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This program was recorded in one, 60-minute segment.
Introduction: This program is speculative in nature, evaluating the possibility that companies descended from the I.G. Farben German chemical cartel may absorb Monsanto, the firm noted for its development of genetically modified organisms.
Specifically, Bayer and BASF figure in the reported maneuvering for Monsanto.
Against the background of the remarkable Bormann capital network’s effective control of the firms that descended from I.G. Farben, we ruminate about the possibility of genetically engineered binary pathogens being included in the food supply available to much of the world’s population.
Available information highlights possible Underground Reich maneuvering to gain control of firms marketing foodstuffs to middle, lower middle and working class people. This speculation, in turn, is set against the background of information strongly suggesting that AIDS was deliberately developed.
For more than three decades, Mr. Emory has presented programs indicating that AIDS is a man-made disease. Supplementing that body of work, this program sets forth circumstantial evidence indicating that AIDS may have been created on a foundation of research done by the Nazis in concentration camps during the Second World War. Under a program named Project Paperclip, Nazi scientists—many of them war criminals—were recruited to do research for the U.S. national security establishment.
Recent medical research indicates the existence of a genetic trait that affords immunity to both AIDS and the infections that have come to be known as “plague.” (Originally thought to be an outbreak of bubonic plague–a bacteriological disease–recent research has shifted focus to a viral disease more akin to Ebola.)
This gene—the CCR5 delta-32 mutation—is only carried by the white race and [according to some sources] only by people of Northern European extraction. Did the Nazis note [in their experiments] that some people appeared to be immune to infection with plague? Were tissue samples taken and preserved for further study? Was this in any way connected to the eventual evolution of the CCR5-delta 32 gene as a hereditary protection against infection by HIV?
In June of 2009, it emerged that CCR5 delta-32 was used in transplant therapy administered by a German doctor to an HIV-positive leukemia patient. It appears that the patient was cured of HIV! The German doctor deliberately selected a CCR5 delta-32 positive donor for the stem cells used for the transplant.
Obviously, we are wondering about the possibility of the Underground Reich using foodstuffs to vector humanity with genetically engineered pathogens that will realize Hitler’s dream of an “Aryan” world.
Program Highlights Include:
- Becker GMBH’s genesis with the SS and capital stolen from Jews during the Holocaust.
- Becker GMBH’s absorption into ConAgra foods.
- The growing participation by Jorge Paulo Lemann in foodstuffs and beverages consumed by middle, lower-middle and working class people.
- Speculation about Lemann’s participation in the Bormann capital network.
- BASF’s partnering with Monsanto and the possibility that the firm may acquire any subsidiary firms that Bayer may have to spin off to acquire Monsanto.
1a. Bayer may be poised to buy Monsanto.
Bayer’s potential acquisition of Monsanto Co. would create a giant seed and farm chemical company with a strong footprint in the U.S., Europe and Asia, combining two businesses with complementary geographical focus.
But Bayer might have to shed part of its business because of antitrust concerns. [Consider that in light of the Bloomberg story about BASF–D.E.] And the price tag on any deal would be huge: Monsanto’s market value is around $42 billion.
Germany-based Bayer said Thursday in a short statement that its executives had met recently with their Monsanto counterparts “to privately discuss a negotiated acquisition” of the specialist in genetically modified crop seeds.
The news of a potentially costly deal sent Bayer shares tumbling 8.2%. Monsanto shares climbed 3.5%.
Both companies are familiar brands on farms around the globe. Bayer, whose farm business produces seeds as well as compounds to kill weeds, bugs and fungus, said the proposed acquisition would help it “create a leading integrated agriculture business.”
Monsanto, based in St. Louis, said it was reviewing Bayer’s proposal. Neither company gave other details.
The possible deal had been rumored for a week, but these were the first comments from either company.
“A combination of both companies would create $67 billion of annual sales and the world’s largest seed and crop-chemical company,” analyst Ulrich Huwald at Warburg Research wrote in a research note to investors. “However, the question is if Monsanto would be interested in a deal.”
Huwald said that “the businesses are geographically complementary, with Monsanto having a strong presence in North America and Bayer in Europe and Asia.”
A combination of the two would have 28% of the global market for pesticides and a strong presence in the U.S. corn and soybean seed business.
Huwald said that the two companies do overlap in their vegetable and cotton seed business, which could require divestments due to antitrust issues. Bayer might also have to sell parts of its weed killer business.
Antitrust regulators scrutinize mergers and takeovers and have the authority to block them if they hinder free-market competition. If companies get too much control over a market, they can charge higher prices and have fewer incentives to innovate.
News of the talks follows a wave of consolidation in the chemical industry: DuPont and Dow Chemical agreed to combine last year, and ChemChina agreed to buy Syngenta of Switzerland in March after Monsanto’s own bid for its Basel-based rival failed. . . . .
1b. We note that BASF, like Bayer, one of the successor companies to I.G. Farben, has partnered with Monsanto in many of their GMO projects. “ . . . . Moreover, a Bayer-Monsanto tie-up may put BASF’s collaboration with the Americans at risk. BASF and Monsanto work together on research and development in plant biotechnology, giving a strong reason, perhaps, to spoil Bayer’s plans. . . . ”
“BASF Best Leaving Monsanto Seeds for the Birds” by Olaf Storbeck; Reuters; 5/19/2016.
There is one thing the shareholders of the chemical company BASF should fear more than consolidation between its German rival Bayer and the American seed maker Monsanto: their own board wading in with a counterbid.
Bayer’s bid for Monsanto puts BASF’s chief executive, Kurt Bock, on the spot. With agricultural revenue of 5.8 billion euros ($6.5 billion), BASF is one of the world’s big players in an industry where everyone seems to be enthusiastically coupling. Think of Dow Chemical’s merger with DuPont, and Syngenta’s planned takeover by ChemChina. Only BASF would be left on the shelf.
Moreover, a Bayer-Monsanto tie-up may put BASF’s collaboration with the Americans at risk. BASF and Monsanto work together on research and development in plant biotechnology, giving a strong reason, perhaps, to spoil Bayer’s plans. . . .
1c. IF Bayer does purchase Monsanto and is forced to divest itself of some subsidiary firms due to anti-trust considerations, BASF may well pick up those firms that are “spun off,” thus giving the Underground Reich effective control of the GMO food business.
“. . . . In the lead up to Bayer AG’s unsolicited takeover proposal for Monsanto Co on Thursday, Chief Executive Officer Kurt Bock has talked up thrift, balking at the price tags placed on assets. Rather than betting the farm on a big deal and challenging arch agrochemicals rival Bayer for Monsanto, Bock appears content to stay out of the fray, ready to selectively buy up any businesses that may come to the market in the dust of mega deals. . . .”
* German chemicals maker fears overpaying, losing integration
* CEO Kurt Bock may buy agrochemicals assets discarded on dealsWith an aversion to overpaying and conviction that a conglomerate approach is best, Germany’s BASF SE has so far sat out the biggest-ever consolidation wave in the global crop chemicals and seeds industry.
In the lead up to Bayer AG’s unsolicited takeover proposal for Monsanto Co on Thursday, Chief Executive Officer Kurt Bock has talked up thrift, balking at the price tags placed on assets. Rather than betting the farm on a big deal and challenging arch agrochemicals rival Bayer for Monsanto, Bock appears content to stay out of the fray, ready to selectively buy up any businesses that may come to the market in the dust of mega deals. . . . .
2. The I.G. Farben company, a core element of the Third Reich, was central to Reichsleiter Martin Bormann’s plans to secret Germany’s wealth abroad. Note, also, I.G. Farben’s dominance of the European chemical industry, and the opinion of Dr. von Schnitzler that technical dependence on I.G. facilities would continue after the war. (To learn more about I.G. Farben, see—among other programs–FTR#’s 305, 411, 506, 552. Serious students should also read Treason’s Peace and The Devil’s Chemists, available for download.)
. . . I.G. Farben was a formidable ally for Reichsleiter Bormann in his plans for the postwar economic rebirth of Germany. In a telephone conversation with Dr. von Schnitzler, Bormann asked what would the loss of factories in France and the other occupied countries mean to German industry in general and to I.G. in particular. Dr. von Schnitzler said he believed the technical dependence of these countries on I.G. would be so great that despite German defeat I.G., in one way or another, could regain its position of control of the European chemical business. ‘They will need the constant technical help of I.G.’s scientific laboratories as they do not own appropriate installations within themselves.’ . . . (Ibid.; p. 28.)
3. Bormann and Schmitz then discussed I.G.’s prospects for the postwar period. The cozy relationship with powerful elements within the power elites of the Western allies was foreseen by Schmitz as boding well for the company’s future. Schmitz’s predictions were relatively accurate. Neither Schmitz nor any of the I.G. Farben executives were severely punished and the firm’s three successor firms carried on effectively in the postwar period.
. . . .The Reichsleiter asked Schmitz his views of the future. Schmitz replied, ‘The occupation armies will be understanding in the West, but certainly not in the East. I have instructed all Farben administrators and technicians to come to the West, where they can be of use in resuming our operations once the disturbances of 1945 come to a halt.’ Schmitz added that, while general bomb damage to the I.G. plants was about 25 percent of capacity, some were untouched. He mentioned speaking with Field Marshal Model, who was commanding the defenses of the Ruhr. ‘Model had planned to turn our Bayer-Leberkusen pharmaceutical factory into an artillery base, but he agreed to make it an open, undefended factory. Hopefully, we will get it back untouched.’ ‘What about your board of directors and the essential executives? If they are held by the occupation authorities, can I.G. continue?’ Bormann asked. ‘We can continue. We have an operational plan for such a contingency, which everyone understands. However, I don’t believe our board members will be detained too long. Nor will I. But we must go through a procedure of investigation before release, so I have been told by our N.W. 7 people who have excellent contacts in Washington.’ . . .
