#Trump bribery scheme

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

[rejectingrepublicans]

[gwydionmisha]

Trump to Women: "I Will Be Your Protector" & Mark Robinson’s Wild Porn Messages | The Daily Show

NY Mayor Eric Adams Indicted in Turkey Bribery & Fraud Scheme | The Daily Show

[m-50a]

Trump BRIBERY SCHEME Surfaces as SECRET MEETING is Revealed

[dostoyevsky-official]

Trump administration disbands taskforce targeting Russian oligarchs

A memo from the attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued during a wave of orders on her first day in office but not previously reported, said the effort, known as Task Force KleptoCapture, will end as part of a shift in focus and funding to combating drug cartels and international gangs. The taskforce brought indictments against the aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska and TV tycoon Konstantin Malofeyev for alleged sanctions busting, and seized yachts belonging to the sanctioned oligarchs Suleiman Kerimov and Viktor Vekselberg. It also secured a guilty plea against a US lawyer who made $3.8m in payments to maintain properties owned by Vekselberg.

Trump Green-Lights Bribery and Corruption With New Executive Order

President Donald Trump has instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to pause prosecutions of companies that bribe foreign government officials to win business. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been “stretched beyond proper bounds and abused in a manner that harms the interests of the United States,” hurting American competitiveness, Trump wrote in an executive order signed Monday. [...] The order’s legality was not immediately clear. Generally, the Constitution requires the president to “take care that the laws” passed by Congress “be faithfully executed.” Presidents do have some enforcement discretion, but they cannot override laws, according to the ACLU. Major companies such as Goldman Sachs, Glencore and Walmart have all come under FCPA scrutiny, according to Reuters.

///

"It's going to mean a lot more business for America," Trump told reporters while signing the order in the Oval Office on Monday. Trump wanted to strike down FCPA during his first term in office. He has called it a "horrible law" and said "the world is laughing at us" for enforcing it. Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said FCPA made the United States a leader in addressing global corruption. (x)

///

“It sounds good on paper, but in practicality, it's a disaster,” Trump said. “It means that if an American goes over to a foreign country and starts doing business over there, legally, legitimately or otherwise, it's almost a guaranteed investigation indictment, and nobody wants to do business with the Americans because of it.” [...] Gary Kalman, executive director of Transparency International U.S., said Trump’s order “diminishes—and could pave the way for completely eliminating—the crown jewel in the U.S.’s fight against global corruption.” [...] In one of its most significant victories, the Justice Department announced Oct. 16, three weeks before Trump’s election victory, that mega-defense contractor Raytheon Company of Virginia would pay over $950 million to settle foreign bribery and related charges in a scheme to help foreign governments purchase PATRIOT missile systems and operate and maintain a radar system. In one of the schemes, Raytheon engaged in a campaign from 2012 and 2016 “to bribe a high-level official” within the Qatar government’s military “in order to assist Raytheon in obtaining and retaining business” from it, the DOJ said, citing admissions and court documents filed in the Eastern District of New York. [...] Raytheon’s “criminal schemes to defraud the U.S. government in connection with” the contracts “erodes public trust and harms the DOD, businesses that play by the rules, and American taxpayers,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kevin Driscoll of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division also said at the time. (x)

this is the most relentlessly pro-corruption administration in american history. the guiding animus seems to be how much corruption can we do, how can we help others get away with corruption, how can we halt justice, etc

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

WASHINGTON — The FBI source who reported President Biden’s alleged role in a bribery scheme said that a Ukrainian businessman claimed to keep as “insurance” 15 audio recordings of first son Hunter Biden and two of Joe Biden, a Republican senator revealed Monday.

Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) made the staggering claim in a Senate floor speech after FBI Director Christopher Wray last week allowed House Oversight Committee members to see a redacted informant file about the claim that Hunter and then-Vice President Joe Biden received $5 million apiece to serve the interests of Burisma Holdings owner Mykola Zlochevsky.

“Congress still lacks a full and complete picture with respect to what that document really says. That’s why it’s important that the document be made public without unnecessary redactions for the American people to see,” said Grassley, accusing the bureau of needlessly redacting information about the recordings from the file shared with House lawmakers.

“Let me assist for purposes of transparency,” the 89-year-old went on. “The 1023 [form] produced to that House committee redacted reference that the foreign national who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden allegedly has audio recordings of his conversations with them. Seventeen total recordings.

