Robert F Kennedy Jr. Calls CBDCs “Instruments of Control and Oppression”
By Ken Macon | Reclaim The Net | June 26, 2023
In an interview with The New York Post, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Democratic Party presidential candidate, took a deep dive into the topic of currency. He unfolded his candid views on Bitcoin, expressed trepidations over central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and rang the bell of caution around artificial intelligence (AI).
Kennedy plans to “support Bitcoin and the freedom to transact,” and enable individuals to wield command over “Bitcoin wallets, nodes, and passwords.” In his world, regulatory fetters would be whittled down to the bare essentials to curb money laundering.
Kennedy also locked horns with Biden’s proposed crypto tax, a formidable 30%, and sounded the alarm against CBDCs.
His argument on CBDCs was clear-cut – CBDCs, in his estimation, are “instruments of control and oppression, and are certain to be abused.” He’s not alone in this battle-cry; his rival from the Republican stables, Ron DeSantis, shares a kindred spirit.
His disquiet was not merely consigned to the domain of cryptocurrency; artificial intelligence was equally ensnared in his critical lens. Kennedy called for the global harnessing of AI, citing figures like Elon Musk, whose advocacy for free speech he commended. The omens, as he foresees, are grave – where AI’s formidable might could “control narratives, create illusions, surveil our activities to dictate our behaviors and enforce compliance, and ultimately enslave humanity.”
Facebook Trusts Former CIA Analyst To Manage Election Policies

By Dan Frieth | Reclaim The Net | June 26, 2023
Meta recently appointed Aaron Berman, an ex-CIA agent, to take charge of its Elections Policies. Berman, who previously led the misinformation team at the company during the 2020 elections, now occupies a prominent position with extensive oversight over elections-related content across the globe.
The move is part of the revolving door between the intelligence community and social media platforms.
Aaron Berman boasts a career that spans nearly two decades with the CIA, from March 2002 to July 2019, Breitbart reported. During his tenure, he wielded significant influence, assuming various roles including editing and writing for the President’s Daily Brief – a high-profile classified document prepared every morning for the President of the United States by the intelligence community. Besides this, he supervised numerous analysts and managed multimillion-dollar budgets. His wide-ranging duties also encompassed providing briefings to members of Congress and the National Security Council.
After his extensive tenure with the CIA, Berman joined Facebook in 2019. Here, he took on the role of Senior Product Policy Manager for “misinformation.” He was instrumental in constructing the misinformation policy team’s workforce in the US and implementing policies during what he refers to as “critical events.” Although Berman has not specified the nature of these events, his stint at Facebook’s misinformation department coincided with the period leading up to the 2020 election, which was marred by controversies such as suppression of voices and news outlets.
Now as the Head of Elections Policies, Berman has wide-ranging responsibilities, as described on his LinkedIn profile: “Leads a team responsible for elections-related content policies worldwide. Oversees policy development, advises senior executives, coordinates with teams on implementation via technical and human workflows, and represents Meta with external stakeholders. Puts policies into practice on key elections.”
Democrats Call on YouTube To Bring Back Its Election Censorship Rules
By Dan Frieth | Reclaim The Net | June 26, 2023
A ripple of indignation surged through the Capitol this Thursday as some lawmakers pushed against YouTube and its parent colossus, Alphabet Inc. At the heart of the issue is the tech behemoth’s about-face on its election misinformation policy, a move that emerges as a tinderbox in the countdown to the presidential race next year.
The fury emanated from the news that YouTube has decided to slacken its policy reins, no longer acting as the all-mighty censor against videos questioning the the sanctity of the 2020 presidential elections. The revelation, made through an announcement from YouTube, was met with the usual complaints from four high-profile Democrats of the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. Among the voices was that of Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D.-NJ) who, along with his cohorts, denounced YouTube’s maneuver and demanded the tech giant retract this new stance.
In a letter, the lawmakers articulated their dissent, stating, “While you claim that taking such action is ‘core to a functioning democratic society,’ we emphatically disagree.”
We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.
They lambasted the policy relaxation as perilous and branded it a dagger pointed at the heart of American democracy, pressing YouTube to review this “harmful policy decision.”
YouTube’s silent watch was palpable as a spokesperson offered no rejoinder to the avalanche of criticism.
Dissecting the June 2nd announcement, YouTube’s reversal appears to be rooted in an introspective contemplation of its policy’s past efficacy and consequences. After purging of tens of thousands of videos, and a whole election cycle within its purview, the platform seems to have had an awakening. Perhaps censoring stuff isn’t good after all, they suggest, hopefully realizing that they were the baddies all along.
They believe the policy, initially started as a bulwark against election denialism, might inadvertently muzzle political speech without significantly stymieing the risk of violence.
However, the democratic lawmakers rebuked YouTube’s newfound stance as perilous, asserting that content discrediting the legitimacy of recent elections has already wreaked havoc upon democracy.
Since when has free speech been antithetical to democracy?
Republicans ‘Too Afraid’ to Remove Adam Schiff From Office Over Russiagate Hoax
By Andrei Dergalin – Sputnik – 25.06.2023
Despite being censured in the US Congress, Adam Schiff is in fact doing pretty well for himself and is likely going to “get a promotion for lying to the American people for four years,” says a former Colorado state senator.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff this week for his role in promoting unsubstantiated claims that former US President Donald Trump colluded with Russia.
Former Colorado Senator Ted Harvey (Rep.), however, argued that Schiff deserves worse for essentially lying to the American people while in the capacity of the House Intelligence Committee head.
Despite basically knowing that there was no substance to allegations of Trump colluding with Russia, Schiff told the US public that there was “ample evidence of collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign,” Harvey told Sputnik.
“That is everything Schiff said to the American people for four years as the chairman of the intelligence community, he should not just be censured. He should be removed from office,” he said.
Alas, Harvey lamented, the US Republicans are simply “too afraid” to pursue this course of actions and instead managed to make a “martyr” out of Schiff.
“And he is raising money by the boatloads and he is now running for the United States Senate and will get a promotion for lying to the American people for four years,” Harvey mused about Schiff’s prospects. “And instead of being held accountable for that, he’s going to be promoted for that.”
During his tenure as the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump was hounded by allegations of colluding with Russia in order to be elected in 2016, with said allegations being actively promoted by his political opponents.
Despite the seriousness of the allegations brought against him, an investigation into the alleged Russian election interference led by special counsel Robert Mueller failed to produce conclusive evidence to back claims that Trump campaign members conspired with Russia.
Fragmentation of World Economy Now Irreversible – Russia’s Representative at IMF
Sputnik – 25.06.2023
The use of international trade and the dollar as a weapon by the West makes the fragmentation of the world economy inevitable, Aleksei Mozhin, Executive Director for Russia at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), told Sputnik.
“The blatant use by the West as a weapon of international trade, finance, as well as the dollar and the euro itself, makes the fragmentation of the world economy not only inevitable, but also irreversible,” Mozhin said.
He pointed out that Western representatives at the IMF are trying to avoid this problem, and the leadership of the international organization cannot ignore the pressure that Western participants are exerting on it. As an example of the fragmentation of the world economy Mozhin mentioned the consequences of Western sanctions introduced against Russia.
“We have learned this lesson, we will never allow ourselves to be so dependent on imports again, at least in the strategic sectors of the economy,” Mozhin told Sputnik, adding that the whole world is now aware that globalization is forcing all countries to follow the path of specialization to the detriment of economic diversification and that the process of deglobalization will continue.
FDA Approves 2 New Diabetes Drugs for Kids — Critic Says Clinical Trial Sample Was ‘Shockingly Low’
By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D. | The Defender | June 23, 2023
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week approved two drugs to treat Type 2 diabetes for children ages 10 and up, “as additions to diet and exercise,” the agency said.
The drugs — Jardiance (empagliflozin) and Synjardy (empagliflozin and metformin hydrochloride) — previously were approved for adults with Type 2 diabetes to improve blood sugar control.
They join metformin, approved in 2000 to treat Type 2 diabetes in children.
“Compared to adults, children with Type 2 diabetes have limited treatment options, even though the disease and symptom onset generally progress more rapidly in children,” said Michelle Carey, M.D., MPH, associate director for therapeutic review for the Division of Diabetes, Lipid Disorders, and Obesity in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
But critics like pediatrician Dr. Elizabeth Mumper said the agency’s action ignores the root causes of Type 2 diabetes in children while generating profits for pharmaceutical companies:
“Rather than doing the hard work of preventing chronic diseases by cleaning up multiple environmental sources of harm to children, we allow the pharmaceutical industry to spend millions to develop drugs that do not address root causes of conditions like diabetes but do create lifelong medicine customers.”
Mumper, the former medical director of the Autism Research Institute, said “a pill for every ill” is “not a good strategy for pediatric care.”
Type 2 diabetes used to be called “adult-onset diabetes” — but now we are seeing it in younger and younger ages, Mumper told The Defender. In her state of Virginia, 31% of children are overweight or obese, she said.
“This is a clear risk factor for insulin resistance progressing to Type 2 diabetes,” Mumper said, adding:
“We are redefining normal by assuming Type 2 diabetes is a reasonable condition in children to treat with medicine instead of attacking the root causes of this ever-increasing chronic condition.
“We continue to allow Big Food to sell food-like products which are devoid of nutritional value and filled with sugar and bad fats that are addicting and proinflammatory.”
‘System is rigged for Big Food and Big Pharma, with kids … as the losers’
Nina Teicholz, author, science journalist and founder of The Nutrition Coalition — a “non-profit, non-partisan educational organization that aims to improve health in America by ensuring that the public receives evidence-based nutritional advice” — also emphasized the importance of diet in successfully preventing and managing Type 2 diabetes.
Commenting on the FDA’s new drug approval, she said, “This is another Pharma victory, promoting drugs while ignoring diet,” adding:
“The system is rigged for Big Food and Big Pharma, with kids, getting fatter and sicker, as the losers.”
We’ve known for more than a decade that people can safely reverse their Type 2 diabetes through diet alone — “within a matter of just weeks,” Teicholz said. “But multiple government agencies ignore this lifesaving science while the FDA approves drugs instead.”
Adult participants in a 2017 peer-reviewed study who used a ketogenic diet to manage their blood sugar levels reported a 1.0% reduction in their hemoglobin A1c — while reducing their medications — and were still sustaining that reduction one year later, Teicholz said.
In contrast, the FDA safety and efficacy trial of empagliflozin — the active ingredient in the two newly approved products — showed the drug reduced the recipients’ hemoglobin A1c by 0.2% in 26 weeks.
According to the authors of a study released Thursday:
“Type 2 diabetes, which makes up the bulk of diabetes cases, is largely preventable and, in some cases, potentially reversible if identified and managed early in the disease course. However, all evidence indicates that diabetes prevalence is increasing worldwide, primarily due to a rise in obesity caused by multiple factors.”
The study, published in The Lancet, projected the number of adults with Type 2 diabetes will more than double — to 1.3 billion — by 2050.
‘Shockingly low’ clinical trial sample size makes it impossible to assess adverse events
Commenting on the FDA’s safety and efficacy trial for the drugs, Brian Hooker, Ph.D., P.E., senior director of science and research for Children’s Health Defense, told The Defender :
“The sample size for this clinical trial is shockingly low. Given that 157 patients were split into three separate treatment groups, it was impossible to properly assess adverse events from the drug.
“I would expect that the trial be at least 10 times larger with a longer period of follow-up than 26 weeks, given that these children would be on the drug indefinitely.”
According to the product’s website, Jardiance can have serious side effects, including increased ketones in blood or urine — which may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, tiredness and breathing difficulty, allergic reactions, dehydration, serious urinary tract infections, yeast infections, low blood sugar and necrotizing fasciitis.
Necrotizing fasciitis is “a rare but serious bacterial infection that causes damage to the tissue under the skin in the area between and around your anus and genitals (perineum),” the company said.
Synjardy listed the same possible side effects, plus a possible deficiency in vitamin B12 caused by using metformin for long periods of time.
The drugs are manufactured by insulin producer Eli Lilly and its partner Boehringer Ingelheim.
Eli Lilly’s revenue for the quarter ending March 31 was $6.960 billion.
The pharmaceutical industry in 2022 funded about 75% of the FDA’s drug division, The New York Times reported.
Meanwhile, the FDA said that based on the results of a “SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth” study involving more than 27,000 youth, the incidence of Type 2 diabetes in children increased by 4.8% per year from 2002 to 2015 and is expected to continue increasing.
The agency did not comment on why researchers believe the rate of Type 2 diabetes in kids is expected to rise but noted:
“As of 2017, there were approximately 28,000 cases of Type 2 diabetes in children in the U.S.
“By 2060, if current trends continue, that number is predicted to be approximately 220,000, with the majority of cases occurring in minority racial and ethnic groups such as Non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics.”
Additionally, the FDA last year approved the first drug designed to delay the onset of Type 1 diabetes for children as young as 8 years old.
Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D., is a reporter and researcher for The Defender based in Fairfield, Iowa. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Texas at Austin (2021), and a master’s degree in communication and leadership from Gonzaga University (2015). Her scholarship has been published in Health Communication. She has taught at various academic institutions in the United States and is fluent in Spanish.
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
Trump’s 2024 lead widens after latest indictment
RT | June 25, 2023
Donald Trump’s lead over his nearest Republican opponent for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination has nearly doubled since the former US president was indicted on federal charges earlier this month, a new poll has shown.
The NBC News survey, released on Sunday, shows that Trump is the first choice for 51% of Republican primary voters, compared with 22% for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and 7% for former vice president Mike Pence. Trump’s 29-point lead over DeSantis compares with a 15-point margin when the same poll was done in April.
Pollsters began the latest survey on June 16, a week after the ex-president was charged with 37 felonies by a US Department of Justice (DOJ) special prosecutor over his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Trump has tried to turn the case to his political advantage, just as he did after a New York City prosecutor charged him in April for allegedly falsifying business records.
“Every time the radical-left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of courage,” Trump told supporters on Saturday at a Christian voter conference in Washington. “I’m being indicted for you, and I believe the ‘you’ is more than 200 million people that love our country.”
A Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released earlier this month showed that Trump leads incumbent President Joe Biden by a margin of 45% to 39% in a hypothetical 2024 rematch of their 2020 race. An Emerson College poll released on Thursday found that a third-party candidate, such as philosopher and activist Cornel West, would draw support away from Biden, giving Trump an advantage.
Results of the NBC News survey suggest that the federal indictment has made Trump even more politically polarizing. While 21% of respondents said they have a “very positive” view of him, up from 17% in April, 49% gave a “very negative” assessment, up from 44% previously.
Just 20% of US voters believe the nation is on the “right track” under Biden, down from 23% in January. At the same point in Trump’s presidency, the number was 33%. Just 18% of voters have a “very positive” view of Biden, down from 29% in the early days of his presidency, the poll showed.
The current and former vice presidents, Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, have even lower favorability ratings. Only 11% of voters have a “very positive” view of Harris, while Pence’s rate is even worse, at 3%. DeSantis went from a 19% “very positive” rate in September 2022 to 14% this month.
Voters also give low marks to the DOJ, with 14% rating the department very positively, down from 18% in the most recent reading before Trump’s indictment.
The US can’t stop the rise of Iran, but it can make a truce
By Timur Fomenko | RT | June 25, 2023
In 2018, the Donald Trump administration ripped up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the “Iran nuclear deal,” which had been signed by his predecessor Barack Obama.
The decision to scrap the deal was thoroughly influenced by neoconservative members of his cabinet, including National Security Advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who not only saw the opportunity to take a swipe at Trump’s predecessor, but argued that placing crippling unilateral sanctions on Tehran would bring the country to the negotiating table, and if not, bring the regime down altogether.
Thus began a five-year campaign of brutal pressure against Iran, which sought to destroy its economy and attempted to coerce third-party countries away from doing business with it. But the initiative didn’t go according to plan. Rather, the world changed. The flagrant disregard of international law by Washington was a catalyst in the emergence of de-dollarization. The global shake-ups that came next, including the Covid-19 pandemic, US competition with China, and the war in Ukraine, gave Tehran strategic space and leverage it had previously lacked.
Now, Iran has substantially increased its uranium enrichment, has continued to build its drone and missile capabilities, has an enhanced military relationship with Russia, and thanks to Beijing, has been able to normalize its relationship with its regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia. In the process of doing so, it has reduced the regional influence of the US and its partner, Israel. US foreign policy on Iran has revolved around exploiting regional tensions in order to justify its own security footprint, but Iran has seemingly been able to begin to supersede a campaign of US containment against it while not being overtly belligerent.
This has set alarm bells off in Washington. The US has been desperate to try and reinforce its relationship with Saudi Arabia, but has reportedly been engaging in secret negotiations with Tehran not to revive the JCPOA, but to keep it away from further uranium enrichment and off the nuclear path, a move which of course will have to come with sanctions relief. While the US, presumably with the support of Israel, has threatened unspecified military action if Tehran goes further, it seems clear that Iran now has all of the cards and that a temporary “truce” must therefore come at the expense of the US containment campaign.
