PS: I got around to reading, RKU's, aka (definitely) Ron Unz's comments. This was a good insight:

RKU says:
August 19, 2013 at 10:48 pm GMT • 11.7 years ago • 100 Words ↑
Well, I've always suspected it's because the Chinese language isn't alphabetic and hence can't use the sort of acronyms and abbreviations so common in most other languages. So the only way you can "abbreviate" a list of related Chinese items is to call them the "Seven Whatevers." But that's just my casual speculation.

Yeah, there's no alphabet in China. (Until powerful software came along, used to allow typing of PinYin and completion with Chinese characters.) How do you organize a dictionary? From what I'm told it's from least amount of squiggles to most, but I'm not sure about that.

PS: Yes, I read that same comment that you did, Mr. Hail, regarding the RKU handle for "some guy" who wrote on Steve Sailer's site. What was the middle name - it sounded kind of odd?

I'll check out your link. Thanks for the advice on changing the variables within the URL.

PS: "Who'd a thunk a Christmas photo with the Obamas would be so expensive?" My thoughts exactly? I wouldn't give $100 to have my picture taken with that man, even if they didn't mind me doing that devil horns thing behind his head for fun... or not.

That story about the rapper kind of lost me once I read the word "rapper". I did wonder if he was something other than black, to get involved in this kind of political thing - it's usually all blackety-black or money motivations for these people, though sometimes Communism, when said Communism touts ... blackety-black - but, nope, he's a black guy.

PS: Regarding the accumulation of $53,000 in cash, or similar amounts, Mr. Smith addressed this already. I know there is some minimum reportable amount that Big Gov wants to know about ("muh drug war!"), but I'd figured that was on deposits more than withdrawals. Drug dealers and innocent people who just don't like sending hard-earned money to the IRS may want to get money into the banking system.

As for teller machines, I've had one give me $800 one time recently - I'm not sure how high I could have gone. It even asks what denominations I want. (No, not all ones, but that'd be fun!)

I'd guess this cash came from other sources than the banking system, were she and her hubby really spies.

PS: Good morning, Mr. Hail,

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/media/1387866/dl

𝐴𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑎𝑠ℎ-𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑙 𝑚𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑏𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡?

Officially the number is $10,000 but I've heard of some banks notifying the IRS at some other lower number. Perhaps $5000? There is also something called a suspicious activity report (SAR) and as far as I know these can be filed for pretty much any dollar amount no matter how small. (The Alarmist knows much more about these sorts of things than I do.)

𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟-𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑠 (𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑏𝑒ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚)? 𝐷𝑖𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑦-𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛-𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑎 𝑓𝑒𝑤 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑-𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛-𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝐴𝑇𝑀 106 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠, 𝑎𝑡 $500 𝑎 𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑐𝑒, 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑛𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑠ℎ? 𝑂𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 "𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤 $53,000 𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑠ℎ 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑚𝑒"? 𝑂𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 $53,000 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑎𝑠ℎ 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑘𝑒𝑝𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑜𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑?

There is very little chance that she made one (or even a few) withdrawal(s) from the bank. Banks simply do not keep much cash on hand these days because most people do not use cash.

As you know, I live in a sleepy little mountain town. The county (284 sq miles) has a population of about 35,000. I can report with certainty that if you try to withdraw more than a few thousand from one of our local bank branches there is a good chance that they will not have enough cash to make the transaction. Especially if you want it all in hundreds.

If you want to withdraw even as low as $2000 but certainly more than ~$5000 it is a good idea to talk to the bank manager the day before so they can order enough cash to have for the transaction.

Now, this may not be the case in Vienna, Virginia as Fairfax county (391 sq miles) has a population of more than a million. But I would imagine that even if they keep more cash in the bank for daily transactions there will be some limit. I find it hard to believe that Mr. Rodger's wife (I can't find her name anywhere) could withdraw $53,000 in a single transaction. I find it much more plausible that she had collected this cash over a period of time either through small withdrawals or by selling goods and/or services for cash.

Happy Wednesday! ☮️

PS: Good morning, everyone!

https://i.ibb.co/DD3J0TYw/Jho-Low-20-million-dollars-Obama-Christmas-photo.jpg

On Pras and victimless crimes...

https://www.reuters.com/legal/fugees-star-says-money-malaysian-financier-was-obama-photo-not-campaign-donation-2023-04-19/
https://www.techarp.com/money/jho-low-20-million-obama-photo/
https://archive.ph/ewOX3

𝐹𝑢𝑔𝑒𝑒𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑀𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑂𝑏𝑎𝑚𝑎 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜, 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

𝑅𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑃𝑟𝑎𝑘𝑎𝑧𝑟𝑒𝑙 "𝑃𝑟𝑎𝑠 𝑀𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑙" 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑢𝑔𝑒𝑒𝑠, 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑇𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑦, 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 $20 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑀𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝐽ℎ𝑜 𝐿𝑜𝑤 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑎 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑂𝑏𝑎𝑚𝑎.

𝐵𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑎 𝑗𝑢𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑊𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑡𝑜𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑚𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝐿𝑜𝑤, 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑎 𝑓𝑢𝑔𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑧𝑧𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 $4.5 𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑀𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑎'𝑠 1𝑀𝐷𝐵 𝑠𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑡ℎ 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑑, 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑜.

𝑀𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑙 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑 $40,000-𝑎-𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑂𝑏𝑎𝑚𝑎. 𝑀𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑙 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠.

"𝑂𝑛𝑐𝑒 ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦, 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑚𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝐼 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑚𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦."

Looks to me like Pras performed a valuable service for Jho Low. Who'd a thunk a Christmas photo with the Obamas would be so expensive?

☮️

PS

Moderator: "I can't see Ron Unz as a Chinese agent"

Somebody pointed out that Ron Unz had been commenting on the old 'iSteve' Steve Sailer blogspot-blog, back between 2007 and 2014. The username he used was "RKU." This started soon after comments were allowed (with the switch-over to blogspot in 2006/07 and ending with the switch-over to Unz (after which his comments are under the "Ron Unz" handle).

RKU is definitely Ron Unz, as confirmed by his own comments referring at times in the first-person to articles written by "Ron Unz."

If you search the comment-history of RKU, you see that even in the 2000s Ron Unz was quite pro-China. When that began, and why, I don't know.

https://www.unz.com/?s=China&ptype=all&commentsearch=only&commenter=RKU&sortby=earliest&Action=Search

(Or insert any word into that link in place of "China" to see what comes up.)

PS

"I can see someone getting sucked in slowly (no, not what you're thinking!) to a point that he finally realizes, maybe not even that he's been had, but that he's really talked way too much."

I'd classify this under the MICE category "Compromise". This specific case is a highly soft case of Compromise, but the mechanism works psychologically. Once you realize you've crossed a line, you have a serious moral dilemma similar to someone who has become involved with the mafia. It's easier to get in than to get out. And how will the people in position to hurt me even know about what goes on behind closed Chinese-hotel doors? (Apparently they did, or are claiming they did, which I still want to know "how"; the missing info itself suggests considerable 'spying' by the U.S. side too).

The extreme end of the Compromise category are the kinds of operations Jeffrey Epstein was said to have run. And possibly the influence operation that someone (perhaps the Mossad) was running against Elon Musk in the past few years, of which this "secret baby with a Jewish MAGA influencer" ("Ashley St. Clair") story, recently reported, is either a direct result or an indirect byproduct. Assuming the "spy" angle here, the revelation of the secret baby may have been an influence-op asset ("Ashley St. Clair") going off the reservation (a manifestation of a form of female mental-instability or at least attention-seeking).

PS

"I bet (alleged FED spy Rogers' PRC-Chinese wife) has great difficulty with the English language during traffic stops too."

Good point.

With regard to the $53,000 cash, I wonder where she accumulated it, that is to say the physical paper-bills (not the value behind them)? Did she walk down the trusty-old American-made sidewalk a few blocks and make withdrawals from the good-old American-made ATM 106 times, at $500 a piece, over the period of a year, and never spent a penny of the cash? Or did she walk into her bank once with a note saying "Please withdraw $53,000 in cash from me"? Or did she perform $53,000 worth of cash services and kept the money on hand?

One of the insinuations in the Wash Post article may be that the money was illicit; with Adam Smith and Alarmist saying it's not that much and that there are many possible valid reasons to keep cash. In her case, one valid reason was probably her large number of long visits back to China, and not wanting to deal with international fees, errors, card-blockages, holdups, and digital-trails. If she was spending most of her time in China but her (her husband's) money was mostly in U.S. bank(s), that makes sense absent any active "espionage" activity.

Is there a limit on cash withdrawals at banks? At what level of cash-withdrawal might the bank be triggered to report to the government?

