Fri. May 10th, 2024

Month: January 2023

Suppressing Repurposed Drugs ‘Cost Millions of Lives’: Founder of COVID Treatment Fund

Doctors who dare to question vaccine safety are maligned: Steve Kirsch

The executive director of the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation, Steve Kirsch, has been working to make early COVID drug treatments available to the public, despite being assailed by the medical establishment for speaking out about the dangers of the COVID vaccines.

During the pandemic, he founded the COVID-19 Treatment Fund to raise money to test repurposed drugs for use in treating COVID, while health agencies were dismissing their effectiveness and urging the public to get vaccinated as the only way to prevent severe illness and hospitalization.

Not allowing the testing and use of repurposed drugs has cost too many lives said, Kirsch.

“This has cost millions of lives,” and the problem was compounded by a hospital COVID treatment protocol “that was almost certain to kill you,” Kirsch said during a recent interview on EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program.

He said the COVID protocols hospitals have followed, although sanctioned by the federal health agencies, added to the death toll.

It’s approved by the NIH, and if [hospitals] stick with the NIH and the CDC approved protocols, [hospitals] get compensated, and there’s no liability,” said Kirsch.

Related Coverage

‘This Has Cost Millions of Lives’: Steve Kirsch on Suppression of Repurposed Drugs and a Spike in Deaths 5 Months After Vaccine Rollout

EET_Infographic_Covidtreatments_webteaserimage
A variety of FDA-approved and non-FDA-approved COVID-19 treatments. (Illustration by The Epoch Times)

Early Treatment Works

At the start of the pandemic, Kirsch donated a million dollars and raised five million to fund clinical trials and recruited a 14-person scientific advisory board all to test repurposed drugs for COVID treatment.

“What we discovered was that many of these drugs were remarkably effective,” said Kirsch. One of the repurposed drugs, fluvoxamine, was successful in treating COVID and featured on 60 Minutes, but was not mentioned that it was highly effective in treating COVID.

If patients started taking the drug right when they started to develop COVID symptoms, the results were very good with no hospitalizations. After the study, Kirsch tried to get emergency authorization from the FDA but was told that the study had insufficient evidence.

Epoch Times Photo
In this image from video, Food and Drug Administration officials discuss with the agency’s vaccine advisory committee matters relating to an emergency use authorization expansion application from Moderna for its COVID-19 vaccine, in a virtual meeting on Oct. 14, 2021. (The Epoch Times via FDA)

“This is something that is killing people, that is a world emergency, and it took the FDA six weeks to act on data that could be reviewed in an hour. The fix is in, they’re not going to approve anything,” said Kirsch.

Even after more studies came out proving that this drug was effective in curing COVID, the FDA still rejected its use but approved a bivalent COVID booster with no human trials.

“There’s no evidence of a benefit [for bivalent booster], yet they approve it for that, but for fluvoxamine, which had a stellar track record and an incredible safety record for 30 years. They said nope, insufficient evidence,” said Kirsch.

The Epoch Times reached out to the FDA for comment.

Because Kirsch had limited funds, he said he also went to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to ask: “Hey, would you help me fund early treatment because that’s the fastest, safest, cheapest way? Let’s try what’s on the shelf. They said, ‘nope, we’re out of money.’”

Bill Gates and Melinda Gates
Bill Gates and his former wife Melinda, watch the game between Britain’s Andy Murray of Team Europe and Australia’s Alex de Minaur of Team World at the 2022 Laver Cup at the O2 Arena in London on Sept. 23, 2022. (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

Vaccine Narrative

Kirsch said doctors are all taught to revere vaccines and because they don’t have time to research everything themselves, they trust the guidance that comes down from the top health agencies like the CDC, FDA, and NIH. In addition, there is almost no pushback against the mainstream medical narrative from journalists.

“The government narrative, of course, is the mainstream medical thinking, that is influenced by [NIHID Director] Tony Fauci,” said Kirsch.

“Fundamentally, the news media is supposed to say, well, this side said this, and this said this, you decide, but what they’ve turned into is an advocacy organization for the government narrative,” said Kirsch.

Kirsch believes the reason the CDC is pushing the vaccines and why no one is looking objectively at the safety data is because of “group think.”

“They all are trained to believe that vaccines are safe and effective. They are all mentally conditioned,” said Kirsch, as are most people in society who trust that vaccines are good for public health.

“This is a vaccine, which is mandated, which is throwing a death safety signal, and I can’t get a call back from Martha Sharon at the CDC. I even sent emails to Rochelle Walensky and never get a response.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the CDC for comment from Sharon and Walensky.

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo
Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo speaks during a press conference at the University of Miami Health System Don Soffer Clinical Research Center in Miami, Fla., on May 17, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Risk of Death

The government narrative about the COVID vaccines is that they are safe and effective, despite their own vaccine adverse reporting system showing otherwise, said Kirsch, as well as many studies and statistics that show heart inflammation and death are serious risks for young people, especially men.

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladopo recently advised people not to vaccinate the young, especially working-age young men. Ladopo found in a study that they are almost two times more likely to have heart problems or face sudden death from the vaccines within four weeks of their last shot.

However, Kirsch thinks Ladopo should have looked at a full 6 months to discover the real threat of dying from the COVID vaccines, because he has also observed a mid-term risk of death from the shots.

Kirsch notes that according to all the vaccine adverse event data he has analyzed, there are two peaks of vaccine-related mortality: one within a few weeks of the shot and the other at five months after COVID injection.

“The vaccine [can] either kill you very quickly, within weeks, because of inflammation, or it will cause clogging in your arteries that will show up about five months later,” said Kirsch. “There are two different mechanisms going on, and they have two different time constants. It turns out that the five-month death is actually larger than that [which] happens within the first 28 days.”

A significant amount of data shows, that if “there’s a big spike in vaccination in April, and there’s a big spike in deaths in September, five months difference.” Embalmers and insurance companies can verify the data coming out of multiple countries which show deaths at 5 months caused by clotting.

Related Coverage

Excess Mortality Doubled for Americans Aged 35 to 44: Edward Dowd on New Society of Actuaries Data

Hiding Safety Data

Kirsch cites the fact that the Israeli Ministry of Health neglected to collect and later kept vaccine adverse effect data from the public, even though their own research team found many serious and long-term health problems from getting the shots.

The research team, “about two months into it, they report, hey, we’ve got a problem here. This this vaccine is not safe. We’re seeing safety signals,” said Kirsch.

Although the Israeli Ministry of Health allegedly tried to bury the data, a video presentation from the research team was recorded and leaked to a journalist who shared it with a few independent media outlets said, Kirsch.

This is true not just of Israel but many other countries as well, they all have similar data on the impact of the vaccines, yet no one that Kirsch has contacted at top research universities, the NIH, or mainstream media has wanted to expose or look into the cover-up of the vaccine safety data.

Backlash

Although Kirsch has had a very successful career as a tech entrepreneur and philanthropist, because he has been outspoken about the dangers of COVID vaccines he has been attacked, censored, lost friends and colleagues, and been maligned; including having his LinkedIn resumé deleted and a significant philanthropic award—the National Caring Award—erased from his Wiki page.

“When you tell the truth on social media if you speak against what the government narrative is, you end up being banned, and you end up being demonized. And when I started speaking out against the vaccine, within a week, all 14 members of [my] scientific advisory board quit,” said Kirsch.

Marsha Gee, a top nurse at the University of California San Diego, was injured from the vaccines but instead of being supported by her employer, she was subjected “thrown under the bus” and treated as though she was crazy, said Kirsch.

Epoch Times Photo
Dr. Aseem Malhotra. (Courtesy of Dr. Aseem Malhotra)

Doctors Are Attacked

But more and more people including doctors are realizing that these vaccines are not as safe or effective as claimed, such as British Cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra, who because a skeptic after his father died from a sudden heart condition after getting vaccinated. He then dug into the COVID adverse data and discovered the dangers of the shots and is now calling for an end to the COVID vaccine mandates.

“The same thing [happened to Paul Marik], he took the vaccine because his peers told him it’s safe and effective, and then he started meeting vaccine injured, and then he started looking at the data,” said Kirsch. Marik has discovered a large amount of negative data and now thinks, “I was lied to, and he is appalled at what has gone on in the medical community.”

Epoch Times Photo
Dr. Paul Marik in Kissimmee, Fla. on Oct. 14, 2022. (The Epoch Times)

Even more disturbing is the censorship in scientific journals, and on social media platforms, “which is unconstitutional, where they’re collaborating with social media companies, to censor people like me, and Robert Malone and Peter McCullough.”

“I‘ve seen multiple analyses of data, whether it’s from San Diego or Ontario, that show there is no hospitalization benefit, that there is no infection benefit, and there is no death benefit. So we are doing all this, we are turning the country upside down and mandating a vaccine which is killing people. And that’s why I’m doing this, because if I can help stop that … I did the right thing to do. ”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Scientist Who Worked at EcoHealth Alliance Drops Bombshell Claim About Wuhan Lab: ‘Biggest U.S. Intelligence Failure Since 9/11’

Nearly three years have passed since Chinese officials advised the World Health Organization they had identified several cases of a mysterious new virus spreading among residents of Wuhan, the largest city in Hubei Province.

Laying the groundwork for what would ultimately become the Chinese government’s defense for unleashing this terrible plague upon the planet, officials closed the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, a wet market in Wuhan, where they claimed the virus may have originated.

They theorized that what soon became known as the 2019 Novel Coronavirus may have jumped from an animal to a human at the market; that in technical terms, it had a zoonotic origin.

There was perhaps no greater proponent of the zoonotic origin theory than the ubiquitous Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

As cases multiplied throughout the world, another theory for the origin of the virus began to take root. Some thought it was possible the virus may have escaped from the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology, a biosafety Level 4 laboratory that specializes in coronaviruses. Because “gain-of-function research” was being conducted at this facility, the virus may have been enhanced (artificially intensified, made more lethal) during their experiments and may have accidentally leaked from the lab. These individuals were quickly labeled as conspiracy theorists.

Trending:

Amusement Park’s Critical Failure Gives 62 People New Year’s Eve They’ll Never Forget – Rescue Team Called

China, as we know, has repeatedly refused to truly cooperate with investigations into the origins of the coronavirus.

According to a June report in the U.K. Daily Mail, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, voiced his own fears to a European politician that the virus was leaked from the Wuhan lab in “a catastrophic accident” in 2019.

Dr. Andrew Huff, who was employed by the now-notorious research organization the EcoHealth Alliance from 2014-2016 and named its vice president in 2015, has now come forward as a whistleblower. He provided an exclusive pre-release copy of his new book, “The Truth About Wuhan,” to the U.K. media outlet The Sun.

In an interview about the book published by The Sun on Saturday, Huff, an Army veteran from Michigan, said he worked on the “classified side of the research program as a US government scientist.”

Do you think COVID was manmade?Yes No

Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Shockingly, he declared that “China knew from day one that this was a genetically engineered agent.” He claimed that COVID-19 was genetically engineered and that it leaked from the Wuhan lab.

He blames the pandemic on U.S. funding of gain-of-function research in China, telling the Sun, “The U.S. government is to blame for the transfer of dangerous biotechnology to the Chinese.”

Huff charged that we have witnessed “one of the greatest cover-ups in history” and called it the “biggest U.S. intelligence failure since 9/11.”

In his book, Huff, an epidemiologist, wrote that the lax safety standards practiced at the U.S.-funded Wuhan lab were responsible for the leak, according to The Sun.

“EcoHealth Alliance and foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management, ultimately resulting in the lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” he wrote, according to The Sun.

Related:

Kamala Harris Makes Demand for Senate Swearing-In Photos, Highlights Just How Hypocritical Biden Admin Is

Huff wrote that his organization had “taught” scientists at the Wuhan lab the “best existing methods to engineer bat coronaviruses to attack other species. … I was terrified by what I saw. We were just handing them bioweapon technology.”

“Nobody should be surprised that the Chinese lied about the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 and then went to extraordinary lengths to make it appear as if the disease naturally emerged,” Huff told the Sun.

Huff left EcoHealth Alliance in 2016. According to The Sun, Huff said it was “due to a large number of ethical concerns with the scientific work and EcoHealth Alliance as a whole.”

Huff said he has not seen any evidence that the Chinese deliberately leaked the virus.

However, he does claim that the U.S. government knew about it months earlier than the generally accepted time of December 2019 or January 2020, according to The Sun.

He says he has “has good reason to believe that the US government was alerted to the outbreak in August or October 2019.”

He said he suspects his knowledge of the virus situation led to an unexpected job offer in late 2019 from the U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, which he now says was designed to put him in a position where he could be muzzled by the government.

“It is my belief that people working within the US government potentially identified me as a risk to knowing firsthand that the SARS-CoV-2 disease emergence event was a consequence of the US government’s sponsorship of the genetic engineering of SARS-CoV-2 domestically and abroad,” he wrote in his book, according to The Sun.

“If I would have accepted the position, then I suspect that DARPA would have disclosed restricted information to me, which would have consequently prevented me from discussing any of this information publicly, like I have been and am doing now.”

According to The Sun, he said his work to uncover the origins of COVID had led to him being made a target for harassment. He said he had seen military-grade drones over his home, that he’d been “stalked” in a supermarket, and followed by unknown vehicles.

He is now suing EcoHealth Alliance, according to The Sun.

EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak, a crony of Fauci, lobbied hard in the early days of the pandemic to squash the beliefs that it could have originated from lab leak.

After a June 2021 release of over 3,200 pages of Fauci’s emails from the first six months of the pandemic, we learned that Daszak emailed Fauci on April 18, 2020, to thank him for dismissing the theory that the coronavirus may have escaped from a lab.

Daszak wrote: “I just wanted to say a personal thank you on behalf of our staff and collaborators, for publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for COVID-19 from a bat-to-human spillover, not a lab release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

Daszak was also the writer and organizer of a statement signed by 27 public health scientists that was published in the elite medical journal The Lancet on Feb. 19, 2020. The letter effectively shut down debate over the origins of the pandemic.

It read in part: “The rapid, open, and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumours and misinformation around its origins. We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”

This letter did more than anything else to turn the tide away from the idea that the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab.

However, as time goes on, a growing volume of circumstantial evidence supports the lab leak theory. Despite President Joe Biden’s unwillingness to stand up to China, the forthcoming Republican-controlled House of Representatives has promised to investigate the origins of the pandemic.

China needs to be held accountable for its role. Even though the leak might have been an accident, rather than alerting the WHO immediately and doing everything in their power to stop the spread of the virus, the Chinese chose to mislead us and allowed COVID-19 to infect the world.

They must be forced to face the consequences for their deadly decisions, and officials in the U.S. must answer for funding dangerous, gain-of-function research in a country that is bound and determined to destroy us.

Twitter’s Largest Advertiser Returns to Platform, Has Now ‘Fully Resumed’ Spending

Twitter owner Elon Musk said Dec. 3 that Apple is resuming its ad spending on his social media platform.

In a Twitter Spaces conversation, Musk said Apple had “fully resumed” its advertising, according to Bloomberg.

Musk also noted that Apple is Twitter’s largest advertiser.

Bloomberg said those were the only references Musk made to Apple during the two-hour event, in which Musk chatted with about 90,000 people.

More information on this per a source familiar: Amazon continued advertising on Twitter throughout the recent turmoil, although some campaigns were paused. The company is looking to increase it’s ad spend to $100m a year, as stated in my prior tweet.

— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) December 4, 2022

Trending:

Amusement Park’s Critical Failure Gives 62 People New Year’s Eve They’ll Never Forget – Rescue Team Called

A second major advertiser may also be ready to resume its advertising on Twitter.

Zoe Schiffer, editor at Platform, tweeted that Amazon will be returning to Twitter full throttle.

“Amazon is also planning to resume advertising on Twitter at about $100m a year pending some security tweaks to the company’s ads platform, per a source familiar with the situation,” she tweeted.

Will more advertisers return to Twitter?Yes No

Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

“More information on this per a source familiar: Amazon continued advertising on Twitter throughout the recent turmoil, although some campaigns were paused. The company is looking to increase [its] ad spend to $100m a year, as stated in my prior tweet,” she wrote.

During the first quarter of the year, Apple was Twitter’s top advertiser, according to The Washington Post.

The report said Apple spent about $48 million that quarter, which made up about 4 percent of Twitter’s revenue.

Last week, Musk wrote that Apple was threatening to not allow Twitter to be included in its App Store, according to the website MacRumors.

After a meeting Nov. 30 with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Musk said the issue was a misunderstanding.

Related:

Big Tech Was Savaged in 2022 – Here’s How the ‘Big Five’ Ended the Year

Musk had also indicated at the time that Apple was cutting back its advertising.

However, The New York Times noted that Apple temporarily put its ads on hiatus after the Nov. 19 Colorado Springs shooting, adding that advertisers do this often to avoid having their products appear near news of a tragedy.

Just a note to thank advertisers for returning to Twitter

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 4, 2022

On Dec. 3, Musk thanked those advertisers who have remained on the platform since Musk took over.

Recognizing that the platform needs to rebuild its advertiser base, Twitter has embarked on a deal to woo advertisers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Twitter VP added: “let’s make it worth it to get any paused advertisers to reactivate.”

— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) December 1, 2022

The Journal reported that advertisers who agree to increase their ads by at least $500,000 will have that matched by Twitter dollar for dollar. Advertisers who commit to lower amounts of advertising would get that matched, but at a lower level.

House Minority Leader Vows to Upend US Military Service Requirement Over 1 Year After It’s Implementation

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said Sunday that the Biden administration will agree to his call for an end to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in America’s military.

Vaccination against COVID-19 was made mandatory in an August 2021 memo from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The mandate has drawn extensive opposition from Republican lawmakers.

McCarthy, who is seeking to become Speaker of the House when the new Congress convenes, said he has been in discussions with the Biden administration about ending the requirement.

“I had a meeting with the president,” McCarthy said on the Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures.”

The subject, he said, was including an end to the vaccine mandate in the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

Trending:

Amusement Park’s Critical Failure Gives 62 People New Year’s Eve They’ll Never Forget – Rescue Team Called

“We will secure lifting that vaccine mandate on our military,” he said. “Because what we’re finding out is they’re kicking out men and women that have been serving.”

He called removal of the vaccine requirement “the first victory of having the Republican majority.”

When host Maria Bartiromo asked if the requirement would definitely be removed, McCarthy replied, “Yes it will, otherwise the bill will not move.”

“I’ve been very clear with the president,” he said. “The president worked with me on this.”

McCarthy said that the change will also please many Democrats and noted that removing the requirement was a victory for bipartisanship and compromise.

“One-party rule would never allow that to go forward,” he said.

The Biden White House painted the conversations with McCarthy in a less-definite tone.

“Leader McCarthy raised this with the president, and the president told him he would consider it,” spokeswoman Olivia Dalton said in a statement, according to The Washington Post.

“The secretary of defense has recommended retaining the mandate, and the president supports his position. Discussions about the NDAA are ongoing.”

Related:

As Vaccine Mandate Is Overturned, Army Drops Horrible News for a Select Group of Soldiers

The Post report framed removing the mandate as one element among many issues being discussed en route to finding an agreement that can be passed.

The Post report also noted that later this month, a bill must be passed to keep the government operating and that next year legislation must be passed to raise the debt ceiling.

On Saturday, Austin said he has not changed his mind about the vaccine policy, according to The Hill.

“We lost a million people to this virus,” Austin said. “A million people died in the United States of America. We lost hundreds in DOD. So this mandate has kept people healthy.”

“I support continuation of vaccinating the troops,” he said.

GOP-Majority House Called to Open Biden Investigation – Prominent Accuser Willing to Testify

A former aide to Joe Biden, back when he was a U.S. Senator from Delaware, wants the House of Representatives to open up a formal inquiry into her allegations of being sexually assaulted by Biden in 1993.

Tara Reade made headlines in 2020 with her allegations, which were denied by Biden and by multiple members of Biden’s staff. Amid a welter of claims against her credibility, that she fought back against, she ultimately dialed back her public efforts against Biden.

Now, with the House in Republican hands for the first time since she went public with her claims, she wants Republicans to launch an inquiry.

“It would be a very different thing if I could testify under oath,” Reade said in a new interview with the Daily Caller.

She said she would “provide whatever information [Congress] needed and [Congress] could ask me whatever questions they wanted.”

Trending:

Amusement Park’s Critical Failure Gives 62 People New Year’s Eve They’ll Never Forget – Rescue Team Called

“I think we need to have the conversation, instead of me being erased, and other women that were erased that tried to come forward,” Reade said.

WARNING: The following paragraph includes graphic descriptions of the alleged assault that the reader may find disturbing

Reade claimed that Biden penetrated her with his fingers after he had her pinned up against a wall.

Although staffers from that era have said they do not recall any such incident, Reade said a formal inquiry would produce a different story.

If they “had to go under oath, I think they would have to admit something very different,” Reade said.

Reade said that she dropped her initial efforts to follow up on a claim she said she filed because of intimidation.

“I was 28 years old, it was scary to hear at the time. It was at the beginning of my political career, and it kind of shut me up,” Reade said.

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said she would support a formal inquiry to get at the truth.

Tara Reade has asked the new GOP House to investigate her claims of sexual assault against Joe Biden.

I’m for it!

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) December 2, 2022

Related:

It’s Not Over Yet: Kari Lake Election Challenge Moves Forward, Here Are the Judges

Fox News reported that at the time Reade made her initial claims, Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who has been tapped to be the Democrats’ minority leader when the new Congress convenes, said the claims needed a serious investigation.

Amazon Layoffs Just Got Way Worse – Fresh Batch of Workers Getting Bezos’ Nasty Christmas Present: Report

It’s the holiday season under Joe Biden’s U.S. economy, and these days, that means hard times are ahead for tens of thousands of employed Americans.

Continuing a trend that seems to be hitting several Big Tech and related industries, online mega-retailer Amazon is expected to begin laying off a large contingent of its workers, to the tune of possibly 20,000 employees, in the coming months, according to ComputerWorld.

The outlet cited an anonymous source with reported knowledge of the incoming mass layoffs. Still, as it noted, the source’s info lines up with a November New York Times report that hinted the online shopping giant is set to make massive personnel changes, though, in that report, it was suggested that the number could be 10,000.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy responded to the Times’ piece after publication, confirming in a statement to employees that layoffs are in the works.

“Our annual planning process extends into the new year, which means there will be more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments. Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organizations early in 2023,” Jassy said.

Trending:

Amusement Park’s Critical Failure Gives 62 People New Year’s Eve They’ll Never Forget – Rescue Team Called

Whether it’s 10,000 or 20,000, it’s too many, especially for one of the most popular retailers, and especially because it’s going to take place around the holidays. Talk about a nasty Christmas present from Jeff Bezos.

The report noted that Amazon employees are ranked on a scale from 1 to 7, and the layoffs will reportedly affect employees at all levels. However, further details were not available at the time of this writing.

ComputerWorld’s anonymous source reportedly said that affected corporate-level Amazon employees will learn their fate via a “24-hour notice,” and will be offered severance pay packages.

“There is a sense of fear among employees in the company as the news has come out,” said one source who was told directly about the layoff effort. The report also noted that the the layoffs would be the largest staff reduction in the company’s history.

Have you ever been laid off before an important holiday?Yes No

Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

“There is no specific department or location mentioned for the cuts; it is across the business. We were told this is as a result of over-hiring during the pandemic and the need for cost-cutting as the company’s financials have been on a declining trend,” the source reportedly added.

An Amazon spokesperson responded to ComputerWorld’s report, saying it couldn’t confirm how many people Bezos will ultimately let go.

“We haven’t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted (we know that there will be reductions in our Stores and PXT organizations), but each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down,” the Amazon spokesperson said.

The Amazon situation came on the heels of a large number of layoffs at other tech firms, such as Twitter and Meta, which many believe to be a telling signal or barometer of what’s happening in President Biden’s job economy.

BREAKING: Amazon plans to lay off roughly 10k staff this week

It’s been a brutal year for layoffs in tech. pic.twitter.com/lTnfZVDL1o

— Margot Rubin (@margot_rubin) November 14, 2022

Related:

Amazon Workers Finally Win Small Victory, Then Company Rolls Out the Robots

A recent NBC News report said the same about the tech industry’s recent layoff rounds. Of course, it didn’t blame Biden directly, but it cited many situations happening on Biden’s watch, such as rising inflation and skyrocketing interest rates.

Biden’s mouthpieces obviously won’t cite such data, as they’re constantly spinning bad economic news into something palatable. But the numbers speak for themselves.

It’s a simple concept.

When economies are healthy, companies like Amazon, Twitter and Meta add jobs. When economies are sick, those same companies will opt to trim the fat and tighten belts.

Hopefully, this is the worst of it, but the way things are going, it wouldn’t be a safe bet to place. One can only imagine the stress and fear of wondering whether or not one’s job will be cut as companies look for more ways to stay in the black in Biden’s struggling economy.

We Finally Know What Greta Thunberg’s Climate Agenda Is All About: Teen Activist Goes Off the Rails at Book Launch

Another ugly female outcast looking for attention [US Patriot]

Say whatever you will about Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, but at the very least, you couldn’t really question her commitment to actually “saving” the planet (whatever that means in 2022).

