Today’s News 13th July 2017

  • Hackers Steal Swedish Security Company CEO's Identity, Declare Him "Bankrupt"

    The 59-year old CEO of Swedish Security Firm Securitas was declared bankrupt this week after hackers stole his identity, took out a loan in his name, then filed for bankruptcy.  As Bloomberg noted, “the sub-optimal branding implications were hard to miss.”

    Securitas AB hopes to have put the whole awkward incident behind it by the end of the day. According to Bloomberg, the appointed bankruptcy trustee has been informed and will support the appeal of the bankruptcy decision, which is expected to be removed, Securitas said. Securitas CEO Alf Goransson is appealing the July 10 bankruptcy decision by the Stockholm District Court, which acted on false information, the company said on Wednesday. The appointed bankruptcy trustee has been informed and will support the appeal of the bankruptcy decision, which is expected to be removed, Securitas said.

    “The perpetrator used the CEO’s identity to seek a loan of an undisclosed amount, after which a bankruptcy application was filed in his name. The identity theft took place in March. Goransson didn’t know he’d been hacked until this week, the company said.”

     

    The hack attack “has no effect on the company, other than that our CEO has been declared bankrupt,” spokeswoman Gisela Lindstrand said. “And that will hopefully only last until later today, depending on how soon they can remove the decision.”

    However, the theft, as Bloomberg notes, raises questions about security in a society that is leading the way in digitization. Sweden is well ahead of most of the rest of the world in replacing cash with digital payments – even homeless groups there accept credit cards.

    Even a museum dedicated to the pop group Abba – the group that popularized the song “Money, Money, Money” – doesn’t accept cash.

    At the country’s Abba museum, tourists aren’t allowed to pay for anything with cash.

    Has Sweden’s commitment to transparency created an environment where identity theft is commonplace? The statistics would say yes.

    “The country’s efforts to embrace transparency in all fields are also well documented. Sweden encourages widespread access to public information (employees can find out what their colleagues earn by checking with the tax authorities) and, like most other rich countries, online shopping and loan applications are on the rise. All of this has coincided with a sharp increase in identity fraud. Sweden responded last year by introducing specific legislation to target the development. Goransson’s case was one of 12,800 crimes involving hacked identities reported in Sweden in the first six months of 2017.”

    Goransson has been de-registered as chairman of Loomis, a cash-handling company that used to be part of Securitas, in accordance with formal procedures of the Swedish Companies Registration Office. Goransson is also expected to appeal this decision after he gets the bankruptcy ruling thrown out, according to Bloomberg.

  • Russia-US Relations: Dim Light Does Not Get Brighter

    Authored by Alex Gorka via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

    The US administration backs the new sanctions on Russia. «The administration is fully supportive of those sanctions», said White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short at a press briefing on July 10.

    The statement comes in the wake of US and Russian presidents’ meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Following the event, President Trump said he wanted to move forward «working constructively with Russia». Does he mean that introducing tougher sanctions is a way to promote «constructive» relationship?

    «Could the White House be working against it? They well could be. Have they contacted us to work against it? No», said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). The only worry on the part of the administration is that the bill does not include «certain national waivers that have always been consistently part of sanctions bills in the past». For the administration, a softer bill with a provision for sanctions waivers would be just the thing it wants. It finds the strengthened sanctions and other things to spoil the relations with Russia acceptable.

    The legislation had sailed through the Senate to get stalled in the House. It is expected to be voted on till the Congressional recess in August. When in force, it would require a congressional review if President Donald Trump attempted to ease or end punitive actions on Russia. A foreign policy issue is supposed to be delegated to Congress to set an unusual precedent of constrained presidential authority. So, it’s the procedures, not the substance, that evokes the administration’s concern.

    In late December, 2016, the Obama administration expelled 35 Russian diplomats and shut down the embassy compounds in Maryland and New York. Back then, Moscow abstained from taking a reciprocal action. President Putin even invited US diplomats and their families to a party in the Kremlin.

