WORLD NEWS
Putin Open to Finland and Sweden’s NATO Membership
As Sweden and Finland move ahead with their plans to join NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that he has no issues with the decisions, provided there is no military threat to his nation.
“As to enlargement, Russia has no problem with these states—none. And so in this sense there is no immediate threat to Russia from an expansion (of NATO) to include these countries,” Putin told the leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-dominated military alliance of former Soviet states, Reuters reported.
“But the expansion of military infrastructure into this territory would certainly provoke our response … What that (response) will be—we will see what threats are created for us.” CSTO includes nations like Armenia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Putin’s unusually calm response to Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership is in stark contrast to his previous comments against the expansion of the alliance. In fact, he has cited NATO’s eastward expansion as one of the main reasons for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to Putin, some assurances were provided as the Soviet Union collapsed that NATO will not expand eastwards toward Moscow, something which the alliance and the United States dispute. In addition to NATO’s “endless expansion policy,” the military alliance was also blamed by Putin for reaching far beyond its Euro-Atlantic remit.
Meanwhile, Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, commented on Monday that Finland and Sweden’s attempts to join NATO were “another grave mistake” that will have “far-reaching consequences.” Both nations should not think that Russia will simply put up with their choices, he added.
“And in what form we will ensure our security after the change in this general NATO configuration is a separate question. It will depend on what, in practical terms, will be the result of the expected accession of Finland and Sweden to the alliance. There are no illusions that we will put up with it,” Ryabkov said, according to CNBC.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that he opposes Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
Iraq: Sandstorm Halts Flights, Shuts Down Schools, Hospitalizes 4,000
A massive sandstorm blew through Iraq on Monday, forcing daily life to shut down in Baghdad and causing breathing difficulties in at least 4,000 people who sought medical treatment in hospitals nationwide, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“At least 4,000 people were admitted to hospital needing treatment for respiratory difficulties,” Iraq’s Health Ministry spokesman, Seif al-Badr, told AFP on May 16.
AFP correspondents across Iraq reported thick layers of orange dust covering buildings, and entering some, across the country’s cities on Monday, including central Baghdad (the national capital), southern Najaf (a Shiite shrine city), and northern Sulaimaniyah (in the Kurdistan Region).
Iraq’s federal government ordered all state-run offices and schools across Baghdad to shutter their doors on May 16. Baghdad International Airport closed its airspace and grounded all flights on Monday due to low visibility in the area, which was reportedly “just a few hundred feet,” according to Reuters. Outside of Baghdad, six additional provinces ordered their public businesses to shut down on Monday as well.
Iraq’s May 16 sandstorm was its eighth such storm since mid-April. A previous dust storm in Iraq on May 5 caused one death and hospitalized at least 5,000 people seeking treatment for respiratory illness.
Iraq’s Meteorological Authority said in early May the country was “under a North African depression, known locally as ‘khamaseen.’” This regular weather event is an established natural phenomenon that affects sections of Western Asia in the spring, including Iraq. The period of low air pressure typically lasts for about 50 consecutive days. The word khamaseen means “fifties” in Arabic and refers to the wind storm’s average duration.
“The Middle East has always been battered by dust and sandstorms, but they have become more frequent and intense in recent years,” AFP noted on Monday.
“The trend has been associated with overuse of river water, more dams, overgrazing and deforestation,” according to the news agency.
“In April, an environment ministry official warned that Iraq could face ‘272 days of dust’ a year over the next two decades,” AFP noted.
Iraq’s Environment Ministry said at the time the effects of yearly khamaseens could be cushioned by “increasing vegetation cover and creating forests that act as windbreaks.”
Fine dust particles can cause various health complications including asthma and cardiovascular ailments. Strong winds associated with dust storms often stir up bacteria, viruses, pesticides, and other toxins that may already be present in an affected environment, causing harm to those who inhale the substances.
President Joe Biden Sends U.S. Troops Back into Somalia
The Biden administration announced Monday it is restarting a “persistent” American troop presence in Somalia, citing the threat from al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab and reversing the Trump administration’s withdrawal of American troops from the region.
“The president has authorized the Department of Defense to return a small, persistent U.S. military presence to Somalia,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said at a press briefing Monday
He said the decision was based on a request from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin with advice from senior military commanders and was also based on concern for the safety of U.S. troops who have “incurred additional risk” by deploying in and out of Somalia on an “episodic” basis for the past 16 months.
The U.S. military presence in Somalia will have an estimated cap of 500 troops, according to a U.S. official during a background briefing, the New York Post reported.
“We are proud, first and foremost, to be supporting the Somalis’ own efforts to rebuild their own state and we are working closely with other international partners,” the official said.
Kirby said the U.S. troops will continue their missions to train, advise, and assist Somali partner forces to “disrupt, degrade, and monitor” al-Shabaab.
“Our forces are not now, or will they be directly engaged in combat operations,” he said. “The purpose is to enable a more effective fight against al-Shabaab by local forces.”
He said al-Shabaab has increased its strength and poses a “heightened threat,” but denied there was any specific threat or tipping point that prompted the decision now.
“The secretary’s view was that that episodic engagement model was inefficient and increasingly unsustainable,” he said, adding that by deploying in and out of Somalia, forces lost critical situation awareness needed to detect and disrupt an attack.
Kirby said he did not have additional details on the troop makeup of the persistent presence or when it would begin.
According to the Post, the Biden administration is justifying the persistent presence of U.S. troops in Somalia with the Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed by Congress after 9/11, which authorized the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to fight al-Qaeda.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
We Desperately Need More Accountability From NIH | Opinion
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has received more scrutiny of its activities over the past two years than perhaps ever before. Yet its leadership consistently fails or refuses to answer the call for transparency. This time, NIH leadership is fighting to keep secret hundreds of millions of dollars in private royalty payments pocketed by the agency and its bench of scientists. Americans deserve some sunlight on what appears to be a potentially enormous conflict of interest.
The NIH distributes roughly $32 billion in research grants to 56,000 recipients in the medical community each year. Those taxpayer dollars lend quite a bit of clout. But there’s money traveling in the other direction, too, when NIH-backed work is utilized by private companies. We know precious little about it, but over just five sample years, it amounted to a whopping $134 million, spread over 22,000 payments to nearly 1,700 scientists. Each and every one is a potential conflict of interest.
An obscure 1980 statute sponsored by Senators Bob Dole (R-KS) and Birch Bayh (D-IN) updated U.S. patent law, allowing for these government scientists to be credited as “co-inventors” on medical products and qualifying them for royalty payments. The payments last had a public look in 2005, when the Associated Press found some 918 scientists receiving $9 million. That group included current and recent leadership such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, his deputy Clifford Lane and previous NIH Director Francis Collins.
Michael Flynn Files $50 Million Claim Against Federal Government in Preview of Potential Lawsuit
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn filed a $50 million claim against the Department of Justice and FBI, claiming they engaged in “malicious prosecution” as his lawyer signaled that he may file a lawsuit.
A notification was filed Feb. 22 by Flynn (pdf), the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, naming the FBI, Justice Department, former special counsel Robert Mueller, the Executive Office of the President, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington.
Flynn’s lawyer, Jesse Binnall, told Just the News, which reported on the notification on May 15, that Flynn is prepared to file a lawsuit against the federal government if the Justice Department rejects his claim.
“For years government bureaucrats and left wing agitators believed they could attack General Flynn with impunity. No more,” he said, while adding that the claim is a prelude to a lawsuit. “If you wrongfully attack an American hero, then you should be held to account.”
Binnall added: “This Federal Tort Claims Act Action is just the beginning of that accountability. Lt. General Michael Flynn will no longer be the pin cushion of the radical left.”
The notice stated he’s seeking compensatory damages for lost past and future earnings or revenue, emotional distress, a lost opportunity to be a national security adviser, attorney fees and expenses, court costs, and restraints against his personal freedom.
“Of all of President [Donald] Trump’s appointees, the Obama White House hated Flynn the most,” said the filing from Flynn (pdf), who briefly served under the Trump administration as national security adviser.
In 2016, the FBI and other officials started to “express disdain for candidate Donald J. Trump and began to consider ways in which it could hamper Donald Trump as candidate or as President, were he to win the 2016 election.”
“As part of these efforts, the FBI began to target Flynn,” it also stated. “Flynn was no stranger to the FBI and its leadership, many of whom considered Flynn to be a personal enemy of the FBI and the success of their own FBI careers.”
Flynn initially pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the FBI and said he would cooperate with Mueller’s probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Later, he asked to withdraw his plea when evidence emerged suggesting the federal law enforcement agency showed officials believed that Flynn actually didn’t lie to agents during the investigation.
