Tag: billionaires

ANOTHER Russian billionaire dies in mysterious circumstances: Officials say energy firm exec died ‘after going to shamans for hangover cure made from toad venom’

Another Russian tycoon has been found dead under mysterious circumstances.

Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, a former top executive with Kremlin-friendly energy giant Lukoil, is the latest in a number of high profile, suspicious deaths since Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to invade Ukraine.

The mogul had sought the advice of shamans to cure a hangover, according to the official version of events, but his death comes as the deaths of other prominent tycoons are under the spotlight which critics of Putin’s regime say could be murders.

The oligarch, who owned a lucrative shipping company, was reportedly treated with toad venom – put into an incision that had been made in his skin. Soon afterwards, Subbotin had a heart attack and was given a tranquilliser from the herb valerian.

The next morning he was found dead by male and female shamans Magua Flores (real name Alexey Pindyurin) and Tina Cordoba (Kristina Teikhrib), according to local reports citing the version of events shared by Russian law enforcement.

The pair reportedly treat clients by summoning the spirits, sacrificing animals and bathing them in cockerel blood.

Separately, the two controversial shamans – or traditional healers and diviners of spirits – are embroiled in accusations that they abused a makeup artist and blogger during a trip to Mexico last year.

They told state investigators that Subbotin was a friend and denied that they subjected him to shamanic rituals for payment.

Subbotin, reported by REN TV to be a billionaire, was a board member of Lukoil Trading House LLC, then became the owner of the New Transport Company (NTK) on the shores of the Gulf of Finland.

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Bill Gates wants to create a 3,000 person social media unit to quash “vaccine misinformation”

Billionaire Bill Gates has announced that he plans to create a new unit, hiring 3,000 people to take to social media, put out messaging, and “help propagate accurate vaccine information in the future,” CNBC reported. 

Gates wants social media to be a place with “good messages” from “people of trust in the community, such as political and ethnic leaders.”

Gates made the statements when being asked about Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and the future of free speech on the platform.

During the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Summit, the Microsoft founder said Elon Musk could make Twitter worse. While the Tesla CEO is a free speech absolutist, Gates has called for more censorship.

Gates acknowledged that Musk has done a great job with his other companies, SpaceX and Tesla. But he is not confident Musk will do the same with Twitter.

“I kind of doubt that will happen this time, but we should have an open mind and never underestimate Elon,” he said.

One of the reasons Gates feels Musk could make Twitter worse is the SpaceX CEO’s stand on free speech.

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Bill Gates says “real invention” is needed to stop online election and medical “misinformation”

In an appearance on NBC’s Today show, Bill Gates was asked about online “misinformation” and what he thought about Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in relation to that.

The discussion about misinformation started with host Savannah Guthrie saying: “When you look at how the US and the world responded to COVID-19, whether it’s masks or vaccines or shutdowns, closures, it’s become so political…It’s been so politicized.”

Gates responded: “Yeah, it’s unfortunate that we didn’t get trusted voices in both parties talking about the benefit of masks and vaccines so that it wasn’t a political issue.”

Guthrie then asked about misinformation, noting that it has “been a hallmark” of the pandemic.

“President Biden rather famously said last July that misinformation on social media is killing people. Do you agree?” she asked.
Gates said: “Absolutely…It’s terrible.”

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Panicked CNN Guest Wonders “How We’re Going To Control The Channels Of Communications In This Country”

A CNN talking head declared Sunday that if Elon Musk is allowed to buy Twitter, the platform will have to be government regulated to prevent ‘discourse’ being open and free, and not subject to establishment controlled censorship.

While discussing the Musk take-over on CNN’s potato time with Brain Stelter, “media analyst” David Zurawik proclaimed that Musk is “dangerous” and shouldn’t be allowed to restore free speech on the platform.

Zurawik suggested that the U.S. look to Europe, which has recently brought in new laws to limit social media, and even threatened to ban Twitter if Musk doesn’t play ball.

