Reader’s Links for May 10th, 2023

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Here is a link to the VladTepesBlog social media Mastodon Pod. Please feel free to check it out and sign up for an account if you are sufficiently annoyed with Twitter and Facebook to try something new.

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

80 Replies to “Reader’s Links for May 10th, 2023”

  1. Eleven Democratic attorneys general called on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Monday to address “health hazards associated with gas stoves.”

    The group, led by Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb, sent a letter asking the CPSC to collect information and find “the best path forward” to limit harms allegedly caused by gas stoves, being mindful of their “disproportionate impact on underserved communities.”

    The letter comes as the Biden administration has continually moved closer to regulating gas stoves; in March, CPSC Commissioner Rich Trumka Jr. requested the public submit research on the health impacts of gas stove emissions.

    https://newrightnetwork.com/2023/05/democratic-ags-urge-federal-government-to-crack-down-on-gas-stoves.html

  2. Note: it is the little things that tell us a lot about the character of a person

    Viewers Noticed Something Strange About John Kerry at King Charles’ Coronation

    …
    There were some, however, who did pick Kerry out in the crowd and noted something interesting about his appearance. Dressed in a suit, the former Secretary of State was weighed down with service medals from the United States military…the medals he previously was publicly proud to discard as a show of his allegedly strongly held convictions.

    https://thinkcivics.com/viewers-noticed-something-strange-about-john-kerry-at-king-charles-coronation/

    • I thought he wasn’t entitled to those medals as he exhibited zero bravery and wasn’t even fighting. He got them because of who he was.

      • Giving the Devil his due Kerry was in combat while in command of a patrol boat on the mikong (spelling?) River. He threw them over the White House fence in a war protest and then after Jimmy Carter was elected they mysteriously reappeared in his posession.

  4. Discussing masculinity and feminism – Frank Furedi and James Lindsay at EP

  8. New Footage PROVES Marine Tried To SAVE Jordan Neely’s Life, Passengers Complimented Him

    • redacted Tucker Carlson just KILLED cable news and they are PI*SED

      Tucker Carlson announced that he will launch a new show on Twitter and the liberal media is freaking out. They forget that they too are circling the drain.

  12. 3:26 Dear Leader bribes Volkswagon with $13 while waging war on capital.

    • It will be interesting.

      As the crisis deepens more people are supporting Austrian economics. We will probably get a few decades of rational policies, this will last until another Svengali arises to hypnotize the gullible.

  14. Socialism, Minority Groups, and Personal Liberties
    my body my choice sign
    TAGS Media and CultureProgressivismProperty RightsSocialism

    05/09/2023Benjamin Seevers
    Socialists have managed to acquire the loyalty of a coalition of disparate groups by championing the principle of personal liberty. Especially in the United States, many women, disabled, gay people, transgender people, racial and ethnic minorities, and immigrants are among the proud supporters of the socialist cause, foolishly believing that capitalism or the free market is antithetical to their livelihood or lifestyles.

    They could not be more wrong. Unfortunately, under socialism, people are not self-owners; they belong to the state.

    The state owns everyone’s bodies under socialism. No example is more extreme than the gulags of the Soviet Union, where the state sent millions to forced-labor camps in which about 1.6 million died. The individual was merely a producer good in the state’s grand schemes. In current and former socialist countries, the minority groups that support socialism experienced this as well.

    For example, in Dr. Paul Kengor’s book, Takedown, he retells the Bolsheviks’ history concerning the most cherished of modern women’s rights: abortion, or the right to choose. The Bolsheviks did legalize abortion once taking power (at that point, it helped wither away the family), but Joseph Stalin, under the fear of depopulation, outlawed abortion in 1936.

    This ban continued until Stalin died and Nikita Khruschev’s more progressive administration revoked it in 1955. On the flip side, Fidel Castro’s socialist regime forced abortions as a means for cutting back on risky pregnancies. Additionally, through China’s one-child policy, many of the state’s abortions are compelled in what Kengor describes as “one of the most severe infringements on family life ever inflicted by a government on its people.”

    Despite the right to choose being supported by feminists of socialist countries, it is among many of the rights that go by the wayside. Any instance of women being granted the right to choose merely means that the natural rate of abortion was aligned with the goals of the state, or the rates were tolerable.

    Convenience, not principle, becomes the criterion for rights. Births become a statistic to the socialist tsar. Whenever births exceed what the directors believe to be the optimal level of births, abortion is allowed or even forced; if births are below what is desired, then abortion is prohibited. There is no room for the rational calculation of individuals in family planning. The socialist woman is not ultimately the owner of her body—the state is, and it

    https://mises.org/wire/socialism-minority-groups-and-personal-liberties

    • Family who fled Cuba are ferocious anti-commies. Florida’s investments in that era’s refugees contributed to the state’s backbone we admire today.

      Israel shook off socialist chains only after more than a million Refuseniks made aliyah. A tiny Western-identified elite holds on by the skin of its teeth. (Funded by those in the West who dream of the nation’s demise.)

      • The current Civil War is between commies and lovers of freedom. One thing that is hampering US in the fight is the Century + long propaganda by the Dems on how they are protecting the ordinary people.

        This war will determine if freedom survives, but it won’t finish off Communism. The wannabe Dictators will change the name of their philosophy and start the slow march through the system. This will continue as long as we remain human. When we change enough this won’t happen we won’t be human.

  15. HERE COME THE ILLEGALS! Migrant Hordes Storm Across Rio Grande into US Like African Herd Animals as Title 42 Is Lifted (VIDEO)
    By Jim Hoft May. 10, 2023 8:00 am0 Comments

    LET THE REAL INVASION BEGIN–

    The US Border Patrol is readying for the largest illegal migrant surge at the southern border in US history staring today.

    Joe Biden’s regime lifted Title 42 TODAY – Already, 700,000 to One Million illegals have assembled at the border ready to surge across the US southern border. Joe Biden has opened the borders to millions of illegal invaders.

    22,000 apprehensions were recorded at the border near El Paso over the weekend.

    Investigative journalist Michael Yon reported that 24 buses of illegal aliens left Darien up Highway 1 on the way to Costa Rica to the USA border.

    Already this morning the migrant hordes look like herd animals crossing the Mara River in Africa.

    THOUSANDS OF ILLEGALS are crossing the Rio Grande into America – The greatest invasion in history has begun.

    Here’s the video by Todd Bensman near Brownsville, Texas.

    This video was taken on Tuesday. The migration is just getting started.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/here-come-the-illegals-migrant-hordes-cross-rio-grande-into-us-like-african-herds-of-wildebeest-as-title-42-is-lifted-video/

    • I didn’t save the link. A San Diego blogger published photos of charter buses entering the US from the TJ International airport.

      • Clinton, Bush and Obama’s new NGO shipping people from all over to the US. Population replacement.

  17. On Monday, Governor Jay Inslee (D-WA) signed the controversial Senate Bill 5599 introduced by State Sen. Marko Liias (D-Everett), which allows the state to legally take children away from their parents if they don’t consent to their child’s gender transition surgeries or abortion.

    Washington state’s current law requires that any youth shelter where a child seeks refuge must notify their parents or guardians within 24 to 72 hours. However, the state law allows them to not tell the parents or legal guardians if they have “compelling reasons” to believe that doing so would put the kid in danger of abuse or neglect.

    The newly signed law will allow the government to hide the whereabouts of runaway children who claim to be seeking sex changes or abortions. Meaning, no one can protest the “state-sanctioned kidnapping of children.”

    Senate Bill 5599 will remove parents from the health and mental health care decision-making process of their

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/washington-democrat-governor-inslee-signs-controversial-bill-allowing-government-to-take-away-minors-from-parents-if-they-refuse-to-agree-to-gender-transition-surgery-video/

  18. Watch: There’s a Little Band-Aid on Each Shoulder
    Laura Jeffery, an embalmer in Ontario, testifies on what she witnessed after the vaccine rollout in 2021.

    https://drpanda.substack.com/p/watch-theres-a-little-band-aid-on?

    … Funeral director and embalmer Laura Jeffery testified at the National Citizens Inquiry in Toronto, Ontario. She described that in the beginning months of 2021 (after vax rollout), she began seeing “unusual deaths with a band-aid” on people’s shoulders. Jeffery saw “a little, tiny bandaid on everybody’s shoulder” that she was embalming. (above video)

  19. James Comer: House Oversight Will Request Information from Hunter Biden’s Art Galleries, Bank Accounts, Chinese Dealings (VIDEO)
    By Jim Hoft May. 10, 2023 8:45 am23 Comments

    James Comer announced on Wednesday that the House Oversight will continue to investigate and subpoena information from the Biden crime family as the investigation continues.

