WORLD NEWS
Chinese Ships, Warplanes Taunt Taiwan As Pelosi’s Plane Nears Contested Island
China reportedly escalated military deployments near Taiwan, coming dangerously close to entering Taiwanese airspace as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plane nears the contested island.
Chinese warplanes buzzed the unofficial dividing line between Taiwanese and Chinese waters Tuesday, briefly touching it before circling back to base as Taiwanese aircraft stood ready to engage, Reuters reported, citing an anonymous source. Several Chinese warships also passed through waters adjacent to Taiwan on Tuesday morning, coordinating with the aircraft to put pressure on the median line in a “very provocative” fashion.
“The Chinese Communist Party is raising the specter of war and should be punished for doing so…. We need to act in such a way that the CCP sees that its security has been degraded, not improved, because it threatened the Speaker,” Jacqueline Deal, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and president and CEO of the Long Term Strategy Group, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
While the warplanes departed, the Chinese ships remain in the area, Reuters reported.
The United States killed the leader of al Qaeda, Ayman Al Zawahri in a “successful” counterterrorism operation in Afghanistan over the weekend that senior Biden administration officials say “deals a significant blow” to the terror network and degrades its ability to operate, including against the U.S. homeland.
The United States government, on July 30 at 9:48 p.m. ET, and 6:18 a.m. Kabul time, undertook a “precision counterterrorism operation,” killing Al Zawahiri, who served as Usama bin Laden’s deputy during the 9/11 attacks, and as his successor in 2011, following bin Laden’s death.
President Biden spoke to the American people to announce the strike, saying Monday: “the United States continues to demonstrate our resolve and our capacity to defend the American people against those who seek to do us harm. You know, we we make it clear again tonight that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”
Israel’s War On Cash Is About To Get More Drastic
Starting Monday, it will be a criminal offense in Israel to pay more than the equivalent of $1,700 in cash to a business or $4,360 in cash to individual, as the government intensifies its ongoing war on tangible money.
It’s a war that began in earnest with the 2018 passage of the Law for the Reduction in the Use of Cash. Israeli businesses and individuals began facing limits on cash transactions in January 2019. However, on Aug 1, those limits are being slashed nearly in half.
“We want the public to reduce the use of cash money,” Tamar Bracha, who’s responsible for carrying out the law for Israel’s Tax Authority, told The Media Line.
“The goal is to reduce cash fluidity in the market, mainly because crime organizations tend to rely on cash. By limiting the use of it, criminal activity is much harder to carry out.”
Technocracy And Empire: The Influence Of Zbigniew Brzezinski
The Technocracy Movement was a student cult that started at Columbia University in in the 1930s. At the time it rivaled communism, fascism, socialism and all the other “isms” that idealists of the day would engage in. From America, Technocracy would spread to other parts of the world and notably Canada where its head, Dr. Joshua Haldeman, was Elon Musk’s grandfather. The movement proposed that society be reorganized on a series of “scientific propositions”, a replacement system for democracy and free enterprise.
In Technocracy Rising, Patrick Wood argues that many of the ideas of this movement were taken up by many US policy makers and notably Zbigniew Brzezinski – President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of State. I sat down with Patrick Wood for a conversation on this system and its shortcomings.
To modern students of US foreign policy, Brzezinski is better known for arming the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan in order to provoke the Soviet Union into a war that would give them in Brzezinski’s own words “Their Vietnam”. The official story was that the US started arming the Afghans after the invasion, but Brzezinski, in the aftermath of 9/11 admitted this to not be true.
Putin Concedes ‘There Can Be No Winners in a Nuclear War’
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that there would be no winners if a nuclear war broke out and said it should not be considered.
“Russia consistently follows the letter and spirit of the [Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons],” Putin wrote, according to state-run media.
Moscow’s “obligations under bilateral agreements with the United States on the reduction and limitation of relevant weapons have also been fully fulfilled,” Putin added, saying his government believes “that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and it must never be unleashed.”
The Russian leader made the remark to participants of a conference on the nuclear nonproliferation treaty about five months after the start of the Ukraine–Russia war. Days after the start of the Feb. 24 invasion, Putin ordered the country’s nuclear forces to be placed on a state of heightened alert, sparking worldwide concern regarding the risk of a nuclear war or World War III occurring.
Around the time of the invasion, which Russia describes as a special military operation, Putin delivered a speech that made reference to the country’s vast nuclear weapons arsenal and warned NATO and the U.S. not to interfere.
“Whoever tries to hinder us … should know that Russia’s response will be immediate,” he said. “And it will lead you to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history.”
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Biden Names FEMA, CDC Officials to Head Monkeypox Response
President Joe Biden on Tuesday appointed top officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to coordinate the administration’s response to monkeypox in the United States.
