Top Democrats Join Iranian Regime in Condemning Historic Peace Deal Between Israel and UAE

Top Democrats are now rooting for the enemy.

Top Democrats Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Obama Security Advisor Ben Rhodes joined the Iranian regime and Turkey in condemning the historic peace deal between the UAE and Israel.

Rashida Tlaib is an open anti-Israel activist and squad member in the Democrat Party.

Former Acting DNI Richard Grenell weighed in on the development.

At what point are Democrats labeled an enemy to America and Israel?

The Jerusalem Post reported:

Iran’s regime has led the charge in opposing bilateral peaceful relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. It has been joined by Turkey, which threatened to sever relations with Abu Dhabi, and a few other voices, such as former deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, who played a role in the Obama administration.

The paucity of voices opposing the agreement have brought together an increasingly small chorus that is obsessively critical of Israel or which is aligned with the increasing extremism of Ankara and the regime in Tehran.

Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s head of the judiciary, slammed the UAE deal on Saturday. He said US influence in the region was weakening in the face of the power of Iran’s “Islamic system” and that “the UAE has got in touch with the child killers,” a reference to Israel. “We do not consider the link between UAE and Israel as a link with the people of the UAE, only the ignorant rulers of the country.”

Iran highlighted Palestinian opposition to the UAE agreement, showing photos of Palestinians insulting the crown prince of the UAE and saying, “the road to Jerusalem is paved with the blood of our martyrs.”

Hamas also slammed the move by Israel, the US and the UAE, claiming that relations and normalization with Israel were a red line and a betrayal of Palestinians. A Hamas representative told Tasnim News in Iran that the deal was a betrayal of the “first prayer place” of Muslims, referring to Jerusalem and al-Aqsa mosque.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/top-democrats-join-iranian-regime-condemning-peace-deal-israel-uae/

SEA of people flows through Minsk as protesters across Belarus march against Lukashenko’s presidential victory

ti-government sentiment shows no sign of quieting down in Belarus with tens of thousands attending a protest in the capital, Minsk on Sunday. Hours earlier, a pro-government rally was held in the city.

The demonstration is taking place exactly one week after the controversial presidential election in Belarus. The outcome, which gave incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko his sixth term, was rejected by the opposition, who accused the government of rigging the vote. A police crackdown launched against them angered the general public, with mass protests and walkouts held throughout the week.

Lukashenko rejected all calls to review the results of the election, and has repeatedly referred to his critics as troublemakers trying to oust him in a foreign-orchestrated campaign.

Earlier on Sunday, a pro-government demonstration was held in Minsk with hundreds of thousands of people attending. The president appeared at the rally to thank his supporters and to declare that he would not bow to the pressure because doing so would mean forsaking his country.

Opposition media reported that many of the participants of that rally were brought from outside the city and made to participate under duress.

https://www.rt.com/news/498156-minsk-anti-government-rally/

Another Democrat Lie Exposed: Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to Jake Tapper: “There’s No Sorting Machines Going Offline Between Now and Election”

The Democrat Party a radical anti-cop, Anti-American, open border agenda and a senile candidate for 2020 election.

They have no hope of winning against Donald Trump — the greatest jobs president in US history.

So Democrats know they have to cheat. That includes mail-in voting. They know if they send out millions of ballots to dead people and to old addresses they could capture those fraudulent votes and could quite possibly steal the election.

President Trump knows this too.

Democrats will depend on mail-in voting and the illegal practice of vote harvesting in their attempt to steal the election this year.

The liberal media this week started spreading rumors that President Trump is taking sorting machines offline to sabotage the proposed mail-in voting.

On Sunday morning President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows went on with Jake Tapper and set the record straight.

Mark Meadows: “There’s no sorting machines that are going offline between now and the election. That’s something that my Democrat friends are trying to stoke fear out there. That’s not happening.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/another-democrat-lie-exposed-trump-chief-staff-mark-meadows-jake-tapper-no-sorting-machines-going-offline-now-election-video/

At least 5 dead, 28 injured as gunmen explode car bomb & storm hotel in Mogadishu

A hotel has been attacked by gunmen in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, with at least five people killed. Video posted on social media shows a large plume of smoke emerging from the scene that suffered the explosion.

Reports of the attack emerged on local media on Sunday. Several videos circulating online show dust and smoke emerging from the location, identified as Mogadishu’s Elite Hotel, while gunfire can be heard in the background.

Local media outlets reported that a powerful explosion went off at the hotel before it was stormed by gunmen. Some pinned the blame on Al-Shabaab – a hard-line Islamist militant group, that has ties to Al-Qaeda.

“There are deaths and injuries of civilians who were passing near the hotel and others who were inside the hotel. Among the dead is one director of the Information Ministry,” said the state-run SONNA news agency, citing Information Ministry Spokesman Ismail Mukhtar Omar.

At least 28 people were injured in the attack, local media reported, citing the ambulance service. Five others were killed during the incident, a security official told AFP.

https://www.rt.com/news/498160-gunfire-explosion-mogadishu-hotel/

How The Fed Controlled The Price Of Gold From 1982 Until 1995

An academic study published in 1996 shows evidence that the Federal Reserve was influencing the price of gold over the observed period. The Fed used one of its main interest rate tools, the federal funds rate, to stabilize both the gold price and consumer price inflation

The ones that think gold hasn’t played a significant role in economics in the past decades, might want to reconsider their assumption. Until this day gold has been pivotal in international economics—although since 1971 different phases can be identified. In today’s article we will focus on the period from 1982 until 1995 with respect to U.S. monetary policy and the price of gold.

