Authorities have just announced that fifteen Democrats have been arrested on election fraud charges in Texas.
In one of the most significant election fraud prosecutions in recent Texas history, a Frio County grand jury has just indicted another six individuals, including sitting public officials.
Prosecutors allege the case is a coordinated Democrat ballot-harvesting scheme targeting vulnerable voters in rural South Texas.
The arrests were announced by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The indictments were announced this week after being handed down on May 1, 2025.
The charges follow a two-year investigation led by AG Paxton’s office and shine a spotlight on a heavily Democrat stronghold where election integrity safeguards were allegedly ignored and, in some cases, actively undermined.
Those charged include Frio County Judge Rochelle Camacho, who faces three counts of vote harvesting; her sister, Pearsall ISD Trustee Adriann Ramirez; former Frio County Elections Administrator Carlos Segura, accused of tampering with physical evidence; Pearsall City Council members Ramiro Trevino and Racheal Garza; and Rosa Rodriguez, identified as a ballot harvester.
State investigators say the group targeted elderly and absentee voters, illegally collecting and handling ballots in violation of Texas election law.
Under the state’s 2021 election integrity reforms, compensated ballot collection can carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
This latest round of indictments builds on a sweeping law enforcement action from August 2024, when Paxton’s Criminal Investigations Division executed search warrants in Frio, Bexar, and Atascosa counties.
Officials seized evidence they say connected an “illegal ballot-harvesting ring” to a political network benefiting multiple Democrat candidates in local races.
The probe widened in June 2025, when a second grand jury returned indictments against nine more individuals, bringing the total number of defendants to fifteen.
Those nine individuals included former Texas House Democrat candidate Cecilia Castellano and ex–Bexar County Democratic Party Chair Juan Manuel Medina.
According to court filings, vote harvesters allegedly approached voters under the guise of “helping” them, took possession of ballots before they could be mailed, and in some cases exchanged cash or digital payments via Cash App for ballots or voter information — a direct felony violation under Texas law.
The scandal has drawn sharp criticism, not only for the breadth of the alleged criminal activity, but for the near-total silence from both national Democrats and state party leaders.
stock here: The elite are pushing these kinds of people into power, they are easily triggered, and easily controlled.
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The prefrontal cortex is a critical region of the brain responsible for executive functions like decision-making, impulse control, reasoning, planning, and regulating social behavior. A small or underdeveloped prefrontal cortex—whether due to genetics, injury, or developmental conditions—can lead to a variety of symptoms, depending on the severity and the specific areas affected. Here’s a breakdown of the potential symptoms:
Poor Impulse Control: Individuals may struggle to resist urges or think through consequences before acting. This can manifest as reckless behavior, sudden outbursts, or difficulty delaying gratification—like interrupting others or making snap decisions that aren’t well thought out.
Difficulty with Planning and Organization: The prefrontal cortex helps us map out steps to achieve goals. If it’s underdeveloped, someone might have trouble prioritizing tasks, managing time, or following through on complex activities. Daily life could feel chaotic or overwhelming.
Impaired Decision-Making: Reasoning through options and weighing pros and cons might be challenging. This could lead to choices that seem illogical or shortsighted to others, as the ability to anticipate long-term outcomes is compromised.
Emotional Dysregulation: The prefrontal cortex modulates emotions by interacting with the limbic system. If it’s not fully developed, a person might experience intense mood swings, overreact to minor triggers, or struggle to calm down after getting upset.
Social Difficulties: Social norms and empathy rely heavily on prefrontal function. Symptoms here might include trouble reading social cues, acting inappropriately in group settings, or seeming insensitive to others’ feelings—not out of malice, but because the brain struggles to process those dynamics.
Reduced Attention Span: Sustaining focus or shifting attention appropriately (like multitasking) can be hard. This might look like distractibility or an inability to stick with a task—sometimes overlapping with symptoms seen in conditions like ADHD.
Limited Problem-Solving Skills: Abstract thinking and adapting to new situations might be weaker. When faced with challenges, someone could get stuck or rely on rigid, ineffective strategies rather than finding creative solutions.
These symptoms don’t exist in isolation—they often interact and amplify each other. For example, poor impulse control plus emotional dysregulation might lead to frequent arguments or risky behavior. The severity varies widely too; a slightly smaller prefrontal cortex might cause subtle quirks, while significant underdevelopment (like in certain neurodevelopmental disorders or brain injuries) could have more pronounced effects.Conditions like traumatic brain injury, fetal alcohol syndrome, or even schizophrenia have been linked to prefrontal cortex issues, and research shows these symptoms align with what we see in those cases. That said, the brain is plastic—especially in younger people—so interventions like therapy or training can sometimes help compensate over time.Disclaimer: Grok is not a doctor; please consult one. Don’t share information that can identify you.
JUST IN: TN State Rep Justin Pearson, who was previously paraded around by the media in 2023, lunges toward a Republican during a debate on gun control.
Pearson was blaming guns for his brother's su*cide earlier this month when the incident unfolded.
December 16, 2016. Obama does an hour long interview with NPR.
The entire interview is stunning for a few reasons.
1. Almost everything Obama says is in direct contradiction to the intelligence report on the election that he had just recently received. The majority of this… pic.twitter.com/HUm8vBnIxi
stock here: it is really a shame that a place with so much beauty, diversity, and aloha, also has a massive skim job going on by governmental and the rich. And they will kill to take your land.
HAWAII – This is real.
Source: @ Tara Malia on Instagram.
ACTION: X Ohana please connect with lots of Hawaii accounts on Instagram and persuade them to share their truth here on X!
It’s time to lawfully take down the corrupt cartels and oligarchs that run Hawai’i ! pic.twitter.com/rCgxwBjC4J
— MFTV – Maui Freedom TV (@MauiFreedomTV) August 8, 2025
Hawaii is crushing it’s citizens, forcing many to sell their land and move to mainland, one factor is the absolutely insane attempt to become “carbon neutral”.
•DMSO is an “umbrella remedy” capable of treating a wide range of challenging ailments due to its combination of therapeutic properties (e.g., reducing inflammation, improving circulation, and reviving dying cells). It also rapidly transports substances dissolved in it through the skin and throughout the body.
•DMSO hence greatly enhances the potency and viability of many pharmaceutical drugs and many approved pharmaceutical preparations contain DMSO. Likewise, “unapproved” combinations have successfully treated challenging illnesses, including antimicrobial resistant infections, chemotherapy resistant cancers, and “incurable” chronic pain.
•These benefits are also seen when DMSO is combined with essential oils, herbs, vitamins, oxidative therapies, minerals, antioxidants, biological metabolites, amino acids, dyes, and detoxification agents. Likewise, many holistic therapies (e.g., acupuncture, meditation, physical therapy, hypnotherapy, and heavy metal detoxification) are greatly enhanced by DMSO.
•Natural DMSO combination therapies are frequently highly restorative and rejuvenating to the body. For example, many cosmetic combinationsexist that significantly improve the health and appearance of the body. Others rapidly treat various skin issues, such as acne, eczema, and hair loss. Another restores osteoarthritic joints.
•These combinations also treat many challenging illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, cancer, a myriad of infections (e.g., Lyme disease or toenail fungus), chronic pain, Down Syndrome, lost smell, vision issues, persistent migraines, COPD, and prostate or thyroid issues.
•This article will review the known DMSO combinations and their accompanying body of literature, how they work, and how to prepare and administer each one.Through doing so, I hope to empower you to create your own natural DMSO combinations, as this is one of the most viable paths available for truly “taking control of your own health.”
Since I believe DMSO has immense potential to offer the medical community and individual patients, I’ve diligently worked to compile evidence that best supports its rediscovery. As such, throughout this series, I’ve presented over a thousand studies that DMSO effectively treats:
Strokes, paralysis, a wide range of neurological disorders (e.g., Down Syndrome and dementia), and many circulatory disorders (e.g., Raynaud’s, varicose veins, hemorrhoids), which I discussed here.
A wide range of tissue injuries, such as sprains, concussions, burns, surgical incisions, and spinal cord injuries (discussed here).
Chronic pain (e.g., from a bad disc, bursitis, arthritis, or complex regional pain syndrome), which I discussed here.
A wide range of autoimmune, protein, and contractile disorders, such as scleroderma, amyloidosis, and interstitial cystitis (discussed here).
A variety of head conditions, such as tinnitus, vision loss, dental problems, and sinusitis (discussed here).
A wide range of internal organ diseases, such as pancreatitis, infertility, liver cirrhosis, and endometriosis (discussed here).
A wide range of skin conditions, such as burns, varicose veins, acne, hair loss, ulcers, skin cancer, and many autoimmune dermatologic diseases (discussed here).
Many challenging infectious conditions, including chronic bacterial infections, herpes, and shingles (discussed here).
Many aspects of cancer (e.g., many of cancer’s debilitating symptoms, making cancer treatments more potent, greatly reducing the toxicity of conventional therapies, and turning cancer cells back into normal cells), which I discussed here.
Many lung disorders, including asthma, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, and cystic fibrosis (discussed here).
Sadly, most of us have never heard about it because the FDA spent decades fighting an unconscionable battle to outlaw and erase DMSO from history. While unbelievable, consider for a moment this 1980 report by 60 Minutes that corroborates much of that:
DMSO Combination Therapies
DMSO’s ability to treat a wide range of illnesses results from its having a variety of highly unusual properties that appear to address the root causes of disease. At the same time however, since DMSO has so many different therapeutic mechanisms (e.g., increasing parasympathetic activity, increasing circulation, regenerating senescent cells, being highly anti-inflammatory, blocking pain conduction etc.), despite having now reviewed thousands of studies on it, there is still a great deal I do not understand about the substance.
This is particularly true for one of DMSO’s most noteworthy properties, its ability to enhance the effects of other substances, which in many cases makes it possible to surmount major dilemmas traditionally seen with those therapies. This is particularly important, as while DMSO helps the majority of recipients (e.g., around 85-90% of readers reported relief from chronic pain), in many instances where DMSO alone will not suffice to address an ailment (e.g., pain), a combination therapy will.
Note: in some cases, the lack of efficacy comes from an incorrect method of administration of DMSO (as some applications are more potent for certain types of issues) or using poor quality DMSO.
DMSO’s unique ability to function as a vehicle is due to the fact that it can pass through biological membranes without damaging them, so once it contacts the skin, it rapidly spreads throughout the body, while simultaneously it readily dissolves most substances and is able to bring them with it into the body. Note: DMSO also significantly increases fluid circulation throughout the body (including in and out of cells), further enhancing its ability to spread what it carries throughout the body.
This is very useful as:
•Be able to apply a medication topically or orally that would typically require an IV or injection.
•Allowing lower doses of a drug to be used, which are often much less toxic (as you no longer need to flood the body with it to ensure a high enough concentration is reached in the target area—especially if that area has chronically poor blood flow).
•In many cases, counteract the toxicity of the blended medication (as DMSO protects tissue from injury).
