GERALD CARMEN - LEGACY OF A LEADER

 

In March 1980, President Ronald Reagan asked Jerry Carmen to lead the General Services Administration (the GSA).

At the time the GSA was the Federal Government’s most corrupt and wasteful agency. 

Jerry’s mission, direct from President Reagan, was to clean-up the GSA or shut it down. 

Three years later the GSA had dropped from 36,000 employees to 12,000, thanks to the most thorough hiring freeze instituted under Reagan.

The GSA’s duplicative offices and obsolete operations were gone.

In its place was the best run Federal Agency in 1984. 

Jerry saved tens of billions of taxpayer dollars.

This is how bad it got. 

An employee cabal orchestrated an insider contract scam to renovate the 8^th Floor Utility Rooms at the GSA Headquarters Building.

It wasn’t until they requested a contract extension that people remembered the GSA Headquarters only had seven floors.

Jerry created a secure “war room” where we placed the entire GSA organization on its walls.

We then rolled plastic sheets over the personnel charts.  Using grease pencils, we “x-ed” out offices and operations that were flagged by Inspector General Reports and Whistle Blowers, marking them for extinction.  

Once personnel actions were recorded, we erased the notations.

When Leftist Congresswoman, Pat Schroeder, demanded our work files we were able to honestly say there were none.

Jerry was “laser focused” on his mission.

A Union official met with Jerry to protest the hiring freeze.

A few minutes into the meeting, Jerry picked up the bowl of Jelly Belly candy on his desk and began picking out and eating the red ones.

The Union official noticed this and commented, “You really like those red ones.  What makes them so special?”

Jerry answered, “The meeting is over when the red ones are gone”.

Jerry’s main achievement was creating a business-based culture grounded in honesty and integrity.

The Director of the Springfield Supply Depot called Jerry declaring that he needed to buy 12 additional forklifts to meet the new work deadlines.

Jerry immediately drove himself to the Depot.  He rushed past the guards and raced through the warehouse counting twenty idle forklifts. 

The Director was immediately removed from his position and fired within the week.

Jerry embodied the commitment to excellence, the courage of convictions, and the bravery of a true leader. 

Jerry’s accomplishments, and how he accomplished them, will inspire generations to come.

IRAN - CARTER's BLOOD-SOAKED LEGACY

 

[Published in the Sunday Guardian of India - 

The day that changed the Middle East - The Sunday Guardian Live]

November 4, 2023, marks the 44^th anniversary of the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

It is a pivotal event along the path of Iran becoming the world’s primary supporter of Islamic terrorism. For 444 days, 52 Americans were imprisoned in brutal conditions.  

The story of how Iran went from a reliable pro-West ally to the center of Fundamentalist Islamic Terror begins with President Jimmy Carter, and his administration’s, involvement in the Iranian Revolution.

Islam’s three major sects, Sunni, Shiite, and Sufi, all harbor the seeds of violence and hatred.  In 1881 a Sufi mystic ignited the Mahdi Revolt in the Sudan leading to eighteen years of death and misery throughout the upper Nile.  During World War II, the Sunni Grand Mufti of Jerusalem befriended Hitler and helped Heinrich Himmler form Islamic Stormtrooper units to kill Jews in the Balkans.

After World War II, Islam secularized as mainstream leaders embraced Western economic interests to tap their vast oil and gas reserves.  Activists became embroiled in the Middle East’s Cold War chess board, aiding U.S., or Soviet, interests.

The Iranian Revolution changed that.  Through the success of the Iranian Revolution, Islamic extremists of all sects embraced the words of Shiite Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini:

“If the form of government willed by Islam were to come into being, none of the governments now existing in the world would be able to resist it; they would all capitulate.”

Islamic dominance became an end in and of itself. 

This did not have to happen.

Iran was a pivotal regional player for 2,500 years.  The Persian Empire was the bane of ancient Greece.  As the Greek Empire withered, Persia, later Iran, remained a political, economic, and cultural force. This is why their 1979 Revolution and subsequent confrontation with the U.S. inspired radicals throughout the Islamic world to become the Taliban, ISIS, Hamas, and others.

Iran’s modern history began as part of the East-West conflict following World War II.  The Soviets heavily influenced and manipulated Iran’s first elected government.  On August 19, 1953, British and America intelligence toppled that government and returned Shah Modammad Reza to power.

“The Shah” as he became known globally, was reform minded.  He launched his “White Revolution” to build a modern, pro-West, pro-capitalist Iran in 1963.  The Shah’s “Revolution” built the region’s largest middle class, and broke centuries of tradition by enfranchising women.  

The Shah was opposed by many traditional powers, including fundamentalist Islamic leaders like the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.  Khomeini’s agitation for violent opposition to the Shah’s reforms led to his arrest and exile.

Throughout his reign, the Shah was vexed by radical Islamic and communist agitation. His secret police brutally suppressed fringe dissidents.  This balancing act between western reforms and control worked well, with a trend towards more reforms as the Shah aged.  The Shah enjoyed warm relationships with American Presidents of both parties and was rewarded with lavish military aid.

