January 28th • 3h 0m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
Migration Replacement
The gas is not about the border but the economy
I work in the oil and gas industry. I’ve heard a lot of people on X (formerly known as twitter) think banning gas export is punishment to Abbott concerning the border. I have a different take. I believe the ban is solely for the economy. A sudden surplus in gas will mean lower heating cost for homes that will drive inflation down. It’s the most blatant manipulation of the market I have seen by the government in some time. The fact it’s being done during an election year is telling.
Big Tech & AI
How was fugitive Kaitlin Armstrong caught? She answered U.S. Marshals' ad for a yoga instructor - CBS News
Det. Jonathan Riley: … on the night of the murder, Kaitlin Armstrong's phone was not connected to a cell network.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Not connected?
Det. Jonathan Riley: Correct. So, whether she powered it off, whether she put in an airplane mode, uh, there's some something happened that her phone was not communicating with any cellphone towers.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Do you think this was on purpose?
Det. Jonathan Riley: Absolutely … in this day and age, if your phone is off and not connected to a network, you're either the victim of a crime or you're probably committing one.
Jonathan Vigliotti: A silent phone speaks louder in some cases than actions.
Det. Jonathan Riley: Oh, absolutely.
Trump
NAZI Town USA PBS BOTG
Adam
A number of family members saw this show "Nazi Town, USA" telling me that this is just what Trump is planning. I have listened to enough No Agenda to spot PBS programming, but to them it's all about the white christian right taking over the country and turning it over to the new dicrator.
Looks like it came out this week. If you covered it Thursday I apologise. I'm just downloading show 1629 now.
Thank you.
Tracy
Would you go back and kill baby Hitler in a Time Machine?
Climate Change
New Fridge BOTG Marianne
Bought a new refrigerator, didn’t realize it was a “smart” fridge. Was reading instructions and seen this . Won’t be connecting it to WIFI lol
Demand Response
Lake DeWitt
Jeff DeWitt BOTG from Dame Beth
Damn. Jeff DeWitt is one of the good guys. He has helped a bunch of people I know get gigs in Trump's wake.
Lake was bitter that Trump was coming in to raise money for DeWitt and AZ GOP and not her. She was not scheduled to be a speaker or get any money from Friday's event.
First clue about Lake was running for Senator while contesting 2022 Gov race. She's been running for VP since 2022.
DeWitt will have the last laugh.
Lake just committed political Hari Kari.
(And I donated to her gubernatorial campaign)
Big Pharma
Vaccines and school attendance BOTG
Was just listening to Thursdays show
The measles vaccination rate data was derived from public education school data.
Public schools get paid for each day a student is in school. They don’t get paid when a kid is out with the measles. As such, they are incentivized to push for vaccination
Same for working parents using the school system as babysitters. They don’t get paid for missing work.
Phil
Ukraine vs Russia
Far Right Propaganda 40% Votes this year
Vape Wars
Zyn / vape BOTG
Adam,
I'm a long time listener and truly appreciate the quality media deconstruction you guys provide. I am one show behind, (finishing episode 1627), so I'm not sure if you've talked about this on 1629. I don't want to be one who assumes that you've already heard this and doesn't inform you guys.
I heard and now see that Zyn is being targeted. I haven't looked into what government's intentions are, but I'm in the Army and have to say that EVERYONE USES ZYNS AND VAPES. Whereas I do not use either of these products, most people who I thought wouldn't use zyn pouches specifically use them! Many people have at least one container of them in their OCP uniform cargo pockets every day and when they take it out to get a pouch (many people take 2 at a time 🤦♀️), others inevitably ask for some pretty much every time. It's insane.
I know that this is part of the tobacco wars, but I just wanted to give a little bit of literal boots on the ground insight into the crazy usage of these products around me. There would be a lot of upset soldiers / customers and lost business.
Thank you both for all of the time and work that you put into spinning us down through your deconstructions.
Olivia
STORIES
As AI Destroys Search Results, Google Fires Workers in Charge of Improving It
Sun, 28 Jan 2024 13:18
"This is what AI work looks like when workers have no say in the process."EnshittificationAmid a massive wave of tech company layoffs in favor of AI, Google is firing thousands of contractors tasked with making its namesake search engine work better.
As Vice reports, news of the company ending its contract with Appen '-- a data training firm that employs thousands of poorly paid gig workers in developing countries to maintain, among other things, Google's search algorithm '-- coincidentally comes a week after a new study found that the quality of its search engine's results has indeed gotten much worse in recent years.
Back in late 2022, journalist Cory Doctorow coined the term "enshittification" to refer to the demonstrable worsening of all manner of online tools, which he said was by design as tech giants seek to extract more and more money out of their user bases. Google Search was chief among the writer's examples of the enshittification effect in a Wired article published last January, and as the new study out of Germany found, that effect can be measured.
With CEOs' short-sighted AI gold rush claiming ever more jobs, the termination of the Appen contract is particularly harsh not only because of how crappy Google Search has gotten, but also because of how crappy things were and are for people who work for the Australia-based AI training firm.
Hunger GamesIn a shocking expos(C) published last October, Wired revealed that people who attempt to make ends meet by doing gig work for Appen often make as little as two cents per training task, often netting only a dollar or two per day when work was slow. As one young man in Pakistan put it, working for the company was tantamount to "digital slavery."
As the union presenting workers at Alphabet, Google's parent company, stated in a press release earlier this week, the contract termination will impact at least 2,000 workers, or perhaps more given that "contracts with Google account for roughly one-third of Appen's business revenues."
While Google rushes to pour billions of dollars into AI, it also, as the Alphabet union points out, chose to terminate the Appen contract without any severance benefits, much less "transparency or accountability" about how or why the decision was made.
"This news should be a wake-up call for workers in the tech industry and anyone concerned about the impacts of AI on working people," Toni Allen, the union's executive board secretary, said in the statement. "As subcontractors for Google we have been a canary in the AI coal mine calling out the precarious labor conditions we face being the human workers standing between large language models and their end users."
"This is what AI work looks like when workers have no say in the process," Allen continued. "It is time that the world heard our voices before this situation repeats itself far and wide."
More on AI layoffs: Sports Illustrated Publisher Laying Off Staff After AI Scandal
How was fugitive Kaitlin Armstrong caught? She answered U.S. Marshals' ad for a yoga instructor - CBS News
Sun, 28 Jan 2024 12:59
Kaitlin Armstrong is serving 90 years in prison for murdering professional up-and-coming gravel cyclist Anna Moriah "Mo" Wilson . It's a story that drew international headlines because after being suspected of killing Wilson in Texas, Armstrong vanished -- seemingly into thin air. The search for the suspected killer sparked what would become an international manhunt -- first leading authorities across the United States, and then eventually to the beaches of Costa Rica.
In June 2022, one month after Armstrong disappeared, Deputy U.S. Marshals Damien Fernandez and Emir Perez traveled to Costa Rica. A source told them Armstrong could be hiding out in Santa Teresa. They knew finding Armstrong in the small, tourist-filled village was going to be a challenge -- along the way, Armstrong used multiple identities and changed her appearance -- even getting plastic surgery .
They hit dead end after dead end. After many intense days of searching for Armstrong with no luck, the U.S. Marshals decided to try one last tactic, hoping that her love of yoga would pay off for them.
"We decided we were gonna put an ad out '... or multiple ads for a yoga instructor and see -- what would happen," Perez told "48 Hours" contributor Jonathan Vigliotti.
But after almost a week of hunting, even that didn't seem to be working. Perez and Fernandez were about to head back to the States, when suddenly they got a break.
CYCLIST MO WILSON WAS FORGING HER OWN PATH In March 2022, up-and-coming pro gravel bike racer ''25-year-old Anna Moriah Wilson, known as "Mo" to some, appeared on the "Pre Ride Show," an online program about cycling.
MORIAH WILSON ("Pre Ride Show interview): So excited to be here. It feels like the first big race of the year so yeah '... I'm ready to kick it off."
Just two months later, Wilson was found murdered -- the news shocking the cycling community.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: I don't think anybody could really believe it at first. You know, why would anybody wanna hurt or harm or kill this lovely, talented young woman?
Lisa Gosselin Lynn is the editor of Vermont Sports Magazine and Vermont Ski and Ride Magazine. She is also a CBS News consultant.
Anna Moriah "Mo" Wilson, a rising star in the pro cycling world, was described as funny and friendly and smart and driven. Ansel Dickey Lynn had been following Wilson's career for many months before her tragic death.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: Moriah was pretty much winning every race that she entered, winning or finishing in the top two. And the races that she entered were top tier.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: Moriah had the potential to be one of the top bike racers, definitely in the country, and probably in the world.
Remarkably, Lynn says that Wilson was new to the pro cycling world. Her first passion had been downhill ski racing, a love shared by her close-knit family.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: She was born into a family of really great athletes. Her father Eric had been on the U.S. Ski Team. '... and Moriah's aunt '... actually was a two-time Olympic Nordic ski racer.
And it's no surprise that Wilson was drawn to outdoor endurance sports. She was raised in northern Vermont next to Kingdom Trails, a mecca for skiers and mountain bikers.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: And that was her playground.
Wilson attended Burke Mountain Academy, an elite ski school that produced Olympic greats like two-time Gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin. Wilson had hoped to make the U.S. Ski Team, but knee injuries eventually ended her skiing career. That's when she switched sports.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: She had used cycling as a way for rehabbing and kind of building back her strength. What was fascinating to me was she then went on to Dartmouth. She got an engineering degree. And after doing that, she went to her mother and said, "Hey Mom, I think I want to be a professional cyclist."
And Wilson told the "We Got to Hangout" podcast that she wanted to do much more than just win races.
MORIAH WILSON ("We Got to Hangout" interview): How can I inspire people? How can I give back to the cycling community? How can I bring more people into the sport? How can I make it more inclusive? '... I wanna find meaning and purpose in cycling that goes like far beyond the result.
Wilson eventually moved to San Francisco where she focused on cycling, and quickly rose to the top of the sport.
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: Moriah was forging her own path. '... She knew what she wanted to do. And she was working hard to pursue it.
On May 10, 2022, just one week before her 26th birthday, Wilson arrived in Austin, Texas, to prepare for the Gravel Locos bike race '-- a race she was favored to win. Wilson stayed with a close friend in her Austin apartment. But the next evening, just before 10 p.m., the friend returned home and discovered Wilson, who had been shot multiple times. She called 911.
CAITLIN CASH | 911 call: ... she's laying on the bathroom floor and there's blood everywhere.
Wilson's friend tried CPR, but it was too late.
Det. Marc McLeod: It sounded like it started off near the door '... and went backwards. Like she was trying to get away or there was some sort of struggle.
Austin Police Officers Marc McLeod and Jonathan Riley worked the case from the beginning.
Det. Marc McLeod: Whoever shot her at that point stood over top of her and shot her at least once.
Investigators wondered who could have murdered this promising young athlete. As they canvassed the immediate area, police discovered a possible clue. Wilson's expensive racing bicycle had been discarded in the bushes.
Det. Jonathan Riley: So, at that point '... OK. Is this a burglary, a robbery gone wrong?
