Breakthrough in explosive lawsuit against Monsanto

by Jon Rappoport

May 23, 2018

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A San Francisco lawsuit against Monsanto and its weedkiller, Roundup, is moving forward. And it’s just received a new green light from the judge in the case.

Monsanto’s lawyers are bracing for a deep level of attack, which they were hoping to avoid. The judge has ruled the jury can hear testimony on this issue: Monsanto suppressed evidence that Roundup causes cancer.

Reporter Carey Gillam has the story (The Guardian, 5/22): “At the age of 46, DeWayne Johnson is not ready to die. But with cancer spread through most of his body, doctors say he probably has just months to live. Now Johnson, a husband and father of three in California, hopes to survive long enough to make Monsanto take the blame for his fate.”

“On 18 June, Johnson will become the first person to take the global seed and chemical company to trial on allegations that it has spent decades hiding the cancer-causing dangers of its popular Roundup herbicide products – and his case has just received a major boost.”

“Last week Judge Curtis Karnow issued an order clearing the way for jurors to consider not just scientific evidence related to what caused Johnson’s cancer, but allegations that Monsanto suppressed evidence of the risks of its weed killing products. Karnow ruled that the trial will proceed and a jury would be allowed to consider possible punitive damages.”

“’The internal correspondence noted by Johnson could support a jury finding that Monsanto has long been aware of the risk that its glyphosate-based herbicides are carcinogenic … but has continuously sought to influence the scientific literature to prevent its internal concerns from reaching the public sphere and to bolster its defenses in products liability actions’, [Judge] Karnow wrote.” [Yes, the Judge in the case wrote that statement.]

“Johnson’s case, filed in San Francisco county superior court in California, is at the forefront of a legal fight against Monsanto. Some 4,000 plaintiffs have sued Monsanto alleging exposure to Roundup caused them, or their loved ones, to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Another case is scheduled for trial in October, in Monsanto’s home town of St Louis, Missouri.”

“How the Johnson lawsuit plays out could be a bellwether for how other plaintiffs proceed. If Johnson prevails, there could be many more years of costly litigation and hefty damage claims. If Monsanto successfully turns back the challenge, it could derail other cases and lift pressure on the firm.”

“According to the court record, Johnson had a job as a groundskeeper for the Benicia unified school district where he applied numerous treatments of Monsanto’s herbicides to school properties from 2012 until at least late 2015. He was healthy and active before he got the cancer diagnosis in August 2014. In a January deposition, Johnson’s treating physician testified that more than 80% of his body was covered by lesions, and that he probably had but a few months to live.”

How will Monsanto proceed? First, they’ll argue that Johnson’s cancer could have been caused by other factors. They’ll throw the kitchen sink at the jury. It could have been genetics. It could have been lifestyle. It could have been causes that are still unknown to researchers. It could have been starlight from a galaxy far, far away. Monsanto’s lawyers will try to bury the jury in reams of supposition.

Second, they’ll show the jury an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) finding that Roundup does not cause cancer. Like the FDA, the EPA has sided with major corporations in efforts to protect them. Monsanto will claim: “The federal government has asserted Roundup is safe, and that’s the end of our responsibility. The federal government is the final arbiter.” Which is to say: the truth isn’t the final arbiter.

Third, Monsanto will execute a series of acrobatic moves to prove they never suppressed evidence that Roundup causes cancer. They were simply “considering all relevant safety issues.” They were “posing various scenarios.” Their internal memos were “temporary work product” on the way to making a final judgment about Roundup’s safety. They were raising valid concerns about flawed studies that claimed Roundup was dangerous.

If all else fails, Monsanto might try to settle with Johnson—and then claim the $$ payout was simply a way to show compassion for his unfortunate condition—and move on—continuing to offer the public a fine and safe product (Roundup). No guilt admitted.

In the extreme—and I need to raise this question—might Monsanto, behind the scenes, secretly and illegally offer Johnson’s lawyer and his client a very large sum to present a weak case in court and let Monsanto win the case?

You decide.

If Monsanto has intentionally hidden the dire effects of Roundup for decades, while people have gotten sick and died, what wouldn’t they do?

Among the myriad scandals and crimes of Monsanto, here is one that sheds light on the mindset of the company. Axisoflogic.com reports (3/22/12): “In 2001, 3,600 inhabitants of the city of Anniston, Alabama, attacked Monsanto for PCB [a chlorine chemical] contamination. According to a report, declassified by the U.S. Agency of Environmental Protection (EPA), Monsanto for almost forty years dumped thousands of tons of contaminated waste in a stream and an open garbage dump in the heart of a black neighborhood in the city.”

