Ric Grenell on the Lou Dobbs Show: “Every Single Intelligence Agency Signed Off” on a Statement in April 2020 Declaring China Responsible for COVID Pandemic – It Was a Cover-Up

Former acting Director of National Intelligence and Ambassador Ric Grenell joined Lou Dobbs podcast recently to discuss the COVID-19 coverup.

Ric told Lou that every single intelligence agency signed off on a statement back on April 30th of 2020 declaring China was responsible for the Covid pandemic. The intel agencies agreed that the virus originated in the Wuhan Virology Lab.

Grenell goes on to say, “There was a cover-up.”

According to Grenell:

“The Sec. of Energy recently came out with a statement that the Covid virus originated in the Wuhan laboratory, but we already knew that. Why make the statement now? The Intelligence Agencies including the Energy Department have known since 2020 but didn’t want it to get out because they had an election to manipulate. The Marxist Dems will continue the weaponization of government unless we fix the media. The sham J6 Select Committee permitted no dissenting voices while the national media pretends to be without bias but are totally partisan and un-American.”

Listen to the entire discussion at The Lou Dobbs podcast.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/ric-grenell-on-the-lou-dobbs-show-every-single-intelligence-agency-signed-off-on-a-statement-in-april-2020-declaring-china-responsible-for-covid-pandemic-it-was-a-cover-up-video/

Credit Suisse Shares Tumble to a New Record Low After Collapse of SVB and Signature Bank

Credit Suisse shares tumbled to a new record low on Monday after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed.

The Swiss bank fell as much as 15% after taking losses for five straight quarters.

Market Watch reported:

Credit Suisse shares on Monday reached a new record low, falling as much as 15% as investors continued to hammer away at the stock of the Swiss banking giant after the collapse of banks in the U.S.

While SVB Financial and Signature Bank collapsed in the wake of the downturn in the technology and crypto sectors as interest rates rise, Credit Suisse’s difficulties have been of its own making.

Credit Suisse CSGN, -8.73% CS, -4.70% has lost money for five straight quarters and says it’s expecting to post a loss before tax this year. It’s undergoing a big transformation after losing billions lending to the Archegos family office and having to freeze $10 billion worth of funds tied to Greensil Capital. Wealthy clients pulled out about $100 billion from Credit Suisse in the fourth quarter.

According to FactSet, Credit Suisse shares trade at 0.2 estimated 2023 tangible book value. Rival UBS UBS, -4.03% trades at 1.2 times estimated 2023 tangible book value.

Credit Suisse was not the only European bank to see its shares slide: Commerzbank CBK, -12.31% and Banco de Sabadell SAB, -11.12% also slumped, as the broader European bank stock index SX7E, -6.05% fell.

Charles Schwab and dozens of other banks halted trading on Monday.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/credit-suisse-shares-tumble-to-a-new-record-low-after-collapse-of-svb-and-signature-bank/

Israeli Official Blames American "Weakness" For China's Iran-Saudi Deal

Israeli officials are expressing dismay at the Iran and Saudi Arabia peace deal which was announced from Beijing last Friday, with an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling reporters that it's the result of American "weakness" as well as failings of the prior Israeli government.

"There was a feeling of US and Israeli weakness and this is why the Saudis started looking for new avenues. It was clear that this was going to happen," the unnamed senior official said while traveling in Netanyahu's entourage in Rome, according to Axios.

Axios reported further, "The senior Israeli official who briefed reporters said the Israeli government is not concerned that the new Saudi-Iranian agreement will hamper the efforts to achieve a breakthrough that could lead to the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia."

But the former Israeli leaders hurled the same accusation at Netanyahu, saying the new coalition government is to blame. Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and current opposition head in the Knesset, also lamented that the Saudi-Iran deal signals the "collapse of the regional defense wall that we started building against Iran."

"This is what happens when one deals with legal insanity all day instead of doing one’s job against Iran and strengthening relations with the United States," Lapid said, commenting on the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul, and the chaos it has sparked in Israeli politics along with massive street protests.

Israel's number one priority has long been to isolate Tehran as a regional power, especially because of Iranian entrenchment in Syria as well as its longtime support to Lebanese Hezbollah. Closer Israeli relations with Riyadh were toward that end, but now the China-brokered deal puts all of this into question.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israeli-official-blames-american-weakness-chinas-iran-saudi-deal

China's Xi To Hold Talks With Zelensky After Meeting Putin

Update(10:56ET): Closely on the heels of Reuters reporting that Xi's trip to Moscow is likely to come as soon as next week, The Wall Street Journal writes that the Chinese leader has accepted Zelensky's request to meet, albeit virtually. The talk is expected to happen after Xi first meets with President Putin in Moscow.

"Chinese leader Xi Jinping plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time since the start of the Ukraine war, likely after he visits Moscow next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with the matter," WSJ reports Monday.

"The meetings with Messrs. Putin and Zelensky, the latter of which is expected to take place virtually, reflect Beijing’s effort to play a more active role in mediating an end to the war in Ukraine, some of the people said."

All of this suggests that Beijing's role as an influential mediator, at a moment Washington has remained resistant to seriously pursuing peace in Ukraine, is gaining traction in both Moscow and Kiev.

• • *

The closely watched and controversial plans of Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit President Vladimir Putin in Russia is taking shape quickly, with Reuters reporting Monday it will happen next week, citing unnamed sources.

