Month: January 2023

Authored by Ben Sellers via Headline USA,

There has been a lot of talk lately about the “word of the year.”

Some say it is “gaslighting,” which happens to be a personal favorite of mine.

Others say “goblin mode,” a bizarre term linked to Kanye West and Elon Musk that the Left’s semantic gatekeepers have rushed to redefine from a meme that was funny precisely because it had no obvious definition.

In the spirit of New Year’s predictions, I will boldly assert that the same may be true of 2023’s future word of the year, “conspiracy theory.”

Like “gaslighting” and “goblin mode,” it is a term that has taken on a new meaning in light of current events—and one that the Left–Establishment hegemony has desperately sought to appropriate and weaponize for its own purposes.

But in the next 12 months, we will see conservatives successfully reclaim it. In fact, the early adopters are already lighting the way on social media.

There is this pic.twitter.com/GwNQpbWzq2

— Oldguy (@Iambord6) December 25, 2022

pic.twitter.com/bWS0hDdQ1s

— Kay Turner (@Kay_turner) December 25, 2022

What is the current “conspiracy theory” that will be true in six months?

— Ryan Cunningham (@rycunni) December 26, 2022

Increasingly, we are seeing the corruption of the Biden administration start to come out in the wash, with growing backlash. Questions that the media tried to deny and deride in service to their agenda have since had the curtain lifted. More and more, even averred leftist idealogues, like ex-Planned Parenthood leader Leana Wen, are admitting that they lied about various aspects of the COVID pandemic.

“If the Chinese military unleashed a deadly manufactured flu virus on the world, Joe Biden would blame you for it! And actually, he did!” – @TuckerCarlson

Dr. Leana Wen Now Admits ‘Pandemic of the Unvaccinated’ Was a Total Lie pic.twitter.com/8AkB1AJ86a

— Red Voice Media (@redvoicenews) December 25, 2022

 While the Twitter Files have played a huge role in exposing the unseemly and unconstitutional collusion between U.S. spy agencies and Big Tech, a flurry of GOP-led investigations in the House will bring at least the semblance of accountability back to The Swamp, even if it is more or less a paper tiger.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was named Media Matters’s “Misinformer of the Year,” recently reflected on the origin of the term “conspiracy theory,” which emerged from the Warren Commission’s efforts to cover up the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.

JFK may have been the first time that deep-state operatives in the intelligence community succeeded in overthrowing a sitting president.

Since then, it has happened at least two more times, with FBI and CIA fingerprints all over both the Watergate scandal and the 2020 election fraud.

But having overplayed their hand, the entire house of cards now seems poised to collapse, validating skeptics’ belief that everything they have been told for the past half-century has been part of the real Big Lie, and that our idea of democracy has been but an illusion.

With that in mind, here are 10 things that the powers-that-be in D.C. have yet to cop to, but which will soon be impossible to ignore, in no particular order:

1. The role that the intel community and the Justice Department played in fomenting violence through psy-ops on Jan. 6, 2021, will be exposed.  Sadly, in their expected counter-investigation responding to the Pelosi-run Jan. 6 committee, even House Republicans may withhold state secrets from us. But the FBI’s damaging partisan conduct has generated a multitude of whistleblowing defectors who should be willing to shed light on the dubious allegations of right-wing extremism and violence at the U.S. Capitol—and in the 2017 Charlottesville riot that was its dress rehearsal.
2. The deadly impact of the COVID vaccines will become undeniable. Initially, I had considered writing about how the GOP House will expose Anthony Fauci’s role in developing the COVID-19 virus, but that already has been scrutinized to death, and without any accountability to back it up, it makes no difference. But there are plenty of other COVID abuses that will keep on yielding new storylines. And none may be greater than the decision by pharmaceutical companies to suppress therapeutics and overplay the importance of their untested and experimental new vaccines. The evidence is mounting that the vaccines themselves may have been as deadly and damaging as the virus—something to which many life-insurance actuaries may be able to attest. Whether the vaccines do, indeed, have nanobots that self-assemble and transmit wi-fi, there is a lot of reason to suspect that they are harmful on some level.
3. The scope of China’s control over the U.S. government will become clearer. We know about the various financial ties between the Biden family and the CCP. We know that other top leaders, including Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell are heavily invested in Chinese industry. But what we have yet to fully explore is the way that China-linked companies like BlackRock have also completely infiltrated the White House and are effectively writing U.S. foreign policy.
4. The true nature of David DePape’s relationship with Paul Pelosi will be revealed. While court hearings have kept a tight lid on the evidence in the Paul Pelosi assault case, including body-cam footage, it will be harder for Nancy Pelosi to flex her authority after stepping down as House speaker. It is very clear that the assailant, David DePape, is no right-wing extremist and that there is more going on that meets the eye.
5. We will find out what Trump’s purloined Mar-a-Lago files really contained. Punting the DOJ probes that resulted in the unprecedented raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to corrupt special counsel Jack Smith was a good way to keep them out of the reach of GOP oversight in the U.S. House. But, eventually, the clock will run out and it will be necessary to explain why, exactly, this norm-violating measure was taken. Odds are it was a CYA operation by the FBI to prevent Trump from exposing the Russia-hoax documents that he already had publicly declared to be declassified.
6. We will learn what the Democrats intend to do with Joe Biden and who will be tapped to replace him. Will it be Michelle Obama, as I and others have long predicted? Or could they pull out another yet-unknown figure who has been carfully vetted and groomed in secret, like her husband, Barack? Once the Democrats finally decide that Biden has outlasted his usefulness, their reasons for installing him in the first place may become clear. When Barack Obama was overheard telling a Democrat donor “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f**k things up,” there is a good chance it was a sales pitch more than a warning.
7. We will discover the truth about the U.S.–Ukrainian partnership to research and develop bioweapons. Congress has allocated in excess of $100 billion to defend something in Ukraine, but it sure ain’t democracy. While their personal investments in Burisma—or in weapons manufacturers like Raytheon—may be prime motivators, all indications are that the country is a rat’s nest of CIA operations.
8. The Left’s plans to normalize and mainstream pedophilia will come to fruition. The initial push to sexualize and groom children in schools and on kid-friendly mediums like Disney may have fallen flat, but leftists will only redouble their efforts to foist this onto the population because the ability to control and manipulate young minds is pivotal to their long-term plans for control. By acclimating children to sex at an early age, they can add it as another weapon in their quiver, which also includes cultivating ignorance and racial grievances, so that the plebian class is as pliable as possible.
9. The World Economic Forum will lead the way in trying to turn humans into glorified Matrix-style batteries. The convergence of artificial intelligence technology, the metaverse, the decline of office culture, growing clamor about digital passports and currencies, guaranteed incomes and an ever-increasing scarcity of resources suggest that the global plans to collectivize all nations under a one-world government are being gamed out as we speak.
10. As the relationship between Big Tech and the spy agencies becomes clearer, we will learn that our personal devices are tracking our every move. Knowing what we know about the interest that the FBI and the CIA have in manipulating technology companies to perform extralegal operations, and what we know about the reprehensible virtue signaling of Google and Apple, is there really any doubt that they have empowered our intel community to conduct warrantless domestic surveillance from any device at any time and that our phones are being used to monitor us, in true Big Brother fashion, around the clock?

Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at truthsocial.com/@bensellers or twitter.com/realbensellers.

Via 21st Century Wire,

It’s New Year’s Eve again, and with that our time-honoured tradition of looking back at the most conspiratorial events of the past year. 

It goes without saying that 2022 has seemed like an extended nightmare for many, but it has also served as a reoccurring revelation too. Still, many are glad to see the back of it, while cautiously optimistic that this next year ‘couldn’t get any worse.’ That remains to be seen, and more insights on that front are available in our other annual opus, Trends and Predictions for 2023.

Another important truism: the tin foil hat conspiracy theorists continue to be vindicated as significant events unfold. So much so, that we can now lay the common trope, “Oh, it’s just a coincidence” – safely to rest. Henceforth, those who still insist on referring to bona fide conspiracies as mere coincidences, shall be dubbed as coincidence theorists.

Before we get to the top ten list, here are some of the honourable mentions from the past year…

Here are some of this past year’s standout stories which didn’t make the top tier. We should first mention that the ongoing fallout from the experimental mRNA ‘vaccine’ roll-out and the vaccine passport/digital ID could easily be at the top of any list of conspiracies and scandals, and will unfortunately remain as a looming threat to the lives of billions of people for many years, if not decades to come. That said, some other controversial events of note from this past year include the incredible Canadian Truckers Protest against a vaccine-obsessed Trudeau regime and its unprecedented draconian attack on Canadian citizens demanding a restoration of their basic human rights. We also saw the mysterious demolition of the infamous Georgia Guide Stones monument to Malthusian eugenics, the precarious trial of Jeffrey Epstein’s partner in crime Ghislane Maxwell which somehow netted no VIP client names (and amazingly, she’s still alive in one piece), and also the bizarre political tale of Nancy Pelosi’s husband Pauli P. supposedly getting mauled with a hammer by a known local personality in their San Francisco mansion – a story promptly buried my the MSM right before the election. On the tech front, we should point to the ominous unleashing by Google’s OpenAI of their new ChatGPT artificial intelligence bot. It was a moderate year for false flags and mass shootings, with a few heavily politicized high-profile anomalous events like the Uvalde School Shooting in Texas and the Club Q Shooting in Colorado Springs. In Europe, the Dutch Farmers Revolt exposing a pernicious anti-farming and GMO food agenda by the World Economic Forum and Bill Gates networks, along with meat shortages and continued supply chain disruptions – all converging to form the perfect financial storm which now threatens to ravage an already weak and unstable global economy. Later in the year came a real blast from the past, reports of an imminent document release which contains some evidence of the CIA’s role in the JFK Assassination. Granted, these are just a few in a long list of major events which didn’t make our final cut.

