Bubba Wallace To Drive For Michael Jordan's New NASCAR Team In 2021

Basketball legend Michael Jordan announced Monday night he's entering the world of NASCAR, as one of the first Black principal owners of a full-time Cup Series team.

Jordan is partnering with Cup Series star Denny Hamlin, along with current Petty Motorsports driver Bubba Wallace, to begin racing in 2021.

The Jordan-Hamlin ownership group will announce more details about the "organization's name, manufacturer affiliation, car number, sponsors and other details" at a later date, reported NASCAR. The new race team recently entered into an agreement to acquire the team charter from Germain Racing.

In a statement, Jordan, who is also the part-owner for the NBA's Charlotte Hornets, said:

"Growing up in North Carolina, my parents would take my brothers, sisters and me to races, and I've been a NASCAR fan my whole life," Jordan said. "The opportunity to own my own racing team in partnership with my friend, Denny Hamlin, and to have Bubba Wallace driving for us, is very exciting for me. Historically, NASCAR has struggled with diversity and there have been few Black owners. The timing seemed perfect as NASCAR is evolving and embracing social change more and more."

Wallace, who made national attention in July, following an incident he quickly backpedaled of a noose found in his racing bay at Talladega Superspeedway, was, in fact, a garage door pull handle.

Wallace tweeted late Monday night that he leaving Petty Motorsports to race for Jordan.

"This is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I believe is a great fit for me at this point in my career. I'm grateful and humbled that they believe in me and I'm super pumped to begin this adventure with them."

After the Jordan-Hamlin-Wallace team was announced, NASCAR tweeted a statement to "proudly welcome Michael Jordan into the NASCAR family".

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bubba-wallace-drive-michael-jordans-new-nascar-team-2021

‘Serious Security Threat’: Beijing Claims US Spy Planes Posed as Airliners Over 100 Times in 2020

In light of increased attention being brought on the activities of US spy planes near China, Beijing has accused the US of disguising them as civilian airliners more than 100 times in 2020 alone, calling the practice a “serious security threat” and warning it poses a danger to actual civilian aircraft.

Several times over the last few weeks, observers have noticed US intelligence aircraft seeming to “disappear” in mid-flight on international flight-tracking programs, only to be replaced by what seems to be a civilian aircraft broadcasting what turns out to be a fake transponder code. These “civilian” aircraft then fly typical spy plane routes, patrolling intensively over an area for several hours, before mysteriously turning back into US spy planes on their return flights.

On September 16, a Chinese government official confirmed those suspicions, saying the US has made the practice routine over the last year.

“It is the old trick of the US military to use a transponder code to impersonate civil aircraft of other countries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters last Wednesday.

“According to incomplete data, since the beginning of this year, the US reconnaissance aircraft have electronically impersonated civil aircraft of other countries in the South China Sea for more than a hundred times. This above-mentioned practice is egregious, which has severely violated international aviation rules, disrupted the aviation order and safety in relevant airspace, threatened the security of China and countries in the region. China firmly opposes that,” he said.

“We urge the US side to immediately stop such dangerous, provocative behaviors to avoid accidents in the air and at sea. China will continue work with regional countries to firmly safeguard the freedoms and safety of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea as well as the peace and stability in the region,” Wang added.

A September 18 report by the South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI), a think tank connected to Peking University, further corroborated the claims by citing multiple, independently verified sources that arrived at the same conclusions.

The practice has continued since: on September 21, a US Air Force RC-135W Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft, built by Boeing and based on a modified version of its 707 passenger aircraft, was spotted using a fake transponder hex code to fly through the South China Sea near China’s Hainan Island and the Paracel Islands, China’s claims of control over which are disputed by Vietnam.