If accurate, this will be a much earlier timetable than previously expected, following a Dec. 30 video call between Putin and Xi wherein the invitation to visit Moscow was initially made. According to The Moscow Times, "Xi, who secured an unprecedented third term in office last week, had been expected to travel to Moscow in April or early May."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/chinas-xi-visit-russia-soon-next-week

First Republic Bank Plunges 66% in Pre-Market – Western Alliance Bank Down 62% – Customers Line Up in California!

Here we go.

First Republic Bank is down 66% this morning before Monday’s open.

On Sunday First Republic Bank announced a strengthening and diversification of their liquidity position.

Then the bank fell 66% overnight.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/here-we-go-first-republic-bank-plunges-66-in-pre-market-western-alliance-bank-down-62-customers-line-up-in-california/

Moderna Fails to Convince Judge that US Government Should Have Been Sued for its COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Not Them

On Friday, Moderna failed to convince a federal judge that it should not have to face a patent lawsuit over its COVID-19 vaccine and that the US government should have been sued instead.

In 2022, Arbutus Biopharma Corp and Genevant Sciences filed a lawsuit against Moderna in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, accusing the vaccine manufacturer of patent infringement on its COVID-19 vaccine.

The two biotech companies sued Moderna over infringement claims on six patents concerning the manufacture and sale of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine.

More from BioPharmaDive:

Arbutus and Genevant’s lawsuit escalates a yearslong dispute with Moderna that’s already wound its way through a federal patent appeal board and a federal appeals court.

At issue are microscopic fat-like particles that Arbutus scientists developed to shield messenger RNA delivered into the body — inventions awarded several U.S. patents which Arbutus and partner Genevant allege Moderna infringed with its COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax.

In court documents, the two cited several disclosures in scientific publications describing early studies of what would become Spikevax, including one coauthored by National Institutes of Health scientists that was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The papers, Arbutus and Genevant claim, show Moderna’s vaccine uses so-called lipid nanoparticles that are covered by six separate patents they hold.

Arbutus and Genevant are not seeking an injunction on sales of Spikevax, which last year earned Moderna nearly $19 billion.

But they’re hoping to win a judgement that Moderna infringed six of their patents and to secure damages no less than a “reasonable royalty” on Moderna’s sales. Mani Foroohar, an analyst at SVB Leerink who covers Moderna, expects a single-digit royalty could be expected should the court rule against Moderna, which would still equate to a significant sum.

Moderna released a statement to The Hill and denied these allegations of patent infringement.

For the second time, U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg has ruled that Moderna has failed to prove that the government should be the appropriate target of a case brought by Arbutus Biopharma Corp and Genevant Sciences GmbH.

“The U.S. Justice Department said in a court filing last month that it supports Moderna’s position, arguing that the company should not be liable for shots provided under its contract with the government as part of Operation Warp Speed,” AP reported.

“Goldberg ruled Friday that Moderna’s request was still premature and said details were still emerging about the scope of the company’s government agreements,” it added.

Moderna said that the US government was the appropriate target of the claims because the company manufactured its vaccine for the government’s nationwide vaccination effort.

But it contradicts what was said by the company’s CEO, Stephane Bancel, who said that 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were manufactured in 2019 before the pandemic began.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/moderna-fails-to-convince-judge-that-us-government-should-have-been-sued-for-its-covid-19-vaccine-patent-not-them/

Biden Lies By Omission – Forgets to Tell Americans that We Are Bailing Out China’s Venture Capital Business with Silicon Valley Bank Rescue

Joe Biden left out a very important point this morning about the bailouts he and his Administration are taking to rescue the Silicon Valley Bank.

Biden lies through omission.

This morning Joe Biden tried to reassure the nation about the banking segment of the economy as his Administration announced over the weekend that it was bailing out two banks – Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank.

Biden looked simply horrible as he slurred his words and mumbled through his short talk about bailing out these two banks. While he was speaking Western Alliance Bank dropped in value.

According to CBS:

Mr. Biden reiterated during his remarks that “no losses will be borne by the taxpayers,” and said the money will instead come from fees that banks pay into the Deposit Insurance Fund.

What Biden did not share (his lie of omission) is that the US government is bailing out Chinese venture capitalists who had a significant amount of deposits in SVB.

Last night we reported that the South China Morning Post noted the bridge between SVB and China.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has created a sense of panic within China’s tech start-up and venture capital (VC) sector, as the lender served as a bridge between US capital and Chinese tech entrepreneurs.

As of Sunday afternoon, topics related to the collapse of the bank, including “SVB bankruptcy has spread to multiple countries” and “SVB bankruptcy affects Chinese entrepreneurs”, were trending on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, with posts receiving hundreds of millions of views.

“Is the 2008 Financial Crisis happening again?” said a Weibo user with the handle MaxC.

China is the second largest venture capital market and SVB was right in the middle of it according to Tech Crunch.

China, the world’s second-largest venture capital market. Across social media platforms, investors and startups are rushing to share news articles on the fiasco and thoughts on how to prevent such a catastrophic moment. For some companies, however, the impact is tangible.

When China was still new to venture capital in the late 1990s, SVB was among the first financial institutions to start serving the country’s startups, while traditional, risk-averse banks avoided them. Over time, the bank has become a popular option for China-based startups fundraising in USD as well as some China-focused USD venture capital firms.

