[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Jill Biden
…soon we won’t have to read about her ever again…
drowned her sorrows in a glass of champagne and a night of partying with Serena Williams, Charlize Theron, Mick Jagger, and Zendaya after husband Joe Biden exited the presidential race.
The first lady, who is leading the U.S. delegation for the opening ceremony of the Olympics Games, joined the A-list stars at the Prelude to the 2024 Olympic Games party on Thursday night.
She was spotted in a white pantsuit chatting with guests at the event. Biden is on the cover of the August edition of Vogue. Apparently the couch and drapery clothing is only for us plebes
Guests were surprised and delighted to bump into the first lady, Vogue noted in its write up and photos of the event.
Held at the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris, Vogue editor Anna Wintour and Louis Vuitton men's creative director Pharrell William welcomed guests inside ahead of Friday's opening ceremony.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte were also in attendance along with LeBron James, Novak Djokovic, Ian Thorpe, Tyrese Haliburton, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Soop Dogg, Tyla, Jeremy Allen White, Queen Latifah, and Alan Cumming.
The party was organized by Vogue in partnership with the luxury goods company LVMH, which is major sponsor of the games.
The gushing continues about expensive but uninteresting people doing boring things.
[RT] The Pentagon reportedly created hundreds of fake social media profiles to convince Filipinos that the Sinovac shot was “fake”
The US military has admitted that it ran a clandestine campaign aimed at discrediting China’s Sinovac vaccine in the Philippines and across Asia and the Middle East, Reuters has reported.
I didn’t need anti-China propaganda to distrust the product of Chinese labs.
“It is true that the [Department of Defense] did message Philippines audiences questioning the safety and efficacy of Sinovac,” Pentagon officials wrote to their Filipino counterparts in a letter dated June 25 and reported by Reuters on Friday.
According to the document, the Pentagon admitted that it “made some missteps in our COVID related messaging” but assured Manilla that it halted the operation in late 2021 and has since “vastly improved oversight and accountability of information operations.”
The operation in question began in 2020, after China announced it would distribute Sinovac shots in the Philippines free of charge. In an effort to counter this public relations boon for Beijing, the Pentagon ordered its psychological operations center in Florida to create at least 300 fake social media profiles to disparage the Chinese vaccine, a Reuters investigation revealed last month.
“COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don’t trust China!” read a typical post created by the psyops team, while another stated: “From China – PPE, Face Mask, Vaccine: FAKE. But the Coronavirus is real.”
Military officials involved in the campaign knew that their goal was not to protect Filipinos from an unsafe vaccine, but to “drag China through the mud,” a senior officer told Reuters.
The propaganda campaign soon spread beyond the Philippines, according to the report. Muslim audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East were told that Sinovac contained pork gelatin, and was therefore “haram,” or forbidden under Islamic law. The campaign forced Sinovac to release a statement insisting that the shot was “manufactured free of porcine materials.”
The Pentagon has not publicly acknowledged the letter to the Filipino military, and the governments of the US and the Philippines refused to comment on the matter to Reuters.
Last month, however, a Pentagon spokesperson told the news agency that the US military “uses a variety of platforms, including social media, to counter those malign influence attacks aimed at the US, allies, and partners,” and claimed that Washington was only responding to a Chinese “disinformation campaign to falsely blame the US for the spread of Covid-19.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry told Reuters that it has long maintained that the US spreads disinformation about China.
In the Philippines, Reuters’ report prompted an investigation by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In a hearing last month, Senator Imee Marcos, who leads the committee, called the Pentagon campaign “evil, wicked, dangerous, [and] unethical,” and suggested that Manilla investigate whether it can take legal action against Washington.
#1
Violating everything they said China was going to do.
Harming human health and science itself for a temporary political advantage. these people aren't just the enemies of America, they are the enemies of the entire human race.
[RT] The agency has become openly partisan and serves political ends, whistleblowers have said.
J. Edgar Hoover was said to have files on everyone of importance in Washington, DC, and as many radicals as he could find. Nonetheless, I think he would have been appalled by what his successors choose to do.
Many US state and local law enforcement agencies are refusing to share vital information with the Federal Bureau of Investigation due to concerns that it has become partisan and politicized, according to a whistleblower report submitted to Congress.
The 230-page report was compiled by an alliance of retired and active-duty agents and analysts, who spoke to more than 30 “independent, highly credible” sources across the US.
“They are not only reluctant to work with the FBI but reportedly have decided to no longer share actionable, substantive information on criminal and other intelligence-related activity” with the Bureau, because they believe it “has been operating as a partisan federal agency motivated by a political agenda” in recent years, the report’s authors said.
The report’s existence was first reported on Wednesday in the New York Post. The document itself was sent to the House Judiciary and House Oversight committees and posted online.
The group described a “crisis of confidence” in FBI-led task forces and a “disturbing loss of trust” in the Bureau as a whole, even as Director Christopher Wray testified to Congress about a “complex threat environment” that is unprecedented in his career.
Most sources pointed to the FBI’s response to the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol and the August 2022 raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.