“There’s a bigger problem here about how we’re going to control the channels of communications in this country,” Zurawik frothed, panicking at the notion of the likes of CNN not being able to dictate what Americans think.

“This is dangerous! We can’t think anymore in this country!” Zurawik whined, adding “I’m serious! We don’t have people in Congress who can make regulations, that can make it work.”

“I think we can look to the Western countries in Europe for how they are trying to limit it. But you need controls on this,” the talking slap head continued.

“You need regulation. You cannot let these guys control discourse in this country or we are headed to hell,” Zurawik further suggested.

“We are there,” he added, further claiming that “Trump opened the gates of hell and now they’re chasing us down.”

“We gave over what amounts to our airwaves or our internet waves to Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, and we are in so much trouble because those guys believe in making money,” he said.

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Time writer knocks free speech as an ‘obsession of the mostly white, male members of the tech elite’ like Musk

In a Friday piece for Time magazine, the outlet’s national correspondent Charlotte Alter dismissed Elon Musk’s quest for free speech on Twitter as a white male “obsession,” and merely an entrepreneurial way to acquire influence and power in the world.

She also claimed that Musk’s idea of free speech is about the right to spread “disinformation” and has nothing to do with the Founding Fathers’ original intent.

Alter began her piece by insinuating that Musk should have put his $44 billion into something more worthwhile than what he sees as “free speech,” a phrase she put in scare quotes throughout the piece.

She wrote, “They say that something is worth what someone will pay for it. If that’s true, then protecting ‘free speech,’ which Elon Musk has cited as a central reason he agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion this week, may be worth twice as much as solving America’s homelessness problem, and seven times as much as solving world hunger.”

She added, “It’s worth more (to him, at least) than educating every child in nearly 50 countries, more than the GDP of Serbia, Jordan, or Paraguay.”

The author then proceeded to wonder why a rich techie like Musk would even care about freedom of speech and how it “had become paramount concern of the techno-moral universe.”

She asked, “Why does Musk care so much about this? Why would a guy who has pushed the boundaries of electric-vehicle manufacturing and plumbed the limits of commercial space flight care about who can say what on Twitter?”

She then cited professor of communication at Stanford University Fred Turner for the answer, who agreed, “It does seem to be a dominant obsession with the most elite.” He stated, “[F]ree speech seems to be much more of an obsession among men,” and part of “the entrepreneurial push: I did it in business, I did it in space, and now I’m going to do it in the world.“

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Twitter Lawyer Who Cried in Musk Meeting Was Instrumental in Banning Trump

The Twitter lawyer who broke down crying during a meeting about the ramifications of Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media company was previously instrumental in banning President Trump as well as censoring information about the COVID lab leak theory.

Yesterday, it was revealed that Twitter’s top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, was reduced to tears during a virtual meeting with the company’s policy and legal teams following Musk’s successful purchase of the platform.

According to Politico, “Gadde cried during the meeting as she expressed concerns about how the company could change,” and “acknowledged that there are significant uncertainties about what the company will look like under Musk’s leadership.”

Gadde was presumably upset by the fact that her power to censor individuals and content may now be restricted under Musk’s leadership.

As head of Trust and Safety, Gadde was hugely influential in defining the company’s view of “hate speech” and was also instrumental in crafting the “healthy conversations” narrative that Twitter has used an excuse to censor blatantly factual information, such as the assertion that ‘trans women’ are not biological men.

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Democrat tax scofflaw tells billionaires: ‘Pay your taxes’

A Wisconsin Democrat who ostentatiously told billionaires this week to “Pay your taxes” turns out to be a tax scofflaw, according to a report from the Washington Free Beacon.

The report identified the Democratic Senate candidate who lectured the ultrawealthy on social media this week and who has “a history of tax delinquency” as Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.

He reportedly is a frontrunner in the primary for the Democratic Senate nomination, the report said.

But he “failed to pay his property taxes or file tax returns while running for office in 2018,” the report said. And then he “defended himself at the time by claiming that ‘most people’ don’t fully pay their taxes.”

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