“Man, That Thing Is Scary!” – Steve Bannon and War Room Shocked at Joe Biden’s Dead, Black Eyes During COVID Address
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/man-thing-scary-steve-bannon-war-room-shocked-joe-bidens-dead-black-eyes-covid-address-video/
Republicans demand Bezos hand over documents after alleging ‘discrimination’ against conservatives
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have demanded that Amazon cough up files and communications related to its alleged “viewpoint discrimination” against the right-of-center, penning a formal request to CEO Jeff Bezos.
Sent by ranking Republicans on the judiciary panel’s antitrust subcommittee, Representatives Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Ken Buck (Colorado), the letter on Thursday night called on the e-retail giant to address lawmakers’ concerns about alleged censorship of conservative voices.
“Big Tech, including Amazon, is engaged in systematic viewpoint discrimination. In the unfortunate phenomenon of ‘cancel culture,’ Amazon plays a leading role in silencing and censoring the political speech of conservative Americans,” reads the letter, first obtained by Breitbart.
“In just the last several months, Amazon has enabled a pattern of curtailing, censoring and removing from its platforms content that espouses conservative viewpoints.”
The legislators pointed to several examples in which Amazon exerted “editorial control” over content that is “biased against conservatives,” giving the appearance of a “coordinated effort to cancel conservative speech” on its various platforms.
Among those cases were Amazon’s decision last June to bar advertising for a book by Wall Street Journal reporter Abigail Shrier, which warned that “transgender identification among teen girls has become a social contagion.” The lawmakers also cited a move earlier this year to cut conservative-friendly social media site Parler off Amazon’s cloud servers, as well as a documentary on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that was inexplicably deleted off the site “without warning or notification to the film’s director.”
Jordan and Buck demanded that Amazon hand over “all documents and communications” related to the examples outlined in the letter, saying they expect the company to provide the material no later than the evening of March 25.
While both the Judiciary Committee chairman, Jerry Nadler (D-New York), as well as the antitrust subcommittee chair David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island), refused to sign the letter, they were nonetheless copied to the missive.
Republicans have repeatedly taken aim at Big Tech firms for purported censorship campaigns against the political right, a cause loudly championed by former President Donald Trump, who was himself targeted with bans and suspensions across several platforms in the wake of the January 6 riot at the Capitol. The GOP representatives behind Thursday’s letter also referred to Trump’s indefinite ban on Amazon-owned Twitch, tasking Amazon with providing material on that incident as well.
https://www.rt.com/usa/517892-republians-letter-amazon-censorship/
Democrats Block Amendment that Would Require ICE Be Notified if Illegal Immigrant Tries to Buy a Gun — Then Vote to Take Away Gun Rights from Americans
The Democrat-led House on Thursday passed a gun control bill to expand background checks with a vote of 227-203.
8 Republican lawmakers voted with the Democrats to pass the “Background Checks Act” that prohibits private firearms transfers without having a background check.
The law will make it harder for law-abiding Americans to purchase guns to protect themselves and their families.
Americans bought an estimated 21 million guns last year during the Democrat-led COVID lockdowns and Democrat-promoted Black Lives Matter riots.
These same Democrats blocked legislation that would require ICE to be contacted when illegal aliens applied to buy a gun.
This is an example of Democrat policy in a nutshell.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/democrats-block-amendment-require-ice-notified-illegal-immigrant-tries-buy-gun-vote-take-away-gun-rights-americans/
No Jail for ‘Monster’ Cop Found Guilty for His Role in Child Sex Ring Run by Fellow Officers
As TFTP has reported, since 2017, information over a years-long child abuse saga involving Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) officers has slowly trickled out, leading to multiple officers being arrested and sentenced to prison. Hardly an isolated incident, in total, a series of seven lawsuits names more than eight current or former LMPD officers. One of those officers — who was subsequently arrested for child sex abuse — was officer Brad Schuhmann, 32.
Despite horrifying details coming out in the case against Schuhmann, he was granted a sweetheart plea deal in which he will avoid jail for sexually abusing a little girl in the department’s explorer program.
According to his indictment, Schuhmann willfully deprived the victim of liberty without due process of law, which includes the “right not to have her bodily integrity violated by a person acting under color of law.”
Nevertheless, Schuhmann was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Jennings Grady on Wednesday to just six months of home confinement and two years of probation, the Courier Journal reported. He must also register as a sex offender.
The victim called Schuhmann a “monster” and a “predator” in an impact statement and said “this man robbed me of my goals.”
As the Courier Journal reports, identified only as “Jane Doe,” she said she has lived in shame since Schuhmann had sexual contact with her when she was a teenager in the now-defunct scouting program for youngsters interested in law enforcement.
Schuhmann did not deny the sexual abuse and instead admitted to having sexual contact with her at her home and other locations. He said he has since changed since that incident, which he called “the worst decision of my life.”
Schuhmann becomes the third cop in this child sex scandal to be convicted. It has taken years to make such a small headway as the department has been helping to cover it up.
As TFTP reported, inside information into the years-long child sex abuse saga was not at all easy to obtain and now we know why. The department hid 738,000 records documenting the sexual abuse of Explorer Scouts by officers — and then, according to records requested by the Courier Journal, lied to keep the files from the public.
More
https://thefreethoughtproject.com/monster-cop-no-jail-admitting-sexual-assault-child-ring/
10 House Republicans Declare Support for Amnesty, Visa Worker Bill
Ten GOP representatives joined the Democrat farmworker amnesty bill, even though the bill would push many of their own voters out of jobs and their own districts, critics assert.
Republican Washington state farmer Rep. Dan Newhouse leads the ten GOP cosponsors on H.R.1603.
They include Reps. Elisa Stefanik (NY), Mark Amodei (NV), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), Doug LaMalfa (CA), Cathy McMorris Rogers (WA), Mike Simpson (ID), Fred Upton (MI), David Valadao (CA), and Jefferson Van Drew (NJ).
Additional legislators may be trying to dodge criticism from voters by hiding their support for H.R. 1603, titled “To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for terms and conditions for nonimmigrant workers performing agricultural labor or services, and for other purposes.” The bill is expected to come to the floor for a vote next week.
“Congress should not debate nor vote on any further significant legislation while American citizens are cut off from their representatives and staffers by armed troops and a pandemic,” William Gheen, the founder of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC grassroots group, stated in a press release.
“President Biden and lawmakers who promote or try to advance Amnesty legislation for illegals during this pandemic are causing a dangerous surge on our borders when we already have 17 million Americans out of work and illegals with COVID-19 being released by the Biden administration,” Gheen asserted.
The bill “will attract more illegal immigration into America while making future border or immigration law enforcement impossible by giving the Democratic Party millions of new voters to mobilize in exchange for government jobs, welfare, benefits, and incentives,” ALIPAC stated.
The H.R. 1603 legislation is a March 8 version of the H.R. 1537 amnesty bill, which was introduced on March 3 and had only one GOP supporter: Dan Newhouse.