USAF RC-135W 62-4134 FOLD83 operating over the South China Sea, on a miscoded Mode-S code 249249. pic.twitter.com/u0hToBVqa4

— Aircraft Spots (@AircraftSpots) September 21, 2020

​Then on Tuesday, an RC-135S Cobra Ball, an aircraft specialized for observing ballistic missile launches, flew from the US Air Force’s Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan, bound for the Yellow Sea, where it, too, adopted a bogus hex code, as multiple observers confirmed. Hilariously, a KC-135 Stratotanker was even spotted flying out to refuel this aircraft that was supposedly not a US spy plane. The refueler didn’t bother to disguise itself, however.

https://sputniknews.com/asia/202009221080541545-serious-security-threat-beijing-claims-us-spy-planes-posed-as-airliners-over-100-times-in-2020/

Experts warn coronavirus may cause 'wave' of neurological conditions including Parkinson's disease

COVID-19 can cause worrying neurological symptoms like a loss of smell and taste, but Australian scientists are warning the damage the virus causes to the brain may also lead to more serious conditions such as Parkinson's disease.

Key points:

Researchers are warning some well-known COVID-19 symptoms indicate there may be long-term neurological impacts of the disease

There is a fear a "silent wave" of Parkinson's disease will follow the COVID-19 pandemic, as it did after the Spanish flu in the early 20th century

Medical experts have designed a smell test to improve the early detection of Parkinson's disease and treatment options

It has happened before.

Five years after the Spanish flu pandemic in the early 1900s, there was up to a three-fold increase in the incidence of Parkinson's disease.

Kevin Barnham from the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health said he believed a similar "silent wave" of neurological illness would follow this pandemic.

"Parkinson's disease is a complex illness, but one of the causes is inflammation, and the virus helps to drive that inflammation," he said.

"Once the inflammation gets into the brain, it starts a cascade of events which can ultimately lead to Parkinson's disease.

"Let me put it this way, I don't want to catch this virus. I am doing everything I can to avoid catching it."

Researchers outlined their concerns in a study published today in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease.

The process is known as the "two-hit hypothesis".

For the latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic read our coronavirus live blog.

The brain gets inflamed from something like a virus, then something else comes along later causing more damage and eventually Parkinson's disease develops.

"Evidence is already suggesting the triggers for Parkinson's disease are there with this virus," Professor Barnham said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-23/covid-19-may-cause-parkinsons-disease-research-finds/12688384

Stage setting???

The Open Door

See What Julian Assange Did To Obama Administration

Seditious AOC tells Americans to take to the streets, “radicalize and fight” as Trump, GOP Senate consider Ginsburg’s successor

According to Che Guevara protege and ‘Democratic socialist’ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the U.S. Supreme Court seat just vacated with the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg belongs to her and her fellow left-wing ‘revolutionaries.’

It doesn’t belong to the American people and is not subject to the processes proscribed by the Constitution for the replacement of high court justices.

No.

That seat and, presumably any other Supreme Court seat that is vacated while President Donald Trump is in the White House and the Senate is controlled by Republicans, belongs to ‘the revolution.’ ‘The movement.’ The radical left.

And if they don’t get it then, by golly, Americans should riot. Or something like that.

In a video to her 6.6 million Instagram followers, “AOC” told them to “radicalize and fight” following Ginsburg’s death on Friday, which now presents Trump with his third high court pick following the appointments of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

“Let this moment radicalize you,” she said. “Let this moment really put everything into stark focus. Because this election has always been about the fight of and for our lives.”

“I need you to be ready,” she added.

Wow, what a little Hugo Chavez wannabe this woman is; ready for what, exactly?

And who, exactly, is being deprived of “justice?”

Oh, we know who she means; it’s the same song-and-dance on the left. Minorities, “persons of color,” the poor, the deprived, etc. — all the people Democrat leftists like her have turned into victims…for decades.

Only, there are really tens of millions of Americans who have yet to get justice after Barack Obama and the deep state he aligned with tried to steal the 2016 election from Donald Trump and then attempted to depose him time and again after he won.

Also, we don’t yet have any justice for Hillary Clinton who is, perhaps, the most prolific unindicted criminal conspirator in the history of our nation.

