Sunday, February 28, 2021

The Digital Euro And Dangers Lurking


The Dangers Lurking Behind A Digital Euro



Neosocialist China does it, Sweden does it, and many other states want to do it, too: to issue digitized central bank money for everyone. The European Central Bank (ECB) is also working on such a scheme. It wants to launch “digital euro central bank money” as soon as possible. Many economists praise the project as an “innovation,” as an important and indispensable step in an increasingly digitized world.


The ECB is also keen to make its intentions known, declaring that a digital euro will be accessible for everyone, robust, secure, efficient, and compliant with applicable law. However, it should be clear that the path to becoming a surveillance state regime will accelerate considerably if and when a digital euro is issued. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

A digital euro is not “better money” than the euro that is already in circulation today. The planned digital euro is fiat money, just as much as euro cash and euro bank balances represent fiat money: they are all created “out of nothing” by the ECB, which has the monopoly of euro production. Just as is the case with the existing euro, the quantity of digital euros can be increased at any time, it is backed by nothing, and the digital euro carries a 100 percent risk of devaluation. As noted earlier, a digital euro would be a fiat euro.


The digital euro can either be “account based”—you keep it in an account held with the ECB—or it can be “token based”—money users receive a “token” that can be transferred from smartphone to smartphone via an app. Hoping for “anonymity” in payment transactions would be futile in both cases, one has to fear.


A look at China probably shows where the journey is headed: the Chinese digital central bank money is supposed to have a “controlled anonymity.” In other words, “only” the People’s Bank of China—that is, the Chinese Communist Party—should have access to the payment transaction data.


The ECB says the digital euro is a “complement” to cash and bank balances. But that’s not convincing. Because those who pay in cash obviously find it convenient and want to ensure their anonymity. Otherwise, they would pay electronically, i.e., transfer balances through PayPal, Apple Pay, or debit or credit cards.

In this context, it should be noted that people don’t just hold cash for payment purposes. They also demand it to protect themselves against bank failures, for example, or they also hold cash to be liquid even in the event of power outages, to be independent of online banking.

That said, the suspicion that the ECB is more interested in taking cash out of circulation cannot be refuted easily. But if only electronic payments are possible, what little remains of “financial privacy” will be gone. The citizen becomes completely transparent, much to the liking of the state and its beneficiaries.



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Israeli Missile Attacks Targeted Damascus Area


Syria reports Israeli missile attack near capital, Damascus

Associated Press


Syrian air defenses were activated in the capital Damascus and its southern suburbs Sunday night to repel an Israeli missile attack, state media reported. State TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that most of the Israeli missiles, which originated from the Golan Heights, were shot down before reaching their targets near Damascus.




תקיפה תועדה בשמי דמשק בסוריה
Explosions over Damascus
An Israeli military spokesman declined comment when asked about the report. There was no word on casualties.
In a briefing to supporters of his party on Friday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel was taking action "almost weekly" to prevent Iranian entrenchment in Syria.
Regional intelligence sources say Iran's Quds Force and militias it backs whose presence has spread in Syria in recent years have a strong presence in a string of underground bases in the southern outskirts of Damascus.
תקיפה תועדה בשמי דמשק בסוריה
Explosions over Damascus
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes against Iran-linked military targets in Syria over the years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.


The attack comes after the United States launched airstrikes in Syria on Thursday, targeting facilities near the Iraqi border used by Iranian-backed militia groups.
The Pentagon said the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and other coalition troops.

Israel Hits Iranian Targets In Syria After Blaming Iran For Ship Blast


Israel said to hit Iranian targets in Syria after Tehran blamed for ship blast




Syrian state media claims air defenses shot down several missiles; Hebrew media outlets indicate raid a retaliation for explosion that hit Israeli-owned vessel in Gulf of Oman.

Syrian state media reported Sunday that air defense systems were activated around Damascus due to an Israeli attack. A report carried on the official SANA news agency claimed the Syrian military intercepted several Israeli missiles.

There was no comment on the reported strikes from the Israel Defense Forces, which rarely acknowledges specific attacks.

Israel’s Kan News, Channel 13 News and Ma’ariv newspaper all described the strikes as targeting Iranian sites, and characterized them as a response to a blast last week that hit an Israeli-owned ship in the Gulf of Oman, which Israeli officials have said was likely carried out by Iran.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor which has had its credibility questioned in the past, said the strike hit the area of Sayyida Zeinab south of Damascus, where the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah are present.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Saturday he believed Iran was behind the explosion Thursday. On Sunday IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi called the explosion that hit the Helios Ray a “reminder” from Iran.