The amnesty bill would devastate rural towns by giving employers an unlimited supply of cheap H-2A visa workers, Rosemary Jenks, policy director at NumbersUSA, said. She told Breitbart News:
Once you give them amnesty, the [current illegal] farmworkers are going to leave agriculture. So the growers are going to have to replace that labor force. If the borders are open, they’ll just do it with more illegals. But if they have to use E-Verify [to ensure legal hiring], they’ll hire H-2As and pay them less.
So all wages across the industry will go down, or at least be stagnant, and the farm communities will basically empty out more than what has already happened. Towns will dry up because local wages for Americans will decline — and the visa workers will send most of their wages back to their home countries.
It will basically be the exacerbation of the rural-to-urban population shift that we’ve already been seeing [nationwide]. Businesses in those [rural] communities will shut down because there won’t be enough consumers. It means that [private-sector] services will diminish because there won’t be enough consumers. Tax receipts will tank, which is why [government-provided] services will decline. Drug use will increase.
In an exclusive statement to Breitbart News, Rob Law, Center for Immigration Studies legislative and regulatory director and former policy chief of President Donald Trump’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency, said agriculture amnesty “is a special interest handout … it’s government-sanctioned serfdom.”
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2021/03/12/10-gop-reps-join-democrats-farmworker-amnesty-and-visa-worker-bill/
Twitter is directly enabling PEDOPHILES by banning those who call them out
Jack Dorsey and his army of social justice warrior (SJW) employees have axed another defender of the innocent after she tweeted a message exposing transgender pedophile Alok Vaid-Menon.
Former Delaware U.S. Senate candidate and America First GOP leader Lauren Witzke’s last post on Twitter included a disturbing quote from Vaid-Menon, who believes that underage girls are “kinky,” which Witzke called “demonic.”
Vaid-Menon apparently believes that fears about transgender “women,” which are just biological males in drag, going into girls’ bathrooms and sexually assaulting little girls are unfounded because those little girls want to be victimized.
“The narrative is that transgender people will come into bathrooms and abuse little girls,” Vaid-Menon says. “The supposed ‘purity’ of the victims has remained stagnant.”
“There are no princesses. Little girls are also kinky. Your kids aren’t as straight and narrow as you think they are.”
In other words, Vaid-Menon, a biological male pretending to be “female,” believes that underage girls are just as perverted as he is. None of them are the Disney princesses their parents dress them as, but are rather secret sexual deviants just waiting for the opportunity to encounter a mentally ill transgender.
After exposing this in a tweet, Witzke’s account was suspended. She received a message from Twitter explaining that her post, which only contained the word “demonic” along with the full quote from Vaid-Menon, violates Twitter’s “rules against hateful conduct.”
“You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease,” Twitter added.
Cult of LGBTQ is “a gateway drug to pedophilia”
The irony is that Vaid-Menon’s words promoting sexual violence against underage girls is completely permissible on Twitter, as are posts bashing white people, Donald Trump, conservatives, Christians and other unprotected people and groups.
“What we can assume out of this is that Twitter is enabling pedophilia, promoting pedophilia, but censors Biblical truth, so we can only assume Twitter is pro-pedophiles and their sympathizers,” Witzke told the independent media in a follow-up interview.
Twitter fully endorses “Minor Attracted Persons,” or MAPs, using its platform as well – MAPs being a euphemism for pedophiles.
If you are sick and perverted, in other words, then Twitter is for you. If you have moral values, on the other hand, then anything you say on Twitter will violate its terms of service, resulting in your eventual expulsion.
https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-03-10-twitter-directly-enabling-pedophiles-banning-detractors.html
Democrats launch bid to try and OVERTURN Iowa Congressional race after Republican won by just six votes
The House Administration Committee will consider an appeal from Democrats to contest the results of the closest 2020 congressional race after Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks won by just six votes.
The Committee will consider the merits of an appeal from Democrat Rita Hart after she lost to Miller-Meeks by a less than 1% margin of more than 400,000 ballots cast in Iowa's Second Congressional District.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during press conference on Thursday that 'of course' the review could overturn the results of the close election.
'Could you see a scenario? We don't do press conferences on 'can you see a scenario.' Of course! Of course!' Pelosi said, according to Fox Business.
'I respect the work of the committee. … We'll see where that takes us. There could be a scenario to that extent.'
Iowa state officials certified the results last year and Miller-Meeks was sworn in to Congress on January 3.
In December, Hart filed a Notice of Contest to petition the election results with Congress instead of an Iowa court and claimed that the results were certified in favor of Miller-Meeks after 22 'lawful ballots' were ignored in the count.
Hart's petition was filed under the Federal Contested Election Act which allows candidates to contest general elections by filing a motion with the House clerk.
'Of these wrongfully excluded 22 ballots, the evidence establishes that 18 were cast for Contestant, three were cast for Contestee Miller-Meeks and one did not record a vote for either candidate,' according to the petition.
'After the House has conducted its investigation and all lawful votes are accurately counted, Contestant Hart finally will be seated as the new U.S. Representative from the Second Congressional District.'
A Hart campaign spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday that the ballots 'still have not been counted due to a string of errors.'
http://www.domigood.com/2021/03/democrats-launch-bid-to-try-and.html
Former Texas Border County HR Director Pleads Guilty to Bribery Scheme
A former Texas border county official pleaded guilty to collecting bribes in exchange for helping vendors secure contracts.
The development took place this week when 40-year-old Arnoldo Romeo Flores went before a U.S. judge and pleaded guilty to one of several bribery counts. Flores is allowed to remain on bond pending his sentencing hearing.
According to the U.S. Attorneys Office, Flores was the Cameron County Director for Human Resources between 2014-2015. He allegedly collected a series of bribes to help secure two contracts. Court documents filed in the case say the FBI had a cooperating source who helped negotiate the bribes where Flores would explain how to submit an ultimately successful proposal. Prosecutors say the alleged bribes ranged between $1,500 and $3,000.
Cameron County has a history of corruption.
In 2017, authorities arrested former Cameron County Judge Pete Sepulveda in connection with the alleged theft of public funds after ordering county workers to pave his driveway. Sepulveda served as an interim county judge from March 2015 to 2016.
Former Texas State District Judge Abel Limas received a 6-year prison sentence in 2013 for collecting bribes from attorneys for favorable rulings.
Former Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos received a 13-year prison sentence in 2014 for a racketeering scheme where he and several other attorneys worked on a pay-to-play scheme for favorable rulings.
Former Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu spent more than 15 years in prison in connection because of Mexican cartel bribes. According to a local newspaper, other illegal ventures such as underground casinos also got favorable treatment in exchange for cash.
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/03/11/former-texas-border-county-hr-director-pleads-guilty-to-bribery-scheme/
Dr. Judy Mikovtis was assaulted with excessive force and suffered injuries to her ribs
Forwarded from Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom
OAMF President Stephanie Stock received a text just 30 minutes ago from Dr. Judy Mikovits who has been featured in multiple documentaries showcasing fraud in the pharmaceutical industry and Dr. Fauci's research, and was most recently featured in "PlanDemic "….
"I'm ok, but, I was arrested yesterday for refusing to wear toxic paper mask on a plane. I was targeted as I had flown in silver masks 3 other times."
"Officer used excessive force injuring my left elbow, arm, and ribs."
