Planning something sinister? Twitter shuts down Ric Grenell for tweet demonstrating ballot fraud - Monica Showalter

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by Monica Showalter

Twitter is planning to suppress all news of ballot fraud in this coming election.

 Twitter shut down a big fish Thursday, censoring President Trump's popular former acting director of National Intelligence, Richard Grenell, for supposedly violating the company's terms of service.

According to ReclaimTheNet.org, an anti-censorship news site:

Upon his friend’s request, Ric Grenell took to Twitter and posted the images of two ballots that were sent to the names of a deceased couple.
Social media platforms, of late, have been extra vigilant about the content that gets posted on their platform. With the current year combining several important and critical events, including the US Presidential Elections and COVID-19 saga, platforms have grown even more stringent with their rules.

Which is pretty astonishing. Grenell is a highly visible tweeter, popular with viewers, with 660,000 followers. If they can shut him down, they can shut anyone down. His 'crime' was refusing to delete this tweet as they ordered:


He stood his ground, and was right to do so. After all, if you can't tweet about your lived-experience, and present evidence, as Grenell did, then it's obvious there's a story Twitter would like to see suppressed. 

For some reason, he's been let out now but the censorship message is clear. He's since tweeted this:

This tweet got me locked out. But I’m back and reposting it again. I had permission to post this picture.

As I told Twitter, start locking out the Iranian Regime’s twitter accounts instead of protecting @GavinNewsom’s election Interference.

Fight back! https://t.co/BxM4KJA1Bg

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) October 9, 2020

Clearly, Twitter has a game plan for censoring all news of ballot and electoral fraud in this age of mass-mail junk-mail voting. Grenell in fact is onto a very big story -- that of gargantuan Los Angeles County' already evident gross mismanagement of the election. Grenell tweeted evidence of dead people getting ballots. Just yesterday, a friend in Glendale tweeted to me pictures of his son's two ballots received in the mail.

The area is loaded with illegals, so all kinds of potential for ballot fraud -- and ballot-selling, are likely going on, but Twitter is getting out its mighty censorship machine to make sure voters don't know. 

There's also this, according to the Wall Street Journal:

Twitter Inc. will make it harder for posts to go viral ahead of the U.S. election, including by putting limits on how users can retweet.
The moves unveiled Friday, which also include pointing users viewing certain tweets to credible content, are among the boldest yet for the social-media platform and are designed to slow the spread of misinformation.

Where users previously hit a button to reshare, or “retweet,” items, they will now be directed to a screen that will encourage adding commentary before resharing posts. If users don’t write anything, their post will still appear as a traditional retweet—but the change “adds some extra friction” in the process, according to a company blog post.

Which is pretty disturbing. Hitting Grenell for a perfectly valid tweet showing genuine problems in our electoral system, and then slowing down retweets on stories they don't like is pure dictatorial censorship. If this isn't an argument for Republicans to get out and vote, and in particular vote for every downballot Republican in the congressional slots, what is? The U.S. desperately needs a House that is willing to force Twitter to become regulated as an edited platform, responsible for every word that goes out on their site including those of child molestors and Iranian terrorists. Their election shenanigans mean they're playing for keeps. No amount of 'reform' is going to make up for it, given the stakes at hand and what they are doing now. The die is cast. They are planning something, and they need to be stopped.

Image credit: Twitter screen shot

Monica Showalter

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/10/planning_something_sinister_twitter_shuts_down_ric_grenell_for_tweet_demonstrating_ballot_fraud.html

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COVID-19 Is 'Unrestricted Bioweapon': Whistleblower Releases Second Paper Alleging 'Large-Scale, Organized Scientific Fraud' - Tyler Durden

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by Tyler Durden

Hat tip: Dr. Jean-charles Bensoussan

The scale and the coordinated nature of this scientific fraud signifies the degree of corruption in the fields of academic research and public health.

Li-Meng Yan, A Chinese virologist (MD, PhD) who worked in a WHO reference lab and fled her position at the University of Hong Kong, has published a second co-authored report, alleging that SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, was not only created in a Wuhan lab, it's an "unrestricted bioweapon" which was intentionally released.



"We used biological evidence and in-depth analyses to show that SARS-CoV-2 must be a laboratory product, which was created by using a template virus (ZC45/ZXC21) owned by military research laboratories under the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government," reads the paper.

SARS-CoV2 is a product of laboratory modification, which can be created in approximately six months using a template virus owned by a laboratory of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The fact that data fabrications were used to cover up the true origin of SARS-CoV 2 further implicates that the laboratory modification here is beyond simple gain-of-function research.

The scale and the coordinated nature of this scientific fraud signifies the degree of corruption in the fields of academic research and public health. As a result of such corruption, damages have been made both to the reputation of the scientific community and to the well-being of the global community.

The report also claims that the RaTG13 virus which Wuhan "Batwoman" Dr. Zhengli Shi and colleagues say they obtained in bat feces in 2013 (and which is 96% identical to SARS-CoV-2), is fraudulent and also man made.

Since its publication, the RaTG13 virus has served as the founding evidence for the theory that SARS-CoV-2 must have a natural origin. However, no live virus or an intact genome of RaTG13 have ever been isolated or recovered. Therefore, the only proof for the “existence” of RaTG13 in nature is its genomic sequence published on GenBank.

