Hunter Biden meeting with associates at VP mansion underscores role father played wooing clients - John Solomon and Steven Richards

 

​ by John Solomon and Steven Richards

A 2015 meeting with VP Biden and son Hunter's client being wooed for Burisma deal involved discussion about influencing UN Secretary General race: One of many meetings that dispel the Democrat narrative of mere ‘illusion of access.”

 

Adorned with the Queen Anne-era of grand architecture and tightly guarded by Secret Service agents, the 9,000-square foot vice president’s mansion on the U.S. Naval Observatory grounds is rarely accessible to everyday Americans.  But Hunter Biden – as the son of a sitting vice president – was able to score the sort of VIP meeting inside the mansion that most lobbyists could only dream of.

There in 2015, the future first son delivered face time between then-Vice President Joe Biden, his fellow business partner and Burisma board member Devon Archer and an international banker they were courting for business in Kazakhstan.

The meeting – recently divulged by Archer in congressional testimony – is one of several that Hunter Biden arranged that delivered direct access for business partners to his powerful father. Some occurred on phone calls; others at the swanky Cafe Milano restaurant in Washington D.C. But this one – in the personal residence of the vice president – is taking on more significance for House investigators for the specificity of the conversation and the secretive nature of the gathering.

The official entry logs released by the Obama administration do not show businessman/banker Marc Holtzman, Archer or Hunter Biden attending together at the Naval Observatory in 2015.

But Archer confirmed the meeting occurred, and detailed the nature of the conversation: Holtzman wanted to advocate for former Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov – today imprisoned in his country on treason charges -- to become the next United Nations Secretary General.

Hunter Biden and Archer hoped Holtzman – then the top official at Kazakhstan’s largest bank – could help deliver an energy deal for their Burisma client in Ukraine with Kazakhstan. Joe Biden was in a position to influence both.

“It was, like, a U.N.-related conversation,” Archer told congressional investigators about the Naval Observatory breakfast.

“Who was present?,” he was asked.

“A gentleman named Marc Holtzman, myself, Hunter, and the Vice President,” he answered.

“And what was the discussion about?” investigators pressed.

“It was about who was going to be the next U.N. Secretary-General … Marc Holtzman was lobbying for Karim Massimov.  But it was, obviously, that didn't happen.”

You can read the full account here.

Devon-Archer-Transcript.pdf

Congressional Investigators placed the meeting as likely occurring in Spring 2015, but a source directly familiar with the gathering said calendar notations led them to believe it was more likely to have occurred in the summer. 

Archer would go on to explain that Hunter Biden and he were interested in Massimov for another motive: trying to score a deal between Kazakhstan and Burisma known as the "Burisma Eurasia" deal.

“The other reasons for Massimov were Burisma Eurasia, because he was the Prime Minister, and Burisma was trying to expand its businesses, so I leveraged the relationship to introduce him to the company – the country and new equipment and technology and clean drilling. So that was – that was probably some of the effort.”

Emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop chronicle some of the dealings with Holtzman, Massimov and other figures in Kazakhstan and Ukraine – including an effort to get someone in Joe Biden’s orbit to sign a letter congratulating the Kazakh banker. Holtzman did not respond Wednesday to a request by email from Just the News for comment.

The Kazakh deal was one of many being pursued in the Biden family empire that spanned from Mexico to Moscow, and Ukraine to China. Some of those figures like Massimov, a Romanian oligarch and Burisma’s owners were controversial or had legal issues, none of which stopped Hunter Biden or his family from seeking to cash in.

But for investigators on the House Oversight Committee the Naval Observatory meeting has additional significance: It directly debunks a narrative crafted by Democrats like Rep. Dan Goldman of New York and parroted by The Washington Post fact-checker, namely, that Joe Biden wasn’t really engaged on specifics of what his son’s clients were seeking and that Hunter was really just selling the “illusion of access” to his father.

The Naval Observatory meeting is “far more than an illusion of access. That has full blown access and participation by then Vice President Joe Biden,” Rep. Marjorie Greene, R-Ga., told the "Just the News, No Noise" television show on Wednesday night.

“The American people need to know about all of this. And that's what our impeachment inquiry will produce – the evidence ….  This is exactly why we are leading the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, because he has participated at the highest level in his son Hunter Biden's business deals, and we're going to show that to the country,” Green continued.

