Sunday, February 14, 2021

Uranus in Taurus and More Unexpected Economic Justice for Bayer-Monsanto - or Is It So Unexpected After All?

 
Early on in the transit of Uranus in Taurus, we saw what I called at the time "unexpected (Uranus) economic justice (Taurus)" for the crimes against humanity, animals, and nature that have been committed by corporations Bayer and Monsanto, which merged in 2018 into Bayer-Monsanto. 
 
Roundup Lawsuits
 
We saw this economic justice in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars awarded through California courts to people who said their cancers (specifically non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) were caused by exposure to Monsanto's glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup.
 
The awards were later lowered drastically by the judges. 
 
Dewayne Johnson, 48, was originally awarded $289 million for compensation for his terminal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. This was later reduced to $20.4 million.
 
Edwin Hardeman, 71, was originally awarded $80 million for his Roundup-caused non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which was later reduced to $25 million. 

Alva and Alberta Pilliod, 78 and 75 respectively, were awarded $2 billion for their non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, later reduced to $86.7 million. 
 
There are more than 100,000 lawsuits against Bayer-Monsanto over Roundup-related cancer and illness. Unfortunately, many of the plaintiffs will be settling for far less than their injuries warrant. In early February, it was reported that Bayer has set aside $2 billion to settle claims, earmarking between $5,000 and $200,000 for each case. Class members will have the option of settling or suing. 
 
The hits just keep coming for ole Bayer, though. (Yes, please keep them coming.)
 
Shareholder Lawsuits
 
In late January, it was announced that two law firms are suing Bayer for damages on behalf of shareholders who say they should have been warned about the possibility of Roundup lawsuits at the time of the acquisition of Monsanto. The $63 billion takeover of Monsanto in 2018 has been called "disastrous" by one of the investor litigants. These lawsuits have the possibility of multi-billion dollar awards for shareholders.
 
Agent Orange Lawsuit

Bayer is also facing more litigation over Monsanto's production of Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant used widely by the U.S. government during the war against Vietnam. Agent Orange has caused terrible birth defects, miscarriages, still births, and lifelong health problems for people exposed to it - both the Vietnamese people and U.S. soldiers - and the effects of Agent Orange exposure continue to be passed on through their offspring.

In late January, it was announced that a Franco-Vietnamese former journalist and Vietnam War resister, Tran To Nga, was suing 14 American companies, including Bayer-Monsanto and Dow-Dupont, for damages related to Agent Orange exposure.

Landmark Agent Orange Court Case Against Bayer-Monsanto Gets Underway by Jonathan Matthews

"Up to 4.8 million people were directly exposed to Agent Orange and its effects have passed down the generations, with over 3 million Vietnamese still suffering its impacts. Hundreds of thousands have been born malformed – blind, deaf or with missing limbs or external tumours. It has also caused high levels of miscarriages, premature births and still births. It damages people’s immune systems and has caused significant increases in cancer and other diseases...

Tran To Nga has suffered from typical Agent Orange effects, including a failing immune system, type 2 diabetes and an extremely rare insulin allergy. Among a litany of other health problems, she also contracted tuberculosis twice, developed breast cancer, and one of her daughters died of a malformation of the heart at 17 months. Her two other children also suffered serious health problems and one of her granddaughters was born with heart problems."

Dicamba Lawsuits

Bayer-Monsanto also faces litigation over Monsanto's dicamba herbicide. Dicamba is highly volatile and drifts widely. It has caused damage to many farmers' crops after blowing in from neighbouring fields. 

In February 2020, Bayer and BASF were ordered to pay $265 million to Missouri peach farmer Bill Bader after devastating damage to his peach trees was caused by dicamba drifting into his orchard from a neighbour's field. There are at least 140 other dicamba-related lawsuits pending.

PCB Lawsuits

A class action lawsuit has also been brought against Bayer-Monsanto by 2,500 cities, counties, and ports over toxic PCBs (polychlorinated byphenyl). 

All these lawsuits are the result of actions taken by a truly evil corporation, Monsanto. However, Bayer is also getting nailed in court for its own greed-driven crimes against humanity.  

