Tag: corruption

Alabama Judge Who Called Herself “Ultimate Authority” Suspended After Making Racist Remarks Against White Clerk

An Alabama judge was suspended after making a racist remark against a White clerk.

Probate Judge Yashiba Blanchard was hit with a 120-page complaint after she delayed cases to walk her dog and even attacked a White woman with racially charged comments.

Blanchard called herself the “ultimate authority” in conversations with her staff.

Judge Blanchard is accused of ethical and judicial misconduct by delaying cases so she could walk her dogs.

In one case, a patient was hospitalized for an additional two weeks because of Blanchard’s delays.

“This patient will now remain hospitalized for an additional two weeks solely due to the lack of timely access to the hearing process,” an email from hospital staff read, according to the complaint.

“This not only prevents her from being home with her family for Thanksgiving, but it also generates unnecessary hospitalization costs and creates avoidable emotional distress for the patient,” the email read.

Blanchard attacked a chief clerk named Amanda Reid.

“Oh, I forgot you all like kissing white ass,’” Blanchard said to her staffer about her fondness of Reid.

WBRC reported:

A judge in Jefferson County who reportedly told her staff she was the “ultimate authority” with “no boss” has been suspended following a 120-page complaint filed by the Judicial Inquiry Commission.

Probate Judge Yashiba Blanchard is out of the courtroom indefinitely and through this complaint, is formally accused of ethical and judicial misconduct.

Judge Elisabeth French, the presiding judge in Jefferson County, appointed retired Probate Judge Sherri Friday to serve temporarily in Blanchard’s place and appointed retired Judge Carole Smitherman to temporarily serve as Chief Election Official for Jefferson County.

The complaint lays out dozens of allegations against Blanchard that claim she ran the Probate Court in an incompetent and unprofessional manner, routinely targeting attorneys and staff, and manufacturing a backlog that created havoc in involuntary commitments.

The commission charges Blanchard with pattern and practice of failing to diligently discharge judicial duties, pattern and practice of failing to follow the law, pattern and practice of exhibiting bias against attorneys appearing in Blanchard’s court, failure to disqualify from a case in which Blanchard served as an attorney, harassment, intimidation, and retaliation against probate court staff, allowing other court officials subject to Blanchard’s direction and control to engage in harassment and intimidation of probate court staff, and failure to maintain professional competence in judicial administration.

Keep reading

Spencer Pratt Demands Investigation into Karen Bass for “Flagrant Violations” of Election Laws After Campaign Video Shows Illegal Electioneering

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass’s closest rival in the June 2nd open primary election, has filed a formal complaint with the Los Angeles City Clerk alleging that Bass violated election laws by campaigning near a ballot drop box.

In the complaint, Pratt’s attorney, Peter McNulty, blasted Bass for “flagrantly violat[ing] State of California and City of Los Angeles election laws by engaging in illegal electioneering.”

According to California state law, illegal electioneering is “the visible display or audible dissemination of information that advocates for or against any candidate or measure on the ballot within the 100 foot limit specified in subdivision.” This includes “obstructing access to, loitering near, or disseminating visible or audible electioneering information at vote by mail ballot drop boxes.” The city of Los Angeles has a similar law on the books.

This complaint comes after Bass made a campaign video, allegedly soliciting votes with supporters holding signs within 100 feet of a dropbox, which McNulty describes as “blatant electioneering directly near a polling place and drop box location.”

Supporters in the video are further seen disseminating audible electioneering information by chanting “Four more years” as Bass places her mail-in ballot in the drop box. Bass is also heard shouting at the voters as they cast their ballots, “One more vote to win!”

Keep reading

Consultants Push HPV Vaccines for Infants, as Merck Tests Gardasil in Kids as Young as 4

Consultants paid by Merck and the Gates Foundation are publicly advocating to administer HPV vaccines to children as young as 12-24 months — an age group in which the vaccine has never been tested and for which no safety data exist.

