Bolivian Court Issues Warrants for Arrest of Former Interim President Jeanine Añez, Other Ministers

Last week, Jeanine Añez, the former self-proclaimed interim president of Bolivia, refused a summons to meet with the state prosecutor in her home province of Beni, paving the way for her arrest for giving security forces a "license to kill" protesters who challenged her interim government's rule in 2019 and 2020.

A Bolivian court has issued arrest warrants for Jeanine Añez, the former interim president who seized power in a coup d'etat in late 2019, alongside several of her senior ministers, warning they are a "flight risk."

According to the court filing shared by Bolivian news outlet Kawsachun News, Añez and nine other senior officials from her administration are charged with terrorism, sedition and conspiracy.

"The political persecution has begun," she wrote. "The MAS has decided to return to the styles of the dictatorship. A shame because Bolivia does not need dictators, it needs freedom and solutions."

Rise and Fall of the House of Añez

Añez left office in early November when Luis Arce from the Movement for Socialism (MAS) took office, having won in a landslide election on October 18. The vote was repeatedly postponed, sparking protests and fueling fears of a turn even further from democracy.

A former senator from the lowland Beni region in northeastern Bolivia, Añez rose to power in the chaos of November 2019, when a coordinated campaign by domestic and international forces attempted to void the re-election of MAS leader and then-President Evo Morales the previous month. After right-wing militias and sympathetic police forces locked out MAS lawmakers and Añez found herself the head of a rump parliament, she declared herself the interim president on November 12.

US media and the US government both provided support to the anti-MAS forces in the country, with then-US President Donald Trump and allies like Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro quickly extending recognition to Añez's declared interim government. However, after months of claiming Morales had stolen the vote, US papers like the Washington Post were forced to admit that the Organization of American States report underpinning those claims was "deeply flawed."

“There is not any statistical evidence of fraud that we can find - the trends in the preliminary count, the lack of any big jump in support for Morales after the halt, and the size of Morales’s margin all appear legitimate,” the Post wrote in February 2020, after months of street violence between Añez's police and military forces and the indigenous-led protests against them had solidified her rule.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/202103121082327385-bolivian-court-issues-warrants-for-arrest-of-former-interim-president-jeanine-anez/

YouTube Blacklists 30,000 Videos It Claims Are Coronavirus Vaccine ‘Misinformation’

Google-owned video platform YouTube has reportedly removed more than 30,000 videos that the Masters of the Universe claim made misleading or false claims about coronavirus vaccines over the last six months.

AXIOS reports that YouTube spokesperson Elena Hernandez has revealed that YouTube has removed more than 30,000 videos that it claims made misleading or false claims about coronavirus vaccines in the last six months, providing the first release of numbers on the topic.

YouTube began including vaccination misinformation in its COVID-19 medical misinformation policy in October 2020.

Since February 2020, YouTube has removed more than 800,000 videos containing coronavirus misinformation, the videos are first flagged by the company’s AI or a human reviewer. The videos are then sent for another level of review before a decision is made on whether or not to remove them.

Videos that violate YouTube’s policy relating to misinformation about vaccines include those that contradict expert consensus on the vaccines from health authorities or the World Health Organization.

Accounts that violate YouTube’s policy rules are subject to its “strike” system which can result in accounts being permanently banned from the platform.

Facebook and Twitter have adopted similar policies to YouTube and have worked to remove misleading information about the coronavirus and vaccines from their various platforms.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/03/12/youtube-blacklists-30000-videos-it-claims-are-coronavirus-vaccine-misinformation/

Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg's former daughter-in-law claims Trump showed naked pictures of women around to mourners and hit on her at a shivah

Jennifer Weisselberg told The New Yorker she met Donald Trump at her former father-in-law's mother's shivah

Trump arrived at Allen Weisselberg's mother's shivah in a limousine and allegedly called his modest Long Island home 'embarrassing'

Once inside, she claims he showed off photos of himself on a yacht with naked women

Jennifer - who was married to Weisselberg's son Barry - says Trump hit on her

She also claims Allen knows 'everything' about the business and would be able to inform Cyrus Vance's ongoing investigation

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9355903/Trump-hit-CFOs-daughter-law-shivah.html

Everytime

Establishment Media to Congress: Give Us a Handout to Stop ‘Misinformation

Representatives of the Big Media conglomerates told Congress they need a special antitrust exemption to defend their industry today, at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.