4. The broadcast details the profound relationship between I.G. Farben and the government of the Third Reich. Of particular utility to the Bormann flight capital program was I.G. Farben’s elaborate infrastructure in foreign countries. Note that, as is seen here, I.G. Farben was inextricably linked with both the government of the Third Reich and with the Nazi party itself. Of particular significance is the N.W.7 office and its control by Martin Bormann.
. . . This, too, reported to Martin Bormann.I.G. Farben’s N.W.7 office in Berlin compiled military and economic data on all countries for the Wehrmacht. This department was staffed with men of recognized ability in all branches of business and science. It was under the direction of Dr. Max Ilgner, nephew of Hermann Schmitz, I.G.’s president, who was known throughout the industrial world as ‘the master of financial camouflage.’ [Emphasis added.] Farben had offices and representatives in 93 countries, and no social gathering of businessmen was too small to be covered by an N.W.7 representative, whose reports on market conditions, factory installations, raw-material supplies, and research were transmitted immediately to Berlin and Dr. Ilgner. In the United States, N.W.7 operated through the firm of Chemnyco, Inc., an American-formed subsidiary. Chemnyco sent tremendous amounts of information ranging from photographs and blue prints to detailed descriptions of entire industrial complexes and secret processes. . . .”
5. Of particular importance for this discussion is the fact that I.G. used German military conquest to gain effective functional control of the chemical industry of the continent. In paragraph 13, we noted Georg von Scnitzler’s prediction that I.G.’s technical dominance would result in the postwar perpetuation of this control. As we will see, this control was maintained. Note the role of the N.W.7 Farben espionage organization in Bormann’s plans for the secreting of Nazi monies abroad.
. . . This huge organization functioned as a manufacturing and research arm of the German government, with the responsibility of discovering all possible means of increasing the military power of Germany. More than RM 4.25 billion was invested in new plants, mines, and power installations, with other millions going into new research facilities. . . . So close had Farben become to the government that I.G. always knew in advance all invasions planned by Hitler. It was to supply the materials necessary to each conquest, and when a land had been overrun and subjugated, the Farben experts would handle the consolidation and organization of the industrial facilities as additional supply sources for the German armed forces. As German troops swept across Europe and Hitler proclaimed his vision of a thousand-year Third Reich, I.G. Farben also dreamed of world empire. This was outlined with clarity in a document called Neuordnung, or ‘New Order,’ that was accompanied by a letter of transmittal to the Ministry of Economics. It declared that a new order for the chemical industry of the world should supplement Hitler’s New Order. Therefore, the document stated, Farben was fitting future industrial plans into such a framework. . . . I.G. Farben was the major chemical firm on the Continent, and as each country fell to Germany its acquisitions of chemical and dyestuff companies were enormous. I.G. also increased its investments in these by RM 7 billion. [Emphasis added.]
. . . .The close relationship of Farben to the Third Reich leadership was underscored in other ways. I.G.’s leading officials assisted in the formulation and execution of economic policies of government; its president was a member of the Reichstag; its leading scientist was a chief assistant to Hermann Goering under the Four-Year Plan; its statisticians and economists prepared intelligence for the Nazi High Command; scores of its technicians were at any given time on loan to the air and war ministries.
. . . The contact men of N.W.7 throughout the world were called the I.G. Verbindungsmanner, the liaison officers between Farben back in Germany and the branches elsewhere. These I.G. Verbindungsmanner, as well as all other key Farben representatives working beyond the borders of the Third Reich, were members of the National Socialist German Workers Party. . . . So now Martin Bormann had at his command not only the Auslands-Organisation but also the I.G. Verbindungsmanner of Farben, which could be counted on to heed his orders when it was time to disperse the commercial assets of the Third Reich. . . .
6. More about how the vast international operations of the I.G. Farben firm and its various subsidiary operations was a principal element of the Bormann organization. I.G. Farben chief Hermann Schmitz discussed I.G.’s involvement with the Bormann program.
. . . . In testimony later given to Nuremberg investigators, Schmitz praised Bormann for the way he had directed the distribution of German assets around the world. His own Farben organization had, of course, contributed to the success of the operation. Every regional representative working for Hermann Schmitz was an exceptional businessman, or he would not have been with I.G. All had contributed sound advice in their areas of competence, the regions of the world where they represented Farben while keeping an eye on the subsidiaries of the parent concern and the 700 hidden corporations they controlled. They had provided assistance and continuing guidance in establishing the 750 new companies created on order of Bormann, who wanted more than hidden assets; Bormann wanted the money and patents and technicians put to work to create even greater assets that would bolster Germany in the postwar years. In their meeting in the chancellery, both men checked over the figures of sums disbursed, and they were accurate to the pfennig. . . .
7. As forecast by Dr. Scheid in the August 10, 1944 meeting, the corporate allies of the major German corporations, including and especially those of I.G. Farben, proved to be of great value to the uccess of the Bormann flight capital program.
. . . . Powerful friends of the Bormann organization in all Western countries, including those sprinkled in control points throughout the administration in Washington and in the financial and brokerage businesses of Wall Street, the City of London, and the Paris establishment, did not wish a coordinated drive to get at these external German assets. They had understandable reasons, if you overlook morality: the financial benefits for cooperation (collaboration had become an old-hat term with the war winding down) were very enticing, depending on one’s importance and ability to be of service to the organization and the 750 corporations they were secretly manipulating, to say nothing of the known multinationals such as I.G. Farben, Thyssen A.G., and Siemens; and, as a second reason, the philosophy of free enterprise and preservation of private property. . . . (Ibid.; p. 156.)
8. Note the postwar resuscitation of I.G. Farben, in the form of the “Big Three” successor firms that grew out Farben. Although officially broken up at the end of World War II, I.G. Farben continued functioning in new form. Recent mergers (such as the 1996 merger of I.G. cartel affiliates Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz to form Novartis) indicate a new coming together of the old components of I.G. Again, pay close attention to the relationship between these companies and the Bormann capital network.
. . . . By 1956, the three major multinationals (Hoechst, BASF, and Bayer) reshaped from the 159 companies within Germany that had comprised I.G. Farben were generating record profits for the original 450 major Farben stockholders, who had organized themselves into the I.G. Farben Stockholders Protective committee in Bonn. The Big Three went on expanding, tripling capitalization in 1956 from investment funds that poured in from the interlocking companies established in safe haven countries by Martin Bormann and Hermann Schmitz. There was a return, more vigorous than ever, of the huge, monolithic industrial multinationals that dominated the German economy before and during World War II. . . .
9. The enormous corporate wealth and power of the three successor firms is at the disposal of the Bormann capital network and Underground Reich.
. . . . Each of these three spinoffs from I.G. Farben today does more business individually than did Farben at its zenith, when its corporate structure covered 93 countries. BASF and Bayer individually boast worldwide sales of nearly $10 billion annually, while Hoechst, now the world’s largest chemical company, generated $16.01 billion in worldwide sales in 1980. Each does more business than E.I. du Pont de Nemours, with sales of $9.4 billion. The United States is, of course, the major market, one into which these German corporations continue to pour investment money for both new capital construction and corporate takeovers. Together, these three multinationals assure permanent prosperity for the original 450 Farben stockholders, their banks, and the shadowy shareholders of the Bormann organization in South America who guard and vote the Hermann Schmitz trust fund through intermediaries at the annual meetings of BASF, Bayer and Hoechst. [Emphasis added.] . . . .
10. A significant part of the I.G. Farben legacy, the Hermann Schmitz Trust is also at the disposal of the Bormann capital network and the Underground Reich.
. . . . If there is any doubt in Europe who, in the long run, won the peace, there is none whatsoever among the former German leaders dwelling in South America. It is a good bet that if Hermann Schmitz were alive today, he would bear witness as to who really won. Schmitz died contented, having witnessed the resurgence of I.G. Farben, albeit in altered corporate forms, a money machine that continues to generate profits for all the old I.G. shareholders and enormous international power for the German cadre directing the workings of the successor firms. . . . He was the master manipulator, the corporate and financial wizard, the magician, who could make money appear and disappear, and reappear again. His whole existence was legerdemain, played out on the gameboard of I.G. Farben and his beloved Germany. . . Their [Schmitz and Bormann] association was close and trusting over the years, and it is the considered opinion of those in their circle that the wealth possessed by Hermann Schmitz was shifted to Switzerland and South America, and placed in trust with Bormann, the legal heir to Hitler. [Hermann] Schmitz’s wealth—largely I.G. Farben bearer bonds converted to the Big Three successor firms, shares in Standard Oil of New Jersey (equal to those held by the Rockefellers), as well as shares in the 750 corporations he helped Bormann establish during the last year of World War II—has increased in all segments of the modern industrial world. The Bormann organization in South America utilizes the voting power of the Schmitz trust along with their own assets to guide the multinationals they control, as they keep steady the economic course of the Fatherland. . . .
11. The program notes the economic and political significance of the Bormann network:
. . . . Atop an organizational pyramid that dominates the industry of West Germany through banks, voting rights enjoyed by majority shareholders in significant cartels, and the professional input of a relatively young leadership group of lawyers, investment specialists, bankers, and industrialists, he is satisfied that he achieved his aim of helping the Fatherland back on its feet. To ensure continuity of purpose and direction, a close watch is maintained on the profit statements and management reports of corporations under its control elsewhere. This leadership group of twenty, which is in fact a board of directors, is chaired by Bormann, but power has shifted to the younger men who will carry on the initiative that grew from that historic meeting in Strasbourg on August 10, 1944. Old Heinrich Mueller, chief of security for the NSDAP in South America, is the most feared of all, having the power of life and death over those deemed not to be acting in the best interests of the organization. Some still envision a Fourth Reich. . .What will not pass is the economic influences of the Bormann organization, whose commercial directives are obeyed almost without question by the highest echelons of West German finance and industry. ‘All orders come from the shareholders in South America,’ I have been told by a spokesman for Martin Bormann. . . . .(Ibid.; pp. 284–5.)
