WORLD NEWS
New York Army Guard Soldiers Heading to Africa, Kuwait
Almost 1,400 New York Army National Guard Soldiers are deploying to East Africa and Kuwait in the largest mobilization of New York National Guard forces in more than a decade.
Two hundred and fifty Soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 142nd Aviation, left for Fort Hood, Texas, June 9-10 to prepare for deployment to Kuwait to support U.S. Central Command.
Another 1,130 Soldiers from New York City’s 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, along with companies from the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry, and the 2nd Squadron 101st Cavalry, held farewells June 13-14. They constitute Task Force Wolfhound, headed to the Horn of Africa.
They will train in Fort Drum, New York, for two weeks, meeting U.S. Africa Command’s requirements. Then they move to Fort Bliss, Texas, for two more months of training before heading to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti as a security task force.
“When we hit the ground in Africa this September, this will be the most ready battalion in the United States Army, Lt. Col. Shawn Tabankin, commander of the 69th Infantry, told 600 Soldiers at a June 14 ceremony at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.”
This is the largest deployment year for the New York Army National Guard since 2008-2009, when the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team deployed to Afghanistan, according to Army Maj. Gen. Michel Natali, the New York National Guard’s assistant adjutant general, Army.
Along with the aviation battalion and the task force built around the 69th Infantry, the New York National Guard will deploy the 642nd Aviation Support Battalion, the 369th Sustainment Brigade, the 101st Expeditionary Signal Battalion, and other small support elements to Kuwait before the fall.
WHO declares new virus outbreak
Ghana reports its first cases of the highly infectious Marburg virus
The World Health Organization (WHO) is sounding the alarm over a new virus outbreak after two cases of the Marburg virus disease have been reported in Ghana, marking the first time the deadly Ebola-like virus has been found in the west-African nation and only the second time it has been seen in the region.
In an article published on Sunday, the WHO says that blood samples taken from two people last month in the southern Ashanti region of Ghana suggest that they both had the Marburg virus.
Both of the patients had symptoms such as diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting, and died within a day of being admitted to hospital in late June. One of the patients was 26 years old, the other 51.
Now, more than 90 contacts of the two patients have been identified and are being monitored by both the WHO and regional health authorities. The global health agency says it is also assisting Ghana by providing protective equipment, bolstering disease surveillance, testing, tracing contacts and increasing public awareness of the risks and dangers of the disease.
“Health authorities have responded swiftly, getting a head start preparing for a possible outbreak. This is good because without immediate and decisive action, Marburg can easily get out of hand. WHO is on the ground supporting health authorities and now that the outbreak is declared, we are marshaling more resources for the response,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
The Marburg virus is described by the WHO as a highly infectious viral haemorrhagic fever similar to the well-known Ebola virus disease. The disease can be transmitted to people from infected animals such as fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces and materials.
How Pfizer Profited From the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a real boon to Pfizer. Not only has it doubled Pfizer’s annual revenue, it has also given the drugmaker unique weight in determining U.S. health policy — something that concerns even staunch vaccine-pushers like Dr. Paul Offit
Pfizer’s revenue in 2021 was $81.3 billion — approximately double that of 2020 — and the COVID shot accounted for $36.78 billion of that
Pfizer’s COVID jab dominates 70% of the U.S. and European markets, and Paxlovid, its COVID drug, has become a standard treatment choice in hospitals. This despite findings showing the shot doesn’t prevent infection or transmission, and that Paxlovid causes severe rebound and supercharges mutations
The U.S. had thrown away 82.2 million expired COVID jab doses as of mid-May 2022, yet the Biden administration ordered another 105 million doses at the end of June 2022 for a fall booster campaign that will cost taxpayers $3.2 billion
Pfizer’s contracts are almost exclusively slanted in Pfizer’s favor. They’re guaranteed payment while having no financial liability for injuries and deaths, and it appears this indemnification applies even if they were to be found guilty of fraud
Top Iranian Official: We’re Capable of Making a Nuclear Bomb
Iran is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb, a senior aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told Al Jazeera Arabic on Sunday, adding that the country would target “deep into” Israel if need be.
“Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build it,” Kamal Kharrazi said, according to a translation by Reuters.
The U.S. and UN nuclear watchdog, meanwhile, have always maintained that Iran may not be equipped with the knowledge to actually manufacture a bomb.
“In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium,” Kharrazi, who is the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign relations, said.
Tehran would “directly respond” to Israel if “our sensitive facilities were targeted,” he added.
Israel “is in a phase of weakness, and President Joe Biden’s support for it will not bring it back to the fore,” Kharrazi said on Sunday.
Ongoing talks with the U.S. to revive the 2015 nuclear deal were facing challenges due to “mistrust” on both sides, Kharrazi said.
“Our missile program and our regional policies” are not up for negotiation, Kharazzi said, because doing so would mean the regime would effectively surrender itself.
Three days earlier, President Joe Biden reiterated his belief that negotiations are the best way forward.
“I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way,” Biden said at a joint press briefing with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Jerusalem.
Lapid publicly disagreed with Biden’s assertion, saying: “Words will not stop them, Mr. President. Diplomacy will not stop them. The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program the free world will use force. The only way to stop them is to put a credible military threat on the table.”
Heatwave: Warnings of ‘heat apocalypse’ in France
Western France is facing a “heat apocalypse”, experts have warned, as extreme temperatures continue to hit much of Europe.
Temperatures could reach record levels in 15 regions of the southwest, with firefighters battling wildfires and thousands forced to evacuate.
Blazes in Spain, Portugal and Greece have forced thousands more to flee.
Record temperatures are also expected in parts of the UK, which has its first ever red extreme heat warning in place.
Wildfires in France in recent days have forced over 16,000 people to flee the area, with emergency shelters set up for evacuees.
Vatican Goes Full Technocracy With ‘Council For Inclusive Capitalism’
The idea that there is an agenda for global government among the financial and political elites of the world has long been called a “conspiracy theory” within the mainstream and the establishment media. And sadly, even when you can convince people to look at and accept the evidence that banking institutions and certain politicians work together for their own purposes, many folks will STILL not entertain the notion that the ultimate goal of these power mongers is one-world empire. They just can’t wrap their heads around such a thing.
People will say that the establishment is driven by greed alone and that their associations are fragile and based only on individual self interest. They will say that crisis events and shifts in social and political trends are random, not the product of deliberate engineering. They will say that elitists will never be able to work together because they are too narcissistic, etc.
All of these arguments are a coping mechanism for the public to deal with evidence they cannot otherwise refute. When the facts become concrete and the powers-that-be admit to their schemes openly, some people will revert to confused denial. They don’t want to believe that organized evil on such a scale could actually be real. If it did, then everything they thought they knew about the world might be wrong.
For many years the agenda for global governance was only whispered about within elitist circles, but every once in a while one of them would speak aloud in public about it. Perhaps out of arrogance or perhaps because they felt the time was right to ease the populace into accepting the possibility. Whenever they did mention it, they called it the “New World Order.” World leaders from George HW Bush to Barack Obama to Joe Biden to Gordon Brown to Tony Blair and beyond have all given speeches talking about the “New World Order.” Money and political elites like George Soros and Henry Kissinger have mentioned the NWO incessantly over the years.
One of the most revealing quotes on the agenda comes from Clinton Administration Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot, who stated in Time magazine that:
“In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority… National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea after all.”
He adds in the same article a lesser known quote:
“…The free world formed multilateral financial institutions that depend on member states’ willingness to give up a degree of sovereignty. The International Monetary Fund can virtually dictate fiscal policies, even including how much tax a government should levy on its citizens. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade regulates how much duty a nation can charge on imports. These organizations can be seen as the protoministries of trade, finance and development for a united world.”
To understand how the agenda works, I offer a quote from globalist and Council on Foreign Relations member Richard Gardner in an article in Foreign Affairs Magazine in 1974 titled ‘The Hard Road To World Order’:
“In short, the “house of world order” will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down. It will look like a great “booming, buzzing confusion,” to use William James’ famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.”
The “NWO” has since changed names multiple times as the public grows increasingly wise to the conspiracy. It’s been called the Multilateral World Order, the 4th Industrial Revolution, the “Great Reset,” etc. The names change but the meaning is always the same.
In the past two years in the face of extensive global crisis events the “new order” establishment globalists have been talking about has arrived, and with almost no fanfare or mention in the mainstream media. The beginnings of global government already exist, and it’s called the “Council For Inclusive Capitalism.”
Lately, many analysts myself included have been highly focused on the World Economic Forum and their role in the global government agenda. Mainly because WEF head Klaus Schwab is such a loudmouth and he can’t help but talk about future plans for centralization.
As I have noted in past articles, the elites within the WEF got way too excited about the covid pandemic, thinking that they had the perfect crisis to implement numerous globalist policies in the form of the Great Reset. As it turned out, covid was nowhere near as deadly as they initially predicted during Event 201, and the public was not as submissive and compliant as they had hoped we would be. The WEF let the cat out of the bag too soon.
So, onward we go, with crisis after crisis like dominoes falling until we get to the one event that they think will drive the masses to accept world governance. And while the WEF is regularly attended by top level globalists, they are more of a high level think-tank, the Council for Inclusive Capitalism appears to be about implementation rather than theory.
The founder of the group is Lynn Forester de Rothschild, member of the infamous Rothschild Dynasty that has long been monetarily involved in influencing governments for generations. Pope Francis and the Vatican publicly aligned with the council in 2020, and one of the primary narratives of the CIC is that all religions must unite with the leaders of capital to build a society and an economy that is “fair for all.”
This mission statement is rather familiar, as it echoes the goals of the WEF and its concept of the “Shared Economy”: A system in which you will own nothing, have no privacy, borrow everything, be completely reliant on the government for your survival and you will “like it.”
In other words, the purpose of “inclusive capitalism” is to con the masses into accepting a rebranded version of communism. The promise will be that you won’t have to worry anymore about your economic future, but the cost will be your freedom.
The CIC is led by a core group of global leaders they refer to as “The Guardians” (No, I’m not joking, this is real).
Members of the CIC have included: Mastercard, Allianz, Dupont, the UN, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), CalPERS, BP, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson, Visa, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Mark Carney, the Treasurer of the State of California and many more companies around the world. The list is extensive, but what it represents is a kind of corporate led government with a congress of corporate representatives mixed with pliable political leaders.
One of the top missions of the CIC has been to change our economic models to “promote equity and inclusion.” Hilariously, proponents of the CIC argue that “too much wealth has been accumulated into the hands of too few people and this proves that existing capitalism does not work, yet THEY are the very people that rigged the system to centralize that wealth into THEIR HANDS. They aren’t “capitalists,” they are an aristocracy. Do you really think that these people are going to build a whole new system that doesn’t continue to benefit them?
If you have ever wondered why the Pope has been pushing woke ideology, climate alarmism and one world religion rhetoric in conflict with traditional Christian doctrine, this is why – He’s following the dictates of the CIC.
Another mission of the CIC is to enforce carbon controls and taxation in the name of “climate change” with the purpose of reaching “net-zero” emissions. As we all know, net zero carbon will be impossible without a complete upheaval of our economy and industry, along with the deaths of billions of people in the process. It is an unattainable scenario, which is why it is perfect for the globalists. Humans are the enemy of the Earth, they claim, so we need to let the elites control our every action to ensure we don’t destroy the planet and ourselves, and the process will never end because there will always be carbon emissions to deal with.