    More than half a year has passed. The White House has not yet resolved the issue of the compounds. It keeps on hanging in the mid-air to become a serious irritant to affect the bilateral relations. This prompts Russia to consider retaliatory steps. On July 11, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he was «considering specific measures» in response, but did not elaborateAccording to him, it is «simply shameful for such a great country as the United States, a champion of international law, to leave the situation in such a state of suspended animation».

    Moscow may well expel a number of American diplomats and seize some US diplomatic buildings to complicate the relationship President Trump says he wants to improve. Obviously, Russia’s patience has run out. After all, the seizure of the embassy property is an egregious violation of the Vienna Convention, it cannot go unanswered forever.

    There is another irritant looming. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) filed legislation – the «Russia Arms Trade Limitation Act» – on July 7 to impose fresh sanctions on Russia for violations of the landmark 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The lawmaker submitted the proposal as an amendment to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a must-pass annual bill that sets policy for the Defense Department.

    The NDAA defense already has a provision saying that if Russia continued to violate the treaty within 15 months of the legislation’s enactment, the United States «would no longer be legally bound by the treaty as a matter of domestic law».

    Actually, the bill envisages a unilateral withdrawal without a serious attempt to solve the differences and address Russia’s concerns. The US would make a move to almost certainly launch an arms race without even consulting the European NATO allies. After all, this is a European problem; the intermediate range missiles cannot strike the United States from the Old Continent.

    Russia has denied violating the treaty while no explanations have been produced to explain Russia’s accusation that the US Mk-41 launcher installed in Europe as a part of ballistic missile defense is capable of firing long range cruise missiles in a clear breach of the agreement’s terms. Anyway, this is a separate issue to be discussed by experts; it should not negatively affect the whole range of issues on the Russia-US agenda. Disagreeing on the INF Treaty does not prevent the powers from cooperating on Syria and other problems.

    The domestic political strife has dealt a heavy blow to the Russia-US relations. The lawmakers have no time for crucial tax and health reforms but they do find time for anti-Russia bills. Congress and media have taken on a hostile attitude towards Russia while the current administration has not taken any real step to improve the ties so far. On the contrary, the Treasury Department even tightened the sanctions on June 20.

    Hopes are high for the upcoming meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and US Under Secretary of State Thomas Shannon. But if the abovementioned bills become laws and the problems continue to pile up, there will hardly be a light to see at the end of the tunnel. This is the wrong environment for achieving progress during the talks on arms control, the fight against terrorism or crisis management to end the ongoing war in Syria.

    One thing leads to another. It’s impossible to build mutually beneficial, business-like and pragmatic relations under the conditions of hostile attitude on the part of Congress and inability or unwillingness of the administration to do anything about it.

  • NEOCONS GET IN HERE: Tucker Carlson Just Humiliated Max Boot on National TV

     

    Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

    Over the past 30 years, the neocons have presided over the worst foreign policies in American history — pursuing their Trotskyite schemes of war that have accelerated to an ebb tide that peaked during Bush the Idiot’s reign.

    Men like Max Boot, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Bill Kristol, Richard Perle, and many others, have attached themselves to the republican party like a cancerous tumor — transforming it from a checkered pants, cigar smoked room, boys club into a satanic cult out for the blood of the indigenous.

    At the root of the neocon “plan”, being disciples of Trotsky, is the destruction of “Mother Russia.” It’s in their blood — because they’re still mad at Stalin. This has been a constant since the 50’s. It was only after the Berlin Wall fell and there was a detente between the United States and Russia in the 90s did these revolutionaries affix themselves to the GOP with real energy.

    The net result of neocon led foreign policies have resulted in thousands of dead Americans, the entire middle east reduced to rubble, millions of civilians dead and/or displaced — and they have the stones to call Putin evil.

    Pray tell me, who has killed more people in the world over the past 30 years, America or Russia? Moreover, how has America benefited by these wars, which has bankrupted the treasury and led to an enormous spike in commodities, helped produce a housing bubble and subsequent financial meltdown and the ruin of countless people — worldwide — all because they had to export America democracy in order to “make America safe”?