However, federal officials, according to the filing, “initiated the prosecution despite knowing that Flynn had not made false statements, and it therefore had no reasonable belief that Flynn had committed the criminal offense and therefore no probable cause.”
Scenes of unrest have flared up in the U.S., threatening violence over a potential court decision that could overturn 50 years of controversial abortion rights protection by the federal government. Demonstrations of liberal protesters have been so inflammatory as to stir up past trauma in the pro-life movement.
Abortion survivors like Melissa Ohden, 44, know the torture of leading an unwanted existence. That pain led her to start a support network for those like herself, survivors of failed abortions — over a dozen recently reached out to her in anguish amidst the obscene demonstrations, as protesters symbolically curb stomped ragdoll babies and uttered stomach-turning vulgarities. She’s been a leader in the pro-life movement for over a decade.
Her hearing oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Dec. 1, and the recent leaked Supreme Court opinion, lit a flame of hope in Ohden’s heart, one shared by many, that abundant lives might be saved with the upending of Roe v. Wade.
“I’ve shed many tears in the last week and a half over the hope that Roe versus Wade may be overturned,” the pro-lifer told The Epoch Times, expressing deep longings. There have been over 63 million abortions since the decision set precedent in January 1973, according to one analysis.
For Ohden, it’s not philosophical. While many left of center marching in the streets, or in front of justices’ homes, have made their views viscerally clear, and while those of Christian persuasion may be predisposed to be pro-lifers, she survived a saline abortion attempt in 1977, when her then 19-year-old mother was forced by her mom to get the procedure after an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy. For Ohden, it’s very, very personal.
But at 31 weeks, she was just too big a baby.
She survived.
A saline abortion involves “injecting a toxic salt solution into the amniotic fluid,” Ohden explained. “And the intent of that toxic saline solution was to poison and scald the child to death.”
“Then they would spend the rest of that time of the abortion procedure inducing labor, and then the deceased child should be delivered from the womb,” she added. “We actually know through medical records that I obtained in 2007 that I soaked in that toxic salt solution towards five days, longer than what was typical, because they struggled to induce my birth mother’s labor.
“And so they weren’t successful.”
She learned that there were, in fact, “demands” from her grandmother, who worked at the hospital, to leave her to die, but a nurse watching her “gasping for breath” saved her, rushing her to NICU without her biological mother knowing she’d survived.
Ohden was put up for adoption, taken in, and raised by foster parents Ron and Linda of Storm Lake, Iowa, and grew into her teens not cognizing her own anguished past, until it slipped out one day when she was 14, during a family dispute.
She was left grief-stricken, ashamed, and embarrassed.
“I wrestled with it,” she told the newspaper. “I’m a person of faith, and so that did bring me a lot of healing in my life. That’s ultimately what led me to search for my birth parents and for my medical records, because I wanted them to know that I was alive and well, and I’m not angry or bitter about what has happened. I started looking for them when I was about 19. And I didn’t find them until I was about 30.”
Her search led her not only to find a fulfilling relationship with her biological mom but also a purpose: devoting her life to helping survivors like herself find new meaning in life. Locating her biological dad in 2007, she sent him a letter. He did not reply. He died the next year. Ohden did not hear from her mother’s side of the family, until she and her husband moved to Kansas City for his work, where coincidence led to miraculous reunion.
“We moved here not knowing that this is where my birth mother and half-sister live,” said Ohden. “One of her family members saw me in an interview … they kind of had that moment where they went, ‘Whoa, you probably need to reach out to her now.’”
There is no “rulebook” for how to extend a bridge, Ohden said. In 2016, a cousin of her mom reached out and said they felt it was time to connect, if she was ready. She learned her birth mother had not known for over 30 years that she survived. “I started to communicate by email with my birth mother, Ruth,” Ohden said.
Today, Ohden has her own family, in which Ruth has a special place. “I never could have imagined that this is what it would look like,” Ohden said of their new bond, her voice cracking. “When I go back to the age of 14, and what it was like to hear my story and how hurt I was, to find out about that attempt to end my life, I knew over time that I loved her as the woman who had given me life.
“I knew that I wanted her to know that she was forgiven, but I never could have imagined that her story was difficult as it is, and I never could have imagined how much joy it would bring me to have her in our family’s life. Ruth is just very, very special to us.
“She’s so respectful of what our family is like, it looks complicated to other people, but it’s really simple to us. We all play an important role in one another’s lives.”
Living in the same community, they get together as often as possible.
Less than 64 percent of excess deaths attributed to COVID-19
The increase in deaths not attributed to COVID-19 in the working-age population during the summer and into the fall of last year affected white-collar workers more than blue- and grey-collar employees, according to life insurance data.
In the white-collar sector, mortality jumped 24 percent in the period covered by the data (April 2020–September 2021); less than 64 percent of those were attributed to COVID-19. Among blue-collar workers, mortality rose 19 percent, of which over 80 percent was attributed to COVID-19.
As The Epoch Times previously reported, prime-age mortality was particularly elevated in the 12 months ending in October 2021, where there was an excess death spike of more than 40 percent in ages 18–49, compared with the same period in 2018–2019, based on death certificate data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The majority of the excess deaths weren’t attributed to COVID-19.
A recent study by the Society of Actuaries, an international professional organization, corroborates the CDC data. It relies on a survey of group term life insurance providers that yielded data on claims made from 2017 to 2021 and reported to insurers by Sept. 30, 2021 (pdf).
The life insurance data show an increase in excess mortality since the second quarter of 2020, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, including a particularly sharp increase in the third quarter of 2021—39 percent above what would have been expected based on 2017–2019 data. That quarter was exceptionally devastating for age groups 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, and 55–64, in which mortality soared 81 percent, 117 percent, 108 percent, and 70 percent, respectively, above the baseline.
Deaths attributed to COVID-19 accounted for about three-quarters of the excess mortality during the 18 months reviewed in the study. But among those under the age of 45, COVID-19 accounted for less than 38 percent of the excess deaths, the study says.
Among industries with the largest number of COVID-19 deaths, the worst hit was public administration with nearly 13,000 life insurance claims related to the disease. Yet those only accounted for less than 52 percent of the sector’s excess mortality.
Several other white-collar industries also experienced high excess mortality—22 percent in both doctors’ offices and educational services. COVID-19 claims accounted for nearly 80 percent and 70 percent, respectively, of the spike.
Trump Announces Forthcoming Book About the 2020 Election
Former President Donald Trump told supporters on May 14 that he’s writing a book on alleged voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, titled “The Crime of the Century.”
“I don’t think you’ll enjoy it. You’ll be very depressed when you read it, but we want to have it down for historic reasons,” Trump said during his one-hour speech at the Austin Convention Center in Texas, as part of the larger American Freedom Tour which gathers conservatives in various cities across the country.
Addressing a crowd of thousands on Saturday as the last speaker, following former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump railed against mail-in ballots and alluded that votes were falsified during storage.
“It starts so early, and then they want to finish late, right?” Trump said during his speech. “This is the greatest hoax, heist. This is one of the greatest crimes in the history of our country. And sadly, the prosecutors don’t want to do anything about it.
”This is the crime of the century. I’m actually writing a book about it called ‘The Crime of the Century,’” Trump said, who has also authored about 20 other books, including his best-known “The Art of the Deal” from 1987 and “Our Journey Together”—his first book since leaving office, featuring over 300 official White House photographs.
The announcement mentioned no release date.
U.S. Border Patrol has started to use, on a mass scale, a special “parole” exception that was previously used sparingly to allow tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to stay in the United States for at least a year, The Epoch Times has learned.
Under parole status, illegal immigrants don’t have to provide Border Patrol with evidence of credible fear for asylum and are permitted entry without any preconditions, except a quick background check in the U.S. crime database.
A Customs and Border Protection spokesman said the parole designation allows for overwhelmed Border Patrol stations to process large numbers of illegal aliens “significantly faster” and release them into the country much faster than the more involved current system—which releases an illegal alien with a notice to appear that includes a court date for their first immigration hearing.
Parole should be a “very, very boutique thing,” said Andrew Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy at Center for Immigration Studies and a retired immigration judge.
“This is the exact opposite of what Congress said. This is a misuse and abuse of that immigration authority that borders on malfeasance,” he said.
Through the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), Congress mandated that all inadmissible and illegal aliens be detained until their status is determined, after which they are either deported or granted entry with a legal status.
Parole is an exception and, although it’s not a legal status, it permits entry on “a case-by-case basis” for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit,” according to the INA.
The status allows foreign nationals “who may not otherwise be admissible to the country under the immigration laws” to live and work in the United States temporarily “without being formally admitted to the country and without having a set pathway to a permanent immigration status,” according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service report.
Arthur said parole should be used, for example, when a family member needs entry into the United States to donate a kidney to his brother, or if a witness to a criminal case is needed to testify. As associate general counsel in the former federal immigration agency, he would see a handful of parole cases a year.