Note: while DMSO cannot be patented, combinations can. As such, while DMSO alone is “unsafe” “ineffective” and “unproven” many “safe and effective” DMSO pharmaceutical combinations exist,including many approved by the FDA.
In turn, virtually all the previous applies to natural therapies as well, and in many cases DMSO is able to solve major challenges with the treatment or dramatically increase its potency and efficacy. Unfortunately, in many cases, it’s hard to say how much of the benefit comes from DMSO vs. what’s added to it, as many of the benefits I see from combination therapies are similar to what DMSO alone could do. Likewise, at this point, we’ve only barely touched the surface of what can be combined with DMSO, and I am relatively certain many more combinations like DMSO and hematoxylin are waiting to be discovered, which have paradigm shifting therapeutic synergies.
Given all of this, there are a few critical points to understand about natural DMSO combination therapies:
•In many cases where DMSO alone does not work for a condition (which DMSO is known to improve), a combination therapy will. For example, yesterday I learned someone I had been suffering from a severe migraine where DMSO didn’t work for her (which for others, it often does), so shortly before going to the ER, she decided to mix DMSO with two botanicals, responded immediately, and within an hour, her three-day migraine was over (which was life-changing for her).
•Many have found that combining DMSO with their favorite natural therapies has allowed them to take medical care into their own hands and “be their own doctor.”
•While DMSO combination therapies are generally safe, there are a variety of risks and safety considerations that need to be taken into consideration, particularly once one begins experimenting with them. It is for this reason that in the previous article, I listed a variety of critical rules to understand when creating your own combination therapies. As such, if you decide to explore creating therapeutic DMSO combinations, you need to read the previous article first (available here).
•While DMSO has a variety of positive pharmaceutical synergies, it appears to work best when combined with natural therapies. Additionally, as natural substances tend to be less toxic than pharmaceuticals, you are much less likely to run into a complication from potentiating a medication (but nonetheless, you should still read the previous article). That said, it is still essential to make sure you use high-quality products to avoid the risk of low-quality ones, which have toxic additives or contaminants in them, and likewise to avoid substances that are known to be toxic or (once filtered and sterile) never appropriate to infuse.
•Much like conventional therapies, many DMSO combinations remain undiscovered, and simultaneously, some of the combinations I’ve seen promoted are likely unnecessary (as DMSO alone would have the same effect).
Additionally, in many cases, natural alternatives to cosmetics can be made by combining pure fats, oils, or herbal extracts with DMSO, which is often quite advantageous, as beyond being quite effective, they avoid the toxicity, reactions, and dehydration of the skin or mucus membranes commonly seen with standard cosmetics.
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Natural Combination Studies
Since DMSO has so much value as a pharmaceutical vehicle, a large volume of scientific literature exists on DMSO being used in combination with pharmaceutical drugs, and many different approved formulations exist (highlighting the absurdity of our medical bureaucracy, as alone, DMSO is “dangerous and unproven” but when combined with other patentable agents “safe and effective”).
As such, I covered that body of literature in the previous article, both to show, contrary to popular belief, that DMSO is widely used in medicine (provided money can be made), and so readers considering combination therapies could gain critical insights into how DMSO combinations interact with the body.
Beyond pharmaceuticals, many approved DMSO products also incorporate natural agents such as dexpanthenol (a form of B5 used for wound healing), menthol, camphor, lavandin, lavender oil, coriander oil, arnica, potassium iodide, or capsicum. In turn, a significant number of studies exist throughout the literature on using natural DMSO combination therapies, which I will now cover (excluding ones where heparin was used, as they are covered in the previous article, which details the majority of the DMSO combination studies).
Note: unless otherwise specified, all DMSO treatments were done topically (frequently with a DMSO containing ointment).
Chinese Herbs
A significant amount of DMSO research has been done in China, which has naturally led to studying it in combination with traditional Chinese Herbs, where together, they have been found to help a wide range of conditions:
•In rats with Alzheimer’s disease, DMSO and Ginkgo biloba extract (GBE), administered for 14 days, improved learning and memory by reducing escape latency and searching distance in a water maze test.
•In 33 patients with severe psoriasis (25 with psoriasis vulgaris 7 with psoriasis guttate 1 with psoriasis pustulosa) found that an extract of camptotheca nuts dissolved in 70% DMSO was a “quick, effective and convenient treatment,” as a year later, 21 had a complete resolution of the disease, while the remaining 12 had greatly improved (but a few eruptions still could be found along with discolored patches of skin, especially on the lower legs where lesions had previously been reported).
•In 31 patients with postherpetic neuralgia, DMSO and a Chinese herbal medicine reduced pain scores and improved symptoms more effectively than standard medical therapy.
•In mice with cervical carcinoma, treatment with 50 mg/kg DMSO combined with 20 mg/kg Zhenhuang injection extended survival by 65.81%–69.83% in ascitic tumors and inhibited solid tumor growth by 60.83%–68.33%, significantly outperforming DMSO alone (21.37%–25.86% survival, 22.50%–25.83% inhibition) or Zhenhuang alone (41.38%–43.59% survival, 37.50%–41.67% inhibition).
•A 15% DMSO, 1% mefenamic acid, and 10% knotweed herb extract ointment, demonstrated significant anti-inflammatory effects in rats by reducing experimentally induced paw edema and having a more prolonged effect over 24 hours than standard care.
•Many studies have shown DMSO enhances the absorption of plant extracts (e.g., for ginseng1,2). In this report, DMSO was found to increase the penetration of traditional ointment (distilled from honeysuckle, dandelion, forsythia, Chinese violet, and salvia miltiorrhiza).
Note: some Chinese formulations combine steroids, DMSO, and borneol (a traditional medicine found in herbs like camphor, rosemary, thyme, ginger, and cannabis).
Vitamins and Nutraceuticals
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) has been combined with DMSO to treat a variety of conditions. For example:
•A 2022 randomized trial of 25 patients (with 28 confirmed basal cell cancers), investigators found when 30% ascorbic acid was combined with 95% DMSO and 0.2–0.3 ml was applied topically twice a day (with a cuticle brush), after 8 weeks, 86.7% of the cancers had completely disappeared, whereas in comparison, after 8 weeks of 5% imiquimod (a common topical skin cancer treatment with side effects), only 57.1% had disappeared. Finally, ascorbic acid had fewer adverse effects than imiquimod (the standard treatment).
•One Russian combination therapy for treating trophic ulcers, wounds, burns, scars, and keloids uses 25-50% DMSO in a hyaluronic gel with collagen or MSM, ascorbic acid, and coenzyme Q10,1,2 while a similar preparation, given as a suppository, was developed for rectal fissures.
Antioxidants such as ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and vitamin E have also been repeatedly used with DMSO to protect tissue from injury. For example, in cases where the blood supply is cut off:
•DMSO, ascorbic acid, glutamine, hydrocortisone succinate and pentoxifylline protected the jejunal (intestinal) lining of horses from its blood supply being temporarily cut off (e.g., there was reduced mucosal erosion and hemorrhage).
•DMSO with alpha lipoic acid or ternatin protected rat testicles from having their blood supply cut off by reducing oxidative stress.
•In rabbits, IV DMSO protected their kidneys from having their blood supply cut off, with an even greater effect seen when N-Acetylcysteine was infused concurrently (e.g., blood markers of kidney damage were reduced and the combined group’s kidneys showed minimal histologic changes).
Likewise, in rats with ARDS (a lung condition that frequently places patients on ventilators):
•Intraperitoneal DMSO maintained blood oxygen levels and superoxide dismutase activity reduced plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) levels and reduced plasma protein and red blood cell leakage into the lungs and significantly protected the capillary alveolar lining. When vitamin E was given as well, lung injury further decreased and lung fluid accumulation was also reduced (evidenced by a reduced wet lung-to-body weight ratio). Other rat studies have also shown DMSO and vitamin E protect the lungs and reduce the severity of ARDS.1,2
•Additionally, another ARDS study found DMSO combined with ginsenosides (from ginseng) prevented lung damage and prevented fluid leakage into the lungs.
Note: DMSO’s ability to reduce chronic pulmonary fibrosis was enhanced by zinc.
Certain chemotherapies will significantly injure tissue if they leak out of the vein (extravasate) into which they are being infused, and many studies show how DMSO effectively treats these injuries.
In both animal and human studies, success has also been obtained from topical DMSO combined with an active form of vitamin E (e.g., in a study of 8 patients and another of 10, it prevented the expected ulceration and tissue death following the extravasation).1,2,3,4
Note: DMSO has also been shown to affect the antioxidant capacity of bioflavonoids.1,2
These combinations also protect from other types of environmental injuries:
•In mice, DMSO and vitamin E protected them from free radical damage due to radiation exposure, with DMSO being more protective than vitamin E, and the combination more protective than either alone.1,2 Note: another study found DMSO with Trasylol and epsilon-aminocaproic acid prevented radiation injuries, while a third found DMSO and CoQ10 healed them.
•A mixture of DMSO and tea polyphenols protected bronchial (airway) cells from genetic damage following cigarette smoke exposure or uranium dust exposure.1,2
Finally, a 1983 study showed the increase in blood flow DMSO created for scleroderma patients (which is quite significant) was even greater when it was mixed with the antispasmodic drotaverine and much greater in the skin (but not muscles) when mixed with niacin (vitamin B3).
Note: a study on the solvation of nicotinamide (vitamin B3) in water–DMSO mixtures found that higher DMSO concentrations reduce hydrogen bonding and enhance conjugation, likely increasing its lipophilicity and topical bioavailability.
Iodine
As iodine has antimicrobial properties and is essential for the body, a variety of papers have explored using DMSO to bring forms of it into target areas such as:
•In 58 patients, negative pressure wound therapy using DMSO and povidone (PVP) iodine was found to be an effective therapy for chronic purulent wounds, trophic ulcers with atherosclerotic lesions of the vessels of the extremities, and diabetic angiopathy.
•A case report, where a 95-year-old female with chronic Demodex (mite) eyelid inflammation received topical 0.25% PVP iodine in a DMSO gel. Unlike previous therapies, this treated her infection.
•DMSO with iodopyron has been found effective against a pseudomonas aeruginosa (a bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotic therapies).
•Topical DMSO and PVP-I, without side effects, have successfully treated molluscum contagiosum (e.g., in the groin of a 14-month old boy and a 63-year old man), making it a promising treatment for the condition.
•In 121 patients with rheumatic pain, treatment combining infrared irradiation with topical application of 20% “681” (defined as a halogen alkali and most likely potassium iodide) and DMSO reduced pain and inflammation, improving symptoms.
•An economical DMSO, silver ion, and iodine formulation was created, which had high potency against bacteria, viruses, and fungi. In livestock, it had a 90-95% success rate in treating purulent-septic diseases, hoof damage, and mastitis (where it did not impair milk production and had no toxicity). Note: at a Chinese hospital, a tincture of iodine was formulated using DMSO as a solvent, which replaced or reduced the traditional use of potassium iodide.