Mark Kane and Eduardo Franco laid out the campaign to extend HPV vaccination to toddlers in an opinion piece published in Clinical Infectious Diseases — an official journal of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

Merck, a “Silver” level industry partner, donates tens of thousands of dollars annually to the IDSA foundation.

The push to vaccinate younger children comes as Merck — maker of Gardasil, the only HPV vaccine marketed in the U.S. — partners with major universities to run clinical trials of its HPV vaccine in children ages 4-8 in the U.S. and Gambia.

Merck’s Gardasil vaccine is designed to protect against human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted disease. In the U.S., the drug is approved for children starting at age 9 — well before children are sexually active.

Conflicts of interest ‘so thick’ they obscure the science

In the conflict-of-interest statement at the end of the IDSA op-ed, Franco disclosed that he is a vaccine consultant who also holds a patent on a cervical cancer test.

Kane reported no conflicts of interest. However, that claim omits these significant financial and professional credentials:

“The conflicts are so thick it’s impossible to tell if this is a serious immunization policy suggestion, or a fact-pattern of Merck publishing Merck recommendations to use more Merck products,” said Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for Children’s Health Defense (CHD).

Keep reading

The Great “Red Hat” Psyop: How the Establishment Co-Opted MAGA

The official narrative spoon-fed to the masses is that the MAGA movement is a grassroots, anti-establishment rebellion aimed at dismantling the uniparty, ending forever wars, and draining the swamp. We are told day in and day out that the system is terrified of this populist uprising, but when we strip away the partisan cheerleading, we are witnessing one of the most successful psychological operations in modern political history. The establishment didn’t defeat the populist uprising; they bought it, rebranded it with a red hat, and used it to manufacture consent for the exact neoconservative, state-expanding policies the movement initially swore to destroy.

If a Democrat had expanded the surveillance state, spiked the national debt, unilaterally banned firearms accessories, and filled their cabinet with Wall Street mega-donors and war hawks, the right would have revolted in the streets. Because there is an “R” next to the name, however, they cheer and beg for more. The state is not shrinking in the slightest. It is merely under new management, and the boot on your neck has simply been painted a different color.

If you want to understand how a purportedly anti-war movement was so easily hijacked by the establishment, look no further than the grifter class of MAGA influencers who actively manufactured consent for the pivot. Social media personalities like Catturd and Gunther Eagleman—alongside prominent digital operatives like Benny Johnson and Jack Posobiec—spent the entirety of the campaign posturing as staunch non-interventionists. They loudly decried the military-industrial complex and the endless funding of foreign proxy wars. Yet, the moment the administration changed hands and the military crosshairs shifted toward sovereign nations like Iran, these same influencers entirely abandoned their supposed principles. They are now openly salivating over the prospect of flattening a sovereign nation, cheering on the exact same neoconservative warmongering they built their alternative-media brands opposing. It raises a glaring, uncomfortable question: are these digital operatives simply spineless sycophants, or are they quietly being paid to parrot the uniparty’s new, blood-soaked marching orders?

The sheer hypocrisy of this digital vanguard is especially sickening when contrasted with those who actually held the line. Before his brutal assassination, Charlie Kirk was one of the most outspoken voices against the neoconservative push for a war with Iran. Regardless of where one stood on his broader politics, Kirk used his massive platform to fiercely oppose the very foreign entanglements the current administration is now aggressively pursuing. Had he not been killed, there is little doubt he would be standing firmly against this blatant betrayal of the anti-war platform today. Instead, the influencers who rushed to fill the void have chosen the path of least resistance. They now operate as state-sanctioned PR firms for an aggressive military agenda simply because the bombs are authorized by a president wearing a red tie. By transforming genuine anti-interventionist sentiment into rabid partisan cheerleading, these grifters provided the ideological cover necessary for the state to march the country right back into the endless wars the base initially voted to escape.

Consider the campaign promise to end the forever wars, pull out of foreign entanglements, and put “America First.” The empirical reality of the administration’s foreign policy is a direct continuation of the military-industrial complex’s most aggressive ambitions. The administration has stacked its ranks with hawkish neoconservatives and previous “never-Trumpers,” such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and even Lindsey Graham, all of whom prioritize regime change and unyielding military support for Israel over domestic liberty.

