Category: zerohedge

Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

Try 2021

Had a little email exchange with Dave Collum this week. We go way back, more than two weeks even. It’s been a while though, Twitter cut me off from Dave’s tweets ages ago for some reason, and that’s just one person I know they did that with; how many others, no clue. My Twitter followers, @AutomaticEarth, have been just below the same certain number for years.

Regularly a few hundred are shaved off, and then they slowly revert back to just below that number. I don’t even care anymore. No more than I care about Facebook shutting down our account without any explanation. Let them be. We should not depend on these people, that’s just a bad idea.

Anyway, so Dave was reacting to a mail I sent him of the October 26 Debt Rattle -he’s always remained on one of my mailing lists- and that’s how we started talking again. Dave:

I have never spent a year so completely baffled by the world as this year. Nothing makes sense to me without invoking some seriously bizarre thinking (which I am not averse to doing.)

My reaction:

The game hasn’t even started yet. We’re still just warming up. Still, baseball is not the right analogy, that’s a civilized sport, this will feel much more like gladiators in the Forum fighting to the death. Biden has neither the energy not the -killer- instinct for that.

Yes, Dave, like Jim Kunstler, and like me, and many other people, have changed our views and positions on American politics quite a bit over the past 4-5 years. Mostly independently of each other. We just recognize the same patterns.

I think it’s fair to say that we all realize that there may be a million things wrong with Donald Trump, but there’s a lot more wrong with collusion to unseat a fairly elected president.

And that is what we all have faced. The FBI, and Robert Mueller, opening a years-long investigation based on a report that they already knew was fake, paid for by the DNC and Hillary campaign, relentlessly edged on by the -former- “media” sympathetic to that same campaign, and ending in absolute crickets, trying to save face by accusing Julian Assange and 13 Russians.

We have reached whole new depths with Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann. So, yes, sure, we all feel a bit vindicated when it turns out that the collusion was not on the Trump side, but on the DNC one, and very much on the Biden family’s one.

That the DNC media refuse to report on that hardly matters anymore.

They’ll have huge problems if Biden wins, because their day-to-day coverage has been based exclusively on Trump and scandal and intrigue for 5 years now, and they don’t remember how they used to make money without that, with just reporting honestly on what is going on. Trump is their golden goose. What will they do, report on Joe hiding in the White House basement? “Today, Joe slept only 12 hours!” Truman Show.

They will have even bigger problems if Trump wins, since that means his supporters will come after the entire DNC/FBI etc. cabal, including the media. I’ve often said that Michael Flynn lawyer Sidney Powell will not be satisfied anymore with a full exoneration of her client, and her legal team is sure to have accumulated an entire library of fabricated media pieces against him on top of FBI and Judge Sullivan “mishaps”.

And whatever side of politics, or even the law, you’re on, and no matter who wins the election, the judicial system will still churn on. She won’t stop, she won’t wave a white flag, guaranteed. Trump must have offered Flynn a full exoneration many times, but every one of his refusals of the offers must have been more stern than the last one.

And now, 6 days before the election, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, and Google’s Sundar Pichai testified in front of a congressional committee. While, from what I’ve seen, half of US eligible voters have already cast their vote. 50% of the social media job is done. And no-one on Capitol Hill will dare touch them. Because they are the new arms and tools of US intelligence, and you don’t mess with that.

Trump wins, we’ll see a huge increase in the violent street parties dressed up as “peaceful protests” we’ve become accustomed to over the past 6 months. Just last night, like it’s some kind of warning shot, things got way out of hand in New York and Philadelphia.

Biden wins, the right wing will come looking for what’s been taken away from them over the past 4 years, with the president they elected under constant investigation based on nothing other than party political gossip – and that’s putting it nicely. The Hunter and Joe Biden files that have been revealed so far give them ample reason to do just that.

To get back to Collum’s “Nothing makes sense to me without invoking some seriously bizarre thinking”, I think we should all prepare for just that. Unless there’s a landslide win for either side, which looks impossible, there doesn’t seem to be any way to know who will win in six days, before the new year. While the “peaceful protests” rage on.

And then we end up in the Supreme Court and Amy Handmaid Barrett casts the deciding vote. That’s not her fault, it’s everybody else’s. Everything about American politics has gotten out of hand, on all sides of all aisles. We don’t want the most qualified judges anymore, or the most qualified presidents, we instead want people in all these positions who agree with everything we think is right, which we know because our media has told us.

