Category: Corruption O’ The Day

Why Burn Books When You Can Bury Them? The White House Pressured Amazon to Target Dissenting Books

The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on Monday revealed yet another facet of the Biden Administration’s sprawling censorship system that targeted dissenting books. It appears that, as with social media companies, it succeeded in getting the company not to promote disfavored books.

Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan revealed on X that the White House was directly involved in the censorship campaign. That includes a 2021 email from one Biden official asking to discuss “the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of [sic] Amazon?”

Amazon in turn appears to ask only how high the Biden White House wants it to jump on censorship: “[i]s the [Biden] Admin asking us to remove books, or are they more concerned about search results/order (or both)?”

After the meeting, Amazon confirmed in an email that it was actively doing what the government demanded in suppressing sales by not promoting disfavored books: “As a reminder, we did enable Do Not Promote for anti-vax books whose primary purpose is to persuade readers vaccines are unsafe or ineffective on 3/9, and will review additional handling options for these books with you.”

This effort notably parallels demands from Democratic leaders who have called for enlightened algorithms to frame what citizens access on the internet. In 2021, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) objected that people were not listening to the informed views of herself and leading experts. Instead, they were reading views of skeptics by searching Amazon and finding books by “prominent spreaders of misinformation.”

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BLUF
In other words, look at how consistently inconsistent AI already is in its biases, without the intervention of powerful government actors. Imagine just how much more biased it can get — and how difficult it would be for us to recognize it — if we hand the keys over to the government.

A Tale of Two Congressional Hearings (and several AI poems)

We showed up to warn about threats to free speech from AI. Half the room couldn’t care less.

Earlier today, I served as a witness at the House Judiciary Committee’s Special Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which discussed (among other things) whether it’s a good idea for the government to regulate artificial intelligence and LLMs. For my part, I was determined to warn everyone not only about the threat AI poses to free speech, but also the threats regulatory capture and a government oligopoly on AI pose to the creation of knowledge itself.

I was joined on the panel by investigative journalist Lee Fang, reporter Katelynn Richardson, and former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic Norman Eisen. Richardson testified about her reporting on government funding the development of tools to combat “misinformation” through a National Science Foundation grant program. As FIRE’s Director of Public Advocacy Aaron Terr noted, such technology could be misused in anti-speech ways.

“The government doesn’t violate the First Amendment simply by funding research, but it’s troubling when tax dollars are used to develop censorship technology,” said Terr. “If the government ultimately used this technology to regulate allegedly false online speech, or coerced digital platforms to use it for that purpose, that would violate the First Amendment. Given government officials’ persistent pressure on social media platforms to regulate misinformation, that’s not a far-fetched scenario.”

Lee Fang testified about his reporting on government involvement in social media moderation decisions, most recently how a New York Times reporter’s tweet was suppressed by Twitter (now X) following notification from a Homeland Security agency. Fang’s investigative journalism on the documents X released after Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform has highlighted the risk of “jawboning,” or the use of government platforms to effectuate censorship through informal pressure.

Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed that it seemed like we were having (at least) two different hearings at once. Although there were several tangents, the discussion on the Republican side was mostly about the topic at hand. On the Democratic side, unfortunately, it was overwhelmingly about how Trump has promised to use the government to target his enemies if he wins a second term. It’s not a trivial concern, but the hearing was an opportunity to discuss the serious threats posed by the use of AI censorship tools in the hands of a president of either party, so I wish there had been more interest in the question at hand on the Democratic side of the committee.

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Democrat Cori Bush Funnels Another $17,500 in Campaign Cash to Husband, Docs Show

Radical Democrat Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) has funneled another big chunk of campaign cash to her husband, bringing the total to $120,000 so far, new filings have revealed.

Bush paid her husband an additional $17,500 from her committee in recent months.

The payments are for private security for the congresswoman, who leads the “defund the police” movement and campaigns for fewer police officers to protect the public.

The Democrat “Squad” member’s new filings, submitted to the Federal Election Commission late Wednesday night, show that her campaign made seven additional payments for $2,500 each to her husband, Cortney Merritts.

The payments were made between October 1 and December 31.

The new payments maintained the steady flow of checks to her husband over the past two years.

After it emerged that Bush and Merritts secretly married in February 2023, her office admitted they had been together since before she entered office in 2021.

Merritts initially gathered money for security services starting in January 2022.

However, Bush’s committee switched their description to “wage expenses” in April 2023 as they continued to bring headaches to the campaign.

The latest payments have emerged as the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into Bush earlier this week over the use of campaign funds, as Slay News reported.

Merritts has now collected $120,000 from Bush’s campaign coffers.

Politicians can pay family members from their committees as long as they provide “bona fide” services at fair market value.

He pocketed the money as Bush’s campaign simultaneously spent significantly more with St. Louis-based companies such as PEACE Security for private detail.

She’s spent over $770,000 on private security services, despite demanding fewer police officers to protect the American people.

Meanwhile, Merritts, whose online accounts and posts have indicated he worked at a railroad company for years before starting a moving company, did not have a private security license as of late February 2023.

He also did not appear in a Washington, D.C., database of licensed security specialists.

The ordeal triggered at least two complaints from watchdog groups in the following weeks.

The first complaint, filed to the FEC in March 2023 by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, is still pending.

The ethics committee has since cleared Bush in a second complaint from the Committee to Defeat the President.

