Lee Ardis

Fears over biblical disease that causes paralysis as cases surge in one US state

Florida accounts for almost one-fifth of nationally reported cases of leprosy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said.

Leprosy, otherwise known as Hansen’s disease, is one of humanity’s oldest and most stubborn diseases caused by parasitic bacteria.

Mentioned in the Bible’s Old Testament, leprosy has always been rare in the US and can affect the skin and nervous system in often gnarly ways.

A case report last week in the agency’s journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID), has asked people in the Sunshine State to be aware of the risks and doctors to keep it in mind when treating patients.

‘Florida has witnessed an increased incidence of leprosy cases lacking traditional risk factors,’ the report authors said.

‘Those trends, in addition to decreasing diagnoses in foreign-born persons, contribute to rising evidence that leprosy has become endemic in the southeastern United States.’

Health experts aren’t entirely sure what’s driving the increase, given that the cases have no clear evidence of ‘zoonotic exposure’ – caused by germs that spread between animals and people. The bacteria tend to call armadillos home.

There’s also not much pointing to any out-of-the-blue risk factors either.

According to the National Hansen’s Disease Program, 159 new cases of leprosy were reported in the United States in 2020.

Nearly 70% of these cases were recorded in California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, New York or Texas.

But Florida stood out especially. Central Florida alone accounted for 81% of cases reported in the state and almost one-fifth of national cases.

Eight cases have been recorded in Florida so far this year, per state health officials.

‘Travel to [Central Florida], even in the absence of other risk factors, should prompt consideration of leprosy in the appropriate clinical context,’ the authors, who aren’t affiliated with the CDC, added.

They called on state physicians to keep an eye on leprosy and report any cases to help assess routes of transmission.

Federal Judge Dismisses The Satanic Temple’s Lawsuit Challenging Texas Abortion Laws

The Satanic Temple claimed that Texas abortion laws infringed on their “rituals,” but the judge dismissed the suit for being filed in “bad faith.”

A federal judge in the Southern District of Texas has dismissed a lawsuit filed by The Satanic Temple (TST), calling their claims “willfully inadequate and deficient.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of “Ann Doe,” stems from TST’s claims that Texas abortion laws are preventing its members from performing their abortion “rituals.”

Lawyers on behalf of the complainant stated, “The abortion ritual requires an abortion; and affirms [Doe’s] religious subscription to TST’s Third and Fifth Tenets.”

Judge Charles Eskridge in Houston saw the case differently.

Eskridge called the complaint “spare and unusually cryptic” and explained that TST did not give sufficient information on how Texas law had a direct effect on their “belief structure.”

Providing numerous points of dissolution with TST’s claims, Eskridge continued on to explain that the “supposed ‘religious statutes’ aren’t specified or explained in any way. Neither are ‘the Seven Tenets’ or ‘the ritual.’”

The defendant in the case is Cecile Young, executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. She sought to dismiss this case, as she argued it lacked standing because the complaint failed to state a claim.

Young argued that the complaint should be dismissed also on the grounds of sovereign immunity, as it applies to state officials.

“Young argues that the third amended complaint is so devoid of explanation that Plaintiffs fail to demonstrate that any exception to sovereign immunity applies,” Eskridge said. “Plaintiffs don’t respond to this argument in any meaningful way.”

He went on to explain that it is not up to the court to “theorize what the best argument in this regard might be, or to imagine how they might be connected to facts that haven’t been pleaded.”

Eskridge continued this line of reasoning for the dismissal, stating that it is “unknown” how Young is involved in the enforcement of the complaint in the case at all. He asked in response, “How, when, why, and in what way did she apply them to Plaintiffs?”

ChatGPT CEO Unleashes ‘Worldcoin’ for ‘Global Democracy’: Requires Eyeball Scan for ID

“Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” — Luke 21:28.

Sam Altman, CEO of the company behind the world-altering ChatGPT artificial intelligence system, along with a partner announced yesterday the launch of Worldcoin, a global currency for those who “prove their humanity” through an iris scan. It has been tested in a couple dozen countries, and now they’re ready and hoping to take it global.

