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speak easy's Journal

August 16, 2023

The Putin Connection: Rupert Murdoch 'might be in love' with Elena Zhukova.

Elena Zhukova is the Russian mother of Roman Abramovich's ex-wife Dasha Zhukova, and grandmother of his two children, Aaron and Leah.

Rupert Murdoch reportedly dating Roman Abramovich’s former mother-in-law

Rupert Murdoch has reportedly begun a romance with the former mother-in-law of Roman Abramovich months after calling off what would have been his fifth wedding.

The 92-year-old media mogul is said to be dating Elena Zhukova, 66, whose daughter Darya was married to Russian oligarch Mr Abramovich until 2018.

Ms Zhukova, who has been divorced twice, has lived in America since leaving Russia in 1991 and is a friend of Mr Murdoch’s third wife Wendi Deng, through whom they met.

It has been reported that Mr Murdoch’s two daughters by Ms Deng, Grace and Chloe, are also aboard the 18-bedroom yacht, which was formerly owned by the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis and is said to cost more than £600,000 a week to rent. It was spotted off the coast of Corfu this week.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/other/rupert-murdoch-reportedly-dating-roman-abramovich-s-former-mother-in-law/ar-AA1fgLKV

Perhaps Elena can make an honest man of him and make his ties to the Kremlin official. After all, Rupert needs a native Russian speaker in his bedroom for those special late night calls

August 16, 2023

TFG's "CONCLUSIVE Report" - I really don't understand this.

Honest question, what's going on? He's lost it before he's lost it?

EDIT: Trump Plans to Release 100-Page Report on Georgia Election Fraud Claims
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/15/us/politics/trump-election-report-georgia-indictment.html

August 14, 2023

RFK Jr.'s campaign tries to walk back his support of three-month federal abortion ban

CNN Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign on Sunday evening quickly tried to walk back comments the Democratic presidential candidate had made earlier in the day in support of a nationwide abortion restriction after the first three months of pregnancy.

Kennedy, who’s waging a long-shot bid for the nomination against President Joe Biden, had said that he believes “a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life,” but that “the state has an interest” in restricting abortions after the first trimester and that he would support a federal law banning abortions after that period.

According to video of the exchange, the NBC reporter had asked Kennedy, “So three months, you would sign a federal cap on that?” to which he replied, “Yes, I would.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/13/politics/rfk-jr-abortion-ban-iowa/index.html

The Kennedy campaign said he misunderstood the question “in a crowded, noisy exhibit hall at the Iowa State Fair.”

August 12, 2023

Exclusive-DeSantis and his backers paid $95,000 to Iowa religious leader's group, documents show

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis scrambles to shore up his struggling run for the Republican presidential nomination, he has spent far more than any rival on courting an influential Christian conservative leader and his following in the key early voting state of Iowa.

Trailing far behind former President Donald Trump in national polls and beset by turmoil in his campaign, DeSantis and his advisers are spending heavily in Iowa in hopes of stalling Trump’s momentum by beating him in the state’s caucuses on Jan. 15, where Republicans begin to choose their next presidential nominee. The state’s influential evangelical voting base is crucial to that strategy.

The DeSantis campaign, a super PAC linked to him and a nonprofit group supporting him together paid $95,000 in recent months to the Family Leader Foundation, an Iowa-based nonprofit led by evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats, according to campaign finance reports and a document prepared by an Iowa state lawmaker who was helping the Vander Plaats organization raise money for a July 14 presidential candidate forum.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/exclusive-desantis-and-his-backers-paid-95000-to-iowa-religious-leader-s-group-documents-show/ar-AA1fb1Zi

August 11, 2023

Lahaina, Hawaii.

August 10, 2023

GOP donor Anton Lazzaro sentenced to 21 years for sex trafficking minors in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A formerly well-connected GOP donor convicted of giving teenage girls gifts, alcohol and money in exchange for sex was sentenced Wednesday to 21 years in prison on sex trafficking charges.

Anton “Tony” Lazzaro was found guilty in March by a federal jury of seven counts involving “commercial sex acts” with five girls ages 15 and 16 in 2020, when Lazzaro was 30. The charges carried mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years with a maximum of life in prison.