The appointments come as the United States aims to bolster vaccination efforts to slow the spread of a monkeypox outbreak that has infected more than 5,800 Americans.
On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency over monkeypox.
The mainstream media, public health officials, and MD influencers relentlessly demonize people who believe in bodily autonomy, conflating the call for medical freedom with the pejorative “anti-vax” ideology (imagine that: having questions about a drug or making different choices for your body somehow makes you worthy of being ostracized from society!). Yet despite these sinister efforts, those who support the right NOT to be coerced into medical treatment or forced, without due process, into indefinite medical detention recently experienced important success in New York.
Unfortunately, that success may already be under threat by the Empire State’s governor.
US, China Deploy Military Forces Near Taiwan Ahead of Pelosi Trip
China and the United States both deployed military forces to the region around Taiwan on Aug. 1 following Chinese threats of a military attack in response to a proposed visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced through state-owned media outlets that it would deploy forces for live-fire exercises in waters north of Taiwan, between mainland China and South Korea. The exercises are the latest in a series of back-to-back Chinese drills in the region. However, they’re notable in that the announcement was accompanied by footage of China’s DF-17 hypersonic missile.
Dubbed the “aircraft carrier killer,” the DF-17 is a nuclear-capable ballistic missile fitted with a hypersonic glide vehicle that allows its payload to glide in low orbit at great speed before plunging down on its target. The footage released this week marks the first time ever that a live fire recording of the weapon has been released.
The United States announced that it was moving a carrier strike group and air support closer to Taiwan. The USS Ronald Reagan is typically stationed at Yokosuka, Japan, and is moving back into the South China Sea after making a five-day port call in Singapore last week.
Pelosi Lands in Singapore, Meets Top Officials at Start of Asia Trip
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) landed in Singapore on Aug. 1 and met with top officials there as she began an Asia trip that could include a visit to Taiwan.
Pelosi met with President Halimah Yacob, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan, according to Singapore’s Foreign Ministry.
Halimah shared a picture bumping fists with Pelosi in the Istana, the office of the Singaporean president and said they “affirmed the excellent and longstanding partnership between Singapore and the U.S.” and discussed educational and other ties, as well as cooperation on issues such as the environment.
Lee went over “key international and regional developments, including the war in Ukraine, cross-strait relations, and climate change” with Pelosi, according to a readout, as well as “[highlighting] the importance of stable U.S.–China relations for regional peace and security.”
Pelosi was set to visit Taiwan earlier this year but canceled the trip after she tested positive for COVID-19. Colleagues have said that she planned to visit Taiwan during the current trip, but an itinerary released over the weekend didn’t include the country.
Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan were listed as stops.
White House Responds to Reports Saying Pelosi Will Visit Taiwan
The White House on Monday said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has the “right to visit Taiwan” amid reports she may touch down in the country this week and as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) issued several warnings.
“There is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit, consistent with longstanding U.S. policy, into some sort of crisis or conflict,” Pentagon spokesman and White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters Monday, adding she “has the right to visit Taiwan” and that “nothing has changed” about U.S. policy in the region.
Pelosi has not confirmed or denied potentially visiting Taiwan, which has been self-governed since 1949 and sees itself as a sovereign country. The CCP has long claimed that the island nation belongs to it despite Taiwan having never been ruled by the Chinese regime.
Pelosi Aboard Military Aircraft Near Taiwan, White House Confirms Amid Escalating China Threats
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is traveling through Asia aboard a U.S. military aircraft, the White House has confirmed less than a week after Chinese communist media personality suggested she should be shot out of the air.
“It is commonplace for the Speaker to travel aboard a U.S. military transport aircraft,” said White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby during a press briefing on Aug. 1. “That’s very typical.”
“Part of our responsibility is to make sure that she can travel safely and securely and I can assure you that she will.”
Kirby confirmed that “the speaker is flying aboard a military aircraft,” just days after a Chinese state-owned media personality said that Pelosi should be shot down if she flew to Taiwan with a military escort.
Kirby did not specify if Pelosi had an armed escort in the air or not, but said that the White House, Pentagon, and national security team were monitoring the situation following increasingly hostile rhetoric from Beijing.
“We’re going to watch this very, very closely,” Kirby said. “We’re going to make sure that she has a safe and secure visit.”
CDC Directs People to Transgenderism, Teen Sex, and Astrology Websites
The federal government is one more of transgenderism’s many online promoters.
A CDC help page has listed resources from government agencies and community organizations that seek to protect and support LGBT children and their networks by providing online advice on sexuality with content that promotes transgenderism, anal and oral sex, and occult superstition.
“It is critical for the parents, guardians, and other family members of LGBT youth to have access to the resources they need to ensure their LGBT children are protected and supported,” the CDC’s website reads.
The CDC page for “LGBT Youth Resources” offers young people and their friends and families links to websites that promote questioning of gender and sex, as well as sites with age-inappropriate advice.
