Tag: corruption

Supreme Court Justice Who Extended Polling in Brazil Election Was Lula’s Personal Lawyer

Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Justice Cristiano Zanin, the judge who issued the sudden ruling on Sunday extending the voting times during the presidential runoff election, was socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s personal lawyer during his corruption trial – in which Lula was found guilty.

President Lula was reelected for a fourth four-year term on Sunday, narrowly defeating conservative Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Lula’s surprise victory marked the first time in roughly four decades that a Brazilian candidate who lost in the first round of the election managed to ultimately win in the runoff. Lula lost against Bolsonaro in the October 4 first round of the election — however, the conservative Senator was not able to cross the 50-percent vote threshold to win in the first round.

Sunday’s election was largely marked by an unprecedented ruling issued by Justice Zanin extending the voting time by an additional two hours, leading to some voting stations closing at 7:00 p.m. (local time) rather than at 5:00 p.m. as the nation’s electoral regulations state.

Brazil’s top election authority, the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), took note of the ruling and extended the voting hours for an additional two hours, while accordingly delaying the vote tallying process until after 7:00 p.m. Local outlets, however, pointed out that Zanin reportedly ruled that only polling stations that had not already closed by the time of the ruling were to remain open for the extra two hours.

The order stems from a request issued by the Lula campaign, who requested the extension on grounds that an alleged bus shortage led to transportation issues that prevented voters from reaching their corresponding voting station. The affected areas, according to the request, were all in northeastern Brazil — an area widely considered to be a strong bastion of support for Lula and his far-left Workers’ Party (PT). The Brazilian outlet Poder 360 published a copy of Zanin’s ruling, which states that the STF became aware of the request at “4:32:49 p.m.” just minutes before the stablished 5:00 p.m. voting station closing time.

As Breitbart News noted on Sunday, critics of Zanin’s unprecedented ruling altering the closing hours of polling places allege that the Justice’s court order has “marred” the runoff election. The controversy and criticism over the ruling have been further fueled by the fact that Zanin was President Lula’s defense attorney during the trial of the socialist president that was part of the massive Operação Lava Jato (“Operation Car Wash”) corruption investigation.

As part of the broader Operation Car Wash investigation, Lula was ultimately charged, convicted, and sentenced in 2019 to roughly 20 years in prison on charges of misusing public funds during his first two presidential terms (2003-2010). However, in a highly controversial decision, the STF overturned his conviction on procedural grounds, allowing Lula to be released from prison. The Supreme Court’s ruling, however, did not present any new information or evidence that could exonerate Lula of the crimes he was convicted for.

The ruling nevertheless allowed Lula to run for president again in 2022, narrowly defeating then-incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence on dubious “crimes against democracy” charges.

President Lula began his third term on January 1, 2023. Months later, in June 2023, Lula nominated Zanin to the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), presenting him as a replacement for former Justice Ricardo Lewandowski, who retired from the court earlier that year. Zanin was sworn in as an STF Justice just two months later, in August 2023.

Former Justice Lewandowski would go on to serve as Lula’s Justice Minister between February 2024 and January 2026 — himself replacing communist (Lula’s own descriptor) former Justice Minister Flávio Dino, who was also appointed to the STF by Lula in February 2024. Both Zanin and Dino were among the STF Justices who voted alongside “anti-fake news crusader” Justice Alexandre de Moraes to convict Jair Bolsonaro of “crimes against democracy” in 2025.

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Something’s Rotten in Brasília: Did Lula Just Use Biden’s Playbook?

After elections held earlier this month, Brazil looked like it could swing to the right and away from a fourth term for its little communist dictator, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Lula’s opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, achieved far more of the vote than expected. However, neither candidate received enough to avoid a runoff.

But it wasn’t just that. What happened down the ballot looked like a good indicator of what was to come. A win for Flávio, a win for the right, and a win for Brazil and the entire Western Hemisphere. I’ll admit that I’ve been analyzing this for a year and felt very confident about it (and I’ve yet to be wrong about these things; not to toot my own horn), but I also knew it was possible that Lula would cheat. Commies gonna commie, right?  

For many of us here in the United States, it reeked of 2020. An incumbent who trailed in the first round staged a late surge to claim victory after a last-minute judicial intervention extended voting hours, transport disruptions appeared in areas favorable to the eventual winner, and the losing candidate immediately refused to concede while alleging the rules had been changed midstream. Several Spanish-speaking media outlets have quoted Donald Trump as saying it was like something out of the “Joe Biden playbook,” but I haven’t been able to confirm that quote myself, though he wouldn’t be wrong. It’s also giving me 2024 Nicolás Maduro vibes.

