Tag Archives: The Epoch Times

Economic Vulnerability

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

A strong economy is essential to the security of any nation. Not only to provide a reasonable standard of living for its citizens, but as protection from external adversaries. This was never more evident than in World War II when American industrial might saved the world from fascist tyranny.  As the “Arsenal of Democracy,” America provided the military equipment and weapons without which Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan would have succeeded in their wars of conquest. This was made possible, in large part, by the conversion of existing factories producing consumer goods to producing military hardware. Unfortunately, the American economy does not have the dominant manufacturing capabilities that we once had.

Let’s look at manufacturing in America today. It is difficult to find any manufactured product nowadays that is not labeled “Made in China.” In 1980, 22% of jobs in the U.S. were in manufacturing; now that percentage is 8%. Just this past July, 24,000 manufacturing jobs were lost. In addition, many factories are owned by foreign entities. The recent approval by the Biden/Harris administration to allow the purchase of U.S. Steel by a Japanese company is a perfect example of what has been occurring. Not only has this been occurring in the manufacturing sector, but with pharmaceuticals as well. Many Americans were shocked during the COVID crisis to find out that most of our essential medications are manufacture overseas. A disruption in the supply chain signaled what could happen if a global conflict occurred.

Recently, we have begun to rely on imports of essential food products. A recent article in the Epoch Times reported that thousands of U.S. cattle raising operations have gone out of business. This appears to be due to increasing imports of beef from Mexico and South America as well as the burden of green energy demands imposed on U.S. farmers. In addition, China has been greatly expanding its commercial fishing fleet. Like many things done by China, they are violating international restrictions. China was described as the world’s “biggest perpetrator of illegal fishing.” Not only does China have over 3,000 commercial fishing vessels deployed worldwide, but they pay poor countries to allow them to fly those countries flags so they can fish in their local waters. They are putting our fishing sector out of business and destroying fish stocks.

It should concern every American that our economy can no longer support our needs. Former President Trump recently announced his intention to reverse this dependency on foreign countries. One way is to give tax incentives to American corporations to return production to this county and cancel the green new deal. So far, no comments from the Harris campaign on this critical issue.

The New Jobs Report

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On Friday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the latest jobs report. The economy is cooling down, which will probably provide the Federal Reserve with an excuse to lower interest rates in the hope of providing a Democrat election victory.

The article reports:

The U.S. economy created fewer jobs than the market projected in August as the overheated labor market of the past few years continues to show signs of cooling off.

Last month, payrolls increased by 142,000, falling short of the consensus estimate of 160,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The unemployment rate eased to 4.2 percent, down from 4.3 percent in July. This was in line with economists’ expectations.

Average hourly wages surged at a higher-than-expected pace of 0.7 percent, up from a 0.1 percent drop in July—this was revised from the initial report of 0.2 percent growth. Average hourly earnings also climbed to a better-than-expected year-over-year rate of 3.8 percent, up from 3.6 percent.

The labor force participation rate was unchanged at 62.7 percent. Average weekly hours ticked up to 34.3 from 34.2.

Much of the job creation was concentrated in construction (34,000), health care (31,000), government (24,000), and social assistance (13,000).

There were some other interesting numbers in the report:

So far this year, the total number of downward job revisions equals 372,000.

The number of people working two or more jobs increased by 65,000 to 8.538 million.

In August, full-time jobs plummeted by more than 400,000, and part-time employment increased by 527,000.

Inflation is hurting all Americans, and until the government stops its runaway spending, inflation will continue to be a problem.

 

 

Curiouser And Curiouser

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On Thursday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the person who attempted to assassinate President Trump. We have a whole lot more questions about that attempt than we do answers.

The article reports:

The man who fired shots at former President Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania had encrypted accounts in multiple countries, according to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives task force investigating the attempted assassination.

“We haven’t learned much about those overseas accounts,” Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) said at a press conference in Chicago on Aug. 21. “We do know they were in … Belgium, New Zealand, and Germany.”

Waltz is on the “Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump.”

…“Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care aide need encrypted platforms, not even based in the United States, but based abroad, where most terrorist organizations know it is harder for our law enforcement to get into?” Waltz said.

He said that the question had not yet been answered.

The article concludes:

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. told Congress in July that discipline may follow once the agency finishes its internal probe into the situation.

“That roof should have had better coverage, and we will get to the bottom of if there were any policy violations,” he said at one point.

Rowe added later that he would not provide real-time updates on disciplinary measures but would “at a high level provide at least some type of statement that people are being held accountable.”

Kimberly Cheatle, who was the Secret Service’s director before stepping down after Trump was nearly assassinated, said on July 22 that the Secret Service’s initial report about rally security would be ready in 60 days.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is also conducting an investigation.

I don’t care if there were any policy violations–a President was almost killed while supposedly under Secret Service protections. Heads need to roll.

Watch The Margin

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On Friday (updated Saturday) The Epoch Times posted an article about the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the changes the Biden administration is attempting to make to Title IX. The Biden administration is attempting to add the concept of gender into the law. That change would bar discrimination of transgender men in women’s sports, locker rooms, restrooms, etc.

The article reports:

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 to reject the federal government’s bid to partially enforce its Title IX rule in 10 Republican-led states.

In a ruling handed down on Aug. 16, the high court left intact two separate lower court orders that blocked the entirety of the rule in Louisiana and nine other states that challenged it.

At the center of the disputes are three provisions, which include one declaring that the existing federal law against sex-based discrimination in education settings also prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The ruling was 5-4. That means that four of the justices were okay with the idea of men in women’s sports. Four of the justices had no problem with men taking scholarships from women who had worked their whole lives to earn them. Four of the justices had no problem with men in women’s dressing rooms. This ruling tells us why the Biden administration is attacking the Supreme Court–they are one vote away from radically changing America.

