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US Releases $870 Million in Military Aid for Taiwan, Angering China

The US has quietly released $870 million in funding for military aid to Taiwan after it was briefly paused during the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid.

Reuters first reported on February 21 that the US released the military aid for Taiwan as part of $5.3 billion in exemptions from the foreign aid pause. China, which strongly opposes US military support for Taiwan, reacted to the news on February 26.

“We are deeply concerned over relevant reports,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian. “China has all along opposed US military assistance to China’s Taiwan region, which has severely violated the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués, undermined China’s sovereignty and security interests, and sent a gravely wrong signal to ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.”

Lin added that China urges the US to “stop arming Taiwan and undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

The US has always sold weapons to Taiwan since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei as part of a normalization agreement with Beijing in 1979, but it wasn’t until 2023 that the US began providing US-funded military aid, a step that marked a significant escalation. In 2024, President Biden signed off on more than $1 billion in military aid for Taiwan.

The US military support is done in the name of deterrence, but it has only escalated tensions in the region. During a press conference on February 27, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian issued a strong warning against US involvement in Taiwan, which has been encouraged by the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

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Immune markers of post-vaccination syndrome indicate future research directions

COVID-19 vaccines have been instrumental in reducing the impact of the pandemic, preventing severe illness and death, and they appear to protect against long COVID. However, some individuals have reported chronic symptoms that developed soon after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. This little-understood, persistent condition, referred to as post-vaccination syndrome (PVS), remains unrecognized by medical authorities, and little is known about its biological underpinnings.

In a new study, Yale researchers have taken initial steps to characterize this condition, uncovering potential immunological patterns that differentiate those with PVS from others. The findings are early and require further confirmation but may eventually guide strategies to help affected individuals.

“This work is still in its early stages, and we need to validate these findings,” said Akiko Iwasaki, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) and co-senior author of the study published Feb. 19 as a preprint on medRxiv. “But this is giving us some hope that there may be something that we can use for diagnosis and treatment of PVS down the road.”

Some of the most common chronic symptoms of PVS include exercise intolerance, excessive fatigue, brain fog, insomnia, and dizziness. They develop shortly after vaccination, within a day or two, can become more severe in the days that follow, and persist over time. More studies are needed to understand the prevalence of PVS.

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J6 Political Prisoner and Navy Intel Vet Shreds Leftist ‘Resistance’ Fantasy: ‘You Have No Idea What Real Persecution Is’

This is a message to the Leftists endlessly complaining about the disruption of the status quo.

It’s been four weeks since I’ve returned, and I’m still in picking-up-the-pieces mode when it comes to reclaiming a semblance of my former life.

The other day, I reactivated my X account and tried posting a few messages which promptly disappeared down the internet black hole. I nuked that account before my trial in July 2023.

I don’t have a single follower now, which makes the whole point of posting rather ridiculous. As a J6er about to be tried in DC’s notorious federal district back in 2023, I didn’t want to tempt fate.

You see, the DC prosecutors aren’t what you might call reasonable folk. There are a million examples of this unreasonableness in action. Like when the DoJ went ballistic over J6 defendants who owned pocket constitutions or Lego toy sets.

When dealing with irrational people, you can’t use normal standards to avoid offending them. DC is beyond the looking glass.

A city of Red Queens who wanted nothing more than to boost the number of neckless heads so long as the bloodletting involved Trump supporters.

So in order to insulate myself from the crazy prosecutors and judges, I got rid of my X account, removing every quip, every remark. I left nothing behind. Anything less would’ve been too risky.

Fast forward to today. I see the terminally online Leftists restlessly Instagramming and TikToking about how they’re now part of some heroic yet also somehow secret “resistance” movement. I have to roll my eyes. Whatever.

What can I say? Stop larping. There. That’s a start.

What else can I say to these nutbags? How about this:

You are not engaging in a resistance. You have no idea what you’re talking about. Take it from me, an actual political dissident incarcerated for my views by a tyrannical regime.

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A Tale of Two Continental Tyrannies

It will soon be 5 years since the initial Covid 2020 Lockdowns. This article builds on what was written by Dr Ramesh Thakur’s article “Pandemic in Africa: Lessons and Strategies” and Jeffrey Tucker’s article “The Mass Betrayal of Trust” by giving an on-the-ground-perspective comparison of the social interactions and costs that happened in response to all the Covid mandates in Europe and Africa.