Many are calling the win “historic” because it’s been nearly four decades since an incumbent who trailed in the first round made such a comeback. But is it historic? Or did someone have this planned all along?

On October 4, Lula finished second with roughly 45.16% to Bolsonaro’s 47.03%. Three weeks later, the certified totals showed Lula at 51.79%, with about 64.3 million votes, and Bolsonaro at 48.21%.

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‘Tip of the Iceberg’: Feds Allege 405 Migrants Voted 1,500 Times

Federal prosecutors said Monday that investigators have identified 405 people they believe are not U.S. citizens who voted in Washington state elections, casting more than 1,500 ballots over multiple elections.

Neil Floyd, the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, said federal officials sent the names to state election officials and asked them to set aside any ballots from those voters until their eligibility can be checked.

Floyd said investigators were confident in their findings but believe the number of noncitizens who have voted in Washington could be much higher:

Through our investigation, we have confirmed with high confidence that non-citizens are voting in the state of Washington in federal and state elections. Thus far, we have identified over 400 non-citizens who have voted in Washington, and many of them have voted multiple times. That means we have identified over 1,500 ballots illegally cast. This is not the full number of non-citizens who have been voting in Washington. This is only the tip of the iceberg. With a small sample that we have collected so far, I’m confident that we are looking at thousands of non-citizens who have been voting in Washington.

Floyd did not provide a statewide count to support his estimate that thousands of noncitizens had voted. The 1,500 ballots he cited were allegedly cast over several decades, according to a report on the investigation.

The request comes ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

Floyd said Department of Homeland Security investigators compared publicly available Washington voter lists with federal records to identify registered voters they believe were not citizens. They then checked whether those individuals had cast ballots.

He said investigators had to conduct several checks to make sure the records referred to the same person, making the work time-consuming.

Washington has declined to provide the federal government with its full voter registration database, including personal identifying information. Floyd said:

Washington has refused to share the complete list of registered voters with identifying information. We are having to do this essentially one person at a time. If we had access to the full database maintained by Washington, this could be done much more efficiently. We could simply compare Washington’s information to ours and it would yield immediate results.

Floyd said his office would pursue criminal cases against people who vote illegally and those who knowingly help them do so.

Last week, Breitbart News reported that Los Angeles County officials told a court they could not independently verify voters’ citizenship beyond what voters stated on their registration forms.

The Justice Department sued California to stop the state from counting mailed ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters whom federal officials identified as likely noncitizens until their citizenship could be verified. California officials challenged the evidence behind the list.

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The Grotesque Tangle Of Sedition

“We are also starting to consult federal workers on how to do some blocking inside the govt agencies during emergency situations — but please do not put that on the form.” —Eric Manton, of the DRG

They put it on the form, though, cuz somebody screwed up. Oopsie. . . .

Get this: the reason that a color revolution is underway at all in America is not really political anymore — if it ever even was. It’s because a whole lot of people have committed crimes against this country. And with each wave of attempted sedition, they have compounded their crimes with more seditious acts, arrant hoaxes, lawfare, election fraud, censorship, and wholesale looting of taxpayer dollars to keep themselves out of prison.

That’s what USAID was all about, and why it was taken down early in Trump 2.0. It was a nexus of racketeering and the home-base of the Deep State’s foot soldiers, bureaucrats who actually managed the money streams to NGOs that ran everything from election rigging operations to vast social services fraud in blue states, in concert with a Democratic Party that had nothing but rackets to keep it going.

That’s how the USAID’s defunct Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) has morphed into the new Democracy Renewal Group (DRG). This new DRG operates under another project called Branch-4 — as in a fourth branch of government, the permanent bureaucracy — and Branch-4 operates under an NGO called the Action Center on Race and the Economy Institute (ACRE Institute), a 501(c)(3) public charity based in Chicago (EIN 82-1199695). Note, the ACRE Institute’s primary funders include the Ford Foundations and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. You see how byzantine this is, echoing exactly the hyper-complex administrative workings of government bureaucracy itself?

And so, that’s why, for instance, one Eric Manton, a former USAID employee now working with DRG said, “. . . we are also starting to consult federal workers on how to do some blocking inside the govt agencies during emergency situations.” Blocking? What they mean by that is federal employees lodged in the official agencies should “help run out the clock. . . develop selective hearing. . . forgetfulness. . . or blame your workload” for whatever it takes to block enforcement of any executive action proposed by the Trump administration.