The article notes:

The rule also addresses gendered pronouns and sex-separate spaces like bathrooms, locker rooms, and shower areas, clarifying that schools and colleges could lose federal funding if they don’t address students by their preferred pronouns or allow them to use facilities corresponding to their gender identity.

The federal government had asked the Supreme Court to partially lift those orders, a relief that would sever the three key provisions while allowing the other unchallenged parts of the rule to go into effect.

Four justices would have let part of the rule take effect, but the full bench agreed that the key changes the federal government has sought to implement, including the re-definition of “sex-based discrimination” to include gender identity and the restrictions on maintaining sex-separated spaces, should remain blocked.

We are one Supreme Court Justice away from insanity.

 

The Economic News Is Questionable At Best

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On Friday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the latest unemployment numbers. Bidenomics does not seem to be all that it is cracked up to be.

The article reports:

The U.S. economy created fewer jobs than expected while the unemployment rate increased, signaling that the labor market could be going through a rapid deceleration at a time when the Federal Reserve could soon be cutting interest rates.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were 114,000 new jobs in July, down from 179,000 in June. This fell short of the consensus estimate of 175,000.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.3 percent, up from 4.1 percent, and higher than economists’ expectations of 4.1 percent. This represents the highest jobless rate since October 2021.

Average hourly earnings eased to a smaller-than-expected pace of 3.6 percent year-over-year. On a monthly basis, average hourly earnings edged up 0.2 percent.

The labor force participation rate inched higher to 62.7 percent, from 62.6 percent. Average weekly hours slipped to 34.2, from 34.3.

Health care accounted for much of the jobs, with 55,000 new positions added last month. This was followed by construction (25,000) and government (17,000).

The article also noted:

Additionally, the household portion of the monthly jobs report, which removes duplication, showed the economy created 67,000 new jobs.

The number of people working two or more jobs surged to 8.473 million, up from 8.34 million. Full-time workers advanced by 448,000, while part-time workers declined by 325,000.

The divergence between U.S.-born and foreign-born workers widened compared to a year ago. U.S.-born workers tumbled by more than 1.2 million from July 2023. By comparison, foreign-born workers increased by roughly 1.3 million.

The economy right now has high inflation and wages that are not keeping up with inflation. The easiest way to ease inflation would be to resume domestic drilling and cut federal spending. Both would require the voters to make changes in both the White House and Congress in November.

Good News For The January 6th Political Prisoners

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Reader alert: this is one of those stories I occasionally post that I really don’t understand the repercussions of.

On Wednesday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the repercussions of the Supreme Court’s ruling involving obstruction charges against the January 6th defendants.

The article reports:

U.S. prosecutors have started dropping obstruction charges against defendants alleged to have been involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, in the wake of a crucial Supreme Court decision.

Government prosecutors informed defendants and the judge overseeing the defendants’ cases that it will drop charges brought under federal law Section 1512(c)(2) in light of the ruling from the nation’s top court, according to a July 15 filing.

“This decision was made in order to avoid disruption to the trial schedule for a five-defendant case, and the dismissal eliminates the need for additional litigation as to the sufficiency of the Section 1512 charge as applied to these defendants,” the prosecutors told the judge.

…“Given the length of time this case has been pending, the specific facts of this case, the other relevant charges, the current trial date, and the need to promote judicial economy and efficiency, the United States requests that Count One be dismissed without prejudice in the interests of justice and that trial proceed on the remaining counts on August 12, 2024,” prosecutors said.

Defendants in other cases, and multiple people who have been convicted and are awaiting sentencing, have asked judges to consider the effect of the ruling. Some of the judges have ordered prosecutors to file briefs presenting their positions on what impact the ruling has on charges against the defendants.

The article notes:

Supreme Court justices said in the ruling, released June 28, that federal prosecutors went overboard in their application of Section 1512, which was approved by Congress in the aftermath of the Enron scandal and bars altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing records.

The law also says that a person who “otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

Prosecutors said that the latter part of the law cover various crimes carried out by Jan. 6 defendants, a view rejected by the court’s majority.

It’s interesting that some of these charges are being dropped in view of a possible election victory by President Trump in November. Will the people who actually riot on President Trump’s inauguration day (as they did in January 2017) actually be put in jail?

A Step In The Right Direction

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On Wednesday, The Epoch Times reported that the House of Representatives has passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE), which requires proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections in America.

The article notes:

The bill was approved in a mostly party-line vote of 221–198.

Five Democrats—Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Donald Davis (D-N.C.), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Vincente Gonzalez Jr. (D-Texas), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.)—joined all Republicans in voting for the legislation. Other Democrats opposed the bill, arguing that it’s redundant with existing prohibitions on noncitizen voting.

Are these the same people who are giving instructions on how to register to vote to illegal aliens at the southern border?

The article reports some of the discussion:

It would also require states to purge their voter rolls of any current noncitizens, in part by giving states no-cost access to databases run by the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration.

In a whip notice, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) advised Democrats against voting for the legislation, saying that it “irresponsibly [calls] into question the credibility of our elections.”

Democrats say that under the terms of the bill, it would become more difficult for natural-born and naturalized citizens to register to vote.

“It is already illegal under current law for noncitizens to register to vote or to vote in federal elections,” Ms. Clark’s office stated.

Republicans acknowledge that federal law technically prohibits voting by illegal immigrants, but they say there are loopholes that make it possible for an illegal immigrant to vote.

…Republicans’ concerns are primarily related to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), dubbed the Motor Voter law, which allows people to register to vote at the same time that they pick up a driver’s license from a Department of Motor Vehicles or other state agency.

Foreigners living permanently in the United States are encouraged to get a U.S. driver’s license; 19 states and the District of Columbia allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.

The NVRA does not allow states to ask for documentary proof of citizenship, instead requiring that they take an individual’s word that they are a citizen unless the individual’s eligibility is called into question.

