#2
The $15 million was sent in payments to Rivera's consulting group Interamerican Consulting in March and April of 2017 from PDV USA, a U.S. subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, the indictment states.
#4
Not even a hint to indicate if he was (D) or (R). I never heard of him, but having a 50-50 chance, I guessed that he was (R) before I saw Raj's post.
#5
It's ok, we don't have to discuss it further. You can decide who Dave was really working for:
Before being elected to the Florida House, Rivera worked in the U.S. Information Agency, under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. Rivera primarily worked in the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which is responsible for administrative management and oversight of Radio and TV Marti, the official government broadcast services to Cuba. Before joining the U.S. Information Agency, Rivera worked as the Public Affairs Director for the Washington-based Valladares Foundation; an international human rights watch-dog group headed by the former U.S. Ambassador to the United National Human Rights Commission, Armando Valladares. Link
#6
Venezuela’s state-run oil monopoly, Petróleos de Venezuela, used to be wholly controlled by the Venezuelan government. Last year its U.S. entity, PDV USA, came under control of an opposition government led by Juan Guaidó, whom the U.S. recognizes as Venezuela’s legitimate president.
Guaidó’s interim government recently sued Rivera. That’s because in 2017 Rivera signed a $50 million contract with PDV USA to help Petróleos de Venezuela lobby the Trump administration. Rivera received $15 million – and now PDV USA wants that money back.The suit alleges Rivera did not perform adequate lobbying services to earn those fees. And raises questions about why Rivera, supposedly a staunch anti-communist, was aiding Venezuela’s authoritarian socialist regime in the first place.
Rivera insists he was funneling the lobbying payments back to Venezuela’s opposition movement. But in a new report from the Herald, sources familiar with the case say Rivera actually funneled $4 million of his fees to a powerful ally of Venezuela’s regime, Raúl Gorrín – who is under U.S. indictment for corruption.
Rivera’s lawyer, Miami defense attorney Roy Kahn, told WLRN that Rivera is aware of no U.S. investigation involving him and Gorrín.
Posted by: Herman Henbane5539 ||
12/06/2022 11:59 Comments ||
Top||
[CNN] Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was sentenced Monday to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $11 million in restitution for embezzling millions of dollars from four of his clients and obstruction. CNN neglects to mention that Avenatti appeared 65 times on CNN in the spring of 2018 (also 40+ times on MSNBC) and was lionized by the on air network stars.
#4
CNN neglects to mention that Avenatti appeared 65 times on CNN in the spring of 2018 (also 40+ times on MSNBC) and was lionized by the on air network stars.
#5
...Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. And it's my understanding that for all practical purposes there's people going over every single case he's ever handled. I'm hoping that this moron will find himself facing civil suits right up to - and if possible, beyond - the moment he shuffles off this mortal coil.
[Breitbart] The Biden Administration’s Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine called on doctors to serve as “ambassadors” in the attempt to normalize transgenderism.
Levine, a man who identifies as a woman, remarked “I encourage all of you to think of yourself as ambassadors to your communities, ambassadors for science,” as well as for “compassion” and for “care.”
“These conversations don’t need to be limited or restricted to a medical setting,” Levine added.
“Offer yourselves as informational resources not just for youth but for school teachers, principals, school boards, professional organizations, recreation centers, county commissioners, and others who would benefit from this information and your perspective,” Levine noted. He added, “Please proactively seek out opportunities to speak about what you know.”
Levine went on to say, “We need to have these conversations that question the assumptions that are underlying today’s attacks on trans people. Pushing back the veil of ignorance demands this extra effort.”
“Medicine and science are being politically perverted around this country,” the Biden administration official said, adding, “we have reached a tipping point … for the health and wellbeing of LGBTQI+ youth and other Americans.”
“Those who attack our community are driven by an agenda of politics, it has nothing to do with medicine, it has nothing to do with science,” Levine added.
He went on to say, “They are rejecting … well established science, and simply rejecting basic human compassion.”
#2
Quite, and just like the Bandar-log they sit in trees flinging their own feces at the normative population screeching 'it's so, it's so, it's so because we say it's so'. Thanks for clearing that up princess.
[MSN] The Treasury Department is easing sanctions against Venezuela's oil sector, allowing U.S.-based Chevron to pick operations up where they left off to comply with sanctions the Trump administration introduced in 2019.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a new general license on Saturday authorizing Chevron to resume "limited natural resource extraction operations" through its joint ventures with state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, opening the door for a rekindling of the energy trade between the U.S. and Venezuela.
Here's what the easing of sanctions means:
WHAT IS CHEVRON'S FOOTPRINT IN VENEZUELA?
Chevron is a minority partner in five joint ventures with Petroleos de Venezuela, two of which were actively producing petroleum in 2019.
When sanctions were introduced, Chevron's share of production was around 35,000 barrels per day, although the joint ventures together have a capacity of upwards of 200,000 barrels per day.
For comparison, the operators in the U.S. are currently producing around 12 million bpd.
Production in Venezuela, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, was around 700,000 bpd in October, according to OPEC data.
WHAT DOES TREASURY'S LICENSE ALLOW?
Treasury's license authorizes activities related to Chevron’s joint ventures but prevents Petroleos de Venezuela from receiving profits from the oil sales by Chevron.
It also prohibits the expansion of joint ventures between Chevron and Venezuelan entities, and prohibits the sale of petroleum "produced by or through the Chevron JVs for the exportation to any jurisdiction other than the United States."
IS THERE A MARKET FOR VENEZUELAN CRUDE OIL IN THE U.S.?