PS: SafeNow wrote: "(If I ever post something clever, a good talking point, am I like, a Chinese agent?)" On the Unz site, they have a surplus of Chinese agents writing comments, so don't expect to make a lot of money. ;-}

As much as I wonder about him, I can't see Ron Unz as a Chinese agent. He may be slightly prone to flattery - going by the comment section - he doesn't need the money, and, per commenter Thomm, he's got Kamela, so why would he need a Chinese hottie?

If their goal is to make everything about America look bad, then, yeah, why not bankroll a site like The Unz Review? You need to oust common sense guys like Steve Sailer and Paul Kersey, get rid of the "Chi-Comm" realists like John Derbyshire, get rid of your Michelle Malkins, your Pat Buchanans, your Ron Pauls, wait a minute... they ARE all mostly gone.

Ron Paul's column is still active.

O/T even farther, but I still would like to see Ron Unz or Steve Sailer praise President Trump-47 directly, just one time.

PS: The ego/flattery thing does sound like it can be a big motivation for some spies. I'll search for a picture of the Chinese woman later on.

"At what point did he know he was "spying," surrounded as he was by East-Asian flatterers?" True. It's sort of a longer-term "honey pot" deal. Rather than just sex drawing him in, I can see someone getting sucked in slowly (no, not what you're thinking!) to a point that he finally realizes, maybe not even that he's been had, but that he's really talked way too much. At this point, even if those he's been talking to aren't spies, they may as well be, as far as the law is concerned, since they are not supposed to know all that.

Since this lady was a spy, I guess he could have figured he's in it too deep (ditto here!), so he may as well go with it and make a bunch of money.

PS: I was away from things here for a couple of days, so I am sorry for the lack of replies. OTOH, you all don't need me - this discussion was interesting. I appreciate the 2 pasted-in Washington Post articles for 2 reasons: 1) I don't want to be "seen" reading that rag, but if I did 2) I have a feeling the article might be paywalled or the ads would be very annoying.

I agree with you, Adam, that there's no crime in having cash. Since there was an investigation going on into possible espionage, I guess the presence of cash might be part of it. Then, for a Chinese lady to keep cash at home, in (what used to be) large amounts is not unusual. Mr. Rogers, OTOH, ought to be keeping his money in Treasuries, right, being a proud FED employee? I kid...

"Rogers’s wife has difficulty communicating in English, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, Rogers has limited Chinese skills, according to his indictment." Somehow, I don't believe the first part. I bet she has great difficulty with the English language during traffic stops too. I don't know why, but I find it more credible that Mr. Rogers doesn't know Chinese. It's hard!! (Then, so is English for Chinese people.)

Yes, nearly $1/2 million annually is pretty good money for being a part time Professor.

PS

Surprise development?

Bannon calls for Musk to be put in stockades and removed from influence:

https://www.unz.com/isteve/the-rights-weird-new-age/#comment-7001254

PS

$53k is the kind of walking-around money one keeps around so one doesn’t need to pop out to a local ATM in the middle of the night.

Or as Jim Morrison once sang, “I never be so broke that I couldn’t leave town.”

Figures the Man would convict a Brutha during Black History Month, which, coïncidentally, the Man made the shortest month.

Trump rounding up Israeli spies ... Lulz 😂

🕉

PS

CORRECTION to last line in previous comment: "...until Israel agrees to STOP killing Palestinians"

PS

another take-down

______________________

Fugees rapper convicted in US over lobbying campaigns with Malaysian financier

April 27, 2023
Reuters

WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - A jury on Wednesday convicted Grammy Award-winning rapper Prakazrel "Pras" Michel of The Fugees hip hop group on criminal charges that he conspired with a Malaysian financier to orchestrate a series of foreign lobbying campaigns aimed at influencing the U.S. government under two presidents.

His conviction in federal court in Washington followed a trial that was filled with political intrigue and featured high-profile witnesses including Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Michel endured a blistering cross-examination by prosecutors while testifying in his own defense.

Michel was charged with 10 counts of crimes including conspiracy, acting as an agent of a foreign government, witness tampering and falsifying campaign finance records. Prosecutors accused him of plotting with Malaysian businessman Jho Low to attempt to influence the administrations of Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Low, who also faces separate federal charges in New York that he embezzled $4.5 billion from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, remains at large.