"I'm going back to doc tomorrow.
My arm is very bad."
"We will go to COURT and WE WILL WIN so that this never happens again!"
-Dr. Judy Mikovits
3/11/21
OAMF is planning an exclusive interview with Judy in the next two days so you can get all the details of what she had to endure!
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/301173-2021-03-12-breaking-dr-judy-mikovtis-was-assaulted-with-excessive-force-and.htm?From=News
Microsoft Exchange Server hacks ‘doubling’ every two hours
A ransomware variant is now also leveraging the critical vulnerabilities.
Cyberattackers are taking full advantage of slow patch or mitigation processes on Microsoft Exchange Server with attack rates doubling every few hours.
According to Check Point Research (CPR), threat actors are actively exploiting four zero-day vulnerabilities tackled with emergency fixes issued by Microsoft on March 2 – and attack attempts continue to rise.
In the past 24 hours, the team has observed "exploitation attempts on organizations doubling every two to three hours."
The countries feeling the brunt of attack attempts are Turkey, the United States, and Italy, accounting for 19%, 18%, and 10% of all tracked exploit attempts, respectively.
Government, military, manufacturing, and then financial services are currently the most targeted industries.
Palo Alto estimates that at least 125,000 servers remain unpatched worldwide.
The critical vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-26855, CVE-2021-26857, CVE-2021-26858, CVE-2021-27065) impact Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Server 2016, and Exchange Server 2019.
Microsoft issued emergency, out-of-band patches to tackle the security flaws which can be exploited for data theft and server compromise and has previously attributed active exploit to Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) group Hafnium.
This week, ESET revealed at least 10 APT groups have been linked to current Microsoft Exchange Server exploit attempts.
On March 12, Microsoft said that a form of ransomware, known as DearCry, is now utilizing the server vulnerabilities in attacks. The tech giant says that after the "initial compromise of unpatched on-premises Exchange Servers" ransomware is deployed on vulnerable systems, a situation reminiscent of the 2017 WannaCry outbreak.
"Compromised servers could enable an unauthorized attacker to extract your corporate emails and execute malicious code inside your organization with high privileges," commented Lotem Finkelsteen, Manager of Threat Intelligence at Check Point. "Organizations who are at risk should not only take preventive actions on their Exchange, but also scan their networks for live threats and assess all assets."
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-exchange-server-hacks-doubling-every-two-hours/?ftag=TRE-03-10aaa6b&bhid=21735961543072688253262375158449&mid=13296663&cid=717936240
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-exchange-server-hacks-doubling-every-two-hours/?ftag=TRE-03-10aaa6b&bhid=21735961543072688253262375158449&mid=13296663&cid=717936240
Twitter is again censoring BitChute links. Here is what it looks like.
Twitter is again censoring BitChute links. You can see the pic, where a vague message pops up saying that there is a harmful link in the tweet. Once the BitChute link is removed, the tweet is allowed.
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/twitter-is-again-censoring-bitchute-links-here-is-what-it-looks-like/
Covid bailout “stimulus” scheme to pay off corrupt Democrat states will cost the average U.S. family $69,000 in taxes
The $1.9 trillion so-called “stimulus” package that is about to be signed by Fake President Joe Biden will saddle American taxpayers with a massive bill, the likes of which most of them will never be able to afford to pay.
According to an analysis of the bill’s hidden price tag, each person in the United States will need to come up with $17,000, while the average family would have to pay back $69,000. None of this will ever actually get paid back into the Treasury, of course, but this is what it would cost to recoup the deficit created by the massive barrel of pork, which is being erroneously branded as “relief” for sufferers of the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19).
Combined with the “stimulus” bills signed by Donald Trump last year, this one will bring the combined price tag total to $6 trillion, effectively swelling the national debt to record levels. And perhaps the worst part is that Congress has set aside at least $1 trillion as a type of slush fund that is earmarked for nothing.
“This is the reality of the bill before us today: It showers money on special interests but spends less than 9% on actually defeating the virus,” warned House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who urged Congress to reject the pork-laden bill.
“But it gives San Francisco $600 million, essentially wiping out 92% of their budget deficit.”
Rep. Jason Smith offered a similar take, noting that the Biden bill “is for the political class, not the working class.”
“If this bill was about direct payments to people and putting shots in the arms and vaccines, you would have strong bipartisan support across this Congress and across this country, but less than 9% of the entire spending in this bill actually goes to crushing the virus and helping distribute vaccines and putting shots in arms,” he added.
Less than 10 percent of the “stimulus” bill has anything to do with coronavirus
Smith shared the Senate-passed version of the bill with Washington Secrets, revealing an astounding amount of spending that has absolutely nothing to do with the Chinese virus or those negatively affected by it.
As it turns out, the vast majority of the “stimulus” bill funds non-coronavirus agendas such a replenishing the coffers of the “blue” cities and states that have struggled economically due to prolonged lockdowns.
A whopping 27 percent of the bill, representing more than $500 billion in spending, will go straight to state and local governments that are deeply in the red due to Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) panic and tyranny. Another 21 percent, or approximately $400 billion, will go towards policies that fight against private-sector employment.
The National Endowment for the Arts will receive $135 million from the bill, as will the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Institute of Museum and Library Services will get $200 million, while a massive $12 billion will go towards “foreign aid” projects.
https://patriotrising.com/covid-bailout-stimulus-scheme-to-pay-off-corrupt-democrat-states-will-cost-the-average-u-s-family-69000-in-taxes/
Italy Imposes National Lockdown As Mutant COVID Strains Spread
Update (0745ET): Italy’s cabinet has approved new restrictions on business and movement that will be in place between March 15 to April 6, according to a statement from the government. Regions with more than 250 cases per 100K people will face full lockdown measures.
In other European news, the head of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s leading health authority, warned Friday that – 13 days into Germany’s latest semi-lockdown – COVID cases remain high, and that the country may already be at the start of a third wave.
*
Hours after President Joe Biden delivered his first prime-time address in the US, the Italian government seemingly marked the one-year anniversary of the start of Italy’s own bloody spring by calling for an emergency lockdown amid growing fears about the threat posed by mutated COVID strains.
The Mario Draghi-led Italian government leaked a draft of its latest closure order to Reuters: According to the plan, Italy will be placed under lockdown during the Easter holiday weekend as the Italian government works to stem a mutant-inspired rise in new COVID cases.
According to the order, Italy will see non-essential shops closed from April 3 to April 5, with people only allowed to leave their homes for work, health or emergency reasons. It’s expected the decree could send many regions, including population centers Rome and Milan, into full lockdown. As many as 14 of Italy’s 20 regions could face the most restrictive controls. Ultimately, 2/3rds of Italians could be affected.
Draghi’s cabinet was due to start meeting at 1130 local time (5:30ET) on Friday to decide whether to automatically designate regions as high-risk “red zones” if they have more than 250 weekly cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to a draft of a new decree seen by Bloomberg. The draft is subject to change.
The draft decree also said that as of Monday curbs will be tightened in the country’s low-risk ‘yellow’ regions, where movement between towns will be severely limited and restaurants and bars will be closed. Along with nationwide measures, Italy calibrates restrictions in its 20 regions according to a four-tier colour-coded system (white, yellow, orange and red) based on infection levels and revised every week.
