‘MAGA Olympics’? Jim Acosta Floats Idea of the Ted Cruz ‘Tequila Luge,’ a Tonya Harding-Like Marjorie Taylor Greene (Video)
Rosemary Rossi – February 12, 2022
CNN’s Jim Acosta finds sport in poking fun at the Republican party but Saturday, he did it literally, tossing out the idea of a “MAGA Olympics,” with some of the GOP’s “major players” competing in games with a unique twist.
“Trump and his buddies should consider hosting their own Winter Games,” Acosta said, even suggesting a few of the GOP’s finest for specific events. “There are some major players to watch.”
Cut to a clip of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy literally sprinting down a Capitol corridor attempting to dodge ABC congressional correspondent Rachel Scott’s questions on the run.
“Like Kevin McCarthy speed-skating about the RNC labeling January 6th as ‘legitimate political discourse,’” Acosta said. “And then there’s the Tonya Harding of the House GOP, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who discovered a fly in her canned talking points,” referring to the Georgia representative erroneously calling the brutal Nazi police force known as the Gestapo, “gazpacho,” which is a classic Spanish soup.
“As some observers noted, first Gazpacho Police. What’s next? Sangria Law?” Acosta joked.
“Perhaps Ted Cruz could compete,” Acosta went on. “Yes, it’s true, Cancun is probably too warm for the Winter Games — unless there’s a Tequila Luge.”
“But the far-right Olympic Games would fit right in with its autocratic tendencies,” Acosta continued. “The MAGA Olympics could follow the lead set by China with its freestyle skiing competition at a dystopian-looking Beijing industrial park, not to mention its appalling human rights record.”
Although Russia received a two-year ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency, banning Russia at the Olympics, Paralympics or World Championships between Dec. 17, 2020 and Dec. 17, 2022, with no athlete representing Russia. Instead, Russian athletes who passed drug tests can compete under the “Olympic Athletes from Russia” banner.
“No wonder Russia thinks it can get away with bullying Ukraine. It’s not even punished for cheating in sports,” Acosta said. “As for our own cheater-in-chief back here in the U.S., Trump does not seem very worried as if his punishment is being decided by the Olympic committee rather than the Justice Department.”
He went on: “Perhaps in 2024, Trump could run under the TIC — the Trump Insurrection Committee. He could bring home yet another gold toilet.”
Anti-vaxxers head to a new life in a remote colony in Paraguay founded by ‘conservative free thinkers’ who want to escape the ‘matrix,’ say reports
Bethany Dawson – February 13, 2022
People take part in a demonstration against COVID-19 vaccines in front of the Health Ministry in Asuncion, on January 11, 2022.
A colony in Paraguay has seen an influx of arrivals due to COVID-19 skepticism.
The community claims it is free from “5G, chemtrails, fluoridated water, mandatory vaccinations, and healthcare mandates.”
They have said that the pandemic which has killed 5.6 million people is “non-existent.”
Immigrants have settled in Paraguay’s poorest region of Caazapá, creating a colony designed as a refuge from “socialist trends of current economic and political situations worldwide” – as well as “5G, chemtrails, fluoridated water, mandatory vaccinations, and healthcare mandates,” according to its website.
El Paraiso Verde was started in 2016 with the dream of a better life and future outside of the “matrix” and is “a refuge for “‘conservative free thinkers,'” states its website.
It is mainly populated German, Austrian and Swiss natives, many of whom are escaping COVID-19 restrictions, The Guardian reported. On the El Paraíso Verde website, Annau says he is eager to attract more settlers from the US.
In a video on the colony’s YouTube channel, German-speaking residents explaining their move was driven by skepticism about the COVID-19 virus and vaccines.
Another video shows a teenage resident of the colony describing the COVID-19 restrictions in her native Germany as “madness.”
A map showing the location of El Paraíso Verde in Southern Paraguay
The community is set on 4,000 acres of fenced land with security guards. Videos show well-spaced homes, residents enjoying yoga classes, a school, a lake, and a patch of jungle. According to its publicity, El Paraíso Verde is planned as a settlement for 6,000 people with several “villages” and a city, possibly expanding to more than 20,000 people.
The El Paraíso Verde project currently has some 150 mostly Austrian, German, and German-speaking Swiss residents, say reports. Caazapá saw a jump from four German residents in 2019 to over 100 in 2020 as the pandemic unfolded, according to official figures cited by The Guardian.
A German who knows the settlement well told the Guardian its residents want to flee the “deep state and one world order.” The community was attracting older residents who believe many people are dying in care homes [after vaccination],” and “others, in their 40s, are trying to bring their children over here to escape.”
The pandemic has hit the Latin American country hard, with Paraguay having the world’s highest daily proportion of Covid deaths in June 2021, according to The Guardian.
The community of COVID skeptics has concerned local health authorities with Dr. Nadia Riveros, Caazapá’s head of public health, telling The Guardian how painful the pandemic was for the area, which has no ICU beds and a single ambulance.
“We don’t want to go through that again. I think foreigners, wherever they’re from, should have to get vaccinated before entering the country,” she told The Guardian.
Annau, the colony’s leader, has also been accused of making Islamophobic comments in a 2017 speech to members of the Paraguayan government. He said: “Islam is not part of Germany. We are enlightened Christians, and we are concerned about our daughters. We see the Qur’an as [containing] an ideology of political domination, which is not compatible with democratic and Christian values,” per The Guardian.
