Trump 2.0: Scientology sitting pretty as Trump names Pam Bondi his pick for Attorney General

After once and future President Donald Trump named Matt Gaetz, a loyalist, to be his pick for Attorney General in his incoming administration, former top Scientology executive Mike Rinder last week announced at his blog that Scientology would have nothing to worry about from the Department of Justice for the next four years.

Scientology sitting pretty as Trump names Pam Bondi his pick for Attorney General

What’s Up With Linkin Park’s New Singer?

The media is whitewashing her connection to Scientology. She was raised in the ‘church’ according to Growing Up in Scientology! That said, the song isn’t too bad. As far as I’m concerned, no one will be able to fill Chester’s shoes!

In the end, it wasn’t actually the end for Linkin Park. The rock band is back with new music for the first time in seven years — and a new singer as well. Emily Armstrong joined the band, replacing the late Chester Bennington, who died in 2017. Armstrong has sung in the band Dead Sara since 2005, and makes her Linkin Park debut on new single “The Emptiness Machine,” sharing vocal duties with Linkin Park cofounder Mike Shinoda. (Colin Brittain is also joining Linkin Park as their new drummer, with Rob Bourdon not returning.) She joined the band on stage for the first time on September 5, and will feature on their new album From Zero, out November 15. But Armstrong’s addition has already been controversial, as fans scrutinize her history with Scientology and convicted rapist Danny Masterson.

What’s Up With Linkin Park’s New Singer?

Related:

Linkin Park’s Emily Armstrong Apologizes For Danny Masterson Support

Beyond Leah Remini: 25 Musicians Associated with Scientology

Listening to Linkin Park

Donors to Bob Menendez Legal Defense Linked to ex-Terror Group

Disclosure: it’s a reprint of an article by Eli Clifton from The Responsible Statecraft and The Intercept. If you have a problem with that, this is for you.

Donors to Bob Menendez Legal Defense Linked to ex-Terror Group (archived)

Much of the cash in the fund — he has raised over $400,000 — comes from sources one might anticipate. New Jersey and New York donors with various business and political interests in his home state, including the real estate firm led by Jared Kushner’s family, have given the fund money. There are, however, many lesser-known donors. One is Ahmad Moeinimanesh, an electronic engineer from Northern California. Another is Hossein Afshari, also from California.

Related:

Iranian exiles, DC lobbyists and the campaign to delist the MEK

The Iranian American Community of Northern California. It paid $400,000 over the past year to a Washington lobby group, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, to work on Capitol Hill to work for the removal of the MEK from the list of foreign terrorist organisations. The company assigned several former members of Congress to the account. The IACNC has also organised events in support of unbanning the MEK with appearances by Ros-Lehtinen and other prominent members of Congress as well as former White House officials.

Its director, Ahmad Moeinimanesh, has made personal financial donations to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chair of the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee even though her congressional district is on the other side of the country in Florida, as well as to her reelection committee. She has accepted more than $20,000 in political contributions from activists who support the MEK’s delisting.

The IACNC’s registered address is at a photocopying shop in Albany, California, owned by Behnam Mirabdal who has made financial donations to Ros-Lehtinen and Dana Rohrabacher, a subcommittee chairman who is among the most vigorous proponents of unbanning the MEK.

The American mainstream media suppresses the assassination of six US advisors by the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK)

‘Lying, cheating, stealing’ ex-CIA chief parties with anti-Iran terrorists again

By Kit Klarenberg

On December 17, former US secretary of state and CIA director, Mike Pompeo, headlined an Organization of Iranian American Communities summit in Washington in support of the so-called “uprising” in Iran, amid his push for Republican candidacy in the 2024 elections.

‘Lying, cheating, stealing’ ex-CIA chief parties with anti-Iran terrorists again