“According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses 15 audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden,” Grassley continued. “According to the 1023, the foreign national possesses two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then-Vice President Joe Biden. These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot. The 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden.”

The senator concluded: “So, as I’ve repeatedly asked since going public with the existence of the 1023, what, if anything, has the Justice Department and FBI done to investigate? The Justice Department and FBI must show their work. They no longer deserve the benefit of the doubt.”

Grassley learned of the informant file this year from a whistleblower and told House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who issued a subpoena to the FBI. The informant is a longtime paid FBI source.

Grassley said the FBI’s alleged disinterest in the Biden bribery allegation contrasts with its treatment of former President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday will become the first former president arraigned on federal charges for allegedly mishandling classified information after he left office.

“It’s clear that the Justice Department and FBI will use every resource to investigate candidate Trump, President Trump and former President Trump,” Grassley said. “Based on the facts known to Congress and the public, it’s clear that the Justice Department and FBI haven’t nearly had the same laser focus on the Biden family.”

Hunter Biden earned up to $1 million per year from 2014 to 2019 to serve on the board of Burisma, despite having no relevant energy industry experience.

Then-VP Joe Biden met with a Burisma executive at a DC dinner in April 2015, which featured in The Post’s explosive first report on Hunter’s abandoned laptop.

As vice president, Joe Biden also allegedly pushed US support for Ukraine’s natural gas industry during a trip to Kyiv just days after Hunter quietly joined Burisma in April 2014.

(Text source: New York Post)

[unitedwestand2025]

Judge Roberts, First I would like to remind you of why we formed this country. When our old government waged war against us we created the Declaration of Independence. We had a revolution because our government was “cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World: For imposing Taxes” or tariffs “ on us without our Consent: For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences” “ in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government” ‘’ abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.”” “He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us.”  What led us to REVOLT then are the very things Trump and his administration are doing to us now.

Trump violated his oath of office to uphold the constitution by not allowing due process for all people, birthright citizenship and wants to run for a third term as president. His priority to make him and his cronies rich while taking away our rights. The Whitehouse said “Long live the king” and he has made $TRUMP. Per Chris Murphy (CT), "The President is running a backdoor bribery scheme in which any CEO or foreign oligarch can send him money secretly through crypto coin scam in exchange for favors." His admin is CORRUPT and manipulates markets by buying before he announces what he will do, then selling stock before he says he has changed his mind. All of this done while our 401k plummet, there is video of Trump in the oval office congratulating the 1% on all the money they are making in the markets. I do not want the US economy to be Trumps’s seventh chapter 11 bankruptcy. ENOUGH of the RICH special interests influencing government. You have only to look at Elon and unelected official tearing apart our government while firing the IGs that were investigating him before the election.

Elon Musk & DOGE have illegally gone through our data. 14 states have had our AGs petition for what was searched and it was illegal. He & his DOGE employees need to be brought up on charges. Whistleblower Daniel Berulis has come forward saying after DOGE breaks into depts like NLRB then there are Russian IPS taking data.  Elon and his DOGE staff should be arrested and if applicable should be charged with acts of espionage and TREASON. Their assets should be frozen and if convicted all their money goes to fixing what he broke. 

He is VIOLATING THE LAW because he has always violated the law and our judges have repeatedly let him get away with it. He was convicted 34 felonies. This judge gave him unconditional discharge with NO jail time or large fines. He was convicted of an insurrection by the Colorado court. This DOES violate the 14th amendment and is brought up in the Declaration of Independence. However, the Supreme Court FAILED THE AMERICAN PUBLIC and the oath they made to uphold the CONSTITUTION when they granted Trump immunity. KINGS are above the law not presidents. NOT holding him to the law has gotten us to this place & he keeps getting WORSE. Using masked men that do not identify themselves, do not state any crime a person is being charged with then without due process sent to a neighboring province of El Salvador not subject to our laws. This is kidnapping and its illegal. Some of these people are green card holders and some US citizens have also been taken too. Many of these people, per a 60 minute piece, are not criminals at all. Since they have citizenship in Venezuela and other countries this also violates international laws and subject to International Criminal Court. Even after repeated US court orders the president not only has not brought back people, he continues to deport more under these Nazi tactics. These actions are in blatant disregard for rule of law and YOU the supreme court. I would also like to know if the Trump administration threatened to pull broadcasting licenses if networks discussed these events?  Since recently Bill Owns left CBS because of Shari Redstone, majority shareholder of Paramount Global that owns CBS wants to sell Paramount. She needs Trumps FCC head to approve a deal in the next month and Trump has opened an investigation on 60minutes now. Bill did not want Presidential oversight on news so he left. The president’s actions of intimidation is a way to suppress our first amendment rights is deplorable. Mexico is not going to let this alt right propaganda into her country to infect the minds of her people. She is enacting legislation to fine companies 2-5% of their profits if they put out disinformation or lies like Fox has been found to have done in the past. The European Union is fining Elon Musk for 1 Billion dollars for disinformation, purposeful lies being spread on X. The US needs to create such a law. This is how this administration is infringing on all our constitutional rights by intimidating the press to only print what he wants to hear, not the truth. The FBI recently arrested a WI judge, talk about intimidation. Revoke his presidential immunity to stop this from continuing.