Members of the CIC, including the head of Bank of America, openly suggest that they don’t actually need governments to cooperate in order to meet their goals. They say corporations can implement most social engineering without political aid. In other words, it is the every definition of “shadow government” – A massive corporate cabal that works in tandem to implement social changes without any oversight. As noted, we’ve already seen this with the spread of woke ideology by hundreds if not thousands of corporations working as a hive.
Is the CIC the final form of global government? No, probably not. But, it is the beginning of it; a government by corporations and money elites for corporations and money elites. It bypasses all political representation, all checks and balances and all voter participation. It is conglomerates and their partners making decisions for our society unilaterally and in a centralized fashion. And, since big business acts as if they are separate from government rather than partners with government, they can claim they are allowed to do whatever they please.
However, with corporations and globalists increasingly showing their true colors and acting as if they should be in charge, the public must hold them accountable as if they are part of government. And if they are found to be authoritarian and corrupt, they must be overthrown like any other political dictatorship.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Sentencing trial kicks off for Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz
The trial against Nikolas Cruz, the admitted gunman in the 2018 school massacre in Parkland, Fla., kicks off Monday — and jurors will decide whether he’ll be given the death penalty or rot in prison instead.
The 12-person jury in Fort Lauderdale will not weigh whether Cruz is guilty in the case, since the mass shooter in October copped to killing 17 people at his former school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, on Feb. 14, 2018.
Instead, the jury — which took nearly three months to select — will deliberate on whether Cruz should be sentenced to capital punishment or life in prison without parole. Only one juror needs to oppose the death penalty for Cruz to receive the lesser sentence of life behind bars.
Biden Administration Makes Two Big Changes to Help Illegal Immigrants
President Joe Biden’s administration has made two major changes to immigration policies by re-interpreting federal law.
Immigrants, many illegal, from certain countries are shielded from deportation and allowed to be legally employed if the secretary of homeland security decides their home country meets certain conditions.
The designation is known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Fifteen countries are currently designated, including Afghanistan, El Salvador, Somalia, Ukraine, and Venezuela. Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of immigrants from those countries are protected.
Up until July, those protected by TPS had to remain in the country unless they received approval to travel.
If TPS beneficiaries did leave the country and returned, they’d have the same status—illegal or legal—when they returned, based on language from Miscellaneous and Technical Immigration and Naturalization Amendments, even though they could remain temporarily protected by TPS.
But U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which handles the nation’s legal immigration system, has changed that policy.
Now, all beneficiaries that return will be “inspected and admitted,” a bureaucratic term that means one has entered the country legally. “This is true even if the TPS beneficiary was present without admission or parole when initially granted TPS,” USCIS said in an alert (pdf).
“That basically launders the fact that they came here illegally and that will put them on the path to a green card,” Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Epoch Times.
“This is an end run on U.S. immigration law, and Congress,” added Emilio Gonzalez, who directed USCIS during the George W. Bush administration. “It really is a left-handed way of legalizing people.”
USCIS said in its alert that the change stemmed from a court decision, guidance from the lawyers at its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and an evaluation of current and past policy. The agency did not respond to requests for comment.
Fox News superstar ‘flirting with 2024 presidential run’
He’s one of the most popular faces on the
Fox News Channel and the darling of conservatives nationwide.
Now, there’s speculation that top-rated broadcaster Tucker Carlson may run for president in 2024.
During a Friday speech in Des Moines, Iowa, Carlson “flirted with a presidential run in his speech to a large gathering of Christian conservative voters,” reports Yahoo News.
Gunman kills three at Greenwood Park Mall in US state of Indiana
The attacker’s identity and a motive for the attack, which took place in the shopping centre’s food court, were not immediately released.
A gunman has killed three people at a shopping centre in the US state of Indiana in the latest mass shooting in the country.
Two others were also wounded when the attacker, carrying a rifle along with several magazines of ammunition, opened fire at 6pm (22:00 GMT) on Sunday at the Greenwood Park Mall, which is located about 16km (10 miles) from the state capital, Indianapolis, authorities said.
Police Chief: 22-Year-Old Who Killed Mall Shooter Is ‘Hero of the Day’
Greenwood, Indiana, police chief Jim Ison described the 22-year-old who shot and killed a mall attacker as the “hero of the day.”
Reuters quoted Ison saying, “The real hero of the day is the citizen that was lawfully carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop the shooter almost as soon as he began.”
Hohmann: In A Technocracy, You Will Have No Rights, Only Privileges
A friend contacted me today and informed me that the luxury carmaker BMW has announced plans to charge car owners $18 a month for heated seats.
Viewed in a vacuum, this sounds like no big deal. Most folks can’t afford a BMW anyway. But it fits into a broader trend that I think captures the true meaning of the World Economic Forum’s slogan related to the Great Reset, that “You will own nothing, you will have no privacy, and you will be happy.”
When Klaus Schwab or some other globalist tells you that you will own nothing, they don’t necessarily mean that you will literally not own a thing and just rent everything from the billionaires.
If that happened, Amazon and Walmart would go out of business. And we all know that cannot be allowed to happen.
So while you may technically still own a house, a car, computers, appliances, a cellphone, etc., in the emerging digital economy, do you really own it? By that I mean, do you have full control over the usage of those products?
If you have a deed or a receipt that says “paid in full,” are there any more service fees required for the “privilege” of using that product? Even if there are no fees required, does any outside entity have the ability to monitor or shut down whatever device you own? How much of your personal user data is being sent back to the manufacturer, which then uses it to sell you other products, or sells your data to the government and other corporations?
Bill Gates’ Microsoft may have been the first to lure people into this trap, with his Windows Operating System and Office Suite. You buy it, they own it. If you don’t continuously update the software, feeding Microsoft data on your usage with each new update, you eventually lose it. It won’t work anymore, or at least not very efficiently. The same goes for your iPhone.
Now it is happening with vehicles, and not only with luxury add-ons such as heated seats. You buy it, they own the software to block certain features. You have to pay them to unlock those features. Or, at the very least, they require you to “register” the product to unlock certain features.” You may not need to pay them but by registering you still hand over your personal data for free, which they use to bolster profits.
And it’s about to get worse: By 2026 the federal government has mandated that all vehicle manufacturers include a remote “kill switch” in every vehicle that leaves their factories.
Now we’re talking about not just a seat that won’t heat, but a car that potentially won’t run. Then you really won’t own that car at all, because as soon as your social credit score dips below a certain level the government can just flip the kill switch and your car has been rendered inoperable.
This strategy will soon be extended to your house as well. Builders are building “smart houses” within “smart cities.” Trendy folks with more money than they know what to do with love these types of houses where everything is done for them. They don’t have to lift a finger. They walk into their smart house and bark out a certain command, or clap their hands, and the lights come on. The air-conditioning resets to the evening temperature they desire, and so on and so forth.
But even homes that don’t carry the label of a “smart home,” are wirelessly connected and have vast potential for technocratic mischief by third parties who don’t live in your home.
Why? Because 80 percent of U.S. homes already have the mechanism in place for the technocrats to intervene in your energy consumption. They’re called smart meters — little chips that interact with the power grid, monitoring not only how much power we’re using in real time but where exactly that power is drawing from. Every appliance made over the last 20 years or so contains a chip that is talking to the smart meter and telling the power company everything it needs to know about where your electric power usage is coming from.
If you have guests at your house, your water supplier can tell by how many times the toilet flushes and the dishwasher runs how many living souls are staying there and for how long.
Think of the possibilities.
In the so-called “green economy” being pushed by the WEF, governments will at some point implement quotas on energy usage. If you have exceeded your monthly allotment for water or electricity, citing the latest climate change regulations, they automatically shut off the spigot, or maybe they will shut off certain appliances that have been overused by an “irresponsible” citizen that routinely exceeds his assigned carbon footprint. I can hear it now: “Three strikes and you’re out! No more power for you! No more water!”
Oh, but don’t worry. Your friendly government regulator or his corporate partner will call you up and inform you that for wasteful folks like you, they have a special deal in which you can get some extra energy added to your monthly allotment if you pay the power company a fee to get it turned back on.
Same thing goes for that shiny new electric car the politicians and media are telling you that you need to buy. How many charges will you be allowed before you’ve outstripped your allotment? Tesla, in fact, just notified its customers in Texas and requested that they “limit the number of charges” on their vehicles due to the heat wave.
This is the future. In my assessment, it’s not too distant in the future.
We hear much talk in the mainstream media today about energy not being sufficiently available for the ultra-hot summers brought on by climate change, which is of course a lie — the real reason energy is lacking is because they have taken so many coal-fired power plants offline and are increasingly reliant on unreliable wind and solar.
When you hear this kind of chatter in the media, and you start to experience pre-planned blackouts, you should know that they are setting us up for the new resource-based digital economy of the Great Reset, where you will truly own nothing and learn to like it.
But don’t get fooled by that word “own.”
By “owning” nothing, what they are really telling us is that even the things we think we own are not under our control.
Even firearms are moving in this direction. Digitally connected “smart guns” are said to be the wave of the future and threaten to obliterate the Second Amendment.
This is why the globalist elites pushing the Great Reset want so desperately to usher in a new digital economy where everything is connected to the Internet, because it’s only through digitization that the technocrats will be able to truly monitor and control all facets of human activity. That’s what the Internet of Things is all about.
Way back in 1970, Zbigniew Brzezinski, predicted this day would come.
In his book, Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era, he stated:
“The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities. ”
Folks, we are there. In this world, government policies are increasingly driven by the private sector. Those in government just follow the money and the money is always in the latest, most invasive, artificial intelligence-driven technology.
Everything is coming under the increasing control of Big Tech, Big Banks, and Big Pharma in collusion with the firmly entrenched administrative state.
I can foresee a time when we may still own a lot of stuff on paper, but do we really own it? Or does it own us? And if you can’t learn to be happy living in such a society, if you complain too much and too loudly, there’s a special place set aside for such people. It’s called the gulag. This will not necessarily be a physical gulag, but it will be a place where all your privileges are taken away.
In a technocracy, you have no rights, only privileges.
So for the non-compliant, there will be no car, no house, no digital money in the bank, no cellphone in the pocket. You become a non person. Now that’s a place we need to learn to like. Not the technocrats’ one-world digital order of total information surveillance, but our own private world of off-grid survival. Now is the time to start practicing how to survive in the non-digital, off-grid world.
Aldous Huxley, author of the 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World, also foresaw the coming technocracy.
Huxley wrote:
“The perfect dictatorship would have the appearance of a democracy, but would basically be a prison without walls in which the prisoners would not even dream of escaping. It would essentially be a system of slavery where, through consumption and entertainment, the slaves would love their servitudes.”
So now you have it. The true meaning of “you will own nothing and be happy.”
Don’t be deceived. Be smart. Prepare for the inevitable.
77-Page Report Details ‘Systemic’ Law Enforcement Failures in Uvalde School Mass Shooting
A 77-page report released by the Texas state House of Representatives said there were systemic failures on behalf of the some 400 enforcement officers who responded to the May 24 mass shooting at a school in Uvalde.