Italy’s new order is expected to be approved later on Friday.
https://www.activistpost.com/2021/03/italy-imposes-national-lockdown-as-mutant-covid-strains-spread.html
Jewish American tycoons are financing far-right polices in the US and Israel
The biggest donors of Republican politicians who have been denounced for trying to overturn the US Constitution on the day of the storming of Congress building in January are also the biggest backers of an Israeli lobby group that is pushing far-right policies within the Zionist state, Haaretz has reported. The Jewish American tycoons behind the right-wing Kohelet Policy Forum have been exposed by the Israeli newspaper in an extended article headlined "The US billionaires secretly funding the right-wing effort to reshape Israel". Not all wealthy Jewish Americans are involved in such activities.
Since it was founded in 2012, Kohelet has lobbied successfully to translate far-right religious Zionism into law and underpinned legislation to bolster Israel's illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. One major success was the racist 2018 Nation State Law. The law defines Israel as a Jewish state where only Jews have the right to self-determination.
"I don't want to sound arrogant, but in some sense we're the brains of the Israeli right wing," Moshe Koppel, Kohelet's chairman is reported as saying. "Most of the things that go on in the Israeli right come out of our… school of thought." According to Haaretz, the Nation State Law was based on an original draft written by Koppel almost twenty years ago.
Kohelet's objectives are on its official website: "The Kohelet Policy Forum strives to secure Israel's future as the nation-state of the Jewish people, to strengthen representative democracy, and to broaden individual liberty and free-market principles in Israel." Its work usually passes unnoticed, rather amazingly given that the size of its research staff is said to be comparable to that of the largest academic college in Israel. Kohelet's researchers, though, are not engaged in research for its own sake; they want to wield influence; they want to transform the country.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210312-jewish-american-tycoons-are-financing-far-right-polices-in-the-us-and-israel/
Google says Strasbourg datacenter fire not related to disruptions in Russia
On Wednesday, Roskomnadzor announced the "initial slowdown" of Twitter in Russia, due to the social platform’s failure to remove the content outlawed in Russia
NEW YORK, March 12. /TASS/. Google believes that disruptions in its operation in Russia were not connected to the Starsbourg datacenter fire, the company said in a statement, published in Business Insider Friday.
"Following extensive investigation we have no evidence to indicate that the fire in OVHCloud's data center, or Google's own infrastructure, was the root cause of this incident," the company said. "We believe the cause of this incident was a misconfiguration of the routers at a local third-party internet service provider."
Read also
Google, YouTube access issues caused by incident at Strasbourg datacenter, says watchdog
Earlier, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) told TASS that issues with access to YouTube, Google and other websites, were caused by a fire in the Strasbourg datacenter, not by Roskomnadzor’s slowdown of Twitter, adding that the fire in the datacenter "is not connected to the slowdown of Twitter in Russia."
On Wednesday, Roskomnadzor announced the "initial slowdown" of Twitter in Russia, due to the social platform’s failure to remove the content outlawed in Russia. The agency promised to continue pressing the website, all the way up to blocking it altogether. Meanwhile, users reported issues with accessing YouTube, Google, Yandex and other websites. The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media stated that access issues were connected to disruptions in Rostelecom Internet service provider.
https://tass.com/economy/1265529
Biden to rescind Trump order on processing young migrants
The Biden administration is scrapping a Trump-era policy that connected immigration enforcement with efforts to find U.S.-based family members to house children who crossed the Southern border.
The news comes as the U.S. has a record 3,500 children sitting in Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) custody as of earlier this week, according to multiple reports, and as another 8,500 have been housed while awaiting placement with relatives or sponsors.
The 2018 agreement allowed data sharing between the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is charged for caring with children taken into custody after crossing the border.
Administration officials said the move was designed to stem the “chilling effect” that left sponsors in fear of coming forward to house children lest they be deported themselves.
“There will not be immigration consequences for coming forward and taking care of these kids,” an administration official said on a call with reporters.
“We are a child care agency, we are not an immigration enforcement agency,” another official added, referring to the role HHS plays in the immigration system. “This makes it really clear that this administration prioritizes uniting a child with their family member or sponsor.”
Parts of the memorandum had already been rescinded either through government directives or legal challenges, making the move at least partly symbolic. Still, administration officials maintained it would have a meaningful effect as the government seeks to expedite the process of identifying and vetting potential sponsors for children being held at the border.
The announcement came as Biden officials largely doubled down on their messaging of recent weeks about the growing challenge at the southern border, where thousands of migrants are crossing each week and thousands of children are being held in Border Patrol facilities.
HHS is working to add hundreds of beds each week to accommodate the surge in migration. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday that the administration is looking at new facilities to house the unaccompanied children, but would not specify where.
The White House does not intend to request supplemental funding from Congress to deal with the current surge, however, officials said.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/542937-biden-to-rescind-trump-order-on-processing-young-migrants
The Communitarian Revolt Against Government Lockdowns
Why some minority groups are leading the charge
On July 9, Anthony J.Finkel helped New York City mayor Bill de Blasio paint "Black Lives Matter" on the street in front of Trump Tower. Finkel, 31, a black small-business owner who volunteered for Obama in both 2008 and 2012, wore a mask that read "BLACK LIVES MATTER BROOKLYN" and appeared in media photographs alongside de Blasio and Rev. Al Sharpton. It was the height of the George Floyd protests.
But on Nov. 3, Election Day, Finkel cast his ballot for President Donald Trump. Among the reasons for his choice, the founder of DPH Property Maintenance told the Washington Free Beacon: New York City's draconian lockdowns, which had decimated neighborhoods and driven their denizens toward suicide.
Trump "addressed the mental health issues associated with the lockdowns, the increasing divorce rates, and increases in substance abuse," Finkel said, emphasizing the enforced isolation New York had experienced. "Lockdowns have sucked the joy out of people's lives."
https://freebeacon.com/coronavirus/the-communitarian-revolt-against-government-lockdowns/
Netanyahu discusses coronavirus, travel to Uman with Ukrainian president
Netanyahu's conversation with Zelensky followed a widespread campaign waged by the Breslov Hasidic group in Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the phone on Friday, as the two discussed a possible framework that would allow Israelis to visit Uman, as well as other cooperation efforts for dealing with the coronavirus crisis.
During the conversation, an emphasis was put on vaccines and mutual recognition of each country's green passport program. It was agreed that officials would meet soon in order to produce a plan that would allow vaccinated individuals to travel between the respective countries, especially in regard to the annual pilgrimage to Uman in Ukraine.
The statement published by the Prime Minister's Office about Netanyahu's conversation with Zelensky followed a widespread campaign waged by the Breslov Hasidic group in Israel, comprised of dozens of communities across the country, that threatened not to cast their votes to the Shas and the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) political parties in the upcoming elections over the government's attempts to ban the Uman pilgrimage last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Breslov campaign led Hassidic Agudat Yisrael, a constituent party of UTJ, to write a letter demanding that the future coalition guarantee a plan that will allow the Uman pilgrimage to take place this year and conditioning their political support in such a guarantee.