There are non-citizens currently voting in our elections. The penalty for voting when you are not a citizen needs to be deportation, and that rule needs to be enforced. I believe that will help solve the problem.

 

This Is How You Secure The Border

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On Tuesday, The Epoch Times posted an article about what has happened on the Texas-Mexico border since Governor Abbott implemented his state-level border security mission.

The article reports:

According to a statement released by Mr. Abbott’s office on June 14, the initiative has resulted in a 74 percent decrease in immigrants crossing into the state illegally in Texas since Operation Lone Star was launched in March 2021.

As part of the initiative, the Republican governor has deployed floating border barriers, installed wire fencing, and used the Texas National Guard to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

Since the program was launched, the multi-agency effort has led to nearly 514,000 illegal immigrant apprehensions and more than 44,000 criminal arrests, with more than 38,600 felony charges, the statement said.

His office also emphasizes that law enforcement officials have seized over 489 million lethal doses of the synthetic opioid fentanyl during this period, noting the quantity seized is enough to “kill every man, woman, and child in the United States and Mexico combined.”

If closing the border is that simple, why are the politicians in Washington leaving it open? It is open because the uni-party in Washington wants it open. The influx of illegals provides cheap labor for the Republican corporate types and future voters for the Democrats. Many American voters have realized that the Democrat party does not represent mainstream America, so the Democrat party is importing new voters. The Republican corporate types are so greedy (and possibly too dumb) to see the danger and put a stop to the open border.

The article notes:

The Republican governor, meanwhile, criticized the Biden administration for its poor handling of the border situation, saying the new border executive order President Joe Biden signed earlier this month “will do little to stem the flow of illegal immigration into the country.”

“As long as the Biden Administration refuses to provide any type of enforcement, any type of blockage, of people crossing illegally, all that this new Biden policy is going to do is to actually attract and invite even more people to cross the border illegally,” he said in the statement, citing his appearance on Fox News.

Mr. Abbott referred to President Biden’s new executive order suspending asylum requests at certain times to deter illegal border crossings.

The Great Reset May Have Just Been Reset

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On Sunday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the recent elections in Europe. It seems that a lot of countries in the world are getting tired and being controlled by a global elite that believes in rules for thee but not for me. Just as Brexit was one of the indicators that President Trump might be victorious in 2016, the current elections in Europe might indicate a world-wide trend (as in Argentina and El Salvador).

The article reports:

After polls closed in all European Union countries, the center-right group in the European Parliament that currently holds the most seats gained the most, while the centrist Renew Europe group and the Greens group lost the most seats in the union’s parliament.

Right-wing parties didn’t quite make the substantial gains that were predicted.

The largest political group in the European Parliament, the center-right European People’s Party, gained 10 seats, according to the early counts released by the European Parliament as of 4:20 p.m. on June 10. The preliminary counts also identified the biggest losers as Renew Europe, losing 23 seats, and the Greens/European Free Alliance, losing 18 seats.

The number of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) not affiliated with any political group decreased by 17.

Voters also elected 55 new MEPs who were not allied to any of the political groups of the outgoing Parliament, according to early counts. They will have an opportunity to join any existing political group, form new groups, or stay unaffiliated, according to an EU spokesperson.
The EU requires that at least 23 MEPs representing one-quarter of EU nations must come together to form a political group.

The article notes:

The star of a stunning electoral night was the right-wing French National Rally party of Marine Le Pen, which dominated the French polls to such an extent that French President Emmanuel Macron immediately dissolved the national parliament and called for a new election.

Ms. Le Pen’s party is estimated to have won more than 30 percent of the vote, or about twice as much as the coalition that includes Mr. Macron’s Renaissance party, which is projected to reach less than 15 percent of support.

“We’re ready to turn the country around, ready to defend the interests of the French, ready to put an end to mass immigration,” Ms. Le Pen said.

Her party can potentially gain 12 seats in the European Parliament.

With almost all ballots counted, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s conservative Brothers of Italy party is predicted to win about 28 percent of the vote, more than four times what it took in the last EU election in 2019 and exceeding the 26 percent it secured in the 2022 national ballot when it rose to power.

The party is allied with the right-wing ECR parliamentarian group and is expected to gain 14 seats in the European Parliament.

Its opposition center-left Democratic Party is predicted to get 24 percent of the vote, while another opposition group, the Five Star Movement, came third with nearly 10 percent, according to the parliament’s projection.

My interpretation on this is that people are moving away from the extreme control of the political left. Farmers want to farm, ranchers want to ranch, and generally people want to be left alone by their government. It will be interesting to see if the populist movement also triumphs in America. America used to lead, but in this case I would be happy to see America follow.

Adding To The Circus

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Most Americans have figured out at this point that the New York City trial of President Trump is actually a campaign donation to the Biden campaign. No one seems to be quite sure exactly what the President is charged with, and a lot of the testimony doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with the case. Well, now there is a new twist.

On May 13th, The Federalist reported the following:

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s paralegal testified on Friday that his office deleted from their evidence three pages of phone records between convicted liar Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson without notifying former President Donald Trump’s legal team, according to reports.

Trump attorney Emil Bove questioned paralegal Jaden Jarmel-Schneider on Friday about three pages of 2018 phone records between Davidson and Cohen that Bragg’s office had deleted, according to CNN. Additional phone records between Daniels manager Gina Rodriguez and then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard regarding Daniels’ claim about her alleged affair were also deleted, according to The Epoch Times.

The altered call records were submitted into evidence, but Bragg’s office did not tell Trump’s team that three pages were missing, The Epoch Times reported.

The article also notes:

Trump’s defense also made a motion for a mistrial, which Judge Juan Merchan denied. Merchan also kneecapped Trump’s team from defending the former president by limiting what former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith could say when testifying about campaign finance-related issues, noted Steve Roberts and Oliver Roberts in The Federalist Friday.

