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JPMorgan’s strange journey from anti-Alaska environmentalism to settling over ties to sex fiend Jeffrey Epstein

Suzanne Downing
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7
JPMorgan’s strange journey from anti-Alaska environmentalism to settling over ties to sex fiend Jeffrey Epstein

JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest banks in the United States, finds itself at the center of two vastly different financial decisions that leave many scratching their heads.

The first revolves around the bank’s commitment to environmental responsibility, while the second involves its unsettling ties to the notorious financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Back in 2020, JPMorgan Chase made headlines by announcing its decision to refuse to finance oil and gas extraction in the Arctic region, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Additionally, the bank vowed to discontinue financing several coal-related enterprises worldwide, including thermal coal mines and coal-fired power plants. This move came after relentless pressure from environmentalists like the Sierra Club, which urged the bank to distance itself from projects that groups say pose a threat to the climate.

Fast forward to 2023, and the bank’s reputation takes another strange twist. JPMorgan Chase recently agreed to pay a $290 million to settle a lawsuit tied to its association with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who allegedly killed himself in prison in 2019 after becoming exposed as sex trafficking young girls to his private island, where he flew in men clients, many of whom are quite famous, such as former President Bill Clinton. Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and Bill Gates were also identified as a persons who flew to Esptein’s island. It’s unknown what activities they took part in there.

Lawyers representing Epstein’s accusers assert that the settlement came after certain revelations during the lawsuit shed light on the bank’s extensive dealings with Epstein over the years.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of women who accused Epstein of abuse, revealed a troubling relationship between Epstein, the financier and the JPMorgan, the bank to which he brought customers.

The unnamed accuser who brought the lawsuit claimed that the bank turned a blind eye to multiple red flags regarding sex-offender Epstein until 2013, largely due to the wealthy clients he allegedly brought to the bank. JPMorgan Chase has denied any wrongdoing, but this settlement represents a blow to the bank’s reputation and raises questions about its due diligence processes.

The settlement, if approved by the court, would be one of the largest ever for a civil sex-trafficking case. In the settlement, the bank didn’t admit liability.

“The parties believe this settlement is in the best interests of all parties, especially the survivors who were the victims of Epstein’s terrible abuse,” JPMorgan and lawyers for the women said in a press release, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Jeffrey Epstein’s Alaska connection

The bank also faces a related lawsuit filed by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein once resided.

In another development, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor and other conservative attorneys general sent a letter to JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon, complaining that the bank is discriminating against Christians.

The eight-page letter reminded JPMorgan Chase that it terminated the National Committee for Religious Freedom’s account last year, an action referred to as “de-banking.” The account closure occurred shortly after the group opened an account at a Chase branch in Washington, D.C.

State attorneys general find fault with JP Morgan Chase for discriminating against Christian groups

Buying Alaska: 78% of Alaska Democrat Party funds come from Outside sources

Suzanne Downing
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35
Buying Alaska: 78% of Alaska Democrat Party funds come from Outside sources

The Alaska Democratic Party continues its tradition of political colonialism.

Although it raises more money than the Alaska Republican Party, the Alaska Democrat Party depends largely on Outside money for its very existence.

A review of January through April, 2023 fundraising shows that over 78% of the blue party’s funds are coming from out of state. Nearly half of the dollars raised come from California.

Alternately, the Alaska Republican Party is supported by Alaskans, with 99.3% of the funds coming from inside the state, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records through April 30.

The Democrats, with help from leftist philanthropist George Soros and super-wealthy liberals brought in a reported $78,017 income during the first four months of 2023, compared with $54,654 raised by the Alaska GOP.

Assembly gave woman $1.6 million in Covid funds; now Rivera wants her off the Equal Rights Commission

Suzanne Downing
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42
Assembly gave woman $1.6 million in Covid funds; now Rivera wants her off the Equal Rights Commission

Anchorage Assemblyman Felix Rivera has sent a letter to the Anchorage Ethics Board, requesting proceedings begin to remove Anchorage Equal Rights Commission member Rosalina Mavaega.

Rivera said he has lost confidence in her after a news report in the Anchorage Daily News indirectly showed that he and other members of the liberal Assembly gave Mavaega a $1.6 million grant, despite serious prior fraud allegations against Mavaega.

The money given by Rivera and other members of the Assembly to Mavaega was from American Rescue Plan Act. It was funding appropriated by the Assembly for the House of Transformations, a nonprofit that said it worked on helping people find housing and get addiction treatment.