    How has that worked out so far, Max Boot? Have you taken a look into Rome, Munich or Paris recently?

    This heated and contentious debate with the former defense policy adviser to Mitt Romney, Max Boot, and Tucker Carlson, should be archived and saved for the sake of posterity. I will not transcribe it for you — because you’ll miss out on the essence of this verbal and intellectual beat down. The world is a dangerous place. At the vanguard of that danger are respected ‘intellectuals’ like Max Boot — trying hard to promote a demonic brand of foreign policy that will kill your sons.

  • Shkreli Told Investors He Had Millions Under Management When His Fund Was Broke

    The prosecution has continued to call witnesses and show evidence in the trial of Martin Shkreli, providing the jury with documents to prove that Shkreli mislead investors by telling them he was managing $100 million when his fund had a balance of negative 33 cents in its prime brokerage account.

    Another witness and former Shkreli investor told the jury how couldn’t tell if Shkreli’s flirts were genuine, or if the “Pharma Bro” really did have feelings for him.

    According to the New York Daily News, Steven Richardson — a man who told Brooklyn federal jurors he’s had a domestic partner for 25 years — testified Tuesday he wondered if Shkreli’s quips about hookups and sex were just ploys to strike a rapport with the 63-year-old investor.

    It got to the point that Richardson had to have a March 2010 talk with Shkreli, 34. After cocktails at Richardson’s Chelsea apartment, he said he sat Shkreli down on his bed. “I said, ‘Do you have any physical feelings for me?’ He took a second he said, ‘No, I like you a lot but I don’t.’”

    Prosecutors also called Dr. Lindsay Rosenwald as a witness to discuss how his $100,000 investment with Shkreli turned out. Rosenwald ended up with Retrophin stock that he ended up selling for between $400,000 and $600,000. He also told a story about when Shkreli awkwardly hit him up about a dating lead. Shkreli allegedly asked Rosenwald if a certain woman was single. He then said he wanted it to be known “there is a handsome young hedge fund millionaire she should be dating.”

    Meanwhile, a government accountant called by the prosecution went through bank-account records to try and corroborate the government’s argument. A bank account maintained by one of Martin Shkreli's hedge funds in July 2011 had a balance of "negative 33 cents" in it, at the same time he was telling investors his funds had tens of millions of dollars under management, an accountant testified Tuesday, according to CNBC.

    That accountant also said that an analysis of one of Shkreli's funds, MSMB Capital Management, showed that it never at any one point had a total of more than $1.2 million in its bank account and brokerage account combined. And the combined balance of a brokerage account and several bank accounts maintained by his other fund, MSMB Healthcare, never topped $1.6 million, Wendy Spaulding, the accountant, testified in Brooklyn, New York, federal court.

    The accountant revealed Tuesday that Retrophin, a drug company founded by Shkreli, paid $10,000 for Jay-Z concert tickets at a time when the company had just tens of thousands of dollars in its own bank accounts.

    And the accountant testified that records showed more than $1.3 million from Retrophin being transferred to Shkreli's personal bank account, and another $26,000 being transferred into that account from MSMB Capital.

    Spaulding’s testimony could be damning for Shkreli, CNBC noted, because several witnesses have already testified that he told them he was managing between $30 million and $50 million.

    Prosecutors also accuse Shkreli of looting Retrophin of money and stock to pay off investors in his hedge funds once they began demanding their money back.

    Those investors also have said that Shkreli told them his hedge funds had a balance of long and short positions in publicly traded stocks, and that the funds as a rule did not have more than 10 percent of their investments in any single company.
     

  • CNN Cracks the Case, Publishes Video of Trump Dining with Goldstone and Agalarov's

     

    Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

    The plot just thickened, yet again. You have to play six degrees of separation in trying to understand how Trump Jr. got in touch with that Russian lawyer. There are varying theories out there — from Trump Jr. being set up by the deep state — to this meeting being the touchstone which introduced Wikileaks and John Podesta’s emails to the world.

    Judging by the evidence available, I’d say the Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr., at a minimum, is suspect.

    //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Nevertheless, here’s CNN, publishing ‘exclusive’ video of Trump dining with Goldstone and the Agalarov’s — proving the point that the President was familiar with them and that he had ‘Russian ties.’

    EXCLUSIVE: One of Trump’s Russian ties

  • The New World Order Takeover Is Very Real… And Will Begin With Germany And China

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

    In numerous articles over the years I have outlined in acute detail the agenda for a future one-world economic and governmental system led primarily by banking elites and globalists; an agenda they sometimes refer to as the "New World Order." The term has gained such public exposure and notoriety recently that the globalists have fallen back to using different terminology. Some of them, like the International Monetary Fund's Christine Lagarde, refer to it as the "global economic reset." Others call it the "new multilateralism." Still others refer to it as the "end of the unipolar order," referring to the slow death of the U.S. economy as the central pillar of the global economy.

    Whatever label they decide to use, all of them signal a full spectrum destabilization of the "old world" financial and geopolitical system and the ascendance of a tightly controlled one world edifice dominated openly by globalist hubs like the IMF and the BIS.

    Too many people, even in the liberty movement, tend to examine only the veneer of this agenda. Some have deluded themselves into thinking the U.S. and the dollar are actually the core of the NWO and are therefore indispensable to the globalists. As I have shown time and time again, the Federal Reserve is now on a fast track to complete its sabotage of the U.S. economy; they would not be instigating instability and crisis to deflate the massive fiscal bubbles they have created unless America was at least partially expendable.

    Some believe the NWO is a purely "western" construct and that eastern nations are defending themselves against an encroaching globalist empire. I have also shown that this is nonsense, and that eastern nations work closely with the same exact globalists they are supposedly at war with. This includes Russia's Vladimir Putin, a figure often ignorantly praised by select liberty activists.

    What we see in the mainstream is conflict, yes; but it is theatrical conflict. At the end of the day, Eastern leaders pander to globalist high priests at the IMF and BIS and have lunch with NWO icons like Henry Kissinger, just as heads of the Republican Party and even Donald Trump's family go out to parties with Democrat strategists and George Soros.

    It's all a kabuki play. All the world is a stage…

    So, the question then remains, since the NWO and a one world economic system is in fact a real threat proven to exist through considerable evidence including the very words of prominent globalists, how does such a thing begin? If the U.S. is merely a limb that the globalists are willing to sacrifice in trade to gain even greater centralization, where will the NWO actually take root? As noted, both Eastern and Western nations are at the disposal of the international financiers, so it should come as no surprise that the NWO is seemingly taking shape around the relationship between two nations; one from either side.

    As Bloomberg announces with apparent glee in an article titled "China, Germany Step Up As U.S. Retires From World Leadership," Donald Trump risks "uniting cold war allies and foes alike against him." In other words, the future is extreme socialism, the populists are a dangerous and dying breed and globalization marches on without them. The narrative is clearly being established.

    The relationship between China and Germany might seem strange, but the two countries are far more alike than many people comprehend. Germany is the industrial and economic centerpiece of the European Union.  China is the economic and industrial pillar of Asia.  China sells itself as a communist society with capitalist hobbies. Germany sells itself as a capitalist society integrating socialist (communist) programs and social justice mantras. In reality, both nations are collectivist hell-holes, but this is exactly the kind of model the globalists want for the entire world.

    Germany has set the stage for the self-flagellating model of "multiculturalism." Angela Merkel is obsessive in her pursuit of the ideal, and this makes sense from a globalist perspective. Multiculturalism requires absolutely uninhibited movement of ideologies and populations across borders, making borders essentially obsolete. Idiot leftists duped by pie-in-the-sky fantasies like "it takes a village to raise a child" have been exploited by the globalists as a tool to push the end of national sovereignty. Merkel's Germany has been at the forefront of this movement in Europe and is now apparently being groomed as an antithesis to Trump.

    Germany has also for many years stood as a kind of socialist paradise, with over 25% of their GDP going into entitlement programs so pervasive it is possible for German citizens (women in particular) to live most of their lives without ever having to work. It was this constant flow of tax dollars into welfare programs that attracted a vast number of so-called "refugees" from Islamic countries into the EU, virtually overwhelming the entitlement system and forcing Germany to put restrictions on new citizens.

    China has served the NWO model as more of an oppressive economic testing ground. Welfare and universal health insurance is indeed at the forefront of the Chinese government's latest "five year" program. Of course, with hundreds of millions of Chinese living on less than one U.S. dollar per day, the population has no choice but to rely on the generosity of the state. This has molded an economy that is barely tolerable for many, but tolerable enough to keep them from revolting. It is a dynamic the elites would like to apply in every nation.

    The Chinese government oversees every aspect of the corporate networks that make up its economy. A Chinese business is in most cases a Chinese government business. There is no such thing as free enterprise in China. China's relationship with globalist institutions is well known. They are one of the first nations to openly call for a new global currency system headed by the IMF and based on the SDR basket. China has also recently been inducted into membership in the SDR basket by the IMF, showing that the back scratching is mutual.

    It is this strategy of elevating the SDR basket and replacing the dollar's world reserve status as a precursor to a global currency that has been brought up time and time again by globalists. Recently by Mohamad El-Rian, former CEO of PIMCO in an article titled "Could The IMF's World Currency Help Encourage Global Unity?" Take special note that El-Erian suggests the shift into a global currency system as a way to fight back against the recent "rise of populism."

    In order for such a plan to be launched, there has to be some stability somewhere on the world. While many nations face financial crisis on a scale not seen since the Great Depression, the globalists still need to have places to consolidate capital and establish a beachhead for the next assault on sovereignty. This beachhead may come in the form of an economic union between Germany and China, the two NWO favorites.

    China is Germany's largest trading partner and Germany has been the top place for Chinese investment in Europe. Last month Merkel and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with the intention of "deepening ties" in the face of "protectionism" promoted by Donald Trump. Merkel stated:

    "China has become a more important and strategic partner…"

     

    "We are living in times of global uncertainty and see our responsibility to expand our partnership in all the different areas and to push for a world order based on law…"

    Germany's ambassador to Beijing, in a recent briefing with reporters leading into G20 stated:

    "The economic and political dynamic from a German perspective is moving toward the east."

     

    "The U.S. has left somewhat of a vacuum in the region by abandoning the proposed 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement…"

    As I have argued since before the 2016 election, Donald Trump's job is to be the catalyst for multiple globalist programs which have actually been in the works for decades. Trump is now the excuse for everything. Trump and populism are the excuse for renewed "multilateralism," the excuse for German and Chinese cooperation, the excuse for a new global currency system and, most likely, the scapegoat for the inevitable final stage of our ongoing economic collapse.

    Where Trump is supposed to represent the old world order and its "barbarism," Germany and China obviously are being staged as the symbol of something new; a New World Order in which cooperation and interdependency are the great virtues of our epoch. It is my suspicion that along with Russia and China, Germany will be one of the first nations to fully dump the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency when the time comes to shift into the SDR basket system. And, that time is approaching quickly. It is also my suspicion that the globalists are seeking an economic power base from which to project their NWO, and Germany and China fit the bill nicely.

    I suggest alternative analysts watch the relationship between these two countries very closely. Their behaviors may signal many changes and dangers ahead.

  • WHo KiLLeD SeTH RiCH?
  • Got Milk? First 165 Cows Airlifted To Qatar

    It appears that the Gulf blockade against Qatar will remain in place for the foreseeable future after representatives from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE dismissed Qatar's response to their 13 demands as “not serious” and pledged to continue to keep the Gulf state under political and economic sanctions until it changes its policies.

    And after a local businessman said he would import 4,000 cows to the gulf desert late last month, the first cows are already starting to arrive. As CNN Money reports, Qatar has taken delivery of 165 cows that were airlifted into the Gulf state to ease a milk shortage caused by sanctions imposed by Qatar’s neighbors. They are the first shipment for local dairy company, Baladna, which is ramping up production just weeks after Qatar's four Arab state antagonists cut off diplomatic ties.

    Qatar has repeatedly denied allegations that it supports terrorism, and has said it would not comply with the gulf state’s other demands, including shuttering its media properties, including Al Jazeera. The first cows, purchased from a German supplier, arrived Tuesday on a Qatar Airways flight from Budapest, Hungary. Other cows are expected to be sourced from the Netherlands, the U.S. and Australia.

    Most of Qatar's fresh milk and dairy products, meant for Doha’s more than 1 million residents, came from Saudi Arabia up until the sanctions were declared. That supply was cut off after the kingdom and its allies cut transport links with "a country that spends $500 million a week to prepare stadiums and a metro before the soccer World Cup in 2022.

    In an act of generosity toward its distressed Gulf neighbor, Iran dispatched four cargo planes of food to Qatar and plans to provide 100 tons of fruit and vegetable every day. Qatar has also been holding talks with Iran and Turkey to secure food and water supplies after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut links, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism.

    Within days of the embargo, Turkish and Iranian products filled empty shelves in the supermarkets of Qatar and local factories ramped up production.

    According to Bloomberg's calculations, it will take as many as 60 flights for Qatar Airways to deliver the 590-kilogram beasts that Moutaz Al Khayyat, chairman of Power International Holding, bought in Australia and the U.S. “This is the time to work for Qatar,” he said. In addition to the abovementioned airlifted Turkish dairy goods and Iranian fruit and vegetables, there’s also a campaign to buy home-grown produce. Signs with colors of the Qatari flag have been placed next to dairy products in stores. One sign dangling from the ceiling said: “Together for the support of local products.”
     

  • Infowars, Breitbart, Drudge Could Soon Face An FEC 'Inquisition' Over Russian "Collusion"

    Authored by Alexander Paul via PlanetFreeWill.com,

    Conservative news outlets like Infowars, Breitbart and the Drudge Report could soon be facing an inquisition from the FEC for coordinating with the Russians to blitz the realm of social media with deceptive anti-Clinton stories that effectively could have influenced the 2016 presidential election.

    This could happen if top Federal Election Commission Democrat, Ellen Weintraub, is able to get her way during this Thursday’s FEC meeting.

    The Washington Examiner reports:

    The plan, set for discussion at Thursday’s FEC meeting, could open the door to political subpoenas targeting the websites, their editorial news decisions, and their owners, maybe even Matt Drudge and Alex Jones, according to an expert analysis.

     

    In her effort targeting foreign influence in federal and state elections, Commissioner Ellen Weintraub would probe spending by overseas sources and even partially-foreign-owned U.S. firms on campaigns, including their media buys. Foreign influence is illegal in elections.

     

    She said that tackling foreign influence in elections could be the FEC’s finest hour, adding, “I believe that this Commission can indeed rise to the challenge of understanding what happened in the 2016 election and plugging any legal or procedural holes that could allow foreign actors to interfere with our future elections.”

     

    Politico recently reported that “Weintraub’s interest was piqued by an article published last week by Time magazine that revealed intelligence officials had evidence that Russian agents bought Facebook ads to disseminate election-themed stories. It also indicated that congressional investigators were examining whether Russian efforts to spread such content were boosted by two U.S. companies with deep ties to Trump — Breitbart News and Cambridge Analytica.”

    The Time Magazine article which influenced Weintraub also pointed to Russian ties to conservative ownership and funding as a potential target of investigators. The report reads, citing McClatchy, “FBI counterintelligence investigators were probing whether far-right sites like Breitbart News and Infowars had coordinated with Russian botnets to blitz social media with anti-Clinton stories, mixing fact and fiction when Trump was doing poorly in the campaign.”

