The headline asks good questions. And there are longstanding federal treaty tribal rights to wild rice harvests in Minnesota waters. What's that worth if the wild rice gets poisoned?
Every voter in Minnesota should know the facts of this clear online site ---
The message - there's more ore elsewhere. So do it in your backyard or somebody else's backyard, not ours. Not in the Rainy River Watershed. We don't want your mess where you copper oligarchs do not mine sulfide minerals safely.
Oligarchs in Chile and Switzerland: Don't go away mad, just go away.
________________UPDATE________________
After the screed, some links. Steve Timmer at left.mn has published much on the subject of sulfide mining history and expectations, safety-wise, and it is scare packed coverage. He knows more of the issue than I do. Crabgrass did search = left.mn sulfide mining
Much showed up beyond that site's posting alone. For that site, recently, here and here. Those two posted by Dan Burns, not Timmer. Two Timmer posts from earlier, here and here. Posts there have sidebar links allowing readers to unravel the full thread on topic.
That search returned two waterlegacy.org posts, here and here.
Axios does Twin Cities specific coverage from time to time. Regarding the pristine northern Minnesoa waters attraction that the outfitters there love and annually profit from, the unique Boundary Waters Wilderness national public asset, Harry Niska, stow the waffle and be for its due protection or not, on the record, clearly and without evasion, as we in MN House District 31A consider an upcoming vote.
[... to the money quote] "Removing any opportunity for these mining projects to even start through Minnesota’s incredibly rigorous environmental review and permitting process is short-sighted [and] will damage the fragile economy in Northern Minnesota," House GOP Leader Harry Niska said.
Fucksakes, Harry, everyone knows the rapacious foreign owned mining giants have been held at bay for long enough that 90 days more will be an inconsequential amount of time but that Stauber wants to press a cramdown now against the better judgement of the State, his way, and that statement Axios quotes about pseudo urgency or pseudo efficiency is not going to wash.
Ferrous mining, iron ore, is the heart of Iron Range economics, you know that too, Harry, and this is a nonferrous mining caution at issue having nothing to do with actual Iron Range actions, today, on the ground.
Harry. In your heart you know what you're saying is trash. Give up being a politician for at least 90 days, to allow the Walz effort to reach deliberation in the State's legislature, (where you are hoping to stay), where the next legislative session can function without any biased clock running against them. So that ordered and deliberate representation procedure may carry the day.
The Axios quoted Niska non-statement is so transparently politician-speak that you, Niska, should be ashamed of it. And in turn you should come forth with a legitimate statement, for or against protecting the national treasure the Boundary Waters is, to define who you are to voters on the eve of reelecting you or voting you out for a non-wafflle of the other party.
That said, the Axios item is broken down into explanatory items, and clearly lays out the situation.
All Crabgrass readers, international or more local to the U.S. and to Minnesots, should read the item. It is a classic of greed to exploit a U.S. locale, by giant international mining firms headquartered in Chile and Switzerland, with it our Minnesota land at risk.
Once the watershed protection is lost, it cannot be regotten. It's Humpty Dumpty, and Walz is keeping the egg on the wall for a mere 90 days more of prudent considerations.
Harry, give up being a politician for 90 days, and be a Minnesotan concerned with what is best for the entire state, long term, including a future distant enough to be after giant international mining firms would have exhausted profitable ore and left a mess behind for Minnesota to clean, if cleanable at all..
Be a statesman this time, if you would.
They inherit what you do and decide. Asset or cleanup mess. Show due care.
________________UPDATE_________________
Things are partisan this close to the year's general election. We cannot and should not hide that. There is choice, and Crabgrass is touting the Dem agenda:
Trust me. Check the site. He is no waffle. And, yes, this POST AND UPDATE is showing partisanship. So what? It's good for people to know alternatives when a choice is at hand. It's being fair to disclose partisanship, when it's already apparent anyway.
Crabgrass wants Walker to replace Niska. As an upgrade. Know that in your own thinking.
He hits the boards. And does okay on free throw perecentage.
6' 9", 230lb. Passing, stamina and speed, and defense have been incompletely analyzed online, from the search Crabgrass did. 23yr old, and not long in the league. Good hands on the lob? We'll see.
The quality of the Chapin bio published there was striking. Causing this post. They should post their peoples identity, staff and board. That said, the links stand as they do.
Remember that Reagan said stand in fear, when the man says, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you?" Weigh that Harry Niska is saying, "I'm in the government and I'm there to help you."
Intrepid. Repeatedly saying things to the microphone - for you. For your Freedom.
Fighting to help you; your values. It's a contest. As if the legislature is Fight Club. Cut taxes and spend. What then? The man changes suits and ties and microphones, to be in the government to help you.
The ever prudent fight against the Dragon. We slay the Dragon. Dragons - The Harder they Come!
Tune time. In honor of actual Republican will toward "values." And, yes, Harry is only a local man, not even in Congress like Emmer, who's now House party whip. Shepherding Partywide cut tax, then spend priorities to the floor and whipping the troops to action.
And I am not making this Partywide gross mismanagement story up. It's on your backs. Not letting go. The reporting is fresh.
A reach? Harry's fault? Only indirectly. That's true. HOWEVER - Harry, and Emmer even more, coattail on the White House big ego spender man who's largely doubled that trouble since his first inauguration.
Facts are facts and coattails are only so reliable, then truth enters the scene and it becomes, "What coattails?"
