What You Need to Know About Vax Passports, Digital IDs, CBDCs

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STORY AT-A-GLANCE

  • A key concern that vaccine passports bring to the fore is related to privacy. If implemented, they will strip us of most of the privacy we’re used to, as they are a precursor to digital identity and a far more invasive digital surveillance apparatus
  • Another key concern is that vaccine passports and digital IDs can force compliance in any area of life
  • The vaccine passport is a platform to which they can add a digital ID and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). This would give them near-total control over your life, as they can “cancel” your existence and ability to live if you dissent
  • If we accept vaccine passports, we’re basically giving our consent to everything that comes after
  • Another global economic crisis is a mathematical inevitability, so work on improving your resiliency, food security and self-reliance through community

In this interview, we take a deep dive into vaccine passports with Nick Corbishley, author of “Scanned: Why Vaccine Passports and Digital IDs Will Mean the End of Privacy and Personal Freedom.”

In my mind, there’s little doubt that the primary reason for the rollout of the COVID jabs was not for public health but to justify the rollout of vaccine passports, which in turn are just the first iteration of a much broader mechanism to surveil, track, manipulate and control the population of the world.

Corbishley has been a journalist, writing about politics, finance and privacy issues for the past decade. While based in Barcelona, Spain, he’s been contributing to two U.S. blogs since 2013.

“Israel was the first democratic country to launch digital IDs, in February, 2021, and when I started to see what was going on there, I began to get very concerned,” Corbishley says. “I wrote an article in April 2021, raising my concerns about the risks these vaccine passports posed.

Then, little by little, I began to see what’s happening in Europe. I began to see what was happening in Italy, in France, when the so called Green Pass was launched in June. This was a document that was supposed to be created to enable travel between countries in Europe.

Very quickly, it began to be used to control access to public services, access to public places within one’s own country. We were beginning to see restrictions that we’d never seen in our lifetime.

So, I began to write more and more and this brought me to the attention of the Vermont-based publisher, Chelsea Green. We had some conversations and we decided that there was an opportunity to write about something that everybody should know about. Even at this stage. It’s not being talked about anywhere near as much as it should be.”

Two Key Concerns

One of the primary concerns vaccine passports bring to the fore is related to privacy. If implemented, they will strip us of most of the privacy we’re used to. It’s quite clear that they are a precursor to digital identity and a far more invasive type of digital surveillance apparatus.

“The passports essentially function as a gateway to allow government to herd us into a totally new reality where our actions, our movements, our thoughts, our behavior are tracked and surveilled,” Corbishley says.

But it’s not just about surveillance. It’s also about forcing compliance, and that’s the second key concern.

“If we’ve learned one thing about the vaccine passport, this is about changing the way we relate to government, and it’s about changing the way government relates to us, the governed.

If you do not do exactly what the government says going forward, whether that is putting one jab inside your arm, whether is putting two jabs inside your arm, or however many jabs inside your arm, you will be deactivated. You will not be able to access the most basic services and the sort of places that we need to be able to participate in society and economy.”

Surveillance on Steroids

Of course, we’ve been under surveillance for many years already. All Google-related technologies are tracking and surveillance technologies. Our cell phones track and surveil us. Ditto for Facebook and other social media platforms. They’re all harvesting personal information and keeping tabs on everyone’s whereabouts.

We also know these technologies have been used to influence and manipulate people’s thoughts, beliefs and behavior. Up until now, however, all of that manipulation has been covert. The system that’s being erected now is unique and new in that the forced compliance will be, in many cases, overt — blatant and indisputable, as punishment will be tied to things like your personal finances and travel privileges.

Clearly, the vaccine passport is a platform to which they can add central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). So, as an example, the government could put out a political narrative, and if you vocalize disagreement, there goes access to your bank account. Or your travel privileges. Or your loan application.

With Google-based smart homes, it’s not even impossible to foresee a future in which you could simply be locked inside your home if you were to be labeled a dissenter. Or locked out of your home. Or they could shut off your utilities.

The possibilities to punish dissenters are endless when everyone and every THING is digitally identifiable, trackable and wirelessly connected. With a single keystroke, someone you don’t know can shut down your life, rendering you homeless and helpless.

Chances are, there won’t even be a live person anywhere for you to contact with your grievances. Much of the system will be run by artificial intelligence and various algorithms. It’s important to realize that if we accept vaccine passports, we’re basically giving our consent to everything that comes after, Corbishley warns. We’re accepting that this is our future.

Why We Must Reject Digital IDs and CBDCs

We must also remain alert to the rollout of other control mechanisms that are just as problematic as the vaccine passports, especially digital IDs and CBDCs, but also any number of other digital and biometric controls. As explained by Corbishley:

“Right now, in Canada, we’ve got the premier of Ontario saying that they are going to withdraw the vaccine passports. We’ve got Alberta saying it’s going to withdraw the vaccine passports.

This is the message we’re getting from all over the Western world. It’s like, ‘It’s time to take a step back. We are now going to let you live your life. We’re going to let some kind of normality return.’

You’re seeing Scandinavia talking about doing away with vaccine passports altogether. So, it’s interesting to see some countries using that language. But I think you have to be very careful because as they’re talking about doing this, they’re ushering in digital identity systems, which are going to be on a much grander scale than the vaccine passports …

They are instituting digital identity that is going to allow not just this kind of control of your vaccine status, but control of your tax records, control of your employment records … And they will include … your vaccine status. So, it’s extremely disingenuous. I think they are misleading their populations in a very dark way …

All of these things are happening, but the ultimate step is probably the central bank digital currencies, which are likely to come on board in the next three to five years.

The chairman of the Bank of International Settlements, Agustín Carstens, who used to be the chairman of the Bank of Mexico, openly said that the wonderful thing about central bank digital currencies is that it allows them to track everything you do.

What he didn’t say is that it allows them to deactivate an account. It allows them to stop people from being able to transact. They didn’t go that far. But he said that this is so different from cash. So yeah, people are not realizing just how this control grid is being built, little by little, piece by piece, but they need to start paying attention before it’s too late.”

They’re Building a Social Credit System

By now, many are familiar with the social credit system in China, or have at least heard of it. How does this system compare or relate to vaccine passports and digital IDs?

“I think that the social credit system in China is, to a certain extent, a template. It’s where governments probably want to go. They would like to be able to use the new technologies we have to nudge people into the right sorts of behaviors without having to use more overt punishment.

You can either reward people for doing the right sort of things, or you can give them a little digital spank every now and then when they’re doing the wrong sort of things. I think that that is where China is leading the way.

Ironically, in the research I did for my book, I found that while China’s ambitions with the credit social credit system are essentially unfettered — they want total control — they’re not there yet.

They’re still running quite a few pilot schemes. So, it depends where you are in China, the extent to which you are exposed to this kind of system, where you’re getting points for good behavior and where you’re getting points deducted for bad behavior.

But the template is there. You’ve also got companies like Ant Financial and Tencent. These are the equivalents of Google, Facebook, whatever, that are running their own social credits schemes within their own little universe. So, it’s a very complex situation in China. It’s not as complete as some might believe, but the intention, the ambition, is huge.

I would say that we are definitely seeing examples of this beginning to feed through into the West. We’re seeing banks talk about using our social media behavior to determine our credit score, which is very similar to what they’re doing in China. There’s clearly the means, and there’s clearly a desire to push in that direction.”

