Privacy Experts, Senators Demand Investigation of Amazon’s Child Data Collection Practices

Last year, a coalition of privacy advocates and child psychologists warned against putting an Amazon Alexa speaker anywhere near your child on the fairly reasonable grounds that developing minds shouldn’t befriend always-on surveillance devices, no matter how cute the packaging. Now, a group of privacy researchers, attorneys, and U.S. senators are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Amazon’s alleged violations of COPPA, a law protecting the littlest users of all.

COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, regulates how companies can collect and use data on users who might have trouble spelling “privacy,” let alone understand it enough to consent to relinquishing it. COPPA is the reason why so many sites, like Facebook, simply don’t allow children under 13 to sign up. Amazon, on the other hand, decided to court children for its data collection business, releasing the Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition, an always-listening “smart speaker” that retains all of the functions of its adult counterpart, but tucks them inside a candy-colored shell. The kiddo speaker also adds child-specific features, like the ability to have Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa read your child a story in her disembodied robo-voice, or play child-geared content from sources like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

A new complaint drafted by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, the consumer privacy group Center for Digital Democracy, and Georgetown University’s Institute for Public Representation says that Amazon is committing a litany of COPPA violations through the Echo Dot Kids Edition, and calls on the FTC to investigate.

Amazon’s COPPA violations, according to the complaint, include failure to provide parental notice and obtain parental consent for online services related to the kids’ Echo Dot, failure to tell parents that they have a right to review personal information submitted by their child, and failure to provide parents a way to delete such information or opt out of its collection.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/72640/privacy-experts-senators-demand-investigation-of-amazons-child-data-collection.html

https://theintercept.com/2019/05/09/amazon-echo-dot-childrens-privacy/?fbclid=IwAR2pctHBCnnvsDZ7lVQK7LCFMSpjDHVziI1BAxrkgAcRBz0JjjAqT_lwFpg

Syria - OPCW Engineering Assessment: The Douma 'Chemical Weapon Attack' Was Staged

On April 7 2018 Syrian 'rebels' claimed that the Syrian government used chlorine gas and Sarin in an attack on the besieged Douma suburb near the Syrian capital Damascus. They published a series of videos which showed dead bodies of mainly women and children.

The claim of the 'chemical attack' was made shortly after U.S. President Trump had announced that he wanted U.S. troops to leave Syria. It was designed to "pull him back in" which it indeed did. In an illegal 'retaliation' the U.S., Britain and France launched a number of cruise missiles against Syria. Most of them failed to reach their targets.

Moon of Alabama published a number of pieces on the issue which are listed below.

It seemed obvious from the very first claims of the 'gas attack' that it did not happen at all. The Syrian government had no motive to use any chemical weapon or an irritant like chlorine in Douma. It had already won the battle. The incident was obviously staged, like others before it, to drag the U.S. into a new attack on Syria.

Of special interest on the incident scene were two gas cylinders which were photo- and video-graphed near to where the dead bodies were found. It was claimed that the cylinders were dropped from Syrian army helicopters and crashed through concrete roofs. One cylinder allegedly 'bumped' after completely penetrating the roof and came to rest on a bed. The other cylinder allegedly broke a roof open and came to rest on a balcony.

To anyone with a bit of 'feel' for material behavior of concrete and metal on impact, it was obvious that the damages caused on the concrete and on the cylinders were incompatible with each other. The concrete, reinforced with steel, was thoroughly penetrated while the cylinders showed only minimal damage. The roofs were most likely penetrated by artillery impact while the cylinders were most likely put there by hand.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/72642/syria–opcw-engineering-assessment-the-douma-chemical-weapon-attack-was.html

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/05/syria-opcw-engineering-assessment-the-douma-chemical-weapon-incident-was-staged.html

Rabbi found guilty of money laundering won’t go to prison thanks to a ‘selfless life,’ judge says

A New Jersey rabbi found guilty of laundering $200,000 from a private school for children with developmental disabilities was sentenced Monday afternoon to two years probation.