In October, Merrits was confronted by a Fox News reporter as the couple left a D.C. fundraiser for California Democrat candidate Derek Marshall.

During the exchange, Merritts appeared to backtrack about his role on the campaign.

“I have a question for you,” the reporter said.

“What’s your role on the campaign right now?”

“I don’t have a role in the campaign, man,” Merritts responded.

“You don’t have a role at all?” the reporter countered.

“They were reporting you had wages on the campaign for security, and then it was a general wage.

“I was just wondering what you’ve been doing on the campaign?”

“Yeah, I mean you can Google what it is,” Merritts replied.

“You can also Google what happened with the FEC report came back 5-0, that it was all completely above board.”

“So you’re not doing any more work with her campaign?” the reporter asked.

“Am I doing work with the campaign?” Merrits said.

“Obviously, I am. I’m still [inaudible], right?”

“You’re still a part of it?” the report pressed.

“Am I still employed with it? Yes, so obviously, I’m going to work with it,” Merritts said.

“What’s this whole ‘gotcha’ s—? I’m not a politician, man, so ask me a question, man-to-man, and I’ll answer.

“So what’s your question?”

“That was it, about the campaign,” the reporter responded.

“I’m still in the campaign; I still do security with the campaign,” Merritts said before getting into the car with Bush.

“Have a good night, man. Be safe.”

Earlier this week, Bush confirmed the Justice Department is investigating her campaign spending on security services and said her office is “fully cooperating.”

“Since before I was sworn into office, I have endured relentless threats to my physical safety and life,” Bush said in a Tuesday statement.

“As a rank-and-file member of Congress, I am not entitled to personal protection by the House, and instead have used campaign funds as permissible to retain security services.”

“These frivolous complaints have resulted in a number of investigations, some of which are still ongoing,” Bush said.

“The Federal Election Commission and the House Committee on Ethics are currently reviewing the matter, as is the Department of Justice.

“We are fully cooperating in all of these pending investigations.”

NRA Board Member Slams Leadership in Letter Calling for Immediate Change Amid Corruption Suit

A prominent member of the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) Board of Directors shamed Wayne LaPierre and the group’s current President in a letter sent this week.

Owen “Buz” Mills, owner of the Gunsite Academy in Arizona and longtime NRA board member, wrote to his colleagues on Wednesday decrying the state of the organization and plans to keep people he views as responsible for its decline in place. In the letter obtained by The Reload, he told the Board it needed to change how it governs the group because of the numerous admissions of wrongdoing by its top officials in the New York corruption case that began last week.

“The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is at a watershed moment in its 153rd year,” Mills wrote. “Our leadership has admitted in courts and depositions to misappropriation of donor’s funds and unauthorized use of assets. They have admitted condoning the misuse of donor funds by others employed by the NRA. The leadership has for years abused their position and trust placed in them by our members and benefactors. The Board of Directors (BOD) is solely responsible for this victimization of the members.”

The letter comes as the American institution faces potentially severe legal repercussions over decades of alleged financial maleficence by current and former officials, including Executive Vice President (EVP) Wayne LaPierre. He and others have been accused of diverting tens of millions of dollars in NRA money toward lavish personal expenses and cushy business deals with friends and families. LaPierre and the other named defendants could be forced to pay the NRA back any money they diverted to themselves. However, the NRA could also be forced to operate under a court-appointed overseer if the judge determines it still lacks the internal control necessary to avoid future mismanagement.

To that end, LaPierre’s recently announced resignation and the Board’s plan to replace him could significantly impact the judge’s decision-making. LaPierre’s leading confidants have been placed in positions to maintain control of the organization after he leaves. Former NRA spokesman and longtime LaPierre confidant Andrew Arulanandam was appointed head of General Operations last month, putting him in line to become the interim EVP. Additionally, the group’s bylaws were amended to give Charles Cotton, who chaired the audit committee that approved–even sometimes retroactively–many of LaPierre’s expenses at issue in the case, an extra term as NRA President.

Now, some insiders are raising concerns about where things are headed. A second NRA Board Member, who asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of the internal fight over the group’s direction, told The Reload there was some concern about how the process for picking LaPierre’s replacement is unfolding. They said it was odd that no action had been taken at the group’s January board meeting in planning for a new EVP.

“Cotton didn’t call back the Executive Session,” the board member said. “He did not put together a committee. He didn’t put together a committee to put together a committee. Nothing.”

The board member also noted a recent change to the bylaws to allow for virtual board meetings. They said Cotton had made a comment during the most recent board meeting alluding to the potential of appointing a

“There’s speculation that there is going to be a virtual meeting to call for Cotton to be the EVP for two years,” they said. “Then Bob Barr would head up a committee to find a long-term replacement. I believe Cotton is going to call for a virtual meeting before the end of the trial. I believe we’re saving SHOT show next week, we get a call.”

Mills has heard similar rumors.

“There appears to be an effort to anoint Cotton EVP,” he told The Reload.

In his letter, Mills slammed the idea. He said Cotton should not be EVP, and the NRA should use a more formal hiring process before deciding on its next leader.

“The selected leadership wants a special election to install the enabler and facilitator of all the previous chicanery,” he wrote. “None other than our duly selected President, he is the man more responsible than any other for permitting our selected leadership to rampantly run roughshod over our membership and benefactors. As the chair of the Audit Committee for many years, Charles Cotton was responsible for holding our employees accountable and ensuring their conduct beyond reproach. Our chair and ‘moral compass’ approved every single act of malfeasance brought to the committee for decades, multiple acts approved retroactively, months and years after the fact.”