Unity Is the Challenge of Our Lifetime

The challenge we now face is that, to have any chance of preventing this control grid, we need to be unified. The problem is, many simply aren’t able to see the dangers. Most people under the age of 30 are used to doing just about everything on their phones, and the convenience of digital IDs and digital banking is alluring.

Organizations such as the World Economic Forum and many of the central banks that are pushing the rollout of this control grid can also make it impossible or near-impossible to live without a digital ID and CBDCs. Already, we’ve seen leaders saying, out loud, that their goal is to make life as difficult and inconvenient as possible for anyone without a vaccine passport. They’ll do the same for digital IDs and CBDCs.

“One of the best examples is Italy,” Corbishley says. “If you want to see a country that has really gone into sixth gear with the vaccine passports, it’s Italy. They’ve said, ‘Look, if you don’t have this document, you cannot work. You cannot get on a bus and go across town. You cannot get on the metro. You cannot access retail premises apart from supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations and pet stores.’

You have basically closed down, narrowed down the existence to such a limited one that most people end up just saying, ‘OK, let’s do it. I don’t have an alternative. I’m not going to survive this way.’

If you have a mortgage and your finances are already tight, and your government is telling you, you’re not going to be able to work, most people crumble, and so they’re able to do it …

A journalist in Canada was talking about the truckers, the Freedom Convoy. He was saying, ‘These guys don’t represent Canadians; 90% of Canadians have taken the vaccine and they’re all perfectly happy with the restrictions, the mandates.’ It’s like, how do you know how many of those 90% actually took the vaccine because they had no choice? It was a very disingenuous argument.”

How to Prepare for the Inevitable

While the situation is bleak and dire, Corbishley doesn’t believe vaccine passports, digital IDs and CBDCs are inevitable. “I think we’re in the midst of a major battle,” he says.

The question is, how can we win when all the cards seem stacked against us?

“I think that we have to, No. 1, inform as many people as possible. That’s why I wrote the book. I wrote the book hoping to reach people who maybe had been vaccinated, but were beginning to have certain doubts, people who were on the fence.

I mean, I know plenty of people who have had two shots, who are wary about having a third one. I know plenty of people who have had two shots, have had Omicron, and they’re now thinking, ‘Why the heck am I having to take a third shot?’ People are beginning to question this.

I think that we are in the midst of what can only be described as an existential battle. If we lose this battle, it can be very difficult, as individuals, to protect ourselves because the degree of control they will have over us is going to be huge.

I think there will be this creation of a parallel community, a parallel society, where people are able to function. We’re seeing signs of bartering beginning to take place within a community like that in Italy. They are surviving as best they can — and we’re talking about millions of people who haven’t crumbled. They’ve not given way yet.

That gives me a certain amount of hope. I think the fact that people have grown tired of the restrictions means that government is having to, to a certain extent, reconsider, but at the same time, they are pushing through digital IDs.

I think this is what is really important for people to understand. While they’re saying, ‘We are going to abandon the vaccine passports,’ in most countries where they’re saying this, that is not the case. In the U.K., they’ve not done that. They have simply shifted from a mandatory vaccine passport to a voluntary vaccine passport.

You’ve got vaccine passports very much in use for international travel. So, if you’re British, you want to travel to mainland Europe, if you’ve not got your vaccine passport, you’re not going to be able to go mainland. It’s the same if you’re European and want to go to the U.S.

So, there is so much happening it’s hard to keep track. That is coming from somebody who spends most of his day trying to keep track of these things. If you are just someone who is working a 9-to-5 job and you get home and you’ve got three kids to look after, it’s going to be much harder to keep abreast of these developments.

I have a certain amount of hope that they haven’t won yet. But it’s an immense amount of power they have. We are talking about organizations like the World Economic Forum, which represents hundreds of the most powerful companies on the planet. We’re talking about the most powerful governments on the planet.

So, it’s going to be a huge battle, and they’ve got most of the advantages in this battle. But I do think that what’s happening in Canada suggests a resistance can be formed. I think that resistance is growing in Germany. It’s certainly growing in Austria. The government is beginning to have second thoughts about the vaccine mandate.”

Expect Economic Collapse

There are also the growing economic risks, globally, to consider. The central banks around the world have painted themselves into a corner and they can’t get out. We are almost certain to see another financial crisis. It’s only a matter of when.

There is already clear evidence we are in the early stages of economic collapse, and that’s a parallel issue that needs to be taken into consideration when trying to predict what might happen with digital IDs and CBDCs, as they’re all connected. To prepare for an inevitable economic collapse, I would suggest focusing on improving your resiliency on a local level.

For example, make sure you have access to water supplies other than your tap, grow your own food and develop relationships with other local growers and farmers to build your food security.

These are very basic things that can save your life when everything collapses and your dollar, drachma or euro becomes fit for use as toilet paper. Having food, water, shelter and community makes you far more resistant to tyranny because if you don’t have these things, you need the government to provide them for you.

“I think the community is essential,” Corbishley says. “Having people who are of a similar mindset, of a similar worldview, people you can definitely count upon …

Resilience is going to be very tough. As a result of the lockdowns, small businesses are in serious straits. They’ve had to take on huge amounts of debt just to weather the lockdowns … There’s no doubt that large companies have much easier access to cheap debt than small companies …

This is tragic because small businesses are a fundamental cornerstone of the community. They’re a fundamental part of the global economy and, even more important than that, small businesses are run by independent people. If we begin to see a massive culling of small businesses, then we are going to see less independence and more dependence. So, that is one area which deeply concerns me …

I think the most important thing, and the hardest thing, is to maintain your humanity. I think that is fundamental and that is why having a community around you that you love and that loves you is absolutely essential to surviving this. I don’t think you can be an island and get through what’s coming.

Another thing I would suggest, if you do have money, if you have investments, is to diversify as much as possible — probably not best to have all your money in a bank, and especially not one bank …

If you look at countries like Mexico, going through the Tequila Crisis in the 1990s, or Brazil, going through the huge hyperinflation it had, how do you survive that relatively intact? When you own real assets, you own property. Maybe you own precious metals … In Turkey, inflation is absolutely surging and people are using gold, they are looking at cryptocurrencies. They are doing anything except keeping their money in Turkish lira.”

More Information

So, in closing, the best you can do right now is to educate yourself about the impending digital control grid, share information, resist and oppose any and all attempts to implement vaccine passports or digital IDs, take a stand for freedom, build community and prepare for deteriorating economic conditions by diversifying your monies and investments.

To learn more, be sure to pick up a copy of Corbishley’s book, “Scanned: Why Vaccine Passports and Digital IDs Will Mean the End of Privacy and Personal Freedom.”

EDITORS NOTE: This MERCOLA column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Sunni-Shi’a Jihad Comes to the University of Connecticut

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For all we are told about the prevalence of “Islamophobia,” some might have assumed that “Islamophobes” disposed of the turbahs, but no, the culprits were Sunnis. The Sunni MSA condemned the vandalism and claimed that it had nothing to do with the incident, but dodged a meeting with the Shi’a to discuss concerns, and the Shi’a claim that the MSA’s apology was “neither direct nor official.”

Meanwhile, the Shi’a want “more events and educational opportunities” for students, so as “to eliminate misconceptions regarding the Shia sect.” This mirrors the longstanding and widespread claim that “Islamophobia” can be stamped out by seminars and outreach events that “eliminate misconceptions.” Such efforts never actually stamp out “Islamophobia” understood as suspicion or distrust of Islam except among the credulous and ill-informed, because the suspicion and distrust of many people regarding Islam is not based on “misconceptions” at all, but on an actual awareness of Islamic texts and teachings. Likewise the Shi’ites at the University of Connecticut will realize eventually, if they don’t actually know already, that the Sunni hatred for them stems not from “misconceptions,” but on Sunni teachings regarding Shi’a Islam as a heretical, twisted form of Islam. No educational efforts will undo that conviction.

