TWITTER FILES: Supplemental
More Adam Schiff Ban Requests,
and "Deamplification"
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1613932017716195329
Ukraine legalizes foreigners in neo-Nazi regiment
Citizens of other nations who join the Azov unit will receive benefits on par with regular service members under a new law
The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday passed a new law that expands perks offered to foreigners who sign up to serve in the country's military. Sponsors of the bill specifically singled out the controversial Azov regiment as an intended beneficiary of the measure.
Azov originated as a group of far-right volunteers who in 2014 took up arms against Donbass forces with Kiev’s blessing. The unit was incorporated into the National Guard, a structure separate from the army, in November of that year.
The new legislation has added the wording “and other military units” to several laws that previously only covered the main Ukrainian armed forces. A formal justification of the bill said that there are many foreign nationals serving in Azov, but that the existing legal framework makes their presence in Ukraine illegal and does not allow them to request Ukrainian citizenship. The new law is meant to change that.
Azov is arguably the best known internationally of the Ukrainian nationalist units. Before the conflict between Moscow and Kiev escalated into open hostilities last February, Western officials and media outlets acknowledged that many of the unit’s members espoused problematic ideology and that some were neo-Nazis.
An expose published by Time magazine in 2021 called Azov the focal point of “a network of extremist groups stretching from California across Europe to New Zealand.” Over the years, it managed to recruit an estimated 17,000 foreign fighters from 50 nations, the report claimed, before describing the dominant role the Azov extremists play in the movement.
After Russia deployed troops to Ukraine, the Azov underwent a rebranding, disposing of its Nazi-inspired official insignia and posing as heroes of resistance. Some prestigious US institutions, such as Stanford University, provided platforms to members of the group.
https://www.rt.com/russia/569816-ukraine-legalizes-foreigners-azov/
Western-mediated Kosovo and Ukraine deals were lies – Serbia
The 2013 Brussels Agreement was a deception, FM Ivica Dacic said, comparing it to the Minsk accords
The 2013 EU-brokered Brussels accord between Belgrade and Kosovo was just as deceptive as the doomed 2014-15 Minsk peace agreements that were designed to end the bloodshed in Ukraine, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Friday. The statement came after a recent escalation over the breakaway region.
Serbian forces left Kosovo in 1999 after NATO bombed the country in support of the Albanian armed insurgency. The bloc’s peacekeepers have been stationed in the region ever since. Kosovo declared independence from Belgrade in 2008. Serbia, however, with the support of Russia and China, has resisted US and EU pressure to recognize the independence.
Serbian officials have been accusing the Kosovo authorities of violating the Brussels-mediated deal by deploying heavily armed police units to quell Serbian protests in the northern part of the region. “We were not too happy about the Brussels Agreement. It was a goodwill gesture by Belgrade,” Dacic told Serbian Prva TV after a meeting with Derek Chollet, a counselor at the US State Department. “But it later turned out to be a big lie, just like with the Minsk Agreements.”
“I told Chollet that there is no one in Serbia who will accept the independence of Kosovo and Metohija,” Dacic said, referring to the region by its official name. “The safety of the Serbs must be guaranteed,” the minister stated, adding that the West must pressure the Kosovo authorities on the matter.
The Minsk accords brokered by France, Germany and Russia were meant to create a path for the peaceful reintegration of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics into Ukraine. However, the agreement was never implemented, and former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko admitted last year that the deal had allowed Kiev to buy time in order to rebuild its military and the economy. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande, the ex-president of France, later confirmed this in separate interviews.
Russia cited Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk accords as one of the reasons for launching its military operation in Ukraine in late February. President Vladimir Putin said that the recent statements by Western leaders have shown that “nobody intended to fulfill any part of the Minsk agreements.”
Commenting on Merkel’s interview, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, meanwhile, stated that Belgrade would draw lessons from the fate of the Minsk deal.
https://www.rt.com/news/569824-serbia-kosovo-minsk-deal/
Lindsey Graham Calls for Sending Tanks to Ukraine, Hours After Ukraine Demanded Them via Twitter
Lindsey Graham and The New York Times are on the same page when it comes to Ukraine.
