Month: January 2022

Geopolitical commentator Clint Ehrlich has reported while on the ground in Moscow that “the situation in Kazakhstan is a much bigger deal than Western media is letting on.” He further argues that the mayhem unleashed this past week and ongoing violent destabilization significantly increases the risk of NATO-Russia conflict. 

He asks the key question: what really is happening in Kazakhstan? After all, he writes  “In America, the situation in Kazakhstan is a small news item” but it remains that “in Moscow, it is currently receiving 24/7 news coverage, like it’s an apocalyptic threat to Russia’s security. I’ve had the TV on here while writing this thread, and Kazakhstan has been on the entire time.” Below is Ehrlich’s mega-thread from Twitter exploring the crisis and connecting the dots in terms of why this is a bigger deal than many believe…

Mass protests and anti-government violence have left dozens dead. Russia is deploying 3,000 paratroopers after Kazakh security forces were overrun. The largest city, Almaty, looks like a warzone. To appreciate why Russia is willing to deploy troops to Kazakhstan, it’s critical to understand the depth of Russia’s vital national interests inside the country. This isn’t just any former Soviet republic. It’s almost as important to Russia as Belarus or Ukraine. 

First, Russia and Kazakhstan have the largest continuous land border on planet earth. If Kazakhstan destabilizes, a significant fraction of the country’s 19 million residents could become refugees streaming across the border. Russia is not willing to let that happen.

Second, roughly one-quarter of the population of Kazakhstan is ethnic Russians. Kazakh nationalists are overwhelmingly Muslims, who resent the Orthodox-Christian Russian minority. Russia believes that civil war would entail a non-trivial risk of anti-Russian ethnic cleansing.

Third, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan was the heart of the Soviet space program. Russia still uses it as its primary space-launch facility. The Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East will lessen that dependence, but it still isn’t complete.

Fourth, Russia conducts its Anti-Ballistic Missile testing at the Sary-Shagan test site within Kazakhstan. This is where ongoing development of the S-550 ABM system is occurring, one of the foundations of Russia’s national security.

Fifth, Russia’s nuclear fuel cycle is intimately linked to Kazakhstan. Russian-backed Uranium mining operations are active in the country. Uranium from Kazakhstan is enriched in Novouralsk, Russia and then returned to Kazakhstan for use in Chinese nuclear-fuel assemblies. 

Collectively, these security interests make Kazakhstan a region that Russia is willing to stabilize with force. The 3,000 troops it has already committed are not the maximum it is willing to deploy. If necessary, these will only be the first wave of RU forces in the country. The biggest question is how the situation in Kazakhstan will affect the existing standoff between Russia and NATO over Ukraine. Will Russia be deterred from intervention in Ukraine by the need to maintain reserves to deploy to Kazakhstan? Or will it simply be provoked? 

Recall that, before things escalated in Kazakhstan, Russia had massed troops along its border with Ukraine. Moscow issued an ultimatum: Provide security guarantees that Ukraine would not join NATO “or else.” This was already a very dangerous situation. NATO-Russia talks to resolve the crisis in Ukraine were set to begin next week. Yet, on their eve, the revolution against the government of Kazakhstan began. Russia perceives this to be an act of “hybrid war.” Right or wrong, that perception is fueling a desire for revenge. 

What is “hybrid war”? From the Russian perspective, it is a two-pronged approach to regime change. First, Western-backed NGOs encourage large protests against an incumbent government. Second, armed provocateurs use the protests as cover to stage kinetic attacks.

Moscow believes that this playbook was employed successfully in Ukraine to oust the Russian-aligned government in 2014. And it believes that the West unsuccessfully attempted to employ the same strategy to topple Russia’s allies in Syria and Belarus. It’s debatable whether the West has anywhere near the power to spark revolutions that Russia contends. Yet America plays into Russian paranoia by funding “civil society” NGOs overseas.

See the NED’s Kazakhstan page here.

