Senate Dems calling for IG Horowitz to investigate the Durham probe for political interference…
https://twitter.com/M2Madness/status/1306689824573796362
https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/7/1/71582e65-782c-4139-817f-3fa1fc1df28c/5E2041DDB0B0A64698760418CFF9360F.durham-investigation-letter.pdf
Citigroup puts employee who ran QAnon website on paid leave
Jason Gelinas, an employee at Citigroup Inc., has been placed on paid leave pending an internal investigation after he was identified as the operator of the most prominent website dedicated to the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Gelinas, who lives in New Jersey, was identified Sept. 10 as the operator of the website QMap.pup and its associated mobile apps by the fact-checking site Logically.ai. Since then, the website has shut down and now simply provides links to alternative websites offering information on the QAnon conspiracy.
Gelinas earned over $3,000 a month on a crowd-funded Patreon site dedicated to supporting the QAnon site, which he said helped cover the monthly operating costs.
“As outlined in our Code of Conduct, employees are required to disclose and obtain approvals for outside business activities,” Citigroup said in a statement, declining to comment on Gelinas’s status.
Gelinas didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.
Gelinas is a senior IT group manager, holding the rank of director, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
QMap.pub received more than 10 million visitors in July according to web analytics company SimilarWeb. The site served as an aggregator of “Q drops,” which are anonymous posts on the website 8kun by someone claiming to have a high-level government security clearance providing inside information.
The QAnon theory posits that President Donald Trump is battling a “deep state” ring of child-sex traffickers. Some adherents of QAnon are running for public office, but some others have committed violent acts or threatened them, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Because 8kun is difficult to navigate and rife with other disturbing content, many people interested in QAnon instead use aggregators that collect and present the Q drops. QMap.pub became the most popular by offering user-friendly features like tags on posts to allow people to search more easily for themes, said Travis View, a researcher who co-hosts the podcast QAnon Anonymous. “It was very effective because it allowed people to go down their own rabbit holes,” he said.
Reached outside his home last week, Gelinas declined to comment on the site, and said that QAnon is “a patriotic movement to save the country.”
https://fortune.com/2020/09/17/qanon-website-cititgroup-employee/
‘It Looked Like a Chicken Breast’: US Man Finds Brain Wrapped in Foil on Beach - Graphic Photos
A man in Wisconsin recently discovered an animal brain wrapped in aluminum foil while searching for sea glass along Lake Michigan.
James Senda revealed to local station Fox6 that he discovered the brain at Myers Park in Racine County on Tuesday morning. The brain was wrapped up alongside a flower and paper bearing a foreign language, which appeared to be money.
"I don't really know how to explain it, it didn't register … I was just like, 'What is this? I came across this square package, wrapped in aluminum foil, and around it, it had a pink rubber band,” Senda told the station.
"Curiosity got to me, so I popped it open and it looked like a chicken breast - kind of. It took a little bit for it to really [register] of what was going on; it was a brain,” he added.
Senda was so surprised by his discovery, he even asked some nearby city employees on the beach for their opinion.
“They’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s a brain,’” he recalled.
"I'm personally glad I'm the one that found it instead of somebody else," Senda told local outlet CBS58. “There's kids that play here. I mean, I mentally can take it, I can handle it. But who knows some people may not be able to handle it like I did."
Senda called the police to inform them of his bizarre discovery.
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office later confirmed that the brain does not belong to a human but rather to an animal. However, it has yet to determine what type of animal the brain came from.
https://sputniknews.com/viral/202009171080493229-it-looked-like-a-chicken-breast-us-man-finds-brain-wrapped-in-foil-on-beach—photos/
Trump announces creation of national '1776 Commission' to promote 'patriotic education'
Critical race theory and revisionist history such as the New York Times’ 1619 Project are “toxic” need to be countered with patriotic education, US president Donald Trump vowed, announcing a new initiative to do so.
Speaking on Thursday on the occasion of Constitution Day – the anniversary of the US founding document being signed in 1787 – Trump denounced the radicals who seek to “demolish this treasured and precious inheritance,” specifically naming critical race theory, the 1619 Project, and Howard Zinn’s ‘People’s History of the United States.’
“The left-wing rioting and mayhem are the direct result of decades of left-wing indoctrination in our schools,” Trump said, referring to unrest that began at the end of May and spread across the country ostensibly in name of racial justice.
Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, and the crusade against American history is toxic propaganda — an ideological poison that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together.
Teaching critical race theory in schools is child abuse “in the truest sense of those words,” Trump said.
"With the help of everyone here today, the legacy of 1776 will never be erased.Our heroes will never be forgotten.Our youth will be taught to love America with all of their heart and all of their soul.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 17, 2020
Calling the US “the most fair, equal and prosperous nation in human history,” Trump said that Americans will never submit to “tyranny” of cancel culture and will “reclaim our history, and our country, for citizens of every race, color, religion and creed.”
As a specific measure to achieve this, he announced the establishment of a presidential commission on patriotic education, called the “1776 commission” after the year the original 13 American colonies declared independence from Britain.
https://www.rt.com/usa/500978-trump-patriotic-education-1776-commission/
https://twitter.com/nancylevine/status/1306693738886905862
Twitter said Thursday it will extend its restrictions on #QAnon-linked accounts and content to political candidates and elected officials who promote the conspiracy theory, @jbruce218
at @Forbes
reports.
Former defense contractor sentenced for taking $4 million in kickbacks and bribes
Over a three-year period, an Oregon businessman solicited as much as $4.1 million in illegal kickbacks to steer defense subcontracts that worked on helping wounded veterans.
And once investigators were zeroing in on his scheme, Brodie Shaw Thomson created fake business plans to try and hide his fraudulent dealings, according to court records.
On Wednesday, Thomson was sentenced to three years and six months in federal prison, two years supervised release following that prison time and $5 million in restitution.
“The defendant thought he could outsmart the system, he was mistaken,” said Frank Robey, Director of the U.S. Criminal Investigation Command’s Major Procurement Fraud Unit in a statement.
The 45-year-old man was living in Woodbridge, Vir. During part of the 2012 to 2015 time period of the fraud scheme, according to court documents. Thomson, while working for a company in Arlington, Va., solicited commercial bribes and kickbacks from an Oregon-based company. Neither companies were identified in the U.S. Attorney’s Office release.
Thomson is listed as a former senior vice president at Armed Forces Services Corporation. That corporation was acquired by Magellan Health in 2016, according to the Magellan Health website.
Thomson’s company provided behavioral health and other specialty services to federal agencies, including defense agencies.
“The illegal manipulation of Federal government contracts costs the taxpayer and warfighter alike,” said Robert E. Craig Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the DCIS Mid-Atlantic Field Office.
Court documents show that the company received or managed contracts and subcontracts for the Army’s Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention Program, or SHARP; the Mission and Installation Contracting Command inside DoD contracting; the U.S. Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment for overseeing recovery care coordinators for wounded veteran rehabilitation.
Though convicted for offenses between 2012 to 2015, the court records allege that the fraud scheme perpetrated by Thomson began as early as 2010.
“A purpose of the scheme was for Thomason to unjustly enrich himself and others by soliciting, accepting and attempting to accept kickbacks and bribes from (Oregon-based company) in return for Thomson providing favorable treatment to the (Oregon-based company) …” according to court documents.
That treatment included the Army’s SHARP program, programs with the Department of Health and Human Services and other defense contracts, such as the Marine Wounded Warrior Regiment.
“Mr. Thomson’s scheme to defraud the Department of Defense and wounded military veterans threatened the integrity of our military’s acquisition process and wasted taxpayer money,” said John Salazar, Special Agent in Charge of the NCIS Washington Field Office. “This sentencing emphasizes how important it is for our military personnel and family members to remain vigilant and always report suspected fraud. It also serves as a warning that crimes targeting our military family will be fully investigated and the criminals brought to justice.”
To hide the kickback payments, he listed them as consulting fees and did not inform his company that he was taking the payments, according to court documents.
A single kickback listed in the documents amounted to nearly $82,000.
Thomson was indicted in March 2020 and pleaded guilty in June. Though charged with kickbacks and other fraud-related offenses, he ultimately pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud.
As part of his plea deal, Thomson had to forfeit property he owned at 2826 Cedarest Road, Fairfax, Va., a 3,026 square foot home on a 1.3-acre lot with four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, valued on real estate websites at $1.01 million.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/09/17/former-defense-contractor-sentenced-for-taking-4-million-in-kickbacks-and-bribes/
This again Q really