“This is the place to reiterate that the IDF acts and will act against the threats that endanger [Israel], near and far,” he said during a ceremony.

Israel has launched hundreds to thousands of raids in the country since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, most of which were directed against Iran and its proxies. The last attack in Syria attributed to the Jewish state was on February 15.

The latest reported strike also came after the US military launched strikes Thursday on Iranian-backed militia groups in Syria, in retaliation for a recent rocket attack in Iraq that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a US service member and other coalition troops.

Israel Weighs Retaliation Against Iran For Iranian Rocket Attack On Freighter


Israel weighs reprisal for Iranian rocket attack on freighter in context of US & Gulf ties

Depka



Before retaliating for the Iranian rocket attack on the MV Helios Ray automobile carrier in the Gulf of Oman on Friday, Feb. 26, Israel is bound to consider the incident’s wider ramifications.


Defense Minister Benny Gantz said it was his “initial assessment” that Iran was responsible. 


“The location of the ship in relatively close proximity to Iran indicates this,” he said, before two Israeli investigators set out for Dubai on Saturday to join the international investigation into the incident

Confirmation of his allegation came on Sunday from Kayhan, a hawkish Iranian publication, which stated that “the attack on the Israeli ship was legitimate.”



Our sources report that the waters in the area are rife with Iranian Revolutionary Guards missile boats and they most likely fired the rockets at the Israeli cargo ship while it was en route from Saudi Arabia to Singapore. The blasts left holes above the waterline on both sides of the hull. (See attached picture.) There were no casualties.



Israeli government and army chiefs maintain that this attack cannot go without response, but they understand that serious consideration is called for since hitting back at Iran may generate accelerated Iranian counterattacks that may also draw in its proxies and allies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Gaza Strip. A wider confrontation may ensue with repercussions that would be hard to control.




Before punishing Iran for its rocket attack on its ship, Israel needs therefore to look at a wider context:


  1. Can the incident be used for a direct attack on an Iranian nuclear target – even though such action may scupper the Biden diplomatic initiative?
  2. Should Israel line up behind the Saudis and confront Iran together?
  3. Or should Jerusalem react cautiously enough to abstain from upsetting Biden’s Iran applecart?
  4. Is it possible for an Israeli strike against Iran to hold the Saudis back from striking out with their own overture to Iran in reaction to Biden’s policy reset? Such an approach by Riyadh may well be followed by fellow Gulf rulers. The anti-Iran Saudi-UAE-Bahrain-Israel front set up by the Trump administration would finally break up.



EU Leaders Determine That A 'Digital Vaccination Certificate' Must Be Ready By Summer


Leaders From The European Union Have Decided This Week That A Digital Vaccination Certificate Must Be Ready For Roll-Out By This Summer





Well, we told you it was coming and here it is, the European Union decided today that of EU citizens needs a digital vaccination certificate, which means of course that all EU citizens must receive a vaccine. Not only that, they decided that the digital vaccination certificate will be rolled out by this summer. Breathtaking how fast it’s all happening, isn’t it?

By now you’ve hopefully figured out that regardless what the COVID does or does not become, how much longer it does or does not linger, the measures put into place around it are permanent.

Under the guise of fighting AIDSbird fluswine fluWest Nile VirusEbolaInfluenzaracism, COVID-19, the New World Order has finally found their “winner, winner, chicken dinner” to institute measures to control the entire world. The kingdom of Antichrist is indeed rising, you are watching it happen.

Germany started WWII in 1939 that killed 55 million people including 6 million Jews, and here in 2021 Germany is the confirmed leader of the 27-member European Union that is getting ready to wage a very different type of war. If you have a King James Bible and you believe what you read when you open it up, you know exactly what’s coming next. I sure do.

From DW.com: One of the more contentious issues EU leaders tackled was that of digital vaccine passports for those who have been vaccinated.


Southern EU states such as Greece, Spain and Italy — all heavily or entirely dependent on tourism — believe such a scheme could ease air travel, helping them avoid a repeat of last year’s disastrous summer holiday season. Northern neighbors have been reluctant to buy in amid concerns about discrimination and whether people who have been vaccinated can still carry the virus

In the evening press conference, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there was consensus on having the certificates, but not precisely how they should be used

Everyone agreed that we need a digital vaccination certificate,” the German chancellor said. She added that the certificates could be available by summer, as the bloc needs three months to create a technical framework.

She stressed, however, that the creation of the certificates “does not mean that only those who have a vaccination passport are allowed to travel.”

