Category: Money

N.Y. Legislators Approve $237B Budget Addressing Surge Of Migrants, Plans To Jump-Start Housing Market

N.Y. Legislators Approve $237B Budget Addressing Surge Of Migrants, Plans To Jump-Start Housing Market

FILE - The New York state Assembly Chamber is seen during a legislative session after Gov. Kathy Hochul presented her 2025 executive state budget at the state Capitol, Jan. 16, 2024, in Albany, N.Y. New York lawmakers passed a $237 billion state budget Saturday, April 20, that includes plans to spur housing construction and combat unlicensed marijuana stores. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink, File)
FILE – The New York state Assembly Chamber is seen during a legislative session after Gov. Kathy Hochul presented her 2025 executive state budget at the state Capitol, Jan. 16, 2024, in Albany, N.Y. New York lawmakers passed a $237 billion state budget Saturday, April 20, that includes plans to spur housing construction and combat unlicensed marijuana stores. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink, File)

OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
10:32 AM – Sunday, April 21, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/n-y-legislators-approve-237b-budget-addressing-surge-of-migrants-plans-to-jump-start-housing-market/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

A $237 billion state budget that includes measures to encourage home construction and combat unauthorized marijuana stores was approved by New York lawmakers over the weekend.

The package addresses a recent surge of immigrants, expedites the closing of some state prisons, and maintains the policy of allowing people to purchase takeout drinks during the pandemic.

The state Senate and Assembly approved a number of budget bills on Saturday. The budget now goes to Governor Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.), who is anticipated to sign it into law.

Additionally, $2.4 billion has been set aside by state authorities to assist with the large number of immigrants in New York City’s homeless shelters. The funds will be used for the immigrant population’s housing, legal needs, and medical treatment.

Lawmakers also took action in response to the growing number of unauthorized cannabis shops in New York City. The state has found it difficult to close the stores, which have proliferated throughout the Big Apple, due to bureaucratic obstacles.

The budget also contains provisions that would make it easier for local law enforcement to close down establishments suspected of selling marijuana illegally while their legal cases are pending, which would help address the issue. Previously, the state was solely responsible for the majority of enforcement, and these types of establishments could remain open while a drawn-out appeals process took place.

Hochul and leading legislative leaders engaged in private negotiations that centered mostly around a comprehensive plan to stimulate the state’s housing market.

Developers who agree to rent a share of the units in new buildings below the market rate will receive a tax benefit under the plan. Though not as extensive as many advocates had hoped, the agreement also contains protections against evictions and unjustified rent increases for some residents.

Governor Hochul made a statement after the budget’s passage, saying:

“In my State of the state, I promised New Yorkers we’d fight to build more housing, improve education and protect public safety — and that’s exactly what our budget is going to do.

“This budget agreement represents the most significant improvement in housing policy in three generations. This includes transformative investments in health care and education that will put our state on the path to fiscal stability. It will end co-pays for insulin, establish first-in-the-nation paid prenatal leave, and launch the EmpireAI consortium. This budget cracks down on retail theft and gives us new tools to shut down illicit cannabis storefronts. It helps the children of New York City by extending mayoral accountability for public schools. We got it all done without raising income taxes by a single cent. 

“I’m grateful to Speaker Heastie, Leader Stewart-Cousins and my colleagues in the Legislature for their collaboration on this agreement, and look forward to continuing to work together.”

During floor debates, state Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt (R-N.Y.) attacked the proposal, claiming it would attract more illegal migrants to New York.

“We made a lot of tough decisions in this budget,” Ortt said. “But 2.4 billion goes a long way, and I just wonder what that could have done in other parts of the budget for legal New Yorkers.”

Additionally, in an effort to conserve money in light of the state’s decreasing prison population, New York will expedite the closure of up to five state prisons. The governor will decide which jails to close by March of next year. The state’s corrections administration reports that since 2011, the state has closed two dozen prisons due to vacant beds, saving approximately $442 million a year.

The budget also included provisions to allow movie theaters to sell hard liquor, extend the pandemic-era sale of to-go alcoholic drinks, and allow New York City to lower its speed limits. These measures would also provide paid time off during pregnancy.

The state office responsible for drafting laws for the Legislature was affected by a cyberattack, which delayed the budget’s finalization by almost three weeks from its planned deadline of April 1st.

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House Passes Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan Aid

House Passes Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan Aid

U.S. House Votes On Foreign Aid Package For Ukraine, Israel, And Taiwan WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 20: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) reads from his notes while speaking with members of the media following passage of a series of foreign aide bills at the U.S. Capitol on April 20, 2024 in Washington, DC. The House is passed a $95 billion foreign aid package today for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
U.S. House Votes On Foreign Aid Packages For Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 20: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) reads from his notes while speaking with members of the media following passage of a series of foreign aide bills at the U.S. Capitol on April 20, 2024 in Washington, DC. The House passed a $95 billion foreign aid package today for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

OAN’s Abril Elfi
12:27 PM – Saturday, April 20, 2024

The House passed a series of bills to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan along with the potential ban of TikTok.