Dropping bombs and violently coercing the US taxpayer to fund a global military empire in the name of a foreign country is a blatant violation of human freedom and constitutional limits. The state continues to extort the working class to fund foreign militaries and interventions, regardless of the populist rhetoric spilling from Trump’s podium. This is not America First; it is the empire first, Israel first, Lockheed Martin first, and it is funded by the silent theft of the American citizen.

Keep reading

SOCIALISTS GOING DOWN: Spanish Anti-Corruption Police Raid the Headquarters of PM Sánchez’s PSOE Party in Probe of Illegal Funding

The Spanish Socialists are crumbling under multiple corruption investigations.

Today (24), Spanish anti-corruption police have raided the headquarters of PM Pedro Sánchez’s socialist PSOE party.

This is yet another damaging development in a season of scandals that have sparked talks about the government having to resign and hold snap elections later this year.

Visegrad24 on Telegram:

“The agents were sent to secure evidence for an ongoing probe into the alleged illegal financing of the country’s ruling party.

The raid comes just days after the socialist former PM José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was indicted on corruption charges linked to the Venezuelan regime.

Today’s raid is linked to an unrelated investigation overseen by Spain’s Anti-Corruption Prosecutor.

Many in the closest circle around PM Sanchez, including his wife and brother, are already under criminal investigation for corruption.”

Keep reading

Food Stamp Fraud Pipeline Exposed: U.S. Taxpayer-Funded Groceries Shipped Overseas And Sold For Profit

Food stamps and food pantries are intended to keep struggling Americans fed.

What we found is that, in some communities, that food never reaches an American table. Instead, it gets shipped overseas and sold for profit.

The scheme works like this. Residents in cities like Lawrence, Massachusetts collect food through two channels: purchasing it at local markets using EBT cards, and picking it up for free from food banks and churches. That food is then packed into large blue barrels, dropped off at shipping companies, and sent by container ship to the Dominican Republic. Once it arrives, it is sold for profit in local stores. The people doing this see nothing wrong with it. In many cases, they do it openly.

According to a local that assisted us with this story, this fraud has been happening for over a decade.

Over the course of several weeks, Muckraker Foundation traced the full pipeline from food pantry lines in Lawrence, Massachusetts, through shipping warehouses in New York, to store shelves in Santo Domingo. This is what we found.

Lawrence, Massachusetts

Lawrence is a small city about 30 miles north of Boston. It has the highest concentration of Dominican immigrants of any city in Massachusetts, and the highest rate of SNAP enrollment in the state.

John has been delivering goods in Lawrence for over 11 years, six days a week, 35 stops a day. He knows the community intimately.

“I’ve been witnessing the Dominican residents going to food bank lines and collecting non-perishable goods,” he told us, “and then packing it in barrels and in boxes, and then they ship it back to the Dominican Republic.”

Keep reading

“She’s Lying” – Former Biden Official Reacts to Jill Biden’s Claims She “Never” Saw Joe Biden Stroke Out Before Or After the 2024 Debate

A former Biden official reacted to Jill Biden’s interview with CBS Mornings in which she claimed she thought Joe Biden had a stroke during the 2024 debate.

Dr. Jill told CBS Mornings host Rita Braver that she thought Joe Biden was having a stroke during the 2024 presidential debate.

Jill Biden insisted she never saw Joe Biden stroke out like this before or after the June 2024 debate.

“I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never since,” Jill Biden told CBS News Sunday Morning’s Rita Braver.

“I don’t know what happened. As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death,” Jill Biden added.

A day after the debate, Jill Biden got on stage and praised Joe for answering all the questions perfectly.

Keep reading

Former Senior CIA Officer With Top-Secret Clearance ARRESTED After FBI Raid Home And Seize 300 Gold Bars Worth $40 Million — Plus $2 Million Cash And 35 Luxury Watches

A former senior CIA officer with top-secret security clearance has been arrested after federal agents raided his Virginia home and seized roughly 300 gold bars worth more than $40 million, along with approximately $2 million in cash and 35 luxury watches, mostly Rolexes.

