March 29, 2022 - Epoch Times
17:11
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| This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times. | |
| And behind me, that is not a green screen. | |
| That is the actual U.S. Capitol building because we are here in our Washington, D.C. office ahead of the State of the Union address. | |
| However, that's not what I want to talk about. | |
| Instead, I want to begin today's discussion by talking about the People's Convoy, which is the large trucker convoy that's making its way from California right here to Washington, D.C. However, I want to back up for a moment and set the stage for you. | |
| As you are likely already aware, last month a large trucker convoy called the Freedom Convoy was formed over in Canada after their federal government imposed a mandatory vaccination requirement on all of the truckers who travel across the U.S.-Canada border. | |
| Of course, what happened was that the truckers then formed a convoy and made it from the west of the country all the way to Ottawa, which is the capital city of Canada. | |
| And then, as you likely already know, the Trudeau government in Canada, they invoked the Emergencies Act, they mobilized the police, and they waged essentially a financial war against the convoy once it reached However, it is worth noting that the truckers, at least in a certain sense, they did achieve their objectives. | |
| How? | |
| Well, after they made it to Ottawa, seven provinces in Canada, they lifted their mask mandates as well as their passport systems, their vaccine passport systems. | |
| Now, most of the leaders of those respective provinces, they made a point of actually saying that the truckers had nothing to do with their decision to lift the mandates, but given the fact that they lifted those mandates soon after the truckers made their way to Ottawa, Well, you can look at the timing for yourself and decide whether they played a part or not in tipping the government's hand. | |
| Regardless, though, it looks like the truckers here in America, well, they are doing the same thing here in the United States. | |
| Now, the largest convoy that has been formed thus far is known as the People's Convoy, and it left California on Sunday of last week. | |
| It took off from the city of Barstow, California, which is about 100 miles from LA, and since then, the numbers of vehicles began to grow larger and larger. | |
| Now, estimating exactly how many vehicles are in this convoy is rather difficult. | |
| Now, the organizers themselves, they periodically send up drones in order to get an estimate of how many trucks and cars are part of the procession, but since many people might join in for only a short stretch of time, it becomes a little hard to estimate the total length of the convoy. | |
| However, what we do know is that when the people's convoy left California, when it left the city of Barstow, it had about 150 vehicles in total as the core group, meaning that semi-trucks and regular vehicles, they accounted for about 150, but they also had, let's say, another several hundred of people who were coming in and out. | |
| Then, over the weekend, the convoy moved through northern Texas as well as Oklahoma, and it began to swell in size. | |
| And now it has grown to over 250 core vehicles, stretching across about four miles of highway. | |
| Now again, 250 core vehicles are in it for the long haul, but when you look at videos of the convoy on, let's say, social media, you typically see a lot more vehicles because people are coming in and out. | |
| In fact, here is how Ms. | |
| Maureen Steele It varies. | |
| Let's just say there are like 50 truckers that know the convoy is coming through and might have been going through this area. | |
| They'll stop at an exit, and they'll wait for the convoy to come by, and then they'll join it. | |
| They might join it for 200 miles or 100 miles, and then they keep going wherever they were going because they were heading in the same direction as us. | |
| And then there are cars that join, and some of them go for 30 miles, some go for 100, some for 200, and then they drop off. | |
| Now, one of our reporters, they were actually in Oklahoma, and they got a chance to interview one of the drivers who joined the convoy just for about a stretch of 25 miles, and here's what he told us, quote, This is a movement that everybody should be supporting. | |
| This is a national event. | |
| This is making history. | |
| It's pretty exciting. | |
| And then furthermore, our reporter in Oklahoma, he was taking photos. | |
| I'll put them up on screen for you. | |
| And frankly, it's reminiscent of what we saw in Canada. | |
| There were hundreds of people lining up on the sides of the road, holding up signs, waving the American flag, and showing their support for the truckers, as well as what they're trying to accomplish. | |
| And in terms of what the truckers are actually trying to accomplish, well, on their website, on the People's Convoy's website, here is what they say their mission statement is. | |
| It's time to end the declaration of national emergency concerning the COVID-19 pandemic and restore our nation's constitution. | |
| Now, in this statement, what they're referring to is the action that Joe Biden took just last week, wherein he officially extended the state of national emergency in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic. | |
| And furthermore, besides putting an end to the national emergency, the truckers are also calling for an end to all the mandates, all the mask mandates as well as the vaccine mandates across the entire country. | |
| And then, of course, having seen the trouble that the Canadian truckers had with their GoFundMe accounts, the American truckers, they set up a different means of getting donations. | |
| They have set up three different means, in fact, to receive donations via credit card, PayPal, as well as cryptocurrencies. | |
| Their donations are being handled through a nonprofit called the American Foundations for Civil Liberties and Freedom. | |
| And as of right now, according to their official website, they have raised over $1.5 million. | |
| And then in terms of the convoy's actual progress, I'll put a map up on screen for you. | |
