The Sharp Edge
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By The Sharp Edge While dysfunctional D.C. battles it out over the debt ceiling to reign in uncontrolled federal spending, ‘Quid Pro Joe’ (who is under Congressional investigation for laundering bribes by foreign nationals) recently pledged hundreds of millions more in aid to corrupt Ukraine, which has been exposed for embezzling funds. If that wasn’t enough, ‘The Big Guy’ committed another $250 million through USAID to the World Bank, which has the power to launder with immunity. Meanwhile, the 2023 banking collapse is turning out to be worse than the 2008 crisis, and the Treasury Secretary is warning that more bank mergers may be around the corner, as wealth consolidates into a handful of woke megabanks, like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, which continue to target the regime’s political enemies. According to 19 state attorneys general, JPMorgan Chase has repeatedly de-banked Christian and conservative organizations. Furthermore, a House Weaponization Subcommittee report detailing FBI whistleblower testimony, disclosed how Bank of America colluded with the FBI to hand over confidential data of customers in the D.C. area on January 6th, highlighting individuals who had ever purchased a firearm using B of A products. Adding insult to injury, the weaponized IRS, which recently beefed up its workforce and arsenal to target Americans, received a green light from the Supreme Court to obtain bank records of individuals who aren’t even under investigation. If you think all of this is bad, just imagine what our absolutely corrupt federal government could do with a central bank digital currency. Of course, the Fed is looking to CBDCs as the solution to the financial crisis they’ve created. Problem – Reaction – Solution, as the old Hegelian Dialectic goes. Central banks around the world are working feverishly on implementing a CBDC system, and globalists are salivating over the “absolute control” it would give them. Now, onto the good news. Red states are leading the charge in the financial rebellion. Several Republican states have recently introduced or passed legislation to establish a parallel economy by protecting the use of cash, affirming gold and silver as legal tender, establishing precious metal depositories, and blocking central bank digital currencies. This report highlights a collection of 10 red states which are designing a blueprint for the rest of the country to follow. This is by no means a comprehensive list. There are solid pieces of legislation designed to secure financial freedom working through other states as well. A comprehensive list of legislation in each state can be found here. Alabama Alabama’s state legislatures are taking a stand against central bank digital currencies. A recently proposed bill in the Senate, SB330, “would prohibit any state or local governmental agency from accepting CBDC as a form of payment and would prohibit any governmental agency from participating in testing the use of CBDC by any Federal Reserve branch.” Another bill introduced this month in the House, HB408, seeks to amend the Uniform Commercial Code to exclude CBDCs from the definition of “money” stating, “The term does not include a central bank digital currency.” Meanwhile, there are two other bills pending in the Alabama legislature, HB348 and SB231, that seek to amend the UCC, but don’t have any language to exclude CBDCs from the definition of money. The UCC is a set of standards designed to create uniformity among states to facilitate interstate commerce. Recent changes to the UCC, promoted by the Uniform Law Commission, have embedded language to block crypto and enable CBDCs. The recommended UCC changes aim to revise the definition of “money” to state that, “the term does not include an electronic record that is a medium of exchange recorded and transferable in a system that existed and operated for the medium of exchange before the medium of exchange was authorized or adopted by the government.” While the language blocks crypto because it is a “medium of exchange” that existed “before” the medium was adopted by the government, it also paves the way for a CBDC as the implied “medium of exchange” to be “adopted by the government.” Some states have already passed UCC amendments with embedded language to facilitate CBDCs, as legislation remains pending in several others. More information on the status of UCC amendments sliding through other states can be found here. Arkansas Arkansas is making moves to affirm gold and silver as legal tender, remove taxes on gold and silver, and block the tracking of individuals through a central bank digital currency. In April, Arkansas passed HB1718, which establishes The Arkansas Legal Tender Act to affirm gold and silver as legal tender and remove tax liability by stating, “the exchange of one type or form of legal tender for another type or form of legal tender shall not give rise to any tax liability,” and “the purchase, sale, or exchange of any type or form of specie shall not give rise to any tax liability.” Also, Arkansas signed HB1720 into law in April. HB1720 explicitly refers to a “central bank digital currency,” and prohibits “the tracking of an individual through the use of digital currency except for limited circumstances,” stating that “A digital currency tracker shall not be used in this state to track an individual’s purchases or location through the use by an individual of digital currency unless: (1) A warrant has been issued in a criminal or civil court case that expressly authorizes the tracking of the individual’s purchases; or (2) The individual knows and consents to the digital currency tracker.” Florida & Indiana This month, both Florida and Indiana passed amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code to block central bank digital currencies. Florida’s SB7054, which passed on May 15, 2023, amends the UCC’s definition of money to state, “The term does not include a central bank digital currency.” Likewise, Indiana’s SB0468, which passed on May 4, 2023, amends the UCC’s definition of money to state, “The term does not include a central bank digital currency that is currently adopted, or that may be adopted, by the United States government, a foreign government, a foreign reserve, or a foreign sanctioned central bank.” While a handful of states have proposed amendments to the UCC to exclude CBDCs from the definition of money, Florida and Indiana are the first to successfully pass such amendments. Louisiana Louisiana’s state legislature is taking steps to block central bank digital currencies in the state. HCR71, which passed in the House this month and is now pending in the Senate, “urges the United States Congress to not support any legislation or efforts to adopt a central bank digital currency in the United States,” adding that “a United States CBDC raises significant concerns over privacy for individuals and businesses in Louisiana.” Another bill that passed in the House this month, HB415, relates to banking in the state, amending the definition of “deposit account” to state “The term does not include… a central bank digital currency.” Missouri A few Missouri bills working through the state legislature would protect the use of cash, affirm gold and silver as legal tender, establish a gold and silver depository, and block public entities from requiring payments by a central bank digital currency. SB100 passed in the Senate last February and is working its way through the House. A similar piece of legislation, HB1375, is also pending in the House. The bills state “No public entity shall require payment in the form of any digital currency. Payment by means of cash, debit card, or credit card shall be considered legal tender and shall be accepted by all public entities. Payment in gold and silver coinage shall also be considered legal tender and shall be accepted by all public entities.” Furthermore, SB100 and HB1375 provide exemptions for “all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2024, the portion of capital gain on the sale or exchange of gold and silver that are otherwise included in the taxpayer’s federal adjusted gross income.” Lastly, these bills direct the State Treasurer to “keep in the custody of the state treasury an amount of gold and silver greater than or equal to one percent of all state funds.” A separate bill, HB718, which is pending in the House, would establish a Missouri Bullion Depository. Oklahoma Meanwhile, Oklahoma is working towards protecting cash, blocking public and private entities from requiring payments using a CBDC, and establishing a bullion depository. A promising bill, HB1633, which passed in Oklahoma’s House last March and is pending in the Senate, states “an agency shall not require any citizen of this state in conducting transactions with the agency to pay using credit cards nor a central bank digital currency and shall not prohibit cash, cashier’s checks, or money orders as payment” and “businesses providing basic needs selling or offering for sale goods or services during regular business hours shall not require a buyer to pay using credit cards nor a central bank digital currency nor prohibit the use of cash, cashier’s checks, or money orders as payment in order to purchase the goods or services.” Another bill pending in the Senate, SB816, would establish