Biden goes all-in on Russiagate 2.0 while ignoring China’s creeping attacks on democracy

 Completely undeterred by the fact that Russian interference in US elections proved a fantasy the first time, the Harris-Biden team is trying to launch Russiagate 2.0 — even as it seems to ignore China’s raging and ruthless covert activities across the country.

On Wednesday, the Justice Department accused Moscow of trying to influence the 2024 election by spreading disinformation; it imposed sanctions on the leaders of state-media operation RT and a Russian hacking group, RaHDIt.

Fine; slap the slimy Kremlin-aligned goons, but don’t play politics with it: The central claim of Russiagate — that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to steal the 2016 election — has been thoroughly debunked over and over again.

Former Gov. Kathy Hochul aide, Linda Sun, exiting Brooklyn Federal Court on Sept. 3.AP

This is kicking slugs out of the garden while ignoring a venomous snake in the grass.

Another adversarial power has been hacking US infrastructure, flagrantly running operations on US soil, and spying on politicians and civilians alike — and it’s China, not Russia.

The brazen behavior that has come to light just in the past few weeks:

• Former Gov. Hochul aide Linda Sun was arrested as a paid agent of Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party, blocking New York leaders from meeting with representatives from Taiwan and upping access for CCP reps.

• The Washington Post dropped a bombshell report on how China organized counter-protesters to harass and attack anti-CCP demonstrators during Xi Jinping’s visit to San Fransisco last year.

• Isabel Vincent of this Post reported last week that the CCP spread lies throughout the Chinese community in Brooklyn about dissenter Xiong Yan, a Tiananmen Square protester who ran for Congress in 2022, in an effort to keep him out of office.
• 
  
• That’s as blatant as election interference comes.

CCP operatives in our country work to quash critics of Beijing, influence officials and steal government and private-sector secrets — and we don’t even know where the snake might be ready to strike next.

In April, FBI chief Christopher Wray warned: “China already has a bigger hacking program than every other major nation combined,” with Beijing-linked hackers waiting “for just the right moment to deal a devastating blow.”

Yet Biden didn’t even stop China’s spy balloon as it flew over the country on an obvious intelligence-gathering mission in 2023.

And the Harris-Biden team rolled out the red carpet for the CCP figure who set up “secret police stations” across America.

Bad enough that Democrats are laser-focused on the Kremlin’s wrongdoing in a partisan drive to keep the Trump-Russia myth alive; far worse that they largely ignore China insidious creep into American life.

https://nypost.com/2024/09/04/opinion/president-joe-biden-sanctions-russia-while-ignoring-china/

FBI raids home of NYPD Commish Edward Caban, other close Adams allies

 NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban’s home was raided by FBI agents in a stunning early Wednesday sweep that targeted a suite of Mayor Eric Adams’ top aides, sources said.

The raid on Caban unfolded as agents stormed the homes of deputy mayors Phil Banks and Sheena Wright, according to law-enforcement sources.

Another top Adams aide – Timothy Pearson – had his phones subpoenaed, according to the sources.

Phil Banks’ brother Terence Banks, a former MTA official and current lobbyist, was also targeted in the actions, sources said.

The FBI raided the home of NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, law enforcement sources confirmed.Paul Martinka
Wright shares a home in Harlem with Phil and Terence Banks’ brother David Banks, who is the city’s school chancellor. It’s unclear if the raid targeted one or both of them.

The purpose of the raids and subpoenas remained unclear Thursday, but sources said it did not appear to be related to another federal investigation into Adams’ 2021 campaign’s dealings with Turkey.

“The Department is aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York involving members of service. The Department is fully cooperating in the investigation,” an NYPD spokesperson said in a statement Thursday, referring questions to Manhattan federal prosecutors.

Caban could not be reached for comment.

This is a developing story.

https://nypost.com/2024/09/05/us-news/fbi-raids-home-of-nypd-commish-edward-caban-other-close-eric-adams-allies/

Blinken to visit Haiti as US-backed mission to take on gangs struggles

 Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel Thursday to Haiti as the U.S. backs a struggling mission to restore order to the Caribbean nation plagued by armed gangs.

Blinken will meet with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille and Edgard Leblanc Fils, the presidential council coordinator for a transitional council that was set up over the spring to pave the way for new elections once the gangs are defeated.

