Andrew Tate vs Coffeezilla Situation is Out Of Control, Why Moldova’s Crazy Election Matters, & More
PDS Published 10/21/2024
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Coffeezilla Releases Andrew Tate Investigation
Coffeezilla released his investigation into Andrew Tate’s crypto schemes.
And a lot of it focuses on accusing Andrew of being a hypocrite for previously criticizing influencers who involve themselves in crypto, only to jump on it himself.
With Coffeezilla sharing clips like:
“Crypto Twitter are full of the biggest degenerate losers on the planet. They’re losers. Crypto is the only scenario I can think of where you can make a whole bunch of money while benefiting society zero.” (1:06-1:18)
But eventually, Coffee says that Tate kind of pivoted:
“My problem with crypto is that it instigated a culture that I didn’t like. I didn’t like crypto culture as a whole because the culture was based on getting in early, which I guess you could argue is a skill, but to a degree is luck, gambling, rug pulls, staying anon, hiding like a little coward in a hole.” (4:19-4:39)
“Once I decided I was going to fix that, I decided I had to have an idea that allowed people to make money from things they should make money from, which is hard work (4:46-4:54)
With Coffee then adding of this rebrand:
“There it is. The Tates are here to fix crypto. It used to be full of scams, rug pulls, and anons before Andrew Tate got involved, but now, everything is about to change.” (4:54-5:02)
With Coffee then going into Andrew’s history with crypto promotions and claiming that he has a history of pumping up coins that later reached massive lows.
Beginning with a coin called Roost, which Coffee described as:
“Honestly, this is your textbook Ponzi coin, exactly the type of thing Tate would call a scam a year ago, but now he and his brother promoted it heavily over multiple videos.” (5:11-5:20)
And Coffee claimed that while Andrew and his brother Tristan were promoting it, the price did well, but after, its price went down 90%.
On top of that, its treasury wallet got hacked.
And per Coffee, Andrew promoted several other coins that later tanked.
But he also said that this pattern isn’t even Andrew’s biggest crypto problem.
“The main project Tate keeps promising, which is Real World Token. All of those others, if you want to believe Tate, were just promotions. This is the coin Tate claims is actually behind.”(6:58-7:08)
And if you are unfamiliar, the Real World is Andrew’s paid subscription course, which promises mentorship and community building.[]
But some have likened it to a “get rich quick cult.”
And now, Coffee says Andrew is promising Real World Tokens to those who stay subscribed to the course.
So the idea is that those who stay on course will eventually earn profits from the school.
“AT: So imagine you sign up for the Real World, you start to make money, you focus on your tasks, then you can invest that money in the Real World Token and get paid every single month, a monthly dividend, from the profits of the school.
C: Alright, so I think I got it, so you got the people at the bottom, they are paying up into the course, into the school, and then you have people with higher power levels, they are making money from people at the bottom with the coin, and all that money flows up, it’s just kind of this nice little…pyramid scheme.” (8:25-8:55)
With Coffee then adding that Andrew had previously said he was working with the SEC on this, but then has also said things like:
“SEC come for me, there is no SEC in Romania, we’re fucking scammers.” (9:11-9:16)
And we actually knew this investigation was coming because last week, Andrew tweeted a screenshot of an email Coffezilla sent him asking for comment on an upcoming story, accompanied by several questions about his crypto habits.[]
And Andrew then basically launched a hate campaign against Coffee, telling his followers to email him and call him gay. [][]
Andrew later posting a video saying that for every person who calls Coffee gay and dislikes his eventual investigation video, he will buy more of a coin called Daddy.
And prior to uploading his investigation, Coffee put out a separate video calling Tate out, saying:
“Legit, I have hundreds of these emails all freaking out, ironically, on behalf of an Alpha Male who is also freaking out about questions he refuses to answer, about investigation that none of them have seen but they are planning to dislike in advance to own me and to prove to their Daddy that they are good little boys.” (3:01-3:22)
And he addressed all of this in his investigation too:
“Let me just see if I got the plan right here, the plan is to dislike and call someone gay, so the Alpha Male you like buys Daddy coins for you.” (10:06-10:18)
“You can almost smell the desperation, get rich quick…by hurling slurs at a journalist.” (10:42-10:46)
And as Coffee’s videos were coming out, you had Tate tweeting that “Having the power to randomly pump any coin on the chart is super fun.”[]
Adding he wants to “pump everyone's bags and give you all money.”[]
But of course, I would love to hear what you think, if you think Andrew is going to follow through on his Daddy coin promise here.
