Tag: finance

Authored by Mike Brown via Inverse.com

Starlink’s beta test is requiring participants to recognize Mars as a “free planet.”

It’s an unusual bit of fine print, and the implications go far beyond securing good internet on Earth.

SpaceX’s internet connectivity constellation Starlink, which began forming in May 2019, has started inviting interested fans to the “Better Than Nothing” beta test. While the final version aims to offer gigabit download speeds at low latency to anyone with a view of the sky, the beta is offering more like 50 to 150 megabits per second – hence the humble-brag test name.

But the Starlink terms of service, as spotted by Twitter account “WholeMarsBlog” and confirmed by Reddit moderator “Smoke-away,” require users to agree that “no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities.”

Under section nine of the terms, SpaceX explains how services provided around the Earth or Moon will follow the law as governed by the state of California in the United States. But for Mars, the story changes a bit:

“For Services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship or other colonization spacecraft, the parties recognize Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, Disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement.”

The comments highlight one of SpaceX’s biggest ambitions for the coming decades: to send the first humans to Mars and ultimately establish a city by 2050.

To achieve that goal, the firm is developing the Starship, a fully-reusable rocket measuring around 400 feet tall when paired with the booster. SpaceX wants to send the first cargo ships to the Red Planet in the next few years.

Elon Musk, SpaceX’s CEO, has commented before about the sort of government he’d like to see emerge on the planet. In a March 2018 interview, he predicted the city would operate on some sort of direct democracy. He compared it to the early United States, where representative democracy was most logical due to the sheer size of the nascent state.

“Everyone votes on every issue and that’s how it goes,” Musk explained. “There’s a few things I’d recommend. Keep laws short. […] Something suspicious is going on if there’s long laws.”

Not everyone follows Musk’s logic. Jim Pass, CEO of the Astrosociology Research Institute, told Inverse in April 2019 that he believed the determiner will be who is sponsoring the settlement. A religious organization could lead to a theocracy, whereas military types may lead to a more autocratic structure.

Like other features of the “Better Than Nothing” beta, it’s possible that Starlink’s terms right now don’t make it to the final version. The company is expected to start offering services in the United States and Canada by 2020, before moving to a larger breadth of the populated world by 2021.

The Inverse analysis – As with many of Musk’s projects, it seems Starlink includes some tongue-in-cheek references, too.

Another joke was spotted in the new Android app by Reddit user “joehalfrack.” In the app, an animated character called Dishy attempts to help. The easter egg, seemingly a reference to Microsoft Office’s much-hated “Clippy” assistant, is an example of the sort of references Musk likes to make, whether in his company’s products or on his personal Twitter account.

It’s difficult to imagine Starlink’s terms trumping international laws and treaties, but if the clause was designed to draw attention to the service it worked — how many other satellite broadband providers do you know that have people sharing their terms of service on Twitter?

Bleakley Advisor Group CIO Peter Boockvar joins senior editor Ash Bennington to discuss a potentially higher inflationary environment for 2021 and why that may put central banks and markets at odds. Boockvar reviews this year’s market trends and dissects the latest ISM manufacturing data, pointing out reports of supply chain disruptions, labor cost pressures, and a general rise in inflation. With markets looking past recent COVID-19 data with promising vaccine announcements, value is growing increasingly attractive here in the U.S., the U.K., Europe, and Asia. However, Boockvar explains his concerns of markets tightening with the onset of growth and whether the Fed will choose to let the yield curve steepen or prevent it. As CPI increases are the kryptonite of central banks, should the inflation narrative take hold, Boockvar expresses how this may shock global bond markets. Real Vision’s Haley Draznin explores the deep dichotomy between the real economy and equity markets, as all major U.S. indices were up today despite Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin shutting down the Fed’s emergency loan programs for main street businesses.

Moderna has reported some more good news from its trials, stating that its Covid-19 vaccine candidate has a final efficacy of just over 94 percent with nobody who received it during trials falling severely ill. That has paved the way for the company to apply for emergency usage authorization in the U.S. and Europe. That puts Moderna around a week behind Pfizer and BioNTech who already took that step with their own vaccine that emerged from trials with an efficacy of 95 percent.

With the pandemic worsening and the race to roll out the first vaccine heating up, Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes that governments around the world have already reserved close to 10 billion doses before a single candidate has even reached the market. 2.6 billion further doses are under negotiation or reserved as optional expansions of existing deals. The findings come from Duke University who have been aggregating and analyzing publicly available data on vaccine procurement and manufacturing.