(....)

The Fugees won two Grammy Awards for their best-selling 1996 album "The Score." But by 2012, according to prosecutors, Michel was in desperate need of cash and found a solution through Low, who was known to throw elaborate parties and pay celebrities big sums of money.

Prosecutors said Michel agreed to funnel about $2 million from Low into Obama's 2012 re-election campaign in exchange for receiving millions of dollars. Because federal election law prohibits foreigners from donating to U.S. campaigns, prosecutors said Michel masked the source of the funds.

(end quote from article)

_______________________

This was a very Third World case, with an East-Asian money-man paying off a Black person to influence the U.S. government, and all they had to do was look past a few mean-old White Man's laws, a victimless crime!

If this rapper's illegal foreign-influence-op activities dated back to 2012, why did they wait until May 2019 to go after him? (And finally convicted him in April 2023). The answer is a directive to put up the pressure on influence-op people. The first directive of this kind actually came under Trump-I but firmed itself up and continued all thru Biden.

(side-note: the influence-op in this "Pras" case was tied to a country, Malaysia, than bans all Israelis from entry until Israel agrees to killing Palestinians. As Israel has says they refused to agree to this, Malaysia continues to ban Israelis from entering Malaysia. The joke's on them, on Malaysia, though, because so many of the Israelis who'd WANT to go to Malaysia can simply whip out their gold-plated dual-citizen passport and enter as "Americans" etc.!)

PS: Good evening, Mr. Hail,

𝑂𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒 𝐵𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑓-𝐼𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡, 𝑛𝑜𝑟 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑈.𝑆. 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛? 𝐼'𝑚 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒. 𝑁𝑖𝑥𝑜𝑛? 𝐸𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑛ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟?

Every president since Theodore Roosevelt, except (maybe?) Jimmy Carter, has strongly endorsed the zionist project in Palestine...

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/teddy-roosevelt-one-of-americas-earliest-zionist-presidents-opinion-682894
https://njop.org/president-william-howard-taft-friend-of-the-jews-2/
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/woodrow-wilson-was-a-hero-to-jews
https://brandeiscenter.com/franklin-roosevelt-founder-of-israel/
https://library.bowdoin.edu/arch/mss/m200-5-11b1f21.pdf
(etc. ad infinitum)

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter
https://tinyurl.com/4398c98y

I found the 𝐼𝑠𝑟𝑎𝑒𝑙 𝐸𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 to the Foreign Agents Registration Act
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/613

Too bad Pras wasn't working for Our Greatest Ally™...
https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2024/01/the-us-foreign-agents-registration-act-fara-key-issues-to-watch-in-2024
https://www.lefloridien.com/haitian-rapper-pras-michel-found-guilty-in-scheme-to-help-china-influence-us-government/

(The Foreign Agents Registration Act and related statutes)
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/chapter-11/subchapter-II
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/219
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/951

I have not yet found the original Spy-Hunting directive memorandum, but there is some chatter about Pam Bondi rolling back some of those FARA policies...
https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2025/02/attorney-general-announces-shift-in-foreign-agents

For whatever that's worth.

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/376/605/

Cheers! ☮️

PS

Thanks for your comments, Mr. Smith:

From what I've heard, some time not too long ago, a year or two or three ago, the U.S. justice system received a directive to bag more spies and violators of the Unregistered Foreign Agents Act (except for those acting on behalf of the USA's single greatest ally). This was taken seriously. Many cases were brought forward, including questionable ones.

That one Haitian-origin rapper from the 1990s was ensnared in the net; and that one U.S. Senator, Menendez, who is now in prison for bribes; and dozens and dozens more.

I don't know what caused this Spy-Hunting directive. It could be a by-product of the Russia Collusion mania of the Blompf-I period. A lot of the indictments also raise alarming questions about the extent of surveillance of people the USA undertakes. (I ask again, how did they know who this man was meeting in a hotel room in China? Then again, they were already on his tail and monitoring him, but it still suggests their 'spied' on him in China.)

I'd be more impressed with Blempf-II if instead of the budget-cut and sudden-firing theatrics, he announced he'd bagged twenty spies and agents of Israel and was sending them to Guantanamo. (Of course he'd never do that, nor would any U.S. president since, when? I'm not sure. Nixon? Eisenhower?)

PS: 𝑂𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙...