UConn should oppose anti-Shia hate

Editorial Board, The Daily Campus, February 24, 2022:

Recently, The Daily Campus reported on an incident that occurred in early February, where turbahs — small pieces of molded clay many Shia Muslims use during prayer — that had been donated for students to use at the Islamic Center of the University of Connecticut and the wellness and meditation space in Homer Babbidge Library had been vandalized and thrown out.

This is not the first anti-Shia incident to occur at UConn; according to members of the Ahlul Bayt Student Association, an organization for Shia Muslims at UConn, anti-Shia rhetoric has occurred for years. ABSA claims that ICUC has not been a welcoming environment for Shia Muslim students, with ICUC keeping anti-Shia books inside the mosque, and requiring approval for the placement of worshipping items such as turbahs in the space of worship.

In response to the incident, the Muslim Student Association released a statement condemning the vandalism, claiming that the ICUC executive board had no connection to the attackers. The MSA claimed the e-Board lacked any knowledge that turbahs would be placed in the mosque and reiterated that the placement of any religious items in the mosque requires ICUC approval. While MSA claims ICUC apologized to ABSA for the incident and offered to pay for turbahs and discuss concerns, ABSA claims they could not schedule a meeting and that an apology from ICUC was neither direct nor official….

As suggested by ABSA in the article, given the anti-Shia Muslim hate and the divide between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims, more events and educational opportunities should be made available to students to eliminate misconceptions regarding the Shia sect.

Furthermore, this incident occurred on Feb. 8 and the UConn administration has yet to publicly condemn and oppose this hate. The UConn administration should address this incident, make it clear that such hate is unwelcome at the university and spare no resources investigating those responsible….

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Al-Azhar Islamic law prof: beating is ‘suitable for a rebellious wife, who oversteps boundaries set by Allah’

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

PODCAST: Irresistible Revolution — Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military

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Former U.S. Space Force LTC Matthew Lohmeier joins Chris Farrell this week to discuss Lohmeier’s book “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military” on the growing Marxist movement within the U.S. military. The two discuss cultural Marxism and Critical Race Theory’s infiltration of the military and how it has affected military preparedness, as well as the impact on Lohmeier’s personal life.

EDITORS NOTE: This Judicial Watch podcast is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Why Frackers Are Returning to Abandoned Oil Patches in Droves

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For consumers, high oil prices are a headache; for drillers, they are an opportunity.

Less than two years after the price of oil briefly plummeted to roughly negative $37 a barrel, an oil boom is underway in America—even in places where drilling was all but abandoned two years ago.

“Private oil producers are leading an industry return to places like the Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma and the DJ Basin in Colorado, where drilling had almost completely stopped in mid-2020,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Anadarko Basin, for example, has surged from just seven active drilling rigs to 46, according to energy analytics firm Enverus, while the DJ Basin in Colorado saw its number of active rigs jump from four to 15. Meanwhile, Utah’s Uinta Basin and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, which both saw active rigs fall to zero in 2020, have seen rigs increase to roughly a dozen.

What is driving frackers back to abandoned oil patches? It’s not newly discovered shale oil. Rather, it’s high oil prices.

The price of oil has surged in recent months, increasing from roughly $65 a barrel to the low-to-mid $90s in recent weeks. (The price of crude closed at just under $94 a barrel Monday.) The prices—which recently hit a seven-year high—are attracting drillers to shale patches that are more expensive to drill and thus require higher prices to be profitable.

For consumers, high oil prices can be a headache, because they result in higher gasoline prices. But for drillers, high oil prices mean more potential for profit.

Klee Watchous, president of the Kansas-based company Palomino Petroleum, says the higher prices have marked a turnaround for his small company and the surrounding communities where it operates.

“After many years of fighting this low oil-price situation, it feels great,” Watchous told the WSJ. “The cycles of boom and bust have been part of the oil-and-gas industry for decades, and no one knows how long it will last.”

Watchous is looking to seize on the higher prices to venture into Illinois in 2022, a state few companies have sought to tap in recent years.

Some might begrudge oil companies like Palomino profiting from high oil prices, but it’s precisely their desire for profits that can help tame surging oil prices. As oil companies expand their production, they increase the supply of oil, which inevitably puts a downward pressure on prices. It’s a perfect example of Adam Smith’s insight that free markets harness the self-interest of individuals to serve the whole.

“Every individual… neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it… he intends only his own security,” Smith explained in The Theory of Moral Sentiments; “and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.”

High prices do two important things in an economy. First, they encourage people to conserve scarce resources. Many people love steak and lobster, but few of us eat it every week or every month because it’s quite expensive. In other words, the high price discourages us from demanding steak and lobster. But that’s not the only function of the high price. It also encourages lobster trappers and beef companies to bring more of these products to market in pursuit of profit. Together, these two mechanisms help make scarce resources more abundant.

Price is arguably the simplest and most vital principle in economics. It signals both scarcity (to consumers) and opportunity (to entrepreneurs). Yet the economist Thomas Sowell has noted the importance of prices is often misunderstood by activists and politicians.

“Prices play a crucial role in determining how much of each resource gets used where and how the resulting products get transferred to millions of people,” Sowell wrote in Basic Economics. “Yet this role is seldom understood by the public and it is often disregarded entirely by politicians.”

It’s worth noting that the word “price” never appeared in President Joe Biden’s 2020 executive order killing the Keystone XL Pipeline, an oil pipeline system between Canada and the US commissioned in 2010.

Nixing the 1,700-mile pipeline, which could have carried roughly 800k barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, did nothing to reduce the pain at the pump consumers are feeling today, with gasoline currently at more than $3.50 a gallon. But that was expected.

What perhaps was unexpected was that higher prices would result in additional fracking—a process many contend is harder on the environment than regular drilling, and a practice Biden has said he wants to “move gradually away from.”

So while the role prices play in an economy is one of the most basic lessons in economics, politicians of every stripe would do well to remember one of the greatest fallacies: overlooking secondary consequences.

COLUMN BY

Jon Miltimore

Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune. Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.

RELATED ARTICLE: Oil Soars Beyond $100 Per Barrel For The First Time Since 2014

EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Can beauty really save the world?

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Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky famously wrote that “beauty will save the world.” Pope St. John Paul II echoed that sentiment in his profound “Letter to Artists.”

“My hope for all of you who are artists is that you will have an especially intense experience of creative inspiration,” John Paul wrote. “May the beauty which you pass on to generations still to come be such that it will stir them to wonder! Faced with the sacredness of life and of the human person, and before the marvels of the universe, wonder is the only appropriate attitude.”

My friend Hannah Magnelli, an uber-talented mezzo-soprano, read those words not long before recording her first single, Cinema Paradiso, earlier this year. Her rendition of the song — the love theme from the 1988 Italian film of the same name — is magical.

Hannah, a faithful Catholic, is committed to expressing the three transcendentals in her art: truth, goodness, and beauty.

I encourage you to listen to her song on Spotify and share it with everyone you know. If you don’t have Spotify, you’ll find it on every streaming platform from Apple Music to Amazon Music. If you have none of those, take a listen on Hannah’s YouTube Channel.

Let me know what you think! I’d love to hear from you.

