cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/53708637

O’Keefe was charged alongside fellow influencer Cam Higby after they allegedly misrepresented themselves at polling places during Minnesota’s primary in August.

A Minnesota prosecutor on Wednesday charged conservative provocateur James O’Keefe and influencer Cam Higby with felony counts of unlawful voting and identity theft after they misrepresented themselves at polling places in August using the names of registered voters.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who announced the charges at a news conference, accused the pair of entering polling places during state primary election voting on Aug. 11 and identifying themselves using names of registered voters in those precincts without those voters’ knowledge or permission.

“Both men stopped short of signing the oath we all sign before receiving our ballot,” she said. “But Minnesota law states clearly that no individual shall intentionally misrepresent their identity in applying for a ballot.”

Discover-Tech, an Israeli advertising firm previously linked to the delivery of zero-click spyware, is the top bidder for Starlink ad impressions in 105 countries, according to a new report from Reuters. Researchers say it all points to a large-scale tracking effort aimed at users of SpaceX’s satellite internet service.

John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, posted on X that data from TrendAI suggest the existence of a “worldwide surveillance op targeting @Starlink users.”

Discover-Tech was previously named in Citizen Lab’s October 15th report as the buyer of ordinary-looking ads that delivered Candiru spyware to devices at Al Jazeera without any user interaction. Candiru is an Israeli mercenary spyware vendor (now rebranded as Integrity Labs) that develops tools capable of silently compromising phones and computers. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security added Candiru to their trade restriction list, known as the Entity List, over concerns it supplied surveillance technology used against journalists, activists, and government officials.

After spending years manufacturing consent for US-sponsored regime change in Venezuela, having a government in Caracas subservient to Washington represented a new scenario for the corporate media. The novel conditions have raised few significant qualms for Western outlets. Tactical objections notwithstanding, there is no fundamental disagreement with the US running the affairs of a Global South country.

A group of hackers on Wednesday did what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has steadfastly refused to do: expose the identities of thousands of federal immigration agents.

The hackers breached a DHS internal database that lists the names, telephone numbers, email addresses and job assignments of employees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other branches of the department. Many of the agents have been involved in highly contentious enforcement and deportation activities during the second Trump administration — including operations that led to the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis and several other controversial shootings.

DHS has refused to identify officers, even after they were involved in violent episodes, and agents routinely keep their names secret and wear face masks in public. Although some have been publicly outed through crowdsourcing, the release of the hacked data represents the broadest exposure of the government employees who have carried out President Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign against illegal immigration.

Straight Arrow obtained the data from the Swiss hacker maia arson crimew, who is best known for locating an exposed copy of the U.S. government’s terrorism no-fly list, and the nonprofit leak archiver Distributed Denial of Secrets, known as DDoSecrets. A group calling itself the Department of Peace, or DoP, claimed responsibility for stealing the data from the DHS.

Straight Arrow sought comment from DHS, ICE and CBP, but none immediately responded. DHS officials have defended keeping agents’ identities secret by saying threats against the agency’s employees have multiplied since immigration enforcement intensified after Trump returned to the White House in 2025.

Obama has been casting caltrops behind him with each campaign stop, offering pointed criticism of Republican candidates and Donald Trump that has been unusual for the former president. He continued to do so on Wednesday, again invoking the image of Trump’s gilded renovations of the White House and noting Trump’s strident reaction to his crack last week likening it to Saddam Hussein decorating a Cheesecake Factory.

“The Saddam Hussein thing didn’t bother him. But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory,” Obama said. “I mean, it’s all crazy, but this is the crazy part: they mobilized a whole government response to that joke.

“The White House even called the secretary of the treasury,” the former president continued. “The guy who is trying to figure out how to lower inflation … they told him he should hold a press conference in front of the Cheesecake Factory.”

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/89359

With Israel’s governing coalition projected to lose its majority in the Knesset following Tuesday’s vote, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party made the unsubstantiated claim Wednesday that Arab parties “stole” the election.

“The elections in the state of Israel were stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state through serious criminal offenses of bribery, threats, violence, forgeries, and the use of prohibited software to mobilize voters,” the party said in a statement that was shared by Netanyahu on social media.

Without going into detail, the party said it was handing “hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence regarding election theft in many Arab polling stations" to investigators, including what it claimed were “thousands of envelopes” containing cash and ballot slips for Ra’am, one of two Arab factions that saw surging support Tuesday.

Three Ra’am activists were arrested before polls opened Tuesday in connection with an alleged vote-buying scheme; around 24,000 shekels were recovered in envelopes containing ballot papers. Netanyahu has claimed without evidence that the men were “senior officials” in the party. It remains unclear whether investigators have found any evidence that votes were changed as a result.

