Bryan Dean Wright, the host of “The Wright Report” podcast and a former CIA operations officer, disclosed this to Fox News Digital. According to him, EVs pose environmental problems, national security issues and driver safety concerns. These setbacks, he continued, make EVs a less than desirable alternative to gas-powered cars they are ostensibly to replace.
Wright added that one of the most important things to consider when buying an EV is whether it is actually “green.” He believes that these supposedly “green” EVs are actually quite “dirty” – starting with their batteries.
The former CIA staffer explained that thousands of pounds of minerals – including cobalt, lithium and nickel – from all around the world have to first be extracted. Seventy percent of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and a third of that come from miners who are “mostly kids,” he said. (Related: America IGNORING human rights, child labor abuses in the DRC to secure supplies of METALS for EV batteries.)
“That is a horrific thing, imagining these child miners pulling this stuff out of the ground to make our green cars go – but that is true. Also, we know about the 19 cobalt mines in the [DRC]. Fifteen of them are controlled by the Chinese government or a Chinese entity.”
Meanwhile, Wright continued that while lithium mostly comes from Australia, a large amount also comes from the Atacama Desert in South America – located in what is known as the “lithium triangle.” Lithium mining is problematic for the region because while the land is extraordinarily dry, the extraction process requires large amount of water. According to the host of “The Wright Report,” 500,000 gallons of water is needed to produce a single ton of lithium.
Because water is such a coveted resource in the region, Wright said lithium mining has caused tension between governments, mining companies and locals – especially indigenous peoples – about how the water should be used.
“We are removing the one critical resource by a lot of these indigenous folks down there, so we can have our green and clean car,” he said.
Nickel, another metal vital to EV battery production, primarily comes from Indonesia. There are two approaches to extracting the metal – an energy-intensive process that requires coal-fired furnaces and through chemical extraction using sulfuric acid. But regardless of how it’s extracted, the practice harms Indonesia’s environment and its people.
The problems don’t finish when the nickel is extracted, however. It needs to be disposed either in tailing ponds, or dried and stacked – with both these disposal methods posing environmental problems.
The extraction process for the three metals alone entails exploitation of children for labor and environmental damage. But the refining process requires that minerals be sent to China, with Beijing responsible for refining 80 percent of the batteries’ raw materials.
“But that’s just the beginning. We haven’t even gotten into the car to start to drive,” Wright said. “Imagining we get into that car, we have a few different concerns.”
“We’ve got a national security concern. That car is basically a computer on wheels. So as that thing drives, it’s going to both get things done.”
As of writing, both lithium-ion batteries – those typically used in EVs and as mega-batteries for storing energy from renewables – and standard lithium batteries are hard to recycle. One reason is that the most widely used methods of recycling more traditional batteries such as lead-acid versions don’t work with lithium ones. Lithium batteries are typically larger, heavier, much more complex and even dangerous if taken apart wrong.
“EVs are often touted as the green alternative to gas-powered vehicles, but … if people knew the truth about [them], they would think twice before purchasing one,” concluded Kendall Tietz of Fox News.
Watch this video that explains why EVs are a bad idea.
This video is from KevinJJohnston channel on Brighteon.com.
Sources include:
]]>(Mercola)—In a February 16, 2024, interview, Tucker Carlson and Mike Benz, founder and executive director of Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO), discussed the erosion of free speech.
As noted by Carlson, freedom of speech, as outlined in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights, is being eroded — not based on the truthfulness of information, but on whether it aligns with the agendas and narratives of those in power.
This right, which has been central to the identity and exceptionalism of the United States since its inception, ensures that people can express their thoughts and beliefs without fear of censorship or persecution. This right is what distinguishes us as free individuals, opposed to slaves. And, as noted by Carlson, there’s no hate speech exception in the First Amendment.
“… just because you hate what somebody else thinks you cannot force that person to be quiet,” Carlson says.
Carlson also points out that while censorship itself is nothing new, the censorship we face today is very different from other historical instances. It’s a far more nuanced, multifaceted approach that includes societal, technological and political dimensions. Moreover, this new form of censorship is being subtly integrated into the very fabric of our daily lives, which makes it all the more insidious and difficult to combat.
The phenomenon of labeling undesirable yet truthful information as “malinformation” is but one example of this. This labeling process, devoid of concern for the factual accuracy or the honesty of the expressed views, undermines the essence of free speech by restricting open discourse based on subjective criteria rather than objective truth.
Importantly, the mechanisms enforcing this modern censorship are not confined to private sectors or individual platforms but are significantly directed and influenced by the U.S. government itself. This intertwining of state powers with censorship activities marks a troubling departure from traditional American values, where free speech has been held sacred.
While many intuitively perceive this shift, Carlson suspects they may not fully grasp the mechanics of this censorship, or just how deeply embedded it has become in the societal and political landscape. This lack of understanding further compounds the risk, as combating an unseen or poorly comprehended threat is far more challenging.