The Gold Price and Inflation Expectations

In the early 1990s it appeared that the Federal Reserve was tracking the gold price to get a sense of inflation expectations. On February 22, 1994, the Chairman of the Fed, Alan Greenspan, testified for the semiannual monetary policy report to Congress. He began by explaining that low consumer price inflation was key to long-term growth and low unemployment. From Greenspan (emphasis mine):

Lower inflation and inflation expectations reduce uncertainty in economic planning and diminish risk premiums for capital investment.

It follows that price stability, with inflation expectations essentially negligible, should be a long-run goal of macroeconomic policy.

The Fed’s aim was to subdue inflation and therefore inflation expectations, because the latter is what feeds into inflation. When people expect inflation to rise there will be a flight from fiat currency, which leads to higher inflation.

Greenspan elaborated that inflation data, such as the consumer price index (CPI), could only be known with a significant lag. And for monetary policy to affect inflation, an additional lag is added to the process. The full cycle to tame inflation could take a year or more. Ideally, the Fed had a real-time indicator of inflation expectations. In his testimony, Greenspan mentioned gold as “especially sensitive to inflation concerns,” which, next to other indicators, “can give important clues about changing [inflation] expectations.”

Greenspan’s analysis was probably based on the data displayed in the chart below. We can see that in 1968, 1970, 1976, 1982, and 1985, an increase in the gold price preceded an uptick in inflation. Hence, gold price movements could (and still can) be used as an indicator of inflation expectations.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/how-fed-controlled-price-gold-1982-until-1995

Audio Reveals Obama Spy Stefan Halper Was Trying to Infiltrate High Level Positions in Trump Administration

Steven Schrage joined Maria Bartiromo again for his second appearance on Sunday Morning Futures this morning.

Schrage worked with FBI spy Stefan Halper for years.

Steven introduced Stefan Halper to Carter Page back in 2016 while Halper was spying on the Trump campaign.

On Sunday he spoke with Maria Bartiromo again in his second interview.

On Sunday Shrage told Maria Bartiromo that Christopher Steele‘s old boss at MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove was at the conference in London with Stefan Halper and Carter Page back in 2016.

Shrage then released audio of FBI spy Stefan Halper, who spied on the Trump campaign, discussing his desire of being the Secretary of State in the Trump Campaign. In the audio Halper also said he would take the Deputy Secretary of State job.

Halper met with Ivanka Trump during the transition period.

The Trump administration had NO IDEA the number of traitors and spies who he was up against even after he won the 2016 election.

Via Sunday Morning Futures:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/breaking-audio-reveals-obama-spy-stefan-halper-trying-infiltrate-high-level-positions-trump-administration-video/

California Suffers 2nd Day of Blackouts as Wind, Solar Power Falter

California suffered a second day of rolling electricity blackouts on Saturday evening as the state’s power grid struggled to deal with a heat wave that caused a surge in consumer demand.

There was widespread public confusion, as the state’s electricity grid operator had said earlier in the day that no blackouts would be necessary.

Bay Area public radio station KQED reported:

The California Independent System Operator, the agency that manages the state’s complex power grid, had expressed optimism as late as 4:30 p.m. that no emergency declaration would be necessary.

An emergency Friday night — formally known as a Stage 3 System Emergency — had prompted [Pacific Gas & Electric] and other major utilities to conduct rotating blackouts in their service areas. The rolling outages were the first imposed in the state since the electricity deregulation crisis of 2001.

In the Bay Area, the most extensive Friday night outages took place in the North Bay. PG&E said those outages affected about 220,000 customers.

Saturday night’s Stage 3 emergency occurred as most of California endured a second straight day of triple-digit temperatures. The demand for air-conditioning across the state drove consumption levels nearly as high as they had been on Friday.

Critics suggested that the blackouts should not have been necessary, since the state had contracted to buy more power than was demanded on Friday and Saturday.

Officials blamed the “unexpected loss of a 470-megawatt power plant Saturday evening, as well as the loss of nearly 1,000 megawatts of wind power,” the San Jose Mercury News reported. In addition, cloud cover over the desert meant solar energy was in short supply.

The Mercury News noted that a similar series of rolling blackouts in 2001 led eventually to the recall of California Gov. Gray Davis.

A heat wave is expected to continue statewide through Wednesday.

https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2020/08/16/california-suffers-2-days-of-blackouts-as-wind-solar-power-falter/

NSA O’Brien: ‘Possible’ Saudi Arabia Could Be Next to Make Deal with Israel

Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press,” National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien discussed the deal brokered between Israel and the UAE to normalize relations.

He revealed that Saudi Arabia could be next to make a deal with Israel.

O’Brien said, “Last week was quite an accomplishment. It was the result of very hard diplomacy, much of it being quarterbacked by the president of the United States himself on calls with Bibi Netanyahu and Mohammed bin Zayed. He really pushed this over the finish line. But it took a lot of courage by the other leaders as well. As you indicated, there have only been three of these peace treaties since Israel’s founding, so it’s a historic accomplishment. We think that there’s momentum for some additional parties to join and to normalize relations with Israel. We fanned out, as soon as this was announced, and have talked to — I’ve been on the phone with leaders in the region, the president has, Jared Kushner has, Secretary Pompeo has. And so we’re quite hopeful that we can build on this momentum. I can’t give a timeline because these things are tough. You know, these are the toughest negotiations in the world to broker peace between Israel and the Arab and Islamic world, but we’re confident that we think there are a couple of other countries that are going to get on board soon, and we’re looking forward to that.”

Host Chuck Todd asked, “I’m curious, Saudi Arabia. Because they’re the guardians, if you will, of some important religious aspects of Islam, do they end up the last, do you think, to publicly do it? Or could they be next?”