When revolutions occur in countries where they’re active, Russia connects the dots. Kazakhstan is the latest example. In the year before the attempted revolution, the US National Endowment for democracy spent more than $1M in the country. The money went to PR campaigns against the government and training anti-government protesters. The Russians are convinced that NED is a front for the CIA. I don’t think that’s true. But it’s a distinction without a difference, since NED has taken over part of the CIA’s mission. In 1986, the founder of NED, Carl Gershman, said the group was created because “[i]t would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA.” Today, instead of receiving CIA money, they receive NED money. 

In 1991, NED President Allen Weinstein said, “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” He claimed that operating overtly via NED, rather than covertly through the CIA, made the risk of blowback “close to zero.”  The Russians do not see things that way. When they witness overt US support for ousting pro-Russian governments, they assume there is also covert support being provided. To them, NED is only 1/2 of a “hybrid war” strategy in Kazakhstan that includes kinetic operations. Russia’s Foreign Ministry made that clear yesterday.

It describes the situation in Kazakhstan as “an attempt to undermine the security and integrity of the state by force, using trained and organized armed formations, that is inspired from the outside.” This claim forms the predicate for intervention by the “Collective Security Treaty Organization,” the Russian-led equivalent of NATO. It’s the first ever CSTO intervention, and it’s based on the accusation of a foreign attack on the sovereignty of Kazakhstan. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has questioned the legal legitimacy of the CSTO operation, but there’s not much to complain about.

The undisputed President of Kazakhstan, Tokayev, requested CSTO support, claiming his nation was under attack. To bolster the appearance of multilateralism, RU forces are deploying alongside smaller number of troops from two other CSTO states, Belarus and Armenia. These CSTO forces will secure critical government installations, freeing up the Kazakh military to perform “anti-terrorism.” The most critical function of the CSTO deployment is internal signaling within Kazakhstan.

Now that Kazakh forces know Russia is backing their government, fewer of them will be willing to join the side of the opposition. We saw that happen before. I doubt we’ll see it again. In the short term, while Kazakhstan remains volatile, Russia’s freedom to maneuver in Ukraine may be constrained. But this will not motivate Moscow to deescalate the crisis in the long term.

Instead, it will only strengthen perceptions of the West as an existential threat. Activists from prior color revolutions are already publicly taking credit for what is happening in Kazakhstan. Here is a post from Belorussian activist, Dzmitry Halko, who says that he helped organize the uprising in Kazakhstan along with veterans of the Ukraine revolution…

Activists from prior color revolutions are already publicly taking credit for what is happening in Kazakhstan.

Here is a post from Belorussian activist, Dzmitry Halko, who says that he helped organize the uprising in Kazakhstan along with veterans of the Ukraine revolution. pic.twitter.com/pGputJwi2C

— Clint Ehrlich (@ClintEhrlich) January 7, 2022

The Kremlin’s biggest fear is a “Maidan on Red Square” – i.e., a repeat of the Ukrainian revolution inside Moscow. The more that it appears the West is pursuing similar revolutions in former Soviet republics, the more aggressively Russia will push back. 

In America, the situation in Kazakhstan is a small news item. In Moscow, it is currently receiving 24/7 news coverage, like it’s an apocalyptic threat to Russia’s security. I’ve had the TV on here while writing this thread, and Kazakhstan has been on the entire time.

It’s important to note that today (Jan.7) is Christmas in Russia. (They celebrate it on January 7th rather than December 25th, due to the Russian Orthodox church still adhering to the Julian Calendar.) When Christmas is overshadowed by a security crisis, it’s a big deal. 

Authored by John Seiler via The Epoch Times,

Even as crime is surging in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies in the legislature are seeking to make it more difficult for citizens to defend themselves.

This week, Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) introduced Assembly Bill 1594, which reads, “This bill would specify that a gun industry member has created or maintained a public nuisance, as defined, if their failure to follow federal, state, or local law caused injury or death or if the gun industry member engaged in unfair business practices.”

It’s a blatant attempt to bankrupt the gun companies, a clear violation of the Second Amendment “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” The 2008 Heller decision by the U.S. Supreme Court clearly affirmed that meant an individual right, not just that of a state militia. And a right obviously can only be exercised if one has the physical means to do so.

