Monthly Archives: September 2016
Iran May Have Received as Much as $33.6 Billion in Cash, Gold Payments From U.S.
New questions emerge on several billions paid out to Iran by Obama admin
Iran may have received an additional $33.6 billion in secret cash and gold payments facilitated by the Obama administration between 2014 and 2016, according to testimony provided before Congress by an expert on last summer’s nuclear agreement with Iran.
Between January 2014 and July 2015, when the Obama administration was hammering out the final details of the nuclear accord, Iran was paid $700 million every month from funds that had previously been frozen by U.S. sanctions.
A total of $11.9 billion was ultimately paid to Iran, but the details surrounding these payments remain shrouded in mystery, according to Mark Dubowitz, executive director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
In total, “Iran may have received as much as $33.6 billion in cash or in gold and other precious metals,” Dubowitz disclosed.
New questions about these payments are emerging following confirmation from top Obama administration officials on Thursday that it was forced to pay Iran $1.7 billion in cash prior to the release of several U.S. hostages earlier this year. The administration insisted that cash had to be used for this payment.
HILLARY CLINTON SICK AT 911 FAINTS AND FALLS- NOT HEALTHY
Goldman Sachs bans employee donations to Trump, not Clinton
Goldman Sachs has banned partners of the firm from donating money to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, multiple sources reported late Tuesday.
“The policy change is also meant to minimize potential reputational damage caused by any false perception that the firm is attempting to circumvent pay-to-play rules, particularly given partners’ seniority and visibility,” the firm wrote in the memo to employees. “All failures to pre-clear political activities as outlined below are taken seriously and violations may result in disciplinary action.”
But what Goldman Sachs has not clarified is why top employees are still allowed to financially support Hillary Clinton’s Democratic bid. The rule, effective Sept. 1, said “any federal candidate who is a sitting state or local official (e.g., governor running for president or vice president, such as the Trump/Pence ticket, or mayor running for Congress), including their Political Action Committees (PACs)” are not allowed to receive donations from the firm’s 467 partners.
Trump’s team is expected to give the company grief for the policy since it allows Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, to receive financial support because he is not considered a local official under Goldman’s rules. Contrastingly, Trump’s vice presidential nominee Mike Pence is ineligible for donations because of his position as governor of Indiana.
YOUTUBE DECLAIRS WAR ON POLITICALLY INCORRECT OPINIONS
Google-owned platform demonetizes “controversial” content
A new “advertiser friendly” policy introduced by YouTube will punish those who express politically incorrect opinions or dare to offend viewers by de-monetizing their content.
The new rules have sparked an outcry from the YouTube community because they are so incredibly restrictive.
YouTube will now retain the right to demonetize any videos that contain, “Controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown.”
“Inappropriate language, including harassment, profanity and vulgar language,” is also being demonetized.
YouTube’s new policy will completely disincentivize YouTubers from discussing politically incorrect topics or expressing controversial opinions because they know they will be punished for doing so. Many YouTubers make a living off their channel and will therefore be walking on eggshells to avoid the company’s stringent new rules.
The new policy bears some hallmarks of the Communist Chinese government’s “social credit score system,” whereby Internet users are punished by private companies and their peers for expressing unpopular views on social media.
The move is primarily designed to scare away YouTubers from making anti-establishment political content, but prominent YouTubers are already reporting that videos on everything from acne solutions to tips on combating depression are being demonetized because they are not “advertiser friendly”.
“The channels that self-identify as vulnerable by these advertising guidelines seem to be news channels covering sensitive real-world topics,”reports Kotaku.Prominent YouTuber Philip DeFranco responded to the controversy by vowing, “I’m not going to censor myself,” despite the fact that dozens of his videos have already been demonetized.
Google-owned YouTube is of course a private company and can enforce any rules it likes, but with the advent of such corporations becoming so large (more powerful than countries in some cases), in addition to them insisting on being treated as a public utility, the move is a massive stab in the back for the content creators who helped build the platform in the first place.
As Matt Drudge warned about when he appeared on the Alex Jones Show nearly a year ago, creators allowing their content to be swallowed up by social media ghettos was always going to lead to this outcome.“I don’t know why they’ve been successful in pushing everybody into these little ghettos, these Facebooks, these Tweets, these Instagrams,” Drudge told Jones. “This is ghetto, this is corporate; they’re taking your energy and you’re getting nothing in return.”
The video below sums up the impact the new rules will have on YouTube unless they are reversed.