During the visit, Blinken will discuss Haiti’s democratic transition and U.S. support to restore order and provide humanitarian support to the country, according to a State Department release.

Blinken will also meet with leaders of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, which is led by Kenya. The MSS first deployed some 400 police troops to Haiti at the end of June, with an expected 2,500 to arrive eventually.

After the trip to Haiti, Blinken will visit Haiti’s neighbor, the Dominican Republic, and meet with President Luis Abinader.

The trip marks Blinken’s first visit to Haiti since the MSS was deployed and gangs terrorized much of the nation, plunging it into a humanitarian crisis that threatens to spiral even further out of control.

The MSS has yet to stamp out the armed gangs that have taken over most of Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area, struggling with a lack of resources and manpower to lead the Haitian National Police in a mission to restore order.

The U.S. is the main benefactor of the mission, providing some $300 million to the MSS, while American contractors built the base from which the police work.

U.S. Southern Command, the military headquarters that oversees the Latin American region, has helped deliver crucial equipment for the police forces, including a delivery of Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles last month.

Conille told The Wall Street Journal this week that he lacks manpower and resources to take on the gangs, describing the situation as “the worst I’ve seen in my entire lifetime.”

“We’re doing this with absolutely nothing,” he said. “We need help.”

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4862192-blinken-visit-haiti-gangs/

Fed. Judge Slams NM Officials For Discriminating Against Election Watchdog

 Via Headline USA,

A federal judge said far-left New Mexico election regulators and prosecutors had discriminated against a nonprofit group in refusing access to voter registration rolls.

Albuquerque-based U.S. District Court Judge James Browning ruled that state election regulators engaged in viewpoint-based discrimination and free speech violations in denying the Voter Reference Foundation access to voter data and by referring the matter to state prosecutors.

Browning previously ruled that New Mexico authorities violated public disclosure provisions of the National Voter Registration Act by refusing to provide voter rolls to the same foundation, overriding a provision of a state law that restricts the use of voter registration data.

The Friday ruling barred the state from refusing to turn over voter data, bolstering the VRF’s efforts to expand a free database of registered voters in order to assist election-integrity watchdogs in rooting out potential irregularities or fraud.

State prosecutors planned to appeal the court ruling, said Lauren Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Justice.

Democrats inexplicably have fought tooth and nail against all efforts by activists and lawmakers to ensure the sanctity of the ballot, despite the presence of an estimated 10 to 15 million new illegal immigrants courtesy of the Biden–Harris open border policies. Many are automatically added to voter rolls when applying for drivers licenses and other government services unless they pro-actively affirm that they are ineligible to vote.

The VoteRef.com website recently restored New Mexico listings to its searchable database of registered voters—including street addresses, party affiliations and whether voters participated in recent elections.

Democrats have claimed that by granting conservative watchdog groups access to state voter rolls, the lists could find their way into the hands of malicious actors and voters could be disenfranchised through intimidation, possibly by canceling their registrations to avoid public disclosure of their home addresses and party affiliation.

There is no evidence that greater transparency regarding voter registration has resulted in intimidation, and in many states Democrats have registered as Republicans in order to cast votes against GOP nominee Donald Trump.

The foundation’s VoteRef.com site doesn’t list whom people voted for. It preserves confidentiality under a program that shields victims of domestic violence or stalking.

Addresses also remain confidential for more than 100 publicly elected or appointed officials in New Mexico, including Democrats and Republicans, enrolled in a separate safety program enacted in the aftermath of drive-by shootings on the homes of local lawmakers in Albuquerque in December 2022 and January 2023.

The data may, however, assist election-canvassers in tracking the locations of invalid mail-in ballots, particularly in swing states where a narrow margin could impact the outcome.

The VoteRef.com database includes voter information spanning more than 32 states and the District of Columbia. It is run by Gina Swoboda, chair of the Arizona Republican Party and organizer of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign in Arizona.

An audit of Arizona’s 2020 election, commissioned by the state Senate, revealed that substantially more mail-in ballots had been returned in Maricopa County than were documented as having been sent out.