El Paraíso Verde did not reply when contacted by Insider on Friday.
In a February 5 statement on the El Paraíso Verde website, Annau wrote: “We are not anti-vaccination, but advocates of the right of choice over the substances someone gets into their body. Everyone must do their own research to determine if they want to accept the vaccinations currently being offered into their body.”
Watch: GOP rep. says Americans must own enough weapons to overthrow the government if 30-40% agree on ‘tyranny’
Gage Skidmore, David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement
February 13, 2022
A U.S. Congressman is calling on Americans to own “sufficient” weaponry to overthrow the government, suggesting they should do so “if 30 to 40 percent agree” the nation is living under “tyranny.”
“If 30 to 40 percent could agree that this was legitimate tyranny and it needed to be thrown off they need to have sufficient power without asking for extra permission – it should be right there and completely available to them in their living room in order to effect the change,” U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said in a video (below) posted by Right Wing Watch.
Pool’s videos get “millions” of views each day, according to The Daily Beast, which adds he “has racked up more than a billion views and millions in earnings while dangerously whitewashing the far right.”
During Pool’s show, according to Right Wing Watch, the YouTuber added that he believes the Second Amendment entitles Americans to own nuclear and biological weapons.
The spark for a wider war? Why Americans should care about Russia’s aggression against Ukraine
Michael Collins, USA TODAY – February 12, 2022
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden warned his Russian counterpart Saturday that an invasion of Ukraine would cause “widespread human suffering,” as the U.S. and its allies scrambled to stave off a possible war in Europe.
Biden’s remarks, made in a phone call with Vladimir Putin amid fears that a Russian attack on its neighbor is imminent, offered a grim assessment of what U.S. officials believe could be the most consequential military conflict since World War II.
And it highlights, in stark terms, why Americans should care about the fate of an eastern European nation that’s roughly the size of Texas and is known for golden sunflowers, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and being the spark for President Donald Trump’s first impeachment saga.
The current conflict is rooted in Putin’s desire to reestablish the influence that Russia wielded under the Soviet empire, foreign policy experts say. The U.S., in turn, wants to keep Russian aggression in check while working to strengthen a struggling democracy that has become more closely aligned with the West.
The U.S. has already spent billions of dollars to help Ukraine build up its military defenses, an investment that’s likely to escalate dramatically if Russia invades. The U.S. had about 160 National Guard troops in Ukraine advising the country’s military, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered their withdrawal on Saturday amid signs of an imminent Russian invasion.
Though Biden has said the U.S. would not send troops to help defend Ukraine against Russian forces, his administration has already sent American forces to other eastern European countries. On Friday, the Pentagon ordered 3,000 U.S. soldiers from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Poland, to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank. And the National Guard troops withdrawing from Ukraine will be sent elsewhere in Europe.
A Ukrainian soldier walks on the line of separation from pro-Russian rebels, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. President Joe Biden has warned Russia’s Vladimir Putin that the U.S. could impose new sanctions against Russia if it takes further military action against Ukraine
Since Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it has served as a buffer between Russia and the West, one whose security and stability could have ramifications for Europe and beyond.
“In many ways, Ukraine tells us about the future of the international system,” said Heather Conley, president of the German Marshall Fund, which promotes cooperation and understanding between North America and Europe.
If Russia is allowed to invade, occupy and annex its neighbor, “that’s an inherently very unstable international system, which will affect America’s security and its prosperity,” Conley said.
A Ukrainian government minister warned Britain’s Sky News in December that a full invasion of Ukraine would spread conflict around Europe and could even trigger World War III.
“It is unpredictable as to what will happen,” said William Taylor, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. He noted that throughout history, conflicts often start small with an assassination or a strike on one country that then spreads to other parts of the world.
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a meeting in the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022.
Russia ‘won’t stop’ with Ukraine
A Russian invasion of Ukraine would spread fear across the region and has already led to a further buildup of NATO forces in other eastern European countries.
“If the Russians succeed in reestablishing a sphere of influence or of dominating Ukraine, they won’t stop there. They will continue,” Taylor said. “The Poles and the Romanians, the Czechs will be very concerned as they see Russian tanks coming west from Russia into Ukraine toward them, and they will ask for reinforcements from the United States.”
A successful invasion of Ukraine, Taylor said, could embolden Russia to be more aggressive in other arenas – such as cyberattacks, election meddling and influence campaigns designed to undermine Western democracies.
Other U.S. adversaries also will be watching to see whether the Biden administration and its NATO allies will follow through on their warnings to answer a Russian invasion with devastating economic sanctions and additional shipments of weapons to Ukraine and other eastern European countries.
“NATO and the U.S. credibility are on the line,” said Will Pomeranz, acting director of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute, a think tank dedicated to Russian and Eurasia research. “And if they fail, that will be taken by China and other adversaries as an unwillingness by the West to defend its interests.”
A Ukrainian soldier uses a hand-held periscope to view the positions of Russian-backed troops in a trench near the front line on Jan. 17, 2022 in the village of New York, formerly known as Novhorodske, Ukraine.
Putin’s power and legitimacy
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have erupted frequently in the three decades since Ukraine declared its independence.
Ukraine, which has a population of 44 million, has deep historical and cultural ties to Russia. The two countries share a 1,200-mile border. Many Ukrainians work in Russia. By some estimates, one-third or more of Ukrainians speak Russian as well as the country’s official language, Ukrainian. Russian companies are among the largest investors in Ukraine.