Following a morning of deliberations on the House floor Saturday, the four bills will be combined into one and forwarded to the Senate for their approval.

After which, the package will be forwarded to President Joe Biden for his signature.

Biden praised the bill, stating he would sign the legislation if passed by the Senate.

“I want to thank Speaker Johnson, Leader Jeffries, and the bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in the House who voted to put our national security first,” Biden said in a statement following the votes. “I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) signaled Saturday that the Senate is expected to vote on the package on Tuesday.

“I am grateful to the United States House of Representatives, both parties and personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X after the vote.

Additionally, on Saturday, Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz expressed gratitude to Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) for their assistance in approving the aid.

More than $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, more than $26 billion for Israel, and more than $8 billion for Taiwan and Indo-Pacific security are all included in the bills.

A fourth bill calls for a national ban on China’s ByteDance if the company does not sell the social media site TikTok within nine months (the president may grant a ninety-day extension).

The $95 billion version of the aid package to finance Taiwan, Israel, and Ukraine was approved by the Senate in February.

In response to Johnson’s aid plan, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed a motion to remove Speaker Johnson from office in March, but he hasn’t yet forced a vote on the proposal.

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Biden administration sent money to Palestinians who used their US training and weapons to wage jihad against Israel

By

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/04/biden-administration-sent-money-to-palestinians-who-used-their-us-training-and-weapons-to-wage-jihad-against-israel; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

In January, the Palestinian Authority increased its “pay-for-slay” payments by $1.3 million per month. Yet no matter what proof emerges that the Palestinian Authority is sympathetic to and actively aiding jihad terrorists, the Biden administration still sends it money. The administration is funding terror and assisting in jihad against Israelis.

In 2011, Palestinian Media Watch exposed in the US Congress the fact that “the PA pays salaries to terrorists,” and while many countries withdrew financial support from the PA, America continued to fund it, and still does.

Trump, however, directed the State Department to withdraw $200 million in aid to Judea, Samaria and Gaza in 2018. In 2021, however, Biden reversed Trump’s aid cuts to the Palestinians, as well as to the Hamas-infiltrated UNRWA — long known for spreading hatred of Jews in Palestinian school curricula.

Palestinian Media Watch has now uncovered direct terror financing by the US government of active elements of the Palestinian jihad.

How much longer will the Biden administration continue to abuse American taxpayers and get away with being complicit in actual murder?

“US money to convicted terrorists; US training to aspiring terrorists,” by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Palestinian Media Watch, April 16, 2024:

After Palestinian Media Watch exposed in the US Congress in 2011 that the PA pays salaries to terrorists, most Western countries eventually cut off funding of the PA’s general budget and instead gave money for specific projects, such as education. However, one Palestinian framework has remained a recipient of Western money and was also excluded from the limitations of the Taylor Force Act, which prohibits American funding of the PA. That framework is the PA Security Forces.

The U.S. State Department said that in 2002, it provided $45 million to the PA security sector:

“The U.S. government plans to provide an additional $75 million in economic assistance to the Palestinian people this year. Additionally, the United States is also providing $45 million for programs to support the security sector, including important improvements to the rule of law.”

[U.S. Department of State website, March 26, 2022]

Now the PA reports that the Western-funded General Intelligence Service of the PA Security Forces gave a special grant to precisely those terrorists whom the West is trying not to fund—the convicted Palestinian terrorists and dead terrorists. Worse still, the recipients are terrorists who are members of the PA General Intelligence Service who used their training and weapons from the U.S. to perpetrate terror against Israel. The decision to give the grants to the terrorists was made by the head of the PA General Intelligence Service, Majed Faraj, who is presented internationally as a “moderate” who cooperates with Israel in fighting Palestinian terror. Yet instead of punishing those members of the PA Security Forces who turned to terror, Faraj decided to give them an extra reward:

“The [PA] General Intelligence Service in Jenin provided a grant to the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners(i.e., terrorists) from the service’s ranks in the district…
A delegation from the service provided the grant to 25 families from among the Martyrs’ families and 11 families from among the prisoners’ families from the General Intelligence ranks.
[PA General Intelligence] Service Director in Jenin Adnan Abu Aisheh said that the message of the service, under the instructions of its leader [Head of PA General Intelligence] Majed Faraj, is to emphasize what President Mahmoud Abbas has said again and again – that if we are left with one penny, it will be paid to the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners.”