Is there an honest person somewhere in the New York State legal system that will end this travesty?

Fixing An Obvious Problem

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On Tuesday, The Epoch Times reported that Representative Chip Roy has introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would require documentary proof of United States citizenship in order to register to vote. This is an idea whose time has come. One of the reasons for the flow of illegals into America is to create a new voter base–the old voter base is getting tired of Democrat shenanigans.

The article reports:

It lists several acceptable documents to verify the citizenship of a would-be voter, including a REAL ID compliant identification, a U.S. passport, a military ID card, or any valid state, federal or tribal identification, such as a birth certificate, hospital record, or adoption certificate, showing that the individual was born in, or is a naturalized citizen of, the United States.

The bill also provides for accommodations for mail-in voting registration or those unable to produce documentary proof of citizenship, who can undergo a separate process to have their citizenship verified.

States would also be required to “take affirmative steps on an ongoing basis to ensure that only United States citizens are registered to vote,” including clearing the voter rolls of those who are ineligible to vote due to their status as noncitizens. To that end, the bill also clarifies the conditions under which a state may seek to remove an individual from voter rolls.

Additionally, the bill would require the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to investigate noncitizens who are illegally registered to vote, up to and including the possibility of removal proceedings.

The article notes:

As so many illegal immigrants are already in the country, current law raises red flags that could potentially affect the outcome of the election, Mr. Johnson said.

“There’s so many millions of illegals in the country, that if only one out of one hundred voted, they would cast potentially hundreds of thousands of votes,” Mr. Johnson said. “That could turn an election.”

Critics of the bill have retorted that federal law already prohibits illegal immigrants from voting.

However, due to the Supreme Court’s expansion of the NVRA in 2013, existing laws include no solid mechanism for states to ensure that their voters are citizens.

When America was founded, only landowners were allowed to vote because they had a ‘stake’ in the government. Today we need to make sure that only people who are American citizens and have a ‘stake’ in the government are allowed to vote.

When Documents Are Unsealed…

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On Tuesday, The Epoch Times posted an article about some recent unsealed documents regarding government surveillance President Trump.

The article reports:

A federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case unsealed a new trove of documents on Monday, revealing the FBI’s code name for the investigation and how the FBI spoke about performing “loose surveillance” on the former president’s aircraft before an unprecedented raid in 2022.

The name, “Plasmic Echo,” was revealed in unredacted court filings that were made public by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon. A February 2022 case file that was attached was marked with, “[Redacted] PLASMIC ECHO; Mishandling of Classified or National Defense Information.” Notably, the FBI has used unusual names for prior investigations such as Crossfire Hurricane, Varsity Blues, Tin Panda, and Lemon-Aid.

Among the documents the judge released Monday also included an FBI claim from June 2022 in which a counterintelligence official, whose name was not included, talked about carrying out “loose surveillance” on President Trump’s plane to see if “boxes were loaded onto the plane.”

The article notes:

“Prior to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team’s entry onto the MAL premises, FBI leadership informed and coordinated with local United States Secret service (USSS) leadership. Local USSS facilitated entry onto the premises, provided escort and access to various locations within, and posted USSS personnel in locations where the FBI team conducted searches,” the file said.

In the newly unsealed filing, it noted that four agents from the FBI Washington field office, 25 agents from the FBI Miami office, one FBI official from the agency’s headquarters, one Department of Justice (DOJ) counterintelligence and export control lawyer, and one official from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of Florida were involved.

For what it’s worth, I am convinced that the documents that the Biden administration (yes, the Biden-Obama administration is behind this) wants to get its hands on are the documents relating to the Russia Hoax and the spying on the Trump campaign, the Trump transition team, and possibly the Trump presidency. President Trump declassified those documents while in office, and there are a lot of people who have a vested interest in making sure that the American public never sees them.

This Is Called Changing The Subject

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A lot of us are very unhappy that the law allowing warrantless surveillance of Americans was extended. FISA stands for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Most of us would be okay if the act was strictly used to surveil foreigners, but history tells us that it has been used illegally to spy on innocent Americans. The fact that many Republicans voted to extend the act is unfortunate. That is not what they were elected to do. Unfortunately, according to the list of people who voted for the extension that I have seen, our own Representative, Greg Murphy, voted for the extension. I can only assume that these Representatives were told that if there were a terrorist attack and the bill was not extended, they would be held responsible by the media. Knowing the intelligence community’s ability to stage false-flag events and the media’s ability to mislead the public, this might have been the tactic used. That is simply my opinion.

President Trump, who did not support the extension but wanted to save the day for the Republicans, held a press conference with Speaker Johnson at Mar-a-Lago.

On Friday, The Epoch Times reported:

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and former President Donald Trump are urging support for a bill aimed at preventing non-citizens from voting in federal elections.

At a Friday, April 12, press conference at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence, the Republican leaders announced the bill as part of larger efforts to bolster election integrity.

“What we’re going to do is introduce legislation to require that every single person who registers to vote in a federal election must prove that they are an American citizen first,” Mr. Johnson said.

This is a great idea, but will create some problems. What will be required of voters in order to prove their citizenship? I was talking to someone today who does not have a birth certificate–the person was born at home in rural America and the birth was recorded in the family Bible. How can that person prove that they are an American? How many elderly Americans do not have birth certificates, passports, or documents to prove they are Americans? Does your social security card prove you are an American (those can be counterfeited)? It will be interesting to watch what happens to this plan as it moves forward.

When The Courts Limit The Bureaucracy, Life Is Good!

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On Friday, The Epoch Times reported that a Texas judge has struck down a regulation that was issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in 2023.

The article reports:

The rule was issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in 2023 as part of President Biden’s efforts to slash carbon emissions in half by 2030.