But Ukraine has forged closer ties to the West since the fall of the Soviet Union. In 2008, it sought – and was promised – membership in the NATO alliance. Though that membership has never been granted, the prospect of a bigger, stronger NATO has rattled Putin, who still sees Ukraine as a part of Russia.
Ukraine, Putin insists, must never be granted NATO membership.
In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, a swath of Ukraine territory between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Russian operatives and separatist fighters have since launched attacks on eastern Ukraine, and the Kremlin continually works to undermine the country’s sovereignty militarily and in other ways.
The U.S. and its allies view the annexation as illegal and imposed sanctions in response. Last year, the U.S. sent more than $400 million in military aid to Ukraine; since 2014, the U.S. has provided about $2.5 billion in assistance to the country.
The stage for the latest clash was set late last year when Russia deployed more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s eastern border. Russian forces are now preparing to conduct major drills in the Black and Azov seas in the coming days and have engaged in other military exercises, raising alarms that another invasion could come within days.
Putin has repeatedly denied he is plotting to invade the country again. On Saturday, the Kremlin accused the West of engaging in “provocative speculations” about Russia’s intentions. The U.S. and its NATO allies do not believe those denials, citing Putin’s long history of refusing to accept Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Analysts say Ukraine poses no defensive threat to Russia, so Putin’s designs on the country have more to do with his long-held ambitions of expanding Russia’s influence and returning to what he views as the greatness of the Soviet empire.
As Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, once said: “Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire. But with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.”
“This is all about Mr. Putin’s power, his legitimacy and maintaining it,” Conley said.
Putin’s legacy would be much more secure if he created a modern, thriving economy that benefited all Russians, Conley said. Instead, he has presided over a decade of steady economic decline in his country.
“While he has hypersonic cruise missiles, the Russian people are not getting the services and the standard of living that they deserve,” Conley said.
What Putin fears most, she said, is that Russians will see the Ukrainian people living in a free, democratic society where the results of elections aren’t predetermined and citizens are allowed to speak their minds.
“The greatest threat to Russia is a free and thriving Ukraine,” Conley said. “Because if Ukrainian people can experience it, why can’t the Russian people experience it?”
Selling Trump: A Profitable Post-Presidency Like No Other
Shane Goldmacher and Eric Lipton – February 12, 2022
An entrance to Trump Tower in Manhattan on the eve of the election, Nov. 2, 2020. (John Taggart/The New York Times)
In early December, Donald Trump put on a tuxedo and boarded the private jet of a scrap-metal magnate and crypto-miner for a short flight across Florida, touching down at an airport in Naples. There, a long red carpet marked the pathway into a Christmas-decorated hangar filled with supporters of Trump who had paid $10,000 to $30,000 for the privilege of attending a party and taking a photo with him.
The event had all the trappings of a typical high-end fundraiser: a giant American flag, a lectern, chandeliers and an open bar. Frank Stallone’s band provided the music; an anti-Biden “Let’s Go Brandon” banner hung from the rafters.
But the money raised did not go to Trump’s political operation. Instead, Trump’s share of the evening’s proceeds went straight into his pocket, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.
Multiple attendees said they bought their tickets from a private company, Whip Fundraising, whose founder, Brad Keltner, has asserted that “the lion’s share” went to charity. But the website advertising the event listed no charitable cause. And Keltner, reached by phone, declined to discuss how money was distributed.
In the year since Trump has left the White House, he has undertaken a wide-ranging set of moneymaking ventures, trading repeatedly on his political fame and fan base in pursuit of profit. Much as he did while in the White House, Trump has thoroughly blurred the lines between his political ambitions and his business interests.
He has gone on an arena tour with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, where a backstage “VIP package” sold for more than $7,500. He has published a $75 coffee-table book, after being paid a multimillion-dollar advance by a new publishing company co-founded by his eldest son. He has turned an online Trump store into a MAGA merchandiser, with his company sending marketing missives to people on his 2020 campaign’s email list.
That store is now selling red “Make America Great Again” hats for $50 each — a $20 markup from the price currently offered by his political action committee — with all proceeds going to a Trump-owned company.
His wife, Melania, has gotten into the act, too, auctioning off online collectibles and scheduling her own big-ticket event in Naples this April, a “tulips and topiaries high tea,” with VIP packages reaching $50,000 and an undisclosed portion going to charity.
For Trump, the monetization of his post-presidency represents a return to his roots. He expertly leveraged his celebrity as the host of “The Apprentice” and his image as a decisive businessman to build credibility when he first entered politics. Now, he is executing the same playbook, only in reverse: converting a political following that provided hundreds of millions of dollars in small campaign contributions into a base of consumers for all things branded Trump.
There are grandiose enterprises, such as a fledgling social-media company, whose billion-dollar market capitalization is largely predicated on Trump’s direct personal involvement. And there are smaller ones, like remodeling the lobby bar of Trump Tower in Manhattan and renaming it the 45 Wine and Whiskey Bar — where specialty cocktails range in price up to, yes, $45 (that one comes with two “American beef sliders”) and can be sipped in dark velvet chairs surrounded by Trump’s black-and-white presidential portraits and paraphernalia.
“You come here, you drink Trump,” said Daniel Popescu, a 79-year-old architect and a bar regular, whose typical order is a $20 glass of Trump Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine. He hailed Trump on a recent evening as “the best president this country has ever had.”
