State Farm has partnered with transgender advocacy group to indoctrinate 5-year-olds, group says

State Farm, the insurance company that advertises itself as a "good neighbor," has asked hundreds of its employees to donate books promoting LGBTQ+ themes to children as young as 5 to local schools and public libraries, according to an email leaked by a whistleblower.

The company partnered with The GenderCool Project, an advocacy group for transgender youth, for a campaign "to help diversity classroom, community center, and library bookshelves with a collection of books to help bring clarity and understanding to the national conversation about Being Transgender, Inclusive, and Non-Binary," an employee email from Jan. 18, 2022, obtained by Consumers' Research states.

"The project's goal is to to increase representation of LGBTQ+ books and support our communities in having challenging, important and empowering conversations with children Age 5+," State Farm corporate responsibility analyst Jose Soto wrote to employees.

State Farm had asked employees to deliver a package of three books, "A Kids Book About Being Transgender," "A Kids Book About Being Non-Binary," and "A Kids Book About Being Inclusive," to schools and libraries in their area, said Will Hild, executive director of Consumers' Research.

Screenshots from the books Hild posted to Twitter show a message from the GenderCool team encouraging readers to "shake off whatever confusion, skepticism, concern, or biases you may have" about transgender kids. The books introduce children to what it means to be transgender or non-binary.

“Gender is how you feel in your heart and mind, but it may not match what the doctor says when you are born,” the "Non-Binary" book states.

Soto's Jan. 18 email asked for six State Farm insurance agents in Florida to volunteer to donate the books to their community by the end of April. "Along with donating the books, we would encourage the agent to highlight our commitment to diversity on their social media pages," he wrote. "This is a fantastic way to give back and an easy project that will help support the LGBTQ+ community and to make the world around us better."

The email mentioned that this project is part of a nationwide campaign with nearly 550 State Farm agents and employees participating.

In a statement to the Washington Examiner, State Farm defended the voluntary program, reiterating the company's commitment to "diversity and inclusion."

"We recognize and value the diversity of all people, and support a culture of respect and inclusion in the communities in which we live and work, as well as our workplace. The LGBTQ+ community is a valued part of the communities we serve and are valued members of our workplace," State Farm said.

"Kindness and respect is expected in all our interactions and extended to everyone we do business with across all segments of society. We embrace diversity and inclusion because it’s the right thing to do. We work with a variety of organizations and causes that express their own unique views, and support civil and open dialogue on challenging topics," the statement continued.

Consumers' Research, a nonprofit conservative consumer protection group, has launched a multimillion-dollar public awareness campaign about State Farm's partnership with the GenderCool Project.

"This gross and blatant attempt to indoctrinate our children by @StateFarm is shameless and consumers should be aware a company founded on family values is now encouraging five-year-old children to question their gender," Hild tweeted.

The campaign, titled, "Like a Creepy Neighbor," warns that "State Farm is targeting your 5-year-old," in a video accusing the books of "textbook indoctrination."

https://youtu.be/9jbucMAe_uo

https://www.theblaze.com/news/state-farm-has-partnered-with-transgender-advocacy-group-to-indoctrinate-5-year-olds-group-says

Trump Releases Ad Going After Clinton Following Bombshell Testimony From Former Campaign Manager

Former President Donald Trump released a new ad on Truth Social targeting Hillary Clinton after her former campaign manager testified the former presidential candidate personally OK’d the spread of false information.

The ad opens with a clip of Clinton speaking during the 2016 presidential debate.

“It is awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,” Clinton had said.

Trump responded with “because you’d be in jail.”

The ad then transitions to a series of recent clips breaking the news that former campaign manager Robby Mook testified Clinton herself personally approved the dissemination of the Trump-Alfa Bank connections to the media despite concerns of faulty evidence.

“They tried to steal thee 2016 election by spreading the Russia hoax” the ad read. “Trump was right. Hillary fabricated the Russia hoax.”

The ad then transitions to chants of “lock her up” with pictures of Clinton before Trump is heard saying “the collusion delusion is over.”