| After leaving California, they went through about half of the country, and they have recently left Missouri. | |
| They are passing through Illinois on their way to Indianapolis, where they will be stopping for a full day. | |
| And then furthermore, even though the People's Convoy is the largest trucker's convoy that's making its way to the capital, it's not the only one. | |
| In fact, according to one of the organizers of the People's Convoy, he said that there might be as many as six other convoys which will meet up with the People's Convoy in Indianapolis tomorrow. | |
| He said that they are expecting about 10,000 vehicles, but to be frank with you, that sounds a bit like an overestimation, but we will see you tomorrow. | |
| Now, today, I'm here, of course, in Washington, D.C., and wouldn't you know it, the fence around the U.S. Capitol, it's back up, and it stretches all the way across the building. | |
| I'll show up some footage I took earlier. | |
| And also, when you're in the city, it feels like about half of the people here are either police officers or National Guard troops who are stationed around the Capitol as well. | |
| Now, some people have suggested that the fencing and the National Guard troops are stationed here because of the State of the Union address. | |
| However, I came up to one of the police officers earlier today and I said, hey, what's up with this fencing? | |
| And he looked at me and he said, well, you know, it's the trucker convoy that's on its way here. | |
| And so what it looks like is that the city of Washington, D.C. has gotten prepared in advance and we'll just have to wait until this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, when the truckers are set to arrive to see how the city actually reacts when the convoy gets here into Washington, D.C. D.C., although, frankly, I will mention that seeing for you to actually see what's happening here in Washington, D.C., will be a little difficult because of the regime of hardcore censorship on YouTube. | |
| In fact, four days ago, our sister media, which is NTDTV, they posted on their YouTube channel a video of them covering the People's Convoy. | |
| They were showing footage of the trucks. | |
| They were showing people standing on the side of the road waving the flag and having signs. | |
| And they were having interviews with people on the side of the road in terms of why they were there, what they thought of the mandates, what they thought of the trucks, etc. | |
| And wouldn't you know it, what YouTube did is that they took down their videos and they gave their channel a hard strike for even covering the event. | |
| That is just the world we're living in because let's say you have a five hour long video covering all the different aspects of the people's convoy and maybe there's just a 30 second snippet where somebody says something about either the vaccines or the mandates that the fact checkers on YouTube might not agree with. | |
| Well, that will give them an opportunity to take the entire video down. | |
| And what this episode really made me realize is that it's not only my channel. | |
| Don't expect to see any genuine live coverage of the People's Convoys on any channel. | |
| Maybe only the legacy media outlets will be allowed to cover it because they likely won't be censored, but pretty much anyone else will be. | |
| Now, having said that, I will actually be tomorrow flying out to Indiana in order to meet up with a convoy, cover the live event, and then I will be following them as they're making their way through Ohio, through Pennsylvania, through Maryland, and then right here to Washington, D.C. And in that process, I'll be interviewing the truckers. | |
| I'll be speaking with the protesters. | |
| I'll be getting their opinions. | |
| I'm going to be seeing what they have to say about the mandates. | |
| We're going to have a drone, and we might even charter an airplane so we can get an aerial view of the entire thing. | |
| I think it'll be very cool. | |
| And by the way, if you have any specific questions that you want to actually have me ask the truckers, just put them in the comments section below. | |
| I'll read through them, and then I will ask them when I have the opportunity. | |
| However, As I mentioned earlier, because of the hardcore censorship here on YouTube, to be frank with you, we might post a few clips here on YouTube, but if you want to watch the entire thing, the entire live footage of the People's Convoy, you can do so over on Epic TV, which is our awesome no censorship video platform. | |
| And on there, we're actually able to post uncensored real news that you can watch for yourself and then make up your own mind as to what you think and what you believe. | |
| And so, if you're interested in subscribing to Epic TV, I'll throw a link right there in the description box below. | |
| And actually, if you use promo code ROMAN, you can get a free trial. | |
| So you can try it, see if you like it, and then subscribe. | |
| And by the way, over on Epic TV, you'll get access to great movies, exclusive interviews with people like President Trump, experts like Dr. | |
| Malone, Dr. | |
| Peter McCullough, as well as just phenomenal shows like The Larry Elder Show, Cassius Corner with Cash Patel, Counterpunch with Trevor Loudon, and about a dozen others, including, of course, Facts Matter, your favorite. | |
| And so again, if you'd like to support the journalism that we do here at the Epoch Times, as well as to get access to all that phenomenal content, the link will be right there in the description box below. | |
| And now, let's move on over and discuss an alternative to the big tech monopoly on payment processing. | |
| Well, that's a great question, Roman. | |
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| And now Roman in the studio, back to you. | |
| Now, just a few days ago, while I was down in Florida, I took the unique opportunity to sit down and speak with Wendy Kinney, who is the CEO of a phenomenal company called Revere Payments, and we discussed how, in light of what happened with the Canadian truckers, how people can shield themselves from ideologically driven financial warfare. | |
| Take a listen. | |
| Can you introduce yourself in a little bit about what you do and what your company does? | |
| Absolutely. | |
