Through the Looking Glass Pete Garcia – Rapture Ready The year 2020 will definitely go down in the books as one of the most bizarre, topsy-turvy years on record. Most people (believers and non-believers alike) have been scratching their collective heads trying to make sense of all this. All I can say is that this has been 100 years in the making, and promises to lead to one inescapable conclusion – the Rapture of the Church and the world’s coming appointment with divine judgment. The post Through the Looking Glass appeared first on Olive Tree Ministries.
As this year has been tough financially for many Americans due to the closure of businesses in response to COVID-19, Christian financial expert Dave Ramsey’s company, Ramsey Solutions, paid off the debt of 8,000 people, worth $10 million, “to show the love of Jesus” this Christmas season……The bestselling author has shared many times how his life was changed when a Christian businessman pointed him to Jesus after he lost everything he owned due to poor money management. “I met Jesus on the way up,” Ramsey, author of Financial Peace University, told Baptist Press in 2018. “I got to know Him on the way down. With a brand-new baby and a toddler and a marriage hanging on by a thread, we finally hit bottom at 28 years old. We were bankrupt. I remember standing in the shower with it so hot I could barely stand it, and I would stand there and cry because I didn’t know what to do. I was so scared I couldn’t breathe.”
“In January, the Communist Party intensified their persecution against Christianity,” he told The Christian Post. “It’s not talked about, but if you look up China shutting down Bible stores, right now Bibles are being pulled from online stores in China. They’re trying to control the religion. Just as Nazi Germany did, there are only state-approved churches.” China’s government forbids the shipping of Bibles to the Chinese mainland but allows shipments of Bibles to Hong Kong, he said, noting that the country maintains some freedom in Hong Kong to create an illusion that the rest of China’s people enjoy freedom.
The report, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in September, detailed the experience of doctors involved in late-term abortion, which involves a lethal injection of potassium chloride being administered into the heart of the unborn baby. The study was based on interviews with 10 Irish abortion doctors who described the procedure as "awful", "brutal" and "emotionally difficult". One doctor likened late-term abortions to "stabbing the baby in the heart". Another said: "I remember getting sick out in the corridors afterwards because I thought it (feticide) was such an awful procedure and so dreadful."
It is one thing to be a radical, feminist atheist marching down the streets of DC and proclaiming your “right” to abortion. It is another thing to be a “pro-choice pastor,” as Senate candidate Raphael Warnock claims to be, using the Bible to justify abortion. This is as morally compromised as it is theologically confused……Yet Warnock is unashamed of his position, tweeting on December 8, “I am a pro-choice pastor.” Worse still, as of this writing, his tweet has more than 215,000 likes, representing almost half of the 500,000 followers of the Reverend Raphael Warnock Twitter account.
Paula White praises anti-christ Cult leader Mrs.Moon. Paula was a featured speaker at Moon's convention, she says you can be born again if you believe in her and she is the only begotten daughter of God. In this video, Paula is a keynote speaker for the godless cult of the Unification Church, and prays a "blessing of gather' over cult leader Mother Moon.
Church of England begins review of marriage, sexuality; calls for honest discussion The Church of England announced that it is going to begin a formal “discernment and decision-making” process “about a way forward for the church” in regards to its teachings on sex, sexuality and marriage.
Mexico’s senior Catholic leader backs civil unions for gay couples “I completely agree,” said Aguiar, a long-time ally of Pope Francis, who spoke ahead of Saturday’s feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, one of the Mexican Church’s most important annual celebrations.
Kansas school cancels Operation Christmas Child atheist complaint A Kansas school has canceled its participation in Operation Christmas Child after an atheist group wrote to the school district alleging that the program “violates basic constitutional principles.”
MP for Lewisham East, Janet Daby has relinquished her role as Labour's faith minister after daring to suggest that registrars should be allowed to refrain from conducting same-sex wedding ceremonies on religious grounds. "There needs to be something in place that protects people of faith as well as those who think the other way," she said. Daby received a barrage of criticism for her comments, which she later termed ‘misjudged’, insisting she was proud to support same-sex marriages. At present, registrars cannot refuse to marry a same-sex couple because of their religious convictions.
Welsh Police LGBTQ campaign ", we are giving our officers and staff the ability to show their support by wearing trans epaulettes and LGBT+ ‘thin blue line’ patches on their uniforms"
A new education Bill in Wales is threatening to scrap existing protections around sex education, the Christian Institute has warned. The Bill proposes wideranging changes to the teaching of sex education and religion in Wales, including new compulsory Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) lessons. This would overturn the current system where primary schools can choose not to teach sex education, and where at secondary school level, parents have the right of withdrawal. This is despite the Welsh Government consultation last year finding that 87.5% of people did not agree with making RSE compulsory for 3- to 16-year-olds.
Gay Christian campaigner calls for public inquiry into evangelical teaching on sexuality Jayne Ozanne, who is campaigning for LGBT equality in the Church of England, has called for a public inquiry into evangelical teaching on sexuality. She is a British "evangelical Anglican" who started her foundation to work with “religious organisations around the world to eliminate discrimination based on sexuality or gender in order to embrace and celebrate the equality and diversity of all”. In an article on ViaMedia, she claimed that orthodox Christian teaching on human sexuality was a safeguarding issue that should be the subject of a public inquiry similar in nature to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. UK high court rules kids younger than 16 can't consent to puberty blockers; detransitioner wins case
In a much-awaited ruling, the case of 23-year-old Keira Bell reached its conclusion when the judges ruled that children younger than 16 lack the maturity to give informed consent to the experimental treatments that alter the body. Bell, along with another unnamed claimant, brought the suit against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which operates the gender identity development service. The unnamed claimant is a mother of a 15-year-old child, who is autistic and is on the waiting list for treatment at the clinic.
Meanwhile, a leading psychiatrist who warned about the use of experimental treatments at NHS England’s gender identity clinic for children is now facing disciplinary action because of words spoken on gender dysphoria…..Dr David Bell, a former staff governor at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust which oversees the clinic, reported clinicians’ concerns over patient welfare to the trust in an internal report in 2018. The Trust has declined to give a reason for the proceedings, but Dr Bell said that it is related to his “speaking and writing on the subject of gender dysphoria”.
In a tweet promoting one of its panel discussions, Harvard Medical School referred to women as “birthing people” to be more inclusive of those who identify as nonbinary or transgender. In a Nov. 8 tweet, Harvard Medical School’s Postgraduate and Continuing Education proclaimed that “Globally, ethnic minority pregnant and birthing people suffer worse outcomes and experiences during and after pregnancy and childbirth” as it promoted a panel discussion about “Maternal Justice.” The use of the term “birthing people” to describe women resulted in negative reactions from many commenters.
A new HBO documentary, titled “Transhood,” is pushing the limits of what America understands as the transgender rights movement. Following four so-called transgender children, aged 4, 7, 12, and 15, the documentary’s description says it demonstrates “how the kids are challenged and transformed as they experience the complexity of their identities.” While through the lens of leftist LGBT advocacy this might sound empowering, from a rational point of view, it is far from a positive development. In a scene shared by Matt Walsh, the family of the 4-year-old attends what looks to be a progressive church. The religious leader opens the floor for anyone in the congregation to “claim their identity publicly” as LGBT, rattling off a long string of other identity options, and for the group to celebrate them together. Matt Walsh: “This is what trans indoctrination of children looks like, from HBO's new documentary promoting and celebrating child abuse. The boy here is 4 years old. His parents decided that he is "gender expansive." Later they decide he's a girl.”
An Australian magistrate has ordered that a gender-confused teenage girl be removed from her home after the magistrate called the parents' refusal to allow her to 'transition' into a boy "abusive."
Norway has made biphobic, transphobic speech Illegal. More specifically, the penal code states that those who are guilty of hate speech face a fine or up to a year in jail for private comments, and a maximum of three years in jail for public remarks.
Norway's government has now officially barred its citizens from speaking against transgender people, even in their own homes. Lawbreakers caught saying something in private against transgender people will get a fine or a year in jail. Others who make comments in the public arena can net up to three years in jail. Still on the issue of gender identity, back in the UK, a 14-year-old girl, known only as Miss B, is threatening the College of Policing with legal action over its guidance on ‘hate incidents’ in schools. Miss B fears that the vague definition of 'hostility' used on the College's website – that even includes the perception of 'ill will', 'unfriendliness' or 'dislike' – could leave her with a police record.
In her first interview since she sparked controversy by speaking out on transgender issues, Harry Potter author, JK Rowling has called for an end to the “climate of fear” around the trans debate, and told of the “heart-breaking” letters she received from young people who regretted their gender reassignment surgery.
This "Galactic Federation" has supposedly been in contact with Israel and the US for years, but are keeping themselves a secret to prevent hysteria until humanity is ready. Speaking in an interview to Yediot Aharonot, Eshed – who served as the head of Israel's space security program for nearly 30 years and is a three-time recipient of the Israel Security Award – explained that Israel and the US have both been dealing with aliens for years. And this by no means refers to immigrants, with Eshed clarifying the existence of a "Galactic Federation."
ROME — Pope Francis has chosen Joe Biden’s slogan “build back better” to describe his vision for the great reset after the coronavirus pandemic, saying he finds the expression “quite striking.” “The theme of this year’s celebration is ‘Building Back Better: Toward a Disability-inclusive, Accessible and Sustainable post-COVID-19 World,” the pope wrote in his message this week for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, while adding, “I find the expression ‘building back better’ quite striking.”
Christian Persecution and Antisemitism
We live in an age where discrimination is deemed to be a universal wrong. Indeed, so scared are we that some groups will be discriminated against that we grant them protected status. One such status is religion. But it appears that while all are equal, some are more equal than others. Take for example the case of Stirling Free Church in Scotland. One of its elders is Kenneth Ferguson, the former CEO of the Robertson Trust – a charity which gives over £20 million per year to alleviate poverty. Under his leadership the trust has more than doubled its income and as a result has been able to help thousands of people caught in poverty. But none of that matters when it comes to ideological purity. The trust's chair Shonaig Macpherson was apparently furious with him when she discovered that the trust had leased one of its buildings to Stirling Free Church for £6,500 per year for its Sunday services.
Blasphemy laws in nearly half the world’s countries encourage violence to be inflicted on religious minorities, said researchers at a virtual hearing presented by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The hearing on Wednesday announced the release of a new report titled, "Violating Rights: Enforcing the World's Blasphemy Laws," which examined the impact of blasphemy laws worldwide. Well-natured politicians in those countries often believe forbidding insults to religion will lead to less violence, researchers said. But in reality, forced conformity creates more oppression.
A Pakistani Christian who fled to Bangkok, Thailand following accusations of blasphemy against Islam is speaking out about the severe persecution he has endured since going into exile. Faraz Pervaiz, a human rights advocate who opposes the persecution of Christians, told CBN News that his situation has become dire as radical Muslims have increased the bounty on his head. "A fellow Muslim refugee disclosed my location and a bounty was placed on my head," Pervaiz explained. "This lucrative bounty could compel even 'good' people to do me and my family harm. We have had to go into hiding to try to obviate the risks of harm to our family."
Christian lawyer in hiding after receiving death threats for defending victims of Fulani attacks A Nigerian Christian lawyer and leader of the Emancipation Centre for Crisis Victims in Nigeria is now in hiding after receiving death threats for speaking publicly about the unrelenting attacks on Christians…..Dalyop Solomon has spoken out against the murder of Christians by the terrorist group Boko Haram and radical Fulani herdsmen. He visited villages where men and women were murdered, speaking with witnesses to document what happened.
The dead were named as Silas Maman, Malaki Tabat, Geofree Andrew, Anna Ahmadu, Sunday Tagwai and Fidelis Musa. Four others were injured and two children were reported missing during the assault on Ungwan Bido village……At least 237 Christians have been murdered by Fulani militants since the beginning of July 2020 in a wave of targeted anti-Christian attacks in Nigeria’s Middle Belt
Death rates are high among prisoners and corpses were burned every three days, according to a camp survivor. “The cremated body ash was scattered on the field and the whole field was black when it rained in the summer because the body oils resurfaced,” they said. “When they planted spinach, it would grow thick and tall.” Survivors remain mentally scarred by the cruelty they suffered and saw. “These experiences remain with me as trauma. I have nightmares in the middle of the night … The memory of living among a pile of corpses is still there.”
A Christian maid was shot dead, reportedly by her Muslim suitor, on 30 November after refusing to convert to Islam in order to marry him. Sonia Bibi, 24, was shot in the head in a street in Rawalpindi, Punjab province, and died on her way to hospital…..In 2018, a 25-year-old Christian woman from Punjab province was set ablaze after refusing to renounce her faith and marry a Muslim man.
Extremist rebel group, The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), raided the villages in North Kivu province, north-eastern DRC, between 20 November and 3 December. Local reports described scenes of terrified Christians flooding into the streets as the jihadists surrounded churches in each of the five villages armed with guns, machetes, clubs, swords and axes. Fourteen Christians were admitted to hospital in a critical condition with injuries including severe wounds to the head, legs, arms and hands. At least 15 people were abducted from two of the churches.
The Christian man, Girgis Sameeh, who allegedly posted the comment, claimed that his social media account was hacked…..Stones, fireballs and Molotov cocktails were thrown as part of the violence, which took place on the evening of 25 November. The mob made attempts to attack the Christian man’s family home but were unable to reach it as the family’s Muslim neighbours stepped in to protect them. The family was not hurt in the violence. In subsequent hostilities on the night of 29 November, six farm huts and yards owned by Christians were burnt by Muslim villagers. Some Muslim extremists are calling for a boycott of trade and commercial activity with the Christian community. In June 2019, a mob of up to 100 Muslim extremists ransacked the home of an Egyptian Christian after a post insulting Islam was placed on his Facebook site by a computer hacker. Islamic State (IS) is known to have hacked the Facebook accounts of at least 60 Egyptian Christians since mid-2017 in order to insult and threaten them and spread its propaganda.
