CBDCs With Expiration Dates Restrictions Could Target Social Policies Economist Tells WEF

CBDCs With Expiration Dates, Restrictions Could Target Social Policies, Economist Tells WEF

Authored by Andrew Moran via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Expiry dates and restrictions on “less desirable” purchases are some of the key advantages behind central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), according to an economist at a World Economic Forum (WEF) event.

The WEF hosted the 14th annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China, also known as Summer Davos. During one of the 30-minute panel discussions on June 28, Cornell University professor Eswar Prasad explained that the global economy is “at the cusp of physical currency essentially disappearing” and that programmable CBDCs and the technology behind these new forms of money could take the international economic landscape toward a dark path or a better place.

Prasad contended that one of the “huge potential gains” for the digitization of money is the programmability of CBDC units and attaching expiry dates. Governments can also utilize central bank money to socially engineer society.

You could have … a potentially better—or some people might say a darker world—where the government decides that units of central bank money can be used to purchase some things, but not other things that it deems less desirable like, say ammunition, or drugs, or pornography, or something of the sort,” he said. “And that is very powerful in terms of the use of a CBDC, and I think also extremely dangerous to central banks.”

The author of “Gaining Currency” and “The Dollar Trap” purported that CBDCs possess unique characteristics and could be employed “as a conduit for economic policies in a very targeted way, or more broadly for social policies.”

“That could really affect the integrity of central bank money and the integrity and independence of central banks,” Prasad stated. “So, there are wonderful notions of things that can be done with digital money, but again I fear the technology could take us to a better place, but equally has the potential to take us to a pretty dark place.”

CBDC Expiry Dates

Integrating expiry dates with CBDCs has already been discussed by various central banks worldwide.

The Bank of Canada (BoC) published a paper in 2021 entitled “Best Before? Expiring Central Bank Digital Currency and Loss Recovery.” The institution weighed the pros and cons of expiration dates, asserting that an expiry date would “automate personal loss recovery.”

With this feature enabled, digital cash could not be spent after its expiry date. Consumers whose digital cash expired would automatically receive the funds back into their online account without having to file a claim,” the Canadian central bank wrote. “We show that offering the option of personal loss recovery could substantially increase consumer demand for digital cash. However, the length of time to expiry plays a key role. An expiry date that is too soon is inconvenient, but a date too far in the future slows down the reimbursement of lost digital cash.”

China has been exploring expiration dates for the digital yuan, suggesting that it would no longer be usable if not spent in a specific timeframe.

The World Bank studied the effects of expiring money and argued that this could be a “potential monetary policy tool” to stimulate consumption during recessions or pandemics.

Expiring money would increase both the velocity of money and overall economic activity, similar to applying a negative rate to digital cash,” the organization wrote. “In practice, a carrying fee on money would encourage people to spend it and thus prevent it from being hoarded.”

Indeed, CBDC advocates say digital money can be a flexible instrument to micro-target sectors, regions, interest rates, and socio-economic demographics with real-time feedback.

Read more here…

Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/01/2023 – 12:30

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“Something Went Wrong”: Twitter Users Complain About Global Outage

“Something Went Wrong”: Twitter Users Complain About Global Outage

Over 7,000 people on the Down Detector website have complained about Twitter outages on Saturday morning. A surge of outage reports began around 0745 ET. 

Users say they’re experiencing difficulties retrieving tweets, missing timelines, and followers disappearing, according to The Independent

Market Watch said, “Twitter has been hit Saturday by a global outage that is preventing thousands of users from accessing the social media platform.” 

Users have reported error messages such as “Something went wrong. Try reloading” and “Cannot retrieve tweets” and “Rate limit exceeded error message.” 

In a separate issue, one Twitter user last night pointed out that the social media platform now “blocks all requests that are not logged in, tweets can no longer be embedded in most chat apps.” 

Elon Musk responded, “This will be unlocked shortly. Per my earlier post, drastic & immediate action was necessary due to EXTREME levels of data scraping.” 

Here’s an exchange Musk has with another Twitter user on data scraping. 

It’s not clear what the problem is or how long the outage will last. 

Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/01/2023 – 11:32

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IEAs Net Zero Dream Was Just Debunked As A Nightmare

IEA’s Net Zero Dream Was Just Debunked As A Nightmare

Authored by Daniel Turner via RealClear Wire,

First they came for the cars. Then the gas stoves. Next was meat and dairy products. The latest on the chopping block? Wood-fired pizza. These types of tactics grab the headlines, but make no mistake: climate alarmism courses through the veins of the highest levels of government leaders and regulators. 

As President Joe Biden would say, “I’m not joking, folks.” 

Give Biden credit for one thing: he has been honest about his intentions. As garbled as his public remarks can be, Biden has left no doubt as to where he stands on the climate debate.

As president-elect, he listed climate change as one of the four most pressing threats facing our nation. As president, he called for a net zero emissions economy by 2050, going even further than his old boss Barack Obama. Facing a tough reelection and a restless liberal base, he has no incentive to change course. 

Should the climate crew get its way, the consequences extend far beyond pizza or steaks (as unpleasant as that may be).

In May 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) publicized a report, “Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector.” It was portrayed as a roadmap for Biden and other climate zealots. 

Because of its noble-sounding intentions and a sympathetic mainstream media, the preposterous nature of a world without carbon rarely gets the scrutiny that it deserves. 

Until now.

For these reasons, the RealClearFoundation asked the Energy Policy Research Foundation (EPRF) to analyze the feasibility and consequences of a carbon-neutral world.

The results of the meticulous 92-page report weren’t pretty. 

First, the report examines some of the more unreasonable assumptions. For example, the IEA plan is based on China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, also embracing the wisdom of going carbon-neutral, beginning in 2021. One immediate problem: China was producing two new coal plants per week in 2022. Addressing energy before a speech to the Communist Party Congress last fall, President Xi Jinping was focused on “getting the new before discarding the old.”

Second, to make up for fossil fuels (which account for 80% of the world’s energy supply), the world needs more electricity — a lot more electricity. In fact, global power supply needs to increase from less than 20% of all energy use to 50% by 2050.

Of course, setting aside feasibility questions, the consequences would be dire and all too recognizable. Soaring inflation. Spikes in gas prices as supply and production are constricted. More land gobbled up for wind and solar farms. An increased reliance on OPEC+ monopolizing the world’s oil supply, even as high as 82%, placing our nation’s geopolitical security in the hands of nations who wish us harm. If this sounds familiar, it is: it’s what we are going through right now because of bad decisions coming out of Washington, D.C.

These are the stakes as our next presidential election kicks off. On the Democratic side, the incumbent, Biden, has made his green positions clear. Facing a stronger-than-expected primary challenge from environmental activist Robert Kennedy, Jr., he has no incentive to change course.

Meanwhile, the Republican side is taking shape. More than 10 candidates have announced. Still others are waiting in the wings.

During the Biden administration, American families have grown painfully aware of the role of energy in their lives. A series of domestic policy decisions surrendered American energy independence, contributed to 40-year-high inflation, and drove the price of a gallon of gasoline north of $5 per gallon. 

Power The Future, the nonprofit organization that I run, recently issued a survey to each declared candidate. Our goal is to better understand the respective visions for our energy future. Our hope is to jump-start a productive and meaningful conversation.

One thing is clear: climate zealots have their plan. Groups like the International Energy Agency aren’t shy about where they want us to go. They are well organized and have unlimited financial resources. 

We need to be prepared to fight back with facts, figures, and a roadmap of our own. Otherwise, a future world without carbon is not out of the question. As delicious as wood-fired pizza is, the lack of it surely won’t be the worst problem we’re facing.

Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. Contact him at daniel@powerthefuture.com and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF. 

Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/01/2023 – 11:30

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“Believe Their Lies Or Pay The Consequences” – Tucker Carlson Blasts Trans Ideology As “Just Another Religious War”

“Believe Their Lies Or Pay The Consequences” – Tucker Carlson Blasts Trans Ideology As “Just Another Religious War”

Having questioned the establishment’s blockade of RFK Jr’s presidential run, highlighted the military-industrial complex’s reasons for destroying Trump, examined Joe Biden’s dictatorship tendencies (and the bifurcated system of justice when it comes to his son), and dared to ask “why exactly are we at war with Russia?“, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson likely went to ’11’ in the eyes of progressives in his latest ‘Tucker on Twitter’ episode – throwing shade at no lesser person than ‘Admiral Rachel Levine’ – America’s first transgender health secretary (does anyone else feel like that sounds oxymoronic?).