He accused Cotton, who he labeled “the facilitator,” of providing LaPierre, who he labeled “the miscreant,” with a special bonus to cover the nearly million dollars that LaPierre was forced to refund to the NRA for private flights and other expenses the organization classified as “excess benefits.”

“When restitution was mandated, a bonus was awarded the miscreants including enough money to pay the restitution,” Mills wrote. “This bonus also included enough for the miscreant to have the cash to pay the taxes on his misappropriation. Talk about rewarding bad behavior!! Again, I emphasize, it was not miscreant’s money, and it was not the facilitator’s money! It was the MONEY OF OUR MEMBERS and the MONEY provided by the BENEVOLENCE OF OUR DONORS.”

“There is something deeply wrong when you continually permit and encourage this serial abuse,” he said.

The NRA disputed some of the accusations included in the Mills letter.

“In many sections of the letter, it is not even clear to whom Mr. Mills is referring,” Billy McLaughlin, an NRA spokesman, told The Reload. “If he’s referring to Mr. LaPierre, the allegation is unfounded. Indeed, his compensation is reported every year in federal tax filings and is a matter of public record. In any event, the NRA strictly complies with its Bylaws and other internal policies and procedures. Any suggestion to the contrary is completely false.”

The NRA’s tax reports show that LaPierre’s total compensation rose by nearly $800,000 between 2017 and 2018, peaking at nearly $2.25 million. It dropped back down to just under $1.9 million in 2019, the year the NRA reported LaPierre had paid them back for nearly $300,000 in excess benefits. His compensation has continued to decline since that time and stood at under $1.2 million in the group’s 2022 tax filing.

Charles Cotton did not respond to a request for comment.

Mills further attacked any effort to make Cotton the EVP without a formal vetting process. He said appointing Cotton using other means would be akin to the NRA’s failed bankruptcy filing, which was undertaken before informing the Board or getting their approval (though, they did retroactively approve the move).

“Is the principal facilitator of the misappropriation of tens of millions of dollars (members and donors’ money) causing the hundreds of millions of dollars of legal fees (again members and donors’ money) really have any business with access to the treasury? Does he have any right to represent any moral, honest person or organization?” he asked in reference to Cotton. “NO!”

Instead, he advocated for a search process that would include a recruiting and interview process involving the entire NRA Board. He said the same should be done to “hire a celebrity ‘FACE’ of the NRA as a spokesperson with no access to funds.”

“This is how a professional Board of Directors of a world class not-for-profit begins to heal itself,” he wrote.

He argued this was the Board’s chance to reform and renew the organization in hopes of convincing the millions of members who’ve abandoned the group since the corruption allegations surfaced to come back. He wrote the EVP pick and the process used to make it is ultimately an “opportunity to recover the trust” and “respect” of “our most benevolent donors,” “our industry,” and the “American people.”

“The main point is the NRA is presented herewith the opportunity to rectify our sins of the past, to redeem ourselves,” he told The Reload. “Don’t mess it up.”

Buz Mills’ Open Letter To The Board

TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 

So, now we are all looking towards New York and Justice Cohen’s courtroom. Our attention is diverted here while chicanery continues in Fairfax.

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is at a watershed moment in its 153rd year. Our leadership has admitted in courts and depositions to misappropriation of donor’s funds and unauthorized use of assets. They have admitted condoning the misuse of donor funds by others employed by the NRA. The leadership has for years abused their position and trust placed in them by our members and benefactors. The Board of Directors (BOD) is solely responsible for this victimization of the members.

Thanks to the New York Attorney General, we are halfway to fixing our organization, bringing the NRA up to par with other non-profit special interest groups.

The judge will hold the victimizers responsible, and they will have to account for their deeds.

Meanwhile, in Fairfax the selected leadership is scheming to continue the abuse suffered over the last few decades instead of following the bylaws for the succession of the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer (EVP). The selected leadership wants a special election to install the enabler and facilitator of all the previous chicanery. None other than our duly selected President, he is the man more responsible than any other for permitting our selected leadership to rampantly run roughshod over our membership and benefactors.

As the chair of the Audit Committee for many years, Charles Cotton was responsible for holding our employees accountable and ensuring their conduct beyond reproach. Our chair and “moral compass” approved every single act of malfeasance brought to the committee for decades, multiple acts approved retroactively, months and years after the fact.

When restitution was mandated, a bonus was awarded the miscreants including enough money to pay the restitution. This bonus also included enough for the miscreant to have the cash to pay the taxes on his misappropriation. Talk about rewarding bad behavior!!

Again, I emphasize, it was not miscreant’s money, and it was not the facilitator’s money! It was the MONEY OF OUR MEMBERS and the MONEY provided by the BENEVOLENCE OF OUR DONORS. There is something deeply wrong when you continually permit and encourage this serial abuse.

Also do not forget spearheading the deceit and lying to us about filing bankruptcy that the judge called “a fraud.” The BOD was never advised we needed to file for bankruptcy, nor was it ever justified to the board. We read it in the papers.

As we violate the bylaws again – accepting, justifying, and participating in some kind of sham election to make the selected president our EVP.

