National and international media news & headlines compiled by CLG

The Putrid Underbelly of Woke Capitalism By CLG Founder Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D. | 16 May 2023 | How is that nearly all major corporate heads and influential members of society have simultaneously gone woke? Could it be that whoever controlled Jeffrey Epstein sets the agenda through the use of blackmail, directing these corporate heads and other leaders to convert to wokeness, while steering their philanthropy to designated ends, including the funding of critical race theory and the LGBTQIA+ agenda? In other words, is our capitalist class controlled by whoever oversaw Epstein’s thirty-year entrapment operation?

A secretive annual meeting attended by the world’s elite has AI top of the agenda –The annual Bilderberg event is shrouded in mystery, with discussions held behind closed doors and under Chatham House rules. | 18 May 2023 | OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will join forces with key leadership from companies like Microsoft and Google this week as a secretive meeting of the business and political elite kick-starts in Lisbon, Portugal. Artificial intelligence will top the agenda as the ChatGPT chief meets with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, DeepMind head Demis Hassabis and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the annual Bilderberg Meeting. The tech titans will be joined by political heavyweights including former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba for a range of discussions spanning international relations, trade, energy and finance. All in, around 130 participants from 23 countries are set to attend the private meeting… Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, BP chief Bernard Looney, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne, investor Peter Thiel and a number of EU politicians will also be there. The three-day event, which this year runs from Thursday to Sunday, is shrouded in mystery, with clandestine talks held behind closed doors and subject to Chatham House rules, meaning the identity and affiliation of speakers must not be disclosed. [See also: List of Participants 2023.]

FBI obtained Americans’ bank records without subpoena – whistleblowers | 18 May 2023 | The Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained the financial records of Americans’ from Bank of America “without any legal process” following the January 6, 2021, riot, according to an interim staff report from the House Judiciary Committee and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The report containing allegations from FBI whistleblowers is the subject of a select committee hearing on Thursday. “Just like FBI whistleblowers [Garret] O’Boyle and [Stephen] Friend, retired FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst George Hill provided the Committee with detailed allegations of FBI civil liberties abuses,” read the report, which was released ahead of Thursday’s hearing. “Specifically, he testified that following the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Bank of America (BoA) gave the FBI’s Washington Field Office a list of individuals who had made transactions in the D.C., Maryland, Virginia area with a BoA credit or debit card between January 5 and January 7, 2021. He also testified that individuals who had previously purchased a firearm with a BoA product were elevated to the top of the list provided by BoA,” it also read.

FBI Audit Reveals 8,000 Unjustified Searches of Americans’ Communications | 15 May 2023 | The FBI conducted thousands of queries on digital data collected on U.S. citizens in 2021 and 2022 despite having no warrant and no justification under the FBI’s own rules, according to an internal report released on May 10. The audit, conducted by the FBI Office of Internal Auditing (OIA), was intended to examine the agency’s compliance with rules for querying data the government routinely collects on U.S. citizens under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). FISA allows the government to collect electronic data, including phone calls, text messages, and emails of foreigners overseas, even if the communications involve a U.S. citizen. U.S. agencies can then search that data in connection with national security investigations.

Trump tears into ‘treacherous charade’ of Russian collusion probe – and calls for Hillary, James Comey and the Democrats to ‘pay a heavy price’ for Durham report that’s sparked ‘public anger’ at a ‘level I have not seen’ | 15 May 2023 | Donald Trump has lashed out at ex-FBI Director James Comey after a new report concluded his probe into alleged Russian collusion should never have been opened. The former president, who has long decried that investigation as a “witch hunt,” said in an interview with Fox News Digital that those officials should be held accountable. “I, and much more importantly, then American public have been victims of this long-running and treasonous charade started by the Democrats — started by Comey,” the 76-year-old real estate mogul said. “Public anger over this report is at a level that I have not seen before…there must be a heavy price to pay for putting our country through this,” he added. Trump, who is the runaway favorite for Republican presidential nomination, later hit out at the FBI once more on his Truth Social platform. “WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe!” Trump said.

