China Stole At Least $1 Billion In Trade Secrets & Research From US: State Dept

After this week the FBI said the Chinese government is acting like "an organized criminal syndicate" for widespread cyber theft and hacking of American trade secrets as well as coronavirus research, State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said on Thursday it's estimated that China stole at least $1 billion total in research from the United States.

She further identified the Chinese consulate in Houston, which the US has ordered closed and to "cease all operations and events," as being "the epicenter" of the alleged research theft.

Mike Pompeo is expected to further address the matter this morning, as well as possibly the search for a Chinese military researcher in California wanted by the FBI, but who subsequently was given safe harbor in the Chinese consulate in San Francisco.

An angered Beijing has vowed to issue reciprocal measures in the wake of the Houston consulate closure.

But China's foreign ministry has been vowing such a response also in the wake of human rights abuse related sanctions the Trump administrations rolled out earlier this month.

Nothing significant has yet to materialize, however, as it appears Beijing is looking for an off-ramp amid the intense Washington pressure campaign. So far it remains at the level of serious counter-threats:

Meanwhile, all of this is just in time for a major gathering for China's top decision-making body:

"…scheduled for the end of this month, it will be closely watched by economists and analysts keen on sussing out signals from the top Chinese leadership over what Beijing will do next, after the nation saw surprising economic growth in the second quarter.

At the mid-year meeting of the 25-member Politburo of the ruling Communist Party, President Xi Jinping is expected to set the tone for future economic policies in the second half of the year and even beyond."

Recall that previously foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian promised that “In response to the wrongful move by the US, China has decided to take reciprocal action against institutions and individuals who have acted egregiously on Xinjiang affairs.”

Thus we could finally see what these big measures are following the Politburo meeting soon to take place by close of this month.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/state-dept-china-stole-least-1-billion-trade-secrets-research-us

Bill Gates Says “Multiple Vaccine Doses May Be Necessary” to Protect People from Coronavirus

This guy gets creepier by the day.

Bill Gates told CBS News that “multiple doses may be necessary” to protect Americans from the coronavirus — A disease that has a lower mortality rate in children than the seasonal flu.

Gates said this could require over 7 billion vaccinations given worldwide.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Wednesday that people could need multiple doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine to immunize themselves from the coronavirus. If necessary, the multiple doses could require more than 7 billion vaccinations to be administered worldwide.

“None of the vaccines at this point appear like they’ll work with a single dose,” Gates said. “That was the hope at the very beginning.”

Democrats will no doubt make this mandatory.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/bill-gates-says-multiple-vaccine-doses-may-necessary-protect-people-coronavirus/

DC Mayor Exempts City and Federal Workers from Mask Policy on Same Day She Launches Investigation on President Trump for Not Wearing a Mask in His Hotel

Mayor Muriel Bowser speaking on Black Lives Matter in June.

More Democrat Hypocrisy–

On Wednesday Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser exempted many city and federal government workers from her strict new mask order.

Also on Wednesday Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser also launched an investigation of Trump Hotel after President Trump was seen speaking to supporters on his way to or from a fundraiser without a mask on.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8551031/D-C-mayor-launches-investigation-Trump-hotel-president-failed-wear-mask-there.html

President Trump briefly met Republican candidate Madison Cawthorne at his DC Hotel on Tuesday.

This upset the local liberal media reporters.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/dc-mayor-exempts-city-federal-workers-mask-policy-day-launches-investigation-president-trump-not-wearing-mask-hotel/

Judge says Michael Cohen’s jailing ‘retaliation’ for book about Trump & orders lawyer released

A federal judge has ordered ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen released from prison by Friday, ruling his return to lockup was retaliation. Cohen had refused to agree not to publish a book about the president while under house arrest.

Cohen was returned to prison earlier this month, after being furloughed in May amid concerns over the Covid-19 outbreak. Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled on Thursday that the decision was “retaliatory.” The day before he was sent back to prison, Cohen refused to agree to not publish a book about President Donald Trump while serving the remainder of his three-year sentence at home, the judge explained in his decision ordering the lawyer released.

“I’ve never seen such a clause, in 21 years in being a judge,” Hellerstein declared during the hearing. “How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?”

While the former presidential fixer was photographed eating at a Manhattan restaurant while under “house arrest,” the American Civil Liberties Union and law firm Perry Guha LLP filed a lawsuit arguing Cohen that was actually being re-imprisoned because he planned to publish a book, calling his incarceration “a brazen assault on the First Amendment.”

