Science

Government Funding For mRNA Technology Is Being Scrutinized And, In Some Cases, Sidelined

It looks as though government funding for mRNA technology is on a short leash…

Take, for example, a promising mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer, developed by Memorial Sloan Kettering, that showed encouraging early results: in some patients, immune responses lasted up to four years and appeared to reduce recurrence.

It is being overshadowed by new concerns about federal support for mRNA research, according to a new op-ed by science commentator Anjana Ahuja in the Financial Times. 

According to Nature, NIH officials are informally advising scientists to remove references to mRNA from grant applications, and a spreadsheet tracking 130 related projects has raised fears of funding cuts.

NIH claims it’s simply reviewing what mRNA work it currently funds, but the lack of clarity has sparked unease—especially given the agency’s massive $47 billion research budget.

Drew Weissman, the Nobel-winning scientist behind mRNA vaccine breakthroughs, warned that cutting NIH support for mRNA research would stall medical progress and harm U.S. science. Even the threat of funding cuts creates fear and instability, especially for young researchers who may now look abroad for more secure opportunities.

To which we reply: if mRNA vaccines have a safe solution, the free market will eventually allow them to flourish…

But the Financial Times piece says that concerns have intensified with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leading Health and Human Services, and reports that mRNA projects are being scrutinized or sidelined politically. 

One early study using personalized mRNA cancer vaccines is already yielding hopeful results and has launched a broader global trial, according to the op-ed.

Scientists argue that pulling support now could derail life-saving innovation. As history shows, today’s medical breakthroughs rest on decades of consistent public research investment — a pipeline that can’t survive in a climate of political interference.

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DNC, Schumer Sue Trump Over Order Targeting Illegal Immigrant Voting

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and two top U.S. lawmakers on March 31 sued President Donald Trump over a recent executive order that aims to enforce the law against illegal immigrant voting and election dates.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in Washington on March 13, 2025. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

“The Executive Order seeks to impose radical changes on how Americans register to vote, cast a ballot, and participate in our democracy—all of which threaten to disenfranchise lawful voters and none of which is legal,” says the lawsuit, filed by Democratic Party attorney Marc Elias in federal court in Washington.

Trump’s March 25 order has multiple sections. Several deal with laws that bar foreigners from registering to vote or from voting in federal elections. Trump directed the independent Election Assistance Commission to require proof of U.S. citizenship in its mail voter registration form, ordered U.S. officials to work with the Department of Government Efficiency to review voter rolls to identify noncitizens who are already registered, and told the U.S. attorney general to prosecute individuals who have illegally registered or voted.

Another prong takes aim at how some states in recent years have begun counting mailed ballots that arrive after Election Day, which the order says contravenes federal law.

A third portion says the Election Assistance Commission shall stop providing federal funds to states that don’t comply with the laws on election dates and noncitizen voting and voter registration.

The U.S. Constitution’s election clause says that states can set election dates, although Congress can alter them.

“Outside of the Elections Clause, other provisions in the Constitution place certain requirements and limitations on the regulation of elections—but none allows the President to override the will of the States or Congress in this space,” the new suit states.

The legal challenge also says that the Election Assistance Commission is an independent agency over which the president, who appoints commissioners, has no control, and that federal law lets applicants who vote in federal elections attest to citizenship with a signature as opposed to requiring proof from documents such as a passport.

In addition to the DNC, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate, and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, are plaintiffs in the suit.

The Democrats are asking the court to declare that the order violates the Constitution and federal law and block U.S. officials, such as the attorney general, from implementing it.

“The Democrats continue to show their disdain for the Constitution and it continues to show in their insane objections to the President’s commonsense executive actions to require proof of U.S. citizenship in an effort to protect the integrity of American elections,“ Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, told The Epoch Times in an email. ”The Trump administration is standing up for free, fair, and honest elections and asking this basic question is essential to our Constitutional Republic.”

Ahead of the 2016 election, Elias…

USAID And The Architecture Of Perception

Authored by Josh Stylman via The Brownstone Institute,

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has long portrayed itself as America’s humanitarian aid organization, delivering assistance to developing nations. With an annual budget of nearly $40 billion and operations in over 100 countries, it represents one of the largest foreign aid institutions in the world. But recent disclosures reveal its true nature as something far more systematic: an architect of global consciousness.

Consider: Reuters, one of the world’s most trusted news sources, received USAID funding for ‘Large Scale Social Deception’ and ‘Social Engineering Defence.’ While there’s debate about the exact scope of these programs, the implications are staggering: a division of one of the world’s most relied-upon sources for objective reporting was paid by a US government agency for systemic reality construction. This funding goes beyond traditional media support, representing a deliberate infrastructure for discourse framing that fundamentally challenges the concept of ‘objective’ reporting.