But that annoying teenager, with her sneering “how dare you,” seems to have melted away to reveal her true face, and it’s a face that looks astonishingly similar to that of any modern-day dictator like Xi JinpingVladimir Putin or Kim Jong Un.

To recount, right before Halloween this year, Thunberg had the entire London’s Royal Festival Hall singing her praises as she unveiled her new book “The Climate Book.”

As UnHerd notes, Thunberg was “gently quizzed” while on stage when it became apparent that it was no longer enough for her to save the planet — she needed to take down the very same capitalism that has allowed her home country to flourish.

Thunberg wasn’t exactly subtle with this assertion, either.

Trending:

Amusement Park’s Critical Failure Gives 62 People New Year’s Eve They’ll Never Forget – Rescue Team Called

As author Michael Shellenberger noted in his Substack, Thunberg made it abundantly clear that “the whole capitalist system” was the scourge of the planet.

Thunberg described capitalism as the “system” that created the climate crisis in the first place, through its use of “colonialism, imperialism, oppression” and “genocide.” She also blamed capitalism for “racist, oppressive extractionism.”

Look. Capitalism isn’t perfect. (Then again, is any economic system perfect?) And there’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to help clean up this planet. It is, after all, good manners to leave a place in better shape than you found it.

But to outright say that capitalism is the downfall of mankind? That’s just not true, either in practice or historically.

Is the climate change agenda being used to push socialism?Yes No

Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Capitalism is what helped spur the Industrial Revolution, which is the forefather of virtually all technological advances made since then.

Those technological advances are what even allowed people to procure some of that questionable data that helped spur climate change research in the first place.

And it’s that questionable data that created a platform big enough for Thunberg to sell her climate change book in the first place.

For better and for worse, capitalism has spurred the most growth and innovation in the world.

Capitalism is the best system we have, and unless a better system can be identified, (hint: It sure as heck is not socialism) it should be the system kept in place.

Related:

End of an Era as US Retail Giant Announces Closure of All Remaining Stores

Worth noting, the irony is not lost on me that Thunberg is denouncing capitalism while hocking her $26 book on Amazon.

You needn’t look any further than the literal Socialist Party to see that Thunberg’s comments were a direct attack on capitalism:

It is a very welcome development that @GretaThunberg used the launch of her new book in October to place responsibility for the climate crisis at the door of capitalism and to call for its overthrow. pic.twitter.com/2JfqKPVVP2

— Socialist Party (@SocialistParty) December 4, 2022

“It is a very welcome development that @GretaThunberg used the launch of her new book in October to place responsibility for the climate crisis at the door of capitalism and to call for its overthrow,” the Socialist Party tweeted out recently.

Perhaps the scariest part of Thunberg’s turn to socialist insanity is that the Socialist Party actually spelled out its mission rather clearly:

Greta Thunberg’s journey from school striker and climate campaigner to support for the anticapitalist left is a journey that can be, and hopefully will be, undertaken by many others in Generation Z.

— Socialist Party (@SocialistParty) December 4, 2022

“Greta Thunberg’s journey from school striker to climate campaigner to support for the anticapitalist left is a journey that can be, and hopefully will be, undertaken by many others in Generation Z,” the Socialist Party tweeted.

Uh, no. Hopefully, it won’t be.

The fewer children who are brainwashed into believing that big government and the “Great Reset” are what’s best for the future of mankind, the better.

Lawmakers Press Fauci’s Agency Over Taxpayer-Funded Animal Tests

A bipartisan group of 10 U.S. lawmakers are demanding answers from White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci about taxpayer-backed dog testing conducted under the Biden administration.

“Americans across the political spectrum have been horrified to learn their tax dollars are being wasted to subsidize NIH’s [National Institutes of Health] barbaric experiments on beagle puppies,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who led the group of Republicans and Democrats, told the Washington Examiner. She called the experiments on dogs “outdated, unnecessary, and cruel.”

The GOP congresswoman released a joint letter dated Dec. 1 to the outlet, in which the group underscored congressional attention to allergy medicine tests on animals, calling on the NIH to publicize information on its testing operations, including nearly $2 million in tests on puppies that have been canceled.

In response to pressure from Congress and a watchdog group, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the NIH, dropped a taxpayer-funded trial this July that was slated to test a hay fever drug on mice, rats, and dogs.

Documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act show that the NIAID spent $1.68 million in taxpayer funds for animal experimentation from 2018 to 2019. According to the nonprofit government spending watchdog White Coat Waste Project, the federal agency had repeatedly injected or force-fed 44 beagle puppies who were just 6 to 8 months old with an experimental drug during the tests, while seeking to have the puppies’ vocal cords cut out so they couldn’t bark in the lab while they were being abused.

“Other federal agencies, including the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration], Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, have already launched laudable efforts to curb testing on dogs and other animals,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

They inquired about the number of dogs and government dollars the NIH used over the past five years to assess new drugs, whether the NIH has met with the FDA to discuss “alternative testing methods to fulfill regulatory requirements,” and how it would encourage contractors and grantees to avoid such testing.

“With no apparent plan in place to reduce inefficient and painful testing on dogs, the NIH is therefore an outlier among its peers,” they said. “This is particularly notable given that the NIH has frequently acknowledged the wastefulness of animal testing.”

Besides Mace, also signing the letter are Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), Greg Steube (R-Fla.), Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Brian Mast (R-Fla.), Bill Posey (R-Fla.), Young Kim (R-Calif.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), and Dina Titus (D-Nev.).

The NIH didn’t respond by press time to a request for comment on the letter.

Last December, Mace introduced the Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste Act of 2021 that would prohibit Fauci from conducting or supporting research that could result in death, irreversible damage, significant pain, or distress to dogs.

Over the past two months, White Coat Waste Project has filed two lawsuits to compel the NIAID to turn over the requested records related to its experiments on beagles and monkeys.

In February, the watchdog group obtained documents disclosing that the NIH spent $2.3 million in taxpayer funds to keep dogs infused with an “experimental compound” of drugs that included cocaine. November 2021 data revealed that NIAID had spent $13.5 million in taxpayer funding on experiments that involve injecting monkeys with various infectious diseases, such as Ebola and the Lassa virus, that result in hemorrhaging, pain, brain damage, loss of motor control, and organ failure.

The group also reported that the NIH spent about $140 million on animal experiments in foreign countries in 2020, with a total of 353 labs in 57 countries worldwide that are authorized to receive U.S. taxpayer funds, including countries classified as foreign adversaries such as China and Russia.

Matt McGregor contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

75 Percent of Polled Say ‘Transgender Movement Has Gone Too Far’

U.S. citizens’ opinions are turning increasingly negative toward the transgender movement, according to a poll conducted by Christian nonprofit Summit Ministries.

In an interview with NTD’s “Capitol Report,” Jeff Myers, president of Summit Ministries, pointed out that people are thinking about the transgender movement as a voting issue.

“And some of it is because the president made it a voting issue. He said, ‘We ought to support every minor when they want to have procedures done,’ pharmaceutical surgery, whatever. And he seemed to be indicating that he supports this at any age with no restrictions. A lot of people in America disagree with that,” Myers said.

“We are doing a lot of polling just to understand the cultural moment. And 75 percent of people in our most recent poll say they believe the transgender movement has gone too far.”

Myers believes that people oppose the transgender movement mainly due to its support of actions such as “mutilating kids.” There are 70 Planned Parenthood clinics offering cross-sex hormones and puberty-blocking drugs to children, many of them being offered without seeking parental consent.

Drugs such as Lupron are “extremely expensive” and will cost the government in Medicare billions of dollars. The gender transition surgery and pharma business is already worth $2 billion per year and is growing fast, he noted.

Some of the drugs being injected into children, which are experimental in nature, are for “off-label use,” and the long-term consequences aren’t being taken into account, according to Myers.

Detransitioning, Legislation

Talking about the rising detransitioning movement—those that reverse the procedures to return to their natural sex—Myers notes that those who do detransition might already be suffering from side effects of the drugs that were earlier injected into them. For instance, Lupron might cause bone density issues, vision loss, and headaches.

Lupron is used to slow down the growth of cancer in the body.

“When you put it into the bodies of teenagers, it can actually create permanent damage. Doctors aren’t talking about this. They’re saying, ‘Well, let’s just pause puberty for a little bit,’” he said.

The debate over transitioning among children is getting heated as several Republican states introduce legislation to ban the practice and protect minors.

In Virginia, state Sen. Amanda Chase has proposed legislation seeking to prohibit medical gender transitions for children in the Commonwealth. It seeks to prohibit doctors from prescribing genital mutilation surgeries, hormone treatments, and puberty blockers for children.

In Texas, two measures in the state House of Representatives aim to make the offering of “gender-affirming health care” to children equivalent to child abuse and even a felony.

Texas state Rep. Bryan Slaton, who filed one of the measures, recently said that he plans on introducing legislation that would ban minors from attending drag shows across the state, insisting that such a law is critical to protect children from “perverted adults.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Beijing COVID-19 Control Staff Strike Over Owed Wages

Amid the COVID-19 lockdown protests and the chaos caused by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) “zero-COVID” policy, some of the regime’s pandemic control staff in Beijing went on strike in recent days and protested in front of a subdistrict government office over owed wages.

In a video provided by an interviewee, dozens of epidemic control staff gathered to protest in front of the Anzhen Subdistrict office in Chaoyang District, Beijing.

“Pay up my hard-earned money!” they shouted.

Someone shouted, “Pay up! I risked my life to earn the money!”

Footage of the incident was widely spread on the internet, but the videos have since been deleted from China’s social media platforms by the CCP’s cyber monitors.

https://www.ganjing.com/en-US/embed/1feliacgkg52ST42R5lHJXeHK10l1c

On Nov. 29, some netizens on Chinese social media platform Weibo urgently called for social support, saying that the local epidemic control staff were on strike due to wage issues and that residents who were locked down at home were facing difficulties. The staff is responsible for distributing rationed food, delivering medicine, and providing basic services and assistance to the residents, besides enforcing the lockdown.

One netizen wrote, “Building 6 in Anhuaxili, Anzhen Street, is currently being abandoned, and the residents who have been shut in don’t have any services and their calls for help have been ignored.”

Another post reads, “[The protest] happened again in Anzhen Street, and it’s also about rights protection. But last time, it was the residents asking to lift the lockdown; this time, it’s the epidemic control staff asking for wages.”

Mr. Lin, a resident of Anhuali District 1, confirmed with The Epoch Times on Nov. 30 that epidemic control staff had been on strike in the community recently and that they had gathered in front of the CCP’s street office to protest and demand owed salaries.

Security Guards Called In

“Our neighborhood has been locked down for more than 10 days,” Mr. Lin said. “The staff have been asking for owed salaries for a few days. They went together to the street office to ask for money. They went on strike collectively and all left the community in the morning. The community is in a mess. People were shouting together in front of the subdistrict office, the video online was censored, [with the authorities afraid of the roar of the people].”

Ms. Liu from Anhuali District 1 told The Epoch Times on Nov. 30 that during the lockdown and strike, the elderly who don’t know how to shop online haven’t had anything to eat.

“The staff who are on strike to ask for owed salaries are also the security guards who keep people locked in while passing deliveries into the buildings,” she said. “They mainly watch at the sealed-off doors of the buildings. After the strike, Building 6 was abandoned. Now, the authorities have sent in a batch of new security guards to replace them.”

The Epoch Times called the CCP’s Anzhen Street office and the Anhuali Community Residential Committee office for comment, but its calls went unanswered.

Growing Strikes

This isn’t the first time that CCP epidemic control staff have gone on strike.

https://subs.theepochtimes.com/template/show?tid=cc3f343f-227c-4eec-8289-8d2fe30e4467&sid=www.theepochtimes.com&v=5&ck=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&pl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Fbeijing-covid-19-control-staff-strike-over-owed-wages_4903280.html%3Futm_source%3DMorningbrief%26src_src%3DMorningbrief%26utm_campaign%3Dmb-2022-12-05%26src_cmp%3Dmb-2022-12-05%26utm_medium%3Demail%26est%3DuIWFGR1r42ott9%252B8YGcGLXCN9NbxqxIrTG7xx0hlxhwqaiWH%252FiOJQL7lB8jj8gbJvA%253D%253D&u=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&tn=newsletter_widget&dna=%7B%22u_s%22%3A%22Morningbrief%22%2C%22u_c%22%3A%22mb-2022-12-05%22%2C%22r%22%3A%22%22%2C%22pid%22%3A%22anon641b-6b0b-4cdc-aba3-31d915c05851%22%2C%22uid%22%3A%22user_9dfe546d573c80c140e67580106ed9556b66c4cd%22%2C%22x%22%3A%22485-665-373%22%2C%22vt%22%3A0%2C%22g1%22%3A%22us%22%2C%22g2%22%3A%22md%22%7D&source=US-China_Watch&email=walkerboh2112%40msn.com

The Epoch Times reported in July that in northeast China’s major city of Shenyang, epidemic control staff went on strike at multiple mass PCR testing sites over owed wages from the local government. They complained about not getting payment online but were threatened by the authorities to delete their posts.

Virus Outbreak China
Residents get swabbed during mass COVID-19 testing in the Chaoyang District in Beijing on June 14, 2022. (Andy Wong/AP Photo)

In September, the Financial Times reported that epidemic control staff in many Chinese cities were on the verge of collapse because of extended work hours, the summer heat, and owed wages.

Tong Gen, a columnist for the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times, wrote on Dec. 1 that the regime’s epidemic control staff, as well as the military and police who are implementing the central government’s “zero-COVID” policy, are also in a pitiful situation.

“They and their families are also victims of the regime’s policy,” Tong Gen wrote. “They just want to make a living so they obey the CCP. During the COVID protests against the CCP, the epidemic staff also changed their attitude and in their hearts they’re on the side of the people.”

Zhao Fenghua and Hong Ning contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Elon Musk Claims ‘More Smoking Guns’ Are on the Way From Twitter

New Twitter CEO Elon Musk said that there will be “more smoking guns” after he and a journalist released “The Twitter Files” late last week that revealed how Twitter’s previous management censored a New York Post article about Hunter Biden before the 2020 election.

“We’re just [going to] put all the information out there try to get a clean slate we will be iteratively better and it will force other media companies to also be more truthful or else they’ll lose their readership,” Musk said Saturday during a Twitter Spaces event. There was, he added, “a very different standard applied to Republican candidates in the U.S. versus Democrat candidates” by the company’s management before he bought it two months ago.

Musk said he believes there are “more smoking guns” from Twitter that he wants to reveal. He did not elaborate.

“It’s frankly the behavior that is to be expected from an organization that is based in San Francisco which is far left,” Musk said in the Twitter Spaces event, according to media outlets over the past weekend.

Musk appeared to have provided the internal files to journalist Matt Taibbi, who released them Friday night, and former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss. Both operate Substack pages.

In a lengthy Twitter thread, Taibbi posted screenshots of internal conversations amongst Twitter employees that indicated certain posts were flagged for removal by members of the Democrat National Committee and then-candidate Joe Biden’s campaign.

“More to review from the Biden team,” the employee said, while another Twitter worker replied with “Handled these.”

Taibbi wrote that the move to censor the NY Post’s report, which included blocking sharing of the article in direct messages, was “made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key role.”

After Musk purchased the company for $44 billion, all of its top management departed or were reportedly fired. That included Gadde and former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal.

But Taibbi said that there was “no evidence–that I’ve seen–of any government involvement in the laptop story,” adding that “in fact, that might have been the problem.”

“Some of the first tools for controlling speech were designed to combat the likes of spam and financial fraudsters. Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: first a little, then more often, then constantly,” Taibbi, a former Rolling Stone journalist who publishes articles for Substack.

Feedback

Former Twitter executive Yoel Roth, who recently departed the firm after Musk bought the social media platform in October, on Friday accused Musk and Taibbi of endangering the individuals who censored the Hunter Biden story. A number of left-wing journalists, meanwhile, sought to downplay the censorship apparatus that apparently had existed at Twitter.

Republicans cited the material as proof that Twitter attempted to censor or hide stories and posts that were unfavorable to Biden during the 2020 campaign.

Epoch Times Photo
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey speaks during a press event at CES 2019 at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Jan. 9, 2019. (David Becker/Getty Images)

“We’re learning in real-time how Twitter colluded to silence the truth about Hunter Biden’s laptop just days before the 2020 presidential election,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) wrote on Twitter. The GOP, he said, would attempt to “get answers for the American people” next year when Republicans control the House.

When the New York Post’s Hunter Biden story was published in October 2020, it was dismissed by left-leaning journalists, mainstream outlets, and even some former intelligence officials as Russian disinformation. Some of those same news outlets, including the New York Times and Washington Post, reported that the laptop was authentic many months later.

In a more recent development, Musk wrote Saturday he thought it was “possible” that personnel at the social media firm gave preference to left-wing candidates during Brazil’s election.

“I’ve seen a lot of concerning tweets about the recent Brazil election,” Musk wrote on Twitter when asked by a user about elections possibly “handled” by the company’s previous management.

Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter on Oct. 27, just days before Brazil’s presidential second-round runoff vote, when incumbent Jair Bolsonaro was defeated by leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“If those tweets are accurate, it’s possible that Twitter personnel gave preference to left-wing candidates,” added the billionaire.

Reuters contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times


Kash’s Corner: Could the Jan. 6 Committee Destroy Evidence? Musk Announces Twitter Censorship Files Release

In this episode of Kash’s Corner, we discuss the impending release of the Jan. 6 committee’s final report.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) recently stated the committee will “scrub” some evidence containing personal identifiable information. But is personal identifiable information the only evidence that will be redacted?

“What the Republicans should be doing right now… is writing letters to the head of the committee, Bennie Thompson and Speaker Pelosi while she’s still speaker and say, ‘We are demanding every single document this committee has produced in its investigation to be turned over to the Republican caucus immediately,’” says Kash Patel.

We also discuss the protests in ChinaElon Musk saying he will release files on Twitter censorship, and Apple allegedly threatening to remove Twitter from the App Store.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Kash Patel:

Hey everybody, and welcome back to Kash’s Corner. This week we’re coming at you from Dallas, Texas, and we got a whole bunch of topics to talk about. Jan, where would you like to start?

Jan Jekielek:

December is upon us and we have to talk about the January 6th committee in its last days now, at least in its current incarnation. I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, so we’ll talk about that. We definitely have to talk about changes at Twitter, and Elon Musk’s promise to release the censorship files, for lack of a better term. We have to talk about that. And then there’s the unprecedented protests in China, the biggest in 30 years, and a connection also to Apple across Twitter.

Mr. Patel:

And Iran.

Mr. Jekielek:

And Iran. Thank you very much. Yes.

Mr. Patel:

Before we get started, I do want to remind our audience that our live chat seems to be getting very lively. For those of you that aren’t tuned in right now, go there now on either the Epoch app or on Epoch Times and Epoch TV and join Kash’s Corner live chat. Jan and I will be answering your questions in real time.

Mr. Jekielek:

Absolutely. And we’ve been having more and more fun on that too.

Mr. Patel:

Yes, we have. That’s good. It’s where all the cowboy boots were last seen.

Mr. Jekielek:

I read recently that in The Epoch Times that Adam Schiff has been saying that there may be some redactions related to all the evidence that’s going to be presented. He said, “We’re going to release all the evidence, but there may be some scrubbing.” What’s your reaction to that?

Mr. Patel:

I can’t help but laugh when we talk about my best friend Adam Schiff. We obviously have such a history, and what that history has borne out is that when Adam Schiff says something, he’s probably lying. When Adam Schiff says he’s going to do redactions, he’s covering up corruption or something that he doesn’t want out, and that won’t fit his political narrative.

Adam Schiff now comes out in one of what he says is the most consequential investigations in modern U.S. history on January 6th that his Select Committee ran, and he’s talking about redactions. I just remind our audience, before we get to January 6th, let’s rewind the clock a little to Russiagate. Devin Nunes at the time was Chairman, Adam Schiff was the ranking Democratic member, meaning he was the head of the Democratic Caucus on the House Intelligence Committee. 

Adam Schiff has gone on TV for years and said he’s had evidence of Russia collusion, but has never proved it. Adam Schiff, I remind you, was the one who withheld the 60 or 70 some deposition transcripts of government officials and senior officers that we took during Russiagate and didn’t want it to go out to the public. Then, he said he was in the process of redacting them, which is what took him two years until we at the executive branch released that.

And what did those transcripts show? The evidence that Dev and I put forward, it’s what we were relying on, that all these government officials had said under oath that they had no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. When Adam Schiff, now fast forward the clock, and we’re talking about January 6th, when he says, “We’re going to put in redactions,” let’s remind our audience where we are at.

We’re in December. This Congress is effectively over in about a week or two because they only have eight business days or so left. They shut down for the holidays. When we come back in January, and the Republicans will have the majority. This Select Committee, just by definition, is a Select Committee. A Select Committee has to be renewed every Congress, and this Select Committee is set to expire.

It will expire unless the new speaker of the House, which is likely Kevin McCarthy for the Republicans, renews the Select Committee, and he said he won’t. This Select Committee is finished. So, what happens to their work? What happens to their data? What happens to all of the information they’ve collected? On past shows, I’ve said, “Why haven’t they released everything?” That was the deal I made with Devin during Russiagate.

At the time, I didn’t know President Trump. I had never met him. I had never met Devin Nunes. I had never worked on Capitol Hill. I was a former public defender, former federal prosecutor, a former Intel guy at JSOC [Joint Special Operations Command], and then literally stumbled upon that work. And I said, “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll do this investigation if we put everything we find out, no matter what it is.” And he said, “Yes.” Why isn’t this committee and every committee in Congress running on that same platform?

Because constitutional oversight, at the end of the day, is not for the politicians. It’s not for the Democrats or the Republicans. It’s for us. You ran an investigation, show us everything. Don’t show us your summary version of it. Show us the documents. Show us the documents from the FBI, from the DOD, from the CIA, from everybody. Show us the internal documents from your investigation.

More importantly, release the transcripts of every single interrogation and deposition that the January 6th committee took, including mine. Remember, I was the first one subpoenaed by January 6th committee. I’ve been calling for its release for a year-plus now. Release them all and don’t redact them. See, this is the government tactic that they play all the time. And we fought Adam Schiff on this during Russiagate. 

We would lawfully set out to release a number of government documents and Adam Schiff would come in and say, “Oh, no, no, no. We have to redact them.” And the only reason he was doing that was because the information that we were putting out, i.e. the corruption at the FISA court or the lies by the FBI or the withholding of exculpatory evidence, all of that was not beneficial to the narrative that he and the Democrats wanted to put out at the time.

He used redaction as an improper tool to shield America from the actual information that we had produced. He’s going to do that again in this instance. And of course the fake news comes in and interviews Adam Schiff and gives him all the time he wants to talk and he says, “Oh, we have to review it for Personal Identifiable Information.” I totally agree with that.

Personal Identifiable Information, as we call PII, should be redacted. Just saying like so and so’s name, and so and so’s birth date, and so and so’s social security number, and so and so’s home address. We don’t want people to be attacked. I’ve always agreed with that. But if you look back at our work, we always redacted PII.

It also adds no substantive value to any part of the investigation. It’s not like you have to know where said person lives in order to understand what they were saying under oath, or what that document says, or that you need their date of birth. It’s totally unnecessary. But he’s using that as a pretext to say, “We are going to scrub the January 6th committee’s investigative findings and then put it out.”

He has a track record of saying, “We’re just going to redact PII”, then go in there and redact voluminous amounts of information. The redaction process, Jan, is also something that is an intergovernmental process, which actually allows the deep state to manifest itself in places it shouldn’t.

Mr. Jekielek:

This is a very interesting question, because can information that the committee has gathered be destroyed? Is that lawful? Is that something that can happen? Or can it only be redacted? In which case it could be just unredacted by the incoming Congress? What’s the situation?

Mr. Patel:

Technically, what’s supposed to happen is all the information, especially on a Select Committee, is supposed to be available to every member of that Select Committee. And as we’ve gone over in the past, it’s a farce to call the January 6th committee bicameral with both parties, because the Republicans had chosen the members they wanted on that committee, Jim Jordan and others. And Nancy Pelosi for the first time in congressional history kicked them off.

Then, they brought in people who were as biased as the Democrats were in Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. The only Republicans that have had access to the data and the findings of this committee are those two Republicans who are both leaving Congress mind you. They were not reelected. One of them didn’t even seek reelection. Has the Republican Caucus seen that information under the House Rules? They have a right to see that information eventually, all of it.

But the chair, Bernie Thompson, a Democrat, can change the rules of the Select Committee. He can just go to Nancy Pelosi and say, “Hey, this is your committee and I want to change the rules X, Y, and Z. I want to change the subpoena rules. I want to change the redaction rules. I want to change who gets to see this information while the investigation is going on.” And from my understanding, the Republican Caucus has not had access to that information.