The widow is a multimillionaire, given that her spouse the year of his death had multimillion compensation for making a claims section of that firm's insurance business a profit center, by deny, etc.
It's not the way risk shifting for a fee is supposed to behave. It's vile, instead.
It is done there so well that an attempt at posting here would be an insult. Be warned, however, the comment thread there is somewhat unkind to the pair, Trump and Harp.
Yet cause is there to find within that item useful links, thought, and critique. Go for it.
(Just think. Had Crabgrass diligently tried a post earlier, lassitude would have gone unrewarded.)
Fortuitous is when merely having to tout a fine posting, and give the link, takes minutes.
Every Minnesotan likely knows that our Boundary Waters Wilderness is the most visited National Park in the Nation; unique in ways too vast to describe. Research it if you are a reader who cares.
Two items - and please give each your attention, here and here.
Bombastically, Niska is the lesser politician. Jen is quiet too. Then, Emmer is his fumbling self.
Politically, they are "family."
Trump is their glue. Their first cause. Their ebb and flow.
Their 2026 downfall. You can watch that as it happens.
Hitch your wagon to whoever, but take what you get when dumb war goes sour. When bombast fails. When Epstein will not go away and "Boys in girls lockerooms" fails to chase him.
When their management of the economy really really sucks. When Bibi is Bibi. When gas costs too much. When you see a hundred bucks buying too little at the check-out counter. And medical bankruptcy is the fate of your neighbor. Or your fate tomorrow.
When paycheck to paycheck does not cut it. And will not, absent big change.
Vote smart. Or more of the same. Call out falsehood. Truth is as simple as, "Back up your manufactured $9billion-in-fraud fantasy claim, or stfu."
Nine billion is a lump to prove. So - prove it down to the last dollar. Or stfu. Truth is that simple.
The item is lengthy but when mentioning munitions being provided Ukraine, the notion is the UK has a fraction of the war-making manufacturing capacity of the U.S. yet a claim is U.S. stockpiles are being dangerously depleted. Hence, less sorties, but still an oil strangulation situation on the world in general.
The U.S. claims vessel interdiction of Iranian commercial trade, with effectiveness of that claim hard to substantiate. Trump says the U.S. can take over the Strait, and Iran says that is all bluster. But is much fire being interchanged while Iran and Oman are discussing long term Hormuz tolls, whatever they may be called in documents? From rhetoric alone, one would think such talk, excluding apparently U.S. participation, would conflict with stated aims of Trump and company.
Stated aims are only that, statements, and standing strong on both sides saying we are winning and will impose our will - with little hostilities - seems as if a regime change has in fact happened where Iran has much invested in making it look otherwise, and the U.S. plays along.
Meanwhile Trump U.S. oil cronies are making record profits. Trump clucks some about that, but what's real and what's for propaganda leading away from actual things?
Who do you trust? In this situation, should you trust Iran, much less should you put any trust in Trump and his BS campaigns? If the actual outcome of things is Straits can be subject to toll impositions by bordering nations, despite UN understandings, where does that lead and who might benefit?
Shipping companies have become increasingly interested in alternative trade routes through the Arctic in recent years as conflicts, such as the US war on Iran, restrict vital routes like the Red Sea and the Gulf.
One answer may be China’s new “Ice Silk Road”, which begins at Ningbo on China’s east coast, cuts through the Arctic Circle by running along Russia’s Northern Sea Route and then heads south in the North Sea, terminating at Felixstowe in eastern England.
In recent weeks, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the key transit point to the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, has become a no-go route for many ships as the Iran-backed Houthis target shipping linked to Saudi Arabia. That has disrupted traffic heading to and from the Suez Canal, the vital waterway connecting West Asia to Europe.
So could China’s new shipping route be a sustainable alternative, and what would it mean for the balance of power in international trade?
Here’s what we know:
Where is the new Chinese sea route through the Arctic?
Last week, the Chinese container shipping company, Sea Legend, which specialises in international trade with North Africa and Turkiye, formally announced the new route it has named the “Ice Silk Road” after China’s historic Silk Road route with Europe.
The company carried out a test voyage along the route last October. According to a report then by China’s Xinhua news agency, the voyage took 20 days, offering an advantage over other routes through the Suez Canal, which take about 40 days; or around the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa, which takes about 50 days.
Following the test run, Li Xiaobin, Sea Legend’s chief operating officer, said the new route is particularly suitable for heat-sensitive and time-critical cargo, such as lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products (which convert light into electricity using semiconductors) because of the low temperatures and relatively short distance.
This image, imagine if not now soon, Norwegian North Sea oil, to China, that route. It is but one idea. Also, there would be the alternate route to Europe, through Canadian waters, past Greenland - which likely is a part of Trump getting an erection every time somebody says, "Greenland."
Global Warming being real and not stopping, China has its two route options, but either must pass through the Bering Strait. If Oman and Iran cut a deal that sticks, re Hormuz, would not a Russia - US deal on the Bering Strait be a matter of time? Perhaps that may be why Trump, loud on most things, is relatively quiet about the Oman - Iran talks? No big sabre rattling on that being out of character. If Hormuz goes the route of tolls, Bering might be a payoff to US following suit.
Search = strait of malacca deal -- is suggested by where the bottlenecks are, and what's up with them.
NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione’s state murder trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which was slated to begin Sept. 8, has been postponed indefinitely as his lawyers seek to have the case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds following his guilty plea last week to federal charges.