Four Christians were killed, one beheaded, in a brutal attack by Islamist militants on a church and homes in a remote Christian community and Salvation Army post on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on 27 November. In the raid on Lemban Tongoa, in Central Sulawesi, a gang of around ten militants armed with guns and knives beheaded one victim, slit the throat of a second and broke the neck of a third. A fourth victim was burnt to death. All four of the adult victims were church members and belonged to the same extended family.
A Christian minister has put his livelihood on the line by quitting the Methodist Church of Southern Africa over its Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) policy towards Israel. Reverend Rowan Rennie says he would rather “sleep on the street than stand against the people of God”. In a video that has since gone viral, Rennie said amongst other points that the Methodist Church’s resolution was “so unbiblical and such an injustice that we cannot find ourselves under the umbrella of the Methodist Church”…… Rennie has been in the MCSA for 23 years. He was ordained as a minister in 1997, and has just completed his second five-year term as a reverend of a congregation in Welkom in the Free State. “Over the past two years, we have been talking about leaving as we realised there would be a resolution rejecting Israel. In the past two weeks we officially broke away, becoming the Bethany Fellowship.”….. “I believe its rejection of Israel is influenced by its close connection with the government, as can be seen with a number of its policies, especially regarding land.”
A government-appointed cultural commissioner in Hungary has been condemned for comparing liberal Jewish billionaire George Soros, a Holocaust survivor, to Hitler in an article about Hungary and Poland’s row with the EU over rule of law. “Europe has become the gas chamber of George Soros… George Soros is the liberal Fuhrer,” Szilard Demeter wrote on the pro-government news-site Origo.hu on Saturday. Poles and Hungarians “are the new Jews,” said Demeter in an article that addressed the ongoing deadlock between the EU, and Hungary and Poland over their veto of the bloc’s funding due to its rule of law criteria.
Wojciech Rychlewicz, then a consul in Istanbul, provided the documents to the European refugees at no pay. They could then obtain visas in countries that had policies in place to prevent Jewish refugees from entering, Israel Hayom reported in a story by its Europe correspondent, Eldad Beck. Rychlewicz, who died in 1964, has not been recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations, the title conferred by Israel to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust, and has not been written about before, Beck wrote.
Police in Belgium are looking for four men who used a train’s public address system to threaten a bombing of the vehicle near Antwerp unless Jewish passengers step off. The passengers took control of the public address system on Wednesday afternoon between Antwerp and Mechelen, the city that Nazis and their collaborators used as an internment and dispatch station for Jews whom they sent to be murdered in Poland. “Attention, attention,” the men said in Flemish, “the cancer Jews need to leave the train now or we’ll blow you all up,” witnesses said.
Pro-Israel Activists chase away EU officials trying to stop Construction in Jerusalem Representatives of the European Union touring Givat HaMatos on Monday were chased away by pro-Israel activists led by Im Tirtzu. Im Tirtzu said in response: “EU representatives together with members of radical-left Israeli NGOs came today to tell us where we can and cannot build in Jerusalem, our capital city. We came to tell the EU that Israel is not a colony – it is an independent country that d...
For about 20 years, the EU has been largely inactive, incompetent, negligent, and at times even evil in the battle against antisemitism. During that period, Jew- and Israel hatred has greatly increased in the EU. The EU Commission has announced that in 2021 it will present a comprehensive strategy on combating antisemitism. No such strategy can succeed without a detailed explication of the lengthy history of antisemitism in Europe. If the strategy does not explicitly admit that antisemitism is integral to European culture, it will fail.
The language condemns the Jewish state for “repressive measures” against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights and renews the mandates... Earlier this month, the Palestinians were able to push a series of resolutions drafted by the General Assembly's Palestinian Rights Committee, dedicated to promoting the Palestinian narrative with regards to the regional conflict. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said at the time that "no other country in the world is discriminated against in international bodies as Israel is. It is time for more countries to join our struggle to change the anti-Israel agenda at the UN."
UN support drops for speaking of Temple Mount as solely a Muslim site Support has dropped slightly at the United Nations for a General Assembly resolution that referenced the most holy site in Judaism, the Temple Mount, as solely the Muslim site al-Haram al-Sharif. Liberia changed its vote from absent, to “no,” when the UNGA voted on the annual resolution in New York late Thursday afternoon.
Argentina increases border security following tip of bomb plot against Jewish target Argentina announced on Saturday that it is going to tighten security at its border with Paraguay after its embassy in Britain received an anonymous tip about a person possibly smuggling bomb-making materials into the country through that border. The tip warned about the transfer of ammonium nitrate “for a bomb with a Jewish objective,” the Argentinean Security Ministry said in a statement reported...
For the past decade and a half, former Pentagon intelligence analyst and operative Col. (retired) Lawrence (Larry) Franklin and his wife Patricia have lived in utter destitution. During his 35 years of service, Col. Franklin was celebrated as a brilliant, fearless intelligence officer by his colleagues and bosses at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), in the U.S. Air Force and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Now, the aging hero who saved countless U.S. servicemen lives in war zones is a broken man. Col. Franklin subsists on the meager wages he earns from washing dishes, cleaning septic tanks and parking cars, while also taking care of his invalid wife….. Beginning in 2003, some officers in the FBI and the DIA began investigating Jewish Pentagon and AIPAC officials for alleged spying for Israel. When they noticed Col. Franklin, a devout Irish Catholic, meeting with AIPAC officials, they brought him in for a series of friendly conversations. In his telephone conversation with Newsweek this week, Col. Franklin recalled the intense anti-Semitism of the investigators. One of them, who served as a Middle East area specialist in the DIA, had a Hezbollah flag on his desk.
A group of 122 Palestinian academics, journalists, writers and filmmakers signed a letter last month taking issue with the widespread adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA)’s definition of anti-Semitism……The real problem is not the unsurprising fact that a cause that has become the main engine driving anti-Semitism would seek to redefine it so as to make their hate seem more legitimate. Rather, it is the willingness of so many Jews, including those who have labeled themselves as “liberal Zionists,” to support their objections and to undermine the growing international support for the IHRA definition…Groups like Americans for Peace Now and the New Israel Fund are now weighing in against adoption of the definition….and those that are open about their opposition to Israel’s existence and, as in the case of Jewish Voice for Peace, guilty of themselves spreading anti-Semitism has become completely blurred. In doing so, these groups aren’t merely expressing criticism of Israeli policies or society, but materially aiding an anti-Semitic cause that targets the sole Jewish state on the planet for elimination, in addition to subjecting Jews who speak up for Zionism to anti-Semitic slanders and attacks.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., removed from her Twitter feed a retweet that said “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a phrase that has been associated with calls to wipe out Israel….More recently, figures who call for Israel’s replacement through peaceful means have also adopted the phrase.
The first place to look for the new Jew hatred is in Joe Biden’s appointments. Most attention this week has been focused on Biden’s senior appointments. Biden appointed Tony Blinken, who is Jewish to serve as his secretary of state. As John Kerry’s deputy, Blinken played a major role in crafting the nuclear deal with Iran which, while billed as a non-proliferation agreement, gave the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism an open path to a nuclear arsenal. Like his former boss, Blinken is faithful to the view that the Palestinians are the strategic nerve center of the Middle East. Without their agreement, it is impossible – or if possible, wrong – for Arab states to make peace with Israel…..Multiple media outlets reported this week that Karine Jean-Pierre, Senator Kamala Harris’s chief of staff is the frontrunner to serve as White House Spokesperson…. has a rich record of anti-Israel statements and activism…. An enthusiastic supporter of the anti-Jewish BDS campaign, last year, Jean-Pierre led a successful effort to embarrass Democrat presidential primary candidates into boycotting the AIPAC’s 2019 annual convention…..Perhaps its most outrageous current expression is found in an online advertisement for an upcoming panel discussion that is being organized by the viciously anti-Jewish group Jewish Voice for Peace. Over the past decade or so, JVP has served as a “Jewish” fig leaf for campaigns to boycott Israel, its products and representatives, its Jewish supporters and their businesses and organizations. Over the past several weeks, JVP has aggressively advertised a panel discussion it will be hosting with other “Jewish” groups that support anti-Jewish boycotts. The discussion is titled, “Deconstructing Anti-Semitism, Winning Justice.” The panel will feature four speakers who support Israel’s annihilation: Tlaib, Peter Beinart, former CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill who called for Israel’s annihilation in a speech at a conference at the UN last year, and Barbara Ransby, an outspoken supporter of anti-Jewish boycotts who has defended calls for the mass murder of Israeli Jews.
It is no secret that the Democratic Party has benefitted from a Muslim community that has felt alienated by the GOP. Adopting this community, though, comes with a hitch. Much of this constituency’s leadership is associated with overseas terror. One case in particular is that of Ahmed Bedier, a Florida delegate of the Democratic Party who has been a representative for Hamas-linked groups, the spokesman for a Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, and the brother of a follower of Osama bin Laden. He has photos with Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, the late John Lewis and more. Why would a political party embrace such a dangerous individual?
Coronavirus
Adam LeBor investigates the former communist cult that has found common cause with the prime minister and the Brexiteer Conservative right….the International Socialists (IS), the precursor of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)… split off from the IS to form the Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG)…. Yet the RCP and its successor organisations have achieved a success of which its rivals could only dream….. Boris Johnson counts one ally of the post-RCP network as one of the five women he admires the most, a sentiment shared by many of his colleagues. A leading ex-member with a high media profile has recently been raised to the peerage. Former party members write for national newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph and Spectator and frequently appear on national radio and television. High-profile writers, academics and politicians appear with RCP alumni at public events……Former RCP members are filling it, influencing the national discourse on issues including race relations, Brexit, lockdown, feminism, women’s rights, personal freedoms and autonomy.
Early on December 10, Jean-Bernard Fourtillan, a French retired university professor known for his strong opposition to COVID-19 vaccines such as those presently being distributed in the U.K., was taken from his temporary home in the south of France by a team of “gendarmes” — French law enforcement officers under military command — and forcibly placed in solitary confinement at the psychiatric hospital of Uzès. His mobile phones were taken from him, and at the time of writing, he had not been allowed to communicate with the outside world. The order for his internment appears to have been issued by the local “préfet,” the official representative of the French executive. German Lawyer Sent to Psychiatric Ward for Organizing Protest Against COVID-19 Lockdown - German medical lawyer Beate Bahner, who has been committed to a psychiatric institution for publicly disagreeing with lockdown.
Ahead of FDA approval of what should be banned, the agency issued damning news about Pfizer’s experimental covid vaccine. It reported two deaths straightaway after being jabbed. Four other unwitting victims developed face-paralyzing Bell’s Palsy. Four more receiving Pfizer’s so-called placebo also died. It’s unclear what’s in the substance that proved fatal. According to one report, the so-called placebo given AstraZeneca test subjects got the hazardous to human health meningitis vaccine that’s polar opposite what a placebo is supposed to be. So far, at least six deaths resulted from covid vaccines. Unknown numbers of others were harmed. Establishment media suppressed what’s vital for everyone to know — operating as Big Pharma co-conspirators against public health and welfare. Covid Vaccine, Hazardous to Human Health? Big Pharma’s Rush to Cash in on Multibillion Bonanza - In cahoots with Big Government, Big Pharma prioritizes maximum profits over human health. Drug companies are rushing to cash in big on a potential bonanza once one or more covid vaccines are approved for human use. FDA: Death, heart attacks, stroke, blood disorders all possible side effects of COVID vaccine
A 40-year-old Indian businessman who suffered a “neurological and psychological” breakdown after taking a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca is being sued by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine producer, for defamation.
In an article on the COVID vaccine rollout, CNN says that Americans shouldn’t be alarmed if people start dying after taking the vaccine because “deaths may occur that won’t necessarily have anything to do with the vaccine.” The advisory appeared in an article titled ‘Why vaccinate our most frail? Odd vote out shows the dilemma’ in which Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition, cautions that vaccines don’t work as well on the frail and elderly compared to healthy people.
VACCINE DEATH WAVE: UK government posts bid for AI system to process the expected flood of COVID-19 vaccine injuries and side effects described as a “direct threat to patient life” While the lying, treasonous mainstream media is telling us all that covid-19 vaccines are perfectly safe and “95% effective” — and this lie is being repeated by PJ Media, Breitbart and other so-called “conservative” news publishers — the UK government has posted a bid and an award contract of notice, seeking an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that can process the expected floo covid-19 vaccine injuries and side effects. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Warned FDA About Ingredient in Pfizer COVID Vaccine that Likely Caused Life-Threatening Reaction in Two UK Healthcare Workers
When good science is suppressed by the medical-political complex, people die
Politicians and governments are suppressing science. They do so in the public interest, they say, to accelerate availability of diagnostics and treatments. They do so to support innovation, to bring products to market at unprecedented speed. Both of these reasons are partly plausible; the greatest deceptions are founded in a grain of truth. But the underlying behaviour is troubling.
Science is being suppressed for political and financial gain.