That changed in 1977.

From the beginning, the Carter Administration expressed disdain for the Shah.  President Carter pressed for the release of political prisoners. The Shah complied, allowing many Islamic radicals the freedom to openly oppose him.

Not satisfied with the pace or breadth of the Shah’s reforms, Carter envoys began a dialogue with the Ayatollah Khomeini, first at his home in Iraq and more intensely when he moved to a Paris suburb.

Indications that the U.S. was souring on the Shah emboldened dissidents across the political spectrum to confront the regime.  Demonstrations, riots, and general strikes began to destabilize the Shah and his government.  In response, the Shah accelerated reforms.  This was viewed as weakness by the opposition.

The Western media, especially the BBC, began to promote the Ayatollah as a moderate alternative to the Shah’s “brutal regime”. The Ayatollah assured U.S. intelligence operatives and State Department officials that he would only be the “figure head” for a western parliamentary system. 

During the fall of 1978, strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country. The Carter Administration, led by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and U.S. Ambassador to Iran William Sullivan, coalesced around abandoning the Shah and helping install Khomeini, who they viewed as a “moderate clergyman” who would be Iran’s “Ghandi-like” spiritual leader.

Time and political capital ran out. On January 16, 1979, the Shah, after arranging for an interim government, resigned and went into exile.

The balance of power shifted to the Iranian Military. 

While the Shah was preparing for his departure, General Robert Huyser, Deputy Commander of NATO, and his top aides, arrived in Iran.  They were under Carter’s orders to neutralize the military leaders.  Using ties of friendship, promises of aid, and assurance of safety, Huyser and his team convinced the Iranian commanders to allow the transitional government to finalize arrangements for Khomeini becoming part of the new government.  

Subsequently, many of these Iranian military leaders, and their families, were slaughtered. Khomeini and his Islamic Republican Guard toppled the transitional government and seized power during the Spring of 1979.  “It was a most despicable act of treachery, for which I will always be ashamed” admitted one NATO general years later.

The radicalization of Iran occurred at lightning speed.  Khomeini and his lieutenants remade Iran’s government and society into a totalitarian fundamentalist Islamic state.  Anyone who opposed their Islamic Revolution were driven into exile, imprisoned, or killed. 

Khomeini’s earlier assurances of moderation and working with the West vanished.  Radicalized mobs turned their attention to eradicating all vestiges of the West.  This included the U.S. Embassy.

The first attack on the U.S. Embassy occurred on the morning of February 14, 1979.  Coincidently, this was the same day that Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped and fatally shot by Muslim extremists in Kabul.  In Tehran, Ambassador Sullivan surrendered the U.S. Embassy and was able to resolve the occupation within hours through negotiations with the Iranian Foreign Minister.

Despite this attack, and the bloodshed in Kabul, nothing was done to either close the Tehran Embassy, reduce personnel, or strengthen its defenses.  During the takeover, Embassy personnel failed to burn sensitive documents as their furnaces malfunctioned.  They installed cheaper paper shredders.  During the 444-day occupation, rug weavers were employed to reconstruct the sensitive shredded documents, creating global embarrassment of America.

Starting in September 1979, radical students began planning a more extensive assault on the Embassy.  This included daily demonstrations outside the U.S. Embassy to trigger an Embassy security response.  This allowed organizers to assess the size and capabilities of the Embassy security forces. 

On November 4, 1979, one of the demonstrations erupted into an all-out conflict within the Embassy’s Visa processing public entrance.  The assault leaders deployed approximately 500 students.  Female students hid metal cutters under their robes, which were used to breach the Embassy gates.

Khomeini immediately issued a statement of support, declaring it “the second revolution” and the U.S. Embassy an “American spy den in Tehran”.

What followed was an unending ordeal of terror and deprivation for the 66 hostages, who through various releases, were reduced to a core of 52.  The 2012 film “Argo” chronicled the audacious escape of six Americans who had been outside the U.S. Embassy at the time of the takeover. 

On April 24, 1980, trying to break out of this chronic crisis, Carter initiated an ill-conceived, and poorly executed, rescue mission called Operation Eagle Claw.  It ended with crashed helicopters and eight dead soldiers at the staging area outside of the Iranian Capital, designated Desert One.  Another attempt was made through diplomacy as part of a hoped for “October Surprise”, but the Iranians cancelled the deal just as planes were being mustered at Andrews Air Force Base.

Carter paid the price for his Iranian duplicity. On November 4, 1980, Ronald Reagan obliterated Carter in the worst defeat suffered by an incumbent President since Herbert Hoover in 1932. 

Unfortunately, the world continues to pay the price for Carter unleashing Iranian terror.

EVICT THE UNITED NATIONS

 

[Published in Newsmax Show UN the Door | Newsmax.com]

It's time for the United Nations (UN) to leave America.

The UN has definitely overstayed its welcome.  Recent remarks by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and the overwhelming adoption of a Hamas inspired resolution by the General Assembly, crossed the line of decency.

These actions should be the last of many straws that the UN has heaped on American soil.