Mavaega’s grant is one of many in the $50 million that the mayor’s office quickly handed out during the Covid pandemic.

This was not Mayor Dave Bronson’s office, however, although the way the ADN reporter wrote the story makes it an attack on Bronson.

The money was given out by the interim mayoral administration of Austin Quinn-Davidson, an Anchorage Democrat and Assembly member who stepped into the mayor’s role for eight months, unelected, after former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz resigned due to scandalous behavior. Bronson was not sworn in until July of 2021. It was the Assembly’s decision to give Mavaega the money.

The ADN report said, “the state of Alaska had permanently banned the founder of the nonprofit, Rosalina Mavaega, from serving as a Medicaid provider in 2015. The punishment resulted from a medical assistance fraud investigation and remains in effect. Mavaega’s husband, Esau Fualema, who is a co-founder of House of Transformations, separately pleaded no contest to criminally negligent homicide in 2008 and failed a background check to work at Mavaega’s prior company.”

What was unsaid by the newspaper is that the liberal Assembly and unelected mayor were rushing the funds out the door to make sure that Bronson would not have anything to say about the tens of millions of Covid slush money they had control of.

“Mavaega is a political supporter of embattled Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, though the grant she received came before he took office. Bronson later appointed her to serve on the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission, which is tasked with investigating allegations of discrimination, and to serve as the business representative on the city housing and homelessness committee,” the ADN wrote.

Bronson kept Mavaega on both city commissions even after the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica started hounding him about her past issues with the state; he said he had no ability to unilaterally remove her.

The IRS is seeking information about city grants awarded to Mavaega and her affiliated businesses since 2021. One Anchorage business owner contacted by investigators said officials representing the Department of Treasury and the Small Business Administration asked for information about House of Transformations, “their business dealings” and bitcoin investments.

The problem with Rivera making his letter to the Ethic Board public is that by doing so, he has weaponized the ethics process, which is supposed to be kept quiet while it’s being looked into.

In fact, the form for complaints about ethics, shown above, even says that the information must be kept confidential. Often, ethics boards will dismiss complaints that appear politicized. But this is Anchorage, so it’s uncertain how the ethics will play out.

Equity: California will charge for electricity based on income

Suzanne Downing
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36
Equity: California will charge for electricity based on income

As California phases out the use of natural gas, the state government is implementing a significant change to the way electricity bills are calculated, linking them to individuals’ income levels. A law enacted last year summer mandates the California Public Utilities Commission move to a pricing structure that includes a scale based on earnings.

Residents of California now pay for their electricity based on consumption, as well as add ons for grid upgrades, grid failures, wildfire, litigation settlements, and aid provided to low-income customers. These costs are integrated into the per-kilowatt-hour rate.

With the new system, an “income-graduated fixed charges” will be part of the calculation.

California is also implementing new laws banning natural gas in homes. As early as 2027, the state will ban the use of gas-powered water heaters, followed by a ban on gas furnaces in 2029.

These regulations were set in motion as part of California’s comprehensive strategy to combat climate change and reduce pollution. By 2030, no gas-fired furnaces or water heaters will be sold in the state.

In 2019, Berkeley, Calif. passed a ban on gas cooking stoves.

This spring, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals court overturned that ban and said that such a ban violates the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, which states that only the federal government has authority to set energy-efficiency standards for appliances.

Last week, the Berkeley city attorney requested an “en banc” rehearing, which would convene 11 new judges in the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case. Meanwhile, the natural gas stove ban remains in effect in Berkeley.

Oregon Democrats turn over illegal FTX funds to feds, but Alaska Democrats give them to crypto crooks

Suzanne Downing
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16
Oregon Democrats turn over illegal FTX funds to feds, but Alaska Democrats give them to crypto crooks

The Democratic Party of Oregon will send $500,000 to the U.S. Marshals Service. No, they aren’t buying the U.S. Marshals Service. These are funds that had been donated to the party by an executive of the crytocurrency scam called FTX. The Department of Justice has been trying to claw back all the donations made by executives associated with the massive international scam.

The Oregon Democrats had been fined a minor $15,000 for wrongly reporting the source of the donation last year, and Oregon Republicans said the $500,000 needed to be turned over to the bankruptcy court.

Oregon Democratic Party also handed over a $7,100 donation from FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, at the request from the Department of Justice, AP reported.

