It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we hadPhiladelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it." ~ BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1787
Dianne Feinstein's Final Vote Raises Questions, Concerns
Carmine Sabia HERB SNOUT …
September 30, 2023
OPINION: This article will does contain commentary which reflects opinion not heard in the MSM.
There is something that has been largely overlooked by the media not only with Feinstein but also with McConnell and others in the declining years especially with Biden!
Mere hours before she died, she was assisted onto the Senate floor to vote “Aye” in a procedural vote to advance a short-term government funding bill.
The senator held on to the arm of an aide as her hand was raised, leading some users on X, formerly Twitter, to wonder if it was a “Weekend At Bernie’s” situation.
“Diane Feinstein voted on the Senate floor 1 day before her death. She required help- her aides lifted her arm up. Was she already dead? Was it Weekend at Bernies? Did they wheel her corpse out on the Senate floor and lift her arm up to vote?” one X user said.
The senator, despite accusations on the platform, was very much alive during her final vote, as a video showed her waving her hand to other senators unassisted.
But what has many furious is that, in the final hours of her life, she was brought into the Senate to cast a vote at all.
“RIP Dianne Feinstein. I think it’s disgusting how her last days were the Democrat party wheeling her out to vote in the Senate even after she gave up power of attorney,” Tim Young said on X.
“In the last days of her life, Democrats wheeled Sen. Dianne Feinstein into Congress and TOLD her how to voteinstead of letting her enjoy the time with her family.That’s elder abuse,” Glenn Beck said.
“Every Democratic member of Congress should be ashamed of themself. Propping up Dianne Feinstein until the hour of her death so she could vote in their favor! What could be more ignorant and horrific than caring more about your policies than your colleague!? These are sick people!” another X user said.
“Anyone on her staff should be ashamed, they were literally pushing her near-dead body to vote even on the day before she died. Feinstein’s legacy will forever be that she clung to power desperately until her last breath, not unlike a feudal lord. A trailblazer for gerontocracy,” another said.
Meta sparks privacy fears after unveiling $299 Smart Glasses with hidden cameras: ‘You can now film everyone without them knowing’
Andrew Court and Herb Snout
Talk about specs appeal.
These stylish shades may look like a regular pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers — but they’re actually Meta’s new ICU Smart Glasses, complete with two tiny cameras and subtle speakers implanted in the arms. Only thing missing is infrared.
The high-tech specs were unveiled by Mark Zuckerberg Wednesday at the 2023 Meta Connect conference in Menlo Park, California, sparking a ICU frenzy online.
While some hailed the Smart Glasses as a game changer, others worried that they could further erode privacy given that their cameras allow wearers to capture photos and videos on the sly. So much for journalism but there doesn't exist any real journalism today!
The new accessory also features freakishly advanced AI capabilities, including the ability to identify places and objects that people are seeing in real-time — and instant translations of foreign languages. Finally we get to understand the rambling of Biden and muttering of Fetterman!
“Smart glasses are the ideal form factor for you to let AI assistants see what you’re seeing and hear what you’re hearing,” Zuckerberg declared at the conference.
While some hailed the Smart Glasses as a game-changer, others worried that the hi-tech accessory could further erode privacy given that their cameras allow wearers to capture photos and videos on the sly. Meta
“Advances in AI allow us to create different [applications] and personas that help us accomplish different things,” the Facebook founder further stated. “Smart glasses are going to eventually allow us to bring all of this together into a stylish form factor that we can wear.”
The glasses feature two ultra-wide 12 MP camera translates that allow wearers to record 1080p videos up to a minute in length. Wearers will also be able to live-stream footage to Instagram and Facebook.
Meta says the glasses will come in handy while hiking or taking in an art show, or perhaps in a movie theater with your favorite Representative allowing users to capture memories without "whipping out" their phones.
“You can even directly share photos to friends and family from your glasses with a simple ‘send a photo’ voice command,” a press release reads.
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The glasses feature two ultra-wide 12 MP camera that allow wearers to record 1080p videos up to a minute in length. Wearers will also be able to livestream to Instagram and Facebook. Meta
Meta says the glasses will come in handy while hiking or taking in an art show, allowing users to capture memories without whipping out their phones. Meta
However, some skeptics took to social media saying the shades pose public safety risks.
“You can now film everyone without them knowing it!” one wrote, before adding: “It’s a bit obvious when you’re walking into public toilets with your phone in the air compared to wearing glasses at the urinals.”
“Closing all the gaps of whatever privacy we have left,” a second moaned.
The next level is that the AI integration will be able to identify the people in the livestream who didn’t sign up for that,” another worried. “No thanks!”
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“You can even directly share photos to friends and family from your glasses with a simple ‘send a photo’ voice command,” a press release reads.Meta
Many Meta fans, however, hailed the Smart Glasses, which will hit stores Oct. 17 and retail from $299.