“It is heartbreaking that in her final moments she was, as are many others, preoccupied with what would happen after her passing” — before telling her followers hours later to radicalize and fight,” she would go on to tweet.

“No president is the answer,” the New York lawmaker continued. “You are the answer. Mass movements are the answer.”

“Voting for Joe Biden is not about whether you agree with him. It’s a vote to let our democracy live another day,” AOC further claimed. “Our first, no 1 priority is to do everything possible to secure electoral college victory in Nov.” (Related: Leftists explode following Ginsburg’s death, threaten to “burn down” country and leave bodies in the street if Trump and GOP try to replace her.)

https://patriotrising.com/seditious-aoc-tells-americans-to-take-to-the-streets-radicalize-and-fight-as-trump-gop-senate-consider-ginsburgs-successor/

HSBC moved vast sums of dirty money after paying record laundering fine

FinCEN Files probe reveals Europe’s biggest bank aided massive Ponzi scheme while on probation over ties to drug kingpins.

In March 2014, three men kidnapped Reynaldo Pacheco and bludgeoned his head with rocks, leaving the 44-year-old father of a young daughter dead in a creek bed in California’s Napa County. Local authorities determined that his murder was a consequence of an investment fraud that targeted low-income Latino and Asian immigrants around the world.

Like other victims of the World Capital Market scheme, or WCM, Pacheco energetically promoted the deal to relatives and acquaintances. When the Ponzi scheme collapsed, an unlucky investor decided to have him killed.

Four days before Pacheco was beaten to death, compliance officers at the global banking giant HSBC raised a warning about millions of dollars flowing into a big-dollar account in Hong Kong controlled by the scammers. It was at least the third in a series of so-called suspicious activity reports that the bank’s internal watchdogs had lodged about WCM over several months.

Yet HSBC continued to handle the Ponzi network’s massive flow of dirty money into — and out of — its accounts at the bank.

HSBC was profiting from an international criminal scheme even while on probation for having served murderous drug cartels and other criminals. HSBC had admitted to U.S. prosecutors in 2012 that it had helped dirty money flow through its branches around the world, including at least $881 million controlled by the notorious Sinaloa cartel and other Mexican drug gangs.

In a controversial decision, prosecutors declined to seek an indictment of the bank but instead allowed it to pay a $1.92 billion settlement and serve five years of probation during which its efforts to prevent money laundering would be monitored by a court-appointed watchdog. The court named a former top New York state financial crimes prosecutor, Michael Cherkasky.

A 16-month investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, BuzzFeed News and 108 other media partners has found that HSBC continued to provide banking services to alleged criminals, Ponzi schemers, shell companies tied to looted government funds and financial go-betweens for drug traffickers. This occurred even while the bank was on probation and under Cherkasky’s scrutiny.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/hsbc-moved-vast-sums-of-dirty-money-after-paying-record-laundering-fine/?utm_source=ICIJ&utm_campaign=57a99ab7b1-0922_WeeklyEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_992ecfdbb2-57a99ab7b1-82140021

US Treasury Department abandoned major money laundering case against Dubai gold company

The Kaloti probe offers rare insight into the illicit gold trade.

After three years of digging, investigators in the United States had accumulated a mountain of evidence that they believed sealed the case against Kaloti Jewellery Group, one of the largest gold traders and refiners in the world.

The Dubai-based conglomerate had become a key cog in the dirty gold trade, buying the precious metal from sellers suspected of laundering money for drug traffickers and other criminal groups, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration-led task force determined. Kaloti often paid in cash — sometimes so much it had to be hauled in wheelbarrows — and wired money for suspect clients to other businesses, investigators believed.

In 2014, the task force recommended that the Treasury Department designate Kaloti a money laundering threat under the USA Patriot Act, a seldom-used measure known as the financial “death penalty” because it can freeze a firm out of the international banking system.

