Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek said Friday that he is consulting with agency lawyers and the Justice Department as he threatens to shut down the agency in response to a court ruling blocking Elon Musk’s team from accessing sensitive taxpayer data.
Acting Social Security head consults with Justice Dept. on whether to close agency (archived)
Tag: Washington Post
Trump Suspends Funding to the National Endowment for Democracy
The Trump administration has frozen funding to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a US-funded organization that meddles in elections and pushes regime change around the world in the name of “promoting democracy.”
According to The Free Press, an order from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to the US Treasury Department that blocked the disbursement of funds to the NED has crippled the organization’s activities.
Trump Suspends Funding to the National Endowment for Democracy
He’s going to fold it into the State Department, just like he did with USAID (see NED document)!
A Giant of Journalism Gets Half its Budget From the U.S. Government
A Giant of Journalism Gets Half its Budget From the U.S. Government
How Sullivan first caught the attention of the U.S. foreign policy officialdom is itself a window into the purpose of the organization. It begins with a coup in the Philippines. State Department official Michael Henning had previously been stationed there. In 2001, the non-profit outlet the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) exposed corruption by then-President Joseph Estrada, a nationalist with a standoffish relationship to the U.S. The exposé led to an impeachment inquiry, which fell short. But it also produced major street protests, leading to his ouster in a coup [EDSA 2]. The journalist’s pen was not just mightier than the sword, but less embarrassing to wield on a global stage in an era where overtly U.S.-backed military coups had gone out of fashion (if not entirely out of the toolkit). Henning was a major booster of PCIJ—which has been the beneficiary of grants from the National Endowment for Democracy—relaying its effectiveness to his colleagues.
The article refers to the Arab Spring and the Yugoslav Wars, but not how the U.S. was involved.
Related:
Front Organizations Behind Hit Piece on Igor Lopatonok:
Grants from Luminate Group AKA Omidyar Network
A ‘myriad’ of front organizations had “Media Unlocked” banned from TikTok (PCIJ)
PH’s PressONE is funded by several US front organizations
Update to Notes on Ukrainian Government Exposed Surveilling News Outlet (GIJN)
Latin American Center for Journalistic Research (CLIP)
Breakup of Yugoslavia (Yugoslav Wars)
U.S. Wars and Hostile Actions (WW2 – 2014) (Arab Spring)
RFK Jr. claims Canadian Froot Loops have 3 ingredients. They have 17.
RFK Jr. claims Canadian Froot Loops have 3 ingredients. They have 17.
Kennedy, known for his debunked medical claims, was wrong about the numbers of ingredients in Canadian and American Froot Loops, which are similar: 17 and 16, respectively. The biggest difference is the dyes, which in the American version are known as Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and Blue 1. Canadian authorities limit the use of those dyes.
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“Their highest priority is profit to stockholders,” she said.
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About a decade ago, cereal giant General Mills spent two years listening to consumers who said they wanted natural colors in Trix, despite the cereal appearing more pale, Nestle said.
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Other companies have tried to go natural over the years. Candy producer Mars said in 2016 that it would stop using artificial dyes in its confections, which include M&M’s and Skittles, within five years. But five years later, the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest criticized Mars for continuing to use the dyes. Mars posted on its website that “since that time, a cross-functional Mars team” found “consumer expectations regarding colors in food differ widely across markets and categories,” and thus the company would reevaluate its promise.
Some breakfast cereals and other processed foods have faced backlash in the United States over artificial colorings. Last month, activists* protested outside the Michigan headquarters of WK Kellogg Co. to demand that the company remove artificial dyes from its U.S. breakfast cereals.
[Marion] Nestle said the FDA is too cozy with cereal companies to properly regulate the multibillion-dollar businesses [regulatory capture]. She said Trump has shown no interest in regulating the food industry, but she would welcome Kennedy’s attempt to regulate corporate food producers.
I didn’t see WaPo mention that Kellogg’s promised to remove artificial food colorings by 2018, despite the fact that the article that they link to says it! 👇🏻
*Kellogg’s faces protests over food dyes in popular breakfast cereals
Nearly 10 years ago, Kellogg’s, the maker of Froot Loops and Apple Jacks, committed to removing such additives from its products by 2018.
WaPo Putin-Trump call claim ‘pure fiction’ – Kremlin
WaPo Putin-Trump call claim ‘pure fiction’ – Kremlin
The WaPo report about a purported phone call “absolutely does not correspond to reality,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said
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Russia, which currently has the advantage on the battlefield, has said that it will only accept an outcome that addresses the core causes of the Ukraine conflict. Those include NATO’s enlargement in Europe and Kiev’s discriminatory policies against ethnic Russians, according to Moscow.
The Washington Post reported a phone call between Trump and Putin based on accounts by sources “familiar with the matter,” who spoke on condition of anonymity.