“There is no one to whom we can attribute malice or ill motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and egregious poor decision making,” the report said, noting “shortcomings and failures of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District [CISD] and of various agencies and officers of law enforcement” and “an overall lackadaisical approach.”
Those claims appear to coincide with statements made by top Texas officials days after the shootings. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said on May 27 that it was the “wrong decision” not to engage with the shooter, Salvador Ramos.
Meanwhile, surveillance footage from Robb Elementary School released on July 12 shows officers waiting around more than 45 minutes before several officers approached the classroom where Ramos had entered. The officers didn’t enter. It took more than 75 minutes for law enforcement to kill Ramos, 18, after he entered the building.
The report said that law enforcement failed to quickly confront the suspect and instead retreated to safety.
“In this crisis, no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command post,” it states. “Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach the Uvalde CISD chief of police or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance.”
Some individual officers acted without instruction to try to reach the shooter and might have been able to do so if they had more backup, according to the paper.
“Given the information known about victims who survived through the time of the breach and who later died on the way to the hospital, it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue,” the report reads.
A force of 376 law enforcement officers responded to the mass shooting, according to the House panel, which said that there wasn’t clear leadership as they responded.
Texas lawmakers on July 17 noted that Ramos was born in Fargo, North Dakota, before he was moved to Texas when he was a child. Ramos also may have been sexually abused as a child, the report states.
Friends of the suspect, including a girlfriend, told investigators that Ramos became increasingly depressed during the COVID-19 pandemic. At one point, Ramos told the girlfriend that he wouldn’t live past age 18.
Ramos in late 2021 also allegedly posted a video of himself holding a dead cat inside a bag. Footage also showed the future school shooter dry firing BB guns at people from a car, according to the report.
In the wake of the shooting, which left 19 students and two teachers dead, congressional lawmakers used the tragedy to pass a gun control bill that included funding to bolster red flag laws and other measures. The bill was signed into law on June 25 by President Joe Biden.
The lieutenant who was acting police chief on duty the day of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has been placed on administrative leave following a report that found systemic failures by law enforcement.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin confirmed that Lt. Mariano Pargas had been placed on administrative leave in a statement published on July 17.
McLaughlin noted that the city has a responsibility to evaluate how the Uvalde Police Department responded to the shooting incident, including Pargas’s role as acting chief.
“This administrative leave is to investigate whether Lt. Pargas was responsible for taking command on May 24th, what specific actions Lt. Pargas took to establish that command, and whether it was even feasible given all the agencies involved and other possible policy violations,” McLaughlin wrote in the statement.
The statement did not provide details as to whether Pargas was placed on paid or unpaid administrative leave.
The announcement regarding his administrative leave came just hours after the Texas state House of Representatives earlier on July 17 published a 77-page report noting that there were failures across the board by some of the roughly 400 law enforcement officers who responded to the May 24 mass shooting, including Pargas.
“There is no one to whom we can attribute malice or ill motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and egregious poor decision making,” the report said.
It also pointed to “shortcomings and failures of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District [CISD] and of various agencies and officers of law enforcement” and “an overall lackadaisical approach.”
Woman Hospitalized With Accidental Overdose After Picking up $1 Bill in Tennessee
A Kentucky woman said she ended up in the hospital with an accidental overdose after she picked up a $1 bill on the ground.
“My body went completely numb, I could barely talk and I could barely breathe,” Renee Parsons wrote on Facebook, claiming she accidentally overdosed.
Parsons’s family was traveling to a Dallas-area conference when they stopped at a McDonald’s in Bellevue, Tennessee. Renee then spotted the dollar bill on the ground and attempted to collect it, her husband, Justin Parsons, told local media.
“I see a dollar bill on the ground. Thinking absolutely nothing of it—I picked it up,” Renee wrote on Facebook. She said that within minutes, her body went numb, and she could barely move or breathe.
“It’s almost like a burning sensation, if you will, that starts here at your shoulders, and then it just goes down because it’s almost like it’s numbing your entire body,” added Renee, who said she lost consciousness.
Justin told local station News 2 that “she looked like she was dying” and was “certainly was unconscious and very pale.”
After she was taken to a nearby hospital, staff treated her for an accidental drug overdose before she was released after four hours, according to reports.
The couple told local outlets that her toxicology report did not test positive for synthetic drugs, but they said they’re confident the $1 bill contained fentanyl or another powerful drug.
However, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said that they did not find traces of synthetic drugs on the dollar bill. But they destroyed it anyway, according to local media.
Dr. Rebecca Donald, an assistant professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at Vanderbilt University, told WSMV-TV that it was not likely fentanyl.
“It is much more likely for her to have a reaction if she had inadvertently rubbed her nose and exposed that drug to some of the blood vessels in her nose or licked her fingers or rubbed her eyes,” Donald said.
Dr. David Edwards, another Vanderbilt doctor, told News19 that simply touching most drugs cannot cause an overdose.
“You know ingesting something is a different story than touching something. Your skin is a really good barrier and will likely protect you and you won’t just randomly overdose from just any medicine you are touching for a short period of time,” Edwards said.
In June, the Perry County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning after fentanyl-laced cash was found at two different gas stations in Tennessee.
San Francisco’s New DA Goes on Firing Spree After Voters Recall Predecessor
The new district attorney in San Francisco fired at least 15 employees from the prosecutor’s office after her left-wing predecessor Chesa Boudin was recalled last month.
“Today, I made difficult, but important changes to my management team and staff that will help advance my vision to restore a sense of safety in San Francisco by holding serious and repeat offenders accountable and implementing smart criminal justice reforms,” DA Brooke Jenkins said in a statement about the firings.
Jenkins added in a statement that she “promised the public that I would restore accountability and consequences to the criminal justice system while advancing smart reforms responsibly”
“My new management team … with decades of prosecutorial experience at the highest levels, will help our office deliver on that promise. I have full faith and confidence that these women will promote and protect public safety while delivering justice in all of its various forms,” she said.
Among those who were fired include former San Francisco Managing Attorney Arcelia Hurtado, who headed the city’s Innocence Commission. Hurtado expressed her disappointment on Twitter, invoking her ethnicity and sexual orientation.
“After over 2 years of tireless and devoted service to the City and Cty of SF, I was unceremoniously fired without cause via phone by the Mayor’s appointed DA,” she wrote. “I am the highest-ranking Latina/LGBTQ member of the management team at that office. I will continue the fight 4justice.”
Other staffers to lose their jobs at the district attorney’s office included Rachel Marshall and Simin Shamji, reported KRON-4.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said it’s “astonishing” that mainstream media is not holding Dr. Anthony Fauci accountable for his remarks on Wednesday that COVID-19 vaccines don’t protect “overly well” against the CCP virus.
“One of the things that’s clear from the data [is] that … vaccines—because of the high degree of transmissibility of this virus—don’t protect overly well, as it were, against infection,” Fauci said.
“It’s astonishing that mainstream media allows [Fauci] to blindly make that statement without any effort to hold him accountable for the costly national policies and the lockdowns that were utterly built upon his initial assertion that the vaccines would prevent transmission and end the pandemic,” Kennedy told The Epoch Times.
The lockdowns initially were imposed to flatten the curve in two weeks. Kennedy asserts that they “were contrary to every previous advisory for pandemic countermeasures by the CDC and the WHO.”
He believes that “the house of cards should be falling” and that the media should be putting pressure on the NIH.
“The national media, which was fooled by all these lies, should be surrounding NIH with pitchforks and torches. And yet it’s like water on a duck,” he said.
Kennedy is the author of the best-selling book “The Real Anthony Fauci,” an encyclopedic work that encompasses Big Pharma’s meddling in public health and people’s liberties.
Fauci Issues Warning on Monkeypox in US
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to the White House, signaled that more resources will be dedicated to monkeypox and said that the federal government needs to take it “seriously,” as cases have risen across the world.
The latest U.S. data show the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tracked at least 1,814 probable or confirmed cases across the country as of July 15.
“This is something we definitely need to take seriously. We don’t know the scope and the potential of it yet, but we have to act like it will have the capability of spreading much more widely than it’s spreading right now,” Fauci told CNN. He didn’t elaborate.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it will hold a meeting this week to address a recent increase in monkeypox cases around the world and signaled it may declare a global health emergency over the virus.
“Whenever you have the emergence of something like this, you are always probably looking at what might be—might be, we don’t know—the tip of the iceberg, so that’s the reason why we’ve got to get the testing out there in a much, much more vigorous way,” Fauci said on July 16.
Gay Marriage SCOTUS Ruling Is ‘Clearly Wrong’: Cruz
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has said that the Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage was “clearly wrong.”
“Obergefell, like Roe versus Wade, ignored two centuries of our nation’s history,” Cruz told podcast Verdict+. “In Obergefell, the court said, ‘no, we know better than you guys do,’ and now every state must sanction and permit gay marriage. I think that decision was clearly wrong when it was decided. It was the court overreaching,”
Cruz was referring to Obergefell v. Hodges (pdf), the 2015 Supreme Court decision in which the 5–4 majority ruled that the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee the fundamental right to marry to same-sex couples.
The Texas senator takes the position that policies on issues such as gay marriage and abortion should be left to state legislatures to shape.
“Marriage was always an issue that was left to the states. We saw states before Obergefell that were moving—some states were moving to allow gay marriage, other states were moving to allow civil partnerships. There were different standards that the states were adopting,” Cruz said.
“And had the court not rolled Obergefell, the democratic process would continue to operate: that if you believe that gay marriage was a good idea, the way the Constitution is set up for you to advance that position is to convince your fellow citizens. And if you succeeded in convincing your fellow citizens, then your state would change the laws to reflect those views,” the senator continued.
The lawmaker’s comments come weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling from the highest court that legalized abortion across the nation, in its June decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (pdf).
Cruz, in reference to the concern of court overreach with the Obergefell and Roe decisions, shadowed Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinion in Dobbs that the highest court should reconsider cases such as Obergefell that are associated with the doctrine of substantive due process.
In his concurring opinion to the majority ruling, Thomas said that “‘substantive due process’ is an oxymoron that lack[s] any basis in the Constitution” and that “the Due Process Clause does not secure any substantive rights.”
For this reason, Thomas said that “in future cases, [the justices] should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” and that “because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”
Cruz’s comments are not the first time the senator has expressed opposition to the highest’s court’s ruling on same-sex marriage.
Watch: Mother Nearly Killed by Tekle Sundberg Rages at BLM Protesters
Arabella Yarbrough, the mother of two nearly killed by Andrew “Tekle” Sundberg before Minneapolis Police snipers gunned him down last week, was filmed raging at Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters after the group hailed him as another victim of police brutality.
Last Wednesday, 20-year-old Andrew “Tekle” Sundberg allegedly fired into Yarbrough’s apartment where she lived with her two children. He later fired upon her again as police escorted her and her family safely out of the apartment complex. The incident led to a six-hour standoff, during which Tekle refused to speak with negotiators even after his father, Mark Sundberg, pleaded with him to break radio silence. The episode came to a tragic end when Minneapolis police snipers ended Tekle’s life.
Tekle’s parents, who adopted him from Ethiopia at the age of four, have claimed their son had a mental breakdown and feel police could have done more to de-escalate the situation. BLM activists have since championed his cause, and a march was held in his honor on Saturday near the apartment complex where police shot him. Yarbrough, however, feels that protesters have made a false martyr out of Tekle and raged at those present on Saturday for their lack of empathy for her situation.
