Albert Cuyp Cows in a river 1650
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
– Albert Einstein
Tucker Trump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1643406886887211009
3rd term
Obama's Third Term – The "Arrangement"
The facade was always going to end with Obama railroading Biden in the end… this was ALWAYS the plan. pic.twitter.com/z65mqEsMcz
— Gain of Fauci (@DschlopesIsBack) January 15, 2023
Hilton
Fox News host Steve Hilton: China took a huge global step forward this week by strengthening its ties with Saudi Arabia, which has joined the Chinese-led security bloc and signed a multibillion-dollar energy deal. https://t.co/QEsKy4wWko pic.twitter.com/4YIGRvZXGd
— Victor vicktop55 (@vicktop55) April 4, 2023
TikTok Ban
TIKTOK BAN – Listen to what she is saying. The Restrict Act is a violation of citizens right to privacy.
Lockstep globally now, as Governments seek to suppress information they don’t want you to know. This isn’t about your safety, it’s about theirs
— Bernie's Tweets (@BernieSpofforth) April 4, 2023
Jesse Jackson
While Biden was pushing his crime legislation in the early 90's that led to the mass incarceration of Black Americans, this is what Trump was doing. pic.twitter.com/0BdmfEbLMI
— MAZE (@mazemoore) April 4, 2023
LAVROV: “…how to stop this conflict should not be addressed to Iran, Russia, or China, but to those Western figures…which say daily…it is impossible… …Mr. Blinken recently said that…a ceasefire should not be allowed. What’s the basis for such shallow analysis?”
“Having turned their currency into an instrument of political pressure on other states, the Americans, unwittingly, launched a worldwide movement to overthrow the dollar king. Complete de-dollarization will not happen overnight, but this is clearly an irreversible movement,” – Le Figaro columnist, expert in geopolitics, Renaud Girard.
Note: The judge did *not* issue a gag order but “requested” he stay off social media.
• Trump Condemns Arrest In Mar-a-Lago Speech (RT)
In a speech from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, former President Donald Trump railed against New York prosecutors after pleading not guilty to 34 criminal counts, also accusing Democrats of political persecution and “fraudulent investigations.” Trump delivered the address to a live audience on Tuesday night, insisting there is “no case” against him after returning home from New York, where he was arraigned on charges of falsifying business records earlier in the day. “I never thought anything like this could happen in America… The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” he said, adding that the latest case is part of an “onslaught of fraudulent investigations” brought by Democrats.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1643411071829520385
Trump argued that since his rivals “can’t beat us at the ballot box,”they have tried to “beat us through the law,” reiterating some of his previous claims of widespread election fraud in the 2020 presidential race. He rejected the charges against him as “fake,”saying their purpose is to “interfere with the upcoming 2024 election”and should be “dropped immediately.” Taking the tone of a presidential candidate, the former leader went on to fire a litany of criticisms at Democrats and President Joe Biden, slamming them for high inflation “crippling” the US economy, “raging crime statistics” and “open borders” immigration policies. He warned that Biden could lead the country into “an all-out nuclear World War III,” apparently referring to US involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.
The Manhattan’s District Attorney’s office has accused Trump of arranging a hush-money payment to adult film actress Daniels in order to keep her from going public about an alleged affair, and later attempting to cover up the transfer through falsified records. Prosecutors also claim he knowingly tried to conceal other crimes using the falsified documents, providing a basis for felony charges rather than misdemeanors. Trump has denied all wrongdoing, calling the indictment a “witch hunt” and “political persecution” by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who he described as a “radical left George Soros-backed prosecutor” during his speech on Tuesday night. The DA’s office has said it expects to produce most of its evidence for discovery in the next 65 days, while Trump’s defense has until early August to file any motions against the case. Though Judge Juan Merchan has scheduled the next in-person hearing for December 4, attorneys for Trump say they hope to get the case dismissed before it can go to trial.
Watters
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has interfered in this election more than China and Russia combined, while the whole indictment is based on a bookkeeping charge. Since when do Democrats care what ledger you put something in? What ledger did Hunter put the diamond he got from China in? pic.twitter.com/U95RDqRU9d
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) April 4, 2023
Jesse Watters: The left is terrified of Trump pic.twitter.com/QLkMGzZ3ma
— Wittgenstein (@backtolife_2023) April 4, 2023
Jesse Watters: GOP needs to start indicting Dems pic.twitter.com/5UWrXNmDKB
— Wittgenstein (@backtolife_2023) April 5, 2023
Feels like the fall of Europe comes first.
• The Fall Of America’s Benevolent Empire (Fazi)
In spite of the largesse and generosity usually associated with the European Recovery Program, as it was officially called, between 1948 and 1951 the funds actually only amounted to about 3% of the combined GDP of the recipient countries, accounting for a direct increase in GDP growth of less than 0.5%. Some authors have credited the Marshall Plan with having a much larger indirect effect on the recovery, through the promotion of a macroeconomic environment conducive to growth, but such analyses are largely speculative. Overall, its contribution to Europe’s recovery was relatively modest. Much of the money also flowed back to the US in the form of purchases of American goods and services, including oil, while many of the materials and equipment used to rebuild Europe were supplied by American companies, creating jobs and profits for American businesses.
Regardless of the actual economic impact of the Marshall Plan, there is no doubt that it was a resounding political success for America — to the extent that it secured US geopolitical influence and control over Western Europe. Part of the logic was that more prosperous societies would be less amenable to communist and Soviet influence — though, as we have seen, it’s questionable whether the programme had much of an impact on economic and social gains during the post-war boom. An arguably more important channel through which the Marshall Plan consolidated US influence was through the funds it channelled to those European centre-right parties which stood to gain from being integrated into the nascent American empire. This included covert CIA funds to ensure their electoral success — especially in Italy and France — at the expense of communist rivals. As the historian Sallie Pisani shows in her book The CIA and the Marshall Plan, under the guise of the Marshall Plan, the US used “massive foreign aid and non-military covert operations to reshape war-torn Europe in the image of the US”.
Just as crucially, the Marshall Plan was also a key catalyst for the formation of Nato, through which the US exerted its military control over Western Europe — in addition to dozens of military bases, especially in the defeated nations, many of which still exist today. The Marshall Plan also played an important role in fostering European integration, by creating new intergovernmental institutions to administer and coordinate the programme. These included the OEEC, the precursor to the OECD, and most importantly the Schuman Plan, which led to the European Coal and Steel Community, then the European Economic Community and ultimately the European Union. The Americans also played a crucial role in promoting, also financially, the cause of European federalism through the American Committee on United Europe (ACUE), founded in 1948, whose first chairman was the former head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) William Joseph Donovan. The vice-chairman was Allen Welsh Dulles, who would later become the head of the CIA.
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, the authors of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.
• The Tragic U.S. Choice to Prioritize War Over Peacemaking (NC)
For the past 25 years, administrations of both parties have caved to the “crazies” at every turn. Albright and the neocons’ exceptionalist rhetoric, now standard fare across the U.S. political spectrum, leads the United States into conflicts all over the world, in an unequivocal, Manichean way that defines the side it supports as the side of good and the other side as evil, foreclosing any chance that the United States can later play the role of an impartial or credible mediator. Today, this is true in the war in Yemen, where the U.S. chose to join a Saudi-led alliance that committed systematic war crimes, instead of remaining neutral and preserving its credibility as a potential mediator. It also applies, most notoriously, to the U.S. blank check for endless Israeli aggression against the Palestinians, which doom its mediation efforts to failure.
For China, however, it is precisely its policy of neutrality that has enabled it to mediate a peace agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the same applies to the African Union’s successful peace negotiations in Ethiopia, and to Turkey’s promising mediation between Russia and Ukraine, which might have ended the slaughter in Ukraine in its first two months but for American and British determination to keep trying to pressure and weaken Russia. But neutrality has become anathema to U.S. policymakers. George W. Bush’s threat, “You are either with us or against us,” has become an established, if unspoken, core assumption of 21st century U.S. foreign policy. The response of the American public to the cognitive dissonance between our wrong assumptions about the world and the real world they keep colliding with has been to turn inward and embrace an ethos of individualism. This can range from New Age spiritual disengagement to a chauvinistic America First attitude.
Whatever form it takes for each of us, it allows us to persuade ourselves that the distant rumble of bombs, albeit mostly American ones, is not our problem. The U.S. corporate media has validated and increased our ignorance by drastically reducing foreign news coverage and turning TV news into a profit-driven echo chamber peopled by pundits in studios who seem to know even less about the world than the rest of us. Most U.S. politicians now rise through the legal bribery system from local to state to national politics, and arrive in Washington knowing next to nothing about foreign policy. This leaves them as vulnerable as the public to neocon cliches like the ten or twelve packed into Albright’s vague justification for bombing Iraq: freedom, democracy, the American way of life, stand tall, the danger to all of us, we are America, indispensable nation, sacrifice, American men and women in uniform, and “we have to use force.”
Orban
.@PM_ViktorOrban: The West believes that it is right to support this war. But the rest of the world says it is not. pic.twitter.com/ZrC6BpnMFR
— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) April 4, 2023
They’re prepping us: We’re in terrible danger, so spend, spend, spend!
• US General Points To Risk Ahead Of Next Big War (RT)
The ‘just-in-time’ supply chain that provides the parts used to make America’s F-35 fighter jets could jeopardize the ability of US forces to keep the aircraft in service during the country’s next major war, the officer in charge of the program has reportedly claimed. The F-35 program will need “a more resilient supply chain to ensure the military can keep it flying in a future, highly contested war,” Defense News reported on Monday, citing comments by US Air Force Lieutenant General Michael Schmidt. Speaking at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space conference on Monday in Maryland, Schmidt warned that parts shortages could lead to disaster in a major conflict.
“When you have that [just-in-time] mentality, a hiccup in the supply chain, whether it be a strike . . . or a quality issue, becomes your single point of failure,” the program chief said. “We need to look at, what does ‘right’ look like in the future, to give us more resilience in a combat environment.” ‘Just in time’ refers to a distribution strategy used by businesses to maximize profitability by keeping inventory costs to a minimum. The idea is to have supplies ready and in place just when they’re needed, rather than being set aside in a warehouse for future use. Such a system works well in the private sector, Schmidt said, but for a military fighting a war in “highly contested environments,” it can have disastrous consequences.
Bridget Lauderdale, general manager of the F-35 program for defense contractor Lockheed Martin, said the company has focused more on forecasting demand for the jet so it can anticipate its parts needs more accurately. “A lot of those materials take lead time to prepare, even when you do have funding and even when you have repair capacity,” she said. Schmidt predicted that there will be between 500 and 600 F-35s operating in Europe within the next few years, and fewer than 100 will belong to the US military. “What a huge opportunity that is to leverage each other’s logistics and maintenance environments.”
Maintenance is a key concern for America’s latest fighter jet, given the Pentagon’s struggles to keep the aircraft in service. Schmidt acknowledged last week that on any given day in February, an average of just 29% of the US F-35 fleet was “fully mission capable.” Just last month, the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office ordered a global recall for the aircraft to fix an engine problem linked to at least one crash. US lawmakers have estimated that it will cost $1.3 trillion to sustain the nation’s F-35 fleet, partly because of poor reliability.
America moves east with NATO.
• Ministers of 9 NATO Countries Ask US To Strengthen Borders With Ukraine (Az.)
Ministers from nine NATO countries have called on the US to strengthen its borders with Ukraine by sending them air defense systems, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on the NTV channel, Report informs. “We must work to increase the US presence in our region on the eastern flank in terms of troops and equipment,” he said. Ministers from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia called on the US to strengthen its border territories.
“Once Kiev is ultimately defeated by Moscow, Poland could grab the lands that it lost to the Soviet Union in the 1940s..”
• Russian Top Spy Warns Of Polish Land Grab (RT)
Warsaw’s military assistance to Kiev is a secret plan aimed at destroying Ukrainian statehood, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, said on Tuesday. Once Kiev is ultimately defeated by Moscow, Poland could grab the lands that it lost to the Soviet Union in the 1940s, he suggested. “Seizing control of the western territories of modern Ukraine, the so-called Kresy [‘borderlands’ in Polish], is the coveted dream of the Polish nationalists,” Naryshkin claimed. The Polish government cannot simply drop this element of its national ideology, he added. Warsaw sees “the collapse of Ukrainian statehood after a military defeat as a condition for implementing this idea,” the official said. ‘Kresy’ is the name of certain territories that historically belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The Russian Empire gained control of some parts of Poland during the 18th century partitions, but its collapse after the Russian Revolution allowed Warsaw to regain independence. During World War I, the British proposed the so-called Curzon Line as a Russian-Polish border, but Warsaw rejected the idea and took control of some lands to the east of the proposed demarcation. Decades later, the line served as the basis of the post-World War II settlement, with Poland gaining some German lands as compensation for ceding territory to the Soviet Union. These lands are currently controlled by Ukraine and Belarus. The Polish government “opposes peaceful settlement [of the conflict in Ukraine] and assures that it will provide steady military assistance to the Kiev regime” because of its territorial aspirations, Naryshkin stated. “This situation certainly worsens the conditions for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”
The Russian official argued that Poland was not above an opportunistic land grab, recalling its role in the split of Czechoslovakia just before World War II. The 1938 Munich Agreement signed by the UK and France with Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy allowed Berlin to occupy large parts of Poland, which annexed the region of Trans-Olza in the process. Naryshkin has previously raised the possibility that Warsaw had designs on Ukrainian territory, but Warsaw has denied harboring any such plans and branded the Russian official’s claim an information warfare operation. The intelligence chief issued his new warning during a visit to Minsk, where he met President Alexander Lukashenko. The Belarusian leader voiced his own suspicions about Warsaw’s intentions for Ukraine and for his nation last May.
Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin on Poland's plans to seize Western Ukraine https://t.co/rNo7qzlH4b pic.twitter.com/2Pej0YJZn8
— Victor vicktop55 (@vicktop55) April 4, 2023
“We will calmly disclose what we will do in response when the time is ripe.”
• Russia To Respond To Finland’s Accession To NATO In Due Time (TASS)
Russia does not intend to hurry its response to Finland’s accession to NATO and it will make the countermeasures public in a calm manner and in due time, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Tuesday. “We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here. Why should we?” he said. “We will calmly disclose what we will do in response when the time is ripe.” Ryabkov pointed to what he described as “curious statements by official representatives in some Western media, including those in the US,” who “all of a sudden decided for some reason that there will be no reaction from the Russian side.” “They are deeply mistaken,” Ryabkov stressed. “A reaction will follow.”
Finland became a minor NATO member without the possibility to influence any decisions. It has lost its ability to have a say in international affairs..”
• Finland Has Lost Its ‘Special Status’ – Moscow (RT)
Helsinki’s decision to join the NATO alliance will have a “negative effect” on its ties with Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said. On Tuesday, Finland finalized its accession process, becoming the 31st member of the US-led military bloc. The move will inevitably invoke Moscow’s response, the ministry said, adding that Russia continues to see the bloc’s expansion as a direct threat to its national security interests. “As we have warned on multiple occasions, the Russian Federation will have to respond with military-technical, as well as other measures in order to address national security threats arising from Finland joining NATO,” the ministry said in a statement.
So far, Moscow has refrained from announcing any concrete steps it will take in response to Finland’s NATO accession. The response will depend “on the specific terms on which Finland joins NATO, including the deployment of NATO’s military infrastructure and offensive weapons on its territory,” the ministry explained. The latest expansion of the bloc has greatly damaged the security situation in the whole of Northern Europe, which for decades “used to be one of the most stable regions in the world,” the ministry went on. “The line of contact between NATO and the Russian Federation’s border has more than doubled,” it added, referring to the length of direct land borders between Russia and NATO’s member-states.
Apart from that, Helsinki’s move has done harm to Finland’s own international stance, Russian diplomats asserted. By joining NATO, Finland “has given up on its unique identity and lost its independence,” forfeiting the “special status in international affairs” stemming from its decades-long policy of non alignment. “Finland became a minor NATO member without the possibility to influence any decisions. It has lost its ability to have a say in international affairs,” the ministry concluded. “Make no mistake, Finland’s accession to NATO will have a negative effect on the bilateral relations between Russia and Finland.”
'The fact that Finland has given up their neutrality shows the Russian threat to Europe is very serious.'
Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor at The Telegraph, Con Coughlin, says having Finland in NATO 'will be a great resource' for Britain in defending Northern Borders. pic.twitter.com/ePr1JjxhDO
— GB News (@GBNEWS) April 4, 2023
Medvedev uses language that Putin never would.
• Russia’s Silent Opposition At War With Own People – Medvedev (TASS)
Members of Russia’s silent opposition are now engaged in terrorism, executing their fellow countrymen, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday. He made the statement as he was commenting on Telegram on the terrorist attack that took place in St. Petersburg on April 2. The official also said that it is the forces that the West had recently regarded as the best people of the time and the opponents of the “authoritarian regime,” the fearless knights of justice and fight against corruption that are engaged in terrorism. “Here’s the creme de la creme of our non-systemic opposition: It’s waging war on its own people, it’s engaged in explosions and assassinations,” Medvedev said.
According to the official, “these scum not only wish for Russia to be defeated,” but also “execute their countrymen.” Medvedev said members of the silent opposition murdered an unarmed reporter, wounded several dozens of innocent spectators at his event, opened fire on a car with children that were going to a village school, and blew up a car with a female reporter and a researcher. “History has come full circle. This swine has taken its final place in the chronicles of our country,” he said. The Security Council official called attention to the fact that the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks say they were used. “This is probably true,” he said.
But, he said, the perpetrators of terrorist attacks will be duly punished. “But, so far, the main scum who fed and financed the killers, who dictated their plans remain unpunished,” he wrote on his Telegram channel. “Various FBK (recognized as an extremist organization in Russia) and MBK (recognized as a foreign agent — TASS), the Navalny, Volkov, Ponomarev and Khodorkovsky outfits have become petty terrorists and murderers” and “have pledged their allegiance to evil and terror, along with the murderers of their kindred Kiev Nazi regime.” “There can be no talks with terrorists. They will be exterminated like rabid dogs foaming at the mouth. No need to sugarcoat it. As soon as possible. Even if it takes years. They deserve no mercy or forgiveness. This is what supreme justice is all about,” he said.
Tony Kevin
https://twitter.com/i/status/1643176170844741633
“Because otherwise something may happen that for now can be discussed only hypothetically..”
• Russia Has Military Resources, Willpower To Defend Sovereignty – MFA (TASS)
Russia has both the military potential and willpower to defend its sovereignty and ward off any threats, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Tuesday. “We have – let me emphasize this – both the military resources and the political will. We have determination. Our society is consolidated on the platform of guaranteed protection of our sovereignty for warding off any threats and preventing encroachments on our territorial integrity,” he said. “As for the use of nuclear weapons, we have gone over this many times already. We are not mincing words here, either. Our adversaries simply have to be realistic about what is going on around them, and to refrain from any escalation or provocations against us. Because otherwise something may happen that for now can be discussed only hypothetically,” Ryabkov said.
He stressed that the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus was a natural response to the growing challenges and risks for Russian security. “There should be no illusions. Russia has a very wide range of forces and means to ensure its own security in any situation. Nuclear deterrence has always been and is still present in our system of military planning and in the general concept of deterring our adversaries,” Ryabkov said. According to the senior diplomat, the West ignored the opportunity for building a guaranteed system of global security.
“There has been much talk in recent years about Russia placing greater emphasis on so-called non-nuclear deterrence. But the US-led collective West has not just ignored all these warnings, signals, and calls for using the opportunities to build a guaranteed security system on a different basis. It has dismissed them outright,” Ryabkov continued. “Now we are in a situation of military confrontation. A hybrid war is being waged against Russia. And its forms are such that it is difficult to find parallels in the past. In some aspects they simply do not exist. We cannot be indifferent about this.”
Ukr Salaries
“Ukrainian commanders forbid the evacuation of dead bodies!” … Because the money is going through the commanders and they keep the salaries of dead soldiers.
-> This structure incentivizes “corrupt” commanders to profit from high losses! … Want more money? Send them to die!— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) April 4, 2023
“..capital destruction in the asset base of banks and private equity firms is between a 15% to 25% wipe-out..”
• A Credit Crunch Is Inevitable (Lacalle)
Federal Reserve data shows $98 billion of deposits left the banking system in the week after the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Most of the money went to money-market funds, as the Bloomberg data shows that assets in this class rose by $121 billion in the same period. The data shows the challenges of the banking system in the middle of a confidence crisis. However, as many analysts point out, this is not necessarily the main factor that dictates the risk of a credit crunch. Deposit flight is certainly an important risk. Many regional banks will have to cut lending to families and businesses as deposits shrink, but in the United States bank loans are less than 19% of corporate credit according to the IMF, while in the euro area it is more than 80%. What will generate a credit crunch is the destruction of capital in the asset base of most lenders.
The slump in mark-to-market valuations of all asset classes from loans to investments is what will ultimately drive an inevitable credit contraction. Credit standards have tightened significantly already, and the credit impulse of the economy, both in the US and euro area, has deteriorated rapidly, according to the respective Bloomberg indices. Both are below the March 2021 low. We must remember that credit standards’ tightening was already a reality before the Silicon Valley Bank demise. But the reality check of capital destruction in the financial system’s asset base is far from done. Start-ups will most likely see the most severe crunch in financing as the tech bubble burst adds to the asset base capital destruction in private equity and venture capital firms, who have delayed all they could the required write-downs and face a sobering reality check.
