How to assemble an Israeli Succah

Start with laying the poles down

Start with laying the poles down

1) Start with laying the poles down

An example of the wall. When you have the walls up wrap the walls with 3 rows of rope on the bottom of the walls.

An example of the wall. When you have the walls up wrap the walls with 3 rows of rope on the bottom of the walls.

An example of the wall. When you have the walls up wrap the walls with 3 rows of rope on the bottom of the walls.

Isru Chag-Sukkot

Isru Chag-Sukkot

Don’t forget to put away all the bags that the Sukkah parts were in. You will need then for Isru Chag-Sukkot.

side poles snap into the columns. Don't forget the center beam.

side poles snap into the columns. Don’t forget the center beam.

2) side poles snap into the columns. Don’t forget the center beam.

The walls slide into the Top and Bottom Rows. Tie the walls to the frame tightly so that the wall will not move in the wind.

The walls slide into the Top and Bottom Rows. Tie the walls to the frame tightly so that the wall will not move in the wind.

3) The walls slide into the Top and Bottom Rows. Tie the walls to the frame tightly so that the wall will not move in the wind.

Next put the Bamboo poles on the top using plastic clips and put the schach on top of the Bamboo poles.

Next put the Bamboo poles on the top using plastic clips and put the schach on top of the Bamboo poles.

4) Next put the Bamboo poles on the top using plastic clips and put the schach on top of the Bamboo poles.

When you have the walls up wrap the walls with 3 rows of rope on the bottom of the walls.

When you have the walls up wrap the walls with 3 rows of rope on the bottom of the walls.

5) When you have the walls up wrap the walls with 3 rows of rope on the bottom of the walls.

The Succah decorations. You can put up lighting and have Tables, chairs, beds ect.

The Succah decorations. You can put up lighting and have Tables, chairs, beds ect.

The Succah decorations. You can put up lighting and have Tables, chairs, beds ect.

The Succah decorations. You can put up lighting and have Tables, chairs, beds ect.

Arutz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

Safety tips for Sukkot

United Hatzalah emergency medics present safety guidelines for the upcoming Sukkot holiday, to prevent injuries during sukkah-building.
Arutz Sheva Staff, 20September2018 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/252225

The season for building Sukkot has just begun and United Hatzalah volunteers have already treated dozens of injuries that occurred while people were building Sukkot. The Spokesperson’s department has therefore issued a series of basic safety tips for the holiday.

When building a Sukkah one should always be careful when standing or climbing in high places.

It is recommended to use proper safety gloves so as to avoid injuries to the hands.

Make sure that ladders are stable and being held by a second person.

It is strongly recommended to work in pairs if not larger groups so that one person can ground the ladder properly and call emergency services should an accident occur.

It is imperative to keep all nails, screws and tools away from the reach of small children.

When lighting candles for Shabbat or the holidays, be sure to keep them in a safe location, not near flammable materials, out of the wind, and also out of the reach of small children.

Keep the candles on a special platform that won’t burn such as a metal or glass tray and keep them away from the walls of the Sukkah or any flammable decorations.

Eli Beer, Founder and President of United Hatzalah explained that: “In previous years United Hatzalah volunteers have treated dozens of injuries due to people falling off of ladders during the building and decorating of Sukkahs. Some of these instances, unfortunately, have resulted in fatalities and serious injuries. We ask the public to take extra care this year while building, residing in and taking down their Sukkahs. Our volunteers will be on hand at all times during the holiday to provide care for any and all who need it. We wish you and all of Israel a happy and healthy holiday.”

Cat in Sukkah

Cat in Sukkah

Isru Chag-Sukkot

Isru Chag-Sukkot

Sukkah Table

Sukkah Table

Soldier’s Guide To Staying Outdoors

Rivlin's Sukkah Guests

Rivlin’s Sukkah Guests

Charlie the Cat From Nili Architecture http://niliarchitecture.com/

Charlie the Cat From Nili Architecture http://niliarchitecture.com/

Holiday Havdalah
Upon entering the Succah

Upon entering the Succah

Torah Tidbits 1291 Sukkot5779 pages 31 guests p1

Torah Tidbits 1291 Sukkot5779 pages 31 guests p1

Torah Tidbits 1291 Sukkot5779 pages 31 guests p2

Torah Tidbits 1291 Sukkot5779 pages 31 guests p2

Torah Tidbits 1291 Sukkot5779 pages 35 lulav

Torah Tidbits 1291 Sukkot5779 pages 35 lulav

Torah Tidbits 1291 Sukkot5779 pages 2 lulav

Torah Tidbits 1291 Sukkot5779 pages 2 lulav

Hoshana Raba wish list Hoshana Raba; May Hashem grant you a wonderful year with all your heart's wishes for the very best always!

Hoshana Raba wish list
Hoshana Raba; May Hashem grant you a wonderful year with all your heart’s wishes for the very best always!

Hoshana Raba; May Hashem grant you a wonderful year with all your heart’s wishes for the very best always!

Arutz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

While most people put up sukkahs, police are taking them down

Two sukkahs, at least one of which had engineering permits, dismantled by police in Jerusalem.

Arutz Sheva Staff, 19September2021 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/313737

The sukkah in Meah ShearimJerusalem municipality
On Sunday evening, police arrived at the sukkah belonging to Rabbi Yitzhak Meir Morgenstern in Romema, Jerusalem, and informed the owners that it was to be dismantled. Shortly afterward, municipal inspectors arrived at the scene and began the work of dismantling the structure, which, according to Behadrey Haredim, is constructed in a similar fashion every year.

This year, however, police claimed that the sukkah lacked the requisite permits and that it posed a threat to the safety of the public. No objections were raised, and the sukkah was taken apart.

The night before, however, an hours-long standoff resulted after over 200 police officers arrived in the Meah Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem in order to dismantle the sukkah belonging to Rabbi Moshe Bransdorfer. This sukkah, too, has been built in the same fashion for years. It extends from a second-floor apartment and is supported on iron scaffolding, and according to accounts provided to Behadrey Haredim, it had been approved by none less than the Jerusalem Municipality’s own choice of engineer.

Nonetheless, several private individuals and a medical clinic situated near the sukkah complained to police, who in turn claimed that the sukkah was a public hazard.

“The sukkah was built on high scaffolding and posed a real risk to life and property, while harming passersby and the public using the medical center located there, which even filed a complaint to the municipality,” the police stated.

The saga began last Tuesday, when police made their first visit to the sukkah and a spontaneous protest erupted. Eventually, Rabbi Bransdorfer came to an agreement with police and the municipality, according to which the sukkah would be dismantled by his family the next day. Apparently this did not occur, and the municipality then offered an alternative site for the sukkah. The offer was accepted, but then representatives of Rabbi Bransdorfer appealed to the court for a stay of execution of the demolition, which was not granted.

The case was due to be heard in court on Sunday, but police decided to take action on the Saturday night preceding, and arrived in huge numbers, prepared for the fierce protests that indeed erupted.

Police arrived with trucks and cranes, raided the adjacent building, evacuated everyone from the sukkah and the apartment, and then began to demolish the structure.

According to attorney Shreiber, representing Rabbi Bransdorfer’s family, several of the claims made by those demanding the demolition are false, including a claim made by the health clinic that the sukkah blocked access to it, which is blatantly untrue as photographs showed. In addition, the sukkah obtained the approval of two engineers and was built according to the engineers’ instructions, including protective fencing placed around the scaffolding.

“Every single year, engineers inspect the sukkah and the same was true this year,” one source told Behadrey Haredim. “The sukkah complied with the most stringent safety measures. But due to pressure from social media, the municipality decided to issue a demolition order regardless.”

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Holiday Havdalah

By Naftali Silberberg
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/611296/jewish/Holiday-Havdalah.htm

Holiday havdalah can be divided into two categories: 1) Havdalah recited at the conclusion of a holiday. 2) The special havdalah recited on a holiday which falls on Saturday night. Havdalah is made when entering a day of lesser holiness. Since Shabbat is holier than all the holidays, we recite the havdalah when Shabbat leads into a holiday. Following the same logic, havdalah is not recited if a holiday leads into Shabbat.

Havdalah at the Conclusion of a Holiday

Havdalah is only made when entering a day of lesser holiness

Havdalah is recited at the conclusion of the following biblical holidays: Rosh Hashanah; Yom Kippur; the first days of Sukkot; Simchat Torah; Passover, both its first and last days; and Shavuot.

If the final day of the holiday was Shabbat, then the exact same havdalah procedure as a typical Saturday night is followed. If the holiday ended on another weeknight, the procedure is very similar to the Shabbat havdalah, but with some differences:

  • In some communities, the prefatory verses (from “Hinei E-l” until the wine blessing) are omitted. Many communities, however, including Chabad, do recite these verses.
  • Spices and a havdalah candle are not used. The exception to this rule is the Yom Kippur havdalah, which includes the blessing on a havdalah candle. The Yom Kippur havdalah candle is kindled from a fire which burnt throughout the holiday, such as a yahrtzeit candle.
  • The V’yiten lecha prayer is not recited following a holiday, nor is it customary to partake of a Melaveh Malka meal. (The Atah chonantanu insert is included in the post-holiday evening prayer.)
  • If one forgets to make havdalah following a holiday, it can be recited until sundown of the following day.

Havdalah From Shabbat to a Holiday (“Yaknahaz”)

Whether a holiday begins on a Saturday night or if Saturday night ushers in the second day of a holiday, that night’s holiday kiddush incorporates within itself the havdalah for Shabbat as well.

The whole text of the kiddush/havdalah can be found in your standard or holiday prayer book. The following is the basic procedure:

For the havdalah candle we use the standard holiday candles

  • The order of the night’s kiddush/havdalah is: 1) The wine blessing. 2) The holiday kiddush blessing. 3) The blessing on the candle. 4) The havdalah blessing — which is different than the standard Shabbat havdalah blessing. 5) The Shehecheyanu blessing (aside for the last days of Passover when it is not recited).
  • No spices are used.
  • For the havdalah candle we use the standard holiday candles which are on the table. It is not necessary to conjoin two candles. During this havdalah, many, including Chabad, have the custom to only gaze at the candles after reciting the candle blessing without looking at the fingernails.

Note: There are many activities which are forbidden on Shabbat but permissible on a holiday. All such activities must wait until one verbally “separates” between Shabbat and the holiday. This, however, does not have to wait for kiddush/havdalah, as a special havdalah themed insert, the Vatodi’enu paragraph, is inserted in the Amidah of the night’s prayers. Alternatively, one can say: “Baruch hamavdil bayn kodesh likodesh” — “Blessed is the One who separates between (the) holiness (of Shabbat) and (the) holiness (of the holiday).”

By Naftali Silberberg

Rabbi Naftali Silberberg is a writer, editor and director of the curriculum department at the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. Rabbi Silberberg resides in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Chaya Mushka, and their three children.

Havdalah Blessing for Motzei Shabbat and Yom Tov

Havdalah Blessing for Motzei Shabbat and Yom Tov

Click to Enlarge

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BRICS


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BRICS

The collective of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa is seeking to expand its ranks at the upcoming BRICS summit. Subsequently, with discussion over a developing currency to combat the US dollar, multi-polarization feels entirely within reach.

BREAKING: Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and UAE to join BRICS on January 1st, 2024.

BRICS SummitSource: brics2021.gov.in

BRICS Summit
Source: brics2021.gov.in



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BRICS Officially Agrees To End Use Of US Dollar

Vinod Dsouza
26August2023  https://watcher.guru/news/brics-officially-agrees-to-end-use-of-us-dollar<

 

The BRICS alliance has called for the abandonment of the US dollar for international trade at the summit in Johannesburg. BRICS will officially end reliance on the US dollar for global trade settlements moving forward. South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed that the bloc collectively decided to abandon the US dollar with no opposition.

 

BRICS will now continue promoting their respective local currencies for cross-border settlements and strengthening their native economies. The move will pave the way for a paradigm shift in the global economy and reshape the political landscape. Bilateral ties with other countries will be reworked, and the US dollar will face stiff competition in the long run.

Also Read: BRICS: Is Chinese Yuan a Growing Threat to the U.S. Dollar?

 

Watcher.Guru-tweet-24August2023-BRICS to officially abandon US Dollar for trade settlements

Watcher.Guru-tweet-24August2023-BRICS to officially abandon US Dollar for trade settlements

 

BRICS Steps Away From The US Dollar

The BRICS bloc announced that it wants to end dependency on the US dollar to promote their local currencies. The dollar’s debt factor also played a role in abandoning the USD. We will increase “payment options and reduce our vulnerability,” holding the dollar as reserves, said Brazil’s President Lula da Silva.

Also Read: BRICS: China Targets U.S., Says America Is Obsessed With Hegemony

BRICS will also convince other developing countries to trade in local currencies and not the US dollar. The greenback will slowly fade away from the international stage, making the debt ceiling crisis in America worsen. Read here to learn about the 10 financial sectors that will be impacted if the US dollar is no longer used for global trade.

 

Watcher.Guru-tweet-24August2023-Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and UAE to join BRICS

Watcher.Guru-tweet-24August2023-Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and UAE to join BRICS

Also Read: BRICS Developing Effective Mechanisms for Global Financial Control

In addition, six new countries will join BRICS, further strengthening the alliance. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Iran will be members of the bloc. Five of the six countries are oil-producing nations and could change the way the world trades in the coming years.

 

In conclusion, the US dollar is in a ‘do or die‘ situation after the BRICS called to stop trading in the USD. The dollar could be on the path of decline if the ideas of the BRICS play out as planned.

 

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BRICS Nations Buy Massive Amounts of Gold to Back the New Currency

Vinod Dsouza

10July2023  https://watcher.guru/news/brics-nations-buy-gold-to-back-new-currency

he BRICS alliance plans to launch a new currency backed by gold, reported RT News a month ahead of the summit. Russia has reportedly briefed the bloc on the importance of pegging the soon-to-be-released currency to gold. The move could make it easier to take on the U.S. dollar and challenge its global reserve status. The next BRICS summit will be held in South Africa in August and the formation of a new currency will be laid out.

Also Read: BRICS: India Saves $7 Billion by Ditching U.S. Dollar For Oil Trade

BRICS to Back The New Currency With Gold

The yet-to-be-launched BRICS currency could be backed by gold and the bloc of five nations are stockpiling the precious metal. In the last 18 months, the BRICS nations have increased their gold buying expenditure to end reliance on the U.S. dollar.

Also Read: 6 New Countries To Join BRICS Alliance in August Summit

The World Gold Council published a report saying that China purchased 102 tonnes of gold. Russia has purchased 31.1 tonnes of precious metal in the last six months. In addition, India added 2.8 tonnes to its gold reserves in 2023, for the first time in more than a year. India accumulated gold for several months and could add more by the end of the year.

 

The move puts the U.S. dollar in jeopardy as gold could be used as collateral and not the USD. The BRICS alliance could rely more on gold and completely end reliance on the U.S. dollar. If many more countries join the bloc, the new BRICS currency could be the preferred choice for cross-border transactions.

Also Read: BRICS: 130 Countries Move Towards CBDC Currency, US Dollar in Jeopardy

Gold is considered a safe investment and has a slim chance of collapsing than the U.S. dollar. The greenback is now a risky asset as it comes with the dangers of debt. If the debt ceiling crisis worsens, it could cause a domino effect of financial problems in developing countries. Therefore, a handful of countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, are looking to stay away from the U.S. dollar for global settlements.

 

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BRICS Could Potentially Become Global Currency

Vinod Dsouza
8June2023  https://watcher.guru/news/brics-could-potentially-become-global-currency

The BRICS alliance will launch a new currency in the next summit in August 2023 held in Cape Town, South Africa. The five blocs of nations Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will combinedly decide the formation of the currency. The yet-to-be-released tender will be pushed into the global stage to settle cross-border transactions among like-minded nations. The goal is to end reliance on the U.S. dollar and usher in a new era in the financial sector.

 

Even before its launch, around 41 countries have expressed interest to join BRICS and accept the currency. While 19 countries have formally sent applications to join BRICS, the others have informally expressed desires to enter the bloc. South African BRICS ambassador Anil Sooklal confirmed that the alliance could soon expand becoming BRICS+.

Also Read: Europe Might Get Ready To Accept BRICS Currency

BRICS Currency Could Go Global, Dethrone the U.S. Dollar

Leading economist Alexis Habiyaremye from the University of Johannesburg said that the BRICS currency could dethrone the U.S. dollar. The economist said that the U.S. dollar added a burden to the economies of developing countries through debt accumulation. The U.S. pressing sanctions aggravated the situation making their local economies come to a standstill.

Also Read: Saudi Arabia To Challenge U.S. Dollar’s Supremacy by Funding BRICS Alliance

Things could get better with the launch of the currency as the U.S. will have no control over their economies. If the BRICS currency gains widespread acceptance, the U.S. dollar will lose supply and demand on the global stage. The development could make the new tender acceptable and countries could sideline the USD in the coming years.

 

“In terms of economic weight, The BRICS currency has a real prospect of becoming a global currency if members commit to increasing trade exchange between themselves,” he said. The economist added, “Introducing a new currency if it were to be used effectively and systematically for all trade transactions between BRICS countries, would alleviate the burden on these countries to finance the exorbitant privilege.”

 

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How BRICS Eliminated US Influence in the Global South

Joshua Ramos
8June2023  https://watcher.guru/news/how-brics-eliminated-us-influence-in-the-global-south

 

The past few months have seen the economic bloc continue to grow and establish a new global power balance. Subsequently, through a myriad of factors, it is undeniable that BRICS has all but eliminated US influence in the global south. A development that has opened the door to the undeniable growth of the alliance.

 

Yet, the elimination of American influence was not solely a victory for the BRICS collective. Alternatively, it was the development of decades worth of resentment toward the ideals of the United States. More importantly, it was the culmination of the status quo that has long affected the region negatively.

The BRICS Movement

In recent statements, South African Ambassador Anil Sooklal discussed the state of the BRICS bloc. Specifically, addressing opposition to the collective. Interestingly, he stated, “BRICS is not a group of countries that is in opposition to any particular grouping.”

 

Additionally, Sooklal told Newsweek about the group’s desire. Noting the bloc’s hope “of reforming the global governance architecture, to make it more inclusive, more equitable, and more just and fair, which many of us continue to feel that it’s not.”

 

That sentiment is what has driven the expected growth of the BRICS bloc over the last several months. Indeed, it is what has driven more than 20 countries to submit their membership requests to join the bloc ahead of its annual summit. Subsequently, the opposite of ideology is how BRICS has all but eliminated the US influence on the global south.

 

“We see an erosion of the global multilateral architecture,” Sooklal added. “Unilateral measures, unilateral sanctions becoming the norm of the day, an uneven global architecture, and countries wanting to have a greater say in terms of how the new evolving global order pans out.”

 

Conclusively, Sooklal noted these factors as attracting “countries from the global south who increasingly want to identify with the BRICS group.” Additionally, noting, “the attractiveness of BRIS is that it articulates the challenges that countries from the Global South continue to face in a very unequal world. A world that vastly changed over the last 80 years since the founding of the U.N. System.”

 

Alternatively, the Secretary General of the India-China Economic and Cultural Council, Mohammed Aqib, adds another interesting aspect. Specifically, he told Newsweek that it is less about the potential that makes the bloc attractive. Instead, it is an ultimate goal.

 

“It is the quest for multilateralism stand breaking the hegemony of the West which is driving countries to join BRICS.”

The US Role

Indeed, the growth of BRICS and the elimination of US influence on the Global South are byproducts of efforts from countries like Russia, India, and China. However, it is also a byproduct of decades worth of actions taken by the United States.

 

Amid the battle for international influence, Saqib stated that “the USA is turning BRICS into a geopolitical tool to contain China, coercing, coaxing, and threatening countries to somehow fail BRICS.” Subsequently, this perspective has driven the growth of the BRICS. As many have observed its potential, they have first observed what its potential means for Western dominance.

 

That kind of perspective only grew with the Western sanctions placed on Russia. Specifically, this set out to once again weaponize the global finance sector. It saw the United States and its allies tell countries who they could do business with, by limiting access to the currency they controlled.

 

Thus, the quest for greater de-dollarization took hold. Saqib noted, “De-dollarization will save countries from currency terrorism or sanctions and also offer fair terms of trade and influence of the West.”

 

Interestingly, these actions are an effort to create a multipolar order. Moreover, they have created an opportunity for nations that have long felt under the heel of the West, to stand shoulder to shoulder. This quest for an equal playing field is led by the actions of Russia and China, driven by the US itself.

 

The upcoming BRICS summit will surely allow discussion of potential expansion and an alternative currency. It will feature more than 20 nations discussing their potential entry. And it will be another indication that the BRICS countries have driven US influence from the global south entirely. Yet, the US certainly has a part to play in that.

 

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BRICS New Development Bank Now Offers Loans in Local Currencies Instead of US Dollar

Vignesh Karunanidhi
23April2023 https://watcher.guru/news/brics-new-development-bank-now-offers-loans-in-local-currencies-instead-of-us-dollar

 

The US dollar has been losing its role in global trade. When the pound sterling lost its value during WWI and WWII, the US dollar was established as a global reserve currency. However, global nations are slowly steering away from US dollar reliance.

 

Now The New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS group has begun to offer loans in local currencies. This is according to the latest report from Natural News,

 

Watcher.Guru-tweet-23April2023-BRICS New Development Bank now offers loans in local currencies

Watcher.Guru-tweet-23April2023-BRICS New Development Bank now offers loans in local currencies

 

BRICS group motive to ditch the use of US dollar

The move to offer loans in local currencies is to steer away from the US dollar’s dependency. The plan to offer the loan was reportedly confirmed by NDB President Dilma Rousseff. She also stated that the bank aims to provide 30% of the loans in the local currencies of member nations.

 

Rousseff recently stated this in an April 14 interview with CGTN regarding the move. “It is necessary to find ways to avoid foreign exchange risk and other issues such as being dependent on a single currency, such as the U.S. dollar.”

Also read: BRICS: Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Discuss OPEC+ Deal

She also stressed during the interview that providing 30% of the loans in the local currencies of BRICS member countries will also help the countries avoid exchange rate risks and finance shortages.

 

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BRICS: Ministers Say Global Order is Rebalancing from Western Dominance

Joshua Ramos
4June2023  https://watcher.guru/news/brics-ministers-say-global-order-is-rebalancing

 

BRICS foreign ministers are meeting in Cape Town over the next two days, where they have stated the global order is rebalancing away from Western dominance. Moreover, South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, discussed the collective vision for “global leadership,” amidst a fractured world.

 

Ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa were in attendance. Subsequently, they spoke about the turning tide of the global power balance. Stating that the BRICS nations need to assure the multipolar order of the current world.

BRICS Nations Speak of Rebalanced Global Order

The BRICS nations have undoubtedly grown in prominence thus far in 2023. Indeed, nations have sought to join the collective that has proven to be a growing alternative to the G7 countries. With a combined population of over 3.2 billion, and making up 40% of people on the planet, BRICS have proven to be attractive to developing countries.

 

Nevertheless, in the meeting taking place today, the BBC reported the BRICS foreign ministers’ sentiments that the global order is rebalancing away from Western dominance. Specifically, Indian Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar discussed the necessity for the collective to “send out a strong message that the world is multipolar, that it is rebalancing, and that old ways cannot address new situations.”

 

“At the heart of the problems we face is economic concentration that leaves too many nations at the mercy of too few,” he added. Additionally, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Viera shared their vision of the bloc. Specifically, describing it as an “indispensable mechanism for building a multipolar world order that reflects the devices and needs of developing countries.”

 

As the BRICS summit is set to arrive in a few months, the potential expansion of the bloc will be a vital talking point. Moreover, more than 20 nations have already reportedly submitted membership applications to join the bloc. The bloc continues to maintain its focus on challenging Western dominance. Subsequently, countries tired of the political stranglehold of the West are flocking.

 

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BRICS Alliance Promoting Native Currency Before Launching New Tender

Vinod Dsouza
2May2023 https://watcher.guru/news/brics-alliance-promote-native-currency-before-launching-new-tender

 

BRICS countries are promoting their native currency before launching a new tender in August 2023. The next BRICS summit will be held in South Africa and the BRICS nations Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will launch a new currency to settle international trade. The nations aim to remove the U.S. dollar from its global reserve status and overthrow the existing financial order.

 

China is making use of the timeline by asking other developing nations to settle trade using the Chinese Yuan. In Q1 2023, the Chinese Yuan was the most traded currency in Russia overtaking the U.S. dollar. In addition, France settled an LNG gas trade with China by paying in the Chinese Yuan, ending the reliance on the dollar.

 

Also Read: 5 Arab Nations Ready To Join BRICS Alliance

 

On the other hand, India has asked developing countries to settle trade in the Rupee instead of the U.S. dollar. India reached out to countries that don’t have the U.S. dollar in reserve to pay for international trade, reported Bloomberg. The Reserve Bank of India allows 18 countries to pay with the Rupee instead of the dollar. Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Singapore are among the list of nations that India wants to trade with using its native currency Rupee.

 

Also Read: BRICS Countries Buying Large Amounts of Gold To Topple the U.S. Dollar

BRICS Alliance Promotes Native Currency

South Africa’s BRICS ambassador, Anil Sooklal said that the block of nations must prioritize native currencies over the U.S. dollar. The development is the stepping stone to replace the dollar before they launch a new currency in August this year. In conclusion, the BRICS alliance of nations has already begun using their native currency for trade than the dollar.

 

Also Read: Will Canada & Mexico Join BRICS To Eliminate U.S. Dollar’s Dominance?

National currencies should be increasingly used by the BRICS states not only in trade but also in investments and other transactions. Only this way can the foundation for the single BRICS currency be created,” he said to Tass News.

 

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10 ASEAN Countries To Accept BRICS Currency

Vinod Dsouza
7June2023  https://watcher.guru/news/10-asean-countries-to-accept-brics-currency

ASEAN bloc of countries leaders Source: Reuters

ASEAN bloc of countries leaders Source: Reuters

The ASEAN bloc of countries is looking to deepen ties with BRICS and accept the new currency for cross-border transactions. ASEAN nations recently agreed to ditch the U.S. dollar for global trade and are currently settling payments with native currencies. The leaders of the 10 Southwest Asian nations agreed to sideline the U.S. dollar and promote local currencies instead. Therefore, the dollar usage for international trade is reduced giving native currencies a boost in the global markets.

 

Also Read: Europe Might Get Ready To Accept BRICS Currency

The 10 ASEAN countries recently signed a declaration to stop using the U.S. dollar similar to the BRICS alliance. The countries in the ASEAN bloc include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

 

While ASEAN has no plans to launch a new currency, they are dependent on BRICS to release a new tender. When the soon-to-be-released currency makes its way on the global stage, the ASEAN bloc could be the first to accept it. The bloc is moving to maintain ties with BRICS and begin to usher in a new era in the global financial markets.

 

Also Read: Saudi Arabia To Challenge U.S. Dollar’s Supremacy by Funding BRICS Alliance

ASEAN Alliance Could be the First to Accept BRICS Currency

The official declaration signed by ASEAN leaders states that the U.S. dollar will be reduced to secondary status for global trade. The goal is to strengthen bilateral and multilateral payment activities among each other for imports and exports. The proximity of borders helps ASEAN to settle trade faster and more smoothly.

 

Apart from ASEAN, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is also aiming to end reliance on the U.S. dollar and accept BRICS. Read here to know more details on why GCC wants to challenge Western financial dominance.

 

Also Read: BRICS: 16 Asian Countries Move to Ditch the U.S. Dollar

“We adopted the ASEAN Leaders Declaration on advancing regional payment connectivity and promoting local currency transaction to foster bilateral and multilateral payment connectivity arrangements to strengthen economic integration by enabling fast, seamless, and more affordable cross-border payments across the region,” the declaration read.

 

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24 Countries Ready To Accept BRICS Currency

Vinod Dsouza
2May2023 https://watcher.guru/news/24-countries-ready-to-accept-brics-currency

 

A total of 24 countries are interested in accepting and trading with BRICS currency when it launches on the International stage. The group of developing countries is moving to bypass the U.S. dollar to settle global trade. The dollar’s dominance could weaken if the BRICS currency gains prominence, giving Eastern nations more financial power than the United States.

 

South Africa’s BRICS ambassador Anil Sooklal said that 19 countries have shown their interest to join the alliance, reported Bloomberg. Sooklal confirmed that 13 countries have formally sent applications to join the BRICS alliance. He added that five other countries have informally requested to be a part of the block.

 

Also Read: BRICS Alliance Promoting Native Currency Before Launching New Tender

BRICS comprises five countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Therefore, a total of 24 countries are participating to dethrone the U.S. dollar from its global reserve status.

24 Countries Interested In BRICS Currency

The countries that have shown interest to join the BRICS alliance are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt, Bahrain, Indonesia, Algeria, and Iran. Also, two unnamed countries from East Africa and one from West Africa have sent their applications, according to the ambassador.

 

The development shows that a handful of countries are interested to trade in the BRICS currency. The nations want to move away from the U.S. dollar and end American financial supremacy. The dollar comes with a risk of debt that could wreak havoc on local currencies if the U.S. slips into a recession.

 

Also Read: BRICS Countries Buying Large Amounts of Gold To Topple the U.S. Dollar

If more countries ditch the dollar, the U.S. will have no means to fund its deficit, making the dollar weak. This could make the soon-to-be-released BRICS currency gain prominence in the new financial world order.

 

If nations around the world settle for trade with the BRICS currency, the dollar’s value could plummet. Therefore, the fate of the U.S. dollar will be decided in the next BRICS summit.

 

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Europe Might Get Ready To Accept BRICS Currency

Vinod Dsouza

4June2023  https://watcher.guru/news/europe-ready-to-accept-brics-currency-u-s-dollar

 

A whirlwind of changes is taking place in the global financial markets threatening the superiority of the U.S. dollar. A handful of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe are looking to end reliance on the dollar and promote BRICS or their native currencies. Iraq banned the U.S. dollar in May, posing a hefty fine and jail term for anyone trading with the USD.

 

The Iraqi government banned entities from initiating business transactions with the U.S. dollar. Iraq aims to control the fluctuating black market exchange rate, that plagues the country for decades. The move is also positioned to strengthen the usage of the Iraqi Dinar in the Forex markets.

 

Offenders who trade in the U.S. dollar will face a penalty of up to 1 million Iraqi Dinar. Repeat offenders will also face a jail term of one year and have their business licenses overturned.

Also Read: Saudi Arabia To Challenge U.S. Dollar’s Supremacy by Funding BRICS Alliance

After Iraq Bans U.S. Dollar, Europe Could Accept BRICS Currency

The South African BRICS ambassador Anil Sooklal confirmed that European countries have expressed interest to join the BRICS alliance. Sooklal did not reveal the names of the European nations but hinted that a global financial change is brewing. According to recent developments, all arrows point towards France and Belarus showing interest to join BRICS.

Also Read: BRICS: What Happens if Mexico Joins the Alliance?

France settled an LNG gas trade with China by settling the cross-border transaction with the Chinese Yuan in March. French President Emmanuel Macron also called for the European Union to distance itself from the U.S. dollar.

 

Watcher.Guru-tweet-29March2023-China and France complete first LNG gas trade using Chinese Yuan

Watcher.Guru-tweet-29March2023-China and France complete first LNG gas trade using Chinese Yuan

 

In addition, Macron repeatedly hit out against the dollar calling it a “great risk” to continue trading with it. The dollar comes with the risk of debt that could spell trouble to nations holding it as reserves.

 

Also, the Eastern European country Belarus is interested to join BRICS and trade with the new currency. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko suggested ideas to create a new economic union with zero restrictions with BRICS. If a barrier-less trade among BRICS countries takes shape, the U.S. dollar could be dethroned from the global reserve currency.

 

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Saudi Arabia To Challenge U.S. Dollar’s Supremacy by Funding BRICS Alliance

Vinod Dsouza

01June2023  https://watcher.guru/news/saudi-arabia-challenge-us-dollar-funding-brics-alliance

 

The oil-rich Saudi Arabia formally sent its application to join the BRICS alliance, reported Bloomberg. The South African BRICS ambassador Anil Sooklal confirmed that five Middle Eastern countries have shown their interest to join the bloc. The five countries are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, and Algeria. The nations export millions of oil barrels to the West every year settling transactions in the U.S. dollar.

 

Talks are in progress with Saudi Arabia looking to fund the BRICS bank, commonly called The New Development Bank (NDB). If the BRICS alliance accepts Saudi’s funding, it could usher in a new era of financial dominance with constant cash flow from the oil-rich nation. Saudi Arabia funding of the BRICS bank poses a challenge to the U.S. dollar’s supremacy as the global reserve currency.

 

Also Read: BRICS: China Does Not Want the Chinese Yuan To Replace U.S. Dollar as Reserve Currency

BRICS: Saudi Arabia Challenges U.S. Dollar’s Global Currency Status

The BRICS bank President Dilma Rousseff said on Tuesday that the alliance is keen on receiving funds from Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the decision to allow Saudi cash flow for NDB will be jointly taken by the bloc of nations at the next summit in South Africa in August.

 

Also Read: What Happens to the U.S. Dollar if BRICS Launch New Currency?

 

“As a former president of a developing country, I know how important multilateral banks are. And how much of a challenge it is to obtain finance or to raise funds on the scale needed to address social and economic challenges in our countries,” said Rousseff.

 

Rousseff stated that the BRICS bank aims to fund projects in local currencies thereon and not the U.S. dollar. The development could end reliance on the U.S. dollar and strengthen the BRICS currency on a global scale. Nonetheless, the dollar’s dominance is being chipped piece-by-piece as we know it and could make way for a new financial order.

 

Also Read: After BRICS, 10 ASEAN Countries Ditch The U.S. Dollar

 

BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Nearly 25 countries have shown their interest to join the alliance. BRICS could soon turn to BRICS+ if more countries are allowed to enter the bloc and become financially more powerful.

 

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BRICS: Saudi Arabia & India’s New Energy Deal a ‘Game Changer’

Joshua Ramos
20September2023 https://watcher.guru/news/brics-saudi-arabia-indias-new-energy-deal-a-game-changer

 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with Crown Prince Of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with Crown Prince Of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud

Source: Nikkei Asia

The two BRICS countries, Saudi Arabia and India, have signed a new energy deal that has certainly been labeled a “game changer.” Moreover, the two nations have already agreed to expand economic ties. The decision arrived after Saudi Arabia was invited to join the bloc at last month’s 2023 economic summit.

 

The economic alliance saw six countries join its ranks in its first expansion effort since its inception. Saudi Arabia joined the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Argentina as part of key expansion efforts. Subsuenqlety’s deals with India show the fruit of that decision.

Also Read: BRICS Influence in Oil Sector Grows, Puts US Dollar in Danger

Saudi Arabia and India Sign New Energy Agreement Labeled a “Game Changer.”

The growth in economic ties between Saudi Arabia and India has been a notable development. Specifically, the two BRICS nations have seen their economic integration lead to agreements that could have massive implications. That trend has continued once again today.

 

Indeed, the BRICS nations of Saudi Arabia and India have signed a new energy agreement that has been labeled a “game changer.” Moreover, the deal will see the former aid India in its energy transition. The country’s Power and Energy Minister, R.K. Singh, noted that it could be of immense importance in the near term.

Also Read: Economist Predicts Tradig Ending to US Dollar

Specifically, both countries have signed a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation. The deal has placed its emphasis on energy efficiency as well as renewable energy and green hydrogen. Subsequently, it has directed both nations toward energy efficiency, with a grid interconnected between the two nations.

 

“The advantage will be that renewable energy will be available around the clock because they are in different time zones, so the sun always shines in different time zones,” Singh told Arab News. “It is a game changer. The cost of electricity will come down for the entire region, for the entire Middle East, for our subcontinent, and also for Southeast Asia.”

 

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BRICS: What Happens if Mexico Joins the Alliance?

Vinod Dsouza

01June2023  https://watcher.guru/news/brics-what-happens-if-mexico-joins-the-alliance

 

Mexico is among the 19 countries that have expressed interest to join BRICS but has not formally sent its application, reported Bloomberg. If Mexico officially applies to join the BRICS alliance, the move could cause a paradigm shift in cross-border transactions.

 

The move could impact its relations with other countries, including its neighboring counties the United States and Canada. The U.S. dollar’s global status could be challenged and put to the test if Mexico accepts the upcoming BRICS currency.

 

Also Read: BRICS: China Does Not Want the Chinese Yuan To Replace U.S. Dollar as Reserve Currency

What Happens If Mexico Joins the BRICS Alliance & Accepts the New Currency?

Mexico’s alignment with BRICS could alter the geopolitical dynamics in the North and Latin American region. It may result in the reconfiguration of alliances and partnerships, potentially impacting Mexico’s relationships with other countries, particularly those outside BRICS. The move could also lead to closer ties with BRICS members and reshape global power dynamics.

 

Also Read: What Happens to the U.S. Dollar if BRICS Launch New Currency?

 

In addition, Mexico accepting BRICS currency for international trade could pave the way for Latin American countries to cut ties with the U.S. dollar. The BRICS currency could capture the Latin American markets making other nations end reliance on the U.S. dollar.

 

Mexico’s participation might be an important gateway for the BRICS currency to access and trade in the Latin American markets. The move might extend to areas such as diplomacy, security, and cultural exchanges, fostering closer relationships among the participating nations.

 

However, Mexico has not joined the BRICS alliance currently and is partnered with the United States and Canada through NAFTA. A decision to be a part of the bloc through BRICS+ is yet to be decided by the government.

 

BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The next summit will be held in South Africa in August, where members will decide on the formation of a new currency.

 

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BRICS: Here’s a Full List of Countries That Wants To Join the Alliance

Vinod Dsouza
11May2023  https://watcher.guru/news/brics-full-list-of-countries-that-want-to-join-alliance

 

BRICS was created on June 16, 2019, and it compromises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The alliance is taking on the U.S. dollar with plans to launch a new currency to settle payments for international trades. The move is attracting other Eastern countries into the bloc as they want to end reliance on the dollar and promote native currencies.

 

In addition, developing nations from Africa, the Middle East, and South East Asia are ready to join the BRICS alliance. In this article, we will highlight how many countries have shown their interest in joining the BRICS bloc.

 

Also Read: Middle East Countries Look To Join BRICS Alliance

Full List of Countries That Have Shown Interest in Joining BRICS

Discussing the expansion of BRICS to BRICS+ is currently underway and could be decided in the next summit on August 2023. The countries that have shown interest in joining BRICS are:

Algeria
Argentina
Bahrain
Egypt
Indonesia
Iran
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
Afghanistan,
Bangladesh
Belarus
Kazakhstan
Mexico
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Pakistan
Senegal
Sudan
Syria
Thailand

Tunisia
Turkey
Uruguay
Venezuela, and
Zimbabwe.

Among all the nations, Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have formally applied to join the BRICS alliance. The other nations have only expressed their interest in joining the BRICS bloc.

 

Also Read: 24 Countries Ready To Accept BRICS Currency

The next BRICS summit will be held in Cape Town, South Africa in August 2023. The five-nations bloc will combinedly decide on the launch of a new currency to settle global trade. The development has placed the U.S. dollar on the back foot as the world will rely less on the greenback. The move could add further pressure on the dollar sending it on a path of decline.

 

However, the Federal Reserve plans to challenge BRICS by launching a new FedNow payment service. FedNow will be an instant money transfer platform and banks and leading financial institutions will adopt the new financial technology. Read here to know how FedNow plans to take on the yet-to-be-released BRICS currency and stunt its growth.

 

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G7 Vs BRICS – Off To The Races

by Tyler Durden, 25March2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/g7-vs-brics-races

Authored by Scott Ritter via ConsortiumNews.com,

An economist digging below the surface of an IMF report has found something that should shock the Western bloc out of any false confidence in its unsurpassed global economic clout…

G7 leaders meeting on June 28, 2022, at Schloss Elmau in Krün, Germany. (White House/Adam Schultz)

G7 leaders meeting on June 28, 2022, at Schloss Elmau in Krün, Germany. (White House/Adam Schultz)

Last summer, the Group of 7 (G7), a self-anointed forum of nations that view themselves as the most influential economies in the world, gathered at Schloss Elmau, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, to hold their annual meeting. Their focus was punishing Russia through additional sanctions, further arming of Ukraine and the containment of China.

 

At the same time, China hosted, through video conference, a gathering of the BRICS economic forum. Comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, this collection of nations relegated to the status of so-called developing economies focused on strengthening economic bonds, international economic development and how to address what they collectively deemed the counter-productive policies of the G7.

 

In early 2020, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov had predicted that, based upon purchasing power parity, or PPP, calculations projected by the International Monetary Fund, BRICS would overtake the G7 sometime later that year in terms of percentage of the global total.

 

(A nation’s gross domestic product at purchasing power parity, or PPP, exchange rates is the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices prevailing in the United States and is a more accurate reflection of comparative economic strength than simple GDP calculations.)

 

Then the pandemic hit and the global economic reset that followed made the IMF projections moot. The world became singularly focused on recovering from the pandemic and, later, managing the fallout from the West’s massive sanctioning of Russia following that nation’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

 

The G7 failed to heed the economic challenge from BRICS, and instead focused on solidifying its defense of the “rules based international order” that had become the mantra of the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.

Miscalculation

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an ideological divide that has gripped the world, with one side (led by the G7) condemning the invasion and seeking to punish Russia economically, and the other (led by BRICS) taking a more nuanced stance by neither supporting the Russian action nor joining in on the sanctions. This has created a intellectual vacuum when it comes to assessing the true state of play in global economic affairs.

U.S. President Joe Biden in virtual call with G7 leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Feb. 24. (White House/Adam Schultz)

U.S. President Joe Biden in virtual call with G7 leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Feb. 24. (White House/Adam Schultz)

It is now widely accepted that the U.S. and its G7 partners miscalculated both the impact sanctions would have on the Russian economy, as well as the blowback that would hit the West.

Angus King, the Independent senator from Maine, recently observed that he remembers

“when this started a year ago, all the talk was the sanctions are going to cripple Russia. They’re going to be just out of business and riots in the street absolutely hasn’t worked …[w]ere they the wrong sanctions? Were they not applied well? Did we underestimate the Russian capacity to circumvent them? Why have the sanctions regime not played a bigger part in this conflict?”

It should be noted that the IMF calculated that the Russian economy, as a result of these sanctions, would contract by at least 8 percent. The real number was 2 percent and the Russian economy — despite sanctions — is expected to grow in 2023 and beyond.

 

This kind of miscalculation has permeated Western thinking about the global economy and the respective roles played by the G7 and BRICS. In October 2022, the IMF published its annual World Economic Outlook (WEO), with a focus on traditional GDP calculations. Mainstream economic analysts, accordingly, were comforted that — despite the political challenge put forward by BRICS in the summer of 2022 — the IMF was calculating that the G7 still held strong as the leading global economic bloc.

 

In January 2023 the IMF published an update to the October 2022 WEO,  reinforcing the strong position of the G7.  According to Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s chief economist, the “balance of risks to the outlook remains tilted to the downside but is less skewed toward adverse outcomes than in the October WEO.”

 

This positive hint prevented mainstream Western economic analysts from digging deeper into the data contained in the update. I can personally attest to the reluctance of conservative editors trying to draw current relevance from “old data.”

 

Fortunately, there are other economic analysts, such as Richard Dias of Acorn Macro Consulting, a self-described “boutique macroeconomic research firm employing a top-down approach to the analysis of the global economy and financial markets.”

 

Rather than accept the IMF’s rosy outlook as gospel, Dias did what analysts are supposed to do — dig through the data and extract relevant conclusions.

 

After rooting through the IMF’s World Economic Outlook Data Base, Dias conducted a comparative analysis of the percentage of global GDP adjusted for PPP between the G7 and BRICS, and made a surprising discovery: BRICS had surpassed the G7.

 

This was not a projection, but rather a statement of accomplished fact:

BRICS was responsible for 31.5 percent of the PPP-adjusted global GDP, while the G7 provided 30.7 percent.

Making matters worse for the G7, the trends projected showed that the gap between the two economic blocs would only widen going forward.

G7 vs BRICS - GDP as a share of Global Total 1995 -2025

G7 vs BRICS – GDP as a share of Global Total 1995 -2025

The reasons for this accelerated accumulation of global economic clout on the part of BRICS can be linked to three primary factors:

  • residual fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic,
  • blowback from the sanctioning of Russia by the G7 nations in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a growing resentment among the developing economies of the world to G7 economic policies and
  • priorities which are perceived as being rooted more in post-colonial arrogance than a genuine desire to assist in helping nations grow their own economic potential.

Growth Disparities

It is true that BRICS and G7 economic clout is heavily influenced by the economies of China and the U.S., respectively. But one cannot discount the relative economic trajectories of the other member states of these economic forums. While the economic outlook for most of the BRICS countries points to strong growth in the coming years, the G7 nations, in a large part because of the self-inflicted wound that is the current sanctioning of Russia, are seeing slow growth or, in the case of the U.K., negative growth, with little prospect of reversing this trend.

 

Moreover, while G7 membership remains static, BRICS is growing, with Argentina and Iran having submitted applications, and other major regional economic powers, such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt, expressing an interest in joining. Making this potential expansion even more explosive is the recent Chinese diplomatic achievement in normalizing relations between Iran and Saudia Arabia.

 

Diminishing prospects for the continued global domination by the U.S. dollar, combined with the economic potential of the trans-Eurasian economic union being promoted by Russia and China, put the G7 and BRICS on opposing trajectories. BRICS should overtake the G7 in terms of actual GDP, and not just PPP, in the coming years.

But don’t hold your breath waiting for mainstream economic analysts to reach this conclusion. Thankfully, there are outliers such as Richard Dias and Acorn Macro Consulting who seek to find new meaning from old data.

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Watch: G7 Vs BRICS By GDP (1992-2028)

by Tyler Durden, 31July2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/watch-g7-vs-brics-gdp-1992-2028

 

Fifty years ago, the government finance heads from the UK, West Germany, France, and the U.S. met informally in the White House’s ground-floor library to discuss the international monetary situation at the time. This is the origin story of the G7.

 

This initial group quickly expanded, adding Japan, Italy, and Canada, to solidify a bloc of the biggest non-communist economies at the time. As industrialized countries that were reaping the benefits of the post-war productivity boom, they were economic juggernauts, with G7 economic output historically contributing around 40% of global GDP.

 

However, as Visual Capiutalist’s Pallavi Rao details below, the more recent emergence of another international group, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), has been carving out its own section of the global economic order.

This animation from James Eagle uses data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and charts the percentage contribution of the G7 and BRICS members to the world economy.

Specifically it uses GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) using international dollars.

Click to Play

BRICS Economies Surpass G7 in Global GDP Share

Charting the Rise of BRICS vs. G7

The acronym “BRIC”, developed by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill in 2001, was used to identify four fast-growing economies in similar stages of development. It wasn’t until 2009 that their leaders met and formalized their relationship, later inviting South Africa to join in 2010.

 

ℹ️ Russia was at the time also a member of the G7, then the G8. It was invited to join in 1997 but was expelled in 2014 following the annexation of Crimea.

 

While initially banded together for investment opportunities, in the last decade, BRICS has become an economic rival to G7. Several of their initiatives include building an alternate global bank, with dialogue underway for a payment system and new reserve currency.

Below is a quick look at both groups’ contribution to the world economy in PPP-adjusted terms.

BRICS vs. G7 Global GDP Share

BRICS vs. G7 Global GDP Share

 

A major contributing factor to BRICS’ rise is Chinese and Indian economic growth.

 

After a period of rapid industrialization in the 1980s and 1990s, China’s exports got a significant boost after it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. This helped China become the world’s second largest economy by 2010.

 

India’s economic rise has not been quite as swift as China’s, but by 2022, the country ranked third with a gross domestic product (PPP) of $12 trillion. Together the two countries make up nearly one-fourth of the PPP-adjusted $164 trillion world economy.

 

The consequence of using the PPP metric—which better reflects the strengths of local currencies and local prices—is that it has an outsized multiplier effect on the GDPs of developing countries, where the prices of domestic goods and services tend to be cheaper.

 

Below, we can see both the nominal and PPP-adjusted GDP of each G7 and BRICS country in 2023. Nominal GDP is measured in USD with market-rate currency conversion, while the adjusted GDP uses international dollars (using the U.S. as a base country for calculations) which better account for cost of living and inflation.

Nominal and PPP-adjusted GDP of each G7 and BRICS country in 2023

Nominal and PPP-adjusted GDP of each G7 and BRICS country in 2023

 

By the IMF’s projections, BRICS countries will constitute more of the world economy in 2023 ($56 trillion) than the G7 ($52 trillion) using PPP-adjusted GDPs.

How Will BRICS and G7 Compare in the Future?

China and India are in a stage of economic development marked by increasing productivity, wages and consumption, which most countries in the G7 had previously enjoyed in the three decades after World War II.

 

By 2028, the IMF projects BRICS countries to make up one-third of the global economy (PPP):

Nominal and PPP-adjusted GDP of each G7 and BRICS country 2028 projected

Nominal and PPP-adjusted GDP of each G7 and BRICS country 2028 projected

 

BRICS vs. the World?

The economic rise of BRICS carries geopolitical implications as well.

Alongside different political ideals, BRICS’ increasing power gives its member countries financial muscle to back them up. This was put into sharp perspective after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, when both China and India abstained from condemning the war at the United Nations and continued to buy Russian oil.

 

While this is likely concerning for G7 countries, the group of developed countries still wields unparalleled influence on the global stage. Nominally the G7 still commands a larger share of the global economy ($46 trillion) than BRICS ($27.7 trillion). And from the coordination of sanctions on Russia to sending military aid to Ukraine, the G7 still wields significant influence financially and politically.

 

In the next few decades, especially as China and India are earmarked to lead global growth while simultaneously grappling with their own internal demographic issues, the world order is only set to become more complex and nuanced as these international blocs vie for power.

 

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NATOstan Robots Versus the Heavenly Horses of Multipolarity

Pepe Escobar

29August2023 https://strategic-culture.su/news/2023/08/29/natostan-robots-versus-the-heavenly-horses-of-multipolarity/

 

The entire West is waiting at the room at the station with black curtains – and no trains.

Join us on TelegramTwitter, and VK.

We will all need plenty of time and introspection to analyze the full range of game-changing vectors unleashed by the unveiling of BRICS 11 last week in South Africa.

 

Yet time waits for no one. The Empire will (italics mine) strike back in full force; in fact its multi-hydra Hybrid War tentacles are already on display.

 

Here and here I have attempted two rough drafts of History on the birth of BRICS 11. Essentially, what the Russia-China strategic partnership is accomplishing, one (giant) step at a time, is also multi-vectorial:

– expanding BRICS into an alliance to fight against U.S. non-diplomacy.

– counter-acting the sanctions dementia.

– promoting alternatives to SWIFT.

– promoting autonomy, self-reliance and instances of sovereignty.

– and in the near future, integrating BRICS 11 (and counting) with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to counter imperial military threats, something already alluded to by President Lukashenko, the inventor of the precious neologism “Global Globe”.

 

In contrast, the indispensable Michael Hudson has constantly shown how the U.S. and EU’s “strategic error of self-isolation from the rest of the world is so massive, so total, that its effects are the equivalent of a world war.”

 

Thus Prof. Hudson’s contention that the proxy war in Ukraine – not only against Russia but also against Europe – “may be thought of as World War III.”

 

In several ways, Prof. Hudson details, we are living “an outgrowth of World War II, whose aftermath saw the United States establish international economic and political organization under its own control to operate in its own national self-interest: the International Monetary Fund to impose U.S. financial control and dollarize the world economy; the World Bank to lend governments money to bear the infrastructure costs of creating trade dependency on U.S. food and manufactures; promoting plantation agriculture, U.S./NATO control of oil, mining and natural resources; and United Nations agencies under U.S. control, with veto power in all international organizations that it created or joined.”

 

Now it’s another ball game entirely when it comes to Global South, or Global Majority, of “Global Globe” real emancipation. Just take Moscow hosting the Russia-Africa summit in late July, then Beijing, with Xi in person, spending a day last week in Johannesburg with dozens of African leaders, all of them part of the new Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): the G77 (actually 134 nations), presided by a Cuban, President Diaz-Canel.

 

That’s the Russia-China Double Helix in effect – offering large swathes of the “Global Globe” security and high-tech infrastructure (Russia) and finance, manufactured exports and road and rail infrastructure (China).

 

In this context, a BRICS currency is not necessary. Prof. Hudson crucially quotes President Putin: what’s needed is a “means of settlement” for Central Banks for their balance of payments, to keep in check imbalances in trade and investment. That has nothing to do with a BRICS gold-backed supra-national currency.

 

Moreover, there will be no need for a new reserve currency as increasingly more nations will be ditching the U.S. dollar in their settlements.

 

Putin has referred to a “temporary” accounting unit – as intra-BRICS 11 trade will be inevitably expanding in their national currencies. All that will develop in the context of an increasingly overwhelming alliance of major oil, gas, minerals, agriculture and commodities producers: a real (italics mine) economy capable of supporting a new global order progressively pushing Western dominance into oblivion.

 

Call it the soft way to euthanize Hegemony.

All aboard the “malign China” narrative

Now compare all of the above with that piece of Norwegian wood posing as NATO secretary-general telling the CIA mouthpiece paper in Washington, in a unique moment of frankness, that the Ukraine War “didn’t start in 2022. The war started in 2014”.

 

So here we have a designated imperial vassal plainly admitting that the whole thing started with Maidan, the U.S.-engineered coup supervised by cookie distributor Vicky “F**k the E” Nuland. This means that NATO’s claim of a Russia “invasion”, referring to the Special Military Operation (SMO) is absolutely bogus from a legal standpoint.

 

It’s firmly established that the spin doctors/ paid propagandist “experts” of Atlanticist idiocracy, practicing an unrivalled mix of arrogance/ignorance, believe they can get away with anything when it comes to demonizing Russia. The same applies to their new narrative on “malign China”.

 

Chinese scholars which I have the honor to interact with are always delighted to point out that imperial pop narratives and predictive programming are absolutely useless when it comes to confronting Zhong Hua (“The Splendid Central Civilization”).

 

That’s because China, as one of them describes it, is endowed with a “clear-minded, purposeful and relentless aristocratic oligarchy at the helm of the Chinese State”, using tools of power that guarantee, among other issues, public safety and hygiene for all; education focused on learning useful information and skills, not indoctrination; a monetary system under control; physical assets and the industrial capacity to make real stuff; first-class diplomatic, supply chain, techno-scientific, economic, cultural, commercial, geostrategic and financial networks; and first-class physical infrastructure.

 

And yet, since at least 1990, Western mainstream media is obsessed to dictate that China’s economic collapse, or “hard landing”, is imminent.

 

Nonsense. As another Chinese scholar frames it, “China’s strategy has been to let sleeping dogs lie and let lying machines lie. Meanwhile, let China surpass them in their sleep and cause the Empire’s demise.”

Poisons, viruses, microchips

And that bring us full circle back to the New Great Game: NATOstan versus the Multipolar World. No matter the evidence provided by graphic reality, NATOstan in advanced seppuku mode – especially the European sector – actually believes it will win the war against Russia-China.