[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 4, 2024;
official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 5, 2024]

Official PATV also reported on the special grants to members of the PA Security Forces-turned-terrorists’ families:

News flash on screen: “The [PA] General Intelligence [Service] gives a grant to the families of the Martyrs and the prisoners from its members in the Jenin district.”

[Official PA TV, April 5, 2024]

In addition to these direct payments from the U.S.-funded budget to terrorists, new recruits to the PA security forces train “at a U.S.-funded training center” [Washington Post, March 5, 2024]….

Wells Fargo Estimates That Costco Sells Around $200M In Gold Bars Every Month

Wells Fargo Estimates That Costco Sells Around $200M In Gold Bars Every Month

(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
1:10 PM – Wednesday, April 10, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/wells-fargo-estimates-that-costco-sells-around-200m-in-gold-bars-every-month/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

At Costco, gold is a hot commodity. The big-box retailer’s yellow metal sales, which started last year, have grown significantly.

As a matter of fact, sales have accelerated so much that Wells Fargo analysts predict that its revenue “may now be running at” up to $200 million per month after Bullion entered the warehouse club late in the summer of 2023.

“Our work suggests there has been significant interest given COST’s aggressive pricing and high level of customer trust,” said Edward Kelly, an equity analyst at Wells Fargo. “The accelerating frequency of Reddit posts, quick online sell-outs of product, and COST’s robust monthly eComm sales suggest a sharp uptick in momentum since the launch.”

That would be a significant jump for a product that only made its debut in August of last year and brought in over $100 million in sales during Costco’s first fiscal quarter, which concluded in late November of 2023.

“The company’s first location, opened in 1976 under the Price Club name, was in a converted airplane hangar on Morena Boulevard in San Diego, California. Originally serving only small businesses, the company found it could achieve far greater buying clout by also serving a selected audience of non-business members,” Costco’s website states.

One-ounce bars consisting of nearly pure 24-karat gold are available at Costco. It is estimated that the product often sells for roughly 2% above the current price, which as of Tuesday morning was approximately $2,357 an ounce, even though the price is not published online to non-members. Based on these estimates, the cost at Costco would be a little higher than $2,400.

This year, investors’ concerns about the worsening U.S. economic position and a prolonged wave of inflation that began in 2022 have driven spot prices of gold up over 13% in 2024. The government’s debt load has topped $34.6 trillion, and this year it is expected to run a $2 trillion deficit.

Meanwhile, selling gold bars has been simple for a major company that takes pride in offering a wide range of options to customers.

However, a couple of catches remain: Sales are now restricted to five per client (up from two previously), and while Costco’s top line profits greatly from this policy, the bottom line profit picture is different. This is due to the fact that the store offers 2% cash back for executive members and an additional 2% for customers who use their Citigroup credit cards, on top of the little premium it receives for gold bars. According to Kelly, the sales are boosting general product sales by roughly 3% but making little to no profit.

Although geopolitical upheaval in the Middle East and Eastern Europe has raised concerns about financial stability, gold is still considered a natural inflation hedge.

According to DataTrek Research, central banks have historically been major purchasers of gold, particularly in Asia. The surge in prices this year indicates that although purchases may decline in the first half of 2024, they are probably going to increase in the latter part of the year.

“The move suggests that many foreign governments feel the need to hedge geopolitical outcomes that might be negative catalysts for other risk assets like stocks,” said DataTrek co-founder Nicholas Colas. “The only good news is that this reinforces the idea of gold as a reasonable hedge for diversified portfolios.”

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When China Wired Money to Joe’s House

From Beijing with love and big bucks.

by

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/when-china-wired-money-to-joes-house/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

[Pre-order a copy of Daniel Greenfield’s first book, Domestic Enemies, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on April 30th.]

When Hunter Biden got wire transfers from China, they went to Joe Biden’s address.

In the summer of 2019, while Joe Biden was running for president, the money was rolling into Delaware from Communist China. This was the same Wilmington house where classified documents were lying around while Hunter Biden was living while allegedly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on prostitutes: some of them apparently foreign nationals.

In paperwork, Hunter appeared to claim ownership of the house and in 2010, he had begun paying for the upkeep of the house and his veep dad’s bills. By the time Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR, was sending a $250,000 wire payment to Joe Biden’s address, the former vice president and future president had already met with the Chinese investment exec doing business with his family and had written recommendation letters for his kids.

The $250,000 Chinese wire was described as a “loan”. But how was Hunter, by then approaching rock bottom, going to pay it off? Where was the money coming from?

The debt was assumed by Kevin Morris, a Hollywood lawyer who has protected and paid for most of Hunter’s needs, after allegedly meeting him at a Joe Biden fundraiser that same year. The whistleblower alleges that in 2021 the CIA tried to block the IRS from interviewing Morris.

When the Biden clan was getting millions in payments from Chinese interests, many of which, like Li, Joe Biden had personal contact with, through a web of shell companies, and then portions of the money were passed along to the future president as “loan repayments”, did he really know nothing about the process that brought the money from China to his wallet?

