Month: October 2020

On Thursday the United States revealed it had previously seized a major shipment of Iranian missiles bound for Yemen, and separately that it seized and later sold 1.1 million barrels of Iranian fuel bound for Venezuela. 

Reports describe the seizer was accomplished by two US warships in regional waters that apprehended a total of 171 guided anti-tank missiles, eight surface-to-air missiles, and associated equipment, according to a statement by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers.

“These actions represent the government’s largest-ever forfeitures actions for fuel and weapons shipments from Iran,” the Justice Department said.

Also on Thursday the Treasury Department and State Department slapped sanctions on eleven different entities connected to the Iranian fuel shipments and sales, and sanctions-busting operations.

The DOJ identified that it as top Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operatives behind the clandestine shipments of fuel and weapons.

The 1.1 barrels of fuel had been previously reported as seized by US authorities in August. Initially diverted to Houston, some of it was offloaded in New York. The US has now confirmed it sold the petroleum from four tankers at a price of over $40 million.

“We estimate that in excess of $40 million will be recouped by the United States related to the sale of petroleum from those four vessels,” acting US attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin the told reporters.

According to AFP, Sherwin indicated much of the proceeds from the sale would go to a US fund for victims of “state-sponsored terrorism”. The report details:

US courts have ordered Iran’s clerical regime to pay damages over attacks, most recently in July when a judge told Tehran to pay $879.1 million over a 1996 bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 US airmen.

Iran denies responsibility and states it has no intention of paying, saying the United States should instead compensate for past episodes including its support of Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War.

As for the weaponry seized, US statements said it was enough “for a large military force” according to Fox:

Authorities also said the Navy had confiscated other weapons components and enough blasting caps to “approximately” supply the U.S. military forces for a year, “leading law enforcement to believe these blasting caps were intended for a large military force.”

Days ahead of the US election, there’s little doubt that Tehran is actively rooting for Joe Biden to take the White House, given Trump’s maximum pressure campaign is crippling the Iranian economy and fast putting the two sides on a war footing, especially after the January assassination of IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani. Biden has promised he’ll attempted to bring the US back into the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.

A very strange non-story ratcheting things up with Iran as we go into an election. FBI says nothing is going on here, but golly he has Facebook friends in the Middle East…https://t.co/8nFIjuB49c

— Jack Murphy (@JackMurphyRGR) October 30, 2020

Meanwhile Iran and Venezuela have pledged deepening cooperation, while the US has vowed to “destroy” and missiles transferred to the Maduro regime.

Authored by Chris Farrell via The Gatestone Institute,

We have been subjected to four years of large parts of the US government shrieking about Russia and the threats posed by that country to the safety of our republic. How did so many miss their own serial treasons, in concert with the Soviet and Russian governments, dating back to 1917? Let us refresh our recollections of how so many Americans reframed history and disinformation.

Some of the following may be “lost history” to you, but that is okay, because we definitely need some reminders before election day.

FDR himself personally schmoozed Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Litvinov in the White House and acknowledged the USSR diplomatically for no US advantage whatsoever in November of 1933. When Litvinov returned to his embassy from the White House, he openly mocked FDR’s naïveté and gullibility to his staff.

FDR’s “co-president,” Kremlin-loving Harry Hopkins, has been airbrushed out of the history of the FDR White House. Hopkins went on to live in the FDR’s Lincoln Bedroom between May 1940 and December 1943 while running the entire Lend-Lease Program. Hopkins bellowed “All hail to the Russian people and their gallant army!” in Madison Square Garden on June 23, 1942, while promoting US war aid to the Soviet Union.

The usual rebuff to this sort of inconvenient historical observation is, “Oh, but that was when the Soviets were our allies!” If you are satisfied with that explanation, then I recommend reading Stan Evans, Diana West and Paul Kengor in order that you to get much-needed additional information and perspective.

How about when Ted Kennedy asked the Soviets to intervene in the 1984 elections? You may remember that Kennedy derisively coined the phrase “Star Wars” to mock Reagan’s “Strategic Defense Initiative” and aided the Soviet Union by opposing the program. Americans repeat “Star Wars” like parrots and do not even know why or how the term came to be associated with the program. Kennedy was not alone in his “Soviet friendship.” The FBI ran a program monitoring congressional contacts with the Soviet embassy for nearly 40 years, and they still will not release those records.

What about Barack Obama’s wooing and collusion with Medvedev on a “hot mic,” with a special message for Vladimir? Hillary Clinton conjured up the fake Trump-Russia scheme, and then paid political operative cut-outs and Russians to advance the story.