The research shows that the U.S. had secured 1.01 billion doses from six different companies up to November 20 which represents the highest quantity of any government apart from India which has made agreements for 1.6 billion.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna both account for 100 million U.S. doses each while the U.S. is also set for 500 million doses of the vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.

It offers 70 percent protection according to trials, though it is believed this can be increased to 90 percent by tweaking the dose. The rest of the U.S. supply is made up of candidates that have not reported detailed testing results and it includes vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson, Novavax and Sanofi-GSK.

Authored by Pat Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

If Israel, as is universally believed and has not been denied, was behind the assassination of Iran’s leading nuclear scientist, questions arise:

Why would the Israelis kill him? And why would they do it now?

The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, it is conceded, was a leader in Iran’s nuclear bomb program, but that program was disbanded in 2003.

Under George W. Bush, in 2007, all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies declared with “high confidence” that Iran no longer had a bomb program.

Four years later, the same intel agencies affirmed that finding.

Since 2015, Iran’s nuclear facilities, under the Iran nuclear deal, have been subject to U.N. surveillance and inspections. And Iran has neither produced plutonium nor enriched uranium to the 90% level needed for a bomb.

Israel claims Iran never stopped working on a bomb, but U.S. intel agencies and U.N. nuclear inspectors have agreed that the military nuclear program that Fakhrizadeh oversaw was ended in 2003.

So, again, why would Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu authorize Mossad to send an assassination team to Iran to kill the nuclear scientist? And why now?

If Iran is actually running a secret program to build a bomb in violation of the nuclear deal, why not identify the site of the violation, demand that U.N. inspectors visit, expose Iranian duplicity to the world, and kill the deal?

Why kill the scientist?

From Netanyahu’s standpoint, there are, however, many motives to make the call to kill Fakhrizadeh.

To humiliate the Iranian regime. To demonstrate Mossad’s capacity to kill Israel’s enemies with impunity. To send a message to others working in Iran’s nuclear program that the regime’s security forces cannot protect them.

To Sunni and Gulf Arabs who see Iran as a sectarian and strategic rival and adversary, Israel’s ability to punish Iran and its regional militias with repeated, unanswered strikes makes Israel a far more desirable ally and partner than ever before.

But with this strike, Bibi was also sending a message to Joe Biden, who is seven weeks away from assuming the presidency.

What is Bibi’s message?

Mr. President-elect:

This Mossad operation should tell you how seriously we view Iran’s determination to build a nuclear bomb, and how existential a threat that would be for us. And we intend to deal with that threat sooner rather than later.

And if, on taking office, you try to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal and lift U.S. sanctions in return for Iran’s full compliance with the terms of that deal, then we will not be restricted in the actions we take to prevent that from happening.

As President Trump put America first, we put Israel first, and Iran tops the list of threats we intend to face — preferably with you, but if necessary, alone.

From Bibi’s standpoint, the killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist seems to be a win-win-win proposition. Bibi’s personal scandals are eclipsed and put on the back burner. He is seen by Israelis as a man of action and decisive protector of the nation against its greatest threat.

Should Iran answer the assassination with a counterstrike, that could lead to Israeli retaliation, escalation, and war. This could turn Bibi into a wartime prime minister like Winston Churchill and fulfill his dream of having America bring its full air, naval and missile power to deliver a crushing blow to the Iranian military and the Ayatollah’s regime.

However, the assassination of Fakhrizadeh and Iran’s resolve to retaliate complicates — if it does not close — Biden’s path toward rejoining the nuclear deal and reconciling with Iran.

If the killing ignites a war, Tehran knows there is a real possibility that America would align with Israel, as Donald Trump detests the Iranian regime as much as Netanyahu does.

And if the “moderates” in Tehran fail to maintain the national honor by retaliating against Israel, that could result in a hardline regime winning in this year’s elections.

A return of the hardliners could mean a total collapse of the Iran nuclear deal and a new cold war that could eventually end in the hot war Middle East hawks — in Iran, Israel and the USA — have long desired.

As Trump showed with the assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani in his car coming out of Baghdad airport, he does not recoil from direct action against perceived enemies.

Last week, the U.S. flew two B-52s out of Minot, North Dakota, to the Middle East. The USS Nimitz carrier group began moving out of the Indian Ocean toward the Persian Gulf.

Four days before the hit on the Iranian scientist, Netanyahu met secretly in a Red Sea port city with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Was Pompeo told what the Israelis were about to do? Did the U.S. know of, approve of, or not object to the attack? Do Americans want this war that seems closer today?

