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Tuberville: This is the ‘most politicized defense dept. I’ve ever seen’

OAN’s John Hines
1:30 PM – Wednesday, May 31, 2023

In an exclusive interview, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville tells One America News about his decision to place a hold on all general and flag officer nominations before the U.S. Senate. This is due to a new Pentagon policy of funding travel and paid time off for service members and their dependents seeking elective abortions. One America’s John Hines has more from Capitol Hill.

OAN’s John Hines
1:24 PM – Wednesday, May 31, 2023

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer says that in light of a lack of cooperation with congressional investigations by the DOJ, FBI, and IRS. The GOP may use ‘The Power of the Purse’ to re-prioritize the funding of these agencies. One America’s John Hines has more from Capitol Hill.

New Chicago Mayor Responds After Violent Memorial Day Weekend

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the city’s most violent Memorial Day weekend on record, calling it “intolerable.”
The weekend ended with 53 shooting victims and 12 murders, FOX 32 Chicago reported.
Victims of the shootings range in age from 2 to 77 years, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) said. At least a dozen of them were fired at while standing on sidewalks late at night and into the early morning hours.
The violence came close to Johnson’s home when a man who lives across the street from the mayor was charged with stabbing a woman to death in South Austin, reported CBS….

Chick-fil-A Now Training White Employees To Say 'My Privilege'

ATLANTA — As his first act, Chick-fil-A’s new VP of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Erick McReynolds has revised company vocab guidelines, requiring white employees to move away from simple phrases like “my pleasure” and instead use preferred equitable language such as, “my privilege.”

“Wow!” Stunned John Kirby Stammers Out a Denial and Leaves Podium after White House Reporter Details Joe Biden Bribe Allegations and Whistleblower Charges, Asks About Majority of Americans Believing Biden is Corrupt

White House National Security Council spokesman Joh Kirby was stunned by a reporter’s question at Wednesday’s briefing that mentioned a bribery allegation against Joe Biden, along with his involvement in the Biden family’s international business dealings and whistleblower charges of interference in investigations, followed with a request to comment on a recent poll showing a majority of Americans believe Joe Biden is corrupt.

Kirby let out a shocked, “Wow!” and then stood in stunned silence for several seconds while a gasp of “Jesus!” could be heard in the room. A man off camera volunteered to take the question for Kirby but White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told him no. After gathering his thoughts, Kirby stammered out a brief denial on Biden’s behalf and referred the part about the whistleblower to the FBI before leaving the podium.

The bold questioner was New York Post reporter Steven Nelson.

Full video of Q and A:

Kirby is now on the record denying any wrongdoing by the Biden Crime Family and then leaves the podium pic.twitter.com/kRokQB0Sx4

— Karli Bonne’ (@KarliBonnita) May 31, 2023

Video clip focused on Kirby shows how annoyed he was getting as the lengthy question was posed by Nelson.

“What do you say to the majority of Americans who believe that the president is himself corrupt?

Biden spokesman John Kirby: “Wow. The president has spoken to this and there’s nothing to these claims.” pic.twitter.com/u9JEZPbkwa

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 31, 2023

Nelson: “…There have been many developments in the House investigations into the First Family’s international business dealings. Recently, uh, there’s one committee trying to get an FBI file alleging that President Biden took bribes. There’s another IRS whistleblower who is alleging there is a cover-up in the investigation. Amid all this there was a Harvard-Harris poll this month that found that fifty-three percent of the public including a fourth of Democrats believe quote “Joe Biden was involved with his son in an, in an illegal influence peddling scheme.”

“Uh, there is of course evidence the President interacted with his relatives’ associates from China, uh, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. Uh, so what do you say to the majority of Americans who believe that the President is himself corrupt?”

Kirby, “Wow! (six second pause)…The President, the President, the President has spoken to this. Uh, the President has spoken to this uh, and there’s nothing to these claims. And as for the, the, the, the whistleblower issue that you talked about and uh, uh and , the, the document, I, I believe the FBI has spoken to that and you’ll have to go to them on that.”

Jean-Pierre: “Alright, let’s go. Let’s go.”