What Biden left out is that the US is covering for his CCP buddies and their venture capital business seeking USDs.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/biden-lies-forgets-to-tell-americans-that-we-are-bailing-out-chinas-venture-capital-business-with-silicon-valley-bank-rescue/

Top Silicon Valley Bank execs worked at notoriously troubled Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank

Two executives at doomed Silicon Valley Bank had previously worked at a pair of notoriously troubled financial giants — the now-shuttered Lehman Brothers and the scandal-scarred Deutsche Bank.

The employment records of SVB executives Joseph Gentile and Kim Olson raised eyebrows on social media after the tech lender’s rapid meltdown prompted fears of a systemic economic crisis. The feds were forced to bail out SVB on Sunday to restore public confidence in the banking sector.

Gentile serves as chief administrative officer of SVB Securities, a standalone investment bank wholly owned by parent company SVB Financial. But prior to taking that role in 2007, Gentile had a short stint as the chief financial officer for the fixed income division of Lehman Brothers’ Global Investment Bank.

Lehman Brothers was a Wall Street giant until it collapsed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 15, 2008. The firm’s implosion had a devastating impact on the US economy and was a key factor in the economic turmoil of the Great Recession.

While Gentile left Lehman Brothers well before the investment bank’s collapse, social media users quickly pointed out the connection.

“This is truly unusual,” Unusual Whales tweeted regarding Gentile’s background.

In a statement published on its website, SVB Securities said it was “financially stable and will continue to operate as usual” despite its affiliate SVB’s downfall.

Olson was hired as SVB’s chief risk officer in January. Before joining the tech lender, she had a stint in a senior risk management role at Deutsche Bank during the Great Recession.

In 2017, Deutsche Bank was forced to pay a massive $7.2 billion penalty after admitting it lied to investors about its mortgage-backed securities — the collapse of which was a major factor in the housing market’s implosion during the financial crisis.

Before her stint at Deutsche Bank, Olson was a managing director at Fitch Ratings, the agency that makes determinations on the creditworthiness of investments and institutions.

“SVB has an impressive track record of sound growth and remaining true to its strategy of serving the innovation economy,” Olson said in the company’s January press release announcing her hiring.

https://nypost.com/2023/03/13/silicon-valley-bank-execs-worked-at-lehman-brothers-deutsche-bank/

STRANGE: U.S. Embassy Handed Out Sensitive Data Contract to Now BANNED Chinese State-Owned Firm Just Days Before Trump’s Beijing Trip.

The timing of the contracts is certainly… odd.

Federal spending records indicate the U.S. Embassy in Beijing purchased internet service from China Unicom, a state-owned firm banned in the United States for national security reasons, and concerns over espionage.

Records indicate the sensitive White House communications during President Trump’s state visit to China, as well as ongoing State Department communications with the Biden White House may also be compromised, The National Pulse can reveal.

White House Compromised?

On October 26, 2017, a contract for “WHCA data and phone lines” was awarded to China Unicom Beijing Branch. WHCA is the acronym for the White House Communications Agency. The funding agency for this contract is listed as the Defense Information Systems Agency. The description listed on another contract dated the following day reads, “Beijing POTUS WHCA data and voice lines.” That is, “Beijing President of the United States White House Communications Agency (WHCA) Data and Voice Lines.” A third contract for WHCA data and phone lines was awarded November 1, 2017.

These contracts are significant because just days after, on November 8-10, 2017, President Trump visited Beijing on an official state visit. Indeed the contracts appear to be directly linked to Trump’s tenure as President, beginning just after he was inaugurated, and ending soon after he left office, suggesting the man and his communications were the target of Chinese spying, aided by State Department apparatchiks.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/03/13/strange-u-s-embassy-handed-out-sensitive-data-contract-to-now-banned-chinese-state-owned-firm-just-days-before-trumps-beijing-trip/

Pfizer Docs: Early Pfizer Vaccine Study Revealing Alarming Systemic Reactions in Rats

This month, ICAN’s attorneys reviewed a startling 2,237-page report from June 2020 (amended in September 2020) that Pfizer submitted to the FDA concerning its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

This month, ICAN’s attorneys reviewed a startling 2,237-page report from June 2020 (amended in September 2020) that Pfizer submitted to the FDA concerning its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

The study looked at the toxicity of Pfizer’s vaccine using four different doses (including the one eventually authorized for emergency use, BNT162b2) and involved 255 rats (219 received vaccine, 36 received control) for a test period of 10 to 17 days with “3 additional weeks for the animals scheduled for the recovery period.”

One would imagine that, since the vaccine was authorized, approved, and injected into millions, the rats did not experience any negative health effects. Sadly, that is not the case.

While the Pfizer claims in the report that the rats tolerated the vaccines “without evidence of systemic toxicity,” its detailed findings indicate that was anything but the truth, as the following issues in major organs groups were observed:

Enlarged spleens

Enlarged adrenal glands

Enlarged lymph nodes

Kidney and liver congestion

Increased fibrinogen concentration

All of these issues clearly show effects beyond the injection site. Of particular concern is the increased fibrinogen concentration; fibrinogen is made in your liver and helps your blood clot. Increased fibrinogen is associated with blood clotting, heart disease, blood vessel dysfunction, and stroke. These issues were also seen with the dose level that was eventually licensed.

https://lionessofjudah.substack.com/p/pfizer-docs-early-pfizer-vaccine

California “Teacher of the Year” Just Got Arrested – She’s Nailed With 14 Serious Charges

American parents are increasingly concerned about the education their children receive in school today. They’re also worried about the teachers, who have come under heavy scrutiny in recent years.

