WORLD NEWS
Paris Will Turn Off the Eiffel Tower’s Evening Lights Early in a Bid to Save Energy
In a bid to save energy ahead of the winter season, Paris is turning off the Eiffel Tower’s iconic light display an hour and fifteen minutes earlier every night.
Lowering the water temperature at municipal pools and delaying the heating of public buildings are also set to take effect as part of President Emmanuel Macron’s goal to reduce energy consumption by 10 percent across industries and households, Reuters reports.
Multicultural France Warns of ‘Very High’ Terror Threat as Rosh Hashanah Nears
With a number of Jewish holidays set to take place over the coming weeks, officials in multicultural France are now warning of a “very high” terror threat level in the country.
With Rosh Hashanah fast approaching, law enforcement agencies in France have been ordered to keep an eye out for suspicious individuals and activity during the Jewish holiday period over the next number of weeks, with officials warning that the country now faces “very high” terror threat level.
Germany Mulls Full Nationalization Of Largest Utility Company Uniper
Uniper is in discussions with Germany about transferring an even bigger stake of the troubled utility to the government, Uniper said in a Wednesday statement.
“The parties are looking into alternative solutions, inter alia a straight equity increase that would result in a significant majority participation by the German Government,” Uniper’s statement read.
The German government and the biggest German buyer of Russian gas, Uniper, agreed in July on a $15 billion bailout package to help the energy giant, which has been reeling from reduced Russian gas supply and soaring prices of non-Russian gas. Under the package, the German government bought a 30% stake in Uniper and made available further capital to help the company.
Russia shut down the key pipeline to Germany, Nord Stream, earlier this month, blaming the Western sanctions for the closure of the pipeline and saying that the gas export route wouldn’t reopen until sanctions impeding gas turbine maintenance in the West are lifted.
Since the July bailout of Uniper, losses at the German energy company have continued to mount as the energy crisis in Germany and Europe has worsened.
Last month, Uniper reported first-half 2022 losses of some $12.5 billion, with losses incurred due to the necessity of buying natural gas on the spot market as Russia cut flows to Germany.
Uniper’s parent firm, Finland-based Fortum put out a statement on Wednesday in which it said that since the July bailout, “the parties’ joint priority has been the implementation of the stabilisation measures and a long-term solution for Uniper. Due to the increased uncertainties in the operating environment, the parties are also looking into alternative solutions.”
“No decisions beyond what was agreed in the stabilisation package in July have been made,” Fortum said.
“Since July, Uniper’s financial losses due to the higher gas procurement cost and the uncertainty around the company’s future have rapidly and significantly increased. The deteriorating operating environment and Uniper’s financial situation have to be taken into account while Fortum, the German government and Uniper continue their discussions on a long-term solution for Uniper,” the Finnish firm said.
McDonald’s to Close All UK Locations on Queen’s Funeral to Allow Employees to Pay Respects
In order to allow their employees to pay respects to her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the McDonald’s corporation has announced it will be closing all of its locations during the Queen’s funeral on September 19th.
Every one of the 1,300 McDonald’s locations in the UK will be closed on Monday, September 19th until 5 pm as a mark of respect for the late Queen, with a spokesperson for the fast food giant explaining the closure was due to the fact the company “want to allow our people to pay their respects in the way they choose.”
South Korea Issues Arrest Warrant for Failed Cryptocurrency Developer
A South Korean court on Wednesday issued a warrant for the arrest of Do Kwon, founder of the blockchain platform Terraform Labs and creator of two cryptocurrencies called Luna and TerraUSD.
Investors accuse Kwon of fraud for peddling what turned out to be two of the greatest disasters in the young history of crypto.
America’s Billionaires Collectively Control the Hegemonic U.S. Imperial Government
In September 13th, two very grim reports about the world’s future were published, one by America’s Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, and the other by America’s Gallup polling organization; and both are data-based — as Melinda and Bill Gates expressed it in their joint Introduction to their new report, which is titled “The Future of Progress”: “We are data people, and this is a data report.”
Bill Gates’s essay there is titled “We need to change how we think about world hunger”, and opens:
“In February, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine interrupted the flow of grain from Europe to Africa, creating another humanitarian crisis on a second continent.”
Melinda Gates’s essay is titled “Gender equality depends on women having power, not just ‘empowerment’”, and opens,
“Economic progress for women is stalling worldwide — and COVID-19 is not the only reason why. But frankly, blaming COVID-19 alone would be a cop-out. We have to ask harder questions: Why do gender-neutral events like pandemics have gendered effects? And why, after decades of high-profile efforts to improve the lives of women and girls, is equality still generations out of reach?”
