dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

WTH? Janet Yellen Makes ‘Surprise’ Visit to Kiev to Announce Another $1.25 Billion in Aid to Ukraine

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made a ‘surprise’ visit to Kiev on Monday to reinforce the US’s support for Ukraine.

Joe Biden was just in Ukraine giving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky more US taxpayer money.

But that wasn’t enough.

Yellen is now in Kiev to announce another transfer of $1.25 billion to Ukraine.

Janet Yellen is also working to seize the $300 billion in Russian bank assets frozen by sanctions and transferring it to Ukraine to help rebuild the country.

Reuters reported:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen swept into Kyiv on Monday on a surprise visit to reaffirm U.S. support for Ukraine in its struggle against Russia’s invasion and promote U.S. economic aid that is bolstering Ukraine’s war effort.

Yellen met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other key government officials just days into the war’s second year, repeating U.S. assurances delivered by President Joe Biden a week ago in Kyiv.

“America will stand with Ukraine as long as it takes,” Yellen, flanked by sandbags at the cabinet ministers’ office, told Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

Shmyhal, speaking through an interpreter, said the two discussed further U.S. sanctions on Russia aimed at weakening its economy and military and “confiscating frozen Russian assets and putting them to the benefit of the recovery of Ukraine.”

But Yellen told reporters in a phone briefing that there were still significant legal obstacles to fully seizing the $300 billion in Russian central bank assets frozen by sanctions.

Yellen also announced the transfer of the first $1.25 billion from the latest, $9.9 billion tranche of economic and budget assistance from Washington.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/wth-janet-yellen-makes-surprise-visit-to-kiev-to-announce-another-1-25-billion-in-aid-to-ukraine/

FL Governor DeSantis Signs Bill Stripping Disney of Self-Governing Status

Monday morning, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially signed into law a bill that strips Disney of special privileges and appoints a state board to ensure debts are not absorbed by taxpayers.

DeSantis called a Special Session in 2022 to file legislation to terminate all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968 and the removal of exemptions from the big tech accountability law.

The Gateway Pundit reported that last year, DeSantis signed a bill terminating all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968, including Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District. The new law removes Disney’s tax privilege and special governing status.

The Reedy Creek Improvement District is the governing jurisdiction and special taxing district for the land of Walt Disney World Resort.

Florida Voice News Reports:

The governor’s office said the bill will end Disney’s ability to: build airports, nuclear facilities, toll roads, boundary changes to their property, award noncompetitive construction contracts, and more.

“From a policy perspective, how do you give one theme park its own government and then treat all of the other theme parks differently?” DeSantis said. “And so we believe that was not good policy.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/just-in-fl-governor-desantis-signs-bill-stripping-disney-of-self-governing-status/

Saboteurs Say They Blew Up A Russian Military Plane In Belarus

Ukrainian media reports began claiming Sunday that a large explosion rocked Machulishchy airbase in Minsk Oblast in Belarus, with reports saying a Russian aircraft had been damaged. Eyewitness accounts suggested two explosions in the Sunday morning hours.

"According to preliminary reports, the traffic police stopped the cars in several places around the airbase and checked the trunks and ID of the drivers," Ukrainska Pravda reported, also citing the presence of emergency vehicles on the scene. But now there appears further confirmation in AFP that a Russian military airplane was likely destroyed at the airfield.

Secret operatives reportedly used drones to carry out the attack, before sneaking back across the border and out of Belarus. Reuters is also as of Monday morning reporting the news.

Belarus' anti-Lukashenko opposition is now claiming that it was a successful sabotage operation which targeted Russian aircraft. The information has been revealed by officials working under exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya:

"Partisans… confirmed a successful special operation to blow up a rare Russian plane at the airfield in Machulishchy near Minsk," tweeted Franak Viacorka, a close adviser of opposition figurehead Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

"This is the most successful diversion since the beginning of 2022," he added.

The two Belarusians who carried out the operation had used drones, he said, adding that they had already left the country and were safe.

Tikhanovskaya herself also weighed in, saying, "I am proud of all Belarusians who continue to resist the Russian hybrid occupation of Belarus & fight for the freedom of Ukraine." She's long carried out her opposition activity in exile from Lithuania and earlier Poland, having also recently been tried in absentia by Lukashenko's court system.

She further claimed the aircraft was worth 330 million euros, with other opposition media sources identifying that it was an A-50 surveillance plane.

The Russian A-50U "Mainstay" is indeed a very large, expensive surveillance aircraft in operation by the Russian air force, as The Drive details:

The target here is very important, regardless. The A-50s are very low-density, high-demand assets and are one of Russia's major advantages over Ukraine in terms of the air war. The A-50 provides general wide-area aerial surveillance and airborne command and control capabilities. Beyond this, and arguably most importantly, they provide the critical 'look-down' radar surveillance capability for Russia's air operations.

