While prominent Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates have supported banning TikTok, which is linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through its parent company ByteDance, Scott has opted for a less aggressive approach and has not called for fully banning the app. At the same time, one of the main investors in ByteDance, as well as the executive chairman and founder of Oracle, which stores TikTok’s American data, both contributed large sums to organizations supporting Scott.

Jeffrey Yass contributed $600,000 to Opportunity Matters Fund Action, a political organization that is aligned with and supports Scott, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data. Yass’ investment firm Susquehanna International Group bought a significant stake in ByteDance in 2012, while his personal stake of 7% is valued at around $21 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“I’ve supported libertarian and free market principles my entire adult life,” Yass told the WSJ. “TikTok is about free speech and innovation, the epitome of libertarian and free market ideals. The idea of banning TikTok is an anathema to everything I believe.”

Yass is a major contributor to the Club for Growth, a conservative organization that mobilized Republican resistance to banning TikTok, according to the WSJ. He has given $61 million to the organization’s political spending division since 2010, which accounts for nearly one-fourth of its overall funding.

Opportunity Matters Fund, Inc., a PAC that also backs Scott, has received over $30 million in contributions since 2020 from Oracle Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison, according to FEC data. Oracle has a contract with TikTok to store the company’s American data. Scott called Ellison one of his “mentors” in May when he launched his presidential campaign.

In response to questions by the Daily Caller News Foundation on whether Scott would support a TikTok ban, his campaign declined to call for one. Instead, it shared Scott’s comment that he has “no problem whatsoever” with a TikTok ban, which he stated in an August Fox News interview.

Though Scott did not call for banning TikTok in the interview, or promise to do so if elected, Scott advocated for a plan to separate American children’s data from the CCP.

“We have to separate or segregate the communist Chinese party from our kids’ data,” Scott said in the interview. “We have to stop them from spying on our kids.”

However, China hawks have criticized Scott for his stance on TikTok when compared to other top Republican presidential candidates, according to Politico.

Other candidates, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, have all indicated support of a nationwide ban. However, Ramaswamy recently appeared to walk back his hard-line stance on TikTok.

“In retrospect, it was a little bit of an old-fashioned decision to say that there’s an entire mode of communicating with young people that I was going to turn off,” Ramaswamy said.

Former President Donald Trump also attempted to ban TikTok, but was stymied by federal courts. Scott cited such legal difficulties in his August Fox interview as evidence that “we can’t ban TikTok.”

DeSantis also received $2.5 million from Yass in February, according to data from his Florida PAC, which was named Friends of Ron DeSantis at the time. Yass has not contributed to Never Back Down, a federal PAC supporting DeSantis’ 2024 presidential bid.

Scott has backed more moderate solutions to potential national security concerns raised by TikTok, including voting to ban TikTok on government devices, and introducing a bill called the Know Your App Act to require applications to disclose what country they originate from.

China is using TikTok to spy on our children and invade their privacy. My Know Your App Act gives parents the tools they need to keep the CCP out of their homes and protect their kids.

— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) July 20, 2023

The Biden administration plans to resume negotiations with TikTok despite its previous ultimatum that ByteDance must sell its stake in the company or face a potential ban, The Washington Post reported. The Beijing-based company maintains an internal CCP committee, and the U.S. Department of Justice characterized ByteDance as a “mouthpiece” for the CCP.

A former ByteDance executive has alleged that CCP members within the company had a “superuser” credential or “god credential” that enabled them to view all of the data the company obtained, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company also had a “backdoor channel” to gain U.S. user data, the former executive asserted.

ByteDance employees also used TikTok data to spy on American journalists who were covering the company in 2022, Forbes reported. Additionally, TikTok stored American TikTok creators’ and businesses’ financial information such as Social Security numbers and tax IDs in China, according to records obtained by Forbes.

Oracle, Susquehanna, TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].

(Daily Caller)—Residents of Manteno, Illinois were outraged when they found out local and state officials had finalized a deal with a Chinese Communist Party-linked company to construct an electric vehicle battery “gigafactory” in their town.

The multi-billion dollar deal, which Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced on Sept. 8, was hashed out behind closed doors and without any public input, according to over a dozen Manteno residents who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“There was absolutely no public participation or notification that this was going [on],” Darrel Bruck Jr., a longtime resident of Manteno who runs an informational group called “Outrage of Kankakee County,” told the DCNF. “There were probably 200 people [at the announcement], but the public was not invited. It was strictly for local politicians, the mayor, some local people who owned land who will make a lot of money off strip malls and such.”

Manteno Mayor Tim Nugent had been involved in discussions with Gotion Inc. and the Illinois government from at least December 2022, he said in an Aug. 23 Kankakee County meeting. Nugent also said he spoke with individual council members about the deal behind closed doors despite the project receiving massive tax incentives from the county, which he referred to as an “intergovernmental agreement between certain Kankakee County taxing districts and officials,” according to a recording of an Aug. 7 meeting.