There is a 100-year-old pattern.

The Soviet Union and modern-day Russia are expert practitioners of deception, provocation, diversion, active measures, and double-agentry — all of the tools and techniques of disinformation. Deception and manipulation are the goals of the disinformation. False information itself is not enough. There is a desired outcome. Decisions must be affected. Changes made. People persuaded. Actions taken.

One hundred years ago, there was a cottage industry of forgeries peddled around the embassies, consulates, attaches and spies of European capitals. Some of the forgers were criminals looking to make a fortune, but most were Soviet agents sowing confusion. Letters, documents, reports, maps, diagrams, etc. — all forms of records, both physical and sometimes photographic reproductions that were used to tell a certain story to a certain audience. Books were also generated for deceptive purposes — writing and rewriting “facts” and “history” to serve on another front of the political war. It is really no different today. We have the “Steele dossier” and James Comey running around on his book tour(s). There really is “nothing new under the sun.”

We are supposed to believe that the life-long career “friends of Russia” are suddenly terrified by Russia. Someone should have told Bernie Sanders. This sudden alarm over Russia by its erstwhile admirers is similar to the “old switcheroo” many Democrats did on civil rights for Black Americans. Lincoln and the Republican abolitionists freed the slaves of the Confederacy from Democrats through a bloody civil war, suffering 600,000+ casualties. Many of today’s Democrats pretend Republicans were Alabama plantation owners. Half the Republicans agree, or do not understand the insidious lie.

Many switched party affiliation colors during the 2000 election. America now stupidly assigns Republicans the color of revolutionary, communist red. That was and is always the color of the Left. Hence “Red Army,” “Red Square,” etc. Republicans are too stupid and lazy to challenge it in the media and their own branding, so now a whole generation of Americans have been brainwashed and do not know any better. In fact, they are proud to be “Reds!” So sad.

One must also consider the “arguments” about the “evidence” of Russian disinformation.

First off, we have unending “investigations” by various bodies and persons who are not qualified to investigate a price check at Walmart.

Here, I speak of persons like Adam Schiff or the members and staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Second, we have the “TV experts.” These folks are usually the former heads of the agencies and departments that are actually guilty of the subversion and sedition that got us to this point. Think of John Brennan giving his expert opinion on the innocence and honor of James Comey. When any of these characters (and paid CNN contributors) invokes Russian disinformation (usually quoting each other), you know they are lying. Period.

Of course, anyone who asks questions about any of the logical disconnects and fallacies of any alleged Russian disinformation campaign must be on Putin’s payroll. Ask a question? Sure “comrade,” go ahead!

It is terribly important to be reminded of all these things just a few days before the election. You should go to your polling place in-person and “vote angry.” You’ve been lied to — savagely — for nearly four years. Go ahead and take your electoral revenge.

Tune in for this special edition of the Daily Briefing to hear from Ash and Raoul live at 4:30 PM ET. Raoul will provide an update on his macro thesis, trades he’s bullish on, and answer questions from the audience. Raoul and Ash will also break down bitcoin’s recent rally, and provide greater insight on the Real Vision crypto tier.

Unplugging from work can be challenging at the best of times.

But, as Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang notes, when your living room doubles as your office, it can be even harder–at least that’s the case for 22% of remote workers.

Thanks to the global pandemic, millions of workers have been sent home to work at a safe distance. While many remote workers enjoy the flexibility that comes with remote work, it doesn’t come without its drawbacks.

Here’s a ranking of the top struggles that remote workers face, according to a recent report by Buffer and AngelList:

The report also found that only 15% of employers paid the cost of home internet, and 21% covered the cost of a phone plan in a work-from-home situation. However, with this type of arrangement still being relatively new for most, these perks could evolve over time.

Despite the various challenges involved, 98% of remote workers would like to continue working remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of their careers.

In short – while remote work poses its own set of struggles, the benefits outweigh the cons.

»For a more in-depth look at the topic of remote work, visit: How People and Companies Feel About Working Remotely.

Authored by Stefan Gleason via ActivistPost.com,

The global coronavirus pandemic has accelerated several troubling trends already in force. Among them are exponential debt growth, rising dependency on government, and scaled-up central bank interventions into markets and the economy.

Central bankers now appear poised to embark on their biggest power play ever.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, in coordination with the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), is preparing to roll out central bank digital currencies.

The globalist IMF recently called for a new “Bretton Woods Moment” to address the loss of trillions of dollars in global economic output due to the coronavirus.

In the aftermath of World War II, the original Bretton Woods agreement established a world monetary order with the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency.

