On This Day: 4 August 1996
Original TV boy band The Monkees were in New York to celebrate their 30th anniversary reunion tour.
WORLD NEWS
Unknown Drugs Given to Persecuted Citizens in China to Stop Them From Speaking Out
‘That pill makes people seem crazy, insane,’ says a persecuted Uyghur man
“You will no longer shout after I give you a shot,” said the director of the Hebei Provincial Brainwashing Center in China, while threatening a Falun Gong adherent who kept saying out loud, “Falun Gong is good!”
Hua Fengxiang was arrested for his belief in the persecuted spiritual practice of Falun Gong. Yuan Shuqian, who has been serving as the director of the brainwashing center since 2001, ordered his officers to stuff a towel in Hua’s mouth before forcibly injecting him with an unidentified drug. Shortly after the shot, Hua’s health deteriorated, his spine became distorted, his neck became stiff, and he had difficulty walking, reported Minghui.org, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that provides firsthand information on the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong.
Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) is a mind-body practice rooted in the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The officially atheist Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been persecuting the practice since July 20, 1999. Over the past 23 years, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested, detained, tortured, and even killed for their organs. Adherents are routinely tortured in detention centers, brainwashing centers, and mental hospitals.
Over a decade ago, the U.S. Department of State expressed concerns over China’s “ankang” facilities, or psychiatric hospitals (the Chinese term ironically translates as “peace and health” facilities), which are under the direct administration of the Ministry of Public Security. The report stated that these “high-security psychiatric hospitals”—meant for the “criminally insane”—even housed Falun Gong practitioners, other underground religious believers, and political activists together with mentally ill patients. Those detained in these hospitals were allegedly “medicated against their will and forcibly subjected to electric shock treatment.”
400 Million Cut Their Ties With the CCP in Defiance of Communist Control
Chinese entrepreneur Chen Quanhong had one message he wanted to tell to the world: “Tuidang.”
It’s a Chinese phrase—and it means “quit the Party.”
The words were emblazoned on a yellow flag Chen was carrying at a parade in Washington on July 21 to highlight the Chinese communist regime’s myriad human rights abuses.
Chen is now one of 400 million Chinese who have renounced their ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliate organizations.
In June, the business owner from China’s eastern Shandong Province made a statement formally breaking his ties with the Party, participating in a nearly two-decades-long grassroots movement that has sought to expose the communist regime’s history of deceit and killing, and give people an opportunity to disassociate from the entity.
“In China, I was no different from a worm trampled upon by the authoritarian power, not daring to stir a bit,” Chen told The Epoch Times. “Only when I came to America did I begin to feel like a person, because finally there’s no fear from the communist party.”
The Washington parade was the first one of its kind Chen had joined in his 50-plus years of life. It came ahead of a major milestone for the Tuidang movement: 400 million people renouncing their Party affiliations. The number tipped over that mark on Aug. 3.
China scraps high-level meeting with Japan
Beijing says it’s “strongly displeased” with the reaction of G7 members, including Tokyo, to events surrounding Taiwan crisis
Beijing has canceled an upcoming meeting between the Chinese and Japanese foreign ministers, over a statement on Taiwan made by the G7 group, the Chinese foreign ministry announced on Thursday.
The talks between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi, which were planned to be held on the sidelines of the ongoing ASEAN events in Cambodia, won’t be taking place, the ministry’s spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a briefing.
According to Ha, Beijing has been “strongly displeased” by the joint statement of the G7 group, which includes Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US, on the events around the visit of US House speaker Nancy Pelosi to the self-governed island of Taiwan.
Tokyo has no right to make “irresponsible remarks” on the Taiwan issue, the spokeswoman insisted.
In their statement on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the G7 nations denounced China for launching a series of military exercises and live-fire drills in six maritime areas around the island in response to Pelosi’s trip.
Germany Hits Wall Of Reality, Reconnects First Coal Power Plant To Energy Grid
In a demonstration of the failure of Germany’s pursuit of so-called “green energy” and its policy of relying on Russian gas in the meantime, a coal-fired power plant will be reconnected to the nation’s electricity grid.
While the economic powerhouse of Europe — so called — scrambles to secure energy sources before the winter months, the previously shuttered Mehrum coal power plant in Lower Saxony will become the first to once again be connected to Germany’s grid.
On Monday, the manager of the Czech-owned EGH operating company, Kathrin Voelkner said: “We have declared the return to the electricity market. We assume that we will return to the grid in the short term,” according to the Frankfurter Neue Presse newspaper.
The move was preceded by the federal government implementing an emergency ordinance to allow mothballed oil and coal-powered plants to open back up until April of next year, as the country faces a shortfall in its energy amid the conflict in Ukraine.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck, a leading member of the German Greens, has described the decision to turn back on coal plants as “bitter” but a necessary evil.
While the government has allowed for the return to coal power, the socialist SPD-led traffic light coalition government has so far refused to abandon its decision to shut its remaining nuclear power plants by the end of the year, a move that followed years of anti-nuclear policies from former Chancellor Angela Merkel following the Fukushima meltdown in Japan.
Bank of England raises interest rates in bid to tame inflation
UK’s central bank hikes key interest rate to 1.75 percent, its highest level since 2008, and warns of recession ahead.
The United Kingdom’s central bank has made its biggest increase to interest rates in 27 years in a bid to smother soaring inflation and warned the country faces a long recession ahead.
Reeling from a surge in energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Bank of England’s (BOE) Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-1 on Thursday for a half percentage point rise in its key interest rate to 1.75 percent.
Zelensky wants talks with China
The Ukrainian president would like to “directly” speak with China’s President Xi Jinping, to talk him into pressuring Russia
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Thursday he would like to speak “directly” with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as he urged Beijing to use its economic and political leverage to stop the conflict in his country.
In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, Zelensky noted that he had not spoken to the Chinese leader since the start of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine.
“I would like to talk directly. I had one conversation with [President] Xi Jinping that was a year ago,” he said. “Since the beginning of the large-scale aggression on February 24, we have asked officially for a conversation, but we (haven’t had) any conversation with China even though I believe that would be helpful.”
According to Zelensky, Xi is one of a handful of world leaders who have been to Ukraine “at least once,” adding that the Chinese president warmly recalled his ties with Kiev during a call between the two leaders last year.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Indiana Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski Killed in Car Crash
Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski (IN), who represented Indiana’s Second Congressional District, was among three others who died in a car crash on Wednesday afternoon in the Hoosier State.
According to the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office, the crash happened on Wednesday at approximately 12:32 PM.
The Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office responded to the two-car crash on SR 19 south of SR 119.
“A northbound passenger car traveled left of center and collided head-on with a southbound sports utility vehicle,” the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office noted that all three occupants in the vehicle heading southbound, including Rep. Walorski, Zachery Potts, and Emma Thomson, “died as a result of their injuries.”
The single occupant in the vehicle heading northbound, Edith Schmucker, was pronounced deceased at the scene, the sheriff’s office added.
EXCLUSIVE: City of San Antonio Threatens to Bus Migrants Back to Texas Border Towns
City leaders are apparently overwhelmed by the arrival of released migrants who later use local transportation hubs to reach other parts of the country. Breitbart Texas reviewed official correspondence and emails regarding a request to limit the number of daily migrant arrivals as local leaders level threats to bus them back to the Texas-Mexico border. One federal official even suggests piggybacking on Governor Greg Abbott’s initiative to bus migrants straight to Washington, D.C. as an alternative.
In a July 27 letter from the City to U.S. Customs and Border Protection plus nonprofit shelters in Del Rio and Laredo, a request is made to limit the number of migrants bused to the local Migrant Resource Center. The center provides respite to those who do not have a departure window of less than six hours to other parts of the country. Migrants with a departure time of less than six hours from their arrival in San Antonio are left directly at bus terminals or the international airport.
Pennsylvania Woman Arrested at Doctor’s Office, Denied Care Over Refusal to Wear a Face Mask
Rayne Barton, 62, didn’t expect that her first visit to the doctor in months would end in arrest, but there she was on July 22, in the waiting room with her wrists handcuffed behind her back.
She would not be seeing the doctor that day.
Barton, of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, would not leave as requested after she refused to wear a COVID-19 face mask, which is required at Hypertension and Kidney Specialists in Lancaster.
Hypertension and Kidney Specialists is an independent practice with an office on the Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Suburban Pavilion property.