Judge Gregory Carro issued an order Monday canceling the trial and giving the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the state case, until Oct. 9 to respond to the defense’s double jeopardy claims. A hearing will be held on Dec. 10, Carro said, about a week before Mangione is scheduled to be sentenced in the federal case.
Mangione, 28, pleaded guilty Friday in Manhattan federal court to a pair of stalking charges and admitted trailing Thompson to UnitedHealth Group’s investor conference and gunning him down outside a Manhattan hotel in 2024. Federal prosecutors said they would seek life in prison when Mangione is sentenced Dec. 18, though federal sentencing guidelines call for a term of 24 to 30 years.
“On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” Mangione said.
Immediately after his plea, Mangione’s lawyers filed paperwork seeking to have the state case thrown out on double jeopardy and due process grounds. They described him as a “pawn in parallel prosecutions” and accused state and federal prosecutors of “trying to punish him twice for the exact conduct.”
Mangione has pleaded not guilty in the state case, which also carries the possibility of a life sentence.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a statement that it would fight efforts to end the state case, in part because Mangione’s federal sentence isn’t yet known.
Compared with federal law and that of other states, New York has uncommonly strong protections for defendants facing multiple prosecutions. A state prosecution can be barred if a federal case involving the same course of conduct or criminal transaction ends in a guilty plea or if a jury is sworn.
“The full range of conduct that comprises the stalking offense is coterminous with the conduct committed as part of the murder offense,” Mangione’s lawyers wrote in their double jeopardy filing.
[...] “They are all part of the same criminal incident or criminal transaction.”
Bragg’s office contends that the state charges, including murder and firearms offenses, involve different legal elements and criminal conduct. In a letter last month, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann objected to the possibility of a federal guilty plea wiping out the state case.
Any guilty plea, Seidemann wrote, “must account for the seriousness of defendant’s offenses” and for the state’s interests in prosecuting Mangione, “including the sanctity of life principle that underpins the state homicide charges.”
They, the state prosecutors, want their time in the bright lights of vilifying Mangione's conduct. They want the publicity. That's clear.
The Crabgrass opinion is the man shot was responsible for more death and suffering than Mangione, given how UnitedHealth operates. Wikipedia -
The perpetrator, initially described as a white man wearing a mask, fled the scene.[1] The words "delay", "deny", and "depose" were inscribed on the cartridge cases used during the shooting. Thompson had previously faced criticism for the company's rejection of insurance claims, and his family reported that he had received death threats.
Crabgrass is very much of the opinion that a fairer and more humane healthcare system would be provision by the government of uniform care, Medicare for All, with for-profit ghouls sidelined.
Or give the death ghouls extended coverage to sell and then deny, delay over that. That is an alternative view. Crabgrass favors turning all medical insurance people out into the street to find actual gainful employment instead of what they do now. And the government has size to quell over billing by the provider community, who clearly are not faultless in any real measure. They gouge, they string treatments along, they are for-profit also, (private equity ghouls love them), and that make-as-much-as-the-bean-counters reckon mentality, (the bean counters on the hospital first floors control access to care providers on the upper floors), with that being the root of evil in healthcare.
Under Medicare for All, holding a few deterrence prosecutions would rein in worse practices, since the bean counters and those providers are all pretty smart and could figure out you don't be too cute or you're next.
Sancity of profit, should have been in the prosecutor's quote at the end of the above excerpting. It's more truthful. The lawyers of course, know the truth but speak graciously..
UPDATE: Here. And the links it provides, e.g., here, saying in part:
The killing of Thompson, whose annual compensation package exceeded $10 million, drew instant, sardonic comment from some social media users.
Over time, in more recent Luigi news, that aspect of things has fallen out of favor, and is not mentioned.
It deserves continuing emphasis. It is truth. Greed is not good. Suboptimal outcomes are the offspring of greed. Running a claims department as a profit center is not good and honest risk shifting.
On Wednesday, ESPN reported
that the Los Angeles Lakers are set to change hands, for the second
time in 10 months, for $12.5bn, a sum that would be a record for any
North American sports team. (The deal must be approved by the NBA’s
board of governors before it can go through.) The buyers aren’t diehards
who saved up every penny like the good Dr Jerry Buss in the 1970s.
Those days are gone. If and when the deal is approved, the new owners
will be venture capitalist Josh Kushner and his business partner, Bob
Iger. Kushner is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, the titleless
Wormtongue to Donald Trump’s Saruman. Iger used to run Disney. These men
have connections across the political world and influence in every
corner of the American empire. [...]
Mark
Walter took control of the team from the Buss family last October at a
valuation of roughly $10bn. Now he is set to cash out around $2bn
richer. That’s not how this is supposed to work. The old guard, like
Buss, used to guard their NBA teams like heirlooms and pass them down. Walter is set to flip the team after less than a year.
He has other issues to deal with. Bloomberg reported in July
that Manhattan prosecutors want to know whether two insurers that
Walter controls, Delaware Life Insurance Co and Clear Spring Life and
Annuity Co, concealed that their private-credit books were secretly
propping up his other businesses. The SEC opened its own line of inquery,
and the loans at issue reportedly run near $16bn. [...]
The
Lakers’ buyers also know that sports can generate huge returns to add
to their already vast wealth. Starting in 2009 at the age of 24, Kushner
built Thrive Capital into a firm now worth more than $60bn. He shoved his way into Instagram’s 2012 round
at a $500m valuation days before Facebook paid $1bn for it, then rode
early bets on OpenAI, Stripe, Spotify, GitHub and Skims. He owns a piece
of the Miami Heat that league conflict rules will force him to shed
before he can run the Lakers. And he founded Thrive Eternal to buy long-term positions in sports, media and entertainment. (Its first big move was a stake in MLB’s San Francisco Giants.)
