Board of Supervisors in Shasta County, California Votes to Terminate Its Contract with Dominion Voting Systems and End its Use in Elections

Beautiful Shasta County became the first county in California to eliminate the use of voting machines in its elections.

The Board of Supervisors in Shasta County, California voted Tuesday night to terminate the county’s contract with Dominion Voting Systems.

A split Shasta County Board of Supervisors voted to terminate the county’s contract with Dominion Voting Systems after next month’s special election in the city of Shasta Lake.

Shasta will be the first of 40 California counties that used Dominion in the November 2022 election to drop the voting system, Shasta County Clerk/Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen told the Record Searchlight after Tuesday’s meeting…

…Tuesday’s Dominion vote came after a long public debate on the machines, including a tense exchange between Darling Allen and Supervisor Patrick Jones, who led the charge to end the county’s contract with Dominion.

Jones joined Supervisors Chris Kelstrom and Kevin Crye to terminate the agreement, bucking the advice of acting CEO Patrick Minturn, who said it would cost the county at least $1 million to bring in a new electronic voting system and train employees.

The board’s majority agreed with those who spoke in favor of ending the contract and argued you can’t put a price tag on voter trust.

Many individual citizens spoke at the meeting.

In voting 3-2, supervisors directed staff to cancel the agreement. The contract states that only the CEO “and his/her designee,” or the county clerk and registrar of voters can terminate the agreement.

Many who spoke in support of terminating the contract called for an audit of past elections, specifically pointing to last June’s primary, when four far right, “non-establishment” candidates that they supported all lost convincingly to incumbents.

Jones, Crye and Kelstrom also suggested that the primary deserved a closer look. They didn’t mention last November’s election, which put Crye and Kelstrom on the board.

As reported previously, other counties have eliminated the use of Dominion voting systems in their elections. Otero County New Mexico was one, for example.

Senator Bill Eigle in Missouri is looking into the elimination of voting machines in that state.

In Georgia, Professor Alex Halderman issued a report on the use of Dominion Voting Systems in the state. This report is being kept hidden by corrupt judge Amy Totenberg. Based on Halderman’s comments from a speech in 2019 we can guess that the report is not supportive of the use of these systems.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/breaking-shasta-county-california-votes-terminate-contract-use-dominion-voting-systems-elections/

Germany ‘at war’ with Russia – FM

Annalena Baerbock made the admission in a debate with EU colleagues, pushing for the delivery of tanks to Kiev

Arguing in favor of sending tanks to Kiev, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said EU countries were fighting a war against Russia. US and EU officials have previously gone out of their way to claim they were not a party to the conflict in Ukraine.

“And therefore I’ve said already in the last days – yes, we have to do more to defend Ukraine. Yes, we have to do more also on tanks,” Baerbock said during a debate at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Tuesday. “But the most important and the crucial part is that we do it together and that we do not do the blame game in Europe, because we are fighting a war against Russia and not against each other.”

While Chancellor Olaf Scholz has insisted that Germany ought to support Ukraine but avoid direct confrontation with Russia, his coalition partner Baerbock has taken a more hawkish position. According to German media, her Green Party has been in favor of sending Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev, and eventually managed to pressure Scholz into agreeing. Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, who was reluctant to send tanks to Ukraine, was pushed to resign.

https://www.rt.com/news/570469-germany-war-russia-baerbock/

America has suffered 300,000 NON-Covid excess deaths since 2020 — as experts blame lockdowns and delayed healthcare for spike in drug overdoses and firearm fatalities

America has recorded 300,000 non-Covid excess deaths from February 2020 until the end of 2022

The US has suffered nearly 300,000 more deaths than usual in more than two years of the pandemic that cannot be attributed to Covid, with researchers blaming lockdowns and delays to healthcare.

Latest official data shows there were 1.26million excess deaths between February 2020 and the end of 2022, of which around 295,000 did not have Covid as their main cause of death on their death certificates.

These are thought to be mostly made up of surges in deaths from cancer, heart disease, drug overdoses and firearms during the pandemic, however, a full analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is still likely weeks away.

Dr Coady Wing, a health policy expert from Indiana University, told DailyMail.com that these pandemic mandates kept people who needed care the most away from the doctor's office - potentially costing thousands of lives.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11671593/America-suffered-300-000-non-Covid-excess-deaths-2020.html

Project Veritas Confront NYT Reporter Alec Goldman

https://youtu.be/cM8UzdJZJ4A

'Microsoft shares our values': chat bot company OpenAI to receive billions from Microsoft

Microsoft has announced a multibillion-dollar investment into OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT application that allows users to ask the artificial intelligence complex questions or have it write content based on keywords and ideas.

"We are announcing the third phase of our long-term partnership with OpenAI through a multiyear, multibillion dollar investment to accelerate AI breakthroughs to ensure these benefits are broadly shared with the world," said the company in a blog post.

Microsoft made previous investments in the company in 2019 and 2021 and intends to add ChatGPT to its cloud devices as part of the exclusive deal, according to CNN.

The main pillars of advancing artificial intelligence technology listed by Microsoft include adding functions across applications and using OpenAI's existing technology to be used to build future apps.