“Just let it go. Grief in silence,” Yarbrough raged at the protesters, some of whom shouted back at her while telling her to “shut up.”
“This is not a George Floyd situation. George Floyd was unarmed,” she added. “That man was armed. George Floyd was not armed. Breonna Taylor was not armed. Amir Locke he was armed and he had his own guns but they came into his home while he is licensed to carry and killed him. He did not … fire. This man intentionally tried to kill us.”
Police Chief: 22-Year-Old Who Killed Mall Shooter Is ‘Hero of the Day’
Greenwood, Indiana, police chief Jim Ison described the 22-year-old who shot and killed a mall attacker as the “hero of the day.”
Reuters quoted Ison saying, “The real hero of the day is the citizen that was lawfully carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop the shooter almost as soon as he began.”
Breitbart News reported that a suspect opened fire in the Greenwood Park Mall food court around 6 p.m.
The attacker was able to kill three people before the 22-year-old armed citizen intervened, shooting the attacker dead.
The Associated Press reports that the attacker came into the mall with “a rifle and several magazines of ammunition” and began shooting.
Chief Ison indicated the 22-year-old who killed the attacker was from Bartholomew County and “was legally carrying a firearm.”
On July 14, 2022, Breitbart News pointed to a Crime Prevention Research Study showing 60+ times that concealed carry permit holders stopped mass shooters between December 17, 1991, and May 25, 2022.
Soros-Linked Group Wins $172M Contract from Biden to Help Border Crossers Avoid Deportation
A left-wing group linked to billionaire George Soros has won a nearly $172 million federal contract from President Joe Biden’s administration to help young border crossers avoid deportation, a report revealed this week.
Fox News’s Adam Shaw and Joe Schoffstall reported on Thursday that the Vera Institute of Justice, with financial ties to Soros, has won a federal contract for $171.7 million that will provide attorneys to Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) to avoid deportation from the United States.
The federal contract could end up showering the Vera Institute of Justice with $1 billion in taxpayer funding, Fox News reported:
The arrangement lasts until March 2023 but can reach as high as $983 million if renewed until March 2027, the agreement shows. This appears to be the largest federal contract Vera has secured for immigration-related services for any single year dating back to the mid-2000s. [Emphasis added]
…
The Vera Insitute, meanwhile, is propelled by taxpayer-backed government grants and contracts like the one it secured in March. Between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, $152 million of the group’s $191 million in revenue came from government sources, its most recent financial audit shows. [Emphasis added]
The institute seeks to end “mass incarceration” by cutting down on the number of jails, prisons and detention centers in the United States. The group has also signaled support for defunding police. [Emphasis added]
As Breitbart News reported in 2018, the Vera Institute of Justice was previously awarded $310 million by the Obama administration to help UACs avoid deportation.
The group also takes taxpayer money via sanctuary jurisdictions.
In 2019, for instance, the Vera Institute of Justice worked with the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to create a program dedicated to helping illegal aliens avoid deportation specifically by providing them with free legal services.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Biden Acts as Tens of Thousands of Rail Labor Union Workers Vote to Strike
Issues executive order in a move to prevent major disruption of train shipments
President Joe Biden has signed an executive order creating an emergency board to investigate failed contract talks between the nation’s oldest rail workers union and a dozen carriers threatening to shut down rail shipments on July 15.
“I have been notified by the National Mediation Board that in its judgment these disputes threaten substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree that would deprive a section of the country of essential transportation services,” the president wrote in the executive order on July 15.
On July 12, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) members, representing more than 57,000 rail workers, approved the national strike by a 99.5 percent margin.
In a statement, BLET national president Dennis Pierce said the strike could begin “in the coming days” to “secure a contract worthy” of consideration.
“Contrary to the self-serving propaganda being spread by the rail carriers, the BLET membership owes no one an apology for voting as they did. I, too, voted with the majority and I applaud them for doing it,” Pierce said.
How to Prepare for Coming Crises
Food, energy and economic crises are being fabricated according to a predetermined plan, just as the COVID pandemic plan was foretold during Event 201. In a recent Children’s Health Defense “Good Morning CHD” interview, I discuss how to prepare for these imminent crises
The Rockefeller Foundation has been a prominent player in putting out the “deep state” cabal’s plans. The Foundation was a sponsor of Event 201, during which participants practiced everything that later came to pass, and they’ve also published at least three reports that describe various parts of The Great Reset
In 2010, the Rockefeller Foundation published a report titled “Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development,” in which they laid out a “Lockstep” scenario — a coordinated global response to a lethal pandemic. The scenario described in this document matches many of the details of our recent past
In April 2020, the Rockefeller Foundation released a “National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan,” which laid out a strategic framework of a permanent surveillance and social control structure that severely limits personal liberty and freedom of choice
The Rockefeller Foundation’s July 2020 report, “Reset the Table: Meeting the Moment to Transform the U.S. Food System,” declares food shortages and famine a reality and describes how they intend to seize control of the food supply and supply chain under the guise of “equity,” “fairness” and “environmental protection”
Pennsylvania District Restricts Transgender Students to Sports Aligned With Sex at Birth
A Pennsylvania school district approved a policy this week that will minimize how transgender student-athletes may participate in interscholastic athletics.
Board members of the Hempfield School District in Lancaster County approved the measure by a vote of 6–3 on Tuesday. The policy goes into effect immediately and will require all athletes to play team sports aligned with their sex at birth.
“Separate athletic teams on the basis of sex preserve fairness, provide increased opportunity for girls, and are safer,” the policy (pdf) reads. “As such, the district provides separate interscholastic athletic teams on the basis of sex.”
However, the measure notes two exceptions, as “reasonable accommodations” will be given to girls who wish to participate in the boy’s sports team, but only if there’s “no female team for that sport during the school year.”
Similarly, the school district will make accommodations available to biological males wishing to play on the girls’ team if there is no other viable option, although a doctor’s note certifying the student has yet to start male puberty must be shown to the school’s athletic director.
On the day of the vote, Hempfield school board member Jim Maurer, who opposes the new policy, said the ruling would make the school district more vulnerable to legal challenges that could jeopardize its federal funding through Title IX, which prevents sex-based discrimination.
“We’re at risk for further lawsuits in the future which would take away dollars that should be available for our students for educational needs,” Maurer told Lancaster Online.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Education proposed an overhaul of anti-sex-discrimination rules, reinterpreting the term “sex” as something that doesn’t have to have a biological basis.
The Biden administration says the changes would be in accordance with President Joe Biden’s March 2021 executive order, which vowed to guarantee an educational environment “free from discrimination based on sex, including sexual orientation or gender identity.” Its proposed amendments would reverse many changes made by the Trump administration.
The debate around similar policies nationwide intensified after University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male who publicly identifies as a female, became the first transgender NCAA champion in women’s Division I history after winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle earlier this year. The win drew significant backlash from female swimmers, activists, and other athletes, including Thomas’s teammates.
Nearly 30 states have recently introduced measures that would bar transgender student-athletes from competing on sports teams not consistent with their sex at birth, according to Freedom for All Americans, which tracks such legislation.
Ice Cream Company Recalls Product Over Deadly Listeria Outbreak
A Florida-based ice cream company has recalled its products after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said its products were linked to a deadly listeria monocytogenes bacterial outbreak.
In an announcement on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) website, Big Olaf Creamery, based in Sarasota, said it is voluntarily recalling “all flavors and all lots of Big Olaf brand ice cream products.”
“Big Olaf is cooperating fully with regulatory authorities to successfully return all suspected products and has requested retailers to stop sales and dispose of product,” the company said. “Consumers who have purchased Big Olaf Ice Cream Products should not consume these products and dispose of them immediately. Any areas, containers, and serving utensils that may have touched the ice cream should be cleaned.”
The company said there was a potential the products could be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes, which could cause serious and deadly infections in people with weakened immune systems, including in young children and frail or elderly people.
Listeria infection can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women, the company noted. In most healthy individuals, the infection causes short-term symptoms, such as high fever, headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.
“Based on epidemiological information shared by the CDC and State Officials, Big Olaf may be a potential source of illness in an ongoing Listeria monocytogenes outbreak,” the company announcement reads.
The company announced it was “informed of an outbreak”by Florida health authorities on July 1, after which it “immediately ceased production and distribution of the ice cream product.”
“As of Friday, July 8th, 2022, the CDC reported that a total of 23 people were infected with the outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes from 10 states,” the company added.
“Eighteen people interviewed reported eating ice cream, 10 reported eating Big Olaf Creamery brand ice cream or eating at locations that might have been supplied by Big Olaf Creamery. This is an ongoing investigation and other ice cream brands not related to Big Olaf were mentioned as a possible source as well.”
Popular Vegan Snack Recalled After Nearly 100 People Hospitalized, More Get Sick
A vegan snack was recalled after hundreds of people fell ill and around 100 people were hospitalized, according to the company and federal health officials.
Daily Harvest said that it initiated a voluntary recall of its “French Lentil & Leek Crumbles” frozen product, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The agency said that it is investigating complaints of “gastrointestinal illness and abnormal liver function” related to the product.
In a July 14 update, the FDA said that 96 people have been hospitalized to date in about half of all U.S. states. About 277 illnesses have been reported.
Daily Harvest said it initiated a voluntary recall of the product in June after consumers complained of illness. Some reported hospitalizations and elevated liver enzymes, according to reports online.
An Oklahoma woman filed a lawsuit against the company, saying that she had her gallbladder removed because of one of the company’s products.
“I ate the crumbles twice, unfortunately. Both times, within 48 hours, I was in the emergency room,” Carol Ready told the Los Angeles Times.
Daily Harvest issued a statement in June in response to the lawsuit, saying, “Everyone who has been affected deserves an answer, and we are committed to making this right.”
Daily Harvest said that it has not yet determined the cause of the illnesses. On June 27, the New York-based firm said it is testing for different “toxins known as mycotoxins, including aflatoxins.”
“The first round of testing on the most common have come back negative but we continue to cast a wider net to ensure we are not missing anything,” the statement continued.
In the July 14 update, meanwhile, the FDA said that “consumers should not eat, sell, or serve recalled products” and people “who may still have the recalled product in their freezers should throw it away.”
The product was sold via online sales and in two retail locations: the Daily Harvest store in Chicago and a “pop-up” store in Los Angeles.
How Two US Ports Devastated a Global Supply Chain
More than 80% of global merchandise trade by volume is carried by ships, which means disruptions to ports can lead to major economic disruption
The Container Port Performance Index ranks 370 ports that had a minimum of 20 ports of call within the 12-month study period
Coming in second to last and last were Long Beach and Los Angeles ports in California, with index values of -281.841 and -348.928, respectively
At top performing ports like King Abdullah Port in Saudi Arabia, 97 containers were moved per hour, compared to just 26 at the California ports, highlighting the stark differences in efficiency
The weaknesses at U.S. ports are contributing to high inflation, which is exacerbated by supply chain issues that make it more expensive to move goods
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Just Don’t Drive, Bro: Tesla Tells Texans to Avoid Charging Their Cars During Peak Times
Elon Musk’s Tesla recently warned customers in Texas to avoid charging their electric cars during peak times in an attempt to prevent overtaxing the state’s power grid amidst an ongoing heatwave. An alert sent to Tesla cars in the state warns owners not to charge their vehicles during the afternoon and well into the evening.