“When I heard of it, I stopped, because it was the first I’d heard about it, and I immediately texted all of the trustees for our city,” Annette LaMore, a longtime resident of the area and a former Manteno council board member, told the DCNF. “I wondered why money would be so important that we’d overlook all of the safety issues. Not one of the trustees — we have six — got back to me.”

“I asked the mayor if there was an informational meeting that was open for the public,” LaMore continued. “He answered me and said, ‘There are no information meetings that I am aware of.’ I feel like, ‘Did he forget that he’s working for us, for the community?’ I think people need to be able to ask questions and know about what’s going on before decisions are being made.”

When residents of Manteno had the opportunity to speak at a town hall meeting on Sept. 18 — the first official public meeting on the issue — Nugent limited the discussion to a comment period and refused to answer the locals’ questions.

“You can tell us we need this battery plant. But you don’t know! Look at the people that are here tonight. This is exactly why you didn’t publicize it,” Bob Forsythe, a Manteno local, said at the meeting. “It’s not good for us. If it was, you’d be ranting all over the place.”

Residents told the DCNF that they felt concerned about the plant’s placement, which will be across the street from a residential neighborhood, next to a large blasting quarry and within a mile of the the village’s elementary, middle and high schools.

“My concern is that it’s close to the elementary school, less than five minutes away,” Dorian Black Reynolds, a resident of Manteno and the mother of a child who currently attends the village’s elementary school, told the DCNF. “The pollution and the possibility of disasters are not something the town is prepared for.”

“The town seems to want to be having discussions of what is being done, and most people didn’t seem to have a clue that something was going on until they knew Pritzker was coming into town,” she added.

Gotion, Inc. is a subsidiary of Gotion High-Tech, which is based out of Hefei, China and employs 923 CCP members, including the CEO. Former U.S. ambassadors have called on the Treasury Department to launch a review into Gotion’s operations because of its CCP connections.

Gotion has also announced a plan to create a battery plant near Big Rapids, Michigan, and purchased 270 acres near the area in August to build its new plant. Michigan locals have heavily protested the battery plant for months, and succeeded in blocking the company from purchasing several additional plots of farm land near Big Rapids.

ICYMI: Key takeaways on Gotion’s historic investment:

2,600 new good-paying jobs
$2 billion company investment in IL
Gigafactory will supercharge the growth of IL’s EV ecosystemhttps://t.co/6GjEoVw9aZ pic.twitter.com/4smmDY23vV

— . (@puffer_flnance) September 12, 2023

Gotion received a $536 million incentive package from state and local governments to move to the Manteno area, as well as a property tax abatement from Kankakee County over the next 30 years, the government agreements show.

“The whole of Kankakee county is going to be impacted by this,” a longtime resident of Manteno, who asked for anonymity, told the DCNF. “Taxes are definitely going to go up. The elderly, who are just making it, and the families who are still trying to make it … Our sales taxes, our local taxes. . . everything will go up.”

Bringing Gotion into Manteno would invest $2 billion and bring more than 2,600 jobs to the area, according to the press release.

“The workforce is a mess right now,” Reynolds told the DCNF. “Yes, this should help the community. [But] again, at what risk? To themselves, by working in the factory? The pay is going to be about $55,000 a year, but for what the job is and what the risk entails, it’s not worth it … I would not work there. If they quadrupled the pay, I still would not work there. Why would you want to put yourself in close proximity to [carcinogens]?”

One resident told the DCNF that although she is concerned about the deal, she hopes local officials have acted for the benefit of the community.

“As residents, we have to hope that our government is looking out for us, that they have a plan, that they know that this is going to be safe,” Crystal Wolfe, a Manteno local, told the DCNF. “But working off of hopes and dreams … I don’t think lithium-ion batteries are the way that we should go. There’s a danger in moving too fast. I guess that’s what really scares me, health-wise, is that the danger here is that it’s moving so fast. The true unknown is what are the long-term effects going to be, if any? I hope … I hope our government is looking out for our best interest.”

Pritzker, Gotion, Inc. and Nugent did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].

It’s easier for them to just infiltrate and compromise them.

A report from The Daily Mail says British Intelligence is warning Congress about a surge in threats from the CCP. They went so far as to single out Congressman Eric Swalwell who is a notoriously easy target for the CCP. According to the article:

• A British parliamentary researcher with links to MPs with classified information was arrested for ‘spying for China’
• Congress has been infiltrated by Chinese spies attempting to get access to classified information in recent years
• Rep. Eric Swalwell had ties to a suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang and Senator  Diane Feinstein employed a spy as her driver in California for 20 years

Rep. Mike Gallagher, who chairs the House Select Committee on the Communist Party, told DailyMail.com that educating members of Congress about the threat of infiltration is critical – especially in light of the recent UK incident.