One of the sources described the FBI’s behavior as “that of a Third World country” and argued it “should be dismantled and its personnel prosecuted and given long prison sentences.”
Pressure to assist with “J6” cases has led to a belief that the Bureau is driven by a “partisan, political agenda.” One source said they could not understand why the FBI was not going after any other groups with the same fervor. Another said that local officers feared they could be targeted “because of their love for the US” and perceived as “domestic terrorists” based on how they vote.
Newer FBI agents “do not bother to conceal their distaste” for traditional political or religious views and openly identify themselves as “woke or liberal,” the head of a multi-agency task force said. Hired on the basis of “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) guidelines, they are “completely worthless” and “the worst batch of people,” the whistleblowers said.
The FBI academy at Quantico, Virginia at which new agents are trained “promotes a cult of narcissism” and arrogant superiority, while being intolerably politicized, the report claimed. Meanwhile, the Bureau’s Security Division has been abusing the security clearance process to purge conservative-leaning agents from its ranks.
The whistleblowers urged Congress to force the resignation of Wray as “an extreme measure of last resort” and the only way to restore the Bureau’s reputation.
#1
Depends. When I worked for the bank law enforcement and the FBI worked hand in hand and very well to track down robbers, identify theft, elder abuse, etc.
When it comes to investigating normal citizens and possible ties to, for example, sovereign citizens (their uncle/cousin/brother is fucking nuts) they don't trust them at all as they have a tendency to seize property and guns first and then figure out shit later.
Normal grunt work, trust. Politically tinged work, not a fucking chance.
#9
The entire DOJ is suspect. Locals know if the feds show up they will take all the credit if it goes well and publicly blame the local LEOs publicly id it goes bad.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/27/2024 20:03 Comments ||
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#10
My expectations of justice, competency and quality have been lowered for all levels of law enforcement.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] … as new detail emerges about FBI raid on her home.
Feds who raided Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao's home last month left with a phone belonging to her and her partner Andre Jones, it's been revealed.
The fact was first reported by The San Francisco Chronicle, after it was already revealed that agents left with the mayor's cellphone and her personal computer.
Within five days, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena to the Bay Area city that demanded all 'documents and communications related to Andre Jones' be turned over.
They also requested all 'calendar entries or records' of meetings that included either one of the two since June 2022 - five months before Thao, 39, was even elected.
More than a month later, feds have yet to say why they are interested in the pair, but the seizure of Jones' cellphone raise questions about the potential involvement of a man who played a small but significant role in the mayor's political career.
The spotlight on Jones had already widened in recent weeks, as Thao's former chief of staff, Renia Webb, publicly accused him of corruption.
Not offering any other detail, the ex-staffer said she had spoken to the FBI as part of their investigation as the subpoenas hinting at his involvement were sent.
A source with knowledge of the investigation, meanwhile, confided to the Chronicle Friday that investigators took Jones' phone.
A second insider insisted Jones - who lives at the home with Thao - stopped using his phone shortly after the raids June 20.
He instead switched to a new number, they said - asking to remain anonymous as feds' probe into the political power couple continues.
Jones reportedly would not comment when approached by the Chronicle - as was the case with his attorney.
Despite working in politics for decades - once as Oakland city Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan's chief of staff - Jones's life and political career are surprisingly shrouded in mystery, with little information available about him publicly.
Asked who is representing Jones, Thao's personal attorney, Jeff Tsai, deferred to attorney Walter Riley, who has not spoken on his client to the press.
Thao, meanwhile, declined to comment to the Chronicle as they reported on the records requests and the one for Jones's phone, as the mayor faces a recall attempt less than two years after taking office.
She has questioned the timing and legitimacy of the raids conducted by the FBI and US Postal Service as a result, as her attorney continues to exude confidence that she is not the target of their investigation.
Thao has also said Jones is not involved in her administration nor on the city payroll.
'He's hardly even been in my office,' she told KPIX this month.
A little more than a month ago, Webb, who served as Thao's chief of staff for 18 months, aired her belief that feds were looking into the longtime political staffer who fathered a now-11-year-old daughter with the Oakland mayor.
Webb - credited with running much of Thao's office and her campaign - accused Jones of classic pay-to-play corruption, including trying to lobby for jobs for Thao's donors and allies.
She said Jones' behavior bordered on ridiculous, with a stunt where he tried to involve his ex-wife in Thao's swearing in ceremony as mayor being the last straw before she quit.
That incident is said to have left Thao in tears, as she billed herself as a success story after surviving a bout of homelessness in the Bay Area as a single mom with her now-17-year-old son.
Her parents immigrated to the US from Laos during the Hmong genocide in the 80s, settling in Stockton as vegetable farmers.
It was only after this that Thao was born. She left home 17 years later after growing up with nine brothers and sisters.
In her 20s, she found herself in an abusive relationship, forcing her to flee to the streets while six months pregnant with her son.
For several years, she raised him while staying at a friend's home.
Later, Thao met Jones while serving as an intern under Kaplan who was elected to the City Council in 2008, and had hired Jones as chief of staff for her office.
Jones would leave this post in 2016, before being appointed a year later as assistant chief of external and intergovernmental affairs at the California Bureau of Cannabis Control.