So without further ado, here are the top ten conspiracies of 2022…

10. US Midterm Election Fraud

Considering all that is going on in the US and internationally at this time, most Americans would agree that the 2022 Midterm Election was one of the most important and consequential elections of their lifetime. Both the House of Representatives and US Senate were up for grabs, and there was a real opportunity to correct a serious imbalance of power in Washington. However, before Nov. 8th there was a real air of trepidation, as the shadow of the controversial 2020 Election still loomed large, with accusations of widespread and systemic election fraud still unresolved. The sum of all fears became real again in the key swing state of Arizona: on election morning most of the voting machines in the state’s largest population center, Maricopa County, just happened to malfunction. Officials claimed it was just an unfortunate coincidence. That was only the beginning, as boxes with thousands of ballots continued to mysteriously turn up after election day. In short, the Arizona election became a national and international embarrassment. As it goes, the state’s election and processes were being controlled by Democratic Party operatives – who then slow-walked the vote counting for two weeks after the election was meant to be over. Not surprisingly, the favorite in the governor’s race, Republican, Kari Lake (image, above) barely lost to an unremarkable Democrat candidate Katie Hobbs (if you believe the final contested result), and to add insult to injury, the person in charge of the state’s election debacle… was Katie Hobbs, who happened to also be serving as Arizona’s Secretary of State. Kari Lake sued the state to demand a recount and a run-off, but political and media pressure on the courts prompted the judge to dismiss her challenge – despite having truckloads of evidence proving foul play. Lake has appealed the decision. What’s important is that this time the world saw what happened, and the state and Democratic Party machine was widely exposed – effectively vindicating millions of Americans who still hold well-founded suspicions about the infamous 2020 Election which managed to install the corrupt, deep state candidate Joe Biden into power. Similar anomalies were observed in 2022 – in states like Nevada and Pennsylvania. In the end, the Republicans still managed to flip the House of Representatives by a slim margin, while losing the US Senate by an even slimmer margin. In a country where half the population still do not trust the democratic process, civility and stability are now teetering on borrowed time.

9. Monkeypox

As the Covid gravy train began to break down, the globalists’ Government-Media-Pharma Complex grew desperate for a new ‘pandemic’ to maintain the structures of control and human surveillance which they erected during the contrived Covid-19 ‘state of emergency’. Enter a relatively unknown and exotically-titled alleged pathogen, Monkeypox. Attempts were made to portray this mythical epidemic as some sort of universal threat, and when that failed, the Establishment then pivoted to try and promote it as a new “gay disease” in an attempt to emulate a familiar template used to reproduce the perennial (and highly questionable) HIV crisis. In the end, their fear campaign never really took off, but not before a brand-new vaccine was created to “protect the public from another potentially deadly epidemic.” And after all that failed, efforts were then made to use it in order to harvest some political capital – by sacrificing this brand at the altar of political correctness, as social justice clerics demanded the mythical virus be rebranded due to fears that name “Monkeypox” was somehow racist…? But how? Against primates? No one was quite sure what they meant. Oh well. Introducing “MPOX”. Rinse, and repeat. Welcome to the world of Modern Virology (aka Big Pharma’s main meal ticket). Meanwhile, we’re all waiting with bated breath for Bill Gates’ self-confessed “next pandemic.”

8. China Lockdown Redux 

Just when the Chinese were beginning to get a taste of freedom again, the Central Party decide to fire-up the pandemic control grid again. In February 2022, an alleged COVID-19 ‘outbreak’ was announced in the city of Shanghai. Central Party claimed that the alleged ‘outbreak’ was caused by the Omicron variant. The state then proceeded to decree a new “Zero Covid” policy, before locking-down more cities, and dragging the country back into the authoritarian hell of February 2020. As it turned out, the real reason this new ‘Covid wave’ materialized was because of nondiagnostic PCR testing ‘case’ data generated through more meaningless mass COVID-19 testing. Finally, after 8 months of Covid madness, foreign investment began drying up, and China’s already fragile economy was destabilizing. The state’s overzealousness then triggered mass protests against Orwellian government restrictions, with millions of Chinese taking to the streets across the country to demand their basic freedom. This prompted Central Party to quickly abandon its failing social control program, and not surprisingly their economy began to rebound as people and business got back to work. Rather interestingly, the US government seemed unhappy that China was taking its foot off the authoritarian pedal, and so Biden then levied an administrative punishment against China by slapping a new mandatory Covid test travel restriction on any Chinese travelers arriving in the USA. It really seems that as the world’s most populous nation, without China’s total compliance the globalists’ New Normal agenda will quickly fall apart. This incident should tell us all we need to know about the so-called ‘global pandemic.’