‘One thing we’re trying to do here on the Select Committee is to educate people -members and staff- about the nature of not only traditional CCP espionage but United Front work,’ he said.

‘I think United Front work is a poorly understood phenomenon. I don’t think your average member understands what it is. The more we can educate members about this phenomenon, the better they can defend themselves.’

The United Front is the political strategy utilized by the CCP to advance China’s influence and power globally through a variety of methods, including by deploying spies to try to change policies of foreign nations to be more pro-China or gain sensitive information.

Congress has be infiltrated by Chinese spies attempting to get access to classified information in recent years.

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell’s ties to a suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang, known as ‘Fang Fang,’ sparked an Ethics Committee investigation into his conduct.

The committee ended up not taking any disciplinary action against Swalwell, but issued a letter warning lawmakers about the threat of foreign infiltration.

‘Members should be conscious of the possibility that foreign governments may attempt to secure improper influence through gifts and other interactions,’ the letter stated.

It’s bad enough that the UniParty Swamp works to keep America down as low as possible. If more of them are compromised by the CCP or other foreign entities, our nation may not be able to survive into the next decade.

Sound off on The Liberty Daily Substack.

Is there a fourth invasion happening as well? We’ve known there are tens of thousands of Chinese illegal aliens coming across; over 13,000 have been apprehended since October. But what if these aren’t just illegal aliens among the other masses from other nations? What if this is part of a planned infiltration?

Michael Yon noted that the Chinese Communist Party had recently given instructions to Chinese citizens coming into America through “irregular channels”:

China openly invading USA: This is published today by LA Consulate General. It called Chinese people who lost passports entering U.S. “in abnormal ways” to apply for new passports in the LA Consulate General.

Very suspicious. Why does CCP help people get passports to leave China? They escape China with new passports, arrive in places like Istanbul, Amsterdam, Quito, Cancun, then ditch passports before crossing into USA. Now getting new passports from their government. CCP famously never is so helpful.

China openly invading USA:

This is published today by LA Consulate General. It called Chinese people who lost passports entering U.S. “in abnormal ways” to apply for new passports in the LA Consulate General.
Very suspicious. Why does CCP help people get passports to leave…

— Michael Yon: Callsign BIG HONEY 6 (@Michael_Yon) June 11, 2023

The recent posting from the Chinese consulate that Yon linked to instructs Chinese citizens on how to get their passports or emergency travel documents. But here’s the thing. For them to have left China, they would have had to have their passports initially. Unlike the United States, China takes their border security very seriously in both directions and it’s extremely difficult for people to leave the country without permission.

The only reason it would behoove Chinese citizens to use their passports to leave China, then lose their passports en route to the United States is if they were intentionally taking advantage of the Biden-Harris regime’s border policies. If they enter legally, they can be easily expelled. If they “lose” their passports and enter through “irregular channels,” they are treated by a completely different set of rules.

Most importantly, they get to stay under the Biden-Harris regime’s policies.

Is this all an elaborate scheme to plant as many Chinese nationals loyal to the CCP on American soil, spread across American cities through the disbursement plans of the White House and state governors? Reports have indicated these groups are almost entirely made up of military-aged males. If the Chinese Communist Party wanted to infiltrate America at this time, that type of scheme seems like the most obvious.

Stay frosty, folks.  Something’s not right. In fact, very little seems to be right in America lately.

The economic and political implications of the dollar’s possible loss of its prized status as global reserve currency are hard to overstate, according to experts.

In fact, such a development—if and when it occurs—could prove catastrophic to U.S. consumers as their spending power evaporates, economists are warning amid debt-ceiling negotiations that have sent tremors around the world.

Numerous analysts who spoke with The Epoch Times warned that the CCP and other U.S. adversaries were actively advancing the global effort to undermine the dollar.

However, current and former U.S. lawmakers and policymakers also placed much of the blame on the Biden administration, U.S. government spending, and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policies.

“The dollar is clearly at risk from foreign enemies who wish to challenge American power and domestic fools who believe the American credit card has no limits on spending,” explained Kevin Freeman, host of the Economic War Room and an authority on economic warfare.

In comments to The Epoch Times, Freeman, who has briefed top U.S. military officials and policymakers, pointed to CCP strongman Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin as foreign adversaries seeking to undermine the dollar.

The Saudis and numerous powers across Africa and Latin America have joined the “anti-dollar cabal” in recent months, he added. But the U.S. government deserves some of the blame for the developments, he said.

“Sadly, we are making it easy for them with massive debt increases, an erratic foreign policy, and Washington’s arrogance that ignores the threat,” said Freeman, who also serves as a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy.

Multiple members of Congress who spoke with The Epoch Times echoed the concerns about the Biden administration’s role in the accelerating shift away from the dollar.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) pointed to the president himself. “Joe Biden’s war mongering, runaway inflation, and irresponsible spending sprees have threatened our currency’s value,” he said.

