Brownstone Institute
Harvard’s Latest Act of Shame
![](https://www.todayville.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/tvrd-brownstone-harvards-latest-act-of-shame-post-secondary-university-image-2024-03-30.jpg)
From the Brownstone Institute
BY
This month, we received the very disturbing news that Professor Martin Kulldorff was fired from Harvard. His own account of what happened, “Harvard Tramples the Truth: When it came to debating Covid lockdowns, Veritas wasn’t the university’s guiding principle,” is an account of wrongdoing and a testimony to the rapid decline in scientific decency and the increase in censorship we have seen during Covid-19.
Martin was our first guest on Broken Medical Science, which we launched half a year ago. One of our reasons for creating the channel is the decline in free speech, unbiased reporting, and scientific honesty that the Covid-19 pandemic aggravated. Martin was the perfect guest for us because he stood his ground by being truthful to what the science told him.
Few people dared stand up to the madness that most of the world endured in 2020-2022. Officials and politicians made it clear that if anybody questioned their draconian policies about masks, lockdowns, and mandatory vaccinations – even of small children and people who had already been infected with the Covid-19 virus – the consequences would be dire and could include firing.
Scientists like Martin Kulldorff and John Ioannidis from Stanford, who will appear in a later podcast, have been proven right. Government policies were wrong on so many levels and led to tremendous collateral damage, which both professors pointed out to us.
Soon, the Supreme Court in the US will begin evaluating the censorship on social media that hit honest scientists. Martin is one of the plaintiffs and he explains in his article that,
At the behest of the U.S. government, Twitter censored my tweet for contravening CDC policy. Having also been censored by LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube, I could not freely communicate as a scientist. Who decided that American free-speech rights did not apply to honest scientific comments at odds with those of the CDC director?
Martin notes that, despite being a Harvard professor, he was unable to publish his thoughts in American media, which is why he took to social media, which then blocked him. This is extremely worrying for democracy in the US. Martin wanted to warn against lockdowns and he was right. He is Swedish, and as we discuss in our podcast with him, Sweden did better than virtually all other Western countries by not locking down and by not mandating facemasks. Numerous studies have shown Sweden’s excess death rate to be among the lowest in Europe during the pandemic and in several analyses, Sweden was at the bottom.
On Sunday, 24 March, we decided to test the censorship on YouTube. It took YouTube less than an hour to remove a video with professor Gøtzsche and professor Christine Stabell Benn, one of the most outstanding vaccine researchers in the world, in which they discuss non-specific beneficial and harmful effects of vaccines. The video is announced this way on our website:
In this episode, Peter C Gøtzsche discusses with Professor Christine Stabell Benn the research that has shown that live, attenuated vaccines reduce total mortality by much more than their specific effects would predict; that non-live vaccines increase total mortality; that the order in which the vaccines are given is important for mortality; what the harms are of the Covid-19 vaccines; and why they are overused.
YouTube informed us that, “Our team has reviewed your content, and, unfortunately, we think it violates our medical misinformation policy.”
We appealed and received YouTube’s standard message for appeals: “We reviewed your content carefully, and have confirmed that it violates our medical misinformation policy.” It took YouTube less than an hour to evaluate the video carefully. This is impressive, as it lasts 54 minutes. Who did this work and what are the credentials for this person? Are they any better than for the two professors who discussed vaccines? Hardly. It has been documented that fact-checkers rarely have any medical or scientific background and that they have very often labelled correct information as being false.
The video has been online on our website for 6 months, and we do not have censorship, of course. Why are social media still preventing rational scientific debate about the benefits and harms of vaccines? Free debate lies at the heart of science. This is what makes us all wiser and advances science.
The problem with censorship is that the public trust in science declines. People cannot know what has been hidden from them, which creates distrust that could reduce uptake of important vaccines.
Another reason why scientists must be allowed to debate freely online and in public is that policies and politicians operate in the public sphere. The current state where people are advised to ignore these debates if they come out at all and instead go to websites of governments, the World Health Organization, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to find “truthful” information is not what we want in an enlightened society.
Furthermore, official information has been proven wrong again and again, e.g. the information from the CDC about influenza vaccination is seriously misleading and contradicted by the most reliable science we have.
