American Thought Leaders - The Epoch Times

“COVID was a really dark time for me and for a lot of people,” says Rob Schneider. For the famous comedian and actor, the years of the pandemic were a time to take stock of what had become of America, speak up about it—and even write a book. “You Can Do it! Speak Your Mind, America” was published in September 2024. “If we're going to continue to have a free society, it's going to require people to step up and be courageous,” Schneider says. 🔴 PREMIERE 5PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/3KSt6C1

🚨Here's what people don't realize about marijuana and THC, says AlexBerenson: "Beyond the psychosis connection and this increased link to schizophrenia…there's increasing evidence in the last 10 years that cannabis and THC—and this is not from smoking, this apparently is from the effect of the chemical itself—can cause really severe heart damage. There is a link to myocardial infarctions, heart attacks. and that link is pretty strong now. You can find papers that show a 3x increase over a multi-year period. And these are young people, right? So they're very low baseline risk, but the risk is very real and increased. And then the other is…in states that have legalized, they see a lot of high-speed car accidents with cannabis.…This idea that when you get stoned, you just drive 10 miles an hour, and if anything, your problem is that you're not moving at all, turns out not to be true." I sat down with Berenson, author of "Tell Your Children" and "Pandemia" at @TPUSA's #amfest2025 conference.

During the Reagan administration, DIA intelligence officer Michael Sekora warned key figures in government and industry that China was soon going to match America in aerospace: “They laughed their a** off. They said, ‘You're telling me a country that doesn't have indoor plumbing in 90% of the homes is going to eat our lunch in the marketplace?’” Sekora insisted that China would do exactly that. 🔴 WATCH FULL: https://ept.ms/4jeO6j1

As early as 1989, Michael Sekora and other Defense Intelligence Agency officers had identified China as the next threat. Sekora says that in the very year the Soviet bloc was falling apart and the wall between East and West Germany was torn down, participants in a classified DIA program called “Project Socrates” already knew that China was going to “become a superpower, faster than any country in history.” “We were on track to contain them, because what we had in Socrates could have easily contained China,” he says. Project Socrates was originally created by President Reagan in 1983 in order to figure out how to regain a competitive edge against the Soviet Union. The project was so successful that President Reagan drafted an executive order in 1989 to create a new federal agency out of Project Socrates to make it permanent. But it never came to fruition. The project was axed under the subsequent Bush administration—and the rest is history. America went the opposite route, turning over unprecedented technologies to Beijing and fueling its rise as an adversary to America. https://rumble.com/v736piw-how-defense-intelligence-officers-identified-china-as-americas-next-threat-.html

As early as 1989, while the Soviet bloc was crumbling, intelligence officers in the DIA recognized China as the next threat, former DIA officer and physicist Michael Sekora told me. “We identified what [China] was doing to become a superpower faster than any country in history—and we were on track to containment.” In the 1980s, he led a classified Defense Intelligence Agency program called “Project Socrates” that had been created under the Reagan administration in 1983 to determine the cause of America’s economic and military decline, find a way to reverse it and outcompete the Soviets. And later they turned their sights to Beijing. But, despite the advice of President Reagan, Project Socrates was defunded during the subsequent Bush administration. 🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/4jeO6j1

Modern psychiatry rests on a made-up narrative, argues Robert Whitaker, author of “Mad in America.” Here’s how two studies on schizophrenia made him realize things were amiss: “One was a study by Harvard researchers published in 1994 which looked at longer term outcomes for schizophrenia patients, and they said they had *declined* since the 1970s—not improved—and were now no better than they had been in the first third of the 20th century.” A separate WHO study compared outcomes for patients in three developing countries - India, Colombia, Nigeria - to longer term outcomes in the US and five other developed countries. The outcomes for schizophrenia in the developing countries were much, much better. 🔴 WATCH FULL: https://ept.ms/4iWFVHY

🚨 The biggest myth around mental health today is that mental illnesses are caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain that can be fixed by drugs—just like insulin fixes diabetes, says journalist Robert Whitaker, author of “Mad in America.” That was the metaphor promoted by the American Psychiatry Association (APA) and others. The only problem: No evidence could be found of such imbalances in the brains of people with mental disorders. Scientists looked for years. In the 1980s, NIMH did major research on this question, and they found nothing. https://rumble.com/v733t9q-the-biggest-myth-in-mental-health-and-psychiatry.html

For the last half century, Americans have been told that psychiatric drugs fix imbalances in the brain. But this is nothing but a myth, says journalist Robert Whitaker. He is the author of “Mad in America” and known for his influential critiques of modern psychiatry and psychiatric drug treatment. “That was the story that was used to sell a whole second generation of psychiatric drugs and dramatically expand the psychiatric enterprise worldwide,” he said. 🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/4iWFVHY

🚨Is the long-promised “pivot to Asia” finally happening with Trump’s new National Security Strategy? Here’s what former U.S. Army Pacific commanding general Charles Flynn told us: “We've said we've pivoted to the Pacific for more than a decade, and in actual behavior and actions that's not accurate.” It’s time to actually pivot with actions, resources, and funding, Flynn says. Flynn worries that if the United States fails to convincingly “signal and message our will to our treaty allies and partners in the region, [then] we're going to create a lack of confidence in the United States in the Indo-Pacific—at a time when we can ill-afford to have that.” 🔴 WATCH FULL: https://ept.ms/3YprKBF

