WORLD NEWS
Klaus Schwab: ‘We Have The Means To Impose The State Of The World’
World Economic Forum (WEF), Davos, May 24, 2022: Klaus Schwab declares to a room full of political and corporate execs and WEF scholars:
“Let’s be clear the future is not just happening, the future is built by us, a powerful community here in this room. We have the means to impose the state of the world.”
This statement was clearly addressing the faithful globalists, while sending a clear warning to the non-globalists, no matter the globalist devotion they demonstrated in the past.
Some may have “digressed” by ultimately identifying with their national sovereignty, rather than with a global dictatorship. The recent assassination of Shinzo Abe may have been a case in point. – And a warning to others? See this.
Food Wars — Starvation Creates Cheaper Labor
In 2008, an article touting the benefits of world hunger for creating a cheap, motivated workforce was published on the United Nations’ website
The article resurfaced recently on Twitter and went viral; it was promptly taken down by the U.N. within 24 hours
The crux of the article is that the elite class has a distinct motivation to not end world hunger, because if everyone is well-nourished, there may be no one willing to provide cheap labor and slave away at some of the most physically demanding and unpleasant jobs on the planet
While the U.N. claimed the article was satire, its author denied that it was a satirical piece and said it was intended to raise awareness that some people benefit from the existence of hunger in the world
The U.N. released its 2022 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR2022), which warns that a perfect storm of disasters, economic vulnerability and ecosystem failures are occurring, which predict a coming global collapse
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Whistleblowers Claim FBI Leaders Pressuring Agents to Pad Domestic Terrorism Data
Agents at the FBI are being pressured by superior officers to massage reports and pad the resulting data on the number of incidents involving Domestic Violent Extremists (DVE), according to information provided by agency whistleblowers to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Jordan is presently the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee and likely to become chairman of the panel if the GOP retakes the majority in the lower chamber of Congress in the November elections.
The Ohio Republican made public late Wednesday his letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray explaining that Republicans on the judiciary panel “continue to hear from brave whistleblowers about disturbing conduct at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
“From recent protected disclosures, we have learned that FBI officials are pressuring agents to reclassify cases as ‘domestic violent extremism’ even if the cases do not meet the criteria for such a classification,” the letter reads (pdf).
“Given the narrative pushed by the Biden Administration that domestic violent extremism is the ‘greatest threat’ facing our country, the revelation that the FBI may be artificially padding domestic terrorism data is scandalous.”
Jordan noted that the FBI’s definition of DVE’s is “an individual based and operating primarily within the United States or its territories without direction or inspiration from a foreign terrorist group or other foreign power who seeks to further political or social goals wholly or in part through unlawful acts of force or violence.”
Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland have repeatedly claimed that violence perpetrated by DVE’s, including the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, represent the greatest domestic security threat facing the United States.
Pelosi’s Husband Sells Nvidia Shares at Major Loss Ahead of House Vote on Chipmaker Subsidies
A recent filing by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) shows that her financier husband Paul Pelosi offloaded nearly $5 million worth of graphics card giant Nvidia shares just days before House lawmakers are set to consider legislation that would provide billions in government subsidies for U.S. semiconductor production.
In a periodic transaction report signed on Tuesday, Pelosi disclosed (pdf) that her husband sold 25,000 shares of Nvidia at an average price of $165.05 with a total loss of $341,365.
In total, the shares are worth between $1 million and $5 million.
According to an earlier filing this month (pdf), Paul Pelosi exercised 200 call options, or 20,000 shares, of Nvidia at a strike price of $100 and expiration of June 17, 2022, worth between $1 million and $5 million.
At the same time, Paul Pelosi also sold portions of his Apple and Visa holdings, according to the speaker’s disclosure.
Paul Pelosi owns and operates a San Francisco-based real estate and consulting firm.
The move to purchase Nvidia stock in June raised questions about whether the financier had insider knowledge about the legislation, while Pelosi has drawn scrutiny in recent months over her husband’s moves in the stock market.
However, Pelosi’s spokesman Drew Hammill told media outlets at the time that the speaker “has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions,” while adding that she also “does not own any stocks.”
“To be clear, insider trading is already a serious federal criminal and civil violation and the Speaker strongly supports robust enforcement of the relevant statutes by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission,” Hammill also said.
Trump Threatens to Sue CNN for Defamation, Fraud
Former President Donald Trump threatened to file a defamation lawsuit against CNN over its usage of the term “Big Lie” and “lying” when reporting on his challenges to the 2020 election.
A notice of intent to bring civil action was sent by Trump’s lawyers to CNN, including new President Chris Licht and Executive Vice President David Vigilante. The notice demands that CNN publish a retraction, correction, or an apology.