7. The Trans Agenda

On March 17, 2022, Lia Thomas (formerly named William Thomas), 22, became the first openly transgender athlete to win America’s top college sports title – following a cringe worthy  victory in the women’s 500 yard freestyle. Let us explain: because Thomas believes he is now a woman, some institutions like the NCAA – who have come under political pressure from the radical leftist wing of the political machine – now feel obligated to allow a biological male like Thomas to compete against physically inferior biological females (aka real women). The victory was short-lived though, as the woke bombast of the Thomas debacle quickly became a lightning rod in the debate about so-called “trans women” in sports – triggering a massive backlash against this extreme ideological invasion of womens’ competitive sports. Not long after, international sporting organizations ruled that biological male athletes like Thomas can no longer compete in top races. FINA, the world swimming’s governing body, also announced plans to create a new “open” category of competition to include “transgender women” (aka men who believe they are female). Now that the debate has been blown wide open, expect further course corrections as people gradually return to their senses on the issue. But do not expect radical leftists to surrender just yet, as the culture wars will continue to rage on.

6. FTX and SBF Ponzi Scheme

Like the S&L scandal of the 1980’s, and the Eron and Bernie Madoff financial scams – this latest iteration of the classic Ponzi Scheme managed to destabilize markets and rob countless investors of their life savings. Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), a 30-year-old crypto celebrity icon and celebrated savant, founded what he claimed were two separate companies: a hedge fund called Alameda Research and FTX cryptocurrency exchange, before going the whole hog by hyping his own fiat crypto token and then used it as collateral to create hundreds of millions of loans for himself, before robbing his depositors to embezzle and gamble away untold fortunes on the markets. And that’s just the beginning. It turns out that SBF was the number two political donor to the Democratic Party, and used his laundered proceeds to bankroll a sizeable portion of the Democrats’ 2020 Midterm Election campaigns, not to mention his mother just happening to be a chief organizer for the Democratic Party as well. Not surprisingly, the Biden Administration waited until after the Midterm Election to begin an investigation into the floppy haired SBF and his FTX ponzi empire. SBF was eventually arrested in the Bahamas and awaits federal trial in the Southern District of New York. The trial is sure to be both shocking and entertaining in equal measure. But the real question remains: how will this drama effect the government’s role in the world of cryptocurrency? More crucially: is the FTX takedown really a controlled demolition of crypto designed to pave the way for an oppressive Central Bank Digital Currency global ‘cashless’ takeover? We shall see…

5. CBDC

2022 was the year the CBDC has made landfall, and is currently waiting in the wings of the halls of power. For the last few years, elites have been gathering at globalist confabs like Bilderberg and the World Economic Forum in Davos to wax lyrical about the need to abolish the ‘old money’, or ‘dirty cash’ – and to make way for the central bankers’ new Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) – turning the planet into a full-blown cashless society. In the US, this technocratic overhaul is being hatched under the guise of “Project Hamilton” as a joint effort between the Boston Federal Reserve Bank and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to design and plan the release of a “digital dollar” – which will destroy the value of old dollar in order to force people onto the new monetary matrix. As cash disappears from the economy, so does privacy.  Essentially, CBDCs are meant to be an electronic form of fiat money in a particular country or region, but unlike Bitcoin, this digital coin is centralized and regulated by the governments and their central banks. Without ever putting this matter to a public vote, elites and technocrats have simply been moving ahead to implement this authoritarian monetary system. While the mainstream media and globalist think tanks claim that the CBDC is designed to reign in crypto currencies, and supposedly tackle crimes like money laundering, and tax avoidance (something which elites partake in daily), the reality of the CBDC is something altogether different. They plan to issue a programmable currency whereby the bank can control where and what you are allowed to spend your CBDC’s on. They can also shut your money off. Imagine this digital money system combined with a Chinese-style social credit score, or a vaccine passport/digital ID. This dystopian digital control grid will transform commerce and human society in ways we can possibly imagine. For these reasons, many rightly believe that this is the road to digital slavery. The window of opportunity to push back against this massive authoritarian assault is now closing.

4. The Twitter Files

This is the biggest tech scandal in modern history – and it’s gone mostly unreported by 90% of the mainstream media because of the partisan nature of its revelations. The Twitter Files have provided an unprecedented look behind the dirty inner workings of the firm’s opaque censorship regime, and exposes an openly fascist merger of Silicon Valley’s ‘Big Tech’ companies and the bloated National Security State. In early December, under new management of owner and CEO Elon Musk, Twitter HQ began disseminating a massive trove of internal documents revealing the direct collusion between former CEO Jack Dorsey’s corporate regime and the US Federal Government – to censor and cancel users from the platform for speech or political views which went against globalist or government policies. This included copious evidence of election interference. It seems that in their desperation to conjure up proof of alleged “foreign influence” on Twitter, FBI and other federal government officials doubled-down to try and save their sinking Russiagate narrative, and creating a monster in the process. New revelations also exposed the FBI’s role in leaning on Twitter to expedite illegal censorship operations, and how so-called ‘public health’ officials strong-armed Twitter into sanitizing all speech relating to COVID-19 and the experimental mRNA ‘vaccine’ injections. The FBI were also drawing-up shadowbanning and censorship blacklists in an attempt to cleanse the platform of effective opposition to the Biden campaign in 2020 and later into his first term. Under Dorsey, the platform became an open cesspool for spooks and government operatives – many of whom appeared to be allowed to spy on users’ DMs, and to dictate terms of censorship on the platform. Watch this space. This is only the beginning.