While furloughed, Cohen tweeted that he was “close to completion” of a tell-all book about his relationship with Trump, teasing a September publication date. According to the lawsuit, he was presented with a choice: agree not to speak to the media in any form, including via book publication, or stay in jail.

Federal prosecutors denied prison officials even knew about Cohen’s plans to write a book when they drafted the house arrest agreement, instead claiming the lawyer was re-arrested because he became “combative” when presented with the terms. Cohen took issue with requirements that the Bureau of Prisons and Probation Office approve his employment, the ban on associating with convicted felons, the restriction on grocery shopping, and the requirement to submit to electronic monitoring, according to a memo submitted in opposition to the ACLU's suit, and refused to sign it.

Arguing Cohen should remain in prison, prosecutors also noted he hadn’t produced any evidence he would “suffer irreparable harm as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic if he remains incarcerated” and suggested his attempt to once again secure release was merely “another effort to inject himself into the news cycle.”

Cohen is currently locked up at Otisville Federal Correctional Institution, serving a three year sentence after pleading guilty to lying to Congress, tax and bank fraud, and coordinating hush-money payments to two women claiming to have had affairs with Trump. His willingness to turn state’s evidence against his former boss has led Trump to repeatedly denounce him as a “rat.”

https://www.rt.com/usa/495638-michael-cohen-ordered-released-retaliation/

Intel Expert Bill Binney on Live Stream – Evidence Shows DNC Was Not Hacked (by Russia) – Evidence Points to CIA Involvement

Bill Binney is on a livestream video feed going on now. He claims DNC was not hacked by Russia. Evidence supports to the CIA not Russia.

“A Good American” Bill Binney is on a livestream now attempted to get out the truth that there is no evidence the DNC was hacked by Russia and he started with a bomb:

Binney’s story is highlighted in the documentary “A Good American”

https://youtu.be/666wsDcoNrU

Binney started by discussing what he shared in a previous interview:

Then Binney dropped this bomb: Evidence indicates CIA not Russia involved in the DNC hack fairy tale.

IRA (the Russians) named in court document are no way related to data hack. Fought in court and US could not prove Russia did it. (See our Concord Management related posts).

(NOTE – we were temporarily shut down as we attempted to post this article)

This is all part of a planned coup.

The sedition against this government is kept hidden but too many people know now what went on.

Current CIA Head Gina Haspel was in London at the time of Steele dossier.

Here is link to site: SchillerInstitute

Democrats should pay a heavy penalty for fabrication and lies related to this whole coup attempt.

We need to send a message to Democrats – who try to subdue elections.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/intel-expert-bill-binney-live-stream-evidence-shows-dnc-not-hacked-russia-evidence-points-cia/

Twitter Hackers Accessed Direct Messages in 36 Accounts, Including Elected Official

The Twitter hackers who breached the accounts of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and more than 100 other targets accessed the direct message inboxes of up to 36 of the victims, the social media giant announced on July 22.

“We believe that for up to 36 of the 130 targeted accounts, the attackers accessed the [direct message] inbox, including one elected official in the Netherlands. To date, we have no indication that any other former or current elected official had their [direct messages] accessed,” the company said in a statement.

Direct messages on Twitter are a private form of communication which is never displayed to the public. While Twitter did not reveal which accounts had their inboxes compromised, the news added significant suspense to the incident because the hack impacted the who’s-who in international business and entertainment, including Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett.

Twitter’s disclosure that there is no indication that “any other former or current elected official had their DMs accessed,” suggests that the inboxes of Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg, both former elected officials, were not broken into.

Twitter said it had conducted a “complete review of all targeted accounts” before disclosing the news of the compromised inboxes. The company said it would be contacting the owners of the accounts.

On July 15, hackers gained access to 130 Twitter accounts and posted messages containing a common bitcoin scam. The attack generated just over $117,000, prompting cybersecurity experts to assess that the bitcoin scheme was a cover for a more sinister breach.

Twitter said the hackers used social engineering, a low-tech approach which involves manipulating Twitter employees. The attackers gained access to an internal Twitter dashboard available only to support staff and used it to reset the passwords for 45 accounts. The hackers then logged into the accounts and sent tweets on their behalf.

Twitter had announced earlier that the attackers also downloaded the complete Twitter data from eight accounts using the “Your Twitter Data” tool. None of the eight accounts were “verified”, the company said, meaning it did not impact the major business and politics luminaries.

The FBI opened an investigation into the hack. Twitter said it is cooperating with authorities.

