(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) An election worker in Arizona’s Maricopa County who was arrested Friday for allegedly stealing a key fob to the state’s primary election tabulator machines, had plans to eventually run for the United States Senate, the Arizona Independent reported.
Maricopa County detectives recently arrested and charged Walter Ringfield Jr., 27, a Phoenix resident and temporary county employee, with one count of theft and another count of criminal damage.
After some speculation as to the motive for the crime, it turns out that Ringfield filled out a statement of interest to run as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate race in Arizona on Jan. 22, 2023.
Unfortunately for Ringfield, however, the U.S. Constitution requires that Senators be 30 years old, and Ringfield is only 27. Furthermore, he is reportedly on probation for a previous felony.
The fact that he wished to run as a Democrat reveals his political leanings and narrows down the reasons why he might have stolen the key fob. Still, authorities have not yet found any clear answers.
In response, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, an outspoken election-integrity advocate, has come down hard on Ringfield, not allowing him to post bail. Responses from other public officials have varied.
According to a Local 10 report, at a Tuesday press conference, Maricopa County Sheriff Russ Skinner said that “this is not your average theft,” but denied having any knowledge of what may motivated Redfield.
The Republican National Committee also issued a statement, noting that it had sent staff to Maricopa County to investigate the incident.
According to RNC chairman Michael Whatley, the incident provides further reason to be concerned that Maricopa County struggles to run fair and free elections on top of lingering concerns over widespread irregularities in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles.
“This incident raises serious questions about election security in Arizona that must be answered—we will be constructively engaged with Maricopa County officials to ensure that the remedies to this security breach sufficiently address our concerns,” Whatley said in a statement.
Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, however, rejected Whatley’s view, claiming the fact that Redfield was caught indicated that safety protocols were working.
“The suspect was arrested the day we determined [the fob] was missing,” Gates said.
“This incident has shown all of the protocols that are in place,” he added. “We have cameras. We have observers.”
(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) CAPITOL HILL–Yandel Burke, 18, of Riverside, Calif., said he had tried to raise important questions during the pandemic via social-media platforms like Instagram, only to find his posts were being censored with little or no justification.
“I tried to speak out about COVID and how the vaccine—people shouldn’t have gotten it, because it was just something that was created by the government to see how well people would react if they were to be ‘controlled’—medically controlled and stuff like that,” Burke said Wednesday morning outside the Supreme Court, where he was once again speaking out as part of the pro-life group Survivors.
“It turned out, I was right,” Burke added about his vaccine hesitancy.
On that last point, however, the Supreme Court begs to differ. Just minutes before, it had released a landmark decision in Murthy v. Missouri(a case that had worked its way through the courts under the name Missouri v. Biden) effectively upholding the federal government’s right to “listen in” on social-media chatter and to exert its own outsize influence over the dialogue—up to and including the outright control and suppression of factual information.
The original plaintiffs in the case—led by the Republican attorneys general for the states of Missouri and Louisiana (both of whom have since gone on to higher office as a U.S. senator and governor, respectively)—had argued that, even though the platforms in question were private companies enforcing their own internal “terms of service,” the level of collusion with government entities had crossed the line into flagrant free-speech violations on an array of hot-button issues.
“[T]he plaintiffs emphasize that hearing unfettered speech on social media is critical to their work as scientists, pundits, and activists,” wrote Justice Amy Coney Barrett for the majority opinion.
“But they do not point to any specific instance of content moderation that caused them identifiable harm,” she added. “They have therefore failed to establish an injury that is sufficiently ‘concrete and particularized.'”
The 6-3 ruling reversed the decision of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which found in favor of the two states and other parties who had joined the lawsuit, and remanded the case back to the lower court for further consideration.
“The plaintiffs, without any concrete link between their injuries and the defendants’ conduct, ask us to conduct a review of the years-long communications between dozens of
federal officials, across different agencies, with different social-media platforms, about different topics,” Barrett wrote. “This Court’s standing doctrine prevents us from ‘exercis[ing such] general legal oversight’ of the other branches of Government.”
‘BULLY PULPIT BEYOND BREAKING POINT’
U.S. Supreme Court / PHOTO: Ben Sellers, Headline USA
In a dissenting opinion joined by justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, Justice Samuel Alito criticized the majority for its narrow interpretation in a case with such far-reaching implications.
“If the lower courts’ assessment of the voluminous record is correct, this is one of the most important free speech cases to reach this Court in years,” Alito wrote. “Freedom of speech serves many valuable purposes, but its most important role is protection of speech that is essential to democratic self-government.”