PropertyShark is back with its latest sprawling ranking of the nation’s wealthiest zip codes. Once again, California and New York dominated, with the Golden State home to the most top-dollar zip codes. In fact, on the 2020 list, 107 of the 121 zip codes with the highest median averages were located in either the Empire State, or the Golden State.

The disparity between the average home price on the coasts vs. the rest of the country has long mirrored their relative economic vitality. But COVID-19 appears to have changed all that.

Outside of California and New York, nine other states made it onto  the ranking, the same number as last year. Massachusetts came in third with four zip codes on the list, including Boston’s infamously expensive Back Bay neighborhood.

Connecticut and Nevada also added two zip codes each, while Arizona, Florida, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Washington each contributed one.

Key Takeaways:

• At $7 million, Atherton’s 94027 remains #1 most expensive zip code for fourth consecutive year
• California further solidifies its position as most expensive housing market with 87 entries
• Medians rose in 78 of country’s 100 priciest zips in 2020, flipping the mostly downsliding trend of 2019
• San Francisco claims 11 of the priciest zip codes, the highest concentration of any city, with the Bay Area home to 50
• Offering up 23 zips, Los Angeles County features the highest concentration of expensive zip codes at the county level
• Metro L.A., Bay Area & New York metropolitan area account for 103 of the most exclusive zip codes in the U.S.
• For first time in at least five years, TriBeCa isn’t among the top 10 priciest zip codes, landing at #11 with 10007
• Red Hook & Carroll Gardens zip places Brooklyn among 100 most expensive for second year in a row
• Nationally, 13 zips featured median sale prices higher than $3 million — one less than in 2019
• Overall, the country’s top 100 most expensive zip codes are located in 11 states; California & New York claim bulk of high-priced real estate

Focusing on California, the Bay Area alone saw 50 zip codes top the list.

LA County saw a record 23 zip codes in the most expensive list, the highest of any single county.

San Francisco, meanwhile, has 11 zip codes in the list, the highest concentration of any single city.

In a milestone that’s appropriate considering one of the most talked about real estate trends of the year was the exodus of people out of NYC this spring as COVID-19 ravaged the city (leading to record-breaking deaths in its nursing homes), the Big Apple didn’t have any zip codes in the top ten wealthiest for the first time ever.

Two down town zip codes that include parts of TriBeCa and SoHo have seen their median sales numbers drop by double digits compared with 2019. Specifically, 10007 experienced a 19% drop in its median sale price, while neighboring 10013 underwent a 15% drop, which brought its median below $3 million for the first time in at least five years. In fact, 10007 was the only NYC zip code to see its median sales price hold above $3 million.

One of the biggest drops was seen in Manhattan’s Garment District, which saw its median price drop 38%, or nearly $1 million. In 2019, it was the No. 26 most expensive zip code in the US, with a $2,520,000 median sale price, whereas, in 2020, it placed No. 84 at $1,575,000.

Other high-priced parts of NY State better retained their 2019 highs. The No. 2 most expensive zip code in the country was found out in Suffolk County, the home of the exclusive Hamptons zip codes. Sagaponack’s 11962 was No. 2 for the whole country, not just New York State. Of course, the Hamptons still saw some mild declines compared to the prior year, but nothing compared to what we saw in NYC, as more wealthy New Yorkers scrambled to their Hamptons homes for an extended summer that began in March.

By a vote of 13-1, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel (The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or the ACIP). has decided that health-care workers and long-term care facility residents will receive the first COVID-19 vaccine doses once it’s cleared for public use.

“Long term care facility residents are defined as adults who reside in facilities that provide a variety of services, including medical and personal care, to persons who are unable to live independently,” the CDC said.

“Health care personnel are defined as paid and unpaid persons serving in health care settings who have the potential for direct or indirect exposure or infectious materials.”

They also discussed “sub-prioritization” within each population. In other words, it’s not simply “all healthcare workers come first.” The healthcare workers who come into contact with infectious diseases (or suspected COVID) would come first.

The CDC will take the recommendation into account and provide guidance to the states to assist governors (who will make the ultimate choice) in their decisions about vaccine distribution priorities.

As CNBC reports,  there are roughly 21 million health-care workers and 3 million long-term care facility residents in the United States, according to a presentation during the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an outside group of medical experts that advises the agency.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said most states and local jurisdictions expect it to take three weeks to vaccinate all of their health-care workers.