    The FEC will decide at this Thursday’s meeting whether or not to investigate websites like the Drudge Report, Infowars, Breitbart, and others on the right for violating election spending rules by allowing advertising on their Facebook pages by Russian entities.

    “It’s pretty easy to see how this quickly becomes an inquisition into conservative media outlets,” an elections laws expert and critic of the Weintraub bid told the Washington Examiner.

     

    “Commissioner Weintraub appears to be laying the groundwork to subpoena people at Breitbart, Drudge, and Infowars – maybe even Matt Drudge and Alex Jones themselves,” he added.

    Infowars founder Alex Jones responded on Tuesday to the news of Weintraub’s actions by saying that he is under a “criminal espionage investigation by the FBI,” and denied ever taken any money from Russia.

    “I have never gotten one scintilla of money from Russia. I’ve never got any directives from Russia,’ Jones said. “This is outrageous! I mean, they want us shut down.”

    On his Tuesday Broadcast, Jones was correct to point out that this Russian election tampering narrative that will not go away in Democratic circles has been, as CNN’s Van Jones put it so eloquently, a “nothing burger.”

    According to Jones, Infowars is almost exclusively funded by sales from their online store which sells books, water filters, and nutritional supplements. The rest of the funding is transparent, according to Jones, who said his organization receives funding from third party ad generators like Google and AdBlade.

    The Infowars founder said that he would be willing to testify publically before Congress.

    Ellen Weintraub has been a big opponent of the Citizens United decision expanding corporate political spending and foreign ownership in politically active U.S. firms and in the past has denied claims of targeting or regulating the media or internet sites. She was part of the FEC commission who targeted Fox News in 2015.

    In her proposal, she wrote, “the American public is justifiably alarmed by the reports of foreign attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.” She added, “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for our democracy.”

    “It is this Commission’s duty to do respond, and to respond forcefully. Whether a hostile foreign power provided anything of value in connection with a federal, state, or local election goes to the very heart of the Federal Election Commission’s mission and jurisdiction,” the proposal continued.

    The possible FEC Inquisition is coming at an interesting time, as it has been recently revealed that the U.S. actually has a big problem with foreign influence in its election; that is, in the form of noncitizen voters.

    The research organization Just Facts in New Jersey has taken a fresh look at post-election polling data and concluded that the number of noncitizens voting illegally in U.S. elections is likely far greater than previous estimates.

    The group found that many as 5.7 million noncitizens may have voted in the 2008 election, playing a large role in the election win of Barack Obama.

    The work of professors at Old Dominion University in Virginia also found that as many as 2.8 million noncitizens could have voted in 2008.

    For 2012, Just Facts said that 3.2 million to 5.6 million noncitizens were registered to vote and 1.2 million to 3.6 million of them voted.

    The suspicion over illegal votes being cast in U.S. elections sparked the Trump Administration to create a commission on election fraud to investigate voter fraud and voter suppression.

    Trump has alleged that some 3-5 million illegals voted in the 2016 election, robbing him of a better result in the popular vote.

    The commission had given states until July 14 to provide data including names, birth dates and partial Social Security numbers of voters but has since delayed the data turnover as the Administration awaits the ruling of a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.

    While the mainstream media railed against any claim that noncitizens voted in 2016, all it takes is a turn to the evidence in North Carolina where an independent and bipartisan agency that oversees elections in the state found hundreds of illegal votes, including votes cast by felons and non-citizens, double voting, voter impersonation, and irregularities that affected mail-in absentee ballots.

    With an estimated 11-12 million illegal aliens roaming the Unites States and the lax voting controls in many areas, it seems very foolish to deny that non-citizens voted in 2016. It is even more foolish to continue to case Russian influence in the election when it is clear that the vote count in the U.S. may have been bloated due to the lack of border security and voting legitimacy.

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