Crown director Andrew Demetriou resigns following scathing report from NSW gaming authority

Crown Resorts director Andrew Demetriou has resigned from the board of the embattled gaming giant but has vowed to defend his reputation.

Key points:

Andrew Demetriou is the third Crown board member to resign this week

On Tuesday the NSW gaming authority ruled Crown was unable to operate a licence for the new Barangaroo casino

Mr Demetriou said the commissioner's comments about him were "unfair and unjust"

In a statement, Mr Demetriou said it was not an "easy decision" to step down and he had thought "carefully about taking this step".

"I have always been a team player and supported the greater good. I will therefore step down from the Crown Resorts board to give Crown the best possible chance of becoming suitable to the NSW Regulator," he said.

An extensive investigation commissioned by NSW's Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) this week concluded Crown was unsuitable to operate a licence for its new Sydney casino in its current form.

A report by Commissioner Patricia Bergin was scathing of the company's culture and identified a litany of failures, including money laundering.

The ILGA's chairman, Philip Crawford, said Mr Demetriou would need to resign if the company wanted to hold a licence for the Barangaroo casino in the future.

However in his statement, Mr Demetriou said the comments directed toward him in the report were "unfair and unjust".

"I will defend my reputation at every opportunity," he said.

Two other directors, Michael Johnston and Guy Jalland resigned from Crown on Wednesday, and chief executive Ken Barton also appears likely to step down in the coming days.

Crown released a statement this morning saying Mr Barton was considering his position.

Mr Demetriou said it had been an "honour" to serve on the Crown board and had confidence a licence for the new casino would eventually be granted.

"Crown is a great company, with outstanding people who serve the company well. Barangaroo will be a magnificent addition to the Sydney landscape and I look forward to when it is fully operational," he said.

Mr Demetriou's photo and biography was swiftly deleted from the Crown Resorts website following his resignation.

How Crown was brought to its knees

Damning evidence was presented at a public inquiry into Crown's operations. Is this a new era of accountability for the gaming sector?

Read more

Mr Demetriou was the current chairman of Crown Melbourne and was a member of Crowns Risk Management Committee from 2018.

The Bergin Report found he had no formal anti-money laundering training before joining Crown's board.

Following allegations of money laundering through two of Crown's VIP banking accounts in 2019, Mr Demetriou said he never took the chance to look at the accounts himself, saying he was not an accountant.

The Bergin Report also found Mr Demetriou had pledged allegiance to James Packer, Crown's largest shareholder, and regularly provided him with information whenever asked.

During the inquiry last year, Mr Demetriou was taken to task for referring to notes when answering questions about corporate culture.

ILGA chairman Mr Crawford told the ABC yesterday the resignations were a "good start".

"There need to be changes at the top and in senior management, a lot of board changes and that's started already," Mr Crawford said.

"We look forward to seeing a bit more of that and also senior management. That's a start."

The ILGA board will meet today to discuss the commissioner's report and Mr Crawford said the regulator would have "a fairly long list" of requirements for Crown to make itself suitable to run the Barangaroo casino.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-12/andrew-demetriou-resigns-from-crown-resorts/13147330

Ex-staffer killed himself outside of GOP Congresswoman's house, and police are unsure why

Shocking

In a bizarre, shocking, and saddening incident, a former staffer for freshman Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) appears to have shot and killed himself outside the Congresswoman's home, and police for now are puzzled at his motive.

The incident was first reported by the Dallas Morning News, who noted that police were called to Van Duyne's house on Wednesday afternoon after she called them, reporting that she heard gunshots outside her home and went outside to find a man on the sidewalk leading to the front porch of the home, who was apparently dead. The man was later identified as Chris Dillard, who served as a spokesman for Van Duyne's campaign until April of 2020.

Police say Van Duyne was at home at the time of the incident, but did not witness it. Irving police say that they have already searched Dillard's home, and can find no motive for his suicide, or its location. They also indicated that they did not find anything that would indicate that there is any further threat to Van Duyne.

A statement released by Van Duyne said, "I'm still shocked and grieving that Chris would take his life. We had known each other for years. He had been to my home numerous times for holiday parties, fantasy football draft parties, and get-togethers with friends. The last time I heard from him was over text in early January, to share pictures of his family. I've spoken with Chris's mother to offer my condolences and asked her how to support her during this difficult time. I'm devastated for her his daughter and grandchildren, we are praying for Chris's family and loved ones and ask that everyone please respect their privacy. Thank you."

