Category Archives: Gangs and Crimes

More Legal Cases Still to Come Over the SCOTUS Roe Ruling

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There is no denial that the Federal government has overt abortion activists including beyond the White House, it goes to the Department of Justice and sadly even to the Department of Defense.

Wasting no time, Merrick Garland, the U.S. Attorney General took to Twitter to expose his advocacy for abortion.

“The Supreme Court has eliminated an established right that has been an essential component of women’s liberty for half a century – a right that has safeguarded women’s ability to participate fully and equally in society. And in renouncing this fundamental right, which it had repeatedly recognized and reaffirmed, the Court has upended the doctrine of stare decisis, a key pillar of the rule of law." AG Garland “The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the Court’s decision. This decision deals a devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States. It will have an immediate and irreversible impact on the lives of people across the country. And it will be greatly disproportionate in its effect – with the greatest burdens felt by people of color and those of limited financial means." Attorney General Garland His full published statement is found here.

Garland, like the few Justices on the Supreme Court…just need to read aloud the text of the U.S. Constitution where it refers to a Constitutional right…we’re waiting.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/companies-offering-abortion-travel-benefits-us-workers-2022-06-24/

Meanwhile…there is General Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense….yeesh…but read on…

Axios reported –>

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday that the Pentagon is working to ensure that members of the military, their families and its civilian employees will still have access to “reproductive health care” after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Why it matters: The Defense Department currently does not have a policy to accommodate service members or employees who are seeking an abortion but are stationed in a state that has outlawed abortion, Politico reports.

  • Federal law currently allows military medical facilities to provide abortions only in cases of rape, incest or if a woman’s life is in danger, while the military’s health program is allowed to cover abortions at private facilities for those same reasons only.

What they’re saying: “Nothing is more important to me or to this Department than the health and well-being of our Service members, the civilian workforce and DOD families,” Austin said in a statement on Friday.

  • “I am committed to taking care of our people and ensuring the readiness and resilience of our Force. The Department is examining this decision closely and evaluating our policies to ensure we continue to provide seamless access to reproductive health care as permitted by federal law,” he added.

The big picture: The court’s decision may further strain the military’s recruitment efforts — already hampered by low employment and other factors — as potential recruits may fear being stationed in states that have banned abortions, according to Bloomberg.

  • Women make up around 20% of the military’s 1.3 million-member active-duty force, and 95% of them are of reproductive age, according to Stars and Stripes citing department statistics.

Then..one of the first messages I received was a headline article from Associated Press predicting the stockpiling of abortion pills…imagine the looming black market on those. Then VOX weighed in –> Medication abortion, or taking a combination of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, is an increasingly common method for ending pregnancies in the United States. Reasons vary and overlap: Some women lack access to in-person abortion clinics; others prefer to end pregnancies in the comfort of their own home. Others seek out the pills because they cost far less than surgical abortion. (…)

small but growing number of reproductive experts have been encouraging discussion of an idea called “advance provision” — or, more colloquially, stocking up on abortion pills in case one needs them later.

It’s an idea that has merit: Mifepristone has a shelf life of about five years, misoprostol about two, and both drugs work better the earlier in a pregnancy you take them. In states that are ramping up abortion restrictions, there’s often a race against the clock to access care. In Texas, for example, if you don’t realize until eight weeks in that you’re pregnant — which could be only a couple of weeks after a missed period — you would have already passed the state’s new legal deadline for obtaining abortion pills. But if you had already stored them in your home, or your friend or neighbor had, then you’d be able to take them.

Now…let’s take a look at corporations that have made pledges to pay for abortion expenses…then consider when the lawsuits begin for corporations paying in kind for wanted pregnancies and full term, real birth for planned and wanted babies…will that be considered? Ah…but read on. It is still going to be ugly going forward.

