Authored by Matthew Smith via Doug Casey’s Take substack,

The Great Depression was a well-executed plan to seize assets, impoverish the population, and remake society. What comes next is worse…

A recent book by David Webb sheds new light on exactly what happened during the Great Depression. In Webb’s view, it was a set up.

Webb is a successful former investment banker and hedge fund manager with experience at the highest levels of the financial system. He published The Great Taking a few months ago, and recently supplemented it with a video documentary. Thorough, concise, comprehensible and FREE. Why? Because he wants everyone to understand what’s being done.

The Great Taking describes the roadmap to collapse the system, suppress the people, and seize all your assets. And it includes the receipts.

You Already Own Nothing

Webb’s book illustrates, among other things, how changes in the Uniform Commercial Code converted asset ownership into a security entitlement. The “entitlement” designation made personal property a mere contractual claim. The “entitled” person is a “beneficial” owner, but not the legal one.

In the event a financial institution is insolvent, the legal owner is the “entity that controls the security with a security interest.” In essence, client assets belong to the banks. But it’s much worse than that. This isn’t simply a matter of losing your cash to a bank bail-in. The entire financial system has been wired for a controlled demolition.

Webb describes in detail how the trap was set, and how the Great Depression provides precedent. In 1933, FDR declared a “Bank Holiday.” By executive order, banks were closed. Later, only those approved by the Fed were allowed to reopen. 

Thousands of banks were left to die. People with money in those disfavored institutions lost all of it, as well as anything they’d financed (houses, cars, businesses) that they now couldn’t pay for. Then, a few “chosen” banks consolidated all the assets in the system.

Centralization and Systemic Risk

As Webb shows, the cake has been baked for years. But this week came a sign it’s coming out of the oven. Last Monday, Bloomberg admitted that measures taken to ostensibly “protect the system” actually amplify risk.

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, G20 ‘leaders’ mandated all standardized Over The Counter (OTC) derivatives be cleared through central counterparties (CCPs), ostensibly to reduce counter party risk and increase market transparency. The best known CCP in the US is the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), which processes trillions of dollars of securities transactions each day. 

Before 2012, OTC derivative trades were bi-lateral and counterparty risk was managed by parties to a transaction. When doing business directly with other firms, each had to make sure it was dealing with reliable parties. If they had a bad reputation or were not creditworthy, counterparties could consider them toxic and shut them out of trades. This, according to the wise G20 leadership, was too risky.

With the introduction of central clearing mandates, counterparty risk was shifted via CCPs away from the firms doing the deal to the system itself. Creditworthiness and reputation were replaced with collateral and complex models. 

Brokers, banks, asset managers, hedge funds, corporations, insurance companies and other so-called “clearing parties” participate in the market by first posting collateral in the form of Initial Margin (IM) with the CCP. It’s through this IM and a separate and much smaller Default Fund (DF) held at the CCP that counterparty risk is managed.

To ‘Mutualise’ Losses

Shifting risk from individual parties to the collective is a recipe for trouble. But, as explained in a recent report from the BIS, it’s worse than that. The structure of CCPs themselves can cause “Margin Spirals” and “wrong-way risk” in the event of market turbulence.

In flight-to-safety episodes, CCPs hike margin requirements.  According to the BIS,

“Sudden and large IM hikes force deleveraging by derivative counterparties and can precipitate fire sales that lead to higher volatility and additional IM hikes in so-called margin spirals.”

We’ve already gotten a taste of what this can look like.  Similar margin spirals “occurred in early 2020 (Covid-19) and 2022 (invasion of Ukraine), reflecting the risk-sensitive nature of IM models.”

Government Bonds as a source of trouble

The second area of systemic risk is the dual use of government bonds as both collateral and as underlying assets in derivatives contracts. Volatility in the government bond market can lead to a demand for more collateral underlying the derivatives markets precisely when government bond prices are declining. Falling bond prices erode the value of the existing IM.  Collateral demands skyrocket just as the value of current and would-be collateral is evaporating.

Again, the BIS:

Wrong-way risk dynamics appeared to play a role during the 2010–11 Irish sovereign debt crisis. At that time, investors liquidated their positions in Irish government bonds after a CCP raised the haircuts on such bonds when used as collateral. This led to lower prices of Irish government bonds triggering further haircuts, further position closures and ultimately a downward price spiral.

Designed to fail

The BIS doesn’t admit it, but Webb says the CCPs themselves are deliberately under-capitalized and designed to fail. The start-up of a new CCP is planned and pre-funded. When that happens, it’ll be the “secured creditors” who will take control of ALL the underlying collateral.

Once more, the BIS:

…to mutualise potential default losses in excess of IM, CCPs also require their members to contribute to a default fund (DF). As a result, CCPs are in command of large pools of liquid assets.

That “large pool of liquid assets” is the full universe of traded securities.

In a market collapse, the stocks and bonds you think you own will be sucked into the default fund (DF) as additional collateral for the evaporating value of the derivatives complex. This is “The Great Taking”.

Buffett’s famous line rings true: “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”  Most of us are on the verge of learning that we’re the ones without any clothes.

If you haven’t read “The Great Taking” or watched the documentary, I recommend you pour yourself a stiff drink and watch it now:

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

Homelessness has risen sharply in the United States, with a report from House and Urban Development (HUD) indicating that around 653,000 people were homeless, the highest number on record.

Inflation combined with the end of pandemic-era protections against eviction were the key culprits identified in the HUD report, released on Dec. 15. Another major factor noted in the report was the housing supply crunch.

HUD’s annual 2023 Point-in-Time Count, which measured homelessness on a single night in January 2023, showed a 12 percent rise in homelessness (or by 70,650 individuals) compared to a year earlier. This sent the total to 653,104 homeless people, the highest since the agency launched the point-in-time gauge in 2007.

“For those on the frontlines of this crisis, it’s not surprising. People across the country are struggling to pay skyrocketing rents,” Ann Olivia, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said in a statement.

The sharpest rise in homelessness was among people in families with children—this measure rose by 15.5 percent.  Next was homelessness among unaccompanied youths, which increased by 15.3 percent.

Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who is running for the U.S. Senate, blamed President Joe Biden’s policies for fueling homelessness.

“In Joe Biden’s America, it’s almost impossible to pay rent or afford a home,” she wrote in a post on X while pledging to address chronic street homelessness if elected in 2024.

A homeless man looks for food in a trash can in Santa Monica, Calif., on Dec. 8, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

More Details

The rise in homelessness was driven mostly by a sharp increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness for the first time, according to HUD. Between fiscal years 2021 and 2022, the number of people who became newly homeless soared by 25 percent.

