Bill Cosby to be Released From Prison After Pennsylvania Supreme Court Overturns His Sex Assault Conviction

Bill Cosby will be released from prison after his sex assault conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday.

83-year-old Cosby has already served more than 2 years of his 10-year prison sentence in a state prison near Philly.

The ruling from Pennsylvania’s high court prevents a retrial in the case, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Associated Press reported:

Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction Wednesday after finding an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.

Cosby has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia. He had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand.

The 83-year-old Cosby, who was once beloved as “America’s Dad,” was convicted of drugging and molesting the Temple University employee at his suburban estate.

He was charged in late 2015, when a prosecutor armed with newly unsealed evidence — Cosby’s damaging deposition from her lawsuit — arrested him days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.

The trial judge had allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial, when the jury deadlocked. However, he then allowed five other accusers to testify at the retrial about their experiences with Cosby in the 1980s.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that testimony tainted the trial, even though a lower appeals court had found it appropriate to show a signature pattern of drugging and molesting women.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/06/bill-cosby-released-prison-pennsylvania-supreme-court-overturns-sex-assault-conviction/

Washington Post Publishes Article Endorsing Exposing Children to ‘Kink’

The Washington Post is being accused of supporting grooming and pedophilia after publishing a twisted op-ed endorsing exposing very young children to “kink.”

The author Lauren Rowello, who says she uses “they/them” pronouns and is a former sex worker, discussed exposing her children to men in thongs flogging each other.

In an op-ed titled “Yes, kink belongs at Pride. And I want my kids to see it.” Rowello wrote that her wife is trans and that they brought their children to a Pride parade in Philadelphia.

“When our children grew tired of marching, we plopped onto a nearby curb. Just as we got settled, our elementary-schooler pointed in the direction of oncoming floats, raising an eyebrow at a bare-chested man in dark sunglasses whose black suspenders clipped into a leather thong. The man paused to be spanked playfully by a partner with a flog. ‘What are they doing?’ my curious kid asked as our toddler cheered them on. The pair was the first of a few dozen kinksters who danced down the street, laughing together as they twirled their whips and batons, some leading companions by leashes,” she wrote. “At the time, my children were too young to understand the nuance of the situation, but I told them the truth: That these folks were members of our community celebrating who they are and what they like to do.”

Rowello went on to complain about people who want to remove the open public kink from Pride, by citing the fact that children are exposed to it.

“I agree that Pride should be a welcoming space for children and teens, but policing how others show up doesn’t protect or uplift young people,” the author wrote. “Instead, homogenizing self-expression at Pride will do more harm to our children than good. When my own children caught glimpses of kink culture, they got to see that the queer community encompasses so many more nontraditional ways of being, living, and loving.”

The Washington Post article went on to whine that people do not talk to children about kink enough.

“We don’t talk to our children enough about pursuing sex to fulfill carnal needs that delight and captivate us in the moment. Sharing the language of kink culture with young people provides them with valuable information about safe sex practices — such as the importance of establishing boundaries, safe words and signals, affirming the importance of planning and research and the need to seek and give enthusiastic consent,” she wrote. “I never want my children to worry that exploring any aspect of consensual sex or touch is too taboo.”

Naturally, the author was met with outrage from normal people who do not want young children being groomed.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/06/washington-post-publishes-article-endorsing-exposing-children-kink/

USB DRIVES Were Suspiciously Stolen, Transferred and Inserted Into Voting Systems Used in Swing States in 2020 Election

In multiple swing states flash drives (USBs) used in the 2020 Election process were reported either missing or suspiciously inserted into the voting systems used in the election.

Arizona

In Arizona, on November 5th a home was raided and USBs were obtained along with hard drives and computers.

What was an individual doing with these items only a couple of days after the election?

In the State Farm Arena in Fulton County Georgia we identified numerous activities where USBs were transferred suspiciously between election personnel. One was a strange pass between a mother and her daughter, two elections workers made famous due to their suspicious activities during the election.

Georgia (Continued)

Another suspicious pass occurred with a guy we labeled the “USB Guy”.

Georgia (Continued)

In Gwinnett County an official admitted to taking data from the Election Management System, plugging it into a laptop, then filtering it with Excel. This circumvented the rules that external software isn’t allowed on election machines. However, rather than being upset with this activity, Georgia election COO (or whatever his title is) Gabe Sterling went off on the media for reporting this.