13. Next, we review an excerpt from FTR #305, highlighting–among other things–Becker GMBH. The firm, founded by an SS veteran of the “Final Solution” with money taken from Jewish victims of the concentration camps, was absorbed into ConAgra, a major producer of foodstuffs marketed to middle, lower-middle and working-class people. The Bormann group would undoubtedly have received stock options and/or a seat on the board of directors. Thus, the Underground Reich would have direct influence in a major producer of foodstuffs for working people.
“Nazi Money Trail Heats Up after 50 Years” by Greg Steinmetz; Wall Street Journal; 4/28/97; p. A1.
14a. Next, we present an excerpt from FTR #606 about the “Aryan Gene” that provides immunity to HIV infection.
The program reviews an excerpt from testimony before a House appropriations subcommittee that was drawing up the defense budget for the following year. (The hearings were in 1969.) The testimony discusses the possibility of using genetic engineering to produce a disease that would be “refractory” to the immune system. This is virtually the clinical definition of AIDS. It is worth noting that the project was funded, and just such a disease—AIDS—appeared in just the time frame posited. It is also worth noting that, in the 2002 edition of A Higher Form of Killing, this passage is omitted!!
. . . As long ago as 1962, forty scientists were employed at the U.S. Army biological warfare laboratories on full-time genetics research. ‘Many others,’ it was said, ‘appreciate the implications of genetics for their own work.’ The implications were made more specific that genetic engineering could solve one of the major disadvantages of biological warfare, that it is limited to diseases which occur naturally somewhere in the world. ‘Within the next 5 to 10 years, it would probably be possible to make a new infective micro-organism which could differ in certain important respects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease.’ [Italics are Mr. Emory’s.] The possibility that such a ‘super germ’ may have been successfully produced in a laboratory somewhere in the world in the years since that assessment was made is one which should not be too readily cast aside. . . .
14b. Next, the program reviews discussion of the gene providing people of the white race [and—according to some sources—primarily those of Northern European extraction] with immunity from the AIDS virus. The program highlights that gene’s role in providing some people with immunity from the plagues that ravaged Europe centuries ago. (The gene is CCR5 delta32.)
Note that no other ethnic groups or races have the delta 32 gene that prevents infection by HIV.
“Secrets of the Dead—Case File: Mystery of the Black Death; Background”; Secrets of the Dead.
. . . In September 1665, George Viccars, a tailor in the small, central-England village of Eyam, received a parcel of cloth ridden with plague-infected fleas from London. Four days later, Viccars died. By the end of the month, five more villagers had succumbed to the plague. The panicked town turned to their rector, William Mompesson, who persuaded them to quarantine the entire village to prevent the bacterium from spreading throughout the region. It seemed like suicide. A year later, the first outsiders ventured into Eyam, expecting a ghost town. Yet, miraculously, half the town had survived. How did so many villagers live through the most devastating disease known to man? . . .
Local Eyam lore tells befuddling stories of plague survivors who had close contact with the bacterium but never caught the disease. Elizabeth Hancock buried six children and her husband in a week, but never became ill. The village gravedigger handled hundreds of plague-ravaged corpses, but survived as well. Could these people have somehow been immune to the Black Death?”
Dr. Stephen O’Brien of the National Institutes of Health in Washington D.C. suggests they were. His work with HIV and the mutated form of the gene CCR, called ‘delta 32,’ led him to Eyam. In 1996, research showed that delta32 prevents HIV from entering human cells and infecting the body. O’Brien thought this principle could be applied to the plague bacteria, which affects the body in a similar manner. To determine whether the Eyam plague survivors may have carried delta 32, O’Brien tested the DNA of their modern-day descendents. What he found out was startling . . .”
For a disease-causing microorganism to infect the human body there must be a gateway or portal through which it enters into human cells. The plague bacterium works this way, hijacking the white blood cells sent to eliminate it. Traveling inside the white blood cells to the lymph nodes, the bacteria break out and attack the focal point of the human immune system. Dr. Stephen O’Brien felt that the mutated CCR5 gene, delta 32, may have prevented the plague from being able to enter its host’s white blood cells.
Eyam provided O’Brien an ideal opportunity to test this theory. Specifically, Eyam was an isolated population known to have survived a plague epidemic. Everyone in the town would have been exposed to the bacterium, so it’s likely that any life-saving genetic trait would have been exposed to the bacterium, so it’s likely that any life-saving genetic trait would have been possessed by each of these survivors. ‘Like a Xerox machine,’ says O’Brien, ‘their gene frequencies have been replicated for several generations without a lot of infusion from outside,’ thus providing a viable pool of survivor-descendants who would have inherited such a trait. . . .
. . . DNA samples could only be collected from direct descendents of the plague survivors. DNA is the principle component of chromosomes, which carry the genes that transmit hereditary characteristics. We inherit our DNA from our parents, thus Eyam resident Joan Plant, for instance, may have inherited the delta 32 mutation from one of her ancient relatives. Plant can trace her mother’s lineage back ten generations to the Blackwell siblings, Francis and Margaret, who both lived through the plague to the turn of the century. The next step was to harvest a DNA sample from Joan and the other descendants. DNA is found in the nuclei of cells. The amount is constant in all typical cells, regardless of the size or function of that cell. One of the easiest methods of obtaining a DNA tissue sample is to take a cheek or buccal swab. . . .
After three weeks of testing at University College in London, delta 32 had been found in 14% of the samples. This is a genetically significant percentage, yet what, really, did it mean? Could the villagers have inherited delta 32 from elsewhere, residents who had moved to the community in the 350 years since the plague? Was this really a higher percentage than anywhere else? To find out, O’Brien assembled an international team of scientists to test for the presence of delta 32 around the world. ‘Native Africans did not have delta 32 at all,’ O’Brien says, ‘and when we looked at East Asians and Indians, they were also flat zero.’ In fact the levels of delta 32 found in Eyam were only matched in regions of Europe that had been affected by the plague and in America, which was, for the most part, settled by European plague survivors and their descendants.”
Meanwhile, recent work with another disease strikingly similar to the plague, AIDS, suggests O’Brien was on the right track. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, tricks the immune system in a similar manner as the plague bacterium, targeting and taking over white blood cells. Virologist Dr. Bill Paxton at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York City noticed, ‘the center had no study of people who were exposed to HIV but who had remained negative.’ He began testing the blood of high-risk, HIV-negative individuals like Steve Crohn, exposing their blood to three thousand times the amount of HIV normally needed to infect a cell. Steve’s blood never became infected. ‘We thought maybe we had infected the culture with bacteria or whatever,’ says Paxton. ‘So we went back to Steve. But it was the same result. We went back again and again. Same result.’ Paxton began studying Crohn’s DNA, and concluded there was some sort of blocking mechanism preventing the virus from binding to his cells. Further research showed that that mechanism was delta 32. Scientists studying HIV first learned about the gateway-blocking capacity of the CCR5 mutation in 1996. Several drug companies, then, quickly began exploring the possibility of developing pharmaceuticals that would mimic delta 32 by binding to CCR5 and blocking the attachment of HIV. . . .
14c. In June of 2009, it emerged that CCR5 delta-32 was used in transplant therapy administered by a German doctor to an HIV-positive leukemia patient. It appears that the patient was cured of HIV! The German doctor deliberately selected a CCR5 delta-32 positive donor for the stem cells used for the transplant. Dr. Gupta, quoted in the following article, wonders why more publicity wasn’t afforded this event. Why indeed?
A Foley [Alabama] physician said what appears to be the first case of HIV/AIDS cure in the world is getting little mention in the media.
Dr. Awadhesh K. Gupta, medical director at Foley Walk-In Med Care, said he first heard of the medical breakthrough in April when he attended the Annual Conference of the American College of Physicians in Internal Medicine in Philadelphia.
It’s a conference Gupta tries to attend every year.
“This is the most prestigious organization of physicians in Internal Medicine and is responsible for certifying post graduate training in Internal Medicine. It is also one of the oldest,” he said.
According to Gupta, who has been practicing medicine in the South Baldwin area since 1997, the cure was first reported in early 2008 by a group of physicians from Germany at the annual conference on “Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections” in Boston. The New England Journal of Medicine, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, finally published the report in its Feb. 12, 2009, issue, Gupta said.
So why has the news of the first case of HIV/AIDS cure received so little attention where the public is concerned?
“I can’t be sure as to why so little publicity,” Gupta said recently.
“My guess is that most scientific researchers are somewhat stunned that a clinician — not a research scientist — has been able to come up with the cure. Most of the big research money and big name American institutions are somewhat embarrassed to acknowledge that the very first case of HIV cure is not coming from their institutions.”
The cure, instead, is coming from Charity University Hospital in Berlin, Germany, and the doctor is Gero Huetter, who works in the Department of Hematology, Oncology and Transfusion Medicine at the same hospital.
Asked about the reaction of attendees at the medical conference in Philadelphia as regarded the news of an HIV/AIDS cure, Gupta said, “Unfortunately, because of the hectic schedule, I did not try to engage too many physicians. However, the doctor presenting this information seemed extremely excited about it.”
As Gupta explains the case and cure in question, a 40-year-old American working in Berlin had been HIV-positive for 10 years. The patient’s HIV infection had been under control for four years with “conventional HAART treatment regimen” (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy).
When the patient developed leukemia, however, a bone marrow transplant of stem cells was done using standard protocol, which Gupta said includes radiation therapy and chemotherapy prior to the transplant.
“Remember, once you stop HIV drugs, the HIV viral count rises very rapidly, usually within a few days to a week,” Gupta said.
According to Gupta, Huetter, the German physician treating the American, deliberately chose a stem cell donor who had a gene mutation known as “CCR‑5 Delta- 32,” rather than using the best matched donor.
