Union targeting select Midwest plants at Ford, GM, Stellantis
Broad attack comes amid resurgence of labor activism in US
The United Auto Workers will strike three plants at each of the legacy Detroit carmakers if a new contract isn’t reached before midnight, setting up a potentially costly and protracted showdown over wages and job security.
The union will initially strike a Ford Motor Co. Michigan plant that makes the Bronco SUV, a General Motors Co. factory in Missouri that makes its Chevy Colorado mid-sized pickup and a Stellantis NV plant in Toledo, Ohio, that makes the Jeep Wrangler, UAW President Shawn Fain said in an online address Thursday night.
While many general practitioners shuttered their doors in early 2020 amid spreading lockdowns, leaving those with COVID-19 to seek treatments at emergency rooms, Dr. David Brownstein, a family physician, and medical director of the Center for Holistic Medicine in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and his colleagues, remained steadfast in their commitment and oath as doctors—to keep their doors open and do what they did best—treat sick patients.
“I said to my staff, patients are going to be scared and if they get sick, they're going to need a place to go—we're going to be there for them and help them out,” said Dr. Brownstein in a recent interview on Discovering True Health, a YouTube channel and podcast dedicated to health and wellness.
“We've been treating viral infections and other flu-like infections using a holistic approach for close to 30 years, and we're pretty damn good at what we do,” he noted.
Dr. David Brownstein (Photo courtesy of Dr. Brownstein)
Early Days of the Pandemic
It was the beginning of March when COVID-19 hit Michigan. Intent on protecting his staff and their healthy patients, Dr. Brownstein and his team bundled up and set up an outdoor COVID-19 treatment assembly line—despite snow on the ground and temperatures frequently below 30 degrees. IVs hanging from standing poles flapped in the frigid wind as Dr. Brownstein and his staff treated patients in their cars.
As the weeks went by Dr. Brownstein recounts, “There were some days when cars were 10 deep in the parking lot and we were working until nine or ten at night using flashlights on our phones to see the veins for IVs.”
Dr. Brownstein providing intravenous care to his patient in the parking lot of his clinic. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Brownstein)
What stood out to Dr. Brownstein was the respiratory issues he was witnessing. “These people couldn't breathe. I've heard the lungs of many patients with respiratory viruses but this was a different sound, the air was there, but the air was not being utilized,” he said.
Because Dr. Brownstein had been employing a nutritional and oxidative protocol for treating a variety of viral illnesses during flu seasons for over three decades he felt that although SARS-CoV-2 was a new virus, it was still part of the coronavirus family.
Dr. Brownstein felt that since up to one-third of all flu-like infections come from the coronavirus family, his protocol had a good chance of being successful. “For nearly 30 years, we have had good success treating viral illnesses, why should this be any different?” Dr. Brownstein asked.
Every year between 12,000 to 52,000 Americans die during flu season from influenza. “None of my partners or myself could recall any of our patients dying from the flu over the last 30 years, and none of us can recall the last time we had a patient hospitalized from the flu,” said Dr. Brownstein.
“Think about it—let's say 25,000 Americans die every year due to flu-like illnesses. Multiply that by 30 years and that is a lot of patients dying. I think we haven’t seen our patients dying because of the support we were providing to their immune systems,” he said.
One of the treatments Dr. Brownstein used for those with respiratory issues was a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide and iodine—administered via nebulizer—every hour until they felt better.
“We’ve used this treatment for nearly three decades for lung problems. And the consistent theme I heard from people was after the second dose of that nebulizer solution they could breathe, and they felt like they were moving forward towards recovery,” said Dr. Brownstein.
Dr. Brownstein would call his COVID-19 patients daily until they were no longer at risk from the virus, and as treatments continued, reports were coming in that patients with even severe respiratory issues were feeling better.
Dr. Brownstein outlined his treatments in a peer-reviewed study titled, “A Novel Approach to Treating COVID-19 Using Nutritional and Oxidative Therapies,” published in Science, Public Health Policy & the Law in July 2020.
His study reported his treatment of 107 patients at the time diagnosed with COVID-19. Three were hospitalized (3 percent) with two of the three hospitalized before instituting his treatment protocol and only one requiring hospitalization after beginning his treatment protocol. There were no deaths.