The Worldcoin website says, “If successful, we believe Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online while preserving privacy, enable global democratic processes, and eventually show a potential path to AI-funded UBI [universal basic income].”

Obviously this raises concerns with respect to globalism, privacy, freedom, the economy, and even biblical prophecy.

Human Intent?

Worldcoin’s stated purpose is to create a fully private and trustworthy means to prevent artificial intelligence from masquerading as humans and to keep individuals from claiming to be more than one person. At face value it sounds great: The 2020 election sure could have benefited from security like that.

Its primary application, however, would be economic, especially to keep AI out of fraudulent participation in the human business of buying and selling. That is, to solve a problem created by — guess who? — the creators of Worldcoin, among others.

Humanitarian Intent?

The company behind Worldcoin names itself “Tools for Humanity.” Its logos feature the mottoes “For every human,” and “The future is bright, and it belongs to the people of the world.”

Another part of Worldcoin’s stated purpose is to provide a universal basic income globally. Sounds great again, right? Sure, if you like socialism, and if can find it in you to believe a tech giant corporation has nothing but altruism in its heart.

That, plus you’d also have to agree with them in denying that the future belongs in any way to the God who created time and space. Humanism in our day is virtually always atheistic, or in another sense polytheistic, treating humans as gods themselves.

“We’re From a Massive Tech Corporation and We’re Here to Help”

The saying used to be “We’re from the government and we’re here to help.” Usually that’s taken to mean, “Don’t trust a word of that.” I’d rather have the government than this, though: At least we can vote, and retain some semblance of checks and balances. We can at least pay lip service to the rule of law. Tools for Humanity, in contrast, is out to create a global economic kingdom with a self-appointed emperor ruling by right of economic might.

Still, you can’t deny they’ve been helpful. Tools for Humanity went to a number of developing countries, testing their iris-scanner “Orb” with promises of “free money.” How free was it? MIT Technology Review published a scathing report on it:

We found that the company’s representatives used deceptive marketing practices, collected more personal data than it acknowledged, and failed to obtain meaningful informed consent. These practices may violate the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) — a likelihood that the company’s own data consent policy acknowledged and asked users to accept — as well as local laws.

Helpful, yes. Helping themselves. Because they had the money and the power.

Misgendering Should Be a Crime, According to Millennials

More millennials think referring to a transgender person by the wrong pronouns should be a criminal offense than think it should be legal, according to new polling conducted exclusively for Newsweek.

According to the survey by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, 44 percent of those aged 25-34 think “referring to someone by the wrong gender pronoun (he/him, she/her) should be a criminal offense,” versus just 31 percent who disagree. The remainder “neither agree nor disagree” or “don’t know.”

This view remains popular for those aged 35-44, among whom 38 percent think misgendering should be illegal, whilst 35 percent disagree and 26 percent either don’t know or didn’t express an opinion.

The rights of transgender people, whose gender identity doesn’t match the sex they were given at birth, and the corresponding impact on women’s rights, has developed into a hot political issue across the United States. Republican-controlled states have passed a string of laws impacting transgender people, such as banning sex change operations and hormone treatments for minors.

According to Pew Research Center, a millennial is someone born between 1981 and 1996, making them between 27 and 42 years old today. The organization defines Generation Z as being born between 1997 and 2012, meaning they would now be between 11 and 26 years in age. Thus among both survey age categories that contain millennials, more people think misgendering should be illegal than legal.

The poll of 1,500 eligible voters in the United States was conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, for Newsweek, on July 6.

However the figure for millennials contrasts starkly with that for Americans as a whole, among whom just 19 percent want misgendering to be a criminal offense, whilst 65 percent disagree, 12 percent “neither agree nor disagree” and four percent answered “don’t know.”

Notably Generation Z Americans aged 18-24, who can vote, are notably less keen on making misgendering a crime than the older millennials. Among this group, 33 percent think calling someone by the wrong pronoun should be a criminal offense, while 48 percent disagree and the remainder answer either “neither” or “don’t know.”