Osher Eisemann, 62, founded the Lakewood-based School for Children with Hidden Intelligence during the 1990s, inspired by his own son’s special needs. He was found guilty in February of second degree charges of money laundering and misconduct by a corporate official at the close of a four-week trial.

The second degree charges can carry sentences of five to 10 years in state prison, but Judge Benjamin Bucca found the mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating factors in the sentencing, moving him to hand down the rare sentence of probation, which skirted mandatory minimums.

“At this stage in this man’s life, I cannot imagine that this situation could ever occur again," Bucca said. “The seriousness of the allegations and the harm that occurred is much less than what this court typically sees with other second degree crimes.”

The jury acquitted Eisemann of other charges, including corruption of public resources, theft by unlawful taking and misapplication of entrusted property. The private school’s fundraising foundation, Services for Hidden Intelligence, LLC, was also acquitted of all charges against it, authorities said.

As part of his probation, Eisemann cannot be involved with finances at the school or fundraising, must serve 60 days in the Middlesex County Correctional Facility and pay a fine of $250,000.

Lee Vartan, Eisemann’s attorney, said outside the courthouse he considers the sentence “a partial win and certainly a good outcome.”

He praised Bucca’s decision to say Eisemann should be reinstated at the school, and called that move “unprecedented," but said he may still appeal.

Bucca said the letters sent by Eisemann’s supporters “overwhelmed” him, and that he had not seen such a showing of support in his years sitting as a criminal judge.

He said the rabbi’s “selfless life is very clear. In many respects this is a very, very unfortunate situation.”

Bucca also said he hopes Eisemann can return to the school, despite the second degree conviction, and hopes the state Department of Education will consider making an exception, given Eisemann’s decades-long reputation.

“You belong there,” he said. “You perform a unique skill for that school.”

https://www.nj.com/news/2019/04/rabbi-found-guilty-of-money-laundering-wont-go-to-prison-thanks-to-a-selfless-life-judge-says.html

MSM Investigative Report blows the lid off Israeli espionage on U.S. soil during and before the 9/11 terror attacks

Bolton Is Spinning Israeli ‘Intelligence’ to Push for War Against Iran

John Bolton has gotten away with a dangerous deception. The national security adviser’s announcement Sunday that the Pentagon has deployed air and naval forces to the Middle East, which he combined with a threat to Iran, points to a new maneuver to prepare the ground for an incident that could justify a retaliatory attack against Iran.

Bolton presented his threat and the deployments as a response to alleged intelligence about a possible Iranian attack on U.S. targets in the Middle East. But what has emerged indicates that the alleged intelligence does not actually reflect any dramatic new information or analysis from the US intelligence community. Instead, it has all the hallmarks of a highly political case concocted by Bolton.

Further underscoring the deceptive character of Bolton’s maneuver is evidence that senior Israeli national security officials played a key role in creating the alleged intelligence rationale for the case.

The new initiative follows an audacious ruse carried out last fall by Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, detailed in Truthdig in February, to cast the firing of a few mortar rounds in the vicinity of the US Embassy and a consulate in Iraq as evidence of an effort by Tehran to harm US diplomats. Bolton exploited that opportunity to press Pentagon officials to provide retaliatory military options, which they did, reluctantly.

Bolton and Pompeo thus established a policy that the Trump administration would hold Iran responsible for any incident involving forces supported by Iran that could be portrayed as an attack on either US personnel or US“interests.”

https://original.antiwar.com/porter/2019/05/12/bolton-is-spinning-israeli-intelligence-to-push-for-war-against-iran/

Woman who claims she was raped by Julian Assange 'hopes justice will win' as Swedish prosecutors re-open sex attack case into WikiLeaks founder

The woman who claims she was raped by Julian Assange said today she 'hopes justice will win' after Swedish prosecutors reopened the rape investigation into the WikiLeaks founder.

