John Hicks

IT guy

[John Hicks @johnghicks]

lear
/lɪər, lɛər/
verb (past and past participle leared; present participle learing)
noun
1. archaic, dialect (chiefly Scots)
To teach or to learn; a lesson or piece of lore.
Etymology: Middle English lere, from Old English lǣran “to teach.”
2. informal, U.S., especially Minnesota
To operate, or appear to operate, a childcare, education, or social-services facility that receives large public subsidies while maintaining only the thinnest appearance of actual children, instruction, or attendance. Distinguished in popular usage by conspicuous spelling errors on signage and by the difficulty government inspectors have in locating either students or records.
Example: “They leared $1.9 million from the Child Care Assistance Program in a single fiscal year.”
3. noun
A facility or scheme of the kind described in sense 2; by extension, any government-funded enterprise whose primary product is billing rather than service.
Example: “The Quality Learing Center became the best-known lear in the state.”
Usage note.
Sense 2 gained currency after the Minneapolis Quality Learing Center (sign originally spelled “Learing”) received millions in state and federal childcare payments, accumulated scores of licensing violations, and later closed amid a broader fraud investigation. The term is often applied, with varying degrees of charity, to the government employees who licensed the operation, processed its claims, and repeatedly failed to notice either the misspelling or the missing children.
Compare: ghost enrollment, paper daycare.

[John Hicks @johnghicks]

"Politicians have leared" 🤣
They need to lear a lesson to not make crazy laws like this.

[Nick shirley @nickshirleyy]

Been a few days now and just wanted to say thank you to the thousands of people who came out, showed up, kept the peace and took a stand against California’s new law known as the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” (AB 2624). There is absolutely no need for this law and has made a protected class for “immigration support service providers”.

Politicians have leared that by using “immigration support service providers” they can funnel millions and billions of your tax dollars to nonprofits, NGOs, learing centers and fake healthcare providers and then use that money to push their crazy agendas across the country. Now that it’s been exposed they need new laws to protect the fraud.

Unfortunately for them it has only exposed them for the frauds that they are.

[Everett Stern @EverettStern1]

Most people mark 9/11 by remembering where they were. I mark it by remembering what I saw inside a bank.

I was a compliance officer at HSBC, working in the correspondent banking division. That is the part of the bank where the world's money moves through, where other institutions clear their transactions.

From that desk, I did not just see HSBC. I saw the flows of some of the largest banks on earth. Deutsche Bank. Standard Chartered. Others. I reviewed transactions I believed were moving money to terrorist organizations, to cartels, to the people who want Americans dead.

I reported it. It cost me nearly everything.

The bank paid a fine. Not one banker went to prison.

Years later, a law firm hired me to provide a sworn affidavit in litigation against Deutsche Bank. The plaintiffs were 9/11 families, suing the institutions they allege helped move money to the people who murdered their husbands, wives, and children.

Sit with that. Families who lost everything on September 11th, in court, arguing that the financial system helped fund the attack.

Here is what keeps me up at night.

Every terrorist attack requires financing. Not one of them happens without money moving first. The wire transfer comes before the funeral. Always.

And the deterrent we have built for institutions that let that money through is a fine. A number on a balance sheet. A line item. The cost of doing business.

I want to be clear. I am not anti-bank. I believe most people in compliance are good people trying to do the right thing under enormous pressure. This is about the bad actors, and about a system that has never made the consequences personal enough to change behavior.

Some things have improved. The technology is better. The controls are stricter. In the TD Bank case, the bank pleaded guilty criminally and prosecutors charged individuals, which did not happen with HSBC. That progress is real.

But TD happened in 2024. More than a decade after HSBC. Systemic failures, employees participating directly, enormous sums moving through the institution.

The lesson still has not landed.

Until the people making these decisions face prison rather than a fine their shareholders absorb, the math does not change. And as long as the math does not change, the money keeps moving.

Compliance officers, analysts, investigators: you are the last line. If you are seeing something right now and being told to let it go, you are not imagining it, and you are not alone.

Every year when this date comes around, I am asking this industry to be honest about where we still are.

