The increasing proximity and severity of threats in Venezuela are becoming alarming. On the other hand, amidst the current turmoil, exposing the truth is crucial to defending ourselves against abuses. While justice may be slow, it remains our best hope for preventing or mitigating physical harm. Just as one wave of concern subsides, another emerges. If you’re curious about what I’m referring to, continue reading. The internet has undeniably transformed our lives through the widespread accessibility of information. While this has numerous benefits, it also presents significant risks. We are all aware of the dangers we face as citizens striving for a change in our country’s leadership. As citizens who want and work for a change in the control of our country, we are subject to spying and other random illegal actions. Civilians have been subject to military court trials, an absolute aberration of justice, something that never should have happened in any civilized country. But the gang holding the guns is everything but democratic and respectful of civilian rights. They consider themselves to OWN the people and rule over them. They don’t work for public safety or security. On the contrary. What I call “black” squads, by the way, are the gangs roaming in black pickup trucks without any license. This is State-sponsored terrorism in the best Middle Eastern way. Masked and armed to the teeth on the pickup back platforms, nobody knows who they are. They are the packs that will do the dirty job that neither policemen nor NGs want to do to dodge further legal prosecution. But this has been previously exposed by journalists, and it’s all over the Internet. A suspicious incident In our apartment building, we have a WhatsApp group for sales. Anyone selling something posts it there, pictures, videos, etc. The general chat has become a virtual marketplace where people sell everything from cars to snacks. Recently, several neighbors began receiving strange, unsolicited calls from the phone number of one of our group members. However, the caller’s profile picture didn’t match the elderly woman who owned the phone. It’s now easier than ever to clone a phone number if the owner is unaware or has weak security measures. Your smartphone, while a robust device, may have inadequate security software. With a cloned number, scammers can engage in a spectrum of illegal activities using the owner’s identity. US dollars This being said, I need to inform you that a transaction involving both local and Russian criminal groups injected 150 million USD into our economy to “stabilize” it a few years ago. Where did this money come from? Very likely some Russian baron who needed to launder? The exact terms of this deal remain a mystery, but it’s clear that our country is often disadvantaged in such exchanges. We don’t know what was given to Putin and his cronies. Someday, though, the truth will come to light. Therefore, many people receive their salaries in USD and then exchange them for local currency to get goodies and groceries. They get the Bolivares (Bs) usually at a rate slightly over the official one. Only imagine what would happen when a neighbor offers to buy 100$ and receives nothing because his/her phone was cloned, and then, the transference in Bolivares went to someone else’s bank account, leaving you with nothing but a national ID number (that could very well be fake) and a cellphone number that can disappear in a blink…even worse: the chats could be used to blackmail the owner, asking for money to avoid them being sold to the “authorities” as a “domestic terrorist” only because of a few comments against the bus driver and cronies…it is already starting a razzia against those selling the USD to prices over the “official” rate. This rate is slowly increasing, by the way. Yes, this scam, or blackmail, has already happened in other cities. Several times. That’s why the ICC is (supposedly) already in a process with the leaders and has collected a payload of information based on the victims’ testimonies. I haven’t heard recent reports of people being missing. However, some leaders of the opposition party (I can’t give his name to avoid disclosing my location) are still in jail under fake charges. It takes only a fake denunciation to provide the excuse to get them in jail. This is the system that the Cubans were here for in the first place. People, don’t believe even for one second that just because you don’t see “anything” about Venezuela in the news, things are “going good”. This is not the reality. Most people are working their backsides off to get only groceries for the week, and God forbid some elder or kid gets sick. Everyone is dressing in ragged and parched outfits and garments. Well-worn shoes and unmatched socks. Everybody´s underwear is as thin as a spider web. Even with the general state of lack of money, scammers come and go taking advantage of defenseless elders. This is the sort of situation that will flourish anywhere once the economy