Mook testified Friday in special counsel John Durham’s case against former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann that general counsel Marc Elias first informed him of the Alfa Bank situation, noting the Clinton campaign was unsure whether the data was legitimate. Mook testified the campaign discussed whether they should disseminate the information to reporters, with Clinton herself personally approving the send out.

“I discussed it with Hillary as well,” Mook said, according to Fox News. “I don’t remember the substance of the conversation, but notionally, the discussion was, ‘hey, we have this and we want to share it with a reporter.’”

He then said that “she [Hillary Clinton] agreed” to have the information released to the media.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/05/23/donald-trump-releases-ad-going-after-hillary-clinton-robby-mook-allegations/

Ukraine’s Zelensky Compares His Country to Israel at Davos

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky compared his country to Israel in conversation with World Economic Forum (WEF) boss Klaus Schwab during a video appearance at the Davos summit in Switzerland.

Addressing a crowd of a thousand business and political leaders, according to Schwab, the Ukrainian leader told the Davos organiser that, whatever happens in the present conflict, “with a neighbour like this” — namely Russia — “anything can happen anytime, and the war may repeat itself.”

Zelensky said that, over the longer term, the Ukrainian government would have to “create such conditions that people and businesses would not be afraid to exist in this country, to thrive in this country,” asking listeners to consider the “example of Israel”, which finds itself in a similarly hostile environment — but has managed to establish itself as a relatively prosperous economy with a thriving tech industry despite existing in a near-constant state of low-level conflict, or worse.

“Ukraine is a bit bigger than [Israel] and the task of defending our land is more complex,” suggested the Ukrainian leader, who is Jewish, adding that his task was to “create the most up to date defence system; to create the most modern multimodal defence and security system; to enter into preparation for cooperative defence agreements with the countries we respect and we have trust in… to see that any chance for the aggressor to try and enter our country in the future would be short-lived.”

Zelensky also called for increased sanctions on Russia, insisting that “sanctions should… maximum, so that Russia and every other potential aggressor that wants to wage a brutal war against its neighbour would clearly know the immediate consequences of their actions,” and suggested that “tens of thousands of lives” might have been saved if weapons supplies and sanctions as stringent as the ones currently in place had been agreed immediately, rather than piecemeal.

Members of Zelensky’s government have previously alleged that the Germans, in particular, told their ambassador, Andrij Melnyk, that their was no point in discussing whether Russia should be ejected from the SWIFT international payments system in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s invasion because Ukraine only had a “few hours” before it was conquered.

Melnyk described the exchange as “the worst conversation in my life.”

At Davos, Zelensky emphasised the damage the war had done to the Ukrainian economy, stressing that the task of rebuilding would be “enormous” as he pressured companies still doing business with Russia to cease their activities there.

“We have more than half a trillion of dollars in losses, tens of thousands of facilities were destroyed. We need to rebuild entire cities and industries,” he admonished.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/05/23/ukraines-zelensky-compares-ukraine-to-israel-at-davos/

Great Reset: Crypto ‘Worth Nothing’ but Centralised Digital Currency is the Future – Central Bank Head

The head of Europe’s central bank has claimed that crypto assets are “worth nothing”, but that a future centrally controlled digital Euro would be valuable.

Christine Lagarde, the head of the EU’s European Central Bank (ECB), has claimed that crypto assets are “worth nothing”, and are “based on nothing”.

However, by contrast, the Central Bank tsar went on to reassure the public that a centralised digital currency was coming, and that it would be better than crypto in that the ECB itself would supposedly be able to guarantee its value.

According to a report by POLITICO, Lagarde said that while she had no experience investing in crypto, her son — who apparently has dabbled with blockchain-related assets — has not seen much return.

“I have said all along the crypto assets are highly speculative, very risky assets,” Lagarde is reported as saying in an interview.

“My very humble assessment is that it is worth nothing. It is based on nothing, there is no underlying assets to act as an anchor of safety,” she continued.

Meanwhile, Lagarde claimed that a digital Euro — which would be centrally controlled by the banking tsar and her ECB colleagues — would be a much better asset.