Teachers pushing the far-left agenda seem to be common, as disturbing videos routinely pop up on social media. Educators dismissing and insulting parents isn’t helping the situation, either.

But this story involves something even worse — an honored teacher accused of two terrible crimes.

Jacqueline Ma was a 6th grade teacher in San Diego, California, where she was one of five recipients of their prestigious “Teacher of the Year” award for the 2022-2023 school year.

Up until recently, parents had no idea that Ma was involved in anything dark; many just thought she had close connections with the students.

However, it seems those relationships were more than just “close,” or she wanted them to be: Ma is now under arrest on serious charges that will probably end her career as a teacher for good.

Via The Daily Caller:

Police reportedly arrested a California teacher who was recently named ‘Teacher of the Year’ on suspicion of child sex abuse charges and possession of child pornography charges.

Authorities charged Jacqueline Ma, a 6th grade teacher at Lincoln Acres Elementary School in San Diego, with three counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, and three counts of oral copulation with a child under 14, according to records obtained by NBC San Diego.

Ma was arrested several weeks ago and made bail. But she was immediately hit with 14 new charges the following day, which include sexual exploitation of a child.

Authorities were tipped off when a parent came forward about an “inappropriate” relationship her 13-year-old had had with a former teacher.

District Superintendent Leighangela Brady said in a statement:

We know that our entire school community is as stunned as we were by this news. The district will cooperate with law enforcement and cannot comment any further on the pending investigation.

We will continue to do everything possible to keep our students’ safety, needs, and education first and foremost.

Now that the arrest has been made, other parents and family members are coming forward.

For example, Aileen Carillo’s younger brother was a student of Ma’s, and she said the teacher was “over the top” when she attended his birthday party. She said the teacher frequently texted her brother, too.

This is exactly the sort of thing we can’t have in our educational system — but reports like these seem to crop up on a routine basis.

Even if it doesn’t involve such stunning charges, parents are starting to look a lot more closely at the people schools hire. And arrests, inquiries, and controversy are now a very common part of the system.

When you factor in the accusations of indoctrination and blatant propaganda, it’s no surprise to see many parents turning toward homeschooling.

On top of that, many note the shocking rise in violent crime in schools, from beatings to horrendous shootings. All of this makes parents very uncomfortable right now, and they have every right to be.

https://pjnewsletter.com/california-teacher-arrested-crimes/?utm_medium=email

Netanyahu accuses Israeli media of spreading 'fake news' on judicial reform

The prime minister lost control of his government, opposition head Yair Lapid charged.

The "biased" media channels are engaging in an "unprecedented attack on the government" and are intentionally spreading false information about the government's proposed judicial reforms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleged during a statement to the press at the beginning of the Likud's Monday afternoon's faction meeting in the Knesset.

The media was conducting "live streams, one-sided commentary, biased polls and [spreading] fake news 24 hours a day," the prime minister said.

While the media "stroked" the former government with "gloves of silk," the "left-wing media" now has everything backwards. "People refusing to volunteer for reserve duties are heroes, and people who are blocking roads and disrupting the lives of tens of thousands of Israelis including ambulances, become freedom fighters," Netanyahu said.

While his government was being accused of a coup d'etat, the real coup d'etat was that the attorney-general was making decisions instead of the government, the prime minister hinted.

"Do you want to know what a coup is? In any reformed and viable democracy, the elected government is the one responsible for the army, the police, and law and order. It is anchored in law and common sense," Netanyahu exclaimed.

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-734180

Trading Halted For Multiple Bank Stocks After Market Open

Wall Street opened Monday with regulators halting trading on some of the nation’s largest banks as a hangover from this weekend’s calamitous collapse of two banks threatened to bleed into a second week.

Action by the New York Stock Exchange comes on the heels of premarket trading that saw a 67% fall in the price of First Republic Bank, based in San Francisco — ground zero for the recent collapse of tech-focused Silicon Valley Bank.

Other banks affected by the freeze include Western Alliance Bancorporation which saw a spectacular 75% decline in its stock Monday morning:

https://trendingpoliticsnews.com/breaking-trading-halted-for-multiple-bank-stocks-after-market-open-mstef/?utm_source=sheri

FDA & CDC Blast Florida Surgeon General for Reporting 1,700% Increase in Adverse Events Following Vaccines

The FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and the CDC Director Rochelle Walensky teamed up to issue a strong rebuke to Florida’s Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo for issuing a health alert that his state’s surveillance system reported a major uptick in adverse events in concert with the rollout of the Covid mRNA shots.

“In Florida alone, there was a 1,700% increase in VAERS reports after the release of the COVID-19 vaccine, compared to an increase of 400% in overall vaccine administration for the same time period,” the alert added and provided a graphic.

“The reporting of life-threatening conditions increased over 4,400%,” the alert continued. “This is a novel increase and was not seen during the 2009 H1N1 vaccination campaign. There is a need for additional unbiased research to better understand the COVID-19 vaccines’ short- and long-term effects.”

The health alert attached three medical studies that assessed “excess risk” and “increased risk” of adverse events associated with the Covid mRNA shots.