Both essays focus on different topics, but neither focuses on the chief driver of increased economic inequality itself, which is fundamental to everything that they discuss:
Its chief driver is their own and fellow-billionaires’ imperialism and the resultant soaring taxpayer-funded military-weapons-manufacturers’ and extraction-industries’ profits that derive from the resulting unique advantages that these billionaires derive from the empire that the Government that they and their fellow billionaires control for their own special economic benefit.
Only this structure empowers these billionaires to grab, for themselves and their friends, control over yet more of the world’s resources.
Whereas Melinda Gates mentions economic inequality as supposedly needing to be reduced in order to reduce gender-inequality (something which also has biological sources, which her essay ignores, as-if they don’t even exist at all);
and, whereas Bill Gates equally falsely assumes that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not a necessary defensive measure by Russia against these billionaires’ obsession to gain control of Russia, to make it yet another U.S. vassal-nation;
America’s billionaires, themselves, collectively control the insatiable global-hegemonic-control-obsessed U.S. imperial Government, which systematically is forcing-up economic inequality throughout the entire world. They refuse to see what they don’t want to see; and, so, it gets censored-out of every organization that they control.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
DeSantis Sends Illegal Immigrants on Flights to Martha’s Vineyard
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has sent two planes of illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, following through on his plan to send illegal aliens to Democrat-controlled areas.
Taryn Fenske, the governor’s communications director, told media outlets in a statement on Sept. 14 that the fights were part of Florida’s “relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations.”
“States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden administration’s open border policies,” Fenske added.
Fenske pointed out that Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature has handed DeSantis $12 million to transport illegal immigrants out of the state. When the Florida governor made the budget request in December, he named Martha’s Vineyard as one of the destinations for sending illegal aliens, as well as President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware.
Martha’s Vineyard—where former President Barack Obama bought a $12 million estate in 2019—is an island south of Cape Cod.
“Florida’s immigration relocation program both targets human smugglers found in Florida and preempts others from entering,” Fenske added.
About 50 illegal aliens from Venezuela, some of them children, arrived at Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday afternoon via charter flights, according to Boston-based broadcaster WCVB 5, citing state Sen. Julian Cyr, a Democrat who represents Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket.
Biden administration says ‘tentative’ deal reached to avoid national rail strike
The Biden Administration announced rail companies and unions reached a “tentative” agreement to void a national rail strike following an ongoing labor dispute.
On Thursday morning, the White House said in a statement that “better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs” will be given to rail workers.
President Joe Biden said in a statement the tentative deal “will keep our critical rail system working and avoid disruption of our economy.”
DOJ Responds to Trump, Insists on Keeping ‘Over 100’ Mar-a-Lago Documents
Lawyers for the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday filed a new motion that again seeks a stay in a judge’s order appointing a special master to review documents that were seized during last month’s FBI raid targeting former President Donald Trump’s residence.
In the latest filing, DOJ prosecutors said that they want a “limited” yet “critical” stay of the order so as to continue their review of certain documents. They argue that the materials could potentially “jeopardize national security.”
“These records are at the core of the government’s investigation, and the government’s inability to review and use them significantly constrains its investigation,” the DOJ wrote to Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee. “The compelled disclosure of records marked as classified to a special master further harms the Executive Branch’s interest in limiting access to such materials absent any valid purpose served by their review.”
Tuesday evening’s filing was issued largely in response to a motion issued by lawyers from Trump earlier this week. His lawyers argued against the DOJ’s request for a stay in Cannon’s order last week approving a special master.
The DOJ lawyers argue that they don’t want possession of all the documents but are seeking “a stay only as to a discrete set of just over 100 records marked as classified—that is, records that were specifically sought by a prior grand jury subpoena, whose unauthorized retention may constitute a crime.”
“[Trump] instead references other seized records that contain personal information or could be subject to attorney-client privilege, none of which are at issue in this stay motion,” the DOJ also wrote. “As to the records marked as classified, Plaintiff asserts that the government has not ‘proven’ their classification status.”
FBI Put Key Dossier Source on Payroll in Apparent Effort to Conceal Dossier Fabrications
Commentary
Special counsel John Durham filed a pre-trial motion in limine on Sept. 13 in his false statements case against Igor Danchenko, the primary sub-source of Christopher Steele’s dossier on Donald Trump. Danchenko, who is charged with five counts of lying to the FBI about his sources for the dossier, had earlier filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him.