Company
Benefit(s) Offered
JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N)
The company told employees it would pay for their travel to states that allow legal abortions, according to a memo seen by Reuters. read more
Citigroup Inc (C.N)
The bank has started covering travel expenses for employees who go out of state for abortions because of newly enacted restrictions in Texas and other states, becoming the first major U.S. bank to make that commitment. read more
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc will cover travel expenses for its U.S.-based employees who need to go out of state to receive abortion or gender-affirming medical care starting July 1. read more
Meta Platforms Inc. (META.O)
Meta said in statement it intends to offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need access to out-of-state healthcare and reproductive services.
Yelp Inc (YELP.N)
The crowd-sourced review platform will extend its abortion coverage to cover expenses for its employees and their dependents who need to travel to another state for abortion services. read more
Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O)
The second-largest U.S. private employer told employees it will pay up to $4,000 in travel expenses yearly for non-life threatening medical treatments, among them elective abortions. read more
Levi Strauss & CO
The apparel company will reimburse travel expenses for its full- and part-time employees who need to travel to another state for healthcare services, including abortions. read more
United Talent Agency
The private Hollywood talent agency said it would reimburse travel expenses related to women’s reproductive health services that are not accessible in an employee’s state of residence. read more
Tesla Inc (TSLA.O)
Tesla’s Safety Net program and health insurance includes travel and lodging support for its employees who may need to seek healthcare services that are unavailable in their home state, according to the company’s 2021 impact report. (https://bit.ly/3beSOOQ)
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O)
Microsoft said it would extend its abortion and gender affirming care services for employees in the United States to include travel expense assistance. read more
Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O)
Starbucks said it will reimburse U.S. employees and their dependents if they must travel more than 100 miles from their homes to obtain an abortion. read more
Netflix Inc (NFLX.O)
Netflix said it will offer travel reimbursement for U.S. employees and dependents who travel for cancer treatment, transplants, abortion and gender-affirming care through its U.S. health plans.
Mastercard Inc (MA.N)
Mastercard said it will fund travel and lodging for employees seeking abortions outside their home states from June, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. read more
Kroger Co
Kroger said it will provide travel benefits up to $4,000 to facilitate access to several categories of medical treatments and a full range of reproductive health care services, including abortion.
Uber Technologies Inc
Uber said its insurance plans in the United States cover a range of reproductive health benefits, including pregnancy termination and travel expenses to access healthcare.
DoorDash Inc
DoorDash said it will cover certain travel-related expenses for employees who face new barriers to access and need to travel out of state for abortion-related care.
Lyft Inc (LYFT.O)
Lyft said its U.S. medical benefits plan includes coverage for elective abortion and reimbursement for travel costs if an employee must travel more than 100 miles for an in-network provider.
Bank of America Corp
The bank said it will reimburse employees and their dependents for the cost of traveling to receive reproductive healthcare, including abortions.
Deutsche Bank AG
The bank said it is updating its U.S. healthcare policy to cover travel costs for any medical procedure, including abortion, that is not offered within 100 miles of an employees’ home, according to a source familiar.
American Express Co
American Express said it will cover travel and other related expenses for employees and their dependents if they need abortion or gender-affirming treatment that is not available where they live.
Block (SQ.N)
The payments company said it will cover expenses for U.S. employees who must travel more than 100 miles for abortions starting July 1, a source familiar with the matter said.
Macy’s Inc
Macy’s said it made the decision to expand its benefits program to provide travel reimbursement for colleagues to receive the medical care needed and will abide by existing laws and legal standards.
Walt Disney Co
Disney said the company’s benefits will cover the cost of employees who need to travel to another location to access care, including to obtain an abortion, it said. read more
Gucci
Gucci said in May it will cover travel expenses of U.S. employees who need access to health care not available in their home state. The company also has said it will match employee donations to Planned Parenthood.
Bank of Nova Scotia
Scotiabank, Canada’s third-largest bank, said it will pay for travel costs for U.S. employees in states that restrict access for abortions. Its U.S. employees have access to abortion coverage under its medical plan.
And they called Vietnam veterans baby killers….