There are two Joe Bidens.

There is the famous passage from Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report stating that “at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The phrasing is crucial. It does not state that Biden has a poor memory, but rather that he presents himself.

There was another Joe Biden who was on the receiving end of a complex financial scheme. There is the seeming loving father pained by Hunter’s addiction who also used him for money and had him take all the legal risks while leaving his only surviving son dangerously exposed.

Politicians and public figures are not one person, but two. Biden is an elderly president with a failing mind, who arranged for an unpopular vice president incapable of replacing him. He is the grieving husband who cheated on his first wife, before her death, with his current wife. He is the loving father who dragged his kids into politics from the moment he staged a photo op in the hospital after they were in an accident that killed their mother, and went right on using them.

Joe Biden spent much of his later career in politics building relationships with China. He could not, however, directly take advantage of them. That’s what his family was for. They took the risks, they got a bunch of the money and a percentage was to be reserved for the “Big Guy”.

One Biden claimed to know nothing about it while the other cashed the checks.

Biden’s interactions with his brother and son’s clients had been calculated to create an atmosphere of ambiguity into which foreign businessmen could read corrupt implications, without providing any clear evidence of wrongdoing. But would that have been enough?

The underlying question is why would a series of savvy, influential and successful Chinese business leaders have been sending large payments to the Biden family? Had they been taken in by a clever con, of Joe shaking their hands, chatting with them and seeming to imply a connection with the Biden family enterprises without discussing details, and got nothing for it?

How many Chinese businessmen could have fallen for that scam and for how long? And if nothing came of it then why, over a decade later, is there still a Biden financial link with BHR?

The alternative is that the Chinese money men didn’t get conned, the American people did.

The money wasn’t just coming from any companies, but from, in the words of the House Oversight Committee, “Chinese nationals and companies with significant ties to Chinese intelligence and the Chinese Communist Party.” They were not suckers and not stupid. In a cutthroat oligarchy where the price of failure is not just debt, but prison and death, Chinese executives are much sharper, less naive and a whole lot less trusting than any of our own.

It was a safe bet that they knew what they were paying for. They made sure that they got it.

When Joe Biden was out of office, he was at best a speculative investment, but once he was on the path to the White House, his stock was rising and the Chinese money was buying influence.

30% of BHR had been turned over to Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca firm. Hunter stayed on the BHR board until the fall of 2019. After political pressure, it was announced that Hunter Biden had resigned from BHR, but by 2021, Hunter was still “working to unwind his investment” which were apparently turned over to Kevin Morris who still represents Hunter’s interests.

Backed by the state-owned Bank of China, BHR is not run by fools or suckers. And yet throughout all of Hunter’s publicized troubles the relationship continued and continued at a distance. That relationship represents a potential open door for the Bidens and China.

If Joe Biden risks becoming a one-term president, he is in much the same situation as he was in 2016, looking at a career dead end and needing ways to monetize his time in the White House.

Now and then, Biden needs Communist China and China needs Joe Biden.

And so through every Chinese hostile act, including hacks, spy balloons and military brinkmanship, Joe Biden has prioritized China’s interests over America’s. Some critics claim that Joe Biden, like a lot of politicians, is a sucker for maintaining a relationship with China at any cost. But is Joe Biden protecting America’s relationship with China or his own relationship?

American presidents are expected to represent national interests, not personal or foreign ones, but when a politician has a $250,000 wire from China made out to his address, personal interests become foreign ones, presidents become puppets, and policy becomes pay-to-play.

Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter is raising money for Hamas-linked UNRWA

By

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/kamala-harris-stepdaughter-is-raising-money-for-hamas-linked-unrwa; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Given the Biden regime’s increasingly obvious and ongoing betrayal of Israel, this is hardly a surprise.

“Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter Ella Emhoff publicly raises money for relief group allegedly tied to Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel,” by Jon Levine, New York Post, March 16, 2024:

The stepdaughter of Vice President Kamala Harris is publicly raising cash for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency — even as the United States has cut funding to the group over its members’ alleged participation in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel.

Ella Emhoff — whose father is second gentleman Doug Emhoff — posted a link to UNRWA’s English-language fundraising page on her personal Instagram, and only removed it after a Post inquiry to the White House.

“We urge Ms. Emhoff to go on the website of UN Watch and read our reports showing how UNRWA teachers and school principals systematically promote and encourage jihadi terrorism and the slaughter of Jews,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of the nonprofit United Nations watchdog.

Emhoff — whose father is second gentleman Doug Emhoff — is currently posting a link to UNRWA’s English-language fundraising page on her personal Instagram.