But the Treasury Department never took action against Kaloti. Former Treasury officials said a decision on whether to move ahead was deferred for fear of angering the United Arab Emirates, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East. When attempts to convince the UAE to act on its own against Kaloti fizzled, the investigation was mothballed.

Investigators told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists they were baffled and disappointed. Money laundering cases are extraordinarily difficult to crack and the U.S. has struggled to police the murky gold trade. With Kaloti they thought they had a rare opportunity to send a message to the entire gold industry.

“I was incredibly frustrated,” one former official said. “What’s really sad is a lot of really, really good investigators, some really talented people, put a lot more time than they got paid for into trying to uncover a huge wrong.”

The U.S. investigation of Kaloti has not been previously reported. The outcome points to challenges common to money laundering cases: Investigators must follow money across borders and through companies based in secrecy havens, like Dubai, that have shown little interest in cracking down. Bringing cases against powerful actors also requires political will and agreement among different U.S. agencies with competing priorities.

The investigation came to light in a batch of secret bank filings that describe the flow of more than $2 trillion in suspicious transactions through the global banking system. JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and other financial institutions flooded the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network with warnings about Kaloti, flagging as suspicious thousands of transactions, worth $9.3 billion, that occurred between 2007 and 2015, the reports show.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/us-treasury-department-abandoned-major-money-laundering-case-against-dubai-gold-company/?utm_source=ICIJ&utm_campaign=57a99ab7b1-0922_WeeklyEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_992ecfdbb2-57a99ab7b1-82140021

Hopefully the images load

Mystery company ties accused temple raiders to art world elite

Where in the world is Pantheon Worldwide? Not even its own bank can

They pulled ancient Buddha heads out of the ground in war-torn Afghanistan and stole idols from temples in India. They cracked open shrines in Nepal, and in Cambodia bought an 11th-century statue of the Hindu god Shiva on the black market.

According to indictments filed in New York last year, a network of art thieves and traffickers extracted thousands of precious relics from archaeological sites across Asia and sold them to museums, elite galleries and wealthy private buyers.

Prosecutors say the group includes suppliers, restorers and New York art dealers who fabricated documents describing the origin of the antiquities to camouflage the looting.

A confidential banking document obtained in the FinCEN Files investigation offers a rare view into the murky supply chain that delivers valuable antiquities to auction houses and major Western museums. It reveals a shadowy shell company called Pantheon Worldwide Limited that exchanged millions of dollars in cash and relics with the alleged traffickers, according to the document, while baffling compliance officers at its own bank, London-based Standard Chartered Bank.

Standard Chartered maintained three accounts for Pantheon in its Hong Kong branch. But bank compliance officers knew next to nothing about their own client, the document shows. They were uncertain about the purpose of the company and didn’t even seem to know where it was registered — the most basic information needed to assess whether it might be a front for money laundering or other financial crime.

sar from fincen files

ICIJ also tried, and failed, to track down Pantheon. Hong Kong and London addresses listed by Standard Chartered for the company proved to be dead ends, and Hong Kong authorities said no company by that name had ever been incorporated there.

The file — a suspicious activity report leaked to BuzzFeed News and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — also suggests that top New York auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s conducted transactions involving Pantheon, although the exact nature of those dealings remains unclear. Neither auction house would comment on Pantheon.

The mystery enveloping Pantheon extends well beyond the one company. Operators who move suspect cash and antiquities across borders often use firms set up in offshore jurisdictions to cover their tracks. In the United States, the art market has become the largest legal-yet-unregulated industry, meaning that money launderers and tax evaders can “buy pieces without any record of the transactions,” according to a recent U.S. Senate report.