In a brief monologue, Carlson called out Levine, who was born Richard “Rick” Levine, for undergoing a late-life transition from being a husband and father of two to pushing transgender ideology by identifying as a woman and wearing feminine clothing, becoming Admiral Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health at the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

“Few Americans in our history have come as far as Rick Levine. Here’s a fat guy in a Halloween costume who somehow became the federal health minister.

…What we have here is living proof that in this country, you really can be whatever you want to be,” Carlson said.

“If Rick Levine can become ‘Admiral Rachel’, why can’t you be Napoleon? Or Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India? Ever see that guy’s uniform?”

Carlson questions the societal shift towards individual self-identification and challenges the idea that individuals can redefine themselves without consequences, contrasting it with historical beliefs in natural law and consequences for disobedience.

Levine’s “personal journey” is not to empower people, but rather to become more powerful, explains Carlson.

“Shut up and be proud of Admiral Rachel,” he continued.

“She’s the one who has smashed glass ceilings, and you’ve just got some kind of weird fetish. So actually, now that we’re saying this out loud, it’s pretty clear that Rick Levine has no interest in liberating you from anything. This is not about liberation, it’s just the opposite. It’s just another religious war, same as all the others. The people who think they’re God versus everybody else.”

Watch the full episode below:

Full transcript below:

Hey, it’s Tucker Carlson.

Belmont Hill is a small private school outside of Boston. It’s not famous for its Athletics – the school’s mascot isn’t even an animal, it’s an 18th century navigational tool – the Belmont Hill sextants, doesn’t even make sense. So when it comes to sports, Belmont Hill is not trying very hard.

But the school’s Athletic program can claim at least one important footnote to history – in 1975 it’s football roster contained two names that you will recognize even now Mark Milley and Richard Levine.

Milley is now the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Levine, of course, is our country’s most famous Admiral.

Both transitioned late in life into overweight middle-aged women. Both wound up working as high-level officials in the Joe Biden Administration.

Their teammates at the all boys school in Boston probably wouldn’t have predicted any of that.

Hre’s what Rick Levine looks like now from a video he just posted on Instagram: “hello my name is Admiral Rachel Levine and I have the honor of being the assistant secretary for health at the United States Department of Health and Human Services – happy Pride, happy pride month, and actually let’s declare it a summer of Pride. Happy summer of pride.”

‘Happy summer of Pride’? Rick Levine is so darn proud he’d like to tell you about it all summer and possibly into the fall.

He’s got a lot to be proud of.

What specifically you ask?

Well strangely he doesn’t say nor does he mention his former wife or children – he doesn’t tell us whether they’re proud too.

Since none of them have been invited onto the Today Show to talk about their feelings, we’re going to have to guess for now.

We’re going to assume that his former family is proud and why wouldn’t they be

Few Americans in our history has come as far as Rick Levine.

Here’s a fat guy in a Halloween costume who somehow became a federal health Minister – not a small thing given that not too long ago this same man was a married pediatrician with kids lecturing about eating disorders at Penn State.

Now he’s emerged as a path-breaking lady Admiral with medals on his chest and he did all of that without winning a single naval battle or even being female.

It’s pretty inspiring.

What we have here is living proof that in this country you really can be whatever you want to be.

If Rick Levine can become Admiral Rachel why can’t you be Napoleon or Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India – ever see that guy’s uniform, or why not Shaka, the legendary Zulu Warchief.

you could bring your assegai and leopard-hide shield to work at Deloitte and no one would be allowed to say a word about it – the HR department would have your back.

Unfortunately you can’t actually do any of that.

The point of Rick Levine’s amazing transformation is not to free you from the inflexible husk that you were born in so you can be more fully yourself – whatever you decide that is – no that’s not the point.

Rick Levine’s personal Journey has nothing to do with you – it’s about him, it’s his journey.

Your fantasiess about becoming something totally new and different have not been approved yet in fact they’re weird.

Shaka the Zulu War King –  come on, that’s racist shut up and be proud of Admiral Rachel.

Rachel L Levine – she’s the one who has smashed glass ceilings – you just got some kind of weird fetish.