But that theory was quickly dismissed because there was no sign of a break-in. Then, police learned that just hours before Wilson was found murdered, at around 8:30 p.m., she had been dropped off by another professional bike racer named Colin Strickland.
Det. Marc McCloud: So, obviously the focus would be '... who's this Colin Strickland?
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: Colin Strickland was a very good gravel racer. '... He was at the top echelon.
Colin Strickland, who was 35, was considered a pioneer in the sport. He had won some of the most prestigious races and was sponsored by the industry's top brands, like Red Bull.
In 2020, he appeared in an online video called Wahoo Frontiers about his long and successful career.
COLIN STRICKLAND (Wahoo Frontiers video): My name is Colin Strickland and I'm a bicycle racer and a general entertainer.
Chris Tolley: Pretty early on I looked up to Colin when I was coming up on the scene.
Chris Tolley is friends with Strickland. They met on the racetrack.
Chris Tolley: He was the one to beat. '... He loved to kind of create a show around bike racing '-- kind of selling bike racing. He was really passionate about it.
Colin Strickland Nicole Fara Silver And Tolley said although his friend had been popular with women, he eventually became serious with a woman named Kaitlin Armstrong. However, in a social media post after the crime, Strickland wrote that about six months before Wilson's murder, during a short breakup with Armstrong, he did have a "brief romantic relationship" with Wilson that "spanned a week or so." He said that it ended, and their relationship had turned into a "platonic and professional one."
Chris Tolley: He just wanted to be friends with, like, someone who was going to do great things in cycling.
The day after Wilson's murder, police visited and spoke to Strickland at his home.
Det. Marc McLeod: My '... my personal take was he was being very cooperative, being very forthcoming. Um, obviously he was in shock.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Being very transparent.
Det. Marc McLeod: Very transparent. Yeah.
And investigators say, when he agreed to go down to the police station to be interviewed, he didn't seem to hold back when telling them about the day he spent with Wilson '-- a day that would end up being her last.
That day in May was hot, in the 80s. And this story started with a swim at a local outdoor pool. Strickland told detectives he took Wilson there on the back of his motorcycle to cool off.
Det. Marc McLeod: They went swimming, then they got food.
Wilson and Strickland are seen on the restaurant's security camera.
Colin Strickland and Mo Wilson seen on a restaurant's security camera. Travis County District Attorney's Office Jonathan Vigliotti: I know he's being transparent at this point during this questioning, but what he's saying is starting to sound a lot like a date.
Det. Jonathan Riley: Yes.
Det. Marc McLeod: Oh yeah. A hundred percent.
Investigators had a lot of questions and their prior visit to Strickland's home had raised even more. On the night of Wilson's murder, police discovered an important clue on video from a neighbor's security camera. The video was taken just one minute after Wilson was dropped off.
Det. Marc McLeod: There's a video from a Ring doorbell camera that clearly shows like a black SUV with a bike rack. '... You can't see the license plate because of the bike rack on it.
Det. Jonathan Riley: So, it was obviously '... we need to focus on this.
And a vehicle that fit that description was outside Strickland's house. Who was driving the black Jeep SUV with the bike rack? The answer would lead directly to another woman.
WHO IS KAITLYN ARMSTRONG?The day after Wilson's murder, investigators quickly had an answer to who could have been driving that black Jeep that was seen on security cameras shortly before her death.
Investigators had spotted a similar looking Jeep in Strickland's driveway when they spoke to him.
Det. Jonathan Riley: They see a black Jeep with the bike rack on the back of it. '... so at that point we run the license plate, and it comes back that it's registered to Kaitlin Armstrong.
Kaitlin Armstrong, Colin Strickland's girlfriend. Tolley says he knew her very well.
Chris Tolley: We connected pretty early on. '... Kaitlin and I became friends.
They were both from the Midwest.
Chris Tolley: We kinda had a similar '-- like, upbringing, and so I think that kind of '-- you know, help us become, like, even better friends. '... She'd come over to parties I would have.
Armstrong had a background in finance and loved yoga.
Chris Tolley: She had a really strong, you know, kind of '-- you know, love for travel, love '-- you know, she had spent time pretty much, you know, globe-hopping around the world '... really, you know, a kind of interesting person.
Armstrong got certified as a yoga instructor in Bali. After she met Strickland in 2019, she also started getting into cycling.
Chris Tolley: He was very willing to kind of show her, you know, what his passions were and how passionate he was for cycling and, you know, get her involved with it '... and she also became '... kind of addicted to cycling, along with Colin.
Armstrong even started racing on an amateur level.
Chris Tolley: At the end of the day, like, I feel like they had a pretty, like, normal relationship. They both ride bikes together. They would, you know, do fun stuff. And, you know, then 2020 happened and the pandemic started. So everyone was kind of, you know, forced with '' you know, close quarters with their significant others.
The couple eventually moved in together.
Chris Tolley: The moment I '-- I saw the relationship become more serious is you know, they talked about '-- that they'd purchased a house recently '-- together, which I thought, you know, was a pretty big indication that it's '-- you know, a serious relationship.
They also started a business together, restoring classic trailers.
Chris Tolley: I think she was helping with the finance side of things. Colin was doing a lot of the operations. '... their relationship went from, you know, just a '-- normal couple to also owning a business together.
Kaitlin Armstrong and Colin Strickland Chris Tolley But things got bumpy in late 2021.
Chris Tolley: The breakup, I personally didn't know, like, they were split up at the time. '... neither of them mentioned anything to me.
It was during this time that Strickland and Wilson had briefly dated. Although Strickland had said that they had broken it off, Wilson seemed confused in the aftermath. Pilar Melendez covered the case for the Daily Beast.
Pilar Melendez | Daily Beast senior reporter: Around this time, I think Mo was pretty confused about the status of her relationship with Colin. '... and she literally wrote:
...This weekend was strange for me'...
...If you just want to be friends'...that's cool,
'...Honestly'...my mind has been going in circles'...
Pilar Melendez: it sounds like someone who's in their early 20s who just wants to know the status of her relationship with someone that's confusing her. And it seems totally reasonable that she might be confused.
Strickland had a lot to say about his relationship with Armstrong.
Det. Marc McLeod: He starts to portray her as being the jealous type, even saying things like," I can't keep people in my phone." Like "Mo's not in my phone as Mo."
Strickland told investigators he kept Wilson's phone number under an alias in his contacts, and on that evening after he'd been out with Wilson at the pool, he texted Armstrong that he'd been out running an errand and that his phone had died. That was not true.
Investigators say, there were other clues pointing toward Armstrong.
Det. Jonathan Riley: '... on the night of the murder, Kaitlin Armstrong's phone was not connected to a cell network.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Not connected?
Det. Jonathan Riley: Correct. So, whether she powered it off, whether she put in an airplane mode, uh, there's some something happened that her phone was not communicating with any cellphone towers.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Do you think this was on purpose?
Det. Jonathan Riley: Absolutely '... in this day and age, if your phone is off and not connected to a network, you're either the victim of a crime or you're probably committing one.
Jonathan Vigliotti: A silent phone speaks louder in some cases than actions.
Det. Jonathan Riley: Oh, absolutely.
Strickland also shared that he had bought handguns for Armstrong and himself for personal security
Det. Marc McLeod: He talks about how they purchase guns.
Det. Marc McLeod: And that there are these two guns and that she has a gun, um, they've taken lessons and that those '-- these guns are back at the house. And so few things like that start to paint a picture of like, this could '-- it could definitely be her
Police worked quickly. That same day, investigators picked Armstrong up on an old warrant for failing to pay for a Botox treatment.
Kaitlin Armstrong, left, during questioning. Travis County District Attorney's Office DETECTIVE CONNER: ... what were you doing yesterday?
KAITLIN ARMSTRONG: I would like to leave.
Det. Marc McLeod: And she's just kind of sitting there and she's not showing very much emotion at all. '... typically when we see some interviews going on and if you didn't do it, this is your, like, you're going to be like, you know, not me, not it. I want out of this room. What do you want to know? '... So that you don't come back looking for me. And there was none of that.
DETECTIVE CONNER: Is there any explanation as far as why the vehicle would be over there?
KAITLIN ARMSTRONG: I would like to leave ...
Det. Jonathan Riley: She was almost completely disinterested in '-- in hearing what the detectives had to say.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, it sounds like this is a big red flag immediately?
Marc McLeod: Oh '--
Jonathan Riley: Oh, absolutely.
But investigators had to let Armstrong go. There was a problem '-- Armstrong's birthdate didn't match the date on the warrant, so the warrant wasn't valid, and police didn't have enough to charge her with anything else.
Two days after that interview, police got an unexpected call. It was from a friend of Armstrong. Police say the caller told them that Armstrong was so angry about Strickland's relationship with Wilson, that she wanted to kill her. It was yet another indication that they were on the right track. A few days later, an arrest warrant was issued, but when police went looking for Armstrong, she was gone.
ON THE HUNT FOR KAITLIN ARMSTRONGAfter Kaitlin Armstrong vanished, U.S. Marshals got the job of tracking her down.
Chris Godsick: Plain and simply the Marshals are man hunters.
Chris Godsick hosts and produces a podcast with the U.S. Marshals Service. His "Chasing Evil" podcast tells stories of some of the Marshals Service's biggest cases, including the hunt for Armstrong.
Chris Godsick: Nobody thought Kaitlin Armstrong was going to run and she surprised them all. She disappeared.
"CHASING EVIL" PODCAST: Kaitlin Armstrong ran from a murder charge. '... But the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive task force had a different plan '...
Jonathan Vigliotti: So take me through this. '... Where do you begin when you're looking for somebody that does not want to be found?
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: You know, it depends on the case, honestly. '... we look for friends, sometimes we look for '... family.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: One of the things that I did was collect as many photos as I could.
"48 Hours" contributor Jonathan Vigliotti, center, with members of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force. From left, Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez, Deputy U.S.Marshal Damien Fernandez, Vigliotti, Austin Police Officer Jonathan Riley and Austin Police Officer Marc McLeod. CBS News Damien Fernandez and Emir Perez are Deputy U.S. Marshals. They joined Austin Police Officers Jonathan Riley and Marc McLeod on the case. The team, based in Texas, is known as the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force.
With no sign of Armstrong, the task force suspected she may have left town headed for her sister Christie's place in upstate New York.
Det. Marc McLeod: We were thinking maybe she's driving cross country. We didn't know.
Their instincts were right. In upstate New York, another Deputy U.S. Marshal managed to track down Armstrong's sister.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What did the sister say?
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: The sister ultimately said '... that her sister had come to visit her '... and stayed with her a couple of days, but that she had dropped her off at the airport in Newark. And last she heard, she was gonna board a flight back to Austin, but then called her back later and said that she decided that she was gonna drive back.
Det. Marc McLeod: '... which made absolute -- no sense to any of us that you would just drive back.
When the task force checked outbound flights at Newark Airport, no reservations had been made in Kaitlin Armstrong's name.
Det. Marc McLeod: We never got a hit on Kaitlin Armstrong's passport.
But the team had a hunch because Christie Armstrong told the Deputy U.S. Marshal in New York that she didn't know where her passport was. So they checked with their contact at Homeland Security.