Should be:
Or to distract from something more substantial.
Or to distract from something more consequential.
Or to distract from something more important.

You get the idea. ☮️

PS: Good afternoon, everyone!

Archived versions of Mr. Hail's Washington Post articles...

Ex-Federal Reserve adviser indicted on charge of economic espionage
https://archive.ph/FyMWG

A former Fed economist, $50,000 in cash and charges of spying
https://archive.ph/VMcHF


If the allegation is true that 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 “𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈.𝑆. 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡, 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔,” then what the hell was the (((Fed))) planning on doing with this confidential information? (I don't think the Fed or any so called "government" agency or "government" adjacent agency should be allowed to have any confidential information. Ever. For any reason. Though I suppose that is beside the point.)

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝐷𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛𝑦 ℎ𝑦𝑝𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡 𝑠𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑡 $1 𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛.

Unsurprisingly, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑦𝑒𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑢𝑝 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑚.

I don't know. Sounds like speculation. Or slander. Maybe this guy is innocent? I mean, if he was a spy and engaged in criminal activity why on Earth would he even return to Virginia in 2025? (Why would he ever return to the states at all?) He was living in China, where armed U.S. "government" employees were (presumably) unable to apprehend him. He knew he was on their radar (he had been questioned by investigators sometime in 2020), so unless he's innocent or hopelessly stupid, why would he put himself in jeopardy by traveling to the belly of the beast? For a supposedly intelligent man, this behavior does not make much sense.

Mr. Hail asks, 𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 $53,000 𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑠ℎ 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡 𝑏𝑜𝑥 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈.𝑆. ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑢𝑝 𝑎𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑢𝑠𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑?

Well... Many of us do not trust U.S. financial institutions. (When you deposit cash in a bank, you no longer have a property right in that cash; it now belongs to the bank.)(Well, ackshually, cash itself cannot be considered a "property" in the legal sense, as it represents a medium of exchange rather than a tangible asset with ownership rights attached to it. If anyone "owns" a Federal Reserve Note it is the Federal Reserve. Not you nor I. But I digress...)

Perhaps $53,000 really isn't much to this woman.(?) Just some quick running cash she keeps on hand. Contrary to popular belief, having cash is not a crime. It is interesting to me how the press frames this as proof of nefarious intent or action.

So, yeah. I don't know about this story. Seems like it may be some bullshit story to entertain the proles. Or to distract from something of more substantial.

https://i.ibb.co/ZzWtXLWL/Look-A-Squirrel.jpg
(Anyway...)

I hope you guys all have a great Monday! ☮️

PS
Mr. Moderator writes “we know you’re reading.”. I agree. On Unz I have posted several times “hello, super-smart Chinese Intel lady who has been assigned to read for clever or insightful comments made by conservative commenters. (If I ever post something clever, a good talking point, am I like, a Chinese agent?)

PS

RE: what would motivate a White man to spy for PRC-China, the JOHN H. ROGERS case.

M, you write that is important "Ego" to many spies. I agree, certainly it's present in many as an outright-primary motivator. Those who see it as a "game" and don't even have ideological motivations at all, don't care about the money. Life as a video game where you aim for points.

There were some cases of spies for the Soviet Union in the U.S. intelligence agencies who were said to be genuine normal-American-patriot types and no secret ideological secret-life was ever uncovered. The puzzle of why this type of spy did what he did was probably a "diagnosable" personality problem of some kind, wanting to "show he could get away with it." Similar to the motivation of some serial killers.

There is another form of ego-based spying, or the path to it: "Oh my, these nice oriental people are so impressed by my great knowledge and ability. I like this feeling. Let's keep talking."

Flattery and ingratiation, via a variety of methods, and kept up over a long period of time or even indefinitely (systematized, you might say), possibly coordinated among people whose connections are unknown to the "target." Flattery is long recognized as an specialty of Asians. (Another hallmark is cruelty; a strange combination that doesn't seem to match in Western Man's frame of the world; but those who over-use flattery and cruelty and somehow make the two fit together are a product of different civilization(s)...)

I wonder about this latest case of spying:

John H. Rogers (b.1961?).

I had a hard time placing what is motivation would be, how much to assign to each of the MICCE categories in his case. Then a key piece of information came out that changed how I saw it:

"Rogers's wife (is) a Chinese national whom prosecutors said spends much of her time in China... Rogers’s wife has difficulty communicating in English, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, Rogers has limited Chinese skills, according to his indictment."