So actually now that we’re saying this out loud it’s pretty clear that Rick Levine has no interest in liberating you from anything.

This is not about Liberation it’s just the opposite it’s just another religious War – same as all the others.

The people who think they’re God versus everybody else.

In primitive civilizations – which would include every civilization since the beginning of time until ours – people assume there were rules.

Rules that no human being made but that people could ignore only at their peril – at great risk.

Some call these rules nature, or natural law, or even as society’s advanced theology.

But most of the time people didn’t call them anything – they didn’t have to – there wasn’t a debate about whether the rules were real. People assumed there were consequences to pretending that you were God

They thought Sodom and Gomorrah were real places that were destroyed for Disobedience. They imagine the same thing could happen to them.

Not anymore. Rick Levine doesn’t worry about being punished by forces he can’t see. He knows he’s in charge – he makes the rules, he sets the limits. Reality is what he says it is – that’s his View and he shares with virtually everybody else in a position of authority in the United States.

That’s a pretty bold bet really – for seven million years human beings have believed one thing – presumably based on some evidence; around 2015 they began convinced of something completely different.

Are they right?

It feels like we’re going to find out soon..

Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/01/2023 – 11:00

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Stockman: Why The US Should Stop Sending Money To Zelensky

Stockman: Why The US Should Stop Sending Money To Zelensky

Authored by David Stockman via InternationalMan.com,

If the truth be told, we are getting sick and tired of the little piss-ant who runs the cess-pool of corruption, tyranny, delusion and death called Ukraine. This clown—and that’s what he is actually trained as—just can’t seem to stop stridently demanding money, arms and support from the rest of the world and lecturing everyone to fall into line or else.

In his actual clown days, of course, Volodymyr Zelensky was known for the act depicted below. But when it comes to the collective West, the latter seems to enjoy the fact that the Ukrainian president continues to bang away upon it, relentlessly pounding out a melody of me, me and more.

But lately Zelensky has really gone over the top, peddling the hideous canard that if we don’t enable him to fight “them” over there with everything and all that he demands by way of money and weapons, we will soon bleed and die against “them” over here.

That’s the “Putin is going to invade Europe next and maybe America too”, nonsense. It’s actually groundless blithering idiocy, and yet Washington treats him as a brave ally and statesman:

If any candidate thinks supporting Ukraine is too costly, are they ready to go to war? Are they ready to fight? Send their children? Die?” Zelenskyy said.

“They will have to do it anyway if NATO enters this war, and if Ukraine fails and Russia occupies us, they will move on to the Baltics or Poland or some other NATO country. And then the U.S. will have to choose between keeping NATO or entering the war.”

Let’s cut to the chase. No American or NATO soldier is going to be fighting Putin’s army in Poland, Berlin or Belgium because the Russian army ain’t going there. Not in a month of Sundays.

Vlad Putin is no prince of men, but his war aims are limited, rational and clear as a bell. To wit, as he warned for 15 years, he does not want NATO missiles on his doorstep in Ukraine, just as President Kennedy insisted about Khrushchev’s missiles 100 miles away in Cuba 61 years ago.

Likewise, he wants the Russian-speaking populations of the eastern Donbas region and the Black Sea rim, historically known as “Novorossiya” or New Russia, to have self-governing autonomy and protection from military attack by the anti-Russian Kiev government, as per the Minsk agreements. After all, those brutal attacks, which killed upwards of 14,000 mostly civilians, occurred nearly continuously for eight years after the Washington-sponsored Maidan coup of February 2014. The latter had installed hostile proto-Nazi elements in the unelected and illegal government stood up in Kiev by Victoria Nuland and her Washington gaggle of neocon hegemonists.

In other words, what we have here is a Washington-triggered civil war in an area that has been either a Russian vassal or appendage for centuries and where the term “Ukraine” actually means “borderlands” in Russian.

And that’s not even the half of it. The borders of these very “borderlands” do not define a nation or state that was the product of natural development and accretion over centuries. To the contrary, they are a 20th century artifact confected by three of the bloodiest tyrants in all of human history—Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev. The only connection these black-lined borders shown below have to the history of the area is that they were drawn-up for reasons of totalitarian administrative convenience, not as an expression of social, ethnic, religious or economic affinities.

