Tech Billionaire Who ‘Helped Repair’ Jeffrey Epstein’s Reputation Gives $1.5 Million to Biden Super PAC

A tech billionaire who has previously apologized for “helping to repair” dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s reputation has donated $1.5 million to a super PAC supporting Joe Biden’s presidential run.

The donor, LinkedIn founder and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman, has been pouring money into the Unite the Country PAC — which spent millions in Iowa and Super Tuesday states.

The super PAC took in $4.2 million in February, with a sizable chunk of it coming from Hoffman. They are currently running advertisements repeating two debunked claims about President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the Free Beacon reports.

“Hoffman—the PAC’s largest donor with $1.5 million in contributions—acknowledged he had several interactions with Epstein. The billionaire tech mogul said he put Epstein in contact with others for fundraising purposes after the child molester had been charged with sex crimes. In August 2015, Hoffman invited Epstein and Joi Ito, the former director of MIT’s Media Lab, to dinner in California,” the Free Beacon report explains.

In an apology letter for aiding Epstein, Hoffman admitted that he “helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice.”

“Prior to these interactions, I was told by Joi that Epstein had cleared the MIT vetting process, which was the basis for my participation,” Hoffman said in an apology letter published by Axios last September. “My last interaction with Epstein was in 2015. Still, by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice.”

Hoffman has also apologized for funding a $750,000 disinformation campaign in Alabama targeting Roy Moore that aided his Democrat opponent, who narrowly won.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/tech-billionaire-who-helped-repair-jeffrey-epsteins-reputation-gives-1-5-million-to-biden-super-pac/

https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/billionaire-who-helped-rehab-jeffrey-epstein-image-drops-million-boost-biden/

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell Has Tested Positive for Coronavirus

NBCUniversal’s CEO Jeff Shell has informed the company that he has tested positive for the Chinese coronavirus.

Shell, 55, alerted the staff of his diagnosis in a memo in which he said that he is asymptomatic and will be self-quarantined and working from home.

“I recently have been feeling under the weather and just learned that I have tested positive for Covid-19,” Shell wrote in the email, CNBC reports. “Although the virus has been tough to cope with, I have managed to work remotely in L.A. and am improving every day.”

Shell replaced Steve Burke as CEO last year.

Larry Edgeworth, 61, an NBC News technician with preexisting conditions passed away last week from the virus. He was a longtime employee at their 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters in New York

“As we have heard from medical professionals, those with underlying health concerns are sadly the most vulnerable,” NBC News Chairman Andy Lack wrote Friday morning.

Stacy Brady, NBCUniversal’s executive vice president of field and production operations, said he was known as the “gentle giant who would give you the shirt off his back.”

“Larry was a gentle bear of a man, the heart and soul of our extended NBC family,” Andrea Mitchell, NBC News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent, said. “I was always cheered and reassured knowing he was on the team in the field. He always had my back whether here in the U.S. or in the most dangerous situations around the world.”

At least two other NBC News employees also tested positive in the days surrounding his death.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/nbcuniversal-ceo-jeff-shell-has-tested-positive-for-coronavirus/

Washington brings NARCO-TERRORISM charges against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

The US has indicted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on “narco-terrorism” charges. The play is a familiar one, as Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega was slapped with similar charges before a US invasion 30 years ago.

Maduro and 14 current and former Venezuelan government and military officials were indicted on Thursday by courts in Florida, New York and Washington DC. According to the Justice Department, Maduro and his cohorts conspired with Colombian guerillas to “flood” the US with cocaine, transporting the drug to American shores by air and sea.

“The Maduro regime is awash with corruption and criminality,” Attorney General William Barr said at a press conference on Thursday. “This cabal lines their pockets with drug money, and this has to come to an end.”

Barr did not provide any evidence of drug seizures, but claimed the US authorities have observed the trafficking operation at work in Central America.

The State Department offered the $15 million bounty for Maduro, along with rewards of up to $10 million each for information on five Venezuelan political and military leaders.

The indictments – filed against a sitting head of state – are a bold move. Yet Washington has spent more than a year attempting to remove Maduro from power. After Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself ‘interim president’ last January, Washington was quick to recognize him as the Latin American country’s legitimate leader. Rounds of sanctions against the Maduro government followed, and military action was at one point rumored.

Maduro, however, kept the loyalty of his police and military, and remains in power in Caracas.

https://www.rt.com/news/484184-us-justice-department-charges-maduro/

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown Calls For Global Government To Tackle COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic

FROM THE GUARDIAN UK: The former Labour prime minister, Gordon Brown, who was at the centre of the international efforts to tackle the impact of the near-meltdown of the banks in 2008, said there was a need for a taskforce involving world leaders, health experts and the heads of the international organisations that would have executive powers to coordinate the response.

A virtual meeting of the G20 group of developed and developing countries, chaired by Saudi Arabia, will be held on Thursday, but Brown said it would have been preferable to have also included the UN security council.

“This is not something that can be dealt with in one country,” he said. “There has to be a coordinated global response.”

Brown said the current crisis was different to the one he was involved in. “That was an economic problem that had economic causes and had an economic solution.