Little is known about the interests of the doctors, scientists, and academics on whose advice the UK government relies to manage the pandemic. Attempts to discover more are frequently thwarted, finds Paul D Thacker
The Cumberlege review into independent medicines and medical devices safety reminds us once again of the damaging impact of financial conflicts of interest on patients. The review’s analysis of the regulatory framework which covered the use of pelvic mesh, sodium valproate and Primodos, found that clinicians with conflicted interests sat on expert working groups and advisory committees reviewing the efficacy and safety of these interventions and that the medical devices safety regulator (the MHRA) had strong links to the industry it was overseeing. While the direct link between financial interests and patient harm can be hard to demonstrate they are often at the heart of many patient safety scandals.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), formed in 2003, is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in the United Kingdom which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe. In 2005, the MHRA was criticised by the House of Commons Health Committee for, among other things, lacking transparency,[15] and for inadequately checking drug licensing data.[16] The MHRA and the US Food and Drug Administration were criticised in the 2012 book Bad Pharma,[17] and in 2004 by David Healy in evidence to the House of Commons Health Committee,[18] for having undergone regulatory capture, i.e. advancing the interests of the drug companies rather than the interests of the public. Back in 2017 MHRA, was awarded £1.3m for collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and WHO. There was even a petition against the regulator because of its obvious connects to Big Pharma The MHRA Are Independent and Trustworthy? - The Anti-MHRA Campaign: The MHRA has been hijacked; its board has been infiltrated and is controlled by Big Pharma. This corrupt board has no right to be in charge. They abuse their positions to make the MHRA do the exact opposite of what it was intended for, which was to protect the British from Big Pharma.
Peter Doshi: Pfizer and Moderna’s “95% effective” vaccines—let’s be cautious and first see the full data The British Medical Journal (BMJ) which has raised concerns about the lack of research data especially the content of the vaccine and data from clinical trials. The mainstream media are using only Pfizer's press release because there is no research data available. An article in OffGuardian has also raised questions about vaccine using the BMJ article. The vaccine pushers and manufacturers clearly have doubts about its safety, since they have gone out of their way guarantee they have total legal indemnity from prosecution or civil suits should something go wrong. Not a confidence booster that. No one, not even the vaccines most ardent defenders, is denying that this vaccine process has been rushed – vaccines typically take years and years to produce, whereas this one has been hurried on to the market in less than nine months. What's in it? - This is a simple one. We don’t know, they won’t say. At least not in anything but the vaguest terms. Some of them have skipped important stages in testing altogether. Dr. Wodarg and Dr. Yeadon request a stop of all corona vaccination studies and call for co-signing the petition
On December 1, 2020, the ex-Pfizer head of respiratory research Dr. Michael Yeadon and the lung specialist and former head of the public health department Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg filed an application with the EMA, the European Medicine Agency responsible for EU-wide drug approval, for the immediate suspension of all SARS CoV 2 vaccine studies, in particular the BioNtech/Pfizer study on BNT162b (EudraCT number 2020-002641-42). Dr. Wodarg and Dr. Yeadon demand that the studies – for the protection of the life and health of the volunteers – should not be continued until a study design is available that is suitable to address the significant safety concerns expressed by an increasing number of renowned scientists against the vaccine and the study design. Dr Mike Yeadon, was a former Vice President and Chief Scientist for Allergy and Respiratory at Pfizer, though he has received huge backlash, he has been vocal and has published a BMJ article
Hadassah research head raises questions about mRNA vaccine safety Prof. Yossi Karko, director of the clinical research unit at Hadassah-University Medical Center, has warned that the data published by Moderna and Pfizer about their coronavirus vaccine candidates is limited. Both companies have applied for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration for their vaccines but Karko, who has been overseeing the clinical trial of Israel’s vaccine at Hadassah, said that “while they seem to be very efficient vaccines, we have to remember that this data has shortcomings.” First, he told The Jerusalem Post, the data only tracks volunteers for one month following vaccination. While he said that “it really protects subjects quite well now,” questions remain about what happens next month and the month after. “We do expect that the vaccine will protect us for a longer period of time, but this data is not available,” he said.
A leaked list of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members suggests a massive infiltration of western corporations and governments, including the major pharmaceutical corporations developing vaccines for COVID-19, the virus which originated in China and has held the entire world hostage for nearly a year. The list containing the names of 1.95 million CCP members was leaked to The Daily Mail in the United Kingdom, The Australian in Australia, and De Standaardin in Belgium. It raises serious questions about the operational integrity of western firms employing these individuals… After conducting a detailed analysis, The Daily Mail said that “pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and AstraZeneca – both involved in the development of coronavirus vaccines – employed a total 123 party loyalists.”
Some of the world's top vaccine-promoters are warning about unique and frightening dangers inherent in developing a coronavirus vaccine. In the development of vaccines against coronaviruses like SARS-COV-1 and MERS in the early 2000’s, researchers found evidence of a serious problem. Teams of U.S. and foreign scientists vaccinated animals with the four most promising vaccines. At first, the experiment seemed successful as all the animals developed a robust antibody response to coronavirus. However, when the scientists exposed the vaccinated animals to the wild virus, the results were horrifying. Vaccinated animals suffered hyper-immune responses including inflammation throughout their bodies, especially in their lungs.
Another AstraZeneca vaccine trial participant alleges serious injury, but the vaccine is still a favorite with the Gates Foundation and developing countries. Yet despite concerns about safety and trial design, countries are already spending billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to purchase AstraZeneca’s vaccine, in part because, compared with frontrunners Moderna and Pfizer, AstraZeneca’s vaccine is easier to store and faster to distribute. The latest news also hasn’t changed plans by the Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative (GAVI), a public-private partnership founded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to distribute the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine globally, once it’s approved.
A firm believed to have links to Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s family has been awarded a £5.5million contract to provide mobile coronavirus testing units. A deal was struck with EMS Healthcare, whose chairman Iain Johnston is said to be a former business contact of Hancock’s mum and stepdad, Shirley and Robert Carter, the Byline Times reports.
You could be forgiven for thinking the government has treated the pandemic as an opportunity to reward its friends. Under the cover of an emergency, the government awarded £18bn in coronavirus-related contracts during the first six months of the pandemic, most with no competitive tendering processes. Meanwhile contracts totalling £1.5bn have gone to companies with connections to the Conservative party. Call it a “chumocracy” or straightforward incompetence: it’s clear there’s been a woeful lack of transparency when it comes to how taxpayers’ money is spent. The more the Tories' cronyism is indulged, the more their sense of entitlement grows - Whether it’s the chumocracy or just incompetence, ‘we’re getting on with the job’ is the government’s cover for all its sins. 'Chumocracy': how Covid revealed the new shape of the Tory establishment - Appointments made and contracts awarded during the pandemic have uncovered a web of connections. Boris Johnson's Crony Contracts
More than £1billion of outsourced government contracts have gone to firms run by Tory “friends and donors” since the pandemic took hold, an analysis reveals. The figures include deals for PPE provision, testing and polling – as well as the Government's much-maligned contact tracing system. Some of the firms were awarded work under emergency procedures that allow public bodies to give contracts without asking other firms to bid for the work. Why COVID-19 Testing Is A Tragic Waste - …PCR tests cannot detect infection. Period… It cannot tell you whether you’re currently ill, whether you’ll develop symptoms in the near future, or whether you’re contagious… Portuguese Court Rules PCR Tests “Unreliable” & Quarantines “Unlawful” - Important legal decision faces total media blackout in Western world
If one were to consider the upward transfer of wealth and market share to Big Business since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, one would think such economic changes were intended. After all, it’s no secret that the interests of politicians and the corporate elite align more often than not. As we near a year of lockdowns and sheltering in place, the long-term effects of pandemic policy on the economy are becoming clearer. Almost every piece of legislation ostensibly designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus and protect workers has wreaked devastation on small businesses—while benefiting the largest corporations. Roughly 100,000 small businesses have permanently closed due to COVID-19, while big-box retailers, tech giants, and pharmaceutical manufacturers have seen record profits…..Again, intent cannot be separated from effect, and the lack of persuasive arguments justifying the targeting of small businesses by policymakers can be explained in simple terms: pandemic policy was an intentional effort by policymakers to facilitate an upward transfer of wealth to Big Business at the expense of small business.
This week, as Los Angeles County announced it would lock down all outdoor dining, a video went viral. That video featured restaurant owner Angela Marsden, proprietor of the Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill, decrying the lockdown policy while pointing to the erection of production catering set up for a Hollywood shoot just a few feet away.
The Financial Times has discovered that many financial institutions have cut access to bounceback loans, designed to get small businesses through the coronavirus pandemic, even though chancellor Rishi Sunak recently extended the scheme until November 30. NatWest customers say accounts were closed after they applied for coronavirus loans - Several customers of the 62% taxpayer-owned bank have contacted the Guardian to complain that their accounts had been suspended or closed down without explanation after they put in a loan application. The bank said the reasons for closing the accounts were valid, but the closures came after customers had been approved for loans and were expecting to receive the money in their accounts. Instead, customers said their money had been blocked without notice, with one saying he was now unable to afford food as a result.
Here's the fantasy: if we stop the shutdowns, the economy will naturally bounce back to its oh-so wunnerful perfection of Q3 2019. This is a double-dose of magical thinking and denial. The U.S. economy was unraveling in 2019 from 11 long years of Fed-induced over-capacity in almost everything (except integrity, competition, transparency and social cohesion) and the bone-crushing burden of corrupt, greedy cartels that have the nation by the throat. The reality nobody dares mention is that thanks to 20 years of the Federal Reserve's easy money, there's rampant over-capacity everywhere you look: there's too many cafes, bistros, restaurants, fast-food outlets, hotels, resorts, AirBnBs, unprofitable Tech Unicorns, airline flights, Tech startups, office towers, retail space, malls, absurdly overpriced apartments for rent, storage facilities, delivery services, office sublets, colleges, attorneys, unemployed workers with multiple credentials--the list of too much, too many is endless. Thanks to the Fed, the most profitable venture was borrowing to increase capacity, then borrow some more to extract the phantom value created by the greater capacity. Nobody cared if the office tower remained mostly empty; the money was made in building it and extracting its "value" via debt, not operating a legitimate enterprise.
When asked whether the public should be informed about this exaggeration in death numbers, Dharmasena stated that people have a right to know the truth. However, COVID-19 should still continuously be treated as a deadly disease to safeguard the vulnerable population. Exaggerated COVID Mortality Figures - Loughborough University Study - We address the question of: ‘how many deaths in England and Wales are due to COVID-19?’ There are two approaches to measuring COVID deaths – ‘COVID associated deaths’ and ‘excess deaths’.
Tyson Foods has deployed infection-tracking algorithms and a "surveillance testing" program at its meatpacking facilities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, reported WSJ. Banks said Tyson's new infection-tracking algorithms allow him to monitor internal testing results via a dashboard. To make this possible, Tyson launched a weekly "surveillance testing" program in July that tests employees at each production facility. The monitoring system compares positive employee tests with what tasks they do in the plant and official infection rates in their local community. "We can dial up the algorithm when we sense there's something going on in the community, and we're much more prepared for a second wave," Banks said, adding that less than one percent of Tyson's employees are infected with Covid-19. Tyson is also hiring 200 new nurses and healthcare professionals for its US plants and will build seven mini-clinics near plants that will provide healthcare for employees.
Charities are warning that England's lockdown is pushing more young people into #homelessness. RT UK's Natalie Cierebiej-Jeffery talks to those who have been hit hardest by another nationwide shutdown. RT UK is a channel based in London covering British news and politics, protests and interviews with people who make a difference.
The Tory MP and former 1922 committee chair Charles Walker appears to have become involved in a lockdown protest outside Parliament today. The MP was outside the House of Commons when he witnessed an elderly woman being arrested by police. In response, Walker told the officers that their arrest was an ‘outrage’ and was not necessary: Walker then appeared in the House of Commons to make a point of order. He said that the woman had been taking part in a peaceful protest outside Parliament before she was carried ‘spread-eagle’ to a police van. He described the arrest as a ‘disgrace, un-British’ and ‘unconstitutional’ and called on the Prime Minister or Home Secretary to answer questions about the arrest.
She pleaded for rules around care home visits to be relaxed for relatives. ... Ylenia was arrested after breaking her mother out of the care home, after ... "I could see how upset my daughter was getting and my mum was there ...
Columnist Peter Hitchens says he is worried by huge numbers of people in the media "pretending to be impartial and objective." Mr Hitchens says a number of people "are fooled into thinking they are getting impartial information when in fact they are getting propaganda." Criticising the coronavirus lockdown, Mr Hitchens said he was unsure if there was evidence that "shutting down the country and strangling the economy" reduces or prevents the spread of coronavirus.
UK workers could find themselves banned from pubs, restaurants, and possibly even the workplace if they refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a senior MP. Speaking with HuffPost UK's Commons People podcast, as noted by Metro, Conservative Tom Tugendhat has warned that he could 'certainly see the day' when proof of vaccination was required to return to normal life.' If vaccination works and if we’re confident it’s safe, and all indications so far are good, then I can certainly see the day when businesses say: "Look, you’ve got to return to the office and if you’re not vaccinated you’re not coming in,"' he added….As we noted last week, US-based Ticketmaster is planning to verify concertgoers' vaccination status or whether they've tested negative for COVID-19 within a 24-72 hour window.
Humans have been developing vaccines for centuries. However, the rush for a vaccine to combat COVID-19 forced scientists to adapt and develop new techniques to try and expedite the global quest for a solution. Now, both Moderna and Pfizer (along with Pfizer's German partner BioNTech) have released headline data purporting to show their mRNA vaccines to be surprisingly effective. What's more, as Moderna revealed on Monday, unwanted side-effects, which were expected to be worse than what emerges following the administration of a flu vaccine, appeared to be surprisingly mild. With the market fixated on the race for a vaccine, Deutsche Bank published an updated guide to where all the major vaccine projects stand just a few days ago. But the major takeaway from these mRNA vaccines is that they don't work like the vaccines of yore. Instead of using dead or weakened viral genetic material to provoke an immune response. As Businessweek explained in its 'vaccine issue' published over the summer, Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine consists of a strand of mRNA that tells the body to produce the spike protein the coronavirus uses to latch on to human cells. This strand functions like one side of a zipper: the "teeth" are a sequence of chemical letters that cells read to produce the 1,273 amino acids comprising the famous protein "spikes" that the virus uses to latch on to human cells.
CEO Albert Bourla sold off 60 percent of his shares in drugmaker Pfizer the day its stock price peaked following a favorable report on the effectiveness of its Covid-19 vaccine – but the company insists the sale was kosher. Pfizer defended its CEO’s sale of 132,508 shares on Monday at near-peak value, claiming in a statement on Wednesday that the trade had been set up back in August as “part of Dr. Bourla’s personal financial planning” in keeping with a pre-established plan allowing “major shareholders and insiders of exchange-listed corporations to trade a predetermined number of shares at a predetermined time.”…. Bourla isn’t the only Pfizer exec to cash in suspiciously on the vaccine news, either. Executive vice president and chief corporate affairs officer Sally Susman made $1.8 million off her sale of 43,000 shares in the company. The company’s claim that Bourla's sale was prearranged is only likely to fuel conspiracy theories that Pfizer deliberately waited until after the US elections last week in order to release the positive news. President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., sarcastically tweeted that the timing was “pretty amazing” after the company unveiled the results on Monday, snarking “nothing nefarious about the timing of this at all right?” Reaction to Pfizer CEO Selling His Stock Right After Vaccine Announcement - The Patrick BetDavid Show Podcast Episode 25. In this clip Patrick Bet-David, Adam Sosnick and Tom Zenner talk about how the Pfizer CEO sold his stock after the announcement
Trump Celebrates Moderna's '95% Effective' COVID-19 Vaccine, Reminds World It Happened 'On My Watch'
Unlike Pfizer's vaccine, the Moderna jab is stable at refrigerator temperatures, an unexpected but extremely welcome development. Analysis of the data, covering more than 30,000 volunteers, showed the vaccine prevented virtually all symptomatic cases of the virus, as it appeared even more effective than Pfizer's vaccine. Only five participants who received two doses of the vaccine became sick, compared with 90 coronavirus cases in participants who received a placebo. The vaccine also appears to prevent the most serious infections. "That for me is a game-changer," Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said. Additionally, Moderna said its vaccine is stable at refrigerator temperatures for 30 days, much longer than the 7 days that analysts expected. This means that buyers may not need the extensive network of refrigerators required to store it. Scientists praised Moderna's vaccine for its durability, and for the comprehensiveness of the trial data. The Phase 3 trials included many 'diverse' groups, including a sizable number of patients from high risk groups. Here's more on that from the FT.….Although Moderna has already released more data than Pfizer, CNBC's Meg Tirrell just tweeted that one major question remains for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (which are both based on mRNA technology): How long will the protection last?
Dr. Scott Atlas, a leading member of President Trump’s coronavirus task force, announced Sunday that “The only way this stops is if people rise up.” Atlas was responding to the decree of a new lockdown by Michigan Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Atlas tweeted out a thread with Whitmer’s announcement, and a graphic made by The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services highlighting what will be allowed to remain open and what will be forced to closed. Atlas encouraged people of Michigan to “rise up”, and added “You get what you accept. #FreedomMatters #StepUp”:
“The Great Reset” began trending on Twitter after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the coronavirus pandemic had provided an “opportunity for a reset.” Trudeau made the comments during a United Nations video conference back in September, but they are only just receiving attention. “Building back better means getting support to the most vulnerable while maintaining our momentum on reaching the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)” said Trudeau. “This pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset – this is our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic efforts to re-imagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty, inequality and climate change,” he added. Many Twitter users asserted that “The Great Reset” was a “conspiracy theory” despite the fact that it’s an agenda openly espoused by the World Economic Forum and numerous other financial elitists and NGOs. As former Australian Senator Cory Bernardi outlined, “The Great Reset” is merely a re-branding of the move towards the centralization of power and a New World Order.
BBC recently reported some shocking statistics regarding UK health, but which will perhaps come as no surprise to those critics who warned that far-reaching national lockdowns would cause other unseen adverse effects: Compared with normal years, there have been more deaths at home from a number of major causes, including cancers and respiratory diseases, during the last six months. The latest analysis published by Britain's Office for National Statistics found that more than 26,000 "extra" deaths occurred in private homes this year, while simultaneously hospital deaths have been lower than usual. "More men than normal are dying at home from heart disease in England and Wales, and more women are dying from dementia and Alzheimer's, figures show," the report says.
Over 120 church leaders blast UK’s ‘unlawful’ closure of churches amid COVID lockdowns More than 120 church leaders are taking legal action against the U.K. government for its “unlawful” decision to ban worship services during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown.
Brussels’ plot to withhold budget and recovery funds from countries it deems as not playing by the rules has blown up in its face as the Hungarian PM vetoes schemes, putting EU projects in doubt and economies on the brink. After failing to take him seriously, the Bullies of Brussels have been brutally humiliated by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday, after he followed through on his threat to veto the EU’s €1.8 trillion budget and coronavirus recovery fund……The idea of making fund payments conditional on a nation’s attitude towards Brussels wasn’t just rainbow-thinking by the Eurocrats, it was a move specifically aimed at forcing Orbán back into line, with the European commission irritated by Budapest’s interference with the judiciary, its meddling with media ownership and the PM’s ongoing spat with billionaire philanthropist George Soros and his Open Foundation.
Post Brexit
The European Commission published a series of contingency measures on Thursday to ensure that basic air and road connectivity are maintained in the increasingly likely event that a free trade agreement is not reached with the U.K. by the end of the Brexit transition period. Why it matters: It's the surest sign yet that the U.K. is headed for a cliff-edge Brexit on Dec. 31, coming one day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels and failed to make progress on major sticking points. The latest: Johnson warned on Thursday evening that businesses should make "proper preparations" for the "strong possibility" of a no-deal Brexit, saying that the current proposal on the table "is not right for the U.K.
THE UK's chief negotiator David Frost pushed hard for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - the agreement that indirectly led to today's Brexit deadlock, it has been claimed. For months the key sticking points to agreeing a Brexit deal have been the same: fishing rights and common standards. As the negotiations reach their final state, though, it looks like the latter, also known as the “level playing field”, might be the last stumbling block. Since the start of the talks, the EU insisted that in order to have access to its single market, Britain needs to sign up to regulatory alignment, creating a "level playing field" on which EU member states and other countries can trade…. "But let us finish by going back in time to the start of the story, of the optimism of TTIP talks that would transform EU-US relations. The head of UK trade pushing hard for the agreement that would years later lead to UK-EU stalemate was of course David Frost." (2016) The Guardian: You thought TTIP was dead? With Brexit we’ll get the same thing, on steroids - TTIP is short for the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership, a US-EU trade pact that declares war on environmental protection, workers’ rights and public services, and would allow big business to sue governments in secret tribunals for taking reasonable policy decisions such as putting cigarettes in plain packages…. But what we definitely haven’t managed to do is kill off TTIP’s sister agreement known as CETA – a deal between the EU and Canada. CETA does everything TTIP threatens to do, giving big Canadian corporations (and US subsidiaries in Canada) huge power to take on European governments when they fail to toe the line. Unfortunately CETA is well progressed and could pass into law before Britain exits the EU.
Both the Labour left and the free-market right underestimate the democratic significance of EU state-aid rules…..Besides, all Brexiteers, whatever their view on how best to manage the economy, ought to understand that the state-aid rules enhance the authority of the EU over decisions taken by national governments. As Phil Mullan has argued on spiked, the state-aid rules can often take on a life of their own, divorced from any sound economic principle. The decisions often seem arbitrary, as if their very purpose is to demonstrate the EU’s power to interfere. Take the EU’s decision to impose a fine on Italy for subsidising its hotel sector at the height of its coronavirus outbreak, just before agreeing to turn a blind eye to the record levels of state support handed to businesses as the rest of Europe locked down.
Emmanuel Macron’s threat of vetoing a post-Brexit trade deal is a “dangerous game” that could punish France and scupper EU unity, a top French farming official has warned. French farmers and fishermen are “deeply concerned” about Mr Macron pushing the bloc towards a no-deal over fishing and a "level playing field" on trade rules, said Thierry Pouch, chief economist of the French Chambers of Agriculture.
Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, wants to preserve a substantial chunk of existing fishing rights for the French fleet in British waters after Brexit and is also insisting on a strict UK state-aid regime to avoid what Paris sees as unfair competition. Mr Macron’s tough stance has alarmed Boris Johnson, UK prime minister, and officials from both sides admit that any prospect of a deal by the end of the weekend has now disappeared.
The EU and UK on Sunday agreed to continue Brexit trade deal talks, saying that it was worth going the “extra mile” to see whether an agreement could be struck, amid signs of progress on key sticking points. The decision was made during what the two sides described as a “useful” phone call between British prime minister Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, following intensive negotiations in Brussels this weekend. “Despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over we think it is responsible at this point to go the extra mile,” Ms von der Leyen and Mr Johnson said in a joint statement….The decision echoes comments from German chancellor Angela Merkel earlier on Sunday that the two sides “should try everything to achieve a result”.
The UK will have "a range of robust enforcement measures" at the end of the Brexit transition period, including "numerous" offshore patrol vessels available in its territorial waters, the Ministry of Defense (MOD) said Saturday. The measures, put in place "to protect our rights as an independent coastal state" includes "numerous patrol vessels across military and marine organizations that are used to provide physical presence, deterrence and inspection capability," the ministry said in a statement.
Christine Lagarde and Emmanuel Macron plan to use the covid-19 crisis to get German taxpayers to pay for European political union under French leadership using the Target2 cross-border payments system... The Economist published an article on 28 November 2020 entitled ‘Christine Lagarde is taking the ECB out of its comfort zone’…. What the article does not do, however, is explain the wider implications of this. To understand these, we need to look at what is happening in TARGET2, the Eurozone’s cross-border payment system. Its use is mandatory for the settlement of any euro transaction involving the ECB and the national central banks of the EZ member states.
Short-term political pressures, plus a lack of long-term strategic economic thinking, make it likely the UK will agree a trade deal with the EU. Any such deal is likely to be very unfavourable to the UK in several key areas, as will quickly become obvious. Far from forming the basis of a durable new relationship between the UK and the EU, the deal will be a source of continued friction and acrimonious disputes. Within a short space of time, the UK government will regret signing it and will be looking to escape from it.
Former Brexit Party MEP Ann Widdecombe admitted that Boris Johnson was only going to make bad decisions going forward with trade talks. While speaking to Martin Daubney and Belinda de Lucy on Brexit Unlocked, Ms Widdecombe claimed Boris could cave to the EU as early as next week Tuesday. She insisted that he had already shown he does not stick to his Brexit promises.
Former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib said he was fearful the UK was planning to commit itself to EU defence agencies and organisations. During an interview with Express.co.uk, Mr Habib warned Boris Johnson could agree to the EU's military demands and cooperation to get a Brexit deal. Mr Habib took specific issue with the UK aligning itself with the EU's security structure PESCO as opposed to NATO…. "People may not know that PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation) set up by the European Union, which is their alternative to NATO, was actually something set up in 2017. "Which Theresa May, when Boris Johnson was foreign secretary, signed the United Kingdom up to. "We actually signed into this European defence union after we had voted to leave the EU…. "Two, it will turn our heads away from our natural allies the Americans and turn it towards the European Union dominated foreign policy….. Mr Habib also fears the UK will remain tied to the EU despite voting out of the bloc.
The Prime Minister made his bold pledge last month as he confirmed a ten percent hike in defence over the next four years, amounting to an extra £16.5billion. Specifically, he declared his ambition to make the Royal Navy Europe's premier maritime force - but Iain Ballantyne, editor of Warships International Fleet Review magazine, warned it would not be an easy or a simple task.
With Boris Johnson’s announcement on 19 November of the largest increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War, the Tory government has begun to actively mould its vision of post-Brexit ‘Global Britain’, with lavish spending promised for both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, expanding their capacity to deploy far afield in global theatres….Boris Johnson is now recommitting our armed forces once again to globalist goals in far-flung theatres of future war, remote from Britain’s shores and interests. If the vote for Brexit was a vote to put the concerns of the British public uppermost, then seeing this through requires a radical restructuring of the armed forces so that they are focused on the needs of the British people rather than globalist pretensions of Britain’s elite. Foreign Affairs: British Government collaboration in EU Global Strategy - This article was prompted by a request to verify information contained in a Veterans for Britain article headlined “Ministers let the EU expand defence integration schemes they had just put into the exit deal” dated 28 April, 2019. VfB outlined four major commitments entered into by Sir Alan Duncan on behalf of the Theresa May Government, and concludes that these, taken together with commitments earlier that same month, mean that..
Britain and France are heading for an almighty bust-up over Brexit. This morning the French junior minister for European affairs, Clément Beaune, specifically confirmed that if France was unhappy with the final Brexit deal — notably on fishing — it would use its veto. France would carry out ‘her own evaluation’ of the deal and act accordingly, he told radio Europe 1. Whether there is a deal or not, a blame game is about to be unleashed. Given this late stage, if there is a deal then the French cannot possibly get all they want on fishing. The French Prime Minister said so yesterday to French fishermen at France’s largest fishing port, Boulogne. But that won’t stop President Macron raising merry hell and publicly blaming Britain’s intransigence. For centuries, such Brit-bashing has gone down well with the French public and Macron needs a distraction from his domestic strife of simultaneous health, security and political crises.
The conflict was ignited by arch Remainer Peter Mandelson in a semi mea culpa published in the Guardian. His argument is that hardline Remainers like him must shoulder some of the responsibility for the Hard Brexit we seem to be heading for (whether we are actually heading for a ‘Hard Brexit’ – or what some of us prefer to call ‘fully freeing ourselves from the EU and all of its rules and regulations’ – is a matter for another column)…… Mandelson’s commentary has exploded like a hand grenade in the cosy, smug world of Remainia. For a start, his confession that the Remainer elites did indeed spend four years trying to ‘reverse the referendum decision’ – that is, trying to void the votes of 17.4million citizens, including millions of working-class people and eight million women – has stuck in the craw of some Remoaners. These people still seem, hilariously, to be labouring under the illusion that they did not actually spend four years waging war on democracy, but rather were just trying to put a stop to an ‘advisory’ proposal from a section of the population that had been misled by lies, misinformation and Russia, yada yada. In this sense Mandelson’s frank confession of anti-democracy is useful. This is a Remainer stating out loud what us Leavers have always known – that the Remainer elites devoted themselves to the bigoted, reactionary project of crushing the votes of millions of their fellow citizens.
Middle East Peace
The new Middle East that has emerged since the Arab Spring, the rise and fall of Islamic State – as well as the rise of Iran's role in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen – is a region that is more divided and also one where openness to Israel has increased among Arab states……Count me among many Arabs who have long believed that the peace between arabs and Israel through full normalization deserves a chance – albeit one of the few who says so publicly. I have held this view to the surprise of many American, Israeli, and Palestinian friends…..The Arab world has never been monolithic. Other Arab states may probably follow countries that do not border Israel are not directly affected by the plight of they Palestinian people, other than by considerations of international law, charity and mercy. Without the unity of the Arab world supporting a stalemate that has dragged on for half a century, the Palestinians will have to readjust their strategies. Israel, too, may change. Trade, the peaceful exchange of goods and ideas, may forge new connections among the young and ambitious, on both sides of the Arab-Jewish divide. In time, the bitterness of the old may be replaced by the hopefulness of the young.
And on Thursday, a small group of Karachi residents held a rare demonstration calling on the Pakistani government to recognize Israel. At the demonstration, which coincided with International Human Rights Day, the small group of Christian Pakistanis also asked their government to allow them to pilgrimage to Jerusalem, "as other Muslim countries have already done." They expressed their anger that as citizens of Pakistan they are prohibited from visiting Israel.
"I was raised as a Muslim but have always been curious about Judaism," says Azka Daulia, who thinks it's high time "to step up to fight for the diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Israel." Azka Daulia is one of few Muslim Indonesians who openly support Israel. Her story began the day after Israel signed a peace deal with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and as it turned out, Sept. 15, 2020, was to be a day she will never forget…."I told my father about the ceremony, and he said it was wonderful news. Many Muslim Indonesians love Israel, and I wanted people to see for themselves and enjoy the peace and the hope, how inspiring it is. I decided to share the recording of the ceremony on my Facebook and Instagram. I wrote to my Indonesian friends that I didn't film or edit the video, and I just wanted them to see the ceremony, that they should see the hope for peace."
Arutz Sheva met Arab Muslim peace activist making Saudi Arabia and Bahrain his home who says normalization benefits everyone. The activist expresses his hope the Emirates will become the most popular destination for Israeli tourists and says open dialogue is the best way towards true peace. "I've always said that if we focus on just 10% of all the things we share in common, we would solve so much...," he says, adding that, "Israelis have absolutely nothing to fear here. They should feel like this is their second home." "God created us to live in peace, harmony, and prosperity," says Alshareef. "That's what we should do." "….. I hope to visit Israel and visit places like Jerusalem and T'koa where the prophets lived, and make a YouTube series about these places," he says. "This will send a very strong message to people, telling them that the Jewish people have lived [there] for 3,000 years….."
Emirati Airline Ad Features Holy Temple in Jerusalem An Emirati airline announced regular flights to Israel with a video featuring several iconic images associated with Israel including… the Second Temple. Etihad: Daily Flights to Tel Aviv Etihad Airways, the United Arab emirate’s flagship carrier based in Abu Dhabi, announced on Monday that it would begin daily flights to Tel Aviv on March 28. The flights will be timed to connect with Etih...
Israel brought its best face to GITEX and shined. Five major tech shows gathered for the first time this year, focusing on cybersecurity, blockchain and other technology innovations. There were 1,200 exhibitors from 60 countries from December 6-10 gathered in the heart of Dubai. From artificial intelligence to cloud computing, everything was on display. Israelis, for the first time publicly, were exhibiting in masses. There were around 130 companies listed as part of a massive delegation that was supported by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the Israel Export Institute and the Economy and Industry Ministry, in cooperation with Bank Hapoalim.
The countries’ foreign ministries held secret talks over the past year towards the goal of forging official ties, which included delegations between the two capitals Jerusalem and Thimphu……Bhutan is a Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas, bordering on India and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It has gone to great lengths to keep itself isolated from the rest of the world in order to avoid outside influences and to preserve its culture and natural resources. The country limits tourism, especially from outside South Asia. The landlocked country has formal diplomatic relations with only 53 other countries – a list that does not include the US, UK, France or Russia – and has embassies in only seven of them.
Oman and Indonesia could be next in line to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in the coming weeks, a diplomatic source said Sunday…The diplomatic source identified Oman and Indonesia as two countries with which talks have advanced and with whom normalization could be announced before US President Donald Trump leaves office on January 20.
Diplomats in the United Arab Emirates and Morocco confirmed to Israel Hayom that officials in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were instrumental in advancing the peace deal between Israel and Morocco. According to officials in Riyadh, the Saudi position on the prospect of normalization with Israel has changed in recent weeks. This change is linked to the close relations between Rabat and Riyadh, hence the possibility of the Saudi monarchy making a similar move with Israel in the near future. The English-language newspaper Arab News, which is owned by the Saudi royal family, even ran a complimentary front-page story about the Israeli-Moroccan peace deal, in what could be seen as laying the groundwork for something similar with Saudi Arabia.
Turki bin Faisal often looked like the public face of Riyadh’s covert rapprochement with Jerusalem; then he launched a harangue against normalization…In May 2014, he appeared on a panel with Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israel’s Military Intelligence directorate. In September 2015, he met with MK Yair Lapid. In February 2016, he was photographed shaking hands with then-defense minister Moshe Ya’alon. Two months later, he shared a stage with Yaakov Amidror, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former national security adviser. In October 2017, he appeared on a panel with former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy….speaking at a security conference in Manama alongside Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi…..“Israeli governments have arrested thousands of the inhabitants of the lands they are colonizing and incarcerated them in concentration camps under the flimsiest of security accusations — young and old, women and men who are rotting there without recourse or justice,” he said.
Saudi media exposes Palestinian Lie: Al Aksa Mosque isn’t on Temple Mount A Saudi Arabian journalist published an article in a prominent Saudi newspaper describing the historical roots of that the myth that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the third holiest site in Islam. … maintaining that the true location of the Al Aqsa Mosque described in Koran is in Al Ju’ranah, near Mecca in Saudi Arabia and not on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Yamani emphasized that Al Aqsa is not Al Quds, the Arabic name for the city of Jerusalem which is the short form of “Beit al-Quds” the holy house.” Al Aqsa Mosque, meaning the furthest mosque. “Jerusalem is not Al-Aqsa.
Jordan will not accept any attempts to change Jerusalem’s historical and legal status quo, Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Thursday, adding that the kingdom would not give up its status as custodian of the Islamic and Christian holy sites in the city. “The Hashemite Custodianship of Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian holy sites is a duty, a commitment, a firm belief, and a responsibility we have profoundly undertaken for more than a hundred years,” King Abdullah said in a speech during the inauguration of the new parliament. “Jerusalem is a symbol of peace, and we will not accept any attempts to alter its historical and legal status quo, nor attempts of temporal or spatial division of al-Aqsa mosque/al-Haram al-Sharif.” The Jordanian monarch’s statement came in wake of reports that the Jordanians are worried of losing their status as custodians of the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, which dates back to 1924, when the Supreme Muslim Council, the highest body in charge of Muslim community affairs in Mandatory Palestine, accepted Hussein bin Ali (Hashemite Sharif of Mecca) as custodian of al-Aqsa Mosque. According to the unconfirmed reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior officials of the Trump administration have offered Saudi Arabia a role in managing al-Aqsa mosque if Riyadh agrees to establish relations with Israel.
The Trump administration reportedly offered victims of the 9/11 terror attacks some $700 million to drop their claims against Sudan as part of an effort to save an agreement that would see the African country normalize ties with Israel in exchange for a removal of Sudan from the US’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. Lawyers for the 9/11 claimants asked for $4 billion, a price the administration and Senate Republicans rejected, according to an ABC News report on Friday citing sources familiar with the negotiations. The talks are ongoing, ABC News said……Sudan has been pushing for the delisting from the terror list to take place by the end of the year. In addition, Congress still has to approve a bill that would give Sudan immunity from future lawsuits in the US by victims of terrorism. The country has indicated it may pull out of the normalization deal with Israel if the bill doesn’t go through, according to a New York Times report earlier this month. According to an Axios report last week, Israel has begun lobbying senators and Congress members to approve the bill, hoping to save the overall normalization deal, part of Trump’s Abraham Accords initiative. These deals have seen the Trump administration agree to the sale of F-35 fighter jets to the UAE as part of the Emiratis’ agreement to normalize ties with Israel, and move to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.
President Donald Trump’s administration moved forward with $1 billion in sales of drones and precision-guided weapons to Morocco on Friday, sending a notice to Congress about the potential deals, according to sources familiar with the notification. The deal includes four MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones made by privately-held General Atomics, and Hellfire, Paveway and JDAM precision-guided munitions made by Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing, the sources said.
The decision follows King Mohammed VI of Morocco's decision to normalize relations with the Jewish state in yet another historic peace deal brokered by US President Donald Trump's administration and announced last week. The deceleration has had "the impact of a tsunami," Serge Berdugo, secretary-general of the Casablanca-based Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco, told French news agency AFP. The decision on the curriculum was reportedly made discretely even before Rabat and Jerusalem formerly normalized relations. According to AFP, the decision was made as part of an ongoing revamp of the educational curriculum in Morocco, which began in 2014.
The religious branch of the co-ruling PJD party calls peace deal "deplorable," denounces "all attempts at normalization and the Zionist infiltration." Morocco's neighbor, Algeria, also decries the kingdom's decision to forge full diplomatic ties with the Jewish state….The religious branch of the co-ruling PJD party, the Unity and Reform Movement (MUR), said in a statement the move was "deplorable" and denounced "all attempts at normalization and the Zionist infiltration."
The US move to recognize Western Sahara as part of Morocco could dramatically impede UN efforts to resolve the half-century-old conflict there, Russia said over the weekend. “By this decision, the Donald Trump administration aims to undermine the universally recognized international legal groundwork of the Western Sahara settlement, which stipulates the determination of the final status of that area through a referendum,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said……Turkey and Russia may be maneuvering to be on the same page about the US decision. Turkey, Russia and Iran have opposed the US role in Syria and generally work together to oppose US policy.
Disputed region’s independence movement vows to fight on until Moroccan forces withdraw, while its key backer, Algeria, remains silent…..For Western Sahara’s Polisario Front, which has campaigned for independence for the former Spanish colony since the 1970s, Trump’s announcement marked a major setback and drew a promise to fight on until Moroccan forces withdraw…..The Polisario had already announced last month that it regarded a 1991 ceasefire as over after Morocco sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone to reopen the road to neighboring Mauritania, Morocco’s sole land link to sub-Saharan Africa. The Polisario has since claimed that repeated exchanges of fire have taken place along the 2,700-kilometer (1,700-mile) sand barrier that separates the two sides.
The SADR is a member of the African Union, but controls just 20 percent of Western Sahara’s territory, mostly empty desert. The territory’s main sources of revenue — its phosphate deposits and rich Atlantic fisheries — are all in Moroccan hands.
Geopolitics and Cultural News
The vast, uninterrupted territory that contains North Korea, China, Pakistan, and Iran has greater geostrategic importance today than ever before. Of the two outermost countries of that territory, an anonymous senior US administration official recently said that “Iran and North Korea have resumed cooperation in the framework of a project on long-range missiles that includes the transfer of core components.”….. In June 2020, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for the German state of Baden-Württemberg issued a report for the year 2019 that provided an explication of the illicit North Korea-Pakistan-China relationship. With reference to the nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs of North Korea and Pakistan, the report says…..
Antonio Guterres says Israel provided information about the presence of four alleged Iranian anti-tank guided missiles in Libya in June.... He said Israel provided information about the presence of four alleged Iranian Dehlavieh anti-tank guided missiles in Libya in June. Based on photographic evidence, he said one missile "had characteristics consistent with the Iranian-produced Dehlavieh" but that the UN Secretariat has been unable to determine if it had been transferred to Libya in violation of the resolution.
“If Iran is serious about preserving a space for diplomacy, it must not pursue these steps," France, Germany and Britain say in joint statement….. A confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report obtained by Reuters said Iran plans to install three more cascades, or clusters, of advanced IR-2m centrifuges in its enrichment plant at Natanz, which was built underground apparently to withstand any aerial bombardment.
The obvious question is, if Iran’s nuclear program is merely peaceful, then why does the country go to such lengths to hide it. Peaceful programs don’t require clandestine underground tunnels built on dirt roads that are supposed to appear inconspicuous but are actually key military industrial complex facilities. Iran has many such facilities and has shown off a ballistic missile mobile launcher on a train that can be moved from an underground facility at another location. It has hidden missile construction sites at Khojir and has also built underground sites at Imam Ali base in Syria, and aided Hezbollah in the same expertise. The regime has become expert at tunneling, helping the Houthis in Yemen to hide missile and drone construction. This shows that what Iran is doing at Natanz is clearly aimed at hiding aspects of its nuclear program as it continues to violate the 2015 deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Ankara hopes to play ‘good cop’ for incoming Biden administration. After a year of invasions, attacks, aggression, ethnic-cleansing, using Syrian refugees as mercenaries, buying Russian defense technology and working with Iran to oppose the US role in Syria, Turkey’s regime is trying to change its tune to sabotage Israel’s growing friendship with Greece and the UAE. Ankara has worked closely with western lobbyists and experts who it has cultivated over the years to push this narrative. It is a sophisticated attempt aimed at trying to convince Israel’s government that Ankara wants a new leaf in relations, but Turkey refuses to change and merely wants to muddy the waters between Israel and Jerusalem’s partners in the region….. The “reconciliation” would involve Turkey getting everything it wanted and ruining Israel’s relations with Greece and Cyprus, especially a gas pipeline deal with those two countries and Israel this year. So “reconciliation” would mean Israel losing allies and Turkey hosting Hamas terrorists and calling Israel a Nazi country.
The Blue and White-Likud clash over Iran policy, like their clash over Israel's national and strategic interests in Judea and Samaria, makes it clear that the farcical unity government has run its course…..In an interview with the New York Times Tuesday, presumptive President-elect Joe Biden reaffirmed his plan to return the US to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. The US will rescind its economic sanctions on Iran if it complies with the nuclear deal's limitations on its nuclear activities. Once this happens, Biden said he will seek to negotiate a new, longer-term nuclear deal with Iran's ayatollahs. The current deal expires in five years….Netanyahu's Likud government recognizes the danger posed by Biden's Iran policy…..Defense Minister Benny Gantz's Blue and White government doesn't understand the danger. Two weeks ago, Gantz's partner Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Netanyahu's uncompromising position is wrong. According to media reports, Ashkenazi said Israel can develop common ground with a Biden administration on Iran.
Future US Pentagon chief Austin: I had a great relationship with Benny Gantz. Austin made several important points about Israel in that March 2015 testimony to Congress. Asked about Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, he responded: “To your point that you made earlier, sir, I think the people – the leaders in the region – certainly believe that Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapon is a threat to the region.” Austin was head of CENTCOM from 2013 to March 2016 – he also commanded US troops in Iraq. Gantz was chief of staff from 2011 to 2015, so their terms overlapped. With Israel heading into a new election, the relationship with Gantz may be important, depending on the outcome. What is surely important is that Austin had a keen interest in Israel and wanted a close relationship with the Jewish state. News of his planned appointment comes amid increased talk of shifting Israel from EUCOM to CENTCOM.
The Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah on Friday denounced a recently filed indictment against outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers over the devastating explosion at the port of Beirut in August.
Obama: Netanyahu used his gifts of Intelligence, Charm against me Ex-President Obama has just come out with his latest autobiography in which he confirms what we already knew: despite garnering over 70% of the Jewish vote in both runs for the White House, Obama and Netanyahu did not like each other. Volume One of Obama’s Newest Memoir: $65 Million, 768 Pages With about 40 books (including two autobiographies) about former President Barack Obama, some mi...
The Jewish Left: A Threat to Jewry, America and Israel WND I am a proud Jew and a Zionist who believes in our Savior Jesus Christ, Yeshua, the truest Jew there ever was! Let me also make this clear: The overwhelming majority of Jews in this nation, Israel and spread throughout the world are not followers of self-hating Jews such as the inventors and later disciples of communism Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky, Saul Alinsky, Bernie Sanders, George Soros or anyone else of the Jewish left. The post The Jewish Left: A Threat to Jewry, America and Israel appeared first on Olive Tree Ministries.
With France under lockdown from COVID-19 and reeling from a series of gruesome Islamic terror attacks, French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday revived talk of a pan-European army by telling a reporter that Europe muPresident Trump's early criticisms of NATO, along with America's outsized role in financing the defense of its international allies, led to more European nations increasing their defense spending during Trump's four years in office. With Americans now broadly in favor of Trump's view regarding NATO and the sharing of responsibility for sovereign defense, Macron pointed out in Le Grand Continent, a Paris-based policy journal, that things likely won't ever revert to the way they were. "The United States will only respect us as allies if we are earnest, and if we are sovereign with respect to our defense," Macron said. "We need to continue to build our independence for ourselves." Along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Macron is one of Europe's biggest advocates for an EU-wide "army". The sorry state of Germany's army, however, is one major obstacle. Macron also slammed German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who earlier this month insisted that it's "an illusion” to think the EU can replace America's role in upholding security on the continent. "That it is a historical misinterpretation," he said. "Fortunately, if I understood things correctly, the chancellor does not share this point of view," Macron said, referring to Merkel. Last year, Macron angered his fellow EU leaders by arguing that NATO had suffered "brain death" at the hands of Trump, and that the time had finally arrived for the EU to embark on a more "independent" foreign policy. Seeing as geopolitics is a zero-sum gain, if the EU were to drift from the US, it would inevitably seek to tighten ties with China, all while double-talking about the importance of green energy and lowering greenhouse-gas emissions.
Richard Stengel, the top state media appointee for US President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team (namely, the official US Agency for Global Media), has enthusiastically defended the use of propaganda against Americans. "My old job at the State Department was what people used to joke as the chief propagandist," Stengel said in 2018. "I’m not against propaganda. Every country does it, and they have to do it to their own population. And I don’t necessarily think it’s that awful." Richard "Rick" Stengel was the longest serving under-secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs in US history. At the State Department under President Barack Obama, Stengel boasted that he "started the only entity in government, non-classified entity, that combated Russian disinformation." That institution was known as the Global Engagement Center, and it amounted to a massive vehicle for advancing US government propaganda around the world…..Stengel outlined his worldview in a book he published this June, entitled "Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation and What We Can Do About It." The Biden transition team’s selection of a censorial infowarrior for its top state media position comes as a concerted suppression campaign takes hold on social media. The wave of online censorship has been overseen by US intelligence agencies, the State Department, and Silicon Valley corporations that maintain multibillion-dollar contracts with the US government.
A new lawsuit against Google filed on Thursday of last week raises interesting questions about whether or not the tech giant is "stealing Android users' cellular data allowances though unapproved, undisclosed transmissions to the web giant's servers". The suit, filed in US federal district court in San Jose by 4 plaintiffs aims to be certified as a class action. It alleges that Google is using Android users' limited cellular data allowances to transmit information about the users unrelated to the use of Google services. The case surrounds "data sent to Google's servers that isn't the result of deliberate interaction with a mobile device", according to The Register. In other words, data transfers happening in the background, when the phone isn't in use. The suit alleges that none of the four agreements accepted to participate in the Google ecosystem say anything about cell data transfers taking place in the background. The suit states: "Google designed and implemented its Android operating system and apps to extract and transmit large volumes of information between Plaintiffs’ cellular devices and Google using Plaintiffs’ cellular data allowances." It continues: "Google’s misappropriation of Plaintiffs’ cellular data allowances through passive transfers occurs in the background, does not result from Plaintiffs’ direct engagement with Google’s apps and properties on their devices, and happens without Plaintiffs’ consent."
Apple’s ad tracking is the target of two complaints to Spanish and German authorities by a privacy advocate whose earlier legal battles are forcing Facebook to change the way it transfers data. Noyb, a group founded by privacy activist Max Schrems, is accusing Apple of unlawfully installing so-called identification for advertisers on its devices. The service helps Apple and apps track users’ behaviour and their consumption preferences without their consent, the group said. “With our complaints, we want to enforce a simple principle: Trackers are illegal, unless a user freely consents,” Noyb lawyer Stefano Rossetti said in a statement on Monday. “Smartphones are the most intimate device for most people and they must be tracker-free by default.” Schrems made a name for himself as a law student by taking on Facebook over the safety of people’s data when it was shipped to the US. He won a landmark European Union court ruling in 2015 and his complaints led to a second key judgment in July that has forced regulators on both sides of Atlantic to rethink data transfer rules. The EU’s revamped data protection rules in 2018 opened the door to mass lawsuits, which led to the creation of Noyb and a promise by Schrems to “look for the bigger cases” with the biggest impact.
The British Army’s 3rd Division (3DIV, which acts as the country’s strategic land warfare asset) is bringing Systematic’s SitaWare Headquarters solution into service. This will provide comprehensive situational awareness and Command and Control (C2) capabilities at the battalion level and above. “3rd Division represents the tip-of-the-spear for the British Army and its decision to field SitaWare Headquarters is testament to the software’s capabilities,” says Matthew Millward, Systematic’s Vice President of Business Development for UK, North Africa and Western Europe. “We are delighted to support further force elements of the British Army with an operationally proven, evergreen commercial off-the-shelf solution that delivers best-in-class C2 out of the box, and which with interoperability at the core of its architecture, enables forces to work within Joint and Coalition environments,” he added…… This latest selection of SitaWare Headquarters follows the UK Ministry of Defence’s decision to field the software for the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) last year – the software was selected by the MoD as the UK is the ARRC framework nation. SitaWare Headquarters was successfully employed by the ARRC during Exercise ‘ARRCADE FUSION 19’, where more than 1,100 personnel from 22 countries participated. The large-scale command post exercise rehearsed the procedures to command up to 120,000 military personnel in a warfighting scenario.
Supreme Court rules people can sue government agents for damages The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that individuals may personally seek damages from a federal officer who violates their civil rights and causes harm.
Austria's proposed law is modelled on Germany's much criticized NetzDG law, also known as the censorship law, which came into effect in January 2018 and requires social media companies to delete or block any online unlawful content within 24 hours or 7 days at the most, or face fines of up to 50 million euros. If the proposed law is passed, the freedom of speech of Austrians online will be subject to the arbitrary decisions of corporate entities, such as Twitter, Goggle and Facebook. With Austria's draft online hate speech law, yet another European country is taking another step towards making online censorship an institutionalized feature of European hate speech laws. There has been, however, significant pushback against government censorship: In France, the Constitutional Council, a French court that examines legislation's compatibility with the constitution, struck down multiple provisions of the "Avia law" in June because it infringed on freedom of expression. The Constitutional Council noted in its press release: "[According] to Article 11 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789: 'The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious human rights: any citizen can therefore speak, write, print freely, except to answer for the abuse of this freedom in the cases determined by the law'. It is inferred from these provisions that with the present state of the means of communication and in view of the generalized development of online communication services to the public, as well as the importance of these services for participation in democratic life and the expression of ideas and opinions, this right implies the freedom to access and express yourself in these services..."
Scottish Hate Crime Bill Could Criminalise ‘Inflammatory’ Bible A sloppily worded hate crime bill in Scotland could undermine free speech and unfairly stigmatize people of faith, the Christian Institute has warned. The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director Ciarán Kelly said on Friday that the proposed legislation “risks creating a chilling effect on free speech” because of the ambiguity of its language and lack of protections for basic freedoms.
Every right-thinking person, that is, everyone who thinks Jake Tapper and Chuck Todd and Adam Schiff are as honest as the day is long and always tell the God’s honest truth, knows that the Orange Man is very, very bad. The whole world, or at least the morally superior part, seems to have decided that a president who puts his own nation first and sees to its safety and prosperity is outrageous beyond every measure, and must be destroyed. But no one knows just how bad Donald Trump is as thoroughly as London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan….According to LBC, Khan claimed that he has been “singled out” by Trump. How had evil Trump singled out Khan? Did he spy upon him before he took office? Did he try to frame him for crimes that would get him impeached and removed as mayor? No, nothing like that. Trump’s grave sin, Khan said, was that he put the diminutive Leftist mayor under an “astonishingly ugly spotlight.” Trump zeroed in on Khan, the mayor claimed, “for no other reason than being Muslim.” Yes, that’s right: Despite being Mayor of London and one of the most prominent and lionized politicians in Britain, Sadiq Khan still sees himself as a victim of “Islamophobia.” Eyes no doubt glistening, he lamented: “Being a Muslim ain’t easy, it isn’t easy…it’s never been harder to be a Muslim than the last four years.”
French President Emmanuel Macron has accused the US media of “legitimizing” Islamist violence and smearing his country as racist after a series of terrorist attacks that began with the beheading of a schoolteacher in October. Macron reportedly called New York Times columnist Ben Smith on Thursday to complain about media coverage of France’s latest round of Islamist violence, contrasting reaction around the world to the outpouring of international support for France following the terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in November 2015. “When I see, in that context, several newspapers which I believe are from countries that share our values – journalists who write in a country that is the heir to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution – when I see them legitimizing this violence and saying that the heart of the problem is that France is racist and Islamophobic, then I say the founding principles have been lost,” Macron told Smith in a column published on Saturday.
Rallies also took place in Marseille, Lyon, Lille and other French cities. Over the last few weeks, under the guise of the pandemic, we have seen governments issuing and abusing emergency powers in Europe, specially the UK, Germany, US states control by the Democrats. But now, Macron, who said, soon after his election, that he will rule like the Roman god "Jupiter, has issued a global security law. France’s lower chamber already approved the whole bill last Tuesday. The new law imposes a general surveillance for the many and a privileged disclosure for the few, as they provide for ground mass surveillance, air mass surveillance and a ban on documenting police action…..
