>Dough
>Fetterman sometimes struggles to hear people’s voices clearly — comparing it to the muffled words of Charlie Brown’s teacher in “Peanuts.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3137777/Engineer-working-Bill-Gates-mansion-gets-just-90-days-jail-caught-sending-6-000-child-porn-images-Gmail.html
Engineer working at Bill Gates' mansion gets just 90 days in jail after he was caught sending 6,000 child porn images on Gmail
Rick Allen Jones, 52, of Seattle, had thousands of images stashed on his home computer
The engineer shared the images using his Gmail account, according to prosecutors
He pleaded guilty Friday and was sentenced to 90 days in county jail and two years' probation
>Rick Allen Jones
The charges to which Jones pleaded guilty – child pornography possession, a felony, and failing to report child pornography, a misdemeanor – would ordinarily have meant a three- to nine-month jail term. Prosecutors agreed to recommend a slightly shorter jail term in part because Jones is the caretaker for his ailing mother. Jones was judged to be a low-risk offender following a psychiatric evaluation.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/09/02/president-biden-announces-senior-clean-energy-and-climate-team/
President Biden Announces Senior Clean Energy and Climate Team
John Podesta to Serve as Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation
>John Podesta to Serve as Senior Advisor to the President
>"My mother told me to dress for the job that you want to have, and that's why I'm here today, because I would like to be the CEO of Austin Energy," the mysterious clown continued.
that's funny right there
>Troutman-Pepper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-Q-Tel
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/14/AR2005081401108.html
In-Q-Tel, CIA's Venture Arm, Invests in Secrets
When inventors James MacIntyre and David Scherer founded Visual Sciences Inc. in 2000, doing work for the Central Intelligence Agency was not in their plans.
The two men had developed software that could monitor and graphically display patterns in complex information systems. A bank marketing executive using the software could determine which online customers were clicking on links to information about home equity loans, then display information about those customers.
It takes no great leap of imagination to envision a CIA analyst using the software, connected into the right databases, to track terrorist activities. But it took In-Q-Tel to make that leap.
The nonprofit organization, funded with about $37 million a year from the CIA, last year made a small investment in Visual Sciences and paid the McLean company a fee to license its software to the intelligence agency. For Visual Sciences, which has 50 commercial customers and has been profitable for two years, it was a way into the federal sector without the bureaucratic hassles required to compete for contracts.
"In-Q-Tel provided a buffer from being a real government contractor," MacIntyre said. "I still don't know how our technology will apply to the CIA."
In the five years since it began active operations as the "venture capital arm" of the CIA, In-Q-Tel's reach and activities have become vast for so small an operation. It has invested in more than 75 companies and delivered more than 100 technologies to the CIA, most of which otherwise would never have been considered by the intelligence agency. Virtually any U.S. entrepreneur, inventor or research scientist working on ways to analyze data has probably received a phone call from In-Q-Tel or at least been Googled by its staff of technology-watchers.
Born from the CIA's recognition that it wasn't able to acquire all the technology it needed from its own labs and think tanks, In-Q-Tel was engineered with a bundle of contradictions built in. It is independent of the CIA, yet answers wholly to it. It is a nonprofit, yet its employees can profit, sometimes handsomely, from its work. It functions in public, but its products are strictly secret.
Over the years, some critics have dismissed In-Q-Tel as a government boondoggle. They have described the firms it invests in ominously as "CIA-backed," as if they were phony companies serving as cover for spy capers.
But in interviews with more than a dozen current and former CIA officials, congressional aides, venture capitalists that have worked with it and executives who have benefited from it, no one disputed that what began as an experiment in transferring private-sector technology into the CIA is working as intended. The Army, NASA and other intelligence and defense agencies have, or are planning, their own "venture capital" efforts based on the In-Q-Tel model.
"On a scale from one to 10, I would give it an 11," said A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard , the CIA's former No. 3 official and a former investment banker. "It's done so well even Congress is taking credit for it."
Yet In-Q-Tel remains an experiment that even its most ardent backers say has yet to prove its full potential.
"In my view the organization has been far more successful than I dreamed it would be," said Norman R. Augustine , who was recruited in 1998 by Krongard and George J. Tenet, who then was director of central intelligence, to help set up In-Q-Tel. Augustine, former chief executive of defense giant Lockheed Martin, is an In-Q-Tel trustee. "But my view is also that it's still an unproved experiment."