The report goes on to say that the RaTG13 genome could easily be fabricated, and that "an entry on GenBank, which in this case is equivalent to the existence of an assembled viral genomic sequence and its associated sequencing reads, is not a definitive proof that this viral genome is correct or real," and that the process for sequencing DNA itself "leaves room for potential fraud."

If one intends to fabricate an RNA viral genome on GenBank, he or she could do so by following these steps: create its genomic sequence on a computer, have segments of the genome synthesized based on the sequence, amplify each DNA segment through PCR, and then send the PCR products (may also be mixed with genetic material derived from the alleged host of the virus to mimic an authentic sequencing sample) for sequencing.The resulted raw sequencing reads would be used, together with the created genomic sequence, for establishing an entry on GenBank. Once accomplished, this entry would be accepted as the evidence for the natural existence of the corresponding virus. Clearly, a viral genomic sequence and its GenBank entry can be fabricated if well-planned.

RaTG13 has 'multiple abnormal features,' according to the report. For starters, it's claimed that it was a fecal sample - yet just 1.7% of the raw sequencing reads are bacterial, when fecal swab samples are typically 70-90% bacterial. Second, the genomic sequence for RaTG13 contains segments of non-bat origin, including fox, flying fox, squirrels and other animals.

What's more, China destroyed all evidence of RaTG13. "No independent verification of the RaTG13 sequence seems possible because, according to Dr. Zhengli Shi,the raw sample has been exhausted and no live virus was ever isolated or recovered. Notably, this information was known to a core circle of virologists early on and apparently accepted by them."



Meanwhile, another coronavirus which shares a '100% nucleotide sequence identity with RaTG13' - RaBtCoV/4991 - on a 'short, 440-bp RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene segment.' 

RaBtCoV/4991 was allegedly discovered by Shi and colleagues in 2012 and published in 2016, and colleagues have been asking if it's the same virus as RaTG13.

Given the  100%  identity  on  this  short  gene  segment between  RaBtCoV/4991  and  RaTG13,the  field  has demanded clarification of whether or not these two names refer to the same virus. However,Dr. Shi did not respond to the requestor address this question for months. The answer finally came from Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance and long-term collaborator of Shi, who claimed that RaBtCoV/4991 was RaTG1327.

Three suspicious facts

First, it makes no sense that 'Batwoman' Shi and her team wouldn't have conducted whole genome sequencing of RaBtCoV/4991 before 2020, as it was suspected in the deaths of miners who suffered from severe pneumonia after clearing out bat droppings in a Chinese mineshaft.

Given the Shi group’s consistent interests in studying SARS-like bat coronaviruses and the fact that RaBtCoV/4991 is a SARS-like coronavirus with a possible connection to the deaths of the miners, it is highly unlikely that the Shi group would be content with sequencing only a 440-bp segment of RdRpand not pursue the sequencing of the receptor-binding motif (RBM)-encoding region of the spike gene. In fact, sequencing of the spike gene is routinely attempted by the Shi group once the presence of a SARS-like bat coronavirus is confirmed by the sequencing of the 440-bp RdRpsegment25,32, although the success of such efforts is often hindered by the poor quality of the sample.

"Clearly, the perceivable motivation of the Shi group to study this RaBtCoV/4991 virus and the fact that no genome sequencing of it was done for a period of seven years (2013-2020) are hard to reconcile and explain."

Meanwhile, genomic sequencing of RaTG13 was conducted in 2018.

Second, why did Shi delay publication on RaTG13 until 2020 when it's got a Spike protein that can bind with human ACE2 receptors?

...if the genomic sequence of RaTG13 had been available since 2018, it is unlikely that this virus, which has a possible connection to miners’ deaths in 2012 and has an alarming SARS-like RBM, would be shelved for two years without publication. Consistent with this analysis, a recent study indeed proved that the RBD of RaTG13(produced via gene synthesis based on its published sequence) was capable of binding hACE2

Third, there has been no follow-up work on RaTG13 by Shi's group.

Upon obtaining the genomic sequence of a SARS-like bat coronavirus, the Shi group routinely investigate whether or not the virus is capable of infecting human cells. This pattern of research activities has been shown repeatedly. However, such a pattern is not seen here despite that RaTG13 has an interesting RBM and is allegedly the closest match evolutionarily to SARS-CoV-2

Direct genetic evidence proving RaTG13 is fraudulent

Yan's group closely examined the sequences of specific spike proteins for relevant viruses - specifically comparing mutations, and found that the spike genes of SARS-CoV-2 and RaTG13 do not contain evidence of natural evolution when compared to other coronaviruses which naturally evolved.

A logical interpretation of this observation is that SARS-CoV-2 and RaTG13 could not relate to each other through natural evolution and at least one must be artificial.If one is a product of natural evolution, then the other one must be not. It is also possible that neither of them exists naturally. If RaTG13 is a real virus that truly exists in nature, then SARS-CoV-2 must be artificial.