The company intends to continue "supercomputing at scale," which it says "will increase [its] investments in the development and deployment of specialized supercomputing systems to accelerate OpenAI’s groundbreaking independent AI research."

Much of the OpenAI integration will be with Microsoft Azure, which provides open-source framework and programming for both Microsoft and third parties. The inclusion of the new technology would allow the company and others to use it to create new apps using the artificial intelligence.

Microsoft often refers to Azure as a way to "democratize" artificial intelligence.

“In this next phase of our partnership, developers and organizations across industries will have access to the best AI infrastructure, models, and toolchain with Azure to build and run their applications," said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft.

“The past three years of our partnership have been great,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

“Microsoft shares our values, and we are excited to continue our independent research and work toward creating advanced AI that benefits everyone," Altman added.

Just days prior to the announcing the investment , Microsoft said it was cutting 10,000 jobs due to inflation costs.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/microsoft-billions-openai-chat

https://nationalfile.com/flashback-video-joe-biden-fantasizes-about-making-white-americans-an-absolute-minority-through-non-stop-immigration/

Josh Kushner now ‘richer than Trump’ as billionaires Iger, Kravis take stake in firm: report

Jared Kushner’s baby brother will be picking up the check the next time he has dinner with his better-known sibling.

Josh Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital, has seen his personal fortune soar to an estimated $3.7 billion, according to Bloomberg’s calculations, after his firm secured a major investment from several billionaires.

Disney CEO Bob Iger and KKR co-founder Henry Kravis were part of a group that paid $175 million to acquire a minority stake in Thrive Capital, the firm announced on Tuesday.

The infusion of cash allowed the 37-year-old Kushner, who is married to supermodel and TV personality Karlie Kloss, to eclipse the net worth of his ex-White House adviser brother and even former President Donald Trump.

Jared, 42, and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have disclosed personal assets worth between $206 million and $803 million, according to the outlet. Trump is worth an estimated $2.6 billion.

The son of disgraced real estate developer Charles Kushner, Josh founded Thrive Capital in 2009 after a stint in private equity at Goldman Sachs.

Thrive has specialized in tech-related investments, making early bets on major firms such as Spotify, Instagram, Twitch and Stripe.

More recently, Thrive has poured money into Kim Kardashian’s booming shapewear brand Skims and the NFT-focused Bored Ape Yacht Club. Other bets on firms such as Robinhood and Instacart have proven less successful during a slump in the broader market.

With the latest investment, Thrive is now valued at a whopping $5.3 billion, a spokesperson for the firm told Bloomberg. Other participants included Indian oil magnate Mukesh Ambani, French telecom executive Xavier Niel and Brazilian food mogul Jorge Paulo Lemann.

“These extraordinary operators have built storied institutions, achieved geographic preeminence, ushered beloved brands to even greater heights, and pioneered entirely new industries,” Thrive said in a blog post about its latest minority investors.

“As our companies move into new regions and industries, maturing into the generational businesses we believe them to be, this group will serve as a powerful extension of the Thrive network,” the post added.

Iger has close ties to Thrive. Last September, he took a role as a venture partner at the firm and was slated to serve as an adviser on its day-to-day operations. Instead, he left the role in November to return as Disney’s top boss.

The deal gives Thrive access to the billionaires’ expansive networks.

Ambani ranks among the world’s richest people with a personal fortune of $84.7 billion, while Lemann is worth $21.1 billion, Kravis is worth $9.5 billion and Niel is worth $8.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

“A lot of these folks have been involved in my life for quite a bit of time,” said Kushner in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “Now they actually have a vested stake in the firm’s success.”

Jared Kushner founded his own $3 billion investment firm, Affinity Partners, in 2021 after leaving the White House.

https://nypost.com/2023/01/25/josh-kushner-now-richer-than-trump-as-billionaires-iger-kravis-take-stake-in-firm-report/

Elevated Rate of Facial Paralysis Identified After Pfizer COVID-19 Booster in Elderly: FDA

An elevated rate of Bell’s palsy was identified among elderly people after vaccination with a Pfizer booster shot, U.S. regulators said in a new study.

The “small but statistically significant elevation” in Bell’s palsy was detected after vaccination with Pfizer’s old booster, which is no longer available in the United States, researchers with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a preprint study.

The elevated rate resulted in an adjusted incidence rate ratio of 1.13 and remained consistent when researchers adjusted for different factors, such as prior COVID-19 infection.

A rate above one shows a possible connection between the vaccine and an adverse event.

A statistically significant elevated rate for Bell’s palsy after vaccination with a Moderna booster was not detected, although adjustments for certain factors, such as seasonality, did result in statistically significant results.

Bell’s palsy is facial paralysis or weakness, typically of one side of the face. Symptoms often improve partially or fully within weeks but some people suffer longer-lasting problems. The cause of the condition is unknown, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Both messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines can cause side effects, including a form of heart inflammation called myocarditis, U.S. authorities and other experts have acknowledged.

Pfizer and Moderna did not respond to requests for comment. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said during a recent appearance on CNBC that a Pfizer team constantly reviews and analyzes data, and that the team has not seen “a single [safety] signal.”