Yaz and Yasmin Lawsuits

There are almost 20,000 lawsuits against Bayer for damages related to its deadly birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin. Women who took the pills experienced strokes, heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, deep vein thrombosis, and other damage. Research has shown that a woman's risk of blood clots is six times higher when taking Yaz or Yasmin versus other types of birth control pills.

Essure Lawsuits

The heinous Bayer-caused damage to women's health continued with Essure birth control coils. There were almost 40,000 lawsuits over damages caused by the implanted coils, including severe allergic reactions, miscarriages, perforated organs, the need for hysterectomies, and death. Bayer paid out relative peanuts to settle 90% of these cases - $1.6 billion.

Potential Class Actions Over Cipro and Avelox

Then there is the possibility of future class action lawsuits over damages caused by Bayer's fluoroquinolone antibiotics Cipro and Avelox. I really have my fingers crossed over this one. Cipro was sold and prescribed for minor infections for 30 years, all while killing and disabling people, before the corporation was finally required to change the labels, in 2016 and 2017, to state that they are far too dangerous to be prescribed in this way. Despite the changed labels, fluoroquinolone antibiotics continue to be mis-prescribed by doctors and erroneously dispensed by pharmacists for minor infections. People are still being dreadfully harmed by these drugs every day. Fluoroquinolone victims and survivors number in the millions worldwide, and I am one of them.  

No amount of money can make up for the heinous crimes against humanity, animals, and the environment committed by both Monsanto and Bayer. We have to ask: with this many deaths and injuries on their records, how is the criminal Bayer-Monsanto hybrid monster still operating? How is it still profiting from the violence it has committed (and is still committing) against life on this planet?

Worst Corporate Blunder in History or Intentional Short Selling Scheme?
 
I was in disbelief when I learned that Bayer was planning to buy Monsanto, literally the most hated and publicly protested corporation on the planet at the time. It seemed Bayer's merger with Monsanto was one of the most terrible moves made by a corporation in all of human history. How could a multi-billion dollar trans-national corporation have such a huge blind spot? It seemed impossible to me, even as I relished the schadenfreude and cheered on the bankrupting of Bayer.

This seemingly impossible blunder led me to believe that Bayer was being taken down intentionally for some reason. What could possibly be the reason for a billion-dollar corporation being intentionally damaged or destroyed like this? I raise the possibility of a short selling scheme.

Bayer stocks dropped 45% after it lost its first Roundup case in August 2018.

This reminds me very much of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig explosion and oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico in spring 2010.

The possibility was raised fairly early on of an intentional blowout timed to the short selling of British Petroleum shares.

Short selling is a practise where a speculator borrows shares of a stock that he or she believes will decline in value in the future, committing to paying for those shares at a later date. In the meantime, the speculator sells the borrowed shares to another buyer at full market price. If the stock price declines later on, the speculator is able to buy the shares for a lower price than he or she sold them for, and a profit is made.

Following the Deepwater Horizon explosion, British Petroleum's stock declined by 55% in two months. This would have produced huge profits for anyone with foreknowledge of the disaster who was short selling BP shares.

The tanking of Bayer-Monsanto stock would have produced similar benefits for anyone with foreknowledge who was short selling the shares.

I've outlined in the past how Uranus ingresses are often used by the power establishment to time attacks.

Uranus re-entered Taurus on May 15, 2018. This coincided with the worldwide March Against Bayer-Monsanto on May 19. I did a one-woman march in my town on that day as a survivor of Bayer crimes.

Bayer lost its first Roundup case, the Dewayne Johnson case, on August 10, 2018, and Bayer stocks dropped by 45% since then. Uranus had just stationed retrograde at 2 degrees Taurus on August 7, 2018, making it a very powerful influence as the verdict was announced.

Taurus is a sign related to money, income, value, and worth. So we can see in the symbology of Uranus in Taurus the possibility of an intentional attack on the value of the corporation that would pay off in a money-making short selling scheme. 

What seemed at the time like unexpected economic justice might not be so unexpected, after all.

Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus are locked into a square aspect throughout 2021. The squares are exact on February 17, June 14, and December 23. Under this square, we must be keenly aware of the intentional use of surprise, shock, upheaval, change, or the unexpected (Uranus) to traumatize people and advance the goals of the establishment (Saturn). 