Importantly, the dollar was to be pegged to the price of gold. Foreign governments and central banks could also redeem their dollar reserves in gold, and they started doing so in earnest in the 1960s and early 1970s.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon closed the gold window, effectively ushering in a new world monetary order based solely on the full faith and credit of the United States. An inflation crisis followed a few years later.

In response, the Federal Reserve took the painful step of jacking up interest rates to defend its wilting Federal Reserve Note and tame rising prices.

Fast forward to 2020, and the Fed has assumed for itself novel policy mandates that are a precursor to a new monetary system.

But the monetary masters aren’t contemplating a return to sound money. Rather, they’re planning for even more debt, more inflation, and picking of winners and losers in the economy.

The Fed has unceremoniously thrown its statutory dual mandate of full employment and stable prices out the window. It now gives itself an unlimited mandate to inject stimulus and bailout cash wherever it sees fit (including, recently, “junk” bond exchange-traded funds).

Instead of pursuing stable prices, the Fed is now explicitly embarking on an inflation-raising campaign with the goal of generating annual price level increases above 2% for an undefined period.

The next frontier of the Fed’s unlimited mandate could be “FedCoin” – a central bank digital currency.

Earlier this month Chairman Powell participated in an IMF panel on international payments and digital currencies. He touted electronic payments systems and raised the possibility of integrating them into a central bank digital currency regime.

Powell has so far declined to outright endorse a move toward a fully cashless system which countries including China and Sweden are spearheading. But he is on board with the larger globalist agenda of expanding the role of monetary policy in shaping economic and social outcomes.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva sees expanded monetary tools being aimed at every issue under the sun: “We will have a chance to address some persistent problems – low productivity, slow growth, high inequalities, a looming climate crisis… We can do better than build back the pre-pandemic world – we can build forward to a world that is more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive.”

The IMF is being pressured by debt campaigners to sell some of its gold reserves to cover payments owed by some of the world’s poorest countries. The IMF would issue pseudo-currency units known as Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to cancel the debts of poor countries.

In a world where central bank balance sheets have grown by more than $7 trillion, it’s not surprising that everyone wants a piece of the pie and that many now view gold as dispensable.

Is gold merely a barbarous relic in this brave new digital world? If it were, then it would have collapsed in price this year, amid all the new central bank rollouts, instead of surging to an all-time high.

Precious metals may be the ultimate hedge against the new world monetary order.

In the event that the U.S. central bank launches a digital dollar and assigns every American a virtual wallet, there would be no escaping adverse monetary policy decrees except by exiting fiat currencies entirely.

Under a central bank digital currency, authorities could impose negative interest rates on all holdings of currency units. They could do so without needing to get anyone to buy negative-yielding bonds or deposit money into negative-yielding bank accounts.

Under a central bank digital currency, direct credits and debits could replace stimulus checks and taxes. It would be the vehicle through which modern monetary theory could be fully implemented – with the central bank becoming tax collector and funder of all government operations.

If depreciating the value of the currency through the inflation tax wasn’t enough, the Fed could also stick dollar-holders with a direct tax in the form of negative interest rates. Once paper notes are phased out, holding cash itself would no longer be a way for individuals to escape negative rates.

The only escape hatches would be volatile alternative digital currencies (such as Bitcoin) or hard money (gold and silver).

Under a monetary order where electronic digits representing currency can be created out of thin air in unlimited quantities, the best hedge is the opposite – tangible, scarce, untraceable wealth held off the financial grid.

The US and Chinese militaries are holding “crisis communications” talks after days of escalating ‘war rhetoric’ between the two countries. 

This latest was held via video conference between the US and PLA sides Wednesday through Thursday of this week, Chinese defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian confirmed. This also as Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Mike Pompeo toured Asia seeking to gain support and cooperation from allies on confronting and countering the “China threat” to the region.

Over the course of this month President Xi Jinping has made multiple hugely provocative statements telling PLA forces to “prepare for war” as tensions are ratcheting over Taiwan, particularly after US warship ‘freedom of navigation’ passages through the Taiwan Strait and Washington’s latest approval of advanced weapons transfers. 

In particular during this week’s military-to-military talks, intended as establishing a means of emergency communications, or military hotline, to avoid ‘accidental’ confrontation, dealt with rumors of a coming US drone attack on islands in the South China Sea claimed by Beijing, which the PLA side raised. It was said that a US military drill off California was meant to simulate just such an attack. 

The exercise raised eyebrows in Chinese regional media given widespread reports that American drone operators wore patches on their uniforms suggesting China and its claimed islands were the direct targets.