GOP Senator Lindsey Graham called for sending tanks to Ukraine just hours after a Ukrainian propaganda account demanded them via Twitter. Graham, a longtime supporter of warhawk policies, has been among the uni-party’s loudest voices in favor of Western intervention in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Senator Graham (R-SC) wrote to Twitter that he “appreciate[s] France agreeing to provide light armored combat vehicles to Ukraine,” that it’s “not enough,” calling for the West to send “heavy modern tanks” to Ukraine so that they can “militarily defeat the Russian invaders.”
Amazingly, Graham’s talking points appeared to come straight from a Ukrainian propaganda account, that had spent the hours before Graham’s tweet demanding heavy-duty tanks from Western powers, apparently ungrateful for the lighter armor handed out to them by the French.
Thus far, Western nations have dumped countless billions into Ukraine, with the United States leading the charge, and Senator Graham as one of Washington’s most vocal supporters of the international welfare effort that’s seen Ukrainian oligarchs pocketing US taxpayer cash and purchasing Swiss villas, apparently in preparation for their country being overrun.
“Experts continue to debate whether the AMX-10 RC can be considered a tank,” the Defense of Ukraine account wrote after receiving their French handout, going on to say that they fully expect to soon receive similar military armor from the US and Germany.
https://nationalfile.com/lindsey-graham-calls-for-sending-tanks-to-ukraine-hours-after-ukraine-demanded-them-via-twitter/
DOJ Admits It Has 30 GB of Data not Publicly Released by Jan. 6 Committee
The U.S. Department of Justice admitted in a recent court filing that it has about 30 gigabytes (GB) worth of data not publicly disclosed by the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol breach.
The Department of Justice disclosed the existence of the 30 GB of previously unreleased data in an ongoing court case to prosecute eight defendants for their alleged involvement in the Capitol breach. The eight defendants had requested to postpone their trial, with a request for more time to review the evidence that the government had recently turned over.
As part of their response to the defense request, the prosecutors said the 30 GB related to the testimonies of approximately 255 witnesses who testified for the now-defunct Jan. 6 committee. Prosecutors noted that the interview transcripts of these 255 witnesses were previously released by the committee, but those transcripts contained redactions, and exhibits to those transcripts had not been previously released.
“Much of that data consists of voluminous records produced to the committee and appended to certain transcripts,” prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors said they had provided the unredacted versions of transcripts from the 255 witnesses but are in the process of reviewing other materials.
“While the government’s review of these materials is ongoing, it has thus far located only about a dozen witnesses who provided information about the individuals and actions at issue in this case and its related cases,” prosecutors said. “The government’s preliminary review of the materials has not revealed much beyond the transcripts of these dozen witnesses that appears relevant to the issues likely to arise in this trial.”
While the prosecution indicated much of the unreleased 30 GB of data won’t be entirely related to the specific case of these eight defendants, it could provide the public with a greater understanding of the totality of the events that occurred at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In its filing, the prosecution indicated it wishes to proceed with the trial even while its process of reviewing and handing over potentially relevant evidence is ongoing.
With respect to global discovery, “Defendants are correct that this process is ongoing. To continue this trial until that process is complete, however, would practically amount to an indefinite continuance,” prosecutors wrote.
https://www.ntd.com/doj-admits-it-has-30-gb-of-data-not-publicly-released-by-jan-6-committee_894907.html
333,000 Migrants Attempted to Enter EU Illegally in 2022, Over 80 Per Cent Were Men
The number of attempts by migrants to enter the European Union without authorization reached around 330,000 last year, the highest number since 2016, the EU’s border and coast guard agency said Friday.
Almost half of the 2022 attempts were made overland through the Western Balkans region, EU agency Frontex said, according to its “preliminary calculations.” Regardless of entry route, Syrians, Afghans, and Tunisians together accounted for roughly 47 per cent of the attempted border crossings.
Men accounted for more than 80 per cent of the attempts to get in, Frontex said. The agency calculates entry attempts rather than the number of people trying to get into Europe because it is often difficult to identify migrants, who routinely travel without passports, and some may try to enter multiple times.