Collum: “I have never spent a year so completely baffled by the world as this year.”

My friend, you’re in for a treat. Try 2021.

*  *  *

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In what appears to be the second major French terror attack in two weeks, at least two people have died, and a third was critically wounded, during a brutal knife attack that occurred during the morning service of a Catholic church in Nice.

In an echo of the brutal attack on a schoolteacher that recently galvanized the French government to launch a major anti-terror crackdown, reports claimed that at least one of the victims had been decapitated, like the teacher was.

The incident is believed to be terror-related according to the city’s mayor. The suspect is reportedly alive, and has been taken into custody by police. A security perimeter has been set up around the church the city said, and it’s almost completely empty except for armed guards.

Witnesses on social media reported hearing shots fired as armed police responded to the incident, one reported hearing at least seven shots. The national police in France have urged the public to avoid the area, while cautioning that there’s no need to panic.

He wrote on Twitter: “I am on site with the @PoliceNat06 and the @pmdenice who arrested the perpetrator of the attack. “I confirm that everything suggests a terrorist attack in the Basilica of Notre-Dame de #Nice06.” Gérald Darmainin, France’s interior minister, has said he is chairing a crisis meeting into the incident. He wrote on Twitter: “#Nice : a police operation is in progress.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he was convening a crisis meeting at the ministry in Paris.

President Trump’s Sikorsky S-76B helicopter is now for sale on aircraft broker site Jet Edge Partners. The sale of the luxury helicopter comes as the virus pandemic has hammered businesses within The Trump Organization as large debt payments loom. 

The S-76B still flies under the U.S. civil registration code N76DT, an apparent reference to “Donald Trump,” The Drive said. The helicopter is parked at an undisclosed hanger in Trenton, New Jersey, waiting for a new owner. 

There was no clear indication at what price Jet Edge Partners listed the helicopter, though, on its website, it said: “Deal Pending.” In 2015, CNBC estimated a pre-owned “S-76′s usually sell for $5 million to $7 million.” 

Manufactured in 1989, the helicopter came off the Sikorsky line, now a Lockheed Martin subsidiary. The airframe has a little under 6,300 hours, and it appears the cockpit and cabin were modernized in the last decade. Here are some of the amenities the helicopter has to offer:

• Cabin Seats covered in Ecru/Almond Leather with Gold Seatbelt Fittings

• Six-Place Executive Cabin Interior with Panelling & Soundproofing System

• Headliner & Window Panels in Cream Ultra Suede

The sale of the helicopter comes around the time the virus-induced downturn has battered The Trump Organization. Trump’s empire is primarily built around golf courses, hotels, commercial and residential real estate, shops, and restaurants, mainly segments of the economy that have been hard hit. 

We may never know the exact reason why The Trump Organization has decided to sell its multi-million dollar helicopter. Still, the financial pressures we noted above suggest the company may need to raise cash ahead of loan payments due over the next couple of years. 

If so, does that mean Trump’s Boeing 757 could be liquidated next? 

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

Scotland’s new odious hate crime bill would go so far as to criminalize dinner table conversations if their ‘offensive’ content is reported to police.

“Conversations over the dinner table that incite hatred must be prosecuted under Scotland’s hate crime law,” reports the Times.

Such conversations were previously protected under the Public Order Act 1986, which includes a “dwelling defense” that shields conversations that take place in private homes from being prosecuted, however that would be removed under the new law.

The new bill would add an additional crime of “stirring up hate” against a protected group by “behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, or communicating threatening or abusive material to another person,” as well as the crime of possessing “inflammatory material.”

Critics have argued that the vague term “stirring up hate” could be broadly interpreted and could lead to people like JK Rowling facing criminal charges and up to seven years in prison for expressing views about transgender issues.

It also has dire implications for comedy and freedom of speech, given that anyone could choose to take offense to anything and complain that they have experienced “hate.”

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said journalists, writers and theater directors could also be dragged into the courts if their work is deemed to have stirred up “prejudice.”

To get an idea of Yousaf’s mentality, he previously gave a speech to the Scottish Parliament in which he complained that the vast majority of senior positions in Scottish authorities were filled by white people.

Demographically, Scotland is 96% white.

*  *  *

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MSM outlets seized on groundbreaking research produced by the Imperial College of London yesterday, claiming that the study’s findings that COVID-19 antibodies degrade during the months following infection to bash the Great Barrington Declaration, arguing that herd immunity would be virtually impossible to establish without the help of a vaccine that can provoke a stronger immune system response.