Establishment Media’s defenders cited a talking point they have used relentlessly over the past four years as they have pushed for more advantages, including censorship of their competitors, from Big Tech: that the alternative is to allow “misinformation” to thrive.

The hearing was called to discuss the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, a deceptively-titled piece of legislation that would allow Big Media to form a cartel that would normally be illegal under antitrust law. The purpose of this cartel would be to secure even more advantages from Big Tech companies.

President and CEO of the News Media Alliance David Chavern testified at the hearing. The News Media Alliance’s board includes executives from the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newscorp, Hearst (owners of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, Cosmopolitan, and Esquire), and Gannett Co (owners of USA Today).

Calling the news media an “essential part of our democracy,” Chavern went on to warn that Big Media is “under threat” and needs to be bailed out by Congress’s proposed antitrust exemption.

“Congress’s help is needed to combat that threat,” said Chavern.

Praising the media’s work covering “catastrophic weather events” (which the media typically blames on “climate change”), and “public health crises,” Chavern also said that local journalism has “acted as a clear antidote to the scores of misinformation impacting communities across the country.”

Despite arguing that the media needed help from the government, Chavern admitted that “our readership is at its highest levels ever.”

Chavern complained that the algorithms of Big Tech determine “when and if news is seen in search results” and “how news is presented to users,” despite the fact that Big Tech companies including Facebook now openly boast about boosting so-called authoritative sources in their algorithms, at the expense of independent media.

As Google has boasted of many times — most recently yesterday — Big Tech also pours billions of dollars into Big Media in order to prop up the widely distrusted establishment news industry.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/03/12/big-media-wants-handout-from-congress/

Is Goldman Sachs Preparing To Bailout Texas Grid Operator, ERCOT?

he Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) that manages Texas's electrical grid, the Texas Interconnection, which supplies power to more than 25 million Texas customers and represents 90% of the state's electric load, held talks with Goldman Sach and other financial institutions about financing options bailouts to address the $3.1 billion shortfalls in electricity payments as some energy retailers haven't paid, defaulted, or have filed for bankruptcy, according to WSJ sources.

Sources said ERCOT is in talks with investment bankers from Goldman Sachs about opening a potential credit facility that would cover the $3.1 billion in shortfalls energy retailers still owe when they bought power last month at exorbitantly high prices due to an Arctic blast and severe winter storms that nearly collapsed the state's power grid.

On Feb. 24, Kenan Ogelman, ERCOT's vice-president of commercial operations, warned about a credit crisis developing among market participants who buy power from state's power grid. ERCOT's acts as a payment clearinghouse for electricity buyers and sellers, and some of the bills it issued last month have yet to be paid.

With a credit crisis spreading, and already, Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, the largest generation and transmission co-op in the Lone Star State, filed for bankruptcy on Mar. 1 after it could not pay a $1.8 billion bill from ERCOT.

Besides Brazos, Just Energy Group Inc. has also filed for bankruptcy.

A shortlist of who owes what was published last week - still billions of dollars in unpaid bills are outstanding.

In the last week, the shortfall has increased from $2.217 billion to $3.1 billion as of Thursday. Some participants, like San Antonio's public power utility CPS Energy, are objecting to paying ERCOT, filed a lawsuit Friday attempting to block payments to the grid operator.

CPS incurred $1.1 billion in charges after it bought electricity and natural gas last month. CPS said ERCOT's "extreme confiscatory prices have caused many providers on the Texas power grid to become insolvent. At the moment, there are 22 market participants at risk of going under.

"We are fighting to protect our customers from the financial impacts of the systemic failure of the Ercot market and the outrageous and unlawful costs associated with that failure," CPS Energy President and CEO Paula Gold-Williams said.

The sources said Goldman and other large institutions have spoken about arranging a credit facility to address the shortfalls and prevent further destabilization among participants, but nothing has been set in stone.

It's only a matter of time before Goldman, the great vampire squid that it is, wraps its tentacles deep within Texas' power grid.

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/goldman-sachs-preparing-bailout-texas-grid-operator-ercot

Democrat Oregon State Senators Introduce Bill to Pay Black People $123,000 in Reparations

Democrat state senators in Oregon have introduced legislation to pay black Oregonians $123,000 in reparations.

The bill would have the Department of Revenue establish a reparations payment program to residents “who can demonstrate heritage in slavery” and have identified as “African-American” for at least ten years.

The Daily Wire reports that “according to a copy of the state Senate bill, the government will pay six figures to any person who can demonstrate that they are a descendant of American slaves and have “identified as African-American” on legal documents.”