“CNN must publish a full and fair correction, apology, or retraction, in the same editions or corresponding issues of the website publication in which the aforementioned articles, transcripts, or broadcasts appeared and in as conspicuous a place and type as said original article, transcript or broadcast within ten (10) days from the date of service of this notice,” it reads (pdf).
“Failure to publish such a correction, apology, or retraction will result in the filing of a lawsuit and damages being sought against you, CNN.”
The notice also calls on the network to “immediately cease and desist from its continued use of ‘Big Lie’ and ‘lying’” when referring to Trump’s subjective beliefs about election integrity.
It said that CNN maliciously linked Trump to Adolf Hitler and communist leaders by describing his election claims as the “Big Lie.” According to the notice, the network used the term in connection to Trump more than 7,700 times since January 2021.
In its notice to CNN, Ifrah Law, a Washington-based law firm, included hundreds of pages of exhibits.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/whistleblowers-claim-fbi-leaders-pressuring-agents-to-pad-domestic-terrorism-data_4626983.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-07-28-1&utm_medium=email&est=cPuAErJw%2BTCwrY2XWnL4aRwDw%2FHBpu5fz5v%2BPN%2BQJn9XeWUdMp0eD1qDG1DA8%2FL0wi%2Fj
“After the 2016 election, various members of the Democratic party gave numerous televised statements claiming the 2016 election was illegitimate. This included suggestions about Russian interference causing President Trump to win the election and regular referrals to President Trump being an ‘illegitimate’ President,” the notice stated.
“CNN repeatedly allowed for assertions that President Trump was illegitimately elected to go largely unchallenged, including statements made by Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Jimmy Carter, Jerry Nadler, John Lewis, Dianne Feinstein, Marcia Fudge, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.”
In a statement from his Save America committee published on Wednesday, Trump suggested that he might file lawsuits against other news outlets.
“I have notified CNN of my intent to file a lawsuit over their repeated defamatory statements against me,” Trump said. “I will also be commencing actions against other media outlets who have defamed me and defrauded the public regarding the overwhelming evidence of fraud throughout the 2020 Election. I will never stop fighting for the truth and for the future of our Country!”
Trump has long argued that the United States should change its libel laws to make it easier to file lawsuits against media outlets.
FBI Likely Did ‘Intentionally Undermine’ a Congressional Probe on Hunter Biden: Senator
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) criticized the FBI on July 26, alleging that the bureau was “weaponized” against two U.S. senators when it arranged an intelligence briefing in August 2020.
Johnson’s criticism was based on new revelations that surfaced a day earlier, when Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) divulged that certain FBI officials had a “scheme” to wrongly label “derogatory information” on Hunter Biden as disinformation, based on what his office learned from “highly credible whistleblowers.”
By inaccurately labeling verified evidence as disinformation, FBI officials halted investigative activities related to Hunter Biden in 2020.
“If these recent whistleblower revelations are true, it would strongly suggest that the FBI’s August 6, 2020 briefing was indeed a targeted effort to intentionally undermine a Congressional investigation,” Johnson wrote in a letter (pdf) obtained by Just the News. The letter was sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
‘Very Bold Decision’: Ohio Supreme Court Voids Rape Conviction Because Victim Sat With Prosecutors
The Ohio Supreme Court voted 4-3 to reverse a man’s conviction for rape and kidnapping—a ruling that one defense lawyer called “a very, very bold decision.”
For the first time in its 220-year history, the state’s highest court was asked to consider whether a defendant was denied a fair trial because the crime victim was introduced as the prosecutors’ “representative” and then was allowed to sit at the prosecution table throughout the 2018 acquaintance-rape trial of Theodis Montgomery.
Montgomery’s trial lawyer Dennis Lager, based in Canton, Ohio, told The Epoch Times: “This was a case of first impression with the court; they’ve never seen something like this … where the state attempted to use the victim as the state’s representative.”
Manchin Says Deal Reached With Schumer on New BBB Bill Over Energy, Taxes, Health Care
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced on July 27 that he has reached a deal with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on energy, taxes, and health care to advance what appears to be a revised, alternate version to the Build Back Better (BBB) bill.
The new spending package (pdf), now dubbed the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” will “address record inflation by paying down our national debt, lowering energy costs, and lowering healthcare costs,” Manchin said in a lengthy statement.
“For too long, the reconciliation debate in Washington has been defined by how it can help advance Democrats political agenda called Build Back Better. Build Back Better is dead, and instead, we have the opportunity to make our country stronger by bringing Americans together,” he added.