Those tactics are explicitly proposed by another org, the Federal Workers Alliance for Democracy (FWAD formerly known as Federal Workers Against DOGE), which is affiliated with DRG primarily as a partner in the Renew American Democracy (RAD) strategy and through the broader Branch-4 ecosystem. Confused yet? You should be. The flak-storm of acronyms is beloved by Lefty-leftists for exactly that purpose.

RAD is run by Daniella Reiff, a 20-year veteran of USAID color revolution programs in Europe and Africa. Her co-coordinator at RAD is one Paul Zeitz, an osteopath and rabbi who worked previously for USAID in Africa and for the State Department as Director of the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development, whatever that was. FWAD is led by one Beverly Schreiber

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While Ireland Deteriorates with Unchecked Migration, Government Lectures Grandparents on Hugging Their Grandchildren ‘Without Consent’

Like many countries in Europe, the very essence of Irish culture is being destroyed from within as Ireland grapples with the violent consequences of a torrent of migrants flowing into the country without any apparent limit and the financial and social implications that follow.

Reports suggest there are at least 322 migrant plantations spread across the country, some in rural parts of the island nation, which are changing the very fabric of the nation.

In 2025, MMA Champion Conor McGregor visited the White House for St. Patrick’s Day and delivered a devastating message about what is happening in his homeland thanks to Ireland’s globalist leaders.

A Sudanese migrant was charged over a medieval, barbaric knife attack in north Belfast that left a man with horrific injuries.

The Gateway Pundit reported on the stabbing of five people, including children, in 2023 in Dublin by an Algerian migrant.

Protests have erupted across the country, including in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, over plans to bring 50 male migrants to the small town.

The International Protection Accommodation Service reported roughly 33,250 people in its accommodation system at the end of 2025, a 450 percent increase since 2021.

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The Fallout From Corruption: How Did a Florida Mayor Defraud Thousands With a COVID-19 Program?

There’s nothing that bothers me more than when a person is elected to a position of power, but then chooses to abuse that power instead of actually doing something good with it. And that’s the case with Kissimmee, Fla., Mayor Jackie Espinosa, who has reportedly defrauded a large number of people with, of all things, a COVID-19 scheme.

According to this report from ABC News, Espinosa was arrested earlier this week on charges of theft and fraud, with her and family members running some kind of COVID-19 business relief program – under her own administration.

Charges include grand theft, a second-degree felony, as well as an organized scheme to defraud, which is a first-degree felony.

This comes from a case where she reportedly utilized $50,000 in funds through the city’s Business Boost 2.0 program for her own personal use.

“This is the local government equivalent of insider congressional stock trading,” noted Blaise Ingoglia, who serves as Florida’s chief financial officer.

Espinosa has been charged, posting a $70,000 bond and pleading not guilty to the charges.

But the details get more disturbing. According to the report, the money, provided through grant funds in the program, went towards businesses including a dance studio, a diner, and a real estate company, all owned by Espinosa’s family.

“The evidence makes it very clear that there was intent to engage in this conflict of interest that ultimately abused her office to enrich herself,” said Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in a statement. “Mayor Espinosa demonstrated an intent to create, streamline and simplify, reduce oversight of, and more easily enable a process where by herself and immediate family could apply for and receive city funds to which she was not entitled.”

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When Vaccine Injury Research Becomes Political, Patients Disappear

For years, people experiencing serious health problems due to Covid vaccination have asked for something fundamental: rigorous scientific investigation into what happened to them, why it happened, and what might help.

Many have spent years seeking answers through a fragmented healthcare system, encountering clinicians unfamiliar with their symptoms, struggling to access appropriate evaluation, and trying to find researchers willing to investigate their conditions.

Now, the National Institutes of Health has announced a dedicated research effort intended to investigate health problems following vaccination and infection. The October 5 opening of the new Vaccinology and Immunology Center represents a meaningful development in a process that patients have long urged federal institutions to undertake.

Yet once again, much of the public conversation risks becoming about politics rather than the people who need this research.

On October 19, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and NIAID Acting Director John H. Powers III publicly outlined the center’s objectives. These include examining symptoms and potential biological mechanisms, identifying risk factors, exploring treatment options, and using research findings to inform vaccine safety. NIH anticipates enrolling several hundred participants initially and expects to launch the study before the end of 2026, once the protocol is finalized, IRB approved, etc.