“Within 24 hours, maybe at most 36 to 48 hours, from the approval, the vaccine can be in people’s arms,” Moncef Slaoui, a former GlaxoSmithKline executive, said at an event conducted by The Washington Post newspaper.

Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines require two doses about a month apart.

Critically, the single vote against the recommendation came from Dr. Helen Talbot of Vanderbilt University, who said she was worried that the vaccine had not been studied in residents of long-term care facilities.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

We have been discussing the rising threats against Trump supporters, lawyers, and officials in recent weeks from Democratic members are calling for blacklists to the Lincoln Project leading a a national effort to harass and abuse any lawyers representing the Republican party or President Trump. Others are calling for banning those “complicit” from college campuses while still others are demanding a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to “hold Trump and his enablers accountable for the crimes they have committed.”

Now, Daily Beast editor-at-large Rick Wilson has added his own call for “humiliation,” “incarceration” and even ritualistic suicides for Trump supporters in an unhinged, vulgar column. Wilson declared “[o]nly exposure, pain, humiliation, and (inshallah) incarceration will lead to a moment of reckoning for the GOP.”

Not surprisingly, Wilson is a key advisor to the Lincoln Project which was blocked recently on Twitter for abusive doxxing efforts directed at Republican lawyers.  His column captures the level of hateful rhetoric fueled by the Lincoln Project, which is funded by thousands of lawyers despite its attacks on fellow members of the bar for their representation.

“Remember, the Trump GOP is shorn of all ideological and philosophical pretense, and even when Trump leaves office, it’s not over. ‘His cultists’ reign of terror will shape elected GOP members as long as he and his foul spawn walk the earth unpunished. Only exposure, pain, humiliation, and (inshallah) incarceration will lead to a moment of reckoning for the GOP. It should start at the top and work down from there.”

Wilson notes that he is not interested in the “reconciliation” part of “truth and reconciliation,” declaring a “hearty f— no” to people calling for reconciliation. Inside he called for the “motherf—ers” to consider “seppuku.”

Just as I recently criticized Trump counsel Joe diGenova for his rhetoric about drawing and quartering Chris Krebs, I will assume that Wilson is not seriously calling for ritualistic suicides.  However, he is clearly calling for retaliation against Trump supporters as the Lincoln Project has carried out in its campaign.

Others like Elie Mystal, The Nation’s justice correspondent, have called for a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to investigate “[a]ll of these moral and ethical failures … and that’s before we get into the actual statutory crimes potentially committed by Trump, his administration, his enablers, and his family.”

The call for a commission to establish the truth of past controversies is ironic given Mystal’s abuse of teenager Nicholas Sandmann.  We previously discussed the case and the example of one such segment involving “Above the Law” writer Joe Patrice in his interview with Mystal, where he attacked this 16 year old boy as a racist.  Patrice agreed with Mystal’s objections to Sandmann wearing his “racist [MAGA] hat.” They also objected to Sandmann doing interviews trying to defend himself with Mystal deriding how this “17-year-old kid makes the George Zimmerman defense for why he was allowed to deny access to a person of color.” Putting aside the fact that Sandmann was not denying “access to a person of color,”  Mystal and Patrice were comparing this high school student to a man who was accused of murdering an unarmed African American kid and even assailing his effort to clear his name as the media continued to label him a racist. Mystal continued to slam Sandmann in postings on “Above the Law.”  In one such posting, Mystal derided Sandmann for filing for defamation. Various media outfits later apologized or settled with Sandmann for their false reporting.

What is most striking about these views is how disconnected they are to the actual election. 

Instead a “blue wave” and the widely predicted Democratic takeover of both houses, Republicans picked up a sizable number of seats in the House where Democrats have been reduced to the thinnest margin since World War II. The Republicans may retain the Senate and won handily in many state races across the country. Roughly 74 million people voted for Trump. I was not one of them, but that is roughly half of this nation. Yet, these writers continue to write as if the nation is now unified in rejecting the policies and priorities of the Trump Administration. It is the distortive effect of existing entirely in siloed media spaces where an alternative reality can be maintained and fostered.

My greatest concern is how the media remain detached not only from roughly half of the country but from reality. It has decided that it will cater to literally one half of the country and foster openly biased narratives of what is still unfolding in this country. As I previously discussed, the loss is considerable since the public now has a deep and widening distrust for the media.  The result is that our media is no longer viewed as a place for citizens to resolve questions over things like contested elections. There is only rage where reason once prevailed.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has formally leveled the charge that Israel and Saudi Arabia conspired to assassinate top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed in a carefully planned assassination when his vehicle was stopped outside Tehran last Friday.