According to Benz, modern censorship is based on a complex, integrated system where governmental interests, military defense strategies and corporate technologies converge to regulate and restrict free speech, moving us away from the foundational ideals of internet freedom and openness toward a more controlled and surveilled communication landscape.
In the interview, he outlines the transformation from internet freedom to internet censorship, and how these changes have been influenced and directed by various government agencies and the military-industrial complex.
Initially, the internet was heralded as a tool of freedom, promoting open dialogue and the exchange of ideas across borders. This freedom was supported and even exploited by entities like the Pentagon, the State Department and intelligence services to advance U.S. interests abroad, particularly in facilitating regime change by supporting dissident groups in authoritarian countries. However, this perspective has shifted dramatically in the past decades.
According to Benz, the change began with the realization within U.S. and allied defense and intelligence communities that the same tools that promote freedom and regime change abroad could also be used against them, which led to a significant shift from promoting to restricting speech online.
“The high-water mark of internet free speech was the Arab Spring in 2011, 2012, when you had … all of the adversary governments of the Obama administration — Egypt, Tunisia — all began to be toppled in Facebook revolutions and Twitter revolutions, and you had the state department working very closely with the social media companies to be able to keep social media online during those periods,” Benz says.
“So free speech was an instrument of statecraft from the national security state to begin with. All of that architecture, all the NGOs, the relationships between the tech companies and the national security state had been long established for freedom.
In 2014, after the coup in Ukraine, there was an unexpected counter coup, where Crimea and the Donbass broke away and they broke away with, essentially, a military backstop that NATO was highly unprepared for … That was the last straw for the concept of free speech on the internet.
In the eyes of NATO, as they saw it, the fundamental nature of war changed at that moment … You don’t need to win miliary skirmishes to take over Central and Eastern Europe. All you need to do is control the media and the social media ecosystem, because that’s what controls elections.”
The mechanics of modern censorship, as described by Benz, involve a coordinated effort between governmental bodies, the defense industry and tech companies to develop and implement sophisticated methods to monitor, control, and suppress speech online under the guise of combating “disinformation” and “malinformation” for national security purposes.
Censorship mechanisms are now embedded within the infrastructure of the internet, from social media platforms to search engines, and tools initially developed to protect democracy and promote free speech have all been repurposed to monitor and control the flow of information instead.
But, again, these efforts are not necessarily concerned with the veracity of the information but rather with its alignment with, or opposition to, certain political agendas, both national and global.
These censorship mechanisms are now embedded within the very infrastructure of the internet itself, from social media platforms to search engines, and tools initially developed to protect democracy and promote free speech, such as VPNs, Tor, encryption and private browsing modes, have all been repurposed to monitor and control the flow of information instead.
The involvement of major tech corporations — initially funded and supported by government grants and contracts — plays a crucial role in this transformation. For example, Google began as a project funded by a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant, awarded to founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford.
This funding was part of a joint CIA-NSA program aimed at understanding how groups form and interact online, essentially tracking “birds of a feather” through search engine data aggregation. That technology is now being used to identify, monitor and silence “dissident” voices within the U.S., no matter how righteous their views may be.
Benz also reviews the legal and institutional frameworks established to sustain this modern censorship, which allows for a seamless transition between state objectives and private sector compliance.
This public-private interaction is a clear departure from the overt government censorship of old. What we now have is a far more nuanced, shadowy form of content control that blurs the lines between public and private actions against free speech.
As we saw during the COVID pandemic, this also allowed government to plead innocence and pretend that the decision to censor some content was done by the companies themselves.
However, between the Twitter Files, the CTIL files and the lawsuit against the Biden administration, we now have ample evidence showing that companies were pressured to comply with the government’s demand for censorship. They didn’t come up with that on their own.
According to Benz, it’s quite clear that state-sponsored initiatives, supported by defense and intelligence agencies, are shaping online narratives and controlling information flow in the U.S. under the pretense that national security is at stake. As such, these initiatives have led to a form of legalized censorship.
U.S.-led initiatives have also influenced internet governance and free speech regulations internationally. For example, the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is a significant legislative move towards formalizing and legalizing online censorship.
The DSA, which took effect February 17, 2024, requires tech companies to comply with stringent content moderation policies to operate within the EU market. This act represents a legal framework that extends well beyond traditional boundaries of censorship.
It pushes companies to police content in accordance with European standards, which is basically just a proxy for NATO and U.S. foreign policy objectives. Collectively, these frameworks mark a global shift towards institutionalizing online censorship through legal and regulatory measures. As noted by Benz, “What I’m describing is military rule. It’s the inversion of democracy.”