Well, on Wednesday morning, as the US government struck a deal to buy $375 million worth of an experimental Eli Lilly COVID-19 antibody drug following questionable trial results, a team of leading scientists in the UK warned that the quest for a vaccine could be complicated by an “imperfect” initial round of tests.

In fact, members of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce warned in an article published in the Lancet that a fully effective vaccine might never be developed, and that early versions of approved vaccines might not work for all people.

The letter is clearly an effort to temper people’s expectations as a growing body of research shows that COVID-19 immunity is more complicated than many would suspect, while President Trump continues to insist that a vaccine will be available within weeks as he battles for reelection. Recently, Pfizer, the current US frontrunner, saw its CEO delay the release of trial data that was expected by the end of the week.

Importantly, the team warned that there might never be a working vaccine: “However, we do not know that we will ever have a vaccine at all. It is important to guard against complacency and over-optimism,” said Kate Bingham, the chair of the UK Vaccines Taskforce.

“The first generation of vaccines is likely to be imperfect, and we should be prepared that they might not prevent infection but rather reduce symptoms and, even then, might not work for everyone or for long.” The taskforce added that “many, and possibly all” of the vaccine projects currently in the works could fail.

Readers can find the letter below in its entirety (text courtesy of the Lancet).

* * *

No vaccine in the history of medicine has been as eagerly anticipated as that to protect against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Vaccination is widely regarded as the only true exit strategy from the pandemic that is currently spreading globally.

The UK is at the forefront of a huge international effort to develop clinically safe and effective vaccines. The Vaccine Taskforce was the brainchild of Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK Government’s chief scientific advisor, who saw the need for a dedicated, nimble private-sector team of experts embedded in the Government to drive forward the development of vaccines for the UK and internationally. The Vaccine Taskforce was set up under the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in May, 2020, and I was asked to chair the taskforce, reporting directly to the prime minister, and working alongside Deputy Chair Clive Dix. The Vaccine Taskforce aims to ensure that the UK population has access to vaccines as soon as possible, while working with partners to support equitable access for populations worldwide, whether rich or poor.

However, we do not know that we will ever have a vaccine at all. It is important to guard against complacency and over-optimism. The first generation of vaccines is likely to be imperfect, and we should be prepared that they might not prevent infection but rather reduce symptoms, and, even then, might not work for everyone or for long.

Our strategy has been to build a diverse portfolio across different formats to give the UK the greatest chance of providing a safe and effective vaccine, recognising that many, and possibly all, of these vaccines could fail. We have focused on vaccines that are expected to elicit immune responses in the population older than 65 years: over three-quarters of deaths caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection are in this older population,1, 2 so it is essential that any vaccine is able to protect this group. Scalability of vaccine manufacture was also a key criterion, with the goal being to manufacture in the UK, if possible, to secure supply and create long-term resilience. We considered only vaccines that have the potential for approval by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and European Medicines Agency and for vaccine delivery as early as the end of 2020 or, at the latest, in the second half of 2021.

The Vaccine Taskforce has now secured access to six vaccines (from more than 240 vaccines in development) across four different formats: adenoviral vectors, mRNA, adjuvanted proteins, and whole inactivated viral vaccines, which are promising in different ways. The most advanced vaccines, such as those developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, BioNTech and Pfizer, and Janssen, are based on novel formats for which we have little experience of their use as vaccines, although the initial immunogenicity and safety data are encouraging.3, 4, 5 Vaccines based on frequently used vaccine formats, such as adjuvanted protein vaccines developed by Novavax, and by GSK and Sanofi, and inactivated whole viruses developed by Valneva, will not be available until late in 2021.

We also have an agreement with AstraZeneca to supply a neutralising antibody cocktail as a prophylactic treatment once clinical trials are completed and it is approved by regulators. This treatment will be provided in the short term for people who cannot receive a vaccine, such as people who are heavily immunosuppressed and cannot mount an immune response, or people who need immediate protection, such as health-care workers.

The Vaccine Taskforce has options to purchase sufficient doses of each vaccine type to vaccinate the appropriate UK population. Following the interim advice by the UK’s Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisations,6 vaccination would be recommended for adults older than 50 years, health-care and social-care workers on the front line, and adults with underlying comorbidities. The precise dose required will be determined as part of the clinical trials and by the decisions made by the UK Government on the basis of the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. We anticipate that most vaccines will require two doses, and we are also investigating whether annual or biannual revaccination booster shots might be required to maintain durable protection.