Swedish authorities today said they still want to speak to Assange over claims he raped a woman while in the country in 2010 and will apply to extradite him from Britain, where he is currently in jail.

After the decision was announced, a lawyer for Assange's alleged victim said that her client hoped justice would prevail.

Elisabeth Massi Fritz, who is representing the woman, said: 'My client feels great gratitude and she is very hopeful about getting restitution and we both hope that justice will win.'

http://www.yourdestinationnow.com/2019/05/woman-who-claims-she-was-raped-by.html

Israel violates truce, levels land in north Gaza

Several Israeli military vehicles raided Palestinian lands this morning, east of Beit Hanoun, in the northern besieged Gaza Strip.

A Ma’an reporter said that six large D-9 Israeli military bulldozers entered dozens of metres into Palestinian lands, east of Beit Hanoun.

Sources added that Israeli military bulldozers razed and levelled the lands while drones flew overhead.

Israeli military incursions inside the besieged Gaza Strip and near the “buffer zone” have long been a near-daily occurrence.

The Israeli army also regularly detains and opens fire on unarmed Palestinian fishermen, shepherds, and farmers along the Israel-Gaza fence areas if they approach the buffer zone, as the authorities have not made clear the precise area of the designated zone.

The practice has in effect destroyed much of the agricultural and fishing sector of the blockaded coastal enclave, which has been under an Israeli air, land and sea blockade for 12 years.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190513-israel-violates-truce-levels-land-in-north-gaza/

Jonathan Sacks dumbs down Jewish history in order to defend Zionism

To remind you, Sacks is the ultimate Jewish establishment figure. He was Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth from 1991-2013; he was made a member of the British House of Lords in 2009; he’s the author of more than 25 books on Judaism such as To Heal a Fractured World, The Dignity of Difference, and Not in God’s Name. He’s also written a multi-volume Torah commentary and edited prayer books. Sacks is highly-respected within the Jewish world and well beyond it. When he talks, people of all faiths, and none, stop and listen.

I’ve read much of his work over the years, but over time I’ve become increasingly disenchanted. In the abstract, Sacks is a great moral educator who can draw on Jewish scripture to make universal observations about justice, kindness, compassion, tolerance and political leadership. But when it comes to the greatest moral issue facing Jews and Judaism today, Israel and the Palestinians, he offers nothing but dumbed-down history and a version of Judaism that sells it short and denies another people their heritage and story.

All of this is on show in the Rabbi’s latest video. It’s one of several he’s made and they’re all designed to reach a broader audience than his books. I dealt with his animated distortions and untruths about BDS in an earlier post.

This new video is more significant. It’s an attempt to make any critical debate about Zionism impossible.

Sacks’ international standing means even his cartoon capers will be taken seriously no matter how dumbed-down and prejudiced is his presentation of Judaism and Jewish history.

A Closed Debate

Notice in Sacks’ opening narration that his question is not “Is Anti-Zionism the new antisemitism?” but “How is anti-Zionism the new antisemitism?”.

The starting point is the assertion that anti-Zionism can be nothing other than antisemitism. Counter to the tradition that two Jews will always produce three opinions, Sacks makes clear that this particular subject is not open to the usual rabbinical rigour applied to the interpretation of matters of Jewish law or indeed any other subject of Jewish interest. When it comes to Zionism, only one interpretation is kosher.

Remember, Sacks doesn’t make these videos for a Jewish religious audience. He makes them for the secular world of politics in which he knows that Zionism is becoming a highly contested ideology because of its consequences for the Palestinian people.

<ore

https://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2019/05/13/the-lord-himself-in-defense-of-zionism/

Mueller Report Proves That It’s Time to Investigate the Investigators

Now that President Trump has been exonerated of the false accusations of collusion and obstruction, it is time to investigate the investigators.