“I am sure that if Ms. Emhoff understood how UNRWA promotes hatred and murder, she would stop raising money for them, and she would apologize to victims such as Ayelet Samerano, whose 21-year-old son Yonatan was kidnapped on October 7th by an UNRWA social worker.”

UNRWA, the largest employer in Gaza, has long faced international criticism for its close ties to Hamas, which has ruled the enclave since 2006.

President Trump cut U.S. aid to the organization in 2018 — a decision President Biden initially reversed when he took office.

Under Biden’s leadership, at least $730 million found its way to UNRWA’s coffers…

Switzerland: Zurich churches to pass on $2,262,000 in tax money to Islamic associations

By

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/switzerland-zurich-churches-to-pass-on-2262000-in-tax-money-to-islamic-associations; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

From a Muslim standpoint, this is just the natural order of things. Non-Muslims paying for the upkeep of Muslims is a Qur’anic dictate: “Fight against those who do not believe in Allah or the last day, and do not forbid what Allah and his messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, even if they are among the people of the book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” (Qur’an 9:29)

The caliph Umar said the jizya payments from the dhimmis were the source of the Muslims’ livelihood: “Narrated Juwairiya bin Qudama at-Tamimi: We said to `Umar bin Al-Khattab, ‘O Chief of the believers! Advise us.’ He said, ‘I advise you to fulfill Allah’s Convention (made with the Dhimmis) as it is the convention of your Prophet and the source of the livelihood of your dependents (i.e. the taxes from the Dhimmis.)’” (Bukhari 4.53.388)

The UK jihad preacher Anjem Choudary said in February 2013: “We are on Jihad Seekers Allowance, We take the Jizya (protection money paid to Muslims by non-Muslims) which is ours anyway." The normal situation is to take money from the Kafir (non-Muslim), isn’t it? So this is a normal situation. They give us the money. You work, give us the money. Allah Akbar, we take the money. Hopefully there is no one from the DSS (Department of Social Security) listening. Ah, but you see people will say you are not working. But the normal situation is for you to take money from the Kuffar (non-Muslim) So we take Jihad Seeker’s Allowance.”

“Zurich churches pass on tax money to Islamic associations,” translated from “Zürcher Kirchen leiten Steuergeld an Islamverein weiter,” HeimatKurier, March 15, 2024 (thanks to Medforth):

The Catholic and Protestant Church in Zurich wants to give away a whopping two million francs in tax money to Islamic associations. What is sold as a gesture of goodwill is a cash injection for Islamization. With the gift of money, the Swiss are involuntarily helping to finance the Islamic conquest of land.
In Zurich, only recognized religious communities are entitled to state funding. Currently these are three Christian and two Jewish communities. Since the Protestant and Catholic churches seem to be swimming in money through tax contributions, they now want to give the “Association of Islamic Organizations Zurich” (VIOZ) a cash gift of around two million francs.

Islamization and false tolerance
A staunch supporter of the project is the reformed church council president and former SP cantonal councillor Esther Straub. She promotes the idea and speaks of it as a sign of “interreligious cohesion”. This kind of accommodation is, of course, sought in vain in Islamic countries with Christian minorities. The church uses this money to distribute money to Islamic organizations, which are often noticed in Switzerland with fanatical tendencies.

Promoting moderate Islam?
The former left-wing politician argues that the move is intended to finance decidedly non-radical and moderate Islamic associations. With over 40 facilities, VIOZ operates around 90 percent of the mosques in the canton of Zurich. There are also other associations. In addition to the three VIOZ facilities in Winterthur, there is also the “An nur Mosque”, which, according to security authorities, is a real hotspot for jihadism. How interconnected or separated the VIOZ is with such communities cannot be clearly determined. In the past there have been cases in which the moderate mask slipped off the faces of radical Islamists in Switzerland

Islamism from the streets to the universities
In October 2023, a 25-year-old Syrian also had to appear in court in Winterthur. He had previously been convicted of a jihadist trip to Syria. However, due to a cozy sentence, he was little deterred and continued to carry out terrorist propaganda for IS. The University of Bern provided another case of Islamism. After the Middle East war broke out last fall, an “Islam expert” and lecturer at the university expressed his joy at the event. The author was even the husband of the head of the Islamic Institute. The couple quickly distanced themselves from violence and terror, which meant they were probably back within the definition of “moderate”. In Schaffhausen it even became known that a convicted “ex-terrorist” was teaching in a mosque.

Switzerland withdraws passports from Islamists
The Islamist side effects of the population exchange have led to a return of passport withdrawals in the Swiss Confederation. Since 2020, a total of seven people have had their citizenship revoked, and corresponding proceedings are pending for another dozen. Just a few weeks ago, Zurich became the scene of an Islamic terrorist act in which a 15-year-old Tunisian injured a Jew with a knife on the street.