Gupta said Huetter remembered research first observed in 1996 — research Gupta said is well known in the scientific community. That research found that certain gay men in the San Francisco area remained uninfected with HIV in spite of engaging in risky sexual activities. As it was later discovered, those men had the CCR‑5 Delta-32 gene mutation.
As it turned out, the patient’s stem cell transplant was a success, Gupta said, even though the patient had to have a second stem cell transplant (from the same donor) when his leukemia relapsed.
“This patient has been off all his HIV drugs for two years now,” Gupta said. “He continues to show no detectable signs of HIV in all the known places HIV is detected — no signs of HIV in his blood, bone marrow, lymph nodes, intestines or brain.” Also, the patient’s T‑cell count remains normal.
Thus, according to Gupta, within the limits of scientists’ ability to detect HIV, it appears this patient’s HIV has been “eradicated.”. . .
14d. The devastating implications of the findings discussed above were eloquently presented in an online editorial:
“Aryan Genes Immune to Death from AIDS” by geminiwalker_ink. (This post appears to have disappeared from the internet)
This is the nightmare of AIDS no one wants to believe. As we come closer to celebrating, on December 1, yet another World AIDS Day, let’s take a good hard look at what’s really going on before we pour more of our ever diminishing hard earned money down yet another horrendous sinkhole. It has been found that some Caucasians who have tested positive for the HIV virus were found to take a very long time to actually develop ‘full-blown’ AIDS (as they call it). It has since been discovered (since 1997) that 20% of European Caucasians have the so-called ‘Aryan’ genetic disposition. If both your parents, in other words, are of Aryan descent, it appears you can never die of AIDS even though you might be infected.
The reason for this is in the genetic coding of the killer T‑cells, which are part of the body’s immune system protective shield. These are the cells that are attacked by the HIV retrovirus. The location of the attack has been discovered. It is on the CCR5 gene in the 3rd DNA gene pair. The particular location is the Delta 32 RECEPTOR SITE. If either of your DNA pairs (from either your mother or your father) is DELTA 32 POSITIVE then the HIV virus can attach itself at that point. If you are DELTA 32 NEGATIVE then HIV just floats around in your blood harmlessly for you.
But even though you may be DELTA 32 NEGATIVE at both sites, you can supposedly still spread the virus. What has been discovered is that these 20% of European Caucasians are members of the Aryan gene pool. Also it has been discovered that the farther north you go in Europe, say in Norway, Finland, Sweden, etc., you find the highest percentage of people that are DELTA 32 NEGATIVE at the CCR5 gene allele.
That this would be a simple coincidence is beyond all human reason. To say that HIV suddenly crawled out of the woodwork in Central Africa by someone being bitten by a green tree monkey is one thing. But then to say that the only human gene pool on Earth that is immune to HIV is the Aryan Race is a coincidence that even Howdy Doody wouldn’t buy. . . .
15a. Looking ahead to what figures to be a very, very dark future, we feel compelled to revisit some key aspects of the AIDS epidemic, in light of the alarming proliferation of genetically-modified organisms. Humanity has failed badly in its approach to the disease, ignoring the evidence that it was deliberately created.
In FTR #606, we encapsulated information about AIDS collated over more than a quarter of a century, dovetailing that with indications that the boiler-plate research on the disease may track back to the Third Reich and its minions hired by the U.S. under Project Paperclip. We supplemented this in FTR #682.
In that program, we made a number of key points that should be revisited in the context of genetically-modified organisms and their rapid proliferation:
- The prospect of using genetic engineering to create a disease that would be resistant to and/or attack the human immune system was forecast in House Appropriations hearings for the defense budget for fiscal year 1970: “. . . As long ago as 1962, forty scientists were employed at the U.S. Army biological warfare laboratories on full-time genetics research. ‘Many others,’ it was said, ‘appreciate the implications of genetics for their own work.’ The implications were made more specific that genetic engineering could solve one of the major disadvantages of biological warfare, that it is limited to diseases which occur naturally somewhere in the world. ‘Within the next 5 to 10 years, it would probably be possible to make a new infective micro-organism which could differ in certain important respects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease.’ The possibility that such a ‘super germ’ may have been successfully produced in a laboratory somewhere in the world in the years since that assessment was made is one which should not be too readily cast aside. . .”
- There is a hereditary immunity to HIV infection that is present only in the white race and only in pure-bred northern Europeans (“Aryans”)
- There is another hereditary trait that predisposes people of African extraction to HIV infection.
- At the end of World War II, the U.S. implemented Project Paperclip, under which Nazi scientists (many of them war criminals of the first order) were brought into the country and put to work at the heart of the U.S. defense establishment: “Nearing the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union raced to recruit German scientists for postwar purposes. Under a top-secret program code-named Project PAPERCLIP, the U.S. military pursued Nazi scientific talent ‘like forbidden fruit,’ bringing them to America under employment contracts and offering them full U.S. citizenship. The recruits were supposed to be nominal participants in Nazi activities. But the zealous military recruited more than two thousand scientists, many of whom had dark Nazi party pasts. . . .” (Lab 257 by Michael Carroll; p. 7.)
- One of the Nazi researchers imported into the U.S. was Dr. Erich Traub. According to Michael C. Carroll, author of Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government’s Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory, Traub was a key administrator of the Third Reich’s biological warfare research program and reported directly to SS chief Heinrich Himmler. ” . . . . Everybody seemed willing to forget about Erich Traub’s dirty past—that he played a crucial role in the Nazis’ ‘Cancer Research Program,’ the cover name for their biological warfare program, and that he worked directly under SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler. They seemed willing to overlook that Traub in the 1930’s faithfully attended Camp Sigfried. In fact, the USDA liked him so much, it glossed over his dubious past and offered him the top scientist job at the new Plum Island Laboratory—not once, but twice. Just months after the 1952 public hearings on selecting Plum Island, Doc Shahan dialed Dr. Traub at the naval laboratory to discuss plans for establishing the germ laboratory and a position on Plum Island. . . .” (Lab 257 by Michael Carroll; p. 10.) NB: Traub was never formally inducted into the SS, but reported directly to Heinrich Himmler. He was Plum Island’s top scientist, not its founder.
- The Nazis began researching toxic agents on apes and then moved on to humans—inmates in concentration camps. AIDS results from a monkey virus that eventually jumped to humans as well. Does the progression in the Nazi death camps of testing on apes to testing on humans have any relationship with the progression of a simian virus to infection of humans? Might the creation of AIDS have stemmed from Nazi research? Is it an accident that the hereditary immunity from HIV infection is only present in the white race, and [according to some sources] Northern Europeans in particular? Is it an accident that people of African extraction are particularly susceptible to HIV infection?
- Dr. Franz Liesau Zaccharias was the Abwehr agent who obtained the apes for the Nazi medical experiments. He was badly wanted by Western intelligence after the war. Why?! Western intelligence agencies certainly didn’t need anyone to teach them how to obtain apes from Africa. Experimenting on animals is not a war crime. The suspicion here is that he had discovered something of value during his primate work. Evidence also suggests that he remained part of The Underground Reich.
- Among the diseases that Liesau Zacharias’ animals were used for testing was “the plague”! Did the Nazis note that some people appeared to be immune to infection with plague? Were tissue and/or sera samples taken and preserved for further study? Was this in any way connected to the eventual evolution of the CCR5-delta 32 gene as a hereditary protection against infection by HIV? Is it possible that Liesau Zacharias was actually targeted for recruitment by the U.S. for Project Paperclip? Did Liesau Zacharias experience an outbreak of immunodeficiency among his primates awaiting shipment to Germany? Might such an outbreak have been due to SIV? Did Liesau Zacharias take tissue and sera samples from infected primates? Might such a development have been related to his importance to the Allies?
- Kaiser Permanente has discussed the dangers of GMO’s in a newsletter, linking them to “devastating” threats to human health.
- We should not fail to recognize the danger of using GMO’s in food, water, medicine or other “vectors” to achieve the goals of Nazi genocide.
- In FTR #305, we discussed the absorption of Becker GMBH into ConAgra foods, a major player in the food industry. Becker was begun by an SS officer with funds from Holocaust victims. How many other major food firms are Underground Reich properties? Might they slowly destroy their “racial enemies” by using food as a vector for “pro-Aryan” GMO’s?
- In that context, we are very suspicious of Jorge Paulo Lemann and 3G Capital, a major player in the food and brewing industries. They own Anheuser-Busch (the largest American brewer), Heinz foods, the company that supplies McDonald’s, Burger King and many other firms. Lemann is a Brazilian-born, Swiss-based “self-made man.” His profile and that of his business interests fit the profile of a Bormann firm to a tee. Keep on eye on this.
- Lemann’s “new” Anheuser-Busch is facing class-action litigation for watering its beer! What else are they doing to the food and beverages that they manufacture?
- In time, as well, the health crises that will stem from the indiscriminate use of GMO’s, lax environmental regulation become manifest, the increase in health care costs will place additional (perhaps catastrophic) strain on the U.S. budget. The calls for austerity will surely multiply and become more shrill in this event.
Just days after a leading genetically modified organism (GMO) researcher spoke out against GMOs and how many pro-GMO ‘scientists’ are in bed with Monsanto or carry their own GMO patents, the largest managed healthcare provider in the United States is now publicly speaking out against GMOs. In a recent newsletter, the Kaiser Permanente company discussed the numerous dangers of GMOs in a recent newsletter and how to avoid them.
Explaining how GM ingredients have been linked to tumors and organ damage in rats in the only lifelong rat study available, the newsletter highlighted how the only real long- term research indicates that GMOs are a serious health danger. The newsletter, which you can view here, states:
“Despite what the biotech industry might say, there is little research on the long-term effects of GMOs on human health. Independent research has found several varieties of GMO corn caused organ damage in rats. Other studies have found that GMOs may lead to an inability in animals to reproduce.” . . . .