‘We have to defang and defund them!’ Matt Gaetz suggests FBI agents should be indicted after Durham report that found no Trump collusion with Russia – as Bureau issues groveling statement –Matt Gaetz on Monday night said that the FBI was ‘weaponized’ against Donald Trump, hours after the Durham report was made public –Jim Jordan, chair of House Judiciary Committee, said there was a ‘double standard’ between Democrats and Republicans, and FBI funding should be cut | 16 May 2023 | Rep. Matt Gaetz suggested FBI agents should be fired and prosecuted over the Durham report, which concluded the Bureau should never have launched the probe into whether Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. Gaetz said the agency should be defunded and “defanged,” describing the agents’ actions as “ugly,” after Durham ruled there was insufficient evidence to probe Trump in the first place. The Florida lawmaker said John Durham’s recommendation that only one person — a lawyer who lied to the FBI — be charged with wrongdoing was “insufficient.” “This report is an insufficient consequence for the malfeasance and corruption that we have seen here,” Gaetz said. “It was an operation from beginning to end to fuse political opposition research from the DNC and the Clinton campaign with this intelligence process and criminal process. And it’s a sad day in America. If that had been a Republican operation — an operation to help a Republican candidate — it wouldn’t have ended in a report: it would have ended with real significant indictments.”

‘Patriot Act on Steroids’: Bill to Ban TikTok Could Lead to ‘Sweeping Surveillance and Censorship’ in U.S., Critics Say | 19 May 2023 | U.S. lawmakers are considering a bill that would grant the U.S. government vast new powers to surveil and censor U.S. citizens. The RESTRICT Act — the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act, or Senate Bill 686 — would give the federal government new powers ostensibly to mitigate national security threats posed by technology products from countries that the U.S. deems adversarial. The bill would grant the U.S. secretary of commerce the authority to “identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, or otherwise mitigate” national security risks associated with technology linked to a foreign adversary. Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D., author of Google Archipelago: The Digital Gulag and the Simulation of Freedom, agreed. He told The Defender: “The RESTRICT Act is not only aimed at the activities and expression of companies and individuals from nations deemed inimical to U.S. interests; it is a backdoor means through which the federal government can oversee the opinions and activities of all U.S. citizens, increasing the state’s powers of surveillance and abrogating citizen’s first amendment rights.”

Pentagon acknowledges $3 billion accounting error in Ukraine aid | 18 May 2023 | Through an accounting error, the Pentagon overestimated the value of the security aid it has sent to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, according to several news reports. The error was an overestimation by 3 billion, which Defense officials attributed to a mistake over using cost estimates based on new equipment rather than the older versions delivered to Ukraine. Essentially, Pentagon officials used replacement cost to value the weapons rather than the value of the weapons through purchase and depreciation. The mistake was discovered in March after an internal security audit and congressional lawmakers were briefed on the issue on Thursday.

U.S. involved in assassination of Russian public figures – Moscow | 19 May 2023 | The most high-profile Ukrainian “terrorist acts” in Russia were carried out with the assistance of Washington, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, has claimed. Speaking at a government meeting on Friday, Patrushev said that Russia has information that “the murders of Darya Dugina and Vladlen Tatarsky, the bombing of Zakhar Prilepin’s car, the explosion at the Crimean Bridge,” the Nord Stream pipelines sabotage, and other “terrorists acts” were “planned and carried out under the coordination of US special services.” Those attacks were “accompanied by an information campaign prepared in advance in Washington and London, designed to destabilize the social and political situation, [and to] undermine the constitutional foundations and sovereignty of Russia,” the security chief stressed. “The intensity of terrorist attacks has vastly increased” since Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine over a year ago, he added.

‘Radioactive cloud’ threatening western Europe – Russian security chief –The hazard was produced by depleted uranium munitions destroyed in Ukraine, Nikolay Patrushev has claimed | 19 May 2023 | The destruction of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine has produced a radioactive cloud which has been blown toward Western Europe, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, has claimed. The UK has supplied this type of munition to Ukraine to be fired from British-made Challenger tanks. The senior official revealed the purported threat during a government meeting on Friday, in which he accused the US of manipulating its allies to provide “help” to other nations that results in harm being done to the recipients. “They ‘helped’ Ukraine this way too, applied pressure to its satellites to supply depleted uranium munitions. Their destruction resulted in a radioactive cloud moving towards Western Europe. They have detected an increase in radiation in Poland,” Patrushev stated.