 

From April 19, 2019: Uranus in Taurus, Bankrupting Bayer-Monsanto, and Unexpected Economic Justice for Corporate Violence 

From February 3, 2018: Stop Bayer-Monsanto's Crimes Against Humanity, Animals, and the Environment! 

From April 13, 2017: Pluto Stationing Retrograde in Capricorn: From Millions Against Monsanto to Billions Against Bayer

From November 11, 2010: Pluto Conjunct the North Node with Ceres in the Mix and Food as Ammo

2 comments:

Willow said...

Unfortunately, a French court has just rejected the lawsuit against Bayer-Monsanto on behalf of Agent Orange victims. The plaintiff, Tran To Nga, has lifelong health problems caused by Agent Orange exposure, and her offspring have suffered debilitating health conditions, as well. This is a common story for both the Vietnamese people who were exposed and for U.S. soldiers who served in the war against Vietnam.

She says she will appeal the decision.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/agent-orange-lawsuit/2021/05/07/e1c14058-ada6-11eb-82c1-896aca955bb9_story.html

Willow said...

https://www.consumersafety.org/product-lawsuits/roundup/

"Roundup and its key ingredient, glyphosate, have been linked to several types of cancer, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), b-cell lymphoma and leukemia. As a result, thousands of people have filed lawsuits claiming the popular weed killer caused them to develop cancer.

Glyphosate, the weed-killing active ingredient in Roundup, stands at the center of these lawsuits. Court proceedings in some of the earliest Roundup trials revealed close interactions between Monsanto--the manufacturer of Roundup--and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

These interactions have cast doubt on the EPA's glyphosate rulings. Internal Monsanto documents also demonstrate repeated attempts, some successful, to manipulate published scientific studies and media reports in favor of glyphosate safety.

Roundup Weed Killer Lawsuits

In 1970, agricultural giant Monsanto developed glyphosate as a potent herbicide. Monsanto marketed the chemical as Roundup Weed Killer. By 2007, it had become the most used herbicide in the United States. An estimated 1.4 billion pounds of Roundup are used in more than 160 countries each year.

Despite its widespread use, the popular weedkiller has been called into question as a possible health hazard. Thousands of consumers have filed Roundup cancer claims alleging they developed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, b-cell lymphoma, leukemia or other forms of cancer after using the weed killer.

The first non-Hodgkin's lymphoma lawsuit came before a jury in 2018, resulting in a landmark $289 million verdict against Monsanto. The award has been reduced twice, but the plaintiff, Dewayne Johnson, and his family should receive $20 million.

In 2018, just as these lawsuits were beginning to come before juries, Bayer finalized their acquisition of Monsanto. According to public statements, Bayer faces 125,000 Roundup lawsuits. Plaintiffs claim the herbicide caused users to develop blood cancer.

Roundup Cancer Settlements, Verdicts and Compensation Amounts

Dewayne Johnson v. Monsanto | $20 Million

Plaintiff Dewayne Johnson is a former school groundskeeper for a California county school system. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after years of using Roundup weed-killer and other glyphosate-based herbicides. According to Johnson, he used the product as many as 30 times per year and, on at least two occasions, spilled a substantial amount of the chemical on his body...

Edwin Hardeman v. Monsanto | $25 Million

70-year-old Edwin Hardeman used Roundup from the 1980s through 2015, when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Hardeman filed his lawsuit in 2016, claiming Monsanto ignored and withheld evidence of Roundup's link to cancer. The company also failed to warn consumers of the potential hazards of the weedkiller, according to Hardeman's legal complaint.

Alva and Alberta Pilliod v. Monsanto | $2 Billion

In court proceedings, the Pilliods testified to using Roundup regularly, starting in 1982. The couple used the consumer version of the weedkiller, whose label lacked any warnings about covering skin or wearing protective masks.

Alva was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2011. Four years later, Alberta was also diagnosed with NHL. The Pilliods said they used Roundup because they believed it was safe. Alberta even wore shorts while spraying Roundup, because she had seen a man in a Roundup commercial doing the same thing."