Remigration instead of Islamization
Due to numerous jihadist incidents and their involvement in Islamic cultural associations, it is uncertain whether the two million francs of tax money that the local churches want to give to Muslim associations will ultimately end up with questionable organizations. In addition, the Swiss people have repeatedly spoken out clearly against further Islamization in the past, for example with the ban on minarets in 2009. By continuing to finance Islamic associations, the canton continues to cultivate a parallel society for itself. This gives rise to Islamist activities and clans, as a look at neighboring states makes clear. Instead of giving further impetus to Islam and the Islamism associated with it, the canton should strive for a policy of remigration. Muslims who want to live strictly according to their beliefs and customs then have the opportunity to do so in an Islamic country.

James Biden: My Brother Gave Me $40K, $200K Loans For Chinese Company

James Biden (C), brother of US President Joe Biden, with his attorney Paul Fishman (L), arrives for a deposition before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees on President Biden's impeachment inquiry in Washington, DC, February 21, 2024. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

James Biden (C), brother of US President Joe Biden, with his attorney Paul Fishman (L), arrives for a deposition before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees on President Biden’s impeachment inquiry in Washington, DC, February 21, 2024. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN’s Sophia Flores
5:50 PM – Friday, March 1, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/james-biden-my-brother-gave-me-40k-200k-loans-for-chinese-company/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

James Biden, brother of President Joe Biden, confirmed that his older brother gave him a couple of loans that purportedly went to the CCP-linked energy firm CEFC China Energy.

During his impeachment inquiry testimony released by the House Oversight Committee on Friday, the younger Biden admitted that his brother gave him a $200,000 and $40,000 loan in 2017 and in 2018.

James claimed that he needed the money to pay “outstanding bills.” However, he also claims that he used the money to invest in the Chinese energy business. The reason remains unknown.

Subpoenaed bank records revealed that James Biden had a balance of $46.88 in his bank account prior to receiving the first check from his brother. James asserted that he paid back the interest loans without filling out additional documentation, emphasizing that they came from a family member.

“I repaid two loans that I secured from my brother,” James Biden said.

He received the $40,000 wire on July 28th, 2017 and paid back Joe less than two months later on September 3rd. He received the second wire of $200,000 on January 12th 2018, which was repaid to his big brother on March 1st.

When asked where he got the $200,000 to pay back his brother in such a short time span, James said that he received it though his work with Americore, but he refused to state the specific source of the funds.

“It came from money that I earned at Americore,” he said.

While the Biden family’s relationship with CEFC ended in 2018, James, Hunter Biden, and Hunter’s associates made millions-of-dollars through the lucrative deal.

Joe Biden has adamantly denied that he had any involvement in the business deals, however, a May 2017 email sent by James Gilliar, the Biden family’s associate, stated that the president was penciled in as “the big guy.”

The email also revealed that Joe Biden wanted a 10% cut in a proposed joint venture with CEFC.

Within 10 days after the email was sent, Hunter and James Biden received $5.1 million in their accounts. This testimony is a part of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into the 46th president.

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Real Estate Crisis Ahead

Dive into the alarming reality of the US national debt crisis! Renowned financial guru Ray Dalio warns of economic storms ahead, impacting personal finance and the future of our country. Explore the interconnected web of debt, spending, and inflation shaping our financial ecosystem. Don't miss this urgent discussion on the looming threat we can't afford to ignore.

The Largest Mortgage Meltdown in American History Happening Right Now

Many people in finance have been trying to predict where the next major crisis will begin. We remember that in 2008, during the Great Recession, we saw the consequences of the collapse in bank lending tied to residential real estate, which triggered a domino effect that not only shook the US economy but also had global ramifications. Since then, numerous experts have attempted to identify the next potential economic bubble, but so far, no one has been correct. Not since 2008 have we experienced anything close to this. However, there are now new signs of an emerging crisis that everyone seems to be brushing off. The looming threat could potentially have a more devastating impact than the 2008 crisis, possibly even rivaling some of the worst economic storms America has had to endure. And its origin story is pretty easy to recognize.

Janet Yellen Says ‘We Don’t Have To Get The Prices Down’~Then John Kennedy Reacts~COMPARED TO 1923 IN GERMANY’S HYPERINFLATION

Inflation rises faster than expected in January, up 18% since Biden took office; Former Assistant Treasury Secretary Monica Crowley discusses the strain inflation is having on the middle and lower class

COMPARE NOW TO THE GERMAN HYPER-INFLATION OF 1923:

THE GERMAN HYPERINFLATION OF 1923: A RETROSPECTIVE

5 trillion (5 Billionen, 5×1012) marks, Stuttgart, 1923

notgeld farbw 3 mio 08 1923

Hyperinflation: The Most Notorious Story of Inflation - (Weimar Republic) Germany

 