What they could do, which is what they might do, is they could just put out whatever information they want from their Select Committee and say, “These are our findings.”, and they could conceivably destroy everything else. So, if witnesses came in and submitted documents, I know I did that, I couldn’t have been the only one, if whistleblowers came in and submitted FBI or DOJ or DOD documents, or they gave testimony that maybe didn’t fit a political narrative, they could shield that from the public.

And forget redactions. They could just literally chuck it in the dust bin because that is the authority they have right now. And the Republican Caucus hasn’t seen it. The redaction game is one that I’m equally concerned about. The committee is hiding information from America, because they haven’t put it all out yet. They keep telling us they’re going to put it all out. It’s really not hard to put out. As you know, Jan, you just literally hit send, release, and put it up on a webpage for the world to see. It’s pretty easy to do, if you wanted to do it.

But the redactions are what concerns me, because as I said, what’s supposed to happen, and me as the former deputy director of National Intelligence adjudicated a lot of these, you as Congress say, “These are documents from FBI, from DOJ, from CIA, from NSA, from DOD. We want to make sure we don’t divulge any classified information. We also don’t want to divulge any information that’s harmful to United States citizens personally and directly.”

So, you submit it through a redaction process. It goes to every single agency—that document, that report, that deposition transcript, whatever it is. And that agency says, “Well, this is my CIA’s equity, as we say in this document. We want this removed or redacted.” Then it keeps going. And then, there’s a final adjudication either at Congress or at the office of Director of National Intelligence.

Now, look, Congress doesn’t have to abide by this, but that’s the interagency governmental process for redactions. But what Adam Schiff is setting up here, since the executive branch is controlled by deep state actors, as I call them, like I believe at FBI, like I believe at DOD and DOJ and everywhere else, Schiff is just saying, “I’m going to use the black magic marker wherever I want. You guys are going to be fine with it. And I’ll put it out in the fashion that I want to put it out in.”

Now that jeopardizes Americans’ faith in the institutions. Because what happens when the Republicans go in, look at some of these documents, remove the redaction, then it says the FBI or DOD lied, or the NSA or CIA provided misinformation to the committee. This is the purpose of government oversight. And when you have people like Adam Schiff come in and say, with a track record of making material risk representation and lying to the world that he’s in charge of redactions, that should concern everybody.

What the Republicans should be doing right now in December, going into January when they will take the gavels, is writing letters to the head of the committee, Bernie Thompson and Speaker Pelosi, while she’s still speaker and say, “We are demanding every single document this committee has produced in its investigation to be turned over to the Republican Caucus immediately.” And then, their staff can go into it no matter what’s put out.

Say they put out a report, which they said they will, say they put out all the documents, which they said they will, they’re going to be redacted. We know that. At least we have a backstop to say, “Okay, look what was released in December and let’s fast forward to January, February. Why did you Adam Schiff hide this information from the American public?” I think that’s what we’re going to have to get into.

Mr. Jekielek:

I for one, with the knowledge that I gained after we produced the real story of January 6th, want to see a full and thorough investigation. I’m actually of your school. I want to know the reality, the good, the bad, and the ugly, all of it. Is the only way to do that is to have to replay this whole thing? Is that even possible? What’s your take?

Mr. Patel:

For Americans, for journalists, for investigators, for anybody interested, anyone out there in the cyber world who just wants to know what happened on January 6th, it’s very simple. Release all the documents, that’s it. Then you don’t have to redo an investigation. You just say, “Okay, you guys got all of these documents. Now everyone can see all of it with very minimal personal identifiable information redactions, names, birth dates, et cetera.” That’s it. Then they can see everything. 

Now, what the Republicans might find, and this is likely so, is that the committee steered this investigation in one direction or another to not uncover certain corruption. Now, if you recall, I don’t want to retread this entirely, but it took almost a year to correct the false narrative that the National Guard wasn’t ordered into the District of Columbia. What President Trump did was authorize them as the law requires two days before January 6th.

And we now know definitively that the law also requires Nancy Pelosi, the Capitol Police and Mayor Bowser to request those guards before they can be deployed. In writing, they said “No,” to the DOD where I was chief of staff. It’s that type of cat and mouse game that the Democrats on this committee have played during this entire investigation that has caused its entire investigative credibility to be called into question.

The Republicans may decide, “We’re going to look at some of those components. Why didn’t you focus on the truth and what actually happened, and what’s actually law versus a narrative? The word insurrection as has been tossed around very loosely and incorrectly by the media and also a lot of politicians on the hill. Because an insurrection literally would mean that you are hijacking the United States military, you being the President, to perform a coup of some sort. 

And I would argue that is logically impossible when the orders to the Department of Defense and the transitioning government, which I led into the Biden administration, were doing just that. The DOD is to transition power from one administration to the other, and that came from the White House. Those two things can’t logically occur both at the same time. So, Republicans might focus on those two. They might just say, “We’ve had enough, the world’s had enough. We know what happened on January 6th.” We’ll put out all the information and we’re going to move forward, because as we’ve covered in past episodes, there’s a lot of other investigations they probably want to get into.

Mr. Jekielek:

Well, let’s jump to the question of freedom of speech on Twitter. Before we start, let’s talk about this very contentious image that Elon Musk put up, I’m sure you’re aware of it. It appeared there were two pistols. Now here’s the funny thing. Okay, when I saw that image, guess what I noted? This was just off the cuff.

Mr. Patel:

The Diet Coke.

Mr. Jekielek:

No, but that was funny too. No, George Washington. I thought, “Oh cool, he has George Washington at his bedside. Isn’t that wonderful?” Then I thought more about all the other elements. But it’s interesting what you see in pictures.

Mr. Patel:

Yes. This picture, while the picture is interesting for me, the response was more, I don’t even want to say surprising anymore, because I’m just not surprised. But there’s one of the Hollywood limousine liberal elites, who responded to that photo and basically castigated Elon Musk and analogized him to, and I quote, “trailer park simpleton Americans,” basically hating on a large portion of America and saying that because Elon Musk put out this photo with George Washington, Diet Coke, a firearm and other knick knacks next to his bedside. 

He is now destroying free speech so much that the only people that can get down to that very base level are as this liberal elite said, incorrectly of course, I believe, but he said, “because they’re trailer park simpletons”. Just how offensive is that statement? The fact that he’s allowed to just get away with it and people are glorifying him for it is a perfect example of how far we have actually come from free speech. Because what the Left wants, and what the radical Left wants is selective free speech.

Mr. Jekielek:

People often have asked me, “What do you mean by elites? Hey, you’re elite.” What are you talking about? There is this weird mindset that I think is encapsulated. I wasn’t aware of it in this tweet response, but I keep seeing those ideas floating everywhere. I know better. And these are kind of some kind of simple things that can’t really understand what this is all about. What a weird, weird mentality to be stuck in. That’s what strikes me.

Mr. Patel:

It is. It’s disgraceful that people who say they are all for free speech and everything America stands for then come in and say, “Well, not that stuff, because that runs against our narrative.” And then for them to be able to define and pigeonhole people who support that photo and degrade them and compare them to trailer park trash, that’s exactly what you’re saying.

Mr. Jekielek:

What is this trailer park trash thing? That itself is a horrible moniker.

Mr. Patel:

It has nothing to do with anything. It reminds me of Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables”. What does that have to do with anything? A lot of the response was, at least what I saw on Truth Social, I’m not on Twitter, but what I saw on Truth Social was a lot of people chiming and saying, “I grew up in a trailer park. Why are you attacking me? What’s wrong with this photo? What’s wrong with this free speech platform?” And that’s the response that you get. And it’s actually a similar reaction to when Hillary Clinton said that on the campaign trail.

Mr. Jekielek:

Elon looks like he’s ready to release the censorship files. I could tell you I’m very fascinated to find out what he’s going to release. I’m deeply interested in this.

Mr. Patel:

Yes. Maybe by the time the show airs, we’ll have some release materials. But look, we’ve always said, or when I say we, when I was on House Intel committee, part of our investigation was to look at Twitter and Facebook and other social media and how they had a role to play in whatever Russian conspiracies were going on, or whatever maneuvers they were using. Like did Russia pay those people; Google, Facebook, and Twitter? Did they use bots? 

And what we found was, yes, monies flowed from Russia to those big companies, and they tried to change the voting landscape. But what we were not able to prove from an evidentiary standpoint, and this is in our Russiagate report, is that we couldn’t find evidence that the monies and the bots that flowed into Google, Facebook, and Twitter from Russia changed a single vote. And that’s not to say it didn’t happen. We just couldn’t find the evidence for it.

And so, we knew something was wrong at these companies way back when, and we have been saying it for years, “When the censorship started on Facebook, on Google, on YouTube, on Twitter, who’s making these decisions?” It’s not like some guy is at the multiverse station with 15 TV screens and he just pushes the button. No. These companies with tens of thousands of employees get together and they have teams and they make memorandums and they do analytics. And they say, “Oh, based on this and that and this, we’re going to censor you and this person in that group.” 

There’s a conversation, there’s a decision-making process. We had always asked for those documents to be produced. And of course, they were never going to give those up, they’re internal findings of a private company. And Elon Musk is now apparently on the verge of, or is going to be providing that demand. And it’s causing a lot of people heartache.

Mr. Jekielek:

It’s fascinating. And to the point where ostensibly Apple is threatening to withhold the Twitter app from the App Store, which is, almost like a kind of weird mental construct. There’s so many strings to be pulled here.

Mr. Patel:

Yes. We’ll get to Apple and our Chinese overlords in a second. But I just want to circle back to what we’re going to find when these documents come out. I will bet the form that these documents will show there was a politically-based decision making process in the internal chambers of Twitter and their front office, whether it was Jack Dorsey or whoever was running it at the time, to strategically and at specific moments in time, censor subjects, peoples, and storylines that were not beneficial to a Democratic-leaning political narrative. 

And then, the Hunter Biden laptop comes into play. Now we have a story just out this week that says, the person responsible for the Hunter Biden laptop censorship decision-making process of Twitter was no longer there. They said they got it wrong. Of course you got it wrong. You didn’t research the facts, you didn’t care to, and you just wanted to establish political narrative.

Mr. Jekielek:

There’s also a leaked video from Google after the 2016 presidential election where you have all these employees and you have very high level people, and they’re talking to each other saying, “How could we have let this happen?”. So, there’s this whole kind of shift, and just as a reminder audiences, I don’t know that it happened after that. It was after this kind of unbelievable shock to the system.

Mr. Patel:

Yes. And Zuckerberg put in $400 million into the election apparatus during the last election cycle. We also know that Twitter had a woke department. Literally, they had people who were their employees who were wearing woke gear and espousing woke ideology. Our audience is very familiar with that. But that basically attaches to this radical Left agenda. And they were, and that’s fine. They can have that ideology. The problem I have is they brought it into the decision-making process.

And these records that Elon is talking about and divulging are going to put these people on blast and not just for one thing, for thousands of decisions. And the Left is terrified. You already have, and this sort of sums it up for me, Jim Carrey, a very liberal actor in Hollywood, announced this week that he’s leaving Twitter. Okay, now you’re leaving Twitter now that the facts are about to come out, but you are okay being on a “free speech platform” when they buried the facts, because it favored your political narrative. 

These guys are the ultimate hypocrites. It’s the reason that Elon Musk’s “destruction of Twitter” as they see it, is I an integral tool to restore free speech on these social media giants. You also just saw Facebook quietly laid off 10,000 employees. How did that happen? What happened to the monster that was Meta?

Mr. Jekielek:

It’s fascinating. I’m just going to mention this. The Truman Show is up there among my favorite films, with Jim Carrey. It’s really interesting, because The Truman Show speaks to some of the things that we’re seeing in our society these days.

Mr. Patel:

I’ll give you another example. Alyssa Milano, another very famous, very radical Left actress, says she’s going to get rid of her Tesla, and go instead and get a Volkswagen. And if we’re talking history, let’s talk history. Volkswagen was the company founded by Adolf Hitler at one point in time. So, the political messaging just doesn’t seem to be backed up by the factual play that they want to make, whether it’s Jim Carrey or Alyssa Milano.

Mr. Jekielek:

This is just a complete ignorance of history. That’s what it showed more than anything. It was just bizarre.

Mr. Patel:

But they’re using anything to justify their departure or their rejection of SpaceX or Tesla or Twitter or what have you. Good. Leave. Well, “Hey, Jim Carrey, you’re welcome on Truth Social, anytime. Same with you, Alyssa Milano.” I’ve been inviting AOC since day one, but it’s interesting to see the Democrats quickly pivot right back to Congress. They are now calling for these, and they’ll be in the minority, but they’re going to call for these investigations into what used to be their favorite allies outside of Congress, Facebook, Twitter, and Google. 

Now these folks, the Democrats, are actually calling for the investigations into their monopolistic ways. And as you know, there’s all these antitrust investigations which are actually unlawful in America, now that the Democrats want to break up the tech giants. I just think that is the irony of all ironies. The tech giants that the Democrats wrote into a lot of offices and a lot of majorities are now the ones that they want to see broken up.

Mr. Jekielek:

Yes. Why do you think that is?

Mr. Patel:

Because it’s finally doing what you and I and millions of other people care about, which is allowing for a true free speech platform, a true free speech interface that is censorship free. I’ve always said, unless you’re committing a crime on one of these applications, you should post whatever you want. 

I’m not saying these racist groups out there like the KKK and others, I’m not cheering for them to be posting. I’m not saying that they should espouse their hatred and their bigotry and their racism. But on a free speech platform, as long as you’re not inciting crime or committing a crime, then everybody should have access to it. That’s the whole point.

These companies were launched on that idea, but they never actually exercised it in their daily routine. They politicized it. What you’re seeing Elon Musk do at Twitter is take those actions some 15-plus years later after these companies have become behemoths. You’re going to see an implosion in the Democratic Party come next year, because they’re not going to know how to handle it. They don’t have the majority in the House of Representatives. What are they going to do, outspend Elon Musk, the richest man in the world?

Mr. Jekielek:

Here’s the problem. Until not too long ago, I would have supported some restrictions. I was thinking things like maybe the Holocaust, I don’t know. I’m just giving examples of things where I would have said, “Okay, let’s think about this.” But the thing that’s revealed itself to me over the last however many years is who decides? And whoever decides has the propensity, of course, to exercise that power and weaponize. What’s the solution? The only solution is to have true free speech.

Mr. Patel:

That’s it.

Mr. Jekielek:

It’s the only way, because otherwise someone’s going to abuse it and someone’s going to use it to control information.

Mr. Patel:

And that’s what, circling back to the Apple issue that you raise, is Apple literally going to shut down the Twitter app on its Apple App Store, because they don’t like the direction that Elon Musk is taking Twitter? It’s kind of shocking that we’re even talking about this.

Mr. Jekielek:

Two things come to my mind. The first one is, I’m remembering this amazing series of commercials that Steve Jobs put out. The crazy ones. Remember those? “The people who believe that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” It’s beautiful. It even gives me the shivers remembering it. It was such a great campaign with the 1984 commercial, which was kind of unbelievable. These were the values that that Apple espoused. Today, this feels like a strong juxtaposition to those.

But the second thing, from what we’ve learned, Apple iPhones are restricted in using this AirDrop feature. In the AirDrop feature, I’ll just remind our viewers, is something that is actually been used by Chinese dissidents in these protests. We were going to talk about these mass protests that are happening in China right now. 

They were using that because this is a totalitarian surveillance state. Everything is surveilled. Everything is, you try send something via a text and AI is already reading it. But with this AirDrop, you could be on a train or something and shoot information to a bunch of people. But now it’s restricted.

Mr. Patel:

Just a quick tech thing on that. So AirDrop, for those people that aren’t familiar with it, is only on Apple phones. But as you said, the CCP in China, not only do they censor it, they shut down ways and methods of communication. They can literally shut down whole factions of the country, whole TV circuits, whole internet circuits, whole cell phone circuits. 

What AirDrop does is if you’re near other iPhone users, you literally hit this button and you can send them photos, you can send them videos, you can send them messages, and there’s nothing the CCP can do to stop that interface, because it’s from device to device. Now, that’s a super simplification of it.

Mr. Jekielek:

It’s a very good simplification.

Mr. Patel:

But what it means is you’re limiting the Chinese people’s ability to communicate, when their methods of communication have already been shut down by the CCP. So, you, Apple are participating in this nonsense of the CCP. Let’s just remember, Apple lives through the Chinese and the CCP, because the phones and everything they make. If you look on the packaging, it says designed here, or put together here, but everything’s made in China. 

So they, just like Nike, will always go to bat with the Chinese government and the CCP, because their bottom line is at stake. Because the Chinese government has the wherewithal to say, “We’re going to shut down your factories. We’re going to take away your workers. We’re not going to allow you to make your iPhones and widgets here for a extremely low cost anymore.” And what does Apple do? They say, “Okay, what do you guys want us to do?” And they’re like, “Shut down the dissidents.”

Mr. Jekielek:

Yes. And there’s also this irony, of course, because it is in the Foxconn factories that some of these protests are actually happening. So, this is a bit of a challenge over time. Apple to its credit has been starting, they’ve built at least one assembly plant for iPhone 14s has already been built in India. They’re trying to diversify their supply chain somewhat.

Mr. Patel:

Look, maybe we can give them credit for that. They could have been doing this 10 years ago. Same with Nike.

Mr. Jekielek:

I want to mention one more thing, though. Elon Musk is in a bit of a similar situation to Apple.

Mr. Patel:

Yes, sure. Yes, of course he is. With a lot of his empires so big, a lot of his commercial product and production occurs in China. Now he has been one of the guys that has moved that stuff actually back to the U.S. more than anyone else when it comes to all things SpaceX. He’s been shopping around different states for the best places and venues to have these factories built, whether it’s Tesla or what have you. 

But the same with him. The batteries have to come from somewhere for electric cars. Those are getting mined out of Central Africa places with people dying all the time. Cobalt and lithium. That’s what happens. That’s what you have to mine to produce these batteries. And then someone’s got to put together the tech, and that’s happening in China. And so there has to be a global consensus on that. And you have to get the consumers who buy them to say, “We’re not going to buy it anymore unless you move.”

Mr. Jekielek:

This is a huge opportunity, because with these unprecedented protests from the last 30 years, if American companies need a reason to reshore, need a reason to move their supply chains out, what better reason than to stand on the side of the Chinese people instead of the regime?

Mr. Patel:

Well, that we already know. It’s a regime that supports three separate genocides, which are ongoing. And we already now know, thanks to the reporting out there that, just to give one example to our audience, if they’re not tracking, but there was a group of 10 individuals who were killed, because as the reporting states, because of the Covid lockdowns, no one could get to them. They were locked in their apartments and were not able to be saved from a building that was on fire. That is outrageous. 

The covid lockdowns are an enormous cause of the current turmoil in China. And the CCP wants nothing to do with it. They want the lockdowns to stay. It’s a way to control the Chinese population. It’s a way to control how they maneuver, and how they message. And them getting Apple to shut down air play is just an additional layer of that. But at the end of the day, the CCP doesn’t want the Chinese people to move about freely. So they want the lockdowns to stay forever. And it’s now being borne out that they’re really not that successful in curtailing the covid outbreak.

Mr. Jekielek:

Oh, absolutely. What’s really interesting to me too is the juxtaposition of the U.S. response, for example, to the Iran protests.

Mr. Patel:

The administration has been vocal, not in the areas we’ve just discussed, but vocal on Iran at large, and the protest and the killing of innocent civilians, versus their deafening silence with what’s going on in China and the CCP, even though the same number, if not more civilians in China are dying on a daily or weekly basis.

But it’s still shocking to me as vocal as they’ve been on Iran, they have been silent on the nuclear deal. This is the one thing that would give the ITO in this regime that’s killing innocents billions of dollars overnight, and access to the international banking system, which is what suffocates Iran, because they don’t have access to it. 

Let’s not forget what the whole nuclear deal is for. Iran wants a nuclear weapon, and if we get back in the Iran nuclear deal, we are helping them get a nuclear weapon. We are handing our, if not biggest, one of the biggest enemies that the United States has in the ITO and the IRGC, a map and roadway to a nuclear weapon. 

There’s no larger threat a country can pose against the United States of America than having a nuclear arsenal that it can aim against us and our allies. And so for me, as a national security guy, that’s what’s most alarming that we haven’t seen or heard any messaging out of this White House to shut that down.

Mr. Jekielek:

Kash, I think it’s time for a shoutout.

Mr. Patel:

It is indeed, Jan. This week shout out goes to Dr. Ricky Engles of North Carolina. Dr. Engles, I’ve been told by your son, Steve, over at Brave Books, the wonderful children’s book company, that you’re the smartest man in the world, and I think he’s correct. And we’re going to be calling upon your talent soon. 

But thanks so much for watching Kash’s Corner every week, and thanks for raising a great kid in Steve. We appreciate his team at Brave Books and Epoch Times certainly appreciates your viewership. And thank you everybody else who watches our show weekly, who posts on our message board, and who joins the lively chats in the live chat room every week. We look forward to seeing you next week on Kash’s Corner.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

FBI Coordination With Big Tech Censorship Ahead of 2020 Election Revealed in Agent Deposition, Missouri AG Says

Original story below.

Officials from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security frequently met with major social media companies ahead of the 2020 election and pointed out users and pieces of content for removal, according to information from a deposition of a senior FBI agent revealed by a state attorney general.

“We found that the FBI plays a big role in working with social media companies to censor speech—from weekly meetings with social media companies ahead of the 2020 election to asks for account takedowns,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in a series of tweets on Dec. 2, three days after deposing Special Agent Elvis Chan, who’s in charge of cyber affairs at the FBI San Francisco Field Office.

Chan has given major social media companies warnings that have led them to censor information about a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, shortly before the election that put Biden in office, according to a lawsuit against the Biden administration led by Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.

FBI Director Wray
FBI Director Christopher Wray at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on May 25, 2022. (Bonnie Cash/Pool/Getty Images)

The laptop contained information about the younger Biden’s overseas dealings that appears to indicate attempts to sell access to his father, who at the time was vice president.

The suit alleges the administration violated the First Amendment by influencing social media to censor speech, including the laptop story. Some survey data suggest Biden might have lost the election if his voters were aware of the information.

Chan testified that he and officials from the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and the DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were meeting social media officials on a quarterly, then monthly, and finally, weekly basis as the election approached, Schmitt said in his tweets.

“Chan stated that the FBI regularly sent social media companies lists of URLs and social media accounts that should be taken down because they were disinformation from ‘malign foreign influence operations,’” Schmitt said, adding that “on many occasions, the platforms took down the accounts flagged by the FBI.”

Epoch Times Photo
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. (Matthew Pearson/CPI Studios)

The FBI defended itself by suggesting it was merely providing the companies with information about who’s doing the talking on their platforms.

“The FBI regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities,” the bureau said in a statement to Fox News.

“It is not based on the content of any particular message or narrative.”

Yet the attorneys general believe the FBI was specifically trying to suppress the Biden laptop story.

“Chan personally told the social media companies that there could potentially be a Russian ‘hack and leak’ operation shortly before the election,” Schmitt said.

Chan also referred to the operation as a “hack and dump,” an unnamed source in Schmitt’s office told Fox News.

Epoch Times Photo
The FBI logo is seen outside the bureau’s headquarters in Washington on July 5, 2016. (Yuri Gripas/AFP/Getty Images)

“On information and belief, the FBI’s reference to a ‘dump’ of information was a specific reference to the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was already in the FBI’s possession,” the suit says.

The FBI argued the tech companies are censoring the content of their own accord.

“Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers after the FBI has notified them,” its statement said.

The deposition, however, indicated that the FBI saw to it that its censorship suggestions were acted upon.

After flagging some links and accounts “the FBI then inquired whether the platforms have taken down the content,” Schmitt said in the tweets.

There’s also evidence that the companies felt compelled to act on the takedown requests because they were coming from the FBI.

“If the FBI … if they come to us and tell us we need to be on guard about something, then I want to take that seriously,” Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta (Facebook’s parent company), said during an August interview with podcast host Joe Rogan.

The FBI told Facebook ahead of the election to be “on high alert” regarding something “similar” to “Russian propaganda” ahead of the 2016 election, Zuckerberg said.

“There’s about to be some kind of dump … that’s similar to that, so just be vigilant,” he recounted the FBI message as saying.

Nigeria Meta Court Case
A car passes Facebook’s new Meta logo on a sign at the company headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on Oct. 28, 2021. (Tony Avelar/AP Photo)

Facebook then suppressed the Biden laptop story.

Zuckerberg said he couldn’t remember if the FBI flagged the story specifically but said it “basically fit the pattern” the FBI had identified.

Meanwhile, Twitter suppressed the story under its policy against “hacked” information, even though there was no evidence the information was hacked.

There was some confusion among Twitter leadership on how the suppression was justified, according to internal Twitter communications obtained by independent journalist Matt Taibbi.

“I support the conclusion that we need more facts to assess whether the materials were hacked,” Twitter’s then-Deputy General Counsel James Baker, former general counsel for the FBI, said in an internal communication.

“At this stage, however, it is reasonable for us to assume that they may have been and that caution is warranted.”

Chan’s deposition was ordered last month by federal District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee.

Chan “played a critical role for the FBI in coordinating with social-media platforms related to censorship,” the  judge said.