More:
It is highly likely that the sequence of the RaTG13 genome was fabricated by lightly modifying the SARS-CoV-2 sequence to achieve an overall 96.2% sequence identity. During this process, much editing must have been done for the RBM region of the S1/spike because the encoded RBM determines the interaction with ACE2 and therefore would be heavily scrutinized by others.

The paper concludes: All fabricated coronaviruses share a 100% amino acid sequence identity on the E protein with ZC45 and ZXC21

For much more information see                        https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/covid-19-unrestricted-bioweapon-whistleblower-releases-second-paper-alleging-large-scale


Tyler Durden

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/covid-19-unrestricted-bioweapon-whistleblower-releases-second-paper-alleging-large-scale

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Victor Davis Hanson: California ignores current problems, comes up with illogical reparations bill - Tribune Media Services

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by Tribune Media Services

It is a poor time to discuss reparations, even if there were good reasons to borrow to pay out such compensation

California’s state legislature just passed, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed, Assembly Bill 3121 to explore providing reparations to California’s African American population — 155 years after the abolition of slavery.

Apparently, when California’s one-party government cannot find solutions to current existential crises, it turns to divisive issues that have little to do with the safety and well-being of its 40 million citizens.

California has the highest gas taxes in the nation, even as its ossified state highways remain clogged and dangerous. Why, then, does Sacramento kept pouring billions of dollars into the now-calcified high-speed rail project?

When fires raged, killed dozens, polluted the air for months, consumed thousands of structures and scorched 4 million acres of forest, in response the governor thundered about global warming. But Newsom was mostly mute about state and federal green policies that discouraged the removal of millions of dead and drought-stricken trees, which provided the kindling for the infernos.

SAN FRANCISCO TAX REVENUE PLUNGE POINTS TO RESIDENT EXODUS

When gasoline, sales and income taxes rose, and yet state schools became even worse, infrastructure remained decrepit and deficits grew, California demanded that federal COVID-19 money bail out its own financial mismanagement.

In a time of pandemic, mass quarantine, self-induced recession, riot, arson and looting, the California way is to borrow money to spend on something that will not address why residents can’t find a job, can’t rely on their power grid, can’t drive safely, can’t breathe the air, can’t ensure a high-quality education for their children, and can’t walk the streets of the state’s major cities without fear of being assaulted or stepping in excrement.

So it is a poor time to discuss reparations, even if there were good reasons to borrow to pay out such compensation. But in fact there are none.

Four points:

One, California was admitted to the Union in 1850 as a free state. Its moral insistence 170 years ago that slavery be outlawed precipitated a crisis — and almost sparked the Civil War 10 years before it actually began. Despite the efforts of some slave-owning arrivals into California, there was never legal slavery in the state.

NEWSOM PUSHES SWEEPING GREEN-ENERGY RULES BUT 'CAN'T EVEN KEEP THE LIGHTS ON' TODAY, EPA BOSS SAYS

Two, about 27 percent of California residents were not born in the United States. Most of the naturalized citizens and undocumented immigrants arrived in the state after the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. How, then, do California residents from Asia, Latin America or Europe owe reparations to the current 6.5 percent of the state’s population that is African American?

Are we to establish a precedent that those who never owned slaves in a society that has no memory of slavery are to redistribute billions of their dollars to those whose grandparents were never slaves?

Three, in a multi-ethnic, multiracial California — where those identifying as white are a minority, and those of mixed ancestries number in the millions — how does the state adjudicate who owes what to whom?

Is an arriving Mexican immigrant a victim of institutionalized racism in Mexico, or was he part of a Mexican establishment notorious for its racism? In a multiracial state, will we adopt ancient “one drop” Confederate race laws to determine whose DNA qualifies someone for state money?

Should the state pay reparations to the descendants of Jews who fled the Holocaust, of Cambodians who fled Pol Pot’s reign of death, of Armenians who escaped Ottoman barbarity, or of Irish and Chinese who were worked to death on the Transcontinental Railroad?

Four, how will borrowing money to pay some 2 million to 3 million of the state’s 40 million residents make things easier for the African American population? And are multimillionaire state residents such as LeBron James, Oprah Winfrey, Kayne West, Jay-Z and Beyoncé eligible?

Did it mean nothing that trillions of dollars have been spent over the last half-century on anti-poverty programs, state entitlements, and diversity and inclusion programs?

If per-capita economic parity for the Black population is truly the state’s concern, then why not allow more charter schools in California’s inner cities? Or deregulate the state’s cumbersome bureaucracy to ensure small businesses more opportunity and less resistance to building low-income housing?

It is said that California fails because its wealthy elites virtue-signal their caring to square the circle of their own impotence to solve the problems in their midst.

Californians who live in gated homes often damn walls on the border. Those who depend on imported water damn water transference for agriculture. Those who put their children in private academies damn public charter schools. And those who raise taxes on the middle class have tax experts to find ways of avoiding taxes.

In that context, Assembly Bill 3121 can be understood — as a loud virtue signal to make up for failed responses to concrete crises.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM VICTOR DAVIS HANSON


Tribune Media Services

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/california-reparations-bill-victor-davis-hanson

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Turning the Tables on Democrats’ Russia Hoax - Lloyd Billingsley

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by Lloyd Billingsley

Director of National Intelligence declassifies startling info about Obama, Hillary and Brennan.

Gina Haspel joined the CIA in 1985 and rose through the ranks to deputy director. In 2018, President Trump picked Haspel to replace Mike Pompeo as CIA director. In a hearing, Sen. Angus King asked Haspel if she agreed with a 2016 intelligence report finding that the Russians interfered in the presidential campaign. 

“Senator, I do,” Haspel said. The CIA veteran did not elaborate, but a month before the 2020 election the manner of the interference has at last been revealed in declassifications from director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe.

In July of 2016, U.S. intelligence had learned, a foreign policy advisor to Hillary Clinton proposed that she smear candidate Donald Trump by claiming interference by Russian security services. The notes of CIA boss John Brennan show that he briefed President Obama on the information.

The declassifications also show that in September of 2016, U.S. intelligence learned that Hillary Clinton approve “a plan concerning U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections.” Intelligence officials referred that information to FBI director James Comey and FBI deputy assistant director of counterintelligence Peter Strzok.

The FBI pair ignored Hillary Clinton’s violations of intelligence laws and instead launched operation Midyear Exam against candidate Trump and Crossfire Hurricane against President Trump. During both operations, the Democrat-media axis demanded that legislators listen to the intelligence community. In 2020, that has all changed. 

Clinton mouthpiece Nick Merrill called the new revelations “baseless bullshit.” Rachel Cohen, spokeswoman for Sen. Mark Warner, vice chair of the intelligence committee, told reporters “this is Russian disinformation, laundered by the Director of National Intelligence and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.” According to that man, Lindsey Graham, “This latest information provided by DNI Ratcliffe shows there may have been a double standard by the FBI regarding allegations against the Clinton campaign and Russia.” As Sen. Graham may be aware, Russia had been meddling in US elections for decades.

From the 1920s to 1984, the Russians ran candidates in U.S. elections. In 1976, their candidate for president was Gus Hall, a dutiful Stalinist, and a college student named John Brennan voted for him. In a free country like the USA, that was Brennan’s right, but there is no right to a job with the CIA. Anybody who voted for the candidate of the Communist Party USA, founded and maintained by Soviet Russia, should not even get in the door. Brennan not only got hired but in 2013 came to run the place.

As the new declassifications show, in 2016 U.S. operatives told Brennan about Hillary Clinton’s plan to discredit Trump by linking his campaign to Russia. Brennan briefed President Obama, and both men went along with Hillary Clinton’s plan. Trouble was, Robert Mueller and his squad of Democrat inquisitors found zero evidence of Russian collusion.

After he left the CIA for a television gig, Brennan still defended the Russia hoax. The Gus Hall voter has yet to face hard questions about the new revelations. Late last month, senators brought up the matter with former FBI boss James Comey.

“In the main, it was done by the book,” Comey testified. “It was appropriate, and it was essential that it be done.” In similar style Peter Strzok is now claiming that that FBI notes in the ongoing case of Gen. Michael Flynn may have been altered. This comes after FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to charges of altering documents in the attempt to entrap Flynn.

Like his former boss Comey, Strzok claims the Russia business was all by the book. Strzok’s Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump, was released on September 8, in plenty of time for the November 3 election. Strzok, Comey, Brennan et al, are looking to that election as their true insurance policy.

A Biden administration would never mount a prosecution and surely call off all investigations and declassifications. Since Trump fired Comey, Biden would be pressed to give him his job back, and Comey would doubtless be inclined to rehire Strzok. President Trump revoked the security clearance of John Brennan, so a President Biden would be inclined to restore it, and possibly make the Gus Hall voter CIA boss again.

When President Trump named Gina Haspel for CIA director, John Brennan said she “has the experience—the breadth and depth—on intelligence issues.” For Leon Panetta, “I’m glad it’s Gina because frankly she is someone who really knows the CIA inside out.” For James Clapper, Gina is “capable, smart, very experienced, well respected by the Agency rank and file, and a great person.” President Trump has cause to wonder.

“All Russia Hoax Scandal information was declassified by me long ago,” the president tweeted Tuesday. “Unfortunately for our Country, people have acted very slowly, especially since it is perhaps the biggest political crime in the history of our Country. Act!!!” Like FBI boss Christopher Wray, Gina Haspel has been acting slowly on this political crime.

With no apology to Walter Sobchak of The Big Lebowski, this is what happens when the CIA hires a Gus Hall voter and puts him in charge. This is what happens when a president picks his successor and deploys the upper reaches of the CIA, DOJ and FBI to attack political opponents.

A Harris-Biden administration would turn back the clock to those dark days. As President Trump says, we’ll have to see what happens. 

Lloyd Billingsley

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/10/turns-tables-democrats-russia-hoax-lloyd-billingsley/

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Will the Failed ‘Silent Coup’ Become the ‘Stolen Election?’ - Julio Rivera

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by Julio Rivera

Cyberespionage efforts from foreign entities obsessed with destroying the American way of life are sure to continue until November 3rd.

Although the left continues to downplay the issues surrounding “election integrity” this November, mounting evidence points to what is likely to turn into an eventual series of disputes, lawsuits, and potential anarchy in a year that has already been marred by civil unrest nationally.

This election season has so far seen the discarding of a number of military ballots in the state of Pennsylvania, most of which were for President Trump. The fate of the Pennsylvania vote also looms large as some new procedures in the state during this unprecedented “coronavirus election” are sure to wind up in court due to a recent ruling that is gives PA voters an extra three days to return their mail ballots.

This matter may also play into the Supreme Court confirmation process of Amy Coney Barrett, as Republicans in Pennsylvania are already asking the SCOTUS to review the controversial ruling.

Apart from the issues in Pennsylvania, the vote counts in Texas and Florida may also see complications this election cycle as well. In the Lone Star State, a recently uncovered ballot harvesting operation being orchestrated by Biden operatives threatens to turn the GOP stronghold into a Democratic fiefdom. 

In Florida, the issue of whether to allow convicted felons to vote, as well as a recent issue related to the state’s voter registration site, which has compelled some in the state to demand that Gov. Ron DeSantis conduct an immediate investigation, has cast a dark cloud over the highly coveted battleground state. 

The totality of these issues, in addition to worries that already existed related to mail-in ballots, has many experts questioning whether it will even be possible to declare a winner of the presidential election on or around Election Day this year.

Many Americans had already been skeptical of the legitimacy of the coming election, as the news cycle has had no shortage of stories related to election hacking over the past four years. 

As a result of this growing election-related anxiety, Christopher Krebs, Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, appeared in a video this week where he claims that his “confidence in the security of your vote has never been higher.” These statements from Krebs come despite a September report from Microsoft that advised of foreign activity groups stepping “efforts targeting the 2020 election."

So, who is telling the truth here? 
Although Russia has denied having any involvement in hacking the 2016 election, the Microsoft report says that apart from Russia, China and Iran have already made attempts to hack individuals and entities that are involved in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

These attacks have been carried out by three of the more infamous and prolific state-sponsored hacking groups in the world. Russia’s APT28 or "Fancy Bear," a military hacking group, has reportedly already targeted consultants working with both Republicans and Democratic candidates, as well as think tanks, like the German Marshall Fund of America.

The Chinese government, who are generally recognized at the world leader in cyberespionage, have deployed the hacking group known as Zirconium. The group has targeted the Biden campaign through attempted breaches of email accounts belonging to campaign staff. According to the Microsoft report, in addition to attempting to breach the Biden campaign, "The group has also targeted at least one prominent individual formerly associated with the Trump Administration."

Last, and probably the least capable on this list of nuisances, is Iran. Microsoft’s report also named Iranian hacking group APT35 or "Phosphorous." While not as well-known as their Russian or Chinese counterparts, this group was said to have unsuccessfully attempted to penetrate email accounts of Trump administration officials and operatives working for the Donald J. Trump for President Campaign between May and June of 2020.

The efforts from foreign entities obsessed with destroying the American way of life are sure to continue until November 3^rd. This is in addition to all the self-harm that the political Left is injecting into the process. As we continue to learn the scope of the intrusions, Americans must ponder -- will it be possible for our election to produce a legitimate victor given the multitude of complications in the year of the coronavirus pandemic?

Image: Pixabay


Julio Rivera is a business and political strategist, the Editorial Director for Reactionary Times, and a political commentator and columnist. His writing, which is focused on cybersecurity and politics, has been published by websites including The Hill, Real Clear Politics, Townhall and American Thinker.

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/10/will_the_failed_silent_coup_become_the_stolen_election.html

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Thanks to Trump, China's Huawei Is Dying - Gordon G. Chang

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by Gordon G. Chang

And as goes Huawei, so goes China's ambitions of dominating global communications.

• Vice President Biden may say he will be tougher on China than Trump, but his supporters have signaled that he will not. Max Baucus, who served as ambassador to China in the Obama years, predicted that, with a Biden win, there would be a "reset" in U.S.-China relations.
• So, expect chip companies to lobby a President Biden to restart the flow of chips to Huawei Technologies. The sound of a pen gliding over the signature line on a waiver is music to the ears of one Shenzhen-based threat to the United States—as well as its masters in Beijing.

(Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

By cutting off the supply of semiconductors, the Trump administration is severely undermining the viability of China's Huawei Technologies, currently the world's leading manufacturer of both telecom networking gear and smartphones.

And as goes Huawei, so goes China's ambitions of dominating global communications.

Washington has accused Huawei of persistent theft of U.S. intellectual property. In addition, the current administration believes the company poses a national security threat because Beijing uses its equipment to surreptitiously take data flowing through its servers and other networking gear.

At the beginning of this year, it was a sure bet that the Shenzhen-based Huawei, already in more than 170 countries, would dominate 5G, the fifth generation of wireless communications, for years.

Huawei, which says it is employee-owned but is in reality in the hands of the Chinese state, is one of China's "national champions," and it had 5G covered at both ends. The company has maintained its lead as the world's No. 1 maker of networking gear, a crown it has worn for years. Furthermore, in the second quarter of this year, according to industry trackers Canalys and IDC, it had leapt past South Korea's Samsung to become the leading manufacturer of smartphones.

The company, however, is unlikely to sustain its lead in either area. At the moment, its most immediate problem is that it is running out of chips, necessary for both lines of products.

Thank the current U.S. administration for Huawei's semiconductor shortage. The U.S. Commerce Department, effective May 16 of last year, added Huawei to its Entity List. The designation means that no American company, without prior approval from the Bureau of Industry and Security, is allowed to sell or license to Huawei products and technology covered by the U.S. Export Administration Regulations.

Since then, the Trump administration has issued waivers from the designation, but now it is tightening the rules and at the same time issuing new ones. The result is that chip companies are not supplying semiconductors to Huawei.

Not only U.S. companies have been affected by the ban. The Commerce Department in May extended its rules to require foreign businesses to receive an export license before selling to Huawei, or designated subsidiaries such as HiSilicon, chips made with U.S. equipment.

The wide-ranging prohibition has forced Asian producers such as Samsung and SK Hynix to cut off Huawei. Most significantly, TSMC, formally known as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., is no longer making the Huawei-designed Kirin chipset. The U.S. rules are so comprehensive that even Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., China's largest chip foundry, is no longer accepting orders from Huawei.

Industry analysts believe Huawei will run through its chip inventory for phones sometime in the middle of next year. Others say earlier.

Sales estimates reflect the exhaustion of inventory. Huawei has estimated it will ship 50 million handsets next year. That is down from both the 190 million sets analysts had originally predicted for the year and the 240 million sets it sold last year.

The shortage for Huawei's other line of business—5G networking kit—is not as severe. The company, in anticipation of a cut-off of supplies, has stored enough chips "for several years" according to one report.

Can Huawei save itself by producing its own chips? China at the beginning of this year made 16.3% of its chip requirement, according to Brandon Weichert of The Weichert Report. Some estimates are higher. Eventually, the percentage will increase, due in large part to the Made in China 2025 initiative and related efforts such as the 14th Five-Year Plan, which begins next year. Beijing, Claude Barfield of the American Enterprise Institute points out, is "hell-bent" on developing its own semiconductor industry.

Weichert thinks it would take China no more than two years to develop a "reliable indigenous semiconductor capacity." Huawei's founder Ren Zhengfei suggests a bit longer. In August of last year, he wrote that in the next three to five years he will create an "invincible iron army" to counter U.S. sanctions. Ren also referred to the company as facing a "live-or-die moment."

To build Ren's "army," Huawei, with its Habo Investments subsidiary, has gone into the business of making chips. Its effort, however, appears to be too late to rescue it from its current jam. Habo will not be able to turn out chipsets for years. In the meantime, Huawei will have to scrounge the world for product.

"Do not count Huawei out," Weichert told Gatestone this month. "The company is viewed by Beijing as an essential component of its national push to dominate technology, and the Chinese party-state will beg, borrow, and steal to keep Huawei competitive in the global tech war."

China is vulnerable now, but it is working to insulate itself from American rules. There is, consequently, a limited window to defang Huawei. November 3 could be a "life or death" day for the Chinese giant.

Vice President Biden may say he will be tougher on China than President Trump, but his supporters have signaled that he will not. Max Baucus, who served as ambassador to China in the Obama years, predicted that, with a Biden win, there would be a "reset" in U.S.-China relations. "You will see a president who will engage in quiet diplomacy," he told CNBC's Squawk Box Asia on October 8.

Moreover, Jake Sullivan, a senior Biden advisor, has made it clear that the U.S. "should put less focus on trying to slow China down and more emphasis on trying to run faster ourselves." That is 2020-speak for "we should allow Beijing to do whatever it wants."

China's leaders are therefore looking for a return to China-friendly policies with Biden. "I think there will be some improvements made in other areas, such as pardoning companies that are crucial to us from targeted U.S. sanctions," said Li Yi of the Shanghai Academy of Social Studies, referring to Trump's prohibitions on chip sales, to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.

So, expect chip companies to lobby a President Biden to restart the flow of chips to Huawei Technologies. The sound of a pen gliding over the signature line on a waiver is music to the ears of one Shenzhen-based threat to the United States—as well as its masters in Beijing.

• Follow Gordon G. Chang on Twitter

Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute Distinguished Senior Fellow, and member of its Advisory Board.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16621/trump-china-huawei

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Rising Seas Aren’t Swamping Small Island Nations - H. Sterling Burnet

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by H. Sterling Burnet

 [S]everal peer-reviewed studies in recent years demonstrate that, even as the world has warmed modestly, many island nations are seeing their land masses increase, not shrink.

Climate Change Weekly #375

At a U.N. Conference of world leaders in September, representatives of the Alliance of Small Island States and the Least Developed Countries Group said, “In another 75 years, many ... members may no longer hold seats at the United Nations if the world continues on its present course,” the Associated Press (AP) reports.

At the same meeting, Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said, “We are already seeing a version of environmental Armageddon.”

The problem, according to the island nations represented at the U.N. meeting, is that low-lying islands such as Tuvalu will completely disappear within 75 years, covered by rising seas. Fortunately, scientific evidence demolishes such claims.