“The day when we have the central bank digital currency, any digital euro, I will guarantee it,” she said. “So the central bank will be behind it. I think that is vastly different from any of those things.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/05/23/great-reset-crypto-worth-nothing-but-centralised-digital-currency-is-the-future-central-bank-head/

Joe Biden: Putin ‘Must Pay a Dear Price’ for ‘Barbarism’ in Ukraine

President Joe Biden continued escalating his aggressive rhetoric against Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Biden expressed his desire for the world to make an example of Putin for invading Ukraine.

“He has to pay. Russia has to pay a long-term price for that,” Biden said, adding it was “so important” that “Putin pay a dear price for his barbarism in Ukraine.”

Biden commented on Putin during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Japan.

He pointed to reports of Russian bombings of schools, hospitals, and museums in Ukraine.

“I believe that what Putin is attempting to do is eliminate the identity of Ukraine, he can’t occupy it, but he can try to destroy its identity,” Biden said.

The president said that if the United States and the rest of the world failed to punish Putin for his actions, it would only enable China to act in Taiwan.

“What signal does that send to China, about the cost of attempting, attempting to take Taiwan by force?” he asked.

Biden previously asserted that the Russian president “cannot remain in power” during a speech in Poland in March.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/05/23/joe-biden-putin-must-pay-a-dear-price-for-barbarism-in-ukraine/

Pfizer Whistleblower Attorney Reveals They Bypassed Federal Laws With 'Astonishing Language'

https://rumble.com/v15nt7f-pfizer-whistleblower-attorney-reveals-they-bypassed-federal-laws-with-aston.html

‘Groundless’ and ‘Frivolous’: Federal Judge Orders Sanctions Against Mike Lindell and Dismisses the MyPillow CEO’s Counterclaims Against Dominion and SmartmaticA federal judge appointed by Donald Trump on Thursday dismissed a collection of counterclaims asserted by MyPillow and its Trump-supporting CEO Mike Lindell against voting technology companies US Dominion and Smartmatic.

The case originated when, in 2021, Dominion filed defamation lawsuits against Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and both Lindell and MyPillow for their respective comments about the 2020 election. Lindell moved to dismiss the case. A judge refused to acquiesce, and an appeals court affirmed the refusal. The trial court asked Lindell and MyPillow to file as counterclaims some of the arguments both the CEO and his company pressed against the two voting technology companies in separate lawsuits; both did as ordered.

“Dominion seeks to intimidate those who might dare to come forward with evidence of election fraud, stop criticism of election voting machines, and suppress information about how its machines have been hacked in American elections,” one of the Lindell counterclaims asserted.

“Dominion’s exaggerated lawsuits . . . are not about any damages it has suffered; they are designed to intimidate those who exercise their right to free speech about the election,” Lindell also insinuated.

Per the court, Lindell asserted eight counterclaims against Dominion:

MyPillow asserted five not dissimilar counterclaims against Dominion.

Lindell further filed a so-called “third-party complaint” — the procedural posture of which was contested — against Smartmatic. Via six separate causes of action, the complaint accused that company of having “weaponized the court system and the litigation process in an attempt to silence Lindell’s and others’ political speech about election fraud and the role of electronic voting machines in it.”

Those counterclaims and the “third-party” complaint have now been jettisoned from the docket.

For instance, Lindell’s “abuse of process” claim could be satisfied by the fact that one voting company merely filed a lawsuit against Lindell, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols ruled from Washington, D.C.

https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/groundless-and-frivolous-federal-judge-orders-sanctions-against-mike-lindell-and-dismisses-the-mypillow-ceos-counterclaims-against-dominion-and-smartmatic/

What Happens When You Disagree – Especially With Leftists, Corporate Media, Homosexuals, Antifa, BLM, Democrats, Marxist/Leninists, Socialists, Fascists, Nazi’s, World Council Of Churches The U.N. & Monopoly Capitalists – All Of Whom Are Atheists & Most Are Organized Evil?

For most of American history, debate was a vehicle for giving the public an opportunity to hear two or more sides to an issue, and to hear it from experts so that the listening public could make an intelligent decision about that with which they were confronted. To be intelligent, one must be able to choose between. The word is derived from two Latin words – inter meaning between, and the verb legare meaning the ability to choose.