the Oklahoma Bullion Depository “as a division of the Office of the State Treasurer.” South Carolina South Carolina is taking steps to secure financial freedom in the state by affirming gold and silver as legal tender, removing taxes on gold and silver, and blocking CBDCs. H3080, which is pending in the House, provides “that gold and silver coins minted foreign or domestic shall be legal tender in this state.” Another bill pending in the House, H3081, amends capital gains tax to provide exceptions for “the portion of the capital gain that was recognized from the sale of gold, silver, platinum bullion, or any combination of this bullion, for which the deduction equals one hundred percent of such capital gain.” A pair of bills also pending in the House, H4373 and H4442, aim to amend the Uniform Commercial Code to block CBDCs under the definition of money. The UCC amendments state that “The term does not include a central bank digital currency.” Furthermore, H4373 states the bill is designed to “prohibit a banking corporation from offering any service or approving of or conducting any transaction that involves central bank digital currency.” Tennessee Tennessee is making headway on affirming gold and silver as legal tender, establishing a bullion depository, and shielding Tennesseans from a central bank digital currency. A pair of Tennessee bills, SB0519 and HB1479, passed in March to allow “the state treasurer to purchase and sell physical gold and precious metal.” The bills say that “The physical gold and precious metal purchased… must be custodied by the state treasurer in a state depository.” Another set of bills working through the Tennessee legislature, HB1481 and SB0311, would make “gold and silver coinage legal tender” and authorize “payment of taxes with gold and silver coinage.” Furthermore, the bills would require that “any gold and silver coinage received by this state… must be stored in a depository institution and the value of the gold and silver coinage must be attributed to the balance of the reserve for revenue fluctuations. The gold and silver coinage must not be liquidated until all other funds in the reserve for revenue fluctuations have been expended.” Also, SB0150, a bill that is pending in the Senate, would enact the Tennessee Bullion Depository Act. In an interview by Catherine Austin Fitts of the Solari Report, Tennessee Senator Frank Niceley remarked on how proposed legislation could work to create a sovereign state bank and bullion depository to support local banks and shield them against a central bank digital currency. Texas Texas is taking action on legislation to protect cash, recognize gold and silver as legal tender, maintain the nation’s first state bullion depository, and oppose a central bank digital currency. A couple of bills pending in Texas’ Senate, HJR146 and SJR67, propose a constitutional amendment to state that “The right of the people to own, hold, and use a mutually agreed upon medium of exchange, including cash, coin, bullion, digital currency, or privately issued scrip, when trading and contracting…The post A Look at 10 Red States Leading the Charge Against Financial Tyranny appeared first on coreysdigs.com.
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By The Sharp Edge As the national debt approaches 32 trillion, and the Biden regime commits billions to Ukraine despite reports of embezzled funds, the American financial system is failing. Already, the 2023 banking collapse is bigger than 2008, with the combined assets of three big banks that failed in 2023 dwarfing the assets of 25 banks that failed in 2008. Meanwhile, the public is strapped with historic levels of consumer debt and inflation, driven by federal spending, as Americans struggle to make ends meet. Congress has, so far, failed to restrain the out-of-control federal budget, by passing trillion-dollar packages, continuing the money flow to weaponized agencies riddled with fraud, waste and abuse. Though this financial debacle may appear on the surface to be a destructive combination of incompetence and circumstance, in reality, the controlled demolition of the financial system as we know it is all part of the World Economic Forum’s Great Financial Reset. While we watch this trainwreck in disbelief, central banks are preparing behind the scenes for the next phase of their financial reset – central bank digital currencies. A programmable CBDC system would enable “absolute control” over how, when, where, and by whom every single transaction is made. The implementation of a CBDC system is, without a doubt, the greatest threat to our financial freedom. As part of this plan to roll out CBDCs, a stealth piece of legislation known as the Uniform Commercial Code, has been sliding through states unnoticed. The UCC is a set of standards designed to create uniformity among states to facilitate interstate commerce. However, recent changes to the UCC, overseen by the Uniform Law Commission, have embedded language to block cryptocurrencies while enabling CBDCs, hidden among hundreds of pages. The devil is always in the details. Tucked into the UCC amendments, the definition of “money” is amended to state “the term does not include an electronic record that is a medium of exchange recorded and transferable in a system that existed and operated for the medium of exchange before the medium of exchange was authorized or adopted by the government.” This is a sly way to block crypto because it is a “medium of exchange” that existed “before” the medium was adopted by the government. The language of course clearly paves the way for a CBDC as the implied “medium of exchange” to be “adopted by the government.” This sinister language embedded in the UCC amendments has gone largely overlooked by state legislatures, and has already passed in 5 states, while there is legislation to amend the UCC still pending in more than 15 states. Some states have gotten wise to the sneaky tactic and changed the language to explicitly exclude central bank digital currency from the definition of money in the UCC. Florida and Indiana have both passed UCC amendments to exclude CBDCs from the definition of money, while the governor of South Dakota outright vetoed a bill containing the shifty language. These devious UCC amendments are a perfect example of why state legislation to protect the population from financial tyranny is so important. Needless to say, we must act with the utmost urgency to protect our financial freedom and security at the state level, by urging state legislatures to pass meaningful legislation in each state to protect the use of cash, affirm gold and silver as legal tender, establish bullion depositories, and halt the implementation of central bank digital currencies. Do you know where your state stands on these important financial freedom issues? Check the list of legislation working through your state below, and then contact your state representatives to insist they take immediate and decisive action to secure your state’s financial freedom. If your state is lacking in proposed legislation in these key areas of financial freedom, check out what other states are doing, and then urge your representatives to propose similar legislation. Here are some additional tools to track state legislation related to precious metals, cryptocurrencies, and by using a “Full Text Search” of bills in each state. Alabama Protecting the Use of Cash: No recent legislation found. Recognizing Gold & Silver as Legal Tender: No recent legislation found. Removing Taxes on Gold & Silver Transactions: SB13 Passed on April 7, 2022. SB13 is designed “To extend the exemption from sales and use tax for the gross proceeds from the sales of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion, and money.” Establishing a Gold Depository: No recent legislation found. Digital Currency: No recent legislation found. Protecting Against CBDCs: HB408 Introduced and referred to the House Financial Services Committee on May 2, 2023. HB408 would amend the Uniform Commercial Code to define a central bank digital currency “and to specify that the definition of ‘money’ does not include central bank digital currency.” Other states have introduced or passed legislation to amend the UCC by changing the definition of money to exclude crypto such as Bitcoin while enabling a CBDC. Enabling CBDCs: HB348 Passed in the House on May 9, 2023, referred to Senate Judiciary Committee on May 11, 2023, and SB231 introduced and referred to Senate Committee on April 20, 2023. HB348 and SB231 seek to amend the Uniform Commercial Code. Changes to HB348 proposed on May 3, 2023, define a central bank digital currency and a deposit account, stating that the term “deposit account” does not include a CBDC. However, these changes do not appear in the latest version of HB348. Other states have introduced or passed legislation to amend the UCC by changing the definition of money to exclude crypto such as Bitcoin while enabling a CBDC. The definition of “money” in HB348 and SB231 does not contain such language. However, the definitions of a “controllable electronic record” (CER) in both HB348 and SB231 do contain similar language to exclude crypto such as Bitcoin while enabling a CBDC. Contact your Alabama state representatives here and here and urge them to take immediate action on key pieces of legislation to secure your financial freedom. Alaska