Things to Keep an Eye On
The Ashley St. Clair drama, Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation, status of the Gaza deal, Cybertruck fatalities very high, Nancy Mace's allegations being investigated, Italy denies Paragon terminated
How were Ashley St. Clair’s payouts done?
Zionist influencer Ashley St. Clair posted this week about Elon Musk being her alleged baby daddy, and that they’re trying to work out a child support arrangement. She got support from the New York Post, though she said she had been trying to keep it all quiet.
She is using Brian Glicklich’s PR firm, who also appears to have done work for the Israeli Mer Group and the Congolese government, which seems to be connected to the sanctioned diamonds magnate Dan Gertler, who has been covered here in the past.
The child support and custody arrangement aside, the timing of all this raises a lot of questions. She was getting what appear to be inflated payouts from X. She’s also praised mob widow Miriam Adelson as one of the smart women surrounding Trump. The question is whether any of this had to do with accounts being suppressed on Twitter, and whether and how it was done.
Status of the Gaza deal
The hostage exchanges proceeded as scheduled yesterday, despite some hiccups. President Trump continues to hold to the position that it should be ethnically cleansed of its residents, no doubt under immense pressure from the Israel lobby. This week in a meeting with Secretary Rubio and King Abdullah of Jordan, he said “a whole civilization has been wiped out,” which is one of the definitions of genocide.
The Egyptians have said they will not be party to any peace discussion in which ethnic cleansing is on the table, and the Saudis have reiterated that Saudi-Israel normalization is dependent on Palestinian statehood. And a joint statement from the patriarchs and heads of churches in the Holy Land states their firm opposition to ethnic cleansing and also calls for the hostages to be released.
Meanwhile, reports of atrocities and war crimes by Israeli forces in Gaza continue to trickle out. The hospital equipment at the Indonesian hospital in Gaza appears to have been deliberately destroyed, according to Doctors Without Borders. Another report claims an 80 year old Palestinian man was strapped with explosives and used as a human shield, then killed after he had served the purpose. One Palestinian hostage released by the Israeli side shows clear signs of torture. Also, two East Jerusalem booksellers were detained this week, then quickly released, but nobody knows why.
Investigation into wartime treason by Netanyahu government
Yair Golan, the head of Israel’s Labor Party, said this week the current Israeli government is suspected of wartime treason. The growing scandal of Qatargate is that the Netanyahu government allowed funds to flow to Hamas via Qatar, which I’ve written about on this blog. The way a media op like this would work is a lot of these U.S.-based influencers ramp up pressure on the Qataris, they concede, and immediately the pressure gets let off, it’s a protection racket. In 2022 Netanyahu aide Yonatan Urich and his business partner Srulick Einhorn was supposedly involved in a PR attempt to improve Qatar’s image. Sefi Ovadia, a well-known critic of Netanyahu, has called for Shin Bet to investigate and for the attorney general not to accede to any demand to fire its chief. This week Netanyahu postponed for three months an inquiry into 10/7, according to Haaretz.
Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation as DNI
Gabbard was confirmed this week on a mostly party-line vote, with Sen. McConnell, or whoever shoved a popsicle stick up his conspicuously senile ass, voting against. And the friendship she had reportedly had with Bernie Sanders was not enough to get the Vermont Senator to vote for the most anti-war intel chief in the history of the position.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-NSO Group) took to the floor to kvetch about her unwillingness to call Edward Snowden a traitor. First of all, he was not charged with treason. But second, if believing this were such a litmus test for Democrats, why wouldn’t President Biden have made a formal request for his extradition? It may not have been granted by the Russian government, but it would demonstrate a willingness to prosecute him. That wasn’t done, which is a sign that there is deeper support for him in the U.S. One of the things he revealed was the open pipeline from the NSA to the Israelis.
Study: Cybertrucks have a fatality rate much higher than the Ford Pinto
Via Mother Jones:
An analysis published Thursday by the auto news website FuelArc found that, in their one year of existence, the approximately 34,000 Cybertrucks on the roads had five fire fatalities, giving them a fatality rate of 14.5 per 100,000 units. That’s 17 times the fatality rate of the Ford Pintos, whose famously flawed gas tank design on the car’s rear end led to 27 reported fire fatalities in its nine years on the road, resulting in a fatality rate of 0.85 per 100,000 units, according to FuelArc.
IRS and Postal Service employees indicted for stealing Treasury check
In Kansas City:
Employees with the IRS and the U.S. Postal Service are among three defendants who have been indicted by a federal grand jury for stealing and cashing a U.S. Treasury check.
Sierra S. McCall, 31, of Independence, Mo., Jalen Koonce, 31, of Raytown, Mo., and Julian A. King, 31, address unknown, were charged in a three-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, Feb. 6. The indictment was unsealed and made public following Koonce’s arrest and initial court appearance on Friday, Feb. 7.
There is indeed an investigation over Nancy Mace’s allegations
Mace was derided for taking to the House floor to allege a sort of sex ring among South Carolina political consultants, including her ex-fiancee. SLED confirmed that a case file is open:
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed Monday night it has an active investigation into accusations of assault, voyeurism and harassment involving the former fiancé of U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace.
“SLED opened an investigation regarding allegations of assault, harassment, and voyeurism on Dec. 14, 2023, after being contacted by the United States Capitol Police,” SLED spokesperson Renee Wunderlich said in a statement. “Since that date SLED has conducted multiple interviews, served multiple search warrants, and has a well-documented case file that will be available for release upon the conclusion of the case.”
The subject of the SLED investigation is Patrick Bryant, whom Mace identified as her former fiancé during a speech on the U.S. House floor earlier Monday night.
Wunderlich said the investigation is active and ongoing and has “involved multiple lawyers.”
Indictment in EDNY over COVID housing kickbacks and bribes
Typical Democrat stuff:
Earlier today, at the federal court in Brooklyn, an indictment was unsealed charging Julio Medina, Christopher Dantzler and Weihong Hu with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, honest-services wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to violate the Travel Act and the use of a facility of interstate commerce in aid of commercial bribery. This morning, Dantzler was arrested on Long Island, Hu in Manhattan and Medina in the Bronx. They will be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge James R. Cho. …
DOI Commissioner Strauber stated: “As charged, these defendants, an Executive Director of a City-funded nonprofit and the principals of the nonprofit’s subcontractors, engaged in and concealed a bribery and kickback scheme, pocketing millions of dollars of funds intended to provide emergency housing and support services in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic. I thank the Mayor’s Office of Risk Management and Compliance for the referral to DOI that prompted this investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the FBI for their partnership and commitment to protect critical public resources.”
South Carolina Habitat for Humanity director sentenced for COVID embezzlement
A lot of this stuff!
Ashley Clark Ingram, 35, of Columbia, was sentenced to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to theft of government funds for misappropriating funds from Habitat for Humanity of Central South Carolina.
Evidence presented to the court showed that while employed as the director of finance and operations for Habitat for Humanity, Ingram applied for an employee retention tax credit for retaining employees during the COVID-19 pandemic from the IRS on behalf of Habitat for Humanity, but without the knowledge of the nonprofit. Ingram then received checks totaling $388,550.75 from the United States Treasury and deposited the funds into a Habitat for Humanity account that she controlled then transferred the money from the Habitat for Humanity account into her own bank accounts. In total, Ingram misappropriated approximately $514,672.37 from Habitat for Humanity and the United States Government.
Lauren Balik on AppLovin
This is a very big mobile gaming company, and it’s full of problems. Here’s the central issue that has implications for its actual value:
However, incremental APP revenue and revenue growth through 2024 is heavily influenced by a number of “Get-Paid-To” third parties incentivizing mobile app users to get paid via PayPal, gift cards, or other incentives to play AppLovin and AppLovin partner games. In recent quarters 13% of APP's revenue was derived from 3 games, and through September 30, 2024, 9% of APP's 2024 revenue was derived from 2 games, all of which pay consumers to play APP's games. I found rampant cases of consumers being subsidized on a 1-1 ratio or worse for making in app purchases, flattering APP revenue numbers. In the most egregious case, this included a recent offer to make a $49.99 “in-app purchase” (IAP) on APP subsidiary game Cash Tornado Slots and receive $75.00 back in PayPal/gift card points. Games so big that APP mentions them in their 10-K and 10-Q filings are subsidized with PayPal and gift card points offers.
Read the whole thing here.
DMV-area armed robber sentenced to 228 months
A scary case:
McCombs pleaded guilty on August 14, 2024, before U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, to one count of conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by robbery (a “Hobbs Act” robbery) for the September 2022 offense, and to one count of kidnapping for the November 2022 offense. In addition to the 228-month prison-term, Judge Berman Jackson ordered McCombs to serve five years of supervised release.
According to court documents, in September and November 2022, McCombs and his co-conspirators twice executed plans to surveil, stalk, forcibly detain, bind, assault, and rob women at gunpoint. McCombs was a leader in both schemes, personally stalking the victims, holding them at gunpoint, physically assaulting them, and demanding that they pay their own ransoms. In each case, the kidnapping was abruptly cut short either by the sound of an alarm (September) or the victim’s daring escape (November).
Italy denies Paragon terminated its contract
The Israeli spyware company apparently used to spy on an Italian journalist claimed they ended the contract when they found it to be misused. NSO Group has made similar claims in relation to its contracts. The problem is if you look at the way Pegasus actually works, this is dubious. And now Paragon’s claim is being publicly denied by the Italian undersecretary for intelligence matters.