move on….I did. I did not realize that a new step in this process had been added and that included yet another agent located to my right about 12 feet away, in a small cubicle with a scanner for analysis of the strip. (In other airports this scanner is right there by the agent who swabs you) As I moved to the left to retrieve my purse from the bin, I heard a woman screaming: “Don’t you dare! You get yourself over here! Don’t even think about it! You get yourself over here right now!”

I, of course, looked around to see not only who was screaming, but whom was she screaming at? You guessed it! It was me! As I walked towards her I asked her why she was screaming. She went on a diatribe about how I had to stand there until the analysis was finished, and I better not move until it was complete. Being me, I of course expressed my disgust with this type of behavior, knowing it to be an intimidation tactic and also totally unnecessary. Then comes MR.TSA!! He ran over to where I was and immediately went into a soliloquy about how buildings were blown up in this country and it could happen again and their job was to make sure it didn’t. He ended with saying he thought about this every day. Doubtful Mr. TSA, very doubtful. (PS: I didn’t blow up any buildings in New York or anywhere else for that matter, but you already knew that) More

The Elder Abuse Crisis in Minnesota

August 11, 2018

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Finally! News you can use for seniors!

The Silver Standard

 

 

 

 

By David Holmberg

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I’m from Minnesota, and you might call me a loyalist. All my life, I’ve taken pride in the state’s reputation as a citadel of progressivism. It’s produced an impressive roster of socially conscious politicians—Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Walter Mondale, Orville Freeman—and ranks at or near the top among the fifty states in social services, education, and cultural advantages.

But these days in Minnesota, there lingers the stigmatizing taint of elder abuse—the shocking (especially to a Minnesotan) revelation by the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis that “each year, hundreds of Minnesotans are beaten, sexually assaulted, or robbed in senior care homes. Their cases are seldom investigated, leaving families in the dark.”

A 2010 study showed a six-fold increase in reported incidents in the state’s senior care facilities, which may have been a catalyst for a 2017 investigation by the Star-Tribune that uncovered another disturbing statistic: in 2015, “the Minnesota Department of Health received 25, 226 allegations of neglect, physical abuse, unexplained serious injuries, and thefts in state-licensed homes for the elderly.”

Said a board member of the Minnesota Elder Justice Center, Iris Freeman: “We should all be appalled at this picture. Minnesota used to be at the top of the heap when it came to elder-abuse enforcement, and now we’re becoming known for being non-responsive.”

But the state did mobilize its legislative, law enforcement, and senior care resources in response to the Star-Tribune’s investigation. It was a response you’d expect in a state with a strong collective instinct for change when change is demanded. It improved compliance standards, developed better programs for training and monitoring employees, and opened communications between law enforcement and other agencies. More

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