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Grants Reveal Feds’ Horrific Plans To Censor Americans’ Speech

Our government is preparing to monitor every word Americans say on the internet—the speech of journalists, politicians, religious organizations, advocacy groups, and even private citizens. Should those conversations conflict with the government’s viewpoint about what is in the best interests of our country and her citizens, that speech will be silenced.

While the “Twitter Files” offer a glimpse into the government’s efforts to censor disfavored viewpoints, what we have seen is nothing compared to what is planned, as the details of hundreds of federal awards lay bare. Research by The Federalist reveals our tax dollars are funding the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) technology that will allow the government to easily discover “problematic” speech and track Americans reading or partaking in such conversations.

Then, in partnership with Big Tech, Big Business, and media outlets, the government will ensure the speech is censored, under the guise of combatting “misinformation” and “disinformation.”

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Journalist plugs in unknown USB drive mailed to him—it exploded in his face

It’s no secret that USB flash drives, as small and unremarkable as they may look, can be turned into agents of chaos. Over the years, we’ve seen them used to infiltrate an Iranian nuclear facility, infect critical control systems in US power plants, morph into programmable, undetectable attack platforms, and destroy attached computers with a surprise 220-volt electrical surge. Although these are just a few examples, they should be enough to preclude one from inserting a mysterious, unsolicited USB drive mailed to them into a computer. Unfortunately, one Ecuadorian journalist didn’t get the memos.

As reported by the Agence France-Presse (via CBS News) on Tuesday, five Ecuadorian journalists have received USB drives in the mail from Quinsaloma. Each of the USB sticks was meant to explode when activated.

Upon receiving the drive, Lenin Artieda of the Ecuavisa TV station in Guayaquil inserted it into his computer, at which point it exploded. According to a police official who spoke with AFP, the journalist suffered mild hand and face injuries, and no one else was harmed.

According to police official Xavier Chango, the flash drive that went off had a 5-volt explosive charge and is thought to have used RDX. Also known as T4, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (PDF), militaries, including the US’s, use RDX, which “can be used alone as a base charge for detonators or mixed with other explosives, such as TNT.” Chango said it comes in capsules measuring about 1 cm, but only half of it was activated in the drive that Artieda plugged in, which likely saved him some harm.

On Monday, Fundamedios, an Ecuadorian nonprofit focused on media rights, put out a statement on the incidents, which saw letters accompanied by USB-stick bombs sent to two more journalists in Guayaquil and two journalists in Ecuador’s capital.

Fundamedios said Álvaro Rosero, who works at the EXA FM radio station, also received an envelope with a flash drive on March 15. He gave it to a producer, who used a cable with an adapter to connect it to a computer. The radio station got lucky, though, as the flash drive didn’t explode. Police determined that the drive featured explosives but believe it didn’t explode because the adapter the producer used didn’t have enough juice to activate it, Fundamedios said.

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Toronto wants to expand drug decriminalization to cover all ages and substances

Toronto updated its 14-month-old decriminalization request to the federal government Friday, clarifying it wants a Health Canada exemption to cover young people as well as adults, and all drugs for personal use.

The city’s submission, an update to its initial January 2022 request, indicates Toronto wants the federal agency to go further than the exemption it recently granted to British Columbia under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

It makes clear the city wants its exemption to apply to all drugs for personal use and shield young people from criminalization, a departure from the B.C. exemption, which only applies to adults and lists a select number of substances. 

Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa says the submission sent to Health Canada, co-signed by the city’s police chief and city manager, is a “made-in-Toronto” model reflective of a months-long consultation process. 

“We’re talking about a matter of health and a matter of human rights, not one that really is meant to be addressed or is best addressed with a criminal justice approach,” she said in an interview. “That’s why we’re pursuing this route.” 

B.C.’s three-year exemption under the Act was granted in June and came into force Jan. 31. While that exemption caps possession at 2.5 grams, the Toronto submission does not outline a specific threshold for what constitutes personal use.

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Biden Admin Unveils New Restrictions On Air Conditioners Despite Backlash Over Gas Stove Restrictions

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm unveiled new climate and efficiency restrictions on air conditioners despite widespread criticism the Biden administration received after officials recently announced restrictions on gas stoves.

The new energy efficiency standards, which will apply to room air conditioners and portable air cleaners, will enter into effect next year. The Energy Department contended that the new rules will assist with “tackling the climate crisis,” as well as save consumers $25 billion over the next three decades. Room air conditioners are more commonly called window air conditioners.

“Today’s announcement builds on the historic actions President Biden took last year to strengthen outdated energy efficiency standards, which will help save on people’s energy bills and reduce our nation’s carbon footprint,” Granholm said in a press release. She added that the Energy Department will “continue to engage with our public and private sector partners to finalize additional proposals like today’s that lower household energy costs and deliver the safer, healthier communities that every American deserves.”