The Verge reports that Tesla is asking its customers in Texas to avoid charging their electric vehicles during peak times in an effort to avoid putting added stress on Texas’ power grid as the state faces an ongoing heatwave. Texas’ grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), recently called on residents to conserve electricity during the heatwave as systems are pushed to extreme conditions.
Tesla sent an alert to customers’ in-car screens stating that they should avoid charging their vehicles from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. due to the heatwave. The alert reads: “A heat wave is expected to impact the grid in Texas over the next few days. The grid operator recommends to avoid charging during peak hours between 3pm and 8pm, if possible, to help statewide efforts to manage demand.”
ERCOT has actually asked Texans to avoid running major appliances from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The aim is to reduce the load on the power grid to avoid blackouts. The current triple-digit temperatures are placing pressure on electrical systems as customers are more likely to use air conditioners and other high-power appliance to keep cool.
ERCOT also warned power consumers in Texas to conserve energy earlier this month stating that there will not be enough wind power to operate the power grid reliably at peak demand. Texas is the number one producer of wind energy in the U.S. but power from windmills is becoming unreliable due to the current heatwave.
Get Zucked: Facebook Tells Managers to Identify Employees for Layoffs
Facebook (now known as Meta) has reportedly told managers to identify employees for layoffs, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently saying the company is experiencing “one of the worst downturns” in recent history.
Facebook employees are facing layoffs, as Vice President for Remote Presence Maher Saba recently told managers to identify people on their team who “need support,” as well as “move to exit” poor performers “who are unable to get on track,” according to a report by the Information.
The verbiage suggests that employees who get singled out for needing support will have a chance to redeem themselves, but that staffers who don’t make progress will ultimately get canned.
“The reaction from folks that have seen this [memo] is that this will be used to create a bunch [of] ‘performance improvement plans’ that will result in mass layoffs,” a person familiar with the matter told the Washington Post.
HEALTH
Even a Drink a Day Might Raise Brain Risks
Even moderate drinking may be related to higher iron levels in the brain — a potentially risky situation for memory and thinking skills, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among nearly 21,000 middle-aged and older adults, those who drank as little as a few beers a week showed more iron accumulation in their brains than non-drinkers.
And iron buildup in certain brain areas correlated with weaker scores on tests of mental abilities like reasoning, planning and problem-solving.
It’s not yet clear what it all could mean. But the findings add to evidence that there may be no “safe” level of drinking when it comes to brain health.
“Even small amounts of alcohol, within current alcohol guidelines, could harm your brain,” said lead researcher Dr. Anya Topiwala of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
The brain requires a certain level of iron to function normally, but the aging brain can accumulate an excess. And that excess iron has been linked to cognitive decline — a slow deterioration in memory and thinking skills that can lead to dementia.
Excess brain iron has also been found in people with alcohol dependence, according to Topiwala’s team. But whether moderate drinkers might harbor more brain iron than non-drinkers has been unknown.
Vitamin D Combats Viral Infections and Boosts Immune System
GrassrootsHealth conducted a review of an observational study involving 212 patients who had COVID-19, identifying a correlation between vitamin D levels and disease severity. Those with the mildest disease had the highest vitamin D levels, and vice versa
A second study found those with a vitamin D level between 20 ng/mL and 30 ng/mL had a sevenfold higher risk of death than those with a level above 30 ng/mL. Having a level below 20 ng/mL was associated with a 12 times higher risk of death, compared to having a level above 30 ng/mLThe color of your skin has correlations to your vitamin D level, and we’re also seeing racial disparities in COVID-19. In Detroit, Michigan, where blacks account for 14% of the population, they account for 40% of COVID-19 deaths
It’s important for people with darker skin to realize that the more melanin you have, the more sun exposure you require to make sufficient amounts of vitamin D, and many may need to take a supplement
According to the research done by GrassrootsHealth’s panel of 48 vitamin D researchers, 40 ng/mL is the lower edge of optimal, with 60 ng/mL to 80 ng/mL being ideal for health and disease prevention
—> Power Mall Products of Interest: Vitamin D – 2000IU (60 CT) & Vitamin D3 (4000 IU) (100 CT)
Eight Signs You Might Be B12 Deficient
Eight signs that you might be B12 deficient include fatigue, anemia, nausea, digestive issues, weakness, skin infections, mental confusion and nerve problems
Areas of your body that function optimally when B12 levels are adequate reveal how vital this vitamin really is, especially because it’s responsible for producing red blood cells and keeping your nervous system healthy
You may not realize how all-encompassing and debilitating a vitamin B12 deficiency can be until symptoms like fatigue, nausea, vision problems and others morph into more serious disorders and diseases
Like most vitamins, B12 is not manufactured by your body, so it must come from another source — namely food and supplements
Worms called C. elegans, like humans, can’t produce B12, but this discovery helped scientists find that a deficiency may increase the risk of infection by two potentially deadly pathogens
Several areas of the body can be adversely affected if you have low B12 levels, which helps explain why jaundiced skin, dementia, anemia and osteoporosis can all stem from this problem
—> Power Mall Products of Interest: Vitamin B12 (1 fl oz)
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
ESG ‘Climate Cartel’ Finally Connected To Soaring Fuel Prices
ESG is a policy sledgehammer designed to kill oil, gas and coal production throughout the world. It is the cornerstone of the WEF’s Great Reset and the UN’s Sustainable Development, aka Technocracy. As traditional sources of energy are curtailed, the predictable outcome of shortages is price increases. Finally, a prominent figure in the political arena has made this connection and is speaking out in public forums. Is anyone listening?
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is calling for investigation and is asking pointed questions: Have ESG-promoting companies bonded together to form a cartel in order to destroy competition for their own products? Have they broken anti-trust laws?
This is certainly not a mountain of resistance, but if Sen. Cotton continues to speak up, others might catch the vision that America is being systematically deconstructed by the green mob.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Top 10 Bartering Items + Skills Every Prepper Needs
If economic times get even harder or SHTF and we find ourselves living in a collapsed society, we’ll have to rely on the items and skills we already have.
Grocery stores may be shuttered. Supply chains will likely be cut off. Roads could be unmanageable. Threats will pop up on every corner.
What we have and what we can do will become the key to our survival.
You’ll want to be as self-sufficient as possible – and NOT depend on anyone else. And you may need to barter your way to survival.
Bartering has proven a helpful way to stay alive throughout history, even in grim situations.
- Vices
There’s a reason we’re mentioning this first. If there’s one thing history has shown us, it’s that vices do not lose their value. People don’t just stop drinking coffee or alcohol or smoking tobacco because times get tough. In fact, these vice items become more valuable in times of crisis—especially alcohol.
- Honey
Local, raw honey can be used in many ways. Not only can it be applied as a sweetener, but it also works medicinally. Honey is a natural antibiotic and helps with allergies. It can also be used in lieu of Neosporin.
- Salt
When thinking of items to barter, many people forget about salt. This is a huge mistake.
It’s valuable because of its multitude of uses: it seasons food, preserves meat and fish, cleans stains, controls fires, eases sore throats, and heals wounds.
- Canning Lids
Canning is an excellent way to preserve food and ensure none goes to waste—and to have a valuable item to barter. But most canning lids cannot be used more than once. This will put them in high demand. There are canning lids on the market that you can reuse. Stock up on these now so you can barter them later—and ensure you have lids to continually preserve food.
- Cleaning and Sanitation Supplies
We all experienced firsthand the great toilet paper fiasco of 2020. It taught us that people will do desperate things for toilet paper.
When it goes on sale, stock up.
While you’re at it, stock up on cleaning supplies that will be in demand, such as bleach, baking soda, and vinegar.
- Seeds
Even now, we are seeing seeds growing in demand and popularity. They are a valuable commodity because they ensure you can grow and eat your own food. Start creating a survival seed bank today. Make sure the seeds are non-GMO and that you’ve labeled them properly. Should you need to, you could barter seeds or the veggies you harvest.
- Toiletries
Toiletries, such as soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, toothpaste, and tampons, are essential—and should times get tough, they will be highly sought-after. Stock up today on these items and any other essential toiletries (especially those with a long shelf life).
- Medication
Basic over-the-counter medications will be in high demand. Imagine getting a headache or an upset stomach and not having medicine. That’s what will happen if you haven’t stocked up, supply chains go down, and you can’t walk into your local pharmacy to get what you need. You would be willing to barter with a neighbor to obtain essential medication, wouldn’t you?
- Building Supplies
If you can’t go to a grocery store, chances are you won’t be able to go to a hardware store either. This means any fixing or building will be dependent on the building supplies you already own.
Stock up on all the building supplies you may need like nails, screws, and hammers. Chances are, if you need them, someone else will, too. If you stock up on extras now, you’ll be able to barter them later.
- Food
Scout readers know we always recommend having a long-term emergency food pantry.
However, if things go south for an extended period of time, your emergency food supply will eventually run out. As such, food will become a major bartering item. Just like during the Great Depression, people will be willing to trade almost anything for food.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Court Blocks Biden Admin From Punishing Unvaccinated Air Force Members
Temporary restraining order on vaccine mandate
A federal district court in Ohio has temporarily blocked the Biden administration from enforcing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on thousands of U.S. Air Force service members who remain unvaccinated after having opposed the shot on religious grounds but have had their religious exemption applications denied.
U.S. District Court Judge Matthew McFarland, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump in late 2019, issued a temporary restraining order filed on Thursday preventing the Biden administration from taking any action for at least 14 days against any Air Force member who opted not to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
The judge’s ruling also grants the case “class status,” which means the temporary restraining order will grant relief to all members of the Air Force who submitted a religious accommodation request from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate from Sept. 1, 2021, to the present, and were confirmed via the Air Force Chaplains as having a sincerely held religious belief, but had their requests denied or not yet acted upon. Plaintiffs had contended that such a class would include over 12,000 airmen.
The action stems from a case filed in February 2022 challenging the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Plaintiffs comprise 18 active-duty members of the Air Force serving at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio; Hurlburt Field in Florida; Randolph Air Force Base in Texas; and Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia, plus all similarly affected members.
“The court has already granted a preliminary injunction to our 18 original plaintiffs,” an attorney in the case, Tom Bruns of Siri & Glimstad law firm, told The Epoch Times. “The court has now granted a class certification—and that’s kind of the historic moment—Air Force-wide, service-wide, it covers every member of the Air Force. And now he’s saying, ‘Why shouldn’t I grant the preliminary injunction to all those folks?’”
McFarland wrote in his order (pdf) in granting the class status: “They face separation from the Air Force and other disciplinary measures. A single injunction would provide relief to the entire class. Indeed, the main purpose of a [lawsuit class] is to provide relief through a single injunction or declaratory judgment. Because Defendants have uniformly maintained a policy of overriding Airmen’s religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine, they have acted ‘on grounds that apply generally to the class.’
“Moreover, the class definition requires that a Chaplain certify that the airman’s religious beliefs are sincerely held. Finally, a single injunction would provide the proposed class with the relief they seek from the harm they stand to suffer.”
McFarland gave Air Force officials until July 21 to file a response “identifying why this Court should not grant a class-wide preliminary injunction.” He also gave plaintiffs an opportunity to then file a response by July 25.