The jump in first-time homelessness is likely due to a combination of factors, HUD said, including rent hikes and the winding down of pandemic-era protections and programs focused on preventing evictions and housing loss.

The record-setting homelessness came on the heels of steep rent increases combined with stagnant renter household incomes. An analysis of Census Bureau data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) shows that the median rent rose by an inflation-adjusted 18.8 percent between 2001 and 2022, while median renter household income rose by 4.3 percent within the same time frame.

A Moody’s Analytics U.S. State of Rent Burden report earlier this year found that most renters now spend more than a third of their monthly income on rent, which it labels “rent burdened.”

A sign is posted in front of an apartment building with available rentals in San Francisco, on June 9, 2023. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness called for “urgent and overdue investments in affordable housing and rental assistance,” along with more funding for housing support services to help homeless people find permanent housing quickly.

Ms. Lake’s policy proposal to fix the homeless crisis includes banning urban camping while providing federal lands and funding for controlled camping and shelter facilities to get people off city streets.

She has also pledged to rebuild the nation’s system of in-patient treatment centers, halfway houses, and assisted-living facilities to help treat the most seriously addicted and mentally deranged individuals.

“I don’t believe that God intended for anyone to rot on the streets,” Ms. Lake said in a statement. “In the Senate, I will work to rebuild our economy from the damage of Bidenomics & tackle the homelessness crisis.”

Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, called for more federal investment to make housing more affordable.

“Without significant and sustained federal investments to make housing affordable for people with the lowest incomes, the affordable housing and homelessness crises in this country will only continue to worsen,” Ms. Yentel said in a statement.

Rent Control?

Over the past several years, U.S. housing costs for homebuyers and renters have skyrocketed.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the shelter index within the Consumer Price Index (CPI) continued to rise in November. It rose in month-over-month terms by 0.4 percent—and 6.5 percent in year-over-year terms.

In fact, the rise in the shelter index was the single biggest factor in the monthly increase for the overall CPI index, with the exception of food and energy.

A housing shortage in the United States and higher interest rates that have driven more people to rent have led cities and states to pursue rent control.

Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, and Massachusetts are among states considering proposals to add rent control. In response, landlord advocates say rent ceilings do not bring down prices. 

Alexandra Alvarado, director of education for the 145,000-member American Apartment Owners Association (AAOA), told The Epoch Times that some of her members have found that rent control has actually helped cause them to increase rates more often.

“We have members who had very rarely raised rents but who are now raising them to the (rent control) cap each year so they don’t fall behind,” she said. “They’re never going to skip a year. It’s contradictory, but I think for our members, there have actually been more rent increases since rent control.”

Landlord groups contend that rent control will reduce the availability of apartments because it discourages them from building or offering housing. 

To cultivate war fever in Israeli society, an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) psychological warfare unit has been secretly operating a war-porn channel that glorifies misconduct by IDF soldiers engaged in the invasion of Gaza, to include the abuse of dead bodies.  

The IDF denies that it runs the channel, but a senior military official who finds the tactic objectionable has blown the whistle — confirming the IDF role to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. 

The channel, called 72 Virgins – Uncensored, exists on Telegram, which is an instant messaging app. According to the senior military official, the IDF Operations Directorate’s Influencing Department is running it. That unit is tasked with operations against enemies and foreign audiences. The channel’s targeting of Israeli audiences seemingly runs afoul of Israeli law. 

The whistle-blowing senior official is troubled by the entire undertaking: 

“There is no reason for the IDF to conduct influence campaigns on Israeli citizens of Israel. The messages there are problematic. It doesn’t look like an awareness campaign of an army like the IDF, but more like talking points for [far-right rapper] The Shadow, and the fact that soldiers operate such a problematic page is egregious.”

A member of the right-wing Likud Party, The Shadow is known for incendiary rhetoric, such as urging paramedics to harvest the organs of Palestinians so they can be used by Jews. 

Boasting of “exclusive content from the Gaza Strip,” the 72 Virgins – Uncensored has more than 5,000 followers and posts video and photos showing the killings and captures of Hamas militants, as well as images of the dead. The commentary accompanying the posts strikes a decidedly adolescent tone:

• “Burning their mother … You won’t believe the video we got! You can hear the crunch of their bones. We’ll upload it right away, get ready.”
• “Exterminating the roaches … exterminating the Hamas rats … Share this beauty.”
• On a post purportedly showing machine gun rounds being dipped in pork fat:  “What a man!!!!! Lubricates bullets with lard. You won’t get your virgins.” 

The channel has also celebrated the abuse of Palestinian dead. In a video posted on Oct. 14, an IDF vehicle repeatedly runs over the corpse of Hamas militant. The caption: “Very good, Gershon!!! Run him over run him over!!!! Screw the bastards! Flatten them.” 

“The IDF is the most moral army in the world,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in October, amid mounting global scorn over the enormous number of Palestinian civilian casualties resulting from Israel’s Gaza campaign that was sparked by a Hamas murder and kidnapping spree in southern Israel on Oct. 7.  

In addition to violating its own laws prohibiting psyops directed at the Israeli populace, the channel may also run afoul of the Geneva Convention, of which the Zionist state is a signatory. “The Geneva Convention of 1949 stipulates that the deceased war victims should be protected and treatment of the corpses ‘inappropriate’ manner, including taking pictures with them and desecration is prohibited,” according to the Geneva Council for Rights & Liberties. 

The channel also rejoiced when hordes of far-right hooligans, including members of a notoriously racist soccer fan club, descended on a hospital near Tel Aviv, acting on rumors that Hamas militants were being treated at the facility:

עדכון: המשטרה קיבלה דיווח על קטטה בכניסה למיון, כנראה מדובר באירוע המצולם הזה.

לפי עדויות עובדים בבית החולים, זה היה רק אירוע אחד מבין כמה pic.twitter.com/fHWLRrfN2d

— רן שמעוני Ran Shimoni (@ran_shimoni) October 11, 2023

Describing video of the hospital riot, the IDF-run channel posted, “My brothers, the heroesssss, La Familia fans, love you!!!!!!! What heroes, came to screw the Arabs.”

The Israeli government continues to deny it has a hand in the channel. “If there was any connection by soldiers or other parties connected to the IDF with the page or its operation, this was done without approval and without authority,” an IDF spokesman told Haaretz.

Wink, wink. 

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClear Politics,

More than two dozen leading human rights, religious freedom, and Christian advocacy groups are pressing Congress to take more action to persuade the Biden administration to reverse course and re-designate Nigeria to its blacklist of worst offenders when it comes to allowing citizens to practice their faith of choice.

The move is taking place as the State Department is expected to release its annual list of “Countries of Particular Concern,” those nations where religious freedom is severely limited or religious groups face persecution, in the coming days.