76 days to get it right in Ukraine
76 days to get it right in Ukraine (translation)
With less than two weeks to go until the US presidential election, and with polls showing a tie that will make the result depend on a small number of swing states, states that could fall to one side or the other and change the course of events, the electoral issue marks the global political agenda and represents a special element of uncertainty in the case of Ukraine. All the certainties that have existed until now under the leadership of Joe Biden, who has managed relations with Kyiv for two terms, since he was in charge of the White House during the years of the Obama administration, will disappear the moment it is announced who will come to power next January. Although, without a doubt, a victory for Trump would be more worrying for Zelensky, who apparently did not get the desired support from the Republican candidate at the meeting held during the Ukrainian president’s last visit to the United States, neither would a victory for Kamala Harris mean the end of concerns. The scant presence of the war in Ukraine in the campaign is compounded by speculation about the candidate’s cold relationship with Zelensky, despite the fact that it was Harris who attended the peace summit in Switzerland representing the White House. However, beyond slogans such as “support Ukraine as long as necessary,” the candidate has not at any time suggested what specific policy she would pursue with regard to the war or the relationship with Russia. Electoral needs are marked by issues of national policy and neither the Republican nor the Democrat candidate are making long speeches detailing their proposals.
Read More »
Recruitment and far right: “I Love the Third Brigade”
Recruitment and far right: “I Love the Third Brigade”
The United States is putting pressure on Zelensky to lower the age of conscription again, but for the moment the Ukrainian president is rejecting this possibility. This is what Ukrainian media such as Ukrainska Pravda reported this week, referring to the mobilization of men between 18 and 25 years old, a very small population group in which the country’s future cannot afford to lose. Even before the law on mobilization was approved, which is very unpopular despite not being as harsh as foreign allies demanded, prominent figures and self-proclaimed friends of Ukraine such as US Senator Lindsey Graham have publicly encouraged Ukraine to recruit those over 18 years old despite the demographic risk that this implies for the country they claim to defend. These suggestions seem to have become a demand that is confirmed even by people who belong to the state apparatus. “If this information has come to light, it may confirm that American politicians from both parties are putting pressure on President Zelensky on the question of why there is no mobilisation for those aged 18-25 in Ukraine,” said Serhiy Leshchenko, one of Andriy Yermak’s advisers and a figure who has gone from representing the third sector, civil society in Maidan Ukraine to all kinds of well-paid positions in government or in the few state-owned companies that Kiev has not yet privatised. The past ten years show a double standard between those who have been privileged and those who have been impoverished and marginalised thanks to the European and liberal reforms of the peacetime years. However, Ukraine’s refusal to recruit its most vulnerable population group strictly responds to the future needs of the state, which, if it hopes to rebuild itself, must maintain minimum levels of youth population.
Read More »
Meet Ukraine’s top fighting unit — at least that’s what their ad says
Ukraine’s brigades can recruit their own soldiers, and they compete with each other to craft the best advertising campaigns to sell the war.
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The creative work, Bondarenko said, is done by a team of 20 — 13 military personnel and seven civilians. Their messaging feels impossible to escape, covering more than 1,000 billboards across Ukraine, which she said are largely donated. Digital ads are funded by the profits from their YouTube channel, she said, which has nearly 1.3 million subscribers and generates more than $15,000 monthly. On Instagram, they have another 115,000 subscribers.
Soon, they hope to expand into a new area — merchandising. The brigade envisions it as a one-stop shop where people can purchase T-shirts, patches and other mementos of the war.
Meet Ukraine’s top fighting unit — at least that’s what their ad says
The 3rd Assault Brigade is the Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion rebranded. Andriy Biletsky was its founder.
Related:
Thirst Trap Nation: How E-girls Are Luring Young Boys Into Joining Army, with Alan MacLeod
“Sexualized fascism”: how the taboo nature of Nazi imagery made the alt-right more powerful
U.S. military, on Tinder, says to swipe left on Iran-backed militants
The warning appeared online last week in Arabic beneath pictures of U.S. warplanes: “Do not take up arms against the United States or its partners,” it said, noting that America “will protect its partners in the face of threats from the Iranian regime and its proxies.”
U.S. military, on Tinder, says to swipe left on Iran-backed militants
Sex-trafficking victim Chrystul Kizer gets 11 years for killing her abuser
KENOSHA, Wis. — A judge on Monday sentenced a Milwaukee woman charged with killing the man who sexually abused her as a teenager to 11 years in prison plus five years of extended supervision. The decision ends a six-year legal saga that tested the limits of the court’s leniency toward trafficking survivors who commit crimes.
Sex-trafficking victim Chrystul Kizer gets 11 years for killing her abuser
Previously:
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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