Thursday, September 21, 2023

Supreme Court Stays Appeals Court Ruling Against Biden Administration Censorship

PCR  |  The Nazi Biden Regime Takes Its Claim that it Has a Right to Impose Censorship on Media to Supreme Court

There is no doubt whatsoever that the Biden Regime is a Fascist Censor controlling information in the interest of its criminal agendas.  A Federal Appeals Court spelled out the censorship and banned it:  

“Defendants, and their employees and agents, shall take no actions, formal or informal, directly or indirectly, to coerce or significantly encourage social-media companies to remove, delete, suppress, or reduce, including through altering their algorithms, posted social-media content containing protected free speech. That includes, but is not limited to, compelling the platforms to act, such as by intimating that some form of punishment will follow a failure to comply with any request, or supervising, directing, or otherwise meaningfully controlling the social-media companies’ decision-making processes.”

The Biden Regime hopes to convince the Supreme Court that “national security” requires abandoning the US Constitution and to coerce the court into reinstating the Biden regime’s cancellation of the US Constitution.

It is impossible for a country to survive when the values on which the country is founded are abandoned by its leaders.  America is so far gone that not even the media believes in free speech and has happily accepted the role as Ministry of Propaganda.

Certainly corporations do not respect the First Amendment.  Employees must take “harassment training” to remain employed.  Failure to use “Woke pronouns” constitutes harassment and grounds for firing.  In other words, employees do not have freedom of speech.  A coerced Woke policy has control of their tongues and forces the use of words they do not voluntarily use and to which they object.  Employees are forced to lend their validation to the preferences of a tiny perverse collection of confused people.  Why do the non-normal minority have this power over the normal majority?

Take a few minutes and try to identify any institution, public or private, that supports American values.

Trump’s goal of taking back our country might be a task too large.

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

When Russell Brand Was A Degenerate He Was "All Good", Now That He's All Good He's A "Degenerate"?

nydailynews  |  YouTube has demonetized Russell Brand’s channel, and the BBC pulled some of his shows from its online streaming service, after several women accused the comedian-turned-wellness guru of rape and sexual assault in an investigative report published over the weekend.

In a statement on Tuesday, YouTube said they took action against Brand’s account — which has 6.6 million subscribers — to “protect” users in light of “serious allegations against the creator.” It means 48-year-old Brand will no longer be able to profit from the ads that run within and alongside his videos, which have titles like “What REALLY Started the Hawaii Fires?” and “Covid Tsar Admits Lockdowns Were NEVER About Science.”

Other channels associated with the funnyman’s main YouTube page also include Awakening With Russell, which has 426,000 subscribers, Football Is Nice, which has some 20,000 subscribers, and Stay Free With Russell Brand, which has 22,200 subscribers.

“This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand,” the Google-owned video service said.

While Brand has not been charged with any crimes, YouTube said he violated its “creator responsibility policy.”

“If a creator’s off-platform behavior harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community,” the statement read.

BBC echoed the sentiment, saying Brand’s content “now falls below public expectations” of iPlayer and BBC Sounds.

Over the weekend, the Times of London, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches published a joint investigation in which several women accused Brand of sexual assault and rape between 2006 and 2013 — a period during which Brand also became married to and subsequently divorced from pop star Katy Perry.

 

Do Biden's Handlers Believe They Can Martyr Cancel RFKJr And Get Away With It?

thehill  |  In today’s world — as RFK Jr. himself has said — media outlets such as CNN and MSNBC refuse to have him on, while allies of President Biden continually assail his character and motivations. Why would they do so?

Some supporters of Kennedy would say it’s because he has been continually challenging narratives pushed by the entrenched elites — be they related to COVID-19, U.S. policy in Ukraine or the American people being voiceless in their own nation. 

Another reason why a DNC with its thumb on the scale for Biden, powerful Democratic powerbrokers behind the scenes and certain media outlets advocating for Biden might be dialing up their attacks on Kennedy was outlined by a story in Axios headlined “Biden could lose first two ’24 contests to RFK Jr.”

Talk about embarrassing for the president. 

Those contests are the traditional first-to-vote states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Or, as Kennedy campaign manager Dennis J. Kucinich described them, “States at risk of such disenfranchisement include New Hampshire, where Biden came in last in 2020, receiving zero delegates; Iowa, where Biden came in 4th in 2020.”

It is clear that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a Democrat and wants to run as one in the Democratic primaries. He has stressed time and again that the Democratic Party he once knew was all about helping the disenfranchised and those with the least among us.

But if the system is “rigged” and he is shut out of the Democratic primaries, does his quest become a lost cause?

Jefferson Smith in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” closed the film by speaking of the importance of lost causes. Said the character, “I guess this is just another lost cause, Mr. Paine. All you people don’t know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for and he fought for them once. For the only reason any man ever fights for them. Because of just one plain simple rule. Love thy neighbor. And in this world today of great hatred a man who knows that rule has a great trust.”

As the DNC, in conjunction with the Biden White House, continues to try to silence and ostracize Kennedy while punishing states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and Georgia — along with millions of potential primary voters — it certainly seems as if they don’t trust the people to speak for themselves.

The DNC and the Biden White House may quickly learn that it’s one thing to try to silence RFK Jr. It’s quite another to try and disenfranchise the votes of millions of Americans.

Lines are being drawn in the sand. Can the DNC and Biden see them?

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Chuck Schumer's AI Conference

 CTH  |  According to a recent media report, Senator Chuck Schumer led an AI insight forum that included tech industry leaders: Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Tesla, X and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, NVIDIA President Jensen Huang, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, technologist and Google alum Eric Schmidt, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Additionally, representatives from labor and civil rights advocacy groups which included: AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights President and CEO Maya Wiley, and AI accountability researcher Deb Raji. The group was joined by a list of prominent AI executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

Notably absent from the Sept 13th forum was anyone with any real-world experience that is not a beneficiary of government spending. This is not accidental. Technocracy advances regardless of the citizen impact. Technocrats advance their common interests, not the interests of the ordinary citizen.

That meeting comes after DHS established independent guidelines we previously discussed {GO DEEP}.

DHS’ AI task force is coordinating with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on how the department can partner with critical infrastructure organizations “on safeguarding their uses of AI and strengthening their cybersecurity practices writ large to defend against evolving threats.”

Remember, in addition to these groups assembling, the Dept of Defense (DoD) will now conduct online monitoring operations, using enhanced AI to protect the U.S. internet from “disinformation” under the auspices of national security. {link}

So, the question becomes, what was Chuck Schumer’s primary reference for this forum?

(FED NEWS) […] Schumer said that tackling issues around AI-generated content that is fake or deceptive that can lead to widespread misinformation and disinformation was the most time-sensitive problem to solve due to the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

[…] The top Democrat in the Senate said there was much discussion during the meeting about the creation of a new AI agency and that there was also debate about how to use some of the existing federal agencies to regulate AI.

South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, Schumer’s Republican counterpart in leading the bipartisan AI forums, said: “We’ve got to have the ability to provide good information to regulators. And it doesn’t mean that every single agency has to have all of the top-end, high-quality of professionals but we need that group of professionals who can be shared across the different agencies when it comes to AI.”

Although there were no significant voluntary commitments made during the first AI insight forum, tech leaders who participated in the forum said there was much debate around how open and transparent AI developers and those using AI in the federal government will be required to be. (read more)

There isn’t anything that is going to stop the rapid deployment of AI in the tech space.  However, for the interests of the larger American population, the group unrepresented in the forum, is the use of AI to identify, control, and impede information distribution that is against the interests of the government and the public-private partnership the technocrats are assembling.

The words “disinformation” and “deep fakes” are as disingenuous as the term “Patriot Act.”   The definitions of disinformation and deep fakes are where the government regulations step in, using their portals into Big Tech, to identify content on platforms that is deemed in violation.

It doesn’t take a deep political thinker to predict that memes and video segments against the interests of the state will be defined for removal.

Bill Gates: People Don’t Realize What’s Coming

medium  |  Gates is now talking about artificial intelligence, and how it’s the most important innovation of our time. Are you ready for what’s coming?

Bill Gates doesn’t think so.

In fact, he’s sounding the alarm on a future that many of us don’t realize is just around the corner. He thinks AI is going to shake things up in a big way:

“Soon Job demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower. I don’t think people have that in their mental model.”

“In the past, labors went off and did other jobs, but now there will be a lot of angst about the fact that AI is targeting white-collar work.”

“The job disruption from AI will be massive, and we need to prepare for it”

Think you’re safe from the job-killing effects of AI?

Think again.

BIG CHANGES are coming to the job market that people and governments aren’t prepared for.

I’m not here to scare you, I am here to jolt you out of your comfort zone.

The job market is in for some serious shaking and baking, and unfortunately, it seems like nobody’s got the right recipe to handle it.

Open Your Eyes and You Will See
“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious, you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
― Lao Tzu

Imagine waking up one day and realizing that the job you’ve held for years is no longer needed by the company.

Not because you screwed up, but simply because your company found a better alternative (AI) and it is no more a job that only you can do.

You have been working at the same company for over a decade, and suddenly, you are told that your services are no longer needed.

Won’t you feel lost, confused, and worried about how you will support yourself and your family?

It’s a scary thought, but the truth is, it’s already happening in many industries.

We’ve already seen the merciless termination of thousands of employees at tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, and that’s before AI even began flexing its muscles.

It’s only a matter of time before the job market starts feeling the full impact of this unstoppable force.
Sure, some of them may adapt, but where will you fit the rest of the workforce when the need for labor itself will decrease?

AI is inevitably going to reduce the demand for jobs, particularly those on the lower end of the skills spectrum.

Of course, companies will get the benefit of cost-cutting and spurring innovation.

But that’s likely to come at a cost — joblessness and economic inequality.

Our ever-changing world demands a moment of pause, a chance to contemplate what the future holds.

For it is in this stillness that we may gain a deep understanding of the challenges that lay ahead, and thus, prepare ourselves with the necessary tools to navigate them successfully.

The industrial revolution was fueled by the invention of machines. It enabled companies to increase productivity and reduce costs.

The whole education system was designed to serve the needs of the industrial revolution.

It trained people to become cogs in a machine. Perform repetitive tasks without questioning the status quo.

The focus was on efficiency and standardization, rather than creativity and individuality.

Companies relied on humans as a form of labor only because it was cheap (and reliable).

In the past, a single machine replaced the work of a hundred men, and all it needed was one operator.

The game we’ve been playing for years, well, it’s not the same anymore.

The future is here, and it’s not pretty.

In the coming age, one person will command an army of software agents.

They will build things at a breakneck speed, replacing tens or even hundreds of operators in the blink of an eye.

It’s a brave new world where the traditional constraints of human labor are no longer a limiting factor.
The repercussions of that will soon be felt in all sectors, and tech won’t be an exception.

The software industry, born from the industrial revolution, has undergone two productivity revolutions:
The creation of higher-level programming languages and the ascent of open source.

Monday, September 18, 2023

The U.S. Lacks The Cognitive Infrastructure To Do What Russia And China Do

WSJ  | In 2016, a high-level panel of the National Academies, an independent scientific group that provides advice to the federal government, warned that foreign adversaries, including China, were readying a new generation of hypersonic weapons. While the details of the study are classified, its conclusions set off alarm bells inside the Defense Department. 

“My joke was, if I briefed it to any more people in the Pentagon, I would’ve been briefing the janitors down on the mezzanine level,” said Mark Lewis, a former senior Pentagon official who was involved in managing the military’s hypersonic portfolio and who participated in the 2016 study. “Everyone and their brother wanted to see it.”

Concerned by the growing threat, the Pentagon ramped up testing and development. The Army, Navy and Air Force are developing hypersonic weapons, sometimes in cooperation, as is the Pentagon’s research agency Darpa. “We are in a race,” said Lewis, who is now president and chief executive officer of the Purdue Applied Research Institute.

Pentagon officials are now debating how best to respond to this buildup. Some argue the U.S. should focus more on defensive systems, rather than missiles. Others say that even if U.S. adversaries have more hypersonic missiles, the state of American hypersonic weaponry—even if not yet deployed—will ultimately be more advanced. And not everyone agrees that a hypersonics arms race comes down to numbers of missiles. “If you have 10, should I have 11?” asked Heidi Shyu, the Pentagon top technologist.

Last year, the Air Force awarded

Raytheon Technologies, now known as RTX, a nearly billion-dollar contract to develop a hypersonic cruise missile that would be launched from an aircraft and is designed to strike enemy ships. The Army hoped to have ready this year the U.S. military’s first hypersonic weapon—missiles that would be launched from trucks. 
 
While a second generates heat exceeding 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, beyond the limit of most materials. “The biggest challenge with hypersonics has always been the thermal management,” said Wes Kremer, the president of Raytheon.

Cost is also an issue. Hypersonic missiles, which are complex to develop and require specialized materials, are pricier than conventional missiles—about one-third more than ballistic missiles with comparable capabilities, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Kremer said that hypersonic missiles would be a “niche capability” to go after moving targets, where speed is essential. “Obviously you don’t need it to go against the bridge, the bridge isn’t moving,” he said. 

The bigger challenge may be for the Pentagon to decide, after so many years and so much money spent, what sort of hypersonic capabilities it wants in its arsenal. The U.S. military is currently pursuing two different types of hypersonic weapons: cruise missiles that use an air-breathing jet engine known as a scramjet, and glide vehicles that are launched from the air, and then glide to their targets at high speeds. 

The Pentagon is funding about a half dozen different hypersonic weapons—though the exact number is secret—and some former officials suggest there is no clear plan for deciding which of these to field and how. “There wasn’t a strategy during my time at the Pentagon,” said William Roper, the former head of Air Force acquisition. “And from what I can see from the outside, there doesn’t appear to be one now.”

One of the biggest stumbling blocks is a lack of infrastructure needed for testing. Developing the weapons requires testing in wind tunnels that can replicate the unique aerodynamic pressures of hypersonic flight.

 

Apple And Google Laid The Foundations For A Dystopian Industry Which Should Not Exist

haaretz  |  We’re being monitored. It’s a universally acknowledged truth about this digital age. Technology firms and advertisers know almost everything about us: where we are, what we buy, which apps we download and how we use them, our search histories and past purchases, even our sexual orientation and what fetishes we’re into. There’s only one thing that advertisers don’t or aren’t supposed to have access to: our identity. The world of ads and the data behind them is meant to be anonymous.
We’ve all been there. We read the post of a friend who just got back from vacation, and a few hours later an ad for a hotel pops up on our screen, and similar ones hound us for days, following us across websites and social media – but few of us have any idea how or why this happens.

Whenever we open an application or a website on our phone, without our noticing, a rapid process of mass negotiation takes place, and a complex and aggressive market embodying the whole economy of the internet plays out: In a split second – a fraction of the moment that elapses until the page we want opens – an automatic bidding process occurs between hundreds of thousands of different advertisers. They are fighting to advertise exactly to us at this exact moment in time. The more accurate the information the advertisers have about us, the more segmented and targeted the data, the greater the chances that we’ll actually click – and thus the price of the ad increases.

But some have the ability to take advantage of that fraction of a second to perform a much more malicious mission: to send people a distinctive, seemingly innocent, ad that contains advanced spyware. Though the ad looks completely standard, it is in fact a cyberweapon that is capable of infiltrating our phone or computer. 

In the past, it was believed that only state intelligence organizations had this capacity. It exploits the world of digital advertising, which is supposed to be completely anonymous, to bypass the security mechanisms of Apple, Google and Microsoft and install advanced spyware on our devices.
“These capabilities can turn any ad into a kind of digital bullet,” says a source familiar with the technology.

The new technology has also begun to trickle out into the commercial defense market. An investigation by Haaretz Magazine and the paper’s National Security & Cyber digital investigation desk has discovered that in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic – when certain tools were developed and deployed to track the spread of the virus – a new and disturbing cyber and espionage industry has come into being in Israel. A number of Israeli firms have developed technologies that are capable of exploiting advertising to collect data and monitor citizens. Hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of people can be monitored in this way.

The investigation, which is based on interviews with over 15 sources from Israel’s offensive cyber, security systems and defense industries, further reveals that a small group of elite companies have taken things a step further: They have created technology that use ads for offensive purposes and injecting spyware. As millions of ads compete for the right to penetrate our screens, Israeli firms are clandestinely selling technology that transforms these ads into tools of surveillance – or even into weapons that are capable of penetrating our computers or phones.

One of these companies is Insanet, whose existence is being made public here for the first time. As its name suggests, it possesses insane capabilities, according to sources in the industry. Founded by a number of well-known entrepreneurs in the fields of offensive cyber and digital intelligence, the company is owned by former ranking members of the defense establishment, including a past head of the National Security Council, Dani Arditi. The investigation reveals that the company has developed technology that exploits ads both for tracking and for infection. It’s not by chance that the company has named their product Sherlock.

Sunday, September 17, 2023

America Has No Hypersonics Because IT Tools CANNOT Replace Math And Physics Knowledge, Skill, And Ability...,

 
cf2r.org  | We will start, if necessary, by reading this article [1] . He reports on Russian advances in this area and discusses the potential concerns of the Western world about its ability to follow them, with the United States in the lead. We are asking ourselves the question here not of a delay which would be due to later development, but what seems to us to be a real conceptual difficulty in making such machines work.

Since we are in the West, let us remember these words of Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize winner in physics: “the goal of the physicist is to make the equations speak” .

Let us note then that at the end of the Cold War, we find ourselves in a rather strange situation at first glance. The West pushed electronics and computing much further than the Soviet Union. It did not occur to anyone that the latter had held up without this and we were content to think, here, that its equipment was obsolete and ineffective. The Ukrainian conflict demonstrated the opposite!

However, those who worked on equipment opposing the collapse of the Berlin Wall know very well that the “enemy” of the time had implemented treasures of thought to precisely make the equations speak and understand what was really in-game without having to go through computer calculations. This was the case, for example, with so-called “ionic” space propulsion engines.

Meanwhile, at home, we relied more and more on software. They constituted a black box over which we had no control and we “swallowed” the results, whatever they were, as if they were the naked truth coming out of the well.

An example is often better than a long speech. In 2013, I had a machine of my design tested in a digital wind tunnel. Contract was signed with the School of Mines which included one of its best students from the Polytechnico Milan. The aim of the study was to determine the drag and lift coefficients of my aircraft. I had made an estimate by hand which took me 10 minutes. After 6 months of effort, the super calculator produced a drag coefficient which was equal to mine to within 10%. If we stop the story here, you might think I was 10% wrong. Nay! Indeed, in essence, my concept had to have a non-zero lift coefficient. But the one who emerged from the “hellish” program was zero. It was therefore a clear error which showed that we could not have any confidence in the result concerning the drag. I will spare you the analysis that followed as well as its conclusions.

Today, engineering schools, in full agreement with companies, want people who are efficient in handling various IT tools: Catia, etc. If in fact the latter, at the time they were designed, brought great progress for those who were used to thinking, they only “Taylorized” the real profession by degrading it enormously, leading to the incremental improvement which tomorrow will be the prerogative of artificial intelligence. On the other hand, from my point of view, replacing the Soviet physicists and engineers of the time with AI would absolutely not be possible.

So this is where we are and until our scientists are able to make the equations speak, it seems very unlikely that the West will be able to make hypersonic missiles worthy of the name. What do I mean by that? Not rockets that go to Mach 5, which is the limit between supersonic and hypersonic, but that reach Mach 9 like the Zircon at sea level or 27 like the Avangard at high altitude, while remaining maneuverable .

To reach such a level, it is imperative to return to studies focusing on paper and pencil. Write the equations, try to solve them by hand and understand, when you make approximations, what they correspond to physically and if they are legitimate.

Let's take one more example. There are so-called phase change fluid loops for cooling parts of, for example, satellites. If we do not carry out, with ad hoc approximations, an expansion limited to order 4 of the Navier-Stokes system, we cannot conceive of such loops. A computer will never be able to achieve this, although excellent engineers in the past have been able to do so.

When we see the low level in mathematics and physics today throughout the Western school structure, we say to ourselves that the light will come from elsewhere. And this is what we are seeing.

Dementia Among U.S. Officials Poses National Security Threat

theintercept  |   As the national security workforce ages, dementia impacting U.S. officials poses a threat to national security, according to a first-of-its-kind study by a Pentagon-funded think tank. The report, released this spring, came as several prominent U.S. officials trusted with some of the nation’s most highly classified intelligence experienced public lapses, stoking calls for resignations and debate about Washington’s aging leadership.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who had a second freezing episode last month, enjoys the most privileged access to classified information of anyone in Congress as a member of the so-called Gang of Eight congressional leadership. Ninety-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whose decline has seen her confused about how to vote and experiencing memory lapses — forgetting conversations and not recalling a monthslong absence — was for years a member of the Gang of Eight and remains a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on which she has served since 2001.

The study, published by the RAND Corporation’s National Security Research Division in April, identifies individuals with both current and former access to classified material who develop dementia as threats to national security, citing the possibility that they may unwittingly disclose government secrets. 

“Individuals who hold or held a security clearance and handled classified material could become a security threat if they develop dementia and unwittingly share government secrets,” the study says.

As the study notes, there does not appear to be any other publicly available research into dementia, an umbrella term for the loss of cognitive functioning, despite the fact that Americans are living longer than ever before and that the researchers were able to identify several cases in which senior intelligence officials died of Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive brain disorder and the most common cause of dementia.

“As people live longer and retire later, challenges associated with cognitive impairment in the workplace will need to be addressed,” the report says. “Our limited research suggests this concern is an emerging security blind spot.” 

Most holders of security clearances, a ballooning class of officials and other bureaucrats with access to secret government information, are subject to rigorous and invasive vetting procedures. Applying for a clearance can mean hourslong polygraph tests; character interviews with old teachers, friends, and neighbors; and ongoing automated monitoring of their bank accounts and other personal information. As one senior Pentagon official who oversees such a program told me of people who enter the intelligence bureaucracy, “You basically give up your Fourth Amendment rights.” 

Yet, as the authors of the RAND report note, there does not appear to be any vetting for age-related cognitive decline. In fact, the director of national intelligence’s directive on continuous evaluation contains no mention of age or cognitive decline.

While the study doesn’t mention any U.S. officials by name, its timing comes amid a simmering debate about gerontocracy: rule by the elderly. Following McConnell’s first freezing episode, in July, Google searches for the term “gerontocracy” spiked.

“The president called to check on me,” McConnell said when asked about the first episode. “I told him I got sandbagged,” he quipped, referring to President Joe Biden’s trip-and-fall incident during a June graduation ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, which sparked conservative criticisms about the 80-year-old’s own functioning.

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Obama's Sugar Mama Appointed "Chief Commercial Officer" For The Ukraine..,

WaPo  |  President Biden will appoint a former commerce secretary, Penny Pritzker, to be special representative for Ukraine’s economic recovery, a new position that signals the Biden administration’s concern about the country’s long-term economic survival even as its war with Russia grinds on.

In a statement, Mr. Biden said that Ms. Pritzker “will drive the United States’ efforts to help rebuild the Ukrainian economy” by working with Ukraine’s government along with U.S. allies, international financial institutions and the private sector.

Ms. Pritzker, 64, will encourage pro-investment strategies in Ukraine while also drumming up public and private investment from other nations, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the appointment was not yet official. She plans to travel to the country in the coming weeks to begin assessing the state of its economy and to meet with political and business leaders.

The White House will announce the appointment on Thursday. Ms. Pritzker will work from the State Department, reporting to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.

The appointment comes as attention in the United States and Europe increasingly turns toward Ukraine’s survival in economic as well as military terms. A report in March by the World Bank found that rebuilding the country’s badly damaged infrastructure and gutted urban areas could cost more than $400 billion over a decade. Group of 7 member nations have just begun sketching out how that undertaking might work, especially with Russian forces occupying large portions of Ukraine.

Mr. Blinken added in a statement that Ms. Pritzker would be central to the effort to ensure “that Ukraine not only survives but thrives, standing on its own.” He said the goal was to turn the country into “a prosperous, secure, European democracy.”

Ms. Pritzker hails from a prominent Chicago family known for its business empire and longtime influence within the Democratic Party. Her brother, J.B. Pritzker, is the Democratic governor of Illinois. Their father, Donald, was a co-founder of the Hyatt hotel company.

Ms. Pritzker started several business ventures of her own, and as President Barack Obama’s commerce secretary from 2013-17, she was known for her close relationships with business leaders across the United States. She is also on the board of Microsoft and a former chairwoman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

She played an important role in Mr. Obama’s rise through Illinois and national politics, using her contacts to help raise hundreds of millions of dollars for his campaigns. In a January 2020 endorsement of Mr. Biden’s presidential candidacy, she noted that she had known Mr. Biden for more than 20 years.

 

 

 

Turning Over That Pritzker Family Log To See What Comes Scurrying Out From Underneath...,

wikipedia  |   The Superior Bank FSB was a Hinsdale, Illinois-based savings and loan association that collapsed in July 2001[1] with some $2.3b in assets.[2] It was co-owned by the Pritzker family of Chicago.

Synopsis

Superior opened in 1988 under conditions created by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, which made generous arrangements for the takeover of several failed thrifts. The bank was a 50-50 partnership between the Pritzkers (the elder Jay, Penny and Thomas) and real estate investor Alvin Dworman, who ran Superior from his New York office after Jay Pritzker's death in 1997. The Pritzkers and Dworman bought the failed Lyons Federal for the relatively modest price of $42.5 million, with each using a shell corporation to control half of Coast-to-Coast Financial Corporation (CCFC), a holding company created to own Superior.

In July 2001, Superior was seized by federal banking regulators after the Pritzkers reneged on a recapitalization program. The Pritzker family entered into a $460 million, 15 year, interest-free settlement in December 2001 to protect the family's business reputation and avoid civil forfeiture and litigation. At the time, Superior Bank was the largest bank failure in more than a decade. As of March 2012, former Superior Bank depositors are still owed over $10 million.

July 2001 collapse

According to a press release from the Office of Thrift Supervision,

Superior Bank suffered as a result of its former high-risk business strategy, which was focused on the generation of significant volumes of subprime mortgage and automobile loans for securitization and sale in the secondary market. OTS found that the bank also suffered from poor lending practices, improper record keeping and accounting, and ineffective board and management supervision.[1]

George Kaufman, a finance professor at Loyola University Chicago called Superior's failure "a tale of gross mismanagement," adding that "[Superior] was engaged in relatively unethical practices, fancy-footwork accounting, playing it very close to the edge."[3]

Kaufman says many share in the blame for the mess-the bank's managers, directors, and auditors, as well as banking regulators-but he also wonders how the Pritzkers, as co-owners, could have allowed it to happen. "One of the great mysteries to me is what the Pritzkers were up to, why they took these chances," he said. "It makes no sense given their wealth and visibility."[3]

Settlement by the Pritzkers

In December 2001, the Pritzkers agreed to pay a record $460 million to the federal government to avoid being punished for the failure of Superior Bank FSB.[4] It was a 15-year, interest-free settlement that granted the Pritzkers a share of the government's settlement with the bank's former accountants. In June 2012, news reports revealed that the Pritzker family received a discount in 2011 on the 2001 settlement.

According to The Washington Times, "But after paying $316 million of the interest-free debt, the family quietly struck a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) in June 2011 to discount the balance in return for paying off the debt early. Ms. Sweet and Mr. Courtney are among 1,400 depositors still owed $10.3 million at the end of March, records show. The FDIC Insurance Fund is still out $296 million after paying off Superior’s insured depositors. It is highly unlikely the remaining depositors or the FDIC will receive much more money since nearly all of the settlement funds have been paid out, according to records and interviews."[5]

“'The depositors got nicked coming, going and after the fact,'” said Clinton Krislov, a lawyer who represents depositors whose accounts exceeded the $100,000 covered by FDIC insurance. “'The depositors have gotten all they will from the Pritzkers.'”

RICO lawsuit

In 2002 uninsured depositors filed federal class-action charges under the RICO Act against one-time board chairwoman Penny Pritzker, her cousin Thomas Pritzker, Dworman, other bank principals and Ernst & Young. Plaintiffs’ attorney Clint Krislov claimed that those who controlled Superior induced depositors to put money in the bank, “corruptly” funneling money out of the bank to “fraudulently” profit the owners. [6] The lawsuit, Courtney v. Hallerin was initially filed under a district court which dismissed the claims;[7] the appeal was argued before the 7th Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals on September 25, 2006. In her May 7, 2007 opinion, Judge Wood affirmed the lower court's decision.

Friday, September 15, 2023

Langley's Mouthpiece Said Biden Should Not Run Again

WaPo  |  Joe Biden launched his candidacy for president in 2019 with the words “we are in the battle for the soul of this nation.” He was right. And though it wasn’t obvious at first to many Democrats, he was the best person to wage that fight. He was a genial but also shrewd campaigner for the restoration of what legislators call “regular order.”

Since then, Biden has had a remarkable string of wins. He defeated President Donald Trump in the 2020 election; he led a Democratic rebuff of Trump’s acolytes in the 2022 midterms; his Justice Department has systematically prosecuted the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that Trump championed and, now, through special counsel Jack Smith, the department is bringing Trump himself to justice.

What I admire most about President Biden is that in a polarized nation, he has governed from the center out, as he promised in his victory speech. With an unexpectedly steady hand, he passed some of the most important domestic legislation in recent decades. In foreign policy, he managed the delicate balance of helping Ukraine fight Russia without getting America itself into a war. In sum, he has been a successful and effective president.

But I don’t think Biden and Vice President Harris should run for reelection. It’s painful to say that, given my admiration for much of what they have accomplished. But if he and Harris campaign together in 2024, I think Biden risks undoing his greatest achievement — which was stopping Trump.

Biden wrote his political testament in his inaugural address: “When our days are through, our children and our children’s children will say of us: They gave their best, they did their duty, they healed a broken land.” Mr. President, maybe this is that moment when duty has been served.

Biden would carry two big liabilities into a 2024 campaign. He would be 82 when he began a second term. According to a recent Associated Press-NORC poll, 77 percent of the public, including 69 percent of Democrats, think he’s too old to be effective for four more years. Biden’s age isn’t just a Fox News trope; it’s been the subject of dinner-table conversations across America this summer.

Because of their concerns about Biden’s age, voters would sensibly focus on his presumptive running mate, Harris. She is less popular than Biden, with a 39.5 percent approval rating, according to polling website FiveThirtyEight. Harris has many laudable qualities, but the simple fact is that she has failed to gain traction in the country or even within her own party.

Biden could encourage a more open vice-presidential selection process that could produce a stronger running mate. There are many good alternatives, starting with now-Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass, whom I wish Biden had chosen in the first place, or Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. But breaking up the ticket would be a free-for-all that could alienate Black women, a key constituency. Biden might end up more vulnerable.

Politicians who know Biden well say that if he were convinced that Trump were truly vanquished, he would feel he had accomplished his political mission. He will run again if he believes in his gut that Trump will be the GOP nominee and that he has the best chance to defeat Trump and save the country from the nightmare of a revenge presidency.

Biden has never been good at saying no. He should have resisted the choice of Harris, who was a colleague of his beloved son Beau when they were both state attorneys general. He should have blocked then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which has done considerable damage to the island’s security. He should have stopped his son Hunter from joining the board of a Ukrainian gas company and representing companies in China — and he certainly should have resisted Hunter’s attempts to impress clients by getting Dad on the phone.

Biden has another chance to say no — to himself, this time — by withdrawing from the 2024 race. It might not be in character for Biden, but it would be a wise choice for the country.

Biden has in many ways remade himself as president. He is no longer the garrulous glad-hander I met when I first covered Congress more than four decades ago. He’s still an old-time pol, to be sure, but he is now more focused and strategic; he executes policies systematically, at home and abroad. As Franklin Foer writes in “The Last Politician,” a new account of Biden’s presidency, “he will be remembered as the old hack who could.”

