Tech billionaires seem to be doom prepping. Should we all be worried?

Mark Zuckerberg is said to have started work on Koolau Ranch, his sprawling 1,400-acre compound on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, as far back as 2014.

It is set to include a shelter, complete with its own energy and food supplies, though the carpenters and electricians working on the site were banned from talking about it by non-disclosure agreements, according to a report by Wired magazine.

A six-foot wall blocked the project from view of a nearby road.

Asked last year if he was creating a doomsday bunker, the Facebook founder gave a flat "no". The underground space spanning some 5,000 square feet is, he explained, "just like a little shelter, it's like a basement".

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly17834524o

Elon Musk and Icarus

I wonder if Elon Musk is like Icarus.

The Obscene Wealth Of The Ruling Class & Why You Should Hate Them Even More Rob Larson

Keith Olbermann on 09-11

I found this video in the YouTube Archives of a Special Comment from Keith Olbermann from September 11, 2006

On Feeling Obliged

Ukraine war: Iran 'sends hundreds of missiles to Russia' in 'dramatic escalation'

Source: Sky News

Iran is believed to have sent more than 200 ballistic missiles to Russia - a move security chiefs say would be a "dramatic escalation" of its defence partnership with Moscow.

A Russian ship delivered the short-range Fatah-360 missiles from Tehran to a port in the Caspian Sea, a Ukrainian source told Sky News on Saturday.

Ukraine and its allies in the West have long feared that Iran has been supplying Russia with ballistic missiles.

So far it has supplied Vladimir Putin's forces with large quantities of attack drones - as well as artillery shells and ammunition.



Read more: https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-iran-sends-hundreds-of-missiles-to-russia-in-dramatic-escalation-13211063

Wynn Resorts Paying $130M for Letting Illegal Money Reach Gamblers at Its Las Vegas Strip Casino

Source: Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Casino company Wynn Resorts Ltd. has agreed to pay $130 million to federal authorities and admit that it let unlicensed money transfer businesses around the world funnel funds to gamblers at its flagship Las Vegas Strip property.

The publicly traded company said a non-prosecution settlement reached Friday represented a monetary figure identified by the U.S. Justice Department as “funds involved in the transactions at issue” at the Wynn Las Vegas resort.

In statements to the media and to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said the forfeiture wasn’t a fine and findings in the decade-long case didn’t amount to money laundering.

U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath in San Diego said the settlement showed that casinos are accountable if they let foreign customers evade U.S. laws. She said $130 million was believed to be the largest forfeiture by a casino “based on admissions of criminal wrongdoing.”

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/nevada/articles/2024-09-07/wynn-resorts-paying-130m-for-letting-illegal-money-reach-gamblers-at-its-las-vegas-strip-casino

California Woman Moves To Texas For Freedom, Returns Citing High Costs And Political Exhaustion

A woman from California who moved to Texas because of the COVID-19
vaccine mandate returned after four months because Texas was expensive
and everyone was obsessed with politics.

In an essay sent to Business Insider, Kellee Speakman, 50, said she
moved with her family from Temecula, California, to the Dallas-Fort
Worth area in March 2022. She said she moved to the Lone Star state
because her brother was moving there too, but also because of some
California policies.

“I was being told that as a teacher, I was going to have to get the
COVID-19 vaccine, and I didn’t want it,” Speakman wrote. “I
consider myself to be pretty conservative. There are a lot of
California policies I’m not in favor of.” She added that many
people were moving to Texas at the time saying there was “freedom”
in the state.

Soon, she realized that Texas was not as cheap as she had been told.
She said that it was true that Texas has no income taxes, but the
property taxes were “horrific” and services were more expensive.

Read more at https://www.reformaustin.org/lifestyle/california-woman-moves-to-texas-for-freedom-returns-citing-high-costs-and-political-exhaustion/

Army advisor who bilked Gold Star families for $10 million gets 12 years in prison

An Army reservist who scammed Gold Star families — particularly grieving wives and mothers who spoke little English — will spend more than 12 years in prison. New Jersey Army Reservist Caz Craffy bilked over $10 million from grieving families, most with minimal financial literacy and many of whom were immigrants, the lawyer representing the families told Task & Purpose.

An FBI agent who worked on the case said, “heartless and despicable don’t even begin to sum up his crimes.”

Craffy, also known as Carz Craffey, admitted in April to defrauding Gold Star families when he tricked them into putting $10 million into an investment scheme, lost $3.7 million of it on risky financial bets, and kept $1.4 million for himself, according to the Department of Justice. Craffy admitted that he convinced the families that the financial investments were approved by the Army.

A federal judge sentenced Craffy to 151 months Wednesday.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-scam-gold-star-families/

Hunter Biden reportedly sought US government help for Ukrainian gas company Burisma

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden asked the U.S. ambassador to Italy for help regarding an energy project a Ukrainian gas company was pursuing while his father was vice president, according to The New York Times.

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, wrote a letter to the ambassador in 2016 seeking assistance for Burisma, which had been working on a geothermal project in Italy, the newspaper reported, citing newly released records and interviews.

At the time, Hunter Biden sat on the board of Burisma, which was having trouble getting regulatory approval for the project, a businessman involved in the project told the newspaper

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-burisma-state-department-italy-1053ec65050e45e6a03905b960a87445