Debate was a very highly civilized and peaceful way to make an effort to persuade someone to consider your viewpoint. If you applied legitimate and verifiable facts, good logic and reason, along with an approach which was pleasant and straight forward, your chance of persuading someone was very good. Sadly, today, there is little room, if any, for debate. Instead, it is shouting vitriol and false accusations backed up with unverifiable “facts” that often later are exposed as outright lies, but by then that’s after the fact and likely too late – the damage has been done. The news media tells lies on the front page, and corrects them in smaller print with many fewer words on the next to the last page. That trick still seems to work on a lot of people.

In addition to the above groups using violence and vitriol to intimidate their opponents, they also cheat and lie through their smiling teeth. All of this, of course, can be verified, but don’t look to the blind followers of false ideologies to investigate before they castigate. This writer cannot imagine how wicked and bad things will have to get before honest people rise up and say “No more!” Let’s hope it’s soon before our nation sinks into an abyss so deep that there is no escape – we’re close in this writer’s estimate.

Americans must reject the list of people and groups above as well as the World Economic Forum, numerous one world government promoting associations such as the CFR, Bilderbergers, Skull & Bones, Illuminatti, World Federalists, RIIA, Boule, tax exempt foundations, ad infinitum.

https://touchstoneconnect.com/2022/05/23/what-happens-when-you-disagree-especially-with-leftists-corporate-media-homosexuals-antifa-blm-democrats-marxist-leninists-socialists-fascists-nazis-world-council-of-churches-monop/

Americans Have Lost $20 Trillion Since The Start Of 2022

Citing estimates from JPMorgan, over the weekend Bloomberg wrote that courtesy of a Biden administration terrified of what soaring inflation will mean for the Democrats in the midterms, and a Fed that is determine to do anything - even crash the market and spark a recession - to do Joe Biden's "kill inflation" bidding, the US faces a new scary threat: a plunge in wealth which JPM estimates at least $5 trillion, and could reach $9 trillion by year-end.

In short, the world’s richest nation is waking up to an unpleasant and unfamiliar sensation: It’s getting poorer… and worst of all, it's getting poorer at the behest of its own leaders.

Since the start of the year, the S&P 500 Index is down 18%, the Nasdaq 100 has lost 27% and a Bloomberg index of cryptocurrencies has plunged 48%. That all amounts to “a wealth shock that is set to drag on growth in the coming year,” JPMorgan economists led by Michael Feroli wrote in a note Friday.

Of course, this is not news to regular readers who have known about this one unpleasant side-effect of Biden's phobia for higher prices: we pointed out as much almost two weeks ago.

We do however disagree with JPMorgan that "only" $5 trillion has been lost so far: as the following chart shows, US household net worth - which consists almost entirely of financial assets (and a smattering of real estate) - tracks the S&P with an almost 1.000 correlation. Well, that means that with the S&P briefly entering a bear market on Friday and sliding approximately 20% from its all time high, reached just a few days into 2022 when US net worth hit $150 trillion, it means that US households have seen about $20 trillion in net worth disappear in 2022 under Joe Biden, a loss far greater than under any other US president in history.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/americans-have-lost-20-trillion-start-2022

World Bank Adopts Geospatial Surveillance And Tracking

The COVID-19 crisis has not only led to an exacerbation of poverty and the undoing of development gains in many countries around the world, but it has also shed light on the significant access constraints and data gaps on local conditions that the international development community has had to face. However, access to granular ground data remains indispensable to accountably monitor the provision of urgently needed emergency relief for communities in need amidst the pandemic and to build back better in a transparent way.

The Geo-Enabling initiative for Monitoring and Supervision (GEMS) is a global program launched by the World Bank that trains government agencies, donors and development practitioners to systematically leverage field-ready technology for remote real-time monitoring and adaptive risk management related to development activities. GEMS aims to create a Public Good and build capacity with local stakeholders to adapt geospatial open-source tools to specific needs. Through this, GEMS aims to support a democratization of geospatial data collection and analysis, to further enhance accountable service delivery in developing countries around the world.