15b. An overview of Jorge Paulo Lemann’s business undertakings, noting as we go his Germanic last name and the profound Bormann presence in Latin America and Switzerland (Lemann’s place of residence):
“Jorge Paulo Lemann”; Forbes; 5/27/2016.
Jorge Paulo Lemann is Brazil’s richest man thanks to his stake in Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, which he owns through private equity firm 3G Capital together with fellow billionaires and longtime partners Carlos Sicupira and Marcel Herrmann Telles [a nice Iberian name, no?–D.E.]. The trio also has stakes in Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King and Tim Hortons and is listed both the New York and Toronto stock exchanges. In 2013 Lemann’s private equity firm bought H.J. Heinz & Company for $23 billion together with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. It was 3G Capital’s second acquisition of an American name brand. In 2010, 3G Capital bought Burger King in a leveraged buyout.
Fascism and the Dangers of Economic Concentration
The Aids virurs reserachers who were developing a vaccine for AIDS were killed on MH17. Such a discovery financially hurt pharmaceutical companies that make drugs cocktails and antibiotics, etc., used to treat HIV and diseases of its victims such as the pneumonia.
AIDS treatments cost the US a fortune in hospitalizations, medical treatments, and pharmaceutical drugs.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/malaysia-airlines-crash-joep-lange-among-up-to-100-aids-researchers-and-activists-on-board-flight-9613821.html
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash: Was the cure for Aids lost along with Joep Lange and 100 top researchers?
By Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden
Independent UK Friday 18 July 2014
There are fears the cure for Aids could have been lost with 100 of the “best and brightest” scientists and researchers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
Joep Lange, a world-renowned researcher and former president of the International Aids Society, was with the group heading to the global Aids 2014 conference in Melbourne, Australia.
The exact number of scientists he was travelling with has not been confirmed but delegates in Sydney were told that emails indicted around 100 attendees were on the ill-fated plane.
Nine British passengers, including a student, former BBC journalist and two Newcastle United fans, were among the 298 people killed when the Boeing 777–200 was reportedly shot down as it passed over the war-torn country on Thursday.
Trevor Stratton, a Canadian HIV researcher attending the conference told ABC researchers had been getting close to a vaccine against Aids.
“What if the cure for AIDS was on that plane? Really? We don’t know,” he said. “There were some really prominent researchers that have been doing this for a very long time and we’re getting close to vaccines and people are talking about cures and the end of AIDS. “And you can’t help but wonder what kind of expertise was on that plane.” Professor Richard Boyd, director of the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories, told Guardian Australia there were “some serious HIV leaders” on board.
“This will have ramifications globally because whenever you lose a leader in any field, it has an impact. That knowledge is irreplaceable,” he said. “We’ve lost global leaders and also some bright young people who were coming through. It’s a gut-wrenching loss. I was involved in the aftermath of 9/11 in New York and it brings back that level of catastrophe.”
Clive Aspin, a HIV researcher in Australia ahead of the Aids conference said there was a “huge feeling of sadness” among delegates, with people crying in corridors. He added: “These people were the best and the brightest, the ones who had dedicated their whole careers to fighting this terrible virus.”
News of Mr Lange’s death sent ripples through the Aids community, who paid tribute to a “giant” in the field who made invaluable advances in affordable treatment for sufferers in Asia and Africa.
Scientists at the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia said Mr Lange was travelling with his wife, Jacqueline. Director of the institute, Professor David Cooper, said his friend had an “absolute commitment” to HIV treatment and care in Asia and Africa. He added: “The joy in collaborating with Joep was that he would always bring a fresh view, a unique take on things, and he never accepted that something was impossible to achieve. Our joint work in Bangkok, the HIVNAT centre, will stand as his legacy.”
Professors Cooper had worked with Mr Lange on HIV treatment for decades and concentrated on “resource-poor” areas from the mid-1990s, attempting to prevent the disease taking hold in Asia the way it had in Africa. In 1996 they established a research centre in Bangkok called HIV-NAT with a Thai colleague.
According to UNSW, Mr Lange had worked in Aids research and treatment since 1983 and made “ground-breaking” contributions to the development of affordable treatments. He also played a pioneering role in exploring affordable and simple antiretroviral drug regimens for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission.
At the time of his death, Professor Lange was Professor of Medicine at the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam and Senior Scientific Advisor to the International Antiviral Therapy Evaluation Centre, Amsterdam. He was co-director of the HIV Netherlands Australia Research Collaboration (HIV-NAT) and a former president of International AIDS Society.
The group expressed its “sincere sadness” at news of the deaths of colleagues and friends on MH17, confirming they were on route to attend the 20th International AIDS Conference starting in Melbourne on Sunday. “At this incredibly sad and sensitive time the IAS stands with our international family and sends condolences to the loved ones of those who have been lost to this tragedy,” a statement said.
“The IAS has also heard reports that among the passengers was a former IAS President Joep Lange and if that is the case then the HIV/AIDS movement has truly lost a giant.”
In 2001, he founded and chaired the PharmAccess Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based in Amsterdam, designed to improve access to therapy in developing countries and was a founding editor of the academic journal, Antiviral Therapy.
Glenn Thomas, a British media relations co-ordinator for the World Health Organisation, was also part of the delegation, according to WHO officials. The 49-year-old was a former BBC journalist from Blackpool and had recently celebrated his birthday, according to The Times.
Nine Britons, 154 Dutch, 27 Australians, 38 Malaysians, 23 US citizens and 80 children were among those on board Boeing 777–200 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
None of the 298 and crew survived the crash, near the town of Grabovo in eastern Ukraine, which has seen fierce fighting between separatist militias and government troops.
Both pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian government denied shooting the aircraft down after US authorities said intelligence analysis showed it had been hit by a surface-to-air missile.
2009 New England Journal of Medicine Article on CCR5 Delta 32/Delta 32 Gene Therapy for long term control of HIV‑1
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0802905#t=article
Pretty much the same info Dave covered in the program in the Gulf Coast News Today article but from the highly respected medical journal rather than the popular press. Which is a very good sign the info is legitimate and not made up.
Bayer (a former division of IG Farben) is trying to buy Monsanto with CASH that few companies have the money to finance. Bayer wants to become dominant in the farm supplies industry, combining its crop science business with Monsanto’s strength in seeds in a form of vertical integration. This is part of an old Nazi strategy to develop dominant cartels on the world stage with the Underground Reich companies.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN11B2G9
Reuters Tue Sep 6, 2016 | 10:09 AM EDT
Bayer sweetens Monsanto bid as talks enter final stretch
By Ludwig Burger, Arno Schuetze and Greg Roumeliotis | FRANKFURT/NEW YORK
(Reuters) — German pharmaceutical and crop chemicals manufacturer Bayer AG says talks with Monsanto Co have advanced and it is now willing to offer more than $65 billion, a 2 percent increase on its previous offer for the world’s largest seeds company.
“Both sides are gradually nearing consensus,” one person familiar with the matter said.
Monsanto has also agreed to open its books for Bayer to conduct due diligence checks on the company’s business, two sources close to the matter said.
Bayer’s previous offer was already the largest all-cash takeover bid on record with a deal with Monsanto aimed at giving the German company a shot at grabbing the top spot in the fast-consolidating farm supplies industry, combining its crop science business with Monsanto’s strength in seeds.
Bayer now says it is prepared to offer $127.50 per share in a negotiated deal, up from its previous offer of $125 per share.
But German daily newspaper Rheinische Post also reported late on Monday that an offer of $130 per share may be necessary to get a deal with Monsanto “in a swift and friendly way.”
Bayer was still considering all options regarding Monsanto, including striking a friendly deal, making a hostile bid or pulling its offer, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Bayer’s shares were down 0.25 percent at 94 euros by 0934 GMT on Tuesday. Monsanto’s shares last traded at $107.44 and analysts at brokerage Equinet said Bayer has now effectively capped its Monsanto bid.
“We infer from Bayer’s statement that failure to agree a deal at $127.50/share could imply a risk to Monsanto shareholders of either a hostile bid at a lesser consideration, or no deal at all,” they said in a note.
Analysts from Baader Helvea disagreed. “We still expect a bid per share in the $130–135 range before Monsanto comes to the table. As such, we continue see the Bayer shares remaining under pressure as the negotiations continue,” they said in a note.
In a brief statement, Monsanto said on Monday it had been engaged in “constructive” negotiations with Bayer, during which it received the updated non-binding proposal of $127.50 per share in cash.
The Saint Louis-based company added that it was continuing these conversations as it evaluated Bayer’s offer, as well as proposals from other parties it did not name. It cautioned that there was no certainty that any deal would occur.
Some Bayer shareholders, however, continue to criticize the proposed merger, saying it would increase Bayer’s exposure to agriculture at the expense of its pharmaceutical business.
“We knew that Bayer would have to bid higher and this offer is probably getting closer to succeeding, but it doesn’t change our view that it presents significant risks to shareholders,” said Greg Herbert, co-manager of the Jupiter Global Equity Income Fund.
“The company will be left with a highly geared balance sheet and the management effort to integrate the two businesses could easily lead to the larger pharmaceutical business being neglected.”
John Bennett of fund manager Henderson said that he opposed the revised offer.
“Bayer have backed themselves into a corner,” he said in emailed comments. “The money would have been better spent buying their own stock. Alas, for shareholders, it was not to be.”
A Bormann company sponsoring Hannity?
Wouldn’t be much of a surprise.
A trusted associate noted an interesting and significant subtext the burning of Keurig coffee makers (the manufacturer) in response to Keurig pulling support from Hannity in response to his defense of Roy Moore.