Right now the ReturnYouTubeDislikes extension shows Coffezilla’s video having just 1,400 dislikes compared to 183,000 likes.
But I would love to know your thoughts on any and all of this.
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Elon Musk’s daily $1 million giveaway to registered voters could be illegal
Is Elon Musk buying votes?
Right, because as you may have seen, this is the announcement he made at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Saturday:
“I have a surprise for you, which is that we are going to be awarding one million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition, every day, from now until the election.” (BYTE: 0:00-0:22)
And within a couple of minutes, the first lucky winner was walking up on stage to accept a giant check (BROLL: 1:43-1:50).
With a near-identical scene playing out the next day at a rally near Pittsburgh (BROLL: 0:31-0:36).
And like Musk said, these people? They’re people that signed a petition.
Specifically, they signed a petition “in support of the First and Second Amendment” set up by Musk’s very own pro-Trump Super PAC, which he’s already given $75 million to himself.
But here’s the thing…
Not just anyone can sign, at least not if they wanna win money.
Right, according to the petition website, “...this program is exclusively open to registered voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.”
And with that, they actually get paid just for signing up.
Right, in Pennsylvania, they get $100, with voters in other battleground states getting $47 per referral.
And notably, this petition was launched before some of these state’s registration deadlines, including Pennsylvania’s, which is today.
And of course, some people are predicting that Pennsylvania might be the most important swing state this year (1, 2, 3).
And with all that, you have people saying that this isn’t about some petition, it’s about getting people to vote.
As well as gather contact information to support last-minute campaigning.
And while using petitions to collect data on potential voters is pretty normal, everything else about this scheme may very well make it illegal.
Right, because federal law makes it a crime for anyone who “pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting.”
And it’s a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
And you have people like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro saying Musk’s giveaway was “deeply concerning” and is “something that law enforcement could take a look at.”
And so the question is whether or not Musk has really found a loophole.
And experts? They’re divided.
Right, you have people like Brad Smith, former Republican chairman of the FEC, saying this is “something of a gray area” but “not that close to the line.”
With him going on to say: “He’s not paying them to register to vote. He’s paying them to sign a petition — and he wants only people who are registered to vote to sign the petition. So I think he comes out OK here.”
But then, others say conditioning the payouts on being a registered voter in a swing state shows what Musk’s real intentions are.
WIth Rick Hasen (Hassen), an election law expert at UCLA, saying in a blog post that Musk’s sweepstakes was “clearly illegal vote-buying.”
And then, David Becker, a former DOJ official and founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, saying:
“This isn’t a particularly close case — this is exactly what the statute was designed to criminalize.”
But of course, illegal or not, the damage may be done.
With some speculating that Musk is banking on a Trump presidency to shield him from potential prosecution.
And so we’ll have to wait and see what happens from here but in the meantime, don’t forget to vote.
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Biden administration proposes rule that would require insurers to cover over-the-counter birth control, condoms, and Plan-B — making them free with insurance
The Biden administration just introduced a plan that would DRASTICALLY increase access to contraceptives and other reproductive health care for millions and millions of Americans.
Right, just this morning, the administration announced that it had proposed a new rule that would make over-the-counter — OTC — family planning methods totally FREE to the vast majority of Americans.
This including condoms, spermicides, and emergency contraception like Plan B.
As well as the first-ever over-the-counter birth control pill, Opill, which the FDA approved just last year.
And specifically, the proposal would require health insurers to cover these OTC family planning methods.
Which would be a major shift, because while Obamacare mandates that most private insurance companies must cover contraception at no cost to patients, that just applies to prescription birth control —
And they aren’t required to pay for OTC alternatives.