On February 27th, 2025, five former Secretary of Defense generals wrote an ”Appeal to the Congress from Former Secretaries of Defense.” They were concerned with the dismissal of “several senior U.S. military leaders” followed by the dismals of JAG in the Army, Navy, and Air Force. “Mr. Trump’s dismissals raise troubling questions about the administration’s desire to politicize the military and to remove legal constraints on the President’s power.” They asked the “House and the Senate to hold immediate hearings to assess the national security implications of Mr. Trump’s dismissals.” They “asking them to do their jobs” but the majority led republican congress basically did NOTHING.

Three NY prosecutors including Hagan Scotten resigned. He said “No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again.“ “any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way. If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then ‘’ eventually the system will give.   Scotten, a previous co-worker of yours, had the courage and integrity to stand up against intimidation of this administration. He did the right thing and declined breaking the law. How many have to fall on their sword Roberts before you do your job and revoke presidential immunity of a man 233 medical professionals found to be a “sociopath” in an open letter published in NY Times Oct 2024?

Trump has promised 1 Trillion to the military, our navy is building up in the middle east, congressmen on military budget committees are buying stock in companies that supply our military equipment like candy. Trump is calling the rich resources of Canada “the 51st state.”  This is in violation of 1945 United Nations Charter & General Assembly Resolution 2625.   He seems to want to create a war just like Putin did to steal resources in the Ukraine, who we promised to support in the Budapest Memorandum. All while JD Vance, Waltz, Hegseth and many others are violating the Espionage Act by inappropriately using Signal which is putting our military at risk. An independent council should be created to investigate and prosecute.  If treason was committed by staff or Trump they should be charged with this offense.

Trump’s executive order says what he and Pam Bondi say is law. This is a violation of the separations of powers because it bypasses congress. If Trump doesn’t comply w/ Alien Enemies Act to bring back ALL those deported & stop future deportations then Judge James Boasberg of DC needs to send this matter to the Supreme Court so you can REVERSE presidential immunity. His continued disobedience to the courts is causing us a constitutional crisis and if the Supreme Court does not act we will have a second “trail of tears.”   

Judge Roberts if you are being leveraged into NOT upholding the Constitution then step down. We are already being called authoritarian by the European Parliament and we are listed as an unsafe country to travel to. We need you to immediately reverse Trump’s immunity, hold Trump and Bondi in contempt then prosecute them. You can use US Marshals & call upon the previous Secretaries of Defense to pick up these corrupt officials and hold an independent counsel to investigate Elon, DOGE employees and those involved in Signal-gate with Espionage Act violations up to TREASON. If it is within your power have the dept heads, who are sending out masked men, held and investigated, we the people demand you put forth some effort to protect us from this corrupt administration. Know if you fail to act NOW its not just going to throw the US into a depression, it will end in people starving around the world while we enter WW III. The stakes could NOT be higher.  Judge Roberts you can uphold your oath and the constitution that NO Man is above the law. Stop the reign of lawlessness and corruption that runs rampant in this administration. Will you be the man that allowed Hitler 2.0 to plunge us into war? Or will you choose to be the hero that upheld the constitution and stopped this? Choose now which side of history you are going to be on Roberts and know the 99% and future Nuremberg Trials will JUDGE YOU for your choice. I am not a lawyer but a concerned citizen, one of the 99% If others agree with my letter please send your own to: The Supreme Court of the US, 1 First Street, NE, Washington DC 20543 [Demand they reverse immunity]