The wire transfer comes first. It always comes first.

[Pavel Durov @durov]

🚨 Two years ago, I was detained in Paris by police for 3 days — the longest they can hold someone before charging them.

In an unprecedented move, French authorities accused the head of a major platform of crimes committed by its users.

That investigation is still ongoing, although it makes less sense with each passing year.

Why?

Because we now have extensive evidence that Telegram was neither worse than other popular platforms at moderation, nor the worst at cooperating with authorities.

So why was Telegram singled out?

Over the last two years, we have seen a pattern emerge in multiple countries: Telegram is quietly asked to grant political favors — such as illegal censorship or surveillance. When we refuse, local media and “non-governmental” organizations launch orchestrated campaigns portraying Telegram as a cesspool of crime, from child pornography to terrorism.

Our moderation is no worse than that of other major platforms. Yet these campaigns instill the idea that Telegram should be persecuted or restricted.

Suddenly, officials start caring about crime and protecting children — but only on platforms that reject their secret political demands. Platforms that accept such deals get away with almost anything — including literally selling ads promoting child pornography.

Is the French investigation against me political? It certainly fits the pattern we see elsewhere, mostly in authoritarian countries. And it definitely raises questions.

In time, this investigation may itself be investigated — especially now that Macron’s war against free speech is facing pushback. This month, France’s Constitutional Council struck down his social media ban for children under 15 on freedom-of-expression grounds.

In the end, freedom and truth will prevail ✊

[David Limbaugh @DavidLimbaugh]

I confess I hate being barraged by emails and I rarely read those emails from people who always send articles and that type of thing but for some reason I read one today and I thought it really interesting so I’m going to paste it here. You may have seen it before, but I haven’t.

Conundrum

Free people are not equal. Equal people are not free. (Think this one over and over…makes sense!)

"A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again."

The definition of the word Conundrum is: something that is puzzling or confusing.

Here are six Conundrums of socialism in the United States of America :

1. America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized.

2. Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.

3. They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.

4. Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer.

5. The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.

6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those other countries.

Think about it! And that, my friends, pretty much sums up the USA in the 21st Century. Makes you wonder who is doing the math.

[John Hicks @johnghicks]

@CrispyWicks Hahaha. Help from immediate family can be a complete win-win.

[John Hicks @johnghicks]

@jackbwater @DanBurmawy "I am not here to debate the authenticity of religious texts. I am here to debate what makes Islamic culture a threat to humanity."

[John Hicks @johnghicks]

@CrispyWicks Yep. Have babies and enjoy raising them. Don't make other people raise them or you won't know them when they become adults.

[Catherine Herridge @C__Herridge]

NEW: Declassified Records Allege Top Official Reluctant to Share Election Intel, Feared "Deep State" Label @WhiteHouse Transparency Task Force

March 2020 email: Alleges deputy director of National Security Agency (NSA) opposed sharing election intelligence including 2016 and 2020

- Timing could 'invite accusations of politicization'

- First Trump administration was “suspicious of the IC (intelligence community) and aggressive in removing anyone who stands in their way.”

- Acting ODNI Richard Grenell @RichardGrenell “had been tasked to ‘clean house’ in the intelligence community.”

- Releasing intelligence about the 2016 election in 2020 would lead the NSA to being "accused of releasing it for political purposes.”

- Deputy Director (DDIR) wanted to protect the NSA’s reputation as neutral, credible while admitting that the CIA, FBI, and ODNI were “perceived… as hosting or being part of the ‘deep state.’”

- "The meeting ended with a suggestion that we all chew on it. (REDACTED) said (REDACTED) would come back with options."

CONTEXT: A credible whistleblower complaint was filed alleging that the CIA, FBI, and other IC agencies suppressed intelligence about China’s influence operations during the 2020 election targeting President Trump and his campaign.

China’s goal was to “impede” President Trump’s re-election and “denigrate” him as a candidate. The DNI is working to declassify the records.

Recently declassified records show China obtained more than 200 million voter files during the 2020 election cycle.