One of the links listed by the CDC is the website Q Chat Space, which is designed to be hidden. A green banner across the bottom of the site reads “Click/tap here for a quick escape.” It immediately transfers site users to the Google Search page.
The Q Chat Space website hosts live chats for teens 13 to 19 with “experienced staff who work at LGBTQ+ centers around the United States,” the website reads. But the staff aren’t mental health professionals. They are “verified” facilitators.
The CDC’s website describes Q Chat Space as a “digital LGBTQ+ center where teens join live-chat, professionally facilitated, online support groups.”
Q Chat Space’s Instagram page provides times when the live chat is active, along with what the chat with its facilitators will discuss.
Nancy Pelosi Lands In Taiwan Amid Threats From China
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday evening local time amid warnings from China and concern from the White House.
Pelosi, a Democrat from California, had been mulling over a trip for weeks, and speculation grew as she arrived in Singapore on Monday to start her Asia tour. China in turn ramped up its threats, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian warning that the People’s Liberation Army would not “sit idly by,” should she go through with the visit, according to Bloomberg.
CDC Directs People to Transgenderism, Teen Sex, and Astrology Websites
Charles Butt, the billionaire heir and CEO of the Texas grocery empire H-E-B, sponsored a recent “family friendly” drag show and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on anti-school choice campaigns.
In June, H-E-B sponsored an LGBT “pride” event in downtown Austin. The event, called Rainbow on the Creek, included a drag queen story hour, a “family-friendly all ages” drag show performed by a group called the Hydrated Queer Kitties, and a pride parade. A Libs of TikTok tweet showed the scantily clad performers dancing sensually in front of parents and their children.
Subpoenas Going to Return ‘Treasure Trove’ of Documents From Biden Administration: Louisiana AG
The subpoenas and discovery requests sent out as part of a lawsuit against the federal government are going to bring back reams of information, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry says.
Landry and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, both Republicans, sued the Biden administration in May, arguing the government colluded with Big tech companies to violate the constitutional rights of Americans.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, recently ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. Government officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci and companies including Facebook were served soon after.
“We’ve got a treasure trove of information that we think are going to come to us here shortly,” Landry said on EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders.”
“The subpoenas have gone out. They’re being served. I think Dr. Fauci got served, and he and other members of the president’s Cabinet, and they’re gonna have to send us communications between them and the platforms. And what we believe we’ll find is communications between them telling them what they should and shouldn’t put out or what they should suppress, and what they should amplify,” he added.
Government officials have said they have not acted improperly.
As Buffalo Center Reopens, Congresswoman Moves to Protect Pro-Life Groups
As a torched pregnancy center reopened near Buffalo, New York, on Monday, leaders vowed to continue their work and criticized authorities for a slow-walking investigation and even appearing to condone the attack.
Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) told the crowd she had introduced the Pregnancy Resource Center Defense Act to increase prison terms and fines for attacks on anti-abortion centers like the CompassCare Pregnancy Services.
The fire that damaged the center began around 2:30 a.m. on June 7. Police have not yet announced the cause as arson nor arrested anyone.
The center’s director, Rev. Jim Harden, said their security cameras captured video of multiple attackers with multiple incendiary devices, probably Molotov cocktails. Police confiscated the security camera footage, and the center can’t get at it, Harden said.
Big Tech, Pharma, Finance Urge SCOTUS to Uphold Race-Based Discrimination in College Admissions
A large cross-section of corporate America filed briefs with the Supreme Court on Aug. 1 urging the court to allow colleges to continue using race as a factor in student admissions.
The court is poised to hear challenges to these racially discriminatory policies in its new term that begins in October. The challengers say so-called affirmative action not only hurts white applicants, but works out to be an “anti-Asian penalty” as well. Asian American applicants generally have higher academic scores and higher extracurricular scores, they say.
Some legal observers speculate that the nine-member court—whose six-member conservative majority broke new ground in June by curbing environmental regulatory powers, declaring that the court was wrong to recognize a constitutional right to abortion 49 years ago, and declaring that there is a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense—wouldn’t have agreed to hear challenges to race-based college admissions unless it intended to curb them.
The use of race-based criteria by institutions of higher learning in the admissions process isn’t popular in the United States.
Surveys from both Pew Research Center and Gallup have indicated that nearly 75 percent of Americans of all races “do not believe race or ethnicity should be a factor in college admissions.”
The new influx of friend-of-the-court briefs filed by around 80 major corporations came after legal experts told The Epoch Times earlier this year that the Supreme Court may end the use of race-based so-called affirmative action in college admissions in cases that may be heard in the fall.
Their radical legal advocacy aligns the nation’s big businesses with left-wing activists such as advocates of Marxist-derived critical race theory who say race-conscious government policies are essential to dismantle the systemic racism they say pervades the American experience.