Iger, the former Disney CEO, took control of the NWSL’s Angel City FC
in 2024 alongside his wife, Willow Bay, and he’s also a Thrive partner.
Now, Kushner and Iger are set to add one of America’s most important
cultural touchstones to their portfolio.
The timing of Kushner’s deal may not be random either. Fifa said in late July
it would hive off its commercial arm into a new company, Fifa Forward
Enterprises, and sell 20% to a Thrive Eternal-led group for $4.2bn. But
Europe torched the plan. Uefa convened an emergency summit and threatened to have all 55 members boycott every Fifa competition until the deal died. Negotiations ended within a week. Then Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House judiciary committee, proposed an inquiry
into whether Fifa handing prized assets to a fund run by the
president’s relative crossed an ethical line. [...]
So
Kushner pivoted to the NBA, where venture capital is more welcome. In
fact, the other 29 owners have a direct financial stake in blessing the
sale. The paper value of every team just surged with news that Kushner
and Iger are willing to pay $12.5bn for an NBA franchise. [...]
But the proposed Lakers deal
isn’t just about how wealth has changed sports. It’s also about how one
family has moved into every part of American life. The Kushners keep
ending up on the title of the most coveted assets on the planet, and the
connective tissue is proximity to power. Trump campaigned on burning
down exactly this kind of arrangement. Josh is the younger brother of
Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband, and a senior adviser during
Donald Trump’s first term. Jared is now a Special Envoy for Peace and
helped negotiate the recent ceasefire with Iran. Their father, Charles
Kushner, pleaded guilty in 2005 to 18 counts – among them illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering – and was sentenced to two years in prison. Trump pardoned him in 2020, and today he represents the United States as ambassador to France, a job he holds despite not speaking French.
Nort behind a desk in DC, doing little, waiting for Trump or his people to call.. Not feeling big and important behind a desk in DC indifferent to any duty to reduce food prices, fix a war quagmire, or find out what people in MN HD6 back home think and want to discuss. In effect, not Emmer.
And, stories of recent Emmer foot surgery. Many, at a guess, would like healchcare access comparable with that Emmer enjoys, but denies others. Go figure.
Access matters. Chapin is working overtime to meet people and learn what is important to them in their lives. Meet with him if you can, or keep aware of later events in other places. Nothing beats face to face interaction with a person to feel how they feel, and to learn what they value that you also value.
It is how decisions are made, informed decisions, or else things are handled as higher up officials may dictate. Top down, obedience being its own measure. Error going unquestioned.
[With editing for style and content since originally published]
So, see it to the end. THEN -- That is my one simple request of Michele Tafoya. Show me the money.
It's like on the sideline, she can make up anything she wants about what's happening in the medical tent, and they never let cameras or Sideline Susies into the med tent. So, that's not Showing a thing. It's saying, not showing.
Here, at 1:00 of 1:30 mins, she says, "of up to twenty billion dollars." Nice number. How about thirty? Forty? Now prove it. Prove something in that ballpark range. Or admit it's untrue, or just some guess.
SHOW ME THE MONEY.
She's talking about a fraud amount of multiple billions of dollars. Lady, show the money. Your spread sheet, here, there, wherever, your evidence? Not that some jackass in the Trump DOJ spins off an amount. Real money. Show me the accounting or shut-the-fuck-up.
That is where the Toyfoya campaign hits the wall. She has no evidencc. No $9 billion she can display. It's not there. She spins. So, call bullshit on that.
SHOW ME THE MONEY!
This is no proof of anything except others are spinning the same falsehoods. Make that dog and pony even into even a single billion. It's not there. Not hard evidence of cases in court totalling that. Not there. It is only a dweeb telling a story. Story telling is far short of evidence.
Michele Tafoya, 61, is running to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith,
D-Minn., in a crowded race where Republicans have heavily targeted Walz
and Ellison over a nearly $10 billion daycare, food aid and health clinic fraud scheme that unfolded under their noses.
That just links over to guys in suits, spinning numbers.:
Thompson explained that 14 programs have been identified as containing
fraud and those programs have cost taxpayers $18 billion overall since
2018.
[...]
When asked specifically by a reporter how much
of that $18 billion is suspected to be fraudulent, which reports have
previously suggested could be around $1 billion, Thompson suggested that
number will be higher when the investigations are concluded.
"I think a significant portion," Thompson responded.
Thompson later said, "When I say significant, I'm talking in the order of half or more. But we'll see."
And until "we see," we don't see a thing. No Show me the money. None. Saying a number is all that's there. Speculate up a story, wear a nice suit, what is that? And, headline:
. [...] Seven to ten billion dollars. Let that sink in, Minnesota taxpayers.
That’s the staggering sum Michele Tafoya, the former Governor hopeful,
claims vanished under Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith
Ellison’s watch.
This isn’t just another political spat. It’s a direct, searing
indictment of our state’s leadership and a colossal fraud Tafoya insists
they ignored.
It is nothing of the sort. It is fiction - an attempt to fob it off as truth, by saying so. More:
The Billions That Vanished
Tafoya isn’t just making noise; she’s hammering home the claim that
Walz and Ellison deliberately looked away, allowing this massive,
pandemic-era fraud, specifically tied to child care and food aid
programs, to run rampant. This isn’t speculation from a campaign stump;
it’s a stark reality validated by actual audits
revealing losses between $7 billion and $10 billion. Let’s be clear:
that money didn’t just ‘vanish’; it was stolen from the people of
Minnesota.
Attorney General Ellison’s office proudly touts over 340 fraud
convictions. Three hundred and forty. While commendable on paper,
against a backdrop of $7 to $10 billion in missing funds, that number is an insult.
It’s a feeble attempt to distract from the gaping hole in our state’s
coffers. To dismiss this as mere “pandemic chaos” isn’t an explanation;
it’s a blatant attempt to dodge responsibility. Minnesota taxpayers
deserve far better than such a flimsy excuse.
As to saying and showing, you can call a horse chestnut a chestnut horse, but then you've no animal to actually show.
Republican Senate candidates looking to fill Minnesota’s vacant seat
have accused Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison of
neglecting a significant fraud issue in the state. Michele Tafoya, who
seeks to succeed retiring Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.), has been vocal
in her criticism, targeting the nearly $10 billion fraud scheme related
to daycare, food assistance, and clinics that occurred under their
watch.
Tafoya suggested that this scandal might shift Minnesota’s Senate
seat to a Republican stronghold for the first time since 2008. In a
discussion with Fox News Digital, she noted that residents are
profoundly “angry,” emphasizing that “fraud is certainly at the
forefront” of current political discourse.
Fine you say that. Now SHOW ME THE FUCKING MONEY!
Show me one spread sheet, links to hard proof, and I will be receptive. But, hey * * *
Kudkow, a moron, makes Tafoya look good by comparison, getting into "fraud" assertions at 1:30 - and at 5:50 the woman with emphasis says, "we're talking 9 billion," but it never goes beyond talk. No actual content you could take to a bank. Listen to it all. Nothing there but an asserted ghost number.
She has a campaign site, where she says "fraud" but declines to name an amount there. What's that tell you? Search it. Only vague allegations. Bottom line, she's full of shit on her numbers, and cannot blame others if she accepts their numbers without proof. Showing a lack of sensible caution is no shout-out of fitness for any job, much less one where trust must be earned.
Until she has a number she can prove, she should quit temper her spin. There was $250 million in Feeding Our Future. Millions, not billions. But the perps were all investigated and pursued during Biden times. That proves what? Biden people and State Dems did the job.
Yes. They did.
I cannot believe mainstream media are giving the little sideline reporter a free ride. They are lazy, too lazy to call her out and ask for real, actual, reliable numbers totaling anywhere near to what she's claiming.
It is a sad state of politics she gets away with it.
And if actual numbers in the $9 billion range are ever shown, even nationwide, it then and only then is no longer a fiction sold by stuffed shirts and empty suits, ------- and Michele.
Crypto exchange company Binance helped the Trump family’s own cryptocurrency venture make billions just before Donald Trump pardoned its co-founder, and the rejuvenated company now stands to reap its own windfall, a new report reveals.
Changpeng Zhao, who also goes by “CZ,” was pardoned by Trump last week after the administration said the businessman was “prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency.”
Zhao pleaded guilty to
enabling money laundering and agreed to step down as the CEO of Binance
as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with the Justice Department in
2023. He served four months in prison.
Binance
created a “high-level task force to strike a deal” with the
Trump-affiliated cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial, and
launched a months-long bid for clemency, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
Crypto
exchange company Binance helped the Trump family’s own cryptocurrency
venture make billions before Donald Trump pardoned its co-founder
Changpeng Zhao, according to a report (REUTERS)
Members of the Trump family, through an umbrella company, own more than half of World Liberty.
World
Liberty’s new stablecoin product — a cryptocurrency whose value is
designed to maintain a one-to-one value with the U.S. dollar — saw the
value of its shares jump from $127 million to over $2.1 billion this
spring after Binance stepped in, according to the WSJ.
The
technology that supports World Liberty’s stablecoin, USD1, was built by
Binance and weeks after USD1 launched in March, an Emirati state-backed
fund — MGX — used it to invest $2 billion in Zhao’s company, according
to Bloomberg.
The move by MGX reportedly provided World Liberty with the opportunity
to net potentially tens of millions of dollars in interest.
World Liberty told the WSJ
that Binance was not involved in the deal with MGX, while a lawyer for
Binance said that Zhao “did not act as the relationship facilitator or
financier” between MGX and the Trump family’s crypto venture.
Now
that Trump has pardoned Zhao, the world’s largest trading crypto
platform is likely to make a comeback in the U.S. following the 2023
ban.
Animals on Animal Farm are not equal. Pigs walk on two legs.
Newly disclosed records reveal the US government
extensively spied on prominent leftwing organizations and on protesters
as part of a vast operation into groups opposing the immigration
crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year.
Internal
investigative reports show the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
sent undercover agents to community meetings in the Twin Cities and New York City, infiltrated Signal chats and obtained financial records of mainstream unions and left-leaning non-profit groups.
Nearly 30 internal law enforcement reports were released on Thursday as part of a criminal case the Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed against 15 Minneapolis protesters.The
defendants are accused of a “conspiracy” to “impede” US immigration
officers during the Trump administration’s surge in the region.
The DHS investigative reports were disclosed by
the government and submitted to the court by an attorney for one of the
defendants. The records show that in January, DHS launched an inquiry
called “Operation Puppet Master” to identify a “network of conspirators”
organizing against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The
operation came as community organizing against ICE was swelling in the
region in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
A
DHS report from February said the agency was looking into people who
were “providing material support to violent opportunists and agitators”.
