Dr. St. Onge has an important article on his substack, explaining how the US is becoming a financial basketcase banana republic. The following is a summary. Read the entire article here. After the 2008 Financial Crisis, Simon Johnson, the former chief economist of the IMF, warned that the same dysfunctional policies he saw in his […] The post The Financial Takedown of the US Republic appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

With just 34 days until the election, Vice President Kamala Harris is pulling out all the stops. She’s going to the border. She’s busting out previously-unheard accents. And she’s telling voters that former President Donald Trump is coming for their booze. Earlier this month, the Harris campaign launched “Trump’s Tequila Tax,” a social media push aimed at convincing voters that Trump’s tariff proposals would cause imported alcohol prices to skyrocket. “He wants to tax your tequila, and your Coronas, your Modelos, your Hennessy, all of it,” a campaign surrogate says in a TikTok. Have you heard of the Trump Tequila Tax? Trump wants a 20% tax on all imported goods. That includes your tequila, Modelos, and Coronas. pic.twitter.com/GjsZcRkp7q — Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 27, 2024 If one wanted to engage in a little armchair psychology, one might say that Harris is projecting. Because if she wins the White House in November, there might not be any tequila to tax in the United States. Under Harris and President Joe Biden, an obscure bureaucratic committee has been drafting new guidance, which, if adopted, would recommend that Americans never drink — at all. While these guidelines would not ban alcohol outright, they could, as Reason reports, lead to a wave of bad press and a slew of class action lawsuits against alcohol companies. Together, that could cripple an already-faltering alcohol industry. This is hardly the first instance of the Biden-Harris administration attempting to meddle in Americans’ lives in the name of “public health.” Biden proposed banning menthol cigarettes early in his term, only to reverse course earlier this year when it became clear the ban would make then-candidate Biden unpopular among black voters. And the White House has come under fire for its attempt to ban gas stoves in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But unlike the Biden-Harris administration’s attempts to ban gas stoves and menthol cigarettes — both of which received ample media coverage and public scrutiny — the effort to change alcohol guidelines has taken place behind closed doors. Federal dietary guidelines are updated every five years by the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. For the current revision, HHS has kicked the alcohol question to something called the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD). The committee is, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a “secretive, six-person panel” that “operates deep within” HHS, far from the public eye. Currently, the federal government defines “moderate drinking” as two daily drinks or less for men, and one for women. But sources close to the ICCPUD say the committee is close to adopting the World Health Organization’s 2023 declaration: “No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health.” It may seem strange that an American agency would so wholeheartedly embrace the WHO’s position, particularly since it’s at odds with longstanding federal recommendations. But it’s less shocking when you consider that three members of the six-person committee are literally Canadian — like, they live in Canada. It’s even less shocking when you realize that those three Canadian panelists were instrumental in imposing similar guidance at home, slashing Canadians’ recommended weekly drink intake in 2013 from 15 for men and 10 for women to two across the board. That recommendation was so controversial it came under fire in Canada, a country where shady, unelected bureaucrats already govern what kind of drugs patients can take, and whether or not someone is eligible for elective euthanasia. Imagine how it’ll play in the United States, a country that almost started a whole second Revolutionary War two years after the first one ended because the government tried to tax whiskey. In fact, the ICCPUD maneuverings are already so unpopular that they’ve spurred waves of bipartisan opposition. In April, Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Lisa McClain (R-MI) wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra expressing concern that the Dietary Guidelines revision may be violating federal law. By September 5, Becerra had not responded to Comer and McClain’s request for information, prompting the lawmakers to send a follow-up letter. In the intervening months, two separate bipartisan groups of lawmakers wrote to Becerra, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and NIH Director George F. Koob, to express concern about the opacity and legality of the revision process and request further clarification on what the ICCPUD would decide and when. Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! So far, they haven’t heard back. It’s unclear if Harris will allow the committee to impose its new guidelines should she win the White House — but signs indicate that she will. She was presumably on board with her administration’s plans to ban menthols and gas stoves, and has previously endorsed remaking the American healthcare system to look more like Canada’s. She certainly won’t face any pushback from Tim Walz, who imposed a 95% tax on Zyn nicotine pouches as Governor of Minnesota. Nothing goes better with no drinks like unaffordable nicotine. It’s ironic that Harris, who has made so much hay about Trump’s “secret” plan to remake the federal bureaucracy, is currently overseeing a behind-closed-doors push to completely upend American dietary guidelines. Of course, unlike Project 2025, the ICCPUD’s proceedings are not public, nor the subject of any headlines. And, unlike Trump, Harris has not disavowed, nor even acknowledged, this effort to stop Americans from enjoying the occasional drink. That’s about as ironic as her saying Trump’s coming for your tequila.