Based on the number of Christian deaths at the hands of terrorists and militant groups alone, the decision should be clear-cut.More than 5,000 Nigerian Christians are reported to have been killed for their faith in 2022, according to a report by Open Doors, a religious freedom watchdog group.

Leaders of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, or USCIRF, a government-created independent body that monitors religious persecution around the world, met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this week in a meeting in which the organization’s commissioners pressed Blinken to place Nigeria back on the official U.S. blacklist.

Blinken removed Nigeria from the list in 2021, reversing a decision by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in December 2020 to designate the West African nation as a CPC.

Earlier this year, New Jersey GOP Rep. Chris Smith introduced legislation calling on the Biden administration to designate Nigeria as a CPC and appoint a special envoy to the country and the Lake Chad region to monitor and combat atrocities there. The measure is co-sponsored by Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat.

In a Tuesday letter to all members of Congress, more than two dozen leading religious freedom and Christian advocacy groups urged lawmakers to do more to press the administration into action to help stop the mass slaughter of innocent Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.

“We appeal to you to urgently respond to the Department of State’s failure to adequately address egregious, systematic and ongoing religious persecution in Nigeria, as required by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998,” they wrote.

The signatories include David Curry, president and CEO of Global Christian Relief and a current USCIRF commissioner; former Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican and current USCIRF commissioner; former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who formerly served as the ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom in the Trump administration; Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Foundation for Human Rights & Justice, who co-chairs the annual International Religious Freedom Summit with Brownback; Nina Shea, a senior fellow at and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute; and many other prominent voices in the faith-based liberty community.

Additionally, Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, the Catholic bishop who heads the Makurdi Diocese in Nigeria’s Benue state in the country’s north-central region, told RealClearPolitics that he is deeply heartened by the efforts of U.S. religious freedom advocates to press Washington into action on behalf of Nigerian Christians. Benue is roughly 90% Christian and under relentless attack by Fulani Muslim militants.

“The action of these American Christians to bring our daily ordeal to the attention of their government brings great consolation to our souls,” he said. “I have had the opportunity to meet them in person, during the visits some of us bishops have made in the USA and Europe to present this reality, regularly ignored by the mainstream media.”

“We thank our Lord for them, and we will be praying for their perseverance in the combat for the salvation of innocent Nigerian Lives,” Anagbe wrote.

The advocates urge members of Congress to support and co-sponsor the Smith-Cuellar measure and cited reports chronicling the ever-expanding threat Christians face in Nigeria. The letter cites a report by Open Doors that found “a staggering 90 percent of all Christians killed for their faith are killed in Nigeria,” which the organization said was an increase from the 80% it reported in 2021.

The horrific and increasing attacks against Christians and Muslim minorities are taking place in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its biggest economy, even though Christians make up nearly half of Nigeria’s population of 200 million. Islamic radicals, including terrorist groups such as Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province, and radicalized Fulani tribesmen, regularly attack entire Christian communities, torching churches and villages and kidnapping and killing pastors and their congregations.

Religious freedom advocates who have documented the atrocities say that most of the attacks are carried out by militants with the Fulani Muslim herder population who have been allowed to act largely with impunity. Some Muslims also have been killed by the same forces, but from October 2019 to September 2022, Christians in Nigeria were 7.6 times more likely to be killed and six times more likely to be abducted by terrorist and militia groups than Muslims, according to the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa, a research, training, and advocacy organization.

The letter to lawmakers notes that Catholic priests, evangelical pastors, and Methodist bishops have been “special targets by Fulani and unidentified gunmen, typically shouting ‘Allahu Akbar.’” Aid to the Church in Need, an international Catholic pastoral aid organization, reports that since early 2022 alone, 100 Nigerian Catholic priests have been kidnapped and not yet freed, 20 of whom were murdered, with many of the attacks occurring on church grounds.

Terror groups, such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, have attacked and killed thousands of Christians and Muslims who reject their dictates, including forced conversions. Unknown numbers of Christian girls and women have been kidnapped into slavery. In 2014, the Obama administration tried to launch an international campaign for the safe return of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno State. Half of them remain captive, and face continued pressure to convert to Islam, while Leah Sharibu, a student abducted from her school in Dapchi, Yobe State, in 2018 during a terrorist raid, remains enslaved.

The letter notes that Nigerian media outlets also reported the kidnapping of two imams from their mosques in 2022.

Since 2009, some 17,000 churches have been burned and attacked, while many of them, such as St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Ondo State, which was attacked on Pentecost Sunday last year, were filled with worshippers.

“We are not aware of a single case that has been prosecuted,” the letter states.

Millions of Nigerians have tried to flee the violence. In Benue State, nearly 2 million farming families were forced out by Fulani militants.

“Some of them were hunted down in their places of refuge and brutally hacked to death,” the letter states. “Catholic Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of Benue’s Makurdi diocese recently shared video documentation of the aftermath of one such attack with numerous members of Congress.”

The Biden administration attributes the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria not to religious persecution but to a conflict over resources exacerbated by climate change.

USCIRF and other leading human rights organizations ardently disagree.

Last December, USCIRF, which makes recommendations to the State Department, issued a rare, sharply worded statement expressing “outrage” over the agency’s omission of Nigeria and India from the CPC blacklist, accusing Secretary of State Blinken of turning “a blind eye” to the countries’ serious religious freedom violations.

“There is no justification for the State Department’s failure to recognize Nigeria or India as egregious violators of religious freedom, as they clearly meet the standards for designation as CPCs,” the commission wrote.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, who chairs USCIRF, has described the escalation of the violence against Christians in Nigeria in recent years as a “slow-motion genocide.”

Rep. Smith, who chairs the Foreign Affairs subcommittee on global health, global human rights, and international organizations, didn’t mince words, pressing Rashad Hussain, Biden’s ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, for an explanation.

“Why was Nigeria taken off the lists just before Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Abuja?” Smith asked Hussain.

“I am concerned that the U.S. State Department is not using all the tools provided to hold guilty parties accountable,” he added. 

Hussain appeared to agree with both Smith and Cooper on the countries in question but said his office is just beginning work on its annual report, which provides detailed information about every country’s religious freedom record. The State Department is expected to release the report in the coming days and did not immediately respond to RCP’s inquiry this week.

“I share your concerns,” Hussain told Smith. “I don’t think we have much disagreement in terms of the substance of what’s happening on the ground.”

Hussain also noted that he and other people in his office have engaged directly with all of the top officials in Nigeria and that he met with former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a military leader who was elected in 2015 on a platform of increasing security and curbing corruption.

Many Nigerians say these issues worsened under Buhari’s watch. Earlier this year, Nigeria elected Bola Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State who fought as a pro-democracy activist in the 1990s, but the election has been deeply disputed.