The indictment says Rogers was recruited during at least a five-year process, 2013-2018, began spying in 2018, and gave information that would allegedly allow the PRC-China government to profit at U.S. expense around $1 billion.

When did he marry his Chinese wife? Might she have had a role in influencing him? At what point did he know he was "spying," surrounded as he was by East-Asian flatterers?

I'll repost the bulk of two relevant articles here:


.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/01/31/federal-reserve-john-rogers-arrested-china/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/08/john-harold-rogers-federal-reserve-charges-investigation/

__________________________

EX-FEDERAL RESERVE ADVSIER INDICTED ON CHARGE OF ECONOMIC ESPIONAGE

John H. Rogers is accused of leaking inside information, briefing books from the Fed to two Chinese co-conspirators.

Feb 1, 2025
By Tom Jackman
Washington Post

A former senior adviser to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors was arrested Friday and accused of leaking inside information from the Fed to the Chinese government over a period of several years, at one point receiving a $450,000 payment, and then lying about it to Fed investigators.

Economist John Harold Rogers, 63, of Vienna, Virginia, worked in the Division of International Finance of the Fed from 2010 until 2021, according to an indictment unsealed Friday in federal court in the District. Last year, he told a podcaster that he had retired from the Fed in May 2021, approximately a year after he had been questioned by investigators for the Fed’s inspector general and allegedly lied about how he accessed and transmitted sensitive information to two unnamed Chinese co-conspirators.

After leaving the Fed, Rogers moved his family to Shanghai and began working as a professor at Fudan University, according to comments he made to the EconVue podcast last year and posted in online biographies. Court records indicated he was arrested in Vienna [Virginia, we presume] on Friday [January 21,2025] (...)

In the indictment, prosecutors said that Rogers had access to various trade secrets of the Fed, such as briefing books for its governors and spreadsheets that contained proprietary board information. The confidential information could “allow China to manipulate the U.S. market, in a manner similar to insider trading,” the indictment states. Because of the large amount of U.S. debt held by China, prosecutors argued, gaining advance knowledge of U.S. economic policy, such as knowing of changes to the federal funds rate, “could provide China with an advantage when selling or buying U.S. bonds or securities,” the indictment states.

Rogers, who has a Ph.D. in economics, reportedly received his first email from a Chinese operative in May 2013, and by the following year Rogers was preparing for an all-expense paid trip to China, according to the indictment. In subsequent years Rogers allegedly made more trips to China, paid by the host, and in 2018 he appeared to begin providing information directly to two people there, prosecutors claim.

Rogers made the trips to China under the guise of teaching economic classes there, the indictment alleges. Meetings in hotels were portrayed as classes, though only one or two people would attend, prosecutors said. The two Chinese co-conspirators “worked for the intelligence and security apparatus of China,” the indictment states, but posed as graduate students at Shandong University.

[How did the U.S. side know meetings in hotels in China "were portrayed as classes, though only one or two people would attend"?]

Sometimes one of the Chinese conspirators would ask specific questions, and Rogers allegedly would ask his colleagues at the Fed to provide him with data or documents to support his answers. One of the colleagues sent two files to Rogers in 2018 marked “INTERNAL FR/OFFICIAL USE” that had confidential designations, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said some of the sensitive information came from the Federal Open Market Committee, which determines “the appropriate stance of monetary policy” in the United States.

In November 2018, Rogers allegedly asked colleagues for a confidential briefing book for Fed governors. One of the colleagues asked that Rogers not use his personal email, but the indictment claims that Rogers then forwarded the book to his personal email account. The book was marked in large type, “Nonpublic Information FOR YOUR USE ONLY DO NOT DISSEMINATE.”

The exchanges, and Rogers’ free trips to China continued into 2019, according to the indictment. Then the inspector general’s office interviewed Rogers in February 2020. When an investigator asked Rogers if he ever provided any restricted information to anyone outside the Fed, he replied, “Never,” according to the indictment.

There is little information about Rogers’ interactions with his two co-conspirators after February 2020. In 2022, one of the co-conspirators sent a message to Rogers asking if he and his wife would be interested in traveling to Qingdao and arranging a “class,” with all expenses paid. By then, Rogers was already living in China, and the indictment doesn’t indicate that he responded.