Pennsylvania

On October 1, 2020, it was reported that an election laptop and memory sticks (USB’s) were stolen in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania (Continued)

On November 12th, only a few days after the election, a report was released from the Trump team stating that outsiders with USBs and VCards were allowed in Pennsylvania counting areas with no observers present.

Pennsylvania (Continued)

In late November in Pennsylvania, a very credible witness described how he personally observed dozens of USB cards being uploaded to voting machines which resulted in 50,000 votes for Joe Biden in a short period of time. (This may be the same individual who was referenced in the report above.)

Wisconsin

We reported on a missing flash drive in Milwaukee at the same time the city recorded 120,000 votes, all for Joe Biden, on the morning of November 4th.

One IT expert reached out to us a few days after the election and shared some information on the voting systems used in US elections. This IT expert located a previous audit report from an audit of the Dominion voting system in California. In the audit report the state of California showed a high-level diagram of the Dominion system which is likely similar to the set up in Pennsylvania and other locations:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/06/breaking-exclusive-box-flash-drives-went-missing-arizona-weeks-2020-election/

WAS IT RACKETEERING/RICO? Many of the Same Fraudulent Election Activities in 2020 Election Took Place Across Six Counties in Six States

We know that the 2020 Election came down to six counties in six swing states. What’s really interesting is that there were many of the same activities in these counties that were present in many of them if not all of them.

Dr. Peter Navarro, President Trump’s Director of the Office and Trade and Manufacturing Policy, provided some excellent charts in the latter days of President Trump’s first term related to the 2020 Election. In the six swing states in 2020, there were many of the same activities that occurred across multiple states.

Dr. Navarro then listed the various estimated and the actual number of ballots associated with the fraud activities embedded in the election and compared the estimated and known fraud to the margins given to Biden in the election:

Navarro’s list is excellent. Since these lists were created we identified some additional activities that appear across these swing states during the 2020 Election.

Lost, Stolen, and Suspiciously Transferred USBs

USBs were lost or stolen and suspiciously transferred between individuals during the election. In Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin before or during the election, USBs were reported stolen or suspiciously transferred during the election.

SQL Software

Suspicious SQL Software was found on machines in Michigan and Pennsylvania and is likely on machines in Arizona and Georgia.

Missing Chain of Custody Documentation

We know that legally required chain of custody information is missing in Georgia. We also know that chain of custody documentation was requested in the audit in Maricopa County Arizona and it has not been provided. It is likely that it is not available in all these states and numerous others across the country.

Coordinated Ballot Drops

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/06/racketeering-rico-many-fraudulent-election-activities-2020-election-took-place-across-six-counties-six-states/

"Panic Porn Dressed Up As Science" - Exposing The Truth About The Delta Variant

Equity futures are in the red Wednesday morning as Dr. Anthony Fauci's warnings about the supposedly "dire threat" posed by the Delta variant continue to be dramatically amplified by the American media.

Yesterday, we delved into the issue of the Delta variant as daily COVID cases reported in the US ticked higher after touching their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic. The data set off another round of warnings about the relatively large swath of Americans who refuse to get the vaccine.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg published the latest in a series of stories effectively re-stating the same facts: the vaccination rate in a handful of deep-red states has substantially lagged the rate in the rest of the country. The lead-in for Wednesday's story was the fact that the gap between the most- and least-vaccinated states has continued to widen. Though even Bloomberg concedes that "on a national level, the news appears good…the country's vaccination campaign is among the most successful in the world…"

One academic quoted in the Bloomberg story, Timothy Callaghan, who studies rural health at Texas A&M, warned that "we're going to have counties where vaccination is rare and nowhere close to herd immunity, and others where it's high. We could be headed toward a divided country of haves and have nots."

They also warned that an analysis last week of COVID cases in 700 counties found that the new delta variant first identified in India (which, according to Bloomberg, is "far more contagious") has been found more often in less-vaccinated US counties.

But is the Delta variant really "far more contagious" than earlier iterations of SARS-CoV-2?

In a recent piece published by the Blaze, writer Daniel Horowitz explains that the existing data suggests Delta isn't any deadlier or more infectious than other strains. Horowitz described the warnings from epidemiologists and public health bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci as "panic porn dressed up as science."

The implication from these headlines is that somehow this variant is truly more transmissible and deadly (as the previous variants were falsely portrayed to be), they escape natural immunity and possibly the vaccine — and therefore, paradoxically, you must get vaccinated and continue doing all the things that failed to work for the other variants!