Van Duyne previously served as mayor of Irving, Texas, and served as a regional director for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Trump administration. She stepped down from that position in 2019 to run for the seat that was being vacated by the retirement of former Rep. Kenny Marchant. Van Duyne was endorsed by President Trump in one of the most hotly contested races in the country, narrowly defeating Democrat Candace Valenzuela to win her first term in Congress.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/ex-staffer-killed-himself-outside-of-gop-congresswomans-house-and-police-are-unsure-why

‘Something Is Rotten in New Jersey’: Springsteen Camp Attacks Police for Boss’ DWI Arrest, Little Steven Van Zandt Winks at Call for Mob Contract on Cop

People close to rock star and Democratic Party shill Bruce Springsteen are bashing the U.S. Park Police for the Boss’ DWI arrest on November 14, 2020 after the Boss was spotted drinking tequila with a group of fans while on his parked motorcycle at Gateway National Recreation Area in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Springsteen was charged with DWI, reckless driving and consuming alcohol in a closed area. News of Springsteen’s arrest was kept secret by Bruce and his manager Jon Landau as Springsteen performed at the Biden Inaugural at the Lincoln Memorial on January 20 and then filmed a Super Bowl commercial for Jeep that aired on February 7. Jeep pulled the ad after TMZ broke the news of Springsteen’s arrest on Wednesday.

The probable cause statement for the charges against Springsteen state he admitted to drinking two shots of tequila in twenty minutes, refused to take a breath test, had glassy eyes, smelled of alcohol, swayed back and forth and failed field sobriety tests.

Springsteen’s camp has sought to downplay his arrest in leaks to the media, claiming Bruce had a BAC of only .02 when the presumed level for intoxication in New Jersey is .08. (Police have not released Springsteen’s BAC.) Now they are also going after the Park Police. A Springsteen insider blamed the officer for the arrest in comments to the New York Post on Thursday:

“The incident escalated because once the officer approached Bruce on his motorcycle he refused to take a breathalyzer test,” a source close to Springsteen said. “The cop got pissed off, took Bruce in, and made him do bloodwork.”

Maureen Van Zandt, wife of E Street Band guitarist Little Steven Van Zandt, commenting on a report about Springsteen’s arrest in a post on Twitter said, “Something is rotten in the state of New Jersey…”

Steven Van Zandt went further, winking at a call for a mob contract on the arresting officer. Van Zandt retweeted with comment a Twitter poster who referenced his Sopranos mob character Silvio Dante and said, “Stevie, You (sic) is this NJ cop who arrested the Boss for blowing a 0.02? I think Silvio needs to put out a contract on him.“

Van Zandt coolly said in response to the call for a mob hit on the federal officer, “I hear that. Totally unbelievable.”

The U.S. Park Police officer’s name is on the probable cause statement and has been reported by the media.

Springsteen has not commented on his arrest, nor has his manager Landau or attorney Mitchell Ansell.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/something-rotten-new-jersey-springsteen-camp-attacks-police-boss-dwi-arrest-little-steven-van-zandt-winks-call-mob-contract-cop/

FLASHBACK: Biden Compared Trump to Goebbels, Used Hitler in a Campaign Ad

The news that Gina Carano, who plays the popular reoccurring character Cara Dune on The Mandalorian, has been fired by Lucasfilm/Disney over allegedly objectionable posts on Instagram sent shockwaves on social media, with many conservatives calling on people to end their subscriptions to Disney+ in response to the company’s embrace of cancel culture.

Liberal snowflakes have been calling for Carano to be fired for some time, and I suspect Lucasfilm/Disney has been anxiously waiting for something give them a reason to. Her offending post dared to compare cancel culture to the demonization of Jews in Europe in the 1930s.

That, apparently, was the last straw for Lucasfilm/Disney. Of course, the snowflakes are happy.

“Fired for making a Hitler analogy?” asked Dilbert creator Scott Adams on Twitter. “Wouldn’t that employment standard make all of us unemployed?”

Indeed it would. In fact, if cancel culture was equally applied to both conservatives and liberals, the current occupant of the White House would also have to be canceled by the left.