O’Brien said, “Look, it’s possible that they could be next. The three great holy sites in Islam, as you know, Chuck, are Mecca, Medina, and the king of Saudi Arabia is the keeper of those two sites. But the other site is the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and King Hussein of Jordan and Jordan supervises that. One of the great things about this agreement is you’re now going to have direct flights from those fantastic airports, both in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, into Ben Gurion in Tel Aviv. And we’re going to have Arab and Muslim pilgrims coming to Jerusalem and going up to the Mount and worshiping at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. And we think that’s something that will be a great confidence builder. And so, I’m hoping that King Salman and MBS, Mohammed bin Salman, see that development and realize that this would be great for Saudi Arabia, it would be great for the Arab people and for the Islamic world as well. So, we’re hopeful. We’ll have to see what happens, but we’re talking to a number of countries in addition to Saudi Arabia.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/08/16/obrien-possible-saudi-arabia-could-be-next-to-make-deal-with-israel/

“Greater Israel”: The Zionist Plan for the Middle East "Oded Yinon Plan".

https://www.globalresearch.ca/greater-israel-the-zionist-plan-for-the-middle-east/5324815

UN Tells UK: Don’t Use Navy to Stop Illegals, Migrant Numbers Are ‘Low and Manageable’

The UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have told the UK not to use the navy to repel illegal boat migrants coming from France, claiming that Britain can cope with the constant stream of new arrivals because numbers are “low”.

More than 4,500 illegals have crossed the English Channel and landed on Britain’s shores in the first eight months of 2020 — more than double the 1,890 who arrived in the whole of 2019.

Last week, the British government announced that it had asked the military to aid UK Border Force and is considering an Australian-style push-back programme to force boats of illegal migrants back to France.

Not only are the French reportedly playing hardball over accepting back the migrants, but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the IOM — which has said that mass migration is “inevitable, desirable, [and] necessary” — are telling the UK not to repel the boats, either.

The bodies claimed in a press release that they were “troubled by the proposal to intercept boats and return those attempting to cross the English Channel irregularly”, alleging it could cause “harmful and fatal incidents”.

“Although increasing numbers of people have been crossing the Channel by boat this summer, the numbers remain low and manageable,” the globalist bodies said, implying that the UK should simply continue to accept the high number of illegal incursions into Britain.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/16/un-tells-uk-not-use-navy-stop-illegals-claims-migrant-numbers-low-manageable/

Chicago Mayor Lightfoot: ‘Vast Majority’ of Protests ‘Have Been Peaceful’

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the “vast majority” of protests in her city “peaceful.”

On Saturday, 17 officers were injured, and 24 people were arrested after protests turned violent in Chicago.

Lightfoot said, “Unfortunately, what we’ve seen in cities all across the country, not just Chicago, is a continuing wave of protests. The vast majority of these have been peaceful. But what we’ve also seen is people who have embedded themselves in these seemingly peaceful protests and have come for a fight. What happened yesterday was really over very quickly because our police department has resolved to make sure we protect peaceful protests, but we’re absolutely not going to tolerate people who come to these protests looking for a fight, and are intending to injury our police officers and injury innocent people who just come to express their First Amendment rights. That is a very different thing than what than what happened yesterday. Last Sunday was absolutely a planned attack. It is not spontaneous when you bring U-Haul trucks and high-end robbery tools.”

She added, “We’re working with our federal partners to identify exactly who the ring leaders are. We’re actively pursuing cases against others. We’re determined to make sure we get to the bottom of this and bring those responsible for this organized crime effort to justice.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/08/16/chicago-mayor-lightfoot-vast-majority-of-protests-have-been-peaceful/

>>10307809

YOU GLOW

Antifa Goons Go to Sturgis Biker Rally — Big Mistake — Need Police Protection for Their Escape

https://youtu.be/IMnReYrkcgA

https://youtu.be/eQJJrqSLobw

https://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2020/08/antifa-goons-go-to-sturgis-biker-rally.html

Former Senior Police Officers Probed over Asian Child Rape Gang Scandal

A police watchdog is investigating three former senior officers who led a failed inquiry into grooming gangs in Manchester.

Operation Augusta was a 2004 probe into child sexual exploitation by predominantly Pakistani men launched following the death of 15-year-old Victoria Agoglia, who died after reporting being raped and injected with heroin by her 50-year-old male abuser.

A report into the operation’s failures, published earlier this year, revealed that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers had been told to focus their efforts on arresting child sexual exploitation suspects who were not ‘Asian’ so as not to be accused of racism.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is now investigating three ex-policemen who led the operation, which the review found was deliberately under-resourced by senior officers and then closed down in 2005, the BBC reports.

IOPC director of major investigations Steve Noonan said: “We have now decided it is necessary to investigate the individual conduct of these three former GMP officers who were all involved in either supervising or setting the direction of Operation Augusta.”

Two of the officers have since retired from GMP. A third is now working for another organisation, according to the BBC.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who commissioned the report in 2017, said: “Given the seriousness of the issues revealed by the review into Operation Augusta, it is important that they are properly investigated, and that is why I welcome this decision by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

“It is only through robust, impartial investigation that we can truly establish what happened at the time and ensure any mistakes are not repeated.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/16/ex-police-officers-probed-asian-grooming/

Reckless Dr. Fauci Attacks Tucker Carlson Fans as “Crazies” After Tucker Goes Off on Fauci’s Failed Policies and Absurd Comments

His greatest mistake that cost tens-of-thousands of American lives was condemning hydroxychloroquine treatments for coronavirus.

The latest international testing of hydroxychloroquine treatment of coronavirus shows countries that had early use of the drug had a 79% lower mortality rate than countries that banned the use of the safe malaria drug.

This means that Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, the CDC, the liberal fake news media and the tech giants have been pushing a lie that has had deadly consequences!

That could have been lowered by possibly 80% if HCQ use would have been promoted in the US!

http://www.womensystems.com/2020/08/reckless-dr-fauci-attacks-tucker.html

Cologne Antifa Extremist Group Funded by University Student Fees

Cologne University students have donated at least €8,500 from their student fees towards a far-left extremist Antifa group which is under observation by the German security services.

The Cologne General Students’ Committee (AStA) has donated thousands of euros since at least 2010 to the Antifa AK extremist group, according to budget documents. Following the revelation, the local Green University group expressed their full support for Antifa.

“Antifa AK is the student body, and the student body is Antifa!” the Green group wrote on Facebook. It added that Antifa AK was “a working group of the student body of the University of Cologne and thus an integral part of it”, Die Welt reports.

According to the newspaper, the Antifa AK group is on a list of extremist groups observed by the Federal Office for the Protection fo the Constitution (BfV). Germany’s domestic intelligence agency described it as an organisation that “pursues anti-constitutional goals” and “therefore it is an extremist group”.

Students at the University of Cologne pay semester fees of €28o, €205 of which goes to the AStA which is linked to the student government.

The youth wing of the Social Democrats, the Jusos, and the Greens both dominate the student government and have always voted in favour of giving Antifa student cash. The opposition, the Christian Democrat-affiliated RCDS and the Liberal University Group, has voted against the spending but is a minority in the student government.

German security services are currently monitoring at least 47 Antifa extremist groups, with the BfV stating that there are far more extremist leftist groups not mentioned in official reports.

Earlier this month, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the BfV claimed that Antifa members were plotting attacks on police officers, populist politicians, and other political enemies. The offices noted that some members had trained with Kurdish militia in northern Syria.

In June, the BfV warned that growing Antifa violence could even result in targetted assassinations, as groups within the far-left scene become more extreme.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/16/cologne-antifa-extremist-group-funded-university-student-fees/

Better Public Compliance Through Mass Drugging

A narrative is now emerging about using chemicals to achieve consensus and “cooperation” vis a vis the coronavirus pandemic.

The overt and covert application of chemicals has been known to cause a multitude of environmental and species specific dangers. From Chernobyl to Roundup, from cancer to autism to dementia, the reckless deployment of chemicals has been the subject of articles, books, activism and more.

Grand Rapids, Michigan was the first city to fluoridate their water. The year was 1945, just following the successful use of fluoride to dose the water in Auschwitz and other concentration camps in Eastern Europe. Today, we know that the benefit of fluoride for dental health is questionable at best and that the profoundly deleterious effects of this aluminum derivative on brain function are undeniable.

Today, more than one in five Americans is reported to be taking one or more psychotropic drugs. Many of these drugs also contain fluoride. But apparently, the wholesale drugging of Americans has not achieved the desired results.

According to Parker Crutchfield, Associate Professor of Medical Ethics, Humanities and Law, Western Michigan University, Americans need a injection of “moral enhancement.” Crutchfield is concerned that Americans are not following the guidelines for wearing masks and social distancing, and states that “When someone chooses not to follow public health guidelines around the coronavirus, they’re defecting from the public good.” There seems to be no room in Crutchfield’s thinking for a debate on what constitutes the “public good” as he dismisses dissent as “Selfish and self-defeating behavior.”

The remedy, according to Crutchfield, is to dose Americans with “empathy-producing” chemicals. He writes “…like receiving a vaccine to beef up your immune system, people could take a substance to boost their cooperative, pro-social behavior. Could a psychoactive pill be the solution to the pandemic?”

Others seem to be thinking along the same lines. A recent article in The British Journal of Psychiatry explores the use of dumping the psychoactive drug, lithium, into water supplies in order to curtail suicides due to the pandemic.

“In these unprecedented times of COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent increase in the incidence of mental health conditions, accessing ways to improve community mental health and reduce the incidence of anxiety, depression and suicide is ever more important,” said Anjum Memon, lead author and epidemiology chair at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Dr. Memon goes on to say,

https://www.activistpost.com/2020/08/better-public-compliance-through-mass-drugging.html

Don’t be Hoodwinked by Trump’s UAE-Israel “Peace Deal”

“HUGE breakthrough today,” crowed Donald Trump on twitter as he announced the new peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The deal makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state and the third Arab nation, after Egypt and Jordan, to have diplomatic ties with Israel. But the new Israel-UAE partnership should fool no one. Though it will supposedly stave off Israeli annexation of the West Bank and encourage tourism and trade between both countries, in reality, it is nothing more than a scheme to give an Arab stamp of approval to Israel’s status quo of land theft, home demolitions, arbitrary extrajudicial killings, apartheid laws, and other abuses of Palestinian rights.

The deal should be seen in the context of over three years of Trump administration policies that have tightened Israel’s grip on the Palestinians: moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and creating a so-called peace plan with no Palestinian participation or input. While no U.S. administration has successfully brokered a resolution to Israel’s now 53-year-long occupation, the Trump years have been especially detrimental to the Palestinian cause. Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi wrote on Twitter that with this deal, “Israel got rewarded for not declaring openly what it’s been doing to Palestine illegally & persistently since the beginning of the occupation.” Indeed, with Donald Trump at the helm and son-in-law Jared Kushner as the primary strategist, even concessions for Palestinians have been done away with. To add insult to injury, while the deal had been couched in terms of a commitment by Israel to suspend annexation of Palestinian territories, in his Israeli press conference announcing the deal, Netanyahu said annexation was “still on the table” and that it was something he is “committed to.”

Among the most brutal aspects of this period for Palestinians have been the loss of support for their cause in neighboring Arab states. The Arab political party in Israel, Balad, said that by signing this pact, “the UAE has officially joined Israel against Palestine, and placed itself in the camp of the enemies of the Palestinian people.”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/dont-hoodwinked-trump-uae-israel-peace-deal/5721108

Chinese Military Posts Video of Hong Kong Air Defense Drills as Warning to U.S.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) used social media on Wednesday to publish a short video clip of Hong Kong air defense drills.