Seven UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles shot down – Moscow | 16 May 2023 | Several Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which were recently supplied to Ukraine by Britain, have been shot down by Russian air defenses over the past 24 hours, its Defense Ministry has said. “Seven Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles, three HARM anti-radar missiles and seven HIMARS multiple rocket launcher shells were intercepted,” the ministry’s spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, announced during a briefing on Tuesday… According to Konashenkov, 22 Ukrainian drones were also destroyed over Russia’s newly incorporated territories: the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions. The spokesman said Russia’s overnight missile barrage on Ukrainian military formations, hardware, and depots of ammunition and equipment that had been provided by the West had “achieved its goal. All intended targets were hit.” Among those targets was a U.S.-supplied Patriot missile system, which was destroyed in the capital Kiev by a Kinzhal hypersonic missile, Konashenkov said.

European study finds COVID vaccines could be causing ‘long-term brain damage’ – A review of neurological side effects of COVID-19 vaccination. European Journal of Medical Research. | 25 Feb 2023 | Abstract: “…[T]here are many reports of side effects after getting a COVID-19 vaccine. According to these reports, vaccination can have an adverse event, especially on nervous system. The most important and common complications are cerebrovascular disorders including cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, transient ischemic attack, intracerebral hemorrhage, ischemic stroke, and demyelinating disorders including transverse myelitis, first manifestation of MS, and neuromyelitis optica. These effects are often acute and transient, but they can be severe and even fatal in a few cases. Herein, we have provided a comprehensive review of documents reporting neurological side effects of COVID-19 vaccines in international databases from 2020 to 2022 and discussed neurological disorders possibly caused by vaccination.”

Printer Error Turns Almost a Million Registered Voters in Nassau County, New York, Democratic | 19 May 2023 | A printer error in Nassau County, New York, turned every registered voter in the county Democratic. The printer reportedly botched over 976,000 voter registration cards and labeled every voter in the county Democratic. Republicans make up over 60% of registered voters in Nassau County which left many Conservatives in the county feeling absolutely blindsided by the error. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told NBC 4 News: “We’re already starting to get phone calls from people, saying, ‘I’m a registered Republican, I’m a registered Conservative – how come I’m being identified as a Democrat? Who changed my registration?’ And they’re quite upset about it.”

Biden’s Pick for Top NIH Post Has Deep Ties to Pharma – ‘That Is How Agencies Are Captured’ | 17 May 2023 | Joe Biden this week nominated cancer specialist Dr. Monica Bertagnolli for director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — a move that has already generated controversy because of Bertagnolli’s longstanding financial ties to Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies. Bertagnolli is director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the largest of the 19 institutes and seven centers under the aegis of the NIH… Under Bertagnolli’s leadership, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology has received more than 323 million in funding from Pfizer and other Big Pharma firms, according to Open Payments data revealed by The Daily Signal and The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project. In a series of tweets, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Children’s Health Defense chairman on leave and Democratic candidate for president in 2024, criticized Bertagnolli’s nomination. “The White House left the Pfizer connection out of its announcement of the nomination. Does this mean Dr. Bertagnolli is personally corrupt? Not at all. But it does mean that she will probably represent the viewpoints and priorities of the pharmaceutical industry. That is how agencies are captured,” Kennedy wrote.

Supreme Court rules for social media giants in cases over third-party content, declines to address Section 230 –The major question of how far Section 230 should go remains unanswered | 18 May 2023 | The Supreme Court on Thursday handed big tech companies, including Google and Twitter, legal wins in a pair of lawsuits alleging that the companies should be liable for ISIS [I-CIA-SIS] attacks because of content the terror organization promoted using their platforms. The companies were sued separately by the families of the victims. In the case against Twitter, Justice Clarence Thomas authored a unanimous opinion saying that the families did not provide sufficient evidence to establish that the companies should be held liable for aiding and abetting… The justices declined to answer the question of how far the scope of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act goes. The nearly 30-year-old law gives digital platforms a measure of immunity from some criminal and civil claims.

Supreme Court allows Illinois ‘assault weapons’ ban to take effect –Illinois ban will remain in effect while lower courts consider its constitutional status | 17 May 2023 | The U.S. Supreme Court allowed Illinois’ ban on “assault weapons” to take effect temporarily on Wednesday. The ruling allows the Illinois law to remain in effect while lower courts deliberate on its constitutional status. Wednesday’s ruling comes after a gun shop owner in Illinois requested an injunction against the ban. The Illinois law bans the sale and new possession of semi-automatic “assault weapons.” Those who already legally own such weapons would not have to turn them in. The law also bans the sale of large capacity magazines.