Is the principal facilitator of the misappropriation of tens of millions of dollars (members and donors’ money) causing the hundreds of millions of dollars of legal fees (again members and donors’ money) really have any business with access to the treasury?

Does he have any right to represent any moral, honest person or organization?

NO!

The normal, conventional way this type of business is conducted:

  1. Select a search committee of business professionals from the BOD, selected from the floor by the BOD,
  2. Retain professional employment agencies to recruit, screen and interview potential candidates,
  3. Committee shall interview candidates,
  4. BOD meet and greet,
  5. BOD votes to select a candidate,
  6. Committee sets forth terms and conditions of employment contract.

Now we have a professional to run the business of a world-class organization, in accordance with applicable laws, customs and traditions. Oversight will be provided by a professional BOD congruent with the by-laws in effect prior to ceding all monetary responsibility to the EVP. (circa 2015)

Next we hire a celebrity “FACE” of the NRA as a spokesperson with no access to funds. Using a similar process as finding an EVP.

This is how a professional Board of Directors of a world class not-for-profit begins to heal itself.

We have an opportunity to carefully choose to correct the path we are on. We have the opportunity to recover all of the membership that has abandoned us over these issues (2 million members +/-). We have the opportunity to recover the trust of our most benevolent donors. We have an opportunity to recover the respect of our industry and of the American people. There is no downside to doing this correctly.

Let’s not squander this opportunity, we must move forward smartly and with all the courage of the champions of freedom.

Owen Buz Mills

Director, National Rifle Association of America

January 17, 2024

 

Head of the NIH, and Anthony Fauci’s Superior, Francis Collins: Now That You Have Me Here Under Oath and Pain of Perjury, I Guess Maybe the Lab Leak Wasn’t a “Conspiracy Theory” Like I Repeatedly Claimed When I Wasn’t Under Oath.

Trust the experts.

No “experts” have ever lied for personal advantage in all of history. That’s just Science (TM).

Now Anthony Fauci’s former boss Francis Collins concedes Covid lab leak was NOT a conspiracy – despite spearheading attacks against scientists who touted theoryFrancis Collins was instrumental in the publication of the natural origins theory

Dr Collins said to have hidden NIH involvement in funding gain of function work

By Cassidy Morrison Senior Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Anthony Fauci’s former boss admitted to Congress that the Covid lab leak theory was credible – despite previously calling it a ‘very destructive conspiracy’.

Dr Francis Collins, former head of the National Institutes of Health, testified in a closed-door session with the House coronavirus subcommittee on Friday about his role during America’s pandemic response.

Dr Collins was involved in suppressing the theory that Covid likely escaped from a Chinese biolab, a theory which implicated the sprawling agency he headed up. It was previously revealed that the NIH oversaw grants funding risky ‘gain of function’ research to make viruses more transmissible and/or deadly.

In a significant U-turn, House Republicans who led the hearing revealed that Dr Collins, 73, told them that the lab leak hypothesis was not a conspiracy theory.

His answers were similar to those of Dr Fauci, who sat for a marathon 14 hours of questioning last week when he finally acknowledged that the lab leak theory — that Covid escaped from a Chinese biolab — should not have been so easily dismissed.

Republicans also said that, like Dr Fauci, Dr Collins muddied the definition of gain of function research ‘in an effort to hide the NIH’s involvement in funding the dangerous research in Wuhan.’

I am not sure how they play loosey-goosey with the definition, but my personal head-cannon is that they are claiming that “gain of function” only results from a direct rewriting of genetic code, through, say, the CRISPR genetic editing process. And they are claiming that other methods of changing a viruses DNA, such as repeated “serial passage” through mice, knowing and intending that the DNA will mutate with every single run through a living host, doesn’t count as “gain of function” because it’s “natural” or some shit, even though it’s just another method of achieving the same result — mutating a virus until it becomes different and more infections and more deadly to human beings.

If anyone can confirm that, or dispel that, please let me know.

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NRA Claims LaPierre Won’t be on Payroll After Resignation, Has ‘Chronic Lyme Disease’

Wayne LaPierre won’t receive any money from the National Rifle Association (NRA) once he steps down at the end of the month, the group’s lawyers claim in a new filing.

After LaPierre announced his resignation on the eve of the group’s corruption trial, New York Attorney General Letitia James’s (D.) office objected to the NRA using the unexpected move as part of its defense during the corruption trial that began on Monday. In a letter to Judge Joel M. Cohen, she demanded the NRA answer a series of questions about what relationship the group would have with its leader of more than 30 years once he officially left at the end of the month. The NRA’s outside lawyers, Brewer Attorneys and Counselors, responded by arguing LaPierre’s resignation undermined her case and insisted LaPierre would not receive compensation from the group after he leaves.

“After January 31, 2024, payments under the 2021 Employment Agreement will cease. There are no superseding employment or post-employment agreements with Mr. LaPierre,” Noah Peters wrote in a letter to Judge Cohen. “Mr. LaPierre will not undertake any other employment, independent contracting, consulting or other work for the NRA or any affiliate, vendor or contractor[.]”

The NRA’s claims come as it faces down a civil suit from James that could see LaPierre and other leaders barred from working at non-profits in the state as well as repay the group money it is accused of diverting to personal expenses. She is also seeking to have a court-appointed overseer in charge of the NRA. One of the accusations at the core of the case against the NRA is that it kept paying other executives, such as former treasurer Woody Phillips, after they left the group. But LaPierre’s alleged impropriety has been the main focus of the case. So, whether he will keep getting NRA money after he steps down could be an important consideration in the jury’s decision on if further reforms are needed.