The White House has justly praised the outcome of special counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation for clearing the president of the odious charges that have hung over his presidency since even before his inauguration. The Mueller report overall was favorable to the president, but it also should be remembered as the Mueller special counsel’s final abuse of power. There were nearly 200 pages of irrelevancies about Russia collusion, but it couldn’t disguise the fact that all of those alleged contacts between the Russians and the Trump campaign amounted to nothing, legally or substantively. And the fact remains that the institutional climate in the Justice Department has been so hostile to the president that we can be certain that, if there had been even a scintilla of evidence supporting a criminal indictment, it would have been pursued.

Liberal members of Congress and their media allies are furious with Attorney General William Barr because he blew up the Mueller report smear job before it was out of the box. The Mueller team wanted to drop its 448-page bomb on the American people, who then would have had to sort through the innuendo and fake legal analysis without context. To his great credit, the attorney general imposed necessary discipline on the release, explaining to Congress and the American people in stark terms that there was no collusion and no obstruction. For this truth-telling, he faces impeachment threats, not plaudits, from the Democratic-media swamp.

The continuing argument over “obstruction” fits with the evident agenda of the anti-Trump Mueller team to create lingering political difficulties for the president, even though he has been cleared of legal jeopardy. Some of the Mueller operation’s so-called obstruction theories are ridiculous, such as that the president could not object to being targeted for investigation. Is it now a crime for someone falsely accused to be upset about it? Mueller presumes guilt and then refuses to “exonerate” President Trump. This turns our legal system upside down and shows the rule of law is no bar to smearing President Trump.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/mueller-report-proves-that-its-time-to-investigate-the-investigators/

REVEALED: New 'deal of the century' details shows minimal Israeli concessions

US diplomat says the only concession asked of Israel is freezing settlement building at the heart of the West Bank for five years

Under the US plan known as "the deal of the century", the Israeli military would retain control over settlements, the Jordan Valley and borders for five years as final status negotiations continue, a senior US diplomat working on the deal has told Middle East Eye.

The plan, as described by the official, would cement the status quo between Israelis and Palestinians and the only concession asked of the Israelis would be freezing settlement building at the heart of the West Bank during the initial five-year period.

Among the most detailed information yet published about the "deal of the century", MEE can reveal that according to the plan Gaza would be under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas would be expected to hand its weapons over to the PA which would continue to cooperate with Israel on security.

But it was not clear what would happen at the end of the five years or what the consequences would be if Hamas refused to give up its weapons.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk about the issue to the media, said the deal is meant to be “a vision”, rather than a detailed plan, and the role of the American side will be as a "facilitator”, not a mediator or arbitrator.

“It’s up to the parties. They can have two states, one state, confederation, federation or whatever they like to call it,” he said.

The controversial deal, which has been the subject of ongoing speculation and leaks, is now expected to be released next month, a year after a flurry of reports suggested the deal, already delayed even then, would be unveiled imminently.

The US diplomat also said:

The Old City of Jerusalem would be recognised as Israeli with Palestinians only given access to holy sites. Jewish settlements and communities in the city would also be considered Israeli, but Palestinian neighbourhoods would be part of a Palestinian entity.

While Israeli settlement building in the West Bank would be frozen for five years, Israel could continue to build settlements in areas expected to be part of Israel in a final deal. West Bank settlers would be given a choice after the final deal to stay or move out.

A major part of the plan will be economic incentives, and the US administration has been seeking large donations to fund the peace agreement. Expected donors include Arab Gulf countries, the US, EU, Japan and China.

The plan would also create a regional umbrella for the peace process that includes Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and others.

The issue of settlements, the Jordan Valley, borders and refugees will be on the negotiation table in final status talks.

“The plan does not respond to 100 percent of the claims of both parties, it’s something in the middle,” he said.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/deal-of-the-century-revealed-israel-palestine-conflict-us-trump-kushner

Jared Kushner’s ignorant incitement against Palestinians

Last week, President Donald Trump’s Middle-East advisor and son in law Jared Kushner spoke at a dinner hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (a spinoff of the Israel lobby group AIPAC). On the question of the ‘2-state solution’ in the context of the promised ‘deal of the century’, his suggestion was “let’s just not say it”.