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.

 

More about those Russian Oligarchs in the U.S.

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We tend to have short memories but we have a chance to recall Russian operatives in the United States during all things RussiaGate. We learned that oligarchs clean dirty money and escape investigations generally through covert real estate transactions not only in the United States but especially in Britain.

With the sanctions…many of them are now scrambling and should be. Remember that Alfa Bank fake scandal tying Donald Trump directly to the bank servers?

OREANDA-NEWS Billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Peter Aven “in the near future” will resign from the board of directors of Alfa-Bank because of the sanctions imposed against them. Businessmen Alexander Galitsky and Sergey Matsotsky will leave the council together with them. On February 28, against the background of the ongoing Russian “special operation” in Ukraine, the EU blacklisted a number of businessmen, military personnel and public figures.

The press service of Alfa-Bank reported that the board of directors will be headed by the president of the credit institution Oleg Sysuev, who previously held the position of first deputy chairman.

Mikhail Fridman also resigned from the board of directors of Veon, the owner of the Vimpelcom mobile operator (Beeline brand). Friedman has been a member of the board of directors of Veon since 2010, 47.9% of the shares of Veon belong to LetterOne, which is part of the Alfa Group of Mikhail Friedman and partners.

After the start of the “operation” of the Russian army in Ukraine, Western countries imposed new sanctions. Among them are personal restrictions on high-ranking officials, including President Vladimir Putin. Also blacklisted were large businessmen, military, parliamentarians and cultural figures.

Earlier, The Secret wrote that the government would spend part of the National Welfare Fund to buy shares of Russian companies. In 2022, up to 1 trillion rubles will be allocated for these purposes.

While Britain is going after their own oligarchs in and around London…good ole’ Miami Beach has some work to do.

Barrons reports in part:

Altogether, Russian buyers accounted for just 0.8% of all foreign buyers who purchased U.S. residential property between April 2015 and March 2021. During that time, total purchases by foreign-born buyers accounted for just 1.8% of total existing-home sales. A little over half of the Russian purchases were all-cash deals, compared with 27% of overall transactions in January.

Florida was the most popular destination for Russian-born buyers, representing 29% of these deals. Georgia was next at 16%, followed by New York at 13%. But as the report notes, even within Florida these transactions represent a mere fraction of overall home purchases. Only 0.2% of the homes sold in Florida between July 2020 and June 2021 were bought by Russian-born individuals.

***

Sunny Isles, Florida, has long been an escape for Russia’s wealthy and elite, who have purchased so much luxury property in the area that it’s become known as “Little Moscow” and “Moscow by the Sea.”

sunny isles beachSunny Isles, Florida. Meinzahn/Getty Images

“They love to be here, and they like to spend their money and enjoy their life,” Lana Bell, a Russian real-estate agent, told the News Nation correspondent Brian Entin on Monday.

President Joe Biden issued sanctions this week that target Russia’s elite and their families and restrict the Kremlin’s ability to access Western financial institutions. Though people in Little Moscow have been worried the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict will threaten their lifestyle and blacklist them from buying American real estate, Entin reported, Bell said it hadn’t been a problem. Experts told the Miami Herald’s Michael Wilner the sanctions in place were unlikely to have a strong effect in South Florida. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday showed the tensions were far from over.

“We are extending the reach of US sanctions to prevent the elites close to Putin from using their kids to hide assets, evade costs, and squander the resources of the Russian people,” a National Security Council official told the Miami Herald. “This is a new approach.”

Anders Åslund, a Swedish economist and the author of “Russia’s Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy,” doesn’t think this will affect the Russian rich in the greater Miami region that Little Moscow is in. He told Wilner that the Miami Russians weren’t powerful enough to feel the sanction burn.

“These are comfortable people, rather than the top people,” he said.