“Sean Hannity’s fans have been in the news recently for smashing their Keurig coffee makers, in protest of Keurig pulling ad dollars from Hannity’s show due to Hannity’s defense of Roy Moore. (NOTE: I thought it odd that Trump supported Moore’s opponent in the Alabama primary, despite being more politically similar to Moore… did Trump get a tipoff that this scandal was coming?) Good old-fashioned Republican family values in action! However, it got me thinking... what was Keurig doing supporting Hannity in the first place?
While the Germanic name Keurig caught my eye, it is not ultimately relevant, nor are the founders, at least that I could find. However, the CURRENT owners, J.A.B Holdings and it’s associated Reimann family, are very German and very relevant, in my opinion.
-They are owned by a secretive group of German billionaires, mostly related to each other. This group owns (outright or majority) a rather shocking number of major American brands, including Peets Coffee, Panera Bread, Jimmy Choo Shoes, Dougwe Eberts Coffee, and Krispy Kreme Donuts! They also own part of 3G, the massive Brazilian holding company (with one of the three heads having the last name Lemann, and the other having Hermann as a middle name). [This is a focal point of FTR #912–D.E.]
-3G owns Inbev (dominant player in the world’s liquor industry), Heinz, Kraft, and Burger King, who they quickly moved to Canada and merged with Tim Hortons, a massive Canadian restaurant chain, for tax breaks. They also own the largest logistics/railroad company in South America and its largest retail shopping company. So, between their interests in JAB and 3G, this one family has their tentacles into a ridiculous amount of commerce.
-Like all good German corporate citizens, they make their headquarters in Luxembourg.
-All members of the Reimann family sign an oath at 18 that they will keep a low profile and keep themselves out of the news. I found that interesting…
-They also own 10% of a British chemical company that was once German and cornerstone of their family fortune, which began in the early 1800s. That company has some interesting stories as well…
I’ll cut to the chase… is this Bormann money “gulping up companies like a giant amoeba?”
https://www.ft.com/content/242db7ea-d1a8-11e5-831d-09f7778e7377
…Late last year, a group called JAB Holding splashed out $13.9bn to add Keurig Green Mountain, the biggest group in the US single-serve coffee market, to its growing list of coffee investments.
The deal capped a three-year, $30bn acquisition spree, during which JAB bought up groups ranging from instant coffee specialists in Europe to hipster coffee chains in the US and prompted suggestions that a challenger to Nestlé’s dominant Nespresso brand could be emerging.
At the same time, the deal sparked another round of interest in the principal owners of JAB Holding: four members of Germany’s intensely private and immensely wealthy Reimann family: Wolfgang, Stefan, Renate and Matthias.
Keurig Green Mountain coffee packs, which form part of JAB’s growing list of coffee investments © Bloomberg
Through JAB, the family owns stakes in some of the world’s best-known brands. As well as its investments in the coffee sector, JAB’s burgeoning portfolio encompasses a 8 per cent stake in Reckitt Benckiser, the consumer goods conglomerate, and a 77.4 per cent stake in the US fragrance group Coty, which owns the Calvin Klein and David Beckham perfume brands. On top of this, the holding company also controls luxury marques Jimmy Choo, Bally and Belstaff.
Last year, Forbes put the combined wealth of JAB’s four principal owners at $16bn, which would make the clan one of Europe’s wealthiest business dynasties. Representatives of the family and JAB declined to comment for this article.
The Reimanns’ march to industrial prominence began in the early years of the 19th century. In 1823, Johann Adam Benckiser, whose initials are enshrined in JAB’s name, bought a chemicals business in Pforzheim, a small town in the south-western German province of Baden-Württemberg.
A few years later, Ludwig Reimann, the great-great-grandfather of the Reimanns who now own JAB, joined the company and married Benckiser’s daughter. After Benckiser’s death, Reimann took over the company, which had by now moved some 100km north to Ludwigshafen, paving the way for his descendants to etch the family’s name into the annals of German industry.
The last of the Reimanns to actively be involved in the day-to-day running of Benckiser was Albert junior, Ludwig’s great-grandson, who inherited the company in 1952 and pushed it in the direction of consumer goods. He died in 1984, leaving equal stakes to his nine adopted children.
Although all nine of Albert’s children had initially kept the 11.1 per cent stakes they inherited, by 2003, Wolfgang and Renate (who are siblings) and Matthias and Stefan (who are brothers) had bought out the other five.
In 1997, the family took Benckiser public and two years later engineered a merger with the British consumer goods group, Reckitt and Colman, to form Reckitt Benckiser.
The family members who sold out of the business then followed a well-trodden path by relying on a family office to manage their wealth. Subsequently they founded Deutsche Kontor Privatbank, a private bank based in Munich, to offer wealth management services to other non-family members.
Those who kept their stakes have put their fortune in the hands of a small group of trusted advisers who run JAB — currently Peter Harf, Bart Becht and Olivier Goudet. Harf started at Benckiser in 1981, while Becht joined in 1988. Goudet, a former Mars executive, joined in 2012. The family members play no role in the operative businesses. The trio of managers make suggestions to the family members on possible investments, which they then discuss, but that the family has the ultimate say.
The set-up has prompted comparisons with 3G, a private equity group run by three Brazilian tycoons, that has been buying up brands in the consumer goods sector. However the difference, according to Pablo Zuanic, an analyst at Susquehanna, is that at 3G the managers also provide the cash. “At JAB, the Reimann family provides the capital, but the driving force behind the day-to-day strategy is the three managers,” he says.
NOTE: For some reason, the FT does not mention that this family owns significant shares in 3G as well!
(continuing)
The Reimann’s newest asset, Keurig, co-operates with a number of third-party brands, whose coffee it sells along with its coffee-dispensing machines. This means it is potentially vulnerable to some of those brands walking away. The best way to deal with this, says Zuanic, would be for the family vehicle to buy up more brands of its own. “JAB has to have bigger plans in coffee for this deal to make sense,” he says.
NOTE: In a nutshell, they want a conglomerate to compete with Starbucks (Jewish-owned, FYI) on the “way Americans start their day with a good cup of old Joe”. That is my guess. Own the coffee, own the coffee makers, own the coffee and donut shops.
https://qz.com/207122/meet-the-family-behind-the-worlds-biggest-new-coffee-company/
JAB is mostly owned by four very private siblings, Renate Reimann-Haas, Wolfgang Reimann, Stefan Reimann-Andersen, and Matthias Reimann-Andersen.
The family’s wealth dates back to the German chemical company Benckiser, which was started in 1823. It moved into consumer goods in the 50s. The family took the company public in 1997, and merged with the British consumer goods company Reckitt and Colman two years later. The family still owns around 10% of what’s now Reckitt-Benckiser, which owns brands ranging from Durex to Lysol to Strepsils.
Albert Reimann inherited the whole company in 1952 and left 11.1% to each of his nine adopted children. The four controlling Reimanns bought out control from their other siblings.
... In addition to the new coffee behemoth, the family owns a substantial luxury portfolio which includes brands such as the high-end shoe brand Jimmy Choo, the perfume maker Coty, and the Swiss shoemaker Bally. Before its $9.8‑billion purchase of D.E. Master Blenders, the company spent a combined $1.3 billion on the retail coffee chains Caribou Coffee and Peet’s, though the businesses are run separately.
NOTE: More data on the Coffee Coup… also note how JAB is compared to 3G, yet it is not mentioned how JAB and 3G often partner together!
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/billionaire-reimann-family-adding-krispy-kreme-to-its-empire-in/article_6a14de24-9413–58f2-8aac-81701e6bceee.html\
The Reimann family, one of Europe’s wealthiest business dynasties, has the coffee. Now, it wants the doughnuts.
After building a coffee empire ranging from hipster Stumptown Coffee Roasters to single-serve mainstay Keurig, the Reimanns’ JAB Holding investment company wants its growing stable of consumer brands to add some high-calorie oomph: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.
The $1.35 billion deal, announced Monday, puts the intensely private Reimann clan — Wolfgang, Stefan, Renate and Matthias — on a potential collision course with Krispy Kreme’s rival of the moment, the mighty Starbucks Corp.
It also trains a spotlight on JAB, whose stewardship of the Reimann fortune has drawn comparisons to 3G Capital, the Brazilian private equity giant run by the billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann. JAB, run by a trio of trusted Reimann advisers, is coming off a four-year acquisition spree in which it spent about $30 billion taking controlling stakes in Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Caribou Coffee, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Espresso House and Baresso Coffee.
“They’ve been slowly amassing a pretty big umbrella of breakfast- and coffee-oriented brands, and so Krispy Kreme slides underneath that umbrella pretty easily,” said Will Slabaugh, an analyst at Stephens Inc.
…The four Reimanns each have a net worth of $3.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. A fifth sibling, Andrea Reimann-Ciardelli, sold her stake in JAB in 2003 and has a $1.2 billion net worth. Seeking a favorable tax environment for the Reimanns, Harf moved their family offices to Vienna from Ludwigshafen, Germany, in 2006. The family traded their German passports for Austrian ones.
For now, coffee is a small part of Krispy Kreme’s business. Almost 90 percent of its revenue came from doughnuts last year. Compare that with Dunkin’ Donuts, which gets most of its sales from coffee. Dunkin’ too has been cited as a possible JAB takeover target, though the firm may take its time before making such a deal, Slabaugh said.
“They probably want to swallow an acquisition like this for a while before looking at something like Dunkin’,” he said.
NOTE: More biographical information on the Reimann family.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maxjedeurpalmgren/2015/12/07/the-secretive-billionaire-family-behind-the-13–9‑billion-keurig-green-mountain-deal/#2cadbd953b51
Just as they wish it to be, you have probably have never heard of the Reimann family. Chances are however that you have come across the products of their empire multiple times a day; maybe it was a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes, Durex condoms, Peet’s coffee, a Mondelez snack or Calvin Klein fragrances. On Monday, the family’s conglomerated announced it will pay $13.9 billion in cash to add yet another well-known product to its portfolio, Keurig Green Mountain, maker of home and office coffee brewing systems. The offer was a 78% premium to where it had traded on Friday, and the news sent the stock soaring. (The company’s founder, Bob Stiller, saw his fortune jump nearly $300 million today but he is still worth well less than he was at the stock’s peak).