“I want to be clear that the CPC designation is one of the tools that we have, but there is a myriad of tools that we’re using to address the situation,” Hussain added. “And we will continue to do so because we continue to be concerned about the religious freedom conditions of all of these countries.”

The Nigerian government has done very little to put an end to the slayings. In fact, authorities engage directly in religious persecution by enforcing Islamic blasphemy laws, used in the recent prosecutions of Sufi musician Yahaya Sharif-Aminu and two Muslim clerics, resulting in death sentences.

“[The International Religious Freedom Act] requires frank assessments in the face of such grave religious violations,” the group wrote. “The Secretary of State should acknowledge that Nigeria has ‘engaged and tolerated’ severe religious freedom violations, the statutory criteria warranting CPC designation,” the advocates argued in their letter to Congress. “This is particularly important since the United States is a major partner of Nigeria, having given it over $1 billion in foreign aid in 2022 alone.” 

Other prominent religious liberty advocates who signed the letter to Congress include: Kristen Waggoner, president and CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom; Tony Perkins, chairman of the Family Research Council; Leonard Leo, president of the Federalist Society and former USCIRF chair; George Weigel, distinguished senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center; F. Brent Leatherwood, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention; Mary Ann Glendon, former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See; Eric Patterson, president of the Religious Freedom Institute; and Randel Everett, president of 21Wilberforce.

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ national political correspondent.

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made one last ditch effort to plead for US monetary and military support for the war against Russia. President “Biden” all but blackmailed the American people last week over this issue, threatening us with sending our children to fight a war to cover up his corruption and Davos’ antihuman agenda.

The contempt with which I hold these people cannot be overstated. Biden has no more legitimacy to threaten us with fighting a war with Russia for Ukraine than Zelenskyy does. Yet his handlers think nothing of putting those words in his mouth after shoving his morning dose of stimmies into him to prop him up in front of the teleprompter for him to hopefully not misread.

If that last sentence doesn’t make your blood boil, I’ve not been doing my job properly lo these past six years.

So, challenge accepted then.

Watch this clip of Zelenskyy telling us we need to forego everything to save his sorry ass.

Zelensky just went on Fox and begged western leaders to send ALL their money to Ukraine

“Don’t build roads. Spend all your money on weapons, drones, Society and pensions… we have only one enemy: Putin.” pic.twitter.com/gtuGMsMS1e

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) December 12, 2023

This level of rhetoric is the zenith of toxic thinking. There is no time for anything other than fighting XXX. For Zelenskyy it is Putin. For the vampires and ghouls like Al Gore, John Kerry and Tony Blair screeching at COPE28, it is climate change.

For Democrats and the Media it is Trump.

By framing all of these topics in this way they betray their own agendas. It is nothing more than the full court press that all tyrants push when they are at their most vulnerable. If things were going their way they wouldn’t have to exhort people to give up everything to fight their fight for them.

If Zelenskyy wasn’t such a tool for Davos and/or the Neocons who pushed him into this position, I’d actually feel some pity for him. But my humanity has limits. There comes a point where you have the face the consequences of the actions you have taken.

I don’t care if you are him, Joe Biden, George Soros, Anthony Fauci, Klaus Schwab, or any of their lieutenants. You can only outrun the hangman for so long.

You can only hide behind the law and the veneer of civilization that put you in your position of power for so long.

Eventually the lies and the double-dealing, the fast-talking and the pride, all catch up with you. Eventually, you ask for something that no one is willing to part with and it all comes crashing down.

If Zelenskyy has an ounce of shame left in him he would go back to Kiev and makes plans to give Putin his pound of flesh to save those of the people he’s supposed to represent. Swallow the pride, save the people.

But he won’t. Neither will Biden. Or Warren. Or Hillary. Or any of them. They would rather burn the world to the ground and blackmail us to the very end than face the one thing they are all afraid of… and it isn’t just death as Alex Jones told Tucker Carlson on X/Twitter the other day.

… it’s the emptiness of the lives they’ve led which they need to prove to everyone. How else can they justify their actions to themselves?

I was asked by Sputnik News to give my thoughts on Zelenskyy’s trip to Washington D.C. to scare up money for Ukraine, knowing full well that he has eluded the hang man for nearly two years now.

This money doesn’t just represent a vain hope of a failing government, it is emblematic of the problems across the entire West: this magical thinking that we can fund every idea that comes into our heads by throwing other people’s money at it.

Have you ever noticed how the people who speak about shared sacrifice are the ones who never seem to sacrifice anything of their own?

As I write this we’re waiting on the latest FOMC policy statement with the markets having clearly told Chair Jerome Powell they want cheap money. They can’t live without it and that he better give it to them… or?

What I’m not sure. Zelenskyy begmanded for more money. He got nothing other than a pittance that Joe Biden could slough off without Congressional approval.

This whole standoff over Davos’ big projects — Climate Change, Ukraine — has run out of runway. It has met the limit to which we’re willing to pay the price for costs they never counted. It will crash.

While everyone tries to read the Fed tea leaves based on what the “Dot Plot” will show, the reality is that none of that matters if we don’t cut spending. The markets want it all: stimulus, easy credit and more spending.

They’ve made this abundantly clear. Politically, Biden, Zelenskyy et.al. want the same thing. But none of that takes into account those that actually have to live with the consequences of these decisions.

The political risks have clearly shifted away from them on this issue or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Post-Keynesian propagandists like Paul Krugman are famous for saying “Deficits don’t matter.”

Until they do.

As always, when asked by Russian media for my commentary I post the full transcript of the Q&A for the sake of transparency. Do with it what you will.

How viable is the situation that Ukraine does not receive the aid package till the end of December? If so, what would be the terms for allocating the new funds? When approximately would the money arrive in this case?

I don’t think I’m qualified to answer that question.  The timing of the flow of funds is not what I focus on.  From the outside, Ukraine’s problems look quite acute, but how much of that is narrative in order to pressure US legislators into giving in to Zelenskyy’s demands and how much is reality is anyone’s guess at this point.

That said, Zelenskyy’s position is extremely tenuous.  This looks like his last chance to scare up funds from the old guard in the Senate – McConnell, Schumer, etc. 

In case the US political fight ends badly for Ukraine, what scenarios do you think would be most possible for Ukraine?

Zelenskyy is hanging on by a very thin rope, one which he put around his own neck.  That said, I don’t believe for a second that he wasn’t being ordered to run things the way they have been run.  He’s a puppet, an order-taker.  And, as long as he stays on script, he will be rewarded with a fat ‘gold watch’ for a job well done. 

It won’t be his fault if Ukraine collapses, that’s a failure of the strategy pursued to poke a fight with Russia in the first place. 