Von der Leyen cited Israel’s work tracking and documenting a person’s vaccination history on so-called Green Passes while stressing the importance of maintaining the functionality of the European single market.


Though there is no unanimity as yet about what kind of card or cards might be used and recognized across the bloc, von der Leyen spoke of a minimum data system and said the European Commission was working to create a “gateway for interoperability between nations.”

Von der Leyen said member states would “have to act fast” if the program was to be implemented by summer. Belgian Member of European Parliament (MEP) Marc Botenga told DW that granting freedom of movement rights based on health status could be a “slippery slope” for the bloc.

“It’s even more questionable as long as people don’t have access to the vaccine,” he said. “Let’s guarantee, first, that people get the vaccine, and then we can debate on what kind of stamps or cards or whatever we want.”




Derrick Broze


As the European Union announces they are preparing to implement “vaccine certificates,” the largest airline association is also preparing to roll out their version of the controversial Immunity Passports.

On Thursday, the European Union’s 27 political leaders held a 5-hour virtual call to discuss the future of reopening travel across the continent. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters the leaders have “agreed that we need vaccine certificates.” Merkel also sought to quell fears about the use of such certificates, stating, “it will certainly be good to have such a certificate but that will not mean that only those who have such a passport will be able to travel; about that, no political decisions have been made yet.”

The discussion around immunity passports has grown in recent months, with the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, and Spain all considering some method of verifying whether an individual has been vaccinated or achieved immunity from COVID-19. UK officials have also discussed the potential for the use of a digital verification tool for domestic travel. In the United States, plans for immunity passports are also being developed. On January 21, Joe Biden outlined a 200-page national coronavirus pandemic strategy which included a call for the U.S. government to “assess the feasibility of linking COVID-19 vaccination to International Certificates of Vaccination.” 








The Coming Reset And Who Pulls The Levers Of Control?


Who Pulls the Levers of Control?




“To argue that the Silicon Valley companies do not want to censor but are being pressured by the legacy corporate media does not make sense,” Curtin says, because:

“These companies are deeply connected to U.S. intelligence agencies, as are the NY Times, CNN, NBC, etc. They too are part of what was once called Operation Mockingbird, the CIA’s program to control, use, and infiltrate the media. Only the most naïve would think that such a program does not exist today.”

Indeed, many suspect Facebook is the public-friendly version of DARPA’s Lifelog, a database project aimed at tracking the minutiae of people’s entire existence for national security surveillance purposes.7 The Pentagon pulled the plug on Lifelog February 4, 2004, in response to backlash over privacy concerns.8 Yet that same day, Facebook was launched.9 Coincidence?

Whether by fluke or pre-inception collaboration, there can be no doubt that Facebook now fulfills the Lifelog purpose of surveilling, tracking and data mining its users both on- and offline.

Similarly, Google, Amazon, Twitter and other major tech companies are also tied to the “military-industrial-intelligence-media complex,” to quote Curtin’s term. All provide invaluable surveillance and censorship functions, and without them, the totalitarian control system we now find ourselves caught in wouldn’t be possible.

“The truth is the Internet was a military and intelligence tool from the very beginning and it is not the traditional corporate media that gives [tech companies] its marching orders,”Curtin writes.10

“That being so, it is not the owners of the corporate media or their employees who are the ultimate controllers behind the current vast crackdown on dissent, but the intelligence agencies who control the mainstream media and the Silicon Valley monopolies …

All these media companies are but the outer layer of the onion, the means by which messages are sent and people controlled. But for whom do these intelligence agencies work? Not for themselves.

They work for their overlords, the super wealthy people, the banks, financial institutions, and corporations that own the United States and always have.

In a simple twist of fate, such super wealthy naturally own the media corporations that are essential to their control of the majority of the world’s wealth through the stories they tell. It is a symbiotic relationship.”

Operation Mockingbird: The Great Reset

What Curtin is talking about is the same elite 0.001% of the global population I’ve written about before in articles such as “Oneness Versus the 1%,” “What You Need to Know About the Great Reset,” “The Global Takeover Is Underway,” “The Plan for a Global System of Slavery,” “The Pressing Dangers of Technocracy,” “Technocracy and the Great Reset” and many others.

While the specific identities of the individual string-pullers are difficult to discern, what’s clear is that there is an international “deep state” whose plans are implemented in a coordinated fashion around the world, seemingly at a moment’s notice, as we saw when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

Within days, all the world’s leaders sang the same tune. The same message was stated in dozens of languages, often verbatim, as if they were reading the same cue card. Looking at global nongovernmental agencies makes it easier to ascertain who these cue card writers might be, as they form a vast, intertwined web that keep circling back to each other.

