Disturbing

https://nypost.com/2021/11/06/pete-buttigiegs-baby-home-after-terrifying-hospital-ordeal/

NJ Senate President Who Loses to Truck Driver Claims to Have Found 12,000 Ballots

Ousted Democratic New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney refuses to concede.

MSN reports Senate Democrat Says '12,000 Ballots Recently Found'

The defiant incumbent released a statement to the Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday that explained why he is not ready to admit defeat to his Republican challenger.

“The results from Tuesday’s election continue to come in, for instance there were 12,000 ballots recently found in one county,” Sweeney said in an email, not naming the county.

Sweeney has held the seat for 20 years and has served as the state Senate's president since 2010. New Jersey's 3rd state Senate District, which he represents, covers parts of Gloucester, Cumberland, and Salem counties. The district has been solidly blue in both the state Senate and General Assembly since Sweeney took office in 2003.

12,000 Ballots Where?

Might I suggest looking in Sweeney's closet?

https://mishtalk.com/politics/nj-senate-president-who-loses-to-truck-driver-claims-to-have-found-12000-ballots

Separated migrant families ‘deserve’ compensation from US, Biden says

US President Joe Biden is now saying he’s in support of “some kind of compensation” for migrant families separated at the border, after calling a report about potential $450,000 individual settlements “garbage.”

Biden was asked to make clear his position on the subject while speaking about the passage of a $1 trillion infrastructure package on Saturday. The president blamed former president Donald Trump’s “outrageous” zero tolerance approach to the border for separating families and leading to thousands of lawsuits against the Department of Justice today.

“If in fact, because of the outrageous behavior of the last administration, you coming across the border, whether it was legal or illegal, and you lost your child,” Biden said. “You lost your child. It’s gone. You deserve some kind of compensation, no matter what the circumstance. What that will be, I have no idea.”

Biden’s position on the potential settlements, which Republicans have been staunchly opposed to, has caused some confusion. When first confronted over the report, the president called it “garbage” and said $450,000 payments were “not gonna happen.”

The White House attempted to clarify his position in the following days, offering no concrete answer on settlements, but saying the president was only referring to the specific number being floated as “garbage.” There is no word on what the actual settlements could end up amounting to.

Biden said on Saturday he had “no idea” what the eventual settlements would end up being, but he doubled down on the claim the reported $450,000 amount would not be happening.

On Thursday, the White House said Biden is “perfectly comfortable” with settlements to families if it means it “saves taxpayer dollars and puts the disastrous history of the previous administration’s use of zero tolerance and family separation behind us.”

https://www.rt.com/usa/539553-joe-biden-migrant-families-compensation/

Apart from words, little-to-nothing is done by French Catholic Church to protect kids, sexual abuse survivors tell RT

The French Catholic Church must move beyond apologies and admissions of guilt to truly protect children and compensate victims, sexual abuse survivors told RT.

On Friday, the influential Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF) recognized that the Church bore “institutional responsibility” for scores of child abuse cases within its ranks.

The statement came a month after an independent inquiry led by former Council of State Vice President Jean-Marc Sauve estimated that 216,000 children were abused by priests, deacons and other religious workers between 1950 and 2020.

Arnaud Gallais, the founder of Prevenir et Proteger (Prevent and Protect), a support group for sexual abuse survivors, told RT the Church leadership's admission of responsibility was a “positive,” yet belated move.

Until recently, the Church “has viewed itself as being above the law,” and a sincere confession was the bare minimum of what the clergy had to do to address the crimes, he added.

Gallais was abused by a Catholic missionary, his distant relative, when he was between eight and 11 years old. His testimony was among many tragic stories chronicled by the Sauve Commission.

The Church's words of guilt and regret must now be followed by concrete steps to prevent further crimes, Gallais stressed, adding that bishops should pay compensations to the victims, many of whom still struggle with trauma. The campaigner said the French government must hold the Church accountable, forcing the clergy to “guarantee the safety of children.”

Another survivor, Francois Devaux, co-founder of La Parole Liberee (Liberated Word), a sexual abuse victims' association, was equally skeptical about the Church's will for actual change.

It’s a good thing to make strong statements and accept responsibility. That’s what society expects. But, in the end, apart from words, it seems that nothing gets done.

Devaux, who was molested by a priest when he was an 11-year-old scout, said widespread crimes against children destroy the faith in the Catholic Church not just in France, but all over the world.

It is now up to Pope Francis to recognize the institutional responsibility of the Church “for all its crimes and offenses,” as well as their “systematic character and frightening scale,” Devaux told RT.

Luc Crepy, the head of the CEF anti-pedophile unit, said this week that the issue of compensations will be addressed as the Church decides on a method of quantifying how much should be awarded to the victims.

“Maybe in the next few weeks, we will be in a better position to give the figures. It is starting to cost several hundred thousand euros,” CEF Secretary-General Hugues de Woillemont told reporters.

https://www.rt.com/news/539540-france-church-abuse-survivors/

New report sounds massive privacy invasion alarm for mobile phone users: 'Delete Google Chrome on your phone'

A new report from Forbes suggests that mobile phone users who have Chrome installed on their phone are subject to massive invasion of privacy risks, and encourages users to delete the mobile browser from their phone. According to the report, Google's data harvesting practices are far more intrusive and pervasive even than Facebook's, and the data that Google harvests is more widely and freely shared with third parties without your active consent.