Zelenskyy, I’m sure, understands all this and if he goes home empty-handed, he may be doing so to pack his bags before he’s run out of town.  Russia will continue grinding out small victories, no matter how the US National Security Council and various US/UK think tanks spin what’s happening.

That is what’s happening in the central front around Avdiivka and we’re seeing Russia push to the north near Sumy and Cherniv.  If Zelenskyy has to flee or is killed, the military will likely push for some kind of surrender.  And at that point the West will have a decision in front of them, enter the war openly as Biden has threatened or accept whatever peace Russia enforces on Ukraine.

Any result that does not involve Odessa will likely be rejected by Putin.  He didn’t expand his military budget by 70% for 2024 for nothing, after all.  He’s preparing for a real war in 2024 and 2025.  He knows the forces behind this war in Ukraine have not been defeated politically, therefore policy has not changed. 

What would the financial toolkit include, how risky would it be to raise tax revenue or cut spending?

The US needs to cut spending regardless of Ukraine.  Period.  The path we’re on is unsustainable.  Even the FOMC Chairman, Jerome Powell, says this, breaking serious protocols in doing so.  The US cannot really raise taxes either, nor should it.  We are already overtaxed and over-regulated to the point of self-extinction. 

Cutting spending in DC is the path forward for the US, making our bond issuance more sustainable.  At this point the political winds have shifted away from Ukraine.  And Biden is telling Netanyahu in Israel to shut the war on Gaza down by year end. 

The fundamental problem is that real political reform is not possible in the US until the McConnells and Schumers no longer have real control over Congress.  This means the Fed needs to hold the line on interest rates until late into the campaign season, at a minimum.

If Biden wanted to tame inflation in the US, he could do so nearly immediately by ending Trump’s tariffs on China’s imports.  This would free up consumer spending, and work with the Fed’s high interest rate policy to encourage savings and investment in the US.  Cutting the deficit spending in D.C. would reassure capital markets that the US is serious about getting back on some form of sustainable path and give Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen options on rolling over US debt.

What consequences do you foresee if mentioned monetary-policy options are unlocked?

If the US does not commit to cutting spending and lowering the cost of government on the middle class, there is little the Fed can do to forestall a crisis.  The Fed has fixed, somewhat, the monetary side of the equation, radically pulling back on credit creation and returning rational prioritizing to corporate and consumer spending. 

Funding for Ukraine is emblematic of the political rot in D.C. as the leadership wants nothing but to keep prioritizing everything, everywhere, all at once, because their grand dreams of social engineering trump all other concerns.  As Ayn Rand put it a long time ago, “Ideas have consequences.” And the ideas and ideals of the post-WWII generations have had ruinous consequences for not only the world but also the US itself. 

The Fed will not back down on interest rates until one of the major New York money center banks gets into trouble.  Powell has made that clear and financial conditions at this moment in time do not warrant him backing down. 

Not only will he not cut rates tomorrow, but I don’t expect him to cut rates until the 2nd half of 2024, despite how the market has priced things in recent weeks.  Ukraine is just another pressure point to get Powell to pivot. 

Ukraine fully depends on foreign financing at the moment – how would social obligations such as wages and pensions be paid in the event the aid is delayed for an uncertain period of time? 

In depreciating and rapidly discredited hrvnia.  The folks with the most to lose in Ukraine at this point are those carpetbaggers who were chosen to rebuild the country after the war was over.  Russia understands this and no more wants Blackrock rebuilding Ukraine than it wants Ukraine in NATO.

In many ways, to the Russian mindset under Putin’s leadership, these two things are roughly equivalent.  So, without the US and/or the EU’s monetary support Ukraine becomes a failed state of epic proportions.  This is why we’re hearing intense noises from Brussels to fast-track Ukraine into the EU to shovel money in there to keep the dreams of the Great Reset alive. 

Europe can no more afford to support Ukraine financially than the US can. No real change can occur until the checks stop showing up.  The fortitude and bravery of those fighting for Ukraine will wither even faster if their efforts are not feeding their families back home. 

This is the only way, however, out of this tragedy.  Stop the money, you stop the violence and abuse.

*  *  *

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Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times,

The $886.3 billion defense budget is headed for President Joe Biden’s desk and Congress is headed home for the holidays, its business concluded—albeit not finished—for the year.

The House on Dec. 14 approved the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (FY24 NDAA) in a 310–118 vote, ensuring its passage a day after the Senate adopted the massive appropriations measure in an 87–13 tally.

The NDAA earmarks $841.5 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD)—nearly $32 billion, or 3 percent, more than the FY23 NDAA—$32.26 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, and $12.1 billion in defense-related allocations for other federal agencies.

Both chambers adopted their respective defense budgets in July. The NDAA is one of 12 appropriations bills that constitute the federal government’s yearly budget. Five have now been adopted for FY24, which began Oct. 1. Parts of the federal government are operating under continuing resolutions.

A Senate–House conference committee reconciled differences in the chamber budgets for two months. On Dec. 6, it produced a 3,093-page draft NDAA, 718-page conference report, and a bucket of parliamentary worms that, ultimately, provided the only intrigue during the must-pass bill’s last unpassed days.

The NDAA includes a 5.2-percent pay raise for service members, $145 billion for research into artificial intelligence and hypersonics, investments in Space Force and many, many things—$886.3 billion worth.

Below are 10 takeaways from the slow-walked NDAA’s sudden Dec. 13–14 rocket-docket dash through the Senate and House, three months after the federal fiscal year began, and six months after both chambers passed seminal budgets.

Crosshairs on China

The NDAA includes hundreds of allocations to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) growing, aggressive military as the Pentagon’s top “pacing challenge.”

The budget boosts Taiwan’s and Guam’s defense, requests an analysis of a how a 2030 war with China would unfold, tracks defense contractors’ investments in China and China’s investments in defense contractors, and mandates an adjusted Navy shipbuilding plan that emphasizes platforms geared to thwart China’s projected 500-ship navy.

The NDAA establishes a $500 million Taiwan Foreign Military Financing fund and earmarks $108 million to authorize “a comprehensive training, advising, and institutional capacity-building program” for Taiwan’s military.

The budget commits billions to Guam’s defense with deployment of a Marine regiment and Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow 3 missile defense systems.

The NDAA boosts alliances with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK with $9.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, a 40 percent increase.

FISA Fight

The NDAA’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702 extension was fiercely, but futilely, contested on both chamber’s floors.

FISA Section 702 allows intelligence agencies to intercept foreign communications without warrants. It provides a “back door” to ferret through Americans’ conversations with foreign nationals, conservatives say.

Section 702 expires Dec. 31. House Armed Forces Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said extending it to mid-April provides time to reform FISA while not handcuffing intelligence agencies.