“For a billionaire to give up his life to do good for the country,” Popescu said, with a shake of his head and a sip, “it’s unbelievable.”
Other past presidents have cashed in financially after leaving the White House. Barack and Michelle Obama reportedly sold a joint book deal for $65 million. Bill and Hillary Clinton’s speechmaking after leaving the White House was estimated to have netted them $153 million by the spring of 2015, when Hillary Clinton announced her own run for president. George W. Bush has been a mainstay on the speaking circuit, too.
But no former president has been more determined to meld his business interests — from chocolate bars to real estate to a tech startup — with a continuing political operation and capitalize on that for personal gain.
Taylor Budowich, a spokesperson for Trump, noted that Trump had been wealthy before seeking public office. “After sacrificing considerably to lead our nation, there continues to be unprecedented demand for President Trump, his thoughts and his products, unlike anything politics has ever seen,” Budowich said.
Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, added that direct consumer sales and Trump’s public appearances were worth a modest amount of money compared with the organization’s real estate deals and other major ventures.
“We have had an exceptional year as a company,” he said.
Blurred lines between profit and politics
Any division between Trump’s business and his political operation can be hard to discern.
At his first campaign-style rallies of 2022, in Arizona and Texas, giant television screens paid for by Trump’s PAC advertised his $75 picture book. His political operation has also promoted the book in emails to his supporters, as has his official post-presidential office, which also issued a recent statement (“Check it out!”) promoting a Trump property in Miami.
Lawrence Noble, former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission, said that the combination of ways that Trump had monetized his life after the White House, while remaining intimately involved in Republican politics and a possible future candidate himself, had created ethical questions unlike any post-presidency in modern times.
“The thing that is different about Trump is the making-money part seems to have permeated everything,” Noble said. “There is this appearance, at least, that he is always thinking: How can I make a profit off of this?”
Trump faced similar questions while president, as he frequently promoted, patronized and profited from his private properties, including internationally. Watchdogs who worried then about his selling access remain concerned.
“It is wrong for influence and power in this country to be sold for personal profit,” Noble said.
Out of office, Trump faces few formal limits on his business dealings, though if he were to run again in 2024, some of his financial activity would be revealed on future disclosures. His political action committees have even fewer constraints than his reelection campaign account did.
In 2021, Trump’s political committees spent more than $600,000 on Trump properties for rent, meals, meeting expenses and hotel stays, records show. His PAC continued to make monthly $37,541.67 rent payments to Trump Tower Commercial LLC.
The roughly $375,000 the PAC paid in Trump Tower rent was more than the total of $350,000 that Trump’s group donated to the scores of federal and state-level political candidates he endorsed in 2021.
Many of those candidates, in turn, redirected funds back to Trump, holding lavish events at his properties. Herschel Walker, the former football player whom Trump recruited to run for Senate in Georgia, spent more than $135,000 at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private Florida club. The Republican National Committee forked over $175,000 for a fundraiser there in the spring.
Trump’s PAC made two $1 million donations to conservative nonprofits in 2021: the America First Policy Institute and the Conservative Partnership Institute. Both also hosted big events at Mar-a-Lago.
Marketing MAGA to the masses
After years of slapping his name, for a price, on everything from steaks to water bottles to golf courses, Trump has found a big new market for lower-priced goods like hats, T-shirts and books.
The new push to capitalize on Trump’s name and brand echoes what he has done for decades with his real estate company, whose holdings now include six hotels in the United States and more than a dozen golf clubs.
The real estate business has, for the most part, been shrinking, with the Trump family selling off, terminating or being pushed out of hotel contracts in Washington, Toronto, New York City, Vancouver and Panama in recent years.
As Trump left office, his company was going through a challenging time, with a bad year at its remaining hotels because of the coronavirus pandemic and the decision by several blue-chip vendors — including its law firm, real estate broker and two banks — to stop doing business with the family after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
But the golf business has benefited from a surge in play during the pandemic, with revenues even at the Trump golf course near Los Angeles, a Democratic stronghold, jumping by 50% since 2019, according to tax records.
Trump’s business practices are the subject of investigations in New York by the Manhattan district attorney and the state attorney general’s office, inquiries that Eric Trump says are politically motivated.
In an interview, the younger Trump accused Democratic politicians like Attorney General Letitia James of New York of seeking political power by promising to go after his father.
“Letitia James campaigned on the promise of harassing and suing Donald Trump,” he said. “It’s prosecutorial misconduct and it’s something you would find in a third world country.”
In Miami, the Trump family has announced plans to expand the Trump National Doral, long one of its biggest sources of revenue, by adding high-rise luxury condos.
On a far bigger scale, the Trump Media & Technology Group, which is behind the new social media company, has raised more than $1 billion. Bankers for the company dangled an unusual perk: Invest at least $100 million, get a phone call from the former president. Later, the price of such a call came down to $50 million.
But for the most part, since Trump left office, his business has focused on appealing to Middle America, not buyers of luxury condos or multimillionaire investors.
His four-stop tour with O’Reilly sought to fill arenas at $100 a ticket. O’Reilly pushed back on reports of empty seats by disclosing that “gross receipts” on the first show alone were $2 million. A tour organizer did not respond to requests for comment.