Current sea-level rise is not at all unusual historically. Also, several peer-reviewed studies in recent years demonstrate that, even as the world has warmed modestly, many island nations are seeing their land masses increase, not shrink.

As detailed in Climate at a Glance: Sea Level Rise, sea level has been rising at a relatively steady pace of approximately one foot per century since the mid-1800s, long before humans started emitting significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirms there has been no significant recent acceleration.

Some low-lying islands are likely threatened by relentless but entirely natural sea-level rise. 
However, as NASA reports, sea level always rises between ice ages as ice sheets retreat. Also, many islands and island nations, perhaps a majority in many locations, are actually seeing their land masses increase.

The island of Hawaii, for example, added 543 acres of new land due to lava flows between January 1983 and September 2002. In 2018 alone, Popular Mechanics reports, volcanic activity added 875 acres to Hawaii Island. Volcanic activity is creating a new Hawaiian coastline and adding height to the island, both of which diminish any threat to the island’s inhabitants from rising seas.

As early as 2010, many small island nations were actually growing, not being submerged beneath the seas, research shows. A study that examined 27 islands spanning Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Federated States of Micronesia found 80 percent of the islands either maintained their size or grew over the last 60 years, with some growing dramatically.

The 2010 study’s findings were confirmed and expanded in 2015 when the same group of researchers published a peer-reviewed study of 600 coral reef islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The researchers found approximately 40 percent of those islands remained stable, and 40 percent increased in size. As National Geographic reported at the time, “Some islands grew by as much as 14 acres (5.6 hectares) in a single decade, and Tuvalu’s main atoll, Funafuti—33 islands distributed around the rim of a large lagoon—has gained 75 acres (32 hectares) of land during the past 115 years.”

Despite political gimmicks designed to induce climate “reparations” from Western democracies, Tuvalu’s government has felt confident enough in its long-term future to build brand-new government buildings since 2015. In addition, there is no evidence Tuvalu is experiencing a forced migration of its population to other countries due to rising seas. The population on Fongafale, Tuvalu’s largest island, has increased by 33 percent.

Recent research published in 2018 by GIScience & Remote Sensing found 15 of the 28 uninhabited islands on Tuvalu’s Funafuti Atoll saw their shorelines increase in recent years.

In the peer-reviewed journal Geology in 2019, the same group of researchers explained the islands’ growth as resulting from strong wave action washing sand and gravel inland so the atolls and islands are “continually replenished by sediment from the surrounding reef.” In other words, the natural interaction of land and sea protect islands from sea-level rise. Even on islands where some shoreline is lost to the seas, the researchers found storms and wave action carrying sand and gravel inland are adding to the height of such islands, making them more resistant to rising seas.

Seas are rising slowly and will continue to rise as they have, without any help by humankind, for millennia. Even so, the evidence shows many island nations are gaining acreage, gaining height, and supporting growing populations.


H. Sterling Burnet

Source: https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/rising-seas-arent-swamping-small-island-nations

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Fighting in the Caucasus: Erdogan's Ottoman Ambitions - Con Coughlin

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by Con Coughlin

Turkey's support for Azerbaijan -- stems from Mr Erdogan's determination to recreate the glory of the Ottoman Empire, when Turkey formed the epicentre of the Muslim world.

• Turkey's support for Azerbaijan, which could prove to be decisive in the conflict, stems from Mr Erdogan's determination to recreate the glory of the Ottoman Empire, when Turkey formed the epicentre of the Muslim world.
• The latest outbreak of violence -- the most serious to affect the region since the early 1990s -- began at the end of last month, after Azerbaijan was accused of launching a full-scale assault against Armenian positions in the mountainous enclave, prompting a full-scale mobilisation of Armenian forces.
• Even so, Mr Erdogan's intervention in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute puts him at odds with another major power with aspirations to increase its influence in the region, namely Russia.

As the bitter fighting intensifies between Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, it has emerged that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is supplying the Azeris with weapons and mercenaries in their campaign to reclaim control of the enclave. Pictured: A part of the city of Stepanakert in Nagorno-Karabakh, damaged by artillery shelling, on October 8, 2020. (Photo by Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)

The emergence of Turkey as a key player in the latest eruption of violence in the disputed Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh needs to be seen within the context of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ambition of recreating the Ottoman Empire.

As the bitter fighting intensifies between Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan over the disputed territory in the Caucasus Mountains, it has emerged that Mr Erdogan is supplying the Azeris with weapons and mercenaries in their campaign to reclaim control of the enclave.

Apart from supplying conventional weapons, there have been suggestions that Turkish-made cluster bombs -- which are banned under international law -- have been used in attacks on Armenian positions.

In addition, Ankara has been accused of sending Syrian rebels to Azerbaijan to help with its campaign to reclaim the enclave.

Turkey's support for Azerbaijan, which could prove to be decisive in the conflict, stems from Mr Erdogan's determination to recreate the glory of the Ottoman Empire, when Turkey formed the epicentre of the Muslim world.

Although the territory that now constitutes modern Azerbaijan was never under direct Ottoman control, the local tribes came under the influence of Muslim Turks, to the extent that many Azeris today speak a form of Turkish dialect.

More recently the bond between Turkey and Azerbaijan has resulted in the two countries undertaking joint military exercises on a regular basis.