3. Sabotage of the Nordstream Pipelines

Back in late September, the world woke up to truly horrific news – both the Nordstream 1 and 2 pipelines were reported to be leaking gas into the Baltic Sea and into the atmosphere – after what looked like a deliberate act of sabotage. While the media played dumb, pretending not to know who carried out this attack, sane onlookers were well aware of the only entity who had the motives, means and opportunity to carry out this state-sponsored act of terror – namely the United States and its NATO partners. Incredibly, the entire western media quickly began blaming Russia for blowing up its most important energy infrastructure project. The result of this attack was a further devastation of Europe’s energy supplies and hyperinflationary EU and UK consumer prices for the fall and winter – not to mention the millions of cubic meters of methane which were released into the Earth’s atmosphere. Despite all the vacant US denials, the facts are clear as day: Joe Biden and Victoria Nuland were both on record beforehand promising they would “end the Nordstream pipeline.” Of course, this is a hugely dangerous red line which the US and its allies have crosses: by declaring a no-holds-barred geopolitical energy war, the gates are now open for further escalations – which may lead to WWIII. History has shown this can happen. Consider the Anglo-American energy embargo and strong-arming of Japan which led up to the Attack on Pearl Harbor which opened the door for the US to enter WWII. Think of the Nordstream attack as just that, but worse – as it was also direct attack on the day-to-day energy and finances of people living in the EU and the collective West. Indeed, the West is playing an extremely dangerous game, which is really the Great Game 2.0.

2. The Energy Shock

In the future, we will look back at 2022 as one of the most consequential years of young 21st century history. If you live in the collective West or the EU, you know that the energy crisis is now a reality. The real question is: is all of this by simply by happenstance, or is it being done by design? And can it be traced back to a much older global agenda, and forward through to the WEF’s Great Reset? The answer to all those questions is course, yes. But this is only the surface of this issue. For Brussels and Berlin, this ‘green’ road to energy scarcity pure economic suicide. Rather than change this policy course and work to stabilise global energy and agricultural markets – the gallant virtue-signalling West has opted instead to double-down on their precarious stance by further tightening anti-Russian sanctions, as well as pursue even deeper commitments towards de-nulearisation and the not-so-green ‘Net Zero’ carbon reduction agenda. The cancelation of Russia, coupled with the disastrous ‘green’ energy policies are only accelerating inflationary cycles globally. All of this is a recipe for disaster – all due to policies directly created by western governments. By blocking inbound energy supplies from the Nordstream and other Russian pipelines which supplied them with affordable and reliable gas and oil into the EU, Europe has painted itself into a very perilous corner. Behind the energy wars and even beyond Klaus Schwab’s globalist facade – you will find hardcore geopolitics at play. The main Anglo-American objective: the deindustrialization of Germany and EU, the separation of Russian resources and political leadership from western markets. We live in truly perilous times.

1. The Ukraine War

In late February 2022, the unthinkable happened: Russia launched its military intervention into neighboring Ukraine. War is hell, and while Russia seems intent on seeing its “Special Military Operation” through, the US and its allies are going to have to decide just how long they plan to fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian. How many dead Ukrainian soldiers and lost territory will it take for the West to instruct Ukraine’s President Zelensky to finally sue for peace? Welcome to NATO’s ultimate proxy war of attrition in Ukraine, driven by the greatest western media propaganda campaign of all-time. Suffice to say that Russia, Ukraine, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance are now at war – with each party firmly in the belief that they are fighting an existential war, not over any particular political or territorial dispute, but for the future existence of their countries, or in the case of NATO, over their ability to maintain regional hegemony for the Atlanticist power bloc. Will this near frozen conflict escalate to a WWIII situation, or a thermo-nuclear exchange between the great powers? The US and British invasion of Iraq nearly two decades ago is a particularly pertinent and telling counterpoint to events in Ukraine. Then, as now, the ‘free and democratic Western World’ was supposedly faced with a dangerous, unhinged despot in Saddam Hussein, who, like Putin is said to be unwilling to compromise. It’s a well-worn script for the West, and will likely remain the justification of another endless war. Of course, Zelensky could end it all tomorrow if he declared his intentions to disavow any NATO aspirations, demilitarize the country, and declare Ukraine a neutral state. Such a declaration would certainly be welcome by Russia today, but the West are determined to keep this proxy war going, and cancel Russia from the global economic system. Besides, business is just too good for Ukraine who have managed scrape more than $100 billion from the US and EU treasuries so far, not to mention the billions in profits for shareholders in the US defense industry. Oh, and on the backend of this war, the WEF and BlackRock are eyeing Ukraine’s remaining assets, as private oligarchs hatch their plan to carve up and reshape the post-war landscape there. The future world order is at stake.