In order to qualify for the reparations, a person must live state for at least two years before the application deadline of Dec. 31, 2022.

“The payment would be an annuity where recipients would receive $123,000 paid out over the course of their life, plus interest,” the Daily Wire report says. “The average black man has a lifespan of 75 years, so if a 30-year-old black man applies for the reparations program he would receive a yearly payment of approximately $2,733 per year from the Oregonian government. If the recipient receives a five percent interest rate on the reparations money, they could receive up to $2,870 per year.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/democrat-oregon-state-senators-introduce-bill-pay-black-people-123000-reparations/

Predictable Train Wrecks on Crime and Immigration

If you think really hard, perhaps you can imagine more disastrous policies than throwing open our country’s southern border and abandoning criminal-law enforcement in city after city. The consequences are already emerging, and they are grim. It is important to examine them without ideological blinders so we can change course before more damage is done.

Our border policies are national fiats handed down by the Biden administration. The abandonment of criminal enforcement, by contrast, is a local decision, made by supine city councils and district attorneys, many of them “social justice Democrats” backed by progressive elites and Black Lives Matter.

The problem with these policies is not their moral motivation. Helping the poor from Central America is a worthy cause. So is reducing the incarceration rate of young males from minority communities. The problem lies in their practical effects. It is those effects, not sugarplum dreams, that matter in judging public policy.

The most consequential effect of open immigration and lax criminal enforcement is to undermine the safe, stable environment law-abiding citizens need to go about their lives, free from predation. Providing that environment and signaling clearly that you intend to provide it is the first responsibility of government.

That means punishing crimes. The goal is not vengeance. Nor is it solely to provide justice for the victims, important as that is. It is also to send a strong message to would-be criminals: Don’t do it. It’s not worth it. Right now, we are sending the wrong message and, by doing so, we are encouraging law breaking on a massive scale.

That encouragement is the unifying theme behind these policy disasters, one on the border, the other in our cities. The other unifying theme is their justification under the fashionable rubric of “social justice” and “equity.” What those feel-good arguments ignore is that our criminal laws are democratic efforts to preserve personal safety and community integrity. Failing in those responsibilities harms all law-abiding citizens.

The consequences of these failures will only worsen if we don’t hold public officials accountable and change course quickly and dramatically. That begins with forcing policymakers to acknowledge the dismal consequences. So far, the Biden White House and most big-city Democrats have balked. They continue to ignore urban violence (remember, they said nothing about it at last summer’s Democratic convention) or blame it entirely on “structural racism.” As for the surge of illegal immigrants, they simply call it a “challenge.” On Wednesday, Biden’s coordinator for the southern border wouldn’t even call the crossings “illegal.” Her word was “irregular.”

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/03/11/predictable_train_wrecks_on_crime_and_immigration__145383.html

Senators Blast Capitol Police for Failing to Provide Credible Threat Intel to Justify DC Fence.

Republican senators wrote to the acting Chief of U.S. Capitol police questioning the presence of the National Guard and extensive fencing around the Capitol.

The March 12th letter emphasizes how the justification for the two security measures remain unclear to the American people – and even the Senate.

“Since the events of January 6th, Capitol Police has repeatedly failed to provide specific credible threat intelligence to adequately justify the current Capitol security posture, which remains disproportionate to the available intelligence,” the letter signed by five Republican senators notes.

“As it relates to fencing, it is entirely unclear to us why the fencing around the complex remains, given the absence of any current specific threat to the Capitol and given the ability to rapidly re-deploy fencing should that threat posture change,” it continues before raising similar concerns over the extended presence of National Guard troops.

The senators outline seven key questions, including how the events of January 6th unfolded, what the explicit justification for fencing is, and if National Guard troops could be replaced by more modern forms of surveillance.

https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/senators-blast-capitol-police/

Spanish police seize home-made submarine able to carry two tonnes of drugs

Madrid: Spanish police say they have seized a home-made narco-submarine able to carry up to two metric tonnes of cargo.

Police came across the nine-metre-long craft last month while it was being built in Málaga, on southern Spain’s Costa del Sol, during a broader international drug operation involving five other countries and the European Union crime agency Europol.

The three-metre-wide semi-submersible craft is made of fibreglass and plywood panels attached to a structural frame, has three portholes on one side and is painted light blue. It has two 200-horsepower engines operated from the inside.