 

As for the Global South/Global Majority/”Global Globe”, they are regarded as enemies. So their mostly poor populations should be poisoned with famine, experimental injections, new modified viruses, implanted microchips as in BCI (Brain Computer Interface) and soon NATO As Global Robocop “security” outfits.

 

The coming of BRICS 11 is already unleashing a new imperial wave of deadly poisoning, brand new viruses and cyborgs.

The imperial master issued the order to “save” the Japanese seafood industry – a few scraps as quid pro quod for Tokyo acting as a rabid dog in the imperial Chip War against China, and dutifully pledging alliance at the recent Camp David summit side by side with the South Korean vassals.

 

The EU vassals, in synch, lifted Japan food import rules just as Fukushima nuclear wastewater was to be pumped into the ocean. That’s yet another instance of the EU continuing to dig its own grave – as Japan is set to suffer a Typhoon Number Ten type of blowback.

 

Radiation spread across the world through the Pacific will breed endless cancer patients around the world and simultaneously destroy the economy of several small island nations relying heavily on tourism.

 

In parallel, Sergey Glazyev, Minister of Macroeconomics at the Eurasian Economic Commission, part of the EAEU, has been among the very few warning about the new trans-humanist frontier: the Nanotechnology Injection craze ahead – something quite well documented in scientific journals.

 

Quoting Dr. Steve Hotze, Glazyev in one of his Telegram posts explained what DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has been doing, “injecting nanobots in the form of graphene oxide and hydrogel” into the human body, thus creating an interface between nanobots and brain cells. We become “a receptor, receiver and transmitter of signals. The brain will receive signals from the outside, and you can be manipulated remotely.”

 

Glazyev also refers to the by now frantic promotion of “Eris”, a new Covid variety, named by the WHO after the Greek goddess of discord and enmity, daughter of the goddess of night, Nykta.

 

Those familiar with Greek mythology will know that Eris was quite angry because she was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Her vengeance was to plant at the feast a golden apple from the gardens of Hesperides with the inscription “Most Beautiful”: that was the legendary “apple of discord”, which generated the Mother of All Catfights between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. And that eventually led to no less than the Trojan War.

In the White Room, with black curtains

It’s oh so predictable, coming from those “elites” running the show, to name a new virus as a harbinger of war. After all, The Next War is badly needed because Project Ukraine turned out to be a massive strategic failure, with the cosmic humiliation of NATO just around the corner.

 

During the Vietnam War – which the empire lost to a peasant guerrilla army – the daily briefing at the command HQ in Saigon was derided by every journalist with an IQ above room temperature as the “Saigon follies”.

 

Saigon would never compare with the tsunami of daily follies offered on the proxy war in Ukraine by a tawdry moveable feast at the White House, State Dept., Pentagon, NATO HQ, the Brussels Kafkaesque machine and other Western environs. The difference is that those posing as “journalists” today are cognitively incapable of understanding these are “follies” – and even if they did, they would be prevented from reporting them.

 

So that’s where the collective West is at the moment: in a White Room, a simulacrum of Plato’s cave depicted in Cream’s 1968 masterpiece, partly inspired by William Blake, invoking pale “silver horses” and exhausted “yellow tigers”.

 

The entire West is waiting at the room at the station with black curtains – and no trains. They will “sleep in this place with the lonely crowd” and “lie in the dark where the shadows run from themselves”.

 

Outside in the cold, long distance, under the sunlight, away from the moving shadows, across roads made of silk and iron, the Heavenly Horses (Tianma) of the multipolar world gallop gallantly from network to network, from Belt and Road to Eurasia and Afro-Eurasia Bridge, from intuition to integration, from emancipation to sovereignty.

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BRICS On The March

by Tyler Durden, 30June2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/brics-march

Via GEFIRA,

More and more countries have aspired to belong to BRICS since 2009, but none from the West.

The BRICS countries represent 40% of the world population and 25% of the global GDP.

 

Thanks to BRICS, China can impose its vision of international cooperation and Russia can show that it will not be isolated on the stage of global players.

 

The group is a thorn in the side of the Americans all the more so that a dozen other developing countries (marked in orange on the map below) want to join the current five countries of the alliance (red).

Proposed BRICS Expansion map

Proposed BRICS Expansion map

Source: Silkroadbriefing

 

What America certainly doesn’t like is the fact that French President Macron communicated the other day his interest in attending meetings of the alliance. France in BRICS would be a trigger for profound changes in the geopolitical landscape. We bet that Turkey can also join soon, which, like the case of France, will weaken the importance of the UN as a purely Anglo-Saxon project and that of NATO. Indeed, the BRICS countries are against the UN’s attempts to link the issues of climate with the issues of security, and France in BRICS can return to the de Gaullean concepts of foreign policy outside NATO.

 

A challenge to cohesion in BRICS is the large disparity in countries’ capacities (in favor of China) and the members’ focus on cooperation with the PRC, which results in a smaller number of relationships among the other partners. However, the main factor that has weakened the BRICS in recent years is the deterioration of relations between the largest member states, China and India, since 2017. Border and trade disputes culminated in the clashes on the Ladakh border in June 2020, which almost led to the cancellation of the BRICS summit in the same year and prompted India to deepen cooperation with the United States and the EU.

 

Now, the West’s involvement in the war in Ukraine is reviving anti-Western sentiments, not only in the BRICS countries.

 

Indeed, it is clear to more and more countries that the war was provoked by NATO’s excessive expansion.

 

The BRICS politicians also want to fight inflation whose cause they perceive not in the Russian attack but in the Western sanctions.

 

Whether you are pro-Western, pro-Russian, or in favor of the New Silk Road, it is better for all of us to live in a multi-polar world rather than to have all the strings pulled on the Potomac.

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BRICS Backlash: Huge Growth In China’s Aircraft Industry Is Flying Under The Radar

by Tyler Durden, 26June2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/brics-backlash-huge-growth-chinas-aircraft-industry-flying-under-radar

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Let’s discuss Lyn Alden’s thought provoking Tweets on China’s aircraft industry.

Under the Radar

Lyn Alden-tweet-17June2023-Around the margins

Lyn Alden-tweet-17June2023-Around the margins

Lyn’s Tweet got me thinking about US exports in general.

United States Top 10 Exports

  1. [Petroleum Products] Mineral fuels including oil: US$378.6 billion (18.4% of total exports)
  2. Machinery including computers: $229.6 billion (11.1%)
  3. Electrical machinery, equipment: $197.7 billion (9.6%)
  4. Vehicles: $134.9 billion (6.5%)
  5. Aircraft, spacecraft: $102.8 billion (5%)
  6. Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $99.1 billion (4.8%)
  7. Gems, precious metals: $92.5 billion (4.5%)
  8. Pharmaceuticals: $83.5 billion (4%)
  9. Plastics, plastic articles: $83.3 billion (4%)
  10. Organic chemicals: $51.1 billion (2.5%)

The above list represents 2022, from United States Top 10 Exports

Biden Policy Impact

  • Biden energy policies would kill #1, and curtail # 9 and #10.
  • Bidens restrictions on sensitive machinery and chips will reduce #2, #3, #5, and #6 exports to China and Russia.

China itself seeks to curtail #4 and #5. What remains are gems, precious metals, and pharmaceuticals.

 

I am surprised grain exports are not in the top 10. But as Biden has riled China on a number of fronts, it has increasingly turned to Brazil.

 

That’s just a shift though. The US will just export elsewhere, but perhaps it creates some friction losses.

Airbus widens its lead over Boeing in China 

Meanwhile, please note Boeing’s China Orders Dry Up on US Tensions in Boost for Airbus

Boeing missed out on a 40-plane deal in September, following an even bigger hit in July, when China ordered nearly 300 Airbus aircraft worth about $37 billion at sticker prices. The misses reinforce how simmering US-Sino political tensions continue to complicate the dealmaking landscape for Boeing, which is also still waiting for its 737 Max to fly again in China.

 

Boeing, which hasn’t signed a major plane deal with China since 2017, took the unusual step of issuing a statement after the July Airbus order was announced.

The above article is from October 2022. Here’s an article from April of 2023.

Airbus Widens its Lead Over Boeing in China With Plans for Second Finishing Line.

Airbus announced plans Thursday for a second final-assembly line in China, the latest sign that it has a lock on the key aviation market over rival Boeing.

 

The announcement came as part of a state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to China. The signing of the agreement by Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury was witnessed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and by Macron.

 

It will add another line to the final-assembly facility that Airbus opened in Tianjin, China, in 2008, which has put the final touches on 600 A320 aircraft to date.

 

Airbus (EADSF) operates four assembly sites around the world but it forecasts that China’s air traffic in particular will grow 5.3% annually over the next 20 years, significantly faster than the world average of 3.6%.

 

This will lead to a demand for 8,420 passenger and freighter aircraft between now and 2041, representing more than 20% of the world’s total demand for new aircraft, Airbus predicts.

By 2041, if not much earlier, I side with Lyn Alden on aircraft.

However, I don’t expect the BRICs idea will ever amount to much, quickly, if ever.

What About the BRICs?

Going Underground-tweet-16June2023-Almost 20 countries have applied to join BRICS

Going Underground-tweet-16June2023-Almost 20 countries have applied to join BRICS

Weaponizing the US Dollar

It’s easy to understand the BRIC backlash. What Does China Do With a Dollar That’s No Longer Risk Free? Buy Gold?

 

That’s the question I asked in 2022 and there is still no clear answer.

 

Michael Pettis commented “As you know, the hard part of reducing the US dollar component of your reserves is figuring out what the alternative should be, and with such high and growing reserves (once you include the indirect reserves at the state-owned banks) that is a very difficult question to resolve.

 

Talk is cheap and there is plenty of talk. I see it every day on Twitter.

But Brazil, Russia, India, China and whatever countries have nothing in common. The Yuan does not float, and there is no grounds for any trust in any common currency.

 

The idea of a gold-backed yuan is laughable. China has capital controls and imprisons anyone who speaks out against its policies, hardly the foundation of a currency that inspires trust.

Brazil’s President Calls for End to US Dollar Trade Dominance, So What?

On April 1, I commented Brazil’s President Calls for End to US Dollar Trade Dominance, So What?

Dollar Weaponization Expands – FDIC Message to Foreign Depositors Is Don’t Trust the US

On May 13, I noted Dollar Weaponization Expands – FDIC Message to Foreign Depositors Is Don’t Trust the US

There is increasing reason to mistrust the dollar. But why anyone should trust a Russia-China sponsored currency.

 

There is no trust anywhere. If Russia or China offered a gold backed BRIC would you buy that or would you just buy gold?

Trade is Not Between Countries

Importantly, trade is between individuals, not countries.

 

A Brazilian exporter to China needs the Brazilian Real or US dollars not a BRIC.

 

The Brazilian government can call for the end of dollar dominance but so what? What is the incentive for a Brazilian soybean exporter to use a BRIC?

 

Weaponing the dollar was a huge mistake. But the path to when and how that matters is unclear. Why trust any fiat currency?

In Two Years, China More Than Doubles the US on Car Exports, Catches Germany

Meanwhile, please note In Two Years, China More Than Doubles the US on Car Exports, Catches Germany

Expect the same for aircraft. It’s only a matter of time.

*  *  *

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What Are The BRICS Planning With August 22nd Durban Accords?

by Tyler Durden, 14August2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/what-are-brics-planning-august-22nd-durban-accords

Authored by Peter Reagan at Birch Gold Group,

In my first explainer about the BRICS nations, you met the players and you know why their decisions affect the global economy. But why do their decisions affect us?

 

You need to understand that first – before the August 22nd Durban Accords will make any sense. (But once you do understand, you’ll be astonished…)

 

Professor Reagan’s class is now in session!

Global trade runs on U.S. dollars

Since World War II, the U.S. dollar has enjoyed the role of global reserve currency. You may have heard those words before – here’s what they mean…

 

Worldwide, when companies or nations transacting with one another don’t share a common currency, they use U.S. dollars. When a Chilean copper mine sells tons of raw ore to a Canadian refiner, they invoice (and get paid) in U.S. dollars.

 

Obviously, most nations don’t have a common currency (the exception is the Euro zone). So the use of dollars for international trade is simply huge, approximately 85% of the global total.

 

So the world relies on dollars to do business. That’s a great deal for us! That means, for example, that deficit spending and newly-printed money always have a home somewhere in the world. Simply because the world has to have dollars.

 

Like I said, that’s a great deal for the nation that exports dollars. It’s not such a great deal for everyone else…

“It’s our currency, but it’s your problem”

In 1971, President Nixon ended the convertibility of dollars to gold.

The rest of the world, to put it mildly, went nuts. The gold standard was supposed to prevent inflation – but it hadn’t (primarily because American citizens weren’t allowed to swap dollars for gold since 1933).

 

Absent a gold standard, how was the U.S. going to guarantee the value of the dollar? When challenged with this question by his counterparts at a G-10 meeting in Rome, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Connally astounded his audience by proclaiming:

“The dollar is our currency, but it’s your problem.”

With no restraint on money-printing, the U.S. went on to make a whole lot more dollars… Take a look at this chart. The blue line indicates total dollars (M2, a measure of money supply) and the red line indicates purchasing power, which has declined 86.6% over the decades:

FRED graph M2 vs Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers

FRED graph M2 vs Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers

 

So, along with dollars, the current system exports inflation, too. 

That’s what Connally meant when he said it was their problem.

Well, the rest of the world has just sucked it up for the last 50 years, right? Why are things different now?

Weaponizing the dollar

Whether it’s marketed as a “peacekeeping operation” or a “police action,” going to war is ruinously expensive at best. Therefore, the U.S. historically uses financial sanctions as a “non-kinetic” method of dissuading behavior not in line with U.S. interests.

 

Simply because the world has to have dollars, as I explained above, whoever controls the dollar also has an outsized impact on the global economy. When the U.S. uses financial sanctions against another nation, we call that “weaponizing the dollar.”

 

Now, this has been going on for decades. Cuba, for example, has been sanctioned for over 60 years! Iran, for more than 40 years. In some sense, weaponizing the dollar is business as usual for the U.S. So it came as no surprise when, in 2022, the U.S. did it again.

 

In response to the invasion of Ukraine, the White House froze the Russian central bank’s $300 billion in U.S. dollar assets. A stroke of Joe Biden’s pen rendered them completely worthless. In addition, the Russian economy was shut out of SWIFT, the international money transfer system.

 

The results of this “shock and awe” economic warfare were underwhelming. The Russian economy failed to collapse – instead, they kept up business as usual, taking payment in yuan or rupees or gold instead of dollars.

 

And there are other consequences. As Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine wrote back in March of 2022:

But every time the U.S. and its allies kick a country off this system, it goes and finds other [methods] to use to trade. And other countries, countries that have not been kicked off the main network but who are not necessarily aligned with the U.S. in every way, think that the main network looks a bit less attractive… For another thing, the main system is visibly a tool of political power, and if you are not aligned with the U.S. you might worry about one day being kicked off the system yourself. So you get more interested in trying out alternative systems now, before you need them. And so kicking Russia out of the dollar-based international financial system makes it more likely that that system will be replaced, over time, by something else.

the system is weakened each time it exercises its power. [emphasis added]

That’s what the Durban Accords on August 22nd are about – Levine’s “something else.”

August 22nd may mark the beginning of the end of “business as usual”

You’ve seen that the BRICS nations cannot be ignored. Note that two of the five core members (Russia and China) are historically rivals of U.S. geopolitical dominance.

 

Both nations have been actively signing “bilateral trade agreements” with other nations – meaning they can buy and sell from one another in their own currencies, rather than using the dollar as an intermediary. But the whole reason a global reserve currency exists is to make international trade less cumbersome.

 

So the Durban Accords are an agreement, presumably to be announced on August 22nd, to launch a new, international currency backed by commodities. “Backed by commodities” is important – because it’s the easiest way for a new currency to gain credibility. Think about it – what currency in existence today derives its value from anything other than hope?

 

This new BRICS currency would allow participating nations to circumvent U.S. financial sanctions – and to avoid the problem of dollar inflation. (In other words, “our currency” is about to become “our problem”).

 

Initially, my sources indicate the BRICS currency could be backed by commodities produced and traded by BRICS nations – things like oil, industrial metals and grain – or, more likely, gold.

 

Backing their new currency with gold would be an obvious move for the BRICS. China and Russia are, respectively, the world’s #1 and #2 gold-mining nations (South Africa and Brazil are #13 and #14, respectively). Both China and Russia already have sizable official gold reserves (6th and 7th largest in the world).

 

That, in essence, is what the Durban Accords are all about:

  • An alternative to U.S. global financial dominance
  • A method of avoiding the weaponized U.S. dollar
  • A way of avoiding inflation caused by excessive dollar-printing
  • A means of simplifying and streamlining the bilateral trade agreements already in place

The Durban Accords may mean the first viable, useful alternative to the U.S. dollar.

And that’s why this is a very big deal.

P.S. On July 7, the Russian state-run media outlet RT confirmed the goal of the Durban Accords was to launch a “new trading currency backed by gold.”

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Escobar: The Russia-Global South Connection – Africa As Strategic Partner

by Tyler Durden, 29July2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-russia-global-south-connection-africa-strategic-partner

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

The second Russia-Africa summit, this week in St. Petersburg, should be seen as a milestone in terms of Global South integration and the concerted drive by the Global Majority towards a more equal and fair multipolar order.

Flags promoting the second Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum are pictured outside St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg-Peter Kovalev TASS

Flags promoting the second Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum are pictured outside St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg-Peter Kovalev TASS

The summit welcomes no less than 49 African delegations. President Putin previously announced that a comprehensive declaration and a Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan all the way to 2026 will be adopted.

 

Madaraka Nyerere, the son of Tanzania’s legendary anti-colonial activist and first President, Julius Nyerere, set the context, telling RT that the only “realistic” way for Africa to develop is to unite and stop being an agent for foreign exploitative powers.

 

And the path towards cooperation goes through BRICS – starting with the crucial upcoming summit in South Africa, and the incorporation of more African nations into BRICS+.

Nyerere’s father was a very important force behind the Organization of African Unity, which later became the African Union.

 

South Africa’s Julius Malema succinctly expanded the geoeconomic concept of a united Africa: “They [neocolonial powers] thrive on the division of the African continent. Can you imagine the minerals of the DRC combined with the minerals of South Africa, and with a new currency based on the minerals? What can we do to the dollar? If we become a United States of Africa, with our minerals alone, we can defeat the dollar.”

No humanitarian nature, no deal

The Russian-African Conference of the Valdai Club functioned like a sort of final expert watch synchronization in the run-up to St. Petersburg. The first session was particularly relevant.

 

That came after the publication of a comprehensive analysis by President Putin of Russia-Africa relations, with a special emphasis on the recently collapsed grain deal involving the UN, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine.

 

Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the Russian Federation Council, has stressed how “Ukraine, Washington and NATO were interested in the grain corridor for sabotage”.

In his Op-Ed, Putin explained how, “for almost a year, a total of 32.8 million tons of cargo were exported from Ukraine under the ‘deal’, of which more than 70% went to high-and above-middle-income countries, including the European Union, while countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, as well as Yemen and Afghanistan accounted for less than 3% of the total volume – less than one million tons.”

So that was one of the key reasons for Russia to leave the grain deal. Moscow published a list of requirements which would need to be fulfilled for Russia to reinstate it.

 

Among them: a real, practical end to sanctions on Russian grain and fertilizers shipped to world markets; no more obstacles for banks and financial institutions; no more restrictions on charter of ships and insurance – that means clean logistics for all food supplies; restoration of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline.

 

And a particularly crucial item: the restoration of “the original humanitarian nature of the grain deal.”

 

There’s no way the collective West subjected to the Straussian neocon psychos who control US foreign policy will fulfill all or even some of these conditions.

 

So Russia, by itself, will offer grain and fertilizers free of charge for the poorest nations and contracts for grain supply at normal commercial terms for the others. Supply is guaranteed: Moscow had the biggest grain harvest ever during this season.

 

This is all about solidarity. At the Valdai session, a key discussion was around the importance of solidarity in the struggle against neo-colonialism and for global equality and justice.

 

Oleg Ozerov, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, and Head of the Secretariat of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, stressed how European “former” partners persist on the one-way track of shifting blame to Russia as Africa is “acquiring agency” and “denying neo-colonialism.”

 

Ozerov mentioned how “France-Afrique is collapsing – and Russia is not behind it. Russia is ensuring that Africa acts as one of the powers of the multipolar world”, as “a member of the G20 and present in the UN Security Council.” Moreover, Moscow is interested to expand Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) free trade deals towards Africa.

Welcome to Global South “multi-vector” cooperation

This all spells out a common theme in the Russia-Africa summit: “multi-vector cooperation”. The South African perspective, especially in the light of the raging controversy over Putin’s non-physical presence in the BRICS summit, is that “Africans are not taking sides. They want peace.”

 

What matters is what Africa brings to BRICS: “Markets, and a young, educated population.”

 

On the Russian bridge to Africa, what is needed, for instance, is “railways along coastlines”: connectivity, which can be developed with Russian assistance, much as China has been investing widely across Africa under BRI projects. Russia, after all, “trained many professionals across Africa.”

 

There’s a wide consensus, to be reflected in the summit, that Africa is becoming an economic growth pole in the Global South – and African experts know it. State institutions are becoming more stable. The abysmal crisis in Russia-Western relations ended up boosting interest in Africa. No wonder that’s now a national priority for Russia.

 

So what can Russia offer? Essentially an investment portfolio, and crucially the idea of sovereignty – without requesting anything in return.

 

Mali is a fascinating case. It goes back to investments by the USSR training the workforce; at least 10,000 Malians, who were offered first-class education, including 80% of their professors.

 

That intersects with the terrorism threat of the Salafi-jihadi variety, “encouraged” by the usual suspects even before 9/11. Mali holds at least 350,000 refugees, all of them unemployed. France’s “initiatives” have been deemed “totally inefficient”.

 

Mali needs “broader measures” – including the launch of a new trading system. Russia after all taught how to set up infrastructure to create new jobs; time to fully profit from the knowledge of those trained in the USSR. Moreover, in 2023 over 100 students from Mali are coming to Russia on state-sponsored scholarships.

 

As Russia makes inroads in French-speaking Africa, former “partners”, predictably, demonize Mali’s cooperation with Russia. With no avail. Mali has just dropped French as its official language (that has been the case since 1960).

 

Under the new constitution, passed overwhelmingly with 96.9% in a June 15 referendum, French will be only a working language, while 13 national languages will also receive official language status.

 

Essentially, this is about sovereignty. Coupled with the fact that the West, as recognized from Mali to Ethiopia – the only African nation never colonized by Europeans – is losing moral authority across Africa at astonishing speed.

 

Multitudes in Africa now understand that Russia actively encourages freedom from neocolonialism. When it comes to geopolitical capital, Moscow now seems to enjoy all it takes to build a fruitful, Global Majority-centered strategic partnership.

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Russia Seeks To Work With Africa To Weaken Dollar As Putin Hosts Summit

by Tyler Durden, 27July2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/russia-seeks-work-africa-weaken-dollar-major-summit-opens

 

Talk of de-dollarization has long been in the air, particularly in the lead-up to BRICS nations gathering in South Africa in August, with the question high on the agenda.

 

Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Wednesday issued a direct, provocative challenge to Washington and its dollar dominance, asserting that Moscow will work with African leaders to weaken the US dollar.

 

Zakharova, per remarks cited in RIA Novosti, denounced the United States’ using it as a tool for global hegemony, and as “a means of realizing its aggression.” The foreign ministry comments came just ahead of the high-level summit of African leaders set to be held in St. Petersburg at the end of this week.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Russian President Vladimir Putin

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Russian President Vladimir Putin

 

African leaders have begun arriving in Russia Wednesday for what is the second Russia-Africa summit since 2019, set to kick off Thursday and go through Friday.

 

Proposals for ending the Ukraine conflict will be discussed, but also alternatives in the wake of the collapse of the UN-backed Black Sea Initiative grain deal.

 

While President Putin is also hosting individual meetings with key head of states such as the Ethiopian and Egyptian leaders, there’s a degree of disappointment given the low attendance this year, clearly a result of the Ukraine crisis and the West’s pressure campaign and sanctions against Moscow.

 

The Associated Press noted that “the number of heads of states attending shrank from 43 then to 17 now because of what the Kremlin described as a crude Western pressure to discourage African nations from attending it.”

 

In light of this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has highlighted “unconcealed brazen interference by the U.S., France and other states through their diplomatic missions in African countries, and attempts to put pressure on the leadership of these countries in order to prevent their active participation in the forum.”

 

“It’s absolutely outrageous, but it will in no way prevent the success of the summit,” Peskov told reporters.

 

Russia in South Africa-tweet-26July2023-Official delegations from African countries

Russia in South Africa-tweet-26July2023-Official delegations from African countries

 

However, many more countries will be represented even if not through their heads of state, with the Kremlin underscoring that 32 other African countries will send senior government officials or their ambassador for the major summit, which Putin will oversee.

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Escobar: BRICS 11 – Strategic Tour de Force

by Tyler Durden, 27August2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-brics-11-strategic-tour-de-force

 

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

Chinese President Xi Jinping defined all the major decisions embedded in the 15th BRICS summit in South Africa as “historic”. That may be seen as an understatement.

 

BRICS Summit South Africa 22August2023

BRICS Summit South Africa 22August2023

It will take time for the Global South, or Global Majority, or “Global Globe” (copyright President Lukashenko), not to mention the stunned collective West, to fully grasp the enormity of the new strategic stakes.

 

President Putin, for his part, described the negotiations on BRICS expansion as quite difficult. By now a relatively accurate picture is emerging of what really went down on that table in Johannesburg.

 

India wanted 3 new members. China wanted as many as 10. A compromise was finally reached, with 6 members: Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Argentina and Ethiopia.

 

So from now on it’s BRICS 11. And that’s just the beginning. Starting with the rotating Russian presidency of BRICS on January 1, 2024, more partners will be progressively included, and most certainly a new round of full members will be announced at the BRICS 11 summit in Kazan in October next year.

 

So we may soon progress to BRICS 20 – on the way to BRICS 40. The G7, for all practical purposes, is sliding towards oblivion.

 

Bur first things first. At that fateful table in Johannesburg, Russia supported Egypt. China went all out for Persian Gulf magic: Iran, UAE and the Saudis. Of course: Iran-China are already deep into a strategic partnership, and Riyadh is already accepting payment for energy in yuan.

 

Brazil and China supported Argentina, Brazil’s troubled neighbor, running the risk of having its economy fully dollarized, and also a key commodity provider to Beijing. South Africa supported Ethiopia. India, for a series of very complex reasons, was not exactly comfortable with 3 Arab/Muslim members (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt). Russia assuaged New Delhi’s fears.

 

All of the above respects geographic principles and imprints the notion of BRICS representing the Global South. But it goes way beyond that, blending cunning strategy and no-nonsense realpolitik.

 

India was mollified because Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, at the table in Johannesburg negotiating on behalf of President Putin, and highly respected by New Delhi, fully understood that a new, single BRICS currency is a long way away. What really matters, short and medium term, is expanding intra-BRICS trade in their national currencies.

 

That was stressed by New Development Bank (NDB) president Dilma Rousseff in her report to the South African summit hosts – even as Brazilian President Lula once again emphasized the importance of setting up a work group to discuss a BRICS currency.

 

Lavrov understood how New Delhi is absolutely terrified of secondary sanctions by the US, in case its BRICS role gets too ambitious. Prime Minister Modi is essentially hedging between BRICS and the completely artificial imperial obsession embedded in the terminology “Indo-Pacific” – which masks renewed containment of China. The Straussian neo-con psychos in charge of US foreign policy are already furious with India buying loads of discounted Russian oil.

 

New Delhi’s support for a new BRICS currency would be interpreted in Washington as all-out trade war – and sanctions dementia would follow. In contrast, Saudi Arabia’s MbS doesn’t care: he’s a top energy producer, not consumer like India, and one of his priorities is to fully court his top energy client, Beijing, and pave the way for the petroyuan.

It Takes Just a Single Strategic Move

Now let’s get into the strategic stakes. For all practical purposes, in Eurasian terms, BRICS 11 is now on the way to lord over the Arctic Sea Route; the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC); BRI’s East West Corridors; the Persian Gulf; the Red Sea; and the Suez Canal.

 

That blends several overland corridors with several nodes of the Maritime Silk Roads. Nearly total integration in the Heartland and the Rimland. All with just a single strategic move in the geopolitical/geoeconomic chessboard.

 

Much more than an increase of BRICS 11 collective GDP to 36% of the world’s total (already larger than the G7), with the group now encompassing 47% of the world’s population, the top geopolitical and geoeconomic breakthrough is how BRICS 11 is about to literally break the bank on the energy and commodities market fronts.

 

By incorporating Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, BRICS 11 instantly shines on as an oil and gas powerhouse. BRICS 11 now controls 39% of global oil exports; 45.9% of proven reserves; and at least 47.6% of all oil produced globally, according to InfoTEK.

 

With BRICS 11 possibly including Venezuela, Algeria and Kazakhstan as new members as early as in 2024, it may control as much as 90% of all oil and gas traded globally.

 

Inevitable corollary: operations settled in local currencies bypassing the US dollar. And inevitable conclusion: petrodollar in a coma. The Empire of Chaos and Plunder will lose its free lunch menu: control of global oil prices and means to enforce “diplomacy” via a tsunami of unilateral sanctions.

 

Already in the horizon, direct BRICS 11-OPEC+ symbiosis is inevitable. OPEC+ is effectively run by Russia and Saudi Arabia.

A ground-shaking geoeconomic reorientation is at hand, involving everything from routes plied by global supply chains and new BRICS roads to the progressive interconnection of BRI, the Saudi Vision 2030 and massive port expansion in the UAE.

 

By choosing Ethiopia, BRICS expands its African reach on mining, minerals and metals. Ethiopia is rich in gold, platinum, tantalum, copper, niobium and offers vast potential in oil and natural gas exploration. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, incidentally, are also involved in mining.

 

This all spells out fast, progressive integration of North Africa and West Asia.

How Diplomacy Goes a Long Way

The BRICS 11 Shock of the New, in the energy sphere, is a sharp historical counterpoint to the 1973 oil shock, after which Riyadh started wallowing in petrodollars. Now Saudi Arabia under MbS is operating a tectonic shift, in the process of becoming strategically aligned with Russia-China-India-Iran.

 

Diplomatic coup does not even begin to describe it. This is the second stage of the Russian-initiated and Chinese-finalized rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran, recently sealed in Beijing. The Russia-China strategic leadership, working patiently in synch, never lost sight of the ball.

 

Now compare it with collective West’s “strategies”, such as the G7-imposed oil price cap. Essentially the G7 “coalition of the willing” self-imposed a price cap on Russian crude imported by sea. The result is that they had to start buying way more oil products from Global South nations which ignored the price cap and duly increased their purchase of Russian crude.

 

Guess who are the top two: BRICS members China and India.

After wallowing in several stages of denial, the collective West may – or may not – realize it’s a fool’s dream to attempt to “de-couple” the West-ruled part of the global economy from China, whatever is spewed out by Washington.

 

BRICS 11 now shows, graphically, how the “Global South/Global Majority/”Global Globe” is more non-aligned with the West than anytime in recent history.

 

By the way, the president of the G77, Cuban leader Diaz-Canel, was at the BRICS summit representing the de-facto new Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): the G77 actually incorporates no less than 134 nations. Most are African. Xi Jinping in Johannesburg met in person with the leaders of most of them.

 

The collective West, in panic, regards all of the above as “dangerous”. So the last refuge is, predictably, rhetorical: “de-coupling”, “de-risking”, and similar idiocies.

 

Yet that may also get practically dangerous. As in the first ever trilateral summit in Camp David on August 18 between the Empire and two Asian vassals, Japan and South Korea. That may be interpreted as the first move towards a military-political Asian NATO even more toxic than Quad or AUKUS, obsessed to simultaneously contain China, Russia and the DPRK.

The Collective Outstripping of the Global North

The UN lists 152 nations in the world as “developing countries”. BRICS 11 is aiming at them – as they outstrip the Global North on everything from population growth to overall contribution to global GDP growth measured by PPP.

 

In the past 10 years since the announcement of BRI first in Astana and then in Jakarta, Chinese financial institutions have lent nearly $1 trillion for infrastructure connectivity projects across the Global South. The upcoming BRI forum in Beijing will signal a renewed drive. That’s the BRI-BRICS symbiosis.

 

In the G20 last year, China was the first nation to lobby for the inclusion of the 55-member African Union (AU). That may happen at the G20 summit next month in New Delhi; in that case, Global South representation will be close to parity with the Global North.

 

Claims that Beijing was organizing a malign conspiracy to turn BRICS into a weapon against the G7 are infantile. Realpolitik – and geoeconomic indicators – are dictating the terms, configuring the Shock of the New: the G7’s irreversible irrelevance with the rise of BRICS 11.

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Luongo: BRICS Summit Proves Geography Trumps Currency

by Tyler Durden, 03September2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/luongo-brics-summit-proves-geography-trumps-currency

Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

 

The 3-ruble commemorative silver coins that read "A Meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State in Ufa" and "A Meeting of the BRICS Heads of State in Ufa", June 26, 2015. On June 22, 2015, the Central Bank of Russia issued the coins for the July SCO and BRICS summits in Ufa. [Photo/CFP]

The 3-ruble commemorative silver coins that read “A Meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State in Ufa” and “A Meeting of the BRICS Heads of State in Ufa”, June 26, 2015. On June 22, 2015, the Central Bank of Russia issued the coins for the July SCO and BRICS summits in Ufa. [Photo/CFP]

The older I get the more time I spend asking the question, “Why does someone want me to know this?” Our media is so compromised that questioning the editorial bias of every issue is a full time job.And I know that it is done on purpose to distract us from the real issues in some instances while advancing an agenda in others.In 2023, the topic of de-dollarization has been all the rage. It’s been a non-stop barrage of hype and hyperbole. The din of de-dollarization talk became so loud in the lead up to the recent BRICS Summit that it drowned out what was really on the agenda for those few days.This talk came from all sides, from the BRICS leaders themselves as well as the western press dominated by both British and Davos interests. 

People fell all over themselves talking up the “BRICS gold-backed currency” trying to edge each other out in being ahead of the curve on this issue. After a while it became another moment to ask who benefits from all of this amplification?

 

I’ve been writing about these things for years, knowing that those who control the production of commodities would ultimately get tired of the wealth extraction schemes operated by the financialization masters in New York, London, and Zurich.

 

It was only a matter of time before they would make their move.

And I can tell you for real that I’ve never been amplified on any subject like this until such time as people in Moscow, Brussels and Beijing wanted this commentary out there.

 

Don’t take this for grousing, because it isn’t. It’s just an observation born of years of experience. I’ve come to understand what a lack of amplification means; that this is the story no one wants to be told.

 

So, this begs the question, why do they want it told now?

In many ways this is how I know I’m usually on the right track with respect to a particular issue. It’s my forever internalizing the baseball great Wee Willy Keeler who famously said that baseball is an easy game, “Just hit ’em where they ain’t.”

 

So, a lot of important someones wanted us to know about de-dollarization this year.

They had their reasons to promote this concept. And, as always, it has to do with influencing global capital flow while distracting the commentary from what was really on the agenda.

 

For Davos de-dollarization is just another attack vector on the United States.

By playing up the problems the US has domestically as well as geopolitically they create uncertainty. Capital hates uncertainty.

 

Throw in a purposefully-belligerent and incompetent “Biden” administration and you have a perfect cocktail of uncertainty which keeps capital markets globally distrustful of both the near-term policy mixed with the long-term trends.

 

Conclusion? The US is FUBAR.

[EDD:  FUBAR is a military acronym that stands for “Fucked Up Beyond Any Repair or All Recognition“. ]

Russia is at war with the West, so, of course, Vladimir Putin will talk his book on de-dollarization. He is the point man on the BRICS being “anti-dollar.”

 

There’s only this one little problem with all of this: The US dollar itself and the lack of alternative infrastructure for ditching it. Despite all of the jawboning and, frankly, propaganda on this subject, the reality is far, far different.

 

While everyone is talking de-dollarization, the real currency losing it’s position in global trade is the euro. But no one is talking about de-eruoization. I guess it doesn’t roll off the tongue as well?

 

According to the latest data from the SWIFT RMB Tracker, there is no currency that has lost more ground in global trade than the euro. In just over two years the euro has fallen from 39.5% of global payments outside the euro-zone to just 13.6%.

Global Payments Outside Euro zone-August 2023

Global Payments Outside Euro zone-August 2023

The dollar absorbed most of those payments with the British pound, Japanese yen and, yes, the Chinese renminbi taking up the rest.

 

So, the great distraction about de-dollarization is, in part, about paying no attention to the rapid demise of the euro and the emerging sovereign bond crisis that ECB President Christine Lagarde works everyday to paper over.

 

I’ve talked about this so much people are getting sick of it. (HereHereHere, and Here)

Eventually, however, no matter how hard they try to game the math, paint the tape and make deals to keep up appearances, markets are simply smarter than central planners.

 

So, with this in mind I fully expect over the next couple of months for the bond vigilantes to return with a vengeance now that Jerome Powell has everyone’s attention. He can further up his street cred with another 25 basis point raise in September, but honestly, he may not have to.

BRICS in the Wall

But, back to the BRICS. If de-dollarization wasn’t the point of the Summit this year, then what was?

Expansion.

And not just expansion for the sake of expansion, but geographically strategic expansion.

The BRICS formally added six countries — Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt and Ethiopia. They could have added others and almost added Algeria if not for a last-minute veto by India on behalf of France.

 

Algeria is symbolic of the fight between Italy and France for access to African oil and gas. There can be no Ital-exit from the EU without Italy minimizing France’s influence in North Africa, shoring up its energy needs as collateral for a return to the lira.

 

Thankfully, with the help of Russia and China, the Africans are taking care of the Italians’ French Problem all on their own.

If there is one common theme beyond the geography (more on that in a bit) with all six of these countries it is their relationship with the supposedly former British empire. From the Arab states and Egypt to those that defied the Brits in the past — e.g. Iran and Argentina — these additions represent a power shift that is profound.

 

One look at the world map should make this point crystal clear.

BRICS Map-Post 2023 Summit

BRICS Map-Post 2023 Summit

 

Countries in Red are members of the alliance. Those in green have formally applied for membership and yellow are those that have openly expressed interest.

 

But it is the 5 countries clustered around the center of global trade that should grab your attention.

Because all talk of a BRICS common currency are nothing more than theatre if there isn’t a fully developed alternative financial supply chain to capture the profits and minimize currency risks and friction for all the members.

Taking them one by one let’s discuss.

Iran

So, let’s start with the easy one. Iran, in my book, has been the “I” in BRICS for years. Because with India constantly keeping everyone off-balance, much like Erdogan in Turkey, that incentivized Russia and China to invest heavily in Iran, as a counterpoint, making it the key to both China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Russia’s long-desired International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).

 

India dragged their feet for so long on their contracted work on the Iranian port at Chabahar, that Iran nullified the contract, handed it to China, who then finished the work in less time than it took for Iran to get India on the phone to complain about it.

 

This is the kind of pivot that gets results. China and Russia have pledged hundreds of billions in investment and sales to Iran, supporting them after Former President Trump tore up the JCPOA and put on sanctions which didn’t work, unless Trump’s goal was to ensure what has transpired since.

 

This is further proof Trump doesn’t play 4-d chess.

Both the ports at Chabahar and Bandar Abbas now serve to get Asian trade, especially coming from Russia, exits beyond the choke points around the Mediterranean, Red, and Black Seas.

 

So, Iran was always going to be the first country added to the bloc. It quickly put India on notice to stop playing games.

Saudi Arabia

Adding Saudi Arabia and the UAE weren’t on anyone’s radar back during the Trump Interregnum, because Trump understood how important the Saudis were to the US maintaining its presence in the region.

 

The problem for Trump was that the Saudis knew he wasn’t a long-term solution in the US. All during his presidency events occurred that trace a line straight back to Obama’s foreign policy. Undermining Trump was the sole focus of Obama’s shadow government, especially our relationship with the Saudis.

 

With the successful intervention by Russia in Syria, and their own disastrous results in the War in Yemen, it was only a matter of time before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) came to his senses.

 

Saudi Arabia’s future was with the BRICS not the remnants of the British empire. As an aside here, I talk about Neocons all the time and the best way to think of them, beyond their hatred of pretty much the rest of the world, is to see them as the inheritors of the British empire’s foreign policy.

 

The US adopted this foreign policy a century ago under Woodrow Wilson (see my podcast with Richard Poe). Since then it’s been the one thing, aside from ruinous spending, that unites the Uniparty on Capitol Hill. Empire or bust. Looking at the ruin of our finances and domestic politics, “Bust” was the obvious outcome.

 

Saudi Arabia had no other option than to go along with its OPEC+ partner, Russia, if MbS wants the country to survive the end of its oil reserves.

UAE

The UAE addition is definitely part of the currency discussion. Dubai and Abu Dhabi have rapidly become centers for strategic commodities trading with very successful and deepening gold and oil trading. Dubai has its own crude oil benchmark. Even Moscow doesn’t have one of those (yet).

 

As Vince Lanci and I talked about at length in a recent appearance on Palisades Gold Raio (parts and II here), in order to even talk about some form of gold-backed trade settlement system, there has to be a deep and liquid supply chain and financial industry in place to facilitate both that settlement and minimize the storage risks to gold and currency risks of the alliance members trading bilaterally without the dollar as the intermediate.

 

So, adding Dubai as one node in that network outside of China’s control was important to building trust there. Having multiple exchanges, vaults, and refineries simplifies everything. And, with that, minimizes the ‘convenience premium’ of using the US dollar and maximizing members’ use of local currencies with gold acting as the universal trust layer and a blockchain for back office and auditing functions.

 

So, first, you add the financial center, then you start really talking the whole “Gold-Backed BRICS Currency.” Order of operations matters folks.

 

The UAE was necessary to get India to even consider going along with Russia and China on this idea, which is why the UAE dirham will be the settlement currency between India and Russia on oil sales, and not the ruble. It both creates validity for a third party while also keeps India free from directly contravening US sanctions on buying Russian energy.

Argentina

It shouldn’t be underestimated how much the IMF and European corruption have wreaked havoc in Argentina over the years. This is another resource-rich country that has been kept under constant upheaval which now has the opportunity, like Egypt, to get out from underneath the IMF’s thumb, depriving vulture capitalists all across the west the opportunity to plunder the country one more time.

 

Adding Argentina should see the development money necessary to build out its significant shale reserves at Vaca Muerta make its way into the country. This stabilizes its foreign exchange reserves and access to the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) gives it an alternative to the IMF loan sharks.

 

The upcoming elections could quickly become a referendum on IMF requirements and capital controls.

Egypt and Ethiopia

Egypt is a fascinating turn of events, because Egypt’s financial weakness was the very thing to create a strategic opportunity for Russia and China to make President Al-Sisi a great offer. Use our New Development Bank and stiff the International Monetary Fund if they won’t negotiate a debt write-down.

 

Like what’s in front of Argentina, Egypt now has leverage in negotiations they didn’t have before.

Either way the IMF loses here, because Egypt has an alternative lender it can force a write-down by the IMF for the first time ever or they can just default. China is already willing to forgive $8 billion in Egypt’s debt while the IMF is holding fast only to restructuring.

 

And if you think Egypt doesn’t have this leverage here let’s not forget that the Suez Canal still handles 12% of global trade daily. The BRICS bloc now have a political ally that controls the Suez.

 

With Ethiopia, along with Russia’s deft diplomacy with both Eretria and China’s with Djibouti where they have port access, the BRICS now has effectively unfettered access to the Red Sea. The pressure will mount for Eretria and Djibouti to make peace with Ethiopia, thus opening up trade in eastern Africa.

 

Access to or circumventing the historic chokepoints to global trade has been a long-held goal of both Russia and China. And it looks like with these additions to the BRICS bloc, they have finally achieved that.

Meet the New Boss?

In my last article on geopolitics, I brought up the importance of physical collateral for the future of the West’s financial dominance, especially that of Europe. The main reason why I keep harping on why Europe is in such trouble is because it’s obvious now that those with physical collateral, including the US, are no longer interested in selling that collateral to a colonial-minded Europe at cut-rate prices.

 

Russia, under Putin, was happy to court the EU as energy partners because he thought it would secure Russia’s future from potential war with Europe. He was willing to sell Europe cheap gas to maximize the total profit to Russia, not directly measurable in things like GDP or trade balances.

 

Some capital is political. Some profits are social, despite crappy Marxist commentary to the contrary.

This is why he went along with Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s plea to build Nordstream 2, knowing it would incense the US/UK Neocons.

 

The peace dividend to Russia was just too big not to make a run at. Merkel’s betrayal of Putin over NS2 and the Minsk agreements are why we are in the mess we’re in today.

 

The Neocons struck geopolitical gold with blowing up Nordstream, depriving Germany and France of much needed gas. Things are so bad in Germany that they are now quietly dismantling their wind farms to rebuild coal-fired plants, going back to the one energy source they have in abundance in Europe.

 

Now Africa is in revolt against France. Last month it was Niger. This month it is Gabon. There is no way France can respond to all of these revolts on their own. They need outside intervention and it doesn’t look like it’s coming.

 

Queen Warmonger Vicky Nudelman went to Niger and was rebuffed. Reports are now circulating that she and her staff were caught completely by surprise with events in Africa and had no solutions, offers or even credible threats to bring to bear.

Pretoria was well aware of Nuland’s hawkish reputation, but when she arrived in Pretoria, the official described her as “totally caught off guard” by winds of change engulfing the region. The July putsch that saw a popular military junta come to power in Niger followed military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso that were similarly inspired by mass anti-colonial sentiment.

 

Though Washington has so far refused to characterize developments in the Nigerien capital of Niamey as a coup, the South African source confirmed that Nuland sought South Africa’s assistance in responding to regional conflicts, including in Niger, where she emphasized that Washington not only held significant financial investments, but also maintained 1,000 of its own troops. For Nuland, the realization that she was negotiating from a position of weakness was likely a rude awakening.

If you map Nuland to the UK/US Neocons who are not necessarily aligned with Davos then this report should shock you, because it tells us that neither are capable of moving into the power vacuum left by these juntas seizing power.

 

It says, with little equivocation, that all of the colonial powers of Europe are paper tigers. What started in Burkina Faso and Mali is spreading like wildfires set by Climate Change arsonists in Canada across Africa.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron can only scream impotently in Paris, Nuland can shake her fist screaming, “You’ll rue the day…,” and the US Dept. of Defense stands by and says exactly nothing.

 

At the same time clashes between Syrian Arab Army troops and US occupying forces east of the Euphrates River are back under the headlines.

Do you get the picture yet?

The fight for physical collateral is dovetailing perfectly with capturing control of the major trade routes. While the UK and their Neocon quislings are hell bent on starting WWIII over Ukraine, c.f. drone strikes on Russia’s Pskov airport from Latvia, the BRICS bloc understands that their best course of action is to continue building new relationships, networks, and pressuring the centuries-old colonial networks that have financed their power.

 

Staying out of a direct hot war simply makes good strategic sense. Attrition is a bitch, energetically.

Now they are being forced to expend their seed capital built up over these centuries on influencing events to their liking, and it’s clear they really don’t have the resources to do so for very long.

 

Against that backdrop, de-dollarization is the least of their worries.

It will be the thing that grinds away in the background, like Powell’s shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet, and will just emerge out of these events.

 

The choice the West is now facing is at what point do they stop fighting this and finally come to the negotiating table. Some factions, like the US military and the banking sector, have already made their intentions clear.

The others? Not so much.

When facing extinction, that’s when you find out where someone’s true loyalties are.

*  *  *

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Truth or Consequences Covid-19: The Truth


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Federal Court Rules Against FDA Over Anti-Ivermectin Posts

By Zachary Stieber
2September2023 Updated: 4September2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/federal-court-rules-against-fda-over-anti-ivermectin-posts-5485397

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) likely overstepped its authority when it told Americans to “stop” using ivermectin against COVID-19, a federal court ruled on Sept. 1.

 

“FDA can inform, but it has identified no authority allowing it to recommend consumers ‘stop’ taking medicine,”  U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett wrote in the ruling.

 

The FDA has authority under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to convey information to consumers.

The FDA during the COVID-19 pandemic has issued multiple statements discouraging people from taking ivermectin against COVID-19.

 

Accompanied by a picture of a horse and a link to an FDA webpage on ivermectin, the agency wrote in one social media post: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

 

The page it linked to is titled, “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19.”

See:  FDA Drops Ivermectin Truth (That We Knew All Along) | Facts Matter

Three doctors sued the FDA over its statements on ivermectin, arguing the agency cannot advise doctors on which drugs to prescribe.

 

Ivermectin is approved by the agency as an antiparasitic drug for both humans and animals.

Federal law gives the government immunity against legal actions, with some exceptions. One exception, known as ultra vires, is when an official acts outside their authority. Plaintiffs challenging the acts must show that the official was “acting ‘without any authority whatever,’ or without any ‘colorable basis for the exercise of authority,'” according to an earlier court ruling.

 

The FDA does have the authority to share data and facts, the parties agree. But they diverge on whether the FDA can issue recommendations on medical matters, such as treatments.

 

The FDA has claimed that the posts do not contain advice, stating in one brief that they were “informational statements” that “do not ‘direct’ consumers, or anyone else, to do or refrain from doing anything.” At the same time, the FDA acknowledged that the statements “provided recommendations” and “advise[d] consumers.”

 

“Despite these concessions, FDA never points to any authority that allows it to issue recommendations or give medical advice,” Judge Willett wrote.

 

“Rather, FDA argues that some posts included a hyperlink that leads to the update. The update, in turn, directs consumers to “[t]alk to your health care provider.” But not all of the social-media posts included such a link. And even for those posts that did include a link, the posts themselves offer advice, not mere information.”

 

The update itself is problematic because of its title, “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19,” the judge said. Even though it later says that people can take ivermectin if prescribed by a health care provider, “the trailing qualifier does not lessen the opening instruction’s imperative character,” he said.

Exposing the FDA’s Orwellian Lie About Ivermectin | CLIP | Facts Matter

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown ruled against the doctors in 2022, finding that doctors had not proven an exception to sovereign immunity and that there was no indication the FDA acted outside of the authority conferred by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Click to download PDF file Click to Download the Ruling fifth-circuit-ruling-in-ivermectin-case

Judge Brown erred on the second point as well, according to the new ruling.

“Nothing in the Act’s plain text authorizes FDA to issue medical advice or recommendations,” Judge Willett said.

The judge, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, was joined by U.S. Circuit Judges Edith Brown Clement and Jennifer Walker Elrod.

 

Judges Willett and Brown were appointed under President Donald Trump. Judges Clement and Elrod were appointed under President George W. Bush.

 

The appeals court panel remanded the case back to Judge Brown to decide on whether the doctors have standing. The ruling followed oral arguments before the panel.

 

Dr. Robert Apter, one of the plaintiffs, called the ruling “a big win for doctors and for patients!”

“This case has broad implications for protecting the practice of medicine from unlawful interference by the FDA,” added Jared Kelson, a lawyer at Boyden Gray who is representing the plaintiffs. “It’s about ensuring that federal agencies act only within their statutory authority. The FDA crossed a bright line here.”

The U.S. government has not yet reacted to the ruling.

 

Zachary Stieber
Author (Reporter)

Zachary Stieber is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times based in Maryland. He covers U.S. and world news.

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Doctor: Pharmacists Continuing to Refuse Ivermectin Prescriptions, Raising Ethical Concerns

COVID Treatments & Remedies
Matthew Lysiak
1September2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/doctor-pharmacists-continuing-to-refuse-ivermectin-prescriptions-raising-ethical-concerns-5485148

 

The continued refusal of pharmacists nationwide to fill prescriptions for controversial COVID medications has raised questions over medical autonomy and who ultimately has control over patient care, according to a prominent doctor.

 

Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a practitioner and founder of Coalition of Health Freedom, told The Epoch Times that many pharmacists nationwide are still refusing to fill prescriptions issued for ivermectin issued to patients for the treatment of COVID, despite statements from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) affirming that right to doctors.

 

“This needs to come to an end. In telling my patients what medicines they can and cannot have access to, we effectively have a large group of pharmacists practicing medicine without a license,” said Dr. Bowden. “They have no accountability for this yet they are allowed to dictate patient care.”

 

“I see it every single day. Enough is enough,” Dr. Bowden added.

Ivermectin has been around for decades but became the center of controversy in 2020 after medical opinion became divided over its effectiveness as a treatment for COVID. In the aftermath, many pharmacists refused to fill prescriptions for the medication.

 

By 2023, the issue had made its way into a courtroom when on Aug. 8 a lawyer representing the FDA confirmed that doctors were free to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.

 

“FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID,” Ashley Cheung Honold, a Department of Justice lawyer representing the FDA, told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

 

The government lawyer made the statement in defense of the FDA’s repeated calls for people to not take ivermectin for COVID. The FDA on Aug. 21, 2021, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

 

On Aug. 17, the FDA issued clarification, this time stating that while it had approved ivermectin for certain uses in humans and animals, it had not issued any statement affirming the safety or effectiveness of the drug for treating COVID. However, the agency again affirmed that it would be left to individual doctors whether or not to prescribe the medication for the treatment of COVID.

 

“Health care professionals generally may choose to prescribe an approved human drug for an unapproved use when they judge that the unapproved use is medically appropriate for an individual patient,” the FDA said.

 

The National Institutes of Health COVID-19 treatment guidelines recommend against using ivermectin for COVID treatment, citing a purported lack of evidence supporting its effectiveness. Other studies have found ivermectin to be effective.

 

Dr. Bowden, who is one of three plaintiffs in the case, had hoped the FDA’s acknowledgment would have put an end to the objections at the pharmacist counter. However, earlier this week another one of her patients who she had been treating was refused service. Complicating the situation, the patient was elderly and couldn’t easily access other options and in the time it took to find a pharmacy that would honor the prescription the patient’s health began to deteriorate, according to Dr. Bowden.

 

“It’s hard to believe, but pharmacists are still blocking these potentially life-saving medications,” said Dr. Bowden. “The pharmacist didn’t talk to the patient and won’t know if the patient lives or dies yet had control of his care.”

 

Dr. Bowden believes that in most cases individual pharmacists aren’t the ones to blame, and are often carrying out orders from corporate leadership. However, claims to have seen examples where pharmacists prevented her patients from getting their medication as a result of their own “personal agenda.”

 

“It’s an outrage. I would have thought we were beyond this but it continues to happen,” said Dr. Bowden.

If this newfound power isn’t checked, it could lead down a slippery slope that diminishes patient’s rights, according to Dr. Bowden.

 

“Prior to COVID, I never had a pharmacist refuse a prescription. This is a new phenomenon and it needs to come to an end. This is going beyond their role and it’s a dangerous trend,” said Dr. Bowden.

 

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), believes that the widespread denial of ivermectin could have resulted in untold COVID deaths.