Kushner was evasive and vague, with expressions such as:

Success can look like a lot of different things. It can look like an agreement, it can look like a discussion, it could lead to closer cooperation, maybe resolve a couple of issues, maybe not?

But he was quite clear when he incited against Palestinians, saying:

There’s a lot of impatience with the Palestinian issue… People have been funding this thing for a long time. They’ve gotten more aid than any group of people in history, and what we have to show for it is really not much at this point, unfortunately.

Jared Kushner was actually wrong, critically wrong. The Washington Post did a fact check on his claim of “more aid than any group of people in history” and reached an interesting conclusion. “Now, let’s compare the Palestinians with the Israelis”, wrote Glenn Kessler. His conclusion:

Israel has been getting an average of $3.5 billion a year for 66 years — just from the United States — while the Palestinians have received about $1.7 billion a year from international donors.

Aid to Israel far outstrips aid to Palestinians

Kessler detailed the funding to Israel:

The State Department’s foreign aid database shows that U.S. aid to Israel totaled $228 billion in constant 2017 dollars between 1951 and 2017. U.S. assistance to Israel was especially significant in some years, topping $10 billion in 1974 and $13 billion in 1979. These figures were so unexpectedly high that we confirmed them with the State Department to make sure the calculations were correct.

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/05/kushners-incitement-palestinians/

“US-Gate”? Overthrowing Other People’s Governments: The Master List of U.S. “Regime Changes”

GR Editor’s Note

This incisive list countries by the late William Blum was first published in 2013, posted on Global Research in 2014.

In relation to recent developments in Latin America and the Middle East, it is worth recalling the history of US sponsored military coups and “soft coups” aka regime changes.

In a bitter irony, under the so-called “Russia probe” the US is accusing Moscow of interfering in US politics.

This article reviews the process of overthrowing sovereign governments through military coups, acts of war, support of terrorist organizations, covert ops in support of regime change. Needless to say, while “US-Gate” is not an issue, this list in nonetheless revealing.

In recent developments, the Trump administration is supportive of a US sponsored regime change in Venezuela and Cuba

The legacy of William Blum lives

https://www.globalresearch.ca/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list-of-u-s-regime-changes/5400829

The CIA: Keepers of the Hit Lists. War Crimes as Policy

This article was first crossposted in May 2013.

In February the Guardian and BBC Arabic unveiled a documentary exploring the role of retired Colonel James Steele in the recruitment, training and initial deployments of the CIA advised and funded Special Police Commandos in Iraq.

The documentary tells how the Commandos tortured and murdered tens of thousands of Iraqi men and boys. But the Commandos were only one of America’s many weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Along with US military forces – which murdered indiscriminately – and various CIA funded death squads – which murdered selectively – and the CIA’s rampaging palace guard – the 5,000 man strong Iraq Special Operations Forces – the Commandos were part of a genocidal campaign that killed about 10% of the Sunni Arabs of Iraq by 2008, and drove about half of all Sunnis from their homes.

Including economic sanctions, and a 50 year history of sabotage and subversion, America and its Iraqi collaborators visited far more death and destruction on Iraq than Saddam Hussein and his regime.

For the last few weeks, American pundits have been cataloguing the horrors. They tell how the Bush and Obama regimes, united in the unstated policy of war crimes, probably murdered more than a million Iraqis, displaced around five million, and imprisoned and tortured hundreds of thousands without trial.

A few have further explained that the dictatorial administrative detention laws, torture, and executions that characterize the occupation are still in place under Prime Minister Maliki. The prime minister’s office, notably, is where the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau is currently ensconced.

All of this meets the definition of genocide in the Genocide Convention, and violates multiple articles of the Geneva Conventions, which guarantee protection to civilians in time of war. But the responsible Americans have gone unpunished for their war crimes, not least of which was falsifying intelligence about Iraq’s non-existent weapon of mass destruction as a pretext for the invasion. British legal advisors repeatedly warned their government that invading Iraq would be a crime of aggression, which they called “one of the most serious offenses under international law.”