Specifically, it required state transportation departments and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to both measure their transportation-related emissions on the U.S. highway system and set their own emission reduction targets.

Additionally, the measure required state DOTs and MPOs to report biennially on their progress in meeting the declining targets. FHWA would also assess the state’s progress toward achieving those targets, according to the rule.

Texas sued the DOT in December, arguing the agency lacked legal authority from Congress to enact the rule, and that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act.

In his ruling, Judge James Hendrix of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas agreed, stating that the Biden administration lacked authority under law to impose the greenhouse gas emissions performance measure.

“When a regulation attempts to override statutory text, the regulation loses every time, regulations can’t punch holes in the rules Congress has laid down,” the judge wrote, citing a previous case, Djie v. Garland.

The article concludes:

In finalizing the rule in December last year, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the performance measure would provide states with a “clear and consistent framework to track carbon pollution and the flexibility to set their own climate targets.” Officials also said transportation is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

A spokesperson for the highway administration, which is part of the Transportation Department, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement: “ The Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) remain committed to supporting the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate goals of cutting carbon pollution in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.”

“We are reviewing the Texas court’s decision and determining next steps,” the spokesperson added.

When are we going to go back to the time that the people who were elected to make the laws made the laws. We are being governed by a bunch of unelected bureaucrats, and that is not what our Founding Fathers designed. It’s time for Congress to read the Constitution and take their responsibilities seriously.

 

 

The Continuing Lawfare

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The Epoch Times reported yesterday that the lawfare against President Trump slowed slightly yesterday when the New York state Supreme Court’s First Judicial Department Appellate Division granted a stay of enforcement on the $464 million judgment on former President Donald Trump.

The article reports:

The New York state Supreme Court’s First Judicial Department Appellate Division has granted a stay of enforcement on the $464 million judgment on former President Donald Trump with conditions, allowing The Trump Organization to avert having assets imminently seized by the New York attorney general.

The order came after defense attorneys argued that a $464 million bond was impossible after having contracted four brokers to negotiate with more than 30 companies. Sureties don’t issue bonds that large for private individuals, and even if The Trump Organization were a public conglomerate they could issue such a bond to, it would require some $570 million in cash to cover additional premiums.

The court’s conditions for lowering the bond include President Trump posting $175 million within 10 days and the other orders on the judgment going into effect.

The judgment permanently bars former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg and former Comptroller Jeffrey McConney from serving in financial control of any New York business entity; permanently bars President Trump, Mr. Weisselberg, and Mr. McConney from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years; bars President Trump from applying for loans from New York financial institutions for three years; and bars Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump from serving as an officer or director in New York for two years.

There was no stay requested for the continuance of an independent monitor overseeing financial matters in The Trump Organization or the installation of a compliance officer.

Just for the record, there is no Constitutional justification for a government entity placing a monitor or a compliance officer in a private business. This is an affront to the concept of free enterprise that  built America. I would like to see every major business leave New York State until they rescind whatever ‘law’ they are using to justify their actions against President Trump.

The Attack On All Parts Of Our Food Supply

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On March 4th, The Epoch Times posted an article about a raid by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on an Amish farm in Pennsylvania.

The article reports:

In January, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, raided the Amos Miller Organic Farm, a longtime members-only organic farm in Lancaster County. Government agents took possession of many tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of food that had been produced on the farm for family and friends, people who rely on this farm for high-quality products that avoid factory methods, chemicals, and industrial processes.

This is the kind of food that many people around the country would love to buy but cannot because of the industrial cartels that control production and distribution in this country. Residents of Amish country are wildly fortunate to have such options, particularly as it pertains to raw milk products, which are widely considered to be more nutritious and delicious than processed milk. However, that truth is censored very heavily by YouTube, as part of the general censorship regime in operation now.

The article concludes:

What will save the food supply in this country is less government oversight and bullying and more of the free market that the Amish practice. It is highly dangerous for government powers to be deployed in harassing these people and thus further poisoning the food supply. I’m happy to admit that I was wrong on this subject for most of my writing career. But the COVID response taught me a thing or two. I learned that we cannot trust government oversight in any aspect of human health, particularly not that which affects our food.

And it’s not only about food. It’s also about religious freedom. Groups such as the Amish and so many others have thrived in the United States thanks to religious freedom. Their lifestyle and food choices are part of that. Take that away and you remove the whole guts of the whole basis of the American experience. It’s that serious.

Meanwhile, as government goes after raw milk, vast numbers suffer real injury from mRNA shots the government forced on millions of people. Pharma’s stocks continue to trade at high levels while true investigations get little attention by the captured corporate media outlets.

The Amos Miller Organic Farm deserves every passionate defense from anyone who values health and freedom. Make no mistake. The war on the organic farm is a war on all of us and only to the industrial benefit of large producers tightly connected to the cartel that runs agriculture in this country. The entire regulatory empire needs to be completely deregulated in the interest of the health and well-being of everyone.

Many of us wish we lived near a farm like the Amos Miller Organic Farm. The government is doing no one a favor by shutting it down.

America First: Military Defense Part II

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

This is a follow-up to a prior article where I outlined how our foreign policy should return to the principle of America First, which was advocated by our Founding Fathers. This article focuses on specific actions that should be taken for our defense. While I am admittedly not a military planning expert, these suggestions are based on common sense; a characteristic sorely missing in many of our current defense leadership who seem more focused on their “woke” agenda.