The order meant a significant victory for Schmitt and Landry.

Musk-Twitter-Amnesty
The Twitter splash page on a digital device in San Diego on April 25, 2022. (Gregory Bull/AP Photo)

“Since filing our lawsuit, we’ve uncovered troves of discovery that show a massive ‘censorship enterprise,’” Schmitt said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

“Now we’re deposing top government officials, and we’re one of the first to get a look under the hood—the information we’ve uncovered through those depositions has been shocking, to say the least. It’s clear from Tuesday’s deposition that the FBI has an extremely close role in working to censor freedom of speech. Stay tuned.”

Landry added: “Americans should be angered that during the 2020 election cycle, federal agencies peddled information that has since been disproven. Additionally, agencies like the FBI contacted social media platforms to censor free speech to ‘protect us’ from disinformation. This case is just one of the many steps we have taken to stand up for the First Amendment rights of our citizens. No American should be censored by the government.”

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly omitted the time James Baker served as a deputy general counsel at Twitter. The Epoch Times regrets the error.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Meet the Beijing-Aligned Group That Branded a Republican’s Tough-on-China Rhetoric ‘Racist’

The Chinese-American nonprofit that branded a Republican congresswoman’s tough-on-China campaign ads “racist” has extensive ties to Chinese Communist Party influence groups and Beijing-backed companies through its members, staff, and former leaders, a Washington Free Beacon investigation found.

In late October, with the 2022 midterms just two weeks away, the Committee of 100—a nonprofit that works to “advance U.S.-China relations”—issued a statement condemning China-related campaign ads from California Republican Michelle Steel. Those ads, which the committee said included “racist attacks” that encouraged “anti-Asian hate and violence,” criticized Democrat challenger Jay Chen’s past support for the Confucius Classroom program, a CCP-run initiative that provides American K-12 schools with Beijing-backed teachers and curriculum materials.

The committee’s decision to wade into the race—a rare one, given that the nonprofit usually avoids electoral politics in favor of commenting on academic research, legislative developments, and federal appointments—sparked attention from mainstream media outlets and liberal groups. Within days of its release, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee used the statement to declare that the Asian-American community had turned on Steel, with the Times and NPR innocuously describing the Committee of 100 as “a New York-based nonprofit led by prominent Chinese Americans” and a group that “represents Chinese Americans.” Those descriptions, however, ignore the fact that many of the nonprofit’s members, staff, and former leaders have extensive ties to CCP-controlled groups and Chinese state-backed companies—ties that have led some China experts to assert that the committee is a crucial target for the CCP’s foreign influence efforts.

Committee member Ronnie Chan, for example, serves on the governing board of the China-United States Exchange Foundation, a CCP-funded Chinese foreign agent whose founder, billionaire Chinese national Tung Chee-hwa, is the vice chairman of a CCP advisory body. Fellow member Yu Meng, meanwhile, for three years worked as a top officer at the Chinese government-controlled State Administration of Foreign Exchange, a job that China’s Thousand Talents Program—which the FBI says engages in “non-traditional espionage against the United States”—reportedly recruited him to take. Meng in 2015 told CCP propaganda rag People’s Daily that he was inspired to take the job due to his commitment to “the motherland.” Former committee chairman Dominic Ng also served on the board of the Asia Society, which worked to spread Confucius Institutes—the CCP-run higher education equivalent of Confucius Classrooms that a former top Chinese official called “an important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up”—across the United States.

Committee of 100 members and staff have also partnered with Chinese state-backed companies and propaganda outlets. Senior communications director Charles Zinkowski, for example, previously managed U.S. media relations for Huawei, a CCP tech company that has helped the Chinese government surveil Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang concentration camps. The United States on Wednesday banned the approval of new Huawei tech over the company’s “unacceptable risk” to national security. Committee member Guoqing Chen, meanwhile, cofounded majority state-owned Hainan Airlines, while fellow member Chi Wang serves as president of the U.S.-China Policy Foundation, which has accepted tens of thousands of dollars in funding from Huawei, CCP-run newspaper China Daily, and China’s largest state-owned banks.

Those affiliations may explain why Chinese president Xi Jinping praised the Committee of 100 as a “friendly group” in 2015. They may also explain why the CCP’s “United Front” system—which aims to advance Beijing’s interests by influencing foreign individuals—has used the committee to pressure members to “toe the Party line,” according to a 2019 Hoover Institution report. Some of the committee’s former leaders, meanwhile, are reportedly part of that system. Former committee director George Koo is an “overseas director” of the China Overseas Friendship Association, a CCP-led foreign influence group, according to the Hoover report. Former Committee of 100 chair and current member H. Roger Wang is an honorary chairman of the association’s local branch in Nanjing, Newsweek reported in 2020.

The Committee of 100, which did not return a request for comment, has denied allegations that it is linked to the CCP. But the nonprofit’s support for controversial CCP initiatives is well documented. In 2018, then-committee chair Wang toldChina Daily that the committee should “get actively involved” in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, a CCP tool used to subjugate foreign nations through direct infrastructure investment. The committee also vocally opposed a Trump-era effort to prosecute Chinese spies but has refrained from condemning Beijing for its Uyghur genocide, Mark Simon, a former senior executive at the pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, wrote in a 2019 column.

“The Committee of 100 is a pro-Beijing group, concerned almost exclusively with the interests aligned with those of the Chinese Communist Party,” Simon wrote. “In all their discussions about the US-China relationship try to find any significant objection to the actions of the CCP. You won’t.”

The committee’s attacks on Steel ultimately did not sink the Republican. Steel in November defeated Chen by 5 points in California’s 45th Congressional District, which is home to nearly 150,000 Asian-American voters and which President Joe Biden carried by 6 points just two years ago. Steel’s success in a district with a large Asian-American presence, a veteran Republican operative told the Free Beacon, shows that the Republican Party’s push to combat China will remain at the center of the party’s electoral message for cycles to come. And if Democrats turn to groups such as the Committee of 100 to brand that message “racist,” it will only bolster Republicans, the operative argued.

“The seriousness of nonprofits with ties to China involving themselves in our elections cannot be understated,” the operative said. “If Democrats want to lean in on their support, it will actually help Republicans.”

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Trump Responds to Elon Musk’s Twitter Revelation

Former President Donald Trump responded to the release of “The Twitter Files” this weekend, decrying what he described as official corruption across the federal government and in big tech firms.

“The same level of Fraud took place with the other Big Tech companies, if not even worse (if that’s possible?),” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We are living in a VERY CORRUPT COUNTRY &, AS THEY ARE SAYING ALL OVER THE INTERNET, ‘NOTHING WILL BE DONE ABOUT IT BECAUSE THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT & FBI ARE TOTALLY CORRUPT.’ But they’ll keep investigating ‘boxes’ that were legally & openly taken from the W.H.”

“Does anybody notice that the LameStream Media is REFUSING to report about, even a simple mention” on the Twitter revelations, he asked. “Watch closely, you will see barely a mention. We have a CORRUPT MEDIA the likes of which has never been seen before, but fear not, we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

His comments were prompted after Twitter owner Elon Musk posted and endorsed journalist Matt Taibbi’s “The Twitter Files” thread, which detailed alleged attempts by Twitter’s former management to suppress the New York Post’s October 2020 report about Hunter Biden’s laptop and his alleged business connections to then-candidate Joe Biden.

With weeks to go before the November 2020 election, Twitter censored the NY Post report and even prevented users from sharing it in direct messages. The NY Post, meanwhile, was locked out of its account for more than two weeks.

“Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be ‘unsafe,’” Taibbi wrote. “They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g. child pornography,” he explained, as he posted alleged screenshots of emails that were sent to and from Twitter’s management at the time.

In sub-development, Taibbi further said that former CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey didn’t have knowledge of the firm’s attempts to suppress the report.

“Although several sources recalled hearing about a ‘general’ warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign hacks, there’s no evidence–that I’ve seen–of any government involvement in the laptop story. In fact, that might have been the problem,” he wrote in a lengthy thread. “The decision was made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key role.”

Over the weekend, Musk said on Twitter Spaces that the company’s actions before the 2020 General Election were tantamount to election interference.

“If Twitter is doing one team’s bidding before an election, shutting down dissenting voices on a pivotal election, that is the definition of election interference,” Musk said on Saturday evening.

Epoch Times Photo
Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives at the Offshore Northern Seas 2022 meeting in Stavanger, Norway on Aug. 29, 2022. (Carina Johansen/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)

Response

On Saturday, Trump suggested that the results of the 2020 election should be tossed. The 45th president has made similar remarks over the past two years.

“Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION?” Trump then asked. Trump said that in his view, the Constitution allows “for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

In response to Trump’s missives about the U.S. Constitution, the White House on Sunday morning condemned the former president.

“The American Constitution is a sacrosanct document that for over 200 years has guaranteed that freedom and the rule of law prevail in our great country. The Constitution brings the American people together–regardless of party–and elected leaders swear to uphold it,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement to news outlets.

He added: “It’s the ultimate monument to all of the Americans who have given their lives to defeat self-serving despots that abused their power and trampled on fundamental rights. Attacking the Constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation, and should be universally condemned. You cannot only love America when you win.”

Several weeks ago, Trump announced he would be running for president in 2024 for the third time. Around the same time, Musk moved to restore Trump’s Twitter account after a poll found that a majority of users supported its reinstatement. There are no signs that Trump would return to the platform, however, as he has expressed a desire to remain only on his Truth Social.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Secret Service Finds Hundreds of Pages on Hunter Biden Gun Incident

The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) has located hundreds of pages of records on President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and a discarded gun.

Hunter Biden’s sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, reportedly threw his handgun in a trash container in Delaware in 2020. Agents with Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) were reportedly involved.

Based on the reports, a transparency group called Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Secret Service asking for records related to the incident, including reports, telephone logs, and witness statements.

The Secret Service, in its initial April 2021 response, said it located records and would process them. But more than a year later, in October, it said the response was sent in error and that the agency had never actually located any responsive records.

The third change came in a recent court filing that was lodged after Judicial Watch sued over the matter. The Secret Service now says more than 100 records have been located.

“Since the Complaint was filed, the Parties have conferred about the intended scope of Judicial Watch’s FOIA request and, in response, USSS has run supplemental searches and located over 100 records, totaling over 400 pages, potentially responsive to Judicial Watch’s request under the clarified understanding of that request,” the Secret Service and Judicial Watch said in a joint case report filed on Nov. 10 with the U.S. court in Washington, D.C.

“The Secret Service’s changing story on records raises additional questions about its role in the Hunter Biden gun incident,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “One thing is clear, Judicial Watch’s persistence means the public may get records that the Secret Service suggested didn’t exist.”

The Secret Service did not respond to a request for comment.

The Secret Service told The Epoch Times in September, in response to a FOIA request similar to the one from Judicial Watch, that it “searched all Program Offices that were likely to contain potentially responsive records, and no records were located.”

In 2021, a Secret Service spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email that the agency “maintains there was no Secret Service involvement in the matter.”

The ATF has already acknowledged having records of the incident, but a judge ruled that the agency did not have to disclose them.

Reports

The Blaze, citing an anonymous source, reported in 2018 that in October of that year, Hallie Biden—the widow of Hunter’s brother, Beau—took Hunter Biden’s gun and put it in a garbage can outside of a supermarket. The Delaware State Police told the outlet that the case was referred to the Delaware Department of Justice.

The Delaware State Police rejected a request for records on the matter and the department of justice has not returned an inquiry.

Agents with the Secret Service and ATF visited the gun store from which Hunter Biden purchased the gun in question, according to The Blaze.

Politico, citing a police report and anonymous sources, reported in 2021 that the gun was disposed of near Janssen’s Market in Greenville, prompting calls from two people, including the store’s general manager.

“We complied with the police and gave them whatever security footage we could,” Paula Janssen, the general manager, told the outlet.

Police questioned both Hallie Biden and Hunter Biden. When the latter was asked if the gun had been used in a crime, Hunter Biden “became very agitated with me and asked me if I was intentionally trying to make him mad,” a police officer wrote. Hunter Biden also said he believed Hallie Biden thought he was going to commit suicide.

Text messages from Hunter Biden’s laptop reportedly showed that he was irate when he learned what Hallie Biden had done, telling her that she had “humiliate[d] me.”

“I’m sorry, I just want you safe. That was not safe,” she replied, adding that it was in a car that was unlocked with the windows down. “And I’m scared you would use it,” she also said.

A lawyer for Hunter Biden did not respond to a request for comment.

Next Steps

Government lawyers had claimed that the complaint lacked merit, but now say they’ll produce the documents they’ve identified, pending communication with the Executive Branch.

“USSS will complete its initial processing of all potentially responsive records by January 9, 2023, and send records out for any necessary consultations with other Executive Branch entities by that date. If any responsive, non-exempt records do not require consultation, USSS will produce those records to Plaintiff by January 9th. For any responsive, non-exempt records that are out on consultation, USSS intends to produce those to Plaintiff on a rolling, monthly basis as they become available,” the joint status report stated.

The parties proposed to file their next joint report by Jan. 13, 2023.

The report would include how many pages had been processed, how many were given to Judicial Watch, how many had been sent to the Executive Branch, and how many had been withheld.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, the Trump appointee overseeing the case, agreed to the proposal.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Democrat West Virginia Senator Switches to Republican Party

West Virginia Democrat State Sen. Glenn Jeffries is no longer a Democrat after announcing his decision to switch his affiliation to the Republican Party on Dec. 1.

The move gave the Republican Party a 31-3 majority in the West Virginia State Senate.

“I have the greatest respect for the many friends and supporters I have been blessed with during my time in public office,” Jeffries said in a statement, per Metro News. “I hope to continue and strengthen those relationships going forward.”

He continued: “Our politics have gotten so personal and difficult. I want to make sure that I serve constituents and our state in a respectful, thoughtful way that leads to a better life for all West Virginians.”

According to the outlet, the change was first announced by the Putnam County Republican Executive Committee, which welcomed the former Democrat to the party in a statement.

“Senator Jeffries has proven himself to be a very hard worker for Putnam County,” said Tony Hodge, committee chairman and co-chairman of the state party.

Attributing Jeffries’ decision to discontentment with his former party, Hodge added: “Glenn described himself to me as a ‘conservative,’ and we agreed that his policy efforts in the State Senate would be elevated if he joined the majority Republican caucus. Glenn also expressed to me his discomfort with the leftward direction of the Democratic Party and that he no longer identifies with them.”

Further celebrating the move Thursday on Twitter, the Putnam County Republican Party wrote: “Please join us in welcoming the newest Republican Senator in West Virginia, former Democrat Glenn Jeffries of Putnam County!! Welcome aboard, Glenn!”

The West Virginia Democratic Party, however, was less celebratory in its response to the news.

“For Senator Jeffries to claim he doesn’t like the direction of the Democratic Party, barely a week after his new party’s de facto leader had dinner with a Holocaust denying white supremacist, is like being called ugly by a frog,” said Mike Pushkin, chair of the West Virginia Democratic Party, in a Thursday statement.

Nick Fuentes, the “white supremacist” Pushkin referenced, had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with former President Trump and rapper Kanye “Ye” West last week. Following the dinner, Trump released a statement denying any knowledge of who Fuentes was.

“Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said. “Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about.”

According to The Free Press, Fuentes echoed that explanation on Nov. 25 on his podcast, stating, “I don’t think he knew that I was me at the dinner.”

Puskin, however, appeared to equate Fuentes’ actions and opinions with those of the former president in his Thursday statement.

“Former President Trump’s dinner guest, Nick Fuentes, infamously spoke at a far right rally earlier this year where he urged the crowd to cheer for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and expressed his support for Vladimir Putin by enthusiastically comparing him to Adolf Hitler,” Pushkin said.

Jeffries is not the only Democrat to defect from the party in recent times. In October, former presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard made waves when she announced she was no longer a Democrat. Though Gabbard did not go on to register with the Republican Party, other former Democrats have made that change, including New Jersey Sen. Jeff Van Drew in 2019 and former Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones last year.

A previous version of this story inaccurately stated the composition of the West Virginia State Senate after Sen. Jeffries switched parties. The Epoch Times regrets the error. 

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Gab Fears Only God

Gab is a First Amendment company which means we tolerate “offensive” but legal speech.

We believe that a moderation policy which adheres to the First Amendment, thereby permitting offensive content to rise to the surface, is a valuable and necessary utility to society. It allows unorthodox but correct views, such as the Wuhan Lab Origin Theory or the Hunter Biden laptop scandal– both of which were banned on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube but permitted on Gab– to propagate.

It allows hateful ideas, such as anti-White CRT, to be exposed and subject to scrutiny and challenge. It also allows Americans, and others around the world, to enjoy the full measure of their human right to speak freely online. Supporting the mission of freedom online means having the stomach to accept that people will say “edgy and offensive” things. When people have the freedom to discover the truth, they start to notice something about the reality of our discourse “boundaries” in the West that is unsettling.

Our broken society and culture have no problem whatsoever discussing and questioning any atrocity in world history except one.

We have no problem discussing, questioning, and praising any other world leader in history except one.

We have no problem generalizing and being critical of any group of people except one.

We have no problem discussing the castration of children, degeneracy, vulgarity, profanity, blasphemy, drugs, satanism, baby murder, and every taboo subject under the sun except one. 

I don’t even have to say which “one” for you all to know exactly what and who I am talking about–and that’s the problem. We all know, but we are too afraid to say it out loud. Why? This is the United States of America. This is the free and open internet. If we can talk about every other historical event, people group, religion, and taboo we should be able to talk about this. 

Frankly, I believe the time to start speaking the truth boldly and loudly is right now. Not from a place of hatred or malice, but from a place of love. We love our nations. We love our families. We love our neighbors. We want to see them all thrive. That’s not happening right now in our society. The reason for that is the people in power do not fear and love the Lord. They serve satan and they serve themselves. You can either serve satan and the self or you can serve Jesus Christ. There is no middle ground. We want leaders who serve and obey Jesus Christ. Period. 

The Regime’s anti-Christ religion depends on these issues being untouchable subjects. Which is exactly why—as free people who fear only God—we can and must openly talk about them in order to destroy their sacred cows and smash their idols. If we break down their barriers on discourse we can and will remove them from power and restore order in our countries once again.

We will replace them with leaders who fear and love the Lord. It’s not a matter of if, but when. Gab is the one place on the internet that allows this to happen with words and Truth. Which is exactly why the Regime has worked so hard to try and destroy our platform. That’s why they have defamed us and gone after our families and friends. That’s why they banned us from banks, app stores, payment processors, hosting providers, and so much more. That’s why they tried to buy us, threaten us, and intimidate us. They are the most powerful people, businesses, activist groups, and governments in the world with infinite resources, but we serve the most powerful and infinite God.

We do not fear them at Gab. We fear Him.

Many Christians will message me or leave comments saying I need to remove profanity or “Nazis” from Gab or whatever they deem to be “not Christian.” They ask me how I can tolerate these things on Gab as a Christian leader and the answer is simple. 

First: Gab is a free speech site. You control what you want to see, not us. You can mute entire words if you never want to see them. You can block or mute or unfollow people you do not want to see. Gab’s job on the moderation side is to make sure there is no illegal content being posted according to US law such as threats of violence or child exploitation. Otherwise, 99.9% of moderation on Gab is done by the users themselves on their own profiles and in their own groups. 

Second: I want everyone to be exposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the kindness, patience, and charity of Christians. Even the “Nazis.” Gab may soon be the one place online where people hear about Jesus. I have seen countless Gabbers return to Christ, get baptized, and start going to church after being inspired by other Gabbers and the Holy Spirit. Why on earth would we not want things like that to happen here?

I was reminded of this today when a woman on Gab sent a message to my wife saying “I can tell you that since I’ve been on Gab my life has transformed because the platform is so encouraging and it’s like a bible study with likeminded believers when I get on.” We receive messages like this from Gabbers every single day. 

Gab is the home of free speech. It’s where taboos, sacred cows, and “untouchable” conversations go to die. It’s where freedom and the Gospel of Jesus Christ which provides that freedom–can be found. 

Gab is the home of the parallel Christian society. They can’t cancel us here. We no longer care about being canceled in their anti-Christ regime society because we are building our own–everything. Our own social media platform. Our own community. Our own economy. Our own payment processor. Our own news and media outlets. Our own entertainment. All of it build on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ–and we are only just getting started. 

Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab.com
Jesus Christ is King of kings

Published in Gab

SOURCE: GAB

Reversal of Long-Standing Policy Keeps Key Documents on Hunter Biden’s Business From Congress

Congressional investigators are being denied access to 148 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed with the Department of the Treasury by banks concerning the financial dealings of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and brother, Jim, according to expected incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

“Most Americans have never heard the term ‘Suspicious Activity Reports.’ These are actual reports that financial institutions file with the Treasury Department when they see suspicious activity,” Jordan told Epoch TV’s Joshua Phillip in an interview on “Newsmakers.”

“Typically, it’s money laundering type of activity, so most Americans don’t get these. Or if they do, there is a good reason for it. But there are 150 of them on Hunter Biden and Jim Biden, the president’s brother, and that to me is a big concern.”

Only two of the 150 have been made public, and the Biden administration through the Department of the Treasury is refusing to make the other 148 SARs available to congressional investigators, according to Jordan.

“It used to be before the Biden administration, if the committee wanted to see that information, whether it was Democrats on the committee or Republicans on the committee, they could have access to it … until the Biden administration,” he said.

“So the Biden administration hasn’t complied with any of the correspondence, any of the letters and requests that came from [expected incoming House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.)]. They have changed the policy on SARs for the ability of committees to review that information.

“So we’ll see if we get access. Maybe we’re going to have to go to the banks to get that information and not through the Treasury Department.”

A Treasury Department spokesman didn’t respond by press time to The Epoch Times’ request for an explanation of the Biden administration’s 2021 decision to end a long-standing process whereby SARs and other reports are provided under the Bank Secrecy Act whenever requested by a congressional committee with appropriate jurisdiction.

Following the administration’s decision, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) introduced and the House subsequently approved H.R. 7734, the “Timely Delivery of Bank Secrecy Act Reports Act.” The Waters bill was approved by the House on July 26 on a 349–70 vote, with majorities of both parties supporting the measure.

The Waters measure would require the Treasury Department to provide copies of SARs to requesting congressional officials within 30 days and requires financial institutions to turn over requested copies upon receipt of a congressional subpoena.

The Waters legislation was introduced in the Senate and referred to the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), but no action has been taken on it since being referred to the Ohio Democrat’s panel.

Biden administration officials have offered several cumbersome alternative processes that would only allow congressional aides to go to reading rooms at the Treasury Department to view SARs, but they wouldn’t be allowed to make copies of the documents.

The bill report on the Waters measure explained why House officials rejected the Biden administration’s suggested alternatives:

“Unfortunately, Treasury and [Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)] have recently severely restricted congressional access to Suspicious Activity Reports by requiring congressional staff to review all material in a reading room at Treasury, prohibiting the copying of materials for purposes of highlighting, ongoing reference, or margin notation, and restricting information collection to note taking.

“As an alternative, Treasury and FinCEN have offered to bring the material to the requesting committee and then take the material back to Treasury when the review is completed.

“The restrictions that they have imposed upon congressional access to SARs and related materials are unworkable given the complexity and amount of information contained in such materials, and severely impairs Congress’ responsibility to carry on its oversight work in a timely and effective fashion.”

Despite the overwhelming House vote for the Waters measure that would have effectively restored congressional access on a par with what it was prior to Biden taking office, the Treasury Department continues to withhold access to SARs, except as decided on a case-by-case basis.

In a Sept. 2 letter, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Legislative Affairs Jonathan Davidson told Comer, “We believe that producing BSA information in this manner is a reasonable and responsive approach that also fulfills the department’s obligation to protect the confidential nature of the material.

“In this way, the Department preserves the integrity of law enforcement investigations, protects privacy, and helps ensure that the BSA remains highly effective in addressing illicit financial activity.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

National Guard Gave COVID-19 Vaccine Instead of Flu Shot: Whistleblower


National Guard Gave COVID-19 Vaccine Instead of Flu Shot: Whistleblower

CROSSROADS

JOSHUA PHILIPP

The National Guard gave COVID-19 shots to multiple service members who were lined up for the influenza vaccine. Matthew Bouchard, a former specialist in Maine’s National Guard, was pursuing a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine, due to his Christian faith, when he was injected with the vaccine without his knowledge. Lawyer R. Davis Younts says that, by doing this, the military may have violated the constitutional rights of U.S. troops. The military alleges this was done accidentally.

We speak with Bouchard and Younts about what happened, what this means for the men and women in the U.S. armed forces, and whether this could have violated the law.

Subscribe to the new Crossroads newsletter and stay up-to-date!

The Shadow State | Documentary

PRE-ORDER “The Shadow State” DVD:  https://www.epochtv.shop/product-page/the-shadow-state-dvd

The Real Story of January 6 | Documentary

BUY Jan 6 DVD: https://www.epochtv.shop/product-page/dvd-the-real-story-of-january-6, Promo Code “EpochTV” for 20% off.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Wyoming Sues Biden Administration, Alleges Suspensions of Oil Lease Sales Illegal

The State of Wyoming filed a second lawsuit against the Biden Administration, alleging that its suspension of oil lease sales were illegal.