After each city and country began getting ascribed its own "variant," I think the panic merchants realized that the masses would catch on to the variant scam, so they decided to rename them Alpha (British), Beta (South African), Gamma (Brazilian), and Delta (Indian), which sounds more like a hierarchy of progression and severity rather than each region simply getting hit when it's in season until the area reaches herd immunity.

However, if people would actually look at the data, they'd realize that the Delta variant is actually less deadly. These headlines are able to gain momentum only because of the absurd public perception that somehow India got hit worse than the rest of the world. In reality, India has one-seventh the death rate per capita of the U.S.; it's just that India got the major winter wave later, when the Western countries were largely done with it, thereby giving the illusion that India somehow suffered worse. Now, the public health Nazis are transferring their first big lie about what happened in India back to the Western world.

Fortunately, the U.K. government has already exposed these headlines as a lie, for those willing to take notice. On June 18, Public Health England published its 16th report on "SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England," this time grouping the variants by Greek letters.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/panic-porn-dressed-science-exposing-truth-about-delta-variant

US Spy Plane Was Involved In Warning Shot Incident With UK: Putin

The details of last week's Royal Navy HMS Defender incident near Crimea in the Black Sea which saw "warning shots" fired by the Russian side continue to be shrouded in mystery and accusations and counter-accusations between the Kremlin and the West.

On Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin inserted a new bombshell allegation regarding the dangerous June 23 encounter which could have sparked open conflict. During a live call-in news show, an annual tradition where the Russian leader fields ordinary citizens' direct questions, Putin said that a US reconnaissance aircraft was present during the incident.

Putin slammed the "provocation" which he said both the UK and US were behind, but at the same time downplayed a questioner's assertion it could have led to WWIII. "Even if we sank that ship, it wouldn’t put the world on the brink of World War III because those who do it know that they can’t emerge as winners in that war, and it’s very important," the Russian president explained.

He charged for the first time that the American military was also involved in a reconnaissance capacity, according to the Associated Press:

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was operating in sync with a British destroyer last week when the ship sailed through the Black Sea…

Putin charged that the U.S. aircraft’s apparent mission was to monitor the Russian military’s response to the British destroyer.

"It was clearly a provocation, a complex one involving not only the British but also the Americans," he said, adding that Moscow was aware of the U.S. intentions and responded accordingly to avoid revealing sensitive data.

To recount, during the incident Russia fired "warning shots" from a patrol boat and dropped bombs from an attack aircraft to deter the British Navy destroyer, which may have breached Russian waters.

Footage of Russian Black Sea Fleet and Border Service of the Federal Security Service's prevention of the breach of the Russian Federation state border committed by the UK Navy destroyer «Defender» pic.twitter.com/4VnAlMjK4Y

— Минобороны России (@mod_russia) June 23, 2021

Below is a timeline of what happened that Wednesday afternoon:

At 1152 local time, HMS Defender sailed across "the Russian border and entered the territorial sea at Cape Fiolent for three kilometers," RIA said.

Around 1206 and 1208, the Russian patrol ship fired warning shots. The Defender failed to heed radio warnings after it entered Russia's territorial waters off Crimea.

After nine minutes, a Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft dropped four bombs in waters near the British vessel. The Defender then reversed course after the bombing and exited the area.

Reuters noted the Su-24 dropped "four high explosive fragmentation bombs as a warning in the British destroyer's path."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-spy-plane-was-involved-warning-shot-incident-uk-putin

Even if Russia had sunk British warship, it wouldn’t have started WW3 because US & UK know they can't win such a conflict - Putin

President Vladimir Putin has slammed the violation of Russian territorial waters by British warship HMS Defender as a "provocation," He also claimed that London's American allies had a hand in last week's incident, near Crimea.

However, apparently casting doubt on NATO’s Article V collective defense pact, the Russian leader claimed that even if Moscow had sunk the vessel, it wouldn’t have led to World War III.

President Vladimir Putin has slammed the violation of Russian territorial waters by British warship HMS Defender as a “provocation.” He also claimed that London’s American allies had a hand in last week’s incident near Crimea.

However, apparently casting doubt on NATO’s ‘Article V’ collective defense pact, the Russian leader claimed that, even if Moscow had sunk the vessel, it wouldn’t have led to World War III, because the “provocateurs” know they wouldn’t be able to win.

Last week, the British naval ship HMS Defender entered the country’s territorial waters and traveled three kilometers (almost two miles) inside the frontier, near Cape Fiolent, in Crimea. According to Russia’s Ministry of Defense, the coastguard targeted warning shots at the boat. This has been disputed by the British, but video evidence suggests the Russian version of events is more accurate.