A broad range of experts who spoke with The Epoch Times were divided on when or even if the U.S. dollar might lose its status as global reserve currency, and what that could mean for the U.S. economy and the American people.

While many are warning of calamity, some even said there may be a “silver lining” to the U.S. dollar losing its global position.

But regardless of when or how the saga plays out, the significance of the trends surrounding the U.S. dollar and its role in the world will be profound and highly disruptive at the very least, experts said.

De-dollarization

Thanks to the unchallengeable supremacy of the United States in the aftermath of World War II and the dollar’s nominal backing by gold at the time, and later its endorsement by oil exporters as the “petro-dollar,” the American currency has reigned supreme among currencies for over 70 years.

The dollar still benefits from what is known as the “network effect” as well as the fact that U.S. capital markets are the deepest and most liquid in the world, experts told The Epoch Times.

But if current trends away from the dollar and political instability continue, analysts say the American currency’s coveted status as the global reserve could be shaken or even lost for good. In fact, the process is already underway, some experts warned.

The dollar’s share of global reserves just two decades ago was at about 75 percent, according to experts and analysts. Today, estimates suggest it is under 50 percent and shrinking fast.

Speaking at the 2023 Milken Institute Global Conference, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva highlighted the trend.

“There has been a gradual shift away from the dollar,” she said, adding that the euro, the British pound, and the CCP’s yuan were all gaining ground.

While Georgieva said she did not anticipate an imminent rise of a viable alternative as “we may migrate to central bank digital currencies massively,” that does not mean it will not come eventually.

Non-Western central banks are also buying gold in record quantities, and analysts expect that demand to remain strong.

“We think this trend of central bank buying is likely to continue amid heightened geopolitical risks and elevated inflation,” Swiss bank UBS said in a note.

“In fact, the US decision to freeze Russian foreign exchange reserves in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine may have led to a long-term impact on the behavior of central banks.”

Even traditional U.S. allies have been conducting deals in non-dollar currencies. In late March, for example, the French government completed its first cross-border liquified natural gas deal in Chinese yuan.

Also in March, authorities in Brazil—an economic powerhouse that historically has had close relations with the United States—also inked a deal with the CCP to trade in domestic currencies rather than the dollar.

The trends are accelerating. According to a recent note by prominent currency analyst Stephen Jen at Eurizon SLJ, the dollar lost market share in 2022 at 10 times the pace as during the previous 20 years—a trend he says most analysts have missed.

The speed at which this is happening is dramatic, too. “Adjusting for these price changes, the dollar, we calculate, has lost some 11 percent of its market share since 2016 and double that amount since 2008,” added Jen, who previously worked at Morgan Stanley.

Much of the recent acceleration has to do with U.S. policy on Ukraine. “This erosion in the USD’s reserve currency status has accelerated precipitously since the start of the war in Ukraine,” noted Jen, pointing to “exceptional actions” against Russia that “startled” large reserve-holding countries.

“What we witnessed in 2022 was sort of a ‘defund-the-global-police’ moment, whereby many reserve managers in the world disagreed with the conduct of both Russia and the US.”

CCP Agenda

Calls for a new global monetary system and reserve currency are not new, though. Even a decade ago, the CCP was promoting the idea through its propaganda machine.

“What may also be included as a key part of an effective reform is the introduction of a new international reserve currency that is to be created to replace the dominant U.S. dollar, so that the international community could permanently stay away from the spillover of the intensifying domestic political turmoil in the United States,” Liu Chang wrote in an opinion piece for Xinhua, a CCP propaganda and intelligence-gathering operation.

Analysts said the Xinhua editorial was undoubtedly approved by senior CCP officials and clearly reflected Beijing’s views.

One benefit of such a policy would be to “encourage Washington to play a much more constructive role in addressing global affairs,” the CCP piece continued, calling for a “de-Americanized” so-called “new world order.”

It was hardly the first time the CCP touted the idea. In a 2009 report by People’s Bank of China chief Zhou Xiaochuan dubbed “Reform the International Monetary System,” the CCP called for an “international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run.” The proposed global currency could be issued by the IMF, he said.

In other words, almost 15 years ago, the highest echelons of power in Beijing were plotting a global currency to replace the dollar as the world reserve.

When asked about the idea at a Council on Foreign Relations event, then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner shocked observers. “We’re actually quite open to that,” he said, causing the dollar to plunge.

Many of the same policymakers from the Obama administration in 2009 who were supportive of the idea remain in positions of influence in the Biden administration today. And as The Epoch Times reported in 2021 amid the CCP virus crisis, the IMF has been moving in that direction with its special drawing rights, a sort of proto-global currency issued by the global financial institution.

Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Kevin Moley, a leading voice warning of the CCP’s agenda, said the shift away from the U.S. dollar was “one of the most dangerous developments in the post-war era.”