"The events of this past year have created the unfortunate situation of the coronavirus pandemic preventing thousands of people who travel [to Ukraine] every year to pay their respects to Nachman of Breslov this past Rosh Hashana," a letter published by Agudat Yisrael read.
The letter indicated that Agudat Yisrael MKs will ensure that all individuals who were vaccinated or had recovered from COVID-19 would be able to travel to Uman for this year's pilgrimage in September.
Netanyahu's phone call with Zelensky was announced shortly after the letter was made public, indicating that Netanyahu is aware that many still blame him for last year's travel ban.
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/netanyahu-discusses-coronavirus-travel-to-uman-with-ukrainian-president-661813
Escalation in Ukraine in 3 2 1….
Biden border boomerang: Thousands of illegal immigrant children penned in 'facilities akin to jails'
Administration has had to reopen some facilities to handle massive surge.
The Biden administration has reportedly penned thousands of illegal immigrant children in federal facilities following a massive surge of immigration at the southern U.S. border — a striking reversal from the anguished immigration rhetoric of the Biden-Harris campaign, which mourned it as a "national shame" when "children are locked away in overcrowded detention centers and the government seeks to keep them there indefinitely."
Immigration officials are reportedly holding more than 3,200 migrant children, many of them in "facilities akin to jails," according to the New York Times.
Multiple media outlets reported that many of the detained children were being held past the statutory deadline for such detainment, and in shelters that were originally built to house adults.
The detention crisis comes as border patrol agents have been contending with a major surge of illegal immigration activity along the southern border. According to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol's most recent statistics, the U.S. Border Patrol logged 285,217 "encounters" at U.S. borders through January of fiscal year 2021. That's roughly 70% of the total for all of fiscal year 2020 in just three months.
The Border Patrol claimed last week that the agency is on track to arrest a "record number" of immigrant sex offenders this year. Agents in Laredo, Texas, meanwhile, have multiple times this month apprehended over one hundred illegal immigrants over short periods of time.
Much of the surge is likely driven by immigrants hoping the Biden administration will show leniency toward immigrants seeking entry into the country and/or asylum. During his presidential campaign, Biden famously criticized the Trump administration's relatively tough immigration policy, vowing a more compassionate approach to dealing with both legal and illegal immigrants.
The current mass detention of child immigrants, on the other hand, presents a sobering challenge to both the Biden administration and to immigration advocates who hoped for a major shift under Biden in how the U.S. deals with illegal entries across the southern border.
Critics have pointed out that Biden's present policy differs from Trump's in some ways. Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake defended the Biden administration from its critics this week by pointing out that, among other differences, Biden is not engaging in Trump's controversial child-separation policy, which led to thousands of young children being separated indefinitely from their parents at the border.
https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/border-boomerang-biden-admin-holding-thousands-illegal-immigrant-children
Dem Congressman Who Pushed China Divestment Kept His Own Chinese Investments
Vicente Gonzalez also kept up to $250,000 in a Bank of China account between 2017 and 2020
A Democratic congressman who pushed for U.S. divestment from China failed to get rid of his own investments in the authoritarian country.
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D., Texas) introduced a bill in September to "reduce America’s dependence on China" by supporting domestic production of rare earth minerals, key resources for advanced electronics that China has a global monopoly on. But even as Gonzalez urged Americans to distance themselves from China, the congressman held up to $50,000 in shares of HSBC—the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation—and kept up to $100,000 in a HSBC bank account, according to his 2020 financial disclosures.
"Ending our dependence on China starts today," Gonzalez said in a press release accompanying the bill. "The RARE Act will allow the United States to develop a reliable domestic supply of critical minerals and rare earth elements and eliminate this pressure point that could have lasting impacts on our national security and most importantly, our way of life."
While it moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to London in the 1990s, HSBC continues to source more than half of its global profits and one-third of its global revenue from Hong Kong. The company’s dependency on China has made it a close ally of the Chinese regime. HSBC backed a controversial national security bill in 2020 that human-rights observers say crippled the city's fragile democracy.
Gonzalez also kept up to $250,000 in a Bank of China account between 2017 and 2020, according to the financial disclosures. Bank of China is one of the largest banks in the country and is directly controlled by the Chinese government. Gonzalez’s spokesman said the Bank of China account "no longer exists" but did not comment on the status of the congressman’s HSBC investments.
"Congressman Gonzalez has fully complied with disclosure requirements for this investment," the spokesman said.
Gonzalez is not the only U.S. official under scrutiny for business ties to China. Senators grilled U.N. ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield about a paid speech she gave for the Chinese government-controlled Confucius Institute during her confirmation hearing, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced questions about his consulting firm WestExec's Chinese business dealings during his confirmation hearing. Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son, also received criticism for his business dealings in China during the Obama administration.
The Texan congressman's support for U.S. divestment from China is a new phenomenon. In 2018, Gonzalez traveled to China as part of a congressional delegation to promote closer trade ties with Beijing.
"Only by engaging with China can we secure fairer market access and intellectual property protections for businesses in the 15th district of Texas," the congressman said during the trip. "I look forward to continuing this dialogue and working with our two governments to expand economic opportunity for Central and South Texans."
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/dem-congressman-who-pushed-china-divestment-kept-his-own-chinese-investments/
Sponsor of bill to fund abortions with U.S. foreign aid slurs late Sen. Jesse Helms as 'racist'
"It's a disgrace that Rep. Jan Schakowsky or anyone else would use such a vile word to describe Sen. Helms," fired back the president of the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate, N.C.
Illinois Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky slurred late North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms as a "racist" when promoting new legislation she is sponsoring that would repeal the longstanding Helms Amendment, which prohibits U.S. foreign aid from funding abortion.
"The real issue is that abortion is health care, and the Helms Amendment has now got to go," Schakowsky said on Tuesday during an event hosted by the organization IPAS.
Schakowsky said low-income women of color around the world are being denied financial help from the U.S. government for safe abortions due to the Helms Amendment.
"Jesse Helms was a well-known and self-proclaimed, really, racist, and the Helms Amendment follows in that pattern — it is racist," she alleged.
Brian Rogers, president of the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate, N.C., fired back at Schakowsky in an interview Thursday.
"It's a disgrace that Rep. Jan Schakowsky or anyone else would use such a vile word to describe Sen. Helms, a man … whom they had never met," Rogers told Just the News.
"That said, in our view, nothing could be more racist than advancing a policy of aborting a child anywhere in the world as a method of family planning, which is what the Helms Amendment was designed to avert," Rogers added.
Schakowsky's bill, the Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act of 2021, would "amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to authorize the use of funds for comprehensive reproductive health care services, and for other purposes."
According to the text of the bill, U.S. law "restricting United States foreign assistance funding from being used to provide safe abortion services has the effect of harming people who seek to terminate their pregnancies in several ways, including by blocking access to services and erecting barriers to providers obtaining the training and equipment needed to deliver care to those in need."