According to data from the Air Force, as of July 11, over 6,800 service members have been denied religious accommodation requests. Only 104 have had their applications approved. Meanwhile, 834 members have been “administratively separated” by the force. According to the figures, 97.1 percent of the Air Force has been fully vaccinated, and 0.1 percent has been partially vaccinated.
Indian scientists develop peptides that arrest coronavirus entry into human cells
Indian scientists have designed a new class of synthetic peptides that can potentially block the entry of SARS-CoV-2 virus into human cells.
The peptides have the capability to clump the COVID-19 virions (virus particles) together, thus reducing their ability to infect the cell.
The development comes at a time when periodic outbreaks of COVID-19 are being reported in several parts of the country, raising fears of re-imposition of some old restrictions observed during the two consecutive lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.
At a time when India’s vaccination programme is all set to touch the 200 crore mark, this novel approach promises an alternative mechanism to render viruses like SARS-CoV-2 inactive, providing a new class of peptides as antivirals.
Besides, the rapid emergence of new strains of coronavirus has the potential to diminish the protection offered by COVID-19 vaccines, calling for new approaches to prevent infection by the virus.
In view of the need to boost immune protection, the Modi government has announced free booster shots for everyone above the age of 18 for 75 days. A wide section of this category has already received two doses of the vaccine.
Twitter Reinstates Doctor It Suspended for Sharing Study That Shows Pfizer Vaccine Impacts Semen
Twitter reinstated a doctor it recently suspended for sharing a study that showed Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine impacts semen.
Dr. Andrew Bostom was informed late July 14 that access to his account was restored.
“After further review, we have unsuspended your account as it does not appear to be in violation of the Twitter Rules,” the message from Twitter stated.
Bostom told The Epoch Times in an email that his account never should have been suspended.
“Twitter’s arbitrary COVID-19 Lysenkoism must cease, permanently, if it is to be considered a true free speech platform for the sharing of information, and ideas,” he said.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.
Natural Immunity From Omicron Strong Against Virus Subvariants: Study
The protection afforded by surviving COVID-19 was strong against the latest virus subvariants, including the one currently dominant in the United States, scientists in Qatar found.
People who were infected with Omicron, a variant of SARS-CoV-2, had 76.1 percent protection against symptomatic reinfection from BA.4 and BA.5 and 80 percent shielding from any reinfection, regardless of symptoms, according to the preprint study.
SARS-CoV-2, also known as the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, causes COVID-19.
Omicron became the dominant virus strain in many countries in late 2021. Since then, a number of subvariants have taken hold. BA.5 is the strain currently dominant in the United States.
While protection from an Omicron infection provided robust shielding against reinfection, those who contracted a pre-Omicron strain had little protection, according to the Qatari scientists, who were led by Dr. Laith Abu-Raddad with Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar.
Pre-Omicron infection provided just 15.1 percent effectiveness against symptomatic BA.4 and BA.5 reinfection and just 28 percent infection against any reinfection.
The scientists analyzed data from national COVID-19 databases.
Infections before Omicron were those that occurred before Dec. 19, 2021, when the variant wave started in Qatar.
Pathologist Speaks Out About COVID Jab Effects
In the wake of the COVID jab rollout and additional boosters, a number of health conditions are on the rise, including cancer, most notably cancers of the uterus, endometrial cancers, and very aggressive blood and brain cancers
Cancer has been on the rise for decades, thanks to dietary factors, but the COVID jabs appear to dramatically accelerate the disease process. Many doctors report cancer patients with stable disease, and those who have been in remission for years, will suddenly and rapidly develop Stage 4 disease
A military whistleblower has come forward with data from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) database showing dramatic increases in medical visits for cancers and other conditions, post-jab
For neurological side effects of the shot, four remedies that can be very helpful are fluvoxamine (an antidepressant that blocks cytokine production in neural tissues), pharmaceutical grade methylene blue (improves mitochondrial respiration and repair), near-infrared light (triggers production of melatonin in your mitochondria) and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (boosts mitochondrial function, decreases inflammation and much more)
The COVID jabs also downregulate toll-like receptors 7 and 8, which allows latent viruses such as herpes EBV4 — Epstein-Barr, aka, mononucleosis — to flourish that would otherwise have been kept in check
COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Effectiveness Quickly Wanes: Study
The effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine booster doses dropped well under 50 percent after four months against subvariants of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines provided just 51 percent protection against emergency department visits, urgent care encounters, and hospitalizations related to COVID-19 during the time BA.2 and BA.2.12.1, subvariants of the Omicron virus variant, were predominant in the United States, CDC researchers found.
Both vaccines are administered in two-dose primary series.
After 150-plus days, the effectiveness dropped to just 12 percent.
A first booster upped the protection to 56 percent, but the effectiveness went down to 26 percent after four months, according to the study, which drew numbers from a network of hospitals funded by the CDC across 10 states called the VISION Network.
The subvariant was predominant between late March and mid-June.
Pfizer and Moderna did not respond to requests for comment.
The effectiveness was lower against BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 than against BA.1, which was displaced by BA.2.
Against BA.1, the vaccines provided 44 percent protection against the healthcare visits linked to COVID-19 initially and 39 percent after 150 days. A first booster increased the protection to 84 percent, and the protection barely decreased for patients 50 years or older after four months. But for people aged 18 to 49, the protection plummeted to 29 percent after 120 days.
Underlining the waning effectiveness against severe illness, the majority of patients admitted to the hospitals between December 2021 and June 2022 had received at least two doses of the vaccines.
Further, the percentage of unvaccinated patients dropped during the later period, going from 41.6 percent to 28.6 percent (hospitalized patients) and from 41.4 percent to 31 percent (emergency department and urgent care patients), researchers found.
The researchers, some of whom work for the CDC, theorized that the protection—known as natural immunity—many unvaccinated people enjoy from having had COVID-19 could be a factor in the drop in effectiveness of the vaccines, even though adults with documented prior infection were excluded from the study.
“If unvaccinated persons were more likely to have experienced recent infection, and infection-induced immunity provides some protection against re-infection, this could result in lower VE observed during the BA.2/BA.2.12.1 period,” they wrote. VE stands for vaccine effectiveness.
“Although adults with documented past SARS-CoV-2 infection were excluded, infections are likely to be significantly underascertained because of lack of testing or increased at-home testing. In addition, although time since receipt of the second or third vaccine dose was stratified by time intervals, on average the time since vaccination was longer during the BA.2/BA.2.12.1 period,” they added.
SARS-CoV-2, also known as the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, causes COVID-19.
The CDC published the research in its quasi-journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Most articles it publishes are not peer-reviewed, and the articles are shaped to reflect CDC policy.
Top U.S. officials are considering authorizing second booster doses, or fourth doses, for all Americans. They’re currently only available to Americans aged 50 and older.
A second booster increased protection for that age group from 32 percent to 66 percent, according to the new study. But those who received a fourth dose were only followed for a median of 27 days. Other research has indicated that the protection from a fourth dose quickly wanes as well.
New COVID-19 Variant ‘Sensationalized’ by Fauci, White House: Sen. Paul
After White House adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra issued warnings about a new COVID-19 subvariant, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said they are not providing key facts about the latest strain.
“How come the flu vaccine changes every year and they’re not willing to change this vaccine?” Paul told Fox News on Tuesday. “Now, you might have me with an argument. I’ll listen to you if you tell me, ‘We’ve got a new vaccine that actually has something to do with the current virus,’” he said.
It came after Fauci, who has given hundreds of media interviews since the start of the pandemic, told CNN this week that the Omicron subvariant BA.5 is concerning due to its high transmissibility. People infected in the first COVID-19 waves “really don’t have a lot of good protection” against the latest subvariant, Fauci also said at a White House briefing several days ago.
But Paul, himself a doctor, told Fox that Omicron “was about 90 percent less likely to put you in the hospital than the first variant,” saying that Americans should “discount” what both Fauci and Becerra are saying about the latest subvariant.
“So if no one’s telling you any information, how can you make any judgment other than the emotionalism and the sensationalism of the government?” he asked.
Fauci himself was infected with COVID-19 several weeks ago and confirmed he took Pfizer drug Paxlovid before his symptoms recurred, although he’s received two booster shots.
In a recent interview, Fauci conceded that most COVID-19 vaccines don’t protect “overly well” against the latest variant. However, he used that statement to claim that they are effective at limiting the most severe symptoms.
“At my age, being vaccinated and boosted, even though it didn’t protect me against infection, I feel confident that it made a major role in protecting me from progressing to severe disease,” said Fauci, who is 81 and has worked in various capacities in the federal government since the late 1960s.
In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Fauci suggested that Americans ages 5 to 50 should be allowed to get a second booster shot.
The federal government, he argued, “need[s] to allow people who are under 50 to get their second booster shot, since it may have been months since many of them got their first booster.”
“If I got my third shot [in 2021], it is very likely the immunity is waning,” Fauci proclaimed.
CANCEL CULTURE
Musk Fires Back at Twitter’s ‘Warp Speed’ Trial Request
Elon Musk has fired back at Twitter’s request for an expedited trial in a lawsuit that seeks to force the Tesla CEO to follow through with his bid to buy the social media giant for $44 billion.
The tech billionaire’s legal team alleged in a July 15 filing (pdf) in a Delaware court that Twitter is engaged in an “unjustifiable request to rush” the trial. A ruling that’s unfavorable to Musk could legally require him to execute his pledge to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, or about 36 percent above current market value.
“Twitter’s sudden request for warp speed after two months of foot-dragging and obfuscation is its latest tactic to shroud the truth about spam accounts long enough to railroad Defendants into closing,” Musk’s lawyers wrote in the filing, opposing Twitter’s motion for an expedited four-day trial in September.
Lawyers representing Musk said that the question of bots or automated accounts on Twitter is “fundamental” to the case and that more time is needed for discovery.
Musk’s defense rests on the premise that the number of automated accounts, or bots, on Twitter is far greater than the 5 percent that the company has disclosed, representing a “material adverse effect” that justifies his backing out of the deal.
While Musk’s team wants the trial postponed to February at the earliest, Twitter has based its request for a speedier trial on the fact that the buyout agreement Musk signed with the company’s board expires on Oct. 24.
But Musk’s lawyers reject that reasoning, arguing in their filing that Twitter’s bid for “extreme expedition rests on the false premise” that the termination date is Oct. 24, “glossing over that this date is automatically stayed if either party files litigation.”
By filing its complaint, Twitter “has rendered its supposed need for a September trial moot,” they said.
PET NEWS
A seasoned animal rescuer felt compelled to pull over after spotting a motionless cat on the road. His kindness likely saved the terrified stray, who was not dead, but suffered from a broken leg. Since being nursed back to health, the cat has found a family to call her own.
Theoklitos, 51, who goes by “Takis,” owns and runs Takis Shelter near Ierapetra, Crete, Greece. Once when he was driving out of the city toward the shelter, he saw a young cat in the middle of the road.
“I thought the cat was dead, but when I passed, I said to myself, ‘Stop … go back to check,’” Takis told The Epoch Times. “When I was one meter away, the cat opened her eyes and started to move. I tried to catch her … she got wild.”