Manchin, a crucial swing vote in the 50–50 split Senate, had for months refused to support the BBB pushed by fellow Democrats that at one point had asked for over $3 trillion in funding. In mid-July, he reportedly killed any hope for a scaled down version of the BBB, telling party leadership he would not support new climate spending or raise taxes from their post-2017 levels.
“The revised legislative text will be submitted to the Parliamentarian for review this evening and the full Senate will consider it next week,” Manchin and Schumer said in a joint statement on July 27.
Schumer seeks to pass the measure through a procedural tool that allows a bill related to taxes, spending, and debt to be passed in the chamber by a simple 51-vote majority rather than having to pass the 60 vote filibuster threshold. The process also limits debate on the bill to 20 hours. That could allow the bill to be passed with only Democratic votes, if necessary—if every Democrat is on board.
Hours after Manchin announced the deal, a spokesperson for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), a moderate Democrat, told news outlets that her office does not have a comment on the proposed legislation and that she will need to review the text.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Fed Boosts Rates by Another 0.75 Percentage Point as Inflation Soars
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by another 0.75 percentage point on July 27 during the July Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting. This is in line with market expectations and similar to the historic move the central bank made in June.
The FOMC’s three-quarter-point boost lifted the benchmark fed funds rate to the range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent. It was a unanimous decision among central bank officials.
The Fed’s balance-sheet reduction efforts will continue in September, as expected. The monthly runoff caps will rise to $35 billion for mortgage-backed securities and $60 billion for U.S. Treasurys.
While the labor market has remained strong, “recent indicators of spending and production have softened,” the FOMC said in a revised statement.
“Russia’s war against Ukraine is causing tremendous human and economic hardship,” the statement reads. “The war and related events are creating additional upward pressure on inflation and are weighing on global economic activity. The Committee is highly attentive to inflation risks.”
The institution is committed to lowering inflation to its 2 percent target. But the FOMC noted that it’s quite concerned about broad-based inflationary threats.
Following the latest move, the fed funds rate futures forecast stands at 3.4 percent in December as more than 100 basis points of tightening is expected for the rest of 2022.
The leading benchmark stock market indexes held onto their gains on July 27, with the Nasdaq Composite Index rallying about 4 percent and the S&P 500 adding about 2.6 percent.
Biden: ‘We’re Not Going Into a Recession’
President Joe Biden insists that the United States is not slipping into an economic recession, a view that is being pushed strongly by the White House ahead of the soon-to-be-released Q2 GDP numbers.
“We’re not going to be in a recession, in my view,” Biden said in a virtual meeting on the semiconductor bill on July 25. “The unemployment rate is still one of the lowest we’ve had in history. It’s in the 3.6 percent area. We still find ourselves with people investing. My hope is we go from this rapid growth to a steady growth, so we’ll see some coming down.”
Biden’s statement comes as the Commerce Department is scheduled to release its second quarter 2022 estimate of U.S. GDP on Thursday. In the first quarter, the U.S. economy had shrunk at an annualized pace of 1.6 percent.
Most economists classify a country to be in recession when the nation has two consecutive quarters of GDP declines.
As such, if the Q2 GDP data to be released on July 28 also show negative GDP, the U.S. will generally be considered to be in recession.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is predicting a GDP decline of 1.6 percent in the second quarter.
However, the White House is attempting to redefine what a recession is. “While some maintain that two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP constitute a recession, that is neither the official definition nor the way economists evaluate the state of the business cycle,” the White House Council of Economic Advisers wrote in a new blog.
White House’s Definition of Recession Comes Under Expert Criticism
The Biden administration has come under criticism for rejecting the definition of recession as two consecutive quarters of GDP declines, just ahead of the upcoming second-quarter GDP data, as economists differ on their takes regarding the economic situation.
“What is a recession? While some maintain that two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP [gross domestic product] constitute a recession, that is neither the official definition nor the way economists evaluate the state of the business cycle,” a July 21 White House statement said.
In an interview with Fox News, Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, called the White House statement “ridiculous.”
“They have to say ridiculous things like that, even have an argument with a dictionary … Sitting around the table with [President Joe] Biden are all the interest groups in the modern Democratic Party,” Norquist said, pointing to labor unions and environmental activists. He also blamed progressive ideologues for having policy agendas that are “disassociated from reality.”
The National Bureau of Economic Research, the “official recession scorekeeper,” defines recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months,” the White House noted.
The Biden administration argues that recession is to be defined based on a “holistic look” at the data, including such factors as incomes, business spending, consumer spending, and the labor market. Based on these data, “it is unlikely” that a second-quarter economic contraction following the first-quarter decline indicates a recession.