| Revere Payments is the official processor of CPAC. So we process payments, and really our goal is to make sure that businesses are free to do business in our country. | |
| Wow, that's super important. | |
| Let's unpack that a little bit. | |
| For people that don't necessarily understand the whole payment process from when you, let's say, swipe your credit card to the money actually hitting the business's account, how does that work and where does Revere Payments fit in? | |
| Sure. | |
| So Revere Payments is an acquirer, a registered acquirer. | |
| So we're processing the payment. | |
| Banks move money. | |
| So everyone has a bank. | |
| Every payment processor has a sponsoring bank that moves their money. | |
| The question really becomes where you fit in the process of the payment on whether you'll get canceled or not. | |
| I mean, really, this is about cancel culture, right? | |
| Because every... | |
| Every American now is really aware of cancel culture on so many levels and now payments have become a topic of cancel culture with the Canadian truckers. | |
| People are worried about their bank accounts and then businesses are worried about being canceled if their payment processor doesn't agree with how they do business or even they tweet something and they don't agree with what they said politically. | |
| So really, the question becomes, when you're looking for a payment processor, how much control does that processor have over your destiny? | |
| And at Revere, we're controlling the risk and the underwriting, so we're making sure that that business is safe to do business and that they won't be canceled. | |
| In the market, because these cancel culture warriors, you can say, right, they found sort of a point of attack, right, because they can, let's say, you can't cancel an event, they go for the venue, they go for the payment processor, and if you can't get the money, well, you know, you can't get anything. | |
| So, let's discuss this topic, I mean, this aspect of it in connection to the Canada truckers, because that's what happened to them. | |
| Those people, they went there, they peacefully protested, but of course, you know, to run a truck, you need gas, you need food, you need things like that, and so people stepped up, they donated money to them, everything was legal, right? | |
| Even under the Emergencies Act, I don't believe... | |
| It was illegal to donate money or to have that money. | |
| I don't know why that would be the case, but that money was frozen. | |
| Can you talk a little bit about what happened there and how, for instance, Revere payments or alternative platforms could be used in order to mitigate such a scenario in the future? | |
| You know, the Canada situation is so extreme and outrageous, it's shocking to me because you think about these truckers are free to have their opinion, right? | |
| They're free to—and they were peaceful. | |
| They were peacefully protesting. | |
| And the people who were supporting them were supporting really a cause that is not very extreme. | |
| It's really medical freedom, right? | |
| I mean, that's why they were protesting. | |
| I mean, that should be a very simple topic because, you know, when you think about the left, they want medical freedom for other types of procedures, but yet they don't want people to have medical freedom for a simple vaccine. | |
| So when it came to donating, everything was legal and legit. | |
| What was shocking was the Minister of Finance in Canada coming out and saying not only would they freeze the funds, they were in turn then going to shut down the payment processors who were processing the funds. | |
| And then, of course, you know the very extreme story of the single mom. | |
| I'm sure you saw that donating $50 and just the collateral damage to her family. | |
| I mean, she's a single mom. | |
| You're going to shut down her bank account for a $50 legitimate legal donation. | |
| So could there have been other options? | |
| I think the problem is once you're at that level and you've got a prime minister and a minister of finance who are going to freeze bank accounts, Remember, Canada is different than the United States. | |
| Their banking system is regulated, right? | |
| They only have a handful of banks and it's controlled. | |
| Versus in the United States, we have independent banks, right? | |
| We have banks that aren't controlled by our government. | |
| So I don't know, short of using crypto or short of using a different type of method, how the government would have not used their power. | |
| I mean, this was such an extremely authoritative move. | |
| I mean, it's really disgraceful. | |
| Yeah. | |
| So there's a trucker's convoy happening now in America, right? | |
| The People's Convoy is actually making its way right now across Texas, and it's going to wind up in Washington, D.C. Yep. | |
| A lot of people are concerned that a very similar process can happen here in America with the finance side of it. | |
| So because you have this company, so of course you're dialed into all this and you're a lawyer, what's your opinion on this? | |
| Can what happen in Canada happen here in America? | |
| We could certainly process payments. | |
| We certainly have no problem with that. | |
| Could the Biden administration then strong arm one of our large institutional banks to do the same thing? | |
| I don't know if they could or would. | |
| See, the banking industry is not controlled here the way it's controlled in Canada. | |
| So smaller independent banks I don't think will cooperate. | |
| Now, could they involve the FDIC? Could they use federal powers? | |
| I don't know if they would go that far. | |
| I think that they could because not that it would be legal. | |
| I think that they could. | |
| They could find some reason, but I don't necessarily think it would be legal to do that. | |
| But they do a lot of things that aren't. | |
| Legal. | |
| Well, luckily though, Revere Payments is here. | |
| That was not the full interview. | |
| If you'd like to watch that interview in its entirety, you can find it over on Epic TV, along with a plethora of other phenomenal content. | |
| Again, the link will be down in the description box below. | |
| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times. |
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