Motions in limine are routine motions that are used to determine what evidence may and may not be used at trial. Danchenko’s trial is scheduled to begin next month.
However, Durham’s motion is anything but routine and contains a series of stunning revelations about Danchenko.
Perhaps the most stunning disclosure is that Danchenko was given confidential human source (CHS) status by the FBI in March 2017. Notably, this was after Danchenko had disowned the Steele dossier in a January 2017 FBI interview, having admitted that it was based on gossip and rumors. Given the admission, there was no legitimate reason to extend the protections of CHS status to Danchenko, who no longer had any bona fide value to the FBI’s investigation into alleged Trump–Russia collusion.
In fact, the FBI’s investigation ought to have ended as soon as Danchenko disclosed the true provenance of Steele’s reporting.
The FBI’s goal in giving Danchenko the highly coveted CHS status appears to have been to take Danchenko off the grid. As a CHS, Danchenko enjoyed special protections and privileges. Crucially, the FBI was able to use his status to conceal Danchenko and his disclosures from congressional inquiries, such as the investigation by then-Rep. Devin Nunes led by Kash Patel. Other inquiries, such as Freedom of Information Act requests, could similarly be stonewalled by reference to the “sources and methods” justification for concealing the identity, and even the existence, of a CHS.
The FBI had huge incentives to hide Danchenko. Although Danchenko told the FBI several lies in what Durham now describes was an attempt to reconcile what Danchenko had told Steele, the overarching message from Danchenko was that the dossier was untrue. This effectively ended any legitimate inquiry into Trump–Russia collusion. Danchenko’s disavowal also meant that the FBI’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page—which were issued based on the Steele dossier—were effectively invalidated.
The FBI had a legal duty to inform the FISA court about Danchenko but failed to do so. In fact, they successfully applied for two further FISA warrants against Page on the basis of the Steele dossier which they knew to be false.
Democrat Tim Ryan Goes Silent After Saying Voters Must ‘Kill’ MAGA Movement
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), running against Republican J.D. Vance for Ohio’s open United States Senate seat, has gone silent after saying “Democrats, Republicans, and Independents” must “kill and confront” former President Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) populist-nationalist movement.
On Tuesday, Ryan called for voters to “kill and confront” the MAGA movement even as more than 3.1 million Ohioans voted for Trump in the 2020 election and more than 2.8 million voted for him in the 2016 election.
“How do we fix all of these broken systems? Some of those answers will come from Republicans, not the extremists that we are dealing with every single day. We’ve got to kill and confront that movement, but working with normal mainstream Republicans, that’s going to be really, really important,” Ryan said on MSNBC.
“I’m saying exhausted majority — Democrats, Republicans, Independents against the extremists, leading an era of reform around reconciliation so we can heal this country and move into the future,” he continued.
Since the remark, Ryan has been silent, refusing to answer questions from Breitbart News. He also has not posted a statement retracting the “kill and confront” comment. Elected Democrats, alike, have not called on Ryan to apologize for the remark.
Arizona Man Gets Prison Time for Illegally Voting in 2020 Presidential Election
An Arizona man was sentenced with an 18-month prison sentence on Sept. 12 for illegally voting during the 2020 presidential election, according to the state attorney general’s office.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said Roberto Garcia, 35, completed a voter registration form and falsely indicated that he wasn’t convicted of a felony. He also falsely said he had his voting rights restored, according to a Sept. 13 press release from Brnovich’s office, adding that he cast a vote during the 2020 general election.
It isn’t clear who Garcia—who entered a guilty plea on a felony count of illegal voting earlier this year—voted for during the election. Brnovich’s office didn’t release that information.
“The indictment alleged that Garcia falsely completed a voter registration form indicating that he had not been convicted of a felony or that his rights had been restored,” his office said, noting that Garcia was previously convicted of two felonies and didn’t have his voting rights restored.
As part of a plea deal, Garcia admitted he knew that he wasn’t entitled to vote when he cast a ballot on Nov. 3, 2020.
But according to Brnovich’s office: “Garcia’s ineligibility was unknown to Pinal County Election Officials at the time the defendant registered [to vote] in January of 2020, and his vote was counted in the 2020 General Election. … Garcia will be eligible to register to vote again only after applying for rights restoration after his sentence is complete.”
Garcia is currently serving a prison term for an unrelated offense. Brnovich’s office said his 18-month prison term will be served concurrently with the other prison sentence.