The innovative GEMS method provides a highly-demanded solution for the problem of limited real-time information from the field, during the COVID-19 pandemic, in situations of Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV), and beyond. A central element of GEMS is to use simple-enough and low-cost tools, such as KoBoToolbox, that are appropriate for any environment and can be owned and scaled sustainably by local stakeholders. The core of GEMS is hands-on support provided to project implementation units to help them create customized geospatial monitoring and risk management systems, in response to local development challenges.

GEMS was launched in 2018 and is supported by the Korea Trust Fund for Economic and Peacebuilding Transitions (KTF) and the World Bank Partnership Fund for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Fund). As of March 2022, GEMS has supported over 800 development projects in 90+ countries and trained more than 5,000 government staff around the world in geospatial monitoring techniques. Also, various Multilateral Development Banks, UN Agencies, bilateral donors, and NGOs, are adopting GEMS for their COVID-19 response and beyond. Therefore, GEMS was listed by the United Nations among the best UN innovations in 2020 and it received a 2021 Geospatial World Excellence Award from the Geospatial World Forum.

Extending the reach of development in the most fragile situations

Fragility and violent conflicts do not only result in destruction, displacement, and devastation, but also entail access constraints on the ground, for security and logistical reasons. Therefore, even long before the COVID pandemic, there has been urgent demand by development practitioners for solutions to remotely supervise projects and improve the capacity of local stakeholders to conduct well-structured and accountable Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E). GEMS was launched to close information gaps in such areas with limited access to get eyes on the ground, where we cannot always have boots on the ground.

https://www.activistpost.com/2022/05/world-bank-adopts-geospatial-surveillance-and-tracking.html

Israel arrested 1,228 Palestinians in April

The Israeli army arrested 1,228 Palestinians, including 165 children and 11 women, during April, a number of Palestinian institutions have revealed in a joint statement.

The Commission of Detainees' and Ex-Detainees' Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Centre – Jerusalem reported that the Israeli authorities launched a massive arrest campaign leading to the highest rate of arrests since the beginning of this year. Most of the arrests took place in Jerusalem, with 793 Palestinians detained, including 139 children.

Moreover, the organisations pointed out that Israel has issued 154 administrative detention orders with neither charge nor trial, including 68 new orders.

"The arrests were accompanied by grave violations against the detainees and their families, including violations after their transfer to investigation and detention centres," the joint statement revealed. "They also recorded various levels of injuries among the detainees, including severe injuries suffered by the detainees as a result of being shot by the Israeli army."

Furthermore, Israel committed the war crime of collective punishment by destroying the homes of prisoners' families.

There are now around 4,700 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, including 170 children and 32 women. Around 600 Palestinians are being held in administrative detention.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220523-israel-arrested-1228-palestinians-in-april/

Wisconsin Republicans vote against decertifying 2020 election results, removing Assembly speaker

More than one-third of delegated at the party's annual convention would like to see the state decertify its 2020 presidential election results.

Wisconsin Republicans over the weekend rejected resolutions to rescind the state's Electoral College votes that were cast for President Joe Biden and to remove Robin Vos as speaker of the state Assembly.

Delegates at the state party's annual convention outside of the capital city of Madison rejected both resolutions, while adopting close to 50 others that include calling for all ballots in the state to be cast on paper and hand-counted on Election Day, according to the Associated Press.

The resolutions are non-binding but become part of the state GOP's party platform. Most of the measures would require a change in law to become effective.

Some GOP activists are displeased with Vos' leadership, specifically regarding his refusal to decertify Biden's Wisconsin win. At the convention, Vos reiterated why decertification was and is not a possibility, which reportedly drew harsh boos from the crowd.

About 36% of convention delegates voted affirmatively on the resolution that called on Vos to resign or be removed from his post. The resolution calling for the decertification of Biden's win drew the support of 40% of delegates.