We are living in a dangerous time. During the Cold War, we only had to worry about the Soviet Union from the standpoint of nuclear conflict. Now with China, Russia, North Korea, Pakistan, and soon Iran, having nuclear capability, the situation is far more complex and dangerous. First: one of the things that President Reagan wisely did was to encourage the development of an effective missile defense system. This was not continued by subsequent administrations. We need to return to developing a missile defense system. If we don’t, we will be at the mercy of any rogue country that decides to launch an attack. Second: we need to establish a satellite defense system that will protect our essential satellites without which a modern war cannot be fought. President Trump’s decision to create an effective Space Force needs to be strongly supported. Third: we need to fortify and secure our electrical power grid from sabotage or direct attack. This must also include protecting the computer programs that control these systems. One of the dumbest proposals from the Left is offshore wind farms. I cannot think of anything more vulnerable than a power system fifty miles away from our shores. Fourth, we need to consolidate our current military forces. According to a recent article in the Epoch Times, we have over 200,000 military personnel scattered all over the globe. We need to refocus these deployments and encourage our allies to support their own defenses. Europe, South Korea, and Japan for example, should not be relying on us for their defense. We are 34 trillion dollars in debt!. Fifth, we need to focus on ensuring that we have the strongest Navy in the world. We should use this force as needed and then return them to proximity to our shores where their vulnerability to attack is lessoned as compared to stationing naval fleets all over the world. Sixth, we need to return to the principle contained in the Monroe Doctrine that declared the Western Hemisphere to be off limits to our adversaries. Allowing China to infiltrate countries like Venezuela and Ecuador is contrary to our interests.

The last item is dealing with the drug cartels in Mexico. The weaponization of mass illegal migration, is a direct threat of our survival as a country. The influx of fentanyl is estimated to kill 100,000 Americans each year and is now the greatest cause of death of American men between the age of 19 and 45. We fought terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. When are we going to get serious and destroy the drug cartels? That is a fight worth having.

The above will require a refocusing of our defense efforts. However, continuing what we have been doing is no longer tenable.

Standing Up to the Climate Hoax

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

It is becoming increasing apparent that not only is there no scientific evidence that manmade CO2 emissions are causing climate change, but that this hoax is being used by the Democrat Marxists to control us and limit our freedoms. It is also being used to enrich the elite at the expense the taxpayers and to raise energy bills dramatically higher.

A recent article in the Epoch Times revealed that the United Nation’s Convention on Climate Change deliberately altered their report so that any observed climate change would be falsely blamed on mankind’s burning of fossil fuels. Several scientists who objected to this unsubstantiated claim were ostracized and removed from the committee. World renowned physicist, Frederick Seitz, wrote in an article that he had never in his extensive career, including as President of the National Academy of Sciences, ever seen such corruption in the scientific review process and that no study to date has demonstrated that climate change is due to mankind’s use of fossil fuels. Recent reports by qualified experts have reported that rising CO2 levels are offset by increased plant growth and that CO2 levels do not increate warming, but rather the opposite. That is, rising climate temperature cycles caused by factors such as solar activity, produce an increase in CO2 and not the reverse.

So where does all this bring us? The only rational conclusion (in spite of what the environmental extremists and those making a huge profit from solar and wind farms) is that there is absolutely no need to restrict the use of fossil fuels. It is estimated that that the current effort to replace fossil fuels is costing the average American over $2,000 per year and rising. This will devastate our economy for absolutely no valid reason.

Here in North Carolina, we can fight back against this leftist agenda in at least two ways. First, repeal HB 951 passed into law in 2021 that requires electricity generating power plants to reduce their carbon emissions by 70% by 2030 and achieve carbon emission neutrality by 2050. Second, pass a law prohibiting the construction of offshore wind farms near Kitty Hawk and Bald Head Island that is being pushed by Governor Cooper. It should be noted, that solar and wind farm components are obtained from China while they continue to construct coal burning plants at an alarming rate.

The Republican controlled General Assembly needs to step up to the plate and stop this disastrous program before it is too late. Any candidate for office who does not recognize the danger posed by the Left’s extremist environmental program and is not willing to stand up against it does not deserve our support.

What Was Actually In Those Documents?

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Putting aside the fact that a Senator or Vice-President shouldn’t have classified documents in his home or garage, let’s take a look at what some of those documents were and how they might be related to other issues.

On Friday, The Epoch Times reported:

President Joe Biden retained documents related to Ukraine that were classified as “secret” and “confidential,” according to a report by Justice Department’s special counsel Robert Hur, released on Feb. 8.

The 388-page report states that the FBI found a folder labeled “VP Personal,” containing two documents—a telephone call sheet and talking points for a call with then-Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, which occurred on Dec. 11, 2015—marked as “secret.”

There is a handwritten note from President Biden in the upper-right corner of the sheet asking his executive assistant to “get [a] copy of this conversation from Sit Rm for my Records please.” The document was labeled “confidential” and “EYES ONLY DO NOT COPY.”

Additionally, one appendix in the report states that President Biden kept a memo with the subject line “U.S. Energy Assistance to Ukraine,” from September 2014. The results of the classification review indicate the memo was “confidential.”

President Biden served as vice president under the Obama administration at the time. His son, Hunter Biden, joined the board of directors of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings in May 2014.

Nothing like breaking the law to help and unqualified family member in his job.

The article concludes, reminding us:

Burisma contacted the source to seek assistance in buying a U.S. company to merge with, in the hope that it could go public in the United States.

After the disclosure of an investigation into Burisma by Ukraine’s prosecutor general Viktor Shokin in 2016, the source informed Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, that it could negatively affect the company’s prospective initial public offering.

Mr. Zlochevsky replied that Mr. Hunter Biden “will take care of all of those issues through his dad,” according to the document. Mr. Shokin resigned in March 2016.
President Biden in 2018 bragged at the Council of Foreign Relations that he got Mr. Shokin dismissed.

“‘We’re leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor’s not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” he said about his interaction with Ukrainian officials, referring to a $1 billion loan guarantee he threatened to withhold. “Well, son of a [expletive]. He got fired.”

Mr. Shokin has said that the threat was cited when he was ousted. He said in a sworn statement that then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked him to resign because of “pressure from the U.S. presidential administration, in particular from Joe Biden.”