While he blasted the Biden administration for angering and alienating U.S. allies, he pointed to the CCP—the “greatest existential threat to the Republic since 1776”—as the main driver of the ongoing shift.

“This is all part and parcel of their plan to dominate the world,” he said. “It is China’s intention to become the dominant superpower of the 21st century.”

Key members of the Biden administration have publicly celebrated the CCP’s growing role on the world stage. For example, senior Biden administration diplomat Bathsheba Crocker, who served as assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs during the Obama administration, was quoted by CCP paper China Daily as saying she was “particularly pleased” to see Beijing taking more responsibility in the United Nations.

Previous presidential administrations, which Moley said were “misled” by their own “arrogance,” have also contributed to the CCP’s ongoing push to dethrone the dollar, he said.

With House Republicans revealing evidence of CCP money being funneled to Biden family members in suspicious transactions, questions about CCP influence in Washington continue to grow.

Domestic Causes

But while the CCP may be hoping to see the dollar replaced as the global reserve, that would be much more difficult to accomplish if not for the policies pursued by the federal government and the federal reserve,” lawmakers told The Epoch Times.

Gosar, for instance, told The Epoch Times that “war mongering” by Biden along with “runaway inflation and irresponsible spending sprees” have contributed in a major way to the dollar’s escalating woes.

“Americans have taken for granted that most countries try to do business using U.S. dollars,” he said. “Our dollar has historically been seen as stable, reliable, and useful. This benefits our nation greatly.”

Now, however, U.S. financial dominance is “under threat” because of Biden’s “incompetence,” the GOP lawmaker told The Epoch Times.

“Countries like Russia, China, and India are now looking at using other currencies because Biden has abused our currency and banking system,” he said, pointing to legislation he and others introduced to link the dollar to gold again as a way to rein in the problems.

Former Congressman Ron Paul, a longtime advocate for monetary reform who served in key congressional positions relating to currency and banking, also pointed to U.S. policy as a leading cause of the shift away from the dollar.  While it’s true that foreign governments and central banks right now appear to be “ganging up” on the dollar, Dr. Paul told The Epoch Times that much of the blame belongs with U.S. policy makers.

“Other governments are ditching the dollar because of our foreign policy causing so much harm to them and also our warmongering policy, which is not healthy for the world or our own peace,” said the veteran lawmaker and author of the best-selling book “End the Fed.”

David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Reagan administration, said he was not surprised at the global trend away from the U.S. dollar considering U.S. financial and monetary policies.

“For years, the Federal Reserve has been flooding the financial system with dollars,” he said. “As a result, people are looking for alternatives that have a better chance of maintaining their value over time.”

Another expert, prominent financial forecaster and economic analyst Charles Nenner, cited his models and macro trends to suggest that the looming “major de-dollarization” was tied to the end of a 250-year “super cycle.”

“The United States has such a big deficit that it is leading to the start of longer-term inflation,” said the former Goldman Sachs analyst, whose Charles Nenner Research Center advises hedge funds, banks, brokerage firms, family offices, and individual clients.

“The world has lost confidence in the leadership of the USA,” he added.

Amid those trends, governments and central banks of the BRICS nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—are currently creating what Nenner described as an “anti-dollar economy.”

“We expect most of the world to follow the alternative currency that BRICS countries are trying to develop,” he said.

Indeed, former Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill openly called on the BRICS governments to deliberately counter the dollar.

“The U.S. dollar plays a far too dominant role in global finance,” he wrote in the journal Global Policy.

Effects

This shift away from the dollar could lead to huge outflows from the U.S. bond market, an “enormous rise in inflation,” and other problems for the U.S. economy, Nenner explained.

Obviously, there would be major implications for the purchasing power of the dollar, too, as the cost of imports and commodities measured in dollars soared.

It would also accelerate the ongoing global shift toward central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), said Nenner, who has worked with numerous leading banks around the world.

On the geopolitical front, Nenner suggested, the world may be rapidly approaching the end not just of dollar supremacy but of the global dominance of the United States, with the collapse of the dollar merely one symptom of a broader trend.

Historically, the average age of empires has been about 250 years, Nenner said, pointing to the rise and fall of the Roman, Dutch, and British empires as examples.

“The USA shows the same symptoms as these previous empires showed right before their downfall including the loss of trust from other nations,” he said.

In other words, the loss of the dollar’s status appears to be an important part of—not just a cause of—a broader geopolitical realignment with profound implications for the world.

Paul, a three-time presidential contender who for decades warned about what was happening to the U.S. currency as well as what he viewed as the danger of an interventionist foreign policy, told The Epoch Times in a wide-ranging interview that the United States was already facing an “inflationary depression.”

“And it’s going to get worse as the dollar continues losing ground,” he said, arguing that prices would rise dramatically. “There will be so much pain and suffering when they have to give up on the dollar.”