For Life,

Patrick Novecosky
Founder
NovaMedia

©NovaMedia. All rights reserved.

Oil Soars Beyond $100 Per Barrel For The First Time Since 2014

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The worldwide price of crude oil skyrocketed to more than $100 per barrel for the first time since 2014 as Russia launched a full-scale offensive against Ukraine.

The Brent crude index, the global oil benchmark, hit $101.66 per barrel Thursday morning, surging more than 4% overnight. The U.S. WTI index skyrocketed nearly 7% to $98.69 per barrel Thursday, its highest level since 2014.

On Wednesday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “a special military operation” in separatist regions of Ukraine. The announcement was followed by reports of Russian troop movements near Ukraine and rockets being fired into several regions, including near the capital city of Kyiv.

“At this stage it is anything but clear what could bring the Russian president to his senses, therefore the situation, the equity and oil markets will remain volatile,” PVM Oil Associates senior analyst Tamas Varga said in a brief Thursday, CNBC reported.

“Even if prices drop back below $100/bbl due to abating tension in Eastern Europe, the retracement might prove short-lived and product tightness could keep oil prices at elevated levels in months to come,” Varga said.

Between January 2021 and November 2021, Russia exported the second-largest amount of oil to the U.S., behind only Canada. Russia is also a key player in the global oil market and is Europe’s largest supplier.

The price of oil is the largest determinant of gas prices. The average price of gas in the U.S. reached $3.53 per gallon this week, its highest level since July 2014, Energy Information Administration data showed.

“The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine tonight as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces,” President Joe Biden said in a statement late Wednesday. “President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering.”

“The world will hold Russia accountable,” Biden said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen characterized the invasion as an “unprecedented act of aggression” and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the West “cannot and will not just look away.”

Johnson said the U.K. and its allies would agree to a “massive package of economic sanctions designed in time to hobble the Russian economy.”

Both the president and senior White House officials warned that Americans may face higher prices at the pump as a result of U.S. sanctions against Russia.

“That’s what we want the American public to be aware is a possibility,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday. “Standing up for values is not without cost, including in this case.”

COLUMN BY

THOMAS CATENACCI

Energy and environment reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Defense Secretary Austin Approves 700 National Guardsmen for The People’s Trucker Convoy

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Woke Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has authorized an order to mobilize as many as 700 National Guard members ahead of an upcoming trucker convoy protest planned for Washington, D.C.

The National Guard wrote in a statement that Austin approved requests from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) for National Guard assistance with traffic control during “First Amendment demonstrations expected in the city in the coming days.”

“The people who live, work and visit the District are part of our community, and their safety is our first mission priority,” said Maj. Gen. Sherrie L. McCandless, DCNG commanding general, in the statement. “Our MPD and USCP partners have asked for our help in ensuring people can demonstrate peacefully and safely, and we stand ready to assist.”

Austin also approved about 400 National Guard members to provide support to the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) at designated traffic posts, provide command and control, and cover sustainment requirements along with 50 large tactical vehicles on a 24-hour basis starting as “soon as logistically possible.”

Austin also approved a request from the USCP for assistance for up to 300 National Guard troops from outside D.C. to assist at designated traffic posts and select Capitol entry points starting no later than 7 a.m., on Saturday, February 26.

Progressives cheer on Black Lives Matter protesters who ravage communities nationwide, and Antifa street thugs who target Trump supporters, but a peaceful protest against repressive COVID mandates spurs them to send out the military. Shameful. The Biden administration, like Justin Trudeau’s in Canada, is authoritarian to the core.

Lloyd Austin

26 Known Connections

Austin Emphasizes Leftwing Indoctrination Regarding “Diversity,” “Equity,” & “White Supremacy”

Central to the worldview of the race-obsessed Defense Secretary Austin, is a belief that racism is America’s most salient and enduring feature. That belief animates Austin’s passionate crusade to impose racial “diversity” – by force – upon the military that he oversees. As Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in May 2021 about Austin: “He’s certainly concerned about the diversity at the senior levels of the department. And this is not just senior enlisted levels, but senior officer levels, admirals, and generals. The numbers [of nonwhites] are not very high.” “[Austin] also believes there’s a sense of urgency here,” added Kirby. “The time is now to start to grow that [nonwhite] talent and develop that talent and provide opportunities for that talent to continue to advance of the ranks.” And for anyone who might wonder whether “diversity” is in fact a worthy goal for an institution whose main purpose is to defend a nation rather than to serve as a social laboratory for leftwing dogmas, Kirby explained that Austin “strongly believes that diversity is a readiness issue because it allows different perspectives, additional context, different lived experiences to inform the way we make decisions in the policies that we craft, the operations that we lead.”

To learn more about Lloyd Austin, click here.

EDITORS NOTE: This Discover the Networks column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Ordinary Russians Speak Their Mind and Get Clobbered

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Ordinary Russians took to the streets yesterday to protest Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.  At least 1,700 people were arrested in some 50 different cities all over Russia.  This is extraordinary because spontaneous mass demonstrations are illegal in Russia and protesters can be jailed and fined.  People in Russia do not have the same free speech rights we have here in America.

Ah yes, America where people are forgetting why we have free speech in the first place, and increasing numbers of people are willing to throw free expression out the window if anyone says anything offensive, or something that goes against the grain.  Recent news stories show you we cannot take free speech rights and our tradition of free expression for granted.

DHS recently issued an assessment of terrorism threats in the U.S.  Instead of focusing on actual terrorists, the assessment indicates the federal government is now worried about ordinary people spreading information the government deems harmful or false.  As I’ve explained previously, there are very good reasons not to put the government in charge of deciding what is true and what is false.  We really do not want the government deciding we are domestic terrorists because we think there were big problems in the 2020 election, we make fun of public health authorities who contradict themselves all the time on COVID, or we object to pornography in schools.  Yet, this seems to be what DHS is suggesting is now the primary focus of government anti-terrorism efforts.  DHS should just call up Putin and ask him how he does it.  Putin’s truth rules Russia and DHS, if it wants to be successful in its new self-proclaimed mission of being the nation’s thought police, should just follow in his footsteps.

DHS is not the only one who values free expression less these days.  Emory Law School student government denied a charter to a free speech group because it did not have mechanisms in place to prevent a “precarious environment” or harm arising from what is said at its events.  According to the overseers, discussions of race and gender issues “directly affect and harm your peers’ lives in demonstrable and quantitative ways…”  In other words, somebody might be offended so you can’t speak your mind.  What happened to all that grit and resilience training kids get in schools these days?

Meanwhile, so-called ‘journalists’ – who depend on the First Amendment right to a free press to make a living – would like nothing better than to silence people they don’t agree with.  According to Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin, Republicans are not “normal” and should not be treated as such.  There should be rules against those evil Republicans because all they do is lie and provoke violence.  That’s what happens when you get too far down the rabbit hole.  Still, I’m glad she said it because, like Malcolm X [starting at 23:20], I want to know what people are thinking, no matter how idiotic.  Another Washington Post writer wants to shut down conservative media outlets for being climate change deniers.  Now that the Washington Post has found a sugar daddy and no longer has to worry about where its next paycheck is coming from, it’s gone from sanctimonious to insufferable.  I think we should close down the Washington Post because it runs fake stories approved by its editors, as during the Janet Cooke scandal.   Just kidding.  I want the Post to keep yapping away so we can see just how foolish they’re becoming.  Just as foolish as Facebook which was forced to admit in court its supposed ‘fact-checking’ is just their opinion which, oh by the way, is protected by the First Amendment.  Imagine that.  Well, Facebook, I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

It’s always good to remind people why we have free speech in the first place – because We the People are sovereign.  We run this country, not DHS or the Washington Post, and we need all the information so we can make our sovereign decisions.  Self-rule is the reason we have free speech.  We are ruled by ourselves, not by our betters like Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos.  So take a moment and reflect on the value of free expression and what you are giving up if you throw it away just because somebody might take offense at something that is said.  It’s your self-rule and your freedom.  People who don’t value self-governance and personal freedom won’t have them for very long.  The Vladimir Putins among us will see to that.