For example, the First Amendment right to freedom “of the press” can only be exercised if paper companies are not impeded in their business of selling paper to publishers and the public. If the “paper industry” could be sued because, say, terrorists used paper to publish plans for attacks, then paper would go up in cost so high the exercise of freedom “of the press” would be impinged.

AB 1594 was introduced after Newsom reacted against a U.S. Supreme Court action that let stand, for now, a Texas law allowing private citizens to sue abortion providers. It’s by no means clear the court will let that law stand permanently. But Newsom said in a Dec. 11 statement, “If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way.”

Newsom’s spokesperson, Daniel Lopez, reiterated that sentiment in a statement Tuesday, “So long as the United States Supreme Court has set a precedent which allows private citizens to sue to stop abortions in Texas, California will use that same ability to save lives.”

Actually, pro-lifers say abortion takes a life, and with modern medicine childbirth rarely leads to the death of the mother. All medical procedures involve some risk, including abortions, not only to the baby, but for the mother.

Guns also are specifically mentioned in the Bill of Rights, while abortion only has become a right since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision—still controversial—which the court might reverse or modify.

Deputies handle some of approximately 3,500 confiscated guns to be melted down at Gerdau Steel Mill in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., on July 19, 2018. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Product Liability

Explaining his bill, Ting said, “We must make our communities safer. Almost every industry in the United States can be held liable for what their products do, but the gun industry is not held to the same standard. Financial repercussions may finally push them to be more responsible by improving their practices and adhering to California’s strict gun laws.”

That’s misleading. Industries can be held accountable for the malfunction of their products, not their misuse. Car companies often have been sued when a system fails and a car crashes and kills people, but not for when a car is used as a weapon to kill, as in the recent slaughter in Kenosha, Wis.

For guns, the proper use if for self-defense, sporting, and hobbies; improper use is to kill someone during a crime. Justifiable killings are allowed with guns, as with knives and other instruments, to fend off an attack by a killer or rapist. Ting’s law would make it harder for Californians to get such instruments of self-defense.

Another big difference Newsom and Ting don’t recognize is Texas’s abortion law only applies to abortion clinics in that state. There’s no affect at all on clinics in other states. But AB 1594 would apply to all gun manufacturers, including those in other states.

If the Texas abortion law were followed for AB 1594, then only gun manufacturers in California would be affected. But there apparently are no more manufacturers left of any size in the state, Sam Paredes told me; he’s the executive director of Gun Owners of California. “When Weatherby left Paso Robles for Wyoming in 2018, I do believe that they were the last major firearms company left in California,” he said.

So overregulation killed even more businesses and jobs in California.

Given that the Interstate Commerce Clause exists precisely to prevent the states attacking one another’s businesses through tariffs and lawsuits, it’s easy to see how AB 1594 would be rejected by the Supreme Court on that grounds as well.

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a VA Facility in Los Angeles, Calif., on Nov. 10, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Newsom’s Presidential Ambitions

What’s odd about this is how it plays into Newsom’s obvious presidential ambitions, either in 2024 or, more likely, in 2028. Supporting this bizarre legislation might help Newsom gain support among the more radical elements in the Democratic Party. So it could push him forward in future party presidential primaries.

But it would hurt him in any national presidential bid, especially in such pro-gun swing states as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin that President Biden won in 2020. Michael Anton of the Claremont Institute explained this in a Jan. 4 article, “Blue America’s Messaging Problem.”

He wrote, “Blue America offers to Red nothing but scorn, contempt, hatred, insult, humiliation, calumny, outsourcing, open borders, layoffs, lower wages, opioids, losing wars, censorship, trumped-up treason accusations, surveillance, anarcho-tyranny, pre-trial detention, mask mandates, lockdowns, Critical Race Theory, and cancellation. And then not only gets enraged when Red America objects, but demands Red reverence and gratitude in return.”

That scorn might do well in Ting’s San Francisco, Newsom’s California or New York City, but it’s a loser in every swing state.