Florida’s Russian rich

In Sunny Isles, condos can cost as much as $35 million. The most expensive home in the area listed on Sotheby’s is $13.9 million. It’s an area where the Trump brand is dominant, which The Washington Post reported was part of the appeal among Russian investors looking to move their money in the post-Soviet economy.

Jose Lima, a salesperson for the company that developed the region’s Trump towers, told The Post in 2016 that Russian speakers bought about one-third of the 500 units he sold. (While Trump doesn’t actually own the buildings, The Post reported, he licensed the use of his name there.)

 

Russia a No-Show at the International Court of Justice

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We have heard that the International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into Putin and being a war criminal. Not only is it on full display for more than a week, but his war crimes go back to the conflict in Syria. At least 39 countries have sent referrals to the ICJ regarding Putin’s full scale invasion of Ukraine. The ICJ is expected to fast track the investigation. This could get messy as Russia is not a member of the International Criminal Court and for that matter neither is the United States.

Putin has justified his invasion of Ukraine claiming genocide of Russian citizens as well as ongoing military hostilities. Yeesh.

Many don’t realize that many within Putin’s inner circle have not only turned on him, and have provided intelligence to the West including Ukraine to be able to take offensive measures especially in the matters of the assassination squads sent to kill the members of the Ukraine government including President Zelensky. Additionally, there are others within Putin’s orbit that have resigned and fled Russia for fear of prosecution which really means execution.

One of Putin’s lawyers, Alain Pellet resigned last week and described the reason to be the widely known fact that the Kremlin despises law…including international law. You can read his letter here.

The truth is, the ICJ should not begin or end with Putin as a war criminal, it should included the oligarchs and other Duma operatives that have enabled this war and the illegal activities associated with it including Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin.

Prigozhin is on the FBI’s most wanted list.

Prigozhin3.jpg

He has a long list of criminal charges against him including that troll factory that was located in St. Petersburg that interfered with the 2014 U.S. election process. He has ties to Indonesia and Qatar as well.

The UK is the first country to not only step up in cooperation with the ICJ but has a team that is working the critical task to preserve all evidence of war crimes including shelling location, types of missiles including cluster-bombs and the fact that Russia violated at least 2 cease fires after agreeing to humanitarian escape corridors in Ukraine.

(rather like a feeble Nuremberg trial)

So, what is the process of the International Criminal Court you ask? In part:

The court has 123 member states, but neither Russia nor Ukraine is a party. However, back in 2015 when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, Ukraine referred the conflict to the court for investigation. And there’s a provision in the Rome Statute — article 12.3 — which allows states that are not members of the court to refer a conflict and allegations of crimes to the court. But an investigation has to be triggered, and one way for that to happen is if one of the 123 member states asks the court to investigate. And it was just announced Thursday night that 39 states referred the Ukraine situation to the International Criminal Court for investigation. So, the prosecutor of that court announced that he is immediately opening up an investigation and will start collecting evidence. That investigation is also open into past crimes that could have occurred in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

Why is it important for the court to begin investigating now, rather than waiting for the conflict to end?

Investigations and prosecutions are important even before cases are brought before the court because they bring attention to the crimes that are being committed, and to the victims of these of these crimes. So, even aside from what happens in court down the road, the act of investigating and framing what is happening and naming it is extremely important.

What types of crimes can the International Criminal Court investigate?

The International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over four types of crime: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression. And there is no doubt that this is an act of aggression by Russia against Ukraine. However, the crime of aggression has a particular requirement, which is different from all the other crimes. It can only be prosecuted by the court if one member state commits an act of aggression against another. Since neither Russia nor Ukraine is a member, the crime of aggression here does not apply. So, the International Criminal Court is focusing on war crimes, and it will also consider crimes against humanity if they arise.

There is also an International Court of Justice. What role does it play?

The International Criminal Court investigates and prosecutes international crimes committed by individuals. The International Court of Justice resolves disputes between states. Ukraine has brought an emergency case before that court, which will be heard next week. The focus of Ukraine’s complaint is that Russia has used as one of its justifications — I’ll say, phony justification — for invading Ukraine the allegation that there is a threat of genocide against Russian nationals living in Ukraine. Ukraine says this is nonsense. The ICJ should rule that there is no such threat and that assertion cannot be used as a justification for the invasion.