While Twitter has had security incidents in the past, the July 15 attack was by far the most brazen and far-reaching. In 2017, a rogue employee briefly deleted President Donald Trump’s account. Last year, a hacker gained access to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s account and posted racist messages.

Twitter’s share price has not been affected by the breach.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/twitter-hackers-accessed-direct-messages-in-36-accounts-including-elected-official_3435032.html

US claims China hides ‘military spy scientist’ at SF consulate; Beijing calls it bias-motivated harassment

US prosecutors have accused the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco of harboring a scientist wanted for visa fraud. Beijing said Washington is using any excuse to harass Chinese scholars.

A Chinese medical scientist suspected of obtaining a US visa on false pretenses may be hiding in the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, the FBI believes, according to a court filing.

Asked about the claim on Thursday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman accused the US government of being biased against Chinese scholars and using any pretext to harass them.

“For some time, the US has held ideological bias to continuously surveil, harass and even arbitrarily detain Chinese students and scholars in the US,” Wang Wenbin said during a daily briefing.

We urge the US to stop using any excuse to restrict, harass or oppress Chinese students and researchers in the US.

The person in the focus of the row is Juan Tang, who worked at the University of California, Davis (UCD). Last month she was charged with visa fraud after US prosecutors accused her of pretending to be a civilian while actually being a member of the Chinese military.

In court papers filed on Monday in a case against another Chinese scientist, allegations against Tang were cited as an example of a similar crime. Among other things, the complaint said that after her home was searched on June 20, Tang “went to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, where the FBI assesses she has remained.” Axios was the first media outlet to notice the alleged involvement of the Chinese diplomatic mission and report on it.

The filing, which argues for keeping a Stanford neuroscientist named Chen Song in custody, cites two other recent cases in addition to Tang’s, in which Chinese researchers were accused of hiding their military connections to gain entrance to the US.

The crackdown appears to be part of Washington’s effort to root out Chinese scientists and students from US universities. The US government claims many Chinese nationals are on a mission to steal American intellectual property under the guise of academic work.

The accusation of harboring a wanted fraudster was revealed just after the US ordered China to shut down its consulate in Houston within 72 hours, accusing it of being involved in espionage. President Donald Trump said more Chinese consulates may be forced to shut down.

https://www.rt.com/news/495593-chinese-consulate-fugitive-scientist/

No real denial

Gordon Johnson: Tesla "Engaged In Accounting Games" To Make Their Q2 Profit

Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research put out a note after Tesla's earnings telling us what we already know for the most part: Tesla's growth story is an illusion and the company was only able to turn a profit when it reported yesterday due to the sale of regulatory credits an other financial engineering.

Post-earnings, Johnson wrote that it was how the company achieved the numbers that was the real feat.

Johnson had predicted prior to earnings that the company would turn a profit, though even his wildest expectations in terms of how many regulatory credits the company would sell would turn out to be way short of the massive $428 million worth that they sold this quarter (a new record).

Without regulatory credit sales, as @TeslaCharts points out, it is a starkly different picture for Tesla's earnings:

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/gordon-johnson-tesla-engaged-accounting-games-make-their-q2-profit

Documentary: How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World ep. 4–Mass Killing in the East pt. 2

Portland protesters issue their 'list' of demands amid teargassing, riots

Clear as mud

Portland, Oregon, rioters listed their demands Wednesday amid the protests gripping the city.

The group of rioters projected a list of their demands onto a nearby building as Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler talked to the crowd about the continually deteriorating conditions of the city.

A reporter for KPTV-TV shared the demands on Twitter, writing, "Directly behind Mayor Wheeler, a list of protesters' demands projected on the Justice Center."

The demands included defunding the Portland Police Bureau by a minimum of 50%, with the money being reallocated to "reinvest into the communities, especially the black community."

The rioters also demanded authorities free all protesters from jail, and remove the presence of all federal law enforcement officers from the Portland area.

Demonstrators also demanded Wheeler resign as mayor.

'It is an unconstitutional occupation'

A portion of Wheeler's Wednesday speech addressing protesters could be heard in a video clip, according to KGW-TV.

"I think what we're doing tonight is actually the best thing we can do right now," he said. "Be here, be heard, be unified, and be clear. We didn't want [federal police], we didn't ask for them, they're not trained for what they're being asked to do. And we want them to leave."

He added, "It is an unconstitutional occupation. The tactics that have been used by our federal officers are abhorrent. They did not act with probable cause, people are not being told who they are being arrested by, and you're being denied basic constitutional rights."