Archer told Congress that Joe Biden had about 20 telephone calls with his son’s business partners – mostly just "small talk" – and at least two dinners and a breakfast. Such contacts, Archer testified, reinforced the idea that hiring Hunter Biden came with a larger brand that included Joe Biden.

Oversight Chairman James Comer has assembled evidence of more than a dozen instances where Joe Biden met or assisted Hunter Biden’s business associates, including:

• In December 2013, Joe Biden let Hunter fly on Air Force II to Beijing, where he scored one of his first business deals in China. Joe Biden had coffee with Hunter Biden’s Chinese business associate, Jonathan Li, in Beijing and wrote a college letter of recommendation for his daughter.
• In April 2014, Joe Biden dined with several Hunter Biden business associates in April 2014 at the Café Milano, including Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina.
• In April 2015, Joe Biden dined with Hunter Biden’s guests, including top Burisma executive Vadym Pozharsky at the Café Milano restaurant.
• In a September 21, 2017, email, Hunter Biden wrote that Joe Biden is his business partner and provided Joe Biden’s personal cell phone if the recipient sought confirmation. Emails also show that Hunter Biden, CEFC Energy officials, and Joe Biden would share offices under the Hudson West/CEFC/Biden Foundation name.
• In a 2020 FBI interview, Biden business associate Rob Walker told agents Joe Biden attended a meeting with a meeting with Chinese officials at CEFC, one of his son’s clients.
• In February 2014, Joe  Biden reportedly met with two of Hunter’s Mexican business associates at the White House.
• In February 2016, then-Vice President Biden allowed his son and Biden associate, Jeffrey Cooper, to fly to Mexico on Air Force 2 to meet with business partners

Emails gathered by Congress chronicle the courtship that Archer and Hunter Biden directed at Holtzman, a respected former Reagan-era official then running Kazakhstan’s largest bank.

For instance in February, Archer pressed Hunter Biden to see if he could arrange a congratulatory letter to Holtzman from someone in Joe Biden's office recognizing Holtzman’s appointment as chairman of the Kazakh bank.

“Just following up on this,” Archer wrote Hunter Biden on Valentine’s Day 2015. “Is there a chance we can get this letter from someone in your guys office. Let's discuss importance.”

Hunter Biden wrote back: “Lets discuss.”

You can read that email chain here.

HoltzmanArcherBidenEmailChainFeb2015_Redacted.pdf

Congressional investigators are trying to determine if such a letter was penned. But within weeks, the two sides were meeting for dinner, the emails show.

"Deer [sic] Hunter, Thank you for an amazing evening, wonderful company and great conversation,” Holtzman wrote the future first son in an April 2015 email. “I look forward to seeing you soon and to many opportunities to work closely together. Under separate cover, I will send all of my contact details. With my friendship and warmest personal regards. Sincerely, Marc.”

HoltzmanHunterBidenThankYouApril2015_Redacted.pdf

A month earlier, Holtzman had invited Archer and Hunter Biden to a breakfast at the famous Willard Hotel in Washington with Massimov. “There are several matters the Prime Minister is eager to discuss with you and he will be grateful for the opportunity to spend quality time together,” Holzman wrote. “Please confirm your availability directly to me and I look forward to seeing you.”

KazakhMassimovBreakfastMarch2015EMail-Redacted.pdf

By July 2015, the talks with Massimov and others had advanced to a possible deal – a Memorandum of Understanding or MOU – with Burisma and one of Kazakhstan’s largest energy companies.

Pozkarsky pressed Archer in an email to find out what happened to a letter “you've handed to the Kazakh PM during your last meeting in Washington DC. it would be good to receive the official answer on that," he wrote. 

BurismaKazakhstanEmail-Redacted.pdf

 
John Solomon and Steven Richards

Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/thuhunter-biden-delivered-meeting-father-business-associates-inside

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Saudi nuclear program can be secretly managed - top Israeli sources - Yonah Jeremy Bob

 

​ by Yonah Jeremy Bob

Covert methods can prevent Saudis from switching civilian nuke program to military.

 

Hacker in a dark room (illustrative).

(photo credit: INGIMAGE)

Top Israeli sources have told the Jerusalem Post that there are secret technological ways to ensure that the Saudis do not misuse civilian nuclear items, which the US may give them as part of a three-way normalization deal, for military purposes.

Although there are no guarantees, because the issue is highly technical and there are issues to address regarding the Palestinians and highly complex politics, these technological fixes could be key to locking in a normalization deal between Riyadh and Jerusalem, under Washington’s auspices.