Last month, it was revealed that the Facebook app on your iPhone continues to track your location data on your phone even if you have specifically set your iPhone to "never" allow location tracking data, and that there is no way to avoid this other than deleting the Facebook app from your phone. Now, according to Forbes' cybersecurity reporter Zak Doffman, it has been revealed that what Google is doing is actually even worse.

Reportedly, while Apple has changed their privacy practices to require you to grant permission to third party apps to track your location data, Android users and users who have Chrome installed on their phone are having their location data gathered by default - even when browsing is set to private or incognito mode. Even worse, while Facebook was collecting this data for its own uses, Google makes this highly sensitive location data "available to any site that asks—by default."

Your phone collects this data by using what is known as the accelerometer on your phone — a component that allows navigation apps like maps and Waze to function and provides a valuable service to drivers who increasingly use their phones as navigation devices, particularly in large cities. The accelerometer measures the orientation and linear distance traveled by your phone. While many users depend on these services, it was revealed that mobile browsers were allowing sites to access your phone's accelerometer data without permission, which led iPhone to implement security measures in 2019 that would prevent third-party sites from accessing this data without the user's permission, which would have to be granted by an affirmative choice.

According to the Forbes report, Chrome on Android still does not have such protection for users. In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Google noted that Google now allows users to opt out of sharing this location data, by default this location sharing remains on, and further, even if you go into your phone and attempt to turn it off, your phone will provide you with a warning that will attempt to change your mind.

According to the report: "Chrome is isolated as the only major browser that has not yet acted to stop cross-site tracking, the only browser (illustrated by Apple's privacy labels when used on iOS) that collects vast amounts of data, all of which link back to user identities, the only major browser that pushed out FLoC, despite numerous privacy warnings. On Android, you can delete Chrome from by disabling the stock browser in your settings."

https://www.theblaze.com/news/new-report-sounds-massive-privacy-invasion-alarm-for-mobile-phone-users-delete-google-chrome-on-your-phone

Tinder founder’s witness was paid $2M before trial against Barry Diller’s company: docs

A key witness in the trial involving Tinder co-founder Sean Rad — who’s suing Barry Diller’s media empire for a staggering $2 billion, claiming it duped him about the wildly successful hookup app’s value — was paid $2 million by a litigation fund ahead of his testimony, according to court documents.

The witness, Tinder’s ex-vice president of finance James Kim, was also offered an additional $1 million by the litigation fund if the court rules against Diller’s companies, according to court filings.

Kim is expected to tell the jury in a high-stakes New York trial kicking off Monday that he was pressured by higher-ups at Diller’s media conglomerate IAC, owner of the Match Group dating-app empire, into underselling Tinder’s financial prospects during conversations with investment bankers as Match prepped its 2017 Tinder takeover.

Rad and other Tinder co-founders claim the bankers dramatically undervalued Tinder at $3 billion when it should’ve been worth far more — allowing Diller’s companies to cheat Rad and others out billions when the app was absorbed into Diller’s conglomerate. They are seeking $2 billion in damages.

A judge has found that the payments to Kim are legal — but Diller’s companies, Match Group and IAC, are nonetheless expected to use them to cast doubt on Kim’s credibility as a witness when the trial opens on Monday, a source close to the situation said.

“We’re about to go have a jury trial in which you have a situation where a witness has already been paid millions of dollars,” said Stephen DiPrima, an attorney for Match, during a late October hearing. “He’s been promised a million more.”

Partially-redacted documents made public as part of discovery appear to show Kim negotiating the payments with Rad’s attorneys.

“Can you go back to Sean and the investors to see if they would be open to [redacted] up front and on the backend (vs [redacted] up front and [redacted] on backend)?” Kim wrote in a 2018 email to a lawyer at Gibson Dunn, a law firm representing Rad.

Kim was ultimately paid $2 million in May 2019 and promised an additional $1 million if the case goes Rad’s way, according to DiPrima. The alleged dollar amounts, which had been redacted in previous testimony but were revealed in a non-redacted version of DiPrima’s testimony in a hearing on Oct. 27, have not been previously reported.

Carmody will deliver Match and IAC’s opening remarks on Monday, a source close to the companies said.

Spokespeople for Match declined to comment.

https://nypost.com/2021/11/05/tinder-founders-witness-was-paid-2m-before-trial-against-barry-dillers-company-docs/

Brazilian singer and Latin Grammy winner dies in plane crash

SAO PAULO — Marília Mendonça, one of Brazil’s most popular singers and a Latin Grammy winner, died Friday in an airplane crash on her way to a concert. She was 26.

Mendonça’s press office confirmed her death in a statement and said four other passengers on the flight also perished. Their plane crashed between Mendonça’s hometown Goiania and Caratinga, a small city in Minas Gerais state located north of Rio de Janeiro.