But this rule doesn’t just impact OTC options, it also would expand the choices people have for free prescription birth control.
And this by requiring insurers to cover ALL approved drugs, unless they have a therapeutic equivalent that’s already covered, thus making a much wider selection of birth control pills and IUDs available at no cost.
With this coming amid complaints that people seeking certain kinds of birth control can face serious costs because insurers only need to cover one kind of drug within each category of contraception.
But there are many different types of pills, IUDs, and other preventatives in each category.
And I really can’t emphasize how significant this new rule would be — right, according to the administration, it would:
“significantly increase coverage of contraception without cost sharing for 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance.”
Which is why administration officials say that if this rule is finalized, it will represent:
“the most significant expansion of contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act since 2012, when contraception was first required to be covered.”
What’s more, the timing here is also incredibly important because it comes as people have been struggling to access prescription contraceptives since Roe v. Wade was reversed and more than a dozen states banned almost all abortions.
With reproductive health advocates saying that it is more important than ever to ensure that these tools are more easily available.
Right, as we’ve talked about countless times, these bans have made being pregnant actively dangerous for everyone — not just those seeking abortions.
They have made emergency care harder to access and drastically increased maternal mortality rates in states with bans.
But in addition to making pregnancy less safe, these bans have also made it harder for people to access contraceptives.
Right, since Roe was overturned, health clinics in abortion-ban states have been forced to close their doors.
But those clinics didn’t just do abortions, they also provided birth control and preventative care.
So now it’s that much harder for women to get birth control prescriptions filled and prevent pregnancy in states that ban them from getting abortions and jeopardize their lives when they do get pregnant.
For example, in the first year since Roe was overturned, Texas — which has a strict ban — saw a nearly 28% decline in filled prescriptions for oral contraception.
Beyond all that, far-right conservatives have also been attempting to limit access to some forms of birth control even MORE by spreading misinformation about how different methods work, like falsely claiming they cause abortion.
And even though polls have consistently found widespread, bipartisan support for access to contraception, Republicans have repeatedly voted against measures that enshrine rights to contraception at both the federal and state levels.
So, as a result, this new proposal is widely viewed as an essential effort to safeguard access.
Now, as far as what happens next, in order for this rule to be implemented, it first has to go through a 60-day comment period.
And while it can take months or even years for federal agencies to respond to comments and issue a final version, key officials in the administration say it will be possible to finalize this policy before the end of the Biden administration.
So for now, we’ll have to see if that is something that could happen before a new president takes office in January.
And even if it is, it’s unclear whether Trump would keep this widely supported rule or roll it back if he assumes office.
But with this, I’d really love to know your thoughts — especially if you’ve struggled to access contraceptives either because of barriers to either access or cost.
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Iran hires criminal gangs to murder critics script
You wouldn’t think that an Islamic theocracy and an American biker gang have very much in common.
But it turns out they both enjoy a little hobby that brings people of all different beliefs and backgrounds together: violence.
You know, the practice older than history itself whereby one human tries to cause as much damage as possible to another human’s body.
Because of course, gangs love doing that shit to people, and the Iranian government happens to have a lot of people it wants that done to, so they make a good team.
With Iran reportedly hiring, yes, the Hells Angels, as well as other criminal syndicates in Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and South America to threaten, murder and kidnap its critics abroad.
This according to a new investigation by The Washington Post. [Headline]
So at least 14 of the 88 assassination, abduction and other violent plots linked to Iran over the past five years involved these groups. [Quote, find “88”]
Which enables the regime to murder other countries’ citizens on other countries’ soil, yet maintain plausible deniability.
Right, they don’t always hire criminals directly; instead they work through middlemen.
Most prominently an alleged heroin trafficking kingpin based in Iran by the name of Naji Sharifi Zindashti [Pronounce 00:32]. [Image]
Right, he emerged top dog from a regional drug war a decade ago, and since then, he’s been tied to multiple killings of journalists, dissidents and activists.