In October 2020, Joe Biden used footage of Adolf Hitler in a campaign ad attacking Trump. The ad combined a speech Biden gave about the 2017 Charlottesville riots with the Black Eye Peas song “Where Is the Love.” Approximately 45 seconds into the video embedded below, you’ll see the portion where archive footage of Hitler is used, after which Biden repeated the false claim that Trump called neo-Nazis in Charlottesville “very fine people.”

A month before that, Biden compared Trump to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda.

“He’s sort of like [Joseph] Goebbels,” Biden told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle. “You say the lie long enough, keep repeating it, repeating it, repeating it, it becomes common knowledge.”

And let’s face it, he’s hardly alone. Comparing Trump and the GOP to Hitler or the Nazis has become a favorite past time Democratic Party. And Gina Carano’s post was hardly an inappropriate comparison. It’s not like Democrats haven’t advocated for “reeducation” camps for Trump supporters. One California Democratic Party official even asked how to “deprogram” 75 million people—a reference to the number of votes Trump got in the 2020 election. Kamala Harris joked about killing Trump or Pence in an elevator on Ellen, and the audience laughed.

So, let’s face it, Gina Carano’s post, which prompted the latest calls for her firing, was hardly inappropriate—especially not compared to Joe Biden’s divisive rhetoric. Yet, the left finds comparing Trump to Hitler to be appropriate… just like they did to Mitt Romney in 2012, John McCain in 2008, George W. Bush from 2001-2008, etc., etc. etc..

So, if we’re in the business of canceling people for Nazi analogies, how many Democrats would even be left in government?

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/02/11/flashback-biden-compared-trump-to-goebbels-used-hitler-in-a-campaign-ad-n1424917

Democrats Have Failed to Tie Capitol Breach to Trump, Says Defense Attorney David Schoen

David Schoen, former President Donald Trump’s defense attorney, told reporters on Thursday that the Democrats, while “making a movie,” have failed to tie the Capitol breach to Trump.

“I think they’re making a movie,” Schoen said. “You know, they haven’t in any way tied it to Donald Trump.”

“And I think it’s offensive. Quite frankly, it’s antithetical [to] the healing process to continue to show the tragedy that happened here that Donald Trump has condemned, and I think it tears at the American people, quite frankly.”

A reporter asked the attorney why they broke from the trial to do a live shot.

“It’s more of the same thing. They’re showing the same repetitive videos. [Making] points that don’t exist.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Fox on Wednesday that although the Democrats highlighted Trump’s “fight like hell” remark numerous times, they obviated completely another section of Trump’s speech where he told protestors to be peaceful.

“Peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” Trump said on Jan 6.

“The one line from the president’s speech that wasn’t in the Democrats’ video is the line that’s most important, and that’s where the president said, ‘Peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,’” Jordan said.

Another lawyer representing Trump in the impeachment trial, Bruce Castor, said House Democrats hadn’t presented any new information in the nearly eight-hour session on Wednesday.

“Yesterday, we said we didn’t dispute that the breach of the capital is a terrible thing, and that mob violence is something that President Trump abhors. So we didn’t learn anything today we didn’t already know, it’s a matter of fact. I wonder why we sat through eight hours of videos that are under dispute,” Bruce Castor told reporters as he walked to his car after the session ended.

Although new footage was presented during the trial, no new evidence of the alleged incitement was presented.

Castor said that the defense team won’t make any adjustments to the president’s defense based on what was presented Wednesday.

“I don’t know what the public has seen and I don’t think the Democrats revealed anything the public hasn’t seen from a different angle; I think it was all angles,” he said.

https://www.ntd.com/democrats-have-failed-to-tie-capitol-breach-to-trump-says-defense-attorney-david-schoen_565938.html

Over 9,000 COVID-19 patients sent into NY nursing homes

NEW YORK — More than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York state were released from hospitals into nursing homes early in the pandemic under a controversial directive that was scrapped amid criticism it accelerated outbreaks, according to new records obtained by The Associated Press.

The new number of 9,056 recovering patients sent to hundreds of nursing homes is more than 40 percent higher than what the state health department previously released. And it raises new questions as to whether a March 25 directive from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration helped spread sickness and death among residents, a charge the state disputes.