The siblings are decedents of German chemist Ludwig Reimann, who in 1828 joined Johann Adam Benckiser, and his namesake company in Ludwigshafen, Germany. By marrying one of Benckiser’s daughters, Reimann ended up inheriting the entire company. His great-grandson Albert Reimann took the reins in 1952, and decided to steer the company in a new direction, adding consumer goods to its business. When he died in 1984, his nine adopted children, none of whom had ever worked for the business or had any role in its operations, each inherited 11.1% of John A. Benckiser (JAB S.e.r.l.).
The lack of involvement is allegedly part of the family policy, which also includes signing a codex on one’s 18th birthday pledging to stay out of the public as much as possible, thus making them one of the most private billionaire families.
Five of the original nine siblings have divested from JAB, selling their stakes to the remaining four. Wolfgang, Matthias, Stefan and Renate together now own 95% of the company, which they hold through family offices based in Vienna. Andrea Reimann-Ciadelli, now an American citizen living in New Hampshire, sold her stake in 2003 for close to $1 billion and is the lowest ranking family member one the Forbes Billionaires List. The other sellers are believed to have been bought out in the late 90’s to unknown, but probably lower, amounts.
…The explicit aim of the latest deal according to the press releases was to create the world’s largest pure-play coffee company. With the Keuring Green Mountain Deal announced on Monday, JAB will have succeeded in doing just that, and will pass Nestlé in terms of global annual revenue for coffee. Be as secretive as you may, it’s hard to escape the headlines if you are making deals to take over an industry.
NOTE: This article discusses JAB and 3G competing for Panera, but takes the time to point out that this unusual and that they usually move in tandem. Also, note that the CEO of JAB is chair of 3G-owned Inbev! Very cozy… also, note that Warren Buffett is routinely involved with both. Few things testify to the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of American liberalism than its fandom for Buffett. Yeah, he occasionally takes a swipe at Trump or the Bushes, but that doesn’t mean he is “the Good Billionaire”. He has always been dirty as fuck…
https://nypost.com/2017/04/10/buffett-backed-firm-interested-in-bid-for-panera-bread-sources/
If 3G moves to top JAB’s $7.5 billion offer for Panera, it would put two of the world’s largest PE firms in direct competition for what is likely the first time.
JAB and 3G have been seen as allies. For example, Olivier Goudet, JAB’s chief executive, is chair of 3G’s Anheuser-Busch InBev.
The two firms have also invested in each other’s deals, sources close to the firms said.
“The idea of them being in combat with each other is really unusual,” a source who’s an investment banker said.
“Given that they invest in each other’s deals, it would be like going to war with your neighbor,” the banker said.
JAB, the investment vehicle for the reclusive billionaire Reimann family, of Germany, signed a $315-a-share cash merger agreement with Panera last week. Panera shares closed Monday at $313.30.
It was an exclusive sales process whereby Panera did not shop itself to other suitors, an investment banker said.
Both JAB and 3G are on a global buying spree. They have a similar strategy of investing in a space and expanding their businesses via acquisition.
NOTE: This article confirms the JAB investment in 3G.
http://www.vcpost.com/articles/92480/20150917/brazilian-pe-firm-3g-capital-eyes-sab-miller.htm
Though 3G Capital is a PE firm, it doesn’t raise money in the normal way as most of the private equity firms do. It prefers to get huge lots of money from the wealthiest families in the world. Lemann and his associates Carlos Alberto, Sicupira and Marcel have pooled up big lots of money from over three dozen super rich individuals and the most wealthiest families in the world.
The world’s well-known fund manager William Ackman also recently invested in 3G Capital. Other major investors include Colombia’s Santo Domingo family, tennis player Roger Federer from Switzerland and JAB Holdings, which handles Germany’s Reimann family assets.
NOTE: These last two articles are about Reckitt Benckiser, the British chemical company that is 10% owned by the Reimanns and is essentially the company that birthed their empire. “Benckiser” is the “B” in “JAB Holdings”. They were tagged by Amnesty International for sourcing its palm oil from exploiters of child labor.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/nov/30/kelloggs-unilever-nestle-child-labour-palm-oil-wilmar-amnesty
… lobal firms behind popular brands such as Kit Kat, Colgate toothpaste and Dove cosmetics use palm oil produced by child workers in dangerous conditions, Amnesty International has claimed.
The human rights organisation traced a range of well-known products back to the palm oil company Wilmar, which it alleged employs children to do back-breaking physical labour on refineries in Indonesia.
Singapore-based Wilmar counts multinational companies including Kellogg’s, Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Reckitt Benckiser and Nestlé among its major clients, according to Amnesty.
In a 110-page report accompanied by a video, Amnesty alleged products sold by those companies were “tainted by appalling human rights abuses ... with children as young as eight working in hazardous conditions”.
It called on the companies implicated to tell customers whether the palm oil in individual products such as Magnum ice-creams, Ariel detergent, Knorr soup, Pantene shampoo and Aero chocolate bars were made using child labour.
NOTE: They also own D‑Con, and sued California for banning it due to harm caused to wildlife.
http://www.mercurynews.com/2014/03/31/makers-of-rat-poison-d-con-sue-california/
The manufacturers of one of the most common brands of rat and mice poison, d‑Con, have sued state regulators just one week after California banned the pesticide and blamed it for killing wildlife.
Reckitt Benckiser, the UK-based consumer products company that makes d‑Con, filed a lawsuit Thursday against the California Department of Pesticide Control for halting the sale of the rodenticide commonly used by homeowners to kill rats and mice. The lawsuit alleges that the state overstepped its authority and has exposed California residents to health risks because they won’t be able to get rid of rodents in their home.
D‑Con is “the most affordable and effective rodent control method available to consumers,” the lawsuit says. The rat poison costs about $5 at Walmart.
But by July 1, the rodenticide will be removed from most stores, and only certified professionals such as pest control businesses will be able to purchase it. This month the state Department of Pesticide Regulation banned d‑Con and other products that contain toxins blamed for killing at least 300 animals, including endangered species, in the last two decades. Rats and mice eat the pesticides, and predators such as foxes and hawks ingest the poison when they eat the rodents.
“It’s a huge, huge step in the right direction and we’re not inclined to sit back as Reckitt tries to undo the progress that’s been made,” said Gregory Loarie, staff attorney with San Francisco environmental advocacy group Earthjustice.
Reckitt Benckiser and the company’s attorneys in San Francisco did not immediately respond to emails from this newspaper.”
A Bormann/Underground Reich sponsor for Hannity? Not unlikely.
One of the key points of information in the above [chracteristically] insightful comment from this associate is the secrecy/low-profile oath the Reimanns took at age 18.
One of the major keys to Bormann Group power, in addition to their consummate economic power and brilliant investment strategy is to STAY BEHIND THE SCENES. Their products are well known and their ability to dominate equities markets and advertising contracts gives them consummate leverage.
But people don’t know who they are.
Say, in that context, enjoy those Krispy Kreme Donuts, and wash it down with a cup of Peet’s coffee.
Yummy,
Dave Emory
Here’s an update on the many lawsuits facing Bayer over the charges that the widely used pesticide RoundUp — which Bayer now sells after it bought Monsanto in 2016 — causes cancer: Bayer just settled with most of the claims, but not all of them. Bayer said the settlement agreements “contain no admission of liability or wrongdoing” and the company plans on continuing to sell the glyphosate-based pesticide.
In addition, Bayer has a plan for preemptively resolving the risk of future claims from people who haven’t yet developed cancer, a big concern no doubt since the company plans on continuing to sell RoundUp. The scheme is intended to settle once and for all the question of whether or not RoundUp causes cancer and allow the company to continue selling it going forward. Importantly, it would be a panel of scientific experts who make that determination, not jurors, which is an important detail because the three times this issue was taken to trial before a jury those juries found that RoundUp did indeed cause cancer and ordered large penalties. That strategy of trying to settle the issue once and for all without a jury might be the biggest news here because Bayer appears to have chosen a legal resolution method that could be applied to all sorts of other future class action lawsuits of this nature that center around technically difficult biomedical scientific questions about public safety.
Basically, Bayer agreed to pay $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion to settle about 75% of the RoundUp cancer claims. In addition, an independent panel of scientific experts, who will likely be chosen and agreed upon by both sides, will study the issue of glyphosate’s safety and its findings will determine whether or not future class action lawsuits can take place. The study should take around four years. If the panel finds that glyphosate is safe, people who develop cancer in the future won’t be allowed to sue Bayer. But if the panel does find that RoundUp causes cancers Bayer could be open to all sorts of future RoundUp lawsuits. Bayer claims the lead plaintiffs’ lawyers have agreed to the plan.
It’s the kind of legal strategy that takes on new significance in the COVID-era, where all sorts of new therapies and vaccines are being rushed through clinical safety trials before the risks can be fully evaluated. How many future lawsuits are going to emerge from Moderna’s first-ever use of RNA vaccines? Who knows but you can be sure Moderna, Gilead, and the rest of biotech giants racing to be the first to bring a COVID therapy to the market are going to be keenly watching Bayer’s legal strategy:
“Bayer said the settlement agreements “contain no admission of liability or wrongdoing.””
No admission of liability or wrongdoing and plenty of ambition for future RoundUp sales. Hence the plan for a court approved class agreement that would determine whether or not future cases can take place:
And it’s that class action settlement that’s intended to allow Bayer to continue selling RoundUp by resolving the question of its safety using an independent panel, not a jury, that’s seen as a risky bet. It’s kind of an all or nothing strategy. If the scientific panel finds that RoundUp does potentially cause cancer when used as directed that would open Bayer up to future liabilities that it would have a much harder time fighting because it couldn’t really fight about the science anymore. But if the panel comes back in Bayer’s favor it’s apparently settled forever. That’s why it’s the kind of big risk Bayer is willing to take:
“Scientific panels have been set up in previous mass torts but generally not as part of a settlement process, legal experts said. Bayer’s proposal was “creative but risky” and will likely face procedural challenges in court, said Adam Zimmerman, a professor at Loyola Law School.”