A safety signal means a sign a vaccine may cause an adverse event. The FDA detected safety signals for Pfizer’s vaccine in early 2021 and reported an update in a paper in late 2022. The new study, published as a preprint (pdf), outlines a new examination of post-booster issues.

FDA researchers analyzed data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Medicare, which maintains a database that includes vaccination history and adverse events for Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 and older.

https://www.ntd.com/elevated-rate-of-facial-paralysis-identified-after-pfizer-covid-19-booster-in-elderly-fda_897169.html

Multiple Reports Say White House Hid Classified Doc Scandal

Multiple reports from establishment media outlets indicate the White House and the Justice Department agreed to hide President Joe Biden’s classified document scandal from the American public, despite claims of transparency after it was leaked to the press.

At least three times the establishment media reported that Biden and the DOJ agreed to hide the scandal from public view with likely had no plans to disclose it until the scandal was leaked to CBS News on January 9, weeks after the initial trove was found by Biden’s personal lawyers November 2.

White House officials are reportedly suspicious about how Biden’s classified document scandal was leaked to the press after only a select group of White House and DOJ officials knew about the violation.

The latest report of the alleged coverup came Wednesday from the New York Times, which recounted its previous reporting and the initial report by the Washington Post on January 19.

“Democratic allies are increasingly frustrated by a White House that hid the discovery of secret documents from the public for two months and, even once it was reported, provided only partial information, then declared the search complete only to have more papers turn up,” the Times reported. “They promptly contacted the authorities [DOJ] after the documents were found and have sought to work collaboratively to find any other stray papers.”

“That cost them in the public sphere because they concluded that it would be more advantageous not to publicly disclose the discoveries, so as not to antagonize Justice Department officials examining the situation and ultimately persuade them that the incident was nothing more than a good-faith mistake,” the Times‘ Wednesday report stated.

The Washington Post reported that not only did the White House and DOJ try to obscure the scandal from public view, but they also refused to divulge that the second trove of classified documents was already unearthed at Biden’s home in Wilmington when CBS News first contacted the White House about the initial leak of classified documents apparently illegally stored at the Biden Penn Center.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/01/25/multiple-reports-say-white-house-hid-classified-doc-scandal/

Youth Pastor and Hospital Director Among 46 Arrested in Sex Trafficking Ring Bust

46 men including a youth pastor and a hospital operations director have been arrested as part of a bust on a sex trafficking ring in North Texas, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Federal authorities announced that two hotels in Frisco were used in the bust, which resulted in the arrests of 46 men across just two days. Law enforcement added that sex trafficking remains a big problem in Texas, and there’s been extensive efforts to crack down on continued activity in the state. While the names of those arrested were not released, among those detained was a high school teacher, a youth pastor, a volunteer firefighter, a director of operations at a hospital, and a “semi-pro hockey player.”

“Thwarting sex trafficking is one of our agency’s top priorities, one that every law enforcement office that has a role on the HSI Dallas led North Texas Trafficking Task Force takes very seriously,” said Lester R. Hayes Jr., HSI Dallas Special Agent in Charge. “By targeting those involved in this crime, we hope to disrupt this activity and provide assistance to human trafficking victims by getting them connected to the advocates and resources they need.”

The bust is among the biggest in recent history. “The victims of these heinous crimes are treated like commodities, used to make as much money as possible, as quickly as possible,” said Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn in a news release. “Those who traffic victims are the scourge of the earth, and we will continue to target those responsible for the trafficking and those who solicit sex from them.”

John Perez of Homeland Security Investigations added that the activity isn’t just in Dallas, but all over the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/youth-pastor-hospital-director-among-185508887.html

Watchdog group calls on High Court to declare Netanyahu unfit to hold office

In petition to justices, Israeli Democracy Guard accuses PM of pursuing judicial overhaul plan with the sole purpose of ‘escaping prosecution’ in ongoing criminal trial

An Israeli democracy watchdog filed a petition to the High Court of Justice on Tuesday asking it to rule on whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fit to hold office.

The petition was filed just days after the High Court ruled that Shas leader Aryeh Deri was unable to serve as a minister, and amid reports that the attorney general has considered compelling Netanyahu to take a leave of absence due to a conflict of interest — something she has denied.

The Israeli Democracy Guard called on the High Court justices “to instruct” the government and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara “to determine that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unable to fulfill his duties as prime minister,” the organization said in a statement.

Netanyahu is unfit for office due to his ongoing criminal trial, his conflict of interest and his actions to promote a “regime coup d’etat,” the organization added.

In its petition to the court, the Israeli Democracy Guard wrote that there is “a serious and real concern that there is a direct connection between the government plan” to radically overhaul the justice system “and the criminal cases against Netanyahu — and the main purpose of the plan is to help [Netanyahu] escape prosecution.”

Netanyahu is currently on trial for charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three cases, known as Cases 1000, 2000 and 4000, in which he is accused of providing quid pro quo benefits to two billionaires in return for luxury gifts, and of working to improperly influence media coverage. The prime minister has denied all wrongdoing.