However, in the first seven months of this fiscal year, CBP has mass-released more than 120,600 illegal aliens under the new “Parole+ATD” category. ATD is an Alternatives to Detention program, which is acting as a workaround of the legal requirement to detain illegal aliens.
Under ATD, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issues the illegal alien a trackable cell phone (or sometimes an ankle bracelet) that he or she can use to check in with the agency on a regular basis.
FDA Eases Import Restrictions to Boost Baby Formula Supply
U.S. regulators on May 16 announced they’re easing restrictions on imports of baby formula to help alleviate shortages of the product stemming from a major plant being shut down three months prior.
The adjusted regulations give regulators the ability to clear formula from overseas as long as they meet certain safety and nutrition requirements.
Distributors that don’t normally sell infant formula in the United States should consider applying under the streamlined rules, said Dr. Robert Califf, head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“I strongly encourage all those who are or could manufacture infant formula products quickly and safely, including those who do not currently sell in the U.S., to help us increase the supply of products, which may serve as the only source of nutrition for many infants,” Califf said in a call with reporters.
The agency is planning to prioritize applications from companies that have the largest volume available and can meet safety and nutritional thresholds as regulators try to fix the formula supply shortages.
Executives of any companies that think they might be able to meet the FDA’s requirements will be able to talk with regulators about the requirements. Labeling is preferred in English and allergens should be listed.
“We’re not requiring any relabeling. What we are asking companies to do is to come to us with the information they have available about product they have, what the labeling is, what the nutritional value is, about the inspectional history of their manufacturing facilities … and then our goal is to try to identify those that are the highest priority for us and identify companies that could bring in safe, nutritionally adequate product most rapidly,” said Susan Mayne, the director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
It will likely take weeks to get imported formula on shelves in the United States, officials said. The administration views the easing of restrictions as a temporary measure until the normal supply chain—98 percent of the formula sold in the United States is typically produced domestically—stabilizes.
The guidance is in place for 180 days.
Bio-Engineered Breast Milk Titans: Gates, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Branson
If a natural, life-essential product exists anywhere in nature, Technocrats will seek to recreate it in a laboratory. This includes breast milk, meats and all types of food, drugs, etc. Specifically, they have usurped the role of “intelligent design” but it is in image of their own eyes, and not God’s. ⁃ TN Editor
An article published by Daily Mail on June 19, 2020, revealed that Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and other billionaires invested in a new startup company to produce artificial breast milk from cultured human mammary epithelial.
According to the article, U.S. firm BIOMILQ has received $3.5 million from an investment fund that is co-founded by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Mark Zuckerberg to ‘prevent climate change due to gases created in formula manufacturing.’
Daily Mail reported:
An artificial breast milk start-up that offers a green alternative to baby formula has received $3.5 million (£2.8m) from an investment fund co-founded by Bill Gates.
It has been estimated that around 10 per cent of the global dairy industry — a major producer of greenhouse gases — is used to manufacture baby formula.
The $1 billion (£800 million) fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, was established to help prevent the worst effects of climate change arising from carbon emissions.
Alongside Mr Gates, the group’s other members include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Virgin group founder Sir Richard Branson and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg.
According to the company’s website, in 2021, they successfully produced the world’s first cell-cultured human milk outside of the breast.
Our team is thrilled to announce that we have produced the world’s first cell-cultured human milk outside of the breast. We find ourselves at the frontier of lactation science, helping to advance the entire field by putting mothers and babies at the forefront.
According to UC Davis Human Milk Researcher & BIOMILQ Technical Advisor Dr. Jennifer Smilowitz, “human milk is tremendously complex in both composition and structure which has made it impossible to replicate outside of the lactating parent.” Until now.
In just 11 months, we have moved the field of lactation science from proof of concept to proof of complexity, producing milk compositions that look more like a symphony than a concerto. We’re a HUGE step closer to empowering parents with another infant feeding option, one that provides much of the nutrition of breastmilk with the practicality of formula.
We can now confirm that BIOMILQ’s product has macronutrient profiles that closely match the expected types and proportions of proteins, complex carbohydrates, fatty acids and other bioactive lipids that are known to be abundantly present in breastmilk.
Netizens find this news timely, considering the recent news of the baby formula shortage.
Candace Owens tweeted, “Doesn’t Bill Gates just have the best luck? Just like with the COVID vaccine— he makes an investment, and then suddenly there is a pandemic or shortage and everyone must line up for his product. Of course he’s invested in lab produced breast milk!”
‘Hive Mentality’ First Step Toward Communism: Oregon Gov. Candidate Kerry McQuisten
Oregon is a state that has been under progressive Democrat control for the last six administrations and its largest city, Portland, has been a hotbed for violence connected to the Marxist revolutionary group Antifa. In response to this, Kerry McQuisten, a native Oregonian and Republican, is running for governor.
She said the current generation of young people have been convinced that they are being marginalized, and this is leading them to accept socialism and eventually communism.
“You know, [Yuri] Bezmenov said that all it took was for them to get [a] hold of one generation of our children, and it would … flip us into communism,” McQuisten told the host of NTD Capitol Report during a recent interview.
Opinion: America is Becoming the Monster it Claimed to Fight By Servando Gonzalez
“To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order; we must first set our minds and hearts in order” —Confucius.
The signs are everywhere very clear for anyone to see: women defending their “right” to kill their babies, people proudly exposing their mental disorders, the young enjoying a life of drugs, alcohol and sexual excesses, the very rich totally ignoring the growing poverty around them, society totally lacking in values, honor, compassion and truthfulness, growing philosophy of utilitarian individualism, and a widespread lacking of respect for the common law, the traditions and the elderly. This has become America’s new normal.
Evidently, this country is rapidly descending into a Dark Age.
But, just a little more than quarter of a century ago LIFE magazine devoted its July, 1986, issue to celebrate “America the Wondrous.” How did this drastic, radical change has happened in front of our eyes in such a short time? Who is to blame for it?
The answer is very simple: We should not blame anybody but ourselves. Actually, in honor to truth, we fell into a trap our enemies set in for us. What is difficult to understand is why we fell so easily into such obvious trap. Let’s try.
Many years ago, after having taken control of the U.S. government, the military, the press, the churches and the schools, the globalist conspirators realized they faced a big problem. In order to fully implement the New World Order they had in mind, first they had to destroy the institution that constitutes the very cornerstone of civilization: the family. So, they conceived and eventually put in practice a clever plan to destroy the American family. The first step to do it was inventing the so-called “feminist revolution.”
In their think tanks, the conspirators found out that women played the most important role in society: maintaining the integrity of the family. That was a big problem because, contrary to the rest of the institutions they had already infiltrated and controlled, the family does not has a pyramidal structure which, by taking control of the top, you can control the whole organization. The family as an institution consists of small, non-hierarchically controlled units, loosely interacting among each other similar to the way some secret societies operate.
So, in order to destroy that key institution, the very base of civilized society, the globalist conspirators infiltrated their agents into the feminist movement and brainwashed its leaders to believe that women had been exploited and relegated by men to a marginal place in society. Therefore, to end men’s exploitation and discrimination, they alleged, women’s most compete in the job market and grab traditional male jobs.
Ignoring the fact that in most successful societies educated women already have always played a key role in all important fields, unskilled women went out of their homes and began competing with men in all types of jobs, even the most menial ones. The immediate result of this drastic change was that, having two sources of income, the family’s economy improved enormously. The long term effect, however, was quite different. Having almost duplicated overnight the work force, some years later the job value diminished. Currently, two jobs in the family are making almost the same amount of money usually made by a single job fifty years ago.[1]
But the result of having most women integrated into the workforce had the intended effect the globalist conspirator secretly had in mind: when women left their homes to work they had to leave their children in the hands of political extremists and psychopaths who devoted all their time and effort to brainwash the children’s impressionable minds. The success of such an evil plan is everywhere for all to see. Currently, we have three generations of Americans who hate their country, their culture, their families and, in some sense, even themselves.
Those are the young people we see in the front lines of the current ideological battle defending the indefensible. Those are the new Judases who have sold their families, their country and their culture in exchange for what they see as “freedoms,” which actually is a new slavery of the mind. Just three generations later, the granddaughters of those “liberated” women turned the Spring Break into a debauchery of alcohol, drugs and sex.
Even worse, in less than three generations the globalist conspirators changed America from a Christian nation into a non-Christian country. Currently, they are working hard pushing us into their final goal: turning America into an anti-Christian nation.
So, in a few months, you will go to the polls, and elect new politicians to represent you in the government. Just a few months later, however, you will realize that nothing has changed, and the planned economic, cultural and moral destruction of America continues at an accelerated pace.