Minas Gerais state’s civil police also confirmed Mendonça’s death, without providing details about the cause of the accident, which occurred shortly before arrival. Photographs and videos show the plane laying just beneath a waterfall; Mendonça had posted a video this afternoon showing her walking toward the plane, guitar case in hand.

The rising star performed country music, in Brazil called sertanejo. She was known for tackling feminist issues in her songs, such as denouncing men who control their partners, and calling for female empowerment.

On Friday evening, the news triggered an outpouring of sadness on social media from all corners of Brazil, including fans, politicians, musicians and soccer players. Her Instagram account has 38 million followers.

https://nypost.com/2021/11/06/brazilian-singer-marilia-mendonca-grammy-latin-winner-dead-in-plane-crash/

Biden State Department ‘UNABLE’ to Help U.S. Citizens Escape War-Stricken Ethiopia.

Another foreign policy disaster looms as Americans may be left stranded, again.

In a jarring statement issued this weekend, Joe Biden’s State Department has announced it will not be able to perform the basic functions of evacuating U.S. citizens from the increasingly war-torn country of Ethiopia in Africa. The news will bring recent memories of Americans stranded in Afghanistan back to the minds of the American public.

Months before the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden State Department cancelled Trump-era plans to have a Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau, with critics alleging both publicly and privately that the cancellation was simply a partisan effort to stop any Trump-era plans from the beginning of the Biden government.

That behavior costs lives in Afghanistan, and may do so again in Ethiopia, and rebel forces begin moving on the capital Addis Ababa.

As of Saturday morning, official State Department guidance said:

The Department of State urges U.S citizens in Ethiopia to depart now using commercially available options. The U.S. Embassy is unlikely to be able to assist U.S. citizens in Ethiopia with departure if commercial options become unavailable. Although seats on commercial flights currently remain available, we cannot predict when demand will exceed capacity.

Politico reported early Saturday that is has, in fact, been Biden’s lackluster approach to solving the conflict in Ethiopia that created another impending foreign policy mess.

In an article entitled “Biden’s diplomacy push meets its match as Ethiopia unravels,” the left-wing news site admits:

Visa bans. Trade restrictions. Threats of economic sanctions. And visit after visit from top emissaries, including a U.S. senator bearing a message from President Joe Biden.

For a year, U.S. officials have used these and other instruments in their diplomacy toolbox to persuade, push and pressure Ethiopia’s government and rebel forces to end a vicious civil war believed to have killed thousands of people, left hundreds of thousands starving and displaced millions.

https://thenationalpulse.com/news/biden-state-department-unable-to-help-u-s-citizens-escape-war-stricken-ethiopia/

Million Mask March protesters clash with police in London

Clashes have erupted between police and participants of the annual Million Mask March in London, as anti-establishment demonstrators set off fireworks at officers and burned an effigy of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Protesters marched through Parliament Square, Trafalgar Square, and Oxford Street on Friday, marking the annual Million Mask March, which draws big demonstrations each year on November 5 against government overreach, income inequality, and, more recently, Covid-19 restrictions.

https://youtu.be/BmHf0Q2IK0g

Many demonstrators sported Guy Fawkes masks to honour the fictionalised anti-government character depicted in Alan Moore’s ‘V for Vendetta’ graphic novel, on the commemoration day for the real Fawkes.

“Boris lied, people died,” protesters chanted as they made their way through the streets. At one point, a group of demonstrators burned an effigy of Johnson in protest of the country’s Covid restrictions.

Police eventually moved in on the crowd and clashed with some protesters after fireworks were set off, some reportedly close to officers and other individuals.

Metropolitan Police said in a statement that its officers were forced to “engage” after “a crowd in Parliament Square have been dangerously lighting fireworks and rockets.” Police said they moved into the crowd to “remove any fireworks and prevent people coming to harm.”

The force had earlier announced they were preparing for the demonstrations with a “significant policing plan.” Officers were in London in riot gear, ready for crowds.

Police have announced that nine arrests have been made at the demonstrations and multiple officers have injuries from clashes with protesters.

A dispersal order is in place for various areas across Westminster. "Officers are engaging with those in Parliament Square and will be advising them of this order," Metro Police tweeted.

https://www.rt.com/uk/539493-million-mask-protest-london-police/

MPs' addresses & phone numbers stolen in cyberattack – reports

Labour politicians’ home addresses and personal phone numbers were reportedly stolen during a “cyber incident” affecting the party’s IT provider – sparking personal security fears in the aftermath of Tory MP David Amess’ murder.

The Labour Party confirmed on Thursday that a “significant quantity” of its data had been “rendered inaccessible” following a recent cyberattack on the unnamed third-party firm’s systems.

While its “full scope and impact” was not known, the information apparently included lists of party members and registered and affiliated supporters, among others.

In an email to MPs, Alison Giles, the director of parliamentary security, reportedly said the affected data likely included the “full address details” and acknowledged the parliamentarians’ concerns over the breach, “particularly in the light of recent events.”