“The doctors I’ve been dealing with and talking to for years now, they believe that probably hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their lives because they were denied early treatment and they were denied because the FDA sabotaged, for example, ivermectin,” Mr. Johnson told FOX News on Aug. 11.

 

“We are going down a very dangerous path, but it’s a path that is being laid out and planned by an elite group of people that want to take total control over our lives, and that’s what they’re doing bit by bit,” he added.

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‘FDA Is Not a Physician’: Appeals Court Sides With Doctors on Ivermectin for COVID-19

COVID Treatments & Remedies
Matthew Lysiak
2September2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/fda-is-not-a-physician-appeals-court-sides-with-doctors-on-ivermectin-for-covid-19-post-5485494

 

A federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled on Friday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had overstepped its authority in their ruling that three doctors will be able to move forward with their lawsuit over the use of ivermectin off-label to treat COVID-19.

 

Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, one of three doctors who initially filed the petition, trumpeted the ruling as a victory for not only the truth, but patient rights.

 

“The FDA misled the public into thinking it has more authority than it does,” Dr. Bowden, a practitioner and founder of Coalition of Health Freedom, told The Epoch Times. “This decision confirms that the FDA is not your doctor and has no authority to tell doctors how to practice medicine.”

 

Judge Don Willett wrote for the three person panel that also included Jennifer Walker Elrod and Edith Brown Clement. “The Doctors have plausibly alleged that FDA’s Posts fell on the wrong side of the line between telling about and telling to.”

 

“FDA is not a physician. It has authority to inform, announce, and apprise—but not to endorse, denounce, or advise. The Doctors have plausibly alleged that FDA’s Posts fell on the wrong side of the line between telling about and telling to. As such, the Doctors can use the APA to assert their ultra vires claims against the Agencies and the Officials.”

 

The anti-ivermectin messaging put out by FDA officials also drew the ire of Judge Willett, who wrote that “Left unmentioned in most of that messaging: ivermectin also comes in a human version. And while the human version of ivermectin is not FDA-approved to treat the coronavirus, some people were using it off-label for that purpose.”

 

In the ruling social media posts made by the agency were cited as evidence, citing that “Even tweet-sized doses of personalized medical advice are beyond FDA’s statutory authority,” he wrote.

 

The FDA on Aug. 21, 2021, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

 

The National Institutes of Health COVID treatment guidelines recommend against using ivermectin for COVID treatment, citing a purported lack of evidence supporting its effectiveness. Other studies have found ivermectin to be effective.

 

The lawsuit was initially filed in June 2022 by Dr. Bowden, Drs. Robert L. Apter, and Paul E. Marik for interfering with both their authority to prescribe an approved medication and the doctor-patient relationship. All three alleged their reputations were harmed by the FDA campaign. Dr. Bowden lost admitting privileges at a Texas hospital while Dr. Marik alleged he lost his jobs at a medical school and at a hospital for promoting the use of ivermectin.

 

The ruling comes as a blow to the FDA. The agency had argued that the case should not be allowed to move forward, claiming that the complaints didn’t overcome the FDA’s “sovereign immunity,” which protects government entities from many civil lawsuits regarding their responsibilities.

 

The FDA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The refusal of pharmacists nationwide to fill prescriptions for ivermectin has become a hot-button issue, raising questions over medical autonomy and who ultimately has control over patient care.

 

Ivermectin has been around for decades but became the center of controversy in 2020 after medical opinion became divided over its effectiveness as a treatment for COVID. In the aftermath, many pharmacists refused to fill prescriptions for the medication.

 

On Aug. 8 a lawyer representing the FDA confirmed that doctors were allowed to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.

“FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID,” Ashley Cheung Honold, a Department of Justice lawyer representing the FDA, told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

 

FDA Detects Serious Safety Signal for Covid Vaccine Among Kids

Dr. Bowden claims that despite the endorsement from the FDA, the practice of pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for ivermectin continues.

 

“This needs to come to an end. In telling my patients what medicines they can and cannot have access to, we effectively have a large group of pharmacists practicing medicine without a license,” said Dr. Bowden told the Epoch Times on Friday. “They have no accountability for this yet they are allowed to dictate patient care.”

 

“I see it every single day. Enough is enough,” Dr. Bowden added.

 

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FDA Has ‘Gone Rogue’ in Its Approval of New COVID-19 Boosters: Dr. Robert Malone

Dr. Malone accused the FDA of flouting its own rules and “going rogue” by green-lighting updated COVID-19 vaccines with limited clinical trial data.

Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas on Aug. 5, 2022. (Bobby Sanchez/The Epoch Times)

Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas on Aug. 5, 2022. (Bobby Sanchez/The Epoch Times)

By Tom Ozimek and Joshua Philipp
13September2023 Updated: 15September2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/fda-has-gone-rogue-by-approving-covid-19-boosters-without-clinical-trials-dr-robert-malone-5490314

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has “gone rogue,” according to virologist Dr. Robert Malone, who accused the federal agency of sacrificing its own rules and regulations with its decision to recommend the latest batch of COVID-19 boosters, which only have limited clinical trial data attesting to their efficacy and safety.

 

Dr. Malone made the remarks in an interview with EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program on Sept. 11, the day that the FDA cleared new COVID-19 vaccines in a bid to counter the waning effectiveness of the currently available shots.

 

“It’s difficult to conclude anything other than the FDA is no longer feeling bound by their own rules and regulations,” Dr. Malone said. “The term is—they’ve gone rogue.”

 

Dr. Malone said the lack of human clinical trial data demonstrating effectiveness and safety of the updated vaccines should have precluded their approval by the FDA.

 

He said that, essentially, the FDA authorized the new vaccines on the premise that “neutralizing antibodies as detected in mice and their cross-reactivity are correlative protection,” which he said “is a lie, there are no established correlates of protection for SARS-CoV-2.”

FDA officials didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

See: CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Meet on COVID-19 and Vaccines

The agency cleared Moderna’s and Pfizer’s newest mRNA vaccines on Sept. 11 without analyzing data from any human trials.

 

In a statement announcing its approval, the FDA said that the decision was supported by its evaluation of “manufacturing data” from vaccine producers and “non-clinical immune response data on the updated formulations including the XBB.1.5 component.”

 

The benefit-risk profile of earlier versions of the vaccines is “well understood,” the FDA claimed, adding that the similar manufacturing process for the updated vaccines “suggests that the vaccines are a good match for protecting against the currently circulating COVID-19 variants.”

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) followed with its own recommendation on Sept. 12, urging nearly all Americans to get the new vaccines. The shots will be available to children as young as 6 months old this month.

Dr. Robert Malone: The Coordinated Propaganda Narrative Around COVID-19 | CLIP

 

The new vaccines target XBB.1.5, a sub-type of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease COVID-19. However, the XBB.1.5. subvariant has already largely been displaced by newer strains of the quickly evolving virus, including EG.5, according to the CDC.

 

While FDA documents show the agency did not include any trial data in its review of the new shots, data from a Moderna trial was considered by the CDC before it issued its recommendation. The trial featured just 50 people receiving a new shot, and found the vaccine induced levels of neutralizing antibodies that authorities said would protect against COVID-19. One of the 50 people suffered a vaccine-related adverse reaction.

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo in Tampa, Fla., on Oct. 15, 2022. (York Du/The Epoch Times)

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo in Tampa, Fla., on Oct. 15, 2022. (York Du/The Epoch Times)

 

‘Lot of Red Flags’

“There’s essentially no data,” Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo said at a recent news conference, where he suggested that people might be better off passing on the new round of shots.

 

“Not only that, but there are a lot of red flags,” Dr. Ladapo added, while pointing to studies finding that the effectiveness of the vaccines turns negative over time.

 

“There’s been no clinical trial done in human beings showing that it benefits people, there’s been no clinical trial showing that it is a safe product for people.”

 

He also noted that studies have linked previous versions of the COVID-19 vaccine to cardiac problems such as heart inflammation.

 

“It’s truly irresponsible for FDA, CDC, and others to be championing something … when we don’t know the implications of it,” Dr. Ladapo said.

 

Asked to comment on Dr. Ladopo’s remarks, Dr. Malone pointed to a growing body of studies that show negative vaccine effectiveness, which he said suggests that, in the risk-benefit analysis, “there’s no discernible benefit, or there’s negative benefit, but there’s clearly risk.”

‘Most Americans Take Them’

While acknowledging the current vaccines’ waning effectiveness, CDC Director Mandy Cohen penned an op-ed in The New York Times on Sept. 13, in which she called the updated COVID-19 vaccines “one of the most effective tools in combating the virus.”

 

“Covid-19 vaccines are the best way to give the body the ability to keep the virus from causing significant harm. Extensive studies and real-world experience have shown that they are safe and they work,” she wrote. “And most Americans take them.”

 

Dr. Cohen said the vaccines were put through extensive clinical trials before they were introduced in 2021 and “since then, their safety has been intensely monitored.”

 

She didn’t address criticism, such as the little trial data that’s been made available.

 

That FDA and CDC moves have been questioned by a number of doctors. Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA adviser, suggested to the UK’s Daily Mail that younger, healthy people who have already been vaccinated don’t need one of the new doses.

 

“We are best served by targeting these booster doses to those who are most at risk of severe disease,” such as people older than 75, Dr. Offit said. “Boosting otherwise healthy young people is a low-risk, low-reward strategy.”

 

In his remarks at the news conference, Dr. Ladapo asked people to make decisions based on their “resonance of truth” rather than depending on “very educated people telling you what you should think.”

 

“When they try to convince you to be comfortable and agree with things that don’t feel comfortable and don’t feel like things you should agree with, that’s a sign … And I encourage you and certainly beg and hope that you do listen to it, because it will serve you right,” he said.

 

A January–July 2023 study that analyzed data from 33 California state prisons found that individuals who received new COVID-19 booster shots were more likely to contract COVID-19 compared to those who didn’t receive the jabs.

 

The infection rate among the group that received the bivalent booster shots came in at 3.2 percent—higher than the 2.7 percent among the unvaccinated.

 

Late last month, the CDC conceded that the new BA.2.86 strain can cause infection even among people who have previously been vaccinated against COVID-19.

 

“The large number of mutations in this variant raises concerns of greater escape from existing immunity from vaccines and previous infections compared with other recent variants,” the agency said in its assessment.

 

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly described clinical trials for the new COVID-19 vaccines. The Epoch Times regrets the error.

 

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British Court Rules That Competent & Conscious Patient Can Be Denied Life-Sustaining Treatment Against Her Will

by Tyler Durden, 04September2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/british-court-rules-competent-conscious-patient-can-be-denied-life-sustaining-treatment

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

In my torts class, I often compare the different approaches and doctrines in the United States and the United Kingdom.

One of the most pronounced is the position and authority of physicians on issues like consent and malpractice. This week produced a particularly striking example.

 

British doctors are seeking to take a 19-year-old critically ill female patient off the intensive care despite her objections and those of her parents.

 

Unlike most such cases, the woman known only as “ST” is conscious and communicative.

Yet, the doctors argue that she is not being realistic about her chances of survival from a rare disorder.

Now a British court has agreed and ordered that she can be placed on end-of-life care against her will.

ST is suffering from a rare genetic mitochondrial disease that is progressively degenerative. The case has similarities to that of Charlie Gard, an infant who was removed from life support at the insistence of doctors despite objections from the parents. The Gard family was seeking to take Charlie to the United States for experimental treatment.

 

ST has been in the ICU for the past year, requiring a ventilator and a feeding tube. She also requires regular dialysis due to chronic kidney damage from her disease.

She wants to be allowed to travel to Canada for an experimental treatment but the doctors oppose the plan and say that she is not accepting the realities of her terminal illness.

They say that she is “actively dying” without any hope of resuming life outside of intensive care.

Her deeply religious family have spent their entire life savings on her care and has complained that a “transparency order” requested by the hospital barred their ability to give details on the case to help raise public funds.

 

What is so remarkable about this case is that it is not an infant or a comatose patient.

The court found that ST “is able to communicate reasonably well with her doctors with assistance from her mother and, on occasion, speech therapists.”

 

Moreover, two psychiatrists testified that she is mentally competent to make decisions about her own care.

Despite all the difficulties which currently confront her, ST is able to communicate reasonably well with her doctors with assistance from her mother and, on occasion, speech therapists. Over the course of the last week she has engaged in two separate capacity assessments. I heard evidence from two consultant psychiatrists whose conclusions in relation to her capacity in both domains are set out in full written reports. . . .

 

She has been described by those who know and love her as “a fighter”. That is how she sees herself. At the heart of the issues in this case is what ST and her family perceive to be a ray of hope in the form of an experimental nucleoside treatment outside the United Kingdom which might offer her hope of an improved quality of life, albeit a life which is likely to end prematurely in terms of a normal life expectancy. She has told her doctors that she wants to do everything she can to extend her life. She said to Dr C, one of the psychiatrists who visited her last week, “This is my wish. I want to die trying to live. We have to try everything”. [Court’s emphasis] Whilst she recognises that she may not benefit from further treatment, she is resistant to any attempt to move to a regime of palliative care because she wants to stay alive long enough to be able to travel to Canada or North America where there is at least the prospect that she may be accepted as part of a clinical trial. . . .

 

ST is well aware that she has been offered a very poor prognosis by her doctors. She acknowledges that they have told her that she will die but she does not believe them. She points to her recovery from previous life-threatening episodes whilst she has been a patient at the intensive care unit. She believes she has the resilience and the strength to stay alive for long enough to undergo treatment abroad and she wishes the court to acknowledge her right to make that decision for herself.

Nevertheless, the judge found that she is mentally incapable of making decisions for herself because “she does not believe the information she has been given by her doctors.” 

 

The court appears to reject her ability to make this decision because she is making the wrong decision:

In my judgment . . . ST is unable to make a decision for herself in relation to her future medical treatment, including the proposed move to palliative care, because she does not believe the information she has been given by her doctors. Absent that belief, she cannot use or weigh that information as part of the process of making the decision. This is a very different position from the act of making an unwise, but otherwise capacitous, decision. An unwise decision involves the juxtaposition of both an objective overview of the wisdom of a decision to act one way or another and the subjective reasons informing that person’s decision to elect to take a particular course. However unwise, the decision must nevertheless involve that essential understanding of the information and the use, weighing and balancing of the information in order to reach a decision. In ST’s case, an essential element of the process of decision-making is missing because she is unable to use or weigh information which has been shown to be both reliable and true.

Accordingly, the court ruled that decisions about ST’s further care should be determined by the Court of Protection based on an assessment of her best interests. Her “best interest,” according to the doctors, is to die.

Thus, the courts have declared that ST cannot choose to continue life-extending treatment and can be forced into palliative care against her will.

The logic of the decision is chilling.

The court is told that ST has cognitive and communicative abilities to make such decisions. However, because the court disagrees with her desire to continue to fight to live, she is treated as effectively incompetent. 

It seems like the judicial version of Henry Ford’s promise that customers could pick any color car so long as it is black.

Here is the opinion: In the Matter of ST

 

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Malice Aforethought on the COVID-19 Pandemic: “This is a global coup d’etat and intentional mass murder.” Dr. Mike Yeadon

By Dr. Mike Yeadon
Global Research, 11September2023
Mark Taliano 10September2023

Malice Aforethought on the COVID-19 Pandemic: “This is a global coup d’etat and intentional mass murder.” Dr. Mike Yeadon

 

***

A message written to a trusted campaigning friend, who is struggling to accept that what is happening is intentional. It is indeed a big step to move from justifiable criticism of presumed incompetent politicians and industrialists to putting the pieces together in such a way that they can point only to intentionality. See what you think.

*

Dear X,

I find that attempting to put all the information together in such a way as to allow for the whole even to be benign or at least not wholly malevolent is impossible.

 

That’s because, as you’ve no doubt heard me say, I believe it is malevolent!

I too struggled early on, arguing “surely they must have known this!?” Etc.

Once I allowed for the possibility that all the bad things were intentional, I find all the rest falls into place. Obviously that alone doesn’t prove that it was intentional.

 

Some early clues to intentionality are the coordinated responses of scores of governments to the alleged pandemic: lockdowns, masking, mass testing of the well, the misapplication of PCR-based techniques to bulk testing of clinical samples, selective business & school closures, border restrictions etc.

 

Not a single country had any of this as a core part of their own pandemic preparedness plan.

Even the WHO’s scientific evaluation of NPIs concluded none of them worked & the only changes worth a dime were asking those with symptoms to remain at home until recovered & to increase the frequency of hand washing (because the route of transmission wouldn’t initially be known for sure).

 

I argued at the time that the only way all the countries could have adopted all these useless yet damaging & costly NPIs is if there was supranational coordination.

 

Whether that from WHO, WEF, etc., I don’t know. But illegitimate in any case.

We now know that they knew that imposing these restrictions would save nobody, yet the negative consequences would be devastating, even lethal for some, who would no longer have access to the medical care they needed. Additionally, the use of furlough was obviously going to be enormously damaging to sovereigns who were already borrowed to the hilt.

 

I note the widespread adoption of an American term, furlough, into public discourse. In U.K. we never previously used the term. Nobody remarked on its arrival, which telegraphed the leading role played by Americans.

 

Then we have the imposition of radically altered medical protocols.

Because of my long exposure to matters respiratory, I knew immediately they began panicking about needed 30,000 mechanical ventilators that something truly demonic was at hand. It’s never appropriate, in a patient with an unobstructed airway & an intact chest wall to sedate, intubate and ventilate them. Mechanical ventilation is certainly a marvellous, life-saving thing, but it comes with serious risks to the frail patient, in the form of ventilator acquired pneumonia, lung injury from use of pressure to inflate the lungs and more. The appropriate treatment would be an oxygen mask, single, low dose benzo, a cup of tea and a biscuit and a caring hand upon an arm.

 

In the USA as well many, once in this vulnerable state, were given remdesivir & not given total, intravenous nutrition. In most cases it was just a matter of time before they died.

 

In care homes, there was indiscriminate use of inappropriately high doses of midazolam and morphine. Not only high doses but repeatedly given to their elderly charges. They’d been told to do it by the highest medical authorities in the land and so few questioned it.

 

My PhD by coincidence was in this area, the effect of opiates on respiratory function. The discovery of multiple opiate receptors raised the possibility that it might be possible to invent receptor selective ligands that would relieve pain with reduced respiratory depression. Unfortunately, both are mediated primarily by mu opiate receptors, both centrally and in the periphery.

 

The combination of opiate agonists and benzodiazepines is contraindicated in patients unless close monitoring (for signs of respiratory depression) was in place.

 

It isn’t & cannot be in a care home. They too were murdered in large numbers. 

Finally, in the community, the family doctors were cautioned not to prescribe antibiotics in cases of covid “because antibiotics cannot treat viral illnesses”. It’s well known that what is usually termed secondary bacterial infection is generally what actually leads to death in this situation. However, the records show that prescriptions for antibiotics for suspected bacterial infection of the lungs fell by 50% & large numbers of people died avoidable deaths (and rather horrible deaths, too).

 

It’s not possible to regard all of this evidence without concluding that malice aforethought was at work here. It’s literally diabolical, what they did.

 

How it was done with so little pushback still confuses me. I do know that from the late-1990s right through late-2019, there was a sequence of tabletop simulations of global pandemic scenarios & bioterrorism scenarios, which allowed the perpetrators to hone their craft in the responses & control measures imposed. I believe some of these were translated onto the ground, giving emergency response team a chance to form & to rehearse what most of them thought were appropriate, given the fictional set up, though this is speculative.

 

Then we come to the “vaccines”. Given a career in pharma and biotech, I knew that it was impossible to create a vaccine in under 5-6 years if they were going to demonstrate clinical safety and hone manufacturing to yield the customarily high quality manufacturing necessary to produce tightly defined final drug product. If the latter if not done, it’s pointless doing the former, because what would otherwise be injected wouldn’t be what had been used in the clinical trials.

 

In other words, if there was a need for a new vaccine, you would never even contemplate running such a program, because no pandemic in history lasts a fraction of the minimum time necessary to create a safe and effective new vaccine.

 

Yet they went ahead. This too is malevolent, let alone the extraordinary lying, censorship & smearing of dissenters.

Given my entire career used “rational drug design” principles to design and test molecules, I was able to put myself in the shoes of the designers of the jabs.

 

There are several, completely obvious safety issues built into these products.

One is the axiomatic induction of “autoimmune” responses, regardless of which antigen was selected.

The next was choice of antigen, where no one would pick spike protein, because it was highly likely to be directly toxic, it’s subject to the most rapid mutation (so a vaccine might lose efficacy) & also it’s the least different from human proteins (and so might trigger bystander attacks on even somewhat similar self proteins).

 

Yet all four leading players chose this antigen. What a coincidence! I’d have called up my peers in the other companies to endure we didn’t do that. That’s because it would be highly undesirable to have common risks to all programs.

 

On formulation, the mRNA-based products both selected LNPs to encapsulate their message. Yet there was industry knowledge that these not only travel all over the body including into the brain but that they accumulate in the ovaries.

 

Yet, knowing this, the companies & regulators went ahead and then others compounded the toxicity risk by recommending these injections in pregnant women and children.

 

I was still slow to piece together all this evidence of carefully thought out harms. But eventually I got there and have been speaking in what many regard as extreme terms ever since.

 

I’m afraid there’s no hiding from the reality that this is a global coup d’etat and intentional mass murder.

Worse, we see the encroachment of surveillance technology and legal powers to introduce digital ID & CBDC as well as to eliminate cash.

 

It’s not difficult to come up with scenarios where presentation of digital ID will become mandatory.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. Michael Yeadon, PhD, was Formerly Vice President & Chief Scientific Officer Allergy & Respiratory at Pfizer Global R&D. He holds Joint Honours in Biochemistry and Toxicology and a PhD in Respiratory Pharmacology. He is an Independent Consultant and Co-founder & CEO of Ziarco Pharma Ltd.

 

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US Nursing home data shows clearly that the COVID vaccines were a disaster for the elderly; they increased the risk of dying from COVID

I’m going to drill into more detail on this analysis of the CDC “gold standard” database which shows that the vaccines were a huge failure. There is no way to put a positive spin on this.

Steve Kirsch
7September2023 https://kirschsubstack.com/p/us-nursing-home-data-shows-clearly-83f

COVID dead: survived odds ratio vs. week ending 6December2020 (at arrow)

COVID dead: survived odds ratio vs. week ending 6December2020 (at arrow)

Figure 1. The US Nursing Home Data shows that the vaccines were a huge failure. The orange line represents the risk of dying from COVID. It’s an odds ratio relative to the odds on 12/6/20 which is the point right before the vaccines rolled out. The choice of the reference simply affects where OR=1 (the right hand legend). Any other point would show the exact same curve. As you can see, the odds ratio of dying (died from COVID:survived COVID infection) goes up from the trendline after the primary shots and after the booster shots. The only thing that did reduce death from COVID is when Omicron became the primary strain in late December 2021. The vaccines were a huge mistake because they significantly depressed people’s immune system. The blue bars are COVID cases just to show the risk of death is not related to cases going up or down. This was added to the chart to debunk Professor Morris’s claims that the IFR goes up when cases go down. Not true. As you can clearly see from this chart, the IFR spiked starting around 2/14/21, after cases had stabilized.

Executive summary

The US Nursing Home data is the “gold-standard“ record level data for what happened in nursing homes after the COVID vaccine rolled out.

 

The signal from this data is clear and unambiguous: both the primary series and booster COVID vaccines increased the risk of death from COVID. The bivalent vaccines did absolutely nothing for the elderly (at least it didn’t make things worse, but it didn’t make things better).

 

The two things that reduced the infection fatality rate (IFR) were:

  1. Natural immunity (everyone had had COVID one or more times)
  2. The arrival of the much less deadly Omicron strain as the dominant strain in late December 2021

We can see both effects very clearly in the data shown in Figure 1 above.

This is why the CDC isn’t touting this database as proof that the vaccines work. Neither is anyone on the pro-vax side of the narrative despite the fact that this data has been in public view for 2 years now.

 

So since nobody from their side wanted to analyze the data, I thought it would be a good idea if someone from our side took a look.

 

The reason why they never wrote about this to prove their case is that it shows the opposite. The so-called “misinformation spreaders” have been right all along: the vaccine clearly significantly increased the risk of an elderly person getting COVID for around 4 months. This is a huge problem because this was the time when the vaccine was supposed to be most effective (since we now know from FOIA requests that the FDA knew that the vaccine protection waned after 4 months).

 

Health officials claimed the vaccine could reduce risk of death by 10x. It’s right here in this tweet from an Australian government health authority NSW Health on August 17, 2021:

Estimated effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines

Estimated effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines

The data they never told us about (the US Nursing Home data) shows a completely different story: it did the opposite and increased the risk of death by as much as 1.6 times higher odds of dying.

 

The attempts to attack my analysis, to date, are addressed here. They are weak hand-waving arguments with no evidentiary support. At no time did anyone ever justify their arguments with any numbers derived from the data. None of the attackers will publish their “correct” analysis of this data or their investigations showing anomalies.

 

The fact is that this is “gold standard” data. It doesn’t get any “closer to the source” than this. There were over 2M records to analyze from over 15,000 elderly care facilities in the US. These are large numbers and the effect size was huge.

 

The Fisher exact p-value for the 1.7 OR peak on 2/28/21 is 2.6e-109 and the Z-score for the odds ratio is 23.53. In other words, this difference didn’t happen because I cherry picked a result or it happened by chance. It was caused by something. If it wasn’t the vaccine, what caused this statistically significant difference in the rate of death from the virus (it was the same variant as before the vaccines rolled out).

 

Equally important is that Apple Valley Village had a 0% death rate from COVID prior to the vaccine rollout: 26 infections and not a single death. Just 3 weeks after the week of the shots, they had 90 COVID infections which resulted in 28 deaths from COVID. My hypothesis can easily explain that. Theirs cannot. So you can throw all the FUD you want at the Nursing Home data, but the bottom line is that this one anecdote is very powerful because it is verifiable in the database and with employees, but it cannot be explained how the death rate in this nursing home suddenly got at least 9X worse after the shots rolled out that should have made the death rate 10X better. That is a 70X swing. This is why Professor Morris simply ignores this because he cannot explain it. In science, you can’t ignore data you don’t like. You have to be able to explain it or admit you cannot. Morris does neither.

 

Don’t you find it strange that this data has been publicly available for two years now and not a single pro-vaccine advocate has analyzed it and is touting it as “proof” the vaccines work?

At this point, the medical community has a choice: embrace the data and admit you were wrong or try to fight it.

History will not look kindly on attempts to dismiss this data.

The first rule of holes: if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

They are in a big hole. What will they do now?

Data availability

Code: You can find everything in my github repo here.

Nursing home data: You can download the data from my repo or directly from CMS.

Now, where are the repos of others who have analyzed this data? They do not exist as far as I know. How is that possible? Why can’t we see their work?

Key documents

Preparing for COVID-19 in Nursing Homes shows that the policy in effect on November 20, 2020 and beyond was to test all new admissions into nursing homes and anyone who is symptomatic. I verified this practice was followed by talking to people who work in the nursing care homes. So the claim that people who transferred into nursing homes didn’t get tested is without evidentiary support.

 

Boosters were rolled out starting on September 20, 2021. See: Nursing homes charging ahead to administer COVID-19 vaccine booster shots

The bivalent booster was first available in the United States nearly one year later on September 1, 2022.

Nursing homes site of 40% of US COVID-19 deaths shows that nursing homes are ground zero for the vaccine. If it doesn’t work there, it is a failure.

What I found

Everything is summarized in the Executive Summary at the start.

The key point is that, in aggregate, when compared to pre-vax infection fatality rates, the odds of death climbed for months after the vaccines were delivered when they were “supposed to” have fallen like a rock. In particular the odds of death ( deaths from covid:survivors from COVID) increased post-vaccine. So did the absolute risk reduction; it went south which means the vaccines increased your risk of death. In short, the vaccine made things worse. The reference point chosen (the week prior to vaccine rollout) is immaterial; the slopes all went the wrong way. There is no doubt about this. This is a huge failure of the vaccine.

 

In addition, the virus has mutated to Omicron which isn’t killing anyone. Boosters are silly. They should be ashamed of themselves for pushing this when there clearly isn’t a problem.

Cases and deaths in US nursing homes

Cases and deaths in US nursing homes

This is a graph of the cases and deaths. The deaths are offset by 1 week from the cases with a .99 cross correlation coefficient. So in computing the IFR, OR, and ARR this is taken into account. Note that COVID ceased to be a problem for the elderly after 3/24/22. Even if the vaccines worked, it’s nonsensical to keep using them due to the unknown risk especially now when the “benefits” (which are negative) are known.

Could this analysis be wrong? Could the vaccine have saved lives?

No. Anecdotes like Apple Valley Village (mentioned above) are unexplainable.

The Pfizer Phase 3 clinical trial had more all-cause deaths in the treatment group than the placebo group, but the numbers were too small to be statistically significant. So the trials provide no visibility into the death “benefit.”

 

There are many others who have pointed out issues with the vaccines including this amazing video by John Beaudoin and the 1,200 articles I’ve written on my Substack.

Why did this happen?

Is there a biological basis for how the vaccine can make things worse? Yes!

The vaccine damages your immune system. See this article by Igor Chudov for a clinical trial done on kids with healthy immune systems.

Previous articles

See:

  1. US nursing home data shows clearly that the COVID vaccines made the elderly MORE likely to die from COVID. Whoops!
  2. UPenn Professor Jeffrey Morris tries to discredit me and fails…badly, very badly

The attempts to discredit the data and/or analysis

Here are the attempts to discredit my analysis of this data. At no point do any of these people point to the “correct” analysis showing that the data shows the vaccines reduced the death rate. Nor do any of the attacks actually have any numbers. They are all hand-waving attacks with no evidentiary support. The attack is in bold, the responses follow.

  1. You’re cherry picking your analysis window. The reference point in computing the OR and the ARR is completely arbitrary. I simply chose the most logical point: the week ending 12/6/20, which is just before the vaccines were publicly available for the elderly. Pick any other point and you’ll see that the OR increases and the ARR decreases. This is a stupid attack.
  2. This is a CFR, not an IFR. Technically true, but practically speaking, this is as close to the IFR as you will ever get in real life. If it makes you happy, simply replace all instances of IFR with CFR. It doesn’t change anything. Nursing homes were required to test all incoming patients for COVID and they tested anyone who was symptomatic. None of this changed throughout the period. These rules were in effect well before the vaccines rolled out.
  3. Odds ratios can be unstable. Yes, but not in this case.
  4. Apple Valley Village (AVV) was cherry picked. It’s not typical. First of all, I have insider information from only 5 nursing homes. So I picked it out of the 5 because it was one of 3 where I had insider information. Also, they had enough COVID deaths to make it interesting. And it was in a state where I had access to the death records. So AVV was the only nursing home where I had a complete 360 degree view of an “interesting” case: 1) in the Nursing database, 2) had access to the death records, 3) had inside access to an employee, and 4) had enough cases. So to cherry pick, you have to start with a bunch of cherries. I had 5, but only 1 with full info. Not cherry picked. And besides, even if I had the same info for all 15,000 facilities, they all should be explainable. When I asked Professor Morris to explain my real world example, he refused to offer an explanation and instead accused me of “cherry picking.” Is that how science works? When you can’t explain the observation, you accuse the other person of cherry picking? They can’t explain this data; it doesn’t fit their hypothesis. That’s the problem.
  5. AVV deaths were due to the COVID wave in January 2021. The facilities were overwhelmed; that’s why the death rate rose. No, the numbers don’t work out for you. The IFR for AVV was less than 1 in 30 before the vax. If the IFR remained flat, the 90 infections should have led to 3 deaths. But since the vaccine reduces death by 10X like NSW Health says, there should be 0 deaths. That wouldn’t overwhelm any system. How were there 30 deaths??And why aren’t you giving me any anecdotes supporting your hypothesis? Is that because there aren’t any?
  6. Your IFR is bogus because people could be transferred into the nursing home without being tested. Preparing for COVID-19 in Nursing Homes shows that the policy in effect on November 20, 2020 and beyond was to test all new admissions into nursing homes and anyone who is symptomatic. So the claim that people who transferred into nursing homes didn’t get tested is without evidentiary support.
  7. Infections went way down after the vaccines rolled out. If infections are falling the IFR can appear to be falsely inflated. Yes, that’s true if you don’t time offset the cases to match the deaths. I did a cross correlation between delayed cases (using current month and the 2 previous months) and achieved an r=.996 using weights .2, .6, and .2 which was designed specifically not to “overfit” the data. With that correction to cases, case rates can be falling or rising and the IFR will be relatively stable.
  8. When case rates are low, the IFR calculation can be inaccurate because ratios can be all over the place if infections are low; the law of large numbers no longer applies. My analysis focuses on the aggregated US data where this is not a problem. The p-values are absurdly small and the effect size is huge. And for the primary and booster shots, there was a clear cause and effect. Everything looked the way we expected it to look. If you have a specific issue that disqualifies the data, you need to show me exactly what it is with data and statistics, not a hand-waving argument.
  9. You don’t understand probability. Then why not show your analysis of the data?
  10. You didn’t disclose the disclaimer listed on the CMS website about why infections can be greater than cases. The disclaimer contains handwaving arguments with no evidentiary support that conflicts with what I know to be the case, e.g., nursing homes test incoming residents for COVID. There may be some exceptions, but the burden is on the challengers to show this effect is both real and significant. Hand-waving arguments don’t cut it.
  11. Cases come before deaths. You need to offset them to compute an accurate IFR. if cases are dropping, the time lag makes the OR computed on the same week exaggerated (makes it look more deadly even when it isn’t. I did that. If you think I got it wrong, show us your analysis.
  12. Why are you focusing on the US data? How do you explain the data in Sweden? Attempts to change the topic won’t work.
  13. Some facilities didn’t report deaths. Where is the evidence of this? There are certainly facilities who reported no deaths, but that could be because there weren’t any. Where is the proof that this attack changes the outcome?
  14. The PCR test is inaccurate. Yes it is, but that bias uniformly affected all reports and you cannot discredit this analysis by modeling this effect. If you can, show the analysis.
  15. Not everyone was tested for COVID. Agree. Only symptomatic cases were tested. This doesn’t change the results. If it does, show us.
  16. Some sites had more deaths than cases. If you filter these out, it doesn’t change the outcome.

If you want to read Professor Morris’s critique in his own words, you can find it here. Here are the quick answers to each item.

  1. I only need a consistent measure of the IFR. The fact that some cases and deaths aren’t reported is immaterial. It is the directionality that is key.
  2. The IFR came down when Omicron rolled out. It also comes down steadily as more people are infected and gain natural immunity. There is a survivor effect as well: the vulnerable die off. There is no evidence whatsoever linking the vaccine to the slow drop in IFR. If it was the vaccine, it would drop shortly after injection and it doesn’t.
  3. I only look at periods post primary vax and booster. These are not cherry picked. These are the areas of interest. If the vaccine worked, you’d see an immediate effect which wears off after 4 months. There’s no benefit there.
  4. I now lag the cases with a r-.996 between the lagged cases and deaths. The lag is 0, 1 week, and 2 weeks and gives that r value.
  5. The vaccine should have dropped the OR below the trendline. It went the wrong way. No spinning required. It’s obviously a problem.
  6. Natural immunity and survivor bias are constantly driving down the trendline shown. Omicron came on quickly and you can see it immediately drive down the OR line in late Dec 2021.
  7. I dismiss the effect of vaccination because 1) post vax, the rates went up and 2) there was a study recently done confirming that the vaccine damages your immune system, and 3) the Cleveland Clinic study confirmed that the more vaccines you got the weaker your immune system becomes thus explaining the higher rates of COVID in the vaccinated. If you have a better explanation for 2 and 3, let’s hear it.

I found his arguments lacking in any data or numbers to back them up. And he completely failed to explain AVV; he wouldn’t even attempt it.

 

I also invited him to submit to me his anecdote of a success case where the IFR in the nursing home dropped by 9X or more. I’d love to see it. After all, there should be hundreds of such homes. Can he name one?

The NSW government promised the OR would drop like a lead balloon

As noted above, the NSW Health authority claimed that risk of death drops by 10X. I’d love to see how the OR of death goes to .1 after the vaccine. Where is the data?

Where is their analysis of the CMS Medicare data?

This is gold standard data. They should be touting it. It’s been up for 2 years. Nothing. Not a peep. Nobody touched it. It’s basically a third rail for the narrative.

 

40% of the COVID deaths were in US nursing homes, so this is the #1 demographic to examine. The data was there. Why did they ignore it?

If there is a mortality benefit, where is the benefit curve post-vax and why is this kept hidden?

Where is their curve of the odds ratio of death from COVID post vaccine?

I haven’t seen it anywhere.

I asked Professor Morris for the correct IFR since he claims mine is wrong. He could not provide it.

If he doesn’t know the correct numbers, how can he know my numbers are wrong?

For more info

See my previous article where it talks about the only paper published referencing this data

See also my Twitter post:

 

Steve Kirsch-tweet-7September2023-US Nursing Home data from the CDC shows the COVID vaccines were a huge failure

Steve Kirsch-tweet-7September2023-US Nursing Home data from the CDC shows the COVID vaccines were a huge failure

Summary

The vaccines made things worse for the very population that it was supposed to help.

 

That’s why nobody ever published a favorable analysis of the US Nursing Home Data even though it has been out for 2 years.

 

The vaccines shouldn’t be used by anyone, especially those with a compromised immune system. It damages your immune system. People with a damaged immune system will be left with an even more damaged immune system.

 

When will the medical community acknowledge they made a huge mistake?

 

TOP


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They Suffered Myocarditis After COVID-19 Vaccination. Years Later, Some Still Haven’t Recovered.

By Zachary Stieber, Lia Onely | 20September2023 Updated: 21September2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/they-suffered-myocarditis-after-covid-19-vaccination-years-later-some-still-havent-recovered-5478652

 

Under pressure from the military and his mother, Jacob Cohen was feeling increasingly cornered.

Mr. Cohen did not want to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. He knew the shots had not been available for long. He was worried about their safety.

While Mr. Cohen initially resisted receiving a shot, he faced restrictions such as being forced to remain on base while vaccinated soldiers left. He was also pressured by military commanders, who scheduled a vaccination appointment for him and contacted his mother as part of a multipronged campaign.

“They told me, ‘Come on. It’s your mother. She’s crying. She’s worried. What wouldn’t you do for her?'” Mr. Cohen, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym because of concern about repercussions for going public, told The Epoch Times.

“I didn’t want to take the vaccine. I didn’t believe in it,” he said. But he wanted to appease his mother. “I would do anything for her.”

Mr. Cohen received his first shot, manufactured by Pfizer, on Sept. 22, 2021. He was 21.

Two weeks later, he was awakened by a sharp pain at 3 a.m.

“I felt like my heart was trying to get out of my chest,” Mr. Cohen said.

The soldier has felt pain before. “I never felt something like this,” he said.

Mr. Cohen went with a friend to the hospital, where he was placed in quarantine because he wasn’t fully vaccinated. Thirty minutes ticked by.

“I felt like it was the first time in my life I actually started seeing flashbacks of things that I did in my life—I felt like I was truly dying,” Mr. Cohen said.

 

U.S. Army soldiers prepare Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines at the Miami Dade College North Campus in North Miami on March 9, 2021. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Doctors finally came in and ran tests. They diagnosed Mr. Cohen with perimyocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle and the tissue around the heart.

They said Mr. Cohen was lucky. If he had come just a little later, he would have needed open heart surgery.

He spent three days in the hospital, taking medication and pills. When he was discharged, he was told not to engage in any physical activity for at least six months. He also needed to report for regular checkups and take a pill every day.

Six months after leaving the hospital, Mr. Cohen’s cardiac MRI showed concerning results. His heart still hadn’t recovered.

Doctors gave him more pills.

“They told me maybe I will need them for the rest of my life,” Mr. Cohen said.

The military marked him as unable to serve for the rest of his life, and released him.

To this day, he suffers.

“I’ve been feeling, I’m not sure if it’s trauma or something, but it feels sometimes like a sting there, a short sharp pain,” Mr. Cohen said.

He’s also unable to do all he used to do before.

“I was training. I was playing soccer. I did a lot of physical things, which now I can’t afford … to do anymore,” Mr. Cohen said.

‘Continued Pain’

Dr. Adam Hirschfeld was among the first people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States

The orthopedic surgeon was motivated by a desire to prevent his patients from becoming sick.

“I didn’t want to put any of my patients at risk,” Dr. Hirschfeld told The Epoch Times.

He received a Moderna primary series, composed of two doses, in January 2021. He was 36.

Three days after the second shot, Dr. Hirschfeld felt discomfort in his chest and numbness in his left arm.

A cardiac MRI confirmed evidence of heart inflammation. Dr. Hirschfeld was prescribed medicine and discharged two days later.

Dr. Hirschfeld has since undergone about a dozen electrocardiograms, another half a dozen echocardiograms, and a follow-up cardiac MRI.

“I went from being completely healthy—no issues, no medications—to seeing 10 different doctors in the blink of an eye,” Dr. Hirschfeld said.

The follow-up MRI, conducted about 18 months after the vaccinations, showed normal cardiac function.

But Dr. Hirschfeld still experiences pain.

“I have continued chest pain on the right side, and then I have neuropathic type pains in my neck and shoulder areas,” he told The Epoch Times. “I have it when I wake up, and it’s there when I go to sleep.”

The suffering affects the doctor physically and mentally.

“Having chest pain every day for two and a half years is very disconcerting,” he said.

Pfizer and Moderna didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Shots Cleared; Cases Appear

Mr. Cohen lives in Israel. Dr. Hirschfeld lives in the United States.

The first myocarditis cases after COVID-19 vaccination were reported in those countries in January 2021. Only a few weeks had elapsed since authorities cleared and recommended the shots for large portions of the population, including many young, healthy people.

 

A man receives the first dose of a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in Meitar, Israel, on March 9, 2021. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)

At first, authorities hid reports of myocarditis from the public. Israel first acknowledged there was a likely link between the shots and the inflammation. The United States finally followed in June 2021, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there was a “likely association.”

Even after the association was made public, officials and many experts claimed that the myocarditis cases were mild. Most patients were hospitalized, authorities acknowledged, but they said patients could expect to recover without treatment and with rest.

The myocarditis is “rare but mild,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC’s director at the time, said on “Good Morning America” on June 24, 2021.

Dr. Walensky said the cases were “self-limited,” or didn’t require treatment to resolve.

Then-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky speaks to reporters at a COVID-19 mass vaccination site at Hynes Convention Center in Boston on March 30, 2021. (Erin Clark-Pool/Getty Images)Dr. Jeremy Faust, editor-in-chief of MedPage Today and a teacher at Harvard Medical School, on Twitter two days later described the cases as “self-limited troponinemia,” or elevated troponin levels that would resolve on their own. Troponin is a protein in the heart that’s a marker of heart injury.

Those claims were already wrong at the time, based on case reports alone.

A previously healthy 24-year-old man in Massachusetts, for example, experienced chest pain so serious that he went to an emergency department, doctors reported on May 18, 2021. He was eventually discharged with a prescription for a beta-blocker and anti-inflammatory drugs and told not to engage in strenuous activity for three months.

Another early case involved a previously healthy 16-year-old boy in California who experienced “stabbing chest pain” and went to the emergency department for help. He described the pain as 6 to 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. The symptoms prompted doctors to admit him to intensive care. He spent six days in the hospital before being discharged.

Like many early case reports, no follow-up data were reported, making it impossible to say that the cases had fully resolved.

“Unless you’ve experienced it individually, you can’t tell somebody that their case was mild,” Dr. Hirschfeld said. “If you have elevated troponin, that’s your cardiac muscle breaking down.

“That’s something that’s permanent. And so to tell me that my cardiac muscle breaking down is mild is pretty insulting.”

Signs of persistent symptoms appeared in the literature before long. U.S. military researchers, for instance, stated on June 29, 2021, that seven of 23 patients continued to have chest discomfort weeks or even months later. Dire outcomes were known even earlier. Two deaths were reported to U.S. authorities in February 2021, while another two were reported in Israel in the spring. Both of the Israelis who died were previously young and healthy.

Professional Biker Affected

Kyle Warner was a professional mountain bike racer when he received his first COVID-19 vaccine in May 2021. He completed a primary series the following month.

Mr. Warner, who lives in the western United States, teaches older people and wanted to protect them from COVID-19. The CDC and others promoted the idea that the vaccines curbed or even prevented transmission based on observational data.

“The sentiment was these are safe and effective. If you get them, you don’t need to wear a mask anymore, and you can’t transmit COVID or catch COVID,” Mr. Warner told The Epoch Times. “I spend quite a bit of time around older people and help them learn.

“I wasn’t necessarily afraid of COVID myself. Not that I did respect it, but I wasn’t worried it was going to kill me,” he added. “But I was worried about getting someone else sick, especially when I’m with our older clients.”

 

A woman receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the Corona High School gymnasium in Corona, Calif., on Jan.15, 2021. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Mr. Warner was diagnosed with myopericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination and was hospitalized.

After being discharged, Mr. Warner was bedridden for weeks.

“There’s points where I was unable to even get up out of bed without passing out or blacking out,” Mr. Warner told The Epoch Times. “It was really eye-opening. I felt like I went from being 28 years old to being 88 years old.”

Mr. Warner was diagnosed with myopericarditis and two other conditions—postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and mast cell activation syndrome—that others have also been diagnosed with following COVID-19 vaccination.

Hyperbaric oxygen, which has relieved some of Dr. Hirschfeld’s pain, helped bring Mr. Warner’s energy levels back up.

But the cyclist, who didn’t ride again until February 2022, still struggles with pain, especially when he exercises in the summer.

Mr. Warner utilizes a heart rate monitor, which he became familiar with in his racing career.

During a recent ride, Mr. Warner pushed himself, trying his hardest for four minutes. That sent his heart rate up to 189 beats per minute—the highest since the injury.

“I did OK, but then the next few weeks, I had a kind of a lingering chest pain and tightness. And about four days after, it was pretty significant where I was having a hard time sleeping and my heart felt like it was palpitating every once in a while, and then—even more than a week later—I still had a little bit of chest tightness and pain,” Mr. Warner said.

“It kind of scared me because it’s been well over a year since my last treatment with hyperbaric and I’m still dealing with it. And when I do try to push myself harder, then I have to pay for the next few days to a week.

“Back in the day, I would be able to do that with no problem at all.”

Doctors who have spoken to Mr. Warner have told him that when his heart becomes stressed, it signals his immune system to attack and inflame it.

He tries to keep his heart rate under 160 beats per minute.

A man monitors his heart rate using a fitness tracker. (ThamKC/Shutterstock)

14-Year-Old Rushed to Hospital

Aiden Ekanayake woke up in the middle of the night.

“Every breath deeper in was like knives in my chest,” Aiden, who is from Georgia, said during a podcast appearance.

It was June 12, 2021, two days after Aiden received a second shot of Pfizer’s vaccine. He was 14.

Aiden was able to fall asleep through shallow breathing, but was soon awakened. He went to his mother, who rushed him to the hospital.

Tests revealed abnormalities. Aiden was taken to the acute cardiac unit, where more tests confirmed that the vaccine was the cause.

Aiden spent four days in the hospital. After being discharged, he was inactive for more than four months.

“I don’t know where they get this ‘two days and you’re done, you’re good.’ That’s a crock of [expletive],” Emily Ekanayake, Aiden’s mother, told The Epoch Times.

Ms. Ekanayake had read early studies from Israel that found an elevated risk for myocarditis among young males who had received the Pfizer vaccine, but concluded with her son that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks.

“I was really scared of COVID,” Ms. Ekanayake said.

Aiden said he wanted to get vaccinated to help protect himself and his brother, both of whom have asthma.

Aiden’s doctor also recommended the shot. Shortly before Aiden was vaccinated, the CDC director said the agency found no safety signal for myocarditis. U.S. officials cleared and recommended the vaccine to virtually all children aged 12 to 15, after initially only making it available to those 16 and older.

Aiden Ekanayake in a hospital in June 2021. (Courtesy of Emily Ekanayake)

Aiden eventually resumed exercise after being cleared by a cardiopulmonary stress test.

The result of the test was “probably more like that of an old man,” Ms. Ekanayake said. “His CO2 was low. He wasn’t able to run much. He’s got a lot of work in that way to go still. But he does like walking.

“I still worry about strenuous activity. I can’t help it. I don’t know that that will ever go away.”

‘Half a Human Being’

Alon was a competitive swimmer who trained every single day before he received his Pfizer vaccine.

But in addition to the round trip to get to the pool, the Israeli boy needed to stand in line to take a test for COVID-19.

School also was an issue. Fellow students would often get sick, triggering a quarantine of those who weren’t vaccinated.

“There was no chance to arrive to school and not be informed the next day that someone is sick and you [need to] be in quarantine,” Alon’s mother, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of professional repercussions, told The Epoch Times. “It’s impossible. It’s like putting a child in prison for doing no wrong.”

Alon’s mother saw vaccinated people become sick despite the vaccine, erasing her belief that the shot protected people. But she heard little about possible side effects and decided that the benefits, including keeping her son in school, meant he should receive the shot.

“He was tired of the quarantines and tests,” she said.

 

Students are tested for COVID-19 at Brandeis Elementary School in Louisville, Ky., on Aug. 17, 2021. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

The first shot was injected on Dec. 3, 2021; the second shot was on Dec. 24, 2021. Alon was 9.

A few days later, Alon fell into a deep sleep.

“It was scary,” Alon’s mother said.

Doctors ran tests, including checking his heart. They couldn’t discern what was awry.

“The child is not functioning,” Alon’s mother said. “He was like half a human for the whole month.”

The breakthrough came when Alon said, “My heart hurts.” Fresh testing revealed myocarditis. It was induced by the vaccination, doctors concluded.

Alon spent the night at the hospital before being discharged. He returned a week later with chest pain. Tests showed normalization.

Alon suffered from other problems over the months that followed. He lost his sight. His leg swelled. His lymph nodes became enlarged.

Follow-up visits found no heart problems. The other symptoms eventually resolved and Alon was cleared to resume sports. He plays for hours each day. But nearly two years later, he still suffers.

“He has periods when his heart hurts,” Alon’s mother said. “Sometimes for a few months, everything is fine. And then suddenly, it comes back.”

She has opted to take her son to the doctor only when emergencies arise. Any time he sees a doctor, he becomes sick. And he refuses to take any more blood tests.

“Maybe it is a sore muscle there. The heart is normal and suddenly, it is very tight for a few seconds,” Alon’s mother said. “It goes away. We avoid tests of any sort. If I don’t feel it’s life and death, I don’t take him to the doctor.”

Worst Pain in His Life

Ben Cutler loved to go to the gym. He worked out five days a week.

Because he didn’t want to become infected by the new Omicron variant, Mr. Cutler received a Moderna booster shot on Dec. 14, 2021. He was 26.

The next day, Mr. Cutler began to experience symptoms such as fatigue. He went to sleep early, but at 2:30 a.m., he was startled awake.

 

(Left) Ben Cutler on Nov. 21, 2021, before he received a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster shot. (Right) Ben Cutler in a hospital in Massachusetts on Dec. 19, 2021, after suffering COVID-19-vaccine-induced myopericarditis. (Courtesy of Ben Cutler)

“I woke up and have never felt so terrible in my life,” Mr. Cutler wrote in a summary of his experience.

After several days of trying to sleep the pain away, a family member convinced the Massachusetts resident to go to the hospital.

Doctors ran tests and found troponin-T levels almost 90 times the normal maximum levels.

Mr. Cutler was diagnosed with myopericarditis. He was eventually dischargedbut his ordeal wasn’t over.

“It was good that I could work from home. And I could start working at 7 or 8 a.m. and then work until like 2ish and then just lay on my couch for like seven hours,” Mr. Cutler told The Epoch Times.

A 10-minute walk to the grocery store, Mr. Cutler said, would have been the only exercise he could manage in a day. He described having to “budget” his energy.

After about two months, his condition started to improve. The pain dropped to 3s on some days. Then 2s. Then zeros.

By the end of April 2022, Mr. Cutler was able to begin lifting weights again. A follow-up cardiac MRI revealed a small fibrosis, or scar, but he feels he has recovered.

“I haven’t been having any major issues,” he said. “Everything’s pretty good.”

Evidence Builds

The stories bolster the growing body of evidence that has found a significant portion of people who suffer vaccine-induced myocarditis are affected for months or years, if they survive.

U.S. researchers who followed up with 15 children hospitalized with myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination revealed on Aug. 10, 2021, that four of the patients had “persistent symptoms.” Other U.S. researchers announced on Nov. 1, 2021, that seven of 54 young patients who suffered myocarditis after vaccination still experienced symptoms, including chest pain.

 

Nearly half of myocarditis patients who responded to a U.S. government survey said that months after COVID-19 vaccination, they continued to experience symptoms, including chest pain, government researchers said on Sept. 21, 2022. Meanwhile, 35 percent of 28 young myocarditis patients followed up with at least 61 days after COVID-19 vaccination reported continued symptoms such as shortness of breath, Hong Kong researchers said on Sept. 23, 2022.

“Although post-COVID-19 vaccination myocarditis has a favorable prognosis and is considered curable, it may leave abnormalities in the myocardium, as observed in this case; it may therefore be premature to declare it as a complication with a good prognosis,” Japanese researchers said in 2022.

More recent data have shown that some patients still haven’t recovered.

That includes 23 percent of 60 people who told the CDC that at least one year after being diagnosed with myocarditis, they were still experiencing chest pain.

Other papers have found that even when symptoms abate, follow-up testing reveals abnormalities.

Cars line up for a mass COVID-19 vaccination event in Denver on Janu. 30, 2021. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

Heart scars were detected in cardiac MRIs conducted seven to eight months after the myocarditis diagnoses, Israeli researchers said on March 23, 2022. U.S. researchers described similar results in a study published around the same time. Other U.S. researchers who imaged 15 adolescents at least 76 days after they were discharged from a hospital found persistent late gadolinium enhancement in 80 percent of the patients.

Researchers often use abnormal levels of late gadolinium enhancement as an indication of heart scarring.

In myocarditis cases before the pandemic, the enhancement was often a sign of poor outcomes such as heart transplantation or death.

“It’s going to be a small percentage of the people that recovered from myocarditis, but some of them could be in for longer-term problems and morbidity, and some of them may develop actual disability,” Dr. Andrew Bostom, a U.S. heart expert, told The Epoch Times.

While most patients experienced “mild myocarditis, which is mostly gone, it’s true that scars can remain, because it’s an inflammation of the heart muscle,” Dr. Yehuda Adler, a member of the Israeli Ministry of Health’s National Council for Prevention and Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases, told The Epoch Times. “I’m definitely following these people even today, two years later, and I’ll continue to follow them.”

Not all patients have persistent symptoms or abnormalities. Some have seen a full resolution of their symptoms, combined with no abnormal signs in follow-up testing.

Dr. Rabea Asleh, director of the heart failure unit and the cardiovascular research center at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, said his team is also following patients to make sure they’re OK.

He told The Epoch Times that all but one of his patients have stopped experiencing symptoms.