Why? Because you have always looked at the changes as something you can get somewhere from somebody, when the changes, to really occur, must begin in our hearts. But we have been too busy working hard to maintain our standard of living to stop for a moment and look into our own hearts.
As I have mentioned in some of my articles, I stopped voting many year ago when I decided to stop being part of the charade. In the coming presidential election, however, I am going to make an exception. I will vote, provided I find a presidential candidate who will really fight to save America. How do I think I will find this candidate? I’ll tell you:
The presidential candidate I will vote for must have promised to do several important things. First, he must have promised to end the Federal Reserve Bank, an illegal organization created behind the backs of the American people. Secondly, he must promise to destroy the present Marxist-inspired IRS[2] and implement a flat tax of no more than 10 % for every American citizen and institution, including the so-called non-profit organizations and foundations, with no loopholes for the rich. Thirdly, he must eliminate the Rockefeller-created, Communist-inspired Department of Education and ban any government role in the education of the American children. Last, but no least, the candidate I would vote for must ban the Council on Foreign Relations, the true Communist Party of the U.S., and all its parasite organizations and sign a mandate banning any CFR member to work for the U.S. government, including the U.S. military, in any capacity.
Last, but not least, this candidate must promise to end the current system of for-life career politicians and change it for limited terms in office. Moreover, he must fight to pass a law by which government employees lose their right to vote —which has become the American way of buying votes and explains why we have such a bloated government.
So, I would highly appreciate it if any of my readers let me know if there is a presidential candidate that fits my requirements. If there is none, I will do something very patriotic I have been repeating every election day since 25 years ago: I will stay at home and sleep my siesta with a clear conscience that I have not been part of this anti-American charade we call Election Day.
Currently, we are beginning to repeat again the process of electing new politicians to office with the hope that they are going to change our fast course into the abyss. Allegedly, Albert Einstein once said that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is a clear sign of insanity. Well, however said it, he was right. [Read: Psychological Warfare and the New World Order: The Secret War Against the American People]
Commentary: Making Voting Compulsory Is a Bad Idea — and Wouldn’t Change Our Polarized Politics
Like many demands that travel under the name of reform, it proposes to win by coercion what America’s political actors have failed to win by persuasion.
Prepare to hear more about a bad idea: making voting compulsory by law. Australia and some other countries do, and the idea has been floated closer to home by figures like President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Two years ago a Brookings Institution and Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center working group called for such laws, and now Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. of Brookings and the Ash Center’s Miles Rapoport have turned the idea into a book.
The right answer remains “No way.”
Voting, like standing for the national anthem or pledge, is a public civic ritual from which some would rather be excused. Mandatory‐voting advocates sometimes talk as if conscience issues and the specter of compelled speech could be headed off by, say, giving citizens the option to cast a blank ballot. But for many among us, refusing to join in one or every election is itself a way to send a distinctive expressive message.
How would a legal obligation to vote be enforced? Overseas examples suggest that the predominant mechanism would be smallish fines and fees, occasionally combined with further sanctions such as hassles for persons trying to obtain or renew one or another license or permission.
We understand better than we did a generation ago how the proliferation of petty government fines, fees and paperwork has made life harder for the poor and hard‐pressed. People holding down multiple jobs or juggling difficult family responsibilities can find that a missed appointment here and a piece of mail gone astray there result in more hardship and disorder, especially if penalties compound — which may be seen as the only way to prevent wide noncompliance.
Let’s be real: A lot of the interest in conscripting voters has historically come from partisans who think their side would win more often if everyone were made to show up. It was long the standard wisdom that nonvoters leaned more to the left than regular voters. As recently as 2012, a Pew poll found nonvoters held much more favorable views of Obama than did frequent voters.
But it didn’t last. A major 2020 Knight Foundation study of nonvoters found they now “split down the middle” between Democratic and Republican voting propensity.
Demographics provide some explanation. Most surveys agree nonvoters skew younger, less educated and lower earning and (in America) by a substantial margin more Hispanic. There was a time these categories correlated closely with leftward voting preferences, but no longer: Republicans do better these days with the less educated and less affluent, for example, and are making rapid gains with Hispanics.
Even if nonvoters are hard to characterize on a conventional political spectrum, they do differ systematically in some ways from voters. Poll after poll confirms they are less informed and less familiar with the candidates; in fact, many nonvoters say that’s the reason they chose not to vote. Australia has long grappled with the problem of the “donkey vote,” cast by low‐attachment voters who simply check off in order the first names they find on the ballot.
Nonvoters are also a more alienated bunch. They are more likely to think the “system is rigged,” that “success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside our control” and that “things will go on just as they did before” no matter which side wins office. They are, in short, both less well informed and less civically involved than voters. (Of those not registered to vote in Pew’s survey, incidentally, 11% said they didn’t want to register for privacy or security reasons.)
This element of civic estrangement is a reason to doubt the claim that nonvoters would be a moderating influence on American political polarization.
Centrist scholar Bill Galston has argued that roping in this group could “strengthen the forces of conciliation” because it is less “fervent” and more resistant to “red‐meat rhetoric.” Don’t count on it.
It’s true that nonvoters don’t sort out as neatly as frequent voters along the ideological lines that divide the major parties. Alas, that doesn’t mean they’ll be more calm, judicious or resistant to demagogic appeals.
Indeed, one lesson of recent research into persons who fall into intermediate categories in political polls, often labeled “moderates,” is that quite a few resist classification not because they have achieved an elegant equipoise between each camp’s best arguments but because they harbor a mix of intemperate or wacky “left” and “right” opinions.
Competing for turnout — that is, competing to move targeted subsets of nonvoters into your column — is in fact a chief way in which American parties and candidates compete. Flunking at turnout sends a painful message that your candidate or set of issues isn’t inspiring enough. Seen that way, compulsory voting resembles a scheme to eliminate by force one of the surest means of genuine competition in contemporary politics.
Like many demands that travel under the name of reform, it proposes to win by coercion what America’s political actors have failed to win by persuasion.
Clinton Campaign Lawyer Wanted to Create ‘October Surprise’ With Trump-Russia Claims: Prosecutors
A Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer aimed to influence the 2016 presidential election when he conveyed allegations about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russia to the FBI, U.S. prosecutors said on May 17.
Michael Sussman, the lawyer, and others were hoping to create an “October surprise” by “using and manipulating the FBI,” Brittain Shaw, a prosecutor with Special Counsel John Durham’s team, said during opening arguments in Sussmann’s trial.
The government’s goal is to prove Sussmann lied to FBI general counsel Jim Baker when he provided documents alleging a link between Trump’s business and a Russian bank during a Sept. 19, 2016 meeting at the FBI’s headquarters.
According to a text message Sussmann sent to Baker before the meeting, the lawyer claimed he was bringing the information on his own accord, not on behalf of a client.
But Sussmann, who was representing the Clinton campaign and technology executive Rodney Joffe at the time, was actually passing along the data on behalf of his clients, the government alleges.
The lie was material because the FBI may have chosen to act more cautiously and probe Sussmann’s network, which included a group of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, prosecutors said in the indictment against Sussmann.
The lawyer faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Jurors also heard from Michael Bosworth, who said that Sussmann did not lie to the FBI.
The lawyer gave information to the FBI because he was legitimately concerned as a “cyber defense attorney” in the rumors and allegations regarding Trump and a Russian bank “owned by an associate of Vladimir Putin,” Bosworth said.
The defense plans to argue that Sussmann was well-known, respected by the government, and had nothing to gain on behalf of his clients by conveying the data to Baker, who had worked with him for years at the DOJ.
Shaw said that Sussmann wanted to use the FBI as a “political pawn” and that he lied “for political aim.”
The case involves “a look, a leap, and a lie,” according to Shaw. The look was meeting with Steele to look into what he had, the leap was reaching out to friendly media outlets to publish the allegations, and when that didn’t happen, Sussmann went to the FBI.
When the meeting happened, Trump was the Republican nominee for president and Clinton was the Democrat nominee for president. Trump ended up winning, but was dogged for years by the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into alleged links with Russia.
Mueller concluded there was no coordination or cooperation between Trump or his campaign and Russian actors.
Witnesses scheduled to testify on Tuesday included FBI cyber expert David Martin and Marc Elias, the Clinton campaign’s general counsel.
Voters Head to Polls in Pennsylvania to Decide Hotly-Contested Senate and Gubernatorial Primaries
The polls opened on May 17 for the closely-watched primary elections for the U.S. Senate and the governor’s seat in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) is term-limited, and Sen. Pat Toomey (R) is retiring. Voters in the Keystone State will determine who meets in the general election to fill the seats.
In the U.S. Senate race, the Donald Trump-endorsed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz has spent $12 million of his own funds on the campaign. Hedge fund executive and former U.S. Treasury Department official David McCormick has poured $11 million into the hotly contested race.