With U.S. criminal charges alleging he organized a plot to kill an Iranian defector and his wife living under false identities in Maryland. [Quote, find “Maryland”]
And to pull it off, Zindashti negotiated a 350,000-dollar contract with two Hells Angels members, including a “full patch” member named Damion Ryan. [Image]
But unfortunately for them, the trio had communicated through an encrypted messaging service known as Sky ECC. [B roll, 01:40]
Right, this was a popular software among criminals because it disabled their cameras, microphones and GPS trackers while adding a “kill switch” to delete incriminating data. [Same B roll]
But in 2021, international authorities infiltrated the service, conducting hundreds of raids and arresting dozens of people. [B roll, 02:09]
Including the Hells Angels pair, who were snatched up in Minnesota and Ottawa.
Other times, though, the plots have succeeded.
Right, take, for example, Pouria Zeraati [Pronounce 00:17]. [Image]
He’s an Iranian British journalist for Iran International, the London-based, Saudi-funded satellite and online news platform that bypasses Iran’s censors.
Which became a real threat to the regime after the killing of Mahsa Amini [Ah-mee-nee] in 2022, when it broadcasted footage of protests. [B roll, 00:11]
So in 2023, a suspected associate of the Thieves in Law, an Eastern European criminal network, flew to London and was caught photographing Iran International’s headquarters. [Quote, find “Vienna”]
Which then prompted the outlet to move its operations to a studio in Washington, where it believed it would be safer.
And Zeraati in particular was moved in and out of safe houses by London police, given a secret way to signal rescue units and had monitoring devices installed in his home. [Quote same link, find “secret way”]
But after several months, they returned to their London Studios, and Zeraati came home to his four-story apartment building.
With him crossing the street to his car on his way to work one afternoon when a disheveled man caught his eye. [Quote same link, find “disheveled”]
Right, the man asked for money, but Zeraati kept going, and then a second man emerged from behind some foliage.
With him grabbing Zeraati’s arms, holding him still, while the first man, now smiling broadly, stabbed the journalist’s leg repeatedly as he screamed. [Quote same link, find “smiling”]
Then, they ran away to a getaway car driven by a third man, leaving Zeraati bleeding on the sidewalk.
With him later telling the BBC he immediately knew the attack was political because they didn’t take his phones, watch, AirPods or wallet. [Quote, find “wallet”]
Moreover, they went for his leg, rather than his heart or his neck. [Image]
Suggesting that they weren’t trying to kill him; they meant to send a warning. [Same image]
But according to British police, the assailants were not from Iran and had no discernible connection to its security services. [Quote, find “not from Iran”]
So although they’ve been identified, they’re still at large and Iran can deny any involvement.
With the regime allegedly orchestrating at least five lethal plots in recent years against journalists from Iran International. [Quote same link, find “five lethal”]
Now outsourcing your covert operations to criminal proxies like this comes with a few upsides besides just making it harder to pin on you.
First, it’s relatively cheap to hire criminals, though of course the downside is that they’re less professional.
But second, even if they fail, the costs are negligible.
With a U.S. intelligence analyst telling the Post, “Rather than putting Iran’s own agents at risk, ‘two guys they barely know will spend 20 years in jail.’” [Quote same link]
So the regime feels confident enough to go after everyone from an exiled journalist in Brooklyn to a women’s rights activist in Switzerland to LGBTQ activists in Germany. [Quote same link, find “Germany”]
With British intelligence and Metropolitan Police reportedly tracking more than 16 plots from Iran over the past two years alone. [Quote same link, find “16 plots”]
And you may remember, last month a Pakistani man with ties to Iran was arrested for allegedly plotting to hire a hitman to kill a politician who appeared to be Donald Trump. [Image then image]
With that apparently meant to be revenge for the former president’s order that assassinated the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps [core], Qasem Soleimani [Pronounce 00:12]. [Image]
And however you feel about Trump, you better be glad that plot didn’t work.
Because if it had, we’d be looking at a historic international crisis, possibly even war.
But let’s also keep in mind that even if Iran’s gotten more brazen with its use of criminals recently, these assassination plots aren’t new.