The bill refers to safe abortion as a "critical component of comprehensive maternal and reproductive health care and should be included as part of foreign assistance programs funded by the United States government."
https://justthenews.com/government/congress/democrats-advocate-bill-allow-us-foreign-assistance-funding-abortion-services
Journalism Competition and Preservation Act could be a massive blow to small media companies
The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2019 is currently making its way through Congress and if passed, would be a massive blow to small media companies.
According to govtrack.us, the bill creates a four-year safe harbor from antitrust laws for print or digital news companies to collectively negotiate with online social media companies regarding the terms on which the news companies’ content may be distributed by online content distributors.
A reported published by Breitbart this week criticizes the bill, saying it would give Big Media companies a special exemption from antitrust law, allowing them to form a cartel, meaning big companies would maintain prices at a high level while restricting the competition.
“Why should these establishment news companies be given a special exemption from antitrust law to negotiate on their own behalf something that applies only to their select few and not to all news companies and journalists? Of course, they should not,” Brietbart wrote.
In addition, the bill would allow for bigger media companies to exclude smaller companies from the cartel.
According to Breitbart, if the bill is passed, there would be nothing to stop the formation of an cartel that includes CNN, NBC, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post and other big media companies, while excluding smaller competitors in the independent media, such as local newspapers.
This bill would leave journalism in the hands of Big Tech by allowing the government to give them special exemption from antitrust laws.
The corporate media, which leans left, is pushing for this bill.
Breitbart is calling for this bill to be opposed at all costs.
“Conservatives who want to empower the establishment media which has too often made clear their intention to destroy conservatives are just sowing the seeds of their own destruction.”
https://saraacarter.com/journalism-competition-and-preservation-act-could-be-a-massive-blow-to-small-media-companies/
Twitter Tries to Dismiss Lawsuit Filed by Child Sex Trafficking Survivor Using Section 230 Immunity
Twitter is asking a federal court in Florida to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a child sex trafficking victim, who alleged that the social media giant refused to immediately remove explicit content depicting the child on its platform.
The lawsuit, filed in January, is accusing the Silicon Valley company of knowingly benefiting financially from the dissemination of sexual abuse material when it failed to immediately act on multiple complaints and correspondences asking it to remove the illegal and hurtful content.
The content was eventually removed about nine days after the child and his family made complaints to Twitter. The family and the child victim alleges that Twitter only took action after a Department of Homeland Security agent issued a “take-down demand” against the company when other methods to get the company to remove the content failed, according to the complaint.
“Twitter is not a passive, inactive, intermediary in the distribution of this harmful material; rather, Twitter has adopted an active role in the dissemination and knowing promotion and distribution of this harmful material,” the lawsuit states.
It further alleges that “Twitter’s own policies, practices, business model, and technology architecture encourage and profit from the distribution of sexual exploitation material.”
The lawsuit also claims that Twitter failed in its duty to report child sexual abuse material, and was negligent when it failed to take action, allowing the content to be viewed over 167,000 times and re-tweeted 2,200 times before it was taken down.
“Twitter’s conduct is an extreme departure from what a reasonably careful person would do in the same situation to prevent harm to others,” the lawsuit argues.
In a court filing on Wednesday, Twitter did not address allegations that it had “refused” to immediately remove the content after the complaints were made. Instead, it sought to characterize its actions as tardiness in removing the offensive content. The company defended the delay by arguing that the “sheer volume” of Tweets that are posted on the platform renders it “simply not possible for Twitter … to remove all offending content immediately or accurately in all cases.” The company says hundreds of millions of Tweets are posted on the platform every day.
https://www.ntd.com/twitter-tries-to-dismiss-lawsuit-filed-by-child-sex-trafficking-survivor-using-section-230-immunity_580424.html
Guard should start winding down Capitol mission now, key lawmakers say
The Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Armed Services Committee think it’s time to wind down the National Guard mission at the U.S. Capitol.
Just days after Defense Department officials announced the guardsmen would remain stationed around Capitol Hill until late May, committee chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and ranking member Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said they are “deeply troubled” by the continued heavy military presence around Congress.
“As the U.S. Capitol Police continues to build its personnel capacity, there is no doubt that some level of support from the National Guard should remain in the National Capital region to respond to credible threats against the Capitol,” the pair said in a joint statement. “However, the present security posture is not warranted at this time.”
About 5,000 Guardsmen are currently deployed to the Capitol security mission, according to spokesman Lt. Col. Robert Carver. Troops were sent to the site in response to the Jan. 6 attack on Congress, where hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump attempted to disrupt lawmakers’ certification of last November’s presidential election results.
The mission was set to end later this month, but on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved a request from Capitol Police to extend the Guard’s deployment until May 23.
Smith and Rogers — whose committee oversees operations policies for the military — said they are concerned both over the ongoing costs of the deployment and the potential negative impact an extended tour could have on readiness.
“We appreciate our guardsmen answering the call to protect the Capitol, but it’s time for us to review what level of security is required, so they can return home to their families and communities,” they said.
The comments came just hours after Guard officials announced a service member deployed to the Washington, D.C. mission had died from what appeared to be a personal medical condition while he was off-duty. No further details were announced, and the death is under investigation.
Last week, before the mission extension approval, Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said he was “outraged” by the moves to keep troops on Capitol Hill longer.
“I haven’t been satisfied with any explanation Congress has received at numerous briefings that all these personnel, resources and barbed wire are needed,” he said in a statement.
“Keeping the Capitol Complex safe — and open to the public, as it has been forever — is a federal civilian law enforcement responsibility. What this solution should not look like is keeping the National Guardsmen here indefinitely, as has been rumored.”
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2021/03/12/guard-should-start-winding-down-capitol-mission-now-key-lawmakers-say/
California Curriculum Leads Kids in Chant to Aztec God of Human Sacrifice
Next week, the California Department of Education will vote on a new ethnic studies curriculum that seeks to root out “white supremacy,” “colonization,” and the various evils of American culture. The curriculum aims to reverse Christianity’s alleged “theocide” against Native American gods by leading students in a chant to various indigenous deities, including the Aztec god of human sacrifice. This horrific chant arguably violates the First Amendment, but it also exposes the true ugliness of “woke” supremacy.
The Discovery Institute’s Christopher Rufo exposed the new curriculum in City Journal and published the full documents on his blog.
R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, the original co-chair of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, developed much of the curriculum’s material on early American history. The curriculum cites Cuauhtin’s book Rethinking Ethnic Studies, in which he argues that the United States was founded on “Eurocentric, white supremacist (racist, anti-Black, anti-Indigenous), capitalist (classist), patriarchal (sexist and misogynistic), heteropatriarchal (homophobic), and anthropocentric paradigm brought from Europe.”
The ethnic studies curriculum claims that whites began “grabbing the land,” “hatching hierarchies,” and “developing for Europe/whiteness,” which created “excess wealth” that “became the basis for the capitalist economy.” This white “hegemony” continues to the present, and it allegedly subjects minorities to “socialization, domestication, and ‘zombification.'”
The curriculum singles out Christianity for particular demonization. Cuauhtin claimed that white Christians committed “theocide” by killing indigenous gods while replacing tribal cults with Christianity. White settlers established a regime of “colonially, dehumanization, and genocide,” characterized by the “explicit erasure and replacement of holistic Indegeneity and humanity.”