To that end, Peters said, “Mr. LaPierre has no arrangements or agreements with the NRA or its affiliates regarding his resignation, severance, licensing, or consulting,” and he “holds no other position with the NRA, nor will he hold a position after his final day.”

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Looks Like the Georgia RICO Case Against Trump Just Imploded.

Co-incidental to her zeal for prosecuting front-running presidential candidate Donald Trump, Fulton County, Ga., DA Fani Willis hired herself a special prosecutor with benefits, according to a new court filing.

The motion alleges that Willis hired private attorney Nathan Wade to act as her special prosecutor in her vast, convoluted RICO case against Trump and 18 others who dared pursue legal remedies for what they believed was a compromised 2020 election. She did this despite having more than one attorney within her own office who was perfectly capable of prosecuting the case. And she did it despite Wade being unqualified to handle the biggest case in Fulton County history, as he has never actually prosecuted a felony RICO case before. So why would Willis hire him?

The alleged answer is that the married father of two was tapping the dirty DA. And this opens up a whole can of big, fat ethical and legal worms that are now squirming exuberantly atop Fanis’s prosecution house of cards.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke the story Monday:

District Attorney Fani Willis improperly hired an alleged romantic partner to prosecute Donald Trump and financially benefited from their relationship, according to a court motion filed Monday which argued the criminal charges in the case were unconstitutional.

The bombshell public filing alleged that special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney, paid for lavish vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton County funds his law firm received. County records show that Wade, who has played a prominent role in the election interference case, has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022. The DA authorizes his compensation.

While the sexy bits alone are enough to disqualify both Willis and Wade from pursuing the case, the pair are alleged to have made plenty of other missteps in their power-mad pig-pile on the former president. For one thing, there was apparently improper coordination between the DA’s office and Joe Biden’s White House.

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Claudine Gay: the great DEI grift exposed.

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

I maintain that Claudine Gay, the now-former president of Harvard University, just may have, though, mind you, quite by accident, made the world a much better place. She accomplished this not by resigning as president of Harvard over ineptitude and academic dishonesty, and not in any way, shape, form, manner, or style that she intended, but by being selected, despite austere qualifications, to be the president of one of our most prestigious universities in the first place.

Gay’s inexplicable rise and quite explicable fall illustrate, in a difficult-to-misinterpret fashion, the plain grift that is the DEI industry.

You can explain and attempt to justify DEI in all of the highfalutin terms that you want, but in the end, it comes down to something quite simple: it’s a way for those who eschew achievement, merit, honesty, and perseverance to get ahead on the dubious grounds of identity. It’s a con game designed to pour money into the coffers of those for whom a genuine work ethic is anathema.

It’s plain and simple grift, endorsed by our own government and institutions of higher education. You know, the same people who are supposed to be watching out for such things on our behalf. And worse, there was no need for DEI to ever get started in the first place.

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BLUF
There is a lot more corruption than I have space for here, but I do sense the worm turning.  We’ve had enough time to assess the damage the left has done, and we abhor it.  We will rise up.

The Corruption of Everything

As we survey the American landscape, we cannot help but notice that just about everything has been corrupted by the left.

The justice system has been corrupted by partisan politics to the point where Republicans and conservatives are persecuted and prosecuted at a level far higher than anyone else.  We on the right can reliably depend on being prosecuted for “misgendering,” contributing to conservative causes, being a Christian or a Jew, speaking out against the barbaric transing of children, defending ourselves with a firearm, and not being a Democrat.  We can depend upon getting arrested for protesting peacefully as the corrupt “Justice” Department singles us out for jail, bankruptcy, or keeping us off election ballots, while really destructive rioters go free.

Medical research has been corrupted by the deliberate downgrading of meritorious research that just so happens to be at odds with the latest leftist perversion du jour.  For example, there are research grants for hamster fights.

Elections have been corrupted.  Mail-in ballots, demonstrated to be extremely susceptible to fraudulent inflation of Democrat votes, are ready for the next fraud.  Dead people vote; people vote multiple times; non-residents vote in other states; and phony ballots are printed and signed with the same handwriting, then run through counting machines multiple times.  Computer problems pop up so as to skew the vote.

Education has been corrupted.  Universities do not teach students how to get a job, be prosperous, and succeed.  Instead, they teach antisemitism, anti-white racism in the guise of “systemic racism” and “anti-racism,” identity politics, and sexual deviancy.  Everything on the left is about cultural identity matters: Are you gay?  Are you black?  Are you trans?  Are you non-binary?  Are you a Jew-hater?  A Christian?  It seems as though the left has an aversion to other people being happy, and so leftists tear everything apart in their insecurities and unwarranted anger and envy.  They are despicable people.

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BEN EXPOSUN

This is a population control tactic. If anyone was paying attention about 3 years ago the world population was teetering on 8 billion.
That’s when measures of LGBTQ yadda yadda were pushed and literature/tv shows/movies started to push male masculinity down.

Then you started to see the push for war. This has been used in the past. Not only were we promoting war we were and are continuing to fund it.
The Pandemic was introduced. The gates foundation started reducing the birthrate in Africa with vaccines. Sterilizing people.