Kathy Barnette, a U.S. Army Reserves veteran, and commentator, has operated her quest to become Pennsylvania’s next U.S. Senator on a shoestring budget after raising $1.7 million. In May, she emerged as a contender to Oz and McCormick.
Her ascent in the race is attributed to a powerful personal life story that includes a personal climb out of poverty, being a child conceived from rape, which has shaped her staunch pro-life stance. Barnette has picked up support from conservative groups, including the well-funded Club for Growth Action super PAC.
In a new Emerson College poll released on May 16, Barnette tallied 24 percent support, with Oz leading with 28 percent and McCormick with 21 percent support.
According to the survey, 15 percent are undecided.
When undecided voters who lean toward a specific candidate are included in the poll, Oz is in first place with 32 percent, followed by Barnette with 27 percent and McCormick at 26 percent.
FBI Deemed Trump–Russia Claims False in Less Than a Day, Agent Says
FBI agents tasked with analyzing claims about Donald Trump and Russia took less than a day to figure out that the data didn’t support the allegations, one of the agents testified in federal court on May 17.
Agent Scott Hellman was part of the team that examined white papers and data on thumb drives handed in 2016 to FBI lawyer James Baker by Michael Sussmann, an attorney who was representing the campaign of Hillary Clinton—Trump’s rival for the presidency.
On the first day of Sussmann’s trial for allegedly lying to the FBI when he said he wasn’t bringing the information on behalf of a client, Hellman told the court that he and another agent took less than a day to ascertain that the information didn’t support the allegations that Trump’s business and Russia’s Alfa Bank had a secret connection.
“I think the person who drafted [the main white paper] was suffering from a mental disability,” Hellman said.
Before filings in the Sussmann case, the FBI’s determination regarding the allegations was unclear. In one of the filings, special counsel John Durham said that the bureau and the CIA had concluded that the allegations were “untrue and unsupported.”
He also said the bureau did not ultimately reach a conclusion regarding the data’s accuracy or whether it might have been entirely or partially fabricated, but that the CIA determined in early 2017 that the data were not “technically plausible” and were “user created and not machine/tool generated.”
On the stand, Hellman said when he got the thumb drives and white papers, he examined them to see if there was any hacking involved before doing a technical review to compare it with the narrative outlined in the primary paper.
He called the methodology the paper’s authors used “questionable” and said the claim of a secret backchannel “just didn’t make sense to us.”
“Why would a presidential candidate put their own name on a supposedly secret domain name?” he said.
Hellman said he was frustrated when he described Baker’s refusal to reveal the identity of the person who provided the data, other than saying it was from “a sensitive source.” He found that unusual.
During cross-examination, Hellman was questioned by Sean Berkowitz, one of Sussmann’s lawyers.
Berkowitz wondered about Hellman saying he didn’t know where Baker got the data, pointing out that in internal FBI chats, one agent named Sussmann as the source, and in others, agents described the primary paper as “the DNC paper.” DNC stands for Democratic National Committee. The committee was in 2016 another client of Perkins Coie, Sussmann’s law firm.
Hellman said he would have made clear where it came from, had he known. He said he wasn’t aware that other agents were calling it a DNC paper.
While Hellman ultimately penned a memorandum detailing concerns with the data, the FBI’s counterintelligence division decided to investigate the allegations anyway.
South Carolina Transgender Sports Bill Becomes Law
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday signed a bill into law banning transgender students from playing in gender-based sports teams at schools and colleges, saying it was common sense that “boys should play boys sports and girls should play girls sports.”
“The Save Women’s Sports Act is now the law of the land in South Carolina,” he wrote on Twitter on May 17. “We have to do everything we can to protect the young men and women in our state who choose to pursue athletic competition, and that’s why I proudly signed this bill into law yesterday.”
South Carolina’s governor quietly signed the bill without ceremony, joining a dozen other mostly conservative states that passed similar laws in the last couple of years.
The Save Women’s Sports Act requires certain public school sports teams to ensure biological males, as designated on their birth certificates, only play in sports teams designated for males, unless the school does not offer a team for females in that sport.
The bill also provides that female sports teams cannot be open to biological males.
The law extends to private schools and institutions that sponsor teams that play against public school teams, with students able to seek remedy for any violations of the new law.
“It is the intent of the General Assembly to maintain opportunities for female athletes to demonstrate their strength, skills, and athletic abilities, and to provide them with opportunities to obtain recognition and accolades, college scholarships, and numerous other long-term benefits that result from participating and competing in athletic endeavors,” the wording of the bill states.
The bill was passed on April 10 before McMaster signed it into law this week.
Proponents of the bill argued that without such laws, female sports could be dominated by transgender athletes who were born with the biological advantages of male physiology that make them stronger.
This contention has been demonstrated by transgender swimmers claiming the top podiums at meets in the United States and beyond.
Opponents to the bill, including Ivy Hill, a leader of an LGBT coalition, took the position that the ban targets regular students who just want to participate in sports, not become elite athletes.
However, the lawyer for a conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom said that when laws ignore biological differences, it’s women and girls who “bear the brunt of the harm.”
“We welcome South Carolina to the growing number of states that have acted to preserve fair competition for all females, whether in grade school or college,” said alliance attorney Christiana Kiefer in a statement.
Idaho was the first state to pass such a law in 2020, followed by West Virginia, but they have been blocked by courts.
Oklahoma, Arizona, and Tennessee passed similar laws in March and April.
Democrat Eric Swalwell Fundraises Off of Buffalo Mass Shooting
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) sent out a fundraising email on Monday to fill his campaign coffers off of the Buffalo, New York, mass shooting.
Ten people, including a retired Buffalo police officer, were killed and three were injured in a Saturday afternoon shooting in Buffalo, New York.
As the Buffalo community continues to grapple with the aftermath of the shooting, Swalwell decided to take to his fundraising list to build up his campaign coffers. The California Democrat also appeared to blame Fox News host Tucker Carlson, arguing that Tucker’s use of “racism” has “consequences.” He sent out in a Monday email:
The white supremacist Buffalo mass shooter borrowed language directly from Tucker Carlson and this is not a coincidence.
We’ve known for a while now that Tucker uses racism to his advantage, stirring up fear and outrage to attract people to his white supremacist propaganda show. What this latest shooting shows is that his rhetoric has consequences beyond his ratings. Will you sign on and hold him accountable for his reprehensible rhetoric, John?
Mass shooters are borrowing racist conspiracies and white supremacist tactics right off his lips. Tucker is a citation in a mass shooter’s neo-Nazi manifesto.
We are putting together a petition condemning the utterly unrepeatable language irresponsibly used by Tucker on his disgusting “show.” Will you sign on to hold him accountable for this, John?
We have a responsibility to fight this rhetoric anywhere and everywhere we see it, and right now, it’s coming from the BIGGEST talking head on cable news.
So that’s where we’re bringing the fight. Let’s show Tucker: there are consequences for the things you say. We’re calling out the very real danger Tucker poses to Black communities and communities of color as long as he’s on the airwaves. Sign on here to condemn Tucker.
Pennsylvania GOP Senate Race Too Close to Call, Recount Expected
For weeks, polls showed that the Pennsylvania GOP U.S. Senate primary was too close to call. Results from primary election day demonstrate that projection was accurate.
Though he slipped to third in some recent polls and saw former President Donald Trump endorse celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in April, hedge fund investor and U.S. Treasury Dept. official David McCormick carried a slim lead for most of the night in the primary on May 17.
In the early hours of May 18, Oz pulled ahead.
With 95 percent of the precincts reporting at 12:30 a.m., Oz received 31.2 percent of the vote (397,347) while McCormick tallied 31.1 percent (396,724) and Barnette accumulated 24.7 percent (314,828), according to Decision Desk HQ.
In Pennsylvania, an automatic recount is triggered when the difference between the leading candidates is within .5 percent. An official winner might not be known for days.
At 11:30 p.m., McCormick took the stage at his watch party in Pittsburgh as results showed he was clinging to a .2 percent lead.
“We had a pretty good day today,” McCormick said, drawing applause from the crowd. “There was a huge outpouring of support across the state. We knew it. We felt it on the ground.
“We are going to win this campaign,” he added. “Right now, tens of thousands of mail-in ballots have not been counted and will need to be counted tomorrow. There will be no resolution tonight, but we can see victory ahead.”
Missouri Bill Prevents Doctors Being Disciplined If They Prescribe Ivermectin or Hydroxychloroquine
Missouri lawmakers passed legislation that prevents state licensing boards from disciplining doctors who prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
Sponsored by Rep. Brenda Kay Shields (R-Mo.), HB 2149 also bars pharmacists from questioning doctors or disputing patients regarding the usage of such drugs and their efficacy.