But as of now, there will be no consequences for President Biden ignoring the laws he should have been enforcing.

Does America Have A Justice System?

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On Thursday, The Epoch Times reported that Special Counsel Robert Hur has announced that President Biden will not be charged for mishandling classified documents. I suppose it would be petty to point out that as a Senator or a private citizen he was not entitled to have those documents in his personal possession, but I guess that really doesn’t matter.

The article reports:

Among the reasons stated for not pressing charges was that Biden would present to the jury ‘as sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’

I would like to point out that this elderly man with a poor memory is President of the United States. I also question the ‘well-meaning’ part.

The article continues:

“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” Mr. Hur wrote in a 388-page report to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The materials, stated the report, included “marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and notebooks containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods.” The FBI collected these items during a search of President Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, residence last year.

This is  unbelievable. President Trump’s house gets searched, and he gets charged while President Biden (because he is essentially considered a senile old man) gets away scot free. They searched Baron Trump’s room. Shouldn’t someone have searched Hunter Biden’s room?

I don’t know how (or if) we recover from the banana republic we have become.

 

The Government’s Misplace Priorities

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On Friday, The Epoch Times posted an article about some changes being made to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The article reports:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to raise its enforcement personnel by 40 percent by the end of this fiscal year, with revenue agents seeing the largest workforce increase.

For fiscal year 2024, the IRS plans to boost enforcement staff by a net 5,462 employees, according to a Jan. 29 report by IRS watchdog Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). This would take the total number of enforcement personnel at the tax agency to 18,960 by the end of fiscal 2024, which is 40 percent higher than the staffing at the beginning of October 2023.

Out of the 5,462 net additions, 4,704 will be revenue agents who are tasked with conducting “face-to-face audits of more complex returns.”

The tax agency intends to add a net 493 special agents for the year, who are armed officials investigating “potential criminal activities.” Staffing of revenue officers will rise by 265 employees. Revenue officers are tasked with collecting delinquent taxes and securing delinquent returns.

First of all, I do not believe that IRS agents should be armed. Secondly, the idea of an apolitical IRS went out the window when Lois Lerner decided to target conservative groups to delay their 501c3 tax status requests.

The article notes:

By fiscal 2024-end, revenue agents will comprise close to 70 percent of the enforcement personnel. Armed special agents will make up 13.5 percent and revenue officers will account for 16.4 percent.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provided the IRS with $79.4 billion in supplemental funding that is available for the agency until September 2031. By the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2023, the agency had used $3.5 billion of the funds.

As long as we are arming federal employees, let’s send them to our southern border to enforce our immigration laws.

Filing A False Report To Get The Preferred Narrative

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On Friday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the killing of Ashli Babbitt on January 6th, 2021.

The article reports:

Within a minute after firing the fatal bullet that struck Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd broadcast a radio report claiming shots were being fired at him in the Speaker’s Lobby and he was “prepared to fire back,” a federal lawsuit alleges.

The previously undisclosed radio dispatch is also contained on an audio recording obtained exclusively by The Epoch Times of the “OPS2” dispatch channel used by Capitol Police on Jan. 6.

Information on the recording is contained in a federal lawsuit filed on Jan. 5 by Ms. Babbitt’s widower, Aaron Babbitt of San Diego. Mr. Babbitt, backed in his lawsuit by Judicial Watch, is seeking $30 million from the U. S. government for wrongful death.

According to the lawsuit, Mr. Byrd fired his Glock 22 .40-caliber pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, then announced that he was being fired upon and was ready to return fire.

“In fact, no shots were fired at Lt. Byrd or his fellow officers,” the lawsuit stated. “The only shot fired was the single shot Lt. Byrd fired at Ashli. He heard the loud noise of the gunshot. He saw her fall backward from the window frame.”

The article also notes:

The DOJ report absolving Mr. Byrd from culpability included numerous errors and incorrect statements.

The report says that after the glass in the doors leading to the Speaker’s Lobby was smashed out, rioters “were then able to reach through the broken glass and push the chairs off the top of the barricaded furniture.”

Video shot from the hallway does not show anyone toppling chairs from the makeshift barricade, either before or after Ms. Babbitt was shot.

The report quotes Jason Gandolph of the House Sergeant at Arms office saying he and several Capitol Police officers “attempted to keep the demonstrators from advancing toward the Speaker’s Lobby after the Capitol was breached.”

The article also includes a transcript of the Mr. Byrd’s conversation with dispatch. It also includes a timeline of the events related to the murder of Ashli Babbitt. Please follow the link to read the entire article.

 

Return of Frankenstein?

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D 

We all remember the Frankenstein story where the main character attempts to create life from the remnants of the deceased in his laboratory. It did not turn out well. The Epoch Times (a great conservative weekly newspaper), recently published an article about laboratory created meat that is being produced in a couple of laboratories in this country as well as few other countries.   

The article related that the FDA (Federal Drug Administration), recently gave its approval for the labs to market and sell this artificially created meat to Americans on the open market. The exact process of creating this involves taking cells of real meat and somehow adding other components to resemble real meat. I assume the actual details of the process are proprietary and not public knowledge.   

Why is this being done you might ask. The reasons, as with a lot of things that have the potential to destroy our country as we know it, are based on preventing that ongoing hoax: manmade climate change. Apparently, the environmental extremists do not like raising real animals for meat since they exhale CO2.  As with all of the other climate change solutions this will have a severe negative impact on not only the farmers and ranchers who raise animals but on the transportation, animal feed. and food processing industries putting millions of people out of work. Moreover, the laboratories which produce this artificial meat will require extensive electrical energy to operate. Having raised beef cattle and chickens myself, I can assure you that they require little other than green grass and access to pastures. As this absurdity expands, undoubtedly with extensive taxpayer subsidies, our food supply becomes concentrated into large factories that are more easily subject to attack and disruption that the widespread farming industry. So far, there are only two places, namely, Singapore and the United States, which have sanctioned artificial meat products.   Singapore does not have extensive pasture land like we have and may therefore be excused for this absurdity. I am reminded of a movie named “Soylent Green” starring Charlton Heston, where the bodies of the deceased were being processed into food for the masses. Under Biden, the impossible is becoming probable. Scary. 