Visit The Daily Skirmish and Watch Eagle Headline News – 7:30am ET Weekdays

©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

Biden Has Ukrainian Blood On His Hands

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As we helplessly watch the Ukrainian war unfold it must be said that the usurper in the White House has to hold a large majority of the responsibility for what we are watching. Everything bad happening worldwide now, and I forecast in the near future is going to be a direct responsibility of this pathetic administration and the domestic and foreign policies it has and is pursuing.

Let me explain how I see it from my personal viewpoint.

From the first day this administration took illegal control of our constitutional republic, they have worked harder and quicker than anyone could have imagined, to destroy our beloved country and by doing that placed the world in dire circumstances, all of which we are now, 14 months in, watching unfold. Thanks Joe!

Let’s look at their energy policy. The first day Biden, some say just to get back at Trump, stopped the Keystone XL Pipeline, cutting thousands of well paid jobs and destroying the oil industry and the economies of states that have oil based economies. On the next move, one which I believe had to do with the corruption of his entire Biden crime family, he green lighted the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Europe. ( As an aside, I hope one day to hear how Russian produced oil and gas is cleaner than US produced oil and gas! I think that Russia does not produce its oil and gas anywhere near as cleanly and environmentally friendly as we do. ). Thanks Joe!

Remember America, Bidens corrupt junkie whoremonger of a son, Hunter Biden, served on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. Sniffer Joe Biden had an obvious conflict of interest. We know that Hunter received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow. The “Big Guy” obviously got his share. Thanks Joe!

So as a nation we went from net exporter of oil and retail gas at under $2 a gallon to begging like peasants to OPEC ( which includes Russia ) for them to supply and drill more oil. Hmmm… their response to America being on its knees? Nope! We will still drill less or the same. You must therefore just pay more! Today we see oil up around $100 a barrel and rising fast. Gas prices at the pumps approaching record highs along with inflation. Thanks Joe!

So, for those who see where I am going, we have been helping Russia, whose economy is oil based, tremendously! Our money and the money of countries we exported oil to, now have helped the Russian military buildup by supplying billions in unexpected profits to Russia. Why in Gods name did we import a record 232 million barrels of oil from Russia last year through November? We actually set a monthly record of 26 million barrels last May. All while we have trillions of barrels below our feet. All the time we as a country, under this administration, are getting weaker and weaker. Thanks Joe!

Now, NATO is weak, running like a rudderless ship in a storm, un-financed unlike Russia and China, with politically correct leadership and politically correct military forces. This is because member countries for decades have failed their countries by not paying their fair share for the upgrading needed. They relied on the USA but now know that they cannot rely on us to blow their noses or wipe their asses. After all, under testosterone challenged Hussein Obama and mentally challenged Biden, we have become an extension of them. Our military leadership is comprised of leftist politicians and not real military men who love this country. The LGBTQI agenda is more important than getting our military truly ready to meet evil the only way you should. With extreme violence until you annihilate the enemy. If you think the Russians. Iranians, Chinese or North Korean military has the same leftist agenda for their military, think again. We just give them a reason to laugh, clap, cheer and take advantage.

Thanks Joe!

©Fred Brownbill. All rights reserved.

RELATED TWEET: 

Putin Threatens Retribution if America Intervenes in Ukraine Invasion

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The world has changed, literally overnight.

Vladimir Putin has ordered a massive invasion of Ukraine, the likes of which the world has not seen since World War II.

There are a number of possible reasons for the attack, and it is likely the way the United States exited Afghanistan emboldened our enemies, including, of course, Vladimir Putin.

Our departure from Afghanistan was an utter disaster that saw the U.S. military withdraw before billions of dollars in weapons could be removed. Large numbers of Americans and those who assisted U.S. forces in Afghanistan were left behind to fend for themselves and an estimated five thousand terrorists were simply permitted to go free while the Taliban was able to seize control of the entire country, turning Afghanistan into a base of operations for ISIS and other radical Islamic terrorist organizations.

The debacle in Afghanistan, coupled with Biden’s insane immigration policies, violate recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and have left America and Americans vulnerable to the threat of terrorism.

This threat to our nation was the predication for my articles, Biden’s Catastrophic Policies: Immigration and Afghanistan and Biden’s Afghanistan Catastrophe Increases Terror Threat in US.

However, since taking office, Biden’s immigration policies have created a human tsunami that has flooded the U.S. with illegal aliens from virtually every continent, except perhaps Antarctica.

On February 24 the Associated Press published an article that began with this paragraph:

Russian troops launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine on Thursday, as President Vladimir Putin cast aside international condemnation and sanctions and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen.”

There are many potential ways Russia could inflict harm on America, including by sending saboteurs to the U.S. in much the same way that Nazi Germany did at the beginning of World War II.

The FBI’s official website posted a detailed accounting of that effort:

Shortly after midnight on the morning of June 13, 1942, four men landed on a beach near Amagansett, Long Island, New York from a German submarine, clad in German uniforms and bringing ashore enough explosives, primers, and incendiaries to support an expected two-year career in the sabotage of American defense-related production. On June 17, 1942, a similar group landed on Ponte Vedra Beach, near Jacksonville, Florida, equipped for a similar career in industrial disruption.

The purpose of the invasions was to strike a major blow for Germany by bringing the violence of war to our home ground through destruction of America’s ability to manufacture vital equipment and supplies and transport them to the battlegrounds of Europe; to strike fear into the American civilian population; and to diminish the resolve of the United States to overcome our enemies.

Concerns about the potential for enemy combatants to gain entry into the U.S. were behind the decision of the FDR administration to move the enforcement of our immigration laws from the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice, not unlike the way enforcement of immigration laws was moved to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the months following the terror attacks of 9/11.

Nevertheless, the Biden administration has effectively ordered “shields down” in a particularly perilous era and has taken other actions that leave America vulnerable to international terrorists, members of transnational gangs, and now potential enemy combatants and spies.

Having mentioned spies, it is important to consider a Fox News report published on February 23:

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it is ending its “China Initiative” program that was aimed at preventing spying by the Chinese Communist Party, and launching a new, “broader approach.”

The China Initiative was started in 2018 under the Trump administration to protect U.S. national security against Chinese spying on U.S. intellectual property and in academia. The DOJ website said it was aimed at “identifying and prosecuting those engaged in trade secret theft, hacking, and economic espionage,” as well as “protecting our critical infrastructure against external threats through foreign direct investment and supply chain compromises.”

That program is coming to an end. In its place, the DOJ is instituting a new “Strategy for Countering Nation-State Threats.”

Meanwhile, Iran, another ally of Russia, pushes on to complete nuclear weapons and has flooded thousands of members of Hezbollah into Latin America to work in close cooperation with human trafficking organizations that also smuggle vast quantities of deadly narcotics into the U.S., according to information provided at Congressional hearings.

It is entirely possible that Iran would be happy to carry out attacks in the U.S. at the behest of their Russian ally.