‘Losing chapters of history’

This secrecy, experts say, also emboldens art thieves, who are looting the developing world’s cultural heritage for the benefit of elite collectors and museums. “Archaeological sites around the world are being destroyed on an industrial scale,” said Tess Davis, executive director of the Antiquities Coalition, which advocates the return of stolen relics to their home countries. “We are losing chapters of history.”

https://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/mystery-company-ties-accused-temple-raiders-to-art-world-elite/?utm_source=ICIJ&utm_campaign=57a99ab7b1-0922_WeeklyEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_992ecfdbb2-57a99ab7b1-82140021

With Deutsche Bank’s help, an oligarch’s buying spree trails ruin across the US heartland

Secret transactions, lost jobs, worker injuries, gutted buildings, unpaid bills: Ihor Kolomoisky’s untold American legacy.

In a fiery ball, the explosion in a massive furnace at Warren Steel in Ohio blew out bricks and windows and sent workers hurtling to the ground, including three who were airlifted to burn units and two others rushed to local hospitals.

“I was like a ping pong ball,” said Michael Buckner, 34, who was taken by helicopter to an Akron hospital with severe burns on his head and arms. “I got thrown down steps. You couldn’t see anything.”

In the aftermath, federal inspectors turned up serious safety violations at the plant, while workers railed about dangerous and decrepit conditions they said had been ignored.

The 2011 blast was one of the first calamities to strike an American business owned by Ihor Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian oligarch with a reputation for heavy-handed tactics — he once sent a team of armed men to occupy an oil company — and for corruption on a grand scale.

For more than a decade, Kolomoisky siphoned billions of dollars from PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest financial institution, which he co-owned, in an audacious laundering scheme, cleaning the money through a web of companies around the world, U.S. federal prosecutors allege.

An investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists shows that Deutsche Bank, the troubled global lender, played a pivotal role, transferring more than $750 million to Kolomoisky’s business interests in the United States.

Criminals and others seeking to hide illicit money in the U.S. often plow it into glittering high-rises in New York, or use it to buy billionaire playthings, like yachts and expensive jewelry. Kolomoisky, who played a peripheral role in the Donald Trump impeachment drama, had a different prize in mind: real estate in the American heartland.

Over a decade, he and his associates secretly amassed a real estate empire, buying at least 22 properties, including a skyscraper in Cleveland with vaulted ceilings that featured one of the largest bank lobbies in the world, a shuttered Motorola facility rising from the farm fields of northern Illinois and the former headquarters of Mary Kay Cosmetics in Dallas.

https://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/with-deutsche-banks-help-an-oligarchs-buying-spree-trails-ruin-across-the-us-heartland/?utm_source=ICIJ&utm_campaign=57a99ab7b1-0922_WeeklyEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_992ecfdbb2-57a99ab7b1-82140021

Report: Democrats funding pet projects like free college with taxpayer dollars meant for COVID relief

Taxpayer dollars allocated to states and municipalities in the coronavirus relief bill known as the CARES Act are reportedly being used for pet projects by Democratic politicians.

What are the details?

The CARES Act, passed in March after COVID-related lockdowns crippled the American economy, allocated $150 billion to the COVID Relief Fund, $139 billion of which was earmarked to state and local governments to be used exclusively for public health costs.

But according to Fox News, Democratic governors and mayors are using the taxpayer dollars to fund projects completely unrelated to COVID-19 relief.

For example, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, announced earlier in September that she will use $24 million of CARES Act money to fund free college for some Michigan essential workers.

"This initiative is Michigan's way of expressing gratitude to essential workers for protecting public health and keeping our state running," Whitmer said.

Meanwhile, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, a Democrat, announced a plan earlier in September to use $300,000 in CARES Act funds to pilot a universal basic income project. Carter said he would sign an executive order giving 150 families in his city $500 per month, no strings attached, according to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. Rep. Betty McCollum (D) has raised questions over Carter's spending.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, another Democrat, is also getting in on the action.

Caldwell is using $629,000 in CARES Act money to hire more than a dozen community relations specialists and another $200,000 to pressure-wash sidewalks in one part of his city, the Honolulu Civil Beat reported.

Why so much wasteful spending?

State and local governments are racing to use the funds because they will be forced to return unused monies by Dec. 30, 2020, according to the Department of Treasury.

But didn't Democrats want more money?