According to London, the destroyer was making a peaceful passage through the territorial waters of Ukraine in accordance with international law. The UK does not recognize Crimea as part of Russia.

Speaking at his annual ‘Direct Line’ call-in show, Putin revealed that a US strategic airplane took off from an airfield on the island of Crete and flew towards Russia on the morning before HMS Defender entered Russian waters.

However, despite the provocation, the two NATO members do not want a conflict, and it is not true to say that the world is now standing on the brink of a world war, he said.

“Even if we had sunk that ship, it would still be hard to imagine that the world would be on the brink of World War III,” the president said. “Because those who are doing this know that they can’t get out of this war victorious. That’s a very important thing.”

The president also pondered the exact reasons for the British provocation, noting that matters discussed at his recent summit with his American counterpart, Joe Biden, in Geneva might offer an explanation.

“Why was it necessary to make such a provocation? For what?” he asked. “To show that they have no respect for the choice of the Crimeans to join Russia?”

Putin also slammed the West for its hypocrisy, noting that Moscow had ordered its troops to move away from Ukraine’s border earlier this year, after Russia had received complaints.

“We did it. But instead of reacting to it positively and saying: ‘OK, we understand your reaction to our indignation,’ instead, what did they do? They have come to our borders,” Putin said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/527976-nato-defender-world-war/

Swiss govt announces bid for 36 F-35A fighter jets and Patriot missiles from US despite political pushback at home

The Swiss government has said it wants to buy 36 F-35A fighter jets from American manufacturer Lockheed Martin, a decision critics have said is too expensive for Switzerland and makes it overly reliant on the US.

Lockheed Martin beat other contenders for the contract, including the multinational Eurofighter built by Italy’s Leonardo, the Rafale from French company Dassault, and the Super Hornet from US manufacturer Boeing.

In its statement on Wednesday, the Swiss government also revealed it had decided to purchase the Patriot surface-to-air missile system from another US manufacturer, Raytheon, which beat competition from France’s Eurosam.

“An evaluation has revealed that these two systems offer the highest overall benefit at the lowest overall cost,” the government’s statement read.

“The Federal Council is confident that these two systems are the most suitable for protecting the Swiss population from air threats in the future.”

A fleet of 36 jets would be enough to cover the internationally neutral, alpine nation during “prolonged situation of heightened tensions”, the government added.

A cap of six billion Swiss francs ($6.5 billion) has been set for the purchase of the jets, an amount which was backed by the public in a vote last year.

However, the conservative government’s pursuit of new fighter jets has drawn criticism from opposition parties, the center-left Social Democrats (SP), left-wing Greens, as well as the campaign organization, Group for a Switzerland Without an Army.

The groups have backed a public referendum on the Lockheed Martin deal, claiming that the jets are too pricey, not technically sound and can be monitored by US intelligence, thus threatening Switzerland’s neutral foreign-policy stance.

“The American jets are simply too expensive,” SP member Priska Seiler Graf said in response to the government’s decision, noting that the upkeep costs over time would also be high.

“We should seek a European solution … we don’t want to be dependent on the United States,” she added.

A referendum on the planned purchase of the F-35A fighter jets would not be the first such national poll in Switzerland. In 2014, the public voted to reject buying Gripen jets from Swedish manufacturer Saab.

https://www.rt.com/news/528017-swiss-goverment-approves-f35-jets-deal/

More than 100 groups call for Biden to cease ‘unlawful’ drone strikes, saying it’s a ‘human rights and racial justice imperative’

A total of 113 organizations have called on President Joe Biden to “disavow” and end overseas drone strikes carried out by the US government, saying it is imperative to both ending “forever wars” and “promoting racial justice.”

Numerous anti-war and human rights organizations, including ones from countries including Yemen and Somalia, have attached their names to the letter, which was released on Wednesday and organized by the Human Rights and Security Coalition.

For too long, presidents have flouted the rights-protecting safeguards of international law and the US system of checks and balances, with devastating consequences. https://t.co/VnuQZg6Tzr

— ACLU (@ACLU) June 30, 2021

The groups praise Biden’s promise to end the “forever wars” in the Middle East – though his administration abandoned former president Donald Trump’s set goal of leaving Afghanistan by May and delayed the withdrawal. They also laud Biden’s administration for “promoting racial justice” and “centering human rights in US foreign policy.”

“Disavowing and ending” the US’ drone strikes, however, is “imperative” in meeting previously set commitments to the goals the administration has set, the letter argues.