Critics, on the other hand, say using race in the college admissions process is both anachronistic and wrong.
Open Borders Activists Balk at Red States Busing Illegal Aliens to Blue States
Open borders activists are balking at red states taking immigration enforcement into their own hands by busing border crossers and illegal aliens to blue states and cities like New York and Washington, DC.
In April, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced that state officials would begin chartering buses to transport border crossers and illegal aliens to Washington, DC, and other cities.
As a result, Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser is asking President Joe Biden to deploy the National Guard after she said about 4,000 border crossers and illegal aliens have arrived in the region over the last few weeks.
Illegal immigration to D.C., Bowser said, is at a “tipping point.” Similarly, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has warned New Yorkers that illegal immigration to the city is likely to cripple the healthcare system and infrastructure as well as overwhelm schools and neighborhoods.
Now, mass migration activists argue that Abbott’s order may not be legal.
“There are ongoing questions about what authority they have to bus people from one location to another,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick with the American Immigration Council told the Texas Tribune. “Legally speaking, is that immigration enforcement? I still don’t know.”
Sen. Johnson Expects ‘Deal’ to Conceal Indictment of Hunter Biden
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said on July 31 that he expects there to be an agreement to conceal an indictment of Hunter Biden.
Johnson predicted in a Fox News interview that law enforcement “may indict Hunter Biden, but they’ll probably seal—they’ll do a deal—they’ll seal all the information.”
“The American public will never get the full truth,” he said.
Both Johnson and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have been involved in a yearslong investigation into the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son in places such as China, Ukraine, and elsewhere. The pair released a report in September 2020 that detailed extensive financial connections between Chinese Communist Party-linked entities and individuals and Hunter Biden.
“We’ve known that the Bidens are a corrupt family for years,” Johnson told Fox News’ Dan Bongino, noting that the “corrupt mainstream media has been covering it all up” and “even the FBI.”
Johnson also predicted that legacy news media outlets will now turn on Biden amid increasingly low poll numbers.
In March, both Republican senators presented bank records on the Senate floor showing CEFC China Energy, a now-defunct firm, made payments to Hunter Biden. That included a $100,000 wire payment to one of the younger Biden’s companies, Owasco, from CEFC.
Other payments include a wire transfer of $5 million to Hudson West, a company Hunter Biden invested in and managed, from Northern International Capital, a business that partnered with CEFC. A contract also made public by the senators shows that $500,000 went to Hunter Biden as a “one-time retainer fee.”
California, Illinois Join New York to Declare Monkeypox States of Emergency
The governors of blue states California, and Illinois on Monday joined New York state in issuing proclamations declaring states of emergency in response to the 2022 monkeypox virus outbreak currently spreading primarily among the LGBT population.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, cited similar reasons when he declared a State of Emergency “to bolster the state’s vaccination efforts.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, declared the monkeypox virus a public health emergency and the state a “disaster area” in a bid to unlock resources to “aid in the distribution of vaccines.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams also issued an emergency executive order on Monday declaring a local state of emergency to bolster “efforts to educate, vaccinate, test, and treat as many New Yorkers as possible.”
It comes a day after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a statewide executive order to declare a disaster. She said that “more than one in four monkeypox cases” are in New York state. Among other issues, the order provides more leeway on which individuals can administer the monkeypox vaccine, including pharmacists, EMS workers, and midwives.
There are currently over 5,800 monkeypox cases in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In confirmed or presumptive case numbers, Illinois is ranked third most, with 520 cases; California is ranked second, with 827 cases; and New York is ranked first, with more than 1,300 cases. Florida and Georgia both have over 400 monkeypox cases as well.
IRS Stockpiles More Than 5 Million Rounds of Ammunition
Apparently, the IRS needs a little firepower to help with those audits.
The IRS has stockpiled five million rounds of ammunition and spent $725,000 on bullets this year, according to Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who has introduced a bill to block future ammunition purchases by the agency.
The Republican lawmaker announced his sponsorship of the Disarm the IRS Act in a July press release. The bill would ban the IRS from acquiring ammunition through direct purchase or otherwise. The bill awaits a potential vote in the House Ways and Means Committee.
Cosponsors of the bill included three additional U.S. House of Representative members: Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), and Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.).
Gen. Flynn to Fight Back Against Pentagon Penalty for Russia Trip
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of military intelligence and national security adviser, will file a motion against a penalty imposed on him by the Pentagon for allegedly violating the Emolument Clause by giving a paid speech in Russia in 2015.
“I’m fighting back against that,” Flynn told EpochTV’s “Facts Matter” host Roman Balmakov during a recent interview.
The Department of Defense decided to charge Flynn’s retirement account for nearly $40,000 he was paid in cash and in-kind services for attending and giving an on-stage interview at a 2015 anniversary event of the Russian state-sponsored RT television.