“The way The Washington Post reported the story is instructive: ‘Monsanto documents — many emblazoned with warnings such as ‘CONFIDENTIAL: Read and Destroy’ — show that for decades, the corporate giant concealed what it did and what it knew. In 1966, Monsanto managers discovered that fish submerged in that creek turned belly-up within 10 seconds, spurting blood and shedding skin as if dunked into boiling water. They told no one.”

“Monsanto was finally convicted in 2002 of having polluted ‘the territory of Anniston and the blood of its people with the PCB’. The firm was ordered to pay $ 700 million in damages and to guarantee the cleaning-up of the city. No legal action was brought against the company officials.”


The Matrix Revealed

(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.)


Jon Rappoport

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.

33 comments on “Breakthrough in explosive lawsuit against Monsanto

  1. Theodore says:

    “It could have been [his] genetics [that gave him the cancer].”

    that is a great cover story for ‘toxic industrial waste’ crimes.

  2. Shift legal action toward individuals.

  3. Satanists Rule The World says:

    Dr. Anthony Samsel investigated what the EPA and Monsanto knew from the beginning about Roundup:

    “I asked EPA, as a research scientist, to be able to access those documents in my research. I was denied by the Environmental Protection Agency, initially,” he says. “It finally took Senator Shaheen’s office, here in New Hampshire, to move the EPA… They sent [the documents] to me on a disc. I had to sign for them. I was also told that I could not share them with foreign nationals under a penalty of law…

    However, I’ve been going through 12 to 14 of these documents in the file. They represent thousands and thousands of pages of data on studies that were done on laboratory animals. What amazed me was that Monsanto knew in 1981 that glyphosate caused adenomas and carcinomas in the rats that they’ve studied… The highest incidence of tumorigenic growth occurred in the pituitary gland… the second highest levels were in the breasts of the female rats, in the mammary glands… Thirdly, the next highest tumorigenic growth was found in the testicles of male rats.”

    “… At the rate we’re going, we’re going to kill billions of people,” Dr. Samsel says.

    http://www.healthfreedoms.org/researcher-reveals-monsanto-has-known-since-1981-that-glyphosate-promotes-cancer/

    If there were a functioning justice system, or media, or regulatory agencies, or universities, or government, they could never get away with what they are doing. They can only do it because they have corrupted just about everything that could stop them.

    “Monsanto & Cancer Milk: FOX NEWS KILLS STORY & FIRES Reporters”

    https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=JL1pKlnhvg0

    • NaturalWoman says:

      Thank you. These are crimes against humanity and the people involved should be personally held responsible, not just the company or agency.

  4. Theodore says:

    The bookies in “Route 91 Harvest music festival” Vegas are scrambling…

    * DeWayne Johnson might not be around long enough to ‘get some money’ for his family — ESPECIALLY if he goes the ‘traditional’ ‘cancer treatment’ route. We all know how THOSE ‘applied toxins’ workout in the body (treating an already toxic body with toxins). So, the temptation to settle out-of-court is very high — I would assume. The point being, if he dies while the case is still in-progress, the case has to be stopped/dropped, correct? That is a key question.

    * Behind the scenes, secretly and illegally offer Johnson’s lawyer and his client a very large sum to present a weak case in court and let Monsanto win the case? NOW that’s a ‘novel’ idea!

  5. The Watchman says:

    Some good points, Jon. Linked this story yesterday at
    https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
    and will be linking your insights as usual, today.
    As promising as this may be, I am sure that Monsanto will come out on top!

  6. More and more scientific studies are showing that cancer is NOT CAUSED BY GENETIC FACTORS in many types of cancer, especially blood cancers.
    My young daughter has just finished her Chemo and there has been no cancer at all on both sides of her parents family.

    Anyone who claims that putting extreme Toxic brew concocted in a laboratory into the environment will have No negative effects, is either lying, psychopathic or mentally deficient.

  7. sundancer55 says:

    And now Monsanto has Bayer to help them pay people off in more ways than you can shake a stick. And believe me, they know it. Nothing – aboslutely nothing talks like money. We will never again be a world without these toxic companies.

    • Ah Sundancer55 — Bayer, now there’s an interesting connection.

      “Shall I tell you the short version…okay then, grab your coffee and pay attention — there will be a pop quiz later.”