"As such, not only can they generate an 'air picture' deep into Ukraine, but this also includes detecting low-flying aircraft which far-off ground-based radars cannot see," the report continues. "This is the currently primary operating regime for Ukrainian aircraft anywhere near Russia's 'overlay' of complex anti-air capabilities that extends deep into Ukrainian-controlled territory."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/large-russian-plane-destroyed-belarus-airstrip-say-opposition-saboteurs

Los Angeles County Scrubs 1.2 Million Names from Bloated Voter Rolls Thanks to Work by Judicial Watch

Judicial Watch announced today that Los Angeles County removed 1,207,613 ineligible voters from its rolls since last year under the terms of a settlement agreement in a federal lawsuit Judicial Watch filed in 2017 (Judicial Watch, Inc., et al. v. Dean C. Logan, et al. (No. 2:17-cv-08948)). Judicial Watch sued on its own behalf and on behalf of four lawfully registered voters in Los Angeles County and the Election Integrity Project California, Inc., a public interest group involved in monitoring California’s voter rolls.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Los Angeles County sent almost 1.6 million address confirmation notices in 2019 to voters listed as “inactive” on its voter rolls. Under the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), voters who do not respond to the notices and who do not vote in the following two federal elections must be removed from the voter rolls. The settlement also required an update to the state’s online NVRA manual to make it clear that ineligible names must be removed and to notify each California county that they are obliged to do this.

In the most recent of a series of progress reports to Judicial Watch, Los Angeles County confirmed that a total of 1,207,613 ineligible and inactive voters were recently removed from the rolls. Los Angeles County confirmed last year that over 634,000 of its inactive voters hadn’t voted in at least 10 years.

Judicial Watch previously detailed that Los Angeles County had allowed more than 20% of its registered voters to become inactive without removing them from the voter list.

“This long overdue voter roll clean-up of 1.2 million registrations in Los Angeles County is a historic victory and means California elections are less at risk for fraud,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Building on this success, Judicial Watch will continue its lawsuits and activism to clean up voter rolls and to promote and protect cleaner elections.”

Judicial Watch is a national leader in voting integrity and voting rights. As part of its work, Judicial Watch assembled a team of highly experienced voting rights attorneys who stopped discriminatory elections in Hawaii, and cleaned up voter rolls in California, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, among other achievements.

Judicial Watch recently settled federal election integrity lawsuit against New York City after the city removed 441,083 ineligible names from the voter rolls and promised to take reasonable steps going forward to clean its voter registration lists.

Kentucky also removed hundreds of thousands of old registrations after it entered into a consent decree to end another Judicial Watch lawsuit.

In February 2022, Judicial Watch settled a voter roll clean-up lawsuit against North Carolina and two of its counties after North Carolina removed over 430,000 inactive registrations from its voter rolls.

In March 2022, a Maryland court ruled in favor of Judicial Watch’s challenge to the Democratic state legislature’s “extreme” congressional gerrymander.

In May 2022, Judicial Watch sued Illinois on behalf of Congressman Mike Bost and two other registered Illinois voters to stop state election officials from extending Election Day for 14 days beyond the date established by federal law.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/los-angeles-county-lawsuit-settlement/

Musk fires more Twitter staff

The layoffs have reportedly impacted 10% of the company’s remaining workforce of 2,000 people

Twitter has laid off another 200 employees, including some top executives, in the latest round of massive job cuts since Elon Musk took over last October.

According to media reports, the layoffs started on Saturday night and many employees learned their fate on Sunday when they couldn’t access their company email accounts and laptops.

The job cuts targeted product managers, data scientists and engineers. They include the head of the paid subscription service Twitter Blue, Esther Crawford. The founder of the screen-sharing app Squad, Crawford joined Twitter after her company was acquired by the social media giant in late 2020. She later defended Twitter’s new work culture under Elon Musk and vowed to go “all-in.” In November 2022, the executive was pictured on the office floor in a sleeping bag with a sleeping mask.

Crawford tweeted about her exit on Sunday: “The worst take you could have from watching me go all-in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake … I’m deeply proud of the team for building through so much noise & chaos.”

Musk also issued a tweet on Sunday, saying “Hope you have a good Sunday. First day of the rest of your life.”

