Tag: corruption

INVESTIGATION: American “news” is mostly written by Israeli lobbyists pushing Zionist agenda

Mint Press News conducted an in-depth investigation into who writes America’s “news,” and the findings are shocking, though expected.

It turns out that hundreds of former Israeli lobbyists from groups like AIPAC (American-Israeli Political Action Committee), StandWithUs, and CAMERA are pretty much running the largest media organizations in the United States, including at MSNBC, The New York Times, CNN and Fox News.

Specifically with news related to the Israel-Palestine situation, these embedded Israeli lobbyists are steering what millions of Americans believe about what Israel really is and what is really going on in the Middle East right now.

“Many key U.S. newsroom staff were also formerly Israeli spies or intelligence agents, standing in stark contrast to journalists with pro-Palestine sentiments, who have been purged en masse since October 7, 2023,” reports Mint Press News.

While the Israel-Palestine conflict is about as old as time itself, it is a relatively new phenomenon for many Americans to learn that this conflict has now come to the United States via the “news.”

For years, Israeli lobbyists have controlled what gets published, most of it having a pro-Israel slant. Most people now seem to know that the corporate media is generally untrustworthy, but it is new information for them to learn that actual pro-Israel activists are the ones telling most of the stories about the Middle East.

According to Mint Press News, the job of these Israeli lobbyists is to “whitewash Israeli crimes and manufacture consent for continued U.S. participation in what a wide range of international organizations have described as a genocide.”

Take NBCUniversal, for instance, where journalist and associated producer Kayla Steinberg works. Back in 2018, Steinberg introduced herself to the world with an immediate admission that she is a Zionist through and through.

“The summer before my first year of college, I attended the AIPAC New England Leadership Dinner and absolutely loved it,” Steinberg said at the time.

“After going to Saban, I knew I had to get involved in [AIPAC] and go back to Israel … I dream of being a journalist someday, and I hope to write about Israel or Judaism. WIPAC and AIPAC have taught me so much about how important it is for the U.S. to be Israel’s greatest friend, and I know now why I am proudly pro-Israel.”

NBCUniversal hired “many” former Israeli lobbyists like Steinberg – and keep in mind that NBCUniversal is a conglomerate that owns all sorts of other well-known media outlets including CNBC, NBC News and MSNBC.

NBC reporter Emma Goss is another whose career in media began with a trip to Israel where she helped make a documentary for Write on For Israel.

“This Zionist group aims to educate young Jewish students to ‘make a difference on college campuses’ by learning about Jewish identity and anti-Semitism in American universities,” Mint Press News explains.

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After World Bank “Misplaces” Up to $41 Billion in Funds, Biden Pledges Record $4 Billion More in U.S. Taxpayer Dollars

In just a few weeks, Joe Biden will fade into obscurity and will no longer have access to America’s checkbook. He is making sure that, before that happens, he is spreading American taxpayer’s dollars all over the world.

Although Biden wandered aimlessly at the G20 Summit in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, causing concern when he missed the “family picture” with world leaders, he had enough of a hold on his faculties to pledge a record $4 billion dollars to the World Bank.

The pledge is a 14.3% increase from 2021. However, approval will depend on Congress after President Trump returns to the White House.

The announcement comes despite the fact that the DC-based international lender’s “poor recording keeping” has resulted in anywhere between $24 billion and $41 billion in misplaced funds.

During his remarks, Biden said, “It seems to me there are certain key steps.  First, we need to invest at a large scale. Now, we need to make sure the World Bank can continue its work in the most vulnerable countries.”

“I’m proud to announce the United States is pledging $4 billion over the next three years to the World Bank International Development Association.

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Florida FEMA scandal exposes unaccountable bureaucracy that Trump targets for reform and cuts

An emergency response official’s decision to withhold vital assistance to hurricane victims that showed visible support for Republicans is a scandal that belies a larger issue, namely, an unaccountable federal bureaucracy left to police itself and which President-elect Donald Trump has eyed for reform and cuts.   

The concerns were raised by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer in a hearing on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the dual crises of Hurricanes Helene and Milton that struck Florida and the wider Southeast earlier this year. 

“While today’s hearing will focus on FEMA, the issue at hand is part of a larger problem: the urgent need to hold the unelected, unaccountable federal workforce accountable to the American people and to the duly elected President of the United States,” Comer said in his opening statement. 

“The current system does not have strong enough mechanisms to ensure accountability. The disciplinary system is run by and for civil servants to protect civil servants,” he continued.

The hearing followed reports that during the hurricane response in Florida, one FEMA official instructed subordinates to bypass houses that displayed pro-Trump signs in Lake Placid, Florida, while they were canvassing to deliver assistance to the hurricane-stricken community. 

At least 20 houses were reportedly skipped under the guidance, and therefore were not given the opportunity to qualify for FEMA assistance, Just the News reported. 

“I was simply following orders”

The FEMA official responsible, Marn’i Washington was terminated shortly after the public reports emerged of her conduct, but Comer says the accountability came too late, only after the conduct was exposed by reporting from the Daily Wire. For her part, Washington told NewsNation‘s Dan Abrams that “Firstly, I’m being framed,” said Washington. “There’s no violation of the Hatch Act. I was simply following orders.”