According to a study, exit disclaimer iconFraiman J et al, Vaccine. 2022, mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were associated with an excess risk of serious adverse events, including coagulation disorders, acute cardiac injuries, Bell’s palsy, and encephalitis. This risk was 1 in 550 individuals, which is much higher than other vaccines.

A second study, exit disclaimer iconSun CLF et al, Sci Rep. 2022, found increased acute cardiac arrests and other acute cardiac events following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.

Additionally, exit disclaimer iconDag Berild J et al, JAMA Netw Open. 2022, assessed the risk of thromboembolic and thrombocytopenic events related to COVID-19 vaccines and found preliminary evidence of increased risk of both coronary disease and cardiovascular disease.

In October, the State Surgeon General recommended against males aged 18 to 39 from receiving the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

“The Florida Department of Health (Department) conducted an analysis through a self-controlled case series, which is a technique originally developed to evaluate vaccine safety,” Ladapo announced in a press release.

“This analysis found that there is an 84% increase in the relative incidence of cardiac-related death among males 18-39 years old within 28 days following mRNA vaccination,” the announcement stated. “With a high level of global immunity to COVID-19, the benefit of vaccination is likely outweighed by this abnormally high risk of cardiac-related death among men in this age group. Non-mRNA vaccines were not found to have these increased risks.”

The FDA and CDC chiefs lashed out at Dr. Ladapo in a joint letter dated on March 10.

“It is the job of public health officials around the country to protect the lives of the populations they serve, particularly the vulnerable,” the co-authors claimed. “Fueling vaccine hesitancy undermines this effort.”

https://beckernews.com/fda-cdc-blast-florida-surgeon-general-for-reporting-1700-increase-in-adverse-events-following-vaccines-49567/

Over $250 billion swindled from US pandemic fund – report

Three government agencies told Congress that the stated sum is actually conservative and the true figure could be much greater

More than $250 billion in Covid-19 relief funds were lost to “fraud” and “waste,” the directors of three US government agencies testified before the House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee on Thursday.

Compounding what Deputy Inspector General Sheldon Shoemaker of the Small Business Administration (SBA) called “the biggest fraud in a generation,” the officials stressed that the figures they gave represented an extremely conservative estimate of the total amount lost as they did not include the amount defrauded from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.

According to a statement submitted by Shoemaker ahead of the hearing, the SBA has already uncovered $190.7 billion in potential fraud across relief programs under its jurisdiction. Specifically, it expects to find upwards of $100 billion within the scandal-plagued Paycheck Protection Program. Acting Treasury Inspector General Richard Delmar admitted to just $2.6 billion in dubious charges confirmed at his agency, pleading that ongoing audits precluded making an estimate of the full cost.

Larry Turner, inspector general of the Department of Labor, blamed the massive losses on a lack of preparation, insufficient oversight, and even the government’s generosity, making a “highly conservative” estimate of $76 billion in fraudulent spending. With no functioning system in place to verify applicants’ qualifying details in a reasonable time frame, the “unprecedented infusion of federal funds” into the program made it irresistible to fraudsters, he told the subcommittee.

Rep. Keith Mfume (D-Maryland) expressed shock that no one had predicted that requiring only “self-certification” to access such a prodigious cash hoard would lead to “a lot of hanky-panky,” while Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Florida) pointed out that the agencies did not even use existing checks and balances to vet applicants, and Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Florida) highlighted that state unemployment systems were hopelessly outdated even before the pandemic placed them under unprecedented stress. Of $45.6 billion in potential fraud lent out in association with one Labor Department program, Turner acknowledged upon questioning that $267 million had gone to dead people.

Asked about the possibility of recovering the money, Turner said that hunting down the perpetrators was financially unrewarding, as “once money goes out the door, it is hard to get it back.” Even in cases where the government has been able to track down Covid-19 benefit fraudsters and claw back some of the funds, the inspectors general were unable to tell subcommittee members what had become of some of the money.

More than $5 trillion in pandemic relief funds have been distributed since 2020. By some estimates, as much as $400 billion was stolen from the unemployment relief program alone.

https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Statement-for-the-Record-03-09-2023_Final-Shoemaker.pdf

>>18499668

Fauci’s successor at NIAID is a partisan democrat activist linked to gain of function cover up operation

Hugh Auchincloss served as Anthony Fauci's right hand man for almost two decades, and he is currently the top bureaucrat at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). With the Biden Administration showing seemingly no interest in appointing a new NIAID chief, Auchincloss has inherited his post in semi-permanent fashion. His role now includes being the chief decision maker for directing billions of taxpayer dollars into the coffers of research institutes and pharmaceutical companies. And with all of the attention turned to the semi-retired Dr Fauci, Auchincloss has been able to operate as the NIAID’s new head honcho without even a hint of a vetting process.

If you thought Fauci’s infamous love letters to Hillary Clinton were bad, check out Hugh Auchincloss’s partisan political record.

While Fauci did not directly donate to politicians in order to appear as politically neutral (he had relatives and friends act as proxies), FEC filings show Auchincloss hasn’t followed this unwritten rule. The interim NIAID director has donated the vast majority of his 44 political contributions to democrat candidates for office. Most of these expenditures have gone to finance his son, Congressman Jake Auchincloss (who assumed office in 2021), and his successful congressional campaigns. FEC receipts show the NIAID bureaucrat has spent tens of thousands of dollars on his son’s congressional campaigns. Auchincloss and his ex-wife are the top funders to a Super PAC that was established to successfully vault their son, Jake Auchincloss into Congress.