Det. Jonathan Riley: And within minutes of reaching out to him, he got back to me and he's like, yeah, we're showing Christie Armstrong traveled out of Newark, New Jersey, International Airport on a one-way flight to Costa Rica
Jonathan Vigliotti: You knew it.
Emir Perez: I said, there's no way that the sister left. And we're looking for her and we can't find Kaitlin. No, that's Kaitlin.
The U.S. Marshals suspected that Kaitlin Armstrong has used her sister's passport to flee. Christie Armstrong later emphasized to authorities that she did not give her sister the passport. She has never been charged with any crime related to the case.
Kaitlin Armstrong landed in Costa Rica, the gem of central America and home to mountains, tropical rain forests and white sand beaches as far as the eye can see.
But she didn't spend much time in San Jos(C). Shortly after arriving, Armstrong disappeared again '-- and she had a huge lead on the U.S. Marshals. Perez and Fernandez arrived in Costa Rica a month after Armstrong.
Jonathan Vigliotti: This is you guys now on the hunt. How intense is it once you touch down in Costa Rica? What happens?
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: You're on a timeline.
Jonathan Vigliotti: I hear timeline and I hear the pressure is on '--
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: Pressure's on. I know we were sitting in the plane and we're talking, what's the game plan?
Although they would have help from the Costa Rican authorities and U.S. State Department officers on the ground, they knew finding Armstrong was going to be a big challenge.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: We had other intelligence indicating that '... she was staying in hostels in Costa Rica. And I don't know if you know anything about Costa Rica, but Costa Rica has a lot of hostels, a lot, an unbelievable amount of hostels.
The U.S. Marshals wouldn't tell "48 Hours" exactly how their intelligence gathering worked, but their team back in the States had managed to track down the phone number for an American businessman they believed had connected with Armstrong at some point.
Det. Marc McLeod: We didn't know what city he was in. So we decided, hey, let's just cold call him. '... So we call him. And we're on the conference room and he answers. And we're like, "Hey, it's the U.S. Marshals. My name is Marc." And he goes, "I don't want any," click just hangs up. Like it's a '-- like a '--
Jonathan Vigliotti: A telemarketer.
Det. Marc McLeod: Yeah. A telemarketer.
Det. Jonathan Riley: Right. Or a scam call.
After three or four call attempts, the businessman finally stayed on the line to answer the U.S. Marshals' questions.
Det. Marc McLeod: And we actually ended up sending a picture of Kaitlin '... while we're on the phone with him. He looks at it and he goes, yes, but she doesn't look like that and she's not using that name.
Jonathan Vigliotti: And did he tell you her new name?
Det. Marc McLeod: He did.
Det. Jonathan Riley: It was Beth.
Det. Marc McLeod: Beth.
Det. Jonathan Riley: She was going by Beth.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Going by Beth.
Kaitlin Armstrong U.S. Marshals And the businessman said Armstrong no longer looked like her photo. She had cut her hair and changed its color.
Det. Jonathan Riley: It was brown hair instead of red.
Emir Perez: Yeah, she dyed her hair.
The businessman told the U.S. Marshals he had no idea that the woman who called herself Beth was actually Kaitlin Armstrong, but he did tell them where they might find her.
Det. Marc McLeod: He's like, "Well, I met her at a yoga studio in Jac"."
Jac" is a popular tourist destination known for its nightlife and its beaches and the perfect place to hide. It was the U.S. Marshals' first real tip, so they rushed there.
They canvassed the area, combed through hours of surveillance video, but could not find a single sign of Kaitlin Armstrong anywhere. It was a bust.
Chris Godsick: '... but the Marshals have one more solid lead and that takes them to a beautiful touristy beach town'-- a one-street town called Santa Teresa.
WAS KAITLIN ARMSTRONG HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT?One month after Kaitlin Armstrong disappeared, the U.S. Marshals were in hot pursuit of her in another area of Costa Rica. A source had suggested she might have gone to a small village on the Pacific coast.
The U.S. Marshals took a ferry to reach a remote peninsula. Once there, they drove by car through mountains to the tiny town of Santa Teresa. But when they finally arrived, they ran into an unexpected problem.
Jonathan Vigliotti: '... you get to Santa Teresa. '... Was it easy to identify her there from the other people that were there?
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: I think from the get-go we were told '... you're gonna be in for a surprise 'cause a lot of the women in Santa Teresa look just like Kaitlin '-- a lot of them.
And it turns out, that advice was right. The town was full of foreign tourists. Deputy U.S. Marshals Fernandez and Perez arrived in Santa Teresa after dark.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: So, we get there, and he starts walking down a main strip that's there, uh, like down the street.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: There's only one road on '-- on that town.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: And he sees '--
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: Main road.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: He sees a girl and he says, you know, that looks just like her. Well, a couple minutes later, we see another one. And it's late at night and we're like, whoa, oh, man, that's two. '... And then there's another one.
As the U.S. Marshals tried to find Armstrong, they even had one of their female operatives start going to yoga classes to see if they could spot her.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: She actually did three different classes for us.
And they tapped into local contacts.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: Oh, yeah. We made friends with people there that would send us pictures. Oh look, I '-- I think I saw her at this restaurant yesterday and she's in the back in the background of a photo that I took, stuff like that.
The search for Kaitlin Armstrong sparked what would become an international manhunt -- first leading authorities across the U.S. and then eventually to the beaches of Costa Rica. While on the run, she used different names and changed her appearance. U.S. Marshals In fact, people had seen Armstrong at local spots in Santa Teresa, but they didn't realize who she was. Armstrong was hiding in plain sight using different names.
Jonathan Vigliotti: She had like multiple names.
Greg Haber: Yeah. Um, she came in '--
Man in restaurant: Beth?
Greg Haber: Um '--
Jonathan Vigliotti Beth?
Greg Haber: It wasn't Beth.
Woman in restaurant: Ari?
Greg Haber: Ari.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Ari.
Greg Haber: Ari, right. So she came in as Ari.
Greg Haber is an American from the New York area who owns a restaurant called Kooks Smokehouse and Bar in Santa Teresa.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Ari. What did Ari look like? Did she stand out to you?
Greg Haber: Pretty, came in, um, you know, introduced herself as a yoga teacher, which is basically anybody else down here '... "hey, I moved here, teaching yoga down the street" ... and that was it.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What was her general vibe like?
Greg Haber: She definitely seemed like she was trying to establish roots here. Like this was gonna be her new home.
And Haber says one day he noticed something different about her.
Greg Haber: I saw her on the beach. '... I walk my dog on the beach every night for sunset. '... And you're walking through, and you see the bandage on her face. It's like, "Oh, what happened?" She's like, "Oh, surfboard hit me in the face."
Greg Haber: It's like, well, happens to everybody, right, at least once. So, you wouldn't even question that story here. Like, you see people all the time.
Turns out that bandage would later prove to be an important part of this story '-- and one of the reasons the U.S. Marshals say Armstrong was so hard to find.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, you're this close to giving up.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: Yes.
Finally, they decided on one last tactic: they turned to a local Facebook page.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: We decided we were gonna put an ad out, for a yoga instructor and see what would happen.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So this is the equivalent of Craigslist.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez Yes, correct. Right. Pretty much.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: A little bit more lively, but yes. '... And just saying, hey, we're at this hostel, we're looking for a yoga instructor as soon as possible. Please contact us at this number.
But after almost a week of hunting, even that didn't seem to be working.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: Sunday, we decided we haven't gotten any response back from anything.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: Nothing. We're burned.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: So, Sunday we're like, OK, we're done. '... None of 'em have panned out. So '--
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: We're going back to San Jos(C)
Now back in San Jos(C), the U.S. Marshals were getting ready to head home when suddenly '--
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: We got a bite, somebody that, um, identified herself '... as a yoga instructor and said they wanted to meet with us at a particular hostel '... and we said '... "this is, this is our chance!"
Perez and Fernandez rushed back to Santa Teresa just ahead of a tropical storm.
Tourism Police Lieutenant Juan Carlos Solanos' team helped the U.S. Marshals in their search for Armstrong. They did surveillance on a hostel called "Don Jon's" where the yoga instructor '-- the one who answered that online ad '-- was believed to be.
Jonathan Vigliotti (to Solano in Costa Rica): So, there is this massive international manhunt, and of all places in the world, it ends in this very discreet hostel.
Lt. Juan Carlos Solano: S, aqu se ubic", ella estaba hospedada ac. (Translation: Yes, this is where she was staying, she was staying here.)
It was now time for the U.S. Marshals to make their move.
They decided that Deputy U.S. Marshal Perez would approach the woman alone. They didn't want to scare her off. He would pretend to be a tourist and try to get a really good look at her face.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: So I walked up '... and I got in. And I saw two individuals sitting there at a table, off to the left, as soon as I walked in.
He says one was a woman.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: She looked like Kaitlin, but not 100 percent. '... So I thought, well, how can I approach her or get close enough where I start asking questions where she doesn't suspect something, So, I decided that I was gonna speak to her in Spanish. So I spoke to her in nothing but Spanish.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, you're communicating, she goes to use her phone for Google Translate and then ''
Deputy U.S. Marshal Emir Perez: So, I got a little closer 'cause I saw that she was trying to get to Google Translate on her phone and she'd raised it up to me and I got even closer. '... And I noticed that she had a bandage on her nose and possibly her lips were swollen. and I saw her eyes '... The eyes are the exact same ones that I saw in the picture. And this is her 100 percent.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: He gets in the car, and he is like, "That's her. She's in there."
Kaitlin Armstrong was caught and arrested at a hostel on Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, on June 29, 2022. U.S. Marshals Local police moved in to make the actual arrest. And soon the U.S. Marshals discovered why Armstrong had been so hard to find: she had been getting plastic surgery when they first arrived in Santa Teresa.
At the hostel, they found a receipt.
Damien Fernandez: The receipt for, surgery.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Plastic surgery?
Damien Fernandez: Plastic surgery.
Kaitlin Armstrong before,left, and after her plastic surgery. U.S. Marshals/Harris County Sheriff's Office In side-by-side photos, you can see that Armstrong changed the shape of her nose. The Deputy Marshals said their female operative '-- the woman they sent to yoga classes to try and find Armstrong '-- told them Armstrong's new look would have tricked her.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: She told me, I think if I would've run into her at the yoga studio doing yoga classes, I don't think I would've recognized her.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Wow. It almost worked.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Damien Fernandez: It almost worked.
THE CASE AGAINST KAITLIN ARMSTRONGThe U.S. Marshals took Armstrong back to Texas, where she was charged and held in jail. But just weeks before she was due to stand trial for the murder of Moriah Wilson, Armstrong escaped from custody again.
Pilar Melendez: She was at a doctor's appointment and tried to escape as they were walking out.
Pilar Melendez from the Daily Beast says Armstrong didn't get far before deputies caught her.
Pilar Melendez: It was pretty astonishing that she did that given the fact that she had tried to escape prosecution prior.
D.A. Jos(C) Garza: This was just more evidence of her guilt.
Jos(C) Garza is Travis County's district attorney. He says his team of prosecutors '-- Rickey Jones and Guillermo Gonzalez '-- were more than ready to try the case.