When the lockdowns hit in 2020, I was in Europe having built a life there as an immigrant engineer with minimal knowledge of geopolitics and Public Health (My little knowledge of Public Health revolved around the free exercise classes and stress ball some public health officials came to give in my Church – I thought they were just harmless doves—common, who doesn’t love a free stress ball?). Imagine my shock in 2020, when this same group of “nice guys” suddenly began to yell at us to sit at home, else you are a selfish grandma killer. My second shock was the next-to-nothing pushback from Institutions that were supposed to/designed to push back against Government tyranny. Jeffrey Tucker details it all in his article “The Mass Betrayal of Trust”.

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Norwegian Defense Minister Forced to Intervene After Fuel Supplier Threatens to Cut Off U.S. Military Vessels

A Norwegian marine fuel supplier just learned a harsh lesson in geopolitics after its attempt to cut off the U.S. military backfired spectacularly.

Haltbakk Bunkers, one of Norway’s major fuel providers, announced it would no longer supply fuel to American military vessels in Norwegian ports. The reason? A temper tantrum over President Donald Trump’s unapologetic America First foreign policy.

This stunt came after a heated exchange between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump, standing firm with Vice President J.D. Vance by his side, reprimanded Zelensky for his entitled attitude toward U.S. aid, calling him out for refusing to engage in meaningful peace negotiations with Russia.

Trump went so far as to accuse Zelensky of “gambling with World War Three” before abruptly ending the meeting.

Enraged by Trump’s unwavering stance, Haltbakk Bunkers released an unhinged statement on social media, declaring, “No Fuel to Americans!” and urging other European companies to follow suit.

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What Trump can Learn from McKinley’s Tariffs

If Trump is to be successful as regards tariffs, he must look at President William McKinley’s successes and mistakes.

As a young, struggling congressman, William McKinley’s friend President Rutherford Hayes told him to specialize and develop expertise in tariff policy. McKinley’s first legislative effort as a congressman was to increase tariffs in 1877. McKinley rose quickly to chair of the Ways and Means Committee. McKinley was instrumental in forming a Tariff Commission and became a framer of the 1882 Tariff Bill.

His chairmanship led to the passage of the famous “McKinley” Tariff Act of 1890. The Tariff of 1890 went too far and lacked the appropriate guardrails to address inflation and potential trade wars. The 1890 Tariff roughly added a 50% tariff on all manufacturing imports. McKinley’s colleagues overruled him, following the model of tariffs as revenue producers versus McKinley’s model of protectionism for American industry. The short-term adverse effects and political impact cost McKinley and many other Republicans their seats two years later.

McKinley’s return to Congress in 1896 would be the forge for America’s first voting alliance of workingmen and manufacturing capitalists, which won him the White House twice.  

The era of McKinley tariff protection lasted from 1880 to 1920. In 1880, the American steel industry struggled to expand against British steel’s supremacy but flourished under the McKinley tariffs. Steel production went from 1.3 million tons in 1880 to 11.2 million tons in 1900 to 28.3 million tons in 1910. In 1898, the American steel industry surpassed Britain in pig iron production. The U.S. gross national product grew from an estimated $11 billion in 1880 to $18.7 billion in 1890 to $35.3 billion in 1910. The American glass industry was another struggling industry in 1880 due to imports. By 1910, the McKinley tariffs reversed the trend, and the glass industry had increased its output five to tenfold. During the peak tariff years of 1896 to 1901 under President McKinley, steel production increased 111%, electrical equipment production increased 271%, and farm equipment increased 149%. During the same period, wages increased by 10% and employment by 20%. Even more impressive to free traders, prices fell as productivity and innovation mushroomed. Macro and microeconomic data of the period continue to be debated, but McKinley won the working-class dinner table.

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Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico Refuses to Fund Ukraine, Declares No More Financial or Military Aid

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has officially declared that his country will no longer be a cash cow or arms dealer for Ukraine’s endless war.

Taking to X on Saturday, Fico laid out a scathing rebuke of the West’s obsession with funneling money and weapons into a conflict he says is going nowhere fast.

“Slovakia will not support Ukraine either financially or militarily to enable it to continue the war,” he said in a statement, adding that while other nations can waste their resources if they please, Slovakia’s done playing along.

This announcement makes Slovakia one of the first European nations to publicly break from the EU’s dogmatic pro-Ukraine stance.

While globalist leaders continue to pump billions into the war, Fico’s government is calling for an immediate ceasefire—something Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and many EU leaders stubbornly reject.

Fico also slammed the West’s so-called “peace through strength” strategy, calling it an illusion designed to perpetuate the conflict rather than resolve it.

“Slovakia has reservations about the unrealistic strategy of “peace through strength,” which is only intended to serve as a justification for continuing the war in Ukraine. Ukraine will never be strong enough to negotiate from a position of military power,” he added.