[fatsamsgrandslamspeakeasy]

“I have dedicated my entire life to the service of others,” cried crooked Bobby M! Puh - leeeze, Bob! The only one you ever served in your 50 years of "service" was yourself!!! What????? No pardon from your fellow crook, Biden???? Guess you 2 weren't exactly homies!!!! Well, no matter! With Good behavior, maybe you'll be out before you make it to be an octogenarian!!!!! But still.....at the end of the day, Menendez is small potatoes. Trump and the GOP have bigger fish to fry!!!!! Imagine how satisfying it will be when the axe drops on Pelosi? Schiff? Newsome? Weiner? Bragg? Merchan? J. Smith? Dorsey? Zuckerberg? Kerry? Fauci? Gore? Obama? Soros? Bubba?...and, dare I say it.... the biggest catch of all....HILLARY?

[yourreddancer]

GOP Now Stands for: Grifters Over Principles

GOP Now Stands for: Grifters Over Principles

Exposing the corruption they want you to forget: Trump’s billion-dollar grift, GOP complicity, and the courage it takes to fight back when democracy is on life support.

MeidasTouch Network and Michael Cohen May 15 Guest article by Michael Cohen

Theodore Roosevelt once said, "Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength." And let me tell you, after the past eight years of being dragged, shackled, humiliated, and nearly erased, those words don’t just resonate—they echo through every fiber of my being.

Because courage isn’t standing behind a gold-draped podium, pretending to be strong while hiding behind lawyers, NDAs, and an army of online trolls. No. Real courage is waking up every day when your life has been bulldozed by the very man you once swore loyalty to. It’s facing your mistakes head-on, testifying under oath while your former boss unleashes the dogs of hell against you. Courage is holding your head high when half the country would rather you vanish, and the other half wants you to spill your guts—which I did, by the way, and I haven’t stopped.

But we’re living in a moment now where truth, decency, and courage are being drowned out by propaganda, apathy, and unchecked criminality. Let’s talk about that $400 million Qatari aircraft gifted to Trump. That’s not a metaphor. That’s a real, actual Boeing 747, tailored like a flying palace, handed over like a mobster’s thank-you note. And what do we get from the GOP? Crickets. No hearings. No outrage. No subpoenas. Just more gaslighting and deflections. If Barack Obama or Joe Biden had so much as borrowed a luxury golf cart from a foreign leader, there would have been impeachment articles drafted before breakfast.

We’re witnessing the normalization of corruption. The numbing of the American people. They’re tired—and that’s exactly what the Trump machine counts on. Because when you’re exhausted, you stop caring. When you’re overwhelmed, you tune out. And while you're distracted by the next viral outrage, the grift grows louder, bolder, more grotesque.

The rule of law isn’t just under attack; it’s bleeding out in the middle of the street, while Jim Jordan, Elise Stefanik, and Marco Rubio hold the murder weapon and claim it was self-defense. These are people who swore oaths. Who were elected to protect the Constitution. And instead, they’re busy defending a man who sells out our country for personal gain—who treats the presidency like a business opportunity, a brand extension, a criminal enterprise dressed up in red, white, and blue.

How many times do we have to catch him with his hand in the cookie jar before someone smacks it away? The Qatar plane is just the latest in a long line of open-air bribery schemes: the Saudi golf deals, the Chinese trademarks, the Kushner $2 billion payday—take your pick. It’s all out in the open. There’s no subtlety to it anymore. It’s not even clever. And that’s the point. They want to overwhelm you. Flood the zone with so much criminality that you give up trying to keep track.

But we can’t give up. We won’t give up.

Because Roosevelt was right: courage is going on when you don’t have the strength. And that’s exactly what we need to do right now—as a nation. As voters. As people who still believe in justice, in facts, in accountability. We have to move forward even when it feels hopeless. Even when the system seems broken beyond repair. Because the alternative is surrender—and that is not an option.

I’ve seen what surrender looks like. I lived it. I was inside the belly of the beast, feeding it, defending it, lying for it. I know the cost of cowardice. I know what happens when you exchange your integrity for proximity to power. And I’m telling you—no matter how loud their propaganda machine gets, no matter how many cronies they stack into the Cabinet or the courts or the airwaves, it only takes one person to say “enough” to begin the unraveling.