The UN’s being on the wrong side of issues is terrible by any measure.  It turned a blind eye to the tens of millions killed by Communism.  The UN continues to ignore the lives destroyed by slavery and tribal wars.  The UN ignores those suffering under tyrants who lead many of their member nations. The UN ignores how corruption and waste infests every aspect of its operations.

On December 10, 1945, the U.S. Congress formally invited the United Nations to have its headquarters in America.  Congress can formally uninvite the UN.

The New York City School System spends $80 million a year for educating the children of UN Diplomats. It spends $8 million a year on protecting UN Diplomats and handling the traffic snarls during the annual opening of the General Assembly.  The U.S. State Department spends $31 million a year on protecting UN Diplomats.

NYC annually loses $72 million in property tax revenue as the UN Headquarters sits on tax exempt land. UN employees are tax exempt from federal and state income taxes.  Annually, this revenue loss is approximately $400 million in federal and state taxes and $26 million for NYC.

The NYC government will not miss $16 million in unpaid parking tickets from UN Diplomats.

The U.S. will not miss it.  Intelligence agencies consistently describe the United Nations as a “spy nest”.  On February 28, 2022, the Biden Administration exposed and expelled 12 spies within Russia’s UN delegation.  How many spies are operating under diplomatic cover among the 193 member delegations?

So where should the United Nations go?  Johannesburg, South Africa.

The current political environment of South Africa is a United Nations creation.  Starting on November 6, 1962, South Africa’s government was singled-out for extinction.  Over the years, harsher measures were implemented to pressure South African leaders to share power with their native population.  This included suspending South Africa’s UN Membership on November 14, 1974.  In 1994, the UN welcomed South Africa back into the fold after democratic reforms were implemented.

Moving the UN to Johannesburg would bring its policies “home to roost”.

Johannesburg has the third highest crime rate in Africa.  While it is cheaper to live there than NYC, it has terrible public transportation, high air pollution, and prone to power outages.

Third world dictators may have difficulty enticing their delegations to work in Johannesburg once the swanky apartments and lavish NYC expense account restaurants are a thing of the past.

The most compelling reason for the United Nations to move to Johannesburg is the BRICS.

Formed in 2010, the BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa have established an alternative global reality to the G7 and G20 nations.  The BRICS nations hope to overtake the western-oriented groups of nations as the focus of 21^st Century economic and political vitality.

Moving the UN to Johannesburg places it at the center of BRICS’ geopolitics. That is a plus for them. 

The $2 billion in local job creation would be the West’s final gift to South Africa’s economy.

It is also a plus for the G7/G20 (all BRICS countries are members of the G20).  Having the UN “out of sight, out of mind” places it where it should be - on the other side of the planet wallowing in its anti-West, anti-freedom, anti-capitalist agenda.  The rants of its leaders and its resolutions will not have the same “gravitas” deprived of its “New York City, USA” imprimatur.  UN diplomats will not have easy access to the U.S. media being 7,900 miles away.

Having the United Nations out of the United States would be a giant step forward in clearing the West’s political landscape. 

Congress can go on the record now for sending the UN packing. It will take a Republican President to make it a reality.

FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY

 

[Part of Constituting America's "Ninety for Ninety" Series on America's Founding Principles.

Principle of Freedom of Assembly - Constituting America]

“New England town meetings have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government and for its preservation."

Thomas Jefferson, 1816

“Local assemblies of citizens constitute the strength of free nations. Town-meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people’s reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it. A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty.”

Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835

The concept of people openly gathering to discuss matters of public interest was developed among the ancient Greek city states in the 6^th Century B.C.  It became known as “Athenian Democracy” under the leadership of Pericles (461-429 B.C.) during Athens’ “Golden Age”.  Participation was open to all adult free male citizens.

In actions that would be repeated throughout history, Athenian public meetings were suppressed to centralize government power.  This occurred in 322 B.C. by the rulers of the Macedonian Empire, first Philip II and then his son, Alexander “the Great”.

Freedom of assembly vanished during the Roman Empire and the feudal states.  People could still petition the chief, warlord, or king for grievances, but local democracy was lost.

Iceland rekindled community-based democracy in 930 A.D. 

The Althing (Norse for “assembly field”) was an open area (near present day Reykjavik) reserved for the annual gathering to discuss and decide issues facing the community.  The presiding official, Lögsögumaður (Norse for “Law Speaker”), stood on a central rock outcropping known as the Lögberg (Norse for “Law Rock”).  He established the procedures for the Althing and declared decisions after open discussion and voting.  All free men had the right to attend and participate.

The Althing lost its authority when Iceland was annexed by Norway in 1262.

In 1231, the freedom of assembly, and early federalism, arose among the various independent regions (Cantons) in Switzerland. The Landsgemeinde (German for "cantonal assembly) was established as a system of direct democracy, open voting, and majority rule among the communitas hominum (Latin for “the community of men”).  This terminology was to emphasize that it was an assembly of all citizens, not just the elite. 

