Category Archives: Biden administration

Musk Faces Hard Forces to Complete the Purchase of Twitter

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The actual closing date of the sale to Elon Musk is October 24, 2022. If there are issues with the sale and an exit attempt for either side, each party could be liable for a $1 billion penalty. Could that happen? The answer is yes for various reason. Details are here.

The Left cannot stand free speech or what they think is a monopoly. Former President Obama and the Biden White House has issued statements recently giving clues they are interested in continued censorship under the guise of damage to information and discourse. Very little attention was paid to a DHS bulletin from February of 2022 and includes in part:

The Department of Homeland Security’s latest terrorism threat bulletin includes a warning against “the proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions.”

The bulletin, issued Monday and in effect until at least June 7, blamed an “online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis-, dis- and mal-information introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors.

“These threat actors seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence,” DHS went on. Source

But what about lies or purposeful omissions as ‘mal-information’?

A new report published last Thursday tracked more than 600 cases of pro-Biden censorship on Big Tech platforms in two years.

The Media Research Center, through its CensorTrack database, said it found 646 cases of instances where people who criticized Biden on Twitter or Facebook had their comments deleted, received speech restrictions, or were outright banned.

However…there is more….this could be an extraordinary development –>

Screen Shot 2022-04-26 at 10.49.55 AM.png Who are these people you ask?

The Open Markets Institute works to address threats to our democracy, individual liberties, and our national security from today’s unprecedented levels of corporate concentration and monopoly power.

Launched as an independent organization in September 2017, Open Markets uses research and journalism to expose the dangers of monopolization, identifies changes in policy and law to address them, and educates policymakers, academics, movement groups, and other influential stakeholders to establish open, competitive markets that support a strong, just, and inclusive democracy. We focus especially closely on the new and growing threats that online “platform monopolies” pose to the free exchange of news, information, and ideas. Our team possesses deep expertise in how monopoly power distorts outcomes in major markets, ranging from the technology sector to agriculture to pharmaceuticals to transportation.  Prior to 2017, the Open Markets Team spent eight years studying, speaking, and writing about the problem of market concentration as the Open Markets Program at New America.

By combining policy, legal, and market structure expertise with sophisticated communications and outreach efforts, Open Markets seeks not only to hold today’s monopolies accountable for abuse of power, but to rebuild an economic system where progress is easier to achieve, because power is far more widely and equitably distributed.

Our work includes:

• Shining a light on monopoly power and its dangers to democracy through original newsletters, op-eds and articles, videos, events, and special features on a broad range of topics that reach large, diverse audiences.

• Laying out solutions and influencing enforcement and policymaking at the state, federal, and international level through in-depth policy reports, testimony, comment letters, and petitions.

• Engaging directly in the law by filing amicus briefs to shape outcomes in court cases that affect monopoly power and educate the broader legal community.

• Investing in extensive communications and outreach efforts to cultivate a broad range of allies and ensure our ideas don’t sit on the shelf.

• Engaging in civil society and grassroots coalitions, such as Freedom From Facebook and 4Competition, to bring movement energy to bear on targeted policy objectives.

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Do you see the hidden forces out there coming to the light? Rather ironic and hypocritical right?

 

Dead Russian Oligarchs and those Still Alive

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Many mysterious deaths of Russian oligarchs have gained the attention of those following the wealth of Russians and Putin…

In part from Newsweek:

Two Russian oligarchs were found dead this week alongside their family in luxurious homes in Russia and Spain, with the two cases discovered within 24 hours of each other.

Both deaths are believed by police to be cases of murder-suicide, but the evidence supporting these theories is muddled by the fact that the events happened so close together, with the two oligarchs the last of several who have been found to have died by suicide since the beginning of the year.

The longer list includes Sergey Protosenya, Vladislav Avaev, Vasily Melnikov, Mikhail Watford, Alexander Tyulyakov and Leonid Shulman. Click here to read their resumes and reported death details.