As explained by Benz, the censorship industry was built as a whole-of-society effort, and to combat that, we need a whole-of-society solution.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, misinformation online is a whole-of-society problem that requires a whole-of-society solution. By that, they mean that four types of institutions must fuse together as a seamless whole. Those four categories and key functions are:
Benz’ organization, FFO, educates people about this structure, and the ways in which legislatures and the government can be restructured, how civil society institutions can be established, and how news media can be created to support and promote freedom rather than censorship.
To learn how you can be part of the solution, check out foundationforfreedomonline.com. You can also follow Benz on Twitter.
I firmly believe that we can turn this situation around, if for no other reason than the fact that there are some eight billion of us who want freedom, while those who seek to enslave us number in the thousands, or tens of thousands at the most. Either way, they’re clearly outnumbered.
But we need to spread the word, and help our friends and family understand how important our decisions are. We either support the network that seeks to take our freedom, or the network that seeks to protect it. Educate yourself about what’s at stake, then trust yourself to make the right decisions.
]]>In comparison to their counterparts in other industrialized nations, American students are falling behind. The rather sobering results revealed a 13-point decline for U.S. students when compared to the 2018 exam.
In stark contrast, 28 countries and economies managed to either maintain or improve their 2018 math scores, with countries such as Switzerland and Japan leading the way—and leaving the United States in the dust. These considerably more successful nations share a number of common characteristics, including, most notably of all, shorter school closures during the pandemic, as noted in the report.
Obviously concerned by the findings, the Defense Department has called for a new initiative to provide support for education in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). As The Hechinger Report reported, China, the United States’ biggest rival, has eight times the number of college graduates in these disciplines compared to the United States, while Russia, another major foe, has four times the number of engineers. This alarming disparity, noted the Hechinger Report piece, has prompted concerns beyond the realm of education. The United States’ mathematical failings pose a direct threat to its technological supremacy.
Other commentators have gone a step further. Falling math scores, they suggest, should be viewed as a national security threat. They’re right.
Mathematics plays a critical role in various fields such as the physical sciences, technology, business, financial services, and infrastructure. For instance, geometry, algebra, and trigonometry are fundamental parts of architectural design. Moreover, math plays a significant role in medicine, AI, and quantum computing. Math serves as the foundation for virtually all scientific and industrial research and development. Essentially, mathematics can be seen as the underlying operating system that makes the world go round.
Which begs the trillion-dollar question: What can be done?
The math problem is an education problem. To correct the problem, the manner in which math is taught must change—radically and rapidly.
Other countries have different approaches to comprehending, appreciating, and teaching math. Take the aforementioned Russia, for example.
Chris Dooly, a youth mentor and writer, has discussed the concept of “Russian Math.” Although it lacks a concrete definition, he writes, educators and historians generally agree that it revolves around the idea of developing proficiency in mathematics through an understanding of abstract mathematical concepts. Instead of just focusing on rote learning, this type of math is more holistic in nature, factoring in the overall mental development of students. Math instruction is used to enhance children’s intellect and character.
The Russian method emphasizes not only finding the answer to a math problem, but, unlike the approach in the United States, also understanding the very essence of the problem, Mr. Dooly explains. Moreover, the Russian method de-emphasizes standardized testing and instead prioritizes the establishment of a strong mathematical foundation through class discussions and engaging conversations. Tests are important, but actually understanding why math matters and what the answers really mean is considerably more important.
The Russian approach emphasizes the need to foster a comprehensive understanding of mathematics and the process of problem-solving, rather than relying solely on rote memorization. From a young age, students are introduced to mathematics, starting with basic arithmetic and geometry. The curriculum is designed, first and foremost, to foster rigorous problem-solving abilities and cultivate critical thinking skills.
As critics of the U.S. education system have noted, the country’s obsession with standardized testing is geared more toward funding rather than the growth and progress of students. The allocation of federal funding, which is determined at the highest level of government, heavily relies on test scores and graduation rates. Consequently, schools depend on these metrics to secure equal or increased federal funding for the following year. If education, in its purest form, is supposed to enlighten students, then the United States’ approach to teaching math is doing the very opposite.
Other countries—such as the Netherlands, for example, where math scores are exceptional—offer courses that incorporate real-world math and cover topics such as financial algebra and mathematical modeling. In Ireland, where I was educated, the practical application of mathematical concepts to real-life scenarios is a common practice. In truth, across most of Europe, this approach to teaching math is prevalent. By focusing on mathematical concepts that are both relevant and relatable, students get a firmer grasp of what is being taught, simply because they can apply the lessons to their own lives.
The United States must move beyond its unhealthy obsession with rote learning, which is nothing more than a superficial understanding of a topic. It must focus on helping American children to develop an understanding, appreciation, and love for math. This move is necessary. In many ways, the country’s future depends on it.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
]]>“Our nation’s critical infrastructure sectors, such as energy, chemical and communications, are increasingly relying on UAS for various missions that ultimately reduce operating costs and improve staff safety,” David Mussington, executive assistant director for CISA’s Infrastructure Security, said in a memo that accompanied the report, titled “Cybersecurity Guidance: Chinese-Manufactured UAS.”