The total number of irregularities identified by the Cyber Ninjas forensic auditing team outstripped the 10,457-vote margin by which state officials claimed Democrat Joe Biden had won the election in Arizona.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fed-judge-slams-new-mexico-officials-discriminating-against-election-watchdog

Senate Panel to Question US Chip Firms on Russian Weapons

 The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said on Thursday it will hold a hearing with four companies on the use of American-manufactured semiconductors in Russian weapons deployed in the war in Ukraine.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who chairs the panel, announced the hearing set for Tuesday will include testimony from executives from Analog Devices, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel and Texas Instruments.

The committee said the companies' "products have consistently appeared in recovered Russian weapons. The hearing will probe the companies’ compliance with export controls intended to block Russia from accessing American technology."

Intel declined to comment. The other three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The firms are sending vice presidents who oversee trade compliance issues to testify.

Blumenthal in February said at a hearing that U.S. semiconductor manufacturers should do more to keep their chips from illegally making their way into equipment used by the Russian military.

Reports have shown U.S.-origin chips and other technology continues to be found in a wide range of Russian equipment on the battlefield in Ukraine, from drones and radios to missiles and armored vehicles, despite strict U.S export controls imposed in 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Preliminary data shows significant increases since 2021 in exports to countries that Russia may be using to evade controls, according to a Senate memo released in February.

Intel said in February its contracts require customers and distributors to comply with regulations, and that it works to track and mitigate potential distributor issues.

Also in February, AMD said it "welcomes strengthening public/private partnerships to combat illicit product diversion." Texas Instruments said it invests "significant time and resources" to keep its chips "out of the hands of bad actors," while Analog Devices said it has taken "significant and proactive measures to mitigate gray market risks."

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-09-05/senate-panel-to-question-us-semiconductor-firms-on-russian-weapons

Evernorth's Accredo to make Stelara biosimilar available at $0 out-of-pocket

 Evernorth's Accredo specialty pharmacy will offer biosimilars for the popular immunotherapy Stelara at $0 for eligible patients, the company announced Thursday.

The interchangeable biosimilar will be produced by Evernorth's affiliate private label distributor, Quallent Pharmaceuticals, and will be available in early 2025, according to the announcement. The $0 out-of-pocket cost will be part of Quallent's copay assistance program, and Cigna expects that it will save patients about $4,000 per year on average.

In addition, the biosimilar's price will be about 80% lower than Stelara's list price, which would generate significant savings for employers and other plan sponsors that contract with Accredo, according to the announcement.

"We continue to believe in the power of biosimilars to achieve significant savings for patients and plan sponsors now and into the future," said Matt Perlberg, president of Evernorth Health Services’ pharmacy and care delivery businesses. “We are uniquely positioned to lower costs because of the leading capabilities we have in navigating the supply chain as well as the clinical expertise to help achieve the best patient health outcomes.”

The announcement comes on the heels of news in June that Accredo would make an interchangeable biosimilar for Humira available with a $0 copayment. Evernorth said 25% of Accredo patients are now on the biosim.

"We’re already seeing strong interest in the Humirabiosimilar made available to Accredo patients in June, and now we’re focused on improving affordability and access to another widely used, high-cost treatment for a variety of inflammatory conditions," said Perlberg.

More than 30,000 Accredo patients currently take Stelara, which opens the door to significant cost savings. Members are supported by Accredo's Therapeutic Resource Centers, which connect members with pharmacists or nurses around the clock, providing them with personalized care.

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/evernorths-accredo-make-stelara-biosimilar-available-0-out-pocket

The AI Paradox

 by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,

If the rush to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) seems familiar, it’s because we’ve seen this movie before. In the late nineties, organizations of all sizes, but especially large or enterprise-level businesses, struggled to make the transition from legacy functionality to digital transformation. As late as the COVID-19 pandemic and global lockdown in 2020, enterprise organizations were rushing to complete their digital transitions, particularly when it came to enabling and protecting widely distributed remote workers with home office operations, workflows, and compliance regulations.

What’s more, an AI arms race is well underway, as Microsoft, Apple, and other tech firms invest billions into AI products such as OpenAI. Everyone knows full well, or should, just how intense the race to dominate AI is at the global and corporate levels. It’s that transformative.

AI Altering Business Practices

There’s no question that AI is the next technological advancement that will fundamentally alter our way of life in the very near future, and perhaps for evermore. In fact, it already is and continues to do so. But in these early and heady AI days, there are practicality speed bumps, too.