Esper is said to have expressly denied that there are any plans in place to attack Chinese islands in the region, also to assure Chinese military delegation participating in the communications talks.

Does this US military uniform suggest it is preparing for war with China? https://t.co/kAPUwXtO93

— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) September 29, 2020

According to PLA spokesman Wu, Esper underscored that the United States “has no intention of creating a military crisis with the Chinese,” according to Reuters.

“US Defense Secretary Esper clarified the issue through the military diplomacy channel and said the reports were inconsistent with the facts,” Wu added. “We urge the U.S. to walk the talk, keep its promise, and take measures to prevent provoking China military in the air and sea.”

The Pentagon also confirmed that “The two sides agreed on the importance of establishing mechanisms for timely communication during a crisis, as well as the need to maintain regular communication channels to prevent crisis and conduct post-crisis assessment” in a statement.

It’s long been feared that each superpower is ‘stumbling toward war’ in the region given the potential for an unintended confrontation or clash to rapidly grow into a broader conflagration. The military-to-military talks are designed precisely to prevent such a dramatic scenario. 

Authored by Brett Redmayne-Titley via WatchingRomeBurn.uk,

Suddenly, the anticipated Trump campaign’s October surprise: allegations that presidential candidate Joseph Biden has been a beneficiary of an international influence-peddling scheme with his son, Hunter, as the point man. This has dramatically, for the moment, turned the tables of election 2020.

This pre-election day chess move is an obvious, carefully planned Trump campaign hit job, but short-sighted, most pundits predict these allegations come too late to sway the outcome of election day.

This view is dubious and misses what could indeed be a three-move check-mate against Joe Biden, but…after the votes are counted.

Come Nov 3, the race for POTUS is far from over. Trump’s handlers seem to know this. The follow-up will be an unprecedented public spectacle that will likely very much include the Electoral College. Further, this possible coup will have sixty-four very valuable extra days, a Judiciary Committee, an Attorney General, a Senate and developing media attention, all remaining and at the RNC’s disposal.

The Trump campaign knows this and appears to be playing the long game. Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon are not political fools. Thanks to Biden’s true personality being exposed, a growing treasure chest of allegations have been handed over to Trump, four different times thus far. If these revelations prove true, should Trump lose, this will also provide his campaign no less than two more chances to bring Biden down.

The timing of the weeks four separate bombshells alleging a Biden family pay-to-play scheme mimic off course the effects of the July 22 and November 6th, 2016 Wikileaks pre-election revelations. Here, in context, it should be remembered that this massive leak of emails blew up the campaign of the, then, DNC frontrunner, Hillary Rodham Clinton. It also exposed the utter anti-democratic corruption and coup that was the 2016 DNC presidential election committee.

The Biden pay-to-play allegations also mimic those against Hillary Clinton US Secretary of State and the trove of evidence strongly indicating her own scheme in which her business partner, former president Bill Clinton, sold himself for international speeches…and access to Hillary’s State Department. And, during Biden’s tenure as VP.

Mere days ago, the initial salvo released the news of Hunter Biden’s laptop and an alleged FBI cover-up of its illicit contents. In brief, Hunter had left it uncollected for months at a computer repair shop, and after seeing the laptop’s contents the owner, John Paul MacIsaac, first turned it over to the FBI which did nothing with it. But MacIsaac had kept a copy of the hard drive, and next donated it to Trump’s top henchman, Rudy Giuliani, who tossed this bone to the New York Post, who blew the whistle to the public.

The laptop’s contents and emails made headlines… except in virtually the entirety of DNC aligned mainstream and social media. That’s most of it. This began Trump’s efforts to substantiate that Father Joe was the willing bait to sell influence in the VP’s office while he was in that office. Worse, the Bidens may have been working in concert with America’s newest enemy number one: China.

Two days later the next salvo hit. A former close business associate of Hunter Biden, Bevan Cooney, who is currently serving a prison sentence for fraud, gave-up his own laptop reportedly containing 26,000 emails that according to Breitbart News make it “explicit” that Hunter Biden was “trading off the Biden name, the Biden connections, and the Biden access.” It has recently been reported that Cooney was moved out of his cell in Oregon for his safety.

Barely a day went by before Tony Bobulinski next stepped forward with his digital paper trail of alleged Biden family conspiracy. Bobulinski has offered himself up as the total insider with the needed direct link(s) to the former VP and China. As of Tuesday night, Nov 27. when appearing with Tucker Carlson on Fox News he became the personalized face representing all these three sets of revelations. In reviewing the interview, despite his constant reminders of his being a democrat, his military record and his outrage on behalf of the American people, Bobulinski is obviously a well-rehearsed hitman. But his clownish act does not negate this purported evidence from further investigation.