That is to say, Ukraine is a state that was not built to last; and, in fact, it barely outlasted its Soviet rulers after their demise in 1991. For instance, during the 1994 presidential election the pro-Russian candidate, Leonid Kuchma, defeated the incumbent and strident Ukrainian nationalist, Leonid Kravchuk.

As the map below makes clear, however, Kravchuk won overwhelming majorities of 89-95% in the western Ukraine regions (yellow and orange), which had historically been part of Poland or the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. By the same token, the pro-Russian Kuchma won the national election because he racked up the same preponderant majorities (blue areas) in the eastern Donbas and southern Novorossiya regions. In the historic Russian province (since 1783) of Crimea, in fact, Kuchma won 90% of the vote.

Electoral Map of Ukraine’s 1994 Presidential Election

Essentially, the same radical split in the electorate occurred election after election. During the last legitimate election held within the old communist borders of the country during 201o, the above pattern was replicated. This time Kuchma’s protege, Viktor Yanukovich, won the election by a hair by virtue of lop-sided margins in the historic Russian-speaking territories of the east and south (blue areas of the map).

On the other side, the Ukrainian nationalist and former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, garnered 80-90% margins in the center and west (red areas of the map).

Not surprisingly, when the pro-Russian winner of the election from the blue regions was ousted from office by Washington in February 2014, the red area Ukrainian nationalists and their crypto-Nazi allies took control of the Kiev government and proceeded to outlaw the Russian language as its first act of government; and soon thereafter launched armed warfare when the two Donbas provinces declared themselves independent states.

At the end of the day, GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis was exactly right. The war in Ukraine is at bottom a “territorial dispute” that has absolutely nothing to do with the homeland security of America or Zelensky’s ridiculous lie that Putin is coming after NATO next.

And it most certainly has no bearing whatsoever on absurd abstractions like the rule of law and the sanctity of borders. After all, when it comes to the latter, Washington is far and away the greatest border-violating, regime-changing outlaw in the post-war world.

In some real sense, the post-war peace conference has already been held and the verdict is in. We are referring to the de facto Ukrainian referendums on the illegitimate state that Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev built, and which the Washington neocons and War Party are determined to uphold at any cost, including going to the brink of nuclear war with Russia.

Time and again the Ukrainian electorate effectively voted for partition, as dramatically underscored by the elector maps above.

So send Zelensky packing back to his comedy show and let the blue states of the Ukrainian east and south have their own countries or return to the bosom of Mother Russia, from which these communities emerged during the 18th and 19th centuries.

That would end the carnage in a heart-beat, and would stop the senseless slaughter of Ukrainians and Russians alike—a human catastrophe that is beginning to rival the heinous criminality of World War I trench warfare.

The implicit Peace of the Partition, however, could have an additional silver lining. It would expose the absolute mendacity of the Washington War Party and the fact that it is so desperate to rule the world that it will prop up even utter nincompoops like Zelensky to stay in the business of fighting falsely demonized monsters who are no threat at all to America’s real homeland security.

As we indicated recently, it’s time to get back to a Fortress America defense policy, which could be funded for a fraction of today’s $900 billion defense-a-palooza. And we wouldn’t have to waste our national treasure on un-useful idiots like Zelensky, either.

*  *  *

Unfortunately, there’s little any individual can practically do to change the trajectory of this trend in motion. The best you can do is to stay informed so that you can protect yourself in the best way possible, and even profit from the situation. Most people have no idea what really happens when a currency collapses, let alone how to prepare… How will you protect your savings in the event of a currency crisis? This just-released video will show you exactly how. Click here to watch it now.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/01/2023 – 10:30

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Ukraine Boosts Defenses In North As Satellite Images Show Likely Wagner Base In Belarus

Ukraine Boosts Defenses In North As Satellite Images Show Likely Wagner Base In Belarus

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered his armed forces to bolster defenses in the northern sector of the country near Belarus, days after Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was exiled there after leading a mutiny.

“The decision … is for Commander-in-Chief [Valeriy] Zaluzhnyi and North commander [Serhiy] Naev to implement a set of measures to strengthen this direction,” Zelensky announced on Telegram.

He said Kiev held an urgent national security meeting concerning the situation in Belarus, which lies just to the north of Ukraine, and early in the conflict had been a staging ground for Russian forces.