Germany's recent law has angered the people who demonstrated in their thousands, and has also been condemned by politicians and the legal professions, some even liken it to how Adolf Hitler legally seized power with something called ‘The Enabling Act’ which granted him such far-reaching powers that it would create a war that brought the free world to the brink of destruction. Critics have said the law will give the government too much power and endanger citizen’s civil rights without the approval of parliament.
Award-winning - and newly independent - journalist Matt Taibbi (of “vampire squid” fame) returns to Peak Prosperity to break down for us how the news media industry became corrupted by the profit motive and now intentionally produces content to “entertain” rather than “inform”. The five media behemoths who own more than 90% of all US media outlets (Comcast, Viacom, Disney, Time Warner, Newscorp) have discovered that it’s much more profitable to focus on discrete audience segments and give them the information they want to hear. Which is why the time-honored approach of “just the facts” reporting to a general audience has practically disappeared. There’s less money in it, so it’s just not pursued anymore.
The latest Ofcom research has seen BBC News fall to the lowest-ranked TV news offering in the country, below Sky, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Just 58% of viewers now rate the corporation’s TV news offering as impartial, with Ofcom warning that the viewer-broadcaster relationship could be “jeopardised” if this current state of affairs continues.
Start with the headline: Supporting the 2020 U.S. Election. YouTube in its company blog can’t even say, “Banning Election Conspiracy Theories.” They have to employ the Orwellian language of politicians — Healthy Forests, Clear Skies, “Supported” Elections — because Google and YouTube are now political actors, who can’t speak plainly any more than a drunk can walk in a straight line……This announcement came down at roughly the same time Hunter Biden was announcing that his “tax affairs” were under investigation by the U.S. Attorney in Delaware. Part of that investigation concerned whether or not he had violated tax and money laundering laws in, as CNN put it, “foreign countries, principally China.” Information suggestive of money-laundering and tax issues in China and other countries was in the cache of emails reported in the New York Post story blocked by Twitter and Facebook. That news was denounced as Russian disinformation by virtually everyone in “reputable” media, who often dismissed the story with an aristocratic snort, a la Christiane Amanpour…..That tale was not Russian disinformation, however, and Biden’s announcement this week strongly suggests Twitter and Facebook suppressed a real story of legitimate public interest just before a presidential election.
Hunter Biden has been subpoenaed by federal investigators over his involvement with at least two dozen entities - including Ukrainian gas company Burisma, according to the Associated Press, citing a 'person familiar with a Justice Department tax investigation."….. The subpoena also covers Hunter's Chinese business dealings and other financial transactions. AP also notes that Hunter fell under investigation in 2018 - knowledge which somehow didn't leak from the DOJ until after the 2020 election. During the election, of course, Hunter was completely off limits - with a virtual press blackout on the subject, and President Trump receiving a sharp rebuke from debate moderator Chris Wallace for bringing it up.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Attorney General William Barr was aware of investigations involving President-elect Joe Biden’s son since before the spring and has resisted pressure from Republicans in Congress for information into the investigations….President Trump on Saturday described Barr as a “big disappointment” after a report claiming the nation’s top lawyer knew about the Hunter Biden investigation months ago.
Joe Biden has repeatedly denied involvement with son’s business dealings. Hunter Biden requested in 2017 that keys be made for his new "office mates," listing his father, President-elect Joe Biden, Jill Biden and his uncle, Jim Biden, for space he planned to share with an "emissary" for a chairman of a Chinese energy company, according to an email obtained by Fox News. The Sept. 20, 2017 email, obtained by Fox News, shows Hunter requesting keys for Joe and Jill Biden, along with his uncle, Jim Biden, to the general manager, Cecilia Browning, at the House of Sweden -- a building in Washington, D.C., which contains multiple office suites, as well as a number of embassies.
A suspected Chinese intelligence operative developed extensive ties with local and national politicians, including a U.S. congressman, in what U.S. officials believe was a political intelligence operation run by China’s main civilian spy agency between 2011 and 2015, Axios found in a year long investigation. Why it matters: The alleged operation offers a rare window into how Beijing has tried to gain access to and influence U.S. political circles…… The case demonstrates China’s strategy of cultivating relationships that may take years or even decades to bear fruit. The Chinese Communist Party knows that today’s mayors and city council members are tomorrow’s governors and members of Congress…. Democrats dominate the Bay Area, from mayors to its numerous U.S. congressional districts, and anyone seeking proximity to power needs to be in their political circles….. In January 2015, Swalwell was assigned a seat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, serving as the lead Democrat on the subcommittee on CIA oversight.
China's agents are overwhelming U.S. law enforcement. FBI Director Christopher Wray, in July at an event sponsored by the Hudson Institute, said that "almost half" of the bureau's counterintelligence cases are against China. The FBI opens a "China-related" counterintelligence case "about every 10 hours."….. There is one way to meet this espionage-flood emergency: shut down China's bases of operations in the U.S. This means closing Beijing's four remaining consulates — Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco — and substantially reducing the staff of the embassy. The embassy, in reality, needs only the ambassador, immediate family, and personal staff, not the hundreds currently assigned there.
Sky News host Cory Bernardi says it should come as no surprise that the Chinese Communist Party has placed its members in key strategic government and commercial roles as it's been “actively infiltrating” the west for years. A major leak containing a register with the details of nearly two million CCP members has occurred – exposing members who are now working all over the world. The leak revealed the names, party position, birthday, national ID number and ethnicity of the 1.9 million members with some being revealed as working in major government institutions.
A new Chinese state-sponsored hacking group (also known as an APT) has infected more than 200 systems across Southeast Asia with malware over the past two years. The malware infections are part of a widespread cyber-espionage campaign carried out by a group named FunnyDream, according to a new report published today by security firm Bitdefender. The attacks have primarily targeted Southeast Asian governments. While Bitdefender has not named any victim countries, a report published earlier this spring by fellow security firm Kaspersky Lab has identified FunnyDream targets in Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines, with the most victims being located in Vietnam. Both Bitdefender and Kaspersky said the group is still active even today and appears to be primarily interested in cyber-espionage, concentrating on stealing sensitive documents from infected hosts, with a special focus on national security and industrial espionage. Computer generated vortex background of dense clouds. A new Chinese state-sponsored hacking group (also known as an APT) has infected more than 200 systems across Southeast Asia with malware over the past two years. Similar attacks dating back to 2018. Each of the three malware strains has a precise role. Chinoxy was deployed as the initial malware, acting as a simple backdoor for initial access. PCShare, a known Chinese open-source remote access trojan, was deployed via Chinoxy and was used for exploring infected hosts. FunnyDream was deployed with the help of PCShare, and was the most potent and feature-rich of the three, had more advanced persistence and communication capabilities, and was used for data gathering and exfiltration.
The Supreme Court Friday rejected the state of Texas’s motion to leave challenging the constitutionality of Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s wins in the key swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin. “The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot,” the order reads. 6 Things To Know About Texas’s Supreme Court Petition Over 2020’s Messed-Up Election - Texas argues that the case ‘presents constitutional questions of immense national consequences,’ namely that the 2020 election suffered from serious constitutional irregularities.
Axios' Jonathan Swan reports that in Trump's final weeks in office the president plans to unveil a series of "hardline policies" on China with the ultimate aim of making it "politically untenable for the Biden administration to change course." Very much akin to 'maximum pressure' on Iran, where the administration has also slapped any and all sanctions possible in order to try and make a Biden presidency's attempt to restore US participation in the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA) near impossible, Trump wants to hem in the coming Biden administration and the ability for a Sino-US relations detente on a range of things like the Taiwan issue to China's intervention in Hong Kong to human rights to Chinese tech as a backdoor for spying. Swan writes, "He'll try to make it politically untenable for the Biden administration to change course as China acts aggressively from India to Hong Kong to Taiwan, and the pandemic triggers a second global wave of shutdowns."
Sudden Default By AAA-Rated Chinese State-Owned Coal Miner Sends Shockwaves Across Markets “Our investment decision had been based on the belief that triple-A rated state firms are safe investments regardless of their fundamentals,” said the chief ratings officer at a Shanghai-based bond fund. “That’s no longer the case.”
Concern is growing within Canada’s spy agency about the threat posed by hostile state actors, especially China and Russia, looking to steal intellectual property and “large digital data sets” from private companies and academic institutions. Such data sets can contain huge volumes of personal information and have the potential to reveal a “detailed picture of the day-to-day activities” of individuals and organizations they work for that might be used for “coercion operations,” according to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service….Earlier this year, the U.S. Justice Department announced indictments against four members of China’s People’s Liberation Army accused of hacking into the databases of credit-reporting agency Equifax and obtaining the names, birthdates and social security numbers of nearly half of all U.S. citizens. U.S. Attorney General William Barr at the time noted this was just the latest in a series of alleged incursions by China. In 2015, for instance, U.S. officials accused Chinese government hackers of breaching the computer system of the U.S. government’s Office of Personnel Management, which contains the information of millions of federal employees.
Plans to build a 500-ship Navy are still intact as the Trump administration ushered in a host of new leaders at the Pentagon this week -- though the top admiral overseeing shipbuilding says challenges remain. Battle Force 2045, Defense Secretary Mark Esper's ambitious plan to nearly double the size of the Navy fleet, is still underway. Esper was fired by President Donald Trump's this week, and several new civilian leaders were installed to replace him and other top policy staffers. So far though, there's no indication that the plan Esper announced last month won't move forward, Vice Adm. William Galinis, the head of Naval Sea Systems Command, told reporters this week. "I don't see any change to that right now," Galinis said. "We'll have to see how things play out over the next several weeks here, but I don't see any change."
Court records do not spell out the specific charge to which he is expected to plead; when he was arrested in August, he was charged under the federal Espionage Act with divulging U.S. military secrets about his unit’s activities in former Soviet republics to Russian intelligence agents. Debbins' attorney did not return an email Monday seeking comment. Debbins, a Minnesota native, had a 15-year relationship with Russian intelligence, according to the indictment issued earlier this year. It began in late 1996 when he was still an ROTC undergrad at the University of Minnesota and on a visit to Russia for an independent study program gave a Russian handler the names of four Catholic nuns he had visited.
Numerous U.S. fishing boats were operating inside exclusive U.S. fishing territory off the coast of Alaska on Aug. 26, when they started receiving transmissions from Russian warships and warplanes, telling them to leave the area. Alaska Public Media reported on the incident in August, as U.S. vessels said they were being ordered away from Russian warships even inside the U.S. exclusive economic zone, an area where the U.S. retains exclusive fishing rights, but their vessels from other nations can still operate. According to the New York Times, The Russian vessels were operating as part of a military exercise known as Ocean Shield, which involved some 50 warships and 40 aircraft operating throughout the Bering Sea, off the Alaskan coast… The New York Times has since reported on the personal accounts of a number of different U.S. fishing boat operators who received commands from Russian military, including one fishing boat operator who wondered “are we being invaded?”
A Chinese professor accused of stealing trade secrets for Huawei Technologies Co. will plead guilty to a reduced charge and be allowed to return to China, lawyers told a U.S. judge on Thursday. Bo Mao, a computer science professor at Xiamen University in China and a visiting professor at the University of Texas, will admit to a single count of making a false statement. U.S. prosecutors will dismiss more serious counts of conspiracy and trade-secrets theft, they said at a hearing Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. The case, initiated last year, was part of a series of moves against Huawei by the the Trump administration, which has portrayed the Chinese telecom giant as a national security threat. Mao was initially held without bail in a federal lockup. The plea is a setback in the federal government’s battle against what it alleges is trade-secret theft by Chinese technology companies….Huawei was previously accused of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and North Korea, as well as of engaging in a 20-year pattern of corporate espionage. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was charged in 2019 with fraud and is currently fighting extradition to the U.S. from Canada. Meng’s lawyers have argued in court that she did nothing wrong, while Huawei has pleaded not guilty and has called the charges “unfounded and unfair.”
The UK's new MI5 director, Ken McCallum, said that countries such as China and Russia were no longer focused just on traditional espionage activities, such as stealing government secrets, but also on targeting Britain's economy, infrastructure, and academic research, while seeking to undermine its democracy. China's ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, later denied threatening the UK by making still another threat: "We make no threats, we threaten nobody. We just let you know the consequences. If you do not want to be our partners and our friends, you want to treat China as a hostile country, you will pay the price. That means you will lose the benefits of treating China as a friend." Meanwhile, Huawei's plans to build a research center in Cambridgeshire are going ahead.
China's Communist Party (CCP) seems to be implementing a multidimensional strategy in the Caribbean, reaping economic, political and potentially military gains a few miles offshore the United States. China's ultimate objective of its Caribbean strategy may well be to confront the US, not only with its presence near the mainland US, but also with a situation analogous to America's military presence in the region of the South China Sea. There, China created new islands in the sea, pledged not to militarize them, then went and militarized them…..Chinese shipments of military and police equipment to several Caribbean states could be developing into beachheads for future People's Liberation Army (PLA) "advisory groups" in the Western Hemisphere. China's construction projects already include the modernization of airports and seaports, which could increase Chinese geopolitical and military influence in the region. Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe already is on record expressing China's willingness to deepen military cooperation with Caribbean countries.
After years of covert infiltration into our political, cultural and educational institutions, the Chinese Communist Party, a regime that tolerates no dissent at home or abroad, now is making no bones about what it has always expected from Australia: subjugation….. At a leadership level, the Australia-China breakdown now seems beyond repair. Australian leaders have been off the invitation list to the Bao Forum — China's annual economic gabfest on Hainan — for years. Chinese ministers refuse to return calls. Almost every Australian export industry has found itself under attack and the ferocity is being lifted almost daily….For years, however, there have been warnings about our overreliance on one market, and the potential danger that posed in the event of either an economic or political meltdown. That day has arrived. It's time for a Plan B.