The Grotesque Experiments That Mad Scientists Around The Globe Are Conducting On Human Cells Are Absolutely Sickening

Just because we have the technology to do certain kinds of things does not mean that we should actually be doing them. In theory, science is supposed to be constrained by morality, but in our day and time just about all constraints have been removed. As a result, mad scientists all over the globe are running wild. In fact, some of them are now conducting extremely grotesque experiments on human cells that are absolutely sickening. For example, one team of scientists in Australia just received a giant pile of money so that they can continue to monkey around with ways of “merging human brain cells with artificial intelligence”…

A team of researchers just got a $600,000 grant from Australia’s Office of National Intelligence to study ways of merging human brain cells with artificial intelligence.

This is so wrong.

But who is going to stop them?

These scientists have already succeeded in creating a “semi-biological computer chip with some 800,000 human and mouse brain cells” that was able to play a game of Pong…

Last year, the research team created a “DishBrain” – a “semi-biological computer chip with some 800,000 human and mouse brain cells lab-grown into its electrodes,” according to New Atlas. The DishBrain utilizes lab-cultivated neurons from human stem cells. The scientists were able to train the brain cells to play the classic video game “Pong.”

The outlet added, “The micro-electrode array at the heart of the DishBrain was capable both of reading activity in the brain cells, and stimulating them with electrical signals, so the research team set up a version of ‘Pong’ where the brain cells were fed a moving electrical stimulus to represent which side of the ‘screen’ the ball was on, and how far away from the paddle it was. They allowed the brain cells to act on the paddle, moving it left and right.”

Should “DishBrain” be considered a living creature?

If so, does it have any rights?

Or can our scientists just do whatever they wish with it?

The “scientists” behind these experiments are promising that this new “technology” will have all sorts of applications once it is fully developed…

The basic idea is to merge biology with AI, something that could forge new frontiers for machine learning tech for self-driving cars, autonomous drones, or delivery robots — or at least that’s what the government is hoping to accomplish with its investment.

So what happens if we start merging “biology” with AI and the “biology” that we use starts rebelling against us?

Perhaps we should think about that before we start going down that road.

Will A New BRICS Currency Backed By Gold Mean The End Of Global Dominance For The U.S. Dollar?

Is the global dominance of the U.S. dollar in danger? In recent weeks, there has been lots of speculation about the introduction of a new BRICS currency that would be backed by gold. In this article, my goal is to sort through what is true and what is not true. From August 22nd to August 24th, the 15th BRICS summit will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Back on July 5th, RT sparked a firestorm of rumors when it reported that a decision to introduce a new BRICS currency that would be backed by gold would be made prior to the upcoming summit in Johannesburg…

BRICS is set to introduce a new currency backed by gold, in contrast to the credit-backed US dollar, with the decision coming a month ahead of the bloc’s summit in Johannesburg. With the growing initiative, more and more countries are lining-up to join the group.

In the aftermath of that report, many prominent voices were warning that the U.S. dollar was in big trouble.

For example, author Robert Kiyosaki boldly declared that the U.S. dollar “will die”…

The end of the U.S. dollar is near, said the best-selling author of ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ Robert Kiyosaki, citing an upcoming BRICS summit in South Africa as a trigger.

Kiyosaki is projecting that the BRICS group, comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, will announce their new gold-backed digital currency during its summit on August 22-24, and it will have dire consequences for the U.S. dollar.

“August 22, 2023, in Johannesburg, South Africa, BRICS nations announce gold backed crypto. US $ will die,” Kiyosaki tweeted last week. “Trillions of US $ rush home. Inflation through the roof.”

Without a doubt, the dominance of the U.S. dollar is under threat from multiple directions.

But a new BRICS currency will not be introduced during this upcoming summit.

During an interview with Bloomberg, one of the top executives at The New Development Bank publicly admitted that the creation of a new BRICS currency is “a medium to long term ambition”, but he also confirmed that such a currency will not be introduced right now…

The New Development Bank, a financial institution created by the BRICS bloc of emerging markets, doesn’t have any immediate plans for the group to create a common currency, its vice president and chief financial officer said.

