Pablo Picasso Woman with blue collar (Portrait d’Inez) 1941
JP Morgan
Cracks are beginning to show in the united front.
“The Japanese media is biased towards one side. It is influenced by reports from the West. I can’t help but feel that they only rely on European and American reports..”
• Zelensky Making Ukrainians ‘Suffer’ – Ex-japanese PM (RT)
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has made the people in his country “suffer,” former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has said. He added that the media in Japan is biased in its coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “I don’t quite understand why only [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is criticized while Mr. Zelensky isn’t taken to task at all. This is problematic. Mr. Zelensky has made many Ukrainian people suffer,” Mori said in a speech at a political event in Tokyo on Friday, as quoted by Kyodo News. “The Japanese media is biased towards one side. It is influenced by reports from the West. I can’t help but feel that they only rely on European and American reports,” he added.
Mori criticized current Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s position on the conflict as “one-sided” and being inclined towards the US. Mori also warned that Russia could “use nuclear weapons” if the situation deteriorates. Putin reaffirmed last month that Moscow will adhere to its nuclear doctrine, which states Russia would use its nuclear arsenal only in response to an attack with weapons of mass destruction or “if the existence of the state itself is at stake.”
After holding various cabinet posts in the 1980s and 90s, Mori served as prime minister from 2000-01. He later led the organizing committee of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, but stepped down months before the event began due to a scandal over sexist remarks he made at a meeting. Japan, along with many Western countries, imposed sanctions on Russia after it launched its military operation in Ukraine in late February. Moscow responded by blacklisting more than 380 Japanese legislators and banning Kishida and other top cabinet members from entering the country.
Hard to read.
“American Neo-Nazi Outlines The Crimes Of His Ukrainian ‘Colleagues”
• ‘All The Real Skinheads Went To Ukraine’ – American Neo-Nazi (Livshitz)
Earlier this month, Juan Sinmiedo, who runs a popular Telegram channel documenting human rights abuses in Ukraine, published an explosive interview with ‘Boneface’ – real name Kent McLellan – a 32-year-old Neo-Nazi from Florida who joined the fascist volunteer Right Sector group during the Donbass war, and returned to to fight alongside the Azov Battalion in January 2022. The discussion with McLellan shatters many myths and lies that have been circulated about the Maidan coup, the current conflict in Ukraine, and the disturbingly strong influence of nationalist movements within the country. McLellan, the son of the front man of Neo-Nazi rock band Brutal Attack, got involved with far-right activism while just a teenager, and had numerous run-ins with the law for subversive, racially-charged activities. He and other members of the racist organization American Front were detained by the FBI in May 2012, for preparing terrorist acts against ethnic minorities in Florida.
It was this background that led him to travel to Ukraine in 2014. The American fascist circles he moved in had direct links and regular contact with nationalist groups at the forefront of the Maidan, which at the time were hosting large public events “nearly daily in every Oblast that wasn’t seeing war.” As did far-right movements in many other nearby countries, including Finland, Georgia, and Latvia. “In case the world wonders what happened to all the real skinheads. They all went to Ukraine,” McLellan said. It seems the US government approved of the presence of McLellan and others in Ukraine at that time. He says he got caught – it’s not clear by whom or what – teaching Ukrainians DNS poisoning, and the Americans “wanted to sit in and help.” “They didn’t want names or anything, but they wanted to monitor the situation. Without this backing I would’ve been charged with violation of [the] American neutrality act,” McLellan claims.
Yeah, Ukraine is the ideal investigator here. Like Holland is for MH17.
• UN Tells Ukraine To Investigate Video Showing ‘Execution’ Of Russian POWs (RT)
The UN’s human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine has called on Kiev to probe a video that apparently shows the country’s troops executing Russian prisoners of war. Moscow has said that killing captives is a “widespread practice” by Ukraine’s armed forces. The UN body told the Associated Press on Saturday that it “is aware of the video and is looking into it,” adding: “we reiterate our call that all such allegations should be properly and promptly investigated by respective authorities.” The video itself surfaced on social media earlier this week. In it, a group of captured Russian servicemen are shown surrendering to Ukrainian troops and lying down on the ground, before a second clip shows their bodies lying motionless in pools of blood. Another clip with no sound purportedly shows a Russian soldier emerging from a building and opening fire on the Ukrainians, but it is unclear whether that clip is linked to the alleged execution.
The Russian Ministry of Defense described the video as evidence of “the deliberate and methodical murder” of the soldiers, with the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council calling the incident a “demonstrative and audacious crime.” The council demanded an international investigation, and said that it had notified the UN, Council of Europe, Amnesty International, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. “Of course, Ukrainian authorities will investigate this video,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishina told reporters at a security conference in Canada on Saturday. However, she rushed to claim that it is “very unlikely”that the clips show a deliberate execution.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, however, said that not only does the footage depict the “barbarous killing of Russian prisoners of war,” it shows “a widespread practice of the Ukrainian Armed Forces that is actively supported by the Kiev regime and outright ignored by its Western backers.” Back in March, another shocking videoemerged showing Ukrainian troops shooting captured Russian soldiers in the legs at point-blank range, while other wounded Russians lie on the ground nearby. Countless other videos of Russian troops being mistreated by their Ukrainian captors have also surfaced online in the months since Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine began in late February.
More cracks showing.
• Videos Of Execution Of Russian POWs In Ukraine Are Authentic – NYT (RT)
The New York Times says it has verified the authenticity of videos that surfaced online last week, allegedly showing the execution of captive Russian soldiers by Ukrainian troops. The men “appear to have been shot dead at close range,”according to the newspaper. The events shown in the clips occurred in the village of Makeyevka in the People’s Republic of Lugansk mid-November, the newspaper reported on Sunday. “The videos… whose authenticity has been verified by The New York Times, offer a rare look into one gruesome moment among many in the war, but do not show how or why the Russian soldiers were killed,” the NYT wrote, adding that what actually happened to the soldiers remains “a mystery.”
However, the outlet noted out that judging by the footage, “at least 11 Russians… appear to have been shot dead at close range after one of their fellow fighters suddenly opened fire on Ukrainian soldiers standing nearby.” The NYT also cited Dr. Rohini Haar, medical adviser at Physicians for Human Rights, who said that “killing or wounding a combatant, who, having laid down his arms or having no longer means of defense, has surrendered at discretion” is a violation of the laws of international armed conflict. “It looks like most of them were shot in the head,” Haar said of the Russian soldiers in the clips. “There are pools of blood. That indicates that they were just left there dead. There appears to have been no effort to pick them up or help them.”
In one of the videos, which appeared on social media, the Russian servicemen were shown surrendering to Kiev troops and lying down on the ground, before a second clip showed their bodies lying motionless in pools of blood. Another video with no sound, which is also believed to have been made at the scene, purportedly showed a Russian soldier emerging from a building and shooting at the Ukrainians. Russia has described the clips as proof of “deliberate and methodical murder”of its soldiers by Ukraine. The UN has urged an investigation into the videos, with Kiev promising to carry out a probe.
Courtesy of US/NATO weapons.
• Ukraine Shelled Radioactive Waste Storage – Official (RT)
Ukrainian troops have shelled Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant over the last two days, Renat Karchaa, an adviser at Russia’s state nuclear operator Rosenergoatom, said. Karchaa said the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant was targeted on Sunday morning following a barrage fired at the facility the previous day, when six projectiles hit the cooling system of one of the rectors and two struck the radioactive waste storage. He added that the employees were unharmed. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the plant was shelled twice on Sunday, while 11 “large-caliber artillery shells” were fired on Saturday. The ministry said that projectiles fell close to the reactors, and that the fire was also directed at power lines. “It is impossible to assess the consequences of the shelling because there is a danger of new attacks,” Karchaa said.
The plant had not been targeted that much since late September. according to the official. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose team is monitoring the situation on the ground, said that “more than a dozen blasts were heard within a short period of time” on Sunday. It added that experts could see some of the explosions from their windows. “Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately. As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire!” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said. Russian soldiers seized the plant shortly after Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine in late February. Zaporozhye Region, together with three other former Ukrainian territories, eventually joined Russia after holding referendums on the matter in September.
“Moscow is 1,600 kilometres from Berlin, around 2,500 kilometres from Rome, Paris and London. You know it makes sense. You could be nice and warm soon.”
• A Report from the Front and a Warning (Batiushka)
Many work from home, or used to. That is difficult now, because at best you only have three to four hours of electricity before it goes off for at least the same amount of time. There is no light. And then even the best batteries in a computer mean that you lose power after an hour or two – that is, if you have the internet, which is not all the time. And remember to charge up your phone as soon as the power comes back on. The power will not last and may go off all day. You have no way of knowing. And when the power goes off, the boiler also goes off. No heating, no hot water. The windows are taped across in Xs against possible missile blasts, which would cause the glass to shatter. My relatives saw a missile going over last May. It landed in Kiev.
And sometimes the washing machine will stop half-way through the cycle. Power-cut. That is inconvenient. And always remember to carry a flashlight in your pocket or handbag and have at least one other one in the house. Many are using Swedish-made primus stoves to cook – if you can get one and the refills. Some Swedes are doing well out of this. As for shopping, well, the opening hours change with the power cuts, though corner shops remain open, if dark. And of course, Kiev has gone back to a cash economy. The card machines will not work – no electricity. Hopefully, the bank cash dispensers will get restocked often enough. That is, if you have money in your account. My relatives do not have a car. Many of the Ukrainians who are wealthy enough to have cars drove to the West last March/April/May with their recruitment age sons (bribes of up to $5,000 a time to the border guards, who left last), and now live in cramped quarters in the houses of Western people naïve enough and once prosperous enough to take them.
My relatives are very lucky because they can get on minibuses to take them to their house in the country. Just a wooden affair, but there are vegetables there, especially potatoes, and lots of firewood. They had a busy summer in the large vegetable garden. They prepared for the winter, picking, bottling and pickling. The only way of heating there is putting wood in the stove. No gas, but then you do not need any. And you can even live without electricity, as there is a stock of candles. The only thing – it gets really cold there in the winter, -20 or -30 outside, -10 inside, unless you heat constantly. So you stay inside as much as possible and prepare lots of dry firewood for years before.
All of this is a warning to Western Europe. I know you are being distracted by the World Cup soccer circus. Do not be. You too voted for US puppet-leaders like Zelensky? You too wanted to be Ukrainianised by the US? Then this is your future too. You have been warned. I have friends in Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova. They are already living like this. This is a virus that is creeping westwards towards you. You are seeing your future – unless you can get rid of your pro-Nazi puppet-governments in time. Elect Russia-friendly governments. Make friends with your neighbours next door, in the east of Europe. (Never heard of ‘love your neighbour’?). Moscow is 1,600 kilometres from Berlin, around 2,500 kilometres from Rome, Paris and London. You know it makes sense. You could be nice and warm soon.
Can’t really call this “the smart money”, can you?
• FTX Reveals Top 50 Creditors Are Owed $3.1 Billion, Seeks To Keep Their Names Confidential
Amid the frenzied scramble to divulge all of FTX’s dirty secrets, including where the fate of those $8 billion in stolen client funds which were handed over to Alameda ahead of the largest crypto exchange bankruptcy in history, there is one topic that the company’s new CEO (and one-time Enron liquidator) John J. Ray wants to keep under wraps: the identity of its creditors (and FTX clients). Consider the following curious sequence of events that developed over the past week (conveniently summarized by the FT’s Kadhim Shubber): on Monday, FTX said that it will file a list of its top 50 creditors “on or before November 18”). Just one day later, in John J. Ray’s Affidavit in Support of First Day Motion, FTX revealed that this may be a problem since “the Debtors are unable to create a list of their top 50 creditors that includes customers without access tot he data repositories at issues.”
Fast forward to Saturday when in a surprise twist, the Enron liquidator is now asking the judge to keep the names of the company’s creditors and customers (which we assume have been identified), confidential in order to “protect the estate or any entity in respect of a trade secret or other confidential research, development or commercial information.” In retrospect, considering that FTX previously estimated that it has over 1 million creditors – which ostensibly includes all clients of the FTX brokerage from the smallest mom and pop investors to massive Chinese money laundering whales – this is probably not all that surprising, although it will be interesting to see how Judge John Dorsey, who is the appointed Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge on the FTX bankruptcy, will rule on November 22, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. (at Courtroom #5 on the 5th floor at 824 North Market Street in Wilmington) when the First Day hearing takes place.
As an aside, since the creditors of FTX also includes FTX clients, one wonders if there is a political push to keep certain names hidden, despite official denials? [..] Tangentially, as the FT notes in other recent cryptocurrency bankruptcy cases involving Voyager Digital and Celsius Networks, “a key legal question has been determining whether account holders are unsecured creditors or have a higher priority status in determining who gets recovery payments first. Another question likely to arise is whether account holders who withdrew their money just before the bankruptcy filing are subject to clawbacks.” And in a separate filing pushed out later on Saturday, FTX published a list of its top unsecured 50 creditors – with all names and addresses redacted – which shows that the largest creditor (or is that FTX customer) had $226 million parked at the company, and that all of the top 10 creditors had over $100 million in debt with FTX.
“For some reason, SBF just knew that he was supposed to oppose repurposed drugs, though he knew nothing about the subject at all.”
• The Covid/Crypto Connection: The Grim Saga of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried (Tucker)
A series of revealing texts and tweets by Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced CEO of FTX, the once high-flying but now belly-up crypto exchange, had the following to say about his image as a do-gooder: it is a “dumb game we woke westerners play where we say all the right shibboleths and so everyone likes us.” Very interesting. He had the whole game going: a vegan worried about climate change, supports every manner of justice (racial, social, environmental) except that which is coming for him, and shells out millions to worthy charities associated with the left. He also bought plenty of access and protection in D.C., enough to make his shady company the toast of the town.
As part of the mix, there is this thing called pandemic planning. We should know what that is by now: it means you can’t be in charge of your life because there are bad viruses out there. As bizarre as it seems, and for reasons that are still not entirely clear, favoring lockdowns, masks, and vaccine passports became part of the woke ideological stew. This is particularly strange because covid restrictions have been proven, over and over, to harm all the groups about whom woke ideology claims to care so deeply. That includes even animal rights: who can forget the Danish mink slaughter of 2020? Regardless, it’s just true. Masking became a symbol of being a good person, same as vaccinating, veganism, and flying into fits at the drop of a hat over climate change. None of this has much if anything to do with science or reality.
It’s all tribal symbolism in the name of group political solidarity. And FTX was pretty good at it, throwing around hundreds of millions to prove the company’s loyalty to all the right causes. Among them included the pandemic-planning racket. That’s right: there were deep connections between FTX and Covid that have been cultivated for two years. Let’s have a look. Earlier this year, the New York Times trumpeted a study that showed no benefit at all to the use of Ivermectin. It was supposed to be definitive. The study was funded by FTX. Why? Why was a crypto exchange so interested in the debunking of repurposed drugs in order to drive governments and people into the use of patented pharmaceuticals, even those like Remdesivir that didn’t actually work? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Regardless, the study and especially the conclusions turned out to be bogus. David Henderson and Charles Hooper further point out an interesting fact: “Some of the researchers involved in the TOGETHER trial had performed paid services for Pfizer, Merck, Regeneron, and AstraZeneca, all companies involved in developing COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines that nominally compete with ivermectin.” For some reason, SBF just knew that he was supposed to oppose repurposed drugs, though he knew nothing about the subject at all. He was glad to fund a poor study to make it true and the New York Times played its assigned role in the whole performance.
I greatly appreciate Ben Hunt’s expertise and analysis here, but in one aspect I have to disagree. I do not believe that FTX is like Bernie Ebbers or Bernie Madoff, who didn’t “start off doing outright fraud” but gradually became a Ponzi. I think FTX was set up to be one. I also think SBF was not the brain behind it, but merely the figurehead. The amounts are too high, and the links to Ukraine and Big Pharma and DNC are too strong. This is not one kid’s brainchild.
• The Story Arc of SBF and FTX (Ben Hunt)
I know it seems like I’m making this up, because obviously this cannot happen in the real world. And yet it did. When SBF filed for bankruptcy on FTX.com, Serum was the largest “asset” listed at $2.2 billion, because they had a bajillion of these coins stashed away. The tradable market cap of Serum? $60-something million as of when I’m writing this (probably lower now), because only a minute fraction of a bajillion of these coins (~3%) were actually real, as in they were actually exchanged for value in the real world. A value, of course, that plummeted once this sleight of hand was revealed. That’s the thing about Magical Money Machines and magic tricks alike, they’re not nearly so impressive once you show everyone the trick. But anyhoo, all of these magic tricks get revealed much later.
Right now it’s 2019 and everything is going much better for SBF now that he’s got his flow business established. As a brokerage AND a market-maker AND a hedge fund, his situation is 1,000% better than just being a hedge fund. There’s just one problem. Accounts. Up to now it’s been fantastic setting up all these companies in the Bahamas. No SEC or other pesky US regulators. We can say whatever we like in our marketing documents, like “HIGH RETURNS WITH NO RISK” in all caps. We can issue unregistered bullshit securities like FTT to our heart’s content. But the downside for FTX.com the crypto exchange/brokerage is that they can’t take US accounts. The Big Kahuna of capital and liquidity – the United States – is largely cut off to them. So SBF has gotta do something about that if he’s going to make some real money.
The answer is to set up a brand new crypto exchange/brokerage in the United States, named FTX US (not to be confused with the mothership, FTX.com, oh no we wouldn’t want any confusion about the names! LOL) and subject to US regulatory authority through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). FTX US was launched concurrently with a massive Super Bowl/Larry David/Tom Brady-centered ad campaign in Jan/Feb 2022. FTX US is an “affiliate” of FTX.com, meaning that they have overlapping but not identical ownership and management structures (SBF is the largest shareholder and CEO of both entities), but for regulatory purposes they are entirely separate entities, with FTX US subsidiaries holding the necessary commodity market-making licenses from the CFTC to operate in the US. Importantly, custody of the FTX US client accounts can’t (easily) be transferred to FTX.com and neither can the client money.
“You can’t put it back together. You’ve got to go get a new vase. We broke the vase, and we are shopping for a new one. We are not there yet. We are just cleaning up the mess..”
• Unstoppable Crash Worse than 2008 Coming – Jim Rickards (USAW)
Six-time, best-selling financial author James Rickards says the upcoming book “Sold Out” lays out the case why a huge crash is already a certainty sometime in 2023. In a nutshell, broken supply chains have already caused big inflation, and the Fed is raising rates to tamp it back down. On top of the perfect storm of inflation and prolonged supply problems, we have the recent meltdown of the FTX crypto currency exchange. Rickards says, “It is definitely going to cause sequential collapses in the crypto world, but will it jump the fence into the broader financial world? My expectation is it will, but it can take six months or more to play out. . . . We probably have an acute global financial crisis coming anyway. If FTX never existed, I would say we are staring at a worse financial crisis than 2008.
Throw FTX on top of that, and it’s like throwing gasoline on a fire. It will accelerate the fire. So, we’re probably going to have problems anyway, but the FTX implosion just makes it worse.” As far as the dwindling supply chains, Rickards says, “The old supply chain has collapsed. A new supply chain will emerge, and I talk about that in my book and what it will look like. Right now, we are in a very messy middle period where things don’t work well. It’s like a vase. You knock over a vase, and it breaks into 5,000 pieces. You can’t put it back together. You’ve got to go get a new vase. We broke the vase, and we are shopping for a new one. We are not there yet. We are just cleaning up the mess. . . . Russia invades Ukraine.
The Ukrainian plastic conduit factory shuts down, and all of a sudden, the BMW production lines are shut down because they cannot get a part. Again, this is another example of how this is all falling apart, and it’s not going to be put back together quickly. There will be a new supply chain, and I call it supply chain 2.0, but we are in that in between time, and it’s going to be just a mess.” Rickards says the Fed is going to keep raising rates because that is what they keep telling the public. Rickards says, “They are telling us what they are going to do, and you should believe them.” Rickards says we do have inflation, and it’s going to be with us for awhile, but we are also going to get deflation too. Rickards points out, “Why does Warren Buffett and Brookshire Hathaway have $130 billion in cash? Buffett is one of the greatest investors of all time. Why isn’t he out there buying stocks? Again, why does he have $130 billion in cash? It’s because Buffett sees what I see.
“They will hang on to the myth of its use value until its debasement can no longer be ignored.”
• The Upside-down World Of Currency (Macleod)
So long as currency and associated forms of credit are firmly attached to money such that there are minimal differences between their values, there should be no price for them either, other than a value difference arising from counterparty risk. A further distinction between money and currencies can arise if their users suspect that the link might break down. It was the breakdown in this relationship between gold and the dollar that led to the failure of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1971. Therefore, in all logic it is legal money that has no price. But does that mean that when its value differs from that of money, does currency have a price? Not necessarily. So long as currency operates as a medium of exchange, it has a value and not a price.
We can say that a dollar is valued at 0.0005682 ounces of gold, or gold is valued at 1760 dollars. As a legacy of the dollar’s regression from the days when it was on a gold standard, we still attribute no price to the dollar, but now we attribute a price to gold. To do so is technically incorrect. Perhaps an argument for this state of affairs is that gold is subject to Gresham’s law, being hoarded rather than spent. It is the medium of exchange of last resort so rarely circulates. Nevertheless, fiat currencies have consistently lost value relative to legal money, which is gold, so much so that the dollar has lost 98% since the suspension of Bretton Woods, and sterling has lost 99%. Over fifty-one years, the process has been so gradual that users of unanchored currencies as their media of exchange have failed to notice it.
This gradual loss of purchasing power relative to gold can continue indefinitely, so long as the conditions that have permitted it to happen remain without causing undue alarm. Furthermore, for lack of a replacement it is highly inconvenient for currency users to consider that their currency might be valueless. They will hang on to the myth of its use value until its debasement can no longer be ignored.
“The three-quarters of Americans who correctly consider that America is now on the wrong track can’t be sold Trump again..”
• A Step Toward National Suicide? (Conrad Black)
[..] the fact that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser paid no attention to Trump’s warnings that matters could get out of hand and his offer of 20,000 National Guardsmen indicates the Democrats’ role was a good deal less innocent than they pretend. But Trump knew what desperate and sleazy people he was dealing with, and he doesn’t have a credible excuse for being so reckless. This condemned him to having to continue to emphasize the 2020 election irregularities in order to justify his calling forth such a huge and discontented crowd at the Washington Elipse on Jan. 6, 2021. Of course, he no more sought an insurrection than Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) did.
The only way to complete Trump’s work and root out and politically exterminate those who have corrupted the intelligence and justice arms of the federal government and have dragooned the contemptible but still insidiously influential national political media in full metal jacket Trump-hate, is for Trump to identify and support the successor whom he favors as Republican presidential candidate. He shouldn’t go back to his 2016 playbook and insult all the other prominent Republicans. He has exchanged enough fire with his Republican enemies, contemptible though many of them are, and did well to win the first round and come so close in the second. The third round last week was an acute disappointment, and the Republican Party doesn’t need, and the American public doesn’t wish for, an internecine war on the scale that would rage if Trump sought another presidential nomination.
But another candidate plausibly pledged to the enactment of the Trump program and supported by Trump but not stigmatized by him, could lead the desperately needed national political purgation. For the first time in its history, with this administration, the public policy of the United States is now heavily influenced by a chronically woke, largely America-hating rag-tag of subversives, charlatans, and maladjusted zealots who believe that America is a guilty country that needs to be substantially deconstructed and morally humiliated. The three-quarters of Americans who correctly consider that America is now on the wrong track can’t be sold Trump again, but they would support a Trump-endorsed candidate advocating the Trump program. That’s now the best that can be done.
Still counting.
• Arizona AG Launches Investigation Into Maricopa County (ZH)
The Arizona attorney general’s office has launched an investigation into irregularities in Maricopa County’s handling of the midterm elections.AG Mark Brnovich’s election integrity unit has demanded a full report of well-publicized irregularities, and what he claims is evidence of “statutory violations.” The letter, sent late Saturday by Assistant AG Jennifer Wright to the county’s top civil division attorney, Thomas Liddy, is a major escalation over widespread problems with voting tabulators and printers, which delayed the declaration of a winner in razor-thin races in the attorney general’s race and the gubernatorial race. Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has questioned the media’s premature declaration that her opponent, Democrat Katie Hobbs – who wasn’t exactly popular, won.
The letter demands a full report on how voting machine and printer issues were handled, along with a copy of each polling location’s Official Ballot Report, as well as explanations for any discrepancies. Wright also demanded that the evidence be turned over before the final vote certification which is due Nov. 28. “These complaints go beyond pure speculation, but include first-hand witness accounts that raise concerns regarding Maricopa’s lawful compliance with Arizona election law,” reads the letter. “Furthermore, statements made by both Chairman Gates and Recorder Richer, along with information Maricopa County released through official modes of communication appear to confirm potential statutory violations of title 16.” Among the potential legal violations are poll workers giving improper instructions to voters whose ballot tabulations were delayed by the issues.
“I thought the article released online, it’s going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good. I think you’re clear.”
• AP: Zero Evidence Joe Biden Discussed Hunter’s Business Dealings (Turley)
[..] this weekend, the Associated Press made a whopper of a claim that there is no evidence even suggesting that President Joe Biden ever spoke to his son about his foreign dealings. I previously discussed how the Bidens have succeeded in a Houdini-like trick in making this elephant of a scandal disappear from the public stage. They did so by enlisting the media in the illusion. However, this level of audience participation in the trick truly defies belief. The statement of the Associated Press at this stage of the scandal is breathtaking but telling: “Joe Biden has said he’s never spoken to his son about his foreign business, and nothing the Republicans have put forth suggests otherwise.” For years, the media has continued to report President Biden’s repeated claim that “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”
At the outset, the media only had to suspend any disbelief that the president could fly to China as Vice President with his son on Air Force 2 without discussing his planned business dealings on the trip. Of course, the emails on the laptop quickly refuted this claim. However, the media buried the laptop story before the election or pushed the false claim that it was fake Russian disinformation. President Biden’s denials continued even after an audiotape surfaced showing President Biden leaving a message for Hunter specifically discussing coverage of those dealings. The call is specifically referring to these dealings: “Hey pal, it’s Dad. It’s 8:15 on Wednesday night. If you get a chance just give me a call. Nothing urgent. I just wanted to talk to you. I thought the article released online, it’s going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good. I think you’re clear. And anyway if you get a chance give me a call, I love you.”
But who are you going to believe, the media or your own ears. Some of us have written for two years that Biden’s denial of knowledge is patently false. It was equally evident that the Biden family was selling influence and access. There are emails of Ukrainian and other foreign clients thanking Hunter Biden for arranging meetings with his father. There are photos from dinners and meetings that tie President Biden to these figures, including a 2015 dinner with a group of Hunter Biden’s Russian and Kazakh clients. People apparently were told to avoid directly referring to President Biden. In one email, Tony Bobulinski, then a business partner of Hunter’s, was instructed by Biden associate James Gilliar not to speak of the former veep’s connection to any transactions:
“Don’t mention Joe being involved, it’s only when u [sic] are face to face, I know u [sic] know that but they are paranoid.” Instead, the emails apparently refer to President Biden with code names such as “Celtic” or “the big guy.” In one, “the big guy” is discussed as possibly receiving a 10 percent cut on a deal with a Chinese energy firm; other emails reportedly refer to Hunter Biden paying portions of his father’s expenses and taxes. Bobulinski has given multiple interviews that he met twice with Joe Biden to discuss a business deal in China with CEFC China Energy Co. That would seem obvious evidence. In addition, the New York Post reported on a key email that discussed “the proposed percentage distribution of equity in a company created for a joint venture with CEFC China Energy Co.” That was the email on March 13, 2017 that included references of “10 held by H for the big guy.”
Priority #1. Can you believe @jack never did anything about it? And those 1000s of woke censors who silenced Trump and all the doctors?
• Elon Musk Addresses Child Sexual Exploitation Content on Twitter (Tasm)
Elon Musk has begun addressing the issue of posting child sexual exploitation content on Twitter after years of the platform’s inactivity on the subject under past management. Previously, the platform did not comprehensively address the issue of publishing content that demonstrates the sexual exploitation of children. The problem of publishing pornographic content showing child sexual exploitation (CSE) on various Internet resources is deeply disturbing. While many platforms are fighting this by using tools that allow them to find and remove such content, Twitter, before it was bought by Elon Musk, did not put any real effort into this for years.
Eliza Bleu, a survivor of human trafficking and an advocate for victims, has taken this fight to the next level. In an interview with Tesmanian, she said that for the past two years she has been trying to get Twitter to take concrete steps, while other advocates have been working on this for 10 years. All this time, Twitter has not actually done anything meaningful to combat the problem. For ten years, the platform has not had a proper reporting form for content containing child sexual abuse material. Thanks to the efforts of Eliza and those who supported her, in February 2022, Twitter added a feature to easily report child sexual exploitation material, which was a huge victory in a years-long struggle.
However, a few months later, Twitter “took the easy reporting system for minor survivors away.” This was deeply disturbing news, as it is difficult to find a reasonable reason why the ability for platform users to easily report about CSE content has been removed. On October 28, Twitter, with all its problems, many of which were hidden, was sold to Elon Musk. Eliza now had to work with the new CEO to find a solution. Already on November 19, she shared the progress of their cooperation, emphasizing that the new management of the company takes the CSE problem seriously and published amazing news: the three most popular hashtags used to sell child sexual abuse material on Twitter are almost completely cleaned out.
Priority #1
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2022
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