“If this has any clinical significance regarding the flare-up of the disease later on or the deterioration in function after a few years, we do not know,” Dr. Asleh said, “but deterioration in function after a few years is unlikely.”

Dr. Bostom said he wasn’t so sure. “One thing that I’m certain of is that the jury is out,” he said. “We need to collect a lot more information and see how people are really doing long term, particularly the young people.”

Questionable Pressure

Many young people received COVID-19 vaccines under pressure, such as Mr. Cohen.

Israeli military authorities punished the unvaccinated with actions ranging from taking away their leave to making them wear a special vest and isolate in their quarters.

Military personnel receive a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a military base in Rishon Lezion, Israel, on Dec. 28, 2020. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

“This is a population of young and healthy soldiers, in whom COVID is mild and transient, and there is no justified reason to vaccinate them,” Dr. Yoav Yehezkelli, a specialist in internal medicine and medical management, said on Facebook. “Vaccinating the soldiers was not only folly but a lack of professionalism and a violation of medical ethics.”

 

 

Others, like Alon, faced repeated interruptions to their daily lives if they didn’t receive a vaccine, despite evidence suggesting that post-infection immunity is broad and superior to that from vaccination.

CDC studies later found that the immunity that develops following recovery, known as natural immunity, was better than vaccination against the Delta and Omicron virus variants.

Top U.S. officials made false claims about vaccine effectiveness, such as claiming vaccinated people couldn’t become sick or transmit the virus, in their bid to convince fence-sitters to get vaccinated.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of health policy at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. (Tal Atzmon/The Epoch Times)

“You can’t make that logical leap even in December of 2020. And yet, they made that logical leap,” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of health policy at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders.”

“They premised their policy recommendations—the vaccine passports, the mandates, the coercion, and also the gaslighting of people who are actually vaccine-injured, on this idea that we have to get a sufficient fraction of the population vaccinated for the disease to go away.”

The hype around the vaccines led to a number of U.S. universities to mandate them, even after researchers concluded that booster mandates were unethical, in part because they were associated with more serious adverse events than hospitalizations caused. The federal government also imposed mandates on the military, workers, contractors, and private health care facilities.
The White House has defended the mandates.

“Our administration’s vaccination requirements helped ensure the safety of workers in critical workforces including those in the healthcare and education sectors, protecting themselves and the populations they serve, and strengthening their ability to provide services without disruptions to operations,” it said in a recent statement.

Common Symptoms and Treatments

Nearly all people who develop myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination suffer from chest pain, doctors have found.

A meta-analysis of reports describing 200 cases, for instance, found that 98 percent of patients presented with chest pain. Fever and difficulty breathing were also common symptoms.

Patients often suffer symptoms within a week of vaccination, according to case reports, surveillance databases, and patients.

Early detection and treatment can be critical to prevent further deterioration. Exercise restrictions are imposed on most patients until they pass a cardiac stress test.

The point of the test is to detect lingering problems in a controlled setting, in which the patient exercises at less than maximum capacity, Dr. Anish Koka, a U.S. cardiologist, told The Epoch Times. Problems detected on the test may preclude participation in competitive sports and may require invasive therapies such as defibrillator placement.

Some health officials and doctors have said the myocarditis resolves without treatment, but many patients have received drugs.

Colchicine, typically used to treat gout, has been favored by many doctors.

Mr. Cohen was initially prescribed colchicine. He was directed later to daily take Tritace, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor that’s meant to treat hypertension following serious problems such as heart failure.

Mr. Cutler took aspirin for two weeks. He replaced colchicine with ibuprofen after experiencing back pain.

Other treatments include intravenous immunoglobulin, a pooled antibody; beta-blockers; anti-inflammatory medications such as methylprednisolone; and rampiril, another angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor.

Treatments for myocarditis include methylprednisolone (L), colchicine (C), ibuprofen (R). (Felipe Caparros, GeorgiosKostomitsopoulos, George Martin Studio/Shutterstoc

‘Ignored’

Several common themes link the myocarditis patients who are speaking out. That includes the feeling that they were tricked into receiving the shots.

“You start to realize that basically the authorities, first of all, they knew about these possible side effects. They just chose not to disclose it, or disclose it only in the few websites in the small letters,” Mr. Cohen said.

Mr. Warner recounted growing up on welfare and coming to see the government as being there to help him. He now views parts of the government as corrupted by financial incentives, including the kickbacks it allegedly received from Moderna.

Patients also feel abandoned.

 

“A lot of us are still dealing with significant issues that I think are being ignored,” Dr. Hirschfeld said.

It hasn’t helped that U.S. authorities, who have aggressively promoted the vaccines, have refused to provide compensation to many sufferers or otherwise assist them.

Just three people who suffered post-vaccination myocarditis have been compensated by U.S. authorities, who are responsible for compensation because the vaccine manufacturers are shielded from liability. The highest payout was just $3,957.66.

Both Ms. Ekanayake and Mr. Cutler applied for compensation, but still haven’t heard back. While the bulk of Aiden’s medical bills were covered by insurance, his parents have still had to pay close to $10,000 out of pocket. Mr. Cutler paid about $5,000 due to high deductibles.

An enormous backlog of applications remains, and some who have been diagnosed with vaccine injuries have been denied.

The myocarditis patients largely spoke about receiving the support of family and friends as they recovered. But not all.

“I was disowned by many of my friends for speaking out about this early on,” Mr. Warner said. “It’s been interesting to see so many of them come back around and apologize to me.”

 

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Amish Paradise?

The Amish have discovered the fountain of youth

Doc Anarchy
17July2023 ∙ Paid https://docanarchy.substack.com/p/amish-paradise

 

Turns out, the Amish are healthy people. For some reason, this made national headlines, despite everyone with a functioning brain knowing this to be true.

 

The reason this story blew up is Steve Kirsch’s testimony to the Pennsylvania State Senate a few weeks back. In his testimony, he argued that the Amish were an excellent control group for the vaccinated vs unvaccinated populations. We’ll cover that later in the article.

 

That same testimony is what I have repeatedly found as the source of the claim that the Amish have zero autism, very little chronic disease, and very little cancer.

 

Let me start by saying, I haven’t been able to find the actual study. I searched for quite a while and the only thing I could find was this article by The Vigilant Fox . If you aren’t reading Fox’s work, you should.

Amish Healthcare

Everyone knows the Amish have some peculiar lifestyle traits. They follow strict rules as to what they can and cannot do, live far away from modern civilization, and have a tight-knit community.

 

Turns out, healthcare isn’t something they are forbidden from accepting. They are welcome, and in some cases encouraged, to seek medical care when needed.

 

The difference between the Amish and the average American is the Amish seek medical care when they actually need it. Before going to the doctor they seek guidance from elders and other experienced people in the community. They prefer to try natural remedies or home remedies before medicine. They give the body time to heal whatever ails it first.

 

If the body cannot heal itself and the natural remedies don’t work, they seek medical care from modern healthcare practitioners.

 

Compare this to the average American who goes to the hospital every time they stub their toe, blasted with X-rays, put on antibiotics, and then transferred to Hospice.

 

Yes, that’s an exaggeration. But the healthcare utilization rate in most of America is off the charts. Simply staying away from modern healthcare is a good way to extend your life. That means fewer unnecessary tests, a healthier environment, and less risk of medical error.

 

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Florida Doctor Reinstated After Losing Board Certification for Criticizing COVID-19 Vaccines

With money raised for legal fees, physician plans to help medical students under pressure to submit to ‘woke’ ideology

Dr. John Littell speaks at a press conferencein Kissimmee, Fla., on Oct. 13, 2022, about people he says were injured by COVID-19 vaccines and government-recommended treatment protocols for the disease. (Nanette Holt/The Epoch Times)

Dr. John Littell speaks at a press conferencein Kissimmee, Fla., on Oct. 13, 2022, about people he says were injured by COVID-19 vaccines and government-recommended treatment protocols for the disease. (Nanette Holt/The Epoch Times)

By Natasha Holt
2September2023 Updated: 3September2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/florida-doctor-reinstated-after-losing-board-certification-for-criticizing-covid-19-vaccines-5480957

 

A Florida physician known for being outspoken about COVID-related topics has regained his board certification that was stripped because he publicly criticized COVID vaccines.

 

Now, Dr. John Littell is moving forward from the experience with plans to help future physicians defend themselves when disciplined for voicing viewpoints that are not in the majority, he told The Epoch Times.

 

Dr. Littell, a longtime family physician in Ocala and a medical school professor, began posting videos sharing his thoughts about COVID-19 testing, treatments, and vaccines early in the pandemic. He was frustrated to find his content often was pulled down from his YouTube channel.

 

But he fought against what he saw as censorship by moving the content to other platforms, such as Rumble, he said.

Then, in January 2022 and again five months later, he received warning letters from the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM), the organization that issued his certification for his medical specialty.

 

The letter stated that his videos on YouTube and Rumble spread “medical misinformation” and could put his board certification in jeopardy, he said.

See:  YouTube’s New Policy: Censor Americans Who Disagree With World Health Organization | Facts Matter

The ABFM declined to comment on the matter because the board’s “policy indicates we are unable to comment about professionalism cases,” an unidentified spokesperson said in an email to The Epoch Times.

 

The ABFM is the third largest of the 24 boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties. More than 100,000 family medicine doctors are certified by the board, according to its website.

Protesters concerned about treatment of people who died while being treated for COVID-19 stand outside a board meeting at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Fla., on Feb. 21, 2023. (Courtesy of Tanya Parus)

Protesters concerned about treatment of people who died while being treated for COVID-19 stand outside a board meeting at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Fla., on Feb. 21, 2023. (Courtesy of Tanya Parus)

To keep their certification, physicians must uphold the board’s ethical standards and “guidelines for professionalism, licensure, and personal conduct,” the website states.

 

In letters from the board, Dr. Littell was told his public statements violated those guidelines. Dr. Littell responded to the letters and continued to speak publicly and post videos about the subjects, he said.

 

Months later, when he didn’t hear back, he said he thought the threat was gone.

“I was very happily under the radar,” he said.

 

Exposing the FDA’s Orwellian Lie About Ivermectin | CLIP | Facts Matter

Outrage Over Ivermectin

 

That changed after he was escorted out of a Sarasota Memorial Hospital board meeting in February for approaching a board member behind the dais. He wanted to thank the board member, he said, for letting him speak at the meeting. He didn’t realize that move would be seen as inappropriate, he said. 

 

Though he’s cared for many patients in hospitals, he’d never attended a hospital board meeting, let alone a contentious one, he said.

 

That day, medical freedom activists filled the boardroom to speak against the public hospital’s policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many were angry their loved ones were denied the opportunity to try ivermectin, an antiparasitic for humans and animals widely used by some in treating COVID-19, and other treatments.

 

Dr. Littell spoke cordially to board members from the podium, an Epoch Times reporter confirmed. He told board members how treating patients with ivermectin had been his key to success in helping them recover. And he praised hospital personnel for their work during the pandemic.

 

Shortly after that, security guards escorted him outside.

Retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn, who served briefly as national security advisor for former President Donald Trump, attended a board meeting of Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Fla., on Feb. 21, 2023 (Chris Nelson for The Epoch Times)

Retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn, who served briefly as national security advisor for former President Donald Trump, attended a board meeting of Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Fla., on Feb. 21, 2023 (Chris Nelson for The Epoch Times)

A video of Dr. Littell’s removal from the meeting by security guards was posted to social media and received millions of views and media coverage. And that thrust him back in the spotlight as a doctor vocal about COVID-19 policies.
“I had a target on my back,” he said.

He questioned whether someone else would have been removed for the same reason.

 

Many doctors have faced consequences for questioning the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines and for advocating for the use of medicines such as ivermectin in the treatment of the disease.

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrote in one social media post about ivermectin: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” It linked to a page entitled “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19.”

 

Three doctors sued the FDA over the statements, saying it had no power to tell doctors which drugs to prescribe.

On Sept. 1, a federal court ruled that the agency likely overstepped its authority when it told Americans to “stop” using ivermectin against COVID-19. The FDA can inform, but has “no authority” to recommend consumers “stop” taking medicine, U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett wrote in the ruling.

Accused of ‘Spreading False’ Information

The month after Dr. Littell spoke in Sarasota, the board sent a letter saying he’d been de-certified for “spreading false, inaccurate, and misleading materials about COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccination, and treatment and mitigation of the virus,” The Epoch Times confirmed.

 

A letter reviewed by The Epoch Times stated that if Dr. Littell appealed the decision within 20 days, he would continue to be represented by the board, pending a review of his case by the professionalism committee of the ABFM board of directors.

 

The reason for the decision to review his record was because of his past suggestions the COVID-19 vaccine was a product of genetic engineering, causing deaths in children and causing the rise of the Delta variant, the letter indicated. It also referenced “false” statements made by Drs. Ryan Cole and Robert Malone, who spoke at a medical freedom conference Dr. Littell organized in October 2022.

 

In the letter, the board also criticized Dr. Littell for “offering to provide medical exemptions from vaccination” to patients across the country and “publicly comparing the U.S. public health system’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to Nazi Germany.”

 

After receiving the troubling letter, Dr. Littell sought the help of attorney Jeff Childers, a business attorney in Gainesville, Florida. Since the COVID-19 lockdowns began, Mr. Childers has become active in lawsuits around the country related to medical freedom. He authors a daily blog called Coffee and Covid, which started by chronicling COVID-19 issues and now tracks other social and political issues, as well.

 

Mr. Childers crafted a 64-page appeal to the board, dissecting every accusation made against Dr. Littell, an Epoch Times reporter confirmed. And as word of the threat to Dr. Littell’s board certification spread—a move that would prevent him from practicing medicine—medical freedom activists rose up to take his side.

Florida attorney Jeff Childers. (Amber Bertrand for The Epoch Times)

Florida attorney Jeff Childers. (Amber Bertrand for The Epoch Times)

A GiveSendGo.com campaign was started to collect donations to fund his legal fees. More than 6,400 people donated almost $255,000. And more than 1,900 pledged to pray for Dr. Littell.

 

The Global Covid Summit, an international group of doctors focused on medical freedom in COVID-19 treatment, sent a letter signed by 169 doctors to the ABFM in support of Dr. Littell. In the letter, they argued that the board was false in every accusation made against Dr. Littell.

 

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo also voiced support for Dr. Littell.

“What they’re doing is being a bully,” he said in an interview with The Floridian. “It’s not going to age well.

“I read the letter from the Board, and it’s dripping with political animosity.”

Both Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and Dr. Littell’s congresswoman, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) sent letters in his defense to the board, Dr. Littell said.

 

“I’ve got to believe it’s not in the dozens, but probably in the hundreds of people who called and sent letters to the American Board of Family Medicine,” Dr. Littell said. “I never asked them to, but that is what was happening.”

 

In July, Dr. Littell received word that the board had reviewed his case and retroactively de-certified him for three months, from March 16 to June 16. He never stopped seeing patients.

 

“It’s like a slap on the wrist so they’d feel good about it, but wouldn’t, presumably, have to face any legal action,” he said.

His attorney agreed.

“They did it in a very face-saving way,” Mr. Childers said.

But ultimately, he’s pleased with the decision.

“We were really surprised and gratified that we were able to achieve that result,” Mr. Childers said.

Dr. Littell credits it to being “a God thing” that he was able to keep caring for patients and face a decertification period only retroactively.

 

“If they had said I was decertified, I would not have been able to do what I was doing. I mean, especially with the hospital care patients. I could have gotten into big trouble.”

 

He still may face consequences for having the blemish on his record, he said. He’ll have to report it to the hospitals at which he works and explain what happened, he said.

 

“Every time I go up for privileges with a hospital or any other institution, they’re going to say, ‘Well, has your license ever been suspended or revoked, and has your board certification ever been revoked?’ So, it’s still an issue. It’s not like you can just forget about it.”

 

He’s been advised by some other doctors, such as cardiologist Peter McCullough, to pursue legal action for the disciplinary measure they feel was wrong, he said.

Continuing to Speak Out

Dr. Littell continues to speak out about the same topics. So he suspects he’ll face retribution again, he said.

“The way I read the letter, it’s sort of like a warning,” Dr. Littell said.

The board, he said, seemed to be sending the warning, “If you act up again, we know it’s a privilege to have this board certification, and it can be removed at any time.”

And the next time, the punishment is likely to escalate.

“The implication is that if it happens again, it’s going to be more than just three months,” Mr. Childers said.

Around the country, a slew of doctors had board certifications removed and licensure threatened for sharing their COVID-related opinions.

 

“Most people would probably be surprised to find out there’s a lot of this going on, now that the pandemic is over,” Mr. Childers said. “From what I’ve heard, there’s probably more challenges to doctor licensing right now than at any other time.”

 

But because most doctors aren’t vocal about receiving discipline, it’s hard to know exactly how often it’s occurring, he said.

Doctors who have been active on social media seem to be targeted more often by medical authorities, he said.

Dr. Peter McCullough speaks in the Mississippi capitol building on COVID-19 vaccine adverse events. (Courtesy of Charlotte Stringer Photography)

Dr. Peter McCullough speaks in the Mississippi capitol building on COVID-19 vaccine adverse events. (Courtesy of Charlotte Stringer Photography)

Doctors who were not actively posting their thoughts about COVID-19 on social media “should feel very confident that if they follow a similar approach to what Dr. Littell did, they could hope for a good result at this point,” he said.

 

Obtaining good legal advice is key, he said. It also helps to spread the word.

“All too often doctors either ignore these kinds of letters until it’s too late because they’re embarrassed, or they try to handle it on their own,” he said.

 

“It’s important that people know when this happens. And if they’ll let folks know, they’ll find that they get a lot of support.”

Dr. Littell has no plans to keep quiet about what he feels went wrong during the COVID-19 pandemic

“I’m not letting up,” he said.

He’s organizing his third annual medical freedom summit in November called “Food, Family & Medical Freedom” in Ocala, Florida at the World Equestrian Center.

Helping Future Doctors

He intends to use the remaining money donated to his legal fund to help others respond to similar licensure problems, especially threats faced by medical students, he said.

 

He’s trying “to come up with a legal, legislative, and public relations strategy that helps future physicians,” he said. When they see practicing doctors disciplined and “raked over the coals” for speaking out about medical freedom issues, it deters good people from pursuing a degree in medicine, he said.

 

“I would like the medical freedom fighters, as I’m calling them, to create a sanctuary for pre-med, especially, and medical school students.”

 

“Early on, even in the colleges, they weed out the physicians who dare to question the narrative or challenge it,” he said, of those who insist that doctors decrees made by federal health agencies.

 

But asking questions and challenging prevailing thought is important to the goal of continually improving medical treatments, he said.

 

“And that intellectual curiosity is what we’re so desperately lacking now in medicine, and in most professions.”

He also envisions the network expanding to help connect like-minded educators in colleges, universities, and medical schools to share their ideas without fear of being in opposition to “woke” ideology, he said.

 

He hopes to see that network push back against “lockstep mentality” and help students who are suffering because of it.

Medical students taught by Dr. Littell often tell him how difficult it is to be entering the field of medicine at this time, he said.

 

One student told him that his second-year class was forced to be vaccinated for COVID-19, he said. Classmates were told by their university they’d be “thrown out” of medical school in two weeks if they didn’t comply, Dr. Littell said.

Medical freedom activists upset about COVID-19 vaccines and other issues gather to voice concerns to lawmakers on the first day of the Florida Legislature's annual regular session at the Capitol in Tallahassee on March 7, 2023. (Courtesy of Justin Harvey)

Medical freedom activists upset about COVID-19 vaccines and other issues gather to voice concerns to lawmakers on the first day of the Florida Legislature’s annual regular session at the Capitol in Tallahassee on March 7, 2023. (Courtesy of Justin Harvey)

The student told him that, although more than half the class didn’t want the vaccine, they felt they had no other option, Dr. Littell said. Weeks later, the mandate was lifted. But it was too late—many students already had submitted to getting the shot they didn’t want.

 

“It’s like they [university officials] were playing games,” he said. “And the students didn’t know any better.

“They just don’t have enough support,” Dr. Littell lamented. “They want to say things, but they’re afraid they’re going to get disciplined if they speak out.”

 

He sees bringing people together to unite in their pushback against prevailing opinions as a revolutionary concept.

“It’s really no different than what our Founding Fathers did,” Dr. Littell said. “They realized that they were victims of repression. But there also were people comfortable with the status quo. That’s what is in our medical schools right now and is what we all need to fight against.

 

“People should be allowed to question and use their God-given intellect, and not be censored or disciplined for doing so.”

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

Natasha Holt
Author
Natasha Holt studies journalism at a Florida university with plans to pursue a career in media and law. A seventh-generation Floridian, she digs into a wide range of issues in her home state, with a focus on the people, places, and ideas that make America great. When she’s not on assignment, she enjoys ranch life, training and caring for her family’s horses and competing in dressage.

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People Rarely Transmit COVID-19 Before Experiencing Symptoms: Lancet Study

by Tyler Durden, 06September2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/people-rarely-transmit-covid-19-experiencing-symptoms-lancet-study

 

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

 

In a blow to the COVID-19 “silent spreader” narrative that has been used to push for universal masking, including controversially among schoolchildren, a recent study published in The Lancet suggests that people who are non-symptomatic rarely have the ability to infect others.

 

Silent transmission is the idea that those who are infected with COVID-19 but show no symptoms can still spread the virus to other people.

 

While all relevant studies show that presymptomatic and asymptomatic “silent spreaders” account for some proportion of infections in other people, the degree of silent transmission is less clear.

 

A number of early studies—in some cases affected by limitations that may have led to their proportion of presymptomatic transmission to be “artifactually inflated”—suggested that silent transmission accounted for around half of secondary infections, or even more.

 

The early studies led public health authorities to argue that everyone should wear a mask at all times when out in public or crowded places. This, in turn, helped drive draconian universal masking policies, including in schools, in a bid to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

 

For instance, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), initially discouraged universal mask-wearing early in the pandemic but later did a U-turn.

 

Initially, “we didn’t realize the extent of asymptotic spread,” Dr. Fauci said in July 2020, adding that later, “we fully realized that there are a lot of people who are asymptomatic who are spreading infection.”

 

So it became clear that we absolutely should be wearing masks consistently,” Dr. Fauci said at the time.

But new research calls into question the significance of the threat of silent transmission, which comes as COVID-19 cases are on the rise in America, driving what some are calling a renewed pandemic “hysteria” and calls for a fresh round of restrictions, including mask mandates.

‘Very Few Emissions’ Before Symptom Onset

The new study, published in the August issue of The Lancet’s Microbe journal, shows that people who are sick with COVID-19 but don’t show any symptoms have a limited ability to spread the virus to other people.

 

Participants in the British study, which was carried out by researchers at Imperial College London, were unvaccinated healthy adults aged 18-30 who were intentionally infected with COVID-19.

 

The subjects were monitored under controlled circumstances while self-reporting symptoms three times per day, and researchers collected nose and throat swabs from them daily, checking for the presence of the virus.

 

The researchers also tested the inside of masks worn by the participants, checked their hands, and examined the air and surfaces of rooms that the subjects were kept in for a minimum of 14 days.

Ultimately, the researchers found that less than 10 percent of the viral emissions from infected participants took place before the first symptoms emerged.

 

Very few emissions occurred before the first reported symptom (7%) and hardly any before the first positive lateral flow antigen test (2%),” the authors of the study wrote.

 

The new study—which takes the form of a rigorous, controlled “challenge study” rather than the earlier modeling studies that relied on subjective inputs and assumptions of researchers—contradicts earlier research that set the tone for much of the prevailing narrative. That early research appears to have inflated the perceived threat of presymptomatic spread.

 

The latest study, suggesting that silent transmission is far less significant, comes amid a growing drumbeat of alarm as COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are on the rise—along with calls in some circles for renewed restrictions.

 

By contrast, many are calling for cool heads to prevail—or are urging civil disobedience if lockdowns or other mandates are reimposed.

‘Artifactually Inflated’?

Some early studies, such as one published in August 2020 called “Temporal Dynamics In Viral Shedding and Transmissibility of COVID-19,” suggested that people who were presymptomatic or asymptomatic accounted for a large proportion of secondary infections.

 

This particular study estimated that 44 percent of secondary cases were infected during the presymptomatic stage, while concluding that “disease control measures should be adjusted to account for probably substantial presymptomatic transmission.”

 

The authors of the study admitted that it had several limitations, however, including potential “recall bias” that may have tended towards a delay in recognizing first symptoms.

 

The incubation period would have been overestimated, and thus the proportion of presymptomatic transmission artifactually inflated,” meaning that the study may have exaggerated the proportion of people who spread the virus before showing symptoms, they said.

 

Another study from July 2020 called “The Implications of Silent Transmission for the Control of COVID-19 Outbreaks” went even further, suggesting that people were most infectious during the presymptomatic phase and concluding that silent transmission was the “primary driver of COVID-19 outbreaks and underscore the need for mitigation strategies, such as contact tracing, that detect and isolate infectious individuals prior to the onset of symptoms.”

 

That study relied on a range of assumptions and models, with different presymptomatic, asymptomatic, and symptomatic transmission rates calculated based on a complex mathematical model from another study.

 

Findings from earlier studies like the ones cited above led public health officials to argue that silent spreaders were a big factor in COVID-19 transmission and so to recommend that everyone should mask up.

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COVID-19 Vaccines Revealed as ‘Neither Safe, Nor Effective’: Watchdog

The vaccines were hastily approved through an ‘interim order’ that enabled pharma companies to bypass approved procedures.

Canada

By Naveen Athrappully
17September2023 Updated: 18September2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/covid-19-vaccines-revealed-to-be-neither-safe-nor-effective-watchdog-5492986

 

COVID-19 vaccines were authorized in Canada during 2020 and 2021 without being subjected to the country’s safety tests as required under established drug regulations, an accountability watchdog revealed.

 

An investigation into COVID-19 vaccines found that they were “neither safe nor effective,” according to the nonprofit organization National Citizens Inquiry (NCI). The organization published a report on Sept. 14 detailing the flawed mechanism through which the vaccines were granted “approval” in Canada.

 

“It is important to understand that the COVID-19 vaccines were never approved under the traditional approval process for drugs in Canada,” the report states (pdf). Instead, Health Canada, the federal agency responsible for national health policy, approved the vaccines through an alternative authorization process—an interim order.

 

“Under the alternative authorization process, the necessity to establish the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines through an objective manner appears to have been set aside,” the report states.

 

Canada’s Food and Drug Regulations require that a drug can only be approved in the country after its safety and effectiveness are demonstrated to the minister of health. Then, the minister considers whether the benefits outweigh the risks, following which, approval is granted.

 

Instead of following regulations, the minister of health sanctioned an interim order on Sept. 16, 2021, which exempted all COVID-19 vaccines from normal review and approval. This provision usually allows the minister to override normal regulations in situations of “significant risk” to health, safety, or the environment.

See: Study Found Unsettling Results in Children Vaccinated Against COVID-19

In Canada, four COVID-19 vaccines were authorized by the health agency under an interim order—Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Janssen, and AstraZeneca.

 

The report notes that under the order, vaccines were authorized under a “subjective test.” In this situation, authorization is granted by simply proving that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks.

 

“This cannot be an appropriate standard for approving a drug that the Government intends to administer to the entire population. It is difficult to conceive of a less-scientific test for drug authorization than that found in the Interim Order,” the report states.

A child receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Fairfax County Government Center in Annandale, Va., on Nov. 4, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A child receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Fairfax County Government Center in Annandale, Va., on Nov. 4, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Moreover, the order made sure that the vaccine authorizations couldn’t be revoked even under evidence that they were unsafe and ineffective. Once an interim order is issued, the typical Food and Drug Regulations don’t apply.

 

The order thus exempted manufacturers from having to effectively demonstrate “objective evidence of safety and effectiveness” of their COVID-19 vaccines.

 

“The result was that while chief medical officers across the country repeatedly assured Canadians that the COVID-19 vaccines were ‘safe and effective’—the general Canadian population had no understanding that their authorization process had not required objective proof of safety nor efficacy,” the report states.

‘Not Safe for Human Use’

The NCI report was supported by cardiologist Dr. Peter A. McCullough. “Excellent work @Inquiry_Canada with exhaustive testimony and evidence review. Conclusion: all COVID-19 vaccines unsafe for human use and must be removed from the Canadian market immediately to protect the public,” he wrote in a Sept. 16 post on X.

Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas on Aug. 5, 2022. (Bobby Sanchez/The Epoch Times)

Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas on Aug. 5, 2022. (Bobby Sanchez/The Epoch Times)

Dr. McCullough recently asked European lawmakers to take COVID-19 vaccines off the market due to concerns about illnesses such as heart inflammation, blood clots, and neurological diseases.

 

“COVID-19 vaccines and all of their progeny and future boosters are not safe for human use. I implore you, as a governing body, European Medicines Agency, to apply all pressure and due urgency to remove the COVID-19 vaccines from market,” Dr. McCullough said in Sept. 13 testimony to the European Parliament.

 

The NCI report comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved new COVID vaccines on Sept. 11 for children as young as 6 months old.

 

“Vaccination remains critical to public health and continued protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death,” Dr. Peter Marks, a top FDA official, said in a statement.

 

However, many experts have questioned the push for new vaccines. Earlier this month, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo criticized the updated vaccines.

 

“We all know there’s a new vaccine that’s coming around the corner, [a] new mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. And there’s essentially no evidence for it,” he said during a press conference.

 

“There’s been no clinical trial done in human beings showing that it benefits people, there’s been no clinical trial showing that it is a safe product for people. And not only that, but then there are a lot of red flags.”

 

Dr. Ladapo said that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have “caused cardiac injury in many people.”

Not Actually ‘Interim’

Canada’s interim order for COVID-19 vaccines “has become permanent,” according to the NCI report. An interim order typically only lasts for one year. In March 2022, the order was replaced with permanent regulations, which codified the “subjective authorization” of the vaccine.

 

“Thus, under the permanent test, Health Canada no longer has to be swayed by urgency, but simply by the public health need related to COVID-19. In this way, it seems that so long as COVID-19 is a circulating virus, Health Canada must authorize any vaccine for which there is an argument to support the conclusion that its benefits outweigh its risks,” the report states.

 

“In effect, we fear that there will never be a need for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to prove [the] safety or efficacy of their products.”

 

NCI also alleged there was a “conflict of interests” while approving the COVID-19 vaccines, with the government being involved.

 

The Epoch Times reached out to Health Canada for comment but didn’t receive a reply by press time.

Political Interests, Letter to Trudeau

Canada usually doesn’t allow drugs to be imported into the country unless approved by Health Canada. However, the interim order allowed the unapproved COVID-19 vaccines to be imported “as long as the Canadian Government was the purchaser,” according to the report.

 

This pre-purchasing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines were done to make sure that they were available for dissemination as soon as they were authorized.

 

“This created a tremendous conflict of interest,” the report states.

“Once the vaccines were purchased, imported and ready for distribution, the Government of Canada would have suffered significant political blowback if it was unable to authorize them. Thus, it needed to authorize the COVID-19 vaccines, and it needed to do it quickly.

 

“The Government of Canada ordered the vaccines, imported them, created new regulations to authorize them, and then took significant measures to convince and coerce every Canadian to take multiple doses. The political stakes were high, and the federal government had every motivation to get the vaccines authorized, regardless of their actual efficacy or safety.”

 

On Sept. 14, the NCI sent a letter (pdf) to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau highlighting the issue of COVID-19 vaccine approval.

 

“Canadians are relying on representations as to the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines,” which Health Canada has never determined, the letter said. “Some might draw the conclusion that the misrepresentation to Canadians of proven safety is intentional, made while knowing it to be false and intending it to be relied upon.

 

“As a matter of common sense, the objective falsity of the ‘proven safe’ claim brings into question the basis for informed consent to the administration of the injections, creating potentially enormous liabilities.”

 

In the current context, the organization pointed out that the population immunity has increased along with the latest variants being “milder.”

 

“In the face of your government’s reported intention to promote booster injections in coming months, the urgency now lies in telling the truth to Canadians and taking corrective action,” the letter reads.

 

The NCI asked the prime minister to withdraw COVID-19 vaccines “until the normal rigorous evaluation can be completed” and to reinstate the traditional objective test for safety.

 

Naveen Athrappully
Author
Naveen Athrappully is a news reporter covering business and world events at The Epoch Times.

 

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Pfizer-Funded Study Shows Poor Effectiveness for COVID-19 Vaccine in Young Children

Three doses of the Pfizer vaccine provided little protection against emergency room visits, urgent care encounters, or outpatient visits.

By Zachary Stieber
21September2023 Updated: 21September2023 COVID Vaccines  https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/pfizer-funded-study-shows-poor-effectiveness-for-covid-19-vaccine-in-young-children-5495181

 

A new study funded by Pfizer found the company’s COVID-19 vaccine did not perform well in children under 5.

 

Children aged 6 months to 4 years are supposed to receive three shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The number was increased from two when early testing showed little effectiveness.

 

Three doses of the Pfizer vaccine provided little protection against emergency room visits, urgent care encounters, or outpatient visits, according to the new study.

 

Researchers with and funded by Pfizer analyzed records from Kaiser Permanente Southern California. They included patients who tested for COVID-19 at an emergency department, urgent care, or outpatient setting along with being diagnosed with acute respiratory infection. The date range was July 23, 2022 through May 19, 2023.

 

Positive cases were those with a positive test result. Controls tested negative and had no evidence of prior infection in the past 90 days. Children were only counted as vaccinated if they received a second or third shot two or more weeks before being exposed to COVID-19. Children were excluded if they only received one dose, received any doses from a different company, or did not follow the recommended dosing schedule.

 

After adjusting for factors such as age and sex, researchers estimated just 12 percent effectiveness against medically-attended encounters for children who completed the three-dose primary series.

See: Study Found Unsettling Results in Children Vaccinated Against COVID-19

Confidence intervals crossed well over one, indicating that the effectiveness might actually be worse or even negative.

 

The effectiveness was estimated to be higher, or 44 percent, for children who received two doses of the regimen

 

Researchers speculated that the difference stemmed from more immune-evasive virus variants becoming dominant in the United States by the time children received a third dose.

 

“Updated vaccines will likely be needed to maintain protection against contemporary Omicron strains in young children,” they wrote.

 

The study was published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

 

Sara Tartof, the study’s corresponding author and an employee of Kaiser Permanente Southern California, did not answer questions, including why researchers included those with two doses but not those with one dose.

 

Pfizer did not return a request for comment.

A child receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Fairfax County Government Center in Annandale, Va., on Nov. 4, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A child receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Fairfax County Government Center in Annandale, Va., on Nov. 4, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Key Problems

 

FDA Detects Serious Safety Signal for Covid Vaccine Among Kids

 

Among the key problems with the research were only including children who were diagnosed with acute respiratory infection (ARI), Dr. Robert Malone, who was not involved in the research, said.

 

That “may predispose to young children that lack a primary care physician/pediatrician,” Dr. Malone, who helped invent the mRNA technology Pfizer’s vaccine utilizes, told The Epoch Times via email.

 

“Likewise, the control group of non-vaccinated with ARI will also have selection bias. These intrinsic study biases make the relevance of the measured outcome to the general population quite problematic.”

 

Another issue is using positive results on polymerase chain reaction testing as the metric for having COVID-19, given the false positives the testing brings, Dr. Malone said. Some patients who tested positive may actually have another virus, such as influenza, he said.

Need a Trial

Pfizer’s vaccine was authorized for children despite unreliable efficacy estimates against infection, and no efficacy estimates against severe disease.

 

The newly reported results are based on a test-negative design, which is inappropriate for measuring effectiveness, said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of health policy at Stanford University.

 

“The design starts with children who are already seeing a doctor and then makes strong and unsupportable statistical assumptions to derive the probability of seeing a doctor for vaccinated and unvaccinated children,” Dr. Bhattacharya, who was not involved in the research, told The Epoch Times via email.

 

“What is needed to answer this question without bias is a randomized control trial. I am shocked that the FDA has not asked Pfizer and Moderna to conduct such a study,” he added.

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared Pfizer’s shot on the basis of immunobridging, or comparing antibody levels in children after vaccination with levels in adults after vaccination.

 

Antibodies are believed to protect people against COVID-19.

 

The authorization has been the subject of protests, including a complaint that said the FDA violated its own standards with the clearance.

 

The FDA this month cleared new vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna for children. The only trial data was from 50 people aged 12 or older who received Moderna’s shot. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended the shots to all people aged 6 months and older.

CDC Data

CDC data presented on Sept. 12 showed that both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines failed to provide much protection to young children.

 

One dose of Pfizer’s vaccine provided just 8 percent protection against emergency room and urgent care visits beyond 13 days, while two doses provided a peak of 44 percent protection, according to the data (pdf).

 

A third dose provided 71 percent protection between 14 and 59 days, but the shielding plunged to 16 percent after two months.

 

A two-shot primary series of Moderna’s shot initially provided 46 percent protection. That shielding dropped even lower, to 24 percent, beyond 60 days.

 

The World Health Organization considers 50 percent as adequate effectiveness for vaccines.

 

A single dose of a bivalent shot, introduced in the fall of 2022, boosted protection to 61 percent, but no estimates were available over time and the estimate was based on just eight vaccinated patients who tested positive.

 

“This imprecision indicates that the actual [effectiveness] could be substantially different,” the CDC said.

 

Zachary Stieber
Author (Reporter)
Zachary Stieber is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times based in Maryland. He covers U.S. and world news.

 

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FDA, CDC Hid Data on Spike in COVID Cases Among the Vaccinated: Documents

By Zachary Stieber
3September2023 Updated: 3September2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/fda-cdc-hid-data-on-spike-in-covid-cases-among-the-vaccinated-documents-5483439

 

COVID-19 cases among vaccinated seniors soared in 2021, according to newly disclosed data that was acquired by U.S. health agencies but not presented to the public.

 

Humetrix Cloud Services was contracted by the U.S. military to analyze vaccine data. The company performed a fresh analysis as authorities considered in 2021 whether COVID-19 vaccine boosters were necessary amid studies finding waning vaccine effectiveness.

 

Humetrix researchers found that the proportion of total COVID-19 cases among the seniors was increasingly comprised of vaccinated people, according to the newly disclosed documents.

 

For the week ending on July 31, 2021, post-vaccination COVID-19 cases represented 73 percent of the cases among people 65 and older, the company found. The elderly were 80 percent fully vaccinated at the time.

 

Breakthrough infection rates were higher among those who were vaccinated early, the researchers found. They estimated that the rates were twice as high in those who had been vaccinated five to six months prior, when compared to people vaccinated three to four months before.

 

The breakthrough cases started in January 2021, according to the data.

See: Kevin McKernan Talks COVID Vaccine DNA Contamination, the Monkey Virus SV40 Promoter, and What’s Actually in the Vaccines

Protection against hospitalization was also fading, researchers discovered.

In the week ending on July 31, 2021, 63 percent of the COVID-19 hospitalizations in seniors were among the fully vaccinated, according to the documents. The same pattern of weaker protection among people who were vaccinated early was found.

 

It’s Really Happening: Vaccine and Mask Mandates, Contact-Tracing RETURN

 

Researchers calculated that the vaccine effectiveness (VE) against infection was just 33 percent while the effectiveness against hospitalization had dropped to 57 percent.

 

Seniors who previously had COVID-19 and recovered were more likely to avoid hospitalization, the researchers also found. Risk factors included serious underlying conditions such as obesity and being in the oldest age group, or older than 85.

 

The cohort analysis was completed on 20 million Medicare beneficiaries, including 5.6 million seniors who received a primary series of a COVID-19 vaccine.

 

“Our observational study VE findings show a very significant decrease in VE against infection and hospitalization in the Delta phase of the pandemic for individuals vaccinated with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for those 5–6 months post vaccination vs. those 3–4 months post vaccination,” Dr. Bettina Experton, Humetrix’s president and CEO, said in a Sept. 15, 2021, email to top U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials.

 

Humetrix also found that among the beneficiaries, there had been 133,000 cases, 27,000 hospitalizations, and 8,300 intensive care admissions among the fully vaccinated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Dr. Experton disclosed that Humetrix shared the data with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in August 2021.

 

“It would have been nice to know [the military] was conducting this prior to now. Also might have been nice for CDC to share the data,” Dr. Peter Marks, one of the FDA officials, told colleagues in response.

 

“This is more worrisome than the other data we have in my opinion,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA’s acting commissioner at the time, said in reply.

 

The presentation and emails were obtained by the Informed Consent Action Network, a nonprofit that seeks to provide transparency around medical issues, through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

 

“It is hard to see this as anything other than a failure of our health authorities to assess, share, make public, and act upon valuable, real-world data in the midst of a so-called pandemic,” Del Bigtree, founder of the network, told The Epoch Times via email. “And without FOIA, the public likely would never be made aware of these failures which, of course, allows them to be perpetrated again and again.”

 

The FDA and CDC declined to comment.

Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health at the time, wrote in a separate email obtained through FOIA that the results of the study provided “pretty compelling evidence that VE is falling 5–6 months post vaccination for both infection and hospitalization for those over 65.”

 

He added, “Even for those 3–4 months out there is a trend toward worsening VE.”

The CDC, FDA, and National Institutes of Health did not share the data with the public as they considered whether to clear and recommend COVID-19 vaccine boosters.

 

The CDC held a meeting with its vaccine advisers on Aug. 30, 2021. During the meeting, CDC officials went over emerging data on waning vaccine effectiveness. But the military study was not included.

 

The FDA held a similar meeting on Sept. 17, 2021. The CDC participated. The Humetrix analysis was also not presented during that meeting.

 

Both agencies have aggressively promoted COVID-19 vaccines throughout the pandemic, including hyping them as strongly protective against severe disease even after their own data have suggested that is not the case.

 

The CDC did present (pdf) data from COVID-NET, one of its systems, that showed effectiveness against COVID-19-associated hospitalization was falling among the elderly since the emergence of the Delta variant but that data still showed 80 percent effectiveness.

Click to download PDF file Click to Download the data from COVID-NET CDC-Framework for booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines-30August2021

The presentation also included data from outside researchers and Israel that estimated the protection during the Delta era against infection ranged from 39 percent to 84 percent and that the effectiveness against hospitalization ranged from 75 to 95 percent.

 

The FDA ended up clearing a Pfizer booster for many Americans. The CDC advised most people to receive it. The agencies later expanded booster clearance and recommendations to virtually all Americans aged 5 and older, with Moderna’s shot as another option. Authorities have since replaced the old shots due to their lack of durability, and are preparing to roll out another slate of shots this fall.

 

Zachary Stieber
Author (Reporter)

Zachary Stieber is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times based in Maryland. He covers U.S. and world news.

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Forensic Analysis of Deaths in Pfizer’s Early mRNA Vaccine Trial Found Significant Inconsistencies

Researchers are calling into question Pfizer’s early trial data on its original COVID-19 vaccine after a forensic analysis revealed significant problems.

By Megan Redshaw
11September2023 Updated: 12September2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/forensic-analysis-of-deaths-in-pfizer-biontechs-early-mrna-vaccine-trial-show-significant-inconsistencies-5487136

 

A group of researchers are calling into question Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s early trial data on its original COVID-19 vaccine after a forensic analysis revealed significant inconsistencies between data in the companies’ six-month interim report and publications authored by Pfizer/BioNTech trial site administrators.

Trial subjects vaccinated with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine experienced a 3.7 times increase in cardiovascular deaths compared to placebo controls—a “significant adverse event signal” not disclosed by Pfizer

The preprint, published on Sept. 4, showed trial subjects vaccinated with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine experienced a 3.7 times increase in cardiovascular deaths compared to placebo controls—a “significant adverse event signal” not disclosed by Pfizer when the vaccine was authorized for emergency use. In addition, the analysis found numerous instances where Pfizer/BioNTech attributed potential vaccine-associated deaths to other causes and undermined vaccine safety data.

Clinical Trial ‘Cause of Death’ Unsupported by Documentation

Researchers from the DailyClout Pfizer/BioNTech Documents Investigations Team assessed data from Pfizer’s original phase two/three clinical trial involving 44,060 subjects equally divided into two groups. One group received a dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, and the other received a placebo. As part of their analysis, researchers reviewed the cause of death forms (CRFs) of 38 trial subjects who died during the study period from July 27, 2020, to March 13, 2021, the end date of the clinical trial.

 

They found that 14 of the 38 deaths—more than one-third of deaths—resulted from cardiovascular events, accounting for the difference between the 21 deaths in the vaccination arm compared to the 17 deaths in the placebo arm. In numerous cases, researchers found that documentation did not support the cause of death diagnosis or allow one to rule out the possibility of a cardiovascular event with an autopsy.

 

“In general, our review of the CRFs found them to be lacking in detail and extremely difficult to interpret and develop a good timeline of events,” researchers wrote. “Often, a subject’s pre-trial clinical history was absent. Absent also were results of the extensive array of medical testing carried out at the pre-trial screening and at other regularly scheduled visits.”

 

Absent test results included complete blood counts, metabolic tests, pregnancy tests, COVID-19 tests, a comprehensive list of active medications, and other tests that would have provided clarity on a subject’s overall health. Although more detailed clinical data on the trial subjects exists, the researchers said it is being withheld. Given the limitations of what Pfizer provided, the researchers said the information in the CRFs was often insufficient to support the investigator’s conclusions regarding the cause of death.

 

The researchers also noted frequent communications between Pfizer/BioNTech physicians and trial site medical staff about the CRFs, some of which were over 400 to 900 pages.

Pfizer Used Earlier Data Cutoff and Unblinded Control Group

According to the analysis, Pfizer excluded the 38 deaths from information provided to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) during its December 2020 meeting where its vaccine advisory panel was considering whether to authorize the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use.

 

When Pfizer/BioNTech submitted its application for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) on Nov. 20, 2020, to the FDA, the application described clinical trial results using a cutoff date of November 14, 2020, even though the end date of the trial was March 13, 2021. Researchers said the earlier cutoff date concealed mortality data from the clinical trial.

 

“Both Pfizer presenters and the FDA committee failed to ask for and review deaths that occurred in the clinical trial participants after the data cutoff. As a result, they missed a more than three-fold increased risk of cardiovascular death with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,” cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough told The Epoch Times in an email.

 

“If the FDA presentation with core slides had been presented with accurate, updated data, the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine should not have been approved because of safety concerns,” he added.

 

Twenty weeks into the clinical trial on Dec. 11, 2020, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine received EUA from the FDA, and the agency allowed Pfizer to unblind its control group. Unblinding occurs when study participants are told whether they received a vaccine or a placebo, and placebo subjects are permitted to get vaccinated. All but a few chose to receive the vaccine.

 

All subjects continued to be followed for 24 months and deaths were reported to Pfizer/BioNTech. Pfizer called the period from Dec. 11, 2020, to Jan. 24, 2021, the “open-label follow-up period” without explanation, and the period from Jan. 25, 2021, to the end date of the trial, March 13, 2021, as the cutoff date for the six-month interim report. According to the analysis, this made it easier to conceal deaths potentially linked to the vaccine.

 

A comparison of the number of deaths during the 33-week study period found no considerable difference between the deaths in the vaccinated versus the placebo groups for the first 20 weeks. After week 20, when participants in the placebo group were unblinded and vaccinated, deaths among the remaining unvaccinated cohort of this group slowed and then plateaued, while deaths in vaccinated subjects continued at the same rate. These inconsistencies were not explained by Pfizer/BioNTech or reported to the FDA, according to the analysis.

Vaccinated Placebo Group Death Cases Used to Obscure Trial Data

Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that 462 subjects (pdf) in the placebo group received a dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, with deaths reported attributed to the unvaccinated control group, and the analysis identified numerous instances where Pfizer/BioNTech undermined potential vaccine-related deaths or used complex terms to obscure trial data.

 

For example, a 65-year-old male with a medical history of pulmonary fibrosis and hypertension was in the trial’s placebo arm. He received doses 1 and 2 of the placebo on Sept. 30, 2020, and Oct. 21, 2020, respectively. After Pfizer/BioNTech unblinded the trial, he received his first dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 23, 2020. Five days later, on Dec. 31, 2021, he reported symptoms of COVID-19 and was admitted to the hospital.

 

While hospitalized, he became hypoxic and was intubated. Efforts to treat him failed, and he died on Jan. 11, 2021. Pfizer’s six-month interim report lists the subject as a “discontinued subject” and classified the death as a placebo death with COVID-19 as the secondary cause of death. The researchers said the subject should have been discontinued from the clinical trial entirely because he received a “non-study COVID-19 vaccine.”

 

Another trial subject, a 53-year-old male with a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and “stress-related myocardial infarction,” died suddenly from “cardiopulmonary arrest” less than two months after receiving his second dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. According to the analysis, the trial site’s medical monitor listed the cause of death as “cardiopulmonary arrest related to myocardial infarction.” Days later, Pfizer/BioNTech told the trial site that multiple causes of death could not be entered on the CRF and requested that “related to myocardial infarction” be deleted.

 

When the medical monitor wouldn’t alter the entry’s wording, Pfizer/BioNTech overrode the trial site and changed the cause of death to “cardiopulmonary arrest,” omitting “myocardial infarction” as a secondary cause of death. Pfizer/BioNTech did not explain why a specific diagnosis of a serious adverse event was later changed to something undefined.

 

Another vaccine subject died within three days of receiving his first Pfizer vaccine dose. The medical examiner attributed the death to the progression of atherosclerotic disease, and Pfizer listed the cause of death in its six-month interim report as “atherosclerosis.”

 

However, atherosclerosis was not documented in the subject’s CRF as a comorbidity of the patient, nor did the subject’s CRF include the pre-screening portion of comorbidities that would have shown whether the subject had a history of atherosclerosis. Furthermore, an autopsy would have confirmed whether the subject died from atherosclerosis, but autopsy results were unavailable. The subject’s death was attributed to an underlying disease, yet the researchers said there is “no basis for ascribing the subject’s death to advanced atherosclerosis or concluding that the death was unrelated to the vaccine” when the subject died “within a day or two” of vaccination.

 

Another subject died 76 days after receiving the first placebo dose. The primary cause of death was first listed as diabetes mellitus based on the subject’s medical history. Yet the diagnosis was revised several times, despite the “presence of very high blood glucose levels,” until COVID-19 pneumonia was listed as the secondary cause of death. In addition, the subject was HIV positive with an HIV RNA load over the acceptable limit for inclusion in the trial.

 

“The FDA should review these data immediately in addition to the mounting safety data and peer-reviewed manuscripts on vaccine injuries, disabilities, and deaths and move swiftly to remove all COVID-19 vaccines from the market,” Dr. McCullough said.

FDA and Pfizer Attempted to Hide Health Outcomes of Trial Participants: Preprint Researchers

When Pfizer/BioNTech filed its EUA in November 2020, the FDA didn’t make the application containing clinical data available on its website for the general public or the medical community to evaluate until Dec. 11, 2020. Although an article was published on Dec. 10, 2020, in The New England Journal of Medicine disclosing the interim results of the trial, it was authored by the trial site administrators who were “intimately aware of the trial’s findings,” researchers said.

 

The following year, in September 2021—after the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine had received EUA—the same trial site administrators published another paper in The New England Journal of Medicine on the safety and efficacy of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine through six months.

 

With the “knowledge and approval” of the FDA, the preprint researchers said Pfizer and the FDA had no plans to disclose the clinical trial data that formed the basis of EUA for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for 75 years, including the health outcomes of the 44,060 subjects who participated in the original trial. It wasn’t until the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency filed a FOIA lawsuit to obtain the original clinical trial data involved in the licensing of Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty vaccine that data was made available and the problems with the initial clinical trial were revealed.

 

Release of the data to the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency site began early in June 2022 and was projected to take eight months to complete. They have taken much longer than estimated and documents continue to be downloaded.

 

“Had it not been for the successful court case brought by the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, no one outside of the Pfizer and BioNTech corporations would have had the opportunity to investigate the original data generated by this clinical trial and none of the discrepancies reported here would have been revealed,” they added.

 

The researchers said their analysis provides evidence the decision to authorize the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine as a safe and effective means of controlling the pandemic was not an “informed decision based on an unbiased, thorough, and transparent evaluation of the evidence.”

 

Despite early warning signals and other reported adverse events in the post-marketing of mRNA vaccines, the Pfizer vaccine has not been removed from the market and has been approved for the nation’s youngest children. At the very least, the researchers said they hope their analysis will inform physicians and other medical professionals of the dangers of the mRNA vaccines so that they can better advise their patients on the personal risks compared with the benefits of getting vaccinated. “This would return healthcare decisions back to individuals and their medical providers where it belongs.”

 

The Epoch Times has contacted both Pfizer and the FDA for comment and has not yet received a response.

Author (J.D.)

Megan Redshaw is an attorney and investigative journalist with a background in political science. She is also a traditional naturopath with additional certifications in nutrition and exercise science.

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Israeli Ministry of Health Mask Fear Porn Propaganda

JerusalemCats Comments: This is the only mask you need.

Friday the 13th Horror Movie, Jason Yoorhees

Friday the 13th Horror Movie, Jason Yoorhees

Friday the 13th Horror Movie, Jason Yoorhees

Friday the 13th Horror Movie, Jason Yoorhees

From the propaganda site called Arutz 7

Arutz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

Is COVID coming back? Health Ministry recommends masks

Ministry of Health recommends that people at high-risk use a mask in closed places to minimize the risk of infection.

Israel National News
13September2023, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/376923

 

The Ministry of Health said on Tuesday evening that there is a moderate increase in the number of people hospitalized from coronavirus in Israel.

 

“The ministry constantly monitors the morbidity trends and variants of the coronavirus and, as of this moment, a moderate increase in the number of hospitalized patients is evident in Israel. Both in Israel and in the world, there are a number of variants that cause morbidity,” it said.

 

Ahead of the holidays and as a result of the increase in morbidity, the Ministry of Health recommends that if a person is in a high-risk group or wishes to reduce the risk of infection, use of a mask in closed places with many people is advised.

It is also recommended that a mask be used when meeting with people who are in high-risk groups.

The Ministry of Health stated that it is important for a patient with symptoms to remain in isolation until the symptoms pass, and added that if a sick person needs to go outside, it is recommended that he wear a mask.

 

It was also noted that “it is important to maintain awareness and be tested at home for early detection when there is a suspicion of illness. The ministry is preparing to provide dedicated vaccines against the new subvariants in the near future.”

 

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Dear fully vaccinated: The newly approved COVID shot is NOT a booster – it is literally a new (untested) vaccine

15September2023 // Ethan Huff // https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-09-15-new-covid-shot-not-booster-kathy-hochul.html

 

If you already previously got “vaccinated” and “boosted” for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), congratulations: you accomplished absolutely nothing except for the destruction of your immune system because the latest circulating COVID “variants” are no match for anything other than the newest COVID jabs to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

 

This is basically what New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told her constituents this week following the FDA’s decision to approve and emergency use authorize (EUA) the “updated” COVID jabs from Pfizer and Moderna.