The rules are the first federal standards for portable air cleaners. The Energy Department asserted that the regulations mark a consensus among “manufacturers, the manufacturing trade association, efficiency advocates, consumer advocacy groups, states, and utilities.”

The policies come weeks after multiple senior officials in the Biden administration repeatedly backtracked on new energy efficiency standards for gas stoves amid mounting criticism. Controversy over the potential regulations emerged earlier this year when Consumer Product Safety Commission Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. said in an interview that gas stoves are a “hidden hazard” and declared that “any option is on the table” for a nationwide ban. Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Alex Hoehn-Saric later posted a statement asserting that neither he nor the agency planned to outlaw gas stoves.

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There’s a Huge DDT Dumping Ground in the Ocean Off Los Angeles, and It’s Got Scientists Worried

Afew years ago, back in 2019, a massive toxic waste dumping ground was discovered off the coast of Los Angeles. It made the news, but didn’t make the quite the splash one would expect. The dumping ground was full of thousands of barrels of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, which you know as DDT because Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane is hard to say.

DDT is a carcinogenic pesticide that was widely used for a few decades between the 1940s and the late 1950s. First used to fight off insect-born diseases like typhus and malaria, it was eventually fond to be very effective for controlling insects in everywhere from farm crops to home gardens. It was a bit of a miracle substance at first – until it wasn’t.

Within a few years, it became apparent that DDT, despite its usefulness, was extraordinarily bad for the environment. Not just the environment, but basically anything it came in contact with. By the late ’50s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture — which was in charge of pesticide regulation before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created — started cracking down on many of DDT’s uses “because of mounting evidence of the pesticide’s declining benefits and environmental and toxicological effects.”

In 1962, a book called Silent Spring came out. In it, author Rachel Carson wrote about how the chemical industry was impacting the environment. In doing so, she woke the wider world up to the dangers of DDT and just how harmful humankind was being. A decade later, in 1972, the newly formed EPA banned DDT “based on its adverse environmental effects, such as those to wildlife, as well as its potential human health risks.”

DDT has a lot of issues, but the main ones that pertain to us are the facts that it is extremely persistent in the environment, accumulates in fatty tissues, and, if it makes it up to the upper atmosphere, can travel basically all over the world. Although the CDC only considers it a “possible human carcinogen,” everyone’s fairly sure that DDT is super bad for us. “Following exposure to high doses, human symptoms can include vomiting, tremors or shakiness, and seizures,” the CDC wrote. “Laboratory animal studies showed effects on the liver and reproduction.”

All that is to say that a giant DDT graveyard at the bottom of the Pacific off a very trafficked bit of ocean is decidedly bad. Between 1940 and 1960-ish, The Montrose Chemical Corporation of California in Los Angeles simply poured DDT into the sewage pipes feeding into the ocean. After World War II, barrels and barrels of a DDT mixture were hucked off boats, and today they’re still there, rolling around on the sea floor off Catalina Island, leaking away. According to reports, if they floated back to the surface back then, the barrels were simply punctured so they’d disappear.

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Informants Everywhere

After nine weeks of testimony from multiple government witnesses, including FBI agents, the Justice Department finally concluded its case-in-chief in the Proud Boys’ seditious conspiracy trial on Monday.

Five Proud Boys, including the group’s leader, Enrique Tarrio, are accused of conspiring to “oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force” on January 6, 2021. It is Attorney General Merrick Garland’s most consequential case related to January 6; convictions will help build a similar case against Donald Trump largely based on his infamous “stand back and stand by” remark to the Proud Boys during an October 2020 presidential debate.

Most of the evidence is nothing more than inflammatory, braggadocious chatter in group texts; Tarrio wasn’t even present at the Capitol on January 6. Another defendant, Ethan Nordean, can be seen on surveillance video walking through an open door as Capitol police stood nearby.

Similar to other so-called “militia” groups tied to January 6, no one brought weapons to the Capitol that day; no one was charged with assaulting police officers or lawmakers. A key piece of evidence that prosecutors claimed was a road map for the “attack” on the Capitol wasn’t produced by any Proud Boy but by a former intelligence asset who himself sent the plan to Tarrio through a third party.

The document represented just one more instance of how a government agent helped shape the government’s narrative that the Proud Boys plotted in advance to carry out an “insurrection” on January 6. In fact, much like the FBI-engineered plan to “kidnap” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, court proceedings confirm that FBI assets might outnumber criminal defendants.

At least 10 and possibly up to 15 FBI informants were embedded in the group months before and continuing after the events of January 6. Informants participated in numerous group chats, cozied up to leadership, and even accompanied the Proud Boys to Washington.