“However, the use of Chinese-manufactured UAS risks exposing sensitive information that jeopardizes U.S. national security, economic security, and public health and safety.”
“Urgent attention” must be paid to “China’s aggressive cyber operations to steal intellectual property and sensitive data from organizations,” Mr. Mussington added.
Chinese-made drones have long been a concern in the United States, particularly those made by China-based Da Jiang Innovations (DJI), which is the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial drones. In December 2020, the Commerce Department added DJI to its export control list for being complicit in the Chinese regime’s human rights abuses. Two years later, the Pentagon added DJI to its list of “Chinese military companies” that are operating directly or indirectly in the United States.
The FBI–CISA report doesn’t mention DJI or other Chinese UAS makers by name.
However, it highlights the risks associated with using Chinese-made drones by pointing to different Chinese laws, including the National Intelligence Law that took effect in 2017, which compels Chinese companies to hand over data collected within China and elsewhere to Beijing’s intelligence agencies.
“The 2021 Data Security Law expands the PRC’s access to and control of companies and data within China and imposes strict penalties on China-based businesses for non-compliance,” the report says, referring to China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.
“The 2021 Cyber Vulnerability Reporting Law requires Chinese-based companies to disclose cyber vulnerabilities found in their systems or software to PRC authorities prior to any public disclosure or sharing overseas,” the report adds.
“This may provide PRC authorities the opportunity to exploit system flaws before cyber vulnerabilities are publicly known.”
The report points out three major vulnerabilities that Chinese-made drones can exploit: data transfer and collection, patching and firmware updates, and a broader surface for data collection. Drones controlled by smartphones and other internet-of-things devices could allow foreign intelligence gathering on U.S. critical infrastructure.
Sensitive imagery, surveying data, and facility layouts are some of the vulnerable data that “allow foreign adversaries like the PRC access to previously inaccessible intelligence,” according to the report.
“Without mitigations in place, the widespread deployment of Chinese-manufactured UAS in our nation’s key sectors is a national security concern, and it carries the risk of unauthorized access to systems and data,” Bryan Vorndran, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, said in a statement.
The memo encourages owners and operators of U.S. critical infrastructure to buy drones that are “secure-by-design,” including those made by U.S. companies. The report provides several cybersecurity recommendations.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), issued a joint statement in response to the report.
“The new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency report makes clear that Communist Chinese drones present a legitimate national security risk to our critical infrastructure and must be banned from the U.S.,” the lawmakers stated.
“The CCP has subsidized drone companies such as DJI and Autel in order to destroy American competition and spy on America’s critical infrastructure sites. We must ban CCP-backed spy drones from America and work to bolster the U.S. drone industry.”
Last November, a bipartisan group of 11 House lawmakers, including Mr. Gallagher and Ms. Stefanik, sent a letter to the Biden administration, calling for an investigation into Chinese drone maker Autel Robotics, citing national security concerns. The group said the firm is openly affiliated with the Chinese military and “poses a direct threat to U.S. national security as local law enforcement and state and local governments are purchasing and operating Autel drones.”
Mr. Gallagher and Ms. Stefanik also introduced the Countering CCP Drones Act (H.R.2864) in April 2023 to prevent DJI technologies from operating on U.S. communication infrastructure.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, advised people interested in purchasing Chinese-made drones to read the security report.
“For years, I’ve been concerned about the security risks associated with drones, including those made in the PRC,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “This memo represents a good first step to studying that, and I hope anyone considering purchasing a Chinese drone reads it carefully.”
]]>(Mercola)—In August 2023, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy released a report in which they claimed:1
“PFAS are chemically quite stable, and many are water and oil repellent, heat resistant, and/or stain resistant … DoD is reliant on the critically important chemical and physical properties of PFAS to provide required performance for the technologies and consumable items and articles which enable military readiness and sustainment.
Losing access to PFAS due to overly broad regulations or severe market contractions would greatly impact national security and DoD’s ability to fulfill its mission …”
PFAS are fluorinated chemicals that are known to be endocrine disruptors and are known to accelerate metabolic changes in the body. Since the 1999-2000 survey, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) has measured blood serum PFAS in adults and children and released the data every two years.2
Biomonitoring studies have also measured levels from occupational exposure, communities that have contaminated drinking water, and throughout the general population.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) notes that while blood levels for PFOS and PFOA have declined as use has declined, exposure to other PFAS chemicals may rise. Data show that the highest exposure is occupational and in communities that have been exposed, most in their water supply.3
As ATSDR has noted, the NHANES has recognized that rising serum values of PFAS may have indicated a significant health risk since 1999. As KFF Health News reports,4 a DoD study in 1974 demonstrated the chemical was fatal to fish and in 1983 a report showed it was deadly to mice.