Former CNN Anchor Chris Cuomo Slams Democrats for Demonizing Trump Voters
Ex-CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on Monday criticized Democrats for their unflattering characterization of those voting for former President Donald Trump.
Cuomo, who joined NewsNation in June after being fired by CNN last December, started a Twitter thread by questioning his former employer over a report from that day.
CNN reported on claims that Trump said he wouldn’t leave the White House following the 2020 election. The report is based on a forthcoming book by New York Times reporter and open Trump critic Maggie Haberman.
“Does this matter? Yes—in the pursuit of justice, which is happening aggressively by most accounts,” Cuomo said. “However—do Dems win more votes by chasing Trump or catering to hopes and fears of those who were disaffected/desperate enough to vote for him?”
Following the comment, Cuomo responded to a Twitter user who stated that the “‘disaffected’ voter theory” has been debunked.
“What are you talking about? It is not a theory…it is a reality I witnessed in countless [interviews] with voters who saw their vote as a rejection of the norm…who knew their guy was deeply flawed but he was their guy and a rejection of what they also saw as malignant in dc,” Cuomo wrote.
CNN Legal Expert Page Pate Dies, Cause of Death Revealed
Regular CNN guest Page Pate died at the age of 55 after he was swept away by a rip current near St. Simons Island, Georgia, according to his law firm and local officials.
Glynn County Fire-Rescue acting Chief Vinnie DiCristofalo told CNN, where he served as an on-air legal expert, that Pate was swept away by a rip current at around 2 p.m. on Sunday at Gould’s Inlet beach. His body was recovered by a rescue boat later that day, officials said.
First responders got a call about “two swimmers in distress,” DiCristofalo said, adding that the other swimmer was Pate’s son. Later, responders learned that “the adolescent victim reached shore safely,” DiCristofalo added.
“I don’t have direct information whether they were together and got drawn out,” DiCristofalo continued, noting that Gould’s Inlet is known to have harsh rip currents.
Glynn County Coroner Marc Neu told the Brunswick News that a rescue crew tried to revive Pate when he was pulled from the water. He was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, Neu said.
“Some of Page’s happiest moments were on trips with his sons, whether long hikes on the West Coast or taking in NASCAR races,” Pate’s family said in a statement to 11Alive news.
“Though he was a formidable, sometimes intimidating, attorney in the courtroom, Page had an easy smile, an earnest laugh, and a great sense of humor,” Pate’s law firm, Pate, Johnson, and Church, also told local outlets in a statement.
Pate was a resident of Georgia and had 25 years of experience in civil litigation and criminal defense, according to the law firm’s website.
The Department of Defense (DoD) has been in “potential noncompliance” with standards for reviewing and communicating denials of religious accommodation requests to the vaccine mandate, the Pentagon’s watchdog wrote to the secretary of defense in a June memo obtained by The Epoch Times.
The June 2 memo by acting Inspector General (IG) Sean W. O’Donnell stated that after reviewing dozens of complaints from service members who were denied religious accommodation, the IG’s office “found a trend of generalized assessments rather than the individualized assessment that is required by Federal law and DoD and Military Service policies.”
The purpose of the memo was to inform the secretary of defense of “potential noncompliance with standards for reviewing and documenting the denial of religious accommodation requests of Service members identified through complaints submitted to the [IG’s] office.”
“The denial memorandums we reviewed generally did not reflect an individualized analysis, demonstrating that the Senior Military Official considered the full range of facts and circumstances relevant to the particular religious accommodation request,” the memo stated.
The memo provided an example of such cursory treatment. An Air Force general used a one-sentence statement to deny an airman’s request: “I disapprove your request for exemption from vaccinations under the provisions of AFI 48-110, paragraph 2-6.b.3.”
The acting IG also noted that the volume and rate of denial decisions were “concerning.”
An average of 50 denials per day were processed over a 90-day period, according to the memo.
“Assuming a 10-hour work day with no breaks or attention to other matters, the average review period was about 12 minutes for each package,” it stated.
“Such a review period seems insufficient to process each request in an individualized manner and still perform the duties required for their position,” the memo continued.
In the wake of the assault of several Jan. 6 prisoners and subsequent lockdown at the District of Columbia jail, United States Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) is demanding a welfare check on the inmates.
As reported by The Epoch Times, “It began without warning. A Jan. 6 prisoner had emerged from his cell without a mask. When it was all over, the jail was in lockdown and several inmates had been pepper sprayed, handcuffed, and thrown into solitary confinement. Inmate tablets were quickly confiscated, but not before several prisoners had time to send text messages, exposing the brutal truth of what happened.” Many of those messages were obtained by The Epoch Times. According to one text message, “[Expletive] just went down” at the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF) in Washington, D.C., around 9:46 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 5.