While many analysts are “clucking” about the trend being potentially catastrophic for America, Stockman suggested it may not necessarily be a bad thing for the United States over the long term, as it would force Congress to act more responsibly.

“This is just a gift to Congress that allows them to spend and spend and build up the public debt to the point that we’re at $31 trillion today, to the point that we’re having a debate about paying our bills and not cutting any spending,” he said, sounding flabbergasted.

It will be very painful and Americans will have to accept a significantly reduced standards of living, Stockman said. But the “silver lining” of the U.S. dollar losing its global-reserve status is that “it will wake up the politicians and policymakers to understand that we’ve been living way, way beyond our means, and we’re going to have to pay the piper,” he said.

“It’s about time for us to face the facts—the reality—and change policy quite dramatically,” he added.

In economic terms, the loss of global reserve status will mean Americans will have to export more to be able to import the same amount, explained Dr. Thorsten Polleit, chief economist at Degussa, Europe’s largest precious metal trading house.

In comments to The Epoch Times, the honorary professor of economics at the University of Bayreuth said this means a decline in living standards.

“Moreover, as capital inflows would most likely also decline, there would be lower investments and lower economic growth in the U.S. going forward,” he said.

Ultimately, the world may even end up divided between a “dollar block” and a “non-dollar block” as a more “multipolar world currency system” emerges and other currencies such as the yuan and the euro gain ground.

Experts who spoke with The Epoch Times had widely divergent views on whether the transformation would be sudden or gradual, as well as on how long it might take for the dollar to lose its prized status. Neither the U.S. Treasury nor the IMF responded to requests for comment.

Article from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times.

Fox News Digital Politics Reporter Brooke Singman spoke with multiple former members of the Trump administration. These were no slouches; the list included those who would have definitely known about an incursion into our airspace — former acting-Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper. None of them had heard of spy balloons flying over the nation.

Bolton is the most noteworthy because he is very adversarial with Trump. It’s unlikely he would be covering for the President.

Then, of course, there’s Trump’s own denial. According to her report on Fox News:

Former President Trump and a number of his top national security and defense officials refuted Biden administration officials’ claims that Chinese surveillance balloons briefly transited the continental United States during the Trump administration, saying it “never happened.” 

A defense official on Saturday said Chinese spy balloons briefly traveled over the United States at least three times during the last administration. But Trump and his officials said that did not occur and criticized the Biden administration for spreading disinformation.

“This never happened. It would have never happened,” Trump told Fox News Digital on Sunday morning, adding that Beijing “respected us greatly” under his leadership.

“It never happened with us under the Trump administration and if it did, we would have shot it down immediately,” Trump said. “Its disinformation.”

The best-case-scenario here is that fake news and the Biden-Harris regime are trying to deflect from the current situation in which a spy balloon was allowed to traverse the entire continental United States without being touched. It was finally shot down yesterday after covering coast to coast.

The worst-case-scenario is that leaks about previous Chinese spy balloons mean the Deep State and their puppets in both military and intelligence departments knew but did not inform the Trump administration. If that’s the case, then our worst fears are being realized while nobody’s paying much attention. It would mean that they are not only working against our best interests — which we’ve known for a while — but that they’re working WITH the Chinese Communist Party to attack America.

There’s really no other excuse why military and intelligence leaders would keep knowledge of three spy balloons invading our airspace a secret unless they were in the process of committing treason on behalf of the CCP.

I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t John Bolton, Mark Esper, and possibly even Ric Grenell himself part of the Deep State? Well, yes and no. All three have Deep State ties but over the last couple of years I’ve come to the conclusion that the actual leaders of the current iteration of the Deep State is far more globalist than the Deep State of old. I believe we are seeing Barack Obama’s version of the Deep State. Those who may have been members of “the club” at pretty much any point in the past have been pushed out to make room for those who are more ideologically aligned with the globalist elite cabal.

Let’s hope other commentators pick up on this. Sadly, I expect this will be dumbed down to question of Trump-said/Biden-said, in which case the Deep State will once again avoid being exposed for the evils they’re committing against our nation, its people, and the Constitution.

Leave a comment about this story on my Substack.

There are numerous theories as to why such a surveillance platform would be used by the CCP and what it is designed to look for, and I thought I would offer a couple theories based on my years of study into similar projects pursued by the US Department of Defense and DARPA.

First, the immediate question is why the Biden Administration has not destroyed the balloon? Why not shoot first and ask questions later? Well, Biden’s silence on this issue suggests he either has no answers or that the truth will make the American public very angry. The most likely reason it has not been shot down is because it is very difficult or impossible to shoot down.

High altitude balloons travel at 80,000 to 120,000 feet. The average fighter jet can hit altitudes of 65,000 feet and new generation drones can climb to 50,000 feet. These balloons also emit little to no heat signature, which makes them very difficult to target using missiles. If laser technology exists that has such a range, the US military is not talking about it. It might actually be easier to shoot down a Chinese satellite than one of these balloons.