US drone strikes have long been criticized by human rights activists and groups, arguing that the supposedly ‘targeted’ and ‘precision’ killings often lead to unnecessary civilian deaths.

Biden previously kicked off a review of the US’ drone policy and reportedly added higher-level approval to such strikes outside traditional battlefield zones, though these strikes still continue.

The letter praised Biden’s review and called it an “opportunity to abandon this war-based approach and chart a new path forward that promotes and respects our collective human security.”

The groups focused heavily on the racial side of their argument on these strikes.

“This program is a centerpiece of the United States’ forever wars and has exacted an appalling toll on Muslim, Brown and Black communities in multiple parts of the world,” they wrote.

https://www.rt.com/usa/528020-joe-biden-drone-strikes/

Kim Jong Un Issues Rare Attack On Own Officials For Setting Off "Great Crisis"

Despite long denying - or at least never confirming - that his country has a severe COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in its midst, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued extremely rare public biting criticism of the reaction of top government officials in a speech published Wednesday. He basically admitted government "failure" to handle a national health crisis, again which comes long after Pyongyang has carefully hidden how coronavirus may have impacted the isolated country for more than the past year.

Further his remarks in state media sparked widespread speculation given his reference to a mysterious "grave incident" - or elsewhere translated as a "great crisis" which threatened the "safety of the country and its people".

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/kim-jong-un-issues-rare-attack-own-officials-setting-great-crisis

How does a charity with a bad reputation and falling donations change its image? Oxfam’s got the answer: call your staff racist

In Britain, Oxfam is best known for its high-street charity shops that sell overpriced second-hand clothes. In Haiti, it’s a very different story. There, Oxfam is most associated with serious sexual misconduct.

In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that claimed 220,000 lives, injured 300,000 and left 1.5 million people destitute, male aid workers brought girls, some reported to be below the age of consent, to their Oxfam-funded accommodation for parties described as being “like a Caligula orgy with prostitutes in Oxfam T-shirts.”

Oxfam is now keen to rehabilitate its image by condemning its own employees. It would indeed make sense to expose and condemn the corrupt managers of its foreign aid programmes. But this is not what the charity has in mind. Instead, Oxfam’s British executive team has circulated a survey to shop workers, office staff, drivers and factory hands, asking them about their attitudes towards racial justice. The starting point for the survey is that “whiteness” is “the overarching preservation of power and domination for the benefit of white people”. In other words, “whiteness” is inherently racist. Being white is bad.

It just so happens that 88% of the people employed by Oxfam in the UK are white – and they haven’t taken too kindly to being accused of racism simply because of the colour of their skin. Not that long ago, Oxfam was synonymous with middle-class, left-wing worthiness. Its shop staff were the kind of sandal-wearing vegans who email their friends at Christmas to say they won’t be sending cards but have instead bought a goat for a family in Kashmir. In other words, Oxfam employees are far more likely to be suffering from white guilt than seeking to enact white supremacism.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/528018-oxfam-divisive-racial-survey/

Amazon Seeks Recusal Of FTC Head Lina Khan As Antitrust Probe Ramps Up

Amazon is pushing back against the Biden Administration's effort to impose new anti-trust strictures on Big Tech by filing a complaint with the FTC asking that Lina Khan, recently confirmed as head of the commission, recuse herself from all dealings involving Amazon.

In its request, filed with the agency on Wednesday, the company argued that Khan should be barred from handling enforcement decisions involving Amazon because Khan "on numerous occasions argued that Amazon is guilty of antitrust violations and should be broken up." Amazon added that "these statements convey to any reasonable observer the clear impression that she has already made up her mind about many material facts relevant to Amazon's antitrust culpability as well as about the ultimate issue of culpability itself."

"Given her long track record of detailed pronouncements about Amazon, and her repeated proclamations that Amazon has violated the antitrust laws, a reasonable observer would conclude that she no longer can consider the company’s antitrust defenses with an open mind," Amazon said in a statement. "Indeed, doing so would require her to repudiate the years of writings and statements that are at the foundation of her professional career."

The petition has been filed as the FTC is in the middle of a review of Amazon's deal with movie studio MGM, which it's seeking to acquire for a whopping $8.45 billion.

Other antitrust talking heads have said the deal would likely be difficult for the government to stop, though it did help revive complaints about the economic power of Big Tech. The FTC is also pursuing a wide-ranging anti-trust probe into Aamzon's business practices.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren asked Khan on Wednesday to ensure she conducts a "broad and meticulous review" of the MGM deal, saying the deal could have anti-competitive effects on video streaming.