Gov. Mark Gordon (R-Wyom.) announced that his state filed the lawsuit against the Interior Department for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) decision to halt oil and gas lease sales in the state.

“This litigation is timely and vital to the interests of Wyoming citizens,” said Gordon in a statement.

“Beyond that, Wyoming’s energy resources can help power the nation and bring down costs at the pump. BLM’s decision to cancel lease sales sure seems to be a violation of both the letter and the spirit of the law.

“I firmly believe the pause in lease sales was politically driven and not based in law or fact,” the governor continued.

After state officials filed their first lawsuit to reverse the department’s order to pause federal oil and gas leasing in Wyoming for the first quarter of 2021, a U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the Biden administration.

The court ruled that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s decision was lawful but did not decide whether other cancelations violated the law.

Wyoming Files Second Lawsuit for Drilling

The current lawsuit is focused on oil sales that that failed to occur in the second and third quarters of 2021, and the third quarter of this year.

Gordon accused BLM of going 18 months without issuing a single oil and gas lease sale and failing to restart regularly scheduled quarterly lease sales.

Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill argued that the Secretary of the Interior lacked the same justification that it previously used for subsequent missing lease sales.

“Throughout my tenure as Governor, I have remained committed to protecting Wyoming and her economy against overreach from the federal government, and that is what this litigation is intended to do. I thank Attorney General Hill for defending Wyoming’s interests,” the governor said.

Haaland explained in April that her department’s actions were meant to protect local communities, the environment, air, and water quality, against the influence of the energy industry.

“Today, we begin to reset how and what we consider to be the highest and best use of Americans’ resources for the benefit of all current and future generations,” said the Interior chief.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced earlier this week its intention to auction off one million acres of coastal waters off Alaska for oil and gas drilling by Dec. 30.

An amendment was inserted into the Inflation Reduction Act as part of a compromise demanded by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) to gain his support for the passage of the bill.

The Interior Department had only leased 126,228 acres of land for drilling, before it opened up the territory off Alaska after Biden took office, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Biden only leased 4.4 million acres for drilling in the first 19 months of his term—the lowest on record since President Nixon’s first term—amid soaring domestic and global energy prices.

He also was responsible for halting the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have supplied 830,000 barrels of oil to the United States from Canada.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

If You Really Wanted to Destroy the US, Then …

First, you would surrender our prior energy independence.

Reduce new gas and oil leases on federal lands to the lowest levels of any president in history. Cut back production at precisely the time the world is emerging from a two-year lockdown with pent-up consumer demand.

Make war on coal and nuclear power. Drain the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to make the pain for consumers more bearable for midterm election advantage.

Cancel the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas field. Block pipelines such as the Keystone XL oil pipeline and the Constitution natural gas line.

Overregulate and demonize frackers and horizontal drillers. Ensure there is less investment for their exploration and production.

Make use of internal combustible engines or fossil fuel power generation prohibitively expensive. Achieve a green-oil dependency along the lines of contemporary Europe.

Second, print trillions of dollars in new currency as the lockdowns end, demand rises, and consumers are already saturated with COVID-19 subsidies. Keep interest rates low, well below the rate of inflation, as you print more money. Ensure that passbook holders earn no interest at the very time that prices skyrocket to the highest per annum level in 40 years.

“Spread the wealth” by sending money to those who already have enough, while making it less valuable for those deemed to have too much. Ensure runaway high prices to wean the middle class off its consumerism and supposedly to inspire them to buy less junk they don’t need. Damn the rich in the open and in the abstract, court them in the concrete and secret of darkness.

Third, end America’s physical boundaries. Render it an amorphous people and anywhere space. End any vestigial difference between a citizen and resident. Up the current nearly 50 million who were not born in the United States—27 percent of California’s population—to 100 million and more by allowing 3 million illegal aliens to enter per year.

Fourth, destroy the public trust in its elections. Render Election Day irrelevant. Make proper auditing of 110 million mail-in/early ballots impossible. Normalize ballot harvesting and curing.

Urge leftist billionaires to infuse their riches to “absorb” the work of state registrars in key precincts to ensure the correct “turn-out.”

Blast as “election denialists,” “insurrectionists,” and “democracy destroyers” anyone who objects to these radical ballot changes, neither passed by the U.S. Congress nor by state legislators. Weaponize the FBI, CIA, and Department of Justice.

Fifth, redefine crime as one rich man’s crime, another poor man’s necessity.

Let those who need “things” exercise their entitlement to them. Rewrite or ignore laws to exempt the oppressed who take, or do what they want as atonement for past systemic racism and oppression.

Six, junk the ossified idea of a melting pot and multiracial society united by common American values and ideals. Instead, identify individuals by their superficial appearance. Seek to be a victim and monetize your claims against perceived victimizers. Call anyone a “racist” who resists.

Encourage each tribe, defined by common race, ethnic, gender, or sexual orientation affinities, to band together to oppose the monolithic “white privilege” majority. Encourage social and tribal tensions. Racially discriminate to end discrimination.

Greenlight statue toppling, name changing, boycotting, cancel culturing, ostracizing, and Trotskyizing. Erase the past, control the present, and create a new American person for the future.

Seven, render the United States just one of many nations abroad. Abandon Afghanistan in shame. Leave behind thousands of loyal Afghan allies, billions of dollars in equipment, a billion-dollar embassy, and the largest air base in central Asia. Appease the theocracy to reenter the Iran nuclear deal.

Beg enemies like Venezuela, Russia, and Iran to pump more oil when it is politically expedient for us to have abundant supplies—oil that we have in abundance but won’t produce. Discourage friends like Guinea from producing more energy and cancel allies’ energy projects like the EastMed pipeline.

Trash but then beg Saudi Arabia to pump more oil right before the midterms for domestic political advantage.

Eight, neuter the First Amendment. Enlist Silicon Valley monopolies to silence unwanted free speech while using Big Tech’s mega profits to warp elections. Declare free expression “hate speech.” Criminalize contrarian social media.

Nine, demonize half the country as semi-fascists, un-Americans, insurrectionists, and even potential domestic terrorists. Try to change inconvenient ancient rules: seek to pack the court, end the filibuster, junk the Electoral College, and bring in two more states.

Twice impeach a president who tried to stand in your way. Try him when he is an emeritus president and private citizen. Raid his home. Seek to indict a future rival to the current president.

Ten, never mention the origins of the COVID-19 virus. Never blame China for the release of SARS-CoV-2 virus. Exempt investigations of U.S. health officials who subsidized Chinese gain-of-function research. Ignore the Bill of Rights to mandate vaccinations, mask-wearing, and quarantines.

We have done all of the above. It would be hard to imagine any planned agenda to destroy America that would have been as injurious as what we already suffered the last two years.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

How EMFs Disturb Your Immune System

Mounting research makes it impossible to ignore the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation

We are living in an unprecedented time, one in which electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from cellphones and cellphone base stations, Wi-Fi devices, power lines, electrical wiring, and even computers, televisions, and microwave ovens, surround us 24/7.

Olle Johansson, associate professor and head of the Experimental Dermatology Unit, Department of Neuroscience, at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, is among those who have questioned whether humans are affected by such an assault.

In a 2009 review published in Pathophysiology, Johansson points out that since life on Earth began more than 3.5 billion years ago, the geomagnetic fields and radiation from the sun have remained largely static.  During life’s progression, living organisms have developed ways to cope with these influences, including developing pigmented skin to shield from the sun or, for other species, living underground or under the dense, protective foliage of a rainforest.

During the past 100 years, however, as EMFs became prolific, we haven’t developed a similar adaptation. “Is it possible to adapt our biology to altered exposure conditions in less than 100 years, or do we have to have thousands of years—or longer—for such an adaptation? And, in the meantime, what kind of safety standards must we adopt?” Johansson asked.

After reviewing a number of papers on the effects of manmade EMFs on the immune system, he found disturbing consequences and ultimately concluded not only that existing public safety limits are inadequate to protect public health but also that limits should be set on the deployment of further untested technologies.

EMFs Disturb Immune Function

EMFs present in everyday life, including at workplaces, homes, and areas of recreation, disturb the human body at the cellular level, often at low or very low (non-thermal) levels. Johansson cites research showing that EMF exposures stimulate increases in mast cells and other physiological changes that indicate an allergic response and inflammatory conditions.

He believes that rapid rises in the incidence of allergies, asthma, and other sensitivities worldwide are a warning signal, as chronic exposure to EMFs may lead to immune dysfunction, chronic allergic responses, inflammatory responses, and overall ill health. EMF exposures have also been linked to a variety of specific immune system effects, including: overreaction of the immune system, alteration of immune cells, profound increases in mast cells in the upper layers of the skin, larger size of mast cells in electrohypersensitive individual, suppressed or impaired immune function, decreased count of natural killer cells, immune cells that help kill cells infected with viruses and control early signs of cancer, and negative effects on pregnancy.

Research published by the World Health Organization in 2006 suggested 1 percent to 3.5 percent of people are hypersensitive to electromagnetic radiation, though estimates have reached as high as 10 percent of populations in the United States, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, and many other countries. This condition is known as electrohypersensitivity (EHS), and it leads to a number of physical and cognitive symptoms upon exposure to EMFs. Common symptoms of EHS include headaches, dizziness, fatigue, trouble concentrating, cognitive problemssleep interruptions, and skin symptoms such as stinging, itching, and burning.

According to Johansson, “It is evident from our preliminary experimental data that various biological alterations are present in EHS persons claiming to suffer from exposure to EMF. The alterations are themselves enough to fully explain the EHS symptoms, and the involvement of the immune system is evident.”

Damages from EMF exposure aren’t only a matter of increased cell damage but also of reduced repair, facilitating the spread of disease. The report cites evidence that EMF exposure may contribute to DNA damage and adverse effects on cellular communication, metabolism and repair, and cancer surveillance within the body, along with causing adverse cardiac and neurological effects, including memory impairment, changes in brainwave activity, and disturbed cognitive function.

Biological effects from EMF exposure may occur at levels significantly below U.S. and international limits. Biologically based exposure standards are needed to protect humans from the effects of even low-level EMF exposure, but, according to Johansson, “such a completely protective safety limit would, for many exposure situations, be zero.”

Unfortunately, the currently accelerated rollout of 5G technology, which requires the installation of numerous small cell transmission devices in neighborhoods, stands to dramatically increase EMF exposures and their related health consequences.

1,000 Studies on Adverse Effects of EMFs

The body of evidence showing that EMFs cause harm has become too large to ignore. At GreenMedInfo.com, you can browse through more than 1,000 EMF abstracts and their connection to oxidative stress, DNA damage, cancer, inflammation, and more.

More than a dozen studies focus on the immunotoxic effects of EMFs, including potentially reducing immune function in the elderly and affecting cellular processes that play a role in cancer development and the proper growth and development of organisms.

Living organisms can detect and respond immediately to low environmental levels of these fields,” Henry Lai with the department of bioengineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, wrote. As such, it’s important to take action now to protect yourself and your family from unnecessary EMF exposures as much as possible.

The GMI Research Group is dedicated to investigating the most important health and environmental issues of the day. Special emphasis will be placed on environmental health. Our focused and deep research will explore the many ways in which the present condition of the human body directly reflects the true state of the ambient environment. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Sign up for the newsletter at www.GreenmedInfo.health

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Disney Sets Date for Closing ‘Racist’ Splash Mountain Ride

Disney has announced a closing date for the iconic Splash Mountain ride at Walt Disney World in Florida to carry out a long-planned revamp, after elements of the attraction were criticized for supposedly being racist.

Splash Mountain, which has been a staple at several Disney theme parks for decades, will close at the Florida venue on Jan. 23, 2023, according to a statement on the Disney Parks Blog.

The ride, which draws on the film “Song of the South,” has been criticized for reinforcing racial stereotypes; it’s also featured at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. Disney hasn’t announced when the ride would be closed at the Anaheim facility, saying only that additional information “will be shared at a later date.”

Following the death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 and the ensuing racial tensions, the company first announced Splash Mountain would be “completely reimagined” within a more progressive framework that’s “fresh” and “relevant.”

Disney said at the time that the Splash Mountain attraction will be rethemed to be based on the film “The Princess and the Frog,” with a “strong lead character” in the form of Princess Tiana.

“Tiana is a modern, courageous, and empowered woman, who pursues her dreams and never loses sight of what’s really important,” Disney said in the blog post.

“The new concept is inclusive—one that all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by, and it speaks to the diversity of the millions of people who visit our parks each year.”

Epoch Times Photo
A model of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which will reimagine Disneyland’s Splash Mountain, is displayed during the Walt Disney D23 Expo in Anaheim, Calif., on Sept. 9, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP)

In the current version of the Splash Mountain ride, people board a log boat and set out on a slow climb up the “mountain,” with narration provided by several animated characters from “Song of the South”—Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear.

In the fantasyland narrative, the three characters embark on an adventure that ends with Br’er Rabbit falling into a briar patch.

And in the real world, after the ascent, riders descend rapidly around 50 feet down along a steep slope and through some water, where they’re hit with a refreshing splash after a thrilling ride.

But the ride also incorporates themes from “Song of the South,” a film with a storyline that has been criticized as racist.

Epoch Times Photo
People scream as they ride on the Splash Mountain ride at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 11, 2001. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A petition on Change.org that called for Splash Mountain to be rethemed to “Princess and the Frog” states, “While the ride is considered a beloved classic, its history and storyline are steeped in extremely problematic and stereotypical racist tropes from the 1946 film Song of the South.

“This change could kill two birds with one stone, remove the offensive stereotypical theming the ride currently has and bring a much-needed diversity to the parks.”

The Splash Mountain backstory is a derivative of “Song of the South,” which was pulled from distribution after it was last released in cinemas in 1986.

The film follows a little boy visiting his grandmother’s plantation and learning life lessons from stories told by the character of Uncle Remus, an elderly black worker on the plantation. The boy, Johnny, enjoys listening to tales about the adventures of Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear, learning from the allegories how to deal with life’s various challenges.

While the film takes place in the Reconstruction Era, after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, critics have complained about the film’s upbeat tones, including the popular song “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah,” which won an Academy Award for best original song.

Disney in 2020 quietly removed the theme song from Splash Mountain in preparation for the remake.

The film has also been criticized for supposedly perpetuating harmful racial stereotypes, specifically by portraying Uncle Remus as a kind of Uncle Tom figure that was content in his role as a black servant to white plantation owners.

Disney CEO Bob Iger, who after a hiatus recently returned to helm the company, said in a March 2020 shareholders meeting: “I’ve felt, as long as I’ve been CEO, that ‘Song of the South’ was—even with a disclaimer—was just not appropriate in today’s world.”

The petition to retheme Splash Mountain has garnered over 20,000 signatures.

“Disney has removed Song of the South from its library, refusing to share it on DVD or their streaming services. The best next step to remove all traces of this racist movie would be to retheme Splash Mountain into a Princess and the Frog themed ride,” the petition states.

Iger Returns as CEO

Disney announced in late November that Iger would return to his position for two years, which came less than a year after he retired.

Iger, who spent more than 40 years at the company and served as Disney CEO for 15 years, will replace successor Bob Chapek, who has stepped down from the role, Walt Disney Co. said in a statement.

Iger will “set the strategic direction for renewed growth” at the company and will work closely with the board in “developing a successor to lead the company at the completion of his term,” Disney said.

Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger
Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger attends the exclusive 100-minute sneak peek of Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back” at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., on Nov. 18, 2021. (Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney)

Iger retired as head of Hollywood’s most powerful studio in December last year.

The move comes after Disney posted disappointing results for its fiscal fourth quarter, showing declining advertising sales and added costs for streaming programming.

While the company saw an increase in streaming customers from July through September, beating analysts’ expectations, it also reported lower-than-expected revenue of $20.15 billion in the quarter. Analysts had estimated revenue of $21.24 billion.

‘Pivotal Period’

Disney ESPN logo
A 3D-printed Disney logo in front of the ESPN+ logo in a photo illustration taken on July 13, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

Elsewhere, the company’s direct-to-consumer unit saw operating losses increase to $1.5 billion, which the company said was due to “a higher loss at Disney+ and a decrease in results at Hulu, partially offset by improved results at ESPN+.”

Shares of Disney have fallen more than 40 percent this year.

Disney announced in November that it would freeze hiring, cut jobs, and reduce executive expenses amid a volatile economy and growing fears of a recession. Business travel will also be limited to essential trips among executive staff, and meetings will be conducted virtually whenever possible to trim costs, according to reports.

In a statement on Dec. 4, Iger said that he was “extremely optimistic for the future” of Disney and “thrilled to be asked by the board to return as its CEO.”

“Disney and its incomparable brands and franchises hold a special place in the hearts of so many people around the globe—most especially in the hearts of our employees, whose dedication to this company and its mission is an inspiration,” Iger said.

“I am deeply honored to be asked to again lead this remarkable team, with a clear mission focused on creative excellence to inspire generations through unrivaled, bold storytelling.”

Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

‘Quit Underestimating President Biden’: Newt Gingrich

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has called for Republicans to quit underestimating President Joe Biden as he pointed to how effectively Biden has implemented his party’s policies while the opposition has mostly focused on the president’s speech and memory deficiencies.

“Conservatives’ hostility to the Biden administration on our terms tends to blind us to just how effective Biden has been on his terms,” Gingrich wrote in an article. “He has only built upon and fortified the left-wing Big Government Socialist woke culture system. We dislike Biden so much, we pettily focus on his speaking difficulties, sometimes strange behavior, clear lapses of memory, and other personal flaws. Our aversion to him and his policies makes us underestimate him and the Democrats.

Gingrich talked about how Biden “stayed in the basement” but managed to pull off victory in 2020. His administration had an “amazingly narrow four-vote majority in the U.S. House and a 50–50 tie in the Senate” but secured trillions of dollars worth of government spending, with the latest bill on “sexual rights overriding all other rights” passed with Republican support.

Despite Biden’s mishandling of the economy, along with the increase in crimes and the border crisis, his team executed its strategy of “polarizing Americans against Donald Trump supporters” to come out with one of the “best first term off-year elections in history,” Gingrich added.

The Biden administration turned Jan. 6 into a crisis that “eclipsed” the social chaos of leftist mobs, and exaggerated abortion issues, he said—“And it all worked” as there was no red wave, at least not as expected.

Gingrich reiterated how Republicans need to rethink their 2024 strategy and “almost inevitable second-time Democrat Presidential Nominee Biden.”

“This is a much bigger challenge than I would have guessed before the election.”

Biden’s Endorsements, 2024 Strategy

In 2022, Biden endorsed 12 candidates in total, including three primary and nine general election endorsements. His primary endorsement success rate was 67 percent, and 89 percent for generals.

On Friday, a Democratic National Committee (DNC) panel voted to give South Carolina the lead-off position in the 2024 presidential nominating schedule as proposed by President Biden. Iowa has held the position for the past five decades.

After South Carolina’s vote on Feb. 3, 2024, a joint primary day for New Hampshire and Nevada would be held on Feb. 6, 2024, followed by Georgia and Michigan primaries, under the panel’s proposal. The states are given until Jan. 5, 2023, to demonstrate they can hold primaries on the chosen dates, failing which, they will lose their positions to other states.

Biden said that demographic diversity and economic conditions were considered in order to better reflect the present electoral base of the Democratic Party.

“The Democratic Party is the party of hope. This is the leadership that we have seen every minute of the Joe Biden presidency,” said an emotional chairman Jaime Harrison, a native of South Carolina, when he was informed of new primary election schedules, according to The Washington Post.

Biden has not confirmed whether he will be running for the 2024 presidential elections. “The midterms validated the President’s focus on delivering for the American people and speaking to their priorities,” said a Biden adviser, cited by Axios.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

US Dismisses Fraud Charges Against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou

A federal judge in New York dismissed financial fraud charges against Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, four years after her arrest strained relations between the United States and China.

“It is hereby ordered that the third superseding indictment in the above-captioned matter as to the defendant Wanzhou Meng is hereby dismissed with prejudice,” District Judge Ann Donnelly said on Dec. 2.

Meng, the daughter of Chinese telecom giant Huawei’s founder, entered a deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. prosecutors last year, in which she admitted to misleading global institutions about Huawei’s Iran business.

Under the agreement, the government would put the prosecution on hold until December 2022 and drop the case altogether if the defendant complies with the specified conditions in the agreement.

U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny on Dec. 1 submitted the request to dismiss the charges against Meng, claiming that there was no information that Meng had violated any terms of the agreement through Dec. 1.

“The government respectfully moves to dismiss the third superseding indictment in this case as to defendant Wanzhou Meng,” Pokorny wrote in the letter.

Huawei is still charged in the case, which is pending in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York. A status conference is scheduled for Feb. 7, 2023, but no trial date has been set yet.

While the Dec. 1 move was expected, it closes a chapter on a particularly fraught phase of U.S.–China relations that also thrust Canada into the middle of a broader clash between the two powers.

Meng was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 on a U.S. warrant. She was indicted on bank and wire fraud charges for misleading global institutions about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.

Shortly after Meng’s arrest in 2019, Chinese authorities detained two Canadians and accused them of spying—a move widely seen as a tactic often used by Beijing known as “hostage diplomacy.”

They were released after Meng struck a deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. prosecutors and returned to China on Sept. 24, 2021.

Following the case, Huawei was placed on a U.S. trade blacklist in 2019 over national security concerns and human rights violations. The sanctions have restricted its access to critical U.S. technologies and crippled the firm’s smartphone business.

Eva Fu and Reuters contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Bankman-Fried Criticizes New FTX CEO, Questions Why US Customer Funds Still Not Returned

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who stepped down as CEO after the company’s bankruptcy, has publicly questioned why FTX customer funds hadn’t been returned to U.S. exchange users.

“When I filed, I’m fairly sure FTX US was solvent, and that all US customers could be made whole. To my knowledge, it still is today,” he wrote on Twitter on Dec. 1. “I was expecting that to happen. I’m surprised it hasn’t. I’m not sure why US withdrawals were turned off.”

Veteran insolvency expert John Ray III, the current FTX CEO, and his team are examining the company’s accounts in search of cash, cryptocurrency, and other assets that can be liquidated to repay creditors.

Expanding on DealBook:

When I filed, I’m fairly sure FTX US was solvent, and that all US customers could be made whole.

To my knowledge, it still is today.

I was expecting that to happen. I’m surprised it hasn’t. I’m not sure why US withdrawals were turned off.

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) December 1, 2022

Bankman-Fried’s empire owes more than $3 billion to its top 50 creditors, many of which are massive companies such as Amazon Web Services. Also among the creditors is Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville beach resort in the Bahamas, which FTX owes more than $55,000 in unpaid food and lodging fees.

“There’s a lot of creditors out there with actual loan agreements that are collateralized,” Jim Lewis, co-founder of Wall Street Silver, a popular Twitter account and Reddit forum, told The Epoch Times.

Lewis believes these loan agreements will make it difficult for average FTX users to recover their lost funds.

“I’m sure there’s a seniority ranking there, and I guarantee customers are at the end of the line,” he said. “It’s up to the lawyers and the courts at this point.”

Bankman-Fried’s tweet comes after reports of higher than previously expected cash holdings at FTX and sister company Alameda Research. The conglomerate’s new management has discovered at least $1.24 billion in cash, and while this isn’t nearly enough to cover the $8 billion in liabilities, some are actually agreeing with the estranged founder’s concerns on the matter.

“That’s a pretty fair question,” conceded Matt Korhs, a popular online financial commentator, reacting to Bankman-Fried’s remarks on U.S. customer funds not being returned. Kohrs, however, told The Epoch Times that he ultimately believes the ousted founder is a criminal and the company’s new management is attempting to do the right thing.

“Call me crazy, but I think SBF is telling the truth,” wrote billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman on Twitter on the eve of Bankman-Fried’s DealBook interview. The FTX founder replied to the tweet, expressing his gratitude.

I deeply appreciate that.

I messed up. I’m going to do everything I can to make it right–even though I knew it might never be enough.

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) December 1, 2022

Lewis sees the founder’s recent moves as a strategic move to pressure those currently in charge of FTX to refund U.S. customers. “It’s in his interest that U.S. customers be made whole, so that U.S. criminal authorities don’t file a case against him. Then all he has to deal with is the Bahamas.”

Some signs of hope are emerging for the crypto exchange’s creditors after a recent report by Bloomberg revealed that FTX-linked company LedgerX is preparing to transfer $175 million to the FTX conglomerate to assist with bankruptcy. It has been alleged these funds will be used to pay back creditors.

The FTX media team didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Other financial experts believe the comments by the former crypto magnate are a publicity stunt.

“I believe Bankman-Fried is a generational fraudster who will be in prison for a very long time,” veteran short-seller Marc Cohodes told The Epoch Times. Cohodes famously called FTX a scam in September, two months before the firm filed for bankruptcy.