With a convincing 130–4 vote in the House, HB 2149 passed both chambers on May 12 and currently heads to the office of Gov. Mike Parson to be potentially signed into law.
“The board shall not deny, revoke, or suspend, or otherwise take any disciplinary action against, a certificate of registration or authority, permit, or license required by this chapter for any person due to the lawful dispensing, distributing, or selling of ivermectin tablets or hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets for human use in accordance with prescriber directions,” reads the draft of the bill (pdf).
It adds, “A pharmacist shall not contact the prescribing physician or the patient to dispute the efficacy of ivermectin tablets or hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets for human use unless the physician or patient inquires of the pharmacist about the efficacy of ivermectin tablets or hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets.”
Critics of the bill have noted that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not given approval for usage of the drugs. Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine have been divisive drugs and politically polarized throughout the pandemic.
“But, nevertheless, the Missouri legislature has chosen to ‘own the libs’ by issuing a gag order against every pharmacist in this state from offering their medical opinion on taking either one of those medications—even if it could kill their patient,” wrote former Democratic nominee Lindsey Simmons in a May 12 Twitter post.
Although 22 countries across the world have approved the use of ivermectin in treating COVID-19, the FDA maintains that the current data show the drug to be ineffective. Large doses can be dangerous, it says.
Trump-Backed Doug Mastriano Wins Pennsylvania GOP Gubernatorial Primary
Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano won the Republican gubernatorial primary on May 17.
With 38 percent of the precincts reporting at 9:42 p.m., Mastriano received 40 percent of the vote and was projected as the winner by Decision Desk HQ.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. ran unopposed on the Democratic party gubernatorial ballot and will face Mastriano in the general election.
The Republican Party of Pennsylvania declined to endorse a gubernatorial candidate in February. Former President Donald Trump decided to back Mastriano on May 14 at a time when the retired U.S. Army colonel and state senator already owned a comfortable lead over former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta (R) and former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain.
Trump had a significant presence in the race.
In April, Trump unofficially announced an anti-endorsement of the race, telling his followers not to vote for Bill McSwain.
McSwain served as the top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia for three years while Trump was president. He frequently promoted that connection on the campaign trail and sought the coveted Trump endorsement.
Trump pointed out that McSwain did not investigate the claims of widespread election fraud after Joe Biden won Pennsylvania in the 2020 presidential election.
“One person in Pennsylvania who I will not be endorsing is Bill McSwain for governor. He was the U.S. Attorney who did absolutely nothing on the massive election fraud that took place in Philadelphia and throughout the commonwealth,” Trump said in a statement.
“Do not vote for Bill McSwain, a coward, who let our country down. He knew what was happening and let it go.”
As a member of Congress from 2011 to 2019, Barletta was among the first elected officials to publicly endorse Trump during the 2016 GOP presidential primary. As mayor of his hometown of Hazelton, Pa., Barletta introduced an ordinance that punished businesses and landlords for employing or leasing to immigrants in the country illegally.
Trump backed Barletta in the 2018 Senate race. Barletta lost to Sen. Bob Casey (D) in the general election.
Ultimately, Trump gave his stamp of approval to Mastriano on May 14.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Wells Fargo CEO Warns ‘No Question’ Worst Is yet to Come for Americans
The CEO of Wells Fargo warned Tuesday that there is “no question” that the U.S. economy is going to get worse before it gets better.
“It’s going to be hard to avoid some kind of recession,” CEO Charles Scharf said during a Wall Street Journal event.
The Federal Reserve has already raised interest rates twice so far in 2022 in a bid to cool the economy to deal with rampant inflation. Federal data shows that inflation rose 8.3 percent from April 2021 to April 2022, reaching 40-year highs.
With the spike in interest rates and inflation, some analysts and economists have questioned whether the United States is careening toward a recession.
But Scharf, during the event, stressed that the recession will likely be only mild, noting that consumers are still spending at healthy levels.
“The fact that everyone is so strong going into this should hopefully provide a cushion such that whatever recession there is, if there is one, is short and not all that deep,” Scharf said.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said there may be some “pain” that is “associated” with higher interest rates, which would, according to him, reduce inflation and curb demand. Powell, however, said that there is no recession on the horizon, saying that strong labor markets and consumer spending are high points.
“It will be challenging, it won’t be easy. No one here thinks that it will be easy. Nonetheless, we think there are pathways … for us to get there,” Powell told the Marketplace business news website last week. “Whether we can execute a soft landing or not, it may actually depend on factors that we don’t control,” he added.
Powell said in the interview that price increases are, in part, due to supply chain issues, although he didn’t delve into specifics about why.
“What we can control is demand, we can’t really affect supply with our policies,” he told the website. “And supply is a big part of the story here. But more than that, there are huge events, geopolitical events going on around the world, that are going to play a very important role in the economy in the next year or so. So the question whether we can execute a soft landing or not, it may actually depend on factors that we don’t control.”
Nonetheless, top business leaders such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have recently issued warnings about inflationary pressures on the economy, with both flagging the Biden administration’s policy decisions and Congress-passed trillion-dollar spending packages.
Elon Musk: Biden Admin Must Do Something on Inflation or Risk Turning Into ‘Venezuela’
Tech billionaire Elon Musk this week warned that the United States must take steps to address inflation or it will end up like socialist Venezuela.
Musk, who is currently in the process of acquiring Twitter, told a virtual conference that he believes the government has printed too much money in recent years.
“I mean, the obvious reason for inflation is that the government printed a zillion amount of more money than it had, obviously,” Musk said, likely referring to COVID-19 relief stimulus packages worth trillions of dollars that were passed in recent years.
U.S. inflation rose by 8.3 percent in April, compared with the previous year. That’s slightly lower than the 8.5 percent spike in March, but it’s still near the 40-year high.
“So it’s like the government can’t … issue checks far in excess of revenue without there being inflation, you know, velocity of money held constant,” the Tesla CEO said. “If the federal government writes checks, they never bounce. So that is effectively creation of more dollars. And if there are more dollars created, then the increase in the goods and services across the economy, then you have inflation, again, velocity of money held constant.”
If governments could merely “issue massive amounts of money and deficits didn’t matter, then, well, why don’t we just make the deficit 100 times bigger,” Musk asked. “The answer is, you can’t because it will basically turn the dollar into something that is worthless.”
“Various countries have tried this experiment multiple times,” Musk said. “Have you seen Venezuela? Like the poor, poor people of Venezuela are, you know, have been just run roughshod by their government.”
In 2018, Venezuela, a country with significant reserves of oil and gas, saw its inflation rise more than 65,000 percent amid an economic crash that included plummeting oil prices and government price controls. The regime of Nicolas Maduro then started printing money, thereby devaluing its currency, which caused prices to rapidly increase.
During the conference, Musk also said the Biden administration “doesn’t seem to get a lot done” and questioned who is actually in charge. “The real president is whoever controls the teleprompter,” he said. “The path to power is the path to the teleprompter.”
“The Trump administration, leaving Trump aside, there were a lot of people in the administration who were effective at getting things done,” he remarked.
Musk’s comment about the White House comes as Jeff Bezos, also one of the richest people in the world, has increasingly started to target the administration’s economic policies. Bezos, in a series of Twitter posts, said the rapid increase in federal spending is the reason why inflation is as high as it is.
“Remember the Administration tried their best to add another $3.5 TRILLION to federal spending,” Bezos wrote on Monday, drawing rebuke from several White House officials. “They failed, but if they had succeeded, inflation would be even higher than it is today, and inflation today is at a 40-year high.”
Elon Musk: Twitter Deal ‘Cannot Move Forward’ Until Bot Data Clarified
Twitter shares tumbled again after Elon Musk said that his $44 billion purchase of the social media platform “cannot move forward” until there is more clarity on the website’s spam bots.
“My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate,” Musk wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does.”
Musk responded to a report that he might be looking for a better deal for the social network as experts believe his proposal could be too high if one-fifth of users are fake or spam accounts.
Twitter confirmed soon after that it had submitted a preliminary proxy statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pertaining to Musk’s offer of $54.20 a share.
Gen Z Says No to Work, Yes to Debt
You’re undoubtedly familiar with “buy now, pay later” (BNPL), a type of short-term financing that allows a consumer to purchase something immediately and pay for it later. The BNPL model has soared in popularity in recent years, and 39 percent of Americans have tried BNPL at least once.
In 2020, according to the California Department of Financial Protection (DFPI), 91 percent of consumer loans issued by the state were BNPL loans.