Developers of COVID-19 vaccines range from small biotechnology companies to big pharmaceutical companies, each with different commercial objectives and with different amounts of funding to support manufacturing scale-up and clinical trials. In some cases, the Vaccine Taskforce is investing at risk to support these activities before we know whether the vaccine is safe and effective, and, in other cases, we have negotiated an advanced purchase agreement. In both instances, government funding is usually linked to reaching clinical, regulatory, and other milestones. If a vaccine is not going to work, then we will stop funding.

Some of the developers, such as AstraZeneca, GSK and Sanofi, and Janssen, are pursuing the development of a vaccine on a non-profit basis, at least for the pandemic period; whereas others view the resources and risk that they are assuming as justification for seeking a profit.

The first phase 3 efficacy data from the leading vaccine candidates are due by the end of 2020, subject to accruing sufficient rates of infection within the clinical trial cohorts to show the vaccines’ efficacy. The primary endpoint is to show that the vaccine can protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection and reduce symptom burden. Two phase 3 efficacy clinical trials are now underway in the UK; the Oxford AstraZeneca adenovirus-vectored vaccine (NCT04400838) and the world’s first phase 3 study for Novavax’s protein-adjuvant vaccine (NCT04368988), both occurring at various sites across the UK. Numerous phase 3 studies are in preparation to start in the UK in 2020 and 2021 with US, European, Australian, and possibly Chinese vaccine developers, reflecting the UK’s strong reputation for running clinical trials and postauthorisation pharmacovigilance of high quality.

To help to accelerate the development of successful vaccines, we launched the National Health Service COVID-19 vaccine registry7 and have enrolled over 295 000 volunteers,8 with a focus on populations who are at high risk of severe infection and mortality from COVID-19. We plan to accelerate recruitment in disease hotspots with mobile research teams informed by robust PCR testing, and have provided funding for clinical trials of crucial importance, including Janssen’s two-dose Ad26 protocol (NCT04505722), Imperial College London’s self-amplifying RNA (ISRCTN17072692), and Valneva’s whole inactivated vaccine. We are also exploring the potential for future controlled human challenge studies, dependent on ethics and regulatory approvals. These studies have the potential to assess the efficacy of vaccines more quickly and with far fewer participants than a standard phase 3 trial. The Vaccine Taskforce is also supporting the development of heterologous boost clinical protocols, through the National Institute for Health Research, to explore whether different vaccine combinations can increase immunity or durability of protection.

To harmonise results from the various clinical trials, and to help to define immune correlates of protection, we have supported development of standardised, accredited assays, including quantitative high-throughput spike-protein ELISAs, live viral-neutralisation assays, and T-cell assays, which will be available to all vaccine developers.

A major challenge is that the global manufacturing capacity for vaccines is vastly inadequate for the billions of doses that are needed, and the UK manufacturing capability to date has been equally scarce. The Vaccine Taskforce has provided funding for flexible and surge production in several new UK sites for vaccine manufacture to provide the UK population with a new vaccine in less than 9 months from the identification of the pathogen. We also plan to bring new vaccine technologies and capabilities to the UK for future pandemic preparedness.

No-one has ever done mass vaccination of adults anywhere in the world before and the two-dose regimen, plus cold-chain restrictions for some vaccines, adds to the complexity of this deployment operation. National Health Service England has flexible deployment plans to start the vaccination of prioritised cohorts as soon as the vaccines are approved by the regulatory authorities, currently not to be coadministered with the influenza vaccination (although clinical trials are exploring coadministration of influenza and COVID-19 vaccines). Deployment plans have been developed for a range of settings from mass vaccination sites to large and small mobile (eg, pop-up) sites, general-practitioner surgeries and pharmacies, and even roving teams to visit people in care homes and people who are housebound or shielding.

We cannot, however, protect the UK without working with our international partners to protect the world. SARS-CoV-2 is a global pandemic with a toll of over 1·1 million deaths.9 No one is safe until we are all safe. Pandemic viruses do not respect national borders. There will not be one successful vaccine, or one single country, that is able to supply the world. We urgently need international cooperation to pool risks and costs, address barriers to access, and scale up the manufacturing capacity to produce sufficient doses to protect everyone at risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection globally.

The UK is committed to ensuring that everyone at risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, anywhere in the world, has access to a safe and effective vaccine. The COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, to which the UK has committed £548 million, will deliver vaccines for the UK population and provide access to vaccines for lower income countries: initially 2 billion doses for 1 billion people worldwide. Working with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, WHO, and a broad alliance of 180 nations, this pooling of resources maximises the chances of securing access to a vaccine and making it available to all who need it. But we now need to make this global facility a permanent one: ready to respond to future pandemics quickly in the future and to control COVID-19.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is likely to evolve, and other zoonotic pathogens are likely to pose future risks. China, Europe, the USA, and the UK need to work together. If we establish international collaboration right now, then we will be better prepared to control future pandemics without causing the largest global recession in history and the biggest threat to lives in living memory.

* * *

Source: The Lancet

Authored by Martin Jay via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

CNN is arguably the most corrupt, tainted and unethical news organisation on the planet. It’s also the most successful. Those two sentences shouldn’t really sit comfortably together but the times we are living in are making such news giants go to remarkable lengths to stay on top. And it’s not just the network which follows the doctrine do whatever it takes to stay number one. It’s also CNN reporters.

Recently, mainstream media made a song and dance about an attractive blonde CNN staffer called Michelle Kosinski who is accused of both having an illicit affair with Britain’s most important ambassador in the world and extracting information out of him about Trump and key decisions the administration was about to make – leading to a number of ‘scoops’.

Kim Darroch is a particularly controversial ambassador, previously based in Washington DC and at the heart of the swamp.

Darroch quit his prestigious Washington post in July last year after leaked cables revealed he had branded Trump ‘incompetent’ which made him immediately hated by the U.S. president.

Darroch also claimed the president ‘radiates insecurity’, telling British officials they need to ‘start praising him for something he’s done’ when they meet him.

Kosinski meanwhile left her post at CNN just five months later, according to her LinkedIn profile although it’s unclear whether CNN fired her, or she resigned.

Both Kosinski and Darroch were recently investigated by Department of Justice officials who, in the event, couldn’t prove the pillow talk allegations which started at the beginning of 2018.

Darroch really should be investigated though by the British government as the alleged love affair should have rung alarm bells in the Foreign Office in London, presenting a security threat not entirely dissimilar to the Profumo Affair in the 60s involving Christine Keeper, a call girl who slept with both the war minister and a senior Russian diplomat.

It’s alleged with the Kosinski-Darroch affair that a number of highly sensitive decisions taken by the U.S. and NATO about Russia were leaked to the CNN staffer who naturally denies the sex-for-scoops allegations.

In many ways though we shouldn’t be surprised by the scandal as British diplomats behaving badly is almost becoming so common that it might as well be a soap opera. In my personal experience, I have found the Foreign Office to be a rotten institution which protects its own and lies, cheats and feeds disinformation to UK newspaper editors to protect its own. Consequently, a new generation of ambassadors is starting to make the headlines for incompetence, buffoonery and serving their own interests and needs.

Did the UK government know about the affair? Almost certainly. Was it a security breach which could have led to British soldiers in hotspots around the world being compromised? Probably.

Keeping the British end up

But the story is really nothing new. CNN journalists offering sexual favours to important figures is certainly nothing out of the ordinary. In fact it is positively encouraged and worn by some reporters as a badge of honour.

Kosinski rants in her tweets that she was “doing her job” but this needs some context. As a former contracted freelance journalist working for CNN, I have seen the extraordinary lengths failing journalists will go to in the cutthroat world of Atlanta, just to stay relevant. In 2011, I worked with one such struggling producer who came to Morocco with clear intent to make up a story about the King here “clinging on to power”. When I refused to go along with the ruse, I was threatened. Eventually I was fired for being “difficult to work with” – which is coded CNN management jargon for “you’re a good journalist, so we can’t work with you and your annoying fact checking”.

Not only did “Lisa” (we shall call her) want to make up a story here in Morocco which was entirely false, but her protestation when I objected was quite revealing about the CNN ethos. She explained to me that it was entirely normal practice for the big names in Atlanta to make up “all their foreign reports” when they worked abroad, naming Cooper Anderson and CNN VP Parisa Khosravi as well as the khaki legend Christina Ammanpour.

Yet perhaps even more shocking was how the loud New Yorker proudly told me that she was sleeping with a UAE diplomat in Rabat, who was helping her no end with her Morocco report, while providing embassy car and other perks like food and perhaps even cash.