 

According to Hochul, all previous COVID injections are ineffective against newer variants like Omicron XBB.1.5. As such, the fully vaccinated will need to head on down to the clinic once again to take these latest Big Pharma shots if they hope to stay protected this fall and winter.

 

“It is literally a new vaccine,” Hochul said, delivering that line in her best “valley girl” voice. “It is not a booster shot. It is not an enhancer. It is a new vaccine designed to attack the new variants.”

 

Put another way, Hochul is basically saying that Operation Warp Speed did nothing, and that now everyone must get jabbed once again if they wish to survive COVID 2.0.

 

(Related: Did you know that Kathy Hochul wants to ban gas stoves in the state of New York because of “global warming?”)

 

Hochul: Refusing to take newest COVID jabs means you’re selfish

If that message alone is not enough, Hochul went on to state that this is all no big deal because Americans have already been getting jabbed again and again since the beginning.

 

“We’ve done this since March 2020 – no reason to stop now,” Hochul said, trying to be funny. “Don’t think about just yourself.”

 

“Tell everybody: Don’t rely on the fact that you had a vaccine in the past – it will not help you this time around,” she further emphasized. “Even for healthy adults, COVID is serious – you don’t want to get it.”

 

In other words, do not be upset that you already took two, three, four, or even more COVID jabs because the government promised you would be protected, only to have that protection disappear in an instant because oopsie. No, you should instead just shut up, stop being selfish and just get jabbed again, according to Hochul.

 

Playing the part of bureaucrat doctor, even though she is barely qualified to run a hot dog cart, Hochul promised New Yorkers that if they will just agree to take this new shot, then that will be the end of getting COVID jabbed – for now, anyway.

 

“I will be getting my vaccine very soon,” Hochul promised unconvincingly. “This news is coming at a perfect time. My team just got off a call with the FDA confirming the COVID vaccine is on its way to New York.

 

“The updated vaccine guards against the newer COVID strains because it was built off the Omicron … variant – that’s what we’re calling it. It’s really a customized vaccine … We’re waiting to find out what age groups the FDA and CDC are recommending should get the shot … You only need one, no more double doses, and again, this will be starting here in New York on Friday.”

 

Hochul would end her propaganda speech by reiterating the same tired lie that “the vaccine has always been the best way to protect yourself and your community against COVID-19,” even though she said earlier in the speech that “the vaccine,” referring to the old vaccines, have failed.

 

Want to keep up with the latest news about what becomes of folks who take the newly approved COVID jabs from Pfizer and Moderna? You can do so at Vaccines.news.

 

Sources for this article include:

 

TheGatewayPundit.com

 

NaturalNews.com

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Leaving California

California Exodus The Great Middle Class Exodus...

California Exodus
The Great Middle Class Exodus…

Nefesh B'Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il

Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il

It’s time to come home! Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream 1-866-4-ALIYAH


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‘If You Love Your Children, Flee The State’: California GOP Lawmaker

by Tyler Durden, 16June2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/if-you-love-your-children-flee-state-california-gop-lawmaker

 

A California state senator has urged parents to “flee” the state if they “love their children” in response to what he calls alarming language in a new gender identity bill.

CA rep Wilson

 

Sen. Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita) is one of two lone Republicans on the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee , and has served in the state legislature for 11 years, according to the Daily Signal, who notes that he was the lone voice warning against language in the bill, AB 957, which was amended on June 5 by a Democratic senator to rewrite the state’s Family Code to list “gender affirmation” alongside a child’s need for “health, safety and welfare.”

CA Sen. Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita)

CA Sen. Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita)

Rep. Scott Wilk (R)Under AB 957, introduced by Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (D) and co-authored by Sen. Scott Weiner (D), a parent could lose custody of their child for not “affirming” their claims about gender identity.

 

“I’m now in year 11 in the state legislature, and all the time we’re proposing policies to protect children. After 11 years, I’ve come to the conclusion that we need to start protecting parents.

That’s just not happening.

 

I’ve been here and witnessed a full frontal assault on charter schools, taking away parents’ choice in how their children are going to be educated to the detriment particularly of children of color.

 

In recent years, we have put government bureaucrats between parents, children, and doctors when it comes to medical care—and now we have [AB 957] where if a parent does not support the ideology of the government, [children are] going to be taken away from the home…” -Scott Wilk

I  was born and raised in this state. I love this state, but I’m not going to stay in this state. It’s just too oppressive and I believe in freedom and so I’m going to move to America when I leave the legislature,” Wilk continued.

Watch:

Tony Kinnett-tweet-14June2023- Sen Scott Wilk warns parents to flee his own state

Tony Kinnett-tweet-14June2023- Sen Scott Wilk warns parents to flee his own state

In response to the outrage, a spokesperson for Sen. Wilson tried to downplay concerns, saying “It’s not saying [affirmation] is the most important factor or determining factor. It’s one of many factors that the judge should consider while working out a custody agreement.”

 

Sure…

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A ‘Traumatic Fight For Survival’: The Demise of San Francisco Should Concern All Americans

by Tyler Durden, 25July2023 –  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/traumatic-fight-survival-demise-san-francisco-should-concern-all-americans

Authored by John Mac Ghlionn via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

San Francisco is a dangerous place to live. If in doubt, let me point you in the direction of Darren Mark Stallcup. An artist by day, a fentanyl citizen journalist by night, the young man recently made a shocking video documenting life in San Francisco.

Homeless people gather near drug dealers in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco

Homeless people gather near drug dealers in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco

Homeless people gather near drug dealers in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 22, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

 

A resident of the Tenderloin, a drug-infested neighborhood overrun with crime, Stallcup describes himself as a witness to a “zombie apocalypse” and “fentanyl genocide.” Every morning, he must navigate his way through sidewalks littered with needles, human waste, and even dead bodies. He describes “Frisco” as “a fourth world country within a first world country.”

 

Living in San Francisco has been a wild ride,” Stallcup tells me. He has “personally witnessed the city go from being a cultural capital to the technological capital to the fentanyl capital. After the massive tech exodus, led by Elon Musk, San Francisco lost billions in tax revenue.”

 

According to Stallcup, “Local leaders who gained an appetite from tech tax money soon found themselves desperate to quench their newfound appetite for money. The only other way for them to achieve this was to enable the homeless-industrial complex by allowing fentanyl to plague our community and corrupt various nonprofits and organizations.”

 

For Stallcup, his mornings and nights begin and end in an eerily similar manner: opening and closing his eyes to the sounds of people screaming for their lives and ambulances speeding by, sirens blaring.

 

“Sleep,” he says, “is very difficult to come by, especially living in the Tenderloin, where my apartment building has been broken into multiple times.”

 

“It’s traumatic, to say the least, a fight for survival,” he adds. Quite literally, a fight for survival. On more than one occasion, Stallcup has had to fight off burglars with his own bare hands.

 

Stallcup’s apartment building is surrounded by bodies (dead and barely alive), inordinate amounts of litter, tents, and an array of drug-related accouterments.

 

“Every morning, I go out and count the bodies,” he says, “sometimes giving them a small love tap just to see if they are alive.”

It’s “Groundhog Day” meets “The Road.” Early in the morning, white vans come by his place and stack the bodies on multiple layers of metallic trays. Welcome to modern-day America.

 

“This humanitarian crisis,” says Stallcup, “is a fentanyl genocide.”

He’s right. It is. In San Francisco, a person dies of a fentanyl overdose every 10 hours.

Theft, rape, and murder is rampant,” Stallcup tells me, “with mom-and-pop shops under attack every day.” Grocery stores are ransacked dry. Cars and apartments are broken into regularly.

Who’s to blame? I ask.

“I truly believe that I am witnessing the collapse of the Western civilization,” he replies, and he believes that it’s because of corruption and people “who profit from the chaos.”

 

Stallcup is particularly critical of the city’s mayor, London Breed. And for good reason. Her leadership skills have been seen as, for lack of a better word, anemic.

 

Stallcup isn’t the only disillusioned San Franciscan. As I write this, a number of major retail stores, including the likes of Whole Foods, Old Navy, and Nordstrom, are shutting up shop and moving elsewhere. In fact, since 2019, according to a recent San Francisco Standard report, nearly 50 percent of the stores in the city’s downtown shopping district have closed.

 

Who can blame them?

According to Fox News, even the city’s richest neighborhoods are being plagued by “smash and grabs, robberies, burglaries, and open-air drug use.” As Tracy McCray, San Francisco Police Officers Association president, noted, “The problems in the Tenderloin have escaped the Tenderloin.”

 

They most certainly have. To compound matters, gangs of youths, baseball bats in hand, are reportedly tormenting mothers and nannies, mugging them on their daily school run.

 

Last month, in Noe Valley, once a “charming, family-friendly neighborhood,” 11 phone robberies occurred. These robberies, according to the Telegraph, “are believed to have been carried out by the same gang who are targeting women picking up children from school.”

One woman was allegedly assaulted with a baseball bat, while another woman was punched in the face.

 

It’s hard to believe that, less than two years ago, San Francisco was named the 15th safest city in the world—yes, 15th. Today, as is clear to see, the city has become increasingly unsafe for all citizens. Viewed as a “liberal city,” San Francisco is, first and foremost, a U.S. city. Its demise should sadden all readers, regardless of their politics.

 

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

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Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. is giving up two Major San Francisco hotels, Westfield is giving up San Francisco Centre and 60 Spear Street Sells At 66% Off. The CRE Doom Loop Accelerates as San Francisco has gone to Hell! “Well done, Democrats. You’ve effectively transformed a once-thriving city into a hellhole. “

Why would they give up on a loan that is due in 6 months, June 05, 2023 due November 2023?
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Park Hotels Makes “Difficult” Decision To Stop Paying San Fran CMBS Loan, Citing “Concerns Over Street Conditions”

by Tyler Durden, 06June2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/park-hotels-makes-difficult-decision-stop-paying-san-fran-cmbs-loan-citing-concerns-over

 

Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. announced Monday that it ceased making payments on a $725 million CMBS loan which is scheduled to mature in November 2023. The loan is secured by two of its San Francisco hotels that it plans to remove from its portfolio.

 

The hotels in focus are the 1,921-room Hilton San Francisco Union Square and the 1,024-room Parc 55 San Francisco.

“The Company intends to work in good faith with the loan’s servicers to determine the most effective path forward, which is expected to result in ultimate removal of these hotels from its portfolio,” Park wrote in a statement. 

 

San Francisco Downtown

San Francisco Downtown

You won’t be shocked by Park CEO Thomas Baltimore’s statement on why it’s a “necessary decision to stop debt service payments on our San Francisco CMBS loan”:

“After much thought and consideration, we believe it is in the best interest for Park’s stockholders to materially reduce our current exposure to the San Francisco market. Now more than ever, we believe San Francisco’s path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges – both old and new: record high office vacancy; concerns over street conditions; lower return to office than peer cities; and a weaker than expected citywide convention calendar through 2027 that will negatively impact business and leisure demand and will likely significantly reduce compression in the city for the foreseeable future.”

Baltimore said removing the two hotels will “substantially improve our balance sheet and operating metrics.”

 

And there it is, a large real estate investment trust focused on hotel properties, with over 29,000 rooms in prime U.S. markets, abandoning San Francisco.

 

Park’s announcement comes days after San Francisco’s Mayor, London Breed, makes major U-Turn to fund police after an explosion in crime has forced companies to leave the crime-ridden town.

 

Well done, Democrats. You’ve effectively transformed a once-thriving city into a hellhole.

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CRE Doom Loop Accelerates As Westfield Abandons Largest San Fran Mall, Stops Paying $558 Million Loan

by Tyler Durden, 13June2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/cre-doom-loop-accelerates-westfield-abandons-largest-san-fran-mall-stops-paying-558-million

Downtown San Francisco has been dealt another blow after Westfield and its partner Brookfield Properties made the “difficult decision” to stop payment on a $558 million loan for the metro area’s largest shopping mall after “challenging operating conditions,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

 

“For more than 20 years, Westfield has proudly and successfully operated San Francisco Centre, investing significantly over that time in the vitality of the property. Given the challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco, which have led to declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic, we have made the difficult decision to begin the process to transfer management of the shopping center to our lender to allow them to appoint a receiver to operate the property going forward,” Westfield said. 

 

The mall at 865 Market St has multiple lenders tied to its commercial mortgage-backed securities. Those lenders weren’t disclosed. The receiver determines what happens to the mall next, but during a retail foreclosure, the property usually stays open.

 

Westfield San Francisco Centre

Westfield San Francisco Centre

 

This comes after Nordstrom, which occupies 312,000 square feet in the mall, isn’t renewing its lease in August after nearly four decades of operations. When Nordstrom closes, the mall only be 55% leased, well below the average 93% of other Westfield malls across the US.

 

Bloomberg obtained a letter to employees from Jamie Nordstrom, the retailer’s chief stores officer, who said the closing of Nordstrom is due to a slump in sales because of lower foot traffic, adding “dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years.” We suspect Nordstrom is referring to the out-of-control crime…

 

Westfield recently blamed “unsafe conditions” and “lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity” in the downtown area for Nordstrom’s departure. It also said the mall’s poor performance and crime-ridden surrounding area is an anomaly versus its other properties nationwide.

 

Westfield and Nordstrom’s exodus comes one week after Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. ceased making payments on a $725 million CMBS loan secured by two of its San Francisco hotels.

 

Park Hotels also blamed crime in the downtown area, and “San Francisco’s path to recovery remains clouded and elongated by major challenges.”

 

In the past several months, retailers, including Whole Foods, T-Mobile, and many other stores, have closed up shop after progressive city leadership fails to enforce law and order. San Francisco’s CRE meltdown is only accelerating, and the latest property foreclosures of major hotels and malls might be the start and could stymie any economic recovery.

 

Meanwhile, the city is also grappling with the tech downturn and regional banking crisis that saw the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank. Another segment of the CRE market faltering is office, where vacancies are high as companies like Salesforce Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. are reducing square footage.

 

The departure of companies and CRE meltdown prompted San Francisco’s Mayor, London Breed, to recently make a U-Turn to fund police after years of promoting the defund the police movement.

 

Congrats, Democrats, You’ve effectively transformed a once-thriving city into a hellhole. Now watch it implode.

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Downtown San Fran Office Tower Sells At 66% Off As CRE Crisis Claims Another Victim

by Tyler Durden, 13August2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/downtown-san-fran-office-tower-sells-66-haircut-cre-crisis-accelerates

Understanding the backdrop of the crime-ridden progressive metro area of San Francisco, alongside the mass exodus of businesses and residents, and the record-high vacancy rate of office towers, we asked a very important question earlier this summer: What are office buildings worth?

 

We quickly found out in June that one downtown San Francisco office building sold for roughly 70% less than its previously estimated value, an ominous sign of what would come as the commercial real estate market dominos appear to be falling.

 

Now Sixty Spear St., an 11-story building that is 30% occupied and is expected to be entirely vacant by summer 2025, has been sold to Presidio Bay Ventures for $40.9 million, about a 66% discount versus the most recent assessed property value of $121 million, according to local media SFGATE.

60 Spear Street San Francisco CA 94105

60 Spear Street San Francisco CA 94105

We acknowledge the formidable challenges that confront San Francisco,” Cyrus Sanandaji, founder and managing principal of Presidio Bay, who is now the office tower’s proud new owner. He remains a bull on the San Francisco office market and wants to expand the building’s square footage from 157,436 to 170,000 square feet and transform it into a “Class-A trophy office building with exceptional design and hospitality-driven amenities.”

 

All we have to say to Sanandaji’s CRE bet is good luck. The crime-ridden metro area covered in poop must come to terms with City Hall’s horrendous progressive policies that have entirely backfired and led to an exodus of businesses and people. Until Mayor London Breed can instill law and order once more — the ability for the downtown area to thrive once more will remain challenging.

 

Marc Benioff, the chief executive officer of Salesforce, the city’s largest employer and anchor tenant in its tallest skyscraper, warned last month that the metro area is in danger. He offered a grim outlook: The downtown area is “never going back to the way it was” in pre-Covid times when workers commuted to offices daily.

“We need to rebalance downtown,” Benioff said, adding Breed needs to initiate a program to convert dormant office space into housing and hire additional law enforcement to restore law and order. 

… and documenting how the downtown area has rapidly transformed into a ghost town is Youtuber METAL LEO, who walks around with a video camera, revealing empty stores, malls, and towers.

Besides Sixty Spear, SFGATE provided data on other recent tower transactions:

The 13-story 180 Howard St. building, known for being the headquarters of the State Bar of California, sold for about $62 million after being expected to sell for about $85 million.

The offices at 350 California St. reportedly sold for roughly 75% less than its previously estimated value in May, and the 22-story Financial District edifice mostly sits empty. Just a few weeks later, nearby 550 California changed hands for less than half of what owner Wells Fargo paid for the building in 2005.

Things are so bad that some building owners are just walking away from properties:

And defaulting…

As the CRE crisis spreads, remember last week: Baltimore Sun Editorial Board Tells Everyone ‘Keep Calm’ Amid CRE Panic … this will only mean bad news for commercial real estate-small banks that could threaten financial stability and either cause a recession or make a recession more severe.

 

If you’re curious where we could be in the CRE crisis cycle, a recent analysis by CoStar Group shows 55% of office leases signed before the pandemic that were active during Covid haven’t expired, meaning vacancies will continue to rise.

 

Here’s what could be next: The collapse of WeWork will only cause more pain for CRE markets nationwide. The coworking company occupies 16.8 million square feet across the US. 

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Downtown San Francisco Becomes A Ghost Town As Major Retailers Flee

by Tyler Durden, 08May2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/downtown-san-francisco-becomes-ghost-town-major-retailers-flee

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Retailers abandon downtown San Francisco in droves. Nordstrom is the latest, signaling  the death of the area…

downtown SF retail closures

downtown SF retail closures

 

That image from the Tweet below is from April 29. Since then, there have been more closures…

San Francisco Chronicle-tweet-29April2023-biggest merchants and beloved small businesses shuttered in downtown San Francisco

San Francisco Chronicle-tweet-29April2023-biggest merchants and beloved small businesses shuttered in downtown San Francisco

Nordstrom closes two stores and Saks Off 5th says goodbye as well.

 

San Francisco Chronicle-tweet-03May2023-Nordstrom will close two downtown locations

San Francisco Chronicle-tweet-03May2023-Nordstrom will close two downtown locations

Walgreens and Whole Foods Leave

Greg Gallagher-tweet-2May2023-Walgreens announces another store closure in San Francisco

Greg Gallagher-tweet-2May2023-Walgreens announces another store closure in San Francisco

San Francisco’s Dying Downtown

The San Francisco Standard says Nordstrom’s Exit From San Francisco Calls Downtown Mall’s Future Into Question

The Nordstrom at Westfield will close at the end of August, the company confirmed on Tuesday. The retailer’s exit will leave a gaping vacancy that could be very difficult to fill: the store sprawls across 312,000 square feet and five floors. A Nordstrom Rack across the street is also slated to close in July.

Less than a month ago, a nearby Whole Foods abruptly shuttered, citing employee safety concerns. The Whole Foods had made regular emergency calls since it opened in March 2022 for a mix of medical crises, assaults and other incidents; in September of last year, a man fatally overdosed in a bathroom at the grocery store.

Last week, a Walgreens store next to Westfield mall was the scene of a fatal shooting after a private security guard allegedly shot a shoplifter.

So far this year, police have responded to 74 reports of petty thefts, 54 fights and 30 grand thefts in the area.

Call Out the Guard

Zerohedge comments Gov. Newsom Activates National Guard And Highway Patrol To Combat San Francisco’s Drug Crisis

Gov. Gavin Newsom has called up the California Highway Patrol and the California National Guard to combat San Francisco’s out-of-control open-air drug market as parts of the progressive-run city descend into chaos.

According to ABC7 News, CHP officers will be deployed across Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, while guardsmen will run intelligence analysis operations behind the scenes. The governor brought the two agencies together as the drug-related deaths in the city jumped 41% in the first quarter.

San Francisco Ghost Town

Brian Altano-tweet-03May2023-San Francisco become a ghost town in real time

Brian Altano-tweet-03May2023-San Francisco become a ghost town in real time

“It’s been completely surreal watching a major city like San Francisco become a ghost town in real time. Tons of restaurant and business closures. Way less commuters. Empty buildings everywhere. All the tech companies bounced and people got priced out. Just a hollow city now.”

Q&A on the Exodus

MishGEA-tweet-04May2023-don't people want to live there

MishGEA-tweet-04May2023-don’t people want to live there

 

Other than A through F downtown San Francisco is a great place to be.

*  *  *


 

Andrew Wong 🇺🇸-tweet-18April 2023-This is one way to defund Jeff Bezos

Andrew Wong 🇺🇸-tweet-18April 2023-This is one way to defund Jeff Bezos

 

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“There’s Poop Everywhere”: San Francisco’s Office District Not Only A Ghost Town, It’s Also Covered In Sh*t

by Tyler Durden, 25May2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/theres-poop-everywhere-san-franciscos-office-district-not-only-ghost-town-its-also

Urban Alchemy employees pick up trash while people gather belongings in the Tenderloin neighborhood. | Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Urban Alchemy employees pick up trash while people gather belongings in the Tenderloin neighborhood. | Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Everyone knows that San Francisco is the nation’s largest public toilet – requiring the city to employ six-figure ‘poop patrol’ cleanup team, however a new report from the city Controller’s Office really puts things in poo-spective.

SF Feces Query

SF Feces Query

For starters, feces were found far more often in commercial sectors, covering “approximately 50% of street segments in Key Commercial Areas and 30% in the Citywide survey,” second only to broken glass as can be seen in the ‘illegal dumping’ section.

SF Feces moder

SF Feces moder

If you’re wondering about the city’s fecal methodology, look no further than a footnote on page 43;

Feces also includes bags filled with feces that are not inside trash receptacles. Feces that are spread or smeared on the street, sidewalk, or other objects along the evaluation route are counted. Stains that appear to be related to feces but have been cleaned are not counted. Bird droppings are excluded.

As far as where most of the poo is found, Nob Hill takes the top spot, followed by the Tenderloin and The Mission districts.

Feces Observed in SF Neighborhoods

Feces Observed in SF Neighborhoods

Via the San Francisco Standard

It’s terrible; this street is covered,” Tenderloin resident Joe Souza told The San Francisco Standard earlier this month. “There’s poop everywhere. You always see it along the wall and in front of the garage there.”

Percentage of Evaluation with Feces by Neighborhood

Percentage of Evaluation with Feces by Neighborhood

Meanwhile, nearly 2/3 of key commercial routes reported moderate to severe street litter, vs. 41% of the citywide streets struggling with the same problem.

San Francisco’s Streets Are Filthy. A New Survey Shows Just How Dirty

San Francisco’s Streets Are Filthy. A New Survey Shows Just How Dirty

Via the San Francisco Standard

As the San Francisco Standard reports;

San Francisco’s commercial and residential streets are also highly tagged up, with every neighborhood except one—Visitacion Valley—reporting high levels of graffiti last year. The issue is once again worse in commercial areas, of which 71% said they had severe or moderate graffiti.

A Clean City team in the Tenderloin power washes the sidewalk on Hyde Street in San Francisco. | Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

A Clean City team in the Tenderloin power washes the sidewalk on Hyde Street in San Francisco. | Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

“In terms of actual counts of graffiti observed, there were about 10 times (160,000 vs. 16,000 respectively) as many instances of graffiti reported in the Key Commercial Areas survey in comparison to the Citywide sample,” the report said.

 

And San Francisco’s favorite cleanliness fixation, human or animal feces, continues to be a sore spot for the city: Almost half of the surveyed commercial areas observed feces. Citywide, that figure was just 30%.

*  *  *

San Francisco’s poopocalypse comes amid a staggering commercial office vacancy rate as a combination of pandemic-era work-from-home policies, and people fleeing the city’s notorious violence and poo-covered streets have made the once-thriving city into a ghost town.

jason-tweet-23May2023-This used to be gridlock-now it’s a ghost town-SF

jason-tweet-23May2023-This used to be gridlock-now it’s a ghost town-SF

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Some Parts Of America Are Already On The Verge Of Being Ungovernable As Rampant Lawlessness Spreads Like Wildfire

by Tyler Durden, 15August2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/some-parts-america-are-already-verge-being-ungovernable-rampant-lawlessness-spreads

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

In order for a civilized society to function, most people have to willingly follow the rules of that society.  If that happens, law enforcement authorities can deal with the few that choose to be lawless.

For generations, that is how things worked in America

There was a high standard of morality among the general population, and so the police were able to successfully handle the few bad apples that insisted on breaking the law.

 

But now everything has changed.  As a result of decades of extreme moral decay, lawlessness is rampant and there are vast multitudes of young people that openly flaunt the rules of our society.  In fact, there are already some areas of the country that are literally on the verge of being ungovernable.

Systematically looted the Nordstrom store at the Westfield Topanga mall

Systematically looted the Nordstrom store at the Westfield Topanga mall

 

A perfect example of what I am talking about happened in southern California on Saturday.

 

Dozens of lawless young thieves systematically looted the Nordstrom store at the Westfield Topanga mall, and they were able to get away with tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise

Shoppers at the Westfield Topanga mall in Canoga Park were in for quite a shock when dozens of thieves ransacked the Nordstrom inside the mall on Saturday, Aug. 12, smashing displays and stealing an estimated $60,000- $100,000 worth of merchandise, authorities said.

The Los Angeles Police Department responded to the mall at around 4 p.m. after hearing reports that between 20 and 50 people ran through the Nordstrom grabbing merchandise, leaving some on the ground and taking armfuls with them.

When I was growing up, this sort of thing simply did not happen.

 

But now we are seeing mobs of looters go haywire all over the nation on a regular basis.

This heist was obviously well coordinated, and not one of the thieves even showed a shred of remorse.

Topanga Mall Nordstrom Robbery 60-100k Stolen

Apparently these young people are not exactly languishing in poverty, because a BMW and a Lexus were among the getaway vehicles that they used…

After grabbing between $60,000 and $100,000 worth of goods, the crew fled in several cars including a BMW and a Lexus, cops said.

At least one guard was doused with bear spray — which causes violent eye and respiratory irritation in humans. The guard was treated by paramedics.

How are we supposed to respond to this?

 

As I stated earlier, we are seeing robberies of this nature so often now.

 

Several days earlier, dozens of  young people looted the Yves Saint Laurent store in Glendale

Earlier this week a high-end designer store in Glendale, California was looted by dozens of people in another flash mob burglary on Tuesday.

At least 30 suspects “flooded” the Yves Saint Laurent store in The Americana at Brand Tuesday afternoon and stole clothing and other merchandise before fleeing on foot and leaving the location in numerous vehicles, said police in a statement.

The total loss is estimated to be approximately $300,000.

Some people attempt to downplay the severity of these crimes by saying that these big corporate retailers can afford the losses they are experiencing.

No, they can’t.

Overall, U.S. retailers will lose more than 100 billion dollars due to theft this year alone.

 

This has become a major national crisis, and as J. Lee Grady has aptly pointed out, we truly have become “the land of the free-for-all”…

You’ve probably seen the videos of thieves filling trash bags with stolen merchandise from CVS or walking out of Home Depot or Wal-Mart with armloads of tools, laptops, detergent and athletic shoes they didn’t pay for. We used to call this shoplifting, and it was a crime. Today, it’s known as “inventory shrinkage”—and it costs retailers billions of dollars in losses. But many soft-on-crime politicians are treating criminals like victims and allowing the crime wave to grow.

Some retailers are locking items behind glass cases, but that hasn’t stopped brazen criminals who just smash and grab. Other retailers actually warn employees not to try to stop thieves—and they will even fire an employee for confronting a shoplifter. Welcome to the USA in 2023: We were once known as the land of the free; now we are the land of the free-for-all, where criminals can take whatever they want from store shelves knowing that no one will stop them.

A lot of of this theft is being fueled by the worst drug crisis in the entire history of our nation.

 

Today, vast stretches of the city of Los Angeles have been transformed into giant homeless encampments that are filled with “zombie-like residents smoking drugs”

Shocking new photos lay bear the devastating homeless crisis tormenting downtown LA – where filthy ramshackle tent cities are plagued by zombie-like residents smoking drugs, while others hawk stolen goods on street corners.

There are currently an estimated 42,260 people sleeping rough in the City of Angels – a startling 10 percent rise compared to just last year, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported.

Just this week, it emerged that the city had resorted to sending mobile teams with oxygen cylinders to Skid Row in a desperate bid to prevent overdoses amid its crippling opioid crisis.

The same thing is happening in San Francisco.

In fact, conditions have become so dangerous in downtown San Francisco that federal employees that work at “the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building” are being told to work from home for the foreseeable future

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advised hundreds of employees in San Francisco to work remotely for the foreseeable future due to public safety concerns outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on Seventh Street.

The imposing, 18-story tower on the corner of Seventh and Mission streets houses various federal agencies, including HHS, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the office of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. The area is also home to one of the city’s most brazen open-air drug markets, where dozens of dealers and users congregate on a daily basis.

I find it perfectly fitting that “one of the city’s most brazen open-air drug markets” is operating right outside of a giant office tower named for Nancy Pelosi.

 

Politicians such as Pelosi have been making horrendously bad decisions for decades, and that has been a major factor in getting us to this point.

 

We are truly reaping what we have sown, and what we are currently experiencing is just the beginning.

Eventually, conditions will deteriorate so dramatically in our core urban areas that our leaders will be forced to implement extreme measures in a desperate attempt to restore order.

 

But ultimately you can’t govern vast numbers of people that have no intention of being governed.

The fabric of our society really is coming apart at the seams, and we are going to see things happen in the years ahead that will completely shock all of us.

*  *  *

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Bob Hope Says Democrats Are Like Zombies

 

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Democrat-run metro cities overrun with ZOMBIE DRUG “TRANQ” that’s cooked down into powder form and mixed with heroin and fentanyl – eats human flesh

21May2023 by:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-05-21-democrat-run-metro-cities-overrun-with-zombie-drug-tranq.html

This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author

(Natural News) Just take a stroll down any metropolitan street in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, or New York City, and you will feel like you just stepped onto the movie set of “World War Z.” There are actual zombies roaming the streets, sleeping standing up, and moaning from the flesh-eating disorder they have from taking a pet tranquilizer that eats human flesh (they thought they were just smoking fentanyl and crack). The zombie drug “tranq dope,” also known by veterinarians as xylazine, is now frequently used by drug dealers to “cut” other drugs (spread them out so they make more money), while further complicating the drug addiction nightmare for users.

Zombie drug tranq infiltrating heroin, fentanyl, counterfeit prescription pills, and sedatives

Just as one may have thought the illicit drug supply couldn’t get any more dangerous and deadly, it did. Many drug dealers use baby laxatives to cut cocaine and crack so they can make it look like there’s more to buy and use, and double or triple their profits. The side effects for drug users boiled down to a bad case of the runs, and then whatever else happens to the heart, brain, and cleansing organs from the continued drug use.

 

Now there is xylazine, a drug used by veterinarians and fellow surgeons for anesthesia, sedation, muscle relaxation, and analgesia. Doesn’t sound so bad for drug addicts, but the drug wasn’t made for humans, but mainly cattle, horses, and other mammals. Turns out, it’s too dangerous to use on humans because it causes dangerously low blood pressure, critically low heart rates, and wait for it… a disorder that eats away at the flesh.

 

Also, because xylazine is a non-opioid sedative, it’s also not a “controlled substance” in the USA, and NARCAN does not work as an anecdote to save people from overdosing, like it can with heroin or fentanyl. Xylazine cannot be purchased without a veterinary license, so how are so many drug dealers getting a hold of it to use to cut street drugs?

DEA puts out safety alert about “widespread threat” of fentanyl cut with xylazine in 1/4th of all fentanyl powder sold in America‘s socialist cities

The DEA is warning of a “widespread threat” of fentanyl cut with xylazine, the “zombie drug” that is stolen from veterinary clinics and mixed with other street drugs. Xylazine is ultra-deadly and can eat away at human flesh when consumed or smoked. Also, the fentanyl anecdote NARCAN does not work to save people from xylazine overdose.

 

About one-fourth of all fentanyl powders sold on the streets is now laced/mixed with the zombie drug, warns the DEA.

 

Xylazine causes CNS depression, respiratory depression, heart rate slow down, and death. This veterinarian drug for putting animals under for surgery is being taken in pills and smoked by druggies in Democrat-run metropolitan cities and it’s eating their flesh. Drug dealers are mixing this with fentanyl and people don’t know, and NARCAN won’t save them from this. It’s like a real-life scene from the Walking Dead show. Will these zombies still be able to vote for Biden in 2024, for more free money and new crack pipes for smoking Tranq?

 

Tranq gives it’s users leper-looking sores and can result in amputation of limbs. When combined with fentanyl the chances of death skyrocket from just one use. Many druggies die the first try, and most don’t even know they’re getting xylazine at all. The Democrats in DC like this, because it’s part of the depopulation program, along with Covid vaccines and open borders.

 

Tune your internet dial to NaturalMedicine.news for more tips on how to use natural remedies for preventative medicine and for healing, instead of succumbing to Big Pharma for toxic injections that spread disease and disorder.

Sources for this article include:

TheGatewayPundit.com

NaturalNews.com


 


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DEA Warns ‘Zombie Drug’ Hitting US Streets, Set To Worsen Overdose Crisis

by Tyler Durden, 24March2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dea-warns-zombie-drug-hitting-us-streets-set-worsen-overdose-crisis

President Biden’s efforts to end a nationwide drug crisis, which he promised to end during the 2020 election campaign, may face further challenges as the Drug Enforcement Administration issued an alert on Monday regarding a new concoction of fentanyl and a veterinary tranquilizer hitting American cities and towns.

“Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram wrote in an alert on Monday. 

 

The alert continued, “DEA has seized xylazine and fentanyl mixtures in 48 of 50 states. The DEA Laboratory System is reporting that in 2022 approximately 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA contained xylazine.” 

DEA HQ-tweet-20March2023-𝐏𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐂 𝐒𝐀𝐅𝐄𝐓𝐘 𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐓

DEA HQ-tweet-20March2023-𝐏𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐂 𝐒𝐀𝐅𝐄𝐓𝐘 𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐓

When combined, xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer, also commonly known as “tranq,” and fentanyl make drug overdoses even deadlier because the opioid overdose antidote, naloxone, also known as Narcan, won’t reverse its effects.

 

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses between August 2021 and August 2022. About two-thirds of the deaths involved synthetic opioids.

Overdoses are the leading cause of death among the young in the US

Overdoses are the leading cause of death among the young in the US

 

The grim statistics are a significant concern for the Biden administration, who promised to end the drug crisis during the 2020 election campaign. But with open borders and record amounts of migrants flooding into the US, it’s no wonder the drug crisis is worsening.

 

Some have warned the proliferation of fentanyl, and surging overdose-related deaths nationwide should be designated as a “weapon of mass destruction.”

“In spite of all their effort and the best intentions of the administration, the fentanyl crisis is getting tremendously worse and threatening an entire generation of young people.

 

“Criminal cartels in Mexico and China are continuing to act with impunity. We need greater enforcement powers and more accountability from our own government,” Jim Rauh, founder of Families Against Fentanyl, an advocacy group, told FT last month. 

The DEA’s new alert of xylazine-laced fentanyl (some have called it the “zombie drug”) should concern all Americans because it renders Narcan useless.

[EDD: Tweets to Graphic to Post.]

 

 

HARD FACTOR-tweet-01March2023-Hot new drug Tranq is causing people's skin to fall off

HARD FACTOR-tweet-01March2023-Hot new drug Tranq is causing people’s skin to fall off

 

 

 

Brandon Farley-tweet-3March2023-Today In Portland a Fentanyl Junkie Obstructs Driveway

Brandon Farley-tweet-3March2023-Today In Portland a Fentanyl Junkie Obstructs Driveway

 

 

 

1r0nm41d3n-tweet-01March2023-Dude is tweaking hard and could this be a tranq sore

1r0nm41d3n-tweet-01March2023-Dude is tweaking hard and could this be a tranq sore

 

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Olive Garden Owner Warns: “Decline In Fine Dining” As Wealthy Americans Trade Down To Cheap Booze

by Tyler Durden, 22September2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/olive-garden-owner-warns-decline-fine-dining-wealthy-americans-trade-down-cheap-booze

 

Sentiment continues to turn negative for the US consumer as the latest warning sign comes from a multi-brand restaurant operator with more than 1,900 full-service locations nationwide. During a Thursday morning conference call, the management team warned Wall Street analysts about “softness” among wealthier households.

 

Darden Restaurants CEO Rick Cardenas said, “We are seeing a little softness versus last year with household incomes above $125,000, and that primarily affects our Fine Dining brands, but it does affect all of our brands.” 

 

The multi-brand restaurant operator owns Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, and five other brands with more than 1,900 locations nationwide.

Darden Restaurants Brands

Darden Restaurants Brands

 

Cardenas offered more clues about waning consumer spending habits at restaurant locations:

“Now, this could be because the increase in luxury travel, particularly international travel, which you’ve heard a lot of people talk about, but as I’ve said before many times, there is a tension between what people want to pay and what they can afford, and they’re going to continue to seek value, not always about low price. They’re making tradeoffs, and food away from home is one of the most difficult things they can give up.”

Darden’s CFO told analysts that a decline in fine dining has been due to customers opting for lower-priced wines and other beverages over the past year:

“The decline in Fine Dining, part of that is driven by incremental costs they have year-over- year. Their pricing is starting to catch up. But also, there was some negative mix. On a one- year basis, there was a lot of negative mix on alcohol. When we look at what’s happening with — at Fine Dining, there is trading down to lower-priced wines and other alcohols on a one-year basis.” 

Darden’s exec team offered a cautionary view on wealthier customers amid a period of high credit card debt and depleted savings for consumers. The $2 trillion in excess savings from the Covid crisis has been all but depleted, according to according to JPM calculations.

Personal Savings vs Credit Card Debt 2016-2023

Personal Savings vs Credit Card Debt 2016-2023

 

The latest slide in consumer credit suggests folks are finally tapped out.

Revolving Credit Monthly Change 2000-2023

Revolving Credit Monthly Change 2000-2023

 

Meanwhile, with average credit card interest rates rising above 22% to a new record high…

Credit Card Interest Rate September 2023

Credit Card Interest Rate September 2023

 

And now that repayment of student loans has officially resumed, it will likely cause a $15.8 billion headwind for consumers every month.

 

The days of $80 steaks and $25 martinis might be over for now.

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This does not even include Local, County and Employer Labor Taxes.

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California Is The Most Costly State For Starting A Business

by Tyler Durden, 10August2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/california-most-costly-state-starting-business

Authored by John Seiler via The Epoch Times,

Some of the people I admire most are small-business owners. One example that comes to mind is an auto shop guy who takes special care of his customers, never cheating them. Another runs a small restaurant with special attention to cleanliness. A third owns a gift store and always is walking around, straightening the merchandise on the shelves, interacting with customers.

Stacy Dean stands inside the restaurant she owns, the Kopper Kettle, in Yucaipa, Calif., on July 10, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Stacy Dean stands inside the restaurant she owns, the Kopper Kettle, in Yucaipa, Calif., on July 10, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

In addition to making a profit by keeping customers happy, these entrepreneurs must pay taxes and comply with numerous multiplying government mandates, restrictions, and regulations.

 

A new study found these crucial foundational businesses of our economy have it the hardest in California compared to the other 49 states. The ratings come from Venture Smarter, which provides services to small businesses. The ratings show how hard it is to start up a business.

The best 10 states:

1. Wyoming

2. Florida

3. South Dakota

4. Montana

5. Alaska

6. Colorado

7. Utah

8. Vermont

9. Georgia

10. New Hampshire

You’ll notice these are the states that score highest on other rankings, such as tax rates and the number of regulations. An anomaly is Colorado, which is run by a Democratic governor, Jared Polis, who favors low taxes.

 

By contrast, the worst states generally also are on other lists of most difficult business and tax climates.

The worst 10 states:

51. California

50. New York

49. Delaware

48. New Jersey

47. Massachusetts

46. Maine

45. Alabama

44. West Virginia

43. Missouri

42. Arkansas

41. Washington

Anomalies are Alabama, West Virginia, Missouri, and Arkansas, which generally score higher on other measures of business friendliness.

 

Delaware is President Biden’s home state and a tax haven for large corporations—but not small businesses.

California Business Startup Cost: $1,950

The startup cost in taxes and fees in the first year for a California business is a hefty $1,950. That’s almost up to New York’s highest cost of $1,985. By contrast, in Wyoming it’s just $160. Lowest is $50 in Mississippi.

 

A spokesperson for Venture Smarter told Value Walk: “Forming a limited liability company (LLC) in Wyoming can be a great way to protect your assets. The state is one of the most business-friendly states in America, and forming a limited liability company is relatively easy.

 

“Creating an LLC in Florida is also an easy process, whether it is your first time, or you are an experienced entrepreneur. … An LLC is a business entity designed to protect its owners from being held personally liable for business-related debts and LLCs have gained popularity because they offer a lot of flexibility for their owners.”

 

These are startup costs. The rankings don’t include such costs as rent, electricity, insurance, etc., which of course are much higher in California than elsewhere.

ALEC-Laffer Rank: 45th

The Venture Smarter rankings are similar to others. One of the best is the 2023 ALEC-Laffer “Rich States, Poor States” rankings by the American Legislative Exchange Council and economist Arthur Laffer.

 

California ranked 45th of the 50 states. It scored worst on income tax progressivity. That top rate of 13.3 percent just digs in and forces rich people from the state. But the 9.3 percent paid by the middle class is the worst in the country for that economic group.

 

On this report card, California also suffered Cumulative Net Migration—people leaving for other states—of 1,551,510 from 2012-21. That was second worst after New York, which lost 1,778,252.

2024 Tax Slam

It’s just going to get worse in 2024. The Wall Street Journal reported Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill “that raises the top marginal income-tax rate on the sly. High earners won’t know what hit them until it does.” That was Senate Bill 951.

 

“The bill funds an expansion of the state’s paid family leave benefit by removing the $145,600 wage ceiling on the state’s 1.1% employee payroll tax. … This means that in 2024 California’s top marginal tax rate will increase to 14.4% from 13.3% for workers making more than $1 million. Those making between $61,214 and $312,686 would pay 10.4%. So California’s upper-middle class will pay more than millionaires in almost every state save New York, New Jersey and Hawaii.”

 

Moving to a place with no state income tax, such as Wyoming, Florida, and South Dakota – the top three states for starting an LLC, as listed above – is looking even more attractive for small business owners. And the rest of us.

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California Defaults On $18.6 Billion In Debt, Saddling Employers With The Expense

by Tyler Durden, 08May2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/california-defaults-186-billion-debt-saddling-employers-expense

California’s recent decision not to pay back some $20 billion borrowed from the federal government to cover unemployment benefits during the pandemic will fall on the shoulders of employers, according to experts.

 

“The state should have taken care of the loans with the COVID money it received from the government in 2021,” said Marc Joffe, policy analyst at the Cato Institute—a public policy think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., in a statement to the Epoch Times.

 

In the state’s proposed 2023-2024 budget, $750 million was allocated to start paying down the loans, until Governor Gavin Newsom nixed the provision in early January, leaving businesses in the state responsible for the loans, as mandated by federal regulations – so that the federal unemployment tax rate of .6 percent will increase by .3% per year starting in 2023 until the loan is extinguished.

 

California is just not really an employer-friendly state,” said Joffe. “This one thing will not be a difference between a business remaining open or closing, but it’s just another burden on top of the many burdens the state puts on employers.

 

In total, 22 states borrowed money for unemployment insurance from the federal government. All but four, California, Colorado, Connecticut, and New York, have paid back their debts – with California owing the most by far at $18.6 billion as of May 2, followed by New York at $8 billion, Connecticut at $187 million and Colorado at $77 million, according to data from the US Treasury.

 

More via the Epoch Times,

Initially, the state borrowed from its reserves to pay the benefits, but after exhausting its coffers borrowed to cover expenses, analysts said.

 

Exacerbating the situation were unprecedented levels of fraud occurring across the state, due to limited oversight and antiquated computer systems, according to Lee Ohanian, professor of economics at the University of California–Los Angeles.

 

Analytics firm LexisNexis estimated the total cost of the fraud at $32.6 billion.

Investigations have since uncovered that illegitimate unemployment benefits payments were paid to convicted felons, with one address receiving 60 separate fraudulent payments.

 

Fraud is a persistent issue historically with the program, and a $2 million federal grant in 2013 sought to address the issue with new computer software systems.

 

The upgrade successfully stopped instances of fraud, but further improvements stopped with the end of the grant in 2016, reportedly due to the agency’s reluctance to take on the annual expense for the third-party service.

They were penny wise and pound foolish,” Ohanian told The Epoch Times.

At a cost of $2 million annual investment, the program would have cost $14 million to operate since it was terminated.

 

“Sadly, this is just a trifecta of bad decisions,” Ohanian said. “The [Employment Development Department] made a bad decision to not renew its lease for the fraud detection software, the state government took out a loan and chose to welch on the debt—which is outrageous—and now businesses are repaying more in taxes for the incredibly unwise decisions and mistakes of the state government.”

 

Reports that the state is seeking forgiveness from the federal government were met with resistance by policy experts, including Ohanian.

 

We’ve made a lot of bad decisions and we expect the rest of the country to pay for it,” he said. “It also raises questions about the future: If the state is going to default on the $20 billion federal loans, how safe are municipal bonds from California?”

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Coming to your city:

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Mexican TV Spots Cartel Wielding Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher In Border Town Near Texas

by Tyler Durden, 01June2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/mexican-tv-spots-cartel-wielding-anti-tank-rocket-launcher-border-town-across-texas

The Mexican government has been waging war against drug cartels for over a decade with limited success. These cartels illegally procure modern military equipment from Western countries, making the fight comparable to those in Middle Eastern warzones.

 

On Wednesday, Mexican TV channel Milenio published an article titled “Mexican cartels prepare for a war; they have military grade ROCKET LAUNCHER” that shows a video of a Gulf Cartel (Cartel Del Golfo, CDG) member carrying a “military-grade grenade launcher during a checkpoint in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.”

Mexican Drug Cartel Wielding FGM-148 Javelin Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher

Mexican Drug Cartel Wielding FGM-148 Javelin Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher

 

Milenio’s Azucena Uresti identified the rocket launcher as a Raytheon-made FGM-148 Javelin. She noted the rocket launcher on the black market fetches anywhere from $20,000 to $60,000.

Translated from Spanish by

#AzucenaALas10 | In #Tamaulipas, an alleged member of the Gulf Cartel was recorded carrying one of the most exclusive and powerful weapons, a “javelin”, which has been used during the invasion of Ukraine with a value of between 20,000 and 60,000 dollars

Azucena-Uresti-tweet-31May2023-AzucenaALas10 In Tamaulipas-Gulf Cartel was carrying a javelin Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher

Azucena-Uresti-tweet-31May2023-AzucenaALas10 In Tamaulipas-Gulf Cartel was carrying a javelin Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher

 

 

After further review, the rocket launcher might be an AT-4, a Swedish-made disposable anti-tank launcher, which was also sent to Ukraine with Javelins. Nevertheless, these military-grade weapons are turning up in Mexican border towns during the worst US southern border crisis in history.

Matamoros directly borders Brownsville, Texas.

Matamoros, Mexico borders Brownsville, Texas

Matamoros, Mexico borders Brownsville, Texas

 

But don’t worry because the Biden administration repeatedly states everything is fine on the border.

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Southern Border Cameras Capture Heavily Armed Cartel Illegally Entering US

by Tyler Durden, 10August2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/cameras-detect-heavily-armed-cartel-cross-us

A little over two months ago, the Mexican TV channel Milenio published shocking footage of a cartel member wielding a “military-grade grenade launcher” in Matamoros, a city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas that borders Brownsville, Texas.

Mexican Drug Cartel Wielding FGM-148 Javelin Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher

Mexican Drug Cartel Wielding FGM-148 Javelin Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher

 

Now Fox News border correspondent Bill Melugin has obtained frightening images of heavily armed cartel members with body armor crossing into Texas last weekend.

“Per law enforcement source, a group of suspected cartel gunmen armed with rifles & body armor were seen on cameras crossing illegally into the Fronton, TX area in the RGV Saturday night,” Melugin said on “X,” formerly known as Twitter. 

Melugin said a tactical unit under Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) was immediately deployed to the area after cameras detected the armed cartel members entered the US illegally.

“Elite Border Patrol BORTAC agents were called out & searched area, but found nobody,” he said. 

Bill Melugin-tweet-8August2023-NEW: Per law enforcement source, a group of suspected cartel gunmen armed with rifles & body armor were seen on cameras crossing illegally into the Fronton, TX area in the RGV Saturday night. Elite Border Patrol BORTAC agents were called out & searched area, but found nobody.

Bill Melugin-tweet-8August2023-NEW: Per law enforcement source, a group of suspected cartel gunmen armed with rifles & body armor were seen on cameras crossing illegally into the Fronton, TX area in the RGV Saturday night. Elite Border Patrol BORTAC agents were called out & searched area, but found nobody.

Here’s an example of a BORTAC agent that was dispatched. They look like Tier 1 Special Forces operators.

Border Patrol Tactical Unit BORTAC agent

Border Patrol Tactical Unit BORTAC agent

The Biden administration has gone out of its way to downplay the crisis at the southern border ahead of the 2024 presidential election cycle.

 

On Tuesday, Acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan provided The National Desk’s Scott Thuman with a dose of reality about the true nature of the border crisis:

“First of all, I think what it represents in this administration is not being honest with the American people. I learned a long time ago that the intentional omission of a material fact is the same thing as a lie. They’re using a sleight of hand like a good magician to get us to focus on only what’s happened in our Southern border.

“Meanwhile, what they’re not telling you is what’s happening across the nation. This fiscal year, we’re on track for over 3 million nationwide encounters. That’s a 360% increase from when they took over in the past 29 months.”

Morgan explained how the Biden administration is lying about the crisis:

“Second to that is what’s very, very important is what they begin to do is divert those that we’re previously entering in between the ports of entry.

“They’re simply diverting them to the ports of entry and then they’re claiming victory. In reality, it’s a big shell game.”

In recent Congressional testimony, Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies warned:

“[T]his massive new population of needy foreigners will burden and transform [Americans’] communities without their say-so.” 

Seeing cartel members brandishing RPGs and some crossing into the US heavily armed, one has to question if America’s southern border under Biden is on the verge of falling.

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Allstate Drops California; Will Not Write New Insurance Policies Over Wildfires, Construction Costs

by Tyler Durden, 04June2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/allstate-drops-california-will-not-write-new-insurance-policies-over-wildfires

Insurance giant Allstate has stopped writing new policies for homeowners, condominiums and commercial structures, citing wildfires, higher costs of construction and higher reinsurance premiums, the SF Chronicle reports.

Firefighters work to control a fire as flames from the County Fire jump across Highway 20 near Clearlake Oaks, California, on July 1. Credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

Firefighters work to control a fire as flames from the County Fire jump across Highway 20 near Clearlake Oaks, California, on July 1. Credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

 

The company, the fourth largest casualty insurance provider in the state in 2021, said the pause on new policies was “so we can continue to protect current customers,” according to spokeswoman Brittany Nash in an email to the outlet.

 

The cost to insure new home customers in California is far higher than the price they would pay for policies due to wildfires, higher costs for repairing homes, and higher reinsurance premiums,” she wrote in a follow-up email on Friday.

The cost of rebuilding has increased with inflation, but Allstate can’t adjust prices quickly due to state regulation, Nash wrote.

 

The pause began last year but appeared to receive only a passing mention in industry publications. The Chronicle learned of the development this week, after reviewing an Allstate rate increase request to the California Department of Insurance. -SF Chronicle

The move follows a similar measure by State Farm – the largest property and casualty issuer in the state – which announced in late May that it would stop issuing new homeowner policies, citing inflation, wildfires and rising reinsurance costs.

 

The Chronicle suggests that the decision by both companies suggests there may be insurance industry woes in the state that are more severe than the public is aware of.

 

“State Farm is unusual in that it announces such underwriting actions. It is not required by law and most insurers do not,” said Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, an association of insurers, in an email to The Chronicle over the weekend.

 

Frazier told the outlet on Thursday that the only required public disclosure is when insurers ask the California Department of Insurance for rate increases.

 

In recent years, AIG and Chubb, which insure higher-end homes, have pulled coverage in some areas of the state.

Consumer advocates have noted that there are still more than 100 insurers doing business in California, even as many big names pull out.

 

But homeowners in high-risk fire areas may have a harder time finding coverage, leading to more usage of the FAIR Plan, a state-offered “insurer of last resort” meant as a temporary safety net that covers only fire insurance and generally costs more than other plans. 

 

Many insurance companies have already stopped renewing policies in fire-prone areas after fires in 2017 and 2018 devastated communities and resulted in large payouts. -SF Chronicle

Would this be happening if California’s leadership had spent the last several decades clearing dead brush and reducing the state’s wildfire risk?

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Wildfire Smoke and COVID-19

https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/covid-19/wildfire_smoke_covid-19.html

Wildfire smoke and Covid-19

Wildfire smoke and Covid-19

 

Wildfire smoke can irritate your lungs, cause inflammation, affect your immune system, and make you more prone to lung infections, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, preparing for wildfires might be a little different this year. Know how wildfire smoke can affect you and your loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic and what you can do to protect yourselves.

 

Prepare for wildfires.

 

Take actions to protect yourself from wildfire smoke during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • The best way to protect against the potentially harmful effects of wildfire smoke is to reduce your exposure to wildfire smoke, for example, by seeking cleaner air shelters and cleaner air spaces.
  • Limit your outdoor exercise when it is smoky outside or choose lower-intensity activities to reduce your smoke exposure.
  • NIOSH-approved N95 respirators can provide protection from wildfire smoke and from getting and spreading COVID-19.

Keep in mind that while physical distancing guidelines are in place, finding cleaner air might be harder if public facilities such as libraries, community centers, and shopping malls are closed or have limited their capacity.

 

Create a cleaner air space at home to protect yourself from wildfire smoke during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Use a portable air cleaner in one or more rooms. Portable air cleaners work best when run continuously with doors and windows closed.
  • If you use a do-it-yourself box fan filtration unit, never leave it unattended.
  • During periods of extreme heat, pay attention to temperature forecasts and know how to stay safe in the heat.
  • Whenever you can, use air conditioners, heat pumps, fans, and window shades to keep your cleaner air space comfortably cool on hot days.
  • If you have a forced air system in your home, you may need to speak with a qualified heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) professional about different filters (HEPA or MERV-13 or higher) and settings (“Recirculate” and “On” rather than “Auto”) you can use to reduce indoor smoke.
  • Avoid activities that create more indoor and outdoor air pollution, such as frying foods, sweeping, vacuuming, and using gas-powered appliances.

 

Know the difference between symptoms from smoke exposure and COVID-19.

