Devil Child
Devil Child's JournalHarvey Weinstein's Use Of Black Cube To Spy On Accusers Becomes Topic At Trial
The trial is likely to heat back up Friday when prosecutors call Jessica Mann to the witness stand. Mann, a hairdresser and former actress, is one of two women whose allegations against Weinstein form the basis of the criminal case against him. She alleges that Weinstein raped her in her hotel room in 2013.
Black Cube was retained by Weinstein via his law firm, Boies Schiller. According to reporting by the New Yorker and others, agency investigators reportedly adopted false identities in order to obtain information about Weinstein’s accusers, among them Rose McGowan and Annabella Sciorra. The role of Black Cube, once it was revealed two years ago, aroused enough suspicion that federal prosecutors looked into charging Weinstein in 2018.
Dev Sen, a corporate attorney from Boies Schiller, gave brief testimony on Thursday, confirming that the firm had hired Black Cube at Weinstein’s behest.
https://deadline.com/2020/01/harvey-weinstein-black-cube-to-spy-on-accusers-rape-trial-1202846724/
The Weinstein case highlights the need to regulate with a fury these so called "private intelligence agencies." Disgusts me that the rich and powerful can utilize a rent-a-Mossad/CIA/FSB for their selfish gain.
The "Stop Sanders" Movement Is Worried That Bernie Can Actually Win, Not That He'll Lose
This week, NBC, the Associated Press, and Politico all reported on the emerging anxiety within elite Democratic circles about Sanders’s ascent in the polls and nascent efforts by operatives to arrest his momentum. As journalist Andrew Perez noted, all three reports cited one Matt Bennett, cofounder of the organization Third Way, who issued boilerplate warnings about the supposed dangers of a Sanders nomination. In a pattern that is almost certain to be repeated in the coming weeks and months, Bennett’s intervention was framed as an earnest expression of concern by a moderate Democrat mindful of taking what he believes to be a major political risk.
But it was actually something else, given Bennett’s job at a self-identified “think tank” that has received extensive contributions from corporate patrons, including health insurance company Humana and Koch Industries. Washington is packed with groups like Third Way and others in the same mold, the function of which is to provide a layer of institutional sediment separating corporate interests from the mouthpieces they fund to advance their interests. In the gelatinous mass of lobbyists, megadonors, corporate spokespeople, and political operatives resulting from this arrangement, it can often be difficult to tell where the private sector ends and the public sector or party apparatus begins.
Nonetheless, Bennett’s anguished intervention is a telltale sign that panic about Sanders is starting to spill outside the op-ed pages and into the boardrooms of corporate interests — from pharmaceutical companies to Wall Street investment firms — who have an immediate pecuniary interest in opposing his program. If Sanders’s performance in the first round of primaries and caucuses matches current expectations, big business will undoubtedly intensify its efforts to stop him — likely aided, as in this case, by centrist Democrat operatives who sit at the noxious juncture of party politics and corporate agitprop.
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/01/stop-sanders-movement-bernie-2020-election-democratic-party
I share in the author's opinion on the motivation behind recent Third Way driven op-eds which have been popping op with more frequency in response to Sen. Sander's rise in various polls.
U.S. Accuses Harvard Scientist of Concealing Chinese Funding
Source: New York Times
Charles M. Lieber, the chair of Harvard’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, was charged on Tuesday with making false statements about money he had received from a Chinese government-run program, part of a broad-ranging F.B.I. effort to root out theft of biomedical research from American laboratories.
Dr. Lieber, a leader in the field of nanoscale electronics, was one of three Boston-area scientists accused on Tuesday of working on behalf of China. His case involves work with the Thousand Talents Program, a state-run program that seeks to draw talent educated in other countries.
American officials are investigating hundreds of cases of suspected theft of intellectual property by visiting scientists, nearly all of them Chinese nationals or of Chinese descent. Some are accused of obtaining patents in China based on work that is funded by the United States government, and others of setting up laboratories in China that secretly duplicated American research.
Dr. Lieber, who was arrested on Tuesday, stands out among the accused scientists, because he is neither Chinese nor of Chinese descent. And as a department head at Harvard, he is widely published and more prominent than most of the other scientists who have been accused.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/28/us/charles-lieber-harvard.html
Greed and corruption on display. Interesting to note Mr. Lieber's role in development of research facilities in Wuhan. One of the prior FBI arrests was for a Chinese national trying to leave the country with vials of cancer cells.
Joe Rogan: Biden, Warren, Buttigieg asked to appear on his show
https://twitter.com/CANCEL_SAM/status/1220742816709730305Does that mean Biden, Warren, and Buttigieg should be cancelled?
At tense Virginia rally, demonstrators reject extremists, defend law-abiding gun owners
Source: NBC
RICHMOND, Va. ─ Thousands of gun-rights activists, banned from carrying their weapons out of fear of violence, crammed into the Virginia Capitol on Monday to urge state lawmakers to reject sweeping measures to limit the spread of firearms.
The rally, planned for weeks as part of a citizen-lobbying tradition held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, has focused national attention on Virginia's attempts to enact new gun regulations, pushed by Democrats who took control of the Statehouse for the first time in 26 years. Gun control supporters say they are acting on voters' wishes, propelled by a May mass shooting in Virginia Beach.
Gun-rights proponents warn that the measures ─ including universal background checks, a ban on military-style rifles and a bill that would allow authorities to temporarily take guns from people deemed dangerous to themselves or others ─ will snowball into attempts to disarm the public.
"We will not comply," activists chanted from both sides of a security fence ringing the Capitol grounds. The crowd was largely white and diverse in age, with most wearing orange stickers saying "Guns save lives." Many rode chartered buses from all over the state, then waited hours in line to get into the Capitol grounds before passing through airport-style security. On the other side of the fence, large crowds formed and many activists openly carried firearms, including long guns. Many also wore camouflage and military gear.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tense-virginia-rally-gun-rights-supporters-chant-we-will-not-n1118811
Massive crowd of gun-owners peacefully demonstrating in defense of their Constitutional rights. A wonderful sight to see. Even better with ZERO arrests and ZERO violence from a crowd that had many participants openly carrying arms. The media was salivating at the prospect of having another Charlottesville and spared no effort in framing defense of the Second Amendment as far-right white supremacist extremism.
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