Rafael Perez, head of the Spanish police, said on Friday that the vessel had never sailed.

“We think it was going to go into the high seas to meet a mother ship (to) take on board the drugs,” probably cocaine, before returning to Spain, Perez said.

“It is like an iceberg,” he said of the vessel’s structure. “In practice, nearly all of it goes under water apart from the top, which is the only part of it that would be seen from another ship or a helicopter.”

Similar drug-smuggling vessels have in the past been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean, especially off Central and South America. They sit low in the water to escape detection and rarely are able to fully submerge.

The wider police operation against the alleged international smuggling ring netted hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, hashish and marijuana in various places in Spain, with 52 people arrested.

Spanish police said in a statement that police in Colombia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Portugal also were involved in the operation.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/spanish-police-seize-home-made-submarine-able-to-carry-two-tonnes-of-drugs-20210313-p57adi.html

Man faces 110 years in prison for trying to solicit child porn on motherhood blogs

A Florida man has been convicted of not only possessing child pornography, but also trying to solicit more through motherhood blogs, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced.

A Jacksonville jury convicted 42-year-old Patrick Moran Jr. of trying to “entice minors to produce images and videos depicting child sexual abuse” and being in possession of “materials depicting the sexual exploitation of children,” the DOJ said in a statement on Thursday.

Moran is facing a minimum of 15 years for his crimes, but officials say he could face as much as 110 years. He could also be placed on a lifetime of supervised release, should he ever be released from custody.

Moran reportedly signed up on various motherhood blogs designed for parents to exchange childcare tips and product reviews. There, he would directly request mothers provide him with explicit images and videos of their children. He also posted graphic comments about children. He would make these postings under the usernames ‘Emily lover’ or ‘Anonymous’.

Police executed a search warrant in 2019 and found Moran to be in possession of multiple smartphones containing more than 1,000 images and videos of children, including infants and toddlers, being sexually abused. One of these smartphones was used to access the blogs between 2016 and 2018.

In a closet, police also found firearms, and a bulletproof vest with police identification patches on it, as well as children’s underwear.

Sentencing for Moran is scheduled for July of this year.

https://www.rt.com/usa/517978-florida-doj-motherhood-blogs-porn/

Daughter of Prolific Mexican Cartel Leader Pleads Guilty to Criminal Violation of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/daughter-prolific-mexican-cartel-leader-pleads-guilty-criminal-violation-foreign-narcotics

Sen. Kennedy: Calling The Stimulus A COVID Bill Is Like Thinking ‘The Stripper Really Likes You’

Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) took aim at Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill during a Fox News interview on Thursday morning. He likened calling the bill a “coronavirus bill” to thinking that “the stripper really likes you.”

White House Press Sec. Jen Psaki boasted that the bill is the “most progressive bill in American history.”

Senator Kennedy attacked how the bill was being presented as coronavirus relief.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/sen-kennedy-calling-stimulus-covid-bill-like-thinking-stripper-really-likes-video/

US Seeks Closer Cooperation with EU, OAS on Venezuela - State Department

The United States seeks closer cooperation with international partners, including the European Union (EU) and the Organization of American States (OAS) to bring democracy to Venezuela, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Friday.

“The United States will continue to work through all appropriate venues to support the Venezuelan people and to support their aspirations for human rights and democracy. We look forward to strengthening coordination with those international partners. And they include the EU, the OAS, the Lima Group, the Contact Group and others as we work toward a peaceful democratic transition in Venezuela,” Price said during a daily briefing.

He added that recognizing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a dictator is not the subject of an ongoing foreign policy review.

The United States does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s president, supports opposition leader Juan Guaido and works through sanctions and diplomatic pressure to bring about “free and fair” elections in the country. Maduro has accused Guaido and the United States of trying to topple the government in Caracas to seize Venezuela's oil and gas reserves.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202103121082328136-us-seeks-closer-cooperation-with-eu-oas-on-venezuela—state-department/

Singapore Man Charged With Stock Fraud in New York - US Justice Dept

Shamoon Rafiq, a previously convicted resident of Singapore, has been charged with fraud and identity theft in a pre-Initial Public Offering (IPO) stock scheme in New York state, the US Department of Justice said in a release on Friday.

“As alleged, Shamoon Rafiq exploited investors’ fear of missing out on the potential gains to be earned from investing in companies before they go public, and solicited millions of dollars from investors through brazen lies and deception,” the release said.