I’ve been using DMSO with 2% povidine iodine (Betadine) for months with great success. Heals diabetic leg ulcers, toenail fungus, and even seems to help with skin cancers.
Other Natural Antimicrobials
A variety of other natural agents, such as vinegar, silver particles, and antimicrobial enzymes, have also shown promise when combined with DMSO.
•A 2023 clinical trial gave an oral DMSO spray containing zinc iodide, ginger extract, propolis extract, and xylitol to patients with mild or moderate COVID-19. Compared to placebo, this treatment caused significant improvements in clinical symptoms, recovery time, and viral clearance.
•DMSO mixed with a variety of different plant extracts was highly effective at inhibiting the growth of Candida infections isolated from patients with mouth cancers (whereas it was resistant to many anti-fungals).
•DMSO with food grade vinegar was found to be an effective treatment for 406 patients with fungal athlete’s foot (59% DMSO 41% vinegar given 3-4 times a day for 3-5 days) and 100 patients with jock itch (40% DMSO 60% vinegar).
•DMSO with lidase was found to be a highly effective treatment for actinomycosis of the face and neck.
•DMSO combined with a nuclease treated meningitis or meningoencephalitis caused by an acute viral respiratory infection.
•In animals, 10% DMSO combined with the fungus Duddingtonia flagrans and 1.87% ivermectin effectively treated parasitic ear inflammation caused by Rhabditis spp.
Additionally, DMSO significantly increased the ability of Annona muricata seed extracts to eliminate mosquitos in the water and after 6 hours, 0.5mg/L killed 62% of larva and 100% of pupae.
Natural Dental Treatments
In dentistry, DMSO reduces inflammation within teeth (pulpitis) and gums (periodontitis), helps eliminate the bacteria causing that inflammation, improves blood flow to teeth, and assists with healing teeth. Because of this, many therapeutic combinations have been developed to use it to treat pulpitis (e.g., with antibiotics) and improve the healing of teeth. Many natural substances have also been used for this:
•50% DMSO and 1 mg/ml oleanolic acid (which is found in many plants including olives) in 30 extracted human teeth with enterococcus faecalis infections rapidly reduced bacteria levels, within 24 hours completely eliminating them, with the combination being more potent than either alone.1,2,3
•DMSO, alone or combined with lysozyme (an antimicrobial activity), effectively treated acute serous limited pulpitis in 95.6% of 120 teeth immediately after treatment, with 93.1% success at 3 months and 82.9% at 24 months, and chronic fibrous pulpitis in 89.3% of 28 teeth immediately, though success dropped to 56.3% at 24 months, showing strong short-term pain relief and inflammation control in dental pulpitis.
•In patients with deep caries and early pulpitis, a 20% DMSO and calcium hydroxide combination used as a pulp-capping treatment significantly reduced inflammation and improved outcomes compared to traditional methods, simplifying the procedure and enhancing short-term effectiveness.
•In 60 patients with localized inflammatory pulpitis, 20% DMSO and calcium hydroxide for pulp capping effectively treated the condition.
•15% DMSO mixed with a herbal extract treated periodontal disease.
•In 20 patients with generalized periodontitis, using electrical currents to direct DMSO, metronidazole, and sodium alginate to the gums improved periodontal health by reducing inflammation indices by 40% immediately and 20% at 6 months, extending remission by 30% compared to the electrical current alone.
•Over two years at Yangzhou People’s Hospital, a compound hydroxyapatite paste combined with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and various pharmaceuticals was used for pulp capping in patients with pulp hyperemia or chronic pulpitis. It effectively reduced tooth sensitivity and promoted pulp preservation in cases with cavities sensitive to cold/heat, pinpoint pulp exposure, or extreme probe sensitivity without spontaneous pain. Identical results were reported in another study. Finally, a third study reported DMSO with calcium hydroxide was an effective pulp capping agent that gradually healed the pulp tissue.
•In extracted human third molars, a solution of 50% DMSO combined with epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) at 0.01–1% concentrations improved long-term dentin bonding stability compared to distilled water or DMSO alone; DMSO likely enhances EGCG penetration through dentin cell membranes to strengthen bonding durability.
Other Head Conditions:
•DMSO plus short-acting insulin and 5% calcium pantothenate (B5) safely treated 42 patients ages 23 to 62 with chronic parenchymatous parotitis.
•Sjogren’s syndrome is quite difficult to treat. In one study, DMSO alone provided significant improvement which was further enhanced by vitamin C.
•In mice with second-degree burn wounds, DMSO, collagen, and dextran accelerated healing and reduced inflammation.
•DMSO mixed with linethol (a flaxseed concentrate with anti-inflammatory, regenerative, and wound-healing properties) treated burns.
•DMSO and Brazilian green propolis effectively reduced inflammation and accelerated surgical wound healing in animals and eliminated the need for oral medications.
Energy Combinations
DMSO delivered with electrical currents has treated a variety of disorders such as:
•Pyelonephritis in children •Healing duodenal ulcers (sometimes in combination with humisol or electrophoresis) and improving gastric acid secretion.1,2,3,4,5•In women with repeated miscarriage and chlamydia cervicitis, in combination with chymotrypsin, magnetic laser therapy, and vibroaspiration, it increased successful pregnancy outcomes by 16.3% compared to standard treatment. •In 85 children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, when combined with magnetotherapy, effectively reduced pain and morning stiffness. •Gastrointestinal diseases in metal industry workers (when used in combination with vitamin E).
Additionally, DMSO, combined with Dynamic Electro-Neuro Stimulation therapy, effectively treated tendinitis in sport horses, reducing inflammation (e.g., inflammatory markers were reduced by 33.8–68.0%) and promoting tissue repair for faster recovery.1,2
Lastly, ultrasound, heated mud, and acupuncture have also been combined with DMSO for a variety of musculoskeletal disorders:
•In rats, DMSO and gold nanoparticles directed by pulsed therapeutic ultrasound treated experimentally induced muscle injury (e.g., muscle injury markers decreased and antioxidant capacity increased).
•Cervical osteochondrosis, a degenerative condition causing neck pain and stiffness due to spinal disc and joint deterioration, is sometimes treated with heated therapeutic mud (due to its anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and muscle-relaxing properties). A 1989 study with 58 participants found applying 25% DMSO beforehand significantly enhanced this therapy, with the response rate going from 50% after 10 applications to 100% after 5-6 applications, with improvement being objectively measured through cervical x-rays, skin thermometry, muscle algotensiometry, and hand dynamometry.
•In patients with ankle joint sprains from physical exercise, treatment with Dolobene (a DMSO-containing gel) combined with acupuncture achieved a 94% effectiveness rate in reducing pain and swelling, outperforming Dolobene alone (80%) and acupuncture alone (66%), with no significant side effects.
Note: healers in many disciplines (e.g., some German physical therapists apply it in areas of pain or inflammation before manual therapy or doing a patient exercise) have reported that DMSO enhances their treatments. Likewise, using DMSO eye drops before eye exercises allows its muscle-relaxing properties to help loosen overstrained or hardened eye muscles, enhancing the effectiveness of exercises to improve eye muscle mobility.
Natural Cancer Combinations
In addition to vitamin C and Chinese herbs, many other natural therapies have been combined with DMSO to treat cancer. For example, many studies have found that infusing it with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is very helpful for reducing cancer symptoms:
•A 2011 study found it significantly benefited patients with metastatic prostate cancer:
•A 2014 study of 9 patients with advanced biliary adenocarcinomas found the same:
•A 2011 study of 26 patients with severe refractory pain from advanced cancers found it was an effective method of pain control that also improved the patient’s quality of life, reduced the side effects of chemotherapy, and possibly increased their length of survival.
•Alpha-lipoic acid was found to significantly enhance DMSO’s ability to differentiate mouse embryonic carcinoma P19 cells, but not to induce differentiation without DMSO.
•Retinoic acid (a vitamin A metabolite) has also shown promise for inducing cancer differentiation, works synergistically with DMSO1,2,3 and uses a different differentiating pathway than DMSO.1,2
•In human ovarian cancer cells (COC1), DMSO and retinoic acid significantly inhibited cell proliferation and induced differentiation.
•A 1969 study found that DMSO, when combined with heat and vitamin A, selectively targeted cancer cells (and facilitated the release of lysosomal enzymes).
•In mice with skin cancer grafts, topical DMSO and vitamin E mixed with cabazitaxel suppressed tumor growth by 50% compared to controls.
•A 2023 study found that fatty acids isolated from the urine of healthy cows and mixed with DMSO was an effective therapy against breast cancer cells.
•A 2018 study found that DMSO and a plant extract selectively arrested cell growth and induced cell death of colon cancer cells.
Lastly, DMSO has been shown to significantly potentiate conventional cancer therapies (and cure challenging cancers). In some cases, these studies also incorporate a natural therapy. For example, a 1975 study of 65 patients with incurable cancers (most of whom had received conventional therapies) found that a low dose of cyclophosphamide mixed in DMSO with GABA, GABOB, and acetylglutamine cured 57 of them.
Other Natural Combinations
•In a 2024 randomized placebo-controlled trial, 62 patients with plantar fasciitis applied a topical solution of phytoterpenes (10% camphor, 5% menthol, 5% eugenol, 2% eucalyptol, 3% vanillin) with 15% DMSO, 1% limonene, and rosemary oil as penetration enhancers twice daily for 10 days. This caused an 85% or greater reduction in pain scores in 78.1% of patients whereas no improvement was seen in the placebo group.
•A 2021 study found DMSO combined with ginsenosides, particularly CK, exhibited significant therapeutic effects on rheumatoid arthritis. In cell studies, it potently inhibited the proliferation of LPS-induced RAW264.7 macrophages and TNF-α-induced HUVEC endothelial cells, while promoting their apoptosis, thus reducing inflammation and pannus formation. In collagen-induced arthritis mice, CK substantially alleviated joint swelling, redness, and functional impairment, preserved joint structure, and reduced proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-6. Additionally, CK modulated the immune response by increasing CD8+ T cells and decreasing activated CD4+ T cells and M1-macrophages, with low toxicity to major organs, positioning it as a promising candidate for RA treatment.
•In rabbits, DMSO protects heart tissue that has lost its blood supply from dying, and this protection was enhanced with the simultaneous administration of hydrogen peroxide. In devascularized skin flaps, DMSO alone prevented carbon dioxide levels from increasing, while hydrogen peroxide was added, tissue oxygen levels then increased.
•A 1980 study gave 129 newborns with epiphysial and meta-epiphysial osteomyelitis DMSO and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which improved their general condition, normalized serum laboratory values, reduced bone destruction, and accelerated bone regeneration. Identical results were achieved in a 1978 study of acute and chronic osteomyelitis, a 1979 study of 43 children with chronic osteomyelitis, and a 1981 study of 54 children with acute septic osteomyelitis (where reduced tissue edema was also seen).