Flynn previously said his attendance was arranged by his speakers bureau. The Pentagon acknowledged that Flynn informed the department of his attendance, was briefed before, and debriefed after.
“I went and did a classified briefing prior. I did a classified briefing after, which means, you go get a counterintelligence assessment,” he told Balmakov, explaining that people from the relevant government agencies would convey what kind of information they’re looking for from the people he might talk to during the trip.
“Then you try to get the answers for those people. And you come back and you give those answers back,” he said. “That’s normal, you know. Diplomats, retired government officials, like me, would do stuff like that routinely.”
Now, the Pentagon says Flynn violated the Constitution’s Emolument Clause, which prohibits military members from receiving anything of value from foreign governments without authorization.
Flynn said he’s planning to file a motion against the penalty.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Fed Bank President Sends Dire Warning About Inflation: ‘It’s Spreading Out’
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis president warned Sunday that the current rate of inflation is troubling and will spread across the country.
“It’s very concerning. We keep getting inflation readings, new data that comes in as recently as this past week, and we keep getting surprised. It’s higher than we expect,” Fed branch President Neel Kashkari said on CBS News’ “Face The Nation.” “And it’s not just a few categories. It’s spreading out more broadly across the economy and that’s why the Federal Reserve is acting with such urgency to get it under control and bring it back down.”
He said that wages are increasing for many Americans. However, so are the cost of goods and services, adding that workers will suffer a “real wage cut” due to price pressures.
Earlier this month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Consumer Price Index data, showing a key metric for inflation rose 9.1 percent year-over-year in June, or the highest figure seen since the early 1980s. Another metric, the Producer Price Index, shot up by 11.3 percent in June, which is also the highest in decades.
Wages are “not going up as fast as inflation, so most Americans’ real wages, real incomes are going down,” Kashkari told the outlet Sunday. “I mean typically, we think about wage-driven inflation where wages grow quickly and that leads to higher prices in a self-fulfilling spiral–that is not yet happening,” he added.
“High prices and wages are now trying to catch up to those high prices … and so we need to get the economy back into balance before this really does become from a very wage-driven inflation story,” the Fed president added.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Scientists Develop Nanotech Tattoo That Monitors Health
South Koreans may soon be able to carry a device inside their own bodies in the form of a bespoke tattoo that automatically alerts them to potential health problems, if a science team’s project bears fruit.
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in the city of Daejeon southwest of Seoul have developed an electronic tattoo ink made of liquid metal and carbon nanotubes that functions as a bioelectrode.
Hooked up to an electrocardiogram (ECG) device or other biosensor, it can send a readout of a patient’s heart rate and other vital signs, such as glucose and lactate, to a monitor.
The researchers eventually aim to be able to dispense with biosensors.
“In the future, what we hope to do is connect a wireless chip integrated with this ink, so that we can communicate, or we can send signals back and forth between our body to an external device,” said project leader Steve Park, a materials science and engineering professor.
Such monitors could in theory be located anywhere, including in patients’ homes.
The ink is non-invasive and made from particles based on gallium, a soft, silvery metal also used in semiconductors or in thermometers. Platinum-decorated carbon nanotubes help conduct electricity while providing durability.
Humanity 2.0: ‘The Fusion Of Our Physical, Digital, And Biological Identities’
Artificial intelligence is pulling new vaccines out of the Platonic realm. Automated labs are on standby, prepared to crank out alien strands of mRNA and pack them into toxic nanoparticles. A billion empty syringes are waiting on shelves.
This is not science fiction. These jabs will be on the market before you can say “boostah.”
Google. Moderna. Microsoft. They’re all racing to the edge. This is corporate transhumanism in all its avaricious glory, riding waves of propaganda and channeled by the biosecurity state.
These people uphold a new mythos whose axis mundi is the Machine. In their world, digital minds are “dreaming up” novel genetic configurations. Biological systems are treated as “living software.” With each technical advance, their myths bleed into our reality.
A 2019 white paper from Policy Horizons Canada Horizons describes this shift as a “biodigital convergence,” characterized by:
1 – Full physical integration of biological and digital entities
2 – Coevolution of biological and digital entities
3 – Conceptual convergence of biological and digital systems
Our intelligentsia—the elites “educated beyond their level of intelligence”—are undergoing a sort of religious conversion. Their world has been illuminated by gene sequencing and neural networks.
Their machines have convinced them that living things are just clunky machines. Our immune systems require software updates. Our flawed genomes need debugging. In order to get there, our brains must be augmented.
“Reality explored by AI, or with the assistance of AI, may prove to be something other than what humans had imagined,” wrote ex-Google chief Eric Schmidt in his 2021 book The Age of AI. “Across the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, a hybrid partnership is emerging in which AI is enabling new discoveries.”