‘Nice,’ Evil Aren’t Necessarily Mutually Exclusive
It can be said that gaining wisdom is a process of gaining some dark insights into life.
One such insight is this: A lot of evil has been abetted by nice people.
By “nice,” I am referring to the way people comport themselves in the personal realm. We refer to people as being “nice” if they are friendly to strangers, more or less honest in their dealings with others, take care of their families, support friends, and are pleasant to be around.
We all want nice neighbors.
To put it another way, “nice” generally refers to the micro—the personal—realm. It does not generally refer to the macro realm; that is, to the views and values people hold about moral and social questions.
The human being is composed of two moral components: the micro and the macro. In a truly good human being (“good” is not the same as “nice”), one is good in both realms. It is therefore quite possible to be nice in the micro and hold awful values for society, and it is quite possible to have excellent macro values, and not be a particularly nice person.
Take communism, for example.
Communist regimes killed some 100 million people in the 20th century—none of them combatants in war. Add to that number more than a billion devastated lives: the friends and family of the murdered, the generations deprived of elementary human rights, and the countless number of innocent people imprisoned and tortured, and you have as pure an evil as is imaginable.
You might, therefore, think that no one who supported communism, let alone was a member of a communist party anywhere in the world, was a nice person. But you would be wrong. There were many nice people who supported communism. There were even nice people among the Westerners who provided Josef Stalin with the secrets to making an atom bomb.
The only competitor with communism for pure evil was, of course, Nazism. While the communists murdered far more people, the Nazis’ systematic industrial murder of almost every Jewish man, woman, and child in Europe remains the most horrific crime ever committed by a nation.
One would, therefore, assume, especially given the absence of moral rhetoric that characterized communist rhetoric, that there could hardly have been any nice supporters of Nazism.
But you would be wrong again.
Biden Administration Added $4.8 Trillion to Deficits: Budget Watchdog
A new report by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) estimates that the policies the Biden administration has implemented through executive actions and legislative efforts will add about $4.8 trillion to deficits between 2021 and 2023.
Even if the American Rescue Plan (ARP) were removed from the equation, the White House would still have contributed approximately $2.5 trillion to deficits until 2031, the organization stated.
“This is on top of the trillions of dollars we were projected to borrow before President Biden took office,” the CRFB noted in its report on Sept.13.
The $4.8 trillion consists of $4.6 trillion of new spending, which includes $3 trillion from legislation and $1.1 trillion from executive edicts. Some of the specific policies that have exacerbated the federal government’s fiscal challenges were the fiscal year 2022 Omnibus Bill ($625 billion), the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 ($370 billion), Ukraine supplemental appropriations bills ($55 billion), and net interest ($700 billion).
EXCLUSIVE: MyPillow’s Mike Lindell Speaks out After FBI Seizes Phone
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was picking up food at a fast food chain drive-through when three cars driven by federal agents blocked him.
It was Sept. 13 afternoon in Mankato, Minnesota. Lindell and a friend were halfway back from a duck hunting trip in Iowa.
As one car pulled up perpendicularly in front of his car, a second pulled up alongside; and a third then appeared from behind, sandwiching Lindell’s car in the middle.
Lindell stuck his head out of the car window. “Who are you guys?” he asked.
The agents identified themselves as the FBI. “We just wanted to talk to you,” they said, Lindell recounted in an interview with The Epoch Times.
The FBI, he said, targeted him over the voter fraud allegations he has voiced, and later seized his cell phone despite his vocal protests.
In what might have lasted between half an hour and 45 minutes, Lindell’s food ran cold and his ice cream malt melted as the FBI agents questioned his proof to back up the election fraud allegations. Among other lines of questioning were Lindell’s ties to Colorado Mesa County clerk Tina Peters, the local election overseer he met at a cyber symposium he hosted last August. Peters has faced charges related to a breach of security protocols for her county’s voting systems, to which she pleaded not guilty last week.
They asked him about his meeting with Ohio math teacher Douglas Frank, who also believes the 2020 presidential election results were manipulated, and about Lindell’s frequent air travel.
“Well, I got bad news for you: we are going to take your cell phone,” Lindell remembered the agents saying.
“No you are not, I’d rather be arrested, you are not going to get my phone,” he replied. Since he doesn’t have a computer, he said his phone was an essential device that he leans on to run his five businesses.