U.S. GDP already contracted in the first quarter, with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta expecting second-quarter GDP to contract once more. The second-quarter GDP data are due on July 28.
Monetary Transformation: Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)
The value of Bitcoins and NFTs may have fallen over the past year, but a different approach to cryptocurrency is growing in popularity around the world while showcasing a totally different face of the blockchain.
As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, central bank digital currencies are controlled by governments like traditional currencies are and therefore represent the polar opposite of the idea of decentralized, non-traceable bitcoins. Several small nations and – as of October 2021, Nigeria – have launched central bank digital currencies, and several more populous countries are getting ready to jump aboard a different crypto hype train.
According to the Central Bank Digital Currency Tracker by Atlantic Council, CBDCs were launched even earlier than in Nigeria in Caribbean countries, for example in the Bahamas, Grenada, Dominica and Saint Lucia. The Sand Dollar of the Bahamas was the first central bank digital currency of the world upon its launch in 2019 and cleared the way for a rapid adoption around the region’s small nations.
The Chinese digital Yuan pilot made headlines in April 2019, but the project has not moved on since. Like Nigeria, China has a solid digital and mobile payment infrastructure. Large parts of the two countries’ populations leapfrogged card payments and went straight from cash to digital payment options, which became hugely popular – may they be app or text-based. In developing countries, central banks also consider the potential of digital currencies reaching the unbanked.
Another reason for some governments to champion official digital currencies is the collection of data. Ubiquitous digital payments and tight government surveillance have led to a plethora of payment data already available to Chinese administrators. This knowledge on how people spend money will only grow with the implementation of the digital Yuan, even though the country’s central bank has said it will limit traceability and create what it calls “controllable anonymity.”
With the launch of the digital currency, every Yuan in circulation will either exist as physical or as digital currency. Analysts expect the Chinese government to raise the amount of digital currency in the future, thereby lowering the amount of physical currency available in the market. Some even think China plans to make all Yuan digital at one point.
Other countries which are in a CBDC pilot phase include Russia, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. It is unclear, however, which program could see a proper launch next. Concrete plans to launch a CBDC were recorded by the source in Canada, Australia, Brazil and India, among others.
The digital Euro is also in its development phase, with a pilot scheduled for 2023 in participating nations.
As Alt-Market’s Brandon Smith detailed previously, with the introduction of CBDCs in the wake of a stagflationary crash, the central banks could call for a new global network of currencies to “stop such a crisis from ever happening again.” The BIS and the IMF will be ready and waiting with the SDR basket, or something very similar. The bankers will remove all physical money over a short period of time and a global digital system will take over. All privacy in trade will be gone, except for those people involved in barter, black markets and commodities.
The advent of CBDCs could also mean that money and economic participation will become privileges, not rights. Digital trade could be tied to a social credit system, much like the one that exists in communist China.
Want access to your checking and savings accounts? Better not say anything critical of the establishment, or you could be reported by a neighbor or stranger by cell phone app and have your money disappear in seconds. The onus will then be on you to prove that you are “loyal” and get access back. You are guilty until proven innocent. Maybe you don’t want to take the next untested mRNA vaccine for the next dubious pandemic threat? You’ll have little choice if your ability to function economically is controlled digitally.
This is the world we are facing if we allow central banks to fully digitize money and trade. It is a nightmare environment of complete authoritarianism. The public at large is mostly unaware of the incredible danger inherent in CBDCs and they must be educated before the current crisis grows so large that they can no longer focus on anything other than their own problems.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
DARPA, Insects, Mad Science, and Us: Nowhere to Hide
Irresponsible use of new and very advanced technologies by the military is life-threatening
Engineered viruses can be used to edit genes in a target species, including in a heritable manner
“Insect Allies” is a DARPA program designed to genetically modify mature plants in a live environment by releasing insects infected with genetically modified viruses
Some scientists, although on board with genetic modification in principle, are questioning DARPA’s motives and raising concerns
Researchers in Singapore, as well as DARPA in the U.S. have developed “remote-controlled insects”
HEALTH
What Does the ‘Best Evidence’ Say About Antidepressants?
In June 2022, 22.4% of American adults reported symptoms of depression, compared to 7.1% in 2017. When the numbers were broken down in April 2022, half of young adults ages 18 to 24 reported feeling depressed; 22% ages 45 to 64 had depression symptoms; 9% of people age 65 or over reported feeling depressed
Antidepressant drugs — the most widely used therapy for depression — are also among the least effective, and often make the situation worse, especially in the long term
Studies have repeatedly shown antidepressants work no better than placebo for mild to moderate depression
A 2017 systematic review of 131 placebo-controlled studies found that “all trials were at high risk of bias” and that clinical significance was questionable
Antidepressants are neurotoxic and possible side effects include worsening depression, self-harm, violence and suicide, increased risk for diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, stroke and dementia, and depletion of various nutrients (depending on the type of drug you take)
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
EXCLUSIVE: Foreign Company With Troubled Past Buys Into Massive Midwest Carbon Capture Project
Midwest landowners fighting the construction of a 2,000-mile web of carbon-capture pipelines are upset to learn that the company seeking easements on their lands is funded by foreign investors, including at least one with a troubling history.