The $500,000 came from Nishad Singh, a FTX executive who pleaded guilty in February to federal criminal fraud charges.

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried is out of jail on $250 million bail, one of the largest criminal bails set in U.S. history. His parents’ home in Palo Alto, Calif. was put up as bond to ensure he doesn’t flee the country.

Bankman-Fried was one of the biggest donors to Democrats and their woke causes across the country before his empire crashed down around him, sending FTX on a track to bankruptcy. There were several others in the company who made millions of dollars in political contributions.

Alaska Democrats were beneficiaries. Bankman-Fried donated $9,756 to the Alaska Democratic Party in 2022. The party, without announcing it, refunded the money to Bankman-Fried in January, rather than returning it to bankruptcy court to make victims whole. This may be looked at with suspicion by the Justice Department, as it can be seen as an illegal transfer while bankruptcy proceedings are in process.

FTX scandal: Sam Bankman-Fried ran crypto exchange like a ‘personal fiefdom,’ and assets are ‘stolen or missing’

Sen. Lisa Murkowski was also a beneficiary of Bankman-Fried’s political largesse. Late last year, she donated that the equivalent of her contribution to a nonprofit associated with members of her own family.

Bankman-Fried founded FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, in 2019. He gave away hundreds of millions of investors’ dollars to Democrat candidates and causes. By the end of 2022, he was in jail for essentially stealing money from thousands of cryptocurrency pioneer investors, laundering it through a sub-company called Alameda Research, and giving it to political entities on the Left, likely influencing the outcome of 2022 elections, and possibly the control of the U.S. Senate because the of the sheer size of the resources he made available to Democrats.

Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty and has tried to have the case thrown out. But U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan set a trial date for Oct. 2. It’s not unusual, however, for trial dates to get pushed forward, and observers expect this one, which is extremely high profile, will not be heard in October.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski received max campaign funding from FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, who ripped off investors to support Democrats in office
Six degrees of separation: FTX scam-man Bankman-Fried to go before judge with curious link to Alaska
Web of leftist election influence: FTX connected to Data for Progress, Biden’s pick of Sec. Haaland for Interior, and to a flip-Alaska-blue project
Crypto-con Sam Bankman-Fried arrested on the eve of his testimony before congressional committee
Will FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried’s donations to Republicans ever be revealed? Group files complaint with FEC
Victor Davis Hanson: Two antithetical billionaires
Listicle: Which Outsiders are the biggest funders of the Alaska Democratic Party? George Soros, Bankman-Fried, LinkedIn

Alaska GOP unanimous on need for special prosecutor to investigate abuses by FBI, Justice Department

Suzanne Downing
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31
Alaska GOP unanimous on need for special prosecutor to investigate abuses by FBI, Justice Department

The Alaska Republican Party officers meeting in Soldotna on Saturday were unanimous in passing a resolution in favor of a special prosecutor being appointed to investigate political abuses by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department, and the White House.

Some of the instances of weaponization of the justice system that are highlighted by the resolution include:

  • After a private meeting between former President Bill Clinton and Department of
    Justice (DOJ) US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the Attorney General asked FBI
    Director James Comey to downplay an investigation into then presidential
    candidate Hillary Clinton’s improper storage of classified documents on her private
    email server,
  • The FBI allegedly subsequently attempted to influence the 2016 presidential
    election by concluding that candidate Hillary Clinton had not violated federal law
    when, in actuality, the FBI had found nearly 100 emails on her private email server
    that were, or should have been, classified as “Secret” or “Top Secret,”
  • The FBI allegedly conducted illegal surveillance of Republican political candidates
    and campaigns under Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court warrants
    based on false, misleading, unverified, or incomplete information,
  • The FBI allegedly suppressed freedom of speech by conservatives on social
    media,
  • The FBI allegedly withheld information from congress and suppressed information
    and evidence of potential influence peddling by members of the executive branch,
  • FBI leadership reportedly retaliated against whistleblowers within the agency,
  • The FBI Director refused to cooperate with congress by attempting to withhold
    unclassified information pertaining to potential money-laundering activities by
    member(s) of the executive branch and family members,
  • The DOJ allegedly removed an IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent and his
  • entire team from a “high profile, controversial on-going investigation” concerning Hunter Biden,
  • The FBI “violated federal whistleblower protection laws and abused it’s own security clearance review process to hamstring the brave agents who exercised their right to make protected disclosures to Congress or who dared to question agency leadership,”
  • Special Counsel Durham’s May 23, 2023 Report concluded the FBI should neve have initiated an investigation over “Russian Collusion” and stated that the FBI “failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report,”
  • The Durham report further concluded by stating that the DOJ and FBI acted without “appropriate objectivity or restraint in pursuing allegations of collusion or conspiracy between a U.S. political campaign and a foreign power.”