What an unbelievable year. Expect some seriously impactful moments in 2023.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

*  *  *

SEE PREVIOUS TOP TEN CONSPIRACIES:

2021 Top Ten Conspiracies
2020 Top Ten Conspiracies
2019 Top Ten Conspiracies
2018 Top Ten Conspiracies
2017 Top Ten Conspiracies
2016 Top Ten Conspiracies
2015 Top Ten Conspiracies
2014 Top Ten Conspiracies

PLEASE HELP SUPPORT 21ST CENTURY WIRE’S WINTER FUNDRAISING DRIVE HERE

Yet another website has published its year-in-review. This one comes from Pornhub’s statisticians, who have published its users’ consumption habits in colorful infographics for the ninth year. 

Let’s begin with the US, the country with the highest daily traffic to Pornhub this year. 

Pornhub’s global average visit duration decreased by 1 second to 9 minutes and 54 seconds. The US saw a 3-second decrease to 9 minutes and 41 seconds. 

On a state-by-state basis, users in many southern states, including Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi, had the highest visiting times on the website. Ohio, Washington, and South Dakota users had some of the lowest. 

Worldwide, Friday was the least favorite time to watch porn, while Sunday afternoon into the evening was the best time. 

Here are the world’s most viewed categories. 

The average user age is 37 years old.

A breakdown of searches by generation. 

How most users access the website. 

A breakdown of most searched terms, pornstars, trending searches, top categories, and relative categories for the US. 

Oh, and there’s this…

In a separate report, data from SimilarWeb shows Pornhub is one of the top-trafficked websites in the world. 

Digging deep into Pornhub data can provide a glimpse into society’s darkest and dirtiest secrets. 

Authored by Victor Xing via The Mises Institute,

Executive Summary

• In the near term, China’s reopening and buying of ESPO crude would likely erode the role of Brent & energy indices

• Gulf nations envision the scope of petroyuan to be on par with demands for Chinese goods & technology transfer

• Rising yuan payments for Russian energy and more China-Gulf bilateral trade imply future dollar demand decline

• In the long term, more local currency trade settlements would erode dollar flows and Federal Reserve’s influence

China’s yuan denominated Russia crude rivals Saudi imports

In 2021, China imported 79.6 million tons of crude from Russia (1.6 million barrels per day) vs. 87.6 million tons from Saudi Arabia (1.8 million barrels per day). These two producers respectively accounted for 15.5% and 17.1% of China’s total crude import at 513.2 million tons (10.3 million barrels per day), which was near Saudi Arabia’s total 2021 output of 515 million tons. At present demand, China is both Saudi Arabia and Russia’s top energy customer:

Following the onset of the war in Europe, rising yuan-denominated Russian crude export and omission of Russia’s Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) grade crude from broader commodity indices would likely erode Brent crude’s role as a global oil benchmark. Investors focusing solely on Brent may overlook key market shifts.

China’s energy demand was subdued in 2021 and 2022 due to pandemic restrictions, and a broader economic reopening would likely accelerate demand for both Russian and Saudi energy products (by 2+ million barrels a day). However, Brent would only reflect part of the demand surge due to ESPO shipment and direct Russo-China pipeline flows. In 2022, sale of Russian pipeline crude to China totaled 33.3 million tons by October (nearly half of Russian flows to China over the period). Given crude pipelines would not use EU or G7 insurance services, the products would trade at uncapped prices into 2023.

Meanwhile, seaborne ESPO crude traded at $79 per barrel in Asian markets after the G7 + EU price cap came into effect at $60 per barrel, because the presence of a Russian tanker fleet that uses its own insurance.

The Bloomberg Commodity Index, as well as its futures instruments, uses WTI and Brent crude to construct its crude constituents, and it would underrepresent energy market developments in Asia if ESPO decouples from Brent:

Currently, yuan-denominated purchases of Russian crude uses a quasi-barter system: Chinese buyers would settle Russian crude purchases in yuan, and Russia would subsequently use the yuan to purchase Chinese technology products.

This is the same petroyuan model discussed at the China-Saudi Summit.

Saudi-China Summit and long-term impacts

A key market focus on the Saudi-China Summit attended by Crown Prince Bin Salman and President Xi was petroyuan. Xi proposed making “full use of the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange as a platform to carry out yuan settlement of oil and gas trade.” A Saudi source previously said a decision to sell small amounts of oil in yuan to China could make sense in order to pay for Chinese imports directly, but “it is not yet the right time” to take the step.

This ambiguous stance preserved policy option for the Kingdom, for the Saudis do not see the yuan as an alternative reserve currency as Russia does. Riyadh, like Hong Kong, pegs its currency to the dollar, and it would require an ample dollar reserve to defend the riyal. As long as this system persists, Saudi Arabia would use petrodollar as a liquidity source, and it would reinvest reserves in interest-bearing dollar-denominated assets such as U.S. Treasury securities or corporate bonds. This supports the dollar and contributes to easier dollar-based financial conditions by boosting dollar asset prices. Ultimately, the petrodollar system plays a role to elevate the Federal Reserve as the dollar system’s central bank that affects global financing costs.