On sale at the events was Trump’s coffee-table book, which the former president has said is nearing 250,000 copies sold. His multimillion-dollar advance from the publishing company, first reported by The Washington Post, was confirmed by a person familiar with the arrangement; The Post also reported that Trump has delivered paid speeches since leaving office.
The book’s sales are scarcely spectacular: The tell-all from his niece, Mary Trump, had sold 950,000 copies by the day it went on sale. But Trump’s picture book is priced far higher. Signed copies went for $229.99 and quickly sold out.
Sergio Gor, a co-founder of Winning Team Publishing with Donald Trump Jr., called the book a success and said he was “in discussions” to acquire the rights to the former president’s next one.
Winning Team Publishing announced its second author this week: Charlie Kirk, the leader of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth group that holds its winter gala at Mar-a-Lago. Tax records for the most recent year available show the group spent nearly $280,000 there on food and beverages.
Trump’s for-profit store, meanwhile, has added a “MAGA collection,” and sells items like a $95 Mar-a-Lago Christmas ornament, that it is marketing to supporters of Trump’s 2020 campaign through email lists rented from the Trump political operation and maintained by Brad Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager.
Donald Trump Jr., for his part, operates another online store, selling proudly provocative clothes, like shirts that say, “Guns Don’t Kill People / Alec Baldwin Kills People” — a reference to the actor’s movie-set shooting last year. After the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen who shot and killed two people during the unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the store briefly promoted a new sweatshirt: “In a World Full of Alecs, Be a Kyle.”
Collectibles and ‘high tea’
Melania Trump, too, has found ways to monetize her ties to her husband, including through a series of online sales. In January, she put up for auction a digital portrait of her by a French artist, a print of the portrait and a white hat she once wore at the White House while meeting the president of France.
Her plan to maximize the sales price by accepting payments only in cryptocurrency appears to have backfired, however: The crash in cryptocurrency prices in January reduced the planned opening-bid price of $250,000 to about $170,000 on the final day of the auction.
The auction drew just seven bids, according to electronic records, which also suggest that the winning bid was made by the auction’s sponsors.
Shortly before the auction, Melania Trump joined the conservative social-media site Parler. Her first posts were about Pearl Harbor Day and deadly tornadoes in Kentucky, but she began frequently posting about the online auction.
On Wednesday, Parler announced a deal with Melania Trump whose financial terms were not disclosed. In a statement, she said she would provide the site exclusive content “to inspire others” and promote a series of future online auctions of “collectibles” like the hat she wore at the White House.
She is now selling tickets to the April “high tea,” with organizers saying that some of the profits will benefit an initiative of her “Be Best” endeavor called “Fostering the Future,” meant to provide computer-science scholarships to young people who have been in foster care.
There was no indication of how much of the proceeds Melania Trump herself intended to pocket. Florida requires any organization that raises charitable contributions in the state to register. No charity with the name “Fostering the Future” or “Be Best” is registered in Florida.
Asked about the solicitation, officials at the Florida agency that oversees charitable fundraising said they also could not find evidence of the required state registration and had opened an inquiry as a result.
“Consumer Services Division is currently investigating whether this event involves an entity operating in violation of Chapter 496, Florida Statutes,” Erin Moffet, an agency spokesperson, said in a statement, referring to the state law requiring charities to register before soliciting money.
Melania Trump did not respond to questions about the state requirements.
The company behind the “high tea” event, Whip Fundraising, also organized Donald Trump’s holiday party in Naples, Florida, in December, where several attendees said that guests were asked to put their phones in small magnetic pouches while Trump spoke to limit the shooting of unauthorized videos or photos.
Beyond the ticket price, the event generated revenue from an auction of items including a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon with a portrait of Trump painted on the label, and a signed photograph of Trump holding a Bible across the street from the White House after the police cleared protesters from the area in June 2020.
Keltner said that events like the one in Naples raised large sums for charity but declined to discuss the specifics of any events with Trump.
It was Keltner who arranged the flight for Trump to Naples, on the plane of Adam Weitsman, a crypto-mining investor who also owns a scrap-metal company in New York. Weitsman said he flew Trump and the former first lady as a “favor” to Keltner.
He said he did not have to pay for the privilege.
“I just gave them a ride,” Weitsman said, adding that the Trumps were very nice and respectful.
Russian false-flag plan prompts U.S. to plan for worst in Ukraine
Margaret Brennan – February 12, 2022
New granular detail about the planning of a false flag attack in Ukraine by Russia was among the intelligence items discussed in the Situation Room on Thursday night in an emergency meeting, U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News.
That detail was just part of what two U.S. officials described as a broad mosaic of information that has been building since the fall and which has led to the Biden administration’s planning for the worst-case scenario of a multi-axis, simultaneous attack on Ukraine by the Russian military.
The Washington Post was the first to report, on Friday, that a false flag operation was among the data points in the new intelligence.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Friday that the U.S. is firmly convinced that Russia is looking hard at the creation of a false-flag operation to justify an invasion, “something that they generate and try to blame on the Ukrainians as a trigger for military action.” Sullivan said that any subsequent attack would likely begin with “aerial bombing and missile attacks” ahead of “the onslaught of a massive force.”
Russian forces are already positioned to send troops pouring across Ukraine’s northern border with Belarus and launch a maritime assault from the Black Sea. Moscow is also capable of sending troops over Ukraine’s eastern border.