Indeed, providing sexual services to diplomats, it was explained to me, was really not a big deal. And it came with a number of benefits to help wannabe journalists like her. In Morocco she virtually had no expenses at all, which was both a benefit to her and Atlanta who finally ran her story which was littered with errors.

Weeks later she was actually promoted to become a fully fledged foreign correspondent on the strength of her ‘showreel’ report from Morocco.

Lisa was investigated, to my knowledge three times by CNN bosses for ‘unethical journalism’ until she was finally fired in December. She has been despatched to the lonesome world of DC obscurity of speaking events and the occasional interview on TV.

Bang Bang Club of CNN

Kosinski’s disgrace also probably led to her departure from CNN. According to her Linkedin profile, she is currently presenting a web TV show.

When she writes she was “doing her job” in getting scoops one has to wonder what she meant. Was she referring to this old practice of CNN staffers who can’t make the grade of joining the bang-bang club and doing the rounds on the diplomatic circuit? Just as Lisa was stung by a number of clumsy, unethical journalist stunts (like offering to help Hillary Clinton with a ruse) which finally caught up with her, Kosinski is never going to get over a 2005 one which showed her doing a live report in a canoe reporting on a flooding in New Jersey – which featured two individuals walking across her camera line in just a few centimetres of water as she sits in the boat. Oops.

Apparently, the stunt which massively backfired, only propelled her into the dizzy orbit of CNN, which, presumably, was impressed with her zeal to fake stories. Dirty diplomats and slutty female journalists ready to use their bodies as a dump zone for men twenty years their senior is the new norm.

Kosinski left CNN to present a web TV show called The Perfect Scam with Frank Abagnale, who was the real-life inspiration for the film ‘Catch Me If You Can’ played by the handsome Hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCapprio.

Has Britain’s own top Ambassador been caught by a Democratic Party ‘honey trap’?

Submitted by SouthFront.org,

After a month of war, the Turkish-Azerbaijani bloc continues to keep the initiative in the conflict, exploiting its advantage in air power, artillery, military equipment and manpower. The coming days are likely to show whether Ankara and Baku are able to deliver a devastating blow to Armenian forces in Karabakh in the nearest future or not.

If Armenian forces repel the attack on Lachin, a vital supply route from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, they will win the opportunity to survive till the moment when the ‘international community’ finally takes some real steps to pressure Turkey and Azerbaijan enough to force them to stop the ongoing advance. If this does not happen, the outcome of the war seems to be predetermined.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani forces continue their advance in the region amid the failed US-sponsored ceasefire regime. Their main goal is Lachin. In fact, they have been already shelling the supply route with rocket launchers and artillery. The distance of 12-14km at which they were located a few days ago already allowed this. Now, reports appear that various Azerbaijani units are at a distance of about 5-8 km from the corridor. Armenian forces are trying to push Azerbaijani troops back, but with little success so far.

The advance is accompanied by numerous Azerbaijan claims that Armenian forces are regularly shelling civilian targets and that the ongoing advance is the way to deter them. Baku reported on the evening of October 27 that at least four civilians had been killed and 10 wounded in Armenian strikes on Goranboy, Tartar and Barda. On the morning of October 28, the Armenians allegedly shelled civilian targets in Tovuz, Gadabay, Dashkesan, and Gubadl.

On the morning of October 28, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry claimed that in response to these Armenian violations its forces had eliminated a large number of enemy forces, an “OSA” air-defense system, 3 BM-21 «Grad» rocket launchers, 6 D-30, 5 D-20, and 1 D-44 howitzers, 2 2A36 «Giatsint-B» artillery guns, a 120 mm mortar, a “Konkurs” anti-tank missile and 6 auto vehicles.

On October 27, Azerbaijani sources also released a video allegedly showing the assassination of Lieutenant General Jalal Harutyunyan by a drone strike. Azerbaijani sources claim that he was killed. These reports were denied by the Armenian side, which insisted that the prominent commander was only injured. Nonetheless, the Karabakh leadership appointed Mikael Arzumanyan as the new defense minister of the self-proclaimed republic.

On the evening of October 27 , the Armenian Defense Ministry released a map showing their version of the situation in the contested region. Even according to this map, Armenian forces have lost almost the entire south of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijani forces are close to the Lachin corridor. An interesting fact is that the Armenians still claim that the town of Hadrut is in their hands. According to them, small ‘enemy units’ reach the town, take photos and then run away.