There are many many more oligarchs that are for sure getting their affairs in order meaning hiding their assets and hiding themselves or are simply laundering their reputations…from whom and what is quite crazy too. They are paying for higher security of themselves and their families and their assets while some are making donations to Western entities to save face as well as to keep off of sanctions lists by many governments.

In part, an initial database of oligarchic donations to more than 200 of the most prestigious nonprofits in the U.S. — from museums to universities to think tanks. Recipients included some of the country’s foremost institutions, such as Harvard University, the Brookings Institution, and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. U.S. nonprofits even accepted funds from the richest oligarchs in Russia. Vladimir Potanin, considered Russia’s wealthiest oligarch, successfully donated to multiple significant U.S. nonprofits, including the Kennedy Center and Guggenheim Museum. And he didn’t stop at donations: Potanin managed to obtain seats on the Guggenheim’s board of trustees and the global advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. All of this transpired despite Potanin’s “close” relationship with Putin and the fact that, as author David Hoffman describes in his groundbreaking 2011 book, The Oligarchs, Potanin acted as the “ringleader” for the oligarchs as they seized assets and political power in the mid-1990s. Read more here.

Then there is Hollywood A-Listers and those relationships with a number of Russian oligarchs….those celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jack Nicholson, Kanye West, Mariah Carey, Leonardo Di Caprio and Brad Pitt.

There is nothing wrong with these international relationships…right? Well, that is to be determined given who is part of illicit activities globally and that does take some real research. You see, Putin exploits oligarchs for political and monetary reasons and locations across the world include the United States, Turkey, Greece and Britain.

Alex Finley, a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, explains how sanctions that target Russian assets in the West can have a direct impact on President Vladimir Putin’s personal wealth. Finley tells Yahoo News, “Putin holds very little money actually in his own name,” but adds that he maintains his fortune through funds taken out of Russia by oligarchs and stashed in offshore tax havens and companies with anonymous ownership structures.

Oligarchs hold investment interests in real estate, metals, mining, telecoms, and technology and soccer clubs. New York, Miami and London are favorite locations for international real estate and of course there are those that have concealed their identities by making acquisitions through LLCs or offshore trusts.

Only a documentary can put it all in context but Hollywood types hardly have the guts to produce such a piece and then there are the questions of our own Federal government actually sanctioning all those that should be for various reasons due to the devastating invasion/war against Ukraine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But there is a book, a real book that led to several countries adapting a new law called the Magnitsky Act…including the United States.

 

Ukrainian Hackers Take Aim at Russian Artillery, Navigation

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Primer: There are several global hacking groups taking on all things Russia and some have moved their targets to Belarus, now a nation state of Russia. The BBC reported recently the following in part:

The Anonymous hacktivist collective has been bombarding Russia with cyber-attacks since declaring “cyber war” on President Vladimir Putin in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. Several people operating under its banner spoke to the BBC about their motives, tactics and plans.

Of all the cyber-attacks carried out since the Ukraine conflict started, an Anonymous hack on Russian TV networks stands out.

The hack was captured in a short video clip which shows normal programming interrupted with images of bombs exploding in Ukraine and soldiers talking about the horrors of the conflict.

The video began circulating on the 26 February and was shared by Anonymous social media accounts with millions of followers. “JUST IN: #Russian state TV channels have been hacked by #Anonymous to broadcast the truth about what happens in #Ukraine,” one post read.

It quickly racked up millions of views.

Prominent hackers target Russia's satellite infrastructure | CyberNews source

Additionally, the WSJ reports in part:

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian technology workers have taken part in cyberattacks against Russia’s government, media and financial institutions in recent days, a top Ukrainian cybersecurity official said Friday.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine just over a week ago, Ukraine’s sprawling and fast-growing technology industry says it has sprung to action not only to keep working but also to support the country’s resistance by helping with cyberattacks against Russia.