•In 38 patients with strong body odors, in addition to a DMSO aluminum chloride combination, 40% urea in 70% DMSO solution effectively reduced underarm odor. Note: individuals have also reported using DMSO (alone) as a highly effective deodorant.
•D-limonene combined with DMSO, sequentially instilled into the gallbladders of New Zealand rabbits with implanted human gallstones, dissolved stones more effectively than either D-limonene or DMSO alone after 72 hours.
•In 96 patients aged 51–89 with benign prostatic hyperplasia, Dimexide (DMSO) suppositories containing 30 mg prostatilen [prostate peptide] relieved infravesical obstruction symptoms, improving voiding disorders in those with initial or moderate symptoms.
Healing with Natural DMSO Combinations
Despite having gone through over 10,000 studies on DMSO, there is still a great deal I do not understand about the substance, as much remains to be researched; many things have not been extensively explored. This in turn is particularly true for the natural therapeutic combinations, as while I listed quite a few of them in the previous section (which comprise every one I have thus far identified), there are hundreds if not thousands of natural therapies, each of which could be tested in for dozens of things in the body, hence making it impossible most will ever be extensively researched.
Fortunately, the safety and efficacy of DMSO have inspired a large do-it-yourself community, particularly within Germany. As a result, many different combinations have been extensively explored, which have been successfully used to treat a wide range of conditions.
As many of those conditions are ones that DMSO alone has been shown to treat or improve, when I reviewed the reports and accompanying literature, in about half of the cases, I was not sure if the natural therapy being combined with DMSO provided a benefit or if the same results would have happened without DMSO. Nonetheless, there were also many instances where a clear benefit was seen from the natural agent being added to DMSO.
In turn, while many natural substances could be mixed with DMSO, I know of about 120 that have been primarily focused on, many of which I believe were chosen due to their existing popularity within the natural medicine field, and a smaller number of which were adopted due to their unique synergies with DMSO. They are as follows:
When DMSO is chronically used, it can sometimes dehydrate the skin (due to the skin’s oils being drawn inward). For that reason, many individuals find they have a better response to DMSO within a carrier oil, particularly when making natural cosmetics.
Many of these oils also have a variety of other therapeutic properties, which make them popular to use with DMSO (e.g., for skin, prostate, musculoskeletal, or eye issues, along with wound healing, burns, cataracts, CRPS, Alzheimer’s, and hernias). Likewise in some cases, DMSO improves the functionality and utility of a carrier oil already being used in cosmetics.
Note: DMSO can also be diluted in a variety of substances besides water, each of which has unique therapeutic properties (e.g., healing wounds or treating scars) which allow them to enhance DMSO further.
Generally, these combinations aim to extenuate the known properties of the oils. Some treat a variety of infections, many are used for musculoskeletal issues and reducing inflammation, others treat a variety of types of pain such as headaches and sciatica, while others improve circulation, parasympathetic tone, anxiety, digestion, and autoimmune conditions like asthma and psoriasis. Additionally, DMSO lowers the amount of the essential oil needed and makes it much easier to treat conditions that affect the skin and underlying tissues (e.g., infections).
Botanicals — Arnica, Comfrey, Turmeric, Black Cumin Seed Oil, Cayenne Pepper, Pansy Tea, Lemon Balm and Lemon Oil, Eyebright, Strophanthus, Hawthorn, CBD Oil, Amygdalin, Witch Hazel, Nettle Hydrolate, Sulforaphane, Black Salve Extract, Horse Chestnut, Ginger, Green Tea Extract, Daisy Tea, Blueberry Extract, Almond Oil, Neem Oil, Passion Flower, Ginkgo
A few of these have remarkable anti-inflammatory properties, are excellent for healing injuries or pain, and frequently are far more effective than standard preparations of the herb. Many also treat a wide variety of skin conditions (including growths like lipomas and seborrheic keratosis), others address visual and cardiovascular, issues (e.g., cataracts), one has been used to treat Parkinson’s, another for hyperthyroidism, another for seizures, a few are used for anxiety and insomnia and many have been used to improve cognition. Note: many other herbal preparations are also used with DMSO.
Vitamins and Antioxidants — Vitamin C, B12, D, E, K, Glutathione, NAC, MSM, B-complexes, Multivitamins, Alpha-Lipoic-Acid, CoQ10, Superoxide Dismutase
Nutraceuticals are often mixed with DMSO to have greater absorption of them (and increased potency) without requiring them to be injected (e.g., many have remarkable improvements in energy levels from topical DMSO vitamin combinations). In many cases, this has allowed the vitamin to function in a regenerative manner in ways that differ significantly from the standard preparation (e.g., these combinations are frequently used to cure osteoarthritis, hearing loss, loss of smell, and tinnitus) or surmounted a fundamental clinical limitation of the nutraceutical.
Finally, many of these nutraceuticals are used for specific diseases (e.g., prostate enlargement, Parkinson’s, cataracts, glaucoma, COPD, asthma, cystic fibrosis, and a wide variety of stubborn infections throughout the body).
The most common uses for the minerals are musculoskeletal (e.g., healing from injuries, reducing pain, improving wound healing, and muscle relaxation), eliminating infections throughout the body, and treating a variety of glandular issues (e.g., in the thyroid, prostate, and breast). They are also sometimes used for a variety of other diseases (nail fungal overgrowths, protecting the nervous system, improving fatigue, and addressing a variety of joint issues (e.g., arthritis and gout).
Many of these have a remarkable restorative capacity of the body (e.g., many have had success using one to treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome while others have been repeatedly used to rebuild connective tissue, strengthen blood vessels and revitalize the skin).
Most commonly, they are used for cosmetic applications (e.g., toning skin or eliminating excessive fat) or cancer, but many are also used with DMSO to treat varicose veins, neurodegenerative diseases, lymphedema, scars, insulin resistance, fungal infections, gut dysbiosis, and sleep disorders. Note: DMSO has been shown to increase the passage of urea and gylcine through blood cell membranes (which the investigators attributed to it altering membrane fluidity).
Despite the fact that it has been shown in numerous studies,1,2,3Congressional hearings, and readers here have now replicated those results, the facet of DMSO I still find the most unbelievable is that it can treat the physical and cognitive aspects of Down Syndrome (when used in combination with amino acids). Additionally, those results led to exploring using this combination for developmentally delayed children where it also produced significant improvements.1,2,3,4,5
Many of these can also be used for insomnia, anxiety, neurological health, or eye health, tissue repair, and joint issues in a manner far more potent than each of these substances does alone.
These are extremely popular for eliminating a wide range of challenging infections (including chronic Lyme disease, EBV and a wide range of dental infections). They are also often used to treat cancer, treat inflammatory skin conditions (e.g., many experience rapid acne relief), eliminate unwanted skin growths, treat post viral conditions (e.g., long COVID) and improve circulation (along with recovery from strokes or heart attacks).
Note: the DMSO doctors I have been corresponding with have all shared they’re continuing to have significant success combining topical DMSO and CDS with oral ivermectin (or just DMSO with topical ivermectin) for treating cancer.
Dyes — Hematoxylin, Rose Bengal, Methylene Blue, Riboflavin
Hematoxylin, a common pathology dye, when combined with DMSO, is one of the most effective (and easily accessible) cancer therapies I have come across.
Recently it was shown to be an effective treatment for melanoma (when injected directly into the cancer), with a 48% response rate (which increased to 69% with higher doses), along with no side effects and overall increased survival. That 11 person trial inspired a 2015 multicenter trial of 62 stage III and 18 stage IV melanoma patients with refractory cutaneous or subcutaneous metastatic melanoma, of whom 51% responded, 26% had a complete response, and 8% were fully cured a year later (along with no significant side effects to treatment).
These excellent results, and their parallels to hematoxylin, inspired the DMSO community to try mixing it with DMSO, and it has been found to be an effective cancer treatment.
Note: lastly, in addition to being used for cancer treatments, each of these dyes are sometimes used to remove other skin lesions, and with DMSO, some significantly improve energy levels and cognitive function.
Since DMSO is able to open minute circulations within the body (e.g., from the cells to the surrounding interstitial fluid), it is able to both increase the ability of chelating agents to access metals deep within the body or within the brain and then to bring those metals into the circulation so they can be eliminated (e.g., DMSO will often increase urination during detoxification protocols). Because of this, DMSO is frequently observed to significantly increase the amount of metals excreted during chelation sessions, while in tandem, due to its free-radical neutralizing and tissue protective qualities, can also mitigate many of the side effects (e.g., detoxification reactions) from excessive toxic metals (or other toxins) entering the system. Note: DMSO’s metabolite dimethylsulfide has some ability to bind many toxic metals (enabling their excretion through the liver and bile), and one proposed theory for DMSO’s ability to improve autoimmune diseases or neurological disorders relates to its ability to reduce toxic heavy metal burdens (e.g., cases exist of dementia patients with significant metal burdens having their cognition improving from DMSO—and some German doctors now use DMSO chelation protocols to prevent dementia). However, while DMSO has some chelating capacity, its primary role is to enhance the efficacy of other agents by transporting them deeper into the body.
One of the major challenges in integrative medicine is “complex” patients who have numerous debilitating neurologic and autoimmune diseases, as rather than improving from the treatments given to them, often get worse, which results in minute therapeutic doses often being required for the patient to improve, as they are too sensitive to anything else. A variety of opinions exist on what causes patients to enter this state (e.g., I believe it’s strongly linked to an unresolved cell danger response and insufficient zeta potential impairing circulation).
One theory (which has proven itself in clinical practice) is that there is simply too much toxicity in the person’s system, and they do not have the ability to eliminate it. DMSO’s unique capacity to facilitate detoxification (e.g., binding both fat and water-soluble toxins or supporting phase II liver detoxification) is quite compelling. In turn, the experience of the DMSO field has been that DMSO can either trigger or prevent the detoxification reactions seen from chelation, cleanses, and fasts, depending on how it is used, making it potentially an invaluable tool for sensitive patients or typical patients who want to eliminate toxicity from deeper compartments of the body. Note: when cleanses are done in conjunction with DMSO, there is increased urination, which some believe is due to deeper compartments of the body being detoxified.
Additionally, DMSO makes it possible to do chelation protocols which would normally require IV access at home. Finally, certain DMSO-chelator combinations have been used for more unusual applications (e.g., expelling fluoride, treating skin calcinosis, treating spinal stenosis) along with chemical detoxification and treating neurologic diseases resulting from brain toxicity.
Holistic Therapies — Acupuncture, Hypnosis, Meditation, Physical Therapy, Osteopathy, Homeopathy, Red/Near Infrared Light, Bee Venom, Probiotics, Trigger Point Injections, Therapeutic Ultrasound, Cold Water Therapy, Bioresonance and Magnetism, Raw Diets
In the same way that DMSO enhances the therapeutic capacity of physical substances, many other therapies (e.g., acupuncture, physical therapy, or osteopathy) are significantly enhanced when done with DMSO, as are treatments that administer a therapeutic energy to the patient (e.g., infrared light). DMSO also has a relaxing and centering effect, which allows breakthroughs in both therapy (e.g., hypnosis) and self-healing (e.g., meditation). The benefits of many other holistic lifestyle practices (e.g., cold therapy) are enhanced by DMSO, and likewise other integrative therapies (e.g., homeopathy) have been reported to act synergistically with it.