Censorship can cause other scientists to keep quiet for fear of harassment, which will aggravate the misinformation because those left will say what falls in line with current government policy.
Harvard, once an esteemed and trustworthy source in science, has lost its way. The firing of Martin for speaking freely during the pandemic is a disaster for Harvard’s reputation. There is a petition for having Martin reinstated at Harvard, but we hope he is not interested in going back, which does not deserve to have a professor like Martin among its faculty.
Martin should be honoured for his courage. He stayed loyal to the science, which all scientists should do, no matter the consequences for themselves, instead of being loyal to a world that ran amok in what looked like a competition in stupidity. History won’t be kind to what happened.
Brownstone Institute
The Curious Case of Mark Zuckerberg
![](https://www.todayville.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/tvrd-brownstone-facebook-image-2024-09-07.jpg)
From the Brownstone Institute
By
On August 27, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg issued a statement confirming what the Twitter Files, Murthy vs. Missouri, and many others had long claimed – that the Biden administration aggressively pushed to censor First Amendment-protected speech on social media, in particular relating to Covid-19 and the Hunter Biden laptop.
In the case of Covid, Zuckerberg writes that the Biden White House “repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain Covid-19 content, including “humor and satire.”
Zuckerberg also notes that the “FBI warned us about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma,” a Ukrainian energy company that Hunter Biden sat on the board of. The laptop was not “disinformation”, it was real and Twitter and Facebook wrongly suppressed the New York Post story that exposed it.
But Zuckerberg’s statement missed a key detail – at least three Facebook staff members participated in the Aspen Institute’s Hunter Biden table-top exercise that game-planned how to suppress the story two months in advance of the New York Post story.
The Aspen Institute “table-top” brought together a host of media and Big Tech including Facebook, the New York Times, Twitter, the Washington Post, and “anti-disinformation” NGO First Draft, to create their very own disinformation operation, literally planning day-by-day how they would respond to the leak.
![](https://i2.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-21-800x503.png?resize=740%2C465&ssl=1)
![](https://i1.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-22-800x675.png?resize=740%2C624&ssl=1)
Zuckerberg, however, writes, “That fall, when we saw a New York Post story reporting on corruption allegations involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s family, we sent that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply.”
You can almost see the fall maple leaves feathering their way innocently to the forest floor.
“It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we should not have demoted the story.”
But there was no surprise, as Facebook had participated in the Aspen exercise two months before the story broke.
Even for Aspen’s Garret Graff, who coordinated the exercise, things went even better than planned:
![](https://i1.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-23-796x800.png?resize=740%2C744&ssl=1)
Regarding Covid-19, Zuckerberg says the government “repeatedly pressured” Facebook to “censor.” Regarding the Hunter Biden laptop, he only mentions they were “warned” “about a potential Russian disinformation operation.” There is no mention of pressure to censor. Did the federal government push Facebook to attend the Aspen Institute exercise? It seems they attended of their own volition.
Attending the Aspen suppression planning for Facebook was Nathaniel Gleicher, “head security policy at Meta,” who continues in his position to this day. The Twitter Files show Gleicher also met regularly with the Department of Defense (DoD) and FBI, and participated in a Harvard-led pre-election tabletop with the DoD whilst the Hunter Biden story was being suppressed on Facebook.
![](https://i2.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image-24-800x528.png?resize=740%2C488&ssl=1)
Surely someone as senior as Gleicher, tasked as he was with such sensitive and high-level contacts, would have told his boss about his attendance? After all, the laptop story could have a real impact on the outcome of a presidential election.
Twitter’s Yoel Roth also attended the Aspen exercise and played a critical role in suppressing the Hunter Biden story on that platform. Did Gleicher play the same role at Facebook? Gleicher’s participation has been known publicly since Michael Shellenberger first broke that story, 18 months and more than 100 million impressions ago.
If Zuckerberg believes suppressing the story was wrong, why has he kept Gleicher in such a senior role? If he knew of Gleicher’s participation in the Aspen exercise, why didn’t he blow the whistle at the time? Instead, he places all the blame at the foot of the federal government. No doubt they exerted pressure, but that does not appear to be the whole story.
Is Zuckerberg attempting to absolve himself of responsibility?