The IT Army could number more than 400,000 people inside and outside the country, and it has done more than deface or take down Russian websites, said Viktor Zhora, deputy chief of Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection, which is responsible for cybersecurity in the country.

Mr. Zhora said the IT Army, members of which have taken credit for temporarily knocking an array of Russian government and bank websites offline, has also helped their country by providing intelligence and attacking military systems. He also said the movement has attempted to circumvent Russian domestic censorship of news about the war by sending Russian individuals information and pictures about the war by phone, text and messaging app.

A group of Ukrainian hackers says it has found ways to disrupt Russian military units’ navigation and is working on ways to disrupt artillery fire as well.

The nearly two dozen volunteers of the CyberPan Ukraine group work with the Ukrainian military and get funds from sources in Israel and the United States, group members told Defense One.

In the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, one member said, the group has found ways to keep some field units from receiving signals from the GLONASS system, Russia’s version of the U.S. GPS satellite navigation constellation. Lost Russian forces are easier to find and target than ones that know where they are going.

Currently, the group is looking for ways to disrupt artillery fire, at least from systems that employ precision guidance systems. The member said the group has identified several computer servers linked to Russian rockets.

“We found many mistakes inside the system,” he said.

Poor communications tech has hobbled the Russian war effort. Its Era secure cellphones aren’t working, in part because the invading forces destroyed many of the system’s cell towers, Bellingcat investigator Cristo Grovez said on March 7. This has forced many Russian units to use unencrypted phones, whose calls have been picked up by Ukrainian forces, foreign journalists, and others.

Russia does have better communication equipment, like software-defined radios such as the R-187P1 Azart and R-168-5UN-2.

“The impression provided by the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) over the years has been that this equipment was widespread and that the majority of the Russian Armed Forces (RuAF) were operating digital radios and systems designed to facilitate planning and decision-making,” Sam Cranny-Evans and Thomas Withington wrote in a March 9 article for the Royal United Services Institute.” But that clearly isn’t the case, the authors note.

Meanwhile, Russian state media have reported that the government is investigating corruption allegations against some Russian makers of communications equipment. 

Some of the communications problems are likely due to poor preparation of the invasion force, said Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and an adviser at the CNA Corporation.

“Some were not fully aware they were going into an actual war [but] thinking they were part of a military drill,” Bendett said. “Perhaps they did not fully combat-proof their comms equipment as a result, and that is how Ukrainians are able to intercept.”

Bendett also pointed out that the United States and other allies were training and equipping Ukraine, which has had years to prepare for this invasion.

“The Ukrainian military knows what technology the Russian military uses and this preparation gave them the opportunity to learn how to disrupt Russian comms,” he said.

Migrants from 4 Countries, including Russia, Arrive in the Florida Keys

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The makeshift fishing boat was actually flying a large American flag. It is unclear if the migrants were actually residents of Cuba, however the investigation continues. They are all presently in the custody of the Border Patrol with the assistance of the Coast Guard and the FBI. They were later loaded into a commercial truck for detention transport after some were in fact found at a beach cafe. Border Patrol says they will be deported.

cuban chug at beach.jpg source

 

MIAMI (Tribune News Service) — U.S. Border Patrol agents took 77 migrants into custody over the weekend in the Florida Keys, including several from former Soviet bloc countries, federal officials said Monday.

The Border Patrol said the groups were caught during seven separate landings, and that the migrants came from four different countries.

While most of the arrivals were from Cuba, a sports fishing yacht pulled into the shallow waters off Key West around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, unloading four people from Kazakhstan, nine people from Russia and two from Kyrgyzstan, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said on background.

Federal officials did not offer specifics of that incident Monday, except for releasing a statement that it was likely a human smuggling operation.