A dubious side note has also been floated with a detailed investigative report authored by the unknown Typhoon Investigations, released by Christopher Balding, Associate Professor at Peking University who reportedly is a contributor to the anti-Trump Bloomberg News. The report is 65 pages, well presented, documented, charted, sourced and referenced. This presentation must be called out as to its validity if only because of the sensational but fraudulent Steele Dossier leak of four years ago.

Certainly, this report must be vetted, like the two camera moths, MacIsaac and Bobulinski. But if Prof. Balding does not cash his chips forever with Bloomberg, investigations will be in order.

If Trump loses, so begins the long game of hard-ball power politics, 2020 and ‘21.

Speaking of Investigations.

Already these allegations have provided much further de-legitimacy of the Biden campaign beyond the candidate himself. The virtual black-out of all four stories and the excuses offered by the news directors of many censors have not blinded the public. Instead, this obvious censorship has rocketed this developing story to a massive new viewership. Questions about the related FBI cover-up in burying the laptop allegations have further increased calls for an investigation. The outrage of America’s awakening public is rising daily, with at least sixty-four plus days to go.

Post-election day, should these allegations bear scrutiny there are three possible investigative bodies available to Trump. Further, the Electoral College has two more required steps to complete as well. This gives Trump, should he lose, multiple new chances to legally overthrow Biden.

Behind the scenes, as the process of the Electoral College begins before it convenes for the last time on Jan 6, 2021, the Judiciary Committee, the Senate and the Attorney General will remain republican. Assuming AG Bill Barr is willing to do his job, history may be made post-election and, if so, placing one’s hand upon the bible may not this time be the privilege of the president-elect, but that of an indicted co-defendant in court.

The first step of the Electoral College does not take place until Monday, Dec 14. In the meantime, although covering-up for Biden as the DNC media may attempt, the Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee has already announced, on Thurs Oct 22, 2020, that on Oct 28 it will be convening public hearings regarding the censorship by at least Twitter, Google and Facebook of the Biden accusations. These hearings, although in the guise of examining social media censorship, will instead be an initial public display by the RNC of many of the allegations against Biden. This will be must-see TV for the tens of millions of locked-down, unemployed, and pissed off American’s who were already holding their noses about this election’s bi-partisan stench.

Two of the three constitutionally available methods of investigation are tactically available to the RNC: A Senate Commission; or the Appointment of a Special Counsel, at the request of the Judiciary Committee, by the Dept. of Justice.

A Senate investigation would have the benefit of TV coverage, as was the case with the Watergate and 9/11 investigations. It may be included in a duet of investigations. With the Judiciary Committee already on the attack, it will almost certainly reconvene again with Biden as the target. Able to function quickly as a quasi- grand jury, upon the Judiciary Committee’s initial examination the JC will likely call for the appointment of a Special Counsel. The Attorney General, William Barr, must then immediately appoint a Special Counsel of his choosing.

Bill Barr has of late not been loyal to Trump, nor with his investigations into DNC criminal interference and collusion against a sitting president. But, if Barr fails to appoint a Special Counsel he must, by law, inform the Judiciary Committee of his exact reasons.  So, if Barr doesn’t do his job as demanded by the JC, he too will join Dorsey and Zuckerberg as coconspirators, at least in the widening minds of the public now watching closely.

Regarding the AG’s support of a Special Counsel, the regulations set forth (28 C.F.R. 600.1) require a three-part analysis: One, that “criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted.” Two, that prosecution of the “person or matter” would present “a conflict of interest for the Department [DoJ]”, and, three, whether “it would be in the public interest to appoint an outside Special Counsel to assume responsibility for the matter.”

By definition, Biden is in it deep.

Certainly, the next few days before the election are not sufficient to see any result of an investigation and Trump just might win. Or, lose. Trump’s campaign loyalists knew this beforehand, particularly the suddenly released from the woodshed, Steve Bannon. He and Giuliani have likely had all this info for many weeks in waiting.  If legitimate, to waste political treasure of this magnitude too early in a single pre-election attack is not likely for men as crafty as Bannon and Giuliani. Since a Trump loss is still the predicted outcome, both are more likely preparing to play the long game of the post-election day Electoral College. Presumably, both are aware of its step-by-step chronology. Almost all of American voters are not. Yet.