According to the ethnic studies curriculum, the solution is to “name, speak to, resist, and transform the hegemonic Eurocentric neocolonial condition” through a posture of “transformational resistance.” This Marxist resistance aims to “decolonize” American society and establish a new regime of “countergenocide” and “counterhegemony,” to displace white Christian culture and spark a “regeneration of indigenous epistemic and cultural futurity.”
Beneath all the academic language, this entails an effective return to worship of the pagan gods of pre-Columbian America. The curriculum suggests an “ethic studies community chant” complete with invocations of indigenous American deities.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/03/12/california-curriculum-leads-kids-in-chant-to-aztec-god-of-human-sacrifice-n1432005
FBI Burns Their Own Informant Who Was Allegedly The Driving Force Behind Whitmer Kidnapping Plot
An FBI informant suspected of being the driving force behind the alleged plot to "kidnap" Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was quietly hit with a gun charge by the feds last week – potentially signalling the government's suspected entrapment scheme that ensnared the "Wolverine Watchmen" militia may be falling apart.
From The Detroit News (Archive), "Feds indict Whitmer kidnapping case informant as secret rift surfaces":
The indictment of Wisconsin resident Stephen Robeson, 58, for illegally possessing a high-powered sniper rifle is the latest legal development in a criminal case that has relied heavily on informants and undercover FBI agents to reveal violent extremism in Michigan, legal experts say.
Though prosecutors have secured the conviction of plotter Ty Garbin of Hartland Township and compiled evidence that includes secretly recorded audio, video and more than 13,000 text messages, new criminal charges against a confidential informant could be exploited by defense lawyers.
An indictment after a prolonged period of cooperation suggests the relationship between Robeson and the FBI is destroyed and that prosecutors do not plan on using him at trial, legal experts said. But defense lawyers can try to call him as a witness and attack Robeson's credibility.
"This gives defense lawyers ammunition to create reasonable doubt," said Andrew Arena, former special agent in charge of the FBI office in Detroit. "It could be he broke bad on them during the investigation.
"It's a difficult proposition when you are using these guys. You're telling them don't commit crimes, you're doing everything to keep on top of them. But you're not with them 24 hours a day."
It seems more likely that the feds are only indicting Robeson as a form of witness intimidation because they fear he could testify against them and expose their entrapment scheme in court.
[…] Three sources familiar with the investigation identified Robeson as one of the government's undercover informants. Robeson attended and organized combat training in Wisconsin, participated in a June 2020 meeting in Dublin, Ohio, that served as a catalyst for the kidnapping plot, and he also attended a camp in northern Michigan where accused plotters underwent combat training, according to the sources.
Robeson's name also surfaced briefly during a federal court hearing in January. Joshua Blanchard, the attorney for accused plotter Barry Croft, mentioned Robeson while arguing government informants were the main drivers in the alleged kidnapping scheme.
https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=62096
Florida Gov. DeSantis Cancels All CCP Virus Fines Issued by Local Officials
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order that will eliminate all fines issued by local government officials over the past year to people and businesses in the state who violated restrictions related to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
The order (pdf) was signed after the Board of Executive Clemency approved DeSantis’s proposal on March 10 to categorically remit all fines related to local government CCP virus restrictions.
“I hereby remit any fines imposed between March 1, 2020, and March 10, 2021, by any political subdivision of Florida related to local government COVID-19 restrictions,” DeSantis confirmed in the order, referring to the disease caused by the virus.
Fines excluded are those related to hospitals, assisted living facilities, and other health care providers. The order also does not apply to any CCP virus-related orders or enforcement taken by the state.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/florida-gov-desantis-cancels-all-ccp-virus-fines-issued-by-local-officials_3731270.html
COVID denialism is now enshrined in case law
THE STORY: So-called COVID denialism was the deciding factor in a recent case where a judge denied a father custody rights due to this perspective that COVID was a hoax.
THE IMPLICATIONS: This sets a case law precedent in Canada, and has grave implications for inherent rights and freedom for everyone. Are we entering a world where you can lose your rights solely due to the way you think?
COVID denialism –
a broad term leveled at those who have seen through lies regarding the COVID scamdemic – has been enshrined in legal history and case law, at least in Canada. This is another horrendous yet sadly predictable step of the COVID agenda, which is none other than the agenda to steal your rights and freedom. MSM outlet CBC reported last week that a judge stripped a man (who remains anonymous at this stage) of his custody rights in his divorce case with his ex-wife due to his belief that COVID was a hoax, and his subsequent decision to defy social distancing and mask wearing rules. In other words, he was stripped of some of his rights due to his COVID denialism. The case was heard in late 2020 in the Ontario Superior Court, however Justice George W. King delivered the written decision at the end of January 2021, and the story was just picked up by The Free Thought Project.
Judge Considers Man’s Belief that COVID is a Hoax to be a Factor in Determining his Worthiness as a Father
I have been unable to locate the link to the original ruling, and the CBC article does not link to it, however the article reported that the judge explicitly wrote that the man’s public promotion of his opinions was affecting the health and welfare of his children:
“Ontario Superior Court Justice George W. King denied a Windsor man interim custody of his kids because the man’s fervent anti-masking beliefs means he wouldn’t take appropriate actions to keep them safe from COVID-19. The decision notes the man believes COVID-19 to be a hoax and has boasted in public about flouting health restrictions such as masking and social distancing.
https://www.intellihub.com/covid-denialism-is-now-enshrined-in-case-law/
Superseding federal indictment implicates Augusta woman in child exploitation investigation
Unsealed court document charges sex trafficking conspiracy
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdga/pr/superseding-federal-indictment-implicates-augusta-woman-child-exploitation
Newly Obtained Audit Report Details How Shady Clients from Around the World Moved Billions Through Estonia
Billions of dollars in dirty money flowed through Danske Bank’s branch in Estonia, an explosive 2014 audit revealed. The original report had never been made public, until now.
The audit report provides an inside look at tactics used to move money around the world without accounting for it — and shows how Danske turned a blind eye to them.
Danske’s foreign clients frequently transferred huge sums around the world with only the vaguest of explanations.
Bankers accepted documentation in languages they did not speak and failed to query absurd contracts, including one for a shipment of paint jars worth $1,000 each.
Other clients listed addresses that did not exist, claimed to be sending massive quantities of goods to the middle of nowhere, and lent each other money on unclear pretexts.
When one group of clients aroused suspicion for making huge transfers, the bank suggested to them that they leave, to avoid having to report them to authorities.
On a warm Monday morning in June 2014, two auditors from Estonia’s financial regulator stepped into the Tallinn office of Danske Bank, armed with a single piece of graph paper handwritten with the names of 18 of its clients, and demanded to see their records.
At first glance, the customers on the list sounded boring. They were mostly obscure trading companies with generic names like Hilux Services and Polux Management. But the auditors — who had been tipped off by a police unit that tracks financial crime — didn’t have to dig too deep before things got very strange.
The companies were moving huge amounts of money through Danske Bank from Russia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine, and justifying them with nonsensical contracts.