The other 46 resolutions that gained approval included measures that called to dissolve the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which was created by state Republicans; impose the death penalty for individuals who kill police officers; oppose vaccine mandates; and outlaw some types of medical treatment for transgender youths.

https://justthenews.com/government/state-houses/wisconsin-republicans-vote-against-decertifying-election-results-removing

Caitlin Johnstone: On Russians ‘Raping Babies’

You can be sure that these obscene, unverified charges against Russian forces won’t attract the social-media censors who are supposedly rooting out “disinformation.”

The Ukrainian government is quickly learning that it can say anything, literally anything at all, about what’s happening on the ground there and get it uncritically reported as an actual news story by the mainstream Western press.

The latest story making the rounds is a completely un-evidenced claim made by a Ukrainian government official that Russians are going around raping Ukrainian babies to death. Business Insider, The Daily Beast, The Daily Mail and Yahoo News have all run this story despite no actual evidence existing for it beyond the empty assertions of a government with every incentive to lie.

“A 1-year-old boy died after being raped by two Russian soldiers, the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday,” reads a report by Business Insider which was subsequently picked up by Yahoo! News. “The accusation is one of the most horrific from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but is not unique.”

At the end of the fourth paragraph, we get to the disclaimer that every critical thinker should look for when reading such stories in the mainstream press:

“Insider could find no independent evidence for the claim.”

In its trademark style, The Daily Beast ran the same story in a much more flamboyant and click-friendly fashion:

“The dead boy is among dozens of alleged child rape victims which include two 10-year-old boys, triplets aged 9, a 2-year-old girl raped by two Russian soldiers, and a 9-month-old baby who was penetrated with a candlestick in front of its mother, according to Ukraine’s Commissioner for Human Rights.”

The one-and-only source for this latest spate of “the Russians are raping babies to death” stories is a statement on a Ukrainian government website by Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmyla Denisova. The brief statement contains no evidence of any kind, and its English translation concludes as follows:

“I appeal to the U.N. Commission for Investigation Human Rights Violations during the Russian military invasion of Ukraine to take into account these facts of genocide of the Ukrainian people.”

I call on our partners around the world to increase sanctions pressure on russia, to provide Ukraine with offensive weapons, to join the investigation of rashist crimes in our country!

The enemy must be stopped and all those involved in the atrocities in Ukraine must be brought to justice!”

This is what passes for journalism in the Western world today. Reporting completely unfounded allegations against U.S. enemies based solely on assertions by a government official demanding more weapons and sanctions against those enemies and making claims that sound like they came from an “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” bit.

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/05/23/caitlin-johnstone-on-russians-raping-babies/

Former Federal Agent Found Guilty of Enticing a Minor and Engaging in Sex Tourism in the Philippines

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdil/pr/former-federal-agent-found-guilty-enticing-minor-and-engaging-sex-tourism-philippines

A Pakistani Group Visited Israel. Then Pakistan Erupted

It was unprecedented: Two Pakistani citizens openly visited Israel on their Pakistani passports – and re-entered Pakistan without hindrance, despite a fierce media controversy. So how open is the Pakistani state now to normalization with the Jewish state?

For Muslims, Jews are fellow Ahl e Kitab (People of the Book) and children of Abraham, a religious kinship that, ideally, should translate into warm ties between the world's Muslims and Jews.

But the domination of politics means religious affiliations take a back seat and more potent rhetoric comes into play. Too often, in too many places, Muslims and Jews have been unable to translate their similarities into good ties, falling into the trap of preconceived notions, propaganda and in some cases, blatant hatred and violence.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-a-pakistani-group-visited-israel-then-pakistan-erupted-1.10815713

US Omits Neo-Nazi Arms Ban From Ukraine Aid Bill to Avoid Liability - Ex-Pentagon Adviser

US lawmakers omitted a ban on supporting neo-Nazis from the massive Ukraine aid package Congress passed this week so Washington can claim innocence if the funds enable the group to commit human rights violations, former Pentagon adviser Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.

The US Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a $40 billion Ukraine aid package, more than half of which is made up of security assistance. The bill was signed by US President Joe Biden on Saturday while on his Asian tour.