A military analyst told the island’s leading dissident newspaper, Apple Daily, that the incongruous 48-second video was meant as a warning to the United States against interfering with China’s oppression of Hong Kong.

The analyst, Anthony Wong of the International Military Association in Macau, noted that the video was labeled with Hong Kong’s name in English instead of Mandarin, a sign that its intended audience was the United States, along with Beijing loyalists in Hong Kong who want to see the PLA sending belligerent messages to the U.S.

“There’s no question about it, it’s to show the U.S. and to show the ‘blue ribbons’ in Hong Kong,” said Wong.

Hong Kong demonstrators have a habit of wearing colored ribbons to identify with causes and political factions. Pro-democracy protesters wore yellow ribbons during the 2014 Umbrella Movement demonstrations, while supporters of the Hong Kong government and its masters in Beijing wore blue.

Wong said the PLA wanted to send a message to the U.S. that “if you come near Hong Kong, we won’t hold back.” He referenced reports that American planes have been seen flying off the coast of southeastern China several times in the past few weeks.

Those planes were most likely reconnaissance aircraft connected with U.S. freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, but evidently the PLA thinks — or wishes to give the impression it thinks — the American military is planning to intervene in Hong Kong.

The PLA has been increasing the tempo of military drills across East Asia as relations with the U.S. deteriorate, with noteworthy surges after two American aircraft carriers held an unusual exercise in the South China Sea in July and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar visited Taiwan this week.

When Azar made his visit to Taiwan, Chinese state media angrily threatened to retaliate by holding live-fire missile drills near Taiwan and Guam, where the U.S. has a major airbase. The editorial that made this threat was re-posted on the PLA’s English-language news website.

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/08/14/chinese-military-posts-video-hong-kong-air-defense-drills-warning-us/

YouTube Will Ban Videos that Could ‘Interfere with the Election’

YouTube has announced new updates to its policies relating to videos containing information obtained through hacking and other content that may “interfere” with upcoming U.S. elections.

CNET reports that Google’s video-sharing platform YouTube has announced new updates to its policies relating to deceptive content on its platform as it aims to prevent the spread of information that could “interfere” with the upcoming U.S. elections.

YouTube is the world’s largest video platform with more than 2 billion users a month, it will now reportedly begin banning videos containing information that was obtained through hacking and could affect elections or censuses. This leads many to question whether information obtained from sources such as WikiLeaks is allowed on the platform.

The update follows the announcement of a similar rule by Google unveiled earlier this month banning advertisements that contain information obtained via hacking. The new policy will come into effect on September 1. YouTube added that it would be taking down videos that encourage people to interfere with voting such as encouraging people to create long lines at polling stations to stifle the vote.

YouTube’s new update outlines the content it will remove, stating:

Removing content that contains hacked information, the disclosure of which may interfere with democratic processes, such as elections and censuses. For example, videos that contain hacked information about a political candidate shared with the intent to interfere in an election.

Removing content encouraging others to interfere with democratic processes, such as obstructing or interrupting voting procedures. For example, telling viewers to create long voting lines with the purpose of making it harder for others to vote.

The newly announced policies come just ahead of the Democratic National Convention which starts on Monday and will be followed by the Republican National Convention later this month. Earlier this week, several tech companies including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Microsoft, announced a coalition that will work with U.S. government agencies to protect election integrity.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/08/14/youtube-will-ban-videos-that-could-interfere-with-the-election/

San Francisco Covid Relief Includes Funding Meth Lab

Are you ready for this week’s absurdity? Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.

NASA to rename insensitive cosmic objects

You may think NASA’s mission is to take humanity to Mars and beyond.

But remember, we no longer live in a society which prioritizes actual advancement.

Far more important is making sure no one is offended.

So we may not make it to Mars, but at least the Innuit people will not be offended.

NASA announced that it will rename the “Eskimo Nebula” as well as the “Siamese Twins Galaxy” because they include racially insensitive terms, apparently rooted in colonialism.

But what about the constellation Orion– named after a Greek mythological hunter god who is alleged to have raped the Princess Merope.

Or the constellation Gemini– named after Green twins Castor and Pollus, who were part of that Argonaut band of capitalist swine who terrorized ancient civilizations in search of the Golden Fleece. . .

And isn’t the name Mars also offensive– because it celebrates the patriarchal, heteronormative violent God of War?

What about Jupiter– a notorious rapist who slept with his children?

In fact, every planet named after a Roman god should be considered offensive– Rome was the biggest colonizer of its day and routinely enslaved captives and lower class Romans.

Luckily the Visogoths held a ‘peaceful protest’ in Rome in the year 410 which resulted in much more equality– everyone was equally impoverished and defeated.

Click here to read the full story.

California to raise income taxes RETROACTIVELY

California just doesn’t seem to understand.

The rich continue to flee the state in droves. Companies like Tesla are out. Moving companies are overwhelmed.

And what does the state legislature do? Raise taxes on the rich. Retroactively.

A bill passed the Assembly that proposes increasing tax rates on high income Californians by up to 3.5%.

And if the bill passes, it will be effective retroactively to January 1, 2020.

California already had the highest income tax rate of any state in the US by far. But this tax hike will bring the top rate for those earning more than $5.9 million to 16.8%.

On top of that, yesterday several state lawmakers introduced a wealth tax– which would take a slice of someone’s net worth, instead of just their annual income.

Most of the people who are subject to paying these taxes are already working from home and incredibly mobile. They can easily leave the state, which will result in a tax LOSS for California. Another victory for socialism!

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/san-francisco-covid-relief-includes-funding-meth-lab/

Disney confirms its first bisexual lead character in an animated series: The Owl House features 14-year-old girl named Luz dancing with a girl who has a crush on her at prom

Disney now has its first ever bisexual lead character, thanks to The Disney Channel animated series The Owl House.