Our internal estimate of capital destruction in the asset base of banks and private equity firms is between a 15% to 25% wipe-out, which is consistent with the average decline in market value over the October 2021- March 2023 period. Real estate investments all over the US and Europe require a significant re-evaluation now that real estate has underperformed the market for eighteen months, according to Morgan Stanley. The optimistic valuations of real estate and corporate investments in banks’ balance sheets will require a significant analysis and subsequent write-off that leads to much tighter credit standards and stringent investment conditions.
No, focus on Trump!
• Joe Biden Moved and Stored Unguarded Classified Documents in China Town (GP)
Another day, another falsification. As The Gateway Pundit’s Brian Lupo reported earlier, Joe Biden’s former assistant as Vice President, Kathy Chung, testified today to the House Oversight Committee about the mishandling of classified documents by Joe Biden since his time as Vice President. Today we learned that as he left the White House, he took “boxes containing classified documents, vice presidential records, and other items” and had them stored in three separate locations throughout Washington D.C.: an office near the White House, an office in Chinatown, and, eventually, the Penn Biden Center. After Chung’s testimony today to the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer put out the following statement:
“Today we learned that when Joe Biden left the vice presidency, boxes containing classified documents, vice presidential records, and other items were stored in three different locations around the Washington D.C. area, including an office near the White House, an office in Chinatown, and eventually the Penn Biden Center. At some point, the boxes containing classified materials were transported by personal vehicle to an office location. The boxes were not in a ‘locked closet’ at the Penn Biden Center and remained accessible to Penn Biden employees as well as potentially others with access to the office space. We need to find out who had access to these documents.” Later today House Oversight Chairman James Comer told Jesse Watters that Joe Biden was storing his boxes in China Town. What?
James Comer: We brought Kathy Chung in today for a transcribed interview, and I want to thank Ms. Chung puggleki for working and cooperating with our committee and answering questions. We learned a lot. First of all, we learned that the documents didn’t just start mysteriously moving around in December of 2022 or November of 2022, like the White House has alleged. She said this dates back to May of 2022, that the documents were moved from the vice presidency to at least three different locations in a personal vehicle. And why they were in three different locations, we don’t know. They weren’t stored behind any lock. One of the locations was in Chinatown. Another location was in the Penn Biden Center, which might as well have been Chinatown.
“The Court does not opine on the likelihood of success with respect to asserting retaliation under a different statute.”
• Brook Jackson To Appeal As Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Alleging Pfizer Fraud (CHD)
A federal judge in Texas has dismissed a lawsuit alleging Pfizer and two of its contractors manipulated data and committed other acts of fraud during Pfizer’s COVID-19 clinical trials. Brook Jackson, a former employee of the Ventavia Research Group — which conducted some of the clinical trials for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine — in January 2021 sued Pfizer, Ventavia and ICON PLC, another Pfizer contractor, alleging the companies committed numerous violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) during the clinical trials. According to Jackson’s complaint, the three companies “deliberately withheld crucial information from the United States that calls the safety and efficacy of their vaccine into question,” and as a result, they defrauded the U.S. government which purchased the vaccines.
The FCA allows the government or a party suing on its behalf, such as Jackson, to attempt to recover money for false claims made by parties in order to secure payment from the government. Those parties can be held liable under the FCA if they knowingly made a false claim or used a false record or statement in order to secure payment. Also under the FCA, whistleblowers can be rewarded for confidentially disclosing fraud that results in a financial loss to the federal government. In February 2022, the federal government declined to intervene in the lawsuit on Jackson’s behalf. In his March 31 ruling, U.S. District Judge Michael Truncale of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas-Beaumont Division ruled Jackson had not proved the companies violated the FCA.
However, in a footnote accompanying his decision, Judge Truncale left the door open for Jackson and her legal team to file an appeal, stating: “The Court observes, however, that while Ms. Jackson has failed to state a claim for retaliation under the FCA, she may be able to bring her claim under another statute. “The Court does not opine on the likelihood of success with respect to asserting retaliation under a different statute.” In a statement posted on Twitter, Jackson sharply criticized Truncale’s ruling, writing: “The dismissal of Pfizer’s case is a despicable & heinous betrayal of justice, a slap in the face to vaccine injured and whistleblowers, a blatant example of corruption, incompetence and cowardice, a declaration that the powerful are above the law.”