Right, according to one count, since 1979 the regime’s agents have killed more than 440 Iranians outside its borders. [Quote, find “440”]
And that’s not counting all the non-fatal attempts as well.
So point is, if you’re an outspoken critic of the regime, there are few places where you can feel truly safe.
And apparently even the United States isn’t one of them.
Links:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/12/iran-criminal-gangs-target-dissidents/
https://time.com/7013497/donald-trump-iran-assassination-plot/
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Moldova narrowly votes to join EU in referendum after dealing with Russian interference, including a fugitive oligarch’s vote-buying scheme
And then, we gotta talk about this wild election and referendum that just went down in Moldova.
Right, that’s the little country sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine.
And its current president, Maia Sandu (Maya Sandoo)? She was elected in 2020 on a pro-European platform.
With that leading to 2022 when, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the country officially applied to join the EU.
Soon being granted candidate status, along with Ukraine, and by 2023, starting talks about what the process would look like.
And last May, the Moldovan parliament voted to hold a referendum on adding EU membership as a “strategic goal” in the constitution.
WIth that referendum scheduled for the same day as the next presidential election.
But while all that was happening, Russia was making plans to pull Moldova back in its sphere of influence.
Right, the country’s actually been described as a testing ground for Russian hybrid warfare and election interference.
And with that, a man by the name of Ilan Shor (Elon Shore) has been the main conduit for the Kremlin's efforts.
He’s an Israeli-born, pro-Russian Moldovan oligarch who’s been sentenced in absentia for stealing nearly $1 billion from Moldovan banks back in 2014 – an amount that was roughly equivalent to 12% of the country’s GDP at the time.
Right, before he could be caught, he fled Moldova, spent some time hiding out in Israel, and eventually obtained Russian citizenship.
And from there, he’s just been wreaking havoc.
I mean, last month, for example, he said he would pay voters the equivalent of $28 for registering with his campaign and more if they voted against the referendum.
With Moldovan police saying a few weeks ago that as many as 130,000 Moldovans may have been bribed.
And then, last week, authorities announced they’d uncovered a program in which hundreds of Moldovan citizens were brought to Russia to learn how to stage riots and other unrest.
And then, beyond that, there’s just been a massive disinformation campaign.
Right, with some of the big talking points being that joining the EU would plunge the country into war, or that it would mean kids being brainwashed into becoming gay or transgender.
And with that, you actually had multiple US agencies supporting the Moldovan government in its efforts to counter Russian interference.
And overall, support for Sandoo and a yes on the referendum seemed strong.
But as the results started coming in, it wasn’t looking good.
Right, that’s until the votes of Moldova’s large and mostly pro-European diaspora started trickling in, just barely bringing the yes vote over the threshold.
Right, in the end, preliminary results show it was a difference of less than 15,000 votes.
And with that, top Russian officials have already tried to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the vote, with a Kremlin spokesperson calling the election campaign “unfree.”
And saying:
“The first thing that we see is, of course, such mechanical, hard-to-explain surges in the number of votes for Sandoo and referendum participants supporting the integration in the E.U.”
But of course, it’s not hard to explain, I just did.
Right, kind of like mail-in-votes being counted later in the US and favoring Democrats doesn’t mean there’s some kind of massive conspiracy.
But in any case, as far as the presidential election, Sandoo came away with around 42% of the vote.
With her closest challenger – a pro-Russian candidate – earning around 26%.
That means the two of them will now face off in the second round on November 3rd.
And if other pro-Russian parties and voters throw their support behind him, the run-off could be very close.
Sandoo, writing on X before the final outcome was clear, said that “criminal groups, working with foreign forces,” had attempted to influence Moldovan elections using “tens of millions of euros, lies, and propaganda.”
With her going on to say:
“We have clear evidence that these criminal groups aimed to buy 300,000 votes — a fraud of unprecedented scale. Their objective was to undermine a democratic process. Their intention is to spread fear and panic in the society.”
And with that, it’s not over.
Right, we have to see how the second round goes.
And as far as EU membership? Despite the referendum, it’s still years away, and it’s still gonna be a source of tension in the meantime.