Prigozhin reportedly arrived in Minsk on a private jet on Tuesday, which was confirmed by President Alexander Lukashenko. The Belarusian leader had helped mediate a deal which resolved the internal Russian crisis peacefully, but which Washington has claimed left Putin “weakened”. 

Putin in a speech earlier this week indicated he would stick by the deal made which allows Wagner mercenaries to sign contracts with the defense ministry, or else they can go to Belarus, according to the statements. 

While there’s been nothing in the way of confirmation that a large-scale movement of Wagner fighters have crossed into Belarus, Western media reports are on Friday referencing satellite images which they say suggests new Wagner encampments on Belarusian soil

The satellite image appears to show activity at a disused military base about 13 miles (21km) from the town of Asipovichy – around 64 miles from Minsk, the capital of Belarus. The area has been reported in Russian media as a place which could house Wagner fighters.

BBC Verify has identified over 300 tent-like structures erected within the past two weeks.

A satellite image from 15 June shows none of these structures visible. The most recent high-resolution image we’ve obtained is from 30 June and reveals the extensive work being carried out at the base.

But BBC cautions that, “It’s not possible to confirm that these new structures are intended to house Wagner forces, but the leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko has agreed to accommodate them.”

Meanwhile, on Friday Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov vowed that Russia will emerge “stronger” after the failed uprising, which saw some limited exchange of fire, including helicopter shootdowns by Wagner which killed Russian air force pilots. 

“Russia has always overcome all its problems… it comes out stronger and stronger,” Lavrov told a press briefing. “It will be the same this time, too. This process has already begun,” he stressed

Lavrov also said that Moscow doesn’t owe an explanation to the West. “Thank you for your concern about our national interests, but you shouldn’t be worried,” he told a foreign journalist in response to a question.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/01/2023 – 09:55

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Some Pfizer Vaccine Batches In The EU Were Placebos Say Scientists

Some Pfizer Vaccine Batches In The EU Were Placebos, Say Scientists

Authored by Robert Kogon via DailySceptic.org,

German scientists have uncovered startling evidence that a substantial portion of the batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine deployed in the European Union may in fact have consisted of placebos – and that the German regulator knew this and did not subject them to quality-control testing.

The scientists, Dr. Gerald Dyker, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Ruhr University Bochum, and Dr. Jörg Matysik, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Leipzig, are part of a group of five German-speaking scientists who have been publicly raising questions about the quality and safety of the BioNTech vaccine (as it is known in Germany) for the last year and a half.

They recently appeared on the Punkt.Preradovic online programme of the German journalist Milena Preradovic to discuss batch variability. Their starting point was the recent Danish study showing enormous variation in the adverse events associated with different batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, or BNT162b2 per its scientific codename. The below figure from the Danish study illustrates this variation.

It shows that the batches used in Denmark, which are represented by the points in the graph, essentially break down into three groups.

The ‘green batches’ clustered around the green line have a moderate or moderately-high level of adverse events associated with them. In the discussion with Preradovic, Gerald Dyker takes the example of the green point furthest to the right.

As he explains, it represents the batch that was the used the most in Denmark, with somewhat over 800,000 doses having been administered. These 800,000 doses are associated with around 2,000 suspected adverse events, which gives a reporting rate of one suspected adverse event per approximately 400 doses. As Dyker puts it, “That’s not a small amount if we compare to what we know otherwise from influenza vaccines.” According to Dyker’s calculation, the green batches account for more than 60% of the Danish sample.

There are then the ‘blue batches’ clustered around the blue line, which are obviously associated with an extraordinarily high level of adverse events. As Dyker notes, no more than 80,000 doses of any of the blue batches were administered in Denmark – suggesting that these especially bad batches may perhaps have been quietly pulled from the market by public health authorities.

Nonetheless, these batches had as many as 8,000 suspected adverse events associated with them. Eight thousand out of 80,000 doses would give a reporting rate of one suspected adverse event for every 10 doses – and Dyker notes that some of the blue batches are indeed associated with a reporting rate of as high as one suspected adverse event for every six doses!

On Dyker’s calculation, the blue batches represent less than 5% of the total number of doses included in the Danish study. Nonetheless, they are associated with nearly 50% of the 579 deaths recorded in the sample.