There are at least two aspects to the Saudis request that Washington provide it with a civilian nuclear program as one major incentive for Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's (MBS) willingness to normalize relations with the Jewish state.

One aspect is a nuclear power plant for generating electricity. That is the easier one.

The harder one is whether the Saudis receive enriched uranium for their facility and how that uranium will be enriched going forward. Most importantly, would they receive the capability to enrich the uranium themselves locally, or would they just receive pre-enriched uranium shipped in from abroad?

ACCORDING TO Thomas Friedman, US President Joe Biden is still not committed to a Saudi-Israeli deal. (credit: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS)

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer in a PBS interview in late August did not dismiss outright the possibility of Israeli support for a Saudi Arabian civilian nuclear power program that includes uranium enrichment.

Dermer repeatedly warned that if the US does not give the Saudis something in the nuclear arena, MBS may get a nuclear program with even fewer restrictions from China.

Later, anonymous sources on one hand tried to water down Dermer’s seeming license to sell a nuclear program to the Saudis, but on the other hand. said the government would not rule it out.

The big question Dermer and the anonymous sources left open was how involved the US would be in managing whatever the Saudis received and what kind of insurance policy Israel would have against MBS or some later ruler going rogue to try to transform a civilian nuclear program into a military one.

Former Shin Bet cyber official Harel Menashri said the better approach would be, “Don’t give the Saudis any ability to enrich uranium,” and that any enriched uranium they receive should “only be pre-enriched somewhere else.”

What does an “insurance policy” mean in this context?

The 'digital backdoor'

Top Israeli sources have told the Post that despite the concerns of some top defense officials, there are digital “backdoor” ways to ensure that even if the Saudis were given some kind of limited enrichment capability, if they started to try to misuse it for military purposes, the whole thing could be shut off or otherwise sabotaged.  

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant recently gave top US officials a series of detailed questions about what US safeguards would be in place and exactly what capabilities it would grant Riyadh. Some of the very specific answers could potentially relate to backdoor oversight and shutoff capabilities, which could determine Gallant’s and other defense officials’ views on the issue.

Although the digital backdoor idea is highly sensitive and most officials have tried to avoid discussing it, the idea is not a new one.

As Menashri, who today is the Head of Cyber at the Holon Institute of Technology, pointed out, the Stuxnet virus, attributed to Israel and the US, around 15 years ago, sabotaged over 1,000 Iranian centrifuges for enriching uranium – setting the program potentially back a number of years.

That is only the tip of the iceberg in 2023.

The US Justice Department in 2022 unsealed charges against four Russian hackers over cyberattacks, including one on a breach of business systems at the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation in Burlington, Kansas.

US nuclear regulators have also suffered cyberattacks, being hacked three times between 2010 and 2013. The Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were hacked as part of the government-wide SolarWinds Russian-led cyber attack in 2020.

That is without even getting into cyber attacks on nuclear facilities in India, South Korea, Germany, Ukraine, Japan, and others.

Not all of these attacks got deep into infrastructure and beyond outer layers of data, but the point is that hacking nuclear facilities can be accomplished, the same as hacking any other facility, even if there are sometimes some extra obstacles.

So there are certainly tools for the US to be able to shut down anything that might be given to the Saudis, and part of what is interesting is that any top officials are discussing the options.

Again, while the deal with the Saudis is far from a sure thing, the increasingly public discussion on the issues speak to how in-depth and serious the process is being taken, including an idea which not long ago – Israel endorsing a Sunni state getting a nuclear program – would have been unthinkable.

Despite the backdoor cyber tools which could be an insurance policy if the Saudis are given an enrichment capability, Menashri warned “if you give the Saudis the capability to enrich themselves – that is a very problematic event. If tomorrow the ruler changes, they can take the enrichment capabilities and move it forward to a military capability.”

“You can sell and craft a system with backdoors, but this is an event where you can only know where it will start, but not where it ends. The Saudis are not fools. They will figure it out – even if it takes two years or 10 years, and once they neutralize the backdoor, you have a big problem,” said the former Shin Bet cyber official.

He continued noting that every F-35 in the world has software installed which theoretically allows the US to take over control remotely, but that it is possible to introduce barriers to this control.

Moreover, Menashri warned no one should publicly get into the specifics of how the US could use backdoors as “this can only cause harm.”