Then, one becomes two. Two becomes ten. Ten becomes millions. That’s how we take our country back.

And don’t think for a second that the chaos isn’t intentional. From tariffs tanking global markets to gutted regulatory agencies, from education being handed to WWE executives to foreign policy dictated by real estate deals—the goal is destruction. The goal is disorientation. A disempowered public is a pliable public. If you can’t make sense of what’s happening, you’re easier to control.

But here’s the truth they can’t erase: we still have each other. We still have our voices, our votes, our values. They can steal the headlines, but they can’t steal our courage. Not unless we hand it over.

So to everyone out there who feels like you’re running on empty—emotionally, politically, spiritually—I see you. I am you. And I’m telling you, keep going. Speak out. Show up. They want us demoralized, divided, and docile. But we are none of those things, and we never will be.

We are survivors. And we’re not just going on—we’re coming for the truth, for justice, and for the soul of this country.

Because that’s where real strength lives. And that’s what terrifies them most.

[follow-up-news]

A former FBI informant who fabricated a story about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes that became central to Republicans’ impeachment effort was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison. Alexander Smirnov pleaded guilty last month in Los Angeles federal court to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme in what prosecutors say was an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Smirnov, a dual U.S. and Israeli citizen, falsely claimed to his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid then-Vice President Biden and his son $5 million each around 2015. Smirnov’s explosive claim in 2020 came after he expressed “bias” about Joe Biden as a presidential candidate, according to prosecutors. In reality, investigators found Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017 — after Biden’s term as vice president. Prosecutors noted that Smirnov’s false claim “set off a firestorm in Congress” when it resurfaced years later as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Biden, a Democrat who defeated Republican then-President Donald Trump in 2020. The Biden administration dismissed the House impeachment effort as a “stunt.”

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

[f1ghtsoftly]

All The Women’s News You Missed This Week 4/14/25-4/21/25

No summary this week.

Opinion and Investigative:

Migrant Motherhood: The Invisibility Of Emotional Labour

It is time Liberia enacts legislation banning FGM

I’m a comedian – this is why Saturday Night Live’s jokes about Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth didn’t work

A glimpse into the girlboss era

“Too Pretty for a Job”

An open letter on Katy Perry’s Blue Origin flight: Feminism isn’t a $450K joyride

Contraceptive access and teen childbearing: Lessons from Sweden

Challenges in the fulfillment of SDG 5 for today's Argentina

OPINION | How ‘full bush in a bikini’ TikTok trend furthered feminist discourse on female body hair

What I  learnt from having a breast op, aged 19

Culture War:

Air Force Deletes Pages on First Female Thunderbirds Pilot Amid DEI Purge

Women and Labor:

Upskirted teacher says women being 'targeted' by misogynistic attitudes in classroom

Farming Against Time: For Bhil Women, Natural Farming Comes At A Cost

Comfort, Control, Career: A Peek Into Tamil Nadu’s Thozhi Working Women’s Hostels

Morocco to Legally Recognize Women’s Domestic Work

LGBT:

The supreme court didn’t rule on the definition of ‘a woman’ – this is what its judgment does mean

Star Wars Actress Kelly Marie Tran Opens Up About Why She Came Out Publicly: 'It's Bigger Than Me'

Women In The News:

The mother and children trapped between two conflicts

Trump administration seeks criminal prosecution of New York attorney general

NPR CEO Katherine Maher addresses future of federal funding for public media

American doctor receives email from immigration officials telling her to leave the country immediately

Interview with Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold : Look – and see women’s tireless work for peace

Disgraced Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson Zoom-bombs meeting to attack colleagues debating her departure

Girl, 14, killed by lion in Kenya

Kristi Noem's bag with $3,000 stolen from DC restaurant

Ex-US senator's wife convicted in gold bars bribery scheme

Reproductive Rights:

Class-Action Lawsuit Against Crisis Pregnancy Center and Groundbreaking Massachusetts Law Regulating Ultrasounds: ‘A Chink in the Armor’

Expecting worse: Giving birth on a planet in crisis

Women’s rights advocates raise voices against Turkish gov’t policies addressing women’s health

Federal Judge Rules Alabama Can’t Criminalize Help for Out-of-State Abortions

Male Violence Against Women:

Honor Killing: Italian court confirms life sentence for Pakistani parents

Regimes May Change In Syria — The Scourge Of Honor Killings Persists

Honor killing victim was being protected by police shortly before her murder

Rearming Domestic Abusers: Trump’s New Gun Policy Threatens Women Across the Country

Six men charged after woman was forcibly removed from Idaho town hall meeting

Man arrested after woman stabbed to death in Enfield

Feel Good Stories:

How young advocates are preventing child marriage and early pregnancy in Nepal

‘A weakness can become your biggest strength’ – wise words from 26 brilliant disabled women

Meet the “First Lady of Engineering” Yvonne Y.Y. Clark blazed a trail for Blacks and women in STEM

How Sheffield gave birth to women’s suffrage

Arts and Culture:

Eurovision singer Clodagh Rodgers dies aged 78

Alice Wong recently won a MacArthur genius grant. Her latest book, Disability Intimacy, is about more than sex

Q&A: Poet Marylyn Tan weaves flesh and feminism, queerness and ritual into work

Cannes Selects Film on Gaza Photographer Fatma Hassona; A Day Later, She’s Killed in Israeli Strike

Ms. Rachel responds to critics of Gaza rhetoric: ‘All children should be protected’

Feminist lawyer Pamela Cross among authors shortlisted for $60,000 Donner Prize

Melinda French Gates on what billionaires with 'absurd' wealth owe back to society

Photos: Ani DiFranco Announces the ‘Be Kind’ Platform at Thalia Hall in Chicago

Salvaging the Soul of Feminist Art: Reviving Suzi Ferrer’s Legacy at The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

Michelle Trachtenberg died of complications from diabetes, medical examiner says

Alicia Silverstone to reprise Clueless role in sequel TV series

The South Asian Feminism of ‘In Our Own Backyard’

MABELLE PRIOR’S THE NEW WORLD ADDS TO HER POWERFUL LEGACY OF FEMINIST STORYTELLING

India's sword-wielding grandmother still going strong at 82

Discover This Artist Leading Bali’s Feminist Visual Revolution

Women’s Rights:

India’s courts place conditions on women’s rights—can’t drink, trust men, get married

‘I’m giving up’: Cate Blanchett says she is retiring from acting

Commission proposes 300 reserved seats for women with direct polls

Meet the woman who turned female votes into political dynamite

MISC:

This Dept. of Labor Program Transformed Our Lives. Now It’s on the Chopping Block.

As always, this is global and domestic news from a US perspective, covering feminist issues and women in the news more generally. As of right now, I do not cover Women’s Sports. Published each Monday.

[collapsedsquid]

Kleptocracy, in its modern form, began in the 1990s. Multiple accounts of Vladimir Putin’s rise to power have shown, for example, how even as deputy mayor of St Petersburg at that time he presided over schemes to steal money from the state, to launder it abroad and then bring it back into Russia, all with the help of European partners. Although Putin has spent his life as a civil servant, he has used his stolen money, and the stolen money hoarded by his inner circle, as a source of power and influence ever since. Since the 1990s, the kleptocratic model created in Russia has spread much further. From Angola to Zimbabwe, dictators with access to hidden sources of wealth are better able to resist demands for political change. They can hide their families and their property abroad. They can finance bribery and influence operations. The aura of secrecy they build is also part of what keeps them in power. Ordinary Russians, ordinary Chinese or ordinary Venezuelans are not allowed to know why their rulers, and their rulers’ friends and their families, are billionaires, because they’re not meant to have any influence or understanding or knowledge of politics at all. That lack of knowledge creates a sense of helplessness, apathy, even despair. The rise of kleptocratic autocracies has affected the democratic world too, shaping it in unseen ways. That we don’t know whether any Americans or any foreigners sought to influence the Trump administration using the president’s condo sales is only the beginning of the problem. The very architecture of our cities — London, Miami, New York — has been shaped by people who purchase houses as a secret store of value, who don’t necessarily intend to live in them at all.

Anne Applebaum warning us about the danger of private ownership in the FT

[sonnyboyoedipusacre]

You can feel however you want about this, I just don't want to hear any 1940's Germany "we didn't know what was going on in the labor camps" from you.

Children will remember their friends being drug out of classrooms by ICE, the emptiness of their desks, their neighbors- whole families being drug off in daylight.

& You're probably ok with that. But we'll remember that too.