Summit Carbon Solutions aims to build a pipeline through hundreds of farms and other private properties in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
The pipelines will take carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by more than 30 ethanol plants, liquify it, and send it to North Dakota to be buried in rock about a mile underground.
US Sold Nearly 6 Million Barrels of Oil From Reserves to China, Records Show
The Biden administration has sold nearly 6 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to an entity tied to the Chinese Communist Party, records show.
From September 2021 to July, the Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded three crude oil contracts with a combined value of roughly $464 million to Unipec America, the U.S. trading arm of Chinese state-owned oil company Sinopec, according to a review by The Epoch Times of the DOE documents. A Chinese firm with ties to Hunter Biden had invested in the national oil giant.
The sale would tap 5.9 million barrels in total from the strategic reserve (SPR) to export to the Chinese firm. The latest contract, revealed on July 10, was for 950,000 barrels sold for around $113.5 million.
The two most recent sales to Unipec came out of an emergency drawdown of the U.S. oil stockpile, initiated under President Joe Biden on March 31 in what he said would offset the loss of Russian oil in global markets and tame rising fuel costs at home.
The Unipec contracts have been subject to heavy criticism in recent weeks, especially because of the firm’s connections to the president’s son. With Americans nationwide still reeling from elevated gas prices, the selling of oil reserves to foreign adversaries such as China is at odds with U.S. energy and security needs, Republican lawmakers and analysts have said.
“Biden is draining our strategic reserves at an unprecedented rate. This is an abuse of the SPR, far beyond its intended purpose. Sending U.S. petroleum reserves to foreign adversaries is wrong, and it undermines our national security,” Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) told The Epoch Times.
What the United States should do, he says, is to “unleash American energy production and ensure that our strategic reserves are stocked and able to meet the demands of a national emergency.”
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
There are excellent reasons why you should make compost at home instead of throwing away your rubbish. Finding space for landfills is becoming a worldwide challenge, and throwing away rubbish that could become compost is like throwing away money.
Compost is an essential ingredient of a healthy garden. During the composting process, decaying material releases nutrients in a form that plants can absorb. If you are looking for a natural, organic way to make your garden flourish, compost is the perfect alternative to chemical fertilizers. Not only does compost return minerals such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium to the ground, but it also has a variety of trace elements and improves the water retention and soil texture in your planting beds.
Why would anyone want to throw away good compostable material only to buy expensive chemical fertilizers for their garden? One of the reasons people do this is because they don’t realize how many items which they discard in their household could be composted instead.
Here are 39 items you should add to your compost instead of throwing them away.
Garden Refuse is the Bulk of Your Compost
The first four items on our list are common-sense and will make up the largest part of your compost. However, if you want your compost heap or bin to work efficiently, it’s important to process your garden refuse in the right way.
#1. Grass clippings are great to add bulk to your compost pile, but make sure to layer them with rough materials such as leaves and twigs so that the pile can breathe.
#2. The cuttings from plants which you prune can go into the compost. Hard wood takes a long time to compost; try to cut branches into smaller pieces or use a wood chipper to chop them up.
#3. Weeds are the bane of every gardener’s life. You can put the weeds you pull out of your planting beds into the compost, but only if they haven’t gone to seed. If you put mature weeds on your compost heap, the seeds will sprout wherever you spread the compost.
#4. Animal manure. You can add manure from chickens, cattle, and all vegetarian animals to your compost. Since raw manure will burn the roots of plants, it’s a good idea to let it decompose in the compost before you spread it around plants.
A lot of what we eat is plant-based, so it makes sense to add kitchen refuse to your compost heap. However, vegetables that exceeded their shelf life and the inedible parts of plants such as fruit stones and stems are not the only things that you can put in the compost; some of the items on this list might surprise you.
#5. When you’re cooking, don’t pour the vegetable water down the drain; add it to your compost instead. A compost heap needs moisture to work efficiently and leftover water from your cooking pots is rich in minerals.
#6. Egg shells add calcium to your compost. Plants need calcium to strengthen their cell walls.