D.A. Jos(C) Garza: When we learned that she had tried to escape, it just added to our confidence level in the facts of this case '... that we would be able to secure justice for Moriah and her family.
On Nov. 1, 2023, Armstrong's trial began.
RICKEY JONES | Prosecutor (opening statement): The last thing Mo did on this earth was scream in terror.
In opening statements, Jones told the jury about chilling audio from a security camera that
captured the last moments of Moriah Wilson's life.
RICKEY JONES (opening statement): Those screams are followed by "pow! pow!" Two gunshots. '... Kaitlin Armstrong stood over Mo Wilson and put a third shot. Right into Mo's heart.
Prosecutors said Armstrong had been tracking Wilson by using a sports app.
Pilar Melendez: Kaitlin, prior to the murder, had been following Mo on the Strava app, which is basically an app that athletes use to track their miles, running, biking '... And she knew exactly where she was.
And they said that Armstrong, on the night of the murder, was most likely tracking Colin Strickland, as well.
Guillermo Gonzalez | Prosecutor: She did have the ability to monitor his communications. She had access to all of his passwords. She had access to his Instagram account.
Rickey Jones: I believe that when Mo sent Colin a text letting him know the address where she was. I believe that Kaitlin Armstrong was at home on Colin Strickland's laptop. '... She saw that message.
After murdering Wilson and before leaving the scene, Jones told the jury that Armstrong took Wilson's bike and discarded it in the bushes just yards away from where her Jeep was parked.
As investigators canvassed the immediate area after Moriah Wilson's shooting, police discovered her expensive racing bicycle had been discarded in the bushes. Kaitlin Armstrong's DNA would later be found on the handlebars and seat of Wilson's bike. Travis County District Attorney's Office Rickey Jones: Our belief is that she maybe staged it to look like a robbery or something. Or, another theory is, Mo Wilson's bike is a tool of her trade. It might have been like the bullet shot in the heart. I'm going to shoot you in the heart. I'm going to throw away your bike.
But they said Armstrong made one big mistake: she left her DNA behind on the handlebars and seat of Wilson's bike. And that's not all the evidence prosecutors had against Armstrong. There was that receipt that showed Armstrong had received plastic surgery while hiding out in Costa Rica.
Rickey Jones: Everything she does '... it's all consistent with trying to evade the authorities.
But when it was the defense's turn, attorney Geoffrey Puryear told the jury there was no direct evidence '-- including security footage '-- that actually showed Armstrong was at the scene of the crime.
GEOFFREY PURYEAR (in court): Not one witness saw Kaitlin Armstrong allegedly commit this murder.
Then why would Armstrong flee and hide from authorities? Defense attorney Rick Cofer pointed the finger at Colin Strickland.
RICK COFER (in court): Was she scared? What do you think? Do you think that she may have been concerned a little bit that her boyfriend had killed someone? '... Fear results in fight or flight and it was flight.
But Jones said, there was a big problem with this theory because Strickland had nothing to do with the murder of Wilson.
Rickey Jones: In fact, at the time of the murder, he was actually on the phone speaking with someone. '... it wasn't Colin Strickland.
Armstrong's defense team did not respond to "48 Hours"' request for an interview.
After a two-week trial, it took the jury around two hours to decide Armstrong's fate.
JUDGE (reading verdict): We the jury find the defendant Kaitlin Armstrong guilty of the offense of murder '...
"As a prosecutor, the first row right behind you is the family '... you began to feel their pain and their desire for a just outcome for their loved ones," said Rickey Jones. AP Rickey Jones: As a prosecutor, the first row right behind you is the family '... you began to feel their pain and their desire for a just outcome for their loved ones.
One day after her conviction, Armstrong was sentenced to 90 years behind bars.
But before the case came to an end, Judge Brenda Kennedy allowed Caitlin Cash '-- Wilson's close friend whose apartment she had been staying at and who had found Moriah's body '' to take the stand and speak directly to Armstrong.
CAITLIN CASH (in court): So many people in this room have lost so much. '... I'm angry at you, at the utter tragic nature, at the senselessness at not being able to hear Mo's voice again. '... I feel deep sadness for the road ahead.
Then it was Moriah Wilson's mother's turn.
KAREN WILSON (in court): I hate what you did to my beautiful daughter. It was very selfish and cowardly that violent act on May 11th. It was cowardly because you never chose to face her woman-to-woman in a civil conversation. She would've listened. She was an amazing listener. She would have cared about your feelings.
Anna Moriah "Mo" Wilson Elliot Wilkinson Ray But despite the pain, Karen Wilson closed with words of love and optimism, because she said that's how Moriah would have wanted it.
KAREN WILSON (in court): You killed her earthly body, but her spirit is so very much alive, and you can never change that.
Today in Kingdom Trails in northern Vermont, a place that was sacred to Wilson, a trail was built in her honor. It's called "Moriah's Ascent."
Lisa Gosselin Lynn: Moriah was a Vermonter. She was giving. She was hardworking. She was honest. She was caring. And she came from a wonderful family. And that family really wants that legacy and all of her good qualities to inspire others '...
To honor Moriah, the Wilson family created the Moriah Wilson Foundation that promotes healthy living and community building.
Produced by Chuck Stevenson and Chris Ritzen. Hannah Vair is the field producer. Alicia Tejada is the coordinating producer. Ryan Smith, Jenna Jackson and Cindy Cesare are the development producers. Matthew Mosk is the senior investigative editorial director. Wini Dini, Mike Baluzy, Grayce Arlotta-Berner and Joan Adelman are the editors. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
More from CBS News
In: 48 Hours Murder Jonathan Vigliotti Jonathan Vigliotti is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles. He previously served as a foreign correspondent for the network's London bureau.
George Carlin's Estate Sues Over AI-Generated 'Comedy Special': A New Frontier In Copyright Wars | ZeroHedge
Sun, 28 Jan 2024 12:43
In what appears to be a groundbreaking clash between the legacy of artistic creation and the exponential growth of AI, the estate of comedy legend George Carlin has launched a legal salvo against the creators of an AI-generated 'comedy special' that mimics the late comedian's iconic voice and style.
George Carlin on stage in 1992. The lawsuit, filed in California Federal Court, accuses the makers of "George Carlin: I'm glad I'm dead," a video uploaded by the Dudesy channel on YouTube, of committing an egregious act of copyright infringement and a violation of Carlin's right to publicity.
The hour-long video showcases a series of AI-generated images while an uncannily similar voice to the comedian delves into familiar territories of religion and politics, and even Carlin's own death. This legal battle underscores the emerging complexities surrounding AI in creative industries, a contentious issue that was one of the catalysts behind a significant writers' strike in Hollywood last year, primarily over the studios' adoption of AI for scriptwriting.
AI has resurrected George Carlin to make us laugh once more.And it's terrifying. pic.twitter.com/I4TlMT6KYd
'-- Vanessa Harris (@technologypoet) January 12, 2024"Defendants' AI-generated 'George Carlin Special' is not a creative work. It is a piece of computer-generated clickbait which detracts from the value of Carlin's comedic works and harms his reputation," reads the complaint. "It is a casual theft of a great American artist's work."
The Dudesy YouTube channel, operated by comedian Will Sasso and writer Chad Kultgen, is at the heart of this controversy. Both, along with several unnamed individuals involved in crafting the video and developing the AI technology, find themselves listed as defendants. In response to the uproar, Sasso, on a podcast, stressed that the AI rendition was far from a replacement of the real comedic genius.
"I learned that AI cannot replace Geroge Carlin and therefore AI cannot replace me and my pal Chad," said Sasso. "It is interesting how heated people get about it."
Kultgen, in the same episode, touched upon the essence of the controversy: unlike previous AI experiments that merely mimicked Carlin's voice, this creation ventured into reproducing an hour-long standup routine, effectively claiming the capability to replicate the art form itself.
"The other ones, it was just 'look, we can kind of mimic his voice.' This isn't just mimicking that, it's taking the art form itself, an hour-long of standup comedy, and saying 'I can do the art form as well."
Kelly Carlin, the daughter of George Carlin, expressed her disdain and disappointment in a poignant statement.
""I understand and share the desire for more George Carlin. I, too, want more time with my father. But it is ridiculous to proclaim he has been 'resurrected' with AI," she said, adding "The 'George Carlin' in that video is not the beautiful human who defined his generation and raised me with love. It is a poorly-executed facsimile cobbled together by unscrupulous individuals to capitalize on the extraordinary goodwill my father established with his adoring fanbase."
The estate's attorney, Josh Schiller, paints a grim picture of the potential future with AI, warning of it becoming a tool for bad-faith actors to supplant creative expression, exploit existing works, and profiteer at the expense of genuine creators.
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Idea: Wikidata identifiers as topics · Podcastindex-org/podcast-namespace · Discussion #544 · GitHub
Sat, 27 Jan 2024 22:27
Inspired by @misener's article about Apple tagging individual podcast episodes with topics. I was curious if we should explore the merit of creating a <podcast:topics> namespace tag based on Wikidata identifiers. From the article:
Not only could this lead to new and better podcast discovery features within Apple Podcasts, greater use of structured data also represents a potential win for podcast search and audio SEO.
'...It's not difficult to see how Apple could use relevance-weighted topic data to significantly improve podcast episode discovery'...
For example, imagine being able to explore episodes on a particular topic, published in the last week/month/year'...Or imagine diving into the back catalog of a long-running show through the lens of topics you care most about.
Obviously, I'd expect to see a lot of keyword-stuffing from "growth hacker" types, but that was also a concern with the person tag. Perhaps there's a way to mitigate the incentives to act in bad faith.
Border Patrol Union Backs Texas National Guard, Slams 'Catastrophe' Biden 'Has Unleashed On America' | The Daily Wire
Sat, 27 Jan 2024 20:41
The official union of U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a statement on Thursday backing the Texas National Guard's attempts to secure the southern border and slamming the Biden administration for its ''catastrophic'' border policies.
The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which has over 18,000 members, said that the ''rank-and-file'' Border Patrol agents ''appreciate and respect'' the measures Texas has taken to repel the record flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. under Biden.
''TX NG and rank-and-file BP agents work together and respect each other's jobs. Period,'' the NBPC said. ''If TX NG members have LAWFUL orders, then they have to carry out those orders.''
Earlier this week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott doubled down on using razor wire to repel migrants from illegally crossing the border after the Supreme Court ruled that Border Patrol agents have the authority to cut through the wire to allow illegal immigrants into the country. On Friday, The Daily Wire found that Texas authorities have not only maintained existing razor wire fortifications but have added razor wire to border barriers, all while continuing to bar Border Patrol from establishing a presence at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass.
The Texas National Guard is actively installing new razor wire to barriers at the southern border, lining the shores in Eagle Pass with razor wire-covered shipping containers@SpencerLndqst reports from the border pic.twitter.com/zkXCBcL7XD
'-- Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) January 25, 2024
The Border Patrol union's statement sought to clarify that rank-and-file Border Patrol agents were in no way preventing Texas National Guard troops from carrying out ''their lawful orders'' and vice-versa.