Joe Manchin abruptly tanks Biden nominee picked to oversee admin’s crackdown on gas stoves | 17 May 2023 | The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee canceled a vote to advance Joe Biden’s nominee to oversee energy efficiency regulations in an unexpected last-minute change, Fox News Digital has learned. Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., pulled an agenda item to consider Biden’s nomination of Jeff Marootian to lead the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) from a scheduled panel meeting Wednesday morning. The committee had been slated to advance the nomination to a full floor vote, but will now just consider the 21 other agenda items. “While I supported Mr. Marootian’s nomination in December, since then the office he’s been nominated to lead has proposed stove efficiency rules that I’ve raised concerns about,” Manchin told Fox News Digital in a statement.  

Trump-backed Daniel Cameron wins GOP primary in Kentucky governor’s race | 19 May 2023 | Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron on Tuesday won the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary, defeating former Ambassador to United Nations Kelly Craft and Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles. The primary race was essentially a proxy battle between the two 2024 GOP presidential frontrunners, former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump endorsed Cameron’s bid to be governor of the Bluegrass State last June, and just hours before the polls closed, DeSantis threw his support behind Craft, a former Trump administration official. “President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. The results in Kentucky’s Republican gubernatorial primary tonight reaffirm that,” Alex Pfeiffer, spokesman for the Make America Great Again PAC, said after Cameron’s victory on Tuesday.

HHS Earmarks Millions of Dollars to Give Illegal Immigrant Minors Long Term Foster Care | 15 May 2023 | It is not enough that American taxpayers spend billions of d-llars annually to “temporarily” care for the onslaught of illegal immigrant minors that cross into the U.S. through the Mexican border until they get released to relatives or sponsors. Now the Biden administration is quietly doling out tens of millions more for long-term foster care through fiscal year 2024. The funds will go to providers that will give Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) with no family in the U.S. continuing “quality care in a community setting.” The accommodations will focus on migrants up to 17 years of age, including pregnant and parenting teens and those who are “especially vulnerable or with other special needs,” according to the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency distributing the m-ney. The allocation comes just weeks after Judicial Watch reported that the government is spending 50 million on “post-release” services for the never-ending influx of migrant youths.

Illegal Alien Released Into U.S. By Biden’s DHS Is Charged With Raping Teenage Girl | 17 May 2023 | An illegal alien is accused of raping a teenage girl in Prattville, Alabama, after having been released into the United States at the southern border by Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Grevi Geovani Rivera Zavala, a 29-year-old illegal alien from Honduras, was arrested and charged with the first-degree rape of a teenage girl late last week. According to WFSA 12 News, Zavala allegedly raped the girl in the women’s restroom of a restaurant. Police allege that the illegal alien…raped her in a completely random attack. “This rape never should have happened,” Autauga County District Attorney CJ Robinson told local media of the incident, noting that Zavala was an illegal alien who first arrived at the southern border in November 2021 using a fake name.

Court blocks Eric Adams from removing illegal immigrants from New York City –“We should not have to bear the burden of the immigration crisis that the Federal government and Mayor Adams created.” | 17 May 2023 | On Tuesday, the New York Supreme Court temporarily blocked New York City mayor Eric Adams from transporting illegal immigrants to nearby Orange County. State Supreme Court Judge Sandra Sciortino ruled that while illegal immigrants who had already been bussed up the Hudson to stay at the Crossroads Hotel and Ramada by Wyndham in Newburgh would be allowed to remain, Adams was not to send any more. “New York City should not be establishing a homeless shelter outside of its borders in Orange County,” Neuhaus said in a statement. “The city is a self-proclaimed sanctuary city; Orange County is not. We should not have to bear the burden of the immigration crisis that the Federal government and Mayor Adams created.”

Texas sends migrants to Naval Observatory near Kamala Harris’s home, once again | 14 May 2023 | A busload of migrants from Texas was unloaded at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, where Vice President [sic] Kamala Harris’s home is located at Number One Observatory Circle, according to reports. An ABC local news station in Washington, D.C., tweeted videos of migrants getting off the bus and grabbing their belongings from the storage area underneath. This is not the first time Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sent a bus full of immigrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to Harris’s home. A bus of migrants was dropped off outside of her home on Christmas in 2022. Migrants were also bused to the Naval Observatory in September and October.