At the request of the office manager at Hypertension and Kidney Specialists, the East Hempfield Township Police removed Barton from the building, according to a criminal complaint. She was taken in a wheelchair, put in a squad car, and driven to the police department to be fingerprinted and photographed.
On the way to the police station, the car rounded a corner and Barton fell on her side and hit her head on the car door.
“The officer looked in his rearview mirror, saw me gone, and he said, ‘Are you okay?’ I said ‘Yeah, I’m just fine.’ And then I went to get myself up, and I’m like, ‘oh no, I can’t get up,’” Barton told The Epoch Times.
Her back is compromised due to spinal stenosis, and with her hands still cuffed behind her back, she was unable to pull herself up.
“They pulled over off the road to lift me upright in the back of the cruiser,” she said.
After she was processed at the police department, Barton was released and told that charges would arrive in the mail. She was charged with defiant criminal trespass, a misdemeanor, and must appear in court in September.
It is unknown when she will see a doctor.
Special Counsel Durham May Personally Try Danchenko Case, Court Filing Indicates
Special Counsel John Durham has indicated he will personally argue before the court his case against Igor Danchenko, a source for the infamous Steele dossier who’s facing multiple charges of lying to the FBI.
Durham filed a Notice of Appearance with the federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Aug. 1, which suggests he will present the case to the court himself, rather than leaving the task to his staff attorneys as before (pdf).
Durham was the only one speaking for the prosecution during the case’s status conference before the court on Aug. 1, Epoch Times on-scene reporter Terri Wu confirmed.
The Danchenko trial is the last one Durham has lined up unless he files more indictments.
Durham indicted Danchenko, a Russia analyst formerly with the Brookings Institution, in November 2021. Danchenko was paid in 2016 by former British spy Christopher Steele to collect dirt on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Steele was in turn hired through business intelligence firm Fusion GPS to collect dirt on Trump by the campaign of Trump’s opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Danchenko told the FBI some of the most explosive information he provided Steele came from Belarus-born real estate agent Sergei Millian, which was false, Durham’s indictment said. Millian never spoke with Danchenko.
Longtime Clinton operative Charles Dolan admitted to the FBI that he provided (and fabricated) some of the information that Danchenko passed on to Steele. Other unsubstantiated allegations came from Danchenko’s former schoolmate Olga Galkina.
Durham was tasked around March-May 2019 with reviewing the 2016–2017 FBI investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to sway the election. The investigation didn’t establish any such collusion.
In August 2020, Durham indicted former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith for altering a CIA email to say that former Trump campaign aide Carter Page was “not a source,” when in fact he was providing information to the agency. The message was then used as a part of an application to extend surveillance of Page. FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted that the surveillance based on the extension was illegal.
Clinesmith pleaded guilty and in January 2021 received a year of probation and 400 hours of community service.
In October 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr appointed Durham as special counsel. In February 2021, Durham resigned from his position as a federal prosecutor after 35 years with the Department of Justice (DOJ), where he handled some of the most prominent investigations of FBI misconduct.
In September 2021, Durham indicted Michael Sussmann, a lawyer who in 2016 represented the Clinton campaign, for lying to the FBI. Sussmann approached then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016 with information about a supposed secret communications channel between Trump and Russia-based Alfa bank. FBI cybersecurity personnel looked into the allegation before dismissing it. Sussmann allegedly told Baker he didn’t come representing any client, when in fact he was billing the time to the Clinton campaign.
Sussmann’s lawyers attacked the indictment for relying on a single witness—Baker—before Durham revealed a message from Sussmann to Baker explicitly saying Sussmann was reaching out not representing any client. Baker, however, provided the message to Durham too late for it to be fully used in the trial. Sussmann was found not guilty.
Thomas Paine: ‘These Are The Times That Try Men’s Souls’
“These are the times that try men’s souls.”
So, Thomas Paine wrote in 1775 in his publication of “The American Crisis.” Not so well-remembered today are the words that followed that famous quote:
“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
At that time, Colonial America was passing through the early stages of a “Fourth Turning,” an historical time of crisis that occurs roughly every eighty years.
As a point of reference, a First Turning is a period of renewal; one in which a historical crisis has ended. The populace has risen to the occasion, thrown off tyranny and conquered social, political and economic tribulation. Having done so, they now create a renewal, based on hard work, personal responsibility and moral integrity.
A Second Turning occurs a generation later, when the rewards of a First Turning have resulted in prosperity and stability. Those new adults who have grown up during a First Turning will be well-off and will seek to pursue high-mindedness and social concerns. Along the way, they will also pursue self-indulgence. (A deterioration begins.)
In a Third Turning, again a generation later, complacency sets in. Politically, those individuals who are sociopathic (a clinical aberration, estimated at about 4% of any society at any given time) tend to rise in political spheres, replacing the older generation of responsible people. They tend to raise taxes, increase social welfare programmes and increase government spending in every way – really, any excuse to seize increased power over the populace.
Then, in a Fourth Turning, again a generation later, power having been seized, the sociopaths seek total power – the elimination of all freedoms, to be replaced by totalitarian rule.
Historically, in a Third Turning, a complacent people make it possible for sociopaths to take power. In a Fourth Turning, the sociopaths exert that power.
It matters little whether the excuses put forward by political leaders are climate control, racial equity, CBDCs, cancel culture, owning nothing, digital IDs, transhumanism, vaccine mandates or a Green New Deal, the objective is singular: total dominance of the ruling class over the subservient class. Any excuse will do, if it has totalitarian rule as its outcome.
In any Fourth Turning, those who are more thoughtful and forward-thinking will begin to make sense of the ruse, but find themselves being heavily criticized by all and sundry. The media will do all within their power to slap down those who denounce the ruling class. But more to the point, the greater proportion of the populace will remain in their slumber and resist the awakening strenuously.
It is at such a time that the few who have figured out the ruse experience their greatest challenge – whether to speak out or whether to just go along.
This group must struggle in the darkness to a great degree, as the majority of the population fight against an awakening, as it disturbs their complacency and is too horrendous to contemplate.
The latter half of a Fourth Turning becomes a chaotic and confusing period – one in which many people desperately hope to just get along, whilst those who are more visionary become increasingly aware that their freedoms are being flushed away on a wholesale basis.
And, whilst it is the smaller, more visionary group that creates the spark of change, it is, historically, a different and unlikely group that actually creates substantive change in the latter half.
The group that turns the tide is the group that I often (unflatteringly) refer to as the hoi polloi – the average guy.
At some point, the average guy, who simply wanted to be allowed to get on with his life – go to work, mow the lawn, sit on the couch with a six-pack and watch the game – has had his life so disrupted by the ruling sociopaths and their increasingly manic oppression that he accepts that he must turn off the TV and do “something.”
He is not a leader, but he is a joiner.
Juror Ignores Judge’s Rules and Posts on Facebook During Major Trial
When empaneled jurors make social media posts during a trial, they risk opening Pandora’s box—a recurrent issue in courtrooms throughout the United States and in many foreign countries.
The current case of a woman called “Juror X” in a Cincinnati federal court illustrates how jurors invite scrutiny and possibly jeopardize a verdict when they choose to make online trial-related statements, in possible violations of court rules that seek to insulate jurors from influences outside the courtroom.
Lawyers for Alexander “P.G.” Sittenfeld, a former Cincinnati city councilman who was convicted of two corruption-related charges, are asking a federal judge to allow forensic examination of Juror X’s cellphone, other devices, and social media accounts.
They cite concerns over the juror’s communication with 29 non-jurors on Facebook throughout Sittenfeld’s trial in June and July, despite a judge’s repeated instructions to “not communicate with anyone about the case” via electronic devices or any other means.
Alex Jones admits Sandy Hook school shooting was ‘100%’ real
Sandy Hook parents are suing Jones for $150m after being victimised by those who believed his conspiracy theories.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has said he now understands it was irresponsible of him to declare the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre a hoax and that he now believes it was “100 percent real”.
Jones made the admission a day after the parents of a six-year-old boy killed in the attack testified about the suffering, death threats and harassment they have endured because of what Jones has trumpeted on his media platforms.
“It was … especially since I’ve met the parents. It’s 100 percent real,” Jones testified at his trial to determine how much he owes for defaming the parents of a six-year-old who was among the 20 students and six educators killed in the 2012 attack at the school in Newtown, Connecticut.