Kirby walks away.

Transcribed by TGP.

The Harvard Harris poll (page 45) taken in May asked this question:

“From what you know, do you think Joe Biden was involved with his son in an illegal influence peddling scheme while he was Vice President, or do you think that is not the case?”

53 percent said “Joe Biden was involved.” 47 percent said “Joe Biden was not involved.”

79 percent of Republicans, 25 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of independents said Joe Biden was involved in corruption.

For those old enough to remember, this is how Watergate played out. Whistleblowers came forward, allegations of crimes and cover-ups by the president and his administration were made and over time more direct questions about corruption were asked of an annoyed White House spokesman.

‘Skipping’ Rate Hike Not a Signal That Tightening Is Over: Fed’s Jefferson

The Federal Reserve potentially leaving interest rates unchanged at next month’s policy meeting might not indicate that the central bank’s tightening efforts are over, Fed Governor Philip Jefferson said in a speech.
An announcement to keep the benchmark fed funds rate in the target range of 5.00 and 5.25 percent would allow officials to comb through even more data before employing additional tightening measures.
“A decision to hold our policy rate constant at a coming meeting should not be interpreted to mean that we have reached the peak rate for this cycle,” Jefferson said at the Annual International Conference on Policy Challenges for the Financial Sector on May 31. “Indeed, skipping a rate hike at a coming meeting would allow the committee to see more data before making decisions about the extent of additional policy firming. With that said, let me turn to the topics covered in our two sessions this afternoon.”…

Toronto Mayoral Hopeful Anthony Furey Pledges to Bolster Police Force, Target Addiction if Elected

Toronto mayoral candidate Anthony Furey says Toronto is facing serious issues of “urban decay.”
“People see what’s happening in Seattle, San Francisco, downtown Vancouver. And they’re saying we don’t want this city to go any more in that direction. We have to act now,” Furey, a former newspaper columnist and talk radio host, told The Epoch Times on May 29.
Furey has been steadily rising in the polls since April 17, according to CP24. One poll released May 29 has Furey in a three-way tie for fourth place with nine percent of the vote, trailing Olivia Chow at the front of the pack with an estimated 34 percent….

James O’Keefe is no stranger to making news headlines. In recent months, his very public split with Project Veritas and subsequent formation of O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) has made waves in the world of conservative journalism. But now, Project Veritas is taking legal action against O’Keefe and OMG, as well as two other former Project Veritas employees.

On Wednesday, Project Veritas and Project Veritas Action Fund (PV) filed a Complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against O’Keefe, Transparency 1, LLC (doing business as O’Keefe Media Group), RC Maxwell, and Anthony Iatropolous. The 12-Count Complaint alleges, among other things, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.

Today Project Veritas filed a complaint against James O’Keefe in federal court. It contains 12 causes of action including Breach of Fiduciary Duty. You can find all 37 pages in this thread. pic.twitter.com/5kXwChF3ut

— Abby Libby (@abbythelibb_) May 31, 2023

Before I provide a more detailed breakdown of the Complaint, a full copy of which can be viewed below, a caveat: A Complaint is just that. It’s the initiating document in a lawsuit and it’s the Plaintiff’s opportunity to lay out the causes of action they’ve decided to pursue and the facts they believe will support them, but it’s not evidence and not the final say on how things will shake out. It’s purely the opening salvo. That said, following is an overview of what the suit alleges.

The Complaint begins by laying out the basic factual underpinnings, with the framing apparent from the outset:

Being known as the founder of an organization does not entitle that person to run amok and put his own interests ahead of that organization. Defendant James O’Keefe (“O’Keefe”) failed in his duties to Plaintiff, Project Veritas, causing it serious and significant damage. O’Keefe must be held accountable, as must the organization O’Keefe created, Defendant Transparency 1, LLC d/b/a O’Keefe Media Group (“OMG”) for suborning his violations.