For Schmidt and his coauthors, this vantage point has a mystical quality:
The prognostications of the Gnostic philosophers, of an inner reality beyond ordinary experience, may prove newly significant. … Sometimes, the result will be the revelation of properties of the world that were beyond our conception—until we cooperated with machines.
Lifeless eyes gaze out on a world composed of numbers. Every living creature is just data to be manipulated.
HEALTH
Big chickens create big problems: Antibiotics are only one of them
Chicken is the average person’s meat of choice, yet most people don’t think about how this commercially produced food makes its way to the dinner table. This tasty meat is beginning to pose some serious health concerns for reasons that will surprise some readers. In particular, medical professionals, nutritionists, and health experts are questioning whether the antibiotics provided to chickens might be harmful to human health.
The question is whether the antibiotics and sustenance used to make chickens large and supposedly “healthy” are a net negative. The little-known truth is that antibiotics are only one of many potential health-related issues tied to industrial chicken processing operations. So let’s take a look at the truth about the meat industry.
Antibiotics pumped into chickens have detrimental effects
Though the average person might not care that the massive chickens living at animal farms are loaded up with antibiotics, those who study human health and biology for a living are beginning to question whether the use of such antibiotics is prudent. Antibiotics are given to chickens at industrial facilities to ward off infection amidst overcrowded living conditions. Antibiotics also help fatten birds without spending on additional feed that would take a chunk out of the enterprise’s bottom line.
As a result, chickens have ballooned from their average weight of a couple of pounds back in the 1920s to over half a dozen pounds.
It merely takes two months for a chicken to reach six pounds, yet it took nearly twice as long for the chickens of “yesteryear” to hit 2.5 pounds on the scale. Though the industry’s leaders don’t like to admit it, the truth is an investigation conducted by Reuters in 2014 found the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) passed guidance that restricted antibiotics, yet companies ramped up the use of antibiotics all the more. Even one of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s suppliers, Koch Foods, was nabbed red-handed using antibiotics.
Bigger isn’t always better
There is a good argument to be made that increasing the size of chickens is a positive as it generates more sustenance. Though today’s chickens are larger than those of a couple of decades ago, they need about 7% less food per pound for optimal growth. In addition, larger chickens tend to have more health problems, including leg issues, as they carry additional weight. However, farmers have started to breed chickens for optimal leg strength.
The question is whether the industry’s leaders are succeeding in establishing the delicate balance between chickens living with a modicum of dignity and optimizing their value. The modern chicken farming industry is economically efficient, providing customers affordable meat without a lengthy wait. As a result, chicken has become the country’s most popular type of meat and also one of the country’s most economically efficient meals.
Antibiotics will be used for the foreseeable future
If factory farmers were to eliminate antibiotics altogether, an additional 175,000 tons of feed would be required to support the country’s turkey population. Furthermore, if antibiotics were not included in animal feed, that sustenance would prove significantly less efficient, and animals wouldn’t make proper use of the available nutrients.
As a result, it is safe to say antibiotics will likely continue playing a role in factory farming. If you’re looking for a healthier alternative, find a local (organic) farmer to supply your food needs. These local farmers tend to avoid the use of toxic drugs, provide a healthier environment for their animals and do not feed their animals genetically manipulated food.
This Is The Best Olive Oil For Cooking According To A Brain Health Expert
We sat down with Max Lugavere, a health and science journalist and New York Times bestselling author. We dove deep into the topic of brain-supporting foods, which is the focus of his new book, Genius Kitchen. Lugavere shared his personal day-to-day menu and some easy ways to up the amount of brain-loving foods in your diet. One tip we would be remiss to ignore: You shouldn’t cook with unfiltered olive oil. Here, we’ll explain why.
Why you shouldn’t cook with unfiltered olive oil.
You may be wondering: What makes olive oil so brain-healthy in the first place? According to Lugavere, “Extra-virgin olive oil is, in my view, medicine for the brain. It’s also a staple of the Mediterranean diet,” which is commonly referred to as the best diet for brain health, thanks to its large amounts of antioxidants, phytosterols, and vitamins. He uses it to cook all of his meals (minding the lower smoke point), but you can also toss it into sauces, desserts, and more. The important part is to make sure you’re getting the right kind, which, according to Lugavere, is filtered, extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO).
You might think unfiltered extra-virgin olive oil is the healthier option because it’s, well, unfiltered. But in fact, there’s a sneaky reason why Lugavere actually prefers filtered EVOO. “Unfiltered, extra-virgin olive oil has [olive] remnants in the oil, which dramatically lowers its smoke point and also makes it more prone to degradation. Those olive remnants decrease the shelf life,” Lugavere says.
