Link: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pete-buttigieg-flies-taxpayer-funded-private-jets-flight-data-show

Pete Buttigieg often flies on taxpayer-funded private jets, flight data show --Biden Cabinet member has taken at least 18 flights on taxpayer-funded private jets, despite calls to curb carbon emissions | Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, an advocate of increased government action to curb carbon emissions, has taken at least 18 flights using taxpayer-funded private jets since taking office, Fox News Digital has learned. Buttigieg has traveled across the country -- visiting Florida, Ohio and New Hampshire, among other states -- and out of the country using a private jet fleet managed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to flight tracking data reviewed by Fox News Digital. The flight records align with Buttigieg's schedule of external and public engagements obtained by government watchdog group Americans for Public Trust (APT). Buttigieg's predecessor, Elaine Chao, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, faced criticism for using the same jets on seven occasions in 2017, costing taxpayers nearly $94,000, Politico reported at the time. And Trump-appointed Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign after reportedly taking 26 private jet flights that same year, costing taxpayers about $1.2 million.

Link: https://news.yahoo.com/biden-official-hid-meetings-george-165726357.html

Biden official hid info about meetings with George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi from public | Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler scrubbed mention of a meeting with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and key details of a meeting with billionaire Democratic donor George Soros from the public version of his calendar. Gensler's public calendar showed that he only had a staff meeting on Aug. 7, 2021, while his private calendar lists a meeting with Clinton, according to a Fox News Digital review. And on Aug. 20, 2021, his public calendar lists a meeting with Soros but hid the meeting's agenda, which his private calendar shows was to discuss a forthcoming Wall Street Journal op-ed the business magnate was planning to write. Gensler's private calendar revealing the discrepancies was obtained by the watchdog group Energy Policy Advocates and shared with Fox News Digital. The group was only able to obtain the internal records after filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the SEC.

Link: https://sputniknews.com/20221213/21-years-ago-today-us-rips-up-abm-treaty-with-russia-starting-slow-slide-toward-current-crisis-1105420298.html

Tuesday marks the 21st anniversary of the decision by then-US President George W. Bush to quit the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a landmark 1972 agreement which limited the anti-ballistic missile capabilities of the US and the USSR (and later Russia). The move became the canary in the coalmine of trouble in relations between Russia and the US. 💬 “I have concluded the ABM Treaty hinders our government’s ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue state missile attack,” US President George W. Bush said, speaking to reporters at the White House Rose Garden on December 13, 2001. “Today I have given formal notice to Russia…that the United States of America is withdrawing from this almost thirty year old treaty,” he said. ● Six months later, on June 13, 2002, the agreement was history. The ABM Treaty, signed by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and US President Richard Nixon in May 1972, limited Moscow and Washington’s ability to build ballistic missile interceptors, and was designed to slow the expansion of the superpowers’ arsenals of nuclear warheads and delivery systems, and to prevent either country from trying to gain an advantage over the other which would upset the global strategic balance.

Link: https://www.axios.com/2022/12/12/winter-storm-threatens-us-heavy-snow-rain-wind

A severe winter storm that lashed the West over the weekend on Monday night barreled toward the central U.S., where it's expected to intensify en route to the Northeast later this week. | The big picture: Over 15 million people were under winter weather advisories, with the Upper Midwest and northern and central Plains at risk from the worst hazards of the storm, which saw roads closed and feet of snow dumped on the Sierra Nevada as heavy rains lashed Southern California over the weekend. The storm on Monday night reached the Southern and Central Plains, where the National Weather Service warned flash flooding and other severe weather was possible due to "intense downpours." It's expected to impact the region for several days. By the time this storm system moves off the east coast at the end of this week, it will have dumped a foot or more of snow across at least a half-dozen states, spawned tornadoes in the South, and acted as a kickoff event to rearranging the jet stream to ensure a colder, snowier finish to December. This will be especially true for the Midwest and East. Dozens of flights were canceled across the U.S. Monday as up to 6 inches of snow fell in Hartford, Connecticut, and also Scranton, Pennsylvania, while upstate New York and western Massachusetts saw up to 9 inches, ABC News reports.

Link: https://www.axios.com/2022/12/13/sam-bankman-fried-fraud-charges-ftx

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday filed a civil complaint accusing Sam Bankman-Fried of "orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX" and seeking to ban him from the cryptocurrency industry. This comes ahead of criminal charges that will be announced later this morning by prosecutors for the Southern District of New York. | A growing number of media reports and statements from FTX's new CEO and Bankman-Fried himself have suggested that customer funds have been improperly accessed by the company's top brass. On Monday night, before he was set to testify remotely at a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Bahamian authorities arrested Bankman-Fried at the request of U.S. prosecutors. The two countries have an extradition treaty. The SEC alleged that Bankman-Fried engaged in a "years-long" scheme to defraud investors.
■ Hours before arrest, Sam Bankman-Fried denied being part of ‘Wirefraud’ chat group
■ Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in the Bahamas

Link: https://www.rt.com/news/567533-ex-nazis-in-service-of-us/

The history of the BND, its founder Reinhard Gehlen, and its loyal service to Washington
💬 “The United States still essentially occupies Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries. At the same time, it cynically calls them equal allies... What kind of cooperation is that?”. This question was posed by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his speech in the Kremlin on September 30, 2022, when agreements on the entry of the new regions into the Russian Federation were signed. ● The Russian president did not go into further detail, but it's hard to argue against his words. Western Europe’s strongest country, Germany, increasingly acts against its national interests. Berlin coordinates its foreign policy course with Washington not only at regular NATO and G7 summits, but also through more private channels. One of these is Germany’s foreign intelligence service, officially called the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND).

Link: https://reclaimthenet.org/cdc-census-bureau-twitter-portal-censorship/

More Big Tech-Big Government censorship collusion. | Emails between an employee at the United States (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Twitter have revealed that at least one CDC staff member and the US Census Bureau had access to Twitter’s dedicated “Partner Support Portal” which allows approved government partners to flag content to Twitter for censorship. ● The emails were released by the nonprofit organization America First Legal and show Twitter enrolling a CDC employee into this portal through their personal account in May 2021 (pages 182-194). ● On May 10, 2021, the CDC’s Carol Crawford sent Twitter employee Todd O’Boyle a list of example posts highlighting “two issues that we [the CDC] are seeing a great deal of misinfo about.” O’Boyle responded by saying that enrolling in Twitter’s Partner Support Portal is the best way for Crawford to get posts like this reviewed in the future.

Link: https://www.rt.com/news/568075-musk-prosecute-fauci-gain-function/

After Fauci’s name was propelled to the top of Twitter’s trends with over 600,000 mentions, Musk apparently felt the need to elaborate why he thought the controversial face of America’s response to the pandemic should be investigated. 💬 “As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded gain-of-function research that killed millions of people,” Musk said in response to one critic, adding “not awesome imo.”

I strongly disagree. Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone.As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded gain-of-function research that killed millions of people. Not awesome imo.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2022

Link: https://sputniknews.com/20221211/twitter-files-part-4-shows-how-company-execs-built-case-for-post-jan-6-trump-ban--1105346156.html

A fourth batch of the so-called “Twitter Files" has been released by best-selling author Michael Shellenberger. | The first installment of what has been dubbed the “Twitter Files” dropped on December 2 via investigative journalist Matt Taibbi. Since then, batches two and three were also made public after the company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, armed Taibbi and his colleague Bari Weiss with further illuminating data. ● The latest installment of the treasure trove of data that Twitter CEO Elon Musk vowed would shed light on “free speech suppression” pertains to the social media platform’s actions leading up to the ban on former President Donald Trump instituted on January 8, 2021 after the events at the US capitol on January 6. Like in the case of the preceding batches, the insider information was given to journalists and authors by the tech billionaire to post on their Twitter accounts.
■ Ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Facing Perjury Charges for Lying to Congress about ‘Shadow-Banning’ (Slay)

Link: https://ground.news/article/3-bald-eagles-die-10-sick-after-eating-animals-dumped-at-landfill_9070ba

At least 13 bald eagles were likely poisoned by scavenging the carcasses of euthanized animals that were improperly dumped at a Minnesota landfill, and three of the majestic birds have died. Experts at the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota are caring for the critically ill birds, with the director predicting they will all eventually recover and be released into the wild. State and federal agencies are investigating, too. (Ground News // Articles)

Link: https://www.axios.com/2022/12/12/winter-storm-threatens-us-heavy-snow-rain-wind

A major winter coast-to-coast storm was unleashing heavy snow, rains and powerful winds across the Intermountain West Sunday ahead of its forecast slow track across the country. | The heaviest snow Sunday was in the Sierra Nevada and Northern California, where forecasters said snowfall rates of 3 inches per hour were expected to cause "nearly impossible travel" conditions. The storm is forecast to hit the Plains, South and Northeast even harder later this week. ● By the time this storm system moves off the east coast at the end of this week, it will have dumped a foot or more of snow across at least a half dozen states, spawned tornadoes in the South, and acted as a kickoff event to rearranging the jet stream to ensure a colder, snowier finish to December. This will be especially true for the Midwest and East. ● Winter storm warnings were in effect over 250 miles of the Sierra, from north of Reno down to Yosemite National Park, until late Sunday or early Monday as multiple roads in the region closed due to the snowfall, per AP.

Link: https://www.axios.com/2022/12/12/peru-protest-unrest-demonstrators-demand-elections

Peru authorities confirmed two deaths during ongoing protests demanding fresh elections and the resignation of new President Dina Boluarte, as thousands of demonstrators were reported on streets across the country Sunday. | The latest: Boluarte responded to the calls by announcing in a televised address a proposal for Congress to bring forward the next general elections to April 2024, per AP. 💬 "My duty as president of the republic in the current difficult time is to interpret, read and collect the aspirations, interests and concerns, if not of all, of the vast majority of Peruvians," Boluarte said, according to AP. "So, interpreting in the broadest way the will of the citizens... I have decided to assume the initiative to reach an agreement with the congress of the republic to advance the general elections." Context: The 60-year-old former vice president was sworn in last Wednesday until 2026 — when the presidency of her impeached predecessor, Pedro Castillo, was due to end. The big picture: AP reports police and protesters clashed in Lima as hundreds demonstrated there, with many calling for the release of Castillo, who was arrested on charges of rebellion after he said he was dissolving Congress ahead of his impeachment vote. There have been tense scenes in rural areas that are strongholds of the 53-year-old left-wing former schoolteacher Castillo, who is from a poor Andean mountain district.

Link: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/world-health-organization-bill-gates-john-hopkins-just-conducted-another-pandemic-simulation-time-virus-deadlier-targets-children/

WHO, Johns Hopkins, and Gates Foundation Conduct Another Pandemic Simulation. This Time the Virus Is Deadlier and Targets Children | The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security partnered with the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct "Catastrophic Contagion," an exercise to simulate a global pandemic that is deadlier than the coronavirus and especially dangerous for children. Bill Gates was in attendance. The group conducted Catastrophic Contagion in Brussels, Belgium, on October 23, 2022. During the simulation, the World Health Organization's health advisory board addressed a fictional "Severe Epidemic Enterovirus Respiratory Syndrome" pandemic that originates in Brazil and disseminates across the globe. The exercise simulated a series of WHO emergency health advisory board meetings addressing a fictional pandemic set in the near future.

Link: https://www.planet-today.com/2022/03/fort-bragg-lost-over-80-soldiers-from.html

Fort Bragg stops reporting soldier deaths after dozens found dead in their bunks | One of the largest military installations in the world, Fort Bragg is home to approximately 54,000 military personnel and includes the Special Forces, the Airborne Corps, and the Joint Special Operations Command. In just 18 months, Fort Bragg lost over 80 soldiers from “sudden” and “unexplained” causes. According to officials, 33 of the fatalities are of “undetermined” causes. Fort Bragg cannot explain why dozens of soldiers are dying in their own bunks. During that same eighteen-month period, three Fort Bragg soldiers died in overseas combat. This means soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg are twenty-seven times more likely to die unexpectedly on their home base than in overseas combat!

Link: https://news.antiwar.com/2022/12/08/house-passes-858-billion-ndaa/

The Senate is expected to vote on the spending bill next week | The House on Thursday passed the massive $858 billion 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in a vote of 350-80, sending the bill to the Senate, where a vote is expected to be held next week. ● The $858 billion NDAA is $45 billion more than President Biden asked for, marking the second year in a row that Congress made the military budget higher than what the White House requested. The amount represents an 8% increase from the 2022 NDAA, which was finalized at $782 billion. ● According to Defense News, the 2023 NDAA dropped amendments added to the House version that would have restricted weapons sales to countries accused of human rights abuses. Such provisions were included in the House version of the NDAA but didn’t make it past into the final version that was negotiated with the Senate.
■ NDAA Includes Unprecedented Military Support for Taiwan

Link: https://www.axios.com/2022/12/09/kyrsten-sinema-democratic-party-independent-senate

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona said in remarks published at 6 am ET Friday that she's leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent. Why it matters: It's a political earthquake that will shake up the Senate — and a gut punch for Democrats just three days after they secured a 51-49 majority. Our thought bubble, via Axios' Josh Kraushaar: Sinema views activists in the Arizona Democratic Party as extreme as the state Republican Party. MORE
■ Why Kyrsten Sinema left the Democratic Party

Link: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/breaking-kari-lake-files-70-page-lawsuit-throw-fraudulent-arizona-midterm-election-results-claims-hundreds-thousands-illegal-ballots-59-precinct-machine-failures-election-day-t/

Kari Lake Files 70 Page Lawsuit to Throw Out Fraudulent Arizona Midterm Election Results - Claims Hundreds of Thousands of Illegal Ballots, 59% of ED Precinct Machine Failures, Tens of Thousands of Illicit Mail-in Ballots | Republican Kari Lake on Friday filed a lawsuit to nullify the 2022 midterm election results for the [rigged] governor's race in the state of Arizona. On Thursday, Trump Attorney Christina Bobb previewed this historic filing. Attorney Kurt Olsen told The Gateway Pundit, "We have put forward evidence that unquestionably shows that this election was stolen with illegal votes and likely fraudulent votes." In the filing this afternoon, the Kari Lake campaign claims hundreds of thousands of illegal votes were counted in the election, 59% of Maricopa County precincts had broken tabulators or printers on election day disenfranchising voters, and tens of thousands of illegal mail-in ballots were counted that did not pass signature verification requirements.

Link: https://dailycaller.com/2022/12/09/chief-twitter-censor-weekly-fbi-meetings/

Twitter's Chief Censor Met Weekly With U.S. Intelligence Officials While Trump Was in Office, Internal Comms Reveal | Twitter's former Head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, had weekly meetings with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) at least as far back as 2020, when former President Donald Trump was still in office, internal communications between Twitter staff obtained by journalist Matt Taibbi Friday reveal. Yoel participated in one such weekly meeting shortly after the company's moderation team was thrown into a crisis following its decision to suppress an October 2020 New York Post story concerning a laptop owned by Hunter Biden, according to Taibbi. Roth appeared to explicitly ask the government officials in the meeting to "share anything useful" concerning the laptop story, but they apparently declined to do so... "Weekly sync with FBI/DHS/DNI re: election security. The meeting happened about 15 minutes after the aforementioned Hacked Materials implosion; the government declined to share anything useful when asked," Roth apparently wrote in an internal message, Taibbi reported.
■ Exclusive: Bari doesn't name too many names but the head of Twitter's Strategic Response Team when secret actions were taken to stifle conservative accounts happened under Jeff Carlton, who worked for both CIA & FBI. He just deleted his LinkedIn. But I have an archive.

Link: https://ground.news/article/soccer-writer-grant-wahl-dies-at-world-cup-match-in-qatar_435029

Grant Wahl, one of the most well-known soccer writers in the United States, died early Saturday while covering the World Cup match between Argentina and the Netherlands. (Ground News // Articles)

Link: https://www.rt.com/russia/567993-us-ukraine-attacks-deep-russia/

Washington now reportedly believes such actions are less likely to trigger a direct clash between Moscow and NATO | The US has quietly given Ukraine the go-ahead to launch long-range strikes against targets inside Russian territory, The Times reported on Friday, citing sources. The Pentagon has apparently changed its stance on the matter as it has become less concerned that such attacks could escalate the conflict. According to a US defense source interviewed by the outlet, the Pentagon is now “not saying to Kiev, ‘Don’t strike the Russians [in Russia or Crimea].’ “We can’t tell them what to do. It’s up to them how they use their weapons,” he said, adding that Washington only demands that Kiev conforms to international law and the Geneva conventions when using US-supplied weapons.