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DEA Should Be Removed From Marijuana Rescheduling Hearing After Illegally Conspiring With Prohibitionists, Legal Filing Says

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge is being asked to remove the agency from its role in an upcoming hearing on the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling proposal, with a new legal filing citing alleged statutory violations that include “unlawful” communication with a prohibitionist group.

When the Department of Justice formally proposed moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA)—consistent with a recommendation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—one aspect stood out: The DEA administrator didn’t sign the notice of proposed rulemaking, breaking with historical precedent on federal scheduling proceedings. Instead, it was signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

That was one of several factors that led to a motion being filed with DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) John Mulrooney on Monday, seeking corrective action. It was submitted on behalf of Hemp for Victory and Village Farms International, which were both invited to participate in the rescheduling hearing that’s set to begin next month.

The issue isn’t just that DEA Administrator Anne Milgram declined to sign the proposed rule. Throughout that notice, the agency said it needed additional data on a variety of issues—namely cannabis-related health issues and law enforcement concerns—in order to make a complete assessment. The motion argues that the backwards approach to the rulemaking violates federal statute.

“By waiting until the publication of the [proposed rule]—and thus after DOJ had initiated proceedings under [the CSA]—to flag categories of supposedly ‘necessary data,’ DEA ensured that HHS would not get to respond to that data in its recommendation and evaluation,” the motion says. “Even worse, DEA effectively turned the [proposed rule] into a blueprint for the Prohibitionists it apparently was communicating with behind the scenes.”

Another issue that’s arisen concerns DEA’s selection of witnesses to participate in the December hearing, which was scheduled following a public comment period that saw tens of thousands of submissions—a majority of which favored rescheduling or otherwise pushed for bolder reform such as removing marijuana from the CSA altogether.

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Minnesota Election Judge Charged with Letting Unregistered People Vote in 2024 Election

A Minnesota election judge has been hit with felony charges for allegedly allowing several people who were not registered to vote to cast ballots in the 2024 election, officials said.

Hubbard County Auditor Kay Rave could not locate any completed registration forms among the ballots she received from Badoura Township head election judge Timothy Michael Scouton, a criminal complaint obtained by NBC Chicago stated.

Scouton, 64, had been overseeing the election process in the small township of just about 100 people, which is about 170 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

Officials began investigating after receiving the complaint from Rave, and then another judge who worked with Scouton on election night told a Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office investigator that Scouton directed voters not to fill out the Minnesota Voter Registration Application, the complaint said.

Yet another election judge told investigators that he was not aware that the Minnesota Voter Registration Application forms even existed, and that Scouton told him that new voters were only supposed to sign the back of a book, according to the criminal complaint. 

This incorrect statement allegedly led to 11 people voting illegally, officials said.

Investigators found out that Scouton’s son was also working as an election judge, and was supposed to be responsible for registering applications, FOX9 reported.

Scouton was arrested by the sheriff’s department last week and charged with one count of accepting the vote of an unregistered voter and one count of neglect of duty by an election official — both felonies.

Scouton “declined to provide a statement” upon his arrest, according to the complaint. 

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Congressional Investigation into Authors of ‘Disinformation Dozen’ Intensifies

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), authors of the “Disinformation Dozen,” faces a Nov. 21 deadline to provide Congress with documents related to its alleged collusion with the Biden administration and social media platforms to censor online users.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, on Nov. 7 subpoenaed CCDH as part of an ongoing congressional investigation, launched in August 2023, into the nonprofit’s censorship-related activities.

The subpoena requests all communications and documents “between or among CCDH, the Executive Branch, or third parties, including social media companies, relating to the identification of groups, accounts, channels, or posts for moderation, deletion, suppression, restriction, or reduced circulation.”

The subpoena also requests all records, notes, and other “documents of interactions between or among CCDH and the Executive Branch referring or relating to ‘killing’ or taking adverse action against Elon Musk’s X social media platform (formerly Twitter).”

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Lawmakers Threaten to Revoke Security Clearances of 51 Hunter Biden Laptop Deniers

The 51 former intelligence officials who suggested Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation could lose their security clearances, Republican lawmakers indicated this week.

The potential action of revoking the security clearances would fulfill a campaign pledge by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. “You cannot lie, take your position of public trust, and lie to the American people for political purposes,” Vance said. “It’s disgraceful. And people have to suffer consequences for it.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has not indicated if he will bring a measure to the House floor to fulfill the campaign promise. President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide victory fueled Republicans maintaining the House majority and Johnson’s job as Speaker.

Republican lawmakers, however, voiced support this week for revoking the clearances.

“I think we should scrub all the legacy clearances to see whether the people need to have them and for what purpose, and unless they’re working for a company in a role that makes sense, they should be taken away,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told the Washington Times. “Most on that list [of 51], I would include in that scrubbing.”

The 51 intelligence officials “should all lose their security clearances,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) told the paper.

Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said “it should be an option.”