“This is first and foremost a medical emergency and there has to be joint action to deal with that. But the more you intervene to deal with the medical emergency, the more you put economies at risk.”

During the financial crisis, Brown persuaded other global leaders of the need to bail out the banks and then hosted a meeting of the G20 in London, which came up with a $1.1tn rescue package. Despite Donald Trump’s “America first” policy, he said it was still possible to get support for an emergency body with executive powers.

Brown said his proposed global taskforce would fight the crisis on two fronts. There would need to be a coordinated effort to find a vaccine, and to organize production, purchasing and prevent profiteering.

Many countries have announced economic packages in the past two weeks but Brown said a taskforce could: make sure the efforts of central banks were coordinated; take steps to prevent the record flight of capital from emerging market economies; and agree a joint approach to the use of government spending to boost growth.

Gordon Brown said there had been resistance in 2008 to using the G20 as a vehicle for tackling the financial crisis, but that it should be clear to world leaders that there was no possibility of a go-it-alone approach working.

“We need some sort of working executive,” Brown said. “If I were doing it again, I would make the G20 a broader organisation because in the current circumstances you need to listen to the countries that are most affected, the countries that are making a difference and countries where there is the potential for a massive number of people to be affected – such as those in Africa.”

https://www.nowtheendbegins.com/gordon-brown-calls-for-global-government-covid-19-coronavirus-crisis-new-world-order/

States Lifting Regulations to Help Business During COVID-19 Shows How Useless These Laws Are

From the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, state and local governments responded in various ways from issuing emergency orders⁠—citywide shutdowns⁠ to school closures and beyond⁠—but it’s the suspension of various laws and regulations that is exposing the unnecessary regulatory web that burdens businesses.

As often happens during emergencies, governors and mayors across the country have used executive power to waive laws and bypass regulations. This allows goods to get to the public quicker at lower cost, more service providers to enter struggling industries, and the market to respond to the crisis in countless other ways.

Lifting these regulations does not put public health or safety in jeopardy; if that were the case, they wouldn’t be lifted with such ease. But this should lead the public to question why the regulatory burdens exist at all.

Useless Regulations

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott waived oversize and overweight restrictions for commercial trucks and suspended requirements to register under the International Registration Plan or to obtain temporary registration, as long as the truck is registered in one US state.

Gov. Abbott also waived regulations allowing doctors to receive the same payment for over-the-phone telemedicine visits that they would for in-person visits for patients on state-regulated insurance plans.

Most notably, he waived state laws that prohibit alcohol industry trucks from delivering supplies to grocery stores saying, “by removing these regulations, we are streamlining the process to replenish the shelves in grocery stores across the state.” All of these moves allowed for the market to identify the needs of the public and fill them as quickly as possible.

In Boston, restaurants typically need a specific permit to provide carry-out service, but Mayor Marty Walsh lifted that requirement to allow for every restaurant to offer the service. Even New York City suspended its enforcement of illegal e-bikes during the crisis to accommodate for the influx of delivery orders, the state also moved to allow liquor-to-go.

Supply and Demand

Due to the increased demand, and ability for the supply chain to keep up with that demand, supermarket companies like H-E-B, Kroger, and Randall’s announced they’d be hiring thousands of additional staff. The newfound flexibility on trucking regulations means that grocers like H-E-B are deploying 1,300 trucks a day to continuously supply their stores.

In New Jersey, Bayonne ended enforcement of expired Resident and Driveway Parking permits. They also suspended issuing permits for what they consider “minor work,” like plumbing, electrical, mechanical, fire, and building. As long as contractors alert the city of the work they intend to do, the city will inspect it at a later date.

The ability to suspend these laws without fear of endangering the public opens the door to questioning their purpose. Many of these regulations appear to serve as no more than impediments to free exchange. If these measures exist simply to generate additional government revenue, the public should ask themselves, once the crisis has abated: should they exist at all?

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-laws-red-tape/

UK: Migrants STILL crossing the English Channel

Around 80 people have been intercepted by the Kent coastguard whilst trying to cross from migrant camps in Calais to Dover, South East England in five small boats Kent Online reports. Another boat carrying a dozen immigrants was intercepted by French authorities after a helicopter search.

The English Channel has become a crucial access point to the UK with mostly Middle Eastern men crossing the choppy waters in dangerous dinghies for over a year. Whilst the coastguards have been capturing and detaining these illegal immigrants, there have been reports of detainees being released and going missing and of new arrivals landing on beaches before disappearing into England. Open borders advocacy groups such as Care4Calais have described these criminals as desperate yet there are cases of Channel migrants refusing to be rescued by the French authorities, determined to get to Britain.

The MP for Dover and Deal, Natalie Elphicke has responded to the recent crossings calling for migrants to be quarantined for two weeks with the added problem of the coronavirus. Her tough talking has been echoed by the Home Secretary Priti Patel who is seeking support to ban flights from countries worst affected by COVID-19.

It’s worth remembering that the governing Conservative Party has been in power for ten years, failing to meet immigration targets and overseeing a rise in non-EU immigration since the 2016 vote for Brexit. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has previously called for an amnesty for illegal immigrants.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2020/03/uk-migrants-still-crossing-the-english-channel/