Despite this knowledge, it is apparent from the subsequent actions of the military that they were not protecting service men and women. As demonstrated by a photo release from the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service5 in 2013, personnel working without protective gear on Travis Air Force Base, California, were surrounded by mounds of PFAS-laced firefighting foam.
James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 20236 authorizes appropriations for military activities of the Department of Defense and requires the assessment of PFAS chemicals in military products and equipment. This prompted the August 2023 DoD report to Congress in which the DoD claimed PFAS chemicals were critical and eliminating them could undermine military readiness.7
According to the report,8 most of the weapon platforms incorporate these chemicals, including microelectronic chips and lithium ion batteries. The chemicals are also used in a variety of uniform clothing, footwear, tents and duffel bags.
For more than 50 years, the DoD has used PFAS-laced firefighting foam and contaminated at least 359 military sites or nearby communities, with over 200 others under investigation. Yet, the report did not address health concerns. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) told KFF Health News that the “report lacked acknowledgment of the health risks or concerns posed by PFAS and ignored the availability of PFAS-free replacements for material, tents and duffel bags.”9
According to David Andrews, senior scientist at EWG, the report fell short. “It’s kind of like that report you turn in at school, when you get a comment back that you did the minimum amount possible,” Andrews said. In addition to this, Andrews notes that the government has not proposed banning PFAS chemicals as was alluded to in the report.
“The statements are completely unsubstantiated, and it’s almost a fear-mongering statement,” Andrews said. “I think the statement is really going beyond anything that’s even being considered in the regulatory space.”
Kevin Fay, executive director of the Sustainable PFAS Action Network, a coalition of organizations and researchers who support PFAS compound use, told KFF Health News10 that using a one-size-fits-all approach “will gravely harm national security and economic competitiveness.”
The Congressional report was published one month after a 2023 research study11 confirmed what multiple other studies have shown in the past — firefighters have a higher rate of testicular cancer than people in other occupations, which points to the presence of PFAS in firefighting foam.
The difference was this federal study demonstrated for the first time a direct association between serum levels of PFOS, a chemical in the PFAS family, and testicular cancer. The researchers tested blood serum drawn from Air Force servicemen and banked at the Department of Defense Serum Repository.
They gathered data from 530 Air Force servicemen with a diagnosis of testicular germ cell tumors and 530 controls that were matched for several factors including ethnicity, race, birth date, the year they entered the service and the year the sample was collected. The researchers found elevated concentrations of some PFAS chemicals in the blood supply of those employed in firefighting in the military and at bases where there was a high PFAS concentration in the drinking water.
Elevated levels of PFOS were associated with testicular germ cell tumors. “To my knowledge, this is the first study to measure PFAS levels in the U.S. military population and to investigate associations with a cancer endpoint in this population, so that brings new evidence to the table,” Mark Purdue, senior investigator at NCI and co-author of the study, told KFF Health News.12
Testicular cancer has a high rate of diagnosis in active military personnel aged 18 to 40 years who are in peak physical condition. It was the age distribution and exposure to PFAS contamination that prompted the researchers to look for a possible connection.13
Kevin Ferrara, a retired Air Force firefighter, told KFF Health News that the Air Force barely warned of any dangers. “We were told that it was just soap and water, completely harmless,” Ferrara said. “We were completely slathered in the foam — hands, mouth, eyes. It looked just like if you were going to fill up your sink with dish soap.”14
Ferrara does not have cancer but has other health concerns he attributes to his exposure to PFAS. While the Department of Veterans Affairs does not currently recommend blood testing,15 KFF Health News reports that the Congressional PFAS task force introduced an act that would require the VA to treat conditions that are linked to PFAS exposure as well as provide disability benefits.16
KFF Health News describes the case of Gary Flook, who served in the Air Force for 37 years as a firefighter. Flook did not speak to KFF Health News as he is part of a 3M class action lawsuit filed in August 2022.17 June 22, 2023,18 3M agreed to pay $10.3 billion to roughly 300 communities in a multidistrict litigation to help clean up PFAS chemicals in the water supply.
There are an additional 3,000 claims that are still unsettled. Michael London of the New York law firm Douglas & London is representing plaintiffs in the city of Stuart, Florida. He told Time, “There are also 5,000, perhaps 6,000 individuals who have brought personal injury cases [nationwide].”19
One 2023 study20 published in a Lancet publication, eBioMedicine, found an association between exposure to PFAS and an increased rate of thyroid cancer. The researchers noted that this is a worldwide concern, given the ubiquitous nature of PFAS exposure.
One research team explained that an accumulation of epigenetic events induced by PFAS exposure can “synergistically amplify tumorigenicity and cancer progression,” adding that immune system suppression and chronic inflammation also likely play a role. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals that accumulate in body tissue can also lead to fatty liver disease.