Next, he cautioned that Israel needs to “look with a wider view. If the US gives the Saudis [nuclear capabilities], it opens the entire Middle East to the problem of a nuclear race.”

Mainly, the former Shin Bet cyber official continued to hit home how unpredictable certain things become once you grant some kind of a dynamic capability to a resourceful actor.

He noted that originally, Russia only gave Iran a nuclear power plant and the idea was that the Iranians would receive pre-enriched uranium from Moscow. But eventually, and after initial Russian help with some things, Iran developed its Natanz facility which gave it independent local enrichment capabilities.

Yonah Jeremy Bob

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-759141

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China Taking Over While Europe Sleeps - Robert Williams

 

​ by Robert Williams

"Asked what parts of the Continent were most in the dark about Chinese influence, she added: 'The whole of Western Europe is not looking. And yet there are cases that are so blatant.'"

 

• Europe is in "complete denial" as China proceeds to spread its influence on the continent. At least that is the urgent, unequivocal view of Ivana Karásková, a Czech foreign influence specialist and a special adviser to European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová.

• "Asked what parts of the Continent were most in the dark about Chinese influence, she added: 'The whole of Western Europe is not looking. And yet there are cases that are so blatant.'"

• In July 2023, the UK's Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament released a comprehensive report on China's threat to the country, and how the Communist power seeks both political and economic influence.

• The Committee found that China had "successfully penetrate[d] every sector of the UK's economy," and that "the Government has been so keen to take Chinese money that it has not been watching China's sleight of hand."

• "China sees almost all of its global activity in the context of what it sees as the struggle between the United States and China, and therefore it sees the United Kingdom fundamentally through that optic. China aspires to split off from the United States countries which it thinks might be detachable, and they sometimes have a sunnily optimistic view about which countries might be susceptible to that treatment. I would say that that was their single biggest issue with the United Kingdom." — Sir Julian Lewis, Chairman of the UK's Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, July 13,2023.

• China's influence in the UK... reaches deep into the government, as well. Despite all of the above "the Government does not want there to be any meaningful scrutiny of sensitive investment deals" with China according to the report.

• Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office reportedly told UK government officials not to use the term "hostile state" about China in order not to offend the Communist country. The term, the Foreign Office said, should not be used in documents and internal messages via email and WhatsApp between advisers, civil servants and ministers.

• "[T]he PRC's influence is significantly higher in Germany than comparable European countries." — The China Index 2022, an independent organization that tracks Chinese influence worldwide.

• "A key concern is the high level of uncritical research cooperation between Germany and China, including in sensitive technological and military areas, which is one of the highest and among the most 'captured' globally... Huawei, BGI, ZTE, Hisilicon (Huawei-owned) and other Chinese companies collaborate with and fund projects at German universities and research institutions. Huawei alone has entered into at least 120 cooperation projects over the last 15 years, with annual budgets between 25,000-290,000 euros per project. The real number is unclear, as German universities sometimes cite their 'academic freedom' to refuse to answer freedom of information questions...." — The China Index 2022.

• There are "90 Chinese groups in Germany with direct ties to the United Front bureaucracy in China.... Add on about 80 Chinese Student and Scholar Associations, more than 20 Confucius Institutes and classrooms, a dozen united front-aligned, Chinese-language media...an as yet unknown number of "Chinese Aid Centers"... and the phenomenon is both large and complex. There are hundreds of groups working in Germany to maintain the CCP's ideology, values, language and goals.... from the grassroots to the elite. Europe-wide, these groups are embedded throughout civil society...and likely number over a thousand, since they are present... in every country." — Didi Kirsten Tatlow, China expert, synopsis.cz, February 10, 2019.

• "The decision to join the Silk Road [Belt and Road Initiative] was an improvised and atrocious act," Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said recently.

• "The Chinese Communist Party has always forged links with politicians from countries whose positions...they wished to influence." — Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, "Chinese Influence Operations: A Machiavellian Moment," October 2021.

• "The CCP also seems very active within the Italian political class, targeting the M5S [Five Star Movement] in particular." — Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, "Chinese Influence Operations: A Machiavellian Moment," October 2021.

• "In France, as much as anywhere else, the Party has forged strong relationships with individuals enabling China to infiltrate the political sphere, defend its interests and silence critical voices.... Beyond individuals punctually and diversely recruited by the Party, the construction of a Chinese network within the French elite runs through the France-China Foundation since 2013." — Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, "Chinese Influence Operations: A Machiavellian Moment," October 2021.

