Since the start of the war in Ukraine, U.S. officials have watched with some anxiety as billions of American dollars flowed into the country, well aware of Kyiv’s history of political corruption and fearing that aid might be siphoned off for personal gain.
Ukraine Corruption Scandal Stokes Longstanding Aid Concerns in U.S.
Chavista deputies cited a need for transparency and accountability from organizations with foreign funding sources.
Venezuela: National Assembly Moves to Regulate NGO Activities
In a shocking exchange at the State Department, the spokesman for Biden’s foreign policy team refused to describe Palestinians in the West Bank as living under military occupation by Israel.
Biden administration refuses to say Palestinians are ‘occupied’
Insurrectionist sprinter Josh Hawley has joined the growing chorus of GOP politicians who’ve spent years doing jack shit about U.S. consumer privacy abuses, and now want to pretend that banning a single app — TikTok — will protect American consumers from a problem they themselves created.
Josh Hawley Wants In On The TikTok Moral Panic Attention, Proposes Nationwide Ban
Nuland: US auditors arrive in Ukraine to ensure ‘no aid or weapons are diverted.’
This week, the U.S. has its auditors working in Ukraine alongside the World Bank and Deloitte consultants to make sure that “no aid or weapons are diverted,” U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said on Jan. 26.
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On Jan. 23, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU)* said that it had begun investigating possible corruption in the Defense Ministry’s food procurement.
The statement followed an investigation by Ukrainian news outlet ZN.UA**, which alleged that the Defense Ministry was buying food for soldiers at inflated prices, indicating a possible corruption scheme.
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The Kiev Purge: Turmoil in the Capital
The anti-graft stories are being driven by media outlets connected with Ukraine’s Western partners and Poroshenko, who has become Zelensky’s main competitor, since the latter had opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk jailed. For example, on January 23, a number of pro-Western journalists launched a direct attack on Andrey Yermak – the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine and a key player in the system.
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The combat operations in Ukraine merely accelerated these processes. In fact, only three powers can now speak out against the Zelensky-Yermak team— Kiev mayor Vitali Klitschko and his cabinet, the army led by Valery Zaluzhny, and US-controlled structures such as NABU and media affiliated with them. At the same time, decisions regarding resignations are made exclusively by Zelensky and Yermak, who by all means wish to hush up the scandals.
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Notes:
Read More »U.S. Press Starts To Figure Out College TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance
One, the bans are generally designed to agitate a xenophobic base and give the impression the GOP is “doing something about China.” But the party that couldn’t care less about rampant corruption or privacy violations isn’t doing much of anything meaningful to thwart China. In fact, letting adtech, telecom, and app companies run rampant with little oversight runs contrary to any such goal.
Two, the bans distract the public and press from our ongoing failure on consumer privacy and security issues. Banning TikTok, but doing nothing about the accountability optional free for all that is the adtech and data-hoovering space, doesn’t actually fix anything. China can just obtain the same data from a universe of other international companies facing little real oversight on data collection.
Three, the ban is really just about money. Trump gave the game away with his proposal that TikTok be chopped up and sold to Oracle and Walmart. That cronyistic deal fell through, but it’s pretty clear that this moral panic is designed to either help TikTok’s competitors (Facebook lobbyists are very active on this front), or force the sale of the most popular app in modern history to GOP-allies. At which point they’ll engage in all the surveillance and influence efforts they pretend to be mad about.
Related:
Read More »Few Russians or Ukrainians will likely have heard of ‘The Block’. It’s an Australian reality show in which couples compete against each other to renovate homes and sell them at auction for the highest possible price. This may have provided the perfect cover for Emese Fajk, a participant who fled the land Down Under after she attempted to buy a renovated property at great expense using fake bank slips, to join Kiev’s International Legion as its official spokesperson.
Corruption scandal in Ukraine’s ‘International Legion:’ Why an Australian TV star is accused of stealing millions
Related:
from the us-vs.-them-means-they-still-get-to-kill-us-with-impunity dept – Mon, Jan 9th 2023 08:10pm – Tim Cushing
Law enforcement agencies have no interest in tracking how often officers kill people. Despite all the talk about police reform, very few states require accurate reporting on deadly force deployments.
Independent Reporting Shows Cops Are Still Killing People At An Alarming Rate
This is what happens to anyone who happens to report the types of things that America’s billionaires want to be hidden from the public.
The U.S. Regime Made Me A Non-Person
Honored that Eric Zeusse mentioned my ‘blog’ but upset by the censorship of all that are reporting the truth!
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Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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