Thao, meanwhile, took his place as chief of staff, before winning a council seat in 2018.
Jones went on to leave his state job in 2021, the same year he ran for a seat on the Democratic Party’s coordinating committee in District 18, which includes Oakland and Alameda, as part of the Progressive & Labor Unity Slate.
He won - though the role is unpaid. He made contributions to Thao in 2018 and Kaplan in 2020.
It’s unclear what Jones has done professionally since.
Earlier this month, he grabbed a reporter’s business card from the front door before shutting it behind him, the Chronicle reported - after feds also stormed multiple properties belonging members of a politically connected family who run the city’s contracted recycling company.
Still, the nature of the investigation remains unknown, as the recall effort continues.
Back in March, the In-N-Out Burger in Oakland became the chain's first-ever location to close because of rampant crime in the area, as a Subway and a Denny's did as well.
The recall comes as residents continue to complain over rising rates of crime and homelessness - phenomena the mayor had promised to address.
Jones, meanwhile, has also tried his hand at acting, with three credits for low-budget movies released in 2003 and 2004.
#1
So what we got here is 'Chinatown' meets Black Lives Matter, in Cali.
Of course they're crooks.
I notice that a lot of the federal law agencies seem to very interested in going back to 'normal' law enforcement these days.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/27/2024 16:02 Comments ||
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#2
I notice that a lot of the federal law agencies seem to very interested in going back to 'normal' law enforcement these days.
#5
I have read what the hand sign is supposed to mean. I don’t know whether the characterization of its meaning is accurate as I don’t participate in those groups. Regardless, it is not a normal hand sign.
Short of finding out that Cardin has some palsy, I will assume that the hand jive was intentional and that Cardin was purposefully on camera. Cardin represents some type of evil. He will remain in a decision making position until his constituency or God removes him. I will suspect that anyone associated with him is working for evil as well.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/27/2024 8:41 Comments ||
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#6
TW, I did click on the headline and saw the video.. I was referring to the twitter link as it seems to refer back to rantburg.
I now realize that both links go to the same video.
[GEO.TV] Former US president Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... on Friday hit back against suggestions his wound from an liquidation attempt was caused by "shrapnel," posting a letter from his former doctor saying it was almost certainly due to a bullet.
"There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet," wrote Ronny Jackson, now a Republican congressman from Texas, on Trump's social media platform Truth Social. Trump reposted the message.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) chief Christopher Wray told US politicians on Wednesday that there was some doubt "whether or not it's a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, that hit his ear."
Trump was maimed on his right ear at a campaign rally on July 13 in Pennsylvania, surviving what the FBI has termed an liquidation attempt when a gunman fired eight bullets at him during a speech.
There has been no confirmation of the nature of Trump's wound from either medical, law enforcement or government authorities, and Wray's comments were the first on-the-record details from a bigwig on the matter.
Two rally attendees were seriously maimed in the attack, and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was rubbed out, according to officials. The gunman was killed by a US Secret Service sniper.
Look at that — mockery across the internet gets results.
[DAILYCALLER] The FBI clarified Friday that a bullet struck former President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election... during an attempt against his life in a rally on July 13.
An attempted assassin present near a Trump rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 opened fire and injured the former president before he was neutralized by the Secret Service. FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress on Thursday that there were still "some questions" as to what exactly had struck Trump during the liquidation attempt, whether it was a "bullet or shrapnel," though did not directly mention whether glass fragments could be responsible, a theory that has been used by some in the media.
The FBI confirmed in a statement on Friday that it was indeed a bullet that hit Trump.
"What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the dear departed subject’s rifle," the FBI told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement.
#3
Given the level of corrupincompetence in the govt it's hard to know where to start. I'd suggest starting with USSS if you want to see Trump make it to January. So where to start with the USSS?
#4
The iconic picture of bloody Trump rolled up Joe Biden in the polls like a steamroller. The shrapnel idea is a lie intended to mitigate the damage caused by that image. Wray proposed the lie in official fashion and then it was rescinded. This passed the lie baton to The View to perpetuate as if Wray never took it back. The View will mobilize the army of stupid people by periodically repeating the lie which will project the tendrils of propaganda into social media via their army of stupid minions.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/27/2024 8:29 Comments ||
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Only four of the initial 71 staffers hired by Harris during her first year in office still remain in a job. The rest either quit or were fired, according to analysis by non-partisan watchdog Open The Books.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/27/2024 7:29 Comments ||
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#4
Based on their home refinances the Bidens are more committed to equity than Kamala is.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/27/2024 8:12 Comments ||
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#5
I saw what you did there SH...
Posted by: Regular joe ||
07/27/2024 13:40 Comments ||
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#6
Basically: From those according to their ability to those according to their need. Communism in a nutshell.
Who is John Galt?
John Galt (Atlas Shrugged) worked for a motor company. Worked hard and produced a lot for that company but was paid very, very, little because he had small needs while other workers slacked off, did little but produce kids and needs, and were paid very, very well because their needs were high.
The entire book was basically about how that didn't work out.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.