The officer, identified as David Rush, who held a management position at the agency, now faces charges of criminal theft of public money.

According to NBC News, Rush allegedly used his position to request large amounts of gold and foreign currency, claiming they were for “work-related expenses,” only to allegedly divert and stash them at his Fairfax County residence.

On May 18, federal agents searched the home and walked out with the massive gold hoard. Investigators had earlier found only a portion of the funds in a storage space near his office.

Rush had requested the assets between November and March, according to an FBI affidavit.

The CIA’s own internal audit couldn’t account for the gold or significant foreign currency, prompting CIA Director John Ratcliffe to refer the matter to the FBI for criminal investigation.

More from NBC News:

Asked about Rush’s case, a CIA spokesperson said in a statement joint statement with the FBI that the FBI had arrested a person after a referral from the agency.

After a CIA internal investigation identified potential violations of the law, CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred the information to the FBI for a law enforcement investigation,” the written statement said. “The FBI is working closely with our partners at the CIA and the Department of Justice as we continue to investigate this matter fully. We are committed to following the facts, ensuring accountability, and pursuing justice in accordance with the law.”

The case raises questions about the effectiveness of the federal government’s security vetting, which is supposed to ensure intelligence officers or other government employees don’t betray the public trust or spy for foreign countries.

The U.S. government conducts background investigations on every prospective employee at the CIA and other agencies granted access to sensitive and secret information. And after employees are hired, the government continues to monitor their financial activities, travel, credit records and other information through automated checks to ensure they aren’t vulnerable to blackmail.

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, which falls under the authority of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, oversees the background check program, known as “continuous vetting.” When the program flags a potential problem or anomaly in an employee’s records, officials investigate further.

It wasn’t clear how the investigation into Rush began, and it also wasn’t clear when he left the CIA. His home was raided just last week.

Rush is also accused of a long-running fraud scheme in which he allegedly falsified time sheets, inflated his hours, and lied about his background for nearly two decades to secure and maintain his high-level position and extra pay.

Keep reading

Newsom signs bill restricting law enforcement access to California ballots

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Wednesday aimed at tightening California’s election security rules ahead of the June 2 statewide primary.

Senate Bill 73 takes effect immediately. It limits when law enforcement can access ballots, voter lists, rosters or certified voting technology.

The bill comes after Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seized more than 650,000 ballots from last fall’s Proposition 50 Special Election. The investigation was later halted amid legal challenges from California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

“We have to clarify the rules of engagement. That’s why this legislation is important. There are fines associated with it, criminal fines, and jail time, three years,” Newsom said at Wednesday’s signing ceremony.

The bill prohibits peace officers from interfering with election administration, except in urgent public health or safety situations. It also requires a court order before law enforcement can take possession of key election materials. Removing packages containing voted ballots from the custody of elections officials would also be a crime. The law allows civil penalties of up to $50,000 for ballot custody violations.

The measure also directs the attorney general to issue guidance to local election workers on how to respond to law enforcement requests.

“SB73 puts in protections to ensure that ballots will be secured and that voters have confidence in our election system that their voices will be heard at the ballot box,” said California State Senator Sabrina Cervantes, one of the primary authors of the law.

Bianco, who is running as a Republican candidate for California governor, said he seized the ballots as part of an investigation into claims of voting discrepancies. Election officials disputed those claims.

Bianco later called the effort to halt his investigation “politically motivated.”

The bill signing came on the same day Assembly Democrats brought 23 separate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-related bills to a floor vote.

That legislation includes restricting federal law enforcement presence near polling places, stopping ICE officers from becoming California peace officers, requiring hotels to notify workers and guests when ICE has a reservation on site and withholding state tax breaks from companies that contract with the Department of Homeland Security.

“Don’t do that, man,” Republican Assemblymember James Gallagher said. “There’s several people on that side of the aisle I’m looking at. You know that’s wrong.”