“They want people to be scared to talk to Mike Lindell,” Lindell, who relented and handed over his phone after consulting his lawyer, told The Epoch Times on Wednesday.
“You might get your phone taken at a drive-through restaurant, you might get your door bashed in by the FBI,” he said, noting the string of FBI subpoenas for allies of former President Donald Trump reported in recent weeks.
While Lindell initially thought the FBI was interested in him as part of the House probe into the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, the agents told him they had two separate cases in which he is named.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Illegal Immigrants Cost US Taxpayers an Extra $20.4 Billion Annually: Report
U.S. taxpayers are forking out an additional over $20 billion each year to meet the needs of illegal aliens who entered the country under the Biden administration, according to a new cost analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
The immigration group said it “conservatively estimates” that American taxpayers will end up paying each illegal alien $9,232, or an overall $20.4 billion burden a year to support the population. It comes in addition to the $140 billion existing annual cost of providing benefits and services for long-term illegal immigrants.
The calculation is based on an estimated 2.3 million illegal aliens who successfully entered the country’s interior under President Joe Biden, including about one million “gotaways” who evaded apprehension and have since disappeared into American communities.
“Even in an age in which trillion dollar spending packages are considered modest, the additional $20.4 billion the Biden Border Crisis has heaped onto the backs of American taxpayers is still staggering,” FAIR President Dan Stein said in a Sept. 13 press release.
After rolling back key Trump-era policies designed to deter illegal entry through the southern border, Biden has presided over the largest number of apprehensions of illegal immigrants at the U.S.–Mexico border in a calendar year in history.
“$20.4 billion could address some very important needs of the American public, instead of covering the costs of the surge of illegal migration triggered by this administration’s policies,” Stein continued.
He cited a recent study that found “more than one-third of families that work full time, year-round do not earn enough to cover a basic family budget that includes food, housing, child care, medical care, transportation, taxes, and other necessities.”
“These are the people President Biden pledged to champion. Instead, he is choosing to divert an additional $20.4 billion away from their needs, in order to fund a radical open borders agenda with no end in sight,” the president concluded.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
News Analysis
The shareholders of Twitter on the afternoon of Sept. 13 signaled their approval of Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover bid, but this development comes amid an intensifying legal battle as Musk seeks to pull out of a deal that looks less and less attractive because of longtime mismanagement and censorship of viewpoints on the social media platform, observers say.
The announcement about shareholder approval came in the midst of damning testimony by a high-profile Twitter whistleblower at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, at which Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal declined to appear, reportedly out of concern for how his testifying might affect the ongoing litigation with Musk.
During this hearing, Peiter Zatko, a security executive whom Twitter fired in January, stated that security at the social media platform was lax, and indicated that he and other security personnel at Twitter had received communications about at least one employee of Twitter being an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security, the regime’s top intelligence agency.
Adding to these concerns, Twitter’s recent temporary blocking of content from The Epoch Times, its banning of former president Donald Trump in January 2021, its banning last month of author James Lindsay, its suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story reported by the New York Post, and other censorious measures have hurt the company’s reputation and weakened its value to the point where Twitter needs Musk far more than he needs Twitter, experts have told The Epoch Times.
HEALTH
Vitamin B6 Supplementation Can Reduce Anxiety
Data show vitamin B6 has a positive effect on anxiety and a data trend toward reduced depression, which researchers attribute to an increase in the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA
Researchers found that vitamin B6 had the same effect on visual testing affected by GABA as the drug alprazolam, a benzodiazepine commonly prescribed for anxiety
People with an anxiety disorder have a high likelihood of also being diagnosed with depression. Treatment for anxiety can include benzodiazepines and treatment for depression often includes antidepressants, initially approved for short-term use, although many continue to take them for years
Prominent medical journalist Robert Whitaker points out the marketing strategy involved in turning people into lifelong patients by promoting the debunked theory that low serotonin levels are responsible for depression and that serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), a class of antidepressant, are necessary to fix that depression
A combination of magnesium and vitamin B6 is a powerful treatment for severe stress. Both are found abundantly in whole food; people who primarily eat a processed food diet may consider supplementing with magnesium as they begin to eliminate processed foods from their diet
Elderberry: The Science Behind This Immune-Boosting Supplement
Elderberries have been used for centuries for their medicinal qualities. In fact, way back in 400 B.C., Hippocrates, known as the “Father of Medicine,” called the elder tree his medicine chest. Sales of elderberry soared to $276 million in 2020, five times the sales figure in 2018, due to COVID-19 and elderberry’s reputation for its disease-fighting and immune-boosting properties.