In video footage of Takis’s encounter, shared on Facebook, the terrified stray runs away on her three good legs, but doesn’t get far. Unwilling to give up, Takis makes an attempt to catch her again, but she hisses, bites, and scratches him in fear. He then returns to his car for a pair of thick leather gloves.
“I followed the cat and fought really hard … caught her and put her in the car,” Takis recalled. “It was a fight between me and the cat, in a good way, because I was helping her. But she didn’t understand what I was doing; she was in shock.”
During the rescue effort, another car came speeding toward the scene. Takis slowed down the driver, reasoning that, if he didn’t, the cat would probably lose her life.
The feral, aggressive cat even tried to slice Takis’s hand, but he still didn’t give up on her.
Finally, Takis carried the cat by her front leg to his car, and drove to the vet, who addressed her broken leg. He then took the cat to his shelter, named her Athena, and placed her in a comfortable bedroom by herself.
He recalled: “At first, she was very scared. But after I spent time with her in the bedroom, and then she was together with another cat, slowly she started to trust me … she understood that we can be friends.”
Athena also accepted Takis’s touch, and before long, he was petting her freely. After a six-to eight-week recuperation, Athena felt calm and comfortable and was ready to be adopted.
It didn’t take long, roughly five months after being rescued from the road, for Athena to get a new adoptive family in the Netherlands, with whom she has become a bonafide cuddle-bug.
But her ordeal was not yet over. After the broken leg was healed, it was discovered that Athena had loose kneecaps, was still in pain, and needed an expensive surgery. Athena’s new owner, Jessica Bos, raised a massive 3,815 euros (approx. US$4,030) toward the surgery, thanks to generous donors, many of whom had followed her story from the beginning.
According to Jessica’s last update, Athena was operated on and then put under a rest period for the next 40 days.
Just like Athena, Takis has seen hundreds of happy endings since opening his shelter eight years ago. He gave up a 20-year career as a DJ and nightclub owner to help animals after growing frustrated by the number of dogs abandoned in his hometown. To date, he has taken in around 2,000 dogs and cats.
“After visiting the rubbish area in my city, I found some dogs with big problems,” Takis explained. “I helped them, but I ended up giving all my life, my money, and everything to the animals. I sold everything for the dogs.”
Due to his actions, his own family brought doctors to check up on him, to see if he was ok or not.
Since devoting his life to the shelter, Takis faced numerous challenges, such as living in a metal container home with little to eat, yet making sure his dogs and cats always had food.
However, things changed for Takis after a major newspaper in England wrote an article about him. Soon, a lot of people began helping him. Since then, the shelter has grown and he’s received support from all over the world.
Takis opened his shelter with 70 dogs in 2013. Today, he houses 430, who run free on-site. He still lives among the animals, and concedes, “It’s noisy,” but he’s always on hand to break up the occasional fight.
Takis is fighting, too, but his fight is for better lives for the dogs and cats of Greece.
“I live in one of the worst areas in Greece,” he said. “The people here, they abandon their animals and we are suffering. For eight years I’m fighting to change the culture of the city … but it’s still a big problem here.”
Takis does what he does because he loves it, despite the sacrifices, and claims he will “never change” his life.
“As we say, ‘No pain, no gain,’” he said. “I gave up so much, helping so many dogs. But when I see them all happy, when I see them all healthy, when I see so many dogs and cats adopted, I feel so beautiful in my soul.”
Pregnant Cat Seeking Help Brings 2 Older Kittens to Stranger’s Door, Gives Birth to 5 More
A pregnant stray cat with two older kittens got lucky when she landed on the back porch of a helpful stranger. Seeing the tiny family pawing at her door one morning, the cat lover called for help, allowing the stray to give birth in the comfort of a new home.
Sarah Kelly, founder of Murphy’s Law Animal Rescue (MLAR) in Greensboro, North Carolina, told The Epoch Times that the trio was seeking food, shelter, and attention.
“Mama Ally showed up on a doorstep, locally, about two months ago with her two older kittens,” Kelly said. “They seemed to be a few months old, with mama not appearing too much older herself.”
The homeowner contacted Sparkle Cat Rescue of Burlington, who works closely with MLAR. Rescuers trapped the “hungry, but relatively friendly and otherwise healthy” cat family, placed the kittens in foster care, and reached out to MLAR to help with Ally.
“We knew there was a chance she was pregnant, since she was clearly not spayed and a stray, with her other kittens being old enough that she could have been pregnant again,” said Kelly, whose team soon confirmed that Ally was likely in her third trimester.
Ally became an official MLAR foster cat and gave birth to five healthy babies on March 5, in the comfort of her foster home. Describing Ally as “the most genuinely affectionate, sweet, and adoring mama,” Kelly said that the kitty’s foster mom, Monica, named the litter after Dr. Seuss characters: Cindy Lou, Hattie, Mayzie, Sam, and Sir Snipps.
“You can’t not smile when thinking of Dr. Seuss, and you can’t not smile seeing these sweet babies!” Kelly added.
Ally was an attentive mom to her new litter from the outset, balancing feeding and protecting them with enough of her “me time” to replenish her energy. The adorable kitty quickly earmarked her favorite spots as her new foster mom’s lap or the crook of the arm.
“She has the sweetest heart,” Kelly said. “To have cared for her older kittens for so long, and so well, outside as a stray, then seeking out help, she has proven what a heart of gold she has.”
As her kittens grow and become more mobile, Ally has learned to keep a keen eye on them. The litter of five, once weaned and vetted at around 8 weeks of age, will be ready for adoption. Ally’s two older kittens were pre-adopted together through Sparkle Cat Rescue. “They were a bonded pair, and this is exactly what was hoped for,” said Kelly.
Once spayed, super-mom Ally will also be looking for her forever home.
Murphy’s Law Animal Rescue was established in 2020 with the mission to rescue orphaned and abandoned animals, spread awareness of the importance of spaying and neutering, and promote fostering and adoption from local animal shelters. Waylaid by the pandemic, they opened for their first intake in 2021.
GOOD NEWS
Man Refused $50 Million Offer to Buy His Island, Now It’s the World’s Smallest National Park
Brendon Grimshaw, a former newspaper editor who was tired of the rat race, traded his success for doing something completely different and bought an island, dedicating the rest of his life to restoring its ecological habitat. Refusing a $50 million offer to sell the island, his wish was to make the piece of land accessible to all and not just wealthy millionaires. Now, this precious Seychelles location has turned into the world’s smallest national park.
“The Brendon Grimshaw story is very beautiful,” filmmaker Joseph Johnson Camí told The Epoch Times. “It should be shared at this moment, I think, because in the world right now we need some optimism.”
In 2007, Camí, who was born in North America, was reading a newspaper in Spain when he came across the story of Grimshaw and his Moyenne Island. That story really fascinated him.
“This was a man who had dedicated his whole life to restoring the ecology of an island; to connecting with it,” Camí said. “In so many different ways, was facing an interesting situation where he couldn’t even secure the future of that island.”
Grimshaw, from Dewsbury, England, had purchased the island in 1962 for 8,000 pounds (approx. US$9,826) going on to live there until his death at 87. He had previously worked as a newspaper editor in Tanzania, but due to the politics of that period, people like him were transitioning out of such roles in Africa.
“He decided to retire and do something different—radically different,” explained Camí, who went on to form a close friendship with Grimshaw. “And that’s what he ended up doing.”
In 1973, Grimshaw moved to Moyenne Island, a part of the Seychelle islands which sit in the vast Indian ocean.
When he first arrived on the island, there was no infrastructure, and Grimshaw had to bring water in. He and his closest friend, Renee Lafortune, spent the next 40 years transforming the island and restoring its habitat by planting over 16,000 trees, palms, and shrubs, building a 4.8-kilometer nature path. They even bought and bred 111 free-roaming giant Aldabra tortoises, and thousands of wild birds.
They also developed a rainwater catchment system, and by the final years of Grimshaw’s life, Moyenne had electricity.
“I think there are two phases in Brendon’s life on that island,” Camí said. “One is the one that we capture at the end of his life. And the other is, what it was like to actually live on that island before everything that he had done was in place.”
According to Camí, Grimshaw had to make do with what he had, which was a pretty intense experience at first.
“But later on, he was well taken care of, he had people who supported him, people who visited the island, people who brought him food,” Camí explained. “He was so active. He just was out there on that island every single day, and it’s what kept him alive.”
In 2005, Grimshaw was offered a whopping $50 million by a Saudi prince for Moyenne Island, but he refused.
In 2007, the future of the island seemed uncertain, as Grimshaw had no children to inherit this precious land, and hotel developers began lining up to build luxury hotels after he died. However, Grimshaw’s only wish was that the island would be made accessible to everyone and not just wealthy millionaires.
When Camí read his story and found out about this situation, he wanted to use his filmmaking skills to help. He saw this project as a medium to change the fate of the island.
“I was coming from an industry that basically was making horrible movies,” he said. “I wanted to take part in something that I thought was important. So I set out to make this project with a group of Catalan crew to see if we could use filmmaking as a way to influence reality.”
At first, Grimshaw didn’t think that a film or a story could be used to change his island’s fate. It took a conversation with Camí to open his eyes to the possibility.
“I explained that in the same way newspapers used to have the power to change reality when he was a newspaper editor, the film played the same role in our society now,” Camí said. “It was a very interesting thing for him and me to experience that together.”
“We essentially spent a month in Seychelles, going back and forth, to visit Brendon and to film with him and to film his island,” Camí added. “We gave ourselves some time to just experience the place.”
Through the making of the film, “A Grain of Sand,” Camí found his love for filmmaking, just as Grimshaw found his life for nature on Moyenne Island.
The crew also decided that they didn’t want to make the production a stressful one, as they wanted to model something that would not exploit any of them through the process and would just be used to explore more ideas using the medium itself.
Two Texas police officers were aided by a good Samaritan when a stolen car led to a chase in the Fort Worth suburb of White Settlement.
A motorist stepped up and gave one of the officers a lift while chasing down the suspect, which ended in his arrest.
On June 18, a license plate camera located a stolen car, and the two officers responded. Dashcam footage shows both policemen intercepting a male suspect in a red Ford Focus. The man got out, and led the officers on a foot chase for about a half mile through the neighborhood.
But with Texas temperatures soaring into the high 90s, one officer, Corporal Jon Porter, fell behind; his partner, Officer Samuel Brown, continued the pursuit.
A bystander in his car then stepped up and lent Porter a lift. Bodycam footage shows the motorist offering a ride, the officer accepting, and him getting into the back seat.
Within 20 seconds, they caught up with Officer Brown, who — despite having just one arm — had taken the suspect to the ground and was placing him in handcuffs.
“I look over my shoulder trying to see who is coming up on me, and then I see Porter jump out of the car,” Officer Brown later told Fox 4. “It was pretty funny.”
The suspect, Joshua Taylor Brown, 31, was charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, possessing a stolen credit card, and evading arrest.
Police Chief Chris Cook later sought to identify the good Samaritan who helped the officers. Turning to social media, he found former security guard Jimmy Davis.
Davis had seen the suspect run past his house and decided to intervene.
“I told my wife, ‘I’m gonna get in the car and follow,’” he said. “My intention was to stop the guy from going any further. I did what I had to do, and I would do it again, too, if I had to.”
Chief Cook acknowledged Davis’s actions and presented him with a token of appreciation. “It’s not every day that someone jumps in and lends a helping hand like this,” said Chief Cook.