Al-Hadath TV also released a video showing Turkish-backed Syrian militants captured during the clashes. Now, there is not only visual evidence confirming the presence of members of Turkish-backed militant groups in the conflict zone, but also actual Syrian militants in the hands of Armenian forces.

Experts who monitor the internal political situation in Armenia say that in recent days the Soros-grown team of Pashinyan has changed its rhetoric towards a pro-Russian agenda. Many prominent members of the current Pashinyan government and the Prime Minister himself spent the last 10 years pushing a pro-Western agenda. After seizing power as a result of the coup in 2018, they then put much effort into damaging relations with Russia and turned Armenia into a de-facto anti-Russian state. This undermined Armenian regional security and created the conditions needed for an Azerbaijani-Turkish advance in Karabakh. Now, the Pashinyan government tries to rescue itself by employing some ‘pro-Russian rhetoric’. It even reportedly asked second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan to participate in negotiations with Russia as a member of the Armenian delegation. It should be noted that the persecution of Kocharyan that led to his arrest in June 2019 was among the first steps taken by Pashinyan after he seized power. Kocharyan was only released from prison in late June 2020. Despite these moves in the face of a full military defeat in Karabakh, the core ideology of the Pashinyan government remains the same (anti-Russian, pro-Western and NATO-oriented). Therefore, even if Moscow rescues Armenia in Karabkah, the current Armenian leadership will continue supporting the same anti-Russian policy.

Authored by Chris Farrell via The Gatestone Institute,

Obama administration officials committed crimes against the constitution. They engaged in a seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States.

Will they really get away with it?

Forty government officials were indicted or jailed as a result of Watergate. White House staffers H.R. Haldeman and John Erlichman went to jail. White House counsel John Dean went to jail. Attorney General John Mitchell went to jail. Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy, Charles Colson and James McCord – all jailed. Nixon Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler called Watergate a “third-rate burglary.” It toppled a president.

“Obamagate,” or the “Russia Hoax” is a political and criminal scandal exponentially more serious and damaging to the constitution. Like the Richter Scale measurements of earthquakes, Obamagate can be measured in “orders of magnitude” greater seriousness than the third-rate burglary. Obamagate is the First American Coup. Not from the militaristic right, as fantasized by liberal Hollywood. Oh, no – from the “fundamental transformation” artists of the Bolshevik Left.

Writing in the New York Post on October 24, 2020, columnist Michael Goodwin listed his reasons for voting for Donald Trump, again. His reasoning included:

“The other side must not be rewarded for its efforts to sabotage and remove a duly-elected president.

“Russia, Russia, Russia was a scam that ruined lives and put a cloud over the White House for nearly three years. The sequel was partisan impeachment, a clumsy coup attempt orchestrated by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Trump haters in Congress, the deep state, and the media.

“The press corps’ bias of 2016 has morphed into full-blown partisanship on a daily basis at print, digital and broadcast outlets. Facebook, Twitter and other platforms openly use their power to censor pro-Trump news and opinion while promoting anything that makes the president look bad.

“It’s not the algorithms; it’s the people behind them.

“Their decision to block The Post’s groundbreaking reports on Hunter Biden’s business deals and Joe Biden’s involvement should scare anyone who treasures the First Amendment. To censors, Orwell’s nightmare is their dream.

“All fairness has been abandoned in a frenzy to destroy Trump and everything he represents. This culture war extends backward, too.”

This is all very important stuff. It is still defective in one key area: it ignores (largely) the crime. The details of the criminal seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States.

How are we still missing this?

The (awesome and formidable) law enforcement and intelligence powers of the United States were perversely twisted and abused to advance a partisan political agenda by the sitting president (Barack Obama); his paid political operatives; and officers, agents and employees of the United States Government against Candidate Trump, President-elect Trump and President Trump.

There are handy references to keep track of the cast of characters involved in the coup plot. The Epoch Times has a resource, as does the Capital Research Center. One hopes John Durham has a reference, file or graphic that is something close to those analytical pieces. He seems to need some sort of help, since he apparently is unable to move past the anemic, pathetic Clinesmith indictment.

Seasoned investigators and attorneys can take the publicly available records and assemble sufficient facts, documentation and evidence to meet the legal threshold (“probable cause”) for successfully presenting a bill of indictment to a grand jury.

Why is there reluctance today? How is it that Attorney General William Barr and John Durham are consumed with prosecutorial ennui when the crimes and cover-ups are so painfully obvious? One is left to conclude that it really all comes down to political will. Do Barr and/or Durham have the stomach to seek the indictment of people like James Comey, John Brennan, Andy McCabe and (many) others?