Citizens of the Swiss Cantons fiercely defended their assemblies.  In 1499, they defeated the forces of Emperor Maxmillian I, the Holy Roman Emperor, at the battle of Dornach.  They retain their system to this day.

The practice of holding town meetings in Colonial America evolved from 17^th Century English “vestry” meetings.  These meetings allowed parishioners to discuss and decide issues relating to their local parish.  These became integral to New England communities in the mid to late 1600s.  Their agendas ranged beyond church governance to community matters. 

In 1691, the Colonial Parliament (General Court) of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed a Charter that declared that final authority on bylaws rested with town meetings. In 1694, the Massachusetts General Court granted town meetings the authority to appoint assessors. In 1715 it granted town meetings the right to elect their own presiding officers (moderators) instead of relying on outside appointees 

Colonial meeting houses remain places of reverence in small towns throughout New England.

It is not surprising that eradicating town meetings, and restricting the right to free assembly, were key elements in Britan’s suppression of America’s Independence movement in the early 1770s.

Lord North, the British Prime Minister (1770-1790), instituted harsh measures to suppress dissent and disrupt the culture of self-government, which he viewed as the root cause of the chaos.  On May 2, 1774, North declared Massachusetts was "in a distempered state of disturbance and opposition to the laws of the mother country."

On May 20, 1774, the British Parliament passed the Massachusetts Government Act, which nullified the Massachusetts Charter of 1691. It abolished local town meetings because, “a great abuse has been made of the power of calling them, and the inhabitants have, contrary to the design of their institution, been used to treat upon matters of the most general concerns, and to pass dangerous and unwarrantable resolves.”  Ongoing local meetings were replaced by annual meetings only called with the Colonial Governor’s permission, or not at all.

A series of five punitive acts were passed by Parliament intended to restrict public discourse and punish opponents.  It was England’s hope the “Intolerable Acts” would intimidate rebellious Colonists into submission. The “Acts” ignited a firestorm of outrage throughout Colonial America.  More importantly, it generated a unity of purpose and inspired a willingness for collective action among leaders in the previously fragmented American colonies.

In a bold “illegal” act to assert its right to free assembly, the First Continental Congress met in the Carpenters Hall in Philadelphia from September 5-October 26, 1774. Twelve of the thirteen colonies (Georgia opted out) were represented.  They issued the “Declaration of Rights and Grievances”, the first unified protest of Britian’s anti-colonial actions. 

The British Crown’s assault on the right to free assembly was among the top Grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence less than two years later.

DERAILING THE MONEY GRAB

 

[NOTE:  On August 17, the plan of out-of-state billionaires to build an oversized hotel in the heart of the Harpers Ferry Historic District hit a wall.  The Jefferson County Commission set aside a $30 million taxpayer subsidy (tax increment financing - TIF) to this private equity firm as local residents raised major concerns. Since 2008, the billionaires asserted that their project was fully funded.  Since then, they have sought subsidies and grants, along with waivers from taxes and fees.]

JEFFERSON COUNTY COMMISSION

HILLTOP TIF HEARING - Scot Faulkner Remarks

There are several issues you need to consider before giving up to $30 million to a private equity company.

First, this will be the only hotel to receive a government subsidy from this Commission.

You are creating a dangerous precedent.

Government should not pick winners and losers in the private sector.

What prevents existing or future hotels demanding subsidies from Jefferson County Taxpayers?

Second, you are ignoring the facts.

When SWaN first arrived in Harpers Ferry, they promised to shower riches on the community.

Instead, SWaN has been given waivers from the taxes and fees they promised to pay.

SWaN has also been given federal grants and now is asking for $30 million from County Taxpayers.

During the last 15 years, SWaN has not provided or promised even one dollar of proffers to the town.

Another fact – the justification for the $30 million, and all the other waivers and subsidies, is that the SWaN hotel will save Harpers Ferry.  Somehow, Harpers Ferry will become a ghost town without the oversized SWaN hotel.

Since the closing of the old Hill Top House in March 2008, Harpers Ferry has experienced a tripling of visitors.  The town is packed with tourists, especially on weekends.

Over the last ten years, every major travel magazine, website, and rating has named Harpers Ferry the top tourist town in America. 

All of this is happening without an oversized government subsidized hotel.

Third, all citizens of Jefferson County deserve to vote on whether $30 million of their money should go to a private interest in the smallest municipality.

Jefferson County voters have voted on smaller bond issues, including the $19 million school bond in 2016. At least school bonds benefit everyone, not a small group of private investors.

This Commission has one vacancy.  It cannot speak for the entire population.

Let the people speak instead.  This should go to a public referendum.

 

RED LIGHT THERAPY SAVING LIVES

 

This is the Transcript of Scot Faulkner's July 9, 2023, presentation to the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness in Tuscon, Arizona

Red Light Therapy: Saving Lives, Revolutionizing Healthcare - YouTube

Red-Light Therapy is revolutionizing Health Care, literally, as we sit here.

[Slide 1]

A number of you over the last day and a half have shared some of your stories with me.

When we were together in Las Vegas last year I presented an overview and an awareness of Red-Light Therapy.  Some of you have tried it out in the last year and have come up with some amazing results! 