While serving as Fauci’s deputy, Auchincloss also donated to the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden (in 2020, while serving as a top NIAID director in the Trump Administration), Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. His most recent political donation went to the “MA 4 Dems PAC.”

Hugh Auchincloss is D.C. royalty. He is the progeny of generational wealth and privilege in Washington, tracing his lineage to ultra-rich and powerful American families, including the Kennedy family and the Putnam family. His grandfather was the chairman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. One of his uncles was the president of the Ford Foundation, while another was a top security state official in the Johnson and Kennedy administrations.

As mentioned earlier, one of his sons is a woke democrat congressman in Massachusetts who won the seat previously held by his distant relative, Joe Kennedy III.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/84216/faucis-successor-at-niaid-is-a-partisan-democrat-activist-linked-to-gain-of-function-cover-up.html

Trudeau announces $5.5 million to fight “disinformation”

Trudeau says it's to fight foreign interference.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that he would appoint an “Independent Special Rapporteur” who will be tasked with a “wide mandate and will make expert recommendations on combating interference and strengthening our democracy.”

Adding to what he meant by that, Trudeau said that $5.5 million would be invested to “build capacity of civil society organizations to combat disinformation,” noting that “disinformation often generated abroad can be a real threat to our elections, and it's a threat that the federal government cannot combat alone.”

The announcement came amid reports that the government ignored warnings from the CSIS about candidates' ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Trudeau said that the government has been protecting the values of “freedom, openness, and dialogue,” noting that not all governments respect those values. He noted that foreign interference had an impact in the 2016 election in the US and in France in 2017.

“Today, all political leaders agree that the election outcomes in 2019 and 2021 were not impacted by foreign interference,” Trudeau said, “but even if it didn't change the results of any of our elections, any interference attempt by any foreign actor is troubling and serious,” he said, adding that attempted interference in elections is “evolving, including with the rise of technology and social media.”

The PM said that “some have argued strongly that a public inquiry is the necessary next step. Some others have pointed out the flaws and challenges of a public inquiry.

“That's why we will ask the independent special rapporteur as one of the first tasks of their mandate to provide the government with the recommendation as to what the appropriate should be, whether it be an inquiry, an investigation, or a judicial review and what the scope of that work may be, and we will abide by their recommendation.”

https://reclaimthenet.org/trudeau-announces-5-5-million-to-fight-disinformation

The BigPharma War: Patents vs. Patients

https://youtu.be/VMv6-3O86wk

JPMorgan must hand over CEO Dimon's records in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit

A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) to hand over more documents concerning Chief Executive Jamie Dimon to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the territory's lawsuit accusing the bank of aiding in Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said the bank must turn over requested documents from 2015 to 2019, a period after JPMorgan had dropped Epstein as a client. Rakoff did not explain his reasoning in his one-sentence order.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is seeking damages from JPMorgan for allegedly aiding in Epstein's sex trafficking by keeping him as a client, and missing red flags about his misconduct on Little St. James, a private island he owned.

Epstein had been a JPMorgan client from 2000 to 2013. He killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The U.S. Virgin Islands has called Dimon "a likely source of relevant and unique information" about why JPMorgan kept Epstein on, and discussions on Epstein's referrals of prominent and wealthy potential clients.

JPMorgan countered by accusing the U.S. Virgin Islands of going on a "fishing expedition" after having obtained a "massive trove" of information in litigation in which the territory recovered more than $105 million from Epstein's estate.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/84203/jpmorgan-must-hand-over-ceo-dimons-records-in-jeffrey-epstein.html

Jewish Law Above All: Recordings Reveal Far-right Knesset Member's Plan to Turn Israel Into a Theocracy

Deputy Minister Avi Maoz is establishing a government agency that aims to eradicate Israel’s secular identity. Dozens of recordings, speeches and articles by Maoz and his mentor, Rabbi Zvi Thau, reveal their plan to bring Israel 'closer to redemption'

This is what Avigdor (Avi) Maoz has been waiting for since he established the Noam party, at the behest of his rabbi, Zvi Yisrael Thau, in July 2019. Noam withdrew from the race for the 22nd Knesset, which was elected that same September, nor did it run in the election for the 23rd Knesset, in March 2020. That changed a year later, and when the “government of change,” led by Naftali Bennett, took office during the term of the 24th Knesset, Noam was part of the opposition.

Now, following the November 1 election, and the convening of a new, fully right-wing government – the real test has arrived. As Maoz has stated, “The relationship between the beit midrash [institution of Torah study] and politics will be measured when we are part of the coalition.” Maoz (who constitutes a one-man Knesset faction, although Noam ran on a joint list with the Religious Zionism party) has been appointed a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office by Benjamin Netanyahu, and he will establish the “authority for identity security.”

Indeed, early on in the history of the Noam party, Maoz declared that his primary goal in politics would be to create a “state authority, like the Nature and Parks Authority, within the framework of a government ministry.” His idea was to call it Magen Ha’am, literally “protector of the people,” but also an acronym of the Hebrew words meaning “headquarters to discover and neutralize ‘alien’ influences on the State of Israel.”