For example, corporate executives and boards are encountering implementation and control roadblocks that are preventing their organizations from realizing more than just a fraction of AI potential, not to mention justifying the millions of dollars in spending that an enterprise-level AI deployment costs in streamlining their operations, optimizing workflow, harmonizing siloed divisions, and other organizational challenges that enterprise-level organizations struggle to handle well.

But that’s just the beginning of the challenges and risks that AI poses to even mid-size businesses as well as enterprise-level organizations.

The Risk to Privacy and Ethics

The promise of AI lies not only in its speed of data analytics but in its utter power to quickly access—and potentially abuse access—to personal information. Individuals’ private data are shielded by their legal right to privacy, and the responsibility to protect that privacy falls upon organizations that possess private data. If an AI-driven program or product is abused or even just not monitored, the risk of an enterprise finding itself in violation of privacy laws rises.

There’s also the risk of bias perpetuation and the resulting social impact of any biases that are baked into the AI program. These may well include the personal beliefs of the AI programmer or servicer, with outcomes that harm certain people with personal beliefs that are counter to those that are in the AI programming.

Unlawful surveillance is another risk that AI brings to organizations of all sizes. Do people have the right not to be surveilled when engaging in activities on their time? Do they have the right to their behavior not being commoditized with predictive analytics and sold to the marketplace repeatedly? They should, but in practice, it’s much more a case of technology outrunning our legal system’s ability to address the new challenges and risks. The risk of technological change and capabilities is just too fast.

Bias In AI

It’s worth examining the biases in AI a bit more closely. The adage “garbage in, garbage out” applies to the risks and impact of bias in AI as it’s applied to human beings and their individual beliefs, behaviors, and opinions. This also applies to business conduct standards, privacy concerns, and whatever other aspect of a business that can be assessed and valued—or devalued—by a subjective AI-driven process or program.

This is simply because AI is a product of its creator and, therefore, the creator’s biases. Objectivity is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain or communicate with regard to moral and ethical questions, the value of deliberation over speed, the often-complex processes of negotiation and compromise, or current benefit versus future benefits, market goodwill, and so forth.

AI Integration Risks and Challenges

In practical terms, many enterprises are finding that integrating AI into their current operations is difficult and disruptive. In many, if not most cases, organizational growth is both organic and organized, streamlined as well as siloed. That is, business practices and workflow nuances have evolved over time, often as a result of personality quirks, personal relationships within and outside of the organization, established business practices, and other “human factor” reasons why a business operates as it does.

The process of integrating AI-driven systems into such nuanced organizations and their workflows can not only be costly but also fundamentally alter the organization itself in such a way as to make it unrecognizable to its own workforce and/or executives. It can also result in expensive compliance violations. Such risks make costly integrations with weak results a justifiable fear among boards and executives.

Data Security in AI

One of the biggest risks of adopting AI-driven systems is the speed at which they can access all data across an enterprise. Not only are new cyberattacks enhanced by AI, but once inside a network, hackers are often able to access undefended machine-based or even human identities to quickly leverage a firm’s AI-driven system to accelerate attacks and uncover protected data, enhance data theft, and carry out ransomware attacks, all exponentially quicker.

In effect, attackers can now use enterprises’ AI-driven systems to aid in their own data loss before they even know they’ve been breached. AI is essentially a tool that does the work of whoever controls it. This was the case with Microsoft’s Copilot for Microsoft 365, where researchers used Copilot to quickly locate and exfiltrate critical data with just a few prompts, something that no hacker could ever do before.

Legal Risks

Given that we live in a highly litigious society, the risks that AI poses to enterprises are significant and challenging. The truth is that AI-driven programs, tools, and solutions will continue to be rapidly adopted. At the same time, the risks to intellectual property, and the liability that AI represents to organizations in terms of regulatory compliance, accountability, privacy, and ethical concerns won’t go away any time soon.

Businesses and organizations are rushing to bring on AI and deploy it as soon as possible, if for no other reason that they don’t want to be left behind. “Innovate or die,” after all, isn’t just an over-the-top saying; for many firms, it’s a statement of fact.

Artificial intelligence is inevitable, no matter what I write in this article. Before too long, AI will be monitoring organizations across the nation and around the world. That transformation will be much quicker than the prior digital revolution in the economy, which took up to 20 years.

But in all of this, one obvious question remains: “Who monitors AI?”

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/ai-paradox