When Netanyahu was indicted in November 2019, he was forced to relinquish all ministerial positions — with the exception of that of prime minister — in line with a High Court precedent.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/watchdog-group-calls-on-high-court-to-declare-netanyahu-unfit-to-hold-office/

Despite mountain of damning evidence, FDA pushes annual COVID boosters!

'Pfizer will keep earning billions'

The FDA is now recommending Americans take annual COVID booster vaccines much like the flu shots that are made available every year, but selling that plan to a skeptical public will be increasingly difficult as doubts about the booster shots grow.

One prominent doctor said outside of people with multiple extreme health issues like obesity and diabetes, "nobody … should take" the booster shots, and even those high-risk patients should "weigh the pros and cons" before getting injected.

"The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed a simplified approach for future vaccination efforts, allowing most adults and children to get a once-a-year shot to protect against the mutating virus," reports the Associated Press. "This means Americans would no longer have to keep track of how many shots they’ve received or how many months it’s been since their last booster."

The new FDA guidance, which, according to AP, hears from a panel of "outside vaccine experts" Thursday, echoes President Biden's call to get a COVID booster shot annually. Biden has ostensibly taken a total of five COVID shots already, Breitbart reports.

“If you’re fully vaccinated, get one more COVID shot. Once a year. That’s it,” Biden said during a speech made at "his imitation White House video set," according to Breitbart.

"In the latest documents posted online, FDA scientists now say many Americans now have “sufficient preexisting immunity” against the coronavirus because of vaccination, infection or a combination of the two," it reports. "That baseline of protection reportedly should be enough to move to an annual booster against the latest strains in circulation and make coronavirus vaccinations more like the yearly flu shot, according to the agency."

The government's plan comes amidst widespread reports of unexplained, heart-related "sudden deaths" and serious cardiac incidents of young, mostly male Americans, including athletes — which prominent dissenters like Dr. Peter McCullough assert are most likely linked to the vaccines' myocarditis and blood-clot side effects.

In a video interview with Just the News, former Yale epidemiologist Dr. Harvey Risch, another high-profile critic of the government's "safe and effective" COVID vaccine narrative, said outside of people with "who have multiple, chronic" health issues, "I would say there's nobody who should take" the boosters.

But even for those higher-risk people, potential risks may outweigh benefits of taking the booster injections, Risch said.

"For people, say, over age 65 or 70, who have multiple, chronic conditions, maybe they're obese, they have diabetes, chronic heart disease, kidney disease, maybe they've had cancer — things like that — [for] those people, I think it's uncertain. The vaccines can do damage to those people, too, but the vaccines may actually provide some benefit, at least for some months, in reducing the risks of a more serious illness if they contract COVID. So I don't think the data are particularly clear as to the risk versus benefit, in a quantitative way, in those kind of people," he told Just the News' John Solomon and Real America's Voice in the interview posted today.

"For everybody else, there's no benefit of taking the booster. The booster has lost its efficacy for the new [COVID} substrains that are circulating now. …So it's already uncalibrated for what's circulating, and that means its efficacy as a booster is less," he said. "But still the original component of it and the generic value of it as a booster … provides benefit for some shortish period of time that might not be outweighed by the risks of the booster itself in high-risk people in the first place."

https://www.wnd.com/2023/01/despite-mountain-damning-evidence-fda-pushes-annual-covid-boosters/

Schiff Claims He Never Took Classified Docs Home

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) says he never took classified documents back home amid a growing scandal over the handling of secret material by top government executives.

As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff had access to all sorts of classified information, but the congressman asserted Tuesday he was too paranoid to take any of it with him.

“This is what’s so astounding, I think, for all of us on the Intelligence Committee. I never take classified documents to my house,” Schiff told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who asked if he had taken any records home. “I don’t know any reason why people would.”

Schiff referred to a SCIF, which is a secure location where sensitive information can be viewed.

“I am so paranoid when I go into the SCIF and out of the SCIF to make sure I’ve got no electronics on the way in, that I’ve got nothing with me on the way out. I am very, very careful about it, and I would assume that everyone else is, but clearly there’s a problem here,” he said.

The conversation happened as it was revealed about a dozen documents marked classified were found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s home in Indiana and turned over to the FBI. The Justice Department already appointed two separate special counsels to investigate former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden for their handling of documents over classified materials stored in their residences and offices.

Schiff said there is a “systemic problem” with how White House officials are handling classified materials and called for an intelligence community risk assessment.

In the four years since he became chairman of the intelligence panel in 2019, Schiff has become a controversial figure, in part of his public claims of there being “ample” evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia as well as his handling of whistleblower allegations during the Ukraine impeachment saga.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has accused Schiff of being a repeat liar in vowing to remove Schiff from the Intelligence Committee this session of Congress, along with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). Daring McCarthy to make good on his pledge, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) formally recommended Schiff and Swalwell to stay on the committee, calling them “eminently qualified.”

http://www.domigood.com/2023/01/schiff-claims-he-never-took-classified.html

EU adds another half billion in military aid for Ukraine war

The EU Foreign Affairs Council has reached a political agreement on another tranche of military aid to Ukraine worth EUR 500 million under the European Peace Facility.