One company with no website or internet presence, started by a 21-year-old from Azerbaijan, received millions of dollars from Russian state arms company Rosoboronexport for no clear reason. Another company from Uzbekistan bought $2 million worth of “building materials” from the remote British Virgin Islands. A third company agreed to loan out $150 million, but inexplicably transferred $582 million instead.
After more than a month poring over Danske’s books, the auditors produced a damning report about the bank’s failure even to try to understand what its own clients were doing, But it was never made public, even after the goings-on at Danske Estonia sparked one of the biggest money laundering scandals of all time.
In 2017, a team from OCCRP and the Danish newspaper Berlingske revealed that billions of dollars in dirty money had been moved through the bank’s Estonian branch. Only then, three years after it had been produced, did Danske’s head office get around to translating the Estonian audit.
Now, a copy of the report has been obtained by Berlingske and shared with OCCRP. It describes in exacting detail how the bank breached at least 47 different anti-money-laundering regulations — and how employees at the Tallinn branch enabled this by systematically ignoring hundreds of bizarre transactions.
More
https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/newly-obtained-audit-report-details-how-shady-clients-from-around-the-world-moved-billions-through-estonia
Report: Organized Crime Exacerbating World’s Major Problems
Transnational organised crime has grown exponentially since the early 1990s and is now a key factor exacerbating many of the world’s major problems, including climate change, mass migration, economic inequality and political instability, according to a report published Thursday.
Written by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), the paper argues that while the problem of organized crime may appear a lower priority versus more immediate global threats, it is actually a common denominator linking these transnational problems.
“Organized crime perpetuates and profits from the world's major challenges,” says GI-TOC Director, Mark Shaw.
In doing so, it has dramatically expanded its power driven by geopolitical, economic and technological shifts that have taken place since 2000, including accelerated globalization.
These shifts have meant the opening of new geographic and commodities markets, the creation of transnational supply and value chains, the weakening of regulation in financial services, and the emergence of pivotal technologies such as the internet.
In criminal terms, that means selling a brick of cocaine worth some US$2,000 dollars in the Colombian jungle for up to US$150,000 in an Australian city. It means laundering dirty money by buying Chinese-made textiles in the U.S. for shipping and sale in a Panamanian Free Trade Zone. It means using amoral lawyers to stash your funds offshore where they stay invisible and untaxed.
It also means talking to your associates on encrypted phones, hiring cybercriminals to attack vital infrastructure and mining lucrative bitcoins that use more electricity than Argentina.
In doing all these things, organized crime poses a serious, intersecting and cascading threat to global justice, security and development, particularly related to climate change.
For example, in the petro-state of Nigeria, pervasive oil corruption has led to pollution of land and waterways, fuelled insurgency and piracy, and created an unfair and distorted economy. Organized crime has taken advantage of this, turning Nigeria into a major methamphetamine producer, illegal timber smuggler and wildlife trafficking hub.
This in turn degrades the socio-economic and environmental landscape even further, leading young people to leave in droves for Europe. To fund the journey, some smuggle opioid pills to be sold along the way. Others agree to repay human traffickers after getting to Europe. For too many that means being sexually exploited or forced to sell drugs.
In response, the GI-TOC report proposes nine recommendations: three structural requirements for long-term change, three priority requirements for the most acute harms, and three kick-off requirements for immediate action.
The structural requirements emphasise a hybrid top-down, top-up approach to tackling organized crime, by both developing an overarching international strategic response and elevating the grassroots input of local communities, as well as enhancing global reporting on illegal markets.
The priority requirements encourage a more open conversation on drug policy, a more robust emphasis on tackling corporate and criminal environmental degradation, and a reduction of violence by de-militarizing law enforcement and better protecting community leaders and journalists.
The kick-off requirements are most obvious: end tax havens, prioritise anti-corruption efforts and start genuinely regulating online markets.
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/14053-report-organized-crime-exacerbating-world-s-major-problems
31 missing children recovered in Dallas-Fort Worth area during human trafficking operation
U.S. Marshals helped rescue minors with ties to sex trafficking
The U.S. Marshals Service and Homeland Security Investigations teamed up with four police departments in Texas for "Operation Missing in the Metroplex" to crack down on human trafficking. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas announced on Wednesday that 31 missing children from the Dallas-Fort Worth area were recovered during the monthlong operation.
The missing and exploited children were located by the federal agencies with the assistance of the Arlington Police Department, the Dallas Police Department, the Fort Worth Police Department, and the Grand Prairie Police Department.
At least seven of the 31 children were underage girls, who had "ties to sex trafficking." Two of the female minors were recovered during prostitution stings, according to the Department of Justice.
"To observe law enforcement partnerships and community concerns culminate into such a successful recovery outcome is rewarding," said acting United States Marshal Quintella Downs-Bradshaw. "Victims should know they are not forgotten, there is hope and a way to return home."
"While this joint operation lasted approximately 30 days, HSI Dallas will continue working relentlessly to identify and recover missing children who become vulnerable to human traffickers across the North Texas region," noted HSI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Ryan L. Spradlin. "Our continued collaboration with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners and non-governmental organizations is vital to combatting this global epidemic."
Dallas Police Department Chief of Police Eddie Garcia added, "We are grateful to be a part of a coalition of extraordinary law enforcement agencies who were dedicated in reuniting these children with their loved ones. It is our hope that each of them will be able to put this traumatic experience behind them and move forward to have a happy and productive life."
"We will continue to work with local, state, and federal partners to identify and rescue missing children," said Arlington Chief of Police Al Jones. "These kids and teens represent some of our most vulnerable populations where adults try to prey on their innocence. We will not rest until every child is located safe and someone is held accountable."
Fort Worth Police Department Chief Neil Noakes stated, "It is imperative that we continue to work with our partners to protect the most vulnerable members of our community, our children. We value our state and federal partnerships and were honored to be included as part of 'Operation Missing in the Metroplex.' We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partnerships in locating missing children and reuniting them with their families. Human trafficking is a serious issue and we will not rest until our most vulnerable population are safe."
In recent months, there have been several successful campaigns by the U.S. Marshals Service and local police to recover missing and endangered children.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/missing-children-rescued-dallas-texas
Cuomo’s Greatest Crime – Creating Policies So His Assistant’s Family and Donors Could Make Millions From COVID Patients in Elderly Homes
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s top assistant, Melissa DeRosa, is not only the highest-ranking woman in the Cuomo Administration, but her family is also tightly connected to New York’s elderly home industry and they made lots of money due to Cuomo’s COVID policies.
We reported in June 2020 that Cuomo’s number one donor was from the elderly home community where Ms. DeRosa’s father and brother are lobbyists. Not only did Cuomo help the donor make millions on COVID-19 but he also provided them immunity from legal ramifications as well.
According to our June report, New York’s governor and Department of Health Commissioner and Executive Deputy Commissioner are accountable for thousands of nursing home deaths because of their insane directives related to the China coronavirus.
During this global health emergency, all NHs [nursing homes] must comply with the expedited receipt of residents returning from hospitals to NHs, and No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. NHs are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/cuomos-greatest-crime-creating-policies-assistants-family-donors-make-millions-covid-patients-elderly-homes/
PRAY FOR EACH OTHER