pelespirit

Political observers and experts are raising alarms about the International Longshoreman's Association union strike, which has seen dockworkers suspend their duties unloading cargo at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts — speculating whether the head of the union is attempting economic sabotage in favor of former President Donald Trump.

USMX, the key guild of maritime employers, offered the ILA upwards of 60 percent salary increases in their new contracts. The ILA, however, is demanding even higher increases, as well as the continuation of exorbitant fees to handle shipping containers — a practice so expensive, according to maritime journalist John Konrad, that U.S. ports frequently ship freight over roads hundreds of miles at ten times the expense to consumers rather than transport containers onto secondary barges at a fraction of the price to consumers — as well as a total ban on any new technology to automate ports, which industry experts have warned could destroy the competitiveness of U.S. shipping.

The extreme nature of the demands has caused speculation among observers that the whole thing might be a ploy to get Trump elected.

But on Thursday, Vice President Harris will be holding an event in Ripon, Wisc. — home to the Little White Schoolhouse, where an 1854 meeting led to the formation of the Republican Party.

Harris will be joined in Ripon by former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who endorsed her last month. Harris’ campaign says they will speak about the history of the GOP and appeal to Republicans and independent voters disillusioned with her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump.

"I will always put country above party, and I will be a president for all Americans,” Harris said at a rally in Charlotte, N.C., last month, noting that more than 200 prominent Republicans had backed her campaign.

The newspaper reported that as early as the fall of 2022, Musk poured over $50 million into Citizens for Sanity, a group spearheaded by employees of Miller’s nonprofit, America First Legal. The funds were largely spent on aggressive ad campaigns targeting Democrats on hot-button issues like immigration and transgender rights in key battleground states just days before the midterm elections of that year.

While Musk appeared to shift politically only recently, publicly proclaiming his support for Trump’s 2024 presidential election bid, the report shows he was, in fact, a significant behind-the-scenes figure for GOP causes long before creating a super PAC to support the Republican nominee.

Musk’s donations make him one of the largest contributors to conservative efforts.

“More than half of the money ended up in the coffers of a pro-DeSantis political-action committee,” reported WSJ.

Musk contributed $10 million to support Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s 2024 presidential bid, a donation that had not been previously reported. Despite DeSantis’s early exit from the race, Musk’s financial support further cemented his status as a major GOP backer.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed charges against Amazon, alleging that the e-commerce giant has illegally refused to bargain with a union representing drivers who are frustrated by what they claim are low wages and dangerous working conditions.

Back in August, drivers celebrated what they considered a major win when the NLRB found that Amazon was a joint employer of sub-contracted drivers, cheering "We are Amazon workers!" At that time, Amazon seemed to be downplaying the designation, telling Ars that the union was trying to "misrepresent" a merit determination that the NLRB confirmed was only "the first step in the NLRB’s General Counsel litigating the allegations after investigating an unfair labor practice charge."

But this week, the NLRB took the next step, signing charges soon after Amazon began facing intensifying worker backlash, not just from drivers but also from disgruntled office and fulfillment workers. According to Reuters, the NLRB accused Amazon of "a series of illegal tactics to discourage union activities" organized by drivers in a Palmdale, California, facility.

Just 13% of the defendants — a little over two dozen — have been accused of the sort of violent crimes that lawmakers cited when arguing for the legislation, such as rape, armed robbery and murder. Prosecutors were able to move such cases to adult court even before the law was changed.

The larger group of lesser offenses includes damaging property, trespassing, theft under $1,000, disturbing the peace, marijuana possession, illegal carrying of weapons and burglary. They also include offenses that involve the use of force, such as simple battery, but those are not listed in state law as violent crimes either, and they can be prosecuted as misdemeanors depending on the circumstances.

Louisiana is the only state to have passed and then fully reversed Raise the Age legislation. It’s one of four states, along with Georgia, Texas and Wisconsin, that automatically prosecute all 17-year-olds as adults. In other states, 17-year-olds can be prosecuted as adults only in special circumstances, such as when they are charged with a serious, violent crime like murder.

Audio of Steve Bannon explaining the plan

It says that Trump told three advisers before Election Day that, if he had an early lead in the vote count on election night due to slower counting of mail-in ballots—which were expected to favor Biden—he would “simply declare victory before all the ballots were counted and any winner was projected.”

Smith’s filing also cites audio from October 31, 2020, first revealed by Mother Jones. In it, Trump strategist Steve Bannon said that on election night, “Trump is gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s the winner. He’s just gonna say he’s the winner.” Trump “did exactly that” on election night, the brief notes, claiming that he should have won but was a victim of voter fraud.