Protesters gathered Wednesday night and teargassed the mayor, screaming "F*** Ted Wheeler" and more.

Federal officers also ended up gassing Wheeler and other protesters during the evening appearance.

"I'm not afraid, but I am pissed off," Wheeler told the New York Times about the gassing. "This is an egregious overreaction on the part of the federal officers."

"This is not a de-escalation strategy. This is flat-out urban warfare," Wheeler added. "And it's being wrought on the people of this country by the president of the United States and it's got to stop."

You can read more about the status of the city, which continues to spiral out of control, here.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/portland-protesters-list-of-demands

Patricia McCloskey's ​gun was inoperable when seized, so a St. Louis prosecutor ordered crime lab to reassemble it and make it operational

The St. Louis couple says the gun was a 'prop' for a court case and has been disabled ever since

The handgun Patricia McCloskey was armed with when a large group of protesters marched near her home in St. Louis was inoperable when seized by police. A St. Louis prosecutor ordered the crime lab to dismantle and then reassemble the firearm to make it functional, according to a report from KSDK-TV.

St. Louis couple Mark and Patricia McCloskey brandished firearms after 500 protesters marched into a gated community in the affluent Central West End neighborhood on June 28. The two St. Louis attorneys stood outside their home and were ready to protect their property.

St. Louis police served a search warrant on the McCloskeys earlier this month. Police confiscated the couple's guns that they were holding during the encounter with demonstrators in June — an AR-15 and a handgun. Patricia McCloskey's handgun was inoperable when it was seized by law enforcement.

The McCloskeys said that the handgun was purposely made inoperable. The firearm was allegedly used as a "prop" so that it could be brought into a courtroom for a lawsuit the couple once filed against a gun manufacturer. The handgun had its firing pin rendered inoperable to make it safe to bring into the courtroom. The couple claim they never reassembled the gun to enable it to be functional.

Mark McCloskey appeared on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" earlier this week, where he hinted that the firearms were taken by law enforcement to see if they were operational and that there would soon be "some revelations."

"The technicality of the law is, they have to determine whether or not the weapons were readily capable of being fatal or causing serious bodily harm, and so they have to take them and test them and that sort of thing," McCloskey told Tucker Carlson. "There will be some revelations about that."

A member of Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner's staff ordered crime lab experts to disassemble and reassemble the handgun. Once it was reassembled correctly, the gun was "readily capable of lethal use."

"Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Hinckley ordered crime lab staff members to field strip the handgun and found it had been assembled incorrectly. Specifically, the firing pin spring was put in front of the firing pin, which was backward, and made the gun incapable of firing," according to documents obtained by KSDK.

Prosecutors had the crime lab reassemble Patricia McCloskey's handgun. The crime lab test-fired the handgun successfully. It was restored as a "deadly weapon" on Monday.

Also on Monday, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner filed charges against the McCloskeys with a felony count of unlawful use of a weapon.

Gardner alleged that the McCloskeys waved their weapons in a "threatening manner" at "peaceful, unarmed protesters."

"It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in a nonviolent protest, and while we are fortunate this situation did not escalate into deadly force, this type of conduct is unacceptable in St. Louis," Gardner wrote.

The McCloskeys' attorney, Joel Schwartz, told KSDK that the St. Louis couple intentionally misplaced the firing pin on the handgun and that it was in that condition when Patricia McCloskey waved it at protesters and when it was turned in to their former attorney Al Watkins.

"It's disheartening to learn that a law enforcement agency altered evidence in order to prosecute an innocent member of the community," Schwartz said.

On Sunday, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) said he would consider a pardon in the McCloskeys' case.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/gun-couple-mccloskey-inoperable-st-louis-prosecutor

180+ Human Rights Groups: World Fashion Brands Using Chinese Slave-Harvested Cotton

Nearly 200 global human rights and labor groups launched a campaign Thursday demanding companies stop profiting from China’s enslaved ethnic minorities, noting that “virtually the entire apparel industry is tainted by forced Uyghur and Turkic Muslim labour.”

The group, calling itself the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region, pointed out that over 80 percent of the cotton used to make clothing and other fabrics in China was picked in Xinjiang, making it extremely likely to have been picked by Uyghur slaves.

An estimated 84 percent of cotton in China grows in its western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region — about 20 percent of the cotton in the world, the Coalition noted on its site.