Republished from the author’s Substack
Agriculture
Glimpse into the Future of Food
![](https://www.todayville.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/tvrd-tvrd-inflation-groceries-image-2022-04-20.jpg)
From the Brownstone Institute
By
Is your food making you sick?
Suddenly, the fact that food is making us sick, really sick, has gained a lot of attention.
When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced he would suspend his presidential campaign and campaign for President Trump on August 23, both he and Trump spoke about the need to improve the food supply to regain America’s health.
The same week, Tucker Carlson interviewed the sister-brother team of Casey and Calley Means, coauthors of the #1 New York Times bestseller Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health. Their thesis, borne out by thousands of medical research studies, is that food can make us very healthy or very sick. The grocery store choices many Americans have made have led us to unprecedented levels of diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic and neurologic diseases that prematurely weaken and age us, our organs, and our arteries.
There is a whole lot wrong with our available food.
- Chemical fertilizers have led to abusing the soil, and consequently, soils became depleted of micronutrients. Unsurprisingly, foods grown in them are now lacking those nutrients.
- Pesticides and herbicides harm humans, as well as bugs and weeds.
- Some experts say we need to take supplements now because we can’t get what we need from our foods anymore.
- Subsidies for wheat, corn, and soybean exceed $5 billion annually in cash plus many other forms of support, exceeding $100 billion since 1995, resulting in vast overproduction and centralization.
- We are practically living on overprocessed junk made of sugar, salt, wheat, and seed oils.
And that is just the start. The problem could have been predicted. Food companies grew bigger and bigger, until they achieved virtual monopolies. In order to compete, they had to use the cheapest ingredients. When the few companies left standing banded together, we got industry capture of the agencies that regulated their businesses, turning regulation on its head.
Consolidation in the Meat Industry
Then the regulators issued rules that advantaged the big guys, and disadvantaged the small guys. But it was the small guys who were producing the highest quality food, in most cases. Most of them had to sell out and find something else to do. It simply became uneconomic to be a farmer.
The farmers and ranchers that were left often became the equivalent of serfs on their own land.
Did you know:
- “Ninety-seven percent of the chicken Americans eat is produced by a farmer under contract with a big chicken company. These chicken farmers are the last independent link in an otherwise completely vertically integrated, company-owned supply chain.”
- “Corporate consolidation is at the root of many of the structural ills of our food system. When corporations have the ability to dictate terms to farmers, farmers lose. Corporations place the burden of financial liability on farmers, dictate details of far.”
- ” Corporations also consolidate ownership of the other steps of the supply chain that farmers depend on — inputs, processing, distribution, and marketing — leaving farmers few options but to deal with an entity against which they have effectively no voice or bargaining power.”
When profitability alone, whether assisted by policy or not, determines which companies succeed and which fail, cutting corners is a necessity for American businesses — unless you have a niche food business, or are able to sell directly to consumers. This simple fact inevitably led to a race to the bottom for quality.
Look at the world’s ten largest food companies. Their sales are enormous, but should we really be consuming their products?
![](https://i1.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-3.39.23-PM-800x465.png?resize=740%2C430&ssl=1)
Perhaps the regulators could have avoided the debasement of the food supply. But they didn’t.
And now it has become a truism that Americans have the worst diet in the world.
Could food shortages be looming?
If it seems like the US, blessed with abundant natural resources, could never suffer a food shortage, think again. Did you know that while the US is the world’s largest food exporter, in 2023 the US imported more food than we exported?
![](https://i0.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-3.40.23-PM-800x481.png?resize=740%2C444&ssl=1)
Cows are under attack, allegedly because their belching methane contributes to climate change. Holland has said it must get rid of 30-50% of its cows. Ireland and Canada are also preparing to reduce the number of their cows, using the same justification.
In the US, the number of cows being raised has gradually lessened, so that now we have the same number of cows that were being raised in 1951 — but the population has increased by 125% since then. We have more than double the people, but the same number of cows. What!? Much of our beef comes from Brazil.
Pigs and chickens are now mostly raised indoors. Their industries are already consolidated to the max. But cows and other ungulates graze for most of their life, and so the beef industry has been unable to be consolidated in the same way.
But consolidation is happening instead in the slaughterhouses because you cannot process beef without a USDA inspector in a USDA-approved facility — and the number of these facilities has been dropping, as have the number of cows they can handle. Four companies now process over 80% of US beef. And that is how the ranchers are being squeezed.