  • Some symptoms, like dry cough, sore throat, and difficulty breathing can be caused by both wildfire smoke exposure and COVID-19.
  • Learn about symptoms of COVID-19. Symptoms like fever or chills, muscle or body aches, and diarrhea are not related to smoke exposure. If you have any of these symptoms, the CDC COVID-19 Self-Checker can help you determine whether you need further assessment or testing for COVID-19. If you have questions after using the CDC COVID-19 Self-Checker,  contact a healthcare provider.
  • If you have severe symptoms, like difficulty breathing or chest pain, immediately call 911 or the nearest emergency facility.

 

People with COVID-19 are at increased risk from wildfire smoke during the pandemic.

People who currently have or who are recovering from COVID-19 may be at increased risk of health effects from exposure to wildfire smoke due to compromised heart and/or lung function related to COVID-19.

 

Know whether you are at risk from wildfire smoke during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some people are more at risk of harmful health effects from wildfire smoke than others. Those most at risk include:

  • Children less than 18 years old
  • Adults aged 65 years or older
  • Pregnant women
  • People with chronic health conditions such as heart or lung disease, asthma, and diabetes
  • Outdoor workers
  • People who have lower socioeconomic status, including individuals experiencing homelessness or those who have limited access to medical care
  • People who are immunocompromised or taking drugs that suppress the immune system

 

Know what to do if you must evacuate.

  • Pay attention to local guidance about updated plans for evacuations and shelters, including potential shelters for your pets.
  • Whether you decide to evacuate or are asked to evacuate by state or local authorities, evacuate safely.
  • When you check on neighbors and friends before evacuating, be sure to follow social distancing recommendations (staying at least 6 feet from others) and other CDC recommendations to protect yourself and others.
  • If you need to go to a disaster shelter, follow CDC recommendations for staying safe and healthy in a public disaster shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Stay informed. Know where to find information about air quality and COVID-19 in your area.

 

Additional Resources

For more information about COVID-19,  go to https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

 

For more information about the health effects of wildfire smoke and reducing exposure to it:

For more information on air quality, wildfire information, smoke forecasts, and vulnerable populations:

 

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Indoctrination, Intimidation & Intolerance: What Passes For Education Today

by Tyler Durden, 10August2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/indoctrination-intimidation-intolerance-what-passes-education-today

 

Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“Every day in communities across the United States, children and adolescents spend the majority of their waking hours in schools that have increasingly come to resemble places of detention more than places of learning.”

– Investigative journalist Annette Fuentes

This is what it means to go back-to-school in America today.

 

Instead of being taught the three R’s of education (reading, writing and arithmetic), young people are being drilled in the three I’s of life in the American police state: indoctrination, intimidation and intolerance.

[EDD:

Lisa M. Love, M.Ed.-tweet-14July2021-There are times when we need to make sure students are doing things a very specific way, but that’s probably much less often than we realize. What are your thoughts?

Lisa M. Love, M.Ed.-tweet-14July2021-There are times when we need to make sure students are doing things a very specific way, but that’s probably much less often than we realize. What are your thoughts?

…]

Indeed, while young people today are learning first-hand what it means to be at the epicenter of politically charged culture wars, test scores indicate that students are not learning how to succeed in social studies, math and reading.

 

Instead of raising up a generation of civic-minded citizens with critical thinking skills, government officials are churning out compliant drones who know little to nothing about their history or their freedoms.

 

Under the direction of government officials focused on making the schools more authoritarian (sold to parents as a bid to make the schools safer), young people in America are now first in line to be searched, surveilled, spied on, threatened, tied up, locked down, treated like criminals for non-criminal behavior, tasered and in some cases shot.

 

From the moment a child enters one of the nation’s 98,000 public schools to the moment he or she graduates, they will be exposed to a steady diet of:

  • draconian zero tolerance policies that criminalize childish behavior,
  • overreaching anti-bullying statutes that criminalize speech,
  • school resource officers (police) tasked with disciplining and/or arresting so-called “disorderly” students,
  • standardized testing that emphasizes rote answers over critical thinking,
  • politically correct mindsets that teach young people to censor themselves and those around them,
  • and extensive biometric and surveillance systems that, coupled with the rest, acclimate young people to a world in which they have no freedom of thought, speech or movement.

This is how you groom young people to march in lockstep with a police state.

 

As Deborah Cadbury writes for The Washington Post, “Authoritarian rulers have long tried to assert control over the classroom as part of their totalitarian governments.”

 

In Nazi Germany, the schools became indoctrination centers, breeding grounds for intolerance and compliance.

 

In the American police state, the schools have become increasingly hostile to those who dare to question or challenge the status quo.

 

America’s young people have become casualties of a post-9/11 mindset that has transformed the country into a locked-down, militarized, crisis-fueled mockery of a representative government.

 

Roped into the government’s profit-driven campaign to keep the nation “safe” from drugs, disease, and weapons, America’s schools have transformed themselves into quasi-prisons, complete with surveillance cameras, metal detectors, police patrols, zero tolerance policies, lock downs, drug sniffing dogs, strip searches and active shooter drills.

 

Students are not only punished for minor transgressions such as playing cops and robbers on the playground, bringing LEGOs to school, or having a food fight, but the punishments have become far more severe, shifting from detention and visits to the principal’s office into misdemeanor tickets, juvenile court, handcuffs, tasers and even prison terms.

 

Students have been suspended under school zero tolerance policies for bringing to school “look alike substances” such as oreganobreath mints, birth control pills and powdered sugar.

 

Look-alike weapons (toy guns—even Lego-sized ones, hand-drawn pictures of guns, pencils twirled in a “threatening” manner, imaginary bows and arrows, fingers positioned like guns) can also land a student in hot water, in some cases getting them expelled from school or charged with a crime.

 

Not even good deeds go unpunished.

One 13-year-old was given detention for exposing the school to “liability” by sharing his lunch with a hungry friend. A third grader was suspended for shaving her head in sympathy for a friend who had lost her hair to chemotherapy. And then there was the high school senior who was suspended for saying “bless you” after a fellow classmate sneezed.

 

Having police in the schools only adds to the danger.

Thanks to a combination of media hype, political pandering and financial incentives, the use of armed police officers (a.k.a. school resource officers) to patrol school hallways has risen dramatically in the years since the Columbine school shooting.

 

Indeed, the growing presence of police in the nation’s schools is resulting in greater police “involvement in routine discipline matters that principals and parents used to address without involvement from law enforcement officers.”

 

Funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, these school resource officers have become de facto wardens in elementary, middle and high schools, doling out their own brand of justice to the so-called “criminals” in their midst with the help of tasers, pepper spray, batons and brute force.

 

In the absence of school-appropriate guidelines, police are more and more “stepping in to deal with minor rulebreaking: sagging pants, disrespectful comments, brief physical skirmishes. What previously might have resulted in a detention or a visit to the principal’s office was replaced with excruciating pain and temporary blindness, often followed by a trip to the courthouse.”

 

Not even the younger, elementary school-aged kids are being spared these “hardening” tactics.

On any given day when school is in session, kids who “act up” in class are pinned facedown on the floor, locked in dark closets, tied up with straps, bungee cords and duct tape, handcuffed, leg shackled, tasered or otherwise restrained, immobilized or placed in solitary confinement in order to bring them under “control.”

 

In almost every case, these undeniably harsh methods are used to punish kids—some as young as 4 and 5 years old—for simply failing to follow directions or throwing tantrums.

 

Very rarely do the kids pose any credible danger to themselves or others.

Unbelievably, these tactics are all legal, at least when employed by school officials or school resource officers in the nation’s public schools.

 

This is what happens when you introduce police and police tactics into the schools.

Paradoxically, by the time you add in the lockdowns and active shooter drills, instead of making the schools safer, school officials have succeeded in creating an environment in which children are so traumatized that they suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, nightmares, anxiety, mistrust of adults in authority, as well as feelings of anger, depression, humiliation, despair and delusion.

 

For example, a middle school in Washington State went on lockdown after a student brought a toy gun to class. A Boston high school went into lockdown for four hours after a bullet was discovered in a classroom. A North Carolina elementary school locked down and called in police after a fifth grader reported seeing an unfamiliar man in the school (it turned out to be a parent).

 

Police officers at a Florida middle school carried out an active shooter drill in an effort to educate students about how to respond in the event of an actual shooting crisis. Two armed officers, guns loaded and drawn, burst into classrooms, terrorizing the students and placing the school into lockdown mode.

 

These police state tactics have not made the schools any safer.

The fallout has been what you’d expect, with the nation’s young people treated like hardened criminals: handcuffed, arrested, tasered, tackled and taught the painful lesson that the Constitution (especially the Fourth Amendment) doesn’t mean much in the American police state.

 

So what’s the answer, not only for the here-and-now—the children growing up in these quasi-prisons—but for the future of this country?

 

How do you convince a child who has been routinely handcuffed, shackled, tied down, locked up, and immobilized by government officials—all before he reaches the age of adulthood—that he has any rights at all, let alone the right to challenge wrongdoing, resist oppression and defend himself against injustice?

 

Most of all, how do you persuade a fellow American that the government works for him when, for most of his young life, he has been incarcerated in an institution that teaches young people to be obedient and compliant citizens who don’t talk back, don’t question and don’t challenge authority?

 

As we’ve seen with other issues, any significant reforms will have to start locally and trickle upwards.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, if we want to raise up a generation of freedom fighters who will actually operate with justice, fairness, accountability and equality towards each other and their government, we must start by running the schools like freedom forums.

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The Suffering Is Off The Charts

by Tyler Durden, 02June2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/suffering-charts

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Things have taken a turn for the worse.  In recent months, economic activity has been dropping all over the nation, and that decline appears to be accelerating.  We just learned that gross domestic income has now fallen for two quarters in a row, and the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now been plummeting for 13 consecutive months.  Unfortunately, when economic conditions deteriorate it is the people at the low end of the economic pyramid that get hit the hardest.

 

Thanks to our rapidly rising cost of living, we are seeing a dramatic explosion in the number of “working homeless” that are living out of their vehicles on a daily basis even though they are currently employed.

In particular, the RV “communities” that are springing up from coast to coast are starting to get quite a bit of attention

The owner of a party bus company, Rikers Island prison guards and an Amazon worker are just some of the eclectic bunch who have formed a community of ‘working homeless’ people living out of RVs in the Astoria section of Queens, New York.

 

Similar communities have formed across the US from New England to California where people have chosen a nomadic lifestyle amid a national cost of living crisis.

Most of these people get up and go to work in the morning.

In fact, the Daily Mail spoke to one man that actually “works for a New York City hospital”

Resident Paul Reevers described himself as ‘working homeless.’ He said that he has a job but the rent went up too high and he could not longer to afford a an apartment.

 

Reevers, who works for a New York City hospital, said that he took out a loan and bought his RV.

If you work at a hospital, you should be able to afford a place to live.

 

But this is our country now.

We are absolutely destroying the middle class, and as a result we now have a massive homelessness crisis on our hands

Insider Monkey, a finance website, revealed a list of the top 30 cities worldwide with the highest homeless population. Notably, a handful of the US cities on the list are governed by progressive leadership, which may not surprise readers. While it is evident that some unfortunate individuals are facing homelessness, a trend exacerbated by recent inflationary pressures and a drug addiction crisis, some liberal policies have enabled others to sustain their nomadic lifestyles with taxpayer funds.

 

Insider Monkey found New York City is number 5 on the list, with a homeless population of about 69,000. Next is Chicago, at number 7 with 65,611. Washington, DC, is number 8 with 57,416, Los Angeles number 13 with 41,980, and San Fransisco number 14 with 38,000.

No matter what you or I are facing right now, at least we aren’t sleeping in the streets.

 

So we should count our blessings.

Hunger is also rapidly growing all over America.  Right now, record numbers of people are coming for help at one food bank in the Seattle area

Since March, the food bank has broken its record three times for the highest number of people served in a day since 2019, when the organization started allowing three visits a month. More and more, people like Jones who haven’t been to the food bank in years, are showing up, Christian said.

 

“That’s hard on them; they felt they had moved above the poverty line, got some stability but, ‘Here it is 2023 and here I am back in the food line asking strangers for help,’” Christian said.

And in Boston, the line for food on one recent weekend morning “stretched the length of two football fields”

The line outside Boston’s American Red Cross Food Pantry on a recent Saturday morning stretched the length of two football fields.

 

The number of people filing into the red-brick industrial-zone warehouse on some days now exceeds the worst periods of the pandemic economic crisis and in April it had the second highest monthly traffic since it opened in 1982, according to David Andre, the director.

We are witnessing so much suffering all over the country right now.

And there are so many more people that are living right on the edge of disaster.

 

According to one recent survey, approximately 38.5 percent of U.S. adults experienced “some form of difficulty in covering expenses between April 26 and May 8”

A large swath of American consumers are facing financial hardship as they grapple with elevated living costs, record-high credit card use, and two years of negative real wage growth. This perfect storm could decimate financially fragile households in the next downturn.

 

As many as 89.1 million American adults (or about 38.5%) were found to experience some form of difficulty in covering expenses between April 26 and May 8, according to Bloomberg, citing new data from the Household Pulse Survey. This is up from 34.4% in 2022 and 26.7% during the same period in 2021.

Of course this is just the beginning.

As I keep warning my readers, things will eventually get much worse.

 

And finally, whatever happens in Washington is not going to fundamentally alter our long-term trajectory, and that means that much more suffering is coming in the days ahead.

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US Suicide Rates Hit Record High of Nearly 50,000 in 2022, Provisional CDC Data Show

 

Silhouette of depressed man sitting on walkway of residence building (Aonprom Photo/Shutterstock)

Silhouette of depressed man sitting on walkway of residence building (Aonprom Photo/Shutterstock)

By Katabella Roberts
11August2023 Updated: 22August2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/us-suicide-rates-hit-record-high-of-nearly-50000-in-2022-provisional-cdc-data-show-5458976

 

Suicide rates soared to the highest number on record in 2022 as nearly 50,000 Americans took their own lives, according to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Aug. 10.

 

The latest report suggests a notable increase in suicides since 2021 following two consecutive years of modest declines in 2019 and 2020.

 

According to the CDC’s provisional data, an estimated 49,449 Americans committed suicide in 2022, or nearly 15 deaths for every 100,000 people, up 2.6 percent from 48,183 deaths by suicide in 2021, and surpassing the peak of 48,344 in 2018.

 

Previously in 2019 and 2020, the suicide rate fell to 47,511 and 45,979 respectively, according to the CDC, although it is unclear exactly what prompted the decline.

 

Suicide is now the eleventh-leading cause of death in the United States, compared to 2020 when it was the twelfth-leading cause, the latest data suggest.

 

The latest figures—which are based on death certificates received by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and may change—show that America is facing a growing mental health crisis, according to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra.

 

“Nine in ten Americans believe America is facing a mental health crisis. The new suicide death data reported by CDC illustrates why. One life lost to suicide is one too many. Yet, too many people still believe asking for help is a sign of weakness,” Mr. Becerra said. “The Biden-Harris Administration is making unprecedented investments to transform how mental health is understood, accessed, and treated as part of President Biden’s Unity Agenda. We must continue to eliminate the stigmatization of mental health and make care available to all Americans.”

 

According to the latest CDC report, men accounted for approximately 79 percent of the total number of suicides in 2022, although rates increased among both males and females at 3.8 percent among American women, and 2.3 percent among American men.

 

The largest increase in suicides was seen among older adults, according to the CDC.

Youth Mental Health Crisis Deepening Due to Pandemic Policies: Study

 

Rates Increased Among Older Adults

Among Americans ages 45 to 64 there was a 6.6 percent increase in suicides, the data show. In those older than 65, the CDC reported an 8.1 percent increase year-on-year.

 

Many middle-aged and elderly people experience problems like losing a job or losing a spouse. Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer, said it was important to reduce stigma and other obstacles to them getting assistance.

 

Meanwhile, among the racial and ethnic groups the CDC tracks, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders had the largest increase in suicide in 2022, with a 15.9 percent rise, the CDC data show.

 

Multiracial individuals saw suicide rates increase by 7.9 percent while rates rose 5.7 percent among Asians and 3.6 percent among black or African Americans.

 

However, the CDC noted a decline in suicide rates among American Indians/Alaska Natives, where suicide rates declined 6.1 percent year on year.

 

The health agency also noted a decline in suicide rates among individuals aged 10–24, approximately 8.4 percent.

While it is unclear what prompted the rise in the number of suicides among Americans, experts have said the increase could be driven by a multitude of factors such as increasing rates of depression and the limited availability of mental health services.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, which for many led to job losses, financial instability, isolation, and loneliness, may have also played a role.

Pandemic Prompts Anxiety, Depression

A March 2023 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that by early 2021, 4 in 10 adults reported symptoms consistent with anxiety and depression over the course of the pandemic, although that figure dropped to approximately 3 in 10 adults as the pandemic continued.

 

Deb Stone, a behavioral scientist at the CDC Injury Center, told The Washington Times earlier this year that suicide rates might be stable or even decline during a disaster, and rise afterward, “as the longer-term sequela of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among populations struggling with preexisting inequities.”

 

Meanwhile, a poll conducted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and published last month found that the majority of Americans (82 percent) are still not familiar with or have not heard of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, a resource aimed at helping people in mental health, substance use, and suicide crises get connected to the support they may need.

 

Final data from the CDC on suicide rates will be available later this year.

“Today’s report underscores the depths of the devastating mental health crisis in America. Mental health has become the defining public health and societal challenge of our time. Far too many people and their families are suffering and feeling alone,” said U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.

 

“These numbers are a sobering reminder of how urgent it is that we further expand access to mental health care, address the root causes of mental health struggles, and recognize the importance of checking on and supporting one another,” he added.

 

As part of its effort to combat the rising suicide rate among Americans and address the nation’s mental health crisis, the Biden administration has announced a string of initiatives aimed at lowering and preventing such deaths, including its National Suicide Prevention Lifeline that launched last year allowing anyone in the United States to dial 988 to reach mental health specialists.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis or is considering suicide, has mental health issues, or is engaging in substance abuse, dial or text the U.S. Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 to speak with a counselor. If you’re in the UK, call the Samaritans at 116123.

 

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New study warns that declining health standards in the U.S. causing “a crisis of early death”

30August2023 // Arsenio Toledo // https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-08-30-declining-health-standards-crisis-early-death.html

 

A recent study has found that the United States is experiencing what leading researchers call “a crisis of early death.”

 

The study, done by researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), found that more than one million deaths in the U.S. – including many young and working-age adults – could be avoided each year if the country had similar mortality rates to other developed nations.

 

The researchers noted that, in 2021, the U.S. had 1.1 million excess deaths which could have been averted, with the excess deaths referred to as the country’s “Missing Americans” because these deaths reflect people who would still be alive if the U.S. death rate was equal to its peers. (Related: Government to blame sudden death epidemic on long COVID and climate change, says Ed Dowd.)

 

“The number of Missing Americans in recent years is unprecedented in modern times,” said study lead and corresponding author Jacob Bor, a BUSPH associate professor of global health and epidemiology, in a media release accompanying the publishing of the study.

 

The researchers analyzed mortality trends in America from 1933 to 2021 and then compared the results with age-specific mortality rates from “peer nations, including Australia, Canada, Japan and 18 nations in Europe.

 

The findings showed that America had lower mortality rates than peer nations during World War II. By the 1960s and 1970s, America’s mortality rates were similar to peer nations. But by the 1980s, the U.S. began a four-decade-long trend of accelerating excess deaths, reaching 622,534 excess deaths in 2019, nearly 1.01 million excess deaths in 2021 and over 1.09 excess deaths in 2021.

 

According to the study, nearly 50 percent of all Missing Americans in 2020 and 2021 were under the age of 65 – this means that nearly half of the excess deaths in the U.S. were from working-age Americans and even youths.

 

“Think of people you know who have passed away before reaching age 65. Statistically, half of them would still be alive if the U.S. had the mortality rates of our peers,” said Bor. “The U.S. is experiencing a crisis of early death that is unique among wealthy nations.”

 

Declining healthcare system mainly responsible for excess deaths

While Bor and the other researchers acknowledge that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic likely contributed to a sharp spike in mortality in the U.S., the research does not acknowledge the role vaccines may have played. Instead, Bor and his associates point to the general decline in health standards in the U.S. as the main culprit.

 

“The U.S. was already experiencing more than 600,000 Missing Americans annually before the pandemic began, and that number was increasing each year,” said Bor. “There have been no significant policy changes since then to change this trajectory.”

 

“We waste hundreds of billions each year on health insurers’ profits and paperwork, while tens of millions can’t afford medical care, healthy food or a decent place to live,” said study senior author Steffie Woolhandler, a distinguished professor at the School of Urban Public Health at Hunter College, City University of New York. “Americans die younger than their counterparts elsewhere because when corporate profits conflict with health, our politicians side with the corporations.”

 

Study co-author Andrew Stokes, a BUSPH assistant professor of global health, said that the findings raise a number of urgent questions that need to be addressed in future research. “Which geographic areas are disproportionately responsible for the Missing Americans, and what were their causes of deaths? Answers to these questions may help to clarify policy solutions,” he noted.

 

Learn more about the American healthcare system and how it continues to disappoint many in the country at Medicine.news.

 

Watch this clip from “The HighWire” as host Del Bigtree and investigative journalist Jefferey Jaxen discuss how excess deaths are also surging in other countries like the United Kingdom.

 

EXCESS DEATHS HIT RECORD LEVELS

 

This video is from the channel The HighWire with Del Bigtree on Brighteon.com.

 

More related stories:

Scott Schara: Medical system didn’t value people’s lives during COVID-19 pandemic – Brighteon.TV.

 

Most major medical bills are grossly INFLATED by Big Pharma just to see who is gullible enough to pay them without question.

 

Dr. Jane Ruby STAT: Government protects killer doctors by granting them blanket immunity – Brighteon.TV.

 

America’s top 20 nonprofit hospitals received over $23 billion in COVID-19 payments (while killing or injuring millions of people).

 

Americans continue to suffer as hospitals refuse to be transparent about their prices.

 

Sources include:

 

StudyFinds.org

 

BU.edu

 

WorldHealth.net

 

Brighteon.com

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“Arbitrary… Outdated!” – Yellen Outraged After Fitch Cuts USA’s AAA-Rating

by Tyler Durden, 02August2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/fitch-cuts-usas-aaa-rating-cites-fiscal-deterioration-erosion-governance

Update (1750ET): Treasury Secretary Yellen is pissed, calling the downgrade “arbitrary” and “outdated.”!

I strongly disagree with Fitch Ratings’ decision. The change by Fitch Ratings announced today is arbitrary and based on outdated data. Fitch’s quantitative ratings model declined markedly between 2018 and 2020 – and yet Fitch is announcing its change now, despite the progress that we see in many of the indicators that Fitch relies on for its decision. Many of these measures, including those related to governance, have shown improvement over the course of this Administration, with the passage of bipartisan legislation to address the debt limit, invest in infrastructure, and make other investments in America’s competitiveness.

 

Fitch’s decision does not change what Americans, investors, and people all around the world already know: that Treasury securities remain the world’s preeminent safe and liquid asset, and that the American economy is fundamentally strong.

 

Over the past few years, the United States has undergone a historically fast economic recovery from a deep recession. Today, the unemployment rate is near historic lows, inflation has come down significantly since last summer, and last week’s GDP report shows that the U.S. economy continues to grow. The American economy remains the world’s largest and most dynamic economy, with the deepest and most liquid financial markets in the world. To build on this, President Biden and I have been focused on making critical investments in our country’s core economic strength and productive capacity. 

 

President Biden and I are committed to fiscal sustainability. The most recent debt limit legislation included over $1 trillion in deficit reduction and improved our fiscal trajectory. Looking forward, President Biden has put forward a budget that would reduce the deficit by $2.6 trillion over the next decade through a balanced approach that would support investments for the long-term.” 

Perhaps she should read this…

Federal Debt Held by the Public 1900 - 2053

Federal Debt Held by the Public 1900 – 2053

 

Bidenomics for the win…

zerohedge-tweet-1August2023-Yellen Says Fitch Downgrade Based on Outdated Data

zerohedge-tweet-1August2023-Yellen Says Fitch Downgrade Based on Outdated Data

We wonder how the Vice President feels about this…

zerohedge-tweet-1August2023-Kamala: First of all, it’s two letters

zerohedge-tweet-1August2023-Kamala: First of all, it’s two letters

*  *  *

In the middle of the debt-ceiling ‘crisis’ in May, with Fitch, Moodys and DBRS all threatening to do what S&P boldly did in 2011 and downgrade the US should the debt ceiling crisis lead to a technical default, China’s leading rating agency, China Chengxin International Credit Rating decided not to wait, downgrading the USA’s rating by one notch, to AA+ from AAA, citing high inflation and the widely watched debt-ceiling stand-off.

 

Today, Fitch decided to get off the pot and join S&P and Chengxin, downgrading USA’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’.

 

US Dollar Downgraded

US Dollar Downgraded

 

Key Rating Drivers

Ratings Downgrade: The rating downgrade of the United States reflects the expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years, a high and growing general government debt burden, and the erosion of governance relative to ‘AA’ and ‘AAA’ rated peers over the last two decades that has manifested in repeated debt limit standoffs and last-minute resolutions.

 

Erosion of Governance: In Fitch’s view, there has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit until January 2025. The repeated debt-limit political standoffs and last-minute resolutions have eroded confidence in fiscal management. In addition, the government lacks a medium-term fiscal framework, unlike most peers, and has a complex budgeting process. These factors, along with several economic shocks as well as tax cuts and new spending initiatives, have contributed to successive debt increases over the last decade. Additionally, there has been only limited progress in tackling medium-term challenges related to rising social security and Medicare costs due to an aging population.

 

Rising General Government Deficits: We expect the general government (GG) deficit to rise to 6.3% of GDP in 2023, from 3.7% in 2022, reflecting cyclically weaker federal revenues, new spending initiatives and a higher interest burden. Additionally, state and local governments are expected to run an overall deficit of 0.6% of GDP this year after running a small surplus of 0.2% of GDP in 2022. Cuts to non-defense discretionary spending (15% of total federal spending) as agreed in the Fiscal Responsibility Act offer only a modest improvement to the medium-term fiscal outlook, with cumulative savings of USD1.5 trillion (3.9% of GDP) by 2033 according to the Congressional Budget Office. The near-term impact of the Act is estimated at USD70 billion (0.3% of GDP) in 2024 and USD112 billion (0.4% of GDP) in 2025. Fitch does not expect any further substantive fiscal consolidation measures ahead of the November 2024 elections.

 

Fitch forecasts a GG deficit of 6.6% of GDP in 2024 and a further widening to 6.9% of GDP in 2025. The larger deficits will be driven by weak 2024 GDP growth, a higher interest burden and wider state and local government deficits of 1.2% of GDP in 2024-2025 (in line with the historical 20-year average). The interest-to-revenue ratio is expected to reach 10% by 2025 (compared to 2.8% for the ‘AA’ median and 1% for the ‘AAA’ median) due to the higher debt level as well as sustained higher interest rates compared with pre-pandemic levels.

 

General Government Debt to Rise: Lower deficits and high nominal GDP growth reduced the debt-to-GDP ratio over the last two years from the pandemic high of 122.3% in 2020; however, at 112.9% this year it is still well above the pre-pandemic 2019 level of 100.1%. The GG debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to rise over the forecast period, reaching 118.4% by 2025. The debt ratio is over two-and-a-half times higher than the ‘AAA’ median of 39.3% of GDP and ‘AA’ median of 44.7% of GDP. Fitch’s longer-term projections forecast additional debt/GDP rises, increasing the vulnerability of the U.S. fiscal position to future economic shocks.

 

Medium-term Fiscal Challenges Unaddressed: Over the next decade, higher interest rates and the rising debt stock will increase the interest service burden, while an aging population and rising healthcare costs will raise spending on the elderly absent fiscal policy reforms. The CBO projects that interest costs will double by 2033 to 3.6% of GDP. The CBO also estimates a rise in mandatory spending on Medicare and social security by 1.5% of GDP over the same period. The CBO projects that the Social Security fund will be depleted by 2033 and the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund (used to pay for benefits under Medicare Part A) will be depleted by 2035 under current laws, posing additional challenges for the fiscal trajectory unless timely corrective measures are implemented. Additionally, the 2017 tax cuts are set to expire in 2025, but there is likely to be political pressure to make these permanent as has been the case in the past, resulting in higher deficit projections.

 

Exceptional Strengths Support Ratings: Several structural strengths underpin the United States’ ratings. These include its large, advanced, well-diversified and high-income economy, supported by a dynamic business environment. Critically, the U.S. dollar is the world’s preeminent reserve currency, which gives the government extraordinary financing flexibility.
Economy to Slip into Recession: Tighter credit conditions, weakening business investment, and a slowdown in consumption will push the U.S. economy into a mild recession in 4Q23 and 1Q24, according to Fitch projections. The agency sees U.S. annual real GDP growth slowing to 1.2% this year from 2.1% in 2022 and overall growth of just 0.5% in 2024. Job vacancies remain higher and the labor participation rate is still lower (by 1 pp) than pre-pandemic levels, which could negatively affect medium-term potential growth.

 

Fed Tightening: The Fed raised interest rates by 25bp in March, May and July 2023. Fitch expects one further hike to 5.5% to 5.75% by September. The resilience of the economy and the labor market are complicating the Fed’s goal of bringing inflation towards its 2% target. While headline inflation fell to 3% in June, core PCE inflation, the Fed’s key price index, remained stubbornly high at 4.1% yoy. This will likely preclude cuts in the Federal Funds Rate until March 2024. Additionally, the Fed is continuing to reduce its holdings of mortgage backed-securities and U.S. Treasuries, which is further tightening financial conditions. Since January, these assets on the Fed balance sheet have fallen by over USD500 billion as of end-July 2023.

 

ESG – Governance: The U.S. has an ESG Relevance Score (RS) of ‘5’ for Political Stability and Rights and ‘5[+]’ for the Rule of Law, Institutional and Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption. Theses scores reflect the high weight that the World Bank Governance Indicators (WBGI) have in Fitch’s proprietary Sovereign Rating Model. The U.S. has a high WBGI ranking at 79, reflecting its well-established rights for participation in the political process, strong institutional capacity, effective rule of law and a low level of corruption.

 

Additionally, they warn that the following could lead to more negative ratings actions…

  • Public Finances: A marked increase in general government debt, for example due to a failure to address medium-term public spending and revenue challenges;
  • Macroeconomic policy, performance and prospects: A decline in the coherence and credibility of policymaking that undermines the reserve currency status of the U.S. dollar, thus diminishing the government’s financing flexibility.

All hail Bidenomics.

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It’s Mourning In America

by Tyler Durden, 22July2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/its-mourning-america

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Now that America has been transformed from a high-trust social order into a low-trust social order, there’s no going back.

The Wizard of Oz - Behind the Curtain

The Wizard of Oz – Behind the Curtain

The birth of financialization in the early 1980s was morning in America because finance– the collateralization of previously low-risk assets and the resulting explosion of credit and leverage–gooses demand and asset valuations.

 

Now that we’ve at long last reached the demise of financialization, it’s mourning in America as the hyper-stimulation has reached its zenith and is beginning its inevitable end-game of uncontrolled implosion. The hyper-financialization of American life has fatally distorted the nation’s production, politics, values and social order.

 

Regardless of our political persuasion, we’re all mourning for what’s been lost to either decay or erosion, both of which are so gradual that we cannot discern the full extent of the damage. We sense it, though, and this fuels the nation’s distemper.

 

The decay, erosion and distemper remind me of a quote from French author Michel Houellebecq:

“I have the impression of being caught up in a network of complicated, minute, stupid rules, and I have the impression of being herded towards a uniform kind of happiness, toward a kind of happiness that doesn’t really make me happy.”

Substitute con for happiness and we have an insight into the source of mourning in America: we’re being conned 24/7, on every level and in every nook and cranny of the economy and society.

 

The key to any good con is to persuade the mark (victim) that it’s not a con. The most direct approach is to claim the con is true, factual, etc. Once this claim starts unraveling, then the con switches to an alternative reality that has enough shreds of credibility to be plausible.

 

This is why so many confuse the con and propaganda. Both are self-serving, of course, as the goal of propaganda is to generate compliance and conformity in the populace by constructing an emotionally compelling context that is both appealing and plausible. Those spewing the propaganda do so to secure their power and further their own self-serving agenda.

 

For example, that we’re all enjoying unprecedented prosperity in the best of all possible worlds. Look at all the low-quality rusting junk we can buy from manufacturers in totalitarian nations at low, low prices–wow! It doesn’t get any better than this. Stainless Steal (February 26, 2023).

 

The difference is that those spewing propaganda can be true believers in whatever cause is being pushed. In most cases, propaganda is issued by cynical, manipulative sociopaths who are merely hired guns for whomever seeks all the advantages of persuading people that enriching and empowering the few at the expense of the many is not only allowable, it’s the right thing, the only option, etc. But propaganda works best when it converts the previously uncommitted or apathetic into true believers, much like a religious conversion.

 

A con, on the other hand, is a swindle, a fraud, a bezzle, that takes advantage of the mark’s naive trust. This trust might be in a blood relative, a friend, an enterprise, an organization or an institution. The con exploits this trust to defraud or break the mark into an unknowing patsy.

The fundamentals of the con are:

1. The gains are guaranteed, i.e. low risk.

2. The benefits are exaggerated while the costs and consequences are left unsaid.

Here’s the metaphor the con presents: I’m leading you to a glorious fruit tree loaded with ripe fruit. All you have to do is harvest as much as you want.

 

Since we’re all still hunter-gatherers in Wetware 1.0, this greatly appeals to us. We’re inherently risk-averse and greedy to exploit windfalls, and the con promises us near-zero risk and one windfall to stripmine after another. It’s irresistible.

 

The con always has an end date, when the mark discovers they’ve been fleeced. Trust is destroyed, and the mark, bitterly enlightened to their own credulity, laziness and greed, vows to never fall for such a con again.

 

The higher-order con never lets trust be completely destroyed. Instead, the con-man either rushes to console the mark and apologize for the unexpected loss, (Jeez, this never happened before–it must have been a glitch in the Matrix), or the con-man brazenly blames the victim for misjudging the situation and failing to take advantage of the unbeatable deal.

You blew it, pal, I can’t help you with that. But hey, since I’m such a nice guy, and you’re deserving of a second chance, I’m gonna let you in on another deal, not quite as good as the one you blew, but still a gem.

 

This is America in a nutshell: a continuous cacophony of cons. This is why trust in institutions such as the media, corporations, political interest groups, government and education are in free-fall, along with social trust in our fellow Americans. Every node of power is dominated by people out to maximize their personal gains at the expense of the public, customers, voters, members, students, etc.

Listen, kid, you’re gonna be on Easy Street if you go borrow $120,000 and give it to us for a college diploma. You’ll be set for life, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel once you pony up the dough and we give you the paper. Don’t be a chump, kid, you gotta look out for yourself, and we’re trying to help you here.

 

This medication is safe and non-addictive, you’re gonna feel a lot better as soon as you start taking it. Here’s ten pages of side-effects, but don’t worry about all that, it’s just boiler-plate. We’re here to help you, pal, and the $27,000 a month cost is mostly on the government, so it’s a slam-dunk win for you.

 

Gee, I’d like to answer your questions about the district budget, employee salaries and overtime, it must be in this 293-page annual statement somewhere. You can buy a copy for only $25.

And so on, in an endless profusion of self-serving cons. Ernest academics ponder this decay and propose all sorts of scholarly possibilities, while never mentioning the obvious source: every node of power in America is hopelessly corrupt, covering its cons with tsunamis of propaganda aimed at “trust-building” among “stakeholders,” whipping up the conned faithful, cherry-picking evidence to string along the marks just a little longer, and pointing to the long history of the institution as trustworthy–a reputation that is being pillaged to benefit the few at the expense of the many.

 

it wasn't influence-peddling

it wasn’t influence-peddling

 

The most successful cons divert attention from the con-men to some other group of marks / victims. You got fleeced because of them. The fact that everyone outside the nodes of power has been fleeced is left unsaid, as this realization might generate a common cause of the marks against those benefiting so richly from the cons.

 

It was fun while it lasted, exploiting the supercharged-cons of hyper-financialization and hyper-globalization, but those cons have been tapped out and there are no replacements.

 

It’s tough recognizing that we’ve been credulous, naively trusting, and greedy for low-risk riches. Every one of the countless skims, scams and cons has exploited our willingness to trust and our self-interest in easy wealth.

 

Now that America has been transformed from a high-trust social order into a low-trust social order, there’s no going back.

US Social Trust

US Social Trust

 

This is why it’s mourning in America. Trust can only be rebuilt slowly, first by opting out of all the self-serving cons and then re-establishing trust at the local level.

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The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

By Steve McCann
30May2023 https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/05/the_decline_and_fall_of_the_american_empire.html

 

A cursory examination of history reveals that the United States is mired in the same process that precipitated the collapse of the great empires of the past.  The foibles and failures of human nature and their impact on the rise and fall of empires is amazingly consistent and the end result always inevitable.  Can this nation avoid a similar fate?

 

Empires are defined as great military and economic powers encompassing large occupied or controlled land areas.  Although they vary greatly, they average around 250 years in duration.  The United States will be celebrating its 250th anniversary in 2026.

 

In 1976, Sir John Glubb, a distinguished British diplomat and general, wrote an essay on the fate of empires throughout history.  He enumerated, based on 3,000 years of historical data, the six various stages in the rise and fall of empires.

 

These stages and how they apply to the United States are as follows:

  • The Age of Pioneers       (The Revolutionary War and the founding of the Nation)
  • The Age of Conquests    (The Western Expansion to the Pacific Ocean)
  • The Age of Commerce   (Industrialization and evolution of a dominant middle class)
  • The Age of Affluence     (The meteoric rise of the standard of living in the 20th Century)
  • The Age of Intellect        (Global domination in the arts, medicine and technology)
  • The Age of Decadence   (For 30+ years America has been increasingly mired in this age )

The Age of Decadence is marked by debauchery, defensiveness, pessimism, materialism, a significant weakening of religion, frivolity, a welfare state, and a massive influx of unassimilated foreigners.  These symptoms of national decadence are the end product of long periods of prosperity and power, love of wealth and status, and self-obsession by the ruling elites leading to fateful government corruption and instability.

 

Sir John Glubb is definitive in stating that in all ancient and modern fallen empires, “there does not appear to be any doubt that money is the agent which causes the decline of strong, brave and self-confident people.”

 

An examination of various empires from the Persian Empire to the Roman Empire to the British Empire confirms Glubb’s hypothesis that pursuit and accumulation of money or wealth is the portal through which power over the masses is achieved.  The amassing of wealth and thus power evolves into a quasi-religion that over time triggers the descent into the age of decadence and corruption that inevitably leads to the collapse and conquering of empires by their external enemies.

 

In the early stage of the age of decadence, materialism becomes a driving force in society, inducing many in the upper classes to indulge in excessive, often conspicuous consumption as an absurdly wealthy elite emerges.  Far too many societal elites and non-elites become convinced that increased consumption and social status is the key to happiness, but in its pursuit they become demonstrably more pessimistic and less happy and fulfilled.

 

The search for happiness and fulfillment leads to imprudence and voyeurism becoming central to the culture.  Unhappy people searching for diversion became fixated on celebrities and captive to evolving voyeurism.  And voyeurism takes on a more sinister aspect as people in both ancient and modern empires become increasingly desensitized to graphic images and willing spectators or participants in violence and debauchery.

 

Debauchery is an oft-recurring theme in the demise of empires.  Societies develop an abnormally immature obsession with sex.  An obsession that requires increasing deviancy to satiate coupled with concurrent abuse of children and the marginalization and exploitation of women.  Meanwhile, the use of drugs and alcohol expands exponentially.  Debauchery is a symptom of the absence of meaning in people’s lives leading to the self-destruction of society and concomitantly a loss of a sense of duty and patriotism.

 

Other symptoms common among many empires in the last stages of decline include:

  • Massive and growing disparities between rich and poor and an undisciplined and over-extended military.
  • An intensification of internal political hatreds and a corresponding inability to reconcile in order to save the empire.
  • An ever increasing level of self-serving corruption and patronage among the ruling class.
  • A massive influx of unassimilated foreigners whose allegiance and cultural ties are  with their native lands and not the host nation and who do not feel obligated to defend the empire.
  • Severe financial and economic crises linked to the unending debasement of the currency.
  • An ongoing and irreversible decline in monotheistic religions that emphasize self-sacrifice, temperance, a sense of duty as well as honor and integrity.

Additionally, while the decline of empires is precipitated by internal factors, the final collapse is marked by defeat at the hands of powerful external enemies.  The United States is presently facing an implacable and powerful external enemy, Communist China.  A foe this nation’s elites, in their self-indulgent pursuit of wealth, essentially created by willfully intertwining the American economy with a ruthless and dictatorial communist regime.

 

Unfortunately, the vast bulk of the American citizenry is not aware of the historically precarious situation this nation finds itself.  Nor are they aware that the policies and actions of the Marxist controlled Democrat party over the past 20 years is a window into what will happen to this nation if they continue in power.  Another four to eight years of Democrat Party rule will permanently embed:

  • Unchecked corruption in government and America’s corporations and institutions.
  • The ongoing debasement of the currency, uncontrolled spending and economic instability,
  • The continued massive influx of unassimilated foreigners,
  • The intensification of political animosity and the persecution of any political opposition,
  • An undisciplined, ideologically driven and feckless military incapable of confronting China,
  • Drug-addled and crime-ridden dystopias in America’s major urban and suburban areas,
  • Continued and accelerated mainstreaming of decadence and sexual debauchery

As the last three years have amply proven, decadence and sexual debauchery will continue apace.  All forms of deviancy, including but not limited to pedophilia, will be forcefully mainstreamed.  Religious liberties will be denigrated and curtailed.  Infanticide and state-sponsored euthanasia will be legalized.  Materialism and voyeurism will become the new state religion.  And virtually all drugs will be legalized and easily available.

 

As the United States descends into insolvency, societal chaos and upheaval, Communist China, with which the Democrat party is intertwined, will actively abet and promote the dissolution of this country as it will be waiting vulture-like to feast on the carcass.

 

The inevitable can perhaps be mitigated if a significant majority of the populace acknowledges the current plight of the nation and initiates a return to the nation’s founding Judeo-Christian principles.  Additionally, it is imperative that either Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis wins in November of 2024 and for a populist Republican Party to control both the presidency and Congress for a minimum of two presidential terms.

 

Republican primary voters must also acknowledge reality and not be captive to cultlike sycophancy for either Trump or DeSantis.  They need to ask themselves: who can win against a corrupt and devious Democrat party reliant on voter fraud and manipulation in the battleground states of Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania?  Who has the coattails to assure the capture of both Houses of Congress?  And can that person can either serve a second term or make certain another Republican will win in 2028?

 

It is not hyperbole to say the upcoming election cycle is the most determinative in American history.  If the Republicans fail to win the presidency and Congress in 2024, this nation will have passed the point of no return and a new chapter in the annals of the decline and fall of great nations will be written.

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Efforts to Protect US Intensify Amid Global Shift From Dollar

Calls from Congress and state houses to the private sector for out-of-the-box thinking, such as repegging the currency to gold or declaring precious metals to be legal tender, are growing.

An illustration of the U.S. dollar linked to gold. (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)

An illustration of the U.S. dollar linked to gold. (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)

By Alex Newman | 22August2023 Updated: 23August2023 https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/efforts-to-protect-us-intensify-amid-global-shift-from-dollar-5451294

 

With inflation plaguing the economy as the U.S. dollar is increasingly being sidelined in international trade, potentially even at risk of losing its status as the global reserve currency, lawmakers in Washington and state capitals are touting gold and precious metals as the solution.

 

From congressional efforts that would once again back the U.S. dollar with gold to state-level initiatives to facilitate commerce in precious metals, proposals are proliferating. Some have already advanced.

 

Private-sector players are getting in on the action, too, arguing that gold can be a defense against economic calamity as foreign governments and central banks stockpile record amounts of precious metals.

 

In a series of interviews with The Epoch Times, state and federal lawmakers working to restore gold as money argued that this was the best way to defend the dollar, stabilize the economy, rein in government spending, and protect U.S. interests.

 

A bill introduced in Congress this year by U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.), dubbed the Gold Standard Restoration Act (H.R. 2435), would redefine the dollar in terms of a fixed weight in gold. The legislation would also require authorities to exchange paper currency for gold.

U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) introduced the Gold Standard Restoration Act (H.R. 2435) this year. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) introduced the Gold Standard Restoration Act (H.R. 2435) this year. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

“How can you look at a country that’s 32 trillion in debt with out-of-control spending and think it’s the right standard to go by?” Mr. Mooney asked in a phone interview with The Epoch Times, warning of peril ahead for the dollar if its gold backing was not restored.

 

“Returning to the gold standard would bolster domestic and international confidence in the U.S. dollar because its value would be tied to something of actual worth, not just the ‘full faith and credit’ of the U.S. government,” added Mr. Mooney, who has been sounding the alarm throughout his political career. “This would preserve the U.S. dollar’s global reserve status.”

 

Meanwhile, in Texas, lawmakers concerned about the stability of the dollar and the U.S. economy are working to facilitate commerce in gold through the Texas Gold Depository.

 

“You have to look at history,” said Texas Rep. Mark Dorazio, a Republican who introduced the bill to facilitate intrastate trade in gold. “Over the last 6,000 years of history, gold and silver have kept their value and served as the standard.”

 

“It is the go-to in economic crisis and instability—everyone knows you go to gold,” the lawmaker told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.

 

“Everybody I talk to likes the idea of using our depository to conduct business,” he added. “Plus it would make money for the state. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

A worker polishes gold bullion bars at the ABC Refinery in Sydney on Aug. 5, 2020. Gold prices hit $2,000 an ounce on markets for the first time on Aug. 4, 2020. (David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)

A worker polishes gold bullion bars at the ABC Refinery in Sydney on Aug. 5, 2020. Gold prices hit $2,000 an ounce on markets for the first time on Aug. 4, 2020. (David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)

Ron Paul, a longtime champion of the gold standard and sound money who spent decades in Congress attempting to draw attention to the issue and wrote a best-selling book called “End The Fed,” told The Epoch Times that gold is likely to play a major role in the future.

 

As what he called the “Mickey Mouse” dollar continues to lose dominance, “something will have to replace it, [and] now we are seeing that,” he said, warning that “the Chinese are buying a lot of gold.”

 

Dr. Paul ridiculed the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights and emerging central bank “digital” currencies without inherent value as potential alternatives, saying something tangible such as gold is what’s needed.

 

“If there’s a digital currency that is truly backed with gold, that might be helpful,” he said.

Ultimately, Dr. Paul said he would repeal legal tender laws, abolish the Federal Reserve, and allow the market to decide what should be used as money.

 

“Gold and silver became money spontaneously thousands of years ago, and metals have worked well,” he said, praising state and federal efforts on precious metals. “We need sound money.”

 

Despite his pessimism about the economy, Paul, who gained national prominence during his runs for president, celebrated the growing number of states declaring gold and silver to be legal tender.

 

“The Constitution is very much on their side,” he said.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is a longtime champion of the gold standard. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images)

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is a longtime champion of the gold standard. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images)

Among other benefits, this can facilitate trade in precious metals by removing sales taxes and eliminating other obstacles, he said.

“This is a silent revolution going on at the grassroots level, passing legislation on this,” Paul said, adding that gold could protect countries, states, and even individuals. “That is a help in changing attitudes.”

 

As government debt and inflation continue to grow amid moves by U.S. adversaries to displace the dollar, interest in precious metals will continue to expand, multiple experts told The Epoch Times.

What Happened to Gold?

Until about 50 years ago, the U.S. dollar was still officially backed by gold. Because other currencies were mostly exchangeable for dollars on demand, the global monetary system was in effect underpinned by gold—at least in theory.

Infographic: One Dollar GraphAn illustration of the decline in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar over the past century. (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)

Infographic: One Dollar Graph
An illustration of the decline in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar over the past century. (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock)

In fact, for thousands of years, precious metals have served as money. Economists say this is because they are durable, portable, scarce, and inherently valuable.

 

But with a series of major policy changes, beginning with the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913 followed by a 1933 executive order by President Franklin D. Roosevelt limiting gold holdings, that began to change.

 

Under the leadership of President Richard Nixon, the U.S. government formally severed the dollar’s final link to gold in 1971, ending the ability of even foreign powers to exchange their dollars for gold.

 

That was a turning point. Conventional wisdom holds that the move by Nixon resulted in the end of the gold standard forever as most of the world was suddenly plunged into what is known as a “fiat” monetary system. Fiat means the currency has value by government edict, rather than any inherent value.

 

Economist John Maynard Keynes famously referred to the metal as a “barbarous relic,” a view that has proliferated in academia and in central banking circles.

 

But the world is now facing escalating economic and monetary turmoil. Just last week, Fitch downgraded U.S. debt in a historic blow as debt levels surge and the purchasing power of currencies worldwide plummets.

 

The problems with the dollar are growing. As reported in May, U.S. adversaries such as the Chinese Communist Party are actively working to reshape the global monetary system and replace the dollar.

 

Even traditional U.S. allies such as France and Brazil are now doing international deals in other currencies.

Multiple experts explained that Biden administration and Federal Reserve policies were contributing to the trend through high spending and loose monetary policy blamed for inflation.

 

Calls for major monetary reform at the international level have been steadily growing for decades, and have ramped up further in light of current events.

 

Numerous world leaders and central bankers, including the People’s Bank of China, have proposed an international reserve currency to displace the dollar, and senior U.S. policymakers have even flirted with the idea publicly.

People walk past a currency exchange shop in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 23, 2023. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

People walk past a currency exchange shop in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 23, 2023. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

But in the United States, more traditional options for drastic reforms involving metals are being explored, too. Indeed, developments are causing many experts and lawmakers to take a fresh look at the “barbarous relic.”

 

At the same time, reports that authorities in the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) will consider a gold-backed currency are fueling interest in monetary metals worldwide.

 

Non-Western central banks are buying gold in record quantities, according to the World Gold Council, and analysts expect that demand to remain strong.

 

“We think this trend of central bank buying is likely to continue amid heightened geopolitical risks and elevated inflation,” Swiss bank UBS said in a note to clients in late May.

Gold Standard to the Rescue?

Several congressional Republicans who spoke with The Epoch Times pointed to current events to highlight what they say is the urgency of legislation to protect the dollar by once again tying it to gold.

 

Mr. Mooney of West Virginia, the chief sponsor behind the “Gold Standard Restoration Act,” explained that severing the link between the dollar and gold has produced extreme spending, inflation, and other problems.

 

“We need to learn from history,” he told The Epoch Times. “When President Nixon unfortunately took us off the gold standard, it made everything worse. He claimed at the time it was going to control inflation, but the opposite occurred.”

 

“It was a huge mistake,” continued Mr. Mooney, who introduced the bill in the last Congress as well. “Inflation is still out of control to this day.”

 

Because the dollar is no longer tied to gold, and because the federal government is rapidly losing the trust of Americans and people worldwide, the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency is at risk, he said.

 

“They keep playing monetary games at the Fed, with borrowing and printing money, and that makes the dollar less stable and more susceptible to international competition,” the congressman warned, adding that the Chinese Communist Party is taking full advantage.

In 1913, The Federal Reserve Act established the Federal Reserve System as the central bank of the United States. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

In 1913, The Federal Reserve Act established the Federal Reserve System as the central bank of the United States. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

But eventually, change may be forced upon the United States.

“If we get to the point where we literally can’t pay our debts anymore—where we default on our loans—it would force some fiscal restraint in our country, but it would also jeopardize the dollar and give a great opportunity for communist China and other countries to not use the dollar anymore as the standard,” he said.

 

Mr. Mooney also pointed to increasingly erratic U.S. foreign policy such as the Afghanistan withdrawal “debacle,” saying other governments were now reconsidering whether the United States is truly as stable as previously believed.

 

Aside from restoring the gold standard, Mr. Mooney said it was imperative for the U.S. government to come up with a plan to control spending. “Democrats have absolutely no plan to do that,” he said.

 

He also warned that if current trends continue, economic disaster is a certainty.

“I can’t tell you what the exact limit is, but I never thought we’d be able to get this far,” he said, blasting the $5 trillion in new debt added under the current administration as “totally irresponsible.”

 

The only answer is to get back to a real standard where the dollar is backed by gold, he said. “If we got back to the gold standard, at least we would have a restriction there in terms of government spending,” Mr. Mooney added.

The National Debt Clock in New York City on July 7, 2023. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

The National Debt Clock in New York City on July 7, 2023. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Another co-sponsor of the bill, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), also warned about the consequences of allowing the dollar to be debased.

 

“If our currency continues to suffer from rampant inflation, and our wealth and retirement become less and less valuable, Americans can thank [President] Joe Biden for printing more money out of thin air,” he told The Epoch Times.

 

“H.R. 2435 would protect families and businesses against Biden’s spending sprees by repegging the dollar to a fixed weight of gold at market price,” Mr. Gosar concluded.

 

Numerous other lawmakers have supported the general proposition as well. Commenting on the Federal Reserve’s efforts to bring in a Central Bank Digital Currency, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also touted gold.

 

“We should go back to the gold standard, not digital currency payment systems. Hard pass,” she wrote on Twitter in April.

State-Level Gold Initiatives

Lawmakers and analysts told The Epoch Times that currently there is little chance of President Biden signing such measures into federal law. That could change under the next president as the economic situation deteriorates, however.

 

But at the state level, initiatives to expand the use of gold are proliferating nationwide. In recent years, multiple states have even passed laws declaring gold and silver to be “legal tender,” in line with Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution.

 

In Texas, lawmakers are making some of the biggest moves yet.

In 2015, the state approved the creation of the Texas Bullion Depository, which, among other functions, stores precious metals for clients.

 

Now, a growing coalition of lawmakers and experts are working to use the institution to facilitate trade within Texas using precious metals.

Texas Rep. Mark Dorazio. (house.texas.gov)

Texas Rep. Mark Dorazio. (house.texas.gov)

The idea was first hatched about 3 years ago, Texas Republican Rep. Mark Dorazio told The Epoch Times, as lawmakers gathered to discuss solutions to “out-of-control overspending by the federal government” and “the people of Texas being taken advantage of through inflation.”

 

“The question really was, ‘How can we protect Texans from the federal government?’” the lawmaker said. “That’s where this idea came from.”

 

“I’ve always been interested in silver and gold because of the stability they provide,” he added, noting that gold has remained stable and preserved its value for over 5,000 years, going back to the Bible’s Book of Genesis.

 

Recent inflation as well as banking collapses and bailouts have only added urgency to the issue as Texans grow increasingly concerned about their retirements and pensions, explained Mr. Dorazio.

 

China’s and Russia’s ongoing purchases of gold also suggest Texas must take the issue seriously, he said.

The goal is for Texans to be able to use a debit card-style system allowing them to transact and make payments using their gold deposits at the state depository at merchants around the state.

 

Mr. Dorazio credited economic warfare expert Kevin Freeman with the idea, but other experts as well as multiple lawmakers also played a role.

 

“This bullion bill would give everyday folks on the street the opportunity to own gold or silver and, when they need to liquidate or transact business, they can do it, just like they would with a credit card, with any vendor,” Mr. Dorazio said. “The depository would just deduct that amount in gold from the holder’s account. The merchant never even knows, they just get paid.”