People arriving at Europe’s borders to apply for asylum have a reasonable chance of being allowed in, while those who come without a visa in search of jobs and better lives are mostly turned away.
Well over one million people, most of them Syrians fleeing conflict, entered the EU in 2015, overwhelming reception facilities and sparking one of the 27-nation bloc’s biggest political crises.
Member countries still argue over who should take responsibility for people arriving without authorization and whether their neighbours and partners should be obliged to help. Attempts to reform the bloc’s asylum system have made little progress.
Frontex’s latest figures did not include almost 13 million Ukrainian refugees who were counted at the EU’s external borders between February and December. Special emergency measures were introduced to ease their entry and help find them accommodation, training and short-term jobs.
The number of people making potentially perilous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea in poorly equipped and often overloaded boats and rubber dinghies continued to rise last year. Frontex said that well over 100,000 crossing attempts were recorded, around 50 per cent more than in 2021.
Egyptians, Tunisians, and Bangladeshis tried in the greatest number. The agency said that 2022 saw the most people in five years arrive from Libya, the main departure point in northern Africa. The number of people leaving Tunisia hit the highest level in recent history.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/01/13/333000-attempted-enter-eu-illegally-2022-over-80-per-cent-men/
Lawsuit Says Disney Was A ‘State Actor’ Colluding With Government To Force Vaccine On Employees
A lawsuit filed by two Disney employees who were fired for refusing the COVID vaccine alleged that Disney is closely enmeshed with the government and that when it forced a vaccine mandate on its employees, it was essentially a “state actor” — which would make it subject to the Constitution’s “equal protection clause,” lawyers wrote.
The theory underscores the extent to which the Biden administration has relied on corporations to implement policies that might not be constitutional for the government to do itself, from social media censorship to airline employee vaccine mandates.
“The Constitution provides that the government, and state actors cannot take life, liberty or property without due process and equal protection of the law,” the suit said. “There is no dispute that the Defense Department was looking to partner with private business in its effort to vaccinate. At what point does partnership go beyond independent entities working voluntarily toward a shared mission to entwinement, such that they can be considered a state actor?”
“Had the government instituted a requirement that all professional athletes and personnel of leading media outlet are required to receive a vaccination, without rights to exemption, such an action would be subject to an equal protection challenge for its treatment of professional athletes and leading media differently than other similarly situated persons,” it said. “A state actor performing such a function is subject to an equal protection challenge on the same basis.”
The lawsuit was filed by Beth Faber and Allison Williams, two former employees of ESPN. ESPN was subject to Disney’s vaccine policies because it is owned by Disney, and both companies are named in the suit.
(After Williams was fired from ESPN, she announced plans to create sports documentaries for The Daily Wire. The government requirement that all companies with more than 100 employees require them to be vaccinated was struck down in the courts after The Daily Wire challenged it.)
The lawsuit said, “The September 9, 2021 termination of Beth Faber, exactly on, and of Allison Williams shortly after, the date of President Biden’s announcement of a business mandate, are more than just symbolic, they are part of a very orchestrated and choreographed partnership.”
Six days later, then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek took part in a White House meeting with Joe Biden on the subject of vaccine mandates. “Chapek’s presence at the Biden Administration’s business summit reflects the active involvement of the highest level of management,” it continued.
“The very same day that the Biden Administration ‘called on leaders in the private and public sector to implement vaccine requirements, saying it will push millions more Americans to get vaccinated,’ Bob Chapek responded to Biden’s call. Biden had stated, or ordered, ‘If you’re a business leader, a nonprofit leader, a state or local leader, who has been waiting for full FDA approval to require vaccinations, I call on you now to do that. Require it,’” the suit said.
ESPN denied Faber’s and Williams’ requests for religious exemptions, the suit said.
http://www.cuzzblue.com/2023/01/lawsuit-says-disney-was-state-actor.html
http://www.cuzzblue.com/2023/01/lawsuit-says-disney-was-state-actor.html
Oxfam Finds Scores of Civilians Killed By US, UK Weapons in Yemen
A human rights monitoring group has released a new report finding at least 87 Yemeni civilians were killed with American or British weapons during a 14-month period. The Oxfam report reviewed 1,700 attacks on civilians and found Saudi Arabia used US or UK weapons in over a quarter of those incidents.