The authority’s name attests to the importance Maoz attributes to it. In his words, “We must protect our people and our state from the infiltration of the alien bodies that arrive from foreign countries, foreign bodies, foreign foundations.” But Maoz doesn’t intend to stop there. “I would be very happy to have sufficient power to be appointed minister of education, to cleanse the entire education system of all foreign influences and to add Judaism, tradition, heritage and Zionism to the education system.”

https://archive.md/5xRoF#selection-685.0-749.105

USAID’s Georgia Riots: the Next Phase in this Insane Plot to Fragment and Destroy Russia

Color revolution street violence follows visit by USAID boss Samantha Power.

How coincidental. USAID boss Samantha Power visited Tbilisi, Georgia the other day, and now there are violent protests in the streets outside parliament.

The announced adoption of a “foreign influence” bill provided an excuse for the usual suspects to begin a coordinated effort to overthrow the ruling Georgian Dream party and install a new government (or, more specifically, a pro-USG client state, similar to that in Ukraine).

Of course, it does not matter the Georgian government withdrew the legislation. The proposed law was merely an excuse to get yet another color revolution going on Russia’s border.

Don’t expect a Russophobic, nuclear war-taunting corporate media to point out the obvious fact this entire episode is the next phase in an effort to surround Russia and dismember it.

The USAID wrecking crew doesn’t care about the people of Georgia, “democracy,” or the fact the Georgian Dream party won 48.22 percent of the vote in 2020. The Strength Is in Unity party, led by former president Mikheil Saakashvili, came in at 27.18 percent.

Saakashvili was convicted in absentia of corruption and abuse of power.

“Mr Saakashvili was arrested in 2021 after making a surprise return to Georgia by smuggling himself into the country on a ferry from Ukraine. He called for mass anti-government demonstrations, but was quickly arrested by Georgian authorities,” the BBC reported. “Among the world leaders calling for his release were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.”

Mr Saakashvili was granted Ukrainian citizenship in 2015, and spoke only in Ukrainian at his court appearance, wearing a t-shirt with “I am Ukrainian” printed on it. He also served as the governor of the western province of Odesa between 2015 and 2016.

In 2018, Georgia was tight with NATO. “Georgia is one of the Alliance’s closest operational partners, and an Enhanced Opportunities Partner,” the Voltaire Network reported from Brussels.

It should be noted both “Georgian Dream and United National Movement [founded by Saakashvili] are pro-Western, with goals of establishing better relations and possible eventual membership of NATO and the European Union,” the AP reported in October 2020.

Salome Zourabichvili, the current president of Georgia, made it known last year that she supports Zelenskyy and the ultranationalists in Ukraine, despite her party demanding neutrality on the issue. Zourabichvili went so far as to travel to Paris and Brussels to signal her support for the prospect of a thermonuclear war. She is a politician, of course, and most politicians are primarily concerned with staying in office.

Despite this affinity for the EU (and hopeful of NATO membership), billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the Georgian Dream party, made the critical mistake of advocating a full restoration of relations with Russia following the 2008 conflict in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two “breakaway” republics in the strategically important South Caucasus region on the Russian border.

For the USG, the EU, and NATO, red flags went up last March when Anatoly Bibilov, the leader of South Ossetia, declared “I believe that unification with Russia is our strategic goal, our path, the aspiration of the people,” according to the press service of the United Russia party. “The republic of South Ossetia will be part of its historical homeland—Russia.”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/usaid-georgia-riots-next-phase-insane-plot-destroy-russia/5811708

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Part 1): The Dark Secrets of the Childhood Immunization Schedule and the Vaccine Approval Process

https://www.theepochtimes.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-part-1-the-dark-secrets-of-the-childhood-immunization-schedule-and-the-vaccine-approval-process_5114709.html

Rio Tinto Mining Company Pays $15 Million to Settle US Bribery Accusations

Rio Tinto Mining Company Pays $15 Million to Settle US Bribery Accusations

Print article

Published: 10 March 2023

Written by Daniel Balint-Kurti

The Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto agreed to pay a US$15 million penalty to settle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the accusation that it had paid $10.5 million to a friend of former Guinean President Alpha Condé to retain globally important iron ore rights.

The settlement agreement with the U.S. stock exchange regulator said that in 2011, Rio hired a “close friend of a former senior Guinean government official” to help it keep hold of blocks 3 and 4 of the Simandou mountain range, considered to hold some of the world’s largest iron ore reserves.

Blocks 1 and 2 had been canceled by a previous regime in 2008, and controversially granted to Beny Steinmetz Group Resources.

The SEC found that the consultant in the middle of the scandal paid $200,000 to buy T-shirts for Condé’s re-election campaign, soon after receiving his first payment from Rio Tinto.

While the settlement anonymises individuals connected to the bribery, leaked emails reveal that the unnamed “senior government official” is President Condé, and the anonymous “French investment banker” is François Polge de Combret, a friend of Condé from his student days in Paris.

The settlement includes quotes from these emails, which were published in the press seven years ago without Combret’s name and references to “the President.” Condé has denied any knowledge of the payments.

After becoming Guinea’s first democratically elected president since independence in 2010, Condé promised to fight corruption and launched a review of mining contracts, leading Rio Tinto to fear losing its remaining blocks. The company paid $7.5 million into de Combret’s Swiss bank account in July 2011, and a further $3 million in February 2016 as a reward for his influence in allowing the company to keep the licenses.