Elderberry extract prevents oxidative stress, stimulates the immune system, and can even lower blood pressure and blood sugar. According to Nutritional Outlook, supplementation with elderberry reduces the severity of symptoms in upper respiratory tract infections like colds and flu.
A study published in the Journal of Functional Foods found that elderberry extract is an effective way to block viruses from entering and attaching to healthy cells. For the study, researchers applied a serum made from elderberries directly onto cells before, during, and after they had been infected with the influenza virus.
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ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
VIDEO: Nanoparticulate Rain, Interview With A Scientist (Dane Wigington interviews a well-credentialed scientist on nanoparticulate rain!)
States to Ban Gas-Powered Cars Despite EVs’ Human, Environmental Costs
In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, locals watch helplessly as their ancestral lands wither and die, their precious water resources evaporating in briny salars.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, hope for a better life dissolves as well-funded Ugandan-led extremist groups force children as young as 6 to work in cobalt mines.
Closer to home, Nevada’s Fort McDermitt Tribe and local ranchers fight to protect a sacred burial site and agricultural lands set to be sacrificed by Lithium Nevada, a mining company, in the coming days.
Meanwhile, in California and other states, politicians such as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) pat themselves on the back for their “aggressive” environmental stance and boast that their gas-powered vehicle bans are leading “the revolution towards our zero-emission transportation future.”
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Former Military Bunkers Are Home for Hundreds of Survival-Minded People
Tom and Mary Soulsby of Georgia aimed to build their dream home in Tennessee as part of their plan to retire to a safe rural location following the 2020 riots and civil unrest.
The property had everything they desired: peace, dense forests, green pastures, and a duck pond. The home would have a cement basement. That way, they could rebuild on a solid foundation if the house was somehow demolished or burned down.
While doing online research on basements, Tom Soulsby said he must have entered “bunker” in the Google search by accident.
A link popped up to The Vivos Group, the owner and developer of Vivos xPoint, a massive home-conversion project involving 575 former military bunkers near the Black Hills area of South Dakota.
Soulsby was intrigued.
“I obsessed over it for about six months,” he said. “When they had an open house, I made plans to come out and see the place.”
After he and his wife visited the site in July 2021, they agreed there were huge advantages to living off the grid in a converted World War II bunker. All it needed was a decent interior makeover.
“The structure itself was a no-brainer,” Tom Soulsby told The Epoch Times.
The Soulsbys decided to sell their property in Tennessee—where he was an information technology worker and Mary was an accountant—and begin a new life together at Vivos xPoint.
They’ve never looked back.
“We all have a common interest in having a secure place, and we all have a common interest in having a community,” Mary Soulsby said.
“With current events and trends, they just reinforce that we made the right decision coming out here,” said Tom Soulsby, who now works as site manager at Vivos xPoint.
CANCEL CULTURE
Illegal Collusion Between Government and Big Tech Exposed
Federal officials in the Biden administration have held secret and illegal censorship meetings with social media companies to suppress Americans’ First Amendment rights to free speech, and to ban or deplatform those who share unauthorized views about COVID and vaccines
The evidence for this comes out of a lawsuit brought by the New Civil Liberties Alliance and the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana (Eric Schmitt and Jeff Landry) against President Biden, filed in May 2022
Monthly, a Unified Strategies Group (USG) meeting took place — and may still be taking place — between a wide variety of government agencies and Big Tech companies, during which topics to be censored and suppressed were/are discussed
Censored topics included stories involving COVID jab refusal, especially those involving military refusals and consequences thereof, criticism against COVID restrictions and their effects on mental health, posts talking about testing positive for COVID after getting the jab, personal stories of COVID jab side effects, including menstrual irregularities, and worries about vaccine passports becoming mandatory
Discovery documents obtained so far have identified more than 50 federal employees across 15 federal agencies, engaged in illegal censorship activities. Emails from the strategic communications and marketing firm Reingold also reveals outside consultants were hired to manage the government’s collusion with social media to violate Americans’ Constitutional free speech rights
Overthrow the Government: All the Ways in Which Our Rights Have Been Usurped
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” — Abraham Lincoln
It’s easy to become discouraged about the state of our nation.
We’re drowning under the weight of too much debt, too many wars, too much power in the hands of a centralized government, too many militarized police, too many laws, too many lobbyists, and generally too much bad news.