But the indictment notes that Rogers was paid about $448,000 in 2023 for his role as “a part-time professor at a Chinese university.” (...)

(end quote, Feb. 1 article)

______________

.
.
.
and
.
.
.
_______________

A FORMER FED ECONOMIST, $50,000 IN CASH AND CHARGES OF SPYING

John Harold Rogers was charged with economic espionage on behalf of China in an unusual case for the buttoned-up Fed.

By Andrew Ackerman
Feb. 8, 2025
Washington Post

When federal agents arrested John Harold Rogers late last month and charged him with a form of spying on behalf of China, a search of the former Federal Reserve economist’s modest one-bedroom apartment in Vienna, Virginia, turned up $50,000 in cash.

The substantial stash, found in his wife’s closet, emerged as one of several eye-popping details in what may be the first of its kind case of a former Federal Reserve employee to be charged with a conspiracy to commit economic espionage.

Rogers, 63, had been a senior adviser to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors before he was arrested Jan. 31. He is accused of leaking confidential Fed information from at least 2018, and then lying about it to investigators. He leaked to a pair of Chinese agents posing as graduate students, the United States says. (...)

The tale of the alleged Fed-turned-spy has shocked many of Rogers’s former co-workers at the buttoned-up central bank, a workplace unaccustomed to having one their own at the center of an explosive criminal matter. (Rogers parted ways with the Fed in 2021.) In a town that loves to gossip, it’s one of the wildest stories outside of Elon Musk’s blitzkrieg to radically shrink federal agencies. The case has sparked more than a dozen threads on Reddit and made waves on social media platforms.

The case appears to have emboldened Republican officials scouring for disloyalty from the halls of government and seeking to support Musk’s work. Edward R. Martin Jr., a conservative activist who became the U.S. attorney for D.C. last month, highlighted the case as an example of “people who are acting against our American people in every way,” in a letter to the billionaire last week.

[The letter was posted to:
https://x.com/EagleEdMartin/status/1886456136032817488 ]

Rogers’s former colleagues at the Fed — who are far more comfortable speaking about the direction of the economy than a criminal case — recalled Rogers as a prolific researcher who split his time between China and the United States. Most declined to speak for this story. “I would be very happy to talk to you about tariffs, the economic outlook, or Fed monetary policy,” said one former official who worked with Rogers. “However, I’m not comfortable speaking to you about Rogers.” (...)

At a sparsely attended hearing Wednesday, a magistrate judge agreed with a Justice Department lawyer who argued that Rogers represented too great a flight risk to be released from detention ahead of his trial, partly because of his access to such a large amount of cash in the United States as well as other financial resources in China.

Rogers’s wife, a Chinese national whom prosecutors said spends much of her time in China, was present at the apartment search and told officials that the cash belonged to her. Rogers’s wife has difficulty communicating in English, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, Rogers has limited Chinese skills, according to his indictment.

The economic ramifications of the information Rogers shared aren’t clear. The Justice Department attorney said in court that the confidential information could have allowed the Chinese government to manipulate markets and put the value of any hypothetical market swing at $1 billion.

The government has yet to provide details to back up that claim. It noted that the Chinese government has significant holdings of U.S. securities and suggested they could have profited by manipulated markets to increase the value of those holdings. As of late last year, China held roughly $800 billion of U.S. Treasury bonds.

Stephen Saltzburg, an attorney for Rogers, said the government is exaggerating the advantage the Chinese got from any materials shared by his client as well as any damage to the United States. “We are not yet convinced that a lot of the so-called trade secrets qualify as trade secrets at all,” he said.

He declined to comment on the money found in Rogers’s apartment. He denied the 2023 payment was improper, saying it was meant for teaching and research.

It’s unclear the exact terms under which Rogers left the Fed. Rogers’s website says he retired in May 2021. But the Justice Department lawyer said in court Wednesday that he was “terminated” and a government court filing characterized his departure as “forced retirement.” A Fed spokesman declined to comment on the matter.

(end quote)

_________________

There is a lot of gray area here. It must be that John Rogers was sharp enough (being a PhD holder, for one thing) to know he was deep in a murky gray area and that he should be a lot more cautious at least.

What part(s) of the "MICE" motivations led him to ignore that caution?

What role of the "limited-English Chinese wife"? Why was she keeping $53,000 in cash in a secret box in the U.S. home she occasionally showed up at to visit her husband?