The email, seen by The Times, urged recipients to “review the data you have provided” and said it was not yet clear whether the data had been made public.

Giles did not rule out the possibility that the information “may be released to third parties at a future date.”

Labour MPs were told to report any suspicious email activity and instructed to contact security staff if they had given the party an address which is not public.

The party’s own systems were not thought to be affected by the attack.

The National Crime Agency (NCA), National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) have begun a criminal investigation – and a Labour spokesperson said the party had engaged third-party experts and was working on an “urgent basis” to determine the effect of the breach.

The NCSC called on potential victims to be “especially vigilant against suspicious emails, phone calls or text messages.”

In August 2020, another Labour Party supplier, Blackbaud, was hacked, with the cyberattackers stealing personal data such as names, email addresses, telephone numbers, and details of annual donations. The company later paid a ransom demand with the assurance that the stolen data would be erased.

After MPs voiced concerns following the murder of MP David Amess last month, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel launched a safety review and said a “trained and accredited security operative” would accompany them during constituency meetings.

https://www.rt.com/uk/539458-labour-addresses-phone-numbers-stolen/

Extinction Rebellion Founder Says If You Don’t Help Stop Climate Change Your Mom Will Be Gang Raped

Extinction Rebellion co-founder Roger Hallam has warned that if climate change isn’t stopped soon, moms across the world will be gang raped by men.

In a bizarre 2019 pamphlet, the far-left eco-extremist wrote that climate change would result in a situation where “a gang of boys will break into your house demanding food”, after which they “will see your mother, your sister, your girlfriend and they will gang rape her on the kitchen table.”

“They will force you to watch, laughing at you. At the end they will accuse you of enjoying it,” Hallam warned.

This is from Roger Hallam, founder of "Extinction Rebellion".

The text is called "Advice to Young People as they face Annihilation" and it goes on and on like this.

[You can read it here https://t.co/LuTehTO52N] pic.twitter.com/xMUOmMQAxY

— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) November 2, 2021

Breitbart.com reports: No stranger to dangerous and often unlawful direct action and demonstrations, Extinction Rebellion decided that its co-founder was too extreme even for them in 2020, after comments minimizing the Holocaust created a stir in first the German and the British press.

Hallam said that the genocide was “just another fuckery in human history” and that “the climate crisis” should evoke the same “terrible emotion” as Auschwitz.

He also gave a speech that appeared to hint at deadly action as a means of achieving change on climate policy, warning that Extinction Rebellion activists “are not just sending out emails and asking for donations. We are going to force the governments to act, and if they don’t, we’ll bring them down and create a democracy fit for purpose. And yes — some may die in the process.”

Extinction Rebellion Germany moved to create space between itself and Hallam before its British counterpart, insisting that it “distances itself from Roger Hallam’s belittling and relativizing remarks on the Holocaust” and that he was “not a spokesman for XR Germany”.

https://en-volve.com/2021/11/05/extinction-rebellion-founder-says-if-you-dont-help-stop-climate-change-your-mom-will-be-gang-raped/

Soros-Backed Initiative Targeting ‘Right-Wing’ News, Aims to Regulate Social Media… Secret Network Covered for Hillary, Hunter, and Targeted Trump…

Last week, Axios announced the launch of a new organization, funded by George Soros and Reid Hoffman, reporting that “Good Information Inc” would “fund and scale businesses that cut through echo chambers with fact-based information.”

But even a first look at Good Information Inc.’s wireframe webpage and at it’s founder quickly quashes any illusion that the effort is an impartial one, or even one that prioritizes objective “facts.”

The homepage of the website lists various types of unapproved information: “bad information,” “Q information,” “dis-Information,” “fake information,” and “disproven information.” The phrases are presented alongside photos of Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, a polling place, vaccine mandate protesters, and the Jan. 6 incident at the Capitol.

humanevents.com/2021/11/05/new-soros-backed-media-initiative-is-led-by-former-dem-strategist-who-targets-right-wing-news-aims-to-regulate-social-media/

The following is an exclusive excerpt provided for National Pulse readers from Matt Palumbo’s forthcoming book The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros. Pre-order a copy before it’s banned.

The Soros Circle: AntAC

In 2014, Soros’s International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) and its grantees were active supporters in the creation of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC) of Ukraine, a powerful NGO. Through the end of 2018, 17 percent of AntAC’s funding was coming from Soros’s group.

AntAC is run by Daria Kaleniuk, an American-educated lawyer. White House logs show Kaleniuk visited on December 9, 2015, reportedly meeting with Eric Ciaramella, the CIA employee many suspect is the anonymous whistleblower that sparked Trump’s first impeachment, the source of which was a …

thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/excerpt-how-soross-secret-network-used-ukraine-to-cover-for-hillary-hunter-and-target-donald-trump/

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/soros-backed-initiative-targeting-right-wing-news-aims-to-regulate-social-media-secret-network-covered-for-hillary-hunter-and-targeted-trump/

Big Pharma Spent 'Horrifying' Sums of Money to Weaken Drug Price Reform

While progressive advocates are still optimistic that a limited drug pricing provision will be included in the Build Back Better Act, the Washington Post on Friday detailed the "massive, months-long advertising, lobbying, and political donation blitz" that Big Pharma and its allies carried out to kill a stronger and overwhelmingly popular proposal that would have done more to protect Americans from the industry's deadly price gouging.