For anyone familiar with the CIA, this was predictable. But the US Government, through secrecy and censorship, destroyed much of the hard evidence of its war crimes, making it harder to prove. And the media is content to revise history and focus public attention on front men like Steele, rather than the institutions – in particular the CIA – for whom they work.

History, however, provides contextual evidence that what happened in Iraq amounts to a policy of carefully planned war crimes. Indeed, the CIA modeled the Iraqi Special Police Commandos on the Special Police forces it organized and funded in Vietnam. In November 2000, Counterpunch published an article describing how Congressman Rob Simmons, while serving as a CIA officer in Vietnam, created the Special Intelligence Force Unit (SIFU) on which the Iraqi Special Police Commandos are very likely modeled. This is only one of many historical examples of the CIA’s modus operandi.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cia-keepers-of-the-hit-lists-war-crimes-as-policy/5337367

Caring "Ruler"? Guaido Calls on EU to Impose More Sanctions on Venezuela

Opposition leader Juan Guaido, who proclaimed himself the interim president of Venezuela in January 2019, earlier admitted that he considers a US military intervention to be a viable option to resolve the ongoing political crisis in his country.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has called on the European Union via Twitter to impose more sanctions on his country in order to apply pressure on the government of elected President Nicolas Maduro, whom Guaido seeks to oust. He believes that such pressure could force the government to open up for foreign humanitarian aid, which Maduro has slammed as an attempt to undermine the country's independence.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/201905131074973187-guaido-eu-sanctions-venezuela/

Border Patrol Flies Migrants from South Texas to Reduce Overcrowding

U.S. Border Patrol officials are now using air transportation to move migrants from overcrowded processing centers to lesser-impacted facilities, particularly from the Rio Grande Valley Sector.

On Friday, officials in the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector began flying migrants from McAllen, Texas, to Del Rio, Texas, the Washington Post reported. The flights are operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but the migrants remain in the custody of Border Patrol.

The Post reported that the flights are aimed at moving single adults and family units from South Texas detention facilities as authorities prepare for even-larger numbers of family units and unaccompanied minors. These types of flights are highly unusual for Border Patrol, the newspaper reported. The agency resorted to utilizing flights which carry up to 135 souls because all buses are being utilized to transport migrants from the border to the initial processing centers. The flights are said to cost taxpayers about $16,000 each or about $120 per migrant.

San Angelo Live reported that migrants are being flown to Laughlin Air Force Base near Del Rio. Border Patrol officials then utilize buses to move the migrants to the Border Patrol station. Border Patrol officials stress these are “non-criminal alien family units.”

After processing, the Del Rio Sector will likely release family units with no criminal history or illnesses into local communities.

ICE officials are also screening family units in the Del Rio Sector for false or fraudulent family claims, Acting ICE Director Matthew T. Albence told Breitbart News in an interview last week.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/05/13/border-patrol-flies-migrants-from-south-texas-to-reduce-overcrowding/

1. I think one hurdle people have with this stuff is denial of the murdering ethic. I do not believe there is one single solitary man who does not understand fully that an impregnated woman has a baby inside her, yet thousands of these men procure abortions for women. Once you grasp that some men will kill their own son or daughter in order to dodge responsibility the idea of Mossad secretly orchestrating 911 in order to further their interests seems quite reasonable - and 2700 dead a minor secondary detail.

1. Usury- People accept obvious extortion in the banking system as the only way to survive. As if under a spell.

1. Taxes- People do not even loosely believe that gov't has their interest in mind, yet they continue to pay out of irrational fear.

1. The military in the US has become de facto a French Foreign Legion in service to the military industrial complex.

1. "False flag" is more rightly should be called corporate flag. Basic to any crime in motive. 'Hate' gives people indigestion, money gets people out of bed to do complicated stuff.