U.S. officials have said Russia already has intelligence operatives on the ground that could create a pretext for an invasion by assisting in creating a false flag. Last month, U.S. officials said this could involve Russian operatives “trained in urban warfare and in using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia’s own proxy forces.”
Weather conditions that freeze the ground would allow heavy Russian military equipment including tanks to advance more easily. But ground troops are not the only option that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use.
U.S. officials do not have evidence that Putin has decided to deploy these assets to launch an invasion but emphasize that he is now capable of making the decision to execute with very little warning. On Friday, Politico was the first to report that the U.S. had intelligence indicating that Russian military leaders had been told to be ready by February 16.
The cumulative picture of Moscow’s planning triggered the U.S. on Saturday to pull out U.S. military advisers, withdraw some embassy staff from Kyiv and move staff to a makeshift consular post in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine. Sullivan said Friday that “prudence demands” planning — even though the U.S. does not know exactly what is going to happen.
Privately, U.S. and Western officials say it is entirely possible that this could be an incredibly dangerous and expensive bluff on Putin’s part, but they argue that it is the responsibility of their leaders to weigh the risk.
Three Western officials from allied governments expressed skepticism that Putin would take action as extreme as putting 100,000 soldiers on the march and risk a state-on-state conflict, or be willing to take on the occupation of a country that has resisted Russian aggression for the past eight years. Yet all three acknowledged that intelligence indicates the Russian military is definitely planning for that option.
A blue Texas, Donald Trump vs. Republicans, Canadian truckers, overdose deaths: ICYMI
USA TODAY – February 12, 2022
Marc Siegel – American physician and writer
In today’s fast-paced news environment, it can be hard to keep up. For your weekend reading, we’ve started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some of the week’s top USA TODAY Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.
“It was a Republican National Committee meeting that will live in infamy, and perhaps in history. The RNC’s decision Friday to rebrand deadly mob violence at the U.S. Capitol as “legitimate political discourse” and censure two GOP House members investigating the attack has exposed a party so divided against itself that, as Abraham Lincoln told his fellow Republicans in 1858, it cannot stand.”
“Despite the fact that people of color made up 95% of the population growth in the past decade, the state’s halls of power remain almost exclusively in the hands of old, white male lawmakers. Although Texas is on the cusp of turning blue, these same lawmakers banned abortion after about six weeks and restricted voting rights, culminating in possibly the most conservative legislative session in a generation.”
“If hypocrisy were a panacea, the coronavirus would have been banished from earth long ago. Politicians and government officials have brazenly violated the COVID-19 edicts they impose on everyone else. But after two years of prohibitions designed to placate fears rather than protect public health, can oppressed citizens around the globe compel their rulers to end absurd restrictions vexing their daily lives?”
“For centuries, wolves have been exploited for their furs, killed in the name of protecting people, livestock and game species and nearly eliminated through government-sponsored actions. Decades of hard work by states, tribes and stakeholders on the ground, along with federal protections, successfully recovered gray wolves after two centuries of decline to the brink of extinction.”
“This is the fear version of reality, the message the news media use to stoke us into a frenzy. They know how to probe our weak points, know how to keep us in a state of alarm, know that we will continue to hide behind our masks as we walk alone along the dark cold streets, nervously looking for signs that an interloper harboring omicron BA.2 may be nigh.”
“I have never seen an official Pentagon report on civilian casualties as detailed as the one I watched Friday. In the 20 years since the beginning of the U.S. global counterterrorism campaign, Human Rights Watch has investigated at least 27 incidents of the U.S. killing civilians, and other organizations have documented many more. As far as we know, U.S. military officials were held responsible in only one of them, when a Doctors Without Borders was hit in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Most of the time, mourning families received no acknowledgement of their loved one’s death and no explanation for why it happened.”
“But while we work to stop the bleeding, we also have to probe its source. Why are thousands of young American lives entangled in such tragedy? What – more upstream than the fentanyl itself – is fueling the uptick in addictions and overdoses? In an era where, from social activism to scientific research, it’s plain to see how “sharp and astute and tolerant and thoughtful and entrepreneurial our young people are,” as former President Barack Obama once put it, why are overdoses taking a front-row seat?”
“First, the global community can’t look away. You can’t identify as a feminist and remain silent on what’s happening in Afghanistan. Afghan women are fighting for their existence. And amid the catastrophic circumstances in country, women and children are shouldering most of the burden of hunger and poverty. Some parents have already faced the unimaginable choice of selling their organs and their children just to feed their families.”
“Hello from northeast Ohio, where womenfolk are worrying about what their ice-fishing husbands are up to, now that we know their ice shanties can be magnets for prostitution. Kidding, kidding. Nobody believes this is happening, except for Craig Shubert, the mayor of Hudson, Ohio. He apparently is imagining sturdy ice fishermen in padded parkas casting aside their poles as they coo, ‘Come to Daddy, you Carhartt-clad vixen.'”
“It is a fact not only of Black history but also of our present that encounters with police are more dangerous for us. Black Americans are three times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police, according to a study published in 2020 from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. And in the urban area of Chicago, that rate is 6.5 times higher. No-knock warrants, which are disproportionately used against Black Americans, contribute to those sobering statistics.”
Guest Opinion: Uncle Sam needs you to stand against the enemy within
Steve Nolan – February 12, 2022
Recently an old college friend was offended that I made an analogy between Adolph Hitler and Donald Trump. He correctly and redundantly reminded me that we have no concentration camps, our neighbors are not being carted off in cattle cars — truthful, logical arguments that prevent us from solving problems before they get out of hand.