A major Australian business group has called on the Morrison government to take China to the world trade umpire, saying attempted talks have failed to resolve the widening dispute with Australia’s largest trading partner. As seven export sectors braced for potential trade bans, and with ministerial level contact still frozen, the Australian Industry Group told Guardian Australia businesses would have no choice but to look for other markets “if China continues to turn its back on Australian goods and services”. China Is Trying to Crush Australia - China Australia tensions are at an all time high after Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian took tot Twitter for to make a tweet about alleged Australia war crimes. Scott Morrison responded with fury, as China tariffs become the latest weapon the Chinese Communist Party is using to attack Australia, banning imports of Australian wine for example. Australia China trade is a huge part of the Australian economy, and the CCP is using the Chinese economy as a weapon, to retaliate for Australia's calls for an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus. It looks like the US China Trade War won't be the only game in town!
Two internment camps recently identified by satellite imagery in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) appear to be separated by a cemetery and crematorium, raising fears that authorities are working to cover up deaths in the facilities. Earlier this week, Bahtiyar Omar, the director of the Norway-based Uyghur Transitional Justice Database (UTJD), provided RFA’s Uyghur Service with images from Google Earth Pro that clearly show the construction of camps and associated factories outside of the seat of the XUAR’s Aksu (in Chinese, Akesu) prefecture between 2017 and 2019. The camps are part of a vast network of similar facilities throughout the XUAR where regional authorities are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities since early 2017. Amid increasing international scrutiny, authorities have begun to send detainees to work at nearby factories as part of an effort to label the camps “vocational centers,” although those held in the facilities regularly toil under forced or coerced labor conditions.
Many have feared US tensions with China are on such an edge on multiple fronts, also through allies in the region, that war could easily erupt based on what in normal times might be seen as a small encounter or incident. And now, Henry Kissinger has raised his warning levels during the opening session of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, telling the incoming Biden administration should move quickly to restore lines of communication with China that frayed during the Trump years or risk a crisis that could escalate into military conflict. When we previously heard from the former US secretary of state on the last couple of occasions, he was warning that a permanent conflict between Washington And Beijing would be unwinnable and lead to “catastrophic outcome"... “It’s no longer possible to think that one side can dominate the other… it will be worse than the world wars that ruined European civilisation,” said Kissinger. The 96-year-old noted that there is an important difference between previous times and now: "American endurance then was fortified by an ultimate national purpose. Now, in a divided country, efficient and farsighted government is necessary to overcome obstacles unprecedented in magnitude and global scope," "Sustaining the public trust is crucial to social solidarity, to the relation of societies with each other, and to international peace and stability," he said.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, a four-day event swarming with establishmentarians and globalists, former Treasury secretary Hank Paulson made the first case for a post-Trump China detente, when he said that the incoming Biden administration should start a new round of bilateral negotiations with China aimed at fair trade and competition, in effect undoing the past 4 years of escalating trade tensions between the two superpowers sparked by Trump's China hawks who rightfully see an ascendent China as the largest threat to the US over the next decade as even Bloomberg confirmed in its hypothetical look at the global economy in 2050. "We’ll need to deal with structural and process issues that include services, not just goods," Paulson said adding that "the agreement should be done in phases with regular deliverables, beginning with easier issues that build momentum to tackle the tough ones." Paulson also called for a shift away from what he called "reflexive reciprocity" to “targeted reciprocity” to ensure that the strategic competition between the world’s two largest economies won’t result in the U.S. closing itself off to the world. In other words, a return to the type of globalism that led to the evisceration of the US middle class in recent decades.
Wall Street is selling out the United States to Communist China. US China policy for decades has been influenced by Wall Street lobbyists at companies like Blackrock, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and pushed forward by willing politicians. And now China wants the great reset of US China relations. And their old friends in Wall Street are helping. Plus, Chinese dean Di Dongsheng was caught in a speech bragging about how China captures American elite.
Big Tech companies have a BIG China problem. China uses slave labor in manufacturing. And Big Tech companies, like Apple and Intel have supply chains in China. That means their stuff is often made by prison labor or slave labor, often from the Uyghur Muslims, a persecuted minority from Xinjiang. And rather than dealing with supply chain issues, Big Tech companies are actively lobbying the US Senate to water down the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would mean big trouble for Big Tech companies caught using Uyghur slave labor in their production lines. Its just one more example of how the US China economy creates some interesting moral dilemmas for Americans.
Globalist Klaus Schwab made it clear that transhumanism is an integral part of “The Great Reset” when he said that the fourth industrial revolution would “lead to a fusion of our physical, digital and biological identity,” which in his book he clarifies is implantable microchips that can read your thoughts.Schwab also waxes lyrical about the transhumanist utopian dream shared by all elitists which will ultimately lead to the creation of human cyborgs…..So in other words, the “fusion of our physical, digital and biological identity” relates to the transhumanist singularity and a future where people have their every movement tracked and every thought read by an implantable microchip.
It isn’t a “conspiracy theory” when they’re openly telling you what they want to do.
Declaring an emergency would require countries to step up their actions on greenhouse gas emissions urgently. An increasing number of governments have a target to reach net zero emissions by around the mid-century, but few have detailed plans on how to get there. Many countries are also pouring money into high-CO2 activities as they strive to recover from the coronavirus crisis and recession. Guterres noted that G20 countries were spending 50% more in their stimulus packages on fossil fuels and CO2-intensive sectors than they were on low-CO2 energy. “This is unacceptable,” he told the online Climate Ambition Summit, co-hosted by the UN, the UK and France. “The trillions of dollars needed for Covid recovery is money that we are borrowing from future generations. This is a moral test. We cannot use these resources to lock in policies that burden future generations with a mountain of debt on a broken planet.” More than 70 world leaders, civil society activists, business chiefs and city mayors are attending the Climate Ambition Summit, which marks five years since the landmark Paris climate agreement.
The UK, France and UN are today hosting a key climate summit ahead of Cop26 in Glasgow next year. The climate crisis is far more destructive than coronavirus, the prime minister Boris Johnson has warned. Speaking at the opening of a key climate summit, Mr Johnson reaffirmed his commitments to bring about a “10-point plan for a green industrial revolution” and to slash the UK’s emissions by 68 per cent by 2030. The prime minister also called for the world to harness “scientific advances to protect our entire planet against a challenge far more destructive even than coronavirus”. He said: “Together, we can reduce our emissions. We can radically cut our dependence on fossil fuels. We can change our agricultural practices.
There is a ready answer for critics who claim the Morrison government is shamed because Australia was not asked to speak at Boris Johnson’s virtual summit last weekend to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change……With the US excluded because of Donald Trump’s intransigence, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Brazil are being painted as climate laggards. China, responsible for half of the world’s emissions, is allowed to keep increasing its emissions through the coming decade. At the weekend talks, President Xi Jinping fell short of presenting a 2030 climate plan that reflects China’s long-term goal to be carbon neutral by 2060. Instead, Mr Xi promised an incremental strengthening of China’s 2030 climate plan, with no mention of curbing coal.
The Morrison government is wise to adopt a measured and practical approach to reductions rather than be pushed around by those who want to adopt the latest fads.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is facing allegations of fraud and corruption linked to the multibillion-dollar Global Environment Facility, …claims of gross financial mismanagement come just 12 months after the U.N. investigated – and cleared – itself of any and all allegations relating to “fraud, misappropriation of funds, systemic corruption, gross nepotism, and sexual misconduct” in regard to the work of the U.N.’s embattled agency for Palestinian “refugees.” Now a copy of a draft report by UNDP’s office of audit and investigations seen by the Times, dated November 2020, describes “financial misstatements” worth millions of dollars across UNDP’s portfolio of GEF-funded projects around the world. …..The (Second) Most Important Bank You've Never Heard Of - It calls itself the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), and it has so far made over $14.5 billion in grants and co-financed a further $75.4 billion. "I suggest therefore that this be sold not through a democratic process - that would take too long and devour far too much of the funds - to educate the cannon fodder, unfortunately, that populates the earth. We have to take almost an elitist program, [so] that we can see beyond our swollen bellies, and look to the future in time frames and in results which are not easily understood, or which can be, with intellectual honesty, be reduced down to some kind of simplistic definition."
Argentina will become only fourth Latin American country where abortion is legal
Argentina is poised to become the first major Latin American country to legalize abortion after legislation was given the green light by lower house. The bill, which was submitted last month by the leftwing president, Alberto Fernández, was approved on Friday morning by a margin of 131 to 117 votes after a 20-hour debate. It will be voted on by the senate at the end of this month.
For several years, stories have surfaced of young boys being molested by older men during their time in the Boy Scouts of America organization. Numerous cases of predatory scout leaders have made the news over the years, but since the organization filed for bankruptcy protection in February, advocates and lawyers from across the country have been encouraging victims to come forward with their accusations of abuse. This week, the Associated Press reported that nearly 90,000 sexual abuse claims were officially filed against the Boy Scouts of America. The exact total of claims was 88,500.
As if you didn't have any doubts before, it appears that everything may not be as buttoned-down as it appears a the Federal Bureau of Investigations. In fact, a stunning new investigation has revealed "at least six sexual misconduct allegations involving senior FBI officials" over the last 5 years, inclusive of two new claims that have been lodged this week alone. The investigation, conducted by the Associated Press, found that each of the accused perpetrators of sexual misconduct "appears to have avoided discipline." Others were "transferred or retired", but were still allowed to keep their full pensions and benefits.
It is a safe bet that most people reading this don’t have much use for The New York Times, the once-grand Gray Lady that long ago devolved into a viper’s pit of progressives who despise everything social conservatives stand for. But that said, when the “paper of record” decides to tackle an issue, it means something. The New York Times still has clout. And last week, one of their most prominent columnists — Nicholas Kristof, the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes — decided to take on Pornhub. Kristof’s column is chillingly titled “The Children of Pornhub,” and he takes no prisoners. He is obviously incensed by what he discovered, and tweeted his findings to none other than the Canadian prime minister: “A special question for Canada, because Pornhub is based in Montreal. Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau, you are rightly proud of your reputation as a feminist. So why does Canada host a company that inflicts rape videos on the world?” Somehow, I suspect that Trudeau won’t answer.
Thoughts in a Dark Time – Dennis Prager This is unprecedented in American history. One might counter that this is not unprecedented, that this was precisely what half the American electorate felt in 2000, when many Democrats rejected the 2000 Supreme Court decision regarding Florida’s ballot counting. But that was entirely different. No one alleged widespread Republican fraud in the election of George W. Bush.
Software engineers report Dominion flipped ‘minimum of 138,000 votes’ from Trump to Biden in Michigan – Leo Hohmann A bombshell analysis of four counties in Michigan has been released by a team of mathematical experts led by an MIT-educated scientist that concludes tens of thousands of votes were transferred from Donald Trump to Joe Biden in that state. The post Software engineers report Dominion flipped ‘minimum of 138,000 votes’ from Trump to Biden in Michigan – Leo Hohmann appeared first on Olive Tree Ministries.
Pennsylvanians in Israel who voted Trump discover their absentee ballots disappeared Israel is estimated to boast the world’s third-largest community of eligible U.S. voters abroad with no less than 188,499 Americans in Israel that qualified to vote in the US election. And although most Jews in the US favored Democratic candidate Joe Biden, in Israel, it’s almost the opposite. A recent survey revealed that 75% of American Jews in America favored Democratic candidate Joe Biden whil...
The Trump administration is expected to cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan almost in half to 2,500 by Jan. 15, U.S. officials said Monday. The order would stop short of outgoing President Donald Trump’s goal to have all troops withdrawn by the end of the year, which had faced opposition from military and diplomatic advisers. The Pentagon also expects to cut the number of troops in Iraq to 2,500, a reduction of more than 500. The decisions come as no surprise, following Trump’s shake-up of the Pentagon leadership last week in which he installed loyalists who share his frustration with the continued troop presence in the war zones…..The officials said military leaders were told over the weekend about the planned withdrawals and an executive order is in the works but has not yet been delivered to commanders. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. There are between 4,500 and 5,000 troops in Afghanistan now, and more than 3,000 in Iraq.
Significant Oil Fire Breaks Out in Pipeline Connecting Lebanon to Iraq The fire broke out in northern Lebanon on Friday and is considered to be an attack on oil resources; Special materials were needed to extinguish the fire. In what is believed to be a plotted attack on oil resources in northern Lebanon, a significant fire broke out on Friday in several places after multiple holes were drilled in the pipeline. The fire broke out in Akkar on a pipeline that connects ...
Former CIA Director John Brennan is apparently so worried that Donald Trump might release certain classified intelligence that he suggested this week that Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet remove Trump via the 25th amendment. Brennan warned on CNN that it was “very, very worrisome” that Trump “is just very unpredictable now … like a cornered cat — tiger. And he’s going to lash out.” Brennan told MSNBC he was worried that Trump has called for the “wholesale declassification of intelligence in order to further his own political interests.” Whom would he lash out at and what classified documents might Brennan be referring to?The CIA’s point man at The Washington Post, David Ignatius, has provided the answer: “President Trump’s senior military and intelligence officials have been warning him strongly against declassifying information about Russia that his advisers say would compromise sensitive collection methods and anger key allies. An intense battle over this issue has raged within the administration in the days before and after the Nov. 3 presidential election. Trump and his allies want the information public because they believe it would rebut claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin supported Trump in 2016. That may sound like ancient history, but for Trump it remains ground zero — the moment when his political problems began.”
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