The EU foreign ministers also approved EUR 45 million for the EU’s military training mission for Ukraine.

EU High Representative Josep Borrell said this at a press conference in Brussels on Monday following a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council….

“Today we reached a political agreement for the seventh tranche of military support with an additional EUR 500 million and an additional assistance measure, worth EUR 45 million, for the Ukrainian force being trained by our military training mission….This brings the total military support [to Ukraine] under the European Peace Facility to EUR 3.6 billion,” Borrell said.

https://antibellum679354512.wordpress.com/2023/01/23/eu-adds-another-half-billion-in-military-aid-for-ukraine-war/

Obama office declines to disclose plans, if any, to search for classified docs

The handling of classified documents by former White House officials has become a hot button issue since the Aug. 8, 2022, FBI raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

Amid revelations that President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and now former Vice President Mike Pence all stored materials marked as classified at their private residences, the office of former President Barack Obama has declined to state its plans, if any, to conduct a search of his properties for similar materials.

Following the Tuesday report that Pence had found materials marked classified at his Indiana home, Fox News reached out to the 44th president's office seeking details on any plans Obama may have to search his own properties. Pence indicated that he searched his home following the discovery of documents in Biden's possession.

"We have nothing for you at this time," came the response from Obama Communications Director Hannah Hankins. Obama maintains residences in Washington, D.C.; Chicago, Ill.; Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; and New York, N.Y.; the outlet noted.

The handling of classified documents by former White House officials has become a hot button issue since the Aug. 8, 2022, FBI raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. Prior to that raid, Trump complied with a grand jury subpoena and surrendered classified materials to the government.

Reports emerged this month that a lawyer for President Joe Biden had discovered a batch of classified documents in Biden's office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington while cleaning it out. Subsequent searches for such materials by Biden aides turned up four separate batches of documents at his Delaware home.

The Department of Justice has appointed special counsels Jack Smith and Robert Hur to handle its investigations into the Trump and Biden incidents, respectively.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/obama-office-declines-disclose-plans-if-any-search-classified-docs

>>18223198 +1

North Korea orders capital lockdown over 'respiratory' illness

Residents are instructed to check their temperatures four times a day and report the results to a hospital by phone.

Officials in North Korea reportedly ordered a five-day lockdown for residents of the capital Pyongyang starting Wednesday because of increasing cases of an unspecified respiratory illness.

The Russian embassy posted a notice on Facebook from the North Korean government stating, as translated, that "for 5 days, a special anti-epidemic period has been established" due to an "increase in winter cases of recurrent flu and other respiratory diseases."

The lockdown may be extended by three days, the notice also states.

Residents are instructed to check their temperatures four times a day and report the results to a hospital by phone.

Pyongyang residents appeared to stock up on goods one day before the lockdown, according to South Korea-based NK News.

North Korea did not specify whether the respiratory illness was COVID-19, over which the Communist country declared victory in August. North Korea enacted stringent COVID restrictions in May, when the country reported its first-ever coronavirus case.

North Korea's neighbor, China, experienced an explosion of COVID cases earlier this month after easing lockdown restrictions.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/north-korea-orders-capital-lockdown-over-respiratory-illness

30 years ago this was a joke.

https://youtu.be/V-Ihyimm-I8

Extreme Israeli group takes root in US with fundraising bid

An Israeli group raising funds for Jewish extremists convicted in some of the country’s most notorious hate crimes is collecting tax-exempt donations from Americans, according to findings by The Associated Press and the Israeli investigative platform Shomrim.

The records in the case suggest that Israel’s far right is gaining a new foothold in the United States.

The amount of money raised through a U.S. nonprofit is not known. But the AP and Shomrim have documented the money trail from New Jersey to imprisoned Israeli radicals who include Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin and people convicted in deadly attacks on Palestinians.

This overseas fundraising arrangement has made it easier for the Israeli group, Shlom Asiraich, to collect money from Americans, who can make their contributions through the U.S. nonprofit with a credit card and claim a tax deduction.

Many Israeli causes, from hospitals to universities to charities, raise money through U.S.-based arms. But having the strategy adopted by a group assisting Jewish radicals raises legal and moral questions.

It also comes against the backdrop of a new, far-right government in Israel led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where ultranationalists and extremist lawmakers have gained unprecedented power.

According to Shlom Asiraich’s promotional pamphlets, its beneficiaries include Yigal Amir, who assassinated Rabin in 1995; Amiram Ben-Uliel, convicted in the 2015 murder of a Palestinian baby and his parents in an arson attack; and Yosef Chaim Ben David, convicted of abducting and killing a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in Jerusalem in 2014. The group also assists an extremist ultra-Orthodox man who fatally stabbed a 16-year-old Israeli girl at Jerusalem’s gay pride parade in 2015.

Shlom Asiraich, or “The Well-Being of Your Prisoners,” has been raising money in Israel since at least 2018, and officially registered as a nonprofit in 2020 by a group mostly consisting of Israelis from hard-line settlements in the West Bank. At least five of the group’s seven founders have themselves been questioned by Israeli authorities for crimes related to their activities against Palestinians. Some have been arrested and charged.