There may be more manipulativeness to this story than just the PRC intelligence agents involved. Why was the wife spending most of her time in China and not with her husband? Who suggested moving to China in 2021?

PS: "Given what the Fed has done to the US Dollar, maybe sharing its secrets with the Chinese is a good thing."

Yep, that was my point - I hope everyone got that.

Man, that Calgon commercial goes WAY back. The hairstyle of the lady is so ancient and Chinese. I guess the scene was supposed to be taking place in San Fran or NY Chinatown.

Thanks for the Barnhardt memes too, Alarmist. I don't know which, if any, she makes herself, but I've not seen one I disagreed with.

PS

Given what the Fed has done to the US Dollar, maybe sharing its secrets with the Chinese is a good thing.

“Ancient Chinese Secret” ... it’s in the water

https://youtu.be/djMjYgqFrrQ

The Fed as the ultimate taxing authority (bottom panels)

https://i0.wp.com/www.barnhardtmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/img_2443.jpg?w=541&ssl=1

Finally, a belated Valentine’s Day thought ...

https://i0.wp.com/www.barnhardtmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/img_2410-1.png?w=568&ssl=1

PS
"Conscience" comes under Ideology.

"Look at the poor oppressed Soviets and what wrong is being done to them by the evil capitalists! I can no longer stand by and let this evil be done to the world!"

There's more than a little component of Ego there too of course. Most spies' motivations will be a mixture, though almost all will have Ego in there. "I am a monstrous clever fellow, much smarter than all my opponents" is pretty universal.

PS: OK, I had never heard of MICCE or any formulation of that before, Mr. Hail. Thanks for that. I do remember Max Boot and his wife. I agree with the dual citizenship problem with regard to ANY other country, but these Israeli duallies present a unique problem, being in so many positions of power/influence here.

PS: "Maybe he was influenced by one of the pro-China essays on Unz." Ha! Good one, Mr. Hail!

" (No wonder McDonalds, Starbucks, the Department of Defense (according to Mark G.), and others ban the URL of Unz.com...?)" I've seen this phenomenon in a few airport terminals and also in a handful of hotels before. Also, I got this sporadically in China - but that was before Mr. Unz got to watching his videos of the chicks digging the place.

PS

(I see some Leftists have proposed another "C" for the spying-motivation MICE acronym: Conscience. If you cram that one in and keep Coercion and Compromise, it'd have to be MICCCE. ---- Or you could write it as: MIC³E. /// In case that doesn't show up, it's a "C to the third power.")

PS

Here is the famous master-list acronym, MICCE, of WHY non-ethnic spies do take the plunge into spying.

(By non-ethnic, I mean a White man spying for PRC-China):

________________

MICCE.

Money.
Ideology.
Coercion.
Compromise (i.e., "Kompromat").
Ego.

_______________

It can be one of these alone without any trace of the others. Or it can be several acting in concert.

The reasons can very well shift over time. The romance of spying, according to reports of those who've been involved, fades. It becomes a gritty, dreary, lonely grind that tends to end up more towards the 'C' than the more-exciting 'I' or 'E' types.

The case of the Korean wife of Max Boot, now on trial for spying for South Korea, looks to have been ethnically motivated; most charitably put, she saw no distinction between helping the USA and helping South Korea.

This kind of spying could fit under "Ideology," but is actually a case of outright dual-loyalty. That's why the MICCE acronym is really meant to apply to non-ethnic spies who spy on behalf of a totally foreign state with which they have no preexisting personal ties.

This also completely confuses any analysis of the many spies and "unregistered foreign agents" for Israel over the years, which includes Max Boot himself. The huge Israel Exception to the willingness to prosecute anyone for spying may itself have encouraged Max Boot's Korean wife to do what she did for ten years of her illicit ties to South Korean intelligence while operating in the heart of Washington. She knew well that neo-con glory-boy and (after 2015) husband Max Boot and others of similar type did much the same for Israel and were celebrated, not arrested (as she was)...

PS

"John Harold Rogers, 63, worked for 11 years as a senior advisor for the international finance division of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors...began working with Chinese conspirators since at least 2018"

Why did he do it? Maybe he was influenced by one of the pro-China essays on Unz. (No wonder McDonalds, Starbucks, the Department of Defense (according to Mark G.), and others ban the URL of Unz.com...?)