Yet, Saudi Arabia’s willingness to consider a system modeled after yuan-based Russian crude trade reflects its pragmatic considerations: it creates an incentive for Beijing to broaden economic ties with Riyadh. Greater the overall bilateral trade in yuan, greater the Kingdom’s demand for renminbi to pay for Chinese goods and technology, and petroyuan would fulfill a similar purpose as petrodollar to supply Riyadh with a non-dollar invoicing currency.

Overtime, greater the Saudi-China bilateral trade, greater the likelihood of more crude transactions settled in yuan, thus smaller the role of the dollar (and Fed policy) on global asset markets. While petroyuan would hardly replace petrodollar given its limited scope, less dollar in commodity settlement would result in less reinvestment of dollar reserves into dollar assets. This has ramifications from U.S. fiscal policy (less demand for dollar debt) to U.S. fixed income and equity markets.

Combined with India’s work on rupee transactions with Russia, a slow grind toward a multipolar (fragmented) world would likely weaken the dollar and erode existing asset correlation paradigms to create new market opportunities.

The United States and the UK are leading the way when it comes to procuring real champagne with 34.1 and 29.9 million 750 milliliter bottles imported in 2021, respectively.

As Statista’s Felix Richter shows in the chart below, based on data by the trade association Comité Champagne, most of the biggest import nations are located in Europe.

You will find more infographics at Statista

With the exception of the U.S., Japan and Australia, Western European countries like Germany, Belgium and Italy are dominating last year’s top 10.

This is not to say that other countries don’t enjoy sparkling wine, but the numbers only refer to the higher-priced, regionally produced drink from the French region of Champagne.

The area was officially designated in 1927 and is home to winemakers like Veuve Clicquot, Moët & Chandon and Krug.

While French champagne only makes up around nine percent of the global sparkling wine consumption, it’s responsible for 33 percent of the market value, generated with only 0.5 percent of the world’s total vineyard area. Overall, champagne exports from France amounted to $5.7 billion in 2021, with the U.S. alone being responsible for roughly $793 million.

Authored by Kyle Anzalone & Will Porter via The Libertarian Institute,

The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning has sailed near the Japanese island of Okinawa and the US territory of Guam over the past two weeks. The naval operations came at the end of a year which saw several military escalations between Washington and Beijing.

Tokyo reported that the Liaoning and at least four other large warships operated in waters near Okinawa, adding that the ships remained about 150 miles offshore for several days. While in the area, the Chinese carrier conducted over 200 takeoff and landing drills.

On Thursday, Japanese officials confirmed that, after sailing away from Japan, the flotilla then traveled near the US territory of Guam. According to the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper closely linked with the country’s ruling Communist Party, the operation “showed that the Chinese carrier is ready to defend the country against potential US attacks launched from there.”

The relationship between Washington and Beijing has continued to deteriorate in 2022, perhaps best exemplified by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan last summer and a massive round of Chinese military drills launched near the island in retaliation. 

President Joe Biden has further fueled tensions by repeatedly asserting that US forces would come to Taiwan’s defense in the event of a Chinese invasion. However, Taiwan is not recognized as a sovereign nation under US law, which instead endorses Beijing’s claim to the island and calls for a position of “strategic ambiguity” towards Taipei. 

While a number of past US administrations have refrained from openly saying whether Washington would intervene against China on Taiwan’s behalf, Biden has increasingly eroded that position, prompting senior White House officials to walk back his statements on multiple occasions. Proponents of strategic ambiguity contend that the policy acts as a deterrent against any future attack by Beijing, and stops short of emboldening Taipei to take aggressive actions of its own. 

Biden recently met with Chinese President Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit. While the goal was to seek to resolve various outstanding issues between the two powers, both countries continue to conduct provocative military exercises. 

Tokyo – which is part a three-way security pact with Washington and Seoul created to confront Beijing – has also escalated regional tensions by announcing an end to its post-WWII defense-oriented military and plans to become the world’s third-highest weapons spender over the next five years. Moreover, the United States has worked to persuade its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to take part in its operations in Chinese-claimed waters, while Canada recently announced plans to conduct more military transits through the disputed Taiwan Strait. 

Beijing has significantly deepened its security and diplomatic ties with Moscow this year, with the two allies striking a “no limits strategic partnership” in the days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. The Asian superpowers have conducted joint drills in the waters and skies around both Japan and Taiwan in recent weeks, having just wrapped up naval exercises in the East China Sea on Tuesday. Another round of wargames on December 14 saw Chinese warships cross multiple Japanese straits as Russian fighters and bombers flew near Japanese airspace over the Sea of Japan. 