After the “laptop from hell” story broke before the 2020 election, 51 intel officials signed a letter that insinuated Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation. The letter was peddled by Politico under the title, “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.” Most establishment media organizations then used the Politico article to discount the revelations from the laptop.

President Joe Biden cited the story during a 2020 presidential debate with Trump to discredit the laptop’s contents. The story was reportedly planted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken for Biden to use during the event.

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House Probe Into Matt Gaetz Relies On Witnesses DOJ Found Lacked Credibility

The last eight years at the Department of Justice have been a disaster for the rule of law. The sprawling intelligence and law enforcement agency ran the Russia collusion hoax, hamstringing President Donald Trump during his entire first term in office.

It interfered in the 2020 election by falsely telling social media companies that a laptop with incriminating information about the Biden family business was Russian disinformation, and telling them to censor speech and debate about the topic. Under President Joe Biden, the department ran two norm-obliterating politicized prosecutions against Trump in an effort to silence, bankrupt, imprison, and defeat him.

Instead of rooting out the corruption at the department, most of permanent D.C. did absolutely nothing in response. Yet somehow the chattering class was shocked when Trump nominated loyal foot soldier Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fl., to be attorney general in Trump’s second term and to fix DOJ.

Gaetz had proven to be one of the most effective advocates against corruption at DOJ and was unwilling to back down in the face of overwhelming public pressure. However, Gaetz does not fit the education or experience profile of many previous attorneys general and has limited experience practicing law.

Many Americans are sick and tired of elected officials and media pundits doing nothing as DOJ attempted to destroy the country with its abuse of the rule of law. Among the many powerful figures in Washington, D.C. opposed to the Gaetz nomination are some who are attempting to thwart it by releasing a report from the House Ethics Committee that will attempt to tie Gaetz to salacious allegations involving child sex trafficking.

The report comes years after DOJ dropped its investigation into the same claims on the grounds that the two central witnesses had serious credibility issues. Yet these are the same two central witnesses the House Ethics Committee has relied on for its critical report of Gaetz—the same report it is leaking to compliant reporters as part of a coordinated effort to thwart his nomination as President-elect Donald Trump’s next attorney general.

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Biden and Harris Raided Medicare to Fund Green New Deal: Premiums Are Now Set to Spike

When Democrats rammed through the Inflation Reduction Act during the days they controlled all of Washington, D.C., it ignited a chain reaction that led to higher Medicare costs for America’s senior citizens.

“Nearly two years after its passage, the IRA has diverted nearly $260 billion from the projected Medicare ‘savings’  to pay for special interest handouts like large tax credits for costly electric vehicles, enormous subsidies paid to big health insurer-PBM corporations, and funding health care programs for illegal immigrants,” Ron Fitzwater, Chief Executive Officer of the Missouri Pharmacy Association, wrote in an Op-Ed in the Missouri Times.

“The Biden-Harris administration is not protecting Medicare; they’re stealing from it,” he wrote.

According to Politico, the chain reaction began when the act shifted the burden of paying for prescription medicine from seniors to insurance companies.

Then came what could have been predicted: Insurance companies hiked their premiums for 2025.

Fitwater, in his Op-Ed, said increases were coming in at 179 percent.

But since that was going to hit right before the election, there was one more step – a federal bailout that has the taxpayer-funded federal treasury taking the hit for what the IRA caused.

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Scrutiny of World Bank intensifies over $24 billion in unaccounted climate funds

The World Bank has pledged over $100 billion to combat climate change, but a new report by Oxfam found that up to $41 billion of this spending is “effectively unaccounted for” due to poor record-keeping by the World Bank.

A World Bank insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested the figure for the missing money “could be twice or 10 times more.”

“All the figures are routinely made up,” the source said. “Nobody has a clue about who spends what.”

Oxfam’s report, titled ‘Climate Finance Unchecked’, was published on 17 October ahead of COP29 in Azerbaijan which is currently taking place, and during which climate finance is taking centre stage.

The report alleges that the World Bank’s current approach to tracking climate finance is flawed and makes it impossible to verify its expenditures and impact.  Specifically, the Bank’s accounting system, which tracks climate finance at the time of project approval rather than project completion, makes it difficult to verify how funds were spent.

Oxfam’s investigation revealed that obtaining even basic information on how the World Bank is using climate finance was painstaking and difficult.

“We had to sift through layers of complex and incomplete reports, and even then, the data was full of gaps and inconsistencies. The fact that this information is so hard to access and understand is alarming – it shouldn’t take a team of professional researchers to figure out how billions of dollars meant for climate action are being spent. This should be transparent and accessible to everyone, most importantly communities who are meant to benefit from climate finance,” Kate Donald, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington D.C. Office, said.

The World Bank’s centrality to climate finance makes its lack of transparency all the more troublesome, according to Oxfam, which argues that the bank’s claims of ambition are impossible to verify without more precise and transparent accounting methods. 

Oxfam estimates that the difference between budgeted and actual expenditures on climate finance amounts to tens of billions of dollars over six years. And the World Bank’s opacity in accounting methods has led to concerns about mismanagement, corruption and the potential diversion of funds away from their intended purpose.

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