Following the debut of a recent episode in the series, show creator Dana Terrace revealed on Twitter that the series' lead character, Luz Noceda - a Dominican-American girl - is definitely bisexual.

The Owl House, which premiered in January, centers around 14-year-old Luz who finds a portal to a fantasy world and attempts to fulfill her dream of becoming a witch while attending school there.

http://www.yourdestinationnow.com/2020/08/disney-confirms-its-first-bisexual-lead.html

Israel intelligence minister: Bahrain, Oman to follow UAE in formalising ties

Bahrain and Oman could be the next Gulf countries to follow the United Arab Emirates in formalising ties with Israel, Israel’s intelligence minister said on Sunday, reported Reuters.

“In the wake of this agreement (with the UAE) will come additional agreements, both with more Gulf countries and with Muslim countries in Africa,” Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen told Army Radio.

“I think that Bahrain and Oman are definitely on the agenda. In addition, in my assessment, there is a chance that already in the coming year there will be a peace deal with additional countries in Africa, chief among them, Sudan,” he said.

Both Bahrain and Oman praised the UAE-Israel accord, although neither have commented on their own prospects for normalised relations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with Omani and Sudanese leaders in the past two years.

A senior US official said on Friday that the White House has been in touch with “numerous” countries in the region, trying to see if more agreements would materialise.

The official declined to name the countries but said they were Arab and Muslim nations in the Middle East and Africa.

On Thursday, Israel and the UAE announced they would normalise diplomatic ties and forge a broad new relationship. The deal, brokered with US help, firms up opposition to regional power Iran. The Palestinians denounced the deal as a betrayal.

Israel signed peace agreements with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. But the UAE, along with most other Arab nations, has had no formal diplomatic or economic relations with it.

Bahrain, a close ally of Saudi Arabia, hosted a senior Israeli official at a security conference in 2019 as well as a US-led conference on boosting the Palestinian economy as part US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace initiative.

Government sources in Kuwait said its position towards Israel is unchanged, and it will be the last country to normalise relations, local newspaper al-Qabas reported.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200816-israel-intelligence-minister-bahrain-oman-to-follow-uae-in-formalising-ties/

Fake News Is Wreaking Havoc on the Battlefield. Here's What the Military's Doing About It

Texas-based soldiers were training in Poland last year when leaders at U.S. Army Europe spotted some alarming social media posts.

A member of 1st Armored Division had allegedly killed a Polish soldier, stolen a car and was on the run. The posts referenced the soldier's unit, which actually was in the country at the time, and used his real photos.

"The first thing we think when we see it is, 'Yeah, right – this is bull,'" said Col. Joe Scrocca, director of public affairs at Army Europe. "But then we start searching, and it's like, 'Oh wow. The soldier really is in that unit, and these pictures are not fake."

The unit was in the field, so it took time to track it down. Once they did, Scrocca said they confirmed their initial instinct: The posts were fake news. The soldier was with his unit doing what he was supposed to be doing, but the social media posts part fact, part fiction show how bad actors' efforts to sow discord about U.S. troops' presence in Europe and elsewhere are getting more sophisticated.

The fake story about the 1st Armored Division soldier followed several others like it in recent years.

In 2018, a story appearing to be from a top Lithuanian news site claimed that a U.S. Army armored vehicle hit a local boy riding his bike, killing him. Raimundas Karoblis, Lithuania's defense minister, told Reuters it was a textbook example of deceitful news meant to discredit a NATO exercise in the Baltics.

A year before that, a top NATO general said Russia was behind an email sent to the speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, claiming German troops operating in that country cornered a teenage orphan near their barracks and raped her.

Czech Army Gen. Petr Pavel, then NATO's top military officer, told Reuters that NATO troops and civilians in Europe should expect more fake news from Russia.

"It will get stronger," Pavel said. "… But we will be transparent, consistent."

Now, Russian disinformation efforts are a massive problem in the U.S. and other democracies. Fake news stories that originate in Russia often on highly divisive and partisan topics have made their way into Americans' social media feeds.

More

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/08/16/fake-news-wreaking-havoc-battlefield-heres-what-militarys-doing-about-it.html

Report: Government Tracking Software Inside Hundreds of Mobile Phone Apps

Bad news alert: there are lawsuits and recalls on several cell phone models due to illegally high levels of radiation (see 1, 2, 3) AND an investigation uncovered that government tracking software was installed in hundreds of mobile apps.

From Android Authority:

Report: Hundreds of apps have hidden tracking software used by the government

A new report exposes how a federal contractor secretly puts government tracking software into hundreds of mobile apps.

The data gleaned from this tracking is then sold back to the US government for undisclosed purposes.

This tactic is deceptive because the tracking isn’t disclosed. However, it appears to be totally legal.

A new report today from The Wall Street Journal exposes yet another concerning development when it comes to mobile phone tracking. According to the report, at least one federal contractor puts government tracking software in over 500 mobile applications.

The contractor — a Virginia-based company called Anomaly Six LLC — pays mobile developers to include its in-house tracking code within their apps. The trackers then collect anonymized data from our phones and Anomaly Six aggregates that data and sells it to the US government.

It sounds crazy, but it’s happening. What’s more, it appears it’s totally legal.

Read full article

When it rains, it pours.

https://www.activistpost.com/2020/08/report-government-tracking-software-inside-hundreds-of-mobile-phone-apps.html

How Billionaires Took Over Liberalism and Destroyed It

They’ve done it via the ‘news’-media — their propaganda-operations. So, this is about how billionaires do that; how they’ve done it.