“By God, let’s reform it,”  Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said, “but do not let it expire. If it expires, Americans and allies will die.”

Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) maintained the extension should be separately debated, is not related to defense, and would reauthorize it for 16 months, not four.

“What we’re going to do is pile an extension of FISA on the backs of our men and women in uniform,” Mr. Roy said.

Yoked to Woke

When the House adopted its defense budget in July, it included amendments banning the DOD’s paid-leave abortion policy, gender-transition treatments and surgeries for service members and their families, and funding for on-base drag shows.

None are in the NDAA reported out of conference committee Dec. 6, approved by the Senate Dec. 12, and endorsed by the House Dec. 13.

Mr. Gaetz said the NDAA was a good bill in July but is now something else. “You almost feel like a parent who sent a child to summer camp and comes back a monster,” he said.

Win some, lose some, Mr. Rogers said.

The NDAA bans critical race theory, bases promotions on merit, requires a special inspector general for Ukraine, mandates “the DOD to finally pass an audit,” and provides “a path back for those discharged over COVID-19 vaccine.”

DOD Inoculated Against Vaccine Reparations

The NDAA incorporates most of a House-adopted amendment to reinstate 8,600 service members discharged for refusing the DOD-mandated COVID-19 vaccine.

To qualify, discharged veterans must be within two years of separation and have requested an exemption.

The NDAA also requires the DOD to conduct a study evaluating the health effects of the COVID-19 vaccine, establish a board to review the discharges, and track down to query those discharged about reenlisting within the next six months.

The NDAA “provides a path back to service for those discharged over COVID-19 vaccine” without losing rank, Mr. Rogers said.

But not all the way back, Mr. Gaetz lamented.

“We were told over and over again there would be back-pay, reparations, and restoration-of-rank for people improperly told they could not express their patriotism through military service because they didn’t want to take an experimental vaccine,” he said, but those provisions are “totally absent” in the “watered-down NDAA.”

Marines Get Their Amphib

The NDAA requires the Navy and Air Force to build more ships and aircraft than initially requested, and delays or prohibits planned retirements of several ships and warplane types.

The Navy’s $255.8 billion budget, a 4.5 percent increase, earmarks $32.9 billion to build eight warships: a Columbia-class ballistic submarine, two Virginia-class submarines—part of a multiyear procurement of 10 attack subs—two guided-missile destroyers, two guided-missile frigates, and an oiler.

The NDAA includes a statute mandating the Navy maintain 11 aircraft carriers and  31 amphibious warfare ships with at least 10 being LHA/LHD “big deck” ships. The Navy wanted to retire a line of LHA/LHD ships and fall below that 31-amphib fleet requirement. The Marines opposed it.

Congress not only sided with the Marines, but included $1.9 billion to fully fund construction of a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship that the Marine Corps lobbied for and the Navy didn’t request.

$600 Million for Ukraine

While Ukraine must wait until 2024 to secure $61 billion in aid the Biden administration is seeking in its stymied $106 billion supplemental request, Kyiv will receive at least two years of funding for the next two years under the defense bill.

The NDAA appropriates $300 million in both FY24 and FY25—$600 million—to the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) fund.

Some House conservatives oppose funding Ukraine’s defense, claiming it is embroiling the United States into war with Russia and draining taxpayers already on the hook for the government’s $34 trillion debt.

Mr. Rogers said Ukraine allocations will be audited by a special inspector general.

Mr. Roy called it “pretty extraordinary” that the House in July voted to defund USAI “and, yet, we are authorizing it here. For the life of me, I do not understand why this is how Republicans think we should end the year, heading out for Christmas.”

Partial UAP Disclosure Act

The NDAA partially incorporates the proposed UAP Disclosure Act, which calls for an independent board to review and release records related to unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) collected by federal agencies and shared with commercial entities.

The board would resemble the one that sifts through JFK assassination-related records under The Collection Act of 1992.

“We should do the same with UAPs,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y), who co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).

The NDAA amendment “for the first time [requires] the national archives to gather records from across the federal government on UAPs [with] a legal mandate to release those records to the public,” he said.

The amendment falls short of the bill, Mr. Rounds said. To “obtain recovered UAP material or biological remains that may have been provided to private entities—and hidden from Congress and the American people—we’re lacking oversight opportunities,” he said.

A Major Naval Treaty

The NDAA ratifies the newly-signed U.S., Australia, and UK (AUKUS) agreement, a trilateral treaty the Pentagon says will foster “game-changing defense advantages in building, deploying, and jointly operating attack submarines.”

Under the pact, Australia will purchase up to five Virginia-class attack submarines, a future generation of submarines will be built in the UK and Australia with U.S. tech support, and submarines for all three will be built and overhauled in Adelaide, Australia.

The FY24 budget sells three Virginia-class subs—at least one new—to Australia in the 2030s before Australian-built submarines enter service in the 2040s.

Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said AUKUS is what the FY24 NDAA “will be remembered for.” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) called it “crucial in deterring China and strengthening our allies.”

Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) said such keel-to-combat integration has “never happened before,” praising the “very unique and unprecedented step being taken by the three countries.”

NATO Notions and Motions

Through 2023’s first six months, hours were spent in House committee hearings debating, at conservatives’ prodding, the value of United States’ NATO membership, essentially questioning why the 75-year-old alliance exists since without American muscle and American dollars, it wouldn’t exist.

While the United States dedicates up to 4 percent of its annual GDP to defense, many NATO nations shirk that commitment, they said, noting Germany for decades contributed 1 percent GDP to defense.

Mr. Roy’s July amendment “that the U.S. should not continue subsidizing NATO-member countries who choose not to invest in their own defense” narrowly failed, 2018–2012.

Motions to leave NATO, including Rep. Warren Davidson’s (R-Ohio) failed amendment, didn’t get far in Congress, but the FY24 NDAA ensures such motions and notions stay in Congress.

An amendment, co-filed by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), prohibits a president from withdrawing from NATO by executive order without congressional approval.

Missile Defense Upgrades

Since October, U.S. Navy destroyers have knocked down drones and ballistic missiles launched from Yemen by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, and U.S. Army anti-missile batteries have repelled more than 100 drone and missile attacks on Marines and soldiers in Syria and Iraq.

The Pentagon’s increasing demands, and Ukraine–Russia and Israel–Hamas wars, have fostered munitions shortfalls and exposed an urgent need for more missile systems, missiles, and missileers to counter proliferating threats “across all realms.”

The FY24 NDAA earmarks more than $70 billion for theater-range, tactical missile defense, primarily the MIM-104 Patriot missile, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor, and Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system.

It includes $30 billion for five new 90-man Patriot units; six THAAD units; and seven newly Aegis-equipped warships, bringing the number to 60.