Literally, as we're sitting in this room, Red-Light Therapy is saving a life. Red-Light Therapy is improving a life somewhere in the world.  Military forces are using Red-Light Therapy in their conditioning.  Navy Seal units, Special Forces for the United States Army, NATO Pilots, Israeli Defense Forces - they're all incorporating Red-Light Therapy into their conditioning - building endurance, speeding recovery from their exercises, and improving their performance. 

At the same time, we have young people, at places like Saint Jude, are having their lives saved with Red-Light treatments that take care of the side effects of cancer chemotherapy.

Every major sports team in the world is now using Red-Light Therapy.  Every NFL team has either a handheld or a light bed.  Every NBA team, every World Cup soccer team, and most Collegiate athletic teams now are using Red-Light Therapy.

It is truly the future of medicine but is actually becoming the present of Medicine.

The mechanism of action for Red-Light Therapy is Photobiomodulation. 

[Slide 2]

To explain this, think of ourselves as warm-blooded plants.  We turn color in the sunlight. We like sunny days. We need our Vitamin D.  The mechanism of action within photosynthesis in a plant Photobiomodulation is almost the exact same mechanism within a human.  We literally are absorbing the sunlight with all the ambient parts of the spectrum.  Photobiomodulation in part of the light spectrum.  Yesterday we heard a little bit about the Ultraviolet end of the spectrum dealing with ozone.  Ultraviolet light is a cleanser.  If we shift over to the Red/Near-Infrared we're into Photobiomodulation - 500 to 1200 nanometers.

Red-Light is now everywhere.  If you watch Fox News you've got the Tommy Copper ads.  They show little dots you can wrap around your arm. These are “consumer grade”.  They are not what we call “medical grade”. It is all about focused light and intensity. Photobiomodulation is measured in joules per centimeter square.  You can shrink the light spectrum and focus it on the 500 to 1200 nanometers and you amp up dosage, or the intensity, you are approaching the medical grade part of Photobiomodulation.

[Slide 3]

Since we last talked Photobiomodulation has really made it into the mainstream of medicine.

We have 70 articles a month now being published dealing with Photobiomodulation, clinical studies, animal studies, and human studies.  We have 200 human studies currently registered with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that are being conducted.  

 

[Slide 4]

So what is Photobiomodulation? What does it really do?

Think of the fact that we have 32 trillion cells in our body and within each of those cells there are literally thousands and thousands of Mitochondria.  Mitochondria are the energy units within the cell. They process nutrients and take sunlight to generate the energy that drives the cell.

Within each one of these mitochondria, at the subatomic level, we have the electron transport chain. Literally it's like four different subatomic components, and there are thousands and thousands of them within each of these mitochondria. If all goes well nutrients and sunlight come into the chain. They stimulate different ions and molecules and atoms to change and swap out, driving energy forward through the chain. The final stage is like a subatomic generator that spins and drives cellular functions.

When we get a disease, when we're injured, when we get older, that four-step process closes up.  That's called inflammation.  When it closes up, and the atoms can no longer move, they swell at the subatomic level.

How Photobiomodulation works is if you direct enough energy with enough dosage joules per centimeter squared, in the right part of the light spectrum Red and Near-Infrared, it unclogs the electron transport chain.  When you're dealing with that kind of subatomic activity, multiplied thousands of times, within the electron transport chains thousands of times, within the mitochondria trillions of times, within the cells of our body, it doesn't take that much unclog things and reduce inflammation.

 

[Slide 5]

That's what Photobiomodulation is all about. 80 percent of what ails us, what ages us, what hurts us, what gives us creaky joints, relate to some aspect of cellular function.

Therefore, Photobiomodulation does one thing really well.  By unclogging the electron transport chain Photobiomodulation can literally address any number of medical conditions.

We're going to be talking about a few of those because, since Las Vegas last year, we've had some amazing progress and some amazing endorsements.

[Slide 6]

Let’s start with the tale of two patients.

In the first instance a Pope, in the second instance an amazing athletic star from the Olympics.

[Slide 7]

In the case of Pope Francis, last year he fell and really fractured his knee. I mean he literally shattered his knee. The Vatican covered up for a while, but ultimately the Pope couldn't walk.  He was in a wheelchair.  He was concerned about going under general anesthetic and getting some sort of surgery.  Enter one of our colleagues in Europe who knew the Vatican physician.  He provided a Photobiomodulation device to the Physician who started treating the Pope.  After only a couple months, the different parts of the broken bone started to fuse and the muscle came back.  The Pope started going through physical therapy, supported by the Italian Photobiomodulation device.

He's walking again. 

A couple months ago, the Pope goes to Budapest and holds a special ceremony at one of the main churches in Budapest to honor Adam Meister, son of Andre Mester, the inventor or Discoverer Photobiomodulation.

[Slide 8]

During the ceremony and in his interviews, the pope endorsed for PBM. So, he embraced the Bible and now he’s embraced the light.  This is a big deal to have somebody of world-renowned who can say that “the only reason I'm walking today is because Red-Light Therapy”.  “Photobiomodulation healed my knee”.  I mean that's huge.  We've never had a world leader be able to say that.

 

[Slide 9]

In that special ceremony the Pope formally endorsed PBM.  He presented a special papal medal to Adam Mester.  In exchange, Mester gave the Pope a Hungarian made PBM device.

So who is Andre Mester? Andre Mester was a brilliant scientist working behind the Iron Curtain.  In 1967, he was concerned about whether lasers, which had only been developed since 1962, might cause cancer.  So he takes a bunch of mice, shaves them, and applies the laser to see if they start to develop tumors.  What he discovers is the mice that were receiving the laser started growing hair real fast.  Mester called it Bio-stimulation.  That's how PBM was discovered with shaved mice.

You've probably seen ads where you have these baseball helmets that you put on with lined with LED lights to grow hair.  It goes back to the roots of PBM.

Andre was a brilliant scientist, but he had the misfortune of working behind the Iron Curtain.  That's why even though PBM was discovered in 1967, it did not come into the West until the fall of the Berlin Wall.  If you go on and go on to the like National Institutes of Health and look at their libraries, all of a sudden there's this burst of PBM-related research papers showing up in 1991.  That's when his work finally made it to the West and started going into general circulation.

Since that point, we have had over 100 million patients treated with PBM. During that entire period there's been no documented side effect, because it's a natural process helping a natural process.

We are that warm-blooded plant getting this infusion of Red and Near-Infrared light.  Whether it is a broken ankle, a sprain, muscles sore from working in the yard, all the way up through neurological conditions you are getting your life improved.

PBM heals. PBM helps with wellness, and therefore it's starting to finally get the traction it deserves.

[Slide 10]

Our second patient is Anne Abernathy.  She is an absolutely stunning individual. She holds two records.  She is the oldest woman to ever compete in the Winter Olympics and the first to ever participate in 6 Winter Games.  She is now currently training to qualify for her 7th Olympics but this time in a Summer sport.

Anne started out in the Winter Olympics as a single woman's luge, clocked in excess of 100 miles an hour going down that ice track.  She was nicknamed “Grandma Luge” and was a pop hero. In fact, IBM, during the Nagano Games, used her as an ad spokesperson and won a CLEO award.  Anne is just one of these most dynamic people - she's a cancer survivor, she's also a born-again Christian.  She’s a guest speaker and performer at churches, schools, and conferences. She's an amazing multi-faceted individual.

After retiring from luge following her last Winter Olympics, she decided to pursue a “safer” sport.  So she shifted over to archery.  She found that the upper body muscles you use to launch and drive a luge are almost the same for pulling a bow.  Remarkably Anne leapfrogged straight onto the World Cup Circuit and became World Ranked.  Anne turned 70 this last April, in June she and her Mixed Team partner finished 6th at the Archery World Cup in Columbia.

Why Anne comes into our world is that last Summer she had a severe bout of COVID and she got Covid-related brain fog. Had she taken the Pharmaceuticals that were being recommended she would have been screened-out of the Olympics.  Anne came Dr. Bob Bowen, one of our PBM Foundation Trustees.  He was doing a proof-of-concept study saying that if we direct red light into the brain we can solve and treat brain fog he succeeded and let's talk let's look at the video:

[Slide 10 – Video]

“While the COVID-19 pandemic has ceased to be a public health emergency many patients continue to deal with post-pandemic complications known as long covid.  One such complication is brain fog characterized by cognitive dysfunction and chronic fatigue systemic inflammation. Vascular damage following COVID-19 is believed to hinder cognition.  Unfortunately, there are no therapeutic options available for the recovering patients. Photobiomodulation therapy (PBM) has shown promise in treating cognitive decline by boosting antimicrobial immune responses and reducing inflammatory cytokine damage.  Interest has therefore shifted to using PBM for treating long COVID symptoms as it targets the underlying processes of the immune system.  However, delivering precise PBM doses to targeted sites remains challenging.  In a recent open label pilot human clinical study researchers from Shepherd University, University of Buffalo and West Virginia University evaluated the efficacy of transcranial PBM (tPBM) and whole body PBM (wbPBM) in treating long COVID induced brain fog.

A total of 14 patients who had experienced brain fog for at least five months were enrolled and divided into two groups seven patients per group. Group 1 received tPBM treatments administered using a new radiant LED helmet emitting light at 1070 nanometers while group 2 received wbPBM with NovoTHOR a light bed with LEDs emitting lights at 660 nanometers at 850 nanometers.  The subjects were randomly allocated to receive either PBM treatment and received a total of 12 treatments over a four week period. They were evaluated pre and post-treatment using a battery of neurophysiological tests and the wavy quantitative electroencephalography (eeg) system. The researchers found that both PBM therapies improved brain performance and resulted in significant improvements in neurophysiological test scores following treatment.  Furthermore, the wavy data of the subjects supported these findings by revealing increased brain processing speed and power following treatment. Additionally, the wavy eeg system was shown to be a practical and effective biometric for evaluating PBM treatments in real time in a clinical setting. These findings thus show that tPBM and wbPBM could improve clinical outcomes in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 brain fog and other chronic diseases”.