Finally, we have the ‘yellow batches’ clustered around the yellow line, which, as can be seen above, barely gets off the x-axis.

On Dyker’s calculation, the yellow batches represent around 30% of the total.

Dyker notes that they include batches comprising some 200,000 administered doses which are associated with literally zero suspected adverse events.

As Dyker puts it, “malicious” observers might note that “this is how placebos would look”.

And malicious observers might be right.

For Dyker and Matysik compared the batch numbers contained in the Danish study with publicly available information on the batches approved for release, and they made the startling discovery that almost none of the harmless batches, unlike the very-bad and not-so-bad batches, appear to have been subject to any quality-control testing at all.

Unbeknownst to most observers, it is precisely the German regulatory agency, the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), which is, in principle, responsible for quality control of all the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine supply in the EU. (The institute is named after the German immunologist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Ehrlich, not, of course, the Stanford biology professor of the same name.)

This reflects the fact that the actual legal manufacturer of the vaccine, as well as the marketing authorisation holder in the EU, is the German company BioNTech, not its more well-known American partner Pfizer.

Dyker and Matysik found that the PEI had tested and approved for release all the very bad ‘blue’ batches, the overwhelming majority of the not-so-bad ‘green’ batches, but almost none of the harmless ‘yellow’ batches – as if the PEI knew in advance that these batches were unproblematic.

This is shown in the below slide from Dyker’s presentation during the Punkt.Preradovic interview. The title reads: ‘Which batches from the Danish study did the Paul Ehrlich Institute test and approve for release?’

In the PEI column of each of the tables, “ja” means, of course, that the batch was tested, “nein” means that it was not. Note that only the first batch in the ‘yellow’ table was tested.

The caption under that table reads: “The PEI did not generally regard testing of the harmless ‘yellow batches’ as necessary.”

As Dyker put it, with notable restraint, “this would support the initial suspicion that they are maybe in fact something like placebos”.

Or, in short, to paraphrase the German scientists’ findings on the variability of the Pfizer-BioNTech batches, it would appear that the good was bad, the bad was very bad, and the very good was saline solution.

*  *  *

(The full Punkt.Preradovic interview with Gerald Dyker and Jörg Matysik is available here in German. The above translations are by your writer. A full, presumably machine-translated, English version of the interview is also available on the Punkt.Preradovic webpage.)

Robert Kogon is a pen name for a widely-published financial journalist, translator and researcher working in Europe. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on Twitter.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/01/2023 – 09:20

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French Police Say “We’re At War With Vermin” As Nationwide Riots Spread Like Cancer

French Police Say “We’re At War With Vermin” As Nationwide Riots Spread Like Cancer

Social unrest spread like cancer across French cities for a fourth consecutive night, with hundreds of buildings and vehicles set ablaze. President Emmanuel Macron’s government struggled to contain the violence, which was sparked on Tuesday after a teenager was shot dead by a police officer. 

In an update on Saturday, France’s Interior Ministry said 2,500 fires were reported overnight. Rioters set fire to 1,350 vehicles and 235 buildings nationwide. About 1,300 people were arrested, while the government mobilized 45,000 police officers with armored vehicles to quell the violence. 

According to The Telegraph, French police said they were “at war” with “savage hordes of vermin” on Friday night. The country’s top police unions threatened revolt unless Macron’s government restored law and order. 

“Today the police are in combat because we are at war. Tomorrow we will enter resistance and the government should be aware of this,” police unions said. 

Footage of the chaos overnight:

“Many of the protesters identify with the teenager [shot and killed by police earlier in the week], who has been named only as Nahel M. and who was of Algerian and Moroccan descent,” The New York Times said. 

Predictive programming? 

What’s alarming is that French police unions threaten to protest if the government refuses to clamp down hard on the rioting. France is in a state of near anarchy. French police said they were “at war” with “savage hordes of vermin.” This is further decay and one step closer to societal collapse. It will be a long summer in Europe. Are these organized rioters attempting a ‘color revolution’ in France? 

Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/01/2023 – 08:45

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“The EU Is On The Brink Of Bankrutpcy” Says Hungary’s Orbán At EU Summit

“The EU Is On The Brink Of Bankrutpcy” Says Hungary’s Orbán At EU Summit

Via Remix News,

The first question asked by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in his Facebook post is: “The only question everyone is asking here in Brussels is: Where has the money gone?”