“This bioaccumulation,” researchers wrote in Environmental Health Perspectives, “coupled with the long half-lives of many PFAS, leads to concern about the potential for PFAS to disrupt liver homeostasis should they continue to accumulate in human tissue even if industrial use is abated.”21
The researcher’s systematic review and meta-analysis compared exposure to liver injury. The data showed higher levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) indicating liver damage with exposure to several PFAS chemicals. Exposure to PFOA was also linked to higher aspartate aminotransferase and gamma-glutamyl transferase levels — two widely used markers of liver disease — in humans.
Another 2022 study22 published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension showed women with the highest concentration of PFAS chemicals in their bloodstream also had a 71% increased risk of high blood pressure. According to the Endocrine Society, PFAS exposure may contribute to:23
Apparently, American servicemen and women are not exposed to enough plastic pollution on military bases and in the food and water supply. In 2020 Iowa State University announced that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded the University and partners a $2.7 million grant to create a process that would make food from plastic and paper waste.24
The military hopes to use this to feed the men and women who have dedicated their lives to defending this country. They believe the ability to turn paper and plastic waste products into a consumable could help with short-term “nourishment” and improve military logistics for extended missions. They estimate the total award could reach $7.8 million before the project ends.25
The proposed system hopes to convert plastic waste into fatty alcohols and fatty acids and paper into sugar that would then be bioprocessed by single-cell organisms into an edible mass rich in protein and vitamins. In other words, the hope is that microorganisms in the lab can do what those in the environment and ocean cannot — convert endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in plastic into vitamins and proteins.
DARPA also awarded Michigan Tech26 and collaborating researchers $7.2 million to turn plastic waste into protein powder and lubricants. In 2022, Stephen Techtmann’s lab announced they had indeed converted plastic into something that smells like yeast extract. “But he [Techtmann] hasn’t tasted it. First, he wants to know it’s safe, free from anything that might be toxic. It is, after all, made from plastic.”27
In an era where fake meat is valued over regeneratively and biodynamically grown real meat,28 it doesn’t take much to imagine that the next step could be plastic food for all. DARPA is starting with military men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our country. Thank you so much for your service. Here’s a big bowl of plastic.
The Rand Corp. study states, “Individuals who hold or held a security clearance and handled classified material could become a security threat if they develop dementia and unwittingly share government secrets.
“The exploratory research discussed in this Perspective highlights the factors involved in dementia becoming a risk to global and national security, proposes a framework to assess the risk, and guides further study of this potential threat. The authors also explore how the national security and intelligence communities are especially at risk because they employ large numbers of military veterans, who, as a population, may have a higher risk of developing dementia because of high rates of traumatic brain injury.”
The issue is significant at this point because of Joe Biden’s age as an octogenarian and his many, many mental lapses that are evident on an almost daily basis.
President Donald Trump, who was challenged to take a cognitive test when he was president, and aced it, repeatedly has cited Biden’s mental stumbles and bumbles, which have gotten to the point he’s even misidentified his own grandchildren and called on people who are dead.
A vast majority of Americans, by polling, now also believe Biden is too old to be president.
The federally funded study said, “As people live longer and retire later, challenges associated with cognitive impairment in the workplace will need to be addressed. Our limited research suggests this concern is an emergency security blind spot. considering the potential consequences of an inadvertent security breach stemming from cognitive impairment, we believe that further study of risk, recognition, and mitigation strategies is important.
“Such research should be paired with educating the current and retired security workforce and their families to increase awareness and recognition of dementia symptoms.”
It concluded, “Further understanding of cognitive impairment and cognitive decline within an aging IC and national security workforce cohort could contribute to securing the safety of classified information in the United States.”
It explains, “The U.S. government entrusts classified material to individuals who possess a security clearance (Department of Defense Manual [DoDM] 5200.01, 2013). But how do these trusted individuals remain good custodians of that classified information if they are impaired? Two trends might contribute to a new type of national security threat: (1) People are living longer, and (2) people are working later in life. As a result, the workforce might experience a higher prevalence of dementia than in past generations. Taken together, we believe that an increasing number of cleared personnel—that is, personnel who hold or have held security clearances—have or will have dementia.”
It reported, “The U.S. population of adults ages 65 and older will double between 2000 and 2040 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living, 2018). In turn, an increase in the number of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias is expected to accompany this demographic change.”
The very real threat comes because there is “the potential for an individual to use their authorized access, intentionally or unintentionally, to harm their organization…”
It said, “An individual who holds a Top Secret security clearance who develops dementia and unwittingly shares government secrets is an insider threat.”
A report from Just the News explained the study is “bringing more scrutiny to aging politicians for recent apparent lapses in cognitive abilities.”