As Common Dreams has reported, pharmaceutical corporations and private health insurers spent $171 million on lobbying through the first nine months of the year, the most of any industry. Big Pharma's 1,600 lobbyists outnumber members of Congress by a ratio of three to one.

According to the Post's analysis of OpenSecrets data, "The industry's focus on drug pricing has increased dramatically in recent years as the issue became more top-of-mind for voters. In 2012, lobbyists registered to work on the issue of 'drug prices' 69 times for 20 different clients. In 2021 so far, they have filed to lobby on the issue 1,192 times for 242 different clients."

Although the industry lobbies on a variety of issues each year, H.R. 3—which would empower Medicare to directly negotiate medicine prices with pharmaceutical companies and served as the model for the Build Back Better Act's original plan to lower prescription drug costs—"was the bill most often cited that PhRMA lobbied on," the Post noted. "It appeared in its reports 35 times so far this year."

According to the newspaper:

The influence campaign at times worked through groups whose funding sources are hidden. At least 20 different advertisements were run on television and online across the country. The advertisements were augmented by a campaign by PhRMA, which spent nearly $23 million on lobbying through the first nine months of 2021, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets, which tracks corporate spending and political influence. That puts PhRMA on track this year to beat its own spending recording of $29.3 million in 2019.

Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen, called the report a "horrifying dark money story. Pharma [is] boldly spending millions to limit the drug pricing reform that would help regular Americans afford their medicines."

http://www.stationgossip.com/2021/11/big-pharma-spent-horrifying-sums-of.html

Investigation Launched Into Potential Election Fraud In NJ — Votes from 56 Districts Weren’t Counted

A possible case of election malfeasance is under investigation in New Jersey, where 56 voting machines in Essex County were shut down without the votes being counted during a pivotal and tight race for governor where Republican Jack Ciattarelli challenged the Democrat incumbent, reported News 12.

Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin told News 12 reporter Tony Caputo that “you can call it poll worker error and there will be an investigation into why this happened.” Durkin also asked residents “not to jump to conclusions” because “this happens in every election.”

The “time frame” for releasing the vote count from the machines is unclear. Durkin said that “we need to compile a list of the results that are missing, then need to schedule a hearing in front of a judge, and then the judge issues the order and then we’re able to go and retrieve those results.”

The suprisingly close race between Democrat incumbent Phil Murphy and Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli had been been called for Murphy, but according to Ballotpedia, he maintains a lead of only 44,000 votes.

Ciattarelli has not conceded, reported Fox News.

In a video posted to Twitter, Ciattarelli argued that Governor Murphy’s “victory speech last night was premature” and that “no one should be declaring victory or conceding the election until every legal vote is counted.”

Time for another Jack Chat.

And this might be the most important one yet, so please watch and share. pic.twitter.com/Nmc03ATpTV

— Jack Ciattarelli (@Jack4NJ) November 4, 2021

Ciattarelli’s communications director, Stami Williams, has argued that “it’s irresponsible of the media to make this call when the New Jersey Secretary of State doesn’t even know how many ballots are left to be counted.”

Fox News reported that “the Ciattarelli campaign has not indicated whether it would seek a recount in the tight race, instead opting to see how the rest of the voting plays out before deciding on their next course of action.”

https://en-volve.com/2021/11/05/possible-election-fraud-under-investigation-in-nj-votes-from-56-districts-not-counted/

‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli Tells Judge He Won’t Testify at Trial That Could Bar Him from Pharma Industry Because He’s Still in Prison

Disgraced pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli told a judge that he will not testify at or attend a civil trial that could lead to his lifetime ban from the industry because he is still in prison, and he has been denied remote access to the courtroom.

“Mr. Shkreli respectfully informs the Court that for the reasons set forth in his motion, he does not intend to personally attend and testify at trial,” Shkreli’s lawyer Christopher H. Casey wrote in a letter on Wednesday. “As such, we will not be presenting the Court with a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf.”

Shkreli is facing a bench trial on Dec. 14 this year, where U.S. District Judge Denise Cote will determine without a jury whether he engaged in anticompetitive conduct by jacking up the price of the live-saving drug Daraprim 40-fold. When he first raised the price that high, Shkreli led a company known as Turing Pharmaceuticals, and the act that earned him national scorn and the moniker “Pharma Bro.”

He is currently serving a seven-year sentence for different conduct, described by federal prosecutors as a “Pyramid-like scheme” defrauding investors of a separate company. His release date from a low-security prison in Allenwood, Pa. is scheduled for Oct. 22, 2022, federal records show.

While Shkreli’s was still behind bars, New York State Attorney General Letitia James (D) filed a lawsuit against Turing’s rebranded successor Vyera Pharmaceuticals, LLC and two of its former CEOs: Shkreli and Kevin Mulleady, alleging that anticompetitive conduct over Daraprim never ended. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and attorneys general of California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia later joined the case, which could lead to his permanent ban from the industry.