This is another, scary example of an out of control bureaucracy that must be reined in!  Another example, is the recently announced plan by the Biden regime’s Department of Transportation to require all auto manufacturers to install electronic control devices in your vehicle which will monitor your location and control your speed to conform with the speed limit of the road you are traveling. In addition, they are planning to mandate fuel efficiency standards that are impossible to meet with internal combustion engines thereby moving to all electric vehicles without actually issuing a mandate. A recent article in the Epoch Times estimates that for every electric vehicle that sells for $53,000 that we the taxpayers contribute $47,000 in subsidies and tax breaks. Sound fair to you? 

If you value your freedom and your country as you have known it, this has to be stopped. Biden has the gall to attack President Trump as a threat to our democracy and freedom while he and his minions are the greatest threat this country has ever seen. We must fight back. Get involved before it is too late. 

2024 Is Going To Be An Interesting Year

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Will 2024 be the year when Americans get their total freedoms back? I hope so. The Internet is heavily censored now–the research I used to be able to do in about 30 minutes now takes about an hour and a half due to censorship. I like my gas stove and my gasoline car. I would also rather eat beef than bugs.

On December 30th, Sharyl Attkisson posted an article at The Epoch Times about the continuing effort to silence President Trump. The problem is that President Trump is saying things that agree with the ideas of a majority of the American people.

The article reports:

Donald Trump has been slandered and libeled thousands of times.

Each time a news reporter, media commentator, or judge refers to Trump as an “insurrectionist,” or claims he’s guilty of “insurrection,” it’s another blatant case of defamation. Same with the other Jan. 6 attendees and participants.

Insurrection is a serious federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison under Title 18 U.S. Code 2383. Even with Trump’s enemies in charge at the Department of Justice and other law enforcement bodies, and with all of the scheming and operations they’ve mounted against him, nobody has convicted him of “insurrection.” Under our system of governing, no judge or election authority has the power to unilaterally accuse and convict any American of a crime, let alone with the accused denied any opportunity to present a defense or to appeal.

Yet that’s just what’s happening when courts and officials in Maine and Colorado remove President Trump from presidential election primary ballots for “insurrection.” It’s the ultimate defamation. And many are supporting it because, well, they don’t like President Trump.

Looking at the evidence today, it’s reasonable to hypothesize that, among all the other conspiracies President Trump’s enemies devised, they also conspired in advance to set up his Jan. 6, 2021, rally and the U.S. Capitol breach that followed as an “insurrection” that could serve as their insurance policy to provide grounds to keep him from ever running for president again.

The article concludes:

The real meaning of what’s being done to President Trump is this: They think he’s going to win. He’s like Christmas, and his enemies are like the Grinch. Despite the impeachments, improper wiretapping, censorship, intel agency conspiracies, criminal charges, civil lawsuits, and turncoats operating against him on the inside—President Trump’s popularity has increased. They haven’t stopped him from coming to the fore in 2024. He came! He came without Twitter. He came without Facebook. He came without Snapchat or Discord or Stripe. Somehow or other, he came just the same!

Pulling President Trump off ballots is the establishment’s latest attempt to censor a candidate that they clearly believe will win—if the people are left to decide. We’ve reached a dangerous and scary point when so many are willing to look the other way because their preferred candidate isn’t the one under attack.

To end where we began—President Trump potentially has actionable defamation claims against all those who continue to label him an insurrectionist. That includes judges on the Colorado Supreme Court and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. But that’s likely not a battle he could win. The 2024 race? That’s another matter.

How Safe Is The Manufacturing Of The Vaccine?

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On Sunday (updated Monday), The Epoch Times posted an article about manufacturing violations in the production of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.

The article reports:

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspectors uncovered problems at a Moderna plant used to manufacture a substance that is part of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to a newly released document.

Moderna failed to meet multiple requirements, including rules aimed at minimizing the potential for contamination, according to the document.

FDA inspectors performed inspections at the plant in Norwood, Massachusetts from, Sept. 11 to Sept. 21, visiting nine times in total.

They found that equipment used to manufacture the substance was not cleaned properly before usage, that a mock cleaning done for manufacturing did not adequately simulate the actual process, that written alarm procedures were not followed, and that neither the equipment nor the plant were designed in a way that would make contamination less likely.

Inspectors also learned that Moderna used materials beyond their expiration date.

“There are more than two thousand expired items stored in your … warehouse and cold storage at time of inspection,” Unnee Ranjan, the FDA’s lead investigator, wrote in a summary of the inspections.

The article concludes:

Another part of the FDA report, dated Sept. 21, described how the Norwood facility did not have adequately designed air handling systems to “assure appropriate air quality in the … cleanroom in which the mRNA drug substance is manufactured.”

Inspectors also said they found positive air pressure was not “consistently maintained” between cleanrooms and airlocks and that monitoring data showed the cleanroom pressure turned negative between January and September. That development was “not assessed for potential impact,” they said.

“At face value, it appears multiple controls designed to prevent contamination were deficient,” Mr. Lynn said.

Another recently released document, produced by the nonprofit Informed Consent Action Network on orders from a federal judge, showed the FDA detected in Andover, Massachusetts, issues with the manufacture of a substance used in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Pfizer said in response it had taken actions to correct the issues.

The government is still putting ads up on television encouraging Americans to take the vaccine, even after there have been numerous reports of serious side effects. Now we find out there are manufacturing problems also? It’s time for the Covid vaccine to go away.