Is there a way? It could be done perhaps with a missile using a large fragmentation-type warhead, but the White House does not seem too interested in exploring options.

Another explanation is that the DoD is waiting to see what these balloons do. This is where I would present a few theories as to their purpose. Here is what I think is most likely given the progress of spy balloon technology right now…

Chinese ALTA Balloon Program

For a few years now DARPA has been playing with a concept for high altitude surveillance balloons using a technology called “Strat-OAWL.” Balloons have been fielded for centuries as surveillance weapons, but unpredictable wind and atmospheric changes push the balloons around, making them useless within a coupe of days for any specific region.

To break it down simply, Strat-OAWL is the experimental use of lasers to read wind speed and direction far ahead of a balloon. The balloon then uses that data to increase or decrease altitude to ride airstreams in whatever directing the military wants the balloon to go. This could allow increased navigational control, but the Holy Grail that DARPA seeks is a high alt balloon that can stay in one place indefinitely.

I find this idea impractical, like most DARPA projects, if only because wind currents can change faster than any balloon can adjust altitude, but I do see the potential uses here. The Chinese could unleash hundreds of high flying spy balloons with similar capabilities to spy satellites at a fraction of the cost and with less risk of destruction by enemy fire. The CCP may be attempting to test their own version of the DARPA directional balloon tech, while also waiting to see if the US has the means to shoot down the devices.

Lidar Observation From A Balloon Platform

The Chinese have been messing with lidar technology a lot lately. Lidar uses pulsed lasers to measure small variations in terrain to uncover hidden shapes and structures. It also has a knack for cutting through forest canopy and other obstructions. The problem with lidar is that the platforms commonly used to carry the apparatus are faster moving and only capture a snapshot in time. Also, it cannot see through thick clouds, dust, rain, snow or fog.

NASA and DARPA have both been testing lidar from balloons as a means to keep the lasers in the sky longer above a specific area. The Chinese balloon also looks somewhat similar to the equipment used on European lidar balloon experiments.

A lidar based spy balloon would explain Chinese interest in Eastern Montana, where there are numerous known nuclear missile silos as well as suspected hidden silos. The Chinese balloon did in fact come near at least one known nuclear missile base near Billings. Lidar could be exploited to find hidden bases in the region.

Multispectral Imaging

Much like Lidar, multispectral imaging tech is highly dependent on the platform that it is mounted on. MI is used to measure wavelengths of light that are not visible to the human eye and it is tested in many scientific applications. However, there are military applications, including using MI to discover hidden variations in terrain that do not match the surrounding environment. In other words, its meant to sniff out camouflaged buildings, vehicles, fighting positions, etc.

China launched two satellites for multispectral imaging in 2019 and may now be trying to test the same equipment on balloons. It’s hard to say if they are looking for a unique target, or if they are just establishing baseline image maps to be used in the future for…who knows?

Weapons Delivery Platform

High altitude balloons are cheap and relatively effective surveillance platforms that can be used much like satellites but, with the right equipment, could become far more maneuverable. With the CCP’s limited resources it makes sense that they would be utilizing low-cost and low visibility measures instead of expensive and easier to target long range drones or spy planes.

However, these systems are not just useful for observation – They can also be used to deliver weapons packages, including EMP weapons, nuclear weapons and biological agents. The US has been testing balloons for nuclear delivery ever since Operation Yucca in 1956.

In the event of war between China and the US, the CCP may be looking for a way to strike with weapons of mass destruction with a passive delivery system that’s hard to defend against.

The end goal is difficult to figure out. No doubt, the Chinese expect conflict with the US in the near future. The surveillance may be in preparation for an invasion of Taiwan in the near term (next couple years). Or, the entire circus may just be designed to see how America reacts. So far, the Biden White House has done nothing and has said nothing.

Article cross-posted from Alt-Market.

According to Fox Business [emphasis added]:

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said that China’s rise is a “huge win for the world” during an interview in Australia on Monday. Gates made the comment during an interview with the Lowy Institute, a think tank based in Sydney, Australia.

“I tend to see China’s rise as a huge win for the world,” Gates said. “I mean, that’s 20% of humanity. They today match their portion of the global economy, and their portion of the global population match exactly, you know, countries like Australia, U.S., we have per capita GDP’s five times what the Chinese have. So we have a disproportionate share of the world’s economy.”

His comments about the communist country came in response to a question asking Gates how “bullish” he was on China.

“You know, I do think the current mentality of the U.S. to China and which is reciprocated is kind of a lose-lose mentality, that if you ask U.S. politicians ‘hey, would you like the Chinese economy to shrink by 20% or grow by 20%,’ I’m afraid they would vote that ‘yeah, let’s immiserate those people,’ not understanding that for the global economy, the invention of cancer drugs, the solution of climate change, you know we’re all in this together.”