As Sean “Diddy” Combs remains behind bars awaiting federal trial, a Houston lawyer has announced he will be filing lawsuits against the recording artist on behalf of more than 120 plaintiffs, including at least 25 minors. Attorney Tony Buzbee said that his law firm, along with California firm AVA Law Group, will be filing the cases individually rather than as part of a class action suit. “We will expose the enablers who enabled this conduct behind closed doors,” Buzbee said during the news conference, per Billboard. “We will pursue this matter no matter who the evidence implicates.” Buzbee said the alleged incidents occurred between 1991 and 2024. The lawyer’s office was contacted by more than 3,000 individuals and the number of filings could increase as vetting continues. He said he would begin filing lawsuits in multiple states over the next 30 days. In addition to these new suits, at least 12 individuals have filed civil lawsuits against Combs over the last year. Federal prosecutors previously stated that there are “dozens of victims” who are referenced in the racketeering and sex trafficking case against Combs.  Buzbee alleged that in one case, a 9-year-old boy was sexually abused after he auditioned at the Bad Boy Records Studio in New York City, per People. “Other boys were there to audition as well,” the lawyer stated. “All of them were trying to land a record deal. All of them were minors. This individual [the 9-year-old] was sexually abused, allegedly by Sean Combs and several other people at the studio with the promise to both his parents and himself of getting a record deal.” The lawsuits are close to evenly split between male and female plaintiffs. Alleged victims claimed they were abused at all different types of Diddy’s parties, including album release events, New Year’s Eve, “all white parties,” “puppy parties,” and at auditions in Los Angeles, Miami, Manhattan, and the Hamptons. Combs’s attorney Erica Wolff denied the allegations, saying, “As Mr. Combs’ legal team has emphasized, he cannot address every meritless allegation in what has become a reckless media circus. That said, Mr. Combs emphatically and categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors. He looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court, where the truth will be established based on evidence, not speculation.” Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! The 54-year-old rap artist was arrested in September. Federal authorities allege Combs had “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others, and led a racketeering conspiracy that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice, among other crimes,” per a U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York press release.  Prosecutors also said Combs “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals. This abuse was, at times, verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual,” as The Daily Wire previously reported. The filing also made mention of sex parties referred to as “freak offs.”  The rapper allegedly used “force, threats of force, and coercion, to cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers” during the events, prosecutors said. “In arranging these Freak Offs, COMBS, with the assistance of members and associates of the Combs Enterprise, transported, and caused to be transported, commercial sex workers across state lines and internationally.” Combs pleaded not guilty to federal charges and has been denied bail twice.

In what could be a disaster for Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the White House, working-class voters in deep-blue Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are starting to shift toward Republicans, particularly Donald Trump. Speaking to Gabriel Lopez in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Inquirer learned that, while Lopez grew up a Democrat and voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, he will now be voting for Trump. “Democrats keep saying [Trump] is going to bring down the economy, but he was already president for four years, and taxes were lower,” Lopez told the outlet. “We’re tired of the same politics. We got a different type of guy, and the people actually love him.” Lopez went on to tell the outlet that Democrats haven’t kept their promises to improve his life or the lives of those in his community, who have seen rising prices over the past few years. “Lopez embodies one of Democrats’ biggest problems in Pennsylvania: working-class voters in Philadelphia, a once reliable voting bloc for the party, have drifted right in recent years. And they’ve been disproportionately affected by rising prices over the last several years, an issue many blame Democrats for,” the Inquirer reported. “It’s one of the biggest potential areas of concern for Harris, whose quest for the White House may hinge on Pennsylvania, where President Joe Biden four years ago defeated Trump by just 80,000 votes.” Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 while losing Philadelphia to Clinton. In that election, Trump received just 15% of the vote in Philadelphia, while Clinton grabbed 82%. The swing toward Trump began in 2020, when he won 18% of the vote in Philadelphia compared to Biden’s 81%, NBC 10 reported at the time. Trump ultimately lost Pennsylvania to Biden that year. The shift toward Trump was largest in working-class communities, the Inquirer reported. In 2020, Democrats lost voters in neighborhoods with high numbers of people who didn’t go to college and where poverty was also worst, the Inquirer found. Harris needs to bring in big numbers of voters in Philadelphia if she hopes to win Pennsylvania, as large, Democrat-run cities vote for Democrats while every other area of the state tends to vote Republican. A full 20% of Pennsylvania’s Democrats live in Philadelphia, meaning Harris will have to pull in as many of them as possible. But she faces the struggles that have been in the making since 2016. In 2020, Biden performed worse than Clinton did in 2016 in 41 of Philadelphia’s 66 political wards. He barely won the state, but if those trends continue – especially if those working-class voters turn to Trump — Harris could be in for a rude awakening on election night.