 

[Slide 11]

When Dr. Bowen was trying to explain all this to me and he said “you know you don't have brain fog, but let me run you through the whole thing”.  The brain scan on the screen is mine, and so the test results.  He put the Neuronic helmet on me for 14 minutes and ran me through the Baseline tests.

You can see for even a normal brain how brain activity increased after only 14 minutes of using this kind of bicycle helmet device. He ran me through all the Baseline tests they mentioned on the video. Every one of my test scores doubled.  That improvement after those 14 minutes “blew my mind” literally and figuratively.  In the case of Anne, she used the light bed.   

The PBM Foundation is an honest broker.  We're there aggregate-curate-disseminate the most important research and applications within the PBM world and to then Advocate it being a mainstream medical treatment.

We have about two dozen industry partners that help us out Neuronics from Philadelphia is one, NovoTHOR, which is made in Vermont, is one of our other ones. That's the NovoTHOR bed she used.  The photo is from the competition where she came in sixth.  This was out of 291 competitors. It looks like a modern-day version of Agincourt. I just learned that in the Pan Am games down in Honduras she again came in 14^th.  She's on her way to Paris!  As the PBM Foundation are sponsoring her seventh Olympics.  It's a great honor from our standpoint to help this amazing person.   If PBM had not existed, she could not have competed.

Just last week, the trial of one of the more promising brain fog drugs was stopped, because it was revealing severe side effects with absolutely no efficacy.  Currently there's no drug anywhere in the regulatory pipeline to treat brain fog. PBM's the only thing out there.

 

[Slide 12]

In 2019 the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) endorsed PBM as a pre-treatment to the throat and mouth area to prevent the side effects of cancer chemotherapy.  If you've ever had a loved one go through heavy duty cancer chemotherapy it can create sores in the mouth.  In the most severe cases, called oral mucositis, literally one of two things happen. Either you have a feeding tube because you can no longer eat or you stop the chemotherapy in order to recover, at which point cancer progresses. 

 

[Slide 13]

Oral Mucositis is a horrible condition.  Using PBM as a prophylactic prevents this condition. 

 

[Slide 14]

PBM has become a great preventative measure. Oncology and Endocrinology associations have endorsed this. The three main ones we work with are:

[1] The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.  UPMC was one of the first ones.  They've treated almost 3 000 cancer patients to prevent the cancer side effects.  

[2] West Virginia Cancer Institute is part of WVU in Morgantown. 

[3] St. Jude is probably our Crown Jewel proving that it is safe enough for Pediatric cancer patients.

In all three cases, PBM use is now part of their Standard Order Set.  Those of you who are affiliated with hospitals know that having a new technology become part of a Standard Order Set is a big deal.

 

[Slide 15]

Another major area is wound healing. This first case used a THOR unit (made in England).  This is the foot of the Dean of Dentistry at Midwestern University, here in Arizona.  She had a compound fracture.  She applied the light.  You can see the results after only five weeks.  PBM is literally rebuilding cellular function at the subatomic level.  PBM consistently gets these results.

People have started to use PBM for severe burn victims.  As you know, with a burn victim you have skin grafts. You worry about infection.  There is scarring.  We have found, time and time again, when you start to apply PBM to burn victims, they heal quickly without complications.  Usually, you can't tell which hand or part of the body was burned.

[Slide 16]

This case was treated with a device developed by Tom Kerber out of Toronto. Diabetic ulcers are horrible things usually ending up with an amputation of the foot.  These wounds can take months, even years, to treat.  Many times, the wound won't heal, or if it heals, it's a very painful process.  Here, after seven weeks, a foot that would have otherwise been amputated was saved using Kerber's device.  This person now can walk on two legs.

[Slide 17]

One of the more famous studies was done several years ago tracking PBM managing pain.

When PBM unclogs the electron transport chain inflammation goes away, and pain goes away.

This crossover study shows two very interesting things:

[1] The cumulative effect of PBM. If you look at the chart, one group was treated Placebo, one group was treated with PBM.  They switch.  Look what happens.  The group that shifts from Placebo to PBM catches up with the other group. 

[2] The residual effect of PBM. For the group where PBM treatment stopped, and a placebo is put in its place, the pain is still gone.  Unlike drugs, that basically mask the symptoms, PBM truly heals.

 

[Slide 18]

This chart, and the one next to it, track post-operative pain - the use of opioids versus or Placebo versus PBM treatment.  PBM substantially reduces pain.

Several years ago, the PBM Foundation began working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Pain Management Task Force to look at the fact that you're not replacing drug addiction with light addiction.  You are healing and reducing treatments.

PBM heals at the subatomic level healing the body.  You're weaning people off of light treatment.

[1] If it's an acute condition - eventually you can walk away from PBM.

[2] If it's a chronic condition, or a degenerative condition, you may start treatments three times a week; and then a few months later you're being treated a couple times once a week; a few more months it may be a treatment only once a month.  In other words, the cumulative effect and the residual effect of PBM allows you to scale back to a more manageable course of treatment.