Ever since at least the time of Thucydides in the 5th century BC, the wealthiest have ruled, and did it by conquest and plunder. The acquisition of exceptional wealth was by theft: it was coercion, which could be either physical against the body (violence), or mental against the mind (deception). Exceptional wealth was acquired by some form of theft. The wealthiest controlled the government, which then enforced that theft as legal “ownership.” That’s how the economy worked. The government is the ultimate authority on who owns what. None of this has changed over the millennia. However, the technologies today are different, depending less on the wielding of steely weapons, and more on the statement of stealthy words, than in the ancient past. Increasingly, control is being achieved by deceiving the public. (For example, America’s leading liberal politician, Joe Biden, was one of the U.S. Senate’s leading segregationists and back-room opponents of the NAACP, but claims to be a supporter of “civil rights”, and is thus voted for by the overwhelming majority of America’s Blacks — but America’s press hides his segregationist record, and so they don’t know about it. Those voters’ ignorance is that politician’s strength, and it all comes from America’s billionaires.) Today’s methods of deceiving (and thus controlling) the public are considerably more sophisticated and professional than in the past. The aristocracy (the billionaires) do it nowadays mainly by means of their buying and selling, and hiring and firing, of the news-media, which thus have far more importance than in ancient times, because deceit is today’s main way to control the public.

Whereas conservative media rely unashamedly upon the existing popular mythology, liberal media need to rely upon that but to pretend not to, and to be instead ‘humanitarian’ and ‘enlightened’ in a more tolerant and open-minded sense: they specialize in hypocrisy — it’s liberal aristocrats’ particular style of art-form; they’re the ‘not conservative’ type of aristocrats. They pretend to be what they aren’t (champions of democracy — which they actually despise and crave to overcome, if it exists at all).

More

https://theduran.com/how-billionaires-took-over-liberalism-and-destroyed-it/

Schumer: McConnell must bring Senate back early if House passes Postal Service bill

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday that a key Senate panel should hold public hearings with U.S. Postal Service leadership and that the chamber should return early if the House passes related legislation.

Schumer, speaking a press conference in New York, said Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) should schedule a hearing with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and USPS Board of Governors Chairman Robert Duncan.

If DeJoy refuses to testify, Schumer added that he should be removed from his job.

“I am demanding Chairman Johnson convene a hearing in his committee with the Postmaster General and the Chairman of the Postal Service Board of Governors as soon as possible for them to answer serious questions and be held accountable for the damage they have caused at one of America’s most important and sacred public institutions. And if the Postmaster General refuses to come before Congress, he should be swiftly removed by the Board of Governors," Schumer said.

House Democrats are considering coming back to Washington, D.C., as soon as this week or next week to try to pass legislation related to the Postal Service, according to multiple reports. The House is currently scheduled to be out of town until mid-September.

Schumer, on Sunday, said that if the House is able to pass legislation Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should also bring the Senate back. The Senate is currently scheduled to be out of town before Sept. 8, and the GOP leader noted late last week that it would take consent from every senator to hold any votes before then.

“In addition to hearings, I will push for new legislation that will undo the changes that have slowed down the mail and ensure all mail-in ballots for the upcoming election are treated as First Class priority. Accordingly, if the House acts on legislation, Leader McConnell must bring the Senate back into session so we can quickly pass their legislation to reverse these harmful changes," Schumer said.

In addition to mulling stand-alone legislation, Democrats also want to include more funding for the Postal Service and election assistance in a fifth coronavirus package, talks over which have largely stalled since the negotiations collapsed earlier this month.

DeJoy is coming under growing bipartisan criticism that cost-cutting measures will leave the Postal Service ill-equipped to handle a rise in mail-in voting in the November election.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/512242-schumer-mcconnell-must-bring-senate-back-early-if-house-passes-postal-service

Israel Air Force prepares to train with Luftwaffe over Germany for first time

Monday exercise will be air force’s only international drill in 2020; Israeli aircraft to fly over Munich to mark 1972 Olympics massacre, and over Dachau to commemorate Holocaust

The Israeli Air Force will take part in its first ever exercise in Germany on Monday, flying dozens of sorties with the Luftwaffe and other NATO countries’ air forces, over the course of two weeks, the military said.

This will be the only international exercise to which the IAF will send aircraft this year, in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

“This exercise has great strategic importance and has immense influence on the air force, the IDF, and the State of Israel. Israeli-German relations and the arrival of Israeli Air Force planes on German soil is a historic event,” the IAF said.

On Tuesday, the IAF is also scheduled to perform a flyover with the German Air Force, flying over the Dachau concentration camp, in memory of the Holocaust, as well as over the outskirts of Munich, to commemorate the murder of 11 Israeli athletes in the 1972 Olympics, the military said.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-air-force-prepares-to-train-with-luftwaffe-over-germany-for-first-time/

IMO this means he's planning war

Pastor defies health officials: Restriction on worship 'has nothing to do with the virus'

"We have to engage in the public square because this experiment in liberty which is God's idea, it has to be defended by the churches," says Pastor Rob McCoy. "We have to be the first to stand."

The battle to fight a global pandemic has morphed into a cultural civil war of sorts. While doctors continue their search to find a safe and effective cure for COVID-19, preachers are fighting their own war over limits to religious freedom.

"Who would ever have thought you're standing on the front lines because you're going to church on a Sunday?" asks Pastor Rob McCoy of Godspeak Calvary Chapel.

McCoy and members of his church in Newbury Park Calif., located an hour or so north of Los Angeles, are currently locked in a battle with county officials. They're fighting a temporary restraining order forbidding them to hold indoor worship services. McCoy held services this past weekend, in violation of the order.

"I'm not being disobedient to anybody, I'm being obedient to God," McCoy says in a podcast interview for The Pod's Honest Truth with David Brody. "No government gets in the way of worshipping the one who created us. We're living on His dirt, breathing His air, drinking His water, eating His food, we're going to live by His rules."

https://justthenews.com/nation/religion/pastor-rob-mccoy-battles-county-health-officials-right-worship

FDA announces a shortage of ventilators for Covid-19 patients

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Friday that it has a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment, Testing Supplies and Equipment, and Ventilation-Related Products.