However fraudulent this election may be on many other state line battle fronts, the two upcoming Electoral College votes (actually fifty-one votes in total), both a month apart, are required of the EC to certify the presidential winner. With the scripted investigations thus already nicely raging in the minds of the Electoral College, and the court of public opinion, the EC has the ability to be Trump’s checkmate.

The Reality of the Electoral College.

The constitutional provisions of the Electoral College have been reported far too simply.

The Electoral College is not an institution but, more accurately, the process of certifying the final results of a presidential election after Election Day and before the inauguration of Jan 20, 2021.

Previous to the 2016 election, Electors of each state – Republican or Democrat- only “promised” that they would vote for the candidate who did prevail in their state. Few states had a legal requirement nor penalty for an Elector not doing so. Up until that election, only a total of eight Elector’s had ever in US history bucked party lines.

In July 2020, the US Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, certified a state’s ability to mandate that any elector not deviate and that any who would can be sanctioned. At this time, still many states have not mandated a penalty, and of those that do, none is punitive enough to prevent an Elector following his conscience and allegiance to country.

As the Electoral College begins and voter tabulation finally comes in sometime beyond Nov 3, the governor of each state must first prepare a “Certificate of Ascertainment” listing all of the candidates who ran for President along with the names of each of the respective Electors of the state’s party choice of president. Each state sends its Certificate of Ascertainment to the National Archives, but the C.A. of each state is also readied for a required upcoming public meeting of Electors at each of the fifty state capitols.

The public meeting of the electors must take place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, which will be December 14, 2020.The electors meet in their respective states, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate personal ballots. After the vote, usually a formality seldom attended by members of the public, each state’s elector’s votes are next recorded on that state’s “Certificate of Vote,” which, now finalized, is also sent to the Congress and the National Archives as part of the official records of the presidential election.

But, on Dec 14 – just forty-one days in– each state’s EC must vote in public. What will be the mood of these Electors six weeks, and possibly two ongoing investigations, after election day? Regardless, each state will next have three more weeks to re-consider their Dec 14 vote, the mounting evidence… and their conscience.

Any individual protest by an elector will be merely grandstanding. However, by law, any state body of Electors might instead be influenced to collectively, “object.” This collective state protest of objection to a president-elect can be rendered at the State House on Dec 14, but also at any time before the reading of that state’s name from the floor of the US House of Representatives. That will be on Wed Jan 6, 2021.

This meeting is also, by law, public.

Yes, instead of individually influencing Electors to change their minds on individual votes at the State House, an entire state might ultimately- after days of watching the results of Biden’s true character surface daily- exert its 10th Amendment rights and chose to object to Biden’s certification. When the elector’s votes are read one-by-one by one, in alphabetical order by one of the four designated congressional “Tellers”, any state at that moment may interrupt the proceedings at the calling of its name and object. The objection must be on constitutional grounds. Such as secretly dealing with a foreign power for profit.

Just as importantly, if any state does object, the vote tally immediately stops and a separate joint session of Congress must then be held to investigate and debate the merits of that state’s objection. Should there be a subsequent objection, yet another session must be held, but it is unclear if multiple issues and state’s objections could be combined.

Although a president-elect with a criminal conviction can indeed still be elected president, any state can at least temporarily stop the proceeding for an examination of new charges by the full House. For examples of this possibility, Texas, in its state’s constitution, provides that disqualification for elected office can be for “anyone that has a conviction for bribery, forgery, perjury, and other high crimes.” Texas is a Trump state and is a strategic possibility to object on behalf of Trump once Trump makes the call to party loyalist, Gov. Greg Abbott.

Over in Georgia, their bar is lower, disqualifying anyone who has been convicted of a crime “about moral turpitude.”

What is important to note is that if Biden crosses the bar in any state, it would thus be statutorily illegal for that state to allow its electors to certify its State’s result on Jan 6. Therefore, that state must object.  Having Georgia similarly object on Jan 6 is not beyond possibility if the allegations are by then substantially proven.

As for the voter, this is certainly not a farfetched possibility. On, Oct 26, the Google search for “Can I change my vote“ was reportedly surging nationally. And, by Jan 6…?

An objection by a state has never happened. This eventuality, particularly if other states followed suit, would be far different from Biden dropping dead or impeached by his own party under the 25th Amendment due to his declining mental condition.  The objection(s) would also have the potential to remove enough Elector’s votes from the Biden’s grand total to swing that remaining total in Trump’s favour. These objections would not provide the DNC with their desired result of a Kamala Harris presidency. Nor would the Speaker of the House take over as interim president. This would be a unique electoral problem, one probably headed to SCOTUS for resolution.

And, just moments ago, Trump’s new SCOTUS appointment, Amy Coney Barrett, has now been confirmed by the Senate.