One known informant, according to a September 2021 New York Times report, was involved in the first breach of Capitol grounds and entered the building that afternoon.

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Kidney Transplant Controller Wants To Distribute Human Organs Based On ‘Equity’

If someone donates one of their kidneys and later needs a new one, should they go to the top of the transplant waitlist? Yes, say good people. Yes, say normal people. Not anymore, say the bureaucrats in charge of the transplant waitlist. Instead, they say it’s time for a “more equitable approach.”

Currently, the people at the top of the kidney transplant waitlist are people who have donated one of their organs to someone else (living donors), young children who are a great biological match with an organ, and patients who are very hard to be matched with any organ. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is a private non-profit that holds a contract with the federal government to run the transplant waitlist, and they want to change that. UNOS wants to remove these “hard boundaries” in favor of a new system that erodes the protections for living donors.

A report commissioned by UNOS envisions a drastic reduction in prioritization for living donors — going from the current virtual guarantee of getting a new kidney to a slight bonus on the waiting list — equivalent to as low as 10 percent of the total prioritization score. This policy would betray those who have already donated an organ and discourage others from donating in the future. They are pushing this policy even though their own research shows that changing from the current policy will not reduce death rates but lead to a higher rate of failed kidney transplants in the first year after surgery.

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Pentagon Leaders Say New Budget Will Help Prepare For War With China

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told Congress at a Thursday hearing that the Pentagon’s 2024 budget request will help the country prepare for a future war with China.

Milley insisted the Pentagon’s massive $842 billion budget request is meant to deter war but said it will also prepare the US military to fight one. He told the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense that deterring and preparing for a conflict “is extraordinarily expensive, but it’s not as expensive as fighting a war. And this budget prevents war and prepares us to fight it if necessary.”

The Pentagon identified China as the “most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security strategy” in the 2022 National Defense Strategy, and lately, US military leaders have been speaking more explicitly about how they’re preparing for a direct war with China despite the risk of nuclear war. President Biden has also vowed to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.

Milley said China’s actions “are moving it down the path toward confrontation and potential conflict with its neighbors and possibly the United States,” echoing similar warnings made by Chinese officials.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned earlier this month that if the US doesn’t change course on its military buildup in the Asia Pacific and other policies aimed at China, it will lead to “conflict and confrontation.” The Pentagon’s budget request will further expand the US military footprint in the region by funding a buildup plan known as the Pacific Deterrence Initiative.

“This budget includes a 40 percent increase over last year’s for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative to an all-time high of $9.1 billion,” Austin said at the hearing.

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Authoritarian States ‘Want to Control People’ by Censoring Internet: ICANN

Authoritarian governments across the world are looking to censor the Internet in order to “control people”, a senior official from ICANN has said.

David Huberman, a senior official within the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has accused authoritarian governments across the globe of looking to fracture the Internet in the hopes of controlling people.

Legally registered as an NGO, ICANN is responsible for making the international system of IP addresses function correctly, with the organisation describing itself as being “dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable”.

Those within the organisation are now claiming that authoritarian governments are starting to get in the way of this goal, with Huberman telling the Cloudfest industry meeting in Germany that some states now aim to cut up the Internet in order to better control their populations.

“The potential fragmentation of the Internet is a worrying topic,” Der Spiegel reports the expert as saying, before discussing the impact that such governments could have on the Internet.

“They are authoritarian governments that want to control their people,” he said.

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Meth-Smoking Satanist Vicar Convicted of Paedophilia, Zoophilia

An Anglican vicar who smoked crystal meth, boasted of corrupting young boys, abused animals, and discussed sacrificing babies to Satan with online paedophiles has been convicted in England.

Reverend David Renshaw, 63, was convicted of “three counts of possessing indecent images of children; three counts of making indecent images of children; possessing prohibited images of children; and possessing extreme pornographic images portraying acts of intercourse with animals, namely dogs and horses,” according to a Sussex Police statement.

Strangely, he does not appear to have faced any charges relating to animal cruelty or neglect, despite police officers finding his vicarage full of dead and dying animals including cats, dogs, and chickens.

“The search of his address was one of the most revolting tasks our officers will ever have to endure,” commented investigating officer Detective Sergeant David Rose. “As well as malnourished living animals, there was also a dead rotting kitten and a dead rotting rat on the floor, in addition to used needles and other drug paraphernalia lying around. It was a deeply unpleasant scene to search.”

In lurid conversations with other child predators, Renshaw had bragged: “I’m a sadistic bastard. Through and fucking through.”

He also referenced his desire to “sacrifice babies to Satan” in these conversations, and urged another paedophile to sacrifice his own three-year-old to the Devil.

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