Newsom, as I have said in past articles, is a shrewd politician who actually has maneuvered himself into potentially becoming the next Democratic president. Why he is putting himself into a corner of defeat this early is a mystery. Maybe he doesn’t see it because he’s spent his whole life in the cocoon of Democratic Party politics in California.

Here’s just the latest example of why forcing health-care workers to get vaccines and boosters – like the State of New York is still doing – is an untenable policy at best, and a stepping stone to disaster at worse.

Bloomberg reports that a chain of nursing homes in Iowa has just been forced into bankruptcy, placing even more strain on the creaking local health-care system, due to “crippling” staff shortages.

Court documents reflect how the company, QHC Facilities LLC, which hosts a total of 750 beds across its 8 nursing homes and two assisted living facilities, has been devastated by the twin pressures of COVID deaths among its patients (many of whom fall into the most susceptible category of patient), and resignations en masse among its workers. One of its homes even made it on to a list of “America’s worst nursing homes”.

QHC Facilities LLC filed for bankruptcy last week, citing “crippling staffing and employee retention issues” in a court filing. The Clive, Iowa-based company operates eight skilled nursing facilities and two assisted living homes with a total of about 750 beds in the state and 300 workers.

Occupancy rates plunged as Covid-19 spread through nursing homes, which accounted for a large proportion of deaths early in the pandemic. At the same time, the health-care sector has suffered from mass resignations as workers face burnout and seek more lucrative employment, contributing to swelling gaps in coverage.

Fortunately for the state’s health-care system, a judge back in November blocked a federal vaccine mandate for health-care workers in Iowa and eight other states. Clearly, that was a prescient decision.

To be sure, the company was struggling even before the pandemic. Local media reports out of Iowa showed QHC Facilities had been fined many times in recent years for substandard patient care.

But some of the obstacles facing the firm were completely out of its control.

One of its facilities was damaged in a strong storm in 2020 and still hasn’t been rebuilt. The death of the company’s co-founder in June “had a devastating impact” on the business, his spouse and Chief Executive Officer Nancy Voyna said in the filing, leaving unmet obligations including a $4 million state fee.

The company is seeking a buyer for its assets. But with all the additional government scrutiny brought on by COVID, who really wants to get into the nursing home game right now?

Authored by Matt Lamb via TheCollegeFix.com,

Previously said it could tell students in other states to wear masks

Yale University officials continue to insist that its student handbook trumps state and local laws.

The Ivy League university has banned students from eating at legally operating restaurants off-campus.

“Students may not visit New Haven businesses or eat at local restaurants (even outdoors) except for curbside pickup,” the Yale Daily News wrote in a Facebook post Monday.

The campus newspaper summarized an email from the administration that laid out the spring semester plans.

The campus paper posted a longer excerpt of the email after it attracted media attention. The email also says that students should feel free to go for runs or walks around the area.

Commenters on the post mocked the university.

“Welcome to college, now go to your room your grounded!” one person wrote.

“Imagine thinking you have the power to tell people that pay your salary that they can’t go out to eat,” another said.

The rules are telling about the consequences of attending Yale. Residents of New Haven, Connecticut are allowed to go into a local restaurant to have a meal.

But residents of New Haven who also go to Yale are not allowed to do that. So going to Yale gives you fewer freedoms, simple as that.

This is not the first time that Yale’s administrators have said they have the ability to ban legal, off-campus behavior in the name of COVID prevention.

The Ivy League university has previously told students that they must remain masked while conducting school business, even if they are in a locality that does not require masking, such as a completely different state.

The requirement hindered film students who wanted to make movies without masked actors, but were told that even if a locality did not require masking, Yale still would enforce its mandate.

A recent report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) – which monitors and tracks global jihadist communications via open source intelligence collection methods – has detailed that last year the Taliban threatened the Biden administration with “a battalion of suicide bombers” sent to Washington D.C.

This was a threat and warning reportedly relayed simultaneous with prior Doha talks when it emerged the Pentagon was contemplating a massive security force of some 2,000 US troops to guard the at that time still operating American embassy in Kabul. 