    The Biden family has been concealing MILLIONS in illegal business dealings and Comer unveiled the Biden crimes including concealing money from their dealings.

    Comer also said they will look into Hunter Biden’s art business.

    In January House Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) announced an investigation into Hunter Biden’s art-selling scheme.

    Rep. Comer sent a letter to Hunter Biden’s art dealer, Georges Berges, seeking information on anonymous purchasers of Hunter Biden’s garbage artwork.

    “The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating President Joe Biden and his family’s foreign and domestic influence peddling schemes,” wrote Chairman Comer. “For over a decade, the Biden family has profited from Joe Biden’s positions as a public official. Your arrangement with Hunter Biden raises serious ethics concerns and calls into question whether the Biden family is again selling access and influence.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/james-comer-house-oversight-will-request-information-from-hunter-bidens-art-galleries-bank-accounts-chinese/

    • The latest House report from Rep James Comer’s GOP oversight Committee detailing powerful documentary evidence of Biden family international racketeering operation

      ===================================
      MEMORANDUM

      TO: Committee on Oversight and Accountability Majority Members

      FROM: Committee on Oversight and Accountability Majority Staff

      DATE: May 10, 2023

      RE: Second Bank Records Memorandum from the Oversight Committee’s
      Investigation into the Biden Family’s Influence Peddling and Business Schemes

      ( PDF 36 pages )

      https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Bank-Memorandum-5.10.23.pdf

    • Comer Reveals New Evidence in Biden Family’s Influence Peddling Schemes?

      Web of LLCs, efforts to hide sources of money, direct China cash, influence peddling in Romania

      WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today released a bank records memorandum detailing new information obtained in the committee’s investigation into the Biden family’s influence peddling and business schemes. The Oversight Committee has obtained thousands of pages of financial records revealing the Biden family and associates’ complicated network of companies set up during Joe Biden’s vice presidency and the millions the Bidens received from foreign sources. The financial records also reveal how the Bidens used complicated transactions to hide payments from foreign nationals, including CCP-linked associates, and provide clear indications of influence peddling schemes during then-Vice President Biden’s tenure.

      “The Bidens intentionally sought to hide, confuse, and conceal their influence peddling schemes, but bank records don’t lie. The Bidens made millions from foreign nationals providing what seems to be no services other than access and influence. From the thousands of records we’ve obtained so far, we know the Biden family set up over a dozen companies when Joe Biden was vice president. The Bidens engaged in many intentionally complicated financial transactions to hide these payments and avoid scrutiny. In at least one instance, the Bidens’ CCP-linked associates took steps to conceal the source of the payment to the Bidens.

      “The Bidens’ foreign entanglements are breathtaking and raise serious questions about why foreign actors targeted the Biden family, what they expected in return, and whether our national security is threatened. We will continue to pursue additional bank records to follow the money trail and inform legislative solutions to prevent this type of corruption. Americans deserve answers, transparency, and accountability,” said Chairman Comer.

      https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-reveals-new-evidence-in-biden-familys-influence-peddling-schemes%EF%BF%BC/

    • House Republicans Detail ‘New Information’ About Biden Family ‘Shady Business Deals’

    • ‘We’ve Got The Bank Records!’: Top House Republican Accuses Joe & Hunter Biden Of Influence Peddling

  20. Pornography: Twitter soon to be blocked in France?

    Pornography: Twitter soon to be blocked in France?Pornography: Twitter soon to be blocked in France?
    –
    The blue bird platform could have its wings clipped. While a bill to “secure” the Internet will be presented to the Council of Ministers this Wednesday, May 10, heads are turning to the social network of billionaire Elon Musk.

    Because Twitter allows the dissemination of pornographic images, without subjecting them to age limits. However, minors are at the heart of the Government’s project. And if it decides, Arcom could well block sites that do not respect French law, namely the ban on giving access to X images to minors. For the time being, only a judge can make this decision, recalls BFM Tech & Co, but the Government could well decide otherwise.

    And the task is not so complicated: it would suffice to ask all Internet providers to block any connection to sites that do not respect the rule. Still, it is possible to use paid VPNs to connect to servers abroad and thus circumvent the measures in force in a country, but children, who in principle do not have credit cards, would be mostly under the yoke of the law.

    […]“Arcom may be required to block Twitter”, therefore threatened Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister in charge of the Digital Transition and Telecommunications, during a press conference. A warning that the ministry would like not to have to set in motion, hoping that the social network is reasonable and agrees to submit to the French rule. Especially since the community of French tweeters is one of the most active in the world and would be a real shortfall for the company.

    https://euro.dayfr.com/local/177616.html

    =========================================

    Elon Musk ferait bien de prendre garde : la diffusion d’images pornographiques accessibles aux mineurs est interdite en France. Et Twitter en regorge, sans contrôler l’âge de ceux qui peuvent les consulter.

    Avec son plan pour “sécuriser” Internet présenté ce mercredi 10 mai, le ministère prévient le réseau social et ses pairs ; la sanction risque d’être lourde sans prise de conscience de leur part.

    https://www.capital.fr/entreprises-marches/pornographie-twitter-bientot-bloque-en-france-1468012

    ====================================

    Pornographie : Twitter sera-t-il bientôt bloqué par l’Arcom??

    Alors que le gouvernement présente ce mercredi un projet de loi contre de multiples sources d’insécurité sur internet, le réseau social d’Elon Musk pourrait être particulièrement visé

    Pour le ministre délégué chargé de la transition numérique et des télécommunications, Jean-Noël Barrot, il s’agit de redonner « confiance dans le numérique » et protéger les internautes les plus jeunes, les plus vulnérables ou les moins technophiles. Dans ce cadre, le projet de loi renforce les pouvoirs confiés à l’Arcom, régulateur des médias audiovisuels et numériques, en lui permettant de bloquer « en quelques semaines » et sans la décision d’un juge les sites pornographiques qui ne vérifient pas l’âge de leurs visiteurs.

    Un blocage directement mis en place par les fournisseurs d’accès, qui rendrait impossible toute connexion aux sites visés depuis la France. Un déréférencement des moteurs de recherche pourrait également être appliqué. Une mesure appliquée aux grandes plateformes de pornographie en ligne, mais qui pourrait également concerner Twitter.

    En effet, contrairement aux autres réseaux sociaux TikTok, Snapchat, Youtube ou Instagram, la plateforme d’Elon Musk autorise la diffusion de contenus pornographiques. Et ne demande aucune justification d’âge à ses utilisateurs. « L’Arcom pourra être amené à bloquer Twitter » a confirmé le ministère en conférence de presse, sauf si l’entreprise accepte finalement de se conformer au droit français. Un blocage déjà réclamé par des associations de protection de l’enfance.

    https://www.sudouest.fr/economie/reseaux-sociaux/pornographie-twitter-sera-t-il-bientot-bloque-par-l-arcom-15104496.php

    ================

    PORNOGRAPHIE EN LIGNE: LE GOUVERNEMENT ÉVOQUE UN POSSIBLE BLOCAGE DE TWITTER EN FRANCE

    […]

    https://www.bfmtv.com/tech/twitter/pornographie-l-arcom-pourra-etre-amenee-a-bloquer-twitter-annonce-le-ministere-du-numerique_AV-202305090669.html

  21. The Optimistic Conservative
    The bait and switch of election “security”: Timeline nuggets from a colluding cabal
    Who’s disinforming whom?

    A great deal has come out from the “Twitter files” about the collusion of federal government agencies, Big Tech and social media, legacy/left-wing media, and “civil society” organizations (think-tanks, self-appointed “watchdog” groups) to silence legitimate speech, and to do so on a thoroughly biased basis.

    Although the pattern demonstrated in Twitter correspondence has related to several topics, one of the most important is suppression of reporting on Hunter Biden, his laptop, and the Biden family ties to foreign governments and companies. The files, and testimony prompted by their revelations, have clarified that systematic collusion was behind suppression of information about the Hunter Biden laptop in the weeks just before the November 2020 election.

    In fact, there’s good reason to posit a connection between suppression of the laptop story on social media, and the effort by a group of 51 intelligence and national security professionals to discredit the story by claiming the laptop had “all the earmarks of a Russian information operation.” The latter effort, it turned out, not only followed months of federal agencies warning social media managers that some “info op” of that kind could occur, but ended up involving a Biden campaign official, Anthony Blinken (now secretary of state), and retired CIA official Mike Morell.

    The most recent revelations have the biggest earmarks of something else: a smoking gun. Probably the most arresting among them is that the various folks colluding in the info-suppression enterprise held a roundtable before the 2020 election to game out what a “hack and leak” operation by a foreign government would look like – in this case, if it were about leaking emails or other files from the Biden family’s overseas dealings.

    Observers have found that to be an oddly prescient and specific topic for the 2020 election cycle. On 14 October 2020, of course, the New York Post published Miranda Devine’s article on the Hunter Biden laptop. As we now know, the FBI had had the laptop itself in custody since December 2019, and was alerted to its existence as early as September 2019, when the father of computer repairman John Paul Mac Isaac contacted an FBI agent in New Mexico for advice on how to turn it over. (The late-summer events of 2019 are summarized in Devine’s book Laptop from Hell.)

    But the very latest revelation about the Biden family imbroglio sharpens suspicions about the pre-election hack-and-leak roundtable further. A congressional subpoena has just been issued to the FBI for a Form FD-1023 summary of information about an alleged bribery scheme between then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign entity or entities. News of this development erupted 3 May 2023, based on whistleblower information given to members of Congress.

    Timing you’d be embarrassed to script

    We’re going to look at a more extended timeline below. But there are two things to highlight about the timing of these recently juxtaposed facts.

    One is that the hack-and-leak roundtable was hosted by the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Digital project on 25 June 2020.

    The other is that the Form FD-1023 now sought by Congress was dated sometime in June 2020, according to the subpoena sent by Rep. James Comer.

    In other words, the roundtable to game out a hack-and-leak of Hunter Biden-related material was convened in the same month the hard information about a possible Biden bribery scheme, during the vice presidency years, was formally recorded at the FBI.

    It’s as if the cosmos wants to be sure it has our attention.

    My impression is that most analysts haven’t picked up on this yet. (I may be wrong about that. Social media – mainly Twitter – still make it prohibitive to try to keep up with forensic work by all the best-known Internet sleuths on this and related topics.)

    I think a number of observers are still working off a September 2020 timeframe for the hack-and-leak roundtable. But the Aspen Digital schedule for the roundtable, posted by Matt Taibbi, makes clear that it was held on 25 June 2020. And Michael Shellenberger, in March 2023, corrected his Twitter files thread from 2022 to reflect that the roundtable was held in June and not September 2020.

    Stephen McIntyre had the same question I did about the Apsen Digital roundtable to game a hack-and-leak operation by a foreign government.

    When did the planning start for that roundtable? Such an event usually doesn’t get planned and committed to overnight. So the significance of the bribery-scheme FD-1023’s timing may not be as much as it seems at first glance. (That said, if an FD-1023 was filed in June 2020, especially on a matter of such explosive potential, the facts related to it were almost certainly being probed for some time beforehand. Officials at the FBI had known about it for a while. We have every reason to posit that FBI officials tipped off the collusion cabal – participants in the Aspen Digital roundtable – whose shenanigans are reflected in the Twitter files.)

    It’s also worth noting that the Transition Integrity Project (TIP) held its wargame on a contested 2020 election starting in June 2020 as well. Prior reporting including the Molly Ball TIME article of 4 February 2021 has made it clear that these efforts, even if sponsored separately, were all known among the same overarching “cabal” (TIME’s word, not mine) seeking to steer the election. We would expect their cues and motives to be common ones; if the FBI investigation of potential Biden bribery activities was known to the “cabal” in general, it was probably known to participants in both the TIP and Aspen Digital events.

    One highlighted feature of the roundtable led me to suppose the Aspen Digital planning could have started as early as late March 2020. That feature was the reference to the white paper from Stanford researchers Janine Zacharia and Andrew Grotto on “How to Report Responsibly on Hacks and Disinformation.” The paper is the source of the 10-point guide to new or altered practices cited by those tweeting about the hack-and-leak roundtable. (Matt Taibbi used a screen cap of it in his 2 May 2023 Twitter thread, above.)

    The paper was announced and posted by Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center on 30 March 2020 (a Google search shows that as the date). There was some prelude to the paper and its timing, and we’ll sort that into a timeline below. But before moving on, two additional comments.

    One, if we straightforwardly assume that Aspen Digital had no alerted motive beyond using the white paper’s suggestions for a little symposium drill – admittedly, at this point, a naïve and fatuous assumption – the publication of the Zacharia/Grotto paper would have been an obvious milestone for prompting such a drill. The white paper was presumably known within the relevant group – the collusion cabal – to be in composition prior to its publication date. And the general urgency about foreign interference and the 2020 election would have meant there was no need to use a cattle prod for quick action on a tabletop exercise.

    Keep in mind that all throughout 2020, Democratic members of Congress were flogging a narrative about foreign interference in the election that (a) went beyond anything the U.S. intelligence community agreed or committed to, and (b) kept cycling back to the theme that the foreign interference would involve disinformation about the Bidens. (I recommend reading my entire earlier article at the link, as it’s a good reminder of how much we already knew before the Twitter files started coming out, and it has a very detailed timeline that fills in the less-detailed one in this piece.)

    Moreover, as testified by participants in the Twitter-files collusion circle (see Twitter official Yoel Roth and FBI agent Elvis Chan), the “coordination” sessions between government agencies and social media in 2020 were attended by frequent references – advanced by the government participants – to the possibility of foreign interference in the 2020 election. Specifically, they referred to a potential hack-and-leak operation. The theme was stressed constantly.

    Given the Hill Democrats’ obsession with the Biden-disinfo theme about foreign interference – a relentless cadence that began in the latter half of 2019, with the attack on Trump’s Ukraine phone call and the first impeachment effort – the noise about such potential foreign interference was a never-slackening crescendo. Again, my 1 August 2022 article has extensive documentation of other aspects of that in Washington, D.C.

    It would be as fatuous to believe that the “cabal,” colluding to suppress information on social media, had just any old hack-and-leak threat in mind with its frequent warnings before the 2020 election, as it would be to think Aspen Digital just happened to find late June 2020 a handy date for a generic tabletop exercise that – oops, what do you know – turned into a drill on processing “disinfo” about Hunter Biden.

    Key judgments up front

    Before moving to the timeline, with all of that information and argument laid out, I want to first articulate two key points that drive the assembly of the timeline.

    One is that it is increasingly evident this whole collusion enterprise was about more than suppressing adverse information about the Bidens. We’ll see that in the timeline and the nature of the collusion revealed by the Twitter files and subsequent testimony of participants.

    The perceived need to depict exposure of the Bidens’ antics as “disinformation” injected through foreign interference was an opportunity to implement the new collusion venues for a real-world problem.

    The same can be said for suppressing free, and now-proven valid, information about COVID-19 in the same period (i.e., 2020).

    In both cases, the infrastructure for the common collusion mechanisms (routine online meetings and messaging involving the government agencies) had been laid earlier than the specific problems of 2020 arose. The election-focused foreign influence task forces at the FBI and DHS were created in 2017-2018; the collusion meetings with other players started in 2018.

    This reality isn’t surprising, considering that the Russiagate hoax was also far larger and more elaborate than anything Hillary Clinton could have brought off merely by paying consultants to write some scurrilous copy about Donald Trump. Most of Russiagate (and its adjunct Spygate) took place in federal agencies Hillary had no control over during the 2016 campaign. It started earlier than the production and even the solicitation of the Steele dossier. It continued as an active campaign against Trump after he took office, using the tools of government to the hilt; its purpose had never been solely to give the Hillary Clinton campaign an advantage.

    Likewise, the real work of Hunter-gate was done in federal agencies that participated in an elaborate hoax predicting anti-Biden “disinfo” would be a threat to the 2020 election. The hoax was conveyed to Big Tech and social media as official policy. It was also turned into a bill of impeachment against President Trump.

    I urge readers to spend a moment, if necessary, to take that on board. Merely protecting Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, or giving them a leg up in their respective elections, could not have been the main motives for the abuse of government power and societal institutions in the 2016 and 2020 election years. The two candidates didn’t have the power to wield that much of the apparatus for abuse, and they’re just not worth that much to anyone else.

    A better read is that abusing the tools of government and social interaction is itself the real objective. The target is the United States as a whole polity. And specific situations arising with Clinton, Biden, and the threat of Trump to a status quo of rampant abuse drove the so-called “Deep State,” or “cabal” (TIME’s word, not mine), to collude against a clean information environment and the people’s interests.

    So we have to look beyond dates when very specific things were known about the Bidens, to dates when structural moves relating to the tools were made, and practitioners planned how to use them.

    That doesn’t mean the Bidens’ self-incurred plight is irrelevant to activities or timing, however. And that ushers in the second key point I want to make at the outset.

    We’ve been laser-focused on the laptop, the laptop, the laptop as the hot potato in the Biden saga. Say “hack and leak interference operation,” and people automatically think of the laptop and its timeline.

    But we don’t have to fit everything to the laptop’s timeline. The only thing federal agencies needed the laptop for was pictures and other files that were stored solely on the laptop. The digital trove of messages – emails, texts – could have been seen or accessed by other methods (however unlawful that access might be).

    And quite possibly they were.

    Hunter Biden was one or two “hops” from a host of foreign actors whose communications U.S. national security agencies could justify keeping under surveillance. Incidental collection was possible in a number of scenarios.

    The Bidens with Kazakh associates Kenes Rakishev (left) and Karim Massimov (right). Via NY Post, KIAR
    His comms were presumably also being comprehensively copied by the intelligence agencies of China and Russia, just for starters. If they weren’t before he put the pedal to the metal with Burisma, along with a slate of CCP-controlled Chinese companies and a list of usual suspects in Central Asia, they probably would have been as soon as he established such ties.

    It’s quite possible that agencies of the U.S. federal government had more than one way of knowing what was in Hunter Biden’s bag of communications secrets. (Keep in mind also that the FBI probably gleaned quite a bit about the laptop from collecting against Rudy Giuiani’s IT cloud provider. The timeframe for that fell much later in the game, but it can’t be discounted.)

    So when we ponder the actual meaning of a “hack and leak” operation, in the minds of the cabal obsessing over that possibility in 2020, we have to keep in mind that they never had to know about the laptop at all, to fear a hack-and-leak. Indeed, a number of them thought of the DNC/DCCC “hack” of 2016 as the signal event in that regard. They understood its mechanism to be the use of phishing techniques against software users, not recovery from a laptop. (Prominent examples are FBI agent Elvis Chan and Washington Post reporter Ellen Nakashima, a participant in the Aspen Digital roundtable. Both of them were involved in analyzing the 2016 “hacking” saga.)

    We don’t have to prove how widely known the laptop’s existence was to demonstrate convincingly that the great hack-and-leak obsession of 2020 was about Hunter Biden. There’s enough evidence at this point indicating that federal agencies knew about at least some of his activities, and at a minimum had had extensive opportunities to develop such knowledge.

    Timeline

    The art with the timeline here is picking the right place to start it. In the spirit of acknowledging both key points above, I’m starting it in the summer of 2016.

    June 2016 is when news of the DNC/DCCC “hack” (or phishing attack) was thrust into the consciousness of the relatively small minority of the public that was paying attention. It was fanned into flame by constant media repetition in the months thereafter.

    The “hack” was quickly attributed to Russia (due to the assessment by CrowdStrike, called in back in early May 2016 when the DNC intrusion was first reported to party officials).

    In the weeks after Ellen Nakashima’s DNC “hacking” story on 14 June 2016, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson began beating the drum about the need to designate all U.S. election systems, throughout the states and territories, as “critical national infrastructure.”

    In September 2016, FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan, a cybersecurity expert and assistant special agent in charge working out of the San Francisco Division, participated in the cross-FBI team that evaluated the DNC/DCCC intrusion and the alleged hack-and-leak involving online personality Guccifer 2.0.

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    Again, this conduit for leaked Democratic documents was attributed to a Russian cyber-attack scheme connecting Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks.

    This was the main origin of the story line for the constantly sounded alarms in 2020 about a potential hack-and-leak operation by Russia. Such an event would have been a recurrence of the alleged hack-and-leak operation of 2016. Note that the Aspen Digital roundtable included a case study of it from reporter Ellen Nakashima, who developed the story for the Washington Post.

    Though the DNC/DCCC intrusion had nothing to do with U.S. election systems, and from a rational standpoint had zero impact on any voters’ mindsets about the election (for starters, few Americans ever saw anything leaked from the Democratic documents), it was adduced routinely as a reason why U.S. election systems needed to be designated as critical national infrastructure.

    Jeh Johnson repeated his argument for that designation throughout the balance of 2016. And in early January 2017, after the Intelligence Community Assessment of December 2016 was published with its vague outline of Russian “interference,” including the DNC intrusion, the outgoing Obama administration designated U.S election systems as critical national infrastructure. (The specific date was – what do you know – 6 January 2017. Busy day. My article at the time, linked above, threads links back through Johnson’s 2016 campaign on the topic.) The designation conferred on DHS the responsibility to gather security information about the systems and monitor threats to them.

    In the “fall” of 2017, FBI Director Christopher Wray set up a new Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) in the Bureau dedicated to monitoring the national security threat of foreign influence in – basically – U.S. elections.

    A sensibly oriented foreign influence task force might well have focused on important and growing threats like China’s attempts to gain leverage in (and spy on) U.S. industry and societal institutions. But the FITF was to become prominent in the “fight” against Russian election interference, including the cabal collusion with social media in the period preceding the 2020 presidential election.

    Notably, in the same testimony (link above) in December 2017, Wray said that the FBI was “working in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security which [had] set up a similar multi-disciplinary group within that agency.”

    According to a curiously light paper trail, it wasn’t until an unspecified date in 2018 that Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen set up an agency enterprise called the Countering Foreign Influence Task Force, or CFITF. Its focus was on countering foreign influence in U.S. elections. The dimension in which influence was to be countered was “information.” (The DHS OIG report at the link states that “in 2018, former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen established the Countering Foreign Influence Task Force (Task Force) to focus on election infrastructure disinformation.” [p. 5] It’s possible that the CFITF was set up at DHS in Fiscal Year 2018, of course, which started on 1 October 2017.)

    In November 2018, Nielsen made a rare public comment on the foreign influence task force, reported by Cyberscoop in an article on 2 November 2018. Said Cyberscoop: “DHS’s work to counter foreign influence complements that of the FBI, which set up a task force last year dedicated to the issue. Much of the onus is on social media companies to step up their defenses. Nielsen said that is happening, crediting the companies for showing ‘a lot of leadership in this area.’”

    Indeed, as Cyberscoop related at the time, “The Department of Homeland Security has worked with Facebook, for example, to combat influence operations (also known as information operations)…”

    And 2018 is when Twitter official Yoel Roth remembers the regular “advisory” sessions on “disinformation” threats starting up with federal agencies – honchoed by DHS.

    We can suppose the sessions started before the 2018 election, given the timing of Nielsen’s public comments just before it.

    In 2019, according to the DHS OIG report, the CFITF was renamed the “MDM Team,” for “Mis-, Dis-, and Malinformation.” Formally a task force under the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), it has continued to focus on “disinformation” as it supposedly affects U.S. elections.

    And according to both Yoel Roth and Elvis Chan, CISA was the federal agency on point for the cabal collusion activity in the 2020 election cycle. CISA arranged the routine online meetings (quarterly, monthly, weekly) in which the agencies briefed threats and “advised” Big Tech and social media managers of “information” activity considered untoward, nefarious, and/or potentially at odds with the media platforms’ standards of conduct. (An extensive treatment at The Intercept in October 2022 fleshes out a lot of detail on this. We’ll encounter more below.)

    The morphing of a “threat”

    It’s important to highlight what happened here. In 2016 and early 2017, when the Obama administration made the push to designate election systems as critical national infrastructure, the DHS responsibility for that extended to monitoring threats to systems, and was handled by a directorate called the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD).

    Not incidentally, the directorate at the time was led by Phyllis Schneck, a close friend from college days of CrowdStrike founder Dmitry Alperovitch (see here as well).

    In November 2018, NPPD became CISA, under a bill introduced in Congress in July 2017. CISA took over the critical national infrastructure portfolio of the former NPPD. That portfolio, as it applied to election systems, actually had a whole side of it that dealt with literal election systems – computers, networks, software, peripheral devices, local election practices – and their vulnerabilities. I’ve written before about some elements of that portfolio at DHS, and their appearance in expert witness testimony in the landmark election-system case in Georgia, Curling v. Raffensperger.

    But in the same period, the CFITF was formed, and charged with monitoring information threats as an element of foreign influence. These were not threats to specific systems, but more vaguely to “things that happen in the United States,” such as elections (or the dissemination of information about pandemics). CISA was given the “information” monitoring role as CFITF transitioned to being the MDM Team in 2019.

    And presto: threats to U.S. elections morphed from being cyber threats to election systems, to being “influence” and “information” threats to elections in general.

    Policing the infosphere for foreign influence threats was not what DHS was set up for in January 2017, as regards critical national infrastructure. The infrastructure threat was billed at the time as more of a tangible, measurable threat: things like hacking into state voting databases.

    But by the time the cabal’s collusion was in full swing in 2020, the whole enterprise looked different. DHS and CISA had no real involvement in monitoring threats to voting systems. Indeed, in late 2020, it was hard to get anyone in government agencies at the federal level to admit there even was such a threat. Mocking the very idea of it immediately became epidemic in the week after the November election.

    Instead, CISA’s role was to bring together federal agencies, with their “disinformation” and “influence” advisories, and the Big Tech and social media platforms that had the power to blacklist and suppress information. According to the FBI’s Chan, in his deposition for the Missouri Attorney General, it was CISA that arranged all the routine contacts for these sessions.

    Special sauce

    Yet – and this is key, and something hardly anyone has picked up on – aspects of CISA’s coordination with private partners in the realm of “election security” are exempt from transparency under federal law, by the terms of one of the agency charters. I discovered that in researching an article about CISA’s response after the 2020 election.

    This appears to be part of the bait-and-switch. The secrecy allowed to protect national infrastructure is the basis for the exemption. But what CISA was doing in 2020 wasn’t about protecting election infrastructure, as the DHS responsibility for “critical national infrastructure” is understood. It wasn’t about, say, preventing cyberattacks on state election websites or voting machines.

    What CISA was doing in 2020 was facilitating the suppression and manipulation of information: in favor of candidate Joe Biden and against the voters’ interests.

    One significant comment about the situation is that DHS was really the only agency that could get away with performing the role it took. DHS’s (i.e., CISA’s) “threat monitoring” role was vague enough that it lacked the specific constraints the other agencies (FBI, CIA, ODNI) were under. DHS doesn’t have the concrete authorities of the other agencies to intrusively collect information or exercise police powers. Its forays into threat advisory are heavily caveated with language about the department’s limited charter.

    In hindsight, the shift in emphasis for DHS and CISA, from protecting infrastructure systems to hosting virtual BOGSATs on “disinformation” only tenuously related to those systems, was a quiet convenience for the information-suppression effort. Much of Congress probably had little idea CISA’s “critical infrastructure” portfolio was being used that way. Certainly the public didn’t.

    But it looks quite deliberate from here in 2023. It doesn’t appear accidental at all, especially as part of the stream of intertwining themes about “disinfo,” “Russian interference,” and “threats to elections/democracy/our democratic values.” The stream stretches back to at least the political party conventions in late July 2016, and forward through the impeachment effort of 2019 and the cabal collusion to tilt the presidential election against Trump and toward Biden in 2020.

    It looks very much like U.S. election systems were designated as critical national infrastructure in January 2017 so that DHS could conveniently run an “information” operation of the federal government in the elections that followed. It quickly became an operation that involved government collusion with media and “civil society” ideologues, and resulted in suppressing information and the free speech of the people.

    More timeline

    In April 2019, Hunter Biden dropped off a set of devices including a laptop at John Paul Mac Isaac’s computer repair shop in Delaware.

    In late July 2019, then-President Trump held his famous phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to records later assembled, an effort to undermine Trump’s foreign policy was launched immediately thereafter in the guise of a “whistleblower” who complained about the phone call to the intelligence community IG, but not on the basis of anything within the ICIG’s scope of authority.

    That “hook” turned, however, into Democratic and media allegations of “Russian disinformation” about Joe Biden, and “threats to democracy” that were predicted by Democrats to menace the 2020 election.

    In September 2019, a symposium was held on “Digital Disinformation and Threats to Democracy.” The symposium was sponsored by the Federal Election Commission and an Open Society-funded organization called PEN America, a consortium of writers that was formed in 1922. (In other words, it wasn’t seeded or started by a Soros funding arm, but its goals are common with Soros-backed entities.)

    The importance of this symposium is that it was a key source of thinking and structure for the Stanford white paper by Zacharia and Grotto, mentioned earlier, which produced the 10-point guidelines on dealing with disinformation in modern media reporting. The paper’s authors cite the symposium as such on the paper’s final page, referencing a closed session hosted by the FEC. (Video of the open sessions can be viewed at YouTube.)

    The symposium was also notable for its attendance by a number of the same organizations that later participated in the Aspen Digital hack-and-leak roundtable – plus some others, such as the Alliance for Securing Democracy, sponsor of the peculiar Hamilton 68 “disinformation watchdog.”

    At the time of the FEC-hosted symposium (mid-September 2019), the “whistleblower” story about the Trump phone call with Zelensky was breaking in the major media.

    September 2019 was also the month in which John Paul Mac Isaac’s father notified an FBI field agent about Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop. This was the date at which we can confidently pinpoint FBI knowledge of the laptop’s existence.

    In December 2019, articles of impeachment were brought against Trump by the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

    Only days later, the FBI recorded finally taking custody of the Hunter Biden laptop from John Paul Mac Isaac.

    In January 2020, the U.S. Senate rejected the House’s impeachment of Trump as a pretext for removing the president from office.

    In February 2020, the first of a series of election-themed efforts by Democrats in Congress erupted. (See my 1 August 2022 article, above, for a detailed account of this.)

    The efforts centered on pushing a “Russian interference” narrative involving supposed anti-Biden “disinformation.” In each iteration of the series in 2020, the Hill Democrats tried, with an increasing level of political aggression, to attribute this theme to assessments by the U.S. intelligence community.

    In a very rare reaction, ODNI publicly repudiated the February 2020 Democratic gambit, stating the community had made no such assessment

    Pause here to note that the CISA-brokered “advisory” sessions with the collusion cabal were well underway at this point. They had started at somewhat extended intervals in 2018, but the first half of 2020 is the general period when the Yoel Roth testimony indicates they began to occur more frequently.

    Late January and early February was also when the spread of COVID-19 became an emergency situation. As 2020 wore on, the increasingly frequent CISA-brokered sessions focused on suppressing information about the virus as well as on themes about the upcoming election.

    In late March 2020, as noted above, the Stanford researchers’ white paper was published. The paper proposed the guidelines that were used at the Aspen Digital roundtable a few months later, on 25 June 2020.

    It was at that roundtable that a hack-and-leak scenario was gamed in which “disinformation” was hacked and leaked about Hunter Biden.

    Also in June 2020, a Form FD-1023 was recorded at the FBI with information about an alleged bribery scheme involving Joe Biden (during his years as vice president), and a foreign government. The FD-1023 is now being sought with a subpoena by Republicans in the House of Representatives.

    At the end of July 2020, Democrats on Capitol Hill held closed hearings in which the running theme about “Russian interference” in the form of “anti-Biden disinfo” was pushed. As in February 2020, the Democrats tried to depict this information as a judgment of the national intelligence community. And once again, that gambit was rejected by ODNI (where John Ratcliffe had been installed as the Director of National Intelligence). In a tense episode, he stated publicly that the IC would forward assessments only in writing, to ensure there was no misunderstanding about when judgments were certified as coming from the community.

    In or about August 2020, according to both the Roth and Chan testimonial documents, the pace of federal agency “advisories” and urgent references to the potential for hack-and-leak attacks on the 2020 election picked up. Yoel Roth remembers at least one reference to that potentially relating to Hunter Biden, but Elvis Chan testified that he did not have such a memory.

    In October 2020, according to a 2022 report by Senator Chuck Grassley based on whistleblower information, FBI official Timothy Thibault of the Washington Field Office used a 2020 intelligence report to “improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation,” and essentially suppress it within the FBI. (At this point the FBI had had custody of the Biden laptop since December 2019.)

    On 14 October 2020, the New York Post published the first Miranda Devine article on the Hunter Biden laptop. Devine’s source was a copy of the hard drive provided by John Paul Mac Isaac to Rudy Giuliani. The authenticity of the laptop material would later be substantiated by major media outlets (in particular the Washington Post and New York Times), but within hours, Facebook – one of the cabal collusion participants – removed the NY Post article from its platform, and across social media the article’s audience reach was shut down.

    The immediate pretext cited by social media was a characterization of the laptop’s information as being hacked and leaked. It was neither.

    Hunter Biden, CNN video; Pixabay; Author.
    As revealed in testimony disclosed by House investigators in April 2023: starting on 17 October 2020, Biden campaign official Anthony Blinken discussed with former CIA official Mike Morell the idea of a concerted effort by current and former government officials to discredit the laptop. The outcome of that exchange was the letter from 51 such officials alleging the Biden laptop had “all the earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

    Fast-forward to February 2021, three months after the November 2020 election. On 4 February, TIME ran a lengthy article by Molly Ball outlining a host of particulars about the actions of the cabal in the run-up to the 2020 election. There was quite a bit we knew at that point about the centrally managed, fully synchronized cabal-collusion effort to swing the election to Biden. It was clear even then that the Big Tech and social media platforms had been involved, along with legacy media, think-tanks, consultancy firms, and deep-pocketed donors.

    We could even draw firm conclusions about the role of elected Democratic politicians and party operatives in biasing “information” and flogging allegations about “disinformation” in the 2020 election cycle. They left a trail of run-ins with national intelligence throughout the year to clarify that the themes originated with the Democrats, not with the intelligence agencies.

    What wasn’t clear until Elon Musk released the Twitter files for analysis was the absolutely central role of federal agencies in coordinating the collusion.

    And what stands out in neon from the record of that collusion is how much it was thematically focused on the same narrative pushed by Democrats and the media. The CISA-brokered “advisory” sessions harped again and again on a hack-and-leak threat that mirrored the DNC intrusion narrative from 2016, and formed the backbone of the Democrats’ 2020 narrative about “Russian interference” and “anti-Biden disinfo.” The Democrats insisted on all occasions that this threat to Biden and the integrity of the election was being posed in every move made by Donald Trump.

    It’s essential to point out that this pattern in 2020 was not substantially different from the Russiagate and Spygate operations in 2016. Indeed, aside from CISA, it was not just the same agencies but many of the same people involved in the information warfare campaigns in both election cycles.

    The most same thing of all was the theme that “disinformation” and foreign influence, or interference, were posing such a threat to the elections that the American people needed to be alarmed about Trump, and to embrace extraordinary measures to bias the conditions of the elections against him.

    The investigations of the current House Republican majority, along with the Twitter files, are bringing out a slew of new details about how this was all done. Much of it fills in the general information reported by Molly Ball in her TIME article in 2021. The breadth of the enterprise has a tinge of awe to it, but the Ball article really did give us strong clues about that more than two years ago.

    As more emerges, it’s important not to miss the forest for the trees. It’s easy to get wrapped around the axle about personalities, but this extended saga has never really been about Hillary Clinton in 2016, or Joe Biden in 2020. (It has been about Trump in both election cycles, because of his status as a unique figure outlying standard-issue establishment politics.)

    The most fundamental thing it’s really about, however, is structural. It’s about fomenting fake “disinformation” crises to justify draconian information warfare against freedom of speech and the press. It’s about polishing ways to shut our American freedoms down, not just in elections with Donald Trump in them, but for all purposes, at any time.

    And government agencies have been the central players in both election cycles (and with the information war over COVID-19 since early 2020).

    Those are the three salient features of this enormous drama. What they should tell us is that information is already a battlefield on which elements of our own government – the ones with the most sophisticated and effective tools – have been used to oppose, deceive, and stymie the people. And until we grapple with that problem and institute fundamental reforms, the problem is just going to continue.

    For additional food for thought, an excellent article by Margot Cleveland at the Federalist last week, and a gobsmacking Twitter thread by journalist Andrew Lowenthal, who tweets as NetworkAffects (@NAffects).

    Feature image: Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Wikipedia.

    https://theoptimisticconservative.wordpress.com/2023/05/09/the-bait-and-switch-of-election-security-timeline-nuggets-from-a-colluding-cabal/#more-8089

    • The analysis is long and detailed, it also points out that the actions taken against President Trump required coordinated action from the Clinton Crime Family, the Obama Crime Family, the Biden Crime Family and the left wing Bureaucrats.

      Remember the Democrat Party is controlled by a cabal of crooked politicians. Many of whom are controlled by corrupt left wing Oligarchs. Along with the left wing Bureaucrats the higher ranks of this group often bounce back and forth to high paid jobs for the Oligarchs.

      These groups are the true Deep State, if we want to regain our freedom these are the people who must be removed from power and sentenced to long stays in maximum security prisons.

  22. Chairman Jim Jorden Reveals GOP Lawmakers Have Now Reviewed 170 Biden Family Suspicious Activity Reports (Video)
    By Jim Hoft May. 10, 2023 9:14 am77 Comments

    Back in July 2022 Rep. James Comer announced House Republicans were aware of at least 150 suspicious activity reports flagged on the Biden family bank accounts.

    According to Rep. Comer, the Bush administration created banking suspicious activity reports. It was a way for banks to help the administration track foreign money laundering and dangerous terrorist activities.

    Congress was always able to access the government reports from the Treasury Department.

    But then Joe Biden immediately changed the law when he entered the White House. At that time, Congress could access the Biden family’s suspicious activity reports.

    As Banks Fail and Americans Scramble to Protect Retirement Accounts With Physical Gold and Silver, A Faith-Based Company Shows Them How

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin was covering for the Biden clan. The government is withholding this information from Congress.

    It’s more of the Democrat lawlessness.

    Rep. Comer told Jesse Watters tonight,

    “I come from a banking background and let me tell you, it is very uncommon for anyone in America to get one suspicious activity reports. To get 150! I’m going to go out on a limb, Jesse and say that’s more than anyone in the history of the United States. And I’d be willing to make a wager on that. And this was with multiple banks.”

    Imagine that the President of the United States and his son and brothers are part of the most corrupt family in the US. That’s the accusation.

    On Wednesday House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced that GOP lawmakers have not reviewed 170 suspicious activity reports linked to the Biden Crime Family.

    Jordan made the announcement during the historic press conference by House GOP lawmakers revealing the expanding investigation into the Biden Crime Family’s international pay-for-play illegal influence peddling business.

    Via Midnight Rider.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/chairman-jim-jorden-reveals-gop-lawmakers-have-now-reviewed-170-biden-family-suspicious-activity-reports-video/

  23. Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fired more than 60 rockets towards Israel, after the Israeli military said it carried out a series of air strikes on Islamic Jihad rocket launchers.

    At least two Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, health officials say.

    There are no reports of any serious injuries in Israel, where most rockets are said to have been intercepted.

    It comes a day after 15 people in Gaza were killed in Israeli air strikes, including three Islamic Jihad leaders.

    Islamic Jihad swore revenge, but there was no rocket fire overnight. Instead, the group warned Israel to expect its reaction anywhere, at any moment.

    Israel’s prime minister said any escalation from militants would be met with a “crushing response”.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65544214

    • Seth Frantzman:
      Iran fears for its Gaza proxies after Israel’s surprise op.

      Iran now has tried to spin this operation as one in which PIJ and Hamas could respond. It says that the Hamas leaders have condemned the operation as “cowardly.” Iran is very focused on this operation and will likely consider how best to respond.

      The operation was widely covered in the region. It is a top story in Turkish media amid the Turkish election campaign. It is a top story in the UAE and the Gulf as well. This means that the region is watching this development closely…

      Turkey refers to Islamic Jihad, which is a terrorist group, as an “armed group,” while claiming to fight its own war on terrorism. This is an illustration of how some media in the region do not see groups such as the Iranian-backed PIJ as terrorist organizations.

      Iran has recently signed a new reconciliation deal with Saudi Arabia, while at the same time, the Arab states have invited Syria to return to the Arab League. This could mean that Iran could try to exploit the situation in Gaza to create tensions and threats to Israel from Syria.

      Iran has done this in the past. Over the Passover holiday Iran likely coordinated with Hamas to fire rockets from Lebanon with Hezbollah’s permission, and then to have rockets fired by Liwa al-Quds from Syria.

      https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-742489
      ……..

      Hillel Neuer @HillelNeuer ·Follow
      LEFT: Turkey condemns Israel’s “despicable” strikes last night against commanders of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terrorist group in charge of firing rockets at Israeli civilians.

      RIGHT: Turkey defense chief says they just “neutralized 50 terrorists” in Syria & Iraq.

      2/ “They are trying to threaten our unity, solidarity, sovereignty, and security. With the counterterrorism efforts carried out, at least 37,793 terrorists have been neutralized since July 24, 2015,” said Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

      3/ After Islamic Jihad fired 104 rockets at Israeli civilians last week, Israel targeted Khalil Bahtini, who commanded northern Gaza, Jihad Ghanem of the group’s military council, and Tareq Izz ed-Din who directed Islamic Jihad terror in the West Bank from a base in Gaza.

      https://twitter.com/HillelNeuer/status/1655854089866018816

    • Israel War Room @IsraelWarRoom
      #NEW: Israel releases footage of its defensive precision strike on Islamic Jihad terror leader Khalil Bahitini in Gaza.

      The @IDF also shared footage of its strike on senior Islamic Jihad terrorist and Secretary of the Islamic Jihad Military Council, Jahed Ahnam.

      https://twitter.com/IsraelWarRoom/status/1655858979031990273
      ……………
      Caroline Glick @CarolineGlick
      What were Russian national Dzhamal Khasvan, his wife and son doing with Islamic Jihad terrormasters in Gaza last night?

      Context: During the 2006 war with Hezbollah and Hamas, Russian forces in Syria provided targeting data and intelligence to Hezbollah.

      https://twitter.com/CarolineGlick/status/1655905862467174402/history

    • Evangelical TV news “The Israel Guys” beats ANY and ALL Israeli MSM programs.