Based on the case fatality rate at that time, two to 10 deaths as well as at least eight hospitalizations would have been expected
Governor Grisham banned open and concealed carry under the guise of a “public health emergency.” The ban drew a surprisingly bipartisan backlash from both Republicans and Democrats.
The consensus from both sides of the aisle is that the government cannot suspend constitutional rights even for a so-called public health emergency.
Well, last month, Senate Democrats from the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions voted to strike down an amendment from the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act that would have prevented the President of the United States and the Department of Health and Human Services from declaring a public health emergency to push gun control.
The Braun Amendment, named for Senator Mike Braun, who introduced it, would protect gun owners from tyranny in the name of public health.
Critics of the Braun Amendment said that the government would never use a public health emergency to push gun control. Now, a month later, the critics of the Amendment have been proven wrong by the Governor of New Mexico.
Watch: Ben from the Minuteman Moment details how the Biden Administration’s Health and Human Services Appointee Xavier Becerra is working to impose gun control under the guise of a public health emergency.
We’ve seen disasters weaponized for gun control before. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the federal government confiscated firearms from American citizens, treating those same law-abiding gun owners like criminals because they had “emergency powers.”
Because of this, GOA worked to prohibit the confiscation of firearms in the National Disasters Emergency Act. Now, it has some of the best protections against misuse.
The situation in New Mexico shows that allowing “public health emergencies” to push gun control is ripe for abuse. Gun owners should have the same level of protection from government overreach during a health emergency as they do during a natural disaster.
Now, we need your help. Congress must pass the Protecting the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Act—which is a standalone version of the amendment Senator Braun offered at the committee. The bill is soon to be reintroduced in the House and Senate, and every member of Congress ought to cosponsor.
Please call your Senators and Representative and let them know that the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act must not be passed without protections to prevent tyrants like Governor Grisham from being able to push gun control using the federal government in the future.
Ukraine's Present Volodymyr Zelensky is again expected topay homage to the hands that feed him, asBloombergis reporting that another trip to the White House is imminent.
"President Joe Biden will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House next week, according to a person familiar with the plans," the fresh Thursday report indicates.
The Ukrainian leader's first official visit to Washington had occurred in December 2022, and also had marked his first known trip outside his war-ravaged country since Russia invaded.
But things have changed since he gave that "Christmas season" address in Congress, where then House speaker Pelosi treated him like a rockstar as she and VP Kamala Harris excitedly waived the Ukrainian flag around, hugging Zelensky in the process. Not only is the much-anticipated counteroffensive not going well, or even failing, but his personal 'star status' is waning too.
Bloomberg notes the new context, namely that Republicans are less likely to sign off on massive new aid packages in the federal budget:
For the US president, it also coincides with an upcoming showdown over federal funding. Biden has asked Congress to provide $24 billion for the Ukraine war and related costs, but conservatives in the House are threatening to shut down the US government if they consider any funding bill a “blank check” for Ukraine.
Current funding for government operations runs through Sept. 20. Next week’s meeting was first reported by Reuters.
And a fresh photo op with Zelensky is perhaps what Biden thinks he needs for a boost in domestic approval ratings, given not only is the mainstream media turning on him...
...but he's also newly focused his campaign going into 2024 on being the "tough" commander-in-chief who "protects" democracy around the world:
"He entered Ukraine under the cover of night. And in the morning, Joe Biden walked shoulder to shoulder with our allies in the war-torn streets," the narrator of a new one-minute Biden campaign ad begins.
"Standing up for democracy in a place where a tyrant is waging war to take it away."
On the Ukrainian side, Zelensky could be coming also to bolster support and enthusiasm among GOP hawks and conservative supporters in order to get their fellow Republicans in line. Kiev has also expressed increased impatience and frustration of late when it comes to F-16 delivery timeline, and related to getting more advanced US weapons like long-range missiles.
There's currently talk within the administration of Ukraine getting approval for the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), which has a max range of 190 miles. Certainly Zelensky is going to press for this and more. Will Biden make this the focus of a "big" announcement when he greets Zelensky in the White House next week?
The causes of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are unclear, and the interventions for AD are very limited. However, researchers led by Prof. He Zhuohao from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with researchers worldwide, have recently proposed a new strategy for the intervention in certain neurodegenerative diseases, including AD, based on a better understanding of disease mechanisms. Their study was published in Science Translational Medicine.