Jackson, who had over 15 years of experience working with clinical trials, claimed she “repeatedly informed her superiors of poor laboratory management, patient safety concerns and data integrity issues” during the approximately two weeks she was employed by Ventavia in September 2020. She also gave The BMJ a cache of internal company documents, photos and recordings highlighting alleged wrongdoing by Ventavia. Ventavia, which describes itself as the largest privately owned clinical research company in Texas, operated several sites where it conducted clinical trials on behalf of Pfizer.
They work for Reporters Without Borders, everything’s been OK’d, and at the last minute the prison “received intelligence” that they were journalists, so no go.
• RSF Barred From Vetted Prison Visit To Julian Assange (RSF)
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Secretary-General Christophe Deloire and Director of Operations Rebecca Vincent have been barred access to visit Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange in Belmarsh prison despite receiving confirmation that a visit would be permitted. On 4 April, Deloire and Vincent were prevented from entering Belmarsh prison, despite having been vetted in advance and receiving confirmation that a visit with Julian Assange would be possible at 9:15 am. His wife, Stella Assange, was permitted to enter as scheduled. Prison officials told the RSF representatives that they had “received intelligence” that they were journalists, and would therefore not be allowed in, per a decision of Belmarsh Prison Governor Jenny Louis. The Governor did not respond to urgent requests to meet Deloire and Vincent or to otherwise intervene to allow their access.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1643323285332021251
“We are deeply disappointed by the arbitrary decision of the Belmarsh Prison Governor to prevent us from visiting Julian Assange, despite following all relevant prison procedures and rules. Julian Assange has the right to receive visitors in prison, and we are legitimate to visit him as a press freedom NGO. We call for an urgent reversal of this decision and to be allowed visitation access without further delay.” Christophe Deloire – RSF Secretary-General.“This is the latest in a long series of ludicrous obstacles that we have faced over the past three years in campaigning for the release of Julian Assange. At every level, British authorities have defaulted to secrecy and exclusion rather than allowing normal engagement around this case – from refusing to accept RSF petitions, to making it nearly impossible to access court, and now this. What do they have to hide? Regardless, we continue our campaign to #FreeAssange unabated.”: -Rebecca Vincent – RSF Director of Operations and Campaigns”.
RSF would have been the first NGO to gain access to Assange in Belmarsh prison, who has had only a handful of visitors beyond his immediate family during the nearly four years he has been incarcerated. Deloire and Vincent intended to assess Assange’s conditions and to speak with him about his case, as an NGO actively campaigning for his release – not as journalists. Deloire would have visited in his capacity as Secretary-General of the NGO, and Vincent as Director of Operations and Campaigns. Vincent has never worked as a journalist or held a press card. Deloire had previously visited Assange on three occasions during his period at the Ecuadorian embassy.
This move comes in the aftermath of RSF facing extensive barriers in monitoring each stage of the extradition proceedings against Assange in London courts, for precisely the opposite reason, as RSF’s representatives were attending as NGO observers, and were not permitted to register for accreditation, as journalists would. RSF therefore could access court only via the public gallery, and was the only NGO that fought for this access at every stage of proceedings from 2020 to 2022.
The targeted persecution of #JulianAssange is unjust. He (and many others) distributed information deemed to be in the public interest. Julian is the only person facing charges for this.
#Faultlines#FreeAssangeNOW #DropTheCharges pic.twitter.com/mwi78PAisQ— Don't Extradite Assange – #FreeAssange (@DEAcampaign) April 4, 2023
G4S
.@AbbyMartin & Peter Phillips discuss his book "Giants: The Global Power Elite" which details 17 transnational investment firms that control over $50 trillion in wealth—and how they’re kept in power by their facilitators & protectors.
Full video: https://t.co/zvKR7LTW28 pic.twitter.com/T9y4ydi6IU
— The Empire Files (@EmpireFiles) April 3, 2023
Fosun
https://twitter.com/i/status/1643223084952846340
Wulong
Flying kiss theme ride in the Wulong Baima mountains in China, the ride stands as two giant statues overlooking a 3,000 foot cliff with rotating observations decks with spectacular views pic.twitter.com/cIT7Q2bllE
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) April 4, 2023
Sleepy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1643494434405863431
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