For this report, Oxfam reviewed incidents that occurred between January 2021 and February 2022. The author of the report, Martin Butcher, Oxfam’s Policy Advisor on Arms and Conflict, said, “[t]he intensity of these attacks would not have been possible without a ready supply of arms. That is why it’s vital the UK government and others must immediately stop the arms sales that are fuelling war in Yemen.”
Butcher reported the American or British arms were used by the Saudi military to kill 87 civilians, bomb 19 medical facilities, and displace over 300 people. The Oxfam study found that of the over 1,700 attacks on civilians during that 14-month window, a quarter were committed with US and UK weapons.
Since March 2015, Riyadh has waged war against its southern neighbor and has received substantial support from Washington and London. For much of 2022, Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, the group that controls most populated regions of Yemen, have scaled back fighting under a ceasefire. However, even with ceasefire conditions, Eye for Humanity Centre for Rights and Development estimates over 600 Yemeni civilians were killed last year. The Oxfam report looks at data from the 14 months prior to the ceasefire.
Throughout the war, the use of American and British bombs to kill civilians has been a consistent occurrence. In August 2020, a Lockheed Martin-made bomb was used by Saudi Arabia to kill nearly 50 children traveling on a school bus. Tufts University’s Martha Mundy released a report showing how Riyadh was intentionally targeting Sanaa’s food infrastructure.
At least 400,000 people have been killed during the eight-year war. The bloody nature of the war has not prevented three American Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden from supporting Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Congress has made several efforts to pass war powers resolutions to force the White House to end support for Riyadh. President Trump used his veto powers to quash the bill. Under President Biden, the White House exercised its political muscle to force Senator Bernie Sanders to abandon the legislation.
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/oxfam-finds-scores-of-civilians-killed-by-us-uk-weapons-in-yemen/
How was a Canadian engine used in an Iranian drone in Ukraine?
Quebec-based Bombardier Recreational Products (BPR) found its Rotax engine is used in Iranian drones used in Russia in Ukraine. How did this happen?
A Canadian company may have uncovered a complex clandestine supply chain that allowed one of its motors to somehow end up as part of an Iranian drone used by Russian forces in Ukraine, Canada's National Post reported Thursday.
The company in question is the Quebec-based Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), which manufactures recreational vehicles like engines, motorcycles, ATVs and snowmobiles. In particular, its Ski-Doo brand of personal snowmobiles is so iconic and beloved in Canada that it was ranked by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as one of the greatest Canadian inventions back in 2007.
The company is by no means an arms manufacturer or defense contractor, having sold off its military arm in 2003, and its Rotex engine, which is made by its Austrian subsidiary, is intended mainly for civilian use.
However, a report from back in September revealed that an Iranian-made Mohajer-6 drone shot down by Ukrainian forces contained a Rotax 912 airplane engine, the National Post reported.
And this isn't the only time Rotax engines were found in Iranian drones.
According to a report in the Iran Press News Agency, the Islamic Republic's Shahed-129 drone is also powered by a Rotax engine.
BRP confirmed in a statement that the engine is indeed theirs. What they are unsure of, though, is how it got there, since they didn't sell it to either Iran or Russia.
How did a Canadian company's Rotax engine end up in an Iranian drone used by Russia in Ukraine?
It should be noted that while BRP may not sell engines to Iran or for military use, it wasn't always that way.
The Canadian firm did, in fact, sell drones to Iran up until ceasing operations in 2019, the National Post reported.
Further, there is a history of Rotax engines being used in drones.
Back in 2020, BRP announced it would stop sending engines to what it dubbed "countries with unclear usage," which followed reports that Rotax engines were being used in drones utilized by Azerbaijan against Armenian troops during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, the CBC reported at the time.
The company at the time claimed this was something they only just heard of and were unaware their technology was being used in military drones.
The fact that they are being used in drones at all does not stem from their effectiveness, but rather their very cheap price – since they are marketed for civilians – and the fact that, as civilian products, they are not subject to some of the strict arms control export regulations that other products with military applications would have, as experts noted to the CBC.