No evidence votes changed, but China could use data for identity theft, false voter registration, and coupled with other hacked data, such as credit reporting, for blackmail.

No immediate response from NSA nor former senior intelligence official, contacted through reported place of work. Will update if I hear back.

Thank you for subscribing @C__Herridge
It makes my independent journalism possible.

[John Hicks @johnghicks]

@PrishaMosley Seen. Thank you for speaking out and continuing to speak out!

[Valerie Anne Smith @ValerieAnne1970]

The LARGEST human study on Ivermectin + Mebendazole for cancer is now peer-reviewed and published in a major oncology journal.

84.4% of patients reported COMPLETE REMISSION, TUMOR SHRINKAGE, or HALTED TUMOR GROWTH.

Patients took 25 mg Ivermectin and 250 mg Mebendazole. After 6 months, patients had an 84.4% Clinical Benefit Ratio (CBR)—meaning more than four out of five patients reported either:
No evidence of disease (32.8%)
Tumor regression (15.6%)
Cancer stabilization (36.1%)

Cheap. Off-patent. Widely available.

Yet for years it was viciously attacked, censored, and ridiculed as “horse paste” while millions died from cancer — and the industry made trillions pushing toxic chemo and lifelong “treatments.”

This wasn’t an accident.

They don’t want cures.
They want customers.

The dam has broken and the suppression is being exposed.

[John Solomon @jsolomonReports]

"The FBI had Hunter Biden's laptop with all the evidence of the pay-to-play... and it had 14 confidential human sources providing them derogatory information on Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and the Biden crime family."

John appeared on Newsmax and contends that these actions were designed to shield Joe Biden and influence public perception ahead of the 2020 election.

[Catherine Herridge @C__Herridge]

REPORTING THAT AGES WELL

In April 2025 with investigative journalist @shellenberger we exposed an @FBI gag order on the Hunter Biden laptop during 2020 election + the role of the FBI Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF)

Records declassified this week @WhiteHouse indicate the FITF was also actively suppressing derogatory reporting from confidential human sources about the Bidens including Ukraine corruption allegations.

In this spreadsheet, GOP lawmakers, Trump Administration officials were labeled "conduits" for disinformation.

The so-called targets of the disinformation included Soros, former President Obama, Hillary Clinton and others.

CONTEXT: The suppression of derogatory confidential source reporting by the FBI about the Biden family appears highly organized.

It had the effect of spreading disinformation about the authenticity of the Hunter Biden laptop and other matters.

[Sharyl Attkisson 🕵️‍♂️💼🥋 @SharylAttkisson]

You were taught in med school by a system rife with conflicts of interest.

The Merck Manual is literally written by Merck. And as I documented in Follow the Science, it contains false information on numerous fronts including vaccine safety.

You belong to medical associations that have become little more than fronts for the pharmaceutical industry.

Your Continuing Medical Education classes are largely sponsored and taught by professionals being paid by the pharmaceutical companies their classes defend. They often contain incomplete, misleading, and false information.

You serve in a political body largely funded by, ruled by, and conflicted by vaccine industry donations. As both D and R members have stepped forward to admit (reported on Full Measure), your party leaders have been working for two decades to stop vaccine-autism hearings and inquiries.

You've surrendered your scientific curiosity and public health responsibilities to a conflicted dogma pushed out by propagandists with financial interests.

Vaccines are not a monolithic group that can be spoken of as "safe and effective." It's as silly and unscientific as saying "all medicine is safe and effective." There are different calculations for different vaccines and different people.

There is no study that has ever proven "vaccines do NOT cause autism." You're reciting false propaganda rather than medical science.

(Obviously, the vaccines that have been pulled from the market after widespread use were not safe and effective, after all.)

The government's chief pro-vaccine medical expert in court changed his mind and concluded vaccines can cause autism after all, but the govt. covered it up.

The government has been paying vaccine-autism injuries in vaccine court for decades while falsely telling the public the link is debunked.

A top CDC scientist recounted in detail multiple coverups at the agency regarding scientific studies linking vaccines and autism.

Autism appeared as a possible risk on the warning label for a vaccine that was later pulled from the market.