“Imagine getting this kinda tech in a pair of glasses 10 years ago… not to mention for only $299,” one cooed.
Head of Kamala Harris’ favorite fund that bails out criminals arrested for possession of fentanyl
The head of an organization that Vice President Kamala Harris once openly promoted has been arrested for possession of fentanyl.
Records from the Bloomington, Minnesota Police Department show that they booked a lady named Valentina Dianne McKenzie for fentanyl possession on Aug. 31st.
McKenzie happens to be the chair of the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a far-left organization that lobbies on behalf of criminals by paying their bail.
“The Minnesota Freedom Fund can confirm that MFF board chair Valentina McKenzie was arrested on Thursday, August 31st, in Bloomington,” the fund’s communications director, Noble Frank, confirmed in a statement to Alpha News.
Dovetailing back to Harris, she openly promoted the MFF on Twitter during the violent, deadly Black Lives Matter race riots of 2020:
The fact that the fund’s chair is apparently into consuming or selling fentanyl — one of the most deadly drugs in America — isn’t even the worst part of the story.
Back in 2020, the fund bailed out Christopher Boswell, a twice-convicted rapist who at the time had been charged with kidnapping, assault, and sexual assault in two separate cases. One of the sexual assault cases reportedly involved a child.
Two years later in 2022, Boswell was charged again — this time with stalking, second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm — after he reportedly beat up his girlfriend and threatened to kill her.
“According to the criminal complaint, Brooklyn Park police at around 3 p.m. on July 22 got a call to do a welfare check on a woman. The woman’s mother told police at 5 a.m. that day, she got a call from her daughter’s boyfriend — later identified as Boswell — who said he went on for about 45 minutes, rambling about her daughter,” Minneapolis station KMSP reported at the time.
“The mother said Boswell was angry at her daughter and said numerous times he was going to kill her, and that he knows people who would kill her. During the call, the mother could hear her daughter crying and whimpering in the background. The mother told police Boswell is violent and had assaulted her daughter multiple times in the past, charges state,” the station added.
But it gets worse.
That same year, the fund bailed out St. Paul resident Shawn Michael Tillman after he committed indecent exposure. Three weeks later, he allegedly outright killed someone.
(similar case below)
“Shawn Michael Tillman, 33, faces one count of second-degree murder in connection with the shooting of a 37-year-old man who police have yet to identify. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted,” station KSTP reported.
“A criminal complaint states police responded to a shooting around 4:15 a.m. at the Green Line station near Fifth and Minnesota streets. Officers found the victim lying on the light rail platform with several gunshot wounds to the head and torso. Medics pronounced him dead minutes later,” according to the station.
What did the fund have to say for itself? Nothing but nonsense.
“When determining whether to provide bail support, Minnesota Freedom Fund evaluates several factors including bail amount and a defendant’s appearance history, and we prioritize people at risk of losing housing and employment or who are facing challenges like homelessness, mental illness, and chemical dependency. Mr. Tillman’s bail was $2,000 – a small amount compared to our average bail request of more than $58,000 and well under our daily bail cap. After paying Mr. Tillman’s bail, our Post-Release Team attempted to contact him, as they do all our clients upon release, to offer resources and support,” they said.
“In all our bail decisions, we strive to balance pre-trial justice with community safety. As a community, we are struggling to navigate and solve violence in our neighborhoods. We all want and deserve to be safe. But it is neither just nor effective to respond to violence by denying bail and pre-emptively punishing people who are disproportionately poor, [b]lack, brown, and [i]ndigenous. As Minnesota Freedom Fund continues to evaluate and refine our internal processes, we urge our leaders to confront gun violence in our communities with solutions that are proven to work: stable housing, mental healthcare, treatment for chemical dependency, youth programming, and more,” they added.
Given all this, you’d think the media would be interested in covering the fund’s ties to Harris, who is now the vice president of the United States. But you’d be wrong. Every single one of these crimes that resulted after the MFF bailed someone out has been buried. So has the vice president’s connection to these bailouts.
There is a reason why so many US officials get away with apparent bribery and graft, perhaps in our founding documents are the very seeds of its corruption, while not specifically stated in context … its is the context not Altruism!
“Preamble” of the Declaration of Independence
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
On September 22, influential United States Senator Bob Menendez was indicted on corruption charges along with his wife, Nadine. It is the second time Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has faced such charges.
THE GOLDEN RULE … the man with the gold rules!
As per the indictment from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Menendez and his wife received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from three New Jersey businessmen in the form of gold, cash, a luxury vehicle and assorted other goodies. (who supplies the gold?) In exchange, the Democrat from New Jersey allegedly used his position of power to benefit the three businessmen as well as the government of Egypt, the home country of one of the men in question.
As the old saying goes, power tends to corrupt.
According to US mythology, of course, corruption is entirely the business of other, less civilised nations – particularly enemies of the US – that lack the proper commitment to democracy, the rule of law, and all that nice and noble stuff.
But here’s a news flash for those sectors of the domestic audience scandalised by the Menendez revelations: Corruption is about as American as apple pie. (And a related newsflash: Menendez or no Menendez, the US has spent decades flinging billions of dollars at Egypt’s repressive apparatus – which should constitute a scandal in itself.)
LEFT, RIGHT, AND CENTER … HUMAN NATURE & BIRDS OF A FEATHER!
To be sure, Menendez is hardly the only bad apple in this pie. Take Clarence Thomas, the US Supreme Court justice whose being prosecuted in the mainstream media his corrupt exploits have been investigated by the New York-based "nonprofit ProPublica". One recent ProPublica report notes that, “like clockwork (orange), Thomas’ leisure activities have been underwritten by benefactors who share the ideology that drives his jurisprudence”.
NOTE: In a 2018 reader survey, 74% of ProPublica readers indentified as liberal, 1% identified as conservative, and 19% indentiffied as moderate. When asked about their perception of ProPublica's political leaning, 33% of respondents said they considered it to be liberal, 27% said they considered it to be moderate, 40% said they considered it to be non-ideological, and less than !% said they considered it to be conservative.
The report goes on to report Thomas's said “leisure activities”, which have included at least 38 vacations, 26 private jet flights, eight helicopter flights, and various excursions to luxury resorts, sporting events and so on. Billionaire real estate tycoon Harlan Crow, an enthusiastic collector of Nazi paraphernalia, is but one of the filthy rich right-wing contributors to Thomas’s seemingly eternal “leisure”. Crow has also funded numerous other favours, such as paying for Thomas’s grandnephew to attend an exclusive private boarding school.
In September, ProPublica revealed that Thomas had secretly participated in donor summits for the Koch network, founded by the billionaire Koch brothers and devoted to driving US policy ever more to the right. And what do you know? The Koch strategy includes bringing cases before the very court on which Thomas sits to impact US law.
So much for that silly old concept of “conflict of interest” or even "recusing" oneself as a Judge or Prosector.
WELL, BITE YOUR TONGUE!
At the end of the day or any day, though, Thomas’s antics are merely of a piece with US capitalism, which is predicated on maintaining a tyranny of the elite under the guise of democracy. In other words, it’s about as corrupt a system as you can get, or perhaps a system that promotes "RAW human nature" or "what's in it for me" thinking!
A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC IS NOT A DEMOCRACY ...
That anyone can still apply the term “democracy” to the US with a straight face is, meanwhile, a testament to the corruption of language itself. After all, you can’t very well have 'ruled by the "people” ' in a country where the Supreme Court reverses campaign finance restrictions and political influence is transparently up for sale.
The list of offenders goes on LEFT RIGHT AND CENTER. There’s Samuel Alito, another Supreme Court justice who this year was exposed as having also accepted undisclosed gifts from billionaire hedge fund manager and Republican Party mega-donor Paul Singer. After being treated by Singer to a luxury fishing trip in Alaska in 2008, Alito ruled in favour of Singer’s hedge fund in a case before the Supreme Court.
And then there’s Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general acquitted of corruption charges on September 16 in a historic impeachment trial, in which he was accused of bribery, obstruction of justice, abuse of public trust and other misdeeds. As the metaphor goes, "a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich"!
Allegations ranged from shady dealings with a real estate developer in Texas and misuse of power to retaliate against whistleblowers.
An ally of former US President Donald Trump and an accomplice in the effort to overturn the 2020 election results, Paxton remains under FBI investigation on separate corruption charges and faces trial on allegations of felony securities fraud. After the Texas Senate acquitted the state’s top law enforcement official, Trump took to his social media platform to celebrate with typical eloquence: “The Ken Paxton Victory is sooo BIG. WOW!!!”
BUT WAIT THAT'S NOT ALL … BUSH, CLINTON, OBAMA, AND BIDEN … EACH HAVE THEIR FINGER PRINTS ON SIMILAR BEHAVIOR … time for an indictment of the swamp.
Hunter Biden whines his money is ‘all gone,’ seeks dad’s help in newly revealed texts: ‘Can’t pay alimony’
Josh Christenson and Herb Snout
The extended Biden Family has all the all the ear-marks of a modernized reboot of the TV show "Dynasty" totally dysfunctional with a streak of "wannabe" exposing the dark underbelly of a political corrupt world built on international greed and deals of stupidity & greed with sellout of trust "of|in"(your choice) the American Way …
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Hunter Biden told his uncle James in December 2018 that he had run out of money and needed financial assistance from his father, according to new text messages revealed in IRS whistleblower documents.