"The FTC should disfavor approving deals involving parties with a known pattern of inhibiting competition and harming consumers and workers," Warren said. "Allowing such firms to continue buying up competitors would only exacerbate these abuses of market power."

Khan established her profile in the antitrust world with a 2017 paper she wrote while still a law student exploring Amazon's dominance. Entitled "Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox," the paper explained how the online retailer came to control key infrastructure of the digital economy and how traditional antitrust analysis fails to consider the danger to competition posed by the company.

Khan, a Democrat, currently leads the five-member commission which enjoys a 3-2 majority.

A federal judge recently delivered Facebook a major victory by dismissing an anti-trust lawsuit brought by the DoJ and a group of states' AGs. Is Amazon hoping for a Hail Mary of its own?

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/amazon-seeks-recusal-ftc-head-lina-khan-antitrust-probe-ramps

Microsoft, Google Abandon "Truce" As Tech Giants Turn On Each Other Amid Anti-Monopoly Push

Now that humbling America's tech giants has become an issue with bipartisan support, a package of restrictive new measures targeting Big Tech is slowly moving through Congress, while President Biden prepares to slap the industry with a new executive order empowering regulators to tighten scrutiny of any anti-competitive behaviors.

While all the money firms like Facebook, Amazon and Google spend on lobbying may have saved them from being forcibly broken up, the new restrictions will unquestionably hurt the bottom line of big tech, while making it more difficult for the biggest firms to simply buy out any competitors who might threaten their dominance. While Facebook recently won a major court victory when a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by the DoJ and a handful of State attorneys general, Google has once again found itself squarely in the sight of regulators hoping to humble the company's display ads business, an integral piece of Google's dominance of the digital advertising space.

Despite recently becoming one of only a small handful of American tech giants to see its market capitalization top $1 trillion, Microsoft has largely escaped scrutiny from Congress and the Biden Administration. And while one might expect Big Tech to close ranks in response to the antitrust scrutiny, to the contrary, Microsoft and Google are abandoning a longstanding "truce" that ended an extensive conflict between the two companies, according to the FT.

One source said the agreement wasn't an attempt to screw competitors, but rather an agreement between Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai (CEOs of Microsoft and Google) to end "dirty tricks" that the companies were playing on each other. The truce also involved settling outstanding lawsuits, along with a deal to abandon further litigation. Additionally, Microsoft dropped its infamous "Scroogled" ad campaign attacking its rival.

https://youtu.be/R_6bSCW_UI0

https://youtu.be/56GbFjB2PHk

Still, some academics can't help but be suspicious of the deal.

"It’s always a little puzzling when you see direct competitors working on private agreements," Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, said of the 2015 pact. However, he said that ending the "dirty tricks" employed by both sides appeared to be a way to end the destructive rivalry without necessarily weakening competition.

"The tricks Microsoft was playing on Google were hurting the entire industry — including Microsoft," Goldman added.

Signs of renewed rivalry have cropped up recently with Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, publicly attacking Google over its threats to withdraw its search service in Australia over a ruling that it must compensate publishers. It's exactly these types of ruthless advertising practices that have attracted scrutiny from international regulators.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/microsoft-google-abandon-truce-tech-giants-turn-each-other-amid-anti-monopoly-push

Trump Org And CFO Weisselberg Expected To Be Charged Thursday With Tax Crimes

The Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg, is expected to be charged on Thursday with tax-related crimes, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. Trump himself is not expected to be charged, as we noted earlier this week.

The action by the Manhattan district attorney's office would mark the first criminal charges against the former US president's company since prosecutors began investigating three years ago. Weisselberg reportedly refused prosecutors' attempts to get him to cooperate against Trump, according to the report.

The defendants are expected to appear in court Thursday afternoon.

The Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg are expected to face charges related to allegedly evading taxes on fringe benefits, the people said. For months, the Manhattan district attorney’s office and New York state attorney general’s office have been investigating whether Mr. Weisselberg and other employees illegally avoided paying taxes on perks—such as cars, apartments and private-school tuition—that they received from the Trump Organization. -WSJ

According to the report, if prosecutors can show the Trump Organization and its executives systematically avoided paying taxes, more serious charges could follow.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and insists that the case - led by Democrats - is politically motivated, and that the case covers "things that are standard practice throughout the U.S. business community, and in no way a crime."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-org-and-cfo-weisselberg-expected-be-charged-thursday-tax-crimes

Trump Org And CFO Weisselberg Expected To Be Charged Thursday With Tax Crimes

When you're a hammer, everything is a nail.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested Tuesday that climate change may have contributed to the tragic partial collapse of a condominium building in south Florida that killed at least 16 people and has left about 150 others missing.