Thousands of scientific studies link vaccines to hundreds of disorders, including immune disorders such as diabetes, and neurological disorders such as autism.

The "experts" have proven wrong on nearly every major public health controversy in recent years.

I don't think the majority of people are buying what you're selling anymore.

[Dr. Maalouf ‏ @realMaalouf]

It has been 50 years since this photo was taken. Palestinian terrorists invaded the Lebanese Christian town of Damour and massacred 582 Christian civilians.

It was an apocalypse, said a priest who survived the massacre.

“They were coming in thousands, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar! Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust to Mohammad.’

They were slaughtering everyone, men, women and children.”

Men were lined up against the walls of their homes and gunned down.

Women were tortured and gang-raped.

Babies were shot in the back of the head.

Pregnant women had their babies cut out of the womb.

Just one of the many massacres committed against Christians by Palestinians. This is how Muslims became the majority in Lebanon.

[Sharyl Attkisson 🕵️‍♂️💼🥋 @SharylAttkisson]

Here ya go:

One winner in the Covid vaccine misinformation is Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer who wrote; "Vaccine mandates would prevent 100 percent of Covid cases in the United States."

From my book, "Follow the Science."

"..Dr. Fauci seemed to get it wrong on most every critical point involving Covid-19. He shamelessly promoted the experimental and unproven vaccines without reservation and, as I mentioned earlier, joined vaccine makers in furthering the false narrative that Covid vaccines would prevent infection. For example, on December 12, 2020, he claimed the vaccines had "been found to be up to 95 percent effective in preventing the COVID-19 illness."
...
Many propagandists have attempted to revise history and claim these things were never said. These specific examples prove otherwise.

On November 9, 2020, media reports claimed one of the Covid vaccines “was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants.”

On November 18, 2020, CNN reported that “Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective in preventing Covid-19 infections, even in older adults, and caused no serious safety concerns.”

In December of 2020, vaccine makers crowed about their products’ supposed ability to prevent infection: “Moderna’s initial Phase 3 clinical data in December 2020 was similar to Pfizer-BioNTech’s—both vaccines showed about 95% efficacy for prevention of COVID.”

On December 12, 2020, Dr. Fauci claimed the vaccines have “been found to be up to 95 percent effective in preventing the COVID-19 illness.”

On February 12, 2021, an article in USA Today claimed Covid vaccines “were all 100% effective in the vaccine trials in stopping hospitalizations and death.”

On March 16, 2021, Pfizer announced that “its COVID-19 vaccine is extremely effective at preventing both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases of the disease.”

On March 29, 2021, CDC claimed the vaccines were 90 percent effective at preventing infection.

On March 31, 2021, Becker’s Hospital Review reported that “Pfizer says its vaccine is 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 in adolescents.”

On April 1, 2021, Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla tweeted, “Excited to share that updated analysis from our Phase 3 study with BioNTech also showed that our COVID-19 vaccine was 100% effective in preventing #COVID19 cases in South Africa. 100%!”

Also on April 1, 2021:

A study in the British Medical Journal claimed the vaccines prevent infection, as well as symptoms.

Fortune, New York magazine, The Intelligencer, MSNBC, and many others claimed Pfizer and Moderna shots are highly effective at preventing infection and illness.

CDC Director Dr. Walensky claimed, “Vaccinated people do not carry the virus—they don’t get sick.”

On June 7, 2021, a CDC study claimed “the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines . . . reduce the risk of infection by 91 percent for fully vaccinated people.”

On June 14, 2021, an article in Science claimed that Novavax, Pfizer, and Moderna vaccines were “essentially 100% protective against disease.”

On July 6, 2021, a Stanford study claimed vaccines prevented Covid infection in nearly 100 percent of people.

On August 27, 2021, the CDC claimed, “The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were approximately 90% effective in preventing symptomatic and asymptomatic infection” of Delta variant.

On September 23, 2021, The Atlantic claimed vaccinated people are less likely to spread Covid.

On October 3, 2021, Dr. Fauci stated, “we do have interventions, in the form of a vaccine to prevent infection.”