has been drained down the toilet. No matter where you are, it is a universal behavior. What are we doing to prevent being labeled? First, we don´t speak with strangers about current events, or openly about politics with anybody. Much less criticizing the regime. Not too much to say, anyway. They have made the world aware of their intentions: they control of the country no matter what they have to do. After the crushing of the democratic procedures on July 28th by force using armed illegal groups, the gang has invested vast resources into the repression to neutralize and spread the terror amongst citizens. They look to promote a second migratory wave in 2025. They can control elders and kids, not the population of working age with nothing to lose and desperate for a change. It’s the same scheme used in Cuba and NK: keep the parents, relatives, elders, and children like hostages to impede the migrants from getting organized in a resistance movement to free the country. However, the experiences show that the best way (reasonably) is to avoid exposing our thoughts or comments openly on social media; it is the only way to remain unseen enough. It’s way easier for any regime to hunt down a group of people through their IP addresses (that lead to physical home addresses) provided by a team of hired keyboards and then give that list to two or three teams of mercenaries (including Putin’s Wagner boys, who have been openly identified). These will go out like a pack of wolves, and the psychological impact will be striking in a weak society that hasn’t lived through a serious armed conflict in 200 years and is so terrified by crime that it runs at the first shot. Meanwhile, the rest of the world does nothing to avoid annoying Russia and China. This influence is nothing but new. The KGB has been operating in South America in one way or another for many years already. How to enhance smartphone security for Android and iOS Given the current state of things, many of us have decided to take measures to strengthen our devices. This includes using VPNs, two-way access, Enable strong, unique passwords: Combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters for your device password. Avoid using easily guessable information like birthdays or pet names. Consider using a password manager to generate and store strong, unique passwords for all your accounts. Keep your software updated: Regularly install the latest operating system updates and security patches. The updates are for fixing vulnerabilities that hackers use to gain control of your device. Enable automatic updates to ensure your device is always protected. Be cautious about downloading apps: Only download apps from official app stores. Read app reviews and permissions before downloading to ensure they are reputable. Avoid installing apps from unknown sources as they may contain malware. Be careful with whom you share personal information. Many scammers and thugs use data provided by the user, especially the people who sell and buy through the marketplaces, to blackmail them later. Keeping a record of who you shared your data with is a good way to hunt back a possible scam attempt. To finish, there is a reality that many people seem to be oblivious to. Wherever the non-democratic part of the world gets its claws in a territory, generates chaos and distress. It’s the same pattern to destabilize. Only different names and actors, but the script doesn´t change. This is not new, but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t stop it. The world can’t keep going as it is. Too much stress is damaging for our health. Don’t get caught in that trap! Make prepping part of your life, but at the same time, you can self-indulge a little! There is no harm in that. Thanks for your reading! And special thanks to those generous sponsors, always so necessary. Stay safe, and keep tuned! About Jose Jose is an upper middle class professional. He is a former worker of the oil state company with a Bachelor’s degree from one of the best national Universities. He has an old but in good shape SUV, a good 150 square meters house in a nice neighborhood, in a small but (formerly) prosperous city with two middle size malls. Jose is a prepper and shares his eyewitness accounts and survival stories from the collapse of his beloved Venezuela. Jose and his younger kid are currently back in Venezuela, after the intention of setting up a new life in another country didn’t  go well. The SARSCOV2 re-shaped the labor market and South American economy so he decided to give it a try to homestead in the mountains, and make a living as best as possible. But this time in his own land, and surrounded by family, friends and acquaintances, with all the gear and equipment collected, as the initial plan was.  Follow Jose on YouTube and gain access to his exclusive content on Patreon. Donations: paypal.me/JoseM151 The post Digital Spying and Black Squads in Venezuela appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