Ben Hunt, creator of the finance newsletter Epsilon Theory, suggested Bankman-Fried’s persona is entirely manufactured. “Part of this narrative construction effort is the self-styling of his name as ‘SBF,’ which cartoonifies and infantilizes his identity in a pleasing manner.”

Nonetheless, the FTX founder continues to make the rounds in the media, appearing in a Good Morning America segment on Dec. 1.

Bankman-Fried didn’t respond to requests for comment.

As for what this means for the future of cryptocurrencies, Lewis predicts the asset class may soon conclude its time in the sun. He attributes the ascension of crypto to loose monetary policy by the Federal Reserve and believes it will wither away in today’s tighter monetary policy environment.

“The crypto universe was only working because the Fed was printing $120 billion a month, and there were so many dollars sloshing around the system, and so much leverage, and so much easy debt that it had to get soaked up somewhere.”

“Now that dollars are tightening … you’re observing people pulling money out of the crypto universe, so it’s a negative sum game.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Musk Says Twitter Suppressed Free Speech Under Orders From Government

Elon Musk suggested that Twitter was acting under government orders to suppress free speech, with his remarks coming hot on the heels of the release of a trove of documents that lift the lid on some of the social media platform’s censorship machinations around the 2020 presidential election.

“Twitter acting by itself to suppress free speech is not a 1st amendment violation, but acting under orders from the government to suppress free speech, with no judicial review, is,” Musk said in a tweet late Friday.

Musk’s remarks came in the context of Friday’s unveiling of a series of internal Twitter communications that give insight into steps taken by staff at the social media platform around suppressing the New York Post’s explosive Hunter Biden laptop story.

hunter biden
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, at the White House in Washington, on April 18, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

‘Free Speech Suppression’

After earlier teasing the imminent disclosure of Twitter’s internal files on the company’s “free speech suppression,” Musk on Friday shared a thread from independent journalist Matt Taibbi, who detailed a series of internal Twitter communications that give insight into various actions taken by staff at the social media platform, including around suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story.

The Epoch Times has not been able to independently verify the content of the disclosures published by Taibbi and shared by Musk.

In one of his posts, Taibbi shared a screengrab of an internal Twitter email dated Oct. 24, 2020, which appears to show a Twitter executive sharing a list of five tweets allegedly identified by people from the campaign of then-candidate Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Taibbi wrote in a comment: “By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: ‘More to review from the Biden team.’ The reply would come back: ‘Handled.’”

8. By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: “More to review from the Biden team.” The reply would come back: “Handled.” pic.twitter.com/mnv0YZI4af

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

Musk replied to Taibbi’s tweet with the word “Handled” followed by three “fire” emojis. He later responded to his own post with the statement: “If this isn’t a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment, what is?”

The Twitter account @hodgetwins, run by a pair of conservative comedians, reacted to Musk’s tweet: “It 100 percent is, collusion between govt. and big tech to violate the First Amendment.”

That prompted Musk to respond and say that Twitter as a private entity acting on its own to suppress free speech isn’t a First Amendment violation, but “acting under orders from the government to suppress free speech, with no judicial review, is.”

The First Amendment guarantees protections for freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” states the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House for comment on Musk’s remarks about Twitter suppressing free speech under orders from the government.

musk-and-bird
A 3D printed Twitter logo is seen in front of a displayed photo of Elon Musk in this illustration taken on Oct. 27, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

‘Talk to the Trump Administration’

Some Twitter users pushed back on Musk’s claim that Twitter’s actions amounted to a First Amendment violation by pointing out that, at the time, former President Donald Trump was in power, not Biden.

“You should talk to the Trump administration about it since he was president at the time,” the @MuellerSheWrote account wrote, with a number of prominent Twitter users making essentially the same argument.

Lawyer Jenna Ellis, who represented the 2020 Trump campaign, pushed back on the idea that just because Biden wasn’t in power at the time that pressure on Twitter staff from the “Biden team” can’t be considered a First Amendment violation.

“Lol RIP the replies that assume every elected office was Republican controlled in 2020… ‘government’ is more than one branch and one office, kids,” she wrote in a tweet.

Ellis suggested that the Twitter disclosures also vindicate Trump’s long-standing claims that big tech firm put their collective finger on the scale to influence the 2020 presidential election in favor of his rival.

“Trump was right. This was literally the basis of his lawsuit against Big Tech,” Ellis said in a separate tweet.

Former President Donald Trump
Then President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., on July 7, 2021. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo)

Ellis was referring to Trump’s lawsuit against Twitter, Facebook, and Google after the firms suspended his social media accounts over his comments after the Jan. 6 Capitol incident.

“It’s destroying the country,” Trump said at the time, referring to social media’s alleged control over political discourse in the United States.

Twitter, Facebook, and Google stated in January that they had banned Trump over his claims that the Nov. 3 election was stolen and alleged that he contributed to the Jan. 6 violence.

After taking over Twitter, Musk reinstated a number of suspended accounts, including Trump’s.

While the former president has yet to make any posts on Twitter, he took to Truth Social to comment on the Twitter Files revelations.

‘Various Forms of Government Fraud’

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the Twitter disclosures should be seen as proof that Big Tech engaged in actions meant to influence the outcome of the 2020 election.

“Wow! That’s a really big story about Twitter and various forms of government Fraud including, specifically, Election Fraud,” Trump wrote.

“I am glad that everyone is now seeing the light on what I have been saying loud and clear for the last two years, that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged and stolen by a combination of Democrats, Big Tech, ‘law enforcement,’ and other bad actors,” wrote the former president.

“The same level of Fraud took place with the other Big Tech companies, if not even worse (if that’s possible?),” Trump continued, adding, “We are living in a VERY CORRUPT COUNTRY.”

Congressional Inquiry

Meanwhile, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee said that Twitter staff involved in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 presidential elections will face Congress and testify about their actions.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the GOP ranking member on the Committee, made the remarks in a Friday appearance on Fox News after Musk shared Taibbi’s thread exposing some of the inner workings of Twitter’s censorship machine.

“Every employee at Twitter who was involved in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story will have an opportunity to come before Congress and explain their actions to the American people,” Comer told program host Sean Hannity.

Republicans have long accused Twitter—and some media outlets—of suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story, which included reporting that bolstered claims that the president lied when he said he had no involvement in his son’s overseas business dealings.

Epoch Times Photo
U.S. President Joe Biden (L) waves alongside his son Hunter Biden after attending mass at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Johns Island, S.C., on Aug. 13, 2022. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

‘Marking This as Unsafe’

In order to suppress the Hunter Biden report, Twitter executives marked it as “unsafe,” limiting its spread and even blocking it from being directly shared via the platform’s direct message function, Taibbi said in comments on the disclosures.

Taibbi noted that such extreme restrictions were reserved for content such as child pornography.

Messages between executives in Twitter’s communications and policy departments, shared by Taibbi in screenshots, show some confusion about the actions taken, with a communications executive writing: “I’m struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe.”

The disclosures show that both Democrats and Republicans had access to Twitter’s censorship system and each side lodged various requests and complaints with the social media platform’s staff. But because of Twitter employees’ predominantly left-leaning political convictions, Democrats had more avenues to press their case, Taibbi said.

https://subs.theepochtimes.com/template/show?tid=cc3f343f-227c-4eec-8289-8d2fe30e4467&sid=www.theepochtimes.com&v=5&ck=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&pl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theepochtimes.com%2Felon-musk-says-some-twitter-bans-violated-first-amendment_4901921.html%3Futm_source%3DNews%26src_src%3DNews%26utm_campaign%3Dbreaking-2022-12-03-3%26src_cmp%3Dbreaking-2022-12-03-3%26utm_medium%3Demail%26est%3D2k4bFeyGNx836HrNlgAhBn%252BT8Tav4W3bW1geq9tmYjIUtgidD0f9spECKXdj65E8mw%253D%253D&u=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&tn=newsletter_widget&dna=%7B%22u_s%22%3A%22News%22%2C%22u_c%22%3A%22breaking-2022-12-03-3%22%2C%22r%22%3A%22%22%2C%22pid%22%3A%22anon641b-6b0b-4cdc-aba3-31d915c05851%22%2C%22uid%22%3A%22user_9dfe546d573c80c140e67580106ed9556b66c4cd%22%2C%22x%22%3A%22485-665-373%22%2C%22vt%22%3A0%2C%22g1%22%3A%22us%22%2C%22g2%22%3A%22md%22%7D&source=morning-bell&email=walkerboh2112%40msn.com

‘Just The Beginning’

Comer, in his interview on Fox News, said that “this story is just the beginning,” adding that “we’re going to have every single person at Twitter that was involved in this in front of the House Oversight Committee as soon as possible.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to Twitter with a request for comment on Comer’s remarks.

Epoch Times Photo
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, during a hearing in Washington on July 27, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

In his thread, Taibbi noted that there was “much more to come” and promised answers to questions around issues like “shadow-banning, boosting, follower counts, the fate of various individual accounts, and more.”

Musk said a second “episode” of the disclosures would be released on Saturday.

Caden Pearson contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Weaken America First is the New Democrat Party Policy

When Sean Hannity asked me why Joe Biden would favor buying oil and gas from Venezuela over producing oil and gas in Texas, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Louisiana or North Dakota, something clicked in my thinking. 

I was reminded of the amazing speech United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick gave at the 1984 Republican Convention, when she described the “blame-America-first Democrats.”  

I suddenly realized the common thread of Biden administration policies at home and abroad is to weaken America.

Read more at FoxNews.com

IRS Warning Americans to Report $600 Transactions From Payment Processors or Risk Facing Audit

The Internal Revenue Service reminds taxpayers to report transactions of at least $600 made through payment networks like Venmo, Paypal, and Cash App as the agency seeks to obtain data regarding part-time employment and side gigs, a move that critics have termed government overreach.

In a recent explainer posted online, the IRS said that according to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, any payment made after March 11, 2021, that exceeds $600 must be reported. The target of the new reporting rule is small business owners, and people working side hustles or part-time gigs for extra income. Earlier the reporting threshold was $20,000 and more than 200 transactions within a calendar year. But, the amended rule applies to a single transaction.

“You should receive Form 1099-K by January 31 if, in the prior calendar year, you received payments from all payment card transactions (e.g., debit, credit, or stored-value cards), and in settlement of third-party payment network transactions above the minimum reporting thresholds,” said the agency.

The reporting guidelines do not apply to noncommercial payments such rent, vacation, food, or one-time transactions like selling something online. The Form 1099-K will be sent by the payment platforms through which the transaction was done.

If a form is received by mistake, “contact the Payment Settlement Entity (PSE) listed on the Form 1099-K” or provide an explanation in the tax return, according to the agency.

Failure to report transactions on Form 1099-K could trigger an audit by the IRS since the agency receives a copy of the form.

Personal Finances of American Citizens

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 or COVID-19 Stimulus Package is a $1.9 trillion economic plan passed by congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021. The final amended bill was passed by the House with all, except one, Democrats voting for it, and all Republicans against it.

The recent threshold change, from the earlier $20,000 and 200 transactions, to $600 for a single transaction, was part of the bill, and it is expected to identify Americans who are not reporting the full extent of their gross income to the government.

Critics have called the bill out as part of government overreach into the personal finances of Americans, and have noted that such extreme tax measures will harm small business owners and average citizens trying to make ends meet. This contradicts the president’s statement that greater tax enforcement wouldn’t affect lower- and middle-income Americans.

IRS Warning Americans to Report $600 Transactions From Payment Processors or Risk Facing Audit(gettyimages)
IRS Warning Americans to Report $600 Transactions From Payment Processors or Risk Facing Audit(gettyimages)

A survey conducted by the Coalition for 1099-K Fairness—founded by eBay, Etsy, Mercari, OfferUp, Poshmark, Reverb, and Tradesy—found that 86 percent of casual sellers made less than $5,000 in gross revenue from items sold in 2021. Forty-seven percent of respondents said they were unaware of the new IRS reporting requirements.

The group said the guidelines will cause unnecessary confusion amid conflicting information with many forced to consult with costly tax consultants. Even those who do not owe any taxes will be forced to report their income while online marketplaces will be required to collect full social security numbers from small-time sellers.

Out of the 40 percent who said that the new mandates create economic hardship, 74 percent said they sell online to meet necessary personal expenses. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said they would consider stopping to sell online due to new measures.

“There’s an enormous tax gap in the U.S. estimated at $7 [trillion] over the next 10 years in terms of a short fall of tax collections to what we believe are owed,” said Treasury Secretary Janel Yellen in a CNBC interview last year. “It comes from places where the information on income is opaque and can be hidden.”

Regarding the collection of more personal financial information about taxpayers’ bank accounts, Yellen said, “It’s just a few pieces of information about individual bank accounts,” and confirmed that the IRS has the capacity for such scrutiny.

She added that the extra information will help the IRS target and do audits on “high-income and wealthy individuals that may be concealing their transactions and income.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times


UNVAXXED Patient: How I Was Rescued From Hospital Death

Watch Part 1 of this series here.

It was Dec. 3, 2021. Gail Seiler was just under a week into fighting a COVID-19 infection.

Medication was ordered, but it didn’t come in fast enough. Seiler’s oxygen level was dropping. It was a sign of COVID pneumonia. If it wasn’t addressed, it could be life-threatening.

Seiler’s husband, a former nurse, decided it was time to go to the hospital. But they wanted a hospital that was open to trying different treatments.

In part one of this series, we talked about a band of doctors—men and women who went above and beyond the NIH guidelines to create life-saving COVID-19 protocols. Some of these doctors say they had a very high success rate using inexpensive, repurposed drugs.

These methods are known as the frontline doctors protocols. The FDA has yet to approve these treatments for COVID-19, but Seiler and her husband decided it was the right treatment for them. So they printed a copy of the protocol and found a hospital nearby that apparently did these protocols.

Everything went well. The ER nurse assured Seiler and her husband that they do these protocols. But that changed when the doctors found out that Seiler was unvaccinated.

———–

Medical Disclaimer:

Frontline Health (the “Show”), its guests, and contributors provide the latest news on health and medical discoveries and it is meant for informational purposes only. The Show does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, cures, mitigation, or prevention for any type of disease or medical condition. Similarly, it is not intended for self-diagnosis or self-treating of any health-related condition.

The information on the Show is gathered from reputable sources; however, neither Frontline Health nor The Epoch Times Association Inc. are responsible for errors or omissions in reporting or explanation and will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary, or other damages arising therefrom.

Patients should always consult with a doctor or other health care professional for medical advice or information about diagnosis and treatment.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Inside the CCP’s Plan to Conquer Taiwan and Then the World

On a crisp sunny day in October, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping appeared in full military fatigues at a command center in eastern China and ordered the regime’s military wing to prepare for any war.

Though such bellicosity has become something of the norm in Chinese communist diplomacy, the looming threat of an invasion of Taiwan and a much anticipated meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden rendered the words more potent.

Indeed, just days later, Xi met with Biden in Indonesia. Shortly after the talk, Biden said that there was no need for a new Cold War and that the United States would pursue peace and stability with China in the Taiwan Strait.

The CCP issued a statement of its own mere hours later, quoting Xi.

Cross-Strait peace and stability and Taiwan independence are as irreconcilable as water and fire, Xi said, according to state-owned propaganda outlet Global Times.

China missiles
A missile is launched from an unspecified location in China on Aug. 4, 2022. The Chinese military fired missiles into waters near Taiwan as part of its planned exercises on Aug. 4. (CCTV via AP)

It was just the latest statement from the CCP threatening the lives of so-called “separatist” forces in Taiwan, a label that Xi and his regime apply to the president of Taiwan and virtually all of the island’s democratically-elected government.

The rhetoric of war emanating from the communist regime at every turn as of late has been equally matched by its military development. Now, a growing number of experts believe that a CCP invasion of Taiwan is not only likely, but inevitable, and that such a war would be just one step on the path to supplanting the United States from its position as leader of the global order.

James Fanell, a government fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Switzerland and former director of intelligence and information operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, explained that the CCP is playing a long game.

“Due to the continuing guidance of the past three leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, the PRC has been on a 20-plus year military modernization program,” Fanell said, using an acronym for the official name of communist China, the People’s Republic of China.

The CCP’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), had a two-pronged goal, he said: To seize Taiwan, and topple America from its place of prominence on the global stage.

“This ongoing PLA modernization program is aimed at supporting the CCP’s strategic ambition to displace the United States from the Indo-Pacific, and to ultimately restore the PRC to what they believe is China’s rightful position as the leader of the world,” Fanell said.

“Today that entails leading the global order across all levers of national power, especially in the military domain, both conventional and nuclear.”

Liaoning carrier
China’s sole operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning (front), sailing with other ships during a drill at sea in April 2018. (AFP via Getty Images)

Total Military Superiority

Speaking on the subject of conventional military buildup earlier in the year, Dakota Wood, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said that China’s military now numerically dwarfed that of the United States in almost every area of measurement, and that the CCP would have the advantage of numerous land, air, and sea-based systems in any conflict.

“Numerically, it’s very concerning,” Wood said during an Oct. 18 interview with NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times. “As an example, we’ve got fewer than 300 ships in the U.S. Navy. Of those, 100 are at sea on any day. Of that 100, about 60 are in the western Pacific.”

“The Chinese navy alone is 360 ships,” Wood added. “So, just in numbers, even if our ships are far better than theirs, it’s still a 6-to-1 disadvantage.”

Fannell said that this numeral superiority was the result of an effort decades in the making and spanning numerous CCP leaders.

“The initial focus of the PRC’s military modernization program beginning in the early 2000s was largely focused on asymmetric weapons, like anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles,” Fanell said.

Such investments, Fanell said, initially helped to build out the regime’s “counter-intervention” strategy. More commonly referred to as “anti-access/area-denial” in the West, the counter-intervention strategy was designed to block U.S. forces from engaging in the Indo-Pacific, thereby ensuring no Western intervention was possible for a CCP invasion of Taiwan or the forced acquisition of other claimed territories in the South and East China Seas.

“For the next 20 years the PRC’s Central Military Commission prioritized the build-up of its Navy to provide the PLA an overmatch of anti-access and area-denial forces,” Fanell said, referring to the regime’s top military body.

“During that time we saw the initial focus on the build-up of the PLA Navy’s submarine forces and over the past decade that focus shifted into mass production of frigates, destroyers, cruisers, and large deck amphibious warships. The culmination of the naval modernization program was epitomized by the fielding of three aircraft carriers.”

CHINA-MILITARY-POLITICS
Sailors stand on the deck of the new type 055 guide missile destroyer Nanchang of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy as it participates in a naval parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of China’s PLA Navy in the sea near Qingdao, in eastern China’s Shandong Province on April 23, 2019. (Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images)

Such vessels include the Type 075, an amphibious assault ship vital to future missions aimed at conquering Taiwan, and the Type 055, a heavy cruiser now capable of launching hypersonic nuclear missiles designed to target U.S. aircraft carriers operating in the Indo-Pacific. That armament, according to Naval News, could make the CCP’s cruisers “the most heavily armed warships worldwide.”

These new vessels and armaments are thus serving to transition the CCP’s navy from mere numerical superiority to a qualitative advantage as well, capable not only of preventing the United States from effectively deterring conflict, but also of overcoming American forces in open battle with next-generation weapons.

According to Fanell, that development has not been limited to China’s navy, but also extends to its ground and air forces.

The CCP’s conventional military development is far from the most concerning part of its quest for hard power, however, and only scratches the surface of what the regime hopes to accomplish through military might.

“In the past two years we have seen the CMC [Central Military Commission] shift focus again to a new generation of asymmetric weapons such as hypersonic missiles and swarming unmanned systems from the sea, air, and land,” Fanell said.

“Most importantly, CCP leaders have embarked on what may be the most threatening weapons development to date: the massive build up of the PRC’s nuclear arsenal,” Fanell said.

Epoch Times Photo
China’s DF-41 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles are seen during a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on Oct. 1, 2019. (GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

Nuclear Breakout

The CCP has steadily worked to expand and modernize its nuclear arsenal across the triad of land, sea, and air capabilities and the discovery of over a hundred new missile silos in the deserts of western China in the past two years did little to quell fears of a new bid by the communist power to double down on nuclear terror.

The vast expansion of the regime’s nuclear arsenal, which the Pentagon anticipates will reach 1,000 weapons by 2030, is not the only problem for the United States, however. Indeed, the drastic improvement in the quality of technology of China’s weapons may be an even larger threat.

The regime’s new hypersonic and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), such as the CCP’s Dongfeng-41 (DF-41), boast multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) systems. These systems allow each missile to be armed with multiple warheads (10 in the case of the DF-41), each of which can strike out at its own target while the missile is in orbit.

Thus, each of the CCP’s 1,000 new nuclear weapons could boast as many as 10 nuclear warheads. As such, if the CCP has already built enough DF-41s to stock all of its newly constructed silos, it could have increased its nuclear warhead stockpile fourteen times over.

“In the space of 24 months the PLA Rocket Forces built 350 new ICBM silos in Central and Western China,” Fanell said. “These new silos are assessed to support the DF-41 ICBM.”

“With each missile having ten multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, this development has increased the PRC’s nuclear arsenal from some 250 warheads to over 3,500.”

Much to the chagrin of Western analysts, however, it is impossible to say with certainty how many nuclear weapons or warheads the regime actually has in its possession, as the CCP co-locates its nuclear and conventional missiles so that prying eyes can never be certain if a silo is housing a regular missile or a nuclear one.

The situation led Adm. Charles Richard, Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, to assert that the regime was engaged in a ‘strategic breakout’ that would enable it to meet and then exceed the United States’ own capabilities.

“As I assess our level of deterrence against China, the ship is slowly sinking,” Richard said during a speech earlier this year.

“It is sinking slowly, but it is sinking, as fundamentally they are putting capability in the field faster than we are.”

Epoch Times Photo
Military vehicles carrying DF-5B intercontinental ballistic missiles participate in a military parade at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

It was a grim assessment, but one with which Fanell ultimately agreed. Moreover, Fanell warned, such a nuclear breakout could presage a change in the regime’s military doctrine concerning the use nuclear weapons in a conflict. The CCP formally maintains a policy of no first use, meaning that it has vowed not to initiate nuclear conflict and to never use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states.

“This ‘strategic breakout’ portends to shift the PRC’s so-called ‘no first use’ policy to one of ‘first use’ where Beijing can threaten nuclear blackmail against the U.S. and its allies from coming to Taiwan’s defense,” Fanell said.

“This change is by far the most destabilizing PRC military modernization to date, one that will directly affect Taiwan’s freedom, regional stability in the Indo-Pacific, and even shift the global balance of power in the near and long term.”

To that end, the CCP has consistently refused to partake in talks aimed at nuclear non-proliferation and, according to the U.S. defense strategy, is explicitly expanding and modernizing its own nuclear arsenal with the purpose of threatening the United States.

Likewise, the CCP’s ambition to create a multipolar world with itself at the center of world events is central to its core strategic goal of displacing the United States. Thus, while the United States seeks solutions to diplomatic and military quandaries that will maintain the status quo, the CCP has no intention of doing anything of the sort. The regime’s goal is to destroy the status quo, not to preserve it.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall addressed this very subject during a talk in September.

“One of the most significant changes has been the nuclear breakout of China,” Kendall said.

“The only nation-state that [now] has the capacity, the resources, and the strategic intent to really threaten the United States as a leader in the world … is China.”

Epoch Times Photo
Taiwanese domestically built Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF) take part in the live-fire, anti-landing Han Kuang military exercise, which simulates an enemy invasion, in Taichung, Taiwan on July 16, 2020. (Reuters/Ann Wang)

‘The Invasion Will Come’

To answer the question of why all this newfound bombast? Why the shiny new military and nuclear weapons? The answer appears simple enough: The CCP intends to use overwhelming force in the near future and, by most accounts, its first target will be Taiwan.

The CCP claims that Taiwan is a rogue province of China that must be united with the mainland, and refuses to rule out the use of force to achieve this goal. Its leadership has indeed explicitly threatened war on the issue numerous times.

Taiwan has never been controlled by the CCP, however. The island nation has been self-governed since 1949 and boasts a thriving democratic government and market economy.

Washington, meanwhile, diplomatically recognizes China but does not endorse the CCP’s claims over Taiwan, while also maintaining economic and legal ties with Taipei which bind it to provide the arms necessary for the island’s defense.

Much of the worry among Western analysts and strategists have thus focused on how the United States and its allies can deter an ever-expanding PLA from gobbling up Taiwan.

But some believe that the invasion cannot be prevented, only fought.

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding said that the tension over the situation between the CCP, Taiwan, and the United States would end in conflict, and that it was too late to deter such an outcome.

“The situation will be resolved,” Spalding said. “It will be resolved when the Chinese invade Taiwan. There is no way to deter it.”

“The resolution is the invasion and the invasion will come at the time of China’s choosing. There’s nothing we can do at this point to stop it.”

To that end, Spalding said that the CCP’s military and foreign policy toward the United States was clearly oriented to push Washington away from entering such a conflict in the defense of Taiwan. Regardless of the outcome, Spalding said, such a war would in global catastrophe and, perhaps, nuclear war.