The Pentagon says the package will send a $50 billion “demand signal” to domestic industry and spur investment in munitions and production lines.

Hurricane season ended two weeks ago, but meteorologists on X forecast a strong area of low pressure developing in the Gulf of Mexico this weekend that will roar up the Eastern Seaboard with high winds, flooding rain, and severe thunderstorms. 

The storm’s path might parallel Interstate 95 this weekend, causing traffic disruptions to millions across major cities on the East Coast – at a time when AAA is calling for a busy Christmas travel season. Most of the disruptions are expected between  Sunday and Monday. 

Meteorologists expect the storm conditions to arrive late Saturday in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and even the Mid-Alantic area into Sunday and Monday. 

Latest GFS/EURO future radar. Gulf low brews towards Florida upping rains/storms. Then heads towards the east coast states with the same. https://t.co/Hk3pbO7x8H pic.twitter.com/oQgaMaVodQ

— Mike’s Weather Page (@tropicalupdate) December 15, 2023

During El Niño conditions, cyclone-like storms from the southern part of the country are not uncommon. 

Since this reminds me a little of the Blizzard of 1993 in terms of track, but without the COLD air, epic snowfall, hurricane gusts and 960mb low pressure that it would eventually posses, there was a robust SEVERE weather event as the developing surface low crossed Florida. We… pic.twitter.com/CEsP3ZJfMc

— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) December 15, 2023

More on the El Niño-induced storms. 

Posted these graphics before. A strong El Nino and Florida historically bring more floods and more severe storms Fall/Winter. Have already had a few rounds this season. This Gulf low bringing questions on actual severity for Saturday night and overnight. Keeping a close eye on it… pic.twitter.com/RTyUSe7Z2h

— Mike’s Weather Page (@tropicalupdate) December 15, 2023

Looking ahead… 

Day 15 from a blend of the GEFS/EPS shows a nice pattern evolving to close out December and open up the new year.

Confidence increasing in a pattern change ~27th or so of the month.

Stormy too? ❄️#natgas https://t.co/NbZ8MYaz00 pic.twitter.com/jJOAsXq5kE

— BAM Weather (BAMWX) (@bamwxcom) December 15, 2023

The Mid-Atlantic and Northeast just need a dose of cold air for the next big snowstorm. 

Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

There may be around a 1 in 10 chance that Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccines will not generate spike proteins but something else, a new Cambridge study finds, raising concerns about autoimmune response among experts.

The study authors found that 8 percent of the time, Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are mistranslated, leading to the formation of unintended proteins.

“Our work presents both a concern and a solution for this new type of medicine,” said leading author Anne Willis in the study’s press release.

One can think of mRNA vaccines as a set of instructions used to make spike proteins. Once the vaccine enters the cell, ribosomes interpret the mRNA instructions to make proteins, like spike proteins.

If the instructions are misinterpreted, errors in the final protein may be produced. Some errors are minor, like misspelling one word in a text, while others are more detrimental.

This misinterpretation is called a frameshift, which occurs when one or two mRNA bases are skipped. Since mRNA bases are translated in sets of threes, skipping a base would affect all the sequences downstream, leading to new proteins being formed.

“Frameshifting results in the production multiple, unique and potentially aberrant proteins,” immunologist Jessica Rose wrote in her Substack article discussing the study.

While most naturally occurring mRNA contains uridine, the Pfizer mRNA vaccines use N1-methylpseudouridine. This makes the mRNA sequence hardier and less prone to breakdown by the immune system. Pfizer’s opting for less commonly occurring mRNA bases is also why some scientists call the mRNA vaccines modified RNA, or modRNA.

By implementing additional edits to the mRNA sequences, the authors were able to reduce further frameshifted proteins.

Although “there is no evidence: that the aberrant proteins generated by Pfizer vaccination are associated with adverse outcomes, for future use of mRNA technology, it is important that “mRNA sequence design is modified” to reduce these shifts, the authors concluded.

Among Tested Vaccines, Only Pfizer Has the Issue

Apart from frameshift errors, the N1-methylpseudouridine modification can also slow down and interrupt mRNA translation to protein, potentially leading to shorter-than-expected protein sequences.

“Under ideal circumstances, ribosomes translate the vaccine mRNA into the S [spike] protein … If the cellular machine (ribosomes) ‘detect’ the difference [between normal uridine and N1-methylpseudouridine], it can result in stalling or mistranslation,” Dr. Adonis Sfera, assistant clinical professor of medicine at Loma Linda University, wrote to The Epoch Times via email.

In the study, the researchers first inoculated mice with both Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. They found that Pfizer vaccines were significantly more likely to produce frameshifted proteins.

Researchers then compared vaccine inoculations in humans, comparing 21 participants who took the Pfizer vaccine to 20 who took the AstraZeneca vaccine. None of the AstraZeneca vaccinees had an immune reaction to proteins made from mistakes in translation, but around one-third of the Pfizer vaccinees did.

Misdirected Immunity and Autoimmunity

The authors wrote that none of the Pfizer vaccinees developed adverse effects, but they were concerned about immunological consequences.

“Mis-directed immunity has huge potential to be harmful,” immunologist Dr. James Thaventhiran, one of the study’s lead authors, said in the press release. “Off-target immune responses should always be avoided.”

The authors did not further define misdirected immunity, though it generally describes a reaction where the body’s immune system targets the wrong thing.

In this case, it can mean that rather than training the body to fight spike protein, it is trained to fight unnaturally occurring proteins instead, as highlighted by Norwegian nutritional biologist Marit Kolby in her post on X.

Additionally, some health experts are concerned that these unique proteins may increase a person’s risk of developing autoimmune disorders.

Molecular biologist professor Vladimir Uversky, PhD, from the University of South Florida and physician Dr. Alberto Rubio-Casillas concluded that autoimmunity may occur if immune cells start attacking cells producing these aberrant proteins.

“A mistranslated protein can [also] resemble a human protein and trigger antibody formation,” Dr. Sfera added.

Autoimmunity occurs when the immune system attacks self-tissues. It can occur for many years before symptoms manifest.

Study findings by immunologist Aristo Vojdani suggest that spike proteins have the potential to cause cross-reactions—meaning the body accidentally targets self-tissue in a fight against other pathogens—with over 20 different human tissues, as they share structural similarities with human proteins.

The production of these aberrant proteins and peptides may also increase a person’s risks of cancer, Mr. Uversky and Dr. Rubio-Casillas added in an email to The Epoch Times.

Melanoma cells have been shown to induce frameshifted proteins to escape immune detection.

“In our opinion, there is a possibility that during the translation of mRNA from COVID-19 vaccines, the aberrant proteins generated during frameshifting could activate survival mechanisms mimicking those developed by cancer cells to escape immune surveillance,” the two added.