Part of the reason Democrats have refused to compromise with Republicans on a second COVID relief bill — which they say is critical for the millions of Americans whose livelihood remains in limbo due to virus-related economic woes — is because they say states need more money than Republicans are willing to give.

Last month, after lawmakers failed to compromise, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out at Republicans.

"Their contempt for state, local, tribal and territorial governments endangers health care workers, first responders and other frontline workers, in addition to teachers. Support for teachers and education are essential for the children. But Mitch McConnell has said that states should just go bankrupt," she said.

But as it turned out, states were given more money they could spend, hence they're racing to spend it on pet projects now.

In fact, the Washington Free Beacon reported that, at the end of July, states had spent less than one-quarter of the money they received.

That fact, however, did not stop Democrats from demanding nearly $1 trillion more for state and local governments.

"They also want to spend another trillion dollars bailing out state and local governments that have only spent 25% of the money we sent them in March," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said

http://www.scoopyweb.com/2020/09/report-democrats-funding-pet-projects.html

$138 Billion Bridgewater Set Up 50 "Tent Offices" In The Woods Outside Of Its HQ For Its Traders

In keeping with a bizarre string of decisions (or lack of decisionmaking, as we pointed out) that could be at the heart of Bridgewater's awful -18.6% YTD performance so far this year, would it surprise you if we told you the fund manager was setting up office tents in the middle of the woods for its employees?

Well, apparently, that's exactly what the company did. The $138 billion hedge fund now has tents set up in the woods across from its Westport, Conn. headquarters so that its traders can "continue to work from their desks" while also "breathing fresh air," according to the NY Post.

The tents were set up in May and can accommodate about 50 of Bridgewater's 1,500 staff members. They were set up because indoor safety protocols for Covid were deemed to be too stressful. The result, according to Nir Bar Dea, cohead of Bridgewater’s investment engine? Chirping birds that can disrupt calls and at least one falling tree.

"We’re sitting outside—that’s never been a part of our plans,” Bar Dea, who has likely already been fired for talking to the press, told Fortune. Bridgewater is going to keep the setup through October or "until the weather gets too cold to comfortably work outdoors," Bar Dea continued.

Perhaps Bridgewater should stop doing its best Bear Grylls impressions and start focusing more on its returns. We noted just days ago that it has been an ugly year, performance-wise, for Ray Dalio.

In addition to the fund's worst losses in a decade, there is a "sprawling list of troubles" being dealt with internally, according to Bloomberg. These trouble include internal computer models misreading the market (also known as the New York Fed model), $3.5 billion in redemptions during the first 7 months of the year and Dalio losing an arbitration fight with ex-staffers.

He also has ongoing feuds with his co-chief executive and has laid off "dozens" of employees, according to the report.

And what changes has Dalio made to adjust, aside from tents in the woods? Apparently none.

“We are operating in the same way we have always operated,” he told Bloomberg TV. Dalio says the firm still has 45 commitments from investors, many around $1 billion.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/138-billion-bridgewater-set-50-tent-offices-woods-outside-its-hq-its-traders

WA children's entertainer facing dozens of child abuse charges

A Perth magician and escape artist is facing dozens of child abuse charges after police said they had uncovered more victims.

Dewald Venter, who goes by the stage name Ghupi, is behind bars tonight facing charges that include 20 counts of indecent dealings and nine counts of sexually penetrating a child.

The 26-year-old was first charged in May with the alleged assault of a boy dating back six years.

Mr Venter was granted bail, but police will allege that further investigations uncovered two more victims, a young boy and a girl.

At the time of the alleged offending, Mr Venter was quickly gaining a profile for his performances as an escape artist and magician.

He appeared on the TV show Australia's Got Talent and hosting children's masterclasses around Perth.

He is due to face court again next month.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/western-australia-childrens-magician-facing-sexual-assault-allegations/e9006c43-0e0d-45c3-b259-e8adecb5052f

>>10747398

I like this cop