      Monsanto is getting in serious trouble, financial — and through research and development find out that they are the most hated entity in the universe, just slightly above Satan himself.  And so Bayer jumps in and bails them out with that massive merger — to rebrand and put a new coat of paint on the tattered old Francis Monsanto Queeny image. And help with some residency problems in Europe and other places.

      Monsanto gave us saccharin a sweetner made from coal-tar; they gave us PCB’s and DDT.

      Well, ya see Bayer was part of that Nazi nonsense of I.G. Farben — the large conglomerate of German companies that came together in the first Nazi effort to rule the world during the second world. They eventually did take over the world, but not with a war machine.

      After the war, Farben was broke up and all of those little Nazi scientists, technicians and bureaucrats, bean counters and professors came to America. Contaminated the Universities and business model with the Nazi way, invaded schools politics and what-not with the philosophies of the Reich.  

      And Bayer was not allowed to do business in America. Nuremberg banned that action. All find and dandy — Bayer has formulas and scientists on the American side that aid in their forlorn for the release of new polyurethanes and processes and wishes to release onto the world thousands of new products — billions to be made — and all this filled with toxins and washed with waters that pour into pristine lakes and streams and American waterways. And onto the bodies of humans and babies.

      “Had to get the baby part in, its important.”

      Now its 1954, so, Monsanto teams up with Bayer to form a company named Mobay, and Mobay release polyurethanes to the world.

      Now we are in like Flint * sorry that was a Dow joke *. Polyurethane is used to make foam house insulation, and paints, fast food containers, and adhesives to say the least.
      New inventions and applications are happening every day with these bent and twisted artists. Houses and cars; building materials and fire-retardant ‘BABY’ blankets and clothing. Toys and bangles bobbles and biscuits. And even medicine.

      Its flammable — polyurethane and combustible, and when it does burn it gives off cyanide gases and fuels raging fires and its highly explosive. 

      Jesus Christ on cracker, we can’t have that…

      No problem, they impregnate the process with cancer causing fire retardants made from halides and rinky dinky, problem solved and the eventual contamination of garbage sites, and oceans with an inert material that will not degrade in the environment, will not burn or be destroyed by fire. Because the fire-retardant is built right into the process.

      Mobay makes money like God makes bees, and wham bam, thank you mam — into the future and Bayer stands and says

      “We as a corporate entity will merge with Monsanto, as they helped us get into America after that Nazi faux pas — we will give them personhood in Europe, so they can’t be asked to leave — because we owe them big time, and they are our little precious, our sweet sweet friend..”

      • sundancer55 says:

        You don’t need to educate me on the Bayer conglomerate! I just finished reading the book (on kindle) called Hell’s Cartel. Wow, what an eye-opener even though I thought I was pretty well up-to-date on what had happened with all that stuff.

        Why is it that wars bring on all of this criminal activity even OUTSIDE the munitions manufacturers and the lucrative spy corruption? A person would think that would have been enough to keep them busy for at least one whole generation….

        Also, I just read an article that had some quotes from Dr. Vandana Shiva (I have a lot of respect for that woman) and she told about how they (Bayer and Monsanto) have been together as partners since even a tad before WWII and wreaked havoc of untold proportions with their experimental inventions and now have created superweeds, etc. It was quite interesting (I think I found it at Global Research.org or somewhere). Believe me, she had nothing good to say about those criminal corporations.

        Oh yes, Monsanto was the greased pig for Bayer to slide into America, all right.

        BTW, I always heard it as “Christ on a crutch”. No idea where i heard it the first time but after all my years on earth it still strikes me as sacrilegious – with just a bit of humor though.

        Thank you for all the information you provided. I’ll bet there are lots of people who don’t know a thing about that aspect of their “merger”.

      • Pat says:

        The people who own and work for these evil companies will all be wondering what happened one day when they are burning and can’t put the fire out! And find out their money is all gone!

      • MachtNichts says:

        If you had skipped “the first Nazi effort to rule the world during the second world (sic)”, maybe your post would have been more credible. The National Socialists were never out to conquer the world which should be common knowledge by now. But, there she goes, another fly in the ointment, oops.

        A merger of Monsanto and Bayer has diddly squat to do with the National Socialists. It should be of great concern though, given the power of mega corps claiming ‘personhood’ without taking responsibility and their capacity of lying through their teeth. The damage that has been done through their products and been covered up is criminal.

        My wish is for Mr. Johnson and all the other litigants to be successful in an Erin Brockovich way. Make those people pay. There are people hiding behind corporate names, aren’t there?