Iran Seizes Upon a Chance to Get Even More Money From Biden

ROBERT SPENCER | 10:42 AM ON SEPTEMBER 27, 2023
SEE: https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2023/09/27/iran-seizes-upon-a-chance-to-get-even-more-money-from-biden-n1730270; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes: 
(Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
You’ll be relieved to hear it: after refusing for years to deal directly with the nation he frequently refers to as “the Great Satan,” the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, paused from screaming “Death to America” to grant his approval for Iran to enter into direct negotiations with the Biden regime for a new nuclear deal. Why now? Well, Old Joe and his henchmen just sent six billion dollars and two Iranians imprisoned in the United States (the deal was for five, but three refused to return to the Islamic Republic) to Iran in exchange for five American hostages. Khamenei is no dope: he knows an easy mark when he sees one, and he is setting the stage for Iran to receive more American largesse.

Amwaj.media, an outlet for news of Iran, Iraq, and the Arabian Peninsula, reported Monday that “Iran’s nuclear negotiators have been granted permission to enter direct talks with the United States,” and enthused “the apparent U-turn by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could be a watershed moment for the contention over the Iranian nuclear program.” It’s a U-turn because although the Biden regime was in appeasement talks with Iran’s Islamic regime before, it was all done indirectly. Khamenei and his colleagues maintained the stance that the Great Satan was just too evil to talk to, and so all the earlier negotiations were done through intermediaries.

If you’re thinking that those intermediaries were from Britain or France or some other longtime American ally, think again. That would have been far too pro-American for the Biden regime. Instead, Old Joe’s handlers, in yet another of their endless series of decisions that could easily have had catastrophic consequences for ordinary Americans, turned over the leadership of the 2022 Iran nuke deal negotiations to a Russian diplomat, Mikhail Ulyanov. Yes, that’s right: while the Biden regime was conducting a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, it was trusting Russia to get a good deal for it with the Iranians.

Or maybe the relentlessly anti-American Bidenites actually wanted a bad deal. After all, what assurance did Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his hopelessly America-Last subordinates have that Ulyanov would fight for the best interests of the United States? None, of course. And Mikhail Ulyanov even explained in March 2022 that the deal that was at that point in its final negotiating stages was shaping up to be terrific — not for the United States, but for the Islamic Republic of Iran and the People’s Republic of China.

That deal never came to pass. Fate, in the form of the nationwide protests in Iran against the Islamic Republic, intervened, making it too risky from a public relations standpoint to conclude a deal with the mullahs at the same time that they were going to war against their own people. Now, however, the mullahs have ruthlessly suppressed those protests, and Khamenei sees that there is money to be made in dealing with the Biden regime. Amwaj reported that “top nuclear negotiator Ali Baqeri-Kani is ready to meet with White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk in Oman as early as the coming weeks.” If that meeting takes place, a deal could follow quickly, since Mikhail Ulyanov has already paved the way for it.

All this is happening despite the fact that the Islamic Republic has not retreated even a centimeter from its anti-American stance. In mid-September, when the hostage deal was done, Iran’s state-controlled Press TV reported that Khamenei was crowing about America’s decline, saying that “the arrogant power of America and some European countries has weakened and will become weaker.”

Related: Iran’s Khamenei Crows About America’s Decline as He Counts the Billions Biden Sent Him

Indeed. And it’s all thanks to Old Joe Biden and his henchmen, who are now apparently poised to hand over even more billions to Iran in exchange for empty promises. One of the principal signs of the American weakness that Khamenei perceives is the Biden regime’s repeated attempts to appease and conciliate the outstandingly hostile Iranian mullahs in the first place. When Obama sent billions of dollars in cash to Tehran, those mullahs used the money to finance jihad terror groups worldwide, including Hamas and Hizballah. The outcome will be no different with the $6 billion Old Joe has just sent to Iran, and won’t be any different with the payoff that is certain to be part of a new nuclear deal, either.

Compounding the criminality of the Biden regime’s stance toward Iran is the fact that without all this American money, the brutal and bloodthirsty Islamic regime in Iran would likely have fallen years ago. Once the new nuke deal is concluded and Khamenei has more American money to count, he should take a page from Kamala Harris’ book and call the White House to say, “We did it, Joe!”

Hamas patron Qatar has given over $5,600,000,000 to US universities since 2007

  BY 

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/02/hamas-patron-qatar-has-given-over-5600000000-to-us-universities-since-2007; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

This has not just turned America’s universities into bastions of Jew-hatred and support for Hamas and other jihad groups. It has also made them blind to the threat of jihad in general, and legitimized the spurious concept of “Islamophobia,” to the degree that young people are today far more concerned about “Islamophobia,” which is a manipulative propaganda fiction, than about jihad, which is all too real.