In Canada, some items are listed as "dual-use" items, meaning they have the potential to be used as weapons or other military-purpose items.
If they also qualify as having clear military uses, they are subject to heavy regulation in both Canada and the European Union, though the EU does not regulate all dual-use items.
Since Rotax engines are made in Austria and not Canada, they are subject to EU export controls, not Canadian, and EU rules are not as specific with regulations regarding engines, Austrian Labor and Economy Ministry spokesperson Alexandra Perl said, according to the CBC.
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-728461
Trump organization fined $1.6 million for tax fraud
The tax fraud scheme ran for over 15 years.
A New York judge Friday fined the Trump Organization $1.6 million for a tax fraud scheme for over 15 years.
Subsidiaries of the Trump Organization – Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. – were convicted in December 2022 on 17 counts, some of which included criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records, and conspiracy.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the companies have for too long been getting away "with a scheme that awarded high-level executives with lavish perks and compensation while intentionally concealing the benefits from the taxing authorities to avoid paying taxes," according to NBC News.
The Trump Organization belongs to former President Trump who reportedly plans to appeal the verdict.
The Trump Organization's former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty last year to 15 counts of tax fraud as part of a deal to cooperate with prosecutors against his longtime employer.
Weisselberg was sentenced last week to five months in jail at Rikers Island, in New York.
The company's lawyers said during the trial said that they had no clue Weisselberg was doing this.
"This case was all about Allen Weisselberg committing tax fraud on his personal tax returns. Every witness repeatedly testified that President Trump and the Trump family knew nothing about Allen Weisselberg’s actions,"Trump attorney Susan Necheles said after the verdict.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/trump-organization-be-hit-16-million-fines-tax-fraud
Appeals Court Rules Against Vaccine Mandates in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee
The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Thursday affirmed a lower court’s ruling that the vaccine mandate for federal contract workers is unconstitutional.
The majority opinion stated that a broad interpretation of the mandate could provide the president “nearly unlimited authority to introduce requirements into federal contracts.”
The court said Biden wanted it “to ratify an exercise of proprietary authority that would permit him to unilaterally impose a healthcare decision on one-fifth of all employees in the United States. We decline to do so.”
Judge Kurt Engelhardt, writing for the majority, demonstrated the fallacy of the government’s case by adding, that”hypothetically, the president could mandate that all employees of federal contractors reduce their BMI [body mass index] below a certain number on the theory that obesity is a primary contributor to unhealthiness and absenteeism.”
The courts have largely upheld the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, but for all other Americans — including the OSHA “vaccine or test” mandate — all courts so far have ruled the Biden administration overstepped its authority.
Judge James Graves’ dissent noted this was the first executive order under the Procurement Act to be struck down.
“When actions taken are in the mainstream of American businesses, that points towards permitting the executive order,” he wrote. “Economic factors would prevent the president from handicapping the contractor workforce with extreme contractual terms.”
Graves disputed the BMI comparison, saying if a president sought to impose “draconian measures outside the mainstream of American companies, he or she would hear from the people or from Congress.”
Judge Graves is correct. The president would certainly “hear from the people or from Congress” if they tried to impose a silly mandate like a maximum Body Mass Index.
But what power would prevent the president from imposing it anyway? What if the president believes so strongly that placing limits on BMI would save lives no matter how unpopular it is? Who would stop him? Only Congress could do that. And that’s no guarantee that anything would get done.
The Justice Department said in its earlier filing that “requiring entities that enter into federal contracts to have a vaccinated workforce enhances the efficiency of federal contractor operations.”
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in August upheld a separate lower court order banning enforcement of the contractor vaccine mandate but lifted a nationwide injunction and said its ruling only applied in seven states that filed suit and to members of the Associated Builders and Contractors.
The White House is not enforcing the OSHA mandate or the federal contractor mandate anyway. And Congress just ended the mandate that all U.S. military personnel be vaccinated. This successful fight against a coercive, oppressive government policy is a rare victory for individual liberty in an age that has seen government power grow at the expense of individual liberty.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/01/13/appeals-court-rules-against-vaccine-mandates-in-ohio-kentucky-and-tennessee-n1661420