The report cited, “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has access to more classified information than most other members of Congress due to his leadership position, recently had two brief on-camera ‘freeze-ups,’ where he stopped talking and stared blankly forward for less than a minute.”
Further, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, recently appeared to forget that she had been ill, and absent from the Senate for months, and she needed to be told by aides how to vote.
Biden, 80, is the oldest person to hold the Oval Office in U.S. history, and has prompted widespread concern, even among Democrats, over his “public gaffes and stumbles,” the report said.
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]]>As per the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), China possesses over 191,000 acres of land in America, but the figures were before the North Dakota land sale this spring.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday, August 1, requesting the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to immediately review the purchase.
“We ask that this review process be completed with the utmost urgency to aid Grand Forks officials in their decision-making process and provide clarity on whether this land purchase has national security implications,” the governor stated in the letter.
Fufeng Group USA COO Eric Chutorash claimed that they do not have any Chinese government ownership and the workers will all be Americans. He added that the human resources director, commercial director sales team and engineer are not people transferred from China.
“I know we’re not going to be asked to be collecting any intelligence on Grand Forks Air Force Base,” Chutorash told the Grand Forks Herald during a forum back in March. “I can’t stress it any more than that. (But) personally, I wouldn’t provide it. I don’t believe the team being built there would provide it.”
Burgum said the company agreed to a voluntary CFIUS filing to further explain its intentions in North Dakota. But Chutorash said that his team would be required to state a reason for the CFIUS review when they offer consent and they have been given no reason to request a review.
Fufeng Group is the world’s largest manufacturer of xanthan gum and monosodium glutamate.
The growing Chinese territory inside the U.S. can be a problem gauging from China’s response to a recent visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Taiwan.
Following the high-profile visit, China kicked off its biggest-ever military exercises in the seas around the island nation. Pelosi became the highest-ranking U.S. politician to visit the island in 25 years. (Related: China surges forces toward Taiwan, conducts live-fire drills as Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits.)
She praised Taiwan’s democracy and pledged American solidarity during her brief stopover. She even “added fuel to the fire” by saying Chinese anger could not stop world leaders from traveling there.
“Our delegation came to Taiwan to make unequivocally clear that we will not abandon Taiwan,” she told Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said earlier in the week that Pelosi was within her rights to visit Taiwan while stressing that the trip did not constitute a violation of Chinese sovereignty or America’s longstanding One China policy.
The Chinese didn’t think so.
China’s foreign minister spokesperson Zhao Lijian said: “The Chinese People’s Liberation Army will not sit back.” Following this statement, the Chinese sent warplanes to the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, August 2, and continued their live-fire drills surrounding Taiwan until Thursday, August 4.
Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party said China is conducting drills on the busiest international waterways and aviation routes and that is “irresponsible, illegitimate behavior.”
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan a “manic, irresponsible and highly irrational” act by the United States, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Visit NationalSecurity.news for more news related to current threats to America’s security.
Watch the below video that talks about the reasons why Pelosi should and shouldn’t have visited Taiwan.
This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com.
But unfortunately, Joe Biden is really the president, thanks to the Deep State stealing Donald Trump’s reelection. And the way his administration is being staffed, you’d think you were watching an old-style traveling show.
There’s a “trans man” – a biological male posing as a woman – who was appointed to a ranking position in the Department of Health and Human Services, and just to poke the majority of the country in the eye, the Obama sycophants running the regime made “her” a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps so they could check a box.
Then we have Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the nation’s top diplomat, who is a wannabe rock-and-roller (which is why other countries – friends and enemies alike – don’t take him seriously).
We also have Sam Brinton, “a high-level hire at the Department of Energy‘s Office of Nuclear Energy, whose past as a drag queen and defender of underage gay prostitution sites has stirred controversy,” The National Pulse reported.
Not only is his taxpayer-funded salary of around $178,000 in the top one percent of government employees, but he also has a top-secret “Q clearance,” a level so high “the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.”
That means one of the nation’s most vulnerable administration staffers due to his lifestyle and his past is also one of our biggest national security risks, given that he could be easily blackmailed into surrendering vital information that would harm our country.
In a real world, not the clown world we’re currently in, Brinton and people with backgrounds and personal histories like his would never be able to get within a thousand miles of a high-level security clearance. Those days ended when Trump’s presidency was stolen and the cartoon show rolled into D.C.
The Energy Department uses its own terminology to classify security clearances, describing the Q-level clearance as “similar to what is completed by other agencies for a Top Secret National Security Information access clearance.”
“Access to Secret Restricted Data requires a Q access authorization,” the agency noted further.
Brinton’s personal social media posts have laid out the vital importance of his position.
“I lead a staff of hundreds and a budget of millions (with a Nuclear Waste Fund I’m responsible for at over $45 billion) as the leader of the office overseeing the management of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel,” he posted to Twitter June 29.