Recipients of its largesse have hailed the group for coming through in difficult times.

“You have no idea how much you help us,” the family of Ben-Uliel, who is serving three life sentences, wrote in a hand-written letter posted to the group’s Facebook page.

Being a relatively new organization, Shlom Asiraich’s official filing to Israel’s nonprofit registry provides little data and does not indicate how much money it has raised. But in its promotional flyers, recently broadcast by Israeli Channel 13 news, the organization indicated it has raised 150,000 shekels (about $43,000).

Israeli nonprofits have long sought funding abroad, with the U.S. a major source. According to figures published by Noga Zivan, a consultant for nonprofits in Israel, between 2018 to 2020 Jewish-American organizations alone donated $2 billion to Israel each year.

Israeli right-wing groups have long raised funds in the U.S. But Dvir Kariv, a former official in the department of Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet that deals with Jewish violence, said it is unusual for extremist Jews such as the ones who run Shlom Asiraich to do so.

He said the group appears to have taken a cue from other far-right Israeli groups, particularly Kach, an anti-Arab racist group that was once banned as a terror organization in the U.S. but which Kariv said was adept at raising money there decades ago.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, a senior Cabinet minister in Israel’s new far-right government, is a disciple of Kach’s founder, Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was once barred from Israeli politics.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-government-only-on-ap-yitzhak-rabin-crime-c4841ab75e6c5679081b4ca48ac446a6

Former Lebanon PM Diab charged in Beirut blast investigation

Lebanon’s public prosecutor and head of its domestic intelligence agency also are charged in connection with the 2020 explosion, which killed at least 218 people.

The judge investigating the 2020 Beirut port explosion has charged Lebanon’s then-prime minister, Hassan Diab, and two other former ministers with homicide with probable intent, according to a court summons seen by the Reuters news agency.

Other top officials, including the country’s public prosecutor and the head of the domestic intelligence agency, were also charged in connection with the blast, judicial sources said on Tuesday.

Judge Tarek Bitar, who has unexpectedly resumed an inquiry that has been paralysed by high-level political resistance, has scheduled questioning with Prosecutor General Ghassan Oweidat for February.

Pierre Gemayel, brother of a victim, told Al Jazeera that he was surprised but also happy with Bitar’s move.

“It is not normal [that for] more than one year the investigation is blocked; now we have a little hope that something is moving on,” he said.

Bitar’s efforts to interrogate top officials over the explosion, which killed at least 218 people and shattered parts of Beirut, have been hindered by factions including heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/24/lebanon-blast-investigator-charges-public-prosecutor-sources-say

USAID Tells Teachers to Hide Students’ Gender Identity from Parents

The Agency for International Development (USAID) instructs education officials to hide students’ gender identities and sexual orientation from their parents.

A guide from USAID entitled “Integrating LGBTQI+ Considerations into Education Programming” was created in order to “support USAID’s staff working in the education sector to integrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+1) considerations into programming.”

It also identifies some of the challenges and obstacles that LGBTQI+ individuals can face in the education sector” and “provides approaches that can be used to integrate LGBTQI+ considerations into the education sector.”

One portion of the guide specifically calls on education officials to hide students’ gender identity or sexuality from their parents in order to “protect students’ privacy. The guide says “Ensure that education officials do not reveal a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity without the student’s permission – even to the student’s family. Students may elect to hide their sexual orientation or gender identity from family and close friends, which makes it imperative that educators respect students’ right to privacy.”

The guide also explains how it helps fulfill USAID’s mission, remarking “Promoting equity and inclusion is a key principle … and reflects USAID’s commitment to reach marginalized populations.”

Another portion of the document adds “Efforts to improve the learning outcomes and expand access to quality, equitable, and inclusive education of LGBTQI+ students across the education continuum directly support the U.S. Government Strategy on International Basic Education and USAID Education Policy.”

In addition, the guide tells education officials to “Provide inclusion-focused professional development programs for educators,” “Promote the concepts of diversity, inclusion, and respect,” and “Create an inclusive curriculum and learning material.”

The mission of USAID is to “promote and demonstrate democratic values abroad, and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world.”

https://www.breitbart.com/education/2023/01/24/usaid-tells-teachers-hide-students-gender-identity-parents/

Australia Has Not Written to US on Assange For 6 Months

In Nov., Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said for the first time he’d raised Julian Assange with the U.S. A Freedom of Information request shows Australia has not corresponded with the U.S. on Assange for at least six months.

A Freedom of Information request by a member of the Australian parliament has revealed that the Australian government has not engaged in correspondence with the United States regarding the case of imprisoned publisher Julian Assange for at least the last six months.

MP Monique Ryan filed the requests with the offices of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and Foreign Minister Penny Wong and no documents were returned, indicating that there has been no written communication with the U.S. over the fate of Assange since at least last May, reported former Australian Senator Rex Patrick in the Australian publication Michael West Media.

The absence of written correspondence does not exclude that Australian officials may have engaged in verbal communications with U.S. counterparts about Assange over the past half year, though written notes are normally made on such meetings.