Keep reading

Five Shameless Moments of Iran War Opportunism & Grifting

As the U.S. blockade on the Strait of Hormuz threatens an already tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, many at home are looking to profit. Below are five examples of wartime grifters, profiteers, and opportunists absolutely outdoing themselves.

Lockheed Martin CEO: wartime Trump Pentagon a “golden opportunity”

Late last month, Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet lavished praise on the Trump administration for rolling out the red carpet to the defense industry.

“This is a golden opportunity right now based on who’s in government,” Taiclet told investors during an earnings call. He cited in particular officials’ “willingness to change” and “the demand that they have for what we do and what our partners in our industry do.”

That “demand” of course is war, and the administration has pretty much been in it since Trump’s 2025 inauguration, from supporting Israel in its Gaza and Lebanon operations, firefights with the Houthis, and now Iran. Lockheed has signed billions in contracts with the Pentagon since the beginning of the year, mostly to replenish missiles. Lockheed Martin also has an agreement with the Pentagon to quadruple its production of THAAD interceptors by 2027.

And the U.S. has used many of them both. As the Center for Strategic and International Studies found late last month, the U.S. has burned up over 45% of its Precision Strike Missiles (PrSMs) and roughly half of its THAAD and Patriot missile defense interceptors.

To refill these stocks, the U.S. is mulling a possible Iran war supplemental package — slated to cost an estimated $80 to $100 billion — to replace lost munitions and other military equipment. According to Mike Fredenburg in his reporting for RS in 2024, the U.S. pays way too much for each missile, a lot more than it should for say, a SM-2 missile ($1.2 million-$2 million a piece) or SM-6 (upwards of $5 million each), but since there are only a handful of prime contractors in the business, they can charge whatever they want.

As Stephen Semler, journalist and co-founder of the Security Policy Reform Institute, tells RS, “The interceptor shortage will be addressed in the military-industrial-congressional complex’s favorite way: throw money at the problem.”

Trump’s sons roll in the drone industry dough

Powerus, a drone firm funded by President Trump’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., received an Air Force contract for an unspecified number of interceptor drones last week. Bloomberg reported last month that Powerus is also in talks with the United Arab Emirates about a potential sale of drones that can counter Iranian attacks.

In recent months, the Trump brothers have gone all out on defense tech, lining themselves up to profit from the wars their father is waging. Besides Powerus, Eric Trump has invested in Israeli attack drone firm and DoD contractor Xtend, whose drones have seen use in Iran, through a multimillion dollar contract with an unnamed Middle Eastern government. Donald Trump Jr., for his part, backs drone parts startup Unusual Machines and is also a partner at defense- and tech-oriented venture capital (VC) firm 1789 Capital.

Keith Kellogg, Trump’s former special envoy to Ukraine, also joined Powerus as an advisor last month, mere months after leaving his diplomatic post — likewise positioning himself to cash in on his time in government.

Defense-contractor funded think tanker: Iran war is a bargain!

Last week, the Pentagon estimated that the Iran war has cost about $25 billion. Matthew Kroenig, a senior director at the defense contractor-funded Atlantic Council, called the low-ball price tag a “very good value.”

“The entire U.S. defense budget is roughly $1 trillion and designed to deal with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran,” Kroenig wrote on X. “It only cost 2.5% of the annual defense budget to seriously degrade one of the four.”

But others have to pay for Kroenig’s bargain.

“I’m sure the farmers, trucking companies, and other small businesses that are going belly up because of soaring gas prices won’t be surprised to hear that a war industry funded think tank believes the Iran war is a ‘very good value,’” Ben Freeman, director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute, told RS.

The total cost of the Iran war has been a point of contention. Critics challenged the Pentagon’s $25 billion estimate; U.S. officials have since told CBS the conflict has cost around $50 billion. Last month, Harvard economist Linda Bilmes predicted taxpayers will pay at least $1 trillion for it in the long term. And none of these estimates include the broader impact of the war on the global economy.

According to the Quincy Institute’s Think Tank Funding Tracker, the Atlantic Council has received nearly $13 million from Pentagon contractors since 2019.

Keep reading