Likud also said Wednesday that it had provided the police and Shin Bet with evidence of “threats and violence against polling station members” in predominantly Arab communities, as well as “multiple voting behind the curtain, voting with double identities, discrepancies between the number of envelopes and the number of voters, the use of prohibited mobilization software, and more.” The post did not include specific evidence of the claims.

"Law enforcement agencies must act with an iron fist and in an immediate manner," the party said.

Israel’s Central Elections Committee said Tuesday that it had seen no indications of systematic tampering with ballot papers and was addressing individual complaints as they arose.

Talal al-Krenawi, the mayor of the Bedouin town of Rahat, rejected Likud’s fraud allegations Wednesday, calling them “disgusting… lies and falsehoods” and accusing Netanyahu of “incitement against the Bedouins.”

"We voted properly, with the ballot papers and identity cards," he said. "I have never seen elections as clean as these. It is a disgrace and a shame."

Voters wait to cast their ballots at a polling station in the predominantly Arab city of Tayibe during Israel’s legislative election on October 27, 2026. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)

Alongside the far-right Jewish Power party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Likud tried to ban the two main Arab factions from participating in the elections, but the Supreme Court ultimately reversed that move earlier this month.

"Now that we have exercised our democratic right, we have stolen the elections? If they don't want to let us vote, they should say so," al-Krenawi said. "What they are doing is ugly. They are portraying us as thieves and cheats. It is simply disgusting."

Before voting even began, Israeli outlets reported that Likud had planned to declare the result fraudulent if Netanyahu did not emerge victorious. Likud dispatched thousands of right-wing activists to monitor polling places and undertook a program to surveil Arab voters. Haaretz reported that the party "may use the footage as false evidence for a conspiracy theory that the election was rigged."

The Yashar party, led by Gadi Eisenkot, warned Tuesday that Netanyahu was “panicking and has begun making up stories and claiming that the election is being stolen.”

Arab voters turned out in unprecedented numbers Tuesday despite reports of delays and intimidation at polling sites. Ra’am Leader Mansour Abbas accused Netanyahu of “lying and inciting against” his voters, using strong Arab turnout as a “scare tactic” to mobilize his own anti-Arab voters.

The two Arab-majority factions, Ra’am and the Joint List, were projected to win 19 seats in the 120-seat Knesset on Tuesday, potentially giving them leverage in determining whether the Jewish anti-Netanyahu opposition can form a coalition government to oust him from power.

Netanyahu’s allegations bear an eerie resemblance to US President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election and to right-wing Brazilian candidate Flávio Bolsonaro’s attempt earlier this week to claim that the reelection of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was the result of fraud.

“What a disgusting terrorist and war criminal this close Trump family friend is,” remarked author and political analyst Seth Abramson, who has noted how other right-wing populists have copied the US president’s election denial strategy.

"You have to know nothing about complex government investigations to think... the Netanyahu regime—which hates all Arabs and wants them erased—was magically able to get credible evidence of a historic nationwide criminal conspiracy in hours," he wrote on social media.

"I hear those who say Netanyahu's replacements aren't much better," he said, "but at least—unlike Netanyahu—they're not facing years in prison on corruption charges... in most cases haven't (yet) ordered genocidal attacks, and aren't (yet) proven sociopaths."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

Because this is what the USA has always done: it is the place all brutal right-wing dictators who manage to escape a revolution flee to (at least at first). Here's a list of the right-wing dictators I know of who made the USA their home of permanent exile:

1. Paul Magloire
2. Julio Lozano Díaz
3. Manuel A. Odría
4. Marcos Pérez Jiménez
5. Syngman Rhee
6. Joaquín Balaguer
7. Lon Nol
8. Nguyen Van Thieu
9. Ferdinand Marcos
10. Prosper Avril

I've probably missed a few, and this doesn't include the people who fled to the USA only to make their final home elsewhere (like the Batistas).

But it's pretty normal for right wing assholes to make the USA their home and political base. Almost as if the USA was telling people something.

twito https://x.com/LookAtMyMeat1/status/2115607373448610186

A Russian official said potential relief for a state investment fund was part of talks. Russia has sought to wring economic benefits from the negotiations on ending the war with Ukraine.

https://www.icit-digital.org/articles/malcolm-x-on-prospects-for-freedom-in-1965-january-7-1965

One character in the kingdom of Monelia. She would be in a similar role as the main character of the kingdom, having a shadowy form like her.

I recently stumbled across this channel and like a lot of what he does.

A Russian official said potential relief for a state investment fund was part of talks. Russia has sought to wring economic benefits from the negotiations on ending the war with Ukraine.