Consider a couple of my earlier articles published in 2018: Iran Threatens U.S. And Its Allies With “Drugs, Refugees, Bombs And Assassination” and Congressional Hearing: Iranian Sleeper Cells Threaten U.S.

The attack by Russia on Ukraine is as real as the casualties it is inflicting. The threats to America are no less real. The first priority for our leaders must be the protection of America and Americans.

America’s borders and immigration laws are our first and last lines of defense.

These obvious facts were a major theme of the 9/11 Commission report and findings. To this point, one of the reports that the 9/11 Commission staff produced was, “9/11 and Terrorist Travel – Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.”

This report focused specifically on the ability of terrorists to travel around the world and ultimately embed themselves in the U.S. as they went about preparations to carry out deadly attacks.

The preface of this report begins with the following paragraph:

It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made one.

Page 61 contained this passage:

Exploring the Link between Human Smugglers and Terrorists

In July 2001, the CIA warned of a possible link between human smugglers and terrorist groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Egyptian Islamic Jihad.149 Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that since 1999 human smugglers have facilitated the travel of terrorists associated with more than a dozen extremist groups.150 With their global reach and connections to fraudulent document vendors and corrupt government officials, human smugglers clearly have the “credentials” necessary to aid terrorist travel.

This paragraph is found on page 98 under the title “Immigration Benefits”:

Terrorists in the 1990s, as well as the September 11 hijackers, needed to find a way to stay in or embed themselves in the United States if their operational plans were to come to fruition. As already discussed, this could be accomplished legally by marrying an American citizen, achieving temporary worker status, or applying for asylum after entering. In many cases, the act of filing for an immigration benefit sufficed to permit the alien to remain in the country until the petition was adjudicated. Terrorists were free to conduct surveillance, coordinate operations, obtain and receive funding, go to school and learn English, make contacts in the United States, acquire necessary materials, and execute an attack.

The clock is ticking and time is not on our side. It is time for the Biden administration to act immediately and decisively to fulfill its primary responsibilities to protect America and Americans in an extremely dangerous and precarious era.

©Michael Cutler. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLES: Center for Security Policy experts weigh in on Russian invasion of Ukraine

18-Year Old Kyle Rittenhouse Launches The Media Accountability Project [TMAP]

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“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” ― Thomas Jefferson

MEDIA BIAS: The bias of journalists, news producers and social media overseers within the mass and social media in the selection of which events and stories that are reported or not reported and how they are covered or not covered. Government influence, including overt and covert censorship of individuals, organizations and political movements.

I have heard many complain about how the media, from the legacy to social media, have become propagandists. I have heard the media called by both Democrats and Republicans biased. I have seen social media censor its members. I have seen many denigrated by the media and social media from truck drivers in Canada, to patriots at the January 6th peaceful protest in Washington, D.C., to presidents, to ordinary citizens. Today publishing myths has replaced telling the truth.

Seeing how the media has become a tool for pushing government propaganda, many ask what happened to First Amendment and civil liberties watchdogs like: the ACLU, NAACP and Southern Poverty Law Center?

Answer: They have all gone “woke.”

So who has actually decided to do something about it? An 18-year old named Kyle Rittenhouse.

Kyle has launched The Media Accountability Project (TMAP).

The TMAP website homepage quotes Malcolm X,

“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power.”

According to the TMAP website,

The Media Accountability Project “TMAP” is the official fundraising vehicle for helping Kyle Rittenhouse hold the worst offenders in our activist media accountable in court.

In the long term, we will provide material support and promote the important work being done by independent journalists who are committed to the truth.

Here are a few of the videos of Kyle being interviewed on the website:

The Bottom Line

Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.”

Fast forward to 2022 and we now see that there are many “polluted vehicles” including: news broadcasts, magazines, newspapers, blogs, social media sites and last but not least the corporate owned media. Clearly it is time to expose this pollution, which is much worse than green house gasses, in the damage it has done to mankind.

During the interview below between Kyle and Tucker Carlson the question was asked: Why hasn’t anyone done this before?

Our answer to Kyle and Tucker’s question is: Journalists are no longer holding governments, corporations, politicians, individuals and political groups accountable.

Journalist are not longer watchdogs, rather they are lapdogs.

Journalism is dead, replaced by the “corporate media” whose only interest is to make money while pushing their collectivist myths.

Journalists are afraid. Journalists fear that anyone who tries to expose the media and its biases, like Project Veritas, then become a target of the legacy and social media hierarchy. The journalist may lose his or her job for actually holding government accountable and telling the facts and truth.

If the media can print, report on and push the myth of Russian collusion in the 2016 election, over and over again about a sitting president, then who is safe from “lapdog journalists” and “media demagogues”?

It seems this 18-year old is fearless, like he was on the streets defending minority businesses and himself from armed insurgents.

We welcome Kyle to the fight. And a fight it is. You see many still believe the legacy media’s lies and myths. Myths like climate change, vaccine mandates are necessary to protest us all, that January 6th was the real insurrection and that Biden and Democrats didn’t cheat during the 2020 elections.

As German Nazi politician who was the Gauleiter of Berlin and chief propagandist for the Nazi Party Joseph Goebbels said,

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Today the enemy of the state is anyone who tells the truth about the legacy and social media, about the negative impacts of getting jabbed and the incompetency of Biden administration.

Gird your loins, Kyle and we won’t stop contesting the uncontested absurdities of our government, media and social media platforms. Whether in the court room or public square we will be truthful.

You see we believe that “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

Let liberty thrive and justice be done.

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

Woke Criminal Justice Reform Has Completely Failed

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Today, we romp through some adventures in Woke criminal justice reform to show you this grand experiment has completely failed.

A spike in fentanyl overdose deaths in Colorado is directly attributable to the Democrats reducing possession of hard drugs to a misdemeanor in 2019.  Business owners in Portland are hiring private security to protect their businesses because Portland defunded the police.

A man who stalked and killed an Asian woman in New York City had been arrested seven times in the previous nine months, but let go because of no-or-low-bail policies.  A Los Angeles man was arrested three times in one day because of a no-bail policy.  He’s a piker.  Back in New York, a subway mugger was arrested 16 times in one day.  In Los Angeles, low-or-no bail policies figured into the eulogy of a fallen officer in Los Angeles delivered by a police lieutenant who blamed the gang attack on the fallen officer on California’s Woke anti-police climate.  The father of a 24-year-old graduate student who was murdered in L.A. blamed politicians who let criminals roam free on the streets.

Also in L.A., police are cutting out minor traffic stops like for missing license plates in order to “eliminate bias”.  Thousands of weapons are confiscated through such enforcement, so L.A. just got more dangerous, thanks to Woke criminal justice reform.

Business leaders, police officers, prosecutors, and even Democrat politicians in New York City are criticizing the Woke D.A.’s policies for downgrading felonies, abandoning prison sentences for some crimes, and not prosecuting certain other crimes at all.  You know something’s wrong when a 32-time offender sings the praises of bail reform in New York.  He says he’s “grateful” for being let out all the time because he’s getting too old to be in jail.

Democrats in Washington state rushed to “reimagine policing” in 2021, but are reversing course now.  Last year, they ushered in new laws limiting when police can use force, use certain weapons, or chase suspects.  But now they’re going back to allowing interventions in mental health situations and loosening the weapons ban.

Another confession of error comes from Joe Biden who recently said defunding the police is not the answer.  Boy, is he singing a different tune these days.  On the campaign trail, he promised to ‘redirect’ funds away from the police.

