Society's ChildS


Popcorn

Vietnamese Property tycoon ordered to repay $11 billion to avoid execution


RT
Thu, 28 Nov 2024 13:34 UTC
Truong My Lan
Vietnamese property developer Truong My Lan was convicted for large-scale bribery in April and sentenced to death

A Vietnamese property tycoon convicted of large-scale fraud must return $11 billion to avoid execution by lethal injection, several media outlets have reported. The ultimatum was made by prosecutors in Ho Chi Minh City as part of Truong My Lan's appeal hearing on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.

The billionaire, aged 68, was found guilty in April of embezzling US$12.3 billion from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) as chairwoman of the real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group (VTP). The prosecution stated that Lan effectively controlled the bank using a web of allies and shell companies.

She was sentenced to death by lethal injection for her crimes, which spanned a period of 11 years and involved bribing government officials and violating bank lending rules by issuing fraudulent loans.

During the appeal hearing, prosecutors cited the "unprecedented" losses caused by Lan's actions, which according to various estimates amount to up to 6% of Vietnam's gross domestic product.

Under Vietnamese law, the defendant must return 75% of the embezzled money to be considered for a less severe sentence.


Comment: It only makes sense for the state to recover the losses.


Comment: China is another country which carries out severe punishments for economic crimes, whereas in the West, such illegal gains are never recuperated and the guilty parties hardly suffer anything other than slight embarrassment at the most.

Could the West learn something from the East? One wonders if introducing such an approach in the West would be a useful way of sending a signal that economic criminals and bribed officials are not protected.

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Wolf

Best of the Web: A whimper, not a bang: Where was Antifa after Trump's victory?

David Reaboi
Late Republican Nonsense
Tue, 26 Nov 2024 12:57 UTC
antifa
The Democrats had gone to the edge of American discourse — beyond which is the disintegration of normal political life — and then, when they'd been repudiated by the voters, meekly pulled back. Why?

Perhaps the only disappointment for those of us elated with the outcome of this month's presidential election was the muted, downcast response from the Left at Donald Trump's massive victory. We'd expected angry riots from purple-haired Antifa goons; emotive demonstrations of impotent and self-righteous defiance by Handmaid's Tale cosplayers; and, maybe best of all, delicious cable news highlight reels reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's surprise defeat in 2016. The quiet sobbing we got instead came as somewhat of a surprise.

For the Left, it all seemed to end, as it did at Kamala Harris's victory party at Howard University, with a whimper. There was no defiant or fiery speech that night; in fact, the candidate wasn't seen at all, unwilling to face even the dedicated supporters who had worked hardest for her candidacy. Over the next few days, while there was some hissing and a few entertaining misfiring synapses at MSNBC and CNN — including some angry denunciations of elements of the Democrat coalition — the emotion seemed forced and perfunctory.
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Bad Guys

Marc Andreessen describes "alarming" meeting with Biden Admin that prompted his Trump endorsement


Zerohedge
Wed, 27 Nov 2024 11:05 UTC
Marc Andreessen
Marc Andreessen, the billionaire investor and co-founder of the influential Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, revealed in a new episode of Joe Rogan's podcast that after an "alarming" meeting with Biden administration officials earlier this year was the moment he would have no other choice but to support Donald Trump.

For decades, Andreessen has supported Democrats, including Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. However, a troubling spring meeting with Biden administration officials caused major concerns. During the meeting, officials explained their plan to control AI through government regulatory capture — a strategy reminiscent of Communist policies in China.
"We had meetings [Biden officials] this spring that were the most alarming meetings I've ever been in. Where they were taking us through their plans, and it was - basically just full government - full government control - like this sort of thing, there will be a small number of large companies that will be completely regulated and controlled by the government, they told us. They said don't even start startups - there's just no way that they can succeed - there's no way that we're going to permit that to happen."
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Bullseye

Washington elites want to saddle Trump with world war - Tucker Carlson


RT
Tue, 26 Nov 2024 18:05 UTC
trump tucker
© Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
Donald Trump's enemies in Washington, DC are trying to instigate a world war before his inauguration in January, political commentator Tucker Carlson has claimed. A global conflict would prevent the incoming president from exposing their crimes, the former Fox host has insisted.

Carlson is a supporter of Trump's agenda to fix America's problems and disengage the country from foreign conflicts, which helped him secure a second presidential term earlier this month.

"Permanent Washington doesn't care about domestic policy," the former Fox News host told the Redacted political talk show on Monday. "What they care about is exercising power abroad: killing people, because it makes them feel like God, and making money. And that's where the money is, trillions of dollars."

The group "is basically everyone in DC in both parties," he added. Carlson claimed they want Trump "to take the country to war either against Russia, or, far more likely, Iran." The pro-war clique in the US capital perceives this scenario as "the only way to stop Trump and the disclosure that a Trump administration will bring," he said.
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Attention

Australia's 'Social Media Ban' is digital ID via the backdoor

Kit Knightly
Off-Guardian
Tue, 26 Nov 2024 16:44 UTC
Digital ID
© Off-Guardian
Earlier this month Australia's government announced plans to ban anyone under the age of sixteen from using social media.

Social media companies aren't happy about it, predictably, and the kind of people conditioned to oppose everything social media-related are proudly cheering it on.

That's how the issue is being framed. Social media/big business vs protecting children.

But that's not what it's really about. It's really about digital identity and removal of anonymity.

Think about it - how do you enforce banning anyone under 16 from social media?

Well, you need everyone to prove their age before starting an account.

How do they prove their age?

Why, with a new Australian government backed digital identity of course.

Perhaps the one that was created by an Act of Parliament in May and is due to come online on December 1st.

This isn't me spouting hypotheticals, they're openly saying it. From Reuters [emphasis added]:
Australia plans to trial an age-verification system that may include biometrics or government identification to enforce a social media age cut-off, some of the toughest controls imposed by any country to date.
The plan couldn't be more obvious.

Step 1 - Create digital ID.
Step 2 - Enforce its use via "think of the children" messaging.

...that's it. It's a two step plan.
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Bullseye

Walmart nukes DEI policies: Anti-woke crusader Robby Starbuck sends "shockwaves across corporate America"

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:40 UTC
walmart pride display 2020 lgbt
© FaceBookA Walmart Pride Month display in June 2020
Anti-woke crusader Robby Starbuck has been on a mission to shift the corporate landscape in America from insanity and rainbows to what he considers "sanity and neutrality." He has successfully pressured companies such as Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, Polaris, Indian Motorcycle, Lowe's, Ford, Coors, Stanley Black & Decker, Jack Daniel's, DeWalt Tools, Craftsman, Caterpillar, Boeing, and Toyota to move away from toxic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices.

Now, Starbuck is at it again. He wrote on X that America's largest employer, Walmart, has decided to end its woke policies after he "had productive conversations to find solutions" with management.

Comment: Walmart is just the latest in Starbuck's string of successes:

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Attention

Escaped monkeys stoke fears of disease spread, lax security at research labs

Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.
The Defender
Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00 UTC
Escaped Monkeys
Four monkeys remain at large after 43 escaped earlier this month from the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center in South Carolina. The lab, which has received over $109 million in federal funding, helped develop several therapeutic drugs and vaccines, including those to treat COVID-19.

Four monkeys remain unaccounted for after 43 escaped earlier this month from a research laboratory in South Carolina. The breakout raised questions about a possible public health threat, lax security at research labs and the nature of the research being conducted in South Carolina and at similar facilities.

The primates — Rhesus macaque monkeys — escaped the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center in Yemassee, South Carolina, on Nov. 6. According to ABC News, the facility has a history of safety and security breaches and "has come under intense scrutiny," including calls for a congressional investigation.

The monkeys' escape ignited concerns that the primates "might spread disease" in the local community.
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Control Panel

The climate change & green energy boondoggle: Utility companies are NOT on our side

Linnea Lueken & H. Sterling Burnett
RealClear Wire
Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00 UTC
windmill
© London Rachel, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wikimedia Commons
When electric power was a novel idea and just beginning to be adopted in urban centers, the industry had a Wild West feel to it as multiple companies strung wires, opened power plants, and sold electricity on an unregulated market. Competition was fierce, but state and local governments concluded that the inefficiencies and redundancies endangered the public and imposed higher costs.

So states set up service territories with monopolistic or oligopolistic service providers, who were entrusted with providing reliable power and sufficient reserve for peak periods in return for being guaranteed a profit on rates proposed by the utilities but approved or set by newly established state public utility commissions (PUCs). These commissions were charged with ensuring public utilities served the general public universally within their territory, providing reliable service at reasonable rates.
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NPC

Stanford's top 'disinformation expert' accused of using AI to fabricate evidence

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Tue, 26 Nov 2024 12:43 UTC
AI computer robot cybernetic consciousness
A Stanford 'misinformation specialist' who founded the university's Social Media Lab has been accused in a court filing of fabricating sources in an affidavit supporting new legislation in Minnesota which bans so-called 'election misinformation.'

For a $600 an hour expert witness fee, Stanford professor Jeff Hancock, whose biography claims he's "well-known for his research on how people use deception with technology," apparently used deception with technology by citing numerous academic works that do not appear to exist, the Minnesota Reformer reports.
At the behest of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Hancock recently submitted an affidavit supporting new legislation that bans the use of so-called "deep fake" technology to influence an election. The law is being challenged in federal court by a conservative YouTuber and Republican state Rep. Mary Franson of Alexandria for violating First Amendment free speech protections.

Hancock's expert declaration in support of the deep fake law cites numerous academic works. But several of those sources do not appear to exist, and the lawyers challenging the law say they appear to have been made up by artificial intelligence software like ChatGPT.
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V

Joe Rogan launches tirade against Biden and Zelensky


RT
Mon, 25 Nov 2024 20:47 UTC
rogan
© Getty Images / Jeff Bottari
American podcast host Joe Rogan has hammered Joe Biden for allowing Ukraine to launch missile attacks deep behind Russia's borders, accusing the US president and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky of trying to provoke a world war before Donald Trump takes office.

Biden reportedly gave Ukraine permission last week to use long-range US-provided ATACMS missiles to attack targets in internationally-recognized Russian territory. Kiev carried out its first such strike on Russia's Bryansk Region on Tuesday, followed by an attack on Kursk Region using British Storm Shadow cruise missiles the following day.

"How are you allowed to do that when you're on your way out?" Rogan asked on Friday's installment of 'The Joe Rogan Experience.'

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