Judging In-Q-Tel by the standards of conventional venture capital funds, it's too small to rank among the major players, yet its financial returns have been impressive.
In-Q-Tel has invested a total of $16.3 million in the stock of start-up companies. That's not much in the world of the venture capital firms it usually co-invests with: Even the smallest venture fund is at least $20 million.
Of the $117.8 million in CIA money In-Q-Tel has spent on tech transfer programs since it began, only 14 percent has been spent on direct equity investments. The rest has gone toward contracts with its portfolio companies to buy licenses and develop technology tailored to specific CIA needs.
Typically, In-Q-Tel spends $500,000 to $2 million on a company with technology of interest to the CIA. But only 15 percent of that is in form of an equity investment.
Yet that venture capital component is vital to In-Q-Tel's mission. Venture investing makes In-Q-Tel and by extension the CIA a player in the early-stage technology world where venture capital is the currency.
Of the 77 companies in which In-Q-Tel has invested directly, 10 have failed. Its internal rate of return the standard measurement for VC funds on all of its investments is 26 percent, chief executive Gilman Louie said. That's a very high return. Industry research shows that most venture funds founded since 1999 are in negative territory. But most of In-Q-Tel's investments haven't been cashed out yet, so returns could still go south.
In-Q-Tel has invested in and worked with a computer gaming developer, a company that makes software to analyze huge volumes of voice recordings, data security firms, a semiconductor maker, a firm that designed software for Las Vegas casinos to track relationships between casino customers and employees, and a company whose software can tell you, in less than 10 seconds, how many dangling participles are in "Moby Dick."
Exactly how all that stuff is being used by the CIA and other intelligence agencies is less clear – and mostly secret.
A study of In-Q-Tel that Tenet commissioned in 2001 said the organization was doing good work but that the technologies it discovered weren't being put to good use by the CIA. It said the agency needed "a cultural change that accepts solutions from the 'outside world.' "
Donald M. Kerr , who was named the CIA's deputy director for science and technology that year, said the problem was addressed by his staff of technologists, known inside the agency as the In-Q-Tel Interface Center, or Quick.
"It's the other essential piece of this," said Kerr, who last month left the agency to head the National Reconnaissance Center, a spy-satellite agency. "Absent Quick, it would be like people throwing ideas over the transom with no one there to catch them. . . . Quick breaks down the barriers to people using new technology and new things."
In-Q-Tel has done well as a venture firm in its first five years, chief executive Louie said, and done well at moving technology into the CIA. "The next five years we have to answer the question, 'So what?'"
The only success that matters, Louie said, is if a technology that In-Q-Tel identifies is directly responsible for saving American lives and "prevents something very bad from happening."
>There is no Project Veritas without James O’Keefe.
>the mysterious clown continued
>Ukraine Relies on Intelligence from US for HIMARS Rocket Strikes
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/10/us-special-operations-ukraine-surrogate-program/
Pentagon looks to restart top-secret programs in Ukraine
If approved, the move would authorize U.S. Special Operations troops to employ Ukrainian operatives to observe Russian movements and counter disinformation
The Pentagon is urging Congress to resume funding a pair of top-secret programs in Ukraine suspended ahead of Russia’s invasion last year, according to current and former U.S. officials. If approved, the move would allow American Special Operations troops to employ Ukrainian operatives to observe Russian military movements and counter disinformation.
>top-secret
>Vipers on a Super Galaxy
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/james-okeefe-project-veritas-paid-leave.html
James O’Keefe Is on Paid Leave From Project Veritas
James O’Keefe, the founder and chairman of Project Veritas, has taken a paid leave from the conservative nonprofit media organization as its board considers whether to remove him from his leadership position, according to current and former employees of the organization.
An internal message sent to Project Veritas employees by the organization’s executive director, Daniel Strack, said that O’Keefe would be taking “a few weeks of well-deserved PTO.” An image of the message was shared by a source familiar with the organization’s internal operations, and its authenticity was confirmed by a current employee. When reached for comment on his personal cell phone, O’Keefe said nothing in response and did not respond to follow-up calls and text messages. Through a Project Veritas spokesman, Strack later released a statement on behalf of the organization. “Like all newsrooms at this stage, the Project Veritas Board of Directors and Management are constantly evaluating what the best path forward is for the organization,” the statement read in part. It did not directly address questions about O’Keefe’s employment status. “There are 65+ employees at Project Veritas dedicated to continuing the mission to expose corruption, dishonesty, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions,” the statement read. “To our supporters: We hear you, we care about you, and we will never give up.”