      Israel DESTROYS Illegal Palestinian School in the WEST BANK

  24. AZ State Senator Wendy Rogers to Fight Leftwing Media in Court Over Restraining Order After Reporter Went to Her Home, Harassed Her Neighbors – Next Incident May Result in Reporters’ Arrest
    By Jordan Conradson May. 10, 2023 9:30 am10 Comments

    Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers will appear in court this morning against the Arizona Capitol Times after one of their reporters, Cameryn Sanchez, was slapped with a restraining order for harassing the Senator and her neighbors.

    The leftwing media is absolutely livid that Senator Rogers obtained a favorable ruling in her initial complaint. The hearing today is at 1:30 local time.

    The Gateway Pundit reported that Sanchez reportedly harassed Rogers in the Arizona Senate, made multiple visits to Rogers and her neighbors’ homes, and harassed neighbors with questions about where the Senator lives. The Gateway Pundit reported that a Judge ruled if she attempts to contact the Senator again, she “may be arrested and prosecuted.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/az-state-senator-wendy-rogers-to-fight-leftwing-media-in-court-over-restraining-order-after-reporter-went-to-her-home-harassed-her-neighbors-next-incident-may-result-in-reporters-arrest/

  25. WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee revealed Wednesday that more than $1 million flowed from a crooked Romanian businessman to the Biden family while then-Vice President Joe Biden paid lip service to cleaning up corruption in the Eastern European nation.

    The revelation, which committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) will lay out at a morning press conference, expands public knowledge of one of first son Hunter Biden’s lesser-known engagements with dodgy associates in countries where his father held sway.

    In a 36-page memo, the committee cites subpoenaed bank records to describe how $3 million was allegedly transferred from Gabriel Popoviciu’s Bladon Enterprises Limited to Robinson Walker LLC — controlled by Hunter’s business partner Rob Walker — between November 2015 and May 2017.

    https://nypost.com/2023/05/10/comer-shows-bidens-got-1m-from-convicted-romanian-businessman/

  26. President Joe Biden’s family received more than $10 million from foreign entities—mostly while he was vice president, according to information released Wednesday.

    Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee issued a 36-page memo that made public a sampling of the thousands of pages of bank records regarding the Biden family and foreign entities.

    The president has recently said the committee’s bank records showing his family’s receipt of funds from China are “not true.”

    Documents tell the story of how Biden family members and various business associates created more than 20 companies during Biden’s vice presidency. The first family also used business associates’ companies to receive the foreign money, bank records show, according to the memo.

    https://newrightnetwork.com/2023/05/house-oversight-committee-details-china-romania-money-to-biden-family.html

  27. AWESOME: Yuengling Brewery Releases Special Cans Honoring American Veterans
    By Mike LaChance May. 10, 2023 9:45 am32 Comments

    Yuengling Brewery is one of the beer companies which has benefited in the age of ‘woke’ Bud Light by simply understanding their customer base.

    Yuengling is the oldest American brewery and is still in its original blue-collar Pennsylvania location.

    They’ve picked up a lot of market share, and they’re probably going to get even more, now that Bud Light is dying.

    While Bud Light is struggling to figure out what went wrong, Yuengling is honoring America’s veterans.

    YUENGLING SMELLS BUD LIGHT BLOOD IN THE WATER, RELEASES RED, WHITE & BLUE CAMO CANS TO SUPPORT MILITARY VETS

    The numbers are in and Bud Light is getting its ass kicked while Yuengling is happily taking the brand’s old customers after one of the biggest marketing disasters in modern advertising history.

    As Bud Light is being curb-stomped by a customer base that’s terrified to be seen drinking out of a blue can, Yuengling came out of the gates Monday morning announcing the brand would once again serve up its lagers in red, white and blue camo cans.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/awesome-yuengling-brewery-releases-special-cans-honoring-american-veterans/

  28. Gavin Newsom Finally Breaks Silence on California’s $800 Billion Reparations Proposal with a Frightening Statement
    By Cullen Linebarger May. 10, 2023 10:00 am0 Comments

    California Governor Gavin Newsom has finally broken his silence on the racist, budget-busting reparations proposal from the California Reparations Task Force with a statement that should scare Californians.

    The Gateway Pundit reported Sunday that the California Reparations task force voted in favor of recommendations that could included payments of a minimum of $360,000 to each eligible black resident in the state.

    According to the New York Post, the reparations proposal will likely cost the state up to $800 billion, more than 2.5 times its annual budget.

    While the state is not obligated to enact any of the proposals put forward, their recommendation will soon be presented to the California legislature for a vote. If passed, it will be sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) to sign.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/gavin-newsom-finally-breaks-silence-on-californias-800-billion-reparations-proposal-with-a-frightening-statement/

    • The conquistadores enslaved portions of the indigenous peoples there (I need a reference, other than records of Indians burning down Missions), but California was never a state where slavery was legal. This proposal is a gesture with thoughts for the national election.

  29. Veteran Chicago prosecutor quits with blistering letter on crime: ‘I will not raise my son here’
    Anders Hagstrom
    Tue, May 9, 2023 at 11:18 AM CDT·3 min read

    A 20-year veteran Chicago prosecutor quit his job and wrote a blistering letter to his colleagues on his way out Friday, blasting the city’s “stupid” leaders and declaring they set the city “on a course to disaster”

    Jason Poje, a felony trial attorney, put in his two weeks’ notice with the city at the end of April. Before he left, however, he sent a goodbye letter to 85 colleagues to explain that the city’s insistence on following a “popular political agenda” has made Chicago more dangerous for everyone.

    “The simple fact is that this State and County have set themselves on a course to disaster. And the worst part is that the agency for whom I work has backed literally every policy change that had the predicable, and predicted, outcome of more crime and more people getting hurt,” Poje wrote, referring to the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

    https://news.yahoo.com/veteran-chicago-prosecutor-quits-blistering-161833576.html

  30. WATCH: Kari Lake Completely Destroys Snobby British Gun Grabber Piers Morgan on the 2nd Amendment and Takes Down Fox News in Epic Style – Morgan then Later Partially Censors Interview (VIDEO)
    By Cullen Linebarger May. 10, 2023 10:25 am11 Comments

    Kari Lake on Monday completely destroyed liberal gun grabber Piers Morgan on his show Piers Morgan Uncensored with a rousing defense of 2nd Amendment rights.

    In the process, Lake also conducted arguably the most epic takedown of Fox News yet.

    Morgan queried Lake over mass shootings in America and attempted to pressure her into supporting more gun restrictions.

    Lake didn’t bite and rightfully defended law abiding Americans.

    There are millions. Tens of millions of gun owners in America who wouldn’t dream of doing a mass shooting.

    We have a Second Amendment. It’s a God-given right. It’s in our Constitution.

    WATCH:

    Undeterred, Morgan again tried to trip Lake up.

    Would the Founding Fathers have been comfortable watching this absolutely never-ending series of mass-shootings? Would they have thought that is what they meant by the Second Amendment?

    Lake proceeded to flip the tables on him.

    The Second Amendment was put in place – we pushed back the tyrants once and did not give up. We clung to our guns

    When Morgan asked where the tyranny came from, Lake set him ablaze.

    The tyranny was from the monarchy!

    We don’t want to have to throw back the tyrants again, but they put that (Second Amendment) in place to prevent us from having to do that, to protect us.

    Seeming oblivious to the epic beatdown Lake was handing him, Morgan made another mistake: he cited Fox News polling as a reason to push gun bans.

    Eighty percent agree that anyone who buys a gun should go through a mental health assessment. Eighty percent want police to take guns from people considered a danger to themselves.
    Seventy-seven percent want a 30-day waiting off period for all gun purchases.

    Lake responded with fire: “that doesn’t surprise me because Fox News is a globalist network pushing a globalist agenda.”

    “Fox News is a globalist network run by globalists who want to bring down our Constitution and take away our Second Amendment.”

    There was one last surprise in store: Lake exposed on Twitter that Morgan censored her based comments about Big Pharma.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/watch-kari-lake-completely-destroys-snobby-british-gun-grabber-piers-morgan-on-the-2nd-amendment-and-takes-down-fox-news-in-epic-style-morgan-then-later-partially-censors-interview-video/

  33. Why are schools now taking down signs regarding Mother’s Day because some freaks are offended? Everyone seems to be offended about something. Remember when we lived in a country where majority ruled.

    Our minority Prime Minister has set the bar so low, don’t follow rules unless you agree with them.

    I now identify as a teenage dirtbag, baby.

  39. Von der Leyen, Freeland, Schwab, et al. weren’t celebrating V-E Day along with the Dutch on May 4 or others like The Russians on May 9.

    Wonder why?