“Almost every major apparel brand and retailer selling cotton products is potentially implicated,” the Coalition asserted. “Right now, there is near certainty that any brand sourcing apparel, textiles, yarn or cotton from the Uyghur Region is profiting from human rights violations, including forced labour, both in the Uyghur Region and more broadly throughout China.”

“Brands continue to source millions of tons of cotton and yarn from the Uyghur Region. Roughly 1 in 5 cotton garments sold globally contains [sic] cotton and/or yarn from the Uyghur Region; it is virtually certain that many of these goods are tainted with forced labour,” the Coalition said in a statement debuting its campaign. “Moreover, apparel brands maintain lucrative partnerships with Chinese corporations implicated in forced labour, including those that benefit from the forced labour transfer of victims from the Uyghur Region to work in factories across China.”

The group is demanding that every company with ties to China “exit the Uyghur Region at every level of their supply chain, from cotton to finished products, to prevent the use of forced labour of Uyghurs and other groups in other facilities, and to end relationships with suppliers supporting the forced labour system.” They are demanding companies reach this goal in 12 months.

Exiting the Uyghur slave trade means not just ending operations in Xinjiang, but cutting ties to any Chinese company or facility that itself has ties to Xinjiang, even if the facilities the companies use are not there. It adds that companies have “no credible explanation” for how they can do business in China without profiting from slavery.

Among the organizations joining the Coalition are dozens of Uyghur advocacy groups around the world. Joining them, however, are a wide variety of organizations like Tibetan and Hong Kong solidarity groups and human rights NGOs like Human Rights Watch. Unions like the AFL-CIO and the H&M Hong Kong Staff Union have also signed on, as well as Christian charities like Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

“Global brands need to ask themselves how comfortable they are contributing to a genocidal policy against the Uyghur people,” Omer Kanat, the executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said in a statement marking the launch of the campaign. “These companies have somehow managed to avoid scrutiny for complicity in that very policy — this stops today.”

Western governments and human rights groups estimate that China is operating over 1,000 concentration camps in Xinjiang, its westernmost province and home to the majority of the country’s Muslim population. The camps, which the Chinese Communist Party has dubbed “vocational” or “training centers,” indoctrinate prisoners into worshipping dictator Xi Jinping, force them to renounce Islam and the Uyghur language, and enslave them, according to survivors. Survivors also note they experienced torture, rape, forced sterilization, abortion, and other atrocities.

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/07/23/china-infiltrating-global-fashion-industry-slave-cotton/

Portland Commissioner: Police Are ‘Starting the Fires Themselves’ to Justify ‘Attacking Community Members’

Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty told Marie Claire she believes Portland Police are “starting the fires themselves” to justify “attacking community members.”

“I am old enough to remember that during the civil rights movement, the police had provocateurs … intentionally added to the group to do disruptive stuff,” the commissioner told Marie Claire in an interview published Wednesday.

“I have no doubt in my mind, I believe with all my heart, that that is what Portland police are doing,” she continued.

“I believe Portland Police is lying about the damage — or starting the fires themselves — so that they have justification for attacking community members,” Hardesty added.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell responded to Hardesty’s claim — that police officers are committing acts of arson to justify “attacking” protesters — and challenged her to provide evidence of the “completely false” suggestion.

“Commissioner Hardesty’s statement that police officers would commit the crime of arson in order to precipitate their violation of people’s civil rights strains credulity,” Lovell said. “I am interested in seeing what evidence she has to support her accusations.”

“I’m disappointed that an elected official would make a statement like this without providing specific facts to support it. This allegation is completely false,” he added:

Hardesty also accused Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Chad Wolf — who explained this week that federal law enforcement officers were sent to curb “violent criminal activity every single night for 52 nights” after city officials failed to quell the unrest — of lying.

“That is a blatant lie,” she said. “It is a lie that 45 keeps tweeting out, that he came in and somehow fixed Portland.”

“If he’s fixed Portland, why are [federal agents] still brutalizing people every night?” Hardesty continued.

“Because if you can intimidate and silence Portland, which has a long history of direct action protest, then what [do] you think will happen in Mississippi and Louisiana and all the other places?” she asked.

Wednesday marked night 56 of riots in Portland as demonstrators attacked the federal courthouse, prompting a response from federal law enforcement. While Portland Police did not engage with demonstrators, they declared a riot after midnight, although the declaration did little to disperse the crowd:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/07/23/portland-commissioner-police-are-starting-fires-themselves-justify-attacking-community-members/

PRAY FOR EACH OTHER