If you recall Elon Musk stating that the world is depopulating and this will cause major harm and stagnant economies. Then Elon was attacked. They hit him everywhere including hiring Americans at Space X.
He purchased Twitter and you witnessed the outrage. He took away a large percentage of the control tactics from the powers that be.

Every institution has been corrupted, but they get upset if you call them corrupt.

‘Liberty and Justice For All’ – A Tattered Cliche?

One set of laws for Donald Trump and his supporters, and another set for the harassers.

Throughout history, the tyrannical abuse of governmental power has been a fearsome thing to behold. Wise men instituted laws in an effort to tame that abuse. The Constitution of the United States, for example, was framed in large part as a prophylactic against the coercive power of the state. The Framers witnessed the “long train of abuses and usurpations” perpetrated by the British crown and resolved to respond. The Constitution dealt with many other things, to be sure, but concern about tyrannical abuse of power by the government and its minions is patent from the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence straight through the Constitution and its Amendments. The idea was that we Americans would live in a polity governed by “laws, not men.” That is to say, laws would be legitimately formulated, clearly defined, and administered impartially, so far as was humanly possible. How are we doing on that score?

Not so well.

The terms “administrative state” and “deep state” entered parlance only about seven years ago. The realities those phrases name long predate their currency, but Donald Trump was the lens through which worry about those legitimacy-devouring, essentially tyrannical phenomena crystallized. During the 2016 campaign, Trump’s chief strategist Steven Bannon raised eyebrows when he said that “deconstructing the administrative state” was a high priority. In the event, Trump’s success on that task was only a patchwork affair, but he did make an effort.

What prompts these thoughts is the spectacle, partly risible, partly terrifying, of the federal government’s ongoing vendetta against a single individual it cannot countenance. That individual, of course, is Donald Trump. And while the focus of its vendetta is against Trump the man—or, more precisely, Trump the presidential candidate—its animus has spilled over to embrace anyone tainted by association with the Trump phenomenon. Into this category fall the hundreds of people who had the misfortune to visit the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Opinions differ about the state of popular sentiment when it comes to the current disposition of the United States government. I have by degrees joined the camp that has grave doubts about its legitimacy. I do not, for example, believe that the hallowed ideal of “liberty and justice for all” is these days much more than a tattered cliché, a pious nostrum without substance.

One of the great poster children for this erosion of public support—and, consequently, of political legitimacy—is the FBI. At a time when its operations are so patently partisan, it is hard to maintain confidence in its beneficence. Consider the news about Charles McGonigal, former head of Counterintelligence for the FBI, boss of  FBI love bird Peter “Mr. Insurance Policy” Strzok, and vigorous investigator of the Trump Russia Collusion hoax. Wouldn’t you know it: the chap who went after George Papadopoulos and others in Trump’s circle was just fined and sentenced to four years in prison for—wait for it—colluding with Russia.

You might argue that McGonigal’s comeuppance shows that “the system works,” that the FBI can effectively police itself, etc. I would counter that it is yet another reminder that the deep-state, anti-Trump forces operate primarily by what the Freudians call projection, by being guilty of what they accuse others of. There is a hilarious video collage making the rounds of various pundits and politicians warning that the world, or at least our democratic republic, will come to a sudden and ignominious end if, heaven forfend, Donald Trump should be elected again in 2024. Trump will assassinate generals, you see, shoot visitors to the White House, suspend the Constitution, and kill democracy. It is an inadvertently amusing compilation but also a deeply depressing one since it underscores the sad and debilitating effects of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Trump represents a threat to democracy, ergo he must be prevented from running “by any means necessary,” otherwise so many people might vote for that he would win. That’s the logic. Odd isn’t it? Person X wins in a free and open election. But you don’t like the person. So you declare the election “undemocratic.”

It is here that we must distinguish between “democracy,” which is what would be upheld if Trump were allowed to run, and “Our Democracy™,” that strange, oligarchical confect that can be maintained only by suppressing common, or garden variety democracy.

It is in this context, I believe that we must understand the unhinged legal campaigns unleashed against Trump in four separate jurisdictions.

I say “legal campaigns,” but really they are partisan political assaults masquerading under cover of legal procedures.

That is, they look like legal procedures from the outside; they employ all the paraphernalia of legal procedures. There are courts, lawyers, subpoena, judges.  But  the German Judge Roland Freisler (1893-1945) employed all that machinery, too. He presided over trials.  But he always got the results he wanted.

And this brings me to the activities of Special Counsel Jack Smith, the anti-Trump fanatic and DOJ pit bull who has been charged with taking Trump down in Washington, D.C., where Trump is accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election by “obstructing an official proceeding,” etc., and in Florida, where he is accused of illegally possessing classified documents.

Smith understands that by far his best chance of getting Trump is in Washington—not, I hasten to add, because he has much of a case there but because he has an Obama-appointed anti-Trump judge Tanya Chutkan and a Democratic jury pool that can be counted on to convict Trump on anything he accused of. Andy McCarthy has published a thoroughgoing anatomy of the the legal niceties of the case. He is no friend to Trump, deprecates what he calls his “loathsome behavior,” but does say that he thinks Trump is “being denied due process.” He further acknowledges that the effort to use Section 1512(c) of the federal penal law against Trump will be a “tough case” that is likely to signal “trouble for Smith.”

It’s the opposite in Florida, where the judge is a Trump-appointed jurist and the jury pool is likely to be sympathetic to Trump. In my view, Trump’s possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago is no different from Biden’s possession of classified documents in his garage behind his Corvette. Rather, Trump’s case was less egregious than Biden’s. For one thing, Biden was never president.  He had many more documents, in many more, less secure places. And remember: all modern presidents seem to have possession of classified documents after they leave office, but not all former presidents are Donald Trump.

Trump’s lawyers have appealed the Washington case and, in response, Smith has asked the Supreme Court to bypass the usual appeal process and take the case on an expedited schedule. Why? Because the Washington trial was set to begin on March 4, a day before “Super Tuesday,” at which Trump is likely to seal the GOP nomination. Smith hoped that an early trial would harm Trump with voters. So far, legal attacks agains Trump have had the opposite effect, increasing his standing in the polls. That is because voters understand that the legal challenges are legal in name only. At bottom, they are instances of bare-knuckle political warfare.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal published an editorial whose slug got to the nub of the issue. “The special counsel,” it read, “tries to drag the Justices into his political timetable for the Jan. 6 trial of Donald Trump.” That’s it exactly. Smith wants the Court to decide now, today, so he can pursue his vendetta against Trump on the time table the election calendar has set. Most observers believe that the Court will be more circumspect. The writers of that editorial caution that “The wiser decision would have been to lay out the facts of what the special counsel found and let the voters decide. They chose to prosecute, and the damage has begun to unfold.”

I was talking to a friend about about Smith’s case. He responded “It sounds like the judiciary/prosecution is corruptly trying to interfere with an official proceeding, i.e., the election.” That’s pretty much what I think, too, though I don’t expect Jack Smith to be charged for the tort. Remember, there is one law for Donald Trump and his supporters. They can be harassed, prosecuted, and jailed. There is another law for the nomenklatura that does the harassing, prosecuting, and jailing.

The FBI Stole Millions From Individuals Who Were Not Charged With a Crime – the Victims Are Suing

An FBI raid on private safe deposit boxes has triggered a significant legal battle over civil asset forfeiture and the lengths to which federal authorities can use the practice, which has often been referred to as “Policing for Profit.”

The outcome of the court proceedings could turn this into a landmark case that helps to further define the parameters in which federal law enforcement can use the controversial procedure.

FBI agents cataloged Cartier bracelets, Rolex watches and stacks of cash as they combed through safe deposit boxes seized from a Beverly Hills business accused of money laundering. But the owners of many of those boxes were not accused of any crimes.

After hearing arguments from both sides Thursday, a panel of judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether the sweeping raid violated customers’ Fourth Amendment rights.

“I think the public sees this and recognizes that this is just a total abuse of people’s constitutional rights,” Institute for Justice senior attorney Rob Johnson told Fox News, adding that he felt “extremely optimistic” about the panel’s forthcoming decision.

On March 22, 2021, the FBI seized around 1,400 safe deposit boxes from U.S. Private Vaults, a Beverly Hills–based company that, according to court documents, was regularly used by “unsavory characters to store criminal proceeds.”

Agents took about $86 million in cash from the boxes, as well as a trove of jewelry, gold bars and coins, silver and other valuables. In May of that year, the FBI “commenced administrative forfeiture proceedings” against an unspecified number of the boxes, according to court documents.

The procedure the FBI used to seize this property is known as civil asset forfeiture, which empowers local, state, and federal governments to take a citizen’s property if they suspect that it has been used to commit a crime. In many states and at the federal level, one does not have to be convicted – or even charged – with a crime for officers to seize the property.

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Observation O’ The Day
I take this to mean that the establishment has decided that Biden has to go. Probably in favor of Newsom. Remember, the primaries aren’t necessary for the Dems to field a candidate.

 

 New Zealand Whistleblower Claims Public Health Data Shows COVID Vaccines ‘Are Killing People’.

A public health worker in New Zealand was arrested on Sunday for allegedly accessing personal information on work databases.

Barry Young​, a whistleblower from New Zealand’s public health agency, Te Whatu Ora, leaked the information to tech entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, a prominent vaccine critic, on November 9. In an interview explaining his motives, Young said the data shows that the COVID jab “is a killer’ and is causing a “river of tears.”

Kirsch anonymized the data “so that no record entry would match that of any person, living or dead” and uploaded it to his Wasabi file storage account. Medical researcher and Genomics expert Kevin McKernan mirrored the data onto IPFS and MEGA.

Kirsch claims on his Substack that the data proves that the COVID shots have killed more than 10 million people worldwide, an estimated 1 death per 1,000 doses on average in a standard population.

A separate expert analysis of the data found that the injections increase death rates in the first 6 months after the shot and “persists for about a year before going back to baseline.”

These findings are in line with other scientific studies.

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Florida police officials vow to stop illegally seizing ammunition from the public
Florida City Police Chief uncertain how long illegal policy has been enforced.

Last April Fools’ Day, a 61-year-old Miami man had a defensive gun usage in Florida City, Florida, which is certainly no surprise. Florida City was once considered the most dangerous city in the Sunshine State.

The man, who did not want his name used in this story, was at a fast-food restaurant when he was accosted by an individual who he now believes was emotionally disturbed. The man was filling his water bottle at a soda machine when someone behind him said, “I’m from prison. Don’t’ touch my food or I’ll kill you.” He quickly left the restaurant.