A man shops at a grocery store in Houston on Dec. 18, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

A man shops at a grocery store in Houston on Dec. 18, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Eventually, Mr. Dorazio and others behind the effort hope that Texas’s new system can be expanded and potentially even serve as a model for other states and countries.

 

“When this came to me, I said, ‘We’ve got to push this thing,’” he continued. “We pushed it hard.”

The bill did not pass in this year’s session. However, Mr. Dorazio and other lawmakers intend to file what they say is an improved bill in several different committees next year, “and I think we’re going to get it passed.”

 

Mr. Freeman, the economic warfare expert Dorazio credited with the concept, told The Epoch Times that the move by Texas would have benefits for all Americans.

 

“If passed into law, this becomes a safe haven for those who want to buy, hold, and even spend precious metals,” he said, pointing those who would like to learn more to TransactionalGold.com.

 

“This effort would strengthen our financial system and as a result actually help the dollar by adding gold and silver to America,” he said.

 

Numerous state legislators who spoke with The Epoch Times expressed an urgent desire to pursue similar solutions for their states.

 

Another prominent lawmaker embracing gold is Republican Rep. Ken Ivory of Utah. Even as he sees a “fiscal and monetary earthquake on the horizon,” his state is especially vulnerable as a significant portion of its budget comes from the federal government.

 

“The big concern we have is the most vulnerable people in Utah are dependent on federal funds that the [Government Accountability Office] and the [Congressional Budget Office] both tell us are unsustainable,” he said. “We need to figure out as states how to end that dependence and really find a stable system for caring for people in Utah.”

The Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City. (Scott Catron/CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

The Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City. (Scott Catron/CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

While Utah is consistently regarded as one of the best-managed states, Mr. Ivory said, “it doesn’t matter how diligent we may be, because it’s like we’re on a treadmill going the wrong direction as they continue to inflate the money—they just keep printing money—and so even as one of the best-managed states, we are still losing ground.”

Utah State Rep. Ken Ivory. (Utah House of Representatives)

Utah State Rep. Ken Ivory. (Utah House of Representatives)

Mr. Ivory is one of a growing number of lawmakers across America who see major economic turmoil ahead that is “going to devastate the most poor and vulnerable,” the lawmaker told The Epoch Times in a phone interview, referencing debt, deficit, and the accelerating de-dollarization trend.

 

“It will be terrible for everyone,” he continued, “but the most vulnerable will pay the most.”

Citing military leaders, Mr. Ivory also called the looming economic trouble one of the most significant threats to national security.

As such, it is time to begin “contingency planning,” he said.

The Utah legislature is not currently in session, but Mr. Ivory and other state officials are already working on legislation for 2024 that will give the state treasurer the authority to hold gold and silver.

 

“We also want to do more of what Texas has done, starting with the [gold] bill that did not pass as a template for Utah,” he said.

Private Sector and Individuals

Even without action from authorities, individuals and the private sector can also play a role in protecting themselves from trouble with the dollar, experts in economics and the metals industry told The Epoch Times.

 

Charles Nenner, a prominent trends forecaster and economic analyst, recommended diversifying investments as a way for individuals to protect their own wealth and savings.

 

People should “move as many assets as they can out of the dollar since the U.S. dollar is very vulnerable,” he said, suggesting that the loss of confidence in the dollar was part of a broader “super cycle” involving the end of U.S. global dominance.

 

University of Bayreuth Honorary Economics Professor Thorsten Polleit, who serves as chief economist at Degussa, Europe’s largest precious metals trading house, also recommended diversification out of fiat currencies for investors and companies.

 

“I think that the official fiat currencies—U.S. dollar, euro, Chinese Renminbi & Co—will see their purchasing power erode over time,” he told The Epoch Times. “So people and businesses should not rely on the ‘stability’ of fiat currencies, but to minimize their money holdings.”

 

“In addition, people should diversify their assets: hold physical gold and silver, invest in a globally diversified stock portfolio; and don’t put your money in money market funds and bonds,” he added, suggesting investment for the long-term.

A one-kilo Swiss gold bar and gold U.S. dollars coins in Paris on Feb. 20, 2020. (JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)

A one-kilo Swiss gold bar and gold U.S. dollars coins in Paris on Feb. 20, 2020. (JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)

Ultimately, Mr. Polleit said many of the political and economic problems facing not just the United States but the world could be traced back to “state monopolized money, or fiat money.”

 

“The solution is a return to a ‘free market in money’: Ending the state’s money production monopoly by giving people the freedom to choose the kind of money that suits their needs best,” he said, adding that people would likely choose gold as it has “always been the finest money available in human history.”

 

One Utah-based company, Goldback Inc., is working to circulate gold in the market already by turning the metal into notes with 1/1,000 of one ounce of gold in them to be spent at willing businesses.

 

“We are really focused on helping people use gold as money,” Goldback CEO Jeremy Cordon told The Epoch Times, adding that over 1,000 businesses already accept Goldbacks and the number of participating merchants is growing fast.

 

The biggest barrier to more widespread use of gold in commerce at the moment is sales taxes charged on precious metals in various states, including even some conservative states, he continued.

 

“I think it’s great that state legislators are paying more attention to these precious metals laws,” Mr. Cordon continued, adding that the firm is tracking legislation nationwide. “We are seeing a huge uptick in action on the congressional side, too.”

 

“A lot of these lawmakers know people are starting to use gold as money as part of the de-dollarization environment we’re in, and that is going to continue,” he said, calling it “encouraging” that more and more states were acting on the issue.

 

Neither the Federal Reserve Board nor the U.S. Treasury responded to requests for comment.

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The Countries With The Most STEM Graduates [Infographic]

Niall McCarthy Former Contributor
Data journalist covering technological, societal and media topics
2February2017 https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/02/02/the-countries-with-the-most-stem-graduates-infographic/?sh=5ad012e5268a

 

Since the turn of the century, China has experienced a revolution in third level education. It has outstripped both the United States and Europe in graduate numbers and as of 2016, it was building the equivalent of nearly one university per week. That progress has caused a massive shift in the world’s population of graduates, a population the U.S. used to dominate. Last year, India had the most graduates of any country worldwide with 78.0 million while China followed close behind with 77.7 million. The U.S. is now in third place with 67.4 million graduates, and the gap behind the top two countries is widening.

 

Some estimates see the number of Chinese graduates aged between 25 and 34 rising 300 percent up to 2030 compared to just 30 percent in the U.S. and Europe. According to the World Economic Forum, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) has become a pretty big deal in China’s flourishing universities. In 2013, 40 percent of Chinese graduates finished a degree in STEM, over twice the share in American third level institutions.

 

STEM graduates have become a vital cog in the wheel of global prosperity and unsurprisingly, China is leading the way. The World Economic Forum reported that China had 4.7 million recent STEM graduates in 2016. India, another academic powerhouse, had 2.6 million new STEM graduates last year while the U.S. had 568,000.

*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)

The Countries With The Most STEM Graduates

The Countries With The Most STEM Graduates

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The Burning Platform

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FALL OF AMERICAN EMPIRE AND DESCENT INTO A NEW DARK AGES

Administrator    Posted on May 31, 2023   https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/05/31/fall-of-american-empire-and-descent-into-a-new-dark-ages/

“The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and, instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The victorious legions, who, in distant wars, acquired the vices of strangers and mercenaries, first oppressed the freedom of the republic, and afterwards violated the majesty of the purple. The emperors, anxious for their personal safety and the public peace, were reduced to the base expedient of corrupting the discipline which rendered them alike formidable to their sovereign and to the enemy; the vigor of the military government was relaxed, and finally dissolved, by the partial institutions of Constantine; and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians.” — Edward Gibbon. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 38 “General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West”

Cole Thomas - The Course of Empire Destruction 1836

Cole Thomas – The Course of Empire Destruction 1836

 

“After a diligent inquiry, I can discern four principal causes of the ruin of Rome, which continued to operate in a period of more than a thousand years. I. The injuries of time and nature. II. The hostile attacks of the Barbarians and Christians. III. The use and abuse of the materials. And, IV. The domestic quarrels of the Romans.” — Edward Gibbon. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 71 “Four Causes of Decay and Destruction.”

 

The moniker of my website originated from a quote by David Walker, then Comptroller General of the U.S., in 2007. I wholeheartedly endorsed Walker’s viewpoint and become politically active in trying to get Ron Paul elected as president in 2008 and 2012. It was a fruitless effort, as the uni-party in Washington DC, controlled by the dark forces of the Deep State, do not allow men and women who truly want to reduce the size and scope of government to ever get elected. His warning sixteen years ago is a perfect example of being right but being early. When talking about the decline of empires, you are really deliberating about a process, not an event. The Roman Empire did not fall on a specific day due to a specific cause. It collapsed in stages over hundreds of years due to numerous reasons, each triggering events which compounded upon each other and ultimately led to the final collapse.

 

Walker said, “The US government is on a “burning platform” of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon.” He believed we were resting on the laurels of being the sole superpower, as our empire built on debt was slowly and methodically crumbling. He cited three reasons for the fall of the Roman Republic that resonated in 2007 regarding the American Empire (formerly a republic):

  • There has been a decline in moral values and political civility at home. Examples include the devaluation of life, greater self-centerdness by individuals and increased partisanship and ideological divides in Congress.
  • We now have an overextended military around the world. While the US military is unmatched as to its capabilities, it is under stress and stretched very thin.
  • There is fiscal irresponsibility by the central government. Our debt ratios are set to increase dramatically when the baby boomers retire.

It’s almost humorous Walker was issuing these dire warnings when the 2007 annual deficit was $160 billion. At our current rate of debt accumulation, it takes only one month to reach $160 billion. In 2020 and 2021 it only took 20 days to accumulate $160 billion. The national debt in 2007 was $9 trillion, up from $5.6 trillion in 2000. Today it stands at $31.8 trillion. Interest on the national debt will approach $900 billion this year, exceeding defense spending.

 

Walker warned about our debt ratios skyrocketing when the baby boomers retired. Well, the debt to GDP ratio has doubled from 62% in 2007 to 124% today, and most boomers can’t even afford to retire. U.S. unfunded liabilities total $188 trillion. Personal debts total $25 trillion, with $1.8 trillion of student loan debt and $1.3 trillion of credit card debt. The fiscal irresponsibility of our government and its citizens is breathtaking, unsustainable, and ultimately fatal to our empire. Walker may have been early, but he certainly was not wrong.

Federal deficits trends Over Time-FY 2001-2022

Federal deficits trends Over Time-FY 2001-2022

 

The current Kabuki theater farce regarding the raising of the debt limit is a perfect example of how spineless politicians blatantly deceive the public, with the full support of the regime media, in proclaiming spending cuts and fiscal responsibility, when the CBO projections show the national debt growing to more than $50 trillion in the next ten years, as most of the spending is on automatic pilot. And this is before the coming recession/depression provokes the usual political response of fiscal stimulus, which will drive the debt higher.

 

Threats of government default, hysterical articles in the regime media, and last-minute deals are nothing but a show for the ignorant masses, while the true globalist agenda of one world order, where the peasants will own nothing and be happy, is rolled out at an accelerated pace. They know the fiscal sustainability of the western world is dire, therefore they are acting in a reckless manner, which imperils the world with a potential global war.

World Economic Forum-twet-19November2016-You'll own nothing, and you'll be happy. This is how our world could change by 2023

World Economic Forum-twet-19November2016-You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy. This is how our world could change by 2023

 

Walker’s first point about the decline in moral values and political incivility has reached civil war instigating levels of degradation, deviancy, and treasonous political activity. Not in Walker’s wildest dreams did he envision the grooming and trafficking of children, drag queen story hour for toddlers, pushing children to be mutilated and propagandized into believing they are the opposite sex, promoting deviancy, and having this degenerate behavior jammed down our throats by the government, corporations, and the media.

 

Destroying our culture, promoting abnormality and sloth, tearing the fabric of our society to shreds, encouraging lawlessness, looting and murder, and persecuting normal white Americans who dissent, is actively promoted, and funded by Soros, Gates, and the rest of the Davos – WEF globalist psychopaths. The devaluation of our lives was never more evident than during the covid plandemic, where the annual flu was weaponized to lockdown the world, create havoc and chaos, institute totalitarian measures to abscond with our liberties and freedoms, destroy the lives of vaxx dissenters, and ultimately destroy the lives of millions who obeyed and were injected with the untested, gene altering, spike producing, Big Pharma enriching concoction.

Covid-19 Protests-Free_Ohio_Now_Columbus

Covid-19 Protests-Free_Ohio_Now_Columbus

 

To put a Roman Empire slant on it, what has been wrought by Clinton, Obama, Comey, Wray, Brennan, Clapper, Pelosi, and their gaggle of treasonous co-conspirators since 2016 has marked our current day crossing of the Rubicon. Politics has always been a dirty game, but the machinations to bring down a duly elected sitting president, which continue to this day under the direction of Biden’s handlers, is reminiscent of the plots, coups, and murders as the Roman empire descended into corruption, madness, and deviant behavior.

 

The Durham report documented the unequivocal facts regarding the relentless coup attempt against Trump, but the complete coverup by the regime media and the toothless non-existent prosecution of the criminal Deep State characters involved in this treasonous act proves there no longer is a representative government looking out for the citizens of this country. We are a corporate fascist oligarchy, ruled by the few, for the few. We are nothing more than serfs, peasants, and useless eaters to the ruling class, as they continue to pillage and plunder what remains of the Treasury.

 

Walker thought our military was stretched thin in 2007, as the neo-cons had us fighting a two-front war in Iraq and Afghanistan to enrich the military industrial complex, based on false WMD claims and a fruitless effort to find our CIA created global terrorist mastermind – Osama bin Laden. Little did he know that twenty years after invading Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban, we would conduct a disastrous retreat and hand the country back to the Taliban, with a gift of about $10 billion in military hardware.

Taliban's new arsenal

Taliban’s new arsenal

 

“The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” George Orwell, 1984

 

The defense budget in 2007, while fighting two wars, was $700 billion. Today the budget approaches $900 billion when we are supposedly not at war with anyone. With the Deep State firmly in control of both political parties, the arms dealers will always be swimming is your tax dollars, whether they are shipping their murderous wares to Zelensky, Israel, Taiwan, or any other country fighting our current mortal enemies – Russia, China, Syria, and Iran.

 

Mr. Walker was naïve in his assessment about the U.S. military’s strength. Winning wars to protect America has never been the goal. War is big business and keeps the politicians on both sides of the aisle satiated with political donations (aka bribes). The ruling class had no issue using a few hundred thousand poor patriotic useless eaters as cannon fodder in Iraq and Afghanistan to further enrich themselves. But it is much easier to create chaos and war in other countries and let their poor suckers die for a forlorn false cause, while providing weapons to both sides. I wonder if Walker was blindsided by Obama’s creation of wars in both Libya and Syria in 2011.

 

We killed Ghaddafi and left Libya a smoking chaotic ruin, with Islamic terrorists running rampant. Obama created ISIS so we had a reason to destroy Syria and Assad. Russia obliterated ISIS and has successfully kept Assad in power, infuriating the neocons and provoking the next move on the global chessboard. All the NPC Ukrainian Flag waving dolts who believe everything the regime media regurgitates, as instructed by their masters, are clueless as to why Biden and his neocon handlers are pushing us towards a direct conflict with Russia. Obama, Clinton, Victoria Nuland, John Brennan, McCain, Graham, and a slew of other Deep State lackeys overthrew the democratically elected president of Ukraine in 2014, because he was friendly towards Russia, initiating a domino effect in the Ukraine which has left us at the doorstep of World War III.

State flag of Ukraine carried by a protester to the heart of developing clashes in Kyiv, Ukraine. Events of February 18, 2014.

State flag of Ukraine carried by a protester to the heart of developing clashes in Kyiv, Ukraine. Events of February 18, 2014.

 

The Roman economy was basically a rapine economy. Like all slave-owning societies, Rome had no middle class, a debased currency, and no export production – it lived by conquests, slave trade, and plundering the conquered provinces. Such economies can exist only as long as they expand; when the expansion ends, downfall is inevitable. See any resemblance to the American economy? When the Fed stops printing, it all comes crashing down. By the third century their currency was worthless, and a barter economy sprung to life.

 

By 451 AD the empire was bankrupt, taxes were 40% to 60%, and there was nothing left in the coffers to pay the military or keep the infrastructure from crumbling. The barbarians applied the final blow with the sacking of Rome, and the Dark Ages were born. Slavery and serfdom were the fate of Roman peasants. The collapse of Mediterranean trade meant the collapse of papyrus imports, and the means of writing disappeared. Literacy dissipated. The Roman civilization was kept alive only in churches and monasteries, which could afford parchment and vellum. What will the bankruptcy of the American empire entail and how will the city dwelling welfare recipients’ fare? My guess is not very well.

Heinrich Leutemann,-Rome's plundering by the vandals (c.1860–1880)

Heinrich Leutemann,-Rome’s plundering by the vandals (c.1860–1880)

 

Just as the Romans became fat and happy, enjoying the fruits of efforts, innovation and sacrifices put forth by prior generations, Americans have grown to believe they are the richest, freest, and most powerful nation on earth. They believe it is their privilege to rule the world. Just as the Romans hired mercenary armies to fight their wars because it was beneath their citizens to defend their vast empire, the U.S. used paid mercenaries (Blackwater) in Iraq and Afghanistan to fight their wars. Now we just outsource the dying to Ukrainians, Libyans, Syrians, and Somalis, while providing them the weapons, technology, and logistics to wage endless war on our behalf.

IRAQ-LIBYA-YEMEN-SYRIA-before-after US intervention

IRAQ-LIBYA-YEMEN-SYRIA-before-after US intervention

 

Next up will be the Taiwanese, as we provoke China into our next war. As documented earlier, the fiscal trajectory of our empire is on a course towards Armageddon, and the tens of billions in weapons being handed to the most corrupt nation on earth – Ukraine – is simply insane. Biden acts like a Roman emperor dictator (with dementia) during the final stages of Rome’s collapse, while the feckless politicians in the House & Senate sit idly by, cheering on our descent into national bankruptcy.

 

The final collapse of the Western Roman Empire was mainly triggered by the weakness of its late-stage emperors, failure of its civil administrators, disease, epidemics, and the unceasing invasion of its lands by the barbarian Visigoths and Vandals. Military failure and monetary weakness were the final nails in the coffin. The parallels with the American empire’s late stages are uncanny.

Joe Biden-child sniffing fool

Joe Biden-child sniffing fool

 

Can anyone conceive of a weaker emperor than Dementia Joe Biden? He is a low IQ, lying, corrupt to his core, bumbling, child sniffing fool, acting on behest of the Deep State and their globalist cabal. His administration is crawling with deviants, dopes, and those seeking the destruction of our country. The barbarian hordes are streaming across our southern border and being ushered into communities across the country by government sanctioned flights and bus rides. These mostly male Hispanics, Haitians, Somalis, Muslim terrorists, and Chinese nationals are not going to strengthen our country, but contribute greatly to its fall. But at least the ruling class will have maids and gardeners, while Big-Agra will have cheap labor to pick their crops.

The Longest Welfare line in the World

The Longest Welfare line in the World

 

Edward Gibbon’s discernment that the number one cause for the ruin of Rome was “The injuries of time and nature”, is more profound than it might seem. Its ability to be sustained for almost one thousand years is remarkable, but as with all large entities it succumbed to entropy, currency debasement, deviancy, corruptibility of its ruling class, and apathy of its citizenry. Everything trends towards disorder, chaos, and ultimately collapse. Pleasure without pain, glory without sacrifice, indolence without work, degeneracy disguised as creativity, and treason portrayed as politics, led to a slow spiraling disintegration of their society and culture over the course of centuries.

 

These exact same characteristics are rearing their ugly head in the late stages of the American Empire decline. It is fascinating that Roman historian Tacitus was documenting traits of a declining nation state during the first century, while it took until the fifth century for the Western Roman Empire to finally collapse. The timing of the downfall is always in doubt, as grains of sand are added to the pile until entropy wins and all comes crashing down.

Invasions of the Roman Empire

Invasions of the Roman Empire

 

“You have not tasted servitude. There is no land beyond us and even the sea is no safe refuge when we are threatened by the Roman fleet. We are the last people on earth, and the last to be free: our very remoteness in a land known only to rumor has protected us up till this day. Today the furthest bounds of Britain lie open—and everything unknown is given an inflated worth. But now there is no people beyond us, nothing but tides and rocks and, more deadly than these, the Romans. It is no use trying to escape their arrogance by submission or good behavior. They have pillaged the world: when the land has nothing left for men who ravage everything, they scour the sea. If an enemy is rich, they are greedy, if he is poor, they crave glory. Neither East nor West can sate their appetite. They are the only people on earth to covet wealth and poverty with equal craving. They plunder, they butcher, they ravish, and call it by the lying name of ’empire’. They make a desolation and call it ‘peace” Tacitus

American Flag in Tatters

American Flag in Tatters

 

It’s as if Tacitus lived among us today. His description fits perfectly in describing the psychopaths controlling the U.S. Empire, along with most of the western world, as they rape, pillage, plunder, and desolate foreign lands in the name of freedom and call it peace keeping. The U.S. Empire is willing to fight Putin until the last Ukrainian is dead on the battlefield. How noble. Slaughter and seizing natural resources under false pretenses (WMD) are hailed as spreading democracy to third world countries.

 

It took the Roman Empire about 1,000 years to fall. The British Empire fell in approximately 300 years. The United States has been around for 234 as a nation, but only an empire since 1946, a mere 77 years. Has the advancement of technology, speed of communications, monetary manipulations, and level of military firepower coalesced into accelerating the demise of empires? It certainly appears so, as the American Empire is on course to fall by the end of this Fourth Turning, within the next ten years.

 

It is commonly believed the Dark Ages began with the fall of the Roman Empire. Of course, the definition of the Dark Ages has been debated for centuries, with the time frame sometimes set from 500 AD to 1000 AD, and sometimes until 1500 AD. They overlapped with the Middle Ages and some scholars contend they weren’t even that dark. I find it interesting as we enter a new Dark Ages, the regime media is busy writing articles contending the previous Dark Ages weren’t so bad after all.

 

The level of gaslighting produced on a daily basis by the propaganda peddlers doing their assigned task of keeping the masses ignorant and confused, is beyond the comprehension of average Americans trying to make a living and trusting their government. In reality, the Dark Ages coincided with the cultural decay and decadence of Rome in its late stages, as the vices of gluttony, lust and greed became the root of their civilization and functioned as chains enslaving and weighing down their culture.

The Dark Ages by JonasDeRo

The Dark Ages by JonasDeRo

https://www.deviantart.com/jonasdero/art/The-Dark-Ages-312263111

During the glory days of the Roman Empire, they achieved tremendous advancements in the areas of science, literature, philosophy, government, and architecture. The fall of the empire left a vacuum in these areas for centuries. The death of a culture is not an easy event to recover from. Record keeping during the Dark Ages was minimal, leaving historians in the dark as to what happened. After the fall, feudalism emerged, and the Catholic Church gained increasing power.

 

The intermingling of the church and state contributed to the lack of cultural advancement. The uneducated peasants were fearful and superstitious, living lives of subsistence and want. The Renaissance Age of enlightenment, which followed the Dark Ages, provided the inverse paradigm to the Dark Ages. Italian scholar Petrarch, who lived in the 14th century referred to the time period as ”those men of intellectual prowess as living cloaked in darkness”.

 

I would contend we have already entered a new Dark Ages, based upon the collapse of our culture, ignorance of the masses, failure of our educational system, celebration of deviancy, lack of civility, and lawlessness in our cities. Most Americans would scoff at the notion we have already entered a new dark age. Everyone (including the desperately “poor” illegal aliens swarming across our border) has a super-computer phone in their hands 24/7. Every piece of knowledge ever conceived is available at our fingertips through the internet.

 

We spend tens of thousands of dollars per student per year in our public schools to educate our children. Our universities are world renowned. We are the wealthiest nation in history. We have tens of thousands of laws, regulations, and rules, to keep us safe. And supposedly, the American dream is attainable by everyone born in this country. Sounds like we should be living in a new age of enlightenment. But nothing could be further from the truth. Mistaking technological advancement and passage of laws with cultural and societal advancement is a complete fallacy, as described by Albert Einstein and Aldous Huxley almost a century ago:

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” Albert Einstein

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” Albert Einstein

 

“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means

In case you haven’t noticed, our culture has descended into the gutter, societal norms which kept the country relatively cohesive since its inception are being attacked and obliterated by deviants and degenerates, and any semblance of a unified vision of what America stands for is actively being destroyed by the globalist Davos crowd seeking to implement their Great Reset agenda of technocratic control over the lowly peasants, while they feast, plunder and pillage the planet – the true psychopath barbarian billionaire horde.

 

The perversion of normalcy into glorifying pedophiles, drag queens, transgender freaks, drug addict felons, race hustlers, and organizations promoting lawlessness, looting, and killing, while persecuting and prosecuting normal, hard-working, civilized white people has left the country on the brink of chaos. Technology has done nothing but make us dumber, distracted and easily manipulated by the Bernaysian masters of manipulation.

 

Multiple generations have now been socially indoctrinated by government schools to obey, emote, believe, and fear whatever (Covid) and whoever (Putin) they are commanded to fear. What they are not taught is how to think critically, question everything, and make their own decisions based upon actual facts. Test scores in reading, writing and math are at all-time lows. The solution is to continually lower the standards and never hold anyone accountable for results.

 

We are a nation of morons led by a cadre of psychopaths. Children are encouraged by their parents and doctors to cut off their breasts and penises due to peer pressure and deviants controlling the schools and media. Groomers make toddlers watch transgender freaks perform sex acts on stage. Library books for 8-year-olds describe anal sex, masturbation, and other perverted acts.

 

Matt Walsh-tweet-4October2022-I believe that gender ideology

Matt Walsh-tweet-4October2022-I believe that gender ideology

Statues portraying our history are torn down by mobs, while what passes for art and architecture today is perverted, frivolous and inconsequential. There are no masterpieces of literature created in our rotting society. The only thing that matters is monetizing content and number of eyeballs. Quality is non-existent, overridden by quantity and replaceability. Movies and television programs are created by untalented hacks, responding to focus groups, and required to insert the required racial and homosexually woke storylines into every program.

 

There are no Godfathers or Casablancas being produced. There are no novelists writing masterpieces on par with Steinbeck or Hemingway. But we do have Cardi B belting out her best-selling song WAP (acronym for Wet-Ass Pussy) and Sports Illustrated with transgender and obese swimsuit models. Based on TV commercials, 90% of Americans are either black, in an interracial relationship, gay, or transgender. We are an epically unserious society. Anyone observing America and most of the western world in an impartial manner would have to conclude we are already living in a new Dark Age of ignorance, superstition, and degradation, even before the final collapse of empire.

Hank Willis Thomas Sculpture Honoring Martin Luther King Jr on Boston Common

Hank Willis Thomas Sculpture Honoring Martin Luther King Jr on Boston Common

 

While doing research on the Dark Ages I was surprised to stumble across some climate related information which puts the current hysterical climate change narrative in perspective. The current war on CO2, cow farts, petroleum powered vehicles, farmers, and human beings living in peace, is nothing more than an agenda to depopulate the planet, make our lives miserable, and further enrich those controlling the narrative, flying on private jets, vacationing on enormous yachts, and living in 50 room mansions in the Hamptons.

 

The green agenda is built on taxing you more, with zero impact on climate, while virtue signaling success. Meanwhile, the sun and power within our earth’s core will dictate our climate, despite all fruitless manmade efforts to have an impact. George Carlin’s The Planet is Fine diatribe captures the hypocrisy of humans thinking they matter at all when it comes to the planet.

“The planet is fine; the people are fucked! The planet isn’t going anywhere; we are! We’re going away! Pack your shit, folks! We’re going away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that.”George Carlin

Solar Cycles-Brey and Eddy Solar Cycles

Solar Cycles-Brey and Eddy Solar Cycles

 

As you can discern, Rome flourished during a warming period and the Dark Ages coincided with a cooling period. Neither was due to human activity, petroleum products, not recycling enough, or cow farts. It was due to solar and volcanic activity, which may have gone hand in hand in creating the dynamics that made the Dark Ages dark. The Little Ice Age coincided with the Maunder Minimum from 1645 to 1715 when sunspots were at a minimum. Major volcanic eruptions in the 13th century, dimming sunlight across the planet also contributed to the cooling of the planet.

 

It seems recent studies of ice cores by real scientists confirm the period around 536 AD may have been the worst time to live on our planet in history. A cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland in 536 AD   spewed ash across the Northern Hemisphere, producing a mysterious fog plunging Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia into darkness, day and night—for 18 months. Snow fell during the summer in China. Two other massive eruptions followed, in 540 and 547. The repeated blows, followed by Bubonic plague, plunged Europe into economic stagnation that lasted until 640.

Natural disasters on European society

Natural disasters on European society

 

Humans will always be at the mercy of Mother Nature, the sun, and the volcanic activity within the bowels of our planet. Taxes, recycling, and electric cars won’t have one iota of impact on the future of the planet. The impact of little or no sun over the course of years led to crop failures, famine and plague, bathing sixth-century Europe in darkness and despair. Crops cannot grow without sun. Hunger and lack of vitamin D left the populations susceptible to disease. The bubonic plague killed half the inhabitants of the Eastern Roman Empire during these dark days, hastening its collapse.

 

With no wheat, there was no bread, a staple of the diet in those days. The people of Europe were occupied with survival, living a brutish existence, leaving little time for cultural advancement. The trials and tribulations documented throughout history are determined by a combination of controllable human actions and uncontrollable natural causes.

Under dark skies, St Augustine brings a message of Christian hope to 6th-century King Ethelbert of Kent. Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images

Under dark skies, St Augustine brings a message of Christian hope to 6th-century King Ethelbert of Kent. Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images

 

Under dark skies, St Augustine brings a message of Christian hope to 6th-century King Ethelbert of Kent. Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty Images

Our helplessness at the hands of nature happens every day across the globe, with the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami deadly reminders of our vulnerability and powerlessness. We already know Schwab, Soros, Gates, Tedros, and the rest of the Great Reset New World Order cabal are actively attempting to bring down the American Empire and replace it with a global oligarchy, where we own nothing, and they own it all. Using climate change as their cudgel, they are already conducting a war on farmers, purposely restricting the output of food for the masses.

 

Combined with rampant raging central bank created inflation across the world, wars being conducted in breadbasket regions of the globe, and extreme drought conditions in key agricultural regions, the landscape is already in the danger zone. With Mexico’s Popocatépetl volcano showing signs of a major eruption, and hundreds of other dormant volcanoes around the world capable of eruptions on par with the 536 AD eruption, it’s only a matter of when, not if. Many scientists postulate the Sun has entered into the modern Grand Solar Minimum (2022–2053) that will lead to a significant reduction of solar magnetic field and activity like during Maunder minimum, leading to noticeable reduction of terrestrial temperature. We have zero control or influence over these events.

AMECAMECA, MEXICO - MAY 23: Popocatepetl volcano spews incandescent material as seen from Paso de Cortés on May 23, 2023 in Amecameca, Mexico. The second highest volcano in the country increased its activity while Mexican authorities raised the alert to yellow phase 3. Popocatepetl volcano caused the fall of ashes in different municipalities in Puebla, Estado de Mexico and Mexico City. Mexican army has spread forces as a preventive measure while the 3 levels of government are in coordination to observe the activity of the volcano and the situation in the surroundings. (Photo by Cristopher Rogel Blanquet/Getty Images)

AMECAMECA, MEXICO – MAY 23: Popocatepetl volcano spews incandescent material as seen from Paso de Cortés on May 23, 2023 in Amecameca, Mexico. The second highest volcano in the country increased its activity while Mexican authorities raised the alert to yellow phase 3. Popocatepetl volcano caused the fall of ashes in different municipalities in Puebla, Estado de Mexico and Mexico City. Mexican army has spread forces as a preventive measure while the 3 levels of government are in coordination to observe the activity of the volcano and the situation in the surroundings. (Photo by Cristopher Rogel Blanquet/Getty Images)

 

Quotes from Tacitus nearly 2,000 years ago are proof human nature never changes and the cycles of history repeat themselves across empires. Biden’s illegal executive orders, disregard of the Constitution, and blatant corruption, along with the regime media suppressing legitimate dissent about Fauci’s lies, Pfizer’s falsification of trial data, and the FDA colluding with Twitter to censor doctors, fit perfectly into Tacitus’ view of the world.

“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” Tacitus

“If you would know who controls you see who you may not criticize.” Tacitus

 

CORONAVIRUS-BIDEN-FAUCI

CORONAVIRUS-BIDEN-FAUCI

 

The traitorous acts of Obama, Biden, Clinton, Comey, Brennan and the entire FBI and CIA complex in conducting a coup against a duly elected president and then covering up their treason with the full cooperation of the regime media was and still is an audacious crime. These crimes are fully detailed in the Durham Report and on Hunter Biden’s laptop, but no one will go to jail, because half the country supports the crime the other half is apathetic and uninterested, and our elected leaders are in on it. Two thousand years and nothing changes.

 

“Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity.” Tacitus

“The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.” Tacitus

spies who lie

spies who lie

 

The American Empire is displaying all the worst attributes of Rome in its death throes, as the oligarchy grows more audacious, knowing they are illegitimate, but unconcerned with being brought to justice because they control the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government. They fear no one and dare the peasants to try and stop them. The oligarchs provoke crisis, chaos, fear, and strife. They hide in the shadows, functioning as an invisible governing power, manipulating the minds of the masses, in their psychotic belief they can control and rule the world because they are superior in intellect, integrity, and ability to envision the future.

 

This relatively small circle of psychopaths, who have gotten the empire into this mess, grow ever more powerful as they lead us on a path to disaster. Their hubris and an arrogant disregard for the wishes of the people, belief in their own invincibility, and not fearing any retribution for their crimes of treason, leave them at the top of a crumbling empire – so they will have the farthest to fall.

 

Everything about our empire is unsustainable. Ultimately it will collapse financially under the weight of its unpayable debts. With psychopaths running the show who believe they can win a two front war against Russia and China, we will be lucky if our empire isn’t just a pile of smoldering ruins when they are done with it. There is absolutely no way to vote ourselves out of this because the Deep State counts the votes.

 

The dissenters are not united enough to shoot our way out of this. You can run, but you can’t hide from the impact of the coming collapse. The unknown ingredient to this toxic mixture of death is nature’s influence. If a volcanic eruption, or several volcanic eruptions on par with the 536 AD occurrence, were to happen concurrently with economic collapse, the earth’s population of 8 billion would be drastically reduced in short order.

Amish Community: The Caretakers Of The Earth

Amish Community: The Caretakers Of The Earth

 

At this point, the best we could hope for is a relatively non-violent collapse where the critical thinking self-reliant people would migrate to rural regions and learn to live off the land again. The simple life of thriving day to day based on your own efforts, along with the efforts of your small homogeneous community, is the likely destiny for millions. No one is coming to save us. We’ll have to save ourselves. We happened to be born at a juncture of history where a Fourth Turning crisis ended an empire. We didn’t choose our fate, but we need to prepare and make the best of our situation.

 

I find nothing more appropriate to visually represent our clownworld empire falling than a picture of a dwarf clown, smoking a cigarette while holding a bouquet of wilted flowers in the pouring rain in front of a defunct circus tent. If the clown shoe fits, wear it. The season is turning.

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything turn, turn, turn
There is a season turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under Heaven

 – Turn! Turn! Turn! The Byrds

Sad Clown

Sad Clown

 

The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity. The Western saecular rhythm – which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance – could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last. This too could come from total war, terrible but not final. There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society. Such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet. But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

 

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Martin Armstrong On “The Coming Dark Age”

by Tyler Durden, 21September2016 http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-20/martin-armstrong-coming-dark-age

Submitted by Martin Armstrong via ArmstrongEconomics.com,

 

Question:

Over the years you have made several comments about directional changes and have alluded to the idea that a crossroads is coming in that we will either enter another Dark Age or we will see the light towards greater liberty and freedom. More recently, you mentioned the year 2032 as a critical year in this regard.

 

In addition, you have mentioned that Trump winning the election would postpone the inevitable chaos, but that HRC winning would speed it along.

 

In terms of the distal effects of the November election on 2032, does either Trump or Clinton winning increase the likelihood of entering a Dark Age over something more hopeful? Should we be attempting to kick the can down the road or should we get it over with?

 

Wild Tree - Dark Age

Wild Tree – Dark Age

 

Answer:

Hillary is just corrupt and rotten to the core. She represents everything that is wrong with our political economy. Politicians no longer care about the people. Every election promises “change” in some variation.

 

Obama - Change we can believe in

Obama – Change we can believe in

 

That is admitting something is broken, but it always comes down to the same thing – it’s just about them.

 

Mark Twain - If voting made any difference they would not let us do it

Mark Twain – If voting made any difference they would not let us do it

Indeed, it was Mark Twain who put it best during the last century: “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” We must understand that this has been an age old battle between the rulers and the people. In Athens where Democracy was born, they constantly fought to seize power back and even made Pericles stand trial. Government has always sought to bribe the people creating a welfare state. The Romans knew that the way to power was to promise everything but give them bread and circuses (sport games) and they could maintain power. It was Decimus I?nius Iuven?lis, commonly known as Juvenal, who was a Roman poet active in the late 1st and early 2nd century AD that wrote that phrase:

 

… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses

 

[…] iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli / uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim / imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se / continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat, / panem et circenses. […]

 

(Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81)

 

Nothing has changed. Many people can name every person on some sports team but cannot name their political minister, congressman, or whatever lofty title they call themselves. The judge in a courtroom demands to be called “honorable” as do all public servants. They make a mockery of the very word.

 

Athens - AR Tetradrachm 510-505BC (17-35 grams)

Athens – AR Tetradrachm 510-505BC (17-35 grams)

 

We are approaching the grave danger of a Dark Age beginning from the aftermath of 2032. Hopefully, I will be gone by then and will not have to face this horrible event. Yet Dark Ages are reoccurring events throughout history and in all cultures. The Greeks endured their between the Homeric Age that marked the end of the Mycenaean civilization around 1100 BC, to the first signs of the Greek cities (poleis) rising again in the 6th century BC (508–322 BC). It was during the 9th century BC (900-801BC) that we begin to see the rise of great cities outside of Greece including Carthage, which was founded by the Phoenicians.

 

Japan went through its Dark Age, which also lasted about 600 years and the same impact was endured in Europe with the collapse of Rome in 476AD. Dark Ages seem to come in units of 3 so they are 300 or 600 years. The cause is always political corruption.

 

Japanese Debasement 760-958AD

Japanese Debasement 760-958AD

 

In the case of Japan, each new emperor devalued the money in circulation with a decree that it was worth 10% of his new coins. There was no intrinsic value since they were bronze or iron. This process led people NOT to hoard money. Chinese coins were sought after since they would not be devalued. Eventually, nobody would accept Japanese coins and they ceased to be issued for 600 years. People used Chinese coins or bags of rice.

 

Roman Follis 295-348AD

Roman Follis 295-348AD

 

The Roman Monetary Crisis that saw silver vanish by 268AD, was naturally followed by an attempt to restore the monetary system. A new bronze coin was introduced in 295AD known as the Follis. Again, one 52 year cycle saw its collapse from over 16 grams to under just 2 grams.

Zenonis

Zenonis

By the time you come toward the very end of the Roman Empire, you rarely find any bronze and when you do, it is less than an American penny. Coinage is debased because of the corruption in government. Those who think restoring the gold standard would do anything are wrong. Such monetary reforms appear repeatedly throughout history with little lasting impact. The system as we know it is always doomed to failure simply because we are satisfied as a whole with bread and circuses and let politicians run wild in their greed. Hillary is the example for everyone to see.

 

I will gather all the accounts and this is on my bucket-list of books to complete. We do have a choice. We can understand what is coming and WHY, and perhaps take that first step out of darkness and move into the light of a realistic political system that ends the bribing of citizens and this eternal battle of political corruption. We need a REAL democracy without career politicians. Only then can we hope to advance as a society.


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The Three Stages Of Empire

by Tyler Durden, 21September2016 http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-21/three-stages-empire

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

I consider it self-evident that we are in the third and final stage of self-serving Imperial decay.

 

Though Edward Luttwak’s The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century CE to the Third is not specifically on the rise and fall of empires, it does sketch out the three stages of Empire.

 

Here is the current context of the discussion of Imperial lifecycles: the U.S. defense budget is roughly the same size as the rest of the world’s defense spending combined:

 

US Defense budget

US Defense budget

 

Luttwak describes the first stage of expansion thusly:

 

“With brutal simplicity, it might be said that with the first system the Romans of the republic conquered much to serve the interests of the few, those living in the city–and in fact still fewer, those best placed to control policy.”

 

The second stage spread the benefits of Empire much more broadly:

 

“During the first century A.D., Roman ideas evolved toward a much broader and altogether more benevolent conception of empire… men born in lands far from Rome could call themselves Roman and have their claim fully allowed, and the frontiers were efficiently defended to defend the growing prosperity of all, and not merely the privileged.”

 

The third stage is one of rising inequality:

 

“In the wake of the great crisis of the third century, the provision of security became an increasingly heavy charge on society, a charge unevenly distributed, which could enrich the wealthy and ruin the poor. The machinery of empire now became increasingly self-serving, with its tax collectors, administrators and soldiers of much greater use to one another than to society at large.

 

That line describes the American state and central bank perfectly. The burdens of an increasingly self-serving hierarchy are falling most heavily on the middle and upper-middle class, while bread and circuses (i.e. Medicaid-paid opiates) are freely distributed to the restless masses to distract them from the immense concentration of wealth and power at the top of the pyramid:

 

The Global Wealth Pyramid

The Global Wealth Pyramid

 

At some point, Collapse Is Cheaper and More Effective Than Reform (November 5, 2015). The third stage Luttwak describes can be broken down into a chart of the Lifecycle of Bureaucracy, for every Imperial Project is ultimately the combination of a vast concentration of wealth/power and the sclerosis of self-serving bueaucracies that serve themselves rather than society at large:

 

Lifecycle of Bureaucracy

Lifecycle of Bureaucracy

 

I consider it self-evident that we are in the third and final stage of self-serving Imperial decay. That said, we don’t have to follow that trajectory; we can fashion a much better future outside the status quo, as I outline in A Radically Beneficial World.

 

* * *

 

If you find value here, please consider becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com. My new book is #5 on Kindle short reads -> politics and social science: Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform ($3.95 Kindle ebook, $8.95 print edition) For more, please visit the book’s website.

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The Burning Platform

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END GAME FOR THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

Administrator Posted on 27August2023 https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/08/27/end-game-for-the-american-empire/

 

Thomas Paine Quote: The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance

Thomas Paine Quote: The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance

Living through the late stages of an empire in decline, coming unhinged, flailing about in a death throes of debt, depravity and denial, is not a pleasant experience. But, it is just the cycle of history playing out once again, with the name of the empire changed, different villains and fools, civil and international strife, and a debt default to end all debt defaults. As the chart below portrays, the existing social order, controlled and dominated by America since the beginning of the 20th Century, is rapidly hurtling towards its demise, to be swept away by a tsunami of debt default, social chaos, and global war. That’s how Fourth Turnings roll.

The Archetypical Big Cycle-Dalio-Cycle

The Archetypical Big Cycle-Dalio-Cycle

I know the ignorant masses choose the ostrich method of keeping their heads buried in the sand, but that will not save them from the consequences of actions taken and not taken over the last fifty years by the political and business leaders installed by wealthy globalist psychopaths bent on controlling the world and reaping the riches from their despicable efforts.

Stick your head in the sand

Stick your head in the sand

I believe Ray Dalio‘s chart of the changing world order is accurate as to where we stand in the cycle, even though he is one of those global elitists. The beginning of the decline can be pegged to the start of the 21st Century, with the dot.com crash and 9/11 ushering in an astronomical increase in debt, money printing, and despotism, as each crisis created by debt and money printing was met with the “solution” of more debt and money printing. With interest on the national debt about to surpass $1 trillion per year and unfunded future debt obligations exceeding $200 trillion, there is no way out. The American economic system will implode in a matter of a few years.

 

The internal conflict since the election of Trump in 2016 and the subsequent coup, election fraud, scamdemic, and now unwarranted un-Constitutional persecution of Trump, leaves the country on the brink of civil war. I know the regime media and distracted masses scoff at the possibility of civil war, but the same was true in 1859. There are a lot of rightfully angry people in this country with a seething rage for those who have destroyed this country for their own gain. The 2024 election sure seems like a spark that could ignite this powder keg, and the 300 million weapons owned by the angry people are waiting to be put to proper use.

Tree Of Liberty by StephenBarlow

Tree Of Liberty by StephenBarlow

https://www.deviantart.com/stephenbarlow/art/Tree-Of-Liberty-476474101

I believe we are already in the midst of stages 16 – Loss of Reserve Currency and 17 – Weak Leadership. The American empire initiated war in the Ukraine has set in motion the demise of the USD as the reserve currency of the world, ending its seventy seven year reign as the one and only settlement currency for global trade. Biden, the weakest, dumbest, most corrupt, illegitimate president in the history of our country, has succeeded in pushing Russia, China, India, Brazil, and now the Middle East and South American oil producers towards an economic alliance which will accelerate the demise of the USD.

 

Biden, as the puppet of evil globalist forces, has encouraged an invasion of our southern border by barbarian hordes, has destroyed our economy, flaunted the Constitution, and has set us on a path towards global conflict. He makes James Buchanan and Jimmy Carter look like Mount Rushmore candidates compared to his “accomplishments”. They were just ineffective and weak. He is corrupt, evil and destructive. 2024 would be the sixteenth year of this Fourth Turning, right in the wheelhouse of civil war, revolution, and global conflict. We have entered the endgame and now it’s just a matter of how much destruction, death, and retribution will be required to achieve a new world order better than what we have today. Not winning is not an option.

"We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately"-Benjamin Franklin

“We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately”-Benjamin Franklin

 

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Hidden Fragility – What Happens When The Electricity Is Off For Three Days?

by Tyler Durden 19October2016 https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-19/hidden-fragility-what-happens-when-electricity-three-days

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

 

What happens when an electricity dependent society and economy has an extended loss of electrical grid and communications?

One of the hidden realities of modern life is its fragility. For example, few people are aware of the precariousness of the supply chain that refills gasoline/petrol stations around the world every few days.

 

A new book, When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation explores the fragilities of our truck-dependent supply chains.

 

Longtime correspondent Bart D. (Australia) recently experienced a multi-day regional loss of electricity. His first-person observations help us understand what breakdowns in energy are like on the ground.

 

* * *

 

Observations of life in an extended power failure by Bart D. (Australia)

 

South Oz is continuing with its streak of extreme weather. The latest being our encounter with what’s being described as a category 2 ‘hurricane’ with the added bonus of a severe front preceding it that produced many low-grade tornados. A score of major power transmission towers were twisted off their footings, 80 000 lightning strikes fried out a lot of ‘secondary’ electricity infrastructure … 40% of power that is usually being generated from wind had to be shut down due to extreme winds and base load backup generators failed in many locations (including my region).

 

Power ‘gradually’ returning after blackout plunged state into darkness

 

End result … entire state without electricity for a day and a half. Some regions, including my home region, (about the size of the state of Tasmania) were without electricity for 3 nights and 2.5 days.

 

It was a fascinating opportunity to observe firsthand what happens when an electricity dependent society and economy has an extended and complete loss of electrical grid and communications.

 

Key observations for my local area are:

 

1. Many people have small petrol generators thanks to our lovely coastal wilderness and a preoccupation with Glamping (Glam Camping)

 

2. Very few people had a store of petrol at home more than 5 to 10 litres. (usually kept for use in lawn mowers, brush cutters, chainsaws). Some owners of small boats had up to 20 litres on hand.

 

3. When the electricity goes out … the pumps at fuel stations don’t work. To my great surprise, only 1 fuel station in my nearest city of about 14 000 population had (or quickly acquired) a back-up generator to work their fuel pumps. There was a 3 hour wait for customers to get from back of queue to the pumps … and a ridiculous show of ‘bulk buying’ where people didn’t just take fuel that they personally needed; they showed up with between 3 and 8 X 20 litre (5 gallon) fuel cans as well as filling their cars. Hopefully the canned fuel was distributed among family and friends. (My assertion is that the owners of the station should have rationed fuel to 40 litres per customer to keep the que moving faster and to make sure everyone had some, rather than creating an ‘all or nothing’ situation)

 

4. Due to the difficulty with getting hold of petrol after the blackout started … almost everyone with generators at home could only run them for a few hours over the course of the entire blackout. Even then, the small camping gensets usually lacked the capacity to run large modern refrigerator/freezers. So … most people lost the contents of their fridges by the end. Due to cold weather, at least freezers stayed cold for the most part.

 

5. Big shops had their own gensets … but they can’t power the banks of chillers for meat and dairy … so these items became unavailable by the evening of the blackout starting.

 

6. The full loss of grid, grid back-up and other smaller backups caused telecommunications and data transmission to practically cease. This meant limitations of EFTPOS in stores. Banks were shut, ATM’s didn’t work and some shops that were open could only take cash. Generally though, everyone muddled through the sketchy electronic payment systems one way or another. Internet access failed for the most part. Social media pretty much collapsed … my two daughters though their social lives were over. I didn’t miss it. My wife found more time to do other things too.

 

7. The items that disappeared from the shelves fast, and were tricky to find after 24 hours without power were : Bread, D cell batteries, 6 volt square batteries, matches, heat beads, butane gas cans, fresh meat, sandwich meats, cheeses. (not sure about bottled water – most here have rain tanks anyway). Everything else seemed fine, although fresh fruit and veg got limited after 48 hours.

 

8. In hardware/camping stores that managed to open: bottled LPG quickly sold out as did BBQ’s, camp stoves, camp lights and batteries to run them. Most here have a gas BBQ at home, but if you didn’t already have a full bottle of gas … it was very hard to get a replacement after 48 hours.

 

9. No one here knows how to use a road intersection properly when the traffic lights are out! I think this helped create major gridlock in the states capital but was even noticeable here at my much smaller regional city with just one such intersection containing lights. (public education urgently required on this)

 

10. The number of back-up gensets at critical locations (including hospitals and communications systems) that failed was disturbing. There needs to be a major inquiry into why the back-ups on critical services failed. This nearly caused a shutdown of mains water supply as our water is pumped out of aquifers and has to be lifted to storage tanks high up in the hills. More of a problem for sanitation than drinking, as rain tanks are common here.

 

11. Then there were a few people like me … I ran my big ‘workshop’ genset 7 hours a day (hour in the morning, hour at lunch time, 4-5 hours in the evening) and was burning about 7 litres of fuel a day in doing so. My home fuel reserve meant I could run at that extravagant level for a month if need be, or supply others who fell short. We ran refrigerators, lights and TV almost ‘as usual’ and offered to charge anyone’s batteries who needed it and supplied a small camping gas burner, full cylinder of gas and a good battery powered camping light to my parents-in-law who were seriously underprepared. The rest of my small home town (located 20km from a regional city) was rather dark and quiet for the three nights (in part due to the lack of pre-stored fuel to run camping gensets).

 

12. We have a gas stove in our kitchen, with bottled LNG that lasts 3 -5 months in normal use, so cooking was as normal for us. Since we didn’t try to use the gas to also heat washing/bathing water it would have lasted for the usual amount of time.

 

13. When most were having cold showers, no showers, wasting their BBQ gas to heat pots of water or crowding into friends and relations who had LNG hot water systems in their houses … our family had hot baths by candle light in huge volumes of wood heated water. (Picture of my old wood heater below.) It is very efficient, made in the 1940’s I think, but possibly much older. The inner bowl is copper and absorbs heat from a small fire lit behind the square opening in front. It can boil 70 litres in 20 minutes from a cold start, or 15 minutes for a refill of water once it’s already been going a while.

 

Wood fired water boiler

Wood fired water boiler

 

14. Apart from the fuel distribution fiasco everything remained orderly, people remained calm and helpful and life went on. Strangers were a lot chattier with other strangers than usual … which is good to see. I saw examples of shops extending ‘unsecured credit’ for small amounts of basic food items to people who had no cash on them and whose cards didn’t work. No looting, no “Law Enforcement” out making trouble and plenty of sharing and cooperation.

 

15. Although about a quarter of houses have solar panels or solar thermal hot water where I live … none of it worked as it’s all grid connect AND doesn’t work under the heavy cloud/rain/cold of a 3 day storm.

 

I’ve been thinking about getting ‘stand-alone’ solar power (ie connected to my own batteries) since they closed the big coal fired station in the north of my region, (and the price of these systems has become quite affordable). Our region is at ‘the end of the line’ of our state grid now and I expect regular outages this summer when hot, calm conditions prevail that reduce our wind generation output at the same time as spiking power use for air conditioners. Our electricity now has to travel up to 1600km (1000 miles) from the state of Victoria to reach us when the windmills aren’t working here!

 

* * *

 

Thank you, Bart, for sharing your observations. The resilience (or lack thereof) of complex systems is difficult to assess until there are atypical strains placed on the system.

 

What seems effortlessly resilient on average days can break down dramatically if redundancies, proper maintenance and crisis response have been stripped from the system by incompetence, budget cuts and/or the self-serving priorities of managers and employees.

 

As a result, we only discover systems have become fragile and brittle in crisis, when it’s too late to restore resilience.

 

Sorry! The lifestyle you ordered is currently out of stock

Sorry! The lifestyle you ordered is currently out of stock

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Dear America, Rest Up For What’s Coming When Normies Awake!

by Tyler Durden, 07August2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dear-america-rest-whats-coming-when-normies-awake

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

Normies Awake!

“The West can’t do diplomacy in general, it can’t run its cities or countries except into the ground, its high-tech projects fail almost as a rule, its infrastructure is crumbling, its economies are crumbling, and all public policies seem to have a civilizational suicide as a final goal.”

– Gaius Baltar

So-called Normies might be musing, this month of approved mental languor, whether the mighty efforts to suppress news of all kinds, about everything, have concealed the true tendings of our wayward country – leading them to wonder whether it is even possible to be a Normie in such an abnormal time and place.

 

So-called Normies might be musing, this month of approved mental languor, whether the mighty efforts to suppress news of all kinds, about everything, have concealed the true tendings of our wayward country – leading them to wonder whether it is even possible to be a Normie in such an abnormal time and place.

Peasants Will Be Out With Pitchforks

Peasants Will Be Out With Pitchforks

What news is suppressed?

That the USA is worse than dead broke.

That the people were poisoned, apparently on-purpose.

That the spectral “Joe Biden” sold out our country.

That the war we started in Ukraine, on purpose, for no good reason, is about to be lost, and with it our standing around world.

That there actually is such a criminal organism as the Blob at large in our government, responsible for the astounding abnormality immersing us.

 

But never mind all that… for now, just go see Barbie. Have a clam roll, a dip in the ocean, another margarita…. September will be here soon enough.