The records suggest agents launched elaborate spying efforts targeting
activists, protesters and mainstream progressive organizations opposing
the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“I
was shocked at the scope and the apparent lack of investigative
discipline involved, but not totally surprised,” said Kevin Riach, an
attorney for one of the indicted protesters, who filed the tranche of
records in federal court.
DHS spokespeople did not respond to inquiries and the DoJ declined to comment.
EmptyWheel has an excellent post linking to NYT coverage where it appears a courtesy paywall bypass enables reading the full NYT item. IN EFFECT - spying on people doing nothing illegal. Forming dossiers. Using facial recognition software on protest photos,. Just pure crap. Because we can do it we are the federal U.S. of A., and under Trump we are limitless in how we try to stiffle exerxcise of peoples' rights.
The remainder of the Guardian coverage, and the full NYT item linked to by EmptyWheel provide great detail. AP also reports. The more you read the more awful it gets. "Grotesque" is an understatement. Our fucking government being in super-fascist spying-on-the-people mode, with a chilling story within that story, that being how fascistic things have gotten under the current federal people now driving the car, in light of how fascism played out into the mass death and suffering of the Second World War.
Germany then. Us now.
It is worse, far worse, than Flock camera license plate tracking. A part of the same story, but worse.
_______________UPDATE_____________
Facists are as they say and do. Praise of fascism is fascism. That said, from Tom Emmer's House site:
Metro Surge announcement
Thursday, February 12, 2026
WASHINGTON –
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) released the following
statement in response to Border Czar Tom Homan announcing the conclusion
of the immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities.
Whip Emmer: “Job
well done, Tom Homan. Local law enforcement is now cooperating with
federal law enforcement in Tim Walz's Minnesota, thanks to President
Trump's leadership. We are hopeful that this partnership will
continue—without local or state interference—to ensure the worst of the
worst are being removed from our communities.”
Jesus Christ Tom, as the one man said, "The boots you lick will also stomp you too . . ."
Stupid. Get a brain, Emmer. It would help you vastly.
==========================
I from time to time have noted how Doug Chapin is wise and a gentleman with widespread experience.
An email from him to a supporter, forwarded to me, noted:
Tom Emmer went on Fox and claimed Minnesotans are calling to thank Donald Trump for what ICE did here. His words: "please thank
Donald Trump for trying to keep us safe and trying to get these illegals out."
I need to respond to that directly.
==========================================
Chapin's campaigning will bring him to Ramsey today, and he may have comments. Surely there will be a press release from him soon. Or a televised interview. Not strident. But lethal.
[Readers may view the Emmer spiel via an embedded video Breitbart (speaking of fascist) posted here.]
That slimeball has not dared to show up in person in Minnesota holding a current Townhall saying that stuff, and facing crowd reaction.
Do you blame him? When what you say digs the hole deeper, keep quiet seems to be the wisdom Emmer is missing. That and touting that Trump likes his subservience. So?
The man is simply going off the deep-end of Trumpist disrespect of truth. (Ask him who won the 2020 election.)
THE TOTALITY -- Emmer, Breitbart, Trump, a lost super expensive war, and Hegseth questioining troop testesterone levels. Not only all that, but rampant inflation clearly happening in every town and city food market, while pump price shock staggers everyone but Musk, who must love it because he's selling electric autos and trucks -- the entire smelling quagmier of households trying to make ends meet, then a medical debt event and its all down the tubes. It rots and rots, into worse and worse..
And Emmer likes it. Really. Read his lips. Great, couldn't be stronger.
He lies like Trump does. The Socerer's Apprentice has his mop gone amok.
Get him out! Give us rescue.
November cannot come soon enough!
But we know -- November is coming, and Emmer will be leaving. Trust me. He's going desperate, into lies and untruths. And spouting fascist mythology, like his mentor.
_________________FURTHER UPDATE________________
Tom, put away love of Brietbart for a moment, and read your online local daily:
Those are numbers to weigh, as to challenger chances against the incumbent.
The DFL candidate's campaign website starts with a video, and tells you how you can donate. Bread and butter issue priorities, vs corporate representation by the incumbent, in thrall to sulfide mining interests and such. Closer to Emmer than to people of the district.
She wins, that's one more vote for the House good guys.
Those numbers speak for themselves. He has no choice. He has to rally beyond mailer items. He has to face dissatisfaction directly. In person. With candor. If he can. It's been his district. So it is his to lose. 20% of Republican voters are unlocked, going into the stretch run. Being party whip holds more gravitas to people in DC. He has to come in district and do politics, with a war that's unpopular and inflation that's rampant and unpopular. His seat at risk, means his duty of self-interest is to visit and convince.
The point is, many are bothered by a sense of freedom of movement and association being quelled by an over-purposed surveillance state mentality among those of us who govern us. The Deep State, as called by those resenting it.
So, use the vote. Vote against ICE and Border Patrol who did worse than put up cameras to watch everyone. They targeted those they did not like, or who did not like them.
Homeland Security investigators
secretly recorded conversations, infiltrated Signal chats and obtained
financial records for labor unions and progressive groups as part of a
wide-ranging surveillance effort during Operation Metro Surge, according
to court documents filed Thursday morning.
The documents, first reported by The New York Times, were filed by defense attorneys in the federal case against 15 Minnesotans accused of conspiracy to impede or injure a federal agent.
