(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) During a CNN-hosted town-hall event in December, presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy dismantled the bogus framing of moderator Abby Phillip’s questions by pointing to the trove of contrary evidence that has effectively debunked the Left’s long-running narrative about the Jan. 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol.
“If you had told me three years ago … that Jan. 6 was, in any way, an inside job, the subject of government entrapment, I would have told you that was crazy talk, fringe conspiracy theory nonsense,” Ramaswamy said.
“I can tell you now, having gone somewhat deep in this, it’s not,” he continued. “I mean the reality is this: We do have a government—first of all, we have technology that has lied to us systematically over the last several years about the origin of COVID-19, about the Hunter Biden laptop that we were told was false by 51 CIA experts … you can go straight down the list—the Trump–Russia disinformation collusion hoax, all of it.”
Returning to Jan. 6, Ramaswamy then put forth another basic fact that has been demonstrably proven through the evidentiary record—including congressional testimony by Attorney General Merrick Garland and others, as well as through video evidence—that undercover cops and plain-clothed federal plants (of yet unknown provenance) cooperated during the melee to incite lawlessness.
“The reality is we know that there were federal law enforcement agents in that field, we don’t know how many,” said the former biotech CEO, author and entrepreneur before getting cut off by Phillip in one of several stunning interruptions.
The Harvard-educated Phillip’s denialism—and her determination neither to hear the facts presented nor to allow anyone else to do so—did more to tell the story than anything Ramaswamy could have said. Indeed, such censorship has become an integral part of the deep-state conspiracy, with the cover-up almost as egregious as the crime itself.
But in the three years since Jan. 6, the Left’s hubris has played out much like the cautionary fables of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and “Chicken Little”—the old tactics of hyperbole, deflection and gaslighting used to push the Big Lie have seen diminishing returns each time another lesser lie is exposed.
A year ago, it seemed, the public had already passed the proverbial tipping point.
On Dec. 26, 2022, I wrote an article outlining my predictions for 10 “conspiracy theories” that would be validated. Between the Headline USA version and a slightly modified one that got picked up by the popular site ZeroHedge on New Year’s Day, the article was viewed more than 700,000 times.
Within a matter of weeks, we were already checking items off the list. However, some of those predictions continue to be shrouded beneath multiple layers of leftist lies. And a few may have grown even more complex and enigmatic.
Thus, this year, I will play the role of fact-checker to my previous piece, evaluating the extent to which each of these predictions has, in fact, been validated:
1. The role that the intel community and the Justice Department played in fomenting violence through psy-ops on Jan. 6, 2021, will be exposed.
Verdict: Validated
As the Justice Department continued its streak of arresting and jailing political dissidents—and even members of the media—for their involvement in Jan. 6, the relative wrist-slap for presumed federal provocateur Ray Epps pointed to a clear discrepancy.
In their own testimony, officials equivocated and parsed their language about Epps in so obvious a fashion that it made it all the more indisputable.
Investigative reporters, including Headline USA’s own Ken Silva, also continued digging into the disturbing pattern of FBI entrapment and infiltration of far-right groups.
Then, in February, newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy granted access to then-Fox News primetime leader Tucker Carlson, who played select scenes showing that the longtime narrative of a violent “insurrection” was not entirely accurate.
Following McCarthy’s October ouster, new Speaker Mike Johnson granted even more access to the footage. It showed doors being held open for protesters and one man, after being released from handcuffs, proceeding to fist-bump his captors.
The evidence, paired with Carlson’s explosive three-part documentary Patriot Purge, all seemed to point strongly to a well-coordinated psy-op campaign that actually helped corrupt leftists to consolidate their ill-gotten political power.
The government’s continuing silence and refusal to offer direct and meaningful explanations of the obvious further confirmed the truth.
2. The deadly impact of the COVID vaccines will become undeniable.
Verdict: Validated
Mounting anecdotal evidence has seemed to confirm a link between the controversial mRNA vaccines, first released in 2020 by Moderna and Pfizer, with adverse health effects including heart disease, strokes, rapid-growth cancers and miscarriages in otherwise healthy individuals who, ironically, faced low risk of serious illness from the COVID-19 virus.
The number of sudden, unexplained deaths since then has fueled the viral #DiedSuddenly trend on social media.
Despite a sustained campaign by Big Pharma, in collusion with government health officials, to suppress the negative coverage, the scientific community at large has begun to accept and acknowledge the validity of these concerns.
In October, German scientists released a large-scale study of vaccine recipients who had subsequently suffered “cardiotoxic” effects, confirming a link between the two.
“What we’re seeing with vaccines is not heart failure,” said noted vaccine skeptic Peter McCullough, who reviewed the research. “It’s actually cardiac arrest, which is primarily an electrical [signaling] problem.”
Additionally, In November, Robert Malone, an epidemiologist who helped develop the mRNA vaccine, testified before Congress that DNA fragments had been found in the vaccines and may be a source of the illnesses.