While the members of BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – are pushing to conduct more trade between each other in local currencies, they aren’t ready to challenge the global dominance of the dollar, Leslie Maasdorp said in an interview on Wednesday with Bloomberg TV’s Haslinda Amin.

“The development of anything alternative is more a medium to long term ambition,” he said. “There is no suggestion right now to creates a BRICS currency.”

But that doesn’t mean that really big things aren’t happening.

In addition to the core BRICS nations, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay are apparently getting very close to joining The New Development Bank.

Defence: is the EU creating a European army?

While there is no EU army and defence remains exclusively a matter for member states, the EU has taken big steps to boost defence cooperation in the past few years.

Since 2016, there has been significant progress in the area of EU security and defence with several concrete EU initiatives to encourage cooperation and reinforce Europe’s capacity to defend itself. Read the overview of the latest developments.

High expectations for EU defence

The vast majority of EU citizens (81%) are in favour of a common defence and security policy, with at least two thirds backing it in each country, according to 2022 data published by Eurobarometer. Some 93% agree that countries should act together to defend EU territory, while 85% think that co-operation on defence should be increased at EU level.

EU leaders realise that no EU country can tackle the current security threats in isolation. For example French President Macron called for a joint European military project in 2017, while former German chancellor Merkel said “we ought to work on the vision of one day establishing a proper European army” in her address to the European Parliament in November 2018. Moving towards a security and defence union has been one of the priorities of the von der Leyen Commission.

EU measures to boost defence cooperation

A common EU defence policy is provided for by the Treaty of Lisbon (Article 42(2) TEU). However, the treaty also clearly states the importance of national defence policy, including Nato membership or neutrality. The European Parliament has consistently supported more cooperation, increased investment and pooling of resources to create synergies at EU level to better protect Europeans.

Transhumanism: Globalists Promise To ‘Improve’ On God’s Design Of Man

It sounds like bad science fiction, but it is rapidly becoming reality. Some of the most powerful people on the planet think they are going to “upgrade” human beings — or at least some human beings — through genetic engineering and technological schemes such as “brain implants.” Yes, really. In fact, they are publicly touting alleged benefits, supposedly including eternal life, and even evolving into “gods.”

If that all sounds crazy or even diabolical — good, it should, because it is. And yet, the technologies to make some of these nightmarish visions possible are progressing so fast it would make your brain spin. In some cases, the tech already exists. Meanwhile, children around the world are being prepared to embrace it through public schools and “entertainment.”

World Economic Forum chief Klaus Schwab, the global frontman for the so-called “Great Reset,” has been celebrating it all for years as part of what he calls the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” In his book on the subject and in speeches, Schwab outlined a plan to merge people with computer technologies, brain implants, and even to genetically “improve” them.

“Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies will not stop at becoming part of the physical world around us — they will become part of us,” Schwab writes in his book Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a narrative that he has been peddling for almost a decade in speeches, articles, essays, and books. “Indeed, some of us already feel that our smartphones have become an extension of ourselves.”

“Today’s external devices — from wearable computers to virtual reality headsets — will almost certainly become implantable in our bodies and brains,” he continues in the book. “These implantable devices will likely also help to communicate thoughts normally expressed verbally through a ‘built-in’ smartphone, and potentially unexpressed thoughts or moods by reading brain waves and other signals.”

Schwab, who oversees a sprawling organization bringing together political and business leaders from around the world, goes on to suggest that governments can and perhaps should mandate submission to such intrusive technology. “As capabilities in this area improve, the temptation for law enforcement agencies and courts to use techniques to determine the likelihood of criminal activity, assess guilt or even possibly retrieve memories directly from people’s brains will increase,” adds the professor, saying governments could even require “a detailed brain scan to assess an individual’s security risk.”

Eventually, humans will merge with technology and become one with it, according to Schwab. “At the end, what the Fourth Industrial Revolution will lead to is a fusion of our physical, our digital, and our biological identities,” he declared at a speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and many since then. And he means it, too.

Technological upgrades and implants:

Under the guise of “convenience,” thousands of Swedes have already implanted microchips in their hands. These RFID chips can and do function as vaccine passports, money, and keys all rolled into one.