Because of the regional dynamic shifting in its favor, Tehran is highly unlikely to actually go down the path to developing a full-fledged nuclear bomb, given the opportunities it would provide to Washington. Unlike a country like North Korea, Iran doesn’t truly need nukes in order to establish a doctrine of deterrence for its own regime’s survival. It is a large country with a population of over 80 million. While the United States could hypothetically conduct air or missile strikes on key Iranian facilities to try and impede its nuclear program, what the US could not do, especially in this environment, is a full-scale invasion and occupation of the country. It would cost trillions of dollars, and there would be no support for it.
Rather, Iran’s deterrence ability is premised on its drone and missile programs, which have grown in their capabilities over the years despite US sanctions. The country recently claimed to have developed hypersonic missiles, which while some skepticism is warranted, is not completely fictional. Tehran has, after all, in response to the assassination of Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Qasem Soleimani, shown its ability to destroy US military bases within its range, and therefore demonstrate what it could do to Israel if things turned nasty. In doing so, it is demonstrating that regardless of US sanctions, it is a significant regional player, and will continue to be.
US foreign policy towards adversaries has repeatedly attempted to seek maximum strategic gain, eschewing the idea of compromise, be it China or Russia. But when it comes to Iran, Washington is stumped on what to do without taking the risk of provoking a wider conflict. This is why the Biden administration is leaning towards giving in, knowing that the regional dynamic of the Middle East is shifting away from its favor, and taking punitive action which may provoke war is unwelcome. In other words, Iran is winning. The only question which remains is whether or not the US wants a truce or to keep pressuring Tehran until it snaps? Even if the outcome ends in a sheer stalemate, with no nuclear lines crossed, it’s still a lose-lose situation for Washington in the end as Iran re-establishes itself diplomatically.
DC Scholars: Ukraine Conflict Shows World Has Grown Weary of US Hegemony
By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 24.06.2023
Despite having the largest military budget in the world and being the largest operator of military bases abroad, the US is far from being a global hegemon, argues a DC-based think tank Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
Over the past decades Washington has demonstrated a capacity for mass destruction – in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere – but “it has won no more than Pyrrhic victories” which led to the erosion of trust in Pax Americana both at home and abroad, according to Responsible Statecraft scholars.
The US military spending reached $876.9 billion in 2022, while the nation also operates a whopping 750 foreign military bases. Still, Washington is incapable of persuading the Global South to join anti-Russia sanctions over the latter’s special military operation in Ukraine, the think tank remarks. “If hegemony means the capacity to get other countries to comply with one’s demands, the United States is far from being a global hegemon,” the report notes.
Judging from the so-called Pentagon leak, even some US allies and partners demonstrated hesitance and unwillingness to provide the Kiev regime with shells, jets and armored vehicles. Meanwhile, most nations of the Global South shrugged off the US calls for slapping sanctions on Moscow as contradicting their national interests.
US political observers emphasize that six nations in the Global South – namely, India, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa – are set to decide the future of geopolitics and insist that the Biden administration needs to win their hearts and minds. At the same time, European commentators argue that developing nations have the right to remain neutral and non-aligned.
For instance, in June 2022, India’s External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar shredded the West’s claim that New Delhi was “sitting on the fence.” According to the minister, India is entitled to its opinion when it comes to the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.
Likewise, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has chosen to collaborate with both the US and China, instead of taking sides. Moreover, ASEAN nations are active participants of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) regardless of Washington’s attempts to maintain its dominance in the region and curb China’s influence in the Asia Pacific.
Per DC scholars, the emerging trend was articulated by Brookings Institution fellow Fiona Hill, former Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States, in May 2023:
“The war in Ukraine is perhaps the event that makes the passing of Pax Americana apparent to everyone. … [Other countries] want to decide, not be told what’s in their interest. In short, in 2023, we hear a resounding no to US domination and see a marked appetite for a world without a hegemon,” she said at a conference in Tallinn, Estonia
According to Hill, the Global South’s resistance to the US and the EU’s demands to slap sanctions on Moscow is nothing short of “an open rebellion.” She noted that “this is a mutiny against what they see as the collective West dominating the international discourse and foisting its problems on everyone else, while brushing aside their priorities on climate change compensation, economic development, and debt relief.”
Western observers also acknowledge that the world’s center of gravity is steadily shifting east, adding that the Biden administration has so far sought to avert this trend by trying to establish “a lasting technological lead over China” and beefing up the US military in Western Pacific.
However, “most developing countries, including emerging powers in the Global South, are no longer willing to make zero-sum choices” between Washington and its geopolitical rivals, DC scholars underscore, urging American policymakers to accept the reality that the US is no longer “the indispensable nation.”