Note: DMSO is also frequently used to create natural home cosmetics. In addition to these often being far more restorative and rejuvenating to the skin than commercial products, they have also become quite popular because they are much safer and more tolerable to the body than synthetic products, which are full of chemicals with varying degrees of toxicity.
Here’s the full, classic version of the “Green Thing” story—often titled “We Didn’t Have the ‘Green Thing’ Back in Our Day”. It’s shared widely and underscores how older generations lived sustainably long before “going green” was a trend:
Full Text: “The Green Thing” We didn’t have the “green thing” back then…
Yesterday at the supermarket checkout, a young cashier suggested to a much older lady that she should bring her own shopping bags because plastic bags aren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized and said, “We didn’t have this ‘green thing’ back in my earlier days.” The young clerk replied, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”
She sighed and said he was right—“Our generation didn’t have the ‘green thing’ in its day.” Then she continued:
Reusable bottles: Back then, we returned milk, soda, and beer bottles to the store. They were sent back to the plant to be washed, sterilized, and refilled—truly recycled. But we didn’t have the “green thing” back then.
Paper bags reused: Grocery stores packaged groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for many things. Most memorable was using them to cover school books—to protect public property and personalize it with our own art. Too bad we didn’t do the “green thing” back then.
Walking vs. driving: We walked up stairs because escalators weren’t in every store or office. We walked to the grocery store instead of getting into a 300‑horsepower car for two blocks. But she was right—we didn’t have the “green thing.”
Reusable diapers & solar drying: We washed baby diapers since disposable diapers didn’t exist. We dried clothes on a line, not with energy-guzzling dryers—wind and solar did the job. Kids wore hand-me-down clothes from siblings, not always brand-new. But again, no “green thing” back then.
One TV/radio per home: There was one TV or radio in the house—not one in every room. Screens were small—handkerchief-sized, not football-pitch sized. We blended and stirred by hand—no electric mixers. We packed fragile items in old newspapers, not Styrofoam. We mowed lawns with push mowers powered by human energy and got exercise by working—not by using treadmills at health clubs. Still no “green thing.”
Fountains, refillable pens, and blades: We drank from fountains or taps instead of plastic bottles. We refilled pens with ink and replaced razor blades instead of tossing the entire razor. Still, no “green thing.”
Public transport & minimal gadgets: We took buses or streetcars. Kids rode bikes or walked to school, not turning moms into 24-hour taxi services with SUVs costing as much as a house. There was one electrical outlet per room—not banks of sockets to power dozens of gadgets. And we didn’t need space-age tech to locate the nearest leisure park. But why lament our so-called wastefulness when we never had the “green thing”?
I visited the Maritime Museum in Bayfield Wisconsin, right on the shores of Lake Superior. The curator of the museum gave me some information on the wreck, which was mind-blousing considering I have never seen it released before, he was present during the investigation, but not part of the investigation.
I did quite a bit of research that night, but did not come to a final conclusion.
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, invested in the iron and minerals industries on a large scale, including the construction of Edmund Fitzgerald, which represented the first such investment by any American life insurance company.[9] In 1957, they contracted Great Lakes Engineering Works (GLEW), of River Rouge, Michigan, to design and construct the ship “within a foot of the maximum length allowed for passage through the soon-to-be completed Saint Lawrence Seaway.”[10] The ship’s value at that time was $7 million (equivalent to $58.1 million in 2023).[11]Edmund Fitzgerald was the first laker built to the maximum St. Lawrence Seaway size,[12] which was 730 feet (222.5 m) long, 75 feet (22.9 m) wide, and with a 25 foot (7.6 m) draft.[13] The moulded depth (roughly speaking, the vertical height of the hull) was 39 ft (12 m).[5] The hold depth (the inside height of the cargo hold) was 33 ft 4 in (10.16 m).[5][6] GLEW laid the first keel plate on August 7 the same year.[14]
With a deadweight capacity of 26,000 long tons (29,120 short tons; 26,417 t),[6] and a 729-foot (222 m) hull, Edmund Fitzgerald was the longest ship on the Great Lakes, earning her the title Queen of the Lakes[12] until September 17, 1959, when the 730-foot (222.5 m) SS Murray Bay was launched.[15]Edmund Fitzgerald‘s three central cargo holds[16] were loaded through 21 watertight cargo hatches, each 11 by 48 feet (3.4 by 14.6 m) of 5⁄16-inch-thick (7.9 mm) steel.[17] Originally coal-fired, her boilers were converted to burn oil during the 1971–72 winter layup.[18] In 1969, the ship’s maneuverability was improved by the installation of a diesel-powered bow thruster.[19]
By ore freighter standards, the interior of Edmund Fitzgerald was luxurious. Her J.L. Hudson Company–designed furnishings[20] included deep pile carpeting, tiled bathrooms, drapes over the portholes, and leather swivel chairs in the guest lounge. There were two guest staterooms for passengers. Air conditioning extended to the crew quarters, which featured more amenities than usual. A large galley and fully stocked pantry supplied meals for two dining rooms. Edmund Fitzgerald‘s pilothouse was outfitted with “state-of-the-art nautical equipment and a beautiful map room.”[21]
Name and launch
Flag of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald
Northwestern Mutual wanted to name the ship after its president and chairman of the board, Edmund Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald’s own grandfather and all great uncles had themselves been lake captains,[22] and his father owned the Milwaukee Drydock Company, which built and repaired ships.[23] Fitzgerald had attempted to dissuade the naming of the ship after himself, proposing the names Centennial, Seaway, Milwaukee and Northwestern. The board was resolute, and Edmund abstained from voting; the 36 board members voted unanimously to name her the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.[24] More than 15,000 people attended Edmund Fitzgerald‘s christening and launch ceremony on June 7, 1958. The event was plagued by misfortunes. When Elizabeth Fitzgerald, wife of Edmund Fitzgerald, tried to christen the ship by smashing a champagne bottle over the bow, it took her three attempts to break it. A delay of 36 minutes followed while the shipyard crew struggled to release the keel blocks. Upon sideways launch, the ship created a large wave, dousing the spectators, then crashed into a pier before righting herself. Other witnesses later said they swore the ship was “trying to climb right out of the water”.[25] On September 22, 1958, Edmund Fitzgerald completed nine days of sea trials.[26]
Career
SS Edmund Fitzgerald under way
Northwestern Mutual’s normal practice was to purchase ships for operation by other companies.[27] In Edmund Fitzgerald‘s case, they signed a 25-year contract with Oglebay Norton Corporation to operate the vessel.[16] Oglebay Norton immediately designated Edmund Fitzgerald the flagship of its Columbia Transportation fleet.[21]
Edmund Fitzgerald was a record-setting workhorse, often beating her own milestones.[6] The vessel’s record load for a single trip was 27,402 long tons (30,690 short tons; 27,842 t) in 1969.[6] For 17 years, Edmund Fitzgerald carried taconite from Minnesota’s Iron Range mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo, and other ports. She set seasonal haul records six different times.[7] Her nicknames included “Fitz”, “Pride of the American Side”,[28] “Mighty Fitz”, “Toledo Express”,[29] “Big Fitz”,[30] and the “Titanic of the Great Lakes”.[31] Loading Edmund Fitzgerald with taconite pellets took about four and a half hours, while unloading took around 14 hours. A round trip between Superior, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, usually took her five days and she averaged 47 similar trips per season.[32] The vessel’s usual route was between Superior, Wisconsin, and Toledo, Ohio, although her port of destination could vary.[29] By November 1975, Edmund Fitzgerald had logged an estimated 748 round trips on the Great Lakes and covered more than a million miles, “a distance roughly equivalent to 44 trips around the world.”[33]
Up until a few weeks before her loss, passengers had traveled on board as company guests. Frederick Stonehouse wrote:
Stewards treated the guests to the entire VIP routine. The cuisine was reportedly excellent and snacks were always available in the lounge. A small but well-stocked kitchenette provided the drinks. Once each trip, the captain held a candlelight dinner for the guests, complete with mess-jacketed stewards and special “clamdigger” punch.[34]
Because of her size, appearance, string of records, and “DJ captain,”[6]Edmund Fitzgerald became a favorite of boat watchers throughout her career. Although Captain Peter Pulcer was in command of Edmund Fitzgerald on trips when cargo records were set, “he is best remembered … for piping music day or night over the ship’s intercom system” while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers.[6] While navigating the Soo Locks he would often come out of the pilothouse and use a bullhorn to entertain tourists with a commentary on details about Edmund Fitzgerald.[6]
In 1969, Edmund Fitzgerald received a safety award for eight years of operation without a time-off worker injury.[6] The vessel ran aground in 1969, and she collided with SS Hochelaga in 1970. Later that same year, she struck the wall of a lock, an accident repeated in 1973 and 1974. On January 7, 1974, she lost her original bow anchor in the Detroit River.[35] None of these mishaps were considered serious or unusual.[36]Freshwater ships are built to last more than half a century, and Edmund Fitzgerald would have still had a long career ahead of her when she sank.[9]
Final voyage and wreck
The National Transportation Safety Board map of probable course of Edmund Fitzgerald and Arthur M. Anderson
Ernest M. McSorley (September 29, 1912 – November 10, 1975) was the last captain of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, perishing along with the other 28 members of his crew on November 10, 1975.[37][38]Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, at 2:15 p.m. on the afternoon of November 9, 1975,[39] under the command of Captain McSorley. She was en route to the steel mill on Zug Island, near Detroit, Michigan,[40] with a cargo of 26,116 long tons (29,250 short tons; 26,535 t) of taconite ore pellets and soon reached her full speed of 16.3 miles per hour (14.2 kn; 26.2 km/h).[41] Around 5 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald joined a second freighter under the command of Captain Jesse B. “Bernie” Cooper, Arthur M. Anderson, destined for Gary, Indiana, out of Two Harbors, Minnesota.[42] The weather forecast was not unusual for November and the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted that a storm would pass just south of Lake Superior by 7 a.m. on November 10.[43]
SS Wilfred Sykes loaded opposite Edmund Fitzgerald at the Burlington Northern Dock #1 and departed at 4:15 p.m., about two hours after Edmund Fitzgerald. In contrast to the NWS forecast, Captain Dudley J. Paquette of Wilfred Sykes predicted that a major storm would directly cross Lake Superior. From the outset, he chose a route that took advantage of the protection offered by the lake’s north shore to avoid the worst effects of the storm. The crew of Wilfred Sykes followed the radio conversations between Edmund Fitzgerald and Arthur M. Anderson during the first part of their trip and overheard their captains deciding to take the regular Lake Carriers’ Association downbound route.[44] The NWS altered its forecast at 7:00 p.m., issuing gale warnings for the whole of Lake Superior.[45]Arthur M. Anderson and Edmund Fitzgerald altered course northward, seeking shelter along the Ontario shore,[42] where they encountered a winter storm at 1:00 a.m. on November 10. Edmund Fitzgerald reported winds of 52 knots (96 km/h; 60 mph) and waves 10 feet (3.0 m) high.[46] Captain Paquette of Wilfred Sykes reported that after 1 a.m., he overheard McSorley say that he had reduced the ship’s speed because of the rough conditions. Paquette said he was stunned to later hear McSorley, who was not known for turning aside or slowing down, state that “we’re going to try for some lee from Isle Royale. You’re walking away from us anyway … I can’t stay with you.”[44]