Alito said the pressure government agencies put on social-media networks had gone beyond simple auditing of online channels and amounted to a campaign of constant hectoring, as well as threats of political consequences for noncompliance.
“If these communications represented the exercise of the bully pulpit, then everything that top federal officials say behind closed doors to any private citizen must also represent the exercise of the President’s bully pulpit,” he wrote. “That stretches the concept beyond
the breaking point.”
Among the verboten topics was debate over controversial government vaccine mandates that forced people to make snap judgements under duress between their long-term health and their short-term livelihoods, while being denied a full set of facts.
In young men Burke’s age—for whom the COVID mortality rate without mitigating risk factors is near zero—the so-called cure may, in fact, be worse than the disease.
“Even though they censored my posts … they ended up saying that we didn’t even really need the COVID vaccine,” Burke noted. “So it’s like, ‘why did you guys mandate it and then say that we didn’t need it anymore?'”
SINISTER SILENCE AND SUPPRESSION
Burke’s story is not unique. Social-media sites including Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, Alphabet-owned Google and YouTube, Twitter (prior to its purchase by red-pilled billionaire Elon Musk), LinkedIn and several other tech companies shut down public discussion at one of the nation’s most critical junctures, fomenting deep divides and distrust that continue to ripple throughout the political discourse.
The culminating event, perhaps, was the primal scream of thousands of silenced voices just across the street from the Supreme Court, at the U.S. Capitol, on Jan. 6, 2021.
U.S. Capitol, PHOTO: Ben Sellers, Headline USA
It later came to light that intelligence agencies like the FBI, as well as public health agencies—and even the Biden campaign—had exerted considerable influence over the messaging of those social-media companies using back-channel communications.
As Burke observed, that sometimes included the active and deliberate spread of disinformation.
Social-media companies egregiously made the decision to censor information about Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” shortly before the 2020 election—a factor that many concur might have swayed their decision.
President Joe Biden was allowed to blatantly lie about the laptop, deceptively claiming that 51 intelligence sources believed it to be Russian propaganda.
Evidence now shows that the source of that initiative was none other than Biden’s own campaign operative—now Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“I think it’s really wrong, the fact that the government is trying to regulate what’s on social media and tell the people what is ‘misinformation’ and what isn’t, because it’s just about control,” Burke said. “It’s all about control—they want to control what we see, they want to control our views on life.”
Conservative news site the Gateway Pundit was among those who joined the Missouri lawsuit as a concerned party, arguing that the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency had conspired to censor its stories about the laptop by urging Twitter to suspend the account of Pundit editor Joe Hoft, the twin brother of founding publisher Jim Hoft.
However, Barrett and company opted to pick nits and dismiss the Hoft brothers’ argument on a technicality, claiming a lack of standing due to the two letters difference in the name of the person who formally filed suit.
“[Jim] Hoft provides no evidence that Twitter adopted a policy against posting private, intimate content in response to the FBI’s warnings about hack-and-leak operations,” the Barrett’s opinion claimed.
“Plus, it was Hoft’s brother, Joe Hoft, who posted this tweet; Twitter therefore suspended Joe Hoft’s account,” she continued. “It is unclear why Jim Hoft would have standing to sue for his brother’s injury.”
A GRIM DIAGNOSIS
Much of the evidence regarding the secret collusion between the FBI and Twitter did eventually surface after Musk purchased the company and released the “Twitter Files,” recruiting trusted, nonpartisan journalists such as Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger and Bari Weiss to peruse the troves of damning correspondence.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also acknowledged his company’s relationship with government agencies—but only after the Left’s desired outcomes, including the removal of then-President Donald Trump and the installation of Biden, had been accomplished.
The court’s ruling may well embolden corrupt government agencies and woke online publishers to engage openly in even more brazen censorship campaigns, potentially exerting a chilling effect on the upcoming 2024 election at yet another critical moment.
“Most Americans are online, and if you’re able to censor what they’re seeing on a day-to-day basis, it’s almost kind of like programming in a way, you know—and it’s wrong,” said Burke.
“It’s disgusting, and I think more people need to open their eyes to what’s happening in America because we’re slowly being brainwashed,” he added. “We’re all slowly being brainwashed, and their main target is the younger audience—people like me and younger.”
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In 2007, Orlando residents were furious to discover that an FBI informant had organized a neo-Nazi rally through one of the city’s mostly black neighborhoods a year earlier.