Per the Complaint, PV relies, of course, on donations from private donors to fund their investigative reporting activities. PV maintains that its donor database is confidential. PV was founded by O’Keefe in 2010 and he remained its CEO through the time of his separation. While he was suspended from the Board of Directors of both PV entities on February 6, 2023, his employment was not formally terminated until May 15, 2023. O’Keefe had a signed Employment Agreement in effect with PV (as did Maxwell and Iatropolous). Pursuant to that agreement, any content created by O’Keefe in connection with his employment by PV belonged to PV. Additionally, certain information was to remain confidential, O’Keefe was not to engage in outside work that would give rise to a conflict of interest with PV, all PV property was to be returned to PV upon separation of employment, and he was not to solicit donors or employees of PV for a period of one year following the termination of his employment.

The Complaint also lays out numerous allegations of misconduct on the part of O’Keefe, asserting that this is what initially led to his being suspended. Specifically, it alleges that O’Keefe screamed at and belittled coworkers, had strained relationships with several donors, was routinely late to meetings, was rude to donors at VIP events, and engaged in financial misconduct, such as having PV employees attend to personal errands and chores for him, like picking up his laundry and cleaning his boat, as well as inappropriate use of the PV credit card for such items as:

a. Directing the organization to pay more than $10,000 for a helicopter flight from New York to Maine without a clear benefit to Project Veritas;

b. Directing the organization to pay for first-class air travel for O’Keefe even where the flight did not satisfy the organization’s policy for approving firstclass flights;

c. Using his Project Veritas credit card for expensive hotel rooms and suites at luxury hotels without clear business purpose, when other employees on the same trips were required to stay in budget accommodations;

d. Directing the organization to pay for expenses associated with large organizational awareness events like the Project Veritas Experience, without engaging in any analysis to help the organization understand the
potential return on investment or capitalize on the connections made through these events; and

e. Causing the organization to pay for his regular use of private car services (“black cars”), even to go relatively short distances in and around Manhattan and then wait outside of restaurants for hours, at a total expense of more than $150,000 over the past 18 months.

Further, the Complaint alleges that, though he was placed on paid leave on February 6, 2023, O’Keefe’s employment was not terminated, yet he formed OMG on February 17, 2023. In mid-March, O’Keefe made several public media appearances, including The Charlie Kirk Show, Steve Bannon’s War Room, Under the Skin with Russell Brand, The Mark Levin Show, Human Events, The Ben Shapiro Show, and The Megyn Kelly Show, in which he falsely asserted he’d been ousted from PV and, in some case, implied it was in relation to his reporting on the Pfizer story.

The Complaint then sets out 12 Counts or causes of action:

Breach of Contract (as to O’Keefe) — regarding the provisions of the Employment Agreement
Violation of Defend Trade Secrets Act (as to O’Keefe) — regarding his alleged use of donor lists, employee lists, and unaired programming
Breach of Fiduciary Duty (as to O’Keefe) — regarding his formation of OMG while still a member of the Board of Directors
Breach of Duty of Loyalty (as to O’Keefe) — similar to Count 3
Conversion (as to O’Keefe) — regarding his alleged taking of donor lists, contact information, equipment, and unreleased investigation publications
Replevin (as to O’Keefe) — similar to Count 5
Indemnification (as to O’Keefe) — asserting his obligation to indemnify PV as to investigations or actions taken against them on account of O’Keefe’s errors or omissions
Tortious Interference With Contract (as to OMG) — asserting that its formation and use of O’Keefe’s services and PV material, while he was on paid time off from PV, interfered with O’Keefe’s Employment Agreement with PV
Breach of Contract (as to Iatropolous) — regarding his alleged failure to return PV equipment, namely a MacBook Air
Breach of Contract (as to Maxwell) — regarding his alleged failure to return PV equipment, namely a MacBook Pro
Tortious Interference With Contract (as to OMG) — regarding Iatropolous’ alleged use of PV equipment for the benefit of OMG
Tortious Interference With Contract (as to OMG) — regarding Maxwell’s alleged use of PV equipment for the benefit of OMG

Ultimately, the suit asks for the Court to issue preliminary and permanent injunctions as to O’Keefe and OMG preventing them from soliciting PV’s donors, employees, or contractors, disparaging PV, obtaining, using, or disclosing PV’s confidential information, and keeping/failing to return PV’s property, to issue preliminary and permanent injunctions as to Iatropolous and Maxwell preventing them from keeping/failing to return PV’s property, to compel O’Keefe to account for his conduct, to award PV money damages (compensatory, punitive, and exemplary), to disgorge all funds by which O’Keefe and OMG were unjustly enriched and O’Keefe’s salary during his period of disloyalty, and to award PV reasonable attorneys’ fees.