The financial flexibility offered is indeed appealing—perhaps a little too appealing. In the United States, members of Generation Z, also known as the TikTok generation, are the biggest users of BNPL services. This should come as little surprise. BNPL came of age when online shopping was just gaining steam; no generation is as active online as Gen Z. These digital natives spend an average of 2 hours and 43 minutes online every single day; that works out at more than three full days per month. That’s a lot of browsing and swiping.
Of all the social media platforms, TikTok is the most popular among Gen Zers (hence the TikTok generation moniker). For Gen Z, Instagram is losing its appeal. TikTok, on the other hand, is growing in popularity. In the United States alone, it boasts 80 million monthly users, 60 percent of whom are female.
Worryingly, though, many influencers on TikTok are pushing the BNPL narrative. Because of this, millions of Gen Zers are purchasing things they don’t need; worse still, they’re racking up enormous amounts of debt in the process.
In a recent article for SFGATE, the writer Joshua Bote discussed the myriad ways in which “Gen Z, in particular, has fallen in love with short-term loans.” This is problematic on many levels, he argued, especially when one couples “nearly instantaneous loans with an influencer-addled social media culture that prioritizes exorbitant spending and normalizes debt.”
Indeed. Right now, you’re just a few clicks away from being able to purchase an item or service that you probably don’t need.
Affirm, one of the leaders in the BNPL market recently signed a lucrative contract with Amazon. The reason why Amazon signed the deal is relatively simple: BNPL encourages people to spend more. In the United States, 60 percent of Gen Zers have an Amazon Prime account. In 2019, Amazon overtook Apple as Gen Z’s favorite brand. Perhaps this helps explain why this particular generation is spending more than other generations—a lot more.
According to the aforementioned Bote, Gen Zers are currently “spending 925% more” today than at the same point in 2020.
Numerous articles have been written about Gen Z’s good money habits; they scrupulously save, we’re told. In truth, though, the average Gen Zer is drowning in debt. In fact, they have the highest total average debt by generation.
While members of Gen Z continue “revenge spending” (a phenomenon that sees consumers rush to make up for all the purchases they couldn’t make during the COVID-19 lockdown), they would do well to ask themselves, who exactly am I getting revenge on? Spoiler alert: The answer is no one but yourself.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
UFO Hearing: Pentagon Shows Declassified Footage of Flying Spherical Object
In one of the two videos shown, the Pentagon officials said they ‘do not have an explanation’ for what the spherical flying object is
Pentagon officials on May 17 showed lawmakers two videos of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), more colloquially known as UFOs, in the first open congressional hearing on the subject since 1966.
The testimonies before the House Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee showed two videos recorded by U.S. military personnel.
The first video, shot in 2021 by military personnel through the window of a U.S. Navy aircraft, showed a white-ish reflective spherical object flying past the aircraft.
“I do not have explanations for what this specific object is,” said Scott W. Bray, deputy director of naval intelligence involved in the UAP Task Force (UAPTF), the Pentagon body responsible for UAP investigations, at the hearing.
The second video, shot by an SLR camera via a night vision google, showed a triangular-shaped object moving in the sky while emitting light. This time, Bray is “reasonably confident” that these triangles were drones flying in the area.
“The triangular appearance is a result of light passing through the night vision goggles and then being recorded by an SLR camera,” Bray explained.
From stories of nuclear ICBMs rendered inoperable during a UFO sighting to footage of flying objects violating the laws of physics, Pentagon officials told lawmakers that sighting incidents are “frequent” and “increasing,” yet they cannot offer “firm conclusions” on their nature or intent.
The hearing came less than a year after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a report on the subject—commonly known as the Pentagon UAP report—in which the Pentagon identified 144 UAP sightings from 2004 to 2021, but was only able to explain one.
Bray said the “UAP Task Force database has now grown to contain approximately 400 reports” since the release of the preliminary assessment in June 2021.
Bray noted that some of the reports involved incidents where U.S. military aircraft picked up radio frequency (RF) energy from the UAPs, but none of these detections suggested that they were “non-terrestrial in origin.” The June 2021 report said that these detections of RF energy occurred in a “small number of cases.”
The official did not comment in the hearing about whether any of the remaining reports suggested evidence of extraterrestrial life.
Court Says Google Analytics Is Illegal
Google’s history of collecting personal data and manipulating your behavior extends to the Analytics program website owners use to evaluate the actions of people who visit their sites. A French agency says Google Analytics breaches GDPR rules based on a 2020 court case
European Union citizens and residents have the right to refuse to have online data collected, sold or distributed. Weeks before the French action, Austrian authorities also found Analytics violates GDPR rules
After years of research, Robert Epstein, a Harvard trained psychologist, found Google uses manipulative and deceptive practices that can sway your perceptions and behaviors, which is not limited to buying practices but also influences presidential elections
Surveillance data are helping to feed China’s social credit system that has enslaved a country’s citizens so they are unable to go to school, ride the train, buy groceries or get a good job unless their social credit score meets the government standard
HEALTH
Spike in Adult Hepatitis Cases Linked to Surge in Homelessness, Opioid Crisis
As adult viral hepatitis infections are on the rise in 22 states, some experts attribute the outbreaks to an increase in homelessness and the opioid crisis.
Within the states experiencing a relentless growth in hepatitis A, the highest number of reports are in Ohio (3,766), Tennessee (3,167), Indiana (2,660), South Carolina (2,233), and Georgia (1,990).
Concurrently, the same states also suffer among the worst homelessness rates and opioid-related deaths in the country.
Ohio is ranked in the top 10 United States for destitute populations. Montgomery County in the southwestern part of the state had the highest rates of drug overdose-related deaths in 2017, the majority of which have been attributed to opioid addiction.
In the Carolinas, some working in homeless outreach say the dilemma is inseparable from the country’s drug abuse problem.
“Everybody thinks this is an economic issue [but] 65 to 85 percent of homeless adults have a substance abuse problem,” Anthony Marciano II, president of the Charlotte Rescue Mission told The Epoch Times.
He explained that after years of working with displaced people, post-traumatic stress disorder, mental illness, domestic violence, and recreational drug abuse are all too common in the cases he’s encountered.
Between 2019 and 2020, the homeless population in the country increased by 2 percent, but the number of sheltered individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness increased by 20 percent from 2020 to 2021. And with that, came a new wave of hepatitis infections.
“To our surprise, starting in 2018-2019, there has been an extended nationwide outbreak of hepatitis A, particularly among homeless people,” Dr. William Schaffner told The Epoch Times.
Schaffner is a professor in infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville.
He says that one of the reasons the homeless population is driving the spread of hepatitis A is because of how it’s transmitted.
Will a Weaponized Bird Flu Become the Next Pandemic?
As news of the COVID pandemic winds down around the world, we’re suddenly seeing warnings of another pandemic brewing — bird flu, aka avian influenza (H5N1)
Natural bird flu is notoriously harmless to humans, but Bill Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci have, for many years, funded research to develop a bird flu pathogen capable of infecting humans
Some of that research has been undertaken in Pentagon-funded biolabs in Ukraine
Gates funded research by Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka, in which the bird flu virus was mixed with the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) virus, creating an airborne hybrid capable of completely evading the human immune system, effectively rendering humans defenseless against it
The U.S. and other countries have already started stockpiling H5N1 vaccine, and the H5N1 vaccine Audenz is being marketed “for 2022.” As if on cue, the first-ever H5N1-positive case was identified in the U.S. at the end of April 2022
These Meds May Ease Pain but Increase Mortality Risk 60%
Gabapentin and pregabalin are used for the treatment of epilepsy and neuropathic pain disorders. Pregabalin, such as Lyrica, is also prescribed for anxiety in Europe and fibromyalgia in the U.S.
Research links gabapentinoids with a 26% increased risk for suicidal behavior and death from suicide; 24% increased risk for unintentional overdose; 22% increased risk for head or body injury due to an accident; 13% increased risk for traffic violations or accidents and 4% increased risk for violent crime offenses
Of the two gabapentinoids, pregabalin — which is the newer of the two — was clearly the worst, accounting for most of these adverse effects, while gabapentin — an older drug — showed “no statistically significant hazards”
Research published in 2017 demonstrated that concomitant use of gabapentin and opioids raised the risk of death by 60% over and beyond the risk associated with either drug by itself
The suicide rate in the U.S. is now at a 20-year high, having risen 30% between 2000 and 2016 across all age groups. Among Native Americans and Alaska Natives the suicide rate between 1999 and 2017 rose 139% among women and 71% among men
—> Power Mall Product of Interest: CurcuminX4000 Now with added Fenugreek
Research suggests curcumin can help with the management of oxidative and inflammatory conditions, including metabolic syndrome, arthritis, anxiety, and hyperlipidemia. It may also help alleviate exercise-induced inflammation and muscle soreness, improving recovery and performance in active people.