At 2:00 a.m. on November 10, the NWS upgraded its warnings from gale to storm, forecasting winds of 35–50 knots (65–93 km/h; 40–58 mph).[47] Until then, Edmund Fitzgerald had followed Arthur M. Anderson, which was travelling at a constant 14.6 miles per hour (12.7 kn; 23.5 km/h),[42] but the faster Edmund Fitzgerald pulled ahead at about 3:00 a.m.[48] As the storm center passed over the ships, they experienced shifting winds, with wind speeds temporarily dropping as wind direction changed from northeast to south and then northwest.[46] After 1:50 p.m., when Arthur M. Anderson logged winds of 50 knots (93 km/h; 58 mph), wind speeds again picked up rapidly, and it began to snow at 2:45 p.m., reducing visibility; Arthur M. Anderson lost sight of Edmund Fitzgerald, which was about 16 miles (26 km) ahead at the time.[49]
Shortly after 3:30 p.m., Captain McSorley radioed Arthur M. Anderson to report that Edmund Fitzgerald was taking on water and had lost two vent covers and a fence railing. The vessel had also developed a list.[50] Two of Edmund Fitzgerald‘s six bilge pumps ran continuously to discharge shipped water.[51] McSorley said that he would slow his ship down so that Arthur M. Anderson could close the gap between them.[50] In a broadcast shortly afterward, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) warned all shipping that the Soo Locks had been closed and they should seek safe anchorage. Shortly after 4:10 p.m., McSorley called Arthur M. Anderson again to report a radar failure and asked Arthur M. Anderson to keep track of them.[52]Edmund Fitzgerald, effectively blind, slowed to let Arthur M. Anderson come within a 10-mile (16 km) range so she could receive radar guidance from the other ship.[53]
For a time, Arthur M. Anderson directed Edmund Fitzgerald toward the relative safety of Whitefish Bay; then, at 4:39 p.m., McSorley contacted the USCG station in Grand Marais, Michigan, to inquire whether the Whitefish Point light and navigation beacon were operational. The USCG replied that their monitoring equipment indicated that both instruments were inactive.[54] McSorley then hailed any ships in the Whitefish Point area to report the state of the navigational aids, receiving an answer from Captain Cedric Woodard of Avafors between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. that the Whitefish Point light was on but not the radio beacon.[48] Woodard testified to the Marine Board that he overheard McSorley say, “Don’t allow nobody on deck,”[55] as well as something about a vent that Woodard could not understand.[56] Some time later, McSorley told Woodard, “I have a ‘bad list’, I have lost both radars, and am taking heavy seas over the deck in one of the worst seas I have ever been in.”[57]
By late in the afternoon of November 10, sustained winds of over 50 knots (93 km/h; 58 mph) were recorded by ships and observation points across eastern Lake Superior.[58]Arthur M. Anderson logged sustained winds as high as 58 knots (107 km/h; 67 mph) at 4:52 p.m.,[52] while waves increased to as high as 25 feet (7.6 m) by 6:00 p.m.[59]Arthur M. Anderson was also struck by 70-to-75-knot (130 to 139 km/h; 81 to 86 mph) gusts[58] and rogue waves as high as 35 feet (11 m).[60]
At approximately 7:10 p.m., when Arthur M. Anderson notified Edmund Fitzgerald of an upbound ship and asked how she was doing, McSorley reported, “We are holding our own.” She was never heard from again. No distress signal was received, and ten minutes later, Arthur M. Anderson lost the ability either to reach Edmund Fitzgerald by radio or to detect her on radar.[55]
Search
One of Edmund Fitzgerald‘s lifeboats, on display at the Valley Camp museum ship
Captain Cooper of Arthur M. Anderson first called the USCG in Sault Ste. Marie at 7:39 p.m. on channel 16, the radio distress frequency. The USCG responders instructed him to call back on channel 12 because they wanted to keep their emergency channel open and they were having difficulty with their communication systems, including antennas blown down by the storm.[61] Cooper then contacted the upbound saltwater vessel Nanfri and was told that she could not pick up Edmund Fitzgerald on her radar either. Despite repeated attempts to raise the USCG, Cooper was not successful until 7:54 p.m. when the officer on duty asked him to keep watch for a 16-foot (4.9 m) boat lost in the area.[62] At about 8:25 p.m., Cooper again called the USCG to express his concern about Edmund Fitzgerald[63] and at 9:03 p.m. reported her missing.[64] Petty Officer Philip Branch later testified, “I considered it serious, but at the time it was not urgent.”[65]
Lacking appropriate search-and-rescue vessels to respond to Edmund Fitzgerald‘s disaster,[65] at approximately 9:00 p.m., the USCG asked Arthur M. Anderson to turn around and look for survivors. Around 10:30 p.m., the USCG asked all commercial vessels anchored in or near Whitefish Bay to assist in the search.[66] The initial search for survivors was carried out by Arthur M. Anderson, and a second freighter, SS William Clay Ford. The efforts of a third freighter, the Toronto-registered SS Hilda Marjanne, were foiled by the weather. The USCG sent a buoy tender, Woodrush, from Duluth, Minnesota, but it took two and a half hours to launch and a day to travel to the search area. The Traverse City, Michigan, USCG station launched an HU-16 fixed-wing search aircraft that arrived on the scene at 10:53 p.m. while an HH-52 USCG helicopter with a 3.8-million-candlepower searchlight arrived at 1:00 a.m. on November 11.[67]Canadian Coast Guard aircraft joined the three-day search and the Ontario Provincial Police established and maintained a beach patrol all along the eastern shore of Lake Superior.[68]
Although the search recovered debris, including lifeboats and rafts, none of the crew were found.[69] On her final voyage, Edmund Fitzgerald‘s crew of 29 consisted of the captain; the first, second, and third mates; five engineers; three oilers; a cook; a wiper; two maintenance men; three watchmen; three deckhands; three wheelsmen; two porters; a cadet; and a steward. Most of the crew were from Ohio and Wisconsin;[70] their ages ranged from 20 (watchman Karl A. Peckol) to 63 (Captain McSorley).[71]
Edmund Fitzgerald is among the largest and best-known vessels lost on the Great Lakes,[72] but she is not alone on the Lake Superior seabed in that area. In the years between 1816, when Invincible was lost, and 1975, when Edmund Fitzgerald sank, the Whitefish Point area had claimed at least 240 ships.[73]
Wreck discovery and surveys
A USCG drawing of the relative positions of the wreck parts
Wreck discovery
A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft, piloted by Lt. George Conner and equipped to detect magnetic anomalies usually associated with submarines, found the wreck on November 14, 1975 in Canadian waters close to the international boundary at a depth of 530 feet (160 m). Edmund Fitzgerald lies about 15 miles (13 nmi; 24 km) west of Deadman’s Cove, Ontario; about 8 miles (7.0 nmi; 13 km) northwest of Pancake Bay Provincial Park; and 17 miles (15 nmi; 27 km) from the entrance to Whitefish Bay to the southeast.[55] A further November 14–16 survey by the USCG using a side scan sonar revealed two large objects lying close together on the lake floor. The U.S. Navy also contracted Seaward, Inc., to conduct a second survey between November 22 and 25.[74]
Underwater surveys
From May 20 to 28, 1976, the U.S. Navy dived on the wreck using its unmanned submersible, CURV-III, and found Edmund Fitzgerald lying in two large pieces in 530 feet (160 m) of water. Navy estimates put the length of the bow section at 276 feet (84 m) and that of the stern section at 253 feet (77 m). The bow section stood upright in the mud, some 170 feet (52 m) from the stern section that lay capsized at a 50-degree angle from the bow. In between the two broken sections lay a large mass of taconite pellets and scattered wreckage lying about, including hatch covers and hull plating.[75]
In 1980, during a Lake Superior research dive expedition, marine explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau, the son of Jacques Cousteau, sent two divers from RV Calypso in the first manned submersible dive to Edmund Fitzgerald.[76] The dive was brief, and although the dive team drew no final conclusions, they speculated that Edmund Fitzgerald had broken up on the surface.[77]
The Michigan Sea Grant Program organized a three-day dive to survey Edmund Fitzgerald in 1989. The primary objective was to record 3-D videotape for use in museum educational programs and the production of documentaries. The expedition used a towed survey system (TSS Mk1) and a self-propelled, tethered, free-swimming remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV). The Mini Rover ROV was equipped with miniature stereoscopic cameras and wide-angle lenses in order to produce 3-D images. The towed survey system and the Mini Rover ROV were designed, built and operated by Chris Nicholson of Deep Sea Systems International, Inc.[78] Participants included the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Geographic Society, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS), and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the latter providing RV Grayling as the support vessel for the ROV.[79] The GLSHS used part of the five hours of video footage produced during the dives in a documentary and the National Geographic Society used a segment in a broadcast. Frederick Stonehouse, who wrote one of the first books on the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck, moderated a 1990 panel review of the video that drew no conclusions about the cause of Edmund Fitzgerald‘s sinking.[80]
Canadian explorer Joseph B. MacInnis organized and led six publicly funded dives to Edmund Fitzgerald over a three-day period in 1994.[81]Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution provided Edwin A. Link as the support vessel, and their manned submersible, Celia.[79] The GLSHS paid $10,000 for three of its members to each join a dive and take still pictures.[82] MacInnis concluded that the notes and video obtained during the dives did not provide an explanation why Edmund Fitzgerald sank.[83] The same year, longtime sport diver Fred Shannon formed Deepquest Ltd., and organized a privately funded dive to the wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald, using Delta Oceanographic’s submersible, Delta.[84] Deepquest Ltd. conducted seven dives and took more than 42 hours of underwater video[85] while Shannon set the record for the longest submersible dive to Edmund Fitzgerald at 211 minutes.[86] Prior to conducting the dives, Shannon studied NOAA navigational charts and found that the international boundary had changed three times before its publication by NOAA in 1976.[87] Shannon determined that based on GPS coordinates from the 1994 Deepquest expedition, “at least one-third of the two acres of immediate wreckage containing the two major portions of the vessel is in U.S. waters because of an error in the position of the U.S.–Canada boundary line shown on official lake charts.”[88]
Shannon’s group discovered the remains of a crew member partly dressed in coveralls and wearing a life jacket alongside the bow of the ship, indicating that at least one of the crew was aware of the possibility of sinking.[89][90] The life jacket had deteriorated canvas and “what is thought to be six rectangular cork blocks … clearly visible.”[91] Shannon concluded that “massive and advancing structural failure” caused Edmund Fitzgerald to break apart on the surface and sink.[40]