The suit was filed by the Randazza Legal Group, PLLC. If that name rings a bell, Marc Randazza has previously represented Alex Jones, Mike Cernovich, and Chuck Johnson, as well as, for a time, The Satanic Temple in its suit against Twitter for religious discrimination.

As noted above, this is merely the opening salvo on the litigation front. We can expect a response from O’Keefe and OMG, and possibly a countersuit with their own allegations as to PV.

PV v OKeefe – Complaint by Susie Moore on Scribd

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mixed by Erry’ on Netflix, an Amusing Italian Comedy About a 1980s Bootleg Cassette Tape Empire

Mixed by Erry, now on Netflix, is the story of the rise and fall of an Italian bootleg cassette-tape empire that became so enormous, sales rivaled those of the corporate big-dog record labels. This is a BOATS (Based On A True Story) movie set in a simpler time, the 1980s mostly, when hair was permed and music was trapped on teensy magnetic strips contained within little plastic cases with spinny-majigs in them that moved the strips across a head that amplified the music through electronic wires and into stereo speakers so it could be heard by our ears. (This is only an approximation of the science involved in this process; please forgive me for any inaccuracies.) Anyway, it’s a fairly enjoyable movie focusing on three brothers who got very rich via illegal means – but as these stories inevitably turn out, that status was only temporary.

The Gist: It’s 1991, and Erry, real name Enrico Frattasio (Luigi D’Oriano) is greeted like a hero – in prison. His new “roommates” call him “maestro” and one gentleman in a tracksuit approaches him about an opportunity to bury a lot of cash under concrete so it may be somewhat easily fetched at a later date. How Erry got here requires a flashback to 1976, when young Erry and his brothers brewed tea to their father’s exacting specifications, then funneled it into empty whiskey bottles so Pop could sell it as the real alcoholic deal to unwitting customers. Soon enough, Erry would be a bootlegger of his own making, but he’s an artist at heart – a music fanatic who yearns to DJ and makes mixtapes that everyone loves loves loooovvvesssss. Which might prompt a debate about whether a scam artist is really an “artist,” or whether compiling and sequencing other people’s music is a true “art” or just a craft, but for the sake of the movie, Erry here is pure of heart for the most part, a wide-eyed type who just wants to do what he loves, namely, immerse himself in music.

The story truly gets rolling in 1985. Erry is a tad meek to be a club DJ like he desires, so there he is, pushing a broom at the local record and electronics shop in the Forcella neighborhood in Naples. His older brother Peppe (Giuseppe Arena) shakes down Erry for a mixtape so he can woo a girl with it and before you know it, she’s leading her pregnant belly down the aisle in her wedding gown. That’s proof in some pudding right there – the potency of an expertly curated mixtape in the mid-’80s. We also meet Erry’s younger brother Angelo (Emanuele Palumbo), a spirited chap who once nearly killed a man – to be fair, that man was curbstomping his brother – and did time in prison, which apparently opened him to the type of unsavory connections that are like peanut butter to the chocolate of the Frattasio brothers’ fake-whiskey-fraud upbringing. But hey, in this hardscrabble working-class urban setting, you do what you gotta do, so you can’t help but look at the Frattasios’ shady petty dealings and laugh.