        • “The National Socialists were never out to conquer the world which should be common knowledge by now.”

          Along with the other axis powers Hitler aimed to change every government in every country on the world.

          The Japanese would rule Oceania, the Italians most of Africa. He was simpathetic to the Arabs in North Africa — German colonies would return to a pre first world war state. Britain and America would be invaded and cleansed of their filth. Adolf considered America both…

           “half Judaized, and the other half Negrified”

           Adolf, Nazis and the Reich was a war cult. Adolf was a catholic and so favored himself to be a Roman Catholic Emperor informed by a church and a pope. Reich means a ‘Realm’, and a realm is ruled by an emperor only. The average German saw Hitler as a messiah, he was adored worshipped like an emperor.
          An emperor fit to break Germany out of its land locked geographical position was an imperative to the end goal —  world dominance.

          He needed the Russian ports for world domination. He needed the vast Russian resources of metals, oil and gas, minerals and soil. Do you know how much soil was shipped by rail into Germany from the Russian Steppe? Trainloads, shovelled onto boxcars by slaves.

          Russia was vital to the end goal, that is why he sacrificed so much in the battle for Stalingrad. Stalingrad is the largest land battle ever fought, the largest death toll, and destruction of property and environment. Nothing comes close to it.

          One need not look any further than the Imperial cult of old Rome. The divine emperor and the cult of personality. Hitler was fascinated with it and propaganda techniques were applied to make it true in Germany. 

          Hitler wished to rule Aryan people all over the world, and murder the rest, which he considered degenerate inferiors

          “New Order” is Hitlerian term.

  8. Freespirit says:

    Without “Personal Liability” which there would be, under “Common Law”, VIOLATIONS, of our rights, to Life, Liberty and Property ownership, and harm done, thereof, of each, will continue

    “Common Law” requires Victims, of which there are plenty but under Statutory “law” ( not truly law) Corporations are not Humans and thus cannot be punished with more than fines.

    CRIMINALITY escapes.

    Without using “Common Law” to charge the Officers, Directors and Managers, Criminally-speaking, Corporations will ALWAYS win , in spite of the “Fines”

    ONLY the MOST GRIEVOUS and continuations of violations by Corporations can result in a Corporation be “Fined to Death”, so-to-speak.

    Have you heard of that ever happening???

    Statutory “law” ( Statutes) is therefore, a FARCE, designed to protect the Guilty hidden within Corporations

    The LARGEST Corporations are our so-called,GOVERNMENTS

  9. paschnn1 says:

    Somewhere along the line it’ll be “stopped”. Just as criminal prosecution of corporate officers is virtually always stopped.
    Am I a “fatalist”? I don’t think so – more of a “realist”.

    To, perhaps, make you all more “realists”, I’ll give you 2 dates in this sewer’s sordid past;

    CONgress – 1871

    CONgress/president – 1933

    And, yes – this sewer really IS a corporation…

    Do some research and you SHOULD invariably stumble upon the REASONS why those 2 dates were the chiming of the death knell for this nation and creation of just another City of London “trick”.

  10. Reblogged this on amnesiaclinic and commented:
    The play will be dirty, very dirty.

  11. From Quebec says:

    Of course Monsanto is guilty. But the real culprits. are the corrupted politicians and their lobbyists. Only a deep corrupted government can allow this to go on.

  12. Not So Free says:

    It’s about time!

  13. Erika says:

    COST OF DOING BUSINESS.

    Already been calculated into price of product.

    Corporations do this ALL THE TIME. The FDA and the EPA are there to keep a things under wrap, and to obfuscate as much as possible until the damage is severe enough (and enough money has been made) that they can no longer cover it up…and then a law suit emerges- ensuring that nothing meaningful will actually be done. Drug companies do this all the time as do major polluters-they know full well what they are doing and lawsuits never stop them. They just pay a slap on the wrist fine and go back to the business of killing people for profit.

    See that is the real dirty little secret of Capitalism.
    Life= money.
    All sentient beings are simply commodities.
    The earth is a commodity.
    Everything that is sacred (life itself) is sold for the glitter of a few dollars.

    Where id we get this DISGUSTING idea?
    That you can replace something proceless by throwing a few dollars at it?
    Then allow the perp to simply carry on killing?