Orbán is currently attending the two-day summit of EU leaders in Brussels, and one of the hottest topics is the question as to where the EU’s budget money has disappeared to. The Hungarian prime minister said that the European Commission had submitted a budget amendment proposal asking member states to pay tens of billions of euros.

“The question arises: How did this situation come about and how did they bring the European Union to the brink of bankruptcy?” Orbán asked.

Orbán also noted that the EU is demanding more money from member states, although it is only two years into its seven-year budget. In other words, the money that was approved to be spent and was supposed to be there for the next five years has already been spent.

The prime minister then went on to list what Brussels is demanding for the budget.

“They want to get €50 billion from the member states to give to Ukraine, while they cannot even account for the money we have given them so far. They want more money from the member states so that they can pay the interest on the European Union loans that they have previously taken out. These are loans that Poland and Hungary have not seen a single cent from so far,” Orbán said.

Orbán said the EU commission is asking member states for more money for migration, not for border protection, but to bring in illegal immigrants.

Of course, they didn’t forget about their own pockets. They are asking for billions of euros to raise the salaries of Brussels bureaucrats,” he said.

“The Hungarian position is clear,” he said.

“First, we want to know what the huge amount of money we have given them so far has been spent on. Afterward, we want to know who is responsible for the fact that the European Union is on the brink of bankruptcy.”

Orbán is attending the summit of the Council of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday, where the main topics on the agenda are the issue of additional financial support for Ukraine, mandatory migrant quotas and shaping the EU’s policy toward China.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/01/2023 – 08:10

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Russia Raises Military Salaries By 10.5% In Effort To Shore Up Loyalty Morale

Russia Raises Military Salaries By 10.5% In Effort To Shore Up Loyalty, Morale

The government of Vladimir Putin is taking serious measures to ensure stability of its armed forces and a return to normalcy after cracks appeared due to the dramatic events of last weekend, when Wagner Group under now exiled Yevgeny Prigozhin mounted an armed mutiny, seeking to overthrow military leadership. 

Bloomberg is reporting Friday the Kremlin has authorized a significant boost to salaries across the national armed forces, writing that “The Russian government will increase salaries for military servicemen by 10.5% from Oct. 1, a government decree published on the official web portal showed on Friday.”

The report specifically cites the short-lived uprising by the mercenaries which had previously been instrumental to Russian operations in Ukraine. “The move comes days after an abortive armed mutiny by the mercenary Wagner Group, which briefly took control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and marched towards Moscow,” Bloomberg continues.

Further underscoring that this measure is geared toward boosting morale and bolstering loyalty at a sensitive moment, UK Defense and Security Analyst Professor Michael Clarke has highlighted in the wake of the decision that Russia has been having “a real problem with pay” for troops.

It must also be remembered that for months prior to the Wagner’s revolt, Prigozhin had been loudly calling out the “incompetence and corruption” of the military’s top leadership, going after defense minister Sergei Shoigu in particular.

Currently, there is widespread reporting that Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of the Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, has been detained in relation to the Wagner uprising. The New York Times and others days ago alleged, based on anonymous US intelligence officials, that Surovikin had foreknowledge of the Wagner rebellion, and suggested he may have even helped, in a move against Putin’s grip on power. 

Interestingly, former President Trump weighed in on the whole saga, saying in a fresh interview with Reuters that Putin has been “somewhat weakened” by the mutiny, but also said the Russian president is “still strong”. 

“You could say that (Putin is) still there, he’s still strong, but he certainly has been — I would say — somewhat weakened, at least in the minds of a lot of people,” Trump concluded. The GOP presidential hopeful has lately touted that if he were president, he would negotiate a end to the war within 24 hours.

Throughout the conflict, there have been periodic rumors that Putin will authorize another big round of conscription and ‘national mobilization’. There have also been widespread reports of huge numbers of troop deaths, in the tens of thousands, but confirmed casualty figures haven’t been forthcoming from either side of the war.

Prigozhin himself had highlighted this in the days and weeks before the Wagner mutiny, and even questioned the decision to go to invade Ukraine in the first place.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 07/01/2023 – 07:35

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