According to the MEMRI report, “In December 2021, it also emerged that the Islamic Emirate told the United States during talks in Doha that if the U.S. insisted on deploying 2,000 American troops at its embassy in Kabul, the Taliban would also deploy as part of any bilateral arrangement 2,000 fidayeen mujahideen [i.e., suicide bombers] at the Afghan Embassy in Washington D.C.”

During the chaotic and bloody events of August as the US evacuated forces from Kabul airport, the State Department was forced to abandon its sprawling Afghan embassy altogether amid the lightning Taliban advance on the capital city.

Once Taliban rule over the country was firmly established by September, some of the hardline Islamist group’s officials began to tout it had become “moderate” and “reformed”. This as the Taliban also sought international funds and lobbied the US and global powers unfreeze billions in sanctioned assets.

However, it has since emerged that Taliban leaders intend to establish a “martyrdom” battalion, or essentially a group of would-be suicide bombers: 

“Our mujahideen in the Ishtishhadi Kandaks [martyrdom-seeking battalions] will be part of the army and [they] will be Special Forces and organized under the defense ministry,” Zabihullah Mujahid, a veteran terrorist and leader in the Taliban government, said in a recent interview, according to MEMRI. “The Special Forces will be established in a specific number and used for special operations.”

Bloomberg this week confirmed ongoing Taliban efforts to specifically recruit suicide bombers to be incorporated into its national army. “The Taliban will officially recruit suicide bombers to become part of the army as the militant group tries to contain its biggest security threat from rival Islamic State since forming government in Afghanistan four months ago,” the report detailed as the Taliban continues to battle Islamist rivals in some locales. 

Office for suicide bombings in the #Taliban Ministry of Defense.

Yesterday #Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told RFE/RL that the #Taliban new army will also have a unit for suicide bombings to take part in special operations.#Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/ZifAJwjsJn

— Natiq Malikzada | ناطق ملکزاده (@natiqmalikzada) January 4, 2022

And more via Bloomberg: 

“The special forces that include martyrdom seekers will be used for more sophisticated and special operations,” Karimi said by phone, without providing details.

The militant group is building a “strong and organized army to bolster defense” nationwide and at the borders with the suicide bombers becoming a integral part of the strategy, Karimi added. Some 150,000 fighters will be invited to join the military, Al Jazeera reported in November, citing the Taliban’s chief of staff Qari Fasihuddin.

Among the first major Taliban actions to re-organize government ministries in Kabul was to re-establish the Islamic “religious police”. These have returned to the streets, and ghastly practices such as hanging executed bodies in public have returned, including cutting off hands for criminal offenses – recent claims of a “moderate” Taliban notwithstanding.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Getting a COVID-19 vaccine has been linked to a change in the menstrual cycle among women, per a new study.

Dr. Alison Edelman of the Oregon Health & Science University and other researchers studied cycles among 2,403 vaccinated and 1,556 unvaccinated women and concluded vaccination was associated with a change in cycle length.

The change was pegged at under one day; no change in menses length was detected.

Researchers said that vaccines that use messenger RNA technology—both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s do—trigger an immune response, which could temporarily affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis function, and the study results support the hypothesis.

“Our findings are reassuring; we find no population-level clinically meaningful change in menstrual cycle length associated with COVID19 vaccination. Our findings support and help explain the self-reports of changes in cycle length. Individuals receiving two COVID-19 vaccine doses in a single cycle do appear to experience a longer but temporary cycle length change,” the researchers wrote.

[ZH: Andy Swan hits the nail on the head…]

An MRNA injection that causes disruption to function of the ovaries is CLEARLY a threat to reproductive health.

This may only become known over many years of observation!

Additionally, impact on function of ovaries should be a RED FLAG that other organs may be impacted!

— Andy Swan (@AndySwan) January 8, 2022

While the study did not find vaccination associated with changes in menses length, “questions remain about other possible changes in menstrual cycles, such as menstrual symptoms, unscheduled bleeding, and changes in the quality and quantity of menstrual bleeding,” they added.

Limitations include possibly not being generalizable to the U.S. population given that the women who use Natural Cycles, from which the data came, are more likely to be white, college educated, and have lower body mass indexes than the average woman.

The study was published by Obstetrics & Gynecology and was funded by the National Institutes of Health, which last year awarded $1.6 million in grants to probe potential links between vaccination and menstrual changes.

“It is reassuring that the study found only a small, temporary menstrual change in women,” Dr. Diana Bianchi, director of agency’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

“These results provide, for the first time, an opportunity to counsel women about what to expect from COVID-19 vaccination so they can plan accordingly,” she added.

Little research has been conducted in the past on how vaccines, whether for COVID-19 or note, could influence the menstrual cycle, according to officials.

Research conducted in Norway by the country’s Institute of Public Health and published last month showed many women reported heavier periods than normal after getting a COVID-19 vaccine, but also found most changes went away after a period of time.

“Most menstrual changes after the first dose were transient. On average, they returned to their normal levels by the time of vaccination with the second dose, approximately two to three months after the first dose,” Dr. Lill Trogstad, project leader at the institute, said in a statement.

Authorities in Norway recommended women who experience heavy and persistent bleeding after vaccination put off any further doses until the cause is investigated or symptoms pass.

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

Over the past week, after a blog post I made about how Joe Rogan was disrupting the mainstream media, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by former Fox Houston newswoman Ivory Hecker about what the future of the mainstream media looks like.

You may remember Ivory as the woman who was fired after interrupting a live, on-air weather report this past summer to claim that Fox was “muzzling” her, before turning over her evidence to Project Veritas.

A follow up interview by Project Veritas revealed that Hecker was reportedly reprimanded by the network for bringing up hydroxychloroquine during an interview and that Fox 26’s Sales Coordinator “admitted on tape that the CDC is heavily influencing stations such as theirs due to the amount of money they are pouring into ad campaigns – and how that, in turn, affects the network’s coverage of major health issues.”

Suffice to say, I had no trouble seeing why Hecker took interest in my recent campaign against the mainstream media.

My interview with Ivory was prompted by an article I wrote called “The Mainstream Media Is Losing The Fight Of Its Life…All Thanks To Joe Rogan”.

In that article, I described why I was expecting one of the largest mainstream media pivots in history in 2022, catalyzed by capitalism and common sense. I wrote about why Joe Rogan leading the pack would force changes throughout the industry and why I thought the media’s narrative on Covid would have to change in 2022.

In short, I believe the legacy media must change:

1. Due to capitalism. They are going to have to adapt their business models or they will become money-losing, financially failing enterprises.

2. To respond to continued outrage from both sides of the aisle being stripped of hearing both sides of the story. All Joe Rogan does is allow the other side of the story to present their case – he rarely argues how people should think. Instead, he just gives them a chance to consider all the potential facts available.

3. If they (the mainstream media) want their candidates (Democrats) to have any chance in hell of even showing up at mid-terms this year. As I wrote in November, the recent blowout in Virginia, which quickly turned red and elected Glenn Youngkin after being in favor of Biden during the Presidential election, could wind up becoming the trend nationwide during mid-terms.

I had previously been critical of the mainstream media’s:

1. Handling of news about the new omicron variant of Covid – read here

2. Coverage of the Joe Rogan / ivermectin news – read here

3. Inability to even touch on the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop – read here

4. Inability to realize that Covid, and the lab leak theory, wasn’t a “conspiracy” in late 2019/early 2020 – read here

“The mainstream media has to come to terms with the fact that their industry is being swallowed,” I started off the interview by arguing, citing a phrase from Rogan’s years old boxing vs. UFC debate with Lou DiBella.

In that interview, Rogan told DiBella “your sport is being swallowed”. Now, I’m saying the same thing to the mainstream media.

“Rogan brings viewers wherever he goes, so he’s going to be tough to cancel,” I continued, making the argument for the free market dictating how the industry would evolve.

“Capitalism and the free market are going to force changes as a negative consequence of the actions the media has taken over the last year,” I told Hecker during our interview.

“Because he comes by it honestly, because he inquires about the truth with good intention – he’s not serving anybody, he’s trying to find answers about fringe questions – those are the things the mainstream media doesn’t do. The mainstream is already losing the fight of its life and in coming years they’re going to have to make some marked pivots, or else capitalism is going to have its way with them.”

When asked about the media’s coverage of the Joe Rogan/ivermectin story, I said: “The coverage is so blatantly untruthful, it leads you to this place where you have to wonder, ‘Is this nefarious or it is ignorance’?”

“I’m not the smartest person in the world, but I’ve done enough reading and enough critical thinking on my own to come to conclusions that I think are far closer to the objective truth than the media has been able to arrive at,” I continued.

“When you come out and make such a brazen misstatement – that Rogan is taking ‘horse medicine’ – people are left to wonder what’s really going on here. It transcends both sides of the political aisle and it just ‘gets in’ for people carrying with them a modicum of common sense,” I continued.

“Media is an industry, just like pharma is an industry, just like automotive is an industry. Industries are generally beholden to what makes them money. Capitalism is going to force changes,” I argue.

I continued: “There’s a reason Spotify hasn’t cancelled Rogan, right? Because they’ve invested in him. Why do they invest in him? Because he brings people to the table! And that equates to ad revenue and viewership. The same engine that’s keeping him there is going to force the changes elsewhere.”

When asked about how the free market can interfere with media when the government can print infinite money and use that to sponsor (and, by proxy fund, mainstream news), I answer:

“At some point, no matter how much the government intervenes, its a mathematical certainty that capitalism will have its way with the media. Otherwise, we become China: we become a state run media and a state run economy. It’s a slippery slope to get there from where we are right now. But I do think the propaganda and campaign to get vaccinated was highly disturbing.”

When asked about Rogan’s recent interviews with Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Robert Malone, I offered my take on why Rogan’s method of discourse has caught on:

“You have an instance here where you have experts trying to opine on what they think is best and what the public needs to know, but you have this intervention from the tech companies, from the government, saying ‘Hey, you guys are too stupid to listen both sides of the story and make your decision accordingly. We have to protect you from this one set of opinions, despite the fact that they’re from published authors with incredible credentials.’”

I continued, “And what Rogan does, the reason he’s caught on – he’s seeing who gets banned and he’s saying ‘come on’ and tell me what you were saying, I’ll let my listeners decide whether you’re as full of shit as the mainstream media thinks you are or if your points hold water.”

Ivory Hecker adds: “I think for a long time the corporate monopoly has gotten away with using suppression tactics to snuff out content and act like this person/this concept doesn’t exist. With the rise of alternative media, they don’t have as much of an option to do that.”

“I think a lot of corporate news journalists are so brainwashed, they don’t realize what other opportunities for journalism are out there,” the former Fox 26 reporter adds.

Speaking about the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, the Covid lab leak hypothesis, adverse events to the vaccine and the new Omicron variant, Hecker says: “The way the media reacted lost them a lot of viewers. They’re turning off their own audience.”

If you asked critical questions about the origins of Covid, “you were written off as a conspiracy theorist, you were written off as a maniac, you were written off as someone on the fringe,” I added. Now, the media has all but admitted that the lab leak hypothesis likely holds water.

I made the point: “People say ‘If that was the conspiracy theory then and I was being told what a maniac I was then for asking the most common sense questions available, and then it turns out that’s the truth, what’s going on now that I think are common sense questions that I’m being told I’m being ridiculous for – but we’re going to find out in 12 months are the questions we should have been asking and getting honest answers to all along?’”

“I think this is what has created so many conspiracy theories in America,” Hecker says.

“It’s not conspiracy theories, though,” I conclude. “It’s just a search for the truth.”

If you have the means and would like to support my work and subscribe, I’d be extremely grateful. I’d even offer you 22.2% off for 2022 – a discount that lasts forever: Get 22% off forever

You can watch my full interview with Ivory here:

You can read my reporting on related topics here:

• The Cure For Covid Is Turning Off The TV

• The Mainstream Media Is Losing The Fight Of Its Life…All Thanks To Joe Rogan

• Omicron Is Creating An Unnecessary Media Hysteria Over Positive Case Numbers…Again

• Where Is There Any Integrity Left In The Mainstream Media?

• Government Handling Of Covid “A Crime”: Trader

Late on Friday we joked that, in keeping with the recent trend of aggressive crypto selling taking place largely during the Asian session…

… which as a reminder was the culprit behind the December 3 flash crash which took place literally at midnight ET on Friday heading into Saturday, just when liquidity is lowest – as shorting algos know all too well – we joked that we were patiently waiting for the latest overnight puke in cryptos to kick in, adding to the pain of crypto longs which have lost more than 40% in just the past two months.

Ok, what time is the Asian cryptodump today. Everyone is waiting

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 8, 2022

Naturally, with everyone expecting a rerun of the Dec 3 fireworks overnight to cap off a miserable week for the crypto space, the selling did not come during the Asian session…. instead it waited patiently until the US was covered in sunlight on an extremely illiquid Saturday, before emerging with a bang and hammering the two largest cryptocurrencies, and sending bitcoin to just above the $40,000 level that Mike Novogratz said was a key support. Those same selling programs, knowing very well that in the world of crypto it is all about momentum and key trendlines, also pounded ethereum and launch not one, not two, not three but no less than five attempts to push ETH below the critical $3000 support level, and despite pushing it as low as 3,000.055, failing to pull it below this key level (as a reminder, ETH traded at 4,800 just a few weeks ago).

The furious selling in bitcoin, which sent it as low at $40,500, some 42% lower from its all time high hit on Nov 17, pushed its RSI below that hit during the May 2021 crash when it lost half its value, plunging from $60K to $30K in days, making the biggest token the most oversold it has been since the covid crash in March 2020, when it briefly traded below $4,000.

Today’s panic pushed the bitcoin fear and greed index to one of its lowest levels on record.

Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index is 10 — Extreme Fear
Current price: $41,837 pic.twitter.com/bXDAnSFX0H

— Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index (@BitcoinFear) January 8, 2022

In addition to a so-far failed attempt to push ETH below $3000, popular defi tokens such as Uniswap and Aave were also hammered into the weekend.

The aggressive shorting (and selling), which comes amid signs that the Federal Reserve is getting ready to combat persistent inflation through the withdrawal of stimulus which would remove liquidity from the system and depress speculative assets, takes place just as liquidity is lowest and is certainly intentional, meant to push bitcoin and ether below the key levels of $40K and $3K, respectively, at a time when buyers are few and far between.

Echoing Novogratz, Bloomberg Intelligence’s Mike McGlone – who believes that BTC and ETH will hit $100,000 and $5,000 respectively in 2022 – said $40,000 is an important technical support level for the digital token. Cryptocurrencies are a good barometer for the current reduction in risk appetite. But he projects that Bitcoin will eventually come out ahead as the world increasingly goes digital and the coin becomes the benchmark collateral.

Others were less bullish. According to Eric Ervin, chief executive officer at Blockforce Capital, the declines across the asset class might be the beginnings of a “mini bear market,” and recent investors may pull out, leaving the long-term holders as the primary owners.

“It is heart-pounding, nerve-racking for any investor that’s looking at it, especially if they come from a traditional equity market,” he said. But, he added, “this is completely normal for this asset class.”

Needless to say, if stocks had dropped more than 40% in under two months, the Fed would be disclosing several market bailout scenarios each and every day.

Offering a more measured view, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan told Bloomberg that it makes sense to see prices slump as the Fed starts to get more aggressive with its stimulus withdrawal. The downturn could linger a bit because there are no obvious near-term catalysts to help turn things around.

But, “fundamentals of crypto are stronger than ever, even as prices are wobbly,” he said. “Long-term, the fundamentals will win out.”

And in this weekend of red for cryptofans, we end on some levity.

Jan, 8th 2021: $40,800

Jan, 8th 2022: $40,800

Seems like a pretty stable currency.

— Documenting Bitcoin 📄 (@DocumentingBTC) January 8, 2022