Unfiltered olive oil also contains more water and sediment, which can both accelerate the shelf life of the bottle. Unfiltered olive oil does have a higher polyphenol content, thanks to the freshly milled olive particles, so it technically is the more nutrient-dense option—but you would have to consume it pretty quickly before it goes rancid. It’s similar to the fruit juice example we mentioned above: The shelf life of fresh-pressed juice is only two or three days. What’s more, unfiltered olive oil may not be the best option for high-heat cooking since it degrades easily.
Filtered EVOO, on the other hand, is safe to cook with up to a temperature of about 350 or 375 degrees Fahrenheit, says Lugavere. And as a general rule of thumb: If the olive oil is going to stay moist throughout the process (like with an olive oil cake, for example), then you’re probably safe to cook up to 400 degrees. Otherwise, keep the temperature lower for dry cooking.
The bottom line? Keep incorporating olive oil into all of your brain-healthy meals; just make sure you’re cooking with filtered EVOO to keep the smoke point as high as possible.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Tesla Signs Battery Deals with Two Suppliers in Communist China
Tesla has signed battery material supply deals with two companies in Communist China, according to recent filings. The supply deals are further evidence of Elon Musk’s cozy relationship with the Communist dictatorship.
Electrek reports that Tesla has secured battery material supply deals with two large Chinese companies in a move that will ensure battery supply to support its electric vehicle production remains active for years to come.
GARDENING, FOOD, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
VIDEO: HOW TO USE A PRESSURE CANNER (from Lehman’s)
Pressure Canning 101! Veteran canning instructors show you how to safely preserve carrots using a pressure canner. It takes a little know-how, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll see how easy (and safe) it is! If you’ve always wanted to try this method of home preserving, you can do it. Kate and Melinda show us how.
Healthy cooking oils and dietary fats to stock your kitchen with include coconut oil, grass fed butter, organic ghee, lard, tallow and extra-virgin olive oil
Homemade bone broth speeds healing and recuperation from illness, promotes gut health, fights inflammation, supports joint health, promotes weight loss, and improves sleep and brain function
Apple cider vinegar is rich in bioactive components that give it potent antioxidant, antimicrobial and many other beneficial properties
Top spices for flavor and medicinal properties include Himalayan salt, Indian long pepper, turmeric, cumin, ginger and mustard seed
Use ceramic knives to prevent browning, ceramic pots and pans to avoid exposure to toxins and dangerous metals, glass food storage containers to avoid plastic chemicals, and separate cutting boards for meat and produce to prevent pathogenic cross-contamination
- Healthy Fats and Cooking Oils
- Homemade Broth
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Himalayan Salt
- Black Pepper
- Medicinal Spices
- Essential Kitchen Tools
Lastly, the type of kitchen utensils you use during preparation and cooking can also have an effect on your health, for better or worse. To protect and support the health of your entire family, consider the following tips:
- Use ceramic knives for fast-browning produce — Ceramic knives are chemically inert, and said to slow the browning process.32 Ceramic blades are best for slicing fruit, vegetables and boneless meat, but not frozen foods, meat with bones or cheese (because of its tendency to stick). Also avoid using a ceramic blade to crush foods like garlic.
- Switch to ceramic or other inert, nontoxic cookware — The slippery surfaces of nonstick pots and pans comes courtesy of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found to be likely carcinogens.
When heated, nonstick cookware and bakeware release a related chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), linked to thyroid disease, infertility, organ damage, and developmental and reproductive problems in lab animals.
COVID RELATED NEWS
People lost their jobs over vaccines that Dr. Birx said she knew ‘didn’t work’
Opinion by Christopher Tremoglie
Dr. Deborah Birx served up a bombshell revelation about the efficacy of the COVID vaccines during an interview on Your World with Neil Cavuto. Birx, the former White House COVID-19 response coordinator and one of the two most recognizable spokespeople during the pandemic, along with Dr. Anthony Fauci, claimed the vaccines were overplayed and that she knew they didn’t work. While this is shocking in and of itself, it is especially tragic given how many people had their employment terminated because they refused to get an ineffective and “overplayed” vaccine.
“I knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection,” Birx said. “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. It will. But let’s be very clear: 50% of the people who died from the omicron surge were older, vaccinated.”
Personally, I am vaccinated and boosted. I did it not because I am considered in one of the at-risk categories for COVID but because I
was told the vaccines would prevent me from unintentionally spreading it to other people, including my parents, who are in the at-risk categories, should I contract it. Unfortunately, I still contracted COVID and still spread it to my mother. If I had known what Birx said she knew, I can safely say I would have never chosen to get vaccinated. Fortunately, my vaccination status was not a condition for my employment. Other people were not so lucky.
For example, earlier this year, the Mayo Clinic fired 700 employees who refused to get vaccinated.