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Translation Reveals Ilhan Omar’s Disturbing Message to Americans: ‘You Will Suffer and Cry in Seething… We Are the Ones Who Rule This Land’

On the surface, a recent video clip of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota appears to be a peek into her peaceful, idyllic existence.

But the soundtrack to the contrived nonchalance of the stroll she and her husband take around a deck in Minnesota is much darker.

Omar is currently the target of a federal investigation into potential immigration fraud, as noted by The Washington Free Beacon, which decided to translate the lyrics of the rap song playing while Omar and husband Tim Mynett gazed into each other’s eyes.

“The almighty has given me strength,” the song says in Somali, according to the English translation the outlet made of the song.

“If I confront you in the afternoon, by evening, I will teach you a lesson and keep you awake throughout the night. Yes, you will suffer and cry in seething. You will scream like a demon,” the song says.

The lyrics carry a message to Americans who have watched the spectacle of a member of Congress facing accusations of fraud concerning her immigration status, her name, her alleged marriage to her brother, and financial irregularities on her disclosures.

“After all, you are not Arabs, So swallow your anger and chew on it,” the song says.

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Who Is Making Billions From the Iran War?

At a campaign rally over the weekend, President Trump dismissed Americans’ concerns over high oil and gas prices, claiming that it’s a small price to pay for the hundreds of billions of dollars “we” are making from these higher prices.

“We’re making a fortune,” he said. “Hundreds of billions of dollars. Trillions of dollars.”

People are paying a little bit more for gas, he explained, but it doesn’t matter because “we” are making so much money.

The question is, “Who is ‘we’?” We know it is not the American people. They are seeing wage stagnation, inflation, and more pain at the pump. An Economist/YouGov poll earlier this month found that inflation and prices are the top concern among Americans by a wide margin. And in second place were jobs and the economy.

The same poll asked Americans how they rate the state of the US economy and in first place – again by a long shot – was “poor.”

If “we” as in the American people were making hundreds of billions of dollars from the war, you would think these would not be their top two concerns.

But we understand what the President meant by “we.” He meant that part of the “private” sector directly or indirectly in bed with the government war machine. From oil companies to weapons manufacturers and everything in between, war and conflict drive up profits in well-connected corporations at the expense of the rest of us.

That is why we are in a constant state of war. Twenty years in Afghanistan and a similar length in Iraq. Endless bombing in places like Somalia. A twelve-year (and counting) proxy war with Russia in Ukraine. Military bases and covert operations across the globe.

And if we find that the largest military budget in the world does not deliver enough actual weapons to win a war? Well, that’s all good too: just double military spending and accuse anyone who objects of not being patriotic!

“Private” companies with enormous political power – many of them revolving doors between government and business – “make so much money” on war, as Trump would say. Whether these wars produce US wins, loses, or stalemates, these corporations in bed with government always win. The money-printing machine makes sure the money cycles into government-favored companies, while campaign contributions are made to the politicians who support the wars.

And if you don’t support the wars? You get the Thomas Massie treatment.

Endless war produces more corporatism, where the private sector does not exist to provide goods to compete in the free market, but to serve political power and strengthen governmental control over the population. Think of it as welfare for the rich at the expense of the poor. The result is tyranny.

This is the very reason our Founders intended to make it as difficult as possible to wage war. As well-educated students of history, they understood how the concentration of war-making power in the hands of one ruler or an oligarchy would impoverish the masses and lead to a moral and financial bankruptcy. They placed war-making power in the “people’s branch” – Congress – hoping that the people would hold their representatives accountable. We have strayed very far from what they intended and if we are to survive, we must reclaim that authority and responsibility.

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Jim Geraghty finds Ilhan Omar age discrepancy in her autobiography

National Review reporter Jim Geraghty has uncovered an age discrepancy based on what Ilhan Omar has said about her age and what she’s written in her book.

Here’s what he said:

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar writes in her memoir, “I was eight years old when civil war broke out in Somalia. One day everything was okay, and the next, there were bullets piercing not only buildings but also people.” While Somalia has suffered several civil wars, the chapter is entitled, “War: 1989-1991, Mogadishu, Somalia.” Mogadishu experienced severe riots in July 1989, including a mass execution that became known as the “Jazeera beach massacre.”

If, in her own words in her own autobiography, Omar was eight when this occurred in 1989, then she was born in 1981, and was 19 years old in the year 2000, when her father purportedly obtained his citizenship, not 1982 as she currently claims.

Red Steeze makes the obvious but important observation:

And there is not a single journalist anywhere interested in looking into these discrepancies. Her entire biography has just been “Trust me.” and that’s been good enough for all of them.

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