Granted, Lindsey Graham is certainly no Sam Ervin; and Richard Burr abdicated the running of the Senate Intelligence Committee to Mark Warner years ago – but AG Barr and Prosecutor Durham do not need committees of Congress for “cover” to pursue the criminality of the Obama administration and their operatives in the Department of Justice, FBI, CIA and State Department.

Just remember: 40 jailed for Watergate.

Russia’s armed forces have benefited from a decade of investment, resulting in widespread modernization efforts and an increased defense-industrial base. 

From hypersonic weapons to fifth-generation fighter jets to drones to advanced main battle tanks to new service weapons, Russia has been busy upgrading its military as geopolitical tensions soar. 

Some of these new weapons were displayed at an international military-technical forum “Army-2020” outside Moscow in August. 

Russia’s state arms seller Rosoboronexport recently unveiled a new multi-caliber sniper rifle developed by Lobaev Arms at the “Interpolitex 2020” defense show held in Moscow last week, reported TASS News.  

“The new sniper rifle is more compact in its dimensions compared to the guns earlier developed by Lobaev Arms,” said Rosoboronexport Senior Expert Alexander Slobodyanyuk, in the company’s video presentation on its YouTube channel.

“The DVL-10M3 rifle’s weight has been reduced to 4.5 kg while it features a barrel length of 500mm. The gun’s effective firing range is up to 1 km,” the Rosoboronexport senior expert said.

“It [the DVL-10M3] is characterized by a very good accuracy of fire that does not exceed 0.38 minute of arc, and can be used together with a silencer,” he added. 

TASS notes the sniper’s barrels are interchangeable with 7.62x51mm, 6.5x47mm Lapua, and 6.7mm Federal.

Russia’s military-modernization efforts indicate that not only is it growing its defense-industrial base but has ambitions to become more dominant in the world as the US supremacy fades.  

Authored by Ivan Pentchoukov via The Epoch Times,

A collection of confidential documents related to the Biden family mysteriously vanished from an envelope sent to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the host said on Wednesday night.

Carlson’s team allegedly received the documents from a source on Monday. At the time, Carlson was on the West Coast filming an interview with Tony Bobulinski, the former business partner of Hunter Biden and James Biden. Carlson requested the documents to be sent to the West Coast.

According to Carlson, the producer shipped the documents overnight to California using a large national package carrier. He didn’t name the company, saying only that it’s a “brand name company.”

“The Biden documents never arrived in Los Angeles. Tuesday morning we received word from our shipping company that our package had been opened and the contents were missing,” Carlson said. “The documents had disappeared.”

Damning Hunter Biden documents suddenly vanish pic.twitter.com/B2qsajZlID

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 29, 2020

The company took the incident seriously and immediately began a search, Carlson said. The company traced the package from when it was dropped off in New York to the moment when an employee at a sorting facility reported that the package was opened and empty.

“The company’s security team interviewed every employee who touched the envelope we sent. They searched the plane and the trucks that carried it. They went through the office in New York where our producers dropped the package off. They combed the entire cavernous sorting facility. They used pictures of what we had sent so that searchers would know what to look for,” Carlson said.

“They far and beyond, but they found nothing.”

“Those documents have vanished,” he added.

“As of tonight, the company has no idea and no working theory even about what happened to this trove of materials, documents that are directly relevant to the presidential campaign just six days from now.”

Executives at the shipping company were “baffled” and “deeply bothered” by the incident, Carlson said.

Carlson’s interview with Bobulinski aired on Tuesday night. In the interview, Bobulinski opined that Joe Biden and the Biden family are compromised by China due to the business dealings of Hunter Biden and James Biden. Joe Biden has not publicly responded to Bobulinski’s allegations, but during a presidential debate on Oct. 22 said he had “not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life.”

Bobulinski provided more than 1,700 pages of emails and more than 600 screenshots of text messages to Senate investigators and handed over to the FBI the smartphones he used during his business dealings with the Bidens. The documents detailed a failed joint venture between a billionaire tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a company owned by Hunter Biden, James Biden, Bobulinski and two other partners.

While the corporate documents don’t mention Biden by name, emails sent between the partners suggest that either James Biden or Hunter Biden held a 10 percent stake for the former vice president. In the email, the stake is assigned to “the big guy,” who Bobulinski says is Joe Biden.