Never one to miss an opportunity to expand Turkey's influence in the Muslim world, Mr Erdogan has been quick to lend his backing to Azerbaijan in its bid to reclaim control over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Within hours of the conflict erupting, the Turkish president tweeted, "The Turkish people will support our Azerbaijani brothers with all our means as always," adding for good measure that Armenia was "the biggest threat to regional peace."

The dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh dates back to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s when the territory, whose population is primarily Armenian, opted to break away from the control of neighbouring Azerbaijan, a country composed mainly of Shiite Muslims.

The decision prompted a bitter war between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1992 after both countries gained independence from the Soviet Union, claiming the lives of an estimated 30,000 people.

Since then an uneasy truce has settled on the region as a result of a Russian-brokered ceasefire in 1994.

The latest outbreak of violence -- the most serious to affect the region since the early 1990s -- began at the end of last month, after Azerbaijan was accused of launching a full-scale assault against Armenian positions in the mountainous enclave, prompting a full-scale mobilisation of Armenian forces.

During the recent fighting, it is estimated that more than 300 people have been killed and thousands forced from their homes as the fighting has intensified.

On one level, Turkey's support for Azerbaijan is not surprising in view of its long and troubled relationship with the Armenian people, with the Turks accused of being responsible the systematic mass murder and expulsion of around 1.5 million Armenians during the last days of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War.

Even so, Mr Erdogan's intervention in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute puts him at odds with another major power with aspirations to increase its influence in the region, namely Russia.

Russia regards Armenia as an important regional ally, and maintains an important military base at the country's second largest city, Gyumri.

Consequently, Mr Erdogan needs to proceed with caution so far as his support for Azerbaijan is concerned. Otherwise he could find that Russian interest in the Caucasus presents a formidable obstacle to his plans to recreate Turkey's Ottoman glory.


Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16615/erdogan-armenia-azerbaijan

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Pasteur's Noble Vision - Lawrence Kadish

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by Lawrence Kadish

Communist China [is] the source of COVID-19, and a country that has, as its openly stated aim, global domination. Equally dangerous are those in league with Beijing.

• It is Communist China the source of COVID-19, and a country that has, as its openly stated aim, global domination. Equally dangerous are those in league with Beijing. Their eyes are on cheap labor and a market of 1.5 billion consumers. These sympathizers wish, for their personal profit, to trade away the future of our democracy. They are collaborating with Marxist Communists and need to be exposed and held accountable for being accomplices to tyranny and the deaths of more than 1,000,000 people by the virus exported by China.
• Pasteur's Noble Vision stands in stark contrast to a Vision of Evil as he reminds us that, "It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes... (and)... It is in the power of man to cause all infectious diseases to disappear from the world."
• It is Communist China that will use anyone and any means to reduce America to a second rate power.

"It is not the germs we need worry about. It is our inner terrain," said Louis Pasteur. "It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes... (and)... It is in the power of man to cause all infectious diseases to disappear from the world." (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

"It is not the germs we need worry about. It is our inner terrain," Louis Pasteur put the world on notice.

One of the greatest microbiologist in history is still warning all of us about where the real danger lies in this era of politics and pandemic. It is important to look beyond COVID and see what really threatens our nation's future.

It is Communist China, the source of COVID-19, and a country that has, as its openly stated aim, global domination. Equally dangerous are those in league with Beijing. Their eyes are on cheap labor and a market of 1.5 billion consumers. These sympathizers wish, for their personal profit, to trade away the future of our democracy. They are collaborating with Marxist Communists and need to be exposed and held accountable for being accomplices to tyranny and the deaths of more than 1,000,000 people by the virus exported by China. It is Communist China that will use anyone and any means to reduce America to a second rate power.

Pasteur's Noble Vision stands in stark contrast to a Vision of Evil as he reminds us that, "It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes... (and)... It is in the power of man to cause all infectious diseases to disappear from the world."

Every American patriot needs to heed Pasteur. Our central problem is not about germs. It is about those from China abroad and their Fifth Columnists at home who are trying to destroy our freedoms and control the Free World. The warning is clear for those wise enough to hear it. It is time to act.

Lawrence Kadish is a real estate developer, entrepreneur, and founder and president of the Museum of American Armor.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16616/pasteur-noble-vision

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Video: How Many Neighborhoods Has BLM Built? - Frontpagemag.com

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by Frontpagemag.com

They’re sitting on piles of cash. What are they doing with the money?

[To get the whole story on the roots of the Left’s malice and what lies behind its war of destruction on free societies, read Jamie Glazov’s United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror: CLICK HERE.]

Subscribe to the Glazov Gang‘s YouTube Channel and follow us on Instagram: @JamieGlazov, Parler: @JamieGlazov and Twitter: @JamieGlazov.

This new Glazov Gang episode features Abraham Hamilton, host of The Hamilton Corner for American Family Radio.

Abraham discusses How Many Neighborhoods Has BLM Built? — and tackles the question: They’re sitting on piles of cash. What are they doing with the money?

Don’t miss it!




Frontpagemag.com

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/10/video-how-many-neighborhoods-has-blm-built-frontpagemagcom/

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