Underscoring the rising hostilities, earlier this week the Pentagon released a video, captured on December 21, showing a Chinese fighter that approached an American spy plane over the South China Sea, accusing the pilot of performing an “unsafe maneuver” that risked a collision. 

Silicon Valley tech companies have benefited from over a decade of low-interest rates and easy money. But since the Federal Reserve turned off the liquidity taps to combat inflation — at least for now — tech firms have been forced into aggressive cost-cutting measures, such as reducing headcount. 

This brings us to the workers who were fired this year. Financial Times reported, “employees of embattled tech groups are flooding secondary markets — where stakeholders in a private company sell shares to third parties.” And as they unload shares on the private market, the valuations of these startups are collapsing. 

The latest data from Crunchbase shows more than 91,000 workers in the U.S. tech sector have been laid off this year. 

“We are seeing an inflow of people being laid off trying to sell their shares,” Greg Martin, managing director of Rainmaker Securities, which facilitates private stock transactions. “These companies have built their headcounts up so much, so there are a lot of people highly motivated to get a sale done,” he said.

Martin added while there’s an increasing number of laid-off workers trying to cash out, many of these sales are happening during valuation declines of “30-80% from a year ago.” 

A valuation reset for startups has led venture capitalists to sit on the sidelines and wait for the smoke to clear. The selling of private stock has also pushed down startup valuations. 

FT published market valuations of private companies that show a rollercoaster ride in the last year. 

The highly illiquid market for private secondary markets, such as those operated by Rainmaker, further complicates assessing valuations in times of market turmoil. 

Data from Rainmaker showed that shares in Anduril, a defense artificial intelligence company backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz valued at $8.5bn, traded at $16.95 per share in November, down from $31.50 in March. Brokers such as Rainmaker trade Anduril shares indirectly through special purpose vehicles, as Anduril prohibits direct trading of its shares on secondary markets.

Shares in SoftBank-backed Chime Bank, which was valued at $25bn when it last raised external capital in August 2021, have lost a quarter of their value since then on secondary markets, trading at $60 per share, according to the most recent data. –FT

Rainmaker’s Martin warned there’s a wave of laid-off employees who are dumping private stock into illiquid markets. The collapse in fundraising for the IPO market has complicated things for private companies, who are now scrambling to find lending lifelines.  

On public markets, unprofitable tech companies have underperformed this year and are likely to continue doing so until the Fed pivots. Interest rate swaps suggest the Fed could begin cutting by late 2023. 

The basket of money-losing tech companies compiled by Morgan Stanley has plunged 54% — an epic roundtrip back to pre-Covid days. 

Profitability has become necessary for investors in these challenging times. There may come a time when unprofitable companies outperform again, but that widely depends on Fed policy. 

A New Year message issued by the Russian defense ministry declared that it sees victory in Ukraine as “inevitable” – even after the Russian ground forces’ advance in the east in south has appeared stalled for months, and as aerial forces take aim at the national power grid across Ukrainian cities.

“In the coming year, I want to wish everyone good health, fortitude, reliable and devoted comrades… Our victory, like the New Year, is inevitable,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a Saturday video address soon before Russia rings in the new year.

The military campaign is now it its 11th month, and will reach one full year on Feb.24. Shoigu explained that 2022 included times that “we all faced serious trials” and that the New Year has come during a “difficult military-political situation.” 

“The outgoing year will forever enter the military chronicle of the Fatherland, filled with your immortal deeds, selfless courage and heroism in the fight against neo-Nazism and terrorism,” Shoigu said.

“We will always remember our comrades who sacrificed themselves while performing combat missions in the name of saving civilians from genocide and violence only for the right to speak Russian,” he added. In mentioning the “right to speak Russian” – he was referencing a crackdown on Russian culture and language, which has included recent moves to push forward new laws, by the Zelensky government which Moscow had complained about even before the war.

Two weeks ago, Russia admitted to just 5,937 military deaths in Ukraine, despite some Western estimates putting the figure as high as 100,000. Estimates of Ukrainian troop deaths are also difficult to assess accurately.

Recently, the US military said it estimates that some 200,000 have been killed on both sides. Citing the US Joint Chiefs chairman, a November report gave the following grim tally and breakdown:

The most senior US general estimates that around 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the war in Ukraine.

Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, also suggested that around 40,000 civilians had died after being caught up in the conflict.

The estimates are the highest offered yet by a Western official.

This past week, the United Nations updated its numbers of civilian casualties over the course of the war since Feb.2022. An OHCHR press release cited a total number of 17,831 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including 6,884 killed and 10,947 injured. 

Video of a Ukrainian National Guard Igla MANPADS team firing at a cruise missile in Kyiv. https://t.co/IzWx04rbjJ pic.twitter.com/MPMjHY7uCt

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) December 30, 2022

For now the conflict remains essentially stalemated, with Russia exercising clear air superiority given it has of late been ramping up airstrikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure – but with Ukraine forces receiving more and more powerful, longer-range weapons from the West. The US says Patriot anti-air missiles are en route, but these are expected to take six months minimum to go operational in the country.