Soros-funded prosecutor George Gascon recently debated his challenger for reelection as Los Angeles County district attorney. Gascon’s onstage performance was a perfect reflection of his failure as the head of the nation’s largest DA office: It was abysmal. Former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman has led Gascon in the polls by 25 percentage points since August, so it’s not surprising that many Angelinos have had enough of Gascon’s pro-criminal, anti-victim, cop-hating policies and rhetoric.    Gascon, one of the rogue prosecutors whose campaigns were underwritten largely by liberal financier George Soros, proved himself an inarticulate, foppish debater against Hochman in the televised debate co-hosted by KNX News (97.1 FM) and the Los Angeles Times. Hochman, a former Republican running against Gascon as an independent, prosecuted drug dealers, human traffickers, and corrupt public officials as an assistant U.S. attorney in California. He ran the Justice Department’s tax division in the final year of George W. Bush’s eight-year presidency. If Gascon loses the race Tuesday to Hochman, the Democrat only has himself to blame. The former district attorney of San Francisco, Gascon unleashed a crime tsunami across the largest county in the United States and thought the liberal residents of Los Angeles either would support his approach or not notice the spike in crime. Topics of the Gascon-Hochman debate included crime rates, juvenile crime, the death penalty, and better solutions for public safety.     A reporter for the Los Angeles Times asked about crime rates, citing statistics from both the California Department of Justice and the Los Angeles Police Department for 2019 to 2023. Those statistics show an 8.5% increase in overall crime in Los Angeles County during Gascon’s tenure as district attorney, which began in December 2020.  In response, Hochman referenced the California Department of Justice and noted that violent crime and property crime during Gascon’s term are both up by double digits and shoplifting is up 133%. Fentanyl is the number one killer of young people in LA, which has become the capital of human trafficking. Hochman called such statistics “a record of public safety failure.” It was a strong point. The solution, Hochman said, was to get rid of Gascon’s “blanket policies”—which one of us wrote about here—and empower prosecutors to do their jobs by holding criminals accountable. Challenger Nathan Hochman, an independent, debates incumbent Democrat George Gascon on Oct. 8 in the race for Los Angeles County district attorney. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) When given a chance to respond, Gascon filibustered, saying that he had been working on crime statistics for decades while his opponent represented wealthy people. That non-answer didn’t fly with the LA Times reporter, who followed up saying: “Mr. Gascon, the question was, ‘How does the DA actually impact day-to-day crime rates, and what would you do to lower violent crime? You didn’t answer the question.”  Ouch. When you lose the LA Times, you know you’re in hot water. Gascon, clearly caught off guard, gave a strange response. He said that “the DA actually has very little impact on the micro level when it comes to violent crime.” Gascon’s answer suggested that policies of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office don’t create incentives or disincentives for residents to violate or comply with the law, which defies common sense. His answer is doubly troubling because of Gascon’s repeated false assertions on the campaign trail that crime has gone down on his watch, suggesting that his policies resulted in lower crime rates.   When the debate moderator asked Gascon about the official numbers, the incumbent district attorney blatantly disregarded the facts. He stated that although there was an increase in crime during the COVID-19 pandemic, “the good news is that violent crime is … down locally.” This despite the fact that the reporters, the moderators, Hochman, and Angelinos know that simply is not true.    As if Gascon’s narrative weren’t confusing enough, he admitted that “we have a problem” with crime in Los Angeles, but then argued that “a lot of the unsafe conditions that we have today are the product of years of mass incarceration.” He didn’t explain how people in jail or prison cause crime to go up.    