Noticeably missing from the supplemental appropriations act is any language prohibiting funds from being used to support the Azov Neo-Nazi battalion (under criminal investigation in Russia). In 2015, the US government imposed a ban on any aid to Ukraine going to the Azov Battalion. Although the ban was lifted in 2016, it was reinstated in a Defense Appropriations bill two years later.

Lawmakers, in justifying the omission in the latest aid package, have cited broadly applicable domestic statutes already in place, referred to as the Leahy Laws, which forbid aid going to any foreign military unit if there is "credible information" of gross human rights violations.

However, Kwiatkowski, casting doubt upon this explanation, said the US has yet to identify the Azov battalion as a human rights violator, so the Leahy Laws do not apply. Besides, she added, the Pentagon has long opposed these laws as too broad and a barrier to its security assistance efforts in South and Central America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. The State Department has also had issues relating to Leahy Laws vis-a-vis aid to Israel, "a well-documented human rights violator in the eyes of many," the former Pentagon adviser said.

The real reason for the omission, Kwiatkowski argued, is so lawmakers have a handy alibi if trials of Ukrainian neo-Nazis over allegations of human rights violations are widely reported and televised.

"US Congress needs to be in a position of sending aid ‘innocently’ and pretending to be ‘shocked and appalled’… about where their billions of dollars of aid ended up," Kwiatkowski said.

A more salient reason for the removal of this clause, she added, is that the only effective and most anti-Russian fighting force remaining in Ukraine is the Azov Battalion.

"The Pentagon, in particular, prefers to work with what it sees as winners, long-term survivors, and of course, those they are already training - and that includes uniformed regular Ukrainian Army neo-nazis and Banderites, according to President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy himself in a recent US media interview," Kwiatkowski said.

https://sputniknews.com/20220523/us-omits-neo-nazi-arms-ban-from-ukraine-aid-bill-to-avoid-liability—ex-pentagon-adviser-1095723638.html

Zelensky Requests $5 Billion a Month from Global Community in World Economic Forum Speech

The World Economic Forum conference kicked off today in Davos, Switzerland. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky opened the annual conference by requesting $5 billion a month from the global community.

Zelensky requested the cash infusion immediately.

The US Congress and Joe Biden just gave Ukraine $40 billion of taxpayer dollars last week.

Fortune.com reported:

In the three-day summit’s opening address, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, dressed in his trademark wartime olive-green T-shirt, and projected on monitors from Kyiv, told about 1,000 CEOs and government officials that Ukraine needs $5 billion a month, beginning immediately, in order to stave off full-blown economic collapse—a collapse that would have deep global ramifications.

“The amount of work is enormous,” he said. “We have more than a half a trillion dollars in losses, and tens of thousands of facilities destroyed. We need to rebuild entire cities and industries.”

Yet rather than describing the dire situation as a crisis, Zelensky cast it as a potentially lucrative opportunity for Western countries and companies.

“Patronage” for investors

Zelensky said Ukraine would have a “special, historically significant model of rebuilding,” in which companies and countries could choose a specific region or mine to rebuild. This system, which he called a “patronage,” is meant as a way of attracting the world’s top engineers and architects to Europe’s biggest reconstruction since the aftermath of the Second World War, nearly 80 years ago.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/05/zelensky-requests-5-billion-month-global-community-sells-investment-ukraine/

“It’s Not Your Job, Dude” – Whoopi Goldberg Says Archbishop Is Not Allowed to Bar Pelosi From Communion Due to Her Support of Abortion

“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg on Monday lashed out at the San Francisco Archbishop who barred Speaker Pelosi from receiving Holy Communion due to her support of abortion.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone on Friday announced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will no longer be admitted to Holy Communion due to her support of abortion.

“Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church says. “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.”

“A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal to others. Therefore, universal Church law provides that such persons ‘are not to be admitted to Holy Communion,’” Cordileone wrote in the letter to Pelosi.

“After numerous attempts to speak with Speaker Pelosi to help her understand the grave evil she is perpetrating, the scandal she is causing, an the danger to her own soul she is risking, I have determined that she is not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” the Archbishop said.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/05/not-job-dude-whoopi-goldberg-says-archbishop-not-allowed-bar-pelosi-communion-due-support-abortion-video/