That's not merely watching, that's trying to get criminal convictions for protected rights being exercised (and observed - "spied upon" in direct terms).
The feds’ surveillance programs,
dubbed “Operation Puppet Master” and “Operation Whipple Shield,” go far
beyond the 15 people indicted.
Homeland Security agents used
administrative subpoenas — subpoenas issued by the federal agency rather
than a judge — to obtain financial records from organizations including
the labor unions Service Employees International Union and
Communications Workers of America; Voices for Racial Justice, a
longstanding racial justice training organization; and Sunrise Movement,
an environmental justice organization that organized noise protests
outside of immigration agents’ hotels during Operation Metro Surge.
“This broad collection of financial
records of labor and social justice advocacy organizations, done in
secret and with no articulable criminal predicate, violates both the
First Amendment and these organizations’ right to financial privacy,”
the attorneys wrote.
[...]
Agents collected the license plate
numbers of attendees during a meeting of anti-ICE protesters at Prince
of Peace Lutheran Church in Roseville to obtain the names of the
attendees. The agents then compiled a dossier including attendees’
names, photos, addresses, vehicle registrations, family and employment
information.
The feds also used Clearview AI, a
facial recognition software, to compile photo dossiers of activists and
protesters, including many who were not charged.
A diagram shown to the grand jury
during the indictment process linked a number of organizations to the
conspiracy — centered around an organization called “Direct Action MN” —
with no evidence, according to the defense attorneys. The organizations
include SEIU, the AFL-CIO, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators,
Monarca, Democratic Socialists of America and Minnesota Association of
Professional Employees, the labor union representing state workers.
It's not just reading your license plate numbers passively, to be able to link your driving where and when to possibly speculating about why and what's possible to do about it. It is active government boot on particularized throats, aimed with a purpose - well beyond randomly positioned camera poles.
And it got taken to court. Your Flock travel itinerary will seldom if ever be taken to a court. This other stuff was targeted and for that very purpose. It was not a thing of "a few cameras, why not" but rather:
A memorandum
issued by President Donald Trump in September directed the U.S.
Department of Justice and Homeland Security to investigate “all
participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including
the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding
sources, and predicate actions behind them.” It also expanded the
definition of “domestic terrorism” to include crimes like revealing
personal details of federal agents or getting in the way of immigration
enforcement.
Specific targeting for believing Stephen Miller an asshole and going outside the home to watch abuse of your neighbors by masked men patroling around in unmarked cars dressed up in riot gear.
And you're more intrigued by choping down a license plate camera? Get real.
Nobody's been shot dead by a Flock camera. These creeps, that's a different story.
Get your head right on priorities. It matters. Use your vote.
Possible good appointments, Kieth Ellison, Ilhen Omar, Betty McCollum, come to mind. Each would be good re the Boundary Waters and mining, and each would be a progressive upgrade. More specifically, should Doug Chapin lose in MN6 to Emmer reelected, he'd be the ideal candidate, already willing to serve in DC, and not vacating any other office to chance. He's choice one, unless he unseats Emmer.
Who not to appoint? Angie Craig. She is too much like Amy in being a very conservative Democrat, and she's taken AIPAC money, as has Amy and Emmer, and it would look too much like Amy appointimg a clone.
Chapin would be an excellent alternative to Craig, where everybody in the DFL will be thinking "It's Angie's turn," which is too akin to how Trump won his first term. Defective thought.
It's nobody's"turn" and the choice should be based entirely upon best and most likely to excel, with the DFL committed at least in words, to gender balance in the ranks and the offices.
Yes, Angie may have her expectations. But nobody should expect iron-clad guarantees. They are not best.
And Amy will win. However conservative she is, she will win. Progressives will bite the bullet and vote for her, because they have no option. Amy, has an option. and it should be Doug Chapin. Unless * * *
UPDATE: In terms of no choice for progressives but Amy, it is noteworthy that neither Tafoya nor Demuth will even admit that Biden won in 2020. That reminder of how backward the Republican candidates are has to be made. Neither of those two is pressing for the Renee and Alex murders to be prosecuted. Neither speaks to the War. Trump's inflation. They are pathetic.
That second link explains Hegseth's program for "Enhanced Screening Protocol to Optimize Warfighter Performance and Enhance Force Readiness". Rutting soldiers make good fighters.
We've seen them bundled up as they slipped on Minnesota winter ice, now, this -
Yes, short sleeves, no heavy coats, but cap and mask and sidearm, you can wear last winter's, and still be stylishly ICE. The vests? Yes. A part of the total impact. Shorts? Too daring. And you can see what language arm tattoos are in.
Do they look less goonish? Less provocative? Friendlier? You decide.
UPDATE: The text in the item linked item which included the image - bad news for Republicans into the midterms, with Stephen Miller seemingly on vacation or iced away from microphones these days:
About
8 in 10 independent voters say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
has used too much force in its nationwide operations, according to a
poll from YouGov, which sampled 1,000 voters in late July. It's a
striking increase from 2025, when polls showed independents more divided
on the issue.
The poll, commissioned by the Vera Institute of
Justice, a nonprofit working to end mass incarceration, was conducted
shortly after ICE officers shot and killed two immigrants during traffic stops in Maine and Texas over the span of six days in July.
An earlier YouGov poll,
which was conducted before the two shootings, found that most
independents – 62% – believe ICE has gone too far. Other polls from YouGov, AP-NORC and The Civic Health and Institutions Project found that only a fraction of independent voters support ICE's handling of immigration enforcement.
