U.S. Deployed Air Targeting Team to Israel, Document Suggests

TARGETING INTELLIGENCE — THE information used to conduct airstrikes and fire long-range artillery weapons — has played a central role in Israel’s siege of Gaza. A document obtained through the Freedom of Information Act suggests that the U.S. Air Force sent officers specializing in this exact form of intelligence to Israel in late November.

U.S. Deployed Air Targeting Team to Israel, Document Suggests (archived)

If true, this is disturbing! The Hague Invasion Act doesn’t cover the ICJ, from what I can tell. /s

Biden green-lights deployment to Mexican border + More

The US president signed an order allowing active duty reserve troops as needed to fight international drug trafficking

Biden green-lights deployment to Mexican border

Related:

Message to the Congress on Executive Order on Authority to Order the Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty to Address International Drug Trafficking

U.S. says it ‘infiltrated’ the Sinaloa drug cartel in the fight against fentanyl

Fentanyl Is Smuggled for U.S. Citizens By U.S. Citizens, Not Asylum Seekers

A Front Company and a Fake Identity: How the U.S. Came to Use Spyware It Was Trying to Kill.

A Front Company and a Fake Identity: How the U.S. Came to Use Spyware It Was Trying to Kill.

The secret contract — which The New York Times is disclosing for the first time — violates the Biden administration’s public policy, and still appears to be active. The contract, reviewed by The Times, stated that the “United States government” would be the ultimate user of the tool, although it is unclear which government agency authorized the deal and might be using the spyware. It specifically allowed the government to test, evaluate, and even deploy the spyware against targets of its choice in Mexico.

The secret November 2021 contract used the same American company — designated as “Cleopatra Holdings” but actually a small New Jersey-based government contractor called Riva Networks — that the F.B.I. used two years earlier to purchase Pegasus. Riva’s chief executive used a fake name in signing the 2021 contract and at least one contract Riva executed on behalf of the F.B.I.

The deal unfolded as the European private equity fund that owns NSO pursued a plan to get U.S. government business by establishing a holding company, Gideon Cyber Systems. The private equity fund’s ultimate goal was to find an American buyer for the company.

Related:

Read More »

France, a Nation On The Edge After Government’s Pension Reforms Bypass Democratic Process

“HE’S ONLY DOING SHIT” – Apple Translate.

France, a Nation on the Edge.

French President Emmanuel Macron rammed a controversial pension reform through parliament without a vote by invoking a special executive measure. With the opposition braced for a no-confidence vote and the unions threatening more strikes, France witnessed a dramatic week in politics.

France, a Nation On The Edge After Government’s Pension Reforms Bypass Democratic Process: Macron Uses Executive Order To Push Bill Through

Biden steered America into conflict with Ukraine, Taiwan. Iran could be next.

by Trita Parsi

The last thing America needs right now is a three-front foreign crisis. Yet here we are.

Americans are tired, at odds with themselves and in no shape to handle more foreign entanglements — much less the three-front catastrophe looming before us. Yet here we are, with the U.S. potentially facing a drawn-out war in Ukraine that risks escalating into a direct U.S.-Russia confrontation, the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal that may lead to war with the Persian Gulf power and now an unnecessary crisis with Beijing over Taiwan, triggered by Nancy Pelosi’s ill-advised trip to Taipei.

Biden steered America into conflict with Ukraine, Taiwan. Iran could be next.

Nancy Pelosi’s husband buys millions worth of Nvidia stock ahead of chip-manufacturing bill vote + Newly sworn-in SEC commissioner is former Pelosi aide

Nancy Pelosi’s husband buys millions worth of Nvidia stock ahead of chip-manufacturing bill vote

It’s worth noting that Nvidia designs their owns chips, but hires other companies to manufacture them and likely would not directly receive benefits from subsidies related to this congressional bill.

Related:

Newly sworn-in SEC commissioner is former Pelosi aide

Chips and Dip: Congressional Trading in the Semiconductor Industry since 2020

The whale had to separate Speak Pelosi and Rep. Kim Schrier’s huge AAPL sell offs, as they make their House colleagues’ trades look like peanuts.

America, Meet Your New Dictator-in-Chief: The President’s Secret, Unchecked Powers

by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead | June 01, 2022

America, meet your new dictator-in-chief.

As the New York Times reports, “Newly disclosed documents have shed a crack of light on secret executive branch plans for apocalyptic scenarios—like the aftermath of a nuclear attack—when the president may activate wartime powers for national security emergencies.”< The problem, of course, is that we have become a nation in a permanent state of emergency. Power-hungry and lawless, the government has weaponized one national crisis after another in order to expand its powers and justify all manner of government tyranny in the so-called name of national security. The seeds of this present madness were sown almost two decades ago when George W. Bush stealthily issued two presidential directives that granted the president the power to unilaterally declare a national emergency, which is loosely defined as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.

America, Meet Your New Dictator-in-Chief: The President’s Secret, Unchecked Powers

Missing Links/Links Behind Paywalls:

Secret Emergency Orders May Include Focus on Internet, New Files Show

Report: Military may have to quell domestic violence from economic collapse

Known Unknowns: Unconventional “Strategic Shocks” in Defense Strategy Development (PDF)

End the Imperial Presidency Before It’s Too Late

Too Much Presidential Power — We’ve Got to Address the ‘Unitary Executive’ Question