Regardless, the regime was committed to destroying Taiwan’s democratic way of life with force, according to Spalding, also a contributor to The Epoch Times. CCP leadership was smart enough to understand that the free Taiwanese people would never voluntarily unite with communist China.

“They’re not going to abandon their military force when it comes to taking Taiwan,” he said.

“They think that that’s the only way to get reunification.”

And the regime is likely right in that regard, Spalding said. Taiwan is Asia’s most thriving democracy with a world-class market economy and a populace that enjoys broad civil and political freedoms.

“There’s no way that they’re going to convince the Taiwanese people through peaceful means to join China after what they did to Hong Kong,” he said, referring to Beijing’s brutal suppression of the Asian financial hub.

“There is no way that the Taiwanese population is going to want to come under the yoke of the Chinese Communist Party,” he added.

“Everybody’s eyes are wide open. The only question to ask is when is that invasion going to come?”

Epoch Times Photo
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in Bali, Indonesia, on Nov. 14, 2022. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

US Must Acknowledge New Cold War

On the issue of Taiwan and the inevitability of catastrophic conflict, Fanell offered a more hopeful stance, believing that the deterrence of such a war was still possible, though requiring immediate and vigorous action from the United States.

“In order to take on this threat, the United States must first acknowledge that the threat is existential and one that it must dominate the ‘whole of government’ agenda regardless of which political party is in power,” Fanell said.

“As it relates to the military realm, the U.S. must reprioritize its national security strategy away from one of cooperation and competition with the PRC to one of a war footing against the CCP, which is in a Cold War with the U.S.”

To that end, Fanell called on Congress to pass a bill to expand the U.S. Navy to at least 355 combat vessels in the same kind of massive increase achieved by legislation in 1940, when the United States expanded its maritime power to defeat the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II.

Similarly, he said, the United States would need to further arm Taiwan, Japan, and its other allies with weapons capable of sinking PLA fleets. While many such sales had already been approved by Congress, he noted, bureaucratic red tape and regulations were slowing the flow of weapons to the point that orders placed by Taiwan now would not reach the island for years to come in some cases.

“The bureaucratic red tape must be set aside and the munitions must begin to flow, even in this year,” Fanell said.

Ultimately, Fanell said, the CCP was in a war with the United States, albeit a cold one. And the United States would have no hope of winning that war or preventing a global conflict if it did not admit such a new cold war existed.

Only through its own expansion and modernization, Fanell said, could the United States hope to remain in its place as leader of the free world.

“Ultimately, the U.S. must build up both conventional and nuclear force posture, along with a combined command and control structure for those forces,” Fanell said.

“[Such is necessary] in order to force CCP leaders back to the ‘drawing board’ to reconsider the success of any attempt to invade Taiwan or conduct any other such act of military expansionism.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Twitter Staff to Be Grilled Before Congress for Censoring Hunter Biden Laptop Story: Rep. Comer

The top Republican on the House Oversight Committee said that Twitter staff involved in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 presidential elections will face Congress and testify about their actions.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the GOP ranking member on the Committee, made the remarks in a Friday appearance on Fox News after Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk dropped part one of the so-called “Twitter Files,” an expose of the inner workings of Twitter’s censorship machine.

“Every employee at Twitter who was involved in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story will have an opportunity to come before Congress and explain their actions to the American people,” Comer told program host Sean Hannity.

Musk and independent journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday unveiled a series of internal Twitter communications that give insight into steps taken by staff at the social media platform around suppressing the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story.

Republicans have long accused Twitter—and some media outlets—of suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story, which included reporting that bolstered claims that the president lied when he said he had no involvement in his son’s overseas business dealings.

Epoch Times Photo
U.S. President Joe Biden (L) waves alongside his son Hunter Biden after attending mass at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Johns Island, S.C., on Aug. 13, 2022. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

‘Marking This as Unsafe’

In order to suppress the Hunter Biden report, Twitter executives marked it as “unsafe,” limiting its spread and even blocking it from being directly shared via the platform’s direct message function, Taibbi said in comments on the disclosures. He noted that such extreme restrictions were reserved for content such as child pornography.

Messages between executives in Twitter’s communications and policy departments, shared by Taibbi in screenshots, show some confusion about the actions taken, with a communications executive writing: “I’m struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe.”

The disclosures show that both Democrats and Republicans had access to Twitter’s censorship system and each side lodged various requests and complaints with the social media platform’s staff. But because of Twitter employees’ predominantly left-leaning political convictions, Democrats had more avenues to press their case, Taibbi said.

The Epoch Times has been unable to independently verify the content of the disclosures shared by Musk and detailed by Taibbi.

Elon Musk Twitter
Twitter logo and a photo of Elon Musk are displayed through a magnifier in this illustration taken on Oct. 27, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

‘Just the Beginning’

Comer, in his interview on Fox News, said that the Twitter Files expose shows that the New York Post’s reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop is “being vindicated.”

“But this story is just the beginning,” Comer said, “because we’re going to have every single person at Twitter that was involved in this in front of the House Oversight Committee as soon as possible.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to Twitter with a request for comment on Comer’s remarks.

Epoch Times Photo
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, during a hearing in Washington on July 27, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

In his thread, Taibbi noted that there was “much more to come” and promised answers to questions around issues like “shadow-banning, boosting, follower counts, the fate of various individual accounts, and more.”

Musk said a second “episode” of the disclosures would be released on Saturday.

Caden Pearson contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Congressional Black Caucus Elects Dem Who Had Years-Long Affair With Intern as Chair

Self-described ‘devoted family man’ Steven Horsford threatened wife with legal action if she spoke up about his affair with 21-year-old

The Congressional Black Caucus elected a new chair this week: Nevada Democrat Steven Horsford, who ran for Congress as a “devoted family man” after cheating on his wife with a 21-year-old intern.

The caucus—which bills itself as the “conscience of the Congress”—announced the move on Wednesday, with outgoing chairwoman Joyce Beatty (D., Ohio) saying she is “confident our power and our message are in capable hands.” Horsford’s ascent to the top of the caucus comes roughly two years after the Democrat admitted to a years-long extramarital affair with Gabriela Linder. The pair met in 2009, when Linder was a 21-year-old Hill intern and Horsford was a 36-year-old state lawmaker. The affair, Linder said in May 2020, initially lasted a year and a half before it resumed from 2017 to 2019, which overlaps with Horsford’s time in Congress.

After she revealed the affair, Linder advised Horsford—who was running for Congress as a “devoted family man”—to “step out of public office for some time” and “do some atoning.” But Horsford stayed in the race, secured reelection in November 2020, and filed to run for a third consecutive term roughly a year and a half later—a decision his estranged wife Sonya Douglass blasted in a March Twitter thread.

“I have remained silent for nearly two years and want it to be clear that I am not enjoying the pain that my children and I continue to suffer since [Horsford] told me the day after Mother’s Day about his 10-year affair AFTER already speaking to his staff and attorneys,” Douglass wrote. “And that he would choose to file for reelection and force us to endure yet another season of living through the sordid details of the #horsfordaffair with #mistressforcongress rather than granting us the time and space to heal as a family.”

Horsford went on to threaten legal action against Douglass if she continued to discuss the ordeal publicly, Douglass revealed in October. “I was just minding my business until Steven and his attorney demanded I sign an NDA that would ban me from speaking about my 22-year marriage, his 10-year affair, and our divorce FOREVER,” she said. “He had hundreds of chances to do the right thing but he chose violence.”

Horsford is not the only controversial Democrat to secure a coveted leadership position this week. House Democrats on Wednesday elected Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), who called the 2016 election “ILLEGITIMATE” and two years later claimed congressional seats were “stolen by rogue Republican operatives,” as their leader.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Stefanik Demands Postal Service Investigate ‘Targeted Theft’ of Campaign Donations

Republican congresswoman alleges USPS employees stole $20,000 in donations

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) is demanding an investigation into the “repeated, targeted theft” of campaign donation checks while in transit through the United States Postal Service.

“It is unacceptable that USPS has repeatedly allowed these targeted thefts to occur,” Stefanik’s attorneys wrote in a letter Thursday to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. They allege packages were “ripped open” and checks “stolen” totaling nearly $20,000.

The attorneys claim the postal service’s Office of the Inspector General said it would be hard to find guilty employees “unless and until” a donor “becomes the victim” of identity theft or fraud.

“In each case, the evidence indicates that Elise for Congress’s packages were plundered by a USPS employee or contractor while the packages were in transit,” the letter said, adding there were four separate incidents between June and November.

Stefanik’s campaign released pictures Friday showing ripped envelopes with apology letters from the USPS.

Stefanik and her attorneys demanded a list of the steps taken to investigate the theft and evidence that improvements are made to prevent Stefanik from falling victim to mail crime.

“Our clients were told months ago to expect a report from senior USPS OIG officials addressing the June 2022 mail theft incident, but to date have not received a report,” the letter said.

A spokesman for the USPS told the Washington Free Beacon the agency would respond to Stefanik directly with its findings on the investigation.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Only in San Francisco: Infant Overdoses on Fentanyl at Playground

A San Francisco infant somehow overdosed on fentanyl while at a playground, multiple sources reported this week.

Ten-month-old Senna Matkovic on Tuesday was crawling through the grass at a San Francisco playground when he “began struggling to breathe and turned blue,” according to the New York Post. Paramedics arrived, determined that the child had been exposed to fentanyl, and gave him overdose-reversing Narcan.

Seconds after paramedics administered the medication, “the baby started crying and breathing again,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. He was rushed to a hospital, which discharged him that night. The boy’s father, Ivan Matkovic, on Wednesday told the Chronicle that his son was in good health.

Police at the scene said Senna Matkovic’s exposure was likely through fentanyl powder, according to Ivan Matkovic.

The news comes as San Francisco faces a fentanyl epidemic that has caused more deaths than COVID-19. The left-wing city’s drug problem was one factor behind the successful recall this year of former district attorney Chesa Boudin (D.), a radical leftist who did not oversee a single fentanyl conviction, the Washington Free Beacon reported in May. City spokespeople would not confirm Senna Matkovic’s accidental overdose, telling the Chronicle that it is under investigation.

Ahsha Safaí (D.), a member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, blasted the city for the incident, calling it “one of the largest breaches of trust of the public.”

“If this wasn’t a wake-up call, I don’t know what is,” Safaí said.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Systemic Racism: Students Downplay Stereotypically Asian Hobbies To Boost College Admissions Odds

Asian-American college applicants are going to extraordinary lengths to conceal their race, the New York Times reported on Friday, stripping their applications of activities and accomplishments that might seem stereotypically Asian.

Students interviewed by the Times said they had downplayed their interests in chess, violin, and piano in an effort to avoid being rejected on racial grounds.

“It is a little sad now that I think about it,” Marissa Li, a student at Harvard University, told the Times. “I wasn’t really able to talk about the activities that meant the most to me.”

Other students said they chose not to declare their race for fear of incurring an admissions penalty, a practice that has been going on for years. In 2004, the test-prep company Princeton Review advised Asian applicants to conceal their racial identity.

It is now routine for college counselors to advise against activities deemed stereotypically Asian. Shin Wei, the founder of IvyMax, said he tells students to pick an instrument other than piano or violin. Sasha Chada, the founder of Ivy Scholars, said he does the same thing.

“It doesn’t make me happy to tell ninth graders that there are musical instruments they shouldn’t play or academic pursuits they shouldn’t engage in because it’s going to make them look bad because of their ethnicity,” Chada told the Times.

The evasions reflect the widely held sense, strengthened in the wake of recent court battles, that affirmative action policies discriminate against Asian students. One 2009 study found that Asians need to score 140 points higher on the SAT than whites—and 450 points higher than blacks—to have equivalent odds of admission. The lawsuit filed by Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard University unearthed similar data, which could prompt the Supreme Court to outlaw affirmative action when it decides the case next term.

A major point of contention in that case has been Harvard’s “personal rating,” which admissions officers base on essays, recommendations, and interviews. Asian applicants consistently receive lower personal ratings than applicants of other races, which Students for Fair Admissions argues is a back door for racial discrimination.

The dynamic has drawn comparisons to the Ivy League’s Jewish quotas in the 1920s, when schools like Harvard were concerned that having too many Jewish students would dilute their brand.

“The same stereotypes used to grade down Jewish applicants in the 1920s—that they were nerds or grinds, that they would spend too much time studying to be ‘well rounded’—are being used against Asian-American applicants today,” Mark Oppenheimer, who hosts a podcast about the history of Jews in the Ivy League, told the Times.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

FLASHBACK: Media Trumpet Biden-Backed ‘Pro-Union’ Agreement Opposed By Rail Unions

Before the midterm elections, Joe Biden touted his tentative deal to avert a nationwide rail strike as a “big win” for the country. At the time, members of the media were happy to parrot the line.

“This deal came together thanks to the direct involvement of Joe Biden, who ran for president the way he’s always run for senator—as pro-labor and pro-union,” said MSNBC anchor Joy Reid.

Railway unions, however, ultimately rejected the White House-backed deal—prompting Biden to override their objections and enforce the agreement through Congress. Now, labor groups are souring on the “most pro-union president” in history.

“Joe Biden blew it,” Railroad Workers United treasurer Hugh Sawyer said Tuesday.

READ MORE: Unions Turn on POTUS After He Moves To Avert Railroad Strike

Biden Weighs Return of Trump-Era Immigration Restrictions as Admin Struggles With Border Crisis

By Ted Hesson

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration would make it harder to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border under several plans being considered that bear similarities to policies pushed by former president Donald Trump.

Two Department of Homeland Security officials and a person familiar with the matter said the administration is discussing a fast-track regulation to deny asylum to single adult migrants if they do not first seek protection in other countries.

The sources said they had not seen a copy of the proposed regulation so could not provide further details.

Since Biden took office in January 2021, his administration has struggled both operationally and politically with record numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

U.S. border authorities made 2.2 million migrant arrests at the border in the fiscal year 2022 ending on Sept. 30, although many of those included repeat crossers.

Another U.S. official said the Biden administration has discussed other Trump-era deterrents that include accelerated asylum screenings for migrants in Border Patrol custody.

Another possibility under consideration was to increase a practice known as “metering,” which limits the number of migrants who can approach a port of entry to seek asylum, this official said.

A DHS spokesperson said on Friday no decisions had been made to make changes in policy. A Mexican official said the country had not been briefed on any U.S. plans aimed at curbing border flows by resurrecting measures from the Trump administration.

Biden, a Democrat, defeated Trump, a Republican, in a 2020 presidential election promising to undo his predecessor’s hardline immigration policies and “reassert America’s commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees.”

The policies under consideration, if adopted, would sharply backtrack on those pledges and have already drawn concern from immigration advocates. Similar Trump policies were challenged in court and overturned.

To be granted U.S. asylum, migrants who enter the country must show they seek protection from persecution elsewhere based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinions, or membership in a particular social group.

Axios first reported the discussions around a new asylum ban earlier this week. The other measures under consideration have not been previously reported.

After the Axios story, a Biden official said in a statement the United States would seek to accelerate asylum processing times, break up smuggling networks preying on migrants and work with others in the region to manage the flow of migrants.

Republicans, who take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January, have assailed Biden’s handling of the border and threatened to impeach his top border official, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Last month a U.S. federal judge invalidated a COVID-19-era border order known as Title 42. Implemented in March 2020 under Trump, it allowed authorities to rapidly expel migrants caught crossing the border without giving them a chance to seek asylum.

The judge delayed the effective date of the ruling until Dec. 21 to give border authorities time to prepare. A week later, a coalition of states with Republican attorneys general launched a legal challenge seeking to reverse the decision.

The administration is preparing for the possibility of 9,000-14,000 migrants per day trying to cross the border if Title 42 is lifted, one of the DHS officials told Reuters, about double the recent daily rate.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington and Dave Graham in Mexico City; Editing by Mica Rosenberg, Howard Goller and Daniel Wallis)

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

House Dem Praises ‘Candid’ Crypto Kingpin Ahead of Congressional Hearing

Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) heaped praise on Democratic megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried ahead of her committee’s hearing about the collapse of the crypto mogul’s firm.

Waters asserted Friday that Bankman-Fried has been “candid” about the demise of his company, FTX. Bankman-Fried has given a series of interviews this week as part of an apparent image rehabilitation tour after FTX declared bankruptcy, wiping out billions of dollars from customers’ portfolios. Bankman-Fried has said he mismanaged the company but has denied committing fraud. Waters invited the former billionaire to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Dec. 13.

Waters’s remarks could raise concerns that lawmakers will give Bankman-Fried the kid-glove treatment as they investigate what went wrong at FTX. Bankman-Fried donated more than $40 million to Democratic groups and lawmakers during the 2022 election cycle, including $300,000 to nine members of the House Financial Services Committee, the Washington Free Beacon reported. He has also rubbed shoulders with Waters, appearing with her on a panel discussion on cryptocurrency at the Democratic Party’s retreat in Philadelphia earlier this year.

Bankman-Fried met privately with Waters prior to his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee last December. The disgraced entrepreneur praised Waters at the time, saying that her “open mind” on the issue of cryptocurrency was “heartening.”

Waters has dismissed concerns about Bankman-Fried’s extensive political donations and dodged questions last month about whether lawmakers should return his money.

Bankman-Fried’s massive political giving opened doors for him in Washington. Bankman-Fried, who contributed $5 million to a group supporting President Joe Biden in 2020, met three times with Biden advisers at the White House earlier this year. Bankman-Fried was accompanied in two of those meetings by lobbyists for FTX.

Bankman-Fried has ties to two other Democrats on the Financial Services panel. His brother, Gabriel, worked until last year as an aide to Rep. Sean Casten (D., Ill.), who serves on the committee’s Digital Assets Working Group. Bankman-Fried cohosted a fundraiser in June for Rep. Ritchie Torres (D., N.Y.), another committee member who is on the Digital Assets Working Group.

Waters’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

More Than 1,000 New York Times Employees Threaten to Walk Off the Job

More than 1,000 New York Times employees said they will walk off the job if management fails to reach a contract agreement with the newsroom union after more than a year and a half of negotiations.

“Enough. If there is no contract by Dec. 8, we are walking out,” read the subject line of the email containing the letter. It was sent to publisher A.G. Sulzberger and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien Friday, according to New York magazine.

“We have spent more than 120 hours across 40 bargaining sessions exchanging and amending dozens of proposals,” the letter said.

The union members want negotiations on health care, pension plans, and an increase in pay. They threatened to stop working for 24 hours next Thursday if an agreement is not met.

“We want raises that reflect our contribution to the company’s success, but the @nytimes has given us lunch boxes and excuses about economic uncertainty,” the New York Times Guild said on Twitter Friday.

There have been walkouts at the Times before, but not of this magnitude, reported New York magazine:

A walkout is technically a strike, though one with an end date. There was a one-hour walkout over a lapsed contract in 2011, and another quick afternoon walkout in 2017 over copy editors being eliminated. 

But those were mostly shows of solidarity. What the employees are preparing to do next week would be something not seen at the paper of record since 1978. 

The last contract expired in March 2021.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Los Angeles Poised To Reinstate Indoor Mask Mandate

Los Angeles County is poised to reinstate indoor mask mandates if a recent surge in COVID-19 cases continues, county public health director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday.

The average of new cases for L.A., the most populous county in the United States, rose 180 percent since November 1, bringing it to about 2,700 cases per day. Hospitalizations rose to a 192 daily average for the county of more than nine million residents. These numbers move the county’s COVID-19 activity level to “medium,” as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ferrer fears the city is on track to reach a “high” level by next week, which would trigger a mask mandate.

Wearing masks, particularly cloth masks, has little effect on the spread of COVID-19, studies show. Nearly half of parents, meanwhile, say forcing children to wear masks at school has hurt their educational, relational, and mental development, a poll found earlier this year.

Ferrer nevertheless said that masking, along with “being up to date on vaccines and boosters,” are “common-sense mitigation strategies.”

“There is this common line of thinking that the pandemic is over and COVID is no longer of concern, but these numbers clearly demonstrate that COVID is still with us,” Ferrer said.

No county in the United States mandates masking at this time.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

Staff Exodus: Another Kamala Aide Heads for the Exit

Jamal Simmons, who serves as communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, announced on Friday that he is stepping down after a year on the job, marking the latest departure in an exodus of staffers from the vice president’s office.

Simmons, who is expected to leave the role next month, told Politico that it’s been “an honor and a privilege” to work for the vice president.

“I’m so thankful for the confidence she put in me,” the outgoing staffer said.

As Harris stumbles into gaffes and reportedly increases tensions in the West Wing, several high-level staffers have left her office this year. Former chief of staff Tina Flournoy, former deputy chief of staff Michael Fuchs, and former domestic policy adviser Rohini Kosoglu all quit earlier this year.

During his time in the VP’s office, Simmons pushed Harris to do more interviews, Politico reported:

During his tenure as comms director, he helped stabilize the vice president’s team and pushed it to adopt a more offensive posture after a first year beset by missteps and with scrutiny, [which] neither the White House nor Harris’s office were prepared for.

Simmons was among the most vocal aides encouraging Harris to conduct more interviews. He also advocated that she hit the road to introduce herself to the country. 

Simmons said he is moving to New York and did not comment on future employment plans.

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

New Washington Post Communications Chief Moonlights as Board Member of Far-Left Activist Group

The Washington Post announced in October that it was welcoming a new communications chief. The paper’s official announcement lauded Kathy Baird, a veteran of Nike and the public relations giant Ogilvy, as a “key strategic partner” positioned to “realize our ambitious vision for the publication.” 

It also noted her membership in the “Rosebud Sioux Tribe” and service on the board of IllumiNative, which it described as “a nonprofit working for accurate and authentic portrayal of Native people.”

That’s one way to put it. IllumiNative is a self-described “racial justice organization” funded by a dark money behemoth that encourages elementary school students to fight for Democratic Party initiatives like universal health care. Its purpose is similar to various far-left activist groups, focusing on “breaking through systems of white supremacy” and “grassroots organizing,” according to IllumiNative’s website.

IllumiNative is funded in part by New Venture Fund, which is itself funded by the left-wing dark money behemoth Arabella Advisors. New Venture Fund recorded nearly $1 billion in donations in 2021 and was called “a leading vehicle for [dark money] on the left” by the New York Times. It is unclear how much money the New Venture Fund has given IllumiNative since its 2018 founding, and federal financial disclosure laws do not require the organization to reveal it. Other left-wing charities such as the MacArthur Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation have given IllumiNative millions of dollars over the years.

Baird’s role at IllumiNative raises questions about the place of political activism in the newsrooms—and the extent to which it undercuts a news product that is supposed to be nonpartisan. It is unclear whether Baird will recuse herself from issues surrounding the coverage of Democratic dark-money groups, including Arabella.

The Washington Post declined to comment on Baird’s affiliations. Asked whether she would recuse herself from participating in issues related to Arabella, a spokeswoman said Baird “is a member of the executive team, overseeing Communications, Events and Brand Marketing and is not a part of the editorial staff.”

The Post has almost entirely avoided coverage of Arabella Advisors, a curious editorial decision given the group’s central role as a dark money hub for the Democratic Party. The Free Beacon could only find two instances where Arabella Advisors is mentioned by the paper. Both were pieces by fact-checker Glenn Kessler targeting Republicans. In one of them, Kessler describes the dark money group as a “back-office processor.”

Educational materials distributed by IllumiNative obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show the group working to influence school children, in part through classroom posters depicting American Indians demanding “tribal sovereignty” and “pre-constitutional rights” and advocating Democratic Party policies like universal health care. IllumiNative did not respond to a request for comment or for a clarification of how the group defines “pre-constitutional rights.”

IllumiNative president Crystal Echo Hawk—who publicly congratulated Baird on her new gig—is routinely quoted in news outlets including the Washington Post, which included a comment from the “longtime activist” in a February report about the Washington Commanders’ name change. 

Echo Hawk has advocated the “land back” movement on her personal Twitter account. That movement supports “the reclamation of everything stolen from the original peoples,” including “land … food … housing … [and] governance,” according to Landback.org.

The concept of “tribal sovereignty” is closely related to the “land back movement” as well and would entail transferring large swaths of federal lands to American Indians. Many “land back” proponents also say American capitalism and white supremacy must be dismantled in order to achieve full tribal sovereignty, which also includes liberating American Indians from most federal and state control. It is part of a broader effort to end “white supremacy and uplift BIPOC groups,” according to an NPR affiliate

Baird’s new post may also provide an opportunity for some synergistic tag-teaming. IllumiNative’s goal is to use “digital organizing, media relations, [and] rapid response communications … to advance power-building and narrative and culture change goals,” according to its website. 

And Echo Hawk, the IllumiNative leader, also runs a private consulting firm focused in part on “reclaiming native truth,” according to a powerpoint obtained by the Free Beacon. The goals include the creation of “new narratives in pop culture and media” to supplant coverage of “poverty, alcoholism and crime” in American Indian communities. Allies of this effort, according to Echo Hawk, include “Democrats,” “liberals,” and those in the “Northeast,” among others. 

SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon

ESG Jeopardizes Economic Security and Must Be Stopped

The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing phenomenon is undercutting the core purpose of financial institutions, jeopardizing the economic security of investors, politicizing our capital markets and private enterprises, and threatening the stability of our energy supply.