The U.S. imported more than 19.6 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products from Venezuela in January 2019, the month former President Donald Trump ordered sanctions against Petroleos de Venezuela. Of that total, the Gulf Coast received some 88%.
"Gulf Coast refiners were basically built — a lot of them were built to take this Venezuelan crude, which is heavier," one oil industry source told the Washington Examiner. "It really helps the margin. So, when that stopped, it made conditions a bit more challenging."
Valero and Citgo are among the premier customers of Venezuelan crude oil. Both have multiple refineries on the Gulf Coast.
"I have not seen anything in public [from refiners], but I would think that, at least in private, I think it would help regionally getting that crude to the market," the person said.
WHAT ARE THE POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS?
The Treasury Department said its easing up on sanctions was driven by progress in talks between the socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro and the opposition movement Unitary Platform. The decision "reflects long-standing U.S. policy to provide targeted sanctions relief based on concrete steps that alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people and support the restoration of democracy," the department said.
Republicans have taken shots at President Joe Biden for the decision. Former U.N. ambassador and prospective presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Biden "is willing to buy dirty oil from the brutal socialist regime in Venezuela" as opposed to "creating jobs and unleashing our energy."
National Security Council coordinator John Kirby, in the White House briefing on Monday, pushed back on a line of criticism suggesting the Biden administration is preferencing the Venezuelan oil sector to the domestic sector.
Kirby pointed to the several thousand approved applications for permits to drill currently on the balance sheets of federal lessees and said there “are plenty of opportunities for oil and gas companies to drill here in the United States."
White House officials and Democrats in Congress have frequently pointed to unused drilling permits to suggest companies have all they need to increase production.
#2
"Valero and Citgo are among the premier customers"
Citgo was spun off from PVsA about twenty years ago. When the embargo started, Citgo was left holding the spare parts wanted in Venezuela. Likely all sold for scrap by now.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/06/2022 19:18 Comments ||
Top||
[Breitbart] Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell has caved to outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and will allow the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to include the highly controversial media cartel bill the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News. Caves? No, the Troika of Grandmasters is simply executing a culminating strategic move. The Chinese Meishans are headed toward the feeders.
Over objections from House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, the likely next speaker of the House come January 3 of next year, other congressional leaders acquiesced to lobbyist pressure and agreed to include the JCPA in the base text of the NDAA. McCarthy was the only member of congressional leadership to fight back against the inclusion, but was overruled three to one after McConnell caved.
Skipping down to the bottom line of State and party censorship via media control:
The JCPA, essentially a transfer of wealth from Silicon Valley to the discredited and distrusted corporate legacy media, is highly controversial. Beyond the financial payouts to media companies, they will be able to form a “joint negotiating entity”—a cartel, immune from antitrust law—to negotiate with Big Tech companies on the “terms and conditions” for carrying their content.
Censorship is sure to be a frequent demand of media companies. Despite provisions in the bill that purportedly stop media companies from negotiating the suppression of any one competitor, there is nothing to stop them asking their content to be prioritized over broadly-drawn categories that are used as pretexts for censorship, like “disinformation.”
Breitbart News has closely covered how the bill continues to enable the censorship and sidelining of conservative media. Embedded disinformation agents within Twitter have recently been rolled up, other platforms like Google and FB will also suffer the cleansing effects of light. New disinformation and censorship control networks must be developed under the cover of public law.
#4
The failed Disinformation Governance board has now become the “joint negotiating entity.” Nina Jankowicz will be delighted as her new agency takes shape.
Financial balm for FB and the ACLU is being packaged as we speak.
#8
...and why they're deathly afraid of Trump as the Left. However, as long as you insist in finding JC to run for the office, its what you are going to get.
[Breitbart] Federal data analyzed by Pew Research Center finds that the U.S. will likely see about 940,000 legal immigrants secure naturalized American citizenship by the end of the year in part due to the Biden administration’s push to massively boost naturalizations.
Gaining naturalized American citizenship is an immense privilege as immigrants gain the right to vote and can go on to sponsor an unlimited number of foreign relatives for green cards through the process known as “chain migration.”
As Pew Research notes, Biden’s 940,000 naturalizations for 2022 is close to prior all-time highs like in 2008 and 1996 when more than a million were naturalized.
The massive uptick indicates that the foreign-born voting population in the U.S. now stands at about 24.5 million — the largest in American history — or about 10 percent of the total eligible voting population. Compare that to less than three decades ago when the naturalized American citizen population was just 7.6 million.
President Joe Biden will not be visiting the southern border or discussing the migration crisis during his trip to Arizona on Tuesday
Republicans urged Biden to witness the southern border crisis first-hand
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lashed out at Republicans for engaging in 'political stunts' when visiting the border
Said: 'If Republican officials truly want to deal with the border, then they would ... actually work with us on the Amnesty plan that we have put forward'
#5
Biden defends skipping border visit while in Arizona, says there are 'more important things'
Biden has never visited the border throughout his presidency, despite the ongoing crisis with record numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the border each month.
"Why go to a border state and not visit the border?" Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked.
"Because there are more important things going on," Biden responded. "They’re going to invest billions of dollars in a new enterprise."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[CNN] Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was sentenced Monday to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $11 million in restitution for embezzling millions of dollars from four of his clients and obstruction.
[Breitbart] The Biden Administration’s Assistant Secretary for Health 
The failed Disinformation Governance board has now become the “joint negotiating entity.” Nina Jankowicz will be delighted as her new agency takes shape.