One of the drivers of Woke criminal justice reform is so-called ‘mass incarceration’, the idea that too many young black men are in jail.  Now I’m going to say something some might consider controversial.  If you don’t want mass incarceration, then it’s time to figure out how to get young black males to voluntarily conform their behavior to the minimum standards set forth in the criminal code.  To do that, you’re going to have to disrupt the cultural scripting by which they operate – the cultural scripting that says achieving any success in life or even staying out of trouble is too ‘white’ and to be avoided at all costs.  How do I know this cultural scripting exists?  Because I watched it in action with my own two eyes when I was a criminal defense attorney for seven years with virtually all young black men for clients.  I talked to them and got to learn what made them tick.  End the destructive cultural scripting going on in the black community and you will end mass incarceration.  Turning a blind eye to crime and pretending it doesn’t exist is not the answer, as any victim of black-on-black crime will tell you.

Visit The Daily Skirmish and Watch Eagle Headline News – 7:30am ET Weekdays

©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

Doctor fired for refusing the COVID shot says health network misled employees to get the experimental Covid jab

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The left’s terrible horrible lies to pursue tyrannical control are killing us. Literally.

Doctor fired for refusing the COVID shot says health network misled employees to encourage vaccine uptake

A New Jersey doctor who was fired for refusing the COVID jab told LifeSite his former health network failed to look into data contradicting the mainstream narrative and instead relied on ‘propaganda and pseudo statistical hocus pocus.’

By: Lifesite News, Feb 16, 2022:

PHILLIPSBURG, New Jersey — A New Jersey medical doctor who was fired last year for refusing to take the experimental COVID-19 jab says his health network made “false and misleading statements” to encourage employees to get the shots, and “failed to consider compelling evidence that the mainstream COVID narrative was seriously flawed.”

The doctor now plans to sue his former employer for wrongful termination, and also intends to file a lawsuit against a telemedicine credentialing company he believes refused to credential him because of his stance on the increasingly mandated injections.

In a phone interview Monday, Dr. William Braun M.D., who graduated from Rutgers University in 1985 and has held a supervisory role overseeing family practice residents for roughly 30 years, said his career with St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) came to an abrupt end last summer.

In August 2021, SLUHN CEO Richard A. Anderson sent out a memo to all hospital employees advising them that they would need to become fully vaccinated by September 25 or lose their jobs.

In the email, which Dr. Braun forwarded to LifeSite, Anderson repeated the mainstream view that COVID-19 had become “a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” a claim challenged by studies and public data showing spiking hospitalizations and deaths among the “fully vaccinated,” along with the steadily nosediving real-world efficacy of the experimental COVID-19 drugs.

Months earlier, per another document obtained by LifeSite, Anderson had also asserted that “the vaccine prevents asymptomatic spread” of COVID, a claim walked back by public health experts including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) head Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Dr. Braun, who has extensively researched the COVID-19 drugs as well as studies contradicting the mainstream narrative surrounding them, told LifeSiteNews he decided to challenge his employer’s jab mandate.

According to Braun, in an effort to encourage vaccine uptake, SLUHN had made “false and misleading statements” in its “two missives to the employees.”

The email exchange obtained by LifeSite shows Braun responded to the August directive with a series of questions.

Among the doctor’s queries were whether St. Luke’s leadership was aware that public health experts have acknowledged the jabs don’t stop transmission, whether they knew that data from Israel strongly challenged the efficacy of the shots, and whether the health system was aware of the harmful effects of the spike proteins produced by the mRNA drugs.

In addition, Braun asked if the health network was “willing to take financial responsibility for any serious adverse reactions that may befall us” by getting the jab.

The doctor said he “never got a written, comprehensive answer to any of my questions.”

St. Luke’s did not immediately respond to LifeSite’s request for comment.

Anticipating his future termination from his role, Braun nevertheless bolstered his case against the jab mandate by creating and sending a heavily-sourced document providing summaries of studies showing the inefficacy and danger of the injections along with the ethical problems of coercing people to take drugs that are not licensed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and whose clinical trials are not set to wrap up until 2023 at the earliest.

“All the vaccines available in the U.S., that’s the key phrase: ‘available in U.S.’, are experimental, and therefore this is an experimental therapy,” Braun told LifeSite. “And by threatening to fire somebody, you’re trying to coerce them to take an experimental therapy.”

Braun also argued that being fired for refusing an “experimental therapy” violated his rights under the Nuremberg Code, a series of medical ethics crafted at the end of World War II to guard against future atrocities like those committed by the Nazis, which included conducting medical experiments on prisoners in concentration camps.

Meanwhile, Braun is not alone in arguing that the Pfizer jabs currently available in the U.S. are not the same as the drugs which were granted “full approval” by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year.

Earlier this month, The Epoch Times reported that “few, if any” of the FDA-approved COVID-19 Pfizer drugs labeled “Comirnaty” are available in the U.S. Instead, only an unbranded version of the Pfizer drug, which is still under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), is being distributed.

The FDA has stated the Comirnaty and unbranded drugs “are legally distinct with certain differences,” which they say “do not impact safety or effectiveness.”

However the distinction has caused concern.

Matthew Staver, founder and chairman of the Liberty Counsel, a legal group, argued in a statement obtained by The Epoch Times that since “[t]here is currently no fully FDA-approved licensed COVID shot available to the population” and “[e]verything that is available remain[s] under the EUA law,” people should “have the option to accept or refuse the shots.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has also made the point that Comirnaty is not available in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Dr. Braun told LifeSite that he believes the studies used to promote jab mandates rely on faulty science.

According to Braun, the CDC, FDA, and other agencies which have forwarded studies to justify universal vaccination “are essentially engaging in propaganda and pseudo statistical hocus pocus.”

“None of the studies that they present show things that real epidemiologists would be interested in, for example, an absolute risk reduction number for an important endpoint like death or ICU admissions whenever they present a study,” Braun argued.

Regardless of his efforts to prove the inefficacy of the COVID drugs, in September 2021 Braun was terminated from his position. He now plans to levy a legal challenge against St. Luke’s for wrongful termination.

According to the health network, Braun was among 155 employees who lost their jobs for refusing to get the experimental shots.

RELATED ARTICLE: FDNY Union Head Calls For Investigation Into Recent Department Deaths And COVID Jabs

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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Biden Slammed Over Press Conference On Russian Invasion: ‘The Defining Image Of His Failed Presidency’

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Another disastrous press conference from our utterly pathetic POTUS.  Taiwan is next. Buckle up folks.

Biden Slammed Over Press Conference On Russian Invasion: ‘The Defining Image Of His Failed Presidency’

By Daily Wire, February 22, 2022

Democrat President Joe Biden was slammed on Tuesday over remarks that he made during a press conference on Russia’s invasion into Ukraine and his subsequent refusal to answer questions from the media.