We can discern, then, that the core of this technocratic power structure includes entities such as the Trilateral Commission, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, the Bilderberg Group, the Club of Rome, the Aspen Institute, the Atlantic Institute, the Brookings Institute and other think-tanks, just to name some of the most obvious.

Members of these exclusive “clubs,” many of which are by invitation only, include leaders from major industries, corporate media, political offices and the military-industrial complex. 

As noted by Curtin, “They are the international overlords who are pushing hard to move the world toward a global dictatorship.” The CIA, as you might suspect by now, has also been part of this “deep state cabal” from the very beginning.

And, if the CIA and corporate media are two sides of the same coin, we can deduce that the global psyop currently underway has the purpose of ensuring the successful implementation of the Great Reset and the Fourth Industrial Revolution — two terms that describe different aspects of the same agenda of enslavement.

While it may seem unrelated to some, the vaccine agenda does play an important part in this scheme, especially long term, which is why anti-vaccine voices are now being slapped down at a furious pace. It’s not the sole reason for their silencing, however.




 

The WEF Shows Its True Colors, Globalist Tony Blair Reemerges


Great Reset: World Economic Forum Hails ‘Quieter’ Cities as Businesses Collapse During Lockdown



The World Economic Forum (WEF) faced a barrage of criticism before deleting a social media video which praised coronavirus lockdowns for “quietly improving cities around the world”.

In the video, the WEF said that as a result of people using less public transport and factories closing down during the lockdown, noise and air pollution fell in cities throughout the world. The video also celebrated the ability of scientists to discover earthquakes due to the low level of seismic noise on the planet as populations were locked in their homes.


The WEF, which the primary body pushing Klaus Schwab’s idea of a so-called ‘Great Reset’ of the global economic order, was widely ridiculed for the post, including by former Brexit Party MEP turned political commentator Martin Daubney, who was among the first to flag the video before it was taken down. Daubney later reposted the video, further exposing the WEF to criticism.

Speaking to Breitbart London, Mr Daubney said: “I’m glad they tweeted this — because it has exposed them for the out of touch crackpots that they are. The WEF sees humanity as a blight, something to be controlled and imprisoned, in order to meet arbitrary climate change targets.

“There’s just one problem, the public won’t play along with their Great Reset nonsense. All of the things the WEF want to stop: work, travel, capitalism, are the things the vast majority of humanity lives for. The WEF have exposed themselves as ridiculously out of touch with the everyday man and woman. Sheltered in their ivory towers, they treat the rest of us with absolute seething contempt.”

Mr Daubney went on to say that the WEF should be kept well away from being able to “pull the levers of power in any country around the world.”

“The WEF would rather we were imprisoned and carbon-neutral, and that is a grisly future that no sane human should want any part of,” he added.


Following the social media backlash, the World Economic Forum deleted the video from their account, and attempted to walk back the sentiments expressed in the slickly-produced film, writing: “We’re deleting this tweet. Lockdowns aren’t ‘quietly improving cities’ around the world. But they are an important part of the public health response to COVID-19.”


Commenting on the WEF deleting the video, Mr Daubney said that the fact that the Davos-based NGO didn’t see the backlash coming “proves how divorced from reality they are. They have no understanding of the everyday workings of the general public,” who he said “just want to work, prosper and enjoy life.”


“This moment has been a rude awakening for the WEF, having, at last, popped its head out of its echo chamber. Yesterday they were telling us to have our COVID-passports ready before we leave our bunkers. Now they are telling us we had better not pollute once we leave!”.

Brexit’s Daubney also noted how Schwab wasn’t the only dubious character given a shot in the arm by the pandemic. The reemergence of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the pandemic has seen his globalist charity, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, partnering with the WEF to develop an international vaccine passport.


“Tony Blair has gone from being a war criminal to pulling the strings behind the UK’s COVID passport rollout. He’s absolutely in bed with the WEF and we are increasingly seeing them as a cabal of out of touch millionaires who have literally no idea how ordinary people think and live,” Daubney said.


The World Economic Forum has long expressed its intentions to dismantle the modern capitalist system, arguing for the adoption of more socialist-style policies such as wealth taxes, onerous regulations on businesses, and taxpayer-subsidised Green New Deal-style projects.


In a 2016 video, the WEF predicted a ‘happy’ future in which individuals no longer owned property.

“Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome to my city – or should I say, ‘our city’. I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes,” the WEF projected.