In the past, Brinton defended “Rentboy.com” in a September 2, 2015 op-ed in Advocate magazine: “The Real Ramifications of the Rentboy Raid.”
The article followed Department of Homeland Security officials raiding Rentboy’s Manhattan offices and arresting CEO Jeffrey Hurant and six employees on charges of promoting prostitution. The following year, the CEO of the site, which connected male prostitutes and escorts with potential clients, was indicted on a charge of promoting prostitution. He ultimately pleaded guilty.
According to an Energy Department insider, there were “substantial irregularities” in the hiring process for Brinton, who is also a homosexual prostitution defender sometimes going by the drag queen alter ego of “Sister Ray Dee O’Active.”
In a Feb. 2 letter addressed to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Deputy Inspector General Norbert Vint, the anonymous insider claimed that “prohibited personnel practices” were used in order to tap Brinton for his position of deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition.
“Undue political influence and preferences were applied” at the Energy Department in selecting Brinton for the job, the stated the letter, the signatory of which is designated as “Long-serving public servant at the U.S. Department of Energy.”
It’s no wonder our country is mocked and disrespected.
Sources include:
]]>At first glance, Elon Musk’s Twitter bid may seem like a “nothing to see here” moment. Still, at least 12 former and current officials examining foreign investment say there could be national security concerns.
How so? In questionable countries like China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, foreign governments have used Twitter to conduct disinformation campaigns to advance their national interests.
China, in particular, is always looking for ways to clean up its national image in the eyes of foreigners. And which of these three countries has the most leverage over Musk? China. Set aside for a minute the fact that Twitter itself is inaccessible in China. Ironically, China wants to use what it does not allow in its own country to peer into the inner workings of U.S.-based tech companies.
China has accumulated interests in quite a list of companies blocked from operating in its country, including social media sites Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter, audio and video streaming sites YouTube, Pandora, and Spotify, and news media sites like The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Financial Times, BBC, CNN, and TIME, productivity tools like Gmail, DropBox, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google Play, as well as VPN websites and politically sensitive websites, of course.
Also, the list of U.S. companies that have voluntarily pulled the plug on China entirely is staggering. It includes Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Best Buy, Home Depot, Yahoo, Groupon, Uber, LinkedIn, Macy’s, Forever 21, and Airbnb (May 2023).
Few people doubt that Elon Musk is super intelligent. Some would even say he is a genius. Yet some would also say (and have said) that he is incredibly impulsive. Musk is already the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. How many irons can Musk have in the fire at once? Would Musk being the CEO of three large companies cause him to cut corners by outsourcing U.S. production and have less to manage domestically?
Tesla’s senior vice-president of powertrain and energy engineering, Drew Baglino, has said Tesla is “building 4680 structural packs every day” in California. Panasonic is doing this in Japan for Tesla vehicles there. However, according to company sources, both efforts are “in limited production,” as reported by Automotive News on April 4, 2022.
In the same Automotive News article, Drew Baglino said, “the automaker is also ramping up its use of cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate cells from Chinese battery manufacturers such as CATL” (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited). Baglino was also quoted as saying, “…in the end, it’s about cost competitiveness.”
If it truly is “about cost competitiveness,” does that mean if battery production in China is more efficient due to lower production costs than in the United States, Tesla will prefer to import most of its batteries from Chinese-owned CATL?
Since China’s Communist government still dominates several components critical to Tesla’s current and future fortunes, it holds significant leverage over Elon Musk. This reality should concern America’s national security leaders, including the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Elon Musk does not represent foreign investment per se. Still, in 2018, CFIUS was granted increased power that includes potentially blocking acquisitions that do not involve a foreign-owned company taking direct control of an American-owned company.
Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Alsaud should be required to reveal how much of his $2 billion investment in Twitter is owned by Saudi Arabia. The owners of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund should be questioned about their investment in Twitter as well.
Blocking Musk’s Twitter bid would be no different than when President Obama refused to allow a Chinese-backed takeover of U.S. semiconductor company Aixtron. The justification? One of Aixtron’s past Chinese customers had support from China’s government and connections to the acquisitive company.
It also would be no different than when President Trump prevented Broadcom’s $130 billion acquisition of Qualcomm after Broadcom announced plans to relocate from Singapore to the U.S. The justification? CFIUS was worried that that Qualcomm was a Defense Department supplier, and Broadcom had a long list of Chinese customers.
CFIUS needs to step up with other national security leaders and make sure we don’t allow an acquisition that we will regret later before potentially irreversible damage is done to our country.
Roger Simmermaker has written multiple books on buying American and trade policy since 1996, and has been a frequent guest on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and MSNBC. Roger has also been quoted or featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BusinessWeek, and The New York Times, among many other publications. His new book ” UNCONSTITUTIONAL: Our Founding Fathers Rejected FREE TRADE And So Should We,” was printed in January 2020.
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