On Nov. 1, federal regulators offered Shkreli’s defense attorneys an alternative to live trial testimony, saying “we will accept Shkreli’s direct testimony in his affidavit and will ‘cross -examine’ him by designating portions of his earlier deposition testimony.” Regulators also requested a “short” deposition of Mr. Shkreli to “lay the foundation for the admissibility of certain documents if we are unable to resolve such issues pretrial.”

Shkreli’s defense team said they oppose that option, calling the request “vague.”

“Plaintiffs do not even identify the documents purportedly at issue, i.e., whether they are referring to the documents introduced at Mr. Shkreli’s deposition or other documents,” the letter states. “Nor do plaintiffs explain what they mean by a ‘short’ deposition, or the scope of such a deposition. For example, plaintiffs do not explain how they intend to lay the foundation for the admissibility of a document without getting into questions regarding the substance of the document – in other words, without conducting a second substantive deposition of Mr. Shkreli. This would effectively allow plaintiffs to choose two of the Court’s options rather than one.”

https://www.cracknewz.com/2021/10/man-says-he-tried-to-get-police-to-look.html

Thousands of intelligence officers face dismissal for failing to comply with Biden's vaccine mandate

Thousands of US intelligence officers could soon face dismissal for failing to comply with the government's vaccine mandate, leading some Republican lawmakers to raise concerns about removing employees from agencies critical to national security.

Several intelligence agencies had at least 20 percent of their workforce unvaccinated as of late October, said U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

CIA Director William Burns disclosed publicly last week that 97 percent of the agency's officers have been vaccinated. The National Reconnaissance Office, which operates U.S. spy satellites, has more than 90 percent of its workforce vaccinated.

But Stewart said some agencies in the 18-member intelligence community had as much as 40 percent of their workforce unvaccinated.

He cited information the administration has provided to the committee but not released publicly. He declined to identify the agencies because full information on vaccination rates was classified.

While many people will likely still get vaccinated before the administration's November 22 deadline for civilian workers, resistance to the mandate could leave major agencies responsible for national security without some personnel.

Intelligence officers are particularly hard to replace due to the highly specialized work they do and the difficulties of completing security clearance checks.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined several requests to provide figures for the intelligence community. The office also would not say what contingency plans are in place in case officers are taken off work due to not complying with the mandate.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines declined at a hearing last week to disclose what percentage of the workforce had been vaccinated, but said 'we are not anticipating that it is going to be an issue for mission.'

The vaccination rates provided by Stewart are mostly higher than those of the general U.S. population. About 70 percent of American adults are fully vaccinated and 80 percent have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

There are an estimated 100,000 employees in the intelligence community.

Stewart called on the administration to approve more exemptions for people on medical, religious and other grounds, and delay any terminations of intelligence officers.

'My question is what's the impact on national security if we do that?' Stewart said. 'You're potentially firing thousands of people on the same day. And it´s not like you put an ad on Craigslist and have people apply by Thursday.'

House Intelligence Committee Democrats say they´re confident that the vaccination mandate will not cause a problem for the intelligence community. Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, said the agencies were doing 'quite well' and that getting vaccinated was a sign of an employee´s readiness.

'If somebody is not willing to do what´s necessary to protect their own health and the health of their unit, that actually calls into question their ability to effectively do the job,' Crow said in an interview.

President Joe Biden has issued several mandates to boost the vaccination rate in the U.S. affecting federal employees, contractors and health care workers.

The White House has credited those mandates with driving up vaccination rates and reducing deaths from a pandemic that has killed more than 750,000 people in the U.S. and 5 million people worldwide.

http://www.stationgossip.com/2021/11/thousands-of-intelligence-officers-face.html

http://www.stationgossip.com/2021/11/thousands-of-intelligence-officers-face.html

In 1st for Conservative movement, women rabbis tie knot in same-sex wedding

‘It feels like we shouldn’t be groundbreaking,’ Rabbi Becca Walker says after marrying Rabbi Ariella Rosen in wedding officiated by another lesbian rabbi

You could call it bashert: 15 years after a landmark decision in Judaism’s Conservative movement that paved the way for gay and lesbian students to enter its rabbinical schools and for rabbis to perform same-sex weddings, it would seem like destiny that two Conservative rabbis would wed.

Of course, it happened at Camp Ramah.

Rabbi Ariella Rosen and Rabbi Becca Walker tied the knot at the Conservative movement’s camp in Palmer, Massachusetts, last month, with yet another queer woman rabbi, Megan GoldMarche, officiating. Rosen’s father, Rabbi Jim Rosen, also played a role.

“It feels like we shouldn’t be groundbreaking,” Walker told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. And yet she and Rosen made history as the first-ever same-sex marriage between two Conservative rabbis, according to Rabbi Ashira Konigsburg, the chief operating officer of the movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, who said the organization was not aware of any others.