[Gallery images omitted ...]
The
data comes months ahead of the midterms, as Republicans are seeking to
hold onto a narrow majority in both chambers of Congress. Several races
are expected to be close and could be decided by independent voters – a
group whose support has grown increasingly vital in recent elections.
And Trump thought goonish thugery would rally nationwide love and approval. Gee. He missed the pitch and it was strike three. Sending Kristi Noem to the dugout. No, that was games ago. Who's pinch-hitting now, for Miller?
That represents a large relative number of X chromosomes in the finals. Trump and Hegseth will want to give Minnesota Republican men Testosterone booster shots to get them back into aggressive posture, (make them more like Emmer), so that they will push back to reestablish white, trad-wife Minnesota - if it ever existed.
Four women, for the key two open offices, with two of them sensible, the other two Republicans. One of the Republicans a carpetbagger from TV football Sideline Susie duty.
Trump lost, with Lindell, so what's he to do? Pillow fight?
And Flanagan kind of trounced Craig, making progressives happier than otherwise.
Emmer won his GOP primary. After that, back to the Sec of State site to dig down into how the local precincts voted. But Minnesota and Michigan will have good chances to give Schumer heartburn should their Dem Senate candidates win their general elections. May it happen, since Schumer deserves it for picking rich stiffs as his favorite kind of Dem Senate hopefuls. If they win, he stays in power among his kind but the numbers of progressives will be trending.
AIPAC took deserved "Ethnic Cleansing" hits, both in Minnesota and Michigan, and that is good, as good as Trump's LOOSING Iran war is super bad and seen as such by voters.
Trump and Hegseth might cause Bibi to stay in power but have otherwise done nothing but fuck-all in deciding to have a nasty war with Iran; no forethought involved. No exit ramp in sight. Iran is handing them their asses, and Trump keeps saying, "We won." It is about as bad as DC can get, and it is MAGA berserking. Hopefully in a death rattle.
The lame duck last two years of Trump 47 might not go well for Trump, and worse, for JD. In 2028,
Several factors can be argued here and there, but if Wisconsin had suffered the ICE invasion Minnesota suffered, Crabgrass believes Hong would have won. It was close. Flanagan's win, not close at all.
The ICE invasion and murders backfired on Trump/Miller big time. And they expected, what? People would like masked paramilitary goons raping (figuativey) their neighborhoods? Shootings without cause or reason?
ICE and Border Patrol will be bigger in this election than any ginned up Repubican lies can counter.
While inflation
plagued both presidents, Carter had it much worse, facing a peak
inflation rate of 14.7% in April 1980. Consumer prices rose 4.2% this May from a year earlier — a three-year high — and though they fell sharpl y from May to June, that decline included lower gas prices fueled by a U.S.-Iran ceasefire. That deal is now in tatters, driving up oil prices again.
Like
Trump, Carter was also bedeviled by the strait, declaring during his
1980 State of the Union address that the situation “demands the
participation of all those who rely on oil from the Middle East and who
are concerned with global peace and stability.”
Another Trump-Carter parallel was the Democrat having considered military action to seize Kharg Island,
though he ultimately decided against it so as not to jeopardize the
hostages. Trump targeted the island with U.S. strikes early in the war,
looking to thwart Iranian oil exports, and has threatened it again.
Schake,
a senior fellow and director of foreign and defense policy studies at
the American Enterprise Institute, noted a key difference was “while the
Carter administration gave serious consideration to attacking Kharg
Island, the reason they didn’t do it was they didn’t want to be at war
with Iran.”
Being fair to Carter, he was not a dumb-fuck who'd have listened to a Bibi or a Hegseth. Also, his "Israeli war mongering problem" was not a part of his own making. They then were alone blood-lusting against their neighbors, and it was during Ford's Presidency they so acted. Leaving Carter to suffer the resulting stag-flation. There is that key aspect.
When Israel defeated its Arab neighbors in the Yom Kippur War of 1973,
Arab oil producers retaliated against Israel's allies by leading the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) to enact an embargo. Oil prices skyrocketed immediately in the
United States as the demand outstripped the supply. Automobiles and
drivers sat in long gas lines at service stations.
FURTHER: Those are harsh words about the Israelis. Standard model is they were surprised attacked, in Oct 2073, and fought back. It's the same "He started it" show they put on in letting the latest Oct thing, with Hamas and Gaza being turned into an ethnic cleansing exercise because - what asleep at the switch again just as in Oct. 1973, caught off guard, and only a right to defend themselves.
In the 1967 war when Israel tried to sink the USS Liberty and blame it on Egypt, they glommed onto a hell of a lot of real estate, so much so that they got no respect; so in 1973, that October, I have seen it written about it that Kissinger told Mier and Daylan bluntly that any preemptive strike, and they'd "not even get one nail" of US stuff toward their then pending warfare. Nixon got purged after that, but that's its own story.
So, knowing things, they in 1973 let Egypt and Syria move first. This latest October war on Gaza, recall that they let Hamas move first, then the slaughter. If you think Mossad is that much a fuck-up as twice off-guard - caught off guard and such two separate Octobers, years apart, well, as that kind of believer vote for Trump.
Those are official U.S. government documents online, not some forgery or made up story.
They knew, they waited, they won; and, nice script, they did it again against Gaza.
It's like, "It worked so well last time, so redux and smile."
======================================
FURTHER: Somebody shot Charlie Kirk dead, after he was online speculating in the wake of Oct. 7,days after Hamas acted, about something just not fitting right.
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