While painting China’s rise positively, Gates acknowledged that the country is “not a democracy,” and is an “outlier today in terms of that level of wealth and still being as autocratic as they are.”

During the interview, Gates also said that the U.S. is politically in a weak state, adding that countries like China need to play a bigger role in world governance.

This isn’t really all that new. Gates has pandered to China for decades. But for him to promote their form of communism to a western audience is something he would not have been able to do just a few years ago. Today, he has no need to hide his true feelings for two reasons. First, he has enough clout to survive any scandal; if the stink of Jeffrey Epstein couldn’t make him a full-blown pariah, touting China is small potatoes. Second, many leftists feel the same way as he does and would love to see us become the Communist States of America.

As the machinations of the globalist elite cabal continue to manifest, the powers-that-be are bringing their destructive ideas out of the shadows and displaying them proudly to a feeble-minded people in this post-truth society.

Such is the case with Apple and their ongoing push to censor on behalf of both Washington DC as well as Beijing. David Sacks, co-founder of PayPal, went on with Tucker Carlson last night to explain what he believes to be the reason why Apple is going after Twitter and the peaceful protesters in China. It comes down to the root of all evils: Their love for money.

PayPal Co-Founder @DavidSacks exposes collusion between Big Tech and the DC Uniparty as Apple threatens to thwart Free Speech by removing Twitter from the App Store:

"They're willing to kneecap their political opponents with censorship if that's what the party in power requires" pic.twitter.com/qGIvVEgiVt

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 30, 2022

Carlson asked him, “If Apple did this, it would, it seems like it would effectively destroy Twitter as the force that it currently is. That would be an abusive monopoly power. I think everyone would agree. What can be done to stop that?”

Apple has threatened to suspend or remove Twitter from their App Store if Musk and his company continue to push the platform toward offering freer speech than in its pre-Musk days.

Sacks replied, “Well, yeah, I, I agree with you, Tucker, that you know what Apple is doing in China is not that different from what Apple is doing in the US. They’re willing to engage in censorship on a global basis, on behalf of their true paymasters. And by paymasters, I don’t mean consumers. Apple has them completely locked up. What I mean is the party in power, whether that’s in Beijing or Washington.

“This is the quid pro quo that MAGA Democrats have made. Of course by MAGA Democrats, I’m referring to Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Amazon. They have the most lucrative monopolies in history and want to continue minting money undisturbed. And in exchange for that, they will donate lavishly to the Democratic Party, and they’re willing to kneecap their political opponents with censorship if that’s what the party in power requires.”

He’s mostly correct. DC in general and most Democrats in particular have taken a very direct approach with Apple, Google, and other Big Tech tyrants. The Deep State has actively engaged with these companies to compel them to suppress speech from those who promote freedom, including Donald Trump.

That alone should make this a 1st Amendment issue. While private companies and individuals do not have to abide by offering free speech in the venues they control, the 1st Amendment prohibits governments from engaging in censorship. Considering DC’s tentacles are all over Big Tech, the interference Twitter is getting from government means the 1st Amendment applies. In fact, one can go so far as to say Twitter under Musk honors the Constitution far better than others in the space, including the authoritarians at Apple and Google who are going after him.

The one component Sacks missed during his interview is the non-government entities also applying pressure against Twitter through Apple and Google. The globalist elite cabal, including the World Economic Forum and the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, have also been calling the shots regarding censorship whether it’s in DC or Silicon Valley. Big Tech may be doing the bidding of the Biden-Harris regime, but the regime is doing the bidding of those who want to usher in The Great Reset.

But their hypocrisy over controversial NBA star Kyrie Irving may be their worst crime to date. They have dumped the player and his iconic shoes over his Tweet that linked to a so-called “antisemitic” film on Amazon.

Meanwhile, they continue to do massive amounts of business with the Chinese Communist Party despite their blatant genocide against the Uyghurs. Conservative sports commentator Clay Travis noticed:

Nike has ended its relationship with Kyrie Irving over “hate speech” but continues its partnership with the Chinese government, which is currently committing actual genocide against Muslims.

Nike has ended its relationship with Kyrie Irving over “hate speech” but continues its partnership with the Chinese government, which is currently committing actual genocide against Muslims. pic.twitter.com/5531Jo1IBJ

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) November 5, 2022

Wide open billion dollar market out there for a new shoe company that just says, “I don’t give a fuck what your opinions are on anything, but our shoes are badass.” Sell them direct online. Market them as the uncancelable shoe. Hell, I may have to do it.

The Air First Amendments. Free speech is the new counterculture.

The Air First Amendments. Free speech is the new counterculture.

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) November 5, 2022

Nothing virtue signals pure wokeness better than a shoe company that endorses genocide of the Uyghurs while condemning a guy who posted an Amazon link. Nike is the epitome of moral incongruity and ethical cognitive dissonance.