Meanwhile, efforts are afoot to reduce available farmland for both planting crops and grazing animals. Bill Gates is now the #1 owner of US farmland, much of which lies fallow. Solar farms are covering land that used to grow crops — a practice recently outlawed in Italy. Plans are afoot to impose new restrictions on how land that is under conservation easements can be used.
Brave New Food
That isn’t all. The World Economic Forum, along with many governments and multinational agencies, wants to redesign our food supply. So-called plant-based meats, lab-grown meats, “synbio” products, insect protein, and other totally new foods are to replace much of the real meat people enjoy — potentially leading to even greater consolidation of food production. This would allow “rewilding” of grazing areas, allowing them to return to their natural state and, it is claimed, this would be kinder to the planet. But would it?
Much of the land used for grazing is unsuitable for growing crops or for other purposes. The manure of the animals grazing on it replenishes soil nutrients and contributes to the soil microbiome and plant growth. “Rewilding” may in fact lead to the loss of what topsoil is there and desertification of many grazing areas.
Of course, transitioning the food supply to mostly foods coming from factories is a crazy idea, because how can you make a major change in what people eat and expect it to be good for them? What micronutrients are you missing? What will the new chemicals, or newly designed proteins, or even computer-designed DNA (that will inevitably be present in these novel foods) do to us over time? What will companies be feeding the insects they farm, when food production is governed by ever cheaper inputs?
It gets worse. Real food production, by gardeners and small farmers or homesteaders, is decentralized. It cannot be controlled. Until the last 150 years, almost everyone fed themselves from food they caught, gathered, or grew.
But if food comes mainly from factories, access can be cut off. Supply chains can break down. You can be priced out of buying it. Or it could make you sick, and it might take years or generations before the source of the problem is identified. How long has it taken us to figure out that overprocessed foods are a slow poison?
There are some very big problems brewing in the food realm. Whether we like it or not, powerful forces are moving us into the Great Reset, threatening our diet in new ways, ways that most of us never dreamed of.
Identifying the Problems and Solutions
But we can get on top of what is happening, learn what we need to, and we can resist. That’s why Door to Freedom and Children’s Health Defense have unpacked all of these problems and identified possible solutions.
During a jam-packed two-day online symposium, you will learn about all facets of the attack on food, and how to resist. This is an entirely free event, with a fantastic lineup of speakers and topics. Grab a pad and pencil, because you will definitely want to take notes!
The Attack on Food and Farmers, and How to Fight Back premieres on September 6 and 7. It will remain on our channels for later viewing and sharing as well. By the end of Day 2, you will know what actions to take, both in your own backyard, and in the halls of your legislatures to create a healthier, tastier, safer, and more secure food supply.
See below for a summary and for the complete program.
![](https://i2.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-3.42.46-PM-579x800.png?resize=579%2C800&ssl=1)
![](https://i1.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-6.20.24-PM-800x683.png?resize=740%2C632&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-6.20.54-PM-800x240.png?resize=740%2C222&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-6.21.22-PM-800x703.png?resize=740%2C650&ssl=1)
![](https://i2.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-6.21.49-PM-800x372.png?resize=740%2C344&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-6.22.19-PM-800x793.png?resize=740%2C734&ssl=1)
![](https://i2.wp.com/brownstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-6.22.48-PM-800x304.png?resize=740%2C281&ssl=1)
-
Brownstone Institute6 hours ago
Why Did Zuckerberg Choose Now to Confess?
-
Agriculture3 hours ago
Glimpse into the Future of Food
-
Alberta4 hours ago
‘Coutts Two’ Verdict: Bail and Mischief
-
illegal immigration5 hours ago
Illegal immigrants crossing from Canada into USA in record numbers
-
Bruce Dowbiggin2 hours ago
From Deal With It: A Cruel, Senseless Fate Ends A Brilliant Career
-
Bruce Dowbiggin2 days ago
Dear Vladdy: Now, A Few Helpful Words From Vladimir Putin
-
Crime1 day ago
Officials Arrest Father Of Suspected Georgia School Shooter
-
National1 day ago
Unemployment Surges as Trudeau’s Policies Wreak Havoc on the Economy