A rookie just over four months into his tenure, Officer Brown recalled seeing Davis and Porter pull up during the arrest, “I wasn’t even thinking about it much until after we got back here, and I’m like, ‘Did you really get into someone else’s car?’”
Previously, in Southern California, Officer Brown was told that police work was out of his reach.
He told Fox 4, “It’s a boring story. I was born with one arm.”
Now, in Texas, he’s in his element.
“I was excited the whole time,” he recalled. “I live for this kind of stuff.”
ICYMI
Secret Service Deleted Jan. 6 Text Messages: Inspector General
U.S. Secret Service text messages sent on the day the U.S. Capitol was breached were deleted, a watchdog said this week.
A number of texts from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, “were erased as part of a device-replacement program,” Joseph Cuffari, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, told lawmakers in a July 13 letter was obtained by The Epoch Times.
The department, or DHS, is the Secret Service’s parent agency.
The deletions were done after Cuffari’s office (OIG) requested the records as part of its evaluation of the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to Cufarri, a Trump appointee.
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said in a statement that “the insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false.”
The service in January 2021 started resetting mobile phones to factory settings as part of a pre-planned system migration, according to Guglielmi. In the process, data on some phones was lost.
“DHS OIG requested electronic communications for the first time on Feb. 26, 2021, after the migration was well under way. The Secret Service notified DHS OIG of the loss of certain phones’ data, but confirmed to OIG that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the migration,” the spokesman said.
Cuffari said that personnel from across DHS told inspectors from his office that they could not provide records directly to OIG without a review by government attorneys. That has led to a weeks-long delay in the watchdog obtaining records “and created confusion over whether all records had been produced,” he said.
Guglielmi challenged that allegation, saying the Secret Service has been fully cooperating.
Although Reffitt was not charged with or convicted of terrorism, he deserves the upward departure in sentence because his Jan. 6 crime “was calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion,” Nestler wrote.
Nestler said Reffitt deserves the enhanced sentence for his “central role in leading a mob that attacked the United States Capitol while our elected representatives met in a solemn Joint Session of Congress—including his intention to use his gun and police-style flexicuffs to forcibly drag legislators out of the building and take over Congress….”
Reffitt’s wife, Nicole Reffitt, told The Epoch Times it was “hard to process” the sentence recommendation, which she said is a danger to more than just her family.
“To think the government wants my husband and the father of my children held for such a time for committing no acts of violence, or property damage,” Nicole Reffitt said. “This is where we are, a DOJ that wants to scare and intimidate other Jan 6ers into taking a plea, or even pushing them to the point of no return, horrified what could happen to their families, their careers, all because they dared to protest what seemed to be a fraudulent election and a corrupt government.
“…The government has scared my family and other Jan. 6 families, and they continue to do so with this sentencing recommendation,” she said. “True tyranny is alive and thriving in the United States of America and it is not just towards my family. We are all in danger.”
Prosecutors Seek 15-Year Prison Term for Man Convicted of Jan. 6 Crimes
Federal prosecutors in Washington D.C. want a Texas man convicted in March of carrying a firearm in furtherance of civil disorder at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to serve 15 years in prison, more than suggested in federal sentencing guidelines.
Guy Wesley Reffitt, 49, of Wylie, Texas, was convicted on all five counts by a jury that spent two hours deliberating his fate on March 8. Other charges included obstruction of an official proceeding, entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a firearm, obstructing officers during a civil disorder, and obstruction of justice.
In a 58-page sentencing memorandum filed in U.S. District Court on July 15, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler argued that Reffitt should receive a harsher prison sentence under a sentencing guideline related to terrorism.
Reffitt will be sentenced Aug. 1 in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.
Former Trump Adviser Peter Navarro Rejects DOJ Plea Offer
Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has declined a plea offer to plead guilty to a contempt of Congress charge, the lead federal prosecutor in the case told a judge on Friday.
Navarro had pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress on June 17 after he refused to cooperate with the House January 6 committee’s probe into the breach of the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.
He cited executive privilege due to his former position at the White House under the Trump administration. But Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, rejected his claims of executive privilege, and the committee voted in late March to advance criminal charges against Navarro.
A grand jury indicted Navarro on June 3 on two counts: one for his refusal to produce the documents the committee requested, and the other for his refusal to comply with the committee’s subpoena to show up and testify. Each count carries a maximum of one-year imprisonment.
At a status hearing on July 15, federal prosecutor Elizabeth Aloi told U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta that the Justice Department had offered to let Navarro plead guilty to a single count instead of the two he was indicted with.
Prosecutors also said the deal would mean they would not have sought more than the minimum 30-day jail time.
But the deal would have required Navarro to “comply with the January 6 committee subpoena to the satisfaction of the Justice Department,” Aloi said.
Navarro attended the hearing with two defense attorneys. He had been representing himself before he was indicted on the criminal charges.
“It’s a complicated constitutional case involving separation of powers,” John Irving, one of the defense attorneys, told reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing.
“It involves not only the President of the United States asserting his executive privilege, but [also] over 50 years of DOJ opinions that make it clear that top presidential aides are able to assert absolute immunity and not testify before Congress. Not only that, but also the Justice Department has longstanding policies about not prosecuting someone criminally for this kind of situation,” he added. “So I wonder what changed.”
John Rowley, another defense attorney, told reporters: “This is the first time in our nation’s 250-year history that a senior adviser to a president has been criminally charged for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena.
“In essence, this is a dispute between the Office of the President and Congress, and Mr. Navarro was placed on the horn of the dilemma—either to follow the executive direction or risk prosecution.”
Trump’s attorneys have previously argued that former White House officials shouldn’t comply with congressional subpoenas because the requested information is protected by Trump’s executive privilege.
Navarro’s trial is set for Nov. 17.
Ivana Trump’s Cause of Death Revealed
The cause of death of Ivana Trump, the mother of three of former President Donald Trump’s adult children, has been determined by the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME).
The OCME on Friday said Ivana Trump died after an accidental fall that resulted in blunt impact injuries to the torso, Fox News reported.
“Having released this determination, OCME will not comment further on the investigation,” an OCME spokesperson said in a statement obtained by the outlet.
Authorities said that police in New York City responded to a call of a person in cardiac arrest on East 64th Street on the Upper East Side at 12:40 p.m. ET. According to ABC7, the person was identified as Ivana Trump.
Ivana Trump, 73, who died Thursday, was remembered by the Trump family as “an incredible woman—a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend.”
“Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled from communism and embraced this country,” the Trump family statement continued.
Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Secret Service Over Text Messages
The House Jan. 6 Committee on July 15 issued a subpoena to the Secret Service after it was informed about some text messages that were erased under the agency.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chair of the committee, said in a letter (pdf) that it is seeking “relevant text messages, as well as any after action reports that have been issued in any and all divisions of the [U.S. Secret Service] pertaining or relating in any way to the events of January 6, 2021.”
Thompson’s subpoena letter is addressed to the director of the Secret Service, James Murray.
The Jan. 6 subpoena comes after the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Joseph Cuffari, told lawmakers in a letter on July 13 that “many” text messages by the Secret Service sent on Jan. 5–6, 2021 “were erased as part of a device-replacement program.” The DHS oversees the Secret Service.
The messages were deleted after Cuffari’s office, the DHS Office of the Inspector General (DHS OIG), requested records from the Secret Service as part of its probe into events surrounding the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol, the July 13 letter said.
It was unclear what messages the DHS OIG believed had been deleted or what evidence they might contain.
In a statement issued on July 14, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi saying that any suggestion that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages after it was asked to produce the records is false.
Guglielmi said that the agency has been fully cooperative with the inspector general’s probe. He said that the Secret Service “began to reset its mobile phones to factory settings as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration” but in the process, “data resident on some phones was lost.”
Guglielmi noted that the DHS OIG was notified about the data loss and “that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the migration.”
Thompson said in this subpoena letter on July 15 that the Jan. 6 Committee is aware of the July 14 statement.
“A ‘routine’ cleaning of files will require a process, so we want to see what that process is,” Thompson said on July 15.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a Jan. 6 Committee member, told reporters on July 15 that the panel was keen to retrieve the allegedly deleted text messages.
The Jan. 6 Committee originally sought electronic records in January. In March, the committee officially requested all communications received or sent from DHS employees on Jan. 5–7, 2021.
FBI Launched Inquiry Into NIH Funding of Wuhan Lab, Emails Show
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched an inquiry into the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding of bat research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, newly released emails show.
The interest from the top U.S. intelligence agency adds to the international scrutiny on the Wuhan facility, which houses one of China’s highest-level biosecurity labs that has been considered a possible source of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In preparation for our call on Tuesday, Erik [Stemmy] (cc’d) has provided responses to your initial questions below (also attached),” wrote Ashley Sanders, an investigation officer at the NIH’s division of program integriy, in an email (pdf) dated May 22, 2020 with the subject “Grant Questions – FBI Inquiry,” and directed to FBI agent David Miller.
The email was obtained by government transparency watchdog Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, which asked for records of communications, contracts, and agreements with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
The scope of the inquiry is unclear because the rest of the email correspondence, five pages in total, are entirely redacted. But the name of the email attachment “SF 424 AI110964-06 (received date 11/05/2018),” corresponds to the NIH grant “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”
The project in question is headed by Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance, which then funnels money to the lab in Wuhan. From 2014 to 2019, the New York nonprofit received six yearly grants totaling $3,748,715 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the NIH to fund the project, which was expected to end in 2026.
The FBI inquiry had focused on at least two of the grants, in 2014 and 2019 respectively, the email subject line suggests.
The 2014 grant aimed to “understand what factors increase the risk of the next CoV emerging in people by studying CoV diversity in a critical zoonotic reservoir (bats), at sites of high risk for emergence (wildlife markets) in an emerging disease hotspot (China),” according to the project description. Specifically, the researchers would assess the coronavirus spillover potential, develop predictive models of bat coronavirus emergence risk, and use virus infection experiments as well as “reverse genetics” to test the virus’s transmission between species.
Biden Hits Back After Saudi Official Makes Claim on Meeting With Crown Prince
President Joe Biden early Sunday disputed a claim that he didn’t accuse Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of orchestrating the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in private meetings.
After arriving home in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Biden was asked by a reporter about a comment from the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir.
“The Saudi foreign minister said he didn’t hear you accuse the crown prince of Khashoggi’s murder. Is he telling the truth?” the reporter asked the president.
“No,” Biden said quickly. “Why don’t you talk about something that matters?” the president then told journalists, as another one asked him about bumping fists with the Saudi crown prince, the de facto leader of the Muslim kingdom, who is sometimes referred to as “MBS.”
Biden added, “I’m happy to talk about something that matters.”
Days before that, at a news conference, Biden claimed that he spoke about the death of Khashoggi several years ago. After his death in 2018, a number of mainstream media outlets often featured the death as front-page news, and those outlets also attempted to tie his killing to the Trump administration. Federal agencies have suspected the Saudi government was involved in his death.
“With respect to the murder of Khashoggi, I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time and what I think about it now,” Biden said during a press conference on July 15. “He [Crown Prince Salman] basically said that he was not personally responsible for it. I indicated that he was, and he said he was not personally responsible for it and he took action against those who were responsible,” Biden also said.
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