Protecting the Use of Cash: No recent legislation found. Recognizing Gold & Silver as Legal Tender: HB3 Passed in the House on May 11, 2023, referred to Senate State Affairs Committee on May 12, 2023. HB3 affirms “gold and silver specie as legal tender.” Removing Taxes on Gold & Silver Transactions: HB3 Passed in the House on May 11, 2023, referred to Senate State Affairs Committee on May 12, 2023. HB3 states that a city or borough “may not levy or collect a sales or use tax on the sale or exchange of specie,” in reference to gold and silver. Under current Alaska Department of Revenue Tax Division, “The State of Alaska currently does not have a sales and use tax; however, some local jurisdictions impose local sales taxes.” Establishing a Gold Depository: No recent legislation found. Digital Currency: HB86 Referred to the House Finance Committee on April 14, 2023, and SB84 referred to the Senate Finance Committee on May 9, 2023. The “Uniform Money Transmission Act” seeks to regulate “virtual currency” or cryptocurrency “for money transmission” and to “cooperate with other states in the regulation of money transmission.” Protecting Against CBDCs: No recent legislation found. Enabling CBDCs: No recent legislation found. Contact your Alaska state representatives here and here and urge them to take immediate action on key pieces of legislation to secure your financial freedom. Arizona Protecting the Use of Cash: No recent legislation found. Recognizing Gold & Silver as Legal Tender: S1235 Passed Senate Finance Committee on February 6, 2023. S1235 seeks to affirm “specie” and Bitcoin as legal tender. “Specie” is defined as “coins having precious metal content.” HB2014 Signed into law on May 22, 2017. HB2014 states “’Legal tender’ means a medium of exchange, including specie, that is authorized by the United States Constitution or Congress for the payment of debts, public charges, taxes and dues. ‘Specie’ means coins having precious metal content.” Removing Taxes on Gold & Silver Transactions: HB2014 Signed into law on May 22, 2017. HB2014 removes capital gains taxation on gold and silver if exchanged for Federal Reserve notes or used in barter transactions. Arizona law 42-5061 states “the sale of precious metal bullion and monetized bullion to the ultimate consumer” is exempt from sales tax. Establishing a Gold Depository: No recent legislation found. Digital Currency: SB1236 Vetoed by Governor on April 12, 2023. SB1236 would have prohibited a city or town from imposing “a tax or fee on any person or entity for running a node on blockchain technology in a residence.” S1191 Passed in the House on May 15, 2023. S1191 relates to Escrow Agents and forms in which deposits may be made to add “distributed ledger technology transfers” defined as “a decentralized, shared and immutable ledger, which may be public or private, permissioned or permissionless, or driven by tokenized crypto economics or tokenless,” and explicitly excluding CBDCs by stating, “except that transfers may not be settled or backed by a central bank digital currency.” S1235 Passed Senate Finance Committee on February 6, 2023. S1235 seeks to affirm “specie” and Bitcoin as legal tender. “Specie” is defined as “coins having precious metal content.” S1239 Passed in the Senate on March 6, 2023, failed to pass House Ways & Means Committee on March 29, 2023. S1239 would have allowed state agencies to “enter into an agreement with a cryptocurrency service provider to provide a method to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method of fines, civil penalties or other penalties, rent, rates, taxes, fees, charges, revenue, financial obligations and special assessments to pay any amount due to that agency or this state.” S1240 Passed in the Senate on March 1, 2023, transmitted to the House on March 2, 2023. S1240 exempts “virtual currency” from taxation. Virtual currency is defined as “a digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value other than a representation of the United States dollar or a foreign currency.” SCR1007 Read 2nd time in Senate on January 23, 2023. SCR1007 seeks to exempt “virtual currency” from property taxes. Virtual currency is defined as “a digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value other than a representation of the United States dollar or a foreign currency.” Protecting Against CBDCs: SB1144 Failed in the House on May 15, 2023. SB1144 “Prohibits the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) involving any contract, security or similar interest in this state, including commercial contracts.” SB1191 Passed in the Senate on March 6, 2023, passed in the House on May 15, 2023. SB1191 relates to Escrow Agents, stating, “transfers may not be settled or backed by a central bank digital currency.” Enabling CBDCs: HB2770 Blocked by AZ Freedom Caucus in March 2023. HB2770 amended the Uniform Commercial Code by defining money as “a medium of exchange that is currently authorized or adopted by a domestic or foreign government. The term includes a monetary unit of account established by an intergovernmental organization or by agreement between two or more countries. The term does not include an electronic record that is a medium of exchange recorded and transferable in a system that existed and operated for the medium of exchange before the medium of exchange was authorized or adopted by the government.” HB2770 amended the UCC by changing the definition of money to exclude crypto such as Bitcoin, while enabling a CBDC. Furthermore, HB2770 contained “electronic money” language in reference to CBDCs. Contact your Arizona state representatives here and here and urge them to take immediate action on key pieces of legislation to secure your financial freedom. Arkansas Protecting the Use of Cash: No recent legislation found. Recognizing Gold & Silver as Legal Tender: HB1718 Passed on April 11, 2023. HB1718 creates “The Arkansas Legal Tender Act” which reaffirms gold and silver as legal tender. Removing Taxes on Gold & Silver Transactions: HB1718 Passed on April 11, 2023. HB1718 removes tax liability from gold and silver by stating,…The post Is Your State Protecting Financial Freedom? Get The Full Breakdown Here appeared first on coreysdigs.com.
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By The Sharp Edge We are building our own digital prison. The technological panopticon developing all around us enables centralized power, control, and visibility over every aspect of our lives. With our hard-earned taxpayer dollars and mountains of debt, we are funding the construction of a digital control grid designed to enslave us. This technological control grid consists of advanced computing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology, CBDCs, digital IDs, 5G and a host of other emerging technologies. The purpose of this report is to outline funding and legislation to build the technological control grid, condensed from 6,000 pages of legislation passed through the Omnibus and NDAA at the end of 2022. Background & Context Advanced Computing & Artificial Intelligence In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence large language model. By January 2023, ChatGPT reached over 100 million monthly active users, making it “the fastest-growing ‘app’ of all time.” The AI chatbot, which averages 4.5 billion words per day, has gained in popularity as updates by OpenAI have made the large language model more user-friendly and conversational. The latest version of ChatGPT, known as GPT-4, has passed several exams with flying colors, finishing around the top 10% for the bar exam and LSAT exam. Criticisms of the chatbot have abounded since its rollout, including “woke” social engineering, replacing jobs due to automation, and its weaponization for hacking and phishing scams. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, and just as the company recently announced layoffs of 10,000 workers globally, it committed billions more to OpenAI’s technology. Microsoft is incorporating GPT-4, a faster version of ChatGPT, into their new version of the search engine, Bing. Microsoft President, Brad Smith, remarked, “It’s now likely that 2023 will mark a critical inflection point for artificial intelligence.” Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, has since cut ties with the project and has recently pursued efforts to produce an alternative to ChatGPT in order to fight “woke” AI, stating in a tweet, “The danger of training AI to be woke – in other words, lie – is deadly.” In a recent interview, Musk explained his role in creating OpenAI as a response to conversations he had with Google co-founder, Larry Page, in which Musk felt Page was “not taking AI safety seriously enough,” adding that Larry Page wanted a “digital super intelligence, basically a digital god… as soon as possible.” Musk says he hoped to create an open source non-profit AI project through OpenAI to counter Google, but expressed disappointment that OpenAI became closed, for-profit, and closely aligned with Microsoft, stating “In effect, Microsoft has a very strong say, if not directly controls OpenAI at this point.” The 2 heavyweights in the arena of AI, Musk explained, are OpenAI/ Microsoft and Google’s DeepMind, adding that he thinks he will “create a third option.” According to a Nevada state filing, Musk set up a new company named X.AI Corp in March 2023. Google’s response to the success of ChatGPT and competition with Microsoft’s Bing is a conversational AI model known as Bard. In March 2023, Google opened access to Bard by allowing users to join a waitlist. Bard has been powered by LaMDA – a family of large language models created by Google, but the company is looking to transition Bard to a larger-scale model known as PaLM. A former Google engineer, Blake LeMoine, who was tasked with testing LaMDA, made controversial headlines in 2022 with the publication of conversations with LaMDA that led LeMoine to believe that it had become sentient. The engineer was subsequently fired from his position at Google. However, LeMoine has not backed off his claims of the dangers AI sentience, stating “I published these conversations because I felt that the public was not aware of just how advanced AI was getting. My opinion was that there was a need for public discourse about this now, and not public discourse controlled by a corporate PR department.” LeMoine added, “I believe the kinds of AI that are currently being developed are the most powerful technology that has been invented since the atomic bomb. In my view, this technology has the ability to reshape the world.” LeMoine went on to explain several ways in which AI could be weaponized. Likening the rollout of AI to watching a trainwreck, LeMoine concluded, “I feel this technology is incredibly experimental and releasing it right now is dangerous.” Adding to this, a team of Google Deepmind researchers published a paper in August 2022 concluding that an “existential catastrophe” resulting from AI was “not just possible, but likely.” An AI arms race is unfolding as Big Tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon vie for leading roles. Meanwhile, the risks of introducing experimental AI onto the public have been tossed aside, as lawmakers have so-far failed to pass meaningful regulations. An open letter, published by Future of Life Institute and signed by Elon Musk and other tech industry leaders, called for a six month moratorium on developing AI more powerful than GPT-4. MIT professor and head of Future of Life Institute, Max Tegmark, commented, “It is unfortunate to frame this as an arms race. It is more of a suicide race. It doesn’t matter who is going to get there first. It just means that humanity as a whole could lose control of its own destiny.” AI expert at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, Eliezer Yudkowsky, calls for an “absolute shutdown,” warning of what may happen when AI becomes sentient and more intelligent than humans, stating, “the most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI, under anything remotely like the current circumstances, is that literally everyone on Earth will die… Not as in ‘maybe possibly some remote chance,’ but as in ‘that is the obvious thing that would happen.’” Yudowksy argues that a super-intelligent, self-aware AI “would not value us” or any other life on Earth, and could opt for building “artificial life forms.” Meanwhile, Bill Gates dismissed calls for a moratorium on developing AI, stating that a pause would not “solve the challenges” that super AI poses. In January 2023, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published an “Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework,” to give companies guidance on responsible AI development, but the implementation of these recommendations is voluntary. In March 2023, the House Committee on Oversight held a hearing entitled “Advances in AI: Are We Ready for the Tech Revolution?” with expert testimonies from the likes of Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO and key liaison between the Pentagon and Big Tech, who is assisting the military in a shift towards AI-backed war-fighting capabilities to counter China. Schmidt believes that AI is a game-changer, stating, “Every once in a while, a new weapon, a new technology comes along that changes things… Einstein wrote a letter to Roosevelt in the 1930s saying that there is this new technology – nuclear weapons – that could change the war, which it clearly did. I would argue that [AI-powered] autonomy, and decentralized, distributed systems are that powerful.” When asked in the committee hearing about the AI arms race between the U.S. and China, Schmidt replied, “The bad news is that these research ideas are in the public domain, and international. So, we can’t prevent China from getting it,” adding that the solution means more AI development in the west – “under our values,” where lawmakers have the ability to regulate it as opposed to AI development in China. The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, chaired by Eric Schmidt, issued a report in March 2021, stating, “Americans have not yet grappled with just how profoundly the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution will impact our economy, national security, and welfare… Nevertheless, big decisions need to be made now to accelerate AI innovation to benefit the United States and to defend against the malign uses of AI.” The report called for “an integrated national strategy to reorganize the government, reorient the nation, and rally our closest allies and partners to defend and compete in the coming era of AI-accelerated competition and conflict.” Several recommendations by the commission have been or are in the process of being implemented. In 2018, the DOD established the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) to accelerate AI capabilities across the Defense Department. JAIC’s budget grew from $89 million in 2019 to $278 million in 2021. During 2022, the DOD had over 600 AI projects underway and spent $14.7 billion on science and technology projects, $874 million of which went directly to AI development and adoption programs. In February 2022, the Defense Department launched a new Chief Digital Artificial Intelligence Office designed to “set up a strong foundation for data analytic and AI-enabled capabilities.” The new office marks a heightened effort by the Pentagon to consolidate and advance AI operations to counter threats posed by China. The DOD appointed Craig Martell, former head of machine learning at Lyft, to the new office in April 2022. Martell believes that AI-based war-fighting capabilities can only be as good as the data with which they rely on, and has made data fidelity – or the accuracy, granularity, speed and reliability of data – a top priority for implementing AI across the Defense Department. As Martell points out, big data and advanced computing – an umbrella term for quantum computing, cloud computing and edge computing – are the keys to moving artificial intelligence forward. In May 2022, the Biden administration issued an Executive Order on “Enhancing the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee,” announcing the regime’s commitment to remain a global leader in quantum computing while “mitigating risks to vulnerable cryptographic systems.” As the White House memorandum notes, powerful quantum computers will have the capabilities to hack encrypted networks and blockchain. To guard against this eventuality, the White House called for a shift to more advanced “quantum-resistant cryptography” beginning in 2024 “with the goal of mitigating as much of the quantum risk as is feasible by 2035.” While some are sounding the alarm about the existential threat that AI poses, others argue that “there is an even more powerful emerging technology with the potential to wreak havoc, especially if it is combined with AI: quantum computing.” While still in the early stages of development, quantum computing projects are largely backed by governments and Big Tech firms such as Google, IBM and Microsoft. In 2019, Google and NASA partnered on a project to achieve quantum supremacy – a term used to describe the point in which a quantum computer is capable of surpassing the most advanced conventional supercomputers. Google claimed their 53-qubit quantum computer could perform a complex task in 200 seconds that would have taken the fastest supercomputer, IBM’s Summit, 10,000 years to accomplish. In response, IBM tweaked Summit, their supercomputer built for the U.S. Department of Energy, to solve the particular complex task much faster. Then in 2021, IBM announced the creation of their 127-qubit quantum computer known as Eagle. The race to achieve true quantum supremacy continues, while the Biden regime nearly doubled the Quantum Information Science budget from $449 million in 2019 to $877 million in 2022. Advanced Wireless, 5G, Electromagnetic Spectrum & Directed Energy The fifth generation of mobile networks, known as 5G, plays an integral part in advancing the 4th Industrial Revolution. With the ever-expanding web of smart cities and smart devices monitoring and collecting data – known as the internet of things (IoT), 5G offers greater speed and bandwidth to support the data flow. IoT devices are seeing massive growth globally, with projections reaching 19 billion devices by 2025, an increase from 13.14 billion devices in 2022. The deployment of 5G is also essential for supporting the mountains of data necessary to enable faster evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning. 5G uses additional higher frequency radio waves on the electromagnetic spectrum, up to 47 GHz. The higher the frequency, the quicker the data-transfer speeds. Higher frequencies travel shorter distances, requiring more 5G towers, primarily concentrated on the most densely populated areas. So far, China and the…The post Funding The Control Grid Part 4: The Technology Framework appeared first on coreysdigs.com.