''TX NG members realize that rank-and-file BP agents have their orders as well,'' the NBPC added. ''Lawful orders, no matter how unpopular or distasteful amongst rank-and-file agents, must be followed. Unlawful orders (as determined by competent legal counsel and not what some outhouse lawyer behind a keyboard says) will not be followed.''
The NBPC then ripped the Biden administration for its border policies and the negative consequences they have had on America.
''Rank-and-file BP agents appreciate and respect what TX has been doing to defend their state in the midst of this catastrophe that the Biden Admin has unleashed on America,'' the statement continued. ''We want to be perfectly clear, there is no fight between rank-and-file BP agents and the TX NG, Gov. Abbott, or TX DPS. It may make flashy headlines, but it simply isn't true.''
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A senior CBP official told Fox News on Friday that there are ''no plans'' to remove the razor wire being installed by the Texas National Guard after the Supreme Court's ruling.
''While this issue plays out in the courts, the relationship between Border Patrol, Texas DPS [Department of Public Safety], & TMD [Texas Military Dept.] remains strong,'' the official said. ''Our focus is and will always be the mission of protecting this country and its people. On the ground, we continue to work alongside these valuable partners in that endeavor.''
''Bottom line: Border Patrol has no plans to remove infrastructure (c-wire) placed by Texas along the border,'' the CBP official added. ''Our posture remains the same. If we need to access an area for emergency response, we will do so. When that happens, we will coordinate with Texas DPS & TMD.''
Ukraine Using 'Flocks' of FPV Drones Led by 'Queen' Drone: Report
Sat, 27 Jan 2024 19:04
Ukrainian forces are using "flocks" of FPV (first-person-view) drones led by "queen" drones to attack Russian positions, a Russian serviceman said in an interview with Russian newspaper Izvestia.
This Russian serviceman was apparently a witness to a "flock of Ukrainian FPV drones led by a repeater drone Queen" which descended onto Russian positions and started the bombing. pic.twitter.com/LhvFg8syXW
'-- WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated) January 26, 2024In a video shared on X, formerly Twitter, by a military blogger, the soldier described an encounter with a swarm of drones led by a "repeater drone queen."
He said Ukrainian forces sent a "large wing with a repeater" that broadcasted a signal to a group of smaller FPV drones flying underneath it.
These then dropped onto Russian positions, he added.
"A flock of around 10'--the Queen is somewhere above at a high altitude in a small detection range. It brings the flock of drones, which then descend onto positions and start working," he said.
Izvestia correspondent Dmitry Zimenkin, who interviewed the soldier, said the tactic allowed Ukrainian drone operators to "land and wait" with their smaller drones, "saving batteries," Newsweek reported.
"When a large mother drone spots targets, the kamikazes take off, sometimes several meters from the target, and attack. If the Queen is eliminated, then her entire flock can be neutralized," Zimenkin said, per Newsweek.
FPV drones have been used by both Russian and Ukrainian forces since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and they have proved to be an effective and low-cost weapon.
They have been particularly crucial to Ukraine's war effort, enabling Ukrainian drone squads to attack deep into Russian territory while helping to limit losses to their ground forces.
But drone warfare has meant both sides are struggling to make any advances, Gleb Molchanov, a Ukrainian drone operator, told The Guardian.
"It's a war of armor against projectiles. At the moment, projectiles are winning," he added.
Is the Electoral Fix Already In? - by Matt Taibbi
Sat, 27 Jan 2024 19:01
The fix is in. To ''protect democracy,'' democracy is already being canceled. We just haven't admitted the implications of this to ourselves yet.
On Sunday, January 14th, NBC News ran an eye-catching story: '' Fears grow that Trump will use the military in 'dictatorial ways' if he returns to the White House .'' It described ''a loose-knit network of public interest groups and lawmakers'' that is ''quietly'' making plans to ''foil any efforts to expand presidential power'' on the part of Donald Trump.
The piece quoted an array of former high-ranking officials, all insisting Trump will misuse the Department of Defense to execute civilian political aims. Since Joe Biden's team '' leaked'' a strategy memo in late December listing ''Trump is an existential threat to democracy'' as Campaign 2024's central talking point, surrogates have worked overtime to insert existential or democracy in quotes. This was no different:
''We're about 30 seconds away from the Armageddon clock when it comes to democracy,'' said Bill Clinton's Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, adding that Trump is ''a clear and present danger to our democracy.'' Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward , one of the advocacy groups organizing the ''loose'' coalition, said, ''We believe this is an existential moment for American democracy.'' Declared former CIA and defense chief Leon Panetta: ''Like any good dictator, he's going to try to use the military to basically perform his will.''
Former Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice and current visiting Georgetown law professor Mary McCord was one of the few coalition participants quoted by name. She said:
We're already starting to put together a team to think through the most damaging types of things that he [Trump] might do so that we're ready to bring lawsuits if we have to.
The group was formed by at least two organizations that have been hyperactive in filing lawsuits against Trump and Trump-related figures over the years: the aforementioned Democracy Forward , chaired by former Perkins Coie and Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Marc Elias, and Protect Democracy , a ubiquitous non-profit run by a phalanx of former Obama administration lawyers like Ian Bassin, and funded at least in part by LinkedIn magnate Reid Hoffman .
The article implied a future Trump presidency will necessitate new forms of external control over the military. It cited Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal's bill to ''clarify'' the Insurrection Act , a 1792 law that empowers the president to deploy the military to quell domestic rebellion. Blumenthal's act would add a requirement that Congress or courts ratify presidential decisions to deploy the military at home, seeking essentially to attach a congressional breathalyzer to the presidential steering wheel.
NBC's quotes from former high-ranking defense and intelligence officials about possible preemptive mutiny were interesting on their own. However, the really striking twist was that we'd read the story before.
Summer, 2020. The TIP media blitz. For over a year, the Biden administration and its surrogates have dropped hint after hint that the plan for winning in 2024 '-- against Donald Trump or anyone else '-- might involve something other than voting. Lawsuits in multiple states have been filed to remove Trump from the ballot; primaries have been canceled or invalidated ; an ominous Washington Post editorial by Robert Kagan, husband to senior State official Victoria Nuland, read like an APB to assassins to head off an ''inevitable'' Trump dictatorship; and on January 11th of this year, leaders of a third party group called ''No Labels'' sent an amazing letter to the Department of Justice, complaining of a ''conspiracy'' to stop alternative votes.
Authored by former NAACP director Ben Chavis, former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, and former Assistant U.S. Attorney and Iran-Contra Special Counsel Dan Webb, the No Labels letter described a meeting of multiple advocacy groups aligned with the Democratic party. In the 80-minute confab, audio of which was obtained by Semafor , a dire warning was issued to anyone considering a third-party run:
Through every channel we have, to their donors, their friends, the press, everyone '-- everyone '-- should send the message: If you have one fingernail clipping of a skeleton in your closet, we will find it'... If you think you were vetted when you ran for governor, you're insane. That was nothing. We are going to come at you with every gun we can possibly find. We did not do that with Jill Stein or Gary Johnson, we should have, and we will not make that mistake again.
The Semafor piece offered a rare glimpse into the Zoom-politics culture that's dominated Washington since the arrival of Covid-19. If this is how Beltway insiders talk about how to keep Joe Lieberman or Ben Chavis out of politics, imagine what they say about Trump?
We don't have to imagine. Three and a half years ago, in June and July of 2020, an almost exactly similar series of features to the recent NBC story began appearing in media, describing another '' loose network '' of ''bipartisan officials,'' also meeting '' quietly '' to war-game scenarios in case '' Trump loses and insists he won ,'' as the Washington Post put it.
That group, which called itself the Transition Integrity Project (TIP), involved roughly 100 former officials, think-tankers, and journalists who gathered to ''wargame'' contested election scenarios. The ''loose'' network included big names like former Michigan governor and current Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and former Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, who in his current role as special advisor to President Joe Biden overseeing the handout of roughly $370 billion in ''clean energy'' investments is one of the most powerful people in Washington.
The TIP was hyped like the rollout of a blockbuster horror flick: In a second Trump Term, No One Will Hear You Scream'... Stories in NPR , the Financial Times , The Atlantic , The Washington Post and over a dozen other major outlets outlined apocalyptic predictions about Trump's unwillingness to leave office, and how this would likely result in mass unrest, even bloodshed. A typical quote was from TIP co-founder, Georgetown law professor, and former Pentagon official Rosa Brooks, who told the Boston Globe that every one of the group's simulations ended in chaos and violence, because ''the law is... almost helpless against a president who's willing to ignore it.''
Podesta played Joe Biden in one TIP simulation, and in one round refused to accede to a ''clear Trump win,'' threatening instead to seize a bloc of West Coast states including California (absurdly dubbed ''Cascadia'') and secede. Podesta's ''frankly ridiculous move,'' as one TIP participant described it, was so over the top that a player leaked it to media writer Ben Smith of the New York Times .
The latter in Timesian fashion stuck the seeming front-page tale near the bottom of an otherwise breezy August 2nd story titled, called '' How The Media Could Get the Election Story Wrong '':
A group of former top government officials called the Transition Integrity Project actually gamed four possible scenarios, including one that doesn't look that different from 2016: a big popular win for Mr. Biden, and a narrow electoral defeat'... They cast John Podesta, who was Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, in the role of Mr. Biden. They expected him, when the votes came in, to concede...
But Mr. Podesta'... shocked the organizers'... he persuaded the governors of Wisconsin and Michigan to send pro-Biden electors to the Electoral College . In that scenario, California, Oregon, and Washington then threatened to secede from the United States if Mr. Trump took office'...
News that Hillary Clinton's former campaign chief rejected a legal election result, even in a hypothetical simulation, was obvious catnip to conservative media, which took about ten minutes to repackage Smith's story using the same alarmist headline format marking earlier TIP write-ups. Breitbart published '' Democrats' 'War Game' for Election Includes West Coast Secession, Possible Civil War ,'' and a cascade of further red-state freakouts seemed inevitable.
''At that point,'' says Nils Gilman, COO and EVP of Programs at the Berggruen Institute think tank, who served alongside Brooks as TIP's other co-founder, ''we decided we needed to be out about having run this exercise, to prevent the allegation that this was a 'shadowy cabal' '-- not that that narrative didn't take hold anyways.''
The final TIP report was released the next day, August 3rd, 2020. Titled '' Preventing a Disrupted Presidential Election and Transition ,'' the full text was, as any person attempting an objective read will grasp, sensational.
The Podesta episode was worse than reported, with the secession proposal coming on ''advice from President Obama,'' used as leverage to a) secure statehood for Washington, DC and Puerto Rico b) divide California into five states to increase its Senate representation, and c) ''eliminate the Electoral College,'' among other things. TIP authors also warned Trump's behavior could ''push other actors, including, potentially, some in the Democratic Party, to similarly engage in practices that depart from traditional rule of law norms, out of perceived self-defense .''
More tellingly, there were multiple passages on the subject of abiding by and/or trusting in the law, and how this can be a weakness. TIP authors concluded that ''as an incumbent unbounded by norms, President Trump has a huge advantage'' in the upcoming election, and chided participants that ''planners need to take seriously the notion that this may well be a street fight, not a legal battle.'' They added the key observation that ''a reliance on elites observing norms are [sic] not the answer here.''