“While Mayo Clinic is saddened to lose valuable employees, we need to take all steps necessary to keep our patients, workforce, visitors, and communities safe,” a Mayo Clinic spokesperson told the Washington Examiner at the time.
Biden Still Positive for COVID-19 as He Deals With Pfizer Drug ‘Rebound’: Doctor
President Joe Biden again tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday due to a “rebound” of “positivity” sparked by the drug Paxlovid, according to his doctor in an update.
Biden, 79, tested positive on Monday morning for the third day in a row, White House physician Kevin O’Connor wrote in a letter (pdf) to press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Last week, he returned a negative COVID-19 test as he was taking Paxlovid, which is known to cause a recurrence of symptoms after a negative test.
“Given his rebound positivity, which we reported Saturday, we continued daily monitoring,” he said. “This morning, as could be anticipated, his SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing remained positive.”
Biden, who has received four vaccine doses, will continue to be under strict isolation for now, O’Connor said.
While O’Connor said Biden had no symptoms, the White House told reporters later on Monday that his symptoms are “mild.”
Last week, the president briefly emerged from quarantine following a negative test, delivering remarks at the White House Rose Garden. The White House has not confirmed whether any staffers contracted COVID-19.
Per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, Biden has to quarantine for at least five days after testing positive for the virus.
Over the weekend, the White House told reporters via the press pool that Biden will not embark on a scheduled trip to Saginaw County, Michigan. It’s not clear whether the trip will be rescheduled.
Testimonies From COVID Jab Injured Analysis by Dr. Joseph MercolaFact Checked
“mRNA ‘Vaccine’ Genocide 2021-2022: Testimonies from the Victims and Medical Staff,” tells the stories of people around the world who have been injured by the COVID jab
Their struggle, their pain, their deaths deserve to be acknowledged for what they are — the result of medical malfeasance, regulatory corruption and societal “mass formation” insanity driven by media fearmongering and outright lies
A common thread in these stories is the consistent dismissal by the medical community. Even in cases where the doctors do suspect a COVID jab injury, they still have no idea how the symptoms are caused or how to treat them, so they just send the victims home. Successful treatments appear to be extremely rare, which adds insult to injury
The COVID shot is the most dangerous drug in the history of modern medicine, and these dangers were foreseen and predicted by many respected and well-educated doctors and scientists, whose voices were censored
All-cause mortality by time is the most reliable measure from which we can detect true catastrophic events, and all-cause mortality started spiking AFTER the COVID jabs were rolled out. These increases also correlate to a nation’s COVID jab rate
The Great Vaccine Scare Reaches Fever Pitch
In 2021, investigative journalist Paul Thacker became a target of what he calls “the Great Vaccine Scare — hysteria about any and all vaccine criticism”
Thacker wrote an article published in The BMJ, titled, “COVID-19: Researchers blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial”
The article was thorough and accurate, but labeled as “misinformation” by a Facebook fact checker anyway
Dr. Aseem Malhotra was also harassed for sharing science relating to COVID-19 shot side effects
Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson was also a victim of vaccine hysteria; his Twitter account was suspended when he posted scientifically accurate information that cast a negative light on COVID-19 shots
We’re living in unprecedented times when inconvenient science is silenced and politics take priority over public health
Pathogenic Bacteria and Fungi Found on Masks: Study
Several pathogenic microbes were identified and quantified on masks worn during the pandemic, according to a Japanese study that was published in Scientific Reports.
The study is one of the first to address the probable hygiene issues caused by bacterial and fungal growth on masks worn daily in the community.
“Since masks can be a direct source of infection to the respiratory tract, digestive tract, and skin, it is crucial to maintain their hygiene to prevent bacterial and fungal infections that can exacerbate COVID-19,” the authors wrote.
The study involved 109 participants aged 21 to 22 years who were asked about the type and duration of mask used and their lifestyle habits. Bacteria and fungi were collected from the three types of masks—gauze, polyurethane, and non-woven—worn between September and October 2020.
The researchers found that the face side of the masks had more bacteria, whereas the outer side of the masks contained more fungi.
In addition, longer use of the mask resulted in an increase in fungi but not in bacteria because “fungi and their spores are resistant to drying, they can survive under the condition where masks dry out.”
Non-woven masks were found to have fewer fungal colony counts on the outer side compared to the other two mask types. Non-woven masks have three layers, two-layer fabric with a non-woven middle layer filter.
Researchers said they were surprised to find that there were no significant differences in the numbers of bacteria or fungi on washable or reusable masks that had been washed.
“The proper cleaning method for cotton face masks has been recommended to reduce the microbial load on the masks,” the authors wrote. “However, in the current experiments, we did not find significant differences in bacterial or fungal colony numbers on the masks based on washing.”
More Stories
Today’s News: April 24, 2024
Today’s News: April 23, 2024
Today’s News: April 22, 2024