Creative but risky. That’s how Bayer’s legal strategy is being described. But note how government regulators have consistently sided with Bayer on the question of RoundUp’s safety. It’s the World Health Organization and juror who have been ruling against Bayer. So Bayer (and Monsanto before it) has had plenty of success in getting scientific panels to approve the safety of RoundUp and the company is presumably betting on that same success:
“The experts said many details, including how people who have not yet gotten sick could give up their rights to a future lawsuit under the proposal, remained unclear.”
Those seem like some pretty important details to get hammered out before this agreement is put into effect. That points to another thing to watch on this case: will Bayer be allowed to proceed with this panel proposal before details like how people who have not yet gotten sick could give up their rights to a future lawsuit under the proposal are worked out?
And that’s all part of what makes this story so much bigger than just the question of whether or not the world’s most popular pesticide causes cancer, which itself is a massive question. It’s not like there are a lot of great alternatives to glyphosate so it really would be preferable if this stuff didn’t cause cancer. But it might, and it’s pretty clear that Bayer is going to be using every option at its disposal to ensure it can continue selling the stuff either way. So, yes, Bayer is taking a big risk. A big risk that includes big upside risk for Bayer’s future profits. And big upside risk for future cancer. Liability-free future cancer.
ProPublica has a new report that is particularly topical for the holiday season. ‘Tis the season of dirty dishes, after all. Santa ain’t cleaning them. So it’s probably an appropriate time to address some of the issues associated with supplying all of the chemicals that go into creating the detergents that are actually doing the cleaning. In particular, the manufacture of surfactants, the chemicals that reduce surface tension between two substances, enabling grime to come off. It turns out BASF, the world’s largest chemical manufacturer, has long been the US’s primary manufacturer of surfactants, with operations spread across multiple states. States with notably lax pollution regulations. First, the chemical ethylene is first manufactured in Port Arthur, Texas. It’s then shipped to Geismar, Louisiana, where the ethylene is turned into ethylene oxide, before heading off to White Stone, in Spartanburg county, South Carolina, where the ethylene oxide is converted into surfactants. Finally, the surfactants end up at the Procter & Gamble plant in St. Louis where they’re used to make a myriad of household consumer products, like Cascade, the detergent was undoubtedly used to clean all those holiday dishes.
So what was it that ProPublica’s report revealed about the BASF’s surfactant manufacturing operations? Rampant air pollution. That’s what. Yes, it turns out the production of chemicals like ethylene and its surfactant end-products potentially generates a lot air pollution. Invisible ethylene just being spewed out into the atmosphere. Based on ProPublica’s analysis, BASF’s footprint of cancer-causing air pollution is larger than that of any other foreign-owned company in the US and is the fourth-largest toxic footprint among all companies operating in the country.
The volume of BASF’s cancer-causing air-pollution is just one part of this scandal. The other part if the fact that it all appears to be largely legal and done within the regulatory guidelines. Guidelines that typically leave it up to states to determine what, if any, environmental regulations to follow. And as we’ll see, those state-level regulations more often just leave it up to the polluter to monitor and report their pollution levels. As we’ll also see, it turns out the BASF plants spewing out this pollution tends to exclusively be adjacent to communities with large minority populations. And then there’s ‘accidental discharge’ rules that more or less incentivize industrial spills.
And then there’s interesting history of BASF’s operations in the US: as one of the components of IG Farben, BASF became part of the IG Farben complex in 1925. After BASF was spun out from IF Farben in the aftermath of WWII it almost immediately began looking for a US city to set up operations. A US tour campaign was started by the company in 1949 and by 1958 the company opened its first US plant in Freeport, Texas. So BASF’s US operations were starting up early on in the post-war era. Interestingly, we’re also told the Procter & Gamble was first exposed to the idea of using surfactants in detergent during a pre-WWII meeting with IG Farben executives. So some sort of relationship between Procter & Gamble and IG Farben appears to have likely played a role here.
So as big a pain as all those holiday dishes might seem right now, it’s important to keep in mind that the communities directly involved in the manufacture of the chemicals that go into these cleaning products have been systematically enduring the pain of cancer and other disease as part of the price of sourcing these materials for decades. And if you’re unfortunate enough to be living next to one of these BASF plants, there’s no break from that kind of chronic exposure, unless you happen to leave town for the holidays:
“By the time millions of consumers purchase Cascade each month, the crucial chemicals that end up in the detergent have been crafted over the course of an 800-mile journey from a BASF facility in Port Arthur, Texas, to one in Geismar, Louisiana, to the one across from the post office in White Stone. From there, a final chemical product is hauled to an assembly line at a giant plant in St. Louis, Missouri, ending up in bold green packages that line grocery store aisles nationwide. By the time Walker pulls a container of Cascade off the shelf, she will have already paid an even higher price: chronic exposure to one of America’s most dangerous air pollutants, a sacrifice in order to manufacture the most popular dishwasher detergent in the nation.”
Detergent doesn’t manufacture itself. All of those chemical ingredients had to come from somewhere, and as the ProPublica report laid out just the ethylene-based surfactants alone go on a cross-country journey. It starts in Port Arthur, Texas, where the ethylene is first manufactured by BASF. It travels to Geismar, Louisiana, where the conversion to ethylene oxide takes place and then gets transported to White Stone, South Carolina, where the ethylene oxide is further converted into a variety of surfactants. And those surfactants are finally taken to Proctor & Gamble’s plant at St. Louis, Missouri, where they’re mixed with the rest of the ingredients used to create Cascade and the myriad of other household consumer products BASF’s chemicals go into. And at each of those stops is a legacy of pollution, cancer, and exploitation of vulnerable communities. Oh, and a legacy profits for BASF. Pollution and profit. The two go hand in hand. It’s an inherent aspect of BASF’s chemical manufacturing industry: more pollution = more profits.
But BASF isn’t just any chemical maker. It’s the largest chemical manufacturer in the world. That’s a lot of profit. And pollution. More cancer-causing air-pollution than any other foreign-owned company in the US. BASF’s footprint in the US is so large its toxic footprint was estimated to be the fourth-largest of all companies operating in the country. There are just three companies in the entire US that spew out more pollution than BASF. On one level, it’s chilling. But on other level, it’s exactly what we should expect. BASF is a global giant. Of course it has a major presence in the US so of course its pollution footprint is enormous. And yet, as the report makes clear, that enormous pollution footprint isn’t simply due to BASF’s enormous corporate presence in the US. It’s also due to the fact that the company has apparently been exploiting state and federal regulatory loopholes in the US that effectively gives the polluting companies oversight over their own pollution. Trust the polluters. That’s the way in the USA. And the US has been trusting BASF quite a bit the last seven decades or so:
Part of this legacy of pollution is the fact that BASF’s interest in US operations appears to have begun almost immediately after the company was spun out for the very same IG Farben complex it helped create in 1925. A major industrial component of the Third Reich’s industrial machine began touring the US to find a location in 1949 and laid the ground for its first plant less than a decade later in Freeport, Texas. BASF has been a major part of the US’s core industrial infrastructure for nearly the entire post-war era. And as the article made clear, BASF has been operating in states that more or less made it up to BASF to regulate itself when it came to pollution controls:
And note the all major loophole that’s being exploited by BASF: accidental discharges. Or rather, poorly fined accidental discharges that barely cost polluters anything if fines are even imposed at all. It’s been the status quo in the US in the industry all along:
Not to be outdone by Texas’s lax regulation, the BASF plant in Geismar, Louisiana, where the ethylene oxide is made, generates one of the largest footprints of cancer-causing air-pollution in the country, with residential neighborhoods sandwiched between chemical plant. A toxic footprint that’s a lot more toxic than previously recognized. In 2016, the EPA declared ethylene oxide to be 30 times more toxic to adults and 60 times more toxic to children than previously thought. Yes, it’s worse than we thought. Approximately 30 to 60 times worse based on the last estimate:
Next, the ethylene oxide is shipped to the BASF plant at White Stone, South Carolina, in Spartanburg County, where its used to create a variety of surfactants. How much pollution is that plant releasing into the air? It’s not entirely clear since the closest pollution monitor is four miles from the plant. It’s as if Spartanburg has actively adopted a ‘see no evil, monitor no evil, speak no evil’ approach to oversight for the plant:
Finally, the surfactants are shipped off to the Procter & Gamble plant in St. Louis, where they’re mixed to create a myriad of household consumer products used by nearly every American household. Thanks, in part, to BASF’s surfactants, Procter & Gamble controls more than 60% of the US’s dishwasher detergent market. It really isn’t an exaggeration to say America cleans its dishes with BASF’s chemicals. It’s a reliance on BASF technology that reportedly goes all the way back before WWII, when Procter & Gamble executives held a meeting with IG Farben executives where they first heard about the idea of using surfactants:
So Procter & Gamble first got the idea for using surfactants during a pre-WWII meeting with IG Farben. And as we saw about, flash forward to the post-war period and we find that BASF — having been just spun out from IG Farben — was already working on setting up a US footprint by 1949. And remains a linchpin of the US’s industrial infrastructure to this day. BASF’s products go into so many different US consumer products it’s effectively impossible to avoid products made from BASF chemicals. Which makes this the kind of scandal that almost can’t get any bigger. The biggest foreign manufacturer in the US has basically been given license to pollute selected communities for decades. Nothing has changed up to now and there’s no indication change is coming. Well, ok, change is coming in some sense. The industrial pollution is getting steadily worse as this situation continues. That’s change.