For weeks, Democrats have been walking a fine line with regard to their assessment of the office of the vice president — specifically, whether that position is of the utmost importance or virtually inconsequential. Then-Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) was hailed as a very important pick for President Joe Biden in 2020, mainly due to concerns about his age even then. But when Biden abruptly exited the 2024 presidential race in late July — by all accounts, a move that he did not make of his own volition — they were busy scrambling to pump up Vice President Kamala Harris’ resume, and they leaned into her experience working alongside Biden and often being the “last person in the room” when the major policy decisions were made. But within a few weeks, when they realized just how unpopular a lot of Biden’s policies were, they switched footing and attempted to put as much distance as possible between her and the administration of which she had been a vital and vocal part — at least, until it was politically damaging. When Harris selected Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) as her running mate, Democrats pivoted once again to tout him as a major addition to the party’s 2024 ticket. But then he debated his Republican opponent, Senator JD Vance (R-OH). Before the vice presidential debate — which aired on Tuesday evening on CBS — was even over, Democrats were doing their best to spin what they must have believed was a near-disaster of a performance from their candidate. Once again, the role of the vice president was relegated to negligible at best as Democrats on X attempted to dismiss Walz’s obvious lack of command — over any major policy — from the debate stage. Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! “I actually think most Americans fundamentally understand that the VP is not the President,” former Missouri Senator and MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill posted. I actually think most Americans fundamentally understand that the VP is not the President. — Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) October 2, 2024 “Here’s the thing,” David Axelrod, a former Barack Obama advisor, added. “VPs don’t make policy. Presidents do. Who talks about the Pence years?!?” Here's the thing:VPs don't make policy. Presidents do.Who talks about the Pence years?!? — David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) October 2, 2024 But what Axelrod left out is the fact that because of the almost evenly-divided Senate, some of President Joe Biden’s policies never would have seen the light of day without the direct actions of his sitting vice president, Kamala Harris. Harris directly impacted the economy, for example, when she cast the deciding vote in the U.S. Senate on the wildly misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, sending the U.S. economy spiraling into skyrocketing inflation rates that shattered decades-old record highs. The sitting VP also cast tie-breaking votes on 32 other measures — the most of any vice president in history.

Have you ever wondered: Where was Jesus in the Old Testament?

'The trust that held everything together has disappeared'

'Not a lawful form'

A store owner had just led his last customers out the door while closing shop. He watched the couple dancing in the parking lot as he left. Then the couple ascended into the air and disappeared!I received the following account:"I was telling my grandma about some stories I’ve heard on your podcast at dinner last night. And she told me a story from a candy shop owner in Pittsburgh, PA she’s always bought stuff for Christmas treat baking. They’re pretty close friends and I guess he had some encounter with what he called “flying humans” last year.He was just closing up for the night when this teenage couple walked up and begged him to open back up so they could buy some candy. He’s not made of stone so he let them in to buy a late-night treat. So they come in and buy a huge amount of candy. Their money was good so he didn’t question it.The boy was a thin, tan-skinned teenage boy with brown eyes and dark brown hair in a slightly outgrown pixie cut. He wore a brown beanie, a Johnnie Guilbert hoodie, and some boots.The girl was a thin, teenage girl with pale skin, bright green eyes, and pink dyed hair up in two hair buns. She was wearing a black backpack. She was dressed in an Aqua Teen Hunger Force, some tattered and ripped-up jeans, and a pair of Crocs.So the kind old man led them back outside and bid them a good night. He was heading around the side of the building to his car which made him out of sight but not out of sight for him to see the parking lot. He was looking back and saw the girl pocket the candy in the black backpack. She then fished out a Bluetooth speaker and placed it on the ground.I guess the speaker started playing Zombie by Johnnie Guilbert. He held one hand behind and one hand out for her to take. They began twirling this way around the parking lot in a little romantic dance under the street lights. Stopping every so often to give each other Eskimo kisses.He was gushing a little bit at the young love remembering how he used to do sweet things like that with his wife when they were younger. What he saw next he said about gave him a heart attack. They stopped to pick up the Bluetooth speaker which was now playing Magic Dance by David Bowie. Still hugging each other. They began to walk off.But he said with each step they took they’d begin walking on literal air. It wasn’t like floating but like they were walking on invisible stairs. And they walked off like this into the night sky until they disappeared out of view and he couldn’t hear the music anymore." Z**********GIANTS! LEGENDS BASED ON TRUTH? LIVE Chat | Q & A | Join Us! (HISTORICAL & EYEWITNESS REPORTS)PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARYPOLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHAREPHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on SpotifyPHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LISTCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistHave you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. LonOUR SOCIAL MEDIA LINKSBigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTubeLYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDSCRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINESHey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me by email or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! LonCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistChicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive MapHey, folks. Please feel free to share your thoughts & comments on the recently uploaded video of the CHICAGO MOTHMAN. I'm interested in what you have to say. Thanks. LonEXCLUSIVE VIDEO of CHICAGO MOTHMAN RECORDED----------Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio Insider - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK-----YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS