Society's ChildS


Dollars

Elon Musk buys Twitter in $44 billion deal

Clare Duffy
CNN Business
Tue, 26 Apr 2022 00:44 UTC
Elon musk twittler logo
Twitter said Monday it has agreed to sell itself to Elon Musk in a roughly $44 billion deal that has the potential to expand the billionaire's business empire and put the world's richest man in charge of one of the world's most influential social networks.

The deal, which will take the company private, caps off a whirlwind period in which the Tesla and SpaceX CEO became one of Twitter's largest shareholders, was offered and turned down a seat on its board and bid to buy the company — all in less than a month.

Under the terms of the deal, shareholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter stock they own, matching Musk's original offer and marking a 38% premium over the stock price the day before Musk revealed his stake in the company.

"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," Musk said in a statement Monday. "Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."

Comment: See also: Musk victory: Reuters reports Twitter accepts Elon's original $43 billion offer

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Eye 1

Bans on Russian athletes are ripping out a huge piece of the sporting world

Robert Bridge
RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2022 08:17 UTC
Tennis player
© Bongarts / Getty Images
When was the last time a Western athlete was banned because their country started a war?

One of the unspoken rules of human affairs is that ordinary citizens should never be personally harassed for the political actions of their leaders. That truism has never been properly observed enough, and went completely out of the window when Russia began its military operation in Ukraine.

This week, Serbian tennis sensation Novak Djokovic delivered a powerful rebuke to Wimbledon's decision to bar the participation of Russian players from the famous grass tournament.

Referring to himself as a "child of war" who experienced the "emotional trauma" of the US-led 78-day NATO bombardment of his native town of Belgrade in 1999, Djokovic described the banning of Russian players at the prestigious tennis tournament as "crazy."
"I cannot support the decision of Wimbledon, I think it is crazy," the world's top-ranked player said. "When politics interferes with sport, the result is not good."

Comment: See also:

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Airplane Paper

Best of the Web: Nearly third of Le Pen backers say French presidential election is rigged

Adam Sage
The Times
Tue, 19 Apr 2022 17:10 UTC
Marine Le Pen
© JEREMIAS GONZALEZ/APMarine Le Pen, the National Rally candidate, campaigns in Saint-Pierre-en-Auge, Normandy, before Sunday’s run-off vote
Almost a third of Marine Le Pen's voters believe that the French presidential election has been rigged, according to an opinion poll.

The survey by the Ifop institute underlined widespread distrust with the electoral process, notably among supporters of the populist National Rally candidate.

The findings were published as Le Pen, 53, prepared to face President Macron, 44, in a televised debate tomorrow before the second round of voting on Sunday.

Comment: These figures are not surprising given what happened in the 2017 election:

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Heart - Black

Ukrainian nationalists interrupt civilians' evacuation from Mariupol


Al Mayadeen Net
Sat, 23 Apr 2022 18:39 UTC
Basurin
© UnknownDPR People's spokesman Eduard Basurin
The evacuation of civilians from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was interrupted by Ukrainian nationalists who mortar shelled the gathering location of evacuation from the Azovstal steel plant territory, DPR People's spokesman Eduard Basurin said on Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said that Ukrainian authorities are planning to evacuate today, Saturday, women, children, and the elderly from Mariupol. She said on Telegram:
"About Mariupol: today we are again trying to evacuate women, children, and the elderly. Now we are beginning to gather at the ringway near the Port City Mall. If everything goes according to plan, at about 12.00 we will start the evacuation."
Basurin was quoted by the DPR People's Militia as saying on Telegram:
"At the request of Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister I. Vereshchuk, Russia organized a humanitarian corridor and provided transport for the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol today. This peaceful action was interrupted by Ukrainian nationalists, who opened fire with mortars from the Azovstal plant on the announced gathering place for citizens.

"This provocation proves the fact that nationalists are willing to sacrifice their fellow citizens just to discredit the humanitarian efforts being undertaken by the Russian side. It is possible that the blame for the numerous civilian casualties would have been put on Russia and its armed forces if that this inhumane action had succeeded."
He noted that the Russian military succeeded in avoiding civilian casualties and was able to get all the people out of the shelled area. During the shelling, one Russian soldier was injured.
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Briefcase

Leslie Dowless, key figure in NC absentee ballot fraud probe, dies


MyNorthwest
Sun, 24 Apr 2022 18:23 UTC
Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. vote fraud north carolina
© Travis Long/The News & Observer via AP/Fileposes for a portrait outside of his home in Bladenboro, N.C., Dec. 5, 2018. Dowless, the key player in a North Carolina absentee-ballot fraud case that led to a new congressional election, died Sunday, April 24, 2022, his family announced.
Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr., the key player in a North Carolina absentee ballot fraud probe that led to a do-over congressional election, has died.

His daughter, Andrea Dowless Heverly, wrote that her father "passed away peacefully" Sunday morning, according to a social media post. He had been diagnosed with an advanced form of lung cancer and died at his daughter's home in Bladen County, his friend Jay DeLancy told The Associated Press in a brief interview. Dowless was in his mid-60s.

The political operative was set to go on trial this summer on more than a dozen state criminal counts related to absentee ballot activities for the 2016 general election and the 2018 primary and general elections. A half-dozen others were also charged.

Comment: Some background on the story:

ABC reported on the matter in 2018:
The North Carolina Board of Elections confirmed Friday in a statement that Dowless is a "person of interest in connection with an alleged absentee ballot operation in the congressional district."

According to several news reports and sworn affidavits from North Carolina voters, Dowless is alleged to have led an operation wherein he and others working for him went door to door in two rural North Carolina counties collecting at times incomplete absentee ballots from voters and then submitting them to state election officials.

Under North Carolina state law, only a voter, voter's near relatives or a voter's legal guardian is legally allowed to drop off an absentee ballot.

The investigation is being led by chief investigator Joan Fleming, who specialized in fraud investigations during her 26-year tenure as an FBI special agent.

The board is set to hold a public hearing on the allegations of election fraud on or before December 21st, but an exact date has not yet been announced.

The Wake County District Attorney's office has also confirmed to ABC News that they have launched an investigation into the alleged fraud.

Harris' Democratic opponent, U.S. Marine Corps Veteran and solar energy entrepreneur Dan McCready, officially withdrew his concession to Harris on Thursday night, speaking exclusively with WSOC's Joe Bruno and tweeting out a video where he accused Harris of "bankrolling" the alleged wrongdoing and calling on him to "end his silence and tell us exactly what he knew, and when."


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Light Saber

Five Greens/EFA MEPs launch legal action for access to information on vaccine contract transparency


The Greens/EFA
Fri, 22 Apr 2022 18:01 UTC
greens eft european union logo mep
© The Greens/EFA
Today, Greens/EFA MEPs Margrete Auken, Kim van Sparrentak, Tilly Metz, Jutta Paulus, and Michele Rivasi submitted an application to the European Court of Justice against the European Commission, requesting access to key information on the Commission's contracts with pharmaceutical companies on the purchase agreements of COVID-19 vaccines. This court case follows the Commission's repeated refusal to provide the public with anything but heavily redacted versions of the contracts. The redactions made it impossible to understand the content of the agreements. Transparency builds trust in the institutions' ability to roll out public health programmes.

Comment:

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Bullseye

Taking away special privileges for woke corporations is not "authoritarian"

Brandon Smith
Alt-Market.us
Mon, 25 Apr 2022 17:08 UTC
world smallest violin
No sympathy for Disney
For many years now I have been pointing out that there is a false public perception of the relationship between governments and corporations. In the past the belief has been that government is supposed to keep private business in check while private business is supposed to limit government intrusion through the assertion of property rights. But when it comes to major corporations there is no such game of balance.

In reality, international conglomerates like Disney generally do whatever they please because they are PARTNERS with government.

For whatever reason, certain companies are afforded special treatment by state and federal institutions and what this does is create problems. This is not a free market system, rather, it is socialist and monopolistic. Subsidies and incentives can sometimes be used to encourage business growth, but when they are afforded to only a tiny handful of mega-corporations the result is the opposite; the growth of competition is stifled and small to medium businesses will never be able to compete with the giants that have already garnered government protection.

Comment: Well said, Mr. Smith.

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Bad Guys

Flashback At the Zero Hour in Kharkiv

Fin DePencier
Palladium
Fri, 25 Mar 2022 15:24 UTC
military helmet ukraine kharkiv
© Fin DePencierAftermath of repelled Russian attack, Kharkiv
Ten hours before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I was in Kyiv. I responded to a knock on my door to find my Belarusian flatmate asking for advice. She and her partner had recently fled political persecution in Belarus and weren't thrilled about packing up again. What did I think? I said it was imperative she left immediately — not tomorrow, but tonight.

For months we had been reading intelligence assessments claiming an invasion was likely, even telling us the exact day. Each time, it would pass with no invasion. But tomorrow it's really happening! No matter how convincing the intelligence and how clear the indicators were, there was an equally legitimate sense of incredulity. I didn't expect to see any action in Kyiv, let alone from afar, so I was heading to the eastern city of Kharkiv to see things for myself.

As I left, the ambient mood around me was anxious and uncertain. War would be terribly costly for Russia: a fractured Europe would unite, Russia would become a global pariah, foreign investment would flee, and sanctions would pile up.

Comment: Matters have radically changed since this piece was written. Russia now controls an area in Ukraine larger than Great Britain.
They have kept to their directive to avoid damage to civilian infrastructure as much as possible. And after a month of the population having been subjected to the tender mercies of the neonazi Azov Battalion, Russian soldiers are welcomed with open arms.





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Pistol

Mystery over FOUR 'suspicious suicides' of Russian gas executives 'linked to Putin'

Will Stewart and Jack Newman
The Daily Mail
Mon, 25 Apr 2022 01:17 UTC
Protosenya murder site ruddian oligarch
© LaVangardiaAccording to reports, Protosenya's family lived in France but were holidaying in Spain when the killings took place. Pictured: Officers are seen outside the holiday home
Four recent 'suicides' of high profile Russian gas industry executives 'with links to Vladimir Putin' are all suspicious, sources have claimed.

Two wealthy businessmen were found dead along with their family members this week in Madrid and Moscow, but now suspicions are being raised about two Kremlin-linked figures who died earlier this year.

On Tuesday, the body of Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged outside a Spanish villa, with his wife Natalia, 33, and their teenage daughter Maria found hacked to death with an axe inside.

Investigators initially assumed that Protosenya, who had a fortune of £330million, had killed himself in the Lloret det Mar villa in the Costa Brava.

But local reports said evidence does not conclusively point towards this explanation, as no suicide note was found in the property and it appeared steps had been taken to ensure there were no fingerprints on the murder weapons.
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Map

N.Y. appeals court strikes down Dem-drawn congressional map, declares it illegal

Jon Dougherty
Conservative Brief
Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:00 UTC
NY map
© Unknown
A New York state appeals court has struck down a congressional redistricting map drawn by the state's Democratic majority that heavily favored the party as unconstitutional.

The court on Thursday ruled that the map "was drawn to discourage competition," and was therefore illegal, giving the state until the end of the month to draw a new one, The Hill reported.

Judges also noted that they considered testimony from an elections analysis expert, as well as a comparison of the 2012 and 2022 maps, and "evidence of the largely one-party process used to enact the 2022 congressional map." The court noted as well that there was nearly no Republican participation in drawing the new maps and that GOP input was actually excluded by Democratic leaders when they drafted them.

As such, the court said, no Republican lawmakers in the state voted in favor of the map.
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