All this time, Erry’s mixtapes were winning hearts, converting locals from New Wave to New Romantic and vice versa. One day, a lightbulb appears over Peppe’s head: What if they mass duplicate Erry’s tapes and sell them? And what if they mass duplicate the legitimate recordings of musical artists, recordings that aren’t distributed in their area, and sell those, too? Angelo takes them to the local Don who gives them a loan (uh oh?) so they can set up in the recently vacated electronics storefront and sell their wares, and it takes right the F off; cue a montage set to the Pointer Sisters’ “Jump.” They pay back the loan (no uh oh!) and get another, significantly bigger one (uh oh?), and end up paying that one back too (no uh oh!). Business is booming. They’re legit, but not legit at all. But they are driving around in Lamborghinis now. And dealing with Moroccan mobsters after they poach the cigarette-smuggling workforce for the pirate record label. And sidestepping a gum-chomping cop who has it out for them. And also shaking hands with corporate cassette manufacturers who look the other way while offloading heaps of their wares to the bootlegger brothers. Of course, this can’t last forever. Nothing ever does, does it?

MIXED BY ERRY NETFLIX STREAMING — Photo: Netflix

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Mixed by Erry would pair nicely with Philip Seymour Hoffman-fronted music-related period BOATS comedy The Boat That Rocked (also known as Pirate Radio).

Performance Worth Watching: Character development for any cast member here is in short supply, but D’Oriano capably encompasses the heart of the movie, winning us over by playing Erry as a youthful-innocent type who gets in over his head, but also has no qualms about riding the wave of his success.

Memorable Dialogue: Peppe’s wife inspires the Frattasio brothers by offhandedly half-comparing them to astronauts: “People have gone to the moon. There must be something, like a device, I don’t know, that makes tapes faster.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Mixed by Erry looks terrific and sounds great, rocking vintage visual style and a nostalgia-drenched pop soundtrack. Those of us of a certain vintage who fetishize the clunk and hiss of a tape being loaded into a deck and cranked to high volume (confession: I’m about a 7.6 on that physical-format scale) will drool at the shots of the Erry “laboratories,” which are stacked to the ceiling with lovely, swoonworthy cassette machines. I mean, just imagine the soothing meditative sound of all of them whirring at once as they dupe, I dunno, Dio’s Sacred Heart album. Did they love Dio in 1987 Naples? They should’ve – some folks at least. But this movie puts Run D.M.C. and the Eurythmics on the soundtrack to broaden its appeal and keep the tone accessible and upbeat, something it does quite well. It’s easy to consume, like a bag of Funyuns washed down with a cool, crisp Tab.

But as slick as the film can be, it’s also shallow, a broad and episodic outing that covers a lot of narrative ground but never really digs into what makes these characters tick. As children, the Frattasios survived in the gray areas of the law; as adults, they thrived there. It doesn’t get any more complicated than that. The brothers’ wives are set dressing, the cop trying to bust their ass is a cartoon character and Erry seems to be the only character whose conscience weighs more than a gnat’s wing. There isn’t much dramatic weight behind their mob connections or the threat of getting busted; a scene in which the brothers out of nowhere wield AK-47s to scare off Moroccan heavies is played for laughs – a scene that’s representative of the movie as a whole, which considers the Frattosios’ crimes a lark.

But the film also keenly contextualizes their endeavor as a Robin Hood-esque operation that happened to enrich them at the same time it fulfilled a need for working-class citizens seeking the uplift of music when they likely didn’t have the means to acquire the real thing. Like true disciples of capitalism, three nobodies saw an underserved gap in the market and filled it, whupping the big corporations at their own game. When you frame it that way, such a story is more amusing than criminal. Mixed by Erry is pretty good at making its case: none of this should be taken too seriously.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Mixed by Erry is uptempo and funny – just enough to make up for some of its bigger flaws.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

ANALYSIS: Scope of FBI’s Use of 702 Section Data on Americans Revealed for 1st Time

News Analysis
The FBI’s use of warrantless “backdoor searches” of a vast amount of information known as the Section 702 database—which is intended for targeted surveillance of foreign persons located outside the United States—to spy on Americans is far more widespread than previously thought, according to a new report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
Section 702 is a key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that permits the government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign persons located outside the United States and is supposed to prevent any surveillance of U.S. citizens.
This massive database contains emails, texts, and phone calls that come from the tech giants, but also comes from the backbone of the internet. It’s one of the most powerful collection and surveillance tools that the Intelligence Community has….

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