Rio Tinto also paid $700 million to the Guinean Treasury, under a publicly announced agreement in April 2011, formalizing its continued control over blocks 3 and 4.

The settlement also anonymises Rio’s former head of energy and minerals, Alan Davies, simply referring to him as a “Rio Tinto Executive.” In a leaked email from May 10, 2011 Davies wrote to Sam Walsh then head of the iron ore division: “I accept that this is a lot of money, but I also put forward that the result we achieved was significantly improved by François’ …very unique and unreplicable services and closeness to the President.” Davies and Walsh were both forced out of Rio Tinto in 2016, in the wake of the scandal.

Davies said at the time that “there are no grounds for the termination of my employment,” while Walsh said he “operated ethically and legally at all times” during his 25 years with the company. De Combret did not respond to questions from OCCRP by the time of publication.

“Without bragging, the [President’s] decision would probably have been different if I had not happened to be there,” de Combret wrote in an email quoted in the settlement. He claimed that Condé said: “I deserve a fee for the work I have done up to now, but the fee should be a lump amount that does not compromise my independence in the future.”

One Rio Tinto executive expressed concern, writing “tell [de Combret] one big lump looks like a bribe and people will wonder where the money went.”

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/17407-rio-tinto-mining-company-pays-15-million-to-settle-us-bribery-accusations

NewsGuard Claims Not To Be Government-Funded, But A $750K Grant Suggests Otherwise

The media-ratings giant NewsGuard denied it was “government-funded” after being called out as part of the vast Censorship Complex during congressional hearings last week. But government records and the company’s own public announcement celebrating a nearly $750,000 federal grant suggest otherwise.

On Thursday, independent journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger appeared before the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government to testify about what they had discovered during a review of internal Twitter communications. An hour before the weird hearing began, Taibbi released the latest installment of the “Twitter Files.”

Halfway through his thread, titled “The Censorship-Industrial Complex,” Taibbi wrote: “Some NGOs, like the GEC-funded Global Disinformation Index or the DOD-funded NewsGuard, not only see content moderation but apply subjective ‘risk’ or ‘reliability’ scores to media outlets, which can result in a reduction in revenue.” Embedded in the post was a picture of a nearly $750,000 award from the Department of Defense to NewsGuard, an organization the independent journalists characterized as a “government-funded” entity implicated in the Censorship Complex.

In response to Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz’s question — “Who is NewsGuard?” — Shellenberger explained: “Both the Global Disinformation Index and NewsGuard are U.S. government-funded entities who are working to drive advertisers’ revenue away from disfavored publications and towards the ones they favor.” In Shellenberger’s words, “This is totally inappropriate.”

“If we do not take a look at NewsGuard,” Gaetz responded, “we have failed.”

NewGuard’s Co-CEO Gordon Crovitz emailed Taibbi the next morning to say, “There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about NewsGuard and our work.”

“During the hearing, NewsGuard was inaccurately described as ‘U.S. government funded,’” Crovitz continued, adding, “unlike other entities mentioned during the hearing, we are not a non-profit funded by government grants. We are a business with many licensees paying to access our proprietary data, including government entities that pay to license our data.”

“These licenses are only for access to our data and are entirely unrelated to our rating of news publishers,” the email added.

Crovitz then claimed NewsGuard’s work for the Pentagon is targeted at analyzing anti-American info ops from adversaries such as China and Russia. “Our analysts alert officials in the U.S. and in other democracies, including Ukraine, about new false narratives targeting America and its allies, and we provide an understanding of how this disinformation spreads online,” NewsGuard’s CEO proclaimed.

NewsGuard “operates in an entirely different manner” from the Global Disinformation Index, the CEO told Taibbi, working to separate his organization from others in the Censorship Complex. Crovitz, claiming to be skeptical of Silicon Valley “advocacy groups” himself and stressing his “longtime” work as “an editorial writer and conservative columnist for the Wall Street Journal,” ended with an offer to answer Taibbi’s questions and this rejoinder:

So we are not ‘funded’ by the U.S. government, like you we oppose government censorship, and our ratings of news sources are done in a fully transparent and apolitical manner.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/13/newsguard-claims-not-to-be-government-funded-but-a-750k-grant-suggests-otherwise/

Iran announces pardons for 22,000 people arrested in protests

The exact number of imprisoned protesters is still unclear, and it is unknown if the pardons are actually occurring.

Iran on Monday announced that over 22,000 people arrested in recent anti-government and women's rights protests have been pardoned.

Iran’s judiciary head Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi said that over 82,000 people have been pardoned overall, including 22,628 who were arrested over the past few months during anti-government protests, the state-run IRNA news agency reported, as translated by The Associated Press.

None of the pardons included people accused of violent crimes or theft, Ejehi added.

The pardons were offered before the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan next week.

Protests erupted in Iran in fall 2023 following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the Islamic Republic's so-called morality police for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab, or hair covering.

The exact number of imprisoned protesters is still unclear, and it is unknown if the pardons are actually occurring.

"From day one there was no transparent accounting of who was arrested and imprisoned – before or after the mass protests these past months – which is why there’s no way to verify how many are being released now," said Center for Human Rights in Iran Deputy Director Jasmin Ramsey.

https://justthenews.com/world/middle-east/iran-announces-pardons-22000-people-arrested-protests

>>18499862

Comped MOFO he's in bed with AJ and co

Mike Gill gave him evidence years ago he hid it

CLOWN