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He's one of the "friends" of DJT, who MTG says the President told her would, "get hurt" if the Epstein Files come out.... which millions of them still have not.

"Political and Administration Ties

Nomination of Benjamin Black:

The connection between the two camps gained a direct administrative link when President Donald Trump nominated Leon Black's son, Benjamin Black, to serve as CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)." AI

"Trump Picks Apollo Co-Founder's Son for DFC After Firm Shows Interest in X Debt
By Donald Shaw

Published on Apr 9, 2025

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management and its billionaire co-founder Leon Black are poised to gain a direct link to the Trump administration.

On January 31, 2025, President Donald Trump nominated Ben Black"Leon's 40-year-old son and a former Apollo associate"to serve as CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

The announcement came three days after Bloomberg reported Apollo's interest in purchasing debt tied to Elon Musk's acquisition of the social media platform X.

In February 2025, Apollo purchased an unspecified amount of X's debt at 97 cents on the dollar, part of a broader sale of the billions in debt that financed Musk's 2022 acquisition of the platform that also involved companies like Pimco and Citadel.

The debt sales significantly bolstered X's financial situation, enabling Musk's AI venture xAI to acquire the platform at a $45 billion valuation late last month. T

he valuation is a stark reversal from the company's struggles since Musk's $44 billion purchase in October 2022, a price that was widely seen at the time as inflated.

In September of last year, Fidelity estimated that the company had lost 79% of its value since Musk's acquisition.

But Trump's election and the desire by businesses to curry favor with Musk in his new role with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) appear to have been a boon for investor interest in the company...."

readsludge.com

Fencing goes up around the main Kennedy Center building after Trump-aligned board votes to close it
apnews.com

... Fencing went up Wednesday around the main Kennedy Center building, a day after the Trump-aligned board voted to close most of the performing arts center for repairs. A Democratic congresswoman who is a trustee quickly sought an emergency court hearing to prevent what she called the "unlawful closing." ...

More from the article ...

... When law enforcement and tech salespeople pitch ALPRs to city councils, they stick to a familiar script. They trumpet the technology, which is often provided by private companies like Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions, or Axon, as an essential tool for solving high-stakes crimes, such as car jacking, kidnapping, or murder.

But when you strip away the carefully curated talking points, the data continues to reveal a different (and frankly, ridiculous) story. An EFF analysis of ALPR search logs from Flock Safety systems shows that officers across the country are spying on drivers for completely nonsensical "reasons."

Police are routinely searching the Flock database without providing any legitimate justification, making a mockery of our civil liberties by logging reasons like "LOL" (short for "laugh out loud"), "LMAO" (short for "laughing my ass off"), "sexy," and "idk" (short for "I don't know") to access sensitive ALPR location data.

And in some cases, officers are just mashing keyboard buttons rather than articulating the nature of their searches.

Flock Safety claims it has improved its system by requiring officers to select from a dropdown list of crimes before running a search -- but that only makes it easier for officers to hide improper searches behind the veneer of uniformity.

The system does not require proof that the dropdown reason actually matches the true purpose of the search.

With no warrant requirements, limited guardrails, and deficient audit processes, ALPR databases have fostered a culture of unrestricted access to everyone's location information. This culture of abuse has allowed police to treat a mass surveillance network like their own personal search engine, permitting the tracking of the movements of everyday citizens for low-level complaints, personal whims, and sometimes, seemingly, for the lols. ...


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