Charlottesville and January 6 were the handwriting on the wall. People we would have to disqualify from military service due to anti-Constitutional beliefs, were called “fine people“. We had witnessed this perversion before, when the president told America that he and Kim Jong Un, a human rights monster cited by the United Nations for crimes against humanity, “fell in love”; and when the president helped a Saudi Prince cover up the murder and mutilation of a journalist.
Days ago the RNC censured Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their opposition to “legitimate political discourse.” Here are the facts: on Jan. 6 an army attacked law enforcement to breach our Capitol; 140 police officers were assaulted and injured, five would die. It was a lawless coup attempt, not legitimate discourse, and Republicans who prefer the truth to a lie are being targeted. The big lie, as Goebbels said, is more believable than the smallest and we are witnessing proof of that obscenity.
Here’s another fact: a Christian nation once threw 6 million human beings into ovens and followed a leader screaming about his struggle (Mein Kampf) and the Luggenpresse (German mainstream media). Charles Dickens, in “A Christmas Carol,” has a ghost tell Scrooge that mankind should have been his business not the pursuit of wealth. In America today millions of people who claim to have dedicated themselves to following a master of love and forgiveness have turned themselves over to a person of cruelty and selfishness.
And my college buddy and I are the perfect example of Putin’s strategic accomplishments. The DOJ, Senate and House investigations into Russian cyber warfare informed us that Putin’s main objectives were to divide the American people and make us lose faith in the electoral process. With the widespread belief in “The Big Steal” it is mission accomplished for an enemy state (with the main agent being Donald Trump). There is no way to sugarcoat treason. We let the former president get away with it once before in Helsinki, where Donald Trump told the world he had confidence “in both parties,” meaning U.S. intelligence and the enemy’s denial. This prompted Senator John McCain to respond and recoil that the president of the United States abased himself in front of a tyrant. As a career military officer it would be a betrayal for me not to voice the same truths (especially since the Soviet Union/Russia was enemy number one my entire career).
The genius of our federal oath of office is that it says we will defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We are used to enemies being foreign, as my parents experienced in WWII, my brothers in Vietnam and me in Afghanistan. But Abraham Lincoln told us that this great nation could only fall to an enemy that would rise up within our own shores. Robert Mueller told Congress that his findings deserved the attention of every American, the threat as serious as any he’d seen in his career. Defending our country and our Constitution is the duty of every citizen of the United States. Uncle Sam needs us, every one of us.
Steve Nolan, Major, U.S. Air Force retired, career military and Afghanistan veteran, is a resident of Newtown.
Boris Johnson Reiterates Support for Ukraine in the Face of Russian Aggression
Caroline Downey – February 10, 2022
United Kingdom prime minister Boris Johnson reiterated his nation’s commitment to preventing a Russian incursion into Ukraine in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Wednesday evening.
In the piece, Johnson emphasized Ukraine’s rights to sovereignty and self-determination, and signaled that NATO would stand up for the threatened eastern European state.
“If I may adapt some famous words: All nations are created equal, they are endowed by international law with certain inalienable rights, and first among these is the right not to have their territory seized, or their foreign policy dictated at gunpoint, by a powerful neighbor,” wrote Johnson.
While Russia continues to signal that an invasion is imminent, mounting forces at its border with Ukraine, Johnson touted the UK’s massive investments into collective security.
“We have the biggest military budget in Europe and the second-largest in NATO. We are the only NATO member that commits the whole of its nuclear deterrent and an aircraft carrier to the alliance,” he noted.
“We have contributed more troops than any other ally to NATO’s ‘enhanced forward presence’ in the Baltic states and Poland. The British army leads NATO’s battle group in Estonia, and we are preparing to double the size of this contingent,” continued Johnson. “We have deployed more than 600 soldiers to Poland, with more on standby to aid the response to any crisis.”
In addition to projecting British military strength, Johnson also pointed out that the U.K. has made an effort to bolster Ukraine’s own fighting force, training 22,000 Ukrainian soldiers and supplying 2,000 antitank missiles.
Recapping his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, Johnson warned Russia that the U.K. would “impose heavier economic sanctions on Moscow than ever before” if it proceeds with an assault. Critics have argued that stricter sanctions contingent on invasion, which President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are championing in legislation, are an ineffective deterrent. To supplement its warnings, the U.K. has been engaging Russia in diplomacy.
Johnson’s firm statement of solidarity with Ukraine comes a few weeks after President Biden seemed to accidentally encourage a Russian incursion into the country, indicating that NATO members have not readied a unified response.
Invoking the United Nations Charter, the prime minister wrote that the U.K. did not seek to antagonize Russia, but would protect the interests of all independent nations, including Ukraine.
“I say that with confidence for the simple reason that NATO has no intention of strategically encircling or threatening Russia. On the contrary, we share a profound respect for the Russian nation and a vivid memory of fighting side by side against fascism,” declared Johnson.
“If we combine strong deterrence with patient diplomacy, I believe we can find our way through this crisis. At stake are the rules that protect every nation—big as well as small,” he concluded.
The UK government says it’ll crack down on the fortunes of Putin’s supporters. Experts say it needs to go much further.
Thomas Colson – February 11, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during a press conference after meeting with French President in Moscow, on February 7, 2022.THIBAULT CAMUS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The UK has promised to crack down on Putin’s allies — but that’s complicated by London’s reputation as a “laundromat”.