The freedom of information request asked for all correspondence or other records of communication sent after May 23, 2022 between Albanese and President Joe Biden; Dreyfus and U.S. Attorney General Marrick Garland and Wong and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Albanese raised Assange supporters’ hopes in November when he responded to a question in Parliament from MP Ryan by saying:

“The government will continue to act in a diplomatic way, but can I assure the member for Kooyong that I have raised this personally with representatives of the United States government. My position is clear and has been made clear to the US administration that it is time that this matter be brought to a close.”

Hopes for Australian action on Assange were further raised when Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist John Lyons told an ABC program at the end of December that he understood Assange would be back home in Australia within two months.

Ryan told Michael West Media:

“If the Albanese Government was serious about working to secure an end to the US prosecution and Mr. Assange’s release, then he and his Ministers would have raised the matter formally, in writing, with their counterparts at the top levels of the US Government. It is now confirmed that they have not done so via any formal means.”

Ryan said that she intends to question Albanese about the absence of written communication. “When the Federal Parliament reconvenes in February, the Government will need to explain – in much more detail – when we can expect to see Mr. Assange return to Australia,” she said.

Attorney General Dreyfus announced last week that the Australian government would hold a roundtable on media freedom, saying, “The Albanese Government believes a strong and independent media is vital to democracy and holding governments to account. Journalists should never face the prospect of being charged or even jailed just for doing their jobs.”

Ryan responded: “Last week, in announcing a forthcoming national media roundtable, Attorney-General Dreyfus declared that ‘Journalists should never face the prospect of being charged or even jailed just for doing their jobs‘. Julian Assange is an Australian journalist who faces lifelong imprisonment for doing his job.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/01/25/australia-has-not-written-to-us-on-assange-for-6-months/

Foreign National Pleads Guilty to Mailing Ricin to President of the United States in 2020

Defendant Also Mailed Threatening Ricin Letters to Texas Law Enforcement Officials

A dual citizen of Canada and France pleaded guilty today to sending a threatening letter containing homemade ricin to then-President Donald J. Trump at the White House in September 2020, and eight similar letters, each containing ricin, to Texas State law enforcement officials.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/foreign-national-pleads-guilty-mailing-ricin-president-united-states-2020

Four Men Convicted of Engaging in a Child Exploitation Enterprise for Participation in the “Rapey.su” Website

Four Men Convicted of Engaging in a Child Exploitation Enterprise for Participation in the “Rapey.su” Website

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/four-men-convicted-engaging-child-exploitation-enterprise-participation-rapeysu-website

New U.S. Research Finds Evidence Linking Monsanto Weedkiller to Cancer

Study measures levels of glyphosate in urine and finds high levels associated with oxidative stress leading to dangerous diseases.

New research by top US government scientists has found that people exposed to the widely used weed killing chemical glyphosate have biomarkers in their urine linked to the development of cancer and other diseases.

The study, published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, measured glyphosate levels in the urine of farmers and other study participants and determined that the presence of high levels of the pesticide were associated with signs of a reaction in the body called oxidative stress, a condition that causes damage to DNA. Oxidative stress is considered by health experts as a key characteristic of carcinogens.

The authors of the paper – 10 scientists with the National Institutes of Health and two from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – concluded that their study “contributes to the weight of evidence supporting an association between glyphosate exposure and oxidative stress in humans.” They also noted that “accumulating evidence supports the role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of hematologic cancers,” such as lymphoma, myeloma and leukemia.

“Oxidative stress is not something you want to have,” said Linda Birnbaum, a toxicologist and former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences. “This study increases our understanding that glyphosate has the potential to cause cancer.”

The study findings come after the CDC reported last year that more than 80% of urine samples drawn from children and adults contained glyphosate. The CDC reported that out of 2,310 urine samples taken from a group of Americans intended to be representative of the US population, 1,885 were laced with detectable traces of glyphosate.

Glyphosate is the most heavily applied herbicide in history, both in the US and globally. One of the best-known glyphosate-based products is Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller. Roundup has been used by farmers as well as consumers for more than 40 years. Officials with Monsanto and its German owner Bayer AG have always assured the public and regulators that exposure to the weed killer does not pose a threat to human health.

Bayer said the new NIH study has many “significant methodological limitations that affects its reliability,” and said the results conflict with other government research.

“The increased oxidative stress found in the study could have been caused by any number of non-glyphosate related factors or a combination of them, and the study does not support the conclusion that glyphosate is the cause,” Bayer said in a statement.

People are exposed to glyphosate by using products made with the chemical and also by eating food and drinking water contaminated with the pesticide. Scientists have found glyphosate residues in an array of popular foods and in waterways across the US.

Notably, in the new paper, the NIH and CDC scientists said that while their study focused on farmers who were exposed to glyphosate when they sprayed it on fields, they saw similar results in “non-farmers.”

The findings suggest “these effects may apply more broadly to the general population who are primarily exposed through ingestion of contaminated food and water or residential applications,” the study authors wrote.

The study is so significant that it warrants regulatory attention, said some independent scientists.

“This is a top level team of investigators and a highly credible study to which regulators need to pay attention,” said Phil Landrigan, a pediatrician and epidemiologist who worked for years at the CDC and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and now directs the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College.