Rather than blindly following the EU’s war-first approach, Slovakia is advocating for immediate peace talks and a halt to the flow of European taxpayers’ money into what Fico sees as an unwinnable war.

Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of Fico’s statement is his demand for the EU to restore the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to Slovakia and the rest of Western Europe.

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SCANDAL IN NEW YORK! Governor Kathy Hochul, “The Queen of Corruption,” Allegedly Rigged to $9 Billion Medicaid Contract.

An explosive lawsuit accused this darling of the Democratic left to have shamelessly manipulated the bidding process for a massive Medicaid contract—a program partially funded by the federal government—to favor her out-of-state cronies. The prize? A cool $9 billion.

Yes, you read that right: $9 billion! This isn’t a typo—it’s the size of the foot Hochul could have allegedly been rigged to fatten the pockets of his pals while everyday New Yorkers watch their healthcare system crumble.

Welcome to the circus of progressive corruption, where hypocrisy is the currency and taxpayers are the clowns.

The accusation targets the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP), designed to help the most vulnerable with in-home healthcare.

Hochul and his administration allegedly twisted the bidding process to hand the judgment contract to an out-of-state company, bypassing all transparency and fair competition.

The result? A firm with no roots in the state pocketed control of a vital program, while local providers were left high and dry.ADVERTISEMENT

Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres, in a rare moment of clarity for someone from his party, blew the lid off the scandal and demanded an investigation .

Torres points out that this company started hiring staff for the contract before it was even officially announced!

Coincidence? Please—this reeks of a fix from Albany to Manhattan.

Torres didn’t mince words: “There’s something rotten in the state of New York under Kathy Hochul’s watch.” And he’s right, even if it’s a Democrat saying it.

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Pam Bondi Gives Update on Epstein Files: Claims She Was ‘Assured There Are Only 120 Pages’ — Reveals FBI Official Who Withheld Docs ‘Will Not Be Working for Us Anymore’

After the catastrophic dumpster fire of a release surrounding the long-awaited Jeffrey Epstein files on Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi has delivered a scathing update on the deep corruption and obstruction within the FBI regarding these explosive documents.

Bondi, appearing on Fox News’ Life, Liberty & Levin on Thursday, revealed that she had been assured there were only 120 pages of files to release—but a whistleblower has since exposed that the FBI’s New York office is sitting on thousands of undisclosed pages.

Last Thursday’s much-hyped release of “The Epstein Files: Phase One” fell flat for many patriots hungry for the truth.

The 120-page dump, handed over to a select group of MAGA influencers, was a heavily redacted dud—mostly rehashed info we’ve seen before.

Bondi had promised Fox News’ Jesse Watters a day earlier that the documents would include “flight logs, names, and a lot of information” about Epstein’s sick criminal empire.

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The Press Falls To Another Record Low In Public Trust

We have previously discussed polling showing the media at record lows in public trust. Well, the latest survey from Gallup shows that the media hit another all-time low. What is most impressive is that plummeting readers, revenues, and layoffs have done little to convince the mainstream media that the problem is not the public but themselves. The only institution with a  lower level of public trust is Congress, and that says a lot. It is like beating Ebola as the preferred communicable disease. Some 69 percent of Americans now say that they have no or little trust in the media. 

Only 31 percent say that they have a great deal or fair amount of trust. The trending line looks like the sales of buggy whips after the introduction of the Model T Ford. Gallop put it into sharp terms:

“About two-thirds of Americans in the 1970s trusted the “mass media — such as newspapers, TV and radio” either “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to “[report] the news fully, accurately and fairly.” By the next measurement in 1997, confidence had fallen to 53%, and it has gradually trended downward since 2003. Americans are now divided into rough thirds, with 31% trusting the media a great deal or a fair amount, 33% saying they do “not [trust it] very much,” and 36%, up from 6% in 1972, saying they have no trust at all in it.”

In my book, The Indispensable Right, I discuss how journalists and journalism schools have destroyed their own profession by rejecting objectivity and engaging in open advocacy journalism. The mainstream media has long echoed the talking points of the left and the Democratic Party, particularly in its one-sided coverage of the last three elections.

While Bob Woodward and others have finally admitted that the Russian collusion coverage lacked objectivity and resulted in false reporting, media figures are pushing even harder against objectivity as a core value in journalism.

We have been discussing the rise of advocacy journalism and the rejection of objectivity in journalism schools. Writers, editors, commentators, and academics have embraced rising calls for censorship and speech controls, including President-elect Joe Biden and his key advisers. This movement includes academics rejecting the very concept of objectivity in journalism in favor of open advocacy.

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