The now-first son told James Biden that the millions of dollars he’d scooped from his business deals abroad was “all gone” and he could no longer afford school tuition for his three daughters or even basic living expenses.
“I can work when I’m in NYC all day every day for the next 3 months,” Hunter said in the Dec. 29, 2018, message to his uncle.
“But I can’t pay alimony w/o Dad or tuitions or for food and gas. Really it’s all gone.”
“I can go make it up in 15/20 days I’m sure, but he’s basically made it clear that he’s not paying alimony b/c Mom made clear that she won’t do it,” he added.
KEEPING IT "ALL IN THE FAMILY"
Hunter also said he was moving into his dad’s Delaware mansion after the collapse of his relationship with his sister-in-law-turned-lover Hallie Biden.
“Hallie won’t [sic] allow me to be at the house or lend me or pay me back any money,” Hunter went on. “Ashley moves into momoms [sic] house after I told dad that I would move in there. … That night I tell dad I want to probably stay in the areaand [sic] specifically I wanted to live by you and teach my course at Penn and maybe develop another one.”
New text messages released by the House Ways and Means Committee show that Hunter Biden sought his father’s financial help in 2018.AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File
The text messages were part of documents from IRS whistleblowers who were investigating Hunter Biden.GOP Ways and Means. House
A LITTLE HELP FROM THE "BIG GUY" - "I'LL KISS THE RING, TELL HIM!"
James Biden told Hunter that he thought the new arrangement would suffice with just a little further “help” from the former vice president.
“This can work, you need a safe harbor. I can work with you father alone !!” he responded. “We as usual just need several months of his help for this to work. Let’s talk about it. It makes perfect sense to me. This is difficult to fully vet without talking.”
The exchange was part of a trove of documents released by the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday, implicating the 53-year-old Hunter in various influence-peddling schemes while landing business deals with foreign entities.
STAND INS AND EXTRAS
In a statement accompanying the message, IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler explained that James Biden was not asked about this exchange due to “an environment established by the assigned prosecutors in which the investigators were afraid to ask questions … this would not allow us to follow normal investigative leads and fully understand the business relationship between James Biden and his family.”
The messages complicate a previously reported exchange between Hunter and his daughter Naomi from January 2019, in which the first son claimed that he’d had to fork over “half” of his salary to his father.
“I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family for 30 years,” he said. “It’s really hard. But don’t worry, unlike pop, I won’t make you give me half your salary.”
Hunter wrote that he was moving into his father’s house after the end of his relationship with his sister-in-law Hallie Biden.
James Biden replied to his nephew that his plans would work with more ‘help’ from Joe Biden.AP
The texts also shed further light on the financial entanglements of the Biden family, which have served as the nexus of an impeachment inquiry launched by House Republicans.
A HORSE-HEAD IN THE BED
In June, the House panel revealed that Hunter threatened a Chinese business associate in a text message in July 2017, saying he was “sitting” next to his father and would “forever hold a grudge” if their business arrangement was not “fulfilled.”
The missive was revealed in documents produced by two IRS tax investigators who were part of a team that spent five years investigating Hunter Biden for his alleged financial crimes.
WHO IS THE BAG MAN?
Bank records also obtained by the House Oversight Committee have shown that the first family and their associates netted more than $20 million from Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan while his father served as vice president in the Obama White House.
James and Hunter Biden also raked in $4.8 million from a Chinese government-linked CEFC China Energy between 2017 and 2018, records found on the first son’s abandoned laptop show.
Hunter Biden wrote that he ‘can’t pay alimony w/o Dad or tuitions or for food and gas.’REUTERS
ON THE BANKS OF THE DELAWARE
The Oversight Committee released records on Tuesday showing further six-figure wire transfersflowed from Chinese entities that listed Joe Biden’s Delaware address as the beneficiary as his presidential campaign ramped up in the summer of 2019.
“I’m going to try to call yo again please Ans,” James Biden wrote.
Bank records obtained by the House Oversight Committee show that the first family and their associates netted over $20 million from Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan while his father served as vice president in the Obama White House.REUTERS
The Oversight Committee released records on Tuesday showing further six-figure wire transfers flowed from Chinese entities that listed Joe Biden’s Delaware address as the beneficiary.REUTERS
This occurred as Biden had his presidential campaign ramped up in the summer of 2019.REUTERS
“Crisis with Caroline, same problem with “P”, and NY Post. Dealing with it as we speak. She is OK, I believe I have it under control !? I get back to you ASAP.”
The reference points to The Post’s coverage the following month of his daughter, who stole a Chase credit card and set up an unauthorized account in 2015 to go on a spending spree at Bigelow Apothecaries.
In June 2017, Caroline pleaded guilty to grand larceny in Manhattan Supreme Court under a probation-only plea deal that downgraded her charge to petit larceny in exchange for 10 days of community service and two years of probation.
She did not fully repay her credit card bill until January 2019.