Unknown Proteins in the Body

Researchers currently do not know the structure or sequence of the new proteins formed.

The authors identified in the study that one of the proteins detected was a chimeric protein—one formed by joining two or more genes that originally coded for separate proteins. The chimeric protein was structurally similar to human proteins, which might induce autoimmune responses.

“Of course, nobody knows for sure that the observations are linked to harms, but the fact they theoretically might be, and that regulators seem disinterested in investigating such a possibility, should be of huge concern to all,” Dr. Jonathan Engler, co-chair of the Health Advisory and Recovery Team (HART) told The Epoch Times. HART is a UK group of academic experts sharing concerns about COVID-19-related recommendations.

“It should be emphasized that the … paper was submitted for publication nearly a year ago, and presumably, the work was carried out some months before then. Moreover, the investigators weren’t some third-rate-university, part-time academics,” he added.

Flawed Design

Dr. Engler said that the fact that the mRNA injections can be mistranslated is a design flaw. Other experts disagree.

“People are determined to make a mountain out of this molehill,” Edward Nirenberg, a medical publisher, criticized the concerns in an X post about the study.

“Frameshifts are uncommon but naturally occurring events in, for example, viral infections … These give rise to protein products that can also be targeted by the immune system.”

However, authors of the study have highlighted in the press release that the synthetic mRNA sequence used in the vaccine was “error-prone.”

Pfizer did not respond to requests for comment.

A Wired investigation reveals Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is building a massive underground bunker with a “blast-resistant door” to survive the end times. 

For years, Zuckerberg has added hundreds of acres to his controversial 1,500-acre ranch in Kauai, Hawaii. Much of that has been known, but now new planning documents reveal a “5,000-square-foot underground shelter” equipped with “own energy and food supplies” is being constructed, according to the tech blog, citing public planning documents obtained through public records requests. 

Detailed planning documents obtained by WIRED through a series of public record requests show the makings of an opulent techno-Xanadu, complete with underground shelter and what appears to be a blast-resistant door. -Wired

On the surface, the estate, also called “Koolau Ranch,” will have two central mansions joined by a tunnel connected to the underground bunker. 

Building documents also showed the compound would be self-sufficient, with its own power generation, food supplies, and a 55-foot-diameter and 18-foot-tall water tank. 

Wired noted, “Building permits put the price tag for the main construction at around $100 million, in addition to $170 million in land purchases, but this is likely an underestimate.”  

It was revealed by several former contract workers at the ranch that everyone working there was bound by an NDA.

“It’s fight club. We don’t talk about fight club,” said one anonymous former contract employee. 

Another former worker said the “very strict” enforcement of NDAs made anyone on-site unwilling to “take the chance to get caught even taking a picture.”

Other billionaires, like PayPal and Palantir founder Peter Thiel, have built or been planning doomsday bunkers in remote places worldwide. 

There are several reasons why billionaires feel worried about the future and are compelled to build doomsday bunkers, some of which include spillover risks of the Russia-Ukraine war, possible regional conflict in the Middle East, imploding Western cities into crime-ridden hellholes, the surge in illegal migrants across West, deteriorating financial conditions in the West, and the list goes on and on. 

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Vice President Kamala Harris has announced a new gun control initiative, including a state-level ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, which the White House says is aimed at helping curb violence involving guns.

The White House published the new “Safer States Initiative,” which officials said will “provide states with additional tools and the support they need to reduce gun violence and save lives,” in a Dec. 13 press release.

As part of the initiative, the White House is calling for states to take a number of “key actions,” including establishing their own state offices for preventing violence involving guns, strengthening support for survivors and victims of violence involving guns, and investing in “evidence-informed solutions” to prevent and respond to such violence.

That includes rolling out community violence interventions, establishing Crime Gun Intelligence Centers, and implementing extreme risk protection orders, among others.

President Joe Biden established the first ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which is overseen by Ms. Harris, in September 2023.

Under the new initiative, the administration is also asking states to reinforce responsible gun ownership, including by requiring safe storage of firearms and that lost and stolen firearms be reported, according to a White House fact sheet.

The Department of Justice’s newly published model legislation detailing how states can require the safe storage of firearms, including in vehicles, will help aid states in crafting requirements for safe gun storage, the White House said.

Assault Weapons Ban

It will also help provide states with a framework for requiring that a person promptly report the loss or theft to law enforcement.

Additionally, President Biden’s administration is asking states to strengthen gun background checks, including by enacting universal background checks legislation and “removing barriers” to completing enhanced background checks.

Finally, the president and vice president want states to “hold the gun industry accountable,” including by “banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines” and enacting “firearm-specific liability laws to ensure that victims of gun violence have their day in court.”

Several studies, including a recent review of five studies by the American nonprofit global policy think tank Rand Corporation, found “inconclusive evidence” that the Federal Assault Weapons Ban passed by Congress in 1994 had an effect on total homicides and firearm homicides.

Ms. Harris unveiled the new initiative at a convening of state legislators on Wednesday, where she began a speech by paying tribute to Josh Seal, who was among the 18 people killed in the Lewiston, Maine, mass shooting in October.

The shooter, Robert Card, was treated for mental health problems prior to the shooting, according to police.

Initiative Underscores ‘Success in Resisting Federal Gun Control’

Ms. Harris said Mr. Seal, an American Sign Language interpreter, “signed for me all over the world,” adding that his family, including his wife and children, are “very committed to public service.”

“So, it’s important we speak those names,” she said. The vice president went on to call violence involving guns a “crisis.”

“I know that many of you have held the hands and have hugged and tried to comfort community members and your constituents and people you know who have suffered because of gun violence,” she said. “And I therefore know that when we have this conversation and address this crisis that, for everyone here, it is personal.”

“So, I first and foremost, say again: Thank you for not only being here but for choosing to serve—and choosing, on this subject, to have an extraordinary amount of courage to speak openly and with strength about the need for reasonable gun safety laws. And that is what we are doing. We are fighting just for what is reasonable and, of course, what is right,” she said.

President Biden has taken a number of actions during his time in office focused on violence involving guns, including signing into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act last year.

However, more expansive legislation has faced resistance from Second Amendment rights advocates and Republican lawmakers.

Following Wednesday’s announcement, Aidan Johnston, the director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, told The Washington Post the group would fight any legislation imposing stricter rules infringing on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

“This announcement underscores our success in resisting federal gun control,” he said, adding that the “shift to state-level actions indicates a reluctance to push new anti-gun measures through Congress.”

During her speech unveiling the new initiative Wednesday, Ms. Harris insisted that while she is “absolutely in favor of the Second Amendment” she is “also in favor of an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, red flag laws.”