“That’s a proven genotoxicity risk,” Malone testified. “I speculate that what we may find is that the cancer risk here may be partially attributed to these DNA contaminations.”
The presence of DNA raises the possibility that the impacts may be mutagenic—transferred from one generation to the next—with evidence already showing an increase in birth defects since the vaccines emerged.
Coincidentally, demand on the dark web has reportedly spiked for the semen of unvaxxed donors.
3. The scope of China’s control over the U.S. government will become clearer.
Verdict: Mixed
Although the evidence of Biden administration’s subservience to the Xi Jinping regime has only become more obvious, the full scope of the cooperation between the White House and its Beijing counterparts has remained murky.
The financial ties between the corrupt Biden family and officials linked to the Chinese Communist Party-run energy company CEFC, as well as to Hunter Biden’s own Bohai Harvest equity management firm, have emerged as a result of the impeachment probe being led by the House Oversight Committee.
The Biden administration’s soft stance on Chinese espionage, most notably the spy balloon scandal that broke in February—plus China’s role in the fentanyl crisis, its role in developing and covering up the COVID-19 pandemic, and its increasingly sharp rhetoric on Taiwan—all offer likely evidence of White House coercion that also extends to key Cabinet officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Nonetheless, Biden continues to put up a smoke screen with tough talk of his own toward Xi, even referring to him as a “dictator” during November peace discussions.
And plenty of questions remain unanswered as to how White House officials and other top Biden advisers linked to companies like BlackRock may be taking their marching orders from the CCP.
4. The true nature of David DePape’s relationship with Paul Pelosi will be revealed.
Verdict: Mixed
Public skepticism about the Paul Pelosi—David DePape relationship forced San Francisco law-enforcement officials in January to release body-cam footage that it had earlier sought to suppress.
It was enough to confirm that DePape did, in fact, violently attack the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
DePape’s trial in November offered further details, including the assailant’s own testimony, to dispel some of the more outlandish allegations that the underwear-clad Pelosi may have been involved in a lover’s quarrel.
However, DePape’s testimony continued to raise suspicions about his true motives as he attempted to blame his pre-midterm act of violence on the influence of right-wing cults like Q’Anon.
Little evidence suggested that the Canadian illegal immigrant actually engaged with conservative, anti-Pelosi chat groups online or subscribed to their beliefs. His claim that he was trying to force Nancy Pelosi to admit to a Pizzagate-style child-prostitution ring seemed particularly disingenuous considering DePape’s prior proximity to pedophilia.
His longtime girlfriend, Oxane “Gypsy” Taub, spent time in prison for sexual abuse involving a 14-year-old friend of her son. Moreover, Taub, a prominent nudism activist, would regularly use her and DePape’s underage children as props in public demonstrations, parading the nude minors through the streets of San Francisco.
During the trial, Taub and the couple’s two sons sat in the gallery conveying their support. “Taub called DePape’s name softly and blew a kiss, and he smiled and waved in return,” wrote the Associated Press.
5. We will find out what Trump’s purloined Mar-a-Lago files really contained.
Verdict: Mixed
With Trump’s trial for his alleged mishandling of classified documents expected to occur after the 2024 election, the issue is currently off the radar. What information we have received about the contents of the files has come as the result of selective leaking, likely originating from special counsel Jack Smith and his office, to paint a negative media narrative.
However, the release of a previously sealed search-warrant affidavit in July appeared to suggest that there were no state secrets among the purloined materials.
Meanwhile, in January, President Joe Biden also became entangled in a classified documents scandal of his own, fueling cries of hypocrisy and double standards.
Although his special counsel, Robert Hur, has yet to close the probe officially, rumors indicate that he will not charge Biden for what was arguably a far more egregious and legally indefensible example of the same crime. That further confirms that the pre-midterm raid on Trump’s estate and the pending trial are likely motivated by nothing more than politics.
6. We will learn what the Democrats intend to do with Joe Biden and who will be tapped to replace him.
Verdict: Mixed
A growing number of people, including a majority of Democrats, have indicated in recent polling that they would support Biden, 81, exiting the re-election race; and even the president himself has dropped hints that he is not the only qualified candidate for the job.
Nonetheless, he has persisted against all odds, despite the media support and polls turning against him.
As consequence, political watchers can draw one of three conclusions:
- Democrats are trying to time Biden’s exit for maximum effect, likely at or after the Democratic National Convention in August, to give their political adversaries the least time possible to adapt.
- Democrats actually do not have a back-up plan and are planning to run Biden, while sufficiently confident in the election “guard rails” installed during the 2020 race that will secure the outcome in his favor regardless of public support.
- For reasons yet unknown, Biden is being blackmailed by a force more influential and powerful than the DNC to remain in the race and will see it through to the end, despite the demands of his own party to withdraw.
7. We will discover the truth about the U.S.–Ukrainian partnership to research and develop bioweapons.
Verdict: Mixed
There have been many developments with respect to Ukraine over the past year. Public sentiment toward the roughly $200 billion boondoggle (not counting dark money from the Pentagon’s and CIA’s secret budgets) has waned considerably, leading to questions over the continued funding of its war with Russia.