The Conservative movement adopted legal rulings designed to make gay and lesbian Jews “feel accepted and welcomed” in its synagogues and communities. The next year, its two US rabbinical schools admitted their first gay students. And in 2012, the movement issued guidelines for the first time for same-sex weddings, although many rabbis had been performing them already.

Now, openly gay Conservative rabbis work in a variety of settings — and while many have married, including to others who work in the Jewish world, none so far have paired off as Rosen and Walker did.

Until recently, Walker, 33, was the assistant rabbi at Toronto’s Beth David congregation; Rosen, 35, is senior Jewish educator at Hillel Ontario.

They met at a Rabbinical Assembly retreat in May 2018 for early-career women rabbis at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Connecticut.

They first clicked as conversational partners in a workshop. On a hike, they ended up only speaking to each other. Then, they stayed up late talking at a campfire, long after everyone else went to sleep.

Both women grew up in New England, and knew of each other while undergraduates in the joint Jewish Studies program between List College and Columbia University.

Rosen was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York in 2015 (she is one of four people in her immediate family to have attended JTS). Walker was ordained by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles in 2016.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-1st-for-conservative-movement-women-rabbis-tie-knot-in-same-sex-wedding/

YOUNGKIN AND CARLYLE GROUP – THE DEEP STATE DOESN’T GET MUCH DEEPER

https://silview.media/2021/11/05/youngkin-and-carlyle-group-the-deep-state-doesnt-get-much-deeper/

Massive spending bill rewards illegals with windfall amid historic surge across southern border

Democrats hope to enact sweeping changes to immigration system without bipartisan support through reconciliation process bypassing Senate filibuster.

As the U.S. faces a crisis at its southern border, Democrats are pushing to include sweeping immigration changes in their mammoth spending bill, including a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

The Build Back Better Act, a $1.75 trillion social spending package backed by President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress, tackles a wide range of issues — from taxes, to health care, to the environment.

Buried deep in the text, however, are a series of provisions which, if signed into law, would amount to a windfall for illegal immigrants. Many of these provisions have been overlooked but would have significant effects on America's immigration system — and the American taxpayer.

Initially, Democrats sought to include an overt pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants. This plan failed, however, due to the requirements of a budgetary process known as reconciliation.

Because Republicans are united in opposition to the Build Back Better Act, Democrats have been unable to garner the 60 votes in the Senate necessary to overcome the legislative filibuster. So, Democrats decided to use reconciliation, which is supposed to expedite the legislative process by requiring only a simple majority of votes, to try to push through the bill.

But there's a catch: Reconciliation bills can only contain measures with a direct budgetary impact as determined by the Senate's parliamentarian, who functions essentially as a referee of what meets this threshold.

The parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled in mid-September that the Build Back Better Act couldn't be used to provide illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship. The amnesty measure, MacDonough wrote, "is by any standard a broad, new immigration policy" whose budgetary effect is "merely incidental" to the overall policy impact, which would profoundly change the lives of millions of immigrants.

Disappointed but still seeking amnesty for millions, Democrats then tried a Plan B: granting legal status to illegal immigrants present in the U.S. before 2010. This plan involved changing the date of the registry section of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which grants permanent residence to individuals who entered the country before 1972.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/satmassive-spending-bill-rewards-illegals-windfall-amid-historic-surge-across

Biden Admin Amassing Millions of Records on US Gun Owners Amid New Crackdown on Firearms

Biden's ATF obtained more than 54 million gun owner records in 2021 alone

The Biden administration in just the past year alone stockpiled the records of more than 54 million U.S. gun owners and is poised to drastically alter gun regulations to ensure that information on Americans who own firearms ultimately ends up in the federal government's hands, according to internal Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The ATF in fiscal year 2021 processed 54.7 million out-of-business records, according to an internal ATF document obtained by the Gun Owners of America, a firearms advocacy group, and provided exclusively to the Free Beacon. When a licensed gun store goes out of business, its private records detailing gun transactions become ATF property and are stored at a federal site in West Virginia. This practice allows the federal government to stockpile scores of gun records and has drawn outrage from gun advocacy groups that say the government is using this information to create a national database of gun owners—which has long been prohibited under U.S. law.

The ATF obtained 53.8 million paper records and another 887,000 electronic records, according to the internal document that outlines ATF actions in fiscal year 2021. Gun activists described this figure as unusually high and said it contributes to fears that the Biden administration is trying to keep track of all Americans who own firearms, in violation of federal statutes. The procurement of these records by the ATF comes as the Biden administration moves to alter current laws to ensure that gun records are stored in perpetuity. Currently, gun shops can destroy their records every 20 years, thereby preventing the ATF from accessing the information in the future.

"As if the addition of over 50 million records to an ATF gun registry wasn't unconstitutional or illegal enough, the Biden administration's misuse of ‘out-of-business' records doesn't end there," Aidan Johnston, the Gun Owners of America's director of federal affairs, told the Free Beacon. "Instead of maintaining the right of [licensed firearm dealers] to destroy Firearm Transaction Records after 20 years, buried within Biden's proposed regulations is a provision that would mean every single Firearm Transaction Record going forward would eventually be sent to ATF's registry in West Virginia."