The negative comments toward Biden come as critics blame him for the situation that is unfolding in Ukraine because of the administration’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan, which signaled weakness, and the administration’s decision to lift sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Notable criticisms of Biden’s press conference performance included:

  • Kayleigh McEnany, former WH press secretary: “Biden turns his back to the American People, taking no questions after warning about the “COSTS” Americans should be prepared to pay because of the Russia invasion he paved the way for!”
  • Jake Schneider, RNC: “Once again, Biden turns his back on the press and shuffles away in what has become the defining image of his failed presidency.”
  • House Judiciary GOP: “Per usual, Joe Biden takes no questions. Weak.”
  • Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR): “President Biden’s weak sanctions aren’t even half measures—they’re quarter measures.”
  • Marshall Billingslea, former Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing at the Treasury Department: “Today @POTUS announced sanctions on just 2 banks, one of which — VEB — has been under select restrictions since 2014. In terms of sovereign debt, the US already has certain prohibitions in place since 2019, & expanded in 2021. No oligarchs or Russian officials targeted today. For those who are interested, here is the 2014 action on VEB and the Biden Admin’s own expanded sanctions on sovereign debt, already in place since April 2021. Not much bark today, and very little bite. This will not deter Putin.”
  • Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL): “Joe Biden’s address about Ukraine was disgraceful. The sanctions that he announced might have been good 2 months ago, but not now. America, let’s be very clear… Putin is happy Joe Biden is @POTUS ! This is so sad for our nation and our allies.”
  • Mark Meadows, former WH COS: “Putin is walking all over America and our allies because he sees weakness at the top. Period. We are a country in need of strong leadership. And right now, the sad truth is we don’t have it.”
  • Benny Johnson, political commentator: “Biden waddles away from reporters like it’s an Olympic sport as they yell questions on his Ukraine calamity.”
  • Stephen L. Miller, political commentator: “Biden walks away without taking questions.” He added,  “Journalists are willing props for this president and nothing else.”
  • Rita Panahi, political commentator: “Familiar scene. But thank god there’ll be no mean tweets today.”
  • Ronna McDaniel, RNC Chairwoman: “Biden claims he predicted every single thing Putin has done. If he saw it coming… then he failed to stop it.”
  • Monica Crowley, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury: “Watching Biden speak is like watching a little old lady cross an icy street.”

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RELATED ARTICLE: John Kerry: Ukraine conflict cannot be a distraction from climate change action

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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VIDEO: Kyle Rittenhouse Plans to Sue Whoopi and Other Celebrities For Defaming and Blood-Libeling Him

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So living for this …… Rittenhouse told Tucker Carlson “We’re looking at quite a few, politicians, athletes, celebrities, Whoopi Goldberg is on the list, she called me a murderer after I was acquitted.”

Kyle Rittenhouse says he will sue Whoopi Goldberg and other ‘celebrities, politicians and athletes’ for calling him a murderer after he was acquitted of killing two men during Kenosha protest

  • Kyle Rittenhouse has said he intends to take legal action against media outlets and ‘celebrities, politicians and athletes’ that have called him a ‘murderer’
  • Rittenhouse told Fox News he feels several organizations and people were misguided in their coverage of the Kenosha incident He said he was going to set up The Media Accountability Project as a tool to help fundraise and hold the media accountable for the’ lies that were told about him’
  • Claims he has plans to sue talk show host Whoopi Goldberg and Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur both of whom continue to call him ‘a murderer’ NBA superstar LeBron James also accused Rittenhouse of pretending to cry after the teen broke down on the stand during his double murder trial
  • President Biden tweeted how Rittenhouse was a ‘white supremacist’
  • Rittenhouse shot the men during during a street protest in Kenosha in 2020
  • He killed Anthony Huber, Joseph Rosenbaum and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz
  • A jury last year acquitted him of multiple charges, including homicide

By James Gordon For Dailymail.com, 21 February 2022 |

Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse plans to take aim at the people and organizations who called him a ‘murderer’, a ‘white supremacist’ among other things in the run up to his trial and subsequent acquittal.

Rittenhouse killed two men and wounded a third during confrontations amid anti-police protests in Kenosha in August 2020. He testified that he acted in self-defense.

Last November, the 18-year-old was found not guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and other charges, and walked out of court a free man.

Speaking on Tucker Carlson on Fox News on Monday night, Rittenhouse said he wanted to hold major media and entertainment figures ‘accountable’ noting that he had talk show host Whoopi Goldberg in his sights.
Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse has said he intends to take legal action against media outlets and ‘celebrities, politicians and athletes’ that have called him a ‘murderer’

Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse has said he intends to take legal action against media outlets and ‘celebrities, politicians and athletes’ that have called him a ‘murderer’
Rittenhouse told Tucker Carlson on Fox News on Monday night that he feels several organizations and people were misguided in their coverage of him and the Kenosha incident

Rittenhouse told Tucker Carlson on Fox News on Monday night that he feels several organizations and people were misguided in their coverage of him and the Kenosha incident

‘We are looking at quite a few politicians, celebrities, athletes, Whoopi Goldberg is on the list. She called me a murderer after I was acquitted by a jury of my peers. She went on to still say that, and there’s others,’ Rittenhouse told Carlson.
Rittenhouse said he was going to set up The Media Accountability Project as a tool to help fundraise and hold the media accountable for the’ lies that were told about him’

Rittenhouse said he was going to set up The Media Accountability Project as a tool to help fundraise and hold the media accountable for the’ lies that were told about him’

He also revealed that Cenk Uygur the founder of the Young Turks show is on his scope adding that he ‘continues to call me a ‘murderer.”

The Young Turks show is a liberal and left-wing news commentary show on YouTube that additionally appears on selected television channels.

‘What about the people who called you a white supremacist? It makes it pretty hard to get a job for the rest of your life if you are a white supremacist. Will you be responding to them?’ Carlson asked.

‘Absolutely. We’re going to hold everybody who lied about me accountable, such as everybody who lied called me a White supremacist,’ Rittenhouse said in response. ‘They’re all going to be held accountable. And we’re going to handle them in a courtroom.’

Rittenhouse refused to be drawn on who else may come under fire from him but there may end up being quite a list including the President of the United States, Joe Biden.

Two months before Biden was elected president, he criticized then-President Trump for refusing to condemn people who are against the Black Lives Matter riots as ‘white supremacists.’

The tweet from the then-candidate included an image from a video clip of Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shooting.

‘There’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night,’ Biden tweeted in September 2020.

After a jury determined that Rittenhouse did not act with ‘utter disregard for human life’ when he shot the two protesters, Biden delicately weighed in on the verdict – but walk back on his pre-election Tweet.

‘While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken.

‘I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law. Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy.’

At the time, Rittenhouse’s lawyer, Mark Richards, said he was dismayed by Biden’s depiction of him as a white supremacist.

‘I’ve never had a case, I don’t think I ever will, where within two days or three days of one another, you know, the President and the presidential candidate comment on it. And both of them had such different beliefs,’ Richards said.

‘President Biden said some things, I think are so incorrect and untrue — he is not a white supremacist. I’m glad that he at least respects the jury verdict.”

NBA superstar LeBron James also accused Rittenhouse of pretending to cry after the teen broke down on the stand during his double murder trial.

In response to the video of him sobbing as he claimed self-defense for killing Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber in 2020, James tweeted, ‘What tears?????’

‘I didn’t see one. Man knock it off! That boy ate some lemon heads before walking into court.’

In December, Rittenhouse fired back at LeBron saying: ‘I was really p****d off when he said that because I liked LeBron, and then I’m like, you know what, f*** you, LeBron.’

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Quick note: Tech giants are shutting us down. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense, Pinterest permanently banned us. Facebook, Google search et al have shadow-banned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here. We will not waver. We will not tire. We will not falter, and we will not fail. Freedom will prevail.

Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here — it’s free and it’s critical NOW when informed decision making and opinion is essential to America’s survival. Share our posts on your social channels and with your email contacts. Fight the great fight.

Follow me on Gettr. I am there, click here. It’s open and free.

Remember, YOU make the work possible. If you can, please contribute to Geller Report.