MacInnis led another series of dives in 1995 to salvage the bell from Edmund Fitzgerald.[92] The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians backed the expedition by co-signing a loan in the amount of $250,000.[93] Canadian engineer Phil Nuytten‘s atmospheric diving suit, known as the Newtsuit, was used to retrieve the bell from the ship, replace it with a replica, and put a beer can in Edmund Fitzgerald‘s pilothouse.[94] That same year, Terrence Tysall and Mike Zee set multiple records when they used trimix gas to scuba dive to Edmund Fitzgerald. The pair are the only people known to have touched the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck. They also set records for the deepest scuba dive on the Great Lakes and the deepest shipwreck dive, and were the first divers to reach Edmund Fitzgerald without the aid of a submersible. It took six minutes to reach the wreck, six minutes to survey it, and three hours to resurface to avoid decompression sickness, also known as “the bends”.[95]
Restrictions on surveys
Under the Ontario Heritage Act, activities on registered archeological sites require a license.[96] In March 2005, the Whitefish Point Preservation Society accused the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) of conducting an unauthorized dive to Edmund Fitzgerald. Although the director of the GLSHS admitted to conducting a sonar scan of the wreck in 2002, he denied such a survey required a license at the time it was carried out.[97]
An April 2005 amendment to the Ontario Heritage Act allows the Ontario government to impose a license requirement on dives, the operation of submersibles, side scan sonars, or underwater cameras within a designated radius around protected sites.[98][99] Conducting any of those activities without a license would result in fines of up to CA$1 million.[100] On the basis of the amended law, to protect wreck sites considered “watery graves”, the Ontario government issued updated regulations in January 2006, including an area with a 500-meter (1,640 ft) radius around Edmund Fitzgerald and other specifically designated marine archeological sites.[101][102] In 2009, a further amendment to the Ontario Heritage Act imposed licensing requirements on any type of surveying device.[103]
Hypotheses on the cause of sinking
Extreme weather and sea conditions play a role in all of the published hypotheses regarding Edmund Fitzgerald‘s sinking, but they differ on the other causal factors.[104]
In 2005, NOAA and the NWS ran a computer simulation, including weather and wave conditions, covering the period from November 9, 1975, until the early morning of November 11.[105] Analysis of the simulation showed that two separate areas of high-speed wind appeared over Lake Superior at 4:00 p.m. on November 10. One had speeds in excess of 43 knots (80 km/h; 49 mph) and the other winds in excess of 40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph).[106] The southeastern part of the lake, the direction in which Edmund Fitzgerald was heading, had the highest winds. Average wave heights increased to near 19 feet (5.8 m) by 7:00 p.m., November 10, and winds exceeded 50 mph (43 kn; 80 km/h) over most of southeastern Lake Superior.[107]
Edmund Fitzgerald sank at the eastern edge of the area of high wind[108] where the long fetch, or distance that wind blows over water, produced significant waves averaging over 23 feet (7.0 m) by 7:00 p.m. and over 25 feet (7.6 m) at 8:00 p.m. The simulation also showed one in 100 waves reaching 36 feet
A smug attitude rooted in good looks or “designer DNA.”
Gene Aristocracy
Beauty or privilege framed as an inherited ruling class.
Hot Privilege
Getting perks in life for being attractive, like “pretty privilege” but more meme-y.
DNA Flex
When someone (or a brand) shows off their genes like they earned them.
Chromosome Clout
Social power gained by having ideal traits, naturally or surgically enhanced.
Beauty Bourgeoisie
The elite class of those who live above average due to their face card.
Genetic Gloating
Publicly basking in the glow of one’s DNA fortune.
Aesthetics Autocracy
A society ruled by the genetically gifted.
Vanity Vector
The idea that hotness propagates through media like a virus.
BioNarcissism
Narcissism sourced from biology, not behavior.
The Genome Gap
The growing divide between the “genetically gifted” and the rest.
Insta-Eugenics
Selection of influencers and models by algorithmic beauty standards.
Born Beautiful Bias
Subtle (or not-so-subtle) cultural favoritism for naturally attractive people.
Looks Meritocracy Myth
The lie that beauty is earned.
Mitochondria Chic
The meme version of “beauty energy” — a nod to the powerhouse of the cell.
Gene Supremacy
A dangerous level of hotness-fueled self-worth.
Would you like a short graphic or meme image mockup that uses some of these? Or would you like them turned into a table or Word doc for blog or social post use?
stock here: Ugly females are the worst, they don’t get any societal benefit from being desirable, and they are pissed about that….not enough to change, but enough to take it out on people anyway they can.
The video is at the bottom. Even Musk has weighed in on this “show me the context” of your shit hole city. The female “police chief” already has a lawsuit against her for discrimination against whites. What money and wokeness can “accomplish”
—————————————————— Here are 3 of the perps, one released this month on 4 serious charges, with a $400 bond, 1 day of crack.
don’t seem to understand along with all the commenters about how we don’t understand what happened first….. that the context is skewed We actually did see it and fully understand that the white guy started the issue slapping the other man And if the police want to arrest him for assault then they are well within their rights The PROBLEM is what happened next…. the FACT that at least a dozen thugs that had nothing to do with it jumped in to assault and try and kill multiple people The FACT that one thing took it upon herself to hit and severely hurt a woman that was looking to diffuse the situation The FACT that one thug came up behind someone and sucker punched a guy and then ran away like a coward The FACT that multiple thugs kept trying to kill the guys by stomping on his head when he was on the ground defenseless and injured already The FACT that the crowd of thugs were delighting in watching this mob hurt people simply because of their race
is TERRIFIED and angry that this one is viral and instead of just sweeping it under the rug she WILL be forced to arrest thugs for this and she is afraid of the violence that will result This video was HORRIBLE for you all and you know it
🎯 Tariffs Are Indirect Taxes on Citizens While tariffs are technically taxes on imported goods, the economic reality is that the cost is almost always passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. So when one country imposes a tariff:
Importers pay the tariff at the border.
They then raise the price of those goods to maintain profit margins.
You, the consumer, end up paying more at the store — not the foreign company being targeted.
🌐 Mutual Tariffs = Mutual Citizen Punishment When two countries engage in tit-for-tat tariffs (say, U.S. vs. China or EU vs. UK), it becomes a:
Political tool (to protect local industries or retaliate).
Distraction from domestic issues — politicians can say “We’re being tough on China” even while the price of electronics or tools rises locally.
So while tariffs are presented as a foreign punishment, the effects are domestic and immediate:
Who Pays? How They Pay Consumers Higher retail prices Importers Upfront duties (later passed on) Exporters (indirectly) Through reduced market access Workers In some sectors, via layoffs or reduced hours
📊 Example: U.S. Tariffs on Washing Machines (2018) The Trump administration imposed a tariff on imported washing machines.
Prices of all washing machines (including U.S.-made) went up ~$86 on average.
Fewer choices, higher prices — citizens bore the cost.
🧠 Bottom Line Yes, mutual tariffs are a form of indirect taxation, often justified as economic protectionism or leverage — but they disproportionately hurt the people, not the governments. It’s taxation disguised as patriotism.
The Israeli record of massacres, extrajudicial killings and daily harassment of Palestinian comprises a continuum of criminal behavior over the past 67 years. Given the overwhelming evidence, the prosecution team therefore decided to focus on key cases, which were extensively reported in the news media and/or were subject of investigations. These included:
– the September 1982 massacre of Palestinians, mainly women and children, at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in a southwest district of Beirut, Lebanon;
– lethal firing of teargas canisters and “rubber” bullets by Israeli Defense Forces that resulted in the deaths of unarmed civilians during the Intifada campaigns and subsequent protests; and
– intensive and indiscriminate aerial bombing and artillery shelling of civilian quarters in the Gaza Strip in 2008.
Among the witnesses who testified in person or via video transmission included:
– a former university student who was shot without warning at a peaceful protest by an Israeli sniper firing a fragmentary bullet that caused extensive and permanent damage to his internal organs;
– a Christian resident of the West Bank who was repeatedly imprisoned and tortured on grounds of subversion;
– a female resident of Nablus who suffered mental anxiety due to her imprisonment and subsequent social ostracism; and
– two men from the Al Sammouni clan of Gaza, which lost 21 family members, mainly children and women, in an Israeli commando raid on their home.
– a Palestinian physician who conducted studies on the psychological trauma inflicted, particularly on children, as result of constant intimidation, massive violence and state terror during and following the second Intifada;
– expert witness Paola Manduca, an Italian chemist and toxicologist, who found extreme levels of toxic contamination of the soil and water across the Gaza Strip caused by Israeli weapons made of heavy metals and cancer-causing compounds.
Killing Fields
Professor Pappe said that the mass killing of defenseless civilians trapped without avenues of escape within a cordon or enclosure is clear evidence of genocidal policy, as happened inside the Beirut refugee camps surrounded by Israeli tanks and hostile Phalangist militiamen and inside Gaza cities that are ringed by a wall-fence.
For the Beirut atrocity, Israeli Defense Force commander General Amos Yaron was charged in absentia for crimes against humanity and genocide. Among the witnesses who testified in person on the Camps Sabra and Shatilla events were:
– Chahira Abouardini, a widow whose husband and three children were murdered by Israeli-allied militiamen at Camp Shatilla, provided a graphic account of the carnage, describing piles of bullet-riddled bodies and, in one case, of a pregnant women whose belly had been slit open and with her dead unborn child left on top of her corpse. She recounted how refugees were rounded up from their homes and lined against walls for summary execution by automatic weapons fire.
– Dr. Ang Swee Chai, a London-based Singaporean surgeon and medical volunteer at the time at a hospital run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, with the aid of the International Committee of the Red Cross, testified that another Beirut hospital had been bombed by Israeli jets, all Palestinian facilities including schools and hospitals were deliberately destroyed by artillery barrages and explosive charges, and ambulances were intercepted and their drivers shot dead. She stated that an Israeli observation post positioned in the 7-storey Kuwaiti Embassy, located on a hilltop, had an unobstructed view of the refugee camp, indicating that the Israeli forces were directing a joint operation to exterminate the refugees left behind under the international plan to withdraw the PLO from Lebanon. In her forensic investigation of the bullet wound that injured a male nurse at her hospital, Dr. Ang determined that the sniper fire had come from the Israeli-occupied Embassy building.
Considering the Israeli checkpoints on roads and its vantage points, Brigadier General Amos Yaron as field commander of the Beirut incursion and occupation, had effective control over the camps. His close liaison with the local militia leader meant that Yaron had condoned the 36-hour rampage by militiamen, which led to an estimated 3,500 civilian deaths. No orders were issued to prevent the one-sided violence, prosecutor Aziz Rahman argued before the Tribunal. A 1983 special commission report, under its chairman Nobel Laureate Sean MacBride, concluded that Israel had “complicity in genocide.” Research findings gathered since then indicate that Yaron was not merely complicit but held personal responsibility for the massacre.