Trump’s senate.

The sound of pitchforks is an interesting sound for it tends to carry on the winds.

Come Dec 14, and then on Jan 6, on either day where will the unemployed, pitchfork carrying, depressed, angry, hungry, and disenfranchised voters be, physically and mentally.

The answer on both days could be: shoulder to shoulder packing each and every State House rotunda. Rightfully, the voters, after decades of congressional, presidential and political party corruption are quite anxious and willing to finally lynch at least one of these bastards. And Joe Biden may be the one to swing.

Will Biden fight? It’s doubtful, since he has trouble speaking much less weathering a prosecutor’s attack.

Will Kamala Harris take his place? Not a chance. No outraged voter or elector after, having taken Biden’s skin, will ever allow a black Hillary Clinton in the White House, particularly one just as corrupt as Biden.

Nancy Pelosi? Well…need one say more?

The author offers this plausible evaluation to the reader in the spirit of bi-partisan presidential contempt.

While it is easy to detest the presidential offerings of at least the past five elections, any political junkie should put aside a partisan view-point to appreciate this possible brilliant strategic checkmate by Giuliani and Bannon. Face it, Trump’s not this smart.

Giuliani and Bannon are anything but politically naïve. If these allegations prove worthy of investigation at the Congressional level it is very doubtful that this carefully laid coup would be so short sighted as to be risked on only influencing the popular vote count.

If the allegations against Joe Biden and family begin to gel into hard proof, the aftermath of the worst presidential election in US history will only increase in turmoil. With the other ongoing election chaos, thus combined with the Electoral College, the flames already on American streets will become a firestorm that has the possibility of destroying the nation.

The American voter, no matter which horned and tailed, crimson-red phoenix does rise from these flames, constitutionally, politically, or militarily, will in less than a week, and sixty-four days after have to watch, wait and see.

Or, pick-up a pitchfork and run to the local State House!

For the Robinhood traders who turned tens of thousands of dollars into millions this year and have still yet to lose all their money, DragTimes YouTube channel’s Brooks Weisblat has found the perfect hypercar to lease, that is, a one-year-old Bugatti Chiron.

Weisblat ran the numbers on leasing the hypercar, and even to our amazement, who knew Bugatti had a leasing program? 

So here are the numbers: Bugatti offers 24- and 36-month leases with a 2,500 mile-per-year allowance. According to CNET, even before the actual lease amount, one must pay $4,000 of the monthly cost in taxes. For a 24 month lease, one would expect to pay around $65,960 per month or about $1.6 million over the term of the lease. 

For some perspective on per monthly lease costs, the US median income for 2019 was around $69,000. Tens of millions of Americans this year are struggling to survive as the virus pandemic has financially crushed them. But the Federal Reserve and the federal government, pumping trillions of dollars into financial markets, sparked a boom in the stock market that minted new millionaires. 

Our advice to the successful Robinhood traders, preserve the wealth that was created from panic buying technology stocks, and enjoy it. Either way, in the next stock market crash, amateur traders will be wiped out again. 

By the way, the Chiron has two keys; a regular key and a top speed key that allows it to hit 262 mph. Here’s Weisblat’s video: 

And if the need for speed is your game – why lease a Chiron and waste $1.6 million, when you can purchase SSC North America’s Tuatara hypercar that recently reached speeds of 331 mph on a Nevada highway. The price tag of Tuatara is only $2 million, one million less than the 2019 Chiron. 

Authored by Austin Bay via The Epoch Times,

On Oct. 26, the Washington Free Beacon published a hard-hitting investigative article exposing a truly appalling and destructive example of communist China’s long-term war on free societies, in this case using influence and information as weapons.

The Free Beacon detailed The Economist magazine’s years of “sympathetic” coverage of China’s Huawei Technologies company. Then the report connected information to a kind of influence by documenting the magazine’s profitable business relationship with the notorious corporate giant. The Free Beacon noted The Economist did not acknowledge that economic relationship for nearly a decade.

Huawei’s deep financial and operational connections to the Chinese Communist Party are no secret. The CCP has final say over Huawei’s international operations. That indicates the CCP was a silent partner in the Huawei-Economist arrangement.

According to the Free Beacon report, written by Yuichiro Kakutani, from 2012 through 2018, the Economist Intelligence Unit (the magazine’s consulting division) published at least seven Huawei-commissioned reports the company used to “advance its policy agendas and deflect cybersecurity concerns raised by Western governments.” Huawei credited the reports with influencing British broadband and communications policy.