Former commanding general of the US Army Pacific Charles Flynn says we've been neglecting a key component of the Taiwan invasion threat. "In the United States, we look at the map and we see blue. We see an ocean…and we say, well, we can solve this problem with more ships, more subs, more airplanes, more jets, more precision guide munitions, more satellites." While many experts fixate on the Chinese navy as the "center of gravity" for any Taiwan assault, Charles Flynn disagrees. https://rumble.com/v72ze9u-four-star-general-on-whats-missing-in-u.s.-taiwan-strategy-gen.-charles-fly.html

This is what many in Washington don’t realize about a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, says former US Army Pacific commanding general Charles Flynn. China’s anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) strategy—a combination of missiles, submarines, sensors, and air defenses—is designed specifically to block and disrupt US air, sea, and even space and cyber power. But the true outcome of the operation will hinge on the rapid mobilization of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ground forces. He warns that the real “center of gravity” of a Chinese invasion will lie in its ability to rapidly assemble, deploy, and transport land forces across the Taiwan Strait. “What keeps me up at night is their ability to actually pull that off in 96 hours,” Flynn says. (And yes, for those wondering, Charles is Gen. Michael Flynn’s brother, with a distinguished career of his own). 🔴 PREMIERE 5PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/3YprKBF

What are Russia’s true intentions? That’s the question I posed to Latvia’s foreign minister Baiba Braže. In Poland, for example, there are people who worry Poland will be next. What do people in Latvia think? “I agree with certain assessments that say that Russia cannot stop the military production, and again, it's sort of an authoritarian regime where there are no internal checks and balances. [It] will continue its existence in the way as it is, and [will] continue posing a threat to all of us.” 🔴 WATCH FULL: https://ept.ms/4rIMxxA

When I asked Latvia’s foreign minister Baiba Braže about the chances for a peace agreement in Ukraine, she told me that she travelled four times to Ukraine in the 18 months since her appointment as Latvia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and this is what she’s concluded: “Ukrainians have their will and agency, and I don't think they will accept something that is imposed on them, so they have to own that peace and ceasefire.” And is Russia ready for peace? She doesn’t think so: “We don't see a single instrument of power in Russia that would be oriented towards peace. It's all about war.” https://rumble.com/v72wjk4-is-russia-ready-for-peace.html

Latvia is one of the few NATO countries that spends considerably more than 2 percent of its GDP per year on its military. All NATO countries recently committed to raising their spending on defense and security to 5% by 2035, but will they follow through? Here's what Latvian foreign minister Baiba Braže told me: “We keep reminding [other NATO countries] that it's possible to do that, and we are showing you as our example. In our case, it's 5 percent hard defense capabilities." I recently sat down with Minister Braže to get her unique perspective on the release of a new U.S. National Security Strategy that has sent shockwaves through Europe as well as ongoing U.S. efforts to mediate a Russia–Ukraine peace. 🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/4rIMxxA

Former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield tells me he’d like to see the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines phased out and removed from the market: “There's too many unknowns. It was an emergency effort that we did at a time of emergency… And I think hopefully it will lead to our recognition that vaccine companies also have to be subject to product liability.” 🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/4a0eTx0

What is causing America’s high inflation, crushing national debt, and crumbling dollar? Robert Kiyosaki, author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” argues the Federal Reserve system is the root problem. “We're now $38 trillion in debt and climbing because of the Federal Reserve bank.” “There is a big movement to end the Federal Reserve bank, because it's not federal, it's not a reserve…In 1913 when the Fed came to America, it was the end of America. And our freedoms are being stolen via our money.” 🔴 WATCH FULL: https://ept.ms/4posK5a

“The gap between rich and poor is getting wider and wider and wider,” says Robert Kiyosaki, author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” And why is that? Kiyosaki says it’s because of what he calls ‘fake money’: “Every time you print money, fake money, fiat money, I get richer…The rich get richer. The poor middle class gets poorer…I have oil wells because you can't print oil. So I have oil wells. The price of oil goes up. The price of chickens goes up. Food goes up. Real estate goes up. But when mom and pop—you know, Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class—go to the supermarket, they go: ‘What? I can't afford to eat anymore.” https://rumble.com/v72orjs-robert-kiyosaki-why-the-rich-get-richer-and-the-poor-get-poorer.html

Robert Kiyosaki, author of the record-breaking bestseller “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” tells me that in today’s America plagued by high inflation and a crumbling dollar, rich dads are getting ever richer while poor dads are getting poorer. “Food gets up in price, but the poor, middle class have to pay for it. So my apartment houses go up, but the poor middle class go homeless. And that's the seed of communism, that’s the seed of revolt," he says. 🔴 PREMIERE 5PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/4posK5a

While brain dead, singer and songwriter Pam Reynolds experienced one of the world’s most famous unexplained near-death experiences. Her story challenges a lot of our conventional beliefs about the brain, says pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor. In 1991, Pam suffered a life-threatening aneurism at the base of her brain. In order to repair the aneurism, she underwent what is called “standstill”: deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. Her body was cooled down to 60 degrees and her heartbeat and breathing stopped. Yet after the surgery, she was able to recount details of the operation, conversations between doctors, and even the music they were playing in the operating room while she was brain dead. 🔴 WATCH FULL: https://ept.ms/4ozJwNq

🚨Here’s what a fascinating case of twin girls born conjoined at the head tells us about the brain—and the soul—says neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor. “They can see at least partially through each other's eyes. They can feel, to some extent, each other's skin,” he says. They also share some motor control over each other's limbs and they can share emotions and even memories. But reason and free will, he said, they do NOT share: they have different opinions, get into fights, and have different personalities, he says. “They're separate persons, and they have separate souls,” Dr. Egnor told me. https://rumble.com/v72lruo-what-twins-conjoined-at-the-head-tell-us-about-the-brain-and-the-soul-neuro.html