1. The Holocaust. = It is the corporate boogyman. There are millions of American children who have men in their family tree who died in battle fields of Europe and they know nothing about it. Yet they can name 2 or three concentration camps.

1. Somebody must be in charge of the carefully orchestrated campaign to drive the culture to dependance. The forces must be covert because they are hidden.

Peter Schweizer Reveals Details of Hunter Biden’s Deal With China…His Partners Will Surprise You

Investigative reporter Peter Schweizer, the author of Clinton Cash, completed an in-depth study of Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China. It was Schweizer who first revealed that Hunter Biden’s private equity firm received a $1 billion investment within two weeks of accompanying his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on an official trip there. The cash infusion came from a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China and it wasn’t long before the investment increased to $1.5 billion.

Schweizer and his team of investigators spent two years researching cases in which families and friends of powerful politicians have benefited handsomely from those interested in “currying favor with their influential parents.” In his book, entitled “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,” Schweitzer provides some interesting details about Hunter Biden’s dubious dealings with China.

Schweizer reports that Hunter Biden and his business partners created a group of LLCs to conduct their deals with Chinese government-owned companies. The largest LLC was their private equity firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners, which was founded in 2009. This firm was controlled by Hunter Biden, long-time business partner Devon Archer and, lo and behold, Chris Heinz, who happens to be the stepson of former Secretary of State and Senator, John Kerry.

Rosemont also partnered with the Thornton Group, a consulting company run by James Bulger, who was named after his uncle, the notorious mob hitman James “Whitey” Bulger.

In 2010, the principles of Rosemont Seneca and the Thornton Group, headed to China to meet with business officials there. On their Chinese language website, Thornton reported the reason for the meeting was to “explore the possibility of commercial cooperation and opportunity.” It said that “Chinese executives “extended their warm welcome” to the “Thornton Group, with its US partner Rosemont Seneca chairman Hunter Biden (second son of the now Vice President Joe Biden).”

Schweitzer points out this information was not reported on the English-speaking web site.

He also notes that the meeting “occurred just hours before Hunter Biden’s father, the vice president, met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington as part of the Nuclear Security Summit.”

According to Schweizer, The Bank of China founded an investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR) shortly after the Biden’s December 2013 official trip to China. BHR’s website listed Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC as one of it’s founding partners.

Yet, “Chris Heinz claims neither he, nor Rosemont Seneca Partners, the firm he had part ownership of, had any role in the deal with Bohai Harvest. Nonetheless, Biden, Archer and the Rosemont name became increasingly involved with China. Archer became the vice chairman of Bohai Harvest, helping oversee some of the fund’s investments.”

Schweizer writes that “several of BHR’s investments had major implications for national security.” He explains:

https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2019/05/13/peter-schweizer-reveals-details-hunter-bidens-deal-china…his-partners-will-surprise

Retail Giant PetSmart Names PETA in Spying Lawsuit

PetSmart says PETA paid operative to gain employment, illegally record conversations

Pet superstore PetSmart has filed a lawsuit against PETA, claiming a former employee who illegally filmed internal operations was being paid by and acting with orders from the animal-rights group that aims to fully eradicate pet ownership.

PetSmart had already filed a lawsuit against the employee, Jenna Jordan, for lying on her job application and proceeding to transmit secretly recorded audio and video to PETA. The newly filed lawsuit, however, names both Jordan and PETA as the defendants.

The lawsuit alleges that Jordan was on the receiving end of both "funding and logistical support" from PETA while she was employed by PetSmart. It says Jordan lied on her job application by omitting her employment with PETA, as well as the fact that she had previously been fired by a zoo for secretly collecting information on its operations for PETA.

"When Jordan applied to work at PetSmart in March 2017, Jordan deliberately concealed from PetSmart that she was a PETA agent and operative with a clear and obvious conflict of interest preventing her from discharging her duties and honoring the common law and contractual duties that she owed to PetSmart as a PetSmart employee," the lawsuit says.