In each instance cited, the FBI systematically failed to pursue criminal investigations and prosecutions against Democrat candidates while pursuing investigations against Republican candidates, and it appears the FBI is being politically weaponized in favor of Democrats and
against Republicans, thereby undermining trust by the American people that the federal
government performs its law enforcement duties with fairness and political neutrality, the resolution said.

The meeting was a quarterly gathering of the officers of the Alaska Republican Party’s State Central Committee.

Breaking: Port of Seattle shut down by longshoremen

Suzanne Downing
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47
Breaking: Port of Seattle shut down by longshoremen

It may be time to stock up. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union shut down cargo operations at the Port of Seattle on Saturday, according to the Pacific Maritime Association.

PMA said on Twitter that work slowdowns Friday directed by ILWU officials have brought ground operations to a halt, resulting in longshore workers being sent home.

“Coordinated and disruptive work actions led by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) have shut down cargo operations at the Port of Seattle,” PMA wrote on Saturday.

The Port of Seattle is a powerhouse in the economy of the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska’s economy is existentially tied to it. Roughly 80% of the goods coming to Alaska pass through the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.

The work stoppage, not yet characterized as a strike, follows similar slowdowns last week at the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland.

Longshoremen up and down the West Coast have been working without a contract since last July.

Democrat State Senate Education chair says regulation protecting girls in school sports is ‘terrorism’

Suzanne Downing
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48
Democrat State Senate Education chair says regulation protecting girls in school sports is ‘terrorism’

Sen. Loki Tobin of Anchorage is leading the charge against gender-specific bathrooms in the schools in Alaska.

In response to the Alaska State Board of Education voting to address through regulation the leftist push for transgenders taking over girls’ high school sports, Tobin, a Democrat, likened it to terrorism.

“The way this kind of terrorism works is that it not only punishes expression, condemns identities…it’s like burning a cross on someone’s lawn: It’s an attempt to frighten people into compliance and submission,” she wrote.

The board is setting a 30-day public comment period for a proposed regulation that would preserve girls’ teams in high schools across the state from being taken over by boys who describe themselves as transgender girls.

Twenty-one states across the nation have passed laws that are similar to the one being proposed by the Alaska State Board of Education and Early Development. Bills in the Alaska House and Senate have failed to move forward in the Legislature, as they are being blocked by Democrat members like Sen. Tobin, and some Republicans who see themselves as champions against what Tobin calls terrorism.

In Soldotna, public turns out to support girls’ sports at State Board of Education meeting

Thought police: Alaska Democrats support Rep. Gray’s movement to censure those not ‘compassionate’ enough

Suzanne Downing
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31
Thought police: Alaska Democrats support Rep. Gray’s movement to censure those not ‘compassionate’ enough

The Alaska Democratic Party is avoiding talking about foreign policy, taxation, the debt ceiling, overburdensome regulations that harm the economy, or even the need for better educational outcomes.

Instead, the Democrats on the Last Frontier have turned into a sort of self-help group. The party is placing an emphasis on soft qualities of empathy, pride, truth, and other wholesome attributes, most of which can’t be measured.

The emotional-based campaign started with “pride” for “Pride Month,” and then switched to “empathy,” and lauded State Rep. Andrew Gray of Anchorage for censuring someone who was not compassionate enough. Gray is leading the censuring movement, they said.

In other words, the Democrats want elected officials to use their positions to officially censure people who don’t agree with them or who don’t show enough compassion.

Gray admitted in committee last year that he encouraged someone to lie on his military application. For the second Democrat attribute being highlighted, this would be a problem. Lying on a military application is a felony.

Conduct unbecoming: Rep. Andrew Gray encouraged military applicant to commit felony

For the “truth” theme, the Democrats instead put the spotlight on Rep. Andy Josephson, who during his last campaign, told a whopper when he published an endorsement that supposedly came from the Anchorage Police Department. Police departments are not allowed to endorse candidates, but that didn’t stop Josephson, and his campaigning won him a Must Read Alaska “pants on fire” award.

Pants on fire: Andy Josephson says police and fire departments endorse him; Henslee calls him out on lie
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