The parents who sued Jones had said a day earlier that an apology would not be enough and that the Infowars host needed to be held accountable for repeatedly spreading falsehoods about the attack. They are seeking at least $150m.
Lauren Boebert: Why Does the IRS Need $700K in Ammunition for Agents?
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is wondering why the IRS bought “nearly $700K in ammunition earlier this year” and why IRS agents need guns in the first place.
Boebert took to social media and tweeted:
“The Internal Revenue Service bought nearly $700K in ammunition earlier this year which begs the questions, why do their agents need guns to do their job and who are the IRS arming their agents against?”
On June 19, 2022, Breitbart News indicated that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) pointed out the IRS spent approximately $700,000 “between March and June 1” purchasing ammunition.
Gaetz told Breitbart News Saturday the purchase was “bizarre.”
On June 19, 2022, Breitbart News indicated that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) pointed out the IRS spent approximately $700,000 “between March and June 1” purchasing ammunition.
Gaetz told Breitbart News Saturday the purchase was “bizarre.”
He said, “There is concern that this is part of a broader effort to have any entity in the federal government buy up ammo to reduce the amount of ammunition that is in supply, while at the same time, making it harder to produce ammo.”
Gaetz suggested a scenario where federal entities are buying up ammo puts citizens in a place where the exercise of the Second Amendment is limited due to the inability to get ammunition.
Contrary to Mainstream Narrative, Black Americans Want Criminals Behind Bars: Horace Cooper
Black Americans in urban areas are suffering the consequences of the progressive Democrats’ anti-police “soft on crime” policies, despite the fact that these are the communities the policies were supposedly going to help, said Horace Cooper, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, in a recent NTD interview.
Cooper told NTD that because progressives Democrats are too soft on crime and conservatives are afraid of being called racist by the left, crime has come to an all-time high in urban areas and is disproportionately harming black people.
The black community wants criminals to be prosecuted, said Cooper.
“I would argue that it would be smart to stand up, find out where black Americans are, and champion the kinds of policies and issues that interest them,” he said. “On the issue of crime, black Americans are ready to bring in law enforcement, are ready to increase penalties, and they are ready to stop the violent wave of crime that we see.”
Cooper is also chairman of the board for Project 21, which established a network of black conservative and libertarian leaders in 1992 to highlight the diversity of viewpoints within the black community.
Project 21 has identified 10 key areas for reform that, if accomplished, would help black Americans reach their potential and attain the American dream.
DeSantis Says He Won’t Declare State of Emergency Over Monkeypox
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he won’t declare a state of emergency over the monkeypox outbreak even though the state currently has more than 500 reported cases.
The governor said at a news conference on Aug. 3 that he doesn’t believe issuing a public health emergency is necessary, nor does he think Floridians should fear the disease.
“Any of the politicians trying to scare you about this, do not listen to their nonsense,” he said. “Anything we deal with from a public perspective, we are not doing fear. We are going to do facts.”
States that declare emergencies are going to eventually “abuse those emergency powers to restrict your freedom,” DeSantis said. “You have to deal with this rationally and do not use it for political gain.
Florida Surgeon General Joe Lapado, who stood with the governor, said that the “efficacy” of the Jynneos vaccine being given out as protection from monkeypox “remains uncertain.”
“You should know there’s very little data on this vaccine,” he said. “We need to learn more and we need to make rational decisions.”
Ladapo said a small study done in Africa in the 1980s showed the Jynneous vaccine was at least 85 percent effective against monkeypox.
He reported that Florida has received about 24,000 doses of the vaccine from the national stockpile and distributed about 8,500 doses.
Florida asked for and received 36,800 doses through July 27, Ladapo said.
The federal government has allocated a little over 109,000 doses to Florida.
The Jynneos vaccine consists of a two-dose series given four weeks apart.
Biden Signs Executive Order Promoting Abortion
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order that he says will allow for more abortion access, coming weeks after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“Today’s Executive Order builds on the first Executive Order that I signed last month to safeguard access to … abortion care,” he wrote on Twitter. “I told you I wouldn’t back down. That hasn’t changed.”
Biden’s executive order directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “consider action to advance access” to abortion services, including via Medicaid for women who travel out of state to obtain one, according to the White House.
The order also asks HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to consider “all appropriate actions” to ensure that health providers follow federal laws so people can “receive medically necessary care without delay,” referring to abortions.
“These actions could include providing technical assistance for health care providers who may be confused or unsure of their obligations in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs; convening providers to convey information on their obligations and the potential consequences of non-compliance; and issuing additional guidance or taking other appropriate action in response to any complaints or reports of non-compliance with federal non-discrimination laws,” the White House statement said.
Dems Pass Bill to Allow More Drug Use Sites in California
Democrats in the California State Legislature passed a bill Tuesday to allow the expansion of “safe” drug use sites in major cities, despite the well-publicized failure of one such site in San Francisco’s notorious Tenderloin district in recent months.
The bill, SB 57, describes its purpose as follows:
This bill would, until January 1, 2028, authorize the City and County of San Francisco, the County of Los Angeles, the City of Los Angeles, and the City of Oakland to approve entities to operate overdose prevention programs for persons that satisfy specified requirements, including, among other things, providing a hygienic space supervised by trained staff where people who use drugs can consume preobtained drugs, providing sterile consumption supplies, providing access or referrals to substance use disorder treatment, and that program staff be authorized and trained to provide emergency administration of an opioid antagonist, as defined by existing law. … The bill would exempt a person from, among other things, civil liability, professional discipline, or existing criminal sanctions, solely for good faith actions, conduct, or omissions in compliance with an overdose prevention program authorized by the city or the city and county. The bill would clarify that the Medical Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of California is authorized to take disciplinary action against a licensee related to the operation of an overdose prevention program that violates the Medical Practice Act.
Last month, newly-installed San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins vowed to shut down open-air drug use that her predecessor, ousted DA Chesa Boudin, had tolerated, KRON 4 reported:
The days of giving dealers a free pass to flood the streets with fentanyl are over, Jenkins told reporters gathered in the Tenderloin Tuesday.
…
Jenkins met with Tenderloin residents and business owners to hear their concerns about public safety first-hand. “I committed to them just like I did the entire city to making sure that we end these open-air drug markets. That we clear these streets. So that kids and people who live here can go about their daily lives without being scared, and without thinking that this is normal,” she said.
As the UK Daily Mail reported Wednesday, one supposedly safe drug use site, the Tenderloin Linkage Center in San Francisco, “was billed as an avant-garde approach to tackling the city’s drug epidemic but only one out of 1,000 addicts actually sought treatment there.” The city is shutting it down amid concerns it had made the neighborhood’s problems worse.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has 12 days to decide whether to sign the bill or to veto it, pending a legislative override vote.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
The BIS Is Orchestrating The Big Switch To Digital Currency
The entire global financial system is now essentially a technocommunist black ops money laundering crime scene. Central banks, their wall street coconspirators and the major corporations are all colluding in ushering in their hyper-centralized CBDC dystopia. This central bank “currency” will of course be inextricably tethered to the A.I. social credit score system which will algorithmically surveil and control the genetically modified debt-slave tax mules.
The perdurable emergency “pandemic” scheme has emboldened the banksters such that they are now showing their hand, goading the public with their cashless power grab.
In some nations the UBI bribe will be a necessary step in achieving adoption, but there are currently enough WEF “penetrated” governments that will outright subject their citizenry to draconian currency laws.
Pfizer’s petri dish nation of Israel is leading the way. Not only is the Israeli populace undergoing a slow motion holocaust by slow kill bioweapon injection currently at dose 6, but they are now being aggressively herded into a CBDC hell.
Cash deals exceeding 6,000 NIS ($1,700) will be illegal, as part of the effort to fight against money laundering and criminal activity; the law will exempt charitable institutions and trade with West Bank Palestinians
By invoking money laundering and criminal activity these illegitimate anti-human governments are simply projecting their very own crimes, while attempting to steal away the last vestiges of people’s freedoms.
“We want the public to reduce the use of cash money,” Adv. Tamar Bracha, who is in charge of executing the law on behalf of 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.”
In other words, reduce freedom fluidity and remove all privacy. And it is no coincidence that Israel has one of the most advanced “vaccine” passport programs which will seamlessly integrate with their CBDC scheme.
VIDEO: WEF DEEPENING ITS TIES WITH THE CCP
CNN is reportedly on pace to miss its profitability target by a substantial margin amid a continued crash in ratings just as the network’s new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, is planning to enact drastic cuts across its media properties.