#7. Coffee and tea. Coffee grounds, paper coffee filters, tea leaves, and tea bags add nitrogen to the soil and offer the benefit of improving the soil texture and helping to keep moisture in the ground.
#8. Spoiled milk and milk products. You can add sour milk, ice cream, yogurt, moldy cheese, and any other milk-based food to the compost. Not only will it add calcium to the soil, but spoiled milk also acts as a compost accelerator and a natural pesticide. Milk is especially useful against aphids and powdery mildew.
#9. Nutshells compost slowly and add texture to the soil. Avoid walnut shells in the compost though; juglone, a chemical abundant in walnut shells, inhibits plant growth.
#10. Old herbs and spices. When you tidy up the pantry, throw away expired herbs and spices in the compost.
#11. Sugar. You can throw old candy, jams, and other sugary food in the compost. The sugar will naturally break down and become an energy source for your plants.
#12. You can add fat and grease to your compost in moderation, but don’t pour it all in one spot. If you add too much oil to the compost at once, it will start rotting.
#13. You can add animal bones to your compost but try to bury them in the compost pile to avoid attracting vermin. Bones are a rich source of phosphorous, one of the three main nutrients for plant life.
#14. Spoiled starches such as pasta, rice, and other grains are safe to add to the compost that will decompose quickly.
#15. Animal blood is an excellent source of nitrogen for your plants and when poured on decaying plant material, it acts as a compost accelerator.
#16. Disposable wood such as chopsticks, toothpicks, wooden kebab sticks, and coffee stirrers will decompose in the compost.
#17. Kitchen paper such as paper towels, paper bags, unwaxed paper plates, paper serviettes, unwaxed takeout boxes, and cupcake liners are made of shredded plant fibers, and when moistened, they compost in a short time.
Bathroom Items That Will Decompose in the Compost
The bathroom is another plentiful source of compostable material in your home. Although some people are squeamish about putting personal items in the compost, remember the adage that if it lived, it can live again as compost. Organic matter makes nourishing compost, and once that matter has decomposed, the items on this list are safe to use as fertilizer.
#18. You can put hair pulled from your hairbrush or the sweepings after you had a haircut into the compost.
#19. Nail clippings make good compost.
#20. Q-tips, cotton wipes, and cotton balls are organic and can go in the compost. If you use Q-tips, try to buy the type with on a paper stick. Otherwise, snip off and discard the plastic stick before you put the ends in the compost.
#21. Tissues, new or used, can go into the compost bin.
#22. If you’re still using a plastic toothbrush, consider replacing it with a bamboo one instead. Plastic toothbrushes will stay in landfills for at least three generations, while you can put your used bamboo toothbrush in the compost and use the decomposed fertilizer in your garden next summer.
#23. Every household abundantly produces urine. Although you might balk at the thought of putting it on your vegetables, unless you’re suffering from an illness such as hepatitis, urine is sterile and completely safe to add it to your compost. Gardeners who use it for fertilizer call urine ‘liquid gold’ and science backs them up. Urine is an excellent source of nitrogen, and plants fertilized with urine-rich compost are healthier than plants fed with chemical fertilizers.
#24. Ivory and castile soap. You can add leftover slivers to the compost.
Compostable Materials Around the House
Now that we’ve dealt with compostable materials in the kitchen and bathroom, it’s time to have a look around the rest of the house.
#25. Add dryer lint from the laundry room to your compost. It doesn’t matter if all the fibers aren’t organic; synthetic fibers such as rayon might take longer to break down, but they will improve the soil texture until they do.
#26. Sweep up dead insects from the floor and window ledges and add them to the compost.
#27. Pet droppings and bedding. If you have a hamster, parrot, guinea pig, or another small animal, put their droppings and used bedding material in the compost.
#28. Household dust. You can empty your dustpan and the vacuum cleaner bag directly into the compost.
#29. Aquarium water from your fish tank is an excellent source of nitrates. You can also add water plants and algae from your fish tank to the compost.
#30. If you have a home carpentry workshop, collect the sawdust and add it to the compost.
#31. Leather is organic, and you can compost it. Instead of throwing it away, put your old shoes, leather belt, and handbag in the compost.
#32. Clothes made of organic materials such as wool, silk, and cotton will break down in the compost. To speed up the process, tear cloth into strips.
#33. Spent matches are a good source of carbon for your compost and they will decompose quickly.
#34. Natural wine corks are a form of wood and you can add them to the compost.
#35. Festive decorations. Your Christmas tree, Halloween pumpkin, flower arrangements, pinecones, and all other natural festive decorations can go in the compost when the holiday is over.
#36. Leftover alcohol. Emptying the dregs from beer bottles and wine glasses? Pour it in the compost.