Smith’s brief reveals that shortly after the election, a Trump aide gave the president an “honest assessment” that his fraud claims would fail in court. “The details don’t matter,” Trump responded.

Bannon—who was working for Guo at the time—said he could have the lawsuit shelved. But Bannon wanted something in return: Nunberg would have to appear in a video with Guo and claim that Nunberg had learned that three other men had conspired to fabricate a rape allegation against Guo made by a former personal assistant—an allegation that had resulted in a criminal case in China and a lawsuit in New York, both begun in 2017.

Further, Bannon wanted Nunberg to say that the same three supposed accomplices—a Chinese entrepreneur named Bruno Wu, casino mogul Steve Wynn, and GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy—were involved in the issuing of a “red notice” by Interpol seeking the arrest of Guo for alleged financial crimes in China, Nunberg recalled.

Elon Musk has been ordered by a federal court to answer further questions from lawyers about his takeover of Twitter - now called X - on Thursday. And the financial world has one question: Will he be there?

Last month, he was a no-show for a court ordered appearance at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) office in Los Angeles.

Thursday's planned interview is part of a high-level investigation into whether Mr Musk waited too long to disclose he was building up a stake in Twitter before acquiring the social media platform in 2022.

The billionaire has previously said this delay was a mistake But in a court filing, SEC lawyer Robin Andrews asked US District Judge Jacqueline Corley to take a hard line against the billionaire.

"The Court must make clear that gamesmanship and delay tactics must cease," Mr Andrews wrote.

Document in an easy to read format: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148.252.0.pdf

Privately, the defendant told advisors--included [redacted] Campaign personnel, [redacted] (a White House staffer and Campaign volunteer), and [redacted] (the Vice President's Chief of Staff) that in such a scenario, he would simply declare victory before all ballots were counted and any winner was projected. Publicly, the defendant began to plant the seeds of that false declaration. In the months leading up to the election, he refused to say whether he would accept the election results, insisted that he could lose the election only because of fraud, falsely claimed that mail-in ballots were inherently fraudulent, and asserted that only votes counted by election day were valid.

For instance:

• In an interview on July 19, 2020, when asked repeatedly if he would accept the results of the election, the defendant said he would “have to see” and “it depends.” 5
• On July 30, despite having voted by mail himself earlier that year, the defendant suggested that widespread mail-in voting provided cause for delaying the election, tweeting, “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” 6
• In an interview on August 2, the defendant claimed, without any basis, that “[t]here is no way you can go through a mail-in vote without massive cheating.” 7
• At a campaign event in Wisconsin on August 17, the defendant told his supporters,“[t]he only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged, remember that. It’s the only way we’re going to lose this election, so we have to be very careful.” 8
• In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on August 24, the defendant said that “[t]he only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election.” 9
• On October 27, during remarks regarding his campaign, the defendant said, “[i]t would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on November 3rd, instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate, and I don’t believe that that’s by our laws. I don’t believe that. So we’ll see what happens.” 10
• The defendant said this despite—or perhaps because—his private advisors had informed him that it was unlikely that the winner of the election would be declared on November 3.

Note: Any typos are my own, I had to retype half of it.

On Android

With the release of Android 12, Google began allowing users to delete their ad ID permanently. On devices that have this feature enabled, you can open the Settings app and navigate to Security & Privacy > Privacy > Ads. Tap “Delete advertising ID,” then tap it again on the next page to confirm. This will prevent any app on your phone from accessing it in the future.

On IOS

Apple requires apps to ask permission before they can access your IDFA. When you install a new app, it may ask you for permission to track you.

Select “Ask App Not to Track” to deny it IDFA access.

To see which apps you have previously granted access to, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking.

In this menu, you can disable tracking for individual apps that have previously received permission. Only apps that have permission to track you will be able to access your IDFA.

You can set the “Allow apps to Request to Track” switch to the “off” position (the slider is to the left and the background is gray). This will prevent apps from asking to track in the future. If you have granted apps permission to track you in the past, this will prompt you to ask those apps to stop tracking as well. You also have the option to grant or revoke tracking access on a per-app basis.

Apple has its own targeted advertising system, separate from the third-party tracking it enables with IDFA. To disable it, navigate to Settings > Privacy > Apple Advertising and set the “Personalized Ads” switch to the “off” position to disable Apple’s ad targeting.

With Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his allies attempting to sow doubt over the 2024 election results if he loses, more than four dozen watchdogs and advocacy groups on Monday wrote to every member of Congress, demanding lawmakers' commitment to ensuring the peaceful transfer of power in January 2025.

Organized by the group Courage for America, which advocates against "an extremist agenda that puts money and power over the freedoms of our families and communities," the letter notes that there are less than 100 days until January 6, 2025, the day Congress is scheduled to certify the 2024 election results.