The city is a haven of Russian dirty money, undermining plans to impose sanctions, experts say.
Oligarchs are drawn to London due to its free-flowing financial markets, lavish houses, and international standing.
Boris Johnson’s government has taken a tough line on Moscow in recent weeks as Russian President Vladimir Putin masses hundreds of thousands of his troops on the Ukrainian border.
Earlier this week Johnson flew to Kiev in a show of solidarity and warned that any such incursion would be “disastrous”, while his Foreign Secretary Liz Truss held a press conference with her counterpart Sergey Lavrov that was remarkably frosty.
But there’s a contradiction at the heart of the UK’s ostensibly muscular new position: London’s own reputation as a playground for Russian oligarchs, some of whom are alleged by MPs to have close links with Putin himself.
Hundreds of wealthy Russians have made their home in the UK in recent years, drawn to the expensive townhouses of Belgravia and Mayfair, the UK’s exclusive private schools, and London’s reputation as a cultural hub. Russians also use London’s debt market to raise billions of pounds a year, and there are 23 Russian companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Such is the scale of the issue Roman Borisovich, an anti-corruption campaigner, has run guided bus tours around London pointing out lavish homes owned by former ministers and wealthy friends of Putin.
Many of the wealthy Russians living in London have made their fortunes entirely legitimately. But lawmakers and campaigners say a significant portion of the Russian money flowing into London and being used to buy up lavish properties across the UK is suspicious.
In 2018 Transparency International identified 176 properties worth £4.4 billion that had been bought with suspicious wealth, over a fifth of which came from Russian individuals. This figure was “the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to London property, the anti-corruption charity said.
Those same figures launder their reputations, as well as their fortunes, through London, said Thomas Mayne, a corruption expert at Chatham House.
“When you have these Russians who have loyalty to the Kremlin in the UK, that money can be used for a variety of malign purposes, for a variety of types of influencing that may be detrimental to British democracy and British society as a whole. If they’re funding disinformation campaigns or funding pro-Russian think-tanks.”
The UK has actively cultivated its reputation as a haven for foreign capital in recent decades. “Ever since the collapse of empire, we’ve made our money by servicing rich foreigners in all sorts of ways,” said Edward Lucas, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
The UK is making renewed efforts to crack down on the inflow of illicit Russian money to the UK.
As well as a beefed-up sanctions regime, the government has promised to bring forward an Economic Crime bill which contains measures designed help expose and stem the inflow of illicit Russian money to the UK.
Liberal Democrat peers are also pushing to crack down on a loophole to stop ports which have been designated as post-Brexit “freeports” from being used to launder money.
The new sanctions legislation announced on Thursday substantially broadens the criteria for Russian sanctions, which could allow officials to cause greater damage to the Kremlin, including by targeting any individual deemed to be “obtaining a benefit from or supporting the Government of Russia”.
But the UK already has many of the anti-corruption tools needed to target individuals with links to the Kremlin, said Tom Keatinge, an expert in finance crime and security at the Royal United Services Institute, in an interview before the new legislation was published.
The government last year rolled out the UK’s version of the Magnitsky Act, which allows it to sanction individuals linked to corruption. The UK could also make use of Unexplained Wealth Orders or asset-freezing orders which were introduced specifically to deal with dirty money in the UK.
“A very great many of the oligarchs [Truss] would have in her sights could probably be targeted by the anti-corruption sanctions that were introduced in 2021,” he told Insider.
However, targeting individual oligarchs with links to Putin may not be nearly enough to dissuade Putin from military aggression, Keatinge said.
“If we’re going to have a war in Europe, going after the oligarchs to my mind is a bit like using a peashooter,” Keatinge said. “You need to be going after the banks, the energy companies [with ties in the UK.] You need to be going after the Russian economy, not after the individuals.”
Many experts have questioned why it has taken the threat of war in Ukraine for the UK government to step up its activity against illicit Russian money in the UK.
“I think it’s very clear that the UK government — and UK society as a whole — has been quite happy to accept this money without thinking of consequences down the line,” said Thomas Mayne, a corruption expert at Chatham House, during a Twitter Spaces event with Insider last week.
“Russia’s done some pretty bad stuff in the past, but only now are we thinking about cracking down on some of this Russian money flowing into the UK from Russia.”
The question of tackling dirty money in London may ultimately be a question of will on the UK government’s part.
Labour MP Chris Bryant, a member of the UK’s Foreign Affairs committee, on Thursday accused the government of being “lazy” in bringing forward new sanctions measures compared to other countries, adding: “We are Johnny-come-latelies when it comes to sanctions in this area.”
Diplomats in Washington have grown frustrated at the UK’s perceived lack of interest in tackling the problem. The Centre for American Progress, which has close links to the Biden administration, said in January that perceived lack of action was compounded by “close ties between Russian money and the United Kingdom’s ruling conservative party, the press, and its real estate and financial industry.”
Lucas argues that the government needs to go much further to make the UK less hospitable to illicit money, including by introducing sweeping reform to Companies House, the UK’s registrar of private companies which he described as a “black hole” for illicit finance.
“There’s a vast agenda of very overdue, boring, important stuff to do which is a world away from the tabloid headlines, but without that nothing else we do will be serious. If you don’t know who owns stuff, you don’t really know how to apply the sanctions,” he said.