Simply put, financial firms and institutional investors should be solely focused on delivering maximum financial returns to investors so they can achieve the American dream. ESG funds are antithetical to this goal. For starters, ESG funds carry 43 percent higher fees on average versus non-ESG funds. Second, a recent study found that over the past five years, global ESG funds have underperformed the broader market by 250 basis points per year, an average 6.3 percent return compared with an 8.9 percent return. This means that an investor who put $10,000 into an average global ESG fund in 2017 would have realized a $1,750 lower return than if they had invested in the broader market. This stands to reason since ESG funds are less diversified, light on energy stocks, and overweight on technology stocks, meaning that a year like 2022 is catastrophic for investors because tech stocks significantly underperformed, and energy stocks significantly overperformed the market overall.

Many ESG proponents on Wall Street and in government, such as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, argue that ESG is investor driven. But a recent University of Chicago and FINRA study revealed that only 21 percent of investors even know what ESG stands for. That’s why financial advisors and brokers need to focus exclusively on advancing their clients’ pecuniary interests. This is especially true during a time when a historic number of seniors are struggling to retire, and American small businesses and families are being crushed by the highest levels of inflation in four decades.

Even if you don’t own an investment account, ESG is hitting your pocketbook. As we head into the winter, household energy prices are set to hit a ten-year high, costing the average American family $1,200, according to a report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. The weaponization of financial regulation coupled with Wall Street’s obsession with ESG has redirected capital away from American energy projects. As a result, investment in oil and gas exploration and production in 2021 was 25 percent lower than 2019 levels. In less than two years, we have moved from a position of energy dominance to energy depletion precisely because of the radical climate finance agenda.

That is why we are leading the charge against ESG in defense of investors and to restore American energy dominance.

In Kentucky, I (Treasurer Ball) obtained an opinion from Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron confirming that using state pension plans to invest in ESG is not compatible with Kentucky state law. Additionally, I championed a new state law that enables the Kentucky Treasury to prohibit state entities from contracting with companies that are boycotting oil, gas, and coal. The attorney general opinion and this new law will protect the Commonwealth for years to come should one of my successors decide to go down the rabbit hole of ESG investing.

At the federal level, I (Congressman Barr) have introduced the Ensuring Sound Guidance (ESG) Act to supercharge the fiduciary responsibility of investment advisors and Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) retirement plan sponsors to prioritize financial returns over non-pecuniary factors when making investment decisions on behalf of their clients. In the recently released Commitment to America (CTA), the roadmap for the House Republican agenda in 2023, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.-23) included a nod to the ESG Act. Under the “A Future That’s Built on Freedom” pillar of CTA, House Republicans promise to “stop companies from putting politics ahead of people.”

In the coming years, we urge leaders at the national, state, and local level to join us to defeat the dangerous ESG movement and get America back to the basics of investing. American investors depend on their investment plans to save for retirement, send their kids to college, and fund other aspects of the American dream. To restore American energy dominance, protect retail investors, and depoliticize capital allocation, we urge all Americans to join us in defeating the ESG movement and restoring the promise of free enterprise.

From RealClearWire

The Evil of Coerced Medicine

The following is an adapted excerpt, published recently in The Washington Times, from my book “The New Abnormal: The Rise of the Biomedical Security State” from Regnery Publishing, reprinted here with permission.

In their understandable enthusiasm to roll out the novel COVID vaccines as widely and quickly as possible in early 2021, the public health establishment succumbed to two dangerous temptations: propaganda and coercion.

That their approach deployed these with the common good in mind (achieving herd immunity) and with good intentions (ending the pandemic as quickly as possible) does not alter the fact that such approaches were deeply misguided and represented deeply disturbing trends in public policy. Public pronouncements in the name of science could not be questioned, and behavioral outcomes could be achieved by any means necessary.

Coercive COVID vaccination mandates rested on several unproven postulates, which mainstream opinion took to be axiomatic and unassailable: (1) the vaccines were safe for everyone; (2) the vaccines were necessary for everyone; therefore, (3) any vaccine hesitancy is a public relations problem that must be overcome.

The “needle in every arm” goal was set in advance; the only deliberation permitted was about the most efficient means toward this predetermined end. Any scientist, physician, or policymaker who broke ranks to question one or more of these axioms was at best a nuisance or at worst dangerous—someone to be ignored as backward or dismissed as a threat to public health. People who asked inconvenient questions were labeled with the dismissive “anti-vax” epithet, a term that functioned to exclude them from the realm of reasonable discourse.

Some of the vaccine propaganda would have been laughable if it wasn’t so clearly displaying sanctimonious contempt for its audience. Consider a televised public service announcement from Ohio’s Department of Health: A friendly immunologist clears up misinformation about what’s in a COVID vaccine by explaining: “There are just a few simple ingredients: water, sugar, salt, fat, and most importantly, a building block for protein. … That’s less stuff than a candy bar or a can of pop.”

The absurd message suggests that vaccine risks are no different from the risks of eating a candy bar or drinking a soda—clearly government-sponsored misinformation if that word means anything. The condescension on display also tells you all you need to know about what Ohio’s public health officials think of the intelligence of the average citizen.

Aside from what was said, the most egregious form of propaganda was the vaccine-related information that was deliberately withheld or deemphasized. As mentioned earlier, The New York Times reported in February: “Two full years into the pandemic, the agency leading the country’s response to the public health emergency [the CDC] has published only a tiny fraction of the data it has collected.”

For example, when the agency “published the first significant data on the effectiveness of boosters in adults younger than 65 … it left out the numbers for a huge portion of that population: 18- to 49-year-olds, the group least likely to benefit from extra shots.” The CDC’s stated reason for withholding much of its data was that it did not want to increase vaccine hesitancy.

The result was messaging from public health officials that sounded indistinguishable from the marketing departments of Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. Granted, public health communications must be simplified for broad consumption; but there is a key difference between simplifying information for the layperson and dumbing it down to manipulate the masses, or deliberately suppressing information that might undermine a predetermined public policy.

This was not public education but a manipulative effort at behavioral control. In the most precise meaning of the term, it was propaganda. Large swaths of the public who were not hypnotized by the repetition of memes could sense, even if they could not explain, that they were subjected to manipulation.

As vaccination rates approached 50 percent in the United States, vaccine updates slowed by April 2021. Reports began to emerge of serious side effects, and studies from Israel, which started its mass vaccination campaign before the United States, suggested that vaccine efficacy waned rapidly.

Public health efforts pivoted from propaganda to heavy-handed nudges and bribes. Several states entered vaccinated citizens into lotteries awarding cash prizes of $1 million or more. Other states and cities launched promotions for vaccination ranging from free beer in New Jersey to raffles for full-ride college scholarships in New York and Ohio to a free marijuana joint in Washington for those who took the jab. (The latter brought, naturally, by people who sincerely care about your health.)

When these nudges didn’t work, officials simply mandated the vaccines, with severe penalties for those who declined. As my own institution, the University of California, prepared to issue its vaccine mandate, I argued publicly in the pages of The Wall Street Journal in June 2021 that university vaccine mandates violated foundational principles of medical ethics, including the principle of informed consent.

Although the minimal conditions for justifying vaccine mandates were never close to being met, institutions embraced these misguided policies with little meaningful public discussion and no debate.

From the Brownstone Institute

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Nonprofit Blood Donation Service Starts Matching Unvaccinated Patients With Donors

Swiss naturopathic physician George Della Pietra believes that people worldwide should be free to choose whether to get a COVID-19 vaccine injection.

He believes that the same should hold for those receiving transfusions with “vaccinated” blood.

“The problem is right now we have no choice,” said Della Pietra, founder of the nonprofit SafeBlood Donation service, which matches unvaccinated blood recipients with donors in 65 countries.

“It was very clear from the beginning that the COVID hype was way out of control,” Della Pietra said. “It was not as dangerous as they say it was.

“As a naturopath, I can make no sense of this pandemic, which was never really a pandemic. It leaves space for so many explanations.”

Della Pietra believes that an mRNA injection is more dangerous than pharmaceutical companies are willing to admit. He said the growing numbers of adverse reactions are reason to question their safety and effectiveness.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that vaccinated and boosted people made up 58.6 percent (6,512) of the COVID-19 deaths in August—up from 41 percent in January.

“We can no longer say this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Cynthia Cox, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, told The Washington Post in an article on Nov. 23.

Nearly 70 percent of the world’s 8 billion people have received at least one mRNA injection for COVID-19 since the vaccines began rolling out in 2021 at the height of the virus’s spread.

Each of the three primary mRNA COVID-19 vaccines contains COVID-19 “spike protein” fragments, which bind at the cellular level to stimulate an immune response to the virus.

Della Pietra believes that these spike proteins produce “classic symptoms”—namely blood clots—that “horrified” him.

“I’ve never seen anything similar—and I’m not talking only about spike proteins,” he told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.

“It’s unbelievable because we never had this problem before. It’s been only two years. They want to keep the narrative [that an mRNA vaccine] is not dangerous.”

Epoch Times Photo
A man looks at his phone while donating blood at Vitalant blood donation center in San Francisco on Jan. 11, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Although donated blood and plasma must undergo a cleansing process before transfusion, SafeBlood Donation says this isn’t enough to remove all mRNA ingredients.

“I’m talking about graphene oxide and nondeclared inorganic components in the vaccine, which we can see in the blood. When I see them, I have no idea how we can get rid of them again,” Della Pietra said.

Looking at the abnormalities in vaccinated blood, he said, “OK, we have a problem.” People are receiving the vaccine “more or less through the back door.”

“You can not avoid it anymore, “Della Pietra said.

In the United States alone, there are approximately 16 million units of donated blood annually. Of those units, about 643,000 are “autologous”—self-donated—and the number is increasing yearly, according to BloodBook.com.

Della Pietra said, to his knowledge, Safe Blood Donation, based in Switzerland, is the first unvaccinated blood donation service of its kind.

“So, there is no blood bank with mRNA-free blood yet, not even with us,” Safe Blood Donation stated on its website.

“And, although we have already asked hundreds of clinics, at the moment—at least in Europe—all of them still refuse to allow the human right of free blood choice with them—or at least do not want to be mentioned because otherwise, they fear reprisals.”

Epoch Times Photo
A nurse works as employees donate blood during a blood drive held in a bloodmobile in Los Angeles on March 19, 2020. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Della Pietra said the main goal of Safe Blood Donation isn’t to start an mRNA-free blood bank. Rather, it’s to make it possible to match unvaccinated blood donors and unvaccinated recipients, “which we bring together in a clinic (medical partner) that allows the choice of blood donor.”

Medical website Seed Scientific stated that blood banks and biotech companies will offer as much as $1,000 monthly for blood donations.

While Della Pietra said there are no unvaccinated blood banks, he sees the demand for unvaccinated blood rising.

“This is why I decided to do [SafeBlood Donation]. I wanted to make a network for unvaccinated people looking for a blood donor because they need it—whether they have scheduled surgery or an emergency,” he said.

SafeBlood Donation began working in the United States about a month ago, building an infrastructure of medical partners.

However, in the current medical environment, central blood banks such as the Red Cross don’t segregate their blood donations based on their vaccinated or unvaccinated status.

Epoch Times Photo
Rendering of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins binding to ACE2 receptors. (Shutterstock)

“The American Red Cross does not facilitate designated donations for standard blood needs, as this process often takes longer and is more resource intensive than obtaining a blood product through our normal process,” the Red Cross told The Epoch Times in an email.

“In a small number of situations, there is an exception for rare blood types where compatible blood types are extremely difficult to find. A rare blood type is defined as one that is present in less than 1/1000 people.

“We want to emphasize that the Red Cross adheres to all donor and product requirements as determined by the FDA to ensure the safety of the blood supply and is committed to continuing to provide life-saving blood products for patients across the country.”

The National Library of Medicine stated that “across study sites, the average hospital cost per unit transfused was $155 and the average charge per patient was $219.”

Still, the Red Cross, which provides 40 percent of the nation’s blood donations, said “no studies” demonstrate adverse outcomes from transfusions of blood products collected from vaccinated donors.

blood plasma
A health worker holds a blood sample donated by a recovered COVID-19 patient for plasma at a donation camp in Srinagar, India, on July 22, 2020. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images)

On the contrary, “blood saves and improves the lives of millions of individuals every year.”

The organization also provides an autologous blood donation service for clients who wish to store their blood for themselves or their friends and relatives.

Vitalant, a nonprofit blood donation collector and provider, “does not directly interact with patients, so we cannot offer any insight on how frequently hospital patients may make such requests” for unvaccinated blood, said Liz Lambert, strategic communications manager at Vitalant.

The Food and Drug Administration, which sets blood safety standards in the United States, “does not require blood product labeling to differentiate between donors who have or have not been vaccinated,” Lambert told The Epoch Times.

The World Health Organization is seeking the authority to determine global health policy against future pandemics, which includes the standard use of mRNA vaccines.

Della Pietra said this is an insidious sign of what’s to come as quantities of unvaccinated blood supplies become shorter and more costly to procure.

“It will become rarer,” said Della Pietra, who wants people to have a choice—”the same choice we had 10 years ago.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Autopsies Show COVID-19 Vaccination Likely Caused Fatal Heart Inflammation: Study

A serious side effect linked to COVID-19 vaccines can lead to death, according to a new study.

Post-vaccination myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation, was identified in a subset of people who died “unexpectedly” at home within 20 days of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. Researchers analyzed autopsies that had been performed on the people and conducted additional research, including studying tissue samples.

Researchers started with a group of 35, but excluded 10 from further analysis because other causes of death were identified. Of the remaining 25, researchers identified evidence of myocarditis in five.

All of the five people received a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine within seven days of their death, with a mean of 2.5 days. The median age was 58 years. None of the people had COVID-19 infection prior to being vaccinated and nasal swabs returned negative.

Autopsy findings combined with the lack of evidence of other causes of death and how the vaccination happened shortly before the deaths enabled researchers to say that for three of the cases, vaccination was the “likely cause” of the myocarditis and that the cardiac condition “was the cause of sudden death.”

In one of the other cases, myocarditis was believed to be the cause of death but researchers detected a herpes virus, an alternative explanation for the incidence of heart inflammation. The remaining case did not include an alternative explanation for the myocarditis but the researchers said the impact of the inflammation was “discrete and mainly observed in the pericardial fat.” They classified the two cases as possibly caused by vaccination.

“In general, a causal link between myocarditis and anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is supported by several considerations,” the researchers said, including the “close temporal relation to vaccination”; the “absence of any other significant pre-existing heart disease”; and the negative testing for any “myocarditis-causing infectious agents.”

Limitations included the small cohort size.

The study (pdf) was published by Clinical Research in Cardiology on Nov. 27. The researchers all work for Heidelberg University Hospital. They were funded by German authorities.

Moderna and Pfizer did not respond to requests for comment.

The meticulous ruling out of possible causes apart from vaccination signals that the cases are “the tip of the iceberg,” Dr. Andrew Bostom, a heart expert based in Rhode Island, told The Epoch Times.

“If there’s a seemingly healthy person that dies suddenly in their sleep, essentially, these are typically the cases that are autopsied, and clearly the most common finding is some form of atherosclerotic coronary heart disease. But they basically ruled that out in these cases. And then they came up with the most plausible proximate cause being vaccination,” he said. “And so it suggests that the phenomenon could actually be broader than it’s been suspected to be.”

Myocarditis

Myocarditis is a serious heart condition that can manifest as chest pain and typically leads the sufferer to seek hospital care.

Doctors usually advise against all or most physical activity for a period of time.

Causes include bacteria, viruses, and fever.

Acute myocarditis resolves in about half of cases in the first two to four weeks, researchers have found, but another quarter feature longer-term problems and many of the rest lead to death or heart transplantation.

The incidence of myocarditis among COVID-19 vaccine recipients was higher than expected, researchers in the United States, Israel, and other countries have found. The highest rates have been detected in young people, particularly young males.

Estimates of the typical myocarditis incidence rates are 0.2 to 2.2 per million persons within seven days. Reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System show higher rates for males aged 5 to 49 and females aged 12 to 29. The highest rate was 75.9 per million second doses administered. Reports to the system don’t prove causality but the system suffers from severe underreporting, according to studies, indicating the rates are even higher.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to recommend vaccination for virtually all people aged 6 months and older, asserting that the benefits of the vaccines outweigh the risks. Some experts disagree, saying side effects like myocarditis tilt the calculus to the risks being higher in some age groups.

Government officials have repeatedly said that most of the myocarditis cases resolve within weeks, but CDC researchers found in September that many youths who experienced post-vaccination myocarditis still had abnormal MRI results months later.

The incidence has been much lower among older people, according to U.S. authorities, which have refused to make public the autopsy results of people who die after vaccination, and various studies.

The new study “suggests we’ve been missing some severe myo[carditis] cases in our studies,” Dr. Tracy Høeg, an epidemiologist who advises the Florida Department of Health, said on Twitter.

Causality

Several vaccines have been linked to myocarditis and a related condition, pericarditis. They are made by Moderna and Pfizer and are the two most widely administered in the United States and Germany.

Both vaccines utilize messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

Causality means that a vaccine causes a condition.

Top CDC researchers have said (pdf) the current evidence shows a causal link between the mRNA shots and heart inflammation. Other researchers have also reached that conclusion.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns potential vaccine recipients that “postmarketing data demonstrate increased risks of myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly within 7 days following the second dose.”

Bostom said the evidence he’s reviewed shows a causal link.

“It’s as certain as most associations that we say are confirmed in medicine,” he said.

Some studies have identified COVID-19  as another cause of myocarditis and pericarditis, but others have indicated it might not be associated.

Other Autopsy Findings

Before the German study, other researchers around the world had reported findings from autopsies of people who died suddenly after vaccination.

In 2021, U.S. researchers reported two adults developed myocarditis within two weeks of COVID-19 vaccination, and they were unable to find causes other than vaccination.

In 2021, South Korea researchers reported that after examining the death of a 22-year-old man who died five days after receiving the Pfizer vaccine, they determined the primary cause was “myocarditis, causally-associated” with the vaccine.

In January, New Zealand researchers reported that the Pfizer vaccine was probably responsible for sudden myocarditis that led to the death of a 57-year-old woman, writing that “other causes have been discounted with reasonable certainty.”

In February, researchers in several U.S. states reported that two teenage boys who died shortly after receiving Pfizer’s vaccine experienced heart inflammation and that the inflammation was the primary cause of death.

In May, CDC researchers reported that a young boy died after experiencing post-vaccination heart inflammation, with myocarditis being pegged as the cause of death.

In September, a German researcher reported that a 55-year-old who died four months after receiving the Pfizer vaccine died of myocarditis and said “these findings indicate that myocarditis, as well as thrombo-embolic events following injection of spike-inducing gene-based vaccines, are causally associated with a[n] injurious immunological response to the encoded agent.”

And just recently, Japanese researchers reported on results from a 27-year-old man who died 28 days after admission following vaccination.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Elon Musk Unveils the 2020 Twitter Censorship Machine

Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk and independent journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday unveiled what drove former Twitter executives to suppress the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story in the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election.

Dubbed “The Twitter Files,” Taibbi published his reporting in a thread on his Twitter account, which he said was based on “thousands of internal documents obtained by sources” from the social media platform.

The series of posts on Twitter contained communications amongst Twitter employees as they grappled with how to excuse their decision to censor the Hunter Biden report.

Musk, who has championed transparency at the company he took over in October, reposted Taibbi’s thread, and questioned whether some of the revelations indicated potential violations of the First Amendment.

Here we go!! 🍿🍿 https://t.co/eILK9f3bAm

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

Twitter’s Censorship Tools

Taibbi said “The Twitter Files” tell an “incredible story” about how one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms used its powerful tools to delete tweets at the request of “connected actors.”

The tools Twitter employees used for “controlling speech” were originally designed to combat spam and financial fraudsters, Taibbi said. But over time, staff began “to find more and more uses for these tools.”

Soon, and at a growing rate, “outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech,” he wrote.

Joe Biden
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks at a drive-in rally for Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, in Atlanta, Ga., on Dec. 15, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo)

Twitter’s censorship system was well established by 2020, an election year, and while both sides of U.S. politics had access, the political bias of the majority of the platform’s employees meant Democrats had more avenues to “complain” about tweets, according to Taibbi.

“For instance, in 2020, requests from both the Trump White House and the Biden campaign were received and honored,” Taibbi wrote.

“However,” he added. “This system wasn’t balanced. It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right.”

Throughout his thread, Taibbi shared screenshots of emails and communications between and with Twitter executives that provided a glimpse into how the system worked to censor the New York Post’s article on Hunter Biden.

One email dated Oct. 24, 2020, appears to show a Twitter executive sharing a list of five tweets allegedly identified by people from the campaign of then-candidate Joe Biden, a Democrat.

“By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: ‘More to review from the Biden team.’ The reply would come back: ‘Handled.’”

8. By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: “More to review from the Biden team.” The reply would come back: “Handled.” pic.twitter.com/mnv0YZI4af

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

Twitter Suppresses Hunter Biden Report

In order to suppress the Hunter Biden report, Twitter executives marked it as “unsafe,” limiting its spread, even blocking it from being directly shared via the platform’s direct message function.

Taibbi noted that such extreme restrictions were reserved for content such as child pornography.

For sharing the report, then-White House press secretary Kaleigh McEnany was locked out of her account, prompting a stern email from Trump campaign staffer Mike Hahn to Caroline Strom, who was Twitter’s public policy executive.

Hahn demanded to know when McEnany’s account would be unlocked and why no one at Twitter informed him the company would be censoring news articles.

“Like I said, at least pretend to care for the next 20 days,” he wrote.

19. White House spokeswoman Kaleigh McEnany was locked out of her account for tweeting about the story, prompting a furious letter from Trump campaign staffer Mike Hahn, who seethed: “At least pretend to care for the next 20 days.” pic.twitter.com/CcXTfsdzCT

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

Twitter’s Internal Comms Reveal Confusion

Taibbi reported that the decision to censor the report came from the highest levels of Twitter but without the knowledge of then-CEO Jack Dorsey.

Vijaya Gadde, who was the head of legal, policy, and trust at the company, played a “key role,” according to Taibbi.

“‘They just freelanced it,’ is how one former employee characterized the decision,” Taibbi wrote.

Messages between executives in Twitter’s communications and policy departments, shared by Taibbi in screenshots, show a certain amount of confusion, with a communications executive writing: “I’m struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe.”

Taibbi reported that one former employee he spoke with said that at this point, “everyone knew this was [expletive],” but that the executives decided to “err on the side of … continuing to err.”

laptop hunter biden
A man walks past “The Mac Shop” in Wilmington, Del., on Oct. 21, 2020. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Yoel Roth, who became head of trust and safety before his employment ended in November, said the policy basis for censoring the Hunter Biden story was “hacked materials.”

The honesty of that excuse was questioned by Brandon Borrman, the former vice president of global communications.

“Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?” he asked in a message.

In a message, former Twitter Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker acknowledges that some of the report appeared to be sourced from an “abandoned” computer, but he advised caution because they were unsure if some of it was the result of hacked material.

28. To which former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker again seems to advise staying the non-course, because “caution is warranted”: pic.twitter.com/tg4D0gLWI6

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

Democrat Raises First Amendment Concerns

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) contacted Gadde on Oct. 14, 2020, to let her know their decision to censor the story and lock McEnany out of her account was generating a “huge backlash” in Washington, D.C.

Gadde came back to Khanna, citing the company’s hacked materials policy, prompting Khanna to explicitly clarify that his concerns were related to the First Amendment implications of Twitter’s decision.

“But this seems a violation of the 1st Amendment principles,” Khanna wrote, noting that if the left-wing New York Times were to publish an expose of a serious war crime, he would support their right to do so.

“But in the heat of a Presidential campaign, restricting dissemination of newspaper articles (even if NY Post is far right) seems like it will invite more backlash than it will do good,” Khanna added.

Rep. Ro Khanna
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) speaks during a press conference at Capitol Hill in Washington on April 4, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

While Khanna expressed concern about the First Amendment implications of suppressing the report, Taibbi reported on a poll conducted by NetChoice that indicated other Democrats supported the move.

After Taibbi published his report, Khanna reportedly said in a statement that the American constitution and First Amendment “are sacred,” and he felt Twitter’s actions violated that, “so I raised those concerns.”

The first installment of Taibbi’s reporting exposed the censorship system that enabled Twitter executives, who are mostly Democrat-aligned, to censor a controversial story about the son of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.

Taibbi, who usually writes for his subscribers on Substack, presented his report as a series of “live tweets” on Twitter, with new paragraphs published one after another over a period of time on Friday evening.

He noted that there was “much more to come” and promised answers to burning questions many figures—usually conservatives—have raised about issues like “shadow-banning, boosting, follower counts, the fate of various individual accounts, and more.”

“These issues are not limited to the political right,” Taibbi noted.

Musk said a second “episode” would be released on Saturday.

Tune in for Episode 2 of The Twitter Files tomorrow!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 3, 2022

SOURCE: The Epoch Times