Michael Antoniou, a scientist with the department of medical and molecular genetics at King’s College in London who has been researching glyphosate for years, said the results were “worrying,” with “major health implications.”

https://21stcenturywire.com/2023/01/25/new-u-s-research-finds-evidence-linking-monsanto-weedkiller-to-cancer/

Glyphosate Exposure and Urinary Oxidative Stress Biomarkers in the Agricultural Health Study

https://academic.oup.com/jnci/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jnci/djac242/6984725

They knew: why didn't the unvaccinated do more to warn us?

The unvaccinated knew what we didn't. Some of them said too little. Most said nothing at all. A lot of blood is now on their hands.

As the world struggles to come to terms with the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, one question that continues to surface is why the unvaccinated didn't do more to warn us about the potential dangers of being injected.

While well intending citizens lined up, did the right thing, and received their COVID19 vaccinations now seeming to do more harm than good their unvaccinated friends stood by and let them do it. Some of them said too little. Some said nothing at all.

Even though they knew what we didn't.

Our blood is now on their hands.

Those are strong words. But the unvaccinated had access to important information about the potential side effects of vaccines. They knew about the risks of severe allergic reactions, blood clots, and other serious health complications. They knew that vaccines did not immunize us. They knew it wasn't effective, and that they can cause more harm than good.

They knew all of that, but instead of warning us, the unvaccinated chose to remain silent. They chose to look the other way and not speak out about the potential dangers of vaccines. They let millions of good folks who did the right thing (at the time) fall to death and disease, and many antivaxxers even gloated online about how their coin flip had been the right bet. The more diabolical even urged folks they disagree with to "get boosted."

It has become all too clear. The silence of the unvaccinated was a dangerous, sociopathic, and irresponsible decision that has had serious consequences for those of us who received the vaccinations.

And silence is, after all, consent.

It is time for the unvaccinated to take responsibility for their actions and to work with the rest of us to find a solution to this crisis. We cannot afford to let their selfishness and lack of action continue to harm our communities. It is time for the unvaccinated to step up and do the right thing.

The unvaccinated should by any moral measuring stick have done more to warn about the potential risks – to help us make informed decisions about our health. And they must now ask us for our forgiveness.

And, hand to heart, we may just give it to them.

Because we are good people. We took those injections because it was the right thing to do – until it wasn't.

https://iqfy.com/unvaccinated-silence/

Ukraine And The Rothschild ‘Financial Vultures’ Family

This article was published back in 2015, and it brings much needed context to the current situation in Ukraine.

A group of large international investors buy out Ukrainian government’s securities. Franklin Templton is one of them. The investment group snapped up Ukrainian international debt with a face value of almost $5 billion at the end of August, nearly a fifth of the country’s outstanding international government bonds.

Franklin Templton has all the makings of a «financial vulture».

White-tailed eagle feasting on a wolf’s carcass in the exclusion zone caused by the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl – Image by Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters

Until now the sum paid by it for 20% of Ukraine’s national debt remains to be a commercial secret. The vultures purchase the securities with low, almost junk, ratings at low prices to demand full payment from issuer afterwards.

Argentina is a good example of vultures’ destructive activities.

The country made a deal on restructuring with 95-97% of debt holders but the rest happened to be in the hands of financial vultures that spoiled it all by demanding full payment. The vultures (two US investment funds) started court proceedings to make Argentina default. The country may be mercilessly pillaged in case it complies with the ultimatums of vultures and the ruling of US court.

The story is a warning to Ukraine which has sold its securities to Franklin Templton. According to a recent Bloomberg report, the investment fund acts under US jurisdiction and is controlled by Rothschilds, the family known for its death grip.

Last year I wrote in my article The Financial Situation of Kiev Regime and Prospects for Ukraine’s Default that Ukraine may face the very same default that «will never come» according the assurances provided by Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Some may lose billions, some may acquire unprecedented wealth. As the global experience shows, defaults are seldom impromptu. Normally they are planned. Sometimes the preparations may last for a few years. Ukraine is not an exclusion. It will default on its debts.

The time will be defined by sponsors and modest beneficiaries of such organizations as Franklin Thompson. At the moment of writing the article I did not know their names. Now they have come into the open. It’s a sign that the drama is nearing its denouement.

The Rothschilds family [which is the head of the New World Order beast] has come up with an initiative to create a group of Ukrainian bonds holders to shape a common policy on debt settlement. Rothschild & Cie Banque, a French bank belonging to Rothschild Group, offered its service in the capacity of «go-between» in the talks of Ukraine’s Ministry of Finances and creditors on restructuring the debt. Now creditors are waiting for Kiev to put forward the proposals in mid-March, according to Giovanni Salvetti, Co-head of Russia and CIS at Rothschild Inc., who handles central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Salvetti said there were two opinions among creditors about setting up the committee: those who want to wait and see what the government will say and those who want to set «some hard lines for the potential restructuring, like saying we’re looking for a proposal but be aware that we are not ready to accept X, Y, Z.»

https://eraoflight.com/2022/03/10/ukraine-and-the-rothschild-financial-vultures-family/

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