Prosecutors had requested a 30-year sentence for Lazzaro. They likened Lazzaro to financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested in 2019 on federal charges accusing him of paying underage girls for massages and then abusing them at his homes in Florida and New York. The defense asked for no more than 10 years.

“He’s a sex trafficker,” prosecutor Laura Provinzino said. “One who has shown absolutely no remorse. He has accepted no responsibility for his crimes.”

https://apnews.com/article/anton-tony-lazzaro-gop-operative-sex-trafficking-e4fc3e85fe5597b645e74d921246b963

August 10, 2023

Tech workers react to UPS drivers landing a $170K a year total renumeration package.

Tech workers react to UPS drivers landing a $170,000 a year package with a mixture of anger and admiration

During an earnings call on Tuesday, UPS CEO Carol Tomé said that by the end of its five-year contract with the Teamsters union, the average full-time UPS driver would make about $170,000 in annual pay and benefits, such as healthcare and pension benefits. The comments were made after UPS came to a tentative agreement to head off a potential strike last month with the Teamsters, the union that represents around 340,000 UPS delivery drivers and package handlers. The agreement has yet to be officially approved by union members, but the results of a vote on the issue will be announced later this month. Some tech workers on social media pointed out the salary boost could make the drivers' salaries more competitive with white collar employees — and big tech workers responded with a mix of ire and appreciation for the union.

"This is disappointing, how is possible that a driver makes much more than average Engineer in R&D?" a worker at the autonomous trucking company TuSimple wrote on Blind, an anonymous jop-posting site that verifies users' employment using their company email. "To get a base salary of $170k you know you need to work hard as an Engineer, this sucks."

It is important to note that the $170,000 figure represents the entire value of the UPS package, including benefits and does not represent the base salary. Currently, UPS drivers make an average of around $95,000 per year with an additional $50,000 in benefits, according to the company. The average median salary for an engineer in the US is $103,845 with a base pay of about $91,958, according to Glassdoor. And TuSimple research engineers can make between $161,000 to $250,000 in compensation, Glassdoor data shows.

Despite some tech workers' resentment, many workers pointed out UPS drivers work under difficult conditions."Stop behaving like an elitist!" an Amazon worker wrote on Blind. "Why do you [think] someone driving long haul should make less than an engineer? What they do is important work. How do you think the grocery stores get stocked or your favorite stores? It's these long haul drivers risking their lives driving 12 hour days sometimes in harsh weather.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/tech-workers-react-to-ups-drivers-landing-a-170-000-a-year-package-with-a-mixture-of-anger-and-admiration/ar-AA1f1rJG

Q: 'How is it possible .. ?'
A: Union Strong.

August 10, 2023

If Trump flees, it will be to Dubai - my 2c

Dubai, where the ultra rich live in near total security and anonymity, while enjoying the city's similarly ultra exclusive, top rated golf courses, of which there are out of five. He would never have to mix with MAGA plebs again.

August 9, 2023

Massive explosion hits plant near Moscow, injuring dozens

Source: NBC News

A massive explosion rocked a factory in the Moscow region on Wednesday, injuring dozens and blowing out windows in nearby buildings, local officials said.

At least 45 people were hurt with six in intensive care as a result of the blast at the Zagorsk optical-mechanical plant in the city of Sergiev Posad, northeast of the Russian capital, the district administration said in a post on Telegram.

The incident happened around 10:40 a.m. local time (3:40 a.m. ET) in a pyrotechnics warehouse rented on the territory of the plant by a "private company," Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said on Telegram.

Russia's federal investigative agency said it launched a criminal probe into the incident, citing a "violation of industrial safety requirements for hazardous production facilities," but said it was trying to establish the cause of the blast.

The Moscow Governor said it was [someone smoking?] in a fireworks warehouse. Ukraine says it was a new factory about to make optical parts for the T-80 and T-90 tanks.

August 8, 2023

I can't watch 'Morning Joe.'

I can't stand hearing a man talk over a woman as soon as she starts speaking.

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