“Hamas Patron Qatar Has Spent $6 Billion Lobbying the U.S. Government and Funding Universities,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, February 9, 2024:

Qatar, the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation that provides shelter and cash to the Hamas terror group’s top leaders, has spent nearly $6 billion since 2007 lobbying the American government and funneling cash to the United States’ top universities, funding that is generating scrutiny in Congress.

With Qatar emerging as a central mediator in the United States’ attempts to reach a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, Doha’s decades-long influence peddling operation in America is raising concerns about the country’s ties to the Iran-backed terror group.

Qatar has given or contracted more than $5.6 billion to 61 American schools since 2007, including Ivy Leagues such as Harvard University, Yale University, Cornell University, and Stanford University, according to funding records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. The country has also doled out more than $243 million on lobbying efforts in the United States since 2015, with more than $16 million spent in 2023 alone.

The money, experts and lawmakers say, has enabled Qatar to have outsized influence in American politics and academia, efforts they say have mainstreamed anti-Israel propaganda and silenced criticism about Doha’s longstanding ties to Hamas, the Iranian regime, and other terror groups. Hamas’s “three top leaders alone are worth a staggering total of $11 billion and enjoy a life of luxury in the sanctuary of the emirate of Qatar,” according to the New York Post.

The vast funding operation has generated congressional interest in the past and is fueling calls for an investigation by members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), Congress’s largest GOP caucus, according to lawmakers and senior GOP aides who spoke to the Free Beacon. The RSC, one senior staffer said, is currently pressuring the relevant House oversight committees to investigate Qatar’s lobbying efforts and funding to schools….

From November 2007 to October 2023, Qatar made 1,116 donations to American universities totaling $5,673,091,815, records show. This has led to accusations that Doha is using its influence with the country’s top schools to mainstream propaganda that portrays Israel in a negative light.

Through the Qatar Foundation, a state-controlled entity tasked with promoting the country’s interests, the nation has prioritized educational initiatives that employ anti-Israel materials, according to watchdog groups….

Dem Dark Money Giant Funding Anti-Israel Demonstrations Received $81M In Taxpayer Dollars

Dem Dark Money Giant Funding Anti-Israel Demonstrations Received $81M In Taxpayer Dollars

INDONESIA-BANK-RATE An employee counts USD notes at a money change outlet in Jakarta on June 14, 2013. Indonesia's central bank unexpectedly hiked interest rates for the first time in more than two years as it seeks to boost confidence in the rupiah after the currency fell to a four-year low. AFP PHOTO / Bay ISMOYO (Photo credit should read BAY ISMOYO/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
9:38 AM – Sunday, December 24, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/dem-dark-money-giant-funding-anti-israel-demonstrations-received-81m-in-taxpayer-dollars/; Republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational & research purposes:

A left-winged dark money organization supporting anti-Israel protests throughout the United States has received large quantities in taxpayer-backed money and agreements in recent years.

According to a report of federal spending records, a powerful liberal dark money organization that supports anti-Israel activism nationwide has amassed enormous profits in recent years using taxpayer-funded grants and contracts.

The Tides Center, which provides funding to groups that support Hamas-related demonstrations following their lethal attack against Israel on October 7th, has long supported the progressive agenda financially, collaborating with billionaires like George Soros and Bill Gates.

However, documents state that with assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the Democrat-allied charity still has a major partner in the federal government, which between 2006 and 2023 gave the Tides Center more than $81.2 million either directly or through sub awards.

Adalah Justice Project, Palestine Legal, and the Catalyst Project are among the pro-Palestinian projects that profit from the Tides Center’s tax-exempt status. These organizations have frequently defended and minimized the Hamas-led attack on October 7th, which killed over 1,200 people in the Jewish state. 

Over the years, the Tides Center and its sister organization, the Tides Foundation, have also contributed millions of dollars to organizations that have honored convicted terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, such as the Alliance for Global Justice, an Arizona charity that an investigation revealed had ties to Palestinian terrorism.

Benjamin Baird, director of Middle East Forum Action, which is a watchdog monitoring organization linked to terrorism, stated that the groups have even been spotting on university campuses “chanting for the destruction of Israel.”

“The Tides Center is a clearinghouse for funding far-left causes, including radical anti-Israel ‘resistance’ groups that have been spotted on college campuses chanting for the destruction of Israel,” Baird said. “It does not need any help from the federal government, which is only subsidizing extremism by bankrolling a Marxist-Islamist piggy bank like Tides.”

The Tides Center received nearly half of the $81.2 million through a subcontract or sub grant, meaning that the money was awarded to the organization after the federal government had first given a prime award to another organization, such as entities including City and County of San Francisco and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The U.S. Departments of Agriculture, State, Education, the Interior, and the U.S. Agency for International Development are just a few of the numerous agencies that provided awards to the Tides Center, which have a extensive policy focuses.

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