Any real hope for justice on this? Not really.

$30 Million in Grants for Kits of Crack, Cocaine and Meth, no Really

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Update –> There is a BIG mess going on in DC about how ‘crack pipes’ are part of the ‘safe smoking kits’….HHS Secretary and the White House are saying that crack pipes are not included in the distribution…yeah okay…but hold on fact checkers….upon doing more checking seems our own government was funding a crack pipe study in Mexico….you know that Dr. Fauci agency….now we may know where this all started.

This is the page regarding the crack pipe study we paid for in 2019 in Mexico. 

This is the screenshot in case it goes away…giggles: 

When government become an illicit drug distributor….a bridge too far?

Source: In the name of harm reduction, the substance abuse arm of the Health and Human Services Agency will begin providing funds to help distribute “safe smoking kits” for the consumption of various illicit drugs like crack cocaine and crystal meth.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA) has allocated roughly $30 million for a Harm Reduction Program Grant, which includes funding for syringe exchange programs, the opioid reversal drug naloxone, test kits to detect fentanyl and “safe smoking kits/supplies,” among other more traditional measures, like HIV testing and safer sex resources.

A grant program funded by the Biden administration will furnish syringes and “safe smoking kits” among other items as a means to advancing equity.

The deadline for the $30 million program is Monday, with the Department of Health and Human Services distributing funds to nonprofit groups and local governments. Among the items the grant will pay for are syringes and “safe smoking kits/supplies.”The kits will allow users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and other illicit substances. source

*** Per the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) website, the top paragraph reads –>

Drug Enforcement Administration

The Drug Enforcement Administration enforces the United States’ controlled substance laws and regulations and aims to reduce the supply of and demand for such substances.

Support for drug demand reduction and prevention programs through educational and other campaigns and initiatives including the Red Ribbon Campaign, National Takeback Day, Operation Engage and One Pill Can Kill.

How does the Department of Justice of which the DEA is the authority square with this exactly? We now have local, state and the Federal governments contributing to the drug epidemic problem plaguing the whole country. Policymakers are just nuts and exactly how is this objective contributing to a positive outcome?

Article continues (…)

'Crack pipes is where we draw the line': Safe smoking kits ...

Harm reduction efforts, like testing for infectious diseases, needle exchanges and naloxone distribution programs, are nothing new, but providing federal taxpayer funds for paraphernalia used to smoke drugs is.

>>>


An HHS spokesperson reportedly confirmed to The Washington Free Beacon these “safe smoking kits” will provide pipes for the consumption of “any illicit substance” to reduce the risk of infection, which can potentially occur through cuts and sores.

Seattle previously distributed meth pipes to residents in 2015, according to Reuters, but it’s reportedly hard to tell the benefit such a program can have.

“It is plausible the intervention could be effective,” said Matthew Golden, a Seattle and King County disease control official and a University of Washington medical professor, when the program was launched. “It’s simply an unstudied idea.”

One nonprofit said it had conducted research which determined meth users would be less likely to inject the drug if given access to pipes, but there is little evidence to back up such a claim, Reuters reported.

San Francisco has handed out crack pipes as well, according to local reporting, where allegedly an estimated 25,000 people actively inject drugs.

The SAMHSA grant’s $30 million will be spread across three years, and the money will be prioritized for “underserved communities that are greatly impacted by substance use disorder (SUD).”

Other measures funded by the grant include harm reduction vending machines – including the contents to stock them, infectious disease test kits and medicines, vaccination services and wound care supplies.

The National Desk reached out to SAMHSA to see if the “safe smoking kits” will also be available at harm reduction vending machines across the country but did not receive an immediate response in time for publication. This story will be updated if a response is obtained.