The left-wing CNN’s profitability is expected to decline to $956.8 million this year, marking the first time since 2016 that the network had dipped below $1 billion in profit, according to a New York Times report that cited three people familiar with its operations.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
World’s first ‘synthetic embryos’ created
Israeli scientists grew a mouse embryo with a beating heart using only stem cells, research journal reports
In a world first, Israeli scientists have created “synthetic embryos” without using sperm or egg cells, having taken only stem cells from the skin of mice.
The breakthrough experiment, the results of which were published this week in the peer-review journal Cell, saw the stem cells taken from mice “self-assemble” into an embryo-like structure with an intestinal tract, brain and even a beating heart.
According to cell biologist Professor Jacob Hanna of the Weizmann Institute of Science, the results were truly a “remarkable” outcome. “There was no sperm, no egg and no uterus, but we managed to get embryos formed from stem cells alone to eight days – a third of the gestation period of a mouse – with a beating heart,” he told Times of Israel.
He said this is the first time such an advanced animal embryo has been grown only from stem cells.
Hanna told the Times that the study could pave the way for growing artificial embryo-like structures that would be used in medicine, including for growing human organs for transplant. “The embryo is the best organ-making machine and the best 3D bioprinter; we tried to emulate what it does,” he explained.
Electric Inferno: Jaguar I-Pace Car Catches on Fire While Charging, Burns to Bare Metal
An electric Jaguar I-Pace vehicle caught on fire and burned to ash in Florida, but the vehicle wasn’t in a car wreck like many notorious Tesla fires — it was simply charging in the owner’s garage.
The electric car is the fourth known I-Pace battery fire that seemingly started on its own — a concerning amount of fires, given that there are so few of these vehicles on the road — according to a report by Electrek.
The Florida-based electric car owner, Gonzalo Salazar, told the outlet that he had purchased a brand new 2019 Jaguar I-Pace in 2020, and was driving the vehicle without issues for a few years, until one day the car caught fire in his garage, after having been charging for the night.
“On June 16, I plugged the car in before going to bed,” Salazar said. “In the morning of June 17, I woke up and unplugged the car. Later that morning, I set out to run some errands. I drove about 12 miles that morning before returning back home and parking the car back in the garage, leaving the garage door open.”
HEALTH
This Supplement Benefits Heart, Immune & Joint Health, According To RDs
Fish oil can help deliver omega-3 fatty acids to people who get subpar levels of the nutrient. And, while you can get omega-3 fatty acids from eating fish, most people don’t get enough to meet their daily needs—including strict vegans and others who choose not to (or simply cannot) include fish in their diet. This is where high-quality supplementation comes into play.
But what is fish oil, exactly—and who should consider it? Here’s what you need to know.
Fish oil has plenty of incredible health benefits, thanks to its concentrated dose of omega-3s.
For starters, these oils “have been shown to promote a healthy inflammatory response and support heart and blood circulation function,”* says clinical biochemist and renowned father of functional medicine Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., FACN, CNS. The omega-3s in fish oil are also “used by the immune system to help modulate a healthy immune response in all organs of the body,”* he adds.
The EPA and DHA in fish oil are essential for a healthy heart; in fact, a 2019 science advisory from the American Heart Association (AHA) states that research suggests EPA and DHA support healthy levels of triglycerides (i.e., a type of fat in your blood).* What’s more, according to the FDA, consuming at least 800 milligrams of EPA and DHA together daily may even lower your risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD) by lowering blood pressure.*†
DHA is also a critical nutrient during pregnancy, as it’s involved in healthy development of the central nervous system.* Worth noting: A 2018 Nutrients study linked higher DHA levels during pregnancy with better problem-solving skills in babies at 12 months, demonstrating how essential proper DHA intake truly is during pregnancy (for both baby and mother).*
If heart and healthy pregnancy benefits aren’t enough to turn your head, a 2019 meta-analysis from Translational Psychiatry reveals that supplementing with omega-3s has been linked to healthy mood balance and resilience as well.* Finally, the omega-3s found in fish oil can support your musculoskeletal health by helping regulate bone turnover to promote calcium balance and bolstering joint mobility and comfort.*
“The science to date demonstrates that marine omega-3s EPA and DHA are whole-body relevant and important for every cell,” concludes Ferira, adding “That’s why it’s genuinely concerning how underconsumed these healthy fats are in our nation.”
—> Power Mall Product of Interest: Optivida Super Krill Oil (10% off this week!)
Broccoli Compound May Solve Antibiotic Resistance Problem
Cruciferous vegetables have long been cherished for their health benefits. Broccoli, cabbage, collards, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale and bok choy, just to name a few, contain several plant compounds that are important for optimal health, including powerful chemoprotective compounds
One of the most well-known of these is sulforaphane, an organic sulfur. Sulforaphane supports normal cell function and division while causing apoptosis (programmed cell death) in several types of cancer
Another important phytochemical found in cruciferous veggies is indole-3 carbinol (I3C), which is converted into diindolylmethane (DIM). DIM boosts immune function and, like sulforaphane, has anticancer properties
Recent research has found DIM effectively inhibits antibiotic-resistant biofilms and significantly boosts the effectiveness of antibiotics. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii are both resistant to multiple drugs. DIM was able to inhibit biofilm formation in these bacteria by 65% to 70%
When DIM was combined with the antibiotic tobramycin, biofilm growth of P. aeruginosa was diminished by 98%. Applied topically to infected wounds, DIM with or without the antibiotic gentamycin allowed for significantly faster healing, while treatment with gentamycin alone had no effect
Anticholinergic Drugs Increase Your Risk for Dementia
While dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (the most advanced, severe and lethal form of dementia) are primarily diet- and lifestyle-driven, certain medications can also ramp up your risk
One of the riskiest classes of drugs are anticholinergic drugs, prescribed for a wide variety of conditions, including depression, incontinence, insomnia, allergies and epilepsy
Research assessing effects of 56 anticholinergics found statistically significant associations between dementia and anticholinergic antidepressants, anti-Parkinson’s drugs, antipsychotic drugs, bladder antimuscarinics and antiepileptic drugs
In the highest exposure group (excess of 1,095 standardized daily doses over the past one to 11 years before diagnosis), the odds ratio for dementia was between 44% and 54%, with an average of 49%; anticholinergic antipsychotics raise risk by 70%
A 2009 scientific review found all but two of 27 studies found an association between the anticholinergic activity of medications and either delirium, cognitive impairment or dementia
The spread of Lyme disease has increased dramatically over the past 15 years with the illness more than tripling in rural areas, according to the nonprofit FAIR Health’s recent analysis of health insurance claims.
Lyme disease, caused by the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected blacklegged ticks, often called “deer ticks.”
From 2007 to 2021, private insurance claims with a Lyme disease diagnosis in rural America jumped by 357 percent and in urban areas by 65 percent (pdf).
A significant share of that increase occurred in the years between 2016 and 2021, with a 60 percent increase in rural areas and 19 percent increase in urban areas.
FAIR Health also identified seasonal geographic trends in claims between 2016 and 2021, with the months of June and July seeing more incidents in rural regions and the months of November to April seeing more cases in urban areas.
In 2017, the states with the highest proportion of Lyme disease diagnoses on insurance claims were New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In 2021, Maine replaced North Carolina, claiming a spot in the top five.
FAIR Health reported that symptoms like fatigue and malaise were more common among patients with Lyme disease than among other patients.
“Lyme disease remains a growing public health concern. FAIR Health will continue to use its repository of claims data to provide actionable and relevant insights to healthcare stakeholders seeking to better understand the ongoing rise of Lyme disease cases,” FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd said in an Aug. 2 news release.
Do Not Underestimate Mind-Controlling Parasites
Parasites, through release of complex chemical cocktails, employ mind control techniques that put politicians and alphabet agencies to shame
Some parasites know how to zombify their hosts, change their gender, make them alter their behavior and appearance, and even commit suicide
The better known mind-controlling parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, tricks infected rats into being attracted to cats, the parasite’s final hosts
People infected by toxoplasma tend to act more reckless and distracted, and there is a strong correlation between toxoplasma infection and schizophrenia and other mental disorders in humans
Behavior of biological parasites offers insights into social interactions in human society and highlights the importance of protecting ourselves from predators, both physically and spiritually
Scientists Identify Why Red Meat Raises Your Heart Disease Risk
A daily hamburger might raise the risk of developing heart disease, but not necessarily for the reasons people often think, new research suggests.