“To come into a predominantly black community, which could have resulted in great harm to the black community? I would hate to be part of a game,” Orlando City Councilwoman Daisy Lynum said at the time, calling for a “full-scale investigation” into the matter.
However, an FBI agent testified that his informant participated in the event, but didn’t organize it. The city’s uproar passed without a public investigation, full-scale or otherwise—until now.
Thanks to a trove of previously unpublicized law enforcement records and interviews with several players involved, Headline USA can reveal that the Orlando neo-Nazi rally was indeed organized by the FBI. The Orlando event also seems to have been part of a larger program to hold Nazi rallies across the country. And according to FBI records, the bureau sponsored those events despite knowing they led to an increase in the number of card-carrying Nazis in America.
Moreover, the FBI’s Nazi rallies led to a much larger operation to target right-wing groups. Dubbed “Primitive Affliction,” the operation featured a motorcycle front group, rogue undercover agents, Outlaw bikers, Satanists, bomb-makers and a fugitive on the lam in Mexico.
To top it off, the FBI’s Nazi operation was briefed to the highest levels of the bureau, including to then-Director Robert Mueller, according to at least one record unearthed by this publication.
Little has been written about Primitive Affliction outside of the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center—biased groups that trained agents in the case, according to the newly revealed records.
But despite the lack of publicity, Primitive Affliction covers a crucial time in right-wing extremist history. It began where the FBI’s 1990s-era cases against the Aryan Nations trailed off, and it helped shape the neo-Nazi groups that would march at the 2017 deadly Charlottesville Unite the Right rally—an event that inspired Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential candidacy.
Along with big-picture history, the records from Primitive Affliction reveal malfeasance by FBI agents and officers who today hold higher positions at the bureau.
The FBI declined to comment. Mueller didn’t respond to an email about Primitive Affliction.
Fabricating Fascists
FBI right-wing terror factory. PHOTO: ChatGPT
About a year after the 2006 Orlando neo-Nazi rally, the FBI source who organized the event, David Gletty, had his cover blown in open court. When the Orlando Sentinel reported that Gletty organized the march, his handler reportedly denied the accusation—saying that the informant marched, but didn’t lead the rally.
But Gletty told this publication a different story. He said the FBI instructed him to organize the rally for two main purposes: to raise Gletty’s profile in the neo-Nazi movement, and to allow the FBI to conduct surveillance of the Nazis who attended the rally.
In fact, Gletty told this publication the FBI was staging Nazi rallies across the country with the similar goals in mind: to raise the profiles of their own informants while building a database of Nazis to track.
"At the time, the FBI just before that was having me put on Nazi protests, and there were Nazi protests that were handled by the FBI, and operatives like myself." pic.twitter.com/JuBNz4LoV8
“At the time, the FBI just before that was having me put on Nazi protests, and there were Nazi protests that were handled by the FBI, and operatives like myself,” he said.
Gletty’s statement is a bold one, and shouldn’t be taken at face value. An undercover operative and private investigator, he said the FBI trained him to lie professionally.
But in this case, Gletty’s allegation is borne out by the evidence.
For starters, there’s the fact that the group that Gletty marched with in Orlando, the National Socialist Movement, or NSM, was founded in the 1970s by an FBI informant—a fact revealed by Headline USA last September. That FBI informant, Robert Brannen, was active during the bureau’s COINTELPRO era, and he chaired the NSM for nearly a decade.
And since we're on the subject, here's the records showing the NSM was co-founded by an FBI informant. The first three are FBI records talking about how an informant in the NSM might have had his cover blown. These documents are referencing Robert Brannen (1/2) pic.twitter.com/Sdom0RKGyr
Other former NSM members have also accused the FBI of staging the mid-2000s rallies. For instance, according to former NSM member and current prison inmate Bill White, the FBI sponsored the 2005 Toledo rally, which would be one of the most violent racial protests until 2017 Charlottesville.
“In October 2005, FBI [confidential human source] Jeff Schoep asked me to go to Toledo, Ohio, to help organize a ‘March Against Black Crime’ by what were supposed to be ‘local residents,’ but were really federal CHSs,” White said in an October 2020 sworn declaration, referring to Schoep, who led the NSM from the 1990s until shortly after the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally.
While there’s no smoking-gun evidence that Schoep was an FBI informant when he led the NSM, numerous other neo-Nazis have accused him of being one. There are also FBI records from the early 2000s showing he at least spoke to agents once, and perhaps the strongest evidence is that he now works openly as a “reformed Nazi” with groups sponsored by the DHS, FBI and other law enforcement organizations.
Along with his accusations that Schoep was a fed, White also described the Toledo rally as being similar to what would happen in Charlottesville 12 years later—with the local cops and FBI allowing the neo-Nazis to clash with the left-wing counter-protestors.
“On the day of the march, the Toledo Police and the FBI occupied [a nearby parking lot] and ordered myself and the NSM to use [another] parking lot. I and a small team from the NSM arrived before the Communists to secure the location; no police were present at this time …,” White said.
“About an hour later, police began to deploy, and, directed NSM members to enter [their parking lot] by driving through the mob. This started problems … After the police line formed, the mob then attacked the police, not us.”
Former NSM member and prison inmate Bill White describes how law enforcement failed to keep the Nazi demonstrators separate from the counterprotestors at an FBI-sponsored 2005 Toledo rally
A March 2006 FBI report about the Toledo rally largely matches White’s description of events—though it omitted the fact that law enforcement failed to keep the Nazis and counter-protestors separate.
“Before the NSM could begin their march, local residents and counter-demonstrators began throwing rocks and bricks at vehicles, local residences and businesses. Toledo police responded by firing tear gas into the gathered counter-demonstrators and local residents. Toledo police advised the NSM to leave the area for their own protection and the NSM complied,” the report said.
“Local residents and counter-demonstrators continued with the clash with the police, looting a store and setting fire to a local bar. This rally and riot, and the attendant media coverage for the NSM, was deemed a great success by the majority of the white supremacy movement,” the report added.
“NSM reported increased fundraising and increased applications for membership immediately following these events,” the report concluded.
That last sentence in the FBI report is particularly telling. It demonstrates that even if the FBI didn’t stage the Toledo event, it knew that neo-Nazi rallies increased the number of card-carrying Nazis in America—and it chose to stage one in Orlando via Gletty anyway.
If all that evidence—Gletty and White’s statements, the evidence that Schoep was an informant, and the smoking-gun evidence that NSM was founded by an informant—weren’t enough, Headline USA also unearthed a document showing that yet another NSM Nazi rally was organized by an informant.
That document, a 2006 FBI report, reveals that a November 2005 “rally against violence” in Kingston, New York was organized by the notorious white supremacist talk show host and former NSM affiliate Hal Turner (his name is redacted in the report, but his identity is corroborated by a separate ADL article).
This FBI report corroborates David Gletty's claim that the FBI staged Nazi rallies in the mid-2000s The names are redacted, but Gletty's the Orlando organizer. And the New York organizer was FBI informant Hal Turner And Toledo was Jeff Schoep, who now works w/ DHS It was an op pic.twitter.com/XhEjwM2A3W
The Kingston rally held by Turner—who outed himself as an informant in 2009 after he was charged with threatening public officials—was apparently uneventful. An ADL report from the event said it drew about 50 supporters and 100 counterprotestors. The low turnout may have been because Turner was already suspected in the neo-Nazi movement of being an informant due to his provocative calls for violence.
“He has alienated some fellow racists in the past by making threats against them and because others consider him a liability for having urged violence against public figures,” the ADL’s 2005 article noted. “In fact, some white supremacists have said that they would only attend the event if Turner were not the one in charge.”
Turner didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
Setting the Stage
In a vacuum, the FBI’s mid-2000s neo-Nazi events had little impact on national politics. However, as this series will show, they set the stage for an even larger, and arguably more sinister, FBI operation to target right-wing groups.
Indeed, after Gletty staged the 2006 Orlando rally and had his cover blown nearly a year later, the FBI apparently decided to up the stakes by creating a neo-Nazi motorcycle FBI front group. That front group, the 1st SS Kavallerie Brigade Motorcycle Division—named after a horse-mounted unit of Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS—will be the subject of the next article in this series.
Also in the next article, Headline USA will reveal the document showing then-Director Mueller’s involvement in the operation, which was one of the first right-wing FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force operations in post-9/11 history.
(Catrina Petersen, The Center Square) Additional taxpayer-supported shelters are set to serve migrants arriving in Chicago. The two new shelters and one existing shelter will house a total combined capacity of 2,000 people.
“I’m thankful to our partners and the contributions across City, State, County, and nonprofit sectors. These additional shelters provide meaningful support to families seeking stability as they take their next steps toward independence,” said Dulce Quintero, Illinois Department of Human Services Secretary Designate.
“In Illinois, we’re implementing our comprehensive data-driven plan to improve our response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis and amplify the effectiveness of State, County, and City investments,” Pritzker said in a news release.
One Chicago resident said she knows all too well what Chicagoans will see as a result of these additional shelters opening up. Cassi Almeida, a resident, fought with Chicago aldermen and residents to shut down a shelter at the Gage Park fieldhouse.
“They smoked weed 24/7, they peed on the trees in the park, had sex in the park in front of kids. It was chaotic. I think it’s a huge mistake for Pritzker to open more shelters,” said Almeida, who is a Brazilian immigrant. “Some of those people don’t have any respect for the neighborhoods they are staying in.”
Pritzker said the additional temporary shelters will ensure that shelter capacity and services remain accessible to asylum-seeker families. Almeida said she used to cry on her couch because of the chaos that gripped Gage Park just a few months ago when migrants were sheltering in the fieldhouse.
“I had one of them at about 4 in the afternoon pull his pants down and pee right in front of my house,” said Almeida. “I’m not against immigrants. I am from Brazil, but when they act with this disrespect it is totally out of the question. To have the government and the mayor applaud and accept this disruption here in Chicago? It’s terrible and shameful, and America is not the same thanks to them.”
The Center Square obtained doorbell camera footage from Almeida that shows a man appearing to urinate in front of her house.
In addition to the already established shelter in Little Village, the two new shelters will be former hotels. One shelter is the Hyde Park Shelter and the other is Midway Shelter. The state-supported shelters will continue operations in fiscal year 2025 as part of the joint funding agreement between the city of Chicago and Cook County. The state is committing $182 million of taxpayer funds in fiscal 2025.
A lawmaker is estimating $3 billion of taxpayer money has been dedicated to supporting illegal immigrants arriving in Chicago and other parts of the state.
State Rep. Adam Neimerg, R-Dieterich, explained that legal migrants and Illinois citizens are being put last.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out exactly what the Dems are doing. If this was about compassion and humanity they wouldn’t be doing this. We’re putting veterans, homeless, and folks in the inner cities last. People who are struggling to pay for groceries. This is a Democrat-voter registration drive,” said Neimerg.
Almeida said she feels like the hard work put into ending one shelter is going out the window and her newfound peace will be lost.
“You want to see a third-world country? Welcome to the United States of America. This is what you guys are getting now [with these migrant shelters.] All the things people think about when they hear about third world countries, people begging and kids selling food in the streets. Come to Chicago and see for yourself,” said Almeida.
The Gage Park fieldhouse migrants were moved out of the shelter in April of 2024. The exact locations of the new migrant shelters weren’t published but the Midway Shelter will be on the Southwest side of Chicago. The plan is to begin moving in families in July. This shelter has a maximum capacity of 950 residents.
Bannon was first convicted and sentenced to four months in prison in 2022 for refusing to follow the subpoena of the Democrat-controlled Jan. 6 Committee, making him the first individual to be convicted of the offense in four decades.
He has since delayed his sentence through appeals until early June, when U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols ordered Bannon to report for his prison sentence at FCI Danbury in Connecticut by July 1. Bannon has also appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.
Former Trump official Peter Navarro, who was similarly convicted of contempt of Congress, is currently imprisoned at FCI Miami and will be released on July 17.
Many Republican officials have responded in outrage over the case regarding Bannon and Navarro and pushed to find ways to intervene in the convictions.
“I believe the only way Steve Bannon does not go to jail is if there is a vote taken by the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) — to tell the court that it is the official view of the House of Representatives that the J6 committee was illegitimate,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fl., in an interview with podcaster Tim Pool.
Matt Gaetz- “I believe the only way Steve Bannon does not go to jail is if there is a vote taken by the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) — to tell the court that it is the official view of the House of Representatives that the J6 committee was illegitimate!”… pic.twitter.com/NtsiuHSk55
On June 18, Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., sponsored a resolution to declare the Jan. 6 Select Committee as “illegitimate,” and rescind the subpoenas for Bannon, Navarro, and others facing similar charges. The resolution gained a large crowd of support amongst heavy-hitting Republican lawmakers. However, Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, of the Judiciary Committee, expressed skepticism about whether it would make any difference.
On the morning of June 26, however, the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group heeded Gaetz’s calls and officially voted to proceed with filing a legal brief in support of Bannon’s appeal.
“We’re working on filing an amicus brief in his appellate work there in his case because the Jan. 6 committee was, we think, wrongfully constituted. We think the work was tainted.” We think that they may have very well covered up evidence and maybe even more nefarious activities.” stated Johnson to Fox News’s Sean Hannity after the decision by the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group.
Mike Johnson authorizes congressional amicus brief to written on behalf of Steve Bannon pic.twitter.com/naGmCKl0Cy
— Ugandans for Trump (@UgandaforTrump) June 26, 2024
Notably, the House of Representatives recently voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress after he refused to turn over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview in his classified documents case.
However, under his supervision, the Department of Justice opted not to prosecute Garland for the same offense as Bannon and Navarro—showing a clear double standard in the enforcement of the rarely used law.
(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) The half-sister of former President Barack Obama, Auma Obama, rallied against a bill that would raise taxes in Kenya on Tuesday, where authorities released tear gas on the protesters, according to NBC News.
As CNN interviewed Obama after the release of the gas, she teared up and struggled to breathe.
“I can’t believe that these young people are just trying to demonstrate for their rights,” she said. “And to tell them that we understand that they need to use their voices and we are being tear-gassed. We’re being tear-gassed! We have flags and banners and nothing else.”
BREAKING: Auma Obama is tear-gassed by Kenya police live on CNN as she joins peaceful protests against over-taxation pic.twitter.com/XLpsvLlDyz
Reports indicated that thousands of protesters converged on the capitol building after the tax hike passed on Tuesday.
Emergency services took several of the protesters to the hospital, where five people died of their injuries. Reports indicated that 21 protesters are still missing.
Protesters attempted to combat the passing of the hotly contested bill with a protest titled “7 Days of Rage.”
Young people lead the protests against the tax increases, signed by recently elected President William Ruto, who many of the protesters voted for after his promises for economic relief.
“I fell for his lies,” said voter Oscar Saina. “Now I’m out here regretting why I voted for him.”
The finance bill raised taxes for millions of Kenyans in an attempt to pay back some of the country’s $80 billion in debt.
Increased taxes combined with high inflation pushed several citizens to the brink.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission called on the president to “end repression of peaceful protesters;” the president attended an African Union retreat on the day of the protests and neglected to release a statement on the issue.
Several human rights organizations and figureheads of the Kenyan political landscape, including president of the Kenyan law society Faith Odhiambo, condemned the president for his lack of action.
“Every Kenyan today who has lost his or her life in the struggle to stamp out corruption and seek economic liberation lies in the hands of a rogue and inconsiderate president,” she said.
(Money Metals News Service) In the latest episode of Money Metals’ Midweek Memo, host Mike Maharrey delves into the mischaracterization of gold by the mainstream media and its implications for investors.
Maharrey starts with an analogy of shark attacks from a few years ago, illustrating how media hype can distort reality. Despite media reports of an unusual spike in shark attacks, the actual number was below average.
Similarly, Maharrey argues, that gold suffers from a misrepresentation that paints it as a poor investment, which is not supported by factual data.
Media’s Role in Perpetuating Myths
Maharrey highlights the media’s bandwagon effect, where one outlet’s report triggers a cascade of similar stories, creating a false narrative. This was evident with the shark attack scare and is now seen with the portrayal of gold. He explains that the mainstream media often dismisses gold as a second-class investment, largely due to the influence of the regime, which benefits from promoting fiat money over gold.
The Regime’s War on Gold
The host suggests that the regime needs the public to favor fiat money to maintain its power, as fiat money allows for endless borrowing and spending, unlike gold, which is finite. This is why, according to Maharrey, the regime and the media perpetuate the idea that gold is a useless relic, echoing sentiments from economists like John Maynard Keynes.
The True Performance of Gold
Contrary to mainstream narratives, Maharrey presents data showing gold’s strong performance. Over the past 20 years, gold has outperformed most major asset classes, except U.S. stocks. Since 1971, when the U.S. abandoned the gold standard, gold prices have increased by nearly 8% annually. Even in recent years, despite media claims, gold has held its value and provided significant returns.
Gold as a Superior Investment
Maharrey provides a compelling analysis of gold as an investment, comparing its performance and advantages to other asset classes. Historically, gold has outperformed most major assets over the last two decades. While U.S. stocks have performed better, gold has outshone dollars, U.S. Treasury bonds, global stocks, commodities, and emerging market stocks in terms of returns. This trend underscores gold’s resilience and its capacity to preserve and increase wealth over time.
Since 1971, when the U.S. decoupled the dollar from gold, the average price of gold has increased by nearly 8% annually. This long-term growth demonstrates gold’s effectiveness as an inflation hedge, contrary to some mainstream narratives. During periods of inflation, gold typically holds its value better than fiat currencies, offering a reliable means of preserving purchasing power.
Gold also provides significant diversification benefits due to its low correlation with other asset classes. It tends to appreciate when other assets decline, thus reducing overall portfolio risk and offering stability. Furthermore, gold is extremely liquid, with high trading volumes and global recognition, ensuring that investors can easily buy and sell gold, even during times of economic uncertainty or market volatility.
The demand for gold is diverse, spanning jewelry, technology, investment, and central bank reserves. This diversity gives gold resilience and the potential to deliver solid returns under various market conditions. During economic downturns, gold often performs well. For instance, during the early days of the Great Recession, while other assets were plummeting, gold increased in value by 21%, providing a much-needed hedge for investors.
Gold is widely regarded as a safe haven asset, particularly during times of geopolitical chaos or economic instability. Its historic role as a store of value and medium of exchange for over 5,000 years reinforces its reliability. Compared to assets like real estate, hedge funds, and most commodities, gold has shown superior performance, especially during financial crises. It has also consistently outperformed bonds since 1971.
Despite the perception that gold hasn’t performed well in recent years, it was up about 133% last year and outperformed many other asset classes, including emerging market stocks, U.S. bonds, the dollar, and global treasuries. Maharrey concludes that the mainstream narrative portraying gold as a poor investment is unfounded. Instead, he advocates for gold’s inclusion in investment portfolios due to its proven track record, stability, liquidity, and diversification benefits.
Mainstream Recognition of Gold
Interestingly, even mainstream outlets like CBS News have recently highlighted the benefits of owning gold, acknowledging its impressive performance. Bank of America analysts are predicting gold prices could reach $3,000 within the next 12 to 18 months, driven by non-commercial investment demand and continued central bank purchases.
Central Banks’ Shift Towards Gold
The podcast also discusses the trend of central banks diversifying away from the U.S. dollar and increasing their gold reserves. For example, China’s central bank has added substantial amounts of gold while reducing its holdings of U.S. Treasuries. This de-dollarization trend underscores gold’s importance as a stable reserve asset.
The Future of Gold Amid Economic Uncertainty
Maharrey speculates on the impact of bond yield volatility and the potential for a long-term bear market in bonds. He argues that the Federal Reserve’s inability to control rising interest rates could lead to increased demand for gold as a safe haven. This, combined with the likely return to quantitative easing, could further boost gold prices.
Conclusion
Maharrey concludes by urging listeners to consider adding gold and silver to their portfolios. He emphasizes that most portfolios lack gold, which means many investors are missing out on its benefits as a diversifier and a hedge against economic instability. He recommends contacting Money Metals Exchange for advice on incorporating precious metals into investment strategies.
Overall, the episode underscores the disparity between media narratives and the factual performance of gold, advocating for a more informed and strategic approach to investing in precious metals.
(Headline USA) Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claimed this week that it will be “pointless” for President Joe Biden to debate former President Donald Trump on policy.
In her own preview of Thursday’s presidential debate, Clinton offered advice to Biden on how he ought to approach the big day.
“I know the excruciating pressure of walking onto that stage and that it is nearly impossible to focus on substance when Mr. Trump is involved,” Clinton wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times.
“It is a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump’s arguments like in a normal debate,” she added. “It’s nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are.”
Clinton accused Trump of “interrupt[ing]” and “bully[ing]” her during their own debate back in 2016—and “even stalking me around the stage at one point.”
Remember this 👇 Fantastic moment from the second debate, President Trumps response to Hillary "Because you'd be in jail."
— ✞🌸TrumpGirlOnFire 🔥 (@TrumpGirlOnFire) May 17, 2023
All of this is part of Trump’s strategy to “appear dominant and throw his opponent off balance,” she claimed.
He also “may rant and rave in part because he wants to avoid giving straight answers about his unpopular positions,” she projected.
But Trump will fail if Biden is “direct and forceful,” claiming that Biden has “facts and truth on his side.”
She also offered an early excuse for Biden if he performs as poorly as expected, lamenting that Biden is approaching the debate at a disadvantage because he doesn’t have as much time to prepare, given his presidential duties. (Biden has spent the past week at Camp David preparing for the debate).
And she previewed what will likely be one of Biden’s key arguments on Thursday.
“This election is between a convicted criminal out for revenge and a president who delivers results for the American people,” she wrote. “No matter what happens in the debate, that’s an easy choice.”
Critics have noted that Biden was deemed unfit to stand trial, while Hillary also has been accused of multiple crimes for which she avoided consequences simply due to the corruption within the Washington, D.C., judicial system.
Most notable among those was having written off the Steele dossier—the series of false reports based off a discredited Russian information source and used to smear Trump by weaponizing the intelligence community against him—as a legal expense.
The charge remarkably parallels the one for which Trump was recently convicted of 34 felony counts, although Clinton was obliged only to pay a few thousand dollars in fines.
Clinton was not the only one trying to set the bar low for Biden. His longtime adviser and former chief of staff, Ron Klain, was one of several Democrats close to the administration who suggested that the president shouldn’t waste time discussing policies since nobody cares and instead focus on going negative against Trump, CNN reported.
“He wants the credit, but it’s not working,” said one top Democrat speaking anonymously. “He needs to stop.”
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, currently embroiled in an FBI investigation over public corruption, blamed conservatives for her ongoing troubles
During a press conference on Monday, Thao lashed out at her political opponents following the raid on her home earlier this month.
“I’m seeking the truth right now just as much as you all are but I will not be bullied and I will not be disparaged, and I will not be threatened out of this office,” Thao declared, breaking her silence after the raid.
“There are a lot of radical right-wing forces who know they will never win an election in Oakland fair and square,” she added, providing no evidence. “They know their extreme views are at odds with our Oakland values but they have built the rules to protect and preserve their power and maintain dominance over the rest of us.”
Thao’s unsubstantiated claims came after the FBI seized documents from her and her partner’s home as part of a public corruption investigation.
FBI NOW CLEAR FROM OAKLAND MAYOR SHENG THAO’S HOUSE. Good law-enforcement source tells me this is a public corruption investigation of Thao and her boyfriend. pic.twitter.com/LnQbrs3NPp
Three other locations were also raided: the homes of California Waste Solutions owners David Duong and Andy Duong, and the company’s corporate headquarters, reported the Oaklandside news site.
FBI agents taking pictures and going inside car in front of Oakland Hills home that is connected to their investigation into Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao pic.twitter.com/UZtL8o1ZC3
Coinciding with the FBI’s raid, the city clerk announced that a recall campaign against Thao had gained sufficient votes to proceed in November.
According to media reports, central to the recall effort are Thao’s leftist policies, including her controversial decision to oust Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong in February 2023 amid a misconduct investigation.
Following Armstrong’s firing, California Governor Gavin Newsom deployed 120 California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland to assist with rising crime rates, reported Police1.com.
Earlier in her speech, Thao asserted, without evidence, that the investigation isn’t related to her.
“I want to be crystal clear: I have done nothing wrong,” she claimed. “I can tell you with confidence that this investigation is not about me. I have not been charged with a crime, and I am confident I will not be charged with a crime because I am innocent.”
Zwonitzer, a former ghostwriter for Biden during the Trump administration years, is central to the impeachment inquiry focused on Biden’s handling of such documents.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, scheduled a “markup” hearing on Thursday to consider a resolution against Zwonitzer for his non-compliance.
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a markup on Thursday, June 27, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. ET to consider this contempt. https://t.co/KSKDMn1Ddm
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) June 25, 2024
Special Counsel Robert Hur revealed that Zwonitzer possessed notes and audio recordings of private conversations with Biden about classified documents.
Although Hur found evidence suggesting Biden willfully withheld classified materials, he controversially declined to press criminal charges, citing Biden’s age.
In a detailed 17-page report released Tuesday, Jordan described the effort to obtain the audio recordings of Biden discussing classified documents. Inexplicably, Zwonitzer deleted the audio after the special counsel investigation was announced.
The report stated, “The Committee subpoenaed these materials for several reasons—including to determine if legislation is needed to codify procedures governing clear statutory guidelines related to the handling, storage, and disclosure of classified materials or modify criminal penalties for the unauthorized dissemination and disclosure of classified materials.”
Jordan emphasized, “To date, despite assurances that Zwonitzer would cooperate, significant accommodations from the Committee, numerous requests for materials responsive to the subpoena, and a specific warning that failure to produce the documents and materials would result in contempt proceedings, Zwonitzer has failed to do so.”
Moreover, Jordan argued that “Zwonitzer’s willful refusal to comply with the Committee’s subpoena constitutes contempt of Congress and warrants referral to the appropriate United States Attorney’s Office for prosecution as prescribed by law.”