“The lack of transparency and the meting out of bits of important data has undermined our ability to both recognize the scope and severity of what’s going on” and address it, said Richard Mollot, the executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a residents advocacy group.

The new figures come as the Cuomo administration has been forced in recent weeks to acknowledge it has been underreporting the overall number of COVID-19 deaths among long-term care residents. It is now nearly 15,000 up from the 8,500 previously disclosed.

The Cuomo administration’s March 25 directive barred nursing homes from refusing people just because they had COVID-19. It was intended to free up space in hospitals swamped in the early days of the pandemic. It came under criticism from advocates for nursing home residents and their relatives, who said it had the potential to spread the virus in a state that at the time already had the nation’s highest nursing home death toll.

In its reply to an AP Freedom of Information request from May, the state health department this week released two figures: a previously disclosed count of 6,327 admissions of patients directly from hospitals and a new count of 2,729 “readmissions” of patients sent back from a hospital to the nursing home where they had lived before.

https://nypost.com/2021/02/11/over-9000-covid-19-patients-sent-into-ny-nursing-homes/

CBS DECLARES: You’ll Need A COVID ‘Vaccination Passport’ To Travel By Summer 2021

Without a mention of privacy rights the mainstream media appears to be all in for making you ‘show your papers’

As the United States prepares to open back up after the unnecessarily long COVID lockdowns, the mainstream media is shaping the narrative that “vaccination passports” will not only be required for travel, but that they will arrive as a necessity by this summer.

CBS News travel editor, Peter Greenberg, almost appeared gleeful when he predicted two things: that travel – both domestic and international – would most likely return this summer, and that there would be a prerequisite to being able to travel.

Greenberg stated bluntly that in order to travel you will most likely need proof that you’ve been vaccinated for COVID. Vaccination passports, he said, will be the new standard in travel.

“It will be required,” Greenberg said. “The real question is what technology will be available to create a universally acceptable and universally readable document that can’t be forged.”

He noted that preliminary versions of a vaccine passport – or health passport – are being developed by several outlets, in both the public and private sectors – and in some cases a combination of both, around the world.

Greenberg spotlighted the effort taking place in Denmark, pointing out that the Nordic nation is creating a digital passport for citizens that will contain all your current medical information that can be updatable on that digital card.”

The CBS News reporter, speaking with a level of authority usually reserved for higher-level medical professionals intimate with the COVID pandemic, said while digital versions of “your papers” appear to be the goal, early models will likely be physical.

One entrepreneur has come up with two versions of a vaccination passport, one for international travel and another for domestic. The international version has e-vaccine technology that is tantamount to an electronic version of your health records.

His domestic – or basic version (without the e-vaccine technology), he suggests, would be more appropriate for domestic travel and daily interactions. Both versions hold information about which vaccine was administered, where it was administered, and when.

https://nationalfile.com/cbs-declares-youll-need-a-covid-vaccination-passport-to-travel-by-summer-2021/

Israel Threatens to Abandon America, Ally With China And Russia After Securing $40B In U.S. Aid

Knesset member Ayoob Kara, who is part of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, on Tuesday threatened that Israel is prepared to abandon America and ally with China and Russia if Biden "reneges on America's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and signs a nuclear deal with Iran."

The public statement, which our media is refusing to report on, comes a little over one month after the US congress voted to pass a law mandating we send nearly $40 billion in aid to Israel over the next decade (even if, as Nancy Pelosi said, America "crumbles to the ground").

"If the United States does not continue to recognize Israel's sovereignty in the Golan Heights and drastically changes Trump's Iran policy, Israel will have to consider building a stronger relationship with Russia and China," Kara said, tweeting out a picture of himself with former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

"Till now, Israel has always considered American interests in relations to Russia and China," Kara continued. "In the past, we even cancelled a major arms deal with China in order to appease the United States."

"Yet if Biden reneges on America's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and signs a nuclear deal with Iran, a deal that endangers the existence and the security of the State of Israel, we must work to build stronger strategic ties to China and Russia, starting with the Haifa port deal."

These are not idle threats. Israel has been buddying up with China for years. Even Mike Pompeo last year had to tell Netanyahu to back off on making so many deals with China.

As Kara noted, Israel has also gone ahead with the Haifa port deal with China despite US opposition.