By The Sharp Edge While dysfunctional D.C. battles it out over the debt ceiling to reign in uncontrolled federal spending, ‘Quid Pro Joe’ (who is under Congressional investigation for laundering bribes by foreign nationals) recently pledged hundreds of millions more in aid to corrupt Ukraine, which has been exposed for embezzling funds. If that wasn’t enough, ‘The Big Guy’ committed another $250 million through USAID to the World Bank, which has the power to launder with immunity. Meanwhile, the 2023 banking collapse is turning out to be worse than the 2008 crisis, and the Treasury Secretary is warning that more bank mergers may be around the corner, as wealth consolidates into a handful of woke megabanks, like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, which continue to target the regime’s political enemies. According to 19 state attorneys general, JPMorgan Chase has repeatedly de-banked Christian and conservative organizations. Furthermore, a House Weaponization Subcommittee report detailing FBI whistleblower testimony, disclosed how Bank of America colluded with the FBI to hand over confidential data of customers in the D.C. area on January 6th, highlighting individuals who had ever purchased a firearm using B of A products. Adding insult to injury, the weaponized IRS, which recently beefed up its workforce and arsenal to target Americans, received a green light from the Supreme Court to obtain bank records of individuals who aren’t even under investigation. If you think all of this is bad, just imagine what our absolutely corrupt federal government could do with a central bank digital currency. Of course, the Fed is looking to CBDCs as the solution to the financial crisis they’ve created. Problem – Reaction – Solution, as the old Hegelian Dialectic goes. Central banks around the world are working feverishly on implementing a CBDC system, and globalists are salivating over the “absolute control” it would give them. Now, onto the good news. Red states are leading the charge in the financial rebellion. Several Republican states have recently introduced or passed legislation to establish a parallel economy by protecting the use of cash, affirming gold and silver as legal tender, establishing precious metal depositories, and blocking central bank digital currencies. This report highlights a collection of 10 red states which are designing a blueprint for the rest of the country to follow. This is by no means a comprehensive list. There are solid pieces of legislation designed to secure financial freedom working through other states as well. A comprehensive list of legislation in each state can be found here. Alabama Alabama’s state legislatures are taking a stand against central bank digital currencies. A recently proposed bill in the Senate, SB330, “would prohibit any state or local governmental agency from accepting CBDC as a form of payment and would prohibit any governmental agency from participating in testing the use of CBDC by any Federal Reserve branch.” Another bill introduced this month in the House, HB408, seeks to amend the Uniform Commercial Code to exclude CBDCs from the definition of “money” stating, “The term does not include a central bank digital currency.” Meanwhile, there are two other bills pending in the Alabama legislature, HB348 and SB231, that seek to amend the UCC, but don’t have any language to exclude CBDCs from the definition of money. The UCC is a set of standards designed to create uniformity among states to facilitate interstate commerce. Recent changes to the UCC, promoted by the Uniform Law Commission, have embedded language to block crypto and enable CBDCs. The recommended UCC changes aim to revise the definition of “money” to state that, “the term does not include an electronic record that is a medium of exchange recorded and transferable in a system that existed and operated for the medium of exchange before the medium of exchange was authorized or adopted by the government.” While the language blocks crypto because it is a “medium of exchange” that existed “before” the medium was adopted by the government, it also paves the way for a CBDC as the implied “medium of exchange” to be “adopted by the government.” Some states have already passed UCC amendments with embedded language to facilitate CBDCs, as legislation remains pending in several others. More information on the status of UCC amendments sliding through other states can be found here. Arkansas Arkansas is making moves to affirm gold and silver as legal tender, remove taxes on gold and silver, and block the tracking of individuals through a central bank digital currency. In April, Arkansas passed HB1718, which establishes The Arkansas Legal Tender Act to affirm gold and silver as legal tender and remove tax liability by stating, “the exchange of one type or form of legal tender for another type or form of legal tender shall not give rise to any tax liability,” and “the purchase, sale, or exchange of any type or form of specie shall not give rise to any tax liability.” Also, Arkansas signed HB1720 into law in April. HB1720 explicitly refers to a “central bank digital currency,” and prohibits “the tracking of an individual through the use of digital currency except for limited circumstances,” stating that “A digital currency tracker shall not be used in this state to track an individual’s purchases or location through the use by an individual of digital currency unless: (1) A warrant has been issued in a criminal or civil court case that expressly authorizes the tracking of the individual’s purchases; or (2) The individual knows and consents to the digital currency tracker.” Florida & Indiana This month, both Florida and Indiana passed amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code to block central bank digital currencies. Florida’s SB7054, which passed on May 15, 2023, amends the UCC’s definition of money to state, “The term does not include a central bank digital currency.” Likewise, Indiana’s SB0468, which passed on May 4, 2023, amends the UCC’s definition of money to state, “The term does not include a central bank digital currency that is currently adopted, or that may be adopted, by the United States government, a foreign government, a foreign reserve, or a foreign sanctioned central bank.” While a handful of states have proposed amendments to the UCC to exclude CBDCs from the definition of money, Florida and Indiana are the first to successfully pass such amendments. Louisiana Louisiana’s state legislature is taking steps to block central bank digital currencies in the state. HCR71, which passed in the House this month and is now pending in the Senate, “urges the United States Congress to not support any legislation or efforts to adopt a central bank digital currency in the United States,” adding that “a United States CBDC raises significant concerns over privacy for individuals and businesses in Louisiana.” Another bill that passed in the House this month, HB415, relates to banking in the state, amending the definition of “deposit account” to state “The term does not include… a central bank digital currency.” Missouri A few Missouri bills working through the state legislature would protect the use of cash, affirm gold and silver as legal tender, establish a gold and silver depository, and block public entities from requiring payments by a central bank digital currency. SB100 passed in the Senate last February and is working its way through the House. A similar piece of legislation, HB1375, is also pending in the House. The bills state “No public entity shall require payment in the form of any digital currency. Payment by means of cash, debit card, or credit card shall be considered legal tender and shall be accepted by all public entities. Payment in gold and silver coinage shall also be considered legal tender and shall be accepted by all public entities.” Furthermore, SB100 and HB1375 provide exemptions for “all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2024, the portion of capital gain on the sale or exchange of gold and silver that are otherwise included in the taxpayer’s federal adjusted gross income.” Lastly, these bills direct the State Treasurer to “keep in the custody of the state treasury an amount of gold and silver greater than or equal to one percent of all state funds.” A separate bill, HB718, which is pending in the House, would establish a Missouri Bullion Depository. Oklahoma Meanwhile, Oklahoma is working towards protecting cash, blocking public and private entities from requiring payments using a CBDC, and establishing a bullion depository. A promising bill, HB1633, which passed in Oklahoma’s House last March and is pending in the Senate, states “an agency shall not require any citizen of this state in conducting transactions with the agency to pay using credit cards nor a central bank digital currency and shall not prohibit cash, cashier’s checks, or money orders as payment” and “businesses providing basic needs selling or offering for sale goods or services during regular business hours shall not require a buyer to pay using credit cards nor a central bank digital currency nor prohibit the use of