 

Eventually, the official perversion of money – especially of borrowing an awesome lot of it with no intention of ever repaying – leads to the unhappy circumstance of money disappearing until nobody has any money. And by such, the broke-ness of the government transmogrifies to a whole land full of broke people. Many banks go broke as well. Even the high-fliers who hoarded things that purport to represent money go broke. Then, nobody has the means to buy anything. Businesses that can’t sell anything stop being businesses. After a while, no activity is meaningful except grubbing in the soil to grow some food, or stealing it from those who grubbed and grew it. By then, you can barely even call it a society.

 

By September, we’ll have some idea where all that is heading. The bond market is wobbling because the government can’t stop increasing its spending. America issues more and more bonds to borrow ever more money, but to the world’s bond-buyers (a.k.a. lenders), what used to be considered virtually risk-free now looks like a bad bet. So, the enticement to buy, which is called the interest rate, has to go up. But as it goes up, the cash value of existing bonds goes down (who wants the older bonds when the newer ones pay more?)

 

The holders of bonds are mainly big institutions: banks, pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds (other countries). They put their large holdings into bonds because in normal times they are safe and dependable investments. But these are abnormal times. When the value of their bonds goes down a lot, the value of their reserves goes down. And when those reserves get reduced too much in relation to the institutions’ liabilities (what they owe), the institutions go bankrupt. When that happens, the people who are vested in those institutions lose their money, too, and end up having to sell stocks and other property to meet their obligations. This ends up looking like what we call “a crash.” It will get Normies’ attention.

 

How’s it going with the poisoning of America? Since Elon Musk bought Twitter (now “X”), the app has developed a beefed-up immune system against censorship aimed at it by the FBI, CIA, DHS, and the White House. Twitter is once again a popular medium of information exchange, where news flows pretty freely these days. Even news of previous censorship and cancellation is getting out – and with interesting possibilities for consequences.

Mary Talley Bowden MD-tweet-6August2023-On 11/17/21, I posted 25 Tweets saying "Vaccine mandates are wrong" w/screenshots of patient testimonials. Days later, Houston Methodist, 1st in the country to mandate the vaccine, notified the Houston Chronicle that my privileges were suspended for spreading "dangerous misinformation."

Mary Talley Bowden MD-tweet-6August2023-On 11/17/21, I posted 25 Tweets saying “Vaccine mandates are wrong” w/screenshots of patient testimonials. Days later, Houston Methodist, 1st in the country to mandate the vaccine, notified the Houston Chronicle that my privileges were suspended for spreading “dangerous misinformation.”

The many brave doctors who questioned the “vaccine” story, are being heard now. Other entrepreneurial analysts on Twitter — e.g., Edward Dowd, The Unity Project, “The Ethical Skeptic,” “Chief Nerd”— regularly publish data and charts showing America and the rest of the world just how much damage the mRNA shots did to millions of people, how many have been disabled and killed by them. By September, the awareness of what has been done, and the psychopathic degree of official lying about it, could pass that threshold beyond which everybody knows and the great crime is revealed. Expect a major American political attitude adjustment.

 

There is surely enough publicly-seen evidence to make an impeachment case against “Joe Biden.” The process seems to move slowly, given the traditional lassitude of Congress, but momentum is building as all these other national fiascos careen toward criticality due to abysmal executive leadership. That evidence shows the Biden Family engaged in an international racketeering scheme to peddle “JB’s” influence when he was vice-president. That’s bribery and the very word is in the short passage of our Constitution describing the grounds for sacking a high official.

 

Rep. Comer’s House Oversight Committee has already dug up voluminous suspicious activity reports in Biden family bank accounts and has promised more, including information of offshore hidden accounts. Jim Jordan’s preliminary impeachment inquiry has drawn up its first witness list which includes the shadowy “JB” aide Michael Carpenter, and the slippery Trump impeachment “whistleblower,” CIA agent Eric Ciaramella — who essentially accused Mr. Trump of attempting to look into the very bribery crimes of the Biden family lately exposed, a pungent irony. When the impeachment process gets underway in earnest this fall, I expect “Joe Biden” will resign, leaving Ms. Harris to be managed by the shadow-president Barack Obama. That in itself will become a crisis of its own.

 

Our country has vested its prestige and treasure — but not our blood, at least yet — in the preposterous Ukraine proxy war, completely misjudging every element of it. The Russiaphobia of so many Blob officials was amplified by their own dishonest efforts to blame Russia for all the self-created ills of our own national life. The dirty secret of the Ukraine war is that we are no longer in control of events. The Russians are going to settle things there and that poor palooka of a country will be wrested back into their traditional sphere-of-influence, no more to be a troublemaker. I doubt that our puppet, Mr. Zelensky will be in power by Halloween. NATO will cease to exist and each nation of Europe will then struggle to settle its own sovereign hash without much of an industrial economy left. Expect governments to fall.

 

In the meantime, enjoy the clam rolls, the surf, the corn-dogs at the fair, and all the other blessings of languorous August. Rest up for what’s coming when Normies awake!

*  *  *

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FAKE CLIMATE NARRATIVE IS EASILY DEBUNKED

Administrator
Posted on September 20, 2023 https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/09/20/fake-climate-narrative-is-easily-debunked

ZeroHedge emphasis added https://www.zerohedge.com/political/quinn-fake-climate-narrative-easily-debunked

Anyone capable of critical thought knows this entire globull warming/ climate crisis/ health emergency narrative is false, contrived by the ruling elite/globalist cabal billionaire class as a further means to gain control, increase their already ungodly wealth, tax us into oblivion, lock us down in their 15 minute cities, and dole out our daily allotment of bug protein.

 

Their narrative is filled with lies, misinformation, and holes so big you can drive a Tesla through them. They have faked the temperature data for decades. CO2 is not a pollutant. Eating meat is not destroying the planet. Cows farting is not ruining our environment. Of course, Chris Christie farting may be harming the planet. This fake narrative is dutifully spewed by the corporate regime media 24/7, as they are funded by Gates, Soros, and the WEF to do so. Lies, lies and more lies.

 

ANCIENT WISDOM Only a fool believes that electricity used for air conditioning harms the planet, but electricity used to charge a Tesla does not.

ANCIENT WISDOM Only a fool believes that electricity used for air conditioning harms the planet, but electricity used to charge a Tesla does not.

 

The foolishness of the drivel they expect us to swallow is beyond the pale. They want to put oil companies and coal companies out of business because fossil fuels are evil. They are purposely attempting to drastically reduce our energy output, which means less electric power. But they also want to force everyone to drive an electric vehicle. And they won’t allow nuclear power plants to be built. These insane beliefs are ridiculous. Only low IQ willfully ignorant NPCs could believe them. More than half the population [of the Global North/NATO] apparently fall into this category.

 

Wind and solar are polluting, environmentally damaging and inefficient. They push solar, while at the same time push geo-engineering to block the sun, to cool the planet. This idiocy speaks volumes to what these people running the show think about the intellectual capacity of the masses. They believe we are sufficiently dumbed down, distracted, and apathetic to implement their agenda through constant propaganda, fear mongering, and threats. They want to own everything, while you own nothing. It’s nothing but a show and they will keep it going until we do something about it.

 

Greta Thunberg Poses for the Cameras Amid Arrest

Greta Thunberg Poses for the Cameras Amid Arrest

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Once Trust Has Been Lost, There’s No Going Back

by Tyler Durden, 08May2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/once-trust-has-been-lost-theres-no-going-back

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Now that the overlapping crises are upon us and the banquet of consequences is being served, we’ll see just who our elites and leadership really are.

 

The erosion of trust doesn’t require intent, it only requires the blind pursuit of self-interest above all else. Trust is fundamentally reciprocity and honesty: to build trust, we must each perform our agreed-upon responsibilities and be truthful about our performance and actions.

US Social Trust

US Social Trust

Lies, obfuscation, misdirection and the sins of omission are all Kryptonite to trust. Those who put the pursuit of self-interest above all else like to think they can finesse their greed by omitting the truth rather than presenting a fabrication / lie. But being social animals whose survival ultimately rests on trust, humans are keenly sensitive to the difference between the truth / honesty and self-serving prevarications such as the sins of omission.

 

America’s elites and those living large in protected fiefdoms have persuaded themselves that their relentless pursuit of self-interest has no cost or consequence. Conveniently ignoring Adam Smith’s volume on the moral foundations needed to support capitalism, they think “the invisible hand” of the market is nothing more than a feeding frenzy of self-serving greed, and so their relentless pursuit of self-interest will somehow magically transform their looting and free-riding into a stable economy and society.

Share of Total Net Worth of the Middle Class

Share of Total Net Worth of the Middle Class

 

This is why trust has been lost in America. Everyone with any hold on power uses that power solely to benefit themselves and their cronies, under the tissue-thin guise of “serving the public” (or even more egregiously, “doing God’s work”–please hand me a barf-bag…).

 

When everyone is issuing an endless spew of BS to cover their own self-enrichment, trust is eroded and then lost. When everyone with any shred of power is scrambling to free-ride the system to serve their private interests above all else, the system itself can no longer be trusted.

 

This is why institutions have lost public trust. Those happily ensconced in a politically powerful fiefdom can increase their private gains at the expense of the public interest without any worries that the public can ever make it through the complexity thickets they’ve erected to ring-fence their fiefdom.

 

The elites rig the system behind flimsy legal screens and declare the system one of “endless opportunity” without mentioning some are more equal than others. Markets are rigged, politics is theater and those in the know gloat as their personal fortunes expand like clockwork.

Share of Total Net Worth of the Top 1 Percent

Share of Total Net Worth of the Top 1 Percent

 

All of this is betrayal of the public trust and the public interest, and betrayal has a cost and consequence: trust is lost. Betrayal hurts because we believed the pretenses and promises of the lying, cheating prevaricator. Once the truth seeps out, we’re done with the liar / free-rider / self-serving BSer.

 

This is where we are: trust has been lost and there’s no going back. As the first chart above illustrates, social trust–our willingness to trust strangers–has declined for decades. There are many threads in this decline, but one is that everyone has transmogrified into a scammer or grifter, trying to extract something from us while giving us nothing in return except empty promises, phony gratitude or the pretense of reciprocity.

 

What exactly is the difference between the beggar with a phony story, a politician “explaining” a new junk fee or a private-sector elite rigging the system to benefit their enterprise? There is no difference. All are masking their pursuit of self-interest behind a phony story. The beggar’s story of needing $10 for gas is obviously threadbare; so too are the stories of pickpocketing “leaders” and SillyCon Valley monopolists.

 

As the chart below shows, the middle class that once trusted markets, institutions and civic leaders has seen its share of the national wealth decline as the top 1%’s share increased. Wealth wasn’t “grown,” it was transferred. Eventually “investors” finally accept they’re nothing but marks for the financial elite to skim and scam and so they exit the fake 3-card-monte “market.” The skimmers and scammers, bereft of marks, whine and beg for a return to the good old days when they could exploit all the trusting marks.

Percentage household financial assets in stocks 1950 -1985

Percentage household financial assets in stocks 1950 -1985

 

Those who have looted the public trust for their own private gain now decry the loss of trust. Their tears are as fake as all their other stories. What they mourn is the marks awakening to their endless skims and scams, and the opting out of those who’ve finally had enough.

 

Everything’s gone so well that those with wealth and power have been able to pretend to be fantastic. But now that the overlapping crises are upon us and the banquet of consequences is being served, we’ll see just who our elites and leadership really are.

Overlapping Crises: "Solutions" Are Now Mutually Reinforcing Problems

Overlapping Crises: “Solutions” Are Now Mutually Reinforcing Problems

 

Pretending will no longer work, and all the self-serving prevarications in the world will no longer shield us from the consequences of a society stripped of public trust.

When things go wrong in life, that is when it shows who you are. When things go well, everyone can pretend to be fantastic.

When things go wrong in life, that is when it shows who you are. When things go well, everyone can pretend to be fantastic.

 

Once trust has been destroyed, there’s no going back.

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The Extinction Event Hitting Corporate Media…

by Tyler Durden, 12May2023 – https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/extinction-event-hitting-corporate-media

Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

MSM went “all-in” on a discredited COVID narrative.

Since the pandemic I’ve been saying that confidence in the mainstream, corporate press has been irreparably damaged. After four years of non-stop Trump Derangement Syndrome so intense that even some liberals were wondering if the press had gone overboard on editorializing – Covid hit, and a lot of normies now see the MSM for what it really is: agitprop and brainwashing.

 

Cancel culture and censorship reached such absurd levels that we started to see an exodus of high profile reporters (Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, et al) exiting corporate news outlets and setting up on their own, after they committed the sin of colouring outside the lines of establishment precepts.

The MSM went all-in in Covid, but every core tenet of the Covid narrative has since fallen apart:

  • This thing came out of a lab
  • Ecohealth and Fauci are up to their asses in it
  • The lockdowns did more damage than anything else, and
  • Everybody was forced to take a vaccine that not only doesn’t work but also seems to be the common denominator in an excess fatality rate that exceeds the pandemic itself.

Not good.

Russian TV test Pattern

Russian TV test Pattern

 

With the tempo being set by numerous media collapses, especially by overtly “woke” ones: Buzzfeed’s bankruptcy, Vice circling the drain – and television viewership plummeting, the stage was set for a few key moments that will be remembered as defining the extinction level event rolling through corporate media:

#1) The Rise of Dark Carlson

After Fox News fired Tucker Carlson, the number 1 pundit on television with the highest viewership today, he didn’t go to a rival network (Newsmax offered him $25 million), he decided to take his own show out on Twitter.

 

Mark Jeftovic, The ₿itcoin Capitalist-tweet-9May2023-This is a defining moment in the extinction event

Mark Jeftovic, The ₿itcoin Capitalist-tweet-9May2023-This is a defining moment in the extinction event

Apparently, on his own, not part of any deal with Elon Musk, Carlson is just letting it all hang out. In one of his first installments, he called into question the 9/11 narrative (Why did Building 7 just fall into its own footprint for no reason?). It prompted one observer to coin the term “Dark Carlson” for what is transpiring via this channel.

#2) The Schism of RFK Jr. coverage

RFK Jr, having thrown his hat into the ring to challenge Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination, immediately drew fire from the MSM, having unilaterally decided that anything RFK says is automatically “misinformation” (see the closing remarks on “rhetorical circularity”, below).

RFK Jr, for his part, created an account on Nostr.

Mark Jeftovic, The ₿itcoin Capitalist-tweet-11May2023-Nothing epitomizes the Industrial Age vs Network Era

Mark Jeftovic, The ₿itcoin Capitalist-tweet-11May2023-Nothing epitomizes the Industrial Age vs Network Era

Nostr is a fast growing decentralized social media network, contrast with Twitter – which is governed by the vagaries and whims of whomever owns it – Nostr is decentralized at the server level to relays (which anybody can run) at the the account level to individual users. This protocol is spreading like wildfire and it’s beyond censorship.

 

The juxtoposition between a sclerotic,  industrial era, mediocre network clutching their pearls over RFK’s “misinformation” and RFK showing up on Nostr tells us a lot.

 

While this is not seen as much of a big deal yet, this is a signal worth paying attention to.

#3) CNN’s disastrous town-hall with Trump

I didn’t watch it, and when you look at the reporting on it, both left and right traditional outlets are declaring victory – but the reality is that CNN pulled the plug on it 20 minutes earlier than scheduled (ten key moments here).

 

Love him or hate him, Trump draws attention and viewers unlike any other personality – and the fact that CNN drew the curtain early signals one thing: it was a disaster for the network and probably didn’t hurt Trump. After deftly manipulating a hostile media and leveraging social media cunning to win the presidency in 2016, it doesn’t look like the MSM has learned much.

When the media falls, so does the system it supports

When the Soviet Empire fell in 1989 – 1990, anybody predicting it even months earlier would have been ridiculed. When it happened it took everybody by surprise (even the CIA) and unfolded at astonishing speed (Victor Sebestyen’s Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire covers it brilliantly).

 

Things move even quicker today – where we are in the early innings of what will possibly be the final financial crisis of the fiat money system.

 

In another great book about Late Stage Communism,  “Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More“, Alexey Yurchak chronicles the hyper-normality that saturated the zeitgeist during “the last Soviet Generation”. The “Dead Irony” chapter outlines the ingenious forms of unauthorized humour.

 

A contemporary parallel is when you come across a Twitter account that exhibits such over-the-top support for All The Latest Things™ that you can’t tell if its satire or not. That is a type of performative dissidence called “Stiob” (unless it’s real).

Ann lesby PhD

 

(It’s parody)

Yurchak’s examination of “the hegemony over meta-discourse” and it’s disintegration ring eerily familiar to those keeping score today. One example is what he called “rhetorical circularity”: in our case it means that anything the MSM refuses to cover is “misinformation”, because there are no MSM citations to support it.

 

As I frequently comment, we’re in Late Stage Globalism. While many view Covid as the gateway to a “Great Reset” technocracy – it looks to me like it was instead, the a-c-c-e-l-e-r-a-t-i-o-n event of the millennia.

 

I’m not an accelerationist and the elites are certainly still pushing hard for that WEF-style authoritarianism.

 

But I’m just an observer and I’m here to tell you, that is what’s happening. Given the nature of technological compounding (“Future Shock”, as Alvin Toffler called way back in 1970), accelerationism is somewhat baked in and we just have to watch the implosion of corporate media (not to mention the self-destruction of Woke capitalism) to know it is happening.

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While Israel is secure and forever, who will have a ‘Sweet Year’?

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The ‘sweetening’ begins

18September2023 https://rivkalevy.com/the-sweetening-begins/

I just got off the phone with my husband, waiting in some airport in Poland to get back to the Holy Land.

He told me the border crossings today have been brutal. [Both the Poles and the Ukrainians are rabid Antisemites]

People standing in the sun for hours and hours, on a fast day, and lots of people fainting.

There are still some massive, ongoing tests of emuna and middot going on, and every single person who went to Uman this year, with maximum mesirut nefesh, has sweetened the harsh decrees for all of us.

 

Of course, the same people who are still going on about ‘safe and effective’ are EXACTLY the same people still dissing the kibbutz in Uman on Rosh Hashana, and calling the people who went ‘idol worshippers’ and ‘retarded’, amongst many other choice words.

Do the experiment for yourself.

Take a look at who the most vehement ‘anti-Uman’ people are, the worst ‘anti-Rav’ people, and then go and see what they were saying about ‘safe and effective’ [Covid-19 vaccine is not ‘safe and effective’]

It’s probably not a total 100% match up – but I guarantee, it’s approaching it.

====

In the meantime, here’s some good news I got sent, still unverified, but from a trustworthy source:

The Rav said that there is no din.

The pain endured by not getting to Uman will be instead of much pain that the Jewish people were meant to endure this year.

And the war in which all the nations will go against Israel will either not happen, or if it will happen and no Jewish family will get hurt, and there will be an earthquake in Israel like there was in Morocco (which will destroy the enemies of Israel).

The Rav was felt on Rosh Hashanah in Uman and Uman was felt by the Rav in Yerushalayim.

The Rav’s minyan was packed in the kloiz in Uman and the Rav’s minyan was packed in the Olam in Yerushalayim.

We were all together and felt tremendous tikkunim and cancellation of judgements.

====

This is the ‘vibe’ I’ve been getting so far about Rosh Hashana, too, even though it seems a little incredible, if I’m honest.

That somehow, stuff got ‘sweetened’ again, and all the evils’ plans are going to some how fall through again, BH – as we’ve seen happen so very many times already, over the last few years.

 

At least, for the people who are making even in a tiny bit of sincere teshuva, and making some small effort to stay within the circle of the True Tzaddikim – as we saw recently in Essaouia, in Morocco.

 

For everyone else…. I really don’t know still, how all this is meant to play out.

Mass teshuva at the last minute, once the penny finally drops?

Let’s hope so.

====

I will keep you updated as and when I hear more.

But in the meantime, it’s nice to have some ‘good news’ to share here.

Because we are still heading into choppy waters, at least in the short term.

 

And we still need to make every effort to keep doing our hitbodedut, making our teshuva, saying our Tikkun HaKlalis and paying our tzedaka, to get the evil decrees to carry on evaporating.

 

At least, in our own little corner of the world.

====

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While Israel is secure and forever, peril faces American Jewry

Arutz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

Judea-Samaria Is forever, but Modern Orthodoxy in America is not

While Israel is secure and forever, peril faces American Jewry. Not only are non-Orthodox rapidly self-destructing and disappearing, but these fault lines extend into “Modern Orthodoxy”. Op-ed.:

Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer


15August2023, 1:00 PM (GMT+3)  https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/375594

Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer is Senior Contributing Editor at The American Spectator, Vice President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, was adjunct professor of law at two prominent Southern California law schools for nearly twenty years, and is Rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County, California.

 

News Item: “Australia to Resume Use of Term ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’

Australia? They occupy land belonging to aborigines.

 

OK, who’s next? Biden living on occupied Delaware Indian territories?

 

What “The World” says about Israel does not matter. Through 75 years of Israel, and 50 before, G-d’s miracles have predominated despite enemies afar and snakes within. Like the Babylonian, Mede, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine empires, those enemies have met their fate, and Israel grows only stronger.

 

Israel exists by different rules of nature. By all odds, it never should have emerged. Hebrew was going the way of Latin and Celtic. The name “Israel” was supplanted by “Palestine.” Two thousand years of Exile persuaded the world we were consigned to be “Wandering Jews.” They even mockingly named a plant for our disgrace.

 

Then the worst anti-Semites helped midwife Israel. Stalin voted for it. The world center of Jew hatred, the United Nations, legitimized it. It was too small to survive, so G-d hardened the Arabs’ hearts, and their wars expanded Israel into the Negev, Galilee, and Judea-Samaria. Even before 1948, virulently anti-Semitic Poland miraculously helped build the Jewish armed resistance, arming and training all three underground groups — the Haganah, the Irgun, and the Lechi — until Hitler arrived. Communist Czechoslovakia emerged to arm Israel when America demurred. The Italian Mafia, controlling Manhattan and Jersey docks, helped run arms to Israel when Truman embargoed. Miracles.

 

-In 1956 during the Suez crisis, France was Israel’s champion while Eisenhower was hostile. In 1967, France reneged, so Israel found post-Eisenhower America ready. And Israel sailed away two years later with the five French gunboats she had paid for but that DeGaulle would not release. C’est la vie. When he was needed in 1973, Nixon — of all people — stepped in, even as his Vice President Agnew was pleading nolo contendre on the exact day the arms shipments to Israel were authorized.

 

-Israel survived the Ford-Kissinger “Reassessment,” the anti-Semitic Jimmy Carter, Reagan’s condemnations of Israel’s conduct of the 1982 war and of Begin’s bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor, George Bush and James Baker, Clinton hosting Arafat more than any other White House visitor and inducing Ehud Barak to offer Arafat parts of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount; Obama, Biden, Hillary, and Kerry, and aspects of Trump’s “Deal of the Century” that would have compromised Jewish sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

 

-The Obama-Biden-Kerry refusal to veto UN Security Council resolution 2334 in December 2016 ultimately proved meaningless as, only months later, Trump — of all people — arrived to recognize Jerusalem as capital, move the embassy, recognize Golan sovereignty, and recognize the legality of Jewish communities throughout Judea and Samaria.

 

-Israel has prospered by G-d’s miracles. Peres preached a vision of “Palestine” as a Maui or Tahiti. The “Palestinians” helped clarify reality by bus-bombing Bibi to a miracle election victory. Bibi then broke faith at the Wye Conference, so G-d replaced him with Ehud Barak. Barak unilaterally handed over South Lebanon to become a Hezbollah stronghold and tried giving away parts of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount so G-d gave him an Intifada that exposed his military incompetence, and replaced him with Sharon.

 

-After Sharon broke his pledges to voters and perfidiously imposed a national catastrophe on 8,500 Jews in Gush Katif, he turned next to ceding Judea and Samaria. Instead, he sustained a debilitating stroke. He recovered, got a second chance perhaps by merit of his 1950’s Unit 101 and his Yom Kippur War heroism, but he had learned nothing. He sustained another stroke so massive that his plans and he ended for good.

 

-Ehud Olmert — now revealed as a crook, prisoner, and villain who urges countries to withhold support from Israel — followed and tried actualizing the give-away. He was stopped by a Hezbollah kidnaping that launched a war he proved incapable of waging, alongside his hapless “Defense Minister,” a Labor Party union hack. When Netanyahu returned, he had learned never to cede Judea and Samaria.

 

So, although Zionists must advocate passionately for Israel, it kind-of does not matter except for fulfilling one’s duty to G-d and His Torah, land, and people. With some 350,000 Jews now living in eastern communities of Jerusalem that were liberated from Arab occupation in 1967 and more than 500,000 in the rest of Judea and Samaria — totaling 850,000 Jews — and recognizing the logistical mess the Israeli government encountered in relocating, resettling, and reemploying 8,500 Jews from Gush Katif (one percent of 850,000) in 2005, it is clear the “Two-State Solution” never will happen, no matter what anyone says or does. One million Jews cannot be forcibly uprooted and relocated. Indeed, Israel now is reversing the 2005 Gush Katif surrender by restoring Chomesh and other communities in Northern Shomron.

 

Chief Rabbi Yitzchak HaLevi Herzog said in the 1940’s, when he refused to relocate temporarily from Eretz Yisrael as Hitler’s Gen. Erwin Rommel approached the Holy Land during his North Africa campaign, that the Tanakh (Bible) and all of Judaic theology speak of only two destructions. There will not be a third Churban (catastrophe).

 

One should not be nonchalant about threats of America reducing aid to Israel. But one should not lose sleep over it either. When a parent threatens to cut off a college-age son or daughter financially, that worries the child. But once the child becomes a successful entrepreneur, professional, TikTok Influencer, or $350,000-a-year Israeli Supreme Court justice, that threat evaporates.

 

Israel is that matured entity. Yoram Ettinger has shown that Israel is a better financial and military value to America than vice-versa. Several recent influential think pieces have made the argument that Israel even can benefit from living without American aid — if it comes to that. In time, Israel would actualize Moshe Arens’s dream and create its own jet fighters, and Americans would lose restrictive influences. India will buy. Finland will buy. Arabs will buy. The whole world will buy. They do now.

 

Miracles. All fears that Arab birthrates would imperil Israel’s Jewish demographic majority have been vanquished. A million Jews from the former Soviet Union arrived. Jews from France, Argentina, Ethiopia came — always some anti-Semitic eruption to augment Israel’s population. Even the miracle of 850,000 Jews arriving in the 1940’s and 1950’s as Arab countries secured Israel’s Jewish demographic majority forever and laid the groundwork for Edot HaMizrach (Sephardic Jews) to save Israel from the godless Marx-inspired Ashkenazic elite who had laid the foundation for a secular socialist society whose last entrails are found at Tel Aviv restaurants on Tisha B’Av. The Opposition’s perpetual protests reflect they have lost; otherwise, they would be celebrating.

 

Australia? Kangaroos, the Koala, the Wallaby. They don’t matter. Neither do Canada, England, France, Russia, America, anyone.

 

While Israel is secure and forever, peril faces American Jewry. Not only are non-Orthodox rapidly self-destructing and disappearing, but these fault lines extend into “Modern Orthodoxy”:

 

1. At least 33-40 percent or more of American “Jews” are not Jews. American Orthodox rabbinic and lay institutions are terrified to reveal they know this and its ramifications. All practicing American rabbonim (Orthodox rabbis) know they secretly undertake lineage investigations before conducting weddings for anyone not engaged in their communities because odds are that one or both prospective spouses is not Jewish. For that same reason — encountering “Jews” who are not Jews — they turn away even relatives of paid synagogue members from being buried in their shul cemeteries and from having their kids “bar- or bat-mitzva’d.”

 

American rabbonim regularly encounter people who tell them they or their spouse is “Jewish,” or their child is marrying someone “Jewish,” even though the rav knows the person is a “Marilyn Monroe convert.” Because the Orthodox Union and Rabbinical Council of America, terrified to offend members and donors, deliberately evade the issue and stopped educating the public years ago, many Jewish parents affiliated with O.U. shuls and RCA rabbonim have evolved to accept when their boys marry non-Jewish and tell them “Mom, she’s doing a conversion with a reform/conservative rabbi, so it’s OK and you will have Jewish grandchildren, and don’t write me out of your will.” Jewish parents no longer feel stigma: “Well, Rabbi, at least she is undergoing some kind of conversion. Right?”

Wrong.

The local syngogue raibbi is afraid to speak the Truth because he may get fired. He rationalizes: “If I tell them the hard truth, they will fire me, and then what will become of the shul?” (Answer: They will hire someone else with the exact same skills-set but more docile.) Tragically, the RCA and OU, who cannot be fired by local congregants but fear donors, also resist speaking the Truth. That is the meaning of Exile. The lesson for Israel: Jews vigilantly must guard against similar erosion in Israel’s Law of Return and Grandparent Clause. The toxicity poisoning American “Judaism” must not attain a foothold in Israel. This is Judaic life-or-death.

 

2. Secondly, mainstream American Modern Orthodox institutions proceed with contempt-of-court toward their own Poskim (Torah Authorities) and fear speaking with clarity on issues regarding the pernicious pretense of “Open Orthodoxy.” The “Maharat” Academy (“Yeshivat Maharat”), which contravenes Judaism and ordains “Orthodox women rabbis” (“Maharats”), now proudly and publicly endorses lesbian marriage, even among their own Maharat “Yeshiva” students. Yes, “Orthodox women rabbis” in lesbian marriages.Other “Maharats” advocate for transgender legislation, claiming they speak for Orthodox Judaism. Such “Maharats” amplify the disgrace; one is “Rabbi in Residence” at Missouri’s Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion. Another is a professor of Feminism at the seminary for “Reform Rabbis,” where she is proud to be called “Rabbi.”

 

The Orthodox Union asked their Poskim to pasken (Judaically rule) on whether “women rabbis” may serve O.U. congregations, and their revered Torah Authorities unanimouslypaskened in an extended learned Teshuvah (Responsum) in February 2017 — more than six years ago — that women rabbis are absolutely forbidden. Yet, to this very day, there are O.U. congregations in public contempt of their own rabbinic judges, and Orthodox Union knows it — because allknow it, because it is so public — and yet O.U. has not implemented the very rabbinic ruling it sought. That is contempt of court.

 

Even so, the same O.U. “boldly” lectures Israelis on how to deal with their courts. Nor does Rabbinical Council of America conscientiously enforce its own explicit requirement: “. . . [W]e cannot accept either the ordination of women or the recognition of women as members of the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title.” Indeed, RCA even has bumbled into becoming a back-door vehicle for “Open Orthodoxfemale and male rabbis to gain legitimacy.

 

And the third “pillar” of American Modern Orthodoxy, Yeshiva University, now has a “Vice Provost for Values and Leadership” who leverages her YU status to legitimize “Maharat women rabbis” in a number of venues. The university’s Cardozo Law School awarded Jimmy Carter their “International Advocate for Peace” award, and 21 of their faculty signed a letter opposing Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination for the Supreme Court. Cardozo even has mandated that all students must take a course in critical race theory to graduate.

 

How far YU has descended from Presidents Rav Bernard Revel, Rav Samuel Belkin, and Rav Norman Lamm of blessed memory and the overriding spiritual leadership of HaRav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik!

 

Greater Israel is safe and secure forever. American Modern Orthodoxy?

 

To receive Rav Fischer’s Weekly Extensive Torah Commentaries or to attend any or all of Rav Fischer’s weekly 60-minute live Zoom classes on the Weekly Torah Portion, the Biblical Prophets, the Mishnah, Rambam Mishneh Torah, or Advanced Judaic Texts, send an email to: shulstuff@yioc.org

 

Rav Fischer’s recent hour-long interview on a range of pressing contemporary Jewish issues, ranging from the “Palestine” Myth to apostate Jewish leftists and their like-minded reform rabbis to the weakness of pro-Israel campus Jews who root their advocacy in Victimology instead of Jewish strength, can be found here.

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https://www.jpost.com/

J’accuse: US Jewish leadership is failing to defend the community – opinion

The Jewish establishment left us practically defenseless in the face of this new mutant strain, and that is why – I know it’s a serious charge – we are in this awful situation.

By CHARLES JACOBS Published: 2JUNE2023 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-744853

OPEN LETTER published January 13, 1898, in ‘L’Aurore’ by Emile Zola in response to the Dreyfus Affair, in which Zola addressed French president Félix Faure and accused his government of antisemitism. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

OPEN LETTER published January 13, 1898, in ‘L’Aurore’ by Emile Zola in response to the Dreyfus Affair, in which Zola addressed French president Félix Faure and accused his government of antisemitism. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

 

It might not have been the kindest thing during my trip to the Holy Land to tell Israelis, who were just bombarded by 1,500 Islamic Jihad rockets and are stuck in the excruciatingly painful fracas over judicial reform, that American Jewry’s house is on fire and that the Jewish establishment there is failing to subdue the flames.

 

But that was the theme of my talk at Jerusalem’s Begin Center last Monday. It was a book launch for the just-published collection of essays Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership, which I co-edited with Avi Goldwasser.

 

Indeed, antisemitism in the US is careening out of control. According to the FBI, Jews are more likely the targets of hate crimes than Blacks, Latinos, transgenders, and Muslims combined. Nearly every Jewish institution has security, many with armed guards. This is not the country we grew up in.

 

Antisemitism in the US: Where is the assault against American Jews coming from?

The assault – ideological and increasingly physical – comes simultaneously from four major ideological camps.

 

Who are our adversaries? First, the white nationalists who attack us based on that older Jew-hatred we’re familiar with. Today, they update their classic picture of the Jew as conniving, greedy, powerful behind the scenes, with the charges that we are the ones who invented multiculturalism and are the ones behind the rising tide of Third World immigration that they believe will remake America.

 

Religious leader Louis Farrakhan gives the keynote speech at the Nation of Islam Saviours' Day convention in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. February 19, 2017. (credit: REUTERS/REBECCA COOK)

Religious leader Louis Farrakhan gives the keynote speech at the Nation of Islam Saviours’ Day convention in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. February 19, 2017. (credit: REUTERS/REBECCA COOK)

 

Second: Black racists – including Black academics, politicians and followers of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Many believe Farrakhan’s lie that the Jews were the masters of the Black slave trade. More recently, Blacks are taught that the Palestinians are just like them: oppressed “people of color.”

 

Third: radical Muslims, many from antisemitic cultures, who carry an ancient religious hatred and are further inflamed by their tribal support of Palestinians. In American mosques, imams preach hatred of Jews. Muslims have attacked Jews on America’s streets.

 

The fourth camp consists of anti-Israel radical progressives who now include the most energized segments of the Democratic Party – the Squad. Israel, they preach, is a racist/apartheid state where Jews oppress indigenous, innocent, indigent and, importantly, darker-skinned peoples. This narrative has grown over four decades into support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Recently, progressives supported Nakba Day rallies in more than 35 American cities.

 

All of this did not happen overnight. It built up over about four decades, slowly.

 

The book, which has received praise from Dennis Prager, Daniel Pipes, Leil Leibovitz, Ken Levin and Gil Troy, is a collection of 22 essays (an expansion of an original set published in White Rose Magazine, published by Karen Lohman Bloch).

 

Some pieces are by prominent thinkers and writers – Alan Dershowitz, Jonathan Tobin, Morton Klein, Thane Rosenbaum, Caroline Glick and Richard Landes – who analyze our situation and explain how and why Jewish leaders are failing us. Other essays are by unsung Jewish activists who document the incompetence, the ignorance, even, yes, the perfidy of their local Jewish leaders who refuse to stand up and fight back, or worse, who misguide us about our actual situation.

 

By “the failing Jewish establishment,” we mean the legacy organizations: the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Community Relations Councils, the Federations, along with most of the Rabbinate. The lone exception among legacy groups is the Zionist Organization of America, led by the courageous and indefatigable Morton Klein. The other groups that are bravely fighting our adversaries – CAMERA, StandWithUs, Club Z, Endowment for Middle East Truth, Aish HaTorah, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Students Supporting Israel, and more – were launched as grassroots groups, precisely because the Jewish establishment was failing.

 

As our writers describe, the Jewish establishment first failed to intervene against the media defamation of Israel. It then failed to stop harassment and intimidation of Jews on campus. It now is failing to stop anti-Israel education in America’s public high schools, exploding across the nation via ethnic studies curricula and critical race theory. Finally, it failed to recognize the long-term threat of the growing radicalization of the historically moderate American Muslim community.

 

My talk described how this happened. I used examples from my experience as a Boston Jewish activist who helped lead grassroots Jews to resist. As the essayists describe, the Boston experience is mirrored across the country – and in Canada.

 

WHAT HAPPENED to the West’s Jews? As the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explained, antisemitism is a virus that morphs predictably: Whatever is any society’s worst sin, that is what the Jews are charged with. In the religious epoch, Jews were the killers of the Christian God. When race “science” – eugenics – was all the rage, Jews were racial vermin. In capitalist societies, the Jews were hated as communists; in communist societies, we were despised as capitalist exploiters. When having a nation-state was the way normal people expressed their values, Jews were cursed as rootless cosmopolites. And so today, when globalism and internationalism are the reigning virtues, Jews are cursed for their state.

 

Once we were tainted, stripped of having the moral high ground – which, for a while, the guilt and shame from the Holocaust provided – all hell could be loosed against us. Well, the virus mutated into anti-Israelism, or Palestinianism, and Jews worldwide are tainted as oppressors. The “new antisemitism” pierced our post-Holocaust shield.

 

The Jewish establishment left us practically defenseless in the face of this new mutant strain, and that is why – I know it’s a serious charge – we are in this awful situation.

 

To make matters worse, a new “woke-progressive” ideology that is undeniably and inevitably anti-Jewish has defeated classical liberalism in many key institutions and has become an accelerant to the mounting antisemitism.

 

Classic liberalism believes in equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion and/or sexual orientation. It welcomed and supported Jewish life in America. The new ideology – which goes by many names: woke, progressivism, political correctness, intersectionality, etc. – insists instead on equal results. If there are fewer Black or Latino lawyers proportional to their numbers in society than there are white or Jewish lawyers, that proves that society is unjust and racist. Those who achieved success did so by exploiting the underachieving minorities. Success in life is proof that you have oppressed or have benefited by the oppression of Blacks, Latinos, women, homosexuals, etc. As Jews are among the most successful, we are by implication the biggest oppressors.

 

And all of this ideology is being taught in American public schools. Its principles are required in law schools, medical schools, corporate boards. Fewer and fewer Jews are getting into Ivy League schools, fewer are being hired by corporations, and fewer are sitting on boards of philanthropies.

 

The Jewish establishment is now fully trapped. It put all our eggs into the imploding liberal basket. It made alliances with all the minority groups, and now these very groups have turned on us and have become Palestinianists and antisemitic. Our leaders are flummoxed and confused. They need to be pressured, convinced, humiliated and shamed to do a massive rethink.

 

To help organize grassroots activists to challenge and change our leadership, we created The Jewish Leadership Project (www.jewishleadershipproject.org). Our book prescribes steps that our leaders must take to stem the tide of animus.

We are in danger at a watershed moment. But we are an accomplished community, with very talented individuals. We can and must find proud, brave and competent leadership to secure a better Jewish future.

 

The writer is a longtime Jewish and human rights activist, speaker and writer, who today is president of The Jewish Leadership Project. charlesjacobs123@gmail.com

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Jerusalem Cats Comments: How can you raise Jewish Children without a good Jewish Education?

See: The Jewish People Policy Institute-Raising Jewish Children 2017

“One factor which the majority of research and, hence, policy planning in the field of Jewish education has not paid sufficient attention to is social networks. Our research shows that American Jews may say they feel disconnected from other Jews; yet, they are actually influenced by their Jewish social circles. Similarly, educators have tended to emphasize the role of parents in making educational decisions for their child and overlooked the importance of Jewish social networks in motivating children to continue their Jewish education. Our research shows that Jewish friends and social networks, especially during the teen years, influence decisions to attend Jewish schools and Jewish educational programs. This new understanding of the power of social networks suggests that the direction of influence in the teen years is from friendships to education to family involvements. A strong Jewish social network in the teen years is a predictor of college friends and choice of Jewish marriage partners.”

Jerusalem Cats Comments: How can you raise Jewish Children without Jewish peers? If you want Jewish teenagers then you need to raise then with Jewish Peers in a Jewish Schools and in a Jewish State with Jewish Holidays and a Jewish Week.

Nefesh B'Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il

Nefesh B’Nefesh: Live the Dream US & CAN 1-866-4-ALIYAH | UK 020-8150-6690 or 0800-085-2105 | Israel 02-659-5800 https://www.nbn.org.il/ info@nbn.org.il

Even the most secular teenager in Israel has a better Jewish education then anyone outside of Israel.

 To quote the study:

“When Jews lived in societies in which they had a lot of contact with each other (and very little with non-Jews) they and others usually thought of themselves as “born into” Jewishness. Jews amassed ethnic social capital through daily experience, in the form of ethnic languages, food, music, stories, texts, arts and culture, religion and rituals. These individuals who shared ethnic social capital also tended to value similar things, and to feel an affinity for each other.”

You can only do this in Israel.

“In terms of predicting adult Jewish connections, statistical studies show that every year past the bar mitzvah year “counts” more than the year before. Receiving formal Jewish education from age 16 to 17 more accurately predicts adult Jewish connectedness than receiving formal Jewish education from age 15 to 16. Quantitative and qualitative research suggest that having mostly Jewish friends in high school is a motivator for continuing formal and informal Jewish education and a predictor for marrying or partnering with a Jew and forging strong Jewish connections. Conversely, when teenagers stopped attending Jewish schools after bar and bat mitzvahs, both they and their parents (in separate interviews) reported that their family Jewish observances and activities such as Shabbat service attendance gradually declined.”
“This is a growing group. Successive studies have underscored the fact that in 1960, 77 percent of American women and 65 percent of men below the age of 30, had accomplished the five sociological milestones of adulthood–”completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child.” Today, fewer than half of women and one-third of men fit that fully adult profile The proportion of Americans aged 25 to 34 who have never been married exceeds those married. The Jewish identity gains that result from a Jewish education during the teenage years are significantly undermined when young American Jews remain single for a decade or longer after college. These young American Jews between the ages of 22 to 35 require programs tailored to their distinctive form of Jewish attachment.”

When Jewish education succeeds, it is most often a story of the more, the more.

Jewish education is part of the ongoing building of Jewish social capital. No one educational strategy provides a permanent Jewish inoculation for all Jews, but all educational strategies work best when they include the reinforcement of a social network.”

“But for some Jewish populations who miss these serendipities, the story is more like, the less the less. Some Jews are geographically isolated in childhood, and have few Jewish friendship circles, and do not get sent to Jewish camps that might enrich their Jewishness on many levels [What about a Jewish Day School or Full Time Yeshiva Program of stead of Public School?]. Some are the children of weakly identified Jewish parents; some of these Jewishly “impoverished” families, in terms of Jewish social capital, are intermarried families, especially where the mother does not identify as a Jew. Weak Jewish identification often gets worse with each generation that is remote from Jewish social networks and Jewish education, creating a cycle of poor Jewish social capital.”

According The Pew Research Religion and Public life project : Orthodox Jews are more likely than American Jews of any other denomination to have traveled to Israel; 77% have done so, followed by 56% of Conservative Jews, 40% of Reform Jews and 26% of those who have no denominational affiliation.

From aish.com INFOGRAPHIC: Will Your Grandchildren Be Jewish?

Are American Jews facing an existential threat?

by and Published: June 10, 2017 http://www.aish.com/jw/s/INFOGRAPHIC-Will-Your-Grandchildren-Be-Jewish.html
Click to download PDF file  Click to Download the PDF version Will Your Grandchildren be Jewish-aish

 


From aish.com INFOGRAPHIC: Will Your Grandchildren Be Jewish?TOP
Infographic: Survey of Jewish Americans
Infographic: Survey of Jewish Americans

Infographic: Survey of Jewish Americans

Infographic: Survey of Jewish Americans

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pewresearch-org-logo

Pew:What happens when Jews intermarry?

By and
November 12, 2013 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/11/12/what-happens-when-jews-intermarry/

 

American Jews have been debating the impact of intermarriage for decades. Does intermarriage lead to assimilation and weaken the Jewish community? Or is it a way for a religion that traditionally does not seek converts to bring new people into the fold and, thereby, strengthen as well as diversify the Jewish community? The new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. Jews did not start this debate and certainly will not end it. However, the survey’s findings on intermarriage, child rearing and Jewish identity provide some support for both sides.

 

For example, the survey shows that the offspring of intermarriages – Jewish adults who have only one Jewish parent – are much more likely than the offspring of two Jewish parents to describe themselves, religiously, as atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular. In that sense, intermarriage may be seen as weakening the religious identity of Jews in America.

 

Yet the survey also suggests that a rising percentage of the children of intermarriages are Jewish in adulthood. Among Americans age 65 and older who say they had one Jewish parent, 25% are Jewish today. By contrast, among adults under 30 with one Jewish parent, 59% are Jewish today. In this sense, intermarriage may be transmitting Jewish identity to a growing number of Americans.

 

Surveys are snapshots in time. They typically show associations, or linkages, rather than clear causal connections, and they don’t predict the future. We do not know, for example, whether the large cohort of young adult children of intermarriage who are Jewish today will remain Jewish as they age, marry (and in some cases, intermarry), start families and move through the life cycle. With those cautions in mind, here’s a walk through some of our data on intermarriage, including some new analysis that goes beyond the chapter on intermarriage in our original report. (We would like to thank several academic researchers, including Theodore Sasson of Brandeis University, Steven M. Cohen of Hebrew Union College and NYU Wagner, and Bruce Phillips of Hebrew Union College and the University of Southern California, for suggesting fruitful avenues of additional analysis.)

 

First, intermarriage is practically nonexistent among Orthodox Jews; 98% of the married Orthodox Jews in the survey have a Jewish spouse. But among all other married Jews, only half say they have a Jewish spouse.

 

In addition, intermarriage rates appear to have risen substantially in recent decades, though they have been relatively stable since the mid-1990s. Looking just at non-Orthodox Jews who have gotten married since 2000, 28% have a Jewish spouse and fully 72% are intermarried.

 

Also, intermarriage is more common among Jewish respondents who are themselves the children of intermarriage. Among married Jews who report that only one of their parents was Jewish, just 17% are married to a Jewish spouse. By contrast, among married Jews who say both of their parents were Jewish, 63% have a Jewish spouse.

 

Pew 2013 jewish identity by generation

Pew 2013 jewish identity by generation

 

Among Jews, the adult offspring of intermarriages are also much more likely than people with two Jewish parents to describe themselves religiously as atheist, agnostic or just “nothing in particular.” This is the case among all recent generations of U.S. Jews.

 

For example, among Jewish Baby Boomers who had two Jewish parents, 88% say their religion is Jewish; hence, we categorize them as “Jews by religion.” But among Baby Boomers who had one Jewish parent, 53% describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or having no particular religion, even though they also say they consider themselves Jewish or partially Jewish aside from religion; they are categorized as “Jews of no religion” in the table. Far fewer Jewish Baby Boomers who had two Jewish parents (12%) are Jews of no religion today.

 

A similar pattern is seen among Jewish Millennials: 51% of Millennials who have one Jewish parent are Jews of no religion, compared with just 15% of Millennials who had two Jewish parents.

 

Summing this up, it appears that the share of Jews of no religion is similar – and relatively low – among recent generations of Jews with two Jewish parents. It is much higher (and also fairly similar across generations) among self-identified Jews with only one Jewish parent.

Pew 2013 Jewish Intermarriage one parent

Pew 2013 Jewish Intermarriage one parent

But it is also important to bear in mind that the percentage of Jewish adults who are the offspring of intermarriages appears to be rising. Just 6% of Jews from the Silent Generation say they had one Jewish parent, compared with 18% of Jewish Baby Boomers, 24% of Generation X and nearly half (48%) of Jewish Millennials. The result is that there are far more Jews of no religion among younger generations of Jews than among previous generations, as shown in the survey report.

 

When we look at all adults who have just one Jewish parent – including both those who identify as Jewish and those who do not – we see that the Jewish retention rate of people raised in intermarried families appears to be rising. That is, among all adults (both Jewish and non-Jewish) who say they had one Jewish parent and one non-Jewish parent, younger generations are more likely than older generations to be Jewish today.

 

For example, among U.S. adults ages 65 and older who had one Jewish parent, 25% are Jewish today (including 7% who are Jews by religion and 18% who are Jews of no religion), while 75% are not Jewish (meaning that they currently identify with a religion other than Judaism or that they do not consider themselves Jewish in any way, either by religion or otherwise). Among adults younger than 30 who have one Jewish parent, by contrast, 59% are Jewish today, including 29% who are Jews by religion and 30% who are Jews of no religion.

Pew-2013-Jewish Intermarriage younger generation

Pew-2013-Jewish Intermarriage younger generation

Finally, it has often been assumed that Jewish women are less inclined to intermarry than are Jewish men. As Bruce Phillips, a sociologist at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, has written: “In American popular culture, intermarriage has been the [domain] of Jewish males. Starting with ‘Abbie’s Irish Rose’ and ‘The Jazz Singer’ following the turn of the century through ‘Bridget Loves Bernie’ and the ‘Heartbreak Kid’ in the early 1970s to ‘Mad About You’ in the 1990s, the plot is about a Jewish married man in love with a stereotypical [non-Jewish woman].”

 

But our survey finds that Jewish women are slightly more likely to be intermarried than Jewish men. Among the married Jewish women surveyed, 47% say they have a non-Jewish spouse. Among the married Jewish men, 41% say they have a non-Jewish spouse.

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JerusalemCats Comments:

The real test is will they make Aliyah?

According to Pew “A Portrait of Jewish Americans”(2013) ”The Jewish Population went down from 5.2 Million in 2000 to 4.2 Million +/- 3% today” http://www.pewforum.org/2016/03/08/comparisons-between-jews-in-israel-and-the-u-s/ The US has an 85% intermarriage rate for secular Jews vs. 2% for Israel.
Relatively few Israeli Jews identify with either Conservative (2%) or Reform (3%) Judaism.

Pew-2016-03-08-Israel Reform Essay static identify

Pew-2016-03-08-Israel Reform Essay static identify

Arutz Sheva http://www.israelnationalnews.com/

Almost half of American ‘Jews’ actually are not Jewish

Reform leader Rick Jacobs travels the USA proudly proclaiming that “interfaith families are now the majority of the movement.” Op-ed.

Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer 8June2023, 1:12 PM (GMT+3)  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/372504

The recent Israel-bashing, Jew-hating graduation speech by a “Palestinian Arab” at CUNY Law School made national news. The Zionist Organization of America took the lead, as it almost always does among the Presidents’ Conference “major” Jewish organizations, in fighting back. ZOA demanded that the CUNY Law den of corruption be defunded by New York State, that the administrators who approved and facilitated the Nazi-like speech be fired, and that the Jew-hater graduate be denied a New York State Bar license to practice.

 

Amazingly, that lowest-tier (ranked #154, among the lowest 20% in the country) school’s so-called “Jewish Law Student Association” praised the speaker’s vicious anti-Zionist venom and lies. Their pathetic self-hate appears here in its entirety. That self-flagellating screed is so warped that one initially would suppose it a forgery, impossible to be authored by Jews even in a world of self-hating Jewish apostates like George Soros, Bernie Sanders, and Ben & Jerry.

 

That document helpfully demonstrates that almost half the people in America who call themselves “Jews” are in fact not Jews.

 

The numbers:

 

Much of current American “Jewish” demographic data emanate from a landmark Pew report. Pew asked interviewees to self-identify. If someone told Pew’s pollster he or his parents are or were “Jewish,” Pew took it as gospel.

 

But who really is a Jew? Through 3,300 years of Judaism until 1983, the only definition of a “Jew” was to be born to a Jewish mother or to convert to Judaism by accepting and undertaking the laws (halakhah) and traditions (mesorah) of Judaism completely and unequivocally, and affirming total belief that every word in the Torah is true and the word of G-d spoken to Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher).

 

On March 15, 1983, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the “Reform” movement’s body of rabbis, passed an unprecedented resolution that declared hundreds of thousands, perhaps one million or more, of non-Jews to be ”Jews.” Prepared by a committee on patrilineal descent entitled “The Status of Children of Mixed Marriages,” the CCAR resolution stated that “we face, today, an unprecedented situation due to the changed conditions in which decisions concerning the status of the child of a mixed marriage are to be made.”

 

Contrary to thousands of years of unbroken Jewish practice and tradition — which even Reform acknowledged as binding through its first 150 years — the resolution overnight accepted the children of Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers as “Jewish” if the parents nominally would claim they would rear the child that way. Obviously, such a claim by a Jewish spouse who marries a non-Jew has no meaning.

 

The “Reform” movement’s body of congregational temples is the URJ (Union for Reform Judaism), and their president, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, now travels the country proudly proclaiming that “interfaith families are now the majority of the movement.” (See embedded link at page 9, lower left column.)

 

Rabbi Jacobs’s assertion that the majority of “Reform”-affiliated families today are headed by a Jewish and non-Jewish intermarried spouse substantiates the underlying math. Let’s say there are 200 married congregants at the “Reform” Temple, comprising 100 marriages, and 60 of the marriages (the majority, which Jacobs asserts) are intermarriages. That means, outright, that at least 60 of those 200 in the temple are non-Jewish under any definition. They alone comprise 30 percent. Beyond that, among their 60 “Jewish” spouses, a certain number of them also are non-Jewish. Many of those “Jewish” spouses are children of outright non-Jewish mothers who intermarried with Jews, and who after 1983 (40 years ago) reared them “patrilineally” as though Jews — although they are not and never were. Others among those 60 are the children of “Jewish” mothers who “converted to Judaism” like Marilyn Monroe via a heterodox rabbi, which means those mothers also were non-Jewish. Some 10-20 (could be more, could be fewer) of the 60 “Jewish” intermarried spouses in our sample thus actually are not Jewish either. So we have 70-80 non-Jews among every 200 “Reform Jews.” That is 35-40 percent.

 

Even non-Orthodox Conservative rabbis regard large swaths of Reform “converts” to be non-Jewish because many such “converts” never immersed in a mikveh ritual body of water. Thus, the numbers of outright non-Jews in our 200-person hypothetical sample of Year 2023 “Reform” households stand at 70-80 non-Jews or 35-40 percent “of the movement.” These non-Jewish families, in turn, then have their own children for the next generation.

 

Inasmuch as “Reform’s” patrilineal policy now is 40 years extant — two generations — the numbers of outright non-Jewish “Reform” “Jews” today, among “Reform” Jews born since the 1980s, well exceeds 40-50 percent. (By contrast, older Reform Jews who were born and grew up well before the 1983 “patrilineal” tsunami and before Jews started marrying non-Jews at record highs — say, people over age 60 — would number a markedly higher percentage of actual Jews.)

 

Pew reports that “Reform” Jews comprise 37 percent of American Jewry, with “Conservative” Jews at 17 percent, and Orthodox at 9 percent. Pew’s Orthodox numbers manifestly are incompatible with reality in terms of proportion of actual Jews, but the numbers could be