O’Keefe is his organization’s guiding ideological force and onscreen face, but his status as its day-to-day manager has become uncertain amid reports of internal turmoil, lawsuits from former employees, leaks about its internal workings, and a federal investigation into its conduct in purchasing a diary stolen from Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter. Strack’s internal message to employees made reference to what he called “a distracting time” and said that a board meeting had been held to discuss “the health of the organization” and that while “we have not come up with final solutions yet we have made a few immediate decisions.” The message said two top Project Veritas executives, including the nonprofit’s chief financial officer, had been “reinstated.” Multiple sources said that the pair had recently been fired by O’Keefe.
A meeting of the Project Veritas board is scheduled for Friday, when O’Keefe’s potential removal is set to be discussed, according to one source familiar with the matter. The source said that Project Veritas was currently divided between a group of employees who are perceived to be loyal to O’Keefe, including his communications adviser, R.C. Maxwell, and the board, which has been dissatisfied with what it perceives as O’Keefe’s mismanagement. Matthew Tyrmand, a conservative journalist who serves on Project Veritas’ board, said he was about to walk into a meeting and could not talk when reached on his cell phone on Wednesday. When asked specifically if O’Keefe was being ousted, he replied: “I just said I was walking into a meeting and this was not the appropriate time. What don’t you understand about that?” He did not respond to subsequent phone calls. Two other board members did not respond to phone messages.
As rumors of O’Keefe’s potential ouster circulated among his friends and enemies on Wednesday, his usually pugnacious Twitter and Instagram accounts were silent. Project Veritas continued to promote the organization’s latest stings, including a series of hidden-camera videos that captured a Pfizer scientist discussing what Project Veritas described as dangerous gain-of-function research related to COVID vaccines. (“Pfizer has not conducted gain of function or directed evolution research,” the pharmaceutical company responded in a statement after the videos appeared.) One video in the series culminated with a physical altercation between O’Keefe and the Pfizer employee. In another video, posted in late January, O’Keefe accosted an investigative reporter for the New York Times, Adam Goldman, whose byline has appeared on multiple stories about the Biden-diary case. “Look how scared he is,” O’Keefe says in the videos, as Goldman holds up an iPhone to record their interaction.
“I’m an investigative reporter, unlike you, you’re a government stooge,” O’Keefe says and tauntingly calls Goldman a “punk” and a “Fed-boy!” (From Goldman’s side of the camera, O’Keefe looks even more hostile.)
Even as O’Keefe continued his confrontational act, long-standing infighting at the Project Veritas headquarters in Mamaroneck was coming to a head. Over the dozen years since he founded the nonprofit in a carriage house behind his parents’ home in suburban Westwood, New Jersey, the group has grown from a shoestring YouTube prank operation into a large, ideologically driven news organization with an annual operating budget of more than $20 million. But former employees describe O’Keefe as an erratic and often angry boss. According to a letter dated February 6, which was circulated by Project Veritas staff who were critical of O’Keefe’s management, he “berated” and fired the organization’s CFO, Tom O’Hara, and its chief strategy officer, Barry Hinckley. Hinckley later wrote a message to the staff saying he had “stood up to a bully” and had lost his job as a result. The letter included an 11-page list of testimonials from anonymous current employees, describing O’Keefe, in the words of one, as a “power drunk tyrant.”
Even many of O’Keefe’s enemies wondered, however, if his organization could survive without him as its leader. “Quite frankly, he’s the company,” one former employee said.
Why have we been maintaining biolabs in Ukraine for 20 years?!
https://www.judicialwatch.org/dod-records-anthrax-lab/
Hunter Biden’s laptop story didn’t violate any of Twitter’s policies.
Yet Twitter censored the story anyway.
>https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1623885838240333824
https://twitter.com/apmassaro3/status/1624008377884893184
https://twitter.com/apmassaro3/status/1623717840112046080
It arrived! Thank you, heroes. And congratulations on achieving the status of brigade!
https://www.c-span.org/video/?525994-1/pentagon-downing-high-altitude-object-alaskan-air-space&live
Defense Department Spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder briefs reporters at the Pentagon on the downing of a high-altitude object flying 40,000 feet over Alaskan air space earlier today. LIVE
members of the Azov battalion dancing together with Jews in Israel
>LIVE
Turkey, eh?