“Smugglers have no regard for the lives of migrants, and far too many lives are lost at sea as individuals take the dangerous journey in makeshift boats, rafts, and other vessels ill-equipped to handle the rough waters. The Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and local law enforcement patrol the waters, and individuals attempting to enter the United States by sea, without a lawful basis to enter, will be subject to removal.”

The landings come as the Border Patrol and Coast Guard are dealing with a surge in maritime migration from Cuba and Haiti to South Florida, numbers not seen in several years. The Keys and the island chain’s surrounding waters have been the migrants’ most frequent destination.

Last week, one man from Cuba was found dead in a migrant vessel that arrived with six survivors off Summerland Key in the Lower Keys.

The people on the boat said others in their group were missing at sea. The Coast Guard called off its search for those people over the weekend.

So, Why Did the NYT’s Finally Validate the Hunter Biden Laptop Story?

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It was October of 2020….the story broke in a big way…but big tech and big media dismissed it all in favor of Joe Biden…could it be that the NYT’s is really telling the country that Joe Biden himself is no longer worthy of being president much less for a second term? (his failures mount to the nation and the world mount)

As a reminder, the laptop contained emails, files, messages, photos and documents of the Biden family operations and overseas operations and the huge money involved.

Remember there was a presidential debate between Trump and Biden where Trump called out the whole matter of the laptop and Biden responded that the leaders (50 of them) of the intelligence community signed a letter declaring it was Russia disinformation.

Those officials included General Michael Hayden (a former director of both the CIA and NSA); John Brennan (former CIA Director); James Clapper (former Director of National Intelligence); and Leon Panetta (former CIA Director).

That happened in cadence with media and big tech repeating the same thing. Then there was that moment when Tony Bobulinski went on camera to explain all the details and the machine then worked aggressively to discredit Bobulinski, including Politifact, a Poynter Institute. The machine essentially rigged the election….it is reasonable to say that if the laptop story was told honestly and timely….at least it could have changed the vote results in more than one state…chew on that for a while.

There have been thousands and thousands of lies told to us including those by omission….there was CNN, there was MSNBC…there was Facebook and Twitter….and there was CBS and 60 Minutes.

 

Remember that poor computer store owner that was to fix Hunter’s laptop? The machine so worked to destroy him that he not only had to close his business but he had to leave town….where and how does he get his life back? He reached out to the appropriate people to report the contents of the laptop and yet not one agency (read FBI) or person would touch it…so he finally reached out to Rudy Giuliani. Oh…remember when there was a raid on Giuliani’s office and home?

So…come on reader…who do you trust now? Not only do we have this new light on the Hunter scandal, but it festered in the Biden presidential campaign and now in his own White House…then there was the fake Russian bounty story…there was the RussiaGate scandal and of course the January 6th insurrection story of which to date…not one person has been charged with insurrection.

We have the Southern District of New York Attorneys Office, we have the FBI, the Department of Justice, the court system that are supposed to work for us….while some pieces of these institutions do work for us…there is an operation that is working against us…and we have to include big tech and social media.

Exactly what will the response be from the progressive members of Congress? Silence of course unless we demand otherwise….the public trust is or at least should be broken and that results in a feeble and failing democratic form of government…our Republic is in peril…

Explained: How Joe Biden's son Hunter became a flashpoint in the 2020 US presidential race - The Economic Times

Candidate Biden and now President Biden lied about all things related to the laptop…but the investigation goes on? Yes, including the grand jury. Hunter’s issues began at least for tax crimes in 2018. Then there is the matter of Hunter being an unregistered foreign agent and most of all money laundering. So far…the FBI and the Department of Justice is not responding to questions or issuing comments. There is a continuing Senate investigation however…and our own U.S. Treasury knows more but is stonewalling the documents including money transfers into Rosemont Seneca, the matter of the Elena Baturina and the matter of CEFC with Hudson West. It all does not begin with Hunter Biden, it is a family affair but there are oligarchs, Chinese investment accounts and well even John Kerry’s son-in-law.