  43. Recent enrichment in the Netherlands.
    Amsterdam, Bijlmer station:
    https://www.dumpert.nl/item/100060558_4e8f78f3
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MvuuqDHJAI

    The city of the Hague:
    https://www.dumpert.nl/?selectedId=100060977_6c3d58db

    The city of Pijnacker:
    https://www.dumpert.nl/item/100060928_c1d19931

    Two hurt in Turkish election brawl involving 300 people at Amsterdam polling place
    https://nltimes.nl/2023/05/08/two-hurt-turkish-election-brawl-involving-300-people-amsterdam-polling-place

    Video: Riot police break up brawl at Turkish polling station in the RAI in Amsterdam
    https://nltimes.nl/2023/05/08/video-riot-police-break-brawl-turkish-polling-station-rai-amsterdam

    Videos (in Dutch):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR2kptxdgMQ
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NeY0i_IUY4

  44. Pharr–Reynosa International Bridge

    There have been reports of heavy gunfire along the Pharr–Reynosa International Bridge, an international bridge across the Rio Grande, along the U.S.–Mexico border. It connects the city of Pharr in the U.S. state of Texas with the city of Reynosa in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

    Several people have been shot, and at least three have been killed, according to unconfirmed reports.

    WATCH:

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/developing-reports-of-heavy-gunfire-at-pharr-reynosa-international-bridge-at-the-us-mexico-border-video/

  45. JUST IN: Texas Army Sergeant Who Killed BLM Protester in Self Defense During George Floyd Riots Sentenced to 25 YEARS in Prison By Radical Austin Judge
    By Cullen Linebarger May. 10, 2023 4:20 pm119 Comments
    TruthGettrGab

    This is why they call Austin, Texas “San Francisco on the Brazos.”

    The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday that a so-called judge named Clifford Brown ordered Sgt. Daniel Perry jailed for an insane 25 years.

    Perry killed a deranged Black Lives Matter-Antifa protester named Garrett Foster in self-defense during the George Floyd riots in Austin in July 2020.

    Actual rapists and murderers often get more lenient sentences than this!

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/just-in-texas-army-sergeant-who-killed-blm-protester-in-self-defense-during-george-floyd-riots-sentenced-to-25-years-in-prison-by-radical-austin-judge/

  46. BREAKING: Texas National Guard Soldiers with Riot Gear Arrive at Major Illegal Crossing in Brownsville, Texas Ahead of Title 42 Expiration (VIDEO)
    By Jim Hoft May. 10, 2023 1:30 pm483 Comments

    As the public health authority Title 42 expires this Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on Monday that he will be sending a tactical border force.

    “President [Joe] Biden is laying down a welcome mat to people across the entire world saying that the United States border is wide open, and it will lead to an incredible amount of people coming across the border illegally,” Abbott said on Monday, adding, it will “cause a catastrophic disaster in the United States.”

    “Texas is doing more than any other state in the United States of America to defend the southern border,” he added.

    On Wednesday, Texas National Guard in full riot gear arrived in Brownsville, TX near a major illegal crossing point as part of Gov. Abbott’s plan to repel an influx of illegal migrants in this area, according to FOX News correspondent Bill Melugin.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/breaking-texas-national-guard-soldiers-with-riot-gear-arrive-at-major-illegal-crossing-in-brownsville-texas-ahead-of-title-42-expiration-video/

  47. BREAKING: FBI Hiding Key Document Detailing Bribery Scheme Involving Joe Biden and Foreign National

    The FBI and DOJ are hiding a key document from the GOP House Oversight Committee.

    The House Oversight Committee said the FBI is failing to comply with a subpoena deadline.

    Chairman Comer and Senator Grassley said the FBI is withholding an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes the criminal scheme involving Joe Biden and a foreign national.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/breaking-fbi-hiding-key-document-detailing-bribery-scheme-involving-joe-biden-and-foreign-national/

  48. CRIME FAMILY: James Comer Identifies the NINE Bidens Who are Implicated in Corruption (VIDEO)
    By Cristina Laila May. 10, 2023 12:02 pm375 Comments

    House Oversight Chairman James Comer on Wednesday held a press conference on the Biden Crime Family.

    House Republicans announced they now have reviewed 170 suspicious activity reports linked to the Biden Crime Family.

    House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan highlighted the suspicious activity reports and the millions of dollars that flowed to the Bidens.

    The fundamental question is: what did [Biden’s family] do to warrant the receipt of millions and millions of dollars?” Jim Jordan said.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/05/crime-family-james-comer-identifies-the-nine-bidens-who-are-implicated-in-corruption-video/

  49. Mayorkas: Americans’ Priorities Are Subordinate to ‘Nation of Immigrants’
    C-SPAN

    President Joe Biden’s border chief Alejandro Mayorkas was asked Wednesday if his huge and growing inflow of economic migrants is good for Americans’ wages and rents, and he replied that this is a “Nation of Immigrants.”

    The Cuban-born, pro-migration border chief took a few procedural questions from picked journalists when he presented part of his new plans to import more migrants into Americans’ workplaces and neighborhoods. “Our president has led the largest expansion of legal pathways ever,” Mayorkas said to a mostly empty press room.

    https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2023/05/10/mayorkas-americans-priorities-subordinate-nation-immigrants/

  50. Tuberville on white nationalists in the military: ‘I call them Americans’
    Updated: May. 10, 2023, 1:37 p.m.|Published: May. 10, 2023, 12:08 p.m.
    sen. tommy tuberville
    U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville speaks to reporters Feb. 22, 2023, in Huntsville. (Paul Gattis | pg*****@**.com)

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    By Paul Gattis | pg*****@**.com
    U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said there should be no efforts to block different ideological groups, including white nationalists, from serving in the military and criticized President Joe Biden for taking steps to remove them even as concerns about extremism in the military dates back to the Trump administration.

    Tuberville, a staunch supporter of the military and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made the comments in a Monday interview with WBHM, a National Public Radio station in Birmingham.

    Asked if he believed white nationalists should be allowed to serve in the military, Tuberville said in referring to the Biden administration, “They call them that. I call them Americans.”

    Related: Audio of Tuberville interview with WBHM

    Tuberville also said in the interview that singling out any ideological group is detrimental to the military.

    “We are losing in the military so fast,” Tuberville told WBHM. “Our readiness in terms of recruitment. And why? I’ll tell you why, because the Democrats are attacking our military, saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists, people that don’t believe in our agenda, as Joe Biden’s agenda. They’re destroying it. This year, we will not reach any recruiting goals in the military. So if we want to talk about looking weak, that’s where we’re going to look weak. We cannot start putting rules in there for one type, one group and make different factions in the military, because that is the most important institution in the United States of America, and our allies, is a strong, hard-nosed, killing machine, which is called our military.”

    Tuberville’s office issued a statement Wednesday to AL.com to clarify the senator’s comments.

    “Sen. Tuberville’s quote that is cited shows that he was being skeptical of the notion that there are white nationalists in the military, not that he believes they should be in the military,” the statement from a spokesperson said. “He believes the men and women in uniform are patriots. (Defense) Secretary (Lloyd) Austin seems to think otherwise, subjecting them to extremism training as his very first act in office. That cost us four million man hours.”

    While Tuberville is skeptical that there are white nationalists in the military, it’s a concern that traces to the Trump administration. CQ Roll Call reported in February 2021 about a Pentagon report released in October 2020 that “paints a stark picture of white supremacist inroads in the U.S. military.”

    The report also outlined steps the military was taking to remove them from the armed services and measures to keep them out. CQ Roll Call described the Pentagon report as saying extremism is a “threat” but to what degree was not clear but there were concerns about possible violence and endangered morale.

    A defense department press release on Jan. 14, 2021 – a week after the insurgence at the U.S. Capitol attempting to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election and in the final days of the Trump presidency – included the headline “No place in DOD for extremism, white supremacy, officials say.”

    “We … are doing everything we can to eliminate extremism in the Department of Defense,” Gary Reed, the director for defense intelligence and counterintelligence, law enforcement and security, said in the press release. “DOD policy expressly prohibits military personnel from actively advocating supremacist, extremist or criminal gang doctrine, ideology or causes.”

    Tuberville, in the interview, focused his criticism on Biden and Austin, the defense secretary.

    “We, our military and Secretary Austin put out an order to stand down and all military across the country, saying we’re going to run out the white nationalists, people that don’t believe how we believe,” Tuberville said. “And that’s not how we do it in this country. We have got so much division up here (in Washington) that, not for the country. You know, this is not for any individual, this country. This country is for all of us. And we’re all the same. It doesn’t make any difference if you’re rich, poor, black, white. It doesn’t make any difference. Everybody’s an American, has opportunity to make this country better. We’ve made it 247 years. But I’m going to tell you what, we’re walking a tightrope right now, at how much longer this country is going to make it, as we all know it.”

    https://www.al.com/news/2023/05/tuberville-on-white-nationalists-in-the-military-i-call-them-americans.html