The Justice Department said Rafiq elicited millions of dollars under the false pretense that he would sell shares of pre-IPO stocks, which - unbeknownst to his investors - he did not own and so could not sell.

In addition, the Justice Department said Rafiq sent faked emails impersonating senior officials of a reputable family office investment firm that supposedly backed his claims, the release also said.

Rafiq engaged in the fraudulent activity beginning in July 2020 as he began soliciting millions of dollars from investment firms in New York claiming he would sell them investment interests in a company that supposedly owned pre-IPO stock in Airbnb, among other companies, the release added.

The defendant was previously convicted for a similar fraud scheme in 2004 for which he served a 41-month prison sentence, but was eventually relocated to Singapore after being deported from the United States, according to the release.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202103121082328001-singapore-man-charged-with-stock-fraud-in-new-york—us-justice-dept/

US engaged in indirect diplomacy with Iran, says White House adviser

"Diplomacy with Iran is ongoing, just not in a direct fashion at the moment," he told reporters.

The United States and Iran have begun indirect diplomacy with Europeans and others conveying messages about how they might resume compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday.

"Diplomacy with Iran is ongoing, just not in a direct fashion at the moment," he told reporters.

"There are communications through the Europeans and through others that enable us to explain to the Iranians what our position is with respect to the compliance for compliance approach and to hear what their position is," Sullivan added.

The new administration of US President Joe Biden has rejected giving Tehran unilateral incentives to begin talks but has held out the possibility of both sides taking reciprocal steps to resume implementing the deal, an approach Washington calls "compliance for compliance."

"We are waiting at this point to hear further from the Iranians how they would like to proceed," Sullivan said. "This is not going to be easy but we believe that we are in a diplomatic process now that we can move forward on and ultimately secure our objective, which is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and to do so through diplomacy."

The United States on Feb. 18 said it was ready to talk to Iran about both nations resuming compliance with the pact that aimed to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, seeking to revive a deal that Washington itself abandoned in 2018.

Iran began violating the deal in 2019, about a year after former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from it and reimposed economic sanctions. Tehran has accelerated its breaches in recent months.

Each side has insisted the other go first in returning to the deal, with Tehran demanding Washington remove its economic sanctions and the United States demanding that Iran reinstate limitations on its nuclear program.

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/us-engaged-in-indirect-diplomacy-with-iran-says-white-house-adviser-661828

Over $57 billion in hidden taxes lurking in Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill

The tax changes include new limitations on the interest expenses that multinational corporations can deduct.

There is more than $57 billion worth of hidden tax increases in President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill, Just the News has learned.

The final version of the legislation expands the number of employees who are covered by the $1 million limitation on the deductibility of executive compensation.

According to National Law Review, section 162(m) of the tax code "generally prohibits a public company from deducting more than $1 million in compensation paid to a current or former covered employee in a taxable year," and under current law "the covered employees are the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and the three other highest compensated officers for the taxable year."

The executive compensation deduction change in the stimulus bill covers 5 more of a company's highest paid employees.

"TCJA [Tax Cuts and Jobs Act] included such a limit, but Dems essentially doubled it to make it more draconian," a House Ways and Means Committee minority spokesperson said. "Dems are under no illusions that their bill is about growth, so them putting a cap on executive pay is just political messaging."

A $500,000 limit on the amount of losses that "passthrough corporations" can use to get liquidity is also tucked inside the bill, according to a Joint Committee on Taxation document obtained by Just the News.

File

Joint Committee on Taxation.pdf

"This was a major area of relief for American small businesses during the pandemic that allowed businesses to get fast tax refunds from the IRS," the committee spokesperson said.

Another tax provision in the stimulus, the second largest rescue package in U.S. history, involves new limitations on the interest expenses that multinational corporations can deduct on tax returns.

Republicans argue that there is a downside to these limits that the Democrats attached to the stimulus bill.

"We make it less attractive for these companies to be based in the U.S. or do business here," the Ways and Means Committee minority spokesperson said. "TCJA was about stopping the bleeding throughout the Obama administration where jobs fled overseas — we succeeded. Now Democrats are undoing that progress."

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the tax revenue from the changes will generate an estimated $57 billion over 10 years.

Democrats used budget reconciliation to move the bill to Biden's desk, which allowed it to pass without GOP votes. The House passed the final version on Wednesday.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/theres-60-billion-hidden-tax-hikes-bidens-19-trillion-coronavirus-stimulus-bill

https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2021-03/Joint%20Committee%20on%20Taxation.pdf