#37. Empty your pencil sharpener in the compost. Contrary to popular belief, pencils don’t contain lead. Pencil shavings consist of wood and graphite; both are a source of carbon for your compost.
#38. Ashes from the fireplace. Ash is a first-rate source of carbon for your garden but adding too much ash to your compost can lower the pH and make your soil acidic. If you’re concerned about the pH, add bone meal to the compost.
#39. Junk mail, cardboard boxes, old bills, wrapping paper, party decorations, old books, magazines, and newspapers. Paper makes up a substantial volume of the things that we throw away every day. Instead of consigning it to the dustbin, shred your paper and add it to the compost.
Making compost is an excellent way to put back into nature what we take out. By throwing away fewer things, we lessen the need for landfills and leave a smaller footprint on the planet.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Senator Asks CDC to Clear Up Conflicting Statements on Vaccine Safety Research
A U.S. senator is asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to clear up conflicting statements on whether a specific method of COVID-19 vaccine safety research is being conducted.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) asked CDC Director Rochelle Walensky for details after The Epoch Times reported that Dr. John Su, a CDC doctor, claimed that the CDC has been performing Proportional Reporting Ratio analyses on data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System since February 2021.
That conflicted with the CDC telling the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense that it not only did not conduct the analyses but that the method “is outside of th[e] agency’s purview.”
“CDC’s assertion and Dr. Su’s statement cannot both be true,” Johnson told Walensky in a new letter, released on July 26 and dated July 25.
“The American people deserve the truth and you have not been providing it. That is why I, together with millions of Americans, have completely lost faith in the CDC and other federal health agencies. It is time to start regaining their confidence and your agency’s integrity by coming clean, being transparent, and telling the truth,” Johnson wrote.
He asked for Walensky to immediately respond to a letter he sent before requesting information on the CDC’s vaccine safety research. He also requested she confirm whether Dr. Su’s statement is true and if it is, why the CDC claimed it had not conducted the analyses.
And if Dr. Su’s statement is accurate, Johnson wants all of the Proportional Reporting Ratio analyses that the CDC has performed since February 2021.
Finally, Johnson asked for Dr. Su to be made available for an interview with his office concerning the data examinations.
The CDC and Walensky did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave, When First We Practice To Deceive…
After two years of unprecedented government tyranny in the name of fighting a virus, the prime instigators of this infamy are walking free, writing books, and openly pretending they never said the things they clearly said over and over.
Take Trump’s White House Covid response coordinator Deborah Birx, for example. She was, as the Brownstone Institute’s Jeffrey Tucker points out in a recent article, the principal architect of the disastrous “lockdown” policy that destroyed more lives than Covid itself. Birx knew that locking a country down in response to a virus was a radical move that would never be endorsed. So, as she admits in her new book, she lied about it.
She sold the White House on the out-of-thin-air “fifteen days to slow the spread” all the while knowing there was no evidence it would do any such thing. As she wrote in her new book, Silent Invasion, “I didn’t have the numbers in front of me yet to make the case for extending it longer, but I had two weeks to get them.”
She was playing for time with no evidence. As it turns out, she was also destroying the lives of millions of Americans. The hysteria she created led to countless businesses destroyed, countless suicides, major depressions, drug and alcohol addictions. It led to countless deaths due to delays in treatment for other diseases. It may turn out to be the most deadly mistake in medical history.
As she revealed in her book, she actually wanted to isolate every single person in the United States! Writing about how many people would be allowed to gather, she said: “If I pushed for zero (which was actually what I wanted and what was required), this would have been interpreted as a ‘lockdown’—the perception we were all working so hard to avoid.”
She wanted to prevent even two people from meeting. How is it possible that someone like this came to gain so much power over our lives? One virus and we suddenly become Communist China?
Last week in a Fox News interview she again revealed the extent of her treachery. After months of relentlessly demanding that all Americans get the Covid shots, she revealed that the “vaccines” were not vaccines at all!
“I knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection,” she told Fox. “And I think we overplayed the vaccines. And it made people then worry that it’s not going to protect against severe disease and hospitalization.”
So when did she know this? Did she know it when she told ABC in late 2020 that “this is one of the most highly-effective vaccines we have in our infectious disease arsenal. And so that’s why I’m very enthusiastic about the vaccine”?
If she knew all along that the “vaccines” were not vaccines, why didn’t she tell us? Because, as she admits in her book, she believes it’s just fine to lie to people in order to get them to do what she wants.
She admits that she employed “subterfuge” against her boss – President Donald Trump – to implement Covid policies he opposed. So it should be no surprise that she lied to the American people about the efficacy of the Covid shots.