But here’s the damning quote that implicates the news and editorial divisions. The magazine itself had “defended Huawei in a front-page cover story in 2012 – the year the publication’s consulting division started working with the company.” Titled “Who’s afraid of Huawei?” the story “accused Western countries of using cybersecurity concerns as a pretense to oppose legitimate competition from Huawei.”

I visited The Economist website and read the Aug. 4, 2012, story. The Free Beacon summarizes it fairly. The Economist’s editors called Huawei “China’s new world-beater.” The article mentioned Chinese cyber-espionage, Huawei’s government connections, its “opaque ownership structure and secretive culture,” and other security and competitive issues—column inches devoted to the list. However, the editors dismissed these critical issues as “fretting.” This quote reveals the editorial attitude: “Huawei’s competitors have a vested interest in hyping concerns about it, while disguising their own reliance on Chinese subcontractors and on subsidies.”

Substituting a bland word for a harsh one is a euphemism. The term “euphemize” also has a rhetorical meaning: a statement characterized by evasive or dismissive language. The Economist’s 2012 Huawei coverage dismisses deep national security concerns as frets.

The Free Beacon’s bottom-line accusation: Chinese money bought advantageous (euphemized) treatment, if not favorable news coverage and a positive editorial attitude in a news and business journal long regarded as one of the world’s most influential—influential in terms of its editorial acumen, erudite reporting and savvy story selection. The Economist’s international subscriber base is well educated, wealthy and connected.

It appears the CCP managed to influence The Economist’s purveyors of influence and did so not in one or two instances but for eight critical years. The CCP wasn’t simply targeting The Economist. Huawei has tried to coopt media everywhere. But The Economist allegedly influences the influencers in capital cities around the planet, which gives it unique leverage.

For the past two decades, Huawei has engaged in espionage operations, racketeering, economic corruption and influence operations on behalf of Beijing while positioning itself to dominate global and regional communications infrastructure and international digital systems.

Until summer 2020, the British government was committed to using Huawei’s suspect 5G technology—so the political influence attributed to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s reports lingered. I’ll wager the magazine’s soft and euphemized coverage helped stall attempts to curb Huawei’s activities.

The word “influence” dominates this column. “Influence operations” are a major topic of national security concern. Influence operations are hard to define. In 2009, RAND Corporation offered this one: “efforts to influence a target audience, whether an individual leader, members of a decision-making group, military organizations and personnel, specific population subgroups, or mass publics.”

From the Chinese perspective, Hunter Biden’s alleged business deals in China would classify as an effort to influence an individual leader.

Congratulations to the Washington Free Beacon for documenting how corrosive and effective China’s influence operations can be.

In the last few months, Walgreens, Food Lion, Giant Food, and Stop & Shop halted coconut milk products from Thailand suppliers accused by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) of using monkeys as forced labor. 

“No kind shopper wants monkeys to be chained up and treated like coconut-picking machines,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a Thursday press release.

@H_Combs VICTORY! ❤️🐒 Costco has cut ties with coconut milk producer #Chaokoh after discussions with PETA & hearing from thousands of kind supporters!

Join us in continuing to speak out to other companies that still use forced monkey labor! https://t.co/OdVFzvugbJ pic.twitter.com/DM3cyKo0Mf

— PETA (@peta) October 29, 2020

Today’s PETA announcement shows another western retailer, that being Costco, will no longer carry coconut milk products from major Thailand-based coconut milk producer Chaokoh – until the company ends the use of chained monkeys to pick coconuts. 

Newkirk continued, “Costco made the right call to reject animal exploitation, and PETA is calling on holdouts like Kroger to follow suit.”

Readers may recall, in July, we noted PETA Asia’s investigation uncovered these chained monkeys, picking hundreds of coconuts each day. It was said Aroy-D and Chaokoh were some of the biggest Thai coconut players using monkeys. 

PETA Asia’s investigators released disturbing images of the coconut picking monkeys:

PETA Asia’s investigators found many of these monkeys were tortured, saying:   

“When not being forced to pick coconuts or perform in circus-style shows for tourists, the animals were kept tethered, chained to old tires, or confined to cages barely larger than their bodies. Many displayed repetitive behavior indicative of extreme mental anguish, including one monkey who chewed on one of his own limbs. One coconut farmer confirmed that when monkeys are terrified and try to defend themselves, handlers may have their teeth pulled out.”

PETA noted Costco joins Walgreens, Food Lion, Giant Food, and Stop & Shop, all of whom have eliminated coconut milk brands that use forced monkey labor, noting their attention will now turn on “Kroger” who still sells products from Chaokoh.