What did Granholm say?

During an interview on CNN, Granholm was asked whether climate change played a role in the building collapse — and she appeared to agree that it had.

"Obviously, we don't know fully, but we do know that the seas are rising. We know that we're losing inches and inches of beaches, not just in Florida but all around," Granholm said. "Michigan, where I'm from, we've seen the loss of beaches because the waters are rising, so this is a phenomenon that will continue."

"This is a phenomenon that will continue. Whether it— we'll have to wait to see what the analysis is for this building," she added.

Granholm, who was formerly governor of Michigan, later shifted the conversation to President Joe Biden's controversial infrastructure proposal, explaining that investing in American infrastructure will help stem the tide of climate change and prevent future structural disasters.

"There's so much investment that we need to do protect ourselves from climate change but also to address it and mitigate it," Granholm contended. "Hopefully these infrastructure bills, when taken together, will make a huge step and allow America to lead again."

What is actually behind the tragic collapse?

As one critic of Granholm's pointed out, how could climate change have played a factor in the partial collapse of the 12-story beachfront condominium building when neighboring condos have not faced a similar fate?

Indeed, while the exact cause of the collapse will probably not be determined for months, initial reports indicate existing structural problems caused the collapse.

As the New York Times explained, surveillance video showing the collapse points to a weakening in the bottom of the building that triggered the deadly progressive collapse.

While no definitive conclusions could be drawn from the surveillance video, which was shot from a distance and reveals only one perspective of the disaster, some of the engineers reviewing it last week said it seemed to suggest that the failure began at a specific point near the bottom of the structure — perhaps as far down as the parking garage beneath the building, or on the first few floors.

From what can be seen in the video, part of the structure first slumped, seemingly falling vertically in one giant piece, as if the columns had failed beneath the southern edge of the center of the building, not far from the pool. Like a nightmarish avalanche, the failure quickly spread and brought down the entire center of the building. Seconds later, a large section to the east also toppled.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/energy-secretary-climate-change-condo-collapse

Govt Eerily Calls for Vaccinating Pets “Once the Human Population has Been Dealt With”

As the fear and panic subsides from the COVID-19 pandemic, the peddlers of propaganda are doing everything in their power to fight the waning fright. Headlines abound about the “Delta Variant” and how it is “bringing back the dark clouds of last year.” But much to the chagrin of team doom, the pandemic’s end appears to be on the horizon.

As the government struggles to convince the rest of the population to get the COVID-19 vaccine, some officials — apparently unafraid of ridicule — are pushing for the vaccination of cats and dogs. Seriously.

According to an article in the Mirror, Ministers are being urged to ensure cats and dogs get Covid jabs once all people have been vaccinated. In an ominous undertone, officials stated that animals should get the vaccine “once the human population has been dealt with.”

“Covid possibly started in bats. The priority is to vaccinate humans, but a year or so down the line we have to look at animal vaccines,” Sir Mark Hendrick, according to the Mirror.

Kevin Tyler, editor of journal Virulence, told the Mirror that “Mutations could come back into humans looking quite different.

“A substantially different variant could be a problem in the future. The best way to deal with that might be vaccines.”

freestar

This notion is utterly ridiculous given the fact that there have only been a handful cases world wide in which animals have tested positive for COVID. As TFTP reported last year, a fruit in Tanzania tested positive for COVID-19. Should we also begin vaccinating our produce?

As officials move to vaccinate our dogs and cats, more than 4,100 people have been hospitalized or died with COVID in the U.S. despite having been fully vaccinated, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to a report in Forbes, as of June 21, 2021. Nearly half (49 percent) of these cases have been female and a little over three-quarters (76 percent) have been 65 years and older. There were a total of 3,907 hospitalizations and 750 deaths among those who had breakthrough infections, although not all of the hospitalizations may have been due primarily to Covid-19.

What’s more, according to the CDC’s website, the number of COVID vaccine breakthrough infections are likely an undercount of all SARS-CoV-2 infections among fully vaccinated persons due to passive and voluntary reporting.

“These surveillance data are a snapshot and help identify patterns and look for signals among vaccine breakthrough cases,” the agency stated. “No unexpected patterns have been identified in the reported breakthrough infections.”