Illegal Alien Tracking Map Shows Movement of the Masses of Illegals Across the U.S. – 71% End Up in Republican Districts | 15 May 2023 | In December 2022, Heritage Foundation released a study tracking the movement of illegal aliens from their NGO launching point to destinations across the United States. According to Heritage, of the 52 congressional districts with the highest density of devices, 71% were Republican congressional districts. Texas had the highest density of illegals followed by Oklahoma. At least five million illegals have crossed the open border into the United States mainland since Joe Biden took office and immediately repealed all of President Trump’s border policies. The illegals are not vetted and the Biden regime, working with government-funded NGOs are sending millions to communities across the United States.

Boebert slams Fetterman for wearing hoodie, shorts to Senate news conference: ‘No excuse’ | 19 May 2023 | Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., blasted Democratic Senator John Fetterman’s “unbecoming” decision to attend a Senate press conference while wearing a hoodie and shorts. “John Fetterman redefined Casual Friday on a Thursday morning,” Boebert wrote on Twitter. “It’s truly unbecoming for someone to show up like that to any job, let alone a job that only 100 people are elected to do.” The Pennsylvania senator attended a Thursday news conference to discuss debt limit negotiations wearing a white hoodie, gray workout shorts, and running shoes, while standing alongside four fellow Democratic Senators who all were dressed in a suit and tie. “There’s just no excuse for it,” the Colorado Republican said in her tweet blasting Fetterman’s Senate attire.

‘So Lucky to Be Alive’ – California Man Narrowly Escapes as His Tesla Catches Fire on Highway | 10 May 2023 | A California man says he’s “so lucky to be alive at this moment” after his Tesla electric vehicle began shaking and subsequently caught fire during a highway drive over the weekend. KCRA reports that a man in California feels lucky to be alive after narrowly avoiding a fiery death when his Tesla electric car started shaking and caught fire during a weekend drive. After finishing errands, Bishal Malla was driving home when he suddenly felt his Tesla shake. He decided to stop just before getting on Highway 99 south of Modesto, California, out of concern and to look into the matter. At first, he thought he had a flat tire, but to his surprise, he found something much more serious. “The moment that I opened the door, I saw smoke coming from the bottom,” Malla said. The car was soon fully engulfed in a battery fire, as has happened in other high profile accidents involving Elon Musk’s cars.

Denver councilwoman proposes taxing ‘white-led businesses’ as reparations to support minority enterprises | 6 May 2023 | A Denver city council representative seeking re-election proposed taxing “white-led businesses” and redistributing the wealth to minorities as reparations for the harm of capitalism. “Capitalism was built on stolen land, stolen labor and stolen resources,” Denver councilwoman Candi CdeBaca said during a political forum Friday. CdeBaca said there were existing structures “that could be flipped” to compensate for land, labor and resources allegedly lost due to racism. CdeBaca proposed changing an existing business improvement district (BID) in the economically depressed Five Points neighborhood within her district to collect taxes only from white-owned businesses in the city and redistribute the funds to businesses owned by black and brown individuals.

Prince Harry and Meghan ‘paparazzi car chase’ was not ‘near catastrophic’, NYPD officials suggest| 17 May 2023 | Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and her mother were involved in a “near catastrophic” car chase after being followed by paparazzi for more than two hours, according to his spokesperson. But two New York police officials have played down the incident saying they do not believe the chase was “near catastrophic” and described a “bit of a chaotic scene.” The Sussexes had been driven around 57th Street and nearby roads for around an hour and 15 minutes as they were followed by paparazzi before they were dropped off at the New York City Police Department’s 19th precinct, officers have said. A taxi driver who picked up Harry, Meghan and her mother Doria Ragland outside the precinct around 15 minutes later said photographers tried to take photos and capture videos during their short time in his car. Sukhcharn Singh told The Washington Post: “I don’t think I would call it a chase. I never felt like I was in danger. “It wasn’t like a car chase in a movie. (Harry and Meghan) were quiet and seemed scared but it’s New York – it’s safe.”