But where do they go to? Geo group and core civic detention camps. The DOJ investigated Geo Group Walnut Grove during Operation Mississippi Hustle, where they not only found Geo Group complicity in a bribery and kickback scheme with the state, but also-

"Deliberate indifference to staff sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior with youth, and that the misconduct was among the worst the DOJ had seen in the country."

DOJ on Geo Group Walnut Grove(https://clearinghouse.net/case/14179/)

Geo group is the number 1 contractor for detainment camps, $388 mill in contracts this year. If corporations are people, this one should be on the SO registry. Not just for Walnut Grove but for systemic abuse of children in multiple states.

Not only that. They are in court RIGHT now for spraying detained people with cleaning chemicals as a punishment, spraying chemicals on them when they sleep and on their food. They had to pay 6 million back to Washington for "unjust enrichment" for scamming the govt. They were just trying to overturn the ruling they cannot pay detained laborers $1 a day for work, but their site vows they will overturn it, & if they don't, they'll just make the government pay for that with your tax money. Many cases of death, starvation, sickness, abuse in the US, UK, South Africa & Australia. And core civic (#2 contractor) is no better.

Attorney General Pam Bondi lobbied for them, they hire out of ICE, Daniel A Bible left his executive position out of ICE for a senior role at Geo group. Geo group donated over $1 million to Trump's campaign and see his presidency as an opportunity to get out of their 1.6 billion debt. Banks will not loan to them because all the human rights abuses.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/breaking-down-bidens-order-eliminate-doj-private-prison-contracts

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/what-trumps-victory-means-private-prison-industry

[darkmaga-returns]

When the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who obtained the indictment of the mayor in Manhattan resigned after the election of Donald Trump as President, Trump appointed a stellar line prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, as Acting U.S. Attorney, pending Senate confirmation of Trump's nominee to become U.S. Attorney. As an aside, the Southern District of New York is the oldest, most prestigious and heretofore most independent of the regional federal prosecutorial offices.

Upon the promotion of Sassoon, Adams' lawyers approached her with a bargain; not a plea bargain, but a bargain: If Adams changes his position on the use of city personnel and assets to assist ICE in its immigration enforcement, would the government drop the charges against him? When Sassoon and her team rejected this offer out of hand, Adams' lawyers went to her superiors in the DoJ who found the offer appealing and generally agreed to its consummation.

The deal, never reduced to writing but constructable from the letters and emails written by those formerly involved in the prosecution, called for the dismissal of the indictment against the mayor without prejudice. It is the "without prejudice" that is the ethical and legal stumbling block here, as that type of dismissal permits the feds to take the case off the shelf at any time in the future and actively regenerate its prosecution.

The stated reason for the dismissal without prejudice is not a recognition of weaknesses in the government's case, but rather the government's need for the mayor's full contemporaneous cooperation in its enforcement of federal immigration laws, a cooperation that might be lacking were he to be put on trial this spring.

That's hogwash. It is Orwellian newspeak for a federal scheme to control the mayor.

[aurevoirmonty]

«L’Ukraine est une machine à blanchir l’argent» du complexe militaro-industriel et de l’élite de Washington: le ministre de la Justice de Trump s’attaquera-t-il au clan Biden?

«Ce que veulent obtenir ces entrepreneurs de la défense, c'est vers une guerre à faible rendement, mais à long terme, d’avoir une guerre de 20 ou 30 ans», explique Matt Gaetz.

Et que si nous avions encore l'Afghanistan pour blanchir de l'argent, il ne serait probablement pas nécessaire de s'impliquer autant en Ukraine.

Selon un rapport du FBI (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12320527/RELEASED-FBI-document-detailing-alleged-10M-Biden-bribery-scheme-publicized-Republicans-Burisma-CEO-Zlochevsky-called-Hunter-stupid-necessary-board-dad-Vice-President-Joe-Biden-protect-problems.html), la société pétrolière et gazière ukrainienne Burisma a versé à Hunter et Joe Biden chacun 5 millions de dollars en pots-de-vin.

Ces pots-de-vin s'ajoutaient aux plus de 4 millions de dollars au total versés à Hunter Biden et à son partenaire commercial Devon Archer, condamné (https://lanouvelletribune.info/2022/03/usa-un-proche-du-fils-de-biden-condamne-pour-fraude/) à de la prison en mars 2022.