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, about half of all adults who tested positive for COVID-19’s “delta variant” had been fully inoculated with the Pfizer Inc. vaccine.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/covid-jab-pets-cats-dogs/

Fauci Goes On CNN, Says There May Soon Be ‘Two Americas’ With Vaxxed Versus Unvaxxed

Fauci predicts that the United States will soon devolve into two societies, with the vaccinated pitted against the unvaccinated

Anthony Fauci, the embattled doctor once hailed as “America’s Doctor” by left wing websites, appeared on CNN to once again urge people to vaccinate due to fear of the seemingly mild delta variant of COVID-19 spreading, and predicted that there may soon be “two Americas” – pitting the vaccinated against those who would rather not receive one of the the controversial vaccines.

“When you have such a low level of vaccination superimposed upon a variant that has a high degree of efficiency of spread, what you are going to see among under vaccinated regions, be they states, cities, or counties, you’re going to see these individual types of blips,” said Fauci, failing to note that international experts seem to agree that the delta variant’s most common symptoms are identical to “hay fever” or the common cold. “It’s almost like there’s going to be two Americas.”

Fauci continued, “Certainly, we are not out of the woods yet because we haven’t had a vaccination rate where we get those herd immunity effects.” However, Fauci also recently said that he is not going to “waste his time” with concerns about antibody tests that may prove wide segments of the population are already immune to COVID-19 due to the natural immunity one gains after contracting and successfully fighting off an illness, and some point out that there is no way to know if the United States has reached herd immunity – or when it will – without accounting for natural immunity. (READ MORE: Emails Reveal ‘Dr. Fauci’s March Madness’ Disease Bracket)

Recently, National File reported that top experts believe the much feared delta variant of COVID-19’s common symptoms appear to be sore throat, headaches, and other mild inconveniences that are identical to “hay fever” or the common cold. In fact, experts believe individuals may continue behaving normally while sick with the delta variant, believing they merely have seasonal allergies.

“The main symptoms of COVID-19 appear to have changed — with headaches and sore throats now more common than fevers and coughs, according to a warning by UK experts,” noted the New York Post. Similarly, another expert told the Mirror that “Allergy sufferers can experience some of the same symptoms as those with Covid, which can cause huge levels of anxiety” due to not knowing if they have the supposedly-deadly virus, or simply need to take an over-the-counter antihistamine drug due to high pollen counts.

https://nationalfile.com/fauci-goes-on-cnn-says-there-may-soon-be-two-americas-with-vaxxed-versus-unvaxxed/

ARIZONA: Senator Ugenti-Rita KILLS Election Integrity Bill, Votes With Dems Against Vital Legislation

"I find it reprehensible that pride… is actually going to kill good legislation"

Republican Arizona Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita has killed an election integrity bill put forward by fellow State Senator Kelly Townsend, who plans to reconsider it.

SB1241, which was set for its third reading in the Senate on Tuesday, contained over 34 various election integrity measures, including: requiring paper ballot copies for every vote cast on a voting machine, securing those machines and hard drives outside of voting hours, sending ballots with mismatched signatures to the Attorney General for potential investigation, requiring ballot observers to be able to see the voting machines, increasing chain of custody requirements, and forcing anyone registering in Arizona who moved from another state to deregister from their previous state.

However, Republican Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita, announced that she would join the Democrats in voting against the election integrity bill, which Townsend implied was revenge for her own vote against Ugenti-Rita’s SB1485. Although SB1485 included some election integrity measures, it would not have applied key revisions in time for the 2022 primaries, leaving them open to the same potential attacks that may have occurred in the 2020 election.

Much of the provisions included in the final version of SB1241 were tacked onto the bill when it went through the House, after Ugenti-Rita refused to allow Townsend to hear the issues in the Government Committee that she chaired. When it came to voting, Ugenti-Rita objected exactly because of the methodology Townsend used to get the issues into the bills, despite the fact it was her own tactics had seemingly forced her to do.

Speaking on the Arizona Senate floor, Townsend argued that the uncommon method of producing the final bill was “no reason to vote no on good election integrity language that is needed this year in order to be in effect in time for the primary election next year,” adding that she found it “reprehensible that pride, lack of reading the bills in the beginning, or any other reason, is actually going to kill good legislation that would restore confidence for every single person in this state in their election process so that they can cast a ballot in next year’s primary knowing that chain of custody is secure.”

https://nationalfile.com/arizona-senator-ugenti-rita-kills-election-integrity-bill-votes-with-dems-against-vital-legislation/