In June of last year, Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum said that the Chinese coronavirus was an opportunity for global governments to introduce a “Great Reset of capitalism“, saying that the “world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies.”


CDC: Asymptomatic And Presymptomatic Transmission Of Covid Almost Nonexistent. Herd Immunity Here


These 7 States Are On The Verge Of Herd Immunity

TYLER DURDEN




Nothing seems to scare the establishment more than a return to 'normal'. And by 'normal', we mean a return to an environment outside of the tyrannical control of career politicians and bureaucrats who have got a taste for this 'being king' stuff and know that anyone who questions their edicts will be 'canceled' by their Covidian cultists.

So, a week after Johns Hopkins surgeon, Dr. Marty Makary, penned an Op-ed in the WSJ saying that we will have herd immunity by April... and was instantly disavowed as 'dangerous', some awkward 'facts' and 'science' have been dropped by none other than FundStrat's Tom Lee.


So far, South Dakota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Arizona, Oklahoma, Utah, and Tennessee are the nearest.

Lee's "math" appears to fit with Makary's arguments for why the recent plunge in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths is not policy-related (no matter how much the politicians and their media lackeys push that narrative):

 "...the consistent and rapid decline in daily cases since Jan. 8 can be explained only by natural immunity. Behavior didn’t suddenly improve over the holidays; Americans traveled more over Christmas than they had since March. Vaccines also don’t explain the steep decline in January. Vaccination rates were low and they take weeks to kick in."


"Experts should level with the public about the good news..." exclaims Makary, and this data on imminent herd immunity puts more pressure on Fauci and Biden to come clean... despite their variant-fearmongering and "no return to normal until Christmas or beyond" predictions.

But of course, this reality may never be allowed in the national narrative, as Makary previously concluded:

"Some medical experts privately agreed with my prediction that there may be very little Covid-19 by April but suggested that I not to talk publicly about herd immunity because people might become complacent and fail to take precautions or might decline the vaccine. But scientists shouldn’t try to manipulate the public by hiding the truth. As we encourage everyone to get a vaccine, we also need to reopen schools and society to limit the damage of closures and prolonged isolation. Contingency planning for an open economy by April can deliver hope to those in despair and to those who have made large personal sacrifices."

But, but, the science!?






TYLER DURDEN






On Friday, Biden's new CDC Director, Rochelle Walensky, issued a 'sobering warning' over new COVID-19 variants - in particular the B.1.1.7 strain first found int he UK, and which now accounts for an estimated 10% of current US cases. Additionally, variants in California and New York also appear to spread more easily, according to Bloomberg.

"Things are tenuous -- now is not the time to relax restrictions," said Walensky, adding "The latest data suggest that these declines may be stalling, potentially leveling off at still a very high number. We at the CDC consider this a very concerning shift in the trajectory."


Walensky's warning was simultaneously parroted by Anthony Fauci - head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases - saying that people shouldn't become complacent, and that we may be wearing masks into 2022.


The renewed 'concern' comes as both COVID cases and deaths are falling precipitously.


And now for the chaser; The CDC just admitted in its own report that asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission within households - a key justification for lockdowns - turns out to be virtually nonexistent. Household transmission is the primary mode of infection for COVID-19.


The most significant portion of the analysis finds that while asymptomatic and presymptomatic cases account for just 0.7% of transmission, symptomatic cases had an 18% attack rate within the household. In other words, most people who contract COVID-19 at home were infected by someone who was visibly ill.






U.S. Troops On High Alert In Iraq


US Troops Put on High Alert After Syria Airstrikes Invite Retaliation




In the aftermath of what has been denounced as “foolish military adventurism,” American forces in Iraq are now on high alert.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky denounced the strike.
“@POTUS dragging the US into Syria’s civil war is a huge mistake. I strongly condemn this foolish military adventurism,” he tweeted.

U.S. contractors at Balad Air Base have been put on high alert amid fears that Biden’s limit airstrike that used seven 500-lb. laser-guided bombs will draw further retaliation, Fox News reported, citing as its source “two sources familiar with the move.”

The high alert is likely to last for several days.

“Protection of coalition troops is the #1 priority, so taking force protection levels higher is wise and prudent,” Fox quoted a source as telling it.

The protection measures at Balad Air Base, where contractors employed by Sallyport Global are based, include wearing protective gear outside of hardened buildings, Fox quoted a source as telling it.

Balad Air Base has also limited movement on the base between 6:30 pm and 5 a.m. to only movement essential to missions.