FDA provided a list of medical devices for which the FDA has been notified that manufacturing has been permanently discontinued. The list below fulfills this statutory obligation and reflects the categories of devices the FDA has determined to be in shortage at this time and will be maintained and updated as the COVID-19 public health emergency evolves

https://saraacarter.com/fda-announces-a-shortage-of-ventilators-for-covid-19-patients/

‘Country 404’: Zelensky Administration Seeks To Ban Opposition Parties Ahead Of Local Elections

The post-2014 Ukrainian leadership continues employing best democratic practices learned from their foreign sponsors.

Now, the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky, through its pocket ‘patriots’, is seeking to ban two opposition parties – the Opposition Platform — For Life and the Party of Shariy – just ahead of the local elections set to be held on October 25, 2020. The formal reason of the move proposed through the Public Council under the Ministry of Justice is the parties’ supposed ‘destructive actions’ against the Ukrainian sovereignty and national security i.e. calls to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine by political measures, protect the Russian-speaking population, fight street violence and political terror (a cornerstone of the Kiev regime’s internal policy) etc.

According to local media, there are high chances that this move will get a further development and the government will really try to ban these opposition parties. The United States, which is the most democratic country around the world and the puppeteer behind the modern Ukrainian leadership, de-facto has only two political parties: the Democrats and the Republicans. So, the Zelensky administration likely feels itself obliged to follow its footsteps and create own ‘two-parties system’ led by something like the ruling “US Puppets” party and the opposition “Puppets of the US” party. Other parties that could question the current Ukrainian course that already led to the economic collapse, deep social crisis and the state of chaos across the country are not needed. In any cases, the government widely employs direct attacks, detentions and even killings of opposition figures, journalists and activists as a tool of its internal policy. So, this will only make the situation easier.

The next logical step of the ongoing ‘democratic development’ of Ukraine would be not only the bans of opposition political parties and media organizations, but even religious organizations supported by a majority of the population. For example, pro-government ‘activists’ have repeatedly called to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) on the territory of Ukraine and seize all of its properties. The fact that this church is the only canonic Orthodox church in Ukraine that has a wide support among the nation is not being seen as any real obstacle.

At the same time, the Ukrainian leadership and its Western sponsors are not shy to claim that the Kiev regime is the democratic shield defending Europe in the front of the Russian aggression. If all what happens in Ukraine is “democracy”, this easily explains why multiple countries around the world do not support this kind of “democratic values”.

https://southfront.org/country-404-zelensky-administration-seeks-to-ban-opposition-parties-ahead-of-local-elections/

Lebanon: Pearl on the New Silk Road or Zone of Dark Age Chaos

Many voices have been quick to enter the chorus of commentators hypothesizing the manifold possible causes of the devastating explosions which occurred on the afternoon of August 4 in Beirut which has led to mass anarchy and the surprising resignation of the government on August 11th.

While I have no great novel contribution to offer in that growing array of hypotheses (which are slowly turning into noise), I would like to share an insight which addresses a too-often-overlooked aspect of the role of Lebanon in the Great Game. Before proceeding, it is useful to hold in the mind several points of certainty:

1) The official narrative of a chance mishap of Turkish fireworks instigating the detonation of the 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate which had been sitting at the Port of Beirut for six years is entirely unbelievable.

2) This event should not considered in any way separated from the anomalously large pattern of explosions and arson which have spread across the Arab and African worlds in recent weeks.

3) This pattern of chaos must itself be seen in the context of the clash between two systems: The collapsing NATO unipolar alliance on the one side and the New Silk Road-led multipolar alliance on the other.

The Matter of Causality

The Middle East has been labelled the “geopolitical pivot” of the world island by devout adherents to the Hobbesian worldview of Halford Mackinder such as Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger and Bernard Lewis. Today it is understood that whomever can either stabilize or destabilize this region can control the levers for the “world island” (Africa, Europe, and Eurasia)… and as Mackinder once said “who controls the world island, controls the world.”

In the case of Lebanon, the role that this region plays as “Pearl on the New Silk Road”, and intersection of all major civilizations of the globe, has shaped global policy considerations in Washington, London and Israel for the past several years. The destructive events underway Lebanon cannot be separated from the breathtaking spread of Belt and Road projects across Iraq, Iran, Syria and other Arab nations.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/08/16/lebanon-pearl-on-new-silk-road-or-zone-dark-age-chaos/

Trump’s Aide Refutes Reports POTUS Plans Meeting With Putin Before 2020 Presidential Vote

The announcement of progress on a nuclear arms control agreement would be a goal of the proposed Russia-US summit, the Trump administration believes, according to the media.

President Trump has no plans to meet his Russian counterpart Putin in the US, Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien told NBC on Sunday.

Earlier, NBC News reported, citing sources familiar with the matter that Trump has told his aides that he would like to personally meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the US presidential election in November.

The US administration is considering a meeting between Trump and Putin in New York next month, the TV channel reported.

The announcement of progress on a nuclear arms control agreement would be a goal of the proposed Russia-US summit, the Trump administration believes, according to the report.

One option the US administration is currently considering is for Trump and Putin to sign a blueprint paving the way for future talks on extending the New START treaty, which expires in February, the channel reported.

Signed between President Obama and President Medvedev in 2010, the nuclear arms reduction agreement was meant to see the two countries halve the number of their strategic nuclear missile launchers. However, the Trump administration has been seeking the inclusion of China in nuclear talks between the US and Russia, an idea Beijing doesn't find attractive.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202008161080186842-Trumps-Aide-Refutes-Reports-POTUS-Plans-Meeting-With-Putin-Before-2020-Presidential-Vote/