It says Jordan began to record conversations with her manager, Justine Glassmoyer, on her first day of employment. Glassmoyer is a plaintiff along with PetSmart in the lawsuit.

"At PETA’s direction and acting as its agent, Jordan intercepted and recorded the conversations surreptitiously and without Ms. Glassmoyer’s consent," it says. "At PETA’s direction and acting as its agent, Jordan then transmitted each of these recordings to PETA’s office in Norfolk, Virginia, in furtherance of PETA’s public smear campaign against PetSmart."

The lawsuit claims Jordan's recordings were used to damage both the store and its employees.

"PETA deceptively edited the unlawfully recorded conversations and published the deceptively edited video as part of a promotional video intended to damage and discredit PetSmart," it says.

It also claims Jordan neglected the well-being of animals due to her focus on hurting the store.

PETA has previously declined to comment on the allegations against Jordan.

https://freebeacon.com/issues/retail-giant-petsmart-names-peta-in-spying-lawsuit/

Ocasio-Cortez Suggests Top Democratic Presidential Candidates Are As Dumb As Sea Sponges

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said “you’d have to have the social intelligence of a sea sponge” to take her climate apocalypse prediction literally.

However, thousands of environmental activists and at least five Democratic presidential candidates have repeated the talking point.

Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal is also built on the incorrect claim there’s only 12 years left to avert catastrophic global warming.

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said “you’d have to have the social intelligence of a sea sponge” to take her literally when she invoked a 12-year deadline to stop “world ending” global warming.

However, at least five Democrats running for president in 2020 invoked the “12 years left” talking point as a sign of how seriously they took climate change to build support among the environmental left.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/13/ocasio-cortez-12-year-climate-literal/

Classic Occasional-Cortex

AWKWARD: Creepy Biden Tells New Hampshire Crowd He’s Running For President to Make America Great Again

This was awkward.

Creepy Hands Biden made his first 2020 presidential campaign stop in New Hampshire Monday morning and it was major cringe.

Speaking at a pizza joint in Hampton, Creepy Hands Biden said in a very low energy voice that he’s running for president to basically make America great again.

“The situation is that I’m running three reasons: I wanna restore the soul of this country and secondly and I wanna quite frankly rebuild the backbone of this country…the middle class, and thirdly what I want to do is…unite the country,” Biden said, ripping off of Trump’s MAGA message.

So, Biden wants to MAGA.

At least Biden didn’t say he wants to make America straight again like he did a few weeks ago while speaking to reporters just hours after he launched his 2020 White House bid in Delaware.

WATCH (try not to fall asleep):

Biden opens up his stump speech in Hampton, NH saying he wants to “unite” the country pic.twitter.com/sCYZpQPXNR

— Stephanie Murray (@StephMurr_Jour) May 13, 2019

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/05/awkward-creepy-biden-tells-new-hampshire-crowd-hes-running-for-president-to-make-america-great-again-video/

1 year delta 14 May 2018

Robert Steele & Bill Binney — Broken US Politics & Mass Surveillance — Video Interviews

Steele:

https://youtu.be/STYyisN5I7c

Binney:

https://youtu.be/nXdGD_NvgCU

Banks blaming Trump

The cost of Trump’s tariffs has fallen ‘entirely’ on US businesses and households: Goldman

Goldman Sachs said the cost of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump last year against Chinese goods has fallen “entirely” on American businesses and households, with a greater impact on consumer prices than previously expected.

The bank said in a note that the trade war’s impact on U.S. consumer prices is now higher than previously expected, partly because Chinese exporters have not lowered their prices to better compete in the US market

“One might have expected that Chinese exporters of tariff-affected goods would have to lower their prices somewhat to compete in the US market, sharing in the cost of the tariffs,” Goldman said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/12/goldman-trump-tariff-costs-fall-entirely-on-us-businesses-households.html