The big question now, after what appears to be a tsunami of vaccine-related injuries, is will anyone be forced to pay for the lies and subterfuge? Will anyone be held to account for the lives lost for the arrogance of the Birxes and Faucis of the world?
CANCEL CULTURE
PET NEWS
Sweet Little Dog Stops and Sniffs Every Flower He Comes Across
Finn’s flower obsession soon grew to include all varieties.
He sniffs all flowers while out on walks, pokes his head through Sarah’s deck railing to “catch a whiff” of her hanging pansies, and is always excited by a fresh bouquet, wagging his tail and wiggling his behind to show appreciation.
“Finn is in awe every time I come home with some fresh cut flowers,” said Sarah. “He also enjoys sniffing fake flowers; he does not judge.”
According to Sarah, he particularly loves vibrant pansy blooms along with the colorful varieties of zinnias. During the spring season, Finn likes running around the dandelion field and sniffing throughout the journey.
“The only downside to his cute obsession is that I can no longer have fresh flowers on my coffee table, because Finn never fails to jump up and take a sniff; I’m afraid he will knock them over!” Sarah explained.
Clever Finn also knows to hang back when he needs to. He is wary of the more “dangerous blooms,” said Sarah, and doesn’t bother to sniff her geraniums or dahlias, which are not considered pet-friendly.
Sarah shares her adorable pup’s flower-smelling antics and daily chronicles on Instagram.
She purchased Finn from a Brussels griffon breeder when he was 9 weeks old. The breeder hadn’t known that Finn’s mother, a Pekingese, was pregnant until the day they found her carrying newborn Finn in her mouth. When Sarah saw the “accident pup,” it was love at first sight, as he reminded her of her other dog, Harley, a Shih Tzu-Shar-Pei mix.
“Finn had some extra vet appointments to ensure he was healthy, given the lack of prenatal care,” she told The Epoch Times. “He was in the clear, so I booked a flight to Florida and welcomed my little boy home.”
Sarah’s husband, Matthew, who was deployed to Afghanistan, first met Finn six months later. But Finn had another play buddy to bond with in the meantime; Harley, who is now 4.
The two enjoy playing and wrestling throughout the day, Sarah explained.
“Harley often grooms Finn by licking the top of his head—this will go on for over 20 minutes and it puts Finn right to sleep,” Sarah shared. “It’s the cutest thing ever to watch!”
The proud owner describes Harley as her “independent pup” and Finn as her “velcro pup.”
Sharing more about Finn’s personality, Sarah said: “Finn is the happiest pup I’ve ever met. He certainly loves attention and people. His hobbies include car rides, lounging on the arm of the couch like a cat, floating in the pool on his floaties, and chewing Whimzees. He dislikes thunderstorms and spinach.
He has a gentle soul, and is always the pup to give out extra cuddles on a bad day.”
Retired Military Dog Gets Forever Loving Home With Former Handler After Near-Fatal Incident
A military dog who formed an inseparable bond with one of his handlers during deployment in South Korea has been adopted by the airman after a near-death experience. The pair had a joyful reunion in New Mexico after being separated for eight months.
On July 12, military working dog Akim was reunited with Senior Airman Jenna Canada in Albuquerque. Since their pairing in 2020, Jenna knew she would be the one to adopt him upon his retirement.
With the support of the U.S. military and American Humane, the U.S.’s first national humane organization, the 10-year-old German shepherd was successfully transported over 6,000 miles from South Korea to New Mexico and into her open arms.
“I want him to experience the freedom of life,” said Jenna, according to an American Humane press release. “I want him to go in a river and go swimming and just live his best, free life. He still deserves to see the world and get to have some fun.”
American Humane shared heartwarming photos of the reunion on Facebook, captioned, “This morning, under the beautiful New Mexico sunshine, retired MWD Akim and Senior Airman Jenna were reunited at long last.”
In a separate post, they wrote, “In the words of SrA Jenna and MWD Akim’s favorite country artist, Luke Combs, ‘Maybe some things last forever after all.’”
A detection and patrol dog, Akim was paired with Jenna in 2020, and the two were then tasked with patrolling the air base, searching vehicles, and training with the Republic of Korea Air Force Special Forces. While serving together, Akim nearly lost his life to anaphylactic shock when he accidentally swallowed a bee and suffered from an extreme allergic reaction.
Luckily, Jenna was there to save him.
She lifted the 70-pound (31.7 kg) dog and rushed him to the air base’s on-site veterinarian, spending the next two days glued to his side as he slowly recovered. Akim lost his eyesight after being resuscitated but was eventually able to return to his duties on the base when some of his sight returned.
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