    This is much like MEDICINE..DOCTORS ARE ALWAYS A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT.
    Medical white coated luddites used to laugh at the alternative health community for focussing on gut bacteria..until they caught on that money could be made, and the white coated priests of death came up with their own patented verson of gut bacteria suupplements at over $10,000 a treatment. (btw be careful many of the supplement companiess are owned by big pharma, many has been the time i have traced funding of some naturopath’s stocked supplements back to a new york investment firms.)..

    Another example is food sensitivites and allergies. White coated thugs have ALWAYS told us that any intolerance/allergic reaction like projectile diarrhoea,or blood pressure drop, or rash around your mouth ,or wheezing- IT IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD, because it is only the PROTEIN that causes reactions..so IF you are allergic to ..say corn and eat pharmaceutical grade corn derivatives and develop these problems…it is in no way related to the corn derivatives which have no proteins and are “hypo-allergenic” right?
    UHUH

    They are willing to let the problem get large enough until it won’t go away, and then throw money at it in exchange for life lost..like that is somehow reparation for things you CANNOT REPLACE.
    Like this planet..

  14. Jon

    From resulting gun wound deaths, does the gun, the bullet, or humans operators with malice in hearts “cause” murder?

    It is lucky ignorance is universal. because I would class Montsanto as an “accessory” to murder and feel Big Oil should also be put before the jurors if any legitimatisation of justice is to be gained.

    Even so, nasty product – best off the market. I interviewed Australian farmers about it and Grazon in the late ’90’s.

    Best
    OT

    • honestliberty says:

      Big oil, really?
      Ozzie, you are an embarrassment. What did “big oil” provide other than the access to the raw materials to heat ourselves cheap, move in transit efficiently and cheap, green the planet, etc.. your lack of knowledge and obvious belief in CAGW is as telling as your defense of pedophilia.

      • Ah the forum dunce is back.

        There something you must do to find the truth. A “poser” of your character wouldn’t know liberty if you tripped over it.

        The truth, believe it or not, is one of the foundation stones of liberty. Go research the truth IMPARTIALLY and you will find my criticism of Big Oil (and, by extension, IGNORANT, arrogant, “holier than thou” gas guzzlers) is valid, pertinent and true.

        There are other information sources and methods beyond the faculties of “normal folks”. Those with prodigy will be able to tune to my reasoning. Final comment.

        • honestliberty says:

          I just noticed this post. How’s it going pizza lover?

          • Very well and thank you for asking, but you know I don’t like junk, DT.

            In fact, I have just finished the final draft of a new article “Inheritance, the Prodigal Son and Interest in “Interest””. It discusses serious stuff you wouldn’t understand. Am I being rude releasing the final paragraph?

            “Abundance does not come without a “price” to those that dedicate themselves to controlling humanity. Population swells lead to the collectivisation of giant metropolises. Without incessant propaganda that “define” normalcy, the “stranger” has equal influential status to those that are known. A rogue messiah or “anti-Christ” could emerge. It is more than possible; probable even. Of course there are many ways to quickly dispel unrest. Leaders can be branded occultists, sexual deviants or, worse still, insane. Anyone fetching that positive diagnosis can be carted off to be indefinitely detained without recourse. As everyone that used to be “evil” now has some sort of psychiatric disorder, biased and unfair claims against can be sinisterly effective. How well did Jesus fare against the Pharisees in face of the cross? How are mental illnesses “healed”? Well there is a litany of tested drug cocktails perfect at prepping would-be “Manchurian Candidate” assassins without causes from recalcitrant, inspirational free-thinkers. Two birds killed with one stone?”

          • honestliberty says:

            It strikes me as justification for perverse tastes, but hey, I suppose in your relativistic morality a young child can actually give consent. Right.

            You won’t just come out and admit what you’re into but we can all see it bub, and no amount of sophistry can hide it

          • Those are words of a tyrant.

            Firstly, moron, perverse comes from the Latin word perversus which is usually translated as “turned about”. in effect it was directed at anyone that refused to follow “cultural standards” whether they be legal, social or artistic.

            You sum me up very poorly, which would be expected of an arrogant bigot. In fact I am anti-morality as all morals are the cause of oppressions and the violation of liberties. It might be said that I’m a real libertarian (a concept that is clearly beyond you).

            Does that mean I find nothing distasteful? No, absolutely not. I find you extremely distasteful, for instance. My persuasion is towards tolerance EXCEPT when oppression or true violations of sovereignty occur.

            With that….please bugger off, bigot.

  15. song boat says:

    My case is unprecedented. My neighbor was allowed to apply chemicals to my property for the purpose of eliminating me so he could acquire my land.

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