Does this sound like our "greatest ally?"

As we saw in late December, Netanyahu gave a hero's welcome to Jonathan Pollard – a traitor who stole US military secrets while working at the Pentagon and sold them to Israel.

President Trump, in an act of utter humiliation both for himself and our country, on his last day in office also pardoned Israeli colonel Aviem Sella, the handler of Pollard who never faced justice because he fled to Israel after Pollard got arrested and Israel refused to extradite him.

In another act of humiliation, just last year the US army was forced to abandon a $1 billion Iron Dome missile defense system after Israel refused to hand over the source code even though it was funded thanks to US taxpayers giving them $142 billion in aid.

Truly our greatest ally!

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=62044

>>12897222

Hello Nazi shill

You fuckers must be really scrapping the barrel!

Biden 'Eager' To Take On NRA After Pledging To Defeat Gun Rights Organization

President Biden is 'eager' to take on the National Rifle Association, and has refused to rule out using executive action to circumvent the Congressional process to do so, the White House signaled on Thursday.

When asked whether Biden will resort to According to the Washington Times, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the president hasn't yet formulated a strategy, but that he's 'eager' to do so, according to the Washington Times.

"First I will say that the president addressing gun violence in the country and putting in place additional safety measures is something that the president has a personal commitment to, and his history on this issue is evidence of that," said Psaki, adding "He has obviously taken on the NRA twice and won and he is happy and eager to do that in the future."

During the 2020 presidential race, Mr. Biden touted the lead role he played in passing the 1994 assault weapons ban and the Brady background check bill.

Mr. Biden has issued a series of executive actions since taking office and is facing mounting pressure to do something about cracking down on guns. -Washington Times

On January 8, Biden promised to "defeat" the NRA while he's in office - responding via Twitter to former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), who was wounded in a 2011 shooting rampage in Tucson.

"Your perseverance and immeasurable courage continue to inspire me and millions of others. I pledge to continue to work with you—and with survivors, families, and advocates across the country—to defeat the NRA and end our epidemic of gun violence," Biden's account responded.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-eager-take-nra-after-pledging-defeat-gun-rights-organization

Instagram toughening penalties for sending ‘hateful’ private messages

Instagram on Wednesday announced that it will begin disabling the accounts of users who repeatedly send “hateful” direct messages (DMs) and content to others in an effort to combat hate speech after users sent racist messages to British soccer players.

While first-time offenders won’t be allowed to send DMs for an undefined timespan, their account will be disabled if they send hateful messages again.

“We’ll also disable new accounts created to get around our messaging restrictions, and will continue to disable accounts we find that are created purely to send abusive messages,” Instagram noted in its announcement.

The image-centric platform’s hate speech policy, as reiterated in its announcement, prohibits attacks on people based on “protected characteristics,” including race or religion, as well as “more implicit forms of hate speech,” like content depicting blackface and antisemitic tropes. In its announcement, Instagram doubled down on its commitment to “cooperation with UK law enforcement authorities on hate speech.”

The Premier League on Thursday called on other social media platforms to “take action against online abuse” in a letter to Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg, the CEOs of Twitter and Facebook respectively, asking them to adopt stricter hateful content policies. Facebook

Citing the online abuse many soccer players have faced, the League said “we write to ask that for reasons of basic human decency you use the power of your global systems to bring this to an end.”

The League noted the “current assurances” from Facebook, who owns Instagram, that its “standards will be tightened,” but pressed that “far more is needed to drive change.”

https://saraacarter.com/instagram-toughening-penalties-for-sending-hateful-private-messages/

The REAL Story Behind the FOIA Request and UFO Debris Story

Background

So frustrating to have to do a video like this, but as traction grows today on various social media platforms about a story that just surfaced rooted with a FOIA request response – I felt a video was in order.

Wild sensationalized headlines and misinterpreted FOIA results has all landed a new UFO story that is, well, just not accurate. Although at the recording of this, mainstream media coverage has not commenced, the blog in question has found itself posted throughout multiple social networks such as Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter; all resulting in many questions.

This is addressing the rumor, while adding a few more tidbits about AAWSAP that you may not be aware of.

https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/the-real-story-behind-the-foia-request-and-ufo-debris-story-february-9-2021/