The latest layoffs bring Twitter's full-time headcount down to under 2,000, a sharp fall from the 7,500 employed when Musk took over the company in late October. The billionaire then almost immediately started laying off Twitter staff, saying at the time that it was necessary in order to avoid financial ruin for the platform. His initial plan, however, was to only cut around 50% of the staff.

https://www.rt.com/business/572127-musk-fires-more-twitter-staff/

Chinese Bank Says Missing Chairman Is Being Investigated by Authorities

China Renaissance Holdings said in an exchange filing on Sunday that its missing chairman and star dealmaker Bao Fan was currently cooperating with relevant Chinese authorities conducting an investigation.

This is the first time the mainland China-based boutique bank has given a reason for the disappearance of its founder—who was reported missing 10 days ago—though no details about the investigation were shared.

“The Board would like to reiterate that the business and operations of the Group are continuing normally,” the bank said in the exchange filing.

Shares of the company slumped last week after it said in an exchange filing the company had been unable to contact Bao.

The dealmaker’s disappearance is the latest in a series of cases of high-profile Chinese executives going missing with little explanation during a sweeping anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

In 2015 alone, at least five executives became unreachable without prior notice to their companies, including Fosun Group Chairman Guo Guangchang, who Fosun later said was assisting with investigations regarding a personal matter.

Bao’s disappearance also comes against the backdrop of more than two years of sweeping regulatory crackdown on technology companies.

Bao, also China Renaissance’s controlling shareholder, started the firm in 2005 as a two-person team, seeking to match capital-hungry startups with venture capitalist and private equity investors.

The firm later expanded into services including underwriting, sales and trading.

Known to be well connected in the corporate world, Bao was involved with tech mergers including the tie-up of ride-hailing firms Didi and Kuaidi, food delivery giants Meituan and Dianping, as well as travel platforms Ctrip and Qunar.

https://www.ntd.com/chinese-bank-says-missing-chairman-is-being-investigated-by-authorities_903889.html

House Oversight Committee Demands Treasury Testify About Withholding ‘Suspicious’ Biden Family Bank Reports

House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) on Monday demanded the Treasury Department answer for stonewalling its investigation into the Biden family for nine violations, including money laundering and wire fraud, by withholding 150 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) flagged by U.S. banks.

In January, the Treasury Department denied the committee’s request to disclose the 150 SARs flagged by U.S. banks concerning the Biden family’s foreign business bank transactions, causing the committee’s chairman to threaten a subpoena. SARs often contain evidence of potential criminal activities, such as money laundering and fraud.

Before Comer tries to work through the courts to compel the relevant information, Comer demanded the Treasury testify on March 10 about failing to produce the reports it has previously failed to provide, citing “improper disclosure” of information that could reduce the Biden administration’s ability to “conduct of law enforcement, intelligence, and national security activities.”

“Given the amount of time that has passed since our initial request and Treasury’s inability to provide a projected timeframe when the SARs will be produced, the committee believes Treasury may be delaying its production to hinder our investigation and operating in bad faith,” Comer wrote on Monday. “Treasury’s excuses and delay tactics are unavailing given you have known about our request since last year and previously produced relevant SARs to others.”

The Biden family bank records are a key trove of information that will provide details about how the family business operates and desired transparency on Hunter’s anonymous art sales and foreign business transactions, along with knowledge of whether Joe Biden remains compromised by foreign governments through his family’s business.

“Therefore, I write to invite you to testify at a hearing before the full Committee to be held on March 10, 2023, at 9 a.m. EST in room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building,” Comer said. “This hearing will examine the various justifications you have provided the Committee regarding Treasury’s failure to produce documents requested of it, including SARs”:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/02/27/house-oversight-committee-demands-treasury-testify-about-withholding-suspicious-biden-family-bank-reports/

Watch: Bryan Cranston Says Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ Slogan Could Be Construed as ‘Racist’

AMC’s Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston is no fan of former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. In an interview Sunday with CNN’s Chris Wallace, the actor argued that “MAGA” could be construed as “racist.”

“When I see the ‘Make America Great Again,’ my comment is, do you accept that that could possibly be construed as a racist remark?” Cranston said.

“And most people, a lot of people, go, how could that be racist? Make America Great Again? Just ask yourself from an African-American experience, when was it ever great in America for the African-American? When was it ‘great’?”

He added: “So if you’re making it ‘great again,’ it’s not including them. So it’s to teach us, in the woke world, to open up and accept the possibilities that our privilege has created blind spots for us. And maybe I haven’t seen what is really happening yet in all my years.”

Bryan Cranston recently atoned for his whiteness while also advocating for putting limits on the freedom of speech.

As Breitbart News reported, the actor confessed to his “white blindness” and white privilege, declaring “I need to learn, I need to change.”

The actor believes limits should be placed on the First Amendment. “There need to be barriers, there need to be guard rails,” he said.

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2023/02/27/watch-bryan-cranston-says-trumps-make-america-great-again-slogan-could-be-construed-as-racist/