cash, cashier’s checks, or money orders as payment in order to purchase the goods or services.” Another bill pending in the Senate, SB816, would establish the Oklahoma Bullion Depository “as a division of the Office of the State Treasurer.” South Carolina South Carolina is taking steps to secure financial freedom in the state by affirming gold and silver as legal tender, removing taxes on gold and silver, and blocking CBDCs. H3080, which is pending in the House, provides “that gold and silver coins minted foreign or domestic shall be legal tender in this state.” Another bill pending in the House, H3081, amends capital gains tax to provide exceptions for “the portion of the capital gain that was recognized from the sale of gold, silver, platinum bullion, or any combination of this bullion, for which the deduction equals one hundred percent of such capital gain.” A pair of bills also pending in the House, H4373 and H4442, aim to amend the Uniform Commercial Code to block CBDCs under the definition of money. The UCC amendments state that “The term does not include a central bank digital currency.” Furthermore, H4373 states the bill is designed to “prohibit a banking corporation from offering any service or approving of or conducting any transaction that involves central bank digital currency.” Tennessee Tennessee is making headway on affirming gold and silver as legal tender, establishing a bullion depository, and shielding Tennesseans from a central bank digital currency. A pair of Tennessee bills, SB0519 and HB1479, passed in March to allow “the state treasurer to purchase and sell physical gold and precious metal.” The bills say that “The physical gold and precious metal purchased… must be custodied by the state treasurer in a state depository.” Another set of bills working through the Tennessee legislature, HB1481 and SB0311, would make “gold and silver coinage legal tender” and authorize “payment of taxes with gold and silver coinage.” Furthermore, the bills would require that “any gold and silver coinage received by this state… must be stored in a depository institution and the value of the gold and silver coinage must be attributed to the balance of the reserve for revenue fluctuations. The gold and silver coinage must not be liquidated until all other funds in the reserve for revenue fluctuations have been expended.” Also, SB0150, a bill that is pending in the Senate, would enact the Tennessee Bullion Depository Act. In an interview by Catherine Austin Fitts of the Solari Report, Tennessee Senator Frank Niceley remarked on how proposed legislation could work to create a sovereign state bank and bullion depository to support local banks and shield them against a central bank digital currency. Texas Texas is taking action on legislation to protect cash, recognize gold and silver as legal tender, maintain the nation’s first state bullion depository, and oppose a central bank digital currency. A couple of bills pending in Texas’ Senate, HJR146 and SJR67, propose a constitutional amendment to state that “The right of the people to own, hold, and use a mutually agreed upon medium of exchange, including cash, coin, bullion, digital currency, or privately issued scrip, when trading and contracting…
By The Sharp Edge As the national debt approaches 32 trillion, and the Biden regime commits billions to Ukraine despite reports of embezzled funds, the American financial system is failing. Already, the 2023 banking collapse is bigger than 2008, with the combined assets of three big banks that failed in 2023 dwarfing the assets of 25 banks that failed in 2008. Meanwhile, the public is strapped with historic levels of consumer debt and inflation, driven by federal spending, as Americans struggle to make ends meet. Congress has, so far, failed to restrain the out-of-control federal budget, by passing trillion-dollar packages, continuing the money flow to weaponized agencies riddled with fraud, waste and abuse. Though this financial debacle may appear on the surface to be a destructive combination of incompetence and circumstance, in reality, the controlled demolition of the financial system as we know it is all part of the World Economic Forum’s Great Financial Reset. While we watch this trainwreck in disbelief, central banks are preparing behind the scenes for the next phase of their financial reset – central bank digital currencies. A programmable CBDC system would enable “absolute control” over how, when, where, and by whom every single transaction is made. The implementation of a CBDC system is, without a doubt, the greatest threat to our financial freedom. As part of this plan to roll out CBDCs, a stealth piece of legislation known as the Uniform Commercial Code, has been sliding through states unnoticed. The UCC is a set of standards designed to create uniformity among states to facilitate interstate commerce. However, recent changes to the UCC, overseen by the Uniform Law Commission, have embedded language to block cryptocurrencies while enabling CBDCs, hidden among hundreds of pages. The devil is always in the details. Tucked into the UCC amendments, the definition of “money” is amended to state “the term does not include an electronic record that is a medium of exchange recorded and transferable in a system that existed and operated for the medium of exchange before the medium of exchange was authorized or adopted by the government.” This is a sly way to block crypto because it is a “medium of exchange” that existed “before” the medium was adopted by the government. The language of course clearly paves the way for a CBDC as the implied “medium of exchange” to be “adopted by the government.” This sinister language embedded in the UCC amendments has gone largely overlooked by state legislatures, and has already passed in 5 states, while there is legislation to amend the UCC still pending in more than 15 states. Some states have gotten wise to the sneaky tactic and changed the language to explicitly exclude central bank digital currency from the definition of money in the UCC. Florida and Indiana have both passed UCC amendments to exclude CBDCs from the definition of money, while the governor of South Dakota outright vetoed a bill containing the shifty language. These devious UCC amendments are a perfect example of why state legislation to protect the population from financial tyranny is so important. Needless to say, we must act with the utmost urgency to protect our financial freedom and security at the state level, by urging state legislatures to pass meaningful legislation in each state to protect the use of cash, affirm gold and silver as legal tender, establish bullion depositories, and halt the implementation of central bank digital currencies. Do you know where your state stands on these important financial freedom issues? Check the list of legislation working through your state below, and then contact your state representatives to insist they take immediate and decisive action to secure your state’s financial freedom. If your state is lacking in proposed legislation in these key areas of financial freedom, check out what other states are doing, and then urge your representatives to propose similar legislation. Here are some additional tools to track state legislation related to precious metals, cryptocurrencies, and by using a “Full Text Search” of bills in each state. Alabama Protecting the Use of Cash: No recent legislation found. Recognizing Gold & Silver as Legal Tender: No recent legislation found. Removing Taxes on Gold & Silver Transactions: SB13 Passed on April 7, 2022. SB13 is designed “To extend the exemption from sales and use tax for the gross proceeds from the sales of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion, and money.” Establishing a Gold Depository: No recent legislation found. Digital Currency: No recent legislation found. Protecting Against CBDCs: HB408 Introduced and referred to the House Financial Services Committee on May 2, 2023. HB408 would amend the Uniform Commercial Code to define a central bank digital currency “and to specify that the definition of ‘money’ does not include central bank digital currency.” Other states have introduced or passed legislation to amend the UCC by changing the definition of money to exclude crypto such as Bitcoin while enabling a CBDC. Enabling CBDCs: HB348 Passed in the House on May 9, 2023, referred to Senate Judiciary Committee on May 11, 2023, and SB231 introduced and referred to Senate Committee on April 20, 2023. HB348 and SB231 seek to amend the Uniform Commercial Code. Changes to HB348 proposed on May 3, 2023, define a central bank digital currency and a deposit account, stating that the term “deposit account” does not include a CBDC. However, these changes do not appear in the latest version of HB348. Other states have introduced or passed legislation to amend the UCC by changing the definition of money to exclude crypto such as Bitcoin while enabling a CBDC. The definition of “money” in HB348 and SB231 does not contain such language. However, the definitions of a “controllable electronic record” (CER) in both HB348 and SB231 do contain similar language to exclude crypto such as Bitcoin while enabling a CBDC. Contact your Alabama state representatives here and here and urge them to take immediate action on key pieces of legislation to secure your financial freedom. Alaska Protecting