Zarif, who is active on social media in presenting the Islamic Republic’s messages to the world, posted the allegation to his Instagram page, saying that “supporters of the maximum American pressure are seeking in the last days of the Trump administration to create unrest in the region and destroy the atmosphere that may lead to the lifting of sanctions,” according to a translation of his words.

This follows prior widespread reports from last month, including in The New York Times, that Trump is mulling some level of aggressive action against Iran in order to derail a potential rapprochement with the incoming Biden administration.

Zarif described in his post: “With our condolences for the brutal assassination of the prominent nuclear scientist in the country, the martyr Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, I would like to share with you an important point… As you can see in the news, the founders and supporters of the failed policy these days try to exert maximum pressure on the brave Iranian nation to use the last days of the Trump regime to create unrest and destroy the atmosphere created to lift the repressive sanctions.”

Speaking of the recent and unprecedented November 22 visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Saudi Arabia where he met in secret with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Zarif alleged:

“Pompeo’s quick trips to the region, the trilateral meeting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Netanyahu’s statements show the conspiracy that unfortunately culminated in a cowardly terrorist act on Friday and the martyrdom of one of the country’s top leaders.”

https://t.co/1tCXvbfylV
The big picture: Israel & Saudi Arabia are very concerned by the incoming Biden Administration’s stated goal of returning to the 2015 Iran deal …

— Thornton Niwot (@ThorntonNiwot) November 23, 2020

“At the same time, a counter-intelligence campaign and a psychological warfare led by the same satanic axis began,” he added.

He further called on all Iranians and their allies to mount a “heroic resistance to the economic war between Trump and his allies.” However, Tehran is certainly at this point just waiting out the Trump administration’s final days.

The US is still a UN member. If it meets its obligations as such under UNSCR 2231, we will fulfill ours under the #JCPOA.

If the US then seeks to re-join the JCPOA, we’re ready to negotiate terms for it to regain its “JCPOA Participant” status.https://t.co/cQXJo8PZak

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) November 18, 2020

Likely the Islamic Republic will calculate any potential response or retaliation to ensure it doesn’t give the Trump White House enough of rationale or justification to take further action. For this reason there may not be any level of promised ‘revenge’ on Israeli, US, or Saudi interests until after Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.

With stocks posting record returns in virtually all global markets, it will come as no surprise that according to Deutsche Bank’s Henry Allen, November was a great month for financial markets as 34 out of the 38 non-currency assets in the bank’s sample rose, which also means that 27 of them are now up on a YTD basis too. The major catalyst for this has been the incredibly positive vaccine news that’s come out in recent weeks, with 3 different candidates releasing results, and efficacy numbers at the upper end of expectations.

The vaccine news helped alleviate fears that society will have to learn to live with the virus on a more permanent basis – even though so far every reopening has been followed by an even more aggressive wave of new cases – offering hope of a much quicker return to normal than had been anticipated only a month ago.

Looking at the league table, risk assets led the way in November, with the STOXX 600 Banks (+30.2%), the Greek Athex (+29.4%) and Brent Crude (+27.0%) seeing the strongest performances in local currency terms. Another asset that performed strongly was Bitcoin, which was up +39.9% over the month and follows its +29.4% rise in October (although it is still not being represented on the DB visual asset summary). Meanwhile the STOXX 600 posted its strongest ever monthly performance in price terms, with a +13.7% rise.

The outperformance of risk was seen across multiple asset classes, with HY leading the way in credit, EM currencies leading the way in FX, and southern European indices leading the way among equities. However, the rotation away from safe havens meant that gold (-5.4%) and silver (-4.3%) were the worst monthly performers in our sample, with gold seeing its worst monthly performance for 4 years.

The poor returns for precious metals in November meant that the NASDAQ is DB’s new YTD leader, with a +37.2% rise since the start of the year in total return terms. Indeed, the NASDAQ’s strength in 2020 comes off the back of it being the top performer in the sample over the entire 2010s, so it’s continued to show remarkable strength over many years. That said, it’s worth noting that in November alone, the NASDAQ actually wasn’t a relative outperformer, lagging behind a number of the other indices mentioned above.

In spite of some changes at the top of the YTD leaderboard, the overall picture has remained steady on a YTD basis. Brent crude (-27.9%) remains at the bottom of the sample, as it was in October, having been one of the worst-performing assets as global economic demand slumped with the pandemic and people actively sought to reduce their movement. In credit, IG has outperformed HY in both the US and Europe, and in FX markets, EM currencies have seen the worst performances.