Source: USASpending.gov database

But it goes deeper. In what reads like a Michael Crichton plot come to life, the recent USAID revelations show a staggering reach of narrative control. Take Internews Network, a USAID-financed NGO that has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive network, ‘working with’ 4,291 media outlets. In just one year, they produced 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and ‘trained’ over 9,000 journalists. This isn’t just funding – it’s a systematic infrastructure of consciousness manipulation.

The revelations show USAID funding both the Wuhan Lab’s gain-of-function research and the media outlets that would shape the story around what emerged from it. Backing organizations that would fabricate impeachment evidence. Funding both the election systems that facilitate outcomes and the fact-checkers that determine which discussions about those outcomes are permitted. But these disclosures point to something far more significant than mere corruption.

These revelations didn’t emerge from nowhere – they come from government grant disclosures, FOIA requests, and official records that aren’t even hidden, just ignored. As my old friend Mark Schiffer noted the other day, ‘The most important truths today cannot be debated – they must be felt as totalities.’ The pattern, once seen, cannot be unseen. Some may question DOGE’s methods or the rapid pace of these disclosures, and those constitutional concerns deserve serious discussion. But that’s a separate conversation from what these documents reveal. The revelations themselves – documented in official records and grant disclosures – are undeniable and should shock anyone who values truth. The means of exposure matter far less than what’s being exposed: one of the largest narrative control operations in history.

No domain is untouched – markets, tech, culture, health, and obviously, media – and you’ll find the same design. Intelligence agencies are deeply embedded in each domain because shaping how we perceive reality is more powerful than controlling reality itself

Just as fiat currency replaced real value with declared value, we now see the same pattern everywhere: fiat science replaces inquiry with predetermined conclusions, fiat culture replaces organic development with curated influence, fiat history replaces lived experience with manufactured narratives. We live in an era of fiat…

Hollywood Claims Rachel Zegler Is “An Icon” Despite Epic Snow White Bomb

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years you’re probably familiar with the controversy surrounding the “wokification” of Disney and their constant attempts to inject leftist activism into their media products.  Disney’s cult-like dogma played a considerable role in the rise of the anti-woke movement and ultimately the fall of Hollywood, which is now reeling from an avalanche of box office failures.

One such predictable failure (perhaps the ultimate predictable failure) is the woke Snow White live action remake starring a veritable unknown actress by the name of Rachel Zegler.  To summarize why the public despises Zegler and this film so much, let’s backtrack to 2021 when Zegler was announced for the beloved role.

First, the movie is called Snow White.  It’s based on a centuries old German fairy tale which was eventually written down and published by the Brothers Grim in 1812.  These tales are an integral part of Medieval European heritage.  Though she is part Polish, Zegler is certainly not “snow white”.  The casting choice was viewed by many fans of the original animation as a deliberate attempt to race swap yet another classic European character and troll western audiences with DEI.

If it was minority folk figure being replaced, the response from leftists would be rabid.  But, it’s okay as long as the characters are white.

Then there was the public complaints of an angry little actor by the name of Peter Dinklage, who praised Disney for hiring a Latina to play Snow White but argued that hiring real life dwarfs to play the Seven Dwarfs would be “backwards” and demeaning.  Thus, in his burst of pint-sized outrage, Dinklage destroyed any chance for seven actors with dwarfism to make a name for themselves on the big screen. 

Then there was the leaked production photos of the “Seven Dwarfs”, who were played by a laughably diverse cast of normal sized people.  Disney initially lied about the images and claimed they were “Fake and not from our production…”  As it turned out, the images were real.  The internet collectively laughed and gasped simultaneously at how bad and woke the movie was clearly going to be.

This is the sort of blunder that occurs when you try to make every “marginalized” activist group happy. 

The biggest handicap for the film, however, was Rachel Zegler’s big mouth.  The actress hammed it up in interviews, disparaging the original Snow White as a “weird” relic of the patriarchal past and asserted that the remake would be a representation of empowerment for women who “don’t need no man”. 

Then there was Zegler’s steady stream of anti-Trump and anti-conservative rants on social media.  A classic mistake of modern Hollywood actors; thinking that the public has any interest in their political insights.  Her comments hurt the film’s chances even more.  Disney was eventually forced to delay the release for a year, claiming that it was “because of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike”.  

The final product turned out to be…