The disturbed man followed the victim outside, screaming about how he was going to kill him for touching his food.

“He was reaching in his pockets, being aggressive, saying how he was going to kill me, reaching into his pockets. He then ripped off his t-shirt and started running toward me very aggressively. I pulled my 9mm and told him to stop,” the victim said.

The victim kept walking backward, telling the suspect to stay back. At one point he tripped over some rocks, fell back onto his butt and had a negligent discharge. Fortunately, the round went into the ground striking no one. The victim got up and continued backing away from the man.

“He kept being aggressive, telling me to go ahead and shoot him. I kept walking away — about an eighth of a mile. He followed me the whole way, screaming and telling me to shoot him,” the victim said.

Florida City Police officers finally arrived. After two hours of questioning, they confiscated the victim’s Taurus G2c and two loaded magazines and then let him go. They took the disturbed man to a local mental health facility, where he was admitted for a 72-hour psychiatric hold, which is known in Florida as a Baker Act.

The incident occurred three months before Florida’s unlicensed concealed-carry law took effect, but the victim had a valid Florida Concealed Weapon or Firearm license.

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House Oversight Committee Followed the Money Right to Joe Biden’s Bank Accounts

Remember how Biden and the Democrats claimed repeatedly that he never spoke with his son about his business, and then the House Oversight Committee revealed evidence that Joe Biden participated in phone calls with Hunter and his associates? Suddenly, they were willing to concede the point that Joe Biden had, in fact, talked business with his son and change their story to Joe Biden “was not in business with his son.”

That was just the tip of the iceberg. The House Oversight Committee uncovered financial records, text messages, and more. They also heard whistleblower testimony and eyewitness testimony. And through it all, there were denials.

Earlier this year, when asked about the House Oversight Committee’s investigations of the Biden Crime Family, including Joe Biden’s influence-peddling and receiving millions in bribes, Joe Biden asked, “Where’s the money?”

Fair question? Sure. Even Democrats have started to concede that Hunter Biden was merely selling the illusion of access to his father while he was vice president. At the same time, they have claimed repeatedly that Joe Biden never profited from those efforts, using those claims as proof that he couldn’t have possibly been selling influence to foreign entities like China, Ukraine, and others. But the fact is that it proves that Democrats couldn’t deny that the House Oversight Committee was on the right track.

Well, the House Oversight Committee released its latest bombshell on Monday. Subpoenaed bank records show that “Hunter Biden’s business entity, Owasco PC, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden.“

The Department of Justice is currently investigating Hunter Biden for tax evasion and other crimes connected to his Owasco PC account.

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This Sneaky Senator’s Insider Trade Isn’t the Most Corrupt Part of This Story.

When a senator who sits on the Health Committee makes a big bet on a small, home-state medical devices company that just happens to get mucho moolah from the federal government, and then that stock goes up more than 40% in the weeks after said senator’s big bet, it’s the opinion of this mostly humble columnist that there’s some real shady stuff going on.

But it gets worse.

Earlier this month — November 8, to be exact — Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) purchased up to $250,000 in shares of Tactile Systems Technology (TCMD). TCMD shares had been on a real losing streak in 2023, down more than 60% from its 52-week high of $26.11. The price was down nearly another third, to $10.27 from $12.61, in the 48 hours before Smith made her big buy.

Buy the dip, of course. What’s remarkable is just how quickly TCMD recovered over the next three weeks — up 43% since the Minnesota senator plunked down her big bucks on a Minnesota company in an industry that Smith’s committee oversees.

That’s just one trade by one senator.

Financial analyst Quiver Quantitative called it “the most suspicious congressional stock trade I’ve seen in months.”

In May of last year, Quiver built “a trading bot that buys stocks that are being bought by politicians.” In a flat market, Quiver’s congressional bot’s fund is up 20% in just 18 months.

The sliminess is bipartisan. Here’s one example of how Quiver’s bot has performed by following the Tesla trades of one Democrat and two Republicans.

How’s your portfolio doing?

“It’s worth noting,” QQ reminds investors, “that despite the outperformance of the Congress Buys Strategy, it may still be held back by weak disclosure regulations.” Congresscritters, under the 2012 STOCK Act signed by President Barack Obama, have 45 days to disclose their stock transactions — but the penalty for late disclosures is all of $200.

So, yes, you could build a portfolio based on what people like Sen. Smith buy and sell, but you still wouldn’t do as well as they do because you’ll be up to 45 days behind their trades. Or longer if they decide to pony up the $200 for late disclosures.

But it still gets worse.

Quiver claims to have traced 7,912 STOCK Act violations, but “only a few have been investigated.” If any of those investigations have actually gone anywhere, it would be news to me. But Congress writes the laws governing Congress, so what would you expect?

That’s why, as far as I’m concerned, the most scandalous part of any of this is the mainstream media’s absolute silence on the matter.

As Bill Whittle put it to Right Angle viewers years ago, the press is supposed to act as a healthy society’s antibodies — gathering in the bloodstream at the site of any corruption to reveal and destroy it. And yet when a sitting member of the Senate Health Committee, whose “husband is an investor with a focus on medical industry stocks,” is making a killing on a volatile health company’s shares, it results in precisely zero stories in the mainstream media.

That’s despite Quiver’s revelations getting more than two million views on Twitter/X — the preferred social media platform of American journalists.

We know what Congress gets out of all this, so what’s the media’s payout?