• "In the Czech Republic, another interesting European example, Chinese influence on politicians has reached new heights. MapInfluenCE described a massive penetration of Czech political networks, the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) most specifically..." — Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, "Chinese Influence Operations: A Machiavellian Moment," October 2021.

Europe is in "complete denial" as China proceeds to spread its influence on the continent. China has influenced or co-opted elites all over Europe. (Image source: iStock)

Europe is in "complete denial" as China proceeds to spread its influence on the continent. At least that is the urgent, unequivocal view of Ivana Karásková, a Czech foreign influence specialist and a special adviser to European Commission Vice President Věra Jourová.

"In some countries, awareness of [Chinese influence operations] is high because they have a history of Russian-backed action. Elsewhere, it's complete denial," she told Politico. "It's very uneven in terms of awareness. There are some countries where the discussion isn't happening at all."

Karásková was referring to what Politico calls China's "direct propaganda" and "covert funding of think tanks, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations," and she said, according to Politico, that "Beijing has long aimed propaganda at the European Union, seeking to undermine transatlantic unity and promote Beijing's outlook on world affairs."

"Asked what parts of the Continent were most in the dark about Chinese influence, she added: 'The whole of Western Europe is not looking. And yet there are cases that are so blatant.'"

A particularly blatant example of willful blindness to Chinese interference in Western Europe is Britain. In July 2023, the UK's Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament released a comprehensive report on China's threat to the country, and how the Communist power seeks both political and economic influence.

The Committee found that China had "successfully penetrate[d] every sector of the UK's economy," and that "the Government has been so keen to take Chinese money that it has not been watching China's sleight of hand."

Astonishingly, the Committee discovered that "until recently, our Agencies did not even recognise that they had any responsibility for countering Chinese interference activity in the UK."

The chair of the Committee, Sir Julian Lewis, noted why the UK is so important to China:

"China sees almost all of its global activity in the context of what it sees as the struggle between the United States and China, and therefore it sees the United Kingdom fundamentally through that optic. China aspires to split off from the United States countries which it thinks might be detachable, and they sometimes have a sunnily optimistic view about which countries might be susceptible to that treatment. I would say that that was their single biggest issue with the United Kingdom."

The report describes China's penetration of British universities as well:

"The UK's academic institutions provide a rich feeding ground for China to achieve both political influence and economic advantage by both:
● controlling the narrative of debate about China within UK universities by exerting influence over institutions, individual UK academics and Chinese students; and
● obtaining Intellectual Property (IP) by directing or stealing UK academic research in order to build, or short-cut to, Chinese expertise."

The Committee also noted:

"Chinese students make up the largest overseas contingent of students in UK universities... it is believed that, in 2019, there were more than 120,000 Chinese students in the UK – more than in the rest of Europe combined. During this Inquiry, we were told that 'China likely seeks to exert influence over UK universities by threatening to withdraw scholarships or funding for Chinese nationals in the UK.'"

China's influence in the UK, however, is not limited to "all sectors of the economy", universities and think-tanks. Its influence reaches deep into the government, as well. Despite all the above, "the Government does not want there to be any meaningful scrutiny of sensitive investment deals [with China]," according to the report.

That is perhaps not so strange. As described by Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg in their book, Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is shaping the World, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has managed to "groom" British power elites to support Chinese interests, especially through a networking group named "48 Group Club":

"No group in Britain enjoys more intimacy and trust with the CCP leadership than the 48 Group Club... [It] has built itself into the most powerful instrument of Beijing's influence and intelligence gathering in the United Kingdom. Reaching into the highest ranks of Britain's political, business, media and university elites, the club plays a decisive role in shaping British attitudes to China... enthusiastically fostering the interests of the CCP in the United Kingdom..."

Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office reportedly told government officials not to use the term "hostile state" about China, in order not to offend the Communist country. The term, the Foreign Office said, should not be used in documents and internal messages via email and WhatsApp between advisers, civil servants and ministers.

In Europe, "the PRC's influence is significantly higher in Germany than comparable European countries," according to the China Index, an independent organization that tracks Chinese influence worldwide:

"A key concern is the high level of uncritical research cooperation between Germany and China, including in sensitive technological and military areas, which is one of the highest and among the most 'captured' globally...