On October 7, 2021, President Biden claimed people who are vaccinated “cannot spread it.”

On October 11, 2021, a study by a group of Indian scientists claimed four out of five vaccinated people won’t get Covid.

On November 22, 2021, Pfizer issued a press release claiming its vaccine demonstrated “100% efficacy against COVID-19 in longer-term analysis, with no serious safety concerns identified” in children ages twelve to fifteen.

On December 14, 2021, President Biden claimed that vaccinated people “do not spread the disease to anyone else” and “This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

In January of 2022, justices on the Supreme Court displayed shocking ignorance of facts and played a remarkable role in furthering disinformation—even basing decisions on it. At the time, the court was hearing opposition to the Biden administration’s sweeping and unprecedented Covid vaccine mandates. Here is some of the incorrect information repeated by the justices.

From Justice Sonia Sotomayor:

Omicron was as deadly or deadlier than Delta

100,000 children were in critical care, many on ventilators, due to Covid

Covid deaths were at an all-time high at the time

From Justice Elena Kagan:

It’s “beyond settled” science that vaccines stop Covid transmission

It’s proven that masks are highly effective at stopping the spread

From Justice Stephen Breyer:

Vaccine mandates would prevent 100 percent of Covid cases in the United States

750 million people tested positive for Covid-19 on one day that week. (The US population is roughly 330 million people.)

[The Vigilant Fox 🦊 @VigilantFox]

Mike Rowe reveals Ford has 5,000 unfilled mechanic jobs paying $120,000 a year.

No degree required. AI-proof. And Ford still can't fill them.

ROWE: "Not a week goes by when I don’t get a call from some CEO... elected official... freaking out."

"They’ve done the math: for every five tradespeople who retire, two come in. It’s been that way for about 12 years now."

“Jim Farley (Ford CEO) told me he’s got 5,000 empty bays at Ford. These are AI-proof six-figure jobs, right? $120,000 a year. He can’t fill them.”

In a separation conversation with Shawn Ryan, Rowe said he visited a Texas data center and met three “debt-free” electricians under 30 making “north of $240,000/year.”

All three of those electricians have been “poached” three times in the last 18 months because the demand for electricians is crazy high.

THE BIG TAKEAWAY: If you're thinking about college but aren't sure what you really wanna do, trade school might be the smarter play.

Chances are, you'll take on a lot less debt, make a lot more money — and AI won't be coming for your job anytime soon.

[Catherine Herridge @C__Herridge]

FIRST AMENDMENT CASE UPDATE

The district court has clarified that I don't have to pay the $800 daily contempt fine for refusing to disclose my confidential sources while our team asks the Supreme Court to hear our First Amendment case.

The court also denied the plaintiff, Yanping Chen's request to raise the daily contempt fines to 5K. The court ordered reimbursement for the fines I have already paid.

This case is much bigger than one journalist, one story, or one news outlet.  The outcome will impact every newsroom in this country and the ability of reporters to protect their sources and do investigative reporting that seeks accountability.   

Yet, critical evidence remains hidden from the public and under seal by the District Court.

At a time when many corporate media outlets choose to settle or pressure journalists to surrender their notes, I want to acknowledge that Fox News has continued to stand behind me and fully support the First Amendment and investigative journalism by paying my attorney’s fees.

I remain committed to safeguarding the principles of investigative journalism and a free press.

[John Hicks @johnghicks]

"It’s time for prosecutorial action."

[Jeff Clark @JeffClarkUS]

The revelations of an out of control FBI only get worse and worse and darker and darker.

Key thread from @jsolomonReports 🧵

It’s time for prosecutorial action. The clock just keeps ticking down and down.

(Operation Arctic Frost we know was an inside joke of “Orange Man bad” because Arctic frost is a type of orange. Wonder when we will learn why they deliberately misspelled the word “Oxford” as “Oxferd.”)

[John Solomon @jsolomonReports]

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: This morning, the White House Government Transparency Task Force released newly declassified documents exposing an FBI criminal investigation code-named Oxferd Comma. The documents can be downloaded here. https://t.co/8l9NWPnCx0