Authored by Isabel Van Brugen via the Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

Maricopa County GOP chairwoman Linda Brickman on Nov. 30 testified before members of the Arizona State Legislature that she personally observed votes for President Donald Trump being tallied as votes for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden when input into Dominion machines.

Brickman, the GOP head of one of the country’s largest counties and a veteran county elections worker, submitted her testimony in a sworn affidavit under penalty of perjury. She testified that she and her Democratic partner witnessed “more than once” Trump votes default and shift to Biden when they were entering votes into Dominion machines from ballots that couldn’t be read by machines.

She alleged that she was later threatened by election supervisors at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) for speaking out about what she had witnessed.

“I observed, with my Democratic partner, the preparation of a new ballot, since the original one was soiled, or wouldn’t go through the tabulators. I read her a Trump Republican ballot, and as soon as she entered it into the system, the ballot defaulted on the screen to a Biden Democratic ballot,” Brickman told GOP Arizona State legislators on Monday.

She remarked that when she reported the issue to election supervisors, others in the room also commented that they had “witnessed the same manipulation.”

“We were never told what, if any corrective action was taken,” Brickman continued. “All I know is the next day, I was called outside the room that I was working in for signature verification by a supervisor who said, ‘I understand you caused some problems this week and you thought our machines were not working correctly.’

“I was told at that point in time that I could not discuss anything or talk about what was going on.

“Many people were threatened,” Brickman told the hearing. “They were told that their voices would be suppressed, they would have to leave the room and not work there again. I’m here because I think this is our duty to speak the truth.”

She told the hearing that she was yelled at and “reprimanded” by her own supervisor, who accused her of causing trouble and “bringing things up that I shouldn’t have.”

She also said that during testing and certification of the Dominion voting machines on Nov. 18, she had refused to approve the certification of the Dominion system during a meeting with Secretary of State Katie Hobbs because the machines had malfunctioned during the test, and were shut down and reset by Dominion staff instead of corrected.

She said that no explanation was given about the errors. “We could see the machines but we could not see or observe the software behind the machine to confirm what had really gone on,” she added.

Trump’s legal team had previously pointed to witness testimony alleging that election results from Dominion Voting Systems are susceptible to manipulation—an allegation that the company has repeatedly denied.

Writing for The Wall Street Journal in a piece published this week, Dominion CEO John Poulos said recent claims against the company “fueled the harassment of election officials and Dominion employees across the country,” including death threats.

“The lies and smears have no basis in fact but they do real damage to our democracy by casting doubt on the legitimacy of the electoral process. The false allegations should be retracted immediately,” he said.

Dominion has not responded yet to a request from The Epoch Times for comment.

Brickman in the hearing also testified to a number of other voting irregularities that she directly observed, including the constant lowering of signature verification standards by her election supervisors in order to “move more quickly” and process the higher amount of early and mail-in ballots received for the November election.

“Standards were lowered from approximately 15 points of similarities … reduced to a minimum of three, and then lowered to one, and ultimately none,” Brickman said, recalling that she was told to “just pass each signature verification through.”

“We were told, ‘Too many rejections have already been turned in … we need to move more quickly.’ This is not the way an election should be run. Where’s the integrity?” Brickman challenged.

The GOP chairwoman also said she observed signatures on envelopes that were completely different from the name of the listed voter being let through by election supervisors.

“So the ones who signed the envelopes were not the actual voters, but these were allowed to go through with ‘Maricopa County verified’ stamped on the outside of each affidavit envelope,” she said.

Batches of envelopes bearing the same handwriting for different signatures were also observed, she said.

“There were at least 30 ballots that I saw at one time, that were signed by the same handwriting but on different voters’ names,” Brickman testified. “When I asked if the county attorney would be alerted for possible fraud, I was told ‘no,’ that supervisors would take care of it.”

One of the most “egregious” irregularities, Brickman said, was the turning away of Trump votes as duplicated votes or “overvotes” because the voter filled checked both the bubble for Trump on the ballot but also wrote in the president’s name under the write-in candidate.

“This would continue on as an overvote, which means no vote was counted at all despite the policy having been changed to allow these overvotes. Supervisors contradicted their own policies where the [voter’s] intent was clear,” she said.

“I am here today again not as an expert in the Dominion software but as a voter in Maricopa County who wants to hear and speak the truth even though myself and others have been suppressed to speak before you now,” Brickman told the hearing.

“There should be integrity,” she said.