"Huawei, BGI, ZTE, Hisilicon (Huawei-owned) and other Chinese companies collaborate with and fund projects at German universities and research institutions. Huawei alone has entered into at least 120 cooperation projects over the last 15 years, with annual budgets between 25,000-290,000 euros per project. The real number is unclear, as German universities sometimes cite their 'academic freedom' to refuse to answer freedom of information questions from media about controversial cooperation."

"The research suggests the PRC is trying to influence the middle class in Germany through academic and media-based linkages, perhaps as a means of influencing the wider European region," said China Index researcher Dr. Puma Shen.

There are "90 Chinese groups in Germany with direct ties to the United Front bureaucracy in China," according to China expert Didi Kirsten Tatlow.

"I identified another, nationwide, German organization with 37 affiliates... that partners with a key CCP influencing organization (thereby both facilitating and carrying out 'united front style work'... perhaps unbeknownst to its members). Add on about 80 Chinese Student and Scholar Associations, more than 20 Confucius Institutes and classrooms, a dozen united front-aligned, Chinese-language media...an as yet unknown number of 'Chinese Aid Centers... and the phenomenon is both large and complex. There are hundreds of groups working in Germany to maintain the CCP's ideology, values, language and goals to varying degrees among a relatively small Chinese diaspora, and, importantly, more broadly in society from the grassroots to the elite. Europe-wide, these groups are embedded throughout civil society – even many Chinese and non-Chinese members may be unaware of their exact nature or function – and likely number over a thousand, since they are present (with some variation) in every country."

China has influenced or co-opted elites all over Europe, according an October 2021 report by the Strategic Research Institute of France's renowned Military College (IRSEM) "Chinese Influence Operations: A Machiavellian Moment," by Paul Charon and Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer.

"The Chinese Communist Party has always forged links with politicians from countries whose positions, or at least, whose representations of China, they wished to influence. These practices were also part of the Soviet repertoire of active measures and are among United Front activities."

Charon and Vilmer described the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in both Italy and France:

"The CCP also seems very active within the Italian political class, targeting the M5S [Five Star Movement] in particular. The situation is judged even more worrying since the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has little resources on China. In addition, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio, is perceived to be fully aligned with the CCP's cause, defending its interests in Italy – although his positions seem to have evolved recently. He was notably criticized for signing a Belt and Road Initiative agreement in March 2019, when he was minister of the Economic Development, which has increased the Italian trade imbalance and eased the Chinese penetration in Italy since."

Italy, according to reports, is trying to leave the Belt and Road Initiative. "The decision to join the Silk Road was an improvised and atrocious act," Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said recently. The concern now is how to leave it without damaging relations with the Chinese Communist Party.

According to Charon and Jeangène Vilmer:

"In France, as much as anywhere else, the Party has forged strong relationships with individuals enabling China to infiltrate the political sphere, defend its interests and silence critical voices. Beyond individuals punctually and diversely recruited by the Party, the construction of a Chinese network within the French elite runs through the France-China Foundation since 2013. According to its staff, the foundation's 'Young Leaders' program aims to 'promote the meeting of high potential individuals from China and France from diverse background (economic, political, cultural, media), who will play an important role in their home country or in the context of China-France relations.'"

Chinese influence also reaches into several of the formerly communist Eastern and Central European countries, according to Charon and Jeangène Vilmer.

"In the Czech Republic, another interesting European example, Chinese influence on politicians has reached new heights. MapInfluenCE described a massive penetration of Czech political networks, the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) most specifically...

"In 2015, the Chinese conglomerate CEFC Group Europe set up its European headquarters in Prague, and launched an aggressive acquisition drive that targeted numerous Czech companies: J&T Finance Group, the airline Travel Group, the multimedia group Empresa Media, and even the football club SK Slavia Prague. Jaroslav Tvrdík, who was appointed vice-president of CEFC Europe, played a key role in the majority of these acquisitions... The president and founder of CEFC, Ye Jianming was, on his part, appointed political and economic advisor to the Czech president Milos Zeman."

Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19960/china-taking-over-europe

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Ex-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro to go to trial Oct. 23 in Fulton County, judge says - Madeleine Hubbard

 

​ by Madeleine Hubbard

All co-defendants in the case have pleaded not guilty.

 

Former Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro will go to trial Oct. 23, 2023, in Fulton County, Georgia, without the other 17 co-defendants in the 2020 election case, Judge Scott McAfee ruled Thursday.

McAfee's decision comes after the other 17 co-defendants, including former President Donald Trump, did not request a speedy trial.

All co-defendants in the case have pleaded not guilty to charges related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in favor of Trump.

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Madeleine Hubbard

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/ex-trump-lawyers-sidney-powell-kenneth-chesebro-go-trial-oct-23-fulton-county

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Post-Postmodern America - Victor Davis Hanson

 

​ by Victor Davis Hanson

Woke Revolution depends on its advocates never having to experience firsthand any of the nonsense they inflict on others

 

When the progressive woke revolution took over traditional America, matters soon reached the level of the ridiculous.

Take the following examples of woke craziness and hypocrisy, perhaps last best witnessed during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.

The Biden administration from its outset wished to neuter immigration law. It sought to alter radically the demography of the U.S. by stopping the border wall and allowing into the United States anyone who could walk across the southern border.

Over seven million did just that. Meanwhile, Biden ignored the role of the Mexican cartels in causing nearly 100,000 ANNUAL American fentanyl deaths.

Then border states finally wised up.

They grasped that the entire open-borders, “new Democratic majority” leftwing braggadocio was predicated on its hypocritical architects staying as far away as possible from their new constituents.

So cash strapped border states started busing their illegal aliens to sanctuary blue-state jurisdictions.

Almost immediately, once magnanimous liberals, whether in Martha’s Vineyard, Chicago, or Manhattan, stopped virtue-signaling their support for open borders.

Instead, soon they went berserk over the influx.

So now an embarrassed Biden administration still wishes illegal aliens to keep coming but to stay far away from their advocates—by forcing them to remain in Texas.

That means the president has redefined the US. border. It rests now apparently north of Texas, as Biden cedes sovereignty to Mexico.

Precivilizational greens in California prefer blowing up dams to building them.

They couldn’t care less that their targeted reservoirs help store water in drought, prevent flooding, enhance irrigation, offer recreation, and generate clean hydroelectric power.

Now an absurd green California is currently destroying four dams on the Klamath River. In adding insult to injury, it is paying the half-billion dollar demolition cost in part through a water bond that state voters once thought would build new—not explode existing—dams.

The Biden administration is mandating new dates when electric vehicles will be all but mandatory.

To prove their current viability, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm led a performance art EV caravan on a long road trip.

When she found insufficient charging stations to continue her media stunt, she sent a gas-powered car ahead to block open charging stations and deny them to other EVs ahead in line.

Only that way could Granholm ensure that her arriving energy-starved motorcade might find rare empty charger stalls.

In some California charging stations, diesel generators are needed to produce enough “clean” electricity to power the stalls.

The state has steadily dismantled many of its nuclear, oil, and coal power plants. It refuses to build new natural gas generation plants.

Naturally, California’s heavily subsidized solar and wind plants now produce too much energy during the day and almost nothing at night.

So the state now begs residents to charge their EVs only during the day. Then at night, Californians may soon be asked to plug them in again to transfer what is left in their batteries into the state grid.

Apparently only that way will there be enough expropriated “green” electricity for 41 million state residents after dark.

One of the loudest leftist voices to defund the police, and decriminalize violent crimes in the post-George Floyd era, was Shivanthi Sathanandan, the 2nd Vice Chairwoman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

She was recently not shy about defunding: “We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. Say it with me. DISMANTLE.”

But recently the loud Sathanandan was a victim of the very crime wave she helped to spawn.

Four armed thugs carjacked her automobile. They beat her up in front of her children at her own home, and sped off without fear of arrest.

The reaction of the arch police dismantler and decriminalizer on her road to Damascus?

The now bruised and bleeding activist for the first time became livid that criminals had taken over her Minneapolis: “Look at my face. REMEMBER ME when you are thinking about supporting letting juveniles and young people out of custody to roam our streets instead of HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS.”

Andrea Smith was an ethnic studies professor  at the University of California, Riverside. But now she has been forced out after getting caught lying that she was Native American.

Prior to her outing, she was well known for damning “white women” (like herself) who opted to “become Indians” out of guilt, and (like her) for careerist advantage.

The common theme of these absurdities is how contrary to human nature, impractical, and destructive is utopian wokism, whether in matters of energy, race, crime, or illegal immigration.

There are two other characteristics of the Woke Revolution.

One, it depends solely on its advocates never having to experience firsthand any of the nonsense they inflict on others.

And two, dangerous zealots with titles before, and letters after, their names prove to be quite stupid—and dangerous.

Victor Davis Hanson

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2023/09/14/post-postmodern-america/

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