The widely acknowledged consensus is that last year’s environmentally devastating attack on the Nord Stream pipelines was undertaken by Ukraine and its NATO allies, not Russia.
Furthermore, there are growing questions over whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is just as crooked and dictatorial as his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
And in some ways, the private investments in “rebuilding” Ukraine may be just as suspicious—or just as revealing—as the speculation over why America first became entangled in the war.
With no end to the hostilities in sight, leftist heavy-hitters like BlackRock, JP Morgan Chase and the Clinton Foundation nonetheless see big investment opportunities there.
Nothing more has been learned about the suspected bioweapons labs on the Ukraine–Russia border. However, the fact that there is a whole multitude of extralegal money-laundering operations going on there has only become more evident.
8. The Left’s plans to normalize and mainstream pedophilia will come to fruition.
Verdict: Validated
In spite of growing backlash against the mainstream acceptance of child-grooming and pedophilia, June’s “Pride” month showed that the Left has no intention of letting go in its aggressive push. All-ages drag shows and “story hours” were just the tip of the iceberg.
Stores like Target sold “tuck-friendly” swimsuits, while groups like Planned Parenthood turned a healthy profit by pushing underage gender reassignment surgeries. Schools continued to push openly obscene novels, fueling their righteous indignation by labeling them as “banned books.”
Child pornography flourished online, both due to the robust sex-trafficking trade that the Biden administration’s open borders have permitted and the rise in artificial intelligence’s capability of replicating realistic images, sometimes using actual child victims for its prototypes.
Social media companies continued to show little appetite for reining in the issue, and blue states like Washington suggested using treatment instead of incarceration to solve the problem.
9. The World Economic Forum will lead the way in trying to turn humans into glorified Matrix-style batteries.
Verdict: Mixed
In keeping with a common theme, none of the World Economic Forum’s nefarious motives from a year ago were disproven, and many were further confirmed during its meeting in Davos last January, as well as various globalist events throughout the year.
The depopulationist organization predicted that, within five years, AI technology would overtake humanity and has called for the elimination of “useless” people.
It also openly lamented the fact that prior pre-engineered “crises,” such as climate change and the COVID pandemic, failed to stoke sufficient panic in citizens that would make them clamor for a global governing authority at the expense of privacy, economic independence and civil liberties.
Luckily, the WEF had a new “crisis” in the works—by putting limits on the world’s water supply.
“[W]ater is something that people understand,” said Mariana Mazzucato, founding director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London, during a WEF roundtable.
“Water, every kid knows how important it is to have water. When you’re playing football and you’re thirsty, you need water.”
A massive wildfire in Hawaii’s Lahaina region offered a sneak preview of what the future may look like after a woke regulator restricted water access for those with burning houses in the name of “climate equity.”
10. As the relationship between Big Tech and the spy agencies becomes clearer, we will learn that our personal devices are tracking our every move.
Verdict: Validated
This “prediction” from last year may already have seemed common knowledge to some, although others may have reacted to it with varying degrees of shock and outrage.
Nonetheless, the scope of the collusion between tech companies and spying agencies became even clearer yet after Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter led to the release of the Twitter Files last year.
Investigations by the House Weaponization Committee and others further exposed some of the improprieties in the government’s domestic surveillance practices, reopening questions about whether the long-abused Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act should be allowed to sunset without further authorization.
In one of the many stunning revelations, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a letter to the Justice Department in December conveying his alarm after receiving a tip that both Apple and Google were using their “push notification” messaging apps to spy on behalf of government agencies.
“In response to that query, the companies told my staff that information about this practice is restricted from public release by the government,” Wyden wrote.
What lies ahead?
Although only four in 10 of the conspiracies were ultimately validated, the evidence continued to mount for the remaining six. I thus gave myself a point for each validated conspiracy theory and a half point for those that remain unsolved mysteries, even though none were convincingly disproven.
Scorecard: 70%
The question now is what to do with the newfound awareness we’ve gained about the nature of our leaders, both elected and unelected, and their underhanded intentions.
If 2023 was the year we opened Pandora’s box, exposing all the evils that had long been kept out of the public eye, 2024 is already shaping up to be the year that the pandemonium reigns supreme.
The terrifying realities of global warfare and leftist ideological fanaticism—likely fueling at least one major terrorist attack on our home soil—will converge with the equally volatile concerns about election meddling, a two-tiered justice system, cultural rot and dystopian technological advances.
It will be the year we find out exactly what lengths the Left will go to in order to block the re-election of an ascendant Donald Trump, and possibly usher in real discussions for a conscious uncoupling of the American union as its irreconcilable differences grow impossible to deny.
Although the Bible condemns false prophets declaring the end of days, the explosion of apocalyptic omens will also continue to fuel growing speculation about whether a higher power is calling the shots.
Either way, those who re-emerge on the other side of 2024 will do so with a deeper understanding of the depths to which mankind is capable—and are likely to regret ever wanting to know.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