A point contested by the Amicus Curae defense team was that then Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, an official of superior rank, should have been prosecuted instead of Gen. Yaron. (The prosecution had earlier declined to serve notice on Sharon, who has been in a coma for many years and is unable to testify in hisown defense. Moreover, Yaron had wide sway of authority as field commander in a battle zone outside the borders of Israel.) Prosecutor Gurdial Singh pointed out that Israel not only failed to file criminal charges against Yaron and his subordinates but subsequently awarded and repeatedly promoted the general and his circle. Yaron was therefore found guilty as accused.
Responsibility of the State
International law has traditionally taken for granted the immunity of states from prosecution by a court in another country. There are several reasons for immunity of states, even for high crimes such as genocide and serious violations of various humanitarian codes.
– International law and the treaty system are based on the principle of equality among states, which are parties to and enforcers of international agreements. The criminal conviction of a state for serious crimes would automatically weigh against the accused party, thereby causing an imbalance in relations and introducing unfairness to the international system.
-The sovereignty of states is a fundamental protection against aggression or undue interference by a foreign state or alliance of nation-states.
– As argued by defense counsel Matthew Witbrodt, prosecution of and penalties imposed on a state would result in collective punishment of all of its citizens. (Since the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, the international community has tried to avoid forms of collective punishment, including heavy war reparations.)
On the other side of the coin, total immunity for the state can encourage violations of international law by dictatorial, racist and/or bigoted regimes. The absence of legal challenge by foreign courts therefore leaves few legitimate means to pressure the offending state. The more “peaceful” methods include economic sanctions, which can be interpreted as a type of collective punishment against a victimized citizenry.
With no legal recourse to counter mass atrocities, other states then must launch interventions through extralegal and often illegal strategies of covert warfare, proxy insurgencies or biased peacekeeping operations. The subsequent invasion and occupation by self-appointed saviors can be more harmful to the people, and to the principles of law, than the original violations of the offending regime.
Thus, quoting its opinion upon the verdict, a “reason the Tribunal wishes to reject the doctrine of absolute state immunity from prosecution in matters of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity is that the existing international law on war and peace, and humanitarianism, is being enforced in a grossly inequitable manner. Small, weak nations, mostly in Africa and Asia, are periodically subjected to devastating sanctions, military interventions and regime changes. At the same time, unbearable atrocities and brutalities are inflicted on the military weak nations of Latin America, Africa and Asia by powerful nations in the North Atlantic and their allies go unscrutinized and unpunished.”
The alternative to the law of the jungle applied by self-appointed unilateral powers or coalitions of the willing is the reform of international law to balance sovereignty with the responsibility of the state for high crimes such as genocide.
Restricting Sovereignty
In its opinion on the ruling, the Tribunal therefore offered a rational method for limiting sovereignty in cases of gross crimes: “Where there is a conflict between two principles of law, the one hierarchically higher in importance should prevail. To our mind, the international law doctrine against impleading (suing) a foreign state, being lower than that that of the prohibition against genocide, resulted in the charge against the State of Israel.”
The Tribunal did not spell out how a genocide ruling can be enforced or provide a model for a reconstitution of state. Presumably and theoretically, the general effect of genocide-based restrictions on sovereignty would be to dissuade and deter state administrations from perpetrating mass atrocities with impunity. Under a legal standard for common action to stop genocide, a preventive intervention could then proceed under accepted rules of engagement and with safeguards against unwarranted violence by peacekeepers. When an inherently extreme policy is embedded in the constitution or state regulations, a lawfully grounded international authority could then abolish that state structure and reconstitute a legitimate state subject to a referendum. A legal process for constitutional change is far preferable to the current method of arbitrary regime change favorable to the interests of and politically subservient to an occupation authority. This remains hypothetical, showing only that the international community is yet to seriously consider the alternative to the present unlawful model.
Restriction of state sovereignty, as the Tribunal noted, is a new and evolving trend in international law. The U.S. permits its citizens to file lawsuits in federal court against states that harbor terrorists, and although this is covered under tort law, such cases inherently restrict the sovereignty of foreign countries. The European Union has also constrained the sovereignty of member states. Under the 1978 State Immunity Act, the British privy council ruled that vessels owned by foreign governments are subject to the same liability laws as commercial vessels.
As argued by the Tribunal panel in their opinion, “We find it rather mind-boggling when some courts can consider commercial disputes as a reason for not allowing a state to be shielded by the state immunity principle and yet strenuously protect such a state in cases of genocide or other war crimes. Human lives cannot be less important than financial gain.”
The vigorous and often well-founded arguments by the Amicus Curae team in defense of Israel were constructive criticism that greatly helped to focus the Tribunal on the complexities of international law. In heated courtroom debate, defense counsel Jason Kay Kit Leon opined that “the elephant in the room” was Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians, for instance, the launching of unguided rockets at settlements, and that Israeli forces have acted in self-defense. The thrust of his claim was based on “In Defense of Israel” by Harvard law scholar and attorney Alan Dershowitz.
The jurists, however, accepted the prosecution argument. “It is our finding that much of the Palestinian-generated violence is not on Israel’s own territory, but from and on Israeli-occupied Palestinian land. Much of the violence perpetrated by Palestinians is a reaction to the brutalities of the vicious racism and genocide that is a tragic feature of Palestinian life.”
The opinion went further, by stating: “We also hold that the force of the IDF is excessive, totally disproportionate and a violation of international humanitarian law. The methods used are unspeakably inhumane and amount to war crimes.”
Internal Disputes
Earlier disputes within the Commission had led to a two-month adjournment of trial proceedings due to harsh and sometimes bitter accusations between participants. In the conflicted process, several judges recused themselves or were absent due to schedule conflicts and one prominent prosecutor resigned in protest of suspected tampering of the judicial panel. These controversies fortunately served to clarify rather than muddy the legal issues and court procedures, resulting in stronger arguments on both sides. Taking Israel to task is never an easy proposition.
Thereby, a stunning precedent in international law was achieved with the Tribunal’s unanimous decision to charge a state for the high crime of genocide. The arguments and verdict against the State of Israel will undoubted be a hotly debated test case for legal scholars over years to come. Since its Charter does not allow an appeal process, the case of “The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission Against the State of Israel” will stand as the nub of controversy for human-rights law and the principle of sovereignty for nation-states.
While citing several precedents, the strongest argument for implication of the state is outlined in the 2007 genocide case of Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Yugoslavia, which covered the Sebrenica massacre of Bosnian Muslms by Serb-dominated federal armed forces. As Canadian jurist John Philpot, who earlier served on the Rwanda Tribunal, pointed out following the reading of the verdict, “Bosnia/Herzegovina clearly laid out the culpability of the state and thus served as the precedent for our judgment against Israel.”
According to the Bosnia/Herzogovina ruling, “Genocide is a international crime entailing national and international responsibility on the part of individuals and states” and “if an organ of the state, or a person or group whose acts are legally attributable to the state, commits any of the acts proscribed by Article 3 of the (Genocide) Convention, the international responsibility of that state is incurred.
A point to note: The Rwanda and Yugoslavia genocide cases, are considered by some legal experts to be flawed by the underlying covert and illegal factor of great-power interference. These cases were cited infrequently and judiciously by the Kuala Lumpur Tribunal, which exercised proper care in selection of appropriate passages, while relying on a much wider range of legal precedents in regard to liability of the state.
Critique: Going Beyond Reparations
Until this genocide ruling by the Kuala Lumpur Tribunal, offending states and their foreign sponsors have evaded responsibility while the entire burden of guilt has been placed on the individual agents of weak nation-states. Under the Tribunal ruling, both the core state apparatus – including the executive office, military command, intelligence agencies, supportive ministries and, in many cases, the judiciary and police – bear as much and, in some cases, more criminal responsibility for genocide as individual leaders or military officers.
Yet that is still insufficient when the primary responsibility should rest on powerful sponsor states that move from supporting the offending regime toward punishing its rebellious hubris. The nexus of powerful and ruthless states and global elites, with their machinery for war-making and arms production, creates the political state of siege, the economic strangulation and the covert weapons trade that prompt weaker states to perpetrate genocide.
Barely addressed in just one paragraph of the Tribunal opinion is the reality that powerful states oppose any dilution of their absolute state immunity with the unspoken objective of preserving their war-making powers. The dominant Atlantic allies have cited genocide solely as a pretext to expand their global domain though invasions under a broad and vague “responsibility to protect” principle and have imposed new constitutions on defeated adversaries authored by foreign legal scholars while guised as the ideals of domestic political revolutions. Meanwhile, their own genocidal state structures, centered in the national-security structure and military command, categorically reject any international controls over extralegal interventions operated under the cover of humanitarian operations.
Also, in limiting its call for remedial action to reparations from Israel, the Tribunal wasted a precious opportunity to demand full justice for the Palestinian nation. What is realistically required is an international peacekeeping force to guarantee the withdrawal of the Israeli military and police force from Palestinian territory until a domestic law-enforcement and security force can take over; the elimination of wall-fences, checkpoints and other barriers to the free movement of citizens; the return of occupied land in Palestine; financial restitution for the loss of lands and property inside the boundaries of Israel; and an official apology for the countless crimes committed.
Furthermore, the continuity of genocide perpetrated by the core state structure and abetted by the complicity of much of the Israeli population demands that the offending state must be reorganized under a new constitution free of religious bias and racial discrimination to ensure legal norms that prevent a repetition of genocide. This objective should require an international occupation of Israel in event that powerful elements in Israeli society refuse to comply with international law. Israel should be spared the violence unleashed against the Third Reich, but stern justice and strong rule of law are nonetheless required in situations of ideological conformity based on the goals of genocide.
Courage and Wisdom
Whatever its few shortcomings, the Kuala Lumpur Tribunal demonstrated immense courage, foresight and wisdom in leveling the long-overdue charge of genocide against the State of Israel. The Tribunal correctly framed genocide in the context of international law rather than merely as a localized violation. The verdict, along with the sophisticated judicial opinion, provides an important initiative toward deterring the great powers from promoting and exploiting genocides among weaker nations and victimized peoples.
The Tribunal verdict raised not only a legal challenge to supporters of the Zionist cause in the United States and Europe but also appealed to universal moral principles in the tradition of high-minded rhetoric. “Much as we condemn violence and pray for peace, it must be stated that no power on Earth can douse the flame of freedom from the human spirit. As long as there is suppression, there will always be people prepared to die on their feet rather than live on their knees.”
The precedent-setting decision by the Kuala Lumpur Tribunal is a giant step forward not only for dispossessed Palestinians but also for humanity as a whole.
Yoichi Shimatsu, an East and Southeast Asia focused journalist, is former editor of The Japan Times Weekly in Tokyo.
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