It acts as an inhibitor of the COX-2 enzyme which is responsible for pain and inflammation. Studies also show it can also improve oxidative stress and reduce free radical damage. Now CurcuminX4000® can provide health benefits for a wide range of health conditions, with a lower dose, due to its high bioavailability and superior levels of absorption.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
The Great Reset Now Includes ‘Genetically Edited’ Food
This article unequivocally confirms my topic at the Crimes Against Humanity tour: “The Takeover Of All Genetic Material On Earth”, which is shocking in scope and consequence. These megalomaniac scientists have been methodically plotting this uninvited takeover in earnest since 1992. ⁃ TN Editor
The Queen’s Speech was interesting this year.
For all the people outside the UK who don’t understand what the “Queens Speech” actually is, it’s a farcical state occasion in which the Queen (or, in this case, Prince Charles since her majesty is ill/secretly dead/having “mobility issues”) makes a speech about what “her government” intends to do for the next 12 months.
Of course, the Queen doesn’t actually write the speech, or have any input on its content, or have any control at all over what “her” government intends to do. She’s just a mouthpiece in a big gold hat.
It’s the UK equivalent of the State of the Union, only done in Halloween costumes made out of shiny stolen rocks.
The whole thing is nothing but a grand, gilt statement of intent from the British Deep State, wrapped in mink and draped in medals they never earned. It’s a joke, but it is worth listening to.
Or, if you have a sensitive stomach, you can just read the full text the next day on the UK government’s website (that’s what I do).
A lot of the content is entirely predictable.
More money to Ukraine, with a promise the UK will “lead the way in championing security around the world”. More online censorship via the “Online Safety Bill”. A compulsory register for homeschooled children via the “Schools Reform Bill”.
There’s also mention of “securing the constitution” by introducing the UK’s own “Bill of Rights”. We broke down that particular Trojan Horse back in February.
But the part I found most interesting is the stated plan to “encourage agricultural and scientific innovation at home” via the proposed Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill.
The proposed bill (which, for some reason is not available through the parliament website) follows on from DEFRA’s announced “loosened regulation” of genetic research back in January.
To quote the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), the legislation would “take certain precision breeding techniques out of the scope of restrictive GMO rules”.
Essentially, this would see new “gene-edited” foods as distinct from old-fashioned “genetically modified” foods, and therefore not subject to the same rules and oversight.
The claimed distinction is that gene editing, as opposed to genetic modification, doesn’t introduce DNA from other species. Therefore, in effect, is merely speeding up what could potentially naturally happen over time.
Now, you might think this is just semantics, and that such a law will just provide a loophole for ALL “genetically modified” foods to simply rebrand themselves as “genetically edited” foods, and thereby avoid regulation. But that is disgustingly cynical and shame on you for even thinking it.
All in all, this is pretty on-message stuff, and not especially surprising. What’s noteworthy is – by pure happenstance, I’m sure – it appears to coincide with a renewed push on the GM food front in other countries all over the world.
In December 2021, Switzerland added an amendment to its moratorium on GMO crops, permitting the use of certain “gene editing” techniques.
Last month, Egypt announced their new strain of GM wheat. Just two days ago, Ethiopia’s National Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center announced they had researched, and the country will now be growing, genetically modified cotton and maize.
Despite Russia’s sweeping ban on the cultivation and/or importing of genetically modified crops, they have nonetheless created a 111 billion Ruble project to create up to 30 varieties of genetically edited plants and farm animals.
Britain’s deregulation of GM food is always described as a “post-Brexit” move – with the EU chided around the world for its “precautionary principle” on GM crops – and yet as long ago as last April, the EU was calling for a “rethink” on GM crops.
In fact, just today, European Biotechnology Magazine reports:
The EU Commission has launched its final consultation on the deregulation of new breeding techniques in agriculture
COVID RELATED NEWS
Fully Vaccinated Prone To Developing Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
The mRNA injections produced by Moderna, Pfizer, etc. all directly meddle with immune system functions. Based on government supplied data, they are now being linked with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Watch Big Pharma and their hoard of fact checking trolls jump on this with screams of denial and feigned outrage. ⁃ TN Editor
Something is very wrong, and it is because of the Covid-19 injections.
All around the world, Governments are publishing official data that all show the same thing. Those same Governments however are not willing to explain why.
Instead, they are quietly publishing data in the hope that it will get swept under the carpet whilst they have you distracted by war in Ukraine and worrying about the cost of living; a crisis created by Government policy.
But with the publication of confidential Pfizer documents, Governments around the world are running out of places to hide, and if these worrying trends continue, they will be forced to admit the Covid-19 injections are either causing Antibody-Dependent Enhancement or something much worse… Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.
Whilst rare, it is perfectly possible for a medication or drug to cause Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, and data published by Public Health Scotland, the New Zealand Ministry of Health, the Government of Canada, the UK Health Security Agency, the Office for National Statistics, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control strongly suggests the Covid-19 injections should be added to the list.
How else can Governments around the world explain the fact the fully vaccinated are more likely to be infected with Covid-19, more likely to be hospitalised with Covid-19, and more likely to die of Covid-19 than the unvaccinated?
How else can Governments around the world explain the huge rise in all-cause mortality rates among the fully vaccinated compared to the unvaccinated?
How else can Governments around the world explain the 1,145% to 33,715% increase in AIDS-related diseases, cancers and infections reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System in 2021?
Higher COVID-19 Infection Rates Among Vaccinated Children Than Unvaccinated, CDC Data Show
According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), higher COVID-19 case rates have been recorded among fully vaccinated children than unvaccinated in the age group 5-11 since February.
On Feb. 12, CDC reported a weekly case rate of 250.02 per 100,000 population in fully vaccinated children aged 5-11, compared to 245.82 for unvaccinated children in the same age group.
That’s the first time CDC recorded a higher case rate among fully vaccinated young children since data was first collected in December 2021. It remains for the following weeks till the third week of March, the latest week with available data.
Children aged 5–11 years became eligible for COVID-19 vaccination on Nov. 2, 2021. There are about 28 million children in this age group in the nation.
Currently, about 28.8 percent of children in this age group have been fully vaccinated, according to Mayo Clinic.
CDC’s data also show the gap in rates of cases between fully vaccinated and unvaccinated has become increasingly smaller among other age groups. The death rates show the same trend between fully vaccinated and unvaccinated for people above 50. For people under 50 years old, the death rates have not much difference since the rollout of the vaccine.
Quadruple Vaxed Sheila Jackson Lee Tests Positive for the Coronavirus
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) tested positive for the Chinese coronavirus, her office said in a statement on Monday, despite her status as both vaccinated and boosted.
“Statement: Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee tested positive for COVID. She is fully vaccinated and has received her boosters,” an update posted to Twitter reads. The statement suggests the congresswoman has been quadruple vaccinated, assuming she received the traditional two-dose series and later received “boosters,” per the statement.
Despite her positive results, the congresswoman is continuing to urge individuals to get both vaccinated and boosted.
“She encourages everyone to get tested and fully vaccinated along with their booster shots. She looks forward to a full and complete recovery,” the statement added
Over the weekend, the Democrat congresswoman held a baby formula giveaway in Houston, Texas, alongside the nonprofit National Association of Christian Churches. Clips of Jackson Lee at the event show her wearing a mask, albeit inconsistently:
Coronavirus update: Airlines face pilot shortage
Children were less active during the pandemic, study finds
COVID-19 tally as compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Previous numbers in parentheses.)
Total U.S. confirmed cases: 82,476,893 (82,437,716)
Total U.S. deaths: 999,607 (999,270)
Total global cases: 521,567,640 (521,213,114)
Total global deaths: 6,264,186 (6,263,478)
Airline industry faces pilot shortage
The pandemic is blamed for what has been called “the great resignation,” and it’s being felt especially in the airline industry. Airlines say they have fewer pilots than before COVID-19’s arrival. and it could affect summer flight schedules.
Industry insiders say COVID-19 reduced and slowed the training of new pilots. They also point to a wave of early retirements when airlines slashed flights in the early days of the pandemic.
Airline executives say the easiest and fastest remedy would be to raise the mandatory retirement age from 65 to 67 or older.
Children’s activity fell below federal guidelines during the pandemic
A new study conducted at the University of Bristol shows how much of an effect early COVID-19 lockdowns had on children’s health. Researchers say children’s physical activity levels were significantly lower by the time the COVID-19 pandemic public lockdown restrictions were lifted.
The researchers found that little more than a third of children – 36% – were meeting the recommended physical activity guidelines by the end of 2021. Specifically, children between the ages of 10 and 11 were active for just 56 minutes during weekdays from April 2021, to December 2021.
“These findings highlight a greater need to work with children, families, schools, and communities to maximize the opportunities for children to be physically active, as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said senior author Russ Jago.
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