Meanwhile, the “mainstream” media has been marketing the chips to Americans for years. There should be no doubt that this will accelerate as governments and central banks around the world move against cash in favor of “digital payments” while the World Health Organization advances global digital “health” certificates. At some point, refusing to have one may make it difficult to operate in society or even to buy and sell.

But the microchips under the skin are just one small step compared to what transhumanist advocates are planning. Already, government schools are using technological tools that can peer into the minds of children. Around ten years ago, the U.S. Department of “Education” issued a report titled “Enhancing, Teaching and Learning Through Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics,” offering a sneak preview into the future.

‘People Of Faith Are Not Second-Class Citizens’: SEC Is Throttling Religious Shareholders, ADF Warns

Alliance Defending Freedom submitted a friend-of-the-court brief Friday in National Center for Public Policy Research v. Securities and Exchange Commission asking the court to hold the SEC accountable for engaging in viewpoint discrimination against religious shareholders of publicly traded companies.

Filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, the ADF brief explains that the court should provide constitutionally required guardrails on SEC rulemaking and application, which in recent years has been abused to censor religious shareholder proposals based on viewpoint.

“Americans count on the SEC to be a viewpoint-neutral referee, but officials are showing up wearing one of the team’s jerseys,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President for Corporate Engagement Jeremy Tedesco. “As a government agency, the SEC is bound by the First Amendment. It can’t pick and choose which viewpoints get a hearing in the public square. Every shareholder deserves a voice—not just those who happen to agree with the government’s current views on a hot-button issue.”

Courts require “narrow, objective, and definite” limitations to protect viewpoint neutrality when government officials have the power to grant or deny “prior permission,” as with shareholder proposals. But the SEC has created its own “significant social policy” test to determine which proposals reach ballots at annual shareholder meetings. As the ADF brief points out, since 2018, the SEC has allowed corporations to keep conservative proposals off the ballot 72% of the time—26% more frequently than those originating from progressive viewpoints.

Although the SEC denied requests from JPMorgan Chase and PayPal to keep shareholder resolutions on viewpoint diversity off the 2023 ballots, the agency’s decision to grant similar requests to multiple companies—including Kroger, American Express, Apple, Alphabet, and Walgreens—prompted a lawsuit from the National Center for Public Policy Research and other individual shareholders.

An AI Program Is Pretending to Be Jesus and Thousands of Lost Young People Are Flocking to It

There’s an event recorded in the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, and his disciples asked him what the sign of the end of the age would be.

Jesus replied, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.”

At least one of those deceivers is turning out to be an AI called “ask_jesus.”

According to The Independent, a Berlin-based tech collective has developed a chatbot resembling Jesus Christ, which already has thousands of followers seeking advice and guidance.

The chatbot, referred to as “AI Jesus,” has the appearance of a bearded white man with a radiant halo and utilizes artificial intelligence reportedly trained on the teachings of Jesus and the Bible.

Operating under the Twitch channel name “ask_jesus,” the live stream has amassed a following of over 36,000 devoted users. Viewers are encouraged to pose their questions to the “AI Jesus,” who responds with gestures and answers, providing advice on topics ranging from gaming to relationships.

The chatbot has the ability to remember previous interactions with the user which gives it a false sense of omniscience.

The ask_jesus AI was created by The Singularity Group, a team of self-described “driven and ambitious volunteer activists working on innovative projects to make a real difference in the world.”

A closer look at the “projects” page on the group’s website reveals their interest in “tech philanthropy.” The website also claims to be “using innovative technologies such as the PRPS & DUBI blockchain tokens alongside the Giving Works charity” towards “a universal basic income for all.”

That doesn’t sound suspicious at all.

Fans of the ask_jesus praise the ‘realism’ of “AI Jesus,” who offers moral and ethical advice. But its zen approach to the questions makes it sound far more like Deepak Chopra than Jesus Christ. Which, I guess, is the point.

For instance, one user asked it about gay marriage, and it gave them the noncommittal “all love is love” answer, staying politically correct at all times.