The study of nearly 4,000 older Americans found what many have before: People who ate a lot of red meat had a heightened risk of heart disease and stroke.
But there was no evidence that the link was due to a traditional culprit: elevated blood levels of “bad” cholesterol.
Instead, researchers traced the risk, in part, to particular substances produced by the gut microbiome — the trillions of bacteria that reside in the digestive tract. When those bacteria digest red meat, they produce a chemical called TMAO, which can spur inflammation and blood clotting.
For the average person, experts said, the finding leads back to a familiar message: Limit your red meat consumption.
“Last week we said eat less red meat, and this week we’ll be saying eat less red meat,” said Christopher Gardner, a professor at Stanford University who was not involved in the study.
“This does reinforce what we’ve thought about eating too much meat, and a lack of fiber in the diet,” Gardner said, noting that the two often go hand-in-hand.
We can add toilet paper to the long list of products that are contaminated with PFAS; this pervasive contamination has led experts to recommend many Americans get tested for PFAS. It’s time to ban these dangerous chemicals.
We recently told you how PFAS contamination is worse than we previously thought because it has been found in a huge bevy of products for which it wasn’t added intentionally—PFAS can leach into products during the manufacturing process, and companies don’t even realize it. Now, a new report found that PFAS are present in several major toilet paper brands, demonstrating another route of exposure for these ubiquitous chemicals. Considering recent findings on the high levels of PFAS exposure among the population and the evidence demonstrating the serious human health concerns from this exposure, the government’s own National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) issued a report recommending PFAS blood tests for broad swaths of the population. All of this is happening while the EPA is asleep at the wheel. This cannot go on.
The report, issued jointly by Mamavation and Environmental Health News, found that 4 of 17 toilet paper brands tested positive for fluorine, an indicator of PFAS. Levels of PFAS ranged from 10 parts per million (ppm) to 35 ppm in four brands: Charmin Ultra Soft Toilet Paper, Seventh Generation 100% Recycled Bath Tissue, Tushy Bamboo Toilet Paper and Who Gives a Crap Bamboo Toilet Paper.
We reported previously on the extensive use of PFAS in cosmetics and other personal care products, and the particular danger this route of exposure poses. Lipstick that contains PFAS, for example, could inadvertently be ingested; PFAS in mascara could be absorbed through the tear ducts. And once PFAS enter the bloodstream, it stays there and accumulates—they aren’t called “forever” chemicals for nothing. Note that makeup is absorbed through the skin, and chemicals absorbed through the skin directly enter the bloodstream. Toilet paper containing PFAS will touch the skin, and in sensitive parts of the body with many blood vessels.
The FDA has conducted some limited testing for PFAS in food. Recently, testing of seafood samples led to the recall of some canned clams because they were found to contain concerning levels of PFAS. Previous FDA testing in food found “detectable levels of certain PFAS” in tilapia, cod, fish sticks, shrimp, canned tuna, protein powder, and ground turkey. Despite bland reassurances, it is clear the FDA has no idea of the scope of the problem. The agency states, “Foods that are associated with areas of environmental contamination may or may not pose a risk.”
The EPA seems even more unconcerned about PFAS contamination. We reported recently that the agency has adopted a “working definition” of PFAS that excludes thousands of chemicals from the PFAS classification, which will make it harder to apply safety standards to these compounds and for polluters to be held accountable in the courts.
But some are taking PFAS more seriously. In light of these and other similar reports demonstrating the breadth of PFAS contamination, NASEM recently issued a report recommending blood tests and medical monitoring for millions of Americans who live in contaminated communities, have jobs that expose them to PFAS, and those who live near commercial airports, military bases, wastewater treatment plants, farms where sewage sludge is used, landfills, or incinerators.
The report also details the links between PFAS levels in the blood and specific health concerns, concluding there is “sufficient evidence” to link PFAS exposure to kidney cancer, decreased infant and fetal growth, decreased immune response, and high cholesterol. The quotes from the authors are stunning: “We find contamination in all 50 states and at least two territories, and in over 2,800 communities across the country,”
Congress Advances Bill to Support Telemedicine
Let’s help these commonsense reforms get across the finish line. Action Alert!
Recently, the House of Representatives approved legislation that would extend until 2024 changes in the rules to allow more access to telehealth. Expanded access to telehealth offers an opportunity to lower healthcare costs, so it is critical to support this and related bills in Congress.
We covered this issue a few months ago. Before the pandemic, regulators and lawmakers intentionally made it difficult for Americans to take advantage of the lower costs of telehealth, fearing widespread telehealth use would lead to more spending on unnecessary health care. Medicare, which often sets the tone for insurers across the country, banned clinicians from delivering telehealth outside of rural areas and prohibited patients from receiving telehealth within their homes.
This changed during the pandemic when telehealth allowed greater access to physicians when patients were wary of in-person visits. The public health emergency allowed government regulators to relax a number of restrictions on telehealth services. Pre-pandemic, for example, Medicare would only reimburse for telehealth services in rural areas, and the patient needed to go to a medical facility to receive service—they couldn’t stay at home.
Additionally, there were previously restrictions on where the practitioner could be during the time of the telehealth service. If physicians were dispensing telehealth services while at rural health clinics or federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), which predominantly service disadvantaged communities, they could not get reimbursed from Medicare or Medicaid. These restrictions, too, were relaxed during the pandemic. This has improved health care access for historically marginalized populations. Racial and ethnic minorities are 1.5 to 2 times as likely to suffer from a chronic disease as whites; expanded telehealth can help improve the health of these populations.
The problem is that, once the public health emergency ends, these relaxed rules will disappear. The bill approved by the House would extend many of these changes; other bills percolating in Congress would make the changes permanent.
The US spends significantly more money on healthcare than any other industrialized country. There are many reasons for this, but we must embrace policies like expanded telehealth access that give patients cost-saving options.
Action Alert! Write to Congress and tell them to support bills that expand telehealth access! Please send your message immediately.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” White House Senior Adviser on Energy Security Amos Hochstein argued that oil companies can “invest today in short cycles that will increase production” “instead of trying to lock in more profits” and vowed that the Biden administration is “going to try to accelerate the energy transition.”
Hochstein stated, “We both know that, in the United States, the onshore production are short cycles. They can invest today in short cycles that will increase production. And at these numbers, at these prices, they’re guaranteed to make profits on those investments today. So instead of trying to lock in more profits and to share those with shareholders, which I understand the impulse there, and to buy back shares and to pay higher dividends, I think at this moment in history, I think it’s fair to ask that they invest it today on profits that we know they’re going to get. Maybe they won’t be at $100, maybe they’ll be at 90 or at 80. But we know they’re going to get those profits in the short cycle that is the shale oil production onshore of the United States. And in fact, Joe, the CEOs — some of these CEOs themselves have said, just recently, I mean, Mike Wirth of Chevron said it publicly, that he was going to increase production.”
He added, “What happens in the outer years? Yeah, we’re going to try to accelerate the energy transition.”
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Arkansas Couple Confront Food Shortages, Inflation by Growing Own Food, Starting Off-Grid Homestead
Mad Max never seemed so near at hand. With ballooning inflation and looming food shortages, people are facing potentially hazardous futures. “Experts” and world leaders are calling it a “transition.” Into what, they don’t say, but it looks bad.
Like many even-keeled Americans, though, Becky and Cam Porter from northwest Arkansas are transitioning on their own terms, weathering the storm by getting off the grid and growing their own food.
They’re not fully decoupled yet, but the 52-acre homestead they bought in 2020 now puts them way ahead of the curve, not to mention food on the table.
The Porters dubbed their transition “Our journey to radical self-sufficiency,” though inflation and food shortage was not their initial impetus. It started with the levelheaded realization that industrialized food processes of mega corporations were harming Becky’s health.
“I had pretty severe acid reflux, stomach pain, and I went to several doctors,” she told The Epoch Times. “Medicine didn’t work, and so I turned to try to heal myself.” Growing food at home and eating natural worked wonders. Her stomach problems vanished. “I wanted to take it to the next level,” she said. Then the economy started to head south.
Becky and Cam, who works for Sam’s Club, saw the writing on the wall.
“We kind of held back on talking about this for a while because we didn’t want to incite fear and panic,” he shared in the couple’s vlog. “Just this past week we had some pretty intense meetings around the ocean freight rate increases. Costs are going up pretty dramatically.”
The idea of a self-sustaining homestead materialized. Their plan? To grow food enough to feed themselves and their four kids, and eventually sell their produce. Becky dug up the most savvy regenerative agriculture wisdom on the web, and they went to town plotting a self-sustaining ecosystem that would supply, beyond mere sustenance, peace of mind amidst calamitous foreshadowings.
“The food that I grow, I know how it’s grown,” she told the newspaper. “But I also like the fact that I have the self-sufficiency as a family, and we can produce all our own food and not be so reliant on other people for such a basic thing for life.”
Some might think it extreme—even conspiratorial—to go to such lengths, despite signs of impending havoc. “Some people view it that way, but I don’t view it that way. It’s so important for people to grow their own food. I think that it’s going to be essential,” she said, adding that, with rising prices, others will see the light.
Their land had “no electricity, no nothing” initially, Becky said. They drilled a well, planted a garden, and now have 11 cows, 70 chickens, 6 pigs, 9 turkeys, and a thriving regenerative agriculture ecosystem. They have berry bushes and an orchard. To facilitate breeding, they got a bull. The cows yield meat and could produce dairy if need be.
In addition to a “caterpillar tunnel” to extend growing season into the winter months, the farm came with a barn, in which they had to camp for a month while their house was being built.
“Regenerative agriculture” entails rotating the cows over the farm, to graze and fertilize different parts of the pasture. The grass grows back even better than before. “Cameron has built a chicken tractor,” Becky shared. “It’s never stationary, it’s always moving. It’s like a coupe on wheels, so that manure from your chickens is spread all around your land. We have very low costs on fertilizer.”
The price for self-sufficiency, besides the cost of land, capital, and expenses, is hard work. Their vlog documents the family’s toils: countless hours drying and canning fruits and veggies in the kitchen, sometimes until 2 a.m.; gardening tomatoes, corn, sunflowers, and other crops, rain or shine; the kids get a list of farm tasks. The payoff? They’re now able to grow all the vegetables they need for the year, with some to spare. The pantry is a prepper’s dream.
The Porters’ plan to hedge inflation worked.
“You are investing into certain things,” said Becky. “But the way that I’ve done our garden, in the first year I’m able to make that back with how much we save on food costs, especially now with inflation.”
They’re not fully off the grid yet, though. Cam still buys feed in bulk—though they’ve started growing sunflowers and corn to feed poultry and pigs, while the cows just graze. Weaning off power will be a doozy.
Decoupling from electric is a goal. They have a generator in case of a shortage for now. That can run the well. Looking ahead, installing solar panels for the farm is what they’re saving for.
“Our goal is to lessen our dependence on other people,” Becky said. “The economy is always shifting and there could be times where you don’t want those things like food shortages, but there could be times where there are those things.
“It’s kind of scary. It’s important for us to become a lot more of a producer rather than a consumer.”
Small-Batch Sauerkraut in a Mason Jar
Our favorite gardener and in-store instructor, Karen Geiser, has shared this recipe during her frequent seminars at Lehman’s in Kidron, Ohio. For those of you unable to make it to the store, here’s her easy method for flavorful, oh-so-healthy fermented sauerkraut.If you’ve been curious about fermented foods, but aren’t sure where to start, this is the launchpad recipe for you!
Ingredients:
One medium head cabbage
1 Tbsp salt (use non-iodized salt like sea salt, kosher, Real or Himalayan pink)
Method:
Shred cabbage (SAVE one whole leaf – you’ll see why in a minute) and mix with salt in a large bowl. Pound with wooden stomper or your hands to release juices. Volume will be greatly reduced after pounding. Pack cabbage tightly into wide-mouth jar until juices cover the cabbage. Leave at least 1-1/2 inches head space.
Place a cabbage leaf on top to prevent shredded cabbage from floating in the liquid.
Fill a new, clean plastic bag with water, close with twist tie and place in mouth of jar to seal off air. Store in dark conditions (wrap jar in a dish towel) at room temperature for 3-4 days or until bubbling ceases.
Remove bag and check liquid level. Add water to cover if needed. Put on a plastic lid and transfer to cold storage. Full flavor develops in about 6 weeks and it will keep for several months. Note: Recipe is for one quart jar. Multiply as needed for half gallon or gallon jar.
Although the kraut can be canned at this point, canning the kraut will destroy the raw enzymes and beneficial bacteria present in the fermented kraut.
Lacto-fermentation is an age-old process where naturally occurring lactic acid bacteria produce lactic acid to help preserve foods. These bacteria are anaerobic: they thrive in an oxygen-free environment and make the food more nutritious and easy to digest. Among other health benefits, lactic acid stimulates digestive organs and provides friendly bacteria to the colon which benefits our immune systems and overall health.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Scientist tells Senate: Dr. Fauci lying about coronavirus research in China
Testifying Wednesday before the Senate, a prominent health scientist charged that Dr. Anthony Fauci and other federal health officials have repeatedly lied to Congress about the government’s funding of gain-of-function research in China, which is believed by many experts to be the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Richard Ebright, a professor of molecular biology at Rutgers University, said statements “made on repeated occasions to the public, to the press and to policymakers by the NIAID director, Dr. Fauci, have been untruthful.”
Rand Paul: Gain-of-Function Research Must Be Determined Before Getting to COVID Wuhan Lab Theory
Tuesday, during an appearance on FNC’s “Special Report,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) insisted if the question about COVID-19 having leaked from a Chinese lab in Wuhan was to be answered, it had to be determined if the Chinese government was engaging in gain-of-function research.
Paul’s comments came on the eve of a Senate hearing on the topic.
“Before we even get to whether the virus came from a lab, we have to explore, were they doing gain-of-function research?” he said. “Were they taking viruses, mixing them with unknown viruses, and creating more lethal viruses, or viruses that were more infectious or transmissible? I say without question they were doing this. Anthony Fauci says they weren’t. Tomorrow we will have the first gain-of-function hearing on Capitol Hill, the first exploration of this topic in two years. A million Americans died, and we have not had one single hearing. Tomorrow, we have the first hearing, and I will three scientists, very esteemed scientists, scientists with hundreds of papers, peer-reviewed papers, editors of journals — this is an elite group of scientists that will be there tomorrow — I’m going to ask them, was it gain-of-function research that was going on in Wuhan?”
“That doesn’t prove it came from a lab, but it proves that dangerous research was happening there and that it could have come from the lab,” Paul continued. “And my question is, even if we don’t know for certain, let’s say it’s 50/50, that’s still a big probability that it came from a lab. At that point, wouldn’t we want to make sure we’re controlling — we have restrictions on exporting nuclear technology? Should we have restrictions on exporting DNA technology to communist China? I think yes.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has claimed that there was no known association between heart inflammation and COVID-19 vaccines as late as October 2021.
CDC officials made the claim, which is false, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request for reports from a CDC team that is focused on analyzing the risk of post-vaccination myocarditis and pericarditis, two forms of heart inflammation. Both began detected at higher-than-expected rates after COVID-19 vaccination in the spring of 2021.
The team focuses on studying data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a passive surveillance system co-run by the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The date range for the search was April 2, 2021, to Oct. 2, 2021.
“The National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases performed a search of our records that failed to reveal any documents pertaining to your request,” Roger Andoh, a CDC records officer, told The Epoch Times. The center is part of the CDC.
No abstractions or reports were available because “an association between myocarditis and mRNA COVID-19 vaccination was not known at that time,” Andoh added.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are built on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
COVID-19 Vaccines Hinder the Immune System, Lead to More Severe Illness: Dr. Robert Malone
A study out of the United Kingdom has shown that health care workers who received multiple COVID-19 vaccine boosters after initially being infected with the original virus strain from Wuhan are more prone to chronic reinfection from the Omicron variant.
This may help explain why the people who have received several COVID-19 vaccine boosters are increasingly the ones who end up in the hospital with severe COVID-19 symptoms, sometimes resulting in death, said scientist and physician Dr. Robert Malone.
In a July 21 interview for EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program, Malone, an inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, said this phenomenon is the result of a process called “immune imprinting,” whereby initial exposure to a virus strain may prevent the body from producing enough neutralizing antibodies against a newer strain.
He added that this process is reinforced by multiple inoculations.
“All over the world, we are seeing these datasets that show that, unfortunately, the people that are dying and being hospitalized are overwhelmingly the highly vaccinated,” he said. “It is not those that have natural immunity.”
CANCEL CULTURE
Great Barrington Declaration Authors Join Lawsuit Against Alleged Government-Big Tech Collusion
Two doctors and a former Harvard Medical School professor have signed onto the lawsuit that alleges the U.S. government and Big Tech colluded to censor dissenting voices.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, who authored the Great Barrington Declaration, on Aug. 2 joined the states of Missouri and Louisiana in the case, which is moving forward with discovery after a recent ruling.
Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, who was fired for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, also joined the legal action.
All three say they have been affected by Big Tech censorship, and believe the punitive measures have been influenced or directed by government officials.
In April 2021, for instance, Google-owned YouTube deleted a video of Bhattacharya and Kulldorff questioning whether masks were effective in stopping the spread of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.
Kulldorff, a former Harvard Medical School professor who now works at the Brownstone Institute, was also suspended by Twitter for several weeks after positing that masks give people a false sense of security, which makes them more likely to expose themselves to the illness. That’s the same theory put forth by top U.S. officials until they pivoted to endorsing widespread mask-wearing months after the pandemic started.
GOOD NEWS
Newlyweds Give First Dance to Groom’s Grandparents Who Never Got One at Their Own Wedding
Upon learning that the groom’s grandparents never had a first dance at their own wedding in 1957, an engaged couple from New York decided to surprise the beloved pair on their special day, 65 years later. They gave their first dance away.
Bride Samantha Graff, 26, told The Epoch Times that she and her now-husband, Zachary Graff, 27, came up with the idea together.
“We found out shortly after we got engaged that Grammy and Grandpa hadn’t got their first dance, and it broke our hearts. To us, it’s such a huge part of your wedding day and something you will never forget,” she said. “When we found out, it wasn’t a question of if we were going to give them a first dance, the question was how we were going to pull it off perfectly.”
Samantha, an attorney from Hicksville, New York, met Zachary, a high school earth science teacher-in-training from Rockaway, New Jersey, in 2014 during their freshman year at New York’s University at Albany. They connected after Zachary’s best friend found Samantha’s credit card in the quad, and Zachary returned it. “No money spent!” Samantha joked.
Zachary’s grandfather Morton Graff, 87, a former entrepreneur with a shoe business, married his sweetheart Elaine Graff, 84, a former administrative assistant, on March 10, 1957. They tied the knot at the Empire Hotel in Manhattan, New York. But as Morton was sitting shiva for his mother, the couple could not have their first dance.
“It is Jewish tradition that during that time there are to be no celebrations,” said Samantha, “so while they still got married, there was no dancing or music whatsoever at their wedding.”
Samantha and Zachary kept their first-dance plan a secret for three years ahead of their April 2, 2022, nuptials, hoping to capture their families’ “raw reactions.” It worked; when Morton and Elaine were called to the dance floor at Hanover Manor in East Hanover, New Jersey, they were shocked.
“They had no idea what was about to happen. There was not a dry eye in the whole place!” said Samantha.
The family caught the magical moment on camera, from the newlyweds’ announcement to Zachary’s grandparents’ shock, and their first tentative steps on the dance floor in front of their loved ones to the Andy Williams classic “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing.”
The video went viral on TikTok.
Samantha and Zachary, who have settled in Franklin Square, New York, originally got married on April 18, 2021, in Clifton, New Jersey. It was a small ceremony with immediate family only, due to the pandemic. Both were over the moon for a second chance to celebrate their union.
“Getting to have two wedding days—one incredibly intimate, and the other celebrating with all of our family and friends—was more than we could’ve ever hoped for, and two days that we’ll remember and cherish forever,” Samantha said.
From the day she met her husband’s family, Samantha knew how close-knit they were, especially with Zachary’s grandparents.
“Grammy and Grandpa are role models to Zach, in both a professional and personal sense,” she praised, adding, “[They] are truly role models to both of us, in every aspect of life.”
ICYMI
Nancy Pelosi’s Husband Enters Plea in DUI Case Following Car Crash
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband, Paul Pelosi, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to DUI charges after allegedly crashing his car in California.
His attorney, Amanda Bevins, entered the plea to two counts related to a May 2022 DUI arrest. Paul Pelosi did not attend the arraignment, according to reporters on the scene.
Amy McLeod, a deputy district attorney in California’s Napa County, was in court for the prosecution, those reporters said.
Paul Pelosi, 82, will remain free on his own recognizance after the arraignment. He is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 23 at 9 a.m. local time.
A press release issued by the Napa County District Attorney’s office said Pelosi, a longtime businessman worth millions of dollars, allegedly had a blood alcohol content of 0.082 percent—over the legal limit in California—after he crashed his late-model Porsche. The blood sample, the DA’s office said, was obtained two hours after the collision hours later.
“Based upon the extent of the injuries suffered by the victim, the District Attorney filed misdemeanor charges. This decision is consistent with how our office handles these cases with similar injuries,” the office said in a statement in June.
Weeks before that, the California Highway Patrol said Pelosi was involved in a collision with a Jeep in Napa County. At the time, Speaker Pelosi was not with him, and a spokesperson for her office declined to comment on the matter while saying that the congresswoman was attending an event in Rhode Island that same day.
Under state law, Pelosi could face a short stint in jail and several years probation, according to the DA office’s news release.
“The punishment for driving under the influence causing injury as a misdemeanor is set by California law. It includes up to five years of probation, a minimum of five days in jail, installation of an ignition interlock device, fines and fees, completion of a court-ordered drinking driver class, and other terms as appropriate,” the DA’s office said.
Trump-Backed Primary Candidates Score in Arizona and Michigan, Fall in Washington
Former President Donald Trump’s endorsees were on ballots in five Aug. 2 Republican primaries, scoring wins in Arizona and Michigan, dual defeats in Washington state, and a draw, of sorts, in Missouri.
According to a Ballotpedia analysis of the 2022 primary cycle through Aug. 2, 12 of 15 Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidates have won Republican primaries with four pending; 99 of 104 U.S. House Trump endorsees have advanced with more than 20 pending; and 15 of 16 U.S. Senate candidates with his endorsment have advanced with four pending.
The vast majority are incumbents who faced no or nominal primary challenges.
Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, four have retired, three survived primary challenges by Trump-backed candidates, two lost their seats to America First inter-party rivals, and one—Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.)—awaits her fate in Wyoming’s Aug. 16 Republican primary.
Looking ahead, Trump has made several notable endorsements in Wisconsin’s Aug. 9 Republican primaries, including Tim Michels for governor, incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), and Derrick van Orden in the Republican primary for the state’s 3rd Congressional District.
Trump has also issued several prominent endorsements in Aug. 16 primaries.
Most notably: Kelly Tshibaka in her Alaska campaign against moderate three-term incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and the long-anticipated showdown in Wyoming’s Republican congressional district primary between Harriet Hageman and Cheney, co-chair of the House January 6 Investigation Committee and an avowed, vocal antagonizer of the former president.
Here’s a roundup of how key Trump-endorsed candidates fared in the Aug. 2 primaries:
Arizona Secretary of State
State Rep. Mark Finchem defeated his closest rival, Beau Lane, scoring 38 percent of the vote. Lane received 26 percent with two other hopefuls drawing at least 16 percent in a crowded field.
Finchem has made election integrity a cornerstone of his campaign following the disputed 2020 election and the forensic audit in Maricopa County.
“At the end of the day, I stand for the rule of law, that nobody has their thumb on the scale of election integrity and election justice,” Finchem told The Epoch Times.
“Mark was willing to say what few others had the courage to say,” Trump said, complimenting his “incredibly powerful stance on the massive voter fraud.”
Finchem will face former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, in the general election on Nov. 8. Fontes defeated Reginald Bolding 53 percent to 47 percent to win his party’s nomination.
Arizona U.S. Senate
Trump-endorsed tech entrepreneur Blake Masters blew past four other Republicans in the Arizona U.S. Senate Republican primary. In the Nov. 8 general election, he’ll face incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who didn’t face a primary challenger.
Masters received $15 million in campaign support from venture capitalist and longtime employer Peter Thiel and secured Trump’s endorsement in May.
“He’s strong on everything needed to keep Arizona first,” Trump said in a Masters ad that ran in July. “Mark Brnovich and Jim Lamon, on the other hand, will only let you down.”
In the last two days before the election, Trump surrogates campaigned for Masters. Stumping for him in Tucson and Phoenix were Richard Grenell, former director of national intelligence under Trump, and Kash Patel, chief of staff to the Trump Administration’s Secretary of Defense.
Masters has said that he believes Trump won the 2020 election that put President Joe Biden in the White House. That set him up in stark contrast to the early favorite in the race, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
Arizona Governor
With about 88 percent of the votes counted, Kari Lake had pulled ahead of Karrin Taylor Robson in a five-way battle for the Republican nomination for governor. Lake held the lead with 46.2 percent of the vote. Robson, a real estate developer and Arizona Board of Regents member, trailed at 44.4 percent.
The high-profile race pitted Trump-backed Lake versus Robson, who was endorsed by former vice president Mike Pence and eight past and present Republican governors, most notably former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Lake, a former Fox10 anchor, quickly gained momentum in the polls when Trump endorsed her in June. On July 22, he appeared at a “Save America” rally in Prescott Valley to support Lake. She characterized Robson as an “Establishment RINO” aligned with Arizona Democrats and establishment Republicans.
“I’m up against a billionaire—actually, her husband’s a billionaire,” Lake said at a Tucson campaign rally. “She’s spending more money than ever in a statewide race in the history of this country to try to defeat us. We’re not going to let her win. Arizona is not for sale and can’t be purchased. We’re going to send them a message.”
Robson portrayed Lake as an unknown quantity: an Obama Democrat turned Trump Republican only when she decided to run for office.
If she hangs on, Lake will face Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s current secretary of state, in November’s general election. Hobbs won the Democratic gubernatorial primary in a landslide.
Bowers Bounced
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who delivered testimony to the House January 6 panel, lost his Republican primary bid to Trump-backed state Sen. David Farnsworth by more than 20 percentage points in a resounding rout.
Bowers has been censured by the Arizona Republican Party for “[demonstrating] he is unfit to serve the platform of the Republican Party of Arizona” and for going against “the will of the voter of the Republican Party in Arizona.” The state Republican Party called on voters to “expel him permanently from office” during the contest.
Trump criticized Bowers a day before the primary and called on voters to oust him.
“Remember Arizona, your so-called ‘Speaker,’ Rusty (an appropriate name because he is Rusty, just like steel gets rusty and weak) Bowers, is absolutely terrible,” he wrote on Truth Social.
In testimony in June before the House committee, Bowers claimed that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani had no evidence for election fraud after the November 2020 election.
Farnsworth said Bowers isn’t conservative enough and has become less so since becoming House speaker following the 2018 state elections.
“Of course, the big issue, I think, for everybody is the fact that I strongly believe that there was fraud in the 2020 election,” Farnsworth told the Associated Press last week. “And I feel like Rusty failed … to take responsibility as speaker of the House and look into that election.”
Missouri U.S. Senator
The race to earn the Republican nod to succeed retiring Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) was shaken up by Trump’s last-minute Aug. 1 endorsement in which he pledged his support to “Eric.”
Two of the top three contenders in the race were named Eric: Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. Both accepted Trump’s endorsement, which he publicized on Truth Social as an endorsement for their respective campaigns.
But it was Schmidt who won, resoundingly, with Decision Desk HQ calling the race roughly an hour after polls closed on Aug. 2. He amassed nearly 300,000 votes, almost 46 percent of the tally, to easily cruise to a win. Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), who Trump definitively non-endorsed in July, finished second with 22 percent and Greitens closed with just less than 19 percent of the vote.
Schmitt, a former state treasurer who has served as Missouri attorney general since 2019, will face Democratic primary winner Trudy Busch Valentine, an heiress to the Anheuser-Busch brewing fortune, in the Nov. 8 general election.
Greitens served as governor of Missouri between 2017 and 2018, when he resigned while under investigation for ethical and sexual misconduct.
Michigan Governor
Tudor Dixon, a former steel sales manager and conservative commentator, got a late-campaign endorsement from Trump and cruised to a runaway win in Michigan’s Aug. 2 Republican gubernatorial primary.
A conservative online news anchor, Dixon founded Lumen News, a “pro-America, pro-Constitution” morning news program broadcast on Facebook. She’ll challenge incumbent Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who didn’t face a primary test.
The Michigan Republican Party Committee declared Dixon the primary winner on Twitter shortly after 9 p.m., calling her “our gubernatorial candidate and the next governor of our state.”
She transitioned from unknown outsider to frontrunner amid the crowded Republican gubernatorial pack when Trump praised her—but none of the other hopefuls—at an April rally in Macomb County. However, Trump didn’t formally endorse Dixon until July 29.
Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District
Trump-endorsed John Gibbs defeated incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District Republican primary on Aug. 2, garnering more than 52 percent of the vote in a 4 percentage point victory.
Meijer was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. Trump endorsed Gibbs for the Republican nomination.
Gibbs will face Democrat Hillary Scholten in the Nov. 8 general election in a redrawn 3rd Congressional District that once favored Republicans, but is now friendlier to Democrats. Scholten ran unopposed.
Meijer is “unelectable in November,” Gibbs told The Epoch Times before casting his vote on Aug. 2 in Byron Center, because the freshman legislator voted to impeach Trump and also “voted for the gun control bill.”
“Those are just two reasons why many Republicans would not support him in November,” he said.
Gibbs was a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) official during the Trump administration. He was appointed by Trump to lead the Office of Personnel Management but wasn’t confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Meijer voted to impeach Trump three days after the freshman legislator was sworn into the 117th Congress.
On Aug. 1, in a column that appeared on the Substack page Common Sense, Meijer criticized the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) for intervening by spending $435,000 in advertising to bolster Gibbs.
While the spot appeared to attack Gibbs, it also provided airtime for a campaign that didn’t have the funds to increase its name recognition on television in the Grand Rapids market, which critics say was the DCCC’s ultimate objective.
Meijer wrote that it would seem like “the Democrats would look at John Gibbs and see the embodiment of what they say they most fear. That as patriots they would use every tool at their disposal to defeat him and similar candidates that they’ve said are an existential threat. Instead, they are funding Gibbs.”
He noted that the ad purchase “was more than Gibbs raised over the entire duration of his campaign” and was almost 100 times what Trump provided to Gibbs, which amounted to “a single $5,000 contribution from the Save America Super PAC.”
“In other words, the Democrats are not merely attempting to boost a candidate over the finish line: They are subsidizing his entire campaign,” Meijer wrote.
He raised 10 times more money than Gibbs and had spent $2.1 million on the campaign compared to Gibbs’s $340,000 as of mid-July.
Four Republican Michigan House Incumbents
Trump-backed incumbent Republican Michigan Reps. John Moolenaar, Tim Walberg, and Lisa McClain all easily won their primaries against nominal opponents, while John James, the former president’s endorsee to take the seat now occupied by retiring Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.)—among the 10 Republican reps who voted for impeachment—won his primary.
Washington’s 3rd Congressional District
Trump-backed candidate Joe Kent failed to dislodge Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) from receiving the Republican nod in Washington state’s 3rd Congressional District, finishing third in the state’s ranked-choice “jungle” primary system, meaning that he won’t appear on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The leading 3rd Congressional District primary vote-getter was actually Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez with 32 percent of the tally. Six-term incumbent Beutler finished in second place with 24.5 percent and Kent finished third with less than 20 percent. Only the top two vote recipients in each primary contest, regardless of party, will advance to the Nov. 8 general election.
Buetler was among the 10 Republican congressional representatives to vote for Trump’s impeachment. The former president has called her a “RINO” and said that “she fights for the Washington swamp, not for the Washington state.” During a July 25 telephone rally for Kent, the former president called the former U.S. Army Green Beret a “tough cookie with a big, fat, beautiful heart.”
Washington’s 4th Congressional District
Trump-backed Loren Culp fell short in getting onto the Nov. 8 ballot. Four-term Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), among the 10 Republican congressional representatives who voted for impeachment, finished first in the race with 27.3 percent of the vote, Democrat Doug White finished second at 26 percent, and Culp finished third at 21.8 percent.
Finishing third in Washington’s ranked-choice “jungle” primary system means that you won’t appear on the general election ballot.
In June, Culp told The Epoch Times that he obtained Trump’s endorsement in February.
“I didn’t chase anybody’s endorsement, so Trump’s phone call was a complete surprise,” he said. “He read the endorsement letter to me and said he’s behind me 100 percent. Of course, all the other candidates attack me because they have to get through me first. We’re dealing with that.”
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