When the debate turned to the subject of juvenile crime, Gascon claimed that under his supervision, juveniles “don’t get a free pass” and are prosecuted as the law dictates. But that was another lie as well.  In his first week in office, Gascon issued Special Directive 20-09, entitled “Youth Justice,” which made diversion the default for anyone under 18 who commits a crime. The goal of Gascon’s directive, by its own language, was to keep “youth out of the criminal justice system.” The most radical aspect of the directive was that it prohibited prosecutors from transferring younger offenders to adult court, no matter how violent the crime.  All juveniles accused of a misdemeanor wouldn’t be prosecuted unless  “deemed necessary,” and even in those cases, they would be sent to diversion programs. Gascon said, without a hint of irony, “If you’re a victim of a crime, or you know someone who is a victim of a crime, … I’m here for you.”  Gascon let down scores of victims, including a 10-year-old girl and a 4-year-old girl who were sexually assaulted by 17-year-old James Tubbs in separate incidents. One of us chronicled such cases in a chapter on Gascon in the book “Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America’s Communities.” Gascon, knowing that Tubbs had referred to his 10-year-old victim as a “piece of meat,” allowed him to be tried as a juvenile even though Tubbs had numerous criminal convictions. The prosecutor handling the case also had notified Gascon that Tubbs, who was convicted, had “the hallmarks of a sexual predator.”     When the topic of the death penalty came up during the debate, Gascon noted that he had no intention of upholding and applying California law, which authorizes the ultimate punishment for the most heinous crimes. Twice in the past 15 years, voters in California have been asked in a referendum whether they wanted to eliminate the state’s death penalty. In both instances, voters decided to keep the death penalty on the books.  But, like all rogue prosecutors whose campaigns are underwritten largely by liberal financier George Soros, Gascon thinks he has the right to ignore any criminal law he personally doesn’t like. It doesn’t matter that elected district attorneys are responsible for enforcing the laws as written.  And what was Gascon’s reason for not seeking the ultimate punishment in appropriate cases? He trotted out the old trope that “the death penalty isn’t a deterrent.” That’s debatable at best. Some studies indicate that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on violent crime when applied in the most egregious cases. Facts have never been Gascon’s strong suit, though.  From his inability to be honest about rising crime rates to his refusal to accept the fact that his policies (some adopted by other rogue DAs), contributed to the persistent spike in crime across America, Gascon showed viewers of the debate that nothing would change in Los Angeles County should he be reelected. The co-hosts and reporters at the debate gave Gascon every opportunity to lay out a new approach for a second term as district attorney. But Gascon failed to see the long hanging curveball and doubled down on his vapid and tiresome political banalities. For these reasons, among many, Gascon not only lost the debate, he seems to have lost the trust of Angelinos, making his removal from office quite likely. If voters reject Gascon, he will join a growing class of Soros-supported rogue DA rejects that includes Chesa Boudin, Marilyn Mosby, Kim Gardner, Andrew Warren, Monique Worrell, Rachel Rollins, and Kim Foxx.  In each case, the beneficiaries have been the residents who were supposed to be protected by those rogue prosecutors and whose safety suffered under a failing social experiment. The Heritage Foundation is listed for identification purposes only. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not reflect any institutional position of Heritage or its Board of Trustees. The post George Gascon’s Lame Debate Performance Reflects His Tenure as LA’s District Attorney appeared first on The Daily Signal.