The ATF's registry site has long been a battleground between gun advocates and the federal government. Those in favor of more restrictive gun measures want the ATF to digitize this registry and create a federal database of U.S. gun owners, a move opposed by groups such as the Gun Owners of America and the National Rifle Association. The ATF has so many records stored in its West Virginia site that several years ago the floor collapsed, according to the New York Times.

An ATF spokesman declined to comment on internal agency records but told the Free Beacon that the agency's "National Tracing Center processes millions of out of business records each month." However, "those out of business records do not constitute an initiation or continuation of any federal gun registry," the spokesman said.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 mandates that licensed firearm dealers that go out of business provide the ATF with their records. They are then processed into images, though the ATF maintains this database cannot be searched by a purchaser's name. Physical records, the agency says, are then destroyed.

The record-keeping issue has received new scrutiny as the Biden administration readies to implement several new restrictions on firearms and owners, including a proposed ban on anywhere from 10 to 40 million pistol braces, which are used as stabilizers, and AR-15s. Under these guidelines, gun owners would be ordered to register or destroy these pistol braces.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-admin-amassing-millions-of-records-on-u-s-gun-owners-amid-new-crackdown-on-firearms/

Something Being Overlooked in the Danchenko Indictment – A Bigger Indictment of U.S. Media

There is an issue being overlooked, well, not so much ‘overlooked’ per se’, but rather intentionally being ignored by everyone in the discussion.

Maybe not an 800lb gorilla in the room, but at least to a troop of screaming spider monkeys swinging from the drapes and chandeliers.

As everyone is well aware back in 2016 the entire U.S. media apparatus was given copies of the Clinton-funded Christoper Steele dossier as Fusion GPS worked every source in their contact list to push the fabricated claims into the headlines. Eventually the stenographers in/around DC, led by CNN and Buzzfeed, acquiesced.

As a result of the Durham indictment we now know a fellow named Igor Danchenko was working closely with Democrat party public relations executive Charles Dolan to funnel the fabricated source material to Chris Steele.

Chris Steele, under contract with Fusion-GPS to assemble opposition research that would be used by allies in the media and FBI, then took the Danchenko/Dolan fabricated claims and put it into his dossier.

DOJ official Bruce Ohr, the husband of another Fusion-GPS employee Nellie Ohr, was used as the laundry conduit to put the dossier into the hands of the FBI. Simultaneously Glenn Simpson took the dossier and shopped it to his media pals. That’s how the entire story was created; and yes, we already knew most of this and Durham is simply filling in the details. However, there is something missing from all reporting.

We know the dossier was used as the resource material for the October 21, 2016, FISA application -a Title 1 search warrant- to conduct political surveillance against the Trump campaign by accusing Carter Page of being an agent of the Russian government. The Steele dossier was essentially a substitute for the ‘woods file’ that justifies an intrusive search warrant against a U.S. citizen. The dossier was the evidence used by the FBI and DOJ to justify the warrant application.

What’s missing from this context is not just the fabricated dossier in the hands of the media; but rather in March 2017 the actual FISA application was in the hands of the media. Not only did most mainstream U.S. media like Buzzfeed, Politico, The New York Times and the Washington Post have the dossier in their hands, effective March 17, 2017, they also had the full and unredacted FISA application as it was leaked by the Senate Intelligence Committee Security Director James Wolfe.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/11/06/something-being-overlooked-in-the-danchenko-indictment-a-bigger-indictment-of-u-s-media/

Chinese Officer Convicted for Spying Against U.S.

The first Chinese intelligence officer to stand trial in the U.S. has been convicted. Yanjun Xu, a spy for the Chinese Ministry of State Security was convicted for attempting to steal trade secrets from American aviation firms and from General Electric. Court documents state that Xu used aliases to try to steal proprietary technology as far back as 2013.

General Electric cooperated with the Justice Department in its investigation, which concluded that Xu approached various firms under the guise of research for a university presentation. In particular, he was interested in gaining information about GE Aviation’s composite aircraft engine fan.

Fox News reports:

“This was state-sponsored economic espionage by the PRC designed to steal American technology and put Americans out of work,” said Alan E. Kohler Jr., assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “For those who doubt the real goals of the PRC, this should be a wakeup call; they are stealing American technology to benefit their economy and military.”

Xu pressed a GE Aviation employee for specific information in March 2017. The suspicions of the employee led to Xu’s arrest in Belgium and 2018 and subsequent extradition to the U.S.

The Justice Department says that Xu’s conviction is proof that the U.S. is serious about preventing the Chinese from stealing American industrial secrets.

“This conviction of a card-carrying intelligence officer for economic espionage underscores that trade secret theft is integral to the PRC government’s plans to modernize its industries,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “But this conviction also serves notice that the United States will not sit by as China, or any other nation-state, attempts to steal instead of researching and developing key technology.”

Hopefully, these developments will wake more corporations up to what the Chinese are doing.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/chris-queen/2021/11/05/chinese-officer-convicted-for-spying-against-u-s-n1530222