AD is the most common cause of dementia. Protein deposits are the hallmark of AD and many other related neurodegenerative diseases. Deposit burden correlates well with disease progression in patients. The vast majority of these disease cases are sporadic and have no apparent obvious genetic cause. Elucidating the causes that lead to protein pathogenesis and neurodegeneration is critical for early diagnosis and intervention of AD and other related devastating diseases.
Reports indicate that people with repeated traumatic brain injury (rTBI), such as football players and boxers, have a higher incidence of developing AD-related protein pathogenesis, including tau and TDP-43 pathologies. Therefore, rTBI is considered as a risk factor for such neurodegenerative diseases. However, until now the experimental evidence for a direct link has been lacking, and the underlying mechanisms have been unclear.
The current study helps explain why people experiencing frequent head concussions have a higher risk of developing AD-related dementia. It shows that rTBI not only promotes de novo tau pathogenesis, but also facilitates existing pathological tau transmission and spread in various mouse models.
Specifically, the researchers demonstrated that axonal microtubule disruption is one of the molecular mechanisms underlying rTBI-induced protein pathogenesis and neurodegeneration. As a result, the researchers suggested that properly maintaining axonal microtubule stability, such as through a brain-penetrating microtubule-stabilizing compound, could reduce rTBI-induced microtubule damage, protein accumulation, tissue degeneration and behavioral deficits.
More information: Xinyi Zhao et al, A microtubule stabilizer ameliorates protein pathogenesis and neurodegeneration in mouse models of repetitive traumatic brain injury, Science Translational Medicine (2023). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abo6889
UCI researchers have found that a simple sugar, N-acetylglucosamine, reduces multiple inflammation and neurodegeneration markers in people who suffer from multiple sclerosis (MS). In addition, they also found this dietary supplement improved neurological function in 30% of patients.
According to the World Health Organization, MS affects more than 1.8 million people, and while there are treatments to prevent relapses and improve quality of life, there is no cure.
The study, N-acetylglucosamine inhibits inflammation and neurodegeneration markers in multiple sclerosis: a mechanistic trial, was published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation. Michael Demetriou, MD, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology at UCI, is the lead investigator of the study. Michael Y. Sy, MD, Ph.D., Director of the Neuroimmunology Fellowship at UCI School of Medicine, is the first author, and Barbara Newton, MD, Project Scientist at UCI, is the second author.
A major issue with current therapies in MS is the inability to treat chronic-active neuroinflammation in the brain and the associated failure to repair the loss of myelin that covers and protects axons, the electrical wires of the brain. Over time, this leads to permanent nerve cell damage and slow progressive loss of neurological function in patients.
"Our previous studies in mice and humans implicated N-acetylglucosamine in suppressing brain inflammation, promoting the regrowth of the myelin sheath and slowing brain degeneration," said Michael Demetriou, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Neurology and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at the UCI School of Medicine.
The new paper reports on the first clinical trial of N-acetylglucosamine in MS patients to directly investigate these potential activities. The trial was developed and performed exclusively in the Demetriou Lab at the UCI School of Medicine and UCI's Institute of Clinical and Translational Science.
Researchers found that N-acetylglucosamine was safe and reduced multiple inflammation and neurodegeneration markers in MS patients despite the patients already being on the FDA approved immunomodulatory therapy Glatiramer Acetate, known to impact these pathways outside the brain.
"We also observed a sustained reduction in neurological disability in 30% of the patients, an activity which has not been observed with current FDA-approved therapies," said Michael Y. Sy, MD, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurology, UCI School of Medicine. "They at best slow progression, not improve function."
The data suggest that N-acetylglucosamine reduced untreated chronic-active neuroinflammation and/or promoted myelin repair. However, the researchers stress that the trial was unblinded and therefore future blinded studies and additional parameters are essential to validate N-acetylglucosamine's potential to improve residual chronic-active brain inflammation, myelin repair, neurodegeneration and neurological function in MS.
"Future studies demonstrating that N-acetylglucosamine can restore neurological function in MS patients would be a gamechanger and provide something that no other current therapy can do," said Dr. Demetriou, MD, Ph.D.
More information: Michael Sy et al, N-acetylglucosamine inhibits inflammation and neurodegeneration markers in multiple sclerosis: a mechanistic trial, Journal of Neuroinflammation (2023). DOI: 10.1186/s12974-023-02893-9
If President Biden is serious about finding a renewable energy source, he should look down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA’s door revolves fast enough to power the nation for decades, with the rate of spin exceeded only by the attempts to provide cover over possible ethics missteps.
Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) has developed an extensive file of probable ethics violations by senior EPA officials. Many of these violations appear to occur because the EPA has ignored or sidestepped rules governing “the revolving door” between government and the private sector, though they certainly don’t stop there. As our Ethics Waiver Report demonstrated, the Biden Administration has perfected the practice of recruiting appointees from the universe of aligned environmental activist groups, state agencies, and universities. The inevitable conflicts of interest are buried under a blizzard of ethics waivers and then, after putting in enough time to learn the federal ropes, some go back to more lucrative and senior positions outside.
For example, Casey Katims joined EPA from Washington State where he worked for Governor Jay Inslee, who helped create the U.S. Climate Alliance (USCA). As EPA’s deputy associate administrator for intergovernmental relations, Katims kept extremely close relations with USCA and eventually left EPA to join it as executive director.
Melissa Hoffer departed the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office to become acting General Counsel at EPA, where she was given a waiver to participate in 37 pending matters involving Massachusetts. When she left the EPA, she ignored her obligation to timely advise the ethics office of negotiations to rejoin Massachusetts government as its first-ever “Climate Czar.” That failure is likely a violation of the Stock Act (a criminal statute) – inexcusable for a senior lawyer with Hoffer’s experience and responsibilities. It was made worse by the career agency ethics official, Justina Fugh, designated to enforce the rules. Sadly, this is far from the only incident in which Ms. Fugh appears to have played a central role in moving the goalposts to thwart violations from landing on senior officials.
Many EPA appointments came from powerful, well-funded environmental special interest groups. Alejandra Nunez joined EPA from the Sierra Club. Tomás Carbonell was at the Environmental Defense Fund. Dimple Chaudhary worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council. All three were attorneys for organizations that constantly have business before the EPA, and as of January 2021 were party to dozens of pending lawsuits with the agency. Thus, perhaps unsurprisingly, attorney Marianne Engelman-Lado, who’d been at Vermont Law School, Yale, and Earthjustice, was granted a waiver to engage with a former client because the “overlap of recusals” threatened her office’s ability to function.
Then there’s Joseph Goffman, the principal deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR), who is currently performing the delegated duties of the assistant administrator and the subject of three PPT ethics complaints. Goffman, formerly with Harvard University, looked to the same career ethics official who sought to bail out Ms. Hoffer to “unring the [ethics] bell” of an admitted ethics violation. PPT discovered that at least five Harvard-affiliated individuals who reached out to Goffman were later hired at EPA, including in career positions, and that emails between him and his former employer in just his first few months at the agency totaled over 100 pages! Add in his apparent failure to timely divest from dozens of investments that created financial conflicts of interest and Goffman is a front-runner for favorite client at the EPA’s ethics office.
Our concerns extend beyond communicating with and giving preferential treatment to former employers. EPA leadership, with the creative assistance of career ethics officials like Ms. Fugh, have also brushed aside emoluments clause concerns (senior EPA science official Christopher Frey’s ties to a Chinese university) and traditional outside solicitation restrictions (Georgetown Law Board of Advisors and senior EPA lawyer Susannah Weaver) when it meant allowing their appointees to maintain their private sector relationships. While congressional oversight has occasionally made a difference – Mr. Goffman remains unconfirmed and Mr. Frey was eventually forced to resign his Chinese university post – Administrator Regan and his subordinates seem undeterred from signing off on these decisions.
Career officials also appear to have gotten in on the action. For instance, a pending consent decree concerning one of the largest Superfund cleanups in history (nearly $2 billion!) rests largely on the work of a former EPA employee, David Batson, who since leaving the agency in 2015 has gone on to land contracts with both the Department of Justice and the EPA to work on the same Superfund cleanup he actively worked on while at EPA. This is a big no-no, according to federal ethics laws.
The near farcical reasoning for so many ethics waivers, “oops” violations, outside employment approvals, and discarded post-employment restrictions demonstrates a culture unmoored from ethical norms. While the undivided support from an ethics office along the way has provided plausible deniability, the reality is that it has only served to deepen the rot that has nearly destroyed the public’s trust in its government.
Michael Chamberlain is the Director of Protect the Public’s Trust.