WaPo Journalists Do Hit Pieces on Bezos

'Most Accurate' 2020 Pollster: Trump Sweeps the Battlegrounds?

The Nordic nation might be the first to receive commercial power from space.

Clue: it’s also home to the world’s tallest arch.

CNN last week revealed an excerpt from a new book in which Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized both Donald Trump and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). The headline said, “McConnell says ‘MAGA movement is completely wrong’ and Reagan ‘wouldn’t recognize’ Trump’s GOP.” With the election less than a week away, such attacks are not only divisive but harm the Republican Party’s chances of success.Only a few hours before CNN published this article, McConnell gave this quote to a Fox News reporter: “I’m still a Traditional Republican... there are some on my side now who don’t sound that way. I'm going to be arguing more with them probably than the Democrats.”The next Republican leader must uphold a view that all senators are equal, which is rooted in respect for the will of voters.McConnell’s statements reflect a mindset that prioritizes defending the status quo of the Republican establishment over reflecting the will of Republican voters. McConnell has taken this approach in both campaigns and in managing the Senate floor.On the campaign side, McConnell has not only publicly criticized the party’s presidential standard-bearer two weeks out from an election, but he has also withheld support from high-profile Republican senators such as Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rick Scott. This undermines party cohesion and damages our prospects in close races.Cruz and Scott have both famously been critical of McConnell’s approach to managing the Senate. The McConnell-aligned super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, has to date not spent any money defending Cruz or Scott in their electoral battles to hold their Senate seats and help Republicans win a majority in the Senate.A leaked internal memo from SLF, first obtained by Politico, reveals that the super PAC is aware of the struggles faced by Cruz in Texas. “We still have a lot of work to do to maximize our gains in this critical Senate election,” the memo states. “We need to add media markets and expand into the final week in all our target states. We also have to guard our flanks.”The memo adds: “In Texas, Colin Allred has crept up on Ted Cruz by heavily outspending him for weeks.”While claiming an intent to “guard our flanks,” the McConnell-aligned super PAC has spent precisely zero dollars to help Cruz. Likewise, SLF spent nothing to defend Cruz in his similarly close 2018 race.McConnell’s approach exemplifies the mindset of our current leadership — a mindset that prioritizes establishment republicanism over conservative victory.In managing the senate floor when he was majority leader, McConnell used a procedural power of the floor leader known as “filling the tree” to block both Democratic and Republican senators from offering amendments. He told us time and again that this was important for protecting senators in tight re-elections from taking tough votes.Both McConnell’s actions regarding campaigns and his ironfisted rule of the Senate demonstrate a drive to shape the Republican Senate conference and the party to reflect his vision of republicanism. Rather than having an unbending view that all Senators are equal and the priorities they represent for their constituents deserve debate, McConnell has taken the approach that he knows better than his Republican Senate colleagues and better than Republican voters. Strong leadership means operating with the support of — rather than against — the Republican conference and the people who elected us.With McConnell stepping down as GOP Senate leader, it’s a critical time to reflect on what type of leadership will best serve the party going forward. A Senate GOP leader’s primary role is to support colleagues, not sabotage them. Such unity directly impacts voter trust, morale, and the party’s effectiveness in delivering results.I make this argument not to kick Senator McConnell on his way out the door but rather to make the case that Republican Senate leadership must take a new approach. As we look to the future, candidates vying to replace McConnell must offer clarity on how they will lead and support all GOP candidates, regardless of personal differences.The next Republican leader must uphold a view that all senators are equal, which is rooted in respect for the will of voters. This commitment to equality is essential to strengthen and restore the United States Senate to the world’s greatest deliberative body that it once was.We need leaders who will prioritize the interests of all Republicans and foster a spirit of support and solidarity. With this approach, we can move toward a stronger, more cohesive Senate GOP that’s ready to lead and win.

If you're quick, you can grab yourself a fast and RGB-clad 32GB DDR5 upgrade for the lowest price we've seen. With a 21% saving, this Corsair Vengeance DDR5 gaming RAM deal gets you a huge memory capacity running at a speedy 6400MT/s. While this Corsair kit is our choice for the best gaming RAM for AMD systems, it's also a great match for Intel CPUs too thanks to its generally fast clock speed and tight timings, making it a top upgrade option for just about any gaming PC. Continue reading Grab a fast 32GB RGB DDR5 gaming RAM upgrade for a ludicrously low price MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Corsair HS80 Max headset review, Corsair M75 Air mouse review, Best gaming keyboard

Fallout London remains a miracle of modding. Essentially a completely new (albeit unofficial) game in the Bethesda RPG series, it’s proof that dedicated teams of hobbyist game developers can produce something that rivals triple-A. While Fallout 76 keeps getting better, Fallout 5 is still a long way off. Fortunately, it appears another fan game in the post-apocalyptic, Radroach-infested universe is still alive, and still in production. After a long period of silence, the makers of Fallout Cascadia have finally shared some fresh details. Continue reading After Fallout London, another big Fallout fan game just sparked back to life MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best Fallout 4 mods, Best RPGs, Fallout 5 release date

Robby Starbuck Chalks Up ANOTHER Win: Boeing Announces Dismantling of DEI Department