It’s harder to believe that change is possible, that the system can be reformed, that politicians can be principled, that courts can be just, that good can overcome evil, and that freedom will prevail.
So where does that leave us?
Benjamin Franklin provided the answer. As the delegates to the Constitutional Convention trudged out of Independence Hall on September 17, 1787, an anxious woman in the crowd waiting at the entrance inquired of Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” “A republic,” Franklin replied, “if you can keep it.”
What Franklin meant, of course, is that when all is said and done, we get the government we deserve.
Those who gave us the Constitution and the Bill of Rights believed that the government exists at the behest of its citizens. It is there to protect, defend and even enhance our freedoms, not violate them.
Unfortunately, although the Bill of Rights was adopted as a means of protecting the people against government tyranny, in America today, the government does whatever it wants, freedom be damned.
“We the people” have been terrorized, traumatized, and tricked into a semi-permanent state of compliance by a government that cares nothing for our lives or our liberties.
The bogeyman’s names and faces have changed over time (terrorism, the war on drugs, illegal immigration, a viral pandemic, and more to come), but the end result remains the same: in the so-called name of national security, the Constitution has been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded with the support of Congress, the White House, and the courts.
A recitation of the Bill of Rights—set against a backdrop of government surveillance, militarized police, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, eminent domain, overcriminalization, armed surveillance drones, whole body scanners, stop and frisk searches, vaccine mandates, lockdowns, and the like (all sanctioned by Congress, the White House, and the courts)—would understandably sound more like a eulogy to freedoms lost than an affirmation of rights we truly possess.
What we are left with today is but a shadow of the robust document adopted more than two centuries ago. Sadly, most of the damage has been inflicted upon the Bill of Rights.
PET NEWS
Disaster preparedness for pets: Top tips for emergency situations with your dog or cat
From waking unsuspecting family members during a spreading housefire, to detecting the onset of an epileptic seizure, we’ve all heard incredible stories of pets heroically swooping in during an emergency and saving the day. But what happens when disaster strikes and they need your help? Your beloved pets are relying on you to keep them out of harm’s way, no matter what the scenario is, and these days, we need to be ready for whatever Mother Nature has to throw at us. With some advance preparation and basic but essential supplies, pet parents can calmly ensure the safety and well-being of their pets in any situation. Follow these disaster preparedness tips for pets to ensure your family is ready before, during and after a catastrophic event.
How to prepare for disaster before an emergency
The first step of your plan is, well, to have a plan. This includes preparing your pet for emergencies ranging from short term evacuations, to all-out catastrophes. With your plan confidently in place, you can remain calm and keep those around you calm too.
GOOD NEWS
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) can help you rid your mind of negative thoughts and emotions, facilitating gratitude
EFT is especially helpful on those days when you feel like nothing is going right or you’ve received bad news
EFT can be invaluable in helping to free you from negativity, leaving room for feelings of gratitude to surface
Gratitude is associated with life satisfaction and multiple health benefits, in part because gratitude may lead to better psychological health and an increase in healthy activities
Gratitude is known to facilitate improvements in healthy eating and benefits depression by enhancing self-esteem and well-being
Watch: Tap into Gratitude (and out of a funk): EFT/Tapping with Julie Schiffman
‘I Had God on My Side’: Man Fighting Cancer Marries in Hospital, Becomes Cancer-Free Months Later
Holding firm to their faith, a God-loving couple not only honored their predestined connection to be a husband and wife but also overcame one of the toughest hardships of their life, together. The groom, who was battling cancer of the brain and spine, was declared cancer-free in August—just about four months after marrying his high school sweetheart in a hospital.
Hairstylist Madison Stroup, 24, and life insurance agent Zach Stroup, 26, live outside of Fort Collins, Colorado, where both were born and raised. But their wedding day was not the event they always envisioned. When Zach was first diagnosed with aggressive stage 4 cancer in 2020, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in his liver and lungs, the couple were beyond shocked.
ICYMI
TEXIT VIDEO: ALAMO MARCH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ9He4swCdk&t=369s
Rainwater everywhere on Earth unsafe to drink due to ‘forever chemicals’, study finds
Rainwater almost everywhere on Earth has unsafe levels of ‘forever chemicals’, according to new research.
Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large family of human-made chemicals that don’t occur in nature. They are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they don’t break down in the environment.
They have non-stick or stain repellent properties so can be found in household items like food packaging, electronics, cosmetics and cookware.
But now researchers at the University of Stockholm have found them in rainwater in most locations on the planet – including Antarctica. There is no safe space to escape them.
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