[Slide 19]

Because of these major clinical breakthroughs, PBM has received recognition.

In just the last few months:

[1] The American Dental Association (ADA) now established a task force to incorporate PBM as a standard of care for oral conditions

[2] The Journal for America the American Medical Association (JAMA) has formally endorsed PBM for pain management.

[3] The Center for Disease Control (CDC) issued their new Opioid Guidelines for prescriptions.  The CDC listed PBM as part of their preferred non-pharmacological alternative to opioids.  This is the result of the PBM Foundation testifying numerous times before the CDC’s Board of Scientific

[4] Our biggest success is the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) formally recommending the use of PBM for the treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

 

[Slide 20]

The VA endorsement is huge! Vielight developed a device that goes over the head for treating neurological conditions. It's made up in Toronto.  The Vielight device was used treat 214 veterans at the Boston VA Hospital.  They found that it absolutely calmed patients and actually cured them of traumatic brain injury.  It substantially “unscrambled” their brain.  These results were echoed in similar trials at Salt Lake City VA and a Denver VA.

The Salt Lake City VA and the Boston VA are also treating NFL players for CTE.

PBM is helping veterans reclaim their lives. 

Here is the VA’s endorsement.

[Slide 21]

Neurologists  have found that the moment that you start putting PBM’s Red/Near-Iinfrared light into the brain cavity you're successfully treat Parkinson's.  This is being embraced by the dental Community.  If a person has Parkinson's you can't fill a cavity or give a Novocaine shot because the person is moving around.  PBM is calming them enough where they're able to treat them for different conditions.

Anne Liebert is brilliant scientist, who's one of the world's leading Parkinson's experts out of Sydney Australia.  Anne is doing breakthrough research on this and what she's also found, in coordination with the Veterans Administration, is that it's helping calm PTSD  They're now using PBM at the Boston VA for pre-treating veterans with PTSD before they come further into the hospital complex (even for a checkup) because of the neurological calming that occurs.

We're all familiar with Moore's Law.  It's working for PBM.  Devices are getting cheaper.  They're getting better and simpler to use.  The result is that some “medical grade” cost under five thousand dollars. Some down to less than two thousand dollars.

Because of reduced costs, Salt City Denver and Boston are handing out PBM devices for veterans to take and use at home. Instead of veterans having to come all the way into Denver or Salt Lake City, they can take the PBM device home.

This new generation of PBM device is very easy to use.  In most cases, they just turn them on/turn them off.  Most of them have some sort of timing mechanism.  Most treatments last only three minutes, five minutes, ten minutes tops.

Home treatments, and self-treatment, plus lower per unit cost, allows VAs to buy multiple devices.

Right now the PBM Foundation is working with the Veterans Affairs committees in the House and the Senate and with key people on the Appropriations Committee to get this into all 171 Veterans Hospitals. 

PBM is only in a dozen VA Hospitals right now. We really would like to get PBM into others.

Starting next month, the U.S. Government is into “use or lose” at the end of the fiscal year.  We all know that government bureaucrats love to spend money.  They don't want to end the fiscal year with money left over.  Here's an opportunity to knock on the door of a Veterans Hospital, knock on the door of your Congressional Delegation, and say “spend the money this way because it's getting results”.

If anyone is interested in the documentation and the clinical trial data, I have it.

Give me your email, I will send it. I would love to get this information into everyone's hands so that we can actually make something really wonderful happen.

[Slide 22]

The PBM Foundation is based at the at Shepherd University in West Virginia.

We have a Global Center of Excellence (CoE).  Within the Center of Excellence we have received substantial private and public funds to do two very important things:

[1]Testing

Because you have so many red-light devices, it's really the wild west out there.  A lot of devices over promise under deliver.  Many devices are from China, which means they break down and, again, they under deliver. We want to build consumer confidence, not just among individuals, but facilities and physicians. We have set up a testing protocol.  We're beginning to test devices to make sure that they are delivering the right dosage, in the right part of the spectrum, with the right joules per centimeter Square.  People need to know that certain devices really are what they say they are.

Last year, we began building a series of online learning modules. The first three deal are general introduction to PBM, safety, and on oral mucositis (it has the strongest clinical evidence).  Additional modules will focus on wound healing, pain management and neurological conditions.

There are over 800 nursing schools around the country. Shepherd University is the first nursing school to incorporate PBM as a graduation requirement.  We want to take that requirement to every other nursing school in this country.  We are getting that word out.  Our goal is the “seed the clouds” so the next generation of nurses are gaining PBM knowledge as an elective, a certificate, or like at Shepherd University a fundamental graduate requirement for their degree 

Since last year, many pieces are falling into place.  It is an exciting time for those of us who've spent so many years trying to make PBM happen.

As I began speaking here, somebody's life has been saved by PBM.  Somebody's life has improved thanks to PBM.  We wake up every morning knowing it is going to be a better day because of PBM.

I thank you so much.

[Applause]