Nancy Pelosi Appears Again On RuPaul’s Drag Race, Saying ‘This Is What America Is All About’
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House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, called it “an honor” to make a guest appearance on the latest episode of the drag show “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
“It was an honor to make an appearance on episode 5 of @RuPaulsDragRace All Stars 7 this week,” Pelosi said. “I was inspired by the contestants because they know their power. Their freedom of expression is what America is all about.”
It was an honor to make an appearance on episode 5 of @RuPaulsDragRace All Stars 7 this week. I was inspired by the contestants because they know their power. Their freedom of expression is what America is all about. #PrideMonthpic.twitter.com/d5D7wubRKp
During her appearance, Pelosi told the contestants she was proud of them and thanked them “for the joy and beauty they bring to the world.”
“Your freedom of expression of yourselves in drag is what America is all about,” she added. “I say that all the time to my friends in drag.”
Her appearance this week wasn’t the first on one of RuPaul’s shows. She was also on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” in 2018.
“This idea of people believing in themselves, being themselves, taking pride in themselves, is not just a lesson for politicians but for everyone in the country. And that’s why I was so excited and couldn’t resist being on the show,” Pelosi told The Hollywood Reporter after her first appearance.
Pelosi did not let this week’s appearance go without making a political statement. “With the midterm elections coming up, it’s very important for people to make their voices and their vote heard,” she said.
Barack Obama lied to Americans when he said that his Net Neutrality would make the internet free for people. What he meant to say is that the internet would be shut off for some people and make things freer for the people he likes.
After years of heavy censorship, even the average person with no techie experience can see with their own eyes- after the domination of Marxist ‘Net Neutrality’ has made us all less free.
How Iran Is Using the Protests to Block More Open Internet Access
The Iranian government is taking advantage of Internet shutdowns to push citizens onto a local intranet that is vulnerable to surveillance and censorship
For nearly a month Iranians have been fiercely and relentlessly protesting against their government. Sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the country’s “morality police,” who arrested her for “inappropriate attire,” the demonstrations have been led by young women who refuse to accept restrictive laws such as hijab requirements. Authorities have been suppressing the protests with violence, as well as less tangible techniques. Amir Rashidi is director of digital rights and security at Miaan Group, an Austin, Tex.–based advocacy organization working to improve human rights in Iran. Rashidi, an Iranian who left the country in 2010, told Scientific American how its government has been using technology such as facial recognition and Internet shutdowns against its citizens.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
How is Iran’s government using facial-recognition technology?
During the pandemic, we became aware that Iran is doing facial recognition. The Minister of Health announced that, in collaboration with the traffic police, they were using cameras in the street to take a picture of people who are not wearing masks properly and find them. Then [more than] two weeks [before] the protests, [an official] mentioned the use of facial recognition during the pandemic, and he [essentially] said, “We’re going to do the same with women, taking pictures of those who are not wearing proper hijab and then finding them.”
Iranian government officials are proud of having this kind of technology, always talking about it, and people are sensitive. If you look at a couple of videos of the protesters, they were attacking cameras. There is a fear that [facial recognition has been] implemented and is working. Not only are protesters more careful to not look at the camera and put the camera behind them, wearing masks and things like that; also the media are very careful to blur all the faces.
Can any techniques prevent facial recognition from working?
Looking at the experience of other countries, there are other techniques: shirts that you can wear with some specific graphic that can make [visual] “noise” on cameras or other methods. But none of them can be really promising right now in Iran because of the lack of information. Because we don’t know what kind of algorithm [the government is] using, we don’t know which solution we can use. One thing that we know is: there is a collaboration between the Iranian and Chinese governments regarding technology. Based on that, I can imagine that Iran is relying on China a lot for facial recognition. The model of Internet censorship in Iran is very much like Chinese models, so I wouldn’t be surprised if China provided that technology to Iran.
What Iran is doing with the Internet is quite unique but, again, follows the same model as China. But I think what Iran is doing is way more advanced than what China or Russia are doing. The main goal is having a local network. Iranian government officials call it the National Information Network, or NIN. Usually in regular conversation, we refer to it as a “national Internet.” It is literally an intranet: a local network that is providing connection among different services inside the country, being independent from the rest of the world. So when [authorities] shut down the Internet, this local network is operating, but you don’t have access to the [global] Internet. The Russian government passed a law to create such a network [in 2019], but so far we are not seeing implementation.
This infrastructure also needs more tools and components to be functional. For example, [it requires] data centers. On the application layer, it needs messaging apps, e-mail services, search engines. China’s doing the same: it has Baidu, WeChat—these [services and] apps are under a lot of surveilling censorship. The Iranian government has its own YouTube, its own national search engine, e-mail service, messaging app, data centers, all of these things that make [online] infrastructure functional without being connected to the Internet. And finally, Iran is also passing a lot of laws to establish different bodies [that will] dictate how to use this infrastructure and these tools to achieve the main goal that it has, which is information control. It’s very much like the Chinese model in terms of localization, but because of that infrastructure and those policy-making bodies, it’s more advanced—and more successful in terms of censorship and information control. But I want to be careful [about making that claim] because I’m not an expert on China or Russia.
Are people using this national network when the government shuts down Internet access?
One of the things that the Iranian government is doing during the shutdown is taking advantage of violating people’s rights by encouraging them to use the local services. The Minister of [Information and Communications Technology] was on the TV, looking like he was proud and essentially saying, “We blocked WhatsApp because they violate our laws, so if you are concerned about your business, you have to move onto the national messaging app.” One national application is called Rubika…. We call these kinds of applications [such as Rubika and the Chinese program WeChat] “super apps” because you can do everything: purchase tickets, pay your bills, do live streaming, watch TV. They are [using the app to do] mass surveillance, and it’s not something that they want to hide! There is video of the head of Rubika explaining how its AI machine is so good that it can catch sensitive content on a chat between two people, and it can immediately remove [that content] from the platform. This is concerning, obviously. And I would say that’s the last line of defense against the national Internet: So far people are not using it because they’re concerned about privacy and security. But if the government is successful….
[Iran is also] encouraging people to use local services [through a unique] violation of net neutrality: separating local and international traffic. If you’re using local services, you have access to the faster network and cheaper traffic, almost half the price. If you want to use international traffic, it is slower and more expensive. With all of these things together, there is a chance that people, in particular during this economic crisis, feel, “Yeah, let’s move on to those local services.”
Are there techniques for getting around the Internet shutdowns?
In Iran, there is no promising solution. There are lots of conversations around using satellite Internet, but when the government doesn’t want people to have access to the satellite Internet, that’s not a reliable solution. Another solution is not Internet; it’s “data casting,” which is [used in] a project by NetFreedom Pioneers, an organization based in Los Angeles. [The organization is] sending data over normal satellite TV. A user in Iran can just connect the USB to their receiver, download the data and build a special application to unpack the data. And in that package, there are news and all of these circumvention tools that we are recommending to people. So there are some solutions. Unfortunately, they are not reliable to be distributed in a massive scale. But we need to dedicate and find more resources in terms of manpower, technologies, and money to study and see how we can find a solution that can actually be usable on a massive scale.
We have to study this national network and see how we can bypass it. There are a lot of studies going on by different Internet freedom communities, and we are collaborating with them. We found some solutions—but one of the issues is: everyone’s paying attention to the Internet shutdown when it’s happening. When it’s over, everyone’s now going back to the normal life. And that’s not the kind of mentality we need to have. The most important thing we have to do for the Internet shutdown is being ready before the Internet shuts down.
What else is important to know about this situation?
The international community see this as an issue only for Iran. But the problem is: there are a lot of governments all around the world who want to violate our rights, and they learn from each other. What I’d like to see is people paying attention to what is happening as a threat to freedom, to the right to access to the Internet, and deal with it in that way. Because if tomorrow China and Russia implement the same infrastructure [as Iran], the Internet is not going to be the Internet that we know today. It would be in the shape of a bunch of isolated islands. And the philosophy behind the Internet—which is connecting people to each other—would be destroyed.
CBS Censors Own Documentary After Ukraine Outraged: ‘30% Of US Weapons Gone Missing’
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CBS has censored its own documentary investigative reporting after an avalanche of pushback from supporters of Ukraine and its military. The segment highlighted that tons of weaponry shipped from the United States to the country’s military has gone missing, and sounded the alarm as billions in dollars more have been pledged by the Biden administration.
“CBS partially retracted a documentary in which it said that shipments of weapons to Ukraine from the US had been going missing,” Insider reports Monday. “CBS tweeted on Monday that it had removed a a video promoting the documentary that included a months-old quote saying most aid was not making it to Ukraine’s front lines.” Below is the deleted tweet, with the offending line of “30% of it [US-supplied arms and munitions] reaches its final destination.”
The segment, titled “Arming Ukraine” was published days ago, and follows on the heels of Pentagon and US intelligence officials issuing similar warnings that there are few mechanisms in place to legitimately track the arms flowing into the country. One admin official even described in April that, “we have fidelity for a short time, but when it enters the fog of war, we have almost zero. It drops into a big black hole, and you have almost no sense of it at all after a short period of time.”
The fresh CBS reporting added to these concerns, quoting the the head of a Lithuania-based organization supplying the Ukrainian military, Jonas Ohman, who said bluntly:
“All of this stuff goes across the border, and then something happens, kind of like 30% of it reaches its final destination.”
Ohman stressed that actually getting the weapons to the designated Ukrainian army units involves having to navigate an array of “power lords, oligarchs [and] political players.” This also as there have been persistent reports that some weapons end up on the black market, or might possibly be moved outside Ukraine.
A senior crisis adviser with Amnesty International also told CBS in the documentary, “What is really worrying is that some countries that are sending weapons do not seem to think that it is their responsibility to put in place a very robust oversight mechanism.”
Officials with the Ukrainian government promptly accused the mainstream US network of playing into “Russian propaganda”.
Along with a widespread social media backlash from Kiev’s supporters and pundits, this was apparently enough for CBS to announce it is “updating” the segment, with some of the offending lines now dropped…
The Ukrainian government further put out a dubious claim that“all received equipment is accounted for” – this despite months of Pentagon officials warning that this isn’t the case.
Unsurprisingly, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, has demanded that CBS News conduct an internal investigation to get to the bottom of things.
There’s of late been growing scrutiny placed on the Ukrainian side, after Russia and Putin have long been the main focus of Western mainstream media reporting. It appears that efforts to “police” western MSM reports to deflect any possible criticism of Kiev whatsoever during the war is now ramping up.
RNC warning to Trump: If you run for president, we stop paying your legal bills, says official
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Republican leaders who worry that Donald Trump could hurt their midterm chances by announcing a presidential run too soon are hoping he’ll be dissuaded from doing so by the prospect of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal payments, according to an RNC official.
Since October 2021, the Republican National Committee has paid nearly $2 million to law firms representing Trump as part of his defense against personal litigation and government investigations.
But an RNC official told ABC News that as soon as Trump would announce he is running for president, the payments would stop because the party has a "neutrality policy" that prohibits it from taking sides in the presidential primary.
In January, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said, "The party has to stay neutral."
"I’m not telling anybody to run or not to run in 2024," she added. However she has since reaffirmed that Trump "still leads the party."
RNC officials would not comment on the record for this story. Representatives for Trump also declined to comment.
This isn’t the first time that legal bills have been seen as possible leverage over Trump.
According to the book "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show," by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, in the final days of Trump’s presidency, Trump told McDaniel he was leaving the GOP and creating his own political party — only to back down after McDaniel made it clear to Trump that the party would stop paying his legal bills for his post-election challenges and take other steps that would cost him financially.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a "Save America" rally in support of Arizona GOP candidates on July 22, 2022, in Prescott Valley, Ariz.
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Both Trump and McDaniel have denied the story.
According to the RNC’s most recent financial disclosure to the Federal Elections Commission, from October 2021 through June of this year, the RNC paid at least $1.73 million to three law firms representing Trump, including firms that are defending him in investigations into his personal family business in New York. Last month alone, the RNC paid $50,000 to a law firm representing Trump in June.
The latest tally tops the $1.6 million maximum figure that the Republican Party’s executive committee reportedly voted to cover for Trump’s personal legal bills during an RNC meeting last year, a figure that The Washington Post, which first reported on the agreement in December, wrote could increase further with the party executive committee’s approval.
The RNC reported payments to law firms representing Trump as recently as mid-June, indicating the party leadership’s unfettered support for the former president and heightening critics’ concerns about the party’s neutrality ahead of the 2024 presidential primary season.
"I don’t think there’s been any effort" by the RNC to remain neutral, longtime Republican donor and Canary LLC CEO Dan Eberhart told ABC News. "This is a symbiotic relationship."
"The RNC needs Trump or Trump surrogates or Trump’s likeness to raise money, and Trump wants them to continue paying his bills and be as pro-Trump as possible," Eberhart said. "So neither is in a hurry to cut the umbilical cord."
The RNC has continued to fundraise off of Trump’s name in its emails to supporters, touting a so-called "Trump Life Membership," boosting his social media platform, and, most recently, promoting Trump’s first visit to Washington, D.C., since January of last year. Other potential 2024 presidential candidates and key party figures like former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have not received the same spotlight as Trump, experts say.
Eberhart said the current relationship between Trump and the RNC is putting other potential 2024 presidential candidates at an "absolute disadvantage."
"Other Republican candidates seeking the Republican nomination for president have good reason to worry that the party apparatus is rigged against them in its unwavering support for Trump," echoed Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at the progressive government-watchdog group Public Citizen.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel gives remarks to a packed room at the opening of the RNC’s new Hispanic Community Center in Suwanee, Ga., on June 29, 2022.
Ben Gray/AP
"By paying Trump’s extensive legal bills, the RNC is indirectly helping finance the Trump campaign," Holman said. "And given the history of the RNC zealously defending Trump, other Republican candidates should expect that they are not just running against Trump, they are also running against the Republican Party."
Eberhart said "it’s an open secret" within the Republican Party that "nobody wants Trump to announce his candidacy until after the midterms."
"Everyone thinks it’ll scramble the midterms and we could potentially destroy the advantage we have" if Trump would announce too early, Eberhart said. "It makes Trump more relevant and gives the Dems potentially a way to reset the race."
RNC spokesperson Emma Vaughn, who declined to comment on the RNC’s recent legal payments to firms representing Trump, had previously told ABC News that "as a leader of our party, defending President Trump and his record of achievement is critical to the GOP."
"It is entirely appropriate for the RNC to continue assisting in fighting back against the Democrats’ never-ending witch hunt and attacks on him," Vaughn told ABC News in January, in response to questions about the party’s earlier legal payments for Trump.
The Republican Party committee has described the legal payments for Trump as support for the former president against political attacks against him. But at least two of the three firms that have been paid on behalf of Trump are involved in legal work on behalf of the former president regarding investigations against his personal businesses by the New York attorney general and Manhattan district attorney.
Although both officials are Democrats, they have both said their probes are not politically motivated.
In all, the $1.7 million paid in total to the three firms includes more than $862,000 paid to NechelesLaw LLP, $516,000 paid to Fischetti & Malgieri LLP, and $350,000 paid to van der Veen, Hartshorn and Levin, the RNC’s disclosure filings show. The most recent payments are $50,440 to Fischetti & Malgieri LLP in mid-June and $186,182 to NechelesLaw LLP in May.
Former President Donald Trump delivers speaks at the America First Agenda Summit hosted by America First Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 2022.
Kyle Mazza/TheNEWS2 via ZUMA Press Wire
Neither NechelesLaw LLP, Fischetti & Malgieri LLP, or van der Veen, Hartshorn and Levin responded to ABC News’ requests for comment.
The RNC is reportedly not covering Trump’s legal bills related to the House special committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. But as previously reported by ABC News, Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America, and his presidential committee-turned-PAC Make America Great Again PAC have been footing legal bills for witnesses involved in legal battles related to the events of Jan. 6, which has raised concerns about witness coercion from Jan. 6 committee members and legal experts.
Holman, the watchdog group lobbyist, said regulations that would govern legal expense funds for executive branch officials and candidates have been proposed to the Office of Government Ethics. Among the proposals are regulations that would enforce contribution limits, prohibit certain funding sources, and require the full disclosure of where money comes from and how it is spent.
"Until OGE finalizes these rules, however, Trump and the RNC legally can do almost whatever they want to pay for Trump’s legal woes and largely evade meaningful disclosure of the sources and expenditures of these funds," Holman said.
Trump conduct, conversations part of Justice Dept. investigation
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The Justice Department is investigating President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury — including two top aides to Vice President Mike Pence — have asked in recent days about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and others in his inner circle who sought to substitute Trump allies for certified electors from some states Joe Biden won, according to two people familiar with the matter. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The prosecutors have asked hours of detailed questions about meetings Trump led in December 2020 and January 2021; his pressure campaign on Pence to overturn the election; and what instructions Trump gave his lawyers and advisers about fake electors and sending electors back to the states, the people said. Some of the questions focused directly on the extent of Trump’s involvement in the fake-elector effort led by his outside lawyers,including John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, these people said.
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In addition, Justice Department investigators in April received phone records of key officials and aides in the Trump administration, including his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, according to two people familiar with the matter. That effort isanother indicator of how expansive the Jan. 6 probe had become, well before the high-profile, televised House hearings in June and July on the subject.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol built their case over a series of eight public hearings. Here’s how they did it. (Video: Blair Guild/The Washington Post)
The Washington Post and other news organizations havepreviously written that the Justice Department is examining the conduct of Eastman, Giuliani and others in Trump’s orbit. But the degree of prosecutors’ interest in Trump’s actions has not been previously reported, nor has the review of senior Trump aides’ phone records.
A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Justice Department spokesman and a lawyer for Meadows both declined to comment.
The revelations raise the stakes of an already politically fraught probe involving a former president, still central to his party’s fortunes,who has survived previous investigations and two impeachments. Long before the Jan. 6 investigation, Trump spent years railing against the Justice Department and the FBI; the investigation moving closer to him will probably intensify that antagonism.
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Federal criminal investigations are by design opaque, and probes involving political figures are among the most closely held secrets at the Justice Department. Many end without criminal charges. The lack of observable investigative activity involving Trump and his White House for more than a year after the Jan. 6 attack has fueled criticism, particularly from the left, that the Justice Department is not pursuing the case aggressively enough.
In trying to understand how and why Trump partisans and lawyers sought to change the outcome of the election, one person familiar with the probe said, investigators also want to understand, at a minimum, what Trump told his lawyers and senior officials to do. Any investigation surrounding the effort to undo the results of the election must navigate complex issues of First Amendment-protected political activity and when or whether a person’s speech could become part of an alleged conspiracy in support of a coup.
Many elements of the sprawling Jan. 6 criminal investigation have remained under wraps. But in recent weeks the public pace of the work has increased, with a fresh round of subpoenas, search warrants and interviews. Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, and lawyer, Greg Jacob, appeared before the grand jury in downtown Washington in recent days, according to the people familiar with the investigation. Both men declined to comment.
The Justice Department efforts are separate from the inquiry underway by the House committee, which has sought to portray Trump as responsible for inciting the Capitol riot and for being derelict in his duty for refusing to stop it. Both Short and Jacob have testified before the committee, telling lawmakers that Pence resisted Trump’s attempts to enlist him in the cause.
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Unlike the Justice Department, the House panel does not have the power to launch criminal investigations or charge anyone with wrongdoing.
The Justice Department probe began amid the smoke, blood and chaos at the Capitol and has led to criminal charges against more than 840 individuals, expanding to include an examination of events that occurred elsewhere in the days and weeks before the attack — including at the White House, in state capitols and at a D.C. hotel.
There are two principal tracks of the investigation that could ultimately lead to additional scrutiny of Trump, two people familiar with the situation said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
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The first centers on seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct a government proceeding, the type of charges already filed against individuals who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and on two leaders of far-right groups, Stewart Rhodes and Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, who did not breach the Capitol but were allegedly involved in planning the day’s events.
The second involves potential fraud associated with the false-electors scheme or with pressure Trump and his allies allegedly put on the Justice Department and others to falsely claim that the election was rigged and votes were fraudulently cast.
Recent subpoenas obtained by The Post show that two Arizona state legislators were ordered to turn over communications with “any member, employee, or agent of Donald J. Trump or any organization advocating in favor of the 2020 re-election of Donald J. Trump, including ‘Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.’ ”
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No former president has ever been charged with a crime in the country’s history. In cases when investigators found evidence suggesting a president engaged in criminal conduct, as with Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton, investigators and successive administrations concluded it was better to grant immunity or forgo prosecution. One goal was to avoid appearing to use government power to punish political enemies and assure the tradition of a peaceful transfer of power.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has vowed that the Jan. 6 investigation will follow the facts wherever they lead and saidthat no one is exempt or above scrutiny, while refusing to divulge information outside of court filings.
Garland told NBC News in a Tuesday interview that the department pursues justice “without fear or favor. We intend to hold everyone, anyone, who was criminally responsible for the events surrounding January 6th, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable — that’s what we do. We don’t pay any attention to other issues with respect to that.”
The Jan. 6 investigation is by some measures the largest ever undertaken by the Justice Department. While investigators in nearly every part of the country have been involved, the lion’s share of the work is being done by three offices: the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia, and the criminal and national security divisions at department headquarters.
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In the probe’s first year, prosecutors focused largely on the people who breached the Capitol, some of them violently, charging hundreds with interfering with or assaulting police or obstructing an official proceeding.
This year, the fake-elector scheme has become a major focus of the Justice Department inquiry. After Trump lost the election, lawyers and others close to him urged GOP officials in key states to submit alternate and illegitimate slates of electors to reject the results of the state vote totals. Those would-be electors were aided in their effort by Trump campaign officials and Giuliani, who said publicly that the rival slates were necessary and appropriate, and has been described as overseeing the strategy.
Last month, federal agents fanned out in multiple states to serve grand jury subpoenas, execute search warrants and interview witnesses — a significant escalation of overt investigative activity. As part of that effort, agents searched Eastman’s electronic devices, and conducted a search at the home of Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who enthusiastically embraced some of Trump’s last-ditch efforts to stop Biden from becoming president. Many of those who received subpoenas were told specifically to turn over their communications with Giuliani.
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The Justice Department inspector general is also an important player in the investigation, as it examines Clark’s role as a department official in allegedly furthering the efforts.
In a call on Dec. 27, 2020, witnesses have said, Trump told acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen that he wanted his Justice Department to say there was significant election fraud, and said he was poised to oust Rosen and replace him with Clark, who was willing to make that assertion.
Rosen told Trump that the Justice Department could not “flip a switch and change the election,” according to notes of the conversation cited by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I don’t expect you to do that,” Trump responded, according to the notes. “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”
The president urged Rosen to “just have a press conference.” Rosen refused. “We don’t see that,” he told Trump. “We’re not going to have a press conference.”
Jacqueline Alemany and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.
Lindsey Graham Nods in Agreement as ‘Da Nang Dick’ Blumenthal Mocks Americans For Being Freaked Out Over an Army of 87,000 New IRS Agents (VIDEO)
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The Democrats’ tax-and-spend bill making its way through the senate adds 87,000 new IRS agents to an already politicized agency.
The so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ will give $79.6 billion to the IRS over the next 10 years.
The Wall Street Journal said the new army of IRS agents will target the middle and upper-middle class.
Senator Richard ‘Da Nang Dick’ Blumenthal (D-CT) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) Sunday morning appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” to discuss Biden’s massive spending bill.
Lindsey Graham laughed as Senator Blumenthal mocked Americans rightfully concerned about a new army of 87,000 IRS agents.
“The idea that there’s gonna be this army of IRS agents descending on the average American is just preposterous,” Blumenthal said as Lindsey Graham laughed and nodded in agreement.
WATCH:
According to new analysis, the IRS audits the poor at 5 times the rate of everyone else, CBS News reported.
Tax season is a fraught time for taxpayers, who are understandably eager to get their refunds quickly and who may fret that processing hiccups could delay their checks. But some Americans may have more grounds for concern than others: low-income households with less than $25,000 in annual earnings.
This group is five times as likely to be audited by the IRS as everyone else, according to a new analysis of IRS data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. About 13 tax returns out of 1,000 filed by those earning less than $25,000 were audited in the fiscal year ended September 30, compared with a rate of 2.6 for every 1,000 returns for people with incomes above $25,000, TRAC found.
The reason is a rise in what are known as “correspondence audits,” a review of a tax return that’s typically handled by the IRS via letters and phone calls, as opposed to the typically more complex face-to-face audits. More than half of the correspondence audits initiated by the IRS last year involved low-income people who claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), TRAC found.
The IRS also has a history of targeting conservative groups.
Lois Lerner, the controversial director of the tax-exempt organizations division at the Internal Revenue Service, has a long sordid history of targeting conservatives.
Under the direction of Lois Lerner, the Federal Election Commission sued the Christian Coalition in the 1990s. She harassed the Christian Coalition for three election cycles. Eventually, she lost her case. At one point Lerner even asked a targeted conservative if Pat Robertson prayed over him. (Sound familiar?)
Conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch obtained IRS documents in 2018 revealing backstabber Senator John McCain’s former staff director urged the IRS, including the corrupt Lois Lerner to engage in “financially ruinous” targeting of conservative Tea Party groups.
Kamala Meets Australian Prime Minister in Tokyo – Immediately Breaks into Meaningless Word Salad (VIDEO)
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Kamala Harris is traveling in Asia this week. The unpopular US VP is meeting with Asian leaders and will visit the DMZ in Korea later this week. Kamala, Joe Biden’s border czar, will visit the Korean border before she visits the open US border with Mexico. On Tuesday Kamala met the Aussie Prime Minister and…
US Federal Reserve Working On Digital Currency As Global ‘Role Of The Dollar’ At Risk
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United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday hinted at major monetary changes shaking up the global financial system in the near future.
Speaking at the Federal Reserve Board’s “International Roles of the U.S. Dollar” research conference in Washington D.C., Powell began by describing the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency in the post-WWII era.
After explaining the benefits of the dollar’s international role, Powell changed his tone and warned, “Looking forward, rapid changes are taking place in the global monetary system that may affect the international role of the dollar in the future.”
He continued, saying, “Most major economies already have or are in the process of developing instant, 24/7 payments. Our own FedNow service will be coming online in 2023. And in light of the tremendous growth in crypto-assets and stablecoins, the Federal Reserve is examining whether a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) would improve on an already safe and efficient domestic payments system.“
Citing a Federal Reserve white paper on the subject, Powell claimed a U.S. CBDC “could also potentially help maintain the dollar’s international standing.”
The Russian president said Western nations are blaming global inflation on Russia’s war in Ukraine instead of the massive amount of money printed over several decades.
Putin also acknowledged huge global economic shifts are on the horizon, saying, “We are talking about real processes, about truly revolutionary, tectonic changes in geopolitics, global economy, the technological sphere, in the entire system of international relations.”
The Russian leader said, “The unipolar world era is finished,” and that new, powerful nations are ready to take a new role on the world stage.
A “change of elites” in the West will follow a “revolutionary” change sparked by Europe and America’s response to the war in Ukraine, he added.
“Such a detachment from reality, from the demands of society, will inevitably lead to a surge of populism and the growth of radical movements, to serious social and economic changes, to degradation, and in the near future, to a change of elites,” Putin said.
Continuing, Putin claimed, “some global currencies are committing suicide.”
Infowars suggested in early March that the Ukraine-Russia war may be the catalyst to remove the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
In that article, we pointed out the Federal Reserve and International Monetary Fund have both suggested a world with more than one reserve currency could emerge.
During a February 28, 2022 transmission of “The Alex Jones Show,” Jones predicted the Ukraine war will be used to trigger major financial changes.
Jones noted that right as humanity began waking up to the scam of Covid lockdowns, experimental vaccines and the overall globalist agenda, “Boom! This war starts.”
“And what does it do?” he asked. “The war cuts off resources. The war makes people poorer, the big central banks loan more money, we go more into debt, more toward global bankruptcy and the worldwide universal basic income that once we give up and believe the free market doesn’t work anymore, the corporate fascists can fully take over with the cashless society, universal basic income, global reset.”
Whether the war between Ukraine and Russia was planned all along or the elite are simply taking advantage of the situation, the conflict is being used to enact world-changing economic shifts.
New York State New Gun Laws Include, People applying for a gun license will have to turn over a list of their social media accounts for officials to verify their “character & conduct” – The Last Refuge
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New York Governor Kathy Hochul called a special session of the state legislature after the Supreme Court knocked down their firearm restrictions. The new law, which passed both chambers of democrat-controlled government, takes effect Sept 1st and is unlikely to hold up once challenged in court. The new law is stunningly over the top.
Keep in mind, when writing the majority decision Justice Clarence Thomas concluded there was no historical requirement that law-abiding citizens show the kind of special need for self-defense required by the New York law to carry a gun in public. Indeed, as Thomas wrote, there is “no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.”
The latest effort from the New York assembly is outlined in an Associated Press report which includes:
(Via AP) […] Among other things, the state’s new rules will require people applying for a handgun license to turn over a list of their social media accounts so officials could verify their “character and conduct.”
Applicants will have to show they have “the essential character, temperament and judgment necessary to be entrusted with a weapon and to use it only in a manner that does not endanger oneself and others.” As part of that assessment, applicants have to turn over a list of social media accounts they’ve maintained in the past three years.
[…] The bill approved by lawmakers doesn’t specify whether applicants will be required to provide licensing officers with access to private social media accounts not visible to the general public.
People applying for a license to carry a handgun will also have to provide four character references, take 16 hours of firearms safety training plus two hours of practice at a range, undergo periodic background checks and turn over contact information for their spouse, domestic partner or any other adults living in their household.
[…] Under the new system, the state won’t authorize permits for people with criminal convictions within the past five years for driving while intoxicated, menacing or third-degree assault. People also won’t be allowed to carry firearms at a long list of “sensitive places,” including New York City’s tourist-packed Times Square.
That list also includes schools, universities, government buildings, places where people have gathered for public protests, health care facilities, places of worship, libraries, public playgrounds and parks, day care centers, summer camps, addiction and mental health centers, shelters, public transit, bars, theaters, stadiums, museums, polling places and casinos.
New York will also bar people from bringing guns into any business or workplace unless the owners put up signs saying guns are welcome. People who bring guns into places without such signs could be prosecuted on felony charges.
[…] Gun advocates said the law infringes on rights upheld by the Supreme Court. “Now we’re going to let the pizzeria owner decide whether or not I can express my constitutional right,” said Sen. Andrew Lanza, a Staten Island Republican. “This is a disgrace. See you in the courts.” (read more)
After watching the documentary film Capitol Punishment and having his calls and complaints ignored, Pete takes a road trip to the local FBI Field Office in Cincinnati, OH to hand deliver a letter to the Special Agent In Charge.
This all leads up to Santilli’s deadline of Oct. 19th for the FBI to get involved and investigate the crimes they have been covering up, according to Santilli- or else- he is going to lead a protest on Oct. 20th- right back in the same spot in front of the FBI office.
Santilli is encouraging others to organize something similar in their counties.
Here are some highlights from Monday.
Santilli said, “Here, I am in Cincinnati. There are going to be some exciting things happening here. I’m sure my good friends here at the FBI are tuned in. First of all, I watched Capital Punishment just over a week ago on Sunday, and I was so upset when I watched it, and there was a scene I think just past the 14 or so mark. 14 -15 minute mark where they displayed a billboard- that the FBI paid for- that essentially said that if you see anything regarding January 6, call, 1-800 1-800.
The wanted us to call FBI, and I got so upset, I called them or their information, do you have? Well, here’s the information. I’m watching a movie called capital punishment, okay. And you guys are disgusting. Filthy disgusting fricking disgusting, disgusting. I just want you to know you are just the epitome of discuss right there and I think filters built-in filthy, I didn’t use any profanity threaten them. I just wanted to let them now and I was very, very emotional. The following morning, I contacted the, the Capitol Police. I told them the same thing and they were very, very dismissive. Now we have Tony Bo Belinsky indicating that we have an entity and organization a group of people in a building, okay? Or a group of buildings, across the country that are basically responsible for influencing the 2020 election. Identifying them as basically overthrowing our country, they haven’t returned. My telephone calls. They haven’t contacted me back because they’re so arrogant to think that what we can just surveil Pete. Santilli covertly to find out what he’s thinking and doing. Well, it’s not necessary to do that. You guys bear with it because we’re doing a field visit. I wanted to make sure that we broadcast live today. I’m Frank speech, truck Hot. Make sure you get the Frank skis.com, download that app, okay, make sure you have that on your, on your phones. Make sure you’ve got available and of course, Everywhere, far and wide, I want you to get it to our locals Channel, Pete, Santilli dot local.com. But here’s the best way. I want everybody to get a copy of these documents right now. Text Jesus 2844 83 79924, you get a copy of this letter and some other very, very important structions instructions so that you could contact your local FBI office people.
That live in your community people that have signed up to work for what we all assumed was the premier law enforcement agency in our country. Now, who were those people in your local communities and buildings like this here in Cincinnati. We hope that there’s cincinnatians. I’m hoping that I can appeal to them and I will be appealing to them. You’re about to hear. It’s going to be in some semi dramatic fashion that I will be appealing to them. But for right now, Going to be delivering this letter here within within moments. Ladies gentlemen, I want to inspire each and every one of you. I drafted a letter, I drafted a document. Okay, that will allow you at your local field office. I want all of you prayer warriors out there. All you Godly workers, all of your high integrity Warriors contact, the community members.
Hit your local FBI field office reach out to them in the fashion that I just described in this letter I’m putting it out to the entire world. People are driving on the Rock Iranian, they may not have an opportunity to read it, be so inspired, write a letter. Reach out to your local FBI field. Office has got to be one person in this building that we could appeal to you. That’s going to be in there. Doing the right thing. Fantastic, here we go. Fight. Yes, sir. How are you? Doucement a sec. I’m just here to drop off a handwritten letter on nice one. Accept it out here. Okay, you can either
Ronald Reagan Drive, or if it’s something where
Your ic3 dot-gov and you could ask and it in and send it in that way. I see three dot-gov. Okay, so you cannot accept a handwritten letter, is there any way that the public information officer can come out here and meet with me in person? We’re doing a live broadcast right now. Unfortunately, as far as accepting anything, you’d have to send it in. Make some arrangements other ways. Yeah, I guess the best Arrangements. I mean, I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but I contacted left a message last week, letting everybody know. But I was coming here. Also reached out to the public information officer as well, just for a good opportunity here to get some good. PR to, you find people at the FBI, But unfortunately, I don’t know anything about that but yeah, unfortunately, I cannot accept it, okay. But then they don’t even accept. I understand that, but if I could meet with the public information officer would that be possible. As far as trying to,
Is it? Yeah, I did call I called last week multiple times.
I can’t respond to that. I wasn’t the one you talked to so I don’t know. Right. I spoke with multiple people. Here are very, very nice.
So is there anybody here that can put me in touch with the public information officer? Unfortunately I can just give you the phone number at this time. Okay. Yeah. We have the telephone number and I appreciate it. I want to I’m not here to harass you or take away from your job boxes of course. And I appreciate your professionalism. I thank you and I will I will mail this in.
You have wonderful days, are good. Thanks for the hospitality. Beautiful facility. Nice. Little backdrop for our broadcast. Thank you, sir. Attention FBI, please come out. Out with your head.
Head. I have to say that I had to say that. Ladies and gentlemen. Been here in Cincinnati. D. Barman.
Yeah, they work working ago. Like that, why would you want to join? I was just about to do a prayer. Would you like to join me in prayer?
Yes, I can leave if you wish you wish for me to leave. You do. Okay, I’ll leave. All right. I have to leave. I’ve been asked to leak. All right. We are back. Ladies and gentlemen. We’re back. I just
Got it. You can’t be here.
Well, actually everybody on the bag. Went off quickly. They have three people are on their phones. Yes.
Weird.
Because like I said, setting up outside the FBI playing.
Well, obviously we get called, that’s great, I don’t have a problem. Identifying, it’s obviously actually pretty easy because two men were Yeah, that’s fine.
What the tail of the stuff that they had a couple different phone calls? Hello sir.
I just want to make sure that everybody on the livestream, so,
And what time do we have, before we come on?
They’re probably all they have a morbid curiosity as to whether or not mmm.
Please know that we are with you. We support you. We know that you did not sign up for the FBI to be a part of this corruption within the FBI. To be part of the overthrow of the United States of America, by the FBI. We know this we call upon you address my letter. I submitted the band. To to act by December 19th. The only Reserve I’m sorry October 19th. The only reason reason I’m asking you to do it by the 19th. It’s because we haven’t elected yet. You can do the right thing, not to influence the election. But to undo the damage that you’ve done in the 2020 election, we only have days now if you’ll excuse not to do anything, that’s your choice while we will do is pray for you.
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Keep in mind, when writing the majority decision Justice Clarence Thomas concluded there was no historical requirement that law-abiding citizens show the kind of special need for self-defense required by the New York law to carry a gun in public. Indeed, as Thomas wrote, there is “no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need.”