Time is running out. In a month or so, this decision will be cast in stone. It will be too late for other Democrats, including Harris, to test themselves in primaries and see whether they have the stuff of presidential leadership. Right now, there’s no clear alternative to Biden — no screamingly obvious replacement waiting in the wings. That might be the decider for Biden, that there’s seemingly nobody else. But maybe he will trust in democracy to discover new leadership, “in the arena.”

I hope Biden has this conversation with himself about whether to run, and that he levels with the country about it. It would focus the 2024 campaign. Who is the best person to stop Trump? That was the question when Biden decided to run in 2019, and it’s still the essential test of a Democratic nominee today.

Five Facts That Compel Biden Impeachment

jonathanturley  |  Consider just five established facts:

First, there appears to be evidence that Joe Biden lied to the public for years in denying knowledge of his son’s business dealings. Hunter Biden’s ex-business associate, Tony Bobulinski, has said repeatedly that he discussed some dealings directly with Joe Biden. Devon Archer, Hunter’s close friend and partner, described the president’s denials of knowledge as “categorically false.”

Moreover, Hunter’s laptop has communications from his father discussing the dealings, including audio messages from the president. The president allegedly spoke with his son on speakerphone during meetings with his associates on at least 20 occasions, according to Archer, attended dinners with some clients, and took photographs with others.

Second, we know that more than $20 million was paid to the Bidens by foreign sources, including figures in China, Ukraine, Russia and Romania. There is no apparent reason for the multilayers of accounts and companies other than to hide these transfers. Some of these foreign figures have allegedly told others they were buying influence with Joe Biden, and Hunter himself repeatedly invoked his father’s name — including a text exchange with a Chinese businessman in which he said his father was sitting next to him as Hunter demanded millions in payment. While some Democrats now admit that Hunter was selling the “illusion” of influence and access to his father, these figures clearly believed they were getting more than an illusion. That includes one Ukrainian businessman who reportedly described Hunter as dumber than his dog.

Third, specific demands were made on Hunter, including dealing with the threat of a Ukrainian prosecutor to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where Hunter was given a lucrative board position. Five days later, Joe Biden forced the Ukrainians to fire the prosecutor, even though State Department and intelligence reports suggested that progress was being made on corruption. Likewise, despite warnings from State Department officials that Hunter was undermining anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine, he continued to receive high-level meetings with then-Secretary of State John Kerry and other State Department officials.

Fourth, Hunter repeatedly stated in emails that he paid his father as much as half of what he earned. There also are references to deals that included free office space and other perks for Joe Biden and his wife; other emails reference how Joe and Hunter Biden would use the same accounts and credit cards. Beyond those alleged direct benefits, Joe Biden clearly benefited from money going to his extended family.

Fifth, there is evidence of alleged criminal conduct by Hunter that could be linked to covering up these payments, from the failure to pay taxes to the failure to register as a foreign lobbyist. What is not established is the assumption by many that Joe Biden was fully aware of both the business dealings and any efforts to conceal them.

The White House is reportedly involved in marshaling the media to swat down any further investigation. In a letter drafted by the White House Counsel’s office, according to a CNN report media executives were told they need to “ramp up their scrutiny” of House Republicans “for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies.” It is a dangerous erosion of separation between the White House and the president’s personal legal team. Yet, many in the media have previously followed such directions from the Biden team — from emphasizing the story that the laptop might be “Russian disinformation” to an unquestioning acceptance of the president’s denial of any knowledge of his son’s dealings.

Notably, despite the vast majority of media echoing different defenses for the Bidens for years, the American public is not buying it. Polls show that most Americans view the Justice Department as compromised and Hunter Biden as getting special treatment for his alleged criminal conduct. According to a recent CNN poll, 61% of Americans believe Joe Biden was involved in his family’s business deals with China and Ukraine; only 1% say he was involved but did nothing wrong.

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Operation Sunrise: How We Came To Be The 4th Reich

Allen Dulles was a part of Operation Sunrise and it appears he went against orders and did not negotiate an unconditional surrender but instead brokered deals with the nazis. It doesn't help that nazi sympathy was fairly rampant throughout the military and government hence the willingness to proceed with Operation Paperclip. Dulles worked for a law firm that protected IG Farben (corporation that participated in slave labor and genocide) and I'm currently looking into his prewar antics as it appears he may have been involved in helping fund the rise of the nazis from the beginning. Money was apparently stolen from a bank in England. Also, during the war Dulles had his OSS operation set up in Switzerland. The Swiss bank basically legitimatized the nazi's money and the idea that they were "neutral" is kind of ridiculous. The nazi's couldn't have operated without those bank accounts so taking their money was aiding and abetting. I still need to sit down and follow all the money, but some really fucky things were going on before the war even broke out. Don't forget the 1930's failed business plot to install a fascist leader in the US. The people involved in that likely came up with some new plans.

It's pretty amazing how the US reshaped Wernher von Braun's public persona. He was literally an SS Major and the director of a military unit making the most advanced weapon systems for the Nazis. You don't get in those positions without being heavily involved in the Nazi party.

The dossier on him literally has a 'carrot' style insertion to change "ardent Nazi" to "not an ardent Nazi." He went from a leader of Nazis to literally hosting shows on Disney about space travel.

There's quite a bit there, actually, from the Vatican-NAZI connection in the whole UFO affair, to the Knights of Malta in more recent years.