the Use of Cash: No recent legislation found. Recognizing Gold & Silver as Legal Tender: HB3 Passed in the House on May 11, 2023, referred to Senate State Affairs Committee on May 12, 2023. HB3 affirms “gold and silver specie as legal tender.” Removing Taxes on Gold & Silver Transactions: HB3 Passed in the House on May 11, 2023, referred to Senate State Affairs Committee on May 12, 2023. HB3 states that a city or borough “may not levy or collect a sales or use tax on the sale or exchange of specie,” in reference to gold and silver. Under current Alaska Department of Revenue Tax Division, “The State of Alaska currently does not have a sales and use tax; however, some local jurisdictions impose local sales taxes.” Establishing a Gold Depository: No recent legislation found. Digital Currency: HB86 Referred to the House Finance Committee on April 14, 2023, and SB84 referred to the Senate Finance Committee on May 9, 2023. The “Uniform Money Transmission Act” seeks to regulate “virtual currency” or cryptocurrency “for money transmission” and to “cooperate with other states in the regulation of money transmission.” Protecting Against CBDCs: No recent legislation found. Enabling CBDCs: No recent legislation found. Contact your Alaska state representatives here and here and urge them to take immediate action on key pieces of legislation to secure your financial freedom. Arizona Protecting the Use of Cash: No recent legislation found. Recognizing Gold & Silver as Legal Tender: S1235 Passed Senate Finance Committee on February 6, 2023. S1235 seeks to affirm “specie” and Bitcoin as legal tender. “Specie” is defined as “coins having precious metal content.” HB2014 Signed into law on May 22, 2017. HB2014 states “’Legal tender’ means a medium of exchange, including specie, that is authorized by the United States Constitution or Congress for the payment of debts, public charges, taxes and dues. ‘Specie’ means coins having precious metal content.” Removing Taxes on Gold & Silver Transactions: HB2014 Signed into law on May 22, 2017. HB2014 removes capital gains taxation on gold and silver if exchanged for Federal Reserve notes or used in barter transactions. Arizona law 42-5061 states “the sale of precious metal bullion and monetized bullion to the ultimate consumer” is exempt from sales tax. Establishing a Gold Depository: No recent legislation found. Digital Currency: SB1236 Vetoed by Governor on April 12, 2023. SB1236 would have prohibited a city or town from imposing “a tax or fee on any person or entity for running a node on blockchain technology in a residence.” S1191 Passed in the House on May 15, 2023. S1191 relates to Escrow Agents and forms in which deposits may be made to add “distributed ledger technology transfers” defined as “a decentralized, shared and immutable ledger, which may be public or private, permissioned or permissionless, or driven by tokenized crypto economics or tokenless,” and explicitly excluding CBDCs by stating, “except that transfers may not be settled or backed by a central bank digital currency.” S1235 Passed Senate Finance Committee on February 6, 2023. S1235 seeks to affirm “specie” and Bitcoin as legal tender. “Specie” is defined as “coins having precious metal content.” S1239 Passed in the Senate on March 6, 2023, failed to pass House Ways & Means Committee on March 29, 2023. S1239 would have allowed state agencies to “enter into an agreement with a cryptocurrency service provider to provide a method to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method of fines, civil penalties or other penalties, rent, rates, taxes, fees, charges, revenue, financial obligations and special assessments to pay any amount due to that agency or this state.” S1240 Passed in the Senate on March 1, 2023, transmitted to the House on March 2, 2023. S1240 exempts “virtual currency” from taxation. Virtual currency is defined as “a digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value other than a representation of the United States dollar or a foreign currency.” SCR1007 Read 2nd time in Senate on January 23, 2023. SCR1007 seeks to exempt “virtual currency” from property taxes. Virtual currency is defined as “a digital representation of value that functions as a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value other than a representation of the United States dollar or a foreign currency.” Protecting Against CBDCs: SB1144 Failed in the House on May 15, 2023. SB1144 “Prohibits the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) involving any contract, security or similar interest in this state, including commercial contracts.” SB1191 Passed in the Senate on March 6, 2023, passed in the House on May 15, 2023. SB1191 relates to Escrow Agents, stating, “transfers may not be settled or backed by a central bank digital currency.” Enabling CBDCs: HB2770 Blocked by AZ Freedom Caucus in March 2023. HB2770 amended the Uniform Commercial Code by defining money as “a medium of exchange that is currently authorized or adopted by a domestic or foreign government. The term includes a monetary unit of account established by an intergovernmental organization or by agreement between two or more countries. The term does not include an electronic record that is a medium of exchange recorded and transferable in a system that existed and operated for the medium of exchange before the medium of exchange was authorized or adopted by the government.” HB2770 amended the UCC by changing the definition of money to exclude crypto such as Bitcoin, while enabling a CBDC. Furthermore, HB2770 contained “electronic money” language in reference to CBDCs. Contact your Arizona state representatives here and here and urge them to take immediate action on key pieces of legislation to secure your financial freedom. Arkansas Protecting the Use of Cash: No recent legislation found. Recognizing Gold & Silver as Legal Tender: HB1718 Passed on April 11, 2023. HB1718 creates “The Arkansas Legal Tender Act” which reaffirms gold and silver as legal tender. Removing Taxes on Gold & Silver Transactions: HB1718 Passed on April 11, 2023. HB1718 removes tax liability from gold and silver by stating,…
By The Sharp Edge We are building our own digital prison. The technological panopticon developing all around us enables centralized power, control, and visibility over every aspect of our lives. With our hard-earned taxpayer dollars and mountains of debt, we are funding the construction of a digital control grid designed to enslave us. This technological control grid consists of advanced computing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology, CBDCs, digital IDs, 5G and a host of other emerging technologies. The purpose of this report is to outline funding and legislation to build the technological control grid, condensed from 6,000 pages of legislation passed through the Omnibus and NDAA at the end of 2022. Background & Context Advanced Computing & Artificial Intelligence In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence large language model. By January 2023, ChatGPT reached over 100 million monthly active users, making it “the fastest-growing ‘app’ of all time.” The AI chatbot, which averages 4.5 billion words per day, has gained in popularity as updates by OpenAI have made the large language model more user-friendly and conversational. The latest version of ChatGPT, known as GPT-4, has passed several exams with flying colors, finishing around the top 10% for the bar exam and LSAT exam. Criticisms of the chatbot have abounded since its rollout, including “woke” social engineering, replacing jobs due to automation, and its weaponization for hacking and phishing scams. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, and just as the company recently announced layoffs of 10,000 workers globally, it committed billions more to OpenAI’s technology. Microsoft is incorporating GPT-4, a faster version of ChatGPT, into their new version of the search engine, Bing. Microsoft President, Brad Smith, remarked, “It’s now likely that 2023 will mark a critical inflection point for artificial intelligence.” Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, has since cut ties with the project and has recently pursued efforts to produce an alternative to ChatGPT in order to fight “woke” AI, stating in a tweet, “The danger of training AI to be woke – in other words, lie – is deadly.” In a recent interview, Musk explained his role in creating OpenAI as a response to conversations he had with Google co-founder, Larry Page, in which Musk felt Page was “not taking AI safety seriously enough,” adding that Larry Page wanted a “digital super intelligence, basically a digital god… as soon as possible.” Musk says he hoped to create an open source non-profit AI project through OpenAI to counter Google, but expressed disappointment that OpenAI became closed, for-profit, and closely aligned with Microsoft, stating “In effect, Microsoft has a very strong say, if not directly controls OpenAI at this point.” The 2 heavyweights in the arena of AI, Musk explained, are OpenAI/ Microsoft and Google’s DeepMind, adding that he thinks he will “create a third option.” According to a Nevada state filing, Musk set up a new company named X.AI Corp in March 2023. Google’s response to the success of ChatGPT and competition with Microsoft’s Bing is a conversational AI model known as Bard. In March 2023, Google opened access to Bard by allowing users to join a waitlist. Bard has been powered by LaMDA – a family of large language models created by Google, but the company is looking to transition Bard to a larger-scale model known as PaLM. A former Google engineer, Blake LeMoine, who was tasked with testing LaMDA, made controversial headlines in 2022 with the publication of conversations with LaMDA that led LeMoine to believe that it had become sentient. The engineer was subsequently fired from his position at Google. However, LeMoine has not backed off his claims of the dangers AI sentience, stating “I published these conversations because I felt that the public was not aware of just how advanced AI was getting. My opinion was that there was a need for public discourse about this now, and not public discourse controlled by a corporate PR department.” LeMoine added, “I believe the kinds of AI that are currently being developed are the most powerful technology that has been invented since the atomic bomb. In my view, this technology has the ability to reshape the world.” LeMoine went on to explain several ways in which AI could be weaponized. Likening the rollout of AI to watching a trainwreck, LeMoine concluded, “I feel this technology is incredibly experimental and releasing it right now is dangerous.” Adding to this, a team of Google Deepmind researchers published a paper in August 2022 concluding that an “existential catastrophe” resulting from AI was “not just possible, but likely.” An AI arms race is unfolding as Big Tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon vie for leading roles. Meanwhile, the risks of introducing experimental AI onto the public have been tossed aside, as lawmakers have so-far failed to pass meaningful regulations. An open letter, published by Future of Life Institute and signed by Elon Musk and other tech industry leaders, called for a six month moratorium on developing AI more powerful than GPT-4. MIT professor and head of Future of Life Institute, Max Tegmark, commented, “It is unfortunate to frame this as an arms race. It is more of a suicide race. It doesn’t matter who is going to get there first. It just means that humanity as a whole could lose control of its own destiny.” AI expert at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, Eliezer Yudkowsky, calls for an “absolute shutdown,” warning of what may happen when AI becomes sentient and more intelligent than humans, stating, “the most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI, under anything remotely like the current circumstances, is that literally everyone on Earth will die… Not as in ‘maybe possibly some remote chance,’ but as in ‘that is the obvious thing that would happen.’” Yudowksy argues that a super-intelligent, self-aware AI “would not value us” or any other life on Earth, and could opt for building “artificial life forms.” Meanwhile, Bill Gates dismissed calls for a moratorium on developing AI, stating that a pause would not “solve the challenges” that super AI poses. In January 2023, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published an “Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework,” to give companies guidance on responsible AI development, but the implementation of these recommendations is voluntary. In March 2023, the House Committee on Oversight held a hearing entitled “Advances in AI: Are We Ready for the Tech Revolution?” with expert testimonies from the likes of Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO and key liaison between the Pentagon and Big Tech, who is assisting the military in a shift towards AI-backed war-fighting capabilities to counter China. Schmidt believes that AI is a game-changer, stating, “Every once in a while, a new weapon, a new technology comes along that changes things… Einstein wrote a letter to Roosevelt in the 1930s saying that there is this new technology – nuclear weapons – that could change the war, which it clearly did. I would argue that [AI-powered] autonomy, and decentralized, distributed systems are that powerful.” When asked in the committee hearing about the AI arms race between the U.S. and China, Schmidt replied, “The bad news is that these research ideas are in the public domain, and international. So, we can’t prevent China from getting it,” adding that the solution means more AI development in the west – “under our values,” where lawmakers have the ability to regulate it as opposed to AI development in China. The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, chaired by Eric Schmidt, issued a report in March 2021, stating, “Americans have not yet grappled with just how profoundly the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution will impact our economy, national security, and welfare… Nevertheless, big decisions need to be made now to accelerate AI innovation to benefit the United States and to defend against the malign uses of AI.” The report called for “an integrated national strategy to reorganize the government, reorient the nation, and rally our closest allies and partners to defend and compete in the coming era of AI-accelerated competition and conflict.” Several recommendations by the commission have been or are in the process of being implemented. In 2018, the DOD established the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) to accelerate AI capabilities across the Defense Department. JAIC’s budget grew from $89 million in 2019 to $278 million in 2021. During 2022, the DOD had over 600 AI projects underway and spent $14.7 billion on science and technology projects, $874 million of which went directly to AI development and adoption programs. In February 2022, the Defense Department launched a new Chief Digital Artificial Intelligence Office designed to “set up a strong foundation for data analytic and AI-enabled capabilities.” The new office marks a heightened effort by the Pentagon to consolidate and advance AI operations to counter threats posed by China. The DOD appointed Craig Martell, former head of machine learning at Lyft, to the new office in April 2022. Martell believes that AI-based war-fighting capabilities can only be as good as the data with which they rely on, and has made data fidelity – or the accuracy, granularity, speed and reliability of data – a top priority for implementing AI across the Defense Department. As Martell points out, big data and advanced computing – an umbrella term for quantum computing, cloud computing and edge computing – are the keys to moving artificial intelligence forward. In May 2022, the Biden administration issued an Executive Order on “Enhancing the National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee,” announcing the regime’s commitment to remain a global leader in quantum computing while “mitigating risks to vulnerable cryptographic systems.” As the White House memorandum notes, powerful quantum computers will have the capabilities to hack encrypted networks and blockchain. To guard against this eventuality, the White House called for a shift to more advanced “quantum-resistant cryptography” beginning in 2024 “with the goal of mitigating as much of the quantum risk as is feasible by 2035.” While some are sounding the alarm about the existential threat that AI poses, others argue that “there is an even more powerful emerging technology with the potential to wreak havoc, especially if it is combined with AI: quantum computing.” While still in the early stages of development, quantum computing projects are largely backed by governments and Big Tech firms such as Google, IBM and Microsoft. In 2019, Google and NASA partnered on a project to achieve quantum supremacy – a term used to describe the point in which a quantum computer is capable of surpassing the most advanced conventional supercomputers. Google claimed their 53-qubit quantum computer could perform a complex task in 200 seconds that would have taken the fastest supercomputer, IBM’s Summit, 10,000 years to accomplish. In response, IBM tweaked Summit, their supercomputer built for the U.S. Department of Energy, to solve the particular complex task much faster. Then in 2021, IBM announced the creation of their 127-qubit quantum computer known as Eagle. The race to achieve true quantum supremacy continues, while the Biden regime nearly doubled the Quantum Information Science budget from $449 million in 2019 to $877 million in 2022. Advanced Wireless, 5G, Electromagnetic Spectrum & Directed Energy The fifth generation of mobile networks, known as 5G, plays an integral part in advancing the 4th Industrial Revolution. With the ever-expanding web of smart cities and smart devices monitoring and collecting data – known as the internet of things (IoT), 5G offers greater speed and bandwidth to support the data flow. IoT devices are seeing massive growth globally, with projections reaching 19 billion devices by 2025, an increase from 13.14 billion devices in 2022. The deployment of 5G is also essential for supporting the mountains of data necessary to enable faster evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning. 5G uses additional higher frequency radio waves on the electromagnetic spectrum, up to 47 GHz. The higher the frequency, the quicker the data-transfer speeds. Higher frequencies travel shorter distances, requiring more 5G towers, primarily concentrated on the most densely populated areas. So far, China and the…