Asked about that passage, Gilman replied that it was ''the right question,'' i.e. ''Why can't we just rely on elites to observe/enforce norms?'' Noting that two-thirds of the GOP caucus voted not to certify the 2020 election , he went on: ''If I had had total confidence in the solidity of the institutions, I wouldn't have felt the need to run the exercises.''
This answer makes some sense in the abstract, but ignores the years-long campaign of norm-breaking in the other direction leading up to the TIP simulation. In the eight-plus years since Donald Trump entered the national political scene, we've seen the same cast of characters appear and reappear in dirty tricks schemes, many of which began before he was even elected (more on that below). The last time we encountered this ''loose-knit group'' story, the usual suspects were all there, and the public by lucky accident of the Smith leak gained detailed access to Democratic Party thinking about how to steal an election '-- if necessary, of course, to ''protect the democratic process.''
That incident acquires new significance now in light not only of this NBC story, but also the dismal 2024 poll numbers for Biden, a host of unusually candid calls for preemptive action to prevent Trump from taking office, the bold efforts to remove Trump from the ballot in states like Colorado and Maine, and those lesser-publicized, but equally important campaign to keep third party challengers like No Labels or Robert F. Kennedy from gaining ballot access in key states.
The grim reality of Campaign 2024 is that both sides appear convinced the other will violate ''norms'' first, with Democrats in particular seeming to believe extreme advance action is needed to head off a Trump dictatorship. Such elevated levels of paranoia virtually guarantee that someone is going to cheat before Election Day in November, at which point the court of public opinion will come into play. The key question will be, who abandoned democracy first?
The TIP report provided an answer. It contained long lists of theoretical Trump abuses that sounded suspiciously more like the extralegal maneuvers already deployed against Trump dating back to mid-2016, particularly during the failed effort to prosecute him for collusion with Russia. Interpreted by some as a literal plan to overturn a legal Trump victory, its greater significance was as a historical document, since it read like a year-by-year synopsis of all the home team rule-breaking. In other words, the TIP read like a Team Clinton playbook, only with hero and villain reversed.
Bearing in mind that many of the people involved were also Russiagate actors, here's a abbreviated list of abuses the TIP authors supposedly feared Trump would commit:
''The President's ability'... to launch investigations into opponents; and his ability to use Department of Justice and/or the intelligence agencies to cast doubt on election results or discredit his opponents.''
It's true a president so inclined can do these things, and possible a re-elected Trump might, but they were clearly done first to Trump in this case. The FBI's road-to-nowhere Crossfire Hurricane probe of Russian collusion, which made use of illegally obtained FISA surveillance authority, began on July 31, 2016. Trump opponents have been ''launching investigations'' really without interruption ever since, with many (including especially the recent Frankensteinian hush-money prosecution) obviously politicized.
Likewise, the office of the Director of National Intelligence published an Intelligence Community Assessment in early January 2017, again before Trump's inauguration, that used information from the bogus Steele dossier to conclude that ''Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump's election chances.'' If that isn't using intelligence agencies to ''cast doubt on election results,'' what is? Worse, the trick would be repeated, over and over:
''The President and key members of his administration can also reference classified documents without releasing them, manipulate classified information, or selectively release classified documents for political purposes, fueling manufactured rumors.''
This phenomenon also began before Trump's election, notably with the story leaked on January 10, 2017, about four ''intel chiefs,'' including FBI Director James Comey, who presented then-President-elect Trump with '' claims of Russian efforts to compromise him ,'' including the infamous pee tape. ''Selective'' release of ''classified documents'' then continued through the Trump presidency. Other incidents involved the '' repeated contacts with Russian intelligence '' story (February 2017), a Washington Post story about Jeff Sessions speaking to the Russian ambassador (March 2017), the (incorrect) story about Trump lawyer Michael Cohen being in Prague (April 2018), the infamous '' Russian bounty '' story (June 2020), and many, many, others.
Podesta himself participated in one of the first and most damaging ''manufactured rumor'' episodes, beginning in late 2016, involving the use of the Elias-commissioned Steele dossier to illegally obtain a FISA warrant on former Trump aide Carter Page. Podesta, who of course knew the real source of the story, reacted to it as if it was news generated by government investigators and publicly derided Page as a Russian cutout, before adding that the 2016 election '' was distorted by the Russian intervention .'' This was a textbook example of using ''manufactured rumors'' from intelligence agencies to ''cast doubt'' on election results as you'll find.
''Additional presidential powers subject to misuse include'... his ability to restrict internet communications in the name of national security.''
As for restricting internet communications ''in the name of national security,'' Racket pauses to laugh. The growth of state-aided censorship initiatives like the ones we studied all last year in the Twitter Files began well before Trump's election, for instance with the creation in Barack Obama's last year of the State Department's Global Engagement Center , which later worked with Stanford's Election Integrity Partnership to focus heavily on posts deemed to be attempts at ''delegitimization'' in the 2020 election. Stanford's group even flagged a story about the TIP in its final report as ''conspiracy theory.''
Not to say that these bureaucracies couldn't be abused by a second Trump administration, but so far they've been a near-exclusive fixation of Democratic politicians and security officials. There's a reason Joe Biden is the only candidate slated to enjoy a censorship-free campaign season, while Trump and third-party challenger Robert F. Kennedy have been repeatedly removed or de-amplified from various platforms.
''There is considerable room to use foreign interference, real or invented, as a pretext to cast doubt on the election results or more generally to create uncertainty about the legitimacy of the election.''
This may have been the most amazing line in the TIP report, given that the entire Trump presidency was marked by stories like '' How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump '' ( New Yorker ) '' Did Russia Affect the 2016 Election? It's Now Undeniable '' ( Wired ), '' Russia 'turned' election for Trump, Clapper believes '' (PBS), '' Yes, Russian Election Sabotage Helped Trump Win '' ( Bloomberg) , and a personal favorite, '' CIA Director Wrongly Says U.S. Found Russia Didn't Affect Election Result '' (NBC). There was so much ''Russia hacked the election'' messaging between 2016 and 2020, in fact, that our Matt Orfalea made two movies about it. Here's one:
In the 2018 midterm elections, officials warned that Russia was going to ''attack'' the congressional vote. Stories like '' U.S. 2018 elections 'under attack' by Russia '' (Reuters) and '' Justice Dept. Accuses Russians of Interfering in Midterm Elections '' ( New York Times) were constants, until the Democrats retook the House in a ''blue wave,'' at which point headlines began saying the opposite ('' Russians Tried, but Were Unable to Compromise Midterm Elections, U.S. Says '' from the Times was a typical take). The TIP was written during a repeat version, as stories like '' Lawmakers are Warned that Russia is Meddling to Re-Elect Trump '' ( New York Times) were near-daily fixtures in 2020 pre-election coverage. After Biden won, headlines like '' Putin Failed to Mount Major Election Interference Activities in 2020 '' again became fixtures in papers like the Washington Post .
This brings us to the last and most controversial angle on the TIP report. When the original TIP text came out, Michael Brendan Daugherty in National Review wrote in an offhand tone that he got the feeling ''some progressives are steeling themselves for a Color Revolution in the United States,'' because winning a normal election ''just isn't cathartic enough.''
To this day, the color revolution idea makes TIP organizers laugh.
''The idea that some rando in Los Angeles,'' Gilman says, referring to himself, ''was secretly planning a color revolution (which he published a report about months in advance, which you gotta admit is a pretty weird move for a guy allegedly plotting a revolution) is a textbook example of Hofstadter's Paranoid Style .''
Brooks is also incredulous, saying the color revolution thesis is a ''profound misunderstanding'' of the TIP report. ''They aren't plans or predictions, they're efforts to understand how things might play out,'' she wrote, adding that the TIP participants were merely asking, ''What could go wrong?''
They may have asked that. Still, the group's final report contained a string of references to ''plans and predictions,'' with entries like ''Plan for a contested election,'' ''Plan for large-scale protests,'' and ''Make plans now for how to respond in the event of a crisis.'' As for the ''profound misunderstanding,'' Brooks gave a friendly interview to a New York Times writer who was apparently laboring under the same ''profound'' delusion.
Weeks after the National Review piece, Michelle Goldberg in the Times wrote of Daugherty : ''He's right, but not in the way he thinks.'' She explained that Democrats don't relish the thought of an uprising, but look upon it as something to be dreaded, that ''must nonetheless be considered.''
She then quoted Brooks. The Georgetown professor, who in her most recent book about life in the Defense Department described getting ''a coveted intelligence community 'blue badge''' to pass into ''the sacred precincts of the CIA,'' told Goldberg that in the event of a Trump power grab, ''the only thing left is what pro-democracy movements and human rights movements around the world have always done, which is sustained, mass peaceful demonstrations.''
That did sound like a description of the Eastern European color revolutions, which generally involved mass street actions, sustained negative press pressure, and calls by NGOs and outside countries for the disfavored leader to step down. A major reason the ''color revolution'' theme struck commentators in connection with TIP had to do with the presence in the TIP simulation of Barack Obama's former chief ethics lawyer, Norm Eisen . Eisen wrote a manual called The Democracy Playbook for the Brookings Institution that is often referred to as the unofficial how-to guide for America-backed regime-change operations abroad. Anyone who's been forced to read a lot of ''democracy promotion'' literature, as I had to in Russia, will recognize familiar themes in the TIP report.
One of the controversial features of ''color revolution'' episodes is that the U.S. has at times supported ousters of perhaps unsavory, but legally elected, leaders. Was the TIP group contemplating the ''sustained'' protest scenario only in the event of Trump stealing an election, or if he merely won in an unpleasant way, i.e. via the Electoral College with a popular vote deficit? Brooks at first indicated she didn't understand the reference.
''I am not sure what the question is?'' she wrote. ''Peaceful protests, mass or otherwise, are constitutionally protected.''
I referred back to the Times piece and the ''movements around the world'' quote, noting that while those outcomes might arguably have been desirable, it'd be hard to call them strictly democratic.
''I am not an expert on the color revolutions,'' she replied. ''It is certainly true that on both left and right, in both the US and abroad, there are nearly always... I guess I'd say spoilers, or violence entrepreneurs '-- who try to hijack peaceful protest movements.''
Lastly: one TIP simulation also predicted, with something like remarkable anti-clairvoyance, that Trump would contrive to label Biden supporters guilty of ''insurrection'' for protesting a ''clear Trump win'':
The Trump Campaign planted agent provocateurs into the protests throughout the country to ensure these protests turned violent and helped further the narrative of a violent insurrection against a lawfully elected president.
That passage was published on August 3, 2020, long before most Americans knew or cared that the word ''insurrection'' had political significance. We'd be instructed in its use within hours of the riots, when Joe Biden said, '' It's not protest. It's insurrection ,'' and everyone from Mitt Romney to Mitch McConnell to media talking heads to the authors of the articles of impeachment like Jamie Raskin fixated on the word. Still, not until December 2021 did a public figure explain how the 14th Amendment might be deployed strategically in the post-January 6th world. The insight came from Elias, who has since deleted the tweet:
We're of course now seeing that litigation, notably in the form of a Colorado Supreme Court decision to remove Trump from the ballot, which was handed down after complaints filed citing the 14th Amendment provision alluded to by Elias.
All this is laid out as background for the coming nine months of campaign chaos, if we even end up having a traditional campaign season. Revolt of the Public author and former CIA analyst Martin Gurri summed up the situation in a piece for The Free Press titled '' Trump. Again. The Question is Why ?'' The money quotes:
The malady now exposed is this: the elites have lost faith in representative democracy . To smash the nightmare image of themselves that Trump evokes, they are willing to twist and force our system until it breaks'... The implications are clear. Not only Trump, but the nearly 75 million Americans who voted for him, must be silenced and crushed. To save democracy, it must be modified by a possessive: ''our democracy.''
The Biden campaign, stuck in a seemingly irreversible poll freefall , has put all its rhetorical chips on the theme of ''protecting democracy.'' Biden mentions Trump's ''assault on democracy'' at every opportunity, and even recently resorted to Apollo Creed-style imagery, campaigning at Valley Forge flanked by a dozen American flags and red, white, and blue lights. (Red-and-white striped trunks can't be far off.) The DNC's daily ''talkers'' memos for months have asked blue-party pols and friendly reporters to stress ''the existential threat to freedom and democracy that Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans represent,'' while pointing to stories like Vanity Fair's, ''There Is No 'Both Sides' to Donald Trump's Threat to Democracy ,'' in its CONTENT TO AMPLIFY section.
The DNC's ''talkers'' mailers This messaging would likely have worked after January 6th, when Trump's post-electoral conduct rankled voters, as evidenced by an exit approval rating of 34%. It can't now, since the word ''democracy'' has been appropriated to refer exclusively to the party that declared its New Hampshire primary '' non-binding'' and ''meaningless ,'' canceled its Florida primary , is preparing mass technical challenges against third-party challengers like No Labels or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (and has a rich history in that area; see accompanying Nader piece ), is seeking to kick the GOP front-runner off the ballot , has mass-filed bar complaints against attorneys who represented that candidate, and has piled criminal counts atop its main electoral opposition.
Many who couldn't stand Trump, would never vote for him, and have been willing consumers of the awesome amount of propaganda published on the Trump subject, now need to face the fact that they've been had. Transformed into the avatar of all bad things '-- a crude domestic combo platter of Saddam, Milosevic, Assad, and Putin '-- this vision of the ¼ber -villain, Trump, has been used to distract mass audiences from the erosion of ''norms'' at home. ''Protecting democracy'' in the Trump context will be remembered as having served the same purpose as Saddam's mythical WMDs , the shots fired in the Gulf of Tonkin, or Gaddafi's fictional Viagra-enhanced army . Those were carefully crafted political lies, used to rally the public behind illegal campaigns of preemption.
Voters, by voting, ''protect democracy.'' A politician who claims to be doing the job for us is up to something. The group in the current White House is trying to steal for themselves a word that belongs to you. Don't let them.
Did German domestic intelligence services collaborate with Correctiv journalists to smear Alternative f¼r Deutschland and incite the current wave of protests "against the right"?
Sat, 27 Jan 2024 18:56
Thomas Haldenwang, head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. It is the weekend and the anti-AfD protests have started up again . Perhaps the aim is to promote them to a semi-permanent ritual, like the weekly Fridays for Future marches to save the climate in 2019. This would make sense: The climateers seem to be losing steam, with Letzte Generation in disarray and Greta Thunberg continuing her transition to pro-Palestinian activism . Climate change is no longer a growth industry, and the permanent leftist protest must now take up new themes.
In the meantime, we are learning more about the highly suspicious Correctiv expos(C) on '' The Secret Plan against Germany '' that set all of this off.
To review: On 25 November, two-dozen people attended a private political meeting to discuss mass migration at a hotel in Potsdam ; the participants included several AfD and CDU politicians. At the meeting, Austrian identitarian activist Martin Sellner gave a talk based on his recent book about his vision for ''remigration.'' An undercover ''journalist'' booked a room at the hotel to spy on the participants, while Correctiv operatives set up clandestine cameras to snap photographs through the windows. All of this culminated in a deeply dishonest investigative piece that portrayed the modest event as a Neo-Wannsee Conference. The press amplified this ridiculous story for weeks, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for nationwide protests ''against the right ,'' and the establishment parties together with many affiliate organisations have been eagerly sponsoring the demonstrations ever since.
From the very beginning, all of this was highly suspicious, above all because Correctiv is not an ordinary journalistic enterprise. They are a shady non-profit founded in 2014, funded by a wide array of entities with connections to the left-leaning political establishment, some of which channel taxpayer money into its coffers . To that comes the very convenient timing: The story dropped precisely as the coalition government was facing its newest political crisis in the form of the farmers' protest. Was the whole thing staged by state actors to get the farmers out of the headlines and shift the conversation to more amenable topics?
The answer seems to be, very probably. As Tichys Einblick reports , The President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Thomas Haldenwang, has been making some very curious statements to the press. On Tuesday, he met with friendly journalists to express how happy he was ''about the commitment of citizens who are demonstrating against the danger posed by Alternative f¼r Deutschland.'' He also said that his agency ''had been well aware that the participants were planning to meet at the Potsdam hotel'' weeks in advance. ''We know them all,'' he said.
You must remember that the BfV is not just any government agency, but a domestic intelligence service that is currently spying on the AfD as suspected ''right-wing extremists.'' It is very hard to accept that the BfV and Correctiv just happened to take an independent interest in the same Potsdam meeting. Correctiv journalists had no access to the proceedings, but in their article they are able to quote participants directly, and multiple times. Despite much jubilant reporting from Correctiv on their supersecret methods, they won't say precisely how they came upon these quotations. Did the BfV record the event and provide transcripts to Correctiv? There are rumours that a bug was found hidden in a wall clock in the meeting room.
The most conservative theory of these events would be as follows: Haldenwang is a member of the CDU, the party for whom AfD poses the greatest problem. Rising support for AfD has denied the CDU and the CSU the chance to profit from the dismal performance of the present government and will force them to enter ever more unpopular coalitions with the left to maintain their cordon sanitaire against these alleged ''right-wing extremists.'' This would be one reason that Haldenwang demanded (a day after the Correctiv piece appeared) that '' the centre of society, the silent majority in this country, wake up and finally take a clear stance against extremism .'' He collaborated with Correctiv to awaken this ''silent majority'' and bring this dishonest report on the ''Secret Plan against Germany'' into the press. To hide their secret if official source, Correctiv went to elaborate lengths to stage and document their own surveillance. After the story broke, everyone fell into their expected roles '' the government-friendly media who have been running desperate stories in defence of the Scholz Clown Car for months now, the Scholz Clown Car itself and of course all their collaborators in leftist NGO and activist networks.
Whatever the details, it could not be clearer that this entire thing is a stage-managed political farce, whereby ''protesters'' organised by the major parties and their affiliates take to the streets on behalf of a cause that official channels have presented to them, in order to demand precisely those things that the regime already wants to do. In this sense it is little different from the climate activism and the gay activism and the transgender activism that preceded it; the only novelty is the explicit targeting of the political opposition.
Protest Convoy Headed to Southern Border Is Calling Itself an 'Army of God'
Fri, 26 Jan 2024 21:53
A trucker convoy of ''patriots'' is heading to the U.S. border with Mexico next week, as the standoff between Texas and the federal government intensifies.The organizers of the ''Take Our Border Back'' convoy have called themselves ''God's army'' and say they're on a mission to stand up against the ''globalists'' who they claim are conspiring to keep U.S. borders open and destroy the country. ''This is a biblical, monumental moment that's been put together by God,'' one convoy organizer said on a recent planning call. ''We are besieged on all sides by dark forces of evil,'' said another. ''Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. It is time for the remnant to rise.'' (The remnant, from the Book of Revelation, are the ones who remain faithful to Jesus Christ in times of crisis). Experts say that the Christian nationalist overtones in this rhetoric adds a dangerous dimension to an already fraught situation. ''When people believe that they are working on behalf of God, they might be willing to resort to relatively extreme measures,'' said Ruth Braunstein, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut and author of ''Prophets and Patriots: Faith in Democracy Across the Political Divide.'' ''And so you have a politically volatile situation that could become much more so, in part because of this rhetoric.'' The organizers current plan is for the convoy to depart Virginia Beach on Monday and snake down through the southeast, stopping over in Jacksonville, Florida before making its way to several stops along the border. The convoy will then split up for separate rallies on Feb. 3, one near Eagle Pass, Texas, a second in Yuma, Arizona, and a third in San Ysidro, California. A group of six patriot-world influencers, including Kim Yeater, who runs a self-empowerment self-help group and an anti-voter fraud group, started organizing the convoy around a month ago. ''God's army is rising up,'' she said on the planning call. ''We all have been chosen for this time.'' "God's army is rising up," said Kim Yeater, one of the convoy organizers, on a planning call
The convoy was originally intended to send a message to the Biden Administration: ''Secure Our Borders.'' Its website calls on ''all active & retired law enforcement and military, veterans, mama bears, elected officials, business owners, ranchers, truckers, bikers, media and LAW ABIDING, freedom-loving Americans,'' to join the cause. But recent events have significantly raised the stakes for the convoy. Two weeks ago the Texas National Guard seized control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas'--an epicenter of unauthorized border crossings'--and erected razor wire around it, effectively limiting Border Patrol's access to the area. It was an act of aggression in a simmering dispute between Texas and the federal government over who has jurisdictional authority over the border. Days later, a migrant woman and two children drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande into Eagle Pass. The Biden Administration claimed that the Texas National Guard prevented Border Patrol from saving them, which Texas has denied. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government'--not Texas'--had authority over the border, and that Border Control could cut down the razor wire. Texas has since doubled down on erecting razor wire, and officials said that they plan to ''hold the line.'' Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote a letter accusing the federal government of ''breaking its compact between the United States and the States.'' At least 16 Republican governors say they support him, as Biden faces calls from some Democrats to ''federalize'' the Texas national guard, which would remove it from Abbott's command. Retired military commander Pete Chambers gives a rundown of the situation in Eagle Pass, Texas, during a planning call for the convoy
These latest developments have aroused civil war fantasies on fringe forums, as well as on the social media accounts of GOP lawmakers and right-wing political commentators. On Thursday, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Newsmax host Carl Rigbie mused about the possibility of a ''force-on-force conflict'' erupting between the federal government and the Texas National Guard, The Daily Beast reported. And this all means that the border convoy is garnering more interest than it might have done a couple of weeks ago. The convoy's crowdfunder on GiveSendGo has raked in more than $30,000 just this week, totaling nearly $50,000 by Friday morning. ''Once willing to die defending this country, now willing to die protecting my family from what this country has become,'' said one donor, who identified himself as a Navy vet. ''Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes,'' wrote another. Thousands of dollars rolled in on Wednesday, when Infowars' Alex Jones interviewed one of the organizers, Pete Chambers, a former military commander who says he was a green beret. ''There's a war literally happening now for America,'' Jones said. ''We're at 1774 right now,'' said Chambers. He later drew a comparison with the Biblical story of Gideon's Army; in the Book of Judges, the army's faith in God allowed them to prevail over their enemy despite being vastly outnumbered. Ads for the convoy have gone up on 40 digital billboards in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and California, courtesy of a ''private donor'' whose identity organizers would not disclose. In an interview with VICE News, organizer Scotty Saks, who is the host of ''Sovereign Radio,'' said the convoy has nothing to do with the ongoing fight between Texas and the feds. ''We're not really focused on that,'' said Saks. ''We're staying the course about making this peaceful assembly as large as we can make it, to make a statement to federal, state, local officials that we don't want open borders.'' But the temperature continues to rise around Texas's border with Mexico. On Thursday evening, former president and current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump weighed in, calling on ''all willing states to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of illegals.'' Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here. With all this happening in the background, Saks, who is running PR for the convoy, may struggle to keep the demonstration contained and on message. Word of the convoy is spreading online'--not as a straightforward border protest, but a massive show of support for Abbott. ''Freedom Convoy to Aid Texas in Border Security as Abbott Defies Feds'' declared conservative blog Headline USA. ''Truckers Convoy Heads to Texas to Put a Stop to Biden's Border Madness'' wrote another right-wing blog. Saks stressed that the convoy and rallies are supposed to be peaceful demonstrations, but acknowledged that not everyone coming may be on the same page. ''We realize we may have infiltrators. There may be some people who try to subvert us, who jump in the convoy'--provocateurs. We may have some, and they're going to have to deal with our security team, they'll be asked to leave,'' Saks told VICE News. ''We won't tolerate anyone brandishing a weapon or starting trouble, or making this more than what it's supposed to be.'' We're not going to make waves'...This is just to make a statement, have music, pray,'' Saks added. ''It's only a call to arms if the people around us make it a call to arms.'' In a Friday morning appearance on Fox Business, GOP Congressman from Texas Keith Self, who has promoted the convoy, suggested that as many as 700,000 vehicles could participate and echoed organizers, saying it is intended to be a peaceful demonstration. Saks says that organizers have been in contact with local law enforcement along the convoy routes and in rally locations. Additionally, the rallies will take place on private property, which he says will empower event security to remove any troublemakers. The locations for the Arizona and California rallies haven't been posted yet. The Texas rally is taking place in Quemado, about a 25-minute drive from Eagle Pass, at the ''Children's Cornerstone Ranch,'' which provides ministerial services to kids. Some have suggested online that the convoy is a ''psyop,'' stacked with undercover agents, designed to lure well-meaning ''patriots'' into a violent event'--which is what a quarter of Americans believe happened with the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. ''Don't go. Remember Jan 6th. Don't fall for it again,'' a user wrote on the far-right forum patriots.win.'' I don't care how peacefully you assemble. Some Fed will instigate violence and MAGA will be blamed for it. If one shot is fired, everything is over. You know it will be fired.'' But the narratives inherent to Christian nationalism offer moral justification for engaging in violence, says Braunstein, and in the context of the escalating drama over the border, that makes some of the organizers' rhetoric concerning. Braunstein cited polling by Public Religion Research Institute finding that nearly a third of Republicans believe that ''true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country.'' The same study found that number jumped by ten percentage points when combined with Christian Nationalist ideology, and belief in racist ''replacement theory'' that suggests that ''immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.'' Get the latest from VICE News in your inbox. Sign up right here.
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Military intelligence: Senior Russian officials were supposed to be on Il-76 flight but did not board
Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:00
High-ranking Russian officials were supposed to be on board the Il-76 aircraft that crashed in Belogorod Oblast on Jan. 24, but the Federal Security Service (FSB) did not allow them to board at "the last moment," Andrii Yusov, Ukraine's military intelligence spokesperson, told RFE/RL on Jan. 25.
The Il-76 transport plane crashed in Russia's Belgorod Oblast on Jan. 24, allegedly killing everyone on board. Russia's Defense Ministry then claimed that 65 Ukrainian POWs had been on the plane due to a scheduled prisoner exchange later that day.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency did not confirm whether prisoners were on the plane, nor commented on what might have caused the crash, but said a prisoner exchange had been planned for that day.
According to Yusov, Ukrainian intelligence suggests that several senior military and political officials should have been on board but were instead told by the FSB to use other modes of transport.
Yusov said that this information became known to Ukrainian intelligence after the plane crashed.
Following the crash, the FSB and the Russian military did not allow emergency workers to inspect the crash site as per protocol, Yusov said.
According to Yusov, five bodies were sent to the local morgue in Belgorod, and no human remains are visible on videos from the crash site.
Russia claimed that 65 Ukrainian POWs, six crew members, and three accompanying people were on board.
Chief Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets also said on air on Jan. 25 that photos and videos from the site do not indicate "any signs that there were such a large number of people on the plane."
"I'm not an expert, but if there were even photos and videos of our prisoners of war, (Russia) would have already posted it," Lubinets said, referring to the photographic evidence of the crash site.
Yusov said the names of the senior officials who were supposed to be on board "are known and will be revealed," as Ukraine intends to provide its findings to international investigators.
Lubinets said he will appeal to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross for help find out what happened, following President Volodymyr Zelensky's announcement on the evening of Jan. 24 that Ukraine will insist on an international investigation into the crash.
Air Force on Il-76 crash: Russia seeks to discredit Ukraine
''During the Jan. 24, 2024, massive Russian propaganda targets external audiences with a flow of fake news in an attempt to discredit Ukraine in front of the international community,'' Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on his Telegram channel.
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VIDEO - Exposed: The Hidden Agenda Behind Mass Migration in The Western World '' Peak Prosperity
Sun, 28 Jan 2024 17:34
The West is under a multi-front attack. Migration has been weaponized by the UN, the current US administration, and most European leadership. Why I cannot say, except to fit it into the pattern of destroying national prosperity, along with draining the SPR, funding pointless wars, etc.
Chris Martenson Jan 26, 2024 0 0
One of the 'tricks' deployed by the Build Back Better/WEF/Progressives crowd is to tear down our statues to eliminate our mooring in history, and to blur and sometimes even entirely change the meaning of words.
In this case, because there's a deliberate effort to make them interchangeable, we have to carefully reclaim the distinction between immigration and migration.And once we do that, we next have to be sure we share the same definition of ''invasion.''
Just this week, on the 24th of January, Governor Abbott of Texas invoked the word invasion as it is spelled out in the US Constitution to reclaim border integrity and the rule of law.
Make no mistake about it; the migration efforts of the UN, dozens of NGOs, and with the full political backing of the US administration and most EU nation leaders are meant to weaken the West.
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information you can't live without.Click Here to Join or UpgradeDon't take my word for it, take theirs. The most recent UN IOM report openly states that they want to address interanion inequality by ''increasing development financing through remittances.''
That's bureaucratic code-speak for ''people from poor countries being loaded into rich countries where they will then secure money to send home. That is, make the poor countries richer by making the rich countries poorer.
More confusingly, the stated goals of these monster and well-funded organizations are a hot mess of incoherence, at once decrying climate change and fostering the mass relocation of people from low GDP and carbon-producing countries to high GDP and high carbon output countries.
How is that helping climate change, exactly? Nobody could possibly say because these efforts are going to accelerate carbon emissions, not lower them.
Presumably, this means the current legal residents of the host countries will be forced to give up their gas stoves and drive ridiculously expensive electric cars to offset these new emissions.
The bottom line? Migration has been weaponized to purposely weaken Western nations. But, they did tell us they were going to do this, after all, so it's not like we weren't warned:
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VIDEO - Kaiser to Oakland workers: stay inside for work - and lunch
Sun, 28 Jan 2024 14:38
Published January 25, 2024 7:35PM
Kaiser directs employees to stay in Oakland HQ for lunch over crime concernsKTVU has learned that Kaiser Permanente is telling its workers at its downtown Oakland headquarters to stay in the building during lunch. The directive was given over concerns about crime. But many disagree with these orders including businesses who say they depend on workers patronizing their restaurants.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Kaiser Permanente, Oakland's largest private employer, has issued a memo directing workers in downtown Oakland to stay in their buildings for lunch and work, in response to street robberies of workers who went out to grab something to eat.
Workers are told to bring their own food or have it delivered.
One Kaiser worker, Arielle Crenshaw, said she agrees with her employer.
"It's just kind of scary in general, not even just to go to work, just kind of coming outside," she said outside a Kaiser parking garage. "If you can work at home, work at home. If you have to come in, just be safe about it."
A memo issued last month and obtained by KTVU also tells workers not based in Oakland to not have any meetings downtown and to instead move them elsewhere, or have them online.
It also says the Claremont Hotel in the hills is the only hotel approved for business lodging.
In a statement, Kaiser said in part, "Those recommendations remain in place for now. Kaiser Permanente is committed to ensuring the safety and security of our employees and physicians across all of our locations. We continually monitor our environments for concerns, review our practices and strengthen them wherever possible."
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Many downtown merchants and other people who live and work in the area are taking issue with these directives.
"It is a little upsetting to hear that you know, because everyone's trying to thrive, everyone's trying to make business. It is pretty slow as it is," said Mauricio Torres, who owns Molcajete Cocina Mexicana near 17th and Webster.
Emil Wahbeh, owner of Aroma Cafe at 19th and Franklin, said, "I don't think you want to discourage people from walking around and kind of give in to the bad elements that are running around. I think quite the opposite: I think that if there are more people on the streets, there will be less incidences."
Elena Brewster, who works downtown said, "I think it's overkill.
She expressed sympathy for any Kaiser workers who may have been robbed. But she added, "Trauma is trauma, but to live under a rock because something bad might happen is traumatizing in its own way, as well."
Moe Gevirtz, who also works downtown, was aghast when told of Kaiser's memo, saying, "It would be a policy to destroy Oakland."
Gevirtz said, "To have a large corporation tell them to stay in the building and bring lunch from home - is atrocious!
It's not clear if these directives from Kaiser will be permanent or not.
In a statement to KTVU, Mayor Sheng Thao's office said in part, "Oakland is making progress in addressing community safety in our business districts where many of Kaiser's facilities are located. There are more police officers and safety ambassadors on the street than anytime in the past two years. At the end of last year, Oakland experienced significant reductions in property crime in business districts across the city. Oakland will remain vigilant and work collaboratively to ensure this downward trend continues and that more resources are brought to the table."
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan
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VIDEO - Tesla battery explodes in Cary home after being removed and charged inside
Sun, 28 Jan 2024 12:40
Police say a Tesla car battery caught fire in a Cary home Saturday afternoon.
According to police, an individual removed one of the low-voltage batteries from the Tesla and brought it indoors to charge.
While charging, the battery experienced a short circuit.
Broadcast radio traffic reveals what exactly happened inside the house.
"It looks like it's the smaller of the two batteries from the car, in the kitchen charging it up, and then it exploded," Dispatcher said.
"A neighbor went inside to see if he could not extinguish the fire, so he is gonna have that smoke plus dry chem that he inhaled," Dispatcher said.
Car experts don't recommend charging your car's battery inside as a faulty battery could cause an explosion or fire.