I'll start at a random point of connection:

Dulles helped Mengele flee to Argentina, where the CIA later supported a right-wing authoritarian coup

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4383422

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Argentine_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

NAZI Walter Schreiber -- who conducted LSD experiments with MKULTRA -- wound up in Argentina.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-cold-war-cia-interrogators-learned-from-the-nazis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Schreiber#Emigration

NAZIs also fled to Chile, where the CIA later backed a dictator that used NAZIs to torture dissidents

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_Dignidad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

Walter Rauff was a NAZI that had CIA connections, who also worked for Mossad (Israel) and the Chilean secret service

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rauff

The NAZI-CIA connection goes beyond Paperclip. US intelligence services used NAZIs in the Gehlen Organization

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehlen_Organization

So there's a global intelligence service / NAZI connection.

Here's the main Vatican - NAZI link: The Vatican got independence from Mussolini, who was soon allied with Hitler.

David Grusch has talked about the Vatican - NAZI - UFO connection, and there has been, from the beginning, a broad connection with intelligence services.

There's another interesting Vatican-Intelligence service link with the Knights of Malta, the only nation on the planet without any territory, it has diplomatic relations with over 100 countries, issues its own passports, is controlled by the Vatican, and has prominent representatives in the US intelligence services.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Military_Order_of_Malta

CIA Director William Casey was a member of the Knights of Malta. William F. Buckley Jr was a member of the Knights of Malta. James J. Angleton was a member.

Buckley was also a member of the Skull and Bones -- the same secret society both George W. Bush (son of former CIA director George HW Bush) and his 2004 Presidential competitor John Kerry both belonged to (the same year no less), but which neither would discuss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwJDs1cg9Eo

So there's a CIA-Vatican-NAZI-Secret Society international right-wing apparatus that took hold on planet Earth around 1945.

I could keep going with this but I have other things to do.

But I will say the US Navy -- where the videos started leaking from -- is tied into all this to. It was, for example, and Naval intelligence officer Dr. Charles Savage was involved in LSD experiments with programs that became MKULTRA

https://ahrp.org/1947-1953-navys-project-chatter-tested-drugs-for-interrogation/

and, as we keep hearing, there seems to be an inter-dimensional component to all this, which LSD may sensitize people to. Like information about UFO's, the cognitive states unlocked by LSD are tightly controlled. LSD in the US is a schedule I substance, more tightly controlled than cocaine, and as tightly controlled as heroin.

Religious scholars like Huston Smith argued that the prohibition on psychedelics may be a prohibition on human cognitive evolution, since this experience has been with humanity since early times

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/r-i-p-huston-smith-religious-scholar-who-defended-psychedelics-spiritual-potential/

So there may be a NAZI-CIA-Vatican-UFO-Industry conspiracy that is both keeping technology from us, and also keeping our minds under tight control by limiting our ability to perceive non-desirable aspects of reality.

There's a shit ton of baggage in there.

Bonus weirdness:

Timothy Leary was using LSD to channel messages from aliens in Sirius

https://incaseyoureinterested.com/2018/03/06/tomorrow-tuesday-tim-learys-starseed/

http://rawilsonfans.de/en/the-starseed-signals/

Aliester Crowley was also channeling messages from Sirius, as well as an entity he called "AIWAS"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley

Here is what AIWAS looked like

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/eb/36/e1/eb36e169f555d973eb307bf3297218cb.png

The first head of the US Jet Propulsion lab was a follower of Crowley, named Jack Parsons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons

 

Mexico Once Again Showing The World Why It's F*cking Mexico...,

reuters  |  Mexican lawmakers heard testimony that "we are not alone" in the universe and saw the alleged remains of non-human beings in an extraordinary hearing marking the Latin American country's first congressional event on UFOs.

In the hearing on Tuesday on FANI, the Spanish acronym for what are usually now termed Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), politicians were shown two artifacts that Mexican journalist and long-time UFO enthusiast Jaime Maussan claimed were the corpses of extraterrestrials.

The specimens were not related to any life on Earth, Maussan said.

The two tiny "bodies," displayed in cases, have three fingers on each hand and elongated heads. Maussan said they were recovered in Peru near the ancient Nazca Lines in 2017. He said that they were about 1,000 years old.

Similar such finds in the past have turned out to be the remains of mummified children.

"This is the first time extraterrestrial life is presented in such a form and I think there is a clear demonstration that we are dealing with non-human specimens that are not related to any other species in our world and that any scientific institution can investigate it," Maussan said.

"We are not alone," he added.

Jose de Jesus Zalce Benitez, Director of the Scientific Institute for Health of the Mexican navy, said X-rays, 3-D reconstruction and DNA analysis had been carried out on the remains.

"I can affirm that these bodies have no relation to human beings," he said.

Lawmakers also heard from former U.S. Navy pilot Ryan Graves, who has participated in U.S. Congressional hearings about his personal experience with UAP and the stigma around reporting such sightings.

In recent years, the U.S. government has done an about-face on public information on UAP after decades of stonewalling and deflecting. The Pentagon has been actively investigating reported sightings in recent years by military aviators, while an independent NASA panel studying UFOs is the first of its kind by the space agency.

NASA is set to discuss findings from the study on Thursday.

 

 

 

Sheryl